Markdoc

Re: [Campaign] The Fearless Monster Hunters Actually, in my game too, the Færie folk do that sort of thing from time to time. That's where beastmen, fey beasts and annoying talking animal sidekicks come from cheers, Mark

Re: Furious Counterstrike Steel Resolve to me simply seems to involve delaying the effect of damage, not the damage itself. In that case, the simplest way to do it (to me) would be to buy a chunk o'CON and a chunk o' BOD and then limit it so that on post-12 after you have taken damage, it disappears (since it's a once-a-fight deal, that sounds like a -2, to me). Note that you do not buy "No figured CHA". In other words: Steel Resolve: +10 Con, +10 BOD, only for soaking damage until first phase 12 after injury (-2). 40 active, 13 real (before other revelant modifiers). In effect, that'd give the character a +10 CON (to avoid CON-stun effects), + 15 STUN and +10 BOD for damage-soaking purposes and +2 ED (for sheer cussedness) and on first post-12, that'd go away (essentially reducing his BOD and STUN totals exactly as if he'd suddenly taken a whack of damage). Using this method, the character would actually take the damage, - it just wouldn't matter that much until post-12. Unlike D20, the character could still be CON-stunned or even killed outright by a large enough attack, but that's OK, it always seemed silly to me that a Crusader who had taken enough fire damage to turn him into a fine powdery ash, could shrug it off for a turn - but then suddenly crumble and blow away It's be simpler to run as well, the player would simply have to track how much damage he took, and have with/without steel resolve CHA figures. It also makes furious counterstrike easier (and cheaper) - in that case it simply becomes an absorption (does not provide defence) that feeds to CSLs. cheers, Mark

Re: [Heresy] Do we need Killing Attacks? Which I have always fixed with Damage Reduction. Once that's done, it's hard to see what the fuss is about. I see the aesthetic complaints ("It's different from the mechanism used for regular damage!") but given that Transfer also differs from the way we do regular attacks (as does Mental Illusions and multiple other powers) that doesn't really move me. cheers, Mark

Re: Countries that don't exist (but should) Probably on account of it now being devoid of every living soul... cheers, Mark

Re: Need Book Recommendations I'd suggest David Brin's Uplift series. Engaging plots (not too simple, but not twisted and difficult to follow). The english is polished but simple (similar in level to Card's books) and the plots tend to hum along at a fair speed. The content is teen-acceptable: no gratuitous naughty bits or gross violence. A bonus is that each book is part of a series but can be read as a stand-alone if you can't get your mitts on the whole lot at once. Like the Ender's Games series, they have a serious theme at core (genocide vs self defence, creating life vs responsibility for same) but it's a theme touched only lightly in the books themselves. Also like the Ender's Game series, war/conflict features prominently but not of the blow-by-blow fighting style (they're no Hammer's Slammers ). And there's 6 of them, so if it works, it should get you off the hook for a couple of weeks at least. Good luck! cheers, Mark

Re: Fantasy / Period Clothing Urgh - there are several hats which could fit your mental image, given the pictures off the link. Working backwards.... In Late medieval/Renaissance italy, these little babies were all over. They are usually just called "Caps" but are sometimes referred to as "Toques" "truncated toques" (because toques, while all cylindrical, could also be tall - the traditional cook's hat is a modified toque) or "Italian Toques". Or for that matter, "slashed caps" (because some of them had a slash up one side tied together with a lace, allowing you to fit it for size, or "red caps" (nothing to do with scottish goblins) because so many of them shown in paintings are red - making them look like so many fezzes. That's probably because of the ecclesiastical connection of the paintings, though, rather than real fashion. Modern toques are made of floppy material, but in medieval times they were often made of felt, so were stiff-sided. In 1400's Flanders, men wore a little cylindrical hat, which sometimes had an embroidered rim, called a "Pill hat" which also makes its way into some English paintings - and presumably therefore onto some English heads (not surprisingly, given the trade of the day) Earlier in England and north-western France (mid-1200's) men wore a similar thing, but I can't help you with a name: as far as I know, they are just called "hattes" cheers, Mark cheers, Mark

