Shadowsoul

Re: Paladin Vows Well Lucius seems to have this pretty well sewn up but here is my two penny's worth anyway. Vow of Association: May not willingly associate or tolerate Evil individuals (Frequently, Limiting) Are they expected to actively attack evil individuals or just avoid them? In the first case then they could swear the Vow of Smiting i.e. must battle evil not cooperate with it. (It has been suggested that smite is the root word of smith due to the action of striking metal). Vow of Silver. (Pure). Vow of Acknowledgment: Must obey members of the clergy in a position of authority in whatever church or cause the Paladin Serves (Frequently, Limiting) Vow Of Duty's Chains. Vow of Copper (Service, humble). Vow of Accordance: Must act in accordance with the precepts of the religion the Paladin serves or loose all special "Only While Serving The God's Purposes" abilities. (Infrequently, Severe) Vow of Tempering or Vow of The Tempered Soul. Since tempering is intended to make metals stronger but less flexible, (I think). Vow of Adamantium/Mythril/Gold. (Must be perfect/better behaved than others. Vow of Atonement: Must go through lengthy quest or some other form of personal sacrifice to regain abilities if the Vow of Accordance is violated. (Infrequently, Severe) The Journeyman's Penance/Road. Vow of Ore. (Must be purified). If these Dwarves take religion very very seriously then perhaps there are two factions of Pyroclasts who loathe each other due to differences of opinion on what to call their vows or how to word them. These factions may just try to outdo or humiliate each other rather than throwing a full scale war of faith. Depends on what exactly you want out of the religions in your setting. Could be an amusing way to keep the players on their toes though - "Are those the Dwarven Forge Paladins that like us or the other ones?" "I can't tell. Lets leg it just in case."

Re: Ideas for a new fantasy campaign Bird People are always fun. Here's a couple of links to descriptions of different types of birdmen and the wikipedia entry for an author who did 'winged folk' very well in her 'artefacts of power' series http://www.worlddreambank.org/L/LYRICARI.HTM http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/birdmc.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maggie_Furey One more thought. If the snakemen and birdmen are racial enemies then perhaps the snakes have to fight the inclination to freeze in fear when they see a birdman hunting in the sky. Could make even a handful of birdmen a useful asset to an army.

Re: Video Game character abilities Fair enough. And if multiform and stealing the power of monsters does have a distinguished history in VG's then all the more reason to include them, with or without Fusion's distinctive drain on sanity or some equivalent. (Of course what Enforcer84 does with his world is entirely up to him I'm just throwing out suggestions).

Re: Group invisibility? Could you make the invisibility an attack and apply the explosion advantage to it? Without the reduced effect per hex/inch perhaps, instead it is at full effect throughout the bubble but cuts out half way instead of spreading out into nothing. Does that make sense? Alternatively it could count as a force field that only blocks perception.

Re: Alien Stereotypes Here's a thought. Although it may not be very helpful for a serious campaign. What happens when the mighty human galactic empire encounters the greys in space i.e. those strange aliens who used to abduct humans, impregnate them, flit around their skies, mutilate their cattle and perform unspeakable acts of probing? That would be quite a fun meeting as the horde of terran battleships turns up at the grey's home planet and demands to know what all that stuff was about. If you wanted to actually use this race seriously then they could be described as long term economic and military spies/investigators. They study young species to discover how powerful and dangerous they are likely to be and what their weaknesses are and then sell the information to potential neighbours and conquerors. The stuff with cows and crop circles could just be some off the clock recreation to worry the locals.

Re: Ideas for a new fantasy campaign Timeline looks fine. Although I'd say that barbarians don't have to be united to raid the empire, they could just be fleeing economic disaster or being driven out by a greater/more savage people, (the Hun effect).

Re: Anthropomorphic/Furry HERO Resources Curious. Looks like the forum automatically adds in http when you post a link, so when I pasted the address in I got two for the price of one. Fixed it now.

