Waterbrick Down

The similarities to stargate are certainly there, but I like the more limited FTL travel and tying it to magical transposition circles gives the right mix of fantasy. My only thought is perhaps we can have something a little different than just simply a sequence code like Stargate. Perhaps mages now function as ship navigators in order to access the portals. I get that they're not the antagonists, but just like Heroica 1.0 they were at one time and are now trying to dwell peacefully with the rest of civilization. I like the type of conflict that's created by the scenario, I'm just wondering if we can use something different than the orcs since it bears so much similarity to Heroica 1.0.

"If the kitchen seems devoid of clues, perhaps the empty guest room would be the next step?" "Mr. Dawson, you cannot be serious? How in the world would you make that determination and furthermore what makes you believe there will be more deaths?"

I think we're too caught up in a specific instance here, the "Logical" trait can be anything it needs to be, the intention is that it provides a trait and set of proficiencies consistent across a race, and the mechanics do not compel a certain play-style as in this instance they are merely a small part of a given character. If however everything was assigned i.e. attributes, proficiencies, class, traits then it would be compelling a player to play a single archtype. By having a blend of somethings being fixed and some things being unique, you get consistency within a race, but also allow for variation. Adding traits untied to race, while nice, I believe just adds more complexity (similar to the feats system, if you're familiar with D&D). Sure it allows for more unique characters, but for a simple play by post system, at some point there needs to be limits to keep balance. Categorizing traits by class/race helps DM's run things more easily. Instead of having to look up the traits for every character and how they interact in a given situation, DM's are able to look at a character/race combo and already know how the rules apply in the situation. See comment above, but I'm not really a fan of general traits, while it leads to unique characters, it starts complicating other areas. Just given your example of flight, that starts complicating things with the item and magic systems, beyond what is probably needed for a play-by-post game. In the end, unless it can be categorized or systemized (like proficiencies), I'd prefer to do without it. On to lore! I think @Lord Duvors, it's a really good start, I like the similarities and differences it shares with the original Heroica. The freshness of the war is a good change and I think your ideas about the newness of the organization give us story-telling fodder that can be unique without rehashing storylines from the original. The only thing I'd want to maybe change is the Orc Clans as the antagonists. While I agree it'd be good to have something fill that role, I think having it be the orcs is a hold-over from the last game I'd like to see go in a new direction. I'm still torn on whether we want a complete copy of the over-arching story we had from Heroica 1.0. The rest of the stuff is good foundational which is what we'll need. I'm currently working on some ideas as well to essentially repurpose the existing space factions. As for technology, it's space fantasy so I think we need to ensure a good mix of the two. So instead of FTL drives being driven completely off of super materials and quantum physics, magic and it's practical applications can be used to fill in the gaps.

Arthur sets the body down, "So what are we left with? One passenger dead another missing. A mysteriously convenient power outage, threats over a new invention and an old fashioned calendar? Noah is there anything missing aside from the teapot, that you're aware of?

Perhaps, I'd imagine most skills (outside of weapon and magic) are used outside of combat, so they'd benefit all the time. Plus it's making a distinction between something that really isn't there to begin with. The 3 proficiencies you pick in the beginning I'd expect your character to be passionate about. But that's pretty much what I've been suggesting, just not calling them traits, i.e. Elves can either start off with better Acrobatics or Culture. I guess I lump both biological and cultural proficiencies into the same bucket when it comes to character creation. I completely agree, but if you don't have a bunch of brutish rock-for-brains Orcs in your setting to begin with, your smart magic-affluent Orc isn't really unique at all as there's nothing to compare to. In discussion with the wife earlier today, she made a good point about this being a Star Trek vs. a Star Wars thing. In Star Trek (outside the federation) most cultures go hand in hand with their race. The are isolated enough that there isn't a lot of diversity, thus proficiencies due to biology and culture are one in the same. In Star Wars, aside from unique exceptions most races and cultures have mixed to the point where culture and race can be more easily divorced. It's like comparing 21st century America culture to 1000 BC Euro-Asia cultures one is more probable to distinctness than the other. The trick is figuring out where we want this game to be on that scale.

