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baronspam

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Everything posted by baronspam

  1. I think of it this way- 6e 1 and 2 are a reference document. They do no make up a game as much as a system from which you can construct the game you want to play. That could be Champions, Fantasy, MHI, or a totally homebrew game on whatever subject you care. The "complete" line of books does the hard work of taking that reference source and boiling it down to a set of rules for a particular genre or setting. Champions Complete is what you need to pay Champions. Champions is a subset of the hero system.
  2. So, I have been away from the game a loooong time, basic question on how to pull off the "Instant Change" of earlier editions. The 6 e rules have a version that lets you change your clothes, but what about a character that changes not just an outfit but actually his body as well. No other mechanical changes, I just want someone who can go between a secret id form and a heroic form. Is this still a standard effect cosmetic transform? Do i need to buy enough dice to cover my body? Is there a cheaper way? Thanks in advance as I relearn this.
  3. Re: Why Your Heroes Shouldn't Kill It really depends on what sub-genre you are playing. In some games killing will be rare, if not unknown. In others characters may leave a trail of bodies behind them. This is the sort of thing you need to discuss at the start of the campaign, and make sure players understand what the campaign expectations are. Are the characters operating in cooperation with authorities, or are they vigilantes? Are you a two gun masked avenger that has a .45 caliber answer to crime or are you a guy in spandex who lives in a mansion and answers "distress calls"? Are the characters defenders of the status quo or are they trying to shake up society? In one game the characters would be expected not to use deadly force unless there were extreme circumstances. In others, it might be surprising if they didn't. The trick is to have everyone on the same page as to what the unwritten rules of the setting are.
  4. Re: VPP discusion Having thought about this one a bit, I think many of these arguments are looking at this at too fine a level. Its a fairly black and white rule that you can't put MP in VPPs or VPPs in MPs. The purposed design is for all practical purposes functionally identical to a multipower, with the advantage that you can redesign the multiplier back at base. These basic scheme seems to defy the basic "no frameworks inside other frameworks" rule. If I were to design a batman-like character, I think you would build a multipower with his "standard loadout", the things you take every time you leave the cave. Grapple gun, batarang, smoke bombs etc, and then if you want the character to have an ability to "always have the right gadget" through uncanny foresight and great planning, then that is a VPP. It only simulates one or two devices at a time, but that's all you need, as your standard gear is in the MP. But its enough to pull out that rebreather when the Frightening Fshman just robbed first national and jumped into the harbor, or Darkdude has trapped you in his negative light zone, but low and behold you have a mini radar array in your pocket, etc.
  5. baronspam

    Question

    Re: Question I would agree with getting core rules back in print. Not being able to get a physical copy of the rules, IMHO, is a limiting factor on reaching new players, which is what Hero needs to do to survive. Also, paperback, perfect bound might be good idea, as the cost of the core rules for this game is considerable.
  6. Re: Need help building a power. Thanks for the reply Hyper-Man, you posted while I was fiddling with my tentative power.
  7. Re: Need help building a power. Actually, I might give it a go for your review. So I could do something like 20m Stretching, (20 Points) Direct Only(-1/4) Can Not Do Damage (-1/2) Focus, OIF (Grapple line in power gauntlets)(-1/2) No body parts other than line (-1/4), Can only grab and pull, no other manipulations (-1/4) 7 Real points. If I understand I would need to roll to hit with a grab and have the strength to pull the target to me. The damage would have to come with a linked power, as I can't use my strength to do damage with this.
  8. Re: Need help building a power. Now that is an interesting idea, stretching. To answer your question, the power in the game is basically an electrified grappling hook gun. You trigger the power, the target takes some damage, and gets yanked to you on a line. Thanks for the stretching idea. Could you be kind enough to put some stats to this?
  9. So, I am REALLLY rusty with the mechanics of this game, I have't played Hero or even designed a character for a long time. I have had the urge to mess with it a bit, so I am trying to convert some aspects of a DC Universe video game character to a hero build. I am working on a "taser pull" gadget. Basically, its a gadget that shoots out a line, zaps the target for some damage, and then yanks them toward the shooter. The damage part isn't that hard, but I am looking for a good way to do the pull part. The two ideas that I had were either some telekinesis with limitations so it can only be used for this one effect, or perhaps teleport with a Usable as Attack. But as I said, I am soooo rusty at this, could anyone build a version (or two) of this for me to help get me back in the grove.
