Shadowsoul

Re: Magic Items for the Holidays Santa's Sleigh. Size 3 Str 25 Dex 17 Body 13 Def 4 SPD 10 Ground Movement 6 Flight 50", Position Shift, x4 Noncombat, No Gravity Penalty (+1/2) (165 Active Points); Fuel Dependent (fuel is Common; must refuel Once per 20 Minutes; Good Cheer; -1 1/2), OIF Bulky (Reindeer; -1), Requires Multiple Foci or functions at reduced effectiveness (+1/4), Gestures, Requires Gestures throughout (Using the reigns; -1/2), Incantations (Up Prancer!; -1/4) Teleportation 1", No Relative Velocity, Position Shift, Safe Blind Teleport (+1/4), MegaScale (1" = 100,000 km; +1 1/2), Can Be Scaled Down 1" = x metres (+1/4) (51 Active Points)

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... From my Gunpowder, Reason and Plot campaign. Vladimir, the brooding bardiche wielding Boyar was high on regenerative potion and so he was suffering from rather alarming mood swings. An NPC called Hans Selmler had picked up a blessed dagger belonging to Vlad during the fight and was thinking of keeping it. Vlad. (Shaking his bardiche to emphasize the point). "I said. Give. It. Back. Now!" Hans. (Holds out the dagger). "Oh alright. Ask for it nicely and you can have it back." Vlad. (Cuts Hans' arm off, retrieves his dagger and pulls Hans' disembodied hand off it). "Thankyou very much." As everyone stares at the man who has just maimed a fellow officer the party healer, Alexis, rushes up. Alexis. "This man is sick!" (Wags a finger at Hans who is now rolling around on the floor in agony and screaming his silly little heart out). "How dare you interfere with my patient?" (Drags Vlad away as fast as he can). Vlad. (Hugs Alexis).

Re: Tell us about you Pulp game! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Read_or_Die

Re: [Character]: Demon Hero Bishi! Disgaea 3 is on the horizon? Excellent! It's a most amusing strategic RPG. There are some interesting characters, ideas and abilities in previous installments aswell. To many to go into here, although I will mention exploding penguins and the rather bizarre 'sexy beam', (it's actually quite innocent). There is a great plot idea in the first game, the forces of earth battle hordes of demons and try desperately to destroy the overlord of the Netherworld. And why do they have to do this? Because the earth is getting rather polluted and used up so they've invaded the Netherworld with the intention of conquering it and relocating humanity. BTW great character. Both heartwarming and immensely powerful. What more can one ask of a protagonist?

Re: What Are Your Hero's Most Embarrassing Moments? I was in a very low powered fantasy game once that had several embarrassing moments. 65 points with disadvantages I think. We were blundering around in a dark temple at one point hunting a shape shifting Naga. My character was the closest thing we had to a tank, strong for a normal person and wielding a big spear covered in sharks' teeth. So when he bumped into something in the dark he made sure to strike it with all his strength and was rewarded with a scream. Perhaps he had finally managed to wound the beast, only time would tell. Once we got a torch lit we found that another character had sprouted a rather nasty gash across his back and was feeling really rather vengeful ... My character tried to look innocent but the embedded sharks' teeth kind of gave it away. That character's worst moment however was when he was dropped by an oversized flying squirrel that managed to critical him in the vitals. That character explored whole worlds of pain once he regained consciousness.

Re: Suggestions need: Animal super villains Here's a few quirky ideas. Did anyone ever see the British-Asian themed sketch show 'Goodness Gracious Me?' Which included that excellent sketch 'Skipinda the Punjabi Kangaroo'. One of the actors narrated 'Skip's' real thoughts over old episodes of the original series; proving him to be the most foul mouthed, angry, lecherous and downright unpleasant animal you'll ever meet. Give him some brick powers and unleash him on the world. A mongoose would make a good ninja. You could have an actual wolverine with regeneration powers etc. Coil. Powered up electric eel. Fossil. The last member of a nearly extinct species of wolf who can take on the forms of already extinct creatures such as the sabre tooth cat or the terror bird. The Vorpal Bunny! Nyarlathopet. An evil Lovecraftian deity hidden in the form of a toy poodle. Teleportation, shapeshifting and evil tentacle attacks.

