BubbaDave

Re: Idea For Cool Magic Bag Or Thief Item I'd do it with Images vs Sight group and Touch Group (maybe smell?). Continuing Charges (2x 1 Day), Obvious Accessible Focus (bag), Extra Time 1 Turn (the clay gradually takes on the form of the object to be impersonated, while beads of sweat form on the thief's forehead and the footsteps of the patrolling guard come closer and closer....), No Range and Difficult to Alter. 22 Active Points, 5 real points.

Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy

Re: Anyone running any online games?

Re: Building an Urban Fantasy Setting A wizard's signature is the same as a body part for purposes of sympathetic magic, so wizards tend to be very wary of signing their names to anything; it makes it difficult to get along in modern society when the act of writing a check creates another thaumaturgical vulnerability for the magician signing the check.

Re: Alchemy In my campaign, I use individual recipes instead of a pool (and alchemists are HIGHLY motivated to find more formulae). I use charges, extra time to the tune of 20 minutes or more, OAF Bulky Fragile (the lab) and Trigger. Because it's a trigger, there's no limitation on how many the alchemist can keep active, so I have to monitor the total number of charges from a game balance standpoint.

Re: battle Wear vs. Town Wear

Re: battle Wear vs. Town Wear

Re: battle Wear vs. Town Wear In my world, assuming civilized areas, entering a town you have three choices: 1) All weapons longer than a dagger and all armor heavier than leather go into a chest in the gatehouse, you get a receipt, you get them back when you leave 2) All weapons longer than a dagger are peacebonded, armor heavier than leather goes into your pack (or you can hire this friendly fellow with a wheelbarrow) and you post a surety of two gold florins (roughly two months' wages for a laborer), forfeited if you're stopped by the watch while wearing armor or carrying usable weapons 3) You claim special status, either nobility or bearing arms on city, Church or Imperial business; you post a surety of two gold florins and a member of the watch escorts you to the city fortress or cathedral to confirm your status. Falsely claiming nobility gets you an extensive public flogging and the stocks if you survive; falsely claiming city or church business is more likely to lead to heavy fines or imprisonment. Of course, both Church and state have their share of corrupt officials, so it's entirely possible for you to bribe your way onto the rolls as a special agent-- and equally possible for an enemy to bribe your way OFF the rolls, much to your surprise.... The result is that city adventures tend to be heavy on intrigue and violent episodes tend to be stealthy, savage and short; characters are constantly angling for noble or episcopal patrons (who are in turn looking for reliable agents), and urban adventures tend to be more Gangbusters than Boot Hill.

Re: Alchemist Mobile Workshop I model alchemy slightly differently. The mobile laboratory is a Bulky Fragile OIF, and potions take the Extra Time -1 hr, Gestures, Incantations, RSR, Concentration, (usually) Side Effects, Costs END and 4-6 Charges limitations to go with the Trigger advantage. The Fragile disadvantage of the potions is pretty much compensated for by the ability to give a potion to another party member, and overall it fits my concept of alchemy as generally a finite resource within the limit of an adventure.

Re: Alas, no more Independent! I wasn't as clear there as I'd hoped to be. The item would be stolen or attacked (with frequency and strength of attack depending on the item's obviousness) on a regular basis, and the character would have a chance to get it back-- but losing it (and the points) forever would be a very real possibility. The more secretive the character was, and the more subtle the item's effect, the better the chance the character had to hold onto the item. My players with Independent probably had the items in their possession 3/4 of the time, but the other 1/4 was a desperate scramble to reclaim it, and almost every character with an Independent item lost it eventually. That said, I also enforced strict limits on Independent items. Max 30 AP, max 5 real points. I'd also let characters buy off the Independent limitation later, as they "attuned" to the item, but players rarely chose to spend points on "item insurance" when they could pick up skills and spells instead.

Re: Natural Toughness ability, how to balance...

