SkyKnight

Re: Power Trick For Heat Vision I would lean towards this method myself. Of course, it is really more like remote laser welding, rather than spot welding, since there is no physical contact. SkyKnight

Re: GMB Hard to find in my area. GMB means "Green Man Book". It is a heretical acronym from before the council of FREd. Burn him.

Re: Invulnerability to Fire I understand what you're getting at, but I think that the FREd philosophy is that you wouldn't be buying the power if you didn't expect it to be useful. Fire + Heat is listed as common in the Champions vulnerability table. I look at it as more like a -1, since there are scads of energy attacks, so you are losing at least half of the usefulness of the powers.

Re: Invulnerability to Fire 75% damage reduction (only vs fire -1) plus +30 ED Armor (only vs fire -1) gets you pretty close. I know it's not complete immunity, but the question comes up whether complete is really necessary. After all, humans are substantially composed of water, but you can easily kill a man with a high pressure hose.

Re: What superhero character concepts are you tired of seeing? This is what I like to tell players. "Every superpower has a source. Yours are no exception. If you write up the source, you get to choose. If you don't give me a source, I'll make one up for you. Either way, I'll use your background in my plot. You're doing yourself a favor if you make up a background that you actually like."

Re: Archer ideas? Maybe you could have some sort of electronic bow. It could use smart materials or somesuch to give a boost of power to your arrows. Computerized rangefinders could feed into the tensioning mechanism to adjust for range. Maybe a bow could fire a wave of sonic energy instead of an arrow. I like the idea of an archer who doesn't use the same old explosive / diamond tip / flash / net arrows.

Re: Ultimate Brick -- What Things Weigh I wouldn't mind seeing a "random grab" chart for different settings. When you want to pick up a heavy thing and hurl it or beat someone over the head with it. You could have charts for things like Office, house/apartment, demolished building et cetera. Brick: "Can I pick up a beam or something and clobber him over the head with it?" GM: "Let me see." Rolls, cross references on the "Office" table. "Yes, you grab a box of copy paper, DEF 2, 5 BODY. Roll to Hit." Or maybe this is too simplistic to bother putting in a book. I'm a pretty lazy GM.

Re: BATTLETECH HERO : Starting Cash ? How much ? If memory serves, 1 C-Bill is roughly equivalent to $5 in 1985 currency. 500 C would be about $2500 in the days when we were watching hair bands on MTV.

I kind of lump powered armor into 3 major categories: Exoskeleton Classic OIF or OIHID powered armor. The innate abilities of the pilot are pretty important and it just offers more armor than normal un-powered devices with some attribute increases. Example: BGC Hardsuit "Heavy" Suit This is an OIF or OIHID suit with about 2 levels of growth (either purchased or 5ed'ed but still functions as armor. I like to add 50% damage reduction for physical & energy to represent that the suit is quite massive and protects the occupant very well. This sort of suit works well for a Power Armored brick, since he will only have 30 to 40 stun and limited CON. Otherwise he will be constantly CON stunned or even unconscious compared to normal bricks. Example: BGC K2 Armored Trooper Mecha This is a vehicle with arms & legs. It uses normal vehicle rules and can be surprisingly pricy when all of the necessary skills and systems are in place. You also will have a hard time taking it indoors. Examples: Battlemech, Veritech fighter

Also, CON determines Energy Defense. The way I'm looking at it, BODY represents how much alteration your body can take before it gives up and you die. A high BODY score might give you some resistance to tampering. Realistically, a normal human could only get 4 points of Power Defense through high stats, and almost nobody every buys their BODY up that high anyway. It's just a little perk to those who buy up their little respeced fourth physical characteristic.

I have several times seen the suggestion for a house rule to make mental defense a figured characteristic. In other words, all characters would start with EGO/5 points of Mental Defense for free. The idea sort of interests me, so I started thinking, what about Power Defense? Would would happen if you gave everyone Power Defense equal to BODY/5? Both could be treated the same way as PD and ED, with a normal characteristic maximum of 8 and costing 1 cp per point to increase. I suppose the Age disadvantage would increase the maximum for Mental Defense, and probably decrease the maximum for Power Defense. What do you think, assembled Herodom? SkyKnight

A quick gut check -1/4 loses about 1/4 of its effectivness. Very few characters would spread their EB 3 times out of 4, so this is too low. -1/2 loses about 1/3 of its effectiveness. My energy projectors have never spread 2 times out of 3, but if the character is set up with spread effects in mind, this seems fairly reasonable. =-1 loses about 1/2 of its effectiveness. Spreading is genuinely useful, so this level of limitation is probably too high. I'd go with 1/2 SkyKnight

I wasn't sure at first if Vapire was a typo or a play on the word Vapid. "Interview with the Vampire" versus "Legally Blonde"

Graph-Fighter? or if he's German Graf-Fighter

The simple answer is no. More complicated answer: Is the energy projector just buying the Ranged modifier for his existing sense of touch? If so, it will function exactly the same as ordinary touch, except at range. If you want to buy discriminatory, it will be an improvement over the basic touch sense. If he is instead buying "detect energy" at range, simulating the touch group, the answer is still pretty much the same. The new detect will have all of the same modifiers that come with the touch group. You can find more detail under the simulated sense group rules.