Re: Anthropomorphic/Furry HERO Resources Spellsinger is quite a good example of fairly serious furries in a sword and sorcery/gritty fantasy setting. It was actually written by Alan Dean Foster which surprised me when I first discovered it. It includes those implacable foes of civilisation the Plated Folk, (anthro insects), and even spiders. As in some other settings lizards serve as cattle and beasts of burden and there are no non anthro versions of the various races. There are various other little quirks such as the fact that most of the furries are shorter than terrestrial humans, including native humans. It's worth a look, if only to see the Marxist dragon and witness demonic folk music - 'the song of despair'. Here's the wikipedia article; such as it is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spellsinger

Re: Alien Stereotypes Then there's the moral angle. The suicidally pacifistic race. The race that almost seems to exist only to point out the flaws in mankind's attitude towards ecology and spirituality. Also. Those left behind by the ancient god like aliens. The highly advanced society that inherited some of their master's technology. The genetically engineered warriors. The immensely evil and powerful race that 'destroyed' the godlike aliens but remains curiously vulnerable to these upstart humans. And. Bizzarre lovecraftian nightmares

Re: Video Game character abilities A little off topic but are you thinking of adding any more unusual professions/powers to this VG setting? Just in case here's an amusing little character type. The Shadow Hearts series involves the adventures of people with the power of Fusion, (usually referred to as Harmonixers for some reason that probably seemed sensible at the time). These people can temporarily 'Fuse' themselves with demons or spirits that they have defeated and gain their abilities. For Hero purposes this power is basically a multiform and the need to defeat demons to Fuse with them can be taken care of either through background or actual adventuring, (a Fusionist's search for power or ability to contain a demon could be an interesting plot hook). Each Demon has its own background, appearance and battle style. Although all would tend to be harder than the Harmonixer himself, be decent in close combat and possess energy or killing attacks. In the games the different forms are based around six elements, the classical four alongside Light and Darkness. This theme would be fairly unimportant in Hero unless you are intending to build elemental vulnerabilities into this setting. Thus a Fusionist would not need the 7-8 Fusion Demons that their Shadow Heart's counterparts end up with but they should have several as the key element of this power is the flexibility it grants the wielder. Of course this also makes a Harmonixer an interesting opponent for an adventuring party, creeping up on them with his stealth form, attacking silently and then unleashing his smackdown form when the fight kicks off properly and when things start going badly for him switching to his support form and scampering away with his tail between his legs healing desperately. One problem with Fusion is that it is meant to be draining. In Shadow Hearts it costs Sanity Points to activate and burns extra SP each turn. I guess 'costs end' and 'increased end cost only to activate' would kind of simulate this. I don't know if the Hero system has any optional rules for mental end or sanity, haven't read horror Hero. I suppose SP would be something like Ego + Presence. Running out of SP would result in going berserk, going catatonic or acting out a psy lim e.g. 'Spiders! They're all over meeeee!' Hope all this rambling amused you. If you're interested I could post my write-up of Legacy of Kain/Soul Reaver vampires. If you're not familiar with the series they're very difficult to put down with normal combat, they regenerate everything except beheading and impalement and they regenerate pretty quickly, (although in fact the only one who was ever beheaded inexplicably turned up again in the next game), but water burns them like acid and fire also does a lot of damage. Usually you have to stun or KO them and then search around desperately for a big spear or a nice pond. Cheers

Re: Building Intrugue Into a Game Coming up with court politics is straight-forward enough. You just need to ask yourself a few more questions. Because most noble families are just like real families, mostly concerned with births, deaths, marriages, property, the neighbours etc. So, which family is the new prince descended from apart from his father's Thornblood's, (assuming dear Daddy didn't decide to 'keep it in the family' so to speak)? Are they going to be ascendant now that he's on the throne? What about the old Prince's relatives? Are they impressed by this shift in influences? Is the new Prince engaged or married? Are families jockeying to present there eligible daughters and possibly sabotaging other candidates? Is love getting in the way of these bridal bed politics? Are there any particularly unorthodox potential brides such as a sorceress or an elf? Is there some kind of formal competition for the Prince's hand in marriage? Have there been any major events since the families last got together? Any significant deaths such as a family patriarch/matriarch who has been replaced by a vulnerable heir or tempting heiress? There must be a few grudges between the families and this is the ideal time to make rivals look foolish or gain the ear of the new monarch in order to have a court case or dispute settled in your favour e.g. a border dispute or differences of opinion as to who should inherit what. What about the new Prince himself? Does he have any bastards in tow? How well would such illegitimate offspring be treated? Do they have any ambitions of their own? Could they be making curious alliances? Alternatively might he have trouble with getting an heir because of fertility problems or a preference for boys? Is he scandalous? Pious? Competent? An idiot? What opportunities do these things create for the other families? Is there any foreign influence sniffing around? Trying to subvert families or kill/humiliate/subvert the new prince? Hoping to secure a marriage alliance? Or is the Prince himself a result of a foreign marriage? Does that upset the other families? Is it normal? If you want a few more factions or wild cards then - a secretive and evil cult, a secret masonic style society, the church/s, a traitorous general with designs on the throne, the 'new men' (people from the middle classes and lower gentry who have gained power through royal service), the wizards, local non-humans. As for the PC's if they are people of influence then they can be exposed to the blandishments of various factions. Hopefully that should give you some ideas. If you are still having trouble then read some English or European medieval history.

