Alkai

Re: best way? Excellent guys. Thanks for all the help. I think I'll tell him to go with a VPP to simulate the functions of all the gadgets he'll "buy".

Hello all, I am wracking my brain trying to figure out how to help one of my players build the type of character he wants to play. We are playing a superheroic campaign. My friend wants to play a highly skill-based gadgeteer type of character. In his initial design he bought the Money perk at the highest level, thinking that that would allow him to use money to buy gadgets that would help him use his skills. In effect, he wants to play a heroic character in a superheroic campaign. Some of the skills in question include demolitions, lockpicking, security systems, bugging, etc. I responded to him with the usual "since we are playing a superheroic campaign, these things need to be bought with CPs" explanation. He then asked me whether his money perk was effectively useless. I'm not sure what to think. On one hand, being Filthy Rich he should have the ability to acquire this type of equipment. On the other hand, I understand that it could be unbalancing, especially since other characters pay CPs for their abilities. I'm not even sure how to reasonably "prevent" him from acquiring these items once play begins. So I started thinking some more and thought to ask you wise folks for some input on how he can best build the character he wants to play... Do you think something along the lines of a variable power pool with the Skills power is the best way to play according to superheroic rules? Any help you can offer would be most appreciated.

Re: help with building powers Well, the session went pretty well last Friday. Of course, since the group was unfamiliar with the intricacies of the Hero system we spent all night making characters. We were able to end the night after a mock battle between the PCs (so that I could show them how combat worked). The player who wanted the Shadowcat character discussed earlier in this thread ended up changing his mind completely and going with a mentalist type of character. Even though he is my friend, he is a bit of a problem player. I had to forbid him from pumping an insane amount of points into Mind Control. In fact, he was trying to get away with having Mind Control as his ONLY power (can you say, "24d6"?), with just enough points thrown into END to allow him to use it at full power more than once. He didn't want to take any other skills, perks, talents, characteristics, or powers. He didn't seem to comprehend why I was prohibiting him from doing what he wanted. He got a bit upset that "it appeared" that I wasn't imposing limits on the other players. I told him that I was approving characters on a case-by-case basis, and that I would apply the same "quality control check" criteria to each of the other player characters. The other players created very interesting and intriguing characters, with reasonable abilities, and I really didn't have to mess with their builds. Finally I think he understood my reasoning, but he remained a bit sore about it. One other question I got dealt with ingame money. As we were playing a superheroic campaign, I gave them the reasons outlined in FRed as to why you can't spend money on equipment and such, and instead had to pay for everything in CPs. The aforementioned player had a tough time grasping that as well. How do you guys handle money in superheroic campaigns? Is it really used at all? If not, do you see a point in taking the money perk? Beyond these troubles, the night went very well, and the mock combat was quite enjoyable.

Re: help with building powers Wow! Thanks for the help everyone! The session ended up not happening because one of the players threw out his back and was on some pretty heavy meds, so we decided to hold out. But actually I think it is preferable that I take some more time to prepare anyway. We're now scheduled for this coming Friday. I think one of the toughest to grasp, yet coolest, things about the Hero System is the sheer amount of possible ways to build powers. I am almost finished designing Shadowcat for my friend. I'll post what I came up with shortly.

Re: help with building powers Yeah, it is a relatively low-powered (200 base, 100 disadvantages) supers game. I'm not sure if they'll want to run pregen'd characters... but that's a good idea. I'll run it by them. It is really only this one particular player who seems to have difficulty separating himself from past RPGs he's played. The rest of the group seemed very interested and looking forward to character design.

Hello All, While I purchased Hero a couple of years ago, I am just now able to run an introductory session for my friends. Blame the delay on my groups' fascination with d20. The session is scheduled for tomorrow night. Anyway, I reckon most of the night will be spent making characters. To make things easier on us all (3 of us played 3rd edition Champions way back in the day, but none have played recently), I chose to go with Sidekick instead of the full Hero System. I think this is a wise move. One of my friends is going to be late to the session, so he sent me his concept and asked me to make his character for him. Now, this guy is not known for his originality, and neither does he really know how Hero works. But I'd rather him play the kind of character that he wants to play, so I'm trying to build the character as close to his vision as possible. Here is the exact text of what he wants me to build for him. The powers I need help with are bolded. The rest I think I can figure out (although feel free to chime in if you have ideas). I want to play Shadowcat Type: the Combatant, a la Wolverine, or Deadpool, or Bullseye, etc. As opposed to say the "speedster" or the "muscle". Concept: Alien Gladiator Abilities: Shadowmeld - not true invisibility and not as "schooled" as others in it's use (who can move AND be Shadowmelded) but as long as I don't move too much (I can kneel down and get back up, take out a weapon, and such, but taking a "five-foot step" ruins the meld), I'm "Heavily Camoflauged". Charge/Initiative Priority: Shadowcat is quick, but not necessarily fast, like a cheetah she can make short bursts of speed say every other "round". When charging an opponent has a chance to Stun (possible?) that opponent. Combat Expertise: Expert with all weapons and a few martial arts styles, but focus on Swords/Claws. Low-Light Vision and Keen Hearing; in D&D terms has blind-fighting feat. Also in AD&D terms (trying to think how to put warrior abilities from WOW into D&D terms): Two-Weapon fighting Cleave, Great Cleave Improved Disarm Improved Feint Improved Trip Quick Draw Improved Initiative Power attack Improved Sunder Improved Critical (keen) Whirlwind attack Stunning Blow oh, and yells, one to boost her AND her allies confidence (say giving everyone a +4 to hit, so to speak) and a demoralizing shout (- 4 to hit from enemies). And some minor regeneration ability, Fast healing 1 or 2 (1 point healed per round). Weakness: She relies on weapon and armor; she'll use the best she's got at the time. She's still a master martial artists but, she can't sunder weapons with a Karate Chop. Any help you can give me would be appreciated.