Re: Killer Shrike r0xx0r5 my s0xx0r5!!!!!!11!1!11 It's a good point - we had the same experience when we started using Hero rules for fantasy games (and we had 4 GMs (5 campaigns in all) all using Hero system, so we racked up a lot of experience with different play styles in the first couple of years). Basically, magical types have access to such a wide range of powers that that they can - even without being munchkinny - dominate the group very easily. To run a successful game, magic users need to be nerfed. Not too much, because magic is a fun part of the game, just enough to keep it fun for everyone involved. There's multiple way to do this (see KS's site ) but my approach is: 1) allow powers and (possibly) frameworks for all. If mages get access to VPPs and/or MP, then other archetypes can as well. Thus a warrior might have a "fighting tricks" multipower, a rogue type "super-sneakiness" (such as invisibility to normal sight and hearing, only while in cover). This doesn't get too gross, because in general the type of powers avialable to non-magic types are generally limited to doing at a better level what that character can do anyway. But it prevents the mage with an invisibility spell outdoing the stealth specialist, for example 2) Ride herd on what types of spells are available. Right now in my current game, the Sun God Priest has a spell (searing hands: it's an Energy HKA, AP) which lets him harm opponents that are very hard for the warriors to hurt. But he has no forcefield, he has no invisibility or flight and he's not otherwise as good a warrior as the dedicated fighters, so he doesn't dominate combat. He can do a few other things - he has some mental spells (because of the Sun God's rulership aspect) so he's the point man on interrogations. In other words, he can do some stuff the others can't do but he can't do everything. 3) Restrict how often spells can be used. I require all spells to use LTE and all spells must use END. That prevents the "I activate my forcefield and keep it on all day" stuff (which, let's face it, resembles no fantasy novel I ever read). On the plus side, the fact that mages can only use their spells a limited number of times before resting needs to be offset to keep them useful, which means that I tolerate high active point spells. The mage who casts "Body of Iron" gets 30 rDEF and is basically immune to any kind of normal attack - but he can only keep it up for 6-10 phases, max - and at that point he's gonna be too exhausted to even run away... That means a mage can do stuff no other character can do (and that's important - it's a big part of the reason for being a mage) - but he can't do it all the time, meaning either he has to rely on others some of the time or spend points learning other useful stuff: he can't just magic his way through every challenge. cheers, Mark

Re: spells and multi-power It's never been a problem in my games simply because very few spells ever become totally useless, and because the rules I use (spell casting uses LTE) limit the number of spells that can be cast - so just like a D&D arcane spellcaster you may hardly use Tyrion's Irrittating Itch anymore but it is still sitting in your spellbook, using up one of your "slots". In Hero at least you have the advantage that there is an unlimited number of slots. Basically, I see this as no different to a player buying Chinese language while adventuring in China. He doesn't get to swap it out with Portugese when the action moves to Rio de Janeiro. He may rarely use Chinese in future - but it's still there when he needs it. All characters tend to accumulate points in things like this in the course of play and in my game, magic is no different. cheers, Mark

