Hugh Neilson

In could argue the "behind the tree" either way - the ice suddenly appeared beneath your feet, and is a lot more slippery than the dirt there before, so it is possible you will slip and fall based on where your feet were, how your weight was supported, etc.  But your should also get a bonus for having the tree there for support, even if I do not simply accept that you would not have any risk of slipping before you moved.
 
 
And therein lies the conundrum. 
 
We cannot fully remove judgment - RPG rules cannot possibly envision every possible circumstance, which is why they need GMs (and professional sports need referees/umpires, and the legal system needs judges). The question is one of striking a balance.  At an extreme "GM to determine" end, we could remove to hit and damage rolls.  The GM will rule on whether, in the circumstances, you were accurate enough to hit, and whether your hit was powerful enough to achieve any number of effects, from even noticed to deceased target.  As we don't want to play "I hit you! Fall down!!!"  "No, you missed me.", we set objective parameters to determine whether an attack hits or misses.  But we also allow for modifiers adjudicated, or even determined by, the GM to address the many possibilities the rules cannot perfectly predict.
 
In Monopoly, I don't get to attempt to outrace the "Go To Jail" card because I am using the "car" token and logically the car should have a chance to speed away and escape the police.  In a computer game, my flying snake might slip and fall prone on the ice simply because no one thought to program in an exception (that is, include a rule) that flying creatures and creatures with no legs cannot slip and fall prone on the ice.  Or even to allow creatueres that have no legs and/or can fly to be part of the game!

There it is.
 
Every time this comes around, it goes back to making it easier on coverting D and D players.  If that's the case, it is not too difficult to map the odds of various 3d6 results and paste them to rough D20 equivalents.  That would make it even easier for them, should they be inclined to switch games.
 
 
The reality that I see when I manage to trek to some place with gaming tables is that there arent D and D players looking for alternative games.  The null od them dont even seem really excited about roleplaying games in general, and are playing D and D because "it is D and D," and that's vogue right now, at least for certain sets of humanity.
 
The bulk of people I see switching games are switching from Pathfider _to_ D and D, and that seems to have more to do with wanting to play "the original."  Even the very few people I see leave D and D that dont leave gaming all together tend to be drawn to tactical battle games with lots of miniatures and terrain (looking at you, Warhammer), and they get done with that once they figure out how much money and work goes into a gloriously-detailed and colorful army and a map.
 
We have thread after thread of doing this-
 
And again, I don't care.  I heartily endorse doing whatever you want to make your game more enjoyable for you and your players: always have; always will.  It is a game, and you are supposed to enjoy it.
 
I just find the excuse of "this is what I want to do because I like it" to be far more palatable than "we need to work on wooing in hordes of people who don't seem to exist."  Moreover, I say that as a person who did not like D and D and ended up playing Champions!  In my own observation, I am the only guy I know who played D and D, did not like it, and continued to stay in the RPG hobby seriously.  I know a lot of people who played D and D,did not like it, but can still be talked into a game every year or two, so long as it is D and D, because they already kind of know it, and because that is what their friends are playing.  They don't like enough to want to learn a different game.  I humbly suggest that twenty-one pounds of HERO System rulebooks is not going to be overcome as easily as pointing out that the system can be changed to allow rolling high. 
 
I know way more disenfranchised players who got into war gaming after leaving D and D-- Starfleet Battles, War Hammer,and that more recent Star Wars one with the cool looking models.
 
There is some potential there: like many legacy games, HERO still shows its wargame roots quite clearly, but the rest of it is just unwanted filler for the average wargamer.
 
The majority of "gamers" I have seen leaving D and D got heavily into Magic and other card games.  They did not enjoy RP the way they thought they would,  but they liked pretending to do battle with their friends.  Most CCG games are simple and relatively quick, particularly compared to a campaign in any RPG.  Again, the HSR books are not going to overcome attraction to quick and simple.
 
But if we acknowledge that there is such a thing- a hidden horde of shadow gamers, trapped in or running from D and D, waiting and looking for something they will  enjoy a whole lot more, I do not find it credible that taking extra measures to ensure the experience is as much like the one they did not enjoy is going to lure them to a Champions table.
 
I would go so far as to suggest that asking them directly what sort of game, group, characters, lore, and adventures would most promote their engagement would go far, far further to attract their attention than any change to any mechanic.
 
But this is just one person's opinion, of course.  If it helps, it is supported by the number of years this conversation has been floated, the number of people who have made the roll-high change, and the number of D and D players who still aren't coming.
 
  

Could be as easy as Variable Special Effect, Focus of Opportunity.

