Pteryx

My character... ...would be sitting this one out, praying for the fate of the world. He's not the most powerful of his world's robots -- and it wouldn't be improbable for the actual top 5 to waste their time duking it out. Humans probably wouldn't even be considered -- even the most elite human warriors of his world are scarcely on par with the average robot. He'd be rather scared, too; the only aliens who've visited his world in the past possessed technology so inobvious and advanced that they appeared to be gods... -- Pteryx

A base from an old RPG I played in... * ...featured a dimly-lit room filled with one-way portals to other realities. * ...had a network of caverns directly underneath it, unbeknownst to its inhabitants until one fateful day. * ...suffered from a strange curse(?) of unknown origins that caused books on the bookshelf to be randomly replaced -- sometimes with long-lost or outright dangerous tomes. * ...included a poorly-lit corner in the first floor/main room that one of the characters favored. * ...did, indeed, have a bathroom. (The camera never went into it.) -- Pteryx

The whole "cold iron" bit would be out of my character's sphere of knowledge. So... Walk up to the mugger, check to see if he's seriously hurt, chide him for trying to be a mugger and gently point out that he got what he deserved. After that, what happens would depend on where he was. Outside of his father's captured territory, he'd do nothing; that kind of attitude is common from the "good guys" and wouldn't in itself raise suspicion. Within it, it'd depend on his creator's orders, and I'd personally suspect that no one under that rule would be allowed to carry a gun or other weapon under any circumstances since it could conceivably be used to resist said conquerer. Thus, recall his uniform/light armor (if he's not already in it) and bar the way. "I apologize, but you'll have to hand that gun over." -- Pteryx

*snugs her iMac, then Brandi* Ah, thank you! Care to post a link to the strips in question, seeing as it sounds relevant to the thread? -- Pteryx

The challenge: come up with particularly interesting special effects for things that cost 1 Real Point and no more than 6 Active Points. Example: +2 COM (1 Active Point); IIF (ring, -1/4) (1 real point) This magical ring automatically takes care of your personal hygene to a degree you couldn't manually. You wake up every day with your hair perfect, shiny teeth and fresh breath, no significant body odor, and no blemishes. Normal bathing is unnecessary, though if you get significantly soiled (say, covered in mud) you'll still have to to take care of that yourself. Anyone else? -- Pteryx

LOL! OK, all your replies at this point are making me laugh. -- Pteryx

As far as stealth, don't forget Ground Gliding -- and when it comes to athletics, there's Breakfall too. -- Pteryx

Actually, I tried to delete it immediately to no avail; it said I didn't have permission even though I was fully logged in and still recognized as such. Hence the request. Maybe the countdown is set to 1 second? Oh, and for the record, Ghost who Walks? I'm female. I chose the sprite I have for my avatar (a recolored Monica from Romancing SaGa 3) for her resemblance to me, as I'm satisfied with my own appearance. -- Pteryx

Funny you should mention that... the base I'm trying to reproduce in HERO is based in a scarcely-populated alternate reality. (Unfortunately for the inhabitants, it's not planeshift-proof, and planeshifting was almost common in this game.) So that's one of two reasons why I'm not so sure about taking Underground -- I think it already qualifies for "other dimension", and somehow suspect the location points are meant to be mutually exclusive. Am I right? Second, there's the fact that "Underground" suggests to me better security than this base gets from its location. The ceiling only has about a half-hex of soil atop it, the front face of the base is merely a thick stone wall (though the base would have 8- Concealment, just in case you miss the door in the cliff face that's the only indication of a base being there and the only legitimate entrance), and it's been shown that there's a network of tunnels directly underneath the base too... that leaves the left, right, and back walls, and somehow I'm not so sure about the back one. -- Pteryx (P.S.: Whee! I'm competent! )

The problem with "what animal would your character be"... ...is that in my case, the answer would be, well, human. There isn't really an animal that corresponds particularly well to deep spirituality, the soul overcoming everything imposed upon it, the need to reconcile freedom and loyalty, or any of the other Big Ideas my character is about to my knowledge. Of course, human would at least be a change from being a human-looking robot, if not a glaringly obvious one... -- Pteryx

Ben, would you please get rid of this thread? Thanks. -- Pteryx

How would you deal with someone (or something -- I'm trying to figure out how to build a base from an old game I was in) being a weirdness magnet? This wouldn't necessarily be good or bad, but certainly plot-affecting and potentially inconvenient. It'd be something I'd want to track seperately from Luck or Unluck. Would it be a Disadvantage, SFX, or what? -- Pteryx

Say you've got a base that's set in a cliff. To get through the front face you just need to get through a relatively normal stone wall (assuming you couldn't just break down the door or teleport inside), but to get through any other face you need to bore through a few hexes of solid stone. How should a base like this be dealt with, ruleswise? -- Pteryx

