Mister E

Re: Summoner What about a Multipower with three Duplication powers in it, so you could only use one at a time?

Re: DEX: and the Marvel Universe Okay, I have an observation. Say I give Spider-Man a 40 Dex, and Acrobatics, with no skill levels, (just so I can gage the super-ness of his raw Dexterity). His skill level in Acrobatics would be 17-, which is considered Highly Skilled, making Spider-Man "one of the very best in the world," at the skill. Now, am I wrong in imagining that Spider-Man's untrained potential for Acrobatics should be far better than what I have just described? 17- is crazy good, sure, but wouldn't 18- to 19- Extremely Skilled, be more accurate? Even at this level, he is only, "pushing the envelope of what the skill can do"... Personally, my belief is that Spider-Man, without the extra training of added Skill Levels in Acrobatics, has at least a 20- Skill Roll, which (quote), "amazes even other skilled practitioners." Spider-Man should not have to have +3 Skill Levels in Acrobatics, to fall into this zone of ability. To have a 20- Skill Roll, would require Spider-Man to have a DEX of at least 53, which is sky-high compaired to what most of you have proposed. This would mean that Captain America, if given a DEX of 30, would need +8 CSL's to hit him often, (that is, if he could ignore Spider-Man's spidy-sense)... and with anything less, would probably miss. This seems pretty accurate to me. I would also say that Spider-Man would not be a playable character, for most campaigns, having a base CV of 18, which puts him in the Cosmically Powerful catagory. This also seems accurate, when you consider how few beings, in the entire Marvel Universe, can nail Spider-Man, without an AoE attack, or by catching him by surprise, (which is ridiculously rare). Recall that even Firelord had a hard time hitting him (though I imagine Spider-Man was using Martial Dodge, or something). Having popular superheroes from comics, not be playable, as Champions characters, is nothing new. Is it not possible that most of you are deflating Spider-Man to make him playable? Any comments?

Re: Summoner You could also just consider "summoning" to be a special effect of his powers. Like, for instance, an Indirect EB that has the special effect of being a Fire Imp, named Ignatio Flatus, that he quickly summons and dismisses.

Re: Need help with military rank titles The Rank of "Rear Admiral, Lower Half" (which does suck), used to be called Commodore, not long ago. I'm guessing they changed it, because the brass at that level wanted the prestege of being referred to as "Admiral". Little did they realize... "Commodore" is a much richer and more distinguished title, with way more historical grounding, IMO. They never had both Commodores and Rear Admiral Lower Halves in the same navy, at the same time. For instance, there are no Commodores in the American navy, anymore; just lots of Lower Halves of Rear Admirals. Popeye's dad was a Commodore.

Re: Illuminatus!: Champions This is great stuff, thanks tbryant23.

I'm still in the middle of the book, and am finding it a real treat. If you were going to use concept-elements from the "Illuminatus! Trillogy" for generating a Champions campaign featuring superheroes in such a world: what would you do, and where would you start? (Don't feel like you need to hold back any plot secrets, just because I haven't finished the book.) These are some ideas I'm tossing around: 1) Superheroes as people (or whatever) that have "waken-up" to a larger reality, giving them their unique powers. 2) A secret war of supers, battling outside the public's awareness. 3) Manditory psionics for all supers. 4) Having the Astral Plane as the battlefield for super-powered combat. 5) Having normal humans simply not be able to "see" super-humans in action. Lay it on me! fnord

Re: DEX: and the Marvel Universe What are you refering to' date=' here? [i']Marvel Superheroes[/i]?

