Magius Alpha's page

Depending on how detailed a mini is, anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour per mini for me to paint it, aroundabout 3 hours for a single mini including priming, painting, and sealing (each takes about an hour, mostly down time waiting for the previous coat of primer/sealer to dry before applying the next). And I've gotten pro-level results with that (friends and brother - all who are very detail oriented and very critical - all say that I could sell my work for about $30 a pop for a 32mm miniature, and I have sold a couple at that price level). You just need to find techniques that work for you - I do a lot of drybrushing, which is fast, and tends to give me really good results (I need to get some micropens so that I can start doing eyes, though...).
On the other hand, I've heard of people that spend 40+ hours on a single miniature, and can sell their work for over a thousand dollars per mini - but that is way over and above what I want to do with it, and just seems like a waste of time for the most part. But that's just me.
Magius out.

Well, they did recently release Battleship Galaxies: The Saturn Offensive, so this may (kinda) tie into that (kinda).
Or it could be the fact that alien invasion movies are all the rage right now (Transformers, Cowboys Vs Aliens, etc), and tacked that onto an adaptation where it really has no place.
You know, either one.
Magius out.

I've been giving HERO, GURPS, Alternity, D20 Modern/Future, Spycraft, and True20 some serious consideration for being declared my "go-to" system for Modern/Sci-fi.

My major arguments against the latter four being their out-of-print status. I know GR still stocks and sells True20, a game I'm actually rather enamored with (it hits the perfect balance between gamism and narrativism for me), but it seems like support with new product is basically nonexistent.

Just a quick correction on this - both Spycraft and True20 are still in print (though it appears that Spycraft 2.0 has switched to a print on demand service). And if you feel that True20 isn't supported well enough, and like a lot of the ideas from it, you could give Mutants and Masterminds a go - it's currently in its 3rd edition, and building up steam for that (and started out with a licensing deal with DC Comics, so you'll have a ton of extra characters to pull from to add to your game), or you can pick up the second edition and the splatbooks to cover the genre(s) you want to emulate, as most of them are covered in one spot or another. It's not as gamist as 3e/PF (and I haven't seen anything more gamist than 4e), and does have a lot of narrativist aspects to it (Complications, some uses of Hero Points, and a lot of the examples for GM Fiat), but could be turned into a rather tactical game with the right constrictions.

The character creation for it also follows a similar ideology to Hero, as both systems are effects-based where you build your power then apply appropriate descriptors to flesh out the rest of the power.
...
Yeah, if you can't tell, I'm a bit of a MnM fan. I definitely recommend checking it out.
Magius out.

The Warhammer 40k RPGs may be a good fit - particularly Deathwatch (play as Space Marines and blow stuff up!), all of which require a fairly tactical mindset to play through (particularly Dark Heresy, in which such thinking is required to even be considered competent).

I also wouldn't count GURPS out of the running completely. If you make sure everyone's built their characters with the same ideology, and throw in all of the advanced combat options, then it can make for a very tactical system.

You may want to look at Spycraft/Fantasycraft, which adds in a bunch of subsystems to handle pretty much any situation you may come across.

Mutants and Masterminds, while being superhero based, is also a good choice, and can handle a lot of different genres. Even a few ranks in movement powers makes tactical maps mostly redundant, so keep that in mind if you want to try out the system.

Those are the systems I've run that would fit the bill. Good luck in your search!
Magius out.

The FATE system does a bit to encourage roleplaying, and is a very rules-light, user-defined system. It's not a good fit for all groups (especially groups that are used to a more well-defined system), but it does do a good job of making characters feel unique.
One system that I haven't seen listed on here yet is the Mouse Guard RPG. It's based on the Burning Wheel system, but uses streamlined rules, and has a large focus on RPing your character.

If you don't mind playing a more (potentially) rules heavy system, GURPS does a very good job of allowing you to really customize a character's personality, but there's not really any solid in-system reward for roleplaying the character well (though there are several optional subsystems to help out with it).

