Simon

Re: Is Hero too preditable?

Errr....

The per-die average is close to 3.5 the more dice you roll. The actual total will vary by an ever-increasing number the more dice you roll.

Roll 10d6 for a while....let us know how many times you roll 35. Your rolls will average around 35, but will vary in both directions.

Re: The cranky thread

No, he didn't. However, I can't say I'm surprised. I'm not defending tkdguy's master, but old school martial arts instructors don't see students as customers or colleagues. Instead, they see them as having the incredible privilege and honor of being allowed to learn whatever hints of technique the master reveals to them. As such the master views the students almost with contempt.

 

I've learned under both types of instructors and while the more modern, customer-oriented type is much easier to deal with, the old school teaching method has its advantages.

Ummm...that's not entirely accurate.

I've worked with a lot of the "old guard" masters -- Ming Lum, Wally Jay, Ji Han Jae, In Sun Seo, Mike Young...to name a few -- while there are certainly some that behave in the way you describe, the majority of them had more respect for their art than that. Yes, they would beat on your both physically and mentally (the good ones still do ), but there was always respect involved. Both ways. Very much like a father-son relationship...albeit a very, very strict father.

They lead by example. If they say they will be somewhere, they are there. No excuses.

We have a fairly odd mix of old and new in our school -- both masters were brought up very much in the old school (they've been studying about 40 years apiece) and their teaching styles reflect that. But they also view each of us (especially those of us that have been with them a while) as friends. We hang out, go drinking after class, etc. Our TKD master is an extremely old-school Korean stylist. If you go to the kukkiwon in Korea, hiis picture will be one of the few sets of blue eyes on the wall. He trains very hard (even with cancer, freshly-rebuilt shoulders, and any number of other issues) and expects us to follow.

There is never any disrespect involved. Part of the training is supposed to be making you strong enough to avoid that kind of thing.

Re: The cranky thread

Does it parse times and differences as well? E.g.,

d2 = "11/20/2005 13:34",

d1 = "11/15/2005 09:24",

d2 - d1 = 5.17361 (or a tuple that is the equivalent of 5 days 4 hours 10 minutes)?

Sure...

long milliseconds = d2.getTime() - d1.getTime();

double seconds = milliseconds/1000d;

double minutes = seconds/60d;

double hours = minutes/60d;

double days = hours/24d;

double weeks = days/7d;

...and so on...

Whatever units you need...

Re: The cranky thread

Is there a computer language anywhere that, out of the box, allows easy reading of string representations of dates and times? And also arithmetic operations involving those correctly?

 

Grr. I'm tired of reinventing this wheel every time.

Java

SimpleDateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy");

Date d1 = formatter.parse("12/01/2001");

Date d2 = formatter.parse("12/25/2005");

.

.

.

Re: A variation on time delay?

Extra time doesn't seem to cut it as you can't use other attacks during the preparation, which doesn't seem to be what you are after. That would be -1/2, and it is less limited than that, so I'd say go for -1/4.

 

Of course it depends, to an extent, what power it is you want to activate once per turn. If it has, say, a 1 turn continuing charge, it is to going to be worth much at all

Edit...never mind, missed the exception.

Re: A variation on time delay?

Take "Extra Time" with the "Only to Activate" Adder/Modifier.

While the Power is Instant, getting it ready to fire will take some time. Once it's fired, you'll need to take that time again.

Re: Making sense of DCV

Np.

I don't particularly like the exception for Dodge and Block (personally)...but that's just me...

Re: Making sense of DCV

Yes, you are (wrong, that is).

5ER, page 383.

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now?

And you can't pull the speaker cable out? Sorry...

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now?

Chemical Brothers, "Galvanize"

Re: Odd Skill Enhancer Question

Let's be more specific - Steve introduced a new rule. It's okay that he did so' date=' it's well within his authority. But it is beyond a clarification unless there is a reference to the contrary, which does not seem to be the case.[/quote']

I disagree -- it's a new rule if it actively changes an existing, explicit rule.

 

This is simply something that was not clear in the published rulebook and was stated more clearly by Steve when he was asked.

 

I agree that it's ok for Steve to introduce new rules as needed....but I don't think that this is what is happening here. There's a difference between clearing up a misunderstanding (restating more clearly a rule that you had always intended to be in effect) and expanding on/creating new rules to cover situations that you had not considered originally. I believe this to be the former. You evidently believe it to be the latter. Likely doesn't matter much, as we both seem to agree that Steve is the force behind the rules and is able to make new rules or clarify existing rules as needed.

Re: Odd Skill Enhancer Question

Note: the following is just my interpretation of the reasoning behind the rule. While Steve is willing to clarify rules for us, he generally does not get into the philosophy behind those rules.

I think that the main problem here is that some folks are looking at how Skill Enhancers operate "backwards" -- they don't add a +1 to the roll...or convert a generic KS to an INT-based KS, they

reduce the cost of certain Skills or Perks

There's a difference.