Given that my character already is a robot and his home setting is a couple hundred years in the future, let's reverse the situation. Reflexively clutch the stump in pain (a new reflex for him) as he cries out, then look down and stare stunned and amazed. Then quickly snap out of it as the next shot fired at him and run and hide, since the most obvious implications of his suddenly apparently being human would get almost anyone who might be around gunning for him (to most of the good guys he's a villain, to most of his "family" free will alone is betrayal, and the other major evil faction is all about human genocide). Try to contact the one medic of his family who actually knows biological stuff as well as mechanical stuff (fortunately, s/he's sympathetic to him) and hope and pray s/he isn't ordered to take him in or kill him or the like. Which isn't to say his head wouldn't be spinning through all this... Once he's relatively safe and going through the process of healing, he'd take the time to try to work through what's going on. He'd try his best to get some spiritual answers, for starters; is his soul still there? Did the spirits find the power to do this to him somehow? Was this meant to be; is he a truer or falser self? He'd then try to test his own free will as well as he can get away with in hiding -- in ways safe not just for him, but his family (as in, no betraying them just to see if he can). Is he still compelled to follow orders? How about to protect his mad scientist father? (He'd actually still want the latter, just not the former...) However, there's a greater complication still in all this: Dr. Landon DeVry, another mad scientist who's obsessed with learning the secret of transferring human consciousness into a wholly robotic mind, and a man so evil it even disgusts my character's "family" of robotic villains (though not their creator). He'd go out of his way to see what DeVry seems to be doing and thinking. He may be responsible or he may have heard about the incident and be hunting my poor character down in order to dissect him. Either way, it would not be good. Then there's the question of whether his old body still exists -- and whether it still seems to be acting like him, which in turn would beg a host of theological questions... not to mention, given the possibility of binding orders, questions of trust. Yeah, this would pretty well turn his life upside-down. -- Pteryx (P.S.: I just remembered another detail. Provided he wasn't feigning human in that fight for some reason, there's also the question of why his technologically-based abilities were working, if they still do, and where they're coming from all of a sudden if so...)

If you're talking about knowledge of spells on the whole, I'd say you want spells in your game to be Independent. If you're asking about "stealing" specific castings... that's a bit harder. I'm inclined to say that would be a bizzare kind of Fuel Charge. That's my best guess, anyway... -- Pteryx

Good Idea: Giving your energy projector a Vulnerability to bladed weapons. Bad Idea: Giving your martial artist a Vulnerability to bladed weapons. Good Idea: A Major Transform to give your foes 1d6 Unluck, defined as a magical curse. Bad Idea: Giving this Major Transform a Side Effect of giving you 3d6 Unluck. ("But it falls in line with the Three-Fold Law!") Good Idea: Pulling a punch against a civilian. Bad Idea: Pulling a punch against an automaton. Keep 'em coming. -- Pteryx

... ...What have I started? -- Pteryx

The HERO System was originally created for Champions, so if as a newbie you don't know what you really want to do with HERO, I'd suggest that. If you find the math intimidating or think your players will, also get the UNTIL Superpowers Database, which is filled with many premade superpowers. If you want a premade superhero world, there's Champions Universe, too. -- Pteryx, who'd like a chance to play Champions, herself...

If my characters have theme "songs", they frequently don't have words -- and at least half the time I compose them. -- Pteryx

Too many stumpers lately, it seems... BUMP! -- Pteryx

There's a difference between Line of Sight and actually seeing somebody. As far as I'm concerned, if you can use a targeting sense of any sort to recognize a mind and you could see it if other powers weren't interfering, that'd be good enough for me. And I might even be more lenient than that. But this Detect would definitely not have a range better than Sight like Mind Scan does. Personally, I'd be fine with the basic idea of a targeting Detect Minds; as mentioned above, it's a pretty typical fictional ability. It's not the LoS issue that concerns me... it's that Analyze adder. While Discriminatory would just say "This is an old woman", Analyze would in my view say enough to tread on Telepathy's domain. -- Pteryx

