Tasha

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far Of course that beauty will be now designated with the Striking Appearance talent. Which I am sure that you can buy levels of to be anywhere from slightly more attractive to OMG even though you are not the gender that I am attracted to, I am head over heels in lust with you. Or just the opposite if I want to be ugly. Different place on the Character sheet, Same functionality, Stronger tie into the interaction skills. Good Change

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far I haven't either, though our current games have had a player that has been agitating to go to a regular stun mult roll. One cannot assume how people will use the optional rules. Like I have never played in a Champions game that used Hit Location, but apparently there are people here who do so.

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far I know that nothing that I say here will make any difference, but I still feel the need to voice my opinions (Which I also did on the 6ed boards)

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far Normals games sometimes use the StunX when the Players and Gm don't want to deal with another roll. Also this is an issue if the hit Location Chart mirrors the new stun mults.

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far It is an issue for Champions too, but the Superhero Genre wasn't known for Heroic Killing attacks till quite recently. So most Supers games can get by with Normal attacks as they tend to be the most common attacks in that genre. In most normals games (outside of a Martial Arts kind of game) are based around Killing Attacks and this nerf Profoundly change those games. Tasha

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far Which makes the point that I and others have been trying to make about the nerf being too harsh. in a normals game ( DC 6 attacks) 5e : 7 Body 17.5 stun 6e : 7 Body 14 stun This means that a person in plate mail (rDef 8. PD6) will take 0 stun on average in 6th edition and still take 0 body at most they will take 7 stun at best on a max roll. which is quite broken IMHO. or lets take a person in Brigandine armor (rDef 5. PD 6) will take 3 stun 2 body on average and 7 stun and 7 body at maximum. In 5th edition the same person would take 24 stun with an average body roll and a x5 location. This is totally fracking broken! This breaks normal games totally! The BEST part of Hero in a normals game was the fact that most of the time you knock out your opposition instead of killing them. Death was still a possiblity, but was rare. Now normal games are much more deadly and their combats take a LOT longer. Perhaps 1/2d6+1 would be better? This is clearly an instance where Champions-centric thought changed a rule. Which is a problem that the system has always had.

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far Actually it makes a difference. There should be an Orthodox way to write certain things up (ie Taller/Smaller characters, Regen, instant change) for consistency in the Published supplements. I want to see weapons written up consistently no matter what supplement I purchase. It would be silly and frustrating as a player to have 2 supplements where the same weapon is written up differently. Also to have one book have a hawk written up with 3 levels of Shrinking with all of the limits and advantages, and the next one having the same creature written up with levels with DCV would stink. So there should be firm guildlines as to how certain things are done. Just to keep the system modular for no other reason. Keep in mind that many player learn how to create characters by looking at published ones. Keeping a certain level of "how its done" is good for the game. It cuts down on the confusion for new players.

Re: Urban/Modern Fantasy Questions In my campaign, the PCs are a Law Enforcement group working within the community of Supernaturals to keep the peace between Humans and the Supernaturals. Also to keep the Supernaturals following the laws of both the US and the State of CA They are a diverse group recruited primarally from the Supernatural community with an FBI Liason Agent giving direction. The game is set in a variation of our world where in the last decade, a large population of the Faerie Host materialized on our world. Reigniting magic to the levels it reached in antiquity. Only a few members of the Faerie Leadership have turned up, and it turns out that the few that were here were in hiding. Also other Supernaturals turned up with the Faeries, Vampires, Werewolves, Wizards(and other spell casters) also either made themselves public or appeared on earth when the faeries did. So you have a Human population that suddenly has to deal with creatures from their nightmares and bloody faerie tales showing up as refugees. They are too numerous and too powerful to just kill. So they are being integrated as well as humanity can manage. Essentially the Supernaturals are in Ghettos and reservations. So the group had tons of fun and if we weren't already full up on games, with both a Fantasy Hero and a Star Hero Serenity game. I would be running this game again. I really had fun running the genre. As for the PCs we have The "Normal" FBI Liaison Agent- no special abilities beyond his extensive training A Hob(Think Gnome) Wizard who used to be a Valet to his mentor A Werewolf Her pack always lived on earth (she didn't come from Faerie). She is (unknown to her) the most powerful in her pack. A Pixie- She just kind of latched onto the group- She's a "simple" forest pixie though she has taken to helping the group like she was born to it A Dryad- He is a new breed of dryad (yes HE). He is a straight male with the standard Dryad powers (ie he is drop dead gorgeous to... Guys). A recovering alcoholic assigned to the team to keep his insane mother more lucid. They rescued a woman who it now turns out is the heir to the Dragon Throne. She was being held by a secret organization that the PC's don't know much about. The organization is doing experiments on various supernaturals including Zombies (which are the victims of a mutated virus). They were holding the woman that they suspected of being a shapeshifted Dragon. They were taking samples of various tissues (including blood) and seeing what they could do with said samples. The PCs rescued her. When the Organization tried to take her back, they released her Draconic nature (for the first time) and the PC's had to talk down a HUGE enraged dragon. It was all quite fun and I look forward to more adventures in that universe again Tasha

