Yamo

The problem with making DS so expensive is that an affordable number of normal (5d6) or killing dice (1.5d6) won't, on average, do -anything- to most opponents in a superheroic compaign. Unless the super is fighting agents, it's not worth the END.

I dunno. You can fit a HKA 1d6 DS with Penetrating under most AP limits fairly easily.

Is it possible to build a version of Universal Translator that works automatically and never requires a roll of any kind? I'm thinking of the ones like those from the Star Trek shows that work pretty much flawlessly at all times, even during first contacts where the translator device couldn't realistically have any sample of the alien language on hand to translate from.

I mean, you never hear Kirk or Picard go "Pardon me, what was that?" when they fail an INT roll. UT with a success roll isn't in-genre for Trek.

Not to mention that rolling whenever an alien speaks would get REALLY tiresome over the course of a single adventure, nevermind an entire campaign.

I just want to know if it can be done legally without resorting to any kind of house rules (which I hate, preferring to stay 100% "legal" at all times). Any help?

Wait a minute, they actually named a female supervillian RED TIDE?

Jesus. No wonder she got the boot...

Maybe it's just me, but +1/2 seems WAY too cheap for an ability that powerful...

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/9/9437.phtml

Just posted. It's my first ever for the site. Enjoy!

I'd rather buy the power as Duplication and apply the -1 Phantom limitation to it, then explain the whole thing to the GM and get his approval, without having to write up a whole character sheet for the duplicate, buy Desolidification for him, make him vulnerable to magic, balance out all the points, so on and so on and so on... Much easier to just talk with the GM, work out the understanding that the dupe is just a trick of light and sound, slap on the -1 Disadvantage, and deal with any details if they come up in combat. But then again, I'm pretty lazy.

I see your reasoning...BUT: You'd essentially then be buying an altered Duplicate with Inherient Desolidification as a -1 Limitation!

The Duplicate has, for virtually all intents and purposes, Inherent Desolid, but you're essentially getting points for it instead of paying points for it.

It's a little bass-ackwards balance-wise.

If you want the Duplicate's intangability to be more limited than normal, buy it Desolid and model it with a Limitation on that specific Power, not on the whole Duplication.

Duplication sounds perfect to me.

Just give it Inherent Desolidification (probably affected by magic) and you're good to go. You want easy ranged recombination, too, of course.

Good thinking.

I don't uses arches in my games at all. I'm bad at engineering.

Here's some joke Powers I made up for a Final Fantasy HERO thread a while back. Not sure they're entirely legal, but here go:

First off, nobody EVER complains when you walk into their home and start taking stuff.

Don't Mind Me... Mind Control 10d6, Telepathic (+1/4), Persistant (+1/2), Area of Effect (11" Radius; +1), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (162 Active Points), Always On (-1/2), Set Effect ("Ignore me while I rob you blind"; -1/2), Total Cost: 81 Points

It's absolutely vital for proper genre emulation that the PCs be attacked every few paces by random monsters that they can can never see beforehand.

Pointless Random Battles: Summon Up To 1000-Points Of Random Monsters Determined By GM, Invisible Power Effects (Fully Invisible; +1), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (500 Active Points), No Conscious Control (automatically activates every time character takes 3d6 steps; -2), Violent (-3/4), Summoned Being(s) Must Inhabit Locale (-1/2), Limited Power: Doesn't Work In Towns (-0), Total Cost: 118 Points

You can always tell how bad somebody is hurt in combat (or how effectively they're healed) because huge numbers fly out of their heads broadcasting this information to the world!

Number Cascade: Sight Group Images 1" Radius, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (15 Active Points), No Conscious Control (automatically activates whenever character's BODY/STUN increase or decrease in combat; -2), No Range (-1/2), Set Effect (only to display amount by which character's BODY/STUN increase or decrease in combat; -1), Total Cost: 3 Points

I solve this buy having the PCs for such games built on 50 total points or less.

