DrFaust

I've seen it remarked in various discussions that standard Champions characters used to be built on fewer points. I'm not sure if it's possible to ask the following question without getting into a discussion of whether that increase in base points is good or bad, and all the attendent rancor, but it'd be good if that were avoided. So what prompted the change? Were abilities recosted? Were new characteristics and such added in? Did someone, at some point, decide starting super heroes didn't have enough powers?

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Scarlet Begonias, The Grateful Dead, 4/13/1983 at the University of Vermont (Go Cats!)

Re: K. Hite: Legends of the Fall & Hero Games I suspect "periodical model" refers to buying RPG books as one would a periodical, in that you pick up the latest issue each month.

Re: THE ULTIMATE SPEEDSTER -- What Do *You* Want To See? Maybe alternate ways to build speedsters that don't rely on a high SPD?

Re: Hidden Template

Re: A Dummy's Guide to the Turakian Age Just wanted to say I finished reading The Turakian Age just now, and I'm sticking with my initial opinion that it really is quite spiffy. The gears of my mental mill are slipping on all the grain, unfortunately, but maybe I'll come up with something, eventually.

Re: Hidden Template

Re: Hidden Template So my question is: what we can do to remove the bias? Making the elements of the speedbrick more expensive doesn't seem like it would solve anything, because then speedbricks are still proportionately more well-suited to the system than other concepts. Maybe elements of the system need to be changed, like, say, what causes a character to be stunned? Also, does this come out in other genres, or is it an issue just with super heroes?

Re: Hidden Template In making a Champions character and receiving critique over on that board a couple months ago, I came to think of it as the "buy-in." Basically, it seems if you want your character to stay standing in a combat, you need so much SPD, PD, ED, CON and all those other things, to the point you may find you've spent more than half your points in making a character unlike the one you planned to play. It's honestly one of the most frustrating things about HERO, for me.

Re: A Dummy's Guide to the Turakian Age Actually, I'd completely forgotten about that particular freebie. Cheers!

So I'm reading The Turakian Age, and rather enjoying it, so far. Hero Games' love of detail has come through once again. However, there's one area where the sheer amount of information hurts: the gazeteer section. To me, there are so many different nations, city-states and various socio-political regional groupings that I can't process them all. I figure there's a reason for all of them to exist. It's a fictional world, after all. If something didn't serve a purpose, it just wouldn't be there, as a general rule of thumb. Now, I'm getting the sense there are so many different places and countries to accomodate all the varieties of high fantasy. Like, if you want epic wizards and godlings, go over here. Noble barbarians on the plains, off yonder. Without knowing exactly what kind of fantasy I want, and just asking where to find that in Ambrethel, can anyone offer tips how to sort through everything without reading every single entry in the gazeteer?

Re: Ghostbusters

Re: My First Character Build -- Comments Appreciated I appreciate the comments everyone. I'm taking them into account and currently reworking everything. Thanks!

Re: My First Character Build -- Comments Appreciated All right, so now I'm all confused. Is there some underlying design philosphy I'm not entirely aware of? It seems like there's a minimum buy-in, so a significant chunk of your points are already spent just making sure the character won't fall down. Maybe I'm trying to do too much, powers-wise? Just pare it down to a 12d6 attack, a little movement and spend the rest on keeping the character upright most of the time?

Re: So...About Seeker...

Re: My First Character Build -- Comments Appreciated Just a thought on the way out the door: I'm thinking about changing the OAF limitation on everything to an OIF. Losing the rod in combat just doesn't come up a whole lot. And what would "only to keep hold of his Cosmic Rod" be worth as a limitation?

Re: The Fires of War Sourebook So if TAF2 sells well, do you suppose it would bode well for more HERO system material not published by Long & Co?

