Markdoc

Re: Recommendations on Str Minimum for weapons?

Re: Recommendations on Str Minimum for weapons? cheers, Mark

Re: Recommendations on Str Minimum for weapons? I wouldn't bother with that - the STR required to use the weapons should not be high, so even a really low STR should be able to use it. They just can't use it as effectively. Cheers, Mark

Re: Recommendations on Str Minimum for weapons? I look at the STR mins as "STR needed to continuously use the weapon at high speed and a level of force capable of injuring armoured targets". That's way different from "STR needed to twirl the thing around". As an example, when I was doing Aikido, we used to do Kata with bokken which are heavier than a real sword. Doing that, even striking hard (at the air) was no big deal. For summer training, we practiced striking hard but resilient targets (truck tires) with the aim of hitting hard enough to actually make a visible compression. Arms that could swing the sword for 20 minutes of kata without trouble started to shake and tremble spasmodically after a few minutes of that and lost strength after surprisingly few strokes. The people who could keep it up for more than that, tended, I noticed, to have no discernible wrists and forearms like ham hocks. As a result, I have no problems with the STR mins. You can use a weapon that's over your STR min, and it costs relatively little in terms of skill to offset any penalties. But you need to be pretty strong to use it without any penalties at all. cheers, Mark

Re: Magic: SFX or mechanically distinctive?

Re: What if spells were like weapons? Religion 101: "Who make sky?" cheers, Mark

Re: Online, real-time Hero System gaming? We've done this (specifically video skype so we could all see each other) - worked like a dream. cheers, Mark

Re: What if spells were like weapons?

Re: The "Armani of armour." No, the man wanted a briefcase: And in action. http://www.videosift.com/video/MP5-Machine-Gun-Briefcase cheers, Mark

Re: Picking a codename that, like, a million other characters haven't already used. Our cat's nickname is Nimrod (always used in the Bugs Bunny sense) coined after watching him flail ineffectively after various birds - and finally catch one after it flew into the glasshouse and stunned itself. I guess even our mighty hunter can catch a bird when it's at 0 DCV. cheers, Mark

Re: Odd Swords -- Real or Fantasy? What style of fighting is the player interested in his character having? If you can give some idea (sneak fighter, big bruiser, Tank, etc) we might be able to suggest unusual, but realistic weapons for him. Also, what's a FNIP? cheers, Mark

Re: What if spells were like weapons? We tried two games based around this idea, and it works ....OK. It does seem to be balanced, because every character is a magic-user and pretty much all of them are magic-user/warriors (those who started out without magic either rapidly learnt it or retired their characters and made new magic-using ones). I don't really care for it, personally because every character is a magic-user and pretty much all of them are magic-user/warriors. However, if that's the feel you are going for, I don't see a problem. It also requires extensive GM input and a high degree of GM control, when PCs pay the same for a cantrip to clean their clothes and a spell to make them all but immune to normal weapons. cheers, Mark

Re: Odd Swords -- Real or Fantasy? Well, technically speaking it's just a heavy lump of wood or metal with some spikes driven through it: the whole "what kind of a weapon is this" is often pretty meaningless, given that many weapons were one of a kind. That said, while the above is accurate, it's not very helpful. On the off chance I decided to be helpful, I would probably class it as a spiked club, Lucern Hammer or a Godentag, all being "spiky or beaky hitting heads on a long stick". FWIW, L->R they are three "Spiked club/Lucern Hammer/Godentags", a partisan, a .... bill-guisarme? Possibly a glaive? A spetum, a halberd, a bill (or a Fauchard) and a bardiche. Note that Bardiches are also often lumped in under guisarme, and that in medieval times, a halberd could be any kind of largish axe and a bill pretty much any kind of pointy-blade-on-a-stick. cheers, Mark

Re: The "Armani of armour." That is the idea. I've seen a similar outfit (in Brazil, not India) that the owner wore went he went nightclubbing or bar-hopping in some areas. It looked on first glance like a high necked polo shirt and the intent was simply that if you were faced with an armed thug in the parking lot or a fight in the bar, he/they are likely to be using a small handgun or a knife. In that situation, it could potentially be a lifesaver - and wearing a conventional flak jacket isn't an option. cheers, Mark

Re: Magic: SFX or mechanically distinctive?

