PhilFleischmann

A "Boss Fight" is a videogame concept in my view.  There is no requirement that it transition neatly to an RPG.  If I were designing an opponent to take on the entire team, I would want it to be someone unique and memorable, so I would design that opponent specifically for the group in question.  Some abilities are very useful against a single target, others against multiple opponents. 
 
In a Supers game, as Sean notes, we are looking at a 3d6, 3 DEF mental entangle.  Any Master Vilain who is intended to take on a team which includes a mentalist should reasonably have some defenses against mental attacks, which may include a pretty high EGO and a decent mDCV.  I do like requiring "mDef reduced Mental Paralysis", whether it adds to EGO or reduces Entangle BOD by 1 per 5 mDef.
 
In a Fantasy game, I don't often see 12 - 13 DCs, so we should be looking at lower DCs, maybe 2d6, 2 DEF.  If we are up into high dice, how would that Dragon weather 13d6 of Mental Illusions that he has won the battle and can now go back to sleep (again, 0 DCV)?
 
 
I generally view Pushing as limited to truly heroic actions, but if you are frozen in place with six enemies bearing down on you, that seems like it would create the appropriate, desperate rush of adrenaline.
 
If, however, you want the ultimate litmus test of any power's acceptability in any campaign, use it against the players and then ask if they think that is a power which should be allowed in this game.

MD does not provide defence unless you buy it with an advantage.  That is a silly way to defend against this though: EGO (only to break out of Mental Paralysis) is cheaper, unless MD is of broad utility in your game.
 
Mind you, 22.5 points per 1d6.  What is the GM going to allow?  2 dive is 45 points, 3 is 67.  You aren't allowing more than that, surely?
 
EGO can be used for a breakout and can be pushed.  
 
15 EGO gets you 3d6 and, if I were you, I'd push it, so 5d6: 2 rolls to get out.  Then I'd spend a few points on making sure that didn't happen again.

I think the problem is more the interaction between Mental Paralysis and Hit Locations than Mental Paralysis being blank-room OP. 
Unless it's an extremely powerful Mental Paralysis, it'll only be 2d6, 3d6 maybe.  A character with 15-20 EGO should blow out of that pretty easily, and is explicitly allowed to push their roll which gives a decent shot at doing so using casual EGO. 

I've posted about this general idea earlier but I can't find the thread.  Currently there's a reddit thread about character subclasses players wish existed--in other words, character concepts 5e can't (currently) handle.  Here's a list of highlights:
 
Unarmed Brawler (STR-based)
Storm Druid
Plant Druid
Fey Sorcerer
Dragon-pact Warlock
Shaman Warlock
Ice Cleric
STR-based Monk (see Unarmed Brawler)
Jester Bard
Barbarian Shaman
 
I'm mainly posting this to gloat (and I'm in a 5e campaign right now!) but I thought it was interesting how 5e players continue to limit themselves to the existing class based framework.  So many of my FH characters have been impossible in D&D or Pathfinder--the necromancer, the stretchy mystical monk, the halberd-wielding earth mage.  What about summoners?  Characters who are cursed or melded with some magical artifact?  Shapeshifters?  Can we even do the Witcher in 5e?  What other common fantasy archetypes can we do in FH and not 5e?

An interesting idea, but I wouldn't use fire elementals - just ordinary fire.  Seems safer and less expensive.

And anywhere where there's a city on one side of the river, even if there are no bridges, someone will have a boat that can take you across.  And if it's daytime, and you're on the opposite side of the river, you can probably yell loud enough to get someone's attention to give you a ride.  There will probably be people making use of the river all day long that can see and hear you.

And presumably, the bridges in Aarn are high enough to allow ships to pass under them, or else maybe they're drawbridges.

Presumably, a raft or small rowboat could travel along any river.  The question is, which rivers (and which parts of rivers) are deep and wide enough for large ships to navigate - for major trade, holding large amounts of cargo, not just one or two farmers/rangers/craftsmen bringing their wares into town on a raft that would otherwise fit on a single cart over land.  Or for war, a large number of soldiers would not likely be transported in ones and twos and threes in small paddled crafts.
 