I get the passionate thing, but isn't that what having a higher number represents? It just adds an extra layer of complexity for complexity's sake if we add "passions" on top of higher numbers. I'm curious how you would represent things like certain races being biologically stronger/stealthier/more perceptive outside of creating another system beside Proficiencies. Also it sounds like you'd prefer culture to be divorced from mechanics, or at least something that a player chooses to be consistent with as opposed to being required to be consistent with in terms of Proficiencies. Nothing wrong with that, it simply means your preference is for unique characters over consistent culture. Sure thing, see comment above about regarding unique characters vs consistent culture. The idea by having two proficiencies to choose from is to provide some freedom with culture, but not totally have it so wide open that consistency becomes difficult. Send me a private IM for a link to the Google sheet.

Yeah I really have no background with Star Trek aside from surface level pop-culture, so my Elves were more based on D&D immunity to charm than Vulcans. Feel free to post here, though as things refine I'm thinking of creating Google docs for Rules, Races, Classes, Planets so people can edit/comment without bloating EB.

I guess look at it this way. What things do we want consistent regarding alien species, right now my proposal looks like this: Appearance: Yes, with some variations on color/fur/feathers/scalses/exo-skeleton Class: No Attributes: No Cultural/Biological/Individual Proficiencies: Yes 1 out of 4 Cultural/Biological Traits: Yes I'm not necessarily saying that those have to be the case, just that biology can be used to justify anything we want it to in a fictional setting, just like your assertion that Elves are naturally keener senses. The important thing is coming to a consensus on the mechanically influencing things.

@Lord DuvorsHence why it's "most". So it comes down to how much a cohesive canon is desired in the world building and how much of it should be mechanically codified. By having cultural proficiencies associated with race, you then ensure all members of a race share some common history outside of simple biology. If you want to make a Dwarf character, it won't be unique from all other Dwarf characters, it'll exist in the framework of the world and the space in which Dwarves occupy. You can make things open ended, but you then run the risk of a non-cohesive world, where every Dwarf character comes from a different culture and you then don't have consistency. We implicitly agree on some aspects of the world (i.e. space travel is possible, lasers exist, there are still fantastical elements) it's simply a question of whether races fall into that same category as something we want agreement on and to what extent. It's a spectrum ranging on one side where every Elf is mechanically unique, has their own set of Proficiencies, Attributes, Class, and even Appearance and on the other where every Elf is proficient in the same 4 proficiencies, have the exact same Smarts/Vitality/Strength/Skill scores, must play the Ranger class, and must be pale, tall, long blond hair, gaunt, and have pointy ears. On the biology note, since we're world building, everything can be related to biology if we want it. Perhaps elves in this setting do not produce dopamine or oxytocin and thus are biologically more immune to being enamored than other races. Humans have genetically modified themselves to the point where they can access the learning centers of their brain and easily pick up new skills or languages similar to a very young child, but at the expense of easily forgetting earlier memories.

Hold shift and then hit enter. Correct, your race grants you one of two proficiencies for free. Then per normal character creation rules you get 3 more of your choice for free and then can spend your 10 Creation Points to increase those proficiencies' levels or buy even more proficiencies (provided your Smarts attribute is high enough). So Igaz would have had the normal: Athletics 1, Intimidation 1, Melee Weapons 2, Short Range Weapons 1, and then another proficiency from the Undead racial options. Probably Intimidation or Survival.

That's the point of the rest of character creation though, you get 3 more proficiencies of your choice and additionally get to increase any of those with the creation points. By giving racial proficiencies it gives a general connecting picture of the culture. It's not to say that every dwarf is an expert at Engineering, it's simply that Engineering is part of the Dwarven culture and this plays out with nearly every dwarf having some experience with it. In a way it's codifying other aspects of biology. Most Elves are more lithe than most Dwarves, ergo mechanically most Elves will be able to pass an Acrobatics skill check more easily than most Dwarves.

