ghost-angel

Playing in a low powered super-cop game;
 
Player1: When he takes off his helmet he is all grim and sweaty.
Player2: Not sweaty, glowing.
Player3: What, is he pregnant?
Player4: Pregnant with RAGE!!
 
Player1 is affectionately called "judge dredd", in character, by his fellow rookies (a pair of necromancers (twins), a guy with odd sensory powers, and a former CIA agent). Mostly, he's called judge dredd by the necromancers, who are very bad at keeping up the goth-necromancer image.

Time Limit allows an Instant Power to be available for a the specified Time Period, ready to be activated as a Zero-Phase Action (Attack Actions still apply to use them offensively) during the entire period. It's generally used when the Power can't already be activated as a Zero-Phase Action, which means it really isn't applicable to a vanilla Blast Power (or almost any base Power, as just about every Power in the book defaults to only needing a Zero Phase Action to Activate).
 
This does mean Continuing Charges with Clips & Reload time can be added to Powers with Time Limit.
 
But I don't see them interacting the way Lucius describes based on what each Modifier actually does. There's nothing that prevents Blast from being activated without prep at any point, aside from the 1 Hour Cool Down, which isn't perpetration so much as a waiting period.
 
Now; if you had Extra Time: 1 Hour plus Time Limit: 5 Minutes - THAT does what Lucius is trying to accomplish: there's a 1 Hour period the Power is not available and then a 5 Minute Period you can use it without the Extra Time aspect being required.
 
Of course, Extra Time runs into the same problem as the 1 Hour To Reload aspect - it assumes nothing else is being done except that Action. Which also isn't what is being asked for.
 
Breaking down why each of these builds isn't achieving the goal as desired based on what the Modifiers are actually doing:
Extra Time: can do nothing else during the initial activation period - not a waiting period
 
Time Limit: can activate a Power as a Zero-Phase Action for powers that already can't be activated as a Zero-Phase Action, during the Period specified - this almost does what you want, but doesn't include the cool down period; still it might be a viable option (assuming you want to take an Advantage for something that can already be done inherently)
 
Charges, Continuing + Reload;
--The Power lasts the duration, assumes it's basically a continuous power (which Time Limit is a pseudo-continuous Power in that it's available for specified length, but not always active); Continuous assumes the Power is actually Active for the entire period (addendum: using Fuel aspect means it turns on/off at will, and the Continuous Charge lasts the total time In Use, but not consecutively);
-- Reload runs into the same problem Extra Time does, assuming that's the only action being taken.
-- Also, the number of Charges limits how often the power can be used Period. 16 Charges means you only get 80 Minutes of Continuous Use per Day/Session. Which is actually less than you can fit into a 24 Day assuming basically 22 hours of waiting and 110 Minutes of use... (plus 10 minutes left over to maintain the weapon and complete a 24 hour cycle...)
-- Charges means the Power isn't using Endurance, not sure that's a feature or a bug in the desired end result. [I hate that Charges mess with Endurance]
 
None of these really interact as described/desired in my opinion.
 
What the system really needs is a full fledged out Cooldown Limitation with a "how long a power can be ready for use" and "how long between ready states" aspects; 
Default being Ready For Use/Used for 1 Phase; Must Wait 1 Phase To Use Again (usable every other Phase for, I dunno, -1/4); and start stepping up and down the time charts. +1/4 for Use Time going up the chart (can be Activated any time for 1 Turn +1/4, 1 Minute +1/2, etc); and Must Wait 1 Turn -1/4, 1 Minute -1/2).
 
If a Power can be Activated and must wait 5 Minutes between uses that would math out to a -1 Power. (start at -1/4 Base, -3/4 for stepping down Cooldown from 1 Phase to 5 Minutes)
So, a Power can be used for 5 Minutes, and has a 1 Hour Cooldown: Base: -1/4; 5 Minutes Of Ready State (+3/4, total of +1/2 Advantage so far); Cooldown of 1 Hour (-1; total of -1/2 Limitation);
 
Eh, that's gonna be a weird Limitation, I'd have to sit down and play with it some to really determine what's a good way to build it out;
 
This post got long, so I'm going to end my thoughts here; only last point to make is that 5 Minutes of Use is effectively unlimited use for a single fight with no limitations; and this only becomes a limiting power for prolonged encounters and/or multiple encounters in a short period.
 

