Scott Ruggels

Man all that effort. Burn a bag of microwave popcorn in the microwave. Pull the fire alarm and run.

I’d say the hyper oxygenated blood from the third lung would give two benefits 1.)! Endurance costs halved across the board? At least remove altitude modifiers as they don’t suffer from hypoxia? 2.) +50 percent stun to resists vacuum effects

So far, I am thinking 100-120 years from now, during the asteroid gold rush. Papa Elon’s colony on Mars is established, and there are three O’Neil colonies and many wheels, fabs, and Habs. Lots of activity in the asteroids and moons beyond Mars, with various independent, and corporate operations. Tech level is hard to quantify, as material science has progressed with microgravity manufacture and micro scale layering of 3D printed material. Electronics have actually regressed from a peak in the 2060’s, due to the lack of trust in distributed systems, after the final US China war, and the latency. Doors talk with doors. Guidance talks with engines. All electronics are standardized modules with shape and colo coordinated ports so even kids can keep life support running. There is no central computers that’s the captain or administrator’s job. And each department head controls a system. There Are still computers, but due to overlybroad safety regulations, no terrestrial manufactured microchips can be plugged into the ship systems Except for low energy recharging, and have life spans in orbit measured in months. That Samsung Entertainment goggle system is going to have to be recycled and replaced every few months (including that VR porn collection, because No One will allow anything other than text or nah format files stored on ship systems (a lot of this is to avoid Cyberpunk style ha king as ai am watching the response to the real thing, slowing or halting the adoption of the internet of things, and especially after a war started with massive net attacks No one trusts anything they didn’t buy blank and format themselves) . Engines are my version of the Epstein drive, so everything is under constant acceleration. Because living things for the most part can heal themselves, genetic engineering is a thing. Robots are a thing, but they have been specialized. Generalist robots arEnreally is xpensive. So there is a wide but not very adaptable ecology of them. (Various harsh environment maintenance drones, floor buffers, Martian mules, and watcher bots). Fuels is as cheap as dirt because it basically is dirt or Helium3 regolith scraped off the unseen sides Of the moon and processed. Water and air you have to pay for. Nothing is free, and charity means a ticket to ground side earth as no one watch freeloaderS or homeless mooching off the station’s air. Invest your retirement pensions wisely.

Also length of hull of the casing. There are several European That shoot short hulls; around 2 in. Or sub two inch, which is great for low recoil and limited range appplications. Standard hull length is two and a quarter inches. Powder and loads vary, but are generally standardized for semi auto shotguns. “Three inch magnums”, are what it says o the tin, but are usually limited to appproved modern military shotguns loys odnslug rounds, door busters, double aught buck, and various experimental rounds. They are all characterized by heavy recoil.

I think continuity was the key. For that long running, map based, political, Fantasy Hero campaign , I started with the maps, then the coutri s and some vague history. One area was dialed in sharply as The starting are for the campaign. I’d it wasn’t for my compulsions and obsessions, I would be too lazy to GM. The first compulsion was another GM wouldnpass out these digest sized, yellow, notepads for his players to do his version of blue booking. I would grab a couple of these and doodle faves and head shots. Men, women, young, old, various limited ethnicities seen in the campaign area. I would sketch them out and then throw some ink on them, so I could scan them in and remove the lines , but later. When, during the course of a game, I wouldflipp through the notepads, find a face that fit, then pancil the name under the face and pass it to the players. This gave them a face and a name, and established another piece of the continuity. The other compulsion was maps and world building, but unlike others who didrivernby river derail, I started with a map, Logical placement of cities and towns, and a fairly tightly worked out list of deities. I allowed the players to treat the world like a sandbox.. me, furiously scribbling few steps ahead of them. But it worked, because I myself was wondering what would happen next. To keep things fresh for me as the GM I would devise System’s, such as that Parlimentary resolution system above to generate a voting record, a list of NPCs, and why such and such district was important., because, I learned if you gave the players a gold plated path in one direction they will pick the other one. I was more carrot than stick sort of GM. But the players remembered names, favors, contacts, and used them. To great success. So much so, that one off the monarchs offered the party to lead an expedition to the unknown desert east on a mission of survey and exploration. But it was taking by taking copious notes, and setting up semi autonomous systems, compulsively doodling faces, and writing down a few ideas while daydreaming about the campaign at work, thaat kept the prep time to around a half hour or so. This seems like a lot of work but remember, I am a lazy GM. Where I skipped thee work is that I cannot do HERO math well, so I cribbed stuff from published material, whining to other GM friends to make sure my packages and custom monsters balanced out, and offloaded magic spell creation to the players within strict cultural, and power guidelines. The games themselves were mostly simulationist- narrative-travelogue. I really am mathtarded. But the games were fun and it lasted a long time. One really can’t havenpolitics without history, consistency, and and the ability to plan for the future.

