Hyper-Man
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Posts posted by Hyper-Man
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http://www.happyjacks.org/tag/hero-system/
http://www.drinkspinrun.com/2015/05/dsr-actual-play-dsr-learns-hero-system.html
https://systemmasterypodcast.com/2016/12/05/champions-system-mastery-83/
http://www.podcasts.com/rpgmp3-actual-play-podcast/episode/hero-system-super-agents-01-mystic-force
http://trenchmonkeys.com/tag/hero-system/
http://www.playontarget.com/the-superhero-genre-in-rpgs/
http://www.doucheydm.com/hero-system-6th-supplements/
https://rpggeek.com/rpgfamily/993/hero
HM -
I watched it. Not bad for a first time out. I would recommend researching edition history beforehand and be clear which edition you are referring to rules wise since there are differences between 6e and earlier regarding CV and other specifics. FWIW, Michael Surbrook did something similar live via google groups recently. I don't know if he's posted a recording of it yet. I believe there are other various HERO specific podcasts (sound only of course) available as well.
HM
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OK. No comments on Sentinel 2. Here is Sentinel 3.
Valkyrie is a sword warrior of Asgard, an extra dimensional realm inhabited by immortals, sent to Earth, to help fight against the evil of WOTAN (my variety of ex-NSDAP with access to super technology and the desire for world domination). She, or course, bears no resemblance to any of the other immortal sword wielding ladies that appear in the various Marvel and DC comics; no, none at all...
OK, maybe a little bit, and maybe Hyperman's Diana helped sort some of my thinking as well...
PaladinAg .
Nice.
I recommend adding something to the NOTES section for the Naked Power Advantages in the first multipower that GM permission is required to be included in a Framework.
HM
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Hello and a happy new year,
I was just skimming HSS for 6th edition today, wanting to incorporate stuff from it in my new Lovecraftian Horror Campaign, and saw that "proficiency"( 2cp for a 10- roll) from 6e1 is not there, but there is "advanced familiarity"(2cp for 11-) is this an omission or a previous version rule?
Bonus Question: How do you handle untrained skill rolls in your games?
thank you!
I recommend asking Steve Long about the differences between HSS and 6e1.
I'm guess it's due to HSS being mostly a repackaged version of the 5e Ultimate Skill but I'm not sure.
HM
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I can see times when a [-1/4] value makes sense. However, I can think of absolutely no times where a player would want to bother with a [-0] value -- becauase at that point the Always On Limitation has no value because there's also no tangible limitation associated with it ... so why bother taking up space on the character sheet with it?
In a game with Mind Control I can see a character with defenses that are Always On (-0) getting some of the value that would otherwise require Inherent.
Example: Brainiac 5 of the Legion of Superheroes has a force field belt that provides defenses comparable to those of Kryptonians and Daxamites. Saturn Queen can use Mind Control to force Brainiac 5 to turn off the belt. She can't do the same with Superboy or Mon-El.
HM
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I am pretty sure that Barrier can be centered on the owner of the power the same way that Darkness can via Self Only and other Modifiers. It's basically a version of what Violet did in The Incredibles except that the Barrier is Opaque. It's expensive but doable. Figuring out how for the character to see out of the Barrier is another complication. Again, doable but likely expensive.
HM
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Are they also built with a shortened lifespan Complication due to living the majority of their life at superspeed?
HM
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Thanks for the practical experience input, massey. A played character always offers so much more insight.
I think I prefer Desolidification to most of the Armor, Force Field, Combat Luck approaches. FLASH does not get hit, the projectiles do not bounce off him and ricochet. He just dodges so fast and instinctively that the attacks seem to go right through him. Of course you have to put several FX and limitations and finework on the textbook power to get there.
Don't forget the 'new power on the block' Damage Negation. It would work great to simulate Flash turning 'desol' just a fraction of a second too late to prevent 100% of an attack so some damage might still have a chance to get through his other defenses.
HM
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Hmm... 6E1 has this to say on p128:
PERSISTENT POWERS
A Persistent Power stays activated unless the character deliberately turns it off. Persistent Powers include Mental Defense, Enhanced Senses, Resistant Protection, and any power bought with the Persistent Advantage (6E1 334). A character doesn’t have to turn on a Persistent Power; it’s assumed to be on at all times, even when the character is unconscious. A character can turn off a Persistent Power if he chooses; the Power remains off until he turns it back on. Inherently Persistent Powers never cost END.So it looks like there is some ability to turn off persistent powers. I guess if you didn't want shenanigans to happen with your defenses, you'd make them inherent?
