sbarron

Re: Move Through/Move By Question: Does movement take time? I'm just working off the top of my head here. I know I have seen similar threads to this before, so there may be better answers. But if this is really a problem for you, I would suggest that you have all characters, and I mean all, start making liberal use of Held Actions and Covered, or whatever attacking someone and then holding that attack until they move is called. If you allow held actions to enter into the characters next phase (and the FAQ says that you should use judgment and dramatic sense to decide whether you allow this, which in this case I think you could), then a character could use his held action to get his EB off first. Of course, this doesn't solve the problem if both the charcters have held actions. Secondly, I'd recommend the covering manuever. If a character thinks another character may attack him, then using a form of covering would allow the guy at range to fire first if he gets rushed. Again, he is really using an action from a previous phase, so it's not a perfect solution. But it would work some of the time. I think both of these keep the rules intact and will take away some of the times when a character is able to pull the move-through from range on a armed opponent trick. I've also seen people on this board mention breaking everything down by half-phases rather than full phases, which would model real life more accurately, but would make combat even more complex and time consumming. I guess it all depends on what you are looking for.

Re: Things I'd like to see more of in fantasy gaming

Re: Things I'd like to see more of in fantasy gaming Great one Keith! I completely agree. Players I've gamed with usually think that if they see some sort of "injustice," which could be racism, slavery, a harsh class system, whatever, that it is their moral duty to try to fix it. Which defeats the whole point of gaming in another time and place with different views.

Re: Things I'd like to see more of in fantasy gaming

Re: Things I'd like to see more of in fantasy gaming PCs shouldn't have a perfect knowledge about the magic system Nothing kills the feel of a magic system like the PCs having perfect knowledge of how it works. There is no sense of mystery, no danger, nothing. If magic is a science in your world, that's one thing. But most GMs draw up elaborate rules for how magic works in their world, and then pass them out for the PCs. If your PC is a mage, then having knowledge about how it works is ok, I guess. He should have an idea of what he is doing. But I think it's very cool if the only player who has any idea of how magic works is a character who uses magic. Fighter types, thieves, plus everyone else will have a much better time if the player doesn't understand how magic works anymore than their character does. Also, I dont' think there is any reason that magic using PCs should have perfect understanding either. Look at how ancient cultures viewed solar bodies, the tides, gravity, etc. They had all kinds of crazy ideas about why these things worked the way they did, and I think magic would be the same way. Too frequently magic gets treated as a universal science that all cultures aproach the same way. I think it would be way cooler if different cultures had completley different ideas about the hows and whys of magic.

As I read through various fantasy novels, I am frequently struck by certain ideas that seem very cool but usually don't get done in fantasy gaming. So I decided to start a list of them in case I ever run a game again. Feel free to comment or add your own... I'd really like starting PCs to not have much knowledge of the outside world. Many people who create a fantasy setting start with the map of the world, and work their way down. Here are mountains, oceans, islands, volcanos, the elves, etc. And they also create various kindgoms, with information on the culture, leaders, customs, etc. And since they created this stuff, frequently the PCs have access to it. I think that can be a mistake. It doesn't seem to me that in any but the highest of fantasy that your average PC would have much knowledge about the outside world. More likely, they may have heard rumors about the fabulous Kingdom of Blank, where the people are all lizards that ride on flying beasts, but they wouldn't "know" it. The distances between places and the lack of speedy tranportation, and the lack of fast and accurate communication in most fantasy settings makes it unlikely for most PCs to have travelled very far from the borders of their country, or the one next to it, or know much about them. I think it would be a lot more fun to have rumors about the fantastic world outside of what the PCs are familiar with, rather than them having perfect knowledge of the campaign world. Stories get inflated in retelling. Things can be mis-interpreted. It will be exciting for the PCs to find these things out for themselves, rather than reading it from the GMs notes (campaign setting). And a character that spends the points on KS: Geography shoudln't have perfect knowledge either. He could know more than average, but it's not like ancient maps were usually all that accurate.

I hate double posts...

Re: Armour Piercing as an Adder That's a good mathmatical way to approach this, but I think I would just use common sense. A standard kevlar vest doesn't work against rifles, assault rifles, etc. Everyone knows that. Just have that be the case in your game. Maybe you could have someone who has a vest on get 2rPD against rifle rounds vs someone without getting none. Also, if the person has the metal plate inserts in their vest, you could give them the fill defense against everything, including rifles. Maybe those plates could also serve as additional defense against all attacks. I think the plates usually only cover the upper chest area, so maybe have them only cover hit locations 12-13 (or whatever). So if you have an 6rPD vest without inserts, it works against standard handguns, and applies 2rPD vs. anything bigger. A 6rPD vest with plate inserts (covering 12-13 and providing an additional 2rPD for those locations) provides 8rPD vs. all attacks that hit locations 12-13, but acts as the former in all other ways. I don't know if any of this gets addressed in Dark Champions. If I wanted to be more realistic about body armor, I might do something like this.

Re: Flavour in Combat over mechanics Here is a thread that discusses this... http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23250&highlight=combat+flavor For me, I think you just need to focus on the role-play. Make the players announce the name of the move they are doing. Don't let them say "I hit him with my Offensive strike - 8d6." Make them say, "I rush forward to unleash my dreaded Soaring Lark Strike!" Or he's not that lively, maybe "I use my Soaring Lark Strike." It is hard to get away from the numbers. Hero makes all of the powers that supers purchase have a "Name" now for that very reason. 10d6 EB is just a number. Focused Plasma Blast (10d6 EB) puts the focus on the image of the attack, and less on the numbers. It sounds like you're on the right track with the teacher - student thing. You just need more of the same. Hope this helps.

