Chris Goodwin

Why not just try to figure out what his Desolidification doesn't protect against, then load up on that?

Ewwwwww. I'd be very careful when putting a debit card number online. That's your checking account, and if someone gets ahold of it they can clean you out -- and debit cards don't usually have the same protections that credit cards do. </threadjack>

The "Modern and Realistic" thread got me to thinking. Toadmaster, a ways back on that thread, wrote: I've never met a genre Hero didn't like. Some of what I've played in Hero: Four color superheroes Somewhat deadlier superheroes Wild Cards Teen superheroes Many Fantasy Hero games Fantasy Hero game based on FGU's Bushido Fantasy Hero game based on Robert Asprin's Myth series with a distinct Star Wars flavor Several different translations of Battletech to Hero Generic giant robots (Robot Warriors) Old West Paranoid/gonzo conspiracy a la Illuminati Modern military action adventure Translation of WW's Vampire (that itself started as a modern day with magic game a la GURPS Technomancer) Space opera Pro wrestling Something odd we called "Death Wish", essentially 10 point characters, no powers or disads, dropped on a map and forced to fight to the last man. Weird dimension hopping uhhh...weirdness Ninja Hero (I was one of the Hiro Brothers) I missed out on the Ghostbusters game, but wanted to do one myself. What have you used Hero for, as player or GM? In your opinion, did it "work" for that particular campaign, genre, or setting? Why or why not?

If you're letting Energy Blast douse a fire, I'd say make the whole spell an Energy Blast, Variable SFX and not Stun Only; that way you could use it either to light a fire or douse one.

If you google for "star wars" "hero system" with quotes exactly like that, you should be able to find some resources.

Right on the ninjas thing. In our Bushido FH game, I wanted to play a ninja. I had rolled pretty crappy on my social standing (we rolled d% and looked on the social standing table for our FH game); I think I actually rolled an Eta, which is the untouchable caste. Actually fairly close to reality according to the GM, who was an aficionado of Japanese history. He didn't let me play it as a ninja from all of the ninja movies; he let me take a ninja package deal, but my clan had assigned me to protect this shugenja and my cover was as a budoka. Now that I think about it, you'll probably want to use FH as the basis with lots of goodies from NH for flavor. And I think our game took place during the 1500s; this seems like as good a description as any: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2123.html

I don't see why not. Limited Power, and all that.

I don't have the current Ninja Hero, but I did play in a Fantasy Hero game based on Bushido back in the 80's. I think that Bushido is what's referred to as Sengoku-style.

Let the GM know of your concerns. It could be he's got lots of opportunities for characters with lots o' noncombat skills to shine. OTOH, if the players are all making minmaxed combat monsters, maybe that's the kind of character they want to play and the game they want to play in; in that case, go with it, man!

Why? You're traveling to the "fast" or "go" dimension.

Extradimensional Movement: to the "go time" dimension (where this dimension is stopped). If you don't like that dimension, make it to the "ultrafast" dimension, where the time flow ratio from there to here is a billion to one. One of the properties of that dimension is that it reflects everything that is in the real world. You can then buy your STR Transdimensional to affect things in the real world.

Leminkainen -- in fact everyone who has posted here so far -- Read this article. It talks about stat breakpoints and granularity in Hero. For instance, in GURPS characters have stats in the 10-15 range, which is six breakpoints inclusive. In HERO, for DEX you've got either three breakpoints (10, 13, 18 for DEX rolls and skills) or five breakpoints (for CV; 10, 11, 14, 17, 20), or 11 breakpoints (10 through 20, inclusive, for initiative). For STR you've got half dice (10, 13, 15, 18, 20) for five, or STR rolls (10, 13, 18) for three. For CON you've got either three (10, 13, 18) for CON rolls and stats or 11 (10 through 20) for being Stunned. And so on. http://www.darkshire.org/~jhkim/rpg/herosystem/essays/breakpoints.html Plus (not from the article) you've got eight Primary and six Figured Characteristics. With that many different stats you've got lots of ways to differentiate characters.

