The Monster

Wild (and probably stupid) thought: rather than having gravity pull toward the sphere, why not invert it - so that some kind of 'solar wind' type pressure pushes everything out? Functionally, the result might be similar... It might explain why the islands haven't all 'fallen' to the sphere; larger masses are pushed slower. There may be some way to push back on a large scale - a public works project on the order of building a big hydroelectric dam, but doable when and if necessary by a stable government. Larger land masses, remain closer to the sun, thus large tracts of trackless, windswept deserts. Places with the right resources and dedication can adjust their 'solar radius' every few generations, staying within a good range for crops and comfort. And larger islands are harder to move than smaller ones, and move more slowly with the wind. The islands could be spinning to provide a day/night cycle - and could even adjust it. People who 'fall off' islands and ships will indeed fall out, away from the sun, at an accelerating rate; there's a fairly short window in which it's possible to catch them, so it's very similar to someone falling overboard on an Earth sailing ship. Sailing the skies is a mix of riding the solar wind with sails and employing thrusters (as per Treasure Planet).

Re: Campaign Idea . . . almost. That could be fun; being the roadies for a local band or a venue. They aren't on stage during the concerts, but have to be around to prevent trouble. And they have to keep it quiet. Considering some of things musicians and their fans get up to...

Re: Campaign Idea . . . almost. My first thoughts also were plumbing/general contracting. It gives them a reason to go just about anywhere, on new construction (are you sure this wasn't an old indian graveyard?), repairs (rats. with six-inch claws. riiiight.), or remodeling (you want this room perfectly round, with no corners? why?). They'll also deal with all different kinds of people, cultures and languages. Given the vagaries of contracting, it also gives them a little slack in dealing with deadlines and materials, and they can have a fairly wide range of locations. Plus they have a ready supply of weapons*ahem*tools, and one or more small-truck vehicles. For a little more excitment - and a reason to have some exotic chemicals available - make it a pest-control company. Again, go-anywhere, meet-anyone job, with good reason to pry into dark places. Taxi drivers? Excellent if you want a late-night, somewhat noir flavor; great for that go-anywhere, meet-anyone potential (even more so if the firm includes a limo or two for those higher-paying customers); and a ready supply of 'innocent' NPCs to get into/out of trouble. Even normal events can be dangerous, but not too much for battle-hardened vets to handle. Gives them vehicles and radios ready at all times (and you can add an NPC as the cranky, harassed dispatcher). A delivery-truck firm gives almost the same work, but with less direct public interaction. I like the band idea, but I'd be more tempted to use it as a hobby rather than their regular job. Though a 'sultans of swing" vibe, where some have regular jobs and some are 'full-time' musicians, might make for interesting interactions.

Re: Pulp Holmes Meh. As far as I can tell, it has almost exactly as much to with the original Sherlock Holmes as the movie "Van Helsing" had to do with the original of that character. That's not to say it might be a fun movie - Van Helsing was not so bad, once I got over the name and rolled with the film as a thing in itself. And Downey's certainly a decent actor. I doubt I'll pay full price to see it. IMO, Brett's portrayal - and the Watson he had - were pretty much definitive. I'm not sure anyone will be able to surpass it for accuracy. Again, that's not to say people shouldn't try... (I just wish they wouldn't try to sex it up)

Re: "UP" pulpy bits in it I enjoyed it. And, the best part for us pulp lovers: They DID NOT blow up the zeppelin. In pretty much every adventure film I can remember off-hand (except Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade), every zeppelin that has appeared on the screen has been blown up in a huge fireball. It was SO nice to see one treated with some respect and allowed to be a dramatic setting instead of an excuse to use pyrotechnics.

Re: Hero System Good Idea/Bad Idea... Once you go blue, you'll always be true...? Good Idea: The Ultimate Speedster Bad Idea: The Ultimate Speedo

