Rationale of "Per Phase" Effects.

[jdounis]

Hello everyone,

 

All these years playing HERO one of my biggest beefs with the rules are effects affecting characters "Per Phase" like Lava, Smoke ,Quicksand etc,

i cant really wrap my head around being in disadvantage when affected by an environmental effect  because you have greater SPD and you have

to lower it. When some new players have to suffer from such a rule they start to question this wonderful system. What's your opinion/solution 

on this?

[Doc Democracy]

My opinion is that it is about bureaucracy. Phases exist because of the SPD chart. The SPD chart adds a strategic element to combat that is relatively absent from other systems, it is pretty unique to HERO.

 

So, if a character buys it to last for two of their actions it is reasonably simply bureaucracy. If it is a set number of segments then you have an additional layer of time-keeping.

 

If that is trivial to your gaming group, then it is reasonably simple to change the rules such that effects last a set number of segments, you probably are going to choose increments of 2 or 3 segments (equivalent to SPDs 6 or 4) which would probably not require any further cost balancing.

 

 

Doc

[Doc Democracy]

Whoops, missed the environmental damage. I think the main part of this is that the more you exert yourself, the more you expose yourself, like struggling in a room with limited oxygen. The players are not without agency, they are able to modify their SPD if that is advantageous to them, or, if you want, you can push it to a fixed (standard) effect, you just need to remember to push the damage button every 2 to 3 segments.

 

For environmental damage, the phases exist because powers were designed for characters with variable speeds. You could implement some environmental effects to be at a standard speed and others to be based on how often a character moves. In a huge fire the damage is likelier to be constant over time (though breathing in superheat steam can be exertion based) whereas running out of oxygen happens faster if people are more active.