DangerousDan

Re: Super Prisons without Super Tech I don't find either of these to be common, but a significant minority of characters does have one or both. Having "Does not eat" does free up the villain's time for badass training, but "Longevity" by itself merely gives the villain time to get really experienced (as opposed to Experienced) at farming.

Re: Disadvantages giving xp If the GM knows in advance that certain disadvantages will be inappropriate for the game, he should have no difficulty in restricting players from putting them in their characters, while perhaps allowing a larger than usual proportion of some other type of disadvantage. The rules state that the GM must approve any disadvantage. It is the GM's right to disallow any disadvantage that is unreasonable or doesn't fit the campaign. The GM is never forced by the characters' disadvantages. If, on the other hand, the GM decides after the game has started that the players' hunteds will be inconvenient for him, he can (should) just let it slide. There is absolutely no requirement that a GM use each and every Disadvantage of every character in every game session. The GM should make use of any disadvantages that work for the story, and simply make sure that the players aren't completely disregarding the disadvantages that don't advance the story. A player who takes a disadvantage and then completely ignores it is misusing the disadvantages merely as free points.

Re: Walking/Running on Water: Flight, Gliding, Swimming, Running Usable As...?

Re: Purpose of Playing a System-Philosophical, Unscientific and Wordy It isn't exactly that I like esoteric builds, but that I have character concepts that I often cannot see any simple way to emulate without compromising the character concept into something altogether different that what I started to build. Some characters don't care that they end up very differently than they started, while others are very picky about their abilities, and thus are harder to construct. The fact that I've been able to build some very strange and exotic characters with as little bending of the rules as I've done says quite a bit about the flexibility of the rules. In many games, some of these characters would largely consist of a long list of (often unwritten) exceptions to rules. One such character, when converted over to the Hero system actually fits into the system more smoothly than he did in his previous environment. In many ways, the Modifiers section of the rules on Powers is a system of exceptions to the rules. The simple inclusion of a generic and unspecified Limited limitation (at various specified levels from -0 to -2) makes a lot of things possible that would otherwise not be. The one thing that is less predictable than the dice is the players rolling them.

Re: The Grand List of Overused Science Fiction Clichés I've added a few comments to selected cliches.--in "Blue", of course Also, actually using alien (or at least alien sounding) languages practically requires you to use subtitles, and is often inconvenient for other reasons.

Re: The Grand List of Overused Science Fiction Clichés Ligers and Tygons and Bears. Oh my! sorry-had to be said

Re: Super Prisons without Super Tech

Re: Super Prisons without Super Tech Your Dreamland is a perfectly workable idea, as are the pressure tank, sunken submarine, etc. Some very interesting ideas have shown up here. Given the nature of supers, no single prison will do the job. With just the characters that I've created since FRED came out, not one of the suggestions I've seen would hold them all (and that includes the following suggestion). An idea I had while reading these posts: if you have a Super on your side who can create pocket universes (extradimensional travel to dimensions with small dimensions), you can use them as "Cells" in a super prison. This is a prison that will hold anyone, until someone comes along with extradimensional powers... Someone who, for example, picks among the inmates, those who will work for him and ... but that is another adventure. If there are going to be prison breaks, make them work for you.

Re: Champions Characters DEX Inflation Why? ":rolleyes:" indeed! When I read Balabanto's "That hero no longer goes on 2. Now he goes on 8." I couldn't believe it. That is however what FRED appears to say. 4th ed said that the character cannot act until he has had a Phase for both SPDs, which is how it should work. (also happens to match what you said, although your description is clearer than 4th ed) Once you read the Example: that follows the Optional Speed Change rule, you find that it says "He can now only act when he has had a Phase for both of his SPDs.", which is the old rule. Therefore, when you drop a SPD 6 character to SPD 5 before his Phase in segment 2, he gets a Phase in segment 3 at SPD 5. (2 was a Phase at SPD 6 that he didn't get to use, and 3 is a Phase for SPD 5--this, he gets to use) Otherwise, you get the situation that dropping a SPD 7 character's SPD to 5 in segment 1 denies him a phase until 12. That borders the far side of FUBAR. Note that aiding a SPD 5 character up to 7 does the same thing. 5+2=1, now that is FUBAR. Even worse yet, if you are really strict about misreading this rule, you can drop someone down from any SPD other than 7, 9, 11 or 12 down to 1 and they don't get another phase (ever) until their SPD changes again, and possibly not even then. This cannot be right, but if you look on the chart for a segment 7 on any SPD other than 1, 7, 9, 11 or 12, ... Balabanto is wrong, although this is not entirely his fault--this is one rule that was murky enough in 4th ed, but has turned completely opaque in FRED. Did ReFRED put it right? Or at least put it back to where it was in 4th ed?

Re: I'm sensing something's wrong Can't say I blame you. "You feel that you may be in danger" is about the level of detail that I'm used to hearing or giving--also common: "Your danger sense goes on":whistle: I've been RPGing long enough that even my characters that don't have danger sense usually get a tingle before it gets that dangerous.

Re: Poisons and Diseases You are making my point for me. The colds and flus that you are immune to, you are not passing on to anyone else. The only cold or flu you pass on to someone else is the one you are currently suffering symptoms of--the one you are not yet immune to. All of the others you've had in the past--not a carrier of. Carriers happen all over the place, a good Immune System will help reduce or eliminate many symptoms to virii and diseases to which you've had previous contact. Here is a different argument: DiseaseMan attacks character Able with a disease. Able, who doesn't have Immunity to Disease, suffers the effects, survives, doesn't become a carrier. DiseaseMan attacks character Bravo. Bravo does have the Immunity to Disease, suffers no effects, but becomes a carrier. The result here is that character points that Bravo spent have now been used to confer the advantage "Sticky", and arguably several others to DiseaseMan's attack. If DiseaseMan's player (or the GM) wants DiseaseMan's attacks to have those advantages, let him pay character points for them. Making the victim pay to grant abilities to the victimizer is so extremely wrong...

