screamingtongue

Re: Negative Powers? So I'm taking this concept back to square one. I'm just not sure I can do this concept in as few points as I would like. Most races in my world have only 15 real points worth of abilities. My new idea is this: It will be a power that costs points, because I will use it to assist characters rather than harm them. Their fates are tied to the timeline, meaning roughly that they will randomly be pulled forward or backward in time to be a part of events important to the their fate/the timeline. If they are about to fight a battle on a historical battleground, where a small army once held off an army that overwhelmingly outnumbered them, and they are part of a small army trying to do the same, the character might be pulled back to the original battle, so they can witness what the small army did, and then, once they've accomplished their task, they'd be yanked forward again. In other examples, they might be more active participants in shaping history/the future. I think this requires two time travel powers. The first will be built with No Conscious Control, and the second will be built with some kind of Trigger, to simulate the randomness of step 1, being pulled back in time, and the objective oriented operation of step 2, moving back to the original time when the event is passed/when a task is accomplished. I have a host of questions on how to build these powers, so I'll just shoot them out there and see what answers I get. Questions: -This is important: Can anyone conceivably see these powers being so heavily limited/so cheap to buy that they come in at under 15 points in total? -Is there a way to achieve these effects without building a second costly time travel power? Can the first time travel power just be made to have a temporary effect somehow? -Would "events tied to the current timeline/to what the character is doing" count as a group of events that a character could travel to, or would I have to buy the time travel power up to say, 500 years to make it possible for the characters to reach far distances? -What would be the best way to make it so that not just one character, but the entire party gets pulled along? Like if I wanted one triggering of this power to spark a major plot development, and I wanted every PC to be present. I'm thinking Area of Effect, and the character can tell that it's going to happen, so he can tell his allies to get close. -Related to the question above: Would I need to give it some sort of advantage/limitation to simulate that the character might have some warning that it's about to happen?

This might be a strange question, or too advanced for someone who is relatively new to the system, but I'm trying to come up with a way to give a character the effects of certain powers in a negative way. For my science fiction universe, I'm thinking of making a race that's caught in a constant state of temporal flux. That is, at any given moment they could be flung forward or backward in the timeline, without wanting or meaning to, and it could happen at really inopportune times as well as at good times. Naturally I could build this as an Extra Dimensional Movement power with appropriate limitations like No Conscious Control, but that would seem unfair to anyone playing this race, as it would still cost them points when it seems almost like a complication. Does anyone know of any rules to take a power that impacts a character negatively and turn it into a complication? For the record, in the working version of this ability, I've got it with 47 AP (20 for the base cost, 20 for time travel, and 7 for moving up to one day forward/back), and with No Conscious Control as a limitation, it comes down to 16 RP. It's not at all a high cost, but it still seems unfair to make a power like this cost the player anything, when it might frequently be problematic to them. I could be wrong, it just seems off to make that character pay for something that could prove to be such a major hindrance. One other thought I'm having is to give the character some other power, like clairsentience, an make this time travel thing a possible side affect of using it. So they use their clairsentience ability to learn something, and then they might randomly be shot forward or backward in time as a result of tapping into the timeline.

Re: Is Always On Necessary for this Inherent Power? I was following verbatim the list of other modifiers a power has to have in order to be made inherent. Restrainable I can see being taken away, as it's not on this list. Constant is listed as necessary for an inherent power, and always on should be taken most of the time, according to the rules. I guess inherent isn't typically used for attack powers, so this power (and others, like having non-retractable claws) would be the exception to these rules?

Re: How much change to a character do you consider it a new character.

I'm building a science fiction setting with a number of different races. One of my races is built for front line combat, and has extra layers of reinforcement on top of his knuckles, to add to the damage he does. In other words, it's a Hand-to-Hand attack. This power seemed like a good candidate for the "Inherent" advantage, but I'm confused by the requirements for making a power inherent. Should a hand-to-hand attack take the "always on" disadvantage? Should any attack, for that matter? It seems like "always on" means that the power is always being used. It makes me think of Cyclops or Rogue from X-Men, who can't make their powers stop. So, in my mind, the "always on" limitation would seem to imply that one of these characters would always be punching, but I'm sure I could be misunderstanding. It could just as easily mean that he can't throw a punch without using this power, which is what I want. I just need someone who knows a little more about the system to help me with this. And, for the sake of completeness, here is my current writeup for the power (including Always On): Reinforced Knuckles (25 AP/11 RP): +2d6 HtH damage (10), Constant (+1/2), Persistent (+1/4), Costs No END (+1/2), Inherent (+1/4), Hand-to-Hand Only (-1/4), Always On (-1/2), Restrainable (-1/2)

