Doc

Hi, I just read the Force Field power description for the first time. It is said that the force field protects only the character and is foci; nothing else. So I just wondered, if, let's say, a fantasy character receives a fireball su' 'a gueule while protected by a force field, he could be entirely protected but would find himself totally naked after the blast? P.S.: This is a half serious question...

Hi everybody, I'm trying to build some arsenal for a mecha game and I was wondering if there was any ressources for building missiles. I know I could just build it as a RKA with a zone of effect, but if I do, all of my weapons will just be the same, as I already have lasers and 20mm machineguns. I had thought to build it like an explosive little flying vehicule. Any suggestions on how to do this well? Is it too complicated regarding the effects and benefices? What are your suggestions? And for the homing missile? Thank you very much.

Re: Low-Action Hero? Come on, Thia...

Hi everyone, Just like my title said, does anybody know about Polaris, the RPG? I wanted to share about it because it is quite unknown in North America but would deserve far more attention. This is a PA type universe where the earth has been nearly completely destroyed. To survive, humanity had to settle in the depth of the planet's oceans. The surface world still exist, but is more like a hell to anybody except for the mutants and monsters that didn't go to the water. It has a very complex and complete political and social background, with states and religions. Some people have developped a strange mental power called the "Polaris effect". But most importantly,humanity has gone sterile. Only one person on ten can now reproduce and it has a very profound effect on politics, society, economics and individual life as well. The depths are filled with pirates, slave traders, mutants, cyborgs, polaris handlers, military ships or comandos, religious zealots, crappy technology people exange to survive and ruins and lost bases of the ancient and now gone Genetician Empire. The system was nearly unplayable, but the setting is one of the most interesting I've ever seen and, moreover, a transition to Hero would be soooo easy and advantageous that I could restrain myself anymore in talking about this right here, right now. Unfortunatly, it is a european game and nearly all of it's products are written in french (wich may happen to be some flaw, here). I heard once that an english version had been printed, but never managed to find it. The autor is very messy; kinda published four versions (all with unplayable systems) with different publicators, bankrupting most of them... A version of the game was even freely available on his website for a couple of years. Anyway, here's the two main websites (in french) about it, for people who can read it. I'll keep searching for english versions as I guess most people participating to this forum don't speak french... Finally, I strongly recommand to take a look at the official website's image gallery to have a feel about the universe. Just click on "La galerie de Polaris" in the navigation panel to the left of the first link posted here. Have fun. http://www.polaris-site.com/forum/ http://www.scenariotheque.org/Document/info_jeu.php?f_id_jeu=80 http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polaris_(jeu_de_r%C3%B4le) http://www.chez.com/220665/aquatik.html (english summary available)

Re: Hypothetically and unofficially, what would you like to see in a Mecha Hero book? So, how is it going, Chriss? Are we soon going to enjoye the result of your hard work?

Re: What gives the "rightful" king the right?

Re: Deep Medieval RPGing I agree when you say most players are in fantasy and that most people mix adventure and excitement with fantasy. I still don't agree, though, saying it's the only way to get it. For exemple, in the game I talked about, peasants and lesser nobles didn't talk about sowing or milking. There were a war going on and it affected every people in some way and every character took a heroic part in it. There is realism and realism. Having a complexe social and political, realist, background doesn't mean characters can't do anything. The part that is fun with a character is that you don't really care for him to survive as much as you care for your own survival. I mean you can take risks with a character trying to do things totally nut (or heroic, dependin...) without really worrying to lose your house or to go to jail or to be killed... There is adventure and excitement in a realist background; you just have to thonk about it and do some research, just like you have to to get a realist background anyway... I don't pretend that a realist medieval background is a moral necessity for rpging; you just do what you want to. I just don't understand people saying that there CAN'T be any adventure in a realist way. Moreover, just to finish this, I also played a gamje where characters were all normal present people. It was a christmas special zombie game where we all had to survive with 75 points characters in the streets of Montréal now full with zombies! Very fun. Funny (because of the theme), but still very enjoyable and playable. Anyway, I'm tired and I'm going to bed, nah.

