Armitage

The original contest in AC #3 said "Please, no 'Blank & Blank' type names, they've been horribly overused." I think the word "and" in place of an ampersand counts.

The business with Sticky is a power to deliberately set fires that spread like normal fire. For example, the "Kindle" power in Champions Powers and "Kindle Fire" in the UNTIL Superpowers Database. Both books also have examples of powers that accidentally set the area on fire. "Dangerous Fire Blast: The character’s Fire Blast ignites flammable objects nearby when used. Add Side Effects (ignites easily flammable environmental objects within 4m of character, always occurs; -0)."

Champions Powers has a Sticky Entangle without Constant - Sticky Sap, in the Wood and Plant Powers chapter. The only requirement for Sticky is that the power can't require conscious control from the character after the initial attack. 6E1 345 specifically says "...such as Entangle and attacks bought with the Advantage Uncontrolled."

Back in 1984, Adventurer's Club #3 ran a contest asking readers to submit names for the upcoming Hero System fantasy game. "Fantasy Hero" was just a working title. The only limit was that they didn't want any "Blank & Blank" names. Apparently, they didn't like any of the submitted titles. What could the name have been? At the time, the superhero game was "Champions", the modern spy game was "Espionage", and the pulp game was "Justice, Inc.", so maybe something equally short and evocative. "Quest" Maybe something that invokes the genre and long-forgotten eras. "Undreamed Ages", inspired by Robert E. Howard's "there was an age undreamed of".

I had missed that this was for 5E. The corresponding power from The UNTIL Superpowers Database was: Come On Along For The Ride: The character can also pick up some of his friends and bring them along with him. Buy as a naked Advantage Usable Simultaneously (up to four people at once; +3/4) (18 Active Points); Recipients Must Remain Within 10” Of Character (-1/2). Total cost: 12 points.

Champions Powers has it as one of the options for the Telekinetic Flight power. Basic power: Flight 24m. Total cost: 24 points. Come On Along For The Ride: The character can also pick up some of his friends and bring them along with him. Buy as a naked Advantage Usable By Nearby (+1) (24 Active Points); Increased Endurance Cost (x2 END; -½). Total cost 16 points; total cost of overall power 40 points.

"Side Effect always occurs whenever the character does some specific act" typically means that you can use the power without suffering any Side Effect, as long as you avoid performing that specific act. That's why it reduces the value of the Limitation, from -1/4 to -0, for example. Unfortunately, there don't seem to be any examples in Champions Powers, but it would be something like a large unstable gun that imposes an OCV penalty if the character makes a Half-Move in the Phase that they fire it. If you don't move before firing the gun, then the Side Effect doesn't happen. Since you have control over whether or not the Side Effect happens, instead of being at the mercy of a die roll, the Limitation is reduced.

No fancy equipment. Compared to the Harley-Davidson VRSCA V-Rod in The Ultimate Vehicle: +5 STR +2 DEX +3 BODY +2 DEF +11"/+22m Running, additional x2 non-combat multiplier, 1 Day fuel supply instead of 6 Hours +2 with Ground Movement Super-Reinforced Tires (7 DEF, 7 BODY)

A related digression, so I can share my pain. Years ago, I was in a group that was playing through Day of the Destroyer. When the final assault on Dr. Destroyer's island took place, the PCs were one of several hero teams participating in the attack, along with UNTIL. At one point an NPC hero team got into a fight with a villain team "off camera." Did the GM A) Decide the outcome ahead of time and report the results to the players as part of the story; B ) Decide the outcome on the spur of the moment and report the results to the players as part of the story; C) Run the battle with the players temporarily controlling the NPC heroes; or D) Run the battle solo, spending half-an-hour rolling dice and taking notes while the players sat around twiddling their thumbs. If you guessed anything other than "D", you missed the point of this post.

Weird. I checked the Equipment Guide, Horror Hero, Post Apocalyptic Hero, Pulp Hero, Golden Age of Champions, Cyber Hero, Dark Champions, all of the DC villain books...not a chainsaw to be found. You would think that Horror Hero would have been the perfect place.