Re: Brainstorming an alternate Europe A few thoughts... Without a united Germany to pose a common threat, the centuries-long rivalry between France and Britain could be much stronger than it was historically. Maybe not open, all-out war, but colonial confrontations such as were in India and America back in the day. At the very least, an active rivalry could add opportunities for illicit activities, smuggling across borders, playing one against the other for local advantage, etc. If Germany is a bunch of disunited or semi-united principalities, this provides an excellent place to play spy/crime/political games of all kinds (as it was for centuries previous). Of course, the Great Game between Britain and Russia would continue apace. Another fun place for skulduggery of all kinds. Without Germany in the way, Russia would be constantly trying to push into central & Western Europe, leading to constant dustups and underhanded activities. Britain and/or France might give support to Polish nationalists, leading to much disorder (since free Poland was recreated by Versailles, and had not been subjugated long before). There could also be actual war between these powers, as was the case in Crimea less than a century before. The Baltic and North Seas might become a pirate zone, with German freebooters playing Russian, British and Swedish authorities against each other. Without WWI and the granting of League of Nations mandates over former German possessions, Imperial Japan would be less able to dominate the Pacific. Its plans against China would be largely unaffected, though. It might even offer itself as wild-card support foe various factions in Europe, as a way to gain influence and connections. (Samurai and Ninjas on Zeppelins! Total Win! )

Re: Twisted Cross, Silver Bullets I've already used this idea myself, so it's OK to share Nazi mystics plan to forge an alliance with Deep Ones to aid in U-Boat warfare. In my pulp campaign, this led to a marvelous sneak-and-snipe sequence on Helgoland, where the PCs were dropped off by a Danish Communist fisherman, sneaked up to the ritual site, and proceeded to drop the head SS magician with a masteful sniper shot. Much chaos ensued, but the PCs got away by stealing a couple of Me-109s from the local airfield. I've also brought in the secret U-boat base in Atlantis - the Atlantis from the animated movie a few years ago...

Re: Brainstorm: what should a spy's safehouse have? Given available resources from the Agency, they could have installed surveillance devices around the house - or have junior agents on-call to provide guards/sentinels. The former might be a Clarivoyance effect with Focus; the latter could be either a Clairvoyance effect or an actual Summon/Followers effect.

Re: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies too The Zombie Cat in the Hat 2001: A Space Zombie Odyssey Hunt for the Red October After It's Taken Over by Zombies Little Zombie House on the Prairie How To Win Friends and Influence Zombies

Re: Beware the church tank The Church Militant, indeed!

Re: a medical magic school fer thy campain... Just a couple more possible spells for the 'school'... A Change Environment spell, with a certain amount of increased radius, could be created to set up a field hopital which protects patients (and doctors) from the elements - being able to get people out of bad weather, smoke, etc., can literally be a lifesaver all by itself. Making it a long setup time (like a minute or more), and/or a bulky focus (i.e., a tent) renders it useless as a combat ability. Diagnosis of disease might be done with a Clairsentience/precognition spell, where basically the spell shows the magician what the course of the disease will likely be if untreated. Throw in a variable result or some similar modifier and you can get a prognosis for different kinds of treatment. One of the unfortunate effects of many diseases and injuries is disfigurement and scarring. A small Cosmetic Transform spell can remove this - add a limitation that it only removes disfigurement, so you don't end up being a hollywood magic-plastic surgeon.

Re: a medical magic school fer thy campain... Frankly, it sounds like your GM is being a butt. But so many of us are... Some ideas for medical 'non-combat' spells: Cure Disease could be simply a Dispel effect against disease. A variant approach, rather than curing the disease with a Dispel, would be to bolster the ability to resist the disease by using a variable-effect Aid to counter whatever characteristic the disease is draining/suppressing. Setting broken bones would be much easier with fine-manipulation Telekinesis. Even easier if you have X-ray vision. X-ray vision would also be useful for other things, such as finding embedded objects, parasites, or other things. Examination and surgery would be easier if the patient is restrained, especially if he's suffering from the agony of battlefield wounds and any anasthetic hasn't kicked in yet. A specially modified Entangle spell could hold him still while you do your work. For patients unwilling or unable to eat for some medical reason, a Life Support/no need to eat should be a simple spell, perhaps administered as a 'charge' in pill or injection form.

Re: ninja heroes from each state Rumors of an itinerant hermit in the rain-soaked Cascade Mountains speak of a tall, lanky master of stealth, a silent giant who avoids all human contact as part of some deep vow, or bitter memory. He only emerges to defend the deep forests from exploitation, or to champion some other cause which matters more to the wilds than to civilization. His true name he speaks to none, but he's been tagged 'Sasquatch.' Whether that's becuase he's the actual critter who inspire the stories, or wears the label in honor of the legend, is impossible to say. But the wilds of Washington State grow more free and more wild under his vigilance.

