Hakkonen

Re: Help me grok HERO!

Well, the campaign ended on what I consider a successful note. We covered everything I wanted to cover, and I think my players enjoyed it.

An issue came up in the last session, though: does Duplicating and then recombining reduce the duration of a Flash effect, "healing" it as if the Flash were damage? One of my players insisted that it does, but I could not find anything in the book supporting that and was forced to rule against him. The scenario is that the PCs were attacked with a flashbang grenade, which I built as a Flash affecting both sight and hearing; the rolled duration turned out to be 13 segments. One player wanted to be able to reduce that to 2 segments by duplicating and recombining.

Re: The Forgettable Man

Is it pheromones (stuff in the air)?

No.

Is it affecting the targets mind?

Yes.

What if someone views him through a camera?

It works against remote viewing (technological or otherwise, including things like Clairsentience) just as well as against being in the same room with him.

What if he is put into a cell with 20 Mental Defenses and Airseal (LS: Self contained Breathing).

Airseal is irrelevant. A sufficiently strong (precise value TBD) Mental Defense could block the effect.

What about simple distance (someone looking at him from 1 km through googles)?

See above about remote viewing.

Step 1 (where did you come from?):

"He's not invisible; as long as you're looking directly at him, you can see him perfectly clearly... but as soon as you look away, you forget he's there"

How fast does this go? When you eat with him and look down to take a bite, would you be surprised to see him there? What if I have a 4 hour conversation, would it still affect me that strong?

 

Step 2 (what did he looked like?):

"After a few minutes you've forgotten what he looks and sounds like".

Not decided. Several ways I can see.

 

Step 3 (was there someone?):

"and a few minutes after that you've forgotten that he exists at all"

The most tricky one. And the one I would advise you to limit the most or leave out at all. a Villain has a hard time finding work if no one ever remebers he exsists. Heroes would have trouble if thier team keeps forgetting them.

I quite like Sean Waters' idea of a Mental Transform that is healed by being in the character's presence. Having dinner with him presents no problems. In the case of the conversation, as soon as he leaves the room you forget that he was ever there, and while you would remember having the conversation, after a few minutes you would no longer remember who you had it with.

Judging from your are picturing to play him, what will the game effect of "not being remembered" be? What type of game will you play him in? Will he be Villain or Hero?

This is strictly a thought experiment. I don't have a campaign in which to play him.

So, the Star Hero book listed on the main site is described as being for HERO 5E. Has there been any news on the possibility of a new Star Hero book for 6E? How compatible is the current book with 6E?

Re: The Forgettable Man

Sorry, I was distracted for a minute...: Major Transform 1 point (Transforms memories of the character into nothing, Healed by being in the presence of the character), Attack Versus Mental Defense (Common to Common, Power Defence to Mental Defense; +0), Area Of Effect (4m Radius; +1/4), Personal Immunity (+1/4), Persistent (+1/4), Constant (+1/2), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Indirect (Source Point is the Character, path can change with every use; +1/2), Planetary MegaScale (1m = 10,000 km; +2), Quad Penetrating (x4; +2), Invisible Power Effects (Fully Invisible, effects of Power are Invisible to both target and other characters; +2) (28 Active Points); Always On (-1/2) (19 Real Points)

 

Basically anyone in his presence is healed, so can remember him, and past contacts with him. Anyone not in his presence and within 40,000 km, gets a 1 pip cumulative quad penetrating mental transform, which will pretty quickly make them forget him. Even when he is sleeping at SPD 1, that is 5 points accumulating evey minute for almost everyone on teh planet, and even if you have a 40 EGO, 16 minutes away from him and he is gone, and a lot less when he is awake and operating at full SPD. If the character is SPD 4, and awake, then 1 minute per 10 EGO and you can not remember him.

I quite like this idea.

Re: Help me grok HERO!

The reason I want to keep the action in Middleton is simple: focus. This is a relief campaign, meant to last no more than four to six sessions. In an open-ended campaign, I'm much more willing to tolerate what I call "sprawl:" the tendency of PCs to wander and explore areas of the world that weren't necessarily detailed ahead of time. I'm pretty good at detailing on the fly, but with a short-form game like this I really need to maintain focus in order to tell the whole story in the time allotted. Hence, Middleton's town limit becomes the line of demarcation between "onstage" and "offstage."

Re: Help me grok HERO!

I'm not convinced that superior mobility on an individual scale constitutes an unbeatable strategic advantage, but that's an argument for another thread.

I think you're right about the point values. I don't normally like to change parameters, especially chargen parameters, once given, but in this case I'll make an exception.

I like characters with strange superpowers The last supers game I played in was a Marvel Universe RPG where I played a man with a severely limited form of telepathy: no one within ten feet of him could tell a lie. He couldn't control it or turn it off. That was his only power, and it led to some pretty interesting situations.

