Chris Goodwin

I'm not sure anything does. 
 
I thought 3rd edition Star Hero was a little on the weak side, and also suffered some for being the last product out the door before 4th edition.  If I'd been in charge of Hero Games at the time, I'd probably have taken out all of the game mechanics, released it as a genre book for 4th edition, and included notes on how to use it with 3rd edition (Champions and Danger International), and also used it as a sort of "back door upgrade" for 3rd to 4th edition games.  I'd done a lot of other SF gaming with Hero at the time, using other SF RPGs converted, with a group that was extremely good at doing that sort of thing.  
 
The starship rules didn't fit with the earlier vehicle rules in Champions II, the mecha rules in Robot Warriors, or the vehicle rules in 4th edition.  They would probably work pretty well as an alternative system, if none of the other systems were desired.  The technology section was pretty good, between the equipment guide and the section on tech levels.  The advice on campaigning suffered a lot for there being so little of it (7 pages); the stuff on technology and tech levels generally likewise (5 pages); and there were also small sections on designing societies, and the use of aliens in games.  It includes a bit of sample setting, along with a sample campaign framework and adventure.  Nothing at all on space science or designing planets. 
 
All of the things it suffers for were artifacts of making it a "complete in one" third edition era standalone game, and of it coming out so closely before 4th edition.  Not the book's fault, nor the authors'.  Also, GURPS Space came out around the same time, and was probably a better Star Hero than Star Hero 3rd edition was.  

For no points, a VPP can be changed out of combat without a skill roll, or in combat requiring a skill roll at -1 per 10 Active Points.  Skills in the pool don't have to RSR to use.  If I were going to make it no skill roll out of combat, or -1 per 20 in combat, I'd probably make that a +1/4 Advantage, as the difference in RSR between -1 per 10 and -1 per 20 is +1/4.  

In practice, a 60 Active Point power would take -6 at -1/10 or -3 at -1/20.  +1 to Power Skill is 2 points, so not even taking the reduced cost of PSLs into account, the difference there is 6 points worth.  Assuming a straight up 60 point pool, with 30 points in control cost, a +1/4 Advantage is 7.5 points.  You're getting a better deal even if you buy bonuses to your Power Skill, much less PSLs.  

For no points, a VPP can be changed out of combat without a skill roll, or in combat requiring a skill roll at -1 per 10 Active Points.  Skills in the pool don't have to RSR to use.  If I were going to make it no skill roll out of combat, or -1 per 20 in combat, I'd probably make that a +1/4 Advantage, as the difference in RSR between -1 per 10 and -1 per 20 is +1/4.  

In practice, a 60 Active Point power would take -6 at -1/10 or -3 at -1/20.  +1 to Power Skill is 2 points, so not even taking the reduced cost of PSLs into account, the difference there is 6 points worth.  Assuming a straight up 60 point pool, with 30 points in control cost, a +1/4 Advantage is 7.5 points.  You're getting a better deal even if you buy bonuses to your Power Skill, much less PSLs.  

I am always in favor of shading or stepping advantages and limitations to precisely craft something just a little different,
 
However, as JmOz mentioned, you might want to compare it to the cost of actually raising the skill roll, and keep in mind that, depending on edition, the roll you select will vary that cost.
 
Still, even if it did work out a small bit less expensive to raise the skill roll, I likely wouldnt  let that stop me from building it the way I saw it in my head.

Champions III was super innovative, it introduced shapeshifting, duplication, suppress, detect, damage reduction, healing , transform, and multiform into the game.  Also, it adapted the long-term drain "Destruction" power from Fantasy Hero into Champions.

The Ultimate Skill/HERO System Skills has some good advanced rules for using Computer Programming, including for hacking.  I probably wouldn't go much further than that. 

Dancing doesn't appear on the skill list, which means GMs must decide which category it falls into for their campaign. GMs might even decide to create an entirely new skill for it. Electing to not toss it under the Professional Skill umbrella might be desirable in a particular campaign/setting because, as 6E1 points out:
 
 
So a GM trying to capture the spirit of an RPG like Pendragon or C&S may easily conclude that PS: Dancer is not the equivalent of a Dancing Skill, and doesn't provide any of the abilities Dancing does. Creating a new Dancing skill, based on DEX and with the 3/2 price schedule may be exactly what the campaign calls for.

It may be an odd quirk of timing, but I pulled out my copies of Cyberpunk and Cyberpunk 2020, to confirm something I remember. Back in 1988, we were working on Cyberpunk, and I was involved in finding statistics to back up my assertions for the combat system. One of the things I found was a copy of the wound location statistics from WW2 compiled by the U.S. Army afterwards,  and it broke down where wounds occurred by location on the body, So we boiled the percentages down to a 1D10 hit location table. 
 
1...........Head
2 -4.....Torso
5..........Right Arm
6..........Left Arm
7 - 8 ...Right Leg
9 - 10..Left Leg

There were no damage enhancements upon each location, except the head which was double damage. * points of damage against a limb would render it severed or too damaged to use.  Cyberpunk handled stun, shock and wounding very differently than Hero, though.  The use of "Stun Shock" rolls handled the  high stun low damage hits, that made even a hit from a small .25 Browning ACP round could take an unarmored, average individual out of the fight with an unfortunate roll, but more likely you just gave them a wound and they could decide to continue the fight, or flee.  We went through a lot of FBI Crime reports in writing the combat system for Cyberpunk, back then, and that was in the days before the internet was big.

