algesan

Re: No more Figured Characteristics?!

Re: Real Costs for spells and how you handle them? Agreed. Reference: 5ER Using the /3 rule, forcing a RSR with 14- NCM on skill rolls, requiring all spells to cost Mana with 1 LTMana spent per cast and a minimum of -2 Limits using Foci, Extra Time, Gest/Incant to fill it out. Also AP is limited to 20 + (base/30)*5. It seems to be working well enough, but then the major reason is that the primary caster in the group is a bard type who is a reasonable player. So he doesn't have a problem self limiting his spells to keep them inside the campaign power level and simply finds A) nifty new effects to simulate and fleshes out the "Legend Lore" sage side of his character with an occasional toss at combat (mainly with throwing knives). There was a big problem with another player who wanted to run a mage, but hated spending for the DEX to hit anything or eat the +1/2 penalty cost to make everything some kind of AE. (Fighters can hit for 3d6K and the mage is stuck with 6 DC using AE Acc.) I'm not really going to go there because the biggest issue was the player wanting to build his own mage and choosing to build a MP mage after I told him that no MP were allowed..... The trick I think that most people are missing here is that all these limits are fun and nice, but all you do is replicate the classic warrior/wizard problem with a vengeance. The warrior starts off nastier than the wizard (although consider that a "1st level" character is maybe a 25+25) but the high level wizard toasts the high level warrior unless the warrior has some extremely specialized gear....or can get in close fast... They just get more flexible and more powerful as they get more points to spend (Deadly Blow helps the noncaster types). I'm at that point now in my campaign. I've got a primary buffer who is starting to eye some direct damage or DOT spells, a tank who has gone from a wannabe knight, to a knight and now a paladin with a few nifty spells and a pure damage dealing tank who (since he bought his CSLs and stats up so he takes and deals more damage) is about to start vegetating on a plateau (oh he can buy up a bit more DEX and STR still) unless he starts getting Hammer Trick (bought at the /3 price) "combat maneuver" spells. Maybe some Reduced END and such, but still that /3 will start catching up with him. When I "Superhero" the toons (make them pay for everything), the difference in total cost between the two tanks is about the price of the paladin's recent spells... The bard? Despite points in extra KS stuff and skills, we are still looking at the bard having 10% more points (which works out to a bit over 15% when you don't have to pay for the equipment). It will only get worse since the bard has been surrendering nifty "combat" items to the tanks and just recently started "filling" some of the empty slots the fighters have had covered.

Re: Convertiong 5e FH to 6e FH They may start at 18 (first good breakpoint), but they went for 20 ASAP (+6 pts (DEX) - 2 pts (SPD) - 10 pts (+1 CV, figured at 5 pts per O & D). Then they went hunting for that 23, even at 6 pts/DEX since +18 (DEX) - 3 (SPD) - 10 (+1 CV) -5 (or more for +1 all DEX skills). The next jump would be to 29 DEX: +36 -6 -20 -5. Not as efficient, but not unreasonable at all. The frightening part is that I could double the "bonus" for DEX skill rolls on many characters reasonably, which made DEX the absolutely had to have skill for all character builds and also meant that the old cranky wizard was real good at whipping out the old sword (or just using his staff) to smash the crap out of goblins, orcs and most "elite veteran" human troops. I think I've seen that in a movie somewhere....... It was more than worth the price in the short run for the "rogue" and "light fighter" types of characters (who cares if you cannot hit as hard as the big boys, you get more crits), the medium run for the "heavy fighter" and in the long run for the caster, unless you blew off or were really generous with the AP cap for spells.