There's no game mechanic for changing the cost of abilities during game play. You can change the levels of abilities (Aid, Drain, OIHID levels, etc), but that's a fundamentally different operation. Skill Enhancers don't add levels, they reduce cost.

Again, this is just my interpretation of the reasoning behind this rule. Take it for what it's worth.

Re: Odd Skill Enhancer Question

Perhaps you would assume that' date=' and you're well within your right to do so, but I do not. Since you can apply Limitations to Skills, and Skill Enhancers are right there in the Skills section, I would think they come under the same rules.[/quote']

Ah....I get it now. You're of the "if it doesn't say it explicitly in the rulebook, it's not part of the game" school of thinking. Nevermind that the rulebook is the printed word attempt by Steve Long to communicate the rules of the game and that when there is a question over something in the rulebook (or, more often, something that is not in the rulebook) he answers it, improving on his communication of the rules.

 

Have fun with that. Just don't expect others to be quite so....blinded by the printed word.

 

 

Hmmm... Ambiguous and straight forward? At the same time?

Don't pretend to be dense....it's not becoming of you. The book left some ambiguity as to the rules, so the guy that wrote the book was asked. He said "No." -- which removed the ambiguity and left a rather straightforward answer.

 

If I believed in "because the game designer said so' date='" I'd still be playing D&D.[/quote']

So why, may I ask, is the rulebook any different? That's just what Steve Long is saying....it's still Steve Long. Is it the order in which he says things? Or the timing? Or is it the form?

 

Again, the rulebook is just Steve's attempt to communicate the rules that he has developed. Like any form of communication (especially when dealing with as wide of a subject as the full rules of the Hero System), there will be some things left out, some things which are not communicated properly, and somethings which are simply miscommunicated. The good news is that we have Steve right here to answer any questions that we have and to elaborate upon or correct himself where needed.

Re: Odd Skill Enhancer Question

Does it actually say somewhere in the book that you can't put limitations on Skill Enhancers?

It doesn't say that you can't (explicitly) in the book. Nor does it say that you can (explicitly) in the book.

One would assume that the fact that the book gives good discussion about the application of Modifiers to abilities like Skills, Powers, etc. and none whatsoever to the application of Modifiers to Skill Enhancers would be a good hint that it is not legal....but the lack of any statement to that effect means that there is ambiguity. Which is pretty much a given in a rule base as broad as the Hero System.

And so you consult the guy that writes the rules (Steve Long) and ask him if such a thing is legal or not.

And he says "No."

Pretty straightforward.

Re: Odd Skill Enhancer Question

There isn't anything strictly illegal about a Skill Enhancer' date=' OIHID. The only question is, are you really being limited by the Limitation? Is the character going to find himself, with reasonable frequency, in his non-hero ID, and wanting to use the heroic-level of his skills, and not able to simply change into hero-ID, use the skill, and change back? If so, then go for it. It's only a one-point savings.[/quote']

Actually, there is.

 

Strictly illegal. Against the rules. Yadda yadda yadda.

Re: A more feminine martial art

I've never heard this before in my life. I've been practicing martial arts for sixteen years now, and the best opportunity to disarm a gunman is when he is holding the gun close to your body. Of course, if he is far enough away, you can easily flee. But this "20 ft." business? I don't understand.

This part I can chime in on:

I've helped teach martial art "crash courses" for cops in the past. One of the biggest things we always need to beat through their heads (often literally) is not to blindly rely on their guns. A simple example normally suffices:

Put someone on one end of the room, gun holstered. Put someone else on the other end of the room with a large stick/bat (or a knife, bottle, what-have-you --- we use styrofoam "clubs"). Have the guy with the club rush the guy with the gun. A disturbing amount of the time, the cops that we work with will sit there fumbling for their weapon, trying to draw it, aim, and fire on the charging attacker. They end up being beaten over the head.....all because they didn't just _move_ and use the weapons that they had available (hands, feet, head, etc.).

Guns are meant for distance. Once drawn, 10-20 feet is ideal (as you note, punks that like to put the gun right up against you are fairly easily disarmed). But you need to take into account preparation time (drawing, aiming, getting into a good stance, etc.) when deciding whether to use the weapon.

If you have an attacker within 20 feet of you, it's not the best time to be fumbling for a weapon. Use what you have until such time as you have distracted the attacker and created the time that you need to handle things.

Re: Some questions which are coming up.

You're misunderstanding recoverable Charges.

Recoverable reduces the value of the Charges Limitation (or increases the value of the Advantage, as appropriate). It is not applied to Charges by default.

Recoverable Charges are meant to represent Charges which you expend during combat, but can recover outside of combat, given appropriate time. Things like throwing knives, arrows, etc.

Charges without the Recoverable Adder recover once per day/session (as appropriate).