The the Ordring River from the Ettinstone to Lake Beralka, and the Loskell, from the Ettinstone to Aarn, are navigable by large ships.  And the thick line on the map of the Whitburn River implies that large ships can sail up it at least as far as Tashorn, and beyond that.  The text says that the Dragonsmoke River is navigable (by ship) all the way up to Londregos.

My first instinct would be the Hargeshite Empire of Vashkhor as the most likely road-building empire - not for conquering armies, but for proselytizing priests (and *then* conquering armies if the priests fail).
 
Pretty much any empire with goals of conquest, and a good level of confidence in success might build a lot of roads.  But there aren't that many really big empires in Ambrethel.
 
One other possibility is Kal himself.  Who else is a bigger conqueror?  However, why would he bother spending his resources building roads when the various nations of Ambrethel will do it for him?  He might have to build a few roads south from his realm, just to get to the roads of his targets.
 
And of course it also depends on the availability of transportation magic.  If a nation has the ability to teleport a whole army a hundred miles, then they really don't have much need of roads.  Likewise with flying, or flying mounts, or any number of other non-road methods.  For my games, I prefer to keep such transportation magic (and mounts) very strictly limited, so roads would indeed be needed.

I wouldn't say it's arguable, I'd say it's decidable - by the GM.  Especially since neither Kal, nor the Thunese gods are statted out.
 
You don't have to be convinced.  I don't have to be convinced.  Even the PCs don't have to be convinced.  Only the Thunese themselves have to be convinced.  We know someone eventually has the power to stand up to KT, and all it might take is for the Thunese to weaken or distract him enough.
 
That's one of the things that's so great about TTA - it's not on rails.  The eventual defeat of Kal-Turak can work out however the GM and players want it to.

One of the parts of the Turakian Age that has always intrigued me is Thun.  Two ideas:
 
1.  (And this may be obvious)  That the ultimate defeat of Kal-Turak is brought about by the PCs manipulating events so that Kal-Turak must face off against the wizards of Thun (or even the gods of Thun!).  Maybe the PCs have subtly brought this about, or maybe the good guys must overtly ally with Thun against the greater threat of Kal-Turak.  (Sort of like how the US and UK allied with Stalin to stop Hitler.)
 
2.  A campaign-starting adventure:  The PCs are from the various parts of Ambrethel, but they have all been kidnapped by Thunese wizards to be sacrificed in some specific ritual with very precise requirements.  The PCs find themselves in a dungeon on Thun.  Their first adventure:  Escape from Thun!  As starting heroes, they won't be powerful enough to do that much damage to the Thunese, other than preventing the sacrifice ritual.  But that's OK - all they have to do is get to (relative) safety.  Once the PCs have survived this ordeal together, they band together as a long-term adventuring party.  It's lot less of a cliche than all meeting by chance in a tavern.  Now they have to figure out how to escape the pirates and get off of Aresea.  etc.

Roads often also get made along the sides of rivers.  Perhaps not nicely paved roads, but worn paths and trails.  Those traveling without a water craft, will often follow rivers as well.
 
There are two roads shown on the map of Aarn on page 57, one going north and the other going southeast.  But if you look at the larger map on page 60, you'll see that there are no apparent destinations for these roads.  Presumably, they are there for the farmers in the countryside around Aarn to bring their goods to the city.  Which means that these roads likely end at the first reasonably-sized farming village they meet - and then become mere dirt paths beyond that.
 
In general, roads would be built between cities in the same nation (if at all).  Let's take Vestria as the first example from the first map on page 50.  If Vestria wished to invest in roads (they do cost money and labor to build), they would likely build them between cities that are not already connected by water.  So perhaps between Daravel and Ashburn.  Or between Daravel and Greyspan - or perhaps better, from Daravel south to the bend in the Greyspark River.  From there, a traveler can go downriver to Odellia or upriver to Greyspan.  Considering the political situation in Vestria, it is unlikely that there are roads connecting Colgrave, Toreth, and Skeld to the rest of the kingdom.  Although there could be a road from Ashburn to Brecon - or for less building cost, from Brecon to the bend of the Silverrock River, just north of the Enchanted Forest of Danaflor.  This makes for easy access among Brecon, Ashburn, and Teriadoc.  We aren't given much info about the Enchanted Forest, so I'm assuming that such a road's proximity won't cause too great a hazard.  If the forest is a problem, then the road would need to cut a wide berth around it.
 