Interesting, but so much an anathema to my way of thinking gaming that I have to walk away from this quickly XD. I spent too much time in Hollywood, and have screen writers move on to being novelists, because of the collaborative nature dilm leaves them wanting more agency. Any collaboration involves compromise,’but too much leads to dissatisfaction,’in my experience. I am not saying this appproach is invalid, far from it, in thatnto just seems like entertainment vegan food. Everyone wants to be the hero, at least for a while. Pure oldest traditions have a single story teller, with some omitted call and response, so people imagine themselves as Gilgamesh, or cheer him on. Also Inwill always be a member of the minis on a board school, even if pixels.

May I? I believe Doc is talking about something I brought up a while back and was roundly criticized, that social interaction would be dominated by a tyranny of theater majors. I see this happen all the time, which is why I will allow, and encourage non acting based, mechanical, solutions. Now everyone loves role play, but not everyone is good at it personally. A mechanical solution must have an action plus counter. Someone above mentioned verbal martial arts. So a good system should allow for verbal strike, dodge, parry riposte, with the player never required to actually make an in game quote. General intent is fine. Sure s good quote is fine and entertaining, but the system should allow the socially challenged, the profoundly introverted, or even the mute play the character they want, especially if it’s a character skilled in Verbal repartee. Everyone should get to be the hero, regardless of the players personal disadvantages compared to others.

I have seen some social interaction mechanics and can think of two, both-by Paul Kidd. Albedo First Edition, with its ties and antipathies rolls and Lace & Steel with its card based combat. I am fuzzy on the details now as I last laid eyes on both in the very early 1990s. And may or may not have them both in storage.