Re: 5E Rules Question: Dexterity and Figured Speed

Re: What do you think of Endurance Reserve in 6E? I use DC/CV for attack powers, as well as some defensive limits (like no Mental/Power DEF/etc over 10 points spent or more than 15 rDEF), but AP limits for "all others". Why not? We rotate GMs and one of us runs 4th. The main reason I swapped over to 5th was because I couldn't find any legacy copies of HeroMaker (my disc became unreadable in the decade plus in storage) and it was a huge pain to try to redo 4th using Hero Designer. 5th has a lot of nifty tricks popped in as prebuilt "talents" and some nice rationalization and refinement, but 4th was the first version that really pulled everything together. Even if it did have some legacy issues that 5th fixed, you could always live with Ambidexterity and Combat Sense being 3 points. Everyone played by the same rules.

Re: Complications

Re: Hero and Hellgate Using 5th, I'd make it a straight superhero game. Oh, it costs points for equipment, but then it costs you stat points in HGL to equip the armor and weapons you want to use, so making characters have equipment point "pools" and allowing them to hotswap equipment easily would work. For characters, I'd go with package deals with a special talents for each archtype. Templars could get "armor handling" to avoid DEX penalties with heavier armor and the only HTH martial arts. Hunters could get ranged martial arts and Invisibility for the "Escape" skill. Cabalists, I'm not so sure on (my highest level one was about 6th...), but allow them a power skill and certain items (like the bolt throwing glove) requiring a power skill roll for full effect. Of course, you could build a framework of skills/powers based on "Cabalist/Hunter/Templar Tricks" that players could buy. Stinks that the game went down, especially before they could release that last patch.

Re: No more Figured Characteristics?! The need for high DEX on virtually any character build was an issue I had with the entire system, but it was just one of those things to be dealt with. I'm not able to comment on all the rest of 6E (okay, I'm just not going to without having the full system in front of me ), but I'm thinking about trying to tinker with my current campaign's PCs since I'm not running for a few months (we take turns running games) and see what happens with 6E stats and the rest 5E. A quick survey of PC/NPC power levels leads me to believe that breaking the DEX/SPD/OCV/DCV combo is worth the stat change. Face it, even though it was pricey, 23 DEX was almost a requirement in higher powered NCM games (heroic or low power superheroic) and well worth the price. Sure it cost you 18 points for those last three, but you got the equivalent of 16 points (2x 8pt CSLs) + 5 pts (+1 DEX rolls) + 3pts (for SPD). (Yes, we can quibble over the numbers, but if you figure cheaper for the CSLs, the bonus for the DEX rolls can be figured a LOT more expensively.) If the PCs are exploiting (err, using legally) the rules, then it starts becoming an arms race.

Re: Complications Thanks, my search on "complications" gave me too many choices, none of which seemed to give a straight answer.

My group is doing 5th Ed gaming, but the idea of no figured stats is interesting, so for fun, using Hero Designer (HD), I started converting over some of the 5th Ed Characters to 6th Ed to see what changes we could preview and if it would be worthwhile to think about changing over. First issue to pop up: 5th Ed character with 75 Base, 100 Disadvantage, 160 Exp = 335 points available 6th Ed character with 75 Base, 100 Complications, 160 Exp = 235 points available!!! Obviously, it appears that the "Complications" don't add to character points available to spend. True or a bug?

Re: Need game advice, *Quick* NOTE: I'm using 5E, so you will have to translate some of this. Assuming 1 player game; first, have him find some healing salves/bandages (allow recovery over a hour or six) & potions (quaff and heal); second get him a NPC partner or "pick up" follower I'd suggest a ranger/thief/scout type (stealth, pick locks, missile fire, decent melee). Although your big woodsman with a big ax would work out. Give him some outdoor tracking/hunting skills. Healing capability is critical to avoid death. Partner allows you to insert clues and provide side info. As long as your brother is focused on being a close melee type (maybe with some paladinish anti-undead powers under training) then you can just hand wave side events. My current group of three are two melees and a bard (sage/buffer/throwing knives), but they still have a NPC "minder" or three around for various purposes to suit me. The main "buddy" is a solid melee who "soaks up" some side targets as needed (and I fake in enough "extras" to keep him out of main fights mostly). General advice: Plot, plot, plot. Give yourself as many notes as possible in advance. Write descriptions of areas and critters. I use area hits (set up a quick random in a spreadsheet to get hit locations) even when not doing hit locations. Then I can just mark them off as I go and I get to say: "Ok, the Saurian warrior swings his two handed mace (roll to hit as you speak) and scores a (rolling for damage) hard hit in your hand. You take X/Y BODY/STUN.

