Markdoc

Re: DC Suckverse? I take it you mean apart from the people who still read DC comics? cheers, Mark

Re: Herophile Fantasy art Nuthin' special, just goofin' around, but I kind of liked it... Cheers, Mark

Re: Pictish Swamp Devil You spell it Leucrotta and Steve didn't invent it - it's a mythical beast: a chimera of sorts (different medieval bestiaries combined a lion, a stag or goat, and even a badger) and able to speak with a human voice. It is (supposedly) derived from exaggerated stories about hyenas. And it featured inthe first Monster Manual! cheers, Mark

Re: Spells You Don't Want to Model in FH A friend of mine explaining D and D alignment: "Evil people will kill good people if there's something in it for them or if they get in the way and good people will kill evil people whenever they can." cheers, Mark

Re: Concept Cars Actually the Vega looks pretty cool too. That's some slick stuff right there. Whatever happened to american car designers? Well, OK. we know what happened to De Lorean Cheers, Mark

Re: What would you trade for wealth? Running. When I mashed up my ankle I lost some running and I didn't get anything for it. 200K a year for life for what amounts to a limp seems like a deal cheers, Mark

Re: Daily Art Findings I think that's the effect he was going for - but look at the steps up to the castle: each one is taller than a house. Also the castle is proportioned "normally". It may be he intended the castle to be for somebody who was really really huge, of course, so 100 foot tall windows and a 700 foot tall door was intended. It just looks odd. Still, this is nitpicking: we agree it's areally cool image. cheers, Mark

Re: If YOU have been playing Hero since the 80's why do you still keep coming back? Well to be fair to SJG, they admitted up front that hero system was a big influence on GURPS. cheers, Mark

Re: If YOU have been playing Hero since the 80's why do you still keep coming back? What hasn't been mentioned so far is the negative. I keep coming back to Hero system bcuase so many of the other systems we've played have things in the rules that make me go - and that's just annoying. Tinkering with a system can be fun, but it irritates me when I have to fiddle with something out of the box just to stop it doing stupid things ("So you mean I can't gain access to these healing powers because I'm not an expert horseman?") Hero system - it doesn't suck. cheers, Mark

Re: Clever Future Weapons

Re: Daily Art Findings It's a cool picture, but the proportions are kinda whack (unless the guys who live in the houses are all 8" tall..) cheers, Mark

Re: Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved

Re: Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved Before you can work out what spells are available in these "other spheres" you need to work out what society's like and how magic works. I *do* have magitech in my game, but you won't find spells for making rugs or magic used to track down common lawbreakers. Like in medival times, life is cheap. You have millions of peasant women making rugs. What magician is going to want to compete with them? He could make a beter living for less work by selling them healing and easy childbirth: something they can't duplicate themselves. But you will find spells for making armour and weapons. Traditionally, the ruling/warrior class would pay lots to have the best weapons available. Sir Gigaknight can afford to pay whatever it takes to have a really cool magic spear - he can pay with the loot he takes from people who *don't* have a 4d6 AP RKA, no range modifier. Likewise, powerful merchant houses do have long range telepathy and travel spells available - but Joe the ordinary merchant still moves stuff by ship and donkey. Is it really worthwhile to have a mage shift the stuff? If the answer is yes (rare spices, gems, exotic slaves), then do it. If the answer is no (potatoes) then don't. In general, many of the things we take for granted are not just a product of high technology but of mass production. Magic is mostly a one at time kind of thing and in most games it's not something that everyone can do. If, to use a mobile phone, you had to hire the services of an expensive professional to walk around with you, then there'd be no mobile phones. cheers, Mark

Re: Horror/Fantasy Sick Concept In reality - no it's not possible. But if you had a necromancer, who could preserve tissue without drying it out and animate it, then yes, it could probbaly be done - hell, it's magic, no? Cheers, Mark

Re: SciFi Colonists Forget that - good luck getting funding. Imagine: CBO: "so the colony mission is going to cost 1.3 trillion dollars. And how long do you think it will be before the colony is self-sustaining and economically productive?" General: "About 1500 years." CBO "1500 YEARS!" General: "Well the plan is that the thing collapses to Iron Age technology, and then they build up from there. Probably." CBO: "Uh, would you mind going outside for a moment while we discuss this?" Not even. Let's just say their technology takes a big hit. Frankly, I'd rather have my blacksmith make sten guns than chainmail and swords. Any moderately competent group of techs can manage 20th century tech with basic handtools. If their technology collapses back past that, they're fukt. cheers,Mark

