Old Man

Why wouldn't I? Don't you know that technical problems are far easier to solve than political ones?

I think you're right in that generic settings won't do much to attract players so much as just not scare them off. All the good settings, IMO, are recognizably fantasy but have some sort of critical distinction. Dark Sun, Planescape, Eberron, Spelljammer, Shadowrun--every single one of these has swords, magic, elves, and dwarves, but they're certainly not what you might consider generic fantasy. Personally I think FH's sweet spot is going to be mid- to high-level fantasy. Mythic Greece, for example, or Malazan, or Charn, or even Bas-Lag. Ultimately I think Hero would be best served with several 'boutique' settings as you describe, but right now there isn't even one that's set up to use as a starting point.

I'd consider putting the base of operations in Hong Kong or Singapore, either of which is a semiautonomous, built up city-state. Which one depends on whether you prefer a high or low endemic crime rate.

One polar and two "ordinary". One of the latter was sort of flaring every thirty seconds or so, so it might have been a piece of junk.

I think what's really gotten in the way of designing a great original Hero world is the expense. To really create a great atmospheric setting requires all the production values necessary to draw the reader in: artwork by Brom, full color poster maps, lots of illustration and graphic design, and above all, sourcebooks full of details. Hero books tend to look like they were done in Microsoft Word. And I think that's actually an extension of the dying grognard attitude--they don't want to pay for color art or sourcebooks, they don't want to pay for another copy of the rules, they deeply resent the idea that there is a 'standard' or 'one true way' campaign, and so on. Unfortunately this drives away new players. Tuala Morn is an outstanding setting, graced with an all-black cover that does little to encourage the curious to even pick it up let alone give a hint about what's inside. Even if the new player is unusually rich, and they buy Tuala Morn and FH and the separate rules and fistfuls of d6s, and figures out how to play the game without being scared off by the 'difficult' math, there's still no published adventure or pregen character sheets for them to use. The time from purchase to play for FH is measured in hours even for experienced RPGers. It needs to be measured in minutes or there will be no new players. That's not possible without some kind of setting, pregen adventures, and pregen characters.

So this past weekend I failed to see any Geminids at all. But I did see three satellites the morning I got up to look, so that was neat.

Didn't it sound like it?

Pariah will give you his life savings?

I can handle it if my kid were to bring home an SO of the same sex and/or another race. But any kid of mine will learn the proper usage of "their" and "you're" or they'll be disowned.

VIPER. Give me a stand up fight any day over trying to figure out who to stomp, or whether that guy I stomped was the right one.

In theory, Defilers should be able to replenish their reserves faster because they're willing to kill the plants to do it. That would give them a clear advantage. IPE is a pretty good workaround; I hadn't thought of that. The other thing, of course, is that there's no actual difference between a Preserver and a Defiler aside from the psych lim. A Preserver might well kill a bunch of plants in the vicinity in an extreme situation, though he'd feel awfully guilty about it afterwards.

90% of the FH games I've played were D&D modules converted on the fly, purely because no one had time to write or run a freestyle campaign from a clean sheet of paper. There were a couple of Shadow World modules too.

I once wrote up a list of why I prefer FH to D&D, but off the top of my head: Combat is dangerous. Shields matter. Wizards with swords. Clerics with swords. Wizards with armor. Competitive light fighters. Non-Vancian magic. Melee combat rules for maneuvers besides "I hit it." Hit locations and sectional armor. Longswords aren't automatically the best weapon. Stun. Stunning. Design your own spells (if you want). Design your own race (if the GM will let you). Point based design. I'm probably forgetting some. Anyway half a session of FH pretty much ruined D&D for me forever. I can't even roll up a D&D character now without getting deeply annoyed by the limtations inherent in the system.

The single best RPG campaign I've ever played in was Dark Sun FH. Fantasy Hero handles the setting far better than any d20 variant, and we were able to convert the published campaigns relatively straightforwardly. Note that though Dark Sun is the definition of gritty, that doesn't mean low point totals--kind of the opposite if you want your characters to survive a while. (The one thing I was never able to adequately represent in FH was the Defiler/Preserver aspect of the magic system. The closest I got was an END reserve driven by an AOE transfer against plants, but the latter is so expensive it just isn't worth it.)

I can't even remember if Jubilee is still a vampire or not. I suppose it depends on which of the thirty X-titles you're reading.

What if it's on the previous page?

What's that? Who are you again?

Maybe he's just getting senile?

Because it's red, flickering, and giving off a lot of heat?

What? What do you mean? Who are you? Where am I?

I'm at Costco?

The Arsenal of Bureaucracy does have a certain ring to it. I would expect such a multipower to focus on obscuration, obfuscation, and delays, among other things. I envision the character holding up official-looking documents or producing thick files to execute many of these. I Have Your File (Telepathy/Transform) You're Being Transferred (Teleportation, Usable On Others) Permission Denied (Suppress/Dispel) Your Warranty Has Expired (RKA/Dispel vs. Tech) Read The Employee Handbook (INT Drain not vs. illiterate characters) It's In Your Service Agreement (Mind Control) Just Fill This Out (SPD Drain) The Fine Print (NND) Shred It (HKA) Regulation 847-6 Subparagraph D Says You Can't Do That (Ablative Defenses) I've been working in offices way too long.

Kidding aside, I think the Potential New Fantasy Product discussion has quieted traffic here a bit. We're all kind of awaiting further developments, or at least I am.

Dude, that isn't funny. We've all agreed to play GURPS instead.

...have you not read the book?