Rapier

Re: Is there a running thread for minor corrections on old books? You could be VERY busy. As a rule the pre-5th Edition stuff was rather rife with errors and a bit shoddily edited.

Re: Running up stairs. I could go all physics-geek on you, and talk about the angle of effect of gravity on a slope, but I won't. Mostly because we are talking about differences that are so small as to not make a great deal of difference (and isn't really interesting to most people...unfortunately). The stairwells in my building here at home at about 10' deep and we can guesstimate at about 10' per floor. Each stair level will cover 20' horizontally and 10' vertically. The total distance travelled horizontally is 20' x 12 Floors (you don't count the first floor since you start out at ground level, so it's 12 European floors or 13 American ones) or 240' (or 80m). The total distance traveled vertically is 10' x 12 Floors (same reasoning as above) or 120' (or 40m) and Hero tells us that moving vertically is twice as hard so we have to double that to 240' (or 80m). So our triangle has two legs of 80m and 80m. Pythagoras tells us that the hypotenuse is a^2 + b^2 = c^2. Those with a fondness for trig will immediately recognise this as one of those extra special 45-45-90 triangles and multiply by the square root of two (or 1.4). a^2 + b^2 = c^2 (80m * 80m) + (80m * 80m) = c^2 (6400 m^2) + (6400 m^2) = c^2 12800 m^2 = c^2 c = 113m or 56" So 4 combat moves or 2 noncombat. It's about the same value the others are coming up with, but I thought I would put on the lecture hat (that and I had to see how accurately they were 8P)!

Re: Post-Apocalyptic craziness: Grace Unterbrandt, Zombie Hunter Ohhh. Nice. I could definitely use her (after dropping 100 points or so). I've been building monster hunters for the past week or so (at 200pts). Did you upload her to the vault? EDIT: Oh, I can probably drop her to 200 points just by moving all her weapons to Equipment!

Re: The ThunderCats Project

Re: Sensory Input (5e) [tongue-in-cheek]But then all the Figured Characteristics go away![/tongue-in-cheek] This is specifically a 6E kind of thing. Which, I guess someone could bring into their 5E game without too much difficulty.

Re: Smart Automata sans Computers It's no problem at all. It's not too uncommon. Just build the droid as a normal character and purchase their Automaton powers and buy off whatever Characteristics that are inappropriate.

Re: How Much DCV? Naked Advantages are particularly contra-indicated with MP slots. Now, it does go on into the standard Hero disclaimer that a GM can overrule this and can allow a Naked Advantage on an MP slot if dramatic license, common sense, etc.

Re: Some newbie rules questions I've been saying that weapons (with a focus) can't be more than doubled. Things like Claws can be more than doubled, but I keep one hairy-eyeball on them.

Re: room filled with water A Severe Transform can turn something into something else (including air...so I guess you could call that nothing). A Transform will create water. How much water? That depends a lot on what you are Transforming and how much water. Hero doesn't always handle fractions well. Instead of reducing something to 1/16 we usually handle things by saying -Xm of Running. You can then always Limit it with: 1/16 Running or max of 2". If a normal character in the campaign has 20" of movement, you just purchase the CE with -18". In theory since you would be Limiting ONLY the amount of movement, you would need to purchase a compound power. Water Filled Room: (Total: 150 Active Cost, 140 Real Cost) Change Environment (-20m of any mode of Movement), Area Of Effect (100m Radius; +1 1/2) (50 Active Points); Leaves Character with 2m of Movement (-1/4) (Real Cost: 40) plus Change Environment (-5 DEX Roll and all Skill Rolls based on DEX, Suffocation), Area Of Effect (100m Radius; +1 1/2) (100 Active Points) (Real Cost: 100)

Re: Rapid Clotting That would take an overt act (actually activating the power). If a character was Stunned or unconscious they couldn't activate it. So it would need a Trigger to be safe.

Re: How Much DCV? While it is possible to go all munchkinny with Naked Advantages, I think it also opens up a HUGE range of possibilities and concepts that were nearly impossible or difficult before. Naked Advantages do require close monitoring and if they were an actual Power would definitely have a Stop Sign on them. I've used a LOT of Naked Advantages that are extremely appropriate for the character's concept and aren't a bit munchkinny.

Re: How Much DCV? Sometimes a think that it just has to come down to the GM enforcing a certain amount of evenness in the campaign. In my campaign I didn't let anyone go over 8 DCs of damage (even to the point of artificially lowering the amount of extra DCs in a martial maneuver) except the team brick who gets to have 8 DCs. I've got another character who's DEF is almost twice what I 'allowed' but it's in her MP so if she jacks up her DEF that high, she can't attack. Sometimes it makes no sense, and it's more expensive that it should be (or cheaper). Sometimes we have to enforce the roles and tropes. I don't believe it is possible to necessarily completely balance everything. As nice as it would be, different powers have different effects and they can interact in ways that can be very effective in some cases. You are very correct in everything. It IS more effective per point, in many cases, to purchase an AoE Hex for your powers instead of lots of OCV. This is kind of why we get the big bucks to sit behind the screen.

Re: Rapid Clotting

Re: room filled with water

Re: Sensory Input (5e) Being Blind is not a Disadvantage if you having another targetting, discriminatory sense that replaces it. Doubly so since the Sonar and Radar senses you've purchased are superior (being 360 degrees) to normal sight. I also think you've overpriced the size limitation. It's hard to say what it's worth since you don't say how tall they are, but a 1m tall creature only qualifies for a 10 point Disad for size (Infreq, Slight). Size Disads aren't meant to say 'how often are you little' but 'how often does being so little impact what you do?' If you are talking about another race, chances are they have chairs and countertops built according to their size so this would not be much of a limitation at all. It's not like a race of beings that are 3' tall are going to build work surfaces 5' tall. Other than the Disad issues, it looks good.

