Greatwyrm

Re: Ye Old "Hero is Hard" Debate I think this is something many people, including D&Ders, get hung up on. There's no reason you shouldn't get just as much xp for talking your way past the orcs as for bumping them off. In 2e D&D games, I gave bonus xp for non-combat solutions to monster encounters. A holdover from the "Avoiding Unneccessary Violence" award from when I ran Heroes Unlimited by Palladium. (And yes, now that I'm older and wiser, I see the errors of my ways.)

Re: Ye Old "Hero is Hard" Debate You must go through paint pretty quickly, using a brush that broad.

Re: Translating Magic Resistance Could you do something like this as an Always On Dispel with No Range? Basically it only dispells the effect it would have on you if it affected multiple targets. Powerful spells would still be more likely to get through, while weaker ones would be easier to ignore.

Re: Ye Old "Hero is Hard" Debate As a recent HERO convert, I think most of my problems were perception. It just looks intimidating. It took me a while, but after a few times through FRED, it finally "clicked" for me. After that, I couldn't believe I didn't understand it all sooner. It's really not that complicated in the long run. Although, I think powers that modify stats in combat (aid, drain, etc.) are probably going to be a pain in the butt when I finally run a game.

Re: *yawn* build it I'm not sure of the points, but I'll take a crack at it. How about Mind Control (set command: yawn), Area of Effect (not sure how much, but practically anyone who can see you, maybe 20 or 30 hexes), and Sticky (if someone sees one of the original targets yawn, they want to as well).

Re: Shelf life for potions and scrolls Yeah, I see what you're saying, Gunrunner. It's just that coming from a mainly D&D background, the two options that appeared to me the quickest were to use Delayed Effect (which I don't particularly like) or to use Independent (which I also don't like for this). I understand the rules of each and how you can make them work. It's just that Outsider's trigger/focus/extra-time combo is a little more of what I was after. Once again, there are usually just as many ways to do something in HERO as there are people wanting do to them.

Re: Shelf life for potions and scrolls Well, I know there needs to be some practical limit for items like this, I'm just not real wild about the two standard ones. For some reason, I just don't like the Delayed Effect rules as they look like they'd apply here. It just doesn't fit with what feels right when I think of potions or scrolls. I don't have any problem with using Independent for stuff like swords and armor, but I don't like blowing points for one-use items. I don't really have a problem with these two rules themselves, I just don't think they produce the results I want.

Re: Shelf life for potions and scrolls I was thinking the creation time would be something like one day per 10 AP or one day per 10 (avg AP+RP). Either way, even a simple 10 point healing spell would take a whole day to put in a potion or a scroll. Another thought I had came from another discussion here. Someone had suggested using three steps down on the time chart for a guideline to figure the duration of Uncontrolled spells with 0 END. I thought that would be a good guideline for this as well. The longer you take to make the scroll or potion (more care, better materials) the longer it will last. Maybe a combination of the two. A base time of one day per 10 AP, but you can move up and down on the time chart for creation. This would correspondingly lower or raise the shelf life of the item.

I'm not all that wild about making characters pay points for disposable magic items, like scrolls and potions. I'd rather not use the standard rules for storing delayed effect powers (Int/some number). What I was thinking was making a limitation for these items that represents the fading of the magic over time. When you make a potion it would go bad in a week or two and be useless. The inks in a scroll can only hold magic for so long. Stuff like that. I was thinking the window of opportunity limitation in FH would be a good place to start (the one where you can only use a power once per certain time period when the stars align or whatever). Does anyone have a rule like this they've used or any suggestions on what this would be worth?

Re: Simulated D20 Evards Black Tentacles How about an area of effect Entangle, linked with a damaging power that is limited by Only if Entangled.

Re: What about the warriors There are plenty of cool things you could do with warrior abilities and base them on powers. I'm sure some of these have been brought up already, but how about stuff like this in a Sword Martial Art multipower: --Hamstring - drain Running --Crippling Blow - drain STR or DEX --Whirlwind Attack - AoE HTH or AoE KA --Missile Deflection --Flurry of Blades - HTH or KA with Autofire --Master Riposte - HTH or KA with Damage Shield --Display of Skill - boost to Presence Attacks for intimidation --Staple 'em - Entangle, only to pin to wall

Re: First Shot at a Magic System

Re: First Shot at a Magic System It was intentional. I'm just not sure if it's too much. I was going for a way to get dabblers access to enough low level spells to be interesting, but keep the powerful stuff in the hands of the experts. Well, bland wasn't intentional, but it's there. As for the limitations, I really wasn't sure of another good way to incorporate them. That's why I went with the average of the AP and RP for the RSR mod. I know for a skill based system it's generally recommended that you don't offer the limitation value for it, but I also wanted some way to have the -1/5 and -1/20 penalties available. Some easy spells, some average, some tough. As far as checking the values, I'd only do pre-approved spells. No way I'd try this on the fly. For the numerous rolls, I wanted to reward greater specialization with better success. As with point 1, I wasn't sure where enough was enough.

Re: Seeking Online Resources for Danger International ( aka The Espionage World ) I haven't actually converted it. Just being new to HERO, I was happy to see how all the different class abilities, backgrounds, and gadgets could be pretty easily made up in the HERO system. Sorry about that. Should have been clearer.

