bluesguy

What I do is look at the max DC for any 'normal weapon' + increases in DC based on added combat skill levels (assuming you have a max number CSL), + increases in DC based on strength and convert that to active points. Then that becomes the maximum active points for any spell in my campaign. So lets just say the best weapon in your campaign can do 2d6HKA, you have decided that the maximum number of CSL is +4, and the weapon has a strength minimum of 13. The max strength for most fighters is also maxed at 20. So that means that 2d6HKA could get +3 DC, 3d6HKA (if I did my math right). And that translates to 45 active points and I would just decide that the max active points for any magic would be 45 active points.

Can you tell me exactly where you're reading this? Because I'm not finding it. edit: Okay I think I see what you're seeing. That means don't use this for Charges that recover every hour, or at noon and midnight, or on some other cycle shorter than one day (although that does rather leave open the question of how one WOULD simulate such - we have Increased Recovery Time for Charges that take, say, a week to recover, but no Decreased Recovery Time.) It's not saying that the thrown knife, for example, can somehow only be thrown twice in a day (once using the Charge, once using the Recovered Charge, which is what I understand you to be saying is the case.) "Throwing knife" is a specific example given in the 6th edition rulebook of Recoverable Charges on page 344, and bow and arrows is used on p 370. However, I do agree that Recoverable Charges is wrong for what the original poster is trying to do. Here's my take on it Arcane Retribution: (Total: 96 Active Cost, 25 Real Cost) Blast 4d6, Personal Immunity (+1/4), Variable Special Effects (Any SFX; +1/2), Variable Advantage (+1 Advantages; +2) (75 Active Points); Increased Endurance Cost (x8 END; -3 1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4), Variable Limitations (requires -1/2 worth of Limitations; -1/4) (Real Cost: 14) END cost 56 plus Endurance Reserve (1 END, 0 REC) Reserve: Restricted Use: Arcane Retribution draws only from this END, this END is only for Arcane Retribution (-1/4) (Real Cost: 1) plus Absorption 8 BODY (Magical, END Reserve), Delayed Return Rate (points return at the rate of 5 per 20 Minutes; +1 1/2) (20 Active Points); Limited Power Ignores first 4 BOD (-1) (Real Cost: 10) Note, the END reserve with no REC: The only way it gets points is via Absorption. I'm assuming it's acceptable to use "magic" in place of either Physical or Energy, since otherwise it's necessary to buy both and then Limit both. Lucius Alexander Absorb Palindromedary This is almost exactly what I was looking for. Except I would like to see how to make so that maybe they start out a 4d6 EB for a base level and then more and more until some maximum level. Got any ideas?

This is the approach I am taking. Well I was thinking that the spell has a 'charge' and the only way it recharges is if the caster is hit by a magical attack equal to the active points to be used as an attack. I want to figure out a way to avoid this... This is pretty close (most AP than I was planning on having). I have a player whose Champions character has Absorption. The character is based on electricity so I made him limit the absorption so it only worked against electrical attacks. The character hasn't been attacked by anyone with an electrical attack - although one time the character did grab to downed electrical lines to build up on heck of a charge :-)

When I bring in new players who have never played Hero I tell them a couple weeks in advance about how the game system works. I tell them about the campaign world. I then tell them to think about a character that will work in that world. Think of the concept/abilities/powers. Think about the character's family, their history, how they became who they are. And then we spend an afternoon building a character (thank you Hero Designer). After that we sit down and go over the character sheet. Last but not least we practice how to roll for skills and some combat. Then when they first start playing I put them between two players who know the system well - especially the combat part - to help them along. So far I have taught five people who are either totally new to RPG or new to Hero how to play. We have been having fun.

