Lord Liaden

Re: Bad drain For some time I've been using an "Instant Kill" House Rule, particularly in heroic campaigns, that if a character takes Body damage after Defenses equivalent to his total starting Body from a single attack (including Coordinated attacks), the character has to make a Characteristic Roll against his CON score or die immeidately from shock. Doesn't come up often, but that would be one more tactical benefit to a CON Drain.

Re: Limited extra damage dice I started doing this years ago, after a comparison of KB from Unadvantaged attacks and those with Increased Knockback led me to conclude that the Advantage was slightly overpriced. FWIW I also extended this upward, i.e. 3x KB = +3/4 and 4x KB = +1. Based on that precedent you could theoretically continue to double KB for each additional +1/2 Advantage, but in practice I'm extremely wary of allowing KB beyond 4x. I've been quite satisfied with the results. Whenever I see an official writeup with Increased KB at +3/4, I usually either increase the KB to 3x or treat it as 2x plus Reduced Endurance.

Re: How to: Memory Invisibility Personally, if I allowed this build I'd make the Limitation a lot larger, at least -1. It confers no stealth capacity and no combat benefits.

Re: How to: Memory Invisibility I thought I remembered a previous discussion on this subject, and lo and behold: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40362 . Some interesting suggestions there. I particularly like the notion of defining "Memory" as a separate Sense Group, and buying Invisibility specifically for it.

Re: Egyptian Organisation for Champions (pic and setup help) Ditto.

Re: Egyptian Organisation for Champions (pic and setup help) Variant mummy powers: The mummy may have become petrified over time, like wood, changing into a stone-hard substance giving him exceptional strength and resilience; The mummy may have control over his own degree of dessication, so that he can transform at will into an intangible cloud of blinding, choking dust; The mummy may be infested with flies, bugs and maggots which he can hurl like weapons at his opponents: clouds of flies to blind them, grubs to burrow into their flesh, etc.; The mummy may be able to animate the cloth strips which swathe his body, extending them to grab or bind his opponents. As for a chief bodyguard, the Egyptian deities were often depicted with animal heads, so that seems like fair justification for humanoid animal types with abilities reflecting their nonhuman species. For Egypt, lions, bulls, hawks, serpents and crocodiles would all be appropriate.

Re: Affects Real World (+2) Which is interesting, since in the case of other Advantages on Strength the character needs to also buy them for each Martial Maneuver. From an SFX point of view the ruling is logical, though; affecting the solid world isn't really adding anything to the Damage Class of your Strength. However, I would probably rule that you also have to take Affects Physical World for any extra Damage Classes you buy for your Martial Arts, since that's defined as Base Damage, not a Maneuver bonus.

Re: Solidification

Re: [space Wizards] Magical Constructs Asteroid golems - that's creative!

Re: Bad drain I concede that Draining CON is generally a less effective tactic than Draining some other Characteristics. OTOH Draining BODY is perhaps the most effective Drain of all, since reaching negative BODY = death. Since BODY is a Primary Characteristic, your suggestion turns this into a devastating character-killer. Barring a redesign of how Characteristics are bought, I think we have to resign ourselves to the fact that not all Characteristics will be equal in all circumstances regardless of cost. Attempting to create a consistent Drain different from the one we have now will produce its own problems, requiring special exemptions that will add to the complexity of a Power that's already complicated to apply. Of course the esthetics of making Drain more evenhanded may outweigh the added detail-tracking for you.

Re: 007 7.0

Re: Seeking for a character sheet There are several spreadsheets in the "Free Stuff" section of the website for calculating different elements of HERO gaming: http://www.herogames.com/FreeStuff/csheets.htm

Re: I need your brain I'm not aware of any character by that name, and a Google search didn't turn up anything either. If such a character does exist, he/she/it must be so obscure that I wouldn't worry about it. So TC, let me Rep you for apparently coming up with a name for a supers character that hasn't been used before.

Re: 007 7.0 Here is Michael "Susano" Surbrook's writeup of Bond, primarily based on Ian Fleming's novels rather than the film series: http://surbrook.devermore.net/adaptionsbook/bond.html

Re: Variant die-rolling mechanics Erol K. Brayburt developed a detailed conversion of the various standard HERO rolls into percentiles, which definitely add granularity to the system: http://www.io.com/~angilas/madlab/skillsys.html

Re: MPA v. Rapid Fire I once posted a rules question to Steve Long about equipment doublers which included this issue. Here's where you can read it and his response: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10969

Re: Antarctic Vibranium In practical terms any object made of metal is rendered useless, so I don't think we need to worry about what happens to it if and when it solidifies again. Also, the vibrations from anti-metal are blocked by a moderate thickness of stone, concrete or similar material (at least a few inches). I would go with a RKA, AOE, NND Does BODY (vs stonelike barrier), Only Vs Metal.

Re: Star Wars: Canonical Character Write Ups If you check my RPG conversions list (via the link in my signature if you're not familiar with it), and scroll down to the STAR WARS listing, you'll find links to one or more interpretations of 3PO and R2, various alien races from the SW universe, Storm Troopers and all the vehicles you mention, as well as a LOT of other cool stuff. Some of the writeups are for 4E HERO, but easy enough to update.

