Digest Archive vol 1 Issue 467

Digest Archive vol 1 Issue 467
From: owner-champ-l-digest@sysabend.org
Sent: Sunday, July 25, 1999 9:26 AM
To: champ-l-digest@sysabend.org
Subject: champ-l-digest V1 #467

champ-l-digest Sunday, July 25 1999 Volume 01 : Number 467

In this issue:

Re: encumbrance
Re: Stun from Killing Attacks
Seattle Area "Sourcebook"
Does anyone have computer combat aids?
Re: Does anyone have computer combat aids?
San Angelo PBEM
Re: Stun from Killing Attacks
Re: Chupacabras
Re: Linked Powers and ECs
Re: Stun from Killing Attacks

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Date: Sat, 24 Jul 1999 07:43:54 -0400
From: "Michael Sprague" <msprague@eznet.net>
Subject: Re: encumbrance

>>I also saw a show on the History channel in which a guy put on 80 pounds
of
>>chain and plate maile and then proceeded to turn cartwheels, so now I'm
>>having issues with the encumberence charts.
>
>We have a standing house rule that all equipment that is well distributed
>on yoru body (in a pack, worn, in a scabbard, etc) is half the weight for
>purposes of encumbrance.

I have never liked the encumbrance chart for several reasons. For a much
better way to deal with encumbrance, see Geoff Spear's web site (Geoff,
where is it now). He has come up with a way to base encumbrance off from a
characters "Casual Strength."

We adapted Geoffs method in our group years ago, with one minor exception.
If you are loaded down, we reduce running, rather than charging more END for
running. This may not be entirely realistic, but it is more of a "real"
penalty, game-wise.

Now, if your playing Fantasy Hero, I also dislike the armor weights given.
It has been designed relative to the hit location chart. Armor in areas
where you often get hit is heavier than in areas where you rarely get hit.
Personally, I prefer to find some good reference material, and go with the
weights given for real examples of armor.

~ Mike

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 24 Jul 1999 11:01:27 EDT
From: ErolB1@aol.com
Subject: Re: Stun from Killing Attacks

In a message dated 99-07-22 13:14:40 EDT, beron@labyrinth.free-online.co.uk
writes:

> In a Hero System game I ran recently, one of the PCs was hit by a HKA, and
> due to the hit location rolled and a +1 Stun multiplier ended up taking 50
> points of Stun damage and 10 Body. The Body didn't penetrate the armour he
> was wearing, but the Stun did, and was enough to leave him unconscious. I'm
> wondering now if I was fair to that character.
>
> The Hero System Rules aren't entirely clear on this; do Killing Attacks
> still do Stun even if no Body damage penetrates the target's Resistant
> defences? Is there a rule anywhere that the target of a Killing Attack only
> takes Stun if at least 1 point of Body damage is taken? At the moment, I
can
> think of justifications for doing it either way.

By the standard Hero rules, Killing attacks do Stun even if no Body gets
through the target's Resistant defenses - the Stun has to get through the
target's Resistant + non-Resistant defenses, but it's still possible to take
Stun but no Body from a Killing attack.

Now I agree that it should be possible to take Stun from a Killing attack
even if the target's defenses stopped all the Body. I also agree that the
"Stun lotto" is appropriate in cases where Body does get through the target's
defenses. But I don't like applying the "Stun lotto" in cases where the Body
bounces. IMHO the justification for the Stun lotto is the possible shock
triggered by taking Body - which obviously shouldn't apply if the target
doesn't take Body.

I've been toying with a house rule that bases Stun on the Body that gets
through plus *half* the Body stopped by defenses. E.g. a broadsword hits for
8 pts against a target wearing DEF 6 chainmail, doing 2 BODY damage. Stun
would be the Stun Multiplier times (2+6/2). If a "5" was rolled for the Stun
Multiplier, then the attack would do 25 Stun (instead of 40 Stun as under the
standard rules).

Or for a simplier rule, in cases where no Body penetrates defenses, base the
Stun on half the Body rolled.

Erol K. Bayburt
Evil Genius for a Better Tomorrow

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 24 Jul 1999 07:24:17 -0700
From: Grant Enfield <enfield@asu.edu>
Subject: Seattle Area "Sourcebook"

Working my summer job the a few weeks ago I came across an interesting book,
the _Seattle Survival Guide_. Unlike other area books which have some
restaurants, hotels, and an overview of the geography and neighborhoods of a
city, this book has everything it. It works like a "sourcebook," but it's
for a real city.

It has information on Seattle's neighborhoods, public transportation, public
utilities, area companies and employers, bits of history. All of this is in
great detail. Need to know who sits on the board of the art museum or of
Nordstrom? Need to know about police precincts or pedestrian walkways
downtown?