That makes sense to me. Those skills serve mostly to connect PCs to the setting, which Background Skills are perfect for. Activities like performing tea ceremonies or kabuki are important to the culture of the setting, but are rarely important to an adventure.

If there was a Hero hall of fame, he'd be a first round inductee

From everything I've heard and read from people who've been in actual (firearms) combat, basically anything outside of center of mass is almost a guaranteed miss in a real fight, and even aimed center of mass shots still tend to randomly hit the extremities.  
 
Edit to add:  When I'm at the pistol range shooting at a piece of paper, I control my breathing and movement, and shoot at my own pace.  In a real fight there's adrenaline, fear, snap decisions, and loss of technique due to all of those.  Even, for instance, a 50-yard jog before taking your place at the bench, otherwise still under controlled conditions at the range, can massively screw up your score.  

Oh, I am so glad you asked that, because there is a -- well, let's say there's some interesting psychological deception going on here that actually make-- 
 
well, you'll see. 
 
Ali wasn't just an amazing fighter: he was a _gifted_ fighter, and a lot of what he did is actively taught in boxing-- and even self-defense courses today. Ali was impressive because no one taught him this:  it wasn't really known as a thing to be taught.  He had an amazing, instinctual ability to take control of a fight no matter what was going on, and love him or hate him (I'm not a big fan of showboats), you have to respect him for the raw skill.  He wasn't like Mike Tyson: Sure, Iron Mike has skill; that can't be questioned.  But more than skill, he relies on raw power and speed, literally bludgeoning his opponents while they are still in the "okay, how are we going to engage?" stage.  Before Tyson, fighters danced and feinted a bit to get a measure of their opponent.  Tyson took advantage of that and went straight for the knockout.  It worked, mostly because he's one of the most physically powerful men ever to enter the ring.  Today, you see that Tyson-style openers are now the standard--
 
Like I said, things get studied.  Things that work get taught.
 
 
Getting back to Ali:
 
Ali is _neither_ dodging _nor_ is he blocking.
 
Watch the video again.  Hit the options button and reduce the speed.  The first combo, Ali is reacting-- call that a dodge if you will, but he really doesn't do anything that would give him a significant CV penalty, nor is he unable to counter at any point.  So, in HERO terms, not a dodge.  What he's doing is _taking a recovery_.   Watch again, slower:
 
Ali most definitely leans back and then darts sideways away from the opening 1-2, but he _doesn't stop dipping_.  That's critical; you'll see why in a minute.  He bobbles once,  one-and-half more times then something amazing happens:
 
His opponent strikes.  As Ali is moving, that is.  His opponent, who for all the world seems to be unleashing an unrelenting combo, has begun to _not_ strike Ali, but to _react_ to Ali: he is trying to anticipate Ali's location, failing, but that urge to strike forces his hand and he starts throwing punches at where Ali _was_, not where he _is_, or even where he is going to be.  From this point on, only blind luck will let him hit Ali in the head: Ali is in control of his opponent now, and can literally make him punch any spot Ali wants him to.  He flaunts it a bit toward the end.  You can see how _ridiculously vulnerable_ he has made himself, but it doesn't matter, because his opponent has fallen for the bait, and has stopped trying to anticipate him at all (And I have to tell you, it's really hard to anticipate a head weave.  I know nothing about martial arts; I have enjoyed watching lighter-weight boxing matches over the years, and scrapped steadily into my early thirties (literal scrap: street fights; bar fights, etc-- nothing professional), so while I am not an never was a pro, I can tell you that when your opponent starts all that head-bobbing stuff, back up.  If you're not going to throw a knee up, you're not going to get him.  If he's faster than you, don't throw a knee up.  
 
Sorry-- throwing a knee up in the hopes of popping him in the chin or face with your knee reduces the amount of room he has to bobble his head, giving you a better shot of tagging him with a fist.  Not a great one, but better than you had.
 
Anyway, if you're not going to throw a knee up-- and boxers can't--, then stop swinging, because all you are doing is burning energy.
 
And that guy was burning up some serious energy the entire time that Ali was, in all seriousness, _resting_; taking a recovery.  You saw how comfortable he was toward the end: the longer it went on, the more in control of his opponent he was, and it was beautiful.
 
 
So what would _I_ say Ali was doing?
 
He wasn't blocking, clearly.
 
He wasn't Dodging, because none of the penalties associated with Dodging were in play-- he was free to body blow his opponent any time he wanted to, but he didn't.  He wowed the crowd and caught his breath.
 
What he did was actively apply is DCV; he might have put a couple of skill levels into it, too, but going by the mandates of the HERO System maneuvers, he didn't use any of them.
 
 
Now the tall fighter in the second clip (Tyson) is a bit different: he opens / defends with an obvious block, starts to abort to another block but thinks better of it and -- well, there's no name for it that I am aware, but he uses a style fairly common to taller fighters, particularly if they aren't as wide as the heavyweights like Ali or Iron Mike: he turns _away_ from the punch as it comes forward, and once he is just inside it, he rolls back to face his opponent, causing their striking arm to be pushed wide, upsetting their timing _and_ making it cost more energy to recover from the punch.
 
If it were me, I would consider this pretty much the same thing Ali was doing: actively using his CV:  this is actually what's going on when "uh...  I rolled a thirteen.  Do I hit?" is happening on the table. Just because the GM failed to take the initiative to run with "So close!  Your fist blasts forward like it was rocket powered, dead-lined-up with his left cheekbone.  You see his eyes open a bit in recognition and he leans back, turning away-- suddenly his face is gone, and you feel your arm sliding full-extension across the back of his shoulder...."
 