  10. Re: Getting my head around the state of Hero Games. He said in the BAMF podcast that he still is one of the owners, which I assume means that if the company pulls a profit he gets a cut at the end of the year. He just doesn't have a salary, which I Imagine was where most of his income was, considering the company can't afford full time developers these days. Its all too bad. I have great memories of Hero and Champions. Still, this is the future for most of these companies, they are basically becoming publishing houses rather than supporting full time developers. Which makes sense. Its not like TOR can afford to keep novelists on staff to write books for them. You get paid by the product.
  11. So, I have been away from Hero for quite a while, dropped in today to see what was new, and I bump my head into kickstarter campaigns and news about Hero Games no longer having full time employees. Is there a post or a new article somewhere that explains the status of things? From what I can gather 1- The company still exists, is publishing the in-print catalog, and is looking for third party authors to publish material under license. 2- Future publications directly from Hero will be written by freelancers, and possibly funded by kickstarter campaigns. 3- Steve is an owner in the company, but is not currently an employee, meaning he isn't drawing a weekly paycheck, but he may write as a freelancer for them. Do I basically have this correct?
  12. Re: Shadowrun? Thanks much for the suggestions and the links.
  13. Hi there, I have been thinking of playing a Shadowrun style game lately, a cyberpunk-but-with-magic setting, and I am mulling around ideas for what system to use to run it. One obvious choice is the actual Shadowrun rules, but I want to look at other options. Are there any Hero products that cover the genre, or does anyone have a link to a fansite or something similar? I find Hero interesting, but the thing that puts me off about it is the large amount of design work one would have to do to get the game up and running. That's what is both exciting and discouraging about Hero, its a "toolkit" game, you can do almost anything with it, but you have to take the kit and build your game before you can play. My time is limitied, so I am really looking for something more "out of the box". Hero would be a much more likely candidate if someone had already done some of the heavy lifting on this one. Thanks much.
  14. Re: Conan: The Current Movie in Progress..... Not to get in the middle of the bromance you seem to be having with Conan here, but the desription that you just quoted as evidence of hairy Cimmerians actually says nothing about body hair. Most of the famous Conan art, like Vallejo, doesn't show him as particularly hirsuit. There may be a passage somewhere, but I have read most of Howard (maybe not all of it, but most of it) and there is a lot of iron-thews and buldging necks, but not much about hairy chests that I recall.
  15. Re: PCs owning slaves: Do, or Don't? I am going to go with an epic "It depends". Genre, tone and type of campaign, maturity and interest of players, etc. With really, really mature, smart, capable players in appropriate historical setting, might work. Then there are the guys I play with. . . I am thinking "Horrific Idea". But your millage may vary.
  16. Re: Help with Transform This is a good point. The thing to remember (to the OP) is that with multiform each form is basically a different character. Its hard to say without more details on your campaing, but a "realistic" raven character sheet may make you very vulnerable in combat. You will have the the stun, pd, body ,etc of a raven. You are free to buy those up, but as you do so the multform gets more and more expensive. You also will not have any powers/skills/talents that your main character does, unless you duplicate them on the character sheet for the multiform, further increasing the cost. An advantage of the multiform, however is that once in raven form you can stay that way as long as you want without having to spend endurance, worry about contant vs persistant powers, etc. The alternative to multiform is to just buy some shrinking to get down to size, some flight only usable when shrunk, some senses only usable when shrunk, and maybe a shapechange for one specific form (look like a bird). You might look at unified power as a limitation (the whole thing is one power "turn into a bird".) The advantage of this is that you keep your defences and other powers. The drawbacks of this is that you have to pay end to shrink down, or buy it with an advantage to cost 0 endurance, and being a constant power you would transform back if knocked out. The tricky part about the second is option about what to do about the physical limitations that shrinking/raven form imposes. You would lack a human voice and hands if you were in "bird form". With multiform this is just a complication on the raven character sheet. I am honestly not sure how to handle that on the non-multiform option. Some kind of limitation, but not sure if you would put it on just the shrinking or all the bird powers. Is there a rules guru who might right up a version of the non-multiform "Turn Into a Bird' with all the advantages and limitations?
