prestidigitator

I'd literally have them buy a Base which happens to be in another dimension (subject to the game setting's dimensional metaphysics), plus a heavily modified Extra-Dimensional Movement that's bought in many ways like a Teleportation "Gate" (and is bought as part of the Base). Whether or not things interact, what happens if you bring another "extra-dimensional space" into it, etc. are just a matter of how the Base's kind of dimension works in the game world.

Way too meta for me. Why not allow Detect Character Points or Detect GM Intervention while you're at it? I'd use the Tactics Skill for this, honestly, and IMO it still shouldn't give more than a pretty rough idea (e.g. "they are fighting very defensively").

So I'm probably going to run another fantasy campaign in the near future. Frankly I find all the hand-waving that does things like giving characters the ability to use magic by buying a Skill or three, plus reducing the cost of spells like some kind of equipment thing, really arbitrary and terrible. You might as well not use the Hero System at all at that point. So rather than giving those who are able to use magic some kind of big, arbitrary Character Point subsidies, I'm thinking of doing the opposite: make characters buy the ability to use weapons, armor, and shields. This means I am also fundamentally changing how weapons work. Honestly I think it's more in line with the philosophy of the system. Rather than somehow embodying the actual Attack Powers, weapons simply become a necessary focus (and special effects) for using them (and limit the amount of your Attack Power you can use), although there's a little tweaking in that they can add some e.g. Advantages and instead of buying the base Attack Power with some kind of Variable Advantage, I essentially just apply the weapon Advantage to the Attack Power in reverse (e.g. change the number of points per DC). So I guess you could say some weapons include Naked Advantages of a sort. This could also apply to non-fantasy genres; it's just not what I'm really focused on at the moment. To make this somewhat simpler for my players (who are not very familiar with Hero and don't want to "do a lot of math" and all that) I am also introducing Damage Points, which are basically the Base Points you would spend on the Attack Power or on Str (5 Damage Points per DC for an unadvantaged attack). It just makes it easier (IMO) to say 5 DPs normally equate to 1 DC, but more can be required based on the type of weapon. Anyway, the attachments (rules document and tables) are what all of this looks like so far. Feedback welcome. You all have permission to use, modify, and redistribute the contents according to CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 * Rules: fantasyRulesForSemiHeroicCombatAbilityPurchase_v1.0_1.pdf * Tables: fantasyRulesForSemiHeroicCombatAbilityPurchase_v1.0_2.pdf

If you wanted to get really detailed about the differences (probably even more detailed that the cartoons/movie), you could go with Multiform. Otherwise I'd suggest Shapeshift. I would not go with just a simple alternate identity (i.e. Only in Heroic Identity without a power like Shapeshift) as suggested in the other thread, because they truly are meant to be masquerading as everyday objects (as proven by the tagline, "robots in disguise," even!). This has distinct benefits above and beyond what a simple change in outfit would give you. For example, when someone simply puts on a cape and a mask, they very much look like someone wearing a disguise/costume, which is normally fine for a superhero or masked vigilante. If a player modeled a Transformer using a simple alternate identity, as GM I would personally rule that people don't think there's an ordinary car rolling down the street: they easily recognize it as something quite abnormal even if they don't necessarily know it is a Transformer, or which Transformer it is. Now it might be possible to use the Disguise skill in place of Shapeshift, but in that case I'd probably introduce some complications like requiring a roll each time, having some complimentary knowledge skills, being less effective the more someone studied your appearance (seeing you, hearing you, touching you, popping the hood, and driving you? it's going to require one HELL of a Disguse roll to continue the deception!). I'd suggest the Disguise skill more for any Transformer that might have Shapeshift with a variable set of target shapes, so they could successfully mimic different kinds of vehicle or even particular unique vehicles (e.g. Air Force One rather than just a generic plane of similar model). I don't really recall that sort of story element in the cartoons, but it would be an interesting thing to throw into a game....

