Duane From RI

Re: HERO System Advanced Players Guide II now in store. I posted this before but in the wrong forum, I figured I had a better shot at an answer in this forum. I am new to buying HERO Books the moment they come out. APGII was the first book I bought the very week it was released in PDF. I am unfamiliar with how long the printing process takes or how books get scheduled for printing APGII isn't a hardbound, doesn't have the big colorful character drawings so I was wondering if this book has gone to the printers yet? If not, what might be the schedule?

Re: HERO System Advanced Players Guide II now in store. I am new to buying HERO Books the moment they come out. APGII was the first book I bought the very week it was released in PDF. I am unfamiliar with how long the printing process takes or how books are scheduled for printing. Is APGII at the printing press already or is it scheduled for somewhere down the line? Has a release date for the hardcopy been established or is this date a little more nebulous?

6E2 77-78 clearly spells out how to apply defenses to a Multiple Attack. 6E2 74 clearly delineates a Combined Attack from a Multiple Attack. Since a Combined Attack is not a Multiple Attack, what rules are applicable regarding defenses? Is 6E2 77-78 applicable to Combined Attack, not including the rules on blocking?

In Champions Villains Volume One, King Cobra has a severe transform that changes the appearance of the victim and makes the victim loyal to King Cobra. Realizing this is a GM character - is this construction of the power a stretch of the rules? Physical appearance and abilities would seem to be a BODY transform and loyalty a MIND transform: Coil Agents for example have Scaly Skin and the Psychological Complication of loyalty to King Cobra. Would this power be closer to the letter of the rules by being a body transform linked to a mind transform?

As GM, can I define the commonality of a certain special effect and assign costs to AVAD for that? For example can I define that resistant PD Force Fields are Uncommon and let characters take AVAD as appropriate for an Uncommon defense?

Re: Speed for Limited Purposes - wrapping my head around it Probably usable in a multipower, won't be too much savings unless the character keeps it to two or three tactics and tightens up the tactics. One thing I am doing is that multipower reserves will reflect a real cost limit, not a active cost limit. I'd have no problem with Limited Duty Speed in a normal multipower cause there would be no cost savings at all! A 30pt multipower reserve is a 3 SPD, you normally can't "pick the lowest limitation" and thus no cost savings at all. Let's do an example exercise assuming the Multipower is a Real Cost reserve - not an Active Cost reserve. Multipower Reserve 18 3 SPD Only to recover - fixed - cost = 1 3 SPD Only to Attack w/ palm blasters - fixed - cost = 2 3 SPD Only to Defend - fixed - cost = 2 So for 23 pts the character can get themselves extra speed, they have to pick one tactic and stick with it. Hmm... Probably better off with 3 SPD, Variable Limitation (-1/4) for a cost of 24 and now they have infinite tactics to chose from one at a time.

Re: Complementary Social Skills :think:This is a great topic. I need more time to think and to review the APGII stuff. One thing I like a ton from APGII is the Composure stat. Composure is the ability to keep thinking straight. It doesn't imply any particular personality, it simply recognizes that some people get confused, flustered or otherwise effed in the head faster than others. I will say that anything that can increase the "perceived" value of pure interaction scenes would be useful to any roleplaying game. The truth is that cajoling the Duke as his seneschal hates your guts and his daughter is making eyes at you and the serving wench is a assassin looking for an opportunity shouldn't be resolved with one round of die rolls. However there has got to be a much better solution than making a giant cross matrix of single die rolls. I must think:think:

Re: Speed for Limited Purposes - wrapping my head around it Thank you everyone! There a appears to be unanimity that mixing Limited Duty Speeds would be a book keeping - rules lawyering nightmare. One poster noted that the villain books have some examples of Limited Duty Speed. I have all three in PDF form so will survey those. My gut instinct was to allow only one type of Limited Duty Speed per turn. If the character had more than one type - they could chose and different "Tactical Plan" every twelve seconds. That concept would fit in fine with the milieu I'm creating, keep book-keeping more simple and still allow flexibility.

