John515

Actually, the defending supers were defending a govt facility. A VIPER agent managed to trick them into working for a "newly formed govt agency" and sent them out to raid a "secret terrorist weapons lab". When they broke through, they were attacked by other supers in the employ of the facility. The defending super was trying to keep it from falling into the wrong hands. Pretty heroic, eh?

Thanks for all the input!- You all rock! The scenario was that the players were tricked (by VIPER) into assaulting a "terrorist base" (actually a US govt secret lab). After a few rounds of combat, the base-defending energy projector got laid out by the team martial artist. EP's Stun total was reduced to about -9. On her next REC phase, she was back up to about +5 ish, took another recovery phase (add another 14-15 STUN) and then proceeded to attack the hero from behind (she was again felled by another member of the team and REALLY laid out this time....). The villian did not use excessive END and was trying deperately to drive off the invaders from the base. I don't see how this could be considered what the players called "a weakness" in the system. (This was coming from someone who had just got a copy of the book a week before and had never played before.....)I thought that the reduced END incurred by coming out of being unconscious DID reflect a state of reduced combat capability. All I heard was a bunch of whining about how the bad guy didn't stay down and managed to get in a good shot against a player character. That's superhuman combat for ya! I DID ask them to make a PER roll (to see if they could tell the villian was playing possum-though I didn't tell them what the roll was for) and I gave them a -5 to the roll. They all failed their rolls, so they didn't notice that she wasn't really unconscious. What's the problem? ;-) Besides, it really spiced up the encounter and made for some good EP vs EP combat....yay! And BTW, if any of my players are reading this, you all got off light. The PC's sword attacks were stronger than they were supposed to be (I made a mistake in your favor and just let it ride for the rest of the encounter) and the agents didn't coordinate themselves as well as they really could've. I 'm trying to ease you all into HERO combat slowly, instead of trying to beat the crap out of you from the very first combat. Besides, you did really well that night AND you got yourselves a great recurring villian agency (and friends....) See you Sunday--be ready! Mr. Meyers might not be done w/you yet.....

Unless your players are really opposed to it, creating the charcters as mutants would be good. It will simplify the creation process. I would also suggest that you sit down w/each player individually and interview them as you create a rough draft while they are present. That way you can explain to them how everything work together on the sheet and will provide that much more exposure to the rules mechanics (END, BODY, STUN, REC, etc). I did this with my players and it has, so far, seemed to be working. Best of luck!

Any ideas on how to handle this? I have a player who was complaining about a villian who, after waking up, plugged her in the back with an energy blast. I explained that the villian had taken an extra recovery and "played possum" in order to get a good shot at her (held action, braced, etc), but my player complained that there's no way he should be "at full strength" after getting knocked out and then coming back up to +1 STUN. I await your ruling or suggestions.....

Does darkness affect literally everything within a defined area, regardless of what else is around? A player in my game has Darkness 3" radius, centered on self. Two interesting things happened tonight: 1. Does the sphere penetrate a solid structure? If he is walking 1" away from a structure, does (or can) the sphere extend 2" on the side of that structure and move with him? If so, does the structure have to be airtight? Does the defined special effect of the power come into play here? 2. A powered armor character moved inside the sphere of darkness and expected to be blind, except for his radar. The darness is bought with it being darkness vs. sight. The darkness character said that the armor suit wearer wouldn't be able to see the radar screen because the darkness would prevent the man inside from being able to see it. My original thought is that the darkness would prevent armor dude from seeing out the viewscreen with a naked eye, but would still be able to see the radar screen. BUT, the letter of the rules doesn't really say either way. I thought it was a good question. What do you say, Steve? Can I get a ruling?

Location of Stronghold I was telling one of my new-to-HERO players about Stronghold and he asked me a very good question: "If the inmates are so much a threat to the world, why don't they just put it in Antarctica? Escapes would be nearly impossible!" I gotta' say he's got a good point! My response to that had to do with the cost of a facility like that in such a remote location and the difficulties in maintaining it there. I don't think he bought it...... Your thoughts on this, HEROphiles?