Just because your GM has chosen not to do that does not mean that we need a mechanic, chart, or system for it:  this is what actively defending yourself-- that is, having a good DCV, and having skill levels with DCV looks like.  Think about it:  if it _doesn't_ look like this, then what we are modeling is two people standing dead-stock still in front of each, taking turns hitting each other, while DCV becomes some magical in the middle that swallows fists when the rolls are too high.
 
 
Now I will say this:  If you _want_ a mechanic for what you're seeing in either clip--
 
nah.  I really can't assign one to Ali any more than actually just _using_ his DCV, though I suppose the case could be made that after a successful "mind rape" roll he switched to his OCV instead.  Still, it's a pretty weak case....
 
At any rate, I would accept that the style of defense Tyson preferred in his clip was some limited form of Deflection: fisticuff-based headshots only, but I will also maintain that the build isn't necessary to get what you saw in the clip.
 
 
 
Yes.
 
 
No; I'm not being funny: for the videos shown, there is only one valid question there.   The HERO System has that nifty chart that tells us what the modifiers and results are for each and every maneuver-- and a separate chart and more charts for the fancier "martial" ones.
 
No one in either of those videos suffered any of those penalties.  Neither of the guys having their heads aimed at found themselves at all unable to deliver a retaliatory blow at any moment they wanted to.  Both opted to hold for a better opportunity, as each of their opponents were riding the bonuses of the maneuvers that _they_ were executing.  The only thing the gentlemen on the ropes in both videos were doing was, in HERO terms "having a DCV score."
 
That's it.
 
Hitting someone in a location, in an actual fight, isn't easy, and it isn't easy because your opponent is going to stand there and let you do it.  Unless, of course, he has no DCV.
 
Look, I seem to be the only guy on this board who isn't active in martial arts in one way or another  (I abused the Hell out of my body when I was younger, and I had a _blast_ doing it.  As a result, however, I am no longer young enough, fast enough, or limber enough to bother even considering hand-to-hand combat, and instead go down to the hunting club to practice shooting people who are trying to hit me in the head.  At this point in my life, it's better suited for my defense needs. ). 
 
That being said, I figure there's a reasonable chance that you are involved in martial arts, too.  So find a sparring partner, and square off.  See how many times out of ten you can actually hit him in the head when he is actively using his DCV.  I have no idea what the total will actually be, but I guarantee it's not nine.
 
 
 

Up front, I totally allow that these are trained, experienced combatants.  However, that's not a valid refutation, because your characters are, too.
 
Before guaranteeing you're going to touch someone's head nine times out of ten, you ...
 
Never mind; I don't know how old you are; my apologies.
 
However, I remember watching this when I was a _much_ younger person.  Twenty-one head blows in ten seconds, opponent on the ropes.  Missed every single one of them:
 
 
 
 
I don't know if you're familiar with Tyson Fury, but he's pretty good.  He also uses a fairly common style for taller people.  For what it's worth, his style is one of the reasons the shoulders are weighted (in the custom chart above) as easier to hit than the head:
 
 
 
Fury started with a block maneuver-- one-- but turned to dodges at the end (if you want to call that dodging.  Deflection would work fairly well to define that style, as could "actively using his OCV".
 
 
 
The attack roll is basically CV vs CV.  Unless you want a chart of individual maneuvers and stances that each player will select as his next move, then lay them down and hope they overlap in a meaningful way, there's really not a lot more you can do to simulate combat in _any_ system, really: at some point, it comes down to rolling dice and then ad-libbing the action.

From everything I've heard and read from people who've been in actual (firearms) combat, basically anything outside of center of mass is almost a guaranteed miss in a real fight, and even aimed center of mass shots still tend to randomly hit the extremities.  
 
Edit to add:  When I'm at the pistol range shooting at a piece of paper, I control my breathing and movement, and shoot at my own pace.  In a real fight there's adrenaline, fear, snap decisions, and loss of technique due to all of those.  Even, for instance, a 50-yard jog before taking your place at the bench, otherwise still under controlled conditions at the range, can massively screw up your score.  

From everything I've heard and read from people who've been in actual (firearms) combat, basically anything outside of center of mass is almost a guaranteed miss in a real fight, and even aimed center of mass shots still tend to randomly hit the extremities.  
 
Edit to add:  When I'm at the pistol range shooting at a piece of paper, I control my breathing and movement, and shoot at my own pace.  In a real fight there's adrenaline, fear, snap decisions, and loss of technique due to all of those.  Even, for instance, a 50-yard jog before taking your place at the bench, otherwise still under controlled conditions at the range, can massively screw up your score.  

I'll have to dig it up; we haven't used hit locations in _years_, but when last we did, I had re-done a hit location based on the Rule of Nines.
 
For those unfamiliar with the Rule of Nines, is a tool for quick-and-dirty triage assessment to determine the extent of tissue damage for burn victims.
 

 
 
 
Using this chart (well, a different one, but mathematically, they're all the same) and the actual probabilities of any given number on 3d6, I came up with something we liked a bit better, and used routinely, but honestly, we just got _bored_ with the Hit Location mechanic, period.  In addition to slowing down an already fairly ponderous combat system, it made things generally more grisly than we care for.
 
 
 
Edit to add:
 
Obviously, it wasn't just completely random.  I had weighted it a bit to lean more toward the chest / torso area (center of mass and what any reasonably practiced person would be aiming for, at least at range) and the head.  That entire "roughly twenty percent of your strikes will hit the groin" thing was just nonsense unless you're fighting Bobby Hill. )
 
 

I won't lie:
 
I wish I could find a group like that, just for a little while, at least.
 
