archermoo

I generally use the HLC for all targeted (i.e. single target rather than AE/Explosion types) killing attacks in all genres. I like the results better than using the base 1d6-1 for StunX. I don't generally use the HLC for normal attacks unless someone is specifically targeting a hit location, and I don't generally allow the HLC for special attakcs (NND, AVLD, etc) at all. All of the above subject to what seems like a good idea at the time.

So how do those powers differ from magic powers, which by your theology would also be a gift from your god? Why are those powers usable for both good and evil, but magic can only be used by evil?

"Magical thinking"? I've no idea what you mean by that. And what things do we do that you consider to be magic?

My bowstring isn't tied in knots. It annoys me when people look down on others for simply responding to their statements. To refresh memories, you said "You answer a simple question about how you run your Champions games and it starts another (grumble, grumble) metaphysical debate outside the "Non-gaming Discussions" secion. MOM! They're doing it AGAIN!". That was in response to people replying to your initial statement of "I don't allow magic or magical characters in my campaigns since the PCs are supposed to be the good guys and magic is by definition evil and demonic. You can't use the powers of darkness to produce good results." The important bit that several people objected to was the "magic is by definition evil and demonic" portion. Had that part been something to the effect of "magic in my campaign is universally evil and demonic" I wouldn't have had a problem with it. However, you didn't. What you effectively said is that what the word magic means is evil, demonic power, and when people objected to your redefining the word you got huffy. Personally IRL, I don't believe in magic any more than I believe in any deity. I feel that belief in both through history has stunted the intellectual growth of mankind for thousands of years an affliction that we are still struggling to get past. Sidetracking the quest for knowledge by influencing people to look to the supernatural for answers rather than the wonder that is the natural world around them. However in a world that both magic and gods exist, such as most Fantasy settings, I've got no problem with either of them. And Kevin, you never answered my question. Would you consider all super powers that do not directly derive their power in a religious fashion to be evil? Or is "magic" the only thing that qualifies as such?

Indeed it does. Quite clearly uses the phrase "Almost all". Not "All except Invis.". Not "All". FREd also quite clearly states in innumerable places that Refs should do what makes sense to them. If it makes you feel better to say that when someone else interprets the rules differently than you they aren't playing the basic game, go for it. It doesn't make it true, but if it makes you feel better, fine.

That is your interp of the rules, so you do it that way. It isn't my interp of the rules, so I don't. I didn't claim that you did say it would stop the other two senses. I just don't agree that it is reasonable to assume that a sense affecting power affects senses other than the one(s) that it was bought to affect. Whether that affect is the purchased one or simply being perceivable. I realize that if you have a single sense Illusion, as soon as a sense that the illusion should have but doesn't is used on it, it is becomes obvious that it is an illusion. Not quite sure why you brought that up, seems to be a total non-sequitor. Never claimed that wasn't the case. But there is a difference between it being obvious it is an illusion because it doens't tactily exist when it should, and it being obvious because you can feel it and it feels wrong. If you want to say that all illusions have at least 3 senses, but the ones you didn't buy don't make sense to the illusion, again more power to you. I prefer to keep it simple and say that illusions exist to those senses that were purchased, and don't exist to other senses.

If that's the way you want to run it, more power to 'ya. I think that requiring a Darkness to sight field to be perceivable to an extra 2 senses is silly, and so don't do it. Just like with another sense affecting power, Images. Only the senses the character paid for are affected. They don't get an extra two for free, nor is their sight only image ruined by having a sound and smell component that isn't condusive to the sight portion added.

Ah, magic is evil in an RPG because it offends your IRL religious beliefs. And blaming others for responding to your flame isn't particularly reasonable. Had you responded with "I don't allow PCs to use magic because in my game world all magic is evil" would have been one thing. But you didn't limit it to your game world. You simply stated that all magic is evil. That may be true in your game world, and it may be your opinion in the real world. But in game worlds that I have run there are plenty of good guys that use magic. And by extension of your argument against magic, it should hold true for any superpowered being whos power does not come from your god, whether magic is the source or not. So do you consider all supers with non-relegious based powers to be evil as well? They have supernatural powers (powers beyond nature) without dependance on your god.

Personally, I'd disagree with this. Extrapolating from the description of IPE under Sense-Affecting Powers on FREd p85, I'd say that sense affecting powers are generally only perceivable by the senses they affect.

Re: Mutant Power Dampers How does not working out the "cost" of a mutant nullification field stop players from using it. If the tech is there they can turn it against the bad guys whether or not they know how many points it cost. If you are worried about players wanting to buy mutant nullification as a power, you have the same problem with 3 and 4, as they don't talk at all about the cost of buying a mutant nullifier. Personally, I've done it by fiat every time I've done it. Assuming that what I was looking for was a "Mutant powers don't work here period" type thing rather than, "Mutant powers are nigh impossible here" type thing.

Uh, that should be either meters/turn x .3 or inches/turn x .6 to get KPH.

