Jed Clayton

Re: Please help me make a Swarm Power I just checked in my book. Yes, that would work very well. I had not thought about Desolidification providing that kind of effect. The secret of Hero is just that all the nice goodies are already hidden somewhere in that big Powers chapter, but you have to know which powers and add-ons you have to combine to achieve your desired effect. For the character I have in mind, I'm thinking of this: Desolidification [40 Active Points], Does Not Protect Against Damage (-1), Cannot Pass Through Solid Objects (-1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Concentration (-1/4). Total cost: 13 points. That would still be combined with something that automatically provides more STUN and BODY, and Damage Reduction, as suggested above. The cost of the Desolidification power could be reduced even further, much to my surprise, and I'm thinking of using "Charges" (for -1) and something like "Limited Power: Does Not Work When It's Raining" (-1/4). Very nice.

Re: Please help me make a Swarm Power Thank you very much for your reply. I appreciate it. The "biting back" part is optional, it need not always happen. Damage Shield sounds like a usable thing, though. What I'd have to add to the three main effects, i.e. Damage Reduction, Shrinking and Damage Shield, is an ability that expresses that the character can be present in several places at once (within a certain maximum distance, of course). Is that Duplication? I'll have to check that in the rulebook again. It's not like he would create an exact duplicate of himself, but change between a solid human-like form and a swarm form: The swarm is not a collection of many equivalent forms. I see, that is a good idea. Buy extra STUN and BODY, then take the other powers with the Disadvantage "Stops working when X STUN and BODY has been depleted"?

All right, so here is what I am trying to build in the Hero System: I think one of the most intriguing and powerful images I recall from Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula movie (Bram Stoker's Dracula, 1992) was the one scene where Van Helsing and the other heroes were frantically chasing Dracula and he was coming down a corridor or something, and then when the heroes caught up with him, he dissolved into a swarm of rats. The characters just grabbed his cape and there was no body... Instead Dracula had turned into this swarm of little scary rodents. Besides that having a strong shock effect on the heroes (because no one expected it), it also meant that they couldn't catch him at that point because the rats were uncannily fast and you could never catch all of the rats in the swarm. There is a similar thing in The Mummy, where the guy can basically turn into a swarm of insects, and later into a giant sandstorm. I'd like to build a power like that for a villain. The villain should not be Dracula or the Mummy per se, but his main gimmick is that he can split and reassemble his body freely, and operate as a swarm of many tiny creatures--preferably locusts, mosquitos or even wasps. For example: A hero tries to throw a punch at the guy and at first it will seem that he has connected, but he fails to do any actual damage because his body disassembles into thousands of small individual organisms. Some of those organisms can even land on the hand of the hero and try and bite him (several tiny painful insect bites). The same bad guy could also disassemble and thus be present in an entire area (an entire street, or several floors of a tall building, several houses of a village or fort, etc.), making it hard for even a skilled team of heroes to fight him directly. Every small insect unit should have a "hive mind" and thus get the character's core stats like INT, EGO, maybe DEX. The other stats wouldn't matter. Split into the tiny component beings, this character would not have his full STR, CON, BODY, and be limited to a few appropriate skills, an insect OCV and DCV. Each of the insects would also be very fast (high SPD, Flight Power?) and almost certainly be able to escape. Hitting and squashing an individual insect won't hurt the character much. You would have to burn, gas, drown, trample, suffocate or otherwise destroy at least 1/4 of the swarm. The other 3/4 of the swarm form would then swiftly reassemble into the base humanoid form and start recovering damage. I was just wondering which Powers do that and how many points it costs.

