Lord Liaden

Re: Algernon Files 2.0 previews

Re: Charges is a limitation? On the subject of no Endurance cost, while in most cases 0 END is a +1/2 Advantage, in the case of a Power with the Autofire Advantage the cost for Reduced Endurance is doubled, so 0 END would be +1. This was the reasoning given in the rulebook for capping the maximum Advantage for Charges at +1; so many Autofire attacks are built with Charges due to the prohibitive END expenditure of using them. Beyond 256 Charges at the +1 level, any additional Charges give little to no practical benefit during most play sessions. You'll notice that 16 Charges is neither an Advantage nor a Limitation, and doesn't change the cost of the Power. That's because a Power with 16 Charges has been evaluated as being equally useful as a Power with normal Endurance cost - the tradeoff between limited number of uses and no need to expend END is considered even. Below 16 Charges the Power is considered Limited compared to normal END use; above 16 it's considered Advantaged. I hope all that was clear. If not feel free to post followup questions.

Re: The Wild Hunt There are several interpretations of the Hunt in different cultures. What background are you working from? That might give us a better framework for our suggestions.

Re: God Package... FWIW because she's patron goddess of the art of warfare as opposed to sheer violence and bloodshed, I always conceived of Athena as being more a finesse combatant than a raw powerhouse; plenty of CSLs, Martial Arts, Find Weakness and the like. Nonetheless I don't really see her as being excessively "wuxia" - she's too dignified to be that flashy.

Re: Mind link to a vehicle Well, based on my understanding of the rules I see no problem with the pilot contacting the computer, and commanding it to execute any of the abovementioned programs. Since the computer doesn't have any type of combat program, I would have ruled that the pilot could not initiate that complex a response from it based on this construct. Add appropriate Programs, though, and he should be good to go. However, there's an example of a Remote Control System "to communicate with and guide missiles, drones, probes, and the like" on p. 27 (sidebar) of The Ultimate Vehicle, built as a Mind Link. The entry makes no mention of systems onboard required for this to work, other than "a special receiver." Given that this is an official writeup, it might be worth asking Steve Long for a ruling on how this is supposed to work.

Re: Large Creatures Versus Head Shots One of the things I've done with weapons built with the Real Weapon Limitation, especially in supers campaigns, is to set a limit on what Stun damage can be done with them based on the weapon's Body damage potential vs. the target's Defense. Using this scenario as an example, I might rule that if the weapon with Real Weapon is not capable of doing Body damage to a target past its Defense using Standard Effect to calculate Body damage, then the Stun that it does is reduced however the GM thinks is appropriate, e.g. as if the weapon had Reduced Penetration, or minimum or even no Stun damage. That should keep arrows and the like from being overly effective.

Re: Large Creatures Versus Head Shots I can suggest one other tack. I devised a House Rule to encourage players to vary their attack choices in combat, so that they didn't always rely on the same tactic. It's essentially a reverse of the rule for Surprise Moves, which I call "Predictable Move." If a character uses the same mode of attack repeatedly, the target gets the benefit of being able to anticipate that attack and prepare for it, translating to a DCV bonus of +1 to +3 or even higher versus that attack. The bonus remains in effect until the attacker chooses a different type of attack, or comes up with a creative variant on his usual one. This bonus can also apply to OCV against an opponent who repeatedly chooses the same defensive Maneuver or Power, e.g. Dodge, Block, Missile Deflection etc. So, if the PCs are always attempting head shots against your giant monster, and the monster is intelligent like most dragons are depicted, that monster will pick up on their tactic and make himself harder to hit that way.

Re: Mind link to a vehicle BTW for Mind Control of a Computer without EGO the GM can allow MC for Machine-class minds to work vs. the Computer's INT score. This is a common application for "Cyberkinesis" Mental Powers. The UNTIL Superpowers Database has examples and guidelines for both the Mental Powers and Telekinesis approach to remote control, under "Cyberkinesis Powers."

Re: Mind link to a vehicle The thing that bothers me about this is that Mind Link as a HERO mechanic is not a substitute for direct manual control; it's merely a method of communication. You can't see through the eyes or control the muscles of someone with whom you have a Mind Link. It's like Wolfgar's parallel with voice command, above - you have to have some element of the mech's control system that can interpret the commands you give and act on them. If the mech in buzz's example had a Computer which has programs for controlling the mech, and its pilot has a Mind Link with that, I as GM would have no problem with the scenario he describes. However, if the pilot actually wants to remotely control the mech, i.e. the equivalent of handling its cockpit control interfaces at a distance, using his own DEX and Skills, I think I would be looking for something more along the lines of cyberkinetic Telekinesis.

