Markdoc

Re: Cylon Resurrection Yep - I had a PC in a game who could only change her powers when she was "dead" - so she used to "die" on a regular basis. If you had a chracter with this power, I'd expect them to do potentially suicidal things, so it'd be nice to have the wherewithal set up in advance. That said, I'd stat it out as a summon (specific person - identical duplicate), with trigger (Trigger being death) and one charge, does not recover. You might also want to add a focus limitaton, although if a new body can be produced at very many places, that's probably not applicable. It's actually a pretty cheap "get out of Death free" power. The character "backs themself up" and if killed, goes back to the last save point and starts again. As the chracter gains in experience, they would need to sink points into the summon, but it woud be at a low ratio, so that's no problem. You might want to define some sort of mindlink, radio communication or similar if the backup can be updated remotely, but otherwise you're good to go. This way also avoids problems inherent in the teleport approach with regard to range and with the regeneration approach in that normally you'd regenerate where you were, rather than popping up in a new body somewhere else. I've also used this approach in my fantasy game for the Blood-born - warriors who are laid in a magic cauldron and then have their throat, wrist and ankles slit, so that they bleed out into the cauldron. After the magic ritual is complete, they arise - apparently unharmed. But if they are ever killed, a duplicate body forms over time out of the blood. The only way to permanently get rid of them is to destroy the cauldron or empty the blood out (in this case, they get a focus limitation ) cheers, Mark

Re: Wizard's immunity to the magical SFX they use From the descriptions you give - a mage could walk through a magical barrier he was attuned to, a fireball would burn the people around him, but not him, I'd suggest desolid. Make it a perk: "Attuned to source X" Desolid, Persistent, always on, only vs magic of same source, -2. 24 points doesn't seem too much to pay for total immunity to some magic - and it also serves as a gatekeeper - only dedicated mages would spend so much for access to magic. That requires some handwavium as a power source - technically, since he's desolid, he should have to buy all his stuff with "affects real world" but since the real world affects him normally, I'd be inclined to let that slide. You could also use handwavium to allow his own magic to affect him, but there's two other options I'd prefer. 1. Be internally consistent. If he acts as a magical conductor, soaking up attuned magic, then the same applies to his own magic. In other words, he *can't* affect himself. That could lead to some cool in-game logic: you can make other people invisible, but you can't make yourself invisible. You need somone else - with a different attunement - to heal you, etc. It'd give a nice, unique flavour. 2. Just make him pay an extra +1/2 for affects desolid on spells he applies to himself. cheers, Mark

Re: Discourse on Fantasy Hero Agreed. I've been using Hero for Fantasy for longer than there's been a Fantasy Hero and haven't had this problem - ever. Setup does take more work - especially with regard to magic - since you are not pulling it straight out of a book. It is quite possible to make a balanced magic system (easier than in d20, actually looking at seething horrors like the Mystic Theurge) - I have one in my current game. The issue of balance, in my experience, comes up when someone comes up with a reallly cool idea which they translate to the game (and this happens in any system, not just in Hero) or when people do violence to the system ("I want mages to have lots of spells, so I'm going to divide all real costs by 3" - followed by "Waaa! The system is unbalanced!"). My set up for next week's game consisted of one evening's work - sketch up a map of a village and a palace, brief personality sketches of local personalities (no Stat.s) and stats and backstory for a bunch of generic NPCs fighter/guards (no time taken - I just reused the standard ones) and two major NPCs - a mage and an assassin type. All in all, it took me maybe 30 minutes to an hour longer than if I was doing it for a D20 game (to be fair, even for D20, I tend to weak the characters a bit so as not get a generic "level X whatever"). cheers, Mark cheers, Mark

Re: What is awesome? The catch being, I guess that an AI has no BOD since it is per definition housed in something that has BOD. If you don't put it into a vehicle, base or focus, it presumably exists only in pure infospace - safe from attack and destruction but also unable to percieve or interact with the rest of the world. cheers, Mark