Re: Need Magic System Advice Sounds fun. Would probably need some pompous occult title for each secret such as the 'secret of the heart and the secret of the soul' or 'the diamond secret and the ruby secret'. No point in making things easier for laypeople after all. Could lead to some interesting plot hooks and story ideas. Wizardly orders could demand one of these secrets from new members as a show of loyalty and possibly as a way of raising power; not to mention insurance against renegades. Would mages in love exchange secrets? Thus meaning that capturing one leaves the other vulnerable? What if they had an almighty argument and ended up hating each other, things could get very messy. Alternatively captured servants of the supernatural persuasion could reveal various secrets. The big issue, however, is are these secrets straightforward handicaps incurred by wielding magic i.e. anyone who uses magic can be controlled by finding out their secrets or are they trade offs i.e. by investing these secrets with supernatural power (perhaps by sacrificing them to the god/spirits in question), a mage gains power but makes themself vulnerable to anyone who learns these secrets. Last point. How do you find out a wizard's true name? Can you just ask his mother? Is there a heavily defended retirement home for the parents of magic users with an army of guards dedicated to keeping those names a secret?

Just trying to puzzle out some rules for volley fire to use in a campaign where black powder is the standard military technology and thought I'd open the floor to suggestions. ALthough in individual combat weapons such as muskets have little chance of hitting anything in a massed battle there must be some collisions because their are only so many places a bullet can go without hitting someone. I've come up with two different approaches for firing at regiments, column's etc. One is to grant the shooter a +1 to OCV for every rank that is 10 men wide, so a rank of 20 would give +2. The other is to treat moving formations as large unified creatures with with the attendant penalties to DCV. I think for volley fire it might be best to make a single roll for each volley, with a higher success rate meaning more shots have hit home. So, thoughts on this?

Re: Need Magic System Advice It does look as though this system of magic is more a trading relationship than a master-servant one. If, however, you want to further distance your wizards from divine power then you can just play around with the source of their magic. Do the other gods approve of power being bartered to mortals? If not then perhaps the god of secrets is a renegade hunted by his own kind with his priesthood outlawed, he might be something other than a 'normal' god or just a survivor from an earlier or alien pantheon. Perhaps these trades are the only way he can gain enough power to survive, so the relationship is more equal. Alternatively wizards could trade their secrets to other things, 'the spirits', 'the fey', 'demons' etc. To such creatures a secret could mean power, both mystical and temporal, thus they are prepared to grant magic in return for it. You could even allow different entities to bid for the secret, offering various powers or different spins on the same ability. One final spin could be to link the system to true names i.e. if you get hold of an entity's secret name then it can bribe you with magical power in return for you allowing it to remove its name from your mind. But that's probably too far from your original concept. (Rambling is fun!) Cheers.

Re: Ideas for a new fantasy campaign BTW, hope I don't sound pushy but if you were thinking of drawing inspiration from other sources aswell then here are one or two thoughts. There's a book out by Sara Douglass called 'The Serpent Bride' which might give you a few ideas if you see what I mean. The Malazan Book of the Fallen series is brimming with material to do with dying empires. And 'Paragaea' by Chris Roberson is an interesting example of modern 'sword and planet' but that's by-the-by. Also. Just out of interest. Are you going to stuff any more secrets into your world? Ancient technologies or civilisations lurking amongst the ruins of what once was? Cthulhoid monstrosities trundling about beneath the seas. Or perhaps alternate planes of reality that some foolish sorcerer has opened the way to? Or are you going to stick with a 'pure' vision based on your original thoughts?

