Diamond Spear

Re: EOCV vs DCV I would make it a +1/2 advantage for the simple reason that it is cheaper to raise your EGO than your DEX.

When applying Standard Effect to a Killing Attack, is the stun multiplier automatically a 3 or is it rolled as normal?

Re: what does it take to get a copy of 5ER He certainly has a point there. Palladium, for example, is running more than 10 years behind on at least to books (and that is just releasing them for the first time!). Other books they have let go out of print more or less permanently (such as Source Book One for Rifts) and yet still referrer to information contained in it in their later supplements. Besides their system is about 12 years past due for a revision which they steadfastly refuse to believe is needed, even as long term players such as myself, (proud previous palladium player number 8,932) abandon the game completely. So be happy with DOJ compared to most companies out there they are vastly superior.

Re: Critique this character please You do realize a 250 point mentalist could, using your existing psych lims, have you pound your own party into the dirt without half trying right? Enraged in combat, Overconfidence, Feels he must prove himself and Attention seeker are tailor made for a mentalist to exploit. The 3 ECV and 10 EGO with no mental defense are just icing on the cake. Something to think about.

Re: Request for a write up: Deathstroke the Terminator Anyone in the market for some Deathstroke comics? I have the series from the early ‘90s. One or two years worth IIRC.

Re: Champions Universe Atlascott, Before this discussion goes any further let me ask you a question. Is there anything anyone can say, besides agreeing with you, that you will consider valid? In other words are we just wasting our time responding to you? I’m not trying to be mean but I would prefer not to respond to someone who will simply ignore what I and others have to say and reply with the same points used in the initial post.

Re: Champions Universe The purpose of the CU book is to explain how the CU differs from our own world and to give advice on how to run a superheros game. It does that job admirably. It is not intended to be a book filled with villains. That is what villain books like CC&K are for.

Re: Aging Campaigns Recurring villains I don’t mean every session, oh God it’s them again, didn’t we beat these guys up all last month, kind of villains. What I am talking about is the “show up once in a while but always in a memorable fashion†kind of villains. For instance, suppose DEMON has set up a hame in the campaign city. Well, your heroes aren’t going to run into them every week but the times they do should be memorable. DEMON is evil to the core and you should run them that way. Maybe the heroes arrive just after a human sacrifice. It gives them a reason to get interested in DEMON but the structure of DEMON means that it will be a long time until the group even gets close to the morbane. This is the kind of thing that you can string out for a year or longer of real time (assuming once a week meetings) and the characters might only run into DEMON every four or five sessions. They will start by rounding up some low level flunkies and gradually work their way to the top. Of course DEMON will react to this so it becomes a drawn out, low-level war between the two groups with sometimes lengthy periods of inactivity. The group gets a hated enemy and the GM gets a long running plot that won’t get stale. You can of course substitute VIPER or some other organization. Even though Terror Inc. has been broken up whose to say that their mercenary army of agents didn’t go looking for some new supervillians? One more advantage to using organizations like this is that it helps avoid the “supers vs. supers†battle blues. And trust me, no matter how powerful your heroes are a well handled team of agents can be VERY effective. Unusual Scenarios The scavenger hunt. The heroes are blackmailed into participating in a city-wide “scavenger hunt†with the safety of the city at stake. Perhaps an empty building is destroyed with a threat that the next one will be occupied if the heroes don’t participate. The items to be collected can be almost anything and the defenses could include agents, robots or low powered supervillians or anything else you can think of. Then of course there are loads of reasons “whyâ€. Perhaps Foxbat was board and felt like making the heroes look silly, perhaps a new trickster villain chose this method of making his debut, perhaps someone or some organization did it to distract the heroes from something they were doing at the same time. The kidnap and chase is fun if used sparingly. Perhaps the victim is an important NPC. And just to make things interesting set it up so the heroes can’t use their movement powers. Maybe they are in narrow winding tunnels with an uneven floor and many branching corridors that need to be checked. Perhaps there are difficult to detect tripwires. Heighten the tension by having the heroes find smears of blood or hear distant screams. You get the point. The out of city experience. Perhaps your heroes are bored with the same setting all the time. Devise a scenario that takes them out of their comfortable surroundings. Make them appreciate home all over again. This also lets them meet new important people both normals and supers. I hope my rambling has been at least a little helpful.

Re: Finally, I bought the game! Only one problem... Reped!

Re: Finally, I bought the game! Only one problem... I just sent him one.

Re: Need help with my PC Greywolf, You have the following: Mutant Powers--, elemental group, does not work in water (as in "in the water" no me in the water), 60 APts What exactly are you defining as "not in water"? Are you saying they will not work if your character is in the water? Or are you saying something else? Because unless you are saying that they will not work if your character is in the water than it isn't really a limitation. Also what level of limitation did you apply for "not in waer" (-1/4, -1/2?)? And to some of you who have already replied to Greywolf, lighten up a little! We were all once new to HERO and we were all once young. Answer honestly but try not to be too critical of an obviously new member of the HERO commmunity.

Re: Sanctuary?

Does Sanctuary still exist in the “new†Champions Universe?

Re: Give me your house rules! Well my old group almost nver used END. One less number to keep track of and since most movie/anima characters never seem to get tired it might be appropriate for the style game you are talking about.

Can you use a held action to take a recovery on and “off†phase? Ex: A character holds his phase 2 action and since he does not need to take any action that phase wants to use his held action to take a recovery on phase 3. Is this legal?

Re: "Positive" Damage Shield

Re: "Positive" Damage Shield Unless there is some difficulty in the character being able to purge the energy I would just leave it as flavor text. Otherwise take it as a vulnerability: “Must purge extra life energy every so often or take XD6 per time increment.” Not sure how many points it would be worth though considering if it was anything over an hour time increment you would get very few points for the Vulnerability. As far as the effect when they purged the energy as long as it could not be used as an attack I would again just leave the effect as flavor.

Re: Champions books with lots of Info Do you care if they are 4th ed or 5th ed?

Re: Here it is....rip it to shreds.... Beware of area of effect entangles.

Re: Too many points? How about 140 more stun? Seriously though, if it were me I'd just enjoy having fewer disadvantages.

Re: Mind Control awareness It’s a tricky call. If the person doing the mind control did not specifically bar him from reveling that he was being influenced then the player could make a case that he could tell his friends what is going on. OTOH letting players just blurt out they are mind controlled seems to greatly diminish the usefulness of the mind control power. Personally I think you did the right thing in not letting him tell. Others may have a different opinion.

Re: The Problem with Even Characteristic Costs I see your point but what HERO does that is different than GURPS (and I think this is where we are seeing different things) is that in HERO the MAXIMUM that can be bought without penalty is reduced rather than the starting value. In effect all races still start at 10 they just top out lower (or higher) than the human standard. The reason exponential progression is not used is that the system has been balanced for simple progression. Does that make sense?

Re: The Problem with Even Characteristic Costs

Re: The Problem with Even Characteristic Costs It works because the player then has, to follow my example, 4 less points to spend on other things. HERO is designed to be a zero sum game when it comes to character creation; points spent = base points plus disadvantages. So when you have to psy just to get a characteristic back up to its normal starting level you ARE disagvanteged because those points can't be used for more useful things.

Re: The Problem with Even Characteristic Costs But you do pay more to reach the "average". If, to use your example, my starting CON is reduced to an 8 I have to pay 4 points just to get it up to teh starting value of 10. I guess I don't see where the problem is.