Kabluey

Hi Steve, One of my players and I are having a debate about Danger Sense. He has it purchased as: Danger Sense (self only, any danger, Function as a Sense). The question is, if a villain attacks the group, intending to take down the group, but does not attack the player directly at first, does this trigger the DS? Or is he only warned when the player himself is directly threatened? Thanks.

Re: Flexible Active Point Limits: What Do You Think? In the last Champions campaign I ran, I used a table of limitations, such as AP, Damage Class, OCV/DCV, PD/ED, etc. Each limitation had a level, Low, Standard, or High. So, for example, the standard DC limit was 14, but the Low limit was 12 and the High was 16. There were a few other things that only had a High limit, such as having Damage Reduction or Power Defense. That is, by default you couldn't take these, but you could take them with a High limitation. So when you built your character, you got to pick one High limitation for free, but for each one thereafter, you had to pick a Low limitation (assuming there was a valid Low limitation - you couldn't take the Low limitation of no Damage Reduction, because the Standard was no Damage Reduction, for example). So this gave a character a chance to pick where he wanted to shine. You want a high damage blaster who also has a high SPD? No problem, just pick a low defense or a low CV or whatever (I don't recall all the limitation categories that I had). You want a character who can't be hit? Take a High DCV limitation. Don't like the system? Fine, just opt out and take everything as Standard. It allowed characters to pick one or two areas to excel, but also meant that they had to take trade-offs. And if they didn't like the system (and I had one or two players that didn't), they could just not worry about it and still build characters who were reasonably balanced with the others.

Re: How do you keep your dark knights from going "squish"? I have to agree with the above poster who said roll with it. As a GM, I don't worry about such issues. A char with a high DCV but low DEF has to be aware that at some point they may get hit by a big attack. In a recent campaign, I played a speedster with a high DCV and low DEF, and a good hit could put her out of a combat. Even a Move-Thru would at least stun her, and would definitely knock her out if the target had no knockback. (She had Passing Strike for most attacks, but Move-Thru gave her more damage - it was fun as a kind of last ditch maneuver.) I did everything I could to keep from getting hit, but when I did (and it was rare), I grabbed a book and read while everyone else finished the combat. So a player of such a character just has to be aware that it's going to happen from time to time.

Re: Favorite All Time Hero/Villian/Group For heroes, I guess my all-time favorite would have to be Nova - from the first series, not any of the later versions. Honorable mentions would include Cyclops, Wonder Man, Flash (Barry Allan), and the Human Torch. Favorite teams: the Avengers, from the good ol' days. And the original Thunderbolts up through when Hawkeye was on the team. Utterly detest the current versions of both teams now. Current teams: I like Exiles quite a bit, and the JSA has always been a group I've consistently enjoyed through the years. Favorite villains: Ultron and Kang - obviously from my days as an Avengers fan.

Re: What is your most humous story It was a heroic modern campaign a friend of mine was running. I don't recall many of the particulars, just that we had invaded some organization's secret lab or something like that. In any case, we had been captured by security and things were looking pretty bleak. Then the GM says, "Two scientists enter in bunny suits." We all just gave him bizarre, clueless looks. No one other than the GM knew that bunny suits was a common term used for suits used in cleanrooms and such. So we all had this vision of serious, evil scientists in rabbit suits - complete with big paws and floppy ears. Needless to say it took quite a while for us to stop laughing. I still chuckle about it now and then.

Re: New Density Question I just started up a Champions mini-campaign where one of the characters has such a power. The player and I went back and forth on a lot of possibilities. What we finally settled on was a Transform. Basically it just makes things lighter, with the additional effect that it would increase knockback for things that are hit, and for other objects it would effectively reduce their weight to 0 for purposes of lifting, calculating throwing distance, and the like. We made it a Major Transform.

Re: Harn Swag Very nicely done. The article on Lady Hesena fits nicely with what I'm planning for my own group, and they're just at the point of meeting her (this Saturday, in fact, assuming things go according to plan), so this article is very well timed for me. Thanks!

