Hugh Neilson

**sigh**  I recall, early in the pandemic, watching the squabbling political parties in my own government actually work together to take rapid action to implement benefits to get people through the inability to work, and help businesses survive.  [Perfect?  Far from it - but programs that should take months or years to develop had to be designed over a weekend and rolled out immediately.]
 
Within 6 months, we were still in a pandemic, but back to partisan politics and divisive infighting.  It seems like we prefer mudslinging and squabbling to working together, bringing different viewpoints to the table and working out real solutions.  Certainly, it isn't the latter that wins elections.

Sorry if I confused the issue.  My "roll with the punch" comment was not the maneuver, but a Damage Reduction power limited to require the character be aware of the attack, and conscious and mobile to be able to roll with it.  Where Combal Luck provides defenses, this mechanic provided a reduction to the damage taken.
 
 
As your examples set out, it was expected that the consequences would be negative, much like it was expected the consequences of Distinctive Features would be negative. Being frighteningly ugly which enhanced fear-based PRE effects became a function of negative COM, with a rule that positive and negative COM both cost the same CP, with one enhancing rolls to be friendly and the other enhancing rolls to be frightening.
 
Today, Reputation is a lot like Appearance - it can be positive (enhancing certain rolls) or negative (penalizing certain rolls) and might have some positive or negative effects on the side.  I've never minded Complications/Disadvantages having the occasional positive result so long as, on balance, they added more challenges than benefits.  The greater the net challenge, the more points the complication was worth.  But where significant positive and negative effects arise, having an ability for positive results and a complication for negative results makes sense, in allowing the results to be split off.
 
Recalling an old suggestion that Spider-Man have both Luck and Unluck - whenever things are going too easy, things seem to fall in his way, but when the chips are down, fortune tends to break his way.
 
I would love to see Charges lose its inherent o END.  Just because you can only call upon the Malevolent Mists of Mephisto four times a day, that does not mean the calling is not physically draining,

I shared something a year or two back- about javing been raised racist, etc.
 
I did it to demonstrate a point; that point was completely ignored in favor of a (at that time) newer forumite siezing the opporotunity to make some politically correct SJW points: you are all on the internet; you all know how that works.
 
Thus far, I have seen no acknowledgement from that same person of any of the rest of what I said.  (Though, to be fair, I may have missed it.  To this day, this remains the only person I have ever put on "ignore" and left there.  Still, that took a week; I didn't ignore them,until I noticed a pattern).
 
At any rate, I pose the same,rhetorical question here and now that I posed then, here and in the real world when old mistakes are dredged to the hear-and-now.l:
 
For all those who both believe that it is not possible to grow, to change, and to feel geniune remorse and even abject shame for what you were, even if only briefly, at some earlier point in life 
 
_and_ simultaneously believe in punishments of less than life imprisonment for an antisocial act-
 
How do you reconcile those two things?
 
 

Add me to "missile deflection defined as arrow catching" allowing for recoverable charges to be recoverable.
 
If the PC's defeated three Goblins with bows, and they had a total of 7 arrows they had not fired, the PCs could take the arrows.  This character paid points to avoid being hit by the arrow and, incidentally, be able to recover a charge for his bow in another way.

The best way to do this is to take recoverable charges on your bow and purchase missile deflections with the special effect of catching the item.  The book states that recoverable charges that normally recoverable charges can only be recovered after combat but allow for exceptions with the right special effect.  Catching an arrow is a reasonable special effect for recovering charges.
 
If this is a heroic campaign this would allow an archer to simply purchase missile deflection and define it as catching arrows.  In a super powered campaign, the archer will need to purchase his attack with recoverable charges.  
 
Reflection will work, but only if you are immediately shooting the arrow. 
 

This comes off as one od those "luchadores do double damage against monsters" / "vampires on holy ground" things.  That is to say, this seems like the end result of how your campaign world works.  You can take a complicated, time-charted Reflection "time,chart to indicate that you might not 'redicet" this particular arrow for a couple od months), amd that couls concievably work without any serious hitches.
 
However, ithink another, simpler solution is to require that bows be built with Recoverable Charges.  It is _assumed_ that the bowman will be the person recoering them, but it is not _mandated_ that no one else may do so.
 