Re: Lovecraftian-style Magic Getting away from how the vamp's "sheer imagination" supported clothing... (Sorry, RL "explanation" given by a stripper I knew for how her required minimum costume stayed on.) I gave a high fantasy campaign a touch of Lovecraft (Deep Ones in fact) as a bit of a side trip arc that ended up becoming a major arc. So now there are two more "things man wasn't meant to know" sequences at the end of the next two campaign arcs (we swap GMs around, so we plan it this way). I used the 4th Ed Horror Hero rules and it worked out fairly well. Set up drain conditions for LT Stress (EGO/PRE drain as appropriate) (without telling the players) and kept track of the time (NND). Various triggers resulted in PRE drain attacks. If you are still working on it here is how I set it up: LT Stress effects: 1st level (before notice odd architecture (nothing quite square)): 1pt/hour 1st level (after noticed, on random encounter roll of 10): 1pt/5 hours 1st level (after talking to dying human): 1pt/hour 2nd level (before the temple): 1pt/hour 2nd level (after the temple): 1pt/20 minutes 2nd level (if the party sits and watches the ceremony): 1pt the first 5 minutes, then 1pt/minute 2nd level (for each baby killed) 1pt 2nd level (if everything in the temple is killed and the babies saved): 1pt/hour 3rd level 1pt/hour +1 LT Stress (up to 5 max) added each time a new level of PRE attack (+0,+10,+20,+30,+40) is achieved on a general PRE attack, remember that the characters EGO & PRE may be drained some. General PRE attacks: 1st level: 2d6 after finishing the combat at entrance 1st level: 4d6 after dealing with the gibbering human 2nd level: 4d6 after leaving 2d level entry 2nd level: 6d6 when viewing the temple for the first time 2nd level: 6d6 again if watching the ceremony 2nd level: +1d6 for each baby killed 2nd level: +2d6 (11d6! Total) if the ceremony is completed 3rd level: 4d6 after entering The party bailed out after dealing with the temple, so all they ended up with was a few odd temporary effects except one permanently picked up an "extra" 5 points higher Enraged (1 level harder to recover). Worked out fairly well, the main reason they bailed was some of the "tough guy" troops they had for assistance started gibbering and drooling a bit. Main thing is to not tell them and predetermine the various levels of "failure" for each character. The Enraged negative was prechosen and the other melee type got a temp Overconfidence "bonus" (which actually saved the party from worse because he charged into the sacrifice ceremony). The bard-type character (highest PRE & EGO) talked them out of going further (one melee starting to get twitchy in rage, the other starting to think he was invulnerable and the NPC melee wanting to be anal about finishing the scouting mission). Not strictly a "Cthullu" connection, it is just some strange demonic thing to them with low level stress effects to work on them. Nice change of pace and added a bit of fear and loathing to the run. Good luck.

