Shadowsoul

Of course if you decide to leave the army while you still have most of your soul then something will eat you, Hell does not play fair. A character called 'Evil Ernie' who featured in the Hack/Slash series, (after his own series ended), was created by an unusual Deal. A being called Lady Death promised to love him for eternity if he killed everyone in the world. A hellish twist on this could be seductive succubi tempting people to do evil in return for their favours, perhaps a demonic brothel where patrons pay in sins rather than coins. Deals with demonic entities are pretty standard for Sword and Sorcery magic, particularly in Robert E. Howard's work. I believe that there is a book about a young man who is more or less forced to make a Deal with the Devil and asks to be made into a superhero. So he fights crime with a demonic sidekick. Alan Campbell's Deepgate Codex includes an industrialised version of Hell in which the very lucky damned are given a chance to work for the King of Hell and may even be sent back to the mortal world to fight for him, the unlucky ones get minced up and recycled. Also, I once read a Daily Mail article, that felt like a Deal with the Devil.

Re: sword of truth hero The obvious power for a Mord Sith to have is Absorption with some kind of all or nothing Limitation and a very delayed return rate. The points gained from Absorption would go into an Ego Attack and or Energy Blast that could only be used on the person whose powers the Mord Sith had absorbed. As for the Agiel. I would write up one up as a no range blast with the advantage attack versus alternative defence, the defence being a successful Ego roll or possibly mental defence. E.g. Blast 6d6, Attack Versus Alternate Defense (Ego Roll; +1/2) (45 Active Points); OAF (-1), Side Effects, Side Effect occurs automatically whenever Power is used (User suffers extreme pain.; -1), No Range (-1/2). The Agiel is insanely painful and anyone touched by it for the first time is not likely to be able to fight back, no matter how tough they are. But it is possible for people to become used to the pain and train themselves to overcome it. Hence the Ego roll. It might be more faithful to the books to impose penalties on the Ego roll and increase the cost of the power accordingly. The average person should not be able to shrug off the touch of an Agiel. The Agiel is more versatile than this however. Pressing the weapon against skin for a second or so leaves a bleeding welt, this could be defined as a 1 point Killing Attack, though Richard survived many such attacks in a single session so the difference between this and a normal Agiel attack may be cosmetic in Hero terms. Pressing an Agiel into someone's ear causes even more extreme agony than normal. This pain is magnified if another Agiel is inserted into the other ear, (Terry Goodkind is a very sick man), and unless the victim manages to keep their head still they will suffer permanent brain damage, (Drain Int). Most dramatically, placing an Agiel over someone's heart and twisting it will kill them instantly. Can't remember if it has to be touching skin.

Re: Alternative Necromancy Have to say that my first thought on seeing this thread was that alternative necromancy was like altenrative medicine. I had images of Necromancers who used herbal medicine, aromatherapy and dolphin music to summon the dead. However, good or at least non-malevolent necromancers are a reasonable concept. They could simply be scholars seeking to learn the secrets of the afterlife or of the dead, they could also work to lay lost souls to rest. To differentiate these practitioners from Necromancers as they are usually understood I would probably call them Spirit Mages or Ghost Mages. Actually raising the dead is likely to be looked upon as immoral by almost any society, unless perhaps the Necromancer pays the family of the deceased or a dying person signs a contract to 'donate their body to magic'. That could actually be a good way to pay off debts if the debtor dies before being able to pay them back, 'post-mortem indentured service'. I believe that there is a kingdom in the D&D Eberron setting where Necromancy is accepted by the population. Undead even form part of the national army.

Re: Paralysed poison There's no end to the ways you can do this. My personal favourite would be an Entangle that doesn't take damage from attacks.

Re: Vampires Unmasked P.S. Vampire culture has become an internet meme and is also a big influence on global popular culture, fashion and even music; a bit like the spread of styles of music, speech and clothing associated with African American street culture.