Re: CHAMPIONS REVISED -- If We Do It, What Would You Like To See? I liked the suggestion of putting in some introductory adventure or some such. That would get my vote. Another thought I had was an updated version of the danger room random generator from the old Champions III supplement. Given the ubiquity of danger rooms in comics, this seems like a useful and very genre-specific addition to the book that could still only take a few pages.

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game I played CoH back when it first came out and enjoyed it for a while, but found that it got repetitive very quickly. It seemed like there were only 5 or 6 basic missions and a small number of different mob types. I got bored and dropped out after a few months or so. But I've recently been having a hankering to play again. Has there been any improvement in terms of adding more variety to the missions and such, or is it still largely repetitive?

Re: rules questions (Fantasy Hero) No one in my game has tried the half-move-to-attack-from-behind maneuver that you describe, so I haven't had to come up with any rules for it, but I did come up with some house rules regarding moving through zones of control that would be at least similar. If anyone did try that, after shaming them into using a rules exploit, I'd probably go with Diamond Spear's suggestion, i.e., just rule that the opponent faces them or is aware of them at least and thus they gain no benefit. Not having Combat Luck stack is perfectly reasonable, though it does stack in my game - sort of. I actually put a hard limit of two levels of Luck (up to 6 PD/ED max), but also rule that only one level will stack when wearing any armor. This isn't so much to keep defense levels down for armor, but rather to make it possible for people who don't wear armor to at least sort of keep up.

Re: Modern Magic setting...opinions needed I think it would depend a great deal on the magic system itself. If spells are quite useful, then 15 points seems low to me, even for 45 AP's. And then, of course, there are other factors that might influence how cheap/expensive it is - skills, points for spells, characteristic requirements, etc. So possibly when you factor in the cost of the whole system, 15 points might turn out to be quite expensive. Just hard to say without knowing more.

Re: Coming back to HERO... I would definitely echo the Hero Designer suggestion. For me, it's useful enough that I've required all my players to purchase it. Not only does it help speed up builds, but it eliminates math errors. Also pay attention to your export template. A common impulse (at least among my players) is to go for the shortest sheets, but sheets with extra charts can be quite handy. Easier to look on pg. 2 of your character sheet for a maneuver's modifiers than in 5ER or the Combat Handbook.

Re: Magic Martial Arts I've not read the section in FH (I have the book, but haven't read most of it), so I don't know what it talks about in there. But I did come up with my own set of magical martial arts. I based it on the rules out of Ultimate Martial Artist, but I added some of my own elements. The main purpose is to allow casters to cast spells in different ways or with different modifiers. For instance, like many GM's, I require a skill roll for magic. So I added a Careful Casting maneuver that gives a bonus to the skill roll and also includes a modifier to the spell failure roll (I use a table for spell failure effect). I also have Defensive Casting, which increases the caster's DCV and gives a smaller bonus to the skill roll. Then I have other maneuvers like Overwhelming Spell, which is basically like Offensive Shot but has spell skill level associated modifiers as well. Obviously, these are just variations on the standard martial arts, but I did add some other stuff. The Dispell Spell, for example, maneuver allows one to abort to Dispell, and Quick Spell allows one to cast a spell in a single phase (all spells default to Extra Segment) at the cost of skill roll penalties. I can't really say how well this will work, though. The one wizard character has three maneuvers, but he generally only uses two of them, switching between Defensive Casting and Careful Casting depending on whether he is in combat or not. I'm a little surprised he hasn't picked up some of the other maneuvers, but I suspect that's because I started them out with so few points (100 pts) and so they're all spending their XP on stuff they feel they need to complete a basic character. The wizard, for example, has actually been using his XP to bump up his CON because he doesn't like getting CON stunned. So for him, at least, getting extra maneuvers seems pretty low on the priority list. I've been planning to throw a wizard at them who uses the maneuvers to see if that inspires him any, but so far I've not pushed it. My hope is that over a longer campaign, as the characters build up more points, the maneuvers will become more used.

