ghost-angel

Re: 6e Characteristics If you're adding Nightvision to a Character - you've left the realm of Normal Real Person completely anyways, why quibble the small stuff. I won't say I'm the biggest fan the Nightvision Build being a simple cancel to the Night Time PER Penalty. But it's a usable Mechanic, which makes it useful. Seriously though, if you're playing Normal People HERO the ability to even take Nightvision on your Character is off the list. So why compare it? As you pointed out no real person could do this. But Game Characters CAN.

Re: Absorption. Expand on Varying Effect (+3/4) which let's a character switch Absorption from one phase to the next between Physical and Energy. I would say a +1 Advantage "Absorbs Both Physical + Energy" is appropriate. You're effectively "buying it twice" but avoid the whole messy issue of two Powers acting as one.

Re: 6e Characteristics Nightvision. Night Time light levels are defined as a penalty, as long as there is still some kind of ambient light you can attempt to see. Nightvision is a bonus to directly counter that penalty. Anyone can attempt to see at Night, and the GM can have them make a Perception Roll. Applying either the Night penalties (-4) or not because Nightvision immediately cancels them out and thus the character is Effectively seeing as if light levels were normal (i.e. have a Normal Perception Roll). Total Darkness is not the same thing as Night. You cannot see in Total Darkness. The book even mentions this. So yes, the person with a 30 INT can suck up the Night Penalty and make a Perception Roll at 11- instead of their normal 15-. They have enough visual acuity and quick thinking that even at night they're pretty perceptive. Perception is more than "just identifying" with a sense. It's more than merely Seeing an object, or Hearing a sound. It's processing that in a meaningful way. And I contest that humans don't also identify everything as Danger, Food, Sex. All evidence points to the fact that everything we interpret it filtered through those three things.