Re: Focus or Limited Power? Well, it's more for different magical styles, not that there would be one for every attack. So a character would learn the Fuse Manipulation form of Powers, which would allow them to do the things we've been talking about in this thread, manipulating the energy given by certain weapons into doing things other than what the weapon was specifically designed to do. But then, there would be, for example, Rift Manipulation, which gives a character the ability to manipulate time, space, and even physics to produce a variety of effects. This kind of magic comes from a completely different source from what they could do with weapons, so if they want to be an especially talented magician who wants to learn multiple schools of magic, then I think it would make sense to break the skill down. But maybe I could soften the cost, making it 3 points for any initial Power skill, and 2 points to add each additional Power skill?

Re: Focus or Limited Power? Thanks for the help. This is for a heroic campaign, which I thought made it trickier, but I think I'm starting to see how to make it work. I could conceivably make all of the "base powers," the attacks that the object was built to perform, count as equipment rather than a power. So in the example of the cold gun/cold sword, that would be bought as equipment and the character would pay money for it. Any other cold-based attacks that they wanted to learn with that kind of equipment, they would buy as powers with a focus, so that they would be able to perform their cold-based attacks with any piece of cold-based equipment. Does this make sense? And I probably will require that all powers of this type require a Power Skill roll. On that note, in a world with multiple kinds of relatively unrelated magic, would it make sense to actually define different Power Skills for each of the different kinds of magic? My gut says that yes, learning or mastering one kind of magic would not imply learning or mastering other kinds. I'm just wondering if there is anyone else who has done this or any consequences I'm not seeing. Also, Lucius, based on how the technology in my world works, I think it's safe to say that in 90% of all cases, the character needs to be holding a weapon in order to manipulate its energy into doing something it doesn't ordinarily do.

I've had this question come up before, but never thought to post it. How do you build powers that rely on having a certain kind of weapon or other device in the character's possession? If I wanted to have a character who could fire magical arrows instead of real ones from any bow, would I use the focus limitation or the limited power limitation? I'm currently working on a sci-fi/fantasy setting where magic is basically simulated by various kinds of technology, and I want characters to be able to take the advanced weaponry of the world, and learn how to use it in other ways. For example, a character who has learned to manipulate the energy given off by cold-based weaponry would need to be able to take any frost-infused sword, gun, staff, etc., and use it to lower the temperature. Would I build that change environment power with a focus? Or would giving it a focus make it so that power refers to only one specific weapon? I'm thinking that a limitation along the lines of "limited power: requires a cold based weapon" is more appropriate for what I'm trying to accomplish, but I'd like someone else's opinion on this, just in case I'm misunderstanding how a focus works. I might be nitpicking, but the way I understand focus, the power and the focus are tied together more closely than this, meaning that if the focus is lost, the power is lost. If a character has a 2d6 RKA built with a focus, and they lose that focus, they don't retain the ability to perform that 2d6 RKA and just render it inactive or unusable. It's gone until they get another focus. Whereas building it with a limited power limitation would seem to make it an ability the character has and keeps no matter what, but can't use without a certain kind of weapon. On a not completely unrelated note, is it normal to build multiple powers based on the same focus? If so, can they be separate, or would they need to be built as a multipower?

Okay, so I have a quick, and probably easy to answer question. I wanted to create a set of mine-like powers for an NPC in my superhero campaign. Below is one of the mines I built. What I was aiming to do is give him the ability to throw the mines into position, and have them detonate when somebody gets close or when he decides to detonate the mine. My question is, does this power do that? Or does its range imply that when it triggers, it has a range? Voltmine (50 AP/ 17 RP): 1 1/2d6 RKA (25), 2m Radius (+1/4), Trigger (someone enters a 1/2m radius of the mine, or Melbourne presses a detonation button (zero phase action), multiple triggers; +3/4), 6 STR Min (-1/4), Range Based on Strength (-1/4), OAF Difficult to Obtain (-1), 16 Charges (-0), No STR Bonus (-1/2) Also, if I wanted to upgrade the power later, making the mines "blend in" with the ground, would the inobvious power effect advantage be able to cover that? Or would that just make it inobvious that the mine was set off? I'm kind of thinking that all of these questions just come down to special effects, more than a cold hard ruling from the rules. I just want to make sure that it does, in fact, work the way I think it does. Thanks for any help you can give me

Re: Hero System Resource Kit? See, one of the problems is that in my inexperience, I don't even know what tables or information I'd need on short notice that I wouldn't be able to remember. Anyone got any suggestions on what kind of summaries would be useful to both me and new players?