Re: spells and multi-power I talk over the types of magic available to players and give some indication of what sort of spells they will initially have access to. If a player wanted access to healing magic from the start, then he could choose to practice a style of magic where that is standard - but given the nature of the cult, that might mean (does mean, in the current game) that some of the more combat-oriented spells are off the board initally. Basically in my game, magic is defined culturally and socially. A player can't decide, just out of nowhere that he will have this particular set of spells. What I do instead is outline the different types of magic, their requirements and abilities - and then let the player choose what sort of magical career they want to follow. This is no different to the way any type of skill/ability is handled - a character coming from a desert area wouldn't have maritime skills, for example. In the part of the game world where the current game is running, there are three types of magic: Heretic cult magic (using a multipower) that relies on having a supernatural patron. It's a Valdorian age inspired system and the most powerful, but which comes with some significant drawbacks. Temple magic - this uses VPPs. It is less powerful at lower levels (because you have to buy the VPP), but very flexible: since it uses a VPP, with "limited powers: spells known" a temple mage has no theoretical limit on the number or type of spells he can learn - but he has to find them and then increase his VPP to hold them. Most temples have spells they teach to initiates, more powerful ones for adepts and the best ones are kept for priests and holy champions - and not every temple's priests knows every spell - a small local shrine might only have a dozen spells as cult secrets - the grand Temple of the White city has hundreds. Finally there's the old magic of the forest dwellers, where each spell is bought individually - but with the independant limitation, greatly reducing cost. Magic users of this school usually only have a few spells (although a powerful sorceror might have many, because it's possible to inherit or steal spells from others) but they could be quite powerful. This is also the only system where a player could ask for a specific spell, since here there is no spell list - every spell is unique. However there are limitations on what this kind of magic can do: it can only affect the caster personally or things he can directly handle. cheers, Mark

Re: Pirates : An amusing question.

Re: Pirates : An amusing question.

Re: [Heresy] Do we need Killing Attacks?

Re: Huh?

Re: spells and multi-power I'd go the opposite way I use ultras for spell slots and define each spell as a distinct entity because it largely eliminates Hugh's concerns about spells all having the same AP. As characters increase in levels, they don't boost the AP on the "searing hands" spell (for example), because that spell comes as a fixed quantity. If they want more oomph, it's easier buy another spell - and that way players end up with a mix of spells. This does not unduly penalise players since the ultra slots - especially with limitations piled on - are dirt cheap: often 1 or 2 points - and having ultra slots of different values gives the mage a lot of flexibility in combining slots, which the "5 slots all 40 AP" guy lacks. As for Stephs' original question, I use multipowers for magic a lot and they work fine. It's an easy way to give players access to lots of spells without making the character overpowering. cheers, Mark

Re: Skill System House Rules - Comments? It's an excellent idea. We have been using the "roll high to hit" system for years simply because the standard system is harder to teach n00bs - and to get a hero system going, I have almost always had to have a high proportion of n00bs in my games. My experience has been that it's clearly easier to teach: "add your bonuses (OCV) to to your attack roll and get 10 over your targets Defense (DCV) to hit" than "Compare your attack (OCV) to your opponents defence (DCV) and then use that number as a modifier (positive or negative) to your dice roll to try to get under 11." (which is the easiest way to teach it to a n00b - you could change the last part to "and add that to 11 to get the number you need to roll under" but that adds another layer of complication.) The first method also gives a clear "to hit" number which speeds up combat considerably - instead of asking for an OCV and dice roll and doing the calculation "Did they hit villain's DCV?" myself (which is what happens when I have a lot of n00bs or mechanics-averse players), I simply ask "what's your total?" and get a number. Essentially, it outsources the calculation to my players, regardless of system ability, since anyone can add. Not everyone (strange as it may seem) can do "Add or subtract the difference between what I rolled and 11 and apply that to my OCV to see what DCV I hit" - not in a timely fashion, anyway. I've thought about modifying the skill system in the same fashion - but never actually sat down and done it. Bravo! cheers, Mark

Re: [Heresy] Do we need Killing Attacks? This approach breaks down once you move away from higher-end supers. To take an example, sure, a high d6 normal attack and a killing attack are equally lethal to Jane Normal. What do you do however about a mugger with a knife? If it's a +2d6 HA, it's going to require a prolonged period of stabbing to put Jane in any real danger, and plenty of normal humans will be essentially immune to knives. For handguns, that goes double: a 1+1 KA is not lethal in most games, but a pack of hoods with guns is an excuse for a spidey-type to show off his dexterity. Remove killing attacks and those 4 DC guns might as well be shooting nerf balls, even to a non-armoured "normal" hero. You can make weapons lethal by greatly increasing the DC they do - which means greatly increasing defences to provide for Bricks/power armour types who can usually take ordinary small-arms fire, but to make that workable, you'll need to rebalance how ordinary damage works, otherwise such types will dominate combat.... It's not so simple as "just remove KA" - unless you are already playing a 4 colour game where KAs are rare - in which case, what's the issue? cheers, Mark

