Frenchman

Re: Final Fantasy potions and items and Monsters Yeah, that sounds great. Though Erkenfresh's idea of a .doc or a website would most likely work better, in that they'd be easier to sort through.

Re: Superfluous Powers I'd do away with different levels of transform (cosmetic, minor, major) - it would be much simpler and more elegant to fold those into a single transform power that functioned like a major transform with partial effect.

Re: Talent List and Descriptions?

Re: A third sense type I always found the active sense rules to be funny - if you can just define a sense as active (for less points that a passive one, to boot) then you essentially gain the advantage of the transmit adder for nothing! I feel they could be better described with two parts: transmitting and receiving. The receiving part of a sense could be either active or passive - either you have to 'turn it on' or it is 'always on' The transmitting part is not one that every character has - most can't transmit any sensory information other than (maybe, if I understand the rules correctly) sound. So you could have a sense that passivly recieves ambient information, such as human vision, or you could have one that actively recieves it, such as a mystic 'aura sight' which can be turned on by concentrating. Alternatly, you could have either a passive or an active sense with transmit. A passive sense with transmit is kinda like a person with a flashlight, or one of those fish that have glowing organs beneath their eyes. You can just recieve the ambient sensory information, but if there isn't enough of it, you can turn on the flashlight to create your own source of sensory info. An active sense is similar, except that you have to turn on the reception as well as the transmission.

Re: Build me a madness dagger A quick and dirty way would be to make it a drain Int/Ego, or maybe mental illusions. A few questions: Does the wielder of the dagger have any control over the effect? I tend to think not. Are the effects always the same - they always suffer from hallucinations, paranoia, or whatnot, or are the specifics different for each victim? What sort of defense, if any, can protect you from this effect? Are the effects temporary, long-term, or permanant? Can they be reversed? Remember, this is Hero, so we can give you as many different ways to build this as there are members on the boards. Reason from effect: What do you want the insanity to accomplish? Does it make the character completely unable to interact with the real world? Maybe an entangle or an ego blast. If they have wild hallucinations which they interact with instead of the real world, maybe mental images. If the hallucinations and paranoia are just sFX for losing mental strength, perceptiveness, and decision-making abilities, then a drain to int and ego would work.

Re: Talent List and Descriptions? I'd work really well as an HD file with both the talents as talents and also as powers, statted out like they are in the books.

Re: All Scots don't have 17 str! My thought was to expand the list of default maneuvers - not martial maneuvers. Adding these for each weapon would allow the flexibility to model combat a bit better without having to make every character a martial artist with every weapon they decide to wield. Seeing as I doubt this would be of any use to my games, since my players have difficulty using maneuvers other than the regular strike without prompting (yes, even the martial artists), and noticing the lack of comments on the idea I'm just scrapping it. Seemed like a good idea at the time. On to the next one...

Re: All Scots don't have 17 str! In regard to Utech's point - Instead of a multipower for the weapon, I'm thinking of adding a short list of maneuvers for weapons that can be used in several different ways - lets do a quarterstaff for an example. Quarterstaff: (Total: 35 Active Cost, 10 Real Cost) HA +4d6, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (30 Active Points); OAF (-1), Hand-To-Hand Attack (-1/2), STR Minimum 10 (-1/2), Required Hands Two-Handed (-1/2), Real Weapon (-1/4) (Real Cost: 8) plus +1 with HTH Combat (5 Active Points); OAF (-1), Real Weapon (-1/4) (Real Cost: 2) There are several ways (I read maneuvers) that this weapon can be used. If I missed any, please call me on it. Half-Staff Bash: Holding the staff with one hand near the end and one near the center, or with one hand at the 'quarter-points,' the character 'punches' with the end of the staff. Not especially accurate or powerful, but it makes setting up a sequence of blows easier, as one end of the staff is cocked back as the other end strikes. Half-Staff Trip: Holding the staff as above, one end of the staff is hooked behind an opponents leg and brought forcefully back towards the wielder. Alternatly, the staff can be thrust between the legs of a moving opponent. Does little or no damage, but puts your opponent on the ground. Half-Staff Jab: Using the staff like a spear to stab an opponent. This allows more powerful blows focused over a smaller area. Full-Staff Bash: With both hands near the same end of the staff, the wielder swings as hard as they can. Powerful, but clumsy. Full-Staff Jab: With both hands, or even just one hand, on the very end of the staff, the wielder extends it as far as they can. The benefits of a Half-Staff Jab are lost to the manner in which the wielder must extend themselves as far as they can. Gives extra reach, but puts the wielder off-balance. Now that I've described them, I'll reason from effects. Maneuver OCV DCV STR Min Effect Half-Staff Bash - - +0 Strike, +2 OCV with Sweep Half-Staff Trip -1 -1 +2 Opposed STR to make target Fall Half-Staff Jab -1 - -3 Strike Full-Staff Bash -1 -1 -5 Strike Full-Staff Jab -1 -1 - Strike, +1" of stretching Comments, criticisms and suggestions are welcome.

Re: Building Cities Thanks very much, more links to bookmark.

Re: And off we go! Wow! Great cliffhanger. I'm eatin' this up.

