Jachra

I attempted a search for this idea but didn't find much of note.

The short of it is that I want to run a game where, instead of handing out experience during the game at arbitrary points, I award experience for in-game events - another way to put it is that I want characters to earn abilities through TIME (composed of in-game passage of time) and EFFORT (composed of quality of training and the inclination of the student.)

A lot of in-game time will be passing in this game, characters will attend classes and be able to locate teachers and I want this to have a real effect on their development. I'm not worried about character gaming the system, I know what to look for.

I'm aware Hero emphasizes a more cinematic approach in general and I have indeed played it this way to great effect, but for this particular game I'm emphasizing a more realistic approach and casting balance to the wind, and I don't think Hero is necessarily anathema to it, but I only have some basic ideas of how to do this, and was curious to see if anyone else had tried it or if anyone else has constructive thoughts that would help me develop it.

This is a Heroic campaign and characters can only gain powers through events, for the most part (exceptions may be for mundane things that might be a bit pulpy, like, for example, being able to perch on a limb or building Mental Defense. These things would represent special training or the like.)

The only ideas I have at the moment are:

1. For each item or group of items (like physical stats, mental skills, combat stats..) arbitrarily assign a time scale to move up 1 level.
   
2. Assign a certain base time for each Real Point. You accumulate per ability (so a real point dedicated to Dexterity can't be switched over to Strength.) (My only real objection to this one is that point costs are based on how balanced the ability is rather than on how difficult it is to learn.)
   
3. The insane option: Scale the amount of time needed per level higher and higher each level, depending on what you want (so that instead of each level of Skill costing the same, each level costs an increasing amount of time.)
   
4. Option I'm not too fond of: A given amount of time provides a given amount of Experience points, add to characters as normal with restrictions. Classes and teachers are just an excuse that allows you to spend the points.
   

I understand this whole notion may be somewhat unpopular for some but it's what we're interested in doing - if you think another system is better suited, I'm curious to hear it.

At first I thought this was obvious. Telepathy, right?

However, then I saw that it would be easily blocked by mental defense AND was an active, intrusive sort of thing that alerted the figure.

For something that's a simple sense of the emotions around you, it's getting pretty expensive.

How about Detect Emotions, and it's possible to 'hide' ones emotions with an EGO roll?

(Otherwise, costs mount with Area of Effect, Invisible Power Effects (if permitted), armor piercing, 0 END, Persistent, OECV...)

(Note that I mean Jedi-LIKE. Not necessarily Jedi.)

Re: Disease Healing

Another method would be a Transform: Target into Target with the appropriate immunity. The problem with it is that since Transform counts against the beneficiary's BODY, not the BODY of the disease/ poison, you'll have to achieve a BODY score eual to twice the Beneficiary's (BODY +1). That's not too bad if you can take your time, but if you have a limited number of uses then you need to make sure you get it right the first time, which can get quite expensive:

 

30 Paladin's Touch: 8D6 Transform (Target into Target with appropriate LS:Immunity (improved Target Group, +¼) - BODY required = (Target's BODY+1) × 2); 1 Charge, All or Nothing, No Range, Immunity only works against the current ailment (Target can be reinfected or re-poisoned), -1; 150 AP; 30RP

I'm perfectly willing to have it target the disease instead of the person for the purposes of healing the disease (or affliction) alone and stab anyone who says I should apply it to other things. ;D

However, I'm thinking Dispel is probably the best option, thanks.

Re: Area of Effect Defense

*smack forehead*

Aid! Of course, what an idiot. Except Aid only increases existing powers and I'm technically not permitting armor as a personal power (at the moment. If I do later, it's as a solely cinematic thing that I wouldn't permit to be Aided except by equally cinematic excuses.)

Usable Simultaneously is an idea, except then everyone needs to pay the END for its usage... unless I permit it to be 'usable per day' instead of END and so available for a Charge.

Also, when Usable by Attack says it can be 'attached' to a target, does that obviate the Line of Sight issue or do I still need to apply the other various Advantage hurdles I would for the other UOOs?

A spell that provides magical defenses to party members.

Effect: Provides improved defense to the members. The party members should be able to attack, still, so Force Wall is right out.

So far, I'm thinking Force Field, Usable as Attack (so she's the one who pays the END), Multiple Targets (and throw in Ranged so the priest doesn't have to touch everyone in the party.)

Would Area of Effect: Selective be more appropriate, or is it simply a matter of choice?

Now, building a power to heal diseases is fairly simple.

However... what I want for my game is a healing effect where the target is the disease, not the character being affected by the healing, so a worse disease is correspondingly more difficult to cure (this is for fantasy magic, not actual medicine.) (This assumes transform.)

As a GM, how would I represent this?

If I assume all diseases are Powers, would I just need to have a Healing affect target the power? (Also, poisons.)

If I don't, and use a Transform, what then? Assign all Diseases an effective 'BODY' rating?

Re: Special Illusions

Grah, not another mention of cold iron. It's just normal iron, ah! ;D

That could do...

