Robot_Nixon

Re: Barring weaponry, what's in a slightly futuristic [30+ years] APC?

Re: Cool Guns for your Games Here's something for your gangsta NPCs.

Re: Screenshots

Re: Western Hero Resources learn to play Faro. No self-respecting Western Hero game can do without Faro! http://www.gleeson.us/faro/

Re: Limiting Combat Levels So we just finished our first game tonight and everyone had a great time. Most of the game was letting them get a feel for their starting village. They spent most of the night talking to the villagers and role playing various activities. Orlo's player surprised everyone by performing our first presence attack versus a man who was trying to cheat him in a card game that was being held at the local tavern. He used his gambling skill to detect the cheat and then did a PRE attack by cutting the cards the man was holding in half and saying, "Friend, I don't think those cards came from our deck. Show me what else you have up your sleeve or the next thing I cut in half will be your neck!" so I gave him an additional 4D6 on his presence attack. Orlo did a fast draw and surprised the cheater, made a violent action and a good soliloquy, and the rough frontier tavern and Orlo's reputation as reckless gave him one more from appropriate setting. He rolled well and beat the cheater's PRE of 8 by 21. So I had the cheater give up and give the money back and slink out of the tavern. I'm thinking I might have him come up again seeking revenge. The attack on the cards was OCV 8 (6 + 2 HTH, he was using his OL in Gambling) vs DCV of 8 but was -2 for being drunk and halfed for surprise. I thought about making them 0 DCV because of Orlo's swift attack, and the cheater was seated, but I figure the cheater would have had some reflexive response. I made the cards a called shot at -6 (same as a hand) Which ended up being a 2 OCV vs a 3 DCV but he rolled a 7 making the cut. He easily beat the liberal 1 Body I gave the cards. The group got into a bit of combat at the end of the night after tracking some goblins that had been stealing pigs from a local farmer. They were all pretty awed with combat. I use bleeding, wounding, hit location, impairment and disabled rules so when they chopped off one of the goblin's arms and it wasn't just 'combat color commentary' like D&D, but actually built into the game, they were pretty impressed. Needless to say when Orlo chopped off the head of the last goblin, they spent the last 15 minutes of the game talking about combat. I'd hate to tell them they haven't even started on the main quest! After I told him that new characters could only have 3 total levels, and that no character could have more than one overall level per full 100 points they have he modified his character with some suggestions I gave him from this thread. Here's the final build he went with... Player: Orlo Blackhand Val Char Cost 18 STR 8 18 DEX 24 18 CON 16 13 BODY 6 10 INT 0 13 EGO 6 15 PRE 5 8 COM -1 4 PD 0 4 ED 0 3 SPD 2 8 REC 0 36 END 0 31 STUN 0 6" RUN 0 2" SWIM 0 3 1/2" LEAP 0 Characteristics Cost: 66 Cost Skill 5 Armorsmith 14- 5 Climbing 14- 5 Fast Draw 14- 5 Gambling 12- 4 Navigation (Land) 12- 3 Riding (Camel) 13- 3 Streetwise 12- 4 Survival (Desert) 12- 5 Tactics 12- 5 Tracking 12- 5 Weaponsmith 12- 5 WF: Common Melee Weapons, Common Missile Weapons, Flails 10 +2 with HTH Combat 10 +1 Overall 5 KS: Metallurgy (Smelting) 13- 2 Hallowdane: The Keening Desert AK: The Keening Desert 11- 1 Hallowdane Military Insignia CuK: Hallowdane Heraldry 8- 1 Hallowdane Soldiery PS: Soldier 8- 1 Imprisoned in Fallgate CuK: Prison Life 8- Skills Cost: 84 Total Character Cost: 150 Pts. Disadvantage 20 Berserker: (Uncommon), go 8-, recover 11-, Berserk 10 Reputation: Reckless and Unreliable, 11- 10 Psychological Limitation: Alcoholic (Common, Moderate) 15 Psychological Limitation: Will not harm a child (Uncommon, Total) 10 Mark of the Honorless: Forehead is branded with the sign of someone that has deserted military service and been imprisoned for that crime. (Easily Concealed; Always Noticed and Causes Major Reaction; Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses) 5 Distinctive Features: Facial scars (Easily Concealed; Noticed and Recognizable; Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses) 5 Money: Poor Disadvantage Points: 75 Base Points: 75 Experience Required: 0 Total Experience Available: 0 Experience Unspent: 0 For the record his Everyman skills are Acting Concealment Conversation Deduction Healing Persuasion Shadowing Stealth Native Language: Mercadian (Illiterate/Native Accent 4 pts)