Your VPP argument is the false comparison. Multiform isn't a VPP, it is the ability to have two or more seperate character writeups. If you wish to change that in your house rules, more power to you. Do it however you want in your games. But if a multiform character has 2 different forms, using your method if the points are being split evenly between the two forms after 50 XP, the MF character will have an extra 30 points on his true form (5 towards increasing the MF cost), and an extra 20 in his extra form. And everyone else will have an extra 50 in their main form. Assuming the standard starting points, everyone except MF man will have 400 point characters, but MF man will have a 380 point character and a 370 point character. After 100 XP, everyone will have 450 point characters, but MF man will have a 410 point character and a 390 point character. And he'll just keep falling further and further behind. But all that is beside my main point. If you don't like the multiform rules, fine. Don't use them. Make up whatever you want. Run your game however you want, it's your game. Knock yourself out. But leveling personal attacks against people because you disagree with them is childish.

Re: Re: Re: Shrinking Brick Names Aw, Universe Man is easy. See your copy of FREd? "He's got a watch with a minute hand, a millenium hand, and an eon hand..."

But if it is an autofire attack, the point cost is the same for 16000+ charges as it is for 0 end. And if it isn't autofire, you can get 64 charges for the same price as 0 end. I can certainly see going for 0 end for ease of play, but point-wise they're the same cost.

Ah, the "I'm right, you're wrong, and if you disagree you're a moron to boot" defense. Gee, I guess I should've seen that one comming. So your "fix" for multiform is to make sure that people that use it fall further and further behind the curve as more and more XP are given out. Yes, they have more forms available to them, but each one keeps getting less and less powerful compared to the other characters in the campaign. Yeah, that's balanced.

Re: Re: Re: YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING! I wouldn't have mentioned it at all, but he specifically stated that the epitaphs he used were to apply to the person who wrote the rule. He didn't say the rule itself, he went out of his way to specifically say "the person who made that rule".

Re: Re: Bullets vs Lasers Well, assuming that the gattling gun is autofire (which is implied by its name) buying it down to 0 END costs just as much as buying however many charges you want. If you want to give it a chance to jam as well, you can add the high activation roll. Or just leave it as is. I'm not sure where you are getting that a laser version would be cheaper though. Are you buying the laser down to 0 end or running it out of an END reserve? If you're buying it down to 0 end, it costs the same as the bullet version. If you're having it use END out of a reserve, it'll suck it dry pretty quick, unless you spend a pretty large number of points on the END reserve.

Re: YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING! So you didn't even bother to read what was posted then. Sigh... One of the most important things in what Monolith copied over was the "One good check on the whole situation is to allow a player to spend only 1 Experience Point of every 6 he earns on his Multiform. That way, the true form improves by 5 points for every 5 points his Multiform(s) improve by." portion of the exercise. But rather than actually reading what was written, you feel the need to make a personal attack against Steve.

Yeah, having an artist friend has its advantages. My friend doesn't do computer art for the most part. So mine is a section taken from an watercolour (I think...I'm not an artist) she did for me years ago...scanned it in and cut out the bit I wanted. The really cool thing is that she is also a gamer, and so can usually be talked into doing posterboard minis for our characters. With any luck she'll get some work out of HERO sometime in the future...I finally browbeat her into sending in her portfolio. She's done work for several game companies in the past (Iron Crown, Chaosium, AEG, and others) but never HERO, her favourite game.

Well, I don't have the material that he cites as being the sources for the numbers, but I'll point out again that he didn't use any formula to get the numbers. Those are not figured weights from known sizes and densities of materials. Those are the results of weighing actual period weapons that have survived intact (or mostly intact, as one is listed as being an incomplete weapon) to present. And I agree about the average sword weight you list, although I wouldn't limit it to the late middle ages.

Re: As I had stated earlier Sorry if I came off as a know it all. That was not my intent. I just personally have never seen any source indicate that broadswords at any time in history would have weighed 15 lbs. Nor can I come up with a reason why they would weigh that much. And it sounds like you had/have a cool rig. Which I would happily have told you before Braveheart came out had I seen it.

Sorry about that...it is a tangent that I'm easily dragged off onto. As far as the contents of FH go, from what you've posted it looks like it will be including pretty much everything I would look for. Can't wait until it gets to playtest.

Just as an aside, armour is certainly hotter than shorts and a t-shirt, but if it is well made and fitted it isn't really all that bad. And with the maille armour, generally 1/2 of the links would be either solid punched rings or welded closed, with the other 1/2 being rivited rings, to connect the solid/welded ones together. Butted rings cerainly wouldn't have been used in combat. As to the weight of swords, there MIGHT have been two-handed cerimonial swords that came close to the 15 pound mark, but again nothing used in combat would've been that heavy. Figure 3-5 pounds for the average broadsword.

The characters in the military campaign weren't super-powered at all. We were normals with stuff. Super powers existed, and a lot of the missions we went on were dealing with super-powered bad guys, but there weren't any supers on the teams. Probably my favourite character could, if he pushed his strength, use what were effectivly 2 M-60s, one in each arm. He took STUN from doing it, but laid waste to the opposition while doing so. He very nearly died one mission, but was saved by one of his teammates rolling a 3 on their paramedics roll. Kept him from bleeding out before the evac chopper could show up.