BESM could also work, in a similar vein to GURPS, and is a much more flexible and rules-light system.
Magius out.

Sounds interesting... But some of the minimum requirements seem to be rather... Unnecessarily stringent. I can understand wanting someone who has been published previously (but if you're looking for up-and-coming writers, they likely won't have been), but the rest of the requirements seem a tad overkill - a degree in writing? Workshopped a story previously? Attended one of a very small number of workshops?
I'll probably still try to enter something into this, even though I don't meet any of the requirements, and hope for the best (I know I can do some rather fun short story work, and the theme sounds interesting), but I really think they're being overly stringent on the submission requirements.
Magius out.

I have a couple that I've tinkered with before, but the only one that got to a testable state was Totte Gotter.
I put in a couple of interesting ideas with the system - it used a 3x3 matrix for attributes from category (Physical, Mental, and Spirit) and focus (Attack, Defense, and Durability). Skills could be combined on a single skill check as long as it makes sense and all skills use the same two attributes, and multiple checks can be made in a single action by taking an ever-increasing penalty.
Skills were user defined, and cost a number of character points depending on the breadth of the skill and how likely the skill was to come up. Combat was a matter of taking out your opponents abilities before they took out yours.
Never did finish fleshing the system out, but the group I played it with did seem to enjoy the system when I did a test run of it.
Magius out.

Let me chime in with another recommendation for GURPS, particularly if you want to run a lower-level, more gritty game.

As for other systems, here's the ones I have seen/have experience with:

Mutants and Masterminds 3e could have a good fit for a high-fantasy game. I'd recommend this for games if you're going for the epic-level style of gameplay.

Fantasycraft is a spinoff of Spycraft, which itself is a spinoff of D&D 3e. Really good for molding the campaign to the feel you want, and gives you a good bit of flexibility in creating characters.

BESM (2e can still be found fairly cheap) can also give you a fairly cinematic game with a rules-light framework. Can be quite a fun game, especially if you're going for the animesque style game.

Speaking of which, if you want the really over-the-top anime feel, you could also look at Exalted. Haven't run or played it personally, but it's an option.

There's also d6 Fantasy, which I have heard good things about, but it's another system that I haven't run or played in.

Unisystem provides a similar game feel to BESM, particularly in regards to magic, and would work as a good middle point between the grittiness of GURPS and the epicness of MnM.

Hm... That covers my thoughts off the top of my head. Hope this helps!
Magius out.

From my collection:
GURPS gives you a very crunchy experience that's perfect for a very gritty campaign - though you can have a RIFTS style damage race with the Ultra Tech sourcebook (which has rules for such things as antimatter weaponry - which deals several million points of damage. In a system where the average person has ten and will be killed after taking 60 points of damage).

Mutants and Masterminds can give you a pretty good Scifi setting, and balances a decent level of crunch (not what I'd consider crunchy, really, but about on par with D&D).

Spycraft 1.0 and 2.0 are both solid modern superspy systems, and 2.0 has a lot of rules and add-ons that can help customize your gaming experience, and are both a touch crunchier than D&D 3e.

You could also look at d6 Adventures and d6 Space, both of which are based on the famed Star Wars d6 system. I haven't run either myself, but the books look like they'd be fun to run.

You may also look at the Heroes system, though that's far crunchier than most people like.

Same goes for Palladium's modern/scifi settings (RIFTS, Robotech, Heroes Unlimited, etc) - interesting system, lots of crunch to look through, but goes too far in my opinion.

Hm... That's just off the top of my head. Hope that helps.
Magius out.

As another point, does this actually destroy the economy of the world? Sure, in an arid environment a water cleric (even a low-level one) would be very popular and very rich - but these are areas where water would be worth 3 gold a gallon. As for the guys living in a more temperate area, why would they pay even a couple of copper for water when they can just go out and get a couple gallons from their rain barrel/stream/lake/whatever (yes, I know that in the real world this would be a poor idea, but A) this is fantasy, where these things are rare and usually plot points, and B) most commoners at the time likely wouldn't know any better). So, for 90% of the typical fantasy world, no effect, with a moderate effect (but still reasonable) effect in an arid environment.

