Doc Democracy

Re: Best way to do this.... Good advice - I was wondering whether the END could be done by purchasing various parts of the base power with variable limitations. The first part (say 4D6) could be bought at multiple END (maybe times 2?) (only when hot, dry and bright) and then three other portions (three extra 2D6) could be bought with 0 END (not when hot/dry/bright respectively). That would mean that in ideal conditions the only END would be on a 4D6 of the base power (2 END), in dry conditions one portion would also kick in (3 END), in dry & hot conditions a second portion kicks in (4 END) and when it is hot, dry and bright you get END on the whole base power (5 END) and extra END on the rump of the base power (7 END). The whole thing becomes very complex in construction but you get a power where, in cold wet and dim conditions you can throw 16D6 (for example) at a cost of 2 END but in hot, dry and bright conditions you'd be limited to 10D6 at 7 END with a whole variety of ENDs and D6 damage in between.... Doc

Re: Glorantha Hero

Re: Help building a mental illusion-based invisibility

Re: Help building a mental illusion-based invisibility What about using Darkness rather than images. The special effect of the darkness could be a field full of human shapes dancing in flickering light where features and other useful things are hidden. Everyone will see the figures dancing and the flashing lights and dancers. The game effects would be similar to that of darkness and give you the defence that you seem to be looking for... Doc

Re: New Perk My initial thought was that it should be 0 points - you woulldn't be getting the advantage of points from the disadvantage for being legally independent. My second thought was that if the characters are all being given that disad as a campaign disad (no points for it), then the cost of the perk is what it would cost to buy off the disadvantage.... Make sense? In a comic-book world I think that this perk could come at virtually any age though there would have to be some kind of rationale for it - better and better as the age gets lower... Doc

Re: Ay Yi Yi! GM advice needed! One option is to have the PCs enter a magical dead zone during a different scenario and have the memories flood back (with an awareness that they had forgotten). If they leave the area you can decide whether you want the spell to come back into force or whether you want it to be broken due to the time in the dead zone. That way they know the situation and can address the spell that was cast... Doc

Re: Martial Artist? One of the ways that I built martial artists to get around the bell curve was to add dice of hand attack limited by only being effective givewn an attack roll better than that required by the system. So KungFuGuy had a martial strike of 3D6 (STR 15) + 4D6 for his martial arts +5D6 (precision limited, capped) Hand Attack. If KungFuGuy needed 15 or less to hit SlowMovingBrickMan then on a roll of 15 he would roll 7D6 (average 24.5 STUN, 7 BODY) on a roll of 14 he would roll 8D6 (average 28 STUN, 8 BODY) on a roll of 13 he would roll 9D6 (average 31.5 STUN, 9 BODY) on a roll of 12 he would roll 10D6 (average 35 STUN, 10 BODY) on a roll of 11 he would roll 11D6 (average 38.5 STUN, 11 BODY) on a roll of 10 he would roll 12D6 (average 42 STUN, 12 BODY) But he would never do more than 42 STUN, 14 BODY for a strike (the maximums of 7D6) and using a less damaging manouevre would result in a lower cap. This allowed me to up the damage done by martial artists without making them overmuscled. I often used standard effect and just added the damage rather than rolling extra dice - it made the martial artist seem different from the brick. Doc

Re: Keeping them distant My only problem with cover is that it simply says to your opponent that you either keep your distance or I do you some damage (which I suppose is exactly what Markdoc is describing as spearman tactics). It does not give the ability to keep an opponent distant mechanically - just through roleplay and trying to keep metagaming out of our mechanistically inclined minds. With the manouever that I proposed there would be mechanics to use that would keep an opponent distant as long as the attack roll was successful. I haven't seen anything else yet where a successful roll would guarantee the maintenance of distance.

Re: Keeping them distant I am quite happy to use this as a generic type thing. But if I have a hero who wants to keep someone at bay - out of reach using a reach weapon I don't have anything to hand to provide. I think a lot of the personal and observational experience people have brought is in non-lethal combat (I hope a safe assumption!) I think there is a much higher chance in lethal combat that people will be more intimidated to commit to an attack - a good spearman should be able to delay someone - a hero should be able to hold someone off with good use of their reach weapon. (All of those shoulds come from what I want to be true in my swords and sorcery stories) Doc

Re: Same concept, new approach You could go a different way again. If the attack was linked with a PD drain for example you would need to lose (on average) 14 PD for the second shot to be worth an extra 7 after armour pierced defences - or 5D6 drain with standard effect. Obviously the drain would only work if the target had previously been hit with the attack in the last minute which might be worth a substantial limitation.

Re: Finally played HERO... and a question! My first thought was that you'd need 5 point levels for a power framework - am I in wrong edition mode??

