CorpCommander

That is elegant and easy. I like it! If you will have this effect come up often that is probably the best way to do it. I've played wayyyyyyyy to many historical minatures games I think and it limits me to how I see to model things I have too much information for. Throw in another limitation indicating it is 1/4 effective if reactive armor succedes in going off. (-1 1/4 or -1 1/2 depending on the GM I guess.)

Damn straight! Now you get it. Lasers can be useful. You could attache them to the heads of sharks because no creature should ever go without a hot meal. The coil poppers are, um, disgusting but great! I am not one of the people that really has the ability to suspend disbelief on most nano-tech but bullets with Nano-tech are kinda neat if you have an open mind. The Vacuum flowers weapon someone mentioned, the anti-riot wetware, sounds great. I read the book years ago and forgot how it works. How would you do it in Hero? Transform? Mind Control? Could be cool. OH and I wrote up the Pointman Scoutbot and submitted it to the Spacers Toolkit online. If it isn't accepted I'll post it here.

Skydivers have survived chute failure from several hundred feet. One man I saw survived a 4 story fall because he landed on a stopsign and was arrested by the pole impaling him. I don't think he was perfectly well after that but... yeah he lived. Falling damage has been brought up a bunch of times as unrealistic. The biggest problem is that if you try to do the fantastic the reality of life gets in the way everytime. You are better off chaining reality to the radiator in the basement and ignoring its cries while you game.

Re: Re: Wimpy numbers I like your point concerning exaggerated effects and sticking to the log effects. In some cases one does have to consider some of the other rules impacting such as range. In order to make a 120mm penetrator round for a tank I had to make it a 12d6 RKA decreased with range. That allowed me to reach out 1800 hexes with sufficient effect at the middle ranges. (3dk at max range, about 5-6d6 at the mid-range which seems to work well.) About Hiroshima and Nagasaki - as one can see in the pictures of the striken cities almost no structure was left without massive damage. Survivor tales that I know of were of people in cellars with a good surrounding of dirt. That would stop all the alpha and beta particles. The Gamma particles, though, are a different matter and would penetrate quite a distance. While there were thousands of survivors the Gamma (or Ionized Radiation) left many with long term radiation sickness and eventually cancer. Hero does a great job of letting us represent this. Gradual Effect 5 years (about -3 limitation). (The Gradual Effect listed here is probably too long actually. Many near the hypocenter that survived the blast died within 6 weeks.) Your point was that nuclear weapons of the size used in Japan don't destroy everything - it is possible to survive. I think that is a good point. Here is a great site on survivor stories: Voice of Hibakusha

Here's another story about acid baths! http://hosted.ray.easynet.co.uk/serial_killers/haigh.html This true life story is about a Brit Vampire (well, he thought he was at least) who would kill his victims, drink their blood and then pop the bodies in Acid. The story talks quite a bit about what does and doesn't disolve in acid! A must read for all those thinking about the perfect crime.

Well, I don't think they are really all that plausible, but that is beside the point. The "lameness" comes from the ubiquity of the device in all sci-fi plus the fact that it is so prosaic - its just another rifle. You mention other sci-fi standards that have been repeated too often. That is what I am getting at. Its not a question of plausibility - its one of creativity. Is that more clear? So, the wierd and unusual are what I am looking at. Things that will change the way war is conducted. Smart mine fields (gosh they even had this in Dr. Who) Smart/brilliant bullets Non-leathal weapons RPVs (especially interesting since we've seen 1st and 2nd generations of these and they clearly offer a whole new way of conducting war.) Unusual weapons like the M2 SLAM (Selectable Lightweight Attack Munition) - basically a wierd pocket sized mine able to blow up material, defeat some vehicles and as an anti-personel device. Triggers include passive IR, magnetic influence, time delay and command detonation. Non-weapon stuff such as methods of getting in and out of trouble, unusual communication gear, unusual camo, unusual detection gear etc. Anyway, hope that helps.

In Europe, there is a case where a crime gang used a plastic barrel with Pine Sol in it and kept the body there for year. There wasn't much left but a lemony fresh scent. I am led to believe it was industrial strength pine sol, the kind you clean a school with in concentrated form. I wouldn't kill off the players. Let them accumulate luck but also find a way of getting every single one of their disadvantages to fire off every session. "Wow, Aunt May shows up again. Ok she is using her walker to cross the street in front of Dr. Destroyer!"

