Christopher

Something odd I just noticed in the 3rd panel. Everyone is smiling about the world they are being shown. But not Haley. She wears a frown.

You mean like Loki was "bottom lined" in Avengers by hulk?

Long ago I realised the following build could help: Nuclear Bomb: 26d6 Normal Damage Attack, Megascale It would be way enough to kill every normal in the area. The blast will go through weakpoints (doors, doorframes, windows) to hit them all with 26 Body. At the same time, 26 Body normal Damage would not be too big for the bricks to survive. And superman surviving a nuclear bomb has happened a lot in the source material. That build follows a similar idea, I think. Against a unarmored person or non-super, the Autofire RKA would be deadly. But with sufficient protection, it would be able to save the person. Note that with 6E there is a limitation that doubles the defense vs attacks (non-penetrating), resulting in about the same effect with a easier build.

I wrote something about just this themathic (and similar ones) so far back, it is only in the archive http://www.herogames.com/forums/index.php?/topic/87378-translating-characters-from-fiction-and-the-secret-of-having-fun-in-roleplaying/ I could give you some special guidelines for translating D&D writeups.

Propably my oldest idea are "The Aldar" and thier "Aldar Way". I noticed one particular pattern in science fiction with precursor civilisations: They all become peacefull in the end. They loose thier warrior nature completely. And that in the end destorys them when weaker, but younger races attack them. They are to passive about defending thier space. Ancients from Stargate, Iconians from GalCiv, the Solon from Hegemonia - they are all eventually get overrun by weaker but more numerous and warrior-like enemies. The idea is propably that without that, they blow themself up long before they reach that point. And if they do, they will eventually fall. The Aldar were a precursor race in the game "O.R.B." The two civilisations of that game considered them godlike beings, with the interpretation of the "Toromin" - basically thier bible - dominating a lot of decisionmaking. What often came up was "The Way", but it was never quite explained what the Aldar beleived in. All I got get from the intro was a sort of "acceptance of conflict". Growing beyond childish attempts to stop conflict (wich only causes more of them). And from the Outro I got that if everyone accepted it, true peace could be archeived: So my mind went to work from that with a Philosophy that would allow a warrior culture, without risking nuking themself into oblivion long before they reached "precursor" state of technology. At first I incorporated the Sith and Jedi Codes from Star Wars. In particular I noticed how both were designed to avoid conflict. The Jedi more directly (Peace is the first line, no death the last) while the Sith more indirectly (the idea was to get the lower ranks to fight one another so the upper ones could live in relative peace - or be replaced by a better one). In both cases it failed every time. No side could ever win. If one won, the other side would corrupt it from witin. In the Setting of Star Wars, War between the Light and Dark Side is inevitable. As inevitable as the Wars in WH40k indeed. So thus I ended up with a sort of Grey jedi Philosophy that might be able to break the circle of Lightside/Darkside fighting: "Peace and passion are a lie, the only truth is conflict. Life inevitably leads to conflict. Those that fear or try to prevent conflict, only produce more conflicts. That is the way of the Universe. That is the Aldar Way." If you leave out the first line, it works well in other settings too. The Power of the Way: Accepting conflict would mean no longer looking for it, but also not avoiding it (to make it worse). Following that approach could not be forced. Everyone had to find that way on thier own. And if ever everyone followed it, true peace could be archieved. And interestingly it was actually the universe that seemed to declare that rule itself/confirm the path as valid: The Aldar somehow managed to tap into that, thus securing thier military technology to be only useable by someone following the Way (and technopaths wich caused no end of conflicts). Also there was a sort of feedback with Races that followed it: Within 1-5 generations of people having followed the way, the species would unlock a new abilty (wich were lost the next generation if they no longer followed). As with the Romans, the original Aldar became incredible conquerors. However as they spread thier way, they noticed that other species were as viable as them. So those conquered people who learned the Way joined them on thier Conquests. Over time Aldar stopped describing a species and started desribing a Philosophy. It was dangerously incompatible with other Philosophies and Mindsets: Those that followed the way usually lost connection any non-Aldar Way Government, even to thier species (or at least the parts not following the way). And of course other species felt the danger of that encroaching philosophy. One famous story was how a Aldar Fighter Pilot was captured and forced to train a alien spy on how to operate Aldar Technology - to teach that person the way. Out of 100 candidates, only 1 got it. He was send off in the Pilots ship. One week later a Aldar Fleet arrived and freed thier compatriot. The fleet was led there by the very spy. In accepting the way he had switched sides and since he could operate thier technology, they knew they could trust him when he explained what had happened. That is the power and conviction of people who truly follow the way. In some way it was a 2 caste soceity - those that followed the way could become higher roles and serve the primary military. And only small portion of the population actually managed to follow the way. Unrest and even Rebellion was not uncommon. The Aldar accepted that conflcit as normal part of the Way. The End of the Way or a new beginning? In the end, they were still destroyed. They accepted that would happen. Following the way because one feared destruction through conflict, would mean not following the way after all. They also knew it would happen. Some of the species had developed the ability to see the future after following the way. The exact means of thier destruction are unclear and it might have been more then one of them: Maybe they found and saved the galaxy from some ancient horror, but afterwards thier military was to week to fight all the uprisings and enemies? Maybe they developed a failsave to "wipe the slate clean if we ever fall of the way", and hte failsave deduced it's own creation was falling of the way? In any case, most of them died. Except for a few. They choose something that no Aldar before had, while still maintaining the Way: Immortality. The survivors and immortality: Immortality is most often the attempt to avoid conflcit. To outlive everyone that might contest you. In thier case it was the opposite: While the Military Gathered for a final stand and what those few consiedered "a quick escape from conflict through death", they choose immortality and the eternal conflict it would bring them in hopes of one day reigniting the way. After all, every species is receptive if just shown the Way. For above reasons they do not like being compared to any non-Aldar wich choose immortality - these guys got it all wrong. In particular they consider V'han from Champions Universe and hier "benevolent Interdimensional Dictatorship" to be childish. She is trying to avoid conflict and thus will only cause more conflict in the end. The Hispanta's: They had very few military personel. While they of course developed it, they did not use AI/Robots or unesesary power armor to "shield thier warriors from conflict". So as a result thier military production outclassed thier use and attrition. Yet they could not stop, because that might make them unable to build new ships in time of need or might mean loosing that ability altogether over time. As a result they put whole fleets into miniature dimension with slowed timeflow, called simply a "Hispanta". They did that a lot. However the access points to those storage dimensions wander around. Unless you got a Aldar ship or the right timing, getting in is impossible. Even if in there, without following the Way you could not use any of those ships. If any other species ever follows the way, they will find and be able to use them. Of course the survivors can use them. They can even control a whole fleet thanks to avalible AI capability (that was just not used before). But only if they do so while following the way and find a opportunity to get into one storage dimension. And of course they used them before in the eons, so not all fleets are quite as complete as they used to be.

