JLXC

Re: Sin City movie question Surbrook's Stuff is pretty cool! I think he's low on nearly every character but it seems popular to underplay everyone it seems. For example he has Dwight at 15 Str. Do you know anyone with 15 STR who can push a car uphill in the rain by themselves? Thanks for the site though, it's pretty cool.

Re: Sin City movie question I didn't read the graphic novels either, but I checked out some out after the movie. The movie, I LOVED it. The characters are superhuman people, duh. They never mention it, but they are powered people, like an average Dark Champions campaign. I hope you all figured that out on your own heh. In any case, Sin City is the epitome of Dark Champions in action. Stating out Marv would look something like this: 30 - 35 STR, at least 7 to 9 Resistant PD, with Damage Reduction, Regeneration, and levels in HTH. All the main characters seemed to have at least some Resistant defense, if not Damage Reduction. They also all had above human strength (i.e. pushing a car uphill in the rain by yourself or punching a guys head to splatter).

Re: Superhumans pulling an Authority I would like to point out that some people would admire and accept the Wanderer Authority group. Most would rather die than accept anyones telling them that greed is not the end all be all of life. Oh well. I think the campaign has promise, and wish I could run one like it, I tried to but it was only a 2 person campaign and it fell apart because one of the players decided to act just like the Authority and started wiping out cities. I wish you more luck than that, Wanderer.

All right I am still a bit new to FRED, and I am running a FantasyHero game. I have a character whose main shtick is to change into various animals. Now, what disadvantages should I allow for the forms? The standard animal ones? Can each form have a different Vulnerable? How about hunted and rivalry and such? Would they carry over from the main form? Example: The character is Overconfident and Hunted by X in his main form. Would it be ok to allow them to bleed over into each multiform? This might be a really basic question but I have never GM'd multiform before and I was hoping for some good GM advice. Thanks!

Re: Big City... what rules? GM question Wow Rob. THANKS a Bunch man. The city was founded 4000+ years ago because of it's Central location in the world, and because a huge reserve of underground water was found. The world is without oceans or large rivers. Anyways, it is a totally independant city that is more racially tolerant/diverse than any other area on the world. There will be goblins, orcs, trolls, and any "people" who can follow the rules are allowed. It is a major trade city because of it's location and the way the world is set up. One might say it is THE Major trade city, and not be wrong. The "Five" took control about 500 years ago when the people who were running the city went all evil and were going to use the populace as human sacrifices to raise some god and gain immortality. In any case the Big Five are mostly interested in having the city maintain law and order, but not Uber Law and order. They realize there will be petty crimes like murder and theivery and such, they just keep other "Uber" baddies at bay. Of course they are an unknown themselves because nobody knows much about them, but since they saved the city, and have not done anything over the top to the people, the people are content to just let them keep the reins. I am going to have to define a unified law and order system, especially with regaurds to magic, ugh. heh. This is wracking my brain. I see the city as kinda like a Thieve's World-lite. There are BAD places in the city and especially outside of the walls where law and order will be in much shorter supply. There are corrupt people in the upper ranks but they keep a lower profile because there are good people in charge as well. All in all the city will be a very political place, with people having many different things to like or dislike i.e. The city gaurd, the various mage guilds, the churches, the guildmasters, etc. The PC's place in all this is undefined because I have to talk to them more about it and because I need to give them some input. A "Monster Hunting" squad ala Buffy might be just the ticket! I'll pimp ot at our next meeting. But I will give my players final say on what they want to be based around. I like to work with them, not against them. Thanks for all the thought provoking you have done.

Re: Big City... what rules? GM question I think the Ward will be needed to prevent PC and NPC use of Big Boom spells all over the city. I'm trying to find a middle ground between High Fantasy and Swords and Sorcery. Maybe I will lower the wards Active Point detect, but where? 30 seems low, but maybe I'm just thinking too big heh. And then should some people be exempt from the ward? Like special agents or people who pay enough money in? Otherwise every spell results in the "police" showing up. Hell the PC's could even just cast a spell Hoping the authorities will show up and "save the day". I don't want that, but I gotta figure something. I am trying to figure out the legal system, and just what would be murder and will there be trials? Will there be magic mind readers or spells that detect truth? Fighting and killing is part of the genre, and in such a huge city there will be murders each day. Just how effective should the justice system be? Would they investigate every murder? Or just those that are important? Should some Mercs get a "license to kill" perk? These are the questions I am pondering, as I have never done a city campaign. It was simple to have the PC's fight "monsters" but in cities there will be MUCH few such "kill and forget" targets. They will be encountering and battling full on people, probably citizens of the city as well. This will happen a LOT. Just how involved should I get the "police" as it were? I am also concerned about Force Fields and Defense spells on all the time. Maybe many places should have a "magic sensor" over the doorways to detect spell use and it should be frowned upon? These are the deep questions I wonder about. I'm hoping some of you have run City based games and have some advice!

