USPD as Spells?

[Nelijal]

Not yet having waded into the deep subject of Powers, is there any real difference--rulewise--between superpowers and spells? In other words, could the USPD be used as a FH spell resource? As-is or with some tweaking?

[joen00b]

The tweaking comes in giving them Gestures, Incantations, and segment delays to emulate the casting. In all, every power in the FRed can be made into a spell, as long as the GM allows it and you use the modifiers for emulating the spellcasting.

I work nights, hence, I don't have my book with me to give the exact examples of all the modifiers needed, but it is generally allowed that any power can be made into a spell. Even some talents and skills can be emulated in the spell casting genre as long as the GM allows. And this is why the Hero system is so great.

Let's say I wanted a character to have the ability to give others the skill: Acrobatics. In a Fantasy setting, I could make it a spell, giving it the correct modifiers to emulate casting and even put a time limit on how long I have the abilities. In a sci fi setting, I could say it is a nano program and again, would give it the correct modifiers to emulate 'load' times and again have a time limit. There are appropriate modifiers used to emulate whatever effect you want for powers that could increase or decrease the power cost, it all depends on how you want to write it out.

If I had my book here at work, I could give you the exact page in the FRed to look, but if you search for power modifiers, you should find the section on spells.

[Nelijal]

Thanks, joen00b.

I just took a look at the FH playtest manuscript, and p11 lists the USPD as a good resource for spells, given that the appropriate limitations are added. THAT certainly answers my question.

[Steve Long]

Of course, once we have the Fantasy Hero Grimoire out in a few months, you'll only need to use the USPD as a fallback. ;)