The latest comments lead nicely into something I was thinking this morning... Let's see what happens if we nuke Mechanon (Mark XXXVII). We'll assume average damage, 3.5 per die, instead of the 3 for Standard Effect. Star Hero nuke: 20d6 RKA. Starting damage is 70 BODY and 140 STUN. Mechanon's 30 rED reduces that to 40 BODY and 110 STUN. His 75% Damage Reduction reduces that to 10 BODY and 27 STUN. He has 10 BODY and 73 STUN remaining, isn't Stunned, and his self-repair systems will have him fully repaired in a little over 3 hours. Equipment Guide nuke: Multiple effects. Radiation: 20d6 BODY Drain and 10d6 CON Drain, NND (LS: Radiation). Mechanon has Life Support vs. radiation and takes no damage. Flash: 12d6 Transform to blind being (42 BODY). Mechanon's 15 Power Defense reduces this to 27 BODY, which would impose a -4 Sight PER for Partial Transform. Personally, I would add his 10 Flash Defense, which would reduce it to 17 BODY and -2 Sight PER. Thermal Blast: 20d6 RKA (70 BODY and 140 STUN). Defenses reduce it to 10 BODY and 27 STUN as above. EMP: 20d6 Dispel all electrical devices (70 AP). Mechanon's Power Defense reduces this to 55. The only things affected are Animate Technology and his sensor and communication systems. Animate Technology has the Unified Power Limitation as part of his cyberkinesis, so all of those powers shut-down. I was nearly done typing this post when I realized that his Self-Repair system is only 24 Active Points. Uh oh. Blast Wave, Static Overpressure: 20d6 RKA (70 BODY and 140 STUN). Mechanon is rigid metal, so he would be affected by this. Another 10 BODY and 27 STUN. Blast Wave, Winds: 20d6 RKA (70 BODY and 140 STUN). Another 10 BODY and 27 STUN. Negative Pressure: 3d6 RKA (11 BODY and 22 STUN). Mechanon doesn't notice. Fires: 1 point RKA. He doesn't notice this either. Firestorm: 4d6 Aid Fire powers. He still won't notice. The grand total is 30 BODY and 81 STUN, leaving him at -10 BODY and 19 STUN. He's Stunned for 1 Phase, he has a penalty to his Sight PER, his cyberkinesis, advanced sensors, and communication systems are disabled, and his self-repair system is fried. Normally he would be back to full strength in 10 hours, but without repair capabilities, he would likely detach his head and flee. Without the encrypted transmitter, he can't detonate his body when he leaves, either. Mechanon doesn't have any Automaton Powers, so technically he would be "bleeding to death" after the blast and would "die" in 10 Turns if he didn't flee.

Adventurer's Club #4 (Summer 1984) had optional rules on the interaction between Distinctive Features and someone's ability to accurately describe them. INT Roll failed: Witness remembers race, sex, any extreme height. INT Roll made: Witness remembers height, weight, hair & eye color, and can ID a photograph. INT Roll made by 3: Witness can describe well enough for artist to draw. Modifiers: + to INT Roll equal to points in Distinctive Features. Even if the PCs are the authorities, the bad guys might want to make note of who they are.

In the past I've toyed with designing the D&D Phantasmal Killer spell as Mental Illusions, No Conscious Control (Greatest fear; -1), Mandatory Effect (EGO +30; -3/4). The power only works if they achieve the level needed for a Major Change that causes BODY and STUN. The target is attacked by an illusion of their greatest fear that can actually cause lethal damage.

The most recent version was in the 6E Hero System Equipment Guide. The basic nuclear warhead for starship combat in Star Hero was a 20d6 RKA. The more elaborate version was a 20d6 Drain, a 10d6 Drain, a 12d6 Transform, a 20d6 Dispel, three different 20d6 RKAs, a 3d6 RKA, a 1 point RKA, and a 4d6 Aid.

If you don't mind 2-D and a little work, I've always found this site useful. http://makezine.com/2009/06/26/how-to-shrinky-dink-gaming-minis/ Creating custom stand-up miniatures using shrink film and binder clips.

