Tom Carman

Re: My Star Wars Force Powers I think you might dispense with Force Choke. Seems to me it's just a Dark application of Telekinesis with Fine Manipulation.

Re: Walking Past Combatants (Attacks of Opportunity) I don't think there is a book-legal way to prevent this in HERO, tho you can make the villain regret it. There may be something in FREd about penalties for ignoring attackers (but I don't have that on hand, just the old Ed.4 PDF). If 5th doesn't have anything covering it, you could simulate it by treating this as a combat Surprise attack (halved DCV).

Re: Battlestar Galactica Hero You could start writing it... In the (great!) new one, no laser handguns, they seem to be gyrojet rocket guns. Can't recall any energy weapons, actually. Missiles are the heavy weapons. The Vipers and Raiders seem to be armed with autocannon, though I haven't noticed any recoil effects. Possibly they are also gyrojet guns, with the rockets burning out before leaving the barrel.

Re: HERO System question I don't really see the problem. In a Heroic game, I would not charge them XP for any treasure. Sure, it's a nice magic sword, but it is also inherently an Independent item and liable to go away. Oh and here's the fabulous Wand of Fireballs (with either non-recovering Charges or a Burnout roll). In this genre you DON'T get items permanently (unless it's cursed! Read Lawrence Watt-Evan's The Misenchanted Sword about a powerful magic weapon that just WON'T go away...)

Re: Variable Power Characters in the Same Game I believe the usual rule (for any rational GM) is "yes, you can pick up that gun and use it. If you want to keep it around permanently, you pay the points." (Though the characters better have the weapon familiarity for whatever they pick up.) The point of a VPP resource pool for the normals is to keep the power of their attacks in line with those of characters with innate power for a similar cost. We're not talking about signature weapons here, just standard issue gear. They are built as OAF, not Independent. The guns and binoculars and radios will likely get lost or trashed in the course of a game, but Supply can issue replacements after the usual b!+c#ing.

Re: What's the Worth of 4th Ed. Books? I would say that Western HERO is a good investment if you want to play in that time period. Some of the things it added to Hero4 base rules made it into FREd.

Re: d20 conversion to/from Hero System On skill rolls: The "average" Hero roll is 11-, and the system is set up so that average stats will get that "average" roll: 9 + stat/5 = 11 when the stat is near 10. To convert to a roll-over system, 10+ is equal to 11-. I find it convenient to retain "stat/5" as a "stat bonus". The revised characteristic roll becomes 3d6+bonus. With the average bonus (from average stats) being 2, raise your target number for standard success from 10+ to 12+. Stat-based rolls for a base skill are 3d6+bonus. For skills with a flat 11- base, use a flat bonus of 2. For Familiarity rolls, the bonus is -1. So, roll 3d6, add stat bonus and levels, subtract penalties, to "beat 12".

Re: Wild West Hero Well, the first thing is to get hold of a copy of Western HERO.

Re: When caught in a time paradox, what happens? ObSF ref: Thrice Upon a Time (by James Hogan, I think)

Re: Pistols = Reduced Penetration I used to run a Space:1889 campaign in HERO, and there was armor around (since it was in the source material). However, I ran it that armor only had half-value against firearms. Leather is 3 DEF, chain is 5 DEF, and plate is 7 DEF. When halving, the defense rounds UP against handguns, and DOWN against rifles.

Re: VPPs: Your experiences "With great power comes great responsibility." So if the player is irresponsible, don't allow them that sort of power. My characters are usually the ones with the VPP, but GM doesn't bug me because I'm pretty circumspect about using them. Example: the gadgeteer - high INT, 1-2 universal skill levels, Scientist, and a raft of science skills; must invent a gadget to use it. Usually starts an adventure using a gadget weapon with Charges; any rebuilds of that weapon have the same AP, and Charges (spent and unused) carry over - use up all the Charges and the RP of the weapon is "locked out" until he can get new supplies. New gadgets must be within his science skill set, and buildable with the limited kit of components he carries plus whatever can be reasonably added from the immediate environment (fighting in a junkyard can be fun). Example: credit-card-at-the sporting-goods-store. All VPP items must be real-life commercial products, and reasonably within your budget. Real-world limitations like waiting periods for guns will apply. Proximity to appropriate stores and several hours of shopping time are required.

