WistfulD

A 10-pt. multipower exceeds the definition of what is allowed for a 3 pt. csl. A GM who allows it is being too lenient. A Player who is trying to argue for it is not taking advantage of the rules, they are overassuming what the rules allow. How you adjuticate that, and how many mackerels are swung depends on how you interpret attempts to game the system. Some people consider it the player's job to overreach and the GM's job to curtail that tendency. Others do not see it that way.

6E1 p. 209: "The Discriminatory effect provided by the Touch Group is not the full Discriminatory obtained by buying that Sense Modifier, but rather an effect of somewhat cruder degree. For example, a character can tell a dollar bill from a piece of ordinary paper of the same size, but cannot tell a $1 bill from a $5 bill. Characters can make Normal Touch (or the entire Touch Sense Group) fully Discriminatory by paying the usual cost."

I think there are two primary factors in play, 1) the prevalence (and dominance) of battlefield penalties and bonuses, and 2) character combat differentiation.

1) Is simply put, how much (in comparison to the overall variability) do factors such as cover, elivation, distance, speed, etc. matter in combat. In games like GURPS, your overall gun skill (for example) will be usually somewhere between 10 and 20 or 21 on a 3D6. The penalties for range and speed alone, however, will often be in the 9-12 range. The more charts with +1s and -2s and so forth you add to your base, the more this matters. Superheroic characters in Heroes also deal with this, as do Heroic ones, although heroic ones probably aren't going to be shooting at rifle range without using scopes, which pretty much eliminate the range penalty.

2) Superhero Heores games are much like modern D&D games in that much of your characters build is going to be based on some kind of trick, and whether the opponenet has a defense for it (trip attack fighters or nova attack wizards for D&D, armor piercing vs. AVAD vs. Insubstantial vs. mental attack etc. for Heroes). Heroic Heroes games are more like (for combat purposes) OD&D-2E-- all fighting types will look much the same. One side or another might have a leg up, but that's going to be in slight adjusters to the role (+2 vs. +1 swords vs 3D6 RKA vs. 2D6+1 guns) but the basic type of attack and defense is pretty standard, so the thing that people can do to change the outcome is change the situation in which they come into conflict (either by being the better equiped group or by messing with timing, elevation, etc.).

I'm not saying that the writer isn't right. He is. But it is just one of many dichotomies that one can use to divide differing games and styles.

Overall, yes, continuous effects damage occur on the users actions. For an uncontrolled, equipment-derived power, I would work with the GM to determine an appropriate speed. 3 Sounds good. It is continuous, however, and if someone tries to pick up the thermite grenade while it is going off, it will damage them even though it isn't 'the grenade's turn'.

IT really should be a complication, since it isn't a direct tie proportional tie to the ability's power level. Accidentally shapechanging when you sneeze is a serious problem, especially if you are a mystique-style infiltrator, but it should be worth less point savings than Accidentally shooting off fireballs when you sneeze, even if those powers cost the same number of active points.

Not sure if it counts, but when I started building vehicles, I was stymied by the fact that the pre-built ones included the "Costs Endurance" on thier movement. My character doesn't get to take this. You have to pay endurance for your movement normally, how can you also take the limitation? Well, apparently vehicles don't (except that all of the examples take the limitation). Why? Who knows?

No one really ever "didn't know" these, but man has my group on a whole had trouble wrapping their head around applying strength and damage classes and maneuver-based DCs and such to weapons/HAs/HKAs with advantages. "So my knife has armor piercing, and I have 3 DCs to add to it, So I divide those by 1.25? Why even have DCs and Str, why not just say, "has 10 active points to add to melee attacks?" Their not exactly wrong there.

Is there some sort of "Strong Stomach" Perk that i've missed?

I'm pretty sure no, plus I would use that for spoiled meat or something, not this.

How about making it a PS based on... con?

