Vanguard

Welcome to the fold ZenStorm You made the right choice. (You actually were forced to place Abbreant? You have my sympathy) On a whole 5th Ed Hero is a very good game. The one and only bad spot in it (if you could call it that) is the fact that it is SO versatile and can be manipulated to great heights. As such, any GM has to pay very close attention to the power constructs of his players or Really Bad Things can happen. Other then that, you can do just about anything with the game system. And with the suplements and genre books that have come and are yet to come you are able to do so much more. The Ultimate Vehicle, Until Superpowers Database and the Fantasy Hero Grimore are three books that come chock full of precreated vehicles, powers and spells that provide new players (and GMs) with ideas and insight into power creation as well as ready made items for use out of the box until they are comfortable with building (or modifying) their own. All in all . . you chose a very good system with wide community, as well as product, support. If you have any questions, post them and within minutes (sometimes less) you'll have an answer (and most likely several). Enjoy!

Steve, Powers that don't cost End are considered Invisible, right? If this is the case then does that mean that Vehicles' mode of movement are, technically, invisible? I ask this because they don't use End and there by cannot have the IPE advantage added to them.

As been said before, it sounds like your players don't really understand the concept of the genre they are playing in. You might want to sit everyone down and have a discussion on the superhero genre. That's what our game group finally had to do in order to make sure everyone was operating off the same info. Now if they do know the genre, then they're still stuck in the old AD&D mentality of "screw character development. Let's kill that thing, steal it's stuff and then crack open it's chest and rake out the EXP". In Superheroic campaigns, it just doesn't work that way. Hero System (specifically the Champions SubGenre) is one of the only games that forces the players (if the GM is willing) into actually playing Heros and not just the greedy swordswingers out to make a gold piece and steal/find some loot. First off, the characters have to understand that just because they CAN pick up the .357 and use it, doesn't mean they should (Heck, depending on the power level of your campaign, thier intrinsic powers are probably alot more effective anyway). If they question you on it, bring some of the action movies to the forefront. I know there have been a couple of them where the hero/star has opened a can on some of the bad guys and either just left their weapons where they lie or picked them up, used 'em for a bit and then discarded them. Now as for wealth. Wealth, in my opinion, was designed as for what was previously stated. The superhero that has tons of gadgets or such (IE: Batman, Iron Man, etc). It's also there for the mundane stuff. You want a cell phone. Sure, go pick one up. H2 Hummer, no worries. What you might want to do is do what is suggested in Dark Champions (High Powered Heroic - Low Powered Superheroic) and use the Wealth Perk as just that. They now need to "spend" their money on their items/weapons. Then all you have to do is say "Ok, you picked up that M16 but it's now out of bullets. How do you plan to get reloads?" And then make them pay out the nose for them. Of course, this also means that you'd have to decide on a level of Wealth that wouldn't be too drastic for your world and lock it down for the players. There's also the 3 use rule that one of my old gaming groups came up with. You were more then welcome to pick up a badguys OAF and use it. But if you used it for more then 3 adventures you had to pay for it with points or it broke, got lost, something. There's another way you can go but it depends on the tech level of your game and can get rather cheesy really fast. You can start working up things like Optical Palm Readers, SmartGun links, and some Judge Dredd type weapons. Weapons that you CAN pick up but A) You don't really want to or it's not going to do you any good. Ok, enough rambling. Hope this helped . .

I believe that's correct yes. If you bought it as a Focus and then bought a defensive power for it through the focus it would have that vaule as it's Def not the Focus way of calculations. And, if you're going the "AI follower route" I believe what would happen is that you'd get the Body (if any) that you bought through the follower or the AP/5, which ever is higher.

I've been doing some work on a BSG heroic level game for the past couple of months. Some of my work on the Vipers, Raiders, etc will probably change after I see the new mini-series.

I have only gotten to watch about 1/2 of the first episode. (WC has the tapes and I'll probably finish them up tomorrow sometime). Now, like many of you have stated, I LOVED the original BSG had had some series doubts about the "reimagining" of one of my favorite tv shows. However, I put my trepiditation and sceptisism (sp) on hold and so far I haven't been disappointed. While I only got a quick glimpse of the new BaseStar and a rather odd angled shot of the BattleStar, I'm holding my opinion on that till I get a better look at 'em. I do like how the interior of the battlestar looks like an actual ship and they do a good job of giving a very military feel to things. I haven't really seen enough to give a better commentary other then: What I've seen, I've liked.

Yeah, now that you mention it did seem to like the idea much at all. I forgot that they were human/alien crossbreeds. Still, some of the novels I've read point to a higher intelligence.

Depends. If you read the novelizations of the books, those claws can do some damage. The acid-blood is still their nastiest defense as well as there just being hundreds of the little buggers to deal with. Susano, you might want to try and include something in there that shows how intelligent they get/can be. I mean, if you look at the first one, that lone Xenomorph was a tricky sneaky little but in Aliens 2, they were just drones and were being killed by the dozen. Resurrection shows a sorta 1/2 way point but again, I feel, show-cases their intelligence (the three in the cell discussing who needed to go in order to break out). Still, all in all, throw a comment up on this thread when you get them up there so I can . . uhhh borrow them.

