DangerousDan

Re: Ghostly Possession As I see it, treating the corpse as an expendable focus does not necessarily mean that it must be destroyed by use, but does mean that you cannot use it again. Under this interpretation, when you stopped possessing a corpse, it would simply collapse. However, once you released it, you would never be able to reposess that specific body. As with anything, this requires GM approval.

Re: how to do it: strength effect lingers after moving Yes, once activated, an uncontrolled power continues, even if the activating character doesn't. The character can walk away, turn his back, go to sleep, even die (although the last is not recommended).

Re: UV vision

Re: House Rules Revisited I like that too. But then again, I also don't because I can see some potential problems. Let us start with a Control Cost for 300 point powers, costs 150 points. Add -1 in limitations and you get a 75 point real cost. Add a pool cost of 133, and you've spent 208 cp to get any 300 pts of power with a (particular?) -1 1/4 limitation. The standard VPP would cost 375 cp. Keeping the pool cost tied to the active point cap for the powers insures that you pay for what you get. IMHO, VPPs are currently the most powerful and flexible mechanic in the game as they are now. Making them more powerful, more flexible and less expensive is a move for devaluing everything that isn't a VPP in favor of the VPP.

Re: How can I do THIS?

Re: Wisdom

Re: Wisdom I actually got a result with that technique once, but it was a sort of desperation move against an opponent that seemed to be able to shrug off the biggest attack I could deliver. Result: Double KO with lots of KB. Both of us were resilient enough to get back into the fight before the GM stopped using phases. It took one potent opponent out of the fight for several phases, though.

Re: Optional Rule: Continous (Breakdown)

Re: Optional Rule: Continous (Breakdown) It appears that everything I knew about combining Adjustment powers, Constant and Uncontrolled is wrong: I was certain that that switching from an Aid slot in a framework caused the effect to dissapate immediately. But now, when I look at it, the rule says that when you switch away from an adjustment slot, the effect fades as normal and doesn't disappear instantly. I also remember that applying Aid to one target causes the effect to disappear from the previous target, but I cannot find that one either. A 4th edition rules stated "A variable Adjustment Power may only add to one type of Characteristic or Power at a time. For example, if a variable Aid is used to add to a character's Strength, and then the variable Aid is switched to add to the character's Endurance, the Aided Strength fades immediately." This text has disappeared from the fifth edition. The only instant fade I can find in FRED is that if a slot or power in a Multipower or VPP is aided and the character switches away from that slot, the benefit of the aid is lost immediately and doesn't come back when switching back to the slot or power. Switching away from a slot that receives Aid is quite different than switching away from a slot that supplies Aid. Apparently, I had them confused. However adjustment effects that reduce a slot are specifically stated as remaining.

Re: Supernatural Special Forces

Re: House Rules Revisited One of the groups I'm in has a long-running superhero game with this house rule. Most of the characters have cell phones and a car or a motorcycle, and use them during our superhero adventures. Two characters have neither. One is too small to carry a phone or operate a vehicle, and the other has a sufficiently flexible VPP not too need one. Another rule of thumb is that if the thing significantly exceeds ordinarily available capabilities, you have to pay for it. If your cell phone or car or base is bulletproof, you pay for it with character points. Sure, bulletproof cars can be bought with money, but you can't just go down to the dealership and buy one off the lot. If your vehicle never gets stuck in traffic, you pay for it. If your cell-phone's camera has a zoom lens or microscopic setting or infrared or night-vision, pay points.

Re: Wisdom If you inevitably make foolish decisions, so will your character. There is no game mechanic that I've ever seen in any game to keep your lack of wisdom from showing through. Contrived example to follow. GM: "You know that the creature is supremely sensitive to sound. In one hand, you have a tuning fork that is out of tune with itself, and in the other, you have a striker for the tuning fork. What do you do?" : "Shove the tuning fork up its nose!"

Re: House Rules Revisited Nothing wrong with your understanding of physics. The house rule in the houses I play in is that for a move through, you plan to hit your target(s) and choose which hex you stop in. That is where you end up, unless you hit and fail to even knock your target down, in which case you end up in the last hex before your target's. Having read the move-through rule, I think that you are as right as can be (for the game.) In real physics, your position would be determined by your initial velocity, your mass, your target's mass, your target's initial and final velocities, and a few other things like coefficient of restitution. A real little guy who does one inch of knockback to someone the mass of a battleship could end up with many hexes of knockback back the way he came from. Bouncing off your opponent is not very super-heroic, even if it is realistic.

Re: Size Powers Question OTOH, Inherent is there for the special effects that don't care what power to attempt turn them off is. For example, I've got a character that has Inherent Desolidification. No one can dispel, suppress or drain and thus turn its desolidification off because it has no mass (or gender, thus the "it"). Conceivably someone could transform it into a creature that does have mass, and thus no desolidification, but that is an altoghether different thing.

