arcady

Fixed the costs to the Silver Piece scale in Fantasy Hero, Made everything a Custom Power (so there's no 'naked modifer active points' note on the character sheet), and included the missing equipment: food, lodging, livestock, herbs, services, transportation, and animal gear.

Re: What do you think is the best way to balance armor use?

Hit locations already handle that.

Re: Power Defence... Ugg

There are sidebar examples on 5'th edition page 138 which show how to make power defense versus one special effect. Magic Only and Chemicals Only were both worth -1/2.

Magic Defense would and should stop magic swords from doing physical damage just as much as would a spell that drains away EGO.

Radiation Defense would slow not just the CON drain, but the area killing attack as well (and would model a person hardy against radiation as opposed to just completely subject to or completely immune like life support...)

You might have 'Toon Defense', protecting you from the effects of Toons run amok...

Defenses make more sense when based on special effect.

It makes more sense to have Fire Defense and Electricity Defense be seperate rather than having ED. Perhaps some basic general bodily defense makes sense, but much of it should be seperate by special effect.

Re: Help me find flaws with my Magic System

Nothing wrong with it?

No potential game balance issues?

No potential fun issues?

It couldn't possibly be perfect yet?

Anyone got anything?

I've got till mid October to get this working, along with my setting. That's when I switch the group from DnD to Fantasy Hero.

Re: Non-humans in a mostly human world: social limitation or distinctive features?

I'm leaning on just giving one of them, so as to not clutter up too many of the disads of a non human.

They all look distinctive, but not to each other and not once you get a pack of them in a room.

You can logic this both ways:

1) Put three Drakes in a room, and you'll have a rainbow of color patterns and wing shapes. So are they still disctinctive to each other?

2) drop a human in the room, and he might say 'they all look alike to me'. So are they disctinctive when what makes them disctinctive no longer lets the human figure out which one it was he was talking to last godsday?

So I'm leaning towards social limitation. Minority groups tend to self opporese after it has become institutionalized - "you aren't acting cat enough bub" or "I wouldn't let my sister date a human," and so on... so even away from a group of humans, the social restrictions would hold unless they were in an abnormal society.

All of the dominant civilizations in my setting are Human established and human run - even the drake, children of dragons, have no hold on power. Most of the races have always lived alongside humanity - since mages bred them into being, or fled into the wilds from their fey nature asserting itself.

The only group that I know lives apart from humanity are the bird people and those few breeds of drakes with functional wings.

But I'm only half sure on choices for this, and I could still consider giving both...

In my setting, 90% of the people in the world are human, 5% are drake (humanoid dragons), and everyone else fills in the rest...

Should I give the non humans distinctive features as people who stand out, or social limitations as people who are kept out?

Generally speaking, most of the non humans one would deal with are not treated with the same respect as humans. Outside of the drakes, most of them are the results of humans mixing with fearie (centaurs, mermaids, pixies, dryads and so on give this), or the magical experiments of humans (cat people, wolf people, chimps, pig peopls, minotaurs, and so on).

Humans look down on them all to one degree or another, the races of animal origin are reffered to as 'beastlings' for example, in a derrogatory manner.

Both disads might apply, but I'm not sure which fits best.

Thoughts?

Re: VPP for a Heroic Fantasy Setting - Need clarifications

Any rules system fundamentalist is going to fReAk OuT when the read the chapter on magic system design in Fantasy Hero.

There's a good deal of hand waving going on in there.

Re: What do you think is the best way to balance armor use?

It takes some level of familiarity and endurance to do that though. Having had to wear chem warfare suits for long periods of time I can say it is not easy.

Some form of long term endurance problem should be involved and it should be notably worse for people new to the equipment or in hot weather.

Re: Power Defence... Ugg

I somewhat agree with the original posters issue. To me, one of the failings of the Hero system's logic is trying to seperate the mechanics of defenses from special effects.

It really makes sense to have 'poison defense', 'magic resistance', 'fire proof', 'lightning rod', and so on.

More so than it makes sense to put the burden on the other end with NND and AVLD.

It should be feasable to buy a simply constructed defensive power that protects from all kinds of harm delivered by a certain special effect. At present the only way to do it is to buy every defensive mechanic in the game and give each the limitation 'only versus whatever'.

Re: What do you think is the best way to balance armor use?

Has anyone here used the rules form the books as is and found them problematic in play?

Sometimes things read like an issue, but play out well anyway.

For my upcoming game, I expect things to take place in a coastal region and at times over water. Armor would of course not be practical on ship. Along the coast you have a rust issue, but that's a long term sort of thing.

I -might- be adding alchemical guns, similar to the wheelock pistols, and that might add a further offset for armor. I'll only be doing that if I can figure out why this alchemical substance gives me ready supply to guns but not the development of dynamite and other explosives, nor paving the way for logic leaps in steam and combustion.

Re: Need Help From The Math Wizards

-2 is how much a 6 point power would be reduced by if I gave it a -1/2 limitation.

Re: Varied Nkd Adv

You can't put them in a framework or you can't put them in a framework without GM approval?

If the second, wave a hand and the issue is solved. If the first, start stacking on the limitations, or ignore the rule anyway...

There's no precidence for the Turakian setting's divide by three rule, but they did it anyway because it worked for the desired balance.

