Killer Shrike

Works for me; I hope your players learn to hate it

I put it into HD; again, not sure its 100% kosher, but here is a cleaner version: Hall Monitors of DOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!! : Energy Blast 4d6 (vs. ED), Trigger (Conscious Enemies Detected) (+1/4), Uncontrolled (+1/2), Area Of Effect Nonselective Target (12" Cone; +3/4), No Normal Defense (Standard; +1) (70 Active Points); OIF Bulky (-1), No Range (-1/2), 2 Continuing Fuel Charges lasting 5 Minutes each (-1/4) [Notes: SFX: 2 Robotic Guards are deployed, watching 2 different hallways; when one sees Enemies, it activates and opens fire with a hail of Stun blasts, strafing the area in front of it until it is destroyed, doesnt detect anymore conscious enemies or runs out of battery juice (Fuel). Continuing Charges & Uncontrolled automatically terminated by any attack that targets Robots or technology specifically, including Mental Powers vs. Machine Minds.]

Im not suggesting it as the end all be all, Im just pointing out that a lot of the things he may want to do can be handled purely by SFX, and that he may not want to try to force everything into the strictures of only using Summon or only using Followers to model his schtick. As far as the robot guards, something like this might do the trick (dont have book handy, so its a hipshot) without needing to actually buy Robots as followers or Summon Robots: Robotic Hall Monitors of DOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!! : EB NND Cone, Nonselective, *Uncontrolled, Trigger: Conscious Enemy detected, 2 *Continuing Fuel Charges (5 Minutes), OIF Bulky: "Robotic Minions"; SFX: 2 Robotic Guards are deployed, watching 2 different halways; when one sees Enemies, it activates and opens fire with a hail of Stun blasts, strafing the area in front of it until it is destroyed, doesnt detect anymore conscious enemies or runs out of battery juice. *Continuing Charges & Uncontrolled automatically terminated by any attack that targets Robots or technology specifically, including Mental Powers vs. Machine Minds. (as per rules requiring Continuing Charges and Uncontrolled to have a defined shut-off) Note: As an OIF, the Robots can be targeted at -2 OCV. They are roughly Man-sized or slightly smaller, but have vacuumcleaner-like casters, allowing them to be pushed into place. When they are in place, I recommend a simple method treatment of DCV 3 at range or DCV 0 to adjacent hexes for targeting them. Technically they need thier Triggers reset after they are set off, but a lenient GM might wave that as part of Uncontrolled in favor of common sense. Alternately, the PC could have an _actual_ robot servitor whos duties included maintaining triggers and such like; Id probably buy such a servitor as a small variant duplication with no recombination

I dont know much about Fading Suns, but this construct might model something similar: Possible Fading Sun's Shield: (Total: 126 Active Cost, 50 Real Cost) Absorption 5d6 (Energy into Force Field), Can Absorb Maximum of 50 Points (35 Active Points); Absorbption Limit affected by Physical Absorbtion Total (no more than 50 points between the two) (-3/4), OIF (-1/2), Requires A Skill (DEX vs DEX, HtH Only) Roll (No Active Point penalty to Skill Roll, RSR Skill is subject to Skill vs. Skill contests -1/4) (Real Cost: 14) plus Absorption 5d6 (Physical into Force Field), Can Absorb Maximum of 50 Points (35 Active Points); Absorbption Limit affected by Energy Absorbtion Total (no more than 50 points between the two) (-3/4), OIF (-1/2), Requires A Skill (DEX vs DEX, HtH Only) Roll (No Active Point penalty to Skill Roll, RSR Skill is subject to Skill vs. Skill contests -1/4) (Real Cost: 14) plus Force Field (16 PD/16 ED), Hardened (+1/4), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (56 Active Points); Only up to Amount Absorbed + Linked to Absorbs (-1), OIF (-1/2) (Real Cost: 22)