Time Limit allows an Instant Power to be available for a the specified Time Period, ready to be activated as a Zero-Phase Action (Attack Actions still apply to use them offensively) during the entire period. It's generally used when the Power can't already be activated as a Zero-Phase Action, which means it really isn't applicable to a vanilla Blast Power (or almost any base Power, as just about every Power in the book defaults to only needing a Zero Phase Action to Activate).
 
This does mean Continuing Charges with Clips & Reload time can be added to Powers with Time Limit.
 
But I don't see them interacting the way Lucius describes based on what each Modifier actually does. There's nothing that prevents Blast from being activated without prep at any point, aside from the 1 Hour Cool Down, which isn't perpetration so much as a waiting period.
 
Now; if you had Extra Time: 1 Hour plus Time Limit: 5 Minutes - THAT does what Lucius is trying to accomplish: there's a 1 Hour period the Power is not available and then a 5 Minute Period you can use it without the Extra Time aspect being required.
 
Of course, Extra Time runs into the same problem as the 1 Hour To Reload aspect - it assumes nothing else is being done except that Action. Which also isn't what is being asked for.
 
Breaking down why each of these builds isn't achieving the goal as desired based on what the Modifiers are actually doing:
Extra Time: can do nothing else during the initial activation period - not a waiting period
 
Time Limit: can activate a Power as a Zero-Phase Action for powers that already can't be activated as a Zero-Phase Action, during the Period specified - this almost does what you want, but doesn't include the cool down period; still it might be a viable option (assuming you want to take an Advantage for something that can already be done inherently)
 
Charges, Continuing + Reload;
--The Power lasts the duration, assumes it's basically a continuous power (which Time Limit is a pseudo-continuous Power in that it's available for specified length, but not always active); Continuous assumes the Power is actually Active for the entire period (addendum: using Fuel aspect means it turns on/off at will, and the Continuous Charge lasts the total time In Use, but not consecutively);
-- Reload runs into the same problem Extra Time does, assuming that's the only action being taken.
-- Also, the number of Charges limits how often the power can be used Period. 16 Charges means you only get 80 Minutes of Continuous Use per Day/Session. Which is actually less than you can fit into a 24 Day assuming basically 22 hours of waiting and 110 Minutes of use... (plus 10 minutes left over to maintain the weapon and complete a 24 hour cycle...)
-- Charges means the Power isn't using Endurance, not sure that's a feature or a bug in the desired end result. [I hate that Charges mess with Endurance]
 
None of these really interact as described/desired in my opinion.
 
What the system really needs is a full fledged out Cooldown Limitation with a "how long a power can be ready for use" and "how long between ready states" aspects; 
Default being Ready For Use/Used for 1 Phase; Must Wait 1 Phase To Use Again (usable every other Phase for, I dunno, -1/4); and start stepping up and down the time charts. +1/4 for Use Time going up the chart (can be Activated any time for 1 Turn +1/4, 1 Minute +1/2, etc); and Must Wait 1 Turn -1/4, 1 Minute -1/2).
 
If a Power can be Activated and must wait 5 Minutes between uses that would math out to a -1 Power. (start at -1/4 Base, -3/4 for stepping down Cooldown from 1 Phase to 5 Minutes)
So, a Power can be used for 5 Minutes, and has a 1 Hour Cooldown: Base: -1/4; 5 Minutes Of Ready State (+3/4, total of +1/2 Advantage so far); Cooldown of 1 Hour (-1; total of -1/2 Limitation);
 
Eh, that's gonna be a weird Limitation, I'd have to sit down and play with it some to really determine what's a good way to build it out;
 
This post got long, so I'm going to end my thoughts here; only last point to make is that 5 Minutes of Use is effectively unlimited use for a single fight with no limitations; and this only becomes a limiting power for prolonged encounters and/or multiple encounters in a short period.
 

If the important part is you can't use the Power for an hour after it's used then just add a Custom Limitation "Can only be used for 5 Minutes, then Cannot be used for 1 Hour after That Period" -1 or 1 1/2, whatever the GM feels is appropriate. It's really that simple.

Here's another idea of how to get this interaction without weird Limitation Rules interactions;
 
Endurance Reserve; 5 Minute Continuous Charge
Blast; uses END Reserve, Limited Power: Cannot be used for an hour after the END Reserves Charge runs out of time.
 
Probably the cleanest build I can think of without wondering how Delayed Use, Charges, End Reserves, Linked, or Unified Powers work together.
 
