Markdoc

Re: Money in Fantasy Setting

Re: Money in Fantasy Setting I'm reminded of the time our hapless GM thought he had outwitted us - after an arduous series of adventures we finally got the big treasure: which was almost all copper pieces. Millions of the little turd-colored things. He knew we couldn't carry very much away in our backpacks. Alas for him. I thought about the problem for a minute and then said "Akse and Qua. You need to head back to the city. Bring our galley and three large merchant ships back. The rest of you, come with me. We'll need to set up a defensive perimeter until they return with the fleet." Man, we were sooooo rich. And we used that wealth to buy all sorts of magical gee-gaws, vastly increasing our power (Also a palace. And dancing girls). Which is why the GM needs to think about the economics of his game. cheers, Mark

Re: Slowly Expanding AOE I'd build it as: Area affect, radius (+1) Personal Immunity (+1/4), Constant (+1/2), Concentration, 0 DCV, throughout (-1 1/2) Adder: alterable size (page 99 5ER) , extra time, full phase (-1/2), unranged (-1/2), must start from 1 hex size and expand 1" per segment, then contract at same speed (-1/4). I think the bit in italics was what you were missing. With this build, the character sets off the AoE - at which point he becomes unaware of what doing on. Unless somehow killed, he's more or less committed to carrying through the entire attack at that point since he can't tell what's going on. Alterable size lets him change the size of his area effect, but the last limitation reduces the speed with which he can do that. The explosion will move outwards - gradually - but since he bought constant, everything in the area of effect will be subject to it. That means things close to him are going to get attacked over and over, while things further out might be subject to the effect for only a few phases: this will give a nice "cratering" effect where the character ends up standing in a crater surrounded by only the sturdiest remnants. It also makes the attack nasty, but not overwhlemingly lethal: anything with a high DEF like a well-protected landmate or brick would survive, but normal structures and unprotected people would get trashed by even a few dice. I didn't add reduced END, since in the source material, the character usually ends the attack by bleeding from the nose and ears and falling unconscious: I figure they've burned through all of their END and STUN. cheers, Mark

Re: Money in Fantasy Setting

Re: Caps and averages for your campaigns That was my thought too! My current game is 3 years old in a week or so and the one player who's been at every session has just topped 80 XP. Ah - that's comforting to know We try to play every two weeks and manage more like 14-16 games a year. Hmmmm.... that's about 1.8 XP per session ....sounds about right. cheers, Mark

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? As for me, I just saw the latest from Studio Ghibli (Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea) which was sweet but not top notch (by Ghibli's standards). Also saw "Burn after reading". Amusing, and totally unpredictable plot: I really liked both Brad Pitt's brainless gym trainer and George Clooney's sleazeball - nice to see them play against type. Also I've been traveling a lot lately so have seen a lot of in-flight movies. Among them: Hancock (better than expected, actually. Liked the special effects and the plot "surprise". The plot itself makes no sense whatsoever, though. Pity. It could have been cool movie with a little thought put into it) Hidden Fortress: the lost Princess (The plot made more sense in a lot of ways than the original and it looks way better, but the ending is silly and the "Be nice to social inferiors" theme is frankly barfsome. The villain does a cool Darth Vader impression, though he had to stab people instead of force-choking them ) Kung Fu Panda (I watched it twice, on two different flights, which says something ) Ratatouille (Not as good as expected, frankly. Visually delightful. But the plot was ..... enh. I did like the food critic though) Wall·E (I liked it: love the sci-fi in-jokes and the overall design pizazz. The plot isn't wildly exciting, but it hums along nicely) Tashan (Bollywood gangster trash: mildly amusing, badly acted, braindead plot) In Bruges (Amusing if foulmouthed dialog, predictable, if unrealistic plot: I saw the dwarf-shooting and consequence coming well in advance. Ralph Fiennes is good, though) Tropic Thunder. (I thought the Platoon parody at the beginning was hysterical. There's some other pretty good moments, but the director is reduced to recycling jokes about 30 minutes in. There's a great 15 minute comedy short inside this 90 minute movie) cheers, Mark

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? But it's still pretty damn funny isn't it? cheers, Mark

Re: Sword and sorcery Yeah, but in those stories, Death hardly comes across as an arch-villain: he's more a sporting type, consistently giving our heroes a chance to escape, rather than just saying "Nyah! You're dead, so shut up" - though it is clearly indicated that he could, if he chose. And he doesn't have any nefarious plans.

