Shadowsoul

Re: Hey, what's in those ruins? One quite amusing idea I came across in a fantasy book was an ancient city that had a fashion for large bell towers in its prime. Some bells still remained and caused all sorts of interesting clanking noises and odd glimpses of movement which were perfect for making jumpy characters even jumpier. Perhaps a young artist has come to this area seeking inspiration amongst the grand ruins, ancient courtyards and broken statues of the city. Pity his rogue magical talent has just manifested and he's managed to awaken some of the ancient guardian spirits by painting their likenesses. A paranoid merchant protected his subterranean horde of coins with a small maze and many, many vicious traps. He hid himself down there when the invaders came and eventually died of starvation ... For an amusing twist the party could just be passing through the area and then set off a cave in or landslide and end up falling through into the hidden treasure chamber. Score! They've got the loot! Problem is the only remaining way out is through the lethal maze they accidentally avoided on the way in. A few other ideas for buildings. A mysterious museum or gallery filled with occult objects, strange that no one has stolen them yet ... An abandoned villa filled with gorgeous mosaics and occasional wafts of weird yellow smoke. The owner had a special alchemical hot spring style bath installed in the central courtyard. A nice conversation piece and good for those 'special' parties. Over the years the healing vapours have transmuted into something rather more poisonous. Guard tower filled with bodies and rusted weapons. At the top stand ancient catapults and ballistae, the ropes that hold them together and keep them from going off have been fraying for some time now.

Re: Hypothetically and unofficially, what would you like to see in a Mecha Hero book? For ridiculous over the top martial arts mecha you might want to watch the oh so tasteful Mobile Fighter G Gundam. That has mecha of all nations competing to win their country the right to rule space for the four years until the next tournament. Seriously odd in places, one mecha rides a mech-horse and Holland's entry is shaped like a windmill. Gundam Seed is quite good as an angsty war-mecha series, though still not especially realistic. Those are the two I have seen all the way through. Gundam wing is supposed to be pretty cool as well. I'd say just look at the description on wikipedia or wherever and decide what sounds useful.

Re: Renaissance Fantasy I've found it! Lace and Steel is a renaissance fantasy game with a high fantasy flavour. Here's my google search of it. http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22lace+and+steel%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a

Re: Bibliography

Re: Retiring a Character Also, if you are having difficulty letting go you could pull a Pendragon and play your character's son or other relative. Or just use him as a mentor or ally figure. As for getting the Black Woods perhaps a false prediction or prophecy whispered in certain hostile ears that states that Sir Errandis Menelvagor will meet his doom in those woods ... Or just a simple claim that he is afraid of this bane of his people. If he wanted to be really elaborate then he could trick a group of enemies into letting him have the Forest by having some double agent or outside source suggest that these woods would be the ideal place for Errandis to have an 'accident' while fighting monsters. They think the whole thing is a cover for their assassination attempt and spend plenty of resources on hiring powerful mercenaries while he has infiltrated the group and makes sure that it meets plenty of monsters before being captured by his forces. Thus he, gets the land, weakens his enemies and gets some help in clearing out the area. Very tricky to pull off though.

Re: Renaissance Fantasy There is an rpg set in a renaissance style world with magic, fae and some classical races, centaurs and satyrs. Can't for the life of me remember its name however. Although it doesn't have elves and things you might want to look at the White Crow series which showcases some renaissance style magic and is usually set in a renaissance style world. Although I found it a bit of a drag to read because Mary Gentle is so preoccupied with being clever that she sometimes neglects a decent plot and defies any sense that things are progressing in any particular direction. There was a book someone recommended to me when I was thinking about my renaissance style magic, Shadow of the Lion by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint, & Dave Freer. It's a fantasy set in 16th century Venice. I'd actually forgotten about it. Think I will order it for Christmas. Some historical stuff on the Renaissance has been discussed in a previous thread. http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31525&highlight=renaissance+rpg Good luck with this and I will post again if I remember the name of that dratted game.

