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Christopher

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Everything posted by Christopher

  1. So John Constantine or Zartana, rather then Dr. Fate? or even lower then that? Or like ArcLight, ArcDark and the VI's of the council in Grrl Power. By RAW: A 5 STR Telekniesis Power + Clarisentience (Touch Group) to aim would cover that. TK is explicitly that kind of indirect: "Telekinesis is inherently Indirect (see 6E1 335) in some ways. [...] It can work through a window or a Barrier without having to break the intervening obstacle, at no reduction in STR." 6E1 294 It would cost between 6 and 9 AP. Clairsentience with it's 20 base cost can be a bit expensive, but you got plenty of Limitations to apply. Fixed Perception point comes to mind. Both also might get "Reduced range" on the "basically touch range" level. The total cost might seem high, but this power has a lot of potentialy to break story elements. On the other hand the limited range really limits abuse potential/gives the GM a lot of counterplay options. It is worth nothing that 5 TK STR is actually quite a bit already. I is a light wind by 6E2 146. And it is technically enough to Trip up everyone if applied properly. Alterantive Options do exist, if the GM wants to be adventerours or wants make it cheaper (he should only do that retroactively): Stretching can be made "Does not Pass Intervening Space". Technically the arm and leg default reach is equivalent to 1m Stretching. Same way you got X meters of Free Running. So you could buy a +1/4 Naked Advantage onto your Automatic Reach, wich rounds up to 1 AP. A naked Advantage "Indirect on 5 STR" might also work out. Should round down a 1 AP power as well. Desolid + "Affects Physical World" for 5 STR might also work if you want to go into full on Poltergeist later/with another Character. APG I 90 has this GM Option Advantage for Desolidification: "Selective Desolidification (+1½): Ordinarily, a character is either entirely Desolidified, or entirely solid — he can’t be partly intangible and partly tangible. A character with this Advantage, which requires the GM’s permission, can make himself only partly Desolidified, or while Desolidified can selectively solidify part of his body (typically his hands). Selectively solid parts of the body can affect the physical world normally, and in turn be affected by it normally (which may involve use of the Hit Location table to target specific areas of the body). Since a character may not activate and deactivate a Power in the same Phase without GM’s permission, a character cannot partially solidify, perform an Action, and then fully Desolidify in the same Phase." Granted in this place it would propably imply a huge Limitation as he can only desolid parts of his fingers.
  2. You forgot one upside: The EGO+ result level you need to even get the target to "be still" varries up to Ego +30. A D&D Dragon in defense of it's hoard might be "Violently Opposed" with letting the characters just take stuff. And everyone is "Violently Opposed" to being hurt by default. And if the Opposition Level should only change upward at any time, I think you get a instant Breakout Roll with the new penalty right there. That drastically negates the need for Breakout Rolls. The rules do Cover this: "In the rare instance when a mentalist issues a command the character would have to perform before his next Phase after being attacked, such as a Mind Control command to “Abort your Phase to Dodge!”, the victim gets his Breakout Roll as soon as the mentalist gives the order. [...]" "For ease of play, some GMs prefer to let a target character make his Breakout Roll immediately — i.e., as soon as the attacking mentalist successfully uses his power. In that case, the target character does not get to make another Breakout Roll in his first available Phase after being attacked — his next Breakout Roll cannot be made until one Turn after his first available Phase after being attacked." 6E1 150 Everything in hero has it's up- and downsides. Especially with the stuff in the Book.
  3. Each of the doors does seem to act like a Bulkhead. The force fields meerely supplement them to keep the whole area pressurized. Let us take this scene from Nemesis, where data jumps out of the ship. The corridor itself has 3 kinds of exits: - space, currently block by a emergency forcefield - the various side doors to seperate rooms - bulkhead doors leading to and from the corridor to other corridors (and stuff like Turpolifts). The Corridor is still fully presurized. So if anything in the corridor or the adjacent rooms needs repair, a technician can go there without needing to grab a space suit. The hallway is still walkable, that alone is a huge advantage. If the force field emitters should fail, there are plenty of other emitters that can react. Since there is already a force field active with power flowing the direction, those other emiters are propably on "high alert". If the forcefields should completely fail, only this corridor will be depresurized. The rest of the ship is still quite fine.
