Ragnarok

Re: What's in a Name? Going along with what a few people are already saying here, from my studies, the Norse "troll" really only refers broadly to evil or mischievous spirits/creatures. The "big, ugly, dumb, regenerating" trolls many gamers envision is really only the production of fairy tale illustrations and decades of pigeon-holing by the RPG community.

Re: Spells As Skills I think this approach requires a bit of basic gaming experience to pull off correctly, which honestly shouldn't be hard for a GM. You should decide how accessible and how expensive a spell is based upon perceived game balance and your campaign setting guidelines. For example, if I were to run low-magic campaign (as I hope to do somewhere in the not too distant future), there would be a restricted number of spell "types" available. So probably not a ton of stat-boosters or quaint little cantrips for every occasion. They'd be at least mildly hazardous to your health (or perhaps your humanity,) would not be particularly reliable, and would carry a heavy social stigma (feared, persecuted, pursued by religious fanatics, what have you). That alone should discourage at least some munchkinry. Limited though spellcasters would be, the payoff would come in certain things that normal people just cannot do. Access to various secret factions, supernatural abilities, intimidation factor, etc. There's no way I'm handing a mage a superpowered facemelting tactical nuke fireball on the cheap. Because I'm smarter than that, I would probably come up with a "spell level" chart. This calibre spell category costs X, this costs Y, etc. This could be as simple as comparing basic standard HERO spells and categorizing them based on regular cost. I would also do a pre-campaign test run with a spellcaster armed with a certain spell vs. a swordslinger of comparable point cost, and tweak cost from there depending on how the trials turn out. I see spells sort of as guns. I have a gun chart, with approximately how much a gun should cost. I compare a Glock vs. a Barrett .50 Cal. A Glock doesn't do nearly as much damage as a Barrett, but it has a lot more utility, mobility, and concealability. Likewise, a quick icebolt with very few negatives would have more utility than a difficult facemelting fireball. Putting more restrictions on the fireball should even it out to the easy but low-damage icebolt. Voila. Now to test it. What I think it boils down to is, this spell construction technique requires more pre-game thought and common sense to guage, but for me I think it would pay dividends in simplicity and effectiveness once the game started. I like the amount of control it gives me, and I like how it gives me the room to decide how spellcasters and swordslingers should size up.

Re: Spells As Skills Good idea, dmjalund. So I'm guessing that it's just left up to the GM's discretion to apply any mechanical SFX when necessary? (Armor piercing, aoe, etc) Sounds like an intriguing idea, and certainly one that would make my GM life a whole lot easier...

Re: Firearms in fantasy? @Kraven Kor - The only one who would be able to afford 6-8 pistols, let alone a musket, would be the king. The PC had better have a really, really, really good reason to have that much on him.

Re: Firearms in fantasy? Well my initial idea was threefold: Gunsmiths lived in the city. 99.99% (or something close) of the city's population was completely wiped out. One or two got away. They may have brought a couple tools to repair weapons but nothing to create them long-term. They, like all others, were concerned with primal necessities rather than technological innovation. Anyone from the city would be shunned by the rural communities that survived. Quarantine issue, etc.

Re: Firearms in fantasy? Brilliant, thank you! I also decided that that no PC will be a gunsmith, and that possessing one is a sign of status, and is so rare that the prospect of purchasing one would probably equivalent to purchasing a small plane in modern times. The King's hunters might have them, but they'd have to be pretty highly favored. Anyone else have comments or suggestions?

I've recently started to develop an idea for a dark, low fantasy game that hopefully will see use somewhere down the line. One of the things I'm trying to figure out is how firearms interact with fantasy games. I had thought about very limited use of matchlock weaponry. There would be a very finite amount of firearms in the world, as the only civilization that knew how to create and repair these weapons had been wiped out by a massive plague, and no one has dared exploring for plans or anything of that kind. Plus, any gunsmiths who had survived the plague are dying off now (old age.) A hit from a matchlock would do more damage than an arrow because of the sheer blunt impact effect, but I was thinking of several limiting factors; Reload time - full phase to reload? Activation roll - significant chance of misfire Unusable in wet conditions Inaccurate - OCV bonuses prohibited or severely limited, maybe even OCV penalties Loud - no stealth factor (a matchlock silencer would be pretty hilarious however) I would appreciate any input from those who have successfully or unsuccessfully used firearms in their game. Basically, how well (or poorly) did it mesh with your game? Was it overpowered? The idea here is to explore the possibility of a high damage exotic weapon to make it potentially rival a bow, but limit it so it's not too overpowered. Thanks in advance for the tips!

Re: How do fighters hurt/kill a dragon? In my campaign's latest (and first) dragon kill, I made sure the dragon had a very vulnerable spot where blades and such can sink in pretty deep. Big OCV penalties to hit, but makes the fight a lot easier when the caster is blinding/rooting the thing and the archer is hitting that weak spot. Don't make it glaringly obvious, but if they simply aren't getting it then a subtle GM nudge here and there should do. You should find it on the Draconic hit location table in the Bestiary, I believe.

Re: Omline Fantasy HERO: Campaign genre Indeed.

Re: Alas, no more Independent! Mages turning up dead in major cities, assassinated by a brotherhood of extremist mage-killers. Maybe some of the spiritual energy leaks out of the equipment once in a while (spectres, ghosts, etc).

Re: Alas, no more Independent! Hmm, I like the idea of the "CP drain" from people's "magical essence," I suppose. Would fit in well with dark fantasy. Makes the players think, "Hmm, is this magical sword I want worth the life essence of innocents?"

Re: Omline Fantasy HERO: Campaign genre Gritty, grim, realistic (as much as fantasy can get I suppose...), restricted use of magic/fantastic magical beasts.

Re: Omline Fantasy HERO: Campaign genre Dark Low Fantasy

Re: Campaign: Pulling The Fangs Nice. Does this mean we have torchwolf onboard? The time works for me. Narf, could you remind me again what the different rDEF values you wanted for my chain armor, helmet, and kite shield are? I recall you wanted values that were lower than the standard.

Re: On the Willful Killing and Maiming of NPCs Option 4 sounds like the most dramatic, and hence the most appealing to me. The PCs will have to choose between saving hundreds of innocents, or saving a character who could *potentially* set them up for beating back the invasion and saving millions, perhaps billions of lives. Moral conundrum indeed.

Re: Norse Campaign Journal Celox

Re: Norse Campaign Journal ...and the first female NPC was hit on within 5 minutes of introduction. Gotta love gamers.

Re: Norse Campaign Journal Many things to look forward to during the session tonight. Things are about to get much more complicated, as the PCs will (hopefully) see.

Re: Peasent Campeign notes, thoughts and reviews Ah, drat.

Re: Peasent Campeign notes, thoughts and reviews I'm intrigued. Online or face-to-face?

Re: New to Fantasy Hero

Re: Tremorsense Ah, Tremors. A classic movie.

Re: Secret Wars Campaign Log Jack's beautiful, brand new electric blue BMW Z4M has been destroyed by a hail of gunfire and various explosions. Heads will roll...

Re: Secret Wars Campaign Log Loa....bokor.... My zombie-dar is beeping...

Re: Secret Wars Campaign Log I do know that WRAS only had 1 BODY left after the gunshot, which probably meant it was stunned (gone offline? can machines be stunned?).