Rebar

Summary I think I've managed to summarize all answers: Negotiate - Talk to players about genre compliance (heros don’t pick up weapons) Play it within game - arrange weapons to break or get lost or whatever - allies of foe will come looking - weapons are under jurisdiction of law – as evidence or otherwise - heros will acquire a rep from public, NPCs, cops and villains - turn it against them – plant a bug/tracking/boobytrap/explosive device in it Live with it - let em pick up guns So what? Guns are everywhere anyway. And that means the baddies will have them too. All that this does is raise the bar of “normal†combat - ask the players (rhetorically) why store-bought weapons are more powerful than their own attacks Enforce existing optional rules - Cannot use weapon without appropriate weapon familiarity - Weapon might be a personal focus, can’t be used by anyone else - Weapons may have charges - Wealth is not a substitute for spending character points - Real weapons have many flaws: they require maintenance, they are unreliable, they might have lousy OCV/damage - Heros must pay points for all powers used more than X times - Extract the point-costs from their XP

("Otherwise it goes in the super-duper ultra-locked unbreakable trophy case.") "...where it will be studied by Top Men." "Who?" "Top. Men."

All amazing suggestions, and I can't really add anything new, except to reiterate that the "real weapon" aspect is very useful - and very in-genre at the same time. The first time a hero is in a fix and his newly acquired AK-47 jams - it'll go out the window. The first time the Hobnobbing Goblin's Smurfboard runs out of fuel at 200 ft, the hero will switch to more reliable transportation (assuming he survives). Many modern day cop heros won't even use standard-issue semi-automatic pistols. You'll see them with six-shooters - because they can trust them not to jam. Unreliable equipment gets you a lot of dead.

"Since he's abusing the system, why not an equal abuse to put him in check ... Act 14-" Act 14- probably would have done very nicely. I could put it on him with clear conscience, it is objective in its enforcement, it wouldn't *completely* screw the character, but it would make it so frustrating to play that the player would likely voluntarily give it up. "For example, I expect a high DCV character (virtually impossible to hit) to have low defenses (likely one punched if he is hit)." I've always had diffculty with this idea. Bricks don't have weaknesses like that. They may be less effective in other ways, but a hole in their defenses (nothing that a simple AF explosive hand grenade wouldn't fit through) seems too risky for my tastes. "I had a player propose a 38 DEX character ... he also had a gun with Autofire and Double AP / Double Penetrating" Concept-wise, why would a superhero with godlike reflexes bother with a gun? "Speed*(DC-(rDef/2)*(OCV/DCV)" It seems to me that this formula is tantamount to enforcing mediocrity. "Take all important ways of gaining an edge, add them up, and keep under the bar." Well, maybe that's what a GM has to do to encourage quality over quantity. You know, it occurs to me that as a GM, I've never really had to face players who try to power-game. They're always voluntarily chosen to play interesting and well-balanced characters. This thread is tempting me to run a campaign with my new (younger )player crowd and see what GMing is like compared to my old (and older), long-standing crowd.

BTW KS, those miniatures are incredible.

"...continue 1 hour..." Which begs the question: how long do entangles last if left undisturbed? GM's option for sure, but what's a guideline? "Concealment 9- (3 points), +1 for 2 more points" How do you buy this? Is it just a skill bought by the character and associated with the power? Is it linked? Does it have a hefty ("conceal webs only") lim on it?

lack of limits There are, actually, limits. But I think imposing limits is merely addressing a symptom. The underlying problem is one of rationalizing a cohesive character conception. I wonder about where I've encountered this problem before, thinking that it was less of a problem for me when I was running games. I think, at the time, I was the one who understood the rules best, and therefore did most of the character building. In fact, in the instance where one of my players was at least as good at the rules as I was (being a GM himself) he built a ridiculously abusive character*. *DefenseMan: Brick with every possible defense in the book. Rationale? Um... UNTIL SuperSoldier serum. and a multiform: one form as superagent with all skills, one form as brick. Oh, and the piece de resistance: a -1/2 on *all* brick powers - the limitation itself to be left up to *me*. It didn't fly for long.

"...Some people are very visual and interpret what they see very literally..." They're going to have bigger fish to fry in a game where - your average Joe can pick up a full grown adult, hold them over their head, and sprint for an indefinite length of time without tiring - Joe can only act once every 12 seconds - you can run at somoene and punch them, but you can't punch them first and then run away - Megajoules of energy can fly across crowded city streets and cause zero collateral damage - Joe can get shot - several times - and recover without hospitalization

Is there a delicate way of voicing one's opinion to the GM about how concept boundaries are handled? My GM sets the stage and then lets the players build whatever they want, and even he is often frustrated with the results. I'm in a medieval fantasy game where the brick has a 70STR, and a 32DEX (in a game with starting DEX max of 30). No particular rationale for it to be that high, just that the player had all these points left over from making a simple brick. Sort of leaves us martial artists with egg on our faces... What the GM did eventually was impose a 2RP per 1AP cost on STR. But that only solves one isolated problem. My preference is to play a heavier hand in guiding the players' character creation. (I suppose one method for expressing one's concern to the GM is to post it to a discussion board that the GM is known to frequent...)

