Netzilla

Re: Starting points for rookies in established campaign In our campaign, we've had this come up a few times. Our long-time characters are currently sitting around 470 total points or so (starting from 350). The way we handle it is that the new character starts at 350. Then, they get 30ep per session until they've caught up with the rest of the group. At that point, they gain ep as normal. Fortunately, by the way we've spent ep, our veterans aren't hugely more powerful than when they started. Rather, they're more flexible. I think the average CV has gone up maybe one or two points and the average DC probably not much more than 3 or 4.

Re: How to rate the effectiveness of a character Attached is an Excel spreadsheet my group developed for helping combat-balance characters. Of course, it it only balances for combat, and it would really only work for a straight-out slug-fest. Things like Drains, Darkness, Invisibility, etc. are well outside it's scope, so it's far from perfect. However, it's worked pretty well for our Supers campaign. Basicially, just fill in the values you think are proper for the average super in your campaign, then the character's stats & then hit 'Calculate'. Essentailly, it should take the character the same amount of time to KO Average Super as it does for him to be KOed. Eventually, however, with experience you can get a better gut feeling for balanced & unbalanced characters & there's just no good substitute for that.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... From our last bi-weekly session: ****** Ghost Hunter: The thing that worries me is that he had an astral woody inside your head. ****** [scene: Front yard of a PC's (Secret ID) home. After a minor altercation with a disguised villain, the front wall has been blown out and the police and fire department have arrived. Solar is the only one there in costume; everyone else is still in their civilian IDs]. Solar [to police officer]: I was invited to a party here, had a little too much cola and I uh… I burped. ****** [scene: PC's husband is driving home toward the above disaster. One of the characters, Spirit Master, heads off to intercept him. He flies over the husband's car, waits for him to reach a stop light and lands next to him.] Spirit Master: Vehicle inspection… new thing in Missouri… I'm moonlighting… Can we talk? ****** [spirit Master & Solar discussing how to distract the police away from the above disaster so that the husband does not come home to find cops everywhere (of course, the front wall of his house would still be blown out, but at least they're trying).] Spirit Master: I know. Accident on the highway nearby. Solor: Really? Spirit Master: Yeah. I'm going to cause one right now. Call it in.

Re: Starting from 8's in Primary Characteristics Heck in college, I used to work out 3 days per week, practiced Judo & was on the Fencing team so I got a little more excercise than most folks, but wasn't close to where the serious jocks were. Back then, at 5' 8", 140 lbs, I could squat 350. I don't know what my deadlift was, but there you go. So, I don't think the Hero STR averages are much off (if at all). Unfortunately, I'm not quite in that shape any more.

Re: Symbiotic Relationship

Re: Sex and the Single Superhuman Dude, you haven't told your wife that you're a superhero?

Re: Sex and the Single Superhuman Well, she is a fashion designer. Now that I think about it, weird costumes, lots of travel, odd hours... I never reallized just how good a cover that is for a superhero.

Re: Sex and the Single Superhuman

Re: Sex and the Single Superhuman

Re: Ion Cannons I'd do it as a Dispell vs. Electronics. Dispells tend to break Foci and since it seemed to take repairs to fix electronics fried by an Ion Cannon in SW it seems to fit. If you're wanting just a temporary effect, I'd do either an all-or-nothing Drain or Supress (though the supress would also require Uncontrolled & whatnot).

Re: Sex and the Single Superhuman Neutron starts at 3x normal human density (over 500#) with enough strength to bench-press a buick without even trying. Non-plutonic relationships with a normal woman would get messy. Unfortunately, the other members of his band, Dark Sun, view the situation as "more groopies for us". I just had to make a superhero who also wants to be a rock star. Ghost Hunter has a girlfriend who has no idea what he does at his 'night job'. She thinks he goes a little too hard during tournaments and sparring sessions (he runs a martial arts school) as he's always got new cuts, bruises, sprains and the like. Freon had a body temperature just above freezing, so I'm sure you can see the problems there. Plus, he was a bit too busy trying to keep anyone from finding out that he was really an ex-cop who'd been bounced off the force under suspicion of being 'on the take'. The fact that the mob was after his real ID didn't help matters either. The other players' characters in our group have simlar problems (radioactivity, possessed by an alien symbiot, already married, etc.)