The other day I had an idea for another strange power: the power to be forgotten. He's not invisible; as long as you're looking directly at him, you can see him perfectly clearly... but as soon as you look away, you forget he's there. After a few minutes you've forgotten what he looks and sounds like, and a few minutes after that you've forgotten that he exists at all. How would I build this?

Re: Help me grok HERO!

When I looked up biokineticist on Bing, I found the following link: http://biokineticist.com/

 

It sounds like a biokineticist is just another term for a physical therapist.

Yeah, that's not at all what Rodger was talking about. This issue has already been clarified, starting with post #33.

Re: Help me grok HERO!

9-10 OCV would be in the "Legendary" range, which I have declared off-limits except by special permission (i.e., you need a damned good reason). I think professional soldiers, particularly front-line combat troops, should have 6 or 7 OCV and DCV; ordinary civilians would have Combat Values of 2 or 3.

Re: Help me grok HERO!

You need to find some way to chalenge them in their "weightclass" (400 points) or above (single foes to chalenge the group). Be it writing tanks or robots up as 400 point Characters. Or maybe summon powerfull Spirits. Maybe some kind of super-mindlinked team (a single 500 point character written up with massive Duplication and Teamwork).

Aren't there supposed to be some "anti-life" monsters/spirits running around in Shadowrun? Confronting them could give the heroes something to do that has meaning

 

When all they ever fight is 175 point mooks with 8 DC attacks, the above guidelines might fail. (Or rather you have to set them so low they don't).

There will be no supernatural elements beyond the PCs; this is "supers in the real world." Also, I apologize for not making myself clear before: I'm running this game as a break from running Shadowrun.

If it comes to a knock-down, drag-out fight between the PCs and the U.S. military, the military is going to win. I don't know what DC a 2,000lb laser-guided bomb develops, but I'm guessing it's pretty damned high, and those things are cheap as dirt (compared to the cost of crazed superhumans running free).

Re: Help me grok HERO!

What is the target power level? 400 points is standard for a super hero' date=' but it can be more or less for different types of genres.[/quote']

400 points with 75 points of matching complications.

 

Do you have any power limits? Attack powers, defense powers, OCV, DCV?

Not at present, but as we haven't gotten to the crunchy part of chargen, I'm open to suggestions. Attributes are limited to the "Average," "Skilled," and "Competent" columns of the Characteristics Comparison Table (6E1, p. 48).

 

Who are the players opponents, if they are the only supers? Because no super villains....

Most likely, the U.S. Government. If they try to be capes, they'll be the targets of a, shall we say, aggressive recruitment drive. If they go bad, the recruiters will become even more aggressive. If they go really bad (mass murder), they'll more likely just be killed out of hand.

 

What's the tone? Grim, light, humor? What comic book age? Silver, bronze, iron, diamond, rust?

Tone is not super-grimdark, and with this group I expect there to be humorous moments, but overall I'm aiming for a fairly serious tone. As for the age, I don't know enough to be able to answer that.

 

What kind of morality? Are the players expected to be all "good," or "evil," or will the form a cohesive group at all?

I suspect they will be mostly "good," with the possibility of a "chaotic neutral" character.

 

Do you have any details for the campaign city?

The campaign will be set in Middleton, Kansas, a small farming town. I want the action to stay in the town, and have already advised my players that any power that takes them a significant distance away (flight, superspeed, megascale teleportation, extradimensional travel, etc.) will put them "offstage."

 

What do you have planned for their first challenge?

Honestly, my plans in that direction are very loose. The first gameplay session will be the empowering event and its immediate aftermath. After that, it depends on

Re: Help me grok HERO!

I don't think Rodger was going for "psi." Maybe it would help if I clarify the campaign a little.

This is a relief campaign from my regular Shadowrun game. The game will not be a typical supers game. It will start with a shared empowering event, and thereafter will be about the world dealing with the sudden appearance of superhumans. The PCs will be the only supers on Earth. Will they choose to reveal themselves, or keep the secret? Will they use their powers at will, sparingly, or not at all? No matter what they choose, I'll try to provide a world that reacts to them realistically.

Re: Help me grok HERO!

I didn't say I was unable to say "No," I said I prefer not to. In this case, though, it looks like it's unavoidable. You've all raised excellent arguments against allowing this concept, and I'm going to let Rodger know he needs to come up with another idea.

Re: Help me grok HERO!

Is there any way (i.e., any Limitation or combination of Limitations) to make this balanced? As a GM, I dislike giving my players an absolute "No." Maybe restrict it to touch range, and have it take time rather than being a zero-phase action?

Re: Help me grok HERO!

OK, so Rodger has gotten back to me about the nature of his "flesh shaping" power, and here's what he has to say: "I kinda like the idea of being able to warp them [targets] in the manner similar to how the creature in The Thing did to itself. And maybe force them into a normal version of something else, like changing someone into a sheep or something."

So, what are we looking at?

Re: Help me grok HERO!

Other said it already, but I also have to say:

First question:

What is a "biokineticist"?

