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astralfrontier

HERO Member
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About astralfrontier

  • Birthday 05/03/1975

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    https://astralfrontier.org/

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    Software Development Engineer

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  1. Roll20 sheets are specific to that platform. However, I also created a Google Docs sheet, and others elaborated on that or came up with their own versions. You can see some of those here:
  2. I don't know who all is on Roll20, but I wrote the Champions Now sheet support for it, and that's live now. There's still a couple bugs that will be fixed once they refresh next Tuesday, but anyone playing on that platform in the free tier should be able to create characters this way. If anyone has any questions, comments, or feedback about this process, let me know.
  3. I did it that way so you only have to look at one number to know your total defense vs. either damage type. YMMV. I left a note in the sheet that was hopefully clear about what was going on, since it was ambiguous.
  4. I did this original sheet. Anyone who wants to go further with it is welcome to.
  5. Just enter the numbers, e.g. strength of "6"
  6. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1buh_qVmevgPAfxilb6Hlsj7rd7KtbgiyIRRTJF4Om58/edit?usp=sharing File > Make a Copy
  7. I feel like you've kind of answered your own question here. If a role-playing game doesn't clearly teach you about itself, it's not a good game. There are clearly people here who enjoy it. My own experience is that it's an extremely opinionated game, and you will enjoy it to the extent you agree with those opinions. I personally don't, but that's me. Hopefully it will gel a little more for you after more reading.
  8. A comment about power frameworks, in the context of Breakthrough, one of the PCs. Aside from using powers in play, the choice of frameworks affects how the characters develop. For Breakthrough, I wanted to leave room to expand his abilities in new or interesting directions. The game gives a couple ways to do this: manifest a new power during play (as with a VPP), or pay for a new power with points (as with an EC or MP). The point cost for a new slot in the EC is higher than that of one in the MP, and I wanted to be able to manifest maybe one new power every couple of sessions, so I went originally with the MP. Another part of the choice is cultural. Among the gamers I've talked to, many have expressed distrust or dislike of VPP or similar anything-goes power frameworks in other systems (e.g. modular abilities in Mutants & Masterminds). For purposes of the demo/playtest, I wanted to keep my PC simple for the sake of the other players, because a VPP can be complex in play. These are things that won't directly show up in the rules, but I hope we keep them in mind as we design more characters in the future.
  9. Re: Character Posting Challenge: Iconic Heroes Yep - in this case it refers to heroes that the public, civic society, and so forth can all look up to and rely upon. The people who fight for "truth, justice, and the American way". While the characters I'm looking for may not necessarily be paladins of righteousness, they should all be reliable standards for heroism.
  10. Are you bored? Have a neat concept you want to share with the world? Feel like seeing your name in lights? Okay, I can't help with that last one. I am looking for "iconic heroes" - the guardians of civilization, the supers of the 21st century that anyone can depend on. Think "Superman" here - not in powers, but in how people see him. This is for a game I've been working on for awhile, and I'm interested in seeing what people come up with. The rules: their powers must be something that some non-godlike future science could conceivably tinker with, so no overtly mystical special effects. Their personalities can be complex but not TOO deep. They may not have dependents, secret identities, or other "ordinary-joe" disadvantages - for Disad purposes, they have only their super-identity. Rivalries or enemies are fine (use the Champions Universe people and groups if it comes down to it). Gadgeteers or techno-guys are fine as long as they don't whip things up in the field but must go to home base first. Finally, no telepaths or astral projectors, although other apparently psionic gifts are fine. Ask me if anyone is curious about the reasoning behind these limits, but I think this alone is enough. If this sounds interesting, and you have a concept kicking around that you don't mind sharing, please post!
  11. Every time Supes' player asked "why all the tons of XP?" the GM just giggled, mumbled "Crisis" to himself and said "You'll seeeeeeeeeeeee"
  12. The "Golden Age" of comic books featured a number of heroes who were truthful, just, righteous, and worthy of every accolade heaped upon their shoulders by a grateful public. The super-scientists of Personified are not comic book readers, but in the age of superhumans, most of whom are relatively weak and fallible humans, their psychologists understand the value of a seemingly flawless hero to the population. Personified is a government-sponsored agency with legal enforcement powers. It coordinates closely with Federal, state and local authorities on all matters, lending its expertise whenever possible and borrowing likewise whenever necessary. It consists of a few dozen "agents" and at least a hundred men and women who occupy support positions or handle administrative tasks. Personified also maintains a "library" of beings, who are called "icons". The icons are not real people in an intellectual or moral sense; they are living bodies without minds, designed and engineered by Personified science, tailored for super-powers and physical fitness. Each icon is connected to the specialized equipment at Personified headquarters; through this equipment, anyone occupying the proper icon chamber (a reclining glass tube, designed to accommodate a single human body) can mentally direct the icon the chamber is connected to, just as if it were his own body. It is a form of super-tech possession, through which the agents operate their icons like three-dimensional, stringless puppets. Agents are supervised and aided by "monitors". Computer operators, researchers, librarians and scientists all hunt down whatever knowledge a given agent will require in the course of his duties, but it is the monitors - men and women who are in close contact with each agent in his or her chamber - who must coordinate this information, synthesize it and feed it to the agent in a way that does not distract