keldrak

Re: Sword and sorcery

I'm not familiar with the Valdorian source material; however this should work just about any where:

Just arrived in the city. Two very long months escorting the caravan up from (somewhere two months away by ox drawn wagon or whatever). Found a good, clean bed-n-breakfast to stay at until you decide what to do next and decided to reward yourself with a night on the town. After a long night of drunken revelry, you awaken in the local drunk tank. The last thing you remember is getting cold-cocked from behind just as you won the arm wrestling contest with that dwarf. (The mage’s last memory is of the dwarf beside him sucker punching him just after he snapped his fingers for the barmaid’s attention. Watching an arm wrestling contest is thirsty work.)

Tossed together by chance, penny-less, concussed, cut, stinking of day old ale and covered with someone’s dried blood, each PC awakens with a similar story. They may commiserate until called to court. A group of clean, well dressed, upstanding dwarves accuse the mage, fighter and other PCs of "fixing" the match. Not guilty but still found guilty of various petty crimes, public drunkenness, resisting arrest, various and sundry property damages; they are unable to pay the court costs (purses gone), much less the fines, resulting in additional charges of vagrancy, etc. Given the choice of accepting service with a dapper looking gentleman, acting on behalf of unidentified person(s), or serving off the charges on the harbor defense galley, as a rower…..

Which leads to gladiator matches, beast hunts, treasure hunts, grudge/revenge actions or the ever popular sport of yachting.

Just a quick thought.

Re: Money in Fantasy Setting

:DBack when DnD came in a little box with a copy of Chainmail rules for combat....

The original authors stated something like "These are not rules. These are guidelines. Use what you like. Drop what you don't like. Modify the rest to suit." Then the rules-lawyers started playing and (understandably, wanting to make more money off the popularity of the game) rules were printed for just about everything. After a while it breaks down to who can memorize the most rules.

Re: a medical magic school fer thy campain...

>>>> This is about communication as much as it is about design. If he does, posting

>>>> it here might create some thought provoking commentary.

 

many GMs want no part of the concept of player input.

whose world is it any ways.

 

its a pity. for every 12 DnD groups there's a Champions group.

and for every 10 Champions group there's a Fantasy Hero group.

 

so the possibilty of finding a new GM seems slim.

Especially when we're not in the same state, much less county.

Re: A Series Of Spells

Harlee's Autumn Weight Gain Spell: Persistant; vs Mental DEF;

Range 45”; Total Cost: 6; Active: 9;

Growth: 5 pts (2xMass, +5 STR, +1 BODY, +1 STUN)

Advantages:

Usable Against Others,

Invisible All Sense Groups,

Costs No End;

Persistent;

NND (Immune if weight >180)

Based on ECV (vs Targets Mental DEF – usually 0 in FH);

Also avoids RANGE MODS

Ranged – Max = 5xAPs

Limitations:

Fragile, Expend, Universal OAF (Pasta Flour)

Affect is gradual; takes one week to complete weight gain.

Gestures

Incantation – Casting Only

Limited powers - Only Up to weight of 180

Fades after 1 Week at (180-Orig Wt)/10 per day

Requires Skill Roll

0 DCV casting only

Characteristic (COM) 4 pts (+8 COM)

Advantages:

As Above without Costs No END and without Persistent

Limitations:

As Above with Linked

OIF is Rose Oil

Re: Some ideas on my spell casting system

Side effects:

I always have a problem with these.

I was thinking, how about Side Effect as a variable extra casting time. Spell never fails but if you roll over the hit number the difference is extra action phases you have to concentrate, uninterupted and undistracted, to get the effect.

Side Effect(-1/2) Difference is half action phases

Side Effect (-1) Difference is full action phases.

END and any other costs are expended as soon as player announces he's starting to cast the spell.

One reason I like this is that I can't recall any MU casting a spell that simply failed without a reason. The MU might not be strong/high level enough (not enough END) or get distracted by the arrow sprouting from his arm or whatever; but no MU starts casting a spell that might not work unless he's truely desparate. Even then it will probably happen but burn him out. The whole point of all that studying was to be able to cast the spell successfully.

The other reason I like this is that while a spell may go off instantaneously, easier spells are like that, a more powerful spell will still execute but may take longer to cast. May, not for sure, like with extra casting time as a LIM. Take the APs/5 or /10 to reduce the Hit Number so that spells generally take more than one 1/2 action phase to cast. For those times when speed is absolutely necessary scrolls, triggered spells, potions and such provide the means.

Keldrak

Re: Cursed Item

Marcdoc,

Cumulative(1/2) - is this a 5th Edition advantage?

I've been out a while but still piddle with my old 4th Ed.

Thanks,

Keldrak

Re: Peasant Campaign: Basic Spells

Just a passing thought...

Maybe I missed an earlier thread, are feats inate abilities?

If you want muggles (yes my boys are into Harry Potter) to have access to small magics, rather than call it magic, have your muggles have a knack that runs in the family. Sort of a geneticly passed inate magic ability. Sharpening, triggered by concentrating on sharpening an implement, makes the implement extra sharp. This can be applied to many actions; healing sick animals triggered by applying standard medical care, repairing broken items where the pieces just seem to come together, removing fatigue triggered by drinking special homemade cider reserved for harvest time which was imbued duing production.

Re: Active Points For Spell Builds

If a Magic System works via skills then I manufacture the normal -1 per AP/10 model and END costs which forces a kind of parity where more power (AP) is sometimes too much (can't make the roll and or pay the END reliably).

 

Been out of this for too long so I may be off base here. Be gentle please.

 

I've never been happy with any of the mechanics to limit mages to keep the game balanced. I always thought that even a newbie mage who has just walked away from his mentor should be respected. I feel like a spell is always successfully cast unless the mage is distracted/interrupted. So, you tick him off at the tavern one night and he might just skulk in the trees next to your field the next day and cast that polymorph human to frog on you.

 

In combat you don't want some newbie mage tossing big spells right and left; so what really limits him? Subtract 1 per AP/5 from the hit number; make the die roll. If it's equal or less than the hit number, bang it goes off that action phase. Otherwise, subtract the hit number from the die roll and he has to concentrate that many 1/2 action phases to cast the spell.

 

Mana/whatever is expended on the first action phase he starts casting the spell. To be a mage you have to have more ~mana~ available than most people. If you exceed your ~mana~ it goes against your stun then body.

 

This gives the opponents an opportunity to go "Oh, nuts! The mage is casting a spell! Get him!" and attempt to distract the mage. This would seem to allow mages to be nasty at any level yet keep the game in balance.

 

OK, where did I mess up with this?

 

keldrak

Re: Trade and Speculation in FH

Just from a glance, it looks a lot like Traveller. You might want to check their books for reference / ideas.

:

Later...

:

Hope you appreciate how deep I had to dig in the back of the closet....

Specifically, you may want to find a copy of "MegaTraveller: Refferee's Manual" by GDM, Marc W Miller, 1987, Item #0212.

Instead of worlds, you would have ports with particular designations. MT doesn't worry about specifics of bulk cargo. Exactly what it is, is only important if it is unique. Makes random availability much easier to do.

Good luck,

keldrak