>>Slasher (Wolverine, swordsman, etc.). >I believe that would fit under weaponmaster, as they both use weapons. Well, OK, the swordsman not so good example. Wolvie still a Weaponmaster tho? I suppose... >Captain America is at the peak of human ability, but not beyond... I thought the super serum actually pushed him beyond NCMs. >Command: Anyone can fill this, but it seems to fall on Bricks & Martial Artists most often It would surprise me if it fell to one archetype more than any other. It is not so in my experience.

I'm going to be handed the dunce hat for this but... What exactly is the problem? A game inch is 6 feet. (OK, 6.5 feet) Your miniatures are 1 inch tall? So, they are game scale 6.5" tall. Yes, a 6.5 foot tall person will have an outstretched breadth of 6.5 feet (as Da Vinci so eloquently illustrated with his Vitruvius Man). What is the problem? Is it that your characters are more near 5 feet tall? I would think being that picky would entail worrying that those little guys tend to have gigantic heads, hand and feet more than a blanket scaling of their sizes. Surely, this falls within a reasonable margin of error?

Patriot - a character archetype, not a powers archetype Metamorph - this tends be a subset of brick, but that's a little too broad a brush Mystic - technically, this is an SFX archetype - almost always falls under EP (then again, that would describe gadgeteers as well) Power Armour - again, an SFX archetype, powers-wise it's usually a brick/EP cross One archetype that I've always thought belonged was the Slasher (Wolverine, swordsman, etc.). I've never thought it belonged under the brick or MA archetypes. Now you were actually asking about rounding out a team, which is a different can of wax. Regardless of their power archetypes, there are abilities any team needs to be well-rounded: Leader Brute Strength Brute Defense Ranged attacks Senses Mentalist Non-combat and/or mass transportation Skills Power archetypes or no, if you are missing one of these, you may soon find your team sojuorning the stream sans sculler. Can't think of any others offhand.

Oh, I looked very carefully at the GM's ref screen first. But, according to the description at least, it doesn't have as comprehensive a set of charts as I'd like.

Inspired by the post 'Powers' Activation Time' thread: I would really like to see HG produce a Quick Ref booklet of very common charts. I did my own photocopy version and then lost it. I'd like to see: STR chart throwing chart combat maneuvers chart (all of them in one place!) roll modifiers chart (per as well as pre) mind control 1,2,3 list materials def/bod chart attack modifier formula reverse modifier formula (for the players, so they don't know the villain's CVs) a dozen others that I'll add as I go. Anyone else? Am I behind the times? Does this already exist as a HG product?

"...trigger, sticky..." Trigger is moot. If you cast it and it stays, anyone who walks into it will get caught. Seems to me the point of contention is how long an Entangle will hang around being ignored before dispersing. "... maybe invisible too, like the silk is too fine to see so you walk right into it..." One thing I've always found lacking in HG is negatives to rolls like perception. The web's not invisible, it's just hard to see if you're not paying attention. How about CE (=area of entangle) -4 to per rolls. I suppose, technically, you might buy CE with invisible power effects, otherwise, victims would "see" that they can't see.

everybody knows about vampires & stakes An uncommon attack that everybody is aware of is raised to the common level. I think werewolves and silver were the specific example.

Assuming you don't want charges, isn't it simply an End reserve with the Recovery limited to 'back at base'? I think there might even be a 'recharges fully' option. Or am I missing the subtlties of this?

"#%&!@ you scum!! I'll show you, you worthless %*@%! How about a nice 12! What do you think of that, eh!!!"

If, when you play these animals, they take actions that are tactically not to their best advantage... "Steed! To battle!" "Whinny!" "No steed! Thataway! Where are you going! Don't chase off after that flea-bitten Blood Stag! To battle I say! Whoa steed! Whoa! WHOOOOOA!" **WHAM!** "When ah say Whoa! Ahhhhhh mean WOAH!" ...then they have every right to the disadvantage.

The 1D6RKA AF is a bit long on cost for what you get. Technically, 15AP is only enough to make a 1 hex "line" - i.e. you are not getting a line at all unless you push it (unlikely, considering it's already costing 30END.) Consider: - buying it as AF: one hex - for only +1/2 - buying it with no range (-1/2) so that your dragon can't start his 1" AF at a distance of 50 hexes. Note also: His figured END is 30. His RKA uses 30END. Ouch.

Jeez. This one never even occurred to me. You're right, that's a significant change - and the most obvious - from the standard system. Can't believe I missed it. YMMV, but IMO it is a change for the worse.

My personal pref is: 1 charge -2 never recovers -2 only works upon death -4 only works vs. immediate, point-blank attacker (i.e. if he dies by arrow or by poison, he's SOOL) -1 (or more) Of course, the middle one is open to judgement about how much it's worth.

(Not sure how to phrase this non-confrontationally, so I'll just ask it.) Twice now I have asked rules questions which have been answered with 'look it up in one of our supplements'. I have been buying HG products for 20 years. While I buy supplements as needed when I want to expand on the rules on 5E, I do believe I should be able to get clarification to existing rules without having to do so. I've asked for clarification on a rule in HG 5E: What is my effective STR when resistng a disarm? I think the answer to this is within the scope of 5E. Thanks.

I have a 20 STR, martial disarm and 4DCs. I have an effective STR of 50 when disarming. My opponent has the same thing. When my opponent attempts to disarm me, what is my effective STR to defend? 50 or 20?

Who said it's more? After buying 1 non-recoverable charge, it is quite cheap indeed, wouldn't you say? (I can get it up to a -9 lim).