The Monster

Re: Building a vampiric blade Another way you might try is to have the only damage the weapon does is Transfer, just add a limitation that rPD resists the effect. Streamlines the build a bit. And you can use the points saved from HKA to buy the return rate to, say, a year or two, making it irrelevant for tactical purposes.

Re: New Campaign Idea There's an old novel "Doomfarers of Coramonde" that did just this: took a squad(?) from Vietnam and dropped into a fantasy world. Not too bad, especially for the twenty-odd years ago when it came out. Haven't read it since. Had a sequel or two, IIRC, which I never read. In the novel, all the equipment (including an M113 APC) came through intact. Personally, I'd bring the players in on it at some level. Let them know, at the very least, that the group would end up cut off from home and from command and resupply. Skew the disad points - give them 100+50 rather than 75+75, or something like that. You can be mysterious about just what the surprise will be, but I'd feel chary about totally setting them up for modern military and jerking them into fantasy - especially if I was going to rip off all their gear! - at least for any more than a one-shot crossover-type adventure.

Re: Silly Name, Super Hero (A Game) ...but...but...you forgot the computer skills! Surely Mouse-man should have mad computer skills! What?

Re: matchmaker for masks? My Super Hero Lover is Kitty Pryde 66.4% Match Tough, smart, and caring, Kitty is loyal through and through. She will let her hair down and show you how to party. Just don't do her wrong or she'll use her ninja-moves on you. Other Close Matches: Lois Lane (62.2%) Moira MacTaggert (61.6%) ...not who I'd have thought of first, but not too bad, especially including the "other close matches"

Re: UNTIL Uniforms - Now I know why they BUG me so much. For years I thought that a fascinating compare-and-contrast essay should be written using Starship Troopers and The Forever War. I enjoyed both books very much, despite or because of their radically different presentations of the military and widely disparate uses of the SF-as-political-rant motif.

Re: Help.....i Need Some Help!!!! Here's a few ideas off the top of my balding head.... In the '30's, China was an absolute mess. Civil war (Mao's Long March started in 1934), foreign intervention (Europeans and Imperial Japanese), local warlords. Some of the latter could easily be employing occult elements. China's big and varied enough you could do almost anything there, in the rugged countryside or in the usual places such as Hong Kong. And since one of your PCs mentioned in the linked thread is a "martial artist, ki-master" you have a natural link to China. In my pulp campaign I had a warlord who was building up an undead/occult army, using critters stolen *ahem* inspired from the Feng Shui game. I almost killed one character with a blow to his face from a hopping vampire. The famous "War of the Worlds" broadcast was in 1938. Who's to say the martians hadn't sent some probing expeditions a few years before, especially in isolated places like polar icecaps or uninhabited islands? You can still have them vulnerable to disease if you put them in a remote enough place, or you could have a mad scientist employing/adapting the machinery the recon mission left behind when they died. Delta Green, a Call of Cthulhu supplement, mentioned the dealings Nazis had with Mythos creatures and powers. My campaign is currently set in 1936, so I've had the Nazis trying to set up an alliance with the Deep Ones to rules the Atlantic Ocean from below, which the PCs are trying to prevent. 1932 is really too early for much Nazi activity, but their knowledge had to come from somewhere... Russian agents are available as nasties as well - Stalin was still nailing down control in 1932, and his agents could and did hunt exiles down (probably the most famous example being the assassination of Trotsky in 1940). They could also be hunting for lost treasures of the czar, setting up underground networks anywhere in the world, or engaging in just about any nefarious deeds you want. The Soviet Union, after all, bordered on China, Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkey, as well as Poland and Finland, so there's plenty of exotic locales right in their back yard (some of which might only be accessible by mule train or...airship!). US Prohibition ends in 1933. Besides general crimefighting, you could also have a plot to distribute mind-control (or whatever) drugs to the elites who frequent the speak-easies. Gangsters, corrupt politicians, and mad science, all rolled together! Kong Island. 'Nuff said. Well, that should get some juices flowing. Good luck!