Re: Of Body and Mind I have numerous OCD tendencies that make me want to pigeon hole things and make sure there are one:to:one correlations, but the HERO System is a great system for breaking away from that. For example: pain is pain, thinking straight is thinking straight. Thus STUN could easily be the pain stat for Physical, COMPOSURE is used to represent thinking straight and Mental Attacks are bought to attack one, the other or both. Suddenly MIND is not needed. Now if I stop for a moment and take a deep breath and mutter a few affirmations to myself I am giving myself a chance to shrug off some pain, gain a little juice and re-order my thoughts all at the same time. Suddenly one REC is all that is needed. Next consider what is a "missed" insult. A missed physical attack is obvious. A missed psychic attack is a failure to lock onto the thoughts of the opponent. But missing with a jibe or a complement? Its more reasonable to say your opponent resisted a jibe or a complement. Resist is a underlying concept of Social Defense but you no longer have to hit. Considering that PRE attacks do no physical damage, they aren't modeled well with Blast or Mental Attack anyways. How could you translate 1d6 of Stun damage, which when added up over time knocks a person unconscious, to 1d6 of humiliation or confusion? I would not poo-poo INT quite yet. INT represents the ability to think things through and think them through fast. It represents wits, intuition, creativity and logic - all which are the application of what you know about subject x. Empathy, such as being able to detect liars, is an application of noticing standard cues and anomalies. Thus PRE that requires a roll would be an obvious construct without having to introduce an Empathy characteristic. Next would be to fiddle with Mental Attack. What would be the appropriate advantages/limitations for hitting Composure instead of Stun? What would be an appropriate advantage/limitation for damaging EGO instead of body? Or damaging INT? Obviously Drains are pretty good at attacking EGO and INT so is linked, proportional drains appropriate? Some drugs and toxins while physical are just as likely a special effect for attacking EGO and INT. How many of us have real resistance to drugs and toxins? AVAD allows the GM to define almost any alternate defense and as long as he can pigeon hole it into very common/common/uncommon/rare he's got himself a value. Maybe the defense for a drug or toxin is CON/3 and the rarity is thus uncommon (it won't likely ever be too high). And then characters can take all sorts of Limited Duty characteristics and attacks. And there are also levels. Magnetism as a Talent built as Presence only for charming and levels for perceiving what the target wants to hear. OMCV only for putting humiliating illusions in the opponents head. Anything is possible. I might even dispense with Social Defense. Damage Negation is a solid defensive concept that is priced as 5 pts of defense cancels 5 pts of attack. Maybe you build in a level or two of Social Damage Negation as an Everyman power, maybe you don't. At this point Composure would seem to be a necessary addition but everything else would be modeled by normal HERO System mechanics. I would say Composure is necessary since attacking INT or EGO directly have ramifications that attacking STUN does not. As my pain levels go up, my Strength and Dexterity don't go down.

I like the concept of Speed for limited uses. It could encourage aborts and/or taking recoveries which are both going to very important in the campaign I am designing. However, how does the community adjudicate mixing Limited Use Speed? Take for instance a character with 4 SPD, 1 SPD for taking recoveries, 2 SPD for defensive actions only and 1 SPD just for attacking. Decent cost savings vis-a-vis 8 SPD but whats the limitation? The character could take 5 recoveries out of eight, could put together 5 attacks out of eight or could dump to block or dodge 6 times out of eight. I can see some reason for cost savings but since Taking Recovery Only is a -1 and Defense Only is a -3/4 we are talking about significant cost savings. What does the community think? I need some fresh takes on this because I have looked at it from numerous angles and have ended up conflicted.

Re: "Wizard Proof" firearms? I am not familiar with Dresden files. Many weapons are precision manufactured, but the parts involved are not small, are far from delicate and are intended for use in the worst climates around the world. I'm not a shooter but the web is full of shooters who have experience out in Iraq and Afghanistan. One thing that occurs to me is that the latest line of weapons from H&K (sniper rifles, light machine guns, personal defense weapons, carbines) are being used in Africa, South East Asia, South America and the Middle East. These weapons are all based on a rotary bolt system developed for the G36. This is the latest system designed by H&K and is replacing the delayed roller back system. Pop out onto the web and look into the following: H&K G36, H&K HK416, H&K MP7. The old delay roller back system was pretty reliable and was used all around the world, but I'm pretty sure that it would definitely fit the concept of "precision". The parts involved were all quite strong, nothing delicate, but they had a way of moving together that was really special. Nonetheless it was used in deserts, jungles, tundra and so forth. Look up the G3 rifle and the MP5 submachine gun. I know quite a bit about the geometry that makes the delay roller back system work but I know nothing about the new H&K system except that it has caught on like wildfire across the globe. Nonetheless there are lots of website forums that could help. Pop onto to forums dedicated to H&K, Israeli Military Industries, FN Hertsal, Steyr and ask about dust tests.

