dugfromthearth

"If Marco Polo had returned to Venice with a few kung fu masters, would that have had a major development in western unarmed combat?" Probably not, because unarmed combat is militarily useless. It was developed in asia because monks were not pacifists like monks in Europe and had time and the desire to develop such skills. Knights would not have abandoned swords for karate any more then Samurai did. All kung-fu movies aside, the development of unarmed combat in Asia was a trivial thing outside of historic importance. Any martial art that was truly significant usually focused more on weapons such as Penjat Silak.

a lot of times I want to make a weapon or power that is less accurate then normal - musket, or semi-controlled EB. Just taking off points for reduced OCV is not good. -1 OCV would be -5 points, but then you could say get a 1d6 rka for free if it were -3 OCV. So a limitation works best. I'm thinking that requires skill roll is a good basis for this - but the skill roll required is your to hit roll. You don't buy an actual 3/2 skill, so it might seem like it would be worth less. But I note that the penalty to skill level is actually the limitation - if you get RSR with no penalty it is a -0 limitation. In concrete terms, a 60pt attack cost 40pts and have a -6 to OCV. Just buying straight OCV levels for one attack you could get +6 OCV to cover that for 12 points. If allowed to buy penalty skill levels it would cost 9 points. So -1/2 seems like to big a limitation. So I'm thinking -1/4 lim for OCV is reduced by -1 per 10 active points of the power. A 60pt attack would cost 50pts and have -6 OCV, which you could buy off for 12 or 9 points depending - which looks about right. You could use the other modifiers instead so -1 OCV per 5 active points would be a -1/2 lim. A 60pt attack would cost 40pts and have a -12 OCV which you could buy of for 24 or 18 points depending. Note that I would not allow penalty skill levels to be purchased to cover it, that would violate the spirit of the limitation.

you always worry about friction slowing you down - otherwise movement powers would have acceleration but no top speed. The top speed is determined by friction. you don't worry about friction causing heat unless you want to.

plants cannot see. so unless you give them eyes, sight does not make sense they can feel sunlight, they can feel vibrations possibly (which could be hearing), they can touch. but basically you are making up their senses for this. you are right, it doesn't have to be retro only. You should probably add an extra time limitation - required every time. Plants probably don't talk very quickly - think Ents.

skunk's spray: flash to sense of smell area of effect - cone linked to image - horrible smell, usable against others, sticky, area of effect cone, 0 END (so it lasts until washed off, and it is very hard to wash off) the skunk should buy personal immunity to both probably

well +1/4 must be right for END, because +1/2 is 0 END cost. Althoug thinking about it - it needs to be added that it would go to +1/2 for Autofire attacks. for charges a +1/2 makes sense if you think that you miss half the time. I would certainly think +1/2 for charges makes sense with autofire.

okay so I'm looking at going with extra dice with the limitations "only for stunning -1/2" and "does no knockback -1/4" for a combined -3/4.

it doesn't technically have 9 tails. it is just that whips are easily stopped by any sort of protection. Which thinking about it might justify making it an NND with the defense being resistant PD, but it also does body, and while it is stopped by resistant PD it does not just ignore the target's inherent PD - tough people are less affected by it. Technically I could just buy it as two linked attacks. But if 50% of it is bought with the -1/2 linked limitation that means I effectively get a -1/4 limitation for the whole power. And reduced penetration for body is a -1/4 limitation - so it doesn't make sense that reduced penetration for stun and body would only be worth the same amount.

it doesn't matter if they talk to plants. it matters what plants are. if plants have personalities and are truly NPC's so they have opinions, have senses, may or may not be friendly, etc, then you would have to buy a language skill (probably with extra cost for it being a rare language). If plants have some mystic awareness of their surroundings, always answer, and don't lie, then talking to plants is a special effect of clairsentience.

all ks skills are closely related, because they are ks skills if you talked to a professor and they knew about the writings of Plato, theories of quantum physics, history of England, or KS: NASA KS: Wicca KS: Broadway Musicals you would not find it that strange. They just read a lot of books. Now Professional Skills are not a tight group. Those require actual experience. That is a huge difference. If I talkd to a professor and they had knowledge about working at NASA, were a practicing wiccan, and had professional experience putting on broadway musicals. Then I would be surprised and think they had led an interesting life. KS means they read about it, studied about it, or heard about it. Studying lots of different things is a tight group. The group is studying, not the actual subjects. PS means actually doing something, so the actual areas of experience matter for whether or not it is a tight group.

I do allow aoe's to target adjacent hexes and not hit the caster. requiring a +1/4 advantage to be able to hit the next hext and not yourself seems very odd. No range lets you hit the next hex. So the rule means that aoe adds in the limitation that it spills over and hits you (assuming a one hex aoe, it doesn't hit anyone else in surrounding hexes, just you) now to hit an adjacent hex you do have to roll to hit. It is DCV 0 if adjacent though, not DCV 3.