The effect you are looking for will be difficult. HERO doesn't really support absolute powers. By absolute, I mean healing all damage, regardless of how much or killing someone, regardless of how healthy. I think you can do more or less what you want by taking Healing, with 1 charge. You can define the charge as recovering in the moment before dusk. Take the trigger advantage to automatically activate the power at dusk. If you take enough healing, you'll probably heal from pretty much any damage. It will be expensive, but the effect you're looking for is pretty powerful. The limitation for 1 charge should help. If you want to remove other effects, you'll need to buy dispel also, with the same advantages and limitations. You may have to settle for the possibility of retaining some damage even after dusk. HERO can be like that.

Seconded. All in favor?

I believe that some real-life designs called for multiple layers of gasbags. You can have inner gas bags loaded with Hydrogen and outer bags loaded with Helium. Even if they puncture the inner Hydrogen bags, they are surrounded with inert Helium and won't burn anyway. You could also put a pseudo-science fire retarding chemical into the Hydrogen to make it safer, or maybe mix it with Helium, which will make it much harder to reach flash point. Maybe a good lifting source would be "Super-Ionic Lift Cells" which are charged by lightning and lift better than Hydrogen.

This has been done in published materials. One old power armored villain (Copperhead?) had an END reserve that only recharged while plugged in (-2 IIRC). This should be fine as long as you value the limitations reasonably. Don't let the PCs get away with 5 REC, +15 REC Activation 14- or something like that. explantion 14- occurs ~90% of the time, so isn't worth a -1/2 on something that doesn't often matter.

This is the SkyKnight creed with respect to superhero deaths: "Champions characters never die, they just show up again in three sessions mind controlled and sporting cybernetic parts." I would not kill a character against the player's will. If the character is "dead" via the rules, I will bring him back into the plot as long as the player still wants to keep the character. It's not a free and clear return though. He'll have to work for it.

Your best bet is probably an "3 feet tall" physical limitation with the frequency reduced by one category to reflect that she can climb into the armor . Then buy the armor as OIF 0-END Inherent growth. The large size doesn't need a disadvantage, since it will have Always On (-1/2) . Alternatively, you can make an "Awkward Size" physical limitation at full value to reflect never really being the right size for her surroundings.

An interesting question. Let me see what I can do to not answer it. I don't GM anymore, so I'll share some random observations in order to try to look more intelligent than I actually am. First, GM style is largely independent of game system. Whether you are using the linear, GM driven style or a nonlinear, player driven style, it shouldn't make much difference what rules you are using. Here are a few observations on both GMs and players for both styles. 1) A dependence on linear stories may stem from computer RPGs. Players get used to following 1 blatant clue to the next. If there is any uncertainty, you can always buy the player's guide to tell you where to go next. This is not necessarily a bad way to pattern a game, but it is a limited use of real life role playing. 2) Some games seem player driven, yet have a few very specific courses of action that will actually succeed. This can be frustrating for all parties involved as it seems to the players that nothing they do matters. These games are simply a linear adventure without the clues. Don't do this. 3) Different players get satisfaction from different things. Some players will happily set their own goals, but others want the challenges thrown at them. Those types like to win or lose (really, they prefer to win) and know that the challenge is done. You may have to provide some more obvious hooks for your player, if you want him to get more involved in the game.

I was thinking the same thing, but maybe one easier. 12" Knockback Resistance, prevents damage but not movement -1/4?

I certainly understand what you're saying, but does that mean you have eliminated the Combat Sense talent from your game? It does exactly what you describe below and costs 15 points. Admittedly, it has no range, but you could add range to it and it would still be under 20 points.

But what if the character wants to be immune to flashes and darkness? A well prepared villain can still disable the sense by arranging for a metal rich battlefield that confuses the sense (PER checks) or using a gadget pool to build a flash versus this specific sense. We are talking about superheroes here. PC - "I want to fly at supersonic speeds." GM - "Sure, no problem." PC - "I want to be able to lift a tractor trailer with 1 hand." GM - "60 STR, same as everyone else." PC - "I want to see in the dark so well that you have to go through extra effort to blind me." GM - "Whoa now, that raises game balance issues. I mean see in the dark, what kind of uber-munchkin are you?" All in good fun, SkyKnight