Lord Liaden

Re: Top Five vs The Unknown Menace! I watched the two of them clear the way at the forefront of the final assault in the JLA/Avengers crossover series. No need to explain wanting them both.

Re: The Flood: Not a Simple Transform

Re: The Flood: Not a Simple Transform Hey, who said you can't handwave HERO? As many folks here have repeatedly remarked, just because you can build anything in the system, doesn't mean you have to. And just because another system handwaves something doesn't make it more efficient - it just means that handwaving is the only way it can handle that.

Re: House Rule Question: STUN From Impotent KA's

Re: New Fantasy Module For Sale In the Online Store Good to see ongoing developments on the HERO licensing front.

Re: Top Five vs The Unknown Menace! Say, Log, would you be willing to share your rationale for choosing those five?

Re: The Flood: Not a Simple Transform Okay, Thia, a few opinions here. If one of them isn't helpful, perhaps one of the others will be. First opinion: this is obviously not an ability for PCs, so I would say that we're firmly in the territory of GM permission as to what effects are or are not allowable. If a Transform is the cleanest way to model this effect, and in the process it kills the victim, and this will never be something that a PC has access to, I say go for it. After all, Steve Long himself routinely bends or breaks his own default rules in a number of published books when that would best do what he wants. OTOH consider that in game terms you're not actually killing the target; you're changing it into something else, but it remains an active, functioning character. "Death" is just the Special Effect of the process. If it were up to me I would define the "reversal condition" as "enough damage to kill the target" and leave it at that. However, I fully recognize that that may not satisfy you, so let's try a different tack. You say that the Flood Infection takes time to change the host body. Is there any method within the game to prevent or reverse that process? If there is, it grants you a little wiggle room: you can make the Transform more gradual through Gradual Effect or Extra Time, and define the reversal condition as "application of method X before infection is complete." Perhaps not to the letter of the Transform rules, but well within their spirit IMHO. There's an example of this from Will Mistretta's excellent Twilight of the Dead website. If you look in the "Rules" section for his zombie writeup, you'll see that he sets the reversal condition for the zombie contagion as "heals back through amputation of bitten extremity within 5 minutes." If all of these are too much rules-bending for you to stomach (which I respect), then I agree with my colleagues as to the use of Summon. In that case you'll probably want to include at least a +1/4 Expanded Class Advantage, to cover the variation in Skills and background knowledge from each unique victim of the Flood Infection that the new Flood retains.

Re: Top Five vs The Unknown Menace! Good call on Martian Manhunter, Doc. I think I'd even trade Superman for him on my team; he's close enough in raw power, and telepathy grants many tactical advantages.

Re: House Rule Question: STUN From Impotent KA's

Re: House Rule Question: STUN From Impotent KA's

Re: House Rule Question: STUN From Impotent KA's

Re: Top Five vs The Unknown Menace! I agree, you pretty much have to have Superman in those situations, practically by definition of the character. He's not only among the most powerful, but he's inspiring and he never gives up. If we can only have five others, I would choose: Green Lantern, both for power and for the ability to do nearly anything with that ring; Doctor Strange, to handle anything magical that needs handling; Mr. Fantastic, to handle anything scientific/technological that needs handling, and also for his tactical expertise and insights; Batman, for deductive abilities and any sneaking around that might be required. I came very close to putting Captain America on the team, because he's the greatest leader and tactician in comics; and if Superman is on because he's Superman, Cap should be on because he's Cap. If you expanded the team to six members, he'd have that spot. Go to seven, and I'd throw in Professor X, because something that's invulnerable physically might not be mentally.

Re: House Rule Question: STUN From Impotent KA's I've long used a similar method to what others are proposing, based on the "Real Weapon" Limitation. In my case I compare the damage potential of the attack to the Defense of the target. If the attack with Real Weapon would normally be incapable of doing Body damage to the target past Defenses with a Standard Effect roll, then the attack is treated as though it had the Reduced Penetration Limitation vs that target. If the attack is incapable of doing Body damage with its maximum roll, then the target takes no Stun or Knockback from that attack, no matter what amount is rolled on the dice. Note that this does not apply to any Defense that is built with the "Real Armor" Limitation; those are affected by Real Weapon normally. I've found that this rule makes for much more "four color" fights against normal thugs with guns, and allows even standard supers to withstand more powerful military-grade weapons. It also provides an explanation for why all those super-agencies like VIPER and UNTIL arm their agents with "supertech" blasters rather than standard firearms; they're more effective against super opposition. FWIW I also allow for the reverse effect, i.e. if an attack that's built without Real Weapon (like that of most supers) is used against an inanimate object like a wall or a vehicle, or any personal Defense built with Real Armor, and the attack would normally do Body damage to the target with its largest roll, then the Defense of the target is halved vs that attack, as though the attack were Armor Piercing against it. This effect doesn't apply to inanimate objects made of campaign-defined "super materials," e.g. adamantium, inertron, questionite etc. Doing this also adds to the four-colorness of super combat, especially the classic "supers vs tanks" scenario. I don't change the Limitation value of Real Weapon or Real Armor in my campaigns, because IMO when you add up how and when the drawbacks occur it's not significantly more limiting than -1/4. Naturally YMMV. You can of course make the damage result what you prefer if the Armor Piercing/ Reduced Penetration analogy doesn't work for you, like doubling or halving damage; but the key for me is the Real Weapon/ Real Armor dynamic, which makes for a consistent "four-colorizing" mechanic without having to change how all the other "normal" stuff works in the game.

