Toadmaster

Re: HERO System question I agree, I don't see why FH is anymore of a problem than any other Heroic genre, what is the difference between a wand of fire balls 2d6 RKA 6 charges and a .44 Magnum 2d6 RKA 6 shots. Just because one is magic and one is available at the corner guns and armor shop? If anything I've found mages at the disadvantage in HERO because the barbarian warrior can go buy Def5 chainmail armor and a big 2d6+1 axe, while the mage has to buy his spells with points.

Re: Women! It comes down to the current rules for the english language specify that the male pronoun is also the correct pronoun for generic use. It is not practical to alternate gender (what was the last one I used) and unfortunately I can see people counting the use of male vs female pronouns to show bias. I'm sorry if this means some people feel left out but perhaps somebody should explain the rule so they can worry about actual injustices instead of worrying about an ancient rule. Now if DOJ had said only male examples could be used I could see the issue, but that is not what they are doing, DOJ is only enforcing current proper english and I really don't see RPGs as the place to change an alleged sexist society. I hope this doesn't turn into "the thread that shall not be mentioned".

I use the the title Horror for pretty much any modern (19th Century to present) game featuring the supernatural. So I consider a game like Stalking the night fantastic and some X-files Horror (although I know X-files also falls into modern conspiracy) I'm just wondering if this meets the general opinion of the rest of you. Does horror have to be scary or just have nasty unnatural creatures.

Re: Package deal - no deal? I've known a few players like that, but I've never had to strike a player, I find waving the handgun around usually gets their attention

Re: Package deal - no deal? Ah, ok, so you just don't care for the particulars of the current PD's that makes sense, obviously opinions will differ and genre will change how much should be covered by a Package, sometimes the Generic nature of HERO is also a source of its problems since what is appropriate for one is inappropriate for another (this is something I don't think the rules spend enough time explaining). As far as the disads I am pretty light on enforcing the catagory anyway (if the disads make sense I don't really care how many of one type a character has), I thought you were suggesting that the disads in a package not be counted against total disads allowed which as you say would allow the character additional points.

Re: Early Firearms Captain Obvious, looks good. I think I will steal it for myself , Thank You.

Re: Air Guns, the Other Lead Ball Even current modern airguns can be deadly, a 2 year old was recently shot and killed with one in Scotland, the jerk shooting was taking a shot at a firefighter working at a house fire, he missed the firefighter striking the child in the head which makes me think this was not at particularly close range. There are already people talking about banning airguns . http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4317423.stm As far as interesting air guns I thought the dynamite gun used by the US Navy around the Spanish American War was an interesting idea, it used air to lauch a shell filled with dynamite, air was used since it was thought an explosive charge could set off the dynamite at launch (with rather bad results for the ship).

Re: Package deal - no deal? Now that you mention it, that was something else I didn't like about the old PD's, the idea that some skills were not as useful as others so you should get a break when they were in a PD, ummmm hello, if the skill is not as useful as most then how about lowering the cost of the skill in general why only in a PD? I also don't look at PD's as you have to take everything, they are a suggestion and a place to start, players should be free to add or subtract skills. The idea of allowing the PD disads to be "free" is reasonable but I really don't see why players need to be "bribed" to take a PD, if it is a game where their job is a minor game point, like a supers game where 90+% is in super ID, then why bother with PD's at all, if it is a game where the characters job may be important then the players should want to take a PD to make sure the approriate skills are covered. If you don't see the utility of PD's that is your right, I'm not going to suggest anyone use part of the game they don't like. I'm still not clear on where you are going with this though, are you against the idea of PDs in general, want something for taking one or is this really all about the deal in the name (which is what it seems like to me). If they changed the name to template, career package or something else without deal in the title would you still feel the need to give away free points for taking one?

Re: A source for Police & Fire Dept. Dispatch Codes?

Re: A source for Police & Fire Dept. Dispatch Codes? For the most part in the U.S. Fire and Rescue (including Paramedics) use clear text (they say what the mean) and don't use codes anymore. About the only time they use codes is for a handful of subjects when dealing with crime scenes primarily dead bodies, this varies from pretty obvious ones like coroners case, DB (dead body) to various 10 and 11 codes. Radio shack used to carry a scanner book that listed radio frequencies, it had a listing of common 10 and 11 codes. (edit) Ah I see you already have a pretty good list of those nevermind. While clear text is plain english there are a few "codes" really just standardized responses. Enroute - non-emergency response to location Responding - emergency response to location In service, AOR (available on radio) - out of the station on a detail but available for responding to emergencies, or clear of the last call. In quarters, AIQ (available in quarters) - unit is back in the station On delay or Delayed response - available for response but will have a delayed response, often used during training drills since the crew may be away from the vehicle or have to put equipment back on the engine (truck, ambulance). Code 2 - urgent, non emergency response (no lights & siren, following traffic laws) Code 3 - emergency response (lights & siren) On scene - unit has arrived at the location of the emergency (usually followed by a report of conditions) Thats about it unless you expect an extensive use of fire & rescue, there are plenty of accornyms, slang etc but that could go on for days.

