Hierax

Re: Pool like effect without a pool Lord Mhoram, Try using something like Killer Shrike's Cascading Multi-Power Pools where you get a discount on the higher level spells based on the lower level ones that you've already paid for; just have the Cascading discount (-x Limitation) jump from the MPP to the VPP that you want. Fiddle with the Limitation value on your VPP to give you the discount that you want so that your spell casters are only paying for the difference in power not the full VPP cost. Anyway, here's some links: Magic System of Multiple Overlapping Multi-Power Pools Sample Character Hmm, looks like he now calls it a "Spontaneous Casting Discount" I must have been thinking of an earlier draft. oh well, I hope that this helps.

Re: 6th Edition Hero System on EN World jmucchiello had an interesting idea of x4 cost but no Fractions to ease the HERO math stigma (link):

Re: Armor, Weapon, and Shield Durability/Breakability? As you mention it, Arduin has this kinda thing in the 1977 and 1980 versions (but not in the Revised and Compleat versions, IIRC). Lotsa old school games have this kinda thing. AD&D 1e, AD&D 2e, Hackmaster, etc. but yeah that's the sort of thing I'm talking about. Well, a bit more complex than that but basicly, yeah. BTW, as an aside, it's not really that burdensome unless you try to read it off of the tables each time -- in AD&D the Weapon to Hit Adjustments vs. Armor Type are simple to put on a proper character sheet and in Hackmaster it's also a snap especially if you use the Combat Wheel.

Re: Good Zombie flicks Tonight I'm re-watching the recent re-make of "Dawn of the Dead" -- great frickin' movie! Lotsa gaming ideas too.

Re: Armor, Weapon, and Shield Durability/Breakability?

Re: Armor, Weapon, and Shield Durability/Breakability?

Re: Armor, Weapon, and Shield Durability/Breakability? No, not like Ablative. Anything more like the DC vs. DEF doing BODY thing in FH like Eosin mentioned.(FH-5e.189) I'm trying to work out an ultra-detailed version that compares the type of damage being done vs. the type of material's Defense -- be it another weapon parrying, a shield blocking, armour interposing, or just some object being hit. I don't think anyone else has bothered to do this with the HERO System but still I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask...

Has anyone worked out a system for Armor, Weapon, and Shield Durability/Breakability? Or, more generally, for any equipment or objects taking damage and gradually losing their effectiveness in steps and/or totally breaking? Thanks!

Re: Commonality of Energy Types? Yeah, a HAZMAT suit is a great example. I realize that I'm trying something a bit new to most HERO people, other games have done similar things - HARN, MYTHUS, Rolemaster, Riddle of Steel, etc. The HERO System is a better toolkit, I'm just trying to figure out how to best put the pieces together on this.

Re: Commonality of Energy Types? NND, AVLD, etc. aren't a concern here. just regular old ED and rED. I'm building a comprehensive list (well two actually, one Fantasy one Sci-Fi) of attack types and want to have each of them slotted/categorized and given a limitation value for defense purposes (e.g., Armor, Damage Resistance, Force Field, etc.) and I want to base that limitation value on a rough percentage% of what proportion of the types of attacks that affect that kind of defense (e.g., ED/rED). For PD/rPD it was easy: Physical/Force: Cutting/Chopping/Slashing/Hacking/... © : ~33% (-2 = 1/3 cost) Puncturing/Impaling/Stabbing/Thrusting/... (P) : ~33% (-2 = 1/3 cost) Bashing/Bludgeoning/Smashing/Crushing/... ( : ~34% (-2 = 1/3 cost) These can be further divided by the thing doing the attack: Cutting-Swords, Cutting-Axes, Bashing-Clubs, Bashing-Unarmed, Bashing-Falling, etc. For ED/rED it's more complicated and that's what I'm looking for some other perspectives on so I can see if I'm missing anything before I finalize the values for a much more detailed system than is usually used. e.g., Chainmaile (or Powered Armour) would provide different defence vs. Thermal/Heat/Cold/Fire, than it would vs. Electrical/Lightning, than it would vs. Acid/Chemical, etc. It's the "etc." that I'm trying to fill in. I hope that that helps to clarify...