After That, it is a matter of what you requure to catch the arrow:
 
DEX roll?
Catch Arrow Skill deck?
Deflection?
Random chance?  
 
I would think an OCV against OCV roll as the basic mechanic, maybe applying skill leves specifically,for arrow catching,  somthing like +4 OCV when attemptong to catch arrows fired directly at him.  You xould even make it a martial maneuver, if that's your particular bag.
 
 
 

We wouldn't necessarily be less stupid or corrupt, but we'd be more polite about it.

There's a section in Western Hero where it has a bunch of Western Schtick stuff like "how to ride a horse off a cliff".  Every genre book should have that kind of thing: here's how to do classic bits from this genre.  Getting two fools to shoot each other belongs in several genres.

If I had a player routinely using a tactic like this, I would be inclined to flesh out how it will work.  Perhaps the NPCs make PER rolls opposed by Nightcrawler's DEX roll to notice his last-minute disappearance before attacking/pulling the trigger.  Even trained (agent-level or higher) soldiers will find this difficult given Nightcrawler's agility, and that is probably fair.  Then we need to figure out the OCV of the shooter (0, since he was not aiming at his teammate?  Is it a surprise move if the target misses an opposed roll with Nightcrawler?) and DCV of the target. We also need to assess whether this becomes more predictable with re-use on the same opponents, if opponents have been briefed on Nightcrawler's tactics or even if this tactic becomes more broadly known due to media coverage of Super-battles where it is used.

If I had a player routinely using a tactic like this, I would be inclined to flesh out how it will work.  Perhaps the NPCs make PER rolls opposed by Nightcrawler's DEX roll to notice his last-minute disappearance before attacking/pulling the trigger.  Even trained (agent-level or higher) soldiers will find this difficult given Nightcrawler's agility, and that is probably fair.  Then we need to figure out the OCV of the shooter (0, since he was not aiming at his teammate?  Is it a surprise move if the target misses an opposed roll with Nightcrawler?) and DCV of the target. We also need to assess whether this becomes more predictable with re-use on the same opponents, if opponents have been briefed on Nightcrawler's tactics or even if this tactic becomes more broadly known due to media coverage of Super-battles where it is used.

I'll just drop this here...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jurassic_League

We can build a lot of different things.  This could be a complex build involving Triggered attacks (perhaps an area of effect attack with a trigger and some limitations; it doesn't really matter if the SFX of the attack hitting the two mooks are identical to their own SFX). It could be a Change Environment that reduces the mooks' DCV against the cross-attack.  Note that Nightcrawler only seems to use the ability against mooks, so it doesn't need to do a lot of damage - point out that he doesn't use this against Magneto or the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.
 
My guess is that this ends up being a very complex build with limited practical application, and is best left to writer's fiat as Mr. R said, though.  In fairness, that writer's fiat is also not how gamers normally play.  "What? He vanished at the last second? Well, I don't attack then, realizing in a fraction of a second that I should not fire that blast after all."  Maybe that CE imposes a (penalized) DEX roll or the target fires off their most readied attack.

Shrug.  Its usually best not to look into the personal past or ideals and lifestyle of creators you admire, no matter what their work.  Enjoy their work and use it as you see fit regardless of the failings or stupidity of the creators.  If you start to judge someone's work by their creator you have to end up throwing out most of what you enjoy.

On the plus side, the rapid antigen self-tests are really not difficult to self-administer.  On the minus side, my wife and I now know we have COVID.
 
I have had worse symptoms from a cold. Given current Alberta guidance for those fully vaccinated is:
 
 - if you have symptoms and test positive, isolate for five days;
 - if you have no symptoms and test positive, isolate for five days; or
 - if you have symptoms and test negative, isolate for five days.
 
After those 5 days, if symptoms have ended, you can go back out, but must mask up when around any other people for the following 5 days.
 
As I'm neither high-risk nor work with high-risk, I don't qualify for PVR tests, so the test result was informative, I suppose, but changes little.
 
Had I not tested, I would have retained the delusion that I had a cold - and the fact that I could maintain that delusion makes me even gladder to be fully vaccinated.