Re: New Campaign How big? 20mm, 120mm? HEAT has an armor penetrating effect plus an explosive effect. Its not as effective against armor as hyper dense discarding sabot rounds. My suggestion is a compound power: an Energy Blast with Explosion PLUS an RKA with AP. For the Hyper Dense round put all the points into an RKA. HEAT Rounds tend to have the same energy at all ranges because the round is designed to kill by its shaped charge vs. kinetic energy. On the other hand, penetrators lose energy over range. You probably already know this so I won't bore you with the penetration at range reverse-S curve. Here is an example of a 120mm L55 gun that you might find on an M1A2 or Leopard MBT. 31 points____120mm HEAT: (Total: 120 Active Cost, 31 Real Cost) Explosive Effect: Energy Blast 10d6 (vs. PD), 16 Charges (+0), Explosion (+1/2) (75 Active Points); Limited Power STR Min = 30, STR Min Cannot Add/Subtract Damage (-1 1/2), OIF Bulky (Rhinemetal 120mm Gun System; -1), Real Weapon (-1/4) (Real Cost: 20) plus Shape Charge Effect: Killing Attack - Ranged 3d6 (vs. PD), 16 Charges (+0) (45 Active Points); Limited Power STR Min = 30, STR Min Cannot Add/Subtract Damage (-1 1/2), OIF Bulky (Rhinemetal 120mm Gun System; -1), Beam (-1/4), Real Weapon (-1/4) (Real Cost: 11) 79 points____120mm DSFSDU-T: Killing Attack - Ranged 12d6 (vs. PD), Increased Maximum Range (1575"; +0), 32 Charges (+1/4), Armor Piercing x1 (+1/2) (315 Active Points); Limited Power STR Min = 30, STR Min Cannot Add/Subtract Damage (-1 1/2), OIF Bulky (Rhinemetal 120mm Gun System; -1), Real Weapon (-1/4), Reduced By Range (-1/4) Here is the effect chart for the DSFSDU round: Range_____ KA Dice in Hexes 4__________12 8__________11 16_________10 32_________9 64_________8 128________7 256________6 512________5 1024_______4 1800_______3 Pardon the horrible formatting. Anyway, this is just my way of doing it. There are many other ways of going about it. The HEAT round is useful against groups of Enemy soldiers, bunkers, etc. The APFSDU is good pretty much only against tanks. That might be a useful additional limitation. Hope I was of some help.

Scout Robots I'll write up the scout/pointman robots. Who is Ben? How do I get the write up into him?

Re: Re: I like it Fair enough Actually, I've found a lot of your work I do like on closer inspection. My comments were actually meant to be positive. Why do I taste atheletes foot in my mouth?

Soldier Replacements I think there is probably need for soldier replacement in the form of robots. For years units have been moving forward by stringing out and sending a point-person. What if that point person were a robot who was particularily adept at spotting? This would make ambushes and sniping a lot harder unless you could take out the robot first which would spawn anti-robot robots. In generall, however, it will affect the way units do business by changing how they collect vital information on what is ahead.

Its lame in the fact that it is so overdone. I doubt coherent light weapons will become useful as personal weapons. I think more interesting weapons will come into play and coherent light will play the part it's played for 3 decades now: range finding and guiding. Some lasers have been useful for ABM and anti-satalite work but overall I don't see people running around with laser weapons anytime soon if ever. As we've seen there has been some pretty good discussion so I am pretty happy with this thread in general.

That Mustache Feeling Episode Guide The Tick: Rugged, self-assured, adult…these are the words who describe a man who wears a mustache. Eyes playing tricks like tiny round devils! Arthur! My mustache is touching my brain!!! Scientist: Morality's lease has run out, and Science has been given the keys to the apartment! Die Fledermaus: Two words, Tick…chick magnet! Taft: Well, Tick, looks like your mustache has a date in a half hour… Jim Rage: Uncle Sam wants you in my RV! You don't understand, man…the Russians were already working on a beard…We had a facial hair gap!

New GM +2months Ok, I've been running since around the end of August. For the starting characters we've had simplified armor, we didn't track endurance, we did use normal and killing attacks. We've since added endurance. We've differentiated all the armor types (regular, resistant, hardened, etc.) After the end of this major battle I will add in combat locations. All of my players are newbies too. Some of us have played in years past but not recently. Take it slow. You will begin to see why everything is in there and how it all makes sense. Definitely start off easy though. I have one other guy that helps me with the speed chart to count impulses.