IMO, the Martial Manuevers are one of the best things about HEROs (although I've never liked the way they interact with weapons, but thats a rant for another topic). They are cheap and efficient because they are primarily intended for Heroic level games, which are on a lower point scale. The also make it possible to play a Martial Artist without resorting to building some wonky combination of HA variants and STR only to grab, and a collection of 2 pt CSLs to hit and 5 pt CSLs for DCV [only w/ Manuever X] and calling it 'Judo' or 'Choy Li Fut Kung Fu'. You can still do that of course, but buying Martial Arts is just more elegant. Personally, I wish that HEROs just segmented them out in thier own category on the same level as Powers, Perks, Skills, and Talents. One of my favorite Features of HERO Designer in fact is that it seperates them out to thier own tab (I just wish I could buy CSLs from that tab too for organizational purposes, but cest la vie). However, what I like best about Martial Arts is that even in a superheroic campaign, a Martial Artist bought with the actual Martial Arts manuevers can compete on par with other pure-powers supers, without outshining or underachieving. If you get into the Martial Manuevers and play a dedicated Martial Artist, its really is very cool to execute your different Manuevers and deal with thier pros and cons relative to one another. Its also a lot of fun to fight another martial artist with a different style. It really plays out like something from a kung fu movie and is very cinematic and lots of fun. As far as the UMA is concerned, its extremely KOOL. But, no, you dont need it. You can use the Martial Maneuevers in the book and extrapolate from there. OR, buy Hero Designer (you'll thank yourself) and get the new UMA Character Pack -- it has prefabs for all the UMA Martial Art Sytles....cant beat that for 7 bucks, not even with your Funky Monkey Style.

In some situations, such as a duel, both combatants can be considered to be Holding an action when the combat begins. This is also useful for instances of 'controled chaos' where all combatants KNOW there is a fight about to start (like a Mexican standoff or a gang fight), but hasnt started yet. This is also appropriate in superhero games, where the heroes and the villains square off, pose dramatically, and spout a few lines of character-defining noise first and THEN leap into action. Applying Common Sense, it is assumed that everyone is holding thier action from the previous 'phase' of non-combat time. It should only be used in certain circumstances, but an Wild West pistolero duel is one of those circumstances for sure. With held actions, you have Dex offs, and then go in order of who made thier DEX roll by more. Thus in an opposed Held situation the person with the higher DEX has an edge over a person with a lower DEX, but since the DEX roll is only affected by increments of 5 DEX, this edge is usually very narrow. When using a weapon thats appropriate to the situation, a person with Fast Draw can use thier Fast Draw roll in lieu of (instead of) thier DEX roll. This can give a Quick-draw Artist like Billy the Kid much more of an edge than thier base DEX roll would allow.

Thats a valid use of Obvious. For example, an Obvious OAF Gun which is concealed under a coat isnt visible, UNTIL you pull it out and fire it, but people with a trained eye can often tell you are wearing a holster, or can spot the bulge of a pistol grip. So it is concealed, but people with appropriate skills/abilities can detetct it/guess at its purpose. Its still Obvious. Thats a design decision. If you cant tell that his strength is augmented by some external device, then it is Inobvious. If you can tell that it is coming from some external device, then it is Obvious. You can target an Inaccesible foci to do damage, you just cant take it away in combat. A -2 OCV penalty applies. Thus the Spring Loader and the Exoskeleton could both be damaged. The Spring Loader would need to be targeted independently, but the Armor Suit will automatically be hit by any attack you apply the defense of it to. Each time the DEF of any FOCI is exceeded, that Focus looses 1 Power. DEF of a FOCI= Active Points of largest power /5, or the DEF granted by any applicable Defensive power in that Focus (whichever is higher). When all Powers are lost, a Focus is destroyed. Thats why I bought the Armor Durable (which I do for all Armor -- GMs option as per FREd); otherwise the first time you took 9 BODY, the Armor would be destroyed (only power in the Focus). With Durable applied, since it Doubles the Focuses DEF for purposes of damaging it, if you take 9-16 Body the Armor will not be destroyed (and you get to subtract 8 BODY and 8 STUN from the incoming attack), but if you take 17 BODY it is destroyed (1 Body over DEF 16 destroys the only power in the Focus -- the armor -- thus destroying the Focus). I also applied the Ablative Limitation (BODY Only), so as you take 9-16 BODY, the Armor will get shot to pieces, and start suffering a decreasing Activation roll each time until it is gone completely. Someone can still target the Focus directly, which ignores the Ablative qualities of the Armor but would take (in this case) 17 BODY from 1 hit to do anything to it.

Fast Draw lets you get the gun out as a 0 Phase Action. It also allows you to change clips as a 1/2 Phase Action. It can also be used to win DEX-offs for opposed Held Actions (to simulate the classic Pistol Duel at High Noon). It explicitly (last sentence of Fast Draw) does not allow you to go before your DEX order. Lightning Reflexes lets you go before your DEX order for whatever Actions you've bought it for. Thus, if this scientist had a DEX of 15 normally, when he Draws and Fires his pistol using the Spring-Loader (only--its linked to it), he goes at DEX 19 instead. This would let him get the jump on a DEX 16-18 character, and might even qualify for a Surprise Action bonus at the GMs discretion the 1st time he pulled it off.