Sand storms and Desert Raiders Perhaps this sand storm is no accident. Maybe one of the raiders holds an item that allows him to control a Sand Elemental/Desert Djinn. The heroes might be able to wrest this artefact away from its wielder and turn the tables, or perhaps the Elemental goes wild(er) when its master is slain. If the party is really struggling then a cunning raider might try to steal the item for himself, with hilarious consequences. Red Sands The Companions meet others in their headlong flight. Do they protect these strangers? Even the objectionable ones? Or do they give in to temptation and allow the Sand Sharks to hunt easier prey? Finally poised to destroy their adversaries the heroes are disturbed by a wizard and travelling zoologist who demands that they stop exterminating members of an endangered species. Or perhaps asks the Companions to locate the Sharks' offspring so he can raise them in captivity. Quicksands and Ruins Tricky to see one PC surviving a whole city of undead unless they are weakened and/or sluggish because of their long sleep. Are the vampires of this setting inherently evil? Or are there those who still regret their dark fate and could be prevailed upon to aid the mortal/s among them. Simple hunger could set the vampires on each other of course. This encounter could just become a desperate race as the hero/es try to find their way back to the surface while being chased by raging hordes of starving bloodsuckers. Almost 28 Days Later Underground if you think about it. If the vampire's hunger is not so urgent they might waste time coming up with an elaborate ceremony or feast so that they can squeeze as much enjoyment as possible out of the lone morsel that has dropped into their midst. Rogue Djinn (Shaidain) What's the Djinn's story? Was it part of a magical trap intended to destroy the wizard? Or was it imprisoned in the sand by a powerful mage some time in the past and now intends to wreak its revenge on any and every magic user it can get its hands on? Is the wizard truly innocent? Or did he try to bind the Djinn using evil magic or was he hoping to set it on a rival. What happens if the heroes are currently protecting certain innocents whom they might endanger by aiding this wizard? The Fallen Why not both? Someone who wrongfully tried to usurp the throne but was excessively punished with the destruction of her/his entire house or even sub-race. Might this person know of a way to resurrect some of her people and be prepared to die trying to locate it; thus expiating her sins. Or perhaps he/she was tricked into attacking the throne by some subtle politician because she/he was a threat to their plans or had some inconvenient destiny. Slave Breeders and Schools Plenty of possibilities here. A number of slaves escape and flock to join the Companions, proclaiming them to be the promised saviours. Hot on their heels are a lot of slavers and soldiers. Turns out that Yildirim allowed these slaves to escape and the heroes hav been set up. The Hashshashins were known to have intimidated their targets by sneaking into their chambers in the night and leaving them 'presents', (cakes in Saladin's case), to show just how easy it was to get into those chambers. These particular assassins might leave something more exciting like a cursed artifact or the head of a minor ally of the PC's. Of course you could always use the assassins to play that game which all parties love. 'Chase the anonymous assailant across rooftops that he/she/it knows like the back of his/her/its hand.' This could actually be an elaborate set up in which the heroes chase their assailants and eventually lose them. Only to find themselves on the roof of a house in which the Hashshashins have just committed a high profile murder. When law officers arrive they find a body and a bunch of heavily armed foreigners ... I am sure they will be very understanding. For whatever reason the authorities are already upset with the heroes. So when they are attacked by a Djinn they have to dispose of it while causing as little collaterall damage and general commotion as possible. If they want to avoid the snake-pit that is. The Harem of Akkalion A useful way of learning interesting new skills. Not just seduction and belly dancing but unusual forms of magic and perhaps ways of dealing with or even taming interesting animals What if some of the concubines are also secret bodyguards or assassins? Would you want to upset a gorgeous assassin? The hero doesn't know about the guardian spirits, guardian statues or hidden eunuchs who are watching this meeting with displeasure and intend to put a very sharp end to it very quickly. Concubine falls completely in love with hero and begs him to take her with him on his journeys. Attractive female Companions, (or extremely feminine male Companions), could use this connection to infiltrate high society by posing as harem maidens. If the heroes have managed to learn/get hold of some of Yildirim's fertility magic then certain Concubines bent on rising in position by giving their master a child might be very interested in it. That's all for now but I might come up with some more ideas or extra plot seeds later.

Re: Tell us about you Pulp game! Heh heh. I came up with that name. Hope the game is going well, sounds fun.

Re: Genre-crossover nightmares Actually something that my girlfriend came up with. Harry Potter in da House.