Or better yet: any time you run into one of these things that people appear to be randomly good at or not, everyone who wants to can roll 2D6+3 for their attribute (and thus skill mod) for this random talent--massive overeating, able to curl your tongue, does capsaicin make you sweat buckets?, are you left handed (11+ on 2D6)? Stuff that you shouldn't have to pay points for, and yet are not something you should just be able to choose, and there's some real variation in the population.

I'd say here. I'm on both sites and on COTI it'll be lost amongst the other alternate edition folders.

Yes, like the lizard. Any sweep-you-off-your-feet type move. Heroic campaigns are supposed to be more realistic at the cost of being more deadly. In real life in a fight, when are you knocked down? When you are staggered so much that you fall over (like a boxer), and when someone deliberately attacks your feet to get you on the ground. The martial arts system has its own trip mechanic (which is really more of an all-or-none, knock you down if they hit, so I don't actually like it so much), but I can see using the knockdown mechanic. The problem is that the defense against it is the KB resistence ability, which I can't realistically picture in a heroic game (and adds one more defense you have to keep track of).

So WishfulD when you say a equivalent effect, would getting hit the tail of a giant lizard be one? I never had the issue come up before with knockdown/knockback in a heroic game then a friend of mine's character has a staff which does knockback-only for knockdown. He wasn't familiar with the knockdown rules and quite frankly using knockback is easier since we are all familiar with it from Champions. The knock down only rule means that you roll for knockback as usual but if it succeeds, then the max is 1" and targets falls down.

 

 

 

As well as playing the evil wizard Koura in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad. I guess if you're a villainous Arab it's appropriate to have blue eyes.

 

He's still my favorite Doctor.

He's very fan savy, and knows that his fans will love him showing up anywhere geeky. He's pulled a Hasselhoff/Shattner/Adam West and embraced it.

The thing is that, in heroic games, you usually pick your equipment from an appropriate list that everyone else gets to pick from too.  In a superheroic game I don't care if you can buy equipment using cash so long as it is so massively less useful than the stuff you can buy with character points that you'd not want it.

 

There's nothing wrong with a solution searching for a problem.  There are no monopoles on the discussion boards

In this instance, I was using the term solution searching for a problem as in mechanically, not what we do spending time on the boards. There are already systems in place for monetary cost in both heroic and super-heroic games. To add another modifier is double dipping in my mind (like applying the "hand-to-hand" modifier to an HKA attack. The penalty is already in there in the rules).

If you want to pick equipment in a heroic campaign that others do not get, there are perks that simulate that.

As always, YMMV.

Not really. In a heroic game, We generally figure that a character gets knocked down when they are tripped (or at least the equivalent effect), and when they are put down below 0 stun. We rule that being lightly below 0 stun (such that they'll recover in a turn) means that they are extra staggered, and will fall down and drop what's in their hands, but still be concious.

Still a plot device for me. Normally they can communicate. For purposes of story, occasionally they can't.

Yes, but this game (at least Champions) was started with the idea of puting stats to superheroes--the genre of characters whose powers all inherently haave the caveat "may vary according to the plot/author." Putting stats to things that work as they need to to advance the story is our bread and butter.

http://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/27525-avatar-the-last-airbender/

 

http://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/47756-creating-a-game-based-on-avatar-the-last-airbender/

 

Lucius Alexander

 

the palindromedary practices netbending

Is the search function back up?

They're both in-game currency.

But the fact remains. In heroic settings, you buy equipment with money, not points, so the point cost is irrelevant. In super-heroic campaigns, extra wealth won't get you extra super-equipment. Restricted recovery and expendability cover the idea that replacing the item incurs such a cost as to be hindering (you can only affford so many per paycheck, tracking of these rare and expensive components is traceable (think Dark Knight), etc.

I just see this as a solution searching for a problem.

For bigger inside, buy increased size with "no figured characteristics" limitation.

As to whether or not to stat it as a vehicle, does its qualities as a vehicle as opposed to base ever get used?

This is trying to apply a limitation to a state of being that is inherent to items in a heroic campaign and irrelevant in a super-heroic one.