Re: Hypothetically and unofficially, what would you like to see in a Mecha Hero book? I would say that mecha would qualify as a sub-genre of a hypothetical Anime Hero book but if all the major sections of Anime were covered then you would have an unfeasibly massive book. Perhaps just a book that allows one to inject an anime 'flavour' into other source-books. On the subject of Mecha. Gritty military settings are a must, possibly with a new stat for angst thrown in. Mecha battles as a sport are also cool. Steamtech and Fantasy mecha would be welcome. Mecha law enforcement should be covered, if only briefly. Mecha pilots as superheroes would also seem to make sense for the Hero system and if you are going to do something based on anime then you need some over the top super powered silliness. Fear the 'Love-Love Sekiha Tenkyo Punch!' And of course a hero setting or two for mecha or their inclusion in existing ones would be excellent.

Re: Vampire Hero Of course you'll want to be careful with how you translate blood into end. I assume you will have one 'blood pool' which powers abilities and keeps them undead. So this blood reserve will leak end every night. I would suggest that a vampire should be able to survive quite easily by taking non-fatal amounts of blood from victims every couple of days or so. Even Dracula took his time over his victims after all. A vampire who drains someone completely should be able to survive for some time. Unless they really want to be play utterly vile villains players should be aware of some moral difficulties about killing others to survive, (even if they are 'lower beings'). Also it is much easier to avoid notice if you don't go on a killing spree. Then of course the vampires must decide how much juice they need for their powers and how many will suffer so that they can fly or walk unseen through the shadows. One final point. I like the WoD way of dealing with 'value for liquid' when it comes to drinking blood. Vampires should be drawn towards rarer and more powerful types of blood. An animal should provide little sustenance while another vampire or powerful supernatural being will provide more end than a human would, plus the power bonuses mentioned above. You could even have a powerful vampire who keeps a defeated rival locked away somewhere and sometimes allows those he/she favours to have a taste of elder-blood.

Re: Turakian Age Q: Gunpowder? One fantasy series which had gunpowder in it that springs to my mind is Michael A. Stackpole's 'DragonCrown War'. In which the Great Enemy/Dark Lady uses gunpowder weapons to assault a seemingly impregnable fortress. It was an excellent series and I thoroughly enjoyed it. And the inclusion of gunpowder only made it more interesting. The stand alone novel 'Court of the Air' is set in a Victorianesque/Steampunk world and that deals rather interestingly with the ideas of magical guns and guns versus magic. ALso a great read. I would say what holds true for fantasy fiction holds true for RPGing as well. Although I am obviously rather biased. Particularly because although I can enjoy an adventure in a 'typical fantasy setting' I would be bored to tears if I had to write one or run a game in one. That's just me I guess. BTW. Thia Halmades, these primitive robots of yours, are they steam powered, magic or what?

Re: Rune Magic As far as the economy is concerned you can just make it a matter of honour. A runesmith who has poured his heart and soul into a runic item would never sell it to a stranger for mere money. He'd have to give it to an ally, relative or friend. In Dwarf Clans runesmiths are looked after as a matter of course and so they don't need to actually sell the runes they make.

Re: Turakian Age Q: Gunpowder? Of course in a fantastic setting the 'problems' of inaccuracy and long loading times can be solved by throwing points at it. Either by allowing PC's to take large amounts of penalty skill levels/loading skill levels or through enchanted weapons or spells. One of my PC's has an enchanted rifle with 3 PSL's against range mods. More worryingly he is Speed 4 and now has enough loading skill to perform his loading in one phase i.e. 3 seconds. Almost Wuxia level of skill really but if I wanted a realistic game then I wouldn't have included the high magic, alchemy, revenants etc. It does make for an interesting challenge when designing monsters; I need something that will survive the sniper's attentions long enough to make it into combat but won't proceed to tear the party limb from limb without breaking a sweat. This of course assumes that you regard these things as problems rather than features. Nothing wrong with weapons that are mostly useful for the initial volley or in large groups. Oh and before you advise your players to take musketeers on with a bow you should remember that black powder weapons should count as armour piercing against old fashioned armour and that they should be more stunning than an arrow would be.

