Frenchman

Re: Suggestions welcome for 'Reality Takeover' ideas... When I first discovered Hero, I just told all my players that it was fine with me if they wanted to play DnD, but I would only GM for Hero. It took me a while to get them to agree to try a fantasy hero game, but I did eventually without having to resort to any nasty tricks. The sneakiness I was planning, however goes as follows. Tell the players that you want to GM a post-apocalyptic game, with powerful mutants who wield mysterious powers, strange beasts mutated from earthly stock, including other intelligent races, and irradiated artifacts that possess strange powers. If they ask about mutations, tell them that most (if not all) mutations will have some common limitations (this is your magic system), I was going to use concentration and charges, and most mutant powers have more limitations. Most mutants have many different abilities to call upon. Now make your world pretty nice, instead of a wasteland. The apocalypse was war, disease, or famine, or something that killed off most humans without affecting the landscape or environment much. Then cosmic rays, a mysterious shift in the universese magical forces, or leftover nuclear waste contaminated many areas, from when all these strange mutants come. When they get to equipment, outfit them with swords and bows and armor. Explain to them that the few remaining bits of modern technology are so rare, that many don't believe they ever existed (so rare in fact, that the players will never encounter one throughout the campaign...) and they rarely work anyways. After a few sessions pass, ask everyone how they like it, and how they would compare it to DnD. If they haven't realized this yet, point out to them that the game they are playing is a game of Fantasy Hero. More than a bit sneaky, but (with my group at least) sometimes people need to get smacked upside the head with a better option before they consider it.

Re: If you could add one more... I like the idea of the stealing power, its the best one on this thread (not that the others aren't good too, like the implied suggestion to glom Aid and Healing together) but I think it would work best as an adder. +10 points allows an aid (or transfer) to grant powers to its target that they didn't have. Would work great in fantasy games when you want to cast your Spell of Magic Resistance (Aid Power Defense and Mental Defense) on anyone but the guy who allready is magic resistant.

Re: "Classes of Minds" (for Mental Powers) Great Idea OddHat. Of course, I say this in part because it is almost identical to how I wanted to do it in my groups star hero campaign (the last two groups were glommed together). Sadly my group didn't want to deal with it, and so it is just a question that is avoided entirely. The only non-humans we would ever want to use mental powers on are immune to mental powers entirely I'm glad to hear that it is working well in your games, and I just may bring it back up again.

Re: Highlander HERO Awesome! Only thing is that the way you have built the Quickening, it aids EVERYTHING on the character sheet all at once (may or may not be what you wanted) and it maxes out at 6 points of aid (not what you wanted) after killing one or two immortals. Maybe replace the +2 Can aid all similtaneously with +1/4 any one thing at a time and use the extra points to buy up the cap

Re: Killing attack optioal damage It does I have to say that I agree with you on this. The killing attack mechanics work GREAT in heroic level games, but pretty badly in superheroic ones. And directed to TRL about your comments on a shotgun=loaded freighter.... Where do you get the idea that a shotgun deals 21d6 (or equivalent DCs of killing damage, which would be 7d6)? According to page 332 of the book, a 12 guage does 2 1/2d6 with a +1 stun multiple, yielding a grand total of 10 DCs, the equivalent of 10d6 normal damage. The biggest attack on that page does 6d6 AP killing, but then again that is a MISSILE. I'm just curious where your numbers came from.

Re: Interpreting "Body" Exactly what I was thinking throughout reading your post, RDUNeil. The Hero system is based on generic powers (and characteristics, to a lesser extent) that are defined by their in-game special effects, more than their out-of-story mechanics. For example, in our star hero game I play a Psion with lots of TK. He is physically strong (heavyworlder) but his TK enhances this. Because the special effect of his TK is "Telekinesis that rapidly drops in strength as range increases" his maximum-force TK is bought as extra STR. If he was a weakling, he would still have 30+ STR, defined as TK rather than lifting power. Body, or any other stat, works the same way. The average human and the average squirrel have the same INT (8), but obviously they aren't equally intelligent. That said, I have gone off on people before for creating small, frail-looking characters with 15+ STR, CON, and Body, because usually more BODY=more Mass. But not always. It's all about the special Effects, guys.