Once Intel For politics and intrigue I only have to show you Danger international . Most of the work for that had modules nestled snugly in the Cold War, With visits to Eastern Europe, Fictional Central American Countries, and had rules for any sort of James Bond spy action to more realistic Black Ops, amd Mercenary Action. The author of said book, L. Douglas Garrett, would run an occasional campaign of his, called Costa Diego, centering around a small and mountainous fictional Central American country and its struggles against a Soviet backed, marxist insurrection, the FRLN. The politics of that tiny nation were often influenced by the PC actions or not depending on the secrecy, or lack there of during the operation. However many of the games were held at conventions, and ended with spectacular body counts and collateral damage. But I ran a highly political Fantasy Hero campaign once I thought I handle on the rules. I can answer examples of using this campaign and how I came up with Systems on the fly. First you have to determine What sort of sociology political development level they had Fantasy Games default to a High Medieval , feudal system with a few empires scattered around. Governments in the Gunpowder age tended to be constitutional monarchies, Reublics, and dictatorships. In most space games, you get Star Empires roughly based on the Persian Satrap system, Space Communism, or a Federation system with each planet a semi independent state, with ties and responsibilities to the other member systems to provide for common defense, and the promotion and regulation of trade. Probably the best ( and most properly cynical analysis of politics is the following video, Rules for Rulers: you can see by this analysis that the system adjudications suggest themselves. One of the systems I used was for a parliamentary democracy and each district was represented by D6 the King had a number of D6s equal to the parliament. Now each of those districts had pluses or minuses about an issue to modify the body of the die to each district. Each district can only deliver a maximum of two body points or votes. Each district has a member of parliament who delivers said votes. Self interest, manipulation by fear or blackmail, or persuasion and deal making can make a swing of plus or minus three in favor of or opposed to an issue. This then opens up multiple avenues of approach in bending the Parliment to the player character desires. 1.) PC petitions to address Parliment to persuade them to his issue. This is is the Hail Mary approach with the biggest chance of success but he has to roll a presence attack or Oratory with complimentary skills of persuasion, logic, or lying to succeed. A success modified the members of Parliment not actively oppposed to your issue gives you plus one modifier on all eligible MPs. A critical success delivers +2 Negative modifiers may arise from opposed MPs whoes grasp of the facts, oratorical skill, or vicious mockery (Even outright lies and calumny) can be made against the proposal and will also be added, or subtracted to each MPs modifier. After the debate, which can be rolled or Roleplayed, depending on group temperment, the votes are taken: ”It is time to commit to the vote, All those in favor say ‘aye’”. All the Dice are rolled but one at a time and the body of the die written down after the additive or subtractive modifiers are upplied to their name. 2 body means that name is not rolled again. A one body is noted against the name and can be rolled again. A zero Body die is noted and rolled again. “All those opposed say nay!...” those Dice that are rollable, former Zero Body and One body dice are rolled one at a time, with modifiers applied to the result. Two body dice are noted, but not rolled again, That member being a solid Nay and listed as such. Those who have1 bodypoint in the Aye column already cannot be rolled again, both their votes are cast. “...Abstentions? Show of hands please” any remaining dice are rolled. Two body dice are noted down as solid Abstentions. Any memberNot Parliment who has generated no body points, at this point is considered to have been asleep through the vote, probably from the party the night before. If there are more than two, they were probably wheeling and dealing about the next item on the agenda. “The Ayes have it. The motion is sent to the king for his signature non the time and of this month. “ If the Ayes win, the GM has to decide how much power the king has. If he sits with a privy council, his two votes are allocated Ed how he sees fit and all of the subsequent dice get a plus one modifier in the same direction. If he has an independent House of Lords, his dice are rolled with no modifiers, but double Nays become abstentions, as no one wishes to be disloyal to the king. If the body points are equal or greater the the The King’s, he will grudgingly sign it into law. If the king agrees with the motion and it passes, he happily sign it, and the party gains +1 level of political influence and associated social skills. If the King supports it but the lords don’t and it fails. His Royal Highness, getting the bill’s supporters to re-submit on a fresh vote in 6 months. If the King is opposed and the lords and the Lords dice body exceeds the Parliment, the motion is said to be withdrawn. If the King is Very upset he may dissolve The Parliment, and call for Parlimentary elections in 6 month’s time. But sometimes, the King really is an autocrat, and the Parliment is just a sop to the Merchants, the guilds and petty landholders. While he holds the power all to himself. The GM puts the dice out one at a time with the amount of pips showing to display his wishes subtly or directly. He can even roll some, and place some but next to noted names so independent names can roll freely, as they see fit, the rest, thing Kong’s. Donors put down both body for him. Now you you have a list of names and a system and a modifiable voting record of all the MPs, and even a few for the House of Lords that because of their position are now important NPCsnfor the campaign. The advantage of this method is there is a nearly non existent chance of combat. The dis advantage is that one character gets the spotlight, and the rest of the party are disarmed spectators. It can be used in conjunction with other methods. 