Re: Turakian Age Q: Gunpowder? Of course just because the canon TA doesn't have gunpowder doesn't mean an individual GM can't add it into their own alternate version of the world. I do believe that the Fantasy Hero rulebook has some rules for black powder weapons however. Although people such as Spence and Captain Obvious have posted rather more advanced versions. Shamelessly self promoting though it may be I feel constrained to mention that I am running a Fantasy Hero Campaign involving gunpowder which is based on an alternate and somewhat magical Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries. So if you wanted to see black powder fantasy in action you could go here - http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59941 and look at the campaign write ups. My players do fight differently due to their equipment, they don't tend to like getting stuck in and will pepper big nasty monsters with pistol balls before resorting to steel. On the other hand it means that even mooks can be threatening in reasonable groups, there's nothing like the term 'massed musket fire' to make Heroic PC's dive for cover.

Re: Horror Playtest There was a WoD game at my RPGing society a while back and although I wasn't in it various stories filtered out. The party was mostly vampires and at one point they were battling an evil zombie invasion caused by some cursed artefact or other that could turn anything into nasty and intelligent undead, (I particularly liked the zombie chipmunks that attacked the party by crawling underneath their van and gnawing on the fuel line). Anyway, it got me wondering. If you allow a supernatural explanation for the zombie hordes, as Romero does apparently, then it seems likely that there are other supernatural creatures wandering around trying to survive in a world gone zombie. It could make for an interesting twist on a zombie attack or PA game. All sorts of plot seeds. In this part of the world the army are actually fighting the zombies intelligently and ruthlessly e.g. using napalm, luring them into certain areas and rolling tanks over them etc. They appear to be winning but then the shambling hordes manage to turn a pack of werewolves, the dual curses spawn a terrifying new race of fast, strong and clawed creatures, (hopefully they don't regenerate because they are too dead to do so), who tear through the ranks of the living with horrible ease. Can these monster be held of long enough for chemical engineers to create some kind of silver based weapon to destroy them with? Although the shambling dead ignore them unless provoked a band of vampires has arisen to protect their food source and the society which creates those luxuries that make immortality so fun. But when they are trapped in a besieged tower block with a group of human survivors tensions rise as the vampire's start getting hungry and the line between allies and field rations wears thin ... A mad doctor finds a way to re-build or gengineer the dead so that they do his bidding and sets out to conquer a dying world. Sensing apocalypse various demons have made a move to snag as many souls as possible before the final curtain call. Dark cults are formed and infernal spirits possess the soulless dead at will, mocking the living or offering them a false salvation. The surviving humans must decide whether to try and save the world or simply safeguard their souls and wait for the end. In a PA world a powerful vampire has created a modest fiefdom to see to his needs. Dark creatures patrol its edges to keep the hordes of lesser dead out and their master's human slaves in. All the while the most beautiful and captivating mortals are taken to the lord's crumbling manse to dance attention upon him until he grows bored and drains them of life. Do his wretched subjects dare to try and destroy their master and risk allowing the rotting creatures outside to break in and feast upon them? The zombie plague has left many lost souls behind it. Do these ghosts wraiths and spectres pity the living and use their meager powers to warn or aid them against those who would devour them? Or do they resent the living and try to chase them out of sanctuaries and guide zombies towards them. Similar to the first vampire scenario above. A handful of desperate survivors has taken refuge in a system of underground tunnels, perhaps maintenance corridors or a train system. They have sealed up the entrances for now but in staving off the enemy without they have trapped themselves with the enemy within. Horribly mutilated bodies begin to appear, some have been torn apart, others eaten. Can the survivors locate and destroy the werewolf in their midst? As an interesting twist the werewolf curse might render one immune to the deadly bite of a zombie and so someone who had apparently 'died' from a zombie bite actually survived and is now stalking the people who abandoned them. Or in classic werewolf style the killer could be quite unaware of their true nature. Now there's a nasty trick to pull on a player, though perhaps ok in a one off game. Zombies attack a high security prison and somehow get in. (Presumably due to quite incredible incompetence on the part of the guards). Some of the living inmates escape and if you thought the dead were bad ... Of course there are more esoteric beasties to unleash on a dead-world. Nasty snake-people live deep in the earth and since humanity is being brought to the brink of extinction by something so trivial as a zombie plague they clearly do not deserve to own the surface world. And so the scaly shall inherit the earth, or perish in the attempt. Well done team, you've managed to escape the flesh eating corpses of your former comrades for the moment. Time to hide out in a deserted backwater while you wait to see if civilisation will survive and re-assert itself. Hmm, what does that town sign say? Silent Hill. That sounds like a nice safe place to rest in for a while. Horrified by the wholescale destruction of his people at the rotting hands of the dead a shaman summons spirits of destruction to avenge them. Unfortunately for the next humans to wander into these zombie infested woods the shaman was quite beyond including target recognition in his castings. An unkillable serial killer wanders cheerfully through the zombie filled world, most people run towards rather than away from him these days, it makes things much easier. Not to mention the hilarity that would ensue if the pod people or puppet masters tried to conquer earth while it was being gripped by a zombie plague. Man would they bite off more than they could chew, (and yes I can see and awful zombie-chewing related pun waiting to happen there, please don't do it).