Re: Hero System Resource Kit? Yeah, as a new player and aspiring GM with no experienced players to play with, I was hoping it was 6E, because a tool like that would have been very useful. I guess the Basic Rulebook, which I already own, will have to do. Thanks for the responses, though.

I was just wondering which edition of Hero the Hero System Resource Kit is designed for. I saw it recommended to somebody else and I was planning to buy the pdf version until I realized that it wasn't listed under the 6th Edition items in the online store. Since all I have is 6th edition manuals, anything other than 6th wouldn't be all that helpful to me. So is the Hero System Resource Kit designed for or at least compatible with Hero 6E, or should I just leave it alone?

Re: Transforming Into Monsters? Okay, I think I've worked it out. Tell me if this seems reasonable. Twisted Body: 1d6 Severe Transform (Body; 15), Improved Results Group (Any Twisted Soldier; +1/4), Costs no END (+1/2), Damage Over Time (500 Increments, Hourly; +3), Jointly Linked (-1/2), Limited Target (Sentient Beings Only; -1/4), Extra Time (1 Hour; -3), Incantations (-1/4), Gestures (-1/4) (14 CP) Twisted Mind: 1d6 Severe Transform (Body; 15), Improved Results Group (Any Twisted Soldier; +1/4), Costs no END (+1/2), Damage Over Time (500 Increments, Hourly; +3), Jointly Linked (-0), Limited Target (Sentient Beings Only; -1/4), Extra Time (1 Hour; -3), Incantations (-1/4), Gestures (-1/4) (15 CP) Twisted Soul: 1d6 Severe Transform (Body; 15), Improved Results Group (Any Twisted Soldier; +1/4), Costs no END (+1/2), Damage Over Time (500 Increments, Hourly; +3), Jointly Linked (-0), Limited Target (Sentient Beings Only; -1/4), Extra Time (1 Hour; -3), Incantations (-1/4), Gestures (-1/4) (15 CP) I know that 500 increments is a lot, but as I explained above, the power is now constructed to guarantee that any character would succumb to it eventually, even if every roll was 1d6. In fact, I picked 500 out of the air, when what I was really going for was "infinite." The only thing I'm not sure of is the actual cost for the Damage Over Time advantage at numbers that high. That was all guesswork.

Re: Transforming Into Monsters? In answer to your first question, It is possible that the power could be used on the PCs, yes. It was primarily developed as a description of something that happens to NPCs, but there's no reason why it couldn't happen to PCs. Scenarios like that are the reason I'm developing the power in detail. I believe, according to the rules, and according to the effect I want to generate, the victims of this power will be rescued even if the ceremony isn't interrupted until 59 minutes after it begins. Unless a full hour of incantations and gestures have occurred, the power is not active. However, if the ceremony is finished and then a rescue occurs, the process will have already begun. The first dice roll, I believe, would be one hour after the ceremony is completed. Every hour after that, another roll would occur until the victim fully transforms. Until the transformation is complete, the victim will experience the effects of the transform, without being affected with regard to game mechanics. They will still be in control of their mind and body, so if they can be taken to a church and undergo an exorcism (or any analogous ritual) before the transform completes itself, then the effects are fully reversible, and they will most likely want to go along with the rescue attempts. Even if the transform is completed, the effects can be reversed, but the victim, who has now become a Twisted Soldier, will no longer be willing and will likely fight to get away from his or her "rescuers."

Re: Transforming Into Monsters? Okay, so I'm in the process of reworking this power. I've decided to reduce it to a 1d6 Transform, with hourly increments, just a lot more of them, so that the effect will essentially be that it's guaranteed to work on everybody, but those with higher BODY or EGO characteristics will take longer to change, as will those who are "benefiting" from the power by being turned from a normal individual to a more skilled normal. I do have a question regarding the Damage Over Time table. It ends at 64, and just says "...and so on," but I can't actually discern a pattern there that can be extrapolated from. Does anyone know what the cost would be, of say, 500 Damage Increments? What I'm considering doing is making it a +3 overall advantage with an impossibly high number of hourly increments, meaning it will accumulate until it's successful in transforming the target, and then stop. I got +3 by making 500 worth +4 on top of the base cost of +1, and then subtracting the -2 "Hourly" modifier. Does this seem reasonable, or do you think that it should be worth more advantage than that? In addition, an exorcism or any other religious reclamation ritual would be characterized as both undoing the transform and ending the damage over time, essentially saving the character from the spell altogether, unless they were recaptured and the spell was cast on them all over again. Also, Lucius, thanks for all the tips. I think I've got a better grasp of what to do to limit my NPCs with complications now. Also, I'm going to choose to ignore that rule about not granting skills, at least for the sake of this one transform.