Here is the way I want this spell to work. I am open to suggestions on how to construct this power. A mage with this spell will cast it before a battle. As the mage is attacked by magic, the spell 'absorbs' the magic and builds up very large amount of arcane energy. When the mage wants she can release the arcane energy as blast of energy. The mage can cause the arcane energy to take the form of many energy forms (fire, lightning, air, etc - variable SFX) and can adjust the effects so that it can impact a single individual, an area, go past objects (i.e. variable advantage), etc. One approach I was thinking about was basically a set of linked effects. Starting with a 4d6EB, 1 charge only recharges under special circumstances (mage hit by so much body of damage), trigger. And then allow the mage to buy more d6EB with the same approach. Any other ideas?

I absolutely agree with the suggestion of purchasing Hero Designer. It is a huge help in building characters.

Let me see... In the adventures I have run for my Champions group there have been: One low level supervillain working with a street gang doing a smash and rob. Very easy for the players. They took out the super pretty quickly and then the street gang pretty much gave up. The Wrecking Crew (a'la Marvel) who had broken into a local nuclear power plant to steal some radioactive material. These guys were very annoying for the players until they realized the trick was to keep them far away since they didn't have many ranged attacks. Two supervillain brothers who were trying to corner the local gasoline market. Gentlemen villains/robber barons. Mercenary supervillain and his merry band of men who tried to steal pirate treasure from a local museum. The supervillain was French and he had to steal a kiss from each of the female superheroes... . In fact he would have gotten away if he hadn't done that but it was in his personality. Later some of his personal mercs broke him out the prison van on the way to Stronghold. Mercenary band of female supervillains - smash and grab types. Steal lots of loot - especially armored cars. Then travel someplace and go shopping. They happened to be shopping in Mall of America here in the Twin Cities and the players were there that day. A bloodthirsty 'godling' who wants to return to full power. He had killing attacks and used them all over the place. His minions also had plenty of nasty attacks as well.

Zephrosyne: It will be reasonably priced. :-)

Christopher: All other groups have already established ways of tracking combat - otherwise they would have had to give up using Combat or playing Hero altogether. And people are reluctant to leave an established way for a unknown program You do make a fair point. People who have developed other techniques for tracking combat may not find this program useful at all. I would guess the same could be said of Hero Designer. People had spreadsheets or just did it by hand. I know when I first started playing Champions - when the game first came out - we just used the character sheets and calculators to build our characters. I also used mini-sheets with 10 NPC fodder characters per sheet in page protectors when there was some kind of combat that needed lots of numbers. When I restarted RPG two years ago, I also started out using a spreadsheet to track combat. After a while I got frustrated and started down the path, where we are at today. Finally a quote from one of my beta-testers. He has been using the program since Jan. This is something he sent me in May when I was about to say 'screw this': Anyway, on the whole, I think the program is a useful tool that speeds up my games. Yes, it could be flashier or more user-friendly, but even as it stands I would not prefer to play without it! With the help of the beta-testers I have already recruited I know that the UI is more useful.

Adjustment powers are now available in this release. The implementation is not sophisticated. Simply put you select Aid or Drain (and the effective defense for a drain), enter the active points of the effect (for NPCs the GM can use the program to roll the damage), and then the GM can apply the Aid or Drain to a specific characteristic. The program does not calculate how much change the Aid or Drain has on the particular characteristic. The GM will have to handle that (I do provide the information concerning the costs for each characteristic). Also the GM has to handle recoveries from Aid/Drains. At a later release I may add a way to 'record' when and how recovery occurs but for now that is a GM function. BTW: Steve warned me that Adjustment powers are some of the most complex rules in Hero. That is why I went with a simple 'tracking' solution that impacts the combat most directly.

Christopher - The program allows the user to save the current state so the combat can be picked up at a later time. It does not export the state in a manner what would be particularly useful to post. Maybe a later feature. Although the input/output file is a XML file.

Hi, As the developer of Hero Combat Manager, I can say with some high confidence that if you can get Hero Designer to run on your computer then Hero Combat Manager should run on that same machine. I also know we do not have anyone beta testing on Linux so I would be interested in finding out how that works out. Please sign up for the beta.

Personally I would just the PDF if I were you.

