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Re: D&D Spellbooks as Bases

Re: Fast combat? To me, this is more than just hand waving stun. I actually treat mooks like mooks. If a PC does a lot of body, or hits the head, vitals, or stomach, the mook goes down. Hit to chest with even a decent amount of damage, mook goes down. I just don't get wrapped up in book keeping for mooks at all. I put them there to get knocked down, so I let them get knocked down without worrying about it too much. It allows me to focus on other things, like keeping the pace up, or staying on top of the plot. Whether they are dead, or knocked out, or just start trying to run away depends on the setting and feel of the game I want. Whatever happens to the mooks, it should make the PCs look and feel good, regardless.

Re: Why must wolves be evil? Mama said evil is as evil does.

Re: Anticipating the opponent. I think I read somewhere that the 5 point level rule only applied to CSLs and not other skills. Don't have my book handy to check, however...

Re: Running through the forest Here is a quick writeup based mostly on the ICE Robin Hood Campaign book. I made some adjustments for powers and skills that didn't really translate between versions.

Re: Does your Dungeon Master have military experience? That list is total carp! I'm former military, and as DM I never used 3, 7, or 12 on any party. What a crock!

Re: Dealing with Stun, End etc in Fantasty This question comes up pretty often, and there aren't any easy answers. It's just a matter of you figuring out the feel you want, and then modeling it. If you want to run something very D&Dish, then ditch STUN all together. If you want to keep STUN, but have people get knocked out less often, have characters double their STUN. Or triple it. If you want more lethal, limit access to heavy armor. Or just reduce the rDEF of armor, like make chain mail rPD 4/rED 4. Me, I just don't get too wrapped up in the numbers. If a mook get hits by a big attack, he's done. Whether technically he's only knocked out and bleeding, or is actually dead, I dont' care. For game purposes, he's dead. Some people use a very simple method, that doens't look at the body and stun done at all. Mooks go down in 1 hit. Mid level badies go down in 2. Big Bady's Lt.s go down in 3. Big Bads go down in how ever many is appropriate. Like I said, it's all about figuring out the feel you want, then simulating it. As far as END, you can pretty safely ignore it for everyone except for spellcasters. And if you make a spell system that has an END Reserve or charges, you can ignore if for casters too. If you want more help, just explain the feel you're looking for, and we'll be able to provide you more specific advice. Probably more than you'll want, actually...

Re: Running through the forest I went looking for my copy of Campaign Classics Robin Hood last night and couldn't find it. As someone mentioned earlier, Robin Hood had fairly pedestrian stats for a hero of his caliber. But the whole book seemed to take a very low fantasy, realistic approach to character creation. Which in truth, I really like. I'll spend some more time looking tonight if someone doesn't beat me to it today. I'm in the process of moving, and everything being boxed up or in storage sucks.

Re: Realigning Power Defense This is my thinking on it. If you want Power Defense only to protect certain things, then limit it.

Re: Modeling An anti-magic Barrier I've never seen Slayer's, so I'm just working off your explanation. Transparent allows PD through without bringing down the wall, which includes people walking through it. Feedback models the apparent effect the caster feels when the wall is hit. "Restricted Shape - Dome" I threw in because it sounded like these shields are like an AE Radius. Personal Immunity will allow you to shoot through it yourself. Technically, you're not supposed to buy personal immunity to be able to fire through your own forcewall. But I'd just call that a "Slayers" setting rule. Buying indirect on all your powers would be prohibitably expensive. If those costs are too high for you, I'd just cut them in half. It sounds like all magic using PCs get this power, so you shouldn't feel bad about adjusting the price accordingly. It's a feature of the setting.

Re: New Talent: Spell Slot The idea and execution looks good to me, Bob. As far as where it's from, I'm not sure. It seems like its been a while since I first read it, but spellcasters can have their INT/5 number of spells active at any one time in several HERO magic systems. Naming them "spell slots" might not be an official term, but I think it's as good a title as any.