Re: Stealth and Perception

Re: "Outsider" perspective on Hero System I'll skip over the SFX angst to suggest for tasers: 2d6 CON Drain + 2d6 EB (Linked). Flavour with OAF, continuous, reduced range, charges and lockout to taste. That attack used on a healthy Normal (10 CON, 2PD) has a slightly better than average chance of stunning him on the first shot and will almost certainly stun him on the second. If you keep tasing him, he'll likely a) pass out and maybe take a small amount of BOD, but he won't die. If you stop tasering him he'll be up and about in a very short period unless you've given him a real working over, but he'll feel a bit wobbly for a minute or so. A big tough normal might take several tasings, but odds are pretty good you'll stun him after several shots. Most supers will laugh a taser off. And someone with a susceptibility to electricity (a pacemaker or heart condition) could die from being tasered. cheers, Mark

Re: What does a "20 Comeliness" look like to YOU? Pretty good actually! (ba-da-BUM!) cheers, Mark

Re: "Outsider" perspective on Hero System

Re: "Outsider" perspective on Hero System Since Rogue routinely stole Colossus' powers and also added the powers of others, I take it as given that they were not built on the same points - they're not even close to being the same power level. So you are right, this seems like a poorly thought-out example. In fact the X-men as a whole run a huge gamut in power ranges best summed up by the Editing Room cheers, Mark

Re: [Mythos Supers]

Re: Money in Fantasy Setting

Re: Shunamitism

Re: Money in Fantasy Setting

Re: Money in Fantasy Setting From an economic standpoint the answer is no for many coins - but they circulate anyway. You're confusing economic theory with economic reality - in real life people often do things which economically make no sense. In the US, right now, there are plenty of coins in circulation which have a metal content worth more than the coins' face value. If you take the smelting costs into account, even a post 1982 penny is worth more than a penny. It makes no sense to produce them - but the US does so anyway. So does it make sense for people to use iron coinage? Well they've been doing so on and off for a couple of thousand years now, so the answer must be "yes". cheers, Mark

Re: Money in Fantasy Setting

Re: Sword Oriented Martial Art

Re: Sword Oriented Martial Art

Re: New Power: Width Increase

Re: New Power: Width Increase And as I understand it, that's a situation-dependant outcome. Even a normal sized person is not necessarily going to be obvious - if they are behind the door, when you come in, for example. In most cases both the full size and the tiny person is going to be obvious, if they are not trying to hide - but not always. And if a PER roll is needed the tiny person (or the car keys) are not going to be as easy to see.

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... David Brin's Uplift series. I'd read The Uplift War and Startide Rising before but that was nigh on 20 years ago, so I had forgotten a few details. So I went back to the first book and reading the series all the way through. I'm halfway into book 5: Infinity's Shore. Considering how old these book are, they've held up pretty damn well and the stories are all ripping yarns. I'm looking forward to finishing the last two books. cheers, Mark

Re: Sword Oriented Martial Art Yep - the swiss used axes and halberds for the task. Also the German swordsmen who perfected the "hack your way into the pike block" technique were: a) professionals who did that for a living: they received double pay, promotion privileges and were called Doppelsoldners ("double soldiers"). really big guys c) crazy d) usually dead before their mid-20's But then, no-one told them it would be easy Edit - as an aside, the technique soon fell out of favour: too many men got killed trying it, and having some looney at the front, waving a really big sword got in your own pikemen's way. After a few decades of glory, the Doppelsoldner was first abandoned and then outlawed by drillmasters and all those two handed swords became wall decorations - another reason there's so many of the damn things around. In contrast, the spanish Rodeleros (sword and buckler men) who did the same job, but with a light shield and stabbing sword lasted almost a century before being dropped. It turned out the best way to disorder an enemy pikeblock was to get a couple of dozen guys with harquebuses to shoot into it at close range cheers, Mark