Very nice indeed. I'll more then likely use a modified version of that write up for when I have the Colonial Warriors from my Battlestar Hero game meet them. On question though, why only 1 Pip for the Claws?

Only problem with the Multi-form idea is that if, for some reason, you're incapcitated or kept from shifting into the multi-form .. you're totally hosed. You might be able to do it with a Trigger but that, like so many other things, is something for the GM to decide.

Very nice stuff Solomon. I'm going to steal Fenrir for a werewolf character I'm putting together. Hope you don't mind and it's ok. Gee WC, it's Force Commander. We're sooo done.

Re: character images Thrash's player, in my opinion, isn't looking for the "biker" or "tough guy" image. He wants to be the "loveable, approchable but still able to pound you into the ground if I have to" kinda look. Hence, the second picture. Also, as WC has already stated, the original picture (which I do like btw) showed Thrash as much older then he actually is. The redo fixed that and also gave him the "image" he (the player) was looking for. At least I think so. And trust me, I'm not just talking out me arse here. I play Recurve . . the guy that's trying to lead the team.

I honestly thing he should have them. I mean, yes his Multipower allows him to HAVE autofire attacks. But the skills allow him to do things like Accurate Autofire, Skip Over Autofire, etc. Would let him utilize his six-guns much more efficiently and effectively.

Actually, if you're still interested in it you can just give a PPC x amount of Dice. (I would think maybe around 4-5D6 RKA, and Advantages to flavor) and then use the Star Hero rules for Large Vehicles shooting at smaller. (In a nutshell, take the Size of the mech, minus the size of the man-sized target (would be 0) the difference is how much EXTRA body the attack does). I like it because it shows a difference in Vehicle Class Weaponry and man-portable. Only problem with that is that it can vaporize most PC's/NPC's.

Where'd he get the dart gun? I thought I saw just about all the Bionic Man episodes and don't remember a dart gun. Secondly, I think his fist should be an HA (although with that kind of STR behind it I can understand why you made it an HKA). Other then that . . Spiffy.

For the most part it's not a bad write-up. Thought the OCV was a bit excessive until I actually added. Only real issue I have with it is a SPD of 7. He doesn't need it. Speed of 5 would be more then enough especially considering his other skills. From the books I've read he's not all that much faster (action wise) then a normal human. Most (if not all) of what he does is based soley around his guns and his extraordinary skill in using them. And I don't know how long ago you've read the Dark Tower saga but I've had 4 books for almost a year or more now. The Gunslinger, Drawing of the Three, Waste Land and Wizard and Glass. Edit: Took another look through the character sheet and he really should have Autofire skills as well as Rapid Attack (Ranged). (If he does have it and I missed it, I apologize).

Steve, Been through the FAQ and I *think* I might have figured it out on my own but I've always been a confirmation type of guy. Here's the scoop: I've got a character that has twin Elbow Blades (ala the Guyver). Now, I've purchased these blades twice, one for each elbow and they are both in an EC. The character also has Two Weapon Fighting (HTH). Now, here's the question: When he attacks with both of these, is he considered to be doing a Multi-Power attack or a Two Weapon attack or does it depend on who/how he's attacking?

Which is exactly why I've told my PC's that while I'm using the "Bigger is Better" rule for capital ships, they don't have to worry about being destroyed in 1 hit like the NPC's. But that does bring up another question I have. Everything I've found that talks about space battles or such seems to be talking about huge spacecraft like the BattleStars and the StarDestroyers. Very little of it seems geared around or able to deal with 1-2 man fighter craft. (Or at least it seems that way to me). Secondly, how do you guys deal with the "multiple hexes" that a vehicle takes up? The Vipers I designed are, technically, 4 hexes long by 3 wide and it just doesn't seem right that 1 hit (only have 15 body) destroys the entire craft.

