Markdoc

Re: How to encourage RP?

Re: Depression-era and WW-II settings from a Not-American perspective Yep, that's the one. It's available as a trade now. The story focus is on the modern day and the superhero Zenith, but there's some nice backstory about the UK superhero and his Nazi counterpart, which ends in a battle to the death in Berlin, during WW2. cheers, Mark

Re: Depression-era and WW-II settings from a Not-American perspective

Re: Depression-era and WW-II settings from a Not-American perspective Actually, speaking from experience, Delhi is still the capital of AngloIndia, and it's still possible for a South African, a Kiwi and and Englishman to walk into a bar and feel right at home cheers, Mark

Re: portable computers - too much? Pretty much what everyone else had said. I've played a character who had an AI sidekick ("Charlie" - the brain in tank!) with encyclopedic KS's and in practical terms it didn't hurt the game, for exactly the reasons stated. Charlie had things like "KS: local Number plates and registration, 15-" so I could say things like "Charlie, who's the registered owner of IC36661, a Green Mercedes?" and get an answer. On the other hand, if I had to disarm a bomb, I didn't have that skill. The most Charlie could do was offer advice, giving - at best - a complementary. Truly, his access to the satellite network - as in: "Charlie, I need you to bring the orbital laser on-line" was more fun cheers, Mark

Re: Alternate Way to do Martial Arts

Re: Killing Attacks vs Stun Lottery Right, I already did the math on extreme versions and came to the conclusion that trading off an extra 5.5 stun on average for 11 BOD and associated knockback was reasonable - especially since stacking +11 in advantages on a power is going to be a wee bit of a red flag for a GM. Huh. I suggested it since it seemed (still seems, actually) much simpler than the system we have now. Shrug. It's a useful modifier, which I (and my players) use from time to time, but I'd look pie-eyed at any power a player presented that was mostly modifier and hardly any power, so we've never had a problem with it being abused. cheers, Mark

Re: Alternate Way to do Martial Arts Yes, but that's semantic difference, not an actual game difference. You can grab and throw as a single attack, in the rules as written. It doesn't even require an actual grab, since that's a special effect. "Shove and trip" works just as well. cheers, Mark

Re: Killing Attacks vs Stun Lottery A concept I was playing with, was the idea of letting people "buy up" the amount of damage STUN and BOD their attacks do - per dice. We can already increase Stun damage on normal attacks - you just buy more dice and add "does no BOD", which gives you 1-6 STUN (ave. 3.5) for 5 points. Not a great deal, since 5 points normally gets you the same STUN but also 0-2 (ave. 1) BOD. I'd prefer "does no BOD" to be a -1/4 limitation, but I can see why they made the design decision to make it +0. But what about letting people buy up the BOD they do? Again, we can do this now by adding more dice and putting "does no Stun, -3/4" - that adds 0-2 BOD at a cost of 2.25 points Based on this, and the concept that all attacks could work on the "normal dice mechanic" I ran a little spreadsheet. Currently a dice does 1-6 STUN. If you could add +1 to that total for +1/4, you end up with an attack that does slightly more STUN on average than an unadvantaged attack, but less BOD (because you get fewer dice for the same price, but you do 2-7 STUN on a d6). In addition, while you increase your average STUN slightly, you decrease your volatility. You can't do as much STUN as you could on a maxed out roll and you can't roll as low as you can on a crappy roll. This is true at every level I tested for 1-20d6 and for an advantage from +1/4 to +2. If we went with +1 STUN for +1/4 advantage, you get an attack that consistently does a little more stun - and significantly less BOD - for every level of the advantage you choose. And it's simple to use. Basically you simply add 1 to your total for every dice you roll, for each level of advantage. So a "6d6 attack , +2 STUN Modifier" does 12+6d6. A "6d6 attack , +3 STUN Modifier" does 18 + 6d6, etc. If you apply the same logic to BOD, but using a +1/2 advantage, you get a similar effect. You do - on average - significantly more BOD, but also much less STUN and you again decrease volatility - you can't do very high BOD (however unlikely a maxed out roll would be anyway with more than a few dice) and you can't do very low BOD. If you stack the advantages, you end up with an attack that does significantly less stun, and slightly more BOD than an unadvantaged attack, over pretty much every price point. Hmmmm. Combine this with a +1/4 advantage called "Killing" that allows your attack to ignore (completely) non-resistant defences, and you end up with a simple, elegant and highly tunable system for doing damage. A killing attack currently costs 15 points per d6 and uses the unique multiply the dice system. Under my suggested change it'd use the same dice counting system system as regular attacks with a beefed up BOD modifier. So a "killing, +3 BOD Modifier" attack would cost 13.5 XP, do marginally more BOD on average, and slightly less on a maxed out roll than a regular KA. It'd also do slightly more STUN, than a regular KA on average - but much less than a normal attack of the same cost - and much, much less than a maxed out roll under the current system. And because it all uses the same basic D6 damage system, you can build composite attacks - a 6d6 attack that was partially advantaged, for example, so that it did partially normal and partially killing damage, to reflect a spiky club, vs - say - a sword, which is all killing damage but does relatively less STUN if it's stopped by rDEF, or a mace which is also all killing damage, but also does more killing STUN - or a 6d6 club, which does all normal damage. Or an attack that did partially more BOD, or partially more STUN - and in each case, it's easy calculate. A Club with a heavy head that did some extra damage could be bought as "2d6 HA, +1 BOD Modifier, +4d6 HA". You simply roll 6d6, count the BOD as normal and add 2. That also lets you mix and match armour to differentiate different types, which could be a mixture of resistant and non-resistant: right now, you can't do that, since non-resistant DEF works fully against STUN from killing damage, if you have any rDEF - or doesn't work at all, if you don't .... Using this system, you can choose lethal or non-lethal, high stun or low stun attacks and the costs are actually comparable to what we have now - absent the STUN lottery. It'd require almost no alterations to published characters (a minor tweak to the cost of KA.s but the average effectiveness would remain about the same) but would let people differentiate exactly what we were talking about upthread - attacks of different kinds and armour of different kinds - and what's more, it's actually simpler and more consistent than the rules we have now! For a start it simplifies calculating defences: they are resistant, or not, and apply against killing or not, instead of the current hybrid. We can also dump the current complex rules on when and how to add damage to KA and HA from STR: everything uses the same mechanism. It also lets you buy "bulletproof" in a supers setting (bullets are high BOD modifier attacks, with no STUN modifier) at reasonable cost. Damn. The more I think about this, the more I like it. cheers, Mark