Re: Special Illusions

A Multipool perhaps? They all would be based on the same proficiency and would be affected simultaneously due to an Aid or Drain.

That, or a VPP.

They're definitely not mind-based, they have pseudo-substance of a sort (Fluff: Dream-stuff.)

Doo doo... I think setting a number of perception successes (that is, every point below someone's perception they get it by, cumulative) would do. And more powerful ones would have more flaws and be easier to spot...

Lessee...

20, and +1 to per rolls per 10 AP?

Maybe scale up the number required...

It wouldn't be by number of people, since one person would be able to dissolve one with sufficient time, and it shouldn't be immediate (they linger even as they're being poked at.)

See, now, I'm converting from something specific, and the illusions there are somewhat faerie-like (depending on where you get your faeries from, anyway.)

It works like this: They are capable of affecting the world around them, but with a limit.

A sword made with it will deal damage, but the wounds inflicted will vanish if the person notices the 'flaws' in it (death as well, the person will wake up with a jolt in a few seconds.)

A bridge will support weight and permit people to cross, until enough of the flaws are noticed that people suddenly realize it isn't there (and anything remaining on it will fall.)

Wings so created will permit someone to fly, gills to breathe underwater, so on.

Something changed and left alone, out of sight of anything with a mind, will (unless special circumstances intervene, like being in a faerie land) vanish shortly.

Also, any application of the same ability to remove the changes will work effortlessly.

...so... I think it's a Major Transform, but I have no idea what limitations it should have. Or if Transform is even the right path to take.

Re: Kung Fu Animals

Just because there are anthropomorphic animals doesn't mean they're the only kind around. Just because humans exist monkeys, lemurs and apes didn't just vanish off the face of the planet.

 

Example: From Fur Will Fly

 

At the very least, it's worth a chuckle.

I was thinking of JUST THAT PAGE when this topic came up. I salute you, Sergeant.

And it could go either way, the anthro/not-anthro thing. That comic juxtaposed it well. Another example was the cat lady who liked keeping cats; not for the obvious reason (she's a cat! Durf) but because she felt it helped her get in touch with herself and her instincts. The (somewhat silly) idea in that comic is that all sorts of creatures had evolved to bipedalism and intelligence (while their cousins didn't, just like apes on Earth,) all except for apes, who remained primitive, thus the human from Earth being the odd man out.

Re: Martial Art For Review

Block uses OCV to be defensive. Every little bit helps. (It is, also, perhaps the most vital martial maneuver there is, since block is pretty potent.)

Is there any restriction about making a move-by martial maneuver? Cuz that could really come in handy. frankly, the creation process of Martial Arts always seemed a little non-transparent compared to much about Hero.

Re: Kung Fu Animals

I was going to recommend Jadeclaw as well. The system is a little shaky' date=' but it has a whole ton of background & setting info. You could easily make the different careers into Package Deals. They handle the "food problem" by making lizards non-sentient. Except for snakes.[/quote']

Or if you aren't particularly fond of pigs and cows and don't mind them being the odd ones out..

 

Or you can have it the weird way, where there are 'normal' critters alongside the anthros.

 

Mine doesn't have anthros, but carnivores very clearly are okay with eating other sapients. Some have problems with it, but some creatures are either sufficiently alien (or mindless insects) that they don't bother thinking about it.

 

Could always eschew the diets... If you'll notice, in Kung Fu Panda, even the carnivores were eating Po's noodle dish.

Re: Small Stuff

Anyone can feel free to kick my butt on this and/or provide suggestions.

Speaking of oddities, why is a frigate lighter than a bulldozer on the chart? Whacked.

What chart?

The Strength Chart. A frigate is noted as being less heavy than a bulldozer.

 

Anyway, 450 grams dragging...

Well, in general, how much can someone drag compared to lift?

Re: Small Stuff

Vivid mental vision of a rat doing benchpresses.

That is both hilarious and entirely possible.

An exerpt from my notes:

For the little people, things can get complicated. For the most part, societies are impossible because large predators will, inevitably, be drawn to the concentration and dispense with much of the population.

Mice and rats tend to arrange themselves along family lines, with a family maintaining a Holding (a tree, a burrow). Regardless of the rodent, most Holdings will be fairly well furnished for comfort and a modicum of defense (depending on the situation.)

Mice especially tend to be somewhat laid-back and easy-going, letting all manner of creatures stay for a spell (“Are you sure you don’t want another bowl of porridge?”); amusingly, they’re sufficiently lazy most of the time that they have little interest in forming larger societies even when it's possible, preferring to pursue their own lives. Mouse Holdings are especially comfortable, and rarely does a generation go by without more than a few mice who are known for puttering around the house fixing things or adding expansions. The rare mice societies tend to be for a specific cause (maintaining an important site, defense against particularly voracious predators, so on.)

Rats also typically lack regimentation, if only because they’re less trusting. Trying to tell a rat what to do is asking for a punch in the face unless you either greatly outmatch him (and watch your back then) or if you can show him how it’s in his best interests (and even then he might not trust you.) Every once in a while, however, a particularly clever and/or brutal rat will rise to a position of power and become a Rat King, swelling in size (and just as much ambition.) While many rats will have nothing to do with the new order, most rats will follow, and neighbors had better watch out.