I suggest a +1/4 modifier to the limitations (or adder): charges, End Cost, and burnout if they only apply when the target is hit. Tesla generates a static electric charge. When he touches something it gets zapped, and that drains his power (End). But if he misses they don't get zapped and he doesn't lose and End. Since 0 End is +1/2, this must be a +1/4 adder. Burnout only when hits with charges seems a little unusual, but this is Hero and the unusual is common. So it seemed worth figuring. A +1/4 to charges increases the number of charges by 50%. Missing 1/3 of the time seems generically reasonable. Burnout only when hits applies to weapons that can break when they hit. And +1/4 just seemed reasonable and consistent to apply to burnout as well.

You do not need to target another hex, with no range you can't miss the hex you are in. As a house rule (unless it is an official rule, but I don't recall seeing it) we don't allow aoe attacks to deviate more then half the range at which they are targetted. And yes a no range flashlight can only illuminate the hex in which the character stands. Which is not as unrealistic as you might think - most flashlights are fairly weak. Higher quality flashlights would have range, the cheap ones probably do not.

"Notable complications: can you buy it more than once? Do you have to take the additional +1 penalty if you buy an autofire attack that uses this advantage? Can you put this on an NND? AVLD? Ego attack?" Okay these complications certainly do make the advantage more trouble then the extra dice with a limitation. I figure the lim is -1/2 as a base, but at that point it does body. no body is worth -0 If an attack does not body does it automatically then do no knockback, or would you add no knockback for -1/4?

3/4 3/4 is the cost of double knockback, and it doesn't seem as powerful as double knockback. I would have gone with 3/4 if the doubling applied before defenses, but with the doubling applied after defenses it seemed too expensive.

yes yes, basically a cat of nine tails the idea is it works great on the unprotected captives but not on characters with armor or just who are tough.

I want a power (a lash, but could be a slap, nerve strike, poison, or other effect) that does not do much stun towards knocking out a character but can easily con stun them. I got the idea from double knockback of doubling the stun only for determining con stun - rather then buying extra dice and putting the limitation "only for con stun" on them, which seems more complicated and clunkier. For the effect I want, I want the stun doubled AFTER defenses, which significantly reduces the value. +1 would be basically just buying more damage which would actually do stun. so a +1/2 advantage seemed about right. other suggestions? does +1/2 seem right?

reduced penetration for Body is -1/4 does no stun is -1 I think I am thinking of a lash specifically but could also be a slap attack - where any protection largely negates the attack. So I want reduced penetration but applicable for both body and stun. I am thnking a -1/2 lim seems right. Of course being HERO I could also buy fewer dice with an NND - defense being armor. But that lacks the fine detail I want - tough characters would ignore the lash but those with low PD would get hurt a lot I could also buy two attacks and link them, which is probably the normal way of doing it. so does -1/2 seem right and simple and convenient?

well I was confused and in need of simple guidance just not the guidance you thought I knew the lim was based on the dagger doing damage, I just forgot how easy it was to make a dagger do body damage.

3 point level It seems to me to be a tight group of related skills - all KS. So I would go with a 3 point level. That is 3 times as expensive as raising just one KS, so there is still a huge advantage to specializing. Another way to look at it is that you are buying scholar multiple times but it doesn't reduce the base cost, just gives +1's to the skill (which is worth +1 pt in each skill, the same bonus scholar gives you). Since Scholar is presumably based upon some construction, and this is less effective then scholar (since it doesn't reduce the minimum cost) ipso facto it must be fine

cheetahs just some info on cheetahs: "Although fast, the cheetah cannot run at full speed for long distances (100 yards is about the limit) because it may overheat." http://www.awf.org/wildlives/65 "From a speed of 32km an hour a cheetah is able to stop in one single stride. The two front feet strike the ground more or less simultaneously and thereafter the hindfeet strikes the ground and all four feet are placed far to the front and the toes are spread." http://www.dewildt.org.za/cheetah/

yes I do exactly as presdigitator has said. sticky with a limitation on it so that it does not always spread.

I agree you are correct of course I just like to be explicit when I suggest something that goes against the rules. I do lots of things that are against the rules or change the rules, but I want to be clear when I am explaining the rules and when I am making them up. although I suppose the way I do things I should say that assume I am making it up unless I explicitly state I am following the rules. Since more often than not I am making it up.

he was right He was right to move it. I didn't read. I just saw the board was about Fred and didn't read the line that it was for rules questions and that only Steve could answer them. That is a great idea for a board, especially since it looks like he actually answers the questions. My post was about Fred but wasn't a question for him to answer.

that is forbidden setting an amount of a defense is either against the rules or something the rules say you are not supposed to do. I do it. But I believe the rules say not to.