Pokemon HERO

[Almafeta]

I've been trying to convert Pokémon abilities over to the HERO system. Although I've had some success (many powers are just Energy Blasts), there are some powers and effects I'm having trouble with.

 

Effects:

 

Confusion -- How would this be done?

 

Extra Critical Hits -- Some Pokémon powers are only moderately damaging, but have extra critical hits, or special effects for critical hits. A few powers also boost the rate of critical hits. I have -no- idea how to go about this.

 

Flinching -- Some attacks in Pokémon cause the target opponent to lose an action. Would this be a Drain SPD?

 

Freezing/Paralysis -- How would this be done?

 

Poison -- Am I right in thinking this would be an Energy Blast with Delayed Effect?

 

 

Specific Powers:

 

Metronome -- This Pokémon power uses a random power. I have no clue about doing this power either

 

Mirror Move -- This Pokémon power lets the attacker use the last attack used against him. I'm guessing some sort of Variable Point Pool, but I'm not really sure.

 

Softboiled -- This power, in Pokémon, drains the user's HP to boost the target's. I'm gussing this would be Healing with some modifier, but I'm not sure what modifier(s).

[NuSoardGraphite]

Re: Pokémon HERO

 

Originally posted by Almafeta

I've been trying to convert Pokémon abilities over to the HERO system.

 

Umm...why?

 

 

Confusion -- How would this be done?

 

Depends on what you want the confusion power to do.

 

Does it make them dizzy and nauseated? (penalties to skill rolls and combat stats. Power: Negative Skill Levels, Usable on Others, Change Enviornment, Dex and Int Drain or Suppress)

 

Does it make them mistake friends for enemies? (Mental Illusions, Images)

 

For an unusual power construct, try this:

 

Darkness: vs Sight. Invisible Power Effects (invisible to sight).

 

???

 

Confused yet?

 

Then the power worked, didn't it

 

I'm joking. Here's how that construct works.

 

Its darkness, which means the character can't see his foes or where he's going or what others are doing. But the Darkness is Invisible to Sight, which means the character actually can see, they just have no idea what they're doing or where they're going, so they can still see, but they target opponents at 1/2 OCV (or 0OCV at range) can easily wander off a cliff or into the path of a moving bus. They can easily mistake friends for enemies...even though they can see them, their brain doesn't recognize what it is or its significance. True confusion.

 

Extra Critical Hits -- Some Pokémon powers are only moderately damaging, but have extra critical hits, or special effects for critical hits. A few powers also boost the rate of critical hits. I have -no- idea how to go about this.

 

Critical Hits are already a part of the system. Its an optional rule and not recommended for use in Superheroic games, but its a great rule. Basically, any attack roll that rolls less than half of what you needed to hit is a critical (and the same can be said of skill and Characteristic rolls as well as attack rolls). If an attack is a critical success, then the standard effect is that it does its Maximum damage (or effect in the case of Mental or Adjustment powers and their like).

 

If you want a power to do more potential damage the better the attack roll is, try this quasi-custom limitation: Increase the damage by +1DC for every point the attack roll was made for. Each additional +1DC is given a -1/4 limitation, cumulative.

 

Example: Pukeachu's lighting blast does base damage of 6D6 Normal damage (30), but the better the attack roll, the better the damage. Thus, the Lighting Blast is bought with increased damage. If the attack roll is made by 1pt the damage is 7D6. If by 2 points, then the damage is 8D6 and so on up to a maximum of 10D6 damage. The limitation breaks down like this:

+1D6 (7D6dmg) -1/4 4pts

+1D6 (8D6dmg) -1/2 3pts

+1D6 (9D6dmg) -3/4 3pts

+1D6 (10d6dmg) -1 2pts

Base damage 6D6 (30)

Total points 42pts for a potential of 10D6 damage. A savings of 8pts.

 

As far as "boosting" critical hits are concerned, these are merely limited CSL's which increase the OCV only for the purpose of calculating Critical Hits (around -1 limitation or so). If purchased at high levels (+5) it can get abusive. You've been warned.

 

Flinching -- Some attacks in Pokémon cause the target opponent to lose an action. Would this be a Drain SPD?

 

There are a great number of things in Hero that can cause a character to loose his actions or attacks.