OK I am going to do a city based campaign in a city of about a Million individuals that has been around for at least 4000 years. The city is ruled by the "Five" which are all uber-ArchmMagi. They are not involved with the city overmuch, but they have the final say so on anything really important. The overall running of the city is in the hands of the Guilds. The climate of the city is very "Neutral" in regaurds to most everything, though slavery is technically illegal. Anyways, I'm trying to figure out the ground rules for the campaign about Armor and Magic and fighting in the city. The laws or what have you. I am thinking of the following: All magic with 75 active points or better will activate a Ward that the city Magical Watch Guild will detect and respond to. Only licensed Users of Magic are allowed to use magic within the City Walls. There will be a yearly fee, and if the person abused magic they can have their license revoked or suspended or just never renewed. Only licensed Mercenaries/Guardsmen are allowed to weild Weapons and Armor in the city. Those wearing Heavier than leather or weilding weapons must have a license and a visible insignia for what Mercenary/Guardsman group they belong to while carrying weapons and armor. Use of force will be allowed for those who are Licensed BodyGuards while in the performance of their duties. What other common rules do you guys use in cities? How do you deal with PC violence in cities vs. the Law? Any ideas you have would be great!

Re: Still new GM looking for long term spell answers... Thanks all I am abosorbing what you all said but I want to point out one thing right now about Lingering. Not only is it VERY expensive, according to the Hero FAQ if you have it in a multipower you have to have Charges equal to the number of Phases it is running for attack powers. You can use continuing charges to keep Lingering going. I know it is stupid check it out in the FAQ for yourself. It's on the last page in the Fantsy Hero little part. Also, so this might help you guys out to help me here the the magic system I am using for the game. Magic is a universal force that some special people can tap into. All spells are paid for individually (unless the spell itself is a multipower) with real points divided by 3. All spells have Delayed Phase, Gestures, Incantations, OAF (either Foci or Expendable). Attack spells have an additional -1/2 disadvantage for being an attack spell as talked about in the FH book I do own. Also Priests have a -1/2 "Must be serving Gods Purpose" disad. The still lingering part is Charges or not. Because of the CC or Uncontrolled. But I am reading what you all wrote so I hope to iron this out soon. Thanks!!

OK I am trying to get over my "D&D" mindset, BUT... as the GM I want to allow longer term spells. Examples: Light spell that lasts let's say a Day. Mage Armor that lasts a day. Missle Shield that lasts 20 minutes Detect Magic that lasts an hour. Flight spell that lasts a couple minutes. Etc. etc. So I am TRYING to get into the Hero spirit. Should I do Continuing Charges? Should I do Uncontrolled? My main problem is the Hero "There should be an obvious way to shut off these continuing or uncontrolled powers." So if someone casts a Flight spell there has to be some easy and well known way to stop it? And detect magic? And light? I'm not really comfortable with this. I LIKE spells that pretty much stay up until they are dispelled or countered by other magic. I could just do CC or Uncontrolled and Ignore the "easy to stop" part... but is that going too far? I'm just getting ready to run a long term game here, and I am nervous of screwing it up right from the get go, because the players will not be adaptable to major changes in the magic system once we really get going, not that I can blame them, I would prefer not to do it. So should long terms all be bought to 0 End, Uncontrolled? Does CC work? Heck what works for you GM's? Warning I may be a too player friendly GM, but the baddies get the same perks heh. So let me put out a few options here.. 1. Force Field (5,5), 0 end, Uncontrolled (Lasts 1 day unless dispelled) 2. Force Field (5,5), 1 cc of 1 day 3. Force Field, 0 End, Persistent How about ... 1. Flight 10", 0 End, Usable on others Simultaneously, Uncontrolled (lasts 5 minutes) 2. Flight 10", Usable on others Simultaneously, 6 cc of 1 minute each 3. Flight 10", Usable on others Simultaneously, 0 End Also, do many of you GM's ignore the LOS for Usable on others? So that if someone casts Flight on someone else and then they fly over a hill they don't just fall out of the sky? Do you use Uncontrolled so that LOS is no longer needed? I sorta wanted to run all magic spells off Charges ranging from 1 shots to continuing just so that there were clearly defined limits for these new players. But the other aspects of CC bothers me. I'd love to hear what you all think. Thanks.