Best construct? Would this be best done as an elemental control or a multi-power? The damage shield wouldn't make sense in either framework, but the other powers suggest multipower to me. Can he get +8" Swinging with it?

Oh I like this Heck, you could even give the beard Life Support eating. The Dwarf can find some prior meals in there and be able to go long periods without a normal supply of food. You could also make it useable on others and give it a limitation Requires an Ego Roll (because, come on, that's just nasty!) Perhaps one of the few times where the advantage STICKY is actually meant to be taken literally! Ewwwwww! The powers you can put in a beard are amazing! Stretching, extra limbs, EB... has this focus any limit to its usefulness? I say no.

Will reputation points gained from the beard determine the number of realatives and DNPCs that may live in the beard? Hmm, at that point the character would have to spend points on the beard as it were a base. How much DEF would your typical nobels beard have?

OT: what I like and don't like about some of the artwork It was a back-handed compliment, I admit that. There is no accounting for taste. To reiterate, the new stuff NATO has done for the Viper book was much more impressive. If you want specific stuff I didn't like here is a short list from the TUV: Pgs. 91, 92, 94, 98, 123, 144 THOUGH now that I had to go look for it I found a couple of piece he did for that book I did like a lot. Pgs. 73 and 80 have some nice stuff. I think the weakness of the other pieces made me have a jaundiced eye. Now that I have seen what he is capable of with Viper I can pretty much forgive the other stuff. So, yeah, I have a negative opinion about some of his stuff but my point was that his work was pretty strong in the Viper book. When I think about what it was I hated the most, that pirate ship in TUV pretty much is branded in my brain. Compare that to the C-141 like aircraft on pg. 73 of TUV. So, in trying to say something nice it came off as negative and I am sorry for that. What did you expect? I have Stalin as my avatar...

I like it Its a really decent book. Its well written hand has a lot to offer even the casual Hero GM. I thought the art work was much better than in a lot of the other books. Even the art signed by NATO (don't know the artists name) was pretty good which is saying a lot because I HATE most of his work.

All living things react to stimuli. To react to stimuli they must be able to detect it. No brain is needed. No complex nervous system is needed either. Camera's don't have brains or nervous systems (even if you consider their CPUs and electronics.) but they can still detect you. Also, about seeing millions of things... seeing is not detection. I once pointed out to my girlfriend a rabbit on the side of the road. "Where!?!" "Over there" "Where exactly?" "You're looking right at him" (pointing franticly) "I don't see the bun buns!" pouty face "Grrrr" See you can SEE something and not detect it. She just wasn't able to pick it out of the grass. Pretty much how they are designed anyway. Data is only overwhelming when you get a lot of "relevent data." People get into data overload quite often. Anyway I detect the Red Sox are winning so I gotta jet.

Problems with detect detection 1. Unless you buy it RAPID you are going to get overwhelmed. If you can detect any detection then you are currently being detected by 1 Billon paramecium that are living on your skin and 1 Billion eColi that have made a habit of having fun with your stool. Not to mention the casual glances you get from flys, people, cameras and Pan Galactic Evil Creatures who inhabit just about any Hero game. Clearly you need some filters. 2. Also you won't detect someone determining your location via deduction. Batman could be around the corner and knowing the layout of the back alley you are in deduce in short order that you must be standing on the dumpster to the right of the window and then bounce an attack after you! 3. What advantage does it really give you? Once someone has detected you during their phase they usually are going to blast you, unless I guess if you have a saved action. Still - even so once someone has started their phase its too late to interupt it. Am I not correct on this?

@Greenstar Hey, that is interestingly similar to what I was thinking about. My first impression was of a cruise missle with look down radar. This is a cheaper alternative. Though it only seems to be useful against static targets. I wonder what the hang time is? 1 minute? Anyway, this is impressive: SADARM detects a vehicle

Another way of going about this An easier way of working this is to PICK how you want things to be and work backward to figure out how they got that way. Reverse engineer the process. Its a lot easier. Pete

Force XXI Force XXI has some interesting weapons. The proposed infantry rifle has a HUD mode so its partially indirect. (around corners only, -1/2? -1?) It also has a 20mm round underneath instead of a 40mm GL. I think they want that for the AP effect against vehicles.

I like it. Air Force and Navy sensors exist like this but they only work vs. active senses. Would the sense as written work for something as mundane as just being looked at? I don't doubt it. Mrs. Breen was the Principle when I was in 1st grade and she definitely had this power. She claimed it was called "I have eyes in the back of my head."