Black Rose

Re: Ultimate Customisation Well' date=' since Steve doesn't answer design philosophy questions, how are you planning to get that tome written?[/quote'] I'd like to see that, too. It is a real shame that Steve won't answer design philosophy questions, but I can understand. I'd hate getting stuck in a neverending spiral of justifying my choices to a group of people who have already proven by their words that they aren't in agreement with me. Sure, all of us agree with Steve on something, but I think that none of us agree with all of it, and I'm pretty sure there isn't a single page of actual crunchy rules we'd all agree to "own".

Re: Package Deals in 5ER And this is exactly how they should be used. Give the players a baseline - "This is the minimum I-the-GM expect from someone claiming to be blah" - and then a nice list of optional upgrades to give some variety. I also like Zeropoint's idea of not counting Package Disads towards the Max Disads Allowed, but still counting them as Disads themselves; not counting them at all is nice, too, but this really makes sure nobody gets anything for free.

Re: Disadvantage "Forcing" But what if they, in your opinion, did do enough? Would that get them "off the hook" in some other situations? For example, if Joey has made himself a real doormat for virtually every pretty dame in the story arc, but the player really wants to not get snowed by this one woman in this particular case, would you let him "buy it off" for a moment?

Re: Ethics for mentalists [snark]Well, it's certainly more acceptable by the kidnapped people in question.[/snark] At the +20 "subject thinks it was their own idea" stage, the only time they're hurt is when you tell them so. You need an observer to recognize that there is anything wrong happening at all. That, to me, is part of what makes MC so nasty. It's one thing to pull the "punch your buddy" trick, quite another to make subtle, long-term changes. As far as I'm concerned, the single most evil (and not in the cool way, either) power in the game is Mental Transform.

Re: "You're not a REAL Hero!" To me, this sounds more like "I've got a thing for beating the holy crap out of people while we both wear their underwear on the outside" and less like "I'm a hero." Don't get me wrong, it's great that Batman is there to lay a smackdown on someone as needed, but I'm inclined to go along with at least some of the Justice Lords concept and try to stop bad guys a bit more permanently then Arkham Asylum, home of Revolving Door Therapy.

Re: Disadvantage "Forcing" Mwah ha ha! I call this thread forth from the Graveyard!! Anyway, I realized that my initial examples might not have been the very best way to describe what I was trying to say. Here I go again.... Do any of you players (GMs do it differently) consciously or unconsciously try to "preempt" any of your Disads by roleplaying them out on you-the-Player's terms, even when that would "screw over" the PC? I can think of two reasons to do this; one is a laudable goal all GMs should support, roleplaying. EX: Joey is a sucker for the ladies, and always buys what they say, even when he ought to know he's being snowed; heck, sometimes he even falls for the same lines said by the same woman after she's taken him in (PsychLim: Sucker for a Pretty Dame; C/S). His Player roleplays this just fine in normal situations (falling for 555 phone numbers, loaning money he'll never see again to his neighbor, etc), but also frequently maneuvers Joey into situations where he's going to get dangerously lied to, screwed over, and used by women, because Joey would find himself in these situations. The second is somewhat cheesy; to attempt to block, or at least lessen the effect of the GM using his Disads against him. EX: Rick just can't catch a break in his personal life (Secret ID and 1 die of Unluck). In this session alone, he's voluntarily and deliberately roleplayed his girlfriend giving him the third degree about chatting up "long legged blonde skanks" (team member in her Secret ID), getting chewed-out by his boss at work, and nearly getting caught changing into RoofRunner by his little sister. By doing this, Rick's Player is hoping the GM won't hit him up for those Disads any more than he has himself. Now normally I would think of this as the player taking initiative and assisting the GM in telling the story by having entertaining plot bits. OTOH, I can also see this as trying to cheese out of getting to be screwed over by the GM, as is his right and privilege. What I want to know is, what do you, Herodom Assembled, think of it?

Re: Will the real Jolly Jonah Jameson please stand up? I dunno, it makes sense when you look at it. You've got someone who: comes after you and knows it's you they're after comes after you, but doesn't know it's you That's the Hunted. Then you've got the same person, and you: protect them, knowing who they are (your Hunter) protect them, not realizing they're Hunting you Not only is this good plotting - lots of tension and opportunity for emoting - but it's clean and elegant. Remember, the GM has a big job in creating the world and coming up with plots; any real help you can offer is to the good. If the only thing you give your GM is the character sheet, you deserve to have your cool plot ideas shot down.