Can we also link stuff from other RPG systems, that are maybe not as playable due to flaws in thier systems? What about subspecies we developed based on another setting (there were a few ideas I had that continued game stories). What about "unusual intelligences"? We have some clear pictures of AI, but there have been some interesting variations over the time. Not all of them are "kill all Humans". They might even have to opposed the casual "kill all humans" AI rebellion or "undo all creation" kind of stuff.

Everytime I read "Equity" I must think of horses. Because that was what horses were called back in Roman times. Riders were "Equites". I wonder if there is any relation between the two words? Recently I had a glimpse into the whole stockmarket system, by playing Railroad Tycoon 3. Wich suprisingly has a Stock Market mechanic, that even is the victory condition at some points.

Green Arrow had some ridicilous arrows over the years. Some of wich do not even deserve the term "arrow": https://youtu.be/Y3f3uJA4qZY?t=25

I expect that the Joker will have the same twist as the Riddler in "Batman: Assault on Arkham 2014". Wich as far as a Heroes journey is concerned, would be the "Metting with the Godess". So do not look if you want to avoid spoilers.

xkcd actually dealt with that argument. It is not really one: https://xkcd.com/1232/ It is realy just an argument from people who have no good argument against space exploration, and try to bring out a dead-beat argument. Once you realise it is a dead-beat argument, all you will hear is a surrender by the other party. Global extinction by planetary event is still a likely possibility. And might be a core driving factor in conflicts. People being actually raised with a example for "the pale blue dot" in thier nightsky might have tremedous social effect once they return home. Same way most other "studying abroad" has positive effect on leaders right now. I asume colonising another planet would either accelerate "solving all problems" or even make it possible in the first palce. Same way Urbino once helped fan the flames of Renaisance.