The most recent KB question made me think of something. Is there a way for the attacker to voluntarily reduce the amount of KB done without having to reduce the Body damage (say by pulling the punch)? Thanks.

Re: Balancing Magic Like OddHat basically said, the first problem when it comes to discussing the balance of different magic systems is that you need a context from which to start. With so many different possible 'rules' by which magic can work (i.e. what it can and can't do from a story rather than mechanics perspective) it's a futile effort to determine how to balance it without one. If you want massively powerful wizards that can devastate armies, then rather than limiting magic, you need to somehow beef up the non-magic characters (if they're even allowed as PCs). If you want wizards of very narrow focus who can only cast a handful of spells, then looking a their spell list as their equivalent to Martial Arts Maneuvers isn't a bad way of going at it. Combat spells should probably have similar capability to more mundane weapons (though they might be able to do things like autofire and area effect by sacrificing damage) and have similar numbers of restrictions. Utility spells get more freedom, depending on what the GM wants to put up with (will having characters that can fly/see for miles/read minds ruin your plots). One idea I've kicked around is for mages that have a few significant spells, but have lots of little 'cantrips' with very minor effects. Toward this end, I've figured on having practiced mages purches their main spells using the 1/3 model in FH. Then, for those cantrips, they can buy a small VPP (Pool size equal to or less than their Magic skill) that they pay only the control cost on. This 'Cantrip Pool' could not be used for combat-oriented spells. The problem comes from how cheap some senses, movement powers & the like can be. A 10 point pool is enough for 5" of flight or 10" of leaping; +3 on Perception rolls; IR and UV vision, and a host of other things that can be difficult for a GM to plan for.

Re: The "Whoops" Thread The initial make-up of the St. Louis-based Guardians was a density-based Brick, a flying Brick, a regenerating alien Brick, a Martial-Artist and a flying Energy Projector. A bit of a lack of ranged abilities. The current mix is the flying Brick and flying Energy Projector from before, a new Mystic Martial Artist, a Supermage and another Supermage. Fortunately we're now set up so that the players each have a couple characters so we can mix and match as we want in an Avengers/JLA sort of way.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... These are from our last bi-weekly Saturday superhero game: The group is searching for a magical gateway wherein an important NPC may be hiding. One of the group mages (yes, we've got 2 on a superhero team), Kendrick, has been there, but it was over 1000 years ago, so he doesn't remember exactly where it is. Ghost Hunter: How come you magic types never write stuff like this down? Kendrick: Hey, that's a good idea. ============ Solar, nuclear physicist and walking atmoic reactor, is having problems changing back into his super ID. The rest of the team is trying to help him out: Ghost Hunter: Have you ever thought scientifically about how you became Solar in the first place? Solar: Yes, it's quite impossible. ============ In the previous game, we'd been attacked by a Qliphothic beast. This time, we're being attacked by a pack of demons. After getting the description: Ghost Hunter's player: So, this is a much more normal demon. ============ Solar, in human form and with no time to change, is about to be attacked by a demon: One of the other players: Abort to Desolid! Solar's player: A fine red mist is Desolid, right? ============ SCUBA may be able to remember some others.

Re: Do you use the Published characters as a baseline for you campaign? I wouldn't put it into the 'HUGE problem' category myself. However, I do prefer that players state what their character is waiting for without using game-mechanics terms. Saying "I'm waiting for DEX 1 of Segment 3," will get a responce of "And how will your character recognize that?" On the other hand, saying that you're going to "Wait until you can hit Grond and then dodge his return blow." is perfectly legit if the character knows something about how fast Grond is.

