Sean Waters

Re: Shapeshifting You seem to be arguing both sides here. My contention is that shapeshift costs too much, that's my side. Oh, and it doesn't do what it says on the box. HERO defines SS as a sense affecting power, while actually calling it a Body power (another anomaly there, methinks). SS at present is a perfectly valid way to represent NSHG or Tommy Storks ability to look different. In fact, let's forget it is called shapeshift and let us call it 'Be Perceived Differently Power' (a catchy name I think you'll agree) because that is what it does. Mind you, to actually make anyone pay for this would be high order lunacy...and that is the core of my objection to the new way it is done. The Justicar: Villainy is Vanquished! But, rough fight, I'd better comb my hair before the press get here! GM: You can't do that, you haven't got Be Perceived Differently Power. What I'm after is a power that allows a character to Shift (by which I mean change) Shape (by which I mean...well...shape). To me that would be shape shifting. M'kay, so what are you saying it is about NEW! IMPROVED! shape shift that justifies the cost? Looking like someone specific is a single 10 point adder. That is the main utility in the power and as I suggested earlier should probably cost MORE, but shape shift in itself is of very limited use, if you leave imitation aside. Shapeshift is one of a small handful of powers with no effect on combat, and all the other ones (Mind Link, Clairsentience, Mind Scan) are all pretty darned useful for the poiints. So what does shape shift (sans imitation) do? Not a lot, really. The point is it is (imitation aside) largely a cosmetic power, and as such COSTS TOO MUCH. So we need to either decrease the cost or increase the meaty goodness. Preferably in a way that makes it seem like the character is changing shape... Stuff like you can modify your COM. No one uses COM anyway 99% of the time. No biggie. Extra PRE attack dice too. You can squeeze through tiny gaps (I was never entirely happy letting that one got to desolid, it is just that is how it was always done...it is clearly changing shape) You can hide stuff inside you. You are utterly impossible to arm lock or choke. Give that a basic cost, 30 points and say that if you change shape, your shape is *&%$£!*& well changed, and every sense that can discern shape knows it. Limitations for limited scope (limited number of forms or whatever) advantage for imitation (+1/2). We'll keep the cellular adder and say that if someone with it changes into a chair, to all intents and purposes they appear to be made of wood. True shapeshifters ignore increased or decreased damage due to hit location. Whatever, but it should be something unique that doesn't feel like half the other powers. We can have an adder to change scent, or maybe another power entirely. Change scent. 10 points. That was easy. I'm going on a bit... Look, I'm sorry if I come across a bit testy: it's that time of my life.

Re: Prophetic Insight ...hehehe...if you want to do it the long way round, how about a transdimensional temporal teleport into the past. The character actually lives the future, then goes into the past and does it again. It may work out different each time but you are learning, new stuff until.... Oh no, hang on. That's Groundhog Day, isn't it...

Re: Penetrating Killing/BOD Attacks

Re: Did you kill Malone? You don't have to be in Court for an admission to be cogent evidence: most admissions, for instance, are made in police stations...read into that what you will... It may be, but unless there has been a recent event which has created superpowers in your world, then telepathy and all the rest will probably have been round for some time and will be integrated into the mechanisms of society. There may be a Mental Privacy Act which specifically forbids telepathic probing without consent. That could be interesting for the Mind Hero: Pulsar gets taken down for a robbery he is about to commit, gets off because the evidence was obtained in breach of the MPA, and has the hero arrested for assault... On the other hand, maybe the are no privacy laws, but all telepaths are required to register and work for the Government...

Re: Shapeshifting Gaaaakkk! That's it though, isn't it? Back to Plastic Man, (practically) everything he does is a sfx for some other power: force wall, entangle, stretching: what is the game effect beyond the base power? Nothing, it's sfx: THE SHAPE SHIFT adds nothing, certainly if built the way HERO currently advocates, so I maintain that one of the best comic book examples of a shapeshifter doesn't have HERO shapeshifting. NSHG's change is not just a Clark Kent 'put on a suit and glasses' thing, it is a bolt of lightning, dividing a huge muscly God from a wimpy looking normal. He doesn't have powers in both forms. It is a real shape shift. Game effect is minimal. The base level of HERO shapeshifting is to a single other form - not much use as a disguise power, and an awful lot to spend to protect your secret ID.