  4. One question i always ask in such discussions: Do you really play a Ship with a Avatar? Or do you play the Avatar with a Ship? In Andromeda there was a (poorly defined) seperation between the Android Body and the proper Ship AI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Andromeda_characters#Rommie I think in most cases you play the Avatar, wich happens to have access to the ship. In HERO that does not require a Vehicle. It can simply be the special effect/reason for some limitations of the powers. "Directed Artillery" can simply be a Blast wich simulates "directing fire from the ship", with appropirate Power Modifiers (like does not work into closed spaces, Area of Effect, etc.). You would use a normal Strike Action and OCV roll to use it. That would all tie it properly into the Combat Action Resolution. And for Utility Powers you only really need "Useable by others/nearby" to expand it into the team. Having an actually seperate Character sheet - like a Ship - can be a bit of a balance issue. At worst you might be able to pull 2 attacks per phase (1 from the avatar, 1 from the ship). The primary source of Attack range is tge Active Points, but it can be expanded via Advantages. I think the default is 10m/active Point With Active Points in Superheroics being usually around 60 AP - so 600 meters. But usually aiming the attack at such ranges is a bigger issue the having it reach at all.
  5. Iron Sky 2. It was meh. My best guess is that they gave too much away in the Trailers, making the overall plot predictable.
  6. You seem to be under the impression that the Flerkin was an ally of Nick Fury and the rest. All it really did was eat the guys that would have put a muzzle on it again and eat something sparkly. And not eat those Scrulls that posed as Kree (either because they would not put a muzzle on it or because it was full). Any helping with the story might have been coincidental. I mean we still are not 100% why the cats hunt rodents/birds just to put it inside the Living Room. It is not like either of us is eating them and cats do understand they wander into the trash.
  7. What is the real difference between not taking (BODY) damage past defenses and a successfull block? Minor details (like still taking stun) varry. But STUN damage is not that important in heroic games (as compared to superheroic) and can actually enhance the situation. Personally I consider "you did not take Body damage due to increased defenses" the same as "you blocked the fire breath with your shield. The STUN damage taken nearly highlights that it was a close call maneuver and that a proper fire resistance (or not getting hit in the first place) would be better. Of course one way to "Block fire breath with a shield" is to use Dive for Cover. You simply have the cover with you. It is still a dangerous maneuver (putting you into a poor defensive position when followup attacks come). But it is an option at least.
  8. Case 1: Generally attacking Large Objects (Mountain to Planet Size) is not very effective. Wich is why APG II 113 introduces several new Damage Models for "attacking and destroying large objects". One of those might be better at supporting your case 1. Superman flying so fast he goes back in time (basically a time machine similar to Star Trek 4) is one of those powers that nobody ever mentioned again. Not even the same movies in that continuity. Mostly because it is hilariously OP, as HISHE keeps reminding us every time they use it. The flash explicitly said "I can never go that fast again. If I do, I will not come back." There were several similar cases for each Hero of the Teen Titans. Like Cyborg Defeating Brother Blood. Or any of the other titans defeating their villain. There are two common parts: - they were the only solution to a problem - everything in the story worked towards this being the only solution - they are always one time solutions I doubt that it can be translated to a RPG setting at all. There is one fundamental divide between a RPG table and any work of Fiction: - in a work of Fiction, the Author controls the Protagonist, the Antagonists and the Environment. - on a RPG table, each Player controls one Protagonist. While the GM controls the Antagonsits and Environment. All the rules realy do is resolve the inevitable conflict if two authors try to direct the course of a story. But if you really want to try, here is my best advise: - set those story moments up with the Characters player. Those stories exist solely to show how awesome the Chracter is - alternatively, it could be a fallback option for really rotten dice luck. Or when you accidentallty design a villain too OP (like LuthorBraniac). - within limits, something like Heroic action points might come close. - maybe make it a sort of token each player can use once per Campaign. A "Heroic last stand".
  9. The traditional abreviation would be DIS - first 3 letters of the ship name. But they prefer DISCO, propably because it sounds less like people dissing you. Episode 10 can out, time for some updates. The Red Angel: So the Red Angel is Burnhams Mother. Who apparently built that suit for Section 31. And propably took it the time when History asumed she died to Klingons. That does explain things. They mentioned the Grandfather Paradox, but did not realize that without the Red Angel Burnham would have died as a child on Vulcan. So she could never have donned the suit to save herself. Granted, some version of Timetravel do have predestination Paradoxes so it would not be totally unusual. Control: Corrupted Control is still around. They asumed it purged, but as Leland found out it is still very much alive and poking. Of course it was kind of stupid to asume a near AGI could not hide from a automated diagnostic. It also laid a pretty big trap by putting fake neural readings into Airiam. I am unsure what it did to Leland exactly. It is possible it only killed him and will impersonate him via Coms. But I have some theories what else it could have done by pocking into his eye/brain. And that begs the question how many of the crew on Lelands ship suffered a similar fate already. The Red Bursts: Still uncertain about those. Maybe those are side effects of the Red Angel having to do time travel in a hurry? I would guess with proper planing the angel can hide them. Or maybe the Angel just time travelled at 1 second/second back when burnham was saved? Or maybe Section 31 hid the part that there was a Red Burst back then? The enemy: I am still uncertain if a future Control is the enemy. Again, the lack of Time Travel and information about the Discoery timeline is telling. On the other hand, Star Trek often introduced McGuffin like technologies that never found widespread adoption or were even replicateable. The Genesis Torpedo, Dr. Sorens Anti-Fusion Missile and the Data class Androids were never properly reverse engineered. So it is possible that Future Control just never got it's mind on any Time Travel Technology and is unable to develop it's own.