Re: System cap on creativity I don't really see HERO as adding new rules so much as it is giving more examples of ways in which the rules can be tinkered to suit your game. Almost every "new" rule works off the existing framework, it just shows a new direction you can take. To me, that's the strength of the HERO system. Everything is optional. Everything requires GM approval before it goes in his game. Is it book legal for a GM to require characters to pay 10 pts for per 1d6 EB? The book says it's 5/per, but it also says its the GMs call. To me, that means 10/per is book legal. Charging 10/per doesn't change the framework. It just adjusts the rule to a different setting.

Re: Bullet Time? To me, bullet time for the movies is just a camera trick to allow the viewer to see how fast Neo could move, rather than a power Neo turned on or off. Neo might actually have certain powers to reflect "bullet time" speed, though, like missle deflect/reflect, or as someone said a high level martial dodge. Some games have taken bullet time further, and turned it into an ability to be turned on and off (FEAR for one). To do that type of "bullet time," I'd just have a SPD boost, with maybe a DEX boost to make slower targets easier to hit and slower bullets easier to dodge. EtSZ is more directed at the Flash's ability to move so fast that he can do pretty much anything before anyone can react to it. It's not really a playable ability in most games with more than one Hero.

Re: Cleaning Out the Attic... I looked up a couple of the books on ebay, and they were only worth a few dollars in good condition. And these are NOT in good condition. I think I can read most of them, but the pages are totally falling apart. I'm going to read "Stratosphere Jim" and "Jack Ralston" and see what I think. I'll be sure to let you know. Apparently, "Radio Boys" did have a whole series of books. The Radio Boys on the Mexican Border, The Radio Boys on Secret Service Duty, etc. There is even a free ebook for "on the Mexican Border." Nothing about female radio operators, though...

So, I just bought an old house. The place was built in 1921, and needs some serious renovations. A few days ago, I stuck my head into the unfinished attic, and in addition to decades old insulation and a mummified squirrel, I found a lot of old, old books. Apparently, a young reader had lived in the house around 1938-1945 (many of the books had hand written notes in the front, like "Happy Birthday, Earl! 1941"). For whatever reason, a bunch of this kid's books got stuck in the attic and forgotten about. There were some old science, literature, and spelling books up there, which are neat. But more importantly, in addition to those, there were a bunch of pulp era young reader hardcover novels. Most of the books seemed to be published between 1920 and 1945. The novels often had boys or teenagers as the heroes, most seemed to involve flying or science, and several were based somewhere overseas. Google has shed some light on some of these titles, less on others. I haven't sat down to read any of them yet, but I found the titles to be absolutely fascinating. A real pulp era inspiration for me. So, I thought I'd share some of this truly puply find (some books are a real mess ) with HERO Assembled. I mean, come on. If "Jack Ralston's New Cloud Chaser" and "Stratosphere Jim and His Flying Fortress" don't get your Pulp Hero juices flowing, I don't know what will. They just scream "make me into a character...and don't forget my fantastic aeroplane!"

Re: Marine Corps Martial Arts Program Every marine is a rifleman, so all marines are taught at least the basic combat training, regardless of sex, rank, or MOS. H-to-H stuff included. I think the difference is that there will be an emphasis placed on this training, which wasn't the case in the past.