I seem frightening similarities in what Patroit posted and what's happened a couple of times in our game. Incident 1: The team (AvantGuard) has been trailing a splinter group of Viper for several months. As things started to come to the head, two of the team were captured (due to the Public ID of one of them coming and biting them in the butt). While looking for them, the villainess Blastar contacted the team and infomed them that she wanted to turn coat and as a show of good faith was bringing the captured NPC that she was guarding. Now, other then the fact that we had fought her just once and she, while not whooping our arses, did make a show of herself, had not once proved that she was dishonorable. The only thing going against her was that she was, technically, the bad guy. In any case, she showed up at the designated spot and we couldn't see any sign that she was going to doulbe cross us. So instead of reacting like the Heros that we were, we attacked. Our GM then called a halt to the game and basically asked us what the hell we were doing since we weren't acting like heros. He pointed out a couple of facts (one of these was that Blastar could've killed Blue Fury at anytime during our attack and had yet to do so, instead she started to flee). We tried to cover ourself by saying that we've been double crossed to many times in the past and while he did accept that he asked if he'd ever pulled anything like that before and has Blastar done anything in the past to prove that she was dishonorable or decietful. (She hadn't by the way). Luckily, we were able to recover from the snafu and everything worked out in the end. Incident 2: We had all agreed on playing a D-hopping scenerio and we had landed in the midst of a dimension where Rome never fell. When we arrived, the two people we were looking for were being held captive by the supreme ruler of the world. The immortal "twin" of our mage. Now, time and things passed and we sent a delegation to the Emperor to see if what he was asking was true of if he was just luring us into a trap (he was, technically, but that was part of the story and plot). In any case, two of the PC's started to mouth of and disrespect this person (again, a person that had not really done anything to deserve the disrespect) and again, the GM had to call a halt to the game and as us what the hell we were doing. This also resulted in the game being put on hold because if the GM responded the way the NPC would've reacted, the two PC's would've been summarily executed. We had a long talk about this and what it basically divulged down into was what we called "The PC Syndrome". It's where the PC's don't react as their characters' would react, but as THEY would react figuring they are beyond consequence and can do what they please. Some GM's react to this with an iron fist and summarily kill PC's left and right others, react by looking at it on the whole and going "How does this affect my game". Our GM, didn't want to just kill those two PC's at that point because it wouldn't further his story line and wouldn't have any meaning. He firmly believes that a PC's death should be a turning point and a milestone in the game and have meaning. A PC that is summarliy excuted doesn't really accomplish anything but pissing off the PC's inquestion. Now, you might be asking yourself what this rambling has to do with the current topic. And to be honest with you, I'm not really sure, other then to show that Patriot isn't the only GM that has to deal with it and I think that it's a question that weighs on all GM's. And that question is this: If a PC is reacting as PC and not the character . . what do I do? EDIT: Sorry, I just thought I might clarify the "PC Syndrome" a bit more. This is where a PC would go up to some high ranking NPC (or Villian) and mouth off to them or just show a lack of respect that the character should show but the PC's (because they're PC's) don't show it. This also includes any action that PC might have the character perfrom simply because the PC isn't in that situation. This doesn't apply to the playing of Disads because I know there're disads out that that PC take to portray this kind of attitude. It's when they don't have the disads but they still play like that that the problem begins to develop. PS: I'm not excluding myself from this little category either because I'm just as guilt of doing it as the next person.

Ok . . took me a bit but - - I understand that it's taking about Size differences to account for being able to hit something that big. But the second paragraph says this "Assuming it all counts as stone (19 Body, 5 Def), it has a total Body of 86 (base of 19, +1 for each doubling of size)." That's what I'm talking about . . . Or what . . is the doubling it's talking about the "free" body you get when you increase the size of something?

Steve, While looking through one of the Star Hero products I stumbled across the "Target:Earth" insert. It mentioned somewhere in there about the Earth getting additional Body because it was so many levels down the Size Chart. What I was wondering is, Does this apply to ALL big objects like that. I mean, if I build a Star Destroyer will it get additional Body because it's so many levels down the Size chart?

Steve, TUV mentions the above Modifer in a couple of places, yet I'm not able to find the actual Value of that modifier. Is there one or is just a +0 Mod?

I'm pretty sure I've seen this on here somewhere . . but for the life of my I can't seem to locate it. Can a Vehicle purchase a Vehicle that's part of it (IE: If you build a Star Destroyer, can you then turn around and have the SD buy it's escape pods).

The tiny tiny bit that I've heard/seen/read about Gaki say that they revert to their natural forms when they kill and that they can assume the shape/form of anything they do kill (that's also, I believe the only way they can actually be killed is when in natural form). Um, as to what they feed on: Souls, Flesh, Blood, Psi-energy, ummm . . I think the list goes on and on. (But this was already said . . )

Re: repost and a soapbox Starsong, You did make a bad comment. That whole forum went some 20 odd posts with no real bad comments about anyone's art. Mainly due to the posting rules posted by the creator of the forum. It wasn't the fact that the person in question got upset about Critique, it's the fact that there was a critque done when there had been NO other's done in the entire thread AND you didn't stop and do it to anyone else's art -- just his. The other forum was one that was designed for people to post art and I assume (yes, I know what that does) to snag art work to use for their own character's. It wasn't designed as a "Art Critique" because it was not and still is not, needed. This a super hero board not a place were people sit sipping wine and making snooty comments about other peoples work. That sounds just like something "Gwena Kitten" would do and say to make herself feel important. That thread, that you both seem to think is evil incarnate, was doing, and is doing, fine without any of your input. And if you would pay attention you would notice that when/if at post was made that asked for a "critique" it got one. And that wasn't your intention on posting what you did. If so, you would have posted a lot more then you did and not just stopped at that one critique. I think you have a personal vendetta against this guy and you should probably just let it go and move on with your life.