Markdoc

Re: Postapocalytpic Antarctica (Problems/Questions)?

Re: Question on army encampment.

Re: Question on army encampment. It varies a huge amount. A well disciplined army would take up a smallish space - a roman legion marching camp was about 800 by 1000 feet for about that number, so they were pretty closely packed, but that still left space for a defensive perimeter between the tents and the temporary fortifications. A horde that has to live off the countryside on the other hand might be spread out over a day's march (let's say 10 miles between groups) so that they can quarter themselves in several villages. cheers, Mark

Re: Spells for Avina Campaign That's a pretty killer spell - a big strong dude with 20STR is likely going to be badly hurt and/or near death before he can break out of the entangle (he's going to be in there for 7 phases on average) - anyone with 17 or less STR is likely to be to totally wiped out by the first hit. If you allow spells of this magnitude and power you're either going to have to stack extra limitations on magic users or accept that all your best fighters (probably all your PCs, actually) will be mages. cheers, Mark

Re: Focus

Re: Magic System HD files? Go here, and give thanks to Fitz http://fitz.jsr.com/roleplay/hero/fantasy/magic/spellfinder.html The spells are in 5E format, but I suspect that Heromaker will correct the numbers on the fly, so that should not be a problem. cheers, Mark

Re: Cool Guns for your Games Actually, if you look at it reeeeal careful you can spot that there's still gun in there cheers, Mark

Re: First Known Binary Star Is Discovered to Be a Triplet, Quadruplet, Quintuplet, Se Unless, of course, the whole setup is artificial cheers, Mark

Re: What if superheroes only appeared in a limited region? Actually the anime series Darker than Black deals with almost exactly this scenario, with the addition that the region where the weirdness emanated from ("The Gate") remained in existence and was walled off for safety and study. cheers, Mark

Re: Dice-roll modifiers in HERO & GURPS Yeps. I haven't played GURPs since 3rd, so they may have changed things, but for skills that really mattered to you, starting heroic level (ie: typical fantasy) characters can start with skills in the 18-20 range. That makes things a little awkward because it means a few skills are "almost never fail" - those you dump points into, while everything else is "almost never succeed". It takes a fine hand GM'ing in balancing penalties and bonuses to make that work, without seeming arbitrary: tho' it can be done. Although we noted the dichotomy in play, I don't recall it ever being a problem: probably because GURPS characters tended to start off a little more specialized than their Hero system counterparts - which was true of TFT as well, now I think of it, just in a more extreme form. cheers, Mark

Re: Balancing Magic and Martial Characters in a Fantasy Setting He's not just a barbarian, he's THE barbarian! But this is true for lot of AD&D classes and monsters - Rangers would not have existed without Aragorn, for example. cheers, Mark

Re: Fantasy or Pulp? I'd go with the comment that where you draw the line is how big an influence magic is: if the players spend a lot of time talking about zombies protective chrams and magic users, it's fantasy. If they are mostly worrying about how to get past the cutlass and flintlock-wielding pirate culltists without alerting the whole crew, it's pulp, in my gentle opinion. The difference is more one of flavour than precise setting. To take one example, Carnacki the ghost finder is - IMO - pulp, even though most of his stories deal with hauntings or creatures from beyond, because Carnacki's response to a haunting is invariably to haul out some supra-scientific apparatus, measure the wall for signs of arcane activity or similar and on being confronted with supernatural activity he doesn't cower in fear before the unknown, but goes "Ooh, a class three Saiitii manifestation! Very dangerous! Good thing I have my electric pentagram set up." or similar. In short, if when confronted with problems, the players turn to their spellcaster, it's fantasy. If they turn to their scientist or their pistols, it's pulp. cheers, Mark

Re: How to cram crew members into your spacecraft Fair enough - I have friends who also suffer "airplane anxiety" - they manage to fly, though I know they don't like it (one always goes to the airport an hour in advance, so she can have a couple of drinks to help her relax). I was just a bit surprised by the vehemence of your reaction. I don't much care being jammed into economy for 26 hours either (that's what it usually takes to get to New Zealand from here), but for me, restricting my world to the size of the space I can reach by land or sea transport would be intolerable. Diff'rent strokes, I guess. cheers, Mark

Re: How to cram crew members into your spacecraft Didn't Superman arrive in such a craft? cheers, Mark

Re: How to cram crew members into your spacecraft Wow. Flying is not one of my favourite things to do unless I'm in business, but for me, it's no biggie - I hop on a plane on average every 2-3 weeks, and regard it pretty much on par with hopping on a bus. cheers, Mark

Re: Expert Craftsman Yep. I've never been fond of trying to build powers with skills myself. Not only does it requires mule-loads of handwavium, but it's an invitation to abuse and opens up vast logical gaps, which the GM needs to then work on closing. Far better (and far less work) IMO to simply use powers to build powers. cheers, Mark

Re: HERO SYSTEM MARTIAL ARTS -- What Do *You* Want To See?