As for Mend making craftsmen obsolete, I'm not seeing it. Sure, the repair trade would be slower, especially for high-cost items, but would you really take your 1 gold copper pot to the town wizard to get fixed for 5 gold? Would you take your 1 silver commoners clothes to be fixed at that price? I'd say no, you wouldn't, and because of this the economy is maintained.

I can see a point being made for Purify Food and Drink, as that would tremendously change the amount of land that would be needed to maintain a given population as any excess food can be maintained indefinitely, giving them an added level of protection against droughts, floods, or other events that typically devastate the farming industry. Personally, this isn't enough to challenge my suspension of disbelief, and actually accounting for these facts could actually enhance immersion and really make you feel like you're playing in a magical land.

As I said in my last post, and I'll repeat again, you can't think of the spellcasting classes (or the PC classes in general) as being particularly common. They would be about as common as Doctors or Lawyers are in the modern day (likely somewhat less so, but the idea stands), and it helps a lot to ask yourself if you'd go to the doctor for a paper cut, or a lawyer for a rules dispute in a roleplaying game.
Magius out.

Here is a refresher on one of the cantrips/orisons in question

** spoiler omitted **

This isn't just 2 gallons, this is 2 gallons per round (six seconds). So 1 minute of continuous casting yields 20 gallons, 10 minutes 200 gallons, 1 hour 1,200 gallons, 4 hours 4,800 gallons, and 8 hours (just for sunshadow) is 9,600 gallons - all at 1st level. Multiply level to the numbers listed (x2 for 2nd, x3 for 3rd, etc) for added idiocy.

No need for water rights, no need to worry about water for agriculture, droughts, scarcity, etc.
Water created in contained areas will fill up and destroy lighter structures, create stress weights, flush out vermin and other nasties in smaller caverns and dungeons + extra creative stupid stuff.

Mending is just beyond insane as a cantrip

** spoiler omitted **...

Well, that's an interesting point, but here's a counterpoint. Let's take this the other way: RAW, it takes 8 gallons to fill a cubic foot of space, so in order to fill a single 5' cube, it would take 1000 gallons of water (5x5x5, times 8 to find the gallons). In other words, it would take a first level character an hour to mostly cover the average human. Wow, impressive.

Or, let's reverse that - a 20th level character spamming this for 24 hours (the absolute maximum you could get from this, mind) would generate 2 (base) * 20 (level) * 10(rounds in a minute) * 60 (minutes in an hour) * 24 (hours in a day) = 576000 gallons of water, which fills a 72000 cubic foot area, or a 576 Cube area (5x5x5 cubes). Assuming a 10' high dungeon/cave ceiling on average, and 10' wide average halls, that would fill... a whole 144 squares into the cave completely. Or, to put that another way (still using the average of 10' high ceilings), could fill a total of 8 30x30 rooms.
Over 24 hours, with absolutely no breaks, at which point the water starts disappearing and you're just maintaining what's already there. And that is the most ridiculous situation I can think of for it. Not exactly game-breaking material.

As for Mending, I don't see it taking the place of good, old-fashioned crafting. Sure, it's faster and always fixing the thing perfectly, but for most mundane stuff (you know, the stuff that 90% of the population would need to get repaired) it's complete overkill - it's like getting second skin for a 2 centimeter papercut! (to continue the analogy, it's like going to the doctor for something a bandaid can fix).
Magius out.

When casting molds, you have a few different materials to choose from:
1) As mentioned above, Plaster of Paris. It's extremely fragile, but it's also extremely cheap and easy to find.
2) Also mentioned above is Dental Plaster. It's extremely durable, and if you know how to use Plaster of Paris, it's very similar to that.
3) You can use a 2-part resin mixture to cast your molds. It uses the same techniques, painting-wise, as miniatures, but requires vastly different techniques than the two Plasters mentioned above.