Re: Infinite Loops You are right. I ended up having to use WinXP's file search feature to find the last ever 5E (as opposed to 5ER) FAQ, and it did state that, like suppress, there is no cap for succor. --consider that horse beaten

Re: open door spell For a current character of mine, I define it as Transform 1 1/2 D6 Minor Transform Door or gate into door or gate that won't open, Personal Immunity this is an incorrect use of Personal Immunity, but the GM let it pass plus other advantages and limitations that are irrelevant to the question. Aagh! It just occured to me that it could have been better defined as a Transform to a Door or Gate that won't open for anyone else, thus avoiding the improper use of Personal Immunity. The low value of transform dice does depend on the interpretation that a transform on an inanimate object merely needs to exceed the BODY, not twice the BODY. Destroying an object with 10 BODY requires only half the amount of damage through the DEF as killing a character with 10 BODY, so it isn't unreasonable to expect that transforming an object requires half the transform damage as a character with the same BODY. It isn't by the book but it does follow the rationale that the book uses to justify the Transform.

Re: open door spell I prefer Minor Transform Closed door to Open Door, but the following is also possible: Tunneling, 1", X def, Limited Medium, Fill In, Useable as an Attack, Ranged

Re: Heroic Limits On Entangles? A 2d6 mental paralysis can often delay even a typical superhero for a phase or two, but as you say, a 1d6 is a minor barrier. Even many egoists will lose a phase or two to a 3d6 mental paralysis.

Re: Heroic Limits On Entangles? Remember, Heroic pushing is 5 +1 for every point the EGO roll was made, so a decent EGO roll with a higher than normal EGO gets the same amount of push as a superhero.

Re: Clerical magic? The principle difference that I see is that with a Monotheistic religion, all the entities pull in the same direction, whereas the gods of a polytheistic religion may have very different goals, and thus a wider variety of prayers could be answered.

Re: Question of the GMs In the last fantasy game I ran, I had a character sheet for "Generic Ruffian". With slight variations made on the spot, that character sheet served as over two dozen different NPCs. For an upcomming martial arts/chop socky game, I'm altering it to "Martial Ruffian," where I expect that it will serve quite nicely as the bulk of the bullies that the PCs get to beat up.

Re: Poisons and Diseases I have two points I'd like to make: 1) Outside of a Superheroic game, any GM can reasonably restrict a normal human from buying immunity from all diseases or poisons, but if your GM won't let your Rattlesnake-Handler character have immunity to rattlesnake venom simply because "no normal human can buy LS", then it could be time to shop for a new GM, or start GMing yourself. [If you want the job done right...] FRED does say "You can build a modern spy or a fantasy swordsman with only Characteristics, Skills, and Talents (though he may need Powers to simulate some types of equipment or special abilities)." That is specific permission to your GM to permit selected Powers to anyone. There are real people in the real world with abilities that can only be simulated in the Hero system with Powers or arbitrary new Talents. If your GM chooses to deny you the ability to simulate those abilities, you have the right to choose to play with a different GM. 2) It is reasonable to interpret LS:Immunity to disease as the ability to expel/destroy the germs, because that is what an immunity to disease usually does in the real world. Being a carrier of a disease that you are immune to is unusual. Being a carrier means that either the infection is unusual or your immune system is. If I wanted to build an Disease that creates carriers of people with an immunity to it, I would attach a "Transform to Carrier" power to it, possibly with NND:defense is lack of immunity to this disease. If you are the GM, of course, you can skip the stage where you construct the disease as a power and go straight to stating "this is what happens"

Re: I'm sensing something's wrong If it were discriminatory, you'd have a better idea of what sort of danger you were in. I've never seen a GM specify.

Re: I'm sensing something's wrong There was something that I introduced into a game I was GMing, and it was sort of indistinct between Skills, Perks and Talents. None of the players cared. All they wanted to know was what it did, how much it cost and could they have it. After thinking about it briefly, I think they had the right perspective.

Re: Rate these Disadvantages! How about Susceptibility:Transform, and Susceptibility:Mental Illusion/Image (personal image alteration)

Re: "I Can Kill You" Transform is the obvious way to strip someone of the ability to Resurect, or any other ability, for that matter. There is no such thing in the Hero system as Perfectly Invisible. There is always the possibility that some Unusual sense that you never thought of can pick you out. Did you buy invisible to the unusual sense: "Detect/Sense Invisible"? By the rules, you cannot buy invisibility to the entire Unusual group, so you have to buy them off one at a time. Even after you've listed every single Unusual sense that you think could possibly exist (at 3cp each), there is still the possibility that the player next to you thought of one so different that the GM says he can sense you.

Re: Infinite Loops A perfectly legal way to buy "Costs END only to activate" for any power it is not normally applicable to is to buy Costs 0 END and then apply a (-0) limitation: costs END to activate. You cannot argue that the advantage is too small or that the disadvantage is too great. It merely becomes a question of whether it is permitted at all.

Re: Infinite Loops FRED says Succor works just like Aid, except that it costs less per die and you have to pay END to maintain the boost. No mention of waiving maximum effect limitation. Does 5ER specifically mention that there is no maximum effect limitation on Succor?