Don't be afraid to work with the GM to create Custom Limitations to get a more precision execution of your vision into the game. That's what "Limited Power" Limitation is for.

I would define Character Development is the change in the characters story over several role playing sessions; while small shifts in development happen in single sessions full Character Development Arcs play out over the long term.
 
Role Play just being in character. I expect that at a con-game. Otherwise it's just rollplay and while I can play monopoly, it's boring.

Here's another idea of how to get this interaction without weird Limitation Rules interactions;
 
Endurance Reserve; 5 Minute Continuous Charge
Blast; uses END Reserve, Limited Power: Cannot be used for an hour after the END Reserves Charge runs out of time.
 
Probably the cleanest build I can think of without wondering how Delayed Use, Charges, End Reserves, Linked, or Unified Powers work together.
 
Don't be afraid to work with the GM to create Custom Limitations to get a more precision execution of your vision into the game. That's what "Limited Power" Limitation is for.

I would define Character Development is the change in the characters story over several role playing sessions; while small shifts in development happen in single sessions full Character Development Arcs play out over the long term.
 
Role Play just being in character. I expect that at a con-game. Otherwise it's just rollplay and while I can play monopoly, it's boring.

Here's another idea of how to get this interaction without weird Limitation Rules interactions;
 
Endurance Reserve; 5 Minute Continuous Charge
Blast; uses END Reserve, Limited Power: Cannot be used for an hour after the END Reserves Charge runs out of time.
 
Probably the cleanest build I can think of without wondering how Delayed Use, Charges, End Reserves, Linked, or Unified Powers work together.
 
Don't be afraid to work with the GM to create Custom Limitations to get a more precision execution of your vision into the game. That's what "Limited Power" Limitation is for.

Here's another idea of how to get this interaction without weird Limitation Rules interactions;
 
Endurance Reserve; 5 Minute Continuous Charge
Blast; uses END Reserve, Limited Power: Cannot be used for an hour after the END Reserves Charge runs out of time.
 
Probably the cleanest build I can think of without wondering how Delayed Use, Charges, End Reserves, Linked, or Unified Powers work together.
 
Don't be afraid to work with the GM to create Custom Limitations to get a more precision execution of your vision into the game. That's what "Limited Power" Limitation is for.

Image source https://www.artstation.com/artwork/ky44n
 
have fun.

Stalin's Fist
 
How she got her powers is unknown but the woman known as Stalin's Fist was seen from early 1943 after the fall of Stalingrad to the Russians until the end of the war. What happened to her afterwards is unknown but Stalin was paranoid and there were others who would do anything to protect their position. She was most often seen leading a second or third attack if an initial one was repulsed. Those who served with her said that bullets seemed to miss her in the same way that they avoided Wyatt Earp. She often recommended other soldiers for decorations in action whilst declining ones for herself.

She is the top Russian super-agent whose code name translates to Blue Fist Iron Star (or In her own country Siniy Kulak Zhelizanyn Zyek, and prase to Google Translate). She prefers her entire code name to be shouted, and dislikes anyone using a nickname (but they call her Siniy behind her back, and the English speakers mistake it for Shiny).
 
She is a bonified Russian superhero. She is formally of the military (and was let go when she lost her left arm, luckily for her a friend made her an artificial arm which can still change her powers through), and uses military tactics and her ability to charge blue energy through her arms to fight crime in Moscow.

Redstone; once an ordinary space pirate, moderately successful, but that Big Score eluded him. His policy was to leave everyone alive, a tactic that kept him low on the list of pirates to capture, but also meant he only went after low risk jobs...
 
Until he found one of the legendary Stones Of AvarenShen, said to grant immeasurable power to those who find and unlock their secrets.
 
The stone slowly corrupted him even further, no longer content capture & release, small time smuggling, and just staying one step ahead. Redstone began a ruthless campaign of terror in the galaxy, amassing a fleet of dozens of ships now... 

Probably. Or "Base Attack Roll is 11, you get 3 free bonus points, and buy more at 5pts per +1"
 
One of the reasons I like the 11+OCV-Roll presentation is it requires no information that isn't on your character sheet, and you do the math once, not every attack.

This is horrible advice. Also, both formulas have explicitly existed since 5th (5E p244, 5RT p371), and even when I learned under 4th Edition 25 years ago it was taught to me as 11+OCV-Die Roll because that's all on Your Sheet. It's not some magical "new fangled 6th edition" thing.
 