Re: Fantasy Reproduction If we suddenly stopped raising chickens most of them would die - but many would not, and the survivors would be able to survive in the wild. This we know because the experiment has already been done with chickens that escape from captivity (same with sheep and cows). Humans are at the same level: the vast majority of us (even those in developing countries) can only survive in the context of relatively advanced technology. If that were suddenly magically withdrawn, there'd be a vast human die-off, but the survivors would be able to pick the pieces and keep going. In both cases, it's a question of numbers vs resources, not genetic alteration. Genetically, humans haven't changed that much in the last 10,000 years. Which means - dragging the post kicking and screaming vaguely back on topic - that even if orcish society and orcs themselves are optimised for fighting, that's not necessarily enough to grant them eventual dominance (or even survival). To compete, you also need the ability to establish a stable society and control internal stresses in your society (something orcish society in most games and fantasy settings is notoriously poor at). There's no advantage in raising a huge army of fearless warriors if most of them starve to death (or are eaten by the others) on the march - leaving each one of the survivors to fight 10 well-equipped, well-organised and well-motivated opponents from an army that has a supply train. Likewise, as history teaches us, numbers and violent enthusiam is no match for better equipment, better organisation and decent quartermasters. Finally, if there is no stable basis for civics (be that ethics or morality) odds are pretty good your civilisation will never expand to the point where it can field large armies anyway - local differences will keep tearing it apart before it reaches that point. That's how Tolkien kept his orcs from taking over - absent a magical controlling force (the will of Sauron, or the enchantments of Saruman) orcish society in his setting is kind of an oxymoron. Instead, you get scattered bands, who are incapable of taking down the more organised races - but equally are very difficult to defeat or eradicate permanently. cheers, Mark

Re: And off we go! Damn! You're right - there's a whole session post missing! I'll have to dig back into my notes and see if I wrote it up and forgot to post, or forgot to write it up. cheers, Mark