Cities are shown in TTA that, like Brecon, are not along any river or coast.  On the same map, we see cities of Athring and Forgald in the Mhendarian Palatinate, and Ytheis in Umbr.  Presumably, these cities have their own sources of fresh water - wells, springs, or even a lake or pond too small to include on the map.  Because of these cities' isolation, they would be likely to have roads to another city within the same nation.  And also for other isolated locations, like Blackfairn and Gwinden Abbeys.  Not that these "roads" would need to be anything other than worn tracks through the grass.
 
Roads are often built to allow a large kingdom to maintain control over its various regions - roads make it easier to send soldiers to put down the rebellion in a distant province.  Roads are less likely to be built from one kingdom to another - unless they really, really trust each other, and have a mutually beneficial trading arrangement.

That would make sense, and the implication of the text then means that these boats can't sail west from the Ettinstone, upriver on the Ordring from that point (except possibly for much smaller boats).
 
The next question is, what causes the Ordring to become wider and deeper from that point, given that a narrower, shallower river is splitting into two?   A small river does not split into two big rivers.  The simplest answer is that there are additional tributary streams coming down from the Nagyrian Mountains.  These are not navigable and are too small to bother showing on the map.  Perhaps they might even form a small lake around (or near) the Ettinstone.  This lake is filled with rocks, so that ships must sail along a particular path around the west side of the Ettinstone to avoid the rocks.  This might also explain why there's no city there.  The terrain is too rough near the Ettinstone, and the area where you could build a city is inconveniently far from the path the trade ships would have to sail.
 
Considering the proximity of the Nagyrian Mountains, the tributaries could be steeply-flowing rapids, possibly complete with waterfalls, which would prevent a city from being built on the north side of the river as well.  And maybe there's a cliff or a very steep bank on the west side of the Loskell, meaning that there'd be no place for ships to dock.  And the bank/cliff wouldn't even have to be that high to make it sufficiently inconvenient.
 
So no city around the Ettinstone because:
High cliff on the west side,
Rock-filled lake on the south-east side, and
Rapids coming in from the mountains on the north side.
But enough room to sail around the Ettinstone, against the current coming up the Loskell/Ordring, carefully avoiding crashing into the stone, and then with the current down the Ordring/Loskell.  Seems like a tricky maneuver for the sailors, but certainly one they can learn to do.
 
Adventure plot idea:  Some entrepreneurial wizards from Aarn want to build a city on the southwest side of the Ettinstone, and create some magical means of allowing ships to dock there.  Maybe they think they can magically carve out a harbor there, or let the ships drop anchor and load and unload cargo and passengers via permanent levitation magic placed in the area.  Business opportunities abound - if you could make such a system work.  The Verlichteners might see this as a way to gain power and eventually independence from Thurgandia.  And Thurgandia might also have opinions on the matter.

Speaking of the Shaanda River, one thing that bugged me about The Turakian Age was the lack of indication on the maps as to which way the rivers flow.  This is not always obvious from the maps.  After much careful examination and reading of the text, and re-reading of the text, and re-re-reading of the text, I have come to the conclusion that the Shaanda flows east, out of Lake Beralka, into the Sea of Mhorec.  But I wish they had just put a few arrows on the maps to indicate this.  And also for the Ordnung/Tarnwater/Bernina/Loskell/Erasarth/Hreshule/Whitsuth river system - which has sources in the Thurisian Mountains, the Hangclaw Mountains, the northern Drakine Mountains, in two different places, and the southern Drakine Mountains, and flows through the Nagyrian Mountains; and then flows into the Sea of Storms in two places, and also into (or out of?) Lake Beralka.
 
I'm certainly no expert in geography, but as I understand it, lakes and inland seas, usually only have one river flowing out of them. but Lake Kalkana seems to have two.

I am only sad, not angry, that HERO doesn't have the budget to make books like WotC does.  I remember the old 1st ed, deendee books, that were also all black & white, and a lot of the art was primitive, and didn't relate to the text on the page.
 