O = Obvious = You can tell that its the origin of the power I = Inobvious = You cant tell that its the origin of the power (usually) A = Accessible = Can be targeted & removed in combat I = Inaccessible = Cannot be removed in combat F = Focus All FOCI can be broken UNLESS defined as UNBREAKABLE. Unbreakable FOCI must have some ultimate means of destruction. The classic example is The Ring of Power and the Fires of Mount Doom. Fragile FOCI are easier to break (in fact, are EXTREMELY easy to break -- generally not worth it unless you really want to be deprived of your Focus often) Durable FOCI are hard to break, and its free (based upon GMs judgement).

Cost Power END Mantle of Doom 17 1) Micro-Mail: Armor (8 PD/8 ED), Hardened (+1/4) (30 Active Points); Ablative (BODY Only; -1/2), IIF Durable (Focus (Armored Coat); -1/4) 7 2) Spring Loader: Fast Draw (11 Active Points); IAF (Focus (Spring-Loader); -1/2) 15- 3 3) Draw & Fire Gun: Lightning Reflexes: +4 DEX to act first with Single Action (4 Active Points); Linked to Spring Loader (-1/2) 4 4) Micro-Exoskeleton: +6 STR, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (9 Active Points); No Figured Characteristics (-1/2), IAF Durable (Focus (Micro-Exoskeleton); -1/2) Powers Cost: 31

Hmm... that all sounds like SFX for other effects. IE, a Dispel vs Fire SFX: Little Robots run around and put the fire out. Sounds like a gimmick more than a summon to me.

Also, same game, same player: After the 3rd device from his VPP: R&D Experimental Field Test Equipment Gadget Pool (which he has no control over as part of the Control Cost, and all gadgets in the pool have to have a Jam Activation -- basically the R&D department gives him toys and takes others away as they come up with new crap) fails a 14- Activation, while in combat, John Wrath says: "Im beginning to suspect that my R&D department is trying to KILL ME!".

Why dont you call somebody in charge? This happened in yesterday's champions session. One of the players is the Silver Avenger of Millenium City, John Wrath (Agent of PRIMUS!!!!). The player was up all night trying to get several projects wrapped up, making last minute changes to an emulator due on Monday (he's a UCSD Computer Science student), and his car disintegrated the day before as well. He's frazzled and off his game, and had to show up a couple of hours late because he was getting his car taken care of (but hey, he showed, which is more than some players would have done ), so he's joined the game in progress and hasn't quite gotten his brain fully engaged yet. Now keep in mind, this is our 4th session of play. His authority has been well established heretofore. He's been to PRIMUS HQ on several occasions and the generals of that backdrop have been fleshed out, though not all the specifics have been ironed out as yet. The motor pool, R&D, and the Station Chief have all had some work, and some of the necessary facilities such as holding cells and questioning rooms, and private rooms from which to enter ones personal information in the process of getting sanctioned by PRIMUS have been covered, and other facilities alluded to. However, so far its been a place to stop in on in the pursuit of the story, rather than an ends unto itself. So, basically, as something comes up where it would make sense and serve the story, PRIMUS HQ turns out to have something suitable to support it. In this particular session, the party met up at PRIMUS HQ. ALL of the PCs other than John Wrath have a jealously guarded Secret ID and have no way of getting in touch with each other, and several of the members had initially refused to sanction in fits of paranoia. This has hampered the forward progress of the storyline considerably. To make a long story short, in game events lead to the group meeting at PRIMUS HQ, and the remainder of the PCs went through the sanctioning process. Then the group finally rallied together and moved forward in one direction, assisting the Silver Avenger in the investigation of the supercrime which had initially drawn them all out to combat in the 1st session. So they follow up a lead regarding a suspicious security guard who was fired from the plant that was struck in the 1st session, after one of the security guards at that location said it was kind of suspicious that the criminals seemed to know where all the cameras and security devices were located -- he suspected an inside job. The PCs find this guy, a total story-serving mook criminal, and after some questioning John Wrath takes him into custody. John Wrath gets a call from PRIMUS Dispatch notifying him that a superhuman wanted for questioning with a general APB out on him has been spotted overflying the city. John Wrath is harried from riding herd on the PCs and this is clearly one too many straws on his back. He says through his mike: "Uh....Why are you telling me? Dont you know I'm busy? Why dont you call somebody in charge?" Out of character we all laugh at him, one of the other players says Out of Character something the effect of "You are in charge, you idiot--You are the gawd damn SILVER FRICKING AVENGER! You are THE person in charge of handling crap like this for the entire CITY" So the player of John Wrath says, "What? Im obviously too incompetent for that kind of responsiblity! Besides, if Im in charge, why does the Station Chief keep yelling at me?" The group laughs at him The other players says "Because he keeps having to pick up your slack, thats why!" The the player of John Wrath says, "Well if Im in charge, I should have an office or something!" To which I reply, "You DO have an office -- the Office of the SIlver Avenger, Millenium City." The player is suprised and says, "Really? Where's that at? Do I have a secretary?" Pretty much the whole table bursts out at once with variations of, "ITS AT PRIMUS HEADQUARTERS YOU IDIOT"; where the entire party had just met up and left together from before all of this transpired. And I respond with something along the lines of, "Your office is at PRIMUS Headquarters on the top floor, and yes you have a secretary, but they cant keep the position filled because you are too much of a hard ass on the help, so they keep rotating admin personnel in and out. You are never actually in your office because you are too crusty and hard charging to do office work--thats for pencil pushers and sissys after all. You are JOHN WRATH, leader of the Growling RECONDOs in Vietnam, who followed that up with 10 years of teaching uneducated natives of pisshole countries how to overthrow thier oppresive governments for the benefit of the CIA, who's been a Silver Avenger for 18 frickin years; you're a FIELD OPERATIVE, a WORLD FAMOUS "SECRET" AGENT, with a liscence to kill and cigar. You live for this crap! Now are you going to respond to the APB or not?" (ie, I reminded him of his own character concept ) Once he got his head in the game, things took off, but we all laughed ourselves silly over his initial confusion...