Re: And off we go! and the next couple of sessions.... To fill in time before nightfall they go with a novice priest (and the Horse, to make their best impression) to ask the captain of the watch for extra guards around the temple tonight. Alas, it is a different captain to the one they met before; there is one for each ward of the city. After hearing their story (and hearing that they are staying in and working with the temple) this captain reluctantly agrees to their request, and will even let them have a net if they come back here at the evening bell. They then hie down to the harbour armoury and chandler to equip themselves with ropes for the net, a climbing rope, and a galley oar-sized club for Kelsen. From the Smiler’s priest they borrow two lanterns to stand either side of the satyr and two candles to stick on the temple dome above it, so they can see what it is up to. They cannot, unfortunately, get hold of tar, alchemists fire or whistles such as the guards have, though they spend some time running around trying. As darkness falls they light the lamps and wait: Aquila and Bellona on the temple dome walkway, Khelsen with Lamoniak on Silas in the temple back alley with the net spread waiting, Gen and Katz holding their qurrocks in the market square where they can see the lighted roof. They wait some more - and as it grows completely dark, the satyr reaches out unnoticed and grabs an inattentive Aquilla! It tosses him effortlessly towards the library roof 6m below - but he grabs the minotaur gargoyle in passing and doesn't fall. The satyr then tries to climb down from its perch towards the market square, but stops short because of the chain. Bellona yells to Khelsen and Lamoniak where it is going, and then strikes the statue with her sword. But the blow just glances off, and the creature glares at her. Then it jumps out into space, holding on to its collar. It hits the temple wall and the weight of its fall pulls the minotaur gargoyle completely out of its socket - with Aquilla still clinging to it! But he makes his breakfall and acrobatics rolls lands without harm on the library roof – then starts sliding towards the edge - and just manages to grab the gutter and hang on! The minotaur gargoyle crashes into the roof right where he landed a second ago and goes straight through to the ground floor – shattering and freeing the chain in the process. The satyr jumps off the temple facade and drops freely to the ground. The temple is wide awake by this point having had a half ton of stone dropped through their roof. Gen and Khatz scramble onto their qurrocks and prepare to give chase or flee. Lamoniak comes racing round the corner of the temple, followed by Khelsen and the net, and they all surround the satyr briefly - it just glares at them and bolts! The riders race after it (madly honking qurrock horns, the net trailing after them), heading downhill, along a dark street, through a small square - then they lose it. But nearby screams put them back on its track; they follow them and find a man in a nightshirt with two guardsmen, indicating that it went 'thatta way'. Meanwhile Bellona is tailing the creature over the rooftops, but the only possible witnesses (interviewed through an open dormer window) have seen nothing – they simply heard something trying their shutters. They hear a distant thump, and race in that direction - it's heading towards Silversmith Square! Some guards come running up and are suspicious of all this noise but Lamoniak makes a marvelous speech and a presence roll and then Lamoniak orders the guards to check all doors in that quarter, and they do so. The PCs themselves check the houses of silversmith Teor and his daughter for signs of forced entry, but nothing seems to be amiss. Then Lamoniak wakes their friend the master mason to put him on the alert, but he seems inexplicably reluctant to come out gargoyle hunting with them – and not terribly happy to be woken in the middle of the night. Frustrated and gargoyleless they return to the temple. There is no longer any question that the priests believe their story - the gargoyle's socket is empty after all, and its neighbour is lying in a thousand pieces all over the floor of the library. They find that the satyr didn't break its chain but unscrewed the loop around its neck while crouched in the square, which means it can use its stone fingers very dextrously. Katz scries the bolt that it dropped to try and find out where it is now, and gets an image of a hanging sign painted with a seamonster. Since the last trace they had of the satyr was towards Silversmith Square they suspect master smith Teor of being involved somehow. When they share their suspicions with the Smiler priest HE suggests that Teor's house be searched - but the other priests are aghast and they decide against this. One of the priests can detect magic, and they return with him and a keen priest of the Horned Man to Silversmith Square. Here the magic-detecting priest picks up something magic from Teor's house, but it's not very large, and he reckons it might just be a household charm. They send Aquilla up onto the roof to check the house and since the satyr is connected with Samadrians the rest then go and search the area of town where the foreigners are to be found, down by the docks. Then the magic-detecting priest picks up some very strong magic - active and unclean, possibly like sorcery - from back up the hill in the direction of the temple. But when they get to the probable location, a middle class residential street with tailor shops, he can't detect anything else, and they can't find any tracks or other signs. But in a side alley they find a shutter hanging open at ground level, splintered and with claw marks in the wood. They wake the sleepers inside who are all safe and had no idea that their shutter had been forced. On the roof above this apartment there are dislodged tiles. Again they return to the temple, where they meet up with Aquilla. He has been in and out of Teor's house - and found that ALL the shutters on the top floor windows had been forced open! He souvenired an impressively bent bolt. Is the satyr looking for something or someone - Drass' murderer, or his former sweetheart? They check Seri's house once more, but all is quiet and intact. GM’s note – the Gargoyle is in fact looking for Drass’ old sweetheart – and also revenge for his murder, so the players have basically worked out what is going on – the question is can they stop it in time? Lamoniak and the Smiler’s priest go up to the temple roof - and the statue is back in place! The magic that the detecting priest felt could well have been it turning back to stone again. At least its hands aren't stained with blood. The priest of the Smiler recognises the seamonster sign from Khatz' vision as the sign for the Kraken tavern, which they also check out, but it has not been disturbed. They spend the rest of the night and the early morning fast asleep. Next morning at their urging the temple summons silversmith Teor for an interview, under a discreet truth spell. He denies all connection with Samadrians and living statues, and dismisses any question of his daughter having liked Drass or him having anything to do with Drass' murder. On the last two points at least he is not telling the truth, the truthspell priest informs us. They go to Seri's house to ask her to the temple for a similar interview, and after being initially refused admittance she agrees to come. The same discreet truth spell is applied. Seri tells them that her father would surely have disapproved of her and Drass' relationship, but that he never gave any indication he was aware of it. They used to meet when she took lunches to the workers at the temple. Drass loved his work and was happy to make the satyr; he knew what the creature was from mythology but designed it himself. Seri used to sleep on the top floor of Teor's house when she was a girl - where all the shutters had been forced open last night. Drass had given her a little silver ring, the mention of which causes them great excitement. Bellona and a priestess take a message from Seri for her maid to bring it to the temple in its box under escort - but it proves to be completely without magic. All Seri's answers were truthful, according to the truthspell priest. They thank her nicely and let her go. The friendly master mason comes to visit them, and they ask him where he went after helping them chain the satyr gargoyle up last night. They are not surprised to hear he went to the Kraken tavern, which Katz saw in his vision off the collar bolt. They loan a hammer and chisel from the mason, with which to hamstring the satyr - if the priests let them! Then they go out for more questioning around the quarter. At the site of the first murder an old woman points out the spot, and on the wall above it are great claw marks scraping down from the roofs, where the creature 'abseiled' down. Next they visit Caius, Drass' former fellow journeyman, and ask him about Drass' personal effects that he packed up and sent back to the village. There were a few clothes, some tools - and a head that Drass had carved. Of a faun, a model for the satyr gargoyle on the temple roof. Illumination dawns! This model head was almost certainly buried in Drass' grave, thereby getting covered in nitre, and was recently stolen from his grave by the Samadrians, to be sorcerously switched with the original head of the temple's gargoyle. The only thing they don't know is Why - what was their purpose? GM’s note: the head sorceror of the cult is doing a favour for his patron – the statue could tell them “a secret only the stones know” They explain all this to the Smiler’s priest, but he is still dubious about letting them remove his gargoyle's head. Until they describe to him again the inconvenience and embarrassment of having a murdering gargoyle associated with his cult running about the city. Then they are allowed to take Caius up to the roof, where he chisels all the grave-head off the statue, and Khelsen catches it in a net. The head is locked in a box (for later copying) and stored in the crypt. That evening they net the headless statue in place and Bellona, Gen and Kelsen keep watch over it until past full dark. The others watch the box containing the head. Nothing Happens. After a very peaceful night (even Aquilla found nothing of interest on his nocturnal wanderings) a guardsman comes looking for them - there is someone at the guardhouse whom they might like to talk to. Down in the guardhouse cellar they find the captain, some guards, and a roughed up-looking townsman. This individual was dobbed in to the city guard for suddenly having too much money, and they have learned that he sneaked a party of attention-shy Samadrians out of the city two nights ago. He had received a purse of silver (which he has already spent) for sailing them about a little way up the coast to a bay on the far side of a headland, where they met a man with a beard. Where they went after that he does not know, but there is a farmhouse up on the headland, and a road a little way inland. The cultists have escaped!

