Orion

Re: How would you build Mr. Fantastic's or Plastic Man's movement? Just curious, but if he can stretch 20m in the first phase, why can't he unstretch 20m in the second one? Seems to me the distance stretched in a phase should be solely dependent on the stretching power. If you want to define this as running or leaping, that's fine, but as long as it is stretching is seems other movement powers shouldn't matter.

Re: How much do you customize the setting? For Traveller, I pretty much stuck with the basic setting and have made no changes of note. For Harn using Fantasy Hero, I've made a number of changes that may be trivial or huge, depending on campaign focus. The history and people are not much changed at all, it's mostly cultural details I changed. Harn is moving in a direction I dislike, and so as time goes on, I'll have less and less in common with the canon setting. In fact, this dissatisfaction is what drove me away from fantasy and back to superheroes after being away for 17 years. I've also got another Fantasy Hero setting that is in the development stages, and is completely home-brewed. For superheroes, I use most of the old (3ed and earlier) villains and select organizations from the Champions books. Most villains have little alteration, but the organizations all have significant edits. All heroes are new designs, mainly because they are so few in number. I do not use any of the CU cities. Metahumans have only been around 10 years. And while it is definitely a Champions universe, the feel is dark champions - PCs are more like soldiers than do-gooders, and killing is expected on occasion. They aren't trying to be heroes, but to defeat evil. Just given these two items, a lot of the standard stuff doesn't fit well, and so I have to pick and choose carefully, and edit a lot to use it. The campaign writeup (39 single spaced pages, and still growing!) shows influences from Alien Legion (alien races), Battletech (alien tech), and Traveller 2300 (human tech), Julian May's Metapsychic series (psionics), and stuff cribbed from campaigns I was in 20 years ago. I'm not against using the CU as written, it just didn't exist when I started creating my world. If it had, I probably would have used it with few changes.

Re: How would you make a Possessed Minute Man Robot? Well, until I grab Champions Universe, I've decided to introduce the IHA as a secret political, moneyraising, and lobbying arm of Genocide. They don't take such a hard-line stance as Genocide, and so gain support in that way. They want criminalization of the use of metahuman powers, but not of metahumans. All heroes must be publicly known, but they don't call for registration. The voice of reason, so to speak. Only the upper level leaders know the two are connected, and there have been attacks on IHA offices by Genocide at times. Eventually, the news will then get out, and the IHA will fall apart. Whether they merge into Genocide, or reform as the 5e writeup, I'll decide when I get CU.

Re: Sawed Off Shotguns It's okay, if you want to give some slight benefit to those using the smaller calibers. But realistically, I would give the same concealment modifier to all of them, and make it exactly the same as the modifier for a standard hunting rifle. Barrel length is dependent upon the type of hunting being done (long barrels for special geese guns, short for hunting grouse and woodcock timber, standard for most everything else), not on the gauge. Even this length difference is typically on the order of 4-6" max. The stock and action will have much the same length for all of them. Weight is dependent on gauge, but also on type (auto vs pump vs double barrel), and style (featherlights are noticeably lighter).

Re: Hero Dice ...collector's item, but still in demand. I saw that, and read a few of the posts. My first thought was that there are some real loons out there. There were a couple that would be on the line of asking them to not come to the next session level of crazy. I've known a lot of people that joke about the dice, but never met one in person that was serious about it. But then, I don't believe in luck and have no superstitions, so that probably makes me odd in the eyes of some.

Re: Sawed Off Shotguns

Re: How would you make a Possessed Minute Man Robot? Where is IHA detailed at? I have no 5e or 6e material, but might make an exception for this. Genocide (anti-metahuman, not just anti-mutant) plays a large role in my campaign, but I handle it much closer to how Liaden describes IHA. Sounds like I may need to switch villain agencies, or at least take a good look and steal ideas.

Re: If you Had to Pick, ONE (already) Setting, to Run in, What is it? +1 Great setting, and unlimited potential. I have a strong H Beam Piper feel to my Spinward Marches campaign, and could happily do a straight HBP campaign.

Re: How would you make a Possessed Minute Man Robot? I see IHA mentioned here, and it seems to be a Genocide replacement. What does IHA stand for, and how is it different from the Genocide from the old books?

Re: How to explain healing effect? The healing is basically a teleport that doesn't move. When she does the teleport, she is reassembling them the way they are supposed to be, not the way they are currently. But, this also open the ability to do damage with a teleport - she can put them together the wrong way if she wishes. Could also do various modifications, either to health or appearance in this manner. Trying to figure out how do all of these could be an interesting way for the character's power to grow through time.

Re: Deep Thinker

Re: Sawed Off Shotguns Even if using 00 buckshot, which is about .33 caliber, I say you need to be hit with more than one to justify 2d6+1. And 00 buckshot only has about 12 pellets in the typical shell as I remember. I've used them to shoot wild pigs, and they do far less damage than a rifle of the same caliber. I'd only allow 2d6+1 if all the pellets hit the same person, and that person was 10-20 feet away - just enough to let the shot spread and create multiple small wounds instead of one big hole.

Re: Maps for Secret Military Bases

Re: Hero Dice ...collector's item, but still in demand.

Re: A Superhuman Registration World I see this reasoning, but can't quite buy it. As a GM or storyteller, creating a good villain is hard, and wanting to use it multiple times is reasonable. It's a good reason to not have superheroes kill the villains. But then the same should happen in sword n sorcery, outer space, monster hunter, dark champions, etc. If the GM/storyteller can handle having the villains killed in these genres, they should be able to handle it in the comics genre.