Re: help with wind spell ideas You could do an energy blast with double KB, possibly with area of effect (cone or line work best). A whistle could be a killing attack, possibly with AOE radius and AVLD (flash defense). An interesting one I had a player do once (not in hero, sadly, so I don't have it written up) was a paralysis spell that lasted as long as the mage could hold his breath. The special effect was that the mage sucked in the characters animating spirit (or soul or whatever) and trapped it in his lungs.

Re: Here Be Dragons! I sent the gold dragon/hydra againt a party of 200 pt heroic normals. The paladin had been killed on the way in (friggin Ork ripped his face off) and the party was still able to defeat it, but only because they could hide from its breath weapon in a giant pool of holy water.

Re: Here Be Dragons! ...Aaand... here's the hdc files for anyone interested

Re: Here Be Dragons! This one is a conversion of an Iron Kingdoms beastie... Dracodile Player: Val Char Cost 43 STR 18 16 DEX 18 23 CON 26 20 BODY 20 8 INT -2 6 EGO -8 25 PRE 15 6 COM -2 20 PD 6 12 ED 3 3 SPD 4 11 REC 0 50 END 2 50 STUN 4 4" RUN-46" SWIM04 1/2" LEAP-4Characteristics Cost: 96 Cost Power END 25 Bite: HKA 1 1/2d6 (3d6+1 w/STR) 2 5 Lockjaw: +15 STR (15 Active Points); Only to maintain Grabs (-1 1/2), No Figured Characteristics (-1/2) 1 84 Breath Weapon: (Total: 153 Active Cost, 84 Real Cost) EB 8d6, Lingering up to 1 Turn (More if the air is still, less if especially breezy; +1/2), Area Of Effect (25" Cone; +1 1/4) (110 Active Points); No Range (-1/2), 4 Continuing Charges lasting 1 Turn each (-1/2) (Real Cost: 55) plus Change Environment 8" radius (16" Cone; +0), +1 Temperature Level Adjustment, -2 to EGO Rolls, or act confused for 1/2 phase, -4 to CON Rolls, or retch for 1/2 phase, Multiple Combat Effects (43 Active Points); 4 Continuing Charges lasting 1 Turn each (-1/2) (Real Cost: 29) [Notes: This creature belches forth a noxious cloud of acidic gas in a 16" cone that lingers, possible for a long time. A magical breeze will clear it away almost instantly] [4 cc] 10 Tail Bash: HA +4d6 (20 Active Points); Hand-To-Hand Attack (-1/2), Only With Extra Limb (-1/2) 2 18 Scaly Skin: Armor (8 PD/4 ED) 0 12 Heavy: Knockback Resistance -6" 0 4 Strong Swimmer: Swimming +4" (6" total) 1 0 Short Legs: Running -3" (already figured in) 0 1 Lunge: Leaping 1"; Only To Lunge At Things Near The Water (-1) 1 2 Burst Of Speed: Running 4" (8 Active Points); Increased Endurance Cost (8x END; -3 1/2) 8 12 Draconian Senses: +4 PER with All Sense Groups 0 5 Crocodilian Eyes: Nightvision 0 6 Tail: Extra Limbs , Inherent (+1/4) (6 Active Points) 0 Powers Cost: 184 Cost Skill 10 +2 with HTH Combat 4 +2 Bite 6 +3 with Grab 2 Concealment 11- (3 Active Points); Self Only (-1/2) 3 Stealth 12- Skills Cost: 25 Cost Talent 3 Environmental Movement (Aquatic Movement (no penalties in water)) Talents Cost: 3 Total Character Cost: 308 Val Disadvantages 15 Physical Limitation: Animal Intelligence Frequently, Greatly Impairing 15 Physical Limitation: Cold Blooded Frequently, Greatly Impairing 10 Physical Limitation: Enormous (8m; -4 DCV, +4 to PER Rolls to perceive) Frequently, Slightly Impairing 5 Physical Limitation: Reduced Leap, can only leap 1" Infrequently, Slightly Impairing 15 Physical Limitation: Very Limited Manipulation Frequently, Greatly Impairing Disadvantage Points: 60 Base Points: 75 Experience Required: 173 Total Experience Available: 173 Experience Unspent: 0