Re: Fishy, Fishy, Fishy, Fish! Or you could make a line that has no physical form at all - define it as a limited Telekinesis. Keeps it from getting entagled in seaweed, or with other lines, etc. Another item of interest: depth detector. All it does is provide a reliable measure of how far down a solid object is. If built into a ship (part of the keel or figurehead, perhaps), it need only have a range of a few fathoms, in order to avoid running the ship aground.

Re: Fishy, Fishy, Fishy, Fish! I'm not sure how you would build this in Hero, but something as simple as a spear-tip or fish-hook which is barbed as usual, but the barb can be retracted (presumably magically) for ease of removal. Or even a spear/hook which simply teleports the caught fish to a space a few inches below the hook, thus making removal a simple command word rather than a manual task.

Re: core "modes" of gameplay I think it depends on the situation. Sometimes [...] is sufficient, but there are times and places where it's just not enough. There's no real rules about this; it's something that pretty much has to be gleaned from experience. The people involved have to communicate: preferences and desires, as well as overall goals, need to be taken into account when deciding whether [...] is useful or not - how much [...] is appropriate, how it is best applied, or even if it's useful at all. I know in my experience there have been times when I ignored [...] entirely (not always on purpose!), and people still enjoyed themselves, so it is possible. All in all, however, it's usually easier to keep the [...] - people usually expect it and might be put off if they don't have enough [...]. That's my $0.01985117169 anyway.

Re: Fishy, Fishy, Fishy, Fish! Of course, a lot of the standard 'mundane magic' stuff would do very well for fishermen: firestarters, protections from cold and weather, purified or magically created food & water, etc. Here's a few more specific to fishing: -- A fairly simple Transform spell to make small (low-BODY) items float. Great for knives and tools. -- A slightly more advanced spell to make things float *on command* - better for nets, spears, and lobster traps, because sometimes you need those things to actually go below the water. -- Boots which hold traction even on a wet surface. Perhaps a Str 15 Clinging, with limitations against climbing walls and such. -- Gloves with the same basic ability will allow fishermen to handle fish and nets more easily. -- An 'oven' which uses magic instead of heat (no fire necessary!) to quickly dry fish, in order to preserve them and make them easier to transport.

Re: Whatever Can Go Wrong Sensor array goes haywire: a) a paper clip fell onto the primary magnetometer a misdirected data feed from the Space Battles video game c) accidentally activated Command Traning Simulation 34A d) unmapped microscopic black hole passes close by Speaking of microscopic black holes, one of those passing near/through the ship can cause all kinds of mayhem...

Re: Doctrine for beginning vampire slayers? The problem with most vampire fiction is that the vampires are typically (any more) the protagonist, so they don't encourage people to fight them; sometimes the hunters are just awful human beings, but typically the author just pumps up the vamp until the hunters don't stand a chance. A potential problem with the Horus-worship is that there's no support for it (unless your game world has one); thus, a major source of historical research and 'aid and comfort,' even without specific supernatural power, is largely cut off for the character. As the WW Hunter game (which might be worth checking out for this, even skipping over the emo/wacko stuff) took pains to point out, you can't do this alone. Even a solo fighter needs a network of informants, technicians, medics, bolt holes, etc., etc. If it's good enough for the Dark Knight... Some ideas off the top of my head: --Mirrored glasses/visor, to help prevent that hypnotic gaze. Even if it isn't proof, it will at teast distract them. --Make sure to armor around the places where big veins run close to the skin (spiked leather around the neck, for instance). --Big-time light sources: flashlights strapped to the arm, propane lanterns, road flares. He may have night vision, but a lot of vampires really prefer to work in the dark. Plus, they'll be expecting him to rely on the light and might be distracted. --If guns work, you can try the Hellboy/Underworld ammo, with garlic, et cetera. Personally, I think it's a bit cheesy; kind of like dipping bullets in pepper oil - it does nothing significant to increase the lethality of the round, and all it would really accomplish is to tick off the occasional target you don't kill...and if you shoot a vampire and don't kill it, you neither gain or lose anything by annoying it. Just not worth the effort. If guns work at all, go for the maximum stopping power - vamps rarely wear armor, and they're generally faster and stronger than humans, so it's important to take that advantage away. --Melee training must focus on defense - avoiding hits, escaping grabs, and so forth. Unless you really are Blade and have equivalent strength and speed, the vampires are going to have a near-insurmountable edge. Colonel Colt's the way, friend, not Bruce Lee - or even Duncan Macleod. (Of course, if guns don't work, then you do what you have to do...) As already mentioned, the find-the-nest-and-nuke-it works best if you can arrange it. I would think there are often mitigating circumstances however, such as apartments/condominiums, secure buildings, and minion guards to deal with.