2.) You have no classy orators in your party, all it is not lost! You can infiltrate, or if rich enough throw one’s own Parliamentary Ball. Members from all over then country have arrived for the floor voting the next day, bringing their wives and servants, making a very target rich environment for the social set. Most GMa have a certain flavor of how they like to run social interplay. Some rely on the dice, others use skill modifiers as aids to sparkling repartee and/or seduction. Any of the socially relative positive skills can be used here, and even a few of the negative ones. I suggest you make note of succ sees and critical successes. Sucesses mean the The influenced MP will he shifted one body point in your favor. A critical success means you can influence one MP 2 body in your favor Or if it has thought that particular MP is himself a spectacular orator or conversationalist he can add a plus one body to himself AND to the name above and below them on the list. Caution :Critical Successes can lead to ties and obligations as it is assumed votes are a quid pro quo. Critical persuasion means he thinks as your friend, that he may ask a favor of you and your friends, such as finding dirt on a rival, finding and disposing of a black mailer and the evidence, or taking care of a goblin infestation near his country estate. Critical success in Seduction will lead to a wonderful evening, but also the player character may find out they now have a boyfriend or stalker, or a “Reputation” for good or ill. Failures just mean a step down for the next attempted NPC MP (14 or less becomes 11 or less). Critical failures mean a two step reduction, and the rumors and giggling asides start to flow. The bguest start to call their carriages to leave and a seduction critical failure could lead to scandal ( See Item 5). In Parliment next day, only a critical success from method one can salvage the effort and even then it’s just a success. Otherwise the PCs are seen as. Climbers or worse, an inept foreign influence. The advantage of this method is that if favored the socially skilled and the role players. The Combat types or those other bad social skills may be given long sticks to keep the ornamental deer from eating the garden, before they are returned to the rental menagerie. There may be an entertaining duet to first blood.or a musical or dance performance to entertain the guests. But this is on top surface is a party, a social engagement, with influence and intellligencce gathering secondary goals, even if those reasons were for the idea for the party. “M’Lud, ‘erez twenty punds o’ gol’ an a certificate grantin’ a ten percent share o’ all th’ profits of ur Whiskey, in yer province to anyone you designate. What say he, M’lud?” 3.) Sometimes Naked Bribery works, especially with a party with limited social skills. Illustrated was a two factor bribe where one element, the gold can be kept or given away, or debts paid with it. The Second item, the profit share, can be kept or negotiated to another because the effect of bribery only gives one body point in your favor, however a critical success would allow the second item to be given to another in Parliment to bump them to a plus one. Failure is a polite refusal, and maybe some advice, “I know you are new here, but that is not how we do things here”. A critical failure means, “What?!?!You have besmirched my honor! Leave or draw steel!” Even worse they could pick the wrong NPC that is already an anti-corruption crusader and if they escape that encounter, could be labeled as a malign influence or foreign agents and any attempt to further entreat with other members of Parliment will be rebuffed and depending on ifnties with the party become known, could torpedo the whole mission. Depending on the culture though bribery could be a high risk/ low reward proposition. Some cultures would veil bribery dimly, while others might view it as expected baksheesh. Bribing a police officer yields different results depending on which side of the US/Mexico border. The tactic has a moderate risk of combat, and a limited reward, it’s not the most effective but it can be a complimentary tactic to.... 4.) Blackmail. “M’lud, We Ken Yahave made Sir Gilliam Hall yer factor and signatory on that share o’ the whiskey trade, wi’ oot report’n tha’ to the exchequer. T’wood be a turrible Shem, iffen his name became public knowledge? What surt a’ attention do y’ thenk a Parlimentery investigation woul’ Find? But ya need not worreh, laddiebuck iffen ya will be are man in th’ Parliment, we can make shoor yer name ,and Sir Hall’s never see th’ light o’day, How does tha’ soond, M’lud? We will be contactin’ ya feels yer answer, wethen a couple a daze, fer yer answer and instructions. A pleasure doin’ business w’ ya.” This isa very dangerous tactic but has the absolute best reward, and the highest probably of combat. Extortion has been a leverage tactic since premodern Times, and is still effective to this day (See Black Mirror). Evidence found or fabricated is either filched or forged, or even set up (See Soviet Honey Trap operations). operations. As the blackmailer, the key is mitigating your exposure, and vulnerability to the “Evidence” leaving your control. Go-betweens, dead drops, and night letters are the tools to do this. If the part in method 2 also had a Honey Trap operation in an upstairs bedroom, specifically to compromise married members of Parliment, it could be a back up plan if the main effort runs into failures. The tactic is risky, and is therefore the purview of professional criminals and spies, because, believe it when the victim starts to liquidate resources to pay assassins to hunt you down butcher you for the pigs to feast on, and have the evidence returned or destroyed. So combat risk is high, and. Continuing. A successful effort delivers you all their votes reliably until his assasins kill you. Or he resigns his post for “health reasons”, or the evidence becomes irrelevant due to age or shoring situations, or be finally refuses to prrform, as he is out of funds or influence, which leads to .... 5.). Scandal! It gets out that the whiskey profits were partially untaxed and the Sir Gilliam Hall turns states evidence on “M’lud”. Lady Chabita accuses a married member of parliment or having her way with her in a second floor statue nook, and took an ungentlemanly stern approach with her at the Parlimentary Ball. Witnesses both real and fabricated are produced because he though she was a discrete party favor, and bragged to his friends. Those friend, to cover their own culpability means he resign immediately. Or even worse, Multiple members are flagged by Lady Chabita and the government falls. The King calls for snap elections to replsce the disgraced former members, who are now barred from public office, or worse dissolves Parliment under the charge of moral turpitude and announces a general election in 6 months. Sometimes an MP will profess innocence and demand a trial, and then the game becomes a court room drama or a crime procedural but that is beyond the scope of politics. Scandal is mostly a pure role playing exceedise that the GM know orncan invent the temperment of the victim, and few die rolls are needed as the options are fighting it, turning it into a plus (Oh he’s just a saucy rake, but a solid credit to his people”, resign from office and vanish from the public eye, or they kill themselves. So I believe that whom ever said you could not “do politics in Hero was lackin in imagination. Hero has three different dice rolls on the whole, A.) Killing Damage/Luck, B.) Stun dice, or C.) skill + Dice. Using them as applied to various voting systems and government forms can give a rich background and a sense of the stakes, for a few die rolls. This was the secret of how I ran a decades Fantasy Hero game with only about a half hour of prep, and a half hour of sorting and cataloguing my GM’s notes after the game. From this I had a Parliment, Members views on issues, status and the point of view on the king, plus voting records, and then buckets of scenario seeds gen rated from these and the interactions of the players. It made for a very rich, and deep game I am Scott Ruggels, and I approve of this message! P.S this took 4 hours to type from a hospital bed, and I will never do this with an iPhone again.