Re: Here Be Dragons! And his heads... Gold Dragon Head Player: Val Char Cost 20 STR 10 16 DEX 18 15 CON 10 8 BODY -4 8 INT -2 10 EGO 0 15 PRE 5 6 COM -2 20/40 PD 16 20/40 ED 17 3 SPD 4 7 REC 0 30 END 0 28 STUN 2 4" RUN-44" SWIM21" LEAP-3Characteristics Cost: 69 Cost Power END 25 Bite: Killing Attack - Hand-To-Hand 1 1/2d6 (3d6 w/STR) 2 15 Claws: Killing Attack - Hand-To-Hand 1d6 (2d6 w/STR) 1 48 Fiery Breath: Killing Attack - Ranged 2d6, Area Of Effect (12" Line; +1) (60 Active Points); Reduced Penetration (-1/4) 6 40 Immune to Fire: Armor (20 PD/20 ED) (60 Active Points); Only Works Against Limited Type Of Attack Fire (-1/2) 0 5 Scaley Skin: Damage Resistance (5 PD/5 ED) 0 30 Divine Protection: Physical & Energy Damage Reduction, Resistant, 25%, Doesn't Work Against Evil 0 6 Draconic Senses: +2 PER with All Sense Groups 0 5 Ultraviolet Perception (Sight Group) 0 5 Infrared Perception (Sight Group) 0 Powers Cost: 179 Cost Skill 20 +4 with HTH Combat Skills Cost: 20 Cost Talent 3 Lightsleep Talents Cost: 3 Total Character Cost: 271 Val Disadvantages 10 Physical Limitation: Near- Human Intelligence (Frequently, Slightly Impairing) 10 Physical Limitation: Huge (-6 DCV, +6 to PER to percieve) (Frequently, Slightly Impairing) 5 Physical Limitation: Reduced Leap (Infrequently, Slightly Impairing) 15 Physical Limitation: Very Limited Manipulation (Frequently, Greatly Impairing) 25 Psychological Limitation: Utterly Good (Very Common, Total) Disadvantage Points: 65 Base Points: 200 Experience Required: 6 Total Experience Available: 153 Experience Unspent: 147

Re: Here Be Dragons! Here's one from when I first switched from dnd to Hero Gold Dragon Player: Val Char Cost 40 STR 30 16 DEX 18 25 CON 30 25 BODY 30 8 INT -2 10 EGO 0 30 PRE 20 6 COM -2 20/40 PD 12 20/40 ED 15 3 SPD 4 13 REC 0 50 END 0 60 STUN 2 4" RUN-44" SWIM25" LEAP-3Characteristics Cost: 152 Cost Power END 25 Bite: Killing Attack - Hand-To-Hand 1 1/2d6 (3d6+1 w/STR) 2 15 Claws: Killing Attack - Hand-To-Hand 1d6 (2d6 w/STR) 1 48 Fiery Breath: Killing Attack - Ranged 2d6, Area Of Effect (12" Line; +1) (60 Active Points); Reduced Penetration (-1/4) 6 40 Immune to Fire: Armor (20 PD/20 ED) (60 Active Points); Only Works Against Limited Type Of Attack Fire (-1/2) 0 5 Scaley Skin: Damage Resistance (5 PD/5 ED) 0 30 Divine Protection: Physical & Energy Damage Reduction, Resistant, 25%, Doesn't Work Against Evil 0 18 Regeneration: Healing 3 BODY, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Persistent (+1/2) (60 Active Points); Extra Time (Regeneration-Only) 1 Turn (Post-Segment 12) (-1 1/4), Self Only (-1/2), Doesn't Work on Cauterized Wounds (-1/2) 0 100 Five Heads: Duplication (creates 4 200-point Duplicates), Cannot Recombine (+0), Altered Duplicates (100%; +1) (100 Active Points) 0 17 Cut off a Head and Two Shall Take its Place: Duplication (creates 24 0-point Duplicates) (25 Active Points); Doesn't Work if Regeneration is Stopped (-1/2) 0 18 Heavy: Knockback Resistance -9" 0 6 Draconic Senses: +2 PER with All Sense Groups 0 5 Ultraviolet Perception (Sight Group) 0 5 Infrared Perception (Sight Group) 0 6 Tail: Extra Limbs , Inherent (+1/4) (6 Active Points) 0 13 Wings: Flight 10" (20 Active Points); Restrainable (-1/2) 2 Powers Cost: 351 Cost Skill 20 +4 with HTH Combat Skills Cost: 20 Cost Talent 3 Lightsleep Talents Cost: 3 Total Character Cost: 526 Val Disadvantages 10 Physical Limitation: Near- Human Intelligence (Frequently, Slightly Impairing) 10 Physical Limitation: Huge (-6 DCV, +6 to PER to percieve) (Frequently, Slightly Impairing) 5 Physical Limitation: Reduced Leap (Infrequently, Slightly Impairing) 15 Physical Limitation: Very Limited Manipulation (Frequently, Greatly Impairing) 25 Psychological Limitation: Utterly Good (Very Common, Total) Disadvantage Points: 65 Base Points: 200 Experience Required: 261 Total Experience Available: 153 Experience Unspent: 0