RE: Marchwarden: Great post. Well said. RE: HERMIT: Kill em ALL: Excellent idea, Smithers! Release the Hounds! There is a part of me that SO wants to do this, but Im TRYING to keep THIS campaign light and 'super-heroey'.

Summon, but beware; Summon in a VPP is a dangerous combo. Very flexible.....Summon by itself is probably sufficient....

Buy the Ultimate Vehicle; it has about 2 pages of rules options covering this topic and an example character.

CSCV = GAME MASTER'S (INT/3) +1 CSCV = 2pt Skill Level

MECHA-non

The name of the book is Peer Review? Ive never heard of this before, any additional info? Wild Cards is a good series, especially the begining of the series, and it is in print again and has been for about a year now in oversized (and overpriced) paperbound format. I would suggest cruising used books stores for the originals. Here's my review of the 1st books reprint from Amazon.com:

Hehe. Yeah, well, all I can say is that I expected it to cause Mechanon to "explode" using either the AoE or Explosion rules to model the classic Predator tac-nuke self destruct or "It's gonna blow--RUN!!!!!" self destruct of various cheesy sci-fi movies and that it was just an oversite. Otherwise, if his Self Destruct Mechanism just takes him out of the picture, why not just have it as something like "Self Implosion: EDM to THE VOID, 1 nonrecoverable charge, Trigger, SFX: leaves unusable husk behind", or something similar which literally just removes the character from play, which simplifies the matter nicely and is cheaper like so: 5 Self Destruct Mechanism: Extra-Dimensional Movement (Single Dimension (Disentigration)), Trigger (+1/4) (25 Active Points); 1 Charges which Never Recover (-4) In my campaign, it will be offensive, something like this: 127 Self-Destruct Nuclear Devastation Mechanism: Killing Attack - Ranged 14d6 (vs. ED), Trigger (+1/4), No Normal Defense (ED Force Fields; +1), Does BODY (+1), Area Of Effect (68" Radius; +1) (892 Active Points); 1 Charges which Never Recover (-4), Extra Time (Extra Phase; -3/4), Delayed Phase (-1/4), No Range (-1/2), Incantations, Requires Incantations throughout ("This unit will Self Destruct in " + X + " seconds" where X = number of Segments until detonation, -1/2) [Notes: Standard Effect Rule: 42 Body]

Steve, I was reading Mechanon today and noted that, while nasty, his Self Destruct Mechanism isnt an AoE or Explosive. Does it only exist to destroy Mechanon's body and has no offensive application? If not, how is this attack targeted then? Thanx....