Re: A Master Trapper Lots of good ideas. For the traps themselves, I'd lean towards a framework (or two) as long as this is going to be a primary type skill. The first would be the number of "heavy" traps he could have on hand to place at any time using the old standby of INT/5 traps. The second would be a Gadget pool at a much lower level than the normal active points in your campaign as a catch all to make any trap he can find the parts for in a hurry. KEY: If you are not allowing frameworks, then don't do so, or think very hard about it. I use a "cantrip pool" (at 15 active points) as a catch all in my game, but I have a proviso that a nifty cantrip that has combat effects is devised, then it must be paid for as a full spell. The other approach (which I use for herbalists and "normal" alchemists) you could use would be letting parts found (in my case herbs) have a shelf life that tends to be shorter for the more powerful herbs and/or have a prep time to use (the 4d6 Heal leaves must be boiled in water and then strapped in a poultice to work) for full effect. A "normal" alchemist can brew up the herbs to give them full effect and extended shelf life. In both cases, some kind of gear is needed to be hauled around to get full effect from what are basically "free" character points. The alchemy "field kit" is actually a pair of heavy (and heavily padded) chests full of glassware and reagents. The party has to take a spare mule along to carry the load around, which makes for the disadvantage. As for an actual trapper, one of my players is running a hunter base character. He is fairly sharp with a crossbow, although his main combat skills revolve around big two handed blunt objects. He also does the tracking and scouting, but can also lay traps and ambushes. Simply uses Trapping skill with various complimentary skills like Mechanics, Concealment, various KS & PS and such. Now he doesn't set traps with big effects usually, but a little effect to break a rush usually is all the party wants. He can get better effects by expending more time (a big tough net trap instead of a simple trip line or a pit full of sharp stakes instead of a few ankle cutters with leaves on them). I don't think that is what your guy is after though.

Re: Love for Non-Casters? That is the main reason I put a "firm" upper limit on spell APs at 100 (I will make exceptions on a case by case basis if needed), which should be hit at 481 (+ disadvantages) character points. The idea is that the caster will eventually get an edge in raw AP. I'm rebuilding my older characters in 5th Ed, both from original character sheets (happened to find them in a binder in a box) from D&D, Rolemaster and FH 1st Ed (when everyone was a caster) and from my 4th Ed sheets where I have them. I'm not seeing a problem yet at a 400-500 point level, I am seeing one for much higher level casters which means my AP formula might have to be 20 + 5 for every 30 character points (up to 100 AP) OR 100 + 5 for every 50/75/100 (haven't decided) over 510. I don't see that happening in a group where we are swapping between 2 GMs running different games that mostly meets once a week for about six hours, unless we start an uber game or I shift over to a more episodic approach. It won't be that slow since I usually toss in an extra character point or two for "free" background skills with most every session.

Re: Love for Non-Casters? NOTE: I'll agree, if you simply apply the divide by 3 rule to "magic" then it is potentially abusive (nope, don't have the Turakian book, just know that is the setup). GAH! I've been hearing this whine from both sides. First from the Hero vet who mentions all the points he spent on weapon use skills at "full price"....with his patented martial art maneuver....and the ability to pick up a new magic weapon and use it at full effect for 1 point (WF:?) if he can get past the STR minimum. Second from the ones only familiar with Hero who whine about the other side to my magic system. Any caster is allowed spells of 20 AP + 5 AP for every 30 character points (or fraction) their character has, not counting disadvantage points. A starting 25 point low power character would have only 25 AP available for spells and when they gained 6 more experience would be able to go up to 30 AP. I'm trying out a mana system for the game I just started instead of using straight END with casters getting for this run. Mainly with INT + EGO for Mana and INT/5 + EGO/5 for Mana REC. Along with RSR, all spells have the Side Effect (-1/2) of costing 1 Long Term Mana each time they are cast, even if they are bought with Charges or 0 END. The results are interesting. The way Hero balances offensive vs defensive power costs, defense spells tend to be bought as single charge continuing charges with larger Extra Time and Increased END limits to make them real cheap since they are mostly to be cast once per day. They may not be Persistent (if the caster is stunned or KO'd, the spell turns off). There are some other flourishes, NCM max skill is 14- (although if you pay to raise your Power skill stat to 28 you would get a natural 15-) and the talent Skill Master may be used directly (+3 to skill) once, which gives a high level a 18- base roll. Some powers are limited in usage (Armor must be bought in an item that actually covers the area, mage defense spells and items of "protection" are Force Fields with protects carried items option). Base general DEF in spells are limited to 5 + 1 per 30 points, although I allow casters to build spells that are more PD than ED or vice versa, up to 10 PD or ED max (if you have DEF 6 available, you could have 6 PD/6 ED, 10 PD/ 2 ED, 3 PD/9 ED, etc.). Mages are not limited in the arms and armor they can wear, but their Power roll is reduced by their encumbrance penalty AND by -1 by every 2 DEF over 1 DEF they are wearing as armor (DEF 3/4 = -1, 5/6 = -2, etc.) which makes it much more efficient to be a cloth wearer. At least if you want to cast higher powered spells reliably. Mental and Power Defenses are limited to 10. The effect of these design choices? The power level of mages parallels that of an early D&D mage, with a lower character point casters being a bit on the wimpy side compared to their melee buddies (who are picking up bonus points by grabbing that 1/5d6K sword (2d6 w/ STR)) early on, but then going past the melees (who cap at ~ 85 AP with a nice magic weapon) on up to a max of 100 AP in magic. I will make note that if I disallowed players commonly having a martial arts style, then I'd be a bit more worried on the cap since Martial Maneuvers are somewhat cheap on their own.

