Lord Liaden

Re: New to HERO. Need a little guidance about Mechs. Perhaps the most thorough, thoughtful and prolific mecha designer and converter on these boards is NuSoard Graphite, who at one point posted his own general guidelines for designing mecha. Perhaps you'd benefit from those, so allow me to transcribe his advice here: ------------------------------------------------ First and foremost, for military-based mecha games like Gundam or Macross, don't worry about the point cost of the mecha or ships you are designing. Design them to perform as close to the source material as possible. Paying attention to the point costs will only give you headaches. There's nothing wrong with keeping track of the point costs, but don't freak out if a vehicle costs well over 1000 character points. (Well, probably not for early Gundam or Macross, but later mecha might approach those point levels) Second, Be consistant. Decide how to model certain technology and effects and stick to it. For example, if you decide to use Missile Deflection to model point defense equipment like the Phalanx, then use that method for all your vehicles and equipment. Violate this rule only to represent equipment which uses a completely different set of rules, like alien equipment or a significant technological upgrade. Consistancy is the key to making equipment feel like equipment in Hero, instead of it feeling like Superpowers. Third, decide on an average. The first mecha you design should be a typical one for your campaign, then use this mecha as a basis for all the others you design. For a Gundam campaign, a good one to start with would be a GM or a Zaku. For Federation Mobile Suites, the GM would be the basis. For Zion MS, the Zaku should be the basis. After designing those, design all the other MS in relation to the base mecha. For example the Gun Cannon, while not as agile as the GM is much stronger/tougher and does far more damage with its twin cannons. Thus you should give the Gun Cannon less Dex than the GM, but more STR, Body and Def. The Gundam RX-78 is superior to the GM in all categories, so using the GM's characteristics as a guideline, you can make the Gundam an obviously superior mecha. Once the base mecha is created, the rest should fall right into place in a reasonably short amount of time. Next, if you plan to use hex maps to keep track of mecha movement, decide on a scale. 1 hex=2m is a bit small scale for mecha combat. My suggestion is 1 hex=20 meters. This is a scale of x10, which means you need to divide your mechas movement by a factor of 10 to get the upscaled movement. Example, a mecha that has a flight movement of 60"(x4) and a ground movement of 30"(x2) has a flight movment of 6"(24") and 3"(6") when using the x10 scale on the hex map. Round off to the nearest whole number if the math gives you a decimal of course. Next you must decide on the complexity of your designs. How much to include in the writeups goes a long way to modeling the feel of the mecha. If its too complex, it may slow down the pace of the game as player look over their mechas extensive sheets to figure out what they want to do, so for a fast, action-packed campaign, keep the mecha stats-lite. For example, in most Gundam campaigns, you only need to write up the basic characteristics of the Mobile Suits, their sensors, defenses (which is mainly Defense and/or Armor) movement modes (generally just flight, running and leaping) and weapons. Some few MS might have ECM or unique equipment (like Incom Bits) but these are rare. This will keep the game running smoothly and allow the combats to pretty much stay in genre. Some equipment can be assumed and don't need to be written up (searchlights, ejection seats, cd-players etc) unless they tend to be an exceptionaly important part of the game and disabling the system could cripple the vehicles performance somehow (Lights might be disabled in an area where flying blind is exceptionaly dangerous) Other than the guidelines above, the rest all comes down to Roleplaying and the GM's ability to present the game in such a way that it "feels" right. My only suggestion for this is for potential mecha GM's to saturate themselves in the appropriate type of show before running the game. Trust me, this helps immensely.

Re: Body, Mind, and Spirit - Have you made use of these? How? I never knew that those definitions predated 5E. They always seemed like a very reasonable mind/body/spirit distinction to me.

Re: [storytime] Birth of RAVEN By my interpretation, he certainly can "Grow Superhuman" which are Slavishly Loyal. In most cases said superhuman simply won't last very long, which keeps Teleios from building up a huge force of them. The ones that do last, like Obelisque, are the exception, for reasons which Teleios himself does not understand. (I consider this a positive example of "magic causing superpowers.") Specifically referring to the "Grow Superhuman" Summon Power given for Teleios in his Champions Universe writeup, this concept would actually fit with it, since by normal definition of the Power any creature Summoned has to "leave" before more can be Summoned. Teleios being able to Summon without upper limit is already a "GM's permission" stretching of the Power, as per the description of Summon in the rulebook. There is precedent for this in Champions. Fourth Edition VIPER had its "Project Stein," creating vat-grown superhumans, but almost all of those perished after brief periods. IMO this sort of thing is a good idea; someone having a reliable method of mass supers generation would severely throw off the balance of power in a comic universe, unless there are other factors restraining it. So as far as I can see, these restrictions don't violate Teleios's canon writeup, while minimizing his potential to unbalance a campaign world. Of course you have the right to just plain not like them.

