Yesman

Re: Combat Maneuvers Find Weakness ?

Re: Fate systems This is a pretty radical departure from the normal 3d6 hero dice mechanic, but here's one i've been toying with: 1. build a deck of cards for each player to simulate the probability of a 3d6 roll,.. should break down like this: [u]Roll Cards Total Cards[/u] 3 1 1 4 1 2 5 2 4 6 3 7 7 4 11 8 5 16 9 6 22 10 6 28 11 6 34 12 6 40 13 5 45 14 4 49 15 3 52 16 2 54 17 1 55 18 1 56 2. Each player flips a card out of his deck instead of rolling 3d6. Re-shuffle only after the whole deck has been played through, and between games... 3. Players with Luck, get to build a hand with a number of cards equal to thier Luck level +1. They then play from thier hand instead of the top of the deck. They refill thier hand only after the whole hand has been played. It's a little like Castle Falkenstien....

Re: Pirates {er, HEROES!} of Dark Water ! years ago Mindgames put out a Darkwater worldbook. I have no Idea if it's good or not, somebody beat me to it at the local gamestore... Might be able to find it on ebay.. http://www.pen-paper.net/rpgdb.php?op=showbook&bookid=2321

Re: martial art 2 1

Re: p.s.l. for hit location I ran a game and allowed it. The one character that really went whole-hog with the PSLs vs. hit loc. was one of the biggest damage dealers for a time. That seemed to be offset by the maneuvers, attributes, and other CV levels that were bought by other's in the group however, and it turned out to not be so bad... In the end PSLs aren't that much cheaper than some of the more specialized CV levels (which are a lot more useful). I should probably add, that this character's tendency to call head-shots was one of the factors in my move from an all-shots-hit-the-body-unless-aimed-somewhere-else-specifically campaign to one that embraced the hit location rules as written. Somehow that did seem to help with the notion that the head shots were a little unbalanced... The damage by hit location thread (below) kinda touched on this a little bit.. http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20893

Re: 4th Edition still OK for a NEWBIE? I could easily justify spending 8$ on just about any one of the old 4th ed. supplements. Getting the 4th. ed core book + multiple supplements for that amount is a honey of a deal. Hell, I've got 5th ed. and most of the fantasy and Champs supplements, and I'd still be very tempted by that deal.

Re: Hitting Versus Damage Oops again, I confused myself. The body x2 is from the head shot location, not surprise. In all of the above examples I gave the body should have been 22 (not counting armor of course, which would subtract from body before the x2 multiplier). Double oops, I was applying the head shot mod to bod before the stun multiple... The damage on a surprise head shot critical should only be 22 bod and 110 stun (assuming again, no rpd). I don't think I actually made that mistake when running the game... but it's been awhile and I'm rusty. moral of the story: "helmets save lives". maybe we should start a new thread on this? I'm feelin' we might be drifting from the original topic a little bit.

Re: Hitting Versus Damage ooops, you are correct. The medium crossbow did 2d6-1, not 2d6+1. Head shot damages would've been 22 bod, 220 stun on a surprise critical; and 12 bod 120 stun on a normal surprise head shot. oh, limiting the PSLs to 4 wouldn't have helped in the above example, all penalties for hit location are halved in a surprise situation as well..... Oddly enough, only one other character bought PSLs for hit location and that character didn't buy more than 3 or 4. It is a bit gross, however the campaign had run for a year or so by the time that character had the OCV and PSLs of the earlier post. And the character's were meant to be rather fearsome Special Ops troops for an elite mercenary company... and situations were rarely as optimal as that last post. as an asside here's how the character looked at the start of the campaign: http://www.smarmybastard.com/fshero/kfront.pdf and http://www.smarmybastard.com/fshero/kback.pdf here's how he looked 18-20 months later (I can't remember when we updated it last): http://www.smarmybastard.com/Lion/characters/RobinKerr.HTML

Re: Hitting Versus Damage I wouldn't think that determining damage from skill would have to alter the hit location rules any. It does open up a nasty combo for sneak attacks though. In the last FH campaign I ran, I used the made-by-less-than-half-does-max-damage rule. One of the characters developed an OCV of 8 (I think) with crossbows, and also bought off 8 points worth of hit location penalties with the crossbow. Most of the enemies they fought had CV's around 3-5, which became 1-2 when unaware of incoming attack (happened a lot, the party put great emphasis on stealth and recon). The result was about 1 in 4 opening-shots doing 26 points of body and 260 stun (x5 for the head, x2 for a surprise attack), with the other 3 in 4 averaging around 16 bod and 160 stun. Granted this was with suprise, no other penalties to OCV, and takes no armor into account. It got to the point where I'd feel bad for any sentry-types that a scenario might call for.