Re: Alternate Way to do Martial Arts I've been using multipowers for martial arts for years. I do allow my players to use the standard system but these days, nobody bothers - multipowers are equally efficient and far more flexible/scalable. As a player, I far prefer to do it this way. Martial artists are a favorite archetype for me - but I now find the standard rules a bit stultifying and rather clunky. The rules I use and conversions of all the standard maneuvers are here. Note however, that this was written for my own use, so STR is priced at 2 per point of STR and HA at a flat 5 points per d6. It's easy enough to change, if you want, though. cheers, Mark

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.

Re: Killing Attacks vs Stun Lottery

Re: Killing Attacks vs Stun Lottery

Re: Killing Attacks vs Stun Lottery Knockback isn't a problem - that's calculated regardless of defence. The issue of getting STUN through armour does mean that killing attacks (if we're thinking "realistic" arms and armour) will run the range from "ping" to "Ow, that hurt". However, it's relatively rare that an edged weapon like a sword or a spear will do significant STUN through armour, without doing you some BOD damage, unless someone's hacking away without concern for their weapon. Remember that a steel sword doesn't work like a rattan one. With a rattan weapon, you give someone a good wallop - even on solid armour - and you can leak some damage through just from impact. But do that with a steel weapon and you'll damage the blade and possibly even break it (not an unusual event, judging by contemporary accounts, but not something we try and simulate, usually). Of course this doesn't hold true for heavy axes and maces, but I think we can fake that by calling them AP Nor does it differentiate armour very well - mail's not great against piercing weapons, but relatively effective against slashing attacks - and there you'd expect to be able to do STUN through .... Here we're running up against how granular we want the system to be. All, in all, though, that's why I prefer just making "killing" an advantage on regular dice of attacks and only counting rDEF against both BOD and STUN. cheers, Mark

Re: What is the Fantasy Hero 3rd Ed. Companion Setting Yep, that's the one. cheers, Mark