Also from 6e1 page 128:
INHERENT POWERS
Persistent Powers that are Always On (see 6E1 367), or which in the GM’s judgment function in a similar fashion to being Always On, can be made Inherent. An Inherent Power is one that reflects a character’s natural state of being. For example, ghosts are naturally intangible (Inherent Desolidification), and many characters have tails (Inherent Extra Limbs, the most common example of an Inherent Power that’s not Always On). Inherent Powers cannot be Drained or “turned off” — you can’t make a ghost solid by using Drain Desolidification on him, for example. They also can’t be improved or boosted through Absorption, Aid, or the like. However, Transforms and Powers Usable On Others can alter or remove an Inherent Power.I disagree with that -- because when shut off, it isn't persisting and thus, isn't persistent (per literal definition).
I know this flies in the face of what Crusher Bob cited from p128 of 6E vol1, but I would argue that 6E vol1 has it wrong ... because what it describes flies in the face of the very definition of 'persistent' since something that persists doesn't stop. Thus, it makes no logical or grammatical sense to state that you can voluntarily stop something that, by definition ... doesn't stop.
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It sure sounds like you are attempting to assign a 'special effect' to the word persistent. Keep in mind that in the context of the HERO rules it is just a mechanic.
HM
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Unless the Always On Limitation is taken (even if just as a notation at the (-0) level) a character can turn off Persistent Powers.
There was a great example of this in the 2007 tv series Painkiller Jane.
The title character has Wolverine-like Regeneration with a twist. She can consciously turn the ability off which was a key plot point of an episode.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Painkiller_Jane_(TV_series)
http://blogcritics.org/tv-review-painkiller-jane-portraits-of/
HM
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OK, that makes sense so far, thanks.
Sorry, you lost me again. Wouldn't 8 DCs * 4/5 be 32/5 => 6 rather than 32/6 => 5? Either way, how does adding that to the base of 8 DCs wind up with 11 DCs?
But you came up with 3 1/2 d6 K AP for the Martial Strike (w STR & +2 HTH DCs), whereas I came up with 4d6 K AP? I'm not saying you're right & I'm wrong, mind you. I think I'm getting more confused - maybe Friday afternoon wasn't the best time to tackle this...
Oops! I made a dyslexic arithmetic error while thinking mostly about fractions and I'm used to Hero Designer automatically combining Martial Damage Classes with Martial Maneuvers so I was looking at your Strike line instead of the one after it.
4d6K AP is correct for the Martial Strike.
HM
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I am not that familiar with exactly what abilities Venom provides to Peter on top of his own besides removing his need to wear the webslingers. If you can figure that part out you could probably covert this Rookie version of Peter by removing the webslingers and adding a 100 more points to build the 'symbiote'
HM
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Your numbers are correct!
The easiest method I've come up with for dealing with Advantaged Attack damage adding is to break it down as follows:
Determine the total Advantages that count towards damage and use it to create the fractional ratio that added DC's convert to Advantaged DC's. (Not the best terminology I know. I would otherwise use 'dice' but that only applies to normal HA's with Advantages and not Killing Attacks).
So in the case of AP (+1/4) the Active Cost gets multiplied by 1 and 1/4 or 5/4. The reciprocal of that is 4/5th which is the rate at which any additional DC's convert to Advantaged DC's. I try to include this "Rate" in the Notes of the HA or HKA on the character sheet so it can easily be applied to multiple combat maneuvers.
If the Total Advantage is (+1/2) then the rate become 2/3rd
If the Total Advantage is (+3/4) then the rate becomes 4/7th
(+1) becomes 1/2
(+1 1/4) becomes 4/9th
(+1 1/2) becomes 2/5th
etc....
You'll notice that 4/7th and 4/9th are ugly rates to deal with so I try to always keep the damage advantages at the 'neat' break point (+1/4, +1/2, +1 or even +1 1/2) values when possible.
Diamond-Tipped Fighting Knives: 2dK, AP (+1/4), 0 END, OIF [52 AP, 8 DCs]
20 STR adds 4 DCs => 3d6 K, AP
Martial Strike adds 2 DCs => 3 1/2d6 K, AP
+2 HTH Damage Classes => 4d6 K, AP
Using Offensive Strike would add another 2 DCs => 4 1/2d6K
4 DCs from STR
4 DCs from Martial Stike (includes the +2 Martial DC's)
6 DCs from Offensive Strike (includes the +2 Martial DC's)
8 * 4/5 = 32/5 which rounds down to +6 DC's with the AP Advantage using Martial Strike.
12 DC then becomes 4d6K AP (*edited)
10 * 4/5 = +8 DC's with the AP Advantage using Offensive Strike.
14 DC then becomes 4 1/2d6 K AP
HM
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Yeah, considering he's done things like use superspeed to turn a universe-destroying weapon back on itself, I'd say a triple-digit VPP is probably one of the requirements.