I fully recognize that it takes a significant amount of talent to draw a good picture.  And it takes even more to draw a picture of a specific person, creature, or place and give it the right feel and personality.  And it takes yet more talent to draw all this from pure imagination, based on a writer's text description.  You can go to Mount Rushmore and draw what you see, but you can't go to Aarn to draw the colossus.

Turakian Age is a very rich setting with so much good stuff in it, that you could take out 75% of it and still have enough to run a fully-immersive, and long-lasting, and far-reaching campaign.  You could probably run a good long campaign without ever going more than 100 miles from Aarn.
 
But setting books don't sell well, and books providing more details of settings sell even worse.  Oh, well.
 
But the main thing that is needed, IMO, is art.  Granted, art is expensive, even if it's only black & white.  More illustrations might have helped TTA sell better (or maybe not).  But regardless of the marketing decisions, art can really help bring a fantasy setting (or character or monster or whatever) to life.  I think even more than a book of additional details, a source of good illustrations of the Turakian Age would be helpful.  And some captions would help too, so we know what we're looking at.
 
I want to see a picture of Kal-Turak's Wall.  I want to see the Colossus of Aarn.  Or a city-scape of Aarn - maybe a view of King's Hill from The Processional.  A picture of Ildra Borala, Cyradon, Odellia, Dyvnar/Voitaigne, etc. Pictures of the Valley of the Sixteen Stones, the Stone Tree, the Tower of Bone, the Thaleran Wall, the Living Statues, etc.  And no, I don't want to see a picture of a generic castle or a generic mountain or a generic city - I want to know what *this* specific castle/city looks like, and how it differs from *that* castle/city.  In the entire 114-page Realms of Ambrethel section, there is not a single illustration.  Maps are great, but it's like trying to get a feel for the culture and flavor of a place by flying over it in an airplane.  Mardi Gras from six miles in the air is not as much fun as Mardi Gras on the streets of New Orleans.  Mount Rushmore doesn't look as impressive from out the window of a plane as it does from the ground.  You can't put your feet in the footprints of the stars in front of Mann's Chinese Theater unless you actually walk down Hollywood Boulevard.
 
Meanwhile, there are illustrations that don't seem to connect to anything.  For most of them, the reader has no idea what or who they're looking at.
 
Page 10:  Who are these people?  Where are they going?  And why are they wearing their goggles on their foreheads instead of over their eyes?
Page 13:  OK, a small skirmish between Men and Sharthak in a coastal town.  But which coastal town?  When did this happen?  And how often does this happen?
Page 14:  The Lord of the Graven Spear, looking like a generic fantasy warrior.  Why not show him actually doing something, instead of posing for a portrait?  Show him leading an army, holding court on his throne, striking down his enemies - anything!  The guy on the facing page has more personality and we don't even know who he is!
Page 18:  What's going on here?  Holding a meeting is already boring - but it would be less so if we actually knew who was meeting and why.
Page 23:  An impressive-looking guy, but who is he?
etc., throughout the entire book.  Oh, and pages 205 and 209, I assume these are gods, but which ones?
 
A picture is worth a thousand words.  Unfortunately, the thousand words usually cost less than the picture.
 
OK, I know I'm being harsh.  TTA really is an excellent book.  If I had the talent, I'd illustrate these things myself and post them here.  And yes, I'm fully aware that everything I'm suggesting is easier said than done.

You know, maybe it's just me, but I never considered High Elves, Hill Dwarves, etc. to be separate "races," any more than Caucasians are a separate race from Orientals. I just treated them as various ethnicities of Elves, Dwarves, and whatnot, with somewhat differing physical features, and sometimes distinctive cultural habits.
 
Now, if you have something like a Dark Elf that's developed significant physical differences from other Elves, such as enhanced senses to cope with perpetual darkness, and inherent photophobia, I'd argue they've branched off to become a distinct species.
 
I think part of the problem stems from the creatures in D&D-inspired fantasy settings being called "Elf" and "Dwarf" with some adjective preceding the name to distinguish specific groups, implying that they're a unique "breed" of their kind. "Humans" in most fantasy settings aren't categorized that way; when humans are distinguished at all, it's by some ethno-national label such as "Hyborians" or "Rohirrim." But Tolkien at least gave us a general name for the human species, "Men," wherever they were from. OTOH he had good in-setting reasons to divide his Elves into Noldor and Sindar, and to distinguish Caliquendi from Moriquendi.
 