In could argue the "behind the tree" either way - the ice suddenly appeared beneath your feet, and is a lot more slippery than the dirt there before, so it is possible you will slip and fall based on where your feet were, how your weight was supported, etc.  But your should also get a bonus for having the tree there for support, even if I do not simply accept that you would not have any risk of slipping before you moved.
 
 
And therein lies the conundrum. 
 
We cannot fully remove judgment - RPG rules cannot possibly envision every possible circumstance, which is why they need GMs (and professional sports need referees/umpires, and the legal system needs judges). The question is one of striking a balance.  At an extreme "GM to determine" end, we could remove to hit and damage rolls.  The GM will rule on whether, in the circumstances, you were accurate enough to hit, and whether your hit was powerful enough to achieve any number of effects, from even noticed to deceased target.  As we don't want to play "I hit you! Fall down!!!"  "No, you missed me.", we set objective parameters to determine whether an attack hits or misses.  But we also allow for modifiers adjudicated, or even determined by, the GM to address the many possibilities the rules cannot perfectly predict.
 
In Monopoly, I don't get to attempt to outrace the "Go To Jail" card because I am using the "car" token and logically the car should have a chance to speed away and escape the police.  In a computer game, my flying snake might slip and fall prone on the ice simply because no one thought to program in an exception (that is, include a rule) that flying creatures and creatures with no legs cannot slip and fall prone on the ice.  Or even to allow creatueres that have no legs and/or can fly to be part of the game!

For me it boils down to two dimensions. One, motivation from arrogance, hatred and fear, versus humility, compassion and hope. Two, priority in all things is always to the self rather than to others.

For me, I have no reason to change it.  If, however, "rolling high is always best" is the way to attract new players, then a roll of 15 on the Hit Location chart should be better than a roll of 8.
 
I think that someone who just flat out doesn't want to change from d20 to Hero is not going to be persuaded by a "roll high" mechanic. I empathize with this to some extent - my free time is precious enough that spending a significant chunk to learn a new game system is a tough sell when I can play game systems I am already familiar with.

How do we deal with the hit location chart?  😵
 
Sure, we can swap the head and the feet, but those vitals are still in the middle!!

Perhaps:
 
"Yes, I can't grasp the concept that bigger is not always better"
 
"No, if people can figure out high is better in bowling and low is better in golf, they canl manage this too"

I will state only that it was hand-written...
 
 
Now we are back to what I recall, and it has not changed since, IIRC. However, until it was added to CE, there was no practical way to have a character envelop a target's head in a bubble of water, or an invisible force sphere, etc. to inflict "suffocation" on a target.
 
 
Show me the slippery ice slide build and we can talk.  Or don't, if you prefer  
 
I will confess that am the one who pushed for non-martial combat maneuvers like Trip in 6e, though, to provide "normal people can do this" maneuvers.

How do we deal with the hit location chart?  😵
 
Sure, we can swap the head and the feet, but those vitals are still in the middle!!

Selective AoE, with the AoE further limited with "first miss ends the sequence of attacks".
 
Or simply accepting that different games have different mechanics, as there is no concept of "minion" and many more combat options in Hero.

I will state only that it was hand-written...
 
 
Now we are back to what I recall, and it has not changed since, IIRC. However, until it was added to CE, there was no practical way to have a character envelop a target's head in a bubble of water, or an invisible force sphere, etc. to inflict "suffocation" on a target.
 
 
Show me the slippery ice slide build and we can talk.  Or don't, if you prefer  
 
I will confess that am the one who pushed for non-martial combat maneuvers like Trip in 6e, though, to provide "normal people can do this" maneuvers.

I suspect it registered for me due to an archer character many years back who had poisson arrows in his multipower...
 
 
I recall the module,but I do not recall it providing any mechanic by which a power could induce suffocation or drowning.
 
 
 Slippery ice was the common example.  -3 to DEX rolls and make a DEX roll or fall over.  Remove that from the rules and tell me how to create such a power.
 
 
OK, so once we Transform the awake target to an Asleep target, he needs to recover the BOD at REC per week/month before he wakes up?  With 30 AP, it will take a few hits to put him under, but once he is under, that's pretty much hibernation...

It matters IF you display DCV + 10 as the WHOLE DCV. Which works for everything ex things that half DCV. If you keep DCV as it's own number that people have to add to 10 each time it's less of an issue

Honestly, I would LOVE to eliminate the last multiplication/Division needed in combat. but that's a different discussion

Re: Hey Underling!
 

 
One might also say it's noticing things that others miss, and interprets these minor observations. "I note you are recently married". "How did you know that?" Elementary - you tug at your wedding ring, as though you're not used to its presence."

CV can be Drained in 6e.
 