Re: The Nightmare of Megascale Teleport Sometimes it comes down to conditional limitations, charges or endurance costs. In an issue of JLA, The Joker got his hands on an artifact of "Imaginable only by Grant Morrison" power. He used to the artifact to carve a continental sized smiley face in the Earth. Jonn Jon'zz then trotted out some Mind Control to order the Joker's thoughts and make him sane for a brief moment. Joker repaired the damage including resurrenting the billions who died. Now how many villains has Jonn Jon'zz fought over the decades that really could have used a dose of this power. Nonetheless the writers have trotted out only on a handful of occasions (once against Despero in older issues, Grant Morrison used it a couple of times) and have always handwaved that it costs Jonn a ton of energy. Thus Common Sense and Dramatic Sense are maintained. Maybe that is the key to re-envisioning this power. Charges, Increased Endurance cost, Endurance Reserve with low recovery, conditional limitations, requires a desperation roll, anything to make the uncorking of this power something other than fait accompli.

Re: The Nightmare of Megascale Teleport First I want to make a brief rant regarding players with "I WIN" buttons. By the very guidelines of HERO System they should get less experience points. The guidelines specify you get a bonus experience point for the adventure being difficult. Oops, don't get that - how hard was it to teleport all the bad guys to an asteroid. Next the guidelines specify you get a bonus experience point for being clever, inventive or subtle. Oops, don't get that - not very clever "playing", maybe clever character design but no reward for that. Next the guidelines specify you get a bonus experience point if the scenario runs extra sessions. "I WIN" buttons will usually render adventures over lickity-split so no bonus points there. There's a bonus point for being outnumbered - hard to earn that if the "I WIN" guy cuts down the opposition without breaking stride. On the other hand the comic books are filled with unstoppable powers. Prof X, Superman, Green Lantern, Hulk, current incarnation of Iron Man and so on. What makes stories with these characters interesting is that the problems they face are not directly solvable by the indiscriminate use of power. Here's a simple one - villain has a Deadman Switch on a mental wavelength to a powerful bomb. If you teleport him away, Boom - innocent people die. Another one - villain has his own teleport, this one is transdimensional and triggers if he gets teleported off the Earth. The other dimension is where the Fungi From Yuggoth allies have colonized the asteroid belt. Maybe plots start to revolve around the teleporter. He's the Superman of the group so he is bound to attract the attention. Soon enough the other players will want a piece of the action but as GM you stick to your guns and explain that the villains of the world are smart enough to deal with the biggest threat. Inevitably the teleporter gets phased out of the story. The same dillema faces comic book writers. Its why so many incarnations of the Justice League have NOT included Superman and when they included a Green Lantern it was oft-times Guy Gardner who had enough psyche disads to render him reasonable. Its another reason Prof X is in a wheelchair and mostly at the mansion instead of flying on every mission. Common Sense and Dramatic Sense say that characters with "I WIN" buttons should be the center of stories. This is always to the detriment of the Beast's, Huntress's, Black Panther's of the group. But majority tends to rule. "I WIN" should not be the goal of a player. "I HAD FUN" should be the goal. I'll take a character with an "I HAD FUN" button any day.

Re: Chucking things into orbit - Advanced Player's Guide Oh No!!! It looks like my math for "hitting a ball into space but not quite stable orbit" was off!! I correct myself. 60STR gets a ball into space (160km) but it won't stay there. Not sure if it ever makes one full orbit around the Earth or not but it will certainly fall back to Earth. Of course we are talking about a ball with 60PD. That's got to be a "magic" ball since 149g of steel doesn't have 60PD.

Re: Chucking things into orbit - Advanced Player's Guide I have done some more calculations and I have come to a more definitive number on the STR needed to hit a baseball into a stable orbit. Assumptions: No air resistance, perfect transfer of energy between bat and ball, ball doesn't explode (that's the one thing that really makes this impossible BTW), mu = 398600.5 km^3/s^2, radius of the earth at sea level = 6400km, launch angle good enough to clear the Green Monster including seats is 11 degrees Required velocity off the bat = 7970 m/s. Joules required for a 149g baseball = 4.73MJ, tons lifted with 4.73MJ = 483 tons, STR = 71

Re: Chucking things into orbit - Advanced Player's Guide Orbit versus Escape is a good point. Escape specifically means to escape the gravity well and continue on. Orbit on the other hand requires reaching a minimal orbital height and having a minimal forward velocity at that point that the object continues in orbit. I don't know enough about orbital speed. However with regards to a baseball, I calculate that character with 43STR could knock a baseball up to orbital height (160km) with a launch angle of 30 degrees (so called optimal home run angle) and the baseball would still have a forward velocity of 3067 m/s. I think that would give it a orbital period of 3 hours but I don't know enough about orbital decay and such to confirm that. Nonetheless a 43STR can get the ball up to orbital height. Also a 97STR could get a human up to orbital height by throwing them straight up. I'm almost certain they would fall right back down.

