Andrew Cermak

Re: VILLAINS, VANDALS, AND VERMIN -- What Would *You* Like To See? There's a reference to a villain called the Chaos-Beast in the CU Timeline. That's a great name, and I'd love to see a write-up, be it in VVV or elsewhere.

Re: Grond, underpowered pansy? The low intelligence of animals is in part represented by a Physical Limitation that Grond doesn't have. Some animals may process information faster than Grond, but that doesn't necessarily make them more cunning.

Re: Shapeshift: Still having trouble adjusting from 4th to 5th.

Re: New Mechanic: Decoupling SPD from Running

Re: New Mechanic: Decoupling SPD from Running A marathon seems like an appropriate situation for Long-Term Endurance, which means Joe Average (4 REC, 16 END) will have to pace himself to be able to finish at all.

Re: I am confused by using Indirect Because +1/2 Indirect attacks must originate from the attacker, they cannot bypass barriers with the ease a +3/4 Indirect attack can. A +3/4 Indirect Attack could, for example, originate on the inside of a Force Wall globe, depriving the target of that defense.

Re: CHAMPIONS OF THE NORTH -- What Would You Like To See? Yes, please.

Re: Worst comic book superfight ever

Re: Worst comic book superfight ever I think you probably are the only one, because those two storylines were about four years apart and had over fifty issues between them.

Re: Build Me A Villain Team Neat subject for a thread. Here's my lineup: Holocaust - Powerful, ambitious, grandiose. His many personality flaws only make him a more natural fit. Mechassassin - Smart, ruthless, cool as a cucumber. A nice counterbalance to Holocaust's ranting. Although, I do see him putting two in the back of Haganstone's skull when he eventually figures out how. Morph - Too versatile to leave out. She's combat monster and infiltration specialist in one. Vector - Scary powerful. Not quite the right attitude as written, but if anybody can push him over the edge it's these guys. Ripper - A dark horse candidate, but he brings more terror and bloodthirst to the brick slot than anyone else currently in the CU can. Mordace - Cheating on this one, since he's not in any of the approved sources, but as a mentalist who can still contribute in the thick of the fighting he has a lot going for him. Plus, inspired as he is by Sinestro, he adds to the 'Legion of Doom' feel of the team. For the reserves...Taipan and, uh, Zorran, I guess. Taipan doesn't really give them anything they don't have already, but he greatly increases the team's terror quotient. Zorran get the nod by default; they don't have a mystic, and he's powerful enough to carry his weight when called on.

Re: Champions universe created by magic?

Re: Champions universe created by magic? I like it. The blended timeline is very useful for superhero campaigns, which have more time travel and genre blending than any other genre. It's a good source of plot hooks and character ideas (eg Takofanes, Crowns of Krim, Lightning Man), and it's true to the comics; frex, Conan was pretty firmly established as being in the Marvel Universe's distant past. The "waxing and waning of magic" does a serviceable job of explaining why different parts of the blended timeline behave so differently. For other, more self-contained settings, the blended timeline is a mere footnote that has no effect in play. The idea is there if GMs want to play with it, but it doesn't hurt anything if they don't.

Re: Champions universe created by magic? If no one in the setting knows the universe was created by magic and no one can possibly find out, then I imagine it's pretty easy.

Re: Variable power upon arrival Auto-selecting Multipowers have precedence in the rules. There's a Heat Ray in Gadgets and Gear, which burns things or melts them depending on what it hits. It's built as a Multipower with the GM picking the effect each time it's used. As I recall, no Modifier was imposed for this effect.

Re: C25 Island of Dr. Destroyer: Official?

Re: I don't have the ultimate brick Other than just picking up something heavy and throwing it, the most common brick ranged attacks would be: The Thunderclap, in which the brick simply slaps his hands together really, really hard, creating a thunderous sound. Usually built as an area effect flash, or possibly an area effect NND. They don't necessarily have to be area effect, though; the Hulk seems able to direct his at specific targets when he wants to. The Shockwave, in which the brick hits the ground in front of him really hard, sending a wave of vibrational energy outward. Usually built as an AE radius or AE cone EB that can only affect targets on the ground. Like the Thunderclap, AE isn't strictly necessary. Super-Breath, in which the brick uses his super-lung muscles to blow things over at a distance. Built as an EB with Double Knockback, perhaps with an AE Line or Cone. This can also be used to justify a freezing Entangle. For other ranged attacks, a brick is probably going to need foci or other powers.