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... I've blocked out some of the details but the story that led to my current favourite quote goes something like this. Victorian supernatural mystery adventure in which the PC's are trying to interview the sister of a murder victim. One character (John Dunkington) has a little problem with remembering his manners and the player has a big problem with being told what to do, in game or out. The other two (Duan) and (Jim) are saying things like - "He didn't mean that!" "Calm down!" and "Never mind him he's going to stop now." John. - "No! No! I'm going to wander off then drop my trousers and start running around the house." GM. - "Are you going to try and stop him?" Duan. - "Oh for heaven's sake! Yes!" (Fails his grapple roll). Jim. - (Player is fighting hysterics by sitting very still with a frozen face and indicates that this is all he is capable of at this point in time). John. "Oh. I'm also shouting 'freedom!' As I run." (In his mad dash John encounters a servant and the lady of the house, the lady faints and the servant summons the constabulary. The Police have in fact been keeping an eye on the characters.) Thus. GM. - "Six policemen burst into the room and start dragging you away." John. - "What!?! Six? How did they get here so quickly?" Duan. - "Look this is Victorian England, he'd could justifiably kill you're character for this." John. - "Bollocks! How long have I been running around this house with my trousers down anyway?"

Re: PCs go down the hole... If the PC's aren't sure what this monster they're hunting is then perhaps it could have multiple forms and they have to hunt it through the caves 'killing' or driving off each of its forms until they track it to the heart of its lair and dispatch it. There's no end of beasts in Greek mythology of course and so a few forms might be - Cerberus, the Golden Bull, a smallish dragon whose teeth (or blood) cause armed warriors to pop up when they touch the earth (one amusing way to make the PC's wary of headshots), Cyclops, Chimaera, Sphinx. Discarded forms could spawn smaller minions to trouble the PCs. This resurrection ability could be explained by the party having wandered into the land of the dead which is where the beast draws its power. Of course shades of the dead are always fun. PC's could also encounter other travelers who are alive aswell, (or so they claim), these could be from various cultures and have various attitudes towards strangers. Cheers.

Re: Hi, Gene! Magic, Sanitation and Cleanliness I'd have to agree with the idea that you can deal with the hygiene issue by trying a different culture or stealing on easpect of that culture. The Chinese have had clean water for centuries I believe. Of course most Europeans got around the bad drinking water problem by consuming small beer or wine instead. There is always the option of having a special underclass or race that deals with all the grime and takes it away, eats it, puts it on their crops, sacrifices to the lord of filth whose shrines lie beneath every major city etc. In high fantasy larger cities will have access to wizards and the like who can use spells to clean the place up or even to construct magically efficient sewer systems and aqueducts. This could allow for a stark contrast between the 'civilised' towns and rural villages full of grubby provincials who don't have access to the amenities. PC's from the 'Big City' might even find themselves resented by villagers for their fancy city ways of bathing regular. In fact if you wanted an unusual quest you could have the PC's hired to protect a wizard-architect as he travels the provinces trying to sell his services to suspicious and superstitious peasants. BTW dental hygiene alive and well in England, all children and students get free dental care from the NHS and toothbrushes and toothpaste are established cultural phenomenons.

Re: Adventuring company name Swords Of Hope. Mighty Monster Slayers. The Fearless Monster Hunters Blue Team. Deathwalkers. Conquerors. The Heroes of Might. The Heaven Fire Club. Wanderblades.

Re: Heroic Endurance and Stun This could be rather clunky but what if you divided stun into two flavours - light, the stuff you can shake off easily and heavy, the stuff that really slows you down or makes you groggy. Split stun damage between these two depending upon the weapon used, a two handed mace is going to do more heavy stun than a cosh. You only get a rec for heavy stun every hour. Endurance can not be recovered to a level that is higher than stun, (unless stun is at full). Just a thought.