Re: Which edition do you feel is best for JUST supers? I have 3e and 4e, so I'd probably use 4e. I use mainly 4e, with a couple items from the old Champions II and Champions III books. Mixing and matching as needed is my preference as a GM, as well as some house rules. As a player I much prefer a single rule set to be used, and few house rules (unless they are adopting mine) - just too hard to keep track of the changes for every different GM. While I would like to get 6e, it just isn't worth the price for me in this economy. Do you think it is the rules, or the setting that you are missing? I just bought a bunch of used 3e supplements and adventures, and am having a ball working them into my storyline. I find I like many things about the old stuff better - simpler character builds, lower point totals, less complex storylines. On the other hand, the many obviously tacked on disads, lack of coherent origins, and less believable builds and origins leave me shaking my head. In the long run, I could probably game using several different rulesets, as long as the setting is good.

Re: Changing the Hero system 4th ed. The only big change is that movement and reaction speed are separate. Movement is bought as kph, or inches/turn, and then movement/phase is calculated. I have no idea how this compares to the movement by segment in 6e I've heard mention of. I've never liked the idea that going from speed 2 to speed 3 increases movement by 50%. Just never made sense to couple them in one characteristic score. I've also tweaked the strength and growth charts in minor ways. I have defined 20 as being the max human ability - anything over this requires some type of paranormal ability. May end up going to 25 or even 30 as the max in the future as they seem to be more standard now, but that would require reworking all the comparison charts. I allow absorption to act as a defense, rather than requiring separate defense to be bought - same effect, different mechanism. I also do not require that points be balanced. Design the character. Now figure out how to emulate it with the rules. If the points balance, all and good. If not, all is still good, because it just doesn't matter. This shouldn't affect the game at all, but it's amazing to me how many GMs and players can't accept this.

Re: Superhumans and their families There are many different types of campaigns, which is part of the fun of roleplaying. The campaigns I played in during college were modeled more after the Avengers and Elementals in style. We even did our version of Marvel's Secret Wars I for a semester. We all loved Peter Parker, but no one wanted to play a life that messed up. I vaguely recall the GM telling us once that we had a two-week downtime in-game, and ask what were we doing. At least one person said something about dating/getting laid/romance. That was it for the entire romance roleplay for that week. A couple months later, someone announces they are now madly in love with their DNPC. Two sentences, and we're done for another week. Romance happened, but it was all back story, and no one felt the need to play it out. Agreed - it was a good story addition. But, did it need to be played out? For your group, probably so. For the people I have played with, it would have been enough to state there are feelings, the feelings have gotten stronger, we are a couple now, etc. Rocker would still have been in love, devastated, and joined the team. We would have just summarized the results as needed, and gone on playing detective investigations or whatever we were doing. You play the life of a superhero...I play the superhero at work.

Re: Superhumans and their families When I had time to roleplay, relationships was about 5% of the roleplaying time. I think the GM and one other player had a side campaign at times that did more, but as a group we had very little interest. In fact, I have a hard time understanding why relationships would be of interest at all. I have plotted out more than one erotica story with romance, sex, relationship problems, etc., so I am interested in the subject, but just see little to no place for it in the superhero genre. I don't play out housework, shopping, attending college classes, or other parts of mundane life either. When doing supers, it's about fighting crime and being a little more than human - doing something I can't do now. If I want relationships and romance, I'll put up the books and hang out with the wife. To me, writing a story and roleplaying are very different activities. When writing, relationships are important. When roleplaying, the mundane part of life is ignored. That said, I always note the family and relationship status of any character in the background writeup. They aren't DNPCs, but they exist, and so are noted. None of the important characters are married, although most have some sort of dating status.

Re: A Superhuman Registration World

Re: A Superhuman Registration World

Re: A Superhuman Registration World I agree. No matter the political party, they are going to screw up your life and world some way. The only difference is what part of it you are willing to have screwed up by government.

Re: A Superhuman Registration World Now see, while some players may have trouble with the idea, I think it is exactly what the US and other governments would do if superpowers started showing up. There would be various treaties with other nations about how supers would never be allowed in the military, or never used outside the borders, but every country would use them in secret. The government would never trust a super with a secret ID, and never fully trust one, even those in direct government service. Supergroups would not be allowed - let's face it, law enforcement already hates the idea of the public enforcing laws and protecting themselves. If the genre is "a world with powers" rather than "JLA in Dallas", then it would be quite believable. Villain blows up bank, and he's automatically considered a terrorist. Unsanctioned hero destroys docks trying to take villain in - both are terrorists. After 9/11 and the Oklahoma City bombing, I think the US public would fully approve this, as it's somewhat being done in real life right now. Sure, liberals like myself would raise a fuss, but look how much good that did against the Patriot Act. There are many, many people I know that would happily give up their rights (and even better, someone else's rights) if it made them feel safer.

Re: overmentalizing Okay, this I can understand, and fully appreciate. It's not what I got from the original post, but a valid problem.

Re: Olympic Records in HERO It's discussions like this that make me remember why I have always considered movement in Hero to be inherently broken. I've being doing running, swimming, and flight per turn for 20 years now because of it. First you decide what your top speed in MPH or KPH is, then buy whatever is needed to get you to that. I've never understood how reaction time in combat made a person run faster, or drown faster, for that matter. A cop is 2 speed, but gets some training at the gun range using the popup targets and such. Now he can react at speed 3 in combat. How come he is also 50% faster at running and swimming? He is still eating just as many donuts as before and sitting in a car most of the day, so where did it come from?