Shrews do what they damned well please. You want to keep your eyes in your sockets? Stay out of their business.

Naturally, these stereotypes are not always true (there are meek shrews, vicious mice, and trusting rats) but most people assume it to begin with.

The players will be allowed to choose any sort of critter from about the size of a small mouse to a badger (though anything larger than a rat will lack manipulatory ability, and any non-mammals will be alien in terms of personality.)

Re: Small Stuff

That's not quite right, a human is 1 hex tall (a hex being 2 meters.)

Digging around online, I got a mouse's maximum speed (generally) as 11 feet per second, which is 132 per turn. At SPD 4 (a fast mouse, obviously) that's 33 per phase and 16.5 combat. If I presumed two feet was a hex, then that comes to 8" x2 noncombat and SPD 4 for normal maximum.

Anyway, 20cm is... er... about .6 feet... Still, 2 feet seems roughly okay, a human standing up does not come anywhere near encompassing a 2 meter area after all... not unless he's especially rotund. Anyone can feel free to kick my butt on this and/or provide suggestions.

Speaking of oddities, why is a frigate lighter than a bulldozer on the chart? Whacked.

I have, however, hit a snag in terms of STR

Basing it on 100 grams = 10 str is a bit off the mark when I convert it to human (humans being 8x the length of a large rat, that gives them +45 str... 50 metric tons, converting to 50000kg, which have become grams, and 50000g is 50 kg, so a bit short of normal 10 STR.)

If I assume a smaller rat (for x16 size for a human) then they have +60 str then all of a sudden it's 400 kg.

I s'pose the easy option would be to tweak the size-templates a bit, that doesn't sound so bad.

First, though: How much CAN a rat lift? And would it be better to work with 8x or 16x for human-size?

(Hmm, an average brown rat is 350g...)

Re: Small Stuff

Good to know.

What scale would be good? Anyone who's done this before who can offer advice would be welcome.

...say, about how fast does a rat run, anyway?

Re: That is not dead which can eternal lie

yep or maybe a MUTT WILLIAMS adventure

God no.

GOD NO.

Saints preserve us from that horrible fate.

It could be the focus of a cool adventure, certainly. However, it was only forty years, not a hundred, so that kinda loses some of the glamour... it wasn't even before World War II.

In the vein of The Rats of Nimh, the protagonists are going to be small animals of varying sorts (albeit not in a Redwall/Ironclaw sense. They'll have houses and such but be curiously normal.)

What's the easiest way to do this? The Small Creature rules make more sense if small critters are pretty rare, but since the majority of creatures and characters will be small-scale I don't want to have to constantly repeat them.

Would it be better to set 'normal' at, say, rat size and then have everything else work from there? Make the Inches on the board actual inches (Though that may be too small. Six inches? I don't have a rat on hand to compare.)

Or would it be better to just suck it up and apply the template so I don't have to mess around with movement rates? (My main concern is that an entire battle could take place in just one hex at this scale, though, and it could be tricky for new players.)

A power to inflict LTE.

Would this just be an attempt to overwhelm someone's REC by Draining END?

First: A power to inflict LTE.

Would this just be an attempt to overwhelm someone's REC by Draining END?

Second: Endurance Reserves. Do they normally acquire LTE?

Re: Star Wars Campaign (Ideas/Stuff/Work)

Yeah, I was going to have them go through a smuggling crew, they just make payments (at inflated prices.) However, there will be a chance the smugglers will get caught every month or so.

Sure, Liaden.

Re: Star Wars Campaign (Ideas/Stuff/Work)

Cool, thanks.

I'm starting up a Star Wars game (sort of a Dirty Dozen/Black Sheep Squadron, or, to draw in-setting, an early Wraith Squadron thing) and am looking to hammer out some additional details.

http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=962106

Despite posting it on those forums I am NOT, in fact, aiming to use d20. Just want to canvas a large number of people. Sadly, they're a useless bunch.

Still have a lot of work to do. Suggestions, ideas, and stuff would be most appreciated.

CHANGES:

Players will only begin with a sidearm, a datapad, a stack of datacards, and a flight suit, as well as relevant 'archetype' items. 'Securing' their X-Wings will be their first mission.

Working out costs for repairing damage.

Gthroc will not require maintainence costs (will have a month's supply of minor parts, light bulbs and fuses and stuff, but only really requires minor work now and then.)

Wondering what food supplies should cost. Probably 20cr per person per week if you want rock-bottom MRE style crud. Water can be recycled.

Re: X-Wing

Smashing point, the whole 'range' thing.

What's a good Dexterity to go at?

I'm really stuck with it being Size 8, given that's about how big an X-Wing is, and -5 is a chunk. They're s'posed to be hard to hit, after all, and almost any schmuck can hit something at DCV 2 (if I, say, set it to the Dexterity to 20 or went at maximum Combat speed and used that.)

Oh, also, would DCV-dedicated 5-point CSLs apply to snubfighter combat?