Re: Fogilioverse HERO Well, remember as noted, the jägerkin we see most of are different from the rest: they are gradually geting smarter by being away from other jägers. The generals are also pretty smart - which is what our favourite jägerkin mght end up growing into... cheers, Mark

Re: Characters Losing Their Souls - How To Handle It? For the majority of my players, you know it'd be hard to tell the difference... cheers, Mark

Re: Daily Art Findings That RAWKS! cheers, Mark

Re: dungeon Yeps. cheers, Mark

Re: Soldiers marching. Hmmm. I don't have references in English handy, but here is what I have read: The preferred late campaigning season (there was also a summer campaign season, after the fields were prepared and sown) in the far north was split in two - first late autumn/early winter (basically after the first hard frost) - say around late October - sometimes earlier, sometimes later. At that point, the harvest was in, and your fighting men freed from overseeing that and/or working. You had plenty of food. The ground would be frozen solid, making for better marching conditions and movement of supplies on wagons. The rivers would not be frozen yet, meaning you could also shift supplies by boat. This was time for strategic movement and establishing your winter base. Depending on the weather, the early campaign season would normally (but not always) stop around the end of December, simply because the weather was getting too bitter and the first serious snows starting. Soldiers would hole up, apart from short-distance raids, drink Christmas/Jul in (the christmas celebration up here is still called Jul, the old pagan name, and it long predates the arrival of Christianity, and according to old writings, Christianity didn't change the festival much). In Febuary, when the worst of the snows were over but the rivers still frozen, the war parties would go out again. Now there'd be enough snow/ice to make sleds practical (some early scandinavian wagons were built so you could take the wheels off and swap them for runners) and the frozen rivers made excellent roads, for two reasons. 1. They were nice and flat and the wind tends to keep them free of piled snow. 2. They run through the lowlands, whereas roads often went by more direct routes and often held to the high ground - meaning lots of up and down - a killer if you have to shift all your own food - and in a scandinavian winter you did: there'd be no foraging. 3. Most settlements were built on waterways - meaning there was almost always a river that went were you wanted. That lasted until mid-march - early April by the latest - at that stage the thaw would start and you wanted to be home before then. The thaw would turn the ground to mud and the ice breaking up would render rivers unpassable for both men and boats. Paradoxically, the beginning of spring was the traditional dying time in Scandinavia and Russia: it's when the old and the weak, having used up their reserves during the winter, would usually die and when food supplies were at their lowest - before new stuff would start growing. Add to that impassable roads and rivers.... It's why Easter used to be such a big deal here and was even before christianity came. cheers, Mark

Re: Musing on D&D spellcasting conversion Or - at higher levels - Ogre Mage or Rakshasa: both terribly evil (in the non-alignment sense) augments - plus they're both shapechangers, so you don't have to deal with people going "Eek! A troll!" all the time. As an aside, if you want to allow this particular exploit, you can simulate it quite well using Transform, or Multiform in Hero. cheers, Mark

Re: dungeon

Re: Daily Art Findings From the description I think Mike has it covered, but if it turns out to be the wrong pic, I'm pretty sure the one you wanted was posted by Keith Curtis - see if he has it lying around. Like you I don't feel like digging back 6 months into the thead. cheers, Mark

Re: Soldiers marching. Yeah, what he said. But as a rough rule of thumb: Group carrying supplies on wagons or seige gear, 8-10 miles a day. Group all or most on foot, carrying their own gear, about 20 miles a day (if they are well disciplined) Group riding and carrying their own gear around 25 miles a day Group riding carrying their own gear with plenty of remounts, abot 30 miles Figure than in the short term the last 3 groups can double their mileage, but they start to straggle, lose men who drop out, pile on the LTE loss, etc and that they can triple the distance for a day or tow by pushing themselves to the absolute limit, but will disintegrate as afighting force after a couple of days like that. cheers, Mark