Re: Chucking things into orbit - Advanced Player's Guide As an aside, I think back on the scene in the Capt America movie where he chucks the HYDRA agent from the water onto the dock. Based on my recollection of the height of the dock and where the HYDRA lands, I calculate that Capt America can throw a 12 pound shield at 67mph. Now that seems reasonable speed from most of the comics, but I don't see how you can take a missile unless you have levels with Deflection out the Ying-Yang. Now in my opinion Capt America has levels with his shield out the Ying-Yang but I'm not sure of that many. In HERO System, the truth is that Deflection stops bullets as equally as it can stop laser beams as easily as it can stop a throwing knife. So speed of the incoming attack doesn't matter to the Deflection the power. At some point its going to come down to a balance between dramatic sense and common sense. Sense Capt America is the epitome of drama, I'd go with it.

Re: Chucking things into orbit - Advanced Player's Guide BTW: I really want to thank Andrew for chiming in a time or two on this topic. When I went into it I knew that conservation of energy was being violated "to the best of my knowledge". In other words I couldn't be sure. I had to be reminded of some of the other equations for Work (namely work=force times distance) and see them on a page. It took me a long time to realize that if you apply 11,200 m/s^2 for exactly 1 meter, you will cover that meter in far, far less than 1 second. Without Andrew's help I never would have seen it. Thank you very much.

Re: Chucking things into orbit - Advanced Player's Guide "Realistic" literally or not, I have players that love to cite published material and get quite sulky if you poo-poo them without having better reason than GM fiat. This exercise has allowed me to determine that a published table is totally bogus, I have determined the more correct formula, and I can even explain how the writer of the tables blew their physics roll. I thus restore both dramatic sense and common sense. I don't have to fiddle with things like arm movement speed, air resistance, aerodynamics, aim or anything else if it dramatically helps to chuck a 149g baseball into orbit with an 78 to 83 STR. Furthermore since I have properly calcualted the energies involved, common sense indicates that they can give it go.

Re: Chucking things into orbit - Advanced Player's Guide Today's baseball weighs 142g to 149g. Raw kinetic energy to reach orbit is 9,345,280 joules. Assuming a bat that can handle this amount of energy, assuming a perfect hit, and assuming perfect transfer of energy (which is probably only possible with a bat made of the densest materials like uranium). Assuming to ignore drag and air resistance. A person with 78 STR can generate the necessary amount of joules. Since a person with 83STR generates twice as many joules, I'd say a person with 83STR can hit a baseball into orbit even with some inefficiencies.

Re: Chucking things into orbit - Advanced Player's Guide I don't mind trying to capture the comic book aspects of throwing things into orbit. My problem is whenever someone attaches the word "realistic" and then totally screws the pooch on conservation of energy. My calculations indicate that a 70STR brick could throw a 63g object into orbit - say a large gem or an amulet. That's pretty cool and quite reasonable. My problem with the tables was that a 70 STR brick, something that is quite common in a 14+DC campaign, could throw a man into orbit. I'm sitting there thinking that didn't make sense and now I know it doesn't. So now, if a player in my campaign own APG, makes a 70STR brick and then tries to uncork "realistic" on me - I have the math to refute the printed rules. They don't sulk or feel like I am GM fiat-ing them.

Re: Chucking things into orbit - Advanced Player's Guide Ok I figured out the displacement thing. You would need to displace 5,600 meters by swinging the mass around and around for 1 second. Now let's look at the work done: W = Fd, F=ma sure. But now d = 6,600 meters. Thus work is 22,400,000,000 joules. If you accelerate a mass at 11,200 m/s^2 and you want it to reach a velocity of 11,200 m/s then it must take 1 second and you must displace 5,600 meters.

Re: Chucking things into orbit - Advanced Player's Guide OK: the Work done to lift a 400,000kg a distance of 1m = 4,000,000 joules If I do 4,000,000 joules of work on a 357kg mass I get a velocity of 149.69 m/s. The equation I'm working from is W = (1/2) m (v_final^2 - v_initial^2) where v_initial=0 Anyways - please check me on this: If I accelerate any mass 11,200 m/s^2 for 1 sec the displacement is 5,600 meters. But in the case of throwing an object we are only displacing the object 1 meter before acceleration ends. Something just isnt looking right to me. If escape velocity is 11,200 m/s then the kinetic energy required for a 357kg mass at that velocity is 22,391,040,000 joules. Am I wrong about this?

Re: Chucking things into orbit - Advanced Player's Guide After much algebra I have determined that the tables in APG are simply wrong. The correct formula for distance thrown should be (Mass Liftable / Mass Thrown) X 2 at the most.

When a character of X Strength lifts his/her maximum weight "barely off the ground", how many centimeters is barely off the ground? Is 1m (waist high) far to high for the definition? Is 20cm reasonable?