psyber624

Re: Quick Question: RAW? RAI? Thanks guys, (possible double post, my computer is acting screwy)

Re: Solution to Multipowers within VPPs. My only issue with the concept as a whole is that it smacks of powergaming....its a fun theoretical concept, but I'd have to give a really hard look at someone trying to do something like this in a game. Personally Ive always looked at VPP's as multipowers with variable slots anyway. If you want a gun with variable settings, just make it as normal in the VPP, if you need to change the setting, you have to swap it in the VPP.... buying it as a gun with multiple settings at once (the Multipower in a VPP option) seems abusive and overly powerful.

Re: Multiform I have to say its an interesting way to try and make a 250 point character with superman's full power... Not that id allow it personally but very interesting solution

I keep seeing these two acronyms in posts and I cant figure out what they stand for. Can someone sell me a clue?

Re: Gods with Off Switches vs. Loaded Guns. DC vs. Marvel in Character Design. At the risk of getting my a** burned stepping into what is seriously in danger of combusting into a flame war, I just want to point out that a lot of the arguments here seem to be based on differing perspectives. While, granted, word choice can be misleading I believe that noone has as of yet stated anything along the lines of "This build is the CORRECT build for such and such era hero". Its merely their build. Maybe their build cannot do everything that the comic version can do. Maybe its not even really representative of that character. It's just their build, possibly with some constraints that they chose to place on it, such as 250 character points. I dont believe its fair to require them to put any clarification on their build that its not meant to represent the true power level of the character, any more than it would be fair for them to try and require that you accept that build as "correct". Its a free country and they have the right to interpret the source material and the HERO system as they see fit. Arguing about whether they can or not is really a moot point anyway.

Re: How do you work gaining Package Deals during game? Honestly, IMO 80 pts for a package deal is really really high. In a 400 pt game thats 20% of the total points they have to spend that you are TELLING your player they have to spend this way, or that character is 20% more effective than any character without this package. Its your game of course, but honestly i think you would be better off letting your players decide whether they want to be a vampire or not, and then building their character how they WANT their Vampire character to look, your "package deal" should be a really small set of abilities/complications that you basically "require" anyone playing a vampire in your campaign to have, and let them decide what the rest looks like. This would be part of their base points that they build the character out of, not points they get to tack on for free.

Re: Does Aid go to Active points or Real? You dont really need to do anything like that, its part of how aid works. Aid is NOT healing, so it will fade. Simply buy your Aid with a limitation on itself "only works on body that is currently in the negative, and cannot move it above 0", this would extend the time before they die. Of course only by a few turns. If you want to really extend it, then you might buy the skill "paramedic" linked to your aid (with GM's permission of course). A successful skill roll would stop them from "dying" so they dont loose more body, but your aided body will still fade away as normal, if you bought the paramedic skill with the limitation "Only while aid is in effect" so that when the aided points fall off, they start the dying process again. Then you buy your aid with the delayed return rate advantage and presto, you can choose how long till they start "dying" again. Of course this is alot of hoops to jump through to make a power work like you want it to work in a strictly legal sense. Alternately your GM may just let your power work like this without all the extra skill stuff needed as it really doesn't affect the game much to allow you to define it that way (as you could just buy healing cheaper and actually have it DO something).

Re: Necessary Item to control your power Another option that I used way back when (ie 3rd ed champions or the like, cant remember exactly which) was to buy the power at full strength as normal, with the always on limitation, then buy another power, as a focus, that served to Suppress that power. As long as the cost of the focus was greater than the cost benefit of the always on power, this system seemed to work well for me (ie you cant buy the focus for dirt cheap to basically "grant" you the points you get from buying it always on.) Also, if the Suppress wasnt bought with Always On itself, then you could effectively control the power while you have the focus, but without the focus you cant (works great for things like Cyclop's eyebeam). Just watch the cost of the focus to ensure that the character isnt just getting "free points" by buying always on but having a way to circumvent it... (in this situation i might rule that Always On was a -0 limitation, for instance. The player can build his character like this if he wants for flavor, but not to get the cost of the power down.)