Re: Expert Craftsman

Re: Cool Guns for your Games It's not entirely wrong - although the lowest yield put the users outside the hot zone, it also decreased the effect against armour dramatically. To be effective in its planned role as a massed anti-armor weapon, it would have needed to have been used at maximum yield - in which case the radiation dose taken by the users would almost certainly have been fatal - not in days or hours as it would have been to people within a few hundred yards, but probably within months. You can't outrun the radiation in a jeep (and practically, if the wind was blowing your way, you probably couldn't outrun the fallout, either). That probably wasn't appreciated when the weapon was first deployed, but it was certainly common knowledge by the 80's. I talked to US soldiers stationed in Germany back in the 80's and the general opinion - among the troops who deployed it - was that the Davy Crockett was suicide weapon. Not to mention the fact that it would likely have been used in a heavily populated region, so civilian casualties from use would also have been significant. Basically it was a desperation weapon for what would have been a desperate struggle, if war had erupted. cheers, Mark

Re: Expert Craftsman Should work fine. The extra cost for 32 recipients would enable the continuing charge to have a duration of (if I calculate correctly) of 100 years for a single target - that's good enough for "permanent" in my book. cheers, Mark

Re: Focus I agree with the concept that the current "damaging focii" rules are a bit broken (so to speak), but this seems both over-complex and counterintuitive. Why should a crystal wand be harder to break than a magic anvil "because it has more active points"? I simply use "real life" values for DEF and BOD extrapolated from the breaking things section of the rules and allow foci that provide DEF to use their own DEF if higher. To make an item non-functional, you need to do its BOD, to destroy it totally 2xBOD. If an item has multiple powers, I simply pro-rate that (ie: an item with two powers will lose one of them at half BOD and both of them at full BOD). This has worked admirably for years. One can, for example, game the system, to some extent by only making your foci out of tough materials, but you can't make 'em too much bigger without also making 'em bulky. And making the item out of really hard to find material (adamantium, unobtanium, etc) will create problems crafting a replacement if the item is ever stolen or broken. This actually makes foci slightly more durable at the lower end and slightly more vulnerable at the higher end, with regard to cost, accurately reflecting the price break you get. cheers, Mark

Re: HERO SYSTEM MARTIAL ARTS -- What Do *You* Want To See? The key to this is the GM. If you recall the Sengoku game, we had lots of movement there - people fighting in the rafters of temples, inside mills, fighting around the gears, people falling into pit traps mid combat, etc. The way to make this work is for the GM to bring the environment into play. As a GM, I award bonuses and penalties for use of the environment liberally, allowing people to take cover behind objects even in HTH combat, giving free "high shot" hit locations to people who get above their foes, letting NPCs take their recoveries behind cover so they didn't get tagged and making free use of move-through/movebys and flanking bonuses, etc etc (Hero system has no facing rules: you are assumed to be facing your opponent. However if two opponents can get either side of you, one of them, by definition is going to be able to get behind you if you face the other. If you face neither, I consider both to be eligible for a bonus. As a player, I take advantage of the same factors, if the GM will let me. If the player s can "interact" with the scenery in this way, the property destruction will take care of itself: you might recall the fight in Kazei 5 with the Major Kusanagi-type. I was able to get the drop on her by working out that I could "casual strength" my way through interior walls while in powered armour: thus combining movement and property destruction in one action! Too many GMs, IMO, plonk the characters down on a map and then essentially ignore the scenery. If they allow the NPCs "non-standard" actions like "I pull the rug he's standing on!" or "I jump on the table to get a height advantage" giving a couple of inches free swinging for use of the chandelier or even "I hold the doorway - do I get a bonus since they are limited in how the come through?" then players will swiftly change their tactics to gain bonuses too. It's a lot more fun than "I hit him again". One of the few things I like about D&D is the tactical nature of combat - my current character is optimised around the idea of "Hard to hit, can come and hit you where it's not expected". Hero system can do that too, without the need for any additional rules - I think it's a a shame the option is not more widely used. This i something that could be covered by a couple of paragraphs on "running dynamic fights". cheers, Mark

Re: HERO SYSTEM MARTIAL ARTS -- What Do *You* Want To See?

Re: Postapocalytpic Antarctica (Problems/Questions)? Yeah, I said that sadly, though, because the thought of a grey and dismal shore with a stone-walled village, smoke drifting from the shaled roofs and off to one side, the methane derricks creaking in the wind .... is kind of evocative. I might even steal the idea for my own game. But it doesn't say "Iron-thewed barbarian", to me, especially since people capable of that level of sophistication would be capable of building small lighter than air craft. As an aside, some cultures in my own fantasy game do build lighter than air craft. They're called "dragon ships" because of what happens if you hit one with a flaming arrow cheers, Mark

Re: Postapocalytpic Antarctica (Problems/Questions)? Actually, having worked at sewerage works that collected methane and then burned it for power, it's actually rather complicated to get methane that will burn: you need a fairly concentrated source, which means you need both the right bacteria and a slurry, and then normally you need to be able to deliver the right mix of methane and air. If they knew what they doing, that's probably within the range of a sophisticated iron-age culture (use whale gut compressors like a giant bellows to extract the methane from a slurry chamber and control the mixing) but it is starting to sound more steampunk than RE Howard, to me. Probably better just to do what many cultures do - use the waste as fertiliser and use your dried plant remnants and fish oil for fire. cheers, Mark