 

Stun: an attack could be bought which does damage only for the purpose of Stunning an opponent without actually causing damage...this would be at least a -1 limitation, possibly as high as -2 (since no actual damage is done)

 

Presence Attack: Presence attacks do exactly this. If a high enough effect is achieved, the target looses his/her action that phase. Additional dice for Presence attacks work very nicely for this effect.

 

Mind Control: An attack which simply command the Target to remain inactive works wonders.

 

Entangle: An entangled character can basically do nothing until he/she gets free. There are some exceptions, but for most physical characters, it works very well.

 

Drain: Both Speed and Dex can be Drained, Suppressed or Transferred "off" so to speak. (see next line)

 

Freezing/Paralysis -- How would this be done?

 

The best way, though quite expensive, is via a Speed Drain or Suppress. Draining Speed to 0 effectively paralyzes the character. They can do nothing until at least 1 full point of Speed recovers for them. Again, great for simulating classic freezing or paralysis, but expensive, since Speed costs 10pts per +1, it requires large dice of Drain or Suppress to affect it properly.

 

Entangle: Entangle can work...but its not much cheaper than the above method because of the advantages necessary to simulate paralysis. (requires such advantages as Entangle takes no damage, etc) my suggestion is to stick with the Speed Drain.

 

Mind Control: A mental attack power based on Con that gives the command "Don't Move!" This is the cheapest paralysis construct. Works great for a Mental Paralysis effect if the normal ECV attack structure is retained.

 

Poison -- Am I right in thinking this would be an Energy Blast with Delayed Effect?

 

Yes and no.

 

Poison can be a great many Powers:

Energy Blast

Killing Attack (if the poison kills swiftly)

Drain (if the poison attacks the nervous system, removing abilities and health, but not killing...or Drain Body if it kills slowly)

Transform (if it changes the character significantly...perhaps turning them into an invalid...permanently! Or driving them mad...the possibilities are endless)

 

You are right about one thing though...Delayed Effect is the limitation most often associated with poisons (and diseases). Experiment.

 

 

Metronome -- This Pokémon power uses a random power. I have no clue about doing this power either

 

This is very simple:

Variable Power Pool

If the Pokemon has no control over which power it gets, add "No Consciouss Control" and you're good to go

 

Mirror Move -- This Pokémon power lets the attacker use the last attack used against him. I'm guessing some sort of Variable Point Pool, but I'm not really sure.

 

Clarify the power a bit more please...

 

Softboiled -- This power, in Pokémon, drains the user's HP to boost the target's. I'm gussing this would be Healing with some modifier, but I'm not sure what modifier(s).

 

Very simple again:

 

Transfer: Body and Stun. Pretty cut and dried.

[Dr. Anomaly]

If you hate the HERO system so much, why are you trying to convert Pokemon to use it?

[Lord Liaden]

Actually, I saw one of Shanya's last comments on the RPG review board indicating that while she hated 4E, she actually liked 5E enough to want to try playing it.

 

:eek:

 

I know, I consider this near-miraculous as well, but if she's seriously claiming to want to give this a shot, I for one am willing to give her the benefit of the doubt until proven wrong. As long as she's respectful on these boards, I'll be the same.

 

Heck, if FREd can convert Almafeta, little green Hero Man's gonna start walking on water any day now.

[Chris Goodwin]

Originally posted by Lord Liaden

I know, I consider this near-miraculous as well, but if she's seriously claiming to want to give this a shot, I for one am willing to give her the benefit of the doubt until proven wrong. As long as she's respectful on these boards, I'll be the same.

 

Ditto. I sent her (him? still not sure on that) a private message on RPG.net saying the same thing.

[Killer Shrike]

Originally posted by Lord Liaden

little green Hero Man's gonna start walking on water any day now.

The HERO System tells us that walking on water is easy (surface flight). You'll have to find something more miraculous for FRED to do that would be truly impressive. Like Stopping Time on fewer than a gigazillion points

[Dr. Anomaly]

Originally posted by Killer Shrike

The HERO System tells us that walking on water is easy (surface flight). You'll have to find something more miraculous for FRED to do that would be truly impressive. Like Stopping Time on fewer than a gigazillion points

Actually, that's easy:

 

X-D Movement, Usable As An Attack, AoE: Radius, MegaArea (size of the Universe): Move contents of universe to dimension where everyone but me is frozen in time.

 

Still expensive, but muuuuuuuuuch cheaper...