Re: Weapon always does maximum damage +5 STUN (D6-1)+5 Roll would yeild 5,6,6,6,6,6 as results, which would be 35/6 = 5-5/6 We could go with +4, but that would give 4,5,6,6,6,6 or 33/6=5.5 and the standard damage does round down X.5 to X.

Re: large scale maps That's pretty much what I do, the big map is more for my reference than anything. Heh, I remember how many of my early RPG games were played with the campaign map being an old Avalon Hill battle map, I think I even have my copy of Outdoor Survival around here somewhere. I'm making up a map now based on the Gaea series, not the actual setting but the 250km wide, 1300km diameter wheel, which allowing for fudge factors comes into 19 small hex maps on 8.5x11" paper using 5km per hex. What is going on it? Rivers, big woods, seas, mountains, cable locations. That's it.

Re: Building an Encrypted Radio I would drop it, but unless all these people are spending character points on it, why bother with the details? It is a radio with a certain encryption strength which would require someone trying to crack it to make a Cryptography roll at a negative. It could also be using various frequency shift and spread band techniques to be hard to intercept the entire message (another negative). As for the users, they simply get issued the key, either when they draw the radio or supervisors could get a small electronic device that holds the key digitally and gets loaded into the agents' radios. Keys can change at preset times by preset methods (algorithm encrypted as part of the key) which could be another negative (since the code is changing at a high rate). Etc., etc., etc. Personally, I'd reduce it to a skill on skill with a rising scale of negative mods on the one trying to listen in depending on the complexity of the system. NOW: I'd also give it a jam/burnout roll after being in use for a certain amount of time, because the electronic key can be lost. In some cases the radio will only be encrypted for a few days and then it will lose sync with the other radios in the net and start broadcasting in the clear. You could use a continuing charge type effect on the encryption. Up to you if you want the ability to desync any individual radio from the encryption net ("Agent Smith just got captured, they have his radio.") Of course, if this is for a supers game, then I'd just buy mind link through a focus. Oh, yeah, I did do some of this in a previous life.

Re: A multistage VPP Okay Sean, so what you are saying is to let him have the entire 75 points (for example) for buying real points worth of powers, but base the availability of the active points around partially limiting the control cost via the various foci, correct? I am trying to make some of the "booster" parts independent items so that when the character has his: 1) Gadgeteer: pocket knife, tool bag, tool chest, truck, workshop; 2) Mage: fingers, small wand, big wand, small staff, big staff; 3) Psionic: mind, psi crystal ring, psi crystal earring, psi crystal necklace, psi crystal helmet; he has more available points to spend. If I have what you are saying right, then he could build some 75 point powers and have them available the way you are stating it (and the way I did with the mage example), just at lower AP levels. Hmmm, that would work well enough in concept for a gadgeteer who could build an 75 active point gun in his shop and use it all the time, but in the field could only whip up a 15 active point version if the big one broke. (Actually that works real darn well for one of the other characters in my game.) I'm just not sure if it is fitting my concept for a mage or a psionic where I want both the active points and real points available to be lowered together. Also I'm wanting to put independent foci with some of the pool boosting on it, which is why I'm thinking turning them into Aid Power items. BTW, I know I can hand wave it and make it work, but I'd prefer not to.