Bump-- Lets keep this going; lots of interesting ideas herein

In the past in a Fantasy setting using the HERO System I ruled that "Ephemeral Magic Items", meaning FOCI with Non Recoverable Charges and the SFX: Magic, could be paid for with money rather than character points because it would be retarded for any Mage/Wizard/Whatever to burn Character Points to create Scrolls, Potions, and other such items; there is no percentage in it. IIRC the monetary cost used was Real Cost x Active Cost in gold to make and the Market Price would be a 150% markup or more, which was very very expensive relative to the game economy, and of course modified by in character (In-C) bartering and applicable skill rolls and/or use of PRE. Non ephemeral items were paid for in points (for the mechanic) AND money (the in-game materials and labor (P&L will cost you in any timeframe)). The same cost formulae was used for P&L IIRC. As far as points go, a Wizard paid points and money to make items unless the item was commisioned, in which case the commisioning party paid the points and the money. This helped take the burden off a Wizard getting hit up by all of his PC friends to make items for them; they had to pay the points AND whatever monetary cost the Wizard set as his price for P&L (and profit should he see fit). As an important note, all Magic Items were required to take the Universal FOCI and IND limitation, and acquired magic item were essentially 'found points' but were also unalterable. These items could also be sold for money; most merchants would pay RC x AC or trade at 125-150% markup, modified up or down by bartering In-C, applicable skill rolls and/or use of PRE. Some items always sold at a premium however, and were strictly a sellers market, like Rings of Power, some powerful Staffs, or any beneficial item with 200 or more Active Points (which would be regarded as near-artifacts) and would sell at top dollar in a big enough market, and even more powerful items were effectively priceless and would sell for whatever the market could bear. Private buyers usually would buy at a higher rate, but were usually harder to find. Some bigger metropolitan cities would have 1 or more Consignment Agents and/or an Auction House which could be used to find potential buyers at a higher rate, but which would of course take a percentage cut or some other renumeration.

Try building Armor Linked to Absorbtion with (RSR: Opposed (Block); No AP penalty to Roll). You didnt specify what the Absorbed points go to, but alternately you could use something like the Rage Meter mechanic in NinjaHERO.

The problem with doing that is that it doesnt protect vs things which dont do damage directly, but rather do effect. To me, Invulnerability should be unilateral, all or nothing. It also doesnt cover Special Effects that are more general and cross 'damage type' boundaries. For example, Invulnerability to 'Mutant Powers' via Damage Reduction would require one to buy all types of Damage Reduction to cover the bases, and still wouldnt handle attacks vs Power Defense or Flash Defense. You could add Dmg Reduc vs Flashes and vs Adjustment powers as a GM fiat, but then you end up buying 5 different powers to model 1 basic concept. Im not sure what you mean by this? Do what with everything? Please clarify? My only concern with doing Invulnerability as I documented above is that at its basic level (vs Tight SFX), its more expensive than buying Desolid to do the same thing and limiting it only vs Specific Type of Damage. The reason for that is when I built the power as a Custom power based off of Desolid, I split the difference between the official 'Must buy Affects Physical World because they are technically Desolid' and the GMs (common sense) option to ignore the technicality and accept that they are not really Desolid as a +1 Advantage to buy off Cant Affect Physical World on the Desolid. Thus in campaigns where the GM doesnt make such characters buy Affects Physical World for thier other powers, using the Invulnerability rules will be more expensive by a solid margin than using Desolid. However, I think its cost is reasonable to its effect and just expensive enough to ensure that someone taking it is not doing so lightly; it will be an intrinsic part of a character rather than an also ran. Personally, Ive always thought the Desolid to fake-up Invulnerability option is just a hack job. Either Invulnerability is not necessary to the game mechanic and thus this option shouldnt exist, or it a valid type of power and should be included. I personally think 'no Invulnerability' is a sacred cow of early Champions that has become gravid with dogmatic justifications. The concept of Invulnerability is interlaced throughout the supers genre at the very least, and shows up in fantasy and scifi as well but cant be done directly in the HERO System by default without invoking a very wonky work around (Desolid only vs. Thing; uh--but not really Desolid). Just like Growth and Shrinking should indicate a person that can actively change thier size, Desolid should be for people that actually ignore or circumven Solidity in some way. IMO of course, and obviously others opinions differ or else there would be an Invulnerability power in the book.