Re: Transforming Into Monsters? The main reason I'm designing the power is for precisely that reason, actually, in case I want to do a storyline involving the actual use of the power and the onset of the transformation, I want to have the exact rules for it laid out. Also, I'm trying to get practice creating a wide variety of powers.

Re: Transforming Into Monsters? Thanks for the advice, guys. I'm going to rework my transform ability to make it more accurately reflect what the people are getting turned into. Do combat skill levels and martial arts count as body or mind transforms? And how many points would say the transform needs to accumulate in order to transform a character into a Competent Normal? Also, to those of you responding to my question about complications, thanks. I'm just confused about what complications to give my NPCs. For example, what complications might you give to dark priests? Again, thanks for all the advice. It has all been quite helpful.

Re: Transforming Into Monsters? I do have a way of reversing it, where the victim, if completely transformed, must be forced into an exorcism or similar religious/holy/divine ritual, which, once complete, will return their mind, body, and soul to normal. Also, while I haven't built them yet, I have decided that Twisted are going to be standard normals at their worst, and skilled normals at their best. So, like undead, they don't have extensive abilities, and are known to win battles by sheer numbers and inducing fear. I don't know if the stats of a skilled normal count as granting extensive abilities or not. As for the mind, body, spirit thing, I think I might keep it as a series of jointly linked powers. Also, I have another question. This is a little off-topic, but not unrelated to NPC design. Do NPCs typically recieve complications? That's something I've been finding it difficult to figure out. Some of them, like "Hunted" or "Social Complication" don't seem really applicable to NPCs, but others like "Enraged" or "Vulnerable" seem to make sense, so I'm not sure.

Re: Transforming Into Monsters? You're right about the amount of time involved. It was originally designed as a 1d6 rather than 2d6, and I didn't adjust the time increments after changing it. Also, it's meant to be an NPC power in a world I'm designing, so I guess that makes me the GM in this instance. Overall I like your definition of the power. I'm just wondering if it can be used to account for the fact that the Twisted have a different appearance, are willing slaves to demonic priests, and that their souls essentially become demonic in nature, because my understanding of the rule was that one transform can only affect either mind, body, or soul. Thanks for the help, though. It's really helpful.

Hello all, I'm pretty new to the system, so please bear with me. I'm currently designing NPCs for a fantasy-horror setting. PCs will be Standard Heroic. What I'm looking to build is a transform power that some of my villains have, that will turn their prisoners into demonic creatures called "Twisted," which are something like undead, only made from living beings rather than dead bodies. I haven't yet built the twisted NPCs, but I have built the powers that create them. I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't missing anything with this build. Note that this power is largely for roleplaying purposes, and not meant to be used in combat and generally not meant to be used against the heroes, either. The basic idea is that once the power is activated on somebody, they will begin transforming into the desired form of Twisted (be it archer, swordsman, cavalry). Do you think the transforms I've defined below, bought as three jointly linked powers, effectively capture this? My main concern is that I'm missing something with regards to the part of the rules concerning Transform that describes adding abilities/capabilities. +Twisted Mind: Severe Transform 2d6 (15), Costs no END (+1/2), Damage over time (12 times at 1 hour increments; +1/2), Improved Results Group (Any Twisted; +1/4), Jointly linked (-1/2), Limited Target (Living Things Only; -1/4), Extra Time (1 Hour; -3), Incantations (-1/4), Gestures (-1/4) (13 CP) +Twisted Body: Severe Transform 2d6 (30), Costs no END (+1/2), Damage over time (12 times at 1 hour increments; +1/2), Improved Results Group (Any Twisted; +1/4), Jointly linked (-0), Limited Target (Living Things Only; -1/4), Extra Time (1 Hour; -3), Incantations (-1/4), Gestures (-1/4) (14 CP) +Twisted Spirit: Severe Transform 2d6 (30), Costs no END (+1/2), Damage over time (12 times at 1 hour increments; +1/2), Improved Results Group (Any Twisted; +1/4), Jointly linked (-0), Limited Target (Living Things Only; -1/4), Extra Time (1 Hour; -3), Incantations (-1/4), Gestures (-1/4) (14 CP) The special effect of this power is that it's a ceremony where once it's been performed, demonic forces will slowly begin to transform the victim and, if their BODY characteristic isn't extraordinary, they will have transformed into a Twisted soldier by the time twelve hours have passed. Please let me know if there are any errors, anything I've put in there unnecessarily, or anything I've left out that I should have included. Thanks. Edit: I should mention that I've built this power with the rules found in the 6th Edition Character Creation Manual.