I recommend doing it this way: Attack Skill, this is calculated by adding your OCV to 11. Write it down. Do not do the math Every. Single. Attack. (whch, BTW, the old standard has you doing, it slows down play considerably. it's just bad.)
Just, have an Attack Roll. How much they make the roll by is the Target Number, which is the DCV. Know the target number, don't know it, doesn't matter. Add your modifiers to the result. Simple.
 
This makes Attack Rolls just another type of Skill Roll. So you've taught them how to do two things at the same time. Present Skill Rolls not as "succeed or fail" but as Target Numbers: to do an Acrobatic Check to use the flag pole to spin off of you just need to success by 1 or more, it's an easy task for you. But to slide between the bank robbers legs and come up standing behind him, you need to succeed by 3 or more... (because you, as the GM, gave them a -2 penalty for the task, meaning Rolling a 10 on an 11- means they actually failed by 2, so if they roll an 8 on a 11- Acrobatics Roll they actually succeed.)
 
As noted by others, come with some prebuilt characters, get them into how things fit together before you get into character creation. Even if they're very simple characters for a first session. If each character has a little bit of each primary aspect; Movement, Attack, Defense, Non-Combat; they see the pieces working together. This will help them understand what elements to use when building a character on their own.
 
Another little bit you can do is change how Movement is presented. I would split Movement into 3 representations instead of just Combat/Non-Combat.
1. Half Phase Movement (half the Combat Movement Speed)
2. Full Phase Movement (Combat Speed)
3. Non-Combat Movement (Non-Combat Speed)
It might help quicken up what you can do with a Phase that's split into Half and Full Phase actions; reduces Math At The Time, which helps with the learning process.
 
When you present pre-gens, simplify the builds, instead of presenting it as 8D6 Blast, AoE (12m), Focus (OAF), 6 Charges do it was "Flame Pistol: 8D6 in a 12m Radius, 6 shots, can be taken away."

In my experience, the only people I've seen have actual trouble with the Hero To Hit Mechanic are 1) old Hero gamers complaining about it and 2) old gamers in general who are still thinking in terms of their favorite RPG instead of the new one they're learning.
 
Now, one thing I do run into a lot is gamers who announce what they Rolled instead of doing the math (for any roll, Attack, Skill or Characteristic Roll); and almost every time they were in a group where the GM or someone else at the table always just "Did the math for them immediately" and they simply got complacent, rather than unable to do the equations.
 
 
My personal experience is rolling larger numbers of dice for damage (in any system) is the more daunting task, I will show players how to group things in 5s, 10s, and 15s and then adding those piles up - after that it's not an issue.
 

This is the sticking point I have; because I don't really see it that way (or want to I should say). While Hero definitely has a very detailed combat system, I don't see the system overall as leaning in that direction. It has a very well plotted out skill system as well, a decent social interaction system, and a lot of non-combat elements to it.
 
But, by placing DEX at a higher cost, the system has made sure that your statement is a correct default assumption.

Thanks for that rundown of how things went, always interested in alternate ways of getting a game running.

Ok... so we used "The Plan" mechanic (process?) in actual play again tonight. It was mostly successful, but still a bit awkward in implementation.
 
The good:
1) It felt really correct and natural to begin when the game naturally entered a stage of "Ok, so we want to do a, b & c and find out..." from the players (the determined they wanted to implement a physical hack of a cartel's server farm to determine routing and transactions of finances and who they were working with)... and I was able to say, "Ok, this is clearly time for "the Plan" so let's structure this discussion.
2) The structure of determining "What are you trying to achieve" and "what is your general strategy" worked out, though, as noted below, the goal they were trying to achieve kept shifting throughout the plan. The general strategy, "We want to find their information infrastructure and get a hard line hack into it without them noticing" was enough to get to "Ok, so what kind of prep do you need, and what actions do characters take to make this possible?" and this didn't take long at all.
3) The actual prep dice rolls and then "The Plan" roll worked well, and enable me as the GM to provide key information that they learn along the way, so the players and PCs are clear about what they are up against.
4) The "We planned for this" chits were used in a different way that was just as effective. The Plan roll earned them two such chits. They chose to spend one to say, "We create a distraction that pulls the majority of the guards away from the server farm so there is a window to infiltrate." By spending a chit, this was a given, the distraction works, and we could start the moment by moment actual play with the professional thief at the door and picking the lock.
5) the player with the thief character who was primary driver of this plan, really felt it was a chance to "show his stuff" and have the professional thief in his environment and really shine. (The op went nearly flawlessly, with the one major monkey wrench overcome with a 3 on a perception check and a 4 on the stealth roll to avoid discovery by a seriously bad guy.)
6) It was a good combination of "prep rolls" and "plan rolls" that are more meta... and traditional task resolution skill rolls like "Lockpicking" and "Stealth" etc. and they felt different enough, even though both used skill rolls to resolve. 
 
