Sixth Edition Showcase #3: Area Of Effect And Damage Shield

Steve Long · July 15, 2009

A Statement Of Purpose: As we build up to the release of 6E, I thought it would be fun to showcase something in the 6E rules that I think HERO fans will particularly like or find useful. The Sixth Edition Showcases won’t be lengthy or detail-filled, but hopefully they’ll whet your appetite for 6E. I plan to post one a week, though not necessarily on the same day each week.

Naturally, you’re welcome to discuss each Showcase to your heart’s content — praise it, complain about it, whatever you like. However, generally speaking, I’m not going to participate in the conversation or answer any questions. I’ll say pretty much all I want to say in each Showcase post.

I was planning to post this tomorrow, but since it’s Rod Currie’s birthday and all Canada is rejoicing, I figured I’d go ahead and post today. So, on to this week’s showcase! The subject:

Area Of Effect and Damage Shield

There are several changes to the Area Of Effect Advantage that I think HERO gamers will really like.

First, I’ve changed Area Of Effect so that it’s a straightforward purchase, with the size of the Area depending on the value of the Advantage. Instead of paying +1 and determining the size of the Area based on the power’s Active Points, the size of the Area depends on the value of the Advantage — smaller Areas have smaller costs, and as the cost increases so does the size. Not only does this provide greater flexibility, it’s easier to work with for many powers, since you don’t have to re-calculate the cost of the power sans AoE to determine the Area’s size. For nearly all powers within the “typical” range of Active Points found in campaigns, this method also has the benefit of being either cheaper, or at most of equal cost. By the time it becomes more expensive you’re usually well beyond the range of power most GMs are willing to let PCs have.

Second, Explosion has been folded into AoE as a modifier to that Advantage. This saves some space in the book, but more importantly it makes it possible to build things like Cone Explosions and Line Explosions more easily.

Third, I’ve added a type of Area called Surface. This allows a character to apply a power to a surface (such as the floor, or a wall), then have that power automatically affect anyone who touches that surface. (Typically these powers are Constant, of course, so the effect can last for awhile.) I’m sure you can easily think of lots of applications, such as creating ice sheets on the ground or electrified fences. But the power construct that really sold me on this concept was the old Superman chestnut, “I use my heat vision to make his gun so hot he has to let it go!”. That’s AoE (Surface) applied to the gun; if the guy holding the gun doesn’t let go, he takes damage from the red-hot metal.

Once I began thinking about the possibilities in Area Of Effect (Surface), it changed my thinking about how to revamp that old HERO System favorite, Damage Shield. I’d initially planned to revise it using Trigger, but then a better idea hit me: a Damage Shield is just a Constant Area Of Effect (Surface) applied to one’s self — the Surface is the character’s body. Anyone who touches it, or gets touched by it in certain ways, suffers the effect. Conceptually and mathematically this worked out quite well, and I think you’re going to have a lot of fun with it.

In the Credit Where Credit’s Due Department, I should point out that this is a perfect example of the 6E Forum working to its ideal best. Area Of Effect (Surface) wasn’t my idea initially; the person I saw suggesting it (and AFAIK the first one to come up with the idea, or at least voice it publicly) was GamePhil. He sorta tossed it out there, and I picked it up and ran with it. That’s just the sort of thing I wanted the 6E Forum to do.

And now, as a little Showcase #3 bonus, here’s a sample page from 6E1! It shows you a bit of Fred’s layout style as well as a piece of Fraim Bros. art that I really like. Caveat: it hasn’t been final edited yet, so a word here and there may change.

Hierax · July 15, 2009