So I've had HERO for a while now and have been coming back to it now and again. As part of the learning process, I've been making a character. He's sort of a PC-ified version of Jack Knight, DC's Starman. He's PC-ified in that he's meant to be someone's character in a game, rather than an accurate representation of Jack as written in the comics. So if anyone has comments or critiques about the mechanics/build of the character, I'd appreciate them. Things like "He doesn't have enough END or STUN for a Champions game," and so on. (And whether the Cosmic Rod multipower should be a 60 reserve as default; right now it's 75 so he can have a 12d6 EB.) I'm moderately sure all the math is right, as I wrote up the powers myself, then doublechecked them in the HD demo. Of the 320 points, there are by my reckoning 40 left unspent. So I've got a little play room to cover missed bases or incorporate suggestions. JACK KNIGHT, STARMAN CHARACTERISTICS Val Char Cost 15 STR 5 22 DEX 36 18 CON 16 14 BOD 8 13 INT 3 14 EGO 8 15 PRE 5 16 COM 3 10 PD 7 10 ED 6 5 SPD 18 10 REC 6 40 END 2 35 STUN 4 Total: 127 SKILLS 2 Artist 4 Combat Skill Levels: +2 OCV Cosmic Rod Attacks 3 Conversation 4 Knowledge: Pop Culture +2 3 Lockpicking 3 Persuasion 5 Profession: Collectibles Dealer +3 6 Range Skill Levels +3 3 Seduction 3 Stealth 3 Streetwise 2 Survival: Urban Environment 5 Trading +1 Jujutsu Training 4 Block +2, +2, Block, Abort 4 Disarm -1, +1 Disarm, +10 STR 3 Slam +0, +1, STR + v/5, Target Falls 4 Strike +0, +2, STR +2d6 Strike Total: 61 TALENTS 6 Combat Luck (3 rPD, 3 rED) Total: 6 PERKS 4 Contact: Ted Knight (useful skills, significant Contacts of his own, good relationship with PC) 8- 2 Reputation: Opal City's Champion 14- Total: 6 POWERS / EQUIPMENT 37 Cosmic Rod Multipower, 75 point reserve; all slots OAF (-1). 4u #1) Cosmic Blast I EB 12d6, 1/2 END (+1/4); OAF (-1). 3 3u #2) Cosmic Blast II EB 8d6, 1/2 END (+1/2), Autofire (+1/4) (70 AP); OAF (-1). 2 3u #3) Cosmic Blast III EB 8d6, Armor Piercing (+1/2), 1/2 END (+1/4); OAF (-1). 3 4u #4) Cosmic Blast IV RKA 4d6, 1/2 END (+1/4); OAF (-1). 3 3u #5) Monomolecular Edged Hook HKA 2d6, 1/2 END (+1/4), Penetrating (+1/2) (52 AP); OAF (-1). 2 1u #6) Staff Blow HA +4d6 (20 AP); OAF (-1). 2 2u #7) Star Burst (Flash vs Sight) 5d6, Area of Effect 3" (+1), 1/2 END (+1/4) (56 AP); OAF (-1), No Range (-1/2). 2 15 Flight 10", 0 END (+1/2) (30 AP); OAF (-1). 0 8 Vintage Anti-Flare Goggles: Nightvision (5 AP); OAF (-1) (total: 2), plus Infrared Perception (Sight) (5 AP); OAF (-1) (total: 2), plus Flash Defense (8 AP); OAF (-1) (total: 4) Total: 80 DISADVANTAGES 5 Distinctive Feature: Tattoos and Piercings (Easily Concealed, Noticed and Recognizable) 15 Hunted: The Mist 8- (As Pow, Public ID) 15 Psych Lim: Code versus Killing (Common, Strong) 15 Psych Lim: Honorable (Common, Strong) 20 Psych Lim: Loves Sadie Falk (Common, Total) 20 Psych Lim: Protective of Opal City (Common, Total) 10 Psych Lim: The Collector's Collector (Uncommon, Strong) 10 Social Lim: Public ID as Starman (Freq, Minor) 10 Unluck 2d6 Total Disadvantages: 120 Base Points: 200 Points from Disadvantages: 120 Total Spent: 320

Re: Sci-fi swear words? Back when I was reading about "Red Dwarf," the newsgroup FAQ reported that Grant and Nayloy maintain they invented the word on their own. Whether that's the case or not is up for debate.

Re: Sci-fi swear words? Another good "Farscape" one is "frennik," as in "That frennik Rygel got us in it again."

Re: Sci-fi swear words? Also Larry Niven's "tanj it." EDIT: Aw, scooped.

Re: Pulp Stargate! There's actually a whole thread lost in the bowels of RPG.net about a pulp version of Stargate. I think it involved Nikola Tesla leading the project and Doc Savage as head of the exploratory team. The Nazis had a whole gate of their own, natch.

Re: The best of Other Pulp RPGs Any pulp game desperately needs some version of Adventure!'s Dramatic Editing. Not only is "Ah, but look, I've found extra parachutes in this concealed locker" totally in-genre, but it's a great way to engage the players even further.

Re: Which are the optional bits? Since I last posted, I finished going through the latter half of the book again. I see it's not nearly as complex as I thought. Adjustment powers still niggle at me, though. I can just imagine someone's going to sit down and say, "I want to play someone who drains people's powers!"

Re: Which are the optional bits?