Re: Seeking Online Resources for Danger International ( aka The Espionage World )

Re: Seeking Online Resources for Danger International ( aka The Espionage World ) As linked above, The CIA World Fact Book is a great game resource. I ran a Spycraft game last summer and used it pretty much every week. Sooner or later you're going to need to know the primary languages in Ghana or the major trading partners of Venezuela or something like that. It's all there.

Re: VPPs and Limitations I think this was the key concept I was missing. For some reason, I thought VPPs limited total powers by AP, like multipowers do. I understood the AP of a power couldn't be greater than the pool cost. I just didn't realize you "filled up" the pool based on the RP of the powers. This makes a little more sense now. Thanks, everyone.

I wanted to put this up to see if there are any really stupid things about this system that I'm not seeing. I don't have my notes in front of me, so forgive me if it's a bit messy. I'm not really worried so much about endurance, durations, and stuff like that. I'm just looking for some feedback on the general system itself. I wanted to design a system where it was relatively easy to get low level spells, while higher ones would not be attractive to dabblers. All spells need Requires Skill Roll, but uses the average of the RP and AP to determine the roll penalty. To begin, a character buys Wizardry for 10 points. This provides Power Skill: Wizardry at the base 9+(INT/5), and can be bought up as usual (+1/2 pts.). It also allows characters to cast any spell they know, as long as the AP of the spell are equal to or less than their roll. For example, a character with an INT of 15 would have a roll of 12 and could use spells of up to 12 AP. Next, a character can buy a secondary level of specialization for 5 points. This works pretty much the same as the 10 point version above, except it specifically applies to one category of powers (Attack, Defensive, Movement, Mental, etc.). For spells falling into the categories you have purchased, you add your Wizardry and your secondary level rolls together to determine the AP cap. Using the same wizard above, if he had also purchased Attack, he could use powers up to 24 AP. This also functions as a Complimentary Skill to wizardry. Third, would be tight specialization. For the standard Power Skill cost (3/2), you could further specialize in powers belonging to the groups you have purchased the second level for. Mr. Example could have Wizardry, Attack, and Energy Blasts to give him an AP cap of 36, but just for EB. This too functions as a Complimentary Skill to wizardry. These caps look a little low, but every time you raise one of the skills, especially the base skill, anything further up the tree grows as well. If you look at the wizard with a 15 INT specialized up through EB, he could manage a 36 point spell before buying the skills above the base costs, and it only costs him 18 RP in skills/talents. I've thought about making characters pay a point or two for familiarity with a spell, but I'm not sure if that would be too expensive or not. There you are. Any feedback is welcome.

I understand you can put limitations on the control cost of a VPP and that if you do, the powers in the pool must have the same limitations. However, if you don't have limitations on the control cost, is there any reason to add them to the powers in the pool?

Re: Cyberpunk Champions A couple of recurring themes in cyberpunk stories are that "everybody is owned by somebody else" and "don't trust anybody". You don't want a group of players constantly stabbing each other in the back, but it's a lot of fun to get them "helping" each other to further their own semi-legal needs.

Re: Not wishing to offend The best way to avoid problems with this is to just go to the players with your basic ideas to begin with. Explain the kind of game you want to run, the time period, and the kind of issues you plan to deal with. If they don't have any problems, go for it. If they do, work around them. Nothing will cause more serious problems for you or your players than if you start gaming with a "taboo" topic for one of them. I can tell you from experience, even if you have something touchy happen off-stage to a character and not go into detail, you can still end up with plenty of misunderstandings and hurt feelings. Games should be fun. If they players tell you up front it won't be, then it won't.

Re: [Magic System] Spellweaving You do a lot of good work, K.S. I think the Spellweaver is the one I like the most so far.

Re: mystical challenge I don't think the problem is either of these. As I said before, the HERO system is much easier to work with when you have your "excuse" for a power in mind before you try to build it. I don't think anybody here is going to go down the whole list of powers and give you a magical and a non-magical version of each (not that some couldn't do it). The core of the power system is the "reasoning from effect" logic. If you can't describe the power in plain language, you'll never be able to describe it in rules. Look at the examples in your own posts. She wants to sneak between shadows. There's your power description right there. You also came up with a perfectly reasonable justification -- she learned how to be real sneaky from an assassin's guild. Now all you have to do is decide how to make the rules provide what you want. You did that, too. You came up with Invisibility, Only While in Shadows, Requires Skill Roll: Stealth. You also came up with Teleport, Only Between Shadows. Either one could work, depending on how you envision the skill/ability working. The only real challange here is to your imagination. If you can think of it, the rules can probably do it. It might be expensive in points, but it's probably there somewhere.

Re: mystical challenge You're on the right track, Hypnotica. HERO is much easier to work with as long as you have a good idea of what you want before you start trying to build it. You might want to use a few examples of how powers with the same point cost and basic effect might have very different f/x. For example, a handgun and a magical firebolt spell cost about the same and do the same damage, but one is magic and one isn't. For the same points, you could freeze someone's hands in a block of ice or put handcuffs on them. Again, similar points, they're both Entangles, but very different f/x. For your Hide in Shadows example, all Invisibility means is people can't see you. It doesn't really matter if you're actually invisible or just really well hidden in the shadows, it's basically the same thing -- people can't see you. I'd do a Hide in Shadows as Invisibility with the limitations Only in Shadows and Requires Skill Roll: Stealth. There you have it. If you don't have shadows or if you forget to put your flashlight away, you're not invisible. No magic, just really skilled.

Re: Cross-gender roleplaying