If you want something like the wand you mention above, you take Charges with the rather large negative Adder of "Charges Never Recover" -- then once you use it up, it's gone. Any character points that you spent on it are "gone for good" -- which is why you received such a large discount on the price.

Re: Charge for noEND powers?

If the Power does not cost END, then Charges maxes out at a +0, regardless of how many Charges you have....or how many Clips.

The Costs END Limitation is applied after this....so you still get benefit.

If you are taking a small number of Charges (

Charges as a single Limitation is rediculously complicated. IMO, it should be broken up into several (at least) separate Limitations/Advantages, with rules that require certain combinations (frex: you can't purchase the "Boostable" Advantage without the Charges Limitation).

Re: Ch'i Ki Qi ...

In general:

Ch'i = Chi = Qi (Chinese/Korean)

Ki (Japanese)

Folks are absolutely correct that it is a transliteration....the different spellings largely reflect different dialects/accents through the rather large region.

Re: Default Waterproof Computers?

Dan' date=' do you have a cite? I don't recall seeing anything in either the books or the FAQ that says this, and the FAQ implies the opposite, though I could be mistaken (and I don't have 5ER). If you can provide a reference I would appreciate it.[/quote']

At the office now (no book on me), but pretty much every character, vehicle, computer, etc. published operates under this principle. I believe that it is spelled out in either the character creation guidelines or under the Disadvantages section of the book.

 

Are you saying that you believe having a normal human take the Disadvantage "Dependence: Air" is legitimate?

Re: Default Waterproof Computers?

I would say an emphatic "No" to the original question. In the same way that a normal character doesn't get to take the Disadvantage "Dependence: Air"

Computers have certain things that they require and certain susceptibilities which will damage/destroy them. Just like humans do. They don't get to take Disadvantages to represent those -- Disadvantages are meant to represent things about the character/computer/whatever that set them apart from the norm (and disadvantage them).

Re: Hacker's Laptop Computer

Your computer weighs 100 kg. Thats one beefy laptop Does the software not let you drop off the description boxes for computers and such? I just haven't seen many computers with brown hair brown eyes.

The export template used for the post above is a character export -- which will populate fields like hair color, eye color, etc.

A more appropriate export template would be one of the computer template exports that have been created.

As for the computer itself, the laptops that I normally use are middling-high-end laptops (nothing really fancy in terms of hardware) with a fair amount of custom software installed.

The software that a typical hacker would need would include things like packet sniffers, port scanners, app scanners, etc. Most (all) of them are freely available (nessus, netscan, ethereal, etc.) and fairly easy to use. The skill comes in making use of the results/output and in customizing/extending the code for the apps to do exactly what you need in a given situation.

In short, if you're looking to distinguish a "hacker's laptop" from a "gamer's laptop," you shouldn't worry about the hardware at all....just concentrate on the software. At a minimum, I would recommend:

Traffic analyzer

Network sniffer

Network scanner

Analyze Vulnerabilities

Vulnerability database

Telnet/FTP/TFTP/SSH

Depending on the scenario, much of the actual "work" will not be done from the laptop at all, but from a hijacked system (to maintain anonymity).

Re: Question about Two Perks

Steve sends his apologies...he's working on Pulp Hero right now and can't take the time to trace through everything. He wants to be sure that the answer he gives is correct....so we have to wait

Re: Question about Two Perks

The example he is citing is from page 82 of 5th Rev.

 

According to the example:

Captain Australia is built on 200 pts.

If Jacko (the follower) is built on 100+75 then he costs 100/5 = 20 points

If Jacko is built on 250 he would cost (100/5)+(50/1) = 70 points

 

 

It looks to me like the example is a bit confusing. If Jacko is supposed to be 250+disads, and Captain Australia's value hasn't changed then the math in the second line is off, it should be (200/5)+(50/1) = 90 points

 

Unless I'm missing something.

I'm currently talking to Steve on this, but if my understanding of the rules is correct, the math shown on 82 would indicate that Jacko is biuld on a _total_ of 250 points, 100 base + 150 disad.

That would give you 100/5 + 50/1 for the total cost.

If Jacko were built on 250 base + 100 disad (for example), the cost would come out to:

200/5 + 150 = 190 points.

As a note, I remembered that I had the PDF of 5ER on my laptop, so I checked the pages referenced. It looks like the calculation for Jacko is correct.

The calculation of the base on page 85 is not my understanding of the rules, since the total cost of the base (base points + disads) is greater than the character total (in this case, 250). That should mean that the final point tally is:

250/5 + 40/1 = 50 + 40 = 90 points.

Steve is going to look things over and get back to me once he runs the numbers (he's a bit busy right now).

Re: Question about Two Perks

At the office right now so I don't have access to the book....can you post the following from the example that you're citing:

1. The base points of the Follower

2. The disad points of the Follower

3. The total points of the character that is purchasing the Follower (base points + disad points + experience)

Because of the split nature of the Follower cost calculation when the total points exceed those of the character, the math can work out a bit differently than you may expect at times....