MitchellS

Re: Marvel / DC Hero Writeups I contributed several characters a few years ago to the Great Net Book Of Real Heroes here: http://www.sysabend.org/champions/gnborh/

Re: Passing Strike (martial maneuver) Unbalanced? I understand what you're saying but all martial arts maneuvers are all the same basic process. Let's take another example. Offensive Strike costs 5 points is -2 OCV, +1 DCV, and +4d6. Haymaker is -0 OCV, -5 DCV, +4d6, and +1 segment. If you choose to buy Offensive Strike you gain 4 CV and save a segment of time. That's not that much different than gaining 5 CV and 1d6+ extra damage with the Passing Strike. Passing Strike is no-more screwed up than most other martial arts maneuvers, in my opinion.

Re: Passing Strike (martial maneuver) Unbalanced?

Re: Passing Strike (martial maneuver) Unbalanced? Logic would seem to indicate that you can't make a 60" leap in a 10" room. You'd just go shooting over the target due to velocity. There are also height limits so a 10" high room only allows you to leave a maximum of 20", if I remember correctly.

Re: Passing Strike (martial maneuver) Unbalanced? Your numbers are scued to make your point but they are not what would normally be considered correct for a beginning character within the game. There is no experienced GM who would allow a 60 Str brick to take passing strike in a 350 point game. It greatly over-shoots the damage class caps. In higher-powered games like the one I play in it does not make that much of a difference because everyone is using 15-20d6 attacks. The passing strike was primarily designed for speedster characters to give them some advantage in the system. Those characters seldom have a Str higher than 20. You need to use the maneuver within the context of what it was primarliy designed for. That doesn't mean it doesn't have other uses but the GM needs to look at characters and make those decisions on a case-by-case basis. Giving a mentalist x-ray vision and 1" tunneling is not very expensive either but would ruin a game. Does that mean those powers are too powerful? No. I just means that anything can be abused if the GM allows it. There are few bricks I can think of in comic books who do passing strike attacks. Most bricks do Move-throughs not passing strikes. There are dozens of examples of speedsters who do passing strike attacks though, and for them it works whether at a heroic or superherioc level of play.

Re: Speeding Up The Game We used a method very similar to this for a long time and it did speed up combat immensely. Our GM gave each player a chart with the damage. 1 was 1x Stun .5 Body, 2 was 2x Stun .75 Body, 3 was 3x Stun 1x Body, 4 was 4x Stun 1x Body, 5 was 5x Stun 1.25 Body, 6 was 6x Stun 1.5 Body. The chart looked something like this: Roll 12d6 1 12/6 2 24/9 3 36/12 4 48/12 5 60/15 6 72/18

Re: Passing Strike (martial maneuver) Unbalanced? How many martial artists have a 50 Str and 30" flight? My character Midknight has a 50 Str, martial arts, and 10" flight, and he's a character in a 500 point game.

Re: Gladiator's Net - what stats should it have? I think what he was getting at is that it depends on what the net is made out of, and it also depends on what you think a net should hold. Most 10-15 Str people can't rip their way out of a net, but they cut their way out given time. If you think a 25 Str character is Conanesque then a 3/2 net is powerful enough for you. The defense of the net entirely depends upon the power-levels of the game its being used in.

Re: Passing Strike (martial maneuver) Unbalanced? I don't see it as being overly-powerful. On average it adds only 1-2d6 of extra damage over a Move-by (full Str over 1/2 Str) and +3 Ocv, +2 DCV compared to it. If the OCV/DCV issues bother you then just decrease them. It is a 5 point maneuver though and should give more perks than a free maneuver, in my opinion.

Re: Okay, how do you want them to handle the OTHER Organizations? I think the Trismegistus Council's strength comes from the fact that they are aligned with so many "super"-mystics. They can being a lot of mystic might to bear if they call for assistance. I also think they can be powerful in ritual magic where most of the members use Aid in their Magic VPP to grant one member in increased Mystic Pool to cast larger spells.

Re: Vibora Bay... the Mystery of the Queen City

Re: Vibora Bay... the Mystery of the Queen City And why is Nighthawk's outline on the back cover? Stranger and stranger.

Re: Champions Universe Complete?

Re: Champions Universe Complete?

Re: Champions Universe Complete? I would like to see them produce more Champions Universe material. Next year's schedule has 6 books for the CU, 4 for Dark Champions, 4 basically generic, 3 for Pulp Hero, 2 for Star Hero, and 2 for Fantasy Hero. Since I don't play Pulp, Fantasy or Star Hero those 7 books won't be purchased by me. I don't play Dark Champions so there's a good bet only 1 or 2 of those books will be purchased by me. Of the Generic books I'll probaby only buy The Ult. Speedster. So I'm looking at buying, maybe, half of the 2005 line. If there were 4 more Champions Universe books on the list I'd be buying 4 more books. I don't want to see Hero Games produce a bunch of unsupported campaign worlds. They already have 2 or 3 of them. It's far easier for players to buy supported worlds from other companies and convert than it is to try and keep a Terran Empire or Alien Wars game going on two generic science fiction books. I basically believe if you don't like the Champions Universe then just convert San Angelo, Freedom City, or Empire City and use that. If you don't like The Turakian Age or The Valdorian Age then choose and convert from one of the 25 d20 worlds. It just seems easier to do that than to wait for Hero Games to publish the books, and then force the rest of us to wait for books we'd really like to see, only in my opinion.