Re: Deep Medieval RPGing

Re: What gives the "rightful" king the right?

Re: Idea for a robot campaign Thanks!

Re: Star System Generation (Now at the RIGHT place :/) Well, I haven't read all of Hero books yet (in fact, I haven't even finish the core rule book yet ). is AFAIK a part of the hero system and, if so, is it found in the Star hero rulebook?

Re: Star System Generation (Now at the RIGHT place :/) True, but it is not the only factor. Some jovian moons do have volcanic activity but don't "keep" their atmosphere around because of low gravity, as they are partly or mostly made of water ice, wich is less massive. Another exemple could be mars, wich does not have an iron core to make gravity as high as on earth. Same rason. A world of very high gravity could keep them. Another way would be to have a lower solar wind, as it is (at least for the nearer planets) the main agent of atmospheric loss. It can happen too between different moons of a same planet if there are many. There are resonances between the revolutions of the jovian moons. It depends. Earth has a heatt reservoir provided it's relatively high composition in radioactive materials. Their decay keeps heating up the planetary mantle. This wasn't the case for Mars and now it's volcanic activity has stopped. Another way is tidal heating. Multiple tidal locks exerces a tension that can heat up a moon's interior, wich is the reason for volcanic activities in jovian moons. Well, I don't know if all those infos will be very usefull to TSandman, but, hey, it's my second Psychological limitation: cannot resist debating over scientific facts that is controling me right now. I like to do this because I can teach people something as much as I can learn from them. Think of me as a somewhat lesser Nyrath... Anyway, have fun!

Re: Low-Action Hero? I hope so, 'cause my DM is preparing such a game right now!

Re: Deep Medieval RPGing

Re: What gives the "rightful" king the right? The second, wich is also about your ruler being legitimate if BNP is rising and evil if not. The movie then explains why Pinochet wasn't such a "bad" guy to western powers...

Re: Lewis Carrol Hero MY HERO!!!! ... ... ... Ok, sorry, just drop it...

Re: Deep Medieval RPGing There is A Game of Throne, based on the Song of Ice and Fire saga. It's medieval, but centered on politics and it does not copy/paste the real historical period.

Re: Lewis Carrol Hero Of course it can work. Roleplaying is in our heads only; anything can work, provided some players who are also interested in it... Personally, I like the idea. I tried something once that could ressemble this. The players were ancient mysticall creatures living in the wood. They had to fight against ancient mysticall evils (because that's the way it has always been), but they also had to resist the arrival of human civilization, the new "order". Your idea make me think about this one because players were all fantasist creatures or characters. They wre all in another mindset than the classical human "adventurers"... Well, it didn't work, but only because of a bad system (AD&D, 2nd ed...). Moreover, the characters were all level 20 to reflect their mysticall and magical nature... UNPLAYABLE!!!! I want to retry this sometime in Hero system...

Re: What gives the "rightful" king the right? Arr, where should I begin? First, politics and power games never changed because they are part of human nature. What changed is the cultural canevas on wich this nature is applied. This means holding power is mostly a rapport de force (sorry, don't know how to say this in english) thing; suppress your opponents one way or another and then find a way to legitimate it by the canevas. You know, in politics, pretexts are like a** h***, every body got one. The difficulty is more in finding a way to force the other rulers of the world to accept the new one as a part of their club. If one play well with the canevas and, more importantly,if one can make him irreplaceable or too strong for direct confrontation, one can go on with it. Let me say it again: power is a matter of strength equilibrium and people consent may only matter as a part of this equilibrium, no more. Of course, in a fantasy world, you can rule the gruesome realities of politics don't apply... But I prefer those universe with political realism, exactly like in A Song of Fire and Ice. We played a two year campaign based on this universe, first via D&D and then with the D20 system based directly on the novels wich is called A Game of Throne. It was really cool as we played typical good nobles, kind of legendary white knights, in a world of real nobles, kind of a political snake pit, and, well, our characters cried a lot... In fact, the typical story that tells that a well managed and happy kingdom comes with a legitimate king, for wich the Lion King is the perfect exemple, propably isn't nothing more than the integration of classical propaganda... Anyway, sorry for being so long and to be such a spoilsport, but I still have this Total Psychological Limitation: cannot resist debating over political... issues.