You inspire me to dig out my copies of Aaron Alstons Rogues Gallery and scan them. However I only own the rights to my material. Though the writings by others made it a standout of the ‘zine age.

Some of the campaign’s materials were printed in Aaron Allston’s Rogues Gallery, specifically, the big bad’s henchmen, The Jaggiri. Most of this was pre internet, but when I get a hold of the Zines, in my storage. I will scan what I can. I don’t have rights to anyone else’s but man, the level of writing was inspiring, and the cameraderie the gatherings in Milwaukee over thick, Chicago style pizza, just letting Aaron tell stories was just enchanting. Well prettying it up has such a low barrier to Entry, now, that dentists from Wisconsin are putting up work on Imgur, gaming of these lovely, properly formatted pages that look straight out of the 5e Monster Manual. Having a similar, or different work is just the right colllection of templates and picked pieces of art ( with all rights and responsibilities. Bit yeah maybe jazz jazz up the writing, but birthing Solar System Campaign will probably be in 4th Edition, simplicity of familiarity, and having people build 4th ed characters with figured characteristics so they can see more clearly, the difference of what they can do, and what they would do. (An old trick I learned from LDG was to build “Danger Worthy” characters, so one didn’t be a fragile egg, or dead weight to the other characters. I would insist they did so. )

I may be re-iterating my position from another post, but as a math phobic, math-tarded,’sensitive artist type, who has been on the IRS’s shit list for decades due to my innumeracy, 6e comes across, much as the my IRS troubles did, with exacting costs, finer granularity of skills with a commensurate increase one has to cover the skill bases, and every crosses T and dotted eye accounted for. I realized I only used 4e as a reference while continuing to build from the original Fantasy Hero rules for my huge, map-centric, politics drenched Fantasy Hero Campaign. I think Spence has the right of it when he said that the show early editions of Hero were, sloppier, but the writing was more fun, then. Pictures! More pictures are good! What I read of 6e, which admittedly was not much, it came across as intimidating, dry, toast. In the Store Centric model thread, I went on at length about how important full color printing is for this modern game audience. I know we won’t get that from the current books, but color PDFs are free and some aspiring writing tee could make a fun “Powered by Hero” game with better presentation.

The autocorrect for the iPhone is quite aggressive, yes.

YouTuber Lindybeige proved that Spears were the easiest weapon to learn and become proficient at. Massed spearman are no joke. I am definitely picking up the Guide then.

The Challenge : Villain A and Villain B are masterminds. They both have subtle and manipulative powers. They have a friendly rivalry. They are currently in a game of escalating one upmanship with each other where they try to manipulate first normals, then supers into bizarre acts or displays adding more and more people to the deception. Yes to them it is a game, but also a psychic dick measuring contest. If the plot is exposed they may join forces and “Play for real”.