Re: Sex as a skill But...if you make sex a set of skills, then the French package deal becomes too expensive... +10 with sex skills (30 points)

Re: Social "Combat' and "Duels" I don't think that most games need such complicated rules but every once in a while. That said, they do need them once in a while, meaning that maybe there should be something there. Oh, wait. There is. Presence Attacks. Thats one thing you can do with them, is use them in social combat. I was simply suggesting that some 'normal' combat maneuvers be allowed to apply to them, making for more intricate and unpredictable social interaction. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. There are allready rules for this, they just might need to be expanded upon a little bit. Also, in response to SleepyDrug's comment that we should roleplay our roleplaying...Don't you roleplay combat? Or is it, "I rolled a 7, I hit it for 4 Body and 12 Stun." How boring. Even when we are totally out of our game and ready to pack up for the day, our combats never go below, "I swing my sword at him, okay I got 'im in the arm for 4 Body and 12 Stun." As for TRL's comment on roleplaying qualities which we lack, I totally agree. In my younger years one of my best friends and roleplaying buddies was The Brian, as he was known. He wasn't dumb, in fact he could think up better solutions to problems than many of us could. He just needed time to do it. A lot of time. He had slightly above average intelligence with the limitation Extra Time (5 hours), so in the short run, he was pretty dumb. Most of his characters were big dumb bricks, which he roleplayed really well and had a lot of fun doing it. But once in a while he would create the uber-mage with globs of Int. Being that we were 12 and 13 at the time, we mostly made fun of the poor guy for not being able to even come close to thinking of 'the intelligent' thing to do. Years later, our games started shifting from hacknslash to epic world-saving with lots of political intrigue, and I created a few characters who were supposed to be suave debonair types. Lets just say I am not an eloquent speaker. I have good conversation skills, but when it comes to saying something dramatic and meaningful, I reach for the Big Book o' Quotes. This made me think of The Brian again, and realize that a roleplaying game limited players, in some ways, by their intellectual and social capacities. Just this saturday, it happened again, and I (who had been helping a hero newbie create a character instead of paying attention to what was going on) suddenly had my character thrust into a spot where I was expected to come up with an inspiring soliloqy (sp) on the spot. I was totally blank. Crap. I think my exact words were, "He says something cool. Lemme roll my presence attack." He didn't say anything cool, because even though I got 12 dice of presence attack, I rolled 14. Ouch. I came home that night, saw this thread, wrote my response, and kicked myself. I should have done a haymaker! I'm going to stop typing now, because I ramble too much and this post is way to long and meaningless

Re: Mind Control Arrow, Help with one of Steve's rulings I would just add continuous and uncontrolled to it, thereby 'reinforcing' the mind control every phase

Re: Little help with Healing Advantages / Disadvantages Being in Love with the Target has gotta be at least -1 1/2, and thats only if you're the adventurering parties MOM! I'd call it a -2, since most characters only have 1 or 2 people they 'love' outside their family, and the family is usually far away and/or doesn't really need a lot of healing magic.