Re: Activation and RSR ...but what if they were, for instance, linked (OK FF and EB are a bad example, say FF and flight): does it then become one power in essence? After all you are trying to manipulate a total of 120 points of magic power at a time... However I rather agree with your interpretation, which leads to this interesting point: if you do have 2x60 point powers with RSR, the real cost is 80 points. You can buy a magic skill for 3 points (11-) + 12 levels (to give you 17- after active point penalties) for 27 points, total cost 107 points, a 13 point for a power that is only limited to the extent that it fails one time in 216. The more powers you have on that RSR the more you save. Seems wrong to me. Seems like points for free. I was going to suggest that, no matter how high your skill roll, the best RSR roll you can make is 14- and anything over that can only be used to counter situational penalties. At least the perceiveable penalty for having the limitation actually limits the power. While we are on activation roll values, it strikes me that the values in FRED are wrong: 15- fails one time in 20, 14- fails (less than) 1 time in 5 and so on, so assuming that -1/4 means you lose about 1/4 of the utility, the progression should be: 11-...........-1 12-...........-3/4 13-...........-1/2 14-...........-1/4 15-...........-0 (so you can buy jammed) I know it has been the way it is now forever, but we have maths now.

Re: Have you ever taken a fall? Oh I'm just as bad if the players have MC. They need a three page contract to get someone to tell them their own name with any degree of reliability even with EGO+30 level of effect, so I don't feel too bad about letting a hero circumvent a MC from a villain. The thing is if a power is potentially abusable there are ways and means of discouraging the abuse. You can't argue with a 20d6 EB. Well, not until you wake up...

Re: Did you kill Malone? Actually it is an admission as it comes from the suspect, and so escapes the hearsay rule. The telepath would be considered an expert witness, just like an interpretter is. If you set it up so that a Court can accept telepathic evidence if agreed on by 3 telepaths, one appointed by hte defence, one by hte prosecution and one by the Court, evidence is no problem (Minority Report, sort of). Proving that telepathy exists and is reliable is just a matter of use and practice. ...but I know what you mean. Thing is just knowing the right answer is an enormous help, even if you can't prove it just now...

If you have two 60 points powers defined as 'Magic blast and Magic shield', and you have RSR on both (Magic roll) and you stick your Magic shield up you take a -6 on the roll. With the shield up, you Magic Blast someone. What is the penalty for the blast? -6 or -12: there are now 120 APs of magic power?

Re: Shapeshifting Far more than extra limbs. Which is silly.

Re: Shapeshifting OK... NSHG gets practically KO'd by the stun lottery, and he hadn't even bought a ticket. He ducks around a corner, chased by the CheeseMonger, who always uses killing attacks for this very purpose, and there is a crowd of normals. Thinking fast, NSHG changes into wimpy normal who is two foot shorter and completely nondescript, thinking that the CheeseMonger, who doesn't have AE attacks and didn't see him change, is going to have to kill his way through half the crowd before he finds him becasue the change is a flawless self only image: more than enough time to make any number of recoveries then... OK, silly un-heroic example, but the point is changing shape as a sfx CAN be used to your advantage, and it never unbalanced the game. The basic form of Shape SHift only allows you to assume one other form: not too useful, but now you have to pay enough for points for shapeshift that you could have bought 3/4 Physical Damage Reduction, Resistant, STUN only, and avoided all that tedious uncertainty. To return to the original point, I am simply saying shape shift is too expensive for its (lack of) utility. I don't like how it works either, but that is another point entirely.