If you are going to include gadgets and vehicles, make sure that I, the reader can reverse engineer how they were built (either have the build listed out like in Star Hero, or with a pre-emptory paragraph such as, "all these items were built with OAF, megascale (1m=1km), and a continuing fuel charge for 1 hr."

I bought an independently made sci-fi setting book for Hero 5th/6th, mostly for ideas in my own campaign, and although the ships had stats, they did not have the powers that made them up slotted out, so I had no idea how the changes I would make would fit in. That book is now trash.

Nothing this guy says is inaccurate.

 

However its quite clear reading his assessment of thr film that he missed its point, which was quite clear.

 

On the surface it was quite obviously about the evils of unrestrained capitalism. The main villain(s) are inasnely wealthy industrialists. So wealthy that they no longer identify withr the average person. in fact they are so far removed that they see people as comodities to be exploited, harvested and sold. I would say that is the main plot/theme. But as i mentioned before, this movie has several other sub themes which segue with the Wachowskis other works. I guess he missed those too.

Or didn't find them compelling. Which sub-theme spoke to you?

I think it has to do with the fact that, once you start having bodies scores and comparable RKAs that high, things start looking like a video game life bar. Having those damage rolls from 15 shots total 103 instead of 96 and killing your vehicle because it has 100 body has no emotional weight. We'd rather have basically 3 levels of damage-- light, heavy, and severe, and having 10-12 hp of that caliber.

What does Pre have to do with mental?

Whoops! Ego. It's Ego you use to break a mental entangle.

Well, a large faction of us have never been able to use an official Hero Traveller book, their having been out of print for some time now. I've run Beltstrike and a number of the double short adventure books using Star Hero, but not Hero Traveller. Can you tell us, does the rule set have the ability to make CT PCs, NPCs, and ships? What else does it include?

Oh, we're messing around with lots of different options. The dogfight rolls effect your ability to stay out of arcs of fire. We've riggered the damage and body system to have a Structural Integrity score instead of Body. It's 1/2 the normal Body, but you usually lose 1-2 points at a time. Hits over 1/2 your resilience score (which = your original body, and is raised or lowered seperate from Structural Integrity) do 2 points and do damage to a random ship system. Fighters can fly inside enemy capital ship shields and target specific subsystems. The more we deviate from the basic Hero rules, the more fun it is getting, but the less likely I'll ever be able to turn it into a campaign sourcebook. :-P

As a GM I would be very wary of something like this, either because it would tend to knock out opponents too quickly to be fun or would mean having to introduce some plot explaining why it does not work as often as it probably should, and deliberately nerfing a power that way always leaves a bad taste.  Either of these approaches makes the GM's job more difficult and the GM is already working harder than anyone else.  OTOH it would be fine as a specific villain power: a specific villain is not going to be in every session, unless it is a very unusual game.  This may sound unfair, but it isn't, because fairness is not the issue, enjoyment of the game is.

 

As this is an optical laser, you might want to either add "requires target to have normal vision" either as a separate limitation or as an adjunct to "must be looking at character": I could be looking at the character with my sonar.  The fact that it should be implicit from the power name/concept means nothing.

If the GM has to nerf it, they probably shouldn't have allowed it as-is in the first place.

The optical laser already has, " Alternate Defense (Blind, Covering Eyes; -½), " I think that covers what you are talking about. Now it is using light pulses to induce seisures, so simply having sonar won't make you immue, you have to cover your eyes. I guess I could add "requires target to have vertibrate-normal optical-neural architecture, such that light pulses might induce epilepsy, but that seems like milking the disadvantage chart for all it is worth.

If a character is Entangled, they still have their defenses and can act to use their powers to escape. You still have some control.

 

The Stunning CE is really an NND Entangle where the defense is a die roll. The chances of a bad roll are usually higher and even if they aren't mathematically, they are psychologically. 

That's not that different from a mental entangle, which also is defeated by a die roll (presence), except when you can destroy the entangle with a mental attack. What really messes with things is how easily, and cheaply, CE can add penalties to attribute rolls (which will almost always be in a relatively small range). This is why GM control of CE is vital.