Lord Liaden

Re: Ultimate Martial Artist BACK for an Encore You mean he left them with Mork?

Re: Eating your lunch... I admit that the Mutants and Masterminds line includes some very nice-looking books. I also admit that I've been somewhat disappointed in the production quality of certain HERO books recently, notably in the artwork. I don't expect Hero Games to pay for glitzy color art like in some M&M books, but a return to the standards of HG's first couple of years would be welcome, and might draw the interest of non-hardcore HEROphiles. All that said, I've mostly been very happy with the content and direction of my Champions books. OTOH I'm glad that there's another quality supers game out there that caters to people with different preferences and expectations than Champions and HERO covers. That sort of product helps generate interest in the genre in general, which IMHO is good for the hobby overall. As Steve Long is fond of saying, "A rising tide floats all boats."

Re: Super Agents? Shelley Chrystal Mactyre (author of the PRIMUS sourcebook) has participated in two extended superagents-type campaigns for Champions, which she has turned into pretty cool mini-sourcebooks on her website: Chessmen, patterned after the "Checkmate" organization from DC Comics; and Armitage Investigations, a private paranormal investigation agency. Michael Surbrook has done the same thing for his campaign setting, The Phenomena Department, revolving around an agency dedicated to combatting supernatural menaces. Very nice stuff.

Re: First time Hero buyer Hey, Naked Mole Rat, I hope you don't feel personally responsible for this. This sort of debate happens all the time around here. It seems to be endemic to HERO gamers. IMHO it's part of the fun of hanging around here. Even if you don't participate you can just sit back and watch the train wreck.

Re: Superheroic Weapons of Legend You are aware of Michael Surbrook's repertoire, right? http://surbrook.devermore.net/herosource/enchantedweapons.html I know some of those entries have Independent, but surely it wouldn't be that hard to leave them out.

Re: Multiple charges Ah, I get it now. Sorry, Ladikn, I didn't understand your question. The chart with the values of those Limitations is still in the original online rules FAQ here on the website, from before much of the FAQ was incorporated into 5ER. Just go here, http://www.herogames.com/SupportFAQs/rules/POWER%20FRAMEWORKS.htm , and scroll down to the Multipowers section. The chart is a few entries further down. BTW the old rules FAQ contains a great deal of the material that's since gone into 5ER, although it's far less organized. Still, I don't have 5ER either, and I generally do okay with my good ol' FREd and the FAQ. Those FAQ are available both online and in free PDF. In case you haven't found it yet, here's where you can find links to both the current (Revised) FAQ and the old FAQ: http://www.herogames.com/SupportFAQs/supportfaqsherogames.htm Also, since most of what's in 5ER was originally in FREd, it may help you when Steve Long gives a 5ER page reference to know what the analogous page in the original 5E rulebook was. One of our boardmates, zornwil, generously posted the correspondences between 5E and 5ER page numbering, here: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26915

Re: First time Hero buyer Let me join the chorus of Welcomes, Naked Mole Rat. (I hope wherever you're posting from, it's warm.) The Strength Debate is ongoing around here. Just to throw another opinion into the mix, a lot of HEROphiles (myself included) feel that at this price Strength is competitive with Energy Blast and the like for superheroic games, where you want to be able to build superstrong characters as inexpensively as other types. In that genre the various Power Frameworks tend to get used more often, and those plus the Ranged capacity of Powers balance better with Strength. I'm also one of those that Thia Halmades mentions who double the cost of Strength in heroic-level games. IMHO the recommended increased Endurance usage for Strength in those games justifies doing that. But you will indeed find numerous dissenting opinions about all the above factors. Be aware that if you're so inclined you can probably keep this discussion going a long, long time.

Re: "Berserker" character There's a Power construct like this in The Ultimate Brick, "Rage Enhanced Strength" - essentially the Hulk's "madder he gets, stronger he gets" ability. Basically it's a Continuous Aid to Strength, Triggered when the character becomes Enraged. Darren Watts used this construct for his "official" Hulk writeup in Game Trade Magazine when that periodical was commemorating the Hulk movie. That issue of GT had a feature statting the Hulk in several RPG systems. They even put the feature on their website as a free PDF. Although the PDF is no longer there, one of our board colleagues, John M. Hammer, has generously hosted it on his personal website, here. If you were to base your writeup on this one, I'd just use Variable Effect for Aid to cover all the Characteristics and Powers that you want to be increased simultaneously. Succor could be used in a similar way, if you prefer that.

Re: Everyman progress? No, it's actually a compendium of writeups for diverse and interesting "normal" people to use as NPCs in a Champions campaign. They can be DNPCs with different backgrounds; sources of support, information or help for PCs, possibly as Contacts or Favors; nonsuperpowered but still influential obstacles to PC actions, like wealthy businessmen, lawyers and politicians; or people with plot hooks to draw the PCs into, or just intriguing encounters in the course of their adventures. There was a book like this for Fourth Edition called Normals Unbound, which many of us considered one of the most useful books in the line.