Re: Millennium City walled or not "Oooooh, monkey!!" -squeal-

Re: VIPER's Draysha boosted stats... -pouts- But it ought, in certain situations. I mean, I see that making me stronger (able to lift more) shouldn't have any effect on my durability or ability to recover from a hit. OTOH, it really shouldn't affect my ability to hit. But if you increase my overall Strength, I think everything else should come along for the ride. Hmm, maybe an Adder or Advantage that would give you the Figured bits. Heck, does that mean if you Aid/Succor DEX, you don't get OCV and DCV?

Re: Protoge Please Penumbra - Random kid with a Gift wants to be a next-gen Cape? Sure, why not? I've got some useful-if-rather-dull tasks for him/her to work on - I'm not doing that filing if I can help it. Depending on the nature of the kid's powers (and yes, I'd be calling them "Kid" for a long time ), I might try to get them hooked up with a better group for training; we are kind of busy around here, you know. And while Virtue is a great role model, I'm not the best at that. Unless you wanted them to be a lecher; or stripper, as the case may be. EDIT: It occurs to me that the only powers that someone could show up with that we don't already have would be some sort of seer. In that case, we'd nail their feet to the office floor and never ever let them near anything bad. We could use the help in the "advance warning" department.

Re: VIPER's Draysha boosted stats... Presuming there's no Lim that prevents the Primaries from having Figureds (and, of course, that it wasn't only feeding into the Primaries) you could get the boost from STR and CON as well as from PD and ED.

Re: Seemingly Silly Things to Model It scares me how easily I could see this in a Ranma 1/2 fanfic; she's not quite this bad in the manga. Yeah, this covers her "lack of clue" nicely. Kuno, perhaps? I know he can definitely take more hits.... I wonder, though; from a HERO standpoint, it seems like Ranma and Akane prefer to use high-STUN, no-BODY attacks on Kuno. Possibly with Mega-Scale KB. WHERE IS THIS!?!?!?!?!? I have GOT to see this!

Re: Seemingly Silly Things to Model The closest I've come to this involved a VPP, and wasn't that good. If anyone comes up with a good response to this, let me know!

Re: Tactical Principals I'd love to Rep this, but I have to wait a while.... Somewhat tangential to this, but it made me think of it: would y'all buy a book (or be interested in DH articles) that primarily consisted of essays designed to make you-the-GM/Player sound like you knew what you were talking about when you spoke as your PC? I'm thinking essays that concisely describe things like military tactic, scientific fields, poli sci, psychology, etc. so you aren't completely pulling terms out of your bum (like Star Trek).

Re: Rurouni Kenshin for Hero? I'm really surprised that Nu Soard Graphite hasn't chimed in on this one, seeing as Rurouni Kenshin is one of his favorite series. He has some scary-cool kenjutsu styles written up, including some rather elegant "special techniques". These consist of a fairly minor power (usu. HKA, though sometimes Flash or something like that) and a breakdown of how the CSLs should be laid out (+2 to DCV, the rest to OCV, or +2 OCV, +2 DCV, all the rest to Damage; stuff like that), all leavened with Requires A Skill Roll (usu. Fast Draw). When I first saw them, I was totally blown away. HERO really does allow you to do anything.

Re: The Power of Presence As far as the "getting your opponents wound up" part, have you considered Distinctive Features? Make it Easily Concealed and Causes Extreme Reaction (desire to pummel) and simply have the character hide their DF until they fight. Attach it to some kind of "battle aura" on an OIHID and it'll only kick in when he fights.

I haven't really had the chance (or the cash) to pick up any of the GURPS 4th Ed books, though I intend to as soon as DOJ stops making good books. However, I'm a subscriber to Pyramid, and in their most recent "issue" there's an article about making Psionics a little simpler. They have to, see, since they have all these choices.... Anyway, my point is that they mention that, should you have two (or more) powers, and one is simply a more powerful version of the other, you can make one an Alternative Ability, where you can switch back and forth. And guess what? It only costs one point for every five! Isn't that great? Who could have come up with such an innova-- Oh, wait, that's right. We've been doing that for years now. Silly me.