Re: Alas, no more Independent! In Joel Rosenberg's Paladins books, the main characters are knights who carry powerful swords that were enchanted through human sacrifice, both voluntary by holy men and women who were willing to delay their entry to Paradise in the name of fighting evil on Earth (the "White" swords) and involuntary by condemned criminals (the "Red" swords). But the secret of creating those weapons is lost in the distant past... or is it? As a GM, I treated Independent as much like a DNPC-- the item will be stolen from you/attacked at some point every few adventures, and you're going to spend the adventure trying to get it back. I mean, the value of the Independent limitation was the same as an 8- Activation roll; if a character bought all his spells with an 8- Activation roll would you hold off on rolling activations because it felt adversarial?

Re: I need help with a Magic System Sounds like a textbook example of Variable Limitation: either the caster takes extra time or a tougher RSR and a nasty extreme Side Effect.

Re: Were these left out, or no?

Re: More Abusive characters

Re: Limitation on Overall Skill Levels

Re: Limitation on Overall Skill Levels I'd say -1/4, which makes your 8-pt skill cost 6 points. That's 1 pt more than just buying a +1 with all INT skills, and 2 pts less than if you had a +1 to DEX and PRE skills. Seems fair to me.

Re: 4th ed vet-- how different is 5eR? I thought about that, but at this point (c. 1420) the Western world mostly knew Greek literature from Arabic translations, especially for the medical works that would be of primary interest to this character. It may be on his "when I get more experience" list.

Re: 4th ed vet-- how different is 5eR? I thought about adding kabbalist magic to my campaign, but decided that four distinct magic systems were enough and kabbalist could just be another flavor of sorcerer. And I'll admit I don't have any idea what judeo-arabic and ladino are. This particular fellow was born in Cologne but fled after an incident involving a couple of thuggish sons of the leading families of the city (one died), and studied medicine and sorcery in Alexandria for a number of years before returning to Mainz. Right now his languages are Yiddish (native), German, Hebrew, Arabic and Latin plus a smattering of Italian and French. Any others that leap out as ought-to-haves?

Re: 4th ed vet-- how different is 5eR?

Re: 4th ed vet-- how different is 5eR?

Arkelos the Mage is trying to sneak the party into Lord Vile's castle, but there's a minion in the way. Arkelos casts a spell that causes the minion to doze off for a few minutes; when he wakes up, the minion thinks he fell asleep on his own and decides not to mention it to anyone or raise an alarm because Lord Vile's moat monster has been looking a little hungry and Lord Vile isn't one for sleeping on duty.... How would you build this effect? I was thinking a Stun Drain (so I can control recovery rate) plus Ranged and Invisible Power Effect at the +1 level-- is this the approved approach, or should this be tackled another way?

Re: 4th ed vet-- how different is 5eR? Okay, back to the Online Store I go. . You sure you're not on commission?

Re: 4th ed vet-- how different is 5eR? Thanks for all the advice. I just finished printing out my shiny new Hero System and Fantasy Hero rulebooks (yay PDF download and office printer/copier!) and I'm gonna dive on in. As long as I'm taking advantage of your good natures, what are your opinions of the other supplements? I'm gonna be running a heroic campaign based in Germany c. 1431 (yes, I *did* play too much Darklands back in the day, why do you ask?) with heavy Warhammer elements and have an IMHO fairly well-developed magic system, so I don't see things like the Grimoire or Enchanted Items fitting in well and the campaign worlds are right out. Martial arts are going to be pretty limited, so Ultimate Martial Artist is probably way overkill, and most of the other Ultimate series look very Champion-centric. Ultimate Skill, maybe? The Bestiary looks possible too, though I'm more likely to use my 4th ed bestiary and convert it. Opinions?

Re: 4th ed vet-- how different is 5eR? Wow, that's an incredibly useful link. Very cool. Now I just have to decide whether I get all spendy at the online store or go looking for local shops that carry Hero stuff. Thanks!