That Masked Man

Re: Religion Hero?? I have used religious themes in a lot of games, but usually in a SF/Fantasy setting and not using real world religions. I don't think a game based on religion would work and one based on RL religions would be too likely to cause offense. Of course it also depends on your players. I could see some players I know enjoying a game based on the manga/anime series Angel Sanctuary (where the background is a war between angels) and others I know would be offended.

Re: Religious that won't emigrate While I don't expect any large and diverse sect will universally refuse to emigrate, some smaller groups might. Also, I think some groups would be more likely to emigrate than others and some would need to adapt more to living off the Earth than others. The Gripping Hand comes to mind as a novel that brings up this issue, at least to some extent.

Re: Variable Power Characters in the Same Game I have had similar thoughts concerning an upcoming game of mine that mixes psionics, magic, and technology. While it doesn't quite work for the game I want to do, one possibility I considered was to allow each player to choose whether he wanted to play a heroic or a superheroic character type. Both would have the same base points, but heroic characters would have fewer disads. Heroic characters could use normal items for free but have NCM. Superheroic characters would have no NCM but would have to pay points for all powers. They would also have certain disadvantages based on the source of their powers. Unlike true supers these sources would be of a limited number of types, all of which would have some type of disadvantages associated with them. The points wouldn't be equal between the two, but I think with enough care to enforce the limitations of the superheroic characters, most player groups would accept it.

Re: Narcolepsy I have known at least one person (a former roommate) with a similar problem. I think his would best be modelled as Enraged when awakened since he would strike at whoever or whatever woke him and not anyone else.

Re: Anybody Ever Get THIS? As someone who has done this twice already and will soon be doing it a third time, I like the suggestions. However, since character creation is such an important aspect of the system, I think new players should be introduced to it right off the bat. To avoid overwhelming the players, what I am planning to do is get a general idea of the character they want to play from them before ever opening a book. Then I will create the character with them, walking them through the steps and explaining why I am choosing the skills/powers/etc that I am. While I do this, they will have a copy of Sidekick to help them understand what we are doing, although I still expect to do a lot of explaining at this stage. Finally, I will let them look through Sidekick and make any changes to the character that they want (subject to approval of course). After a few game sessions, I will have a meeting with each player to modify the characters now that they understand the system a little better through experience. This time they will also have access to the full 5ER. I would not normally allow a player to change the character once the game has started, but in the case of new players, I think the opportunity to modify their character to match their concept after they have learned the system enough to know how to model what they want is essential. I might do this differently if they were new to RPGs generally but these are experienced players who are just new to HERO.

Re: Special virgin powers? I saw the thread title and I thought more along the lines of Virgin Fleet.

Re: Game-Time Pop-Quiz for GM's As I understand it, martial maneuvers and haymakers are not divided by advantages, but velocity and strength additions are, so: 6 DC base + martial 4DC/2 for killing or 2 DC + Strength 30/(5*2) or 3 DC = 11DC = 3.5d6 KA x2 Penetrating 6 DC base + maneuver 4 DC + strength 30/(5*2) or 3 DC = 13 DC limited to 2x base 12 DC = 4d6 KA x2 Penetrating 6 DC base + movement 15/(5*2) or 1 DC + Strength 30/(5*2*2) or 1 DC = 8 DC = 2.5d6 KA x2 Penetrating 6 DC base + movement 15/(3*2) or 2 DC + Strength 30/(5*2) or 3 DC = 11 DC = 3.5d6 KA x2 Penetrating As for the the damage he takes, it is 1/3, 1/2, and full damage done to the target respectively as a normal attack. As far as I can tell, this damage would not be penetrating.

Re: Does Hero System "break" at higher levels, and if so, at what level? My problem with setting campaign limits like that is that if you set the limts low enough that everyone can max all of them out then you end up with characters who are functionally identical, differing only in flavor. If you are going to do that, why bother with the points at all? Campaign limits are great, but you need them high enough that no one can have max attack, max defense, max SPD, max Dex, etc all at the same time.

Re: Universal knowlage Maybe something like this would make sense as an ability for HyperMan to buy with experience considering the talents he brought up in another thread (speed reading, cramming, and eidetic memory).

Re: Does Hero System "break" at higher levels, and if so, at what level? It seems to me that the system does start breaking down at extremely high point levels (1000+) just because of SPD issues. But it also seems like you could house rule a new speed chart with more (shorter) segments if you really needed to. Otherwise it seems to scale well at the high end. At the low end, as characters get closer and closer to the average man, the system's ability to handle differences between them breaks down. I don't think HERO works well for playing average characters, but then again, most "adventure" fiction deals with above average characters, whether it is books, comics, movies, or television. If you really want to play average man on the street characters, HERO may not be for you, but for the rest of us who want to play heroic (or superheroic) characters, it works great.

