Chris Goodwin

Got my first dose of Pfizer tomorrow; my wife's is next Monday, while my son's is the following Thursday!

I'm absolutely glad I bought FHC, for the additional downloads it came with. For overall fantasy completeness though, any of the full ruleset books (6e1 + 6e2 or CC/FHC) plus Fantasy Hero would be better. FHC leaves out a few non-fantasy related powers and skills (Computer Programming, FTL Travel), so it's not quite as complete a HERO System book as Champions Complete. If completeness of ruleset is a criterion, you'll want either CC or 6e1+6e2.

It should be noted that the new Western Hero is a "complete" book, in that it includes all of the rules you'll need to play a Heroic level Western Hero game. (To my complete approval, it does not include Powers, referring you to Champions Complete if you want to include them.)

Just ordered it in PDF and POD from DrivethruRPG!

To answer the question you've asked, the second weapon does not ordinarily need to be used in a Multiple Attack. However, 6e1 pp. 92-93 states... Two-Weapon Fighting allows the character to ignore the first -2 OCV modifier when using two weapons. So you would specifically need to be using one weapon in each hand, and using them both in the Multiple Attack, in order to ignore the first -2 OCV penalty, regardless of the conditions you noted in boldface listed in 6e2 p. 73. 6e2 p. 78 states the following: If you're using Multiple Attacks, you don't apply the Off-Hand penalty (6e2 p. 49), even if your Multiple Attack consists of using a weapon in each hand. Note that the cumulative -2 OCV for making a Multiple Attack is separate from the Off-Hand penalty (which, per 6e2 p. 49 is typically only used in Heroic Campaigns), but the Multiple Attack exclusion would override Off-Hand penalties even in this case, unless the GM decides otherwise. In conclusion, Multiple Attack applies a cumulative -2 OCV per attack whether or not you're using one weapon in each hand, and these penalties apply instead of Off-Hand penalties. If and only if you are using one weapon in each hand, and also have the Two-Weapon Fighting Skill, then you ignore the first -2 OCV for Multiple Attack. I hope this helps and is clear; if not, please ask a follow-up question and one of us will try to clarify.

That's interesting, because that was one of the sample scenarios in the Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters International RPGs!

I'm going to say I don't think it was me, but the group I was in during the 4th edition days noticed the exact issue.

In the past few games I've been in, the GMs would ask us, usually after a big fight or info dump, "Okay, what are you doing now?" And we were expected to have something, even if that was just "I'm hanging out with <other character name here>." Or it could be, I'm investigating (x), or I'm patrolling (route). That was our chance to be proactive, if we wanted our characters to be. If not, we could have a timeskip until something happened, like usually the next fight or phone call or text from another team member.

If you're trying to give someone an origin, like one time, ever... blast them with lightning and hope they get powers... I'd almost treat that like an old school D&D "entreaty to the gods". Basically, either the GM is on board, or roll 3d6; if you roll a natural 3, it happens. Once. If you have Power Skill, you might be able to blast them with lightning to activate their powers, as a power stunt, in which case you'll make a roll at a penalty of some kind, but probably still once. If you want to be able to grant someone powers at will, you'll pay points for that. You could use Transform, as mentioned. You could buy powers Usable By Others; Differing Modifiers is a good one here. If your profession is such that you could build powers for someone (like gadgeteer, artificer, alchemist, etc.) you might acquire materials, make a few Skill Rolls, then they'll have a new gadget or magic item or whatever. It's the GM's option if it sticks around after the current session. If you have a Variable Power Pool, and it's something like a gadget pool, you can make gadgets and hand them out to someone... probably once. If you want to be able to do it every adventure, every combat, then you'll need to give them Usable By Others, potentially with Differing Modifiers.