So at one point I looked at putting together a racial point buy system here, but in retrospect it's really hard to balance all of the features. Currently I've been messing with a simple proficiency/trait system. So: Dwarf Proficiencies: Start with Engineering or Insight at level 1 Hardy: Start with +2 Vitality Elf Proficiencies: Start with Acrobatics or Culture at level 1 Logical: Immune to Enamored Status Effect Human Proficiency: Start with any non-weapon or non-magic skill at level 1 Adaptive: Swap one skill proficiency level with another at the beginning of a quest Orc Proficiencies: Start with Athletics or Intimidation at level 1 Persistent: 1st time downed in a battle, reduced instead to 1 Vitality People can then customize their particular Dwarf/Elf/Human/Orc further through the normal point buy system On to actual race development, I think as long as each one has a unique history/flavor to it, then it doesn't matter too much whether we keep things in big categories (animal/plant/mineral) or very specific (one singular fox-resembling race). People can then propose a new race at anytime with corresponding modifiers and it gets included into a registry topic once reviewed and becomes part of the canon. It's like Heroica 1.0 just with an extra step if you want it to have racial benefits.

Point taken on cyborgs. On the animal races I agree which is why I mentioned earlier. Moving on though, it's maybe more important when creating alien species to remember that they aren't simply animal-folk as those are simply humanized earth creatures. The idea would be to use the pieces Lego created for animal-folk to represent an alien species that simply shares some resemblance to those terrestrial creatures. It's not that Ornithun are simply bird-people, but that they are a species that come from a planet without birds and have their own culture/characterization. An Ornithun on earth would look at a bird and not think it's related, but that it's an entirely different creature. The alternative is to simply create a planet/galaxy where animal-folk are the race and everything is a variation.

Yep and then there's the fly figure from the collectible minifigure series and the spider tribe from Chima. Your point about androids is valid, depending on the model they may look different, but again the aim is a mix between fantasy (Heroica Automatons) and Sci-fi (Full synthetic beings that can't be distinguished from other races).

Insect races could certainly be added as well. On to Tengu, yep I'm familiar with them, my preference would be to use them as a jumping off point though instead of simply copy pasting them in as is, essentially giving them their own Heroica flavor. I am familiar with Humblewood and again, just because something does exist in Lego, doesn't mean we necessarily need it in Heroica right from the beginning. It may make more sense simply to create a star system/planet where most of the animal like races come from, instead of creating species for each one. Similar to Hengeyokai in D&D, all the same race, just variations. Rule of thumb is 600x800 is really the largest size that should be posted. If we use something like a Flickr pool, that would allow for any size to be posted and then shrank to the appropriate dimensions.

That's what the android is for. Sure, turtle folk could either be incorporated into Reptins or their own thing. Tengu might be a bit to close to Ornithun, but perhaps a winged variety may make them more distinct. Feline and Canine races would also fit in the right context. As far as races are concerned, the idea would be to utilize a mechanical system where in each of the main races have predetermined features and then have additional ones be added and approved as balanced as time goes on, similar to classes. Regarding location shots, I wouldn't say there was anything standard before, but it probably wouldn't hurt. I.e. a stock photo of a swamp, or a village, or an ocean temple. Essentially, it's building a library of locations that can easily be included. During the latter half of Heroica 1.0 we almost had enough pictures from previous quests of Eubric Freeport that one could almost run an entire quest without having to take any new photos.

I'm working on the starting races (as always open to suggestions), so far I've got: Human Elf Dwarf Undead Orc Android Cyborg Star-born (Star faring species transformed by solar radiation) Golem (Elemental inorganic species) Zorcon (Astral energy based lifeform) ‎Cricet (Rodent species, multiple variations similar to Khajiit from Skyrim) Reptin (Snake/Lizard species) Ornithun (Avian species) Quo’ri (4 armed Simian species) Ursin (Bear species hailing from the similarly named stars) Cephalon (Octopus/Tentacle species) Icthyan (Fish based species) Yeah, regarding ranged melee I wanted to give options to those who may want to chuck their sword or spear at someone. It wouldn't be effective, but it's not out of the range of possibilities. The ranges are such, that there is a slight advantage to ranged weapons (+1 square), but not so much that melee won't be able to keep up. I always found the building the slowest part, but in the end the thing that made a lot of quests memorable. I like giving players freedom, but unless you're free to build 100% of the time, it's just not possible and you have to prebuild some of the sets. Agreed on the standardized enemies, or at least enemy templates that can easily be scaled up or down depending upon the party. Ah good old Brickshelf. :) I'm not sure how it'd be hosted yet, but yes the idea would be to create standards, i.e. 100x100 thumb, 5 point black or colored border, solid color background, etc.