So having designed their venom, let's remember that these poissons should also have Water Breathing, "Cannot breathe air", Swimming, sell back their walking (maybe leave a meter for flopping around?) and perhaps some fluency in French.
 
ADDITION:
 
30 AP will be challenging to achieve effects this significant.  Perhaps a Damage over Time model - he's been affected by the Sleep potion and will [lose STUN; gain Transform points; whatever mechanic you have chosen] every [segment/phase/turn] until he passes out.
 
Actually, what about Change Environment?  We can have a one-target CE which forces a DEX roll to avoid falling over - so why not an EGO roll to avoid falling asleep, or a CON roll to avoid paralysis?

Nope, I was just being a sarcastic jerk...  My attempt at humor.

To put a curve ball on this, what if you adopted the "defense roll" model when the PC is the defender, retaining the "attack roll" when the PC is the attacker. For rolls between two PC's, let's say the attacker rolls.
 
This would increase the rolls made by players rather than the GM, hopefully providing a bit less GM work and more player engagement (players love rolling dice), especially for "that one guy" who drifts off between his character's actions.

Damage Reduction suffers the same issue as all fixed-cost powers.  Too expensive for low-point games, but if you ran a higher point game, probably universal.  It would have to be VERY high average damage for DR to become cost-effective, though.
 
In a 12 DC game, with 25 average defenses, I take an average of 17 STUN from a typical hit.  Buying half damage reduction (30) and 8 defenses carries a net cost of 4 - 13 depending on whether those extra 17 defenses would have been resistant.
 
Crank the damage up to 24 DC with 65 average defenses, average 19 STUN per hit, and I can buy half DR and 45 defenses, so even if I would have made all 20 extra defenses resistant, I still only break even.  If I would not have made any of the extra 20 defenses resistant, I suppose the DR does not need to be resistant either, but I still only break even.
 
I'm better defended against big attacks, but large numbers of small attacks are more dangerous.

Or make decisions that benefit your character over the others, like what happens in the real world...but you're too nice to do that!

Okay, guys, I'm back.
 
No; that doesn't mean that I've started reading this thread: I still make a conscientious effort not to read things even from people I respect if there is even the _slightest_ chance that these things will end in an argument.
 
I am here for the same reason that I always come here:  Concern that what I am about to say may be taken politically.  Generally, my concerns are social, but for the past twenty years, I have found fewer and fewer people are able to make the distinction, so why take the chance, right?  This is where politics is allowed, within limits, and I think I can stay within those limits.
 
As all previous posts in this thread, it's going to be a hit-and-run thing: I still don't read this thread; I just really, really want to get this off my chest.
 
 
I used to reference "as my grandfather taught me" or "as my grandfather used to say."  I don't do that as much in recent years: he's been gone for decades now, and I have my own kids, and I spend my time doing my best to teach them-- and a lot of what I teach them is what he taught me.
 
I want to preface all of this with a caveat:  Do _not_ mistake what I imply when I do share something he taught me.  By all accounts-- my own included-- he was an absolute crapfest of a human being: vulgar, abusive, and hateful to his last paranoid breath.  By the time I came along-- my father was the last of his kids to have kids-- well, he hadn't mellowed out, really.  He got older and slower, but even into his nineties, he was a pretty big man.  He just kind of burned out.   The southernism is that he started "buying his ticket to Heaven."  It's not entirely accurate in the case; he was an atheist his entire life, though despite what I hear from atheist friends and acquaintances, it didn't make him one whit less of a ass than any Christian I have ever encountered, either, and he didn't have the fallback of "this is what my religion demands of me" to fall back on.
 
 
All that being said, he really did teach me quite a bit (particularly dodging: a good head weave really comes in handy when someone six-foot-six tries to sucker punch you.  Good thing age slowed him down enough for me to learn that without too much ill effect.
 
One of the most important things he taught me-- I didn't know it then; Hell, I wouldn't know it until... well, let's say "recent events" peeled back a lot of veneers on a lot of people in positions they have no business holding, okay?
 
it was something he didn't talk about often; I suspect it's because he learned in in World War 2.  He talked about a lot of things-- even Korea-- but he didn't talk much about World War 2.  This is the image that got me thinking about it today, tough given my work schedule, I'm sure you've all seen it already:
 
 

 
 
This image is from Canada (I am so sorry: I thought you guys could be safely inoculated from our special brand of entitlement.  I guess "polite" doesn't always mean "nice," does it?).  All these flags were hung up in protest of mask mandates an in support of a small group of man babies in something called the "Freedom Convoy."  
 