Re: My Players Awesome. I love it when I can paint minis for a specific scenario.

Re: All Scots don't have 17 str!

Re: Berserker In a heroic-level game, anything built on this level of points is just plot device. Unless your characters are gods built on super-heroic amounts of points, they haven't got an Orc's chance in a dwarven bar.

Re: Missile Weapons for HD I made it with v3, but I don't think it should make a difference. Just checked, I'm able to open it with v2.42.

Re: Power Defense Power defense, at it's most generic, does have a unified special effect that works against all adjustment powers: "I am difficult to alter" Thats what all adjustment powers do, regardless of how they do them - they alter your character. If you need a different version of power def to resist magic than you do to resist psionics (to pick two from Rkane's list at random), do you need a different version of energy defense to resist fire than you do acid? I personally have some trouble coming up with more than three or four different (ie: non-generic) special effects for something which defends you against fire, electricity, cold, plasma, sound waves, acid, and a host of other energy attacks but doesn't help against a sword or stick.

Re: Missile Weapons for HD Good Idea. Done.

Re: And Now For Something Completely Different Well...I guess my memory is faulty - cuz I remembered this rule differently. Thanks, Ghost-Angel.

Re: Robyn's straightforward and HERO-compatible Block house-rule The KB idea is a good one, I'd rep you if I could, LL. I'd say a block roll that succeeds by 2 or more allows you to choose which direction you go. How about the blocking character gets 1/2 their STR DCs as KBR? So when Jo Normal with 10 STR blocks a 20 STR biker's punch, he has 1" of KBR vs. the potential KB from the hit, but the hit won't likely do KB anyways. A 25 STR character would have 3" (lets round up), meaning a 60 STR brick could expect to do 3" of KB against him. This would only have much effect in cases where there is an extreme difference in STR (+50% or more).

Re: Elemental Link This actually sounds good, though I'd allow it with any powers, not just for characters with and EC or other framework. For example, a spellcaster has bought a Multipool of spells, and three or so spells outside the multipool - because they're too big or because he wants to use them at the same time. I'd allow the character to apply this to any or all of his spells so that a Drain Magic (+1/4 one spell at a time) would drain all of the spells bought with this limitation. I'd be cautious and reserve final judgement about the "+1/4 The Elemental Linked Powers gain from any Aid powers" part of it, especially if the character has an aid power themselves. That presents a predicament. If I were to munchkin a character, I might just buy my Earth Powers EC and a many different powers like Armor, Damage Reduction, KBR, etc... outside the EC, and apply the +0 version of this, where aids and drains both work. Then I'd buy an aid for one of my powers - voila! Its like getting the +2 Expanded effect for almost free. I think I'd need to do some math to determine whether or not I'd allow that part of it at all, but it does sound good. Edit: Aaand I can't give rep to you till I give some to someone else. Any takers?

Re: And Now For Something Completely Different Ghost-Angel, forgive my bluntness, but I suspect you may be missing the point. Please forgive me if I'm wrong. I don't want to 'pick up' a hammer and have it pount on an enemy - I want to throw that hammer at the enemy. I would like the damage that hammer does to be based on the current STR of the character who is wielding it, not a fixed value unrelated to the character's STR. In short, I want an HKA, Ranged which does normal damage instead of killing damage. With an EB (or TK) the damage stays the same, regardless of who is wielding the weapon.

Re: The building blocks of the universe. The altering of the building blocks of the universe thingy is definitly a VPP. I'd get 'im a large one of the cosmic variety - unless he needs special training or knowledge (a skill) to use/change the information he sees. I'd buy the reading of the ÃœberDNA as a Detect of 3 Large Groups of things (Matter, Energy, & Everything Else) with analyze & discriminatory. Add other modifiers to taste.

Re: My Players I like Artavan's Lockpicks. Can't help but notice that he's a melee fighter (as in he fights in melee, not as in he's a Fighter) with almost no armor. Isaac looks like fun - big, strong, slooow tin can. But he has no Sallets! If theres much combat in your game I'm betting he's going to buy up his speed right quick. His PRE attacks will be a blast for him. Mani is a well-made character, with two glaring exceptions - Highest DEX in the party, speed 2. And her psi powers work on a 9- roll. Ouch. Great flexibility though. Schalk's a.k.a. is amusing. I like how you have their backgrounds tieing into eachother allready - sign of a good GM. A Thorgon!? I said to myself, especially when I saw his skills with ranged weapons - I was thinking Laser Rifle and that you'd lost your mind. Now that I think about it, Thorgon's make a great Fantasy race. Way to adapt the material to your needs! Looks like you've got a great party on your hands. Right now, the characters (as well as the players) are inexperienced, and thats a good thing. I long for the days when I can GM a party like this one. Good Luck and Have Fun!

Re: Sectional Defences Wow, thats neat. If you find that book, send me the title, I'd love to read. Damned Euro-centric Mesoamerican studies!

Re: Feats Galore

Re: And Now For Something Completely Different Yes, it does - except that the damage it does isn't based on the character's STR - I could do the same as with EB, buy it up to the highest level it could reasonably get to and limit it to function at a level equal to current STR, but its even wackier than doing it with EB with all the extra limitations