One of the example settings in Post Apocalyptic Hero was pretty much Thundarr. The Moonshattered Earth

Champions Powers has "Lighter Than a Feather" in the Density Alteration Powers chapter. +40 STR (40 Active Points); Nonpersistent (-1/4), Only For Lifting (-4). Total cost: 8 points. That Limitation seems excessive. It was -1 for the same power in the 5e UNTIL Superpowers Database.

According to the Masses of Materials table in The Ultimate Brick (5e), solid ice has 2 DEF and 15 BODY per cubic hex.

That's a Restricted Universal Focus, from Fantasy Hero. Same cost. e.g. a Focus that can only be used by wizards.

Handcuffs are on 6E1 219, page 211 of the 6e Hero System Equipment Guide, page 125 of the 5e Hero System Equipment Guide, and page 261 of 5e Dark Champions. The 6e version is 67 Active Points and 10 Real Points. Entangle 3d6, 6 PD/6 ED (standard effect: 3 BODY, 6 PD/6 ED), Takes No Damage From Attacks (+1/2) (67 Active Points); 1 Recoverable Charge (-1 1/4), OAF (-1), Set Effect (Hands Only) (-1), Does Not Prevent The Use Of Accessible Foci (-1), No Range (-1/2), Must Follow Grab Or Target Must Be Willing (-1/2), Can be Escaped Automatically With Modified Lockpicking Or Contortionist Roll (-1/2) EDIT: You mentioned the Entangle having 10 BODY. Entangle dice count BODY like a Normal Attack. 1 = 0 BODY, 2-5 = 1 BODY, 6 = 2 BODY.

It can vary by game. In the Classes of Mind thread, I described a story that someone had posted here on this forum years ago. A group of PCs had their "team origin" in response to an attack by a mentalist villain. One of the PCs was completely immune to the villain's powers, significantly contributing to her defeat. After the battle, the PC pulled back his hood, revealing that he was an elf. The reasoning was that an elf isn't human and the villain's powers only affected the Human class of minds. I agree that that was taking it way too far.

I did toy with a way to do partial immunity with the NND model after Damage Over Time was introduced. In 4e and 5e poisons were one big attack, with the damage applied gradually. 4e rattlesnake venom was a 2d6 RKA with Gradual Effect-5 Hours. 5e rattlesnake venom was a 3d6 RKA with Gradual Effect-15 minutes. When 6e introduced Damage Over Time, the venom became three separate 1d6 attacks happening every 5 minutes. I had the idea of designing partial immunity as Life Support with an Activation Roll. The roll is made to see if the Life Support activates for each damage increment, with some of the damage being neutralized and some affecting the character, depending on the result of the roll. e.g. Life Support-Immunity to Poison, 10- Activation Roll. On average, this will result in a character taking half damage from poisons, since there's a 50% chance that the Life Support will activate for each damage increment. The problem is that this doesn't give you a way to create things like engineered super-poisons that are so powerful that they can hurt people who are normally immune. I suppose that you could Link a Change Environment that imposes an Activation Roll on the Life Support, but at that point you might as well just have the poison Suppress the Life Support. It's not that many points. Or you could go the somewhat lame route that Galactic Champions used. "The Life Support rules specifically say that you're immune to all terrestrial poisons. If you want to be immune to alien poisons too, you need to spend more points."