Re: Help with a spell I thought about this but I'm not allowing MPA in general, so how do I have a spell to enable it? Just a custom power worth as many AP as I think? I can do this, of course, but I was hoping for something less hand-wavey. As to all the other responses, thanks for the ideas. I like the Naked Trigger modifier and think that's the way I'll go. Regarding the Naked Linked, I did consider this. If I were to do it, I'd probably do it by changing it to an advantage named Linked and buying it that way, just for this particular spell. It's not so much a question of the Active Point cost. In my system, all spells are purchased as equipment, so the player doesn't have to worry about AP so much. Rather, it's more for END calculation. In Hero Designer, at least, the END for a power with negative Active Points is, as you might guess, zero. By making it an Advantage (and that seems reasonable in this case, since it is an advantage), then you get some END cost. Again, thanks for the ideas.

I'm wanting to create a spell for my campaign but I'm not sure how to do so. I'm using the Harn world, so this is a rough conversion of an existing system. Within Harn there is a spell called Merge which allows the caster to merge two other spells to combine their effects. I've given it some thought but haven't really come up with any good ideas of how to do this in Hero. The best I've come up with is vaguely some sort of Transform to alter the two spells such that they're one spell, which is immediately healed when the spell is cast. But that just seems remarkably clunky. Any one have any better ideas?

Re: Who goes first? Thanks for everyone's input. I would've been willing to bet money that I'd seen the rule someplace, but I guess that was just the alcohol. To respond generally to a few of the above comments, the situation of the Mind Control was such that that player would not have been compelled to attack. He wasn't actually trying to hurt anyone. Quite the opposite, the mind control just made him believe the room they were in was safe. It was actually the uncontrolled player who was attacking, to "knock some sense into him", as he put it. I actually would have been more than happy to just let phases tick by. I didn't have any compelling interest in forcing action or anything. It's just that I "recalled" this rule, which is why I asked. Thanks again.

Re: Who goes first? That section actually talks about situations where two characters want to act at the same time. I'm actually referring to a situation where both characters want to wait for the other to act. Somewhat different...

We ran into a bit of a rules debate in my group last night. I had a situation where two players were fighting each other (no backstabbing going on, one of them was mind controlled), and they both wanted to wait until the other acted. I recalled reading somewhere that in such a case where opponents are specifically trying to wait until the other goes, you make a DEX roll, with the loser being forced to act first. But I tried to find this rule and couldn't locate it. I checked the FAQ as well as searched through the book, to no avail. Can anyone point me to it, or is this just a sign of the rapid onset of senility? Thanks.

Re: "Beware the generosity of Kings" - A warning I agree. And it all also supposes that the king actually wants to do away with the group, either by forcing them out of his kingdom or by killing them. But if they are truly that powerful, the king might decide that they're worth keeping around. He just may instead want to have some control over them. One of the most common ways for a king in a feudal milieu is through the grant of a fief. He can give them some land, with specific requirements for service that they owe him. If he's worried about their loyalty, then give them 2 fiefs - but in very different parts of the kingdom. That makes rebellion more difficult. It was a common tactic used by historical monarchs. And for the service requirements, it doesn't have to be the standard contract of so many days of military service. The contract can have anything that the lord and vassal agree to. For instance, it could include a provision for the group to act as agents of the king for diplomatic missions or espionage. As an added bond of loyalty, throw in a royal marriage. Maybe not to a daughter of the king, but perhaps to one of the king's extended clan. Again, a very historically common method of forming alliances. It would be a huge boon for the characters, giving their families a claim to the throne for later generations (though whether the players would view it this way is another question, of course). Just some ideas for a less antagonistic approach.

Re: Luck as a Characteristic My approach to the issue of everyone having a little luck is to give every 1 level of Luck for free. It's simple, fits in with the current rules framework, and is easily accomplished in Hero Designer (a major criteria for me for all rules adjustments). As to using Luck, I throw the responsibility onto the players. I don't use the default rules in Hero because that requires the GM to call for a roll. Instead, I use alternate rules. For a while I used one of the alternates in the Hero book, but now I use a much more extensive system that my players like. But the main point for me was to make it a player responsibility to use Luck, not a GM responsibility to remember it.