Re: Empowering items The best thing you can do with the Hero System is keep it simple. If you want your player to be able to use his energy blast to recharge an mp3 player then just let him do it. For something more complicated require a Power Skill roll, and if that is not in Sidekick then just have the player make an Int roll to succeed. There's no reason to buy powers that amount to nothing more than just perk special effects, in my opinion. In our game it would just be handled with a Power Skill roll from the electricty-using hero.

Re: Champions Universe Complete?

Re: Empowering items You could also do it just by using the Succor power. That will give you x amount of End depending on the dice rolled and the character must pay End for it.

Re: PROJECT: The Ultimate GM Screen That's fine accept possibly those other ideas violate Hero Game's IP rights. Doing something yourself and then offering it to Hero Games to post on the website - which they have the right to refuse to do - is not the same thing as asking other to help you do an immoral and possibly illegal act. I'm not trying to be judgemental toward you here. I just believe that in this trying economy it's hard enough for RPG companies to make money without the fans taking away some of their potential revenue.

Re: The Cult of the Red Banner (long post) I also wanted to mention to Lord Liaden that I loved his Cult of the Red Banner information, and if I ever decided to run a Champions game I will definately steal it. Thanks for posting it!

Re: PROJECT: The Ultimate GM Screen There's a 5-panel screen, a 48 page book with summaries of the basic rules and a dozen forms, 36 paper minis, 3 double-sided hex maps. I think that covers everything.

Re: PROJECT: The Ultimate GM Screen What's wrong with the inserts that come with the Resource Kit pdf? Doing this seems to be nothing more than convincing a group of people to do something which will prevent Hero Games from making money from selling their pdf.

Re: Magic Missile My Way I don't believe you can use AE: Accurate and MegaArea with it. Accurate does not allow hitting in the area just a reduced DVC due to the way you attack. I'm also not sure about the Can Only Hit A Number Of Targets Equal To Auto Fire (-1) limitation. It seems as though you're trying to make a megascale AE attack which can only hit 1-5 people (which is the Selective advantage) and then allow it to be used against the DCV 3 (which would require the Accurate advantage) and then trying to give it a limitation saying it can only hit a certain number of people in the area (which becomes that way due to the Selective advantage anyway). I would design your version something like this: 1d6 RKA, MegaScale area: +1/4, AE 1 hex: +1/2, Selective: +1/2, Accurate: +1/2, Autofire: +11/2 (due to AE attack roll), All shots hit the same area/people: -1/2. My version would look more like this: 2d6 EB, NND: +1, Does Body: +1, Autofire: +11/2, LOS: +1/2

Re: Okay, how do you want them to handle the OTHER Organizations? I see the IHA as being a research center into how to cure humanity of the evil of mutation (the view of the public being it is a rehab clinic of sorts for those inflicted) that is also a political lobbyist body. IHA is getting donations from paranoid people who are worried the "muties" are taking over the world. The IHA's biggest followings are from the Midwest and southern states. The IHA has huge political pull from all the lobbying it does as well as numerous politicians in its employ within the various branches of government. I see them even having a cable television program similar to the various religious stations constantly spreading their ideologies about pure human advancement. Of course underneath it all is Project: Genocide - working to rid humanity of genetic mutation for all time.

Re: Champions Universe Complete? I really don't have any interest in generic material. Everything produced now can be just as easily considered generic. I have seen players who use Millennium City, Freedom City, Empire City, San Angelo, and Bay City all in the same world. The fact that they were all designed for different styles of play, and different systems in some cases, does not make them any less useful to gamers. I prefer to see the produced material stay within its continuity. It's far easier to take away material you don't want to use than it is to create new material. For example, if you don't want to use Dr. Destroyer in your game it's far easier to use Millennium City and say it came about by an alien invasion or some other problem, just ignoring the Battle of Detroit, then it is to come up with an entire city on your own. Using the established continuity is just a bonus for gamers who don't have time to do the work themselves; and that's really what game books are for, to give people with less time an easy out. If I want generic I can use any of the material published by GoO and Green Ronin, not to mention the lesser publishers. There's also the licensed material that will be published soon. I really don't want to see DOJ start producing books just for the sake of publishing something. There is too much demand for wanted things within the Hero Universe. I don't want to wait even longer while DOJ starts publishing books that have nothing to do with nothing. Just my opinion, and only my opinion.