ghost-angel

This is my favorite... wacky-coolness.

Haven't checked the computer out yet .. here's some comments on the ship. I'd put the movement powers into a Multipower to simulate that they are part of the same engine/drive. Unless they are two seperate power plants. On the force field get rid of the Ablative versus STUN part since vehicles don't take STUN, it's really a non-limiting limitation. I usually make Sensor Arrays VPP that can have Enhance Sense Powers only. This is the best way to simulate the ability of a crew to reconfigure the sensor array for anything that the player didn't think of ahead of time. (This is suggested in the SH book and a good idea IMO.) Other than that it's a mean thing, and appropirately big.

a lot. a really large amount. Incerdibely high amounts. Or Resurrection. Or Desol. Depends on how you built the atomic bomb honestly, many people will have different opinions on the Damage Classes and exact methods involved. I'm not sure, off the top of my head, how to quantify a 10 Mega-ton A-Bomb in Hero Terms. probably around 40D6 Killing Attack NND. (that's how I'd built it).

Second one first: isn't that Ablative? I believe so. First one second... This one is hard to answer, and requires GM cooperation to a degree. You can.. buy a massive entangle with Personal Immunity added to it, centered on you. Change Environment if the GM allows. Extra-Dimensional Movement: Dimension with stopped time that is connected to the normal dimension in every way except that I'm not stopped. Buy your SPD and Running to such psychotically high levels that you move so fast compared to everyone else that time effectively stops for them while you spend a second rearranging reality for them. (this last option is silly, really, but I thought I'd toss it out anyway).

you guys forgot the most obvious answer: Major Transform: Unhurt Person to Hurt Person. I mean, really. (I saw this coming the second I saw the thread subject .. gave me a chuckle)

Yeah, I'm assuming this is a pre-existing Cage and not a trapping power since tha'ts a normal Entangle with special effect "metal bars" So, a cage that is existing you can throw someone into is always there, and doesn't cost you anything to keep there. 0 END and Persistent. I didn't put Always On to simulate to can "remove" the cage by opening the door making it ineffective (Though the SFX will not make it disappear but that effectively turns off the power since you can escape it easily). and yes, it's 8DEF, 4 BDY - my bad. As for thickness of walls .. that's entirely up to the special effect .. if the special effect is the nifty to "Glass Metal" I just read about in the latest Discover magazine the cage is about three centimeters thick and nearly unbreakable by conventional means. Only To Form Barriers means you make walls, what kind of wall is entirely up to SFX and the thickness is determined by the GM. Don't assume High Def means Thick Wall.

If this is an NPC and you're the GM then just use Plot Development to make him unhittable in combat... sometimes the mechanics get in the way and the story needs to take over .. if he uncannily keeps dodging the enemy for the story then, IMO, that supercedes powers/skills and everything else. YMMV.

Hrm, I'm gonna suggest the XDM to him, we've got enough of those floating around already (from the chronomancer to world-portals) that he'll probably just scream when I tell him we have yet another XDM power. Should be fun. I'll probably have to go with both the XDM (taking everything) and the Trasform (taking a copy) in the end.

No, there are a few mechanically broken samples in the sidebars. Look at the Werewolf Regeneration under the Healing Power sidebar .. it doesn't use the same rules they tell you to use in the Power description.

Actually, looking at the way Spacial Awareness is built instead of the -1/2 rebuild the power like this: Spatial Awareness [remix] Detect Physical Objects, Sense, Passive, 360 Degrees for 17 points. This is a sense though, so it can still involve a roll. I'd rule that in combat it would give him his full DCV versus hand to hand combat, and a perception roll to find a specific source of the attack. He would know an attack is coming, and from which general direction and how it's coming in, but if he then needed to know exactly where the attacker was standing it'd require a Perception Roll with this sense (which is it's own sense and only blocked by Desol.) If you want to be able to attack back I'd force you to buy it Targeting, the above would not give you full OCV.

Well, the gun looks neat and big and mean. but it's missing all the other parts that a space ships got. Like engines, life support .. and how does it target that monster? Surely no human can sense that range... Needs sensors too. Any chance you'll finish the ship?

Ah yeah. missed that part. doh! then, Spatial Awareness is probably a good bet then, defined as "Precognitive Psionics" or some such. It's a taget sense yes, but not a normal sense, it's really the best wau to simulate that. Still needs buckets of DCV skill levels, with Combat Luck added on. Unless you want to buy Clairsentience for Combat Only, though it needs another sense to work from, probably Hearing in this case.

