BNakagawa

Man, I'd hate to run into a superior Woren warrior if a completely average warrior sported a 23 Dex. But then again, your game might be a little higher power than what I'm used to. $0.02

I don't know much about England, so my only english super is a kid who made himself a working suit of WH40K space marine armour.

Whoa. that's one expensive package deal. I'm more in favor of the more minimalist package deals that focus on those things that all members of a race have no matter what. Raised by their own kind or raised by humans, any Woren (that's the spelling capcom uses) is going to have nightvision, but not every Woren in the world is going to know martial arts (and how to use blades with them) The stats might be a little high. Why doesn't Katt wear pants? Everyone else seems to... $0.02

Pre-rolled damage only helps if you never push, always do the same number of dice all the time, etc. The GM is almost always the bottleneck in HERO. There's just too much to do to keep things rolling along smoothly. A simiple way to loosen the bottleneck is to delegate damage rolling and counting to a trusted player or two. $0.02

What's fair is fair. What I like about the system is its ability to allow people to put their points where their mouth is. granted, the ability to speak another language fluently isn't as campaign-shattering as the ability to stop time or raise the dead but it doesn't cost as much, either.

It's a slippery slope. Best to close the door to abuses and say no freebies to anybody, regardless of background. It's just a language, it doesn't cost a bunch, just pay the bloody points. Otherwise, why should it stop at non-combat related stuff only? What if my character comes from a paramilitary background (think Spartan) and everything he might be entitled to as a freebie is combat related? What if my character was raised by ninjas? Why shouldn't I get three free points of combat related stuff? It's background-related. Just like your bi-lingual guy. The point costs are there for a reason. It keeps everyone from playing ambidextrous lucky wealthy multilingual staggeringly attractive unbelievably graceful bodybuilder genius artistic speedreading special-forces trained noblemen. Unless you're playing Champions, in which it's entirely possible to play such a character and not be unbalanced. In which case you can afford to pay to purchase a bloody second language. $0.02

Your game, your call. In general, though, it's a better idea to make them pay for it. Otherwise, you're essentially penalizing anyone who didn't come from a bi-lingual household. $0.02

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: OCV, DCV as skills While I agree with your point about this slowing down combat, I disagree with your reading that this would add to dex inflation. Under your example, your Dex 43 character has a 6 point advantage over a dex 23 character using the standard CV. Using a skill based one, your character would only have a 4 point advantage. Admittedly, this is really an 8 point advantage because the other guy is at a 4 point deficit when attacking you. Problem is, you spent 60 points to get this advantage. Still, 8 levels, 60 points. I think this system incentivizes buying levels, not DEX. $0.02

if you really think the system is so simple, then try running a game. Three PCs attack three different villains simultaneously. They all announce their hit-by numbers. Now the GM has to look up three different villains, roll three times and match each one to their attacker. Simple, no? Now wait till one of them starts spreading and attacking multiple targets. And the other starts autofiring. Or sweeping. This will be extremely fun when three PCs attack three villains and affect all of them simultaneously, and now the GM has to make 9 defense rolls and match each of them to the appropriate opposed roll. Not nearly as simple as just having a number noted for each one's standard DCV that they either hit or don't. The other advantage of the current system is that it's extremely obvious that some rolls are going to hit and some rolls are going to miss. This streamlines combat resolution because the GM doesn't need to waste any brainpower on really awesome or really crappy rolls. It's time to move onto the next action or start rolling damage. This is never the case when you have opposed rolls for conflict resolution. Admittedly, this is the case when the target is in missile deflecting or blocking modes, but this is the exception and not the rule. I notice how much this slows down combat resolution in these cases, and wouldn't wish this to be the standard system. $0.02

The problem with expressing OCV and DCV as skill rolls is that you now need to make twice as many rolls to calculate hits and misses. Under the standard system, you're rolling 3d6 vs a benchmark defined by the attacker's OCV and defender's DCV. Under a skill based system, you're comparing the attacker's roll to their skill level to define a level of success. then you're comparing the defender's roll vs their skill level to define a level of success, then you're comparing the attacker's result to the defender's result. That's twice as many rolls and three times as many value comparisons for not very much mechanical difference. If you think hero system combats take a long time now, try it with these rules. If you're really concerned with system streamlining, why don't you consider scrapping the skill system and replacing it with a hit a difficulty level (DCV) instead? $0.02

Maybe, maybe not. At the 20 point level, Missile deflection deflects any ranged attack that can be deflected. Whether or not it falls into the category of 'can be deflected' or not can be argued, but just because it isn't a missile, it isn't automatically exempt from missile deflect. Just as annoying, it may be defined as a sword blade, but can it be martial blocked? Typically you aren't allowed to martial block (or even conventionally block) a ranged attack of any kind...