  10. You know, Col. Klink is not the worst possible Warden Sergeant Schultz would be even worse
  11. Usually you only break bones trying to chase them: https://pets.webmd.com/news/20090326/pets-cause-thousands-injuries https://www.livescience.com/10995-cats-dogs-household-hazards.html Plus this was a Alien Shapeshifting Monster Immitating a Cat so it's behavior can be slightly...off.
  12. If power fails, Gravity and Life Support will fail. And each door seems to be de-facto a bulkhead. Meanwhile Forcefields can patch just about any hullbreach on the outside, not loosing that much internal space. In Discovery they had a hull breach on the bridge. One guy got blown into space before it sprung to live. Then the bridge was fully functional. 0 loss of internal space. Even when the ship was drifting to it's doom without engine power, the Forcefield held. Emergency Forcefield also do not weight anything. They still use Bulkheads, btw. You can see them here in TNG and the movies to TOS. Ideally you want that to happen Automatically. Maybe with a certain sound effect...
  13. That could just be a wide Spectrum Aid on the attacker. Or a Drain Def on the target, as @Tom Cowan said. Maybe give the Target a Succeptabilty Complication via Transform/Change Environment? Maybe a Damage Ability, Triggger (everytime he is attacked, automatically resets as free action), UAA (to 'stick' it on the Enemy). I have one experimental Idea I never playtested. The Ability is Irooni from Bleach: As a warning ahead of time, most Zanpaktou abilities are broken. Most of them can not be parsed to something as balanced as Hero at all. This ability is a borderline case. https://bleach.fandom.com/wiki/Irooni " This is a color-based game where the participants say the name of the color they want to cut with their weapons and are unable to cut anything else.[1] If the color the participant calls does not exist on their body, the damage is minimal, even if the attack would normally inflict a much more severe wound.[2] The opposite is true as well; by calling out a color they are wearing and attacking, the damage dealt is proportional to the amount of that color on them.[3] To maximize damage, the participants have to use a color which maximizes the risks to themselves, as well as their enemy's. For example, by wearing black robes and naming black, one would inflict massive damage on an enemy if they hit,[4] even if the actual blow itself was minimal or minor, but the caller would also suffer severe damage if they are struck by the enemy in return.[5] " Basically both parties have their Defenses Reduced, but also can opt to get equal or greater defenses - but the enemy also get's those defenses. Here is what I came up with: 20 Defenses, Area of Effect, Minor Side Effect (everyone affected looses 15 AP of Defenses), both sides can pick magnitude. This would debuff all Defenses in an Area (side effect). But you get to choose to grant yourself (and your enemy) more defenses then you lost. As I said: experimental. I put Area of Effect on Defenses (wich is not allowed) and worked a Side Effect affecting the unwilling target into it as well (not allowed). But I think the combination might just make it work.
  14. So if someone is really bad at communicating, we get to educate him or her about "the Bees and the Fishes"?
  15. "Crimewave in Gotham. In other news: Water is wet!" Claim: This Photo Shows Muslims in Leipzig, Germany. Use case: "Proof for Islamisation!" Reality: Orthodox Christians. Eritrea (Africa). They are comming from Church. Just had a Baptism. So yeah, the people that feel like highlighting that literally can not tell a Muslim and Christian appart, if he is from Africa. And they would not give a rodents behind for those christians, unless it was for justifying their hate for Muslims.
  16. Is that Starfire? Red Hair, Green Eyes and that Raven looking Friend would indicate it for me.
  17. Then they would be trying to find her asuming that was the mystery. They are not trying to find her for any reason, period. They really just do not like mysteries.
