Andrew Cermak

This would actually be very poor for stealth purposes. There's a reason soldiers don't trade their camo for black for night operations; solid colors stand out against the background and draw the eye, even if the color in question is a dark black. A Vantablack coated object would probably be more visible in shadow than most dark colors. 

What it arguably would be good for is Concealment; the elimination of detail would make it harder to spot hidden pockets or suspicious bulges. I could also see an argument for Disguise, provided it's limited to a nonspecific "I can't tell who/what that is" effect.

Incantations, surely.

In an evenly matched scenario (same STR, even CVs), you've only got about a 25% chance of successfully disarming your opponent (about a 37% chance of making the Attack roll, due to the maneuver's -2 OCV penalty, and about a 68% chance of a win or tie in the STR vs STR). If you don't make both, you wasted your Phase. And if you pull off the maneuver, you still haven't won the fight; the weapon might be recoverable or they might have a backup weapon.

That's not a reliable win button; it's actually a pretty risky maneuver unless you've got the odds stacked in your favor, and if you do then you're usually better off just beating them up.

The Agonist, both for the dual meaning (a chemical that binds to a receptor to provoke a biological response, suggestive of his bio-manipulation abilities OR a person engaged in a competition or struggle, evocative of his motivations), and the sinister, villainous sound of it.

Also, keep in mind that Joe Average has an 8 STR, not 10, per 6E1 p. 438. 10 is what PCs start at, but PCs are assumed to be Noteworthy at the very least.

That puts Joe Average's Haymakers at 5 1/2 d6; he'll likely be interrupted long before he ever succeeds in kicking down a 10 PD door. In fact, I'd start levying Long Term Endurance charges if he kept at it for long.

Champions Powers has a little sidebar on page 6 talking about the difference between Origin SFX and Manifestation SFX, and how while they are usually the same they don't have to be. It specifically uses the example of a supermage's Firebolt originating with the Magic SFX and manifesting with the Fire SFX.

A Magic Only VPP just means that all the powers have to originate as Magic, just as a Gadget Pool typically means they all have to originate as Technology. Magic Man can have a Fireball spell in his VPP, just as Gadget Man can build a flamethrower.

Whether it's appropriate that Magic Only is pegged as a -1/4 Limitation whereas Technology Only is apparently judged to be a -0 is a separate discussion.

(Now, if someone did want a VPP that only permitted Magic as both the Origin and Manifestation, I'd say that's worth at least a -1/2 Limitation instead of a -1/4).

Re: Emulating the Reversible Extra from M&M3

This just feels like a variation of the Controlled Effect Advantage from APGII. That Advantage lets you hit a target with an Attack, but not have the damage take effect until you decide to levy it later. Doing the damage upfront but reserving the right to undo it later is a similar concept with similar uses.

Re: I'm still not sure how to make a Gestalt character - 4th edition.

Another idea would be Duplication linked to extradimensional movement to limbo. When you travel into limbo your duplicates come into being.

But then you'd be paying extra points for something that is a disadvantage 99% of the time. Traveling to limbo while leaving your duplicates behind sounds like a lose-lose. A limitation on Duplication sounds more fair to the character.

An alternative to Duplication is to build it in reverse: have the normals buy Multiform and split the cost evenly between the component characters. There's a Voltron-esque mecha in The Ultimate Vehicle that does it that way.

EDIT: Ah, I forgot this is under 4th Edition rules; Multiform isn't legal under 4E unless the component characters are the same or higher point value as the gestalt. Duplication is definitely the way to go.

Re: Summon specific being?

Anyone have a Super Powers book or Grimoire handy? Any "less than 1d6" slow transforms in there?

Yes. "Lost His Grip on Reality," page 226 of Champions Powers, is a 1 pip Major Transform.

Re: Transform Anothers OIF

To me, this just looks like the special effect of a Dispel. The snake is gone after one panel in which it does nothing other than look threatening; it doesn't appear to have been an actual hazard.

To make it an actual hazard, use a linked Summon as Ockham's Spoon suggests.

Re: Hero System Vehicles: Sailing Ships

HSVS has writeups for a Brigantine, Caravel, Carrack, Clipper Ship, Cog, Curragh, Felucca, Flute, Frigate, Junk, Ketch, and Pinnace, as well as a modern Sailing Yacht.

TUV has a writeup for a Galleon.

Be aware, though, that they're planning on releasing a vehicles book for 6th Edition early next year; if past releases are an indication, it may very well include updated writeups for the vehicles in HSVS.

Re: Hero System Vehicles: Sailing Ships

The Ultimate Vehicle has rules for sailing ships. There's only one sample write-up, but the Hero System Vehicle Sourcebook has quite a few more.

Re: MYTHIC HERO: What Do *You* Want To See?