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far The reason that Growth and Shrinking are not used to make things inherently Taller/Smaller is that they cause funny things to happen to the cost of said characters. ie in 4th edition a rat has 45pts stuck into Shrinking Persistant 0 End. Which makes said Minor creature rather expensive (and counter intuitively so). So Steve decided that size would be both a Disadvantage and a bonus to DCV (for being small) Which made small critters a bit less spendy. ie the same rat would only have 30pts tied up in the -6 DCV and gets a Physical Limitation (tiny, light weight) which saves points. Is it better? It is less intuitive to build things this way, as the natural inclination is to use Shrinking/Growth to change the size of things. Though building stuff that way does make creatures that 'feel' right in their point totals. (ie minor squishy things are a cheaper than a person) BTW Pg 127 of 5th Rev gives the "official" ruling as to how to create Taller/Smaller character. The Appendix on pg 573 goes into more detail as to how said beings should be written up. Now it is YOUR game and if in YOUR game you want to use Growth and Shrinking you are totally free to do so. I think that your players will like the official rules better (They are cheaper to buy which will tend to make Players like the official way). Tasha

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far 4th edition D&D is a great combat game. It is a ton of fun taken in that context. Unfortunately, they removed so many skills the RP part of the game is kind of lacking and requires too much handwaving to get the kind of game play that 3.x gave you. So our group played it for awhile, and converted to Hero for the better skill system. Funny thing is that I remember the announcement of 4th edition and that community was just as up in arms about the rumored changes as this community is with Hero 6. In all honesty, I think that I am going to be ambivalent to most changes and will find that those changes will grow on me over time. My partner, the Hero Newbie, finds the changes quite exciting and is looking forward to the new edition. I am sure that there will be one or two changes that I will totally hate (ie the KA changes), but it is hard to satisfy all of a fanbase with any change to an accepted system. People hate change and are frightened by it. That's what is generating much of the negativity in threads like this.

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far Actually that's a feeling that seeps in when I frequent these boards too much. I start to feel boxed in by the "orthodoxy" in how stuff "should" be run or written up. That's why I tend to take multiple month breaks from these boards. It keeps my perspective fresh and uncluttered. YMMV Tasha

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far 4th edition mentioned that COM MAY be used as a Complementary roll to ones Seduction roll. There is also a Vague paragraph saying that sometimes it can be used as being complementary to Presence rolls. I have not seen the talent, but I have seen most of the other Talents that Steve created for 5th edition and 5th Revised. I imagine that the talent will be based on Skill levels that apply to interaction skill rolls that affect those who could be attracted to the character. If so, that will give a REAL quantifiable and non-vague way to use beauty (ugliness) for Interaction skill rolls. Also I am pretty sure that one could do it for the same amount of points that Cha comes out to. (ie +2 to Pre Skills 6pts. +1 only vs those who are attracted to the Character; 3 real points) or something similar. Dex is rolled constantly for Stealth, Shadowing and any number of skills that use it as a base. Con is of course used for not being stunned in combat (we occasionally use it to mitigate the effects of being physically ill ie vomiting). Body keeps you alive, no roll needed. Pre is the Basis of all interaction skills. Com only has the vague rules talked about above. Though 5thRev has better rules, it's still up to the GM to allow a COM roll as a complementary skill. I would rather have the levels. See above where I address this further. BTW if you like I can give you the 4 page numbers in 5th Rev and the 2 pages in 4th edition where Com is mentioned. It really isn't a clean mechanic. BTW since you mentioned it. YOU don't know either what mechanic Steve is going to use to replace COM. I mentioned one possiblity of how a Talent COULD be written up. I really don't know enough about how it is going to be replaced to do anything, but just wait and see. I guess there are ways that a talent could be written up that could be annoying and not an adequate replacement for the Stat, but I doubt that is what we will see Tasha

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far I am really surprised at how much sturm and drang is being generated over such a minor change. It's not like any skill in the game used it. No real mechanics were behind this stat. It was not really used. The Talent is quite adequate and I imagine that there will be levels of beauty that can be purchased there. so one can go from decent beauty to heart attack just by purchasing the talent. I also imagine that there will be mechanics that will integrate the talent into the game officially, and not as a kind of half baked ruler for one's appearance. Perhaps there will also be rules for being extremely ugly too. Now I wasn't for removing Com from the game, but now that it is happening. I don't see what the real problem is. Tasha

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far I would be very surprised if Steve didn't keep the rules consistent for all genres. The Hit Location chart DOES need looking at esp for Normal Attacks which currently are hosed by the chart (More than half the locations change a normal attack to 1/2 damage). I guess I don't much care for the way that KA's are being changed. Not to say that I won't be buying the rules. I still like the system and am curious as to how Characters will go together and how the game will play in real life (as opposed to speculating on line).