Re: Drama Dice Pulp HERO presents something like this, called "Heroic Action Points," extending the 5E Luck options. They allow for character rerolls at critical times, as well as "dramatic editing" by which a character can expend HAP to alter the situation he finds himself in, like causing an abandoned footlocker one discovers to contain a loaded gun. Jesse Zwerling (aka ArmlessTigerMan here on the boards) created a similar mechanic which he calls Action Points! (his exclamation point, not mine) for his own pulp campaign, Thrilling True Tales! It's my personal favorite of the various HEROized luck/fate options, in that it's simple, colorful, and allows for automatic successes, which HERO tends to be hostile to. You can read about it on this webpage.

Re: Which Champions setting should I develop? When you say "develop," do you mean as a campaign for your game group, or for presentation to the public at large? In the first case the interests of your group would be a major consideration. Beyond that, which one excites you the most to think about? Whatever you choose to work on, if you're enthused over it you'll have the best chance of conveying that enthusiasm to your players or readers.

Re: CHAMPIONS OF THE NORTH -- What Would You Like To See? Ditto both sentiments.

Re: [storytime] Birth of RAVEN For my own use of RAVEN, I like seven members. It's an evocative number, and easily fits Steve Long's geopolitical divisions from his RAVEN writeup. And IMHO, "Septumvirate" sounds cooler than "Octumvirate." But neither I nor any of my burlier friends or relatives will come to your house forcing you to use seven. If you can redistribute the leaders' territories to your satisfaction, use whomever and however many you wish. Like I said upthread, I expect people to make changes to suit their campaigns.

Re: Obakemono - A Gaijins Guide To The Fantastic Folk Monsters Of Japan

Re: [storytime] Birth of RAVEN Assuming that question wasn't just a bump pretext , it stands for "Hero Plus Adventure," Hero Games's electronic format short adventures such as their pulp series, or mini-sourcebooks like the one for Dr. Yin Wu. The standards for those are more demanding than for most Digital Hero articles, particularly since so many of the characters I'm using in RAVEN have already been published. That's a deliberate choice BTW; I wanted this group to be compatible with what's been established for the Champions Universe so that people can use those character writeups for it. At the same time, there's certainly room to substitute original characters from individual campaigns. If I turn this into a DH article I'll be adding writeups of several original characters to RAVEN's membership. For those of you now reading this thread, I feel I should at least provide some more tidbits about how RAVEN is evolving in my mind. Those members of RAVEN below the rulers in the Seventh Mystery have been deliberately misinformed about the history of their organization. The official party line is that RAVEN is much older and more established than it is, having its roots in several related European aristocratic families which have long produced superhuman scions. These families wielded great power in world affairs, but were often rivals and worked at cross-purposes. However, after WW II, facing the increasing erosion of their traditional status in the face of shifting political realities, the families joined together under the first Grand Imperator to form a united force. RAVEN propaganda gives the organization credit for several notable developments since the second half of the Twentieth Century, including the fall of Communism in Europe and the ongoing turbulence in the Middle East. The story is intended to enhance the group's prestige in the eyes of its members, and make them feel that they are among the "secret masters of the world." (This concept borrows from both previous incarnations of RAVEN, as well as the Families from Aaron Alston's Strike Force world. In the 4E campaign in which I used this interpretation of RAVEN, it was the group's actual history.) In the case of the Legion, RAVEN's non-super soldiers manufactured by Teleios, this history is part of the false memories that Teleios has programmed them with. The Legionnaires believe that they come from families with a tradition of generations of service to the aristocrats of RAVEN, so they are fanatically loyal to the organization. Note that if you choose not to use Teleios as a member of the group, but do incorporate Menton or another mentalist with the Psychic Surgery power, RAVEN will have recruited trained soldiers and altered their memories to conform to this fabricated background. (Again, this background to the Legion borrows from the first version of RAVEN in Super Agents.) Let me just add that should I go ahead with a DH article, I've decided to equip the Legion with real-world weaponry instead of supertech, as was the case with previous incarnations of the group, even though this one is part of the four-color Champions Universe. It just wouldn't be in keeping with RAVEN's philosophy to give their human minions technology that appears to let them rival the innate powers of superhumans. Besides, RAVEN does not wish to draw attention to its existence, and this way when the Legion is called into action it's more likely to be taken for a common organized crime or paramilitary force, albeit well trained and armed. A GM could use this to his advantage, though, once the PCs start to become a credible threat to RAVEN's operations. Imagine the heroes' dismay when they track down what they believe to be a small group of gun-toting radicals, only to find them backed up by a powerful team of supervillains.

Re: [space Wizards] Magical Constructs Um, I'm not quite sure what focus the above example is illustrating. What you're describing is more like a golem or sand elemental, rather than a homunculus (traditionally a miniature human or humanoid being constructed or grown through alchemy). There's also nothing about your example that makes it specific to any of the Hero Universe alien races. However, following from this example, you could create animates out of all sorts of natural materials: wood or plants, ice, mud, etc. It shouldn't be hard to visualize appropriate powers for them. Lots of fantasy games have described such creatures. Perhaps you could elaborate further on what you're going for?