Re: Rebuilding yourself

Re: Converting Players to HERO I prefer to GM than play, almost always. I'm just lazy, plus I want others to GM so they can refine their skills (I've spent a fair amount of time introducing people to RPGs and raising them to be GMs, ever since introducing D&D to Lander Hall at UW in 1977). Almost all of my regular group have GMed at least occasionally, at least half of us regularly. The pressure on the GM to define and control is one of the factors that makes Hero seem harder, plus the fact that everyone has to pretty much define everything their character can do - there's no "I'll just play a wizard" (let alone "I'll just play a fighter!"). The big balancing factor IMO is that once you learn the basic mechanics for Hero, the rest is minor details - you don't have to look up class abilities or feats or spell lists every time you use one.

Re: Rebuilding yourself What? You mean there really aren't *any* catgirls? I've been looking in vain? I just thought they weren't native to this part of the country... Buying off most of my psychlims and physlims would be a start. Barring superpowers, I'd probably spend a fair amount on things like Life Support (never gets sick, ages slower, needs less sleep, poison immunity, etc.). Ten points of Wealth should cover it for me, maybe even 5. If I could talk the GM into giving me a 10-20 point Gadget Pool, that would cover most of the other non-super things I could think of. If not, or in addition, depending on where the points stand, I'd buy Scholar and buy way too long a list of KS. And while I could get a nice house with Wealth, I'd be happy to spend any few spare points on a Base to trick it out better.

Re: Help with signs of Mage ranks Another possibility to consider is having certain items that have powers and act as badges of rank to those who know, and an entirely seperate item which is more of a public badge, not necessarily powerful but easily recognized. For example, all mages might have a staff, which has certain decorations added to it as ranks progress: a novice's staff has a silver ring around the tip; an inititate adds a gold ring below the silver; a journeyman adds an emerald ring below that, and so forth. This would make a wizard easily recognized by everyone, and even the most ignorant coudl follow that more powerful magi have more shinies on their staff ("Cor, I ne'er seen one wit *six* rings round 'is staff!") [not to mention the inevitable rude jokes made behind mages' backs]. When a mage doesn't want to attract attention, he just covers or leaves his staff behind, or camouflages it with a simple cantrip. Then he won't get stares from every farmer and woodsman, but people who recognize the other regalia would know to offer the appropriate respect. As far as forgery, it wouldn't be hard - though a bit expensive for higher ranks - but considering the penalties for impersonating a wizard, carrying a big sign saying "I'm a mage" is likely to lead quickly to any real mage spotting you calling you out, in addition to the likely legal trouble.

Re: Help with signs of Mage ranks A couple thoughts: It might be fun if the bonuses given by the items increased when higher items were carried at the same time. For example, the student's ring gives 1 point of armor when first attained; upon receiving the item for 2d level, the ring will give 2 armor when carried with the item that level 2 people get. And so forth. With so few levels, the highest magi would be walking around with the equivalent of normal chain or plate armor, which really doesn't seem too bad. Skill bonuses can stack up the same way. This would add complexity, but would also make the items more impressive when trotted around as a set. On a social level, these items would be instant badges recognized not just by magicians but by the general populace. At least on some level - even someone sporting just a crystal ring might be expected (or suspected) to do all kinds of magic by ignorant masses and nobility, who don't understand such things. Of course, there's the question of what happens when one of these items is stolen (can someone else use its power?), and how easy they are to forge ("trust me, I'm a Magus - just look at my kewl cloak! Really!").

