drnuncheon

Re: STONELOCK- Character For Review While it's true that it's an alternate form, since you're not buying Multiform, all you need to do is define 'Density Increase' as his 'Hero ID'. Alternately, link your other powers to the DI so that they only activate when the DI is up. It just seems a shame that there's a power that effectively does what you are looking for (turning to stone is one possible SFX for Density Increase) and it's not being used. I would advise buying the DI to 0 End and probably Persistant though. J

Re: STONELOCK- Character For Review I'd consider using Density Increase for part of the strength/armor/kbresist - I believe it would save you some points (although I haven't actually done the math), and since you're getting all of the effects anyway... J

Re: No Range Mind Scan Alternately, would there be some way to 'buy off' some of the +1 1/4 worth of Megascale that Mindscan has automatically? J

I'd like to give a character a power of a Mind Scan that is centered on himself - that is to say that unlike the normal Mind Scan, he could not stand in New York and scan LA - at least not without including everything in between. Would that be a legitimate use of the No Range limitation, or would No Range effectively limit it to people he physically touches (and thus make the power utterly useless)? J

Re: Extra Limbs and Characteristics Considering that neither Buzz nor I appear to be able to find it with the 'Search' feature, perhaps a link is in order? J

Re: Exalted-style effects? Heh. That's the sort of thing that's going to be very expensive to do in HERO, or utter GM fiat. The first problem you have to face is deciding how it works. Is it a mental effect on the bureaucrats that causes them to forget about it, lose the paperwork, etc? Is it a 'luck' thing where the paperwork just happens to be the one that slips out of the sheaf? A combination of all of the above? One way (ugly ugly ugly!) would be 0 End Uncontrolled Sticky Mind Control, Only to Foul Bureaucratic Gears. If the DM were kind, he'd let you apply the power to the item in question, and then anyone who came in 'contact' with it would be affected. You could also do a similar Drain or Supress targeting Bureaucracy skill. I'd think either of those would be more logical than Change Environment, since you don't stand there radiating bureaucratic chaos, you fire the power off and then go your own way. J

Re: How do you get players to role play in genre? Sometimes players whine even when the game isn't bad. That took me a long time to deal with, but I finally accepted it. Sometimes they don't even realize that they are whining. That aside: I would have the world begin to react to these metahumans. They're super-powerful murderers. They're scary. They're going to be treated like villains. The media will have a field day. Think all the headlines that get put out about Spiderman, but justified. Heros are going to go after them and try to bring them to justice. (Or bring them down, if they're Punisher-type heros.) Governments are going to try breaking their secret identities so they can be arrested. They may call out the national guard or the military to deal with this threat, or if your world includes agencies like SHIELD they may become involved. Or maybe it'll just be a CIA agent with a Ricin-laden dart gun. Villains are going to go after them with unrestrained lethal force (no reason not to!). They're going to go after families and loved ones to use as hostages. Ordinary criminals may put out a 'hit' on them, fearing that they are next. J

Re: Silliest Disadvantage Ever "Sure, take 'em both. Oh, and take 40 points worth of Hunted as well - I'll take care of writing those up." That guy just gave you two ongoing story arcs for your game - an alien invasion and Thor-as-a-villain. J

Re: Crushed If a creature were sitting on someone, I would consider allowing them to do damage based on Casual STR. (Which still ought to be rather effective - anything that weighs 300 tons ought to have a pretty massive strength to go with it.) Alternately, if you didn't want to give that much away, you could treat it as a variant of Grab & Crush. (Hope that's the maneuver, I'm away from my book.) For objects, though, it's a little different. Anything you are able to lift and are actually lifting shouldn't be doing damage to you, obviously. And it makes sense that the Inconceivable Bulk would take less damage from a 100-ton rock than his normal human buddy - on the other hand, Bulk also has a much higher PD, which could also account for this. J

Re: Extra Limbs and Characteristics Another thought that occurred to me: applying the limitation to the characteristics seems to go against one of the central points of HERO philosophy, which is to say "A Limitation that does not limit is not worth any points." Since the character with a weak Extra Limb can do everything that a character with no Extra Limb can do (he can lift the same amount, strike with any of his standard limbs for the same amount, etc), it shouldn't be a limitation on Strength. Since the character with a weak Extra Limb can't do everything that a character with the "full" Extra Limb can do, it should be a limitation on Extra Limb. This also points out nicely why a stronger Extra Limb isn't handled as an advantage on the Extra Limb power - there is a limitation on the stat there, the stat is only usable with the extra limb. I was kind of hoping that Steve would weigh in at some point and let us know why he wrote the rules to specifically say that the limitation goes on the Characteristics, not on the Extra Limbs power. Am I missing anything? J

Re: Extra Limbs and Characteristics

Re: Extra Limbs and Characteristics I agree, but after referring to my copy of FRED, limitation on the characteristics is the official way to handle it. I was wondering if there was something I was missing - and if not, should there be some errata? J

Re: Extra Limbs and Characteristics Whups, my bad. I actually realized after I'd posted that that was the forums specifically for rules Q&A - I haven't been here for a while.

Didn't see this in either the errata or the FAQs, so here goes...someone brought this up on another board. Why are extra limbs with lower stats than the character has generally figured as limitations on the characteristcs and not on the Extra Limbs power? It would seem to me that one or more extra limbs, no matter how weak or clumsy, is always an advantage over not having them (thus being worth at least 1 point), and yet should of course never cost more than 5 points. Unfortunately, with the current way of buying Extra Limbs, we don't seem to have that. Example: Dextrous Guy has a DEX of 30 (costing him 60 points). His friend Monkeyman has Extra Limbs (prehensile feet) and a DEX of 30 - unfortunately, Monkeyman's feet aren't nearly as dextrous as his hands, having only a DEX of 10. By the current rules, Monkeyman would get a -1/2 limitation on his Dex, 'not for extra limbs', bringing the cost down to 40 points - and yet he isn't any more limited than Dextrous Guy! Why does he save 15 points by buying Extra Limbs? Wouldn't it make more sense to put a (say) -1/2 limit on Extra Limbs, 'limited DEX'? Can anyone shed some light on the subject? J