Re: Rail gun damage? Right, but here we have an example of a weapon of a weapon with a kinetic energy output way below what's being discussed for rail guns and it has a substantial effect on the vehicle - even though the A-10's a pretty bulky aircraft. And you are right - the reason stalling is not a problem is because the plane already has a great deal of momentum: nonetheless, even at this level, firing the weapon has a noticeable slowing effect. A 64 megajoule rail gun - the navy's goal - is going to generate 566,447,730 pound-force (if I've done the numbers correctly) or the equivalent of firing 56,000 gatling guns simultaneously. That's going to have an effect .... cheers, Mark

Re: Rail gun damage? It can be a lot more than that: the gatling gun on the A-10, which fires a 30 mm round has alot of oomph and the GAU-8/A product homepage states the recoil force as 10,000 pounds-force, or about 45 kN, which is more than half maximum combined output of the A-10 engines (82.6 kN). In other word, firing the gatling gun on an A-10 slows it significantly (the bit about stalling it seems to be an urban legend however). In early versions, since the weapon was not perfectly symmetrical, firing it drove the plane sideways. cheers, Mark

Re: Odd Swords -- Real or Fantasy? The Falx is just a weaponised sickle, similar to the way medieval peasants made billhooks and flails from farm implements (in fact the Romans called the smaller version of the falx a sickle) The designers said in an a interview I saw that it wasn't based on any specific weapon, but that they were inspired by some asian weapons (no specific names). The closest matches I can think of are the Nagamaki (basically a cut down naginata) or the chinese Dadao (literally "big sword", but more popularly known as "Bandit encampment sword" after a famous folkloric character who uses one) cheers, Mark

Re: Attacks That Follow The Target. You could put continuous and uncontrolled in there if you wanted multiple attacks - I wanted a single attack: if you don't outrun the fire eagle, it flies into you and fwoosh! In that case, continuous and uncontrolled are unnecessary because the attack persists until the trigger condition is met. Then once it's met, the attack is fired. The actual "fire eagle" in the example is just a special effect. I imagine a missile would work the same way. cheers, Mark

Re: Attacks That Follow The Target. A simpler way is to but it as a triggered attack and then limit it. I had a fire wizard NPC who could - for example - create a flaming eagle that would chase people, or flaming cages to contain them. In the first case it was 3d6 RKA (trigger: target moves half move or less), limitation (Trigger can be voided by enclosed cover, water, teleport, etc (-3/4), plus some CSLs. In the second case it was just a cage of fire: 3d6 RKA, 1 hex, (trigger: target leaves hex), does no damage if target doesn't move though the fire (-1/4). So he could send his "fire eagle" after a target - as long as they took off running (or flying or whatever), it would simply chase them down until either they stopped (and got burnt) or ducked somewhere it couldn't follow them. It doesn't matter how far or how fast they run - since the attack roll was made when the spell was cast, and the target hit (or not) at that point, it's all on. The fire cage works the opposite way - you get a cage of fire. It's not an actual "cage", so you can walk right out of it - but you'll get burned if you do. Or you can stay where you are - but you can still use your powers, escape via teleport, dispel, suppress, etc (hence the limitation). Amusingly, after I had used the Fire Eagle on some PCs, the next time they ran against that NPC he used instead an illusion (just sparkly images) which created a vast flock of these things. The players saw 5 eagles coming after each of them thought "OMFG, 15d6 RKA inbound!" and ran like rabbits cheers, Mark

Re: Odd Swords -- Real or Fantasy? Nope, I've seen plenty of Dha or "fish swords". The items in question have that "blade widening and extending out in a point where the hilt would be if it had a hilt" shape that Kristopher asked about. cheers, Mark

Re: Odd Swords -- Real or Fantasy?

Re: Paper on the ethical implications of Uplift While I agree with your general point, the likelihood is that uplift (if it occurs at all - and it well may) will be an activity initiated by relatively small groups - all of which will be embedded in one or two societies (ie: the US, Europe, and maybe Japan). Those societies - especially the biomedical society embedded in that group - do have a largely shared culture and do have a tradition of consensus seeking. So it's probably more accurate to say that although there are multiple potential approaches, the early approach chosen is likely to be only one of those. And to me, it's amazing that an article like this is published in a scientific journal (albeit a theoretical article) - it suggests people are already actively thinking about the practical aspects of uplift. cheers, Mark

Re: Odd Swords -- Real or Fantasy? Ah - OK. The Khopesh and falcata have been mentioned, but to my eye, this looks nothing like either of those. It does, (in general shape) however look a bit like some swords I saw in museum of Thailand*. Those were pretty crude and as they were labelled "bandit weapons" I'm guessing they were agricultural cutting tools with the handles cut down to make makeshift swords, in the much the way European peasants cut down billhooks. *the small miltary museum next to the palace in the compund of the temple of the Emerald Buddha in Bangkok, if anyone's interested cheers, Mark

Re: Odd Swords -- Real or Fantasy? Even that looks significantly more practical than the fantasy blades from the OP