[Killer Shrike]

Originally posted by Dr. Anomaly

Actually, that's easy:

 

X-D Movement, Usable As An Attack, AoE: Radius, MegaArea (size of the Universe): Move contents of universe to dimension where everyone but me is frozen in time.

 

Still expensive, but muuuuuuuuuch cheaper...

Yeah, but I hate using EDM as a Magic Bullet "I go to a dimension where what I want is true" option. Might as well EDM to a dimension where your character doesnt need to adventure anymore, has everything they want, etc.

[Dr. Anomaly]

Well, in this case, I wouldn't consider X-Dim a "magic bullet." After all, Time is a dimension, and to what little extent HERO deals with time, it seems to use X-Dim already. That's why to me it seemed a "natural", and not a "magic bullet." YMMV. HAND. SSMODS.

[Pattern Ghost]

NSG's conversions should work pretty well. For Mirror Move, basically, it's an attack move that mimics the last attack that hit your pokémon. I think a Mimic Pool with an appropriate custom limitation should work.

[Killer Shrike]

Originally posted by Dr. Anomaly

Well, in this case, I wouldn't consider X-Dim a "magic bullet." After all, Time is a dimension, and to what little extent HERO deals with time, it seems to use X-Dim already. That's why to me it seemed a "natural", and not a "magic bullet." YMMV. HAND. SSMODS.

Steve Long did a huge "Stop Time" write up in one of the HERO Glyphs which actuall effectively stopped time rather than cheesing out w/ an EDM. It just happened to be more points than your most powerful group of PC's ever combined total points, and then some.

 

My only "point" to LL was that doing the same thing on significantly less points using only FRED would be truly miraculous. Walking on water is bushleaguer crap by comparison

[Intrope]

Re: Pokémon HERO

 

NSG already has good suggestions for most, but I'll chip in on this one:

 

Originally posted by Almafeta

Mirror Move -- This Pokémon power lets the attacker use the last attack used against him. I'm guessing some sort of Variable Point Pool, but I'm not really sure.

 

A VPP would be the normal way to do this, especially if the character can reapetedly use the power last used against them.

 

However, if the Mirroring character can only do this once, buy it as Missile Defletion:

 

Mirror Move: Missile Deflection (Any Ranged Attack), Missile Reflection, Uncontrolled (+1/2) (60 Active Points); Side Effects (Still takes any appropriate damage from the attack), Side Effect occurs automatically whenever Power is used (-1), Extra Time (mirrored attack must be taken on next phase) (Delayed Phase, -1/4)

 

Uncontrolled lets the character 'reflect' without using a phase (allowable in this case because of the side effect)

The Side effect casuse the Mirroring character to be effected by the attack as usual (they will take damage if the attacker actually hit, for instance)

The extra time is to reflect that the Mirror character has to fire the mirrored attack on his phases, not on the attacker's.

[Almafeta]

Re: Re: Pokémon HERO

 

Originally posted by NuSoardGraphite

Depends on what you want the confusion power to do.

 

Does it make them dizzy and nauseated? (penalties to skill rolls and combat stats. Power: Negative Skill Levels, Usable on Others, Change Enviornment, Dex and Int Drain or Suppress)

 

Does it make them mistake friends for enemies? (Mental Illusions, Images)

 

Well, here's some of the effects that can be had:

 

-- Attack goes off, but at variable strength (25% to 200% of normal).

-- The Pokémon attacks the wrong target.

-- The Pokémon uses the wrong attack. This can be combined with the above two effects.

-- The Pokémon sits down and refuses to attack.

-- The Pokémon hurts itself.

 

The more recent versions have added more, but that's the basics...

 

And yes, that was an unusual power construct if I ever saw one.

[Chris Goodwin]

Originally posted by Killer Shrike

Yeah, but I hate using EDM as a Magic Bullet "I go to a dimension where what I want is true" option. Might as well EDM to a dimension where your character doesnt need to adventure anymore, has everything they want, etc.

 

You don't have to allow that. Just because there is an infinite number of dimensions doesn't mean there is a dimension of anything I want. There is an infinite number of positive integers, and in that infinite number there is no .43 and no -5.

[Dr. Anomaly]

Originally posted by Killer Shrike

Steve Long did a huge "Stop Time" write up in one of the HERO Glyphs which actuall effectively stopped time rather than cheesing out w/ an EDM. It just happened to be more points than your most powerful group of PC's ever combined total points, and then some.

