Trebuchet

Ah, so you are saying Stormbringer and/or shade are just playing "good troll/bad troll"? Oops, my bad. It was kind of pathetic that Stormbringer could actually claim to "not mind his language because [she] respect him as a PERSON" but then doesn't see that he clearly isn't respecting anyone here as a person. I don't see anything to respect in that statement at all. Anyway, I'm done troll-hunting. I'll leave it to the professionals.

Stormbringer, on the (remote) possibility you are not just a figment of Shade's imagination I'll address you here directly. 1) Yes, other people have sworn here. But I don't ever remember seeing anyone being nearly as vulgar as shade/Shadow Stalker is in his threads. People who used much less vulgar language have been previously banned from the boards. Even in the often-heated debates of the "Non-Gaming Discussion" I've never seen such language. 2) It is quite obvious that beyond shade's foul language his sole purpose here is to troll. He's not contributing to a discussion of HERO, he's doing nothing but attacking it's designers and the people who play it. 3) You are known by the company you keep. If you want to be respected in your own right, don't support idiots like this. He acts like (and probably is) a 14 year old who just discovered swear words. Friends are supposed to keep each other on the right track, not support each other in doing wrong. 4) Find better friends. This guy is a loser, and so are you if you hang with him. Winners do not hang out with losers. This was probably a waste of my time, but it's my time to waste.

Don't waste your breath, LL. If Stormbringer were actually a real person "she" would have no problems reading Shade's vulgar language since it's apparent just a few posts up in this thread. And anyone who can condone language like that is just as bad as the user. Whoever he/she/it is, collectively they are nothing but troll.

Wow, this just keeps getting more pathetic! Now the inflatable doll (Stormbringer) is actually trying to send me e-mail. I deleted it without bothering to read it, since I already know what it'll say. That's right, lots of 4-letter words... All his user-names are now on my Blocked Senders list in Outlook Express. Doesn't poor "Stormbringer" realize the only non-humans I talk to are my cats? Inflatable sex toys and other masturbation tools are not included. WHAT A LOSER.

Good advice, Monolith, and I have followed it. It really doesn't matter if Shadow Stalker, Shade, and Stormbringer are the same person or not. They are all just as ignorant and obnoxious. I've never heard of someone with multiple-personality disorder whose personalities were all the same. He can have as many imaginary friends as he wants, I'm certain "Stormbringer" (or whatever he calls his inflatable doll) is the only female company he can get. Most of us here have real wives and girlfriends. I'd say the language pretty much shows the general level of their (his) intellect.

It also doesn't mean you aren't him. If you aren't really SS but you are a friend of his and have no problems with the scatological way he posts on these boards then you are just as bad as he is. If you are not the same person and he is indeed your friend, why don't you tell him to get a life instead of trolling here? So he doesn't like HERO System? Big fat hairy deal. There are also better things to do than sit behind a computer screen and troll. As for different "IP addresses and e-mail addresses," big deal. Lots of people have multiple accounts and e-mail addresses. I have two myself. Frankly, I'll reserve judgement until you descend to his level. When you do, you'll go on my Ignore list too.

Re: Re: Re: Closest I could get "By golly, Maria Jones is really Captain Justice! There's that Florida-shaped birthmark on her derrière!"

Don't forget "Position Shift" on the Teleport so the character always "lands" on her feet. You might just consider +20 PD; Only vs. Knockback & Throw Damage (-1). Perhaps tack on a little Knockback Resistance as well.

There is already a Speed Reading Talent, so I have to assume Rapid does something else. Of course, forcing my Russian character to suffer through a 1200 page Russian novel would be only just deserts, even if it does violate several international conventions on torture. (She much prefers Samuel Clemens.)

While I'm primarily interested in applying Rapid to my own 9 SPD/38 DEX martial artist Zl'f, I see the potential here for a "true" speedster as well. So I'll probably buy this Adder at the 10X level to augment her (already +3) Sight PER with some unspent XP. It just seems to fit with her "500% better than human" reflexes. Thanks for the input, guys.

I asked Steve Long a couple questions about the Enhanced Senses Adder "Rapid": Steve Long's reply: My followup question: Steve's reply: As I said to Steve Long, I'm not trying to be argumentative here, but I'm at a complete loss as to what game effects my fellow GMs would think the "Rapid" adder provides. This strikes me as a natural Adder for speedsters or other quick characters, but I don't know what bonuses or other effects it would provide in game terms. Higher PER? Ability to examine large areas more quickly? Ability to see attacks such as bullets? What does a character get for his 3 points? What do you think, Herodom Assembled? Let's have your ideas and comments.

If "Rapid" cannot be used to allow a character a PER bonus, then exactly what bonus does it provide to the character paying the 3 points for it? I see no Enhanced Senses that take X time to use over Y area that Rapid can modify. Does it allow the use of multiple-sense scans within a single half-Phase? I'm not trying to be argumentative, I'm just trying to learn just why anyone would buy "Rapid" instead of straight bonuses to a particular PER roll? What actual purpose does this Adder serve within HERO?

Russian Names: http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Track/7635/names.html http://www.womenrussia.com/rusnames.htm Scandinavian Names: http://www.eponym.org/scandpage.html I run a Russian character who lives in Norway, so I needed names for her friends, relatives, and DNPCs.