Re: Poison Star Hero Drawing While waiting on Poison's awesome art to show up.. here's a repost of Sam's character sheet. A note on the character; the original background was "kicked out of military." The GM of the campaign saw an opportunity and with my consent, but not my knowledge as it's a major mystery plot point, made up the rest. His background is way cooler than I could ever have thought of (ancient relic of a forgotten super-solider program, I mean it was genius). The campaign is on hold indefinitely, which is too bad because Sam is probably my most favorite character ever to play. She's like putting pure chaos in a blender and hitting puree. [for reference the campaign takes place in the Star Frontiers setting] Samantha Arken Sam; Captain Arken; Admiral Arken VAL CHA Cost Total Roll Notes 8 STR -2 8 11- HTH Damage 1 1/2d6 END [2] 18 DEX 24 18 13- OCV 6 DCV 6 15 CON 10 15 12- 10 BODY 0 10 11- 15 INT 5 15 12- PER Roll 12- 15 EGO 10 15 12- ECV: 5 17 PRE 7 17 12- PRE Attack: 3d6 18 COM 4 18 13- 3 PD 1 3 3 PD (0 rPD) 3 ED 0 3 3 ED (0 rED) 4 SPD 12 4 Phases: 3, 6, 9, 12 5 REC 0 5 30 END 0 30 22 STUN 0 22 6 RUN 0 6" END [1] 2 SWIM 0 2" END [1] 2 LEAP 0 1 1/2" 1 1/2" forward, 0 1/2" upward Total Characteristic Cost: 71 Cost POWERS 10 Talented Pilot: +2 SPD (20 Active Points); Only In A Dogfight (-1) 2 Talented Pilot: +2 DEX (6 Active Points); Only In A Dogfight (-1), No Figured Characteristics (-1/2) 16 Builder DNA: Healing 1 BODY, Can Heal Limbs, Resurrection, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Persistent (+1/2) (70 Active Points); Extra Time (Regeneration-Only) 1 Hour (-2 1/4), Self Only (-1/2), Character Must Rest For Entire Period To Regenerate (-1/2) 8 Void Sense: Mind Link , With 'The Void', Any dimension, No LOS Needed (25 Active Points); No Conscious Control (-2), Does Not Provide Mental Awareness (-1/4) 4 Psionic Null: Mental Defense (7 points total) POWERS Cost: 40 Cost MARTIAL ARTS Military Training 3 1) Legsweep: 1/2 Phase, +2 OCV, -1 DCV, 2 1/2d6 Strike, Target Falls 4 2) Martial Disarm: 1/2 Phase, -1 OCV, +1 DCV, Disarm; 18 STR to Disarm 4 3) Martial Dodge: 1/2 Phase, -- OCV, +5 DCV, Dodge, Affects All Attacks, Abort 4 4) Martial Escape: 1/2 Phase, +0 OCV, +0 DCV, 23 STR vs. Grabs 3 5) Martial Throw: 1/2 Phase, +0 OCV, +1 DCV, 1 1/2d6 +v/5, Target Falls MARTIAL ARTS Cost: 18 Cost SKILLS Everyman 0 1) Acting 8- 0 2) Climbing 8- 0 3) Concealment 8- 0 4) Conversation 8- 0 5) High Society 8- 0 6) Language: Pan-Galactic (idiomatic) (4 Active Points) 0 7) PS: Starship Pilot 11- 0 8) Shadowing 8- 0 9) Stealth 8- Military Training 3 1) KS: Starships 12- 3 2) KS: UPF Navy 12- 2 3) AK: UPF Patrolled Space 11- 5 4) Paramedics 13- 2 5) SS: Astronomy 11- 2 6) SS: Physics 11- 5 7) Systems Operation 13- 4 8) WF: Human Advanced Small Arms, Vehicle Weapons: Fighter Weapons, Vehicle Weapons: Heavy Ships Guns Fighter Pilot 5 1) Precise Sprayfire II 7 2) Combat Piloting 15- 12 3) +4 with Ships Weapons 3 4) Navigation 12- 3 5) Teamwork 13- 5 6) TF: Human Science Fiction and Space Vehicles, Combat Aircraft, Helicopters, Large Planes, Small Planes Engineer 1 1) Computer Programming 8- 3 2) Electronics 12- 3 3) Mechanics 12- 4 4) PS: Engineer 13- 5 Deduction 13- 2 Gambling (Roulette) 12- 4 Language: French (idiomatic) 1 Lockpicking (Tumbler Locks) 8- 1 Persuasion 8- 1 Security Systems 8- 1 Trading 8- Total Skills Cost: 87 Cost PERKS 3 Fringe Benefit: License to Hunt Bounties, Starship License 2 Contact: Lt. Marcus Calvin (Contact has useful Skills or resources) 8- 1 Contact: Margiar 8- 3 Contact: Captain Exeter (Contact has significant Contacts of his own) 11- 0 Contact: Taffy (Contact has significant Contacts of his own, GM Fiat Contact) 8- Total Perks Cost: 9 Cost TALENTS 24 Hotshot Pilot (Star Hero) 4 Environmental Movement (no penalties in 0-G) Total Talents Cost: 28 Value DISADVANTAGES 5 Distinctive Features: Squad 4-343 Death's Head Tattoo (Easily Concealed; Noticed and Recognizable; Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses) 20 Hunted: UPF 8- (Mo Pow; NCI; Harshly Punish) 10 Hunted: Garvin Trask 8- (As Pow; Harshly Punish) 0 Normal Characteristic Maxima 15 Psychological Limitation: Hates to be on the ground (Common; Strong) 10 Psychological Limitation: Adrenaline Junky (Common; Moderate) 10 Reputation: Risk Taker, Combat and Dogfight Junky, 11- 5 Social Limitation: Burden Of Leadership (Occasionally; Minor) Total Disadvantages Points: 75 Base Pts: 78 Exp Required: 100 Total Exp Available: 116 Exp Unspent: 16 Total Character Cost: 253 Background/History: Sam likes to fly. As long as she can remember, it's all she wanted. All she is, Sam only feels at home in the sky. She has a half-remembered childhood somewhere. A vague dream. They may be implanted, they may be someone elses memories. It's the sky Sam realy remembers. And space. And the fighters. Sam is a genetically engineered Human-Builder Hybrid, designed as part of a Super Soldier Project during the Sathar Wars. That was 250 years ago, Sam has vague memories that come in flash backs and dreams. When Samantha dies, a not uncommon occurance amongst fighter pilots, the alien Builder DNA in her rebuilds her body. But her generation of Super Pilots is imperfect and she is rebuilt with no real memories, only the hardcoded DNA: Fly, Fight. This time around she joined the United Planetary Federation (UPF), ending up in one of their fighter squadrons and finally being drummed out completely. She wasn't a good fit for their command structure, being a little too willing to engage in a dog-fight, even when piloting large cruisers. She has spent the last year and a half running across the Frontier looking for clues to the past. She has conned her way through the Terran Empire invasion, detonated a nuclear missile in Void Space creating a Black Hole, inspired a fleet to join her as civil war rocked the Frontier after the TE invasion collapsed, survived several assisnation attempts, unlocked secrets that were thought lost and buried, and caused a not insignificant amount of havoc in her quest. She has a vague feeling that the Builder's only worked with the human's to create a vessel of their own against an unknown enemy, Sam may be one of the keys in a war against this invisible enemy. But above all, Sam just wants to fly. Personality/Motivation: Samantha always has a plan, the problem is that Sam always has at least two more plans. And sometimes it's hard to tell which one she is implementing. There is nothing (and no one) she won't sacrifice to achieve her ever shifting goals. Her enemies woud like to think they're moving the goal posts on her. The truth is Sam is playing with different rules, probably a different game completely. Sam's attitudes to life can be summed up in two short sentences: Samantha likes to fly. Samantha hates planets. Aside from a hardcoded need to fly, she came with a pathological hatred of planets. Putting her on one only makes her more erratic, or sometimes deeply depressed. Samantha can be insanely loyal, inspiring a similar level of loyalty amongst those that follow her. At the same time Sam only trusts Elvis - a Builder AI housed in an advanced robotic body - with her real feelings. Samantha is also unaware of how to operate the "single fire mode" of any weapon handed to her. Quote: You ever look up at the sky, I mean really look? If you catch it just right you can see all the way through the stars to the other side, where there's nothing but open space. That's where I want to go. Campaign Use: Samantha is the Captain of the crew of the Gemini, she is also the Admiral of a small fleet of vessels. She is not called Admiral to her face, as she personally refuses to accept any rank above Captain. When she's not around, they have a habit of referring to her as Admiral anyways. Some recent event triggered a change in how her system regenerates, when killed the Builder DNA will resurrect her and a recent test showed she comes back without a memory loss. She plans on using this to her advantage. Samantha was reckless before she learned she was immortal. Now she completely disregards personal safety in favor of getting whatever mission she has concocted finished. This makes her dangerous, to pretty much everyone around her. Appearance: Samantha stands at five feet four inches (just barely four inches), with black hair cut short. She left her bangs long and has dyed them red, with the front most lock dyed blonde. She has green eyes that are almost always staring up at the sky, out at space, or off into the horizon. She wears a flight suit when "in uniform" and a pair of jeans a tank top when not. If she's going outside she'll done a full EVA. On her left shoulder is a tattoo of the fighter squad she was a part of in the UPF, a Squad 4-343 Death's Head tattoo.