Re: Minotaur Racial Package Here's one I made earlier. Although it should probably be combined with a setting appropriate cultural package. It's a fairly restrained write up which presumes that minotaurs are a PC race rather than monsters which can be played. It's also a mere 9pts with disadvantages. Incidentally if you wanted to do a proper Greek minotaur or perhaps a minotaur king or powered up priest then give him 10pts of Hardened Armour, (PD and ED), and horns built as 1d6 Killing, Armour Piercing (2 levels), OIF, (because theoretically you can break them off but it ain't easy). Stats. Cost. +5 STR. 5 +3 CON. 6 +2 BOD 4 -2 INT -2 +2 PRE 2 Talents. Bump of Direction. 3 Powers. Nightvision. 5 Hardened Hide. 1pt resistant PD. 2 Knockback Resistance 1. 2 Fearsome Roar. +10 PRE only to enhance or protect against PRE attacks (-1/2). Verbal (-1/4). 6 Horns. Killing attack 1/2 d6, (1d6+1 with STR). Reduced Penetration (-1/4). Restrainable (-1/2). 6 Disadvantages. Hulking. -1 DCV. -5 Distinctive Features - Minotaur. Not Concealable. Noticed and Recognisable. -15 Psy Lim. Bestial. Common. Moderate. -10

Re: Super Heroic Fantasy Games Good list. Of course there's always going to be another character with a weird spin on it. Here are some more super-fantasy back stories. 1. Daddy was a demon. (That's Merlin's original backstory if you ignore the Welsh antecedents). Or maybe Daddy was an Oni or even a naughty angel. 2. Vampire, werewolf or an abominable mix of the two. Or a Dhampir such as Blade for that matter. 3. The obvious one, you are a dragon. Or someone who can take dragon. Or the descendant of a dragon. 4. You found this really cool sword that has the power of a (insert mythical being here) trapped within it. 5. Fey noble. 6. Member of an ancient and/or super powerful race. 7. You are god. 8. Shape changer. 9. Ancient robot or artificial being created by the Old Ones. 10. (Insert Lovecraftian being here) granted you immense power, you tend to ooze a bit though. 11. Simply the ultimate example of a particular magic art or set of racial abilities. 12. Found a strange new way of doing magic, a whole new type of magic or even the 'true' secret of magic. 13. Bizarre crossbreed. Part troll, part centaur, part demon, part dragon, part sun-elf anyone? Please don't try to imagine that one. 14. Inheritor of mystic destiny tm. 15. Cursed by a dark power and thus forced to fight against the evil within but possessing incredible power. 16. Bonded to an element or possessing elemental ancestry. 17. Immortal for some reason. 18. Inventor who has created a series of powerful mechanisms or a suit of mobile battle armour. 19. Necromancer who can channel the powers of the dead to an incredible degree. 20. Ridiculous martial artist. 21. Alien creature like Superman. 22. So good at their chosen craft that they have ascended to a supernatural or magical level of power. 23. Mystical journey to the underworld or the real of the Fey has granted strange powers. 24. Unexplained. A person or persons unknown has developed strange powers and sets off to discover their origins. I did once come up with a rather odd setting which was a kind of combination of Tolkien and Underworld based on the idea that Tolkien's orcs were the descendants of elves who had been captured by dark forces and twisted, experimented on etc. Basically Elves are immortals chosen from amongst the ranks of deserving humans. You die and the Elvish Elders judge you to be worthy, (i.e. exceptional), so they recall your spirit and craft a new Elvish body for you. This is extremely rare, there are only a few hundred Elves at most. Each Elf has inhuman strength, speed, stamina etc + unique powers which may include magic weapons. Orcs were once Elves who became twisted by the alien power of an evil force from 'beyond the void'. They were defeated in an ancient war and driven out. The corrupted Elves, now referring to themselves as Orcs, were nearly wiped out until they discovered a way to create new Orcs. They recruit the insane, the savage and the powerful. Although less discerning than their adversaries the Orcs are limited by the amount of mystical energy their 'recruitment ritual' requires and so the numbers on each side are about even. And thus the eternal war between the champions of good and those of evil rages across history. Mortal politics are merely tools in this epic struggle and there are few humans indeed who have managed to slay an immortal. To put this into perspective three orcs can raid a decent sized and reasonably well defended village and expect little or no trouble. Unless there are Elves waiting to ambush them ... It would be easy enough to expand that setting to allow for more super-beings such as those mentioned above.