Last year we went to see an exhibit that was sponsored by National Geographic about Pirates. It was amazing. Here is a link to the National Geographic site http://www.nationalgeographic.com/whydah/main.html . The pirate chest was full of silver, gold and gems. And on a pirate ship the captain to keep the loot - the quartermaster did.

There is an assumption that surprise has to be 'run around the bad guy' and hit them from behind. Just watching this clip of Black Widow (starting at 0:35 and going to ~0:44 seconds) shows off a speedster (high speed & high dexterity) character surprising her opponents in combat.

Very nicely done....

Hi... Very soon (certainly before the end of April 2013) Hero Combat Manager will be available for sale. This will do what you want and much more. Read up about it here http://www.davidtannen.com/role-playing-games/hero-combat-manager/503-hero-combat-manager

Thank you!

Is there some crazy reason why the link in my last post didn't work?

Unfortunately Hero Combat Manager[/url=http://davidtannen.com/role-playing-games/hero-combat-manager/503-hero-combat-manager] has not finished beta testing because it would most likely fill many of your needs.

I find the Valdorian Age easily lends itself to an almost post-apocalyptic tone. The great magic empires and the wonders they created are long gone' date=' with crumbling ruins scattered about to mark their passing. The warped and degenerate remnants of the non-human races are barely clinging to isolated enclaves. Civilization is almost divided up into islands surrounded by savages and wilderness. The very structures of social order seem to be crumbling.[/quote'] You described the situation very well. We have been playing for +2 years and here is the entire list of 'monsters' they have run into: skeletons/zombies, carrion crawler, Uruk-hai, trolls, and a friendly shambling mound (after the druid talked to it). Their human opponents have ranged from assassins, to spartan styled warriors, bandits, thieves, nobles with lots of political pull, a serial killer, a wizard (dead), a sorcerer (dead), and two necromancers (one dead and one not). What I love is every time the characters run into a monster - even something they have seen before (skeletons/zombies), the players role play up the fact that these creatures are something out of legends. And when they run into magic they 2x freak out, especially three of the characters who are from Valdoria - because Valdorians hate magic.

As a GM I prefer a created/fictional world vs. one in a historic setting. I would hate to get into arguments w/ my players about some historic factoid from a historic setting. Also 75% of my current player group is women and a historic setting is not going to be a good one for female characters. I use the Valdorian Age - which I have modified/expanded and played with.

So one of the the characters in my fantasy campaign is a sorcerer (mental spells). He has a Mind Scan, Mind Control and Telepathy. The scenario is that he has gotten +20 EGO against his target with one of the three mental spells he has and then he decides he is going to let the person go. After the PC has decided to let the person go 'free' and 'tag' that person so they will be easier to find at a later time. Here are the game mechanics I am thinking about: Buy an Aid to the Mind Scan that adds dice and penalty skill offsets for the Mind Scan roll. But it would only work with someone he had scanned before. A special sense that he can use to 'track' down his 'prey'. I am very open to suggestions.

Entangle As found in 6E1 pg 215 "If he succeeds, he rolls his Entangle dice and counts the Normal Damage BODY. The BODY of the Entangle is the BODY rolled; the Entangle has 1 PD and 1 ED (both Resistant) for each 1d6 of Entangle." And in 6E2 pg 96 "„When counting Normal Damage BODY, compare 6s and 1s. If they’re equal, then the BODY damage equals the number of dice rolled (the “0 BODY” from the 1s averages out the “2 BODY” from the 6s). If you have more 6s than 1s, you do that many more points of BODY than the dice rolled; if you have more 1s than 6s, you do that many BODY less than the dice rolled." So am I correct in assuming that to count how much Body an entangle does I count Body the same way I would count Body for a normal attack? For example I think this means: Web boy shoots a cop with his webbing, which is a 4d6 Entangle. He rolls a 2 3 5 6. That means it is a 4 PD/ED and 5 Body Entangle. Is that correct? Flash appears to be the same, based on 6E1 pg 226.