With Hulk Hogan's recent signing to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) in mind, as well as my own history as a somewhat closeted Hulkamaniac, I tried statting up a tribute to Hulk Hogan in LLH terms. Of course I made him noticeably larger than life, and slightly lucha-fied him in my ideal player-character version, but that version is not anywhere near characters like the Atomic Aztec powers-wise. So, in Hero 5th terms, using the info from LLH, I made up this character: BRANT BOULDER, American Wrestler Val Char Cost Roll Notes 25 STR 20 14- Lift: 800 kg; 5d6 [5] 13 DEX 9 12- OCV: 4 (+3) DCV: 4 (+3) 17 CON 14 12- 20 BODY 20 13- 15 INT 5 12- PER Roll: 12- 18 EGO 16 13- ECV: 6 30 PRE 30 15- PRE Attack: 6d6 12 COM 1 11- 8 PD 3 6 ED 3 3 SPD 7 Phases: 4, 8, 12 10 REC 4 50 END 8 48 STUN 6 Total Characteristic Cost: 146 Cost Powers Martial Arts: Lucha Libre Maneuver OCV DCV Damage/Effect Grabs 3 Bearhug -1 -1 Grab Two Limbs; +10 STR to hold on 5 Side Headlock -1 -2 Grab One Limb; +20 STR to hold on Standing Holds 4 Hammerlock +0 +0 Grab One Limb; +20 STR to hold on 5 Wrist Lock -1 +0 Grab One Limb; +15 STR to hold on Pressure Squeezes 3 Basic Pressure +0 +0 12d6 Squeeze; Must Follow Grab; Squeeze Roll (Luchador) 3 Grappling Throw +0 +2 10d6 Strike; Target Falls; Must Follow Grab Strikes 4 Big Boot +1 +3 8d6 Strike; Held 3 Clothesline Reversal +2 +2 8d6 Strike; Held 4 High Knee +2 +0 10d6 Strike 3 Leg Drop +2 +1 10d6 Strike; Prone; You Fall 3 Slap (Chop) +1 +0 10d6 Strike 2 Atomic Legdrop (F) +3 +1 10d6 Strike; Prone; You Fall Takedowns 4 Bodyslam +2 +1 8d6 Strike; Target Falls 3 Hip Toss +1 +1 8d6 Strike; Target Falls 4 Irish Whip +0 +1 11d6 Strike; Target Falls; Turnbuckle 4 Toss Over Top Rope +1 +0 10d6 Strike; Target Falls Escapes 4 Breakout +0 +0 +15 STR vs. Grabs 4 Root +0 +0 +15 STR to resist Takedowns 12 +3 Damage Classes (already added in) 8 Augmented Haymaker: HA +4d6; Hand-To-Hand Attack (-½), Only When Using Haymaker To Punch (-1) 25 Superman Comeback: Aid STUN 4d6; Gestures (-¼), Requires a PS: Luchador Roll (-½), Self Only (-½), Once Per Match (-½), Only When His STUN Is Down To 25% Or Less (-½); Aid PD 2d6, Linked (to Superman Comeback: Aid STUN; -½) 7 Tecnico Pop: Aid STUN 2d6; Requires a PS: Luchador Roll (-½), Self Only (-½), Once Per Match (-½), Only After Making Contact With His Fans (-¼) 22 Weapon Shot: HA +6d6, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +½); OIF (objects of opportunity; -½), Hand-To-Hand Attack (-½) 12 Luchador’s Toughness: Armor (6 PD/6 ED); Requires A CON Roll (-½) Perks 1 Fringe Benefit: Member of UPWA 5 Money: Well Off Talents 16 Danger Sense, based on INT, works at 13- 3 Environmental Movement: Ropemaster 2 Resistance, based on EGO, 15- Skills 9 +3 with Lucha Libre (Combat Skill Levels) 3 Acrobatics 12- 3 Acting 15- 3 Breakfall 12- 3 Contortionist 12- 2 CK: Orlando, Florida 11- 5 KS: Lucha Libre 15- 4 PS: Luchador 14- 5 Oratory 16- 2 Language: Spanish 2 Language: French 1 Language: Japanese 2 KS: Business Administration 11- Total Powers & Skills Cost: 222 Total Cost: 368 200+ Disadvantages 5 Luchador Humility 15 Tecnico Code of Honor (Common, Strong) 15 Floating Hunted (Mo Pow, Harshly Punish) 8- 5 Social Limitation: Luchador Identity (Occasionally, Minor) 5 Rivalry (Professional): Darren “The Duke” Morley 123 Experience Points Total Disadvantage Points: 368

Re: [Lucha Libre Hero] Luchador's Toughness - What is that all about? Thank you, Sean. I can see that working. No problem. It would surely work as a kind of dramatic, cinematic injury: The character (well, the "wrestler") looks hurt, but just keeps going in a dramatic fashion. I'll just have to make sure that my players all understand when their luchador characters are really hurt and when they just suffer a cosmetic setback (which ultimately just makes them look more heroic anyway 'cause they keep going against the odds).

