Doc Democracy

I think I remember that. In my head you could autofire to hit multiple times or you could take +4 to hit once... must be way way back in the first edition with a colour cover...

I really enjoyed running a one-off FFG Star Wars (Edge of Empire flavoured). It ran pretty well, I coped with the strange dice but LOVED the destiny mechanic (which delivers cinematic/heroic action rather than a SF feel). I think I will import that to the next Champions game I run. Doc

I have a script and a slideshow. Just need to record and post it. Then others can do it better... ?

They were not really parties as they are recognised today, more loosely affiliated voting blocks for the purposes of Parliamentary process and MUCH more fluid than today. I think political parties in the UK became more of a thing in the late 19th century (after the Great Reform Act) and definitely in the early 20th century when we actually had universal suffrage.

We have gotten ourselves into a bad place with politics. We vote (in the main) based on tribal loyalties rather than on the people we are electing. If we elected people we trusted to do the right thing rather than the party brand that we have invested in, the political incentives of those seeking power might change. I speak as someone who sees the inside of politics in the UK but I still feel those tribal loyalties influence my vote at almost every election. Parties are new things in western politics and they make it easy for politicians to decide how to vote. I think that anything that makes it easy for politicians to decide how to vote is probably bad for democracy. I want my politicians to go to their parliament, to become informed and to make decisions that I am not able to make. I want my politicians to base their decisions on what they think is right rather than on the uninformed opinions prevalent on the internet or the pre-baked policies of the parties to which they are affiliated. The onus is on us, the electorate, to engage with the system, I believe we get the politicians we deserve and as long as we base our voting decisions on shortcut things like what party the politician declares allegiance to, we will continue to get politicians that game the system. it is like D&Ders that declare their character is chaotic good, but effectively play as neutral evil. ?. We need to find a way to label politicians with the label that fits their actions rather than the label they want to wear. I think the only way is for us to be willing to take a greater interest in who our politicians are and on building institutions we can trust to provide us with real information rather than the selective presentation of data we currently get. No idea how we get there though, most people are content in their tribalism either because they like their tribe or see supporting the other tribe as the only way to defeat the one they like least... Doc

Good grief. I have been putting together a script for a video on how to build a character. It is amazing how much I do from instinct and how difficult that is to describe... I decided to do a fairly basic character type but getting to a character from a blank piece of paper involves a LOT of moving parts. I also realise I have done almost no character designing in 6th Edition. The pathways laid down in my brain over decades take over and then I realise I am not sure if I am rules compliant. I think I have a script, just need to put some slides together and then create a video that I can put up on YouTube. I was thinking I would do a brick, an energy blaster, a martial artist and maybe something else. I am wondering whether it might not be more informative to go through the stock characters in the rule book as a GM might assess a character submitted to a game to highlight the key points and how things work together. You might get more insight from the critique of a finished character than watching one being put together. it might also be useful to do a conversation. Perhaps me helping someone who does not know the system put a character together. all I need to do is find the time for all this stuff...

Hmm. well, it is difficult for a mechanic to carry things but, you need to think of something that allows the game to capture the feel of the setting. I think for 40K I might build characters as a squad. You need to allow for individual units to die without losing the continuity of the campaign. I think as an everyman ability, each character would have 128 duplicates. As they say in the film "You cant kill a squadron", it should allow play to continue whether or not individual duplicates are killed off in particular encounters. Each casualty is replaced as soon as central command can arrange reinforcements. everything else I would leave to settings and story.

In HERO, this is key, and perhaps the weakness of the system in the market. To shine, HERO needs the GM to do a lot of work behind the scenes. An example of this is the holy symbol effect. If the GM ensures all undead creatures are bought with particular physical and psychological complications, then all anyone needs to do is buy the perk, Holy Symbol, to make things work the way people expect. It does however mean the GM has to think of it, in advance, and build it into the setting. So, Zslane, what mechanics do you see in dedicated SF RPGs that evoke an SF feel? Doc

You might consider flipping some undead categorisations on their heads. Skellies are often the weakest variety of undead, moving up through vampires and liches. In your world skeletons might be the greatest form of undead and vampires bestial blood drinking vermin that are actually quite easy to kill. It is never a bad thing to sometimes stand things on their heads and pervert player expectations.

Just after I finished my last post I remembered reading a novel recently (Battle Mage by Peter Flannery). Despite lots of good reviews I did not enjoy the books but the battle scenes are relevant - the enemy are called the Possessed and defeated foes become Possessed. Might be worth scanning if you can do it cheaply (library or borrowing - I cannot in good conscience recommend spending money on it). Doc.

