Snarf

I guess what I'm actually looking for then, is Universal Weapon Familiarity and a Universal Weapon Element of some sort. Thanks for all the suggestions guys, I'm sure I'll be able to work something out with all these ideas. The global guardians has lots of interesting stuff, but nothing specifically weapon related. http://globalguardians.com/house%20rules/talents.html They seem to value these universal skill talents as being worth 20 points. I'm not sure how well this applies since Weapon Familiarities don't function quite like skill levels. I think I'm going to do it the 9 point PSL way, throw in a few all combat skill levels, then have everyone buy martial arts styles and weapon elements the normal way. Weapon Master: +3 PSL for Unfamiliarity Penalties, (AP 9).

I'm trying to create an advantage that gives familiarity with all possible weapons for a martial arts themed game. Based on the campaign world I'm going to make and the cost of buying the familiarities the normal way, I've estimated the advantage's value at 30 points. Has anyone else tried to do this yet or seen it done?

The Sexy Commando: Find Weakness 15- with martial arts attacks (AP 40); Must Achieve Surprise (-1), Linked (-1/2) (RC 16). plus 3d6 Entangle (mental paralysis), Takes No Damage From Physical Attacks (+1/4), Works Against EGO, Not STR (+1/4) (AP 45); Must Achieve Surprise (-1), (RC 22). Total Cost: 38 The surprise need only be achieved on the first usage, then each consecutive hit with find weakness will just work. Maybe it should have AOE, but it's pretty expensive already. After using the Sexy Commando to lower the enemies' guard, I would finish them off with a "normal karate punch," which probably be a martial strike with 5 or 6 added damage classes, costing around 25 points. I'm leaving the specific finisher attack method for any given character up to the player. Thanks for all the help Arrow, your ideas should get me started, then maybe I can add more stuff after I check out UMA.

I agree that a KO every time is too powerful, so I'm going to try to control it heavily when I use it in a game. I would either use this house ruled form of the power... The Sexy Commando: 90 PRE, Reduced Maximum Effect (+0), (AP 90); Only In Combat (-1), Must Achieve Surprise (-1) (RC 30) Reduced Maximum Effect means a roll of EGO or INT +25 causes 0 DCV and a full turn of inaction, but this is the maxiumum and a roll of EGO or INT +30 does nothing more. ...or I would just rule that the EGO +30 roll can only instantly finish off unimportant opponents. At any rate, I really wanted to force the player to roll a martial arts attack and damage to actually beat their enemy, but just have a nearly guaranteed hit. I think it's still fairly unbablanced as it is, so I would aggressively enforce the requirment that the player must think of a special effect that suprises me, and probably force them to make it funny as well. I'm also considering giving the ability a single charge, since everyone seems to use it only once per episode. You make a good point about this ability completely demolishing the active point cap. I usually stick between 60 and 75, even in superheroic campaigns. The Sexy Commando: 60 PRE, Reduced Maximum Effect (+0), (AP 60); Only In Combat (-1), Must Achieve Surprise (-1) (RC 20) This would still give 12d6 of presence. That should be enough if you already had a pretty good presence. Masaru's ridiculously powerful attack represents the fact that he is a master of the Sexy Commando, but other players may just have normal PRE and less of a guaranteed hit, similarly to the power level of the other sexymates in the Sexy Commando Club. The Find Weakness form sounds reasonable but I think I would have to link it to some sort of stunning effect to get an accurate simulation.

Combat Striptease: 4d6 Entangle (mental paralysis), Takes No Damage From Physical Attacks (+1/4), Works Against EGO, Not STR (+1/4) (AP 60); Only Works On Men (-1), Restrainable (-1/2), RSR (PS: Stripping, -1/2) (RC 20)

Heyyyy wasn't that on Saturday Night Live? Some of those spells seem pretty easy to learn. I think there were a couple times when they just overheard the words used for a spell then they could use it whenever they wanted flawlessly.

I've been seeing a couple things like this lately and it's kind of bothered me. Your ability sounds balanced, but if that's allowable, what stops people from making constructions like this: I Kick All Your Asses: EDM (to the dimension where I just kicked everyone's ass ... and I have a bag of money) (AP 20)

There's another one I want to include in my game! It has nothing to do with the martial arts rules, but here's a form of Sexy Commando fighting that's workable: The Sexy Commando: 90 PRE, (AP 90); Only In Combat (-1), Must Achieve Surprise (-1) (RC 30) This will give +18d6 to presence attacks, modified by reputation, conditions, etc. I decided gestures, incantations, and extra time aren't required because, even though these things are almost always involved, Masaru seems to always pull something off even when he's restrained or rushed. The only real restriction is that the player must think of a new and surprising special effect every time the power is activated, using whatever circumstances will allow to do something stupid. Since I like to simulate perfectly, I would probably make a house rule for my campaign to allow this: The Sexy Commando: 90 PRE, Reduced Maximum Effect (+0), (AP 90); Only In Combat (-1), Must Achieve Surprise (-1) (RC 30) Reduced Maximum Effect means a roll of EGO or INT +25 causes 0 DCV and a full turn of inaction, but this is the maxiumum and a roll of EGO or INT +30 does nothing more.

Does creating a custom maneuver require the Ultimate Martial Artist book? All I have is 5'th Edition and Star Hero . Edit: Maybe some kind of enhanced form of surprise move would work? That would work pretty well. It's appropriate too, because Masaru seems to have a good PRE and reputation for weirdness. If the target's EGO or PRE +20 is rolled, the target is cowed for 1 phase and at 1/2 DCV. This would be like a near miss. If the targets' EGO or PRE +30 is rolled, the target is reduced to 0 DCV and may surrender, run away, or faint. The 0 DCV effect is right but the complete surrender is a bit too much. I'm looking for something somewhere in between these two effects, so maybe I should make some house rules about a roll of EGO or PRE +25. Or maybe I could just call punching the opponent out a special effect of the +30 roll instantly ending a fight.