Re: VPP and "Limited Class of Powers" Sticking an oar in here. IMO, the major usage of SFX relates to: 1) How it affects "targets" (a fire mage will have a problem with an iron golem that is healed by fire attacks, while a lightning mage would have a field day since the iron golem takes 2x BODY from electrical attacks). 2) What your powers are vulnerable to. For example, Flamer Mage Guy will take a penalty for Dispel/Drain/Suppress/etc. vs fire magic. Lightning Mage Guy would be immune to vs. fire magic stuff. (Of course, in my fantasy games, there is an overall magic SFX which would deal with both, but you could get specific ones for different "schools" of magic with a Limitation.) 3) Justification of certain limitations. For example Flamer Mage Guy wouldn't be worth crap around here for the last 24 hours. Eight inches of rain. Lightning Mage Guy would be fine and with all the electrical activity, I might even give him a small bonus. Note that Flamer Mage Guy wouldn't have to take that limitation (not in heavy rains (-1/4)) with the justification that his stuff is so hot it isn't affected (although I'd probably still give him a small minus in a heavy rain).

Re: A multistage VPP Nice, I actually got a better answer to two questions for two different VPPs. Yours I can use for the small gadget pool the "Legendary Engineer" is going to have to whip up widgets and missing parts and simply doing some AID powers for a psionic VPP on independent items will let the psionic character not suck wind vs the guys with the guns. Of course, part of this is based on the actual players involved, I've got two I'd never turn over that kind of psionic VPP to, or any other VPP except for a dinky one like the gadget pool, studded with little notes to "Don't Push It".

Re: A multistage VPP Sean, this isn't about changing the powers, it is about the amount of active points available to be used. If you have a pocket knife, a sock, some floss and a rubber band, then you can only do X active points. If you have large selection of tools and parts, then you can do 2X points in an active power. If you have a full shop and a hardware store, then you could do 3x points. Ahhh, let me try it another way, I may have made a mistake using a Gadgeteer. If all the mage can do is wiggle his fingers, then he can do X Active If he has a cheap wand and components, he can do 2x Active If he has his fancy staff and some high priced components, he can do 3x active. Etc. Practical: He has his Fireball spell memorized for today. Using the numbers I gave in the OP, here are his options 2d6 EB EX 4d6 EB EX 6d6 EB EX 8d6 EB EX 10d6 EB EX It isn't about changing the powers slotted in, it is about how many active points he can use. Gadgeteer X can build a small zip gun at the base level and a powerful rifle at the top level, but it is still about building a gun with tools (in shop/lab). EDIT: Ok, DUH! Simply define the various levels of gear/equipment as an AID to the VPP, with the AID points going to both the base and control costs.

Re: A multistage VPP Thanks a bunch. I now have two ideas that might work, a limit for materials available (which would include better equipment as well as parts) or if I can dig up that character, addable VPPs that only work together under certain circumstances. Another thought (since I really don't need five levels of difference), would be to give a small VPP intrinsic to the character and put a large one through a focus and require the small one to be configured with a "control" power to use the larger one.

I've thought of one way to do this, but it was kludgy and I want to see if there is a more elegant way. Pretty much, a VPP that operates on different levels depending on conditions. I'm going to use a gadget pool as an example for simplicity, but you could use anything. Gadgeteer has various scraps of items around, some which can be used for tools and others for construction. Pool limit: 15 Active points. Gadgeteer has a small tool bag/kit with multitools and small parts. Other items around that can be used for construction. Pool limit: 30 Active points. Gadgeteer has his tool chest with more tools and more sophisticated parts. Pool limit: 45 Active points. Gadgeteer has his pickup truck with tool boxes on the back and extra materials available. Pool limit: 60 active points. Gadgeteer is in his workshop with shop tools, widgets and construction materials. Pool limit: 75 active points. Any ideas? Thanks

Re: same old Q: MAs stacking on advantaged HAs