Re: Vampires Unmasked Anti-Vampire hate groups would probably be common. Fae and Vampires in Europe would probably have been targeted during the Holocaust, that would have had severe repercussions on their mindset and culture. Seelie and Unseelie supported different sides during the Cold War. The U.S. very controversially used Vampire units during the conflict in Iraq. In the U.S. stories abound of Vampire 'Hunting Clubs' - Vampires who gather together in remote locations to hunt down and drain captured humans or sometimes locals from isolated communities. The U.S. government denies the existence of such groups but many park rangers and other law enforcement officers in the wilder areas of the country now go armed with weapons said to be effective against Vampires. The British Royal Family are Seelie Fae and the UK maintains draconian anti-immigration laws against Unseelie and Vampires. Certain companies offer 'Death Insurance'. Pay your premiums and the company will fit you with a device that monitors your vital signs. If the signs give out then an emergency Vampire is immediately despatched to your location and turns you before you die. A recent ad campaign had the tagline 'We Sire before you Expire!'

Re: A spell that acts like a "lightning rod for magic" How about, Deflection, Constant, Only Works Against Magic with the side effect mentioned by Jas above?

Re: Fantasy Race Bloat? I like non-human races myself. To the point that a setting, whether for a book or a game, which has only humans has to work harder to keep me interested. What I don't like is when these races are basically humans with pointy ears or red eyes or whatever. Playing a different race, (or species, to use the correct term), should give the player a whole new perspective on the game world. Different cultural attitudes, different reactions from NPCs and less importantly a different appearance and unique abilities. You can't make your player species too alien or no one will know how to play them but they should be obviously non-human in body and mind. Or at least noticeably different from the humans in that setting. If each species is unique then I think you can have quite a few of them. Several Sc-fi franchises have managed to do this quite successfully. But I agree that there is a point where it all gets too much. Even a Fantasy setting has to allow people to suspend their disbelief. If you have blind, Buddhist, warrior-monkeys made from living bronze at one end of a valley and pacifist tentacle monsters with advanced technology at the other then drop the ancient civilisation of the Mirror Dwarves who talk backwards and refer to everything as its opposite in the next valley along you will probably notice your players' eyes glazing over before long. Maybe 5-6 is a good number to aim for. At least for player races.

Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy http://www.cracktwo.com/2011/04/25-abandoned-soviet-monuments-that-look.html

Re: Mythos of the Werewolf There is a nineteenth century book called 'The Book of Werewolves' by S. Baring-Gould which provides a lot of information on pre-hollywood werewolf myths and associated stories about shapeshifters, cannibals and murderers. He touches on everything from berserkers to swan-maidens. You can download the book free from Project Gutenberg or the Amazon Kindle Store. One set of legends which particularly stood out for me was about the werewolves of France. These werewolves, (Baring Gould calls them Lycanthropists), were people who willingly made a deal with the devil and were given the gift of a magical salve which could turn them, briefly, into wolves. In wolf form these devil-worshippers would hunt people, (often children), down and devour them. The only motivation I can remember for this behaviour is that the werewolves enjoyed it. In wolf form they didn't seem to have any powers beyond those of a natural wolf and Baring-Gould mentioned stories where quite young children managed to fight off one of the creatures. French peasants were apparently far more frightened of these demonic beings than they were of real wolves, however. Also, I used to think that the idea of a werewolf as a wolfman came from Hollywood. But the picture on the front cover of the Book of Werewolves shows a huge werewolf standing upright with his right arm flung up at an angle that I don't think a wolf's leg could manage. So the idea must date back to the ninteenth century at least.

Re: Magic the Gathering HERO? Hey. This is a nice idea. Here is one of the more recent threads where people have discussed using Hero to run a game in the Magic the Gathering setting. http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php/89285-Gaming-in-the-Magic-The-Gathering-setting/page2

Re: Tolkien Elves in Hero Do the Elves of the War of the Ring period still have all the power that they did during the time of the Silmarillion? There were certainly some immensely powerful Elves in the First Age. Feanor, for one, was more powerful than normal Elves. But he died. And a lot of the other super-powered Elven heroes, including some Elves that were descended from Maiar, died fighting against Morgoth as well. And during the War of the Ring the Elves are fading from Middle Earth. Their time is past. Are those that remain as strong as they once were? Or have they only been reduced in numbers?

