Transform

[instag8or19]

When you do a major transform...lets say transform a person into a action figure...(another villain im making...ill post his stats when finished)...does it kill the person it transforms...and if it kills him...is his soul ( if its relevent to the game )...trapt inside of it?

[Dr. Anomaly]

No. As a condition of creating the Power in the first place, you've got to define a thing that can reverse the Transform. This can be all-or-nothing ("You'll be a frog until a princess kisses you") or natural healing (when enough time passes that you would have healed back all the BODY damage, had it been damage instead of a Transform, you revert to normal). Defining what can reverse the process is just one of the things you have to do when building the Power, like you have to define a defense that can stop a No Normal Defense attack.

[instag8or19]

lets say the way to revert is to take the action figure out of his case...thereby making it no longer a "Collectors item" (Villian is know as the Collecter) and they would revert...or someone would have to push their action button on the back of the figure...(or even...can it be they need to put batteries in the figure first before the button is pushed)...would that be acceptable?

[Lord Liaden]

The reversal condition(s) for the Transform (there could be more than one) can be anything that a GM agrees is reasonable. The only restriction I can find in the rules is that it must be "identifiable," which I would interpret to mean that there must be some way provided within the game world for PCs to figure out how to undo the Transform.

[Jhamin]

lets say the way to revert is to take the action figure out of his case...thereby making it no longer a "Collectors item" (Villian is know as the Collecter) and they would revert...or someone would have to push their action button on the back of the figure...(or even...can it be they need to put batteries in the figure first before the button is pushed)...would that be acceptable?

IMHO This is actually a very good reversal condition.

Other examples from published books include:
-Be blessed by a holy man
-Elaborate ceremony involving elder worm artifacts
-Wash in the waters of the Nile
-Heal Normally
-Be kissed by royalty

[Dr. Anomaly]

lets say the way to revert is to take the action figure out of his case...thereby making it no longer a "Collectors item" (Villian is know as the Collecter) and they would revert...or someone would have to push their action button on the back of the figure...(or even...can it be they need to put batteries in the figure first before the button is pushed)...would that be acceptable?

Those all sound acceptable. Lord Liaden pretty much summed it up -- anything the GM decides / agrees is "reasonable" will fit the bill. As for the "identifiable" bit...that, likewise, will depend on the GM and their interpretation of things.

Example from my own past: I knew a player once who had the ability to transform people into cartoon characters. As in, a piece of celluloid film with a cartoon version of the person drawn on it. The way to cause them to "revert" was to take the piece of celluloid on any "E Ticket" ride at Disneyland.

In the case of the "frog-princess" example given in the book, the method of reversion is "identifiable" because we're familiar with the old fairy tale. I don't necessarily think that "identifiable" means "method for reversal must be stamped on the package" or anything like that, though in the case of someone like the Collector, that may be exactly it.

A good source of answers for questions like these (besides asking other posters ) is the FAQ for the HERO system -- the link is at the very top of this page, between "Hero Links" and "Free Stuff".

Another good source of answers is Steve Long, the author of the 5th Edition. You can ask questions of him by posting to the very first forum, "Hero System 5th Edition Rules Questions."

One more note...you posted this in the Dark Champions forum. Dark Champions is a setting, and this is more of a general rule/system question. You'd probably get more and faster responses posting questions like this in the "Hero System Discussion" forum.

Just FYI.

[Steve Long]

I've moved this because it seems to be a rules discussion with no particular bearing on Dark Champions (or any other single genre).

[prestidigitator]

When you do a major transform...lets say transform a person into a action figure...(another villain im making...ill post his stats when finished)...does it kill the person it transforms...and if it kills him...is his soul ( if its relevent to the game )...trapt inside of it?

I'd like to say that as far as, whether it, "kills," the character, and what happens to their, "soul," are things that are not really addressed by the game mechanics. These are aspects of the Power and setting that are up to the player and/or GM to decide. The rules say that Transform should not be used just to kill characters, but I think really this is just a part of the requirement that there be a, "common," way to revert the Transform.

I personally wouldn't even have a problem with some kind of, "Transform: to corpse," as long as the Transform would heal or was obviously reversible (in a way that is easier than Healing Resurrection). For example, "Your companion seems to be dead. However, his corpse doesn't seem to have decayed, and in his glazed, open eyes you notice a hint of something...perhaps a remaining link to his spirit? Maybe if you were to consult someone versed in spiritual matters you could learn more."

[ghost-angel]

Actually the rules do address the Soul aspect of Transform... I believe Transform can work against one of three aspects: Body, Soul and Mind (I'm away from my books..)

If you affect one the others are unchanged, so transforming someone into an action figure would conceivably kill the body (turned to plastic) but the Soul and Mind are stuck in a little plastic army guy (or some such) unscathed. So when (if) they revert to normal the character comes back as they went in.

Unless the GM states otherwise.. we have A Soul Transform in our games that destroys the body until the Soul is restored - at which point the body returns undamaged but is otherwise gone until the Soul is untransformed.

As for identifiable.. nothing says How identifiable the reverse process has to be. You could base at least a full session, if not a whole story arc, on trying to discover the reversing process of a villains transform.

[Dust Raven]

When you do a major transform...lets say transform a person into a action figure...(another villain im making...ill post his stats when finished)...does it kill the person it transforms...and if it kills him...is his soul ( if its relevent to the game )...trapt inside of it?

Transform can't kill anything. In only changes its form. So when you change someone into an action figure, that's what the target now is and acts like (though it presumably still has a mind or soul, but can't do anything with it and might be considerd in suspended animation depending the SFX of the Power). I'm not sure what the default is (I'll start a different thread for that). So when the target is returned to its original form, it will be just as alive and well as it was before the Transform.