Re: Relics of the Arch Mage Wards of the Sanctum: Four talismans that, when placed at the foundation of a building at the four cardinal compass points, erect a magical ward around that building. No mystical being can pass through the ward without the Archmage's permission (unless the being is powerful enough to shatter it), and the ward blocks any type of magical scrying into the building. I'm thinking a powerful Force Wall large enough to englobe a moderate-sized residence, Opaque to a custom "Mystic Sense Group," Fully Invisible so that it's not obvious to the Archmage's enemies, with Personal Immunity so that the Archmage isn't impeded by it. I'd probably make the talismans Inobvious Accessible Foci, Immobile, and add a custom Limitation, "Only blocks supernatural beings/forces."

Re: Multiple charges You'll find the specifics about applying Charges to Multipowers on FREd pp. 207-208. If that doesn't answer your questions, please post a followup.

Re: Superheroic Weapons of Legend How about the adamantine sickle of Cronus, leader of the Titans? I don't think it was ever definitively stated in myth that it passed into Tarterus when Zeus imprisoned Cronus there. Cronus is also often identified as an agricultural god (especially when associated with the Roman Saturn), so it wouldn't be unreasonable that it might grant some powers over plants, as well. Sickle of Cronus: Multipower, 75 point reserve (75 Active Points), all slots OAF Unbreakable (-1) 4u Adamantine Blade: 2D6 HKA (4D6 with STR), Armor Piercing, Penetrating, Reduced Endurance (0 END) 3u Plant Mastery I: Telekinesis 50 STR, Only where plants can grow (-1/2) 3u Plant Mastery II: Entangle 8D6, DEF 7, Only where plants can grow (-1/2) Total Cost: 47 points Other plant-related Multipower slots could easily be added.

Re: post-apocalyptic genre book I would support publication of those HERO PA settings for which a great deal of quality work has already been done: Keith Curtis's Savage Earth, preferably in color to take advantage of Keith's beautiful artwork and maps; Ron Miller's Wasteland HERO, for that classic Gamma World style.

Re: Greatest Super Battle Ever

Re: A tidbit from "Hidden Lands" If we're talking his pre-Takofanes incarnation from the age that bears his name, Steve Long has mentioned that as an element of that fantasy setting he's essentially a plot device, not meant for player-characters to take on directly. If you really wanted to use him that way you could modify his current-day writeup as Takofanes for Conquerors, Killers and Crooks, but that version would effortlessly crush any opposition below that of very powerful superhero-class characters. And in the Turakian Age he was supposed to be even stronger!

Re: A tidbit from "Hidden Lands" IMHO, this is an example of the cool positive possibilities in the unified Hero Universe timeline.

Re: Restrainable I'm going to be chuckling over that image all night.

Re: Restrainable That's a very reasonable position. For my part I've tried to be more flexible in whether or not I allow Movement to be stopped by a Grab or Entangle. After all, how many times have we seen the scenario in comics where a character is unshakeably held by an opponent, but then takes off in flight to attempt to shake him off? Or a strong man continuing to drag himself forward while someone clings to him trying to hold him back? I'm willing to give the SFX of the situation more leeway in those situations.

Re: Restrainable When it comes to a power defined as coming from a specific body part as SFX, rather than taking the Restrainable Limitation, I've been ruling that any in-combat attempt to stop the Power has to be targetted at that body part, with the appropriate Hit Location penalties, or it may not be effective. For example, for a character who shoots Energy Blasts with his hands who is Grabbed and has his arms immobilized, he may still be able to twist his arm around to point his hand at a target, even the one Grabbing him. To render him incapable of blasting anyone effectively, the attacker would have to specifically Grab his hands, at a further -6 OCV penalty. OTOH a Power bought with Restrainable can be immobilized by any general Grab or Entangle which hits the target.

Re: resolving a tie

Re: Need Spell ideas... I heartily second this recommendation. Those Power prebuilds work excellently as written for supermagic spells. At most you might want to modify the SFX a bit, or slap on an extra Limitation or two. Presto! Giant Grimoires of spells. However, if you prefer a free online alternative, then I strongly recommend The Global Guardians Grimoire, a large archive of supermagic spells culled from the vast Global Guardians shared PBeM campaign world for Champions: http://www.globalguardians.com/grimoire/grimoireab.php IMPORTANT NOTE: When you get to the first webpage that I linked to, the alphabetical links in the list toolbar do not function beyond the first entry (AB), because the web addresses in the links haven't been updated. This is easily fixed, though. When you click on one of those links it will show you a "Page Not Found" error message; but all you have to do is change the last letters in the address, "html", to "php" and it will take you to the right page. Or, just change the two letters before ".php" in the address I posted above to those of the alphabetical page you want to view, e.g. "cd", "ef" etc.

Re: Mjolnir

Re: The Ultimate Disadvantage, talk about it here Most likely ulcers and migraines.

Re: Royal Navy Hero This would definitely include Shelley Chrystal "PRIMUS" Mactyre's Regency HERO sourcebook project. She's been working on this for a long time, and from all reports by management it looks like it will be published by Hero Games at some unspecified future date. In the meantime, you can see a few samples of what Shelley has been working on on her website: http://www.mactyre.net/archives/regency/ .

Re: Making a Ninja Hero Campaign with Anthro Characters