Re: [Lucha Libre Hero] Luchador's Toughness - What is that all about? Thank you, Ghost Angel. I like that. It basically equals a type of "soak roll". That solution works for me. I tend to use the "roll when dramatically appropriate" option quite a lot, even in other games and in other genres.

Hello, As I'm still new to running games in the Hero System, I have to ask this question: Luchador's Toughness >> Effect: Armor (6 PD/6 ED), Requires A CON Roll Target: Self Duration: Persistent Range: Self END Cost: 0 Skill Roll Penalty: -2 Description: The luchador is tough and resilient that he can endure levels of physical punishment that would surely cripple or kill a normal man. Almost all masked wrestlers have some form of this Action Stunt. Game Information: Armor (6 PD/6 ED) (18 Active Points); Requires A CON Roll (-1/2). Total cost: 12 points. >> I was wondering how you determine in a game session when this Action Stunt is actually in effect and when it isn't. It seems totally confusing to me. The description says it is dependent on a successful roll against CON, at a -2 penalty to the CON Roll, but it is also defined as Persistent. Traditionally, Persistent Powers are always on unless the character using them is Stunned or worse. You even keep your Persistent Power when you are KO or asleep. When should a luchador PC be asked to make the CON Roll? At the beginning of a match? At the beginning of an important fight scene? At the beginning of the adventure?

Re: [Lucha Libre Hero] How do you kick out of a cover? Hello there, I'm happy to report that last night I ran a game of Lucha Libre Hero for four friends and we all had a very good time. I also managed to keep the Nacho stains to my new book to a minimum. (That is not a joke. It was my idea to bring something Mexican to the table food-wise ...) Since we started directly with a wrestling match like the one at the beginning of Contra Todo Mal, a few questions came up about the combat resolution system: First off, I took your advice to use STR-vs.-STR contests for a pin attempt. Once I had decided to do that, I realized there was no section in the LLH book that really explained a Characteristic vs. Characteristic contest. When I checked in the Hero System 5th Edition book, I noticed there are probably at least three methods to resolve this: 1. Both sides involved in the STR vs. STR situation use their STR "effect dice", 1d6 for every increment of 5 in STR, and count the Normal BODY Damage done. Since there are so many holds that effectively boost the luchador's STR by +15 or +20, this highly favors the attacker since he simply gets a couple more dice. 2. Both sides involved in STR vs. STR make a Characteristic Roll against their effective active STR: Luchador A using a mat hold that increases his STR 15 to a STR 30 must make the roll against 15- (i.e. 9 + 30/5). Luchador B with a raw STR 15 must make a roll against 12-. The side that makes their roll by more wins. 3. Both sides involved in STR vs. STR make a Characteristic Roll as if it were a Skill vs. Skill contest. The attacker rolls first... whatever he makes his Characteristic Roll by is the penalty to the defender's target number. I'm not sure whether that makes a good house rule. We tried it once yesterday, but it even more dramatically favors the wrestler with the higher STR. So, for the moment, I'm torn between using the STR damage effect dice or two Characteristic Rolls. I kind of prefer Characteristic Rolls. Another difficulty in our game yesterday was wrestling an opponent with very high DEX and SPD. One player had almost maxed out in DEX, SPD and Acrobatics at character creation and had spent 60 points on wrestling holds and takedowns. That wrestler's "opponent", having SPD 3 and fewer holds, complained that he had no way to grab or damage the fast luchador. It seemed more like a rhinoceros fighting a grasshopper. The grasshopper could just about go anywhere before the rhinoceros could blink. The smaller guy always dodged attacks and slipped out of holds, and having SPD would always attack first. One player also asked why there were so few holds that directly boosted his OCV. Most of the maneuvers actually decreases the OCV because they are difficult to do. I think the player was excited about playing a wrestler, but felt cheated since he was taking penalties to his favorite moves.