Having powered up the phoenix, I'm not so sure I actually need it powered up after all. I may just stick the Safe in Intense Heat part and a slightly weaker version of the Firey Rebirth power on the Bestiary's phoenix in order to make it fill my needs. Still, maybe this powerful giant phoenix would prove useful to someone. Apologies for the so-so formatting. (And yes, I know Regeneration isn't officially a power of its own currently.) -- Pteryx Giant Phoenix * * * * * * Value Char Cost Notes 15 STR (5 points) 12-, lift 200 kg, 3d6 20 DEX (12 points) 13-, OCV 6/DCV 6 18 CON (16 points) 13- 12 BODY (4 points) 11- 10 INT (0 points) 11-, PER roll 11- 10 EGO (0 points) 11-, ECV 3 25 PRE (15 points) 14-, PRE Attack 5d6 20 COM (5 points) 13- 8 PD (5 points) [Note: 6 points of it is Resistant] 16 ED (12 points) [Note: 8 points of it is Resistant] 4 SPD (10 points) Phases: 3, 6, 9, 12 8 REC (2 points) 35 END (-3 points) 30 STUN (2 points) Characteristics Cost: 103 points Movement: Running 1" (2")Leaping 1" (2") Flight 30" (60") Powers:-10 -5" Running -3 -3" Leaping 60 Wings: 30" Flight 6 END 11 Hard To Kill: Damage Resistance for 6 PD and 8 ED 7 Healing Flames: Regeneration 1 BODY (10 Active Points); Increased Time Increment (1 Minute, -1/4) (7 real points) 50 Born in Fire: Energy Damage Reduction, Resistant, 75%, Hardened (+1/4) (75 Active Points); Only Works Against Fire (-1/2) (50 real points) 7 Life Support (Safe In Intense Heat, Longevity: Immortal) 37 Heat Aura (or Engaging Melee With A Man-Sized Flaming Bird Is Stupid): Energy Blast 4d6, Explosion (+1/2), Continuous (+1), Reduced Endurance (0 END, +1/2), Personal Immunity (+1/4) (65 Active Points); Does No Knockback (-1/4), No Range (-1/2) (37 real points) 54 Firey Mantle (or I Mean Really Stupid): HKA 1 1/2d6, Continuous (+1), Damage Shield (does damage in HTH Combat, +3/4), Reduced Endurance (0 END, +1/2) (81 Active Points); No STR Bonus (-1/2) (54 real points) 12 Beak: HKA 1d6 (2d6 w/ STR) (15 Active Points); Reduced Penetration (-1/4) (12 real points) 1 END 20 Talons: HKA 1d6+1 (2d6+1 w/ STR), Reduced END Cost (1/2 END, +1/4) (25 Active Points); Reduced Penetration (-1/4) (20 real points) 1 END 367 Firey Rebirth: STUN + BODY Healing 20d6, Can Heal Limbs, Resurrection (others can stop resurrection by keeping the body immersed in water) (225 base points); Variable Effect (STUN and BODY both at once, +1/2), Reduced END Cost (0 END, +1/2), Trigger (occurs when the phoenix has been KOed or dead for 5 consecutive minutes, +1/4) (506 Active Points); Self Only (-1/2), Linked (to other half of Firey Rebirth, -1/4) (289 real points) plus HKA 3d6, Area of Effect (one hex, +1/2), Armor Piercing (*2, +1), Personal Immunity (+1/4), Trigger (occurs when the phoenix has been KOed or dead for 5 consecutive minutes, +1/4), Reduced END Cost (0 END, +1/2) (157 Active Points); Linked (to other half of Firey Rebirth, -1/2), No STR Bonus (-1/2) (78 real points) 6 Phoenix's Eyes: +4 versus Range Modifier for Sight Group Powers Cost: 618 points Total Character Cost: 721 points Disadvantages:15 Distinctive Feature: Phoenix (Not Concealable, Noticed And Recognizable, Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses) 10 Physical Limitation: Limited Manipulation (Frequently, Slightly Impairing) 25 Susceptibility: External Application of Water (Common, Per Segment, 1d6 STUN) 10 Vulnerability: Water Attacks (2x STUN, Uncommon) 5 Vulnerability: Water Attacks (1 1/2x BODY, Uncommon) 5 Vulnerability: Cold Attacks (1 1/2x STUN, Uncommon) 5 Hunted: Various Would-Be Egg Thieves (8-, Less Pow, Mildly Punish, Easy To Find) Disadvantage Points: 75 points Base Points: 75 points Experience Required: 571 points Total Experience Available: 571 points Experience Unspent: 0 points

Said cheapness, plus my own vision of how regeneration usually works, is why I've been considering possibly including Can Heal Limbs with my version by default and having its absence be a -1/4 Limitation. And it's not that the math intimidates me; it's more like it feels wrong to me to have Regeneration represented by a rule-bending build and it's annoying to deal with something that complex by default. HA's one mandatory Limitation I don't mind; beyond that, well, there's a reason HKA and RKA are seperate Powers. -- Pteryx

I just gave up on fiddling with that unnecessarily complicated Healing-based build for Regeneration in FREd (heck, the build seems to bend some rules anyway) and decided that IMG, Regeneration is back to being its own Power. 10 points gets you 1 BODY/Turn, and you can increase the increment by one step down on the chart as a -1/4 Limitation. By default it's Persistent and costs no END. Resurrection is a +20 Adder, and like the Healing version you must specify a way to stop it. I haven't decided whether Can Heal Limbs should be part of the deal by default or not. Is there anything I should know about the old Regeneration that's worth considering in the recreation of Regen as its own Power? -- Pteryx

I'm still too new to have much in the way of house rules, but here's my version of how to fix the problem of MegaScale starting too cheap. I don't think steps between 2 meters and 1 km would be affected sufficiently by MegaScale's disadvantages, so instead, I'd have a +1/4 surcharge -- a "MegaScaleable" Advantage that you have to take before taking any form of MegaScale. It applies to all forms, however, so you aren't punished for bumping up, say, both Area and Range. Beyond that, let me get back to you, though I have my preliminary thoughts... (Folding Duplication into Summon, splitting Regeneration back off (Instant Change seems fine as it is), turning Danger Sense into the Power it seems to want to be, breaking down "Specific Being" into a host of more specific Advantages and Disadvantages, clearing up the rules for "summoning" stuff like vehicles and guided missiles...) -- Pteryx