I read somewhere that an exec starting well into the creative process decided that movies with "Mars" in the name had performed poorly, so we needed to remove "Mars" entirely.  As well, while no one involved in the John Carter production knew it, the negotiations with Lucas were well underway, mitigating any need for Disney to create a blockbuster Sci Fi franchise.

On the plus side, the rapid antigen self-tests are really not difficult to self-administer.  On the minus side, my wife and I now know we have COVID.
 
I have had worse symptoms from a cold. Given current Alberta guidance for those fully vaccinated is:
 
 - if you have symptoms and test positive, isolate for five days;
 - if you have no symptoms and test positive, isolate for five days; or
 - if you have symptoms and test negative, isolate for five days.
 
After those 5 days, if symptoms have ended, you can go back out, but must mask up when around any other people for the following 5 days.
 
As I'm neither high-risk nor work with high-risk, I don't qualify for PVR tests, so the test result was informative, I suppose, but changes little.
 
Had I not tested, I would have retained the delusion that I had a cold - and the fact that I could maintain that delusion makes me even gladder to be fully vaccinated.

On the plus side, the rapid antigen self-tests are really not difficult to self-administer.  On the minus side, my wife and I now know we have COVID.
 
I have had worse symptoms from a cold. Given current Alberta guidance for those fully vaccinated is:
 
 - if you have symptoms and test positive, isolate for five days;
 - if you have no symptoms and test positive, isolate for five days; or
 - if you have symptoms and test negative, isolate for five days.
 
After those 5 days, if symptoms have ended, you can go back out, but must mask up when around any other people for the following 5 days.
 
As I'm neither high-risk nor work with high-risk, I don't qualify for PVR tests, so the test result was informative, I suppose, but changes little.
 
Had I not tested, I would have retained the delusion that I had a cold - and the fact that I could maintain that delusion makes me even gladder to be fully vaccinated.

On the plus side, the rapid antigen self-tests are really not difficult to self-administer.  On the minus side, my wife and I now know we have COVID.
 
I have had worse symptoms from a cold. Given current Alberta guidance for those fully vaccinated is:
 
 - if you have symptoms and test positive, isolate for five days;
 - if you have no symptoms and test positive, isolate for five days; or
 - if you have symptoms and test negative, isolate for five days.
 
After those 5 days, if symptoms have ended, you can go back out, but must mask up when around any other people for the following 5 days.
 
As I'm neither high-risk nor work with high-risk, I don't qualify for PVR tests, so the test result was informative, I suppose, but changes little.
 
Had I not tested, I would have retained the delusion that I had a cold - and the fact that I could maintain that delusion makes me even gladder to be fully vaccinated.

There was also discussion around the fact that no one ever bought up REC and END, rather than buying reduced END. Similarly, no one bought up STUN and REC - they just bought more defenses. They were overpriced, so their price was reduced. To mitigate that, at least to some extent, they were made "defensive characteristics" so adjustment powers would only have half as much impact.

Why do Supers need to have better DEX rolls if DEX has nothing to do with their power suite?  A "really slow" Brick is not logically twice as agile as an average person (whether we use 8 or 10 as "average").
 
I am fine with an 8-10 STR Super.  INT or EGO of 8 - 10?  Sure. BOD of 8-10?  Why not? CON?  Better have enough to resist Stunning.  Supers get a lot of strenuous exercise, so I can accept that they have higher CON across the board. PRE?  Well, you need something to defend against PRE attacks, anyway. Putting on a spandex suit and running off to fight crime probably requires some chutzpah, so whether we define that self-confidence as PRE or EGO to defend against typical PRE attacks, most Supers likely have some. So why is a "no more agile than the average dude" Super inconceivable?
 
Now, most Supers would still be 10 - 13 (aligning with the current 20 - 23), and given the preponderance of 23 in the current model, I would expect a lot of 13 (a bit better than the average guy), but "a bit better than the average guy" is not a "SLOW" anything.
 
 
Definitely.  What was the point of de-linking OCV and DCV, and removing DEX from both, to just make everyone 23 DEX, 8 OCV and 8 DCV?  DEX ranges could have become much more like INT and STR ranges - unless the hero is notable for agility, average DEX is fine.
 
