Lord Liaden

Re: Some characters I like Ah! My unfamiliarity with the series is showing. Thanks, Mr. S. Here's the Major: http://surbrook.devermore.net/adaptionsanime/kusanagi.html

Re: Some characters I like Schwarzwald, I couldn't find HERO writeups for any of the characters you mentioned, which rather surprised me. However, I would be flat-out astonished if you found no characters familiar to you on this website: http://surbrook.devermore.net/index/archive.html

Re: trying to model a weapon in HERO, what would I do? Dr. Anomaly has already mentioned how Find Weakness can lower Defenses below 1/2. There's also another optional Power called Piercing, which is stacked onto some other attack like Energy Blast or Killing Attack. Piercing effectively removes a set amount of Defense from the target before damage dice are rolled, e.g. if you have an attack with 10 points of Piercing, the target's Defense is reduced by that amount for purpose of resisting that one attack. So a target with 30 Defense goes to 20, while 10 Defense goes to 0.

Re: trying to model a weapon in HERO, what would I do?

Re: Working on New Constantinople Once again, GM SPOILER TIME!!

Re: Overcomplex things? That's definitely worth repeating. For example, I once saw a published supervillain who used enchanted swords that, every time they struck and wounded a target, would do some damage to the muscles that impaired the victim's ability to move. Every time. This could have been done using Hit Locations, but it would have been difficult to target the location and the result wouldn't have been reliable. So the villain was built with a Drain Dexterity, Linked to the Killing Attack, with wounding being the Special Effect of the attack. As has been mentioned, there are usually several ways to achieve a given effect in HERO, each of which has its own benefits and drawbacks. You can certainly decide which way is best for you, but the system rarely defines one "best" way for all.

Re: How do I update 4E to 5ER Lemurion, I noticed on your list a number of pre-Fourth Edition books. If you follow the link in my signature, below, and scroll down to "Hero System (Pre-Fifth Edition)," you'll find both guidelines for generally updating older HERO books, and specific system updates for some of the books you mentioned.

Re: COH/COV conversions There has been a little discussion of converting it here on the boards, but I wasn't able to find a lot in the way of details. Still, you may find this material useful: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16952 http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32537 BTW Maelstrom's posted text writeup for the Sky Raiders got scrambled by changes to the forum software (his attached HDC file for them should be unaffected though). However, I was able to clean it up enough to be legible - I'll post it below: --------------------------------------- Sky Raider Player: Maelstrom Val Char Cost 20 STR 10 23 DEX 39 18 CON 16 11 BODY 2 13 INT 3 11 EGO 2 15 PRE 5 10 COM 0 10/30 PD 6 9/27 ED 5 4 SPD 7 8 REC 0 40 END 2 30 STUN 0 7" RUN 2 2" SWIM 0 4" LEAP 0 Characteristics Cost: 99 Cost Power END 13 Flight Suit: Armor (20 PD/18 ED) (57 Active Points); Independent (-2), OIF Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -3/4), Activation Roll 14- (-1/2), Real Armor (-1/4) 0 25 Submachine Gun: RKA 3d6+1, Armor Piercing (+1/2), 16 clips of 32 Charges (+3/4), Autofire (10 shots; +1) (162 Active Points); Independent (-2), OAF Fragile Expendable (Very Difficult to obtain new Focus; -1 3/4), STR Minimum 18 and higher (STR Min. Cannot Add/Subtract Damage; -1 1/2), Beam (-1/4) [32] 18 Flight 17", Position Shift, x4 Noncombat, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (66 Active Points); Independent (-2), OIF (Flight Pack; -1/2), Activation Roll 14-, Burnout (-1/4) 0 Powers Cost: 56 Cost Martial Arts Maneuver 4 Basic Shot: 1/2 Phase, +0 OCV, +0 DCV, Range +2, Strike, +2 DC 5 Far Shot: 1/2 Phase, +1 OCV, -1 DCV, Range +4, Strike 4 Quick Shot: 1/2 Phase, +1 OCV, +0 DCV, Range +0, Strike, +2 DC 3 Weapon Element: Assault Rifles/LMGs, Flamethrowers, Submachine Guns 3 Basic Strike: 1/2 Phase, +1 OCV, +0 DCV, Weapon +2 DC Strike 4 Martial Block: 1/2 Phase, +2 OCV, +2 DCV, Block, Abort 1 Weapon Element: Blades Martial Arts Cost: 24 Cost Skill 3 Acrobatics 14- 5 Accurate Sprayfire 5 Concentrated Sprayfire 5 Rapid Autofire 3 Breakfall 14- 15 +3 with DCV 10 +2 with Ranged Combat 10 +2 with HTH Combat 3 Lockpicking 14- 3 Mechanics 12- 5 Rapid Attack (Ranged) 3 Tactics 12- 3 Teamwork 14- 3 KS: Military Science 12- 3 KS: Scrounging 12- 3 KS: Small Unit Tactics 12- 3 PS: Mercenary 12- Skills Cost: 85 Cost Perk 3 Anonymity Perks Cost: 3 Cost Talent 3 Absolute Time Sense Talents Cost: 3 Total Character Cost: 270 Val Disadvantages 20 Social Limitation: Subject to Orders Very Frequently (14-), Major 15 Psychological Limitation: Malicious (Common, Strong) 15 Social Limitation: Mercenaries Code of Conduct (Frequently, Severe, Not Limiting In Some Cultures) 20 Social Limitation: Mercenary (Very Frequently, Major) Disadvantage Points: 70 Base Points: 200 Experience Required: 0 Total Experience Available: 0 Experience Unspent: 0 __________________