Re: Elminating stacking problems - and more - with a new approach (credit to Tesuji) 5ER is chock-full of solid guidelines and examples. It still manages to draw complaints from some quarters for being too confusing, too slow, or too labor-intensive. Now, remove the suggested values for Modifiers, and things become *more* confusing, *more* slow, *more* labor-intensive...yeah, I think there'd be some stumbling. And we'd be gaining...what? The freedom to change Modifier values to suit our campaigns? We already *have* that. Gaining something we already have and sacrificing useability and portability seems like a poor trade. Those games are generally designed with a narrative focus, such that "balance" is determined more by screen-time and story-influence than system numbers. What works for a game like that is not necessarily going to work in Hero, which is very engine-driven.

Re: Elminating stacking problems - and more - with a new approach (credit to Tesuji) I, frankly, find this to be a terrible idea. And it's not going to eliminate stacking problems; it just means groups will have to stumble around with their best guesses and eliminate stacking problems as they find them. Since groups can already eliminate stacking problems as they come across them, I don't see an advantage to adding the "stumbling around" stage.

Re: Thoughts on the Speed Zone Per the section on "Combat in the Speed Zone" on page 260-261, the different "levels" only seem to influence combat to the extent that they alter a character's effective SPD. "Characters in the Speed Zone have their normal CVs and ECVs against each other, use their normal DEXs to determine who acts first in a Phase, may use any ability against each other as if they were in the normal-speed world, and so forth. Characters at faster levels of the Zone have higher subjective Speed Zone SPDs, giving them more subjective Phases to act in." The text doesn't qualify this in any way; if a character's ability to perceive different levels of the Zone affects his CVs vs. other characters in the Zone, the text is silent about it. Anyway, if the different levels of the Speed Zone really functioned as different "levels" of movement and perception to those within it, then any speedster in the Millispeed level would be frozen with respect to speedsters in the Microspeed level and above, and yet they're not; they just act at a lower SPD.

Re: Thoughts on the Speed Zone You've added the ancillary abilities, which your previous point totals don't include, and that complicates things somewhat. Speed Perception is usable and useful outside the Speed Zone (it's just the Rapid Sense Modifier, extended to faster levels); Character #1 has sensory abilities Character #2 doesn't have. Whether that balances the totals is debateable, but it shows that there's more going on with Speed Zone powers than a simple action total comparison.

Re: Thoughts on the Speed Zone This is absolutely, 100% logical based on how the abilites are described, but the Ultimate Speedster doesn't seem to indicate that combat within the Speed Zone actually works that way; it seems to assume that all characters in the Speed Zone can perceive each other.

Re: Thoughts on the Speed Zone What lower point cost? If a speedster can stay in the Zone longer than another speedster, he must have spent more on the power (assuming no Modifiers). Even if he can only act at SPD 2 each SZ Turn and the early-exiter is acting at SPD 12 each SZ Turn, the speedster with the longer stay spent a minimum of 20 points more for the privilege. And the benefit of having spent more is the aforementioned DCV loss suffered by those who drop out of the Zone before you.

Re: Thoughts on the Speed Zone This isn't an apples-to-apples comparison. A speedster in the Zone who gets all of his SZ actions in a single turn is going to spend a subjectively long time at 0 DCV against a speedster who gets the same number of SZ actions spread out over several Turns.

Re: 'Constant Instant' Power? The Lingering advantage, from Fantasy Hero.

Re: 'tis sacrilege This is a logical continuation of Hero's design philosophy. But Hero already draws some criticism for lacking flavor; some feel that one Energy Blast feels very much like another even after Modifiers and SFX are taken into account. I think those complaints would only intensify if Hero took that last step. Calling back to the original post...I love the Speed Zone. The Macroverse and Microverse too. Do they present potential balance problems? Absolutely. But I prefer Hero to provide the ideas and let GMs make the final balance calls.