Re: Super Heroic Fantasy Games The excitement, epic nature and interest of a good story or campaign does not revolve around the power level but it's true that overpowered fantasy is always amusing. You should keep an eye out for the campaign write up that Bismark is threatening for his converted Shadow World Campaign. PC's are 200+ points I think. There's plenty of source material for this sort of thing, you might want to take a look at 'The Malazan Book of the Fallen' in which God's walk the earth but they're not necessarily safe there, or 'Furies of Calderon' and 'Artefacts of Power' both of which contain characters capable of screwing over entire continents, then there's epics like 'Sword of Truth' and the equally interminable 'Wheel of Time', (ok you've almost certainly heard of that one but you get the idea). 'The Symphony of the Ages' also features plenty of characters who are hard enough to split their sides laughing if a normal soldier actually tries to attack them. Just the tip of the iceberg really but the basic message is, superheroic level fantasy is very much alive and I'm quite sure that there are any number of high powered fantasy games going on.

Re: Expanding "The Malay Coins" adventure There are some weird caves in 'A Passage to India' which seem to inflict strange hallucinations and immensely depressing shocks that can shatter the lives of those who dare to enter. They seem to hold some ancient and inimical force of the universe that is beyond human understanding. Just a slightly clumsy plot device as far as I can understand but if they were given an actual explanation they might make an interesting little encounter. (Especially if the party play through a weird adventure and then as they carry on with their journey they begin to remember what 'really' happened). Or perhaps some random Gurkhas were converted by the Thuggee and have started their own kukri wielding cult of death. I suppose a coin collecter might just stumble over a rare coin being held by an undserving person and convince his companions to 'liberate' it. And if you will fly through Chinese airspace you have to be prepared for encounters with wandering dragons or air spirits. Or perhaps a deranged genius who has created a flying machine based on the writings of Leonardo Da Vinci. Also I seem to recall that the film 'Gremlins' suggests that the little horrors originated in China; imagine trying to keep a zeppelin aloft with one of those little sods running around.

Re: Adventures Stories I write a campaign log for my Black Powder Fantasy Campaign. You should be able to access it via this link http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1464577#post1464577 Or just look for the thread 'Gunpowder, Reason and Plot.' There was an excellent campaign log a while back called something like 'And off we go'. But it seems to have ceased for the moment. I'll have a look for it later.

Re: Medieval Doctor Package

Re: Medieval Doctor Package It could be considered to come under herbalism or chirurgery but some medieval doctors might have something like KS: Spirits, this would cover everything from avoiding the plague spirits lurking in miasma and bleeding out evil to diagnosing curses and propitiating local fairies. You might also want to come up with a midwife package since before the advent of science and rationality etc no self respecting woman was going to let a man anywhere near her during child-birth. It's also worth noting that an Arab trained doctor would have had a more advanced understanding of medicine and might even have advocated hygiene as a part of treatment.

Re: Name for a Pulp Hero group? Here's the results of my brainstorm. Phantom League. The Hidden Court. Souls of Justice/Shades of Justice. The Kindly Ones. Revenants. Omega Directive. Guardians of the Underworld. Innocent Furies. Inquisitors. The Order of Horus. Truth-Hunters/Lie-Breakers/Secret-Slayers. The Secret Serenade.

Re: [Alera - Furies of Calderon] Advice on Summoning/Elemental Ally I've considered this problem before and although 'summon' would be the obvious power here I would suggest a follower bought with 'absolute devotion' advantage. This works for country furies at least and their battle forms could be statted out since they do aid their masters in combat at times, (earth furies especially). The actual furycrafting could then be dealt with in two ways, the fury itself could have all the powers and would be able to exercise them with a succesful magic, (furycrafting), roll from its master. But that would severely reduce the cost of fury powers making furycrafters exceptionally powerful, (which some of them are admittedly). Alternatively the furycrafter could have a VPP for each element he could control. The more experienced the crafter the less limited his power pool is, however his pool's active points cost would be limited by his fury follower's active points cost, e.g. no furycrafting pool could cost more than double the number of active points spent on the fury it was linked to. This of course reflects the fact that a furycrafter is only as powerful as his fury. Does that make sense?

Re: FRPG Ideas from D&D that ain't necessarily so 73. It is possible to resist certain spells and powers simply because you are at a high enough level to do so. If your level is too low they can kill or effect you every single time regardless of your stats. 74. Sorry if this has already been mentioned. Abilities must be learned in a certain order, there is some sense to this, particularly with e.g. Cleave as a prerequisite for Great Cleave but surely not everyone needs to know Dodge to learn Armour Mobility for example.