Re: And off we go! been too busy to up date this for a while.... Anyway... In the Silversmith's Market they find the house of master smith Teor, Drass' last patron. It's an impressive 3 storey building and the top floor has a whole wall of large windows overhanging the street. Aquilla and Khelsen watch the mews out back while the rest of them are shown into a richly appointed office. Master smith Teor eventually remembers Drass as a 'country boy' - the statue Drass made for Teor's money was his gift to the temple to help it rebuild after the fire. They get no more out of him, but find him shifty and suspect him of knowing a great deal more than he's saying. They check back at the temple for updates: the library clerk is still searching the records for anything on Drass' death, and precisely which statue it was that master smith Teor paid for and which was Drass' journeyman project. They speculate about Drass' murder (he was stabbed in the throat from the front) being a professional job, and intend to ask the old priestess of the Crone who prepared his body about it; she's still living in the temple almshouses. They would also like a writ of authority from the High Priest to act on behalf of the temple and/or the city watch, but polite red tape gets in the way of this (the temple is prepared to accept their bona fides, since one of them is a noble and one a priest and the temple in Houndsgar vouches for them – but there’s a limit to how far they will go) Teor's servant boy had shown them to the house of a guildmaster of the Fancy Carvers Guild. On their return they are received warily but are eventually taken to the master mason out back, where he is superintending the assembly of a column. He remembers Drass and how he died very well - and says that Drass' old master Mordic died not so long after Drass, falling off a scaffold at the temple shortly before it was finished. In his capacity as a guildmaster he tells them that the guild would only have records of work that Drass did while under his old master. The journeyman project should have been recorded, and there may even be a picture of it! But he wants to check out their credentials at the temple before letting them look at guild records. They take him to the temple straight away where his reservations are satisfied, and he invites them to dinner - they can look at the records then. While Katz unsuccessfully tries meditating on the Smiler statue to see if he can get a lue from his magical gift, the rest of them borrow a temple acolyte to accompany them to the captain of the watch for this ward, where they try again to get a writ. But they are referred further up the tree to the lord of the city. Their request to see the report on Drass' murder is also unsuccessful – the guard don't keep records going that far back! At dinner with the master mason later that evening he produces a large black book of guild records. A parchment has been inserted in it, recording the minutes of a meeting approving Drass' journeyman project, commissioned and paid for (600sp) by silversmith Teor. There's a picture of it too, and it's like nothing any of them have ever seen before. A crouching man-beast with hooved feet like the Horse. Very lifelike and rather disturbing. They would very much like to know where it is now and ply him with questions, but the mason doesn’t know. Back at the temple they describe it to the library priest and ask him if it is anywhere in the temple - and he is positive he has not seen it. But he knows what it is: a mythological creature associated with the Smiler, called a satyr. This creature was the Smiler's emissary to the Forest Man, at the Place of the Compact (now the White City), when the New Gods were fighting him for domination of the island. So far so good. Lacking further amusements this night they keep watch on silversmith Teor's house, and in the 2nd watch Bellona and Khelsen hear female screams. They run in that direction, meeting two torch-bearing guardsmen. More guards are summoned with whistles and they search the neighbourhood. Kelsen hears running feet down a small alley, and when he and Bellona charge in, something crashes intentionally and hard into them. Bellona gets one sword-stroke in as it rushes by, and her sword clangs as if on stone. They see a great shape leap up a house wall, cling a moment, then scuttle up the facade and onto the roof. It vanishes to the sound of heavily crunching tiles. The guards run after it around the block, while Bellona, using her magical gift, runs up the wall and across the rooftops after the creature, and finds that it has leapt down into the next courtyard, with an exit to the street - it is gone. But it left two impressive hoof-shaped holes in the hardpacked earth! Kelsen checks the courtyard, finding no bodies, but there is a house with lights on from whence the screams came. A woman says that 'something' nearly pulled open the shutters and was trying to get in. She screamed, and it glared and leered at her with a hideous expression - evil, with horrible eyes. Then it fled. The rest of the night passes peacefully, and when daylight comes they inspect the very deep hoofprints – whatever made them was clearly very heavy. A local servant is charged with keeping people away so they can show them to the Smiler priest. Aquila tracks the creature across the rooftops, and Gen down the next alley, but when it reaches a cobbled street the tracks vanish. Lammoniak, Khatz and Khelsen go to call on silversmith Teor's daughter, now married to another silversmith and mistress of a considerable household, living just round the corner from her father's house. Mistress Seri remembers Drass very well, saying that he 'had poetry in his soul'. She also remembers the satyr statue and describes it clearly; horns, monster legs and tail. She believes it should be still in the large temple, as it was carved there while the temple was closed for repairs. The players interrogate her for a while and become certain she was was Drass' secret girlfriend but she denies knowing what her father might have thought of their relationship, or anything about his death – saying 'It was twenty years ago, and I married someone else'. But by the time the party leaves she is twisting up her embroidery in distress. When they take the senior priest of the Smiler to see the hoofprints in the alley he is very impressed, but unconvinced that the creature that made them is the murderer. But he does know where Drass' satyr statue is, and takes them up a stair in the belfry and out onto the walkway around the temple dome to see it - it's a gargoyle! And it bears a scratch on one shoulder from Bellona's sword! It also possibly has dust or mud on its feet, and definitely has nitre on its head, which is a different colour and age to the rest of the piece.... as if it were a statue without its head... Aquila is confident that he could climb down from this point safely, and, assuming that the statue comes to life, it could too. So they convince the priest to have the satyr chained to its neighbour-gargoyle overnight, and for them to keep watch on it. They loan chains from the friendly master mason who helps them attach them - a bolted loop around its neck, and the chain around the neighbouring minotaur's legs – the mason is intrigued by all of this. They decide may also want to loan a hammer and stone chisel from him at a later point....