Re: Killing Attacks vs Stun Lottery Actually, it's frequent - museum reconstructors have found it's very, very hard - almost impossible - to put an arrow through plate armour, even at close range. This matches history - as plate armour got better, the longbow ceased to be a frontline weapon (the short bow had ceased to be more than a support/harrassment weapon after mail became widespread). By the time of the White Company in Italy or the Wars of the Roses in England, massed longbows had been relegated to a support/harrassment function, because armoured men at arms would just dismount when facing archers and then walk right over them. The longbow had its heyday during the hundred years war when knights wore bascinets (often open-faced) and armour was still heavily based on composite suits with lots of gaps covered by mail. And of course the other ranks were wearing mail, if they had anything ... And to answer the question - if the attack doesn't penetrate, the effect is going to depend on how massive (or more accurately, how much momentum) the attack has. So an arrow will normally have relatively little, a sling bullet more (That's why ancient generals deployed slingers by preference against heavily armoured targets, despite the bows' longer range) a sword more again and a club or mace, the most (again, partly why these were favoured against heavily armoured opponents - their durability being the other part). I'm a fan of keeping KA, but making them more effective against lightly armoured targets by applying the multiplier only to damage that gets through rDEF. A typical killing attack (bullet, knife. laser) that bounces is going to do little or no harm to the wearer. One that gets through could really mess you up. Of course I'd prefer integrating AVLD and NND, and rating the cost of the advantage vs how common the defence is. That way killing can simply be an advantage on a normal attack and rDEF is rated as a "very common" defence (or possibly common, or even rare depending on setting: it'd be pretty rare in Western Hero, for example). Simple, clean, balanced and as a bonus, you get a mechanism that lets you balance the cost of lethal attacks depending on how you want your campaign to go. cheers, Mark

Re: Cuts through anything As an aside, in my fantasy games, I have a had a couple of a magic swords that will "cut iron as easily as flesh". That's not "cut through anything" but the way I created thouse was to buy 3 extra dice of HKA and whack "standard limitation" and "Only to cancel defence: -1" on it. That basically means if you have a shortsword that "will cut iron as easily as flesh" then it's a 1d6 HKA (to which your STR adds normally) plus 3d6 HKA, which neither does Stun nor (directly) BOD, but which simply cancels out DEF - so the sword ignores up to 9 rDEF, allowing it to cut someone wearing plate armour as easily as if he was wearing a loincloth. Also the user could, given some time, hack a hole in a castle wall, cut through almost any chain, etc. However, it can never do more damage than a regular shortsword - it is after all, still just a really, really sharp sword. This is a way of getting a really cutty weapon that doesn't dominate combat with huge stun multiples, but which is still very dangerous, even to heavily armoured foes. cheers, Mark

Re: Cuts through anything Well no GM in his right mind would allow it, but an HKA with a linked HA, NND does BOD, defence: only non-resistant defences, should do it. If they have resistant defences you splat them with the HA. If they don't have resistant defences, you cut them with the HKA. Cheesy as heck, but borderline legal. cheers, Mark

Re: Cuts through anything Sure, but that kind of attack is actually the best way to simulate something like the "cuts through anything" attacks - because in the comics, they don't. Wolvie's "cut through anything" claws can't cut Juggernaut's or Sym's skin, for example. Wolvie hits Sym full on in the stomach at close range and then goes "Hell, didn't even scratch him!" Basically they're really cutty, but there still are plenty of things they can't cut. The best way to simulate that is with a big HKA, with a reduced stun multiplier. cheers, Mark

Re: Dextracardial Very little. The idea that the heart sits on the left or right of the chest is an urban legend. The heart sits right smack dab in the middle of your ribcage and pokes slightly to one side or the other because: a) people are not symetrical and the heart itself is assymetical and can vary quite dramatically in size (as can the lungs, affecting the heart's location). Basically, Dextracardiallty should be a 0 point perk, since person to person variation is so great, that it outweighs the difference from such a trait. Edit: and if they shoot you through the middle of your chest, the fact they just missed your heart is likely to be only of interest to your pathologist. cheers, Mark

Re: Oriental Dwarf Martial arts I kind of like the idea of a "hard" martial art for these stumpy little guys: the image of a dwarf with a bald head, long droopy mustache and chains wrapped around his wrists and fists appeals With that in mind, I'd suggest a mostly unarmed art based on kicks, punches and takedowns of various sorts (a hard style of Kung Fu, like Bear would be a good start for maneuvers) combined with weapons. No shields (get in the way) but battleaxes and the sort of heavy chopping swords you see in some styles of Kung Fu (both wielded one or two-handed). That way you get both things - the battleaxe hints that long ago they came from the west. The Kung Fu approach is more oriental and differentiates them from their western cousins. Blend "traditional" RPG dwarven reverence for the ancestors with Confucianism and you have the basis for your "Asian Dwaven" culture cheers, Mark

Re: Mottos for use in games Two favourites (non military) From Me: "If it's worth killing, it's worth overkilling" From Wolverine: "There's only two things certain in life and this ain't taxes" cheers, Mark