Makes sense, most of my collection is disassembled and sorted for easier building. On to the subject of building and DMing, when Heroica 1.0 was around Zepher, JimBee we debated rewards to encourage DMing. One thought would be to include XP that can go towards a character, additionally in order to help new DM's a photo repository could be created with enemies, set locations, etc. to help those with smaller collections to still be able to host. So rewards would look something like below: Host a quest: +5XP Submit an enemy: +1 XP Submit a set location: +2 XP Submit a battle map: +2 XP We'd need templates to help standardize things, but those should be fairly simple to create. Quite alright, time soothes many tempers.

Thanks for working on the rewording. Another idea is instead of giving a bonus to the defender, we could give a penalty to the aggressor the further the target is away. In this system ranged weapons can hit any square, but there's a penalty for going beyond a certain point for each weapon class, so: Melee: Range Limit 1, -1 Weapon Proficiency Die for ever further square Short Range: Range Limit 2, -1 Weapon Proficiency Die for every further square Long Range: Range Limit 3, -1 Weapon Proficiency Die for every further square Artillery: Range Limit 4, -1 Weapon Proficiency Die for every further square So if someone is with a Short Range Weapon proficiency of 3 is targeting an enemy within 2 square, there's no penalty to their Weapon Check. If the enemy is 3 squares away, there's a penalty of 1, if 4 squares away a penalty of 2, and so on. For Long Range weapons an enemy can be 3 squares away with no penalty, and for Artillery 4 squares away. Eventually a character could get really good with a certain weapon that they could almost ignore the penalty, but they'd have to dedicate themselves to it. I'd be interested to see what a singular color looks like. It's got some potential. The trick with this space fantasy them is getting the right mix of high and low tech at the same time. Most of the pre-molded blasters from Starwars and Space sets end up looking too modern, but blunderbusses and flintlocks don't quite fit either. The best compromise I've seen so far is something in dark brown that can then have gold/silver/translucent accents added. Thanks for checking in @Goliath, I'm slowly working to put everything together so it'll be mostly set at launch, rules, builds, and an initial quest.

"Seems convenient enough, thank you Chef." Arthur helps to move the body and investigate the kitchen.

"If anyone wants to return to the lounge we can get drinks and dinner going, hopefully Mr. Parry turns up soon. We should also think about doing something about Mr. Peck before he starts to smell."

"I'm not sure how he would have gained access without a key, unless he stowed himself during the blackout. It's not uncustomary for us to hold a room in the case of foreign dignitary or other last minute guest wanting to join. We can certainly check the room though."

Sure it'd be included on a character sheet. The system I'm currently roughing out is somewhat based on the RPG game Codevein where you can easily swap between classes. You would only have one class at a time, but as I said in order to reward those folks who stick with a single class eventually the features of the classes could be mix and matched via training. Training could also be purchased with XP points and would be rewarded a level for every completed battle. For example Guardian: (0/10) Defensive (Trait) - Minimum Strength requirements for Armor are 1 less. (0/20) Protective (Trait) - +1 Skill die added when taking the Guard action (0/30) Charge (Action) - Make a Weapon Proficiency Check vs. an adjacent target's Armor Proficiency. On a win, move the target to an adjacent space. After every battle, if you played the Guardian class, your training score in each feature of the class would go up by 1. You could also spend XP points to raise the training level of your current class or another class you may want a feature from. Eventually once training was complete, you could swap that feature out with a feature of a different class, assuming you had completed training with that other feature, essentially allowing you to eventually create your own class. Oh most certainly. These are just the starter spells, I'd envision the full game having at least another 2 dozen more spells.

“Agreed, while his absence is unsettling, this is no crime scene and I must ask that you all respect the privacy of Mr. Parry. The question does remain however, as to his whereabouts.” Arthur tries you recall if either Peck or Parry had anything brought into the storage hold.

Also, thanks! Just about done with it, next working on training room, registry room, and vendors.