Christopher

Can it really attack from both ends? Horses in the wild almost exclusively attack with their hind legs. Despite the fact that they are awkward to use, have a huge telegraph and you can not even look where you kick, 90% of the cases they just use them. Front legs seem to be limited to emergency uses or trampling over smaler targets. Maybe a bit of posturing. But not combat: A human has two arms he can use when both legs have been grabbed. A human has two legs he can both use when both arms have been grabbed. So that is not really a ability that exceeds normal human ability. If anything they loose the human ability to fight half-effectively while prone.

For Profit TV News was just stupid idea. Let us finally realize that, and find a replacement. Anything that does not require Political groups or Ad revenue for Financing. I can only point you to the german solution after WW2. It is a bit pricy due to decentralization and needing it's own revenue aparatus, but really it is dang hard to manipulate by anyone.

Êxcept when it does with the Optional Normal Characteristics Maxima A softcap like NCM is a perfectly valid way to make certain builds: a) Undesirable b) easier balanced by design c) but not impossible if a player really wants them And all without needing the GM to check every single stat*. *I asume you can trust the player to not actively fake the math on his sheet. If you can not, that is another problem altogether. "The GM should examine all Limitations used in his campaign. It’s up to him to decide if certain Limitations are worth more or less in his campaign, and change their value accordingly. The GM has the final say over whether a Limitation is allowed in his campaign, and how much it’s worth." 6E1 364 So it is not a "Houserule". It is a base game rule. Alternatively I can define it as a Campaign rule: "16 DC attacks are allowed, but have to take the equivalent of a -1 Limitation without getting the benefit". I can not find it on the spot, but I am 90% sure there is a part saying "the GM can define Campaign rules like 'healing and regeneration does not work against damage from Morngul Blades', and the Characters do not get a limitation from that" If you came to me with a 16 DC attack in a 12-14 DC game, these are the options: a) NO! b) No. And I am seriously tired of you trying to pull *bleep* like that! c) Lower it to 14 DC with the same limitation and we can talk. d) new Campaing Rule: "16 DC attacks are allowed, but have to take the equivalent of a -1 Limitation without getting the benefit". If you came to me with a 16 DC attack in a 12-14 DC game and are adamant agaisnt house and campaign rules, these are the options: a) NO! b) No. And I am seriously tired of you trying to pull *bleep* like that! c) Lower it to 14 DC with the same limitation and we can talk.

Horse legs do not have anything close to human leg freedom of movement. Their ability to sleep standing requires a very riggid legstructure. Sort of standing right on my feet with the forelegs (something that is very dangerous for the horse), is see no way for it to bind my legs with it's legs. The Grab and Point of Origin Rules already cover that. If the "point of Origin" of a power is a leg, the enemy has to grab all 2/4/8 Legs to disable that power. But again, Horses do not seem to get any redundancy out of their extra legs. The horse it uniquely hyper-engineered for speedy and enduring running. So much it is the only species - besides humans and apes - that even controls heat via sweatglands. Nearly any mamal has them, but only humans, apes and horses use them as a major/relevant thermoregulation feature. When predators hunt Horses or horselikes, they always easily trip them with a single attack to the legs. And at that part the hunt is decided. That is how bad they are at fighting prone. A horse or horselike that was tripped or lay down, takes very long to right itself. So much so, in the wild horses sleep almost exclusively standing. The only time horselikes have used their legs in fights, was to attack a enemy directly behind them. With proper bracing to not fall over from the try. Extra running? Totally Complicaiton that makes Prone even less desireable? Propably. Knockback Resistance? Adviseable if you got that complication. Extra Limbs? Not that I can see it. You got more limbs, but you actually get less use out of those 4 limbs then a human get's out of 2.

Time to make a decision. Both were really good and that makes it hard to pick a winner. But by the smalest of margins I give it to @archer.

"Sometimes the only way to survive, is to give up all concern for your safety" - Tzun Tsu. And it is a bit scary that the "Art of War" applies to surving in New Zealand.

It still looked pretty much like the Bifrost. Maybe the hammer and that "Shrine to Nipples" (as it was called) allow you to get the effect without needing dark magic/energy. They are ways to buy off the Complication, "Side Effet (will seriously wreck your body)"

And maybe at one point they have a realisation like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjLXuKHkKxE I personally dislike the Rules Construct of Complications. It is less bad in 6E then before, but it still feels like I have to invent complications to fill up the pool. Not nessesarily complications I want to have. It think the Intention behind Complications is to provide "GM Storyhooks". But we can provide those without nessesarily needing a rule construct.

