arcady

Re: Fantasy Hero PBEM I just gave myself a custom power called "House Rules cost adjuster" and then listed in the description of it what it was adjusting the costs to. For the character I'm making so far, it made my Int cost 3 more, and my speed 3 less... for a net of zero.

Re: Fantasy Hero PBEM We have to apply to your campaign, and in doing so submit it by character name and if we have one ready, Hero Designer file. It says the Hero Designer part is optional - do you have Hero Designer?

Re: Fantasy Hero PBEM Having said that there is nothing there up at HeroCentral, this would make a good thing to put up there... so that there is something there at Hero Central.

Re: Fantasy Hero PBEM There's nothing really there for Fantasy Hero though... It's all kind of funky... A DnD game (which doesn't belong there), a Harry Potter game, a post Apocalypse game, and a couple 'real world people dropped into this setting' games. And the DnD game is the only one taking people.

Re: Fantasy Hero PBEM Sign me up, providing the setting sits well with me.

Re: Bolstering the Fantasy Hero Grimoire I've a plan to start putting together an Apprentice's Grimoire, after seeing how overpowered the published ones were. The rules of this would be simple: Spells cap active cost at 45. In the options there can be a high powered version for up to 60 active and a low powered for 30 or less. Spells should have from at least 7 to up to 15 options. Spells should fit into one of the 'colleges' from the published grimoires, as well as the subcategories listed there. Spells should be posted in a manner to make them easy to input into Hero Designer (which I would then do). Once three spells have been done for a particular category-subcatory it is closed until all other basic categories have also hit three. From there we'd work it up to six, then nine, and so on. Basic categories would be offensive, defensive, movement, and miscellaneous for each of the colleges of magic listed in the two Grimoires. My plan was to kick this off here, and then start filling up a Hero designer prefab file with the entries. I've gotten somewhat sidetracked over the last month though, or I would have posted this a while ago.

Re: San'Dora Map Is Up It might be interesting to see whatever hand drawn or otherwise created "mess" you gave him to work with. :|

Re: What Would Your Fantasy Character Do? : Good Overlord Well I would wager my reaction is 'good' under the precepts of a class based soceity (social class, not DnD class). If this individual began doing what is suggested he would be disrupting the social order. Going after him however, would be a major sin. I forget whatever they call it when you kill a noble - for a king or queen it's regicide, and in the thinking of soceities with peerage that is a sin against god, the nation, and man. Unless I am playing a noble of equal or greater rank in the same realm, it is not just for me to intervene upon another soverign's will - be it good or bad. However, if he makes moves that will upset the status quo of social thinking and social justice, I will need to bring it to the attention of my own sovereign so as to allow him/her to oppose this madman and stop the spread of anarchy. People in a society with nobility often feel very morally attached to living properly within their social role - just look at the British who sit there and fund the world's most well known white trash family - because they happen to have crowns on their heads... For a peasant, I think of Samwise - always upholding his lord, Frodo - and by doing so being the moral hero. For a noble we can flip back to Frodo - striving to do best for his subject, but even when he doesn't it is out of place for that subject to take offense.

Re: What Would Your Fantasy Character Do? : Good Overlord Well since he probably isn't hiring anymore, what with all the standing up for the peasants and other animals crap, my PC moves on to the next politcal domain to seek work... Or if it was one of my noble PCs, maybe I'd just drop a few hints at court that one of the barons out in the countryside is setting a bad example that might lead to rebellion and discontent.

Re: Is patriotism a disadvantage? I would change this list to: If it entails the character acting differently than the normal assumptions of the genre. Thus in a four color game I would give zero points for a code v killing, and give some level of points for varying degrees of willingness to kill. In the 70s it would not be the X-Men who got the disad points, but Wolverine for being the odd-man out. It limits the options of the character in play, on a level of frequency matching that which was assigned for it. The player is responsible for ensuring this in how they play the character. The player is able to revolve both GM inspired and player inspired sub plots, plot hooks, and plot lines around it.