Re: Six stats, take 2. My first question is: what is the purpose of this rule change? Is there a problem it is attempting to solve? Other questions would depend upon the answer to this one.

Re: ICE Era hero stuff sloppy? There was a thread about this very thing about 2 or 3 years ago on the Champions Mailing List. Some folks decided to fix some of the write-ups in various books. Other than the affore-mentioned European Enemies, I recall the Zodiac Conspiricy being done. If you go the the list's home page and dig through the '01-'02 archives you might dig a few of them up. I had thought some of them made it to Surbrook's site, but the only one I could find was for fixes of EE. I think the Zodiac stuff had to be taken down due to the author having rights to the characters (rather than DOJ) and not granting permission for whatever reason. What else there may have been I don't know. BTW, if you're interested in the Zodiac Stuff, send me a PM. I've got some 5E conversion notes for my own campaign that you can look at.

Re: Oihid Bleh, that's not quite what I meant to say. What I meant to say was that some things fall on the boarder between 'What the Hero System can't do' and 'Changes to the way it does things'. Megascale is one of those because of the impracticality of the old way of doing it.

Re: Oihid [snip examples] Technically, you could do that, however the cost made it highly impractical (especially for PCs). What Megascale did was put such builds within reach of 250-350pt characters. So, in this case, it's not a litteral case of, 'You couldn't buy huge areas/distances/etc before megascale', it's, 'You couldn't do that in a practical fashion before megascale'. Some things are going fall on the boarder between 'What the Hero System can't do' and 'Things the Hero System does in an unwieldy way'. Megascale is one of those.

Re: The Big Blue Cheese! Okay, I've finally gotten the chance to go over this character with the rule book in front of me. Here's the things that jumped out at me. What is the reversal condition of the Transform? I'm not sure you should have both MPTIS and Restrainable. If you're grabbed or entangled, you can't pass through the intervening space anyway. In fact, the MPTIS description in the book says that you can't escape Entangles using Teleportation. An 18-19" half-move with a SPD 6 is pretty impressive and boardering on speedster territory in my campaign. Naked Advantages in frameworks are iffy. Let me make sure I've got this straight. If you activate both H-MI and II, this character will have 31PD and 50% damage reduction? Wow, that's tough. A 12 DC attack will only do an average of about 5 stun per hit. 14 DC is doing all of 9. I know the DR won't effect Energy Attacks, but he's still got 31 ED as well, for a whopping 11 STUN from 12 DC and 18 from energy. Plus he still gets to attack with 65 STR. What's the average DC for your campaign? Isn't that basically every Skill Enhancer in the book? I know the concept is that he's a pseudo-genius 16-year old, but you've only given him a 13 INT. Not only that, but how does that explain Traveler & Well-Connected? Skimpy skill list in my mind, but the concept is that he's only 16. What are his hobbies? Why does a 16-year old have a link to the local police database? Especially H-M I & II where a 70 STR brick is only doing an average of 9 STUN per hit. A 50 STR megascaled throw from a standing start will send an average weight foe 10km away! That's a single move that effectively removes any opponent w/out megascale movement from the combat, and that's not even taking into account the falling damage. Now that you mention it, 1-Hex accurate with a 9 OCV means you'll be hitting on a 17- regardless of your foe's DCV. The only way they can avoid that is if they get to DFC. Considering this char is SPD 6, 27 DEX, holding an action should be easy for him to do. Then, since he can half-move up to 18", any opposing martial-artists or speedsters are hosed as soon as they act (since they can no longer DFC) unless your campaign builds them way tougher than the one's I've seen in the books. [snip remaining sheet] There's a few areas that would cause me concern (outlined above) and would probably not fly at all in my campaign (especially that megascaled throw & the 9 OCV/1 hex accurate combo). Other than what's above, however, the character seems pretty solid. Also, keep in mind that I know nothing about the campaign that this character was designed for. So, depending on your campaign limits, that could invalidate any or all of what I've said.