Re: Would You Assassinate the King? Correct. I found it mildly amusing that a poster would impugn the intelligence of others whilst taking a position which is so dogmatic that it is easily refuted. Discussing the specific concept of the "divine right of kings" in a roman concept is particularly amusing since roman law post Augustus explicitly stated that the Emperor held his post (lex regia) - by the will of the people. Nero didn't retain power despite his madness because people were afraid of upsetting the gods - he held power because people were afraid of upsetting the soldiers he paid. And it was quite explicit - witness the quote about Nero laughing at a rich man's pretensions because he knew that if he but said it, the man would disappear and not only would no-one object, but no-one would ever dare mention the fact. The "divine right of kings" as a specific theory wasn't even formulated until after the fall of the western Roman empire - and it did not become widely accepted in Europe until the 17th century, with Louis' destruction of the Fronde (ironically, not long before it was to crumble away forever). We have ample evidence from history that the divine right of kings was a subject of much debate, from the conflict between the vatican and the Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire (where it was held that a ruler only held divine right while he acted with the blessing of the pope, of whom he was essentially a vice-regent) to the charter of electors of Germany - who after all elected their Emperor - to Magna Carta where the king is explicitly defined as first among equals, and who holds his estate with the consent of his vassal. And that's just Western Europe - and skipping over the constant wars in which kings were abruptly "de-kinged", even by those not of royal blood and it becomes clear that the divine right of kings is a concept much honoured in the breach. Most cultures have had some concept that rulership was in some way touched with the divine - but many of those cultures held that it was *being* in charge that showed you had the mandate of heaven. Having the mandate was of no use if you weren't in charge. Thus a hairy barbarian from the steppes could become the favoured son of heaven and recipient of its mandate and ruler of all under heaven - if he had a big enough army. The former holder of the mandate of heaven could be butchered and sent to the new ruler in small pieces - so the butchers could keep their jobs. If people in the real world could bring themselves to kill kings when it was convenient, I think we safely assume that in a fantasy world, that aspect is not going to be an insuperable problem - regardless of who the creator is. cheers, Mark

