BubbaDave

March 31, 2010

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.

March 9, 2010

Re: Real Locations that should be fantasy

If we ignore the environment' date=' maybe it will go away.[/quote']

What's the environment ever done for me, anyway?

March 7, 2010

Re: Anyone running any online games?

I got my HDD back' date=' they could do the backup - unfortunately the moron who did the work didn't think I wanted the new HDD in the same format as the old HDD and gave me it all on NTFS, where the old HDD was formatted FAT32. Gee... maybe there's a REASON for that. So, after yelling at him LOUDLY and talking much more calmly to his manager I got refunded the labor, and have to get all the data copied manually tonight[/quote']

IIRC you're a Mac guy, right? So I assume you're using FAT32 to make your drive writeable when booted into MacOS -- if so, I'd take a hard look at NTFS 3G for your Mac. It's running in userspace instead of kernel space, so it's a small performance loss, but it would get you up and running right now and you could convert to FAT32 later if you chose. Just a thought.

February 27, 2010

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.

February 24, 2010

Re: Alchemy

So how am I do design an alchemist and keep it book legal according to 6e?

He'll basically have a pool of points which allow him to create a certain number of potions, salves, unguents - whatever out of play and in a lab which As he goes through the scenario he can pull some out and use or give to friends as required. [snip]

What advantages and limitations do I need to do this? Do I need trigger?

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.

February 17, 2010

Re: battle Wear vs. Town Wear

And players want to play characters who do not depend on such heavy arms and armor to survive combat - back to the 'Mage' date=' Monk, and Rogue bonus' issue.[/quote']

That wasn't actually how it worked out. Instead, the players used their brains. For example, in one adventure when they decided to break into the warehouse where the secret temple was hidden, they loaded the Scots man-at-arms' plate mail into one cask, loaded the fully armed and armored dwarf fighter into another, marked both kegs "brandy," and drove a wagon with some real casks as well as the special brew to the warehouse shortly after sunset. The night watchman was eager to take the mistaken delivery from the drunk-seeming "teamsters," chained up the guard dog, stepped inside the warehouse to show the "teamsters" where to unload the merchandise, and discovered that a small keg of beer can give one a headache in multiple ways, especially if administered by a large Scotsman eager to get back into his DEF7 security blanket. A bit before midnight-- a temple destroyed, loot gathered, and number of would-be demon summoners having found their cult membership followed by dismembership-- the wagon proceeded back to the inn. The next day the wagon left town, with the rest of the party berating the dwarf and Scotsman for having purchased so much alcohol even they couldn't drink it all; if the gate guards were more interested in the small cask of beer the adventurers left them than the larger "brandy" cask full of loot, well, that's nobody's loss except the taxman's....

February 17, 2010

Re: battle Wear vs. Town Wear

Explain Washington DC to me then' date=' that place has a murder rate that puts any fantasy city I ever designed to shame.[/quote']

Sorry, but this silliness needs to be slapped down with a quickness. The largest city in medieval Europe was Paris, population roughly 100,000 in the year 1300. The homicide rate in DC in 2007 was 30.8 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. Do you believe that medieval Paris saw fewer than three homicides a month? I call shenanigans.

February 16, 2010

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.

December 3, 2009

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.

November 24, 2009

Re: Alas, no more Independent!

Huh. To me' date=' what you're describing sounds more like the Focus limitation rather than the Independent limitation. [....'] It's the permanent CP loss that's adversarial, not that the character sometimes loses the use of the power.

Also consider that if you're not taking the character points away forever

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.