Re: Hitting Versus Damage I had a house rule for dealing with this kind of thing in a GURPS game I ran a few years ago. The systems are close enough for it to work with a little tweaking. pretty much every attack die 'rolled' the amount the attack was made by +1 (with a maximum of 6 on each die of course...). example: Thrax Axor hits Dirk the Dark with his mighty hammer (2d6 damage). Thrax has an OCV of 5, Dirk's DCV is 3. Thrax needs a 13 or less to hit Dirk. Thrax's player rolls an 11, beating the roll he needs by 2 points. His mighty hammer does 6 points of damage. There's more to it under the Tim's house rules for damage at http://www.smarmybastard.com/spellslingers/rules/combat.htm if the server's up... If the server isn't here's pretty much all of it: Basically the damage done by called shots will be dictated by how well the governing combat skill was made. The die rolls will be replaced with a variable directly related to the amount of success in the attack. The formula breaks down as follows: D=((S+1)*A)+M Key: D = Damage of the attack. S = Success, or the amount by which the skill involved in the attack was made. A = Amount of dice involved in the damage of the attack. M = Modifiers to the dice involved in damage. Notes: 1. If S is a value higher than 5, S should be amended to 5 for purposes of this formula. 2. To avoid confusion, dice with multipliers should be converted to a straight number of dice. 3. The success of the skill should be figured after all applicable modifiers are applied. This only applies to called shots. The following situations are examples of when an attack is random enough to necessitate randomly rolled damage. Excluded attacks: 1. Any attack rolled randomly for hit location. 2. Called shots that miss, but hit some other location. 3. Burst fire. 4. Wild Swings. 5. Area affect attacks not centered on the victim. To simplify things, in any aimed attack (read called shot) the amount rolled on all dice is considered to be the amount by which the attack was made plus one, up to six points of damage per die. Normal pluses and minuses to damage are handled the same way they always were, as are all modifiers for the type of wound.

Re: Where are the low fantasy worlds? I'm wrapping up (or putting on hiatus) about a 21 month low fantasy hero game next tuesday, I'd point to the web-page, or forum board for it, but there isn't that much to see..... It was a low fantasy late 12th century take on Holistic Design's Fading Suns universe with a lot of player added fun stuff thrown in. ah, what the heck, what little there is to see is at: http://www.smarmybastard.com/lion/

Re: Meters or yards or feet? I think someone once pointed out that a fathom is roughly 6.5 feet. It makes a handy replacement for inches and hexes at the gaming table. Or paces (5 feet) are close enough.

Re: Could somebody check this spell for me? Something else I think I just noticed... a usable by others power like this has to have the End cost paid per character using the power right?

Re: Could somebody check this spell for me?

Re: Could somebody check this spell for me? To save peoples vision, the limitations on both powers in the compound are largely the same. That's kind of the crux of the legality issue, I'm not sure if it's really double dipping or not with some of them (the gestures, incantations, etc...). I don't think it is.