The book is comprehensive. It reminds me quite a bit of, well, San Angelo:
City of Heroes. :)

The Seattle book is available at amazon.com for under $20. I wonder what
other cities have guides like this. It also makes me think San Angelo should
have focused more on the changes superpowered beings would make to a city
than on the "normal" information it provided.

Just thought I'd let you all know about this. :)

grant

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 24 Jul 1999 08:06:56 -0700
From: Grant Enfield <enfield@asu.edu>
Subject: Does anyone have computer combat aids?

Awhile back my brother wrote a simple Excel spreadsheet to generate the
Speed Chart with the characters in order on it. I've found this pretty
useful; it's certainly easier and cleaner than writing it out by hand.

I wonder though if others with better skills and more time have written more
useful tools to help keep track of things in combat. I'm thinking
specifically of agent control sheets (with weapons and charges) and that
sort of thing. I don't have a laptop, so dice rollers or the like aren't
much use. Things in Excel or Access would be great.

What does anyone have or know about?

grant

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 24 Jul 1999 12:34:42 -0700
From: Bob Greenwade <bob.greenwade@klock.com>
Subject: Re: Does anyone have computer combat aids?

At 08:06 AM 7/24/1999 -0700, Grant Enfield wrote:
>
>
>Awhile back my brother wrote a simple Excel spreadsheet to generate the
>Speed Chart with the characters in order on it. I've found this pretty
>useful; it's certainly easier and cleaner than writing it out by hand.
>
>I wonder though if others with better skills and more time have written more
>useful tools to help keep track of things in combat. I'm thinking
>specifically of agent control sheets (with weapons and charges) and that
>sort of thing. I don't have a laptop, so dice rollers or the like aren't
>much use. Things in Excel or Access would be great.
>
>What does anyone have or know about?

Sidekick is probably the best one. Look around for it; I don't remember
where I got mine. (Your best bet is probably going to http://www.filez.com
and doing a search for sidekick.zip; it's 372K long. It may be linked from
Theala's website too. If you just can't find it, I'm willing to email it
directly to you.)
I have another one, Combat Sequencer, available on my website, along
with its companion program, Hero Dice. Both are accessible from the "See
Also" link on the main BOHSP page.
- ---
Bob's Original Hero Stuff Page! [Circle of HEROS member]
http://www.klock.com/public/users/bob.greenwade/original.htm
Merry-Go-Round Webring -- wanna join?
http://www.klock.com/public/users/bob.greenwade/merrhome.htm
Interested in sarrusophones? Join the Sarrusophone Mailing List!
http://www.klock.com/public/users/bob.greenwade/sarrus.htm

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 25 Jul 1999 00:27:26 +0200
From: Henrik Giese <henrik.giese@lgp.se>
Subject: San Angelo PBEM

This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understand
this format, some or all of this message may not be legible.

- ------_=_NextPart_001_01BED623.B5978300
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"

The San Angelo PBEM is locking for players! The campaign is just getting
started and very few players has shown any intrest so far. If YOU want to
play, go to http://members.xoom.com/_XOOM/San_Angelo/ for more info.

/Henrik

PS. I'm just the messenger here, the GM's not on the list and he asked me to
find some more players. There's also an error on the web page: the
characters should be built on 100+50 points, not 100+150. DS.

- ------_=_NextPart_001_01BED623.B5978300
Content-Type: text/html;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<META HTTP-EQUIV=3D"Content-Type" CONTENT=3D"text/html; =
charset=3Diso-8859-1">
<META NAME=3D"Generator" CONTENT=3D"MS Exchange Server version =
5.5.2448.0">
<TITLE>San Angelo PBEM</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>

The San Angelo PBEM is locking for players! The =
campaign is just getting started and very few players has shown any =
intrest so far. If YOU want to play, go to  <A =
HREF=3D"http://members.xoom.com/_XOOM/San_Angelo/" =
TARGET=3D"_blank">http://members.xoom.com/_XOOM/San_Angelo/</A> for =
more info.

/Henrik


PS. I'm just the messenger here, the GM's not on the =
list and he asked me to find some more players. There's also an error =
on the web page: the characters should be built on 100+50 points, not =
100+150. DS.

