Doc Democracy

Re: Communicates by pheromens No real arguments with this but I can see a reasonably similar evolutionary path where hearing is swapped for touch - so that rather than hearing vibrations in the air you are more sensitive to vibrations on the ground. Better in some cases worse in others. If hearing is less important in terms of communication then touch and smell could quite easily more than compensate. Though we are threadjacking now, I will comment no further! Doc

Re: Communicates by pheromens It is a simple solution and I think that it works.... Doc

Re: Communicates by pheromens Reading and writing is interesting. Would they have become literate in that they wrote things down that represented the meanings of particular scents that someone else could read later. How would they do that? Would it be in marking where you had a visual representation or would it be possibly colour/scent based patterns that would be interpreted more in common with pheromone clouds. I get the feel that voice communication is a linear thing and so our written language is linear. I get the feel that the written language of the phero-peeps would be less linear.... However, I think colour patterns would be longer lasting than placing scents on paper or anything else. I think that scents could be added to the colours to enhance the communication or to give it personality/depth or just to verify identity.... Doc

Re: Communicates by pheromens

Re: Communicates by pheromens I would be inclined not to use Telepathy which is, primarily a one to one form of communication. Pheromone communication is simply a repeat of mouth and ears but based on chemicals rather than sound waves. If the race had no verbal communication and no discriminatory hearing then I would call it a wash. Whatever complication you would give for lacking verbal communication should be equal to what it cost to give them pheromone based communication, unless you saw pheromonal communication having advantages. I would then simply focus on what the advantages would cost. Doc

Re: Gates and gating Ooh! IS there a useful advantage there? What are the pros and cons of something like this? If you can teleport 100kg and there is a 1600kg car that you want to send somewhere then you need to advantage your TP to make that happen. However, if you did not want to spend that much what would be the value in allowing additional items to be sent with each additional 100kg requiring you to maintain the power for an extra step on the time chart? I am thinking that it is a definite advantage but I am not sure where I would price it. I dont think that there is obvious abuse potential and there would be effective limitations on size by how long you would have to maintain the power (this would definitely attract long term endurance in my game). Doc

Re: Balancing social skills and role playing

Re: Balancing social skills and role playing My anecdotal evidence (I presume similar to us all) would say that all things being equal, the glib character is better. However, a glib player (I am my own evidence here) can find himself avoiding having to roll dice by working the GM and ensuring that the dice when they are rolled go closer to my strengths than weaknesses. I have accomplished great things on the basis of glib performance as a player. Other players with more socially proficient characters are often less successful as they rely on the dice for everything. It is an issue for some - I am not being a better player of the system, I am being a better player of the GM and that is not something others can compete with. I am not sure that Hugh said that the Skills section was lesser than the powers section. I think what he pointed out was that the mechanics for combat have two dimensions to them - whether you succeed in hitting and whether that has any effect on the opponent. In skills that is all rolled up into one mechanism - regardless of how broad you make that in play. There is no equivalent to defences, STUN and BODY in social interaction and I am not sure that a direct analogue would be useful. However, I agree that it is a one dimensional mechanism and as such thinner in gameplay than combat. Doc

Re: Balancing social skills and role playing What Hugh was pointing out that you confused earlier was that a glib player probably getsmore bonuses than a glib character - surely not a good thing. And I think what Hugh was pointing out was that combat is (mechanics-wise) two dimensional while social interaction has only one dimension... Doc

Re: Balancing social skills and role playing

Re: Balancing social skills and role playing

Re: Balancing social skills and role playing Pushing one of my buttons here. Customised character sheets to me are almost a necessity and, as GM, I usually produce a customised character sheet for every game I run as the ones that game companies produce are invariably dull and boring and usually convey nothing of the context and genre that the player is supposed to find himself in. Obviously there is no point in a sheet that is confusing but that is what design is all about! Doc

