Off beat question from one of my players about how Hero would handle something.

[kuoshu]

We were talking about the system, and the flexibility of Hero. He has already decided he likes it better from a statistical standpoint, and I gave him some simple examples of making powers. (I am planning a Super/Champions style game).

 

His question was kind of off beat, but I thought I would put it up here as I don't have books available to me, then direct him here if I got any answers.

 

He wanted to know how Hero would handle it if he wanted his character to have a "Scathing Monologue" power. I said I was sure it could handle it, and asked him what he was thinking of in such a power. The way he put it, it sounded more like a disadvantage, the typical monologue that in the movies/comics none of the big bad evil guys (BBEGs) can resist. The ones that inevitibly lead to the heros (or in the case of this players thought - the villians) being able to escape or thwart the perfect plan.

 

K.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Off beat question from one of my players about how Hero would handle something.

 

I'm not sure I understand what you're thinking of, but it sounds like the character who has the heroes in his power and (rather than polish them off quickly) reveals the details of his plans so that, when the heroes escape, they have all the info they need to thwart him.

 

There's two ways to view that. One is that it's simply a ganre convention, so it just happens.

 

The other would be for the character to take a psychological limitation [disadvantage] such as "Gloats and reveals plans to captured opponents". How common that will be depends on the character and the game, but I'd take it at Total Commitment (the character will rarely, if ever, try to resist, and would have a very tough time doing so even if he wanted to).

[Icel]

Re: Off beat question from one of my players about how Hero would handle something.

 

It could be a supers power that make the bad guy start the monologue. Something like attacking his ego (not the charasteristic).

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Off beat question from one of my players about how Hero would handle something.

 

It could be a supers power that make the bad guy start the monologue. Something like attacking his ego (not the charasteristic).

 

If the character wants to be able to force such a Monologue on an adversary, I'd call it a form of Mind Control (likely Telepathic, one command only, and limited to certain circumstances).

[Blue]

Re: Off beat question from one of my players about how Hero would handle something.

 

As a villainous thing, typically it's a Disadvantage.

 

An interesting idea that I've never implemented might be to give a hero Mind Control with a limitation "Only for convincing the evil mastermind to spill his plan". Means it will likely only be used once per game, but represents a hero who is good at taunting the villain into speechifying.

 

Soliloquay takes not time and is not an action, so a villain can spout endlessly.

[RDU Neil]

Re: Off beat question from one of my players about how Hero would handle something.

 

I second the "Psychological Disadvantage" notion... based on what you wrote. Something line "Psych Lim: Compulsive Monomaniacal Orator" or whatever clever name you want to give it. Great villain Psych Lim for a 4-color game.

 

If, OTOH, he wants a power that means he gives scathing speaches that cow his underlings into submission... or that he can awe his foes so they are scared or hesitant to attack... or can incite a mob to riot... whatever... that is likely a Presence Attack backed up by Oratory skill. Makes the Oratory skill roll... gets some extra dice for PRE attack based on success of roll... add to hopefully already high PRE plus any other modifiers available... roll them d6s!

 

I think the use of PRE in Hero and Champions in particular is quite underused... and I allow it to be quite combat effective at times, depending ont he situation. Out of combat, it can be great for swaying others to your side or whatever.

 

Does this help?

[garou]

Re: Off beat question from one of my players about how Hero would handle something.

 

Perhaps as Mind Control, Only to make Bad Guy soliloquize? Since it's already a genre convention, you'd only have to beat the Ego by 10 or 20.

[kuoshu]

Re: Off beat question from one of my players about how Hero would handle something.

 

Thanks all! That helped immensly and showed many scenarios as to how that could be implimented. I don't think he really expected a serious answer, let alone a number of different working rulings with caveats, restrictions and reasoning.

 

He has decided that any game that can allow for something like a

"Psychological Disadvantage" ... "Psych Lim: Compulsive Monomaniacal Orator" has got to be great. So I can mark one of my "don't know if he will follow if I switch systems" off the list. He'll stay, now for the other five players. Though how to handle it if the all stay is another problem as I have 2 others who want to join if I run a Superhero Hero campaign.

[Herolover]

Re: Off beat question from one of my players about how Hero would handle something.

 

You will find that there are only a couple of things HERO can't do and that is because they are "hard-coded" into the rules. These things can be summed up by saying "There are no absolutes." No attack that always hits or always destroys the target. No ultimate speed, no ultimate defense.

 

In fact, more often than not the problem isn't so much can HERO do it, but "How do I want to do this, because there are two or three ways of doing it." This can make HERO hard especially for new people. Just remember these three rules.

 

1) Just because you can make it up or do it doesn't mean you should. I could create a power that would allow me to sit at home and turn everyone in the world into a frog. Doesn't mean I should make that power up.

 

2) Reason back from effect. What is happening to the target. Figure that out and then you can find the HERO power that fits it.