Re: Spider Man Clone

Re: Power Rangers

Re: HERO System Vehicles I like the way Vehicles are basically specialized character write-ups. It's an eligant solution, that is very compatable to the game system. I my game, anyone who wants their character to be able to punch through Hardened Defenses like they're made of paper (or tin foil), should be expected to buy Penetrating x2 for their STR. This probably isn't too far-fetched when you imagine how much PSI a super-strong brick could deliver with the tips of his fingers. If you used the optional Wounding, Impairing, or Disabling rules... your attacks would also have greater effects, and possibly give you a hightened level of realism. Even if you don't use these rules for the Heroes themselves, I could see using them for Vehicles, just for that reason. Otherwise, super-strong characters should tear appart tanks with their bare hands, using Power Stunts to Dispell systems on the tank... ripping off the the Hardened Armor sounds like a hell of a lot of fun... so does bending the main cannon into a pretzel. Dropping on a tank, using a kind of "death from above" technique, would allow you to get extra Velocity Damage, right? This could be simulated with a Move Through using Leaping. Tanks generally have crappy DCV's... you could get extra Damage with a "Called Shot to the Nuts." -6 OCV targets the Engine/Drive Train, and gives x1.5 BODY to your attack, which is pretty cool. When superheroes come up upon Attacks with the "Real Weapon" Disadvantage, all they need is a little creativity in order to use that to their advantage. That's why "Real Weapon" is a Disadvantage that is worth character points. Sure, it's a vague Disadvantage, (that is no where near as clear-cut as most of the others), but it does what it needs to do, which is make the Attack Power vulnerable to basic, real world, problems... like bent gun-barrels. I, myself, am amazed at how much detail went into all of the vehicle write-ups in the UV and the Vehicle Sourcebook; and I'm pretty saticefied with my purchases. Until these books came out, I was paralized at the thought of having to go through the effort of writing up vehicles for my players. One critique on tanks, that I've noticed... in the UV, none of the tanks have KB resistance, but in The Vehicle Sourcebook, they all do. This is no big deal... given how modular the game is, and how much effort the game designers have done for me, it's pretty much a walk in the park to add KB resistance where ever I want it. I think making vehicles move in continuous segments might be a good idea... but at that point, (and I could see this being done as a house rule) why not let the characters move during segments, too? I think the reason for this boils down to the fact that it would slow down table-top combat speed, which is a pretty major consideration. (I remember one battle my players had, where a car was flying through the air, with a player in it... and another player made a long Soliloquy so that it would land on a villain before he could react to it. We laughed pretty hard over the absurdity of the situation... and even though the plan didn't work because of the failed Presence Attack... it was a great game session, never-the-less.)

Re: Combat Skill Levels....how many should you have? I value CSL's exactly the same as I value Skill Levels. And for those I have a system. On the side bar of pages 28 and 29 of H5ed, is the Degrees of Skill chart: 8-:Familiarity 11-: Competent 12- to 13-: Skilled 14- to 15-: Very Skilled 16- to 17-: Highly Skilled 18- to 19-: Extremely Skilled 20- or greater: Incredibly Skilled Note: "At 20- or greater, the character's ability with the Skill amazes even other skilled practitioners. The character is perheps the greatest master of the Skill in history. This is the realm of superheroes, gods, heroes of myth, and supergeniuses." ~side-bar, pg. 29, H5ed. On page 26, is the Skill Roll Chart. From that, you will see that the maximum human stat of 30 yields Skill Roll of 15-. So from there, I determined that +5 Skill Levels was to be considered legendary, the peak of humanly achievable skill. Anything beyond this, would be fully 'superhuman'. The grades of skill down from that followed the Degree of Skill chart: +5 Skill Levels/CSL's: Incredibly Skilled +4 Skill Levels/CSL's: Extremely Skilled +3 Skill Levels/CSL's: Highly Skilled +2 Skill Levels/CSL's: Very Skilled +1 Skill Levels/CSL's: Skilled +0 Skill Levels/CSL's: Competent Conceivably, any number of combat skill levels could be considered acceptably within human limits... and this could be just the graduated measuring stick for marking where you are, before you break the gage. If you put this into applied/familiar superhero terms, I would state it like this: Captain America has a DEX of 30, and +5 or more CSL with All Combat, for instance... giving him a base CV of 10, and a max CV of 15. According to the Character Ability Guidelines Table on pg. 15 of H5ed, this would put Cap in the "Very High Powered" Superheroic category, if not better. This to me, fits where in my mind, the veteran/leader of the Avengers Captain America should be... roughly.