Re: Limiting Combat Levels The statement wasn't meant to be confrontational. Just that I wasn't willing to go in that direction. If he comes to me asking for things like that, fine. I did like your idea for the strength and combat luck tied to the berserk status but as much as he looks like a barbarian he envisioned the berserk as a curse and not an asset. He imagines a fallen soldier (hence no thief/stelath skills despite the time in prison) than a barbarian or criminal. His embrace of the disadvantages was actually more than anyone else in the group which I give him all due credit for. Not everyone can see the fun in those right off. And I agree with the overall levels which is why I will try to drop him to one and two HTH 5 pointers. (3 levels from all sources). Thanks again, (sincerely) and I wasn't intending to offend.

Re: Limiting Combat Levels I'm not trying to change the player or force him to 'grow'. He's happy the way he plays and I don't think I have the right to tell him his gaming happiness is wrong. All I want to do is apply a house rule that limits the amount of CV/Levels a player can have at the beginning of the game and provide a structured rate at which CV/Levels can be gained. If he satisfies that limitation and is still two dimensional and shallow, so be it. I am sure he will enjoy it. As a specific value in a guide formula cannot be suggested, I will go ahead with what I was going to do and say 3 levels from any source at start and they can gain 2 more each 50 points they achieve. I don't know how this will go as far as character growth rewards go, but I think an easy and concrete rule at the beginning will be better then telling him he doesn't play right and since he is a remedial role player I have to build his character for him. Thanks for the help and suggestions everyone. I am sure I will be back with other issues after the game gets started. EDIT: I was writing my reply when you guys offered the skill suggestions. Thanks I think that is what I will turn him towards... Drop 5 of the overalls and replace with 2 HTH 5 pointers. (3 total) He was a soldier for a short time but deserted: Familiarity with CuK Hallowdane Military Life/Hallowdane Military insignia 1pt. He spent a long time in Fallengate Prison: CuK Prison Life 2pts. / AK Fallengate Prison 2pts. He is an armorsmith so I will sell him on weaponsmith as well: Weaponsmith +1 5pts. It would do well to know how to smelt his own metals as a smith (A stretch but what the hell) Smelting KS Metallurgy 4 pts. And a few others that go with his character concept; Tactics +1 5 pts. Gambling +1 (He'll like that one) 5 pts. Tracking (another stretch) 3pts. And if he goes for the tracking skill, I will explain he couldn't have learned tracking without becoming very familiar with his home region: AK: Hallowdane environs +3 4pts. (+1 AK Hallowdane environ everyman familiarity skill for a total of 5 pts.) This should make him feel more rounded without changing the character too much.

Re: Limiting Combat Levels I suppose what I meant was a specific application of a generic rule of thumb that others have found to be not too slow, or not too generous in this situation. I understand the ability to limit by points or time (in fact I believe those very words appear in my first post) I was looking more for a specific value in those two options that others might have found to work well.

Re: Limiting Combat Levels I suggested martial arts, his first reaction was he didn't want to play a monk. I even designed a weapon kata martial art for him and explained it wasn't bruce lee martial arts but a skilled fighter's combat moves and different sword attacks. This got his interest but when he saw the moves and the values his eyes glazed over and said no. He's not stupid, he just likes simple characters. He doesn't want choices in battle. I know in text he sounds like a real dullard, but this isn't the case, if anything he is an explorer. He likes the worlds I design, he likes to imagine himself walking through the villages and dungeons, he really does get into his character however two dimensional it may be. He just doesn't want to be faced with more than a couple of choices in combat or even gameplay for that matter. I suppose it's easiest to say he's there for the stories.