Re: held action

Re: Asterix the Gaul The village bard was Cacafonix (sp?). The local Roman centurion was Crismus Bonus.

Re: Instruction Request: VPP vs MP

Re: Tank chargen: low-strength, high-soak Heh. Just had a memory flash from an earlier series of She Hulk. She got attacked in her lawyer suit, and her clothes were totally trashed. Except for her underwear, which was completely untouched. When asked how that could have happened, She Hulk showed the little tag on her slip "Protected by the Comics Code Authority". No nudity allowed, you see...

Re: So I'm thinking of running a Western HERO scenario...

Re: So I'm thinking of running a Western HERO scenario... Western HERO has a couple options like your Number two. The ground rule on injury is to track wounds, not overall damage. Next, allow a successful Paramedic roll to reduce any wound by 1 Body (only one roll per wound). Finally, it was either let all 1-Body "flesh wounds" heal overnight, or heal your REC's worth of 1-Body wounds overnight. Basically, any serious wound is going to take time to heal but any minor one (or one that can be "doctored" down to a minor one) has no lasting impact.

Re: Powerguns Yes, I noticed the laser bit when I re-checked after posting. On the other hand, lasers and powerguns have much the same effect on their targets. A powergun is probably more compact, while the laser has that handy continuous beam.

Re: So I'm thinking of running a Western HERO scenario... You're a bit high: according to my handy 4th ed. PDF, a modern .44 magnum is a 2d6 RKA (a .50 caliber machine gun round is 3d6K). I don't have my Western HERO on hand to check, but I think black powder weapons have a bit less power. Also, cap-and-ball guns have a bit less power and reliability than cartridge pistols and rifles.

Re: Powerguns Another of Drake's novels The Forlorn Hope is set in the same universe, but introduces a different weapon technology: Cone-Bore rifles. The gun barrels are diamond and the needle-bullets are osmium. I think the cannon models also used osmium penetrators, not explosive shells. Toward the end, there was a short battle between powergun-armed tanks and a starship being moved cross-country using landing repulsors and a small power-beam receiver (its own powerplant was wrecked by an attack). Mercenaries were in the cargo hold with cone-bore cannon, and a pump spraying mercury out above the open hatch. The powergun hitting the mercury spray flashburned some of the mercs, but the osmium rounds had no such problem...

Re: Stretching And Senses I had a character with Stretching, doesn't pass thru intervening space, defined as opening a micro-teleportal to punch/kick at range. As a one-adventure stunt, the GM let me open the portal to the other side of a wall and just listen. I figured I would need to buy a power to repeat it. But maybe not: it already had an Advantage to deal with intervening walls, and it wasn't linked to attacks.

Re: Heroic Campaign Guidelines & Equipment In one TOS episode, "The Omega Glory" I think (the Yangs vs the Comms), it was mentioned that several expended phaser powerpacks were found at a battle site among several hundred Yang bodies. Obviously Captain Tracy was trading damage for duration there.

Re: Thunderbirds are Go! It is an Advantage to allow high velocity/long range powers without the cost getting too extreme; it redefines the scale of 1" in system terms. Megascaled movement is always considered to be noncombat, with all of the accompanying downsides. Megascaled attack powers (which the GM better examine very closely) have a lot of reach but no short-range utility, and are really only good against large targets.

Re: Should all skills be everyman to some degree?

Re: Do you always use character points to buy weapons & armor? When Suppress, Drain, and Dispel enter the picture (as a spell or a gadget or a power), the Active points of your equipment will make a difference in how it affects you.