Re: Divine vs Arcane spells Late night tv presenters?

Re: Race based were-creatures for a high fantasy setting. Totem animals are what I'd go for as well. Of course channelling totem animals is generally considered a good thing by cultures who revere them. Hunters and warriors draw upon the attributes of their totem to get skill and strength. How does this work with Lycanthropy as a disease/curse? Perhaps some/all races in the setting have turned away from the old ways, (worshipping animal totems), and lycanthropy is caused by the animal spirits cursing their former children or trying to regain control of them through possession. Or perhaps lycanthropes are people that try to return to an older, more natural form of magic that is in tune with nature. Alternatively, some DARK FORCEtm could have corrupted the animal totems so that what was once a benevolent or neutral form of magic has become twisted and evil.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... All I can say is, I'm glad the party didn't include Katy Perry. That would have ended very badly.

Re: Converting AD&D Monk (modified 2nd Edition) to Fantasy Hero - advice request In a mystic land lost somewhere in the farthest reaches of the internet, there resides a transcendental master of the Hero System who has studied the art of conversion for many years. He is known as Killershrike. Here is a sample of his enlightened wisdom. D&D Monk Conversion.

Re: Consuming a defeated Foe to gain his Power; It's the Demon Way. Certainly sounds interesting. Would require a lot of playtime to get the full benefit. When it comes to level ups, how much of a change are we talking here? Will there be qualities such as the pattern of their scales or their psy comps that will remain the same? I think the players will be more fond of their characters if they have some continuity.

Re: Consuming a defeated Foe to gain his Power; It's the Demon Way. I have toyed with a similar idea in the past - A hell-world occupied entirely by demons who gain power by slaughtering each other. The idea was to have a sandbox roleplaying game, no plot as such, the players would simply be let loose to gain power as they saw fit. I went for big XP awards as well. I think it was something like this - If a demon killed another demon which was more powerful than them then they gained the difference between their respective Character Points scores, divided by 5. So, if a 150pt demon killed a 200 pt demon, they would gain 200-150 = 50, divided by 5 = 10 xp. If a demon killed a less powerful demon then they gained xp equal to that demon's CP divided by 100, rounding to the nearest 100. So, killing a weaker demon of 50 or less points would yield no xp at all. You might find these ratios useful, or they might not provide enough speed for you. Perhaps the difference between the two CP scores divided by 2 would be more the kind of level you needed. I did think about ways that demons could share kills, as well. Possibly they could be linked to each other through a ritual which allowed gained demonic power to be shared. This could give them reason to work together at first, to bring down powerful opponents and share equally in the power, but could cause them to turn on each other as they became stronger and started to resent sharing power.

Re: Heavenly HEROic Host: Playing Angels Not all angels are nice. http://quizilla.teennick.com/user_images/T/TH/THE/TheDeadDonotBleed/1139425521_anime_goth.jpg Not sure if that is an angel but the image would do for an angel of vengeance.