Re: Challenge Lists a siege of a huge city a (magically?) gender-altered noble a game of chance termites a Rosetta Stone

Re: Help Me Set up a Pulp Campaign Van Helsing, if still alive, would probably be a bit under 100 - so for "descendant" read grandchild or similar nephew/niece/apprentice. For pulp magic, you generally want small and subtle. For 30 points or less, you can see what's on the other side of the wall (clairvoyance), see in the dark, detect occult energies, inscribe a circle of protection (force wall), or invoke the Power to frighten enemies (+30 PRE for Presence Attacks). Dispel might be quite useful if you expect to meet mystical baddies. Stealing from Dracula's knowledge/abilities, you've got Clinging, Multiform, Mind Control/hypnotism, Desolidification, all of which could work well at the pulp level. Some truly cool effects can be generated with a simple 10-STR TK with Fine Manipulation. Even better if you can build it with Invisible Power Effects. Speaking of cool effects, check out Images, which for 30 points and a bit of creativity, can be delightful. Of course, The Shadow had Invisibility and little else in the mystic sphere. Astral projection, even in its simplest Clairvoyance form, is certainly useful and within genre. That should get things started, eh?

Re: Mindless Control This is exactly the signature power my wife's character The Chauffeur has: the character can talk to and direct mechanical devices (up to and including cars, mechs, etc.); the character thinks of them as alive, and simply reaches out to them with his mind. There's really a couple powers involved, because of the different effects. One is a linked TK and Clairvoyance. The Clairvoyance basically gives you a sense of the controls of the target object - it doesn't allow you to see out from the thing, but it enables you to use the TK to actually operate the controls remotely. Basically, this is blind remote control; you can make the machine do anything it normally does as if you were the operator. While this is cool enough, the TK is only as strong as a normal person, so if there's anyone actually operating the machine, you have to wrestle with him over the controls, and he can override your efforts by brute force. The wilder one is a Summon effect. The Chauffeur, in game terms, Summons an AI/Spirit into the machine, which he can then deal with using the Summon rules as a framework (yes, they're bought with the Friendly adder) - the character thinks of this not as summoning an entity into the machine, but as "waking up" the spirit already existing in all machines (nobody's tried to objectively check his theory/delusion yet). The AI isn't anything super - human-normal INT, EGO, etc. - so it's really cheap, and it's only friendly, not slavish, so he has to negotiate with the machine if he wants it to do anything unnatural. It doesn't work on anything that's already an AI (i.e., has an EGO), nor does it work on anyone personal Focus. I run the "awakened" machines as having an innate desire to perform their designed function, and rarely any desire to harm anyone. Cars want to drive, guns want to shoot, that kind of thing, but they're machines, not demons, so they're not out to get anyone, as a general thing. It's been a fun power, sometimes totally useless (like during the fight in a large city park), at other times decisive. The most amusing use of the power was during the battle against Mechs. My heart stopped when she asked me "do these things have ejection seats?" And of course they did, what with my having built them in loving detail. The rest was a game of "pop goes the mech pilot."

Re: Altered Reality (making yourself) I'm with Cancer. If I'm generous, I come out with about 5 points after disads (that's even adding stuff like PS: RP GM 16- just to drive up point costs). Actually, now that I'm officially over 40, I doubt I could even come up positive. I do recall playing V&V, lo these many years ago. It was fun enough, though IIRC stats mattered very little compared to the powers you rolled up.

Re: Ran my first FH session... some questions My FH was 75+75, which worked fine - you can get some pretty impressive heroes at this level. The only caps I recall stating were: DEF 10 for armor or protective spells, and you could never use more than 6 skill levels at any time. That, and I was designing pretty much all the magic, since I was one of the few who really knew the system. RSR for magic was standard, based on INT. That, and the spell maintenance slots already described, make INT worthwhile for casters. (An amusing aside: one guy was a magic-boosted fighter - but by the time he got done casting his sword boost, his armor boost, and his skill bost spells, the fight would be mostly over with. He was almost unstoppable at full strength, but really slow to get there.) I didn't explore the Delayed Effect option at all. Hit locations I always use in anything less than supers; there's just too much flavor and tactical options lost without them. They are dangerous, and make otherwise overwhelming characters have a little respect for even the average sword swing - all it takes is one good roll, and you can end up stunned or worse. Of course, since it works on the bad guys too, it's all good. And it encourages players to apply skill levels to counter called-shot penalties.