Re: Have you ever taken a fall? A cynic, if such a beast existed, might think that (assuming there was still a fight going on) this was just a cunning was of avoiding being targetted whilst sneaking a recovery in plain sight, and so reward in its own right (if you get away with it). Even if it was it was probably worth a one off XP award for bare faced cheek. Not quite the same, but... I was running a game where one of my villains mind controlled the hero team flying brick and ordered him to attack his team mates. He did, attacking with his most powerful attack: his move through. I didn't see what he was doing until afterwards and it was beautiful: he targeted the highest DCV member of the team, pushing both his flight and strength, screaming a battle cry so he would be noticed and (naturally enough) with the OCV penalties v. high DCV, he missed. He'd angled his attack (we were using scenery) so that he flew straight into the door of a bank vault, caused no KB and stunned and knocked himself out with his own attack, all so that he didn't have to fight his team mates. It was absolutely in line with the MC instructions and incredibly heroic, and a beautiful way to 'subconsciously' fight the MC br role playing. He 'took a fall' for the team: that got extra XP, bigstyle.

Re: Penetrating Killing/BOD Attacks It is surprisingly difficult to come up with a realistic (should that be in inverted commas?) justification for penetrating at all. It is the attack that can cut through anything, and unless your trademark sound is 'snickt', not many characters have it. Armour piercing, no problem, but I am really very strict about poercing attacks. While we are on the subject, 1d6 NND EB Does BODY AE hex has the same effect and is pretty cheap (17 points before limitations) if you want to cause BODY damage to stuff and you can't get around it with hardened defences. A new variety of cheese for your delectation...

Re: Did you kill Malone?

Vacuum hits Mondo with a continuous attack and he taking damage from it every maintained phase, what happens if someone puts a force wall around Mondo or between Mondo and Vacuum? The continuous attack is not indirect and the force wall is not opaque. Does Mondo continue to take damage? FRED says that 'conventional barriers do not stop Line Of Sight' so is a non-opaque force wall 'conventional' for these purposes? I couldn't find anything in the FAQ about this. (In the specific instance I am thinking of, vacuum creates a (surprise...) vacuum in a largish area around the target who then takes NND damage if they need to breathe, and it doesn't seem to make sense that putting up a force wall would put the air back, but then it seems like a potential way to get around buying indirect, or a potentially abusive way of avoid in continuous attacks)

Re: Move Through/Move By Question: Does movement take time? I think that the lower DEX character is probably already going to have a job hitting without further substantial minuses. The hurry manoeuvre allows you to add 1d6 DEX only to go first for -2 OCV and DCV. Worth giving a go - getting the first blow in may not be a sure thing. You could add that and hitshot (combinig the penalties) if you wanted.

Re: How to make a Taser Ever heard of The Kindgom of Loathing? http://www2.kingdomofloathing.com/main.html

Re: How to make a Taser Ever heard of The Kindgom of Loathing? http://www2.kingdomofloathing.com/main.html

Re: Shapeshifting I saw your question to Steve. Ah well. Whatever the answer (and it IS legal, honest), think what you could do with that 45 point control cost. 512 extra forms. More than you'll ever use, so whether you build it in a multiform VPP or just as a multiform with extra forms it is still cheaper and easier than shapeshift PLUS powers.

Re: Did you kill Malone? Ok, next step...if he does know you are telepathic, how does he avoid thinking of Malone (and, for that matter, knowing you are a mind reader, all of his other guilty secrets?) - INT roll? EGO roll? Avoid thinking guilty thoughts is hardly an everyman skill!

Re: Triggers?

Re: Triggers? Two words: Damage Shield. There's a limitation that costs you more points if ever there was one...and this may be another. My reading is that the power can only be set off by the trigger: FRED indicates that a character can set off a power by fulfilling the trigger criteria. If the GM didn't handwave it (and for any decent explanation of how, I would) I'd say +1/4 at most to be able to trigger a power without fulfilling the trigger criteria.

Re: Ranged OK for HKA, not for HA Well I'm changing that rule for a start...

Re: Did you kill Malone?

Re: Breaking a Mental Defense Force Wall Wouldn't that be a flash attack? Only if it is, it can probably also break through a Mental Force Wall.