Shadowsoul

Re: God of Magic But just because that is the dominant magical paradigm in RPGs, doesn't mean that you have to use it. For example, in the Malazan world magic is drawn from alien worlds inhabited by gods and weird races. Mages draw on the same power that gods wield and Priests only have access to magic if they train as Mages, which many of them do.

Re: PCs owning slaves: Do, or Don't? And then there were those strangest of slave castes, the Mamluks, and later the Janissaries, of the Islamic world. Slave soldiers who could gain great power and influence and in some cases simply took over the kingdoms that had enslaved them. The idea of slave owners arming slaves has always puzzled me. I know what I'd want to do to someone who'd enslaved me. Or any slaver for that matter. Apparently the idea was to create a standing army that was 'loyal' to the local ruler, rather than the chieftains/nobility that nominally served him, and that consisted of soldiers who could be brutally punished without reprisals. Of course these military slaves had far greater prospects and status than most slaves in the classical or modern worlds. In modern terms this might be considered closer to conscription than 'slavery', though that doesn't justify it. Having PCs enslaved in such a way would make for an interesting campaign. Do the PCs seek their freedom and battle their oppressors? Or do they take the chance to gain wealth and power by serving their slavemasters? Probably depends on how long their home region/s have been providing slave soldiers to their conquerors.

Re: Drakine pics (and other ones also) You're probably better off looking for generic dragon people. Best place I know to find online fantasy artwork is Elfwood Here is an example of a draconic humanoid found on Elfwood.

Re: Forest Giant Spells I'm still working from 5er and I haven't seen the write up of this guy but if he doesn't have some kind of 'Desolid - Only to pass through plant matter' power then he should. Even with Environmental Movement I'd expect a Giant to struggle in woodland, (or leave a trail of destruction), without magical assistance. Weather control in the form of Change Environment might be useful too e.g. to put out forest fires or to make sure that a particular 'crop' of trees is growing well. Change Environment could also be used to make things difficult for people to travel through the forest without actually Entangling them all. (Edit. I see that Kraven Kor beat me to it on this one. So I second his motion). Giving the Giant the ability to wrap a patch of sylvan Darkness around himself seems fitting aswell, and it could make him more frightening by preventing the players from realising what he is straightaway. A spell of Enhanced Senses could also be useful - allowing the Giant to track the party down by smell alone or hear their footsteps a thousand yards away.

Re: Move Through with Killing Weapons Hang on. Are you confusing Move By with Move Through? As I understand it in Move By you charge past the target and attack them as you go by e.g. a cavalryman cutting down a fleeing infantryman. In Move Through you head directly at the target and plough straight through them and/or run them down. Move By halves your Strength and gives Velocity/5 extra damage. Move Through uses your entire Strength and gives Velocity/3 extra damage. At full speed that Knight is doing +6 Damage Classes and probably breaking his lance into the bargain.

Re: Poisonbrewing Presumably the other characters aren't paying points for armour, swords and arrows. So poison is just another piece of equipment. As long as you limit the number of doses that this character can make e.g. by saying that it takes a whole day to distill/brew a single dose then she shouldn't have a particular advantage over the people walking around with axes and plate armour that they can use all the time.

Re: Shadow World setting If it follows the usual rules of chemistry then it also acts as a nerve poison but you get to roll more dice for the damage/drain.

Re: Need help with race names Other people could refer to them using these 'Latin' words but they could have their own names for themselves in a different language. Even if they didn't create their own language their dialect of Latin could have developed along different lines to that of the Elvish 'classic' Latin. New languages will eventually evolve from the same roots as particular pronunciations and spellings come into fashion in different regions and words are borrowed or adapted from other language groups. That's why modern Americans speak and write a language very like but not quite the same as modern English. (English being defined as the language spoken in England. Since English was born in England its inhabitants have an absolute veto about what constitutes proper English and the right to correct other English speakers in the most patronising manner possible even when visiting other countries). So if you want your Sachalin to have their own language that doesn't mean they can't use Latin words or root words. Maybe as Kraven Kor suggests you could use a more feline way of speaking to make the words distinctive. E.g. try saying Leo in a feline accent. And since this is fantasy and you aren't actually using 'Latin' but 'Elvish' you can always cheat and come up with more easily recognisable terms such as Chetrine for Cheetah-heads. If any Latin buffs in your group point this out then you can smile sweetly and explain that this is not actually Latin so what you say goes.