Re: Star System Generation (Now at the RIGHT place :/) Ressources, well, mineral ressources should be proportionnal with the gravity of a planet, as it comes from its density. The more a planet is dense, the more it has mineral ressources and the higher is its gravity. Usually, the denser planets wil be nearer to the star. Terrain depends mainly on three things: is there an atmospher? Is there a hydrosphere? Is there a volcanic activity? Volcanic and tectonic activity will create large terrain features, while a dense atmosphere and a water cycle will smooth them. The presence of an atmosphere and a hydrosphere will also reduce the presence of craters on the surface. Well, hope this can help a bit. Keep up the good work!

Re: Low-Action Hero? I don't think Hero System has a problem allowing this kind of game. I think every system has a problem with it. There is a huge difference between the intensity and effort we put in describing combat and the rest of the game. A single combat may take several hours of game play and, if it is well managed, without the players ever becoming bored of it. I cannot find how I could get players enjoying several hours of, for instance, lock picking skill roles, even though I can prepare a lock so full of traps and counter measures it becomes sort of a character... Look at the Hero System rulebook (wich, by the way, I consider the ultimate roleplaying system ever), nearly half of it covers combat and powers. Powers may not be used in combat, but most of them are combat oriented... Moreover, searching and inquiring, though they are very interesting genres of game play, aren't fit for anything or any kind of players and are somewhat limited in all the possibilities of gaming. I often thought about "social combat" rules (I participated in the thread concerning this), but I feel it is not really what I am searching for. Maybe it's just one piece of a larger set of "non combat extended rules"... Maybe not; I don't know.

Re: PA / Star Hero related links about exo / cryptobiology If you read all the articles, you see that the melanine derives chimical energy from gamma rays and beta radiations (free neutrons). What's really surprising about this is the fact that those radiations are ionising ones, wich means they usually break molecules they hit. We already knew that melanine blocked UV rays, but there's a huge difference in destruction potential between UV rays and gamma and/or beta radiations. Anyway, I think this discovery is both "full of hope" (can I say this this way in english???) and terrifying. Indeed, this confirmes we can't never destroye life one way or another, but, on the other edge, this also means we could really see some radiologically mutated biological horror coming out from the zone... Anyway... Have fun!

Re: Low-Action Hero? First, I'm happy someone had the idea to talk about this, 'cause I have been thinking about this for a couple of months, or maybe years, without finding some definitive answers. Cheers and repped, bcaplan. My point is, even though I occured to have violence free sessions like you, guys, I never found a system or a way to play a system wich could define social, psychological, etc, etc, interactions/confrontations as well as combat. A violence free session is nearly a die rolling free session, too. It's not a bad thing per see, but I feel there is something lacking in this, like there is a real effort to detail combat, but not the rest. I often thought to GM a game with psychic powers a way that psychic confrontations could not be considered combat (no body damage, etc), like ruining somebody's reputation being an objective. Well, I don't really know the hole psychic system for Hero, but I feel it is also very combat oriented... Well, hope I'm not bugging you with this, 'cause I'm not really sure where I'm going with it. Anyway, let's just say that I'm interested in a violent free campaign, but never managed to find a way to make it as "interesting" or breathtaking as a violent one.

Re: PA / Star Hero related links about exo / cryptobiology Thanks, Steve, for moving my thread. And thank you too, AmadanNaBriona, for the positive feedback. I love positive feedback:D!!! See you.

Re: PA / Star Hero related links about exo / cryptobiology Argh... How do I move this to another genre, please?