Re: How Much XP to Award? I've also been known to give our skills or even powers instead of XP at the end of the night. If someone has made some spectacular Everyman skill rolls, it's warranted to say "HOLY COW you figured out how it's done!" You don't ALWAYS have to give rewards in XP. A juicy Contact or Favour (or another Perk) could be just as valuable...and most players don't like to spend points on that stuff anyway! You have to spend points on stuff that goes BOOM, y'know.

6E2, p113: Bleeding Table If a character has taken less than 5 BODY, they stop bleeding if they roll a 1 on 1d6 (1 in 6 chance). If a character has taken 6 - 10 BODY, they stop bleeding if they roll 2 - 5 on 2d6 (4 in 11 or about 1 in 3). This would mean that larger wounds are more likely to stop bleeding than smaller wounds. Is the first line in error? Should there be a range to stop bleeding (eg 1 - 3)?

Re: Rapid Clotting How are you defining 'Bleeding?' a) Do you mean the bleeding damage that occurs when you are < 0 BODY? I asked a while back and 1 BODY / Turn Regen will never heal someone who is at negative BODY until the bleeding stops. Do you mean the option Bleeding rules (6E2, p113)? If you are referring to (a), a Paramedics roll (with it's implied first aid) will stop the loss of BODY from bleeding. If you are referring to (, those rules already specify when bleeding stops (including a method which could easily be described as clotting) including the ability to make a first aid attempt (with a Paramedics roll). Does Not Bleed is definitely cheaper and simpler a build than the 2 BODY Regen that would be required to stop negative BODY loss. The biggest problem is that there is still a lot of resistance from some quarters for using Automaton powers on Characters (especially ones that aren't built as Automatons). Personally I would lean towards Does Not Bleed (Post Seg-12). Note: Something looks odd about the Bleeding Chart on 6E, p113. If you've lost < 5 BODY you only stop bleeding on a roll of 1 (1 in 6), yet if you've taken 6 - 10 BODY you stop bleeding on a roll of 2 - 5 (1 in 3). That first entry must be in error.

If a character has performed a half-phase action (eg a half move or a failed Fast Draw to draw a weapon) and attempts to Change Clips but fails his Fast Draw Roll (so that the Clip Change requires a full-phase), what happens? Does he continue to change clips and his next action he completes the clip change and only has a half phase action remaining?

Re: Armor Wars

Re: TASER in 5ER I believe the after-effects of being tased are more sever than modeled with the Stunned game mechanic. I believe a better model for that effect is a reduction to <0 STUN, which also reduces END to 0. I don't foresee anyone jumping up after being tased and immediately running laps.

Re: Entangle That Get's Tougher Over Time

Re: Armor Wars The US Military (along with other country's) is not 'state of the art.' The funding and development processes are arduous, lengthy, problematic and in some ways counterproductive. My dad was flying remote control airplanes in the early 70s. They started developing drones in the 90s. Do you think it really took 20 years before someone said "hey! that's a great idea! we should do something like that!" Do some reading on the Bradley Fighting Vehicle. Heck there is even a movie about it (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0144550/). What a mess! But it's not ALL incompetence. It's part of the nature of the beast. The US Navy has 284 ships. They aren't going to overhaul all 284 every two years because the computers have gotten faster. It's logistically impossible. The testing equipment has to go through to be approved guarantees new developments are usually implemented years behind their development. If you handed the military designs for an exo-battlesuit ala Iron Man, it wouldn't see action for until probably 2020 (if even then). A small upgrade on a tank (a proven platform) like a weapon redesign is going to be a LOT easier to get incorporated than an entirely new, untested platform. Doctrine and plans, support teams would all have to be developed and included in the Table of Organisation. Then you are going to have to convince the guy in charge of ALL the tanks (who is a probably multi-star general, has lots of political clout and who loves tanks more than his own children) that he is going to have to give up some of his authority to these new battlesuit guys and relegate his precious tanks to a minor role behind the Iron Man Infantry. He is going to kick and scream and do everything in his power to not give up a stitch of his authority. Developing new technology (like an armoured battlesuit) is the easy part. Getting it deployed to the front lines? Now THAT'S hard!

Re: TASER in 5ER Unfortunately, that is part of the problem with modeling some real world effects. A realistic taser is capable of taking down a fully grown man with a single zap (on average and for the most part). This means it's got to deliver about 20 - 25 STUN. I prefer the NND version because I think it's more accurate for the effect. You either have to bite the bullet and drop the rather large amount of points to get the one-hit-taser or use something that might take a couple of blasts before it knocks someone out. I guess we could also break it down. What is the main effect of a taser? Does it knock someone unconscious? Does it lock up their muscles making them incapable of moving? A DEX Drain might be a better option.

Re: 6E Hexmap? I have always used a hexmap, since I first started using a battlefield. I prefer hexmaps (as opposed to squaremaps) because of the offset. Back in high school we never bothered with battlefield prep or design. You just had X number of enemies and you kept attacking one after another until they were dead. Granted this was AD&D so the vast majority of these battles took place in narrow corridors in a dungeon...but we were young and stupid.