THe not so good:
1) Again, it was difficult for the players at first, to get to the idea of "What are you trying to achieve." They tend to think in term of tasks, "Pick this lock" or "Sneak by X guys" or whatever... the specific actions, and they needed to be prompted to really focus on "Why? What are you hoping to achieve with these actions? What is your desired outcome"  It was up to me as the GM to say "Hey, back to what we are trying to achieve. No need to get bogged down with all the actions you could take, until we understand what all these actions are supposed to accomplish. 
2) Once established, the goal kept changing. This isn't inherently bad... the planning is fluid and the goal can change as the talk about it, but I needed to explicitly call out "Hey, it sounds like originally you wanted to shut down this server farm and really hurt the cartel, but now you want to install a hack and leave it running so you can siphon information over time? Am I understanding this? And we have to start over on the tactics, because you now have a different strategy."
3) The players can struggle a bit with prep rolls and ideas, as they aren't used to simply getting to state director stance "X is true and that means Y" as traditional games the players state a task resolution and look to the GM to tell them anything meaningful. Here the players say, "If I succeed, a, b and c are true and I know about thej, etc." The philosophy of "Yes... and ..." isn't intuitive at first.
4) Not all the PCs had a clear way to contribute to the plan, or the players felt that way, but that was ok as it just limited which PCs could contribute a possible plus to "The Plan" roll.
5) The more strategically minded/also GM type of players dominated the conversation, as other players can really prefer to react to specific threats a GM throws at them. This process asks for pro-active imaginations by the players.
6) GM needs to be able to give clear guidance on the minuses and such that indicate the difficulty of the task in general. It was a struggle at times to provide clear guidance on "Ok, this is what you'll get with a successful "The Plan" roll vs. what will happen if you fail it. 
7) It generally had some awkward moments as it can feel odd for some to "go meta" with the discussion which this demands.
 
Ultimately it worked really well, and a potentially quite complex and time consuming planning session fit right into our regular four hour play session, and the scenario was resolved by evenings end. It definitely helps structure and speed up "op planning."
 
All in all in worked

Redstone; once an ordinary space pirate, moderately successful, but that Big Score eluded him. His policy was to leave everyone alive, a tactic that kept him low on the list of pirates to capture, but also meant he only went after low risk jobs...
 
Until he found one of the legendary Stones Of AvarenShen, said to grant immeasurable power to those who find and unlock their secrets.
 
The stone slowly corrupted him even further, no longer content capture & release, small time smuggling, and just staying one step ahead. Redstone began a ruthless campaign of terror in the galaxy, amassing a fleet of dozens of ships now... 

i bet that wouldbn't stop him from succeeding tho

Redstone; once an ordinary space pirate, moderately successful, but that Big Score eluded him. His policy was to leave everyone alive, a tactic that kept him low on the list of pirates to capture, but also meant he only went after low risk jobs...
 
Until he found one of the legendary Stones Of AvarenShen, said to grant immeasurable power to those who find and unlock their secrets.
 
The stone slowly corrupted him even further, no longer content capture & release, small time smuggling, and just staying one step ahead. Redstone began a ruthless campaign of terror in the galaxy, amassing a fleet of dozens of ships now... 

Nobody has good taste in movies. or books. or music. or anything subjective. Just like what you like and move on.

Redstone; once an ordinary space pirate, moderately successful, but that Big Score eluded him. His policy was to leave everyone alive, a tactic that kept him low on the list of pirates to capture, but also meant he only went after low risk jobs...
 
Until he found one of the legendary Stones Of AvarenShen, said to grant immeasurable power to those who find and unlock their secrets.
 
The stone slowly corrupted him even further, no longer content capture & release, small time smuggling, and just staying one step ahead. Redstone began a ruthless campaign of terror in the galaxy, amassing a fleet of dozens of ships now...