Re: And off we go! The ship climbs for an hour until it is above the level of the wispy clouds and heads north-east. The experiment with the strange medallion Aquila took from the chief cultist. They find that the central part looks like black glass with gold symbols on it, but they can wipe the symbols away. They try writing on it, and find that what they write appears in gold letters, but that has no effect on the ship’s course. Khatz tries standing at the tiller and “willing” the ship to change course, but that also has no effect. At last they give up. With nothing else to do, the PCs turn to healing their wounded comrades and exploring the ship. It soon becomes apparent that the ship is the possession of a wealthy man. Everything is of the highest quality and there is only one cabin. They manage to rig hammocks in the bow. The ship is stocked with lots of food and drink, enough for a voyage of months. There is also a library in the cabin. Much of it is in languages that they cannot read, but what they can read seems to focus on two things – religious documents (all fairly orthodox as far as they can tell) and old accounts of voyages by sea captains or adventurers. There are log-books, rutters and even a collection of tales told by street story-tellers. One of them details a journey into the high mountains of Samadria to the kingdom of the vampire-sorceress, but most describe voyages to a city called Paddish. Most of these are very old, written in archaic dialects, so it takes Endre some time to puzzle her way through them. Paddish is described as a city ruled by powerful sorcerors with impregnable defences. Several more recent ones however, detail voyages to Paddish and describe it as a ruin, overwhelmed by a volcanic eruption, whose surviving inhabitants live in a state of war with uncivilized tribesmen and cannibal cultists. One tale recounts the sinking of their ship by monstrous shark-men and a long journey home to Samadria on foot through a vast wilderness. All of the journey tales are heavily annotated in a fine hand, with comments cross-referencing other scrolls. From several comments it looks like the owner was searching for something or searching for an entrance into something. Bellona and Dalarna have heard of Paddish – the dreaming city – a semi-legendary place that lies in the uttermost west. Few sailors have ever ventured there, and they know nothing much apart from the name, but tales have it as a place of riches. The ship sails on and on, first, for days over the sea, then across land. Looking down, they can see tiny villages and cities far below and Bellona calculates that they have come to Samadria. The ship sails on – across farmland and forest and then out to sea again. Several days over the sea and huge mountains soaring high above the clouds can be seen to the southwest. The group begins to worry about food and water and starts rationing what they have. Fortunately they sail into a huge storm. Dalarna is able to quiet the winds around the ship, while the others put out every vessel they can find to catch water. Soon the ship crosses the coast line again and now it crosses huge forests and high heaths where signs of civilization are few. The occasional town is seen, heavily walled and moated. Still the ship sails on. At last the food runs out and the PCs survive on water they harvest by putting sails up to catch moisture from clouds. The PCs, weak and hungry, begin to wonder if the ship will ever land. At last the ship approaches another mountain range and begins to descend, and the group quickly gathers all they can, wrapped up in cloths for a quick departure. As they descend, the can see ahead of them a grim black crag at the head of a long narrow bay. On the foothills of the crag, off to their right is a vast city, with gigantic walls towering perhaps 100 meters. However, as they get closer, they can see the city is ruined, with parts of walls, shattered domes and open plazas covered in plant life. In addition, the city is flooded, with approximately a third of the area inside the walls sunken in the sea and parts of walls projecting from the waves. There is also a huge, many-turreted castle projecting from the sea. However their destination appears to be a smaller city, built up against the outside of the giant walls like refuse piled up against a building. As the ship sails lower, peering down, they can see this small city is made of many buildings of all shapes and sizes crowded around narrow alleys. They can see some people looking up and pointing at them. Many of the buildings appear to be have been made of scavenged stone and tile. But this city does not seem to be their destination either. Just outside the smaller city’s walls they can see what seem to be a military base. Stockade walls surround open grassy fields, a regular grid of streets holds many low identical houses and beyond them what looks like a complex of temple buildings. One corner of the stockade is built up into a motte topped by a small castle. There is a square lake at the edge of the fields and it soon becomes apparent that this is where the ship is going to land. As the boat glides in to a smooth landing on the lake, Gen takes an empty barrel with his belongings and drops over the side into the water, his splash hidden by the spray. Before going, he tells the others that he will swim off and hide and then meet up with them later. Dalarna scouts for a place to hide in the hold – the rest decide to tough it out and see what happens. The ship glides up to a dock and small pavilion built at the edge of the lake. As the PCs look out, they see a procession hurrying out of what look like temple buildings or a monastery. This procession is headed by several priests and brought up by a file of soldiers. They will be at the ship in a few minutes. The PCs have long since been healed of their wounds, but their lack of food has rendered them weak. They are in no shape for a fight with a dozen soldiers. They hatch a cunning plan and put it into action. Aquila rapidly dons some of the former ship owner’s robes and uses his magical gift to make his face resemble that of the chief cultist he killed. With the help of the others, he then pads himself out with pillows to make himself look fatter and puts the amulet around his neck. Finally – since he can barely speak Samadrian, he wraps a bloodied cloth that they had previously wrapped their wounds with around his neck. When the soldiers and the priests arrive, Aqulia meets them standing at the head of the gangplank. They bow respectfully and bid the high priest welcome. Endre explains his silence by saying that the high priest has been injured in the throat and cannot easily talk. At that, the new priests exclaim that he must come at once to the hospital, but Endre replies that he would rather go to his own lodgings, and that they can send for a healer. The priest who has first spoken immediately agrees, detailing his underlings to run for a healer. He and the soldiers will escort the high priest to his house – the PCs carry Aquila as though he is too weak to walk. On the way, the local priest enquires who the PCs are – he seems to be under the impression that they are the cult members the high priest went to meet and Endre agrees with this and tells him a bit – without going into too much detail - about the gate and a ritual going wrong, after which they had to flee. She says she can’t say too much without the high priest’s permission, but that he will doubtless explain once he is healed. They soon arrive at the high priest’s house – a big stone place - and go inside: the soldiers stand guard outside. The maid leads them upstairs and they lay the “high priest” in his bed. They ask for food and drink while they wait for the healer and every one gorges themselves as much as they dare. The local priest questions them further while they eat. Endre tells him about the monster that came through and the priest seems astonished, saying “Imagine! Still active after all these centuries!” He also suggest that the columns of white runestone they describe were not to keep people away from the pyramid but to keep things in. Unfortunately, in the storytelling, Aquila gets carried away and adds some comments. The priest glances at him suspiciously and Bellona sees him casting a surreptitious spell. Aquila’s magic mask dissolves, but the priest doesn’t get a chance for anything else – Bellona punches him in the face, stunning him and then Khelsen wallops him unconscious. They rapidly tie him up using some belts and bundle him into the high priest’s bed after Aquila changes into his clothes. They ransack the place looking for loot and clues, but find nothing apart from a few coins and many scrolls. Endre bundles as many of these as she can fit in a pillowcase. But they have lingered too long – they hear steps on the stairs and two more priests and a soldier enter. There is a brief fight, but the new arrivals are taken by surprise and subdued in seconds. They are also swiftly tied up. This time however, it was not so quiet and fearing the soldiers may investigate en masse, the PCs grab a few items and run downstairs. To the servant’s surprise, they go out via the back door into a little courtyard, and through a gate into the lane behind the house. Then they start to run, Aquila dumping his borrowed priestly robes, on the way. Suddenly, they hear a hue and cry and an alarm being sounded. It seems the hunt is up and they are on foot, weak and in the midst of an enemy fortress!

