Duane From RI

Re: VPP/Multiform - Assume GM is Insane My intent is to just let each player juggle 400 points during each session with very specific allows/disallows. This was a thought exercise - what would a power construction need to look like if it had to. As the GM I am free to be insane and allow as much flexibility as I feel fits the campaign (which is a hell of alot). Since I have been sold on the idea that the bad guys achieve balance according to Damage Class/Defense/OCV/DCV and not points - I can afford flexibility to the players and to myself. I like thought exercises though.

Re: Telekinetic Body Go looking for an Image of the Sinestro Colossal Heroclix - Sinestro constructs a giant Qwardian Thunderer to bash the battlefield. I can find some here at work but my companies filters are limiting me.

Re: Telekinetic Body I am really new so please forgive these beginner ideas. I guess my first question is - does the Resistant Protection need to remain Persistent. If it is downgraded to Constant via Costs Endurance (to activate, -1/4) it is something that has to turn on and it gets turned off when stunned or knocked out. Is this consistent with the concept? My next thought was Physical Manifestation. Although most Physical Manifestations have but one power, if you ask me just looking at the picture its clear that this manifestation has STR, BODY, CON, ED, PD, Growth and maybe Shape Shift. With Physical Manifestation you have to define a reason that losing the manifestation is a problem so make all the powers in it Cost Endurance (to activate, -1/4) and then build a small END Reserve with enough END to activate it once and put charges on the Endurance Reserve and Side Effect on the Endurance Reserve - Drains your own END. My next thought is the picture sure looks a hell of alot like a Mecha. With your GMs permission you can Summon a Mecha. A Summon is 1 point per 5 points in the Mecha (total points in the Mecha, not the one-fifth that the Vehicle Perk costs) but then takes the Amicable (Slavishly Loyal, +1) and then maybe X8 tasks (+3/4 total) and 1/2 END (+1/4). This results in the cost of the Summon being 3 points per 5 points in the Mecha and you can fight for your your Ego x 8 phases before you have to pay the Endurance again. This is a little outside the box - your GM will have to agree that there is some type of telekinetic mecha construct which you know of and are summoning. Tell the GM that it is somehow Jungian.

Re: VPP/Multiform - Assume GM is Insane ghost-angel - your point about 64 character sheets is well taken. My thought was that if Hero Designer were present just before play, a certain number of configurations could exist just before a session and then reconfigured before the next session. The goal was to approach freeform gaming asymptotically. A dice based game where some sort of number defines balance but insanity - err imagination - gets to run wild.

Re: VPP/Multiform - Assume GM is Insane Maybe I'm miss reading Multiform but, doesn't 80 Real Points of Multiform get an Alternate form built from 400? Also - is that 80 Real Points and 80 Active Points?

Please tell me what you think of this conceit: Imagine a 400 point superherioc character in a Age of Mythology campaign (Alfar, Titans, Oni, Menehune, so on). The character is built with the following VPP: 106 point pool, 106 point control cost (zero phase action) The only power allowed in the pool is a 80 points of Multiform with the Instant Change Adder, Inherent Every form must take the skill Mythologics at +10 or higher Every form may only take skills/characteristics/powers/talents appropriate to a defined heroic profession, racial profile and available equipment list Every form must comply with Damage Class and Defense Levels established for the phase of the campaign No form may take Power Framework No form may take Multiform Some perks may be required in every form in order to be available in any one form Some Complications may be required in every form So now, the GM intends to make the following allowances: The player is allowed to build this VPP, in fact all players are expected to build this VPP. Mechanically, a character spends a Zero Phase action to switch to a True From, a Zero Phase Action to change the VPP and then a Zero Phase Action to change into the new form - but these three must be the only three actions in the Phase If a power/characteristic in one form is adjusted either positively or negatively and a new form has a power pretty close to it, then the adjustment carries through. All ingredients to any form must be written out prior to play that session and in a pretty simple spreadsheet built to adjust dice up/down So the Question Is - Has the GM laid the groundwork for a game that combines freeform and point balance?

In people's opinion, is a compound attack made of a 7DC attack and a 5DC attack on balance with a 12DC attack? Please opine given the following caveat: All forms of defense are about equally prevalent including Deflections, DCV boosts and Power Defense.

Re: Linked in a VPP, Looking for Opinons I really new to this forum and haven't really played Hero System since the Big Blue Book. Can anyone enlighten me on why Linking two slots in a Power Framework is frowned upon?

Re: Linked in a VPP, Looking for Opinons Your mention of Damage Class is very pertinent. A 2½d6HKA AP is 10DC and can climb another 4DC just from a 20 STR. A 2½d6HKA and a 1d6 Drain are an 8DC attack and a 2DC attack. They may be compounded in total Active Points but as individual attacks they are not equivalent. Hmmm, must keep thinking....

Re: Total NEWB gushing over how amazing this forum is My last time I flirted with Hero Games was with the Big Blue Book. I loved it, but I had a player that was a real advantage stacker. Both he and I were caught up in a point shaving versus point shaving war. We were both "Missing The Point". I'm older now, wiser, fewer long held dogmas to hold me in a straight-jacket. I had a copy of FRED, never played it. Looking back I wish I had. 6ED has opened my mind. But if I had given FRED a chance I think I would have been better for it. To me, the great additions to Hero System have been the Ultimate Series and now with 6ED the Advanced Players Guide and Martial Arts book. Once I bought 6ED I made it a point to buy all the Ultimate Books so that I could understand everything I had missed since the Big Blue Book. The cornerstone of the Ultimate Series is that it's not "Rules Wonkery" to come up with new concepts. If you keep it balanced and it fits the story, "It's The Point".