However, Hero has always prized backward compatibility.  This may have acted to its detriment - try playing 2e D&D with a 4e adventure or source book.  "New editions" in most systems mean "if you want to use new source material, you will need to buy the new edition".  Hero did not adopt that built-in marketing tool that really began with 3e D&D.
 

There was also discussion around the fact that no one ever bought up REC and END, rather than buying reduced END. Similarly, no one bought up STUN and REC - they just bought more defenses. They were overpriced, so their price was reduced. To mitigate that, at least to some extent, they were made "defensive characteristics" so adjustment powers would only have half as much impact.

If Figured provided good guidance for half or a third of Figured, I submit that they did not provide good guidance. From 1e, we built characters based on the example characters in the book, not any specific build guidance.
 
In fact, I have wondered in the past how different builds would have been if the sample characters had centered around 10 DEX (base level) instead of setting "average Super" at 20 - 23 DEX.  Imagine if every character had their DEX reduced by 9 or 10, and SPD by 2.  We would have:
 
 - Really slow Bricks with 8 DEX (maybe even 5), 3 (even 2) base CV and 2 SPD;
 - Typical Supers with 11 - 14 DEX, 4 - 5 CV and 3 SPD;
 - Above average Supers with 17 - 18 DEX, 6 CV and 4 SPD;
 - Really fast Supers with 20  -23 DEX, 7 - 8 CV and 5 - 6 SPD
 
And room for some REALLY agile/speedy Supers exceeding even those stellar levels.
 
We'd also save about 40 points on the typical pre-6e Super (30 from 10 DEX and 10 from 1 SPD).  END, STUN and REC would last longer with more frequent PS 12 recoveries, which would save more points. Those extra points could go into starting characters with broader abilities, who feel more "super", without some of the point bloat experienced over the years.  Instead, we have "I'm pretty pokey for a Super - only a bit over the normal characteristic maximum".
 
We'd have cops and agents who can accurately target Supers who are not unusually agile/fast, trained military who look skilled when compared to Supers and agents who could hit Supers. That feels a lot more comic booky. Those Agents could also get by with 6 - 8 DC Blasters that, while they can hit, are no real threat to high defense Bricks.  Again, that feels a lot more comic booky.

If Figured provided good guidance for half or a third of Figured, I submit that they did not provide good guidance. From 1e, we built characters based on the example characters in the book, not any specific build guidance.
 
In fact, I have wondered in the past how different builds would have been if the sample characters had centered around 10 DEX (base level) instead of setting "average Super" at 20 - 23 DEX.  Imagine if every character had their DEX reduced by 9 or 10, and SPD by 2.  We would have:
 
 - Really slow Bricks with 8 DEX (maybe even 5), 3 (even 2) base CV and 2 SPD;
 - Typical Supers with 11 - 14 DEX, 4 - 5 CV and 3 SPD;
 - Above average Supers with 17 - 18 DEX, 6 CV and 4 SPD;
 - Really fast Supers with 20  -23 DEX, 7 - 8 CV and 5 - 6 SPD
 
And room for some REALLY agile/speedy Supers exceeding even those stellar levels.
 
We'd also save about 40 points on the typical pre-6e Super (30 from 10 DEX and 10 from 1 SPD).  END, STUN and REC would last longer with more frequent PS 12 recoveries, which would save more points. Those extra points could go into starting characters with broader abilities, who feel more "super", without some of the point bloat experienced over the years.  Instead, we have "I'm pretty pokey for a Super - only a bit over the normal characteristic maximum".
 
We'd have cops and agents who can accurately target Supers who are not unusually agile/fast, trained military who look skilled when compared to Supers and agents who could hit Supers. That feels a lot more comic booky. Those Agents could also get by with 6 - 8 DC Blasters that, while they can hit, are no real threat to high defense Bricks.  Again, that feels a lot more comic booky.

Some of the cost reduction thinking stemmed from trying to balance the STR, CON and DEX costs. DEX was the sleeper as, pre-6e, you could not just buy OCV and DCV, but anyone who ever tried to build an expert combatant with modest DEX and skill levels figured it out pretty quickly.
 
At some point, I believe Steve Long just said "if we get Primary and Figured to balance out right, why bother keeping the link?"  Good question.  If "CON no figured + Figured" = "CON with Figured", why have two ways the build the exact same thing?
 