Re: Sword and Shield take levels in sword and shield, these are 3 pt levels (so saves you 2 pts) and allows the bonus to OCV or DCV as needed with either the sword or the shield. (I think sword and shield levels still exist anyway).

Re: Support for Low Level Supers style Dark Champions Well if that is true I just might get it, I really liked that Batman series. I probably won't use it but I'm more likely to play in a game like that than a standard Champions game. I was also under the impression the TAS was going to be "light hearted" DC. BTW there is now a 4 disc DVD set of Batman TAS, it says Volume 1 so I assume a 2nd set is in the works. I also liked the fact that the series used the voice of Batman from the sillys 60's Batman series (his name escapes me at the moment), for a character in one of the episodes (Grey Ghost?) it is the only "re-make" I can think of that gave some credit to the past.

Re: Valdorian Age

Re: Package deal - no deal? I don't see how this can be true at all unless you have had alot of careers, how can you say you know what skills a Police officer, Corrections officer, NASA engineer, Automotive engineer, Defense Lawyer, Corporate Lawyer, Patent Lawyer, Rural Firefighter, Big City Firefighter, Smoke Jumper, Paramedic, General Practicianer (MD), Surgeon (MD), Dentist (DDS), Hollywood director, TV program manager etc should have. Sure you could probably wing something and if you take the time to research these you could probably do a decent job but when your players come up to you with their characters how can you really make a decent call on what skills thay have taken if you don't have a package deal to work from. In fact I'm hoping that at somepoint (maybe everyman) there will be a well researched book of packages built by people with real knowledge of the careers they make packages for. It seems like 99% of your complaint is based on the word deal, which seems kind of silly, shall we change the name Body because it isn't actually based on size or mass but more of will to live? It's your choice to use or not use package deals but I haven't seen any reason given except the name is outdated. Sure I agree that maybe it should have been changed to Package but I'm not worried about it either, in fact I'm glad they stopped giving points for them, I always thought that was silly and kind of a hassle (the points never added up evenly anyway). I don't mean to come across rude or sarcastic but I really don't understand your problem.

Re: Horror Hero rant There are many movies that give better examples than slasher flicks, I completely forgot about Tremors (its one of my favorites) and while it is funny I wouldn't really call it comedy (well ok maybe 2 and 3), it did a good job of showing two shmo's in an unusual situation and showed that even a couple of guys who were not all that intelligent could come up with a plan to defeat the monsters. Another one I liked was Phantasm 2, here were a couple of guys who figured if the bad guys were going to get them eventually they might as well take the fight to the bad guys. In the Fog the monsters seemed to be unstoppable but in the end it was simply a matter of making things right. Similarly in many of Lovecraft's stories the solution was not usually based on fighting it out but finding the means to make the stars "not" right. Them! is another great movie, in my opinion far superior to the many giant mutant radioactive critter flicks that followed. Big trouble in little China, The Thing (both of them), many X-files, Kolshak the Night Stalker, all the Alien movies (the first one still gives me the creeps), even Nightmare on Elm Street could work. Dead and burried would be great for a game with an interesting twist. Finally I really liked From Dusk till dawn the scene where George Clooney is arguing with the other survivors about whether or not vampires exist is great. Horror gaming seems to get stereotyped almost as much as the movies.