Ambush Bug Waaay back in the late 1980's, I played with a group called "The DGAgents" in Denver and one of the guys had done Superman. Our GM would very occasionaly run short 1-2 session adventures where we could run pretty much whomever we wanted. Of course, Supes was enthusiastically pulled from the files and submitted for her approval. I, being prepared for just such an emergency, removed Ambush Bug and Cheeks the Toy Wonder and put them in the same pile as we passed down our sheets to our long-suffering GM. I think I really made her week when she saw what I had created. When everyone asked who I was going to play I kept it a secret and said that it was a 250 pt character that I wanted to try out. They thought I was crazy! How right they were....... I gleefuly spent the entire afternoon "helping" Superman all over the place. Ah, memories.........

She will be a normal who can change into a rocklike form. Is Multiform the only way to do this?

What is the best way to create a character who is a competent normal who can change in into her hero ID a la Colossus or Captain Marvel?

Call me stupid or just plain blind, but I cannot find anything in any book that explains exactly how to add damage classes to Martial Arts. Thunderbird's +2 DC's cost him 8, and Shadow Dragon's +3 DC's cost him 12. So....... Do I simply pay 4 points per additional damage class and apply it towards all Martial Arts? My new GM recertification is in serious jeopardy here!! ;-)

What is 0.1c? Is 0.1c equal to 1/10 the speed of light?

I will definately be using that little tidbit in my game. As far as it being known how Mechanon transmits his signal. that's easy. Just drop a few hints and let the players get lucky-make 'em feel like they outsmarted you. Come to the session prepared to be "defeated", let them do it and allow them to reap the rewards for the remainder of the session. It'll build morale, especially after they just got beaten within an inch of their lives the previous week by something new to them called an "8 team" (heheheheh).

My VIPER is gonna kick the crap out of the players I like a lot of the ideas regarding the way VIPER is to be handled. I, for one, will gradually introduce them into my game and kick the ever-lovin' dog-snot out of the players if they start to get too cocky. I want them to know that these guys are not fighting a bunch of idiots with tacky costumes. To me, VIPER is a TERRORIST group with a lot of resources. I plan to treat them like it. Chemical weapons, bombs, hijackings, assassinations, and various other ingredients will all be a ingredients in my VIPER recipe.

I can't unZIP the file! As you can probably tell simply by my stating this, I am pretty incompetent on PCs. How do I unZIP a file? Where do I get an unZIP program? Thanks for your eternal paitence....

I would welcome a good general purpose character sheet for my upcoming game. Next weekend I will be creating characters with my players. If you have any specialized sheets or other GM gaming aids, those would be welcome as well. BTW, where can I get a copy of the HERO resource kit? It's not listed in the online store and no one near me carries it. Thanks in advance!!!!

I plan to use everyone's favorite lich (the BIG T) as soon as the heroes get some seasoning under their belt (BTW, whoever designed that guy deserves a medal or something-he's great!). I'll also be using some of my old characters from long-past 4Ed as a super team in case they get cute and start trying to learn about any of the published villains. I've also got a super agency in place that promises to give my players some real headaches......

One of my players is going to play an ex-black ops agent turned hero. He refuses to take code vs. killing, although he swears he will not be a killer. So..... ATTENTION LAWYERS: In the unlikely event a hero does manage to kill someone in a super battle, how would you deal with it? Evaluate proper use of force/deadly force like a policeman? Vigilante? Joe citizen just trying to help out? Can you think of anything else that isn't already covered in the books? (Mr. Steve Long, that's your cue...... ;-) ) I suppose it would depend on the individual situation and whether or not the heroes action were justified. In an old game, our team managed to kill two members of Eurostar after they has killed 2 heroes and a bunch of normals. Our GM had us roleplay out the rest. However, it was about 12 years ago and I don't remember all of the legal details..... I would like to have something to use in the event that it does happen. I will probably make it happen anyway, just to keep them on their toes and on their best behavior should they get a little too lax in the use of force against a lesser foe.........

