Avatar?

[Captain Emu]

Hi all,

Watching Avatar today and wondering if anyone has given this great cartoon the HERO treatment. I know that other cartoons such as Ben 10 have been given quite a bit of attention.

I'd try to tackle it myself but feel I'm a bit too new to the system and don't have enough exposure to the show to make a good go of it.

[Michael Hopcroft]

I haven't see much Avatar, but control over one of the classical elements as a sort of martial arts discipline is easy enough to do. And it'[s a concept that western animators seem to find extremely fascinating (the Xiaolin Dragons of Xiaolin Showdown are another example of this, although they tend to rely less on these powers than they do on their Shen Gong Wu talismans).

Remember, of course, that in HERO how a power does what it does isn't as important in writing it up as determining its function. In other words, describe the effect and the source of the power is something you can work with later.

So if you can control the air, you model what you can do with the air when you control it. Likewise for control of fire and water.

[Scion Zane]

Use gestuers based on martial art manuver then add power elements

[Scion Zane]

Fire nation example ,I am just doing what I have seen from the show
Thier is the punch ranged fire bolts.
from the UMA(Ultimate martial artist)
Punch 1/2phs, 4pts, Ocv 0, Dcv+2 str+2d6 strike, linked+1/2, 1d6 Rka Fire bolt 15pts, 27pts, geture-1/4, skill roll Martial art-1/4, 14pts

Some Gm's dont allow gesters but I do.

For close range you just do Hka instead of ranged.
and use a Multi-power pool for the benders arts

[kuoshu]

Actually been giving this much thought. I like the idea (and the show).

First, since everyone needs to have gestures to bend their element I've decided not to allow them as a disad. If someone can give me a convincing argument as to why to keep the point reduction I would appreciate it.

I then decided to make the bending powers a vpp. I really like VPP's and think they work great if not abused. Make changing powers a 0 phase action standard, it would not cost extra as everyone has it.

Another modification to the VPP would be a standard restriction on creating new effects. Huge penalties to try to make a new power in combat, lesser to do so through self training, and even lesser through training by a master who knows the power. The teaching and power skills of the master would reduce this penalty. I thought a decent base for this penalty would be -1 per 5pts of the power.

Next came my thoughts on the Avatar style of active defenses (calling up a wall of wind, wall of stone, wind shear splitting fire around them, wall of ice or water or fire, etc.). I would allowing the person to decide the form it takes based on the circumstances involved. I think this can be done with forcefield requiring a roll, activation maybe, but more likely power skill roll.

This opposed check might slow things down a bit, but it would bring that flavor I want to the game.

My next thought was making defenses automatically have tiered affects based on the success of the skill roll (if indeed I went with a skill roll). Every two success would result in extra defenses. Here is the very simple way I thought to do it, if there is better I would be interested in hearing.

<table border="0" cellpadding="0"><tr><td align="right"><b>Cost  </b></td><td><b>Power</b></td><td align="right"><b>END</b></td></tr><tr><td align="right" valign="top">12  </td><td><b><i>Stone Bending Defense: </i></b>(Total: 28 Active Cost, 12 Real Cost) Force Field (5 PD/5 ED) (10 Active Points); Instant (-1/2), Requires A Skill Roll (-1/2), Only When In Contact With The Ground (-1/4) (Real Cost: 4) <b>plus</b> Force Field (3 PD/3 ED) (6 Active Points); Conditional Power Must make skill roll from first tier by 2 or more (-1/2), Instant (-1/2), Only When In Contact With The Ground (-1/4) (Real Cost: 3) <b>plus</b> Force Field (3 PD/3 ED) (6 Active Points); Conditional Power Must make first tier skill role by 4 or more (-1/2), Instant (-1/2), Only When In Contact With The Ground (-1/4) (Real Cost: 3) <b>plus</b> Force Field (3 PD/3 ED) (6 Active Points); Conditional Power Must make tier 1 skill roll by 6 or more (-1), Instant (-1/2), Only When In Contact With The Ground (-1/4) (Real Cost: 2) [<b>Notes:</b> This is the Stone Benders ability to draw stone from the land around him/her to use to defend themselves.  Usually takes the form of a stone sheild or stone wall between the attacker and the defender.] </td><td valign="top" align="right">4</td></tr></table><b>Powers Cost:</b> 12

Much of the rest I was planning to do as a normal eastern feel fantasy, with bending being the only common magic. But as I've seen recently, bending is not limited to stone, air, fire, water... There were recently sand benders which makes me think that there is room for growth.

Kuoshu

-- Any help with submitting readable powers from hero designer would be appreciated as well.