If you are close enough to touch the other person, what would you need a special Transmision channel for? I agree on Sign Langauge being a Language Skill like any other. Regarding ultra-high or low sounds: Every species hears best in the range of sounds covered by thier own voice. There are actually tones we humans can hear that are too high for cats and too low for dogs to hear. Canine hearing stop around 60 kHz lower then the human top frequency, that is a lot of tones. Cat's fare a bit better, missing only the top 25 kHz. Being able to speak in that frequency is about as much a bonus as fishes being able to breath underwater. About Bioluminescence and pheromones being images: It never even occured to me. Images are there to either fool someone with faulty sense impressions. Or to make a natural impression easier to hear (using it to produce light/amplify your voice). Really, it is just anotehr different spectrum for "voice", same way the Ultra-high and low sounds. However what should cost points is the ability to speak on multiple "spectra" of sound or even across unusual sense groups. Every Character is asuemd to be fluid in his peopels language, use the default human voice spectrum and breath air. The ability to speak more languages and breath underwater all cost points. The ability to communicate in frequencies only dogs or birds can hear on top of normal human voice - that would be a advantage. Same way having a build in Radio would be a advantage: http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2016-05-19

People like to say that Hero can not deal with "make light" spells and effects well. That "this stuff is cheaper and easier in D&D/Shadowrun/other system". Maybe it is actually the other way around? Maybe Light is too easy and cheap in those other systems? Could be a conscious decision to not make it mater that much (because the rules around it are not that interesting). Or it could have been "early players never wanted to deal with it". Once you look at it from a pre-electicity point of view, light is a rare thing. Without avalible heating having a fire burning (and keeping it burning) is a important part of every tavern and why people come there.

Every mechanic that exists can be applied to the heroes as well*. And wich player would want his character to be under a "long therm mental effect"? What little need there is can be easily done via Transform to add Complications (Physical or Psychological). *This is also why Social skills are not as useable. Players want thier Characters immune to Social Skills, wich means they play no role. Social Combat systems are maybe more interesting then many think.

My idea for mass combat was always to write up groups of enemies as one sheet. That way you keep it to a manageable number of sheets, while each sheet still has a impact (only so much a 50 point police officer can do). At the same time stuff like "defeating a dozen foes with a single attack" do not need excessive amounts of AoE or Multiple attack. There are afaik rules for Swarms in the 6E Monster Book (what was it's name again?). My approach to formless blobs and zombies might be recycleable: Give them high resistance to stun, but not so good defense against body damage. While stunning the mass is still possible, it is easier to just go in with Killing Attacks. In particular Penetrating Killing Attacks will just take off Body (and thus enemies) en masse. The Deathwatch Intro Adventure "Final Sanction" introduces Horde Mechanics to the diceroll system starting with page 16: https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/deathwatch/minisite/support/final-sanction-web-quality.pdf Maybe you can get some good ideas out of it. However, that is integral part of the game system. The above "high stun def, medium body" might be well suited to simulate this in Hero.

Again, I am doubt he is a negative energy undead like Xykon. Of course I doubt he will not be juged for what he did while waiting before the gate. We know he is righteous-something. With the something I asume to be neutral. Having a ghost affair the moment his wive is dead? Saying to a Externar to "deliver something", they destroying said item? Condoning V making a literall deal with the Devil (and Demon and the Fiend too)? There is at least enough non Righteous to get him banned into true neutral territory.

I think the "active damage shield on abort" is explicitly mentioned in the Aborting rules, but I can not remember if it was allowed or not.

If you want it to "just work", go the Mind Control Route. It is indeed the simplest approach for the effect you aimed for. Of course the big issue will be maximum effect, wich requires either a bit more base power or a lot of advantages. As a GM I would be very carefull about a player applying lots of advantages to 1-10 Points of Base Power. So better do not skimp on the base pwoer.

Dunno, I always picture them more like Riding Horse archers or melee fighters. Light cavallery to infantery. The have about the same thing as the Persian Army at Thermopylae - designed for wide, hot steppes.