Help! I have all the Ultimate Series in PDF form (and softbound too). I have PDF of Pulp Hero, Star Hero, Lucha Libre Hero, Fantasy Hero, Urban Fantasy Hero and Post Apocalyptic Hero. I have PDF of Fantasy Grimoire. But as an OCD sufferer with a completist fetish, I need Ultimate Mystic, Ninja Hero and Fantasy Grimoire II in PDF. Where do these three stand on a priority list for conversion?

In Champions Powers I have seen a handful of compound powers built with the limitation "HKA Must Do BODY (-1/2)". The secondary attacks often have the Linked limitation as well. However - These constructions are not normally efficient in a VPP. A Compound Power is high Active Points which makes it harder to switch in the middle of combat (assuming skill roll still required) and Linked is normally not allowed. Nonetheless - I can imagine a character whose is a whirler with two curved blades and also skilled with kicks. Some of the things he could do would be to add drains to his sword attacks (representing slicing tendons, opening cuts), flashes to his kicks (representing kicking people in the nose/eyes/ears so hard that sense organ is injured). But he may also want to add advantages to his slices (Autofire, Armor Piercing to reflect targeting weak points) or to his kicks (Autofire, Double Knockback, Penetrating to reflect that the impact is so widespread that you're going to feel it nonetheless). So - What leeway tact should the GM allow. Sword and Kick seem pretty basic and perhaps should be outside a VPP. Now the VPP may only have one slot linked to the sword and one slot to the kick. Not that bad. Should the GM approve Naked Advantages in the VPP? Or - Require that the character build some nasty compound powers and live with the consequence of a higher control cost and harder skill roll? The Rub - Is a 50 point compound power the equivalent of a 50 point power built with just advantages? Is a 2½d6HKA compounded with a 1d6 CON Drain as dangerous as a 2½d6HKA Armor Piercing?

I have visited the forums of another game system and in the three-or-four days I've been cruising this one, I find Hero Games forum far superior. Rules Questions - They are posted and everyone gets to see it. That helps people think. Which leads to this - Hero System is a thinking man's game. IMHO, the most important rules are "Reasoning from Effect", "Bending A Cheaper Power Into An Effect Is Less Valid Than Using A More Appropriate Albeit More Expensive Power" and "If The GM allows or disallows". These three rules require thinking. But 1,000 heads are better than 1 so bring a construct here and we all can think. The other forum spends more time figuring out how to break rules, nerf rule breaks, nerf rules that are being abused, so on and so on. Here at Hero System, the three aforementioned rules aren't something that need to be broken or fixed. They are more akin to heuristics that play into one Metarule - "THINK!" This forum is therefore far superior. I prefer to live by the Metarule "THINK!" rather than live by the Metarule implied by the other forum "OBEY!"

Re: Total NEWB question - Throwing Badger sheva, as to a flora/fauna character, in keeping with the video clip by Escafarc, I suggest a Reflection power based on having a giant mushroom shield.

Champions Powers has at least two powers - Danger Sense Dodging and Look Around - that have both the Costs Endurance limitation and Nonpersistent. I'm pretty sure this is a glitch. Is it?

Re: Please tell me why this is wrong! I have a question - your player stated the following "...Likewise, if you cast it on a cup of water, it doesn't heat the cup, then gradually heat the water, it's all instantly changed x temperature levels." Where does it say that in Change Environment? I guess my question is, when is a Cup of Water part of the environment and when is it an object that you use Change Environment on?

Re: Total NEWB question - Throwing Badger Throwing Badger is found in 6E1 on page 334. For a while I was confused about what was really being thrown, but the OAF limitation makes it clear that you throw a Badger. A rather nasty Badger, 1d6 RKA Constant. Ouch. That will quickly kill an unarmored enemy.

If a player character or a GM character takes the power Throwing Badger, does the host of the game have to put a disclaimer on his front door indicating that no actual badgers were harmed in the course of this game?

I just found the answer to the Personal Immunity/Hole in The Middle question. Its on 6E2 98. Sorry.

Do advantages which make an attack or power easier to use but don't effect the damage output effect the Damage Class calculation? Examples: Personal Immunity, Hole In The Middle How about Reduced Endurance or Charges?

If I put the Duration Limitation Instant on a persistent power and then want that power to also Cost Endurance, what is the a valid cost structure? Are these two valid: Costs Half Endurance (-1/4) Costs Endurance (-1/2) Or should it be Costs Endurance (-1/4)

From 6E2 75 "For example, in a magic system where nearly all spells require Gestures to cast, the use of Gestures already prevents two or more spells from being used in a Multiple Attack together..." From 6E2 73 "If attacks have Power Modifiers that are mutually exclusive — such as Concentration, Gestures, or Incantations, each of which prevents the simultaneous use of other powers with the same Limitation — those attacks may not be combined into a Multiple Attack." From 6E1 381 "If a character has two or more powers that require Gestures, only to activate, he can activate them all in the same Phase." So, 6E2 is saying that two powers with Gestures can't be used in a multiple attack but 6E1 is saying two powers with Gestures can be used in the same phase. Is this the correct interpretation: "Two or more powers with Gestures to activate can be used in the same phase but not simultaneously and cannot be part of a multiple attack."

6E2 73 alludes to the concept that Gestures for one power prevent the simultaneous use of another power with Gestures. Ditto for Incantations. 6E1 381 and 6E1 382 say that if two or more powers require Gestures or Incantations only to activate they can be used in the same phase. Can two or more attacks with Gestures be used in a multiattack? How about Incantations? How about one power with gestures and another with incantations?

Most powers are perceivable by two sense groups. The Costs Endurance limitation says the power becomes perceivable by three sense groups. Is this a glitch?

Thanks for the help! Its hard grasping some of the nuances of this construction vs that construction but it looks like I found some key phrases in the rule books that put my mind at ease.