I think we ended up with 1 point STR working better, and "5 points for 1 DC" makes higher-cost STR unpalatable at best. 
 
CON is a character tax. You need enough to avoid being stunned by average hits.
 
DEX - my initial thought was that 2 points was overpriced, but I have come to believe DEX is priced right, while PRE and INT are underpriced.
 
BOD is another character tax - buy enough to not need a new character every few sessions.
 
I think DEX, INT and PRE should have been assessed en bloc, likely dragging EGO in as well and reviewing skill levels. My view?
 
Price DEX, INT and PRE at 2 points.  For 5 points, you can buy +1 with all skill and characteristic rolls based on one stat (not perception).  For 5 points, you can  buy +1 with all perception rolls, +5 Lighting Reflexes or +1d6 PRE attacks.  These are each based on a -1 limitation to +5 of the characteristic.  Scale the costs down if they are more limited, right down to "+1 with 1 skill" = the cost of improving the skill.
+1 with only one roll based on that stat at a time should be reduced to 3 points.  +1 with only one roll (including +1 to a single skill) drops to 1 point.  You can have +1 to all rolls in a tight group for 4 points, and +1 to any one roll at a time in a tight group for 2 points.
 
Wait, where did PRE DEF go?  Well, that becomes the exclusive domain of EGO, which stays 1 point.  PRE DEF gets priced at half a point.  The rest of EGO (EGO rolls and resistance to mental powers) is the other half.
 
Drifting further, STR is also still a pain when we look at Hand Attack and Martial Arts DCs.  An MA DC is +5 STR, only for combat effects for a group of HTH attacks (whether MA or non-MA), 0 END.  5 x 1.5 = 7.5, so that’s about a -3/4 limitation to get down to 4 points.  Just losing Lifting would normally be -1/4 (so 4 points).  Only MA or non-MA seems reasonably priced at either a further -1/4, or -1/2.  If we keep -1/2, an MA DC is a bit more pricy, but shorthanding it to 4 points seems OK.  But I think most Martial Artists rarely use STR for non-MA purposes, so -1/4 feels more appropriate and an MA DC becomes -1/2 = 5 points.
 
 
Now, what about “direct damage only”, which is a Hand Attack?  That has to be less pricy, right?  Maybe another -1/2, which would make the limitation -1 and Hand Attack costs 2.5 points per +1d6.
 
 
However, that still leaves things like Deadly Blow and Weaponmaster.  Maybe we need a concept of "DC adders".  Deadly Blow and Weaponmaster suggest that "only to increase damage" is a -1/2 limitation on a skill level.  I think it is higher - OCV and DCV are worth at least half of the value of a skill level.  So, if we started with the premise that +1 DC for any one attack at a time is 10 points (2 skill levels with All Combat, damage only (-1)), we could move to HTH only (either a -1/2 limitation, so 20/2.5 = 8 or 2 8 point skill levels only to add damage = 8).
 
Working down from there, maybe "only for martial maneuvers" or "only for non-martial maneuvers" are -1/2 limitations (tacked on to HTH only).  That drops me down to 20/3 = 6.67 per +1 DC with all martial arts maneuvers, or all non-martial maneuvers.  I'm also at 8 for all ranged maneuvers, or 6 2/3 if they can only be with martial or non-martial maneuvers. 
 
These cost no END.  Since the base at +1 DC costs 10 points, they should cost 1 END, so STR bundles these in at half END (+2 DC at 20/3.25, still over 6 points).  The math is pushing to the conclusion that STR is also underpriced, isn't it?  It does not feel like a full 2 points, though - STR with no damage a -2 limitation, and STR that only enhances damage at -1/2?  Maybe 2 points is not out of the realm of possibility.  Break our mindset of Active Points and let the Brick spend 100 points on +50 STR and perhaps we'd be OK.

There was also discussion around the fact that no one ever bought up REC and END, rather than buying reduced END. Similarly, no one bought up STUN and REC - they just bought more defenses. They were overpriced, so their price was reduced. To mitigate that, at least to some extent, they were made "defensive characteristics" so adjustment powers would only have half as much impact.