Re: Lucha Libre convention game! Very cool response from your friend there. As for me, I saw a great wrestling show on Halloween (last Saturday) featuring the finest wrestlers from Dragon Gate. They use a style sometimes called lucharesu (from Mexican lucha libre and Japanese puroresu). I got all of their autographs, also the Young Bucks' autographs. I feel like I'm 15 years old all over again. (I'm really 35. So that's 20 years as a wrestling fan.) I also got a chance to talk to the one and only Mike Quackenbush, an American luchador, for a minute or two. That made my day! He's such a kind fellow in real life. Next year, I want to travel to Pennsylvania to see one of his Chikara wrestling shows.

Re: [Lucha Libre Hero] How do you kick out of a cover? Thank you very much for the suggestions so far, Darren. Yes, I can see basing it on a special EGO Roll, but the STR vs. STR contest is also helpful. I was thinking of using a DEX Roll myself (representing the "kayfabe" wrestling skill), since that would explain how a small luchador like Rey Mysterio Jr. kicks out against a 350-pound mountain of muscle. I'd make ties go to the defender myself, but not award the pin-ee especially for the kick-out attempt. I don't want to emulate WWE too much. Better too keep it lucha libre.

Re: Lucha Libre convention game! That is almost right. "All" in this sentence means "space", like outer space. The title in full is actually, "Wrestlers meet the wild werewolf spawn (brood?) from outer space". When I sent them my game session info, all I had was the title. Now I'm making a plot to go along with that title. (As the book says, the story in a licha libre film does not have to make a lot of sense.)

Re: Lucha Libre convention game! I agree. Thanks. That is why I watch Chikara, basically an American indy federation that uses lucha libre traditions and lucha libre rules. It's incredibly cool. Do you know Chikara? http://www.chikarapro.com

Re: Lucha Libre convention game! You mean differences between Mexican and American pro-wrestling, Bubba? I'm not quite sure. At the con in Germany, chances are that nobody knows Mexican wrestling. Only a year ago, I hardly knew anything about it. The Mucha Lucha cartoon and Jack Black in Nacho Libre have worked wonders to popularize that art form.

Re: Lucha Libre convention game!

Re: Lucha Libre convention game! Hi there, I am doing pretty much the same thing next month in Germany: Dreieich-Con, November 21-22, in Dreieich (near Frankfurt/Main). My Lucha Libre game is planned for Saturday afternoon of the two-day con. Lucha Libre Hero is the one book that made me fall in love with Hero all over again. In short, I'm going to use five pre-made player-characters based on the five "tecnico" special templates from the book: Crimefighting Luchador, Occultist Luchador, Luchador Noir, High Flyer, Mat Technician. In the foreseeable future I'm planning a game that will go behind the scenes and have characters break "kayfabe", though the book discourages that. I want the wrestlers to have a ring personality separate from their real personality, and a superhero identity as a third persona when they go out in their masks to fight bad guys for real. Maybe I'm just going to go out of the genre and do a game based on "The Wrestler" or something like that.

Hello everyone. I recently bought Lucha Libre Hero, so far one of my favorite Hero System books. It will very likely be the only setting and genre I'll run with the Hero System 5th Edition rules. Next year I might switch to the new 6th edition of the Hero System, but at the time of writing this (and planning my campaign), I'm going with the modified 5th edition core rules contained in the Lucha Libre Hero book. One of the major things I have to know in advance for running a wrestling game is how pro wrestling's "pinfalls" work: Now, I understand that, in order to get a fall, you have to keep your opponent down with both shoulders firmly on the ground for three Segments, not three Phases. So it will be crucial to learn when a wrestler (PC or NPC) typically gets a chance to "kick out of a cover"! When do I do that? If I only get a chance to counter a cover on a Segment where I have an active "Phase", then SPD (Speed) becomes very important. SPD determines how many actions I get in a turn, and if my SPD is only 2 or 3, there are many Segments left in a Turn where I cannot act. In other words, the referee in the ring would count to 3 before I could break/kick out of the cover. (There would be a "count" on every Segment, is that correct?) I gave my first luchador SPD 4 precisely because of that. But is kicking out even considered a full action, requiring a Full Phase? I'm not clear on that, yet. The other rules work great for wrestling and lucha libre simulations.