Much easier for zombies to maul them when DCVs rarely top 4 or 5.

The code vs killing that we know so well was a consequence of the comics code that lasted mostly up until the early '90s.

Man, do I hate the comics code. So many good writers hamstrung for so many years. The moral and thematic development of the medium stunted for literally decades!

Thankfully it all started to unravel eventually and by the 80s, books like Punisher, Frank Miller's Batman and Watchmen were making superhero comics truly worthwhile works on a creative level again.

Still, so much time lost. Just imagine where things might be now if the shackles had been off the writers and artists all that time...

I think all the superhero analogies in this thread are good evidence that this rule isn't up to basic "genericness" standards. Champions is fine, and all (although not my thing), but HERO is a lot more than that.

I'm hoping this entry in the chart is revised for the next edition to something that fits better in Heroic games.

Thanks.

That's six seconds for an average person, 3-4 for a highly-combat trained "normal" like a martial artist or policeman.

Huh?

Does this seem a little silly to anyone else? I know it's just a game, but this should be one or two Turns minimally!

Godzilla is attacking the city. Mole Man annouces that he wants to slay the beat by Tunneling THROUGH it's body until he reaches a vital organ.

Would this work? Godzilla is certainly large enough and Mole Man's Tunneling can penetrate his defenses (let's say Godzilla's rPD is 20 and Mole Man can tunnel through 21 DEF material).

If this worked, it would logically deal damage each turn or movement on Mole Man's part. How much?

If it can't work in game terms, how would I explain this to the player? They physics of it make perfect sense and I'd be hard-pressed to come up with a story reason why he can't Tunnel through Godzilla.

Is this an example of an application of a Power that sets up a direct clash between common sense and the rules?

Saw this short character description on the RPG.net forums:

Null - can become "mutually non-existent" to selected people or things, i.e., they cannot sense or touch her, but she can't sense or touch them either.

How would you guys write this one up?

I've seen a lot of character rips in the CU (Doctor Destroyer, Batman, Joker, Iron Man, Hulk, Punisher, etc).

But is there a Superman?

I know Silver Age Sentinels has an iconic square-jawed flying brick in tights and a flashy cape who kicks more butt that just about everybody and stands for Truth, Justice and the whole shebang.

What about Champions? If not, does it need one and will one be added in an official product soon?

+30 STR, Not with Extra Limb (-1/4)

24 real points

Net result: 29 CP for 30 CP of STR, with no real disadvantage, and a weak extra limb. Can't even be disallowed because many characters would logically be built this way. Its also very hard for a new GM to spot this, and a new player might not even notice the cheese.

Wouldn't make more sense to make this a Limitation on the Extra Limbs? Maybe "Can Only Use 10 STR With Extra Limb; -1/2)" or something?

Doing it the way you mention seems totally bass-ackwards. I would certainly never allow it.

Actually, the rules state that you cannot put a Limitation on a Primary Characteristic unless the Limitation also effects the Figured Characterisitcs. So in this case, unless the Limitation is also viable for Speed it cannot be legally used.

Hmm. That seems kinda lame. What's that rule supposed to accomplish?

Another option would be to buy 10 or so of his DEX with the Limitation "Doesn't Add To Skills X, Y And Z; -1/4)."

Just buy the skill at 8- or 11- and purchase +1 Skill Levels for it until it's exactly where you want it.

Invisibility plus Detect You (based on Sight) Usable by Others, Ranged (or UAA plus AOE Selective).

That seems like it might work. I'll play around with that.

I wouldn't like the effect to require an attack roll, so Mental Illusions is out. Basically, I want standard Invisibility with selectivity.

Say I want a character who can become invisible only to specific people. For example, in a melee, he could become invisibile to his enemies, but not his allies. He would also be able to change who he appears invisible to at any given moment.

Any ideas?