Re: Modern-Day Urban Fantasy I've considered running something along the lines of Jim Butcher's "The Dresden Files." But I've never gotten around to it. Everytime I read one of these books I'm always wondering how the spell system would work in Hero. Sometimes I'm thinking VPP, sometimes MP. Ah, if only I didn't have to work...

Re: Champions Universe Complete?

Re: Anyone have Tomb of Horrors? Thanks to this thread, I dropped about $250 over the past week on E-bay and Amazon buying up all the old modules I remember from my youth. Sigh... I think I might try to get some people together and run some of the these. I'm thinking I'll start the with Scourge of the Slavelords series and see how it goes. Or maybe the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh series. Enough time has passed that most players won't remember the details too well, right?

Re: Libra C'mon. You know they have to save that stuff for the Libra Sourcebook.

Re: How would you build Temporal Immutability? If you are going to put a limit on whatever you choose, I'd go with -2 for temporal effects. I think it's considerably more rare than most other attack forms.

Re: Playing 3.5 after Fantasy Hero I played 3.0 for a while, but it just got old once my character reached 12-13th level. Advances up levels and picking new feats was fun, though. And nothing annoys me more than saving throws. Particularly save or die stuff. It's so un-fun to die from a bad die roll.

Re: Normal Characteristic Maxima

Re: Worlds of Empire? I knew there was a change being made, which is why I didn't get too excited about the WoE listing saying October, 2004. I just wondered if there was an update. Apparently there is not, other than "not now, if ever." Which sucks. Maybe if I can convince the D20 guys I'm trying to convert to Hero to buy Hero books, sales of TE will reach the level to rate some more support for the line. That's a lot of converting, though.

I'm starting a TE game in the next couple of months, and any setting support would make my life way easier. That being the case, what's the status of "Worlds of Empire?" The schedule says Oct. 2004, but Steve has said that it is way down on the list of priorities. Any updates on a possible release date? Thanks

Re: A new take on "Deadly Blow" I agree with Markdoc on this. However, the above chart should be... 5 points for +1 DC 6 points for +1 DC, +1 OCV and +1 DCV, or +2 OCV, or +2 DCV Which just makes this an even more obvious choice. Making "damage only" a 1 1/2 lim would make it less of an obvious chioce again, but still maybe not enough that I would buy it. That's what, 4 pts per DC? I guess that makes sense. That's what the extra DC in a MA costs. I guess once a character hits the CV ceiling in his game, these damage only levels might make sense.

Re: A question about dungeons.

Re: What do you think is the best way to balance armor use? I once considered letting characters buy their amor up to 8rpd/8red with character points, and letting them define it how they wanted. I didn't want to hassle with the details of LTE, Enc, balance, etc. I just figured it would be easier. If you want to be the bare chested barbarian that is always just getting missed, or the tank that soaks ups tons of damge in your plate mail, you could be. Never tried it, but if I ever play FH again, I might.

Re: Proposed Rule Change for 5th Ed Rev. flexible Power point of origin Steve please note The question here should not be what is cool, fair, or even right. The question should be, "what is most common in the genre?" The default power setting should be the one found most frequently in comics, limiting the number of characters that have to take limitations and advantages to create their powers. In this case, I think everyone has agreed at some point that 9 times out of 10, characters that "shoot" attacks tend to do so from one location. I won't go into the list of characters here, but most characters fire attacks from their hands, eyes, or head, and very seldomly deviate from their primary location. Also, most characters have to point their hands, eyebeams, or whatever at their intended target in order to hit it using the power originating from those locations. So that doesn't seem unreasonably limiting as the defaut to me, either. By no coincidence, these are the current default settings. There are also mechanics in place to limit or add to the default settings. +1/4 allows for powers to originate from anywhere the user chooses, and the Power skill can simulate any random, unique uses for a given power. These are pretty cheap, and allow for the various advantageous effects that are seen in comic books. Restrainable is -1/2 or -1/4 and limits powers that are susceptable to being taken away under given circumstances. These default rules seem ok to me.

thanks

In the paying full price for magic thread, someone again mentioned making every character pay points for everything. I've thought about this before, and can see some real possibilities for it. In games where the PCs aren't constantly collecting magic items as they go, or trading in the +2 sword for a +3 sword without thinking twice, it seems like this would work well. I would really like to try that style of play. I mean, how many characters in literature ditch their family armor for some suit they picked up off a battle field? Or sell their fathers sword once they find a better one in a tomb? In most games I've been in, that happens constantly. And I suppose if your father was a farmer that had a rusted out blade, ok. But if your father was the 3rd Earl of Grandor, and your PC's to be the fourth, that sword might be as much a part of your character as the family name. Well, it should be... So, I'd like to give this a try, and I have some questions for anyone who has given this system a go. 1) How many points did you give each character? Did you give them characeter points and equipment points, or just a set number of cp? 2) Did you allow magic weapons? It seems like you should, but maybe not depending on the style you wanted. 3) Did you allow mix and match between "classes?" Did you let the classic warrior spend a few points on battle magic spells he picked up? Seems like it would be ripe for abuse, but maybe not. 4) Did you enforce the recommended limits from FH? I'll probably think of some other questions. Thanks

Re: Should this be called Dark Champions? While I would also like to see the name changed to maintain consistency in the Hero vs Champions lines, I don't think it will have much impact on sales. The cover is very dark and very cool, and the book is really thick. I think most gamers who play Hero will at least pick it up to look through, even if they don't think it will be of use for their non-Champions game. In doing so, they will either figure out what the book is about, or will see the gun list and (like the original) decide it is a must have for their modern action game. As for pulling in non-hero gamers, I don't know. The cover should still help attract attention, even if the title confuses the unititiated.