Re: [Campaign Setting] Lomyr - a nation in Fahla Trying to decide if there is too much land or not. [see attached image] Thoughts anyone? Lastly, why might the little area in the red box that is roughly over where Saudi Arabia is in our world might have better access to the oceans and the land that is between where Africa and South America lie than any kingdoms located to it's west on it's same continent. Failing a suitable reason, I might stretch a peninsula off some other part of that continent and do some rewrites. I got the Earth part of the map from here: http://www.evl.uic.edu/pape/data/Earth/

Re: [Campaign Setting] Lomyr - a nation in Fahla Races | Magic These two are Hero relevant additions to the above.

Re: Character Sheet Do you have a non pdf version that could be used to speed the process of a Hero designer coversion? Is that even possible given the nature of hero designer?

Fahla is the fantasy setting I work with. I've been developing it out in my fiction and then translating it over to gaming. Originally I started working on it in 2000 as an attempt to get my ideas to work for DnD, but that failed when I found I could not 'think the DnD way.' So I bought me a pre-built setting and went with that for DnD. Last year I began writing fiction, and when that started to get well received I thought about trying fantasy. Which meant I needed a place to set that fantasy, so Fahla was reborn, but now divorced from any need to be something DnD could handle. I sill need something like a good 'paragraph intro' for the world as a whole, and likewise for the nation of Lomyr. At the moment, I need to get Lomyr ironed out, figure out how religion works there, and find problems and inconsistencies in what I have. Things that are off the table: There will be no 'DnD races.' The theme under which magic operates is set in stone, already incorporated into a 'published' story. Here is what I have for Lomyr: http://home.pacbell.net/arcady0/fahla/Lomyr/Lomyr_intro.html Other links under the Lomyr menu are at the same stage of development as that one. The religion link does not work - I'll post that piece when I have something viable. Some of the gods are named in the calendar, those names are going to be replaced with something fitting what I've described for the language, and given better themes (and suggestions are welcome). The menu above the Lomyr menu is mostly 'noise' - ideas I jotted down for development, or attempts to work an RPG into the setting (rather than my old effort of working the setting into an RPG). Any thoughts? The fiction is here: http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/libr/b/r/brianfw2/ (Save that "First Object" is just a short poem not connected to this or anything else - the rest is based around this setting).

Re: What Da Hook Gonna Be? The first Thieve's World novel starts a few things there, but it came out in the late 70's (my copy even has Starbuck's hairstyles on the cover art, and I'm not talking about coffee) after DnD had been around for a while. Just to bust open the box on this one, is the nameless game DnD? Or are we talking about Runequest or Traveler here? My favorite idea for a beginning is to start right in the middle of an action scene, then play it out in time in both directions - description for the flashbacks to fill it in, and game play moving forward. Consider starting the campaign right after an area spell effect in the middle of a pitched battle robs the PCs of their short term memories and kills all allies fighting with them... They have to figure out the events of the last month, and how they got in the middle of a battle field. To make it worse, make the enemy someone who normally would be an ally under the presumptions of their mundane life - such as they're in a pitched battle fighting the church's knights, along side a pack of dead necromancers and heretics... The real way to do this one... don't have an answer, let game play find it. A lot of movies start in the middle of the action... and the idea of starting in a sudden flash where you don't know who you are, or at least why you are there is an old movie cliche. I think it's best when you're only missing part of your memory - enough to lack an answer for your current actions.