Re: Shadow World setting I played in a short campaign run by Bismark which was set in Kulthea and used the Hero System. I enjoyed it but that may have just been because Bismark knows how to throw a good fight rather than the setting itself. I'm quite glad that we never came up against Undead in that campaign as the Unlife makes even low level skeletons quite scary. Still there is some interesting stuff in this setting. Murderous super-androids, swords dropping out of the sky and marsupial ogres to name a few examples.

Re: base 5 point stats? problems with that? There isn't anything wrong with a low power level but starting with stats at 5 is a bit weird when everyone else you meet should have stats of 8-10. If everyone else uses 5 as the average then there seems little point to the exercise. What's the scenario? Why are you playing people with lower stats than the average person on the streets/in the fields? Are you playing young characters who haven't completed their development yet? Are you playing kobolds as Sociotard suggests? Or goblins? I'm just trying to follow the GM's reasoning here. Do they want you to play flawed characters who are weak or a bit dim or slightly socially inept but above average in other ways?

Re: Turkanian Age and Champions The other main Fantasy Hero settings are Valdorian Age and Atlantean Age. Valdorian Age is a typical sword and sorcery setting. Magic is difficult, often involves the use of demons and is usually practiced by unsavoury types. The cities are rife with corruption and the countryside is filled with mighty yet morally ambiguous barbarians. The gods take little interest in the world, unless they are the evil sort. Atlantean Age is the opposite, a super-high fantasy setting. Atlantean characters would count as superheroes if imported into the modern day. The main continent of Atlantis has a Classical Greek flavour and is filled with demi-gods and spontaneously appearing monsters. Magical technology is ingrained in Atlantean civilisation and the creation of artefacts is routine. To top it all off Atlanteans are just better than other people, ignoring cultural or 'everyman' skills it costs 15 points just to be an Atlantean. I've played in Last Dominion. My impression of it was of a dark and gritty setting that owed more to dark ages Europe than traditional fantasy. It seemed to be well researched with plenty of detail like historical names for equipment and weapons. The history of the Dominion is a dark epic in itself and complicated enough to keep even me interested. Worth a look.

Re: Harpy questions The Sirens, (as distinct from the Russian Sirin that I mentioned earlier), were sometimes depicted as harpy-like birdwomen with beautiful faces. So you wouldn't be straying that far from the Greek myth if you gave them powers of beguilement.

Re: Harpy questions Yep, harpies are hideous. I'd say that they weren't tool users and just had clawed feet. But if that doesn't work for you then change it, fantasy is all about making things up after all. If you want a beautiful bird-woman as an encounter, consider a Sirin.

Re: Creatures disappearing after death of creator - how to make? If it is widely known that summoned creatures die with their creator then it is a tactical disadvantage and so might be worth points i.e. (-1/4). If other characters know that the summoned creatures disappear when their summoner does then they will target the summoner. Summoning an army of zombies becomes tantamount to painting a big X on your chest and saying - "Kill me if you don't want to get eaten by my rotting hordes."

Re: Castlevania: Combat Cross Looks cool. Although perhaps you should add something to simulate the holy water ingrained in the spiked chain? Something that takes away the (un)natural advantages of evil creatures. E.g. a Linked Dispel to Armour, Damage Reduction or Regeneration. Or I suppose you could assume that any evil beasty the weapon encounters will have been built with vulnerabilities to holy weapons. Which, since you're running the campaign, is fairly easily arranged.