Re: Need suggestions The 'top' of the world is the one tha campaign runs in - normal fantasy world, with all the trimmings. The 'bottom' of the world is a blissful paradise, filled with the departed spirits of those who were a blessing to those around them. In other words, the 'bottom' world is heaven; which means the 'adventure' world - the one with all the wars and monsters and turmoil - is... (cue theme music and Rod Serling: 'Submitted for your approval...')

Re: Learning from the mistakes of others I started to early on, but the thread I started got a rather negative reaction and then Steve shut it down. So I don't know that I feel particularly sanguine about participating further. Isuppose I ought to at least check things out again...

Re: Learning from the mistakes of others Speaking as another 'old fogey' (RPGing since 1975), feel free to share and commiserate. I can certainly understand why some people wouldn't like it. I've just seen too much flaming and hating (in both directions) on the WotC boards, and wanted to put in my observations, and hopefully keep the blanket condemnations and unacknowledged personal taste from running rampant. Frankly, I was not hopeful that D&D4 would be much good; personally, I'm (so far) very interested in trying it out in actual long-term play. It took some convincing to get me from there to where I am now. To be honest, I'm not very confident about Hero 6 at this point. Steve L's done such fine work so far - that's the anchor I cling to. I very much have a wait-and-see attitude about it (just as I did/do with D&D4).

Re: Learning from the mistakes of others Yep - it's a major rules change. Yep - it looks different than D&D ever has before, different format, different look. The people who say "it's not D&D!" are, as far as I can see, making claims based on taste rather than fact (or, generally, objective evidence). As far as I'm concerned, it's got all the basics that have been the earmerks of D&D since I first played it back in the '70's: magic, d20 hit rolls, levels, etc., as well as the official D&D logo. It's not the same D&D I played then, it's been revised extensively three times now. It's definitely informed and influenced by MMOs, but that's not necessarily a bad thing (I know, I know, heresy! Heat up the tar! Pluck some chickens!). Frankly, the biggest influence I discern from MMOs is two fold: one, everybody gets special schticks that define what they can do at any particular time - even the good ol' fighter is almost never reduced to "I swing my sword." For color and flavor, there's nothing wrong with that as far as I can tell; given that you don't have an extensive maneuver list like Hero, pre-defined 'powers' taking their place is a little more fun than no special abilities *and* no maneuver list to choose from. The downside of the use of pre-defined powers is the procedure of expending powers per encounter or per day: the really cool powers are limited in use, which (to quote my son) kind of puts every character into the same boat as the wizard in earlier editions: if your one-shot big whack'em fails, you don't get to try that one again until tomorrow. In actual play, however, the 'at-will' powers (the ones you can use every round, all day) are useful enough that you really don't end up like the old 1st-level wizard with your one or two magic missiles and then hide the rest of the day. The second big MMO influence (really more CCG than MMO, but those who decry one often decry the other, so I kind of lump them) I see is format. The powers are defined in big blocks of text, with various colored labels, 'keywords,' and such, rather than lines of descriptive text. 3.x spells had some of this anyway, but 4e goes whole hog, to the point where actual cards listing one's available powers are encouraged (and various fanbuilt forms are available) - and actually useful in play. Frankly, this is a difference in presentation more than it is in actual substance (though it does dovetail with the limited-use structure of powers). A major thrust of the design seems to have been to make the game accessible and useable to a generation of gamers who are used to having manipulatives (i.e., cards as well as minis and dice), and using cards and exception-based rules in regular play. Is all this a bad thing? It's an open question - but I think it is useful to tease out just how much the objections are based around presentation as opposed to substance. There's a lot of both to deal with, to be sure - but I think it's easy to look through the book, see the MMO/CCG influence, and drop it thinking it's just a tabletop version of those. I really don't think it is, no more (and no less) than WoW is an online version of tabletop D&D.

Re: Zombie variant options That is too sweet! Consider it stolen. How about: Hungry Zombie: Healing 2d6 Self Only, OAF live human flesh of opportunity Devouring Zombie: Aid 2d6 STR & BODY Self Only, OAF live human flesh of opportunity Horrific Zombie: Drain PRE 1d6, Ranged