I never completed my PhD from the Goodman's School of Point Efficiency but I could probably build the Crisis version of Barry Allen for 750 points easy.
HM
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I'll check it later when I have access to my pdfs
HM
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Just because he is capable of reacting that fast doesn't mean that he always is. There was a Wally West post Crisis story where he was in a movie theatre and noticed a sharp pain in the back of his neck. This turned out to be one of many bullets fired by the bad guys. Wally had basically entered the SpeedZone automatically. He didn't know he was capable of going that fast and couldn't maintain it very long. There was a Justice League Animated episode that revealed his fear of being stuck in that rate of speed where everyone appeared to be statues by comparison.
HM
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While Speed is relatively cheap, having more of it can have a cascade effect on the costs of all the other END using abilities of the character by requiring more Reduced END and/or Recovery.
HM
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If you want to make a Champions character that is like the Flash, that's a good 1000 point investment, at least.
That's only true if trying to match the SPD standards of the Champions Universe. Considering that it's biggest influence is the early Marvel Universe I posit that a DC Universe speedster like The Flash is easier to model when the campaign average SPD is lowered across the board. The higher that average is, the higher the buy-in cost for a speedster becomes. My rookie JLA builds assume a campaign average 4 SPD with The Flash starting with a 6 that can be boosted to a 12 via his VPP. This is easily done on 400 points in 6e.
HM
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I have been working on DC's FLASH for several months now, starting a Justice League campaign next week. Here some ideas:
INSTANT CHANGE of course.
Lightning Reflexes: +16 DEX to act first with All Actions (-1)
TELEPORTATION, Must Pass Through Intervening Space (-¼)
Some players here came up with an idea like:
EXTRA-DIMENSIONAL MOVEMENT, Costs Endurance (-½): Move to a dimension where everything but the character is frozen and cannot be affected in any way.
HAND-TO-HAND Attack, Autofire
I personally like HAND-TO-HAND Attack, Area Of Effect: Line, selective
HAND-TO-HAND Attack, Penetrating (+½), to simulate a flurry of hits that make the target vibrate.
Stretching or Telekinesis to simulate hitting someone and running back without him noticing.
Running in circles Tornadoes: BLAST Explosion or Area Effect
A classic trick is Crowd Disarm: TELEKINESIS (30 STR), Area Of Effect: 5" Radius (+1), selective
Change Environment vor more humorous rearrangements of furniture etc.
Speed Reading of course.
And most obvious and still often overlooked: SPD 12. Even if all the other players will hate that player. :-)
My rookie version of The Flash linked to above can achieve a 39 DEX for Initiative, a 12 SPD and most of the other abilities you have mentioned. I chose not to include any TK based abilities because he still technically needs to touch a target if not using a wind sfx so 'Damage Field' based attacks should still affect him. There are very detailed EDM based 'Enter the Speedzone' (aka Speedforce) rules in the 5e Ultimate Speedster and 6e Advanced Players Guide 1. I would not recommend using them unless ALL of the PC's are speedsters of some sort.
HM
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Independent no longer exists in 6e.
HM
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That's a tough question. It's similar to asking "How many points do the Guardians of Oa pay to create and power the Green Lantern Rings?" Unless a GM plans on running a story exploring the death of nearly all the Oans then it really doesn't matter. DC comics did a limited series called the The Trials of Shazam where Billy had to re-earn each of the powers from the 'gods' you mentioned. It was interesting but not really something ideal for a team based rpg story.
HM
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Check these out:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hero_System_Products
https://web.archive.org/web/20101130192140/http://rhinobunny.com/derek/hero/herogameslist.html
The 3rd link is my mostly HERO rpg collection (both owned and wishlist) and contains every HERO product to date including 3rd party stuff. I try to keep it updated as often as I can. You can search the site more specifically as well.
HM
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There is not a lot of difference between those books. I think the 6e version includes some gun rules stuff that otherwise was only available in Dark Champions but i'm not positive.
HM
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Defenses in Multipower
in HERO System Discussion
Posted
It is probably worth noting that Multipowers and VPPs can be setup where the total Reserve/Pool is more than the Active Points in any single slot.
The typical Multipower example for this would include all Slots as Variable. However there is another less obvious option. If the Reserve is exactly double the highest Active Point Slot then all Slots can be the cheaper Fixed version instead. A high-end version of this can also be done for VPPs now as well. This shifts the choice options of the Framework from the typical binary one of Attack vs Defend to a more broad range of choices. These can be setup in such a way that it boils down to choosing the best combination of 2 Slots when 3 Slots simultaneously would be optimal (if possible). If done with a VPP, I recommend pre-building most if not all slots ahead of time. I would caution against building such a construct for an inexperienced player since this could exacerbate any decision-lock problems they might have at the game table.
HM