During a recent thread discussing Classes of Minds, someone expressed the opinion that if someone is resistant to mental powers due to having a mind significantly different than a human’s then they should buy Mental Defense with “Computer Mind” or “Alien Mind” as the special effect, rather than gaining complete immunity to mental powers by virtue of saying “I’m a robot” or “I’m an alien”. They also felt that drugs, poisons, and diseases should be built as Drains instead of NNDs, and Life Support vs. Poison or Disease should be replaced by Power Defense. I’m curious if anyone has actually done this in a game and how well it worked. Random thoughts: One obvious advantage is that you can create characters that are resistant to these attacks instead of having all-or-nothing immunity. You can also create attacks powerful enough to affect characters that are immune to conventional attacks. “Even with my healing factor, it feels like my guts have been dipped in acid.” By the book, a defense that Only Works Against Poison is –3/4 and the Advanced Player’s Guide lists Biological Attacks and Poison as both Uncommon. Only Works Against Poisons And Diseases; -1/2 Only Works Against Poisons/Diseases; -3/4 Only Works Against a Broad Group Of Poisons/Diseases; -1 (zootoxins, neurotoxins, bacteria, viruses) Only Works Against A Narrow Group Of Related Poisons/Diseases; -1 1/2 (snake venom, organophosphates, bacilli, neurotropic viruses) Only Works Against One Specific Poison/Disease; -2 (rattlesnake venom, sarin, pneumonic plague, rabies) Exposure vectors would be represented by additional Limitations, found in various places in the Hero System Equipment Guide. Inhaled: Does Not Work Against Targets With Life Support: Self-Contained Breathing (-1/2) Ingested: Must Be Ingested (-1/2) Contact: In the current rules, contact poisons are built with Trigger to create trapped objects, but if you’re spraying someone with an absorbed agent, it would probably be better represented by Skin Contact Required (-1) or Does Not Work Against Targets With Sealed Life Support (-1/2). Injected: Killing Attack Must Do BODY (-1/2) or Must Target Unarmored Location (-1/4), depending on whether it’s delivered by a blade/bite or a non-damaging dart or hypodermic. Since the effects of Drain on STUN and BODY are halved, lethal or knockout agents would require double the number of dice compared to a Blast or Killing Attack, but the lack of NND and Does BODY would balance it somewhat. Rattlesnake Venom (existing rules) RKA 1d6, NND (defense is Life Support [appropriate Immunity]; +1), Does BODY (+1); Damage Over Time (3 increments, one every 5 minutes for 15 minutes, defense only applies once, cannot be used again on same victim until all increments accrue (-0), Extra Time (onset time begins 5 Minutes after victim is bitten; -2), No Range (-1/2), HKA Must Do BODY (-1/2), Linked (-1/4), 4 Charges (-1). 45 Active Points, 8 Real Points Rattlesnake Venom (variant rules) Drain BODY 2d6, Delayed Return Rate (5 points/Week; +2 1/2), Damage Over Time (3 increments, one every 5 minutes for 15 minutes, cannot be used again on same victim until all increments accrue (-1/2), Extra Time (onset time begins 5 Minutes after victim is bitten; -2), No Range (-1/2), HKA Must Do BODY (-1/2), Linked (-1/4), 4 Charges (-1). 70 Active Points, 12 Real Points I based the Return Rate on needing an average of a month to recover from the bite. The STUN from the original attack is Recovered faster than it accumulates, so I made the Drain only affect BODY. I removed “defense only applies once” because it’s no longer an all or nothing defense. It could be added to create a compound that gradually wears down the target’s resistance. A more virulent agent could also be created using Armor Piercing or the optional Piercing Adder. 7 Power Defense would protect from the average damage, while 12 Power Defense would provide complete immunity. Using the Limitations above: Power Defense, Only Against Poisons And Diseases (-1/2). 5 or 8 Real Points. Power Defense, Only Against Poison (-3/4). 4 or 7 Real Points. Power Defense, Only Against Zootoxins (-1). 3 or 6 Real Points. Power Defense, Only Against Snake Venom (-1 1/2). 3 or 5 Real Points. Power Defense, Only Against Rattlesnake Venom (-2). 2 or 4 Real Points.

If a Transform is bought with Damage Over Time and All Or Nothing, are the damage increments added together to determine if the Transform happens, or is each damage increment treated as a separate attack? I'm assuming the latter, with a Transform that takes time to possibly affect the target being better represented by the "onset time" version of Extra Time. Severe Transform 1d6, Damage Over Time, Target's defenses only apply once (6 damage increments, damage occurs every 1 Day, +0); All Or Nothing (-1/2) vs. Severe Transform 6d6; Extra Time (1 Week, -4 1/2), All Or Nothing (-1/2)

Plus, VPPs with Continuing Charges are really meant for things like Gadget Pools, so that once you use the charges, you have to go back to your lab or arsenal and spend time replacing them, since points put into a Focus are locked into that Focus until you change the Pool. They're not meant for a spellcaster using his Magic Pool to cast a couple dozen all-day spells every morning.