Re: Marine Corps Martial Arts Program I was in the infantry, 2nd battalion/4th marines, in Lejeune from 92 to 96. Promotions in the infantry were also pretty rare. Most guys arrived in the fleet as Privates or PFC, got promoted to lance corporal within a year, and made corporal sometime late in their 3rd year or early in their 4th. Making Sgt in 4 years in the infantry could happen, but it had to happen because someone was acing boards and getting meritorious promotions. Usually, however, guys could make Sgt. if the re-upped pretty fast...like say by their 5th or 6th year. We "learned" in bootcamp and MCS pretty much everything Killer Shrike pointed to in Close Combat link. Which is to say we spent a couple days on it here and there. When we got to the fleet, every few weeks we would practice LINE training, which is to say we went through the LINE training drills for a couple hours at most. A couple of our NCOs got to go through the full course, which might have lasted a week. They returned and were supposed to spread what they'd learned around to us. Didn't much happen, though. There just wasn't much importance placed on H-to-H training. At the time, the real concern of the Corps seemed to be that we would be taught something that we'd hurt a civilian with, or we'd get hurt in training. So it was better "not" to train us up much, for fear we would abuse the knowledge and someone would get hurt. I think Killer Shrike is probably right about things being different in "war time." You can say what you want about the Marine Corps, but there is no way the leadership is going to send young Marines out into combat without all the advantages that can be provided them (if it can be helped). Placing a real emphasis on H-to_H training will help Marines in combat. And probably even more so if they're in operations other than combat, where non-lethal force becomes a realistic option.

Re: Marine Corps Martial Arts Program Is this the section everyone is talking about here? Because if so, I'm going to go against the grain and say that I think this is a sound policy. You only teach the higher level stuff to guys that have spent some time in the Corps, and that will probably stick around. Plus, wearing a different color t-shirt or belt doesn't mean you can kick anyones butt, anyway. You still have to do it.

Re: Marine Corps Martial Arts Program I learned the LINE system, too. According to the website, the lack of offensive options was also seen as a drawback to LINE training. I guess this new system will fix that... I was really pretty disappointed in my H-to-H training in the Corps. I hope this system is a little more comprehensive.

Re: Marine Corps Martial Arts Program There is some precident in more traditional martial arts schools, where only the best or most dedicated students get taught the "Five-Point-Palm Exploding Heart Technique" type stuff. Not the same as a promotion/learn new moves structure, but similar.

Re: Out of Print? There are copies of UMA available on Ebay and Amazon if you really wanted hard copies.

Re: Out of Print? edit

Re: Resolving a Combat in One Roll? This is a good idea, but I'd tweak it a bit. Rather than having both sides roll high, I'd just subtract the Opponent's score from the PCs score, treat that as the modifier, and have the PCs roll it like a skill. Opponents ((5 CV x 6 DC x(10 DEF/4))/25)+10 = 13 Heroes ((10 CV x 12 DC x (20 DEF/4))/25)+5 = 29 29 - 13 = +16, so the PCs need to roll under a 27- (11 + 16) on 3d6 to win the fight (18 still auto loss?). How you calculate the power rating could change, but I think the basic idea seems sound. I'd probably include average SPD, and figure out something more representative to do with numbers per side, but it seems like a decent plan. If you wanted to get a bit more complex with this system, you could give PCs the option to improve their roll by using potent powers, or sacrificing body, END, whatever. Basically, if the mage is willing to use his one charge fireball for this battle, then the PCs get a +5 to their roll, or some such. Same with the fighter and sacrificing Body. Personally, I'd institute strict mook rules or not fight at all. But HERO is supposed to be a toolbox right? Since we're here, we might as well figure out a good tool for this gamer.

Re: Backpacks and other storage This is the correct answer. However, maybe you could make a backpack with... Backpack 60 pt VPP: OAF (-1), only stuff you put in it. Items must fit in backpack.

Re: Class systems -- is there no escape? I basically agree with Teflon Billy. I think there is a difference between class systems and character specializations. Most of the time here we're talking about characters in terms of what their primary function is (e.g. fighter, thief, mage), and not their predefined character development path. I also think that the group nature of role playing games, and the general desire to have characters with abilities unique within the party, makes character specialization a big part of RPGs. It would take a fairly adept roleplaying party to have fun if the characters in the party consisted of a fighter-mage with thieving abilities, a thieving-mage that was pretty good in a fight, and a thief-fighter with some magic talent. Not that it couldn't be done, mind you. It would just require that the players distinguish their characters in other ways...personality, goals, methods, etc. That's not everyone's cup of tea.