Fighting Eurostar In my old 4Ed game we fought them a few times. The first encounter was pretty much a draw-they escaped with their unconcious teammates and we were in too bad a shape to do much about it. The next time we were much smarter (and about 30 XP stronger)and actually managed to subdue them and bring them to justice. The final time we fought them was muuuch later (+another 30XP) and they were in the middle of an operation where they had already killed a bunch a normals and were proceeding to do the same to a much less powerful team of supers who were valiantly attempting to stop them. Eurostar and their 2 extra supervillians for hire managed to take out a few more normals and kill two of the other supers before we finally took the kid gloves off and decided that we were going to finish them off once and for all. It was a quick, bloody battle reducing them to very negative STUN and a lot of Negative BODY. A couple of combined attacks vs Durak and some REALLY lucky damage rolls were much more effective than expected and he ended up KIA. Fiacho was down to about -8 body and later died before he could be treated properly. Everyone else was hurt badly (at least some -BODY). Our GM had us roleplay out the consequences of a team of heroes killing super villians and we got charged with a variety of crimes like Manslaughter, Murder, Aggrevated Assault, etc. The surviving members all hired high-powered attorneys to take one last stab at us from behind bars. Luckily for us, there were a number of normal witnesses who survived the attack and testified on our behalf and a TV newscrew who got much of the fight on tape. We ended up with some Agg. Assualt and one of our team got hit with Manslaughter, but we beat the Murder rap. Public opinion was pretty much on our side, and the international community was releived to hear that Eurostar was no more.

I'll be using an alternate version of a real city The area I live in is essentially a bunch of small cities all right next to each other (Norfolk, VA Beach, Chesapeake, Hampton, etc) In my world, I changed it so that all of these cities were basically boroughs of a big city. A bigger, unified city would be better able to attact business and industry, etc, so I thought that it would've grown into a major metropolitan area over the last 75-100 years or so. This way, I can have well-know points of reference for the group while still creating a fictional setting.

More ideas! You guys are da' greatest! Oh yes, more stuff from the boardmongers. Thanks! Some more ideas for this ghost player: One of the members of the team is a big celebrity hero who has put out a "call to arms" to form the team. Since "Poltergeist" is one of the respondees he will be known as a member of the team (he won't look at all like his former, living self, however). Knowing this, villians who try anything in their area will have to be prepared to deal with a hero like this, so I figure that all but the most foolish will plan around it to minimize the threat he may present to their dastardly plans. Super agencies will surely have gear to affect desolid at least some of the time. Mentalists will have little or no trouble. Cults, mystics and the like will certainly be ready as well (especially the "Big T"...boyohboyohboy I can't wait!). Keep the input coming, folks. You are making my first campaign in many years MUCH easier. You all rock!

Wow! Thanks for all the help so far! Keep it coming!! Thanks for the input thus far, everyone! Please feel free to continue your suggestions! Here's some more info for you: The ghost character will likely include invisibility as a power, though I will likely limit it somehow (perhaps high END cost? ideas, anyone) I plan to introduce some very powerful mystic villians (like The "Big T"), so my player will soon have that to look forward to.... Power level: 200+150. Team game, sort of a graphic novel setting/atmosphere I figuered the Affects Solid advantage on everything would keep him in check to some extent, but I will be looking very hard at the final draft of his character sheet. I will almost certainly make him take some sort of vulnerability to some energy types, just to keep him honest

One of my players wants to be a ghost who is searching for the person who killed him, as well as bring evildoers to justice as a "superhero". I've got some ideas as to how to deal w/a character like this, but I would like your input as well. His character concept is that he will be permanently Desolid and will have in array of Telekinetic abilities to affect the material world with. I'm still a little leery of that, but I'm not ready to squash it yet-his backstory is pretty good and he's a good roleplayer in general. Your thoughts, please? How would you deal with a character like this in your game?

Thanos betaing Reed Richards in Chess Beating someone in 7 moves does not even a little impressive. If you get beat in 7 moves, it's because you simply don't know how to play. If you DO know how to play and you lose in 7 moves, you're just not very sharp. The Richards-Thanos matchup is just bad writing and an astounding lack of knowledge about the subject they're writing about.