Re: SciFi Colonists

Re: Historical Maps Resource It works with Safari, but again you have to turn off pop-up blocking. cheers, Mark

Re: SciFi Colonists

Re: SciFi Colonists

Re: SciFi Colonists

Re: And off we go! I don't really have time or inclination for a regular session-by-session log: I should be spending the time to write up new adventures! But here's brief recap to date. One of the missing players turned up for the second session. One didn't, so he's off the list. Pity, he plays in our D20 group and is a fun, team player (although to be honest his attendance there is also a bit spotty, which is why I am not surprised he didn't make it). The new player is Brian (total noob - never played any FRP game before) and his character is a bit more standard - raised in the backwoods by two elderly relatives he has imbibed all their prejudices (as well as their cult secrets) - he distrusts foreigners and actively hates heretics. He's joined the Church Militant and is on the lookout for heretic sorcery to quash. If his grandfather wanted a crusading Paladin, Castor (the character) is probably a bit of a disappointment - he's flat-footed, kind of clumsy and borderline diabetic . But he's also a reasonably competent magician (and an Enchanter, curse it! Which means he has useful mental spells, so I'll have to be careful which NPCs they get their claws on). Castor rolled into town, and managed in fairly short order to locate the Samadrian visitors - as Easterners, he automatically suspects them of harbouring vile sorcery, though so far they have done nothing actually to indicate this (He's right, as it happens, though most of the Samadrians don't know this themselves). He managed to hook up with Batman (who still doesn't have a name yet - if he doesn't have one next session I'll give him one myself!) and persuaded him to break into the house rented by the Samdrian Lord - if Castor can pay him. Castor doesn't have enough money, so is trying to scrounge up a place to live and make some cash. While he was doing that Khazts (the useless lute-twanging minor noble) and the Qurrock-breeder's son (yeah, it was a daughter, originally, but the player asked to change since all the other characters were male - figured it would be easier. He's looking for a new name now too) both latched onto Lanmoniak, the crazed noble from another dimension (because he has several gold coins and they were broke). Also the Qurrock-breeder's son is fascinated by Lamoniak's horse, since he's never seen one before. He's learning to ride it and care for it while teaching Lamoniak to ride a Qurrock. Khazts managed to sponge some living space off one of his cousins and got talked into taking part in the harvest festival - a competition to select the ritual husband of a minor goddess (it wasn't that hard once he worked out he'd get to sleep with the harvest queen if he wins). Lamoniak got talked into it as well - he has decided to go the College of Thaumaturgy in the White City to see if they can send him home, but that is thousands of km away. He needs to make money for the trip and the competition prizes are an honourable way to raise cash. Also, he likes the idea of honour and glory. They hired Batman to scope the other potential competitors with the idea of nobbling them if they can. To help, they also recruited Castor who has wowed them with his magical powers (5 points of TK - they're easily impressed!). He's hired on to help the Temple supervise the contests, being a trusty cult member, so the players see hm as a useful inside man. The reason for all of this is that the competition - which has serious magical consequences - is taking on a decided political overtone, with nobles from rival factions turning up and fielding their own competitors, either openly or secretly. The local nobles are desperate to stop an outsider winning, so they are pushing any local who looks at all hopeful to enter. The players have been doing lots of running around trying to figure out what's going on in the background (why the sudden interest?), while at the same time selling their goods at the market. The enormous Hagrid the merchant (he does have a name, but for cult reasons won't give it out to just anyone) made a huge profit, while the Qurrock-breeder's son hasn't sold any Qurrocks or even any stud fees and is getting desperate (now he regrets all the time spent with the horse!). He hired Hagrid to help him in the market. When they found out how strong he is, Khazts' cousin - Sir Bardath - also helped them hire him to participate in the festival contest. He has no chance of winning, but they are hoping he can maim any potentially dangerous competitors in the wrestling competition. And finally after that, the contests started with rituals and story-telling and the first event - the Ladies' Choice. All the assembled harvest maids and the harvest queeen assembled and the contestants had to "woo" them. This turned out to be a real upset. One of the contestants is the sweetheart of the harvest queen (Corylon). He *really* wants to win. Not only are there valuable prizes (and he needs money to get married) but his sweetheart has to wed - and bed - the harvest king (the players have already worked this out - they are sympathetic, but are they sympathetic enough to throw the contest?) Anyway, I had figured either Corylon or Myhrryn (the secret Samadrian entry) would win - Corylon was the local favourite, He's a good looking lad, he's the harvest queen's sweetheart, he has a magic charm from her, etc - in all he had enough bonuses to raise his oratory roll to 20- Myhrryn had a Charisma spell secretly cast for his benefit, and his good looks gave him a bonus, which raised *his* oratory roll to 20-. Instead the useless lute-twanging Khazts, used his music and dancing skills as complementaries, to his poetry, added a bonus for his 18 COM, another bonus for excellent role-playing ( a brief song about how the Harvest queen's beauty had drawn him away from his house and family) and then rolled magnificently to walk off with first place (rolled 10 under his adjusted skill!). The charming, if slightly insane Lamoniak, basically did the same using courtly grace and oratory and took second prize with a great roll. Poor old Corylon had to be content with a run-off with two other contestants for third and a fair amount of headshaking by the crowd. The next session is the great Qurrock race. The players are already trying to find ways to handicap it in their favour. Hagrid's a bit worried, for two reasons. 1. He's huge. 2. He can't ride. Wait til he finds out he has to jump his trusy steed over a barrier, make it swim a river and various other amusing tricks. If he survives, wait until he finds the next contest is a mounted joust! cheers, Mark