Re: Naming the baby ok I was in on the FrED thingie, and it was fun. But now I am older and that kind of thing doesn't amuse me anymore. How about we just call it 6th Ed Hero. Then when we are talking about it in public other people not in on the "Joke" will know what we are talking about too. This could perhaps generate some interest that we could cultivate as we evangelize our favorite system Tasha

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far I am sorry a maximum of x3 totally hoses normal games. It biases the game totally toward normal attacks. It means that in a sword battle you will end up killing someone long before you knock them out. Also it lengthens normal battles by a whole bunch. The only thing that could fix this is having weapons all have +1 and +2 stun mults and that would totally nullify the change, in fact it would make the issue worse as then folk would be constantly rolling x4 and x5 stun mults. This is clearly a case of the Superhero genre totally hosing every other genre. Though this is a problem endemic in the system as a whole.

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far I don't see anything that I really object to. Though divorcing CV from Dex and Ego is troubling to me. I am not sure I can say that I am excited by the new rules edition, but I will be buying it. I will have to see what is being done to adjustment powers to make a more informed decision. I am starting to have the opinion that trying to write a rule that fits every little occasion is what made both Squad Leader, Star Fleet Battles and now The Hero System unwieldy and hard for new players to learn. I was hoping that the rules would become more lean and less complex. Hopefully this will still happen. Though with 2 books for the rules it seems a bit hopeless for fat cutting. Tasha

Re: The Emergence Of Superhumans So basically your America didn't have to deal with the Fear and Anguish of people crashing planes into buildings. What you would have then is the response of the American people after the Bombing of the WTC. Which was basically nothing, a small amount of apprehention. With most people still being VERY secure in the belief that law enforcement (and their Superheroes) will stop any terrorists. So the American people will not have the outrage that lead to the 2 wars that were started after the attacks. Also the sitting president wouldn't have been able to use that fear to gain another term in office, though he could have been elected for other reasons. Basically that is why I said that it was a strong historical turning point. Changing that would logically have substantial repercussions on the history of the world. Tasha

Re: The Emergence Of Superhumans This brings up one important theme in worlds where Supers emerged in Pre-history. That being that those supers becoming worshipped as Gods and their stories becoming the Myths of Today. You could extrapolate history having come out different in your world, but the problem with that is the more different your history becomes. The less like our world it is and it becomes harder for the Players to connect. I think that is why most Superhero Worlds are pretty much like ours, but with the addition of Superheroes. ie One would think that having Superheroes would be a huge military advantage. It is, but when the other army also has Supers the advantages can be more or less canceled out. Also do you have your supers erase the historical events of your world? ie What if a super had been there to stop John Wilkes Booth from shooting Lincoln? What if superheroes had been able to free the Iran Hostiges during Carter's Presidency? What if Supers had prevented the Terrorists from crashing planes into buildings on Sept 11? These are events that changed our country one way or the other. ie if Lincoln had lived he could have made sure that the Freed Slaves were integrated into the Union better (His Vice President didn't want Slavery ended and blocked laws that would have helped the former Slaves, and helped pass the laws that set up the Sharecropping system), This kind of change could have made the Civil rights movements of the 50s and 60s either happen earlier or not at all (not at all because it wasn't needed). Also one could put forth the argument that Supers don't change stuff that much due to their being quite rare in the population. You could think of this one as "Superman can't be everywhere". So yeah in Metropolis, things are positively impacted by Superman, but how other cities? I am sure that there are Cities that don't really have much Super activiity and those are pretty much like cities here. Though I would guess that in any world with Supers, there would be fast strong building technologies. Seeing as super battles can be long on the collateral damage. That could definately change things.

Re: Cowboy Bebop/ Firefly inspired game

Re: Cyberpathy vs. People's Foci The Cyberpath is overcoming the Suit wearer's mental commands to the suit. That's why you use ego. One could even take skill levels with the powersuit and apply it to the Defensive ECV of the suit. I guess it depends on the special effect of the Powersuit. Some powersuits are highly computerized, and those computers control all aspects of suit operation. Other suits have minimal or very primitive Computer Control (ie manual actuators or localized microcontrollers). So it would make sense for a Cyberpath to be able to "hack" the Suit with the Sophisticated Computer. The other kind of suit would need Fine manipulation TK to gain control of said suit. Though with TK being kind of weak and most power suits having strength bonuses built in, TK wouldn't control the suit for long. Perhaps Cyberpathy should be purchased with "Requires a Computer Programing Skill roll" and that it is opposible with skill vs skill contests. (ie Comp Prog, vs either Comp Prog or Suit Operation). I do think that for fairness to the Players all Mind Controls should be vs their Ego and Ego Defense. Special effects shouldn't be an excuse to hose the players, and give an attacking Special effect the ability to ignore all normal defenses. Perhaps if the player wants to go off of the suit's Int/Ego they should purchase AVLD on the attack or NND, to represent how much more powerful the effect is.