Re: M&M: this is a Nightmare? I have M&M and my only real gripe is that it sucks ass for simulating "Super" movement, other than that it seems to be pretty good for Supers gaming, I even play a regular campaign with my daughter in it.

Re: The great armour race... Also as noted above to some extent, if you take away weapons and armor, you only make Mages and Magic users that much more powerful.

Re: The great armour race... I don't know why so many GM's say that Armor would be frowned upon in a town in a "fantasy" world? I mean some really metropolitan place and some special types, but in general Armor would be normal. Town Gaurds, anyone who leaves town or is coming into town, which would be a constant daily occurance. People in a fantasy world HAVE to go armed and armored when leaving the "safety" of a town, even farmers and merchants and whoever wants to live. I've found that simply applying the -DCV and -Dex rolls seems to be enough to deter all but the most determined armor wearing. When you are at -3 DCV and -3 Dex rolls from wearing your Plate... you need the armor because you are getting hit more. Also, do you all allow Armor to be at full effect vs Energy Defense? I use the half rounded up version for ED and that seems to help balance armor a bit as well.

Re: Help: Sniper Syndrome Well since I've been thinking there is a Villian who would really annoy the player, maybe enough to make a difference. "Back Up Man" the villian who does not directly engage in combat, but uses his Ranged Missile Reflection to good effect. I dunno, making a villian just to counter the guy is weak, but the look on the players face would be priceless. "Your long ranged attack is reflected into your fellow PC's, stunning one of them, the villians then pounce on him while one of them gives you the Thumbs Up sign"

Re: Superhumans pulling an Authority Well this exemplifies the problem. Even if the heroes can literally read peoples minds and know for full certainty what these evil people are doing, the "law" protects them. See if you order the death of people with machineguns you are a maniacal mass murderer. If you order the death of people through commerce, well you're a freaking hero in the USA. There is no difference IMO. So let's pretend the heroes can read minds or force people to tell the truth. It would not matter as the real world is about helping oneself to as much as possible and who cares about anyone else. People applaud those who "win" by grabbing huge amounts of wealth and power often don't care that they got there through evil and downright illegal means. Prove it! I hear you saying. Wow.... the law saves those who have the power and money regaurdless of what they do. So the system is inherently corrupt. So if one is going to use the modern real world as a backdrop for this kind of story, no matter how well intentioned or "good" the heroes are, people will hate and despise them for disrupting the status quo.

If it costs 1 end per 5 Str and someone drinks a potion of Giant Strength +30 for example, even if they had 10 Str to begin with they would now spend 8 End per attack? This would quickly render a PC or Villian unable to fight. Especially if they had like 20 Str before the potion at 10 End per swing this would be insane. How do you GMs deal with this?

Re: Drains of Doom? Check out these spells

Re: Drains of Doom? Check out these spells Thanks again for all the Input. Just to clarify I, the GM, am making these spells the player is not involved in the least. So the "I'd make him do x" comments are kinda cute, it's Me the GM you are talking about heh. Not some player trying to get over. Second, I don't like that in Hero that there are few protective spells that last a day. Call me too other system oriented but I like having spells that run all day unless Dispelled. Like D&D Mage Armor or Mind Blank. Next, the character concept is essentially a happy go lucky Cleric who does not wear armor or have weapons, just clothes and a walking stick. Having a bit of protection from the god is good, and I don't understand why so many people would prefer a Force Field over Combat Luck when the power is from a God of Luck? Combat Luck is not a sure thing like FF so I thought people would be all over it thinking it better because it is less Munchkin than a FF (8,8) or some such. However I appreciate all the people who have posted and I have been trying to make sure I'm not going too far. The suppress running is a GREAT idea! I will have to change that one! And I forgot Drain has no range, so I'm gonna have to deal with that too. Thanks for all the help so far keep it comin!

