Chris Goodwin

It can cycle 6 times a day, for 10ly each, so 60 ly a day assuming it has the END. According to my trusty calculator, it'll take (100,000/60) 1666 and 2/3 days.

I think you'll want the spells to have evocative names, and even to an extent write down specifics of Gestures, Incantations, and Focus. You'll want casters to describe the actions they're taking: "With my right hand I wave my staff in a circle while with my left I reach into my pouch, pull out some dried mistletoe, and crumble it to fragments while scattering it in the wind. I then beseech the wind to Destroy My Enemies!" with the latter three words being the name of the spell in question. Those are probably issues inherent to this style of magic, I'm thinking. Should a mage always pay a penalty for casting a spell? You want the ability to know the secrets of the universe and wield powers beyond those of mortals? There's always a cost for power.

Hero being an effects-based system helps here. I know I'm on record as pooh-poohing the idea, but I'm going to make a good faith suggestion. You'll want the following: SFX decided by the GM. The spell is a Blast, let's say, but the GM decides what form it takes. It takes some amount of Extra Time, either to cast or to strike. Not so much that it would make a combat spell useless, but it might not hit in the Segment you cast it in. But if your combat roll to hit succeeds, then the spell will hit them. The GM rolls your Magic Skill Roll behind the screen, and doesn't tell you whether it's objectively successful, instead describing the result in-character. The time at which the spell would take effect is when the caster will know success or failure; the GM should describe what the caster senses about it on every Segment until it hits. SFX would still happen: the winds might gather, maybe even kicking up dust, inflicting a minor OCV penalty on ranged attacks from friend and foe alike. Optionally, a Side Effect decided by the GM at casting time. "All magic comes with a price!" It might not be paid by the caster right then, but it will come due at some point, and if the caster can't pay it at that time then it will be extracted in some other way. How do these sound?

Absent a specific exception, and a GM decision otherwise, the general rules still apply. A character's defenses would apply against the damage from Backlash. Regarding Hit Locations, the general rules would still apply as mentioned. Assuming the game is using Hit Locations, and assuming a Hit Location is used to make the attack (as in a punch or a kick), and assuming special effects, dramatic sense, and common sense allow for it, Hit Locations could indeed apply. (For instance, a Barrier or Entangle (with Backlash) defined as a hard surface might apply hand-to-hand damage directly to the hand, while one defined as a reflective surface that returns energy attacks might not.) And as always, the GM's decision should be final.

I one played a character with it. Always On is a Limitation, after all, so yes, there should be some drawbacks to it. People don't get out of your way in crowds. You should be very careful when crossing the street. Are your retinas invisible, rendering you blind? (That last would be good rationale for taking a Physical Complication; there's nothing in Invisibility or Always On requiring you to be blind.)

You could handwave it. But that seems unsatisfying and not what you're looking for. So let's look at it a little more closely. "...attack will be decreased by 15 Active Points..." sounds like Damage Negation for 3 Damage Classes. "Slick Hull" also sounds like the perfect SFX for the Damage Negation Power. "...per point the DEX Roll is failed by..." sounds like Requires A Roll (RAR), with some slight modifications. From a mathematical standpoint, the power user's roll to activate is the same as the target's (or in the case of a defense power, the attacker's) roll to avoid. This definitely has "must be made each Phase or use" modifier (-1/2 more Limitation) for -1 total. "Uses Characteristic Roll" doesn't modify the value. Normally there would be an Active Point penalty to the user of the power, which can translate to an Active Point bonus to the attacker. We can reduce the initial value of the RAR Limitation to compensate, to -1/2. In this case, the user of the power (the UFO) gets some effect on a failed roll (or, a successful roll by the attacker). How to handle this? Multiple buys of Damage Negation, with increasing difficulty. Essentially, you're buying 3 DC worth of Damage Negation, with "Only If Attacker Fails DEX Roll", another 3 DC with "Only If Attacker Fails DEX Roll by more than 1", another 3 DC with "Only If Attacker Fails DEX Roll by more than 2", and so on. I'd put the value of the Limitation for the initial buy at -1/2, per Requires A Roll, and probably -1/4 per additional reduction. Make sure to factor the previous Limitation values in, so -1/2 for the first, -3/4 for the second, -1 for the third, and so on. Allowing Extra Time to grant bonuses is already handled in the Skill Use rules; I'd use the current rules rather than the ones given in the original writeup.

If they're also Desolidified you can affect them. However, you'd need to either buy Affects Physical World on the Desolidification to make a solid person desolid while you're using it, or deactivate your Desolidification before reactivating it to affect yourself and the target simultaneously.

There is a maneuver called Cover which seems to be what you're looking for. It's on 6e2 p. 85.

If you were to combine my "How to Play HERO System" with it... Except "How to Play" is for 6e. Knowing that they're the peanut butter and chocolate of a HERO System near-free game has me feeling a little uncomfortable about saying that. Because for $5 you'd have the game. Which is good if you're buying, but not so much if you're Hero Games.

I should admit, it was me being a bit grumpy, and a bit less courteous than I ought to have been. @Doc Democracy I hope you'll accept my apologies for that. And I hope in my latter post I was less grumpy about it.

Ultimately, yes. If the setting points out that that's the in-universe explanation, I've lost interest. In large part, the same thing turns me off of Spelljammer. Space in a D&D game? Sign me up! Except it's... not. Not what I'm looking for, really. It's not so much "yay, science!" It's that the world has to have the feeling of a world I could live in. A world where diseases are caused by evil spirits, or planets are surrounded by crystal shells and phlogiston-powered wooden ships fly through the aether, isn't that kind of world. It feels like something obviously constructed, like an amusement park ride. I'm not just looking for something I can throw fireballs and hack enemies apart with swords. I'd like something that I can look at the conditions and draw conclusions from them. I found a post on another forum that sums it up for me, enough that I've got it bookmarked. Fun world building elements, emergent setting, things that to me seem like they could happen. I can anticipate things that might happen and characters that could exist in a world that functions according to familiar natural laws, or at least feels like a place I could visit. Like an idea I've had in my pocket for a fantasy world: in cities, where construction is largely of wood, and there are people packed in, and there are spells that can easily prevent fires, treat disease, purify water, nonlethally stop thieves, light streetlamps at night, and so forth, cities will pay a premium for casters who can cast those. Anyone who can do so gets a reduced entry fee into the city, and reduced even more if they take a few volunteer shifts on watch. This is something that's gameable, that I can hang plot hooks on, that can exist in the background and occasionally come to the notice of PCs even if they're not directly involved. If tides are entirely the whims of Zeboim, then I have no idea what else might be, and just that fact is enough to make me not care.

I was unaware of this about Glorantha... and, while I haven't had a whole lot of interest in it over the years it's been around, now I have zero.

You have to throw in Extradimensional Movement as well! It's a very unstated rule, humorous in nature. A few of us used to throw around a joke... once a thread got long enough, someone would suggest Transform or Extradimensional Movement as the "if nothing else works" solution.

Clairsentience would work. It would let you put your sense point outside the Darkness. Note that if the Darkness affects any of the Clair- senses, then you won't be able to perceive into the Darkness area, but you'll still be able to perceive outside of it. If they've bought Darkness vs. taste/smell, it would cover that sense group even if the group was bought with Targeting. The cost of the Darkness assumes the 'normal human suite' regardless of what extras (i.e. Targeting) the target might have bought.

A cat blep is where the cat's tongue is merely sticking out. As opposed to a cat mlem, where the tongue is engaged in an action. Or: blep is a Delayed Phase, while a mlem is the Phase being used. 😹 Seriously, it's a thing!