Re: Looking for Advice on a "Buffer/ Healer" Superhero I created a somewhat similar sort of character just recently. The concept was a very lucky character, who could use that luck on others for good or ill. He had two multipowers, one of "Good Luck" powers and one of "Bad Luck" powers. For the good luck, he had Healing and Aid END, as you had. I also gave him Flash Defense UBO, Invis UBO, and 2 CSL's with DCV UBO. Like you, I didn't want this character to be attacking, so for his bad luck pool, he has some attack powers but nothing that can really damage someone. I gave him a trip power (Change Enviro), Flash, Negative Combat Skill Levels, a Drain on END and another on INT, and a Teleport UAA with random destination. The idea was the character could help others and could even distract opponents, but he couldn't really hurt anyone. Oh, on both MP's, he uses a die roll to determine which slot to use, so he can't even specify what power he wants. Haven't had a chance to play him yet, but I'm really looking forward to it. Hope that helps some.

Re: Campaign Limits: what's your formula? In my campaigns, I've taken different approaches for Heroic and Superheroic games. In Heroic games, I have thus far shied away from limits. The one limit I do have is to limit the number of CSL's or PSL's that may be applied to any specific attack. You can have no more than two PSL's for a specific purpose (e.g., Range Modifiers, Hit Location). Similarly, you can have no more than 2 of any similar point cost CSL (2 and 3 point count as same, for this purpose) apply to an attack. So, for example, you could add in up to two 2 or 3-point CSL, two 5-point CSL, two 8-point CSL, and even two 10-point Overall. The point is, you can have a higher OCV, but I want it to cost, and I find the cost for all that is enough of a limiting factor to keep it from being abused (I don't have any character who's come even close to having all those). I run lower-point campaigns (100-125 total character points), though, so this may not work as well for higher-point campaings. Beyond that and NCM, I haven't yet found a need for explicit campaign limits. But I do review every character carefully. For Superheroic, I've used the recommended limits out of the book with fairly good results. My problem with them, though, is that players didn't interpret them as maximums (i.e., don't go over) but as targets (i.e., character must match it). So in my most recent campaign, though, I've started experimenting with a more flexible limit system. That is, I have a set of hard limits, but you can exceed some as long as you are lower in other areas. For example, I have a DC limit of 8 (250-point campaign) and a SPD limit of 5. But you can go to a DC of 10 if you reduce your SPD to 4. The point of this is to allow a player to shine in a particular area, but still retain balance. For my newest campaign where I introduced this, we're still in the process of building characters, so I don't know exactly how effective it will be. And, of course, I carefully review every character. Can't stress this enough as the best way to maintain character balance.

Re: Campaign Limits: what's your formula? This is at least partially incorrect. On the sidebar of p. 404 in 5ER, it indicates that some advantages do factor into to DC and gives a list. The list is just a suggestion, indicating that it is ultimately up to the GM. Area of Effect is on the suggested list, but Reduced END is not. However, I've been using DC limits for a while now just using the suggested list and have been pretty happy with the result.

Re: Quick Hero I like it. In fact, it might have been useful for my players back when they were creating characters for my current campaign. I did have a few minor comments, though: First, you state "The upper limits for humans...is 20." Strictly speaking, this isn't true since I believe 30 is the upper limit. 20 is just the standard NCM threshold. Doesn't impact anything else in the document, of course, but I just didn't want players to get the wrong idea. Second, on the skills, you give fixed numbers, but obviously these can vary based on the Char values chosen. Without some variation, a player may wonder why the characteristics matter, e.g., why pick Smart stats if the higher INT isn't going to impact anything. You might want to express skills as a base number modified by the appropriate attribute. Third, on the spells, you may want to summarize them as you did with the weapons. Or at least provide a simple reference header before each spell that clearly lays out END cost, time to cast, duration, area of effect - basically all the things a d20 player would look for. You can get that from the spell build, of course, but this is targetted at people unfamiliar with Hero. Overall, though, it's quite cool and could be very useful.

When using the Ranged Disarm from UMA, does one use one's STR or the BODY damage of the weapon? If one's STR, what about for ranged weapons where there's no STR damage added in? Thanks.