Re: Valdorian Age Personally I like it, it is very Conanish meaning a good fighter can be a match for a good sorceror (or so it appears at least), I have been disappointed that in most Fantasy games fighters eventually have to start to rely on magic. I have it here in my webbed fingers, so let me try to answer your querries. Are Humans the only race left? Yes, for the most part, there are monsters and such but at least in this book if there are non-human races they are well hidden, only human civilizations are covered. What kind of religons are there and can clerics still heal? Like Game Phil said the gods have pretty well turned their backs on humans, but that doesn't mean the people don't still worship gods. There are also many otherworldy beings (demons, elementals, spirits etc) that in a sense could be consider religions. All magic is based on getting these beings to do the spell casters bidding. It specifically points out that healing spells are advised against, healing potions and such being much more appropriate to the genre. Who are the super powers(as in goverment)? I haven't finished reading all of this but Valdoria definately appears to be he most powerful nation, it is also more "enlightened" banning slavery, sorcery etc, however it has become somewhat fragmented so its glory days are behind it, Valdoria was also not above leaving Elweir intact for financial reasons dispite the fact it allows most of the things Valdoria is against. Elwier is the most detailed city in the book, it is a trading hub between Valdoria and the rest of the world, it is a typical "cess pool" fantasy city full of opportunity for the strong or clever. There are 50+ pages describing the city and its history. Abyzinia is another nation in many ways the opposite of Valdoria it is ruled by a sorcerer and much of its economy is based on slavery, however it is not an "evil" land. There are a number of smaller lands that each recieve a page or three of description including an island nation that also seems to house a number of pirates. Is there a major bad guy who everyone looks at and says "yep he's the bad guy"? As in Sauron from LotR? no, but on a smaller scale there seems to be some local level people who could possibly be seen in this way, but none I've seen so far that scream "man that guy is evil". Is there any reason to play anything other than a fighter or thief? Sure, depending on how the game is run there is plenty of room for a merchant, or a fast talking diplomat. In the lands that sorcery is legal a powerful sorceror (on the rise) is certainly a possibility as are lessor mages such as an apprentice or hedgemagician, a sage could prove useful as well. If you decide you want to have healing widely available to the party a shaman or alchamist / snake oil salesman type character could be appropriate but as with the genre most everyone will want some ability with steel. I think it would be very possible to run the game with a minimum of fighters and thieves but in general I expect most games will revolve around these types of characters. I would say the book is worthwhile just for the sorcery section even if you just want to use it in a high fantasy world. I think this book would also be helpful for converting the Werth from Riddle of Steel into HERO if you wanted to do so.

Re: Package deal - no deal? I don't really have a problem with the name but template is more descriptive. If you want packages to give a few points to encourage players to take them call in a roleplaying bonus and give your players a few xp for taking a package instead of just taking the bits they want.

Re: Quirks and disadvantages I've used quirks typically we just took the idea right out of GURPS and allowed up to 5, 1 pt disads. I found they have a couple of advantages, the first is they cause players to put a little more thought into the character, they also are a nice way to balance character costs in those occasional cases where they just need a few points to finish the character, they are also a nice way to cause minor problems for characters, it may not be convenient to have a hunted show up but you can still have the characters invited to meet the king, unfortunately that one character is allergic to purple which of course is the kings favorite color... If you don't like the idea of having mini-disads, call it experience points for good roleplaying, give me 5 tid bits of character info and I'll give you 5 pts.

Re: Horror Hero rant I think there is alot of bad Horror gaming going on and that tends to be what people associate with. Friday the 13th HERO would be no fun unless I get to play Jason, the "PC's" are just to stupid to live. CoC can be great even if the characters die or go mad, I've played many games where the character was done by the end but if that sacrifice saved the world I probably had fun but there is a tendancy for the game to deginerate into 1,000,000 nasty ways to die. Alien, Aliens, Jaws and the Ghost and the darkness are all worth seeing to see how horror can be done. Alien is basically your standard normal people faced with a nasty critter (and in my opinion a nastier android), in Aliens you have some butt kicking "PC's" who are just plain outclassed and unprepared for what they are facing, (Preditor is pretty much the same situation but with a pulpier feel), in Jaws the "monster" is really nothing special (in the supernatural sense) just a big animal but the alien environment (ocean) that hinders the PC's is almost an accomplice to the Shark and in Ghost & the Darkness you have 2 very unnatural lions, as humans we are used to being the top of the food chain, this movie shows how effective even something mundane can be quite scary (the movie is based on real events, The Lions of Tsavo is where the bit about the lions came from, Lions can be quite a bit scarier than you would think from seeing them in the zoo). Horror comes in many shapes and sizes, and is more attitude than stats, I hope the new edition covers this well, I know there are many that dislike sanity, fear checks etc as an unnatural because "they wouldn't panic in that situation", I think that as gamers we tend to think we are immune to the strange and unnatural but I think horror really is about fear of the unknown which often is overlooked, if your monster hunter kills 16 zombies, 3 werewolves and 2 Vampies each month then those critters are unlikely to scare him, but when he runs up against Things man was not meant to know about, that is another story completely. There is definately room for monster gaming with unphasable heroes but I'm not really sure that is "horror". Using myself as an example I've been a firefighter since 1992, fire is not really "scary" to me at this point but for most it is in the top 10 fears, I know fire, I know what it can do and know how to deal with it, most people don't. But just because I am "brave" (or more realistically stupid enough) to go up against a fire that doesn't mean I have the same ability to control my bodily functions when faced by Cthulhu (I'd like to think so but I'd like to be rich too) I haven't been to a monster hunters academy and I don't think the fact I've read Lovecraft counts for much except at least I know the name of the eldritch horror that is eating my brain I don't remember what my point was but hopefully this makes some sense.