Re: The status of normals in the Superhero genre I love the whole back from the dead, schtick... but when Colossus died, to develope a cure for the legacy virus, it seemed significant to me. I've heard that he's back, and I'm not surprised, but I am a little disappointed that he wasn't given the 'Final Death' such a selfless sacrifice potentially deserves.

Re: Mental Martial Arts Would you possably consider Psilock's psi-blade to be an example of Martial Arts enhancing Mental Power's, or are you thinking more totally in the psionic realm?

"Where, on the DEX chart, do the expert posters of the HERO GAMES Discussion Boards, believe the iconic heroes of the Marvel Universe should fall?" I am especially interested to learn how far past DEX 30 you are willing to go, to accurately represent those characters with potentially super-human DEX: such as Beast; Nightcrawler; Spider-Man; Quicksilver; Thor; Rogue; Dracula; Hercules; and so on... if in fact you would even do so. The purpose of this thread, is to help each other develop a keener, more generally agreed upon, understanding of the Dexterity (DEX) Characteristic, and how it applies to both the Marvel and Champions Universes, in HERO System, 5th ed. game terms.

Re: Player vs. Character I'm all about wading into the bad-guys, and getting the action started. It is in the heat of battle, that I'd like to think I get my best ideas. Plus, it's more fun for me to be surprised by nasty villain tricks, than to watch as my carefully worked-out, and thoughtfully pre-rehearsed, tactics look stupid when they don't work, and end up being a waste of game time. This is not a hard and fast rule of mine... I'm generally flexible. There are lots of ways to have fun. But desperation, caused by dwindling resources, and pushing the limits of my abilities, tends to heighten the intensity of the moment; and this is much of the rush I'm looking for. In the case of the Iron-Man scenerio you gave us... I would, (without a doubt), charge through the door, with the belief that every second I waste, was a chance for the villain to do more harm. That is what true heroism is all about: Risk of self, for the higher cause of saving others. Postumously awarded honors are the most significant and profound. IRL...well, that's another story.

Re: GAC Plots "Kilroy was here..." Kilroy, a German super-spy, (possably with the powers of Invisibility, Teleportation, Duplication, and/or Desolidification), who has been seen snooping around the US's many stragic military compounds... is discovered in the player's main HQ. "Lights in the Sky" Foo Fighters, unidentified lights that whizzed around in the night sky during bombing raids, begin zapping pilots right out of their cockpits, and flying off into the Mid-Atlantic with them. "There's something outside the plane, on the wing!" Gremlins, nasty little imps that the Nazi's have learned to summon, swarm all over a bomber plane, with the characters in it, during a long flight.

Re: Question from a new GM

Re: Question from a new GM

Re: Adventure Seeds--Title Tag "He's Not Mechanon, He's My Brother!" "Memories of the Minotaur" "How is the Squid, Today?"

Re: Adventure Seeds--Title Tag "Fist full of Fear" Wizzing through space, along the same planetary orbit as the Earth, but a month behind, is a huge astroid known as Astroid-X. On Astroid-X is a super-advanced observation platform, built by aliens thousands of years ago, used to study life on Earth. The alien species that accupies Astriod-X is an ultra-conservative logic-based egg-head type, that pretty much lacks any kind of human emotion... known as the Covenant. It is their job to make sure humanity gets a fair chance to make it in the Universe, without having to worry about being primaturelly destroyed by chaotic random astrological disasters: like the one that killed the dinosaurs, or the one that fractured Earth Mk. I, and created the moon. Unfortunately, the Covenant has broken into two separate factions: The first faction maintains it's original directive... to protect humanity from afar. The second faction has taken a liking to humanity's many colorful cultures, and wants to participate directly in its developement. Anyhow... open war has broken out on Astroid-X. The Covenant on both sides cannot come to any kind of agreement, and have arived at the conclusion that the other side must be wiped out in order to continue their goals. The power levels involved are pretty high, and the Player Characters become aware of the fire-works display, via some kind of space monitering computer they own. Soon after, they become aware that an unusual, and large, object is heading straight for Earth... a wickedly nasty singularity-string, hundreds of miles long, and only a week away from totally destroying the planet. The Players need to get the Covenant to quit fighting long enough to save Earth from the singularity-string. After that, it would probably be a good idea to do something about the schism dividing the aliens, or they will eventually wipe each other out... and then man-kind will be defenseless against future dangers. How the Players get to Astroid-X is up to them, I suppose. If they can't do it on their own, or they don't think to check the disturbances on the newly discovered celestial object... you could have one of the Covenant factions beam them aboard, and ask for help... though this IS kind of heavy-handed. I see the Covenant as frustratingly uncompromising. I also imagine the Heroes being manuevered into performing jobs for both sides, before picking a side themselves, and fighting for it. Other solutions are of course possible...