Re: Poison's Champions Art Thread the campaign would start with finding out how much Poison charges for a group shot . . .

Re: 6e Characteristics Since INT represents more the ability to process information quickly, than it does just knowing stuff. And Perception is at least partly based on the idea of needing to know what is being perceived as well as how to react to it. Which means it makes sense to be coupled. Some of the problem lies in the fact that processing information quickly and correctly lies also within the realm of knowing what's going on. So INT either also has to represent what a Character knows, or that has to be taken for granted. Which means it doesn't make sense for it to be coupled. Then you have to throw all that out the window and decide on some Mechanical Balances to even out all the parts. Each Characteristic in the system needs a clearly defined reason to stick around, INT is kept to based Intellect Skills off of, which quite frankly are the majority of Skills in the system once you toss in that many (if not most) KS/PS/SS are based on it. But that by itself probably isn't enough to keep INT, so there's some thought as to what else it provides, and maybe it was decided that Paragraph One above (Perception is more reliant on/representative of processing information quickly than what that information is) so it provides a Base Perception Roll. Perception in that case isn't just "do you notice it" but "do you notice it and understand it enough to react to it" Notice that within the rules when you are in a room, not under pressure, and are looking for a Thing you do not roll always Perception. You often Roll Concealment to determine if you're looking in the same places that someone hiding/discarding the thing would put it. In fact it's often a contested Skill Roll.

Re: In the Shadow of the Dragon This Thread has a picture of Samantha that Poison decided he really wanted to do. Skip towards the end to see the pencils and such. He did an awesome job with her, and got the attitude across quite nicely. Rep the man too.

Re: Poison's Champions Art Thread Yeah, that's definitely cool. I like the ship, unique design to it.

Re: Finding something Hero System can't model... Stretching;Does Not Cross Intervening Space is used to represent a form of Stretching where you attack at a distance but leave no limb to be attacked. It is a +1/4 Advantage. Add Instant to the Power and you don't even leave your fist behind.

Re: Finding something Hero System can't model... Stretching is definitely a way to model it, that's for sure. It'd have to be carefully done. regarding the Ranged, STR Adds elements - the idea is trying to design a Normal Attack that does two things: Hand To Hand w/ STR Adds or Ranged Damage. Not trying to add STR at Range. Currently you can only do with with Killing Attacks (buy HKA with a Ranged Advantage) - you can't buy Hand Attack with a Ranged Advantage because of the mandatory "Hand Attack Only" Limitation. It's an unfortunate discrepancy for a number of reasons. RE: Multiform, you're probably entirely correct that there is no change in Revised or on a FAQ and I've just gone off into a House Rule because the RAW is a PITA.