Re: Keeping them distant Hmm. I hadn't considered 'cover'. It does however open the game up to the ability of players to know that they are unlikely to be taken down with one blow. I was thinking that using the basics of the grab manouever would be best - it restricts movement of the victim (if the attack is successful) and allows damage to be done. Thus - keep them distant - if successful restricts the movement and does damage - very similar in basics. If the attack is unsuccessful then the opponent is not kept at a distance and can attack while the polearm wielder remains at 1/2 DCV. Willing to consider anything though... Doc

Re: Keeping them distant

Re: Keeping them distant I had considered the extra DCV but it made the whole distance thing too abstract and probably takes away from the need for the polearm fighter to abandon his reach weapon when someone gets inside his reach. I was looking for ways to reflect that, at distance the polearm is the better weapon but close up it's nigh useless. Doc

Re: Keeping them distant I suppose you could just do what Achilles (Brad Pitt) and use a direct approach...

Re: Keeping them distant

Re: Keeping them distant I was thinking of reach weapons like polearms or spears but I guess it could work wherever one weapon was significantly longer. Would it make a difference?

I have been trying to think of a mechanic that would emulate the use of a long weapon to keep an opponent at range and prevent them from using a shorter weapon to attack. My current thinking is a special grab manouever (only to prevent closing movement) The requirements would be a long weapon and a successful grab would allow weapon damage to be inflicted. The best thing about it is that a strong enough opponent would be able to throw the weapon aside and close. I think that the manoever would give 1/2 DCV - if someone did close the long weapon wielder is in bother... Anyone else given some thought to this? Doc

Runes I'm thinking that I'll try and make runes a bit more prominent in the game than they were in either RQ or HQ. On the character sheet there will be space to show the relationship between the character and a variety of runes. The initial runes for a character would be defined by the culture and family background of the character, for example, if the character was the son of an Orlanthi farmer he would have a relationship with the Storm rune, Movement rune, Earth rune and Beast rune. Each rune will have two numbers associated with it - the rune number would indicate the strength of the association and this would play a role in contests such as joining particular cults or on heroquests. The second number would be a pool of available points - a Rune pool. Every skill and spell would attract a 1pt surcharge that would add to a particular rune (often a choice of runes) e.g. Kuschile Horse Archery would add a point to Sky pool, though an argument could be made for Truth (another cult rune) or Beast due to the nature of the skill. Points in rune pools could be used to purchase abilities taught by an associated cult (though while the cost still costs an extra point it does not add to the pool). Associated abilities may also be boosted by spending a point of the pool - for example a character with 8 points in their Fire rune pool can increase the damage done by a FireArrow spell by 8 STUN and 2 BODY (STUN/3 no rounding) The rune number (for a particular rune) would increase by one every time a point is added to the associated rune pool. I would also provide special effects for high rune numbers, for example, a Humakti with a Death Rune number of 10 or greater would cause flowers to wilt if he stayed close for too long or increase the risk of abortions etc. Doc

Magic in MyGlorantha OK. the principles of magic in my Glorantha are that all magic must be activated (though this may simply be focussing on a tattoo). If targetted on someone else though then the spellcaster must overcome his opponent's spirit fo rthe spell to take effect. Spirit gets depleted through the use of Battle magic Spirit is used to buy Rune Magic though does not get depleted through its use. A character's spirit is limited in size until he achieves Rune Priest status. Battle magic is short term magic powered through spirit that achieves small practical effects. Rune magic allows the caster to emulate the feats of his God. That's what magic in Glorantha means to me. Magic mean anything else to other people?

Re: Help on mechanics for 1st ever HERO session I was thinking that he was looking for a mechanic that didn't involve another dice roll - thus stripping down combat time requirements.

Re: VPP vs Multipower The problem I can see with a VPP is how you keep the power pools seperate for optics/hear/arms. It would be neater to have three multipowers than three VPPs and VPPs get less cost effective as their size and applicability decreases. Doc

Re: Help on mechanics for 1st ever HERO session It depends on how often you want people knocked down. I was thinking of pre-defence BODY rather than BODY damage taken, so a 10D6 normal attack would knock down your average person but it would take more for more solid people (though BODY does not necessarily equate to mass). Perhaps make knockdown a 10 difficulty which increases by 1 for every point of knockback resistance and/or x2 mass and perhaps decreases by 1 for every 5" of impact velocity?? If you go for pre-soak STUN > REC then every hit is likely to knock people over and you wont be streamlining your combats - you'll be making them longer - average REC is likely to be less than 10 (in a fantasy hero game) and so your average 4D6 normal attack will knock people over. How often do you want knockdown to happen? Doc

Re: Help on mechanics for 1st ever HERO session Well you could simply say that any attack that does a characters [unmodified] BODY or more knocks them down. That takes away any need to roll more dice etc. Each character would have a knockdown number that would be equal to their BODY. Doc

Re: Velocity Discrepancies