The Horror

Re: Suggestions? Telepathic PCs just captured VIPER agent Thanks Hermit. I think I'll most definately do exactly as you suggested. I'm not using CU ChuckG. As in I'm using a fair bit of it here and there, but the history of supers is all changed. The PCs are playing the first generation of superheroes, in modern day Megalopolis (Millenium City). No UNTIL, no DOSPA, no PRIMUS, none of the CU supervillains. I plan to introduce UNTIL and DOSPA over the next few sessions, but they don't know anything about that. Hitting them with the lawsuits and numerous charges should be good though. Depravation of liberty and assault with a deadly weapon come to mind. So far they've been behaving like criminals. They've broken into the offices of the Department of Homeland Security to install a remote bypass into their mainframe, they've broken through police lines to get to scenes of the crime, they've been beating up random drug pushers trying to get to the guys above them by sheer brute force, and they have caused tens of thousands of dollars of property damage in the first session alone. The telepath reads everybody's thoughts without remorse, ranging from clerks behind office desks to police officers on patrol. I figure that if I introduce DOSPA next session, that they can get an offer from them - either sign up as a registered superhero team bound by the law, or be hunted down and put away like criminals. I think they'll choose to go their own way though. The Horror

First game of the campaign. The PCs fight some VIPER guys, and leave them all for the authorities to find after they deal with them. One of the PCs however is a telepath, and suggested they take one of them for interrogation. Next session they will have full access to this guy, and they are going to want to know who he works for, what they were doing there, where the nest is and so on. How do I handle this without giving away too much info? I can just give the guy high levels of Mental Defence, but I know that this will likely happen time and time again - it might be stretching it a bit if all captured guys have 20 points in Mental Defence. I don't have a problem with them finding out a fair amount of info, but certain things would be out of the question (like the nest location). It's just too early on in the campaign for that. Maybe he doens't know where the nest is? Maybe he swallows a cyanide tablet? Maybe his mind was wiped? Any suggestions? How do I do this without stretching credibility? Like I say, I'm specially worried because I see this happening time and time again. The Horror

Re: A Hero Shopping List I've included in the list all the books I still want to get as well. Galactic Champions Dark Champions UNTIL Defenders of Freedom Alien Wars DEMON Hudson City: The Urban Abyss Golden Age Champions

Re: Power help?

Re: Power help? Yep, that's probably it alright. I'll take a careful read through that and see what I come up with. The Horror

One of my players just hit me with a tough one. Well tough for me since I don't have that much experience with HERO anyhow. He is playing Mosquito Man. Amongst his numerous abilities is the ability to shrink to Mosquito size: Like a Bug!: Shrinking (0.0039 m tall, 7.451E-7 kg mass, -18 PER rolls to perceive the character, +18 DCV, takes +27" knockback) (90 active points); 4 Charges (-1), Concentration (0 DCV, character is totally unaware of nearby events; -3/4), No Growth Momentum (-1/4). Real Cost: 30 points Now what he wants to do is have his character make some sort of activation roll to switch back from this form. He wants the character to not desire using his power, but yet be forced to again and again due to circumstance (I'm thinking Jekyl and Hyde here). The main risk being that while he is in the other form his Mosquito self starts taking over the longer he is in it, and he is afraid he may never return from that state. For example, over time in that form he becomes entranced by rotten food and can be easily knocked out by bug spray (are mosquitos even attracted to rotten food?). Furthermore he wants to change forms to Mosquito size every now and again without conscious control (as well as being able to control it normally otherwise - I'm thinking Hulk here). Thusly his motivation becomes to find a cure for his ailment and lead a normal life. Would a multiform be more suitable than shrinking? How do I handle the gradual loss of control? I was going to just start making up disadvantages for shrinking left right and center, but then I remembered you guys are just over here to help out! Any suggestions will be very much appreciated! The Horror

Re: Name for villain? I like Vector. Has a nice ring to it. If I can't think of anything better I think that might be the goer. Cheers, The Horror

One of the players in my game is the superhero Mosquito Man (secret ID: Dr. Ross River). He was working with his research team in Africa when the entire area fell under a killer Malaria epidemic. All the local villagers died to the mosquito swarms, and his entire research team was infected. Knowing that his time was limited, Dr. Ross River injected himself with Mosquito DNA in the faint hope that he would become immune to the disease - at most a carrier rather than a victim. He survived, but the cost was a mutation that turned him into Mosquito Man. He also became aware that the one who had caused the epidemic was another Mosquito like VIPER agent. The two became bitter enemies, and are trying to hunt each other down. The villain will be similar to the PC, with more evil Mosquito like powers. What should I call him? I am completely stumped on this one. The Horror

How would I go about making a character that will be able to keep fighting until put down, then reform into something else and stand up to face the PCs again in another form? I'm thinking classic arcade fighting games here in the final endboss battle. Multiform will allow me to create the different forms that come up, but how does he regain all of his endurance/stun/body as well? The Horror

The Horror What! He he he. The Horror

Re: Name for a water guy... One of the players in my game uses a character with water based powers. His name is Fluido. Secret identity is John Aqua, the playboy millionaire who made his fortune selling bottled water... The Horror

Re: OK Call me stupid but..... The term comes from four colour comic books. Usually referred to stories where characters are good and stand for truth, justice and the American way of life. Ie. not characters who have any sort of moral ambiguity. I think. The Horror