Re: Bardic Magic You said you're making it a multipower, right? Well then you put the incantations limitation on the pool, and any songs you wish to 'weave' together you make flexible slots. Bardic Music Multipower (40 points), AOE Radius, Selective (+1 1/4), Incantations Throughout (-1/2) 1u) Kereoke- RKA 1d6, AVLD (Hearing Group Flash Defense, +1 1/2), No Range (-1/2), Side Effects (You Sound HORRIBLE! Lose 2d6 of reputation, -1/2) 2m) Saving Face- FF 10PD/10ED/10PowD/10MD, Usuable by Others (+1/4) 3m) Inspiring Bloodshed- +6 with OCV, Usuable by others (+1/4) I just did this off the top of my head, so the math is probly all bad (why I didn't include most of it). Like this you could either perform Kereoke, damaging all of your foes within range, or you could attempt to Save Face of you and your friends, giving them 10 DEF in just about everything, or you could Inspire Bloodshed, making you and your friends incredibly accurate and deadly(remember cv's can be applied to damage), or you could Save Face AND Inspire Bloodshed, giving 5 DEF and +3 OCV, or some other combination of the two.

Re: Well blow me down really really far. 36" to be exact

Re: Social "Combat' and "Duels" I can see 'social combat' working with many of the same 'maneuvers' that are used in real combat. You can pause for dramatic effect, allowing people to focus on your next words, but possible giving a quick-witted foe an opportunity to interrupt you or disarm your coming comment (haymaker) You can make insult or insinuation one after another, barely giving your opponent a chance to gain his bearings in your verbal barrage, but increasing the chances of stumbling over your words and sounding like an idiot (sweep) You can deflect or twist the meaning of an incoming comment with a few simple words, turning it benign or even favorable (block) These are just a few examples, and a creative GM could come up with many more, such as attacking your opponents credibility (possibly represented as a drain pre), or a phrase so well-turned that your opponent is literally stunned into silence (if your presence attack more than doubles his presence, perhaps).

Re: Summon vs. Duplication, Invisible Power Effects for >1 action? This just sounds like the SFx of a sweep to me. Buy him two-weapon fighting (ranged) and be done with it. If he is firing off AF bursts from each weapon, you will need the rapid autofire skill as well.

Re: Spell Cost and Magic System Our high fantasy setting uses the Mana and cost/3 for everyone, but it was slightly out of hand (just barely, with the uber-lightning bolt every phase). We tweaked it a little, so that you only get your Mana recovery every hour (that reduced the lightning bolts to once or twice a battle) but then the mage's player started complaining and made a warrior. The cost/3 works well to give mages a powerful repetoire, allowing them to buy many different spells. It also allows powergaming players to buy 4-5 REALLY powerful spells, especially since a straight active point limit is often inappropriate for fantasy spells. Our current solution is cost/3 and we enforce that all spellcasters MUST have RSR: Magic Roll (-1/2) on all their spells (we use a modified penalty system instead of active points/10, though, to make it a bit more fair). Mana recovers normally if the spell has an expendable focus, or it returns at the characters mana recovery every hour otherwise. This is how we are doing things, and it's still a work in progress. Hope it helps.

Re: Some converted magic items I have found my new favorite evil villain weapon...the Staff of BoneBreaking. I Thank you from the bottom of my black and twisted heart.

Re: Spells that work against pain Actually there is a rules mechanic (page 276) for resisting pain allready, it's called wounding. It's like getting stunned by taking body damage, but only if you fail an EGO roll.

Re: Penetrating Killing/BOD Attacks Yea, I was confused about that too. What difference does it make what order the defenses are applied in? For AP, non-hardened (or those that arent hardened enough) are halved, regardless of whether or not the hardened defenses are 'on top' or 'beneath' them. Right?

Re: Activation and RSR I always hated the No AP Penalty mod. It makes a standard skill roll A: No different than an activation roll, and B: Worth less (as a disadvantage) than it would be if bought for an activation roll. Most of the time when I buy a skill roll, it is 13- to 15-, and if No Ap Penalty was applied, the RSR limitation would be worth -0. How is a chance of failure, especially when it's a pretty decent one, not limiting? I just do away with it and buy an activation roll instead.