I'm a bit confused by the Enhanced Senses Adder "Rapid." When you say that "data is absorbed 10X faster," do you mean that a character with "Rapid" on his sight will see in 1 segment what most characters would see with a 10-segment long period of time? Would this thus qualify for the "Extra Time" modifier on a PER roll as if the character had taken several Phases (depending on SPD) to look around, and thus recieve a +2 (or better) to his sight PER roll?

I think having guidelines is useful; caps are less useful. Character concept is the most important factor IMHO, especially when your players are looking for ways to spend XP. With 31 points, every character could add +2 SPD and enough END to make it work. That would really alter the dynamic of combat without actually changing the level of attacks or defenses. So really you're going to have to allow these upgrades on a case by case basis. Do you really want the team brick to have an 8 SPD? In my own 12-year-old campaign many of the more senior characters have XP in the 30s, but the tendency so far has been to add new non-combat Skills or more flexibility. New MP slots have also been popular. Most of the players seem to be spending their XP about 50:50 on combat:non-combat abilities. My own character, Zl'f, currently has 23 XP but still has 9 unspent. I'm considering buying her an All Combat Level for 8 points to augment her current +2 Hand to Hand. Another martial maneuver or two is also attractive.

Nonsense. No disease acts that quickly, even in the comics. If it's that fast, it's a toxin. As long as you play the special effect of both Telios' Powers and a disease-based attack, he'll still be just fine.

Something else is being overlooked here. The system is already "non-granular" to a large extent. How? Because the numbers are not applied directly against each other, but require a CHAR roll. The system is not set up so that 13 STR always beats 12 STR at arm wrestling. One gets 2 dice, the other 2½. Oh wow. Let's look at a character with a 13 INT vs. one with an 18 INT. One gets a INT roll of 12-, the other a 13-. But they still have to roll. The one with the 12- might well roll a 3 and completely outwit/outthink the one with the 13-. So the "smarter" one only has a higher probability of doing something better. This requirement provides all the fuzziness between the edges of Characteristics numbers we need. We are not comparing characters with 11 vs 12 in a Characteristic, we are comparing the likelihood of success at any given task. Even as applied to STR, easily the most quantifiable Characteristic in HERO, this still occurs. With a good roll, a 45 STR brick (9d6) can do more damage or break the Grab of a 60 STR brick (12d6). The higher Characteristic character has higher averages to succeed, but that's no guarantee he'll win. In essence, a character pays points to get to the next "step" in the probability scale, but that's still a far cry from being "granular."

One of the new players in my campaign is using Tachyon as the basis for his character. Same exact suite of Powers, his origin and Disads changed. Lt. Kilroy was a junior engineering officer assigned to the famous "Philadelphia Experiment" during World War II. He was standing right next to the device when it malfunctioned and the distortion field hurled him from 1943 to 2002.

A hammer or other item with a handle also hits harder because the extra length adds more leverage. Thats why spear throwers such as Neolithic man used work, and why a guy with a 2 foot spear thrower can throw an identical spear nearly twice as far. Doubt it? Hit something with a fist-sized rock as hard as you can. Then attach that same rock to an 18" handle and try it again. Waaay more power. Just thought I'd throw this in since we're having a realistic scientific discussion of whether an alien can defeat a god.

HKA adds strength damage, RKA does not. For some concepts (such as light sabers) this better represents the desired special effect, plus of course it provides an additional -1/2 Limitation on the cost of the Power.

It's an interesting idea, Gary, but I think it's a solution to a non-existent problem. There is already a bonus for "sub-optimal" STR and CON: The character gets both additional figured characteristics (19 STR/2= 10 STUN vs 9 STUN for 18 STR; ditto for CON.), but a character with 1 higher CON is harder to Stun. I ran a brick with 19 CON for years. Higher DEX means you go first in a Phase; no small bonus. I've seen plenty of martial artists with DEX 30 just so they could beat those cost effective 28 and 29 DEXers. INT is the only thing that doesn't give such bonuses, but in all reality INT doesn't really get much direct use. Your method gives bonuses for much less than just buying skill levels in a INT-based Skill or with PER roll.

Mentor plays his mentalist Prodigy in my game. Trust me, his primary means of defense is not being spotted, because his basic defenses suck and to erect a telekinetic Force Field or Force Wall around himself with his 90 pt. VPP takes too much of his power from his attacks. In the last scenario his character and mine played in together (Run by our third co-GM, Blackjack), my character spent virtually the entire fight acting as Prodigy's bodyguard so he could go to town on the magic-based opponents we were fighting. The opponents were too tough for my character to hurt, so protecting another character was her best move to help her teammates.

I didn't either, but your original comment: "unless you're surprised by your opponent, you can ALWAYS abort to a defensive action (such as turning on Desolidification)" had me wondering if you had it wrong or I did. Turns out we were both right, it was just a little miscommunication.

That contradicts what I have always been told about Aborting to a defensive axtion: That once you have attacked or taken a Phase-ending action, you cannot the abort to a defensive action such as Diving for Cover or Blocking. Our group has always played it that (for example) once the martial artist Martial Kicks the brick, her Phase is over and the brick may then attempt to hit her without her Martial Dodging or other defensive action. Aborting her next Phase to Dodge or Block does not work once she has ended her current Phase. Is that incorrect?

"War Wolf" was also the actual name of a giant trebuchet used by Edward I (the English king so charmingly played by Patrick McGoohan in "Braveheart") to breach the walls of Caerlaverock.