big duh -or- a whole lotta lumps

[zornwil]

After years (since 84 I think) playing HERO/Champions, I just found out that normal defenses can be applied to the stun from a Killing Attack if he has any resistant defense. I always ignored resistant defenses all the time against Killing Attacks.

So I've admitted mine - now share your revelation after years of playing, if you have them.

[Chris Goodwin]

After having played Hero since 1985, only about a year ago I learned that BODY for vehicles costs 1 point per point.

[nblade]

Well I think the big one for me was the hit location damage multipliers. Since I rarely if ever play with hit locations, I was surprised to find out after reading the Hit location rule in the FRED, that the multipliers were applied to the damage that got through the defenses. Many games I played applied them before defenses.

[Monolith]

Originally posted by nblade
Well I think the big one for me was the hit location damage multipliers. Since I rarely if ever play with hit locations, I was surprised to find out after reading the Hit location rule in the FRED, that the multipliers were applied to the damage that got through the defenses. Many games I played applied them before defenses.

For NSTUN damage, you roll, subtract, than multiply. For killing damage you roll the BODY, apply the STUN modifier, then subtract the DEF.


Two different types of damage, two different ways of doing it. No wonder we are all confused.

[Hermit]

I have, in the past, forgotten that there is a maximum number of dice you can take from KB depending on the material you're being bashed through. I mean, I never had anyone take 8d6 from a cardboard box or anything.... but I have made regular doors/walls hurt more than they should.

"Megaman, you've been taking out by Teller Window.... sorry."

[Jerry A!]

Originally posted by Monolith
For NSTUN damage, you roll, subtract, than multiply. For killing damage you roll the BODY, apply the STUN modifier, then subtract the DEF.

This must be a popular one. Lord knows I've done it. Though, it does help speed up combat.

[TheEmerged]

I played for nearly a year believing Flash damage was figured by the Turn instead of by Phase. (FTR, Flash damage is now figured by the segment, an improvement IMO).

Since my players and I played HERO in something of a vacuum, I was completely taken aback when I first discovered some of the rule issues behind the Linked Debate (to name the most serious example), or the Stun Lotto (we'd used the Hit Loc chart for so long, even for HERO, that we'd never really noticed). Another side effect is that it seems I see a lot more usage of Dispel than most campaigns.

The most recent "Whoopsie!" rulewise with our group actually happened regarding 3D&D -- we thought Flanked opponents lost their DEX bonus. This made certain feats (most notably, Expert Tactician) FAR more powerful than they actually are.

[Derek Hiemforth]

Well, lessee...

When I first started, our whole group did several things incorrectly. Not all of us had the rules, and even those that did hadn't all read them all the way through. We were mostly going by the word of mouth of our senior player, and neither we nor he realized he wasn't doing everything by the book. The three big things we were doing wrong were:

1. We cancelled Advantages and Limitations, then applied only the "net" modifier to the cost. This led to several other errors, such as fitting 10d6 Energy Blasts with +1 Advantages (and +1 Limitations) into 50 point Multipowers, because we were never really getting an "Active Cost."
2. We were figuring Elemental Controls wrong. We just bought the largest Power at full cost, then any subsequent Powers in the Control at half cost.
3. We missed the bit about only being able to sell back one Figured Characteristic. Bricks were quite popular...

One of the other GMs in our group applied Damage Reduction before defenses for quite a while before we figured out why his villains were so hard to bring down...

When 4th Edition came out, we made a more concerted effort to make sure everyone had the rules and that we were all more-or-less playing by them.

[Alibear]

I took me about 6 years to realise the 3rd edition (and pre 3rd ed.) rule, that you get a -1ocv modifier if you moved and tried to hit, hadn't carried over to 4th ed.

[lemming]

I was in a game where Find Weakness worked against DCV. "It's a defense!"