Is thier effective Presence Increasing? Or is the threshold for the effect getting lower? Aren't bolstering Presence Attacks affected by relative position? How exactly is the "Air of Authority" power different from the mundane "he is our leader" effect? Does the power even need to be modelled in the first place? Mind Control, Presence attacks and Social Interaction Skills happen in the timeframes of Combats. The timeframes you mentioned are outside even the scope of most adventures. All you really have here is a special effect for having "fanatically loyal" henchmen/followers. If this is supposed to be used against the heroes (the villain sneaks himself into the group during a session), I do not see how the heroes would be able to notice it.

In melee? Not quite. At that point you draw the short sword. Or run. Or club them with the bow. On the kind of short range shown in the video? Hell yeah! Again, if it kills the enemy so you live* it is a good idea. The video prooves a bow can be used on a ranges most people would associate only useable with Firearms "because you can not fire them that fast"**. And still take someone out effectively. One of the reasons the romans gave every Legionaire a Pilum was that they could be used on short ranges against a charge, and then you could quickly draw the weapon. The other reasons were less training time, better to lock down shields, and not being able to be thrown back. *Or at least limits how many better armored, better armed guys you have to fight in melee the as soon as they reach your line. **Wich as the video prooves is not true on average heroic combat ranges. If you got to practice 1/7th of the week, then you are professional soldier in my book. While the Longbow was an extreme here (longest range, longest training) it somewhat applies to all bows. You need strenght. Nobody wielding a bow would be untrained in using said bow.

Half-sword techniques. Works with Longswords too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-sword Yes, at first point gripping a sword at the blade sounds like a icredibly stupid idea. But situational it was such a good idea, it became it's own technique to be teached just as much as cleaving movements. In bleach, Ginjo used a twohanded blade. Take a look at his fighting style while fighting Ichigo. The author did his reserach.

1st rule of any combat maneuver in real life: If it takes out the enemy, it works. I life, he does not. No mater how "inpractical" the maneuver might seem for our modern eye or the untraiend eye. Archers always only wore light to no armor and a small sideweapon (like a short sword). The one that used bow on shorter range lived longer to to teach the next generation (possibly thier sons) to do the same. "Evolutionary pressure" also works well on the battlefield. For the user thier life literally depended on it. Note that all Bowusers by defintion are warriors, not farmers. The kind of training needed to wield a bow is simply beyond something you can just do in a militia. The militia viability was one reason the Crossbow and later gun gained traction in the first place. You would not normally think about grabbing a two handed sword by the blade for leverage. But two handed swords have a non-sharpened area just for this very purpose. Not only were the maneuver viable, they were viable enough to modify the weapon to explicitly support it.

The big issue here was saying "permanent" and mentioning the Sharingan. If the Character would just keep adding powers (jutsu), he would end up with more points then he should be able too. In the end there is one surefire way to get any power done: Get the full game effect. The limit it down from there to the intened game effect. The full effect of any mimiker is "having every power in the book/conceivable". Limited down to "only if you got a sample to work from". And "every power conceivable" is indeed the VPP's whole purpose.

The bigger question might be: Should the bow even have cocnentration? I mean why does it have that limitation to begin with? If you fight ranged, you will Brace (halving your DCV) when it makes sense. You would (as example) brace if you need those +5 STR for Weapon Minimum purposes, wich is more likely with a larger bow. Halving a CV is never a cheap thing. It effectively buffs all attacks against you by your DCV/2. The higher your DCV, the worse you are off. If you want to mitigate it you have to buy your entire CV a second time. The alternative would be quartering the DCV. At that point you might just as well declare it "autoamtic 0" and be done with it. Another way to look at it: Since the bow is already concentration, are you not incentivised to always brace? Is that brace perhaps already figured into the Stats of the bow? Brace+Multiple Attack: Actually the wording here is wierd. It sounds as if you can combine those two (or brace with any other Combat Maneuver, realy): "To Brace, a character must take a Zero Phase Action (not an Attack Action) to steady himself — in effect, it “tacks on” to another Combat Maneuver, allowing a character to Brace and then make an Attack Action all in the same Phase"

I am sorry, but that set of prowers is literally not balanceable. Over time such a character would amass the equivalent of unlimited points. And points are the primary limiter that keeps characters in line. If this was for a villain, then you could jsut keep increasing his powerlevel (total character points). If the abilities (like Jutsu) are build in a certain way that does not cost character points, it might be manageable. But as a player character it seems plain impossible.