I thought we fixed that issue with 6E. Did 6E not make it clear enough that the, "system," simply provides shape and guidance for all your house rules? :-P

For clarity: reduce damage to increase chance of hitting (OCV) or number of targets. But you may have been responding to a typo that has since been edit-fixed anyway.

...unless you're hurting for points, or the GM considers AoE an Advantage that affects damage and there's an AP/DC cap. I do see the point that Spreading can tend to diminish the value of AoE. I'd try to mitigate that through a couple different points, and options for play: AoE is typically less selective, but it often has the potential to hit a big group of targets that you're not likely to be able to effectively Spread across. AoE typically requires an easy attack roll, while Spreading still has to hit targets' DCVs. I often allows AoEs to be Spread also, smearing the area by the number of hexes instead of covering that many targets in successive hexes. Depends a bit on the SFX and the rest of the power's build. If powers were Spread too often, I'd consider additional drawbacks such as -1 OCV per extra target on top of the -1 DC (take another -1 DC without an additional target to counter the -1 OCV for one of them), or minor side effects (such as damaging the environment and having a chance of hitting close by allies/bystanders).

Yeah, I always thought that ruling was messed up. I roll a separate die for the 1-pip and have it do Penetrating damage on a 5 or 6, and similarly only do Pen. damage on a 4, 5, or 6 for a half-die. It may be extra rolling, but then again someone had to go and apply a cheesy Advantage to their power! ;-)

That's a good point. Actually I'd probably look for Rapid to be added in order to easily make sense of multiple streams of consciousness at once, especially if they are excited. That would be whether the attacker used AoE, spreading, or simply successive attacks to lock on to multiple minds. I suppose it should be possible to tune some out with the lock still active, but that's a little different.

Hmm. It's a good point, though. If the system didn't divide things between physical and energy (and maybe mental too, for that matter), but gave you complete freedom to still do so in all of your games.... Anyone who is comfortable with the current split could continue using it, but people who want room to choose splits with more freedom would be better off.

Interesting. I have some catching up to do, I guess. If the system rules are no longer going to be sold in a standalone format, I wonder if they've considered releasing them "open source" in a free PDF or something (say, with a Kickstarter project to fund the composition and editing). If they did that there would still be a fixed place to go for the rules, even if they did include them in the sourcebooks like NameYourGenre Complete. It would be simple enough to say, "This rulebook contains the complete Hero System 6e rules as found in the Open Hero v6.0 PDF, which can be found at http://www.herogames.com/...." It seems like it would be a way to both have one authoritative place for, "canonical rules," and also sell complete and playable genre-based products.

Yeah, yeah. I'm not suggesting you try to, "game the system." I'm suggesting you build the powers in a way that best models your narrative. If the physical part of the force field is independent enough of the rest of the force field to be taken down separately, why not just buy it that way and avoid the question of whether you need to house rule on Adjustment Powers used in this way? It'll probably even get you thinking about what SFX will make sense if suddenly physical attacks can get through but others can't....

Don't know. Never played Aftermath. I'll have to try it sometime.

I've been known to do very wacky things with the Speed Chart, such as using the Speed Chart as a set of durations between actions rather than a fixed schedule, and rolling 2d6 to determine the Segment of your first Phase, adding 1d3 or 1d6 to the offset of your next Phase after significant effects like Stunning, etc. One of the things I've played with is "fractional" Speeds, but usually implemented by having an ongoing count of Segments (from 0 to positive infinity) rather than a clock-like schedule. "Post-12 Recovery," can happen after every Segment number that is divisible by X (standard would be 12). You can, in effect, get fractional Speeds by scaling the duration between Phases and Recoveries. For example, if you wanted increments of 0.5 Speed, multiply everything by 2. Disclaimer: I'm a programmer with no aversion to computer-aided initiative tracking, so YMMV.

Or a swordfish. Anyway, the general Sleight of Hand disarm is one I might allow if the subject is caught sufficiently off guard. Perhaps he knows there is danger about and has his weapon drawn, but is still unaware you are sneaking up behind him. The Stealth roll you used to approach might even be Complementary to the (quite difficult) Sleight of Hand roll....