Re: 2006 Schedule Blurbs Like I said I haven't been following the Champs stuff, I don't play Champions so I can't form my own opinion for that genre. I was saying if it is true that much of the line is rewrites I could understand the frustration, whether or not this is the case is outside my knowledge. I know for the genres I am interested in this is not the case, Star HERO, Fantasy HERO and Dark Champions are much more than just re-writes of the 3rd or 4th ed and all have been worth buying even though I have all the previous versions.

Re: Support for Low Level Supers style Dark Champions Now this is interesting, I found it stayed too close to the street supers it was in 4th ed and didn't include as much "action Hero" as I had hoped and expected. I don't know what the deal is with The Animated Series stuff, I don't see the relation to either form of Dark Champions.

Re: 2006 Schedule Blurbs Well since everyone else is giving opinions here is my $0.015 (hey I'm a government employee so I can't afford a whole $0.02) Nobles, Knights, And Necromancers: Yes, never hurts to have NPC's The Ultimate Mentalist: Yes Stronghold: Nope, I don't do Champs Golden Age Champions: Maybe, depends on how useful it is for other genres Psychic Wars: Sure, not real high on my list but it sounds interesting The Celtic Bestiary: Yep, sounds neat Thrilling Places: Depends if this is real places or just a map book, but probably Tuala Morn: Sure, I wasn't to interested in settings for FH but I've been happy with the Turakian age and Valdorian age so I'll be getting this one too. Pulp Resource Guide: Yep, looking forward to Pulp so this is on my list The Ultimate Skill: Probably, I hope this includes lots of ways to use skills as well as descriptions. Villains, Vandals, And Vermin: Probably not since I don't play Champs Horror Hero: Yep, been waiting for this one Danger Zones: This sounds interesting so probably yes Champions Universe Update: Nope, Champs again, sorry The Underworld Sourcebook: Probably 2006 looks good to me, looking forward to 2007

Re: 2006 Schedule Blurbs This is one of the best complaints about the quantity of Champions material I've seen. What I usually see is complaining that HERO is not making enough Champions material, when quite obviously Champs is getting the largest share. I can sympathize with you watching alot of rewrites that may or may not have much new material. I don't play champs so what is re-writes for me is substantially different from the 3rd or 4th ed I already have so I am happy, I kind of expected the Champs material to be the same but it sounds like that is not the case. Even with something like DC that was a big let down for me is still a good book I will use, it just is not what I had hoped for and expected (wanted more Eye for an Eye less HoJ). I would not have been to excited to buy a reprint of Fantasy HERO 4th ed, but 5th ed was practically all new so I was quite happy. Kind of a rough spot when it comes to Champs, DoJ needs to put out the rewrites to provide details needed for newer players but the older players who have been around long enough to have an earlier edition or two are looking for the new and exciting products the other genres are getting.

Re: Hitman Actually I found they did allow more variety to complete the missions than many games, but I do agree some of the missions had choke points that could prevent finishing the missions unless those specific things were done just right. The Middle eastern mission was one of those, luckily we were playing on a Sunday at work so there were 3 of us playing, we would trade off each time and eventually one of us got lucky taking out the big wig in the limo (I assume that was the mission you were talking about. We never could do it stealthy and ended up gunning down all the guards in town (but they were all bad) If I had to do it by myself I probably would have given up too. I think that was the mid point of the game. I like the whole maybe a clone maybe not, might be working for my enemy, maybe not. The new game Hitman Contracts appears to be a remake of the first game, Hitman Codename 47, I started with Hitman 2 then got Contracts, now I have found the first and am playing in on my PC and it seems to be the same missions as Contracts only the graphics and cut scenes are not as good. It is also easier to play on the PS2 since the controls are better than a keyboard and mouse. I'll have to keep an eye out for Mercenaries, sounds interesting.

Re: Valdorian Age I picked mine up Sunday at the con and have been reading it since. I wasn't too thrilled when DoJ was talking about settings for Fantasy Hero, I like to keep HERO fairly generic so I can build my own (or steal worlds from other games), but the Tarakian age was well done and I am really liking what I see in the Valdorian age so far. Both settings look very playable, include many of the features that make up their sub-genre but are also unique to HERO. I always found the settings for the older HERO books kind of bland so never used them, DoJ has done well so far with their settings both with FH and SH. The Sorcery section is a nice change in magic systems that actually looks like it will have the high power but steel in the hand of a fighter is still a good remedy for evil sorcerers like in most S&S stories, some how this usually doesn't seem to work out in games and this time it might. So from me for the Valdorian age.