Re: New Limitation: Does not Stack. Gm's please look Thanks all for the great ideas and talk here. I have decided to use this new limitation in my games. There is just too much reason to in my mind. Thanks again for reviewing it for me!

Re: Drains of Doom? Check out these spells Well that puts things in perspective heh. Thanks!

Re: Do all Gm's use the Skill roll for magic? Well after some thinking and reading here, I have decided to drop the RSR totally. With the Delayed Phase, and a house rule if you take damage while spellcasting you must make an Ego roll with a -1 for every 2 body damage divided by two rounded down to keep casting the spell, there is ample chance to "stop" spellcasters and make magic less reliable. I guess I have played too many fantasy based RPG's where if you got all the materials, waggle your toes, talk in tongues, and generally look like a goon for a while, the spell goes off. Adding "well after all that you waggled your toe right instead of left so no spell for you!" seems seriously unfair to players in the long run. Thanks for all the talk and ideas! This board is great!

Re: Choosing between two constructs for a power WOW. Does everyone play with 180-220 point active powers for villians? That seems pretty amazingly high to me. YMMV and I am curious.

OK a player wants to make a Priest of a Travel and Luck God... I use a MP system for spellcasting. Anyhow I thought up these spells but thought they may be too bent in a Fantasy Hero game. Since you all have more Experience than I do what do you think of these spells? They are running from a 50 pt. Multipower 1) Drain 2d6 of Running, AOE Radius (Double Radius 4" total), 16 charges, Active points 45 2) Drain 5d6 of Dexterity, Standard effect for 15pts, 16 charges, Active pts 50 3) Combat Luck x 2 (6,6) plus Mental Defense 5 plus Power Defense 8, Hard to Dispel double (so x4 active points), 2 Continuing Charges of 1 day each, Active points 50 I will name them later before I give them to the player, essentially they know nothing of Hero and I am making their characters for them. Any input would be appreciated. My main concern is that Running is easy to mess up for many creatures, since many humanoids only have 12 points worth, and removing 5 Dex per pop with the second spell is pretty damn good. I dunno is they are overboard or not. Number 3 is essentially an alternate to FF with some lucky extras, but may be too butch I dunno.

I was starting a new campign here and I think I am going to leave this one off. Aren't there enough disadvantages to magic? In my game for example you will have at a minimum Extra Time: Delayed Phase, Gestures, Incantations, an OAF of some kind, must have charges, charges cost End to activate, etc. Then to make the player roll and hope they cast this super limited spell right seems sorta unfair really. Why not just use an activation on spells then? Like 14 or less. Most GMs seem to limit the MAgic Skill so that essentially all spells have the activation limitation anyways. I dunno, I was just wondering how many of you don't use the magic skill and how it is working for ya. For the gms that do use it, why? If I am wrong and the magic skill is the better way to go I'd like to at least know why. "OK you spend the 6 hours casting the spell, you got the diamond and the dragons blood, make a roll.... awwww... sorry now you got to get more Diamonds and Dragon blood. Silly man trying to cast such a good spell. For shame."

Re: Help: Sniper Syndrome Have I had to deal with this? Yep. We nicknamed the guy behind his back PussyMan. He ALWAYS does this crap. I want a character who can do damage and never gets hurt, and every one of them is built for that. When the villians get sick of it and jump him he cries foul and bitches and moans to high heaven, EVEN if he doesn't really get hurt. Did yours play a lot of D&D? Mine did and he sees every Body and Stun point as sacred cows never to be touched. He always buys up defense and then runs from every fight, leaving the other players to take the punches for him. Even when they bitched at him about it and I talked to him about it he only responded with "Well you guys should get away like me!" When it was pointed out that if all of them moved in different directions and the villians just ganged up on them one at a time, like happened to him several times, he would say "So?" He never got it and I am glad I don't play with him anymore. Good luck with yours, once they get it in their head that they should never get into actual combat, they are just the superbully "I hit them they don't hit me or I will cry" it's over. YMMV

Re: Superhumans pulling an Authority This is the attitude that lets it happen sorry to say. You may THINK they can't suppress important things, but that's just what you think. There are still things from the 1900's that are suppressed like Tesla's material and Roswell and many secret projects you never heard of. People like to think they are so smart and the "big guys" are so dumb. It only appears that way heh.