It effected tactics definitely. I the late 18th Century, it was three rounds a minute, using paper cartridges in smoothbore muskets and some rifles, two full turns to reload). Using that on the battle field gave use the thin red line with massed fire upon command of an officer, and on the other side the independent fire at targets of opportunity, then retreat Into the woods to reload of colonial skirmishes. By the Civil War, percussion caps and the Minie’ ball reduced loading times to 4-5 times a minute. However, cavalry revolvers and carbines pioneering metallic cartridges traded followed X number of phases shooting for Y turns reloading. The lessons of The Civil War propagated to Europe Where the Breech-loading Dreyse rifle significantly reduced loading times and depending of how you judge reloading single shot rifles, can be a shot per phase or a shot every other phase. But more importantly allowed reloading prone or in cover. Against the Austrians and their accurate but slow Lorenz muzzle loaders, did not fare well and the massed line of infantry slowly faded. The obvious advantage of the breech-loader gave way to the Magazine Rifle, followed closely by Manlicher’s stripper clip, to the point, where the granularity of Hero’s action system can no longer distinguish between a bolt action and a semi-auto. But with each advance, the requirement of masses of closed ranked troops, gave way to the increasing tactical capability of the individual infantryman.

Probably true, but I come from the C&S side of things, and don’t have fun with the low crunch, low realism games. Not a “storyteller” gamer. More of a travel & Exploration gamer.

Definitely, in our case we added a bit of knock back for Shotgun slug rounds, and a plus one stun modifier for the M1911A1 pistol. But the pluses on presence attacks due to reputation is a nice bit of color. Block of text it is, then. Having wide experience with firearms, , I am amazed out ancestors put up with The unreliability of cap and ball revolvers. Flintlocks are more Portable and IMO slightly more robust, and even the early pin fires had a more reliable ignition. But yes, adding those bonuses and limitation (including availability of the correct ammo. ) probably need to be statted out, giving the players a reason to pick or favor weapons as our ancestors, or fictional protagonists did. Weapons are constructed to fill jobs jobs dictated by the fighting style or doctrine the inventing culture thought necessary. Spears, swords and firearms are products of their culture and limitations, and they deserve that detail.

We did end up using reloading manuals to check damage and compared it to Kevin Dockery’s The Armory (Second Edition) and figured out a WW2 example. An M-1 Garand does 2D6+1, and can do Armor Piercing’wiyhnthe right (black tip) ammunition. Using The Data from an RCBS reloading manual, we figured out that a 7.7mm Japanese Type 99 bolt action would do 2.5D6, and had AP ammunition as well, where the 6.5mm Japanese Type 38 bolt action would do 2D6-1 and had no AP loading. So there was some differentiations once you entered the smokeless era. Differences between bolt action and semi- auto, though are not well addressed by HERO IMO. For a fantasy realm, I like the “Golf Bag” approach to equipment. I would think that it would almost demand difference due to race, strength, and fighting style. Some people will appreciate the nuance.

Oh man, I loved that stuff! Johnny Quest is the go to for Action entertainment! I also like the Herculoids, the Hoyt Curtin’s Music cues just shout “excitement!” To me. Continuing in a cartoon vein.I have been watching Three Below”, the next series of Guillermo Del Toro’s Arcadia Trilogy. A coup de etat occurs on a distant planet, The prince and Princess of the deposed aristocracy glee with their protector and the crystals of their parent, to a low tech back water called Earth. They crash land in/near the town of Arcadia Oaks, a town in the middle of the last season of Troll Hunters. Meanwhile, the general that instigated the coup realizes he does not have the Royal Heirs, and so dispatches Bounty Hunters, The Zeron Brotherhood. To collect them. An acquaintance of mine, did the design of the Zeron Brotherhood, and when they are on scree, the show changes from a kid’s show, to an action thriller.

Shouldn’t that be: Hero de Lucha ?

Huzzah!

The more I hear about 6th Edition, the more I feel it takes the super. Out of Superhero. It’s like a revision of the tax code.

Sounds very good.

I mpressed. My brother, with three kids bought a Biggs’s crew canvas well, for towing s camping trailer. ( his kids love camping). My mom drives around a 2005 Ford Explorer, which I love. She swore off small cars after her 1972 Porsche 914 was trashed in an accident. Oops, so we wandered way off topic. Sooo how is this game system?