Chris Goodwin

When a package deal is set to automatically load a prefab, does it embed the prefab into the package deal somehow? If I was providing the file(s), would I need to provide both, in other words?

It looks like the only place the BBB mentions skill levels with movement is p. 143 under Flight. 1e p. 38 and 2e p. 61 have the same verbiage but also don't say anything else about them! 3e p. 17, 5er p. 369, 6e2 p. 32 say what all you can do with Movement Skill Levels. I'd use the 3rd edition costs for 4th edition myself.

I'm starting to come around to an idea that things that can be done as... I don't want to say builds of another Power or game element, but... equivalent functionality, maybe? Don't necessarily have to be forced into builds based on the other thing, but should definitely have similar costs, maybe costs derived from the other thing. I'll use an example that I know Hugh is familiar with. In SETAC, the Weapon Master talent was taken apart, broken down to "pieces parts", and recosted. What was settled on was a cost based on using two Combat Skill Levels to add one DC to an attack. That could and should be applied in other areas of the system. I've been thinking about Regeneration and Healing; in 5th edition, Regeneration was specifically a build of Healing that relied on handwavium. 5th edition, revised, added a game element that would have eliminated the need for handwavium, to wit the "reset time" reduction, but that was never reimplemented into Regeneration. My thinking in terms of both is that if someone can recover 1 BODY per time period on the Time Chart, that ability ought to cost pretty close to the same amount whether it's arrived at via Healing or Regeneration. That's not to say that Regeneration should be a Healing build, but I am saying that Regenerating 1 BODY per Hour ought to have a similar cost to Healing 1 BODY per Hour. If normal sight has an effective cost of 30 points, because the lack of it is worth 30 points (as good a rationale as any, for me), and we have multiple levels of an Indirect Advantage, then Clairsentience with normal sight ought to cost close to the same amount as it would cost to add Indirect functionality, and whatever other functionality Clairvoyance has that normal sight doesn't. In first-gen Champions, if you took 10 STR, and applied Ranged (+1/2) and No Figured Characteristics (-1/2), you got a net 10 points for 10 STR. Probably not coincidentally, Telekinesis had a cost of 1 point per point of telekinetic STR. The functionality wasn't the same, because Telekinesis wasn't a STR build, but the cost was deemed to be close enough. As of 6th edition, because of various changes, the cost of 10 STR Telekinesis is 15 points, which is close to what you would spend on 10 STR, Ranged. I hope this makes sense.

Per HSR/BBB p. 115, Limitations can reduce the cost of slots.

Note that per 6e1.p 226, a character who is Flashed generally can't be affected again by a Flash against the same sense group until the first Flash wears off.

If the world has a cultural history of comic book superheroes, if supers appear they're most likely going to adopt whatever paradigm the supers in the comics do. Costumes, masks, and code names go back hundreds of years if not more. Masks and code names derive most directly from the pulp stories that predated comic books, and those derived from masked criminals and highwaymen. The Scarlet Pimpernel, arguably the first masked and costumed hero, was published in 1904; Robin Hood and his compatriots go back hundreds of years or more. Colorful costumes derive most immediately from professional wrestling, which dates back to the early 20th century in something resembling its current form. The idea of emblems or devices representing individuals or groups goes all the way back through the jousting knights era back to ancient Egypt. (History of Heraldry) People conceal their identities when they're afraid their actions, or even their existence, will cause trouble for themselves or their families, and the sudden appearance of supers would seem to be a good reason for those supers to conceal their identities. Even if they don't actually do anything with their powers, it's likely someone else will either want them to or will want to capture them to experiment on them to find out where their abilities come from. And there's zero chance that no super ever publicly demonstrates their abilities. That said, just because you have a world with supers in it, and just because they engage in comic book cosplay, doesn't mean their world is going to end up resembling anything out of the comics, and it doesn't have to mean the world is going to resemble any particular "age". The Wild Cards series was mentioned; in that world, every petty criminal in New York, wild carder or not, adopts a code name and often a mask. I don't see why that wouldn't happen in another universe where supers suddenly appear. Regarding weapons and policing: the history of development of weapons and armor has been a literal arms race. One side develops a better weapon, the other side tries to develop an even better weapon or better armor. Repeat. What would probably happen in the event of supers is that whatever civilian agency is tasked with regulating them will bring as much offensive firepower as necessary. It's very possible that someone, a person or group in some secret government agency somewhere, will be working on coming up with Batman-style contingencies for every known super. Tasers, gases, nets, and bigger and bigger bullets as necessary. Obvious weaknesses; water cannons against fire users, for instance. If there are supers that can create repeatable high technology items, police and military will try to be first in line. The overall tech level of the setting will increase as a result. If supers appear, even if it's only a few, even if it's only one time, the world will very quickly stop looking the same as it does now. Never mind that the world doesn't look the same now as it did in 1922 or even 1982. Even mundane technologies change the world; iron, firearms, the printing press, steam power, internal combustion, mass production, railroads, telegraph, telephone, air travel, and the Internet were each major paradigm shifts, and that's ignoring things like improved sanitation, health care, farming methods, and food preservation. It doesn't take supers to make the world unrecognizable, but you can bet they will.