Re: Ego Boost

Re: Creature: Grandfather-of-all-the-Reptiles I smell a kaiju rumble coming on!

Re: from little plot seeds, mighty games do grow: Share you ideas! Weldun, your name is aptly chosen. Well done indeed. I had to choose only one to Rep you for, though. Your Mecha-Men concept is well thought out, but Viper TV is a hoot, so that's the one I went with.

Re: New to HERO. Need a little guidance about Mechs. Welcome aboard, Khael. Glad you stopped by - we're generally a pretty helpful bunch to newcomers. There are various general guidelines posted to the boards which I can direct you to, but it will take me more time than I have at present to look them up. I will be back with them later, though, unless someone beats me to it. In the meantime, may I suggest that you follow the link in my signature, below, and scroll down to the listing for BATTLETECH/MECHWARRIOR? You'll find lots of material from the game converted to HERO, as well as some character conversion guidelines. Hopefully that will give you a good start. See you later!

Re: [storytime] Birth of RAVEN I've given a lot of thought to Teleios's "supers-making" activities, and based on what's been presented about him to date I don't think we need to assume that he can produce superhumans at will. If that were the case, he logically ought to have more of them in his own service, as loyal as his cloned soldiers - which, although physically exceptional for humans, are nowhere near superhuman. One would also expect to see more Teleios-created superhumans out in the general populace. I personally am aware of only two official superbeings that owe their existence to Teleios, Monsoon and Obelisque, both in Champions Worldwide. And frankly, that whole explanation for him not giving himself powers as not wanting to sully his "perfection" is IMHO pretty thin. For my own campaign I've assumed that Teleios's ability to create or even clone superbeings is far from reliable. At heart it's because the principles which make superpowers possible go far beyond simple genetics, and merely reproducing a genetic code can no more perfectly produce a superhuman, than tracing the outlines of the Mona Lisa will result in a masterpiece of art. For my campaign, Teleios can usually only grant lasting superpowers to someone he's identified as having the innate genetic factors to manifest them independently, and even then the process isn't infallible. Powers bestowed on someone without those factors often won't take, or if they do will fade fairly quickly. Often they cause very unpleasant mutations, or even death. Teleios's clones of superhumans, or new superpowered beings that he has "grown" almost always die after a few days to at most a few months. The viable specimens are very much the exception to the rule. While there's nothing in what's been published about the CU to date which would definitively support this position, AFAIK there's nothing that would definitively negate it either. It's a reasonable rationale that allows Teleios to continue doing what he's been shown to be able to do, but keeps him from flooding the market with cheap knockoff supers. Of course one of the main objectives of RAVEN's ISE branch (described upthread) will be to discover how to correct these deficiencies. So, in regards to your point #2, this should keep Teleios's involvement with RAVEN from presenting major ideological conflicts, particularly the requirement that someone needs inborn potential "superiority" in order to become a stable superhuman mutate. As for point #1, that could indeed become an incentive for normal people to join and serve RAVEN, for the chance that they will be found to have superhuman potential. I expect that RAVEN scientists (and mystics in the case of the Dark Brotherhood) would screen all of their members for such potential, but actually bringing it out would be held as a reward for loyal service. That was very useful input, Meta, thanks.

Re: How would you use Gravitar? Now that's elegant. Not to mention insidious.

Re: What books? Persuant to ghost-angel's fine suggestions, you can download PDF of the rules FAQ and rulebook errata from here, and of the Genre By Genre document here. They're not as well organized as the material in H5ER, but FWIW I'm still using these documents plus the original H5E, and I do all right.

Re: House Rule: Can be thrown advantage Which is one of the reasons for my Custom Advantage above.

Re: Body, Mind, and Spirit - Have you made use of these? How? Almost since Fifth Edition came out I've been using Spiritual Transform to cover sudden changes to a character that don't seem to readily fall within the territory of Physical or Mental Transforms: the bestowal of Perks such as Money, positive Reputation, Followers or Fringe Benefits; or inflicting Disadvantages like negative Reputation, Hunters or Rivals, or Social Limitations. Wish fulfillment, curses, and altering the timeline can all be justification for such changes. I tend to think of it as editing one's karmic path. To me, modifying someone's relationship to the rest of humanity seems like a sufficiently "spiritual" process. FWIW I once ran this concept past Steve Long on the Rules Questions forum, and he agreed that that seemed like a reasonable way to use Spiritual Transform.