Re: Acid BOD / COM drain makes sense, but the way I build acids are: Killing Attack - Hand-To-Hand 1 point, Uncontrolled (+1/2), Continuous (+1), No Normal Defense ([standard]; +1), Does BODY (+1) (22 Active Points); 6 Charges (-3/4), No STR Bonus (-1/2), Extra Time (Delayed Phase, -1/4). 22 active, 9 real This is a small flask or phial (call it 50 mls) of strong acid. Splash a small flask on someone/thing and it'll burn for 1 BOD every other phase unless washed off (method of canceling the uncontrolled aspect) or until it has done 6 BOD. It won't burn unreactive substances (glass, force walls, etc: that's the NND aspect). Weaker acids are built exactly the same, except that their "extra time" is larger - generally a turn for medium acids and a minute for weak acids. For larger volumes, simply add more charges. I'm not too fussed about the healing aspect. Inanimate objects don't heal anyway, and acid burns on tissue usually do heal unless they are massive: I speak from experience here. You could drop a COM Drain with a long fade rate if you liked (it'd add some nice flavour), but I wouldn't bother - heat/fire burns are as bad as acid burns, and I don't bother with COM drains for fire EBs/HKAs either. cheers, Mark

Re: Rolling High Yeah, this is my take too. I've taught a lot of people to play Hero system over the years, and my experience is that while "roll low for skills" is easy to explain "This is your skill number. You need to roll under it. Higher numbers are therefore better" the "roll high" technique for combat has prove consistently easier for newbies to get. "Add OCV and dice roll to get target number" has proven easier for many people than "Add 11 to OCV and subtract dice to get target number" That said, I'm not too fussed about it. Since I have almost always been teaching newbies, I normally use "roll high" in combat. When I have established Hero system players, I use "roll low" in combat. The math is the same, working out CVs in combat works exactly the same, and the latter is only marginally more difficult. cheers, Mark