I am curious as to why the Hand-to-Hand attack power imposes a mandatory limitation of "Hand-To-Hand Attack" when the Hand-to-Hand Killing Attack does not. Besides the obvious difference of what type of damage they do (normal damage for HA vs killing damage for HKA) I see no reason why they should not otherwise be handled the same. Is there something I'm missing?

Re: Quick Question about Aid and Proper Limitation for Self Only Thanks. I must have missed that somewhere, heh.

Title pretty much says it all. If I purchase Aid with the limitation "only works on self", would that be worth a 1/2 limitation, or more? By the way, I love the game. I picked it up awhile ago but we are just getting around to playing it (hopefully I've jogged them sufficiently out of d20, at least for the moment).

Re: Challenge! The Hero System in One Page! I think that this is an excellent idea. I am looking forward to reading the entries! I am new to 5er, which I just got in December. Played Champions back in the early 90s, and do remember a bit about it. Mentioned Hero to my gaming buddies. They marveled at the size of 5er, but to my great disappointment did not have the enthusiasm I expected of them. Maybe it's because they are still wrapped up in d20. I'm sure they'll agree to play eventually, but a single sheet serving as an introduction might just do the trick to get them a bit more motivated.

Re: Matryoshka Madness I don't have much to offer, since I just got my copy of Hero yesterday (although I am an experienced gamer and played Champions back in the early 90s). Have you thought about what happens when the host dies? Would this mean that the creature itself dies, or does the creature slip out and live on? Or is the host already "dead" once the creature takes control? If the creature dies with the host, then that can be easily classified as a pretty significant limitation. If the host is already dead, I would basically treat the body it inhabits as armor (very minor armor at that) and also impose a OCV penalty on the attacker to actually hit the creature instead of just the host. Or, you could always just use the hit location optional rule. I know I probably wasn't much help, but those are just ideas that came to the top of my head.

Re: Hooray for Newbies! why are you suddenly here?

Re: Hooray for Newbies! why are you suddenly here? I had Champions back in the early 90s. My friends and I went through a stage of trying out almost every RPG that was on the shelves -- Shadowrun, Cyberpunk, Gurps, Rifts, D&D, Cynnibar (anyone remember that one?), Earthdawn, Warhammer, TMNT, Vampire, etc etc. In '96 I moved out to San Diego and consequently lost contact with my gaming buddies. I moved back to Northern VA, got married, and earlier this year I was finally able to track one of them down. Sure enough, they were still gaming. Unfortunately, it was almost all d20. So it was only natural that I began to look into that status of some of my preferred gaming systems, and Heroes certainly fits the bill. I was especially excited to note that 5er was right around the corner. My sister offered to pick it up for me for Christmas (since I'm the toughest person to shop for). So now I'm patiently awaiting the moment when I can pull it out for my friends, and begin creating characters. Since I'm bringing the system to the table, I'm sure I'll be designated to GM. But that's fine by me... I'll remind them what the Heroes system is capable of...

Re: A little clarification please Ahhh... that makes more sense. Thanks! I'm waiting until the revised 5th edition is released. Hopefully it'll be soon! I played Champions way back in the early 90's, and want to get my group involved with it again.

According to the online description of the Champions book, it states: "Champions is usable as a stand-alone product, but does not include the HERO System rules, only discussions of how to apply those rules. For the rules themselves, you'll need the HERO System 5th Edition core rulebook." This is slightly unclear... if Champions is usable as a stand-alone product, that would imply that you don't need the Hero core rulebook to play the game. Yet without the rules that are defined in the core rulebook, can you really play the game? What am I missing here?