It goes like this most of the time: 1. Masaru is about to fight some guys. 2. He goes through a "transformation sequence," as he waves his hands, his eyes flash, the background turns psychadelic. 3. He does something ridiculous (drops his pants, etc.). 4. His opponent is shocked into inaction and defenseless. 5. He knocks all his opponents out with one punch and they go skidding across the pavement, but this step is just a "normal karate punch" and not part of Sexy Commando fighting, so it should be a seperate ability. I hope that makes things clearer. I guess sleep deprivation made my first post even more rambling and incoherent than usual. The way it's described in the show, he doesn't actually improve his chance to hit, like an OCV bonus, but makes his opponent drop their guard. Not that it really matters so much in game terms, the point is that they get hit. As near as I can tell, it doesn't make him more vulnerable. The style does not seem to enhance blocks, dodges, or other maneuvers, but it has some defensive potential since everyone stops what they are doing. Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll read up on that stuff and see what I can figure out. It's actually really funny but about as stupid as I've made it sound. Here's some more information if you want to get a better idea of what the show is actually like: Ukulele Lesson!!

In the show Sexy Commando Gaiden: Sugoiyo!! Marusan the main character uses a fighting style called the Sexy Commando, which I want to bring into Hero System. The style is based on the fact that it is very difficult to attack an opponent with his guard up, so an unguarded moment is created by doing something unbelievably, shockingly, almost frighteningly stupid. For example, dropping his pants in the middle of a fight and charging like a baby chick. That sounds pretty bizarre already, but it's about a hundred times more intense than the way I've described it. If you use bittorrent, you can check the show out on animesuki.com and see what I mean. I was thinking an enormous DCV drain, possibly with some limitations, might work. Any suggestions?

The combat in my game is all incredibly mindless and stupid but it's okay because it's parody of video game RPGs gotta catch em all eheheh! Yeah, completely intentional, sure, I can do a serious game any time I want...

Ack, I guess a normal trigger wouldn't work. It says here that if the GM allows, a player can set a trigger multiple times. Although this is mainly intended for powers with foci or charges, maybe the GM would allow a couple of force fields to be prepared beforehand. Or maybe the power could be bought with a bunch of charges. Or maybe, if you're real convincing, the GM might rule based on this feature of trigger that the force field could remain up as a +1/2 advantage. That self resetting trigger sounds good to me. I think it's just a really powerful ability that has to be expensive.

In an upcoming game, I was just going to do it as a bunch o' leaping with all the wall running and other tricks as acrobatics rolls and SFX, cause I'm lazy

Maybe a trigger so it automatically reactivates?

I'm pretty sure John Doe has more than just knowledge skills, because I saw him jump in some random car and drive like a professional racer. Maybe you could just buy overall skill levels for 10 points a level. Getting +20 would be 200 points. Nice and expensive!

As long as everyone is somewhat on the topic of penetrating, I'd like to get everyone's opinion on something. In GURPS there was a realistic rule where flexible armor (chainmail and such) always let a little damage through, sort of like how penetrating works in Hero. I realize realism isn't the point of Hero, but I wanted to transfer this effect over anyway, just because I thought it would be an interesting flaw for armor to have. So, does anyone think some sort of anti-hardened (softened?) limitation, that makes all attacks penetrating, is possible? And if so, what would it cost?

Always looking wierd is best of all, because you can take a distinctive feature limitation and actually get points

Hero can handle everything in GURPS Supers. Most of the time it's easy, but sometimes you have to think about it carefully and use a lot of modifiers.

1,000,000 rounds/min = 16,666 rounds/sec, So... Metal Storm: RKA 2d6, Autofire (16,666 Shots, +7). 4 Clips of 550 Charges Each (+1), (AP 270); OAF Bulky(-1 1/2), Beam (-1/4), Real Weapon (-1/4) (RC 90) No point in paying for a rate of fire you don't have ammo for, just call it a SFX... Metal Storm: RKA 2d6, Autofire (550 Shots, +4). 4 Clips of 550 Charges Each (+1), (AP 180); OAF Bulky(-1 1/2), Beam (-1/4), Real Weapon (-1/4) (RC 60) That's a start. Don't forget to buy enough skill to hit with all of the shots... WF: Assault Rifles/LMGs (RC 1) 1000 CSL: Assault Rifles/LMGs (RC 2000) Maybe autofire alone isn't the best way to do this

Based on that last 53 point Amethyst Boost ability, a new ability that gave a flat x2 to Aids should be about 60 or 80 points. Doing it this way could save tons of in-game dice rolling and calculations.

What kind of gun is it? That would be a substantial disadvantage on an automatic weapon, possibly leading to reloading every other turn or so, but would barely affect a pistol.

You could use unconscious only at the -1 (you can activate the power but can't control what it does) or maybe even the -2 level. What will you call this super-jackass?

A DS could potentially destroy a weapon, if the GM uses DSs can destroy foci rules. A 2d6 HKA great sword would have a DEF of 6 and could be destroyed on a good roll. Other weapons might be easier to break. Not that any of this changes the point you're making at all

Nifty! Since he only communicates with his direwolf, a presumably willing target, it might work better to model that power as mind-link rather than limited telepathy. I can't remember the book exactly, but maybe something like these would fit: Warg Communication: Mind Link with Ghost (AP 5) (RC 5) Warg Communication: Mind Link with Ghost, Psychic Bond (+5) (AP 10) (RC 10)