dstarfire

Re: Optional Rule: Continous (Breakdown) In playing around with some power ideas, I accidentally stumbled across a legitimate use for continous without a lock-on: wandering zones of destruction (i.e. Taz, a small tornado, etc.) If used with an area of effect and the deflection rules, it seems perfect for simulating the semi-random movements of natural phenomenon.

Re: Computers as characters I'd say a standard character template, with multiform and duplication (to represent it's drones), and whatever other skills and powers you feel are appropriate. Sounds like you're definitely going to have to resort to a vpp, though.

Re: Steve's Chat Tonight (Thursday, April 27) But ... but... How will we stop the palindromedaries without our throwing badgers? Everybody knows that a well placed badger is the only way to stop a palindromedary

Re: how to build: highlander-ish soul catching YES!!! That seems to describe almost exactly what I was trying for: the character witnesses the target's life and history as if it were his own. I'd think the game balance issues would be solved by good roleplaying. Part of the sfx of the power is that by knowing the total of a victim's life, he empathizes with them, which causes a ton of remorse, meaning the character's going to be very reluctant to take a life. I'd include in the character concept that this ability is a sort of penance for prematurely ending another's life.

I've come across this concept in several books, but can't figure out how to make it viable in hero. When a character kills another person, he also absorbs all that person's thoughts, memories, and knowlege. While seemingly useful, this invariably inflicts devestating grief, remorse, etc. on the character as they discover the 'inner beauty' of the life they've just taken. mechanicly, it wouldn't give the character any skills or powers they didn't already possess (though it could be used as a justification for buying the victims skills and/or powers posessed, depending on theif sfx). Also, the character has to willingly strike the killing blow. I'd think this is just a cool telepathy construct, except telepathy only lets you got one thought/idea at a time. This is basically a dump of the victim's entire consciousness at the moment of death.

Re: Invisible Speech? Doesn't 5er describe how to build voice as a sense? Take that, change the sfx to ultrasonic, add-in ultrasonic perception and, voila, ultrasonic speech.

Re: More Difficult Than Average sounds like a fairly good description of unluck, actually. Even though that's a disad, rather than a power, you could use transform to force it upon somebody. You could also use Summon danger, variable sfx (requires some serious hand-waving, though);

Re: Trying to build a Medusa/Gorgon I seem to recall something about being able to automatically hit an adjacent hex. I mean, heck, we're talking about a six and a half foot target not more than six feet away.

Re: The “Unofficial†Ultimate Mentalist Project (Fan Version “What Do *You* Want To See?" Any book that deals with mental powers is going to have to at least mention the options for having additional, mental-only actions. Hopefully somebody's got some ideas of how to do this simply and neatly. Also, as was mentioned earlier, some discussion of mental multi-tasking would be quite helpful.

Re: what power do i use to stop scrying/bugs Since you can't (and shouldn't expect to) build defenses against every way given effect could be built, find one that seems to describe what you want, then talk it over with your GM. On the other hand, if you're the GM, you can commit to building all 'bugs' a certain way, or simply ignore the mechanics and narrate the desired effects.

Re: Normal with powered "Friend" Mechanics aside, who controls the superhero character? Answering this question will help you decide which mechanic to use. If it's the player, a simple dnpc construct seems appropriate. If it's another player, or the GM - the poor, already-overworked GM - a summon seems more appropriate

Re: Range Mod has anybody ever actually found a good use for extending the maximum range of a power? in most eveyr game I've played, by the time you reach a powers maximum range, the ocv penalties alone make it near-impossible to hit, let alone getting a clear LoS (almost always a tree, building, hill, etc. in the way at that point)

Re: Characters that give you nightmares trying to design I once made the mistake of actually trying to build this one: the changelings from star trek: DS9. You know, the kind that can turn into mist; be any size, shape, color, etc.. Oh yeah, and VPP's are right out.

Re: Disad: Recurring Nightmare(s) Aside from the physical fatigue effects (which doesn't make sense for a character to have to endure for more than a few days). I think the wacky roleplaying fits perfectly. Some specifics I'd suggest: absent-mindedness, moodiness, a susceptibility to mental attacks. Maybe have him randomly take recoveries when not being directly threatened himself. other fun stuff.

Re: Hero System design considerations Wow. I haven't seen so many intelligent, insightful, or just plain interesting posts in a thread in a LONG time. WHatever you may feel about the issue, it definitely brings out the brightest in both camps. I hope the comments below measure up. I tend to agree that trying to make a "universal" system is something of a pipe dream. To misquote a saying: "You can do one thing very well, many things passable, or everything poorly". As for the idea of a 'core' that can be adapted to anything, it'd have to be so vague is to be effectively useless (except maybe for game system designers). Hero does adapt fairly well to a variety of genres. However, that's adapting (as in changing to fit the circumstances), and sometimes there's a lot of adapting that has to be done. Hero still retains a rather strong feel of it's superhero origins (I can name several Powers that are relevant for, and exist only for use in comic book super hero games), which can really jolt your feeling of immersion. On the other hand, the hero system works very well for the glorified-board-game style of roleplaying (as opposed to the interactive story/world style of roleplaying). Unless somebody puts in a great deal of work up front, the heavy mechanics and complex rules tend to get in the way of roleplaying. All that aside, the quality of your game really depends on the GM and the players, not the setting your in, or the rules you use. Those are just tools wielded by the GM and players to express their imaginings in a way everybody (or at least everybody else at the table) can understand. A master craftsman can do superb work, even with poor tools. An amateur will do amateur work, no matter how good his/her tools are.