Don't get me wrong:  I _love_ all my groups: they are great people that I have known and played with in some cases for _years_, and the youth group has really opened up my eyes as to how much pop culture has changed.  For example, they, to a person, absolutely _hate_ having to hit the bad guys!  They will get shot at first _every single time_ they have an encounter, and right up until one of them is actually _hit_ for appreciable damage, they will _not_ counter attack; they just won't:  "hurting people is wrong, and we're the good guys.  We're not going to hurt them!" is their mantra.  Even when they "attack," it's almost exclusively to separate and restrain the bad guys, and not to just beat them unconscious.  And more than my adult groups, they will _pursue_ bad guys to continue on to capture them as best they can.  My adult groups are all "well, next time we'll whale on the a little harder and they'll drop before they can run away."
 
 
At any rate, the lack of a playgroup with an actual sense of tactics and a willingness to forego glory _entirely_ in favor of precision teamwork (make no mistake: my players _will_ cooperate, but usually only for a teamwork maneuver or two, then they want to "play to personality," etc.  If only they'd build characters with team-first personalities....   ) has kept me from exploring a lot of games I _really_ wanted to taste over the years.   Battletech comes to mind immediately.  I always wanted to play Battletech, but I knew exactly how that would go, and never even picked it up. 
 
So while it's not my preferred style, Scott, I really wish my players were at least _willing to try it_ every now and again.    As it is, I could, if I were playing tactically, grab pretty much any four villains from Enemies or Enemies II and wipe the floor with five people who have been playing for decades....   
 
I wouldn't, of course, but I have come close enough to scare them now and again, and they _love_ it:  the _drama_, don't you know.   
 
 
 

My rule comes from way back, long before computers. Build your character however you want. Fill out the character sheet in pencil. Then you hand it in to me (the GM). I will fix power balance appropriately. If I think a character is too weak, I fix it so they are not. If I think a character is too strong, I fix it so they are no longer and leave them with points to put into non-combat skills. An exceptionally well built character that included a healthy assortment of non-combat character defining traits, might even get rewarded with a bit of a powerup others might not otherwise get.
 
Players rapidly learned to understand the idea of balance and reasonableness, and players with experience with me rarely turned in characters that required any sort of significant tweaking at all. Interestingly, without any strict guidelines forced upon them, their attacks, defences, combat values, etc., oddly coincided quite nicely with published examples.

That ended the stinger, essentially, and it went into discussion of the various races, setting, some history and lore, etc.
 
One bit of lore (with apologies: I said "Story" in the last post, and that's really a bit misleading, save that I tend to present everything as "stories" of a sort.
 
Let me explain that habit:  I find it works better.  Not only is it more enjoyable to write that way, but the audience doesn't have any questions.  When it's a story, the reader fills in the details.  The reader answers all his own setting questions, all his own background questions, all his own action questions.   It lets the presentation remain simple, yet still provides that largest possible amount of information.  So I tend to do it that way.  It's something I picked up way back in the early days of gaming, even before I started writing.
 
The Craft Corner-- closest thing Liberty County, Ga had to a game store-- and the place-in-Statesboro-whose-name-is-lost-to-history both were little holes in the wall, and like so many gaming stores back then (and probably today; I don't know: I haven't seen one in a couple of decades now-- used to have _tons_ of third party stuff.  Way back when, back in the era of the home press, one of the staples in both of these places were small, packed-in-some-sort-of-fancy-zippered-plastic-bag generic adventures.  Well, they offered vague write ups, and most of them had  partial write-ups for two, sometimes three different games.  Most were fantasy; sci-fi was a close second, followed by everything else in kind of a lump.  Most were clearly typed-- not type set, but _typed_, then xeroxed until they had those weird black smudges and lines.  They were "bound" with three or four staples down the left-hand side.  They were all of "hold hand flat, palm down, thumb extended, and waggle the hand side to side a bit" quality, but if you were pressed, they were _there_, and so they sold.  For all I know, they were being pumped out by the college kids in Statesboro for a couple of extra bucks.  Given that the owner of the Craft Corner in Liberty County was a student in Statesboro, this may have actually been the case.  I don't know; I'm just blowing noises from my mouth hole.
 
There were perhaps a dozen or so repeat authors, but I couldn't name one now for money.  At any rate, I found that my personal favorites were the ones that, rather than give a list of things that could be discovered with certain rolls, lists of clues and treasures, and sketchy descriptions for each setting or encounter simply scripted the encounter, or the previous event, and that was it.  It left you to "fill in the blanks."  When your players asked "well could there have been an X?" or "how did this happen" or "I look for Y; is there Y?" you didn't have to go down a list looking for something that could be shoehorned into an answer, or try to guess just what did go down and how, or just what the motives of any NPC were-- you _knew_ all that, because you had just read the little mini-story all about it, and your brain made it work with everything else so far, and boom!  No problem.
 
My GM at that time wasn't keen on them because "the lists!  The charts!"  Then he would complain about the others because "there just isn't enough in there to call it an adventure!  It needs more detail to be workable..."  Honestly, I wish I could remember the author of those four of five works of his I bought and read back then, just so I could look him up and tell him to try again: his genius was too far ahead of its time.... 
 
 
Anyway, that's why I do that, even to this day: I found it quite innovative, and I've not seen anything like it since.
 
 
That being said, a bit of lore from the setting teased above.
 
