Mark Taylor

Re: Musings on Random Musings

I'm Kryptonian' date=' remember? [/quote']

 

Doh!

Re: Musings on Random Musings

They were delicious! Thanks!

And you're still alive...

Re: Musings on Random Musings

And they're quite fun to play with!

Hmmm wait until you find the built in anti-theft devices.

Re: Musings on Random Musings

 

Sorry, feeling a little bitter today.

 

Aww, don't be a lemon

Re: Musings on Random Musings

You stole my toys!

Re: A Thread for Random Musings

Where will we post our musings about random musings now?

Re: Don't have it yet

Definitely the Russian Mafia' date=' then. [/quote']

 

Hmmm, maybe that would explain why a whole section between pages 295 and 296 has been blacked out in my copy of DC!

Re: Don't have it yet

Hmmm. Probably the Russian Mafia. Or maybe one of those oh-so-devious Hudson City crimelords.

Well according to what the distributor told my FLGS owner, it was held up by UK customs for some reason. Personally I think they just couldn't wait to get their hands on a copy!

Re: Don't have it yet

Don't have it yet either' date=' but my FLGS expects to get it some time tomorrow afternoon. Yay![/quote']

 

Which ended up not happening... the shipment was delayed for some reason. But I finally actually got it yesterday. It looks great!

Re: Is bumping into something considered Targeting?

In retrospect I am picking a pretty obscure example but it is definitely a 'hole' in the rules.

I'm not quite sure it's so much a hole in the rules as just one of these situations in which one has to concede that it's impossible for the rules to cover every possible eventuality that could arise in a game session. HERO System is pretty complete but no rule system can cover everything. When it comes to trying to cover everything, how far is too far? I'd say this one is pretty close to the line!

Re: Is bumping into something considered Targeting?

Here's how I would resolve it:

 

PC has been sight flashed/blinded, must recover object (a Focus) from the ground, and knows it is somewhere in his immediate vicinity.

 

1. Roll any Luck the PC has. Apply each success as a +3 bonus to the next roll:

 

2. PC makes PER Roll at -4 penalty. If the PC is successfull, he has found the object immediately!

 

3. If the PC fails the roll, calculate how much he failed by, call that number T. For example, a character with a PER Roll of 14- and no Luck rolls with a -4 penalty. He rolls a 13, modified to 17. He missed the roll by 3.

 

4. Move T down the Time Chart, starting from Instant. In the example, this would mean moving down three levels, to 1 Turn (Post-Segment 12). This tells us how llong it takes the PC to find the object. So, in the example, the PC finds the object on Post-Segment 12.

Nice solution, very similar to what I was about to propose which was basically to use a normal PER roll with a much longer base time than usual, say 5 minutes for a normal sized room, 20 minutes for a very large room and so forth. Then move up the time chart by a number of levels equal to the margin of sucess, or move down the time chart by a number of levels equal to the margin of failure.

Factoring in Luck is a nice touch which I hadn't thought of!

Re: Is bumping into something considered Targeting?

Well the second last paragraph on p. 226 in FREd states that to use touch you must already have found the target. To my mind, that statement combined with a little common sense tells me that 'by accident' is a perfectly valid method of finding a target where touch is concerned.

Re: A Thread for Random Musings

Having met Zornwil in person I can now confirm - he actually really is a lizard!

Re: Don't have it yet

Don't have it yet either, but my FLGS expects to get it some time tomorrow afternoon. Yay!

Re: Need Help With A Detect

My error then. I tried to build this power using Megascale on the Hero Designer' date=' and was informed by the program that I could not add it. Hmm. I'll have to take another look at it again.[/quote']

 

Bear in mind that Detect is not ranged by default. In order to add Megascale to a Detect you must first include the "Range" adder. You should then be able to select Megascale.

Many of the spells in the Areomancy section of FHG2 are built using the Differing Modifiers rules for UOO Powers. For these spells, two different Total Costs are given. Am I correct in assuming (based on the example of Differing Modifiers given on 5E p. 177) that the spellcaster buying the spells to grant the abilities pays only the second figure given for Total Cost, the one listed at the end of the "Casting:" section for each spell?

Re: Fifth ed revised name?

But what if someone knows the page number and doesn't want to force the person they are discussing the hypothetical issue with to look in the index?

...Or just perhaps wants to communicate clearly instead of according to some arbitrary and subjective sense of asthetics.

Re: Thoughts on Shields

Okay, a lot of the things Geryon posted make sense, though the force-spread over-a-larger-area-argument only works if the shield has a flat and featureless surface. In practice most shield designs (at least most of those I have seen, which I admit may be an unrepresentative sample) have some kind of protruding element close to the center, which is generally made of metal and is thus much harder than a fist, while still being about the same size. Also the seesaw argument seems to assume an attacker would be somewhat untrained at using a shield for this purpose, whereas a trained individual could be practiced at striking with the correct part of the shield - the center (it's no coincidence that the hard metal protruding part is usually located there, right in front of the wielder's arm).

