Vurbal

Re: Fiddling with ECs

 

In general I really like the way EC's work in 5th Ed. It makes it easy to model a group of powers that are basically different aspects of the same power, but I definitely think there's still room for improvement. I'm just not sure exactly how I'd make the changes I want.

 

I don't like leaving powers out of an EC if I think they belong together. OTOH I also don't like having large powers with a small EC bonus because it doesn't give me the feel of having the EC as an integral part of the power (or more accurately the large power as simply another aspect of the EC).

 

One option would be to allow the EC base cost to be half the points of the largest power, but to allow lower point powers in with a maximum AP bonus of half (as suggested above). As PhilFleischmann points out this creates some balance issues, and more importantly (IMO) it also makes for some issues with drains since a drain works simultaneously on the base and each slot.

 

One solution would be to figure the affect of a drain on the EC in percentages instead of just points. For example, let's say you have this EC:

 

Base: 30

Slot 1: 30

Slot 2: 20

Slot 3: 10

 

If the 10 pt slot was drained by 5 pts (50%), the base cost and every other slot would be drained by 50% instead of 5 points. That would leave you with this:

 

Base: 15

Slot 1: 15

Slot 2: 10

Slot 3: 5

 

On one hand this may make up for the ability to put powers of widely different costs into an EC and get a 50% reduction in cost for each one. OTOH it also potentially makes more math during the game session which I don't like. And of course you also have to decide if it works the other way. If the 30 pt slot is drained 10 pts does the 10 pt slot also get drained 10 pts or 33%? Personally I'd probably say it should only work for higher pt powers. In the example above that would mean that if the 20 pt slot got drained 10 pts you'd have this:

 

Base: 15

Slot 1: 15

Slot 2: 10

Slot 3: 0

Re: Introducing Scott Free Press!

 

You're welcome. I'm sure you'll be happy with the software. It should make your Hero conversions quite a bit easier.

Re: Ego Attack: What am I missing?

 

Actually, if you just want Ego Attack to work as OCV vs DCV you're looking at a variation of Based On CON. I would put it at a -1/2 Limitation.

 

Though, Based On CON makes the power Visible and vs PD (or ED).

Exactly. I don't see what the big deal is. In most campaigns it will be less powerful to make an EOCV vs. DCV role than making an OECV vs. DECV so it's a limitation - problem solved. I'm sure my GM would have no problem with that reasoning.

Re: Introducing Scott Free Press!

 

Howdy Jack!

 

Thanks for the kind words about the site.

 

That's an excellent idea about the Herodesigner software. As much as I like writing things up by hand, for the sake of time and the sake of my math (which can be sketchy at times) I'll be looking to get it this week.

 

One question I had was whether you can export the data to other programs (like Word) or whether it only displays in the HERO format I've seen posted to the forums?

 

Cheers,

 

Kevin

These export templates for V2 will give your RTF output. As of right now there hasn't been any need to make changes to them for V3, but I'm sure if such a need arises they'll get updated. Also I'm sure if they don't quite give you what you want RPMiller (the author of those templates) or someone else will be happy to give you a hand on the HD forum.

Re: Best way to model a booming voice?

 

+X Presence when speaking (-1/4) "Booming Voice"

That's how I'd do it. Simple and reasonably priced.

Re: Question from a non-Hero player

 

My old group had a house rule that based movement per turn instead of per phase' date=' because we wanted SPD to be more about reaction times than speed as such. Every character got 18" per turn of Running for free, so a SPD 3 character would move 6" per phase; a SPD 4 character would only move 5" per phase (4.5 rounded up). Worked well for that group, but probably not to everyone's taste. Probably easier to just sell back an inch of running, really.[/quote']

I wouldn't have a problem with a system like that, but I think I'd probably also make SPD cheaper since it no longer gives you extra movement. I'd probably go with 8-9 pts for SPD.

Re: Question from a non-Hero player

 

I'm sorry, but could you go into more details with this? This piques my curiosity. How would you propose they go about buying their running down so they don't loose valuable movement in their phases? After all, my speed character's full move is 6, just like a speed 3's is. Over an entire 12 segments, I will be able to run faster... but in any individual phase, I will not.