I'm looking at building a character that uses TK to mimic other superpower flavors (i.e. might pose as a gravity or magnetism based superhero). Each 'scene' he might be posing as a different superhero (one that isn't known to already exist) themed on different sfx. Unfortunately, I'm having trouble figuring out how to do this in a 'low-powered superhero' game (150 base pts+ 100 pts of disads). So far, all I've managed to come up with is either a huge VPP, or TK with the variable sfx advantage. Any ideas/thoughts?

Is there any cost difference for CSL's that ONLY increase ocv, or that ONLY increase dcv? From what I understand, all csl's bought at 3 pts and above can be shifted among ocv, dcv, and 1/2dc (2 csl's for +1dc) at anytime during a players phase (but only affects rolls after the change). With most other powers and skills, you have to pay extra for the versatility inherent in the above-3-point CSL's.

i'm trying to build a power that drains the end from an end reserve, allowing the end reserve to recover at it's normal recovery rate. Essentially it'd work just like a normal attack. You damage a target which then heals from that damage at the target's recovery rate. Drain would seem to work, except the END reserve would recover at it's normal rate in addition to the drain fading away. What I'm going for is a form of electrokinesis that essentially drains the energy from a battery/capacitor/engine/etc. which can then be recharged in the usual manner.

Re: Damage Reduction back to the original topic (in case you missed it, it's "dr can be built as stat multipliers, so should be removed as redundant)... I'm generally opposed to removing any power/skill/talent/characteristic simply because it can be built using another one. This mentality leads eventually to everything being a (insert the name of your favorite power here) with various special effects. Also, it leads to some VERY messy, complex and expensive powers. Finally, it makes the hero system even more bland, flavorless and uninspiring than it already is (an unfortunate side effect of trying to make it a universal system).

i can't believe there isn't a thread about this .... When the core rulebook for hero system 5th edition came out, it eventually became dubbed 'fred', a nickname to distinguish it from earlier versions. So what shall we call the new 5er, to distinguish it from 5eToB (The original book)? 'Fredr' (pronounced 'fredder')? Rev. Fred? fiver?

I'm trying to build a protection spell that's based on dispel with a trigger. What I can't figure out is how to make the condition of having the trigger active as an ongoing effect of the spell. In other words: when the spell is active, the trigger is set, and when the appropriate circumstances occur (say 'being attacked by a spell'), the attached power activates; when the spell is not active, nothing happens even when the proper circumstances occur. The reason I'm doing this in such a wierd way is so that the triggered power can function as a 'takes no time'/free action, but the spell that makes the trigger active takes time, costs end, and probably has a few other limitations. for example, a 'protection from magic' spell that's built as a dispel with the trigger: 'when attacked with by a spell' (obviously the caster has to have a way to know that he's being attacked by a spell). This requires using some of the special options for trigger described in the 5er (which i found out about from another thread in this forum), to make it a free action, and have the trigger automatically reset as a free action.

This is partly a rules question, partly a how-to question. How do you build a sense that doesn't provide any information by itself, but instead functions as a basis for a related group of detects? I'm trying to build a sense that's basically a sort of 'inner eye', 'mind's eye', etc. In other words, information comes in as pictures in your mind. Basically I want a sight-like sense that isn't affected by powers that target the sight group (since that's always the 1st, and usually the only, sense targeted). This is for a character in the Turakian Age setting. Obviously, this is going to function as the sense group for most of the characters detect-based spells.

I'm having trouble understanding why the super skills in the 'Dark Champions' are built that way, as many of them don't match up with my understanding of the rules. Here are some of the specifics: Almost all the skills that have 'requires a (char/skill) roll' use the value for the 'requires an activation roll' limitation. Shouldn't this be 'requires a skill roll'? Are players supposed to adjust the cost of this limitation to match their char/skill rolls? How the heck is 'disquieting aura' built? I can't find anything about using CE to directly modify a characteristic, just about modifying characteristic rolls, and the cost for that doesn't match the 35 AcP mentioned in the book.

my gm's running a game in the turakian age setting, and I've got a couple of questions about elves (also relevant for other races, too). First of all, what did you pattern the elven language after? or did you develop your own? I'm asking so I can pick names and words that have the same 'feel' as the ones in the book. Secondly, do all races mature at the same rate, or do the long-lived races mature more slowly. i.e. in many of the (other system)s settings, elves aren't considered adults until their hundredth year.

Re: Help with balancing fighters with magic users that's the problem with buying a weapon with points. It becomes a unique/magical weapon, and is incredibly difficult to replace (often involving a special quest of its own). This is a feature of the 'independent' limitation, and part of the reason why that limitation is worth so much. With a bit of creativity and thinking, you can easily come up with -4 to -5 worth of limitations that are appropriate for a weapon. Independent and oaf alone give you -3. check out the section in the Fred about building weapons. should give you some good ideas. the other way to increase damage without paying pts for a weapon it so .... well, everybody else has covered that aspect pretty thorughly, so there's no need for me to repeat it.