"A limitation that is not limiting is not worth any bonus". That is what the book says. In extra large letters, different font and different color just so we can find it easily and are aware of the significance At wich point I can only repeat: "If a given Limitation allows the power to exist at all, it is not limiting it at all." The Alternative is the me declaring with a very GM'i voice: "Nope. Erase that power from your sheet. It is invalid for the Rules of this campaign*". I was trying to be a nice guy in your Hypothetical scenario. But if you do not want that I can stop at any moment. ?‍♂️ *Wich of course includes the DC limits I set before you even started writing up this Character. I am uncertain if I even need to explain that. Or why I need to explain it, if I do have to explain it. I actually have a Character Concept floating around that would require a Skill VPP to work. One of those things that is explicitly forbidden by the Books. I would put "Does not include skills that step on other players toes or break the story" limitation on it. I do not expect to get a single point back. I expect it to maybe allow the GM to allow this power in the game without breaking game balance.

I would not try to make it mater and just fix it for the next Session. Maybe review how this miscommunicaiton even happened. That is one Session the player will not get the Benefit of a 5 point power. Wich was fairly situational to begin with. And hopefully 99 Session where he would not have it on the sheet. It is like a GM sometimes has to do a "on the spot" ruling to later read through the rules. Focussing on this is not remotely worth the effort since it will not be a problem down the road. I mean seriously, after this information the one player has 5 more points to work with. Points he thought were tied up in a mandatory power. He can propably erase it and buy some other stuff he wanted in it's stead the very moment I say "you do not need extra limbs and indeed I can not think of how it would be a benefit/work".

Or a dragon hatching out of the Capsule?

At least that will make it easy to spot the tourists:

Then it sounds like your Group does not want (this) Mystery. Hugh guessed the reason right in his first reply: You can always use the fight Option as the "fallback" path for this approach: Even just the time fights take will eventually get someone to use their Mind Axe to skip the boring combat. That sounds like there is a disconnect between the Player and GM Vision even more. The player did not want a DNCP. Nor do they want to solve mysteries. I can not exclude that 1 or 2 might have been theoretically interested in proper play and only made this kind of Character to "fit in" with the other guys. There can often be a Dominant personaltiy at the table, especially with old groups. Look at the Film "The Gamers: Dorkness Rising" for a cinematic example of this problem.

It always takes a while to figure out what the Story even is for any given season of DIScovery. But with Episode 9 out on Netflix yesterday, we now finally have enough to theorize. So let us do that. It is nothing less then the Destruction of all Sentient Life in the Galaxy they have to prevent. I guess it is Tuesday in Starfleet again The Red Angel: Somewhen in the Future something will wipe out all live in the Galaxy. This could be something local or something that wandered in from outside. But it missed one spot - the Red Angel! Now the Red Angel has a powerfull exosuit with flight and time travel capabilities and it starts altering the timeline. Minimal Invasive, mostly (wich indicates Starfleet Ideology at least): - saving a bunch of people from a Nuclear blast in WW3 and moving them where they can not affect the timestream - making sure Burnham survived childhood (for some reason) - making sure spock is informed - saving(?) Burnham again on the Asteroid. Or at least tipping her off to the nature of the Asteroid. Wich helps them save the Colony. - the biggest intereference thus far was on Kaminar (wich also Rhymes). Where he helped save that species. - it is unclear if it interacted with the Alien Sphere in any way or if this encounter was a unintended change. The very reason they are taught: "Do not mess with the Timestream". The Red Bursts: It is currently unclear if the Red bursts are caused by the angel. Or a attempt by the enemy to attack the Angel. After all with aiming across time, you might miss the exact moment your target was at a place. The Enemy: The only contact thus far was via the Modified Probe. And indirectly Airiam, wich was infected by the Probe. As well as those Memories of hte Red Angel that Spock saw. For one reason or another, it seems unable to freely timetravel. Or at least they have not yet figured out how to do that. It is worth noting that Iconians in Star Trek Online can not timetravel without loosing their Future Memory. A quirk of their Memory/Spatial Awareness centers (they use Chronitons as part of the Process) Synchronizes them to their current timelines duplicate. It is possible the enemy has a similar Problem. Control and Section 31: The biggest changes to known Canon thus far is to this little organization and/or the introduction of Control (both as a Section 31 and general Starfleet tool). It seems to be a subsentient AI, that was mostly used for Treath assessment. Now the Probe - via Airiam - tried to make Control awaken. It at least managed it to kill and Impersonate the entire Section 31 Leadership thanks to the use of Holocommunicators (wich nicely explains why they stopped using those). It might have even been the one that Framed Spock. It is unclear who did it exactly and how far back anything lies. I am uncertain wich (if any) role Airiams transmissions to control played in all that. Is control the enemy? One theory I have been floating was that the future enemy is some form of "kill all Sentients" AI. Their ability to quickly modify a probe and hack Airiam seem to indicate it. But then it might just be "future hacking" as was used against the Voyager once. If it is an AI, it might have been a future version of control. Or perhaps a replacement. I guess once we know what project Deadlus even is, we will have a better idea. I still think it is more likely to be a external force. A later itteration of control would have all knowledge of control and Federation Timetravel technology. But the enemy seemed to be very concerned with getting information about this time and unable to freely timetravel. Searching the Shuttles Memory was a good first attempt to get information, but failed due to the self destruct. It escaped into Airiam. And then tried to go to the biggest source of information in the Federation: Control. The one place where the Admirality and Section 31 keep all their Data. So, what are your thoughts on the plot of this Season?