Re: [storytime] Birth of RAVEN In its original form in Super Agents, although RAVEN was involved in ongoing research into advanced "doomsday weapons" with which to conquer or blackmail the world, in other areas the group confined itself to real-world technology. No unusual vehicles other than armored limousines and the like. The Super Agents version of UNTIL featured a super-submarine, as does the current Fifth Edition incarnation of that agency. Steve Long's Raven from An Eye For An Eye used a few relatively sophisticated gadgets, but nothing much beyond the capabilities of contemporary technology. As I see this version of RAVEN, it won't go in for supertech weapons and vehicles the way that VIPER does. For one thing, it operates more covertly, avoiding as much as possible the high profile of open battles that would draw attention to its existence, although the supers in its employ may sometimes engage in them if that would advance RAVEN's cause in specific cases. For another thing, RAVEN exemplifies superhuman superiority over normal humans, so any technology that makes it look like humans can rival them would be discouraged. In my conception RAVEN would equip its human troops with combat tech enabling them to match most of the agents of other super-agencies, but certainly nothing approaching true superhuman levels. For major battles those human Legionaires would be at most support for the superpowered Praetorians. EDIT: Thinking about that some more, I may specify that the Legionaires are told that they were chosen to wear the modular Testudo armor because they have unique physical factors which allow them to interface with its controls, in the way that Armadillo is uniquely capable of controlling his own armor. Thus their membership in the Legion is proof of their own "superiority." That may or may not be pure propaganda.

Re: What books? First of all, welcome to the boards, Mercule! I hope you enjoy your visits here. We're generally a pretty friendly bunch to newcomers. To be honest, if you're a homebrewer and new to GMing HERO fantasy (and assuming you already own the HERO System Fifth Edition rulebook), the Fantasy HERO genre book should probably be your first purchase. It's very nearly the definitive guide for how to design and run your own fantasy campaign, everything from constructing magic systems, to choices for economies and social structures, to the ecological niches of races. Even experienced GMs usually say that FH has been very useful to them. There's tons there for folks who don't even play HERO, but if you do the sample race and profession Package Deals, weapon and equipment stats, magic system examples and options, and new Talents, among other things, are a great boon. The Hero Games management has said recently that they're hoping to reprint FH this fall, so if you can wait a month or two you may have a fresh copy in your hands.

Re: "Naked Advantage" Trust you to actually try to apply logic to this situation.

Re: How would you use Gravitar? Remember that it's already been four years since Conquerors, Killers And Crooks debuted, so Gravitar has been active for at least that long. You can do a lot of growing up in four years.

Re: [storytime] Birth of RAVEN As always, thank you for your kind words. It would be very easy to imagine an alternate future Earth in which RAVEN succeeded in its goals. This could be anything from an effective, coherent hierarchy of paranormals (assuming continuing strong leadership at the top) which actually has made the lot of the average human better, at the cost of individual freedom and subservience to those whom Fate or luck has made "superior"; to a world fragmented and devastated after the leaders of RAVEN, having achieved their goals, begin to openly fight amongst themselves. Which direction the GM would want to go would depend on how he wants PCs to interact with RAVEN in the present. Now I'd like to offer you a couple of other elements I've been thinking of including in the new RAVEN: International Scientific Elite (ISE), pronounced "eyes". This cabal of scientists has as its front a variety of research laboratories, think-tanks, private schools and "high-IQ clubs" which recruit the intellectually gifted and scientifically trained. Those who show the right motivation are allowed to step beyond those relatively innocuous confines into the "Second Mystery." They are told that ISE is in fact dedicated to placing the scientific elite in effective control of the world. In pursuance of that goal ISE engages in technological and industrial espionage and sabotage, the development of advanced weapons and devices, as well as selling its inventive services to various underworld groups and unscrupulous governments. In this it competes somewhat with ARGENT and the Warlord, although ISE specializes more in the biological sciences, such as creating designer drugs or augmented superhuman henchmen. Those who are deemed suitable for initiation into the Third Mystery learn of RAVEN's existence and true purpose. Thereafter their research focuses primarily on both reliably identifying and locating existing superhumans, and reliably creating new ones. Teleios is the overall director of ISE (known to most of his underlings only as "The Overseer"), but is assisted by other scientifically adept paranormals such as Brainchild, Hornet, Shrinker and Tesseract. The Hoplites. Presented by Zorran the Artificer to each of his seven fellow governing domini (which I've named "The Septumvirate"), these constructs are modified versions of the standard Lemurian golem - see Conquerors, Killers And Crooks pp. 223-24 for details. These golems are fashioned of magically-strengthened bronze in the style of armor of the historical Greek warriors for whom they are named. In addition to their normal golem abilities, the Hoplites carry spears, swords and shields resembling ancient gear, but much more formidable. Zorran has given one Hoplite to each of the Septumvirate as a personal bodyguard. Being as they are Automatons and thus immune to Mental Powers, they are useful backup should a Septumvir have to deal with a hostile mentalist... including, potentially, RAVEN's Grand Imperator, Menton. In addition, Zorran has given the Hoplites a mystic sense allowing them to determine whether someone is under external mental domination, and their masters have all given their Hoplites standing orders to give warning if they detect such an influence. Menton is willing to allow the Septumvirate to retain these golems for the greater sense of security it gives them; in truth he enjoys the challenge of working his machinations in spite of them. Of course, it's up to the GM as to what other abilities and directives Zorran may have built into his constructs.