I really hate to say this, but... ...from this it sounds less like a gaming issue and more like a relationship issue. Like, you should be able to tell your spouse "I'm not enjoying this activity," and they should say "Okay, then you shouldn't take part in it anymore. Are you okay if I continue to take part in it?"

I would go back to the original edition of Fantasy Hero for inspiration. An extremely limited number of professional templates, likewise race templates. Maybe even convert the FH1e game stats. For magic, use the grimoire rather than building a bunch of spells and magic systems. Or use your favorite magic system. Add one or more organizations (guilds?) for PCs to belong to. Use the guilds as a framing device; have them hand out missions liberally. (You could do worse than to borrow the first-gen agency rules from Danger International and reskin them for guilds...) Missions include delivery, escort, rescue, eradication of monsters or bandits. (Maybe the occasional fighting tournament...) Offer monetary rewards, maybe minor magic items as well. I'm really looking at autoduel-universe types of adventures and putting a fantasy skin on them. The main thing is, make it obvious what the characters are "supposed to do".

You need rationales for warriors to fight, wizards to cast spells, rogues to roguishly rogue, and priests to heal/minister/interface with the gods. There are a number of ways to do that: War: There's a war on, and the PCs are part of it. It works better if they're part of a small unit of what we'd call "combined arms" IRL. Pro's: defined roles and missions. Every PC gets a chance to do their thing. Cons: PCs are part of a military organization and players might not take kindly to having to follow orders. May or may not be a lot of available rewards ("loot drops"). Players expecting "traditional fantasy" might be disappointed. References: the Black Company series by Glen Cook. The Misenchanted Sword by Lawrence Watt-Evans. West Marches: Based on a campaign idea by Ben Robbins. Overland exploration, mapping, fighting, and treasure hunting. Pro's: Defined roles. Amenable to drop-in players by design. Cons: Dungeon crawl overland, if you're looking for not-a-dungeon crawl. City-based vigilante adventurers: Fantasy Dark Champions, essentially. Characters can solve crimes, find missing persons, help the poor and weak, and so on, within the walls of a city. Pro's: Mission-based. Cons: Even less traditional fantasy than the war campaign; characters who need the tropes will probably not enjoy this. References: the Garrett, PI series by Glen Cook. Probably others I'm blanking on.

In all seriousness, I remember one game where we were in a realistic space environment, and the ship we were in was making combat maneuvers. We all had to make CON rolls to avoid vomiting in space.

I'd buy it as Cramming plus Eidetic Memory plus lots of Speed Reading plus Penetrating Vision, only for reading books within X meters. Buy it with Clairvoyance if you want to read books that are out of LOS.

I had the weird idea several years ago to try to stat up various vehicles and equipment from Lego Classic Space, but never got around to it. I got sidetracked by trying to denote ships and vehicles by size and type, then realized I was putting in more work than "stat up plastic toys in elf game" warranted.

Here is an old thread wherein I suggest a bunch of "typical" Disadvantages for fantasy characters. Is that the sort of thing you're looking for?

They were determined using the value of a Physical Complication of lacking the missing sense.

When I ran a Fantasy Hero game in the Myth Adventures 'verse we had a PC who was a parody of Luke Skywalker and NPC parodies Oben-wan Oldfogie, Darth Sajak, and Princess Vanna Organna.

I really need to make that look better.

I have determined that the power build sheet and many of the Disadvantage build sheets need fixing. Those will be worked on. (END Cost for Powers is incorrect; some of the Disadvantage builders add the totals incorrectly.)

All of the Disadvantage builders are present and usable!

I still have a third edition Champions spreadsheet here; the character generator as a whole isn't really finished, but the power writeup sheet is. That will generate something resembling a 3rd edition power writeup vaguely compatible with the writer's guidelines for 5th and 6th edition. Do copy the sheet to your own Google drive before using it, and I recommend using a copy of that so you have a pristine version. Edit: And because I can't seem to leave well enough alone, there are now Disadvantage builders! For Psych Lim, Phys Lim, and Berserk/Enraged! More to come!