Re: Commonality of Energy Types? Specifically I'm looking at things that are Attacks vs. ED/rED for Fantasy and (to a lesser degree) Science-Fiction. E.G., a straight-up 3E/d20 conversion would be Fire, Cold, Lightning, Acid, Sonic. Rolemaster (particularly with the Elemental Companion) would be more detailed. Attacks that would be vs. PD/rPD aren't an "energy type" for purposes of this discussion even if they are elemental/energy -- things like Ice, Water, Kinetic/Force, Air, etc... The purpose is to come up with Armors/Protection Spells (or sci-fi counter energy fields) vs. specific types of these energy/elemental attacks.

Re: Creatures from Skull Island In thanks for all of your hard work, Susano, I whipped up an all-in-one printable document with all of your Skull Island write-ups: http://www.hierax.com/hero/kong-hero-surbrook.pdf (.pdf ~481kb, 68 pages, with internal+external hyperlinks)

Re: Are HERO gamers more wedded to more "realistic" game physics? Some Hero fans are and some aren't. Personally, I am. I think the detail of the Hero System allows for more realisitic simulations than many games but sometimes it feels like an uphill battle against the strong lingering Champions bias of the system and example builds. Realistic: split of BODY/STUN so can Stun or K/O not just kill, Hit Locations, Disabling/Impairing, Bleeding, etc. Championseque: bad balance between breakability of objects vs. damage to creatures, ludicrous damage scaling for Star Hero, etc...

Re: Elves IMO, an Iron allergy/Susceptibility and/or Vulnerability Disadvantage really adds more flavour to Elves by helping to balance out their uber-powers, and giving them real game-mechanic reasons to act more elf-like (elusive hit-and-run archers and gives a reason to distrust the iron-loving Dwarves). YMMV but I just got sick of Elves being long-lived pointy-eared humans with advantages and no disadvantages, fine for the mary-sues but not my cup-of-tea.

What are the different kinds of Energy/Elemental Attacks and Defences, how would you group them, and what % of Energy Attacks would you say each is (and consequently how much of a limitation for a defence only against that kind of attack)? Energy: Thermal (T): Heat/Fire Cold/Ice Chemical (C [need a different abbreviation?]): Acid ... Elemental/Electro-Magnetic (E): Electricity/Lightning Sonic Light Radiation Gravity Magnetic Microwave X-Ray Gamma Ray Particle: Photon, Neutron, Electron Laser Blaster Plasma I'm trying to make up a list but Energy is a lot more complicated than Physical/Force/Kinetic Attacks and Defences: Physical/Force: Cutting/Chopping/Slashing/Hacking/... ©: ~33% (-2 = 1/3 cost) Puncturing/Impaling/Stabbing/Thrusting/... (P): ~33% (-2 = 1/3 cost) Bashing/Bludgeoning/Smashing/Crushing/... (: ~34% (-2 = 1/3 cost)Would you do this list any differently for different Genres (Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Super-Hero, Action-Hero)? FWIW, I'm primarily interested in Fantasy and secondarly in Sci-Fi, less so in Super-Hero) Thanks in advance!

Re: Creatures from Skull Island Awesome Job, now you made me buy the book to have the pictures and flavour text to go with your HERO stats! FWIW, I'm thinking an Isle of Dread-esque adventure will be in order with this stuff someday. Thanks!

Re: Yet Another Alternate SPD Rules Thread Another quick thought here: Maybe the SPD chart could be tweaked to avoid the slower going faster by Segment X problem. I haven't worked it through but it's an idea so crazy it might just work...

Re: Elves IMC, Anti-Iron is an essential balancing factor to Elves and other suck fae folk.

Re: Yet Another Alternate SPD Rules Thread Thanks, Joe! You've given me a lot to think about. I'll take another crack at doing "Movement per Turn" House Rule and might even get it to work this time around. But I don't think I can contribute much right now as my head is more into some other "real life" things that I need to deal with these days. Keep the posts coming though, I'm eager to see what you come up with.