Yup, I remember the original debate, and Steve's posting of his "solution" to the boards BEFORE it made it into a HEROGlyphs column. IIRC, didn't it even outstrip Tyrannon in terms of point cost?

[Doug Limmer]

I just skimmed through Digital Hero 9, where the 'move through time' power was purchased. It was about 400K points. The 'stop time' power was 7.5M points.

 

Which makes me wonder whether moving the universe through time to 1 millisecond in the past, and with a trigger to do it again after 1 millisecond has gone by, and set up in a continuous, uncontrolled manner, might be cheaper.

 

Just a thought. And it has nothing to do with pokémon.

[Almafeta]

Re: Re: Pokémon HERO

 

Originally posted by Intrope

However, if the Mirroring character can only do this once, buy it as Missile Defletion:

 

Mirror Move: Missile Deflection (Any Ranged Attack), Missile Reflection, Uncontrolled (+1/2) (60 Active Points); Side Effects (Still takes any appropriate damage from the attack), Side Effect occurs automatically whenever Power is used (-1), Extra Time (mirrored attack must be taken on next phase) (Delayed Phase, -1/4)

 

Uncontrolled lets the character 'reflect' without using a phase (allowable in this case because of the side effect)

The Side effect casuse the Mirroring character to be effected by the attack as usual (they will take damage if the attacker actually hit, for instance)

The extra time is to reflect that the Mirror character has to fire the mirrored attack on his phases, not on the attacker's.

 

Ooooh, elegant.

 

Just add on an endurance cost, an' we're good to go...

[Snarf]

Originally posted by Almafeta

I've been trying to convert Pokémon abilities over to the HERO system. Although I've had some success (many powers are just Energy Blasts), there are some powers and effects I'm having trouble with...

I just finished doing a pokemon conversion, though it was more for camp value than respect for the source material.

 

I've already written some of the items I used out and put them online. You can find those and some other things in this:

http://www2.hawaii.edu/~rdeese/RPG/Hero/items.rtf

Eventually, it's going to be in a webpage but for now it's just a text file.

 

I worked out a lot of the powers while doing monster write-ups and I thought about others, so I may be able to help you. But maybe not, because my philosophy was that keeping things simple was more important than making them exactly like the game.

 

First of all, all attacks do stun damage only, and all healing heals stun damage only in my version, because the little monsters "faint" instead of dying when they get beat down. Also, all monster attacks use charges instead of endurance. Capturing is a transform attack and wild Pokemons have a Physical Limitation that makes them resist the capture with their current STUN instead of BODYx2, so they can be beaten into submission and captured like in the game.

 

Confusion - Mind Control with limitations.

Critical Hits - Extra Damage with an activation roll.

Flinching - Presence Attacks or Ego Attacks with an Only for Stunning limitation.

Freezing/Paralysis - Entangle with the options for mental paralysis added.

Poison - I did this as 1 pip of STUN damage with continuous and minute long continuing charges.

Metronome - This would be a VPP with no conscious control and some other limitations.

Mirror Move - Another VPP, check out the mimic pool sidebar example in the Fifth Edition Book.

Softboiled - Healing with a Side Effect of hurting the user.

 

If you want actual write-ups, I can give you one for some of these.

[Fireg0lem]

Given that all the effects you listed are choices the pokemon could make if it wanted to (such as attacking itself, attacking at lowered power, etc) I would be inclined to build it as a form of mind control with the lesser form of No Conscious Control (-1) and Set List Of Possible Effects (-1/4).

[Snarf]

Originally posted by Dr. Anomaly

Yup, I remember the original debate, and Steve's posting of his "solution" to the boards BEFORE it made it into a HEROGlyphs column. IIRC, didn't it even outstrip Tyrannon in terms of point cost?

I tried doing a search and found out it was on the old forums. Could you describe how it was basically made? I'm in the middle of trying to make a time stopping item right now.

[Almafeta]

A bit more thought on this:

 

I'm going to do Freezing as an Entangle, but Paralysis as a Drain OCV. Paralysis just makes your attacks miss more often, but an attack on a Frozen pokemon can un-freeze them.

 

Still going to do Flinching as a Drain SPD.

 

Confusion is going to be an Invisible-To-Sight Flash, I think.