 
 
My grandfather and I had made the trip to Fairbanks (it was a regular thing to do in summer-- resupply and shop, etc, while you could drive out instead of having to rely on the bush pilots).  We had stopped somewhere (I really don't remember: I wasn't very old, and I was more interested in looking around and seeing stuff than haggling for bags of flour, cans of lard, and coffee).  I was staring at a motorcycle in the parking lot.  The back seat had an extremely tall sissy bar on it, and it featured a plate on the back that was essentially the Maltese Cross.  The fuel tank had a pair of swastikas on it and there were little chrome ziggurats screwed on to various parts of the bike.
 
My grandfather had finished loading the truck and come to collect me.  He stopped next to me and just stared at the bike for a long time.  He went so long without yelling at me for something that I was actually getting a little uncomfortable.
 
Finally, he stabbed one massive finger at the swastikas on the tank, arm straight and rigid as if he were attempting to cast out a demon.  "You know what the means, Boy?"
 
"No, Sir."
 
He never looked at me.  He just kept looking at the swastika.  His finger never wavered.  "Look at.  Look at it for a long time.  Burn it into your brain.  Never forget that symbol."
 
After an eternity, he let his arm drop back to his side.
 
"What's it mean, Gramp?"
 
"It means you're wrong!" he bellowed- not his usual bellow, but absolute venom vomited from somewhere deep inside him.  He paused a minute, and I could see in my peripheral vision how stiff he was; even at his side, his fist was clenched and his arm was flexed tight.  Whatever was playing out in his mind finally reached its conclusion and he continued speaking again.  "It means a lot of things, Boy, to a lot of people, and to the worst of them, it's a Goddamned holy symbol. but don't you ever forget that what it means more than anything else is that you are as absolutely, completely wrong as it is possible to get.  It represents and inhuman level of stupid, Boy-- a level that shouldn't be allowed to exist.  I don't care what you ever learn from me, or your parents, or from any school teacher you ever have, what you had damned well better remember any time you pick up a cause-- if this symbol is on your side, you are so goddamned wrong that you need to walk away, change sides, and figure out what's what.  If you can't change sides, then you need to spend every day begging whatever god there might be that he kills you, fast, before whatever the Hell is wrong inside you spreads.  If you're lucky, it'll be quick and painless, but if you ever agree with anyone using that symbol, quick and painless ain't something you are ever going to deserve."
 
 
Sure.  It sounds stupid, and it tells a lot more about my grandfather and my "formative years" than I am typically comfortable sharing, but--- well, I don't know that it was ever possible to do him proud, to this very day, at the age of sixty-one (sixty-two in March!  Damn, where did my life go?  I was supposed to have achieved.... something.... by now), I remember that conversation every single time I see a swastika (even the Native American "good one").  Obviously, today, I know what it means.  No amount of prying got any more detail out of my grandfather-- not that there was much; that was never really a safe thing to do, but today...  Well, I know what it is; I know what it means; I know who rallies behind it.
 
And I have to say that while he was right about most of things he taught me, I don't think it is possible to be more right about anything than he was about this.
 
 
I weep for the damage that unbridled hate and stupidity is doing to the human race.   
 
 
Thank you for the chance to vent.
 
 
   
 
 
 

An old colleague once suggested "Nope, your hips already took care of that."
 
An old SINGLE colleague, needless to say...

Actually, I think traffic accidents can have some useful comparisons to Covid.
 
Consider: We are told to do various things to make driving safer. Speed limits, traffic lights, seat belts, etc. They do not guarantee you will never have a traffic accident, but make them less likely to happen, and less likely to kill you when they occur.
 
Traffic accidents are also "contagious" in that one person's bad luck or bad judgement can harm other people, too.
 
Suppose 20%, or whatever, of drivers refused to go along with these safety measures. They think accidents can't happen to them. Nobody they know died in a traffic accident, it must be all a hoax. Traffic laws are intolerable, tyrannical assaults on their FREEDOM!!! Or other narcissistic fantasies. They don't wear seat belts, they drive 100 mph, don't signal, etc. Accidents will go up. A lot. And they won't be the only ones who die.
 
Because that's the nub: In traffic and in public health, there's a limit to what you can do to protect yourself. You can never say, "Ha, I'm safe, screw the rest of you." What people around you do matters at least as much as what you, personally, do. It's a social contract: You follow the rules to protect everyone else, and they follow the rules to protect you. It's no guarantee, but everyone's odds get better.
 
So get your jab. Wear your mask. Avoid crowds when possible. Encourage the people around you to do the same. The life they save may be yours.
 
Thus endeth the sermon.
 
Dean Shomshak

With all the precautions taken by the American public in 2020/21 against COVID, deaths due to influenza that season totaled 646. That includes ONE death of a person under age 18, compared to 195 the previous year.
 
https://hive.rochesterregional.org/2020/01/flu-season-2020