Re: It's all about de fences while - you are correct - you could do it this way, after pondering for several minutes, I can't actually think of any reasons why I'd want to... The simplification gained is neglible - it may even end up being more complex if you start limiting DEF to try to differentiate between energy and physical harm, and it then begs the question of whether you should define your special effects at all (except as colour) - if you only have defence, presumably you also only have "attack". cheers, Mark

Re: Is Find Weakness mispriced?

Re: Would You Assassinate the King? So, Josh (squirrel, whatever) now that you know the universe demands a good story, you can always take advantage of it, by *choosing* your role. You're right. In classic tales (and it doesn't sound like the Creator is one for complicated ground-breaking fiction) the king is not going to get offed by a nobody. A stone block will probably fall out of the ceiling and kill you (off stage) if you try. However - kings get killed all the time by evil advisers who banish the king's son on some trumped-up excuse. If you "assume" that archetype, maybe the universe will help you become the King's adviser (you probably already know enough to make a good start). It might help speed things up, once the King is dead, if you try and seduce the banished prince's sweetheart - if he has one . Of course the son will inevitably return and kill you, but that should unite all the different factions in a satisfactory fashion and you can probably get a great dying speech. My advice is prepare it in advance and practice.... Alternatively, if you can arrange for the King and his son to become estranged - preferrably violently - then nature (or plot) could take its course. In that case you "assume" the role of plucky assistant to the Prince. The one thing it doesn't seem you need to worry about is morality - since the Creator obviously no more (and no less) annointed the king than they have you. cheers, Mark

Re: Hackable cyber-brains? Add my vote for mental powers, with appropriate skill rolls and limitations. I'm guessing they only "feel wrong" because you are thinking of them as psi-powers, whereas to me "Mind control (machine class of minds)" is simply a way of taking over a machine - and also means you can't hack a machine without a mind, like an electric stapler. This is by far the simplest way to do handle the questions that will inevitably come up. The fact that you want "skills" and these are "powers" is to me irrelevant. Skills, powers, talents - they're all just points. I see no contradiction in using both. The problem with using skills is they are essentially all or nothing (and relatively cheap, to boot). So unless you start setting up skill tables defining different levels of success for different actions, hacking a brain gives you all or nothing control. It's as easy to hack someone's visual feeds as it is to take control of their cyberarm and make them shoot themselves in the brain. Mental powers, with graduated levels of effect, the ability to use advantages like IPE and time delay and well-defined boundaries seems like a far easier way to go. You can also use mindscan for locating the precise mind you want on the net, plus things like clairsentience for hacking security cameras, mental shapeshift, so you can look like someone else to a recipient, etc. If it's cost you are worried about, let players use multipowers, where different hacking abilities can be added for only the cost of a slot - but a good hacker willl need to invest some points to get up to speed and only the best will be able to completely take someone over. If even that is too expensive let people buy their rigs or cyberbrains as followers (think the various AIs from Mind-Machine Interface) and give THEM the powers - in that case, all the user needs to do is buy the followers, mindlink and an appropriate computing skill to control them. cheers, Mark

Re: Is Find Weakness mispriced?

Re: Is Find Weakness mispriced?