Re: Optional Rule: Continous (Breakdown)

Re: Optional Rule: Continous (Breakdown) Well, since that is not useable by other or on other as an attack, the only person you can trap with it is yourself.

Re: OK, now I'm beginning to understand the stats a bit...

Re: Question from a non-Hero player I looked at gurps quite a while ago, but never played it, so I cannot give you a comparison. What I can tell you is that I'm in two partially overlapping groups that have used the Hero system for various levels of superhero games, flat out fantasy, horror, science fiction, and even spy/military ops games and it has worked out very nicely in almost every instance. I've built some Sci-Fi characters that I suspect would be difficult or impossible to create in gurps without waiving or creating a whole lot of new rules. A being of (im)pure energy from an alternate dimension, that can, nevertheless interact with people and the material world is expensive to create, but can be done without even bending a rule, much less breaking rules or writing new ones. And hey, if you can do that, a spaceship can't be that hard.

Re: Armor, damage conversion and stun The other night I had a low-powered superhero get shot by a minor minion. It was a 1d6 RKA which couldn't possibly do any BODY through my armor, but it did quite a bit of STUN, despite my armor. If it had been a little harder hit, it would have exceeded my CON, thus stunning me. If he'd been firing a light anti-tank weapon at me, I'd have probably been toast. This gets confusing because taking STUN and being stunned are two very different but related things. The separation of damage into BODY and STUN naturally results in charcters that can be hurt by attacks that cannot kill them. There are other mechanics that allow you to build a character that is either impossible or nearly impossible to stun or knock unconscious. To paraphrase Warren Zevon, they'll sleep when they're dead.

Re: Couple of wierd power questions If the new character bearing the old soul retains not only the old character's personality, but his memories as well, I'd at least make the new character pay for at least one knowledge skill related to the personal memories of the previous character, and I'd be quite disappointed if he didn't buy a significant portion of the previous character's skills. But the old character doesn't necessarily pay anything for this ability. OTOH, I'd be quite disinclined to allow a character to achieve reincarnation or resurection in an alternate form so cheaply. I'm especially inclined to think this way since I decided that this was too cheesy for a character I created under 4th edition rules. (A werewolf that had died more than once before and come all the way back) Someone in our group had already built a character with a similar ability using Duplication. The Duplicate has Duplication, the duplicate of the duplicate has duplication,..., but there is never more than one duplicate up and about at any one time. My character has been played for several years and the ability has never been used. The character the power was initially applied to has died many times. This is a clunky and expensive build, but not nearly as cheesy as drawing up the same character over and over and pretending that it is a new one. Fifth Edition has a Resurection adder for Healing, and there are ways to combine regeneration with other powers including Multiform to build the desired effect, but they are all undoubtedly subject to GM approval.

Re: Heat of the Moment That brings up one of the things I like about the Hero system: there is a whole (small) chapter that gives you permission to change any of the rules. Essentially, even in a room full of rules lawyers, the GM is explicity the judge. The players can of course, overrule the GM by refusing to continue to play, or by choosing to play under a different GM. I've heard this called "Ret-conning" for retroactive con-something or other. Many GMs do something like this, but most of the people I know try to keep it to a minimum.

Re: Heat of the Moment

Re: Heat of the Moment It is a fine thing for a player to choose to randomly roll dice to determine a character's attitude. It is quite another thing for the GM to insist on it without good reason. Can a GM have good reason to require a dice roll? Certainly. For example: suppose a character feels he needs to stab himself with a knife. (devising such a reason is left as an exercise) Even if this is a decision easily made, it is not one easily carried out. A GM has good reason to require an EGO roll before allowing a character to carry out this decision. Can a GM require a character who has a "Code Against Killing, Total" to make an EGO roll to snuff out the most evil villain he has yet met? Sure, because the player has already committed to that being a very difficult decision to make. If the character was "Reluctant to Kill, Moderate" it would be a far different thing.

Re: Heat of the Moment In the middle of combat, no player should get a whole half hour to make a single decision. As a GM, I will after a significantly smaller period of time, conclude that the character is unable to decide (since the player can't the character obviously can't) and proceed with the next DEX rank. This is almost guaranteed to get a decision out of the player eventually. Occasionally, it is the villain's next action that spurs a choice. As a player, if I'm that conflicted, I'll often try to make a decision, but if I cannot in a reasonable period of time, I'll tell the GM that I cannot make up my mind, and tell him that I'm holding my action until I can. This allows my character to freeze in indecision without stalling everybody else. If another GM were to allow a single player to hold up a combat for a full half hour, I'm not above starting another game with the remaining players.

Re: Heat of the Moment There must be an awful lot of Goblin Hordes running around in that world I think that what you think you read was not what Thia thought Thia wrote. But if I'm wrong, you're right, that is a lot of Goblin Hordes.