Re: NOBLES, KNIGHTS, AND NECROMANCERS -- What Do *You* Want To See? I'm sure you'll have most things covered, but there is one concept you may possibly have overlooked that I'd like to see - a tax collector. Seriously. To the average peasant farmer or tradesman living under an oppressive regime, there could be no more feared or despised individual. This would be the first person that any group of PCs striking back against such a regime would target, particularly if their motivations are in the vein of Robin Hood. OTOH the tax collector might be hiding his own corruption from higher authorities, so that exposing him could be the motivation for a story arc. If the collector has other spheres of authority, such as commanding the local guard, he could actually be a serious opponent for PCs.

Re: trying to model a weapon in HERO, what would I do? Schwarzwald, I understand if you're annoyed, and I apologize if this offends you; it's just that you've been posting a number of specific "how to" questions without having the rules involved to reference. In some cases the how-to is pretty clearly explained in the rulebook, while in others our answers really won't come through clearly until you have some familiarity with the system. When you arrived here you had a lot of questions about whether HERO could do various things; the answers you got can be summarized as "Yes, it can." Now it's just a question of the mechanical particulars. However, I think you'll get more useful input from these boards once you can look up those particulars yourself. Since you seem to be committed to getting the rulebook, it's just a matter of when you can look them up, not whether you will. Believe me, once you have the book, if you need things clarified you'll find no shortage of people here ready to help you out. I'd just like to add that the HERO System Sidekick PDF would probably be a good investment even if you're set on getting the full ruleset. SK was designed to introduce HERO to the novice much more clearly and succinctly than the massive 5E tome, let alone the even more pumped-up 5ER. It's an inexpensive way to sample the game and get yourself up to speed, and whether you subsequently decide to get the full rules, or decide that HERO isn't for you after all, you're not out much.

Re: Negative stats? Schwarzwald, this is one of the occupational hazards of playing HERO: you become addicted to statting up every cool or weird-@$$ thing you see or imagine, because you can.

Re: Flight Question That's on FREd p. 238 / 5ER p. 365, under "Movement And Strength."

Re: Overcomplex things? Actually, there's an Advantage to push up the "fade rate" for Flash in Dark Champions, p. 94.

Re: Hero/D20 experts wanted Rep given, hermaphrodite. It's great that Hero Games can be given more exposure, and more income, this way. It's also a terrific boon to pulp gamers everywhere; no one is churning out good pulp adventures the way Steve is right now.