Fortunately there are two new bundles at Bundle of Holding that for not much money can get you an amazing start with 6e! https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Hero6E https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Champions6E

@Lord Liaden I want to thank you for being such a tireless cheerleader for the Champions Universe and keeper of the lore. I've never been a big fan of the CU, but it's starting to grow on me more. And thanks to @DShomshak for writing The Ultimate Supermage, which eventually became The Ultimate Mystic, The Mystic World, and Arcane Adversaries!

At least in my top 10 of very favorite RPG writings ever is the Cabal of Flamboyant Justice, which must have been cross pollination for what eventually became the Champions Universe Mystic World cosmology.

Change Environment is exactly what you're looking for.

Nope. As you're traveling along the track, you encounter a woman tied to the tracks. Another mile or so away is a train coming this way. You untie the woman and get her off the tracks just in time; the train passes by without harming her. You continue in the direction from where the train came, and in another mile or so, there's another woman tied to the tracks, and another train coming. As long as you keep moving with the tracks, this happens. And if you turn around and go the other way, exactly the same thing happens. The train is always coming from the direction you're moving toward, and even though you might be passing by a section you've already passed by and rescued a woman from, there's another living woman tied there, with another train coming. And there's only one track; it's not double-lanes where trains can pass by either direction.

It could work for a particular character. Psionic-powered, but their power acts like magic. I got an idea long ago from Bonewits that I've wanted to use. World X has what might be called talents or knacks; generalized magic has come about through a number of talents that have allowed lending and borrowing of talents, along with a long period of what amounts to scientific study of the phenomenon. The guild of talents and guild of magicians are both annoyed with each other; the talents hate it when the magicians take a perfectly good potential talent and ruin them by teaching them that frou-frou stuff, and the magicians hate it when they miss out on a potential and their talent locks itself into a fixed form. It's really all just different powers with a common basis; "magic" is what happens when a bunch of people think they've discovered a system and teach it to potentials. The same thing could apply to "high tech" or "monastic martial arts" or "elemental bending" or any other systematic training.

That is one of my favorite works that informs my magic system design. I'd love to hear what you have to say about it! I think you're thinking of his other book, Authentic Thaumaturgy, which is a gaming supplement. I've gotten more gaming use out of Real Magic, myself.

To me this hearkens back to ye olden dayes of FH 1e... four vocations (five if you include the worked example Vikings), three race packages (elf, dwarf, halfling)... we were left to figure out our own backgrounds. We had a couple of GMs who came up with their own (including Christopher Taylor's Jolhros campaign materials which date back to then). Something like 30 sample spells, 28 sample monster writeups (including a lot of "men as monsters" -- bandits, ruffians, enforcers, and so forth), nine magic items (with their associated "create" spells, which I didn't count in the above). Most of the games I played in had the players creating their own spells and the GMs creating their own monsters. Incidentally, the "extras" download package for Fantasy Hero Complete includes more sample professional, racial, and background templates, probably approximately as many sample character and monster writeups, and probably approximately as many magic item and spell writeups.

Sure, I've seen lots of stuff like that in published material.

The Mathemagician?

I'm glad she's okay.

It also allows for interesting things to play with. I also wasn't particularly fond of it until Dean said "splunge" above... Maybe there are different forms of splunge, with different ... meta-values? At any rate: what RSvKg did in 1938 raised the level of splunge(magic) and splunge(super) by a pretty significant level, but not enough to have catastrophic consequences for the universe. Splunge(psionics), splunge(FTL), splunge(time travel), and splunge(high tech) apparently also function at different levels. Could there be others? Could various of them have other implications (like, psionics of a value greater than X results in minds having a quasi-physical existence).

Are you talking about the Champions Universe specifically, or any supers universes?

This is pretty close to what I've been seeing and playing in the group I've been playing with for the past year and a half or so. Maybe a little higher at the low end. It's pretty refreshing to play at that level.

Correct, and I encourage doing that. Or not feeling bad if you can't or don't want to pay anything at all.

Have you looked at it? I go into all of that.