Re: How to encourage RP? Lead 'em on a goose chase. As was suggested above, piecemeal out the info to various members of the team. Drag one or two into a different room if needed. Give them two or three locations to investigate, but give them a time frame that makes it clear that they must split up to check them all. This let's one or two of them work together - you can hopefully get some communication between a subset of the group this way. Then as they get back together they have to discuss what they found, creating a larger dialogue. One thing that can happen with a group of people is they're waiting for someone to step forward with the idea, if there is no natural 'leader' amongst the Players sometimes they fall into this mode where they don't interact as much. Splitting them off can make each one a little more comfortable with the idea of "OK, you can talk now." Offer little to no physical resistance in this split encounters, maybe a thug to intimidate, but make the encounters mostly Talk Type encounters - from schmoozing to interrogation. Make it clear just beating up people won't get them anywhere.

Re: Finding something Hero System can't model... 5th Edition did away with the whole Alternate Form cannot exceed Base Form in points. Now you can have a 100pt Base Form purchase a 300pt Alternate Multiform and be rules legal. As for the Disads, it also advises that the GM can allow it without needing to make up the rest of the points in Disadvantages - thought you're right I'm not fond of requiring Disads to make up points for a larger Alt Form. It does advise GMs to be careful with this, but it's not disallowed anymore.

Re: Finding something Hero System can't model... You'd need to add a Limitation "Weapons stays with target" to Stretching to actually simulate it being thrown. And, I don't think it fits that STR can add to a Ranged Weapon - it doesn't fit any of the other models of Ranged. It's doable, but it'd have to have a host of Limitations on it to treat it like an actual thrown weapon.

Re: Poison's Champions Art Thread dang... That's awesome. I like the short tail, and the tattoo came out pretty slick. While "Bitch On Board" is cute, probably not her style completely. If she had a personal motto it'd be "Love It Or Nuke It". But, I'm not going to be terribly picky.

Re: Finding something Hero System can't model... Boys... get a rope.

Re: Finding something Hero System can't model... Fantasy Hero actually. I hope it makes it into 6E. true enough - while Annoying is certainly subjective I understand it completely. And, I suppose it's kind of in my nature when someone says "Hero Can't" for me to go "Oh yeah?" .... bad habit possibly. Though you have me curious, to spur conversation, what do you find annoying about characters like the Hulk and trying to model them?

Re: In Character: A Critical and Unauthorized Look at Disadvantages ... I need to finish reading it... but I do have to point out that the premise behind the analysis is flawed: Analyzing a series of Example Characters from the book is a bad way to understand how the End User utilizes the system. Doubly so from such a small sample. Example Characters are, almost by their nature, taking place in a solo-campaign with little to no context of a Game World. The writers of these are doing their best with a limited set of tools. They have to make them both accessible and easily expressed to a reader without toploading said reader with an entire setting to put them in complete context. On the other hand, as an example character it should try its best to show useful Group Friendliness, especially in a system like Disadvantages where certain ones will affect the whole group of Players at the table. Either way... I think the author has, in a small way, missed the point of the Mechanic. Or, really should interview other users of the system for Actual Play Examples of Disadvantages instead of a couple dozen pre-gen example characters. But, I'm going to finish reading this when I get home later tonight and post more thoughts on it I'm sure.

Re: Finding something Hero System can't model...

Re: Finding something Hero System can't model... No, I mean, the books coudn't brew a decent cupajoe if your life depended on it. Never loads the right amount of coffee grinds into the filter for the water ratio used, always adds way too much sugar, and occasionally ruins the cup entirely with creamer. blech. Hopefully 6E has a better "Brew Coffee" routine.

Re: Finding something Hero System can't model... Hero System can model anything... however, it makes a terrible cup of coffee.

Re: Just to prove I'm not a complete Comeliness Grognard *walks away from thread* Some things... you can touch. But, it's best not to.

Re: Remember the Old Resurrection Debates? We use Summon for Zombies, if there are permanent zombies in play they are Followers. If you're just raising a graveyard it's Summon though. temporary addition of GM controlled entity with limited number of tasks to perform before going away.

Re: Remember the Old Resurrection Debates? And I see that disconnect as well - and for me, that's not what ShapeShift:Sight does or is needed for. I mean, I get why people has a mistep over it - I just don't find issue with it.

Re: Remember the Old Resurrection Debates? I'll let Sean's point RE: what Summon really does (temporary addition of someone/thing under GM control). Transform would have been my first choice before the addition of Resurrection. Summon does not, and never has, made any sense to me as "resurrection" and there isn't a force in the universe that could convince me otherwise. It's not what Summon is for in even the remostest sense of the word, IMO.

Re: Book Of The Machine Available Yeah, gotta say - I didn't see that origin coming At All. nice work Steve. Very nice work.