We're still not sure how we're going about it.. It's built inside a VPP so only needs to come in under 100 AP as the requirement. It does have a RSR (Ego Roll). This is the current build: Transform:Spirit, 3D6+1, Based on EOCV, vs EGO instead of BDY, Extra Time, RSR, Normal Range, Cannot be used through Mind Links. the special effect and campaign use automatically put the Soul into the subconcious of the casting character.

Many ways. Assuming a metal cage. 1) Base: BODY: 10 (+8), DEF: 10 (+24) SIZE: 4x2 (+0); Total Cost = 32 But that isn't reall the best use of Base, and doesn't help if already have a Base and want to put a Cell inside it. If so I'd use one of the following: 1) 4D6 Entangle (Use Standard Effect of 3/die), Are Of Effect, 0END, Persistent, Takes No Damage From Attacks, +4 DEF, Only To Form Barriers. Gives a 12 BODY/8 DEF Cage. Total Cost = 90 (180 AP) the best method IMO: 2) Force Wall 10PD, 0END, Persistent, 10" Long, Restricted Shape. Total Cost = 69 (86 AP) That's some ideas to go from.

This is Combat Sense strait out of the box. And then buy CSL to DCV. best way to simulate that.

and then there's us. The Boards. ask for any device and you'll get ten ways to build it. The downside to Hero: there's no one right way to do anything. The upside to Hero: there's no one right way to do anything. Personally, the upside overshadows the downside.

You guys are arguing over semantics and special effects of a given power. Which the rules explicity avoid - because the rules do not care what the special effect is. If something needs to be limited due to the chosen SFX then the GM can do that, but the rules do not, and should not, do that. AP vs all powers .. of course AP should affect all powers as a base rule. But does the AP Bullet affect all powers? no, probably not because the SFX chosen doesn't effect all powers. That's the auto limiter right there - how you DEFINE the power, not what the power is. "Magic" is an SFX because not every game has "Magic". ALL characters have a "Physical" attribute, an "Energy" Attribute and a "Mental" Attribute as STR, CON and EGO. What "Magic" Attribute would justify something as vague as "Magic" getting extra penalties or advantages? none, it's an SFX and should be treated as the GM sees fit. On that note, if you think any Advnatage or Limitation is not at the appropriate cost level for your campaign then change it. It's YOUR GAME. Which is the point of the rule system. Steve threw down what he thought everything should be and then wrote Chapter Six in the book: CHANGING THE SYSTEM. Steve's rule book does not need to be changed, your campaign rules may need to be.

I thought about it a while, talked it over with my group and here's what we came up with as a Talent instead: Usable once per session (since it is fairly powerful), if used on something with an activation roll it gives you another shot to "activate" the power. Only usable on powers with a focus (you Thump! the focus). To make the power usable more than once per session buy skill levels, each skill level gives you one more Thump! per session/scenario. The cost we were unsure of but a 5 point Talent for 11- / 3 points per +1 to the roll / 3 point skill level seemed like our general concensus. We don't have the ability to test it since no one currently has a character that would use it .. possibly one of our SH characters, but we don't play SH but once in a long while. If anyone else wants to test the above construct, please give me feedback.

I'm not going to repeat all the stuff everyone else said about felixbility and such .. nevermind, yes I will. Hero: Anything, Anytime, Anylevel, Anywhere. Your Choice. there. done. Now onto one of the other reasons I play this game. The Bell Curve. The D20 dice system is inherently flawed by basing itself on a Die+Number Roll. The 3D6 allows for an almost perfect bell curve of effect, which allows for greater comparison of effect, and better simulation of real life. Granted the D20 system improved over the obtuse ADD2e game, but it's still silly. You have an equal chance of rolling a 1 as you do a 4 or a 17 or a 20. With the 3D6 system you know most of your rolls will land somewhere around 9-11. This will give you a better understanding of what level you want your skill to be at .. a grandmaster at chess? probably a 15 or 16 on your Skill Level. (you're rolling under your skill level number, a 15 or less on 3D6 is a high percentage). It's just better. Really. Better comparison, better reliability. You get the idea. That's my take on it. Oh that and I can be anything I want without putting forth some weird obtuse rule or template or wondering if I'm upsetting some arbitrary level requirements. As long as you've got the character points the only thing stopping you is your GM. (P.S. - Most Hero players are masters of the fast-talk, and getting stuff out of their GM with logic, some sound, some not. I can always tell a long time Hero player, they can justify almost anything.)

