Grimwyrd

The biggest constraint on making a society where technology exists, but a medieval flavor still flourishes is rationalizing the "why". Societies that don't make sense end up feeling "wrong" when you try to play in them. AmadanNaBriona mentions a lot of great settings, and there are many more in Scf-fi/Fantasy literature. McCaffrey's Dragon series and Julian May's Pliocene Epoch series are some of my favorites. There are many ways of creating these societies. They include the aforementioned "post-apocalyptic descent from technology", "magic exists, therefore industrial revolutions never took hold", or my favorite "technology and magic interfere with each other, so a balance must be struck". I like the last one because if magic existed, and was discovered/utilized first, then those in power might actively suppress the use of forces like electricity and magnetism, if those forces disrupted the use of magic. It sets up a society with plenty of possibilities for conflict and intrigue.

I don't have a problem with "Affects Desolid" as long as there is a reason for the attack having the advantage (ie, it's a spiritual or mental SFX as opposed to a physical effect). Desolidification can be very powerful for the points, even with its built-in susceptibility to three forms of attack. I would make my players come up with fairly tight rationalization for a physical-based attack working on desolidification though. Just planning on makin you fire EB affect desolid for the heck of it, would not really fly in any campaign I ran. The main problem I have with the Hero System is "Speed". It's fairly easy to make characters too darned tough without strict control of the Speed attribute by the GM.

Yeah, this will take some adjustment. We got together last weekend with the GM and players just to have a "general melee - get to know the combat system" thing. It became quickly obvious that a total movement of 12", no flight, and no ranged attack... was going to be frustrating in a 450 (300+150) High Powered Superheroic campaign. Now I'm trying to decide how to beef up the movement capability while staying true to my character concept. Although, I've made him in such a way that I may just use Noncombat Movement to run screaming into HtH range at 1/2 DCV and then hope I'm fast enough to recvover before I get dead.

It sounds like some folks in this thread consider DFC too powerful, but people aren't really talking about the cost of the maneuver. If you abort to it, you use up your next phase and you end up prone (1/2 DCV). It's not exactly something you want to be doing all the time. My martial artist used it recently, successfully, to avoid a ranged attack. The gamemaster even allowed a Breakfall roll for him to keep his feet after the DFC, too. But even after a successful DEX roll and Breakfall roll, I still lost my next action, due to the defensive maneuver.

I see the Teleportation as a way to represent how sometimes masters do what I call the "Where'd he go" Maneuver. You know, there's an explosion and you were sure he was there, but now he's not. Or the "He was just here" Maneuver, where you turn your back on him and he's gone. Or even the "You Swing at him and suddenly he's behind you" Maneuver. I almost think of it as a burst of super speed to circle around the opponent, pop to your feet as a zero phase, dodge the undodgeable. Anyway, I'm still new to the system and haven't run any combat yet. So I'll see how it goes.

Great! Thanks for the feedback. I love the thought of using the Flight for running through a crowd, with the "surface" being people's heads. And I may tinker with the END a bit.

5th Ed rules, under Entangle, specifically say that a Flying character can continue to Fly, depending on the SFX for each power. "For example, a character with Flight could Fly while handcuffed, but this wouldn't free him from the handcuffs, he'd just take them with him. But if the Flight had the Gestures limitation, it wouldn't work, since the handcuffs prevent him from making the proper gestures." -5th Ed. So as other posters have said, in the case of a mental paralysis Entangle, I would rule that he could continue to Fly as long as he didn't need to move any body parts to do so. For instance, wings would be paralyzed (Hawkman plummets to his death). Arms couldn't steer a jetpack. Legs couldn't steer jet boots.

Hi there, I'm new to this gaming system and had a question for the experts. I am making a High-Powered Kung Fu master for a Superheroic campaign (300+150), and want to give him a variety of theatrical/anime/"wire-fu" movement powers. Is the following Multipower an normal way to use Multipowers? On one hand, it gives me exactly what I want. But on the other hand it seems a bit too powerful for the points. My character will have zero ranged combat ability in a Superheroic campaign, so I want him to move well. Opinions? Potential problems? 17: Theatrical Martial Arts Movement: Multipower, 21-point reserve, all slots: (21 Active Points); Only In Heroic Identity (-1/4) 1u: 1) Water Walking, Bamboo Running: Flight 6", Reduced Endurance 0 END (+1/2) (18 Active Points); Only In Contact With A Surface (-1/4) 2u: 2) Walk through Walls, Escape Grabs/Entangles, Blink about in Combat, Zero Move Stand: Teleportation 2", Position Shift, Safe Blind Teleport (+1/4), Armor Piercing x1 (+1/2), Reduced Endurance 0 END (+1/2) (20 Active Points) 2u: 3) +6" Running (12" total), Combat Acceleration/Deceleration (+1/4), Reduced Endurance 0 END (+1/2) (21 Active Points) 1u: 4) Leaping +8" (12 1/2" forward, 6" upward) (Accurate), Reduced Endurance 0 END (+1/2) (19 Active Points) 1u: 5) Gliding 12", Combat Acceleration/Deceleration (+1/4), Persistent (+1/2) (21 Active Points); Limited Power Power loses about a fourth of its effectiveness: No upward movement (-1/4) Thanks, Grimwyrd