Hero Games' Turakian Age setting always annoys me by following a similar pattern as other D&D-esque fantasy games, clumsily referring to "the Elves of Shularahaleen," or "the Dwarves of Algarhaime," or "the Gnomes of the Drachenloch Hills." Yet TA never refers to "the Men of Mezendria," for example -- they're Mezendrians. For my own use of TA I always tried to make names for each of the established nationalities of non-humans in that world, usually derived from the name of their country.

Oh, here's another one for me that has nothing to do with anachronism:
 
Bad names.  If your name is Jim Ward, don't name your wizard character "Drawmij".  If your name is Tom Keogh, don't name your character "Keoghtom".  Don't name the god of insanity "Ssendam".  Don't name your halfling character "Dorfongolf".   You don't have to invent seven languages like Tolkien did, just to name the people and places in your setting, but you should put a little effort into coming up with names that sound reasonable.  There are plenty of fantasy name generators online, and even the worst of these is better than just spelling something backwards.

And how do we expect them to learn?  By walking into a brick-and-mortar game store, picking up a HERO System book, and reading the first page?  By first buying a HERO System rule book (at a brick-and-mortar store, or online), and only then reading the first page so they can find out what they just bought?  I'd say at least 99.99% of people who have bought a HERO System book, already know what a role-playing game is.

In my experience, this is what players often do when presented with a person or place name that's too long or too hard to pronounce.  And readers of fiction do this too, in their minds when reading.  There's a character named "Frolistheckdilowpiriasnemquod", and because you just want to continue reading the book and get on with the story - and not ruin your immersion - you just move on.  You vaguely remember the sequence of letters for when the character makes his next appearance, but in your mind, he's just "F-man" or "Fred".  And even within the work of fiction itself, other characters may call him by shorter, easier names, like "Froli".
 
Long names are no problem at all, as long as you understand the language they're in.  This is why I often like to use real words or phrases for names - because that is indeed where real names come from.  I have characters in various games named Cobweb, Winecork, Sun and Mars, Moonstaff, et al.  And I have place names in my fantasy world called Bear Head Keep, Pepperrose, Middlemarch, Lion's Port, Madman's Watch, et al.
 
Ask your doctor if Whandurashaneshir is right for you.

Man I don't know what goes with you; I really don't.   No one- I mean _no one_ is this obtuse without deliberately trying to be.   
 
Every time Brian or anyone else says "system mastery," you go out of your way, even if it requires some quirky sentence structure, to put "learn the system" into his mouth.  Every time.
 
So let's break it down:
 
A six year old can learn math. 
A six year old is not doing my taxes or calculate my fuel load and orbital holding pattern for a manned trip to Mars. 
 
One of two things is at play here:
 
Either you think we are dumb enough to confuse "knowing a few words" with being fluent in Spanish, 
 
Or you think we're dumb enough to believe that you don't know the difference.  As Brian said above, there is a point at which you cross a line into insulting--   no. 
 
That's not right.  There is a point at which anyone can cross a line into insulting.  Generally it's unintentional, and caused by getting wrapped up in the moment or frustrated by an inability to express oneself effectively on previous attempts.  That line is easy to spot, because all we really have to do is look for your house:  it's like you just _live_ there. 
 
All who don't do as Phil are lazy;  all who don't do as Phil are too dumb to learn a thing.  All who don't do as Phil are sad, hopeless little people.....
 
Whi the heck is Phil and why is it so important to him to have both an audience and a target for his feelings of inadequacy? 
 
I sincerely apologized to you for blowing up some time back, because I completely accept that I can come on extremely strong (yes; with apologies to those who might be bothered by it, there are extroverts on the internet) and cause offense by accident.  I have apologized here many times, because I have done it many times.  The difference is intention: I respect the people I choose to socialize with:  I can't tell you how many times I have bumped heads with Hugh over some silly detail, and I could expand that list likely to most everyone on this board. 
 