Re: D&D Spellbooks as Bases Taking a tip from the Computers rules, you might simply say that each spell is a one-point "program" in a medieval-tech memory storage unit. Run that as an OAF, and you can have a 20-page spellbook for a mere 4 points. If you really want to charge more for more powerful spells, just say it costs 1 point per 10 or 20 Active points in a spell. Then, of course, all the Wizard's spells will have a Limitation reflecting that he needs a spellbook to memorize the spell for the day (either a seperate Limitation or figured as part of a Focus limit). As mentioned above, build a few spells and see what they cost before you start designing big point savers. Operating magic as a Multipower is probably enough of a break for the casters.

Re: The price of power... Here's a thought: how about using a warped version of Side Effect? Drain BODY, always occurs - that way the life force taken by the spell is in direct proportion to the effect. Now modify the "side effect" so that it can be directed with a skill/stat roll: it affects the caster unless he can make the roll, in which case, it affects someone next to him. This would obviously reduce the value of the Side Effect modifier, by as much as half. But it would add the nasty and dangerous side of magic. It would also make sorcerers stand out - when they start chanting, everyone runs away from them!

Re: Mutants and Materminds Ohhhhh - you mean Mutants and *MASTERMINDS* I thought this was another of those erotic RPG threads..... Never mind.

Re: Segments Question Part of the problem is that, if you don't start at 12, at what point during the Turn *do* you start? If the attackers get to pick a particular segment, then you get the rather ridiculous process of figuring out just which segments the bad guys get an action, then timing your attack to catch them in their gaps - totally unrealistic and game-ey. If it's random, then you have the problem that much of the time, the people who are poised to attack, even from ambush, stand around for several seconds while waitint for their segment to pop up. Given the whole SPD mechanic, I don't know if there's a better way to handle it. Feel free to try, though - I'm not going to.

Re: Mission hooks, getting your players into the game Wow...talk about "moon those Saxon dogs!" Anyway, couple more mission ideas: Escort the Delivery (nobleman/woman, rock group, nuclear recycle waste...; you don't carry it yourself, and it has a mind of its own) Long-Haul Race (Cannonball Run???) Hunt the Bad Guys (a variant of Fight the Pirates, really, but more long-range) Explore the Badlands (including urban badlands) Rescue the Hostage/Prisoner (maybe after someone failed to Escort the Delivery?)

Re: The Godzilla Scenario Re: mental powers vs. giant monster This could get complicated, but I bet it would be amusing to build and for the players to figure out: multiple brains. Like the old stories about the brontosaurus (back when they still called them brontosaurus), which supposedly had a secondary "brain" down by it's tail (IIRC); certainly, a critter the size of Godzilla could have two or more of these scattered about its physique. Each would have to be attacked seperately for mental powers to have their proper effect. In effect, this gives the critter a good 75% reduction against mental powers that aren't able to affect multiple targets (autofire or area effect or multiple mentalists). Of course, if you really wanted to comlpicate things, you could have each "brain" be in control of different things, so that controlling the brain at the base of the tail would allow you to control the critter's legs and tail, but not its arms or breath. And, of course, there's always the multi-headed monster (Monster ZERO!!!!!!). Stick THAT in your pipe and smoke it, mister mentalist! This whole scenario would put the test to my long-standing rule of thumb: PCs can always bring down one of *anything.* I've seen it happen too often.

Re: freeze spell C'mon! Everyone knows that chainmail bikinis are just as effective at warding off cold as they are warding off swords. No problem!

Re: freeze spell "Freeze Water" is SFX: what real effect does the spell have, in game terms? If it actually takes bodies of water and freezes them, then it's a Transform, and won't be usable to significantly chill a room or make a slippery ice sheet. Making catapult ammo from a nearby waterfall, however... If it covers stuff with a layer of ice, making them slippery and shiny, then it's probably a Change Environment, maybe with effects like Drain Running and Entangle. If you can freeze the water inside people's bodies (inside cells, in the bloodstream, etc.), then you've got some kind of Energy Blast, RKA, maybe with Penetrating or NND or some such. Mix and match as you like, or even build it as a mini-Multipower or Elemental Control.