Re: Gaming in the Magic: The Gathering setting I would make a clear distinction between Planeswalker Magic, which is epic, and Creature Magic, which normal people/beings can use. So, Planeswalker Magic would be a single VPP that has the following limitations - Character must have learned or bound a spell to cast it and Character must possess the correct form of Mana to pay the End Cost. All Planeswalkers have this VPP, though power levels may vary. Each Planeswalker also has 1-5 End Reserves which are associated with the five colours. To cast a spell in their VPP the Planeswalker must draw Mana (End) from the appropriate End Reserve/s. I like the 10 End - 1 Mana idea. So, to cast a Green Spell with a Mana cost of 2 the Planeswalker would have to draw 20 End from his/her Green Mana End Reserve, assuming he/she has one. Colourless Mana/End can be drawn from any Mana Reserve. As to how you fill your End/Mana Reserve. Certainly a Planeswalker must draw from a Land to get Mana. But remember, the deck is simply a simulation of the battle between Planeswalkers. These beings are not sitting in their tower, pulling out cards and saying 'Great! Now I have the right card I can draw power from this Island!' Instead they are reaching out across time and space and binding Lands, Spells and Creatures to their will. I would suggest that reaching across the cosmos and binding these things is a Skill. Planeswalkers can make a Skill Roll, at a given time increment, to bind a Land to their will. Once a Land is successfully bound it can be used once every turn/increment to Recover End into the appropriate End/Mana Reserve. If the land is destroyed then it ceases to be usable. Of course, a Planeswalker must have an affinity for a particular Land before he/she can bind it, (in Magic terms, it must be in his/her deck), and will only be able to bind a finite number of lands, (just as there are only so many land cards in a deck). Spells and Creatures could also have an associated Binding Skill. Once Bound, a Creature can be Summoned once and a Spell can be cast once. If a Planeswalker fails their Land Binding roll then they can still try one or both of their other Binding Skills or vice versa, but no matter how many successful rolls they make they can only Bind one thing (Land, Spell or Creature) per turn/increment. I don't know what time period in Hero would constitute a Turn in Magic. If you want to keep the random element then you could say that it is not possible for a Planeswalker to specify what they are Binding. If they make the roll they get a randomly chosen Land or whatever from a list of available Lands. Don't forget that this is just basic level mechanics we're dealing with here. Magic: The Gathering can do all kinds of things, there are creatures that can return from the dead, lands which can be tapped to give creatures powers, cards that steal other cards, cards that increase a Planeswalker's life force and all sorts. Consider the vast amount of Body that a Planeswalke has compared to normal beings. A normal human or low powered creature with an average of 10 Body can be killed with a basic Planeswalker Spell costing 1 Mana e.g. a flame spell. That same flame spell would have to be cast on a Planeswalker 20 times to kill him/her. That's 200 points of Body or some kind of ablative defence right there.

Re: Anti Paladin Ngross' solution sounds good to me. Otherwise I'd suggest googling Blackguards, who are D&D's own licenced Anti-Paladins. Maybe powers linked to demons, hellfire etc aswell.

Re: Chaos If this seething aura of misfortune is simply making life harder for everyone around the Avatar then why not just use Change Environment? It's designed for imposing penalties on people e.g. making certain skill rolls difficult. Here is a crudely bolted together example. Aura Of Unluck: Change Environment (-6 to Characteristic Roll or Skill Roll), Personal Immunity (+1/4), Persistent (+1/4), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Area Of Effect Nonselective (40m Radius; +1), Varying Effect Broad Group (+1), Invisible Power Effects (Invisible to [two Sense Groups]; +1) (90 Active Points); No Conscious Control (-2), Always On (-1/2). For beings of chaos. Consider Michael Moorcock's work and the twisted worlds of Warhammer.

Re: Power Word Ni! Voice range idea is useful, cheers. It's interesting that you all think of Ni! as non-fatal. Arthur states that those who hear it seldom live to tell the tale and the Knights themselves claim to be able to kill Arthur, although they appear unarmed. Repeated uses of the word do seem to cause physical pain in those who hear it, which suggests that it does do Stun damage at least. Repeated uses of Ni! cause increasing effects, (people scream in pain and curl up into themselves or fall to the ground). This isn't quite how Presence Attacks work. Perhaps a Drain Presence and Ego? Then you could weaken the target until they die of fright? Of course, applying logic to Monty Python is a pointless exercise. All of these power builds should create a dramatic effect and that is all that is required. I expect most players will enjoy using the power, regardless of its precise effects. Thanks for your input guys. Consider yourselves the recipients of virtual shrubberies.

How would you build the word Ni! as a power/weapon? Some sort of Ego Attack that does Body Damage? Except that people who are not killed outright recover from it quite quickly. Perhaps a Drain Body and Stun?

Re: Fairytale Hero A good point; Luck and Combat Luck could help humble peasant lads to compete with martially trained knights and princes. What kind of magic would you replace with luck? How would it work?