JohnTaber

Re: How would you do this: Big sheet of ice? This comes up all the time and there are a bunch of different ways to do it. I'll mention a simple one... Change Environment, -1 Characteristic Roll and all Skill Rolls based on Dex, -1 DCV, Multiple Combat Effects, Only When Target On Surface, etc. You could up the penalites etc...but you get the idea... FYI. I would also search the boards. Also look for marbles.

Re: A general question? What about Shields? You can definitely borrow it. I really need to get a copy of your Traveller stuff...where is that link...I'll check your sig when I get out of this post. I actually use this for ship shields AND for personal shields. For character shields it allows them to take one good hit then they better get behind cover. It has worked very well for me. Forgot! It makes fighters with tiny autofire attacks useful too. Imaging 10 fighters on one side of a capital ship. They will knock down the shields fairly effectively...allowing the big guns to blast in. Hehehe.

Re: A general question? What about Shields? Hi Folks: Here is something I am doing. This is really simply another application of Side Effect that is just more defined. First I'll paste in the text from my campaign doc then I'll show you an example: Here is an example: Shields - Fore: FF (20 PD/20 ED), Adjustable (Faceable; +1/4) (50 Active Points); OIF Bulky (Shield Generator; -1), Fragmenting Defense (-1), Limited Coverage 90 Degrees (-1/2) I just buy that four times.

Re: Post Apoc Everyman Skills Dumb question...I assume you mean post apoc modern? Not Thundar or something right?

Re: Price List I have a detailed equipment list in my campaign material. It is for my own setting though. Go to the downloads page in my sig and look under Star Aria.

Re: Plot seeds? I really like this product...cheap too! 100 Sci Fi Adventure Ideas

Re: The Echoes of Heaven has Released! FYI. I think Dundjinni is a better product as it has VERY little learning curve and the maps are awesome. I noticed this product and plan to purchase it. Looks interesting...

Re: Magic System Crunch Hi Katal: I would also decide if a certain amount of real point expenditure is required to get spells. For example, spellcasters have at least 20 points spent on spells. This prevents what my group calls, "The Mystically Enhanced Fighter Syndrome". PC will get Str, Force Field, and IR spells only. They spend a bit of points and end up with a really effective fighter. If you don't care that's fine...just a heads up.

Re: Starting a SH campeign It is very tough starting a sci-fi campaign. I actually ran an entire Champs campaign while I was working on my Star Hero. I wrestled with many of these questions. I did some things which helped my control some of these factors but I wanted to talk with you about something I did which had the most impact. I created a detailed outline with answers to many of the questions you asked based on the immediate location of the PCs. I gave this to the PC a couple of WEEKS before the first session. Re: Location. For example, in my game the PC started on an asteroid mining colony. Thus I had to do a lot of prep work around that factility, nearby space, local laws, politics, borders, tech, recent history, slang, etc but not a lot of information on other areas initially. Re: Giving Material Early. That was a HUGE plus as in almost every case a player wanted knowledge about a certain thing. For example, one player wanted a psi. He worked up the idea then had questions about it. The two of us worked out details on the setting which was neat! The player also loved being involved in the process and ended up writing a very spiffy corporate backround for me. I don't want to scare you but my current campaing doc is in something like it's 20 iteration and it tops 70 pages. You can get it on my site (the link is below). It keeps getting updated as we go along and folks ask questions. For example, last week one of the PC asked if there was psi dampening drugs. Ok...another paragraph added to the doc.

Re: Unintentional Power-Gaming: How To Deal With It You are such a min-maxer Derek...jeez loueez...

Re: Unintentional Power-Gaming: How To Deal With It Move By/Thru and MA PC tend to be very cheap and effective...especially at 350 points. I would simple cut off the AP and maybe the MA. Get more speedster type frivolous stuff...transformation to complete tasks quickly...the ole Flash TK whirlwinds with his hands...etc...

Re: Help with villain power As with everything in Hero there are a bunch of different ways you can attack this power. I had a villain who could apply hexes and I used one of two powers. I either used an EB (for falling stuff, wires, etc) with variable special effect OR dex train (trips on wires, etc). It worked great.

Re: Power build question Depending on the effect you want you could also link in a PD/ED drain. This is good if you want to represent the fact that the structure itself is now more fragile. I did this for an ice character once. He could freeze objects and make them brittle.

Re: Making the Big Map I am using CC2 Pro and the Cosmographer pack. It can make maps exactly like the old Traveller ones and that is what I wanted. The layering in CC2 is nice for these maps.

Re: Magic Missiles Steve wrote it up in Digital Hero as well. I don't remember the number...it was pretty expensive as I recall...

Re: I am hot! Hi Siren! Welcome to the board and Hero. Likely you will get several replies as the board is pretty active. Hopefully you will also find it pretty friendly. As you will soon find there are a bunch of ways to build things in Hero. That is a strength of the system not a weakness IMHO. You could build a siren song with entangle and/or speed drain or with other powers as well. Entangle will already make the player spend phases breaking out. Drain would cause the effects to linger after breaking out of it. Just to get you thinking you could also do something like this with mind control too. What about this... Entangle (Cannot Be Escaped With Teleport +1/4, Takes No Damage From Attacks +1/2) That would work on one person. Add it area affect or explosion to get more than one person. You could get really fancy and add personal immunity and explosion with no range to get everyone that can hear it.

Marvel has a promotion going on right now. Here is a link to the details: http://www.marvel.com/3free

Re: AstroSynthesis? Hi Gents: I wanted to throw in my comment about Astrosynthesis. I personally think it take a LOT of commitment to use it. As it is in 3 dimensions I found it very hard to actually utilize it in my sessions or even to setup my megaverse. It is very hard to explain unless you really sit down with it for a while. My suggestion is to download the demo and play with it quite a bit before buying it. I bought it...messed with it for a month...then stopped using it. If you REALLY want 3D maps and are willing to work with it then Astrosyth is fine. Just my take...

Re: How do I create the following? For the resurrection thing you could use duplication as well. You would have an issue with the memories but it is another idea.

Re: What fundamental things did they really get "right"? Nailed it.

Re: What I Learned Being a Star Hero GM Here is what I learned / am learning... Some players want to solve every problem with a hack or a high-tech device instead of their brains and clever role-playing. I'm lucky as my players really kick butt. This is the first space opera campaign I have a run and it is very challenging. One of my players started doing this so badly that one of the players chastised him for it. Gotta love it when other players help keep things in perspective.

Re: How to stat this out... if I should? If the character is an NPC I definitely would not worry about it. If a PC really wants this power I might ask him to hold some experience and maybe start with less points than the rest of the PC...expecially if folks die a lot in this particular campaign. Unless you run a dangerous Champs game death is not common... My only concern if one of my players wanted this power would be gaining the "knowledge" not the powers. Does that mean Inheritor gains memories too? If that is the case I might buy a massive triggered telepathy with lots of limitations to mimic that effect. You could throw in heaps of limitations to really drive down the cost.

Re: Casual Survey: Age of players and Hero's utility vs. other games 40, old as dust. Been playing Hero for a long time...

Re: Build me a power - Paralyzing Touch

Re: skills question I use my common sense and go from there. If the feat is something the character would not have a chance of performing then I don't even give them a roll. For example, they find a computer and want to hack it for information. If they do not have computer programming they get no chance at it. In cases where it might be possible I give them an appropriate roll with heavy subtractions. I also severely restrict the use of skill levels in these cases unless they are completely applicable. PS This is a great topic for the Ultimate Skills book. I would definitely cross post this thread if possible.