November 23, 2009

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

Two characters side by side' date=' one spent 16 character points to have some defenses that sorta stop killing damage. So that arrow instead of doing 8 damage, now does 4. The other character spent 2 points on armor familiarity and another 4 on two Defensive Penalty Skill Levels, 6 character points, not 16, and he gets a full 8Pd/8Ed resistant. That arrow bounces of the character with the 6 character points spent, and does significant damage to the other who spent 16. I would say that if it does NOT stack with worn armor, that would count for FAR more than a -1/4 limitation. It would have to be such a limitation as to make it cheaper than the 6 points spent by the character who simply wears plate armor.[/quote']

Push 'em both into the moat and see who feels more limited? Have 'em both sneak down the castle corridor? Put them both in the path of a rolling stone ball, with their only hope of escape being a running leap across that spiked pit? Awaken them both with an orc ambush in their wilderness campsite? Have evil ninja pandas ambush them during a ballroom dance? There are plenty of times when "I can take a lot more HKA without 40 pounds of ironmongery strapped to my torso" is worth serious character points, IMO. (And again: part of my job as a GM is to ensure that limitations are actually limiting-- and Real Armor is a limitation, after all.)

November 23, 2009

Re: Alas, no more Independent!

Odd thought: maybe villains sacrifice victims in order to harvest CP for enchantment...!

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? :eg:

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?

March 1, 2009

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.

May 8, 2008

Re: Were these left out, or no?

To clarify what I meant with the hoverboard though' date=' the difference is that the HOVERBOARD flies. A character can ride it, of course, and you'd be pretty justified in just treating it like the flight power with a focus. But in BESM, you'd be entitled to a TINY discount since the ability belongs to the board itself. You don't just touch the board and gain the independent power of flight. You just take advantage of its own powers of flight. That has several drawbacks. You could fall off of it and it could zoom away on you. It might not fit into a confined area. It's not the same as, say, magic boots that grant the CHARACTER the power of flight.[/quote']

That's generally handled in Hero through special effects; the item has the incidental advantages and disadvantages of its design. For instance, your hoverboard might allow Skat3RLad to carry another character away while both have their hands free to fire their lasers; the boots wouldn't. But you can't fly your hoverboard into a phone booth and close the door; for Captain RocketBoot, no problem. Special effects. Yes, the hoverboard is self-propelled and if you fall off you may have to chase it down later (or retrieve it via remote control); the flip side is you can use it to put Aunt Mary (your DNPC) on and send her flying away to safety while you stand and fight. Special effects.

The GM, of course, is the arbiter on what constitutes special effects vs new powers. In general, in my world, you use SFX once or twice in a clever way it's free. Three or more times, and you just added a slot to your multipower. (You keep using the hoverboard for other characters? Time to spend the points on Usable By Others.)

March 30, 2008

Re: More Abusive characters

Well' date=' this wasn't intended to be abusive, but if it hadn't been carefully managed and given the consent of the group it could have been. I had a character whose concept was thus: a scientist working on a neural-interface for a suit of power armor had an accident. The AI matrix was sufficient to store real intelligence. His body died, but his consciousness embodied the suit. He could make it walk and use its flight, but only barely (a physicak lim gave it DX6, SP2 for physical functions), and couldn't make effective use of its strength - it looked like an awkward marionette. This is because the servo-motors were really designed to be a muscle-assist system rather than an automated system. As a result, the suit still needed a pilot to be battle effective.[/quote']

Hmm.. I'd probably define the pilot as an IIF (Breakable, replaceable) and buy powers without the Focus limitation and buy characteristics (beyond a certain minimum) with the focus limitation. If the pilot gets killed, the hero/suit has to collect another Vanguard teammate and keep on trucking (or spend the rest of the adventure as Clumsy McShootMe).

March 30, 2008

Re: Limitation on Overall Skill Levels

Actually' date=' it would be 10 points down to 7 points (rounded to the character's favor) which to me is ... broken.[/quote']

See, I'd say that it would be incredibly unlikely to apply in combat, so I'd base it on the 8-pt "+1 with all non-combat skills" level. Just my $.02.

March 29, 2008

Re: Limitation on Overall Skill Levels

One is Overall Skill Levels. They would be limited though to situations were having Perfect Recall would be useful. What (if any) limitation would this be worth?

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.

March 26, 2008