  17. Re: What will it take to get some flying cars? But we are not talking about light sport aircraft, we are talking about flying cars. To me that implies a reasonably car-like body, minimal wings, and for any kind of practical use in urban environments probably vstall capability. This isn't about why don't more people fly light aircart for jobs that light aircraft would be good at, its about why don't you fly to work, to the mall, the pick up the kids at school, to get your groceries, etc. The stuff you would do with a car, just flying. Thus, FLYING CAR. These vehicles would have to have vstall abilites to be remotely usefull in dense urban environments. If it has to land like a cessna you can't take it anywhere other than an airport, and if that is the case, well, just use a cessna. So I am thinking we are talking about vectored thrust sytems, or some serious fans, and more mass, equipment, and fuel than a cessna style vechile. Ok, maybe not several tons, but definatly heavier than a tiny fiberglass box hanging under a wing hanging behind a prop. Also, there is likely the need for redundant sytems in that I think you would probably like to be able to drive it on the surface as well, at least at low to moderate speed. If you have to use the jets to get it in the garage or pull into the carwash there are probably going to be issues. At minimum some wheels with electric motors, maybe a full second engine for ground transportation Also, if this is a true "flying car" the cabin/passenger area is going to be larger and more luxurious than many light aircraft. Honda's basic flying car model might be a bit like a cessna inside, but you can bet that Mercedes or BMW is going to have a much more plush experience. You are going to need flying vans for little league night. Flying campers for family vacation. That will add weight as well. And I stand by the basic proposition, as I work with the general public in my job, that the great majority of people can't really handle a car that well, let alone an aircraft. If it was as easy to get a pilots license as to get a driver's license these would be slamming to earth like clockwork. People are dumb. How many people drive drunk every Saturday night? Can you immage them trying to fly a somewhat unwieldy vstall craft? Untill we get to the point that we have near 100% reliable computers with the power to fly the vehicle for people, they will never be in widespread use, even if the many tech issues could be solved. People are dumb, drunk, short sighted cave dwellers and three shifts in any customer service job will prove it to you. If you disagree, at least give me time to build a bunker before we begin the self inflicted air raids on our cities.
  18. Re: What will it take to get some flying cars? OK, imagine that little old man you passed on the commute today, who was looking through the steering wheel instead of over it, could pilot a vehicle weighing several tons that could plunge out of the sky toward your house. Image the guy wearing the wifebeater and leaving the grocery store with 3 cases of beer and a slim jim could pilot a vehicle weighing several tons that could plunge out of the sky toward your house. Image the teenage girl who can and will attempt to text, talk, fax, im, upload, download, reload, and put her makeup on all at the same time, who can pilot a vechile weighing several tons that could plunge out of the sky toward your house. Aircraft should always, and I mean always for all time, be left in the hands of highly trained professionals.
  19. Re: Invisibility and Radios If I were the GM I would base the answer on the special effect of both powers, but in general unless there was something blatant I would let him use both powers at the same time. If the character spent the points and didn't take a limitation then the default position should be to give them the benifit of the doubt. Lets assume the radio has a throat mike so he can whisper and still be heard, and whatever special effect masks the other noises he makes could certainly mask that as well. But again, its probably about the specific special effects.
  20. I am sure they are in the rules somewhere, but could you give me a reference for how to handle mid combat speed changes, either due to an adjustment power, or perhaps use of multiform, etc. Ago Gratis.
  21. Re: Help with Transform Rules for for Multiform are on pg. 266 of 6E1. The Basics: Pick one form you have as you "true form", you pay 1 character point for each 5 character point your alteranate form is built on. Your alternate forms are essentially differnent characters, they have their own stats, powers, skills, even complications. Changing between forms is a half phase action. You can have additonal extra forms for a small cost. There are a bunch more situation specific rules listed in the book, but that is the basics of it. The raven form has its own character sheet, and the human form pays 1 point for every 5 points the raven is built on.
  22. Re: Help with Transform You are probably not looking at a transform here. Transform lets you turn stuff into other stuff. Rocks into oranges, enemies into toads, etc. Its not really to change yourself. The multiform power lets you have several differnt forms that you change between. Basically, each form has its own character sheet and set of stats. You would have a character with a human form and a raven form, each with its own stats, powers, etc. As others have said, the other option is to buy some linked powers to simulate the effects of the changes. Shriking to get to the right size, and them some powers like flight, enchanced senses, etc, only usable when shrunk, to simulate the raven's abilities. Shapchange can let you look like a raven rather than a little, flying, sharp eyed person. EDIT: I am away from my books, shapechange might be really called shapeshift. Having a senior moment over that.
  23. Re: Star Trek: How dangerous are phasers? Well, keep in mind that this is a sub-genre where handguns hit so hard you don't even leave a corpse. I think players would be scared crapless of combat. For the most part you are dealing with weapons that kill you if you get hit. Not take some hit points, not make you feel bad, but flat KILL YOU. Ranged combat with energy weapons would be something to avoid unless you had no other options or were really tired of your character. It is also a reason to work as many other kind of conflicts into the story as possible, be it fistfights, talking your way past trouble, techno-babble skill tests, phasers on stun, etc. Because if some does have a phaser set on "glow and vaporize" you really don't want to leave that nonsense up to the dice. Its just way to easy to die.
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