Shield was not the "Ultimative Security Agency" it was in Ironman 1 at the time. There were plenty of Secret US Military Projects the agency was not privy too. The part where Alien Infiltration turned out to be real (both from the Kree and Skrulls) propably gave it a boost in financing and importance.

Maybe Terry Pratchet was right after all?

So I guess a lot of Mortal Combat Characters are hobby gardeners?

They had a Duty to make sure that did not happen. They failed that duty. Claiming Victimhood is not making them sound as if they take it seriously. With Quantum anything you can never be sure That has become a real issue in the last years. I agree. If anything, this is too human. I am a german that does not deny the holocaust happened in my Country. So no cruelty of mankind surprises me. Of course they do still disgust me.

Oh god, I feel remembered of both the Starfighter and Ariane 5 Disasters. And both were horrible mistakes. If this cause is true, it ranges somewhere in the middle between the Starfighter Affair (116 avoidable dead Pilots over decades) and the Arian 5 (only Commercial loss).

That is just normal Environmental Immunity from being a Fantasy Character. I mean seriously, Star Wars has Wizards, Knights, Princesses and Dark Lords in Space. So I did not expect scientific accuracy at any point 1. The fire burned him that way. 2. Both should have suffered worse just being that close to Rock so hot it was a liquid. I mean steelworks are life-threathingly hot environments. And steel has a low melting point and good heat management compared to lava caves. The air that close to a river of something at 700-1200°C would propably burn your lungs. If it even still had Oxygen.

Actually I just have a different interpretation: If a given Limitation allows the power to exist at all, it is not limiting it at all. If anything "this power is allowed despite Campaign Rules" is a Advantage. For me that is why "Can be used from Desolid" is a +2 advantage: +1/2 Real Advantage +1 1/2 "you are allowed to do something as broken as this at all" Advantage The Price of the Advantage is a huge warning Sign to me. That could actually be too price effective. I mean seriously, you get a 16 DC attack in a 12-14 DC game. And for 40 Character Points? It just does not sound very you "Pay what you get" or "You get what you pay" for me. I think a large reasaon you can not Stack Power Frameworks is that the cost reductions could become too effective. Wich is why my idea to combine them first cuts out that issue:

5E's figured Characteristics make this a lot harder, but it is still doable. 6E1 47 has this to say on "Toolkitting Characteristics" and I thought it might be helpfull: "Because they’re fundamental to every single character, Characteristics are one of the most important parts of the HERO System, and your campaign. Changing them is one of the best ways to create a certain “feel” for your campaign, or to enforce the way you see your campaign working... but also one of the easiest ways to create unintended consequences, so tread carefully. There are three basic changes you can make to the Characteristics. The first is to add one or more Characteristics to the lineup. This is an easy way to show players what’s particularly important or useful in your campaign, or to foreshadow what sort of perils they’re likely to face in their adventures. Some examples: - In In a “Psychic Wars” campaign focused on factions of mentalists using their powers to compete for influence in the shadows of normal society, Mental Defense is so common, and so important, that the GM makes it a Characteristic (Base Value of 2, cost 1 Character Point per +1 point). - In In a Fantasy Hero campaign featuring powerful wizards and a magic system that defines magic as drawing primarily on the caster’s personal energy but also ambient arcane power, the GM requires all spellcasters to have a Mana (MANA) Characteristic (Base Value 20, costs 1 Character Point per +10 Mana). Mana functions like END, but only for spells. However, characters only Recover MANA like they do BODY, on a per-month basis — so a wizard can cast a particularly powerful spell, but then he’ll be a long time “recuperating” before he can do it again. On the other hand, areas with “high levels” of ambient magical energy make spellcasting easier and less stressful. - In In a Horror Hero campaign, characters have a Sanity (SAN) Characteristic (Base Value of 20, costs 1 Character Point per +2 points). Sort of like STUN and physical attacks, characters lose SAN when exposed to or “attacked” by horrific or stressful situations and beings. Second, the GM can remove Characteristics that he doesn’t want to use. For example, removing END is discussed elsewhere in this chapter. In a campaign with no Mental Powers at all, OMCV and DMCV aren’t needed, so you could remove them and save space on your character sheets. (See Dormant Abilities, 6E1 46.) Lastly, the GM could change the cost of a Characteristic to make it easier or harder for characters to afford. For example, in a game where the GM wants characters to be less “durable,” he could increase the cost of BODY. However, changing the cost of a Characteristic can affect Adjustment Powers, combat, and many other aspects of the game, so proceed cautiously." And of course there is my favourite example for changing cost: Swimming and Flight would propably trade places and cost in a Underwater Campaign. I know a variant of a classical western Elements with 6 Elements: Earth/Air Fire/Water Ice/Humus (Life/Plantlife) As I once made a Character on this basis, I had a bunch of Data/Ideas gathered on it. Attribute associations were hard, as not every Attribute mapped to Hero. So I mostly focussed on Skills (inlcuding Arts) as well as Personality Attributes. As for mapping it to only 4 Elements: Ice is usually a part/form of Water. While Humus has elements from water (life) and earth (fertile soil) "Ice: Attributes: Cold (P) Sec. Attributes: Darkness, Intelligence, Purity, emotional cold, detachment, mercilessness, timeless stasis Color: Violet or White Stone: Quartz, mountain crystal; Onyx? Counter: Humus Elements for Spell/Rituals: Meditating Naked, Icediving, sitting on a ice floe floating on the ocean Skills: Tatic, Deduction Arts: Writing, Icesculpting Good side: Intelligence; Needed Balance/Border for all other Elements; unaffected by emotions Other side: Emotional Distance; aloofness Uses: Protection. Iceconstructs, Dispel/End of all energy. Darkness. Stopping Time? Durability? Eternal youth and beauty? Physics: Nihilus Energy (counters all energy and even mater), lack of energy. Humus: Attributes: Life (especially Plants), Growth, youth, high age; Sec. Attributes: Vitality, sedateness, coziness, (pratical) creativity, endurance, assertiveness, faith and hope, courage to face life, Knowledge of transience (willingness to start anew on failure) Color: green, brown; plant colors Stone: agate Counter: Ice Elements for Spell/Rituals: wickerwork, Flowers, Living plants Skills: Botany, Biology, Genetics, Survival (Wilderness) Arts: Cooking, Especially painting, Gardening Good side: Life is good and must be protected. Friendly, pratical, helpfull, paternalistic, trustingly Other side: Pure reaslism, Indifference for human problems. No Justice, compassion, friendships. Uses: Healing, Food, Precognition, Plant Manipulation Physics: Mixup of everything else but Ice Stone: Attributes: Heavyness, Inertia Sec. Attributes: quiescency/calmness, sloth, sedateness, steadiness, stability, lasting, unshakeable, reliable, planing Color: pure black, silver sheen Stone: Onyx?, Granite? Counter: Air Elements for Spell/Rituals: Handwork, Climbing up mountains or down caves, Mosaiks, Menhirs, Long Meditation Skills: Geology, Mechanic, Architecture/Analyze Buildings, Weaponsmith Art: Every stonecraft (inlcuding gems), handicrafts Good side: Durabiltiy, Planning, Dependability, Long Memory, Resistance to Emotions Other side: Lazyness (Sloth), unadaptable, stubborness, perfectionism, Uses: Protection, inmoveability, constructs, heavyness Physics: All elemental Binding Forces (Gravity, Weak, EM, Strong) Air: Attributes: Movement, Lightness Sec. Attributes: Emotion, Passion, Desire, Excitment, Restlessness, wealth of ideas, Joy of life, happiness, freethinking, recklessness, carelessness, phantasy, dreaming, never-resting, deceptive rhetoric, sense illusions, fleeting, incomprehensible, Freedom Color: Stone: Lapislazuli Counter: Stone Elements for Spell/Rituals: Dancing, Feathers, Incense, bracing Storms, Skills: Persuasion, Conversation, Mimikri, Disguise, Acting, Ventriloquism Art: Singing, wind instruments, Dancing, Poetry, Storytelling Good side: Passion, wealth of ideas, Joy of Life Other side: Restless, reckless, deceptive, incomprehensible, mocking, Trickster Effects: Higher speed and Inventiveness, but also: Lack of Concentration. Impulsiveness. Maybe even Lust Uses: Movement, speed, Illusion (especially sound based), Mimkri, Ventriloquism, Prediction? Physics: Movement. Fire Attributes: Warmth (destructive, deadly and life giving) Sec. Attributes: Light, Heartiness, comfort, affection, Emotional, quarrelsomeness, joy of action, valor, honesty, truthfulness, Dangerous, aggressive, Strenght, Energy, Activity, Protection, Awareness about it's own dangers Color: red, orange Stone: Fire opals Counter: water Elements for Spell/Rituals: Skills: Chemistry (Part), Persuasion Art: none; Inabiltiy to create anything lasting? Good side: Strong personality, Valor, Honesty, Thruthfullness Other side: quarrelsome, believe in superiority, overactive Effect: Truthfull, direct, strenght of character, impulsive, Protection; but also Overconfidence, Wrath, lack of patience Uses: attack, battle Physics: All Energy Water: Attributes: Change Sec. Attributes: permanent Change, depth, unfathomable, many things at once, self-contradicting Color: bluegreen Stone: Aquamarin Counter: Fire Elements for Spell/Rituals: Meditation, Dancing, Choreography, seafood, gemstones and shells, meshes, conversation to tune in on it, Skills: any Knowledge aquired on Travels? Art: Instrumental Music, especially Wind/water Instruments, Poetry Good side: Soothing, comfy, calm, adapting Other side: Melancholia, Poision, wild, overpowering, extreme emotions Effect: Strenght and Endurance; but also Melancholia, unpredictability Uses: Personal attack and defense Physics: Chemical Binding Force"