War is an interesting element here. If soldiers are undead then you are destroying the labour backbone of the country if the war does not generate more undead than it consumes. The undead army is also going to want to utilise weapons that do not break, rend and tear opponents, you do not want to spoil potential future labourers. Other nations might find it difficult to drive its soldiers to war, they are not just risking death but unlife... The driver for the campaign might be a new technology that allows the Kemeti forces to disable their opponents at range, thereby tilting the balance to war being almost certan to deliver more undead than it consumes...

My instincts are to do my usual design process 1) identify the core concept of the character 2) identify the signature powers 3) think hard about HOW those powers work in game (and when they do not) 4) open the rulebooks and start thinking about what mechanics are needed to achieve those effects 5) buy everything vanilla and full cost to get an idea of where more complicated thought might be needed 6) round out my concept of the character where that is not tied to the core idea 7) buy the powers and skills needed to realise that fleshed out concept 8) gasp at how many points I have spent and begin trimming fat and redundancy, introducing limitations and frameworks. Doc

You know, there is no design video that I could find and while everyone probably goes about it differently, it would be good to have at least one available. I might use my summer vacation to draft a script and then sort out a video for it...

Why are we talking complex aid stuff. Isn’t this a case of limiting the maximum power, so you buy 30 PD, but at the start of a combat it is only 15 PD. It gains 3PD every six segments until, half way through the third turn of combat he has 30PD. you buy that as 15 PD, then buy +3 PD (only after fighting for 6 segments) then +3 PD ( only after 1 turn of combat). you can do that with all the powers, can edit the rare at which they accumulate or why. You might have armour that only activates after you have been hit, flight that only activates when you are falling at a certain speed, etc etc. The trick is to get the value of the limitations right, they will vary from campaign to campaign. Doc

I remember having a character with a psychological complication of believing his powers did not work under certain circumstances. It was interesting as it lead to A-Team style circumstances where the team would look to get round this psychological disorder and allow the character to utilise the power they needed. Much fun, though it does need the player to be tuned into the game you want to play. Doc

I think that the heavy use of D&D among new gamers (and how resistant they often are to moving to other systems) shows that while rules-heavy games can be perceived as 'difficult' there is a certain comfort in having a rule for everything and that anything not covered by a rule is not possible. FATE is seen by many experienced gamers as easy when actually it is rules light. I think there is a lot going on there that is unwritten and while, with a good, experienced GM it would be a breeze to play, I think for a new group it might prove a nightmare. Doc

Instantly in real life (often lots of seconds) is very different from instantly in HERO (often a segment). ? I think that you are right though. It very much depends on what you think a TASER actually is - an immobilising device that tends to do no long lasting damage or a weapon designed to knock people out rather than killing them. The builds would be very different. Doc

You might use the Scottish term for a sea fog - Haar

What about Silhouette - all you usually see of the hero would be his silhouette within the fog...? Doc

I would go with BRP as everyone understand the chance to do something. The key problems for most systems come during combat or magic use because everything else is hand-wavy or very clear. BRP has that simple hit parry chance - very easy, though it has strike ranks and other stuff. I would also proffer WEG Star Wars. Everything is a bundle of D6, if you have 5D6 Blaster and want to shoot three times, then you drop a dice for each additional shot you want to make. If you want to dodge an attack, you roll the D6 and compare the sum of the dice you roll with the sum of the dice the other person rolled. Multiple skills work the same, you want to fire, dodge AND hack your way through the locked door? Fine, drop all the skills by 2D6 and go for it... It is VERY simple to learn. And it has a great theme for Star Wars, I have not tried it for other genres, though the core D6 books are very cheap on Drivethrurpg - about $3 for D6 Space, D6 Fantasy or D6 Adventure and only $2 for D6 Powers (superhero rules). Doc

Beyond my ken, but Darren does - see the conversation on character sheet... Alpha version of character sheet: https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/6441787/finished-alpha-version-of-new-character-sheet HERO turn tracking API: https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/6277448/hero-turn-tracking-api

That would be good - there are a couple of folk on there doing similar stuff. Worth us working together. I will go now and upgrade you to GM in the sandbox. ? EDIT - all done. Am sure you and Darren might have fruitful discussions on character sheets that might benefit all HERO players on Roll20.

ooh! is this where psychological complications might bite folk in the behind? If your character has "sulky" or "hates authority figures" or anything of that ilk then the healing effect is diminished one dice for every five points in such a complication. That would bring home the complication element of such complications... Doc

That is an interesting point unclevlad... If you need to lower your shields to fire then is that a limitation on the shield or on the attack?? Cannot attack if under continuous attack, or shields do not work against continuous attacks in segments when weapons used. I think the second looks more apt and the limitation would depend on how common continuous attacks were in the campaign. Doc

Essentially you have a custom limitation here that completely negates the barrier. I would decide how likely it is, probably +0 limitation for how often it is likely to happen. You then have to decide how they might go about this and put in a limitation of "not versus attacks where opponent makes a [something] roll".