Trying to get back into "the game" and looking for some help

[x_Im_tc]

Played a lot of Champions back in the day, using what I now know is the "3rd ed."  My friends and I played a few years after the 4th edition came out, but we were basically a 3rd edition group.  Strict adherence to any rules was not really an issue.  We played for fun.  If a dice role would break something, we looked away and rolled again.  And we took turns being GM, but each had our own character who would, when we were GM, essentially tag along as an NPC.  That said, we took our characters seriously and loved working within the rules to build and then, with experience, flesh out characters over time.

 

Anyway, many years after I stopped playing but many years ago, now, I bought a copy of the Hero System 5th edition rule book.  I just got it, in mint condition (minus a little yellowing of the pages), out of an old box of stuff I brought over from my parent's basement.  Now, my kids want to play!

 

My son has an idea for building a character, and I'm looking through the 5th edition rule book (I no longer know where my 3rd and 4th are) and thinking about how to build the powers he's described.  I could definitely use some help from "the experts."  Is this the right place to post about that?

[Tom Cowan]

For Super Heroes, yes, thou you may get 10 ideas for building a power back

for more system stuff head to HERO System Discussion

[x_Im_tc]

Thanks, Tom.  I guess I'll just post the power package right here, then.  And yes, this is for a superhero campaign.

 

The basic idea is to start with a frail-but-tough kind of character--think a person who has just fought his way out of the jungle (sinewy, weak, but still strong and dangerous), but is that way all the time--whose powers revolve around manipulating life force.  He might have low (maybe even lower than 10) starting BODY.  One of the major goals of the character is to act as a healer, but notably the healing doesn't come free.  And the same power that gives him healing abilities can be used as a weapon.

 

Roughly, the character would have four powers, although maybe they need to be created by linking multiple things together somehow.  It's a tricky little package (at least for me) , all based around the concept of a killing attack (that is, an attack that does a lot of BODY and vary variable STUN), and so I'm wondering how people might handle it, especially regarding advantages and limitations, etc.:

• Life force transfer in: A draining "attack" that basically works like a ranged killing attack with no normal defenses applied, but also doing no other kind of damage (i.e., knock back).  This attack
  • Would not be impacted by the body part it hit
  • Could only bring BODY to 0, never below, and would not wound.  That is, it could not be used to kill someone, only to bring someone to the edge.
  • Any damage done by this attack would be transferred to the character.  If it raises his BODY/STUN above default values, it would return at some slow rate to normal.  If below or at default values, it would stay forever (of course, the attacked character would recover as usual).
  • I put "attack" in quotes because it is quite likely that a "brick" on the team might consent to be drained so that some of his energy could be transferred to another member as healing power (see below).
  • This power would only work against animal life (no draining energy from plants or bacteria, etc.)
• Life force transfer out: This is like the above, but in reverse.  Basically, the character rolls a "killing attack" against himself, and can then transfer that BODY/STUN to someone else.
  • Again, if "healing" the targeted character to default levels, the target gets to keep it, but if the power raises BODY/STUN above those levels, they would slowly return to normal.
• Move life: In short, teleport.  But with the following caveats
  • Must "attack" himself using the same "life force transfer in/transfer out" power to succeed.  If the attack does enough BODY to bring himself down to zero or below, he can teleport (no actual damage is taken).  If he fails, he does not teleport but the STUN damage is applied.
  • Thus, while in his starting, somewhat weaker state, teleporting should be relatively easy (and would be especially easy as an escape after being wounded), but after draining life force from some enemies and temporarily inflating his BODY, teleporting may become unlikely or impossible.
  • Only line of sight.
  • Only ~100'.
• Focus life force: Can perform the same "attack" on himself and temporarily move the BODY and STUN points to other attributes, weakening himself but maybe gaining important temporary advantages.  Those would be
  • Increased physical strength (STR),
  • Increased concentration (I guess EGO?), and
  • Increased speed (SPD or Running or Swimming)
  • Increased endurance (END)
  • These could be BODY/STUN points obtained using the "life force transfer in" attack, as well as his own.  Either way, things slowly return to normal.

[Sketchpad]

On 7/25/2022 at 6:03 PM, x_Im_tc said:

Played a lot of Champions back in the day, using what I now know is the "3rd ed."  My friends and I played a few years after the 4th edition came out, but we were basically a 3rd edition group.  Strict adherence to any rules was not really an issue.  We played for fun.  If a dice role would break something, we looked away and rolled again.  And we took turns being GM, but each had our own character who would, when we were GM, essentially tag along as an NPC.  That said, we took our characters seriously and loved working within the rules to build and then, with experience, flesh out characters over time.

 

Anyway, many years after I stopped playing but many years ago, now, I bought a copy of the Hero System 5th edition rule book.  I just got it, in mint condition (minus a little yellowing of the pages), out of an old box of stuff I brought over from my parent's basement.  Now, my kids want to play!

 

My son has an idea for building a character, and I'm looking through the 5th edition rule book (I no longer know where my 3rd and 4th are) and thinking about how to build the powers he's described.  I could definitely use some help from "the experts."  Is this the right place to post about that?

 

Welcome back to Hero, x_lm_tc! What kind of campaign are you looking at running? 