Re: Playing 3.5 after Fantasy Hero

Re: Playing 3.5 after Fantasy Hero Basic DnD does however, lack any tactical aspect to it - thus making it a lesser game to d20. You might as well just roll craps dice for a few hours - you'll have about as much control over the flow of play in that as in basic DnD. It is somewhat like the difference between tri-stat and Hero, only more so. Basic DnD is ultra simple with no play options and very little use for player skill. d20 is more complex, but its consistant nature will make it simpler than basic once you know its core norms - and player skill can become a major aspect of play. In both you have no need to ever bother with roleplay. You can if you want, but you don't have to if you just want a game, and both are tailored towards the players who bypass roleplay. If I had zero time to prep a game, with the players at the door, knowing both systems I would use d20 - I could get through character gen in the same time in both - the greater options of d20 are matched by the inconsistant rules of basic, and I could pull out npcs in the same time in both. Making a random dungeon is a universal process to any RPG, and playing though would actually be faster in d20 as no rule will ever conflict another and I will rarely trigger a need to consult a book. I won't need book lookup as much in basic as I will in ADnD, but I will need it anytimg I do -anything-, as there is no universal rule to the system. By contrast there are very few things I would need to look up in d20. Even half the spell descriptions can be skipped. So perhaps, while basic DnD appears to be more simple because it is smaller, I find it actually more complex because it lacks a consistant hand. Which is actually similar once again to the difference between tri-stat and Hero...

Re: Playing 3.5 after Fantasy Hero See my post on page one. d20 isn't really a fit for me either. I'm just saying it works better than ADnD. Consider if you did not already know ADnD very well - if you had to learn both from the ground up, d20 would more than likely be quicker. It has a consistant rules structure - everything works roughly the same using roughly the same rule format over and over. Playing with a mat helps combat visualization - any Hero player should know that - and d20 works with that. The options are more varied, especially for tactical / adventuring styles of play. The whole thing integrates in better with itself. I was never able to 'unlock' the arcane secret that is ADnD, and after about 3 years (april 82- dec 84) I found Hero and moved on (while I also had the GURPS of the day: Melee and Wizard, it was not yet a full RPG). So my experience with ADnD is similar in length to my experience with d20 (2000-pres). That said, while I still can't quote all the spells and feats of d20 to you, and never could of ADnD, I can tell you how a spell will work, and how a feat will work, and how a skill will work - and I figured that out in the first month because it is the same every time and with every one of them. d20 is more tactically minded - which means you will feel the challenges more. Player choice counts. Dice still overpower choices in d20, but they don't dominate them like they did with past versions. The wide variety of tactical options also allows players to get into the strategy and develop a 'skill' at playing the game well - as opposed to 'roleplaying well' (a skill you want to master in Hero what with the disads - you can be a master DnD player and never ever learn how to act in character, try that in Hero and you will be a sidelined player in many groups). Given the consistant famework once you understand it play will go at a consistant and decently fast pace - with little rule lookup getting in the way. Thus it is ideal for the dungeon crawl. By contrast in ADnD every single thing you did had a completely different unconnected rule and until you reached a level of book memorization you would need to be constantly looking things up. In addition play tended to merely involve no more than pick target and roll dice. No options or tactical manuevering involved - thus it was actually a poor play match to it's chosen style of the challenge based dungeon crawl (adventure gaming). I suppose if I had been playing ADnD throughout the whole period since 82, I would be an expert at it. But if one is new to both, it is easy to see that d20 is easier, allows for a wider spectrum of play, and does the style ADnD did even better (the dungeon crawl).

Re: Playing 3.5 after Fantasy Hero

Re: Hero System is Just Alright With Me

Re: Hero System is Just Alright With Me We all have different tastes, but one thing I will say and be firm on - Ya'll got to quote my ENTIRE post? Just pick the parts you want to jump on me most for, or the parts that boil down your objection or agreement the most, and quote that. Anyway, I've yet to read anything since I posted, I just scanned and noticed I was quoted in full at least twice. Now going back to read.