I think the main valid point here that would reduce the force of a shield attack as compared to a punch is that you can't get any leverage on the attack because of the way the shield is attached to the arm. Therefore the weight of the shield actually reduces the force of the attack rather than increasing it as it would with a weapon which makes use of the leverage effect, such as a sword or club. These are the lines I was thinking along anyway when considering why a shield bash might do less damage than a punch in some cases.

You have to keep in mind that most shields are not designed to be used as offensive weapons. If you had one that was' date=' then sure, build it differently to show that. But your average shield is not designed to be used as a weapon.[/quote']

 

I'm going to assume this point is fairly accurate in that the shields given in Fantasy HERO are flat-bodied shields not designed for attacking with, and what I probably need to do is design a different shield which takes that hard metal bit in the center (anybody got a better name for it?) into account. Probably this will also involve introducing a 1-point WF: Shields to represent being properly trained to use such an attack.

 

It occurs to me that there are probably a couple of other things a very strong person can do to take advantage of a tower shield specifically.

 

1) Tower shields almost reach the ground anyway, so you could plant the bottom edge of the shield in the ground, effectively using the bottom edge of the shield as a pivot so you could strike your opponent with the top edge. Unlike other shield attacks, this one would be able to take advantage of the leverage effect.

 

2) Performing a Move Through. It seems to me a tower shield could be very effective for performing that maneuver in the hands of a very strong individual. It might not necessarily do more damage than unarmed strength, but it should protect the attacker from most of the damage he'd normally take from performing a move though.

 

Does anybody have any idea if either of the above maneuvers were actually used historically? Even if they weren't (after all I'm running High Fantasy, which is intended to be more fun and dramatic than realistic), I'm tempted to model them by building a couple of new combat maneuvers specifically for use with a tower shield.

 

Anybody got any thoughts on any of this stuff?

Re: Should this be called Dark Champions?

3) Future Books - Even though there is some overlap between "Modern" and "Street Level Superheroes"' date=' they are two distinct things. If DOJ wants to do a "Street Level Superheroes" book at some point, what the heck are they going to call it?[/quote']

 

That has already been answered, it's on the 2005 release schedule:

 

Dark Champions: The Animated Series: The first subgenre book for Dark Champions takes a look at the less grim side of vigilante crimefighting: caped crusaders with vigilante attitudes but an unwillingness to kill; low-powered superhumans who fight street crime instead of world-threatening supervillains; "theme" villains with clever costumes but psychotic minds. It's a perfect blending of Champions and Dark Champions!

Okay, I originally posted the following query to the Rules Questions board:

According to the rules in Fantasy HERO, a character performing a shield bash often seems to do less damage with the shield than they would with a punch, due to the STR Minimum rules. I'm wondering if this is correct and if so, what is the reasoning behind it?

 

For example, a STR 20 character with a Tower Sheild (STR Minimum 18, 3d6N Damage) would do 4d6 Normal damage with a punch, but only 3d6 Normal Damage with a shield bash.

Steve responded thus:

I don't generally answer game design or philosophy questions' date=' for a whole bunch of reasons. AFAICT from what you posted, you seem to be interpreting the "how much damage" issue correctly, though.[/quote']

 

Anybody here have any thoughts on the issue? Should a shield bash do less damage than a punch by the same character?

Re: How does flash work

OK, first thing, for that two segments the target is blind. If your allies have saved their moves to attack him, will he make it to segment 6?

 

Second thing, how powerful would you expect 2d6 of Flash to be? 2d6 of Energy Blast probably doesn't do any damage at all to the typical target.

For my money 2d6 of Flash is better than 2d6 of Energy Blast. In the average Fantasy HERO campaign the average target probably doesn't have any Flash Defence...

Re: Hero Needs Reviewers!!

Somebody submit a review for Fantasy Hero Battlegrounds...

Give me a couple more weeks and I'll be able to write a playtest review, considering I'm actually running the adventures from it right now! (Or some adventures pretty much based on them anyway. I've never run a published scenario "straight" in my life.)

Re: Hero Needs Reviewers!!

I'm willing to give it a try. I've been thinking about doing reviews for a while anyway.

According to the rules in Fantasy HERO, a character performing a shield bash often seems to do less damage with the shield than they would with a punch, due to the STR Minimum rules. I'm wondering if this is correct and if so, what is the reasoning behind it?

For example, a STR 20 character with a Tower Sheild (STR Minimum 18, 3d6N Damage) would do 4d6 Normal damage with a punch, but only 3d6 Normal Damage with a shield bash.

Re: What is restrainable?

We have a lizard man character just added to the party. He bought his 1/2d6 HKA as restrainable though the fantasy hero book doesn't give them this. He felt if he couldn't used it if he was entangled. But I felt that this was more a special effect as sometimes I can see him using the claws but say a magical goo spell spell then he couldn't swing his arms to claw just like if he had a sword. But he really felt that he should have restrainable but I felt not but just wondered how others have treated natural/innate. Just thinkiing now maybe if it was inherent. He felt his claws were just so sharp that they'd tear into an entangle unless they specifically tied him up by binding his limbs.

 

thanks again

It's valid to have claws built with the Restrainable limitation (in fact that's given as an example in the book) but if so those claws could not damage an entangle. That's part of what restrainable means. Check out the rules under Restrainable. If his claws can tear through an Entangle they're not restrainable.