Re: Turakian Age: Drakine Population Dynamics

It's fantasy: gratuitous breasts are more in genre than discussions of population dynamics.

Not all fantasy is comic books, Kewl video games, chainmail bikinis, midget porn disguised as halflings, and hot orc sex.

Most fantasy doesn't even have orcs or halflings or elves or dwarves anyway...

Re: Turakian Age: Drakine Population Dynamics

Humans are also menstrual, whereas other mammals are estrus. We, dolphins, and bonobo's are the only animals that have constant sex and do not show our ovulation times externally.

Rather, the body always seems ready to concieve even though it rarely is.

The nature of breasts is merely a part of that.

There's an interesting book on the subject by Jared Diamond:

Why is Sex Fun?. I read that for a physical anthropology class a few years ago.

Breast shape is not merely for asthetics. You have the larger form in humans to signify a ready state, and to decieve mates into believing mating with you will be rewarded with offspring, and that those offspring will be well nourished.

If the breast has no direct or indirect function -presently or in the evolutionary history- it has no reason to grow into exageration as a 'display organ'. It has no meaning - nothing to signify to a potential mate.

Re: Need Help From The Math Wizards

According to Hero Designer -6 points.

I bought it by lowring strength to 6, then getting a 'naked modifer' of x2 END on a '6 active points' power - which came to -2 points.

-2 Naked Modifier: ; Increased Endurance Cost (x2 END; -1/2) for up to 6 Active Points (-2 Active Points)

So -4 for lowering strength, and another -2 for the extra endurance.

Re: Help me find flaws with my Magic System

Here it is, hopefully (the font I use for the heading is here):

It's here:

http://home.pacbell.net/arcady0/fahla/magic_Hero.html

Should I post it directly on the board?

Anyway, I'm looking for problems with balance, or flaws with how I set it up, or anything else that sets off a red flag.

Re: More questions

Swarm is done as a variation on desolidification combined with damage reduction.

Re: FH Prefabs: Armor,Weapons,Gear etc.

I posted a corrected verion of the weapons file here:

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20489

Re: Turakian Age: Drakine Population Dynamics

the illogic of reptileans having breast pales beside that of females having survived childbirth being allowed to choose to get pregnant again or not. Do the females that have survived childbirth have a special place/function in the society?

There really isn't anything illogical about reptiles having breasts, only in a creature having them that does not get to use them.

Re: Turakian Age: Drakine Population Dynamics

Comic books must drive you crazy!

I think Keith refers to the basic suspension of belief that is required merely to play the Fantasy genre. If you look at Fantasy TOO closely (or comic books' date=' or movies, etc.), all you will find is flaws, inconsistencies, etc.[/quote']I read a lot of 'non-gamer' fantasy, and never have these sorts of logic problems when I do. I expect a solidly put together internall consistant world which does not strive to cast me out of 'suspension of disbelief'. It would do that by sticking to the basic premise of keeping things 'mundane' except where they are 'fantastic'. That, or you start with a set of genre assumptions, and then build your world around them with a consistant approach.

 

In such a situation, a world that floats on the back of a turtle and has little floating tear drop shaped slime people makes more sense than one that has lizards with non-usable breasts. The first example sets it's genre assumptions and then sticks to them (somewhat silly but consistantly so), the second sets it's assumptions and then violates them without letting you see why.

but it seems counter productive to apply such strict levels of logic in a fantasy setting' date=' IMO.[/quote']You must not like Tolkien then?

The recently uploaded Fantasy Hero prefab for weapons had a lot of errors and all the costs were off. There were also a number of missing weapons.

I went through the whole thing and made corrections, which was a good exercise in learning Her Designer.

Attached is the corrected file.

Re: More questions

Sidekick is not 'the complete game', but it is a nice starting point.

Think basic DnD v ADnD... Well, if you thought that you might stay with Sidekick, but that's the general idea. One is a less complex option, ideal for getting into things, and afterwards it can still function as a desk reference during play.

I got two copies specifically to hand out to my players and leave on the table during games. I'm hoping it will help get them up to speed on the game and make that process easier, but in the long run they'll all want to move on to the full book.

Re: More questions

Here's a partial listing of things missing, only because I stopped to work on other things before finishing it:

vpp

Skills:

Analyze

Autofire Skills

Defense Manuever

Penalty Skill Levels

Rapid Attack

Teamwork

Two-Weapon Fighting

Powers:

Absorption

Damage reduction

Duplication

Endurance Reserve

Find Weakness

Lack of Weakness

Missile Deflection

ShapeShift

Summon

Advantages:

attack versus limited defense

cumulative

delayed effect

difficult to dispel

does body

does knockback

double knockback

duration-inherent

hole in the middle

indirect

megascale

penetrating

range-line of sight

sticky

time delay

transdimensional

trigger

usable on others

variable advantage

variable special effect

Limitations:

duration

gradual effect

independant

some limited examples

no conscious control

reduced penetration

restrainable

variable limitations

hit location

Re: Turakian Age: Drakine Population Dynamics

Just because something does not exist is NO EXCUSE for it to not make sense within the parameters set for it.

Simply put:

If an animal never uses a major external organ, why is it there? Logically, it should be the males who develop breasts, not the females.

Unless some recent factor has dramatically changed their physiology and resulted in all the deaths, in which case, what is that factor and what other effects has it had?