If you know of a source for a mythos that I haven't included on my list' date=' feel free to mention it.[/quote']

 

Two mythos I'd like to submit for consideration are the Incan and the Persian/Zoroastrian.

 

A great source for the Incan Mythos is Handbook of Inca Mythology by Paul R. Steele. Unfortunately, it's not cheap, running $70 plus online. It's supposedly available as an ebook from the publisher (http://www.abc-clio.com/product.aspx?id=60386), but pricing isn't provided.

 

A Persian/Zoroastrian writeup is going to require sensitivity, since it's a living religion, but on the plus side the primary sources are freely available online.

 

http://wisdomlib.org/zoroastrianism/book/the-bundahishn/index.html is a great translation of the Bundahishn, a collection of creation and cosmology stories. The site is nicely laid out and easily readable.

 

Avesta.org has translations of a wide array of Persian/Zoroastrian scriptures, with the Yasna being of the greatest relevance, but it's all pretty dense. The book An Introduction to Ancient Iranian Religion by William W. Malandra is a better starting point.

 

Also, count me as another fan of Legendary Hero as a separate book. Aside from the topics you mentioned, Prester John might be a good candidate for inclusion, as well as some of the more fanciful saints such as St. Christopher and St. George.

Re: Is Defender the new Seeker?

Personally' date=' I'd have kittens if he'd update Predator from Justice, Not Law for 6E,[/quote']

 

FYI, Predator appears to have been redesigned and renamed the Varangian, in a 5E Dark Champions book coincidentally titled Predators.

 

It's somewhat obfuscated by the terrible, terrible art.

Re: Champions Villains Volume Three: Solo Villains when will it be on the shelf?

So your solution is to say nothing at all. Even when I as a fan feel they need to change something. Sorry to say I'm going to ignore that very unhelpful advice on your part. I'm not saying they have to change anything or everything just because I say so. I also feel they have been doing somethings wrong this year and as a consumer of their products I feel the need to tell them. Wheter you or they like or not. I let other companies know when I am both satisifed and dissastisifed about certain issues. Why should HG be treated differently.

This isn't a customer service issue. This is a financial issue, as they've made clear repeatedly. Complaining about customer service issues is good, within reason, because it can them fixed. But you can't help them fix this by complaining. They've already exceeded their obligation to you by even telling you as much as they have; they've given you a level of insight into their day-to-day business that you don't really have a right to.

All you can do by complaining about this issue is make yourself feel better, and maybe make them feel worse. If that's really your goal, hey, go for it.

Re: Champions Villains Volume Three: Solo Villains when will it be on the shelf?

If none of use ever say anything why would they look into it or try to change it.

What, seriously?

It's your hobby, it's their livelihood. If it makes financial sense for them to do something, they'll do it, and if it doesn't, they won't. You're not going to talk them into to doing something if they feel they can't afford to.

All you're doing is making yourself feel like you're doing something.

Re: Chucking things into orbit - Advanced Player's Guide

I think the tables in the APG, while clearly not realistic, do model most comic-books a lot better the default throwing table, and probably also better than an accurately calculated table would.

That said, I see the value in having a "realistic" table that more closely approaches the realistic, so I threw one together in a Excel spreadsheet.

It recalculates each of the APG tables with proper formulas, and includes an extra line where you can insert a Lift value in tons and get the derived values. As in the APG, the results of the first table are in kg and the second table is in meters.

The second table breaks down a bit for lower strengths and higher weights; for instance, a 40 STR brick supposedly can't lift 10 tons, but he can apparently throw them over a meter. I recommend treating any value of 2 meters or less as being effectively 0.

I also included fields where you can modify three constants. "Gravity 1" and "Gravity 2" are both set to 10 m/s^2 by default, matching the value that appears to have been used in the APG; you can change them both to 9.8 or 9.807 if you want "better" calculations. Likewise, changing "Escape Velocity" to 11186 will be more accurate.

Or, just for extra fun, you can leave Gravity 1 alone, and just change Gravity 2 and Escape Velocity to match the values for a different planet. That will tell you how far a brick can throw something on Mars, or the Moon. It doesn't take atmospheric differences into account, of course. Here are some values you can use:

Moon: 1.6, 2380

Mercury: 3.7, 4250

Venus: 8.9, 10460

Mars: 3.7, 5027

Jupiter: 24.8, 59500

Saturn: 10.4, 35500

Uranus: 8.7, 21300

Neptune: 11.2, 23500

Pluto: .66, 1229

Re: APG II Commentary/Discussion thread

The potential implications of Time Stop are intriguing. If one isn't afraid to play loose with the warning about limitations that "partly" stop time, it can become the basis for a suite of Reality Manipulation abilities.

Let's say a bad guy gets a hold of a Cosmic Cube, and decides to start playing with things.