The last PC I saw with precog powers that were used to justify unhittability was one that bought desolidification to anything that wasn't explosive or area affecting. This PC was also unpopular enough to get killed off in play.

An 8 SPD is a little high for most games, but yours might be an exception. Personally, I'd go with less STR and maybe martial arts to make up the difference. I know he's some sort of mystic critter, but when I think cat-creature, I typically don't envision something capable of tossing three tons around. Add Discriminatory smell. Personally, I'd also lower the Con. Sure, it's some sort of supernatural wierdie, but it's cat-based. Felines have crummy endurance compared to canines. They're sprinters, not marathoners. They tire quickly. They also sleep 16 hours a day if they can get away with it. More Dex might be nice. 28 is nice. 30 is nicer. If you don't go with more Dex, maybe you oughtta think of investing in a level or two?

I don't like the +1 stun modifier. (at any cost, but especially not at +1/4) It only serves to make advantage stacking more dangerous. If you believe that Killing Attacks should not be about the stun lottery, there is no legitimate use for the +1 stun modifier. I don't like the stun lottery. I don't like Find Weakness. I don't like unlimited Damage reduction. I will accept that it is often necessary for villains. I don't like seeing PCs with 50% physical and energy DR. I don't mind at all if someone buys 50% DR vs fire or vs martial arts or vs magic, but I really dislike blanket reduction vs everything.

Would he require an action figure sized human to float into his forehead in order to work?

The armor would get a limitation (-1/2) for taking a full phase to activate. The other powers would get OHID and possibly linked to the armor. The armor cannot be purchased OHID, or else you'd never be able to activate it once you turned it off.

A 'real' shield ought to be purchased with a restrainable limitation. It isn't OAF, cause it's not something you can reasonably grab off a guy's arm. It's not really OIF, cause I can't see it functioning properly in circumstances where the run of the mill OIF functions (like when grabbed by a giant robot) It ought to be restrainable for the obvious reasons. You shouldn't be able to use a shield if your arms are disabled or held, entangled or whatnot. You also probably need to put some sort of limitation that precludes it from facing all directions at once. You could try to just write up a shield as an OIF, but what happens if you get shot by two guys simultaneously from different directions? $0.02

One concept I had tossed around a while ago: Take a pile of cards with identical backs. Magic commons, used poker cards, whatever. Write each PCs name on a number of cards equal to their speed. Do the same for villains. Shuffle. Deal out actions one at a time and have people act. When the deck is through, everyone gets a post 12.

The conceptual problem I have with consciousness uploads is that once you commit yourself to the proposal that human consciousness can be reduced to a data format, then you open yourself to numerous side effects, some potentially good, some potentially bad. Probably the worst of it is that you ought to be able to back yourself up periodically which allows you to consider suicidal actions more freely, assuming that you can replace your body... Anything that looks like creep and save reduces the potential for drama IMO. Also, there's piracy. Can you consider how disruptive bootleg copies of your mind could be? Might be fun, though. $0.02

I had originally conceptualized him as a cyborg with a human brain (and spinal cord and a certain amount of meat) more or less along the lines of many of the nearly complete borg conversions you find in Battle Angel Alita. This version is cool, too. Whether his consciousness is replicated in silicon or preserved with artificial life support, the core concept of a human warrior with an upgraded body is still pretty much the same. I'd also envisioned him at a higher power level, but I'm sure scaling would not be very difficult.

Human Occupied Landfill has no women on it.

I'd be more worried about running into an invisible force wall at flash speed and having the mother of all concussions. I don't know how much DEF Sue Storm's force wall has, but I'm guessing it's more than enough to plant the Flash (or any speedster unlucky enough to encounter it at combat speed) in the infirmary if not the morgue. $0.02

BGC style hardsuits are pretty cool. (if you can squeeze yourself into one)

You could buy it with side effects that are guaranteed to waste the character, or at least send them to GMOpolis. That would pretty much guarantee that nobody would really want to use the power unless they were in truly dire straits. This may not be quite so effective if you have healers in your campaign that can put someone back on their feet instantaneously, though. $0.02

You don't need 12 PSLs to abuse hit locations. if I'm playing a DCV 6 brick and get disadvantaged in any way (knocked down, entangled, flashed, whatever) then you only need to hit a dcv of 11 (less if entangled) to punch my ticket to KOville. (usually by way of ConStunnedTinople) It's hard to find a villain in print that can't hit that at least 50% of the time without spreading. Hit locations turn bricks into an endangered species and turns martial artists and EBers into headhunters and nutcrackers. $0.02