Re: What's Up With Combat Skill Levels? Also, in general 2-3 point levels already have assumed limitations built in. +1 OCV with pistols, for example already has the limitations "only with pistol OAF, -1, cannot be used to add damage, -1/4" built in. I certainly would not allow a 3 point +1 CSL with pistols the limitation "only with pistols" after all. However, a 5 point ranged level could reasonably take that limitation. So I'd really not be up for adding limitations onto something which is already dirt cheap. If you want a unified theory of levels then drop 2 and 3 point levels entirely and start with 5 point levels only - then people can build their 2 point levels as they like. cheers, Mark

Re: SciFi Colonists If you want to make the colony a success send workers, agriculturalists and technicians. You just need to look at the early history of European colonisation. Colonies that were heavy on militarisation almost all collapsed. Like arctic and antarctic research, what you want are people who can double-specialise: a doctor who is pretty good with electronics, or an astrophysicist with a solid bacground in IT. And send a good balance of men and women. The frozen sperm idea sounds efficient in theory (though the costs and inefficiency of IVF mean that actually it's far less cost-efficient than the old-fashioned way), but your colonists are going to be really isolated, and experience shows that stably-mated couples deal with isolation and social friction better than mixed groups. Obviously they'd need to be realtively fit and healthy. Last of all, I can't see it would be too hard to get people to go. Sure it means isolation, but there were people ready to leave merrie ol' England for the colonies, even though it meant effectively going to a foreign environment and probably never returning. You just need to offer them an incentive - and for many people, the adventure would be a pretty big incentive just by itself. cheers, Mark

Re: Whats a good value for this limitation? I'd go for -1/2 (the same as restrainable or OIF). It's clearly not worth a -1 like OAF, since even if it can be interrupted by a successful grab (covering it with your hand) unlike an OAF, the attacker has to stay there and keep it covered. Otherwise you can fire the power up again. If it was an OAF, anyone who gets hold of it could run away with it. OTOH, it's worth more than IIF, since that can't be easily taken away in combat, nor can it be interrupted. You could even argue that it's worth more than OIF, since it can be interupted in combat - and a sharp knife and a few minutes out of combat could allow it to be removed, just like a regular OIF. In game, this is likely to be rare enough I probably would not go to -3/4, but if your game is gritty and post-combat mutilation seems in style, then -3/4 would not be out of line since it then operates as a "restrainable" OIF. cheers, Mark

Re: [Magic System]Thematis Magica I have system like this in my game - check out the sorcery section here - to see how you can (legally) get useful powers out of a small pool: http://fitz.jsr.com/roleplay/hero/fantasy/hq/index.html Note - although I have this up on my own pages, Fitz has done a much better layout job, so the link goes there instead It takes a little time, so spells are essentially useless in combat unless prepared in advance and set up with a trigger, but sorcerors are potentially extremely powerful. cheers, Mark