Re: A Question of Utmost Importance I do remember a story of Cap lifting the hammer, while Thor was otherwise occupied with their common enemies. Cap starting wielding it, too... he remarked on how the power of it was "almost intoxicating." Mammoth strength doesn't appear to help, though, at least according to the Justice League/ Avengers crossover. Superman handled Mjolnir briefly during the final battle, but when it was over he tried with all his might to lift it, but couldn't - and strength doesn't get much more mammoth than Superman. Thor remarked that Odin's enchantment will allow worthy wielders to hold the hammer briefly, even while Thor is still in the picture, if the need is great enough: "My father is stern, Superman, but not stupid."

Re: A Question of Utmost Importance

Re: Star Fleet Battles Hmm... I think it would be possible to use the Mass Combat rules from Fantasy HERO for fleet battles, if you placed the smaller ships into units that functioned collectively, and ran the capital ships like solo characters. That would allow you to handle large-scale engagements between multiple ships fairly simply.

Re: Difficulty reaching Super-Hero status This is something that novices to HERO sometimes misperceive: rolling a Hunted doesn't necessarily mean that the Hunter has to show up where the character currently is; or if the Hunter does show up, he doesn't necessarily have to fight or even directly interact with the character. There are a range of possibilities for using the Hunted Disad beyond simple confrontations.

Re: Elder Worm Reference Collection For the sake of completeness of our Elder Worm reference list, I'll just add that there are three additional Worm artifacts described and statted in Digital Hero #5, part of the "Leftover Hero" article which lists outtakes from Conquerors, Killers And Crooks. These are the Dagger Of The Worm (a formidable HTH weapon); the Torc Of S’thlaghha (a mental powers amplifier); and The Yiinashc Chain (a powerful Entangling device).

Re: Elder Worm Reference Collection Is anyone actually using any Elder Worm material in their games, for any genre or era? I recently retooled Wrath of the Seven Horsemen for my current Champions campaign, with substitutions. The Slug stood in for the Prime, but at his level of power from Galactic Champions. He has lesser Elder Worm minions based on the Slug writeup from Conquerors, Killers and Crooks. I also replaced the Black Death from Horsemen with Maraud from GC, because in my continuity the Xenovores were originally created by the Elder Worms. My PCs have much wormy nastiness ahead of them.

Re: How can I do THIS? To the credit of the Transform approach, Transform is an approved Power mechanic for adding abilities to a character.

Re: PRIMUS or UNTIL Comments by Steve and Darren here on the boards have made it pretty clear that Shelley has the gig, and that they're simply waiting for her to find the time to finish the manuscript. (Her Regency HERO project seems to be ahead of it in her queue.) However, Shelley has provided a couple of updates/expansions to PRIMUS for Digital HERO, specifically issues #2 and #6. Here's a free sample from the latter: http://www.herogames.com/digitalHero/Samples/dh06primus.htm

Re: Conversion - Wraith, the Oblivion Are we talking about the Shadow being run by another player in the game, or by the GM? If it's the latter case, the Shadow just becomes a GM-played NPC. I don't know a lot about Wraith, but Robert Harrison's conversion appears to build the Shadow as another character which is insubstantial (represented by buying back some of its Characteristics) which shares the Wraith's body. A Wraith has the Disadvantage: Hunted (Watched) by his Shadow: http://surbrook.devermore.net/whitewolf/WODwraith.html In 5E I'd build the Shadow using the Artificial Intelligence rules.

Re: Star Fleet Battles May I assume that what you've been looking into is the Prime Directive RPG, set in the universe of the Star Fleet Battles combat game? IIRC there are two versions of PD, the original and one for GURPS Third Edition. I believe that Steve Jackson Games will be coming out with a new version for GURPS Fourth Edition. One thing you might consider is looking up the very considerable fan conversions to HERO Fifth already on the Internet. To start with, here are character conversion notes and profession/race packages for the First Edition of Prime Directive, plus examples and guidelines for gaming in the Star Fleet Universe: http://www.seenar.com/games/primedirective/prime.html You would probably also benefit from these full campaign sourcebooks for the original Star Trek series, and Next Generation/ DS9: http://www.starherofandom.com/h_trekhero/index.php Between them you should be pretty well covered.

Re: Wedding Bells for Dr. Anomaly Nice going, Doctor! When I first read the title of the thread, I feared that this had something to do with your recent depression.