Re: Achilles' Heels In a previous campaign from a couple years ago, I played Freon. He was an ice-based super who's powers all cost x2 END when the temp got above 80F. Every 10F above that was an additional multiplier on his END. Also, all his defenses (and those of his powers; like Entangle) were halved vs. Heat/Flame based attacks. In our current campaign, one of my Characters, Neutron, is a hero merged with a low-mass (relatively) point singularity (essentially an artificially created mini black hole). Unfortunately for him, powerful electromagnetic or gravitational fields will interact badly with the singularity. So, he looses most of his powers (I'd estimate about a 75% power reduction) and takes Susceptability damage from both. So, neither character is made completely helpless by their Achilles' Heels, but they are far less effective. One of our other players is running a radiation-based hero. If his radioative energy is drained away, he's got an Accidental Change back to his normal human form that might get triggered. As for those GMs who take advantage of (or, IMO abuse) weaknesses like these by having them show up every (or most) games need a serious talking-to by their players. There is a reason why several of these are only worth -1/4 or -1/2. It's because they shouldn't show up that often. I'd suspect that the GMs in question were of the 'GM vs. Players' school of GMing. Bleck.

Re: Oihid Heh. "Chewing toffee"; I like that. In any case, the above pretty well sums up my feelings on the interaction between rules & GM intervention. I think the big difference between 'rules-heavy' systems (like HERO) and 'rules-light' (like FUDGE) is not so much the amount of GM intervention, but more the type. In Fudge, the GM has to do darn near everything. If I recall correctly (been a while since I looked at Fudge), about the only thing provided by the core rules is a dice mechanic and a few suggestions on how to use it. Do you want to know Falling Damage? Make it up. Do you want to know how hard Acrobatics makes you to hit? Make it up. Etc. In the case of the Hero System, a lot of the basic rules issues (like Falling Damage and the like) as well as a few complex ones (like Impairing/Disabling wounds) are already covered. That's less that the GM needs to make up off the bat. On the other hand, the more complex a rule system gets, the more rules there are to interact with each other in unexpected ways. In those situations, the GM needs to make a calling on that interaction. So, in practice, I'd say GM intervention amounts probably aren't hugely different. They're probably just more noticeable in Fudge. Now, as for House Rules, I'm generally in the 'less is more' camp. However, I think it's only fair to point out that I don't consider most 'Character Creation Guidelines' to be true House Rules. By CCG, I'm talking about things like Active Points caps, Starting Points, Dissad Points, Skill/DEF/DC/CV ranges and generally making sure the characters are balanced against each other. These don't change any of the fundamental rules of the system itself. What I consider House Rules are things that either change the rules as they currently exist: breaking DEX down into CV, Skill Roll and Initiative components for 1 point each, randomizing the Turn Order, and the like; or add in things the Hero System doesn't cover: what Megascale would have been before 5E. Implementing changes like this requires a great deal of forethought and care. Chapter 6: "Changing the System" should be considered required reading before embarking on any of these kinds of changes. The ideas in this chapter, especially 'The Meta-Rules of the Hero System' are invaluable as a set of guidelines. In any case, that's a rough summary of my thoughts on the issue. BTW, I need to go back and rep whoever started us on this tangent as I think it's a much more useful and fundamental discussion of the issue than just endlessly rehashing the minutia of changing OIHID. Edit: Okay, near as I can tell, Zornwill started this tangent in message 431, and I still cann't rep him, darn it!

Re: Oihid Now this was funny. I'd rep you for it if I weren't tapped out at the moment.

Re: Oihid See my responce in another message. To do things that the Hero System doesn't do, like randomize Turn Order, break Desolid down into Defensive & Movement components, or somethings similar. Of course, these are just examples and not neccessarily anything I condone (though I've thought about each from time to time). Creating a house rule for every possible rules abuse would be silly. The time involved would probably be greater than the time spent playing the game. Plus the page count would probably rival if not exceed that of the core rulebook. Simply saying "no" saves you a lot of time and paper. Think of the trees man, think of the trees!