Re: Alien Flagship Falling From Orbit Psyber, my first Champions character (who became my online ID when the internet blew up) would form a Mind Link with the ships onboard computer and, if the damage was beyond his abilities to repair, would cause the drive to explode if at all possible, even if it meant blowing himself up in the process. His later incarnations from when i played alot of CoH would have chased the aliens, using his mental powers to wrack them with pain so they couldn't get to the escape pods, and hopefully find SOMEONE on board who knew enough about the ship to correct this issue. When he went Villain for CoV? Contact the relevant authorities at all the potential landing sites, and start taking bids for where NOT to crash it!

Re: Character Analysis Requested: Character Name: Double-Time Yeah, after some reflection I think Tasha is right, this is more of a concept character than an actual playable character in the game. If I decide to actually go with something like this it would take a total redesign to become playable. I love creating new and interesting character designs, and sometimes I forget the fact that if I plan to USE those designs in a game they also need a certain amount of playability. One of the flaws of genius i guess On a related note, what tends to be an avg OCV/DCV for this level of hero in your games? (Total, including skills and such). One of the ONLY complaints I have always had about the HERO system is the interplay between OCV/DCV in a 3d6 system, a couple of points one way or they other and you can go from never hitting to never missing, which can make OCV/DCV or related skills REALLY cost effective if you know what the average level of CV is in the games (esp as they do not increase in cost or have built in maximums)

Re: Requesting help re: lost y cool combat chart. Before i learned that HERO was still around I was playing with FUZION with the POWER CORE addon developed by STUDIO 187. In there they described an optional system called "A Good Hit is a Good Hit" where every point you made your attack roll by resulted in one effect die becoming an automatic 6. This alleviates some of the concerns i saw in this thread, but as Christopher pointed out it makes certain combat maneuvers less effective (Offensive Strike goes from adding 14 average damage to only adding 9). It also results in more damage on average so defenses have to be increased, and the value of OCV/DCV are GREATLY increased as they now directly affect damage done (2.5 pts of damage per CV on average). This would result in balance issues, but I thought i'd mention it here.

Re: How do you work gaining Package Deals during game? Gaining anything mid game can be problematic for your players, (note that "gaining" Complications isnt really a gain, I'm talking about things that make a player worth more points.) If they all gain something or similar, you can use the wonderful wand of GM powers to just give it to them ("BAM! your all vampires, here is you new set of powers, just make sure they knew this was coming and agreed to it before hand or your likely to have upset players.) If only one person is gaining something then that affects player balance and alot of players are going to be upset with this. Of course at the end of the day, its a game. If you and your players want to play in a world like this then you can simply allow it to work like that. The new 6E rulebooks mention this sort of thing REPEATEDLY. You, as GM, just state that in your game players may become more powerful through gaining one of these templates (as they are now known). I highly recommend you make sure your players are on board with this kind of a game, but if they are it sounds like it might be alot of fun, just make sure that a character that gains such power doesn't totally overshadow the rest of your players.

Re: What would you do if you were a mutant? Okay I have way too much time on my hands (im disabled so i dont have a job) and I have spent way too much time thinking about the same thing. The FIRST thing i would do, is panic, because if I had powers, then powers exist, and if powers exist and the general public doesnt know about them then SOMEONE with a great deal of power is going to alot of trouble to make sure they are kept under wraps. I would begin to worry and sweat every time there was a knock on my door...........

Re: Character Analysis Requested: Character Name: Double-Time Thanks tasha. I am already working on a redesign of this character taking in your guys commentary. Focusing more on the "double time" than on high speed. Most of his powers were weakened because i was worried about 10 spd being abusive if I took a standard 12 DC attack (thats why it was penetrating, i could usually do 1-2 points of damage per phase, even against high defenses if they werent impenetrable, but I couldnt run around KOing everyone with my 10 attacks per turn). And yeah, I have never suffered from "analysis paralysis" (what we used to call not knowing what to do when your turn comes up in a game.) Im always the one bugging others to hurry up Also, i had it in my mind for some reason that most fights would be lasting alot of turns, from some of the reading Ive been doing on the boards it looks like 2-3 turns is more likely.... (and yeah, i totally forgot about power defense..... oops) So anyways, thanks for all the input

Re: D.O.T s dont stack....why? Umm, according to the rules on 6E1, 330, you CAN use it repeatedly, if you build it not to thats actually worth more limitation (or less advantage, depending on how the power is built). Its under the heading "Repeated Use" on that page, unless im missunderstanding something.