You folks remember that thread a while back-- killing dragons / what weapons in your game kill dragons, etc?
 
I offered ScaleBreaker-- a specific war hammer from the setting above.
 
Lightly edited (I don't post builds; remember?) so as to remove the finer points of the build , and presented here, the legend of the ScaleBreaker:
 
 
        I mentioned that there were two "versions" of ScaleBreaker.  The second one is all the hammers that were built to emulate the design: the "common" Scale Breaker.
 
The first was the original:  ScaleBreaker.
 
         Nearly four hundred years ago, the ScaleBreaker was born.  Forged by a Gw'thari blacksmith (yeah; I know: just pretend you know what that is and roll with it  ) from the red metal (essentially low-quality steel:  iron ore that has been _partially_ bessemerized by natural geological forces.  In the Ta'La-kreth setting, it's referred to as "the red metal" because when the ore is found in nature, it's usually rust-stained), it features a six-foot red metal handle and weighs in at ninety pounds (STR Min is 20 to wield it as an effective weapon).
The design features a striking face on one side that is rounded a bit to maximize crushing force without requiring a too-perfect strike angle.  The other face-- the scale breaker face-- is the unique part of this hammer:
 
 
        "...these scales, particular in larger samples, can be seen to flex under impact, just a bit, making them extremely difficult to crack.  Krendrin pondered on this for several months, wondering how he might be able to craft a weapon that could overcome the durability of these scales, yet still be simple enough for the most untrained villager to use should the dragon return.  There were several swords that, in skilled hands, proved useful with repeated strikes to the same plate, but those who had managed to pierce a dragon with sword alone were all highly-skilled warriors.  Krendin wanted to craft a tool that could be made by any skilled smith and used by any untrained combatant.  A dragon was usually best defeated when swarmed.
 
        It was not until a fishing trip with his youngest son that the idea struck him.  As he retrieved the strung eichtar he and his son had speared that morning, his son busied himself pitching stones into the placid shallows of the river.  Krendin observed to ensure his son did not come too near the water, and watched him play for a moment.  He watched as stone after stone dropped into the water, and watched the ripples as they expanded out away from the stone's drop.  It was in that moment that the idea struck.
        As dragonscale bulged inward against a strike, so, too, did it rebound.  This rebounding was not unlike the ripples on the water before him.  Intrigued, he scooped up a small handful of stones and tossed them into the water, watching the ripples move out and away from where the stones had dropped.  As the ripples for different stones moved toward each other, he paid careful attention to their interaction, particularly as the ripples struck each other and briefly created a larger crest of water until the stronger ripple overwhelmed the lesser and continued, but with less energy and vigor than those parts of it that did not meet another ripple.  Was it possible that the rebounds of the dragon's scale would work in similar fashion?  There was not much dragon scale left in his village, and what little there was fetched a handsome price, but he had to know.....
 
        During the winter season, Krendrin, Smith  of Ethok drew many designs, and travelled twice to an Amphii village to converse with scholars about mathematics geometry.  Travel expenses and donations to the various Amphii shrines and schools took a hefty toll from his savings, but in the end, he had worked out as perfect a design as possible in order to exert the forces he wished to exert.  With his funds running dangerously low and a lack of commissions that year due to suspicions that his travels were distracting him from his work, he would have no way to redeem himself should his theory be wrong or should his design fail.
For the remaining months of the winter did he work his forge, tirelessly, with a fervor bordering on possession.  Gone was his entire supply of the red metal, all of it poured into a weapon of pure red metal, as solid and unbreakable a thing as had ever been forged.  There was a crushing face to this massive hammer, blunt and curved as his grandfather had taught him.  'A more perfect face for a war hammer, there is not,' he had said, extolling the virtues of concentrated force and dispersing energies in many directions to break bone and shatter it, to maim and tear muscle.  The other end, however....  The other end was unlike any hammer ever forged by Gw'thar, Amphii, or Eyomohn (not that the Eyomohn ever forged much besides simple swords and farm implements).  The striking face was wide, wider than any part of the hammer, and it curved inward toward the center on one plane, and one plane only.  The outer edges of the curve were nearly two inches wide and almost sharp.   the center of the curve was recessed nearly a full five inches from the edge, and in that center was a conical spike that protruded forward not quite four inches and had been finished to a needle-like point.
        He spent the last month of his work negotiating with the Town Guard, holders of the largest supply of dragon scale in the village.  The six scales they held were still relatively good, having been harvested only six years ago, and were being used as shields against arrows and pikes.  Finally, he told the guard captain that should his design succeed, he would create eight more identical hammers for the armory, free of charge.  Recognizing the value of the red metal alone, the guard captain finally agreed, and gave one of the precious dragon scales to Krendrin.
        Krendrin was secretly delighted that news of this transaction had spread across town.  He had hoped to have an audience when he tested his new hammer, for nothing spread faster than gossip, and when people saw his weapon destroy a dragon scale, his reputation would be made, and his business would thrive forever.  He was also afraid.  If he failed, that, too, would spread, and he would forever be remembered as the fool who lost his business chasing the impossible dream of a weapon to kill dragons.
 