Until I started playing in a regular 6th edition Champions game, 3rd edition was my jam. I played in a couple of sessions run by @lemming at GameStorm in 2018, which is where I realized that he was using writeups from 5th and 6th editions without alteration, and the transitions were seamless. That's where I started thinking that editions don't matter. When I started playing 6th edition regularly it started growing on me, and I realized I was having as much fun with it as in the old days, and the experience of play was the same. Counting out hexes of movement, rolling out damage and Knockback... all of that felt exactly the same. I'll admit that tactics might differ, and I've gone into a lot of detail about how the experience of building characters and taking them into play differs, but to be honest I have a hard time seeing it in actual play. The END thing... if in 4th-6th you're spending 2-4 END a phase on movement and 6 END per attack... at SPD 5 that's 40-50 END per Turn, so you're going to start running into issues almost as much as in first gen. For Fantasy Hero I'd almost have to play the original. I've only played a little bit of FH post-3rd, and it never felt right to me, feeling like Champions in armor and swords. I'd have to give it a good try in a campaign. I ran a short campaign of Robot Warriors using 6th edition for characters and the original book for robots, plus my conversion document, and it played identically to the original. From that I'd expect that a Danger International game using 6th edition but otherwise the same assumptions as the original (no Powers, no points charged for equipment) would play the same as the original as well. I didn't play a lot of Justice Inc. and no Star Hero (lots of SF-nal DI though), so I can't really speak to those, but I'd have to expect again that with the right initial assumptions it should play close enough. As far as editions, I don't think I really gave 4th a fair shake. I played lots of 4th edition Champions, but I never really got over the rules changes that seemed unnecessary to me. Point cost changes in powers I could deal with, but the big ones were the changes to END cost, Range Modifiers, and Disadvantage cost structure... and those don't bother me now for some reason. I'm not sure why. I played a total of one session of 5th (Fantasy Hero), and it just reinforced my feeling of it being Champions with horses and swords and shields.

"These are not official HERO System rules in any way; there are no specific instructions for them, or requirements that you institute them. They’re simply campaign management tools some GMs consider useful." If the GM uses them, then by definition they're a house rule. If the GM doesn't use them, then they're not a rule. It says right there. Hero Designer is a useful tool. A GM is within their rights to require their players to use it; but there's no rule that says they have to, optional or otherwise. A GM could choose not to require Hero Designer; they might insist that all characters be turned in using a Google spreadsheet, or they might insist on all characters being written in longhand in fountain pen on an 8 1/2" by 14" yellow pad. Those would be as much house rules as AP caps. There are dozens of optional rules in the game. The term "optional rule" is used enough in the HERO System 6th edition that it could almost be considered a "term of art". Steve Long takes great pains in the description of AP caps to note that they're not "optional rules". They're not rules, because Steve says they're not. By definition, if the GM uses them, that makes them house rules. Consider the board game Monopoly. Many, perhaps most, people learned from their families that all money paid to the bank for anything but buying property or repaying mortgages goes into the center of the board, to be collected by anyone who lands on Free Parking. It's specified in the rules of Monopoly that no rewards accrue to players who land on Free Parking. This is not an optional rule, but a house rule; in fact the first time I ever heard the term "house rule" in relation to a game was in this context. An optional rule is deciding to use Knockdown instead of Knockback, or Hit Locations instead of Killing Attack Stun multipliers. Active Point caps are not this, because it says so right there in the book that they're not. That doesn't mean that if a GM is using them that I can just ignore them, nor if the GM is using them that they're not a rule for his game, but they're not a rule of the HERO System, because the rulebook specifically and explicitly says they're not. Rule of X is not a rule either, despite the name, and Hero Designer is not a rule at all... but as I said, if the GM says to use Hero Designer, that's a house rule.

If a GM adopts AP caps, they're a rule for the GM's game. To my knowledge that's the definition of a house rule. If a GM doesn't adopt them, then they're not a rule. They're not a HERO System rule. If a GM doesn't adopt them, there's not something anyone else can point at in the book and say, here's where the rules say this is how they work. If the GM sets AP caps, then slots in a VPP should abide by them, as should slots in a Multipower. As others have ably mentioned, the Control Cost of a VPP determines the maximum Active Points of a slot in the VPP. There is not, to my awareness, any way of setting a general Active Point cap in Hero Designer.

I've told Duke about this, but I made a play aid that reduces the playing time by a factor of about 3. It puts all of the data you need to run your car at a particular speed on a 3x5 sized card; when you accelerate or decelerate, you flip to the appropriate card. It has your speed in big bold numbers and the phases, you can put a paper clip on it to mark your handling status, and slide it left and right as needed. I would seriously swear that 80% of our table talk was "How fast was X going again?" and this reduces that to near 0. Using this play aid, with three rusty old hands and three complete noobs, we got through a complete arena duel in two hours.