Re: Balancing social skills and role playing

Re: Balancing social skills and role playing You know, I think the experience thing depends on the gaming group. Some stuff is going to work really well with one gaming group and sink without trace in another. I reckon I would give Mister E the benefit of the doubt in knowing his group and what their capabilities and predilections are and whether certain ways of awarding experience are going to work (be perceived as fair). None of our well established customs are going to work as well with other gaming groups. I reckon we are all now satisfied that his methods might not work in our own groups, that his group possibly veers more to the roleplay than to the game and probably that we should give him a break...no?? Mister E - I dont think that your experience awarding rules would work with my group either but I do know that when someone does feel facilitated in injecting character into their character at the table then something fantastic happens - the PC becomes distinct from the player and when that occurs everyone at the table knows it and appreciates it. Doc

Re: Gaming in the Magic: The Gathering setting Hmm. This is an interesting idea. I have not played much Magic but possibly enough to get an idea of what the basics are. In my opinion, the game Magic represents how the mages fight. You could have a reasonably standard fantasy game that differs only when the Mages actually battle. There are several things you need to capture. One is the deck idea. It is important in a battle to have an idea of what is in your deck but there is a random element that you may wish to capture. Then there is how the various decks interact and how that has an effect on the Mage himself - I would presume that Mage battles would not necessarily be to the death but that there should be the risk of death involved. Personally I would try to construct some kind of structure by which a mage can establish links to mana areas (forest, swamp etc) as well as gain links to summonable beings and knowledge of how to activate magical effects. You could manage duels with cards etc that would evoke the feel of the card game or look for HERO alternatives. In the vaguest possible terms, I see a large multipower. I see a reserve that is limited by how many connections to Mana-delivering-Lands have been established. As the duel porgresses the Mage can add to the reserve or activate available slots (though in each case there should be an 'activation' roll that decides what comes - you may get more mana or you may get access to another slot but probably you do not get to actively choose). What is interesting is how certain things play out such as attacking summoned creatures (effectively closing down someone else's multipower slot) and how you decide someone has actually won. I think that there may be ways to bring INT and BODY into this, you limit the number of slots by the INT of the Mage and there could be a way of tying in BODY or STUN by staking those characteristics to put powers in play that are lost when the slot is lost. The mage would therefore collapse unconcious at the end or simply die if he has staked BODY instead of STUN. I do not know enough about the mechanics to propose how this might occur but there should be enough people out there with detailed knowledge of both to extrapolate (I think).... :-) Doc

Re: Essentials One of the books that rarely hits these essential lists that I think is a fantastic addition for the hard-pressed GM is Villainy Amok! - it is a brilliant starter volume to get the adventure creation process started, to provide hints when you hit a creative block and for new GMs gives a decent breakdown of what a superhero scenario might look like. Good review here. And how can you not own a book that has Amok in the title? Doc

Re: Easily infected wounds Oh, I like that idea as a concept. It is highly dubious as anything but a costed out plot device but a NND Major Transform 0 END, continuous and uncontrollable linked to an attack and limited by stops if no BODY done on attack and possibly stops if treated by professional before x BODY transformed.

Re: Can be used as... Probably only true as long as you do not buy the other advantages of TK such as indirect. I am in favour of simplification and would happily remove TK from the powers list with a note that telekinetic powers can often be purchased by buying advantaged STR. Doc

Re: Can be used as... To be honest, this is what it feels like when playing HERO sometimes. Things are so codified that it can feel that a computer programme might be able to caculate the end result of any combat. Obviously this is not true but the greater the effort to strive for balance the more that this vision comes into focus... Doc

Re: Can be used as... You think HERO is playable out of the box?? In my opinion it has never been that. I am also of the opinion that 'balance' is seen as differently by almost everyone as 'reasonable' is. I think that recent games have shown a lot of different mechanics that have potential for giving us something new and exciting. I do not think (in fact would hate to think) that the height of game design sophistication was achieved in the early 1980's. Doc

Re: Can be used as...

Re: Can be used as... And yet there are times when SFX would indicate that there should be the potential. As I said, HERO sold itself to me on flexibility and it is the search for flexibility that is likely to result in me moving to another system (when I find it) where the answer to such a question will not be hell no! or no! Instead it will be more like yes,but... Doc

Re: Can be used as... I did say I needed a new ruleset. I want something with the utility of the VPP but has more elegant gameplay. Nothing in the current rules does it for me...

Re: Can be used as...

Re: Can be used as...