        The day of the test arrived and, as he had predicted, many people had "just happened" to stop by his forge, and to linger there for some time.  As he hauled the freshly-slaughtered tingeh unto a butchering rack, he scanned the crown from the corners of his eyes and feigned nonchalance.  The guard captain arrived as Krendin was fastening the harness he had fashioned to the back of the scale around the tingeh.  The guard captain nodded his approval, understanding at once Krendin's methods; he found them innovative, and far more accurate than the straw men against which others tested their weapons.
        Krendrin spoke not a single word the entire morning, willing himself not to pay attention to the presence of the crowd nor to interact with it, for fear that his excitement would make it all the worse should he fail.  Finally, all preparations made, he turned to them and spoke, simply "After this test, I will be roasting tingeh.  I know that it is a bit late in the season for such a heavy meal, but I hope that you, my friends and neighbors, will join me on the morrow as my family and I sup.  There will be enough for all, I think.  Now, I think I should test my new hammer, and see if it is worthy of a name."  With that, he tuned them back out.
He approached the hammer, studying it, as if seeing it for the first time.  He was somehow surprised at the sheer size of it; the bulk was almost ludicrous.  Still, Gw'tharii are noted for their physical strength, and beyond being Gw'thar, he was a smith.  A lifetime of working metal had given him a physique uncommonly powerful even for one of his own.  He reached forward, grabbing the handle with both hands, lifting it from his bench, and willed all traces of emotion from his face.
        He walked ten paces to the armor-clad tengeh handing from the butcher's rack.  Gw'tharii are, in the words of the Amphii, as godless as monsters, which is a as insulting as it is accurate.  They are not simple beasts, of course, but it is true that they  have no religion to speak of, and so Krendrin lost no time on supplication of gods or even on calming his own concerns.  He swung the hammer a few times, to get a feel of its heft and how the weight would pull upon him as he swung.  Satisfied he wouldn't lose his stance like an idiotic child (he couldn't help but feel like a child playing with his father's swords, so massive was this new hammer), he squared himself to deliver a single blow.  Drawing the hammer back as best he could and turning himself forward, he pulled with a grunt and an explosion of muscle, straining everything within him.  The hammer swung around from behind him and kept coming around and he continued to pull with all his might, willing into the head of the hammer all the energy of his muscles.  He twisted at the hip and brought his knees around to amplify the striking speed and even as the hammer hit home he continued to pull as if he could slice the animal corpse completely in twain with a warhammer.  
    In the back of his mind, he could see in slow motion what he knew to be happening under the head of the hammer.  The two outer ridges struck the dragon scale as close to simultaneously as he could manage and the scale instantly began to buckle inward, absorbing some of the strike's energy.  In the instant after that, a shockwave rippled from both of the strike points , spreading across the scale and, in one place, moving directly toward each other.  As the slow rises that were the shockwave intersected, they were both putting considerable strain on one narrow ridge of scale that now flexed out and away from the tingeh, each wave pushing against the other, forcing that ridge to become higher, narrower, and more tightly bent.  It was at this point, if his math and that of his Amphii instructors had been worth what he paid, that the spike in the center of the hammer would make contact, drilling the concentrated force of the still-moving hammer directly into the crest of that strained ridge.
    He stopped when he could move the hammer no further, the dragon scale and the considerable size of the tingeh more than the hammer could cleave.  The absolute silence of the audience told him that he had not imagined it.  The strangely-shrill CRACK that snapped through the air light a lightning strike told him what he needed to know.  The hammer had worked.  The scale had failed.
 
    He stood there for a moment, facing away from and beyond the tingeh.  He released the hammer, not quite appreciating why it took it a moment to fall.  He turned and walked to the strike area for a closer inspection, but there was no need.  The dragon scale shield was split neatly into two pieces and they hung to each side of the tingeh, dangling from the harness he had fashioned.  Whether from the power of the hammer strike or the force released when the dragon scale had failed, he could not say, but there was a hole in the meat of the tingeh, a hole slightly larger than even the face of the hammer, and shreds of meat hung loosely, as if there had been an alchemical explosion just inside the animal.  The hammer had resisted falling because it had become partially lodged in the meat of the animal.
 
    Most importantly of all, the scale had failed, and failed completely.  there was a razor-clean edge to the edges that had once joined the scale as one piece, running several inches in opposite directions from a central 'notch' that had most certainly been where the spike had struck home.  The tension trapped in the flexing scale had done the rest, as a series of circular cracks and stress lines ran from the mated edges, spreading like a spider's web outward, tracing the stresses of the the ripples in reverse, looking for somewhere to send the energy, but the edge bites of the hammer had contained that force just long enough to prevent it from going any further, and in the end, the scale had torn itself in half, unable to shed the energies it contained.
 
As he reached out a hand to pluck at one of the hanging halves of the shield, a roar came from his audience.  Krendlin had done the impossible: he had shattered dragon scale in a single blow.  It would be only days before the entire world knew what he had accomplished.
 
"Thank you, my friends," he said to the crowd.  "Thank you for bearing witness to this test, and for having faith in my new design" he continued diplomatically.  "Tomorrow, we shall feast not just because there is tingeh, but because it is a celebration.  Tomorrow we celebrate that no village shall ever have to live in fear of the dragons, ever again!"
 
 
 
 
    As he had promised, Krendrin the smith produced eight more of these hammers, with refinements to make them lighter and more manageable for people of  more typical physique.  The drawback was that the common scalebreaker hammer was less likely to shatter a dragon scale on the first blow, or the second, really.  Usually the third blow would do it, assuming the same scale had been hit every time, as each hit did considerable stress damage to the scale even if it did not crack the scale immediately.  Powerfully built beings such as Amphii warriors, well-trained Eyomohn and reasonably athletic Gw'thari could expect to break a scale roughly one blow in three; sometimes less, using the common scale breaker.  Well-trained warriors or people of exceptional physical prowess could expect to break a scale one in two attempts.  All that taken together, even the ScaleBreaker's smaller brethren were indeed potent weapons to use against not just a dragon, but many of the larger shelled races and creatures of Ta'La-Kreth, and most especially, against any who wore the dragon's scales as impervious armor.  (It has been noted that those in dragon scale armor are actually safer than the dragons when facing a scale breaker, as their considerably-reduced mass, at least compared to a dragon, will often as not send them flying away from the blow, allowing the armor to disperse its energies in the flexing ripples of motion in which it was intended to release the stored energy.) 
 