Re: NPC concept in progress....help needed niji (n) rainbow shuniji (n) primary rainbow fukuniji (n) secondary rainbow nijiiro (n) rainbow-colored hakkou (n) (rare) white rainbow kougie (n) literary rainbow I found this at http://linear.mv.com/cgi-bin/j-e/dict.

Re: Is my campaign too low-powered? Too high-powered? The Rule of X is a good way to go. This think this was inspired by the Fusion system, and can be found on the sidebar of the "Champions" book, pg 131. Basically, you come up with a formula, where you add up elements of a character, and the total has to be at, or below, X. For instance: DC's in hardest hitting attack (plus) OCV with same attack (plus) SPD (Equals) Offensive X Active Points in most powerful defense, divided by 5 (plus) highest DCV (plus) SPD (equals) Defensive X Offensive X (plus) Defensive X (equals) Rule of X Using the Rule of X allows for lots of character creation freedom... but it can be a bitch to figure for players. It is an uber-fair system, and it tends to reward moderation. I use the averages for Standard Superheroes, given on page 15 of "HERO5ed": 10 DC's 10 OCV 6 SPD for a Off-X of 26 20/10 DEF/rDEF is roughly worth 25 points... divided by 5... is 5 but you figure this twice for Physical and Energy DEF... for a score of 10 10 DCV 6 SPD for a Def-X of 26 My total Rule of X is thus 52 I have found that the higher the average SPD, the better... because then differences in SPD aren't as crippling or overpowering.

Re: Who is your campaigns "Bad Guy they love to hate" Doctor Vang... a cross between Ming the Merciless, and Doctor Doom. He's a Fu-Man-Chu villain, from Earth... who wants to rule the Universe. My player's are all big fans of "Flash Gordon", and they like my Max von Sydow impersonations... Plus, alien civilizations that have encountered Doctor Vang, tend to take all Earthlings very seriously. =P

Re: Primal Force! This might seem like a cheesie answer, but I would recommend picking up the "UNTIL Super Powers Database." It has all kinds of great elemental-specific stuff in it. Barring that... You could come up with your own powers, of course. =) Beyond the elemental theme, it would be neat to make each form distinctive utility-wise. For instance: EARTH~Tank *Armor (15 PD/15 ED), Visible (-1/4) *+15 STR *+3 PD *+3 ED *Knockback Resistance -3" *Physical and Energy Damage Reduction, Resistance, 50% WIND~Controller *Telekinesis (30 STR) *Force Wall (8 PD/8 ED) *Flight 20" WATER~Bendy-Toy *Desolidification (Affected by water, fire, and cold attacks); Cannot Pass Through Solid Objects (-1/2) *Physical Damage Reduction, Resistant 50%; Costs Endurance (-1/2) *Energy Damage Reduction, Resistance 25%; Costs Endurance (-1/2) *Stretching 8" *Clinging (normal STR); Costs Endurance (-1/2), Cannot Resist Knockback (-1/4), Requires a Water-Form Tricks Roll (1/2) FIRE~Blaster *Energy Blast 8d6 *Sight Group Flash 8d6 *Force Field (16 PD/24 ED) *HKA 1 1/2d6, Continuous (+1), Damage Shield (+1/2); No STR bonus (-1/2).