Re: Damage Reduction vs. Martial Arts/Magic - how much? Well, at first I thought of doing it as: 25% rPhys DamRed, only vs. Martial Arts (-1/4), Requires a Con Roll (-1/2) 9 rp 25% rEnrg DamRed, only vs. Martial Arts (-1/2), Requires a Con Roll (-1/2) 7 rp 25% rMent DamRed, only vs. Martial Arts (-1), Requires a Con Roll (-1/2) 6 rp For a total of 22 rp. and: 25% rPhys DamRed, only vs. Magic (-1/2), Requires an Ego Roll (-1/2) 7 rp 25% rEnrg DamRed, only vs. Magic (-1/2), Requires an Ego Roll (-1/2) 7 rp 25% rMent DamRed, only vs. Magic (-1/2), Requires an Ego Roll (-1/2) 7 rp For a total of 21 rp. Possibly switch out the Characteristic Roll for Must Be Aware of Attack or something similar; I don't want this to be too pricey. This is one of the "gateway techniques" - a sure sign that you've stepped beyond the martial arts world and entered the Martial Arts World*. *Yes, it does deserve the Capitalisation.

Like the title says, I'm looking for something for my campaign. After seeing just how much damage Fragile World rules can do to the neighborhood, I'm trying something different. The idea is that Martial Artists can purchase 25% Damage Reduction vs. Martial Arts, and 50% if they go for the truly freakish techniques that would allow it; this makes them monstrously durable, and everyone will be most impressed. The Martial Arts SFX will probably only cover what I refer to as Techniques, which excludes basic MA maneuvers (you know, the ones that cost 3-5 pts?) but not MA maneuvers boosted by Naked Advantages or straight Power Constructs. So really, anything "special" that a Martial Artist can do would be Reduced. Note, this does mean that if the military breaks out some gear on your butt, you're probably toast inside of a minute. Likewise, supernatural beings (demons, sorcerers and priests) can pick up 25% Damage Reduction vs. Magic, and 50% if they get some kind of serious backing for it (being able to shrug off most magical attacks is not common). Here's the thing: nearly every attack is going to have either the Martial Arts or the Magic SFX. The only ones that might not are pure real-world stuff - fell off a cliff, hit by lightning, shot by a sniper - and that's not going to come into play that often. The idea is to make the PCs and major NPCs able to do icky-bad things to the neighborhood while not splattering each other. When they hit a wall, it's by mistake; hitting you, not so much. Also, I want the Damage Reduction to cover all damage forms; physical, energy, whatever. Anyone have a good idea for a Limitation? -1/4? -1/2 even?

Re: Has HERO achieved maximum desirable complexity?

Re: Doing Charmed in Hero Once upon a time, there were some very nice writeups on Matt's Champions Page, but for some reason he's taken the Charmed writeups down. He had all the Halliwell sisters, Leo and Cole. If you go there and bug him enough, he might give them to you.

Re: Religion Hero??

Re: Ridiculous things in comics that you don't mind. No, no, I think you got it right on both counts. Rather tangential to the thread, if not this post, but I've been trying to comprehend this new game I picked up called Weapons of the Gods. It's a Wuxia setting based off a series of Hong Kong comics of the same name. Anyhoo, the game has the most... intriguing... reasoning for why the PCs should avoid homosexual relations - completely aside from "your family wants SONS, you moron! And you can't give sons that way!" Sexual congress expends energy (yang for men, yin for women); if your partner doesn't have the complementary type, you end up depleted (if you're a man) or sort of bored (if a woman). Fortunately , there are techniques to overcome this problem for both sides; though I find it interesting that the supreme method of dealing with the problem is to make your partner into the "appropriate" sex. I did like that no one really cares, setting-wise, who does what with who; it's that whole "sons uber alles" thing that causes grief.

Re: Heroic level characteristics ramble This is a great idea; I like it a lot! Just wanted to mention that, with the "+10 DEX, Only for Martial Arts", that should probably add to Speed normally, too. It makes sense that someone "highly trained" in Martial Arts would have better reaction time and be able to act more often, but only when they're using Martial Arts.

Re: M&M pees in HERO's cheerios... Hey, that's true even for us primarily straight people. If you're not trying to shake people out of their bone boxes, you're just not helping.