CourtFool

Firefly not Hollywoodized That is very good to hear.

NPCs - From Cube Farm to Headlines!

Letters Home I once used 'letters home' to flesh out a character's background and personality.

Firefly I am curious if anyone else sensed the movie does not have the same feeling as the series? I am just being cynical, but I fear the movie will be all about the special effects instead of about the characters.

Re: Prone Problems I would agree with pinecone. It would be more difficult to bob and weave while prone, but you should get some kind of concealment bonus.

Support Material I will agree with your assessment but what, exactly, do you propose that Hero Games do? Hero Games has released Champions Universe, Turakian Age, The Valdorian Age and Terran Empire. I will grant you that none of these ‘world’ books have received as extensive support as say Forgotten Realms. Champions at least has received as much as Eberron (again comparing to the big bad). Hero Games could pump more time into one of the worlds, but they would alienate those who are not interested in that particular world. They could hire more staff to keep production on schedule and add focus to one of the worlds but I doubt that would be profitable enough for them. The more you focus on any one world the narrower the interest becomes. I would love to see a new Turakian Age supplement every month but the bottom line is, it would hurt Hero Game’s bottom line.

Re: hit location It always irked me when the killing shot was delivered to the big toe.

MP Faceman Super Skills I used a MP to build some faceman 'super skills' for a Traveler Hero campaign. Cost Power 4 Let Me Make Some Calls...: Multipower, 20-point reserve, (20 Active Points); all slots Activation Roll 11-, Jammed (-1 1/2), OAF Fragile (Focus, Communications Equipment; -1 1/4), Extra Time (5 Minutes, Only to Activate, -1), Requires A Seduction Roll (-1/2), Incantations (-1/4) 1u 1) I Would Like To Call A Friend, Reigis.: Detect Relevant Information, A Large Class Of Things 12- (Unusual Group), Discriminatory, Analyze (20 Active Points); Activation Roll 11-, Jammed (-1 1/2), OAF Fragile (Focus, Communications Equipment; -1 1/4), Extra Time (5 Minutes, Only to Activate, -1), Requires A Seduction Roll (-1/2), Incantations (-1/4) 1u 2) I Know This Guy...: Summon 50-point Contacts, Friendly (+1/4), Expanded Class of Beings (Humans) Limited Group (+1/2) (17 Active Points); Activation Roll 11-, Jammed (-1 1/2), OAF Fragile (Focus, Communications Equipment; -1 1/4), Extra Time (5 Minutes, Only to Activate, -1), Arrives Under Own Power (-1/2), Summoned Being Must Inhabit Locale (-1/2), Requires A Seduction Roll (-1/2), Incantations (-1/4)

Single Attack? Another, more unusual, approach would be to look at this as a singel attack, perhaps with Reduced Penetraion, with the Special Effects of a spell and sword attack. Of course the spells they want to cast at the same time might not be an attack so this probably would not work. There would also be issues because I doubt you charge your characters for weapons. I just thought this approach might be insightful.

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See?

Re: I'm considering Hero...

I'm still considering ignoring...

I'm considering ignoring... You might want to re-read his post.

Nah uh! I disagree, sir. Someone may prefer another system and still recommend Hero over D&D and G.U.R.P.S. Personally, I found your comment dismissive. But I am sensitive like that.

Tripply Disagree If saying that you, personally, may want a more lethal system = it sucks...then yeah, I guess so. You can not seriously think that D&D's combat is more realistic or lethal. 'Real' fantasy rpgs may have systems that straight jacket you into this way of thinking, Hero doesn't. Yes, you will need to be ready to do some work. I regret to inform you that Hero System does not have the exact world, magic system and all the NPCs you have rolling around in your head stated out for you in a nice, glossy, hardbound book. Yes, you will. For those of us who hated the way spells worked in other systems, this is good news.

templates ~ classes I believe the problem of character generation can be lessened for players with a little extra work on the GM. At least once. If your players just want simple class selection with a few feat/skill/spell selections then design some templates for them. Fantasy Hero has some great templates in them so that would cut the work down for the GM.

Re: How to get them off d20

Stop posting so I can catch up! Online Resources There are many GM online resources. Check through these boards, especially the compilation conversion threads. ‘Kewl’ Magic System I doubt you will achieve this effect. All Magic Systems will be based around the same Powers. This may sound limiting, but once you see the possible combinations of Powers, Advantages, Limitations and Power Frameworks you will not be disappointed. The reason I say you are not going to light up the Mage’s eyes is because once everyone understands the concepts behind the Powers they will all know what the spells can do. A particular combination may be something the Mage had not thought of before, but it is more likely to get a ‘why didn’t I think of that?’ response. Item Stats Yes, most items are written up much the same as a character with Skills and Powers. Some people make fun of others for writing up the most mundane items in Hero System statistics. To me, this is just evidence that Hero can do just about anything. It is not necessary to write up a toaster, but when you realize that you can, you also realize how to design a character that can change bread into toast and that you can express that ability in a way everyone else understands (at least everyone else that is familiar with the rules).

Hero vs. G.U.R.P.S. I played G.U.R.P.S. for many years. Let me address the specific concerns you have. Spell System Hero does not have a specific Spell System in the core rule book. It does provide an extensive framework to design your own (Powers, Advantages, Limitations, Power Frameworks). You could design a Spell System like G.U.R.P.S., D&D or your own design with this framework. That does mean a lot of up front work, though. The Turakian Age and Valdorian Age do provide a Spell System and there are two Grimoire books with plenty of spells. Killer Shrike also has some great Spell System write ups on his D&D conversion web site. Combat Length In my experience, Hero is shorter than G.U.R.P.S. If you toss out a lot of the optional rules, it becomes a great deal shorter. Lack of Players I am afraid this will be about equal or slightly less than G.U.R.P.S. At least, that has been my experience. ‘Buy In’ Cost I believe Hero will be cheaper here. You will probably want quite a few books for yourself, but the players will really only need Sidekick whereas with G.U.R.P.S. you would probably have to buy them all one of the core (hardbound) books. Plus with each new G.U.R.P.S. supplement, they will want to borrow it for all the ‘cool’ advantages. With Hero, you can just tell them what the ‘cool’ write up is built on in whatever Hero supplement you are using. All the Hero supplements use the same powers from the core rule book to build different abilities.

Re: Screw the rogue...again.

Screw the rogue...again.

Wal-mart = the new evil I also have the 4th edition book and G.U.R.P.S. Cyberpunk, but I have never ran that type of genre. Although I like my morality ambiguous, that genre is too dark for my taste. Maybe it just hits too close to home. The only advice I can offer is make sure to include diversifide Microsoft and Wal-mart corporations that control the world.

Tanks for the memories Just wanted to add a 'me too'. Your site is most excellent.

The 'forged have souls? Ah. I am fine with giving them souls and allowing them to be affected by abilities that affect the mind and soul, although for my campaign I may make them a different class of minds. Yet another reason I may not allow PC Warforged. Even in such a high powered campaign, they may just be too powerful but perfect as minions.

Re: Eberron Hero