[x_Im_tc]

I would say kind of "silver age" with a little bit of Archie. That is, classic archetypes, and some humor.

[Tech]

On 7/25/2022 at 5:03 PM, x_Im_tc said:

Played a lot of Champions back in the day, using what I now know is the "3rd ed."  My friends and I played a few years after the 4th edition came out, but we were basically a 3rd edition group.  Strict adherence to any rules was not really an issue.  We played for fun.  If a dice role would break something, we looked away and rolled again.  And we took turns being GM, but each had our own character who would, when we were GM, essentially tag along as an NPC.  That said, we took our characters seriously and loved working within the rules to build and then, with experience, flesh out characters over time.

That's me and my friends in our campaign. Nice to see!

Just a comment: since it's been awhile and your son is wanting to play, maybe a simpler character concept might be order to start. Just a suggestion.

[Sketchpad]

On 7/26/2022 at 1:25 PM, x_Im_tc said:

 

• Life force transfer in: A draining "attack" that basically works like a ranged killing attack with no normal defenses applied, but also doing no other kind of damage (i.e., knock back).  This attack
  • Would not be impacted by the body part it hit
  • Could only bring BODY to 0, never below, and would not wound.  That is, it could not be used to kill someone, only to bring someone to the edge.
  • Any damage done by this attack would be transferred to the character.  If it raises his BODY/STUN above default values, it would return at some slow rate to normal.  If below or at default values, it would stay forever (of course, the attacked character would recover as usual).
  • I put "attack" in quotes because it is quite likely that a "brick" on the team might consent to be drained so that some of his energy could be transferred to another member as healing power (see below).
  • This power would only work against animal life (no draining energy from plants or bacteria, etc.

 This sounds like a Transfer BODY with limitations such as "Can't Reduce Below 0" and "Only against Animal Life." I would specify that the "damage" is transferred to BODY/STUN (which is an advantage), along with a suspended return rate (also an advantage).

 

On 7/26/2022 at 1:25 PM, x_Im_tc said:

 

• Life force transfer out: This is like the above, but in reverse.  Basically, the character rolls a "killing attack" against himself, and can then transfer that BODY/STUN to someone else.
  • Again, if "healing" the targeted character to default levels, the target gets to keep it, but if the power raises BODY/STUN above those levels, they would slowly return to normal.

 

This could be done as another effect pf Transfer (as above) or even using Healing maybe with the limitation that "Needs to be after a Transfer" or some such.

 

 

On 7/26/2022 at 1:25 PM, x_Im_tc said:

 

• Move life: In short, teleport.  But with the following caveats
  • Must "attack" himself using the same "life force transfer in/transfer out" power to succeed.  If the attack does enough BODY to bring himself down to zero or below, he can teleport (no actual damage is taken).  If he fails, he does not teleport but the STUN damage is applied.
  • Thus, while in his starting, somewhat weaker state, teleporting should be relatively easy (and would be especially easy as an escape after being wounded), but after draining life force from some enemies and temporarily inflating his BODY, teleporting may become unlikely or impossible.
  • Only line of sight.
  • Only ~100'.

 

This seems like a Teleport linked to the Transfer. 

 

On 7/26/2022 at 1:25 PM, x_Im_tc said:

 

• Focus life force: Can perform the same "attack" on himself and temporarily move the BODY and STUN points to other attributes, weakening himself but maybe gaining important temporary advantages.  Those would be
  • Increased physical strength (STR),
  • Increased concentration (I guess EGO?), and
  • Increased speed (SPD or Running or Swimming)
  • Increased endurance (END)
  • These could be BODY/STUN points obtained using the "life force transfer in" attack, as well as his own.  Either way, things slowly return to normal.

 

This could be an extended application of the Variable Effect advantage, or even a Multi-Power of various transfers. Just remember that a Multipower is either one at a time, or fluxing point variables that typically are not full power. 

 

I'm a little rusty on my 5th ed stuff, so if someone sees something needing correcting, please have at it. Hope this helps.

[Opal]

I'll second or third Transfer, and add that I thought I recalled an advantage (maybe in 3rd?) that  added a STN mod to power attacks (maybe it was transforms?)

 

Teleport should probably just be teleport on an activation roll with some STN backlash when it fails.

 

I suppose you could go with all Transforms that heal, but it'd be pretty arbitrary. 

 

[x_Im_tc]

Thanks all, for the advice.  Here's what I came up with:  Life Force Manipulating Hero.pdf 

 

Critically, to make the transfer work like a killing attack (minus the killing) I applied an advantage that was (actually slightly more than) equivalent in terms of character points.  That is, I figured the standard (i.e., mean) roll is 3.5.  A "killing attack" does mean 3.5 BODY and mean(1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) * 3.5 = 9.33 STUN.  That has a value of 3.5x2 + 9.33 = 16.33 character points, which is 4.67x more than the standard 3.5.  Thus, I put a "rolled as RKA" advantage on the power, and called it +3.75.

 

Looking at this character, I think it is reasonably fair.  Do the experienced among you agree?  To be effective in combat, he'll probably have to quickly transfer BODY/STUN from a target in one phase, move those points to STR in another.  Maybe find weakness in the next, and then strike.  Otherwise, playing the healer (drain a bad-guy, heal an ally)/retreater will be a key roll.