Re: Horror Playtest And of course the villain who is quite human but is also insane or criminally murderous/sadistic.

Re: Representatives of Pantheons The Egyptian's would be in there. Isis the enchantress might make a good diplomat as would Thoth God of the moon, drawing, writing, geometry, wisdom, medicine, music, astronomy and magic. Imhotep, a god of magic, wisdom and healing might also be pretty good. Particularly if the more important Gods weren't prepared to get their hands dirty. I'm not sure if he counts as a God but Anansi would be a very tricksy representative of certain African tribal deities. The Celtic Gods would probably send Lugh an ancient king and hero. Also apparently a smith, a champion, a swordsman, a harpist, a hero, a poet historian, a sorcerer, and a craftsman. Have fun statting that up. And don't forget the old Sumerian deities. Enlil was the one who actually tends to get things done apparently. A god of wind and air and the power behind the celestial throne apparently. Although Inanna the flagrant Goddess of lust, fertility and war would be quite an amusing character. (I knew some of that already but I'll admit that I had to refresh my memory with Wikipedia). Personally I'd probably go for Anansi or Imhotep.

Re: FRPG Ideas from D&D that ain't necessarily so To be fair if I was a giant wandering round the local neighbourhood I might well make a point of collecting up any +4 swords of Giant-slaying. I certainly wouldn't want anyone else to get hold of them.

Re: How do i introduce new plyaer? My response would be to tell players that they don't have to understand the system. Because you do. Then just ask them what kind of character do they want to play. If they don't have a particular concept then ask them what D&D or whatever class they want to play and base the character on that. Then you write the character for them or with them until they like what they see. I think one of the real lures of Hero is allowing people to tweak their characters however they like and use any kind of ability that they can think of. That's the carrot. Just say, "Imagine if you could play anyone or anything. I can make it happen. Joiiin uuuuusss, Joooiiiiiin uuuuuusssss." (You might want to skip that last bit).