Hello, I'm away from my books at the moment, and was wondering if someone could please spend a moment to look over this spell to make sure the crunchy bits match the intended effect, and that it's not blatantly illegal (I'm running the game, so I can be a little off .. ..) A point I may have immediately noticed myself.. are RSR penalties based off of the highest AP in a compound power, the total AP, or require a roll against each power? Absorb Mystical Energies Cost to Learn: 12 End to Cast: 8 Time: 1 Full Phase Skill Penalty: -8 Range: 185" The wizard summons a field of magical protection around herself and up to 7 allies. The field has a Power of 3d6, rolled when the spell is cast. While protected by a field a character has 1/2 the Power of the field as resistant defenses vs. Magical Energy attacks, and regains up to the Power of field in End from any Magical Energy attacks. The power of the field fades away at 5 points per Turn, but the field can be "strengthened" by repeated castings to a Power 18. Maintenance of this spell is extremely taxing and requires the caster to weave convoluted gestures and maintain a steady chant, this complexity of action reduces the caster's DCV to 0 while she is maintaining the spell. A set of rune-carved fingerbones is expended with the casting of this spell. Cost** Power END 12** (Total: 78 Active Cost, 12 Real Cost) Absorption 3d6 (energy, End), Ranged (+1/2), Usable Simultaneously (up to 8 people at once; (+1 1/4) (41 Active Points); OAF Fragile Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -1 1/2), Requires A Skill Roll (Black Sorcery; -1/2), Extra Time (Full Phase, -1/2), Concentration (0 DCV; -1/2), Incantations (Requires Incantations throughout; -1/2), Gestures, Requires Gestures throughout (-1/2), Costs Endurance (Only Costs END to Activate; -1/4), Limited Phenomena (Magic; -1/4) (Real Cost: 7) plus Armor (0 PD/9 ED), Ranged (+1/2), Usable Simultaneously (up to 8 people at once; (+1 1/4) (37 Active Points); OAF Fragile Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -1 1/2), Limited Power Only up to half of the amount absorbed (-1), Concentration (0 DCV; -1/2), Extra Time (Full Phase, -1/2), Requires A Skill Roll (-1/2), Gestures, Requires Gestures throughout (-1/2), Incantations (Requires Incantations throughout; -1/2), Linked (Absorption; -1/2), Costs Endurance (Only Costs END to Activate; -1/4), Limited Phenomena (Magic; -1/4) (Real Cost: 5)* 8 Powers Cost: 12 and I have got to think of a better name for this dog.....

Re: A troubling Ambrethel issue. Doesn't the Trade Tongue kind of take care of the need for a common language ? (at least within the westerlands)

Yeah, thanks for reminding me of that.... I've seen a few episodes of the anime.... I wonder if I can find the old Dreamcast JoJo's BA game?........