Re: Roll up, roll up... Let's see how YOUR Marvel Select will do... This is my line-up: ~ Thor ~ Silver Surfer ~ Hulk ~ Professor Xavier ~ Doctor Strange ~ Reed Richards ~ Iron-Man ~ Spider-Man If the Marvel Universe has a "Superman," it would have to be Gladiator, the Shi'ar Imperial Guardsman... so why not throw him into the line-up? His powers are all derived from his confidence, like Captain Marvel's I believe, so what if we had his ego super-boosted by Professor Xavier. If that was done, I could see him holding his own against the REAL Superman... possably even going the distance. The only thing against Gladiator, is the fact that he is just a supporting caste member... so I can't in good conscience use him. Professor X could like-wise reach into the Hulk's mind, and push his rage to the limits, (the same way Jean Grey did with the Hulk against Onslaught.) The Hulk, at his utterly most pissed off, is insanely powerful... easily strong enough to crush Wonder-Woman, or Aquaman... in fact, I would be surprised if the Green Lantern could contain the Hulk in such a state. Of course, the Green Lantern is going to have his hands full with the Silver Surfer. I love the Green Lantern, and always will... but the Surfer will finish him off so fast, it's silly... and then move on to helping the rest of the Marvel team work on Superman, or the Flash. I'm pretty sure the Power Cosmic can whip up a batch of Kryptonite on the fly. And, if Professor Xavier could supe-up Gladiator's confidence... he could also use his mind to beet down Captain Marvel's, which should soften him up enough for just about anyone to finish him off... like Doctor Strange, Sorceror Supreme of Earth. Against Batman, Iron-Man seems like the obvious parallel: They are both genius, millionaire-playboy-industrialists turned super-heroes... and honestly, I think Tony Stark's toys are a little more decisive, slugfest-wise... I also think Spider-Man would give Batman a run for his money, at least 50% of the time. It's all about the spidey-senses. In the end, I want to see how Mr. Fantastic handles "the Bat." He is strong, fast, durable... yes, I think Mr. Fantastic could concievably 'take' Batman, though it would be tricky. Hulk, Thor, and Silver Surfer are all "A"-list muscle-men... When compared to DC's "A"-list; Superman, Wonder-Woman, and Captain Marvel... it's kind of a toss-up, with DC winning ties. The desiding factor for me, would be the supporting team members on the Marvel team: Doctor Strange and Professor Xavier. If in fact, DC was better at moving mountains than Marvel... this fact won't help them when they have been shunted to the Astral-Dimension without their bodies... or their minds have been turned off. Simply using Mental Illusions on the tough guys from DC, would give Marvel's heroes a huge edge. Martain Manhunter will do what he can to save his friends, but honestly, what chance does he have against Strange and Xavier? Doctor Strange, Professor Xavier, and Mr. Fantastic, would be thrillingly dangerous if they were all on the same team. Doctor Strange is probably the most deviously tricky and manipulative hero in both worlds... Professor Xavier would respectfully bitch-slap the Martian Manhunter all over the Psychic Plane... and Mr. Fantastic's raw genius is staggering; plus, his understanding of dimensional science has to be second to none... If there is anyone in the Marvel Universe that could somehow combat the Flash's mastery over the Speed-Dimension, I bet it would be Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic)... otherwise, I really don't know who else to call, other than Silver Surfer... and with the Power Cosmic, that just seems ridiculous. But back to Richards... if the Marvel Universe had a Speed Dimension, like DC does, I don't see why Mr. Fantastic wouldn't have discovered it, and like-wise learned to make use of it. It's hard for me to imagine a venue where Aquaman and Spider-Man could fight, without one having the obvious upper hand over the other. The hardest choice I made was leaving out Captain America. We all know what a dangerous combatant he is... and how he would do against Batman, of course... but he would have to take either Mr. Fantastic, Iron-Man, or Spider-Man's slot... which doesn't work for me.