 

How do I fix it?

Distance moved in a single phase isn't the same as how fast you're going unless you're using segmented movement. Your movement in a single phase is really movement over a group of segments. It just doesn't work for the game to be that literal so you are assigned specific segments for it to be accumulated. If you have a speed of 4 and move 6" on segment 4 (moving 6" in 3 seconds) you are moving faster than someone with a speed of 3 who moves 6" on segment 4 (moving 6" in 4 seconds). If you want to keep your actual rate of movement approximately constant you would have to lower your running by 1" (still slightly faster) or 2" (slightly slower).

 

This is one of the few problems I have with the speed chart. It automatically increases your rate of movement when you increase how many different actions you can accomplish in a turn. I understand why it does that, and other than manual calculations to reduce running as appropriate I have yet to see a solution, but it still bugs me a little.

Re: STUN, not END, for fuel

 

So on a similar note' date=' how about a Power that is fueled off of Body? We have discussed the option of using Body instead of Stun for extra End before, but it can't hurt to revisit it in light of this thread's topic. Does that fit more as a Side Effect since Body isn't normally substitutable for End in the official rules, or should it also be it's own Limitation (or even slight Advantage if it is a [i']choice[/i] and house rules do not normally allow for Body-to-End substitution)?

That's a good question. I'd probably use an advantage and a limitation if it was always powered by BODY. On one hand it's an advantage since you can recover more of the END used for other powers and movement so I might require a +1/4 advantage. On the other hand BODY is more expensive and not automatically recovered during combat without buying powers specifically for that purpose so I'd likely give a -3/4 or maybe even -1 limitation. In a game where I'd expect the character to have easy access to get BODY healed later I'd lower the limitation value by at least 1/4.

 

You could argue that it should be bought to 0 END before applying whatever limitations are appropriate for using BODY, but I don't think the end result justifies the increase in active points. If you wanted to get a similar effect in real points you could always lower the value of the limitation instead.

Re: The "Nice Happy" Thread

 

After several years of jobs that didn't last for various reasons followed by a horrible internet tech support job for a cable company I finally have a decent paying job as a network administrator.

Re: STUN, not END, for fuel

 

If only a single power has this and it isn't going to affect REC very often (if ever) or very much I'd give it a -1/4.

Oh, and I don't go with it costing half as much STUN as it'd've costed END. You REC STUN at the same rate as END, y'know.

Yes, but for situations where you might end up buying more to make up for what you're burning on the power (sounds like not your situation) you pay twice as much for the additional STUN. Of course, if it were a character that isn't likely to take STUN damage very often you could just as easily argue to make it a +1/4 advantage. It's all in the specifics of the character and the power.

Re: STUN, not END, for fuel

 

I'd probably make it at least a -1/4 limitation if not -1/2 for 2 reasons.

 

STUN costs twice as many points as END. That may or may not be important, depending on how much STUN and END are bought above the character's base values.

 

It also affects the effectiveness of REC. Let's say a character with REC 10 takes 20 STUN and uses 20 END in a turn. Then he recovers 10 STUN and 10 END. If that same character takes 20 STUN and uses 20 STUN in place of END he effectively recovers 10 STUN and no END. In reality this wouldn't be accurate unless he doesn't use END for anything else (ie movement, other powers, etc,...) but it's still potentially limiting. OTOH if you'd expect him to use enough END in a turn to make full use of his REC this shouldn't be a factor.

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now?

 

I'm currently listening to Jethro Tull - Nothing Is Easy: Live At The Isle Of Wight 1970. Dharma For One is playing right now.

Re: "Fantasy" withoiut Magic

 

To me fantasy implies the fantastic, and that doesn't require magic at all. Conan, for example, would be equally fantastic with or without the presence of magic. Likewise, creatures like trolls, goblins, and dragons are fantastic because they're so far removed from our reality. Magic makes a convenient explanation for their existence, but they don't stop being fantastic creatures just because they're in a non-magic world. In terms of rpg genres my definition wouldn't be as broad as Markdoc's (although it's a legitimate dictionary definition it also makes all genres fantasy) but it definitely wouldn't include requiring magic. Actually I've wanted to try playing in a non-magical fantasy world for a long time. If done well it could be very interesting.