Now, with all of these, you can use the same painting techniques as you use for Miniatures (just on a bigger scale). However, be aware that plaster soaks up the spray paint like little else, and the models will stink for months if you try to spray prime the mini. However, this can easily be rectified by painting on a layer of acrylic paint before priming the miniature (something you'll also want to do if you're going to add foam to the models later, as the accelerants in spray paint eat through foam) with some cheap acrylic paint (.99 cents a bottle).

Other than that, the HirstArts website has a ton of excellent material on how to mold, paint, and assemble the models from their molds (though the ideas work with any mold medium).

So does the use the lower duration thing mean I can't have a word spell that fireballs an area then raises anything killed as a flaming zombie?

And taking things in an entirely different direction...

On another note, my solution would be to add this line to the end of the entry: "... If used with an Instantaneous effect, the duration of all other Effect words becomes 1 round." Clears up the issue, prevents confusion (while I agree that using the different durations for different effects would be the best effects-wise, it does become more complex), and keeps the intent of the system without opening up potential abuse (and will likely be the version that I'd use).

I'll jump in on this one:
My own thoughts:
Str: 13
Dex: 12
Con: 12
Int: 14 (+2 from Racial)
Wis: 12
Cha: 11

Total: 12 point character (drop down Dex and Cha for 10 point build, bump up Int to 16 total for a 15 point build).
Yes, it's higher than average on all parts, but I feel that I'm definitely above average in all stat-relevant respects - definitely smarter than most (I quickly learn and process new information), stronger than average (I've carried a hundred pound pack without issue, and I've held a larger than average adult male above my head before), above average con (I'm usually healthy when everyone around me gets sick), etc, etc.

NG Ranger or Druid type (given I'm quite good with animals).

Going by the What D&D character am I? quiz, I am:

True Neutral Human Sorcerer (5th Level)

Ability Scores:
Strength- 13
Dexterity- 14
Constitution- 14
Intelligence- 14
Wisdom- 13
Charisma- 14

As for the other quiz (ignoring Str as I did not fill that section out):
DEX: 13
CON: 11
INT(pt1/pt2): 13/11
INT: 12
WIS: 11
CHA: 14

So, better charisma than I'd give myself, but everything seems to balance out.
Magius out.

I'm playing this kind of fighter myself currently. 20 point buy, looking like this (level 3):

Giles Maldorn
Human Fighter 3

Str 15
Dex 16
Con 14
Int 12
Wis 12
Cha 9

Traits: Ruins Explorer, Reckless

Feats: Weapon Proficiency (Bastard Sword), Weapon Focus (Bastard Sword), Combat Reflexes, Stand Still, Dodge

+1 heavy shield (just received as a quest reward)
MW Breastplate
MW Bastard Sword

This gives you a fairly standard sword-and-board fighter with a very nice AC (23 base, easily pumpable), decent hitting power (1d10+2 with a +7 to hit (+2 Str, +3 BAB, +1 Weapon Focus, +1 Masterwork)), and few drawbacks (thanks to the fighter's Armor Training). Not much in the skill department (though I do have three useful Knowledge skills to call on), but quite deadly in hand-to-hand combat. Current plan for development in Vital Strike at level 6 (to minimize the damage loss while maneuvering into position) and the level 4 stat boost to Strength (which will give additional damage and to-hit). Stand Still can lock down low-to-mid CMD opponents, which can work to either lock down casters or prevent enemies from charging the casters. With the high AC and decent Con, you'll be able to take a few solid hits (my character's current HP is 31 with favored class bonuses and taking average HP each level), which means you'll make a darned fine tank (a role that my character is filling right now).
You can tweak this a couple of ways - you can switch the Str and Dex (though you'll want both to be fairly high), you have almost complete freedom in what skills you take, and you can choose which 1h weapon you want to use with the shield - but overall, I think this should be about the baseline you're looking for for this sort of build.
Magius out.