Re: Gardens of the Moon-- How the heck??? The Malazan world is very cool and very worth converting. In fact its authors used it as a roleplaying setting and if you could contact them or find their website then you might get some pointers from the horse's mouth. There was a thread about this a while back, try this link http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1362541#post1362541 or search the forums for Malazan book of the fallen. My thoughts on Malazan magic are that mages would have a VPP with a list of abilities or perhaps just a theme relating to their warren. All mage's VPP's would contain a killing attack, (unleashing their warren), a dimensional travel, (visiting their warren), and a movement ability (travelling through their warren), although those last two might be the same. An example of a movement power is the ability granted by D'riss the Path of Stone that allows the mage to pass through stone. I'd also suggest that a party in this setting does not necessarily consist of people of equal power. And the path to ascendancy could be represented by new abilities becoming available and the character being placed on a sort of 'fast track' where experience is concerned. Good luck with this and don't be surprised if I pop up with more lectures.

Re: Magical Healing, it's not for Clerics. By 'taking the wound into themselves' I assume you mean the empath experiences the pain of the wound, because a healer who simply takes the wound off of your body and puts it onto their own is not going to last very long, unless the regenerate spell is used only on the empath i.e. he/she heals the wound more or less instantly and then staggers off to regenerate the damage to him/herself. I would suggest that the Empath suffers 1 stun damage per body healed and must pass an ego roll, (possibly reduced by the amount of body healed e.g. -1 per 5 body healed), for any direct healing spell. The regenerate ability could be less taxing to the empath but might cost the target 1 end per body healed, (this end recovers at an increased rate of e.g. 1 per 1-6 hours), this would represent the empath forcing the target's own body to expend its energies to heal itself. Another amusing aspect of healing that I have come across in 1 or 2 settings is the idea that any time a wound is healed by magic the target experiences all the pain they should have had throughout convalescence in a single moment. That sounds like an ego attack to me. There was also a spell/power in the Dragoncrown series that undid all magical healing on a target, effectively reinflicting all mystically healed wounds at once. This, incidentally, led to the creation of magical 'cyborgs' with armour and metal patching up their wounds instead of healing and who were thus immune to the spell. Hope that gives you some food for thought.

Re: Steampunk Campaign Ideas Victorian and early modern fantasy is certainly an interesting idea. Especially because of all the complaints about 'generic medieval fantasy'. You might want to look into the Chrestomanci books, the White Crow series or Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell for some interesting ideas for this neglected subgenre. I myself have several projects touching on this - a supernatural victorian mystery campaign, an early modern fantasy campaign and a short story. I might start posting write-ups of the early modern campaign so you're welcome to crib ideas or, (even better), make suggestions. A key element of this sort of fantasy would be alchemy and the high magic of the renaissance onwards. Also fey beings lurking on the edges of man's world and the way that other races relate to men. Would dwarves have advanced technology such as cordite or electricity which gave them an edge over other societies? Or perhaps man's industrial revolution and the technological and economic explosions it generated has allowed him to finally challenge the might of the mystical elves? Are humans now too numerous and well equipped to be trifled with? I do rather like the idea of musketeers or riflemen engaging hordes of demons and monsters while artillery batteries hammer away at the tower of the Dark Lord tm.

Re: Urban Fantasy Recommendations My bad. Fixed it now.

Re: Urban Fantasy Recommendations Can't believe I forgot these and sorry if they have already been mentioned. Witchblade and The Darkness.

Re: Urban Fantasy Recommendations Most of the stuff that I could recommend has been suggested already. But 9tail Fox by Jon Courtenay Grimwood is quite an interesting little tale with an Eastern flair to it. If you can extract any coherence from Hal Duncan's Vellum then it might give you a few ideas. If you get tired of reading, (admittedly unlikely), you might want to look into the Shadow Hearts games, RPGs set in an alternative/paranormal version of the early 20th century. Also films like Dog Soldiers, Underworld and Dusk til Dawn for various befanged horrors. And of course all the moderately amusing tv series that perhaps were too obvious for anyone else to mention i.e. Buffy, Angel, Supernatural, Doctor Who, (shorn of the sometimes thin scientific explanations it has a few interesting creatures). Oh and definitely don't watch Charmed, NEVER WATCH CHARMED. (Well that's just my opinion).