Captain Obvious

Another thing you can do, if you're tired of almost equal numbers of almost equal warriors against your PCs, is to throw hordes of small nasties at them. Make up some small crappy monsters like D&D kobolds, and then swarm the PCs for an encounter, or heck a whole adventure. If the PCs actually start taking enough damage to make survival look bleak, you can always have the small cowardly monsters break and run....

Aww, shucks...I got the reduced STUN thing from an old Adventurers' Club.... This talk of magic weapons vs finely made weapons reminded me of something somewhat interesting. In D&D, it's possible to have non-magic weapons that give a bonus. In Warhammer FRP on the other hand, it's possible to have a magic weapon that gives no bonus at all. The benefit to owning one is that it will dispel some spells by touch (like any other magic weapon in the system), and it will damage certain monsters that are only vulnerable to magic weapons. I imagine most Hero GMs don't go too far out designing monsters that require a magic weapon to defeat, so your way is probably actually better in that respect. The mere special effect of "magic weapon" can in some cases serve to make even a no-bonus weapon better than one with scads of DCs and OCV bonuses though....

The two game shops in my town sell individual heroclix minis pretty much the same way many shops sell CCG cards. Of course, that means that it's usually a pile of not-so-great minis (at least from the standpoint of whatever game they're from), or that when good ones show up, the guy with no job and the inexplicable cash flow picks them up right away. Still, it's an option, and probably cheaper than buying the hot selling minis on eBay....

They spent their XP well? Seriously, I think when a new thing comes along, it's new enough to get by without a lot of embellishment. As more and more movies are made with the same characters, it takes more to keep audiences coming back. Plus, with those monster movies, they always seemed to escape the inevitable death at the end at the end of the last movie. They HAD to be tough to do that....

How exactly is a masterwork sword defined in D&D if not by a bonus to hit and/or damage? Something I used to offer every now and then in fantasy games was a finely crafted sword that was razor sharp. In essence, I gave it an extra DC, but also added -1 STUN modifier, with the assumption that a really sharp blade doesn't hurt any more than a standard blade, even though it cuts deeper (I know we've all slashed our finger wide open on a razor or X-Acto at some time or other...). Anyway, some players liked it, some didn't (couldn't get over the -1 STUN). Your system seems interesting, BTW. I may have to swipe it.

Gaah! My eyes!!

Isn't that what the links page is, though? Fan-based stuff? I'd love to see this (and more) linked straight from the Hero website. At least, this should be part of the Circle of Heroes webring. Even in its current incomplete form it's too good to just keep for the in-crowd....

Since most minis are 25mm, give or take, a 25mm hex seems like a natural unit to work from. The little " thing, in addition to being symbolic of a unit equal to about 25mm, serves as a handy shorthand for 'hex'. I see no reason to change. Does it really bother you that much?

Okay, here's my interpretation of Soul Blast, as converted from Classic Deadlands. Just a rough conversion, based on probabilities of drawing a particular hand or higher on five cards, and with a lot of eyeballing to convert damage to Hero standards and to extend the activation roll table (essentially drawing a certain hand or higher is equivalent to an activation roll, as I see it). I'm thinking I would boost some of these limitations if I did it again, seeing how you could play almost forever and never see a royal flush. I also didn't figure the effects of the Deadman's Hand. If 25 damage classes isn't enough to kill a particular creature, I figure you can either handwave it, or give an obscene amount of damage and an obscene amount of limitation on it. Without further ado: 1/2d6 RKA, +1 STUN (+1/4), NND (defense is being an inanimate object, +1), Indirect (+1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Requires Skill Roll (hexslingin', no active point penalty, -0), must draw one pair or higher (-1) +1/2d6 RKA, +1 STUN (+1/4), NND (defense is being an inanimate object, +1), Does BODY (+1), Indirect (+1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Requires Skill Roll (hexslingin', no active point penalty, -0), must draw a pair of jacks or higher (-2 1/4) +1DC, +1 STUN (+1/4), NND (defense is being an inanimate object, +1), Does BODY (+1), Indirect (+1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Requires Skill Roll (hexslingin', no active point penalty, -0), must draw two pairs or higher (-2 1/2) +1DC, +1 STUN (+1/4), NND (defense is being an inanimate object, +1), Does BODY (+1), Indirect (+1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Requires Skill Roll (hexslingin', no active point penalty, -0), must draw three of a kind or higher (-2 3/4) +2DC, +1 STUN (+1/4), NND (defense is being an inanimate object, +1), Does BODY (+1), Indirect (+1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Requires Skill Roll (hexslingin', no active point penalty, -0), must draw a straight or higher (-3) +2DC, +1 STUN (+1/4), NND (defense is being an inanimate object, +1), Does BODY (+1), Indirect (+1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Requires Skill Roll (hexslingin', no active point penalty, -0), must draw a flush or higher (-3 1/4) +1DC, +1 STUN (+1/4), NND (defense is being an inanimate object, +1), Does BODY (+1), Indirect (+1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Requires Skill Roll (hexslingin', no active point penalty, -0), must draw a full house or higher (-3 1/2) +2DC, +1 STUN (+1/4), NND (defense is being an inanimate object, +1), Does BODY (+1), Indirect (+1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Requires Skill Roll (hexslingin', no active point penalty, -0), must draw four of a kind or higher (-4 1/4) +3DC, +1 STUN (+1/4), NND (defense is being an inanimate object, +1), Does BODY (+1), Indirect (+1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Requires Skill Roll (hexslingin', no active point penalty, -0), must draw a straight flush or higher (-5 1/2) +9DC, +1 STUN (+1/4), NND (defense is being an inanimate object, +1), Does BODY (+1), Indirect (+1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Requires Skill Roll (hexslingin', no active point penalty, -0), must draw a royal flush or higher (-6 1/2) total active 457 total final 90 Oh yeah, I just now realized I didn't take the whole Backlash thing into account. Anyway, this was intended as an illustration rather than a final product. Use this as a springboard if you want.