I really hope someone from HERO Games/DoJ is paying attention to this thread, because I think there are a few things a revised 5th edition book would really NEED. They are:

1. All current eratta. Obviously.

2. Chapter headers at the tops of each page.

3. The host of Power options that should have been a part of the basic rules, but weren't. I'm talking about things like No Turn Mode for Movement Powers, Affects Porous for Telekinesis, multiple and mobile perception points for Clairsentience and rules for moving Continuous AoE Powers (a Mobile adder, perhaps?).

4. I'd like to see all of the martial arts maneuvers from UMA.

5. More discussion of playing not just Heroic and Superheroic, but Normal-level games! Some of us love to run adventures in genres like horror and gritty modern day action/espionage where the PCs don't start with triple-digit point totals.

6. The Genre-By-Genre document. A roleplaying game without character creation examples? Not acceptable in this day and age. Or even in the last few days and ages. I'm guessing smaller type and the better layout that's apparent in recent HERO products will make the space available.

7. Please, please, PLEASE ditch the godawful Poser-type digital art that accompanies entries like Killing Attack, Hand-To-Hand. That shoddy garbage is totally unworthy of inclusion in a professional gaming product.

8. Also, the book needs to come out QUICK. I want my uber-FREd, dammit!

KNOW THE RULES, BUT DON'T BE AFRAID TO FUDGE

You should know ALL the basic system rules. Consulting the rulebook in-game to find an obscure detail of how Multipower Attacks work is understandable. Consulting it to find out how Dodge works is usually not. You're the GM, the players are counting on you to know at least the majority of your stuff.

At the same time, never be afraid to fudge. If a player wants to try to determine if a NPC is carrying a gun, it's perfectly okay to simply ask for a (possibly modified by common sense) PER roll if you don't feel like opening up the rulebook and familiarizing yourself with the often rarely-used object concealment rules.

Stopping the game should always be a last resort!

MOOKS ARE MOOKS

This isn't D&D where you get experience points for body count and every "kill" should be scrupulously "earned." If a character is supposed to be a speed bump, treat him like one. If Powerman punches a VIPER thug, it should be all over for that particular VIPER thug. Period. Same goes for cannon fodder in other genres. Don't make Beergut the Dwarf use five axe swings to bring down a common orc or Steve Steele, private eye use four bullets to drop a single disposable mob goon. Dramatic sense and genre emulation are two other equally valid reasons to adopt this approach. Screw the dice!

WRITE DOWN WHO GOES WHEN

I can't emphasize that enough. Have that info in front of you at all times.

BALANCE ATTACKS AND DEFENSES CAREFULLY

The important heroes and villians should be able to hurt each other at least a little with virtually EVERY successful hit. Defenses should help against damage, not mitigate it completely. It's fine for narrative purposes to have Powerman bounce some random thugs' bullets off his chest, but his archenemy Sinister Sam's RKA should HURT (at least a little). Try to avoid EB 8d6 against 30 ED situations.

Don't create attacks and defenses in a vacuum. Create them carefully in tandum. I believe that mistake in this area are a big part of the old "Champions HERO combat takes forever" complaint.

YOU DON'T NEED EVERY OPTIONAL RULE

Self-explanitory. If it's not going to actively and SIGNIFICANTLY help the kind of game you want to run, why bother with it?

FOR "HIGH-POWERED" GAMES, ENCOURAGE (OR REQUIRE) THE STANDARD EFFECT RULE AND/OR AVERAGE DAMAGE

For anything that uses double-digit numbers of dice, these come in REAL handy. If you don't want anything too predictable, you can always do something like roll 1d6 with 1-2 being 75% of average effect, and 5-6 being 33% more than average.

NO NON-PREGENERATED VPP POWERS

UNTIL Superpowers Database is good for these. No matter what, don't let PCs stop the game to build new VPP Powers UNLESS it's obvious to all involved that there's no chance the Power's specifics would violate any of the Pool's limits (Flight 12" for a 60-point VPP, for example, can just be announced and used on the spot).