Re: Help Requested: Name my Canadian team and it's members Apologies for the thread necromancy, prod, but I admit to being curious as to whether and how you've developed these characters further. Did they ever make it into one of your games?

Re: Genemodders other than Teleios ...

Re: Algernon Files 2.0 previews Well, Algernon's bosses are the Sentinels superteam, and the Champions Universe also has Sentinels. Once I have both the HERO version of AF, and the CU update book, I intend to see how complementary they are.

Re: Large Creatures Versus Head Shots Well, if we're talking about buying extra Powers to compensate, how about allowing your dragons the Automaton Power, "No Hit Locations" (10 Character Points)? The dragon's armor is just too thick and tough overall for any particular area of its body to be more vulnerable. If you do want the dragon to have a weak spot - perhaps much harder to attack, such as the traditional underbelly - you could give the dragon a Vulnerability Disadvantage from attacks to that area.

Re: Genemodders other than Teleios ...

Re: Genemodders other than Teleios ...

Re: Genemodders other than Teleios ... The aforementioned Phillippe Moreau (mutated humanoid animals) of VIPER, and Timothy Blank/King Cobra (human-reptile hybrids via application of his "Coil gene") are both gene-modders, although less versatile than Teleios. Dr. Destroyer also has considerable expertise in this field, which he probably used to unlock the powers of Menton and Mentalla. While on the subject of psionics, Dr. Sebastian Poe, the now-imprisoned founder of PSI, is the foremost expert on "cerebellic genetic deviations," which he learned to enhance through use of his Psi Serum. Champions Worldwide also mentions Dr. Aldo Sanchietti, an Italian geneticist experimenting with splicing human and animal DNA. (Yes, that Dr. Sanchietti.) On the side of the good guys, Dr. Silverback may be the foremost geneticist, being Dr. Moreau's ex-assistant.

Re: Large Creatures Versus Head Shots The Stun Lottery at work again. This is one of the features of how Stun Multipliers and Hit Locations can interact, which can be a benefit or a drawback depending on whether or not you want your PCs to be able to occasionally make incredibly good (or incredibly bad) shots as a matter of luck. Controlling Stun damage as Killer Shrike suggests is one alternative. I should also point out that arrows in HERO are built with the Real Weapon Limitation, and part of that Lim is that the weapon may not damage objects that it could not reasonably affect in the real world, regardless of what the dice roll says. So as GM you're well within your rights to say that for head shots to a dragon, past a certain point the dragon simply won't take more Stun from a measly arrow.

Re: Build challenge: stasis fields Just to provide a different tack on this: I've created a stasis-field design based on Suppress Body. According to the rules for Suppress, if you use it to lower the Body of a target below 0 that person is effectively "dead", but once the Suppress is shut off the target regains all Body and comes "back to life." IMO the SFX of this could be suspending all bodily functions while in stasis. Mind you, the FAQ adds that someone in this state could still die permanently from prolonged lack of nourishment, extreme environmental conditions, or additional damage not derived from the Suppress. So, as an alternative build I propose Suppress Body large enough to bring the target below 0 Body (probably rolling Standard Effect so that the result is predictable), No Range, Self Only; plus Total Life Support, Linked to Suppress; plus Desolid, Linked to Suppress. Flavor with additional Modifiers as desired.

Re: World without Menton In the world of GURPS International Super Teams, American legislation had created the "three telepath rule" for gathering information via telepathy. That is, if three separate court-certified telepaths agreed on the information acquired from a subject's mind, that information would be considered valid testimony.

Re: The Question write up? Hey, I don't critique; I just link. Seriously, I'm not too familiar with the character, so I couldn't guess at the writeup creator's reasoning.

Re: The Question write up? I found this one. It's for Fourth Edition, so there are a couple of slight differences from 5E: http://project250.tripod.com/question.html

Re: Galactic Champions The Table of Contents for that issue points out that same pun.

Re: Galactic Champions Considering the direction this debate is taking, it may be helpful to refer to this free excerpt from an excellent article by Theron Bretz in Digital Hero #3, on running superheroes of different point totals on the same team: Pointless Champions. BTW I don't think that "Overrider" is necessarily an inappropriate name for that Galactic Champions character. On one hand, she could be said to "override" the enslaving control of organics over machine intelligences. OTOH Overrider considers herself a "goddess of machines," and expects other machines to worship her.

Re: World without Menton

Re: Real-world energy equivalents of powers Well, there's this article from the pre-DOJ incarnation of Digital Hero: http://www.herogames.com/FreeStuff/dharchives/flavor.htm There's also a more detailed real-world-correspondence table created by our board colleague Bartman, which I'm attaching below.