Multiplex

Re: World without horses Unless you render the question meaningless by allowing alternate animals to take the place of beast of burden you will have a few sure changes. 1) Human labor becomes much more important. Beast of burden function to magnify human effort. 2) Governments cannot grow very large in size, as travel time becomes a major impediment. 3) Agriculture is slowed, as beasts of burden allow greater production. Food becomes much more scarce. (No farmers producing food for a large non farming population) As a result: a) Human existance would probably be centered along waterways. Slavery: while it might seem that this would be the norm, the care and upkeep of slaves in terms of food needed would probably not balance out. Keep in mind, slavery in the US south was producing economic goods that could be sold far away for enough money for food for the slaves & owners and profit. #3) above would severely limit this.. c) I'm not sure what the circumstances were for development of the wheel, but I bet it involved them beasts of burden. (I can see this being developed for human powered movement.) d) The lack of large scale agriculture would probably require that everybody work at generating food. (Assuming we have other than small populations. Hunting is not really that easy of a task.) Note, all of the above assumes that there is no counter balancing options, such as strong magic.

Re: Legal Question: the "Pink Defense" Should be interesting...what happens when the less than friendly D.A. visits? Or the IRS guy. Do they turn pink to?

Steve, Is the HERO FAQ available in PDF form like it once was? I can only find the online version, which is not as convinient.

Re: Limitations on VPP Pool A hard example... 10 Multipower, 20-point reserve, all slots OAF(-1) 1U 1) EB, 2d6 (10 active) 1U 2) Entangle, 1d6 1DEF (10 active) 12 Variable Power Pool, 10 base + 2 control cost (15 Active) all slots OAF (-1) powers..near INFINITE These 2 pools give similar abilities, the capability to use 2 powers at the same time, and a choice of power. However, the VPP allows for an unending number of powers to be available. This extension to the capability of the MP is the reason for not allowing the limitation to be applied to the base points. Otherwise, you should be using the MP, where each power slots costs at least 1 pt. Note, you already have an effective 50% reduction on the base pool cost.

Is it legal to use variable limitations on a multipower if all of the slots have that limitation? example: 16 Multipower, 20-point reserve (20 active points); all slots Variable Limitations (requires -1/2 worth of limitations; -1/4) 2u EB 4d6 (Var. Lims. -1/2 worth; -1/4) 2u Darkness Sight Group 2" radius (Var Lims. -1/2 worth; -1/4) In a prior post, you stated it is not possible, but the question was about 'upgrading' the focus limitation, and I was understanding your answer to mean that you cannot have a multipower w/ such as: 16 Multipower, 20-point reserve (20 active points); all slots Variable Limitations (requires -1/2 worth of limitations; -1/4) 2u EB 4d6 (required hands, 2 handed ;-1/2) 2u Darkness Sight Group 2" radius ( 8 charges, -1/2) Prior Post: Various limitations on multipower pool Steve, I know a year ago or more I read a published 5 ed. multipower that "-1/2 various limitations (-1/4)" on the pool cost, and took specific -1/2 limitations or 2x -1/4 limitations (or more) on each indiviual slot in said multipower. So, my question is where was this written (so I can show my gm-- I know it's in a book I own), or affirmation that this is a legal write up. Thanks, Nathan Re: Various limitations on multipower pool That's generally done for Gadget VPPs, wherein you specify that all gadgets in the Pool have to have at least -1/2 worth of the Focus Limitation (i.e., they have to be OIFs, IAFs, or OAFs). There are many examples; for instance, Dr. Destroyer and a couple other characters in CKC do this. It is not legal to say "must have -1 worth of Limitations" (or the like), and characters could only get away with doing this sort of thing with some other Limitation if the GM permits it. __________________ Steve Long HERO System Line Developer __________________

In a previous post, you have said that you cannot use Variable Limitations on a multipower. It sounded like this was refering to using the Variable Limitations on the multipower itself, and then using full value limitations on the slots themselves, rather than using Variable Limitations on the slots (giving 1/2 limit value) Is my understanding correct, or looking to get my desired result. i.e. Can you use a multipower w/ Variable Limitations, with each slot getting the Variable Limitations limitation?

Re: Applying shapeshift in game I think the basic problem we are having with shape shift is that so many of an object's physical properties can be detected by an overlapping group of senses. For example, the volume of an object can be determined by sight, touch, and also by sonar/radar, with some differences. Sight allows the detection of optical properties of the material the object is made of, such as color, shinyness, and opacity. Touch provides what texture the object has, but sight can also sometimes provide some information on this. Both touch and ir vision allow for temperature determination. In order to resolve this issue, I can see two ways. The first is to use the FRED method, and require the character to purchase each sense group as required. This can get quite costly, for what seems to be minimal gain. The other method involves allowing a shapeshift to have some minimal effect on other sense groups. To this end, a sight group shapeshift allows the character to change the volume of space he occupies, so that he has the physical form as expected. Touch group shapeshift allows the character to change his material composition. This sense is a bit problematic, as it is probably best expressed as the sfx of other powers, such as armor and density increase. A character could change to have the feel of snake scales, which give no protection, but are 'visible' to the sight group. He would, however, still have the same physical shape. Personally, I think we should go back to the older shapeshift power.