Re: Limiting Combat Levels So this is his character, I must preface by saying while the guy looks like a powergamer, it's not that mentality that drives him. He just wants little effort. In D&D he picks fighters, maxes strength then constitution and then doesn't care about the rest. He's done making his character in minutes or less and he's ready to go and unconcerned about his depth or even his weaknesses. I think he is taking the same route here but due to Hero's more complex system (and to him the very fact he has so many choices equates to complexity) that he builds something in a few moments and then when he gets to the point where he should be done in D&D he stops building. He basically built a 90 point character with 75 points of disadvantages and when he saw he had 60 points left he skimmed through the book to see how he could dump a quick 60 points and found levels. He could relate to the word 'level' and bought all he could with the remaining points. (it wasn't exactly 60 points but close enough) The one area where he really did get into Hero was the disadvantages, so I am loathe to ask him to just remove some and go with a 90 point character. The problem for me is that he doesn't understand that the way he spent his 150 points gave him a standard superhero CV and made the few skills he has almost cosmically powered! He sees he spent 150 points and the others spent 150 points... equal characters. Player: Orlo Blackhand Val Char Cost 18 STR 8 18 DEX 24 18 CON 16 13 BODY 6 10 INT 0 13 EGO 6 15 PRE 5 8 COM -1 4 PD 0 4 ED 0 3 SPD 2 8 REC 0 36 END 0 31 STUN 0 6" RUN 0 2" SWIM 0 3 1/2" LEAP 0 Characteristics Cost: 66 Cost Skill 3 Armorsmith 13- 3 Climbing 13- 3 Fast Draw 13- 2 Navigation (Land) 11- 3 Streetwise 12- 5 Survival 12- 5 WF: Common Melee Weapons, Common Missile Weapons, Flails 60 +6 Overall Skills Cost: 84 Total Character Cost: 150 Pts. Disadvantage 20 Berserker: (Uncommon), go 8-, recover 11-, Berserk 10 Reputation: Reckless and Unreliable, 11- 10 Psychological Limitation: Alcoholic (Common, Moderate) 15 Psychological Limitation: Will not harm a child (Uncommon, Total) 10 Mark of the Honorless: Forehead is branded with the sign of someone that has deserted military service and been imprisoned for that crime. (Easily Concealed; Always Noticed and Causes Major Reaction; Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses) 5 Distinctive Features: Facial scars (Easily Concealed; Noticed and Recognizable; Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses) 5 Money: Poor Disadvantage Points: 75 Base Points: 75 Experience Required: 0 Total Experience Available: 0 Experience Unspent: 0 RN Edit: Almost forgot. I had considered using the method suggested and just say for every X amount of points you can add a combat level. To be precise it was to be 3 total levels from all sources at start, and then every 50 points you could gain 2 more (not 1 for every 25 points). But I don't know if this is super slow or too fast, and while I could experiment with that value, if this game is boring it's back to D&D we go, and frankly I am tired of 3.5 and don't like 4ed. SO I was hoping some of the board vets could give me something a bit more tried and true (as opposed to a generic rule of thumb).

I'm a new hero player but have a few champion games under my belt. However, this is the first time GMing hero. My players tried 4th Ed. D&D and we didn't like it so much. I talked them into trying Fantasy Hero and we're making characters. My problem started when I had a player that decided to make a minimally effective fighter type and simply overload with combat levels. I like the freedom of the hero system, but I'd like to limit the raw power of starting characters. I suppose the best way to say it Is I would like the characters to start deep, but not powerful. Design wide skills and not tall power in other words. Does anyone have ideas or a link to a house rule that would allow me to limit how many combat levels can be bought at first, and a reasonable way to limit combat levels gained per XP points or time played that doesn't stagnate while still providing limits to be overcome in later character growth? I don't mind making up my own, but being new to Hero GMing I think I may make it too restrictive or too liberal. I would like to see something that has been used successfully as a starting point. TIA, RN