Re: Surbrook's Stuff down? I was thinking that this rendering of Shion Nys would look good on the front page. I think that it captures a lot of what SS is about, moreso than Priotess.

Re: Surbrook's Stuff down? If with less clothing, obviously the Stuff would have less Thread.

Re: character design help, please (long) Nice concept. I'd be inclined to go with the END Reserve myself, but with some minor adjustments to the other abilities. I suggest looking up "Endurance Limitations" in the rulebook. If you buy Armor and SPD with "Costs END Only To Activate" (-1/4), then your character would only have to expend END from the Reserve when first using these Powers, not every Phase (although you could certainly define the extra STR as drawing from the same Reserve). Another option is to use buy all of these abilities with a set number of Charges, which she recovers by "charging" herself daily. With all the Charges options available - Continuing Charges, Fuel Charges, Boostable Charges - I bet you could find the right combination of time duration and draining of the charge "pool" per use to suit your concept.

Re: Valdorian Age world map (dear Mr Curtis...) Classy creative people working for classy companies - you just can't beat that combo.

Re: Help W/ Human Bomb and similar Char Design The way I recommend doing this (which is currently rules-legal BTW) is to calculate how many Character Points your character saves on the Power construct by applying the Always On Limitation, adding that number of points to the character's sheet (essentially "buying off" Always On), and then Limiting those points by whatever reflects the Special Effects of the method the character uses to turn off the Power - in this case, Focus.

Re: Pulp A-team I always got the impression that the defeated enemies of the A-Team just gave up and ran off to join a monastery or something. OTOH the team was itself ongoingly pursued by the Forces of Law and Order, who usually showed up just after they split. So you can assume that their pursuers handle the mopup.

Re: Movement power as an attack And EDM has a Stop Sign warning next to its description for a reason. This has the potential to be EXTREMELY unbalancing in the hands of a PC. As GM you're well within your rights to disallow it if you think it would be too abusive. For the sake of not seeming arbitrary, though, I would ask your players (A) What is the Special Effect of this attack? If they can't justify it as fitting within their characters' concept, that's reasonable grounds to disallow it. ( Since such attacks require "a reasonably common set of defenses which will cancel out the attack" (5E p. 177/ 5ER p. 277), what would they consider appropriate Defenses? If they can't come up with reasonably common ones, that would also be grounds to disallow it. If they can fulfill conditions (A) and ( to your satisfaction, then it may be safe enough to allow the attacks, you'll come across as a reasonable GM, and you'll have made your players do the work for you. Just make sure that the EDM isn't to a dimension that's instantly lethal to whoever enters it, or impossible to return from without extraordinary measures. That kind of ability is questionable in the hands of an NPC, let alone player characters. If the players have their hearts set on it, though, you could point out to them that if their characters can have such attacks, then their opponents may also have comparable ones usable against them.

Re: Free Will If said mentalist was originally in a mutant prison, it's logical to assume that some means exists to restrain or neutralize his powers without having to kill him.

Re: New Player freaks the heck out of me. "Surbrook's Stuff" has an extensive World of Darkness conversion, including Mage, with some specific suggestions on how to handle Avatars: http://surbrook.devermore.net/whitewolf/WODHERO.html BTW I've been getting error messages all day while trying to access Surbrook's Stuff, http://devermore.net/index/ . Is anyone else having that problem, or is it just me? (Wouldn't be the first time.)

Re: VERY new GM seeking Powers help... Welcome, SGS! You've come to the right place for answers; we veterans are always eager to show the newcomers how much we know. I can't add to my predecessors' good advice regarding your specific question. However, given your situation I think you'll benefit from this discussion board thread started by someone very much like yourself, a new HERO GM with new players, looking for advice on how to start: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9188 Feel free to come back with any further questions.

Re: Turakian Age: Changing the Future To make the timeline work into the present day of the Hero Universe without destroying the Turakian Age after Takofanes falls, all you actually need is a major planet-reshaping disaster to form the modern geography. As it turns out the destruction of Atlantis during the war with Sharna-Gorak provides one, and the sinking of Lemuria after the Mandragalore misfires provides another. Since the Valdorian Age appears to leave fewer lasting influences on the modern world than either the Atlantean or Turakian Ages (perhaps because it had less magic), you could easily skate over it and just continue Ambrethel after Takofanes falls. The withdrawl of the gods from the world, and the decline of older civilizations that led to the rise of Atlantis as a world power, can be the result of any events you wish from your own campaign, but without the devastation of the official history. That would give you up to an additional 30,000 years to play around with. In the end, everything in the Champions Universe can be just as it is in published books: Atlantis, Lemuria, the return of Takofanes, etc. Except that Ambrethel can have a more optimistic future.

Re: Costing extra END That's the way I was thinking of dealing with it; but see below.