  18. It was a shock reacation with poor to no aiming. It classified Nick Fury as "Human", "Male" and "Threat level low to none." I am pretty sure Nick Fury is a Human. I am also pretty sure Nick Fury is a Man. I am also pretty sure that - compared to stuff like Asgardians, Flerkins, Groots and whatever species Drax was - Humanity does not have exceptional natural combat ability. I am also pretty sure that 90's Humanity Technology was not impressive for a Empire that could do a space/ground genocide without most humans even hearing of it. Much less do anything about it. So this was a underestimation of Humanity. And Nick Fury. But only a slight understimation, given when this played. For me the Gender was the least important part of the Scene. Wich other 90's character did that? Oh right, Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator. Every single time. The first time he even killed some guy by ramming his Fist into it's chest. The 2nd time he burned the guy on a cooking plate. Hrrm: In True Lies Schwarzenegger was the lead. And the Terminator also scanned and classified Humans like the scanner did. Maybe it was just a real lot of Terminator/Schwarzenegger References? In other words, totally normal Cat beahvior. I had a cat allow me to pet his kits. And 5-10 minutes later, it gave me a scratch over the entire left upper arm for sitting in it's chair. I was in the Cinema with 3 cat owners. None of them were surprised. I mean I had enough 2nd and 1st Hand information about cats to not be surprised.
  19. Oh, so they finally Graduated from Cat Pictures? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw9r8CL98N0
  20. As a Bastard myself, I could feel slightly offended. But then I am a legitimized Bastard. So there is that
  21. Well, the first question is: How are Poison, Diseases, Blinding and Paralyzation even build? Without knowing wich powers to counter, we can not counter them. So this goes more into general Game Design and Campaing rule territory, then simple power build. Diseases and Poison: Damage over Time applied to any number of Powers (from Damage, to Transforms, to Drains) would be away to go. If you make it NND (fitting Live Support), then a simple "LS; Useable on Others" could be that part of the power. My first instict for Blindness would be a Flash. But that is more for Combat Blindness, not "I can not see for hours" Blindness wich D&D seems to prefer (that falls more into Transform). But maybe a DoT version of Flash could work here, with the same logic as for Diseases and Poison? Paralyzation: Entangle is usually the first thing. And boy countering that one is tricky. But there are other possible ways. Look at the rules for having "0 in any Stat". That would allow Drains to become effective Paralysation tools. The simplest way would be to declare "All Diseases are countered by the Restoration Spell" as a Campaign rule. This may or may not give all those Power Builds a Limitation.
  22. Is Chaos a Special Effect? What is it's meaning in yoru Campaign? Is it just adding more Randomness? What you describe makes me think "Adding Minor Side Effect" to powers. Minor Transform can add a -1/2 Limitation. Major Transform a -1. APG I 82 also has Optional Rules to make Change Environment add Advantages/Limitations/Complications. But as anything in the APG, it is rather experimental. And they are additionally marked with a warning Sign. The only real limit is that those "can not completely remove the useability of the power", given the circumstances. Side Effects can explicitly be used to deal damage to the user and by default, this damage ignores defenses (what I asume you tried to do with NND or Drain). "Any Side Effect automatically affects the character (or environment or recipient) — no Attack Roll is necessary. The character, environment, or recipient gets no defenses against the Side Effect — not even if he’s Desolidified or otherwise protected from that form of damage under ordinary circumstances" Minor side effect (-1/4, x2 for being always there) is "15 Active Points, or one-fourth of the Active Points in the power (whichever is greater)". That is enough for 3D6 Damage that defenses will not prevent.
  23. Superheroic. Hands down. Even if it was generalized away from those roots, they still show in a lot of rules. The rules are Optimized for Superheroic play first, heroic play second to thrid. The Character creation is certainly too complex to throw the players into the Deep end here. Maybe you could get them to design a Character in OpenLegends and then parse it to Hero? I have been theorizing that it might be a good learning and abstraction tool. However, Pre-Generated can mean a lot of things. It could mean you pick characters from the books. Or that you handcraft the Ideas of the players (if you know them). But it is not nessesarily bad to have throwaway Characters for the first intro games. I would say Combat. Again, the game seems optimized for (Superheroic) combat resolution. Most of the powers have combat oriented uses. Even powers like Mind Control are balanced on how they interact with Combat System. The combat is the Systems Strenght. Again, I think Combat is Heroes Strenght. And here I want to point you to teh Original intro page of Mindmistress: Insert other media Start with a fight against normal, unpowered Criminals. Maybe have all of them fight in paralell. Leave superfights for later until the players got a "feel" for the rules. You do not want to overwhelm them with too many maneuvers. Aborting alone a very problematic thing to get your head around. As for handouts, this is my old Power Guide I wrote for introduction purposes. It should help equally with Parsing Sheets (without the books) and getting into the basics of Character Creation:
  24. It had to be taken down due to excessive Memory and CPU Demands on the Server. Unfortunately Heirarchical Forums are really taxing on just about any measure. The general age and amount of data still in there did not help. Recently even the Forums had to undergo a pruning of Threads. Mostly it affected the NGD Forum. The biggest victim was propably the old Funny Pictures thread, but we now got a new one.
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