This makes sense for apes. But does it also apply to cats and dogs? Or Horses? The tail is hardly able to do anything. And as for horses legs: They are inherently fragile. A horse can die if it breaks one leg. Like human, it requires a prostesis to move at all: Unlike cats and dogs, it also does not retain most of it's ability to move: So a horse get's next to no redundancy from those extra legs. Indeed, a better name for this Power might be Redundant Limbs. This Power gives you the ability to stave off grabs and strong limited entangles, because you got more limbs to fall back on. A cat loosing her tail would loose her racial bonus to balancing. Wich is somewhere between Power Loss and Complication. While most cats, dogs and other small animals would get a reduced movement rate/complication for loosing one of their 4 limbs. But horses are pretty much done if they so much as break a legbone.

This is a specific thing of how this was measured. Usually you compare distances between Orbits. But this looked at absolute distances. If they are on opposite sides of the solar System, most planets can be "my orbital distance + your orbital distance" away from one another. So they are father from each other then the Sun large parts of their orbit. But being closest to the Sun, Mecury always has the Sun Distance +/- it's own orbital distance to every other Planet.

For me all games - Card, Video, Board, P&P Roleplaying - are about interesting decisions. In order to do that, the mechanics must be designed for it. You see that most clearly with Videogames and the Board-/Cardgames, wich can have utterly different mechanics despite being in the same basic category. I doubt anybody has issues mistaking Munchkin and Poker, even if both are nominally card games. And the Hero System as is seems not mechnically designed to offere meaninfull decisions in a Political/Intrigue game. The part Hero Shines in is Group Combat. And it does not have a "Social Combat" System natively. In a political game, you are building "Warriors of the Words". Look at Mental and Magical Powers: Even those are mapped to be closer to Physical Combat in resolution (still use SPD, CV's and defenses/Maneuvers) That does not mean you can not retrofit one. Indeed APG II has a whole Chapter on Social Combat. It offers 3 differnet Systems, IIRC. It starts on Page 79. Let me jsut quote the forword: "Most combat in takes place in the physical arena of guns, fists, swords, energy beams, and like. In some campaigns, mental or HERO System campaigns magical combat can also take place using certain specialized rules (often adapted from the physical combat rules in some respect). But there’s a fourth type of combat that can occur in almost any genre or setting: Social Combat. Social “combat” is a way for characters to interact with one another, and even “fight,” without delivering a blow or wielding a weapon. The pen, they say, is mightier than the sword... and in some cases a well-turned phrase or biting comment is even more effective than the written word. This section of APG2 discusses Social Combat systems for your campaign. After a preliminary discussion of the considerations and implications involved when using Social Combat in your campaign, it provides several possible Social Combat systems. None of them is more “official” than the other, or necessarily “better” — pick the one you like best or that you think will work the most effectively in your campaign, adjust them as needed to fit your setting or your plans for Social Combat, and you’re set!" That is pretty much my Opinion on the mater.