him from whatever is at hand. The monitors are able to experience what the agent experiences from his icon, though they cannot control the icons directly. Agents typically work week-long six-hour shifts, staggered to prevent the entire active staff from changing at once. While "personifying" an icon, each agent is expected to portray the icon accurately. Above all, the true power of the icons is their reliability. The public expects them to be consistently heroic and upstanding, and this obligation is impressed upon each new agent recruit. Agents who commonly manage the same icon will frequently meet to discuss the icon's nature, and rivalries about the "real" interpetation of an icon's purpose can become heated. Agent characters will be active as icons about half the time, on average, in a given game. The other half of their time is spent on personal matters. Whether the public knows the nature of the Personified system is a matter for the GM to decide. Running The Game: The GM must begin by creating the library of icons available to Personified. These are built as regular superhero characters, at whatever point values the GM sees fit to assign, with one exception: no mental facilities (INT, EGO, Skills, many Talents, Mental Powers) should have points put into them. Agents are designed as Heroes of some power level, and will not have powers of their own. They will be highly-trained, similar to a high-ranking CIA agent, Marine, or Special Forces character (and many agents will actually have such backgrounds). Icons follow "superheroic" game conventions; the agents themselves follow "heroic" conventions (such as not paying points for equipment). Many agents will have particular "favorite" icons they enjoy portraying, and they will take every opportunity to do so. The GM should coordinate with his players and accept their suggestions as to what sort of icons Personified will have. The GM may assign Powers as he sees fit to the icons, based on his judgement of Personified's actual technological and scientific acumen. When an agent personifies an icon, he uses his own INT and EGO Characteristics, and uses the icon's other Characteristics, Perks and Powers. He can use his own Skills, mental Talents and some of his Perks (as determined by the GM), and any physical Talents or Perks possessed by the icon. There is no point value for this; the Personified technology is essentially a plot device, and should not be statted out. In combat, an icon may be Stunned, Knocked Out, and so forth, as usual. If an icon loses BODY, it must be healed in the usual fashion - one agent can go off shift and his replacement might inherit a badly-wounded icon, for example. Agents never lose BODY as a consequence of operating icons, nor are the agents themselves subjected to any special attacks (e.g. Drain) with a non-mental special effect. Running an icon is exhausting work; an agent who disengages from an icon chamber has STUN and END equal to his REC, and may recover normally. Damage to the agent himself while in the icon chamber (for example, due to sabotage) still applies to him; the icon effectively takes whatever STUN the agent does, and will be Stunned, Knocked Out, etc. if the agent is. Healing icons depends on the GM's assumptions about the underlying technology. If they are cyborgs or androids in reality, they may not heal independently. If they are biological beings, they can be restored with Powers such as Healing, or by the usual methods of healing BODY damage. It is probably simplest to say that they take BODY and that Personified can restore them to full health if they are brought in for maintenance. Against Mentalism, the agent is treated as though it was he who was present, rather than the icon. Mind Scan will fail against the icon, but locate the icon's body if directed to find the agent's mind. The agent has no special immunities to mental attacks such as EGO Attack. Telepathy will read the agent's mind. And so forth. Things To Do: An agent encounters trouble because of a fellow agent's negligence, contempt, or corruption, and must work to clear the name of both himself and his icon. Elements of an agent's personal life interfere with his duties as an icon, and he must work to resolve his difficulties without resorting to the icon's powers (which would be a breach of acceptable conduct). Another agent or Personified employee has gone rogue, and is endangering the icons or their agents - can the party expose the traitor in time? A rival agency or nation develops its own Personified technology, and the agents must engage in both skullduggery and high-flash super-battles to overcome their new opponents, sometimes facing danger when they cannot count on having superpowers to save them. Campaign Pros: the GM can easily set up situations where the PCs lack access to superpowers. The campaign is not necessarily a "flying fists" combat-heavy game nor exclusively a "subtle detection and intervention" game; it can be both, as interests dictate. Campaign Cons: many players will be put off by not having their "own" powers; characters whose powers have direct consequences on their private lives are limited or eradicated.
  13. Because the duplicates can also be seen and heard? And because the actual cost of Images + Clairvoyance to do this feat is astronomically high?
  14. The duplicates can't be PLACED anywhere arbitrarily, only RECALLED from any arbitrary place, if that helps at all. The actual process of duplication is still a "no-range" thing, it's just that she can "shut off" a projection at any time, from anywhere.
  15. My biggest pet peeves: The damage-add rules. "it's obvious!" will be cried. No it isn't. I want a simple-ass mechanic that does away with all the little details that can go into damage adds. I don't want to fool around with Damage Classes based on heavily-advantaged stuff and play "except when it's not" games with which advantages actually apply. Prices of primary vs. figured characteristics. I did some tweaking with an NPC lately and found it was actually more affordable to raise his STR than to raise any one single figured stat. I approached my GM about a CON increase for my PC and discovered I'd be getting points BACK instead of paying for it. I understand the idea of uber-high stats, but after a point it's easier just to keep pouring points into your primaries. The Segment/Phase/Turn mechanism. I'm getting tired of seeing SPD-based juggles from fast, tweaked NPCs. I've been running Exalted lately and it's really spoiling me. I wish a simpler initiative system could be added to the core rules of HERO, not just off-the-cuff advice like "ignore the speed chart to speed up combat".
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