Arthur C. Clarke: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistiguishable from magic." Corralary: The reverse is also true. Go with whatever you think you can get away with. Vibro-Axes, Laser-Bows, Dune-Style Personal Force Fields, Lightning bolt throwing mages, all are good. When mixing futuristic sci-fi with traditionally fantasy elements anything can and will happen. Including finding out that the guy who uses real wood arrows for his bow pops right through energy force fields designed to work against laser-crossbows which are more common.

Sister Mercy. a play on words with the idea of Mercy and Mercenary. or maybe, just be rude: Theresa.

The bringing back out is definitely a Summon, seems we have consensus there. Yes, when the soul is resummoned it assumes a physical form. We've already got that solid, and the character is limited by the power-level she is able to bring back out due to the size of the summon. The power is inside a 100point VPP, so we've only got 100 AP to work with. If she wants souls brought back out to objey the power level is reduced in favor of friendliness. "Summoning, easy. Controlling, not so easy." Taking on the other hand, let me try and describe in total what the effect of taking a soul is and the levels at which we've encountered it already. 1) You can take the entire soul, including life force 2) You can take a portion of the soul which is really just a copy of the soul you've taken and stored. The "Real" being may continue to live and grow, the "Soul" being is stuck at the point in time which you took that portion/copy. This part has been eluded to as being excessively powerful and far outside the characters scope of power at this point .. but may help in creating this power. [we have encountered a copy of one of the PCs NPC love interest inside my characters head, now we have good version/bad version running around the world - they got loose..] 3) We have no solid definition of soul, but I do like the idea of it being tied to EGO/PRE, the EGO characteristic has become one of the most essential characteristics in this game and that mechanic would fit nicely. (often the only rolls made during a session are EGO rolls, we've laid bets onto which player will be the first to say something to prompt the GM to go "Make and EGO roll.") 4) The effect of the physical body disappearing has occured only on enemies whose soul was taken "At the Brink of Death." ie, right after we beat it to a pulp. We have taken souls of non-dead characters before to varying effects (both no physical effect and physically disappearing) depending on story-line. So it seems to be mostly SFX in game terms. 5) You can keep on making exact duplicates of Soul Portions/Copies, my characters repository of souls is simply the "backup" copy of the games local Deus Ex Machina... The player made what he thought was a clever power and the GM uses it against me as much as I use it against him. [invisible: Mental Group, No Fringe, 0END, Persistent, Inherent, Always On. for 30 Character Points you foil almost all Mental powers.] NPC: "I read your mind." PC: "You don't see it." NPC: "What? Hey!" PC: "Can't read what you can't see." GM: "I hate you." Am bringing this convesation to my GM tonight, he might have some ideas as well. Thanks for the info thus far.

Here's an idea that doesn't use a Power: Thump skill. PRE Based (maybe EGO, Not STR since you don't want to break the thing, just show it who's boss.) Standard 3/2 cost. Thump, the ability to force a machine or object to suddenly work properly when it is not. This skill will not work on outright broken objects but will work on "flaky" or similar objects. It may also be tried on objects that fail their activation roll, once only per session. (suggest a -1 per AP to the roll in this case.) Thump may be used only once per object per session in any case. A failed attempt to Thump amy cause further damage to the object as you knock a critical part further out of place. that way no point effect is trying to be figured out, and has a more appropriate dramatic and storytelling effect.

He wouldn't be much of a game-breaker around us. As Hugh poitned out he's got 70pts left over for everything else. that's not a lot to work with, especially outside of combat. I would say we spend no more than 50% of any game session "in combat", frequently less. The best way to balance out someone who wants to build that speed-demon is just to make him utterly useless in other situations. The player should quickly learn how to make a "Faster" character as in faster-than-most-everyone-else without going that far out so he has room left over for Roleplaying Points instead of just Rollplaying Points. It all depends on your games, if you feature combat heavy games a high SPD character with a high attack will break a game quickly, if you feature games that require more balance to powers/skills then a high speed guy will be left behind.

I like this idea, and will have to play with it. Though, my the character does not get the abilities of the summoned soul, though they can ask the soul questions - if the soul is cooperative the character might get some answers. And the character then needs to bring the soul back out, giving it physical form again, to have it interact with the world.