Re: Multiform Ahh yeah, i remember that, used to use the hell out of it back in the day, free points galore And thanks for the OiAID clarification, thats one of those rules that seems to almost bridge the gap between power and effect in my mind, which is making it tricky for me.

Re: Champions Complete Advertisement! lol well drat then, as a gaming addict on a fixed income a "cheaper" alternative would have been welcome. Ah well, i dont have any complaints supporting a company like HERO, I was thrilled when i found out they were still in the business of making new books (while trying to find the old Fuzion rules so i could get my game on again lol)

Re: Multiform What is EC? 15 EC [Yellow Sun Energy]-15 Points And a question that you reminded me of, OIAID... that is just for abilities the character doesnt have at all in one ID right? I was wondering if OIAID's could be adjusted if your not in the "alternate" ID or not (since they are supposed to be a "simpler" way of doing a multiform, and IIRC multiforms cant have adjustments applied to abilities they dont have in the currently active form?)

Re: Champions Complete Advertisement! ah cool, i needed to know, just bought 6E1&2, champions 6th was my next purchase and wanted to make sure it wasnt being outdated.

Re: Blood-Fueled Magic/Powers I guess it would depend on the genre you are simulating. In one of the Vampire LARP's i played in ages ago (based on white wolf i believe) ANYTHING a vampire did that used any energy required blood. Of course im still just getting back into the game, and some of my rules knowledge is fuzzy still, but the idea was if you modified the recovery rules to allow "feeding" while taking a recovery (which would require an unresisting target) then this would be another way to simulate it. I guess I should clarify, one of the things i always loved about the Hero system was the ability to simulate any kind of effect you wanted to generate. It does mean that some of my "constructs" used to get rather clunky (something im working to remedy now that im trying to get back into it). Alot would depend on whether this is a Vampire campaign, or a Vampire as a type of super in a supers campaign. (Modifications to rules like the recovery one would have less tendancy to cause balance issues if all PC's got the same benefit/penalty i think)

Re: Help me grok HERO!

Re: Champions Complete Advertisement! ???? How is Champions Complete Different from the Champions 6th edition?

Re: Character Analysis Requested: Character Name: Double-Time Thanks for the input. Recovery is 6, which cost me 2 points (base points 4 + 1 point each), I think the problem there is that i wrote this up different than most writeups (because of the way i have it done in excel for copying, sorry about that.) The defenses were actually an issue for me, I "LOVE" the way combat luck states the defenses work, its perfect for the character concept, but taking 3 levels of that already seemed abusive to me. (they are cheaper than normal resistant PD). I was already thinking i was going to have to juggle some points out of that and somewhere else to boost my defenses higher. RE: The plasma pistol..... in a superheroic campaign i didnt think "damage" would reduce the effect of armor. I thought that was something for heroic campaigns. Ill look it up. On the absorption power using the end reserve, the power is defined as using regular end as well, so its not simulating an 0 End, That could make the Double End limiter worth 0, i can see that, but i dont see another way of doing the effect i want (limiting it to 4 uses per combat) unless i maybe did some kind of weird special effect for recoverable charges (which in itself would be worth the -1/2 xp of the double end, and grant the 0 end modifier anyway, so my construct actually costs 6 MORE CP than that one would.) Note that the endurance reserve is built to give me exactly 4 uses of the power (20 end in the pool, 5 end per drain) and returns slowly (5 end per 5 mins, or 20 mins to fill back up) Not trying to get contrary, just making sure im understanding and using everything correctly. And the vulnerability was meant to simulate effects that occured every time he took a phase ... but i just reread and figured out that constant powers dont affect me based on my speed, but on the casters speed, so not sure if it works like i thought it did so I will have to give that one some more thought. Again, thanks for your inputs

Re: Little help with effect modifier Yeah, just suggesting another way you could model it depending on the special effects you want.

Re: Usable By Others with a VPP to simulate a wish spell Hell, what campaign could withstand the effects of an unlimited wish? GM: What is your wish? PC: I wish to rule all possible worlds and dimensions, unequivocally, for eternity, without possibility of being dethroned. Or that old hat.. I wish for 10 wishes lol Or hey, lets just make this all easier. Transform can transform me, easily, into a "Being with the power to turn an area into nirvana". And I only have 10 body.... easy enough to do, right?