 
    It took Krendin nearly two years to produce the eight hammers he had promised the city guard, as there was still time to pass in which the word of his accomplishment would have to spread, been verified, and likely verified again before he would start to see orders from foriegn lands.  He knew that the Eyomohn would likely be first, as they were both the least durable of the races of Ta'-La-Kreth, and the most likely to be dwelling in the areas in which dragons were known to reside: after their eventual slow exodus from the care and tutelage of the Amphii, they quite specifically sought lands in which no other races had declared large communities or ancestral ties (at least, no other than the Amphii, whose entire culture and religion was based on the idea that Ta'La-Kreth was built specifically for them, and that they had been charged with "caring for" the "lesser races" of the world).
 
    For these two first years, Krendin struggled to keep his family from destitution and to secure the red metal he needed to make the powerful hammer heads.  These eight, and all subsequent scale breakers were smaller, weighing in at just over thirty-two pounds, and featured stout hardwood handles, a feature that made the hammers considerably less-expensive to create, easier to wield, and more comfortable when making a strike.  The wooden handle does increase the maintenance needs of the hammer, and is more prone to failure.  No scale breaker should ever be carried into battle without careful inspection of the handle and the swedge lock; a loose hammer head with such mass can easily kill a comrade by mistake.  These lighter hammers were also much easier for the common guardsman to wield (STR Min: 13), though they did not parry blades without damage as well as the steel shaft of the ScaleBreaker. This is, at best, a quibble, as only those with a godlike physique could use the true ScaleBreaker to parry a blow: it's sheer mass is nigh impossible to shift quickly and subtly  (STR Min to Block/ Parry with ScaleBreaker is _30_.  You heard me! ).
 
    Soon, however, requests for his services came from all around the land-- many for scale breakers to serve other cities and kingdoms, but even more for those things traditional to a smith: hardware, fasteners, buckles, straps, and on and on.  There was no doubt that the smith who could forge such a hammer as the ScaleBreaker could produce nothing less than the most exceptional examples of whatever he set hammer to craft.
 
 
    The history of the ScaleBreaker has, over time and use, owing both to its reputation and fame, has by sympathetic means, imbued it with many magical qualities, the most commonly-known of which is that the ScaleBreaker is Unbreakable.  The certainty, the fervor, and the incredible attention to detail with which Krendrin had worked the metal to purity and the care with which he planned every curve and mathed every nuance of the great ScaleBreaker has resulted in a single-piece weapon with an unparalleled graining; the fervor with which he worked and the hope he pinned upon this project have added a magical reinforcement to the hammer's strength-- almost a life force of its own.  The ScaleBreaker cannot be broken.  It is possible that the original crafter, or perhaps his descendants, may rework the metal into something new, or melt it down to ingots; no one is certain, as no one has ever wanted to see it destroyed (save possibly the dragons, were they capable of such thoughts).
 
    Unlike many other hammers, the design of the ScaleBreaker means that there are no other possible uses for it (save possibly anchoring a boat): the ScaleBreaker is, dragons or no, as much a pure weapon as is a sword.  As it possesses something akin to a rudimentary life force, it responds to companionship.  Clearly it is not a truly living thing, nor does it desire community, but those who have wielded it on multiple occasions or across many years swear that they can feel a kinship with it. The better care they take of the weapon, the stronger that sense of kinship.  Together they are less warrior and weapon than they are a team.
 
Game terms:
 
The basic build of ScaleBreaker:
 
6d6 HKA (pd).  Penetrating.  Knockback x4  (treat as "double knockback" if your campaign doesn't allow for additional multipliers of Knockback beyond double). STR Min 20 (30 to block or parry).  Armor Piercing (only v. Dragon Scale or similar chitins).  This attack is Linked to a second attack: 3d6 HKA (only versus the BOD value of Dragon Scale or similar chitins). This second linked attack cannot add damage to the first, as it specifically targets Dragon Scale armor.
Bulky. Extra Time: blow lands at end of next Phase.  Encumbrance and size per text
 
    The magic around the ScaleBreaker is layered, as sympathetic magics tend to be.  Born of desperation, force of will, and the exuberance of a winning battle, when the ScaleBreaker first tastes fresh dragon blood, it will gain an additional Armor Piercing: only v. Dragon Scale or similar chitins).  This effect lasts until either the dragon or the current wielder are defeated.  Note that this additional Armor Piercing will not transfer to use against a second dragon, though ScaleBreaker will again receive this benefit when it tastes the fresh blood of a second dragon.  This benefit continues on this way until all dragons are defeated or the GM figures out what he's doing wrong: even with ScaleBreaker, one man should not be able to defeat multiple dragons!
 