Re: Yet Another Alternate SPD Rules Thread I was looking at how much they move by Phase 6 not in Phase 6 (cumulative total for the Turn). Also, I should say that I start a Turn in Phase 1, so with that you don't have the everyone going on Phase 12 problem, but this is a change from the standard starting on Segment 12. This just seems more logical to me. I guess my main problem is that I have a pet peeve for round numbers and the non-divisible by SPD x movements bother me. Hence the buying Movement Down (and sometimes Up) to adjust to fit. Maybe it's really not such a big deal afterall, I guess one could just work up a chart with roundings nicely divided (sorry without HTML it's hard so show this well on the boards): E.G., 6" Movement --> 12" per Turn SPD: Phase#=Movement (cumulative total in the Turn) SPD 1: 7=12"(12"). SPD 2: 6=6"(6"), 12=6"(12"). SPD 3: 4=4"(4"), 8=4"(8"), 12=4"(12"). SPD 4: 3=3"(3"), 6=3"(6"), 9=3"(9"), 12=3"(12"). SPD 5: 3=2"(2"), 5=3"(5"), 8=2"(7"), 10=3"(10"), 12=2"(12"). [2.4" rounded] SPD 6: 2=2"(2"), 4=2"(4"), 6=2"(6"), 8=2"(8"), 10=2"(10"), 12=2"(12"). SPD 7: 2=2"(2"), 4=1"(3"), 6=2"(5"), 7=2"(7"), 9=2"(9"), 11=1"(10"), 12=2"(12"). [1.71... rounded] SPD 8: 2=2"(2"), 3=1"(3"), 5=2"(5"), 6=1"(6"), 8=2"(8"), 9=1"(9"), 11=2"(11"), 12=1"(12"). [1.5 rounded] But I still see problem break-points that need Buy-Down/Up tweaking. And you'd pretty much have to work out a table with the rounded SPD for every Movement/SPD combination -- that's a lot of permutations to detail! And theres too many different break points to make adjustments for all Movement/SPD combinations so that you don't have slower moving more than faster. Maybe with some more persistence it could work but I'm not convinced so I didn't bother. Hence the Segmented Movement use to avoid these problems. I just wish that Segmented Movement didn't take so long to resolve because it is so much more detailed. It's kinda hard to explain but hopefully the above list and imagining other lists/tables like it gives you an idea of why it's a bit more complicated that it first seems. If you can live with the slower SPD character moving cumulatively more in a turn on a given phase than a faster SPD character then this isn't a big deal. But I do think that is is a concern.

Re: Yet Another Alternate SPD Rules Thread To be clear, I guess I should have said that if you want to try it, movement per turn offers some neat options but it does tend to cause a bunch of problems that aren't immediately obvious. It can work if you can work around these problems with tweaks and careful builds but buying down the per Phase movement of high SPD characters who need a lot of actions but are not "Speedsters" so that they get a more reasonable amount of per turn movement addresses the problem without the complications. (conceptually it isn't as nice but it seems to work better in practice, at least as far as I've been able to figure out) I tried it out but wasn't able to successfully get through all these problems without extra hoop-jumping or carefully balanced builds (easy division) -- so I'd only use it sparingly but the original poster was bothered by the SPD movement problem, so I mentioned what I tried. That said, I still really like the concept of "per turn movement" (makes more sense making actions in combat and movement speeds distinct in a point system) and maybe someone else with a better 'Heroized brain' has more successfully by-passed these issues. Play with it and see if you can make this seemingly simple change work better/cleaner/smoother... I'd really like to see it work out fully with all character builds instead of specifically balanced ones...

Re: Yet Another Alternate SPD Rules Thread

Re: Yet Another Alternate SPD Rules Thread Here's what I do. Movement Rate per Turn instead of per Phase: Do Movement Rate x2 per Turn = effectively no change for 2 SPD Characters others have to buy up their movement power instead of SPD to move faster. E.G., Run 6" per Phase = Run 12" per Turn = Run 1" per Segment (when you want that extra detail).

Re: Moving from D&D - rules issues AoO adaption/adoption seems simple enough to me: If everyone (GM and ALL Players) wants AoO in HERO have it as a free ability. If some want it, make them pay for their characters to have the ability. If no one specifically wants it don't bother.All, some, or none. Personally, since AoO is pretty new-fangled on the xD&D front it's not a big deal to me, YMMV.

Re: Magic Missiles The DMG (1e p.82) defines Hit Points more clearly and there are clearly some evasion, combat experience, sixth-sense, luck, etc, elements to it. "It is quite unreasonable to assume that as a character gains levels of ability in his or her class that a corresponding gain in actual ability to sustain physical damages takes place. ..." - Gary Gygax