swestrup

Re: Simultaneous Clips That does seem to do it, but I find it rather strange that the standard rules can handle a gun with clips on one type of ammo, but go for a second type, and suddenly you need to resort to a VPP.

Re: Simultaneous Clips Yeah, but there's damn near an infinite number of types of ammo. Dark Champions lists something like 20, and I find as a GM that I'm always inventing new ones. Somehow this seems like a huge and never-ending amount of work.

I'd like to build a gun that takes two clips simultaneously. The clips can be of different types of ammo and the user can choose between then as a zero-phase action. Any suggestions?

Re: Shared Clips When you use the 5-points for 2x the number of items rule, I would adjudicate that the resulting items are by definition identical and can share clips. So, each gun comes with 4 clips in your build, and you have 8 total. If you want fewer total clips, then build each with only 2. Seriously, sharing clips in this way is at most a +0 advantage. If you want to go further and say that the guns can take some standard clip design and anyone with compatible ammo and clip can hand you one from their gun, then I'd let someone tack on a +1/4 advantage for 'standard NATO clips with standard NATO ammo' or the equivalent.

Re: Your Dream Projects For Hero Books There's a bunch of dream projects I'd love to do for Hero (or see done). 1) Metahero. This is a book about modifying the Hero System in ways not covered by the rules. It starts by taking all the characteristics, skills and powers apart and seeing what smaller elements they are made of, and finding new ways to combine then to form new powers and skills. I have a bunch of notes on this, but have never really gotten into it. 2) Ultimate Crafter -- The Fantasy Hero rules for making magic items are not only poorly designed, they place unfair penalties on a player. If a magesmith in a standar Fantasy Hero setting wants to make a wand that does a 1 1/2RKA with charges, he's expected to permanently spend character points in its creation. A gunsmith in the old west just has to make a skill roll to do the exact same thing. This book would look at a dozen different ways to build things, and how they might fit into different genres and campaigns. 3) Special Effect Mechanics -- Special effect interactions are supposed to be a major part of the game, like electrical bolts turning into area affect underwater. The trouble is, most GMs gloss over this as it takes too much effort. This book would provide a standard list of special effects, and rules for GMing interactions between them. It would also give rules for creating your own interaction matrix or modifying the existing one. 4) Hero Book of Damage -- A book that looks at the successes and failures of Hero's damage system and extends it with optional rules to cover cases that may turn up but aren't standard rules. Comparing attack to defense as all or nothing doesn't adequately model erosion, for instance, which is usually fine, but sometimes a problem. I've also gotten into arguments with folks about how much damage you have to do to destroy a planet, vs kill all live on it, vs drill a hole through it. I would also love to see a set of critical hit tables that don't simply 'disable' a limb, but actually impose game penalties on skill rolls or actions until healing is done. 5) Hero Book of Disadvantages -- When making a character, coming up with good disads can sometimes be difficult. I've been compiling lists of Physical and Psychological disads from off the net and I've found that when you give someone a list of several hundred disads to choose from, they find it much easier to think of some that fit their conception. ... and I'm sure there's a half dozen others I've though of over the years. For example, I'd love to see a skill chart that resembles the language chart in that it shows the relationships between skills and how points in one can count as lesser points in another. Actually, I'd love to see the language chart recast into a form that isn't so mind wrenching to figure out, and I'd put the skill chart in that same form.

Re: Cyberpunk Biochemical Injector That glosses over the very real desire to have the user have to keep track of how many charges of each vial he's used. Its part of the desired feel for the game. A VPP without charges throws that away, and I can't figure out a way to build a VPP with charges that does the right thing.

I am building a cyberpunk character who wants to have a cyber-implanted biochemical injection system. He would buy standard vials of various drugs (dex boost, rapid heal, stun boost, etc) and slot them into the three slots in his injector. At any time during a battle, he could use up a charge from a vial as a zero-phase action, and gain the benefits. My first thought was to simply buy the various drugs as standard drugs, and the injector as a naked trigger advantage with a few limitations of its own. The problem came when I tried to figure out the charges situation. If there was just one slot, I would buy the vials as 4 non-recoverable charges each and give the injector four charges to represent the fact that it can give four doses and then the old vial has to be ejected and a new vial inserted. I have no idea how to handle the idea of there been three slots. Its almost like having a gun that can hold three clips of different bullets at the same time. You can switch between them on the fly, but once you've used up any particular clip, you need to replace it. Any suggestions?

Re: Standard Limitation for a blowgun dart?

This should be simple to answer, but I've checked through all of my books and I can't find a single actual build for a blowgun. So, what is the value of the limitation on a poison: "Only if Dart penetrates defenses." I'm tempted to give it a -1, since a 1 pip attack usually won't penetrate defenses, but I suspect the standard is closer to -1/2. Does anyone know what the canonical limitation is?

Re: World of Darkness Characters. Thanks! I should have thought to check Surbrook's site first. Its a great resource.

I'm going to be running a cross-genre campaign in the new year, and I told my prospective players that they could play any character from any genre. One player has an existing World of Darkness character (a Vampire spellcaster) and would like to import it into the game. I have no objection, but I've never played Masquerade and don't know how things work in that system. Does anyone have any conversion tips, or examples of converted Vampires from WOD? Any help would be appreciated.