     Owing to the number of times that the ScaleBreaker has served in the defense of others, in particular in non-Gw'thar communities, and most particularly against dragons and similar seemingly-invincible opponents, it has been blessed a great number of times, in the names of a great number of deities.  Some of this deific magic resonates within the hammer, and can be reignited with additional blessings (it's rather important that players figure this out on their own, lest they just start spamming Blessings before every battle).  When Blessed, ScaleBreaker gains any one of the following additional magical effects:
 
+1 OCV and +1 DCV
Reduced END on up to 30 STR (1/2 END)
+/-  2 Levels on Hit Location Chart (wielder's choice)
Remove Extra Time Limitation
Wielder gains 360-degree vision when holding ScaleBreaker "at the ready"
Remove "only versus Dragon scale and similar chitins" limitation from armor destruction ability and replace with "only versus rigid armor and chitins" (this allows the destruction of metal and wooden armors as well).
 
If the weapon is Blessed by multiple priests prior to an engagement, ScaleBreaker will gain two of the above additional benefits.  The GM may choose, or he may roll a die (conveniently, there are six options).  An option selected twice will stack.  If the wielder of ScaleBreaker is Blessed, the weapon will gain an additional item from the list, and the wielder will gain an additional +1 OCV for the duration of the next battle.
 
Any character who has wielded ScaleBreaker through 1d6+4 battles (roll made when character first takes ScaleBreaker into battle), does not yield or flee, and demonstrates good care of the weapon will begin to feel a sort of.... respect for the hammer, and will find themselves confused about what seems to be that same feeling of respect returning from the hammer. (The number of combats remaining that are required to develop a kinship with the hammer is immediately cut in half each time one of those combats involves a dragon as an opponent.)  The benefits of this kinship are unusual: 
 
-5 to the STR Min for any use of the hammer.  It is as if ScaleBreaker itself takes charge of its own movement, using its own energies to assist in carrying the load that is itself.  Time spent learning its partner's fighting technique allows it to assist with various strikes.  
 
Red END (1/2 END) on  up to 30 STR where that STR is used in the wielding of the hammer.
 
+1 DCV.  This one is extremely beneficial, as, being a Great Hammer, any strike done with Scalebreaker does not land until the next Phase.
 
ScaleBreaker will begin every combat with two randomly selected items from the above list.  These are over and beyond any benefits of Blessing the wielder or the weapon.
 
         Don't get the idea that I just give away ungodly magical stuff. ScaleBreaker is Ta'La-Kreth's own Hackmaster +12.  It's entire purpose is letting one character face a dragon on more or less equal footing, and it is _bad news_.  There is only one of these in all of Ta'La-Kreth, and in all these decades, I think I have had _one_ player even get to use it (the previous wielder was struck down, and the PC picked it up and used it for the remainder of the battle.  Not really knowing just how much power he was holding (fortunately, or an heir would have caught up to him in short order), he returned it to the family of the fallen soldier.  He was _extremely_ pleased with the effect it had on the opponents (the opposing army featured a small mercenary corp that all wore dragon scale ) and extremely pleased with the knockback that thing did when swung, but he didn't really explore the weapon.
 
anyway, there it is in all it's staggering glory.  That might sound like I'm talking it up a bit, but remember I like my magic a bit lower powered and more rare than do most.  This weapon is something like a gatling gun among cavemen.
 
 
Gotta run; enjoy!
 

Arise, thread!  
 
What I call the "Wheel of ADD" has spun round to Wild Cards, as it sometimes does.  The last such time was in 2013 according to the date on my Wild Cards Hero Google doc.  
 
Has anyone run any Champions or Hero games in the milieu?

Great Fish!
 
I can't _believe_ we forgot about---
 
Okay, let me introduce you to what is, in my own opinion, the single best book to come out of 6 thus far (and yes; I am including the actual rules manuals themselves in that comparison):
 
 
 
Yep.  Not only are they "templates" (honestly, they are fully-realized characters in their own right), not only are they all....   What's a good word for "recognizable" that doesn't risk suggesting there may have been a need to talk to other IP owners about doing this before actually doing it?       Homage!   Not only are they beautiful homages to...  well, you'll know them when you see them-- but there are a lot of known "good guys" in there.  This book is, in my own opinion, the most useful thing thus far to come out of 6e.  (I didn't see the POD option listed anymore, but you might enquire, if you prefer paper).  It's also the best laid-out character book to come out of the company in it's entire forty-year history.  Sadly, it's painfully short.   
 
But don't take _my_ word for it!   
 
Take _my_ word for it instead:
 
 
 
First:
 
start at about 5 minutes to skip the conclusion of thoughts on another topic.
 
Second: 
 
I do these the moment I get home from work, as the long hours I work don't leave much sunshine available to me (and the sick bastards that insist on shifting the time every winter do nothing but assure I don't see daylight for months.  Dicks.  )  Accordingly, yeah-- my hands are dirty.  Just cope with it.
 
 

Typically, to determine the point cost of a single clip, you'd figure out the cost of the weapon with two clips, and subtract the cost of the weapon with a single clip.  While the guidance on HSEG p. 70 refers to different ammunition types, this is the same method, applied to a single type.  The GM can if they wish, following the HSEG guidance, set a standard cost for an additional clip.  I would suggest looking in the Dark Champions supplement if you have it; I apologize that I don't have it with me at the moment and can't check there, but it's likely that that book addresses the point cost for additional clips.
 
Edit:  Dark Champions (for 5e) p. 214 discusses buying additional clips, but essentially is the same as what I said above, and is the same text as in HSEG.

ban Dihydrogen Monoxide, it is found in all polluted water!
 
LOL

You realize that that stuff can kill you, right?  

I understand what you're saying, but that complexity is already there:
 
The advantage "Reduced Endurance Cost" ups the AP but does not increase the Endurance.