Negative Running/Swimming/other stats

[BobGreenwade]

Maybe this belongs here or in another forum; I'm not sure. I'm posting it here because it's technically a rules clarification question.

Dan Simon has repeatedly said that one cannot buy negative Running, Swimming, or Characteristics in the Hero Designer Powers tab, because doing so is a violation of the HERO System rules and the program is designed to strictly follow the rules.

Fair enough; I can live with that. Except for one thing.

Several published characters and (especially) vehicles have negative Running/Ground Movement and Swimming, at least as recently as Galactic Champions. Many, many published starships, including those in TUV, GC, and all SH books, have:

-12 Spaceflight Only: -6" Ground Movement (0" total)
-2 Spaceflight Only: -2" Swimming (0" total)

I just have a hard time reconciling this.

[Steve Long]

Those are free attributes, akin in some ways to Characteristics, that they're buying off. They're simply listed with the Powers because that's the easiest place to indicate the reduction in points. There's no place under Characteristics where the cost of Running, Ground Movement, or whatever is listed.