Re: How would you use Gravitar? Nice stuff, TaxiMan. IMO you could easily separate this into two separate plot seeds, which wouldn't need to be run successively.

Re: Seeking for a character sheet Pretty easy to do, actually. The changes between the two editions are relatively minor - mostly clarifications and more options. Some things function a little differently, and the costs of some things have changed, but the two editions are still about 90% compatible. Here is an excellent summary of the changes from 4E to 5E: http://theemerged.blogspot.com/HERO425.htm . It won't replace all the details in the 5E rulebook, but it should let you handle anything you come across in 5E material that's unfamiliar.

Re: Snowblind? Pity all those songs were written before Snowblind was born, so she probably hasn't heard any of them.

Re: House Rule: Can be thrown advantage I have seen at least one published character with "Range Base On Strength" as a +1/4 Advantage on HKA (it will take me some time to look that up, as I'm not sure which book it was in), so I think this would be a reasonable price. I agree with Bob that other Limitations should not be necessary, but if this is for a normal thrown weapon I'd suggest making the Advantage Naked, and applying 1 Recoverable Charge to it representing having to go pick it up. I should point out that by the rules, any Normal Damage attack which takes the Hand To Hand Attack Limitation cannot be Ranged. For that and other reasons, I take a slightly different approach to this construct. Consider that it's legal to apply Ranged to a Hand To Hand Killing Attack (HKA). A normal HKA has two components, Base Damage plus Damage added from STR, up to double the Base. To this you add a third component, Ranged, for +1/2. STR is prorated for that Advantage. For Normal Damage attacks, I start with a basis of Energy Blast, which has two of the three abovementioned components, Base Damage plus Range. To this I add a custom Advantage, "Strength Adds To Damage," at +1/2, the same as Ranged. STR is prorated for that Advantage, and can increase the Damage of the attack up to double the Base. This gives me a construct with the same Damage Class as a Ranged HKA of the same Active Points, and which is mechanically identical to a Ranged HKA except for doing Normal rather than Killing Damage. Call me a cockeyed optimist, but that seems pretty fair and balanced to me. Of course I can now add any Limitation that I would to a Ranged HKA, such as "Range Based On STR." EDIT: Hugh and I seem to be mostly on the same page.

Re: Seeking for a character sheet Well, in terms of what information you can record on your character sheet, the only change between Fourth and Fifth Edition character sheets is the format, so a 5E sheet should be usable for 4E. That said, this section of Free Stuff has PDFs of several styles of character sheet, including one in the three-column format that the 4E sheet was in. Perhaps one of those would serve? EDIT: Perhaps this would be more to your liking: http://www.wellington.org/champions/hero_system_files.htm

Re: A Question for the Super-Tech designers amongst us When you say that you want a certain amount of END to be used up running the power pack, is that from the personal END of the wearer of the belt, or an END Reserve? From your description it sounds like the latter, but it never pays to assume. In either case, you could use the rules for Long Term Endurance to represent the END lost over continuous operation of the belt. However, my recommendation would be to give the belt a Fuel Charge lasting the maximum amount of continuous operating time that you want. A Fuel Charge can be stopped and started again as long as it doesn't exceed the maximum duration for the Charge. Connecting the belt to a recharger would be the defined mechanism by which the Charge is recovered. If that doesn't suit your needs, please post further clarifications and we'll keep trying until we get it right.

Re: How would you use Gravitar? Same sort of concern as for Menton's apparent quietude of late. When a major villain drops below the radar for an extended period, it's time to start looking over your shoulder. In fact I subsumed those developments for both villains into my proposal for a new RAVEN.

Re: How would you use Gravitar? I can see this plan working for a while, particularly if the operatives of VIPER play on Gravitar's vanity. She would in particular make a powerful and easily-aimed weapon against Eurostar. Long-term association with VIPER is a different proposition IMO. Gravitar is very far from stupid, and would eventually twig to the fact that she was being manipulated by VIPER. When that happens her wrath would be fearsome. The Supreme Serpent and Nama are both shrewd enough to perceive this, so I think they'd cut all ties to Gravitar as soon as she was no longer needed for their immediate plans.