lubofsky@aero.ARPA (Nick Lubofsky) (09/12/85)
Newsgroups: net.games.frp Subject: Fantasy Hero Question Expires: References: Sender: Reply-To: lubofsky@aero.UUCP (Nick Lubofsky) Followup-To: Distribution: Organization: The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA Keywords: In Fantasy Hero, under Transformation (Effects) there are 6 lines that are duplicated. Does anyone know what the 6 missing lines are? Also, anybody who has played Fantasy Hero have any comments or suggestions on the game? Nicholas Lubofsky Computer Science Laboratory The Aerospace Corporation Los Angeles ARPA: lubofsky@aerospace UUCP: lubofsky@aero.uucp -- Nicholas Lubofsky Computer Science Laboratory The Aerospace Corporation Los Angeles ARPA: lubofsky@aerospace UUCP: lubofsky@aero.uucp
jagardner@watmath.UUCP (Jim Gardner) (09/19/85)
[...] Sorry, I can't answer the Fantasy Hero question because I don't have my copy here. If you have access to the Champions III book, look at the description of Transformation Attacks -- the Transformation spell in Fantasy Hero is based on the Champions Transformation Attack. (Go ahead and take a peek at Champions III in your games store. The owners shouldn't mind you looking at six measley lines.) I've played five or six sessions of Fantasy Hero now and things came out roughly as I expected. Compared to D&D, magic will be much less common and powerful (at least as far as characters are concerned; enemies can be quite gross if your GM wants to make them that way). Combat seems bloodier, mostly because of the hit location system -- somehow the tension is worse when you know you got hit in the sword arm or the vitals, than in D&D where a general Hit Point total gradually diminishes. Of course, you don't have the inflated Hit Point system either; your character will always have about 10 BODY points when he/she is healthy and is always going to be in real trouble if a sword hits unarmoured flesh (unlike a 20th level fighter who may be naked and unarmed but can still withstand dozens of stabs). Our GM has combined Fantasy Hero very successfully with the Harn modules, thereby obtaining a vast amount of background material. Of course, Hero Games has a record of providing very little background material for their game systems, so finding help elsewhere is very useful. You have to accept that Fantasy Hero is very different from D&D...more like Runequest. In most cases, character improvement is very slow. For example, a magic-user will have to play four or five sessions to get the experience to buy one new spell, and that spell will be loaded down with complications that make it somewhat impractical in combat. On the other hand, you occasionally have some luck. In our last session, a party of only 12 managed to take out a dragon...okay, it helped that some of us had M-15s and plastic explosives, but the guy who did the most damage only had a long bow (did I mention that this adventure was a cross-over between a Fantasy Hero campaign and a post-holocaust Justice Inc. campaign? It was a lot of fun. The Fantasy Hero types concluded that the bullets were kicked out of the guns by a demon while the JI types were always looking for the technology that made the fantasy magic work.) Jim Gardner, University of Waterloo
fung@daemen.UUCP (Kenneth Worzel Fung) (09/20/85)
References: <430@aero.ARPA> > In Fantasy Hero, under Transformation (Effects) there are 6 > lines that are duplicated. Does anyone know what the 6 missing > lines are? > > Also, anybody who has played Fantasy Hero have any comments or > suggestions on the game? > *** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR DRAGONS, IF YOU CAN *** I've played (all so briefly) Fantasy Hero, and the transformation Effects state that you can transform into any one form (within reason) that is NOT human and/or your original form. It's like a polymorph self spell. If you tack on the "Effects Other" power advantage, then it works as a temporary Polymorph Other. If you, and your GM(s) agree, you can probably run Fantasy Hero, instituting some of the Champions rules. (We find that to make the trans- formation Effects work that way they should, we incorperated Champions' Trans- formation Attack for others, and shape shift for selfs.) Fantasy Hero relies, if you haven't noticed, a lot on Role Playing, and GM-player co-operation. These, I have found, make the difference between a normal game, and a truely good FRPG. -- Kenneth "Worzel" Fung "For the Eternal Space--Mobile Suit Gundam" UUCP : {decvax/dual/rocksanne/watmath/rocksvax} !sunybcs!daemen!fung "...to be destroyed by an Earthling, a mere girl, an American even, would make him the laughing stock of the Universe!"