Re: Fantasy Rant If you're patient enough to read my blatherings... I love Tolkein's work. I've read LotR more times than I can count, the Silmarillion cover-to-cover a couple times, and most other stuff I've stumbled on by the original author or his son(s). That alone puts my taste in a different place than several of the people who have been most involved in this thread. I'm aware of his limitations, and I certainly don't look down on anyone who doesn't share my taste. On the other hand, I gave up on the Deryni series after the first five or six books, and never went back, for various reasons. I don't know that the cultural source material (mythos/religion/) for a game or novel is strongly relevant to the value or "interestingness" thereof. Of course it's easier to work with material you and your audience are already familiar with; but the (admittedly few) things I've come across drawing heavily on non-European-Christian/pseudo-European-pagan/Celtic stuff are neither stronger nor weaker as stories or gaming material than anything else. My motto as a GM for the last several years has been: Players Want to Do Kewl Stuff. That, to me, is what makes a good GM - one who can spot what a player is trying to accomplish with their character and provide opportunities for that character to at least try to do just that. It's not so much a matter of deep, meaningful storytelling, nor of realistic world-building. Those things are great, and if it's what your strengths and interests point toward, that's super. But it's not what makes RPGs work - they are merely nice tools, basically in the same class with painted miniatures and pretty maps. It's all stuff which can enhance game play, and almost every game is better with than without, but they are secondary to the usual function of an RPG - that is, to have fun in a social setting. The trick, then, is to figure out what the players want, and how to make it jibe with what the GM wants. No minor stunt that... Not that I want to put anyone down. In fact, I think it's liberating to see things that way: a GM should be free to focus on what makes him or her most interested and interesting in running game, rather than bogged down with concerns over how "good" the world is, or how s/he knows the particular rules. Von D-Man says (of himself), "I'm not fun any more." As far as I know, I've never played in one of his games, but I doubt the problem is really that he's not fun any more. It sounds to me like the problem is that *he* isn't having fun. Of course it is possible for a GM, especially a good one, to run a game which is satisfactory to everyone else and still feel like it was a bland or even boring session - I've done it myself, more than once. The one time I've really wanted to save a campaign where I'd run out of creative steam, I ended up laying my cards on the table at the end of one session, and telling the players (all of whom very strongly wanted to see it keep going). Their response and input provided me the encouragement I needed, and at least as important, the seed for the next (current) phase of the campaign, which is fun enough to last me a while. But for a while there I was struggling with it. I'm not even sure the issue is figuring out how to make fantasy fun again for anyone in particular, especially for someone who's been so heavily involved in that phase of the hobby. Maybe it's time to just let it lie for a while, maybe even for a long time. Maybe it's time to do something else entirely; maybe even get away from GMng for a time - and not worrying about it. I know that in my years of RPGing, my interests have certainly fluctuated, to where most fantasy games don't appeal to me all that much any more. It's not like there's nothing else to do to fill my time and stimulate my mind. To my limited sight, the issue is more about what VD-M needs to do to feel like he's having fun - and that is something I can't begin to answer without asking a whole lot of intrusive and personal questions. I won't presume to offer any kind of magic bullet, or even suggest any particular books to read. I suppose my primary suggestion might be to not let this change in yourself (and I think it's primarily a change in yourself - expectations of yourself and your players, awareness of various issues, concerns over details that may not seem signifcant to others, whatever) be an anchor against further development. If you're done with fantasy, then you're done with fantasy. So be it. I don't mean to be flip - I don't mean cease to ponder what it means about you and what you do. But be willing to close the door and let it open when you hear more interesting noises issuing forth. And find out just what Kewl Stuff you want to do now...