If I'm not mistaken, D&D only allows a barbarian to rage a certain number of times per day, whereas taking Enraged as a limitation in Hero could conceivably have you going nuts every 5 minutes all day long. If you want to keep the D&D feel, don't take Enraged as a limitation, buy all your rage powers and stats with continuing charges, and add a Side Effect (probably mind control: to fight and fight, to simulate the fact that he won't be running away while in his rage). Of course, I may be misinterpreting the rage rules for D&D. I've never bothered to buy any rules for it since 1st edition....

I would think that rather than trying to make traditional minis, it would be better (for variety purposes) to have something like the HeroMachine with an option to print the completed character into a Cardboard Heroes sort of format. I realize that there's a webpage out there with a procedure for turning HeroMachine characters into paper minis, but it requires graphic editing software (PhotoShop or something similar). I would think that it wouldn't be too difficult to create a single program to do it all, and perhaps offer upgrade packs for fantasy heroes, sci-fi heroes, old West heroes, etc....

Expense is another good limiter. The old Mythus game had a pretty good money system and price list built in. I like the money conversions because gold is rare enough that when you try to bribe someone with a gold piece, most everyone except the highest classes will be tempted (unlike some systems where you need 10 pounds of gold just to buy a meal). More to the point, though, a suit of full plate armor runs in the neighborhood of 55,000 bronze pieces (or 55 gold pieces), and is more than most people make in a year. By comparison, some more reasonable armors (game balance wise) are a lot cheaper. Chain mail is about 10,000 bronze pieces and leather runs 750 bronze pieces, which puts them well within the financial constraints of the lower and middle classes. Unless you give out king's ransoms every adventure, tanks wouldn't be a problem under a system like this....

Re: Re: More thoughts..... The juxtaposition of the innocent with the sinister is always good. Anything having to do with kids that is given a horrible twist will work well in a horror campaign. Some other possibilities (less effective because less innocent) are clergy, the elderly, and traditional authority figures.

Maybe we should get an official ruling from Steve about how long of an action crapping yourself is. I see we're getting several interpretations here...

Crapping yourself is a 0-phase action, isn't it?

I'm not sure we're communicating properly here. I don't have a whole lot of time right now, but later this evening, I'll write up a Hero conversion of a huckster's hex (as I see it) and post it here to see what you think....

You can keep the card aspect of Deadlands and still use it in Hero. Drawing a poker hand is just a randomizer like rolling dice or using a computer to generate a random number. The thing is to apply an appropriate limitation to the "activation roll" ie the poker hand needed to cast the hex. Seeing how a royal flush is far less than a 25% chance, you'd have to modify the existing Activation Roll table to do it properly. A quick search on Google reveals that with 5 cards, a pair is about 11-, three of a kind is about 4-, and a straight is about 3-. Obviously, the table will have to be extended downwards quite a ways....

While there's not much in the way of cool rules to convert, Warhammer Fantasy Role Play has atmosphere in spades. Overall history isn't too shabby, if that's what you're into.

I can honestly say I've never had too much problem with super heavy armor. 95% of all characters in all my Hero games have preferred lighter armor for some reason. The fact that I like "roguish" games, in the vein of Leiber or the young Conan stories helps. It's hard to sneak with all that crap. I also like seafaring sorts of stories, and no one wants to be the guy who fell to the bottom of the ocean because he missed a DEX roll....

The Player's Handbook for Classic Deadlands (the kind that Glabutz didn't want to try to convert) can be had for free, FREE I tell you, on RPGNow.com. Or check peginc.com, the site for the company that makes Deadlands. They'll link you to RPGNow perhaps with less searching. Pretty interesting magic systems overall. Based on one day's perusal of the book, I'd say that Hucksters tend to buy their powers in such a way that they get more effect the more they make their roll by, rather than the standard all-or-nothing RSR effect. You'd have to figure out the basic chances of drawing each poker hand to determine the limitations on the spells....

Yeah, well, clicky-based games are pretty simplistic, and all-tactical (no roleplaying at all involved), but they are still a good source for cheap minis. I mean, six bucks for a Mage Knight booster pack and you get four minis. Reaper charges about three or four per mini, and Citadel charges at least six per. Obviously, for important characters, I'm more likely to buy it in metal and paint it myself, but whiz-kids has inflated my armies of mooks fairly inexpensively... Then too, I haven't seen any Crimson Skies minis in any other format, and buying clicky-base minis sure beats scratch-building them....

Sounds like some form of limited Duplication to me.

Don't underestimate the effect of PRE attacks in the opening phase of a high-noon style gunfight. A small hesitation on your enemy's part precludes the need for a fast-draw roll altogether....

I believe I saw an ad at my friendly local game store saying that there was a new Crimson Skies clicky-base game coming out soon. Good source for minis if you're into that aspect of gaming....

I realize I'm a few days behind on this thread, but... I have only a vague idea of what the Secret Wars were, and never heard of the Crisis on Infinite Earths. If they came out in the early to mid-80's, it was during a comics down-time for me. I quit reading comics in the late 70's and didn't get started up again until the late 80's (after I started playing Champions, as a matter of fact:D ) Actually, except for some comics I bought as stocking stuffers last Christmas, I haven't read any since, oh, about the mid-90's... So, yeah, I'm not too hip with current comics canon. I just know supers when I see them....