I believe that's part of the Real Weapon Limitation. A sword can't cut through an oak door, and a spiky macey clubby thing can't cut rope.

As I mentioned in the sticky thread, I once came up with a house rule for that. Increased Duration: +1/4 for each level down the Time Chart, for Constant Powers only. That's how often you spend END to maintain it. You can shut it down at any time during the maintenance period, and IIRC you had to define a way for it to be shut down.

I once came up with a house rule for that. +1/4 per level down the Time Chart; thus, for +1/2, you could spend END once per minute to maintain a Constant Power.

Right. That happened in Galactica: 1980, which Glen Larson said was not canon for the BSG universe. Ergo, IMG it never happened, and in my BSG:TNG, Colonel Starbuck is the officer in charge of Galactica's flight operations (and he loves using that "don't ever push the third button" line on new recruits.)

Essentially what you're saying is that an MP reserve is not an Active Point limit but a Real Point limit. If it works for you, who are we to tell you no?

What archer would like to see I'd like to see a book that helps me use the HERO System to play out the kinds of adventures one reads about in the kinds of novels and stories that are published as "fantasy". I don't want to see anything that says "This is how your fantasy game should work" but "This is how X tends to work in fantasy novels and stories but here's how to change it if you want effects Y or Z." I don't want much.

I have a house rule that if you want to hit a specific part of a location (usually the eyes or the heart) you take 1.5 times the basic hit location modifier. Those would be, respectively, -12 and -4. For the jugular I'd say take a -12. Since the heart is only a -4, I probably wouldn't give any special bonuses to damage for targeting it (but think of vampires...).

How about a STUN Drain or Suppress? The blissed out effect seems like unconsciousness.

Ok. I went to a con today at which Aaron Allston was guest of honor. I didn't know until I got there, though, that the dealers room had no, as in zero, zilch, zippo, the big nada, game retailers. Plus I'd missed Mr. Allston's autograph period anyway. So I ended up with the big nada, etc. Just in case anyone was curious.

Okely dokely. Thanks guys!

If you could only buy one of these two books, which would you buy? If you could get Champions signed by Aaron Allston, would that change your answer? I need to know soon so post quick!

I'd question why you're buying up your REC, with 100 STUN and an END Reserve. I'd do away with No Figured Characteristics on your STR. That's saved you maybe 6 points, and cost you (lessee...carry the 1...) 29 points that you've put into the figured characteristics the 30 STR would give you. I'd bump up CON a bit as well, perhaps to 28 for a brick. I'd echo the Speed cut, maybe bump DEX to 18. Go DEX 18/SPD 5 and see how that feels. Drop INT to 13. 16 INT doesn't give you anything over 13. Make your COM 14. 3 points of COM rounds to 2 points; you may as well get the extra half point. Drop STUN down to 60 or so. 100 is quite a lot. Your stat block would look like this: Val Char Cost 30 STR 20 18 DEX 24 28 CON 36 13 BODY 6 13 INT 3 11 EGO 2 18 PRE 8 14 COM 2 7 PD 1 7 ED 1 5 SPD 22 12 REC 0 56 END 0 60 STUN 18 6" RUN 0 2" SWIM 0 6" LEAP 0 Characteristics Cost: 143Edit: Wow. I don't know why there's so much space above the stat block. Oh well. Anyway, that's a savings of almost 50 points, and you get a much more combat capable character.

I can think of another reason, or at least how what really happened could have grown in the telling. Someone was being an utter ass, trying to "prove" that Hero fans are as bad as our reputation makes us out to be. Thought they'd be cute, try to bring in a Game X character sheet to play Champions with. When called on it, said ass decided to get difficult and start an argument. Said argument might result in a threat to "get out before we either throw you out or call the cops." Said threat could grow in the telling to "A friend of my uncle's chiropractor's dog's groomer's boyfriend got thrown out of a game store for bringing in a Game X character sheet!" Actually, I wouldn't rule out drunk in the above scenario either.