Re: Light or Dark Future? My games tend toward darker futures. Often the PCs represent hope in a dark world. I find a bright future to be too difficult to create challenging and believable adventures for. A setting that is too much better than our own world quickly becomes dull. A dark setting has more room for adventure and heroism. Just my take on things.

Re: Star Blazers/Capt. Harlock setting. Has anyone else seen Matsumoto's recent manga, Great Yamato? In it the Yamato is once again resurrected a thousand years later and the descendants of the crew of the Space Battleship from the original series are called to it. They were going to make an anime series from it, but legal issues first made them change the name to Great Galaxy and now may have cancelled the project entirely. I love the feeling of destiny that runs through Matsumoto's works and in particular in the Yamato series. And that brings me to a gaming question (you knew there would be one) - how do you get this feeling of being "chosen" for a greater destiny across in a game? I have tried several ways, some more successful than others but none of them completely satisfactory.

Re: First Contact Nice! Now, if we could find a Kzin.... On second thought, maybe not.

Re: Superleap UAA??? Thats too bad. It would be fun to knock someone into next week... literally.

Re: Superleap UAA??? If the velocity doesn't get multiplied, then the time must be increased to compensate. So with 4 levels of megascale (1" = 1000km) each scale inch is 500,000 times the standard scale inch (1" = 2m) but velocity is still in standard scale inches. The poor victim of megascale knockback would be moving backward for 500,000 seconds or about 5.8 days!! Even one level of megascale would have him knocked back for over 8 minutes.

Re: OCV bonus or extra roll? Consider these examples: 1 - Real world example - A weapon with auto and single shot settings trying to hit a moving target (someone who does not want to be hit). Shouldn't the autofire attack be more likely to hit once? Kind of like the way a shotgun does (although it would be biased up and to the right). 2 - Heroic level campaign FREd rules - What advantage does an agent with an automatic weapon gain from autofire vs single shot when firing at a single target? Why should he waste the bullets?

Re: Extra CON only to prevent CON Stunning What about if the game uses NCM? Wouldn't that change the values?

Re: Do you allow Find Weakness in games using Hit Locations? Thats OK. The idea of a gnome/wombat is just too disturbing.

Re: Run! Live Action Sailor Moon! I have been a fan of anime and Japanese dramas since the days of Star Blazers / Space Battleship Yamato and Sailor Moon is no exception. I have been following this new series since it began and so far I am pretty impressed. The effects are awful by American standards, but unlike a lot of American shows, the effects are not what the series is about. It is a little cheesy but if you are a fan of the original manga and anime, I think you would like it. Here are a few links: The Official site (in Japanese) An American site with plot synopses and interviews Another interesting US site

Re: Do you allow Find Weakness in games using Hit Locations? There are times when reducing defense makes more sense than multiplying the damage or adding to OCV. Consider the following: Armored Guy is in a full suit of plate armor (DEF 8). His gnome opponent is armed only with a dagger (1d6-1 damage). Using analyze style and hit locations, the gnome would never be able to do any BODY with his dagger, regardless of his skill. But, using Find Weakness, our gnomish hero slips his dagger through joints and between plates. And with enough skill (2 or more successes at Find Weakness) manages to do BODY to Armored Guy on an average roll.

Re: Do you allow Find Weakness in games using Hit Locations? I think Find Weakness best represents a sort of training in analyzing the structure of an opponents armor. The hit location chart is too broad and general to handle well placed blows to weak points. Style analysis doesn't cover this either since it is not dependent on the fighting style of the defender, but on the physical structure and coverage of his armor. There are usually several ways to buy any effect, but Find Weakness seems less of a kludge than buying armor piercing requires a skill roll.

Re: What sort of benefits do Fringe Benefits confer? Well I think that would take some seriously difficult skill rolls as well, but having the Perk of being a licensed pilot would probably offset some of the enormous penalties involved.

Re: Do you allow Find Weakness in games using Hit Locations? How about using a house rule that you can only use Find Weakness when targetting a specific location, to find the weak point within that location? You could use that in any game that uses hit locations. In games that don't use hit locations, Find Weakness would work normally without this modification.

Re: Whats your favorite Attack? The one that brings my opponent down.

Re: Second Piece of Equipment It does seem ripe for abuse. Definitely one to be reviewed before being allowed into my games, especially where the item has charges.