[Dr. Anomaly]

Well, I'm not going to post the entire thing, since it has now appeared in a Digital Hero article...I don't think that would be right. However, in a nutshell:

 

An NND Entangle (vs. Time Powers) with MegaArea large enough to affect the entire Universe

 

Enough Flight UAA to resist 100g of acceleration (so stopped things don't fall), MegaArea as above, and about 250 mass doublings.

 

Change Environment to interfere with the perception of time (hey, it's a Sense, after all), MegaArea as above, NND (vs. Time Powers, natch). I don't remember what the minuses were, but something hideous like -40 or -50 to that Sense...

 

To stop forms of energy other than gravity/kinetic (electromagnetic, thermal, nuclear, and so on) a humungous Drain vs. All Energy (+2), MegaArea as above. This is what stops nuclear reactors reacting, fires burning, water boiling, and so on. IIRC it was in the neighborhood of 70,000d6.

 

So things don't age: LS - Immortality, UAA, MegaArea, etc.

 

All of these were also 0 END and Personal Immunity as appropriate.

 

Total cost? About 7.5 million Real Points. The Active cost was well over 11 million.

 

Oh, yeah: to be able to 'wake someone up' and let them move around (like you) while the rest of the Universe is still frozen in time requires about 400 million Real points. Just FYI.

[Snarf]

Geez, sick sick sick. I don't even need half those effect since the range is going to be one room and not one universe.

 

I ended up using one of the simpler methods someone gave in an old thread:

Stopwatch: Major Transform 6d6 (all targets into targets stopped in time, heals after leaving the area), Personal Immunity (+1/4), Affect Desolidified (any form, +1/2), Area of Effect (15" radius, +1), Continuous (+1), (AP 337); 1 Continuing Charge (1 turn, never recovers, -3 1/4), OAF (-1), No Range (-1/2), (RC 59).

 

This will zap most ordinary people and moderately sized objects but superheroes might have a chance to escape... maybe...

 

That Steve designed power should go in any reprints of UNTIL.

[Almafeta]

Here's my first conversion; this would be of Vulpix, one of my favorite pokés.

 

Vulpix (41 points)

Dexterity +5 (15 points)

Ego +5 (10 points)

ED +1 (1 point)

Stun +10 (10 points)

Endurance +10 (5 points)

 

Ember (Fire, 5 END, 19 points): Energy Blast 3d6 (base cost 15; 15 active points) with Stun Only (-0) and Linked (lesser to greater, only use powers at full value, -3/4). (total modifier 4/7, final cost 9 points)

WITH Drain Dexterity 2d6 (base cost 20) with Ranged (+1/2) and Returns At Rate Of 1/Turn (equal to 5/minute, +1/4) (total modifier 7/4, 35 active points); Linked (greater to lesser, only use powers at full value, -1/2) and Activation Roll 8- (-2); (total modifier 4/14, final cost 10 points)

 

Tail Whip (Normal, 3 END, 28 points): Drain PD and ED 1d6 (base cost 10) with Drain Both PD and ED (+1/2), LOS Range (+1/2), Ranged (+1/2), and Returns At Rate Of 1/Turn (equal to 5/minutes, +1/4) (total modifier 11/4, active cost 28 points, final cost 28 points).

 

Quick Attack (Normal, 5 END, 24 points): Hand-To-Hand Attack +3d6 (base cost 15, active cost 15); with HTH Fiat (-1/2) and Linked (lesser to greater, only use powers at full value, -3/4) (total modifier 4/7, final cost 9 points)

WITH Dexterity +10 (30 points, 30 active points); with Only For Initiative (-1/2) and Linked (greater to lesser, only use powers at full value, -1/2) (total modifier 4/8, final cost 15 points)

 

Flamethrower (Fire, 7 END, 28 points): Energy Blast 6d6 (base cost 30; 30 active points) with Stun Only (-0) and Linked (lesser to greater, only use powers at full value, -3/4). (total modifier 4/7, final cost 18 points)

WITH Drain Dexterity 2d6 (base cost 20) with Ranged (+1/2) and Returns At Rate Of 1/Turn (equal to 5/minute, +1/4) (total modifier 7/4, 35 active points); Linked (greater to lesser, only use powers at full value, -1/2) and Activation Roll 8- (-2); (total modifier 4/14, final cost 10 points)

[misterdeath]

FWIW: I was searching on the old boards and found this thread. No idea if it's useful for you at all.

 

http://www.herogames.com/oldForum/Champions/000102.html

 

D