Re: Hero System is Just Alright With Me I don't do house rules. I've always looked at it like the person at a boardgame who suddenly blurts out "well I say if you land on that square you get to draw two cards," or "well I wanna roll again." It just bothers me. I'd rather switch systems than tamper with the one I've got, and I won't play in a game if I'm handed a sheet of house rules. No game engine is perfect, but before tampering with it I would wager is it much better to try it out and make sure the problems you think are there really are. Any change is likely to introduce new problems, and you'll have to account for those as well. Before considering any change, I would want to prove not making that change would leave the game unviable. At that point though, for me, I'm more likely to just pull some other option off the shelf. I'm a big advocate of change in social thinking, politics, and most aspects of life - but not on this one thing. With a game engine, altering it is just not what I enjoy. Working out ways to use it creatively yes, but not tampering with it. Hero works fine enough for most genres for me from what I recall - it having been a few years since I last played. I do not believe a person can truly make a statement about game mechanics they have only read and analyzed, but from my read of things now it seems to still hold for the above. For those genres where I find it too problematic, rather than rewrite it, I've simply found other options.

Re: Old version of Star Hero See also my review of Star Hero: http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/10/10547.phtml If you don't have the current version why in the world would you ever want the older stuff. The only reason to get out of print versions would be collector geek points.

Re: Creature: SylphSylph are a PC race in my setting, though I took a slightly different angle with them. Sylph Val Char Cost Fahla Notes: Fey are human - faerie hybrids. Fey tend to keep to the wilds in small bands and have difficulty among humans, being unable to deal with complex rules of social behaivoir. They are generally regarded with suspiscion and humor or desire. Fey are percieved as flighty, whimsical, lecherous, impulsive, and uninhibited - all of which is usually true. Slyphs are female winged fey of extraordinary beauty, often green or blue in color. Having no males, they breed through humans - with their daughters born as sylphs and the sons miscarried in the first trimester. Sylphs are highly sought after, and if not for their magical nature would likely be largely enslaved into harems and brothels throughout the world. 10 STR 0 14 DEX 12 8 CON -4 9 BODY -2 10 INT 0 10 EGO 0 13 PRE 3 18 COM 4 2 PD 0 2 ED 0 3 SPD 6 4 REC 0 Saved: NeverCampaign: fahla Genre: fantasy GM: arcady 16 END 0 18 STUN 0 6" RUN 0 2" SWIM 0 2" LEAP 0 Characteristics Cost: 19 Cost Power END 11 Sprite's Wings: Flight 8"; Restrainable (-1/2) 2 13 Detect Magic 11- (Unusual Group), Discriminatory, Range 0 5 Primary Element: Earth or Water (25pt VPP) 0 Powers Cost: 29 Cost Skill 10 +2 with Magic Skills 6 +2 with Conversation, Persuasion, Seduction 9 Choose 3 Magic Skills: 9+[stat/5]- Skills Cost: 25 Val Disadvantages 0 Normal Characteristic Maxima 10 Psychological Limitation: 'Fey' nature - flighty, whimsical, lecherous, impulsive, uninhibited (Common, Moderate) 10 Social Limitation: Minority - Faerie Blooded (Very Frequently, Minor, Not Limiting In Some Cultures) Disadvantage Points: 20Cost Summary:Base Points:75Disadvantage Points: 20Total Experience Available: 0Total Character Cost: 73Height: 2.00 mHair: BrownWeight: 100.00 kgEyes: BrownAppearance: Personality: Quote:Background: Powers/Tactics: Campaign Use:

Re: Playing 3.5 after Fantasy Hero Just use this: http://arcady0.topcities.com/Encounter_Calculator.html It is accurate to 3.5, but you can always test it with the book if you like. I don't think I could stand to play any version of DnD other than 3.5, and that is itself starting to push it with me, for the reasons I outlined in my last post on the end of page one. Having played an archer in a game last year, if I were a DnD monster I would much rather face a 10th level wizard or a 10th level barbarian or even both combined than a single 10th level fighter with no armor, a non magical bow (just make it mighty), and feats tailored to archery... My PC did more damage per hit than anyone, usually exceeding them by 20 to 30, and I could do it predictably every round with no saving throw issues.