Re: Anyone using Sidekick? I got two copies for my players, but they haven't arrived here is Aus yet (surface shipping). All well though because I haven't started my Hero game yet. When I do I'll be using the full rules for the game and giving Sidekick to the players. If I ever need to look up a rule during the game though I'll probably just use Sidekick instead so as not to slow down the game. Ie. Using the full rules to generate characters right now. Full rules in game, unless I can't remember them off hand then use Sidekick. The Horror

Re: RPG.net I actually have noticed that the conversations around here are as a general rule much much more civilised than over at RPG.net. Very touchy people over there I'll tell you that. The Horror

Great site! Question: The linked 40k site lists armour as having a DEF value. What version of Hero was this from? The Horror

True. The only times I've managed to truly scare my players (and even myself) was when there have been absolutely no interruptions. Not even food breaks. The Horror

So, is there anything else out there regarding a Rifts to Hero conversion? If not on the web, perhaps sitting around in somebody's computer begging to be divulged to those who seek the truth? The Horror

I for one really enjoy and appreciate comments on books, both positive and negative. I would like to encourage rather than discourage all comments to be posted on these boards. The Horror

Wow. I was about to post up a bunch of questions, and just before I did so I took a quick look at the FAQ. They are really good! Is there an updated version of the PDF available? Here are two questions that I still have though. The first is really only a clarification, the second is more of a question: 1) So a focus can always be rebuilt given time/materials, and it doesn't cost character points. Meanwhile an Independent focus can't be rebuilt unless character points are spent once again. Does this mean that if a suit of armor is built in a superhero game using OAF, and it gets stolen, that the character can just build another one? If it gets stolen by a villain, can the villain keep on using it, or does he have to pay character points for it himself if he wants to do so? 2) If a PC has a suit of powered armor purchased with Only Usable in Heroic Identity, then gets captured, can the suit be taken away from him by the villains leaving him to fend for himself until he can replace it/re-acquisition it? The Horror

Re: Check this out What an absolutely fantastic site!!! Loads of stuff for my future sci-fi campaign. Thanks again Ben! The Horror

First impressions? I have to wait at least 2 more weeks for mine (long distance to Australia). The Horror

For a long while there (years) I only played. Decided the effort of GMing was just a bit much. Over the past few months though I've gotten right back into running games. Oh how I missed it! It truly is my natural state. Playing can be very rewarding, but it is even more rewarding to devise and run a successful game. The Horror

Oh, I do plan to have them be super alright. I'm only still contemplating the points to build them on. Right now I'm thinking of making them 350 or so each. That works out nicely when the team must face 1-2 of them + assorted non-super goons. For the final battle (if there is one) I'll just make sure that the odds balance up in favour of our heroes. One of the henchmen can turn to the good side along the way, another bunch can flee, or be busy, killed, imprisoned, etc. Meanwhile another few can be traitorous scum that take the attack as an opportunity to turn on their masters. It will be easy to balance things through at the end with the henchmen. Most of the players are really hoping that it will work out. The villains know how they are supposed to act. They know the importance of gloating about their plans, of placing captured supers in easily escapable traps, of threatening the world with their power and so on. But all this is of course only relevant if the two groups actually come into direct contact with each other. Chances are that will not begin happening for quite a while after play begins. The Villains (and only the villains) also know something very important. The bad guys almost always lose. They know that to tell the best story, that the heroes should end up saving the day. The big question of course, is how they are going to do it. Will they overthrow their evil master only to be unable to handle the power they acquire? Will they fail because of their own flaws, or because of the incompetence of those around them? I don't know. They'll have to sort that out for themselves. But what kind of a superhero game would it be if the game ended with the world under the rule of one of the Villains? My thoughts exactly. I was thinking 22, but I might go with 24. I'll also make the DC for purposes of counting be based on the active cost of the power. So someone with 90 active points in an AP AF EB will have purchased a DC of 18 for purposes of calculating how much SPD they are allowed. All excellent advice. Thank you very much for that. The Horror

I really like the SPD + DC system. The more I think about it the more I like it in fact. Removing limitations however make me a bit nervous in general. During the test game we had there were characters running around with 12d6 HKA. One shot gimmicks essentially. I definately don't want to see that. I think I'll just use the recommended range for high powered supers out of the Champions book, with the upper limits indicated there being the absolute limits for the characters or something. Either way, the players are not going to get close to the rulesbook until the have a very very clearly defined idea of what the characters are meant to do, and what their background is like. Thanks for the help guys. I do appreciate it. The Horror

Re: Re: [Help] Suggestions for Campaign Limits I plan to run one session a week. Each group plays on each alternating week, and at the end of each session they tell me what they want to have done in the downtime before the next game (mainly for the Supervillains). I plan to build the henchmen myself, and to help out everyone of the PCs with their character creation. First create all PCs and their bases (one group at a time), then let the villains pick their henchmen from a selection of 40 or so pictures. Some are going to be better than others, some are going to me more loyal, etc. I'll decide all of that after they pick the pics of course. The problem is the Colossus guy should be able to take an average 4d6 RKA. So he needs at least 14 rPD/rED. I've let them all know that the limits (that I am still to decide on) are not guidelines. They are limits. However I am not adverse to there being an occasional exception here and there. Not something that should even be suggested by the players. Rather something that I decide will keep the balance of the game and enhance the flavour. So with this guy for example, he wants to be like Colossus. That's cool as you should be able to do that. But if everyone else has the same limit as him then there is a problem. The only problem is that like I said I don't have a lot of experience with Hero, so suggestions as to the active point caps, max damage from attacks and max defences allowed would be most welcome. The Horror