But at no time did I ever not understand that there are real people  behind every post, and at no time did I ever stop loving those people for who they are, each one, individually.  And most certainly at no time have I considered repeatedly lobbing back-handed insults to them every time I disagree with them.  I have followed most of your threads, looking for the good part of your participation; I have sought council from others here on what to look for in your material to get a handle on what might be crassness and what is probably "just Phil.". And every time I read through something you're active in, it just becomes insults and belittlings to those who disagree--usually in such a way so as to express the idea that thinking as Phil demonstrates some natural intellectual gifts not destined for mere mortals--
 
I don't get it.  I don't get you; I don't know you; I don't know what meds you might have skipped. 
 
I am willing to _try_ to know you, and to try to work with you, but, _Dude_, the constant barrage of insult and belittlement has really got to stop, please. 
 
I am asking that as someone who appreciates the input of everyone here, and who prefers an environment of kinship and cooperation as opposed to an environment of elitist egalitarianism.  If I enjoyed that sort of crowd, I'd have stayed in med school. 
 
Thank you for the time you took to read this. 
 
 
Duke 
 
So to move this along

Brian you have totally missed my point. I suggested that a module or even a short adventure has already all the dials set and a note why they are set that way. 

Heh heh heh-- this is one I do myself, particularly in slightly-more-realistic fantasy:  the Office of the Public Scribe.  In larger communities, it may be tax funded and contain four or five employees.  In more rural areas, it might cost a coin as it's just someone who could read and write and hung up a shingle  (the traditional, nigh-universally understood sign across the tribes of Man is a skin scroll, in ink well, and a quill).  Generally things can be written, translated, read, transcribed, and even posted or couriered if such service is available in that area.  They are also recognized "official" witnesses, should such a service be required.
 
They have a Guild, though not all who practice belong.  Guild-certified Public Scribes are the best, if pricey (when not tax funded).  They are each fluent in no less than four languages (two of which will be regional) and many of them know five or six.  Their handwriting is flawless and precise, and where applicable all will be certified by local government as functionaries with regard to witnessing and recording any deal or transaction, and while not court officials or barristers will be familiar with any documentation laws in effect in the area they serve, and can assist in drawing up at-least-locally legal documents.  Again, all for a price.
 
I took the inspiration from telegram offices (may they rest in peace) and public notaries.  
 
 
 
You know, I've done vendors and bazzars but a food cart never occurred to me.
 
 
(and my favorite Sam and Max gag is "Buck Naked; Texas Ranger.")
 
 

This phenomenon applies to many things in life that we think we want to learn/do, whether it's for fun or self-improvement or whatever. For instance, I want to be a good musician, but it turns out I don't really have a passion for it, and consequently I don't carve out the necessary time to truly learn and master any instrument. But I know from past experience that for anything I am really, really interested in I somehow magically manage to find the time to dig really deeply into it.
 
So I don't believe it is a matter of lack of time, but a lack of interest. And even when there is a stated interest, very often it isn't strong enough to sufficiently motivate. I don't want to play with people who are only half interested in the game; I only want to play with people who are as passionately fascinated with the game as I am.

I think a lot of the problem is whining and laziness - on the part of gamers and potential gamers.  As reflected in some of the posts above.  "I don't want to have to spend a year studying the system in order to begin playing."  Back in pre-4th days, when my regular D&D group decided to try Champions (and we never went back), it took us at most a week or two to learn the system, create our characters, and set up a "module" to begin playing.  Don't give me this "year of study" crap.  "I don't want to have to get a Ph.D. in Hero to play."  It's not brain surgery, folks.  You learned to drive a car, you learned to do your job, you've probably learned to do a lot of things that were never going to lead to anything fun.  If you put the effort in, you'll find that your brain is not full - there's still plenty of room in there.  And you can have a lot of fun.
 
I've encountered this attitude with other games - even board games that are at least an order of magnitude simpler than any RPG.  And I've seen the same attitude with respect to things that have nothing to do with games at all.  Some people have to be dragged, kicking and screaming to try anything new.
 
All that being said, I sadly have no idea how to overcome this problem.  But it might help to at least acknowledge it.  All new things, no matter how good they are, need to be gotten used to.  And some of them need to be learned, and maybe even a little bit of work might be required.  Everything worthwhile in life requires some work.  Do we try to reduce the amount of work required, or do we sell the idea of the work being worth it?