Re: HEROEs of Athas Sounds like a mammoth task to me. But do what you've got to do. First off how are you going to build this? Is each talent going to progress in a linear fashion with specific pre-requisites? E.g. will Fireball 1 unlock Fireball 2 which unlocks Fireball 3 and nothing else. That will be relatively easy to build but inflexible to play. Or will your build resemble the branches of an actual tree, with many abilities unlocking multiple other abilities? That could be fun to play but nightmarish to build. Alternatively will you allow characters to unlock tiers rather than individual abilities? E.g. you have to buy 4 Tier 1 Martial abilities before you can start to purchase abilities from Tier 2 of the Martial Talents Tree. This is also relatively easy to build but would perhaps detract from any sense of specialisation. The build which most appeals to me would be a combination of the first and third suggestions. You have to unlock each Tier by buying a certain number of abilities from the previous Tier. Once a Tier is unlocked certain abilities are also unlocked, but some abilities within that Tier have particular prerequisites. E.g. Psionic Blast would be automatically unlocked at Tier 2 but Lesser Mind Control would only be unlocked if the character had the Tier 1 ability Telepathy.

Re: New Campaign Idea: "Blood" Fun idea. You may want to look at Jim Butcher's Codex Alera for some inspiration about how this kind of society would work. Alera is a nation of humans who wield immense elemental powers. The aristocracy are worlds above a normal peasant's power level, however. One way the social order is maintained is through legal duels - legal disputes can be solved by a challenge to combat. This means that weaker Alerans rarely dare to challenge the activities of the more powerful citizens and nobles.

Amongst the many strange stories collected in the Book of the Vampire by Nigel Suckling, (yes that it is his real name), is the tale of the Charan tribe of Gujarat in NW India. The Charan used to protect themselves from bandits through the threat of revenge from beyond the grave. If troubled by robbers they would descend upon the cuplrits and behead some of their own elders or set fire to themselves and curse their attackers while they burnt to death. This awful rite tapped into the widespread fear of restless ghosts and particularly the angry spirits of suicides. Unsurprisingly the Charan were rarely bothered. Now this is not a good power for a PC to have, (malevolent ghosts can't carry a lot of loot after all), but would be an interesting and frightening ability for them to fall foul of. So, how would you build this power? I'm thinking of a Transform self, (soul), into a Vengeful Spirit with the Expendable IIF 'Own Body'. Alternatively you could just Transform the target/s into characters with levels of Unluck.

Re: Looking for an online campaign You want Hero Central. Let me know if you'd like to join my campaign. I could probably squeeze you in. Though I should warn you that it's my first online campaign and reviews have been very mixed. Also it's 5ER.

Re: Magic the Gathering Hero? I think that that story may be a little outdated now. Magical talent in no way guarantees an ability to planewalk. While mages learn or draw upon the five elements like planeswalkers they are not the same and I'm not sure if they have to pull power from entire landscapes. Also, there are now two kinds of planeswalkers. Proper planeswalkers, the old fashioned demi-god like beings who have complete control over their physical form, wield immense power, do not need to breathe, eat, drink or age and are almost unkillable since their 'spark' can simply escape corporeal death by travelling to another plane and regenerating. And planejumpers, the new breed of vastly watered down planeswalkers who can still move between the planes but otherwise have little more than their own magical talents to rely on. Although they are frankly pathetic in comparison to their predecessors planejumpers would seem to be a better choice for player characters as they would actually fear death and would be comparatively easy build. Of course the multiverse of the Magic: The Gathering is teeming with high adventure for normal heroes as well. You could have a lot of fun on a single plane or with a party who use artificial means of moving between planes. Players could be a band of Dominarans following a trail of artificial portals in order to hunt down a surviving group of Phyrexians. Or Cho-Arrim rebels seeking to free themselves from Mercadian rule. Or mercenaries battling against marauding Keldon. You could even have PCs who actually work for a planeswalker. They may live on separate planes but they are periodically summoned to do battle with alien creatures. The focus of the campaign might be bringing down an opposing planeswalker or perhaps escaping the control of their master.

Re: Herbs Alhazred has pretty much started this line of thought already. But why not just give all herbal remedies the limitation "Conditional Power - Only heals X type of damage." So you have some herbs for burns, some for particular poisons, some for bruising, some that are good for lung/suffocation damage etc. Painkillers are Stun Aids that can only be used to 'heal', (temporarily), lost Stun. Some more powerful potions may actually heal stun but have exciting side effects. Alternatively herbal healing could have the limitation "Variable Foci". It can heal anything but requires specific herbs for each kind of injury.