Re: An EB by any other name...

 

I hardly think adopting less confusing terms for a few of the powers constitutes a major change to the game system. Even long time players can get confused by Stunned vs. Stun.

 

No changes are to be undertaken lightly. That's why we are discussing this.

Exactly!

Re: An EB by any other name...

 

**shrug** Their loss.

I disagree. If they decide it's too confusing to make a character it's DoJ's loss when they lose a potential customer and my loss when I can't find players.

I did.

Wasn't it you arguing that a single person's perception shouldn't be used to guage whether a name should or shouldn't be changed? Since you do "get it" clearly we're not talking about you. Nobody's saying these names don't make sense to anyone. That doesn't mean they're the best names or that they don't confuse some (or maybe a lot of) people who are just learning the system.

Or he could avoid making assumptions...

Everyone makes assumptions. We all see things through the lense of our own experiences. For example, you're making one right now - that others won't have problems understanding these things because you didn't.

 

I definitely like Restrain for Entangle, Ranged Attack for EB and Dazed for Stunned.

Re: An EB by any other name...

 

Or people could read the first paragraph of the power's description' date=' which gives multiple examples of physical attacks built using EB.[/quote']That assumes that everyone wants to read through the descriptions of every power before they start playing. A lot of people would rather look for the powers they need for their first character. If someone new to Hero is trying to build a ranged physical attack like a gun he's not likely to think a power called Energy Blast is what he needs. Also, if he already knows that energy and physical defenses are separate he's likely to assume from the name that an Energy Blast is related specifically to Energy Defense.

 

It also makes sense for internal consistency. The killing equivalent to a Hand To Hand Attack is a Hand To Hand Killing Attack, but the equivalent to an Energy Blast is a Ranged Killing Attack not a Killing Energy Blast.

Re: what non-fiction books have you read? please rate it ...

 

The more I've learned about WWI the more I realize how critical it was in shaping the 20th century' date=' and to some extent, the current state of the world as well. It seems archaic, but in a lot of ways its immensely relevent today.[/quote'] I agree. Not only does it mark a turning point in the methods and scope of war, but it seems that if you understand the events surrounding that war in particular it gives you a much better understanding of a lot of things that have happened since. Unfortunately I think in this country we tend to gloss over it and dwell on the lack of a US presence in the aftermath (like declining membership in the League of Nations) as being more important than the actual war. At least that was how it was taught in my history classes.

Re: what non-fiction books have you read? please rate it ...

 

The MacMillan Dictionary of The First World War (Steven Pope & Elizabeth-Anne Wheal), Printed 1997.

 

Its a bit more than a dictionary - its more like an encylopedia.

I'll have to look for this. I've read a little about some WWI battles recently and have gotten very interested in them, largely because of how little I learned about that war in school and how important it was to the course of the last century.

Re: Fantasy RENAISSANCE hero?

 

I'm interested in running a fantasy campaign set in a Renaissance period. Has anyone done this? Any advice?

I did some research for a setting with many elements from 15th - 17th centuries. It was an urban oriented setting, and I wanted to keep the weapons light and fast, and the armor light to none. I ended up doing quite a bit of web research on weapons, armor, and clothing, mostly from Renaissance Italy, but also from other areas around the same time.

 

After seeing this thread (and getting HD recently) I decided to try to organize what I have and do some more work on it. I'm not using a renaissance setting, but I am incorporating elements from different areas around that time period to build cities.

 

I started by going to the Museum Replicas website to research weapons, and ended up looking through a lot of sites for merchants for period clothing and patterns. I found that there were a lot of sites that linked to good places to research life and social classes during that time period.

 

BTW, thanks for the link Captain Obvious. I've been trying to figure out some way to incorporate magic in a pseudo historical way, and that site gives me a lot of ideas.

Re: Origins Award Nomination

 

I think Hero Designer not getting a nomination is a crime. Dan made Hero Designer better than most of the big name software I use.

 

For shame Origins, for shame.

You've got that right. From the first time I saw HD (V1 in Alpha test) my first thought was that it compared favorably to some of the best software I've done support for, and that includes some top notch software. V2 is even better.