Maybe he's a Luddite, and decides to bend physics so that electronics everywhere in Reality stop working. Easy: Time Stop, Only vs. Electronics. Until the Cube's END Reserve runs out, electronics everywhere break. Technically they just halt whatever they were doing and can't be made to start up again, but for SFX purposes we can say they shut off, only to restart when the END runs out.

Maybe he decides to play with space a little bit, and doubles the distance between everything and everything else. Easy: Time Stop, Slow Time (-2), Only affects Motion. Until the END runs out, it now takes twice as long to move from any point A to any point B.

Or he could just as easily decide that Zeno had the right idea, and make motion impossible by removing the Slow Time limitation. People would still be aware, fires would continue to burn, etc, but no one would be able to move even an inch.

Maybe he's a ultra-nihilist and wants to end it all, himself included. Easy: Time Stop, No Personal Immunity. Reality effectively ceases to exist, for anyone. Better hope he couldn't afford to make it 0 END, Persistent!

Even more than all that, though, it at least provides a starting point for pricing other powers that affect everyone, everywhere, in significant ways. If it's 200 points to paralyze everyone, everywhere, excluding oneself, how much should it be to move them, or shrink them, or turn them blue?

Re: Chucking things into orbit - Advanced Player's Guide

The table seems to be built around the assumption that the work being done in lifting one's maximum capacity is being done through a meter, not a tenth of a meter. Note, as Christopher pointed out, that the lifting table doesn't actually say that you barely lift the weight off the ground.

Gravity also appears to have been rounded up to 10m/s^2.

So, for 70 str, the work done is 400,000kg * 10 m/s^2 * 1m = 4,000,000 joules, which equals 4,000,000 Newtons of force through one meter, which was then plugged into F = ma.

For escape velocity, it looks like the value of 11.2 km/s was used and the table assumes a 1 second application of force. So, 4,000,000 Newtons = mass * 11,200 m/s^2.

So mass = 357.14 kg.

Re: Ironclad is up

The Menton art has had me worried, but this looks just fine to me. It's actually relatively faithful to the original, with a few accessories added.

Re: Menton is up

Ugh. That's a terrible look for Menton, and leaves me a little concerned about the future direction of the IP.

Which is a shame, because everything before now had been so positive.

Re: Rules to ignore, or replace

 

Does PM get a Limitation?

Yes. I'd peg it as a -1/2, since the Physical Shape changing aspect is clearly more useful than the Texture/Temperature aspect.

That gives a 17 point cost for Plastic Man's "Any Shape, Only One Texture" Shape Shifting.

Re: Ultimate Energy Projector: Any one have it yet?

At the very least' date=' it should provide examples of how to construct new relationships between energy types, [/quote']

 

It does in fact do this.

Re: Rules to ignore, or replace

What does he use to determine what color he changes into?

An inherent sense of where colors reside in the light spectrum and how to alter his pigmentation to match.

Does he sense the color of the objects behind him and project them onto the side facing the observer, leaving himself vulnerable to multiple observers or the objects behind him varying or changing color unheeded by Chameleon Man?

He changes the pigmentation in his skin so that it absorbs different frequencies of light than it did before. In other words, his skin is actually a different color. He can do this to any part of his skin, so he wouldn't be vulnerable to multiple observers, but he'd have to get naked if he's trying to hide instead of just being expressive.

EDIT: Of course, since the power is Shape Shift, not Invisibility, this is actually a Concealment or Stealth attempt. Chameleon Man probably has Skill Levels with those Skills with his skin-changing as the SFX.

How well can CM exactly duplicate the color he was the last time the observer saw him, or is he sometimes bluer than others or occasionally looking a little green today?

He has complete control and precision, which is good since it's all he can do.

If this is used to emulate other races a casual observer (average PER) might not notice that Cham Man has ebony skin and Caucasian features but the detective (high PER) probably would and should, but how much should we modify the PER Roll by?

This sounds more like someone trying to see through an attempt at a Shape Shift aided Disguise rather than trying to see through his Shape Shift per se.

One of the driving precepts of HERO is that there is always a defense and it should be cheaper than power you are defending against. Shape Shift is so ill-defined that it is indefensible.

Shape Shift isn't an attack, so why does there need to be a defense? What's the defense against Growth or Stretching?

EDIT: Or, you could look at it this way: the "defense" against a Shape Shift is all the Sense Groups the Shape Shift doesn't work against.

Re: Rules to ignore, or replace

The source genre material is chock full of shapeshifters being found out; what makes us think there even is such a thing as a "perfect" shapechange?

Chameleon Man has color-changing skin; one of the Powers that's bought as is Shape Shift vs. Sight, only to Change Color (-2). His skin actually changes color. Why should someone be able to "see through" that to figure out that he's not naturally blue or green or what have you?