The term was introduced into the game by Pattie (I'm going to start using names to reduce confusion); it refers to a character with the power to shape flesh, both his own and others'.

Transform has one use:

Making lasting changes to a character, that are not covered by any other power. So before you take out this "heavy gun", how about telling us what the problem is that you try to solve? We might have a pistol calliber solution for it.

Rodger wants, as described above, his character to be able to change himself and other living targets into different living things. I think we looked at Shape Shift, but for some reason decided it didn't do quite what Rodger wanted. I'm perfectly willing to entertain the idea that we were wrong, though.

I have a couple of questions:

1) If Rodger ends up going with Transform, would he have to buy each level separately, or does each level include the abilities of lower levels; i.e., if Rodger buys 10d6 of Major Transform, would he also be able to use that as 10d6 of Minor or Cosmetic Transform?

2) Shape Shift seems extremely cheap (undervalued), and I want to be sure I'm reading the Shape Shift Summary Table (6E1 p. 277) correctly. To purchase a "classical" Shape Shift, i.e., one in which the user actually changes into another person, being, or object, the base cost would be 8 (Sight Group) + 5 (Hearing Group) + 5 (Touch Group) + 2 (Smell/Taste Group) = 20 points, correct? That's only for a single alternate shape, of course, but the ability to assume a Limited Group of shapes (say, any living thing) is only +5.

Re: Help me grok HERO!

Well, chargen day 1 (of at least 2, since one of my players wasn't able to make it) was last Saturday. One of my players wants his character, a "biokineticist," to have a Transform power. Since Transform is one of the "Stop!" powers, what do I need to do or know in order to make sure the end result isn't game-breaking?

Re: Help me grok HERO!

Hello and welcome. I am not the best proofreader, but I think I have some ideas:

When you want high in specific skills, it's usually cheaper to buy skill levels rather than buying up the skill.

I'm not sure what you mean. Do you mean buying the skills as powers? The Powers chapter gives the cost for buying Skills as Powers as being equivalent to the cost of the Skill.

From the total I guess you wanted to make a Standart Superhero. Take a look at the guideliens on 6E1 35.

Take as measure a "12 DC Blast", or 12d6 damage. This is what you will likely face as attack. Only use lowest end of defenses with high end DCV and Dex (to dive for cover against Area of Effect attacks). Only use lowest end of damage with high OCV.

 

Warp Beam: 7d6 with a +1/4 advantage makes a 44 AP/9 DC attack. I would no go under one attack with 10 DC and no advantages for some decent output against agent types, but you can try. But if you do, you need much more OCV.

 

Defenes:

Would be okay for a more martial artist type (high DCV, better SPD). A 8D6 blast/hth attack vs PD will stun him very likely, and 8d6 is what 175 point agents throw around. The more common 12d6 will knock him deep into the negatives with two hits.

Why is 12d6 considered the "standard?" What Defenses would be more appropriate?

I agree that increasing local gravity might be better modelled with Drain STR (or more precisely a suppress STR), Area of Effect.

Take a look at the rules for 0 STR and how Drain STR interacts with Heavy characters (Growth, Density Increase or permanently either one).

I can even give you the "Gravity number": Earth gravity is given as 5 STR. Every +5 STR means doubling of the wieght or strenght of something. Every -5 means halving it.

So -15 STR would be "8 times normal gravity".

 

When you want to create 0-G, I think Change environment bought to apply 5 TK STR, area of effect could be enough to "negate" the 5 STR of Earth gravity, but that is GM dependant.

Interesting. Where can I find more information relating HERO stats to RL constants?

Re: Help me grok HERO!

You should take a different approach to learning Hero - start setting up some ideas for a campaign type and style, then mess with some numbers a little bit (average attack damage versus defenses) and other factors.

 

Since Hero simulates multiple genres and power levels, and not all campaigns are interchangeable - actually, many aren't. A character from Campaign A may be wildly inappropriate for Campaign B.

Actually, I bought HERO with a very specific idea for a game I want to run for my group: what if a small group of superhumans suddenly cropped up in the real world? All the PCs (3-6 of them, depending on how many of my players sign on) will have a shared origin, in that they are all from the same small town in Midwestern America, and will experience a shared empowering event. Thereafter, I'm going to try to make the campaign as free-form and player-driven as I can. Will the PCs use their powers at will, sparingly, or not at all? Will they go public, or try to keep the secret? If they go public, how will they react to their sudden global fame, and the targets painted on their backs? That sort of thing.

My copy of 6E1 arrived in the mail the other day. Man, this thing is a whopper. I could beat a man to death with this book! Anyhoo...

The way I generally familiarize myself with a new system is to start making characters. Behold my first attempt:

Aaron "Apogee" Adair

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhE9UGQsIOoSdG1tNkFPWTB4ZzU2WnV2UVJzNzVBdWc

The concept is an astrophysicist who acquired gravity control and spatial manipulation powers, probably by fooling around with some gravitic doohicky. Amidoinitrite?