 

3) According to the rules if there are two equivalent ways of creating the same thing you use the most expensive way.

 

PS Once your players get more experienced watch out for players trying to create HERO power X by using powers A & B because they are cheaper than X. (sorry can't think of any examples)

[MitchellS]

Re: Off beat question from one of my players about how Hero would handle something.

 

We were talking about the system, and the flexibility of Hero. He has already decided he likes it better from a statistical standpoint, and I gave him some simple examples of making powers. (I am planning a Super/Champions style game).

 

His question was kind of off beat, but I thought I would put it up here as I don't have books available to me, then direct him here if I got any answers.

 

He wanted to know how Hero would handle it if he wanted his character to have a "Scathing Monologue" power. I said I was sure it could handle it, and asked him what he was thinking of in such a power. The way he put it, it sounded more like a disadvantage, the typical monologue that in the movies/comics none of the big bad evil guys (BBEGs) can resist. The ones that inevitibly lead to the heros (or in the case of this players thought - the villians) being able to escape or thwart the perfect plan.

 

K.

I would buy this power as:

 

Scathing Monologue: +10 Presence, Offensive Only: -1, Incantation: -1/4, Force Soliloquy Only: -1 plus Oratory Skill +5, Force Soliloquy Only: -1 . Total Cost: 9 points.

[Dust Raven]

Re: Off beat question from one of my players about how Hero would handle something.

 

He wanted to know how Hero would handle it if he wanted his character to have a "Scathing Monologue" power. I said I was sure it could handle it, and asked him what he was thinking of in such a power. The way he put it, it sounded more like a disadvantage, the typical monologue that in the movies/comics none of the big bad evil guys (BBEGs) can resist. The ones that inevitibly lead to the heros (or in the case of this players thought - the villians) being able to escape or thwart the perfect plan.

 

K.

 

The other responses have me a bit confused. I assumed you meant for this to be something the player character does, that allows the villains to take advantage of him or the situation he creates by talking too much. But maybe you meant for this to be a power the hero has that forces a villain to monologue, allowing the hero to take advantage of the villain.

 

Generally, I roll the "prone to monologues" into other Disads, such as Megalomaniac, Showboat and even Overconfidence at times, but it depends on the character's personality and the tone of the campaign. If you want this as a Disadvantage for the hero, look at the rest of his personality and see if there is a Psych Limit that would account for it. If not, you can make this it's own (as suggested above), but I probably wouldn't have it at more than Uncommon.

[gojira]

Re: Off beat question from one of my players about how Hero would handle something.

 

I remember that in the 1984 (?) edition of Champions, the villian Armadillo had the Psych Lim: Always Anounces What He's Going to Do Before He Does It.

 

Or something like that.

[Magmarock]

Re: Off beat question from one of my players about how Hero would handle something.

 

I would buy this power as:

 

Scathing Monologue: +10 Presence, Offensive Only: -1, Incantation: -1/4, Force Soliloquy Only: -1 plus Oratory Skill +5, Force Soliloquy Only: -1 . Total Cost: 9 points.

 

What he said.

 

Mags

[MikeyMitchell]

Re: Off beat question from one of my players about how Hero would handle something.

 

I remember that in the 1984 (?) edition of Champions, the villian Armadillo had the Psych Lim: Always Anounces What He's Going to Do Before He Does It.

 

Or something like that.

 

He still has that Limitation. 20 years later, he hasn't yet learned to keep his mouth shut...

[CourtFool]

Re: Off beat question from one of my players about how Hero would handle something.

 

Detect Villian's Plans (5 Active Points); 1 Charge -2, Extra Time (1 Minute) -1½, Requires Persuasion Roll -½, Only When Villian Is Present -1 (1 Real Point)

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Off beat question from one of my players about how Hero would handle something.

 

Detect Villian's Plans (5 Active Points); 1 Charge -2' date=' Extra Time (1 Minute) -1½, Requires Persuasion Roll -½, Only When Villian Is Present -1 (1 Real Point)[/quote']

 

This needs to add the Analyze-type modifiers - those mega-villains get pretty specific!

[WalkerGrae]

Re: Off beat question from one of my players about how Hero would handle something.

 

Couldn't this also be a Conversation skill on the part of the hero. Possibly with a bonus to the skill roll as the target thinks the hero isn't in a position to use the information. I've seen it done in a few TV programs, books and comics. The "helpless" hero strikes up the conversation and usually learns all he needs to know. Occasionally there are times when the villian relises that he's being pumped for info and infers that perhaps his victim is not as helpless as he originally thought and attemps to subdue the hero before he escapes.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Off beat question from one of my players about how Hero would handle something.

 

Quite right.

 

Trust the GM: if you need to know the bit of plot, you'll find it out. Having a power to do this is an amusing diversion, but not, I would think, a useful way to make a game go smoothly.