Re: Ideas for a new fantasy campaign Cliche is as cliche does. So long as you have some original plots and characters to work with this setting seems fine to me. Perhaps it could be made more intricate by playing around with moral issues such as a group of 'good' snakemen or at least snakemen who can be favourably compared to the corrupt empire also are there any benevolent gods that the PC's are likely to have access to or will they be forced to bend the knee to one of the gods of death, perhaps getting involved in wars and intrigues between different cults or alternatively sticking with the standard sword and sorcery trope of distrusting all religions and killing priests practically on sight. Of course if a PC gets himself killed he might be resurrected by god of death ... in return for a few favours. As to your city state. How does it work and what sets it apart? I would have thought the best way to decide that would be to work out what advantage allowed the creation of the empire. Discipline and tactics like the Romans? Some kind of military technology e.g. longbows, heavy cavalry, chariots, horse archers, pikes, siege engines or all of the above. Perhaps mighty sorcerers aided the city's armies and their legacy lives on, maybe they created hordes of monsters or altered soldiers possibly with dark secrets wrested from the defeated snakemen. Or the city could have started out as an aggressive warrior nation like Sparta but become rich, decadent and merchant riddled like a corrupt version of Athens. Of course there are plenty of other models for empires and their fall - Persia, the Ottoman Empire, the Aztecs or Incas (a good source of death gods) or even ancient Egypt. Do your snakemen worship gods or is there queen enough for their adoration? Does she harbour divine ambitions or has she perhaps already achieved them? As for other things which could be added to this setting. Air pirate hunters. If you have guilds you could say that over centuries they have absorbed each other like modern corporations and so there are now one or two monolithic corrupt and faction riddled super-guilds that run just about everything and may be more important than the official government. Did the empire die of natural causes? Was there some power working through natural disasters like plagues and storms or twisting the minds of men with subtle whisperings in the dark. The Queen of Serpents would be the prime suspect I think. Curious sects of monks who wield exotic weapons and follow inscrutable purposes. Lost guardians from the dawn of empire. A lost army that suddenly turns up a few hundred years later; either lost in time or undead. Perhaps there aren't that many actual barbarian tribes in this world, instead this role is filled by rough groups of semi-independent hunters and monster killers that 'orbit' their parent city states and are considered more or less kin by the cityfolk with whom they mingle comparatively freely. A few wandering types might be fun. Air Roma/gypsies to go with the air pirates? That's all for now but I might stop by with more thoughts later. Thanks for the opportunity to brainstorm.

Re: Video Game character abilities I'm afraid I don't have the time to stat these up but I do have a few vague ideas which you might be able to develop into something useful. Doppelganger. Shapeshift, (Cosmetic only), (Only to mimic target), (Must have seen target), (Expendable foci - paints, wigs costume), (requires acting roll), (Extended time 1 minute - Activation only). Although it might be easier to simply ask the player to make complimentary disguise and acting rolls. Streetfighter. Combine power - Ambidexterity and Two Weapon fighting, (only with short weapons/only with daggers). Roofrunner. Compound power, Leaping x" (Accurate), Acrobatics x levels (Only in terrain of which character has knowledge i.e. CK), (Noncombat only). Alternatively you could allow certain 3 point Skill level packages such as Con Artist - Sleight of Hand, Acting and Persuasion. Don't know if any of this helps but good luck anyway.

Re: Thoughts on Early Modern Magic

Hi. I'm starting up a campaign in a setting that draws on a blend of Early Modern European history rather than the medieval and classical sources that fuel 'standard' fantasy. Does anyone have any thoughts or advice on this topic? More specifically does anyone know about Renaissance magic or have any ideas about how to stat it up. I'm thinking of a fairly ritual heavy system which requires quite a bit of research and preparation and much reliance on the proper celestial influences. (After all you can't curse someone to have indigestion unless you know the state of their humours). Combat applicable magic would mostly consist of useful amulets providing e.g. combat luck, with a healthy dose of 'summons' such as angelic, ghostly or demonic spirits and alternative schools in the form of witchcraft and shamanism. I'd also like to thank Spence and Captain Obvious for the rules sets on black powder weapons they've posted, its only fair because I'm going to steal from both sets.

Re: Democratic Republics in Fantasy Worlds? One could create a rather obscure city with a curious government by attempting to democratise the Lords of Waterdeep system. For example - Once every two years all adult citizens may attend a vast gathering in an ancient hall beneath the city. On a gallery above the hall stand three of the nine lords of the city; all wearing fantastical masks. On a slightly lower gallery stand any number of candidates who have put themselves forward for election; they are also masked but with plain white ovals without eye or mouth holes that are differentiated only by numbers stamped upon them. These candidates must each address the crowd and the citizens must then vote for three candidates based on the speeches. The elected lords rarely appear and are always masked, no normal citizen should be aware of their ruler's identity. Not sure what the rationale behind this would be, perhaps dark forcesTM threatened to destroy the ruling council long ago or there are similar fears generated by past infighting. Or perhaps this is some philosophical attempt to keep those interested in acclaim or glory out of government. Could just be general fantasy weirdness. As for republics in fantasy novels the Estorea of Jame's Barclay's is a Romanesque republic with imperial ambitions 'justified' by a desire for the greater good.