Re: Is Find Weakness mispriced? No, but it definately needs to be regarded as having a stop sign by it, which brings us back to what I've been saying. Based on my own experience, the build AmadanNaBriona posted would probably not be allowed - but as I commented earlier it's not - at first glance - obviously abusive. cheers, Mark

Re: Is Find Weakness mispriced? So without hit locations, you would only have done 25 BOD. Would it have made that much difference? cheers, Mark

Re: Is Find Weakness mispriced? I've edited the below See, here's where we part ways. Even if we use your example, if the first roll is failed (which will happen about 1 time in 6), it costs the player a half phase and he is definately worse off. 2 times out of 6, he's about at parity, 2 times out of 6 he really starts to surge - and 1 time in 6 he's ripping his opponent a new one. As I noted above it's at least in part the ability to start putting BOD on targets which is of concern - which is why I specifically noted my problem with FW on killing attacks - that lets people strip away their target's resistant defences quickly. Is it worse than the tunnelling slug with n-Ray vision and mental powers? (Don't laugh - I've seen exactly that construct) or the teeny, tiny pixie with a huge no range mod RKA? (Don't laugh - I've seen that construct, too). No, it's not. But it *is* a matter for some concern, in part because it's not so obviously abusive As to the cost issue, I really like the early suggestion to remove FW as a power and instead make it a talent, based on AP. That keeps the ability to reduce defences, but not the ability to essentially remove them - or if you really want to remove them, based on AVLD, does BOD, appropriately limited - which is deals with the active point and cost issues. cheers, Mark

Re: Is Find Weakness mispriced? When did it start? It's a half phase action, but not an attack. As far as I know, it has always been like this. This may have changed back in 5eR - I don't have a copy of that (the curse of being an early adopter!) cheers, Mark

Re: Is Find Weakness mispriced? Yes. It has balance issues. That's thepoint, no? I think as Zornwill suggests that it should have a stop sign rather than a magnifying glass - as I said that's how I treat it.

Re: Resolving a Combat in One Roll? More to the point, I wouldn't even include it. However, to give the swordswingers a little spotlight time, I occasionally include a non-essential fight. By its definition, that means the players outclass their opponents so significantly, that the fight is over in a few minutes real time anyway. cheers, Mark

Re: The Future of Small Arms Two possibilities I can see if body armour continues to improve as fast as it has been doing and becoming available to lower-tech armies (as is currently the case). 1. small bore, AP rounds designed to go through armour (think APDS). Presumably you'd want to pop out a burst of them to insure sufficient tissue damage, so you're looking at a high ROF or (potentially) one round with several small payloads. In that case, the weight gains would start making caseless ammo look much more attractive, especially if the bullet was partially embedded in the propellant, and the propellant served as a sabot - burning off as the round was fired (basically a gyrojet with no rocket). Or alternatively, gauss weapons, which would do the same thing . 2. Largebore with specialist rounds - (HESH, shrapnel, shaped charge, shotgun etc). This would basically be the logical extension of two current trends - the Hezbollah approach where "riflemen" are being replaced by guys with RPGs, while the conventional slug thrower serves as support and the now-cancelled US OICW, where the goal was to give every trooper largebore capacity. The low amount of ammo you could carry would kind of rule out "spray and pray" (although having half your squad pop range-fused shrapnel onto threat areas would be just as good) and put a priority on targetting, but I see improved targetting being important to both of these things. cheers, Mark

Re: Is Find Weakness mispriced? For the simple reasons that: 1) AP is figured into active cost, so it's easy to see if it is out of line. You can do the same with FW, but it's not so obvious. 2) it can't drop someone's defences from 40 to (say) 5. An 8d6 AP attack will get some stun through on a 40DEF character, but isn't going to take them down very fast. An 8d6 attack with a good find weakness roll is likely going to put them in hospital in a few hits. 3) it works in a way that no other power or modifier does. Having said that, I don't think FW is being vilified in this thread. It can be unbalancing, but I simply treat it as having a big stop sign next to it. cheers, Mark

Re: Is Find Weakness mispriced? Sure - but any time someone says - "OK, use GM's fiat to dogpile the character", then to me, that's saying "Yeah, we got a problem here". Which was the point. Now in my experience the problem is not really pervasive - as I said I haven't banned FW. I just scrutinise any appearance of it really carefully. cheers, Mark

Re: Herophile Fantasy art Well recurve bows do spring back past the vertical! Of course, this isn't a recurve bow. Now you point it out I can see the problem - and also how it arose. I made the bow bigger to give me the composition I wanted - but of course had to reduce the tension of the bow so it could be drawn. A triumph of style over verisimilitude! Thanks for the tips! I reckon given another 10 years, I might be getting somewhere. Of course, by then, as Andy points out, the really good people will have moved on, so I still won't be happy with anything I do! cheers, Mark