Thanks again guys,... here's the fruit of my labors..... now for the hard part: Detailing 22 Summons and 48 Ultra Slots from the Tarot........ Tarot Player: Val Char Cost 10 STR 0 15 DEX 15 13 CON 6 15 BODY 10 18 INT 8 15 EGO 10 15 PRE 5 18 COM 4 3/18 PD 1 3/18 ED 0 4 SPD 15 6 REC 2 26 END 0 27 STUN 0 6" RUN02" SWIM02" LEAP0Characteristics Cost: 76 Cost Power END 20 Tarot Reading: Retrocognitive, Precognitive Clairsentience (Sight Group), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (90 Active Points); OAF Fragile (-1 1/4), Precognition/Retrocognition Only (-1), Vague and Unclear (-1/2), Restrainable (-1/2), Gestures (-1/4) 0 61 Summon Major Arcana: Summon 400-point creatures, Loyal (+1/2), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Expanded Class of Beings Limited Group (+1/2) (200 Active Points); OAF Fragile Expendable (Easy to obtain new Focus; Appropriate Tarot Card; -1 1/4), Restrainable (-1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Variable Limitations (requires -3/4 worth of Limitations; Either takes a full, delayed phase, or has a random summon; -1/4) 0 18 Minor Arcana Effects: Multipower, 60-point reserve, (60 Active Points); Variable Limitations (requires -3/4 worth of Limitations; Either takes a full phase and delays a segment, or has a random slot; -1/4); all slots OAF Fragile Expendable (Easy to obtain new Focus; -1 1/4), Restrainable (-1/2), Gestures (-1/4) 96 placeholder for 48 ultra-slots with 60 AP each: Custom Power (96 Active Points) [Notes: one slot for each of the minor arcana cards, 2 RP each.] 10 24 Armored Clothing: (Total: 35 Active Cost, 24 Real Cost) Armor (5 PD/5 ED) (15 Active Points); OIF (-1/2) (Real Cost: 10) plus +10 PD (10 Active Points); OIF (-1/2) (Real Cost: 7) plus +10 ED (10 Active Points); OIF (-1/2) (Real Cost: 7) Powers Cost: 219 Cost Skill 4 +3 with Gambling, Slieght of Hand, Concealment (9 Active Points); Limited Power Power loses about two-thirds of its effectiveness (Only when cards are involved; -1 1/2) 5 +1 with DCV 0 AK: USA 8- 1 CK: Las Vegas 8- 3 Acting 12- 1 Language: Romany (basic conversation) 2 KS: The Occult 11- 0 Climbing 8- 3 Concealment 13- 2 Gambling (Card Games) 13- 3 Sleight Of Hand 12- 3 Conversation 12- 3 Deduction 13- 0 Native Language: English (idiomatic; Literate) (4 Active Points) 0 PS: Fortune Teller (Everyman Skill) 11- 2 PS: Gambler 11- 5 KS: The Tarot 15- 3 Streetwise 12- 3 Analyze: Fortune Teller Clientelle 13- 0 Paramedics 8- 3 Persuasion 12- 3 Analyze: Gamblers 13- 0 Shadowing 8- 0 Stealth 8- 0 TF: Small Motorized Ground Vehicles Skills Cost: 49 Cost Perk 1 Reputation: Renowned Fortune Teller (A small to medium sized group) 14-, +1/+1d6 Perks Cost: 1 Cost Talent 5 Eidetic Memory Talents Cost: 5 Total Character Cost: 350 Val Disadvantages 20 Normal Characteristic Maxima 10 Reputation: Inveterate Gambler, 11- 10 Dependent NPC: Ex-Wife Shelia Loreano 8- (Normal) 20 Psychological Limitation: Code Vs. Killing (Common, Total) 15 Psychological Limitation: Compulsive Gambler (Common, Strong) 25 Hunted: Vegas Mob 8- (Mo Pow, NCI, PC has a Public ID or is otherwise very easy to find, Harshly Punish) 15 Unluck: 3d6 5 Money: Poor 5 Distinctive Features: Winged Pig tattooed on left forearm (Easily Concealed; Noticed and Recognizable; Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses) 15 Social Limitation: Public Identity (Frequently, Major) 10 Physical Limitation: Nearsighted[Needs Corrective Lenses] (Frequently, Slightly Impairing) Disadvantage Points: 150 Base Points: 200 Experience Required: 0 Total Experience Available: 0 Experience Unspent: 0

wow! thanks for the ideas guys... I love the thought of assigning classes of powers to the 4 suits. I just found my project of the week. thanks again, tim.

I'm working on a champions character with Tarot based powers. So far, I've come up with a Summon Arcana power (a summon based on having the appropriate card from the Major arcana handy)...... then i'm stuck, complete char-gen block..... that summon managed to eat up about 80 points. I typically don't spend more than around 50 to 75 points in attributes, and around another 50 to 75 in skills, so I'm swimming in character points. Can anybody help a brother out with 120-170 points worth of Tarot themed powerage?....

The method I use is to award 1 pt. per session. That point has to be spent on something that the character did that session, either an ability actively used or roleplaying time spent in study or practice. That point also has to be allocated before the next session. After every story arc, I award a bonus amount of cp that can be used on anything. (usually this is 1/2 the number of sessions in the arc + 1 for every important goal the party has managed to accomplish, be it a goal set by their commanders, or one they set for themselves..). I also occasionally hand out free social perks, reputations, contacts and the like, whenever appropriate. It's been about 1 1/2 years since the game started (that's the real time, 8 months or so in-game), and the highest point character has gone from 150 pts to about 255-260 or so. I guess that total might be a little high, but they tend to be very well rounded characters.

Hello, One of the players in a game i'm running has a familiar, the player already has a mindlink with it, and the ability to use clairsenteince to "see through its eyes". He wants the ability to cast spells from the vantage point of the familliar, regardless of where he is. How would any of you guys model that??

How do people handle the Roll with Blow manuever in games without knockback? To summarize the manuever, it allows a character to abort to taking 1/2 damage, but the character takes an extra die of knockback...

Hello, If a character has a power with a Required Skill Roll limitation and a naked power advantage that adds to it, do the active points of the naked power add to the skill roll penalty? for instance if character with a 30 pt EB. has area affect radius as a Naked advantage (another 30 pts active). is the -1/10 skill roll made at -3, or -6?