Re: Urban Hero: a new take on Bardic Music A commendable idea! This comic is nsfw and contains a lot of adolescent wish fulfillment. Nonetheless it has its moments and you might well take some inspiration from one of its lead characters. The Challenges of Zona. If nothing else this is a good picture of the great balls of fire spell. You might also want to look up the Spellsinger series by Alan Dean Foster. As for other spells. Here's just a handful. A hex on the target's piloting and driving skills, 'Baby Can't Drive' by Slash and friends. A shield, 'Indestructible' by Disturbed. Aid to presence, 'Don't Fear The Reaper' by Blue Oyster Cult. Entangle, 'Stand By Me' by Ben E. King. A specialised change environment, 'Rainmaker' by Iron Maiden. Summon angry mob, 'I Predict A Riot' by Kaiser Chiefs, 'Uprising' by Muse or 'No More Sorrow' by Linkin Park. Voodoo doll, 'Voodoo Child' by Rogue Traders. Aid Speed, 'Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast' by Airbourne. Aid Strength, (with terrible social consequences), 'Feed My Frankenstein' by Alice Cooper. Aid hostile Presence and combat skills, 'Axeman' by Omen. Myself I've often toyed with the idea of the spellsinger as spell-gangsta-rapper. A character whose every power is a ritual which requires at least 8 other guys to stand behind him saying "Yeah, yeah," and "Say what."

Re: Dragons Can I ask, as someone who has only been fantasy roleplaying for a few years, where did the idea that dragons are powerful wizards as well as being massive, flying, firebreathing monsters with near impenetrable scales come from? You don't see the concept that often in non-gamer fantasies. Tolkien's dragons couldn't do magic, (though even the 'Wizards' in The Lord Of The Rings were actually angelic beings in the form of men). Nor have I come across many dragons in mythology that could use magic, many mythological dragons or dragon-like creatures weren't actually that intelligent. Being that big and being able to breathe fire or poison as well as possibly being able to fly was generally considered to be enough of a challenge for a bold warrior or questing knight to have to deal with thank you very much. Was it a logical progression in Dungeons and Dragons that Dragons had to be the toughest thing around so they needed spells in order to compete? Did the makers of D&D get the idea from another source e.g. by fusing the divine beasts of East Asian religion and folklore which were translated into English as 'Dragons' with the hostile serpents of Western mythology? Or was it simply assumed that any being which was that long lived, arrogant and intelligent would have to end up learning magic? I don't think it follows that a naturally magical creature would inevitably excel at the tame and scholarly spells used by humans. If a dragon, a near immortal saurian or reptilian beast of apparently greater than human intelligence, used magic I don't think it would even understand it in the same way that short lived walking mammal would. To put it another way, if dragons can learn wizardry then what's to stop a unicorn from learning it, (apart from the fact that it has to turn the pages of its spellbook with its horn and keeps impaling the pages)?

Re: A Whole New World IMHO the best way to make the 'bad-guys' original is to try a different approach to 'evil'. Don't have them as simple marauders or beings that are malevolent for the sake of it. Perhaps they believe that their underworld is the true world and that the world above is the land of ghosts or illusions. They venture onto the surface world in search of certain resources and have no respect for the beings they encounter. Killing a ghost is no crime after all. And torturing one for information is no problem either, the creature may appear to be suffering but that is just an illusion created by too much exposure to the surface world. Their religion teaches that the surface world is the world of deceit and therefore a kind of hell, if you begin to believe in the surface world then your soul will become trapped there and you will cease to exist in any real sense. So, these creatures avoid feeling any sentiment towards the 'ghosts' and slaughter them without mercy if they begin to feel any sympathy for them. They will even kill those who begin to question this belief to save them from becoming 'damned'. Whether this religion is simply misguided or whether it is a conscious lie fabricated by this race's leaders is up to you.

Re: Famous Artifacts of the Underworld? The first albums of Elvis and the Beatles respectively, (on vinyl). The Stone of Scone. A symbol of the Scottish royal family that remains in English hands to this day. The 'magic bullet' of the Kennedy assassination.