</BODY>
</HTML>
- ------_=_NextPart_001_01BED623.B5978300--

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 24 Jul 1999 18:44:39 -0500
From: Ross Rannells <rossrannells@worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: Stun from Killing Attacks

Stainless Steel Rat wrote:

> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> * Ross Rannells <rossrannells@worldnet.att.net> on Thu, 22 Jul 1999
> | Look at Hollow Points and Mecury Tipped bullets. Both are modifications
> | to bullets that do not increase the damage done to a persons body, but
> | increases the shock effect when the bullet hits.
>
> Ahem. No. Go read up on some ballistics tests sometime. The FBI and US
> Army have a tonne of documentation.

The explanation I gave came from an emergency room Doctor. He said
the trama was roughly equivelent for rounds with equivelent loads. The
difference was in the balistic shock effect. Balistic shock can kill and doe
do some harm to the body, but its effects are also easily recovered from,
so I interpret that be the stun component. The trama effect kills more
readily and takes a much longer time to recover from, so I interpreted
that to be the Body component. Now I have seen other documentation
stating that hollow points killed on a higher average then standard rounds
but only one that broke down the effects. If you have a reference that
contridicts mine, I would gladly check it out.

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 24 Jul 1999 19:41:24 -0500
From: Ross Rannells <rossrannells@worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: Chupacabras

Juan Antonio Ramirez wrote:

> Sorry for the nitpicking, but "cabra" means "goat", not "sheep"...

You are correct it does mean goat, my wife still gets the two words
confused alot. I didn't douple check until you pointed it out.

>
> And the "Chupacabras" legend is NOT limited to northern Mexico. In
> fact, it was recently seen in a big way here in Puerto Rico, where tons
> of people claimed to have seen it, t-shirt were sold with the alleged
> drawing of the Chupacabras, humorous songs were written about it,
> parents scared their children with it (boogie man thing), farmers
> claimed to have found dead goats (and cows, etc) with a hole in the top
> of the head and no blood, etc.

The story has spread like wild fire throughout latin america from what
I understand. One of my wife's sisters aked her how bad the
Chupacabra attacks were getting here in the US after seeing last
years episode of the X-Files. When we left Nicaragua in 94,
nobody had ever heard of the Chupacabra. It is amazing how
these types of stories spread.

>
> And by the way, there really IS such a thing as a goatsucker. But it
> has nothing to do with the "legend". It's a bird that has the weird
> habit of drinking milk from goats' udders, hence goatsucker.
>
> --Tonio

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1999 11:22:31 PDT
From: "Jesse Thomas" <haerandir@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Linked Powers and ECs

On Mon, 19 Jul 1999 Rodger Bright <rodger.bright@cbpr.com> wrote:
>
>The thing that really confuses me about that E.C. statement is that they
>also
>say something to the extent of:
>
>"Powers must be in the same slot to be linked" But then right before that
>statement they say "A Power (also referred to as a Slot) in an Elemental
>Control....."

>So they are saying that you have to have all your linked powers in the same
>slot, but then right before that they say that a Power IS a Slot.
>
>Pretty damn confusing in my book.

I'll admit that it's confusing. However, the problem isn't just in the
wording of the EC rules. The Hero System uses the word "power" in two
distinct ways. A 'power' is something that your character can do, like
Captain Neutron's Mega-Neutron Beam. A 'power' is also the name for the
mechanic that describes a 'power', like Energy Blast. In the case of linked
powers, you wind up using several 'powers' (ie. EB and Flash) to create a
single 'power' (Mega-Neutron Beam). So as near as I can tell, the word
'power' in the first sentence above refers to the second type of 'power'
(the EB or Flash or what-have-you), while the word 'power' in the second
sentence you quote uses the *first* definition (Mega-Neutron Beam). Thus,
the Mega-Neutron Beam 'power' is also called a 'slot', and consists of the
linked 'powers' EB and Flash.

Did you get all that? You're right, it is silly, and could have been
avoided if the otherwise perfect beings who wrote the rules had thought to
supply different terms for the two meanings of 'power'. Perhaps they should
have rolled the name, appearance, and comic-book pseudo-physics into one
term, 'effect', and used the word 'power' to designate the game mechanics
exclusively. Or something.

Jesse Thomas

haerandir@hotmail.com

_______________________________________________________________
Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com

------------------------------

Date: 25 Jul 1999 09:25:33 -0400
From: Stainless Steel Rat <ratinox@peorth.gweep.net>
Subject: Re: Stun from Killing Attacks

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* Ross Rannells <rossrannells@worldnet.att.net> on Sat, 24 Jul 1999
| Balistic shock can kill

By definition, Stun damage *CANNOT* kill.
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- --
Rat <ratinox@peorth.gweep.net> \ Happy Fun Ball may stick to certain types
Minion of Nathan - Nathan says Hi! \ of skin.
PGP Key: at a key server near you! \

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End of champ-l-digest V1 #467
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