Re: Vampire Hero If you just want your characters to be competent normals thrown into a new world supernatural creatures then they might not need more than 70+20. But if they expect to have some kewl powers other than the base vampire ones and still be able to fight and have some useful skills then you might want to up the points value. You can always limit the number of new powers they can gain e.g. need to find a teacher or can only use certain powers based on bloodline. Or you could just allow them various ways to gain power. In the Legacy of Kain series drinking the lifeblood of another vampire grants you one of their abilities. Similar ideas in the World of Darkness. In effect a player who drains another vampire could gain a lump of XP which can only be used to buy an ability the dead vampire possessed. Alternatively a vampire's 'vampire powers', (or rather those beyond the normal ones like having fangs), could be a multipower. You can only use such abilities one at a time but they are quite cheap. Draining powerful beings, (not just vampires), could allow players to increase the base active points cost of their multi-power. But if they want new powers they will have to find another vampire to teach them. Or of course draining another vampire will allow them to inerit one of his/her power slots. This all assumes that the characters would get away with such anti-social acts. They might be able to gain extra slot powers by draining other supernatural beings apart from vampires. But perhaps even this carries a stigma, -sure you can drain a werewolf, (easier said than done), then gain the ability to grow big slashy claws; but if certain vampires found out then you could be on the hit list for tainting the blood or the 'true race'. And of course if your players are more powerful that just means that there are nastier things waiting in the shadows to challenge them.

Re: Idea for a robot campaign Sounds like it could be fun. Perhaps if each robot had a theme that would make it more appealing. Assassin, defender, forest, night, lawgiver etc

Re: Minotaur Racial Package Would make for an amusing little adventure or hidden plot twist within the adventure. Demented king (insert name here) likes to execute his enemies with style. To this end he has captured/created/summoned a mighty minotaur to hunt and destroy them. But the creature has a mind of its own and wishes to escape servitude. Since king (insert name here) firmly believes that if one grandiose plan fails you must prop it up with an even more extravagant one he has hired a great genius to build a vast subterranean labyrinth that even the minotaur will be unable to escape. Unlucky people are sent down into the labyrinth while dissolute nobles, evil priests and the king himself look on from great walkways on the surface. This minotaur does not hunger for human flesh but is forced to hunt and kill those sent to it because otherwise the king will stop having food dropped down to it. Then the adventurers end up in the maze and as the minotaur tracks them it realises how strong they are. Growing tired of its cursed imprisonment the minotaur wishes to join forces with the heroes, pool their knowledge of roughly where they came from with its superb maze-traversing skills and escape once and for all to a less murderous existence The heroes of course must decide whether to trust the monster sent to hunt them. And if they appear to be cooperating with it then the watching crowds might start lobbing nasty spells, summons etc down on their heads. (Of course a really nasty GM could have the minotaur pretending to be a virtuous victim in order to get help in escaping to a world full of things to kill or even devour, but I prefer the original motivation i.e. he's really quite a nice guy, could even be a good way to introduce a minotaur PC).

Re: Minotaur Racial Package I don't suppose I'd make myself very popular if I pointed out that the original minotaur probably couldn't navigate mazes that well because it never escaped the labyrinth. Or did I miss some part of the myth? Was that why the labyrinth was built because the original beast had a particular genius for escaping normal mazes? Although I guess if you encounter a minotaur in the outside world then it was able to get out of the labyrinth and thus might have a power to account for that. Evolution in action.

Re: Help Apparently if a power is listed as a spell then it can not use the same 'combat modifiers and manoeuvres' as normal attacks i.e. if you have a ranged killing attack spell you can't use Ranged Attack Skill levels to improve your chance of hitting with it and if you have a Hand to Hand attack spell you can't use it to block or perform movethroughs. I'm pretty sure that's how it works but keep an eye out for more experienced gamers who might be able to prove me wrong.

Re: FRPG Ideas from Hero that ain't necessarily so Hmm. Doctor Who in the Hero Universe?

Re: FRPG Ideas from Hero that ain't necessarily so Earth's pre-history contains era that correspond to every concievable fantasy setting. You can never kill the ultimate evil. You can only put it to sleep for an age or two.

Re: The Bushman A spear, bow or javelin would seem to fit a hunter archetype. Or he might be able to fashion weapons from anything around him. Even the strange materials of a city. Traps too perhaps.