dugfromthearth

for the most part I think the review is accurate as far as it goes. It really is not a review, it is a list of problems with Hero. There is almost no mention of what Hero is like. It seems like this is an addendum to a previous review about 4th Edition talking only about the changes. That said, a lot of the complaints are accurate. 5th Edition was an attempt to organize Hero but leave it backwards compatable. So things like Com are left in, Str costing 1pt, stun lottery, and lots of other things are left in as legacy rules that don't really fit. Of course some comments like rka and hka are the same except rka has range are clearly just factually wrong.

I thought a forcewall could be made opaque for an additional cost. I do like the entangle to create walls idea better though, although I hate that a power called "entangle" is used to create walls.

I do just roll killing attacks like normal attacks (5pts per 1d6 killing), no stun multiplier. modifying the die rolling is alot more complicated.

the R&D department has some new devices we would like you to test and write up a report. Friend computer requests that you report to R&D immediately to volunteer for testing. you are responsible for bringing back any devices that you volunteer to test. Volunteering is mandatory.

knowledge skill: this text usable by others

or -1/2 affected by NCM (normal characteristic maxima) so that the effect is halved for any attribute over 20. str aid +10pts str 10 person gets full benefit of +10 str str 40 person only gets +5 str because NCM kicks in.

what point level is the campaign? does he use obviously real magic, real magic that looks like it could be stage magic, or stage magic?

I also like envirnomental effects for flavor if you step out into a steaming hot jungle - then no post 12 recovery. You tire quickly and just don't recover unless you stop and rest. This obviously greatly reduces travel speed as well as influencing combat. ice cold air reduces sight and hearing range penalties. The effect is that everything seems closer. You describe something as being only a mile away, and it could be 10 miles away.

okay some stuff: Japanenese swords were very sharp, and generally brittle. They did not use them to parry because they would probably break. They were good against leather armor or unarmored people. Because the were so sharp the scabbards were made of wood with a curved interior that pinched the sides of the blade to hold it instead of blocking the edge of the blade as noted above. Broadswords were made of lower quality steel from the early medieval period. They were broad because the metal wasn't strong enough to be thin and not break. The edges were somewhat dull because if they were thin they would break on armor. The weight of the weapon made them good at smacking people around and they could penetrate armor fairly well (at least the chainmail used at the time). Longswords were made of higher quality steel at the end of the medieval era. They were thinner because the metal was strong enough to be thin and not break all the time. It should be noted that both broadswords and longswords broke constantly. It was common for your sword to break in a battle, most knights carried a mace or flail as a back up since those would not break. Longswords were not heavy enough to deliver as solid a blow as a broadsword. So they did not penetrate armor as easily. But they were easier to wield. In reality the sharpness of a blade reduces the resistance it meets when it cuts. The edge is not the whole issue though. If you swing an axe into a tree the edge will bite in but the sides will get stuck. No matter how sharp you make an axe edge it won't chop through a tree in one blow, the head won't fit. This should be treated as penetrating or armor piercing. Defenses are ignored but it can only do a limited amount of damage. Assuming a razor thin blade with an infinitely sharp edge it would simply slice through anything. Black Knight's sword in Marvel comics does this. Technically this would be an infinite hka with the "real weapon" limitation to indicate you couldn't stab and destroy the world with one blow.

"Yeah, but Vader's PER is bought OIF Armor." Actually it is bought OIHI since it is only removed at the very end once he puts it on. also he has change environment "Vader's Theme" plays whenever he is around and it reduces other people's PRE in the area.

for my redoing of the characteristics I make spd=2+dex/10+int/10 I see speed as being a combination of how quickly you can think to change what you want to do and then physically make the change. So it is a combination of intelligence and reflexes. My rules are for more heroic level (even for supers I want more 1960's level heroes then 1990's gods walking the Earth) so a base spd of 4 keeps all speeds within a more reasonable comparative range.

I would like a cost chart listing all of the powers, skills, etc by name with the costs for them, then the advantages, disads, etc. it would be handy for character creation

if a vampire is not killed by a stake to the heart then: vuln: 2X stun from wooden stake to heart recovery does not work with stake in heart so you have to hit vitals for double stun, then you get 2X stun from the vuln, so 4X stun. If you knock them out they don't recover.

can you jump from flying? could you buy flight "only to hover" with an instant power limitation (so you can only hover for a second) and then use that as your "platform" for doing your second jump?

it sounds intriguing, I just can't wrap my mind around it.

10 def act 8- 10 def act 11- 10 def act 12- 10 def act 13- 10 def act 14- 10 def act 15- roll a 13 and 40 def activates, 20 def does not one die roll.

the Green Arrow who lives in Seattle and hunts only with regular arrows takes out Hawkeye fast with an arrow to the heart.

short fight Prof X mentally pins Superman nightcrawler teleports Rogue to Superman SuperRogue beats up the JLA

actually for the most part this is pretty simple: 1) some foci are personal (defined as part of the focus limitation) - they only work for the character who bought them, thor's hammer is an example 2) you don't need to buy weapon familiarity with anything you spent points on for superheroes, but that isn't true for things you did not spend points on. Someone picks up an ak-47 and unless they have wf: small arms, they have a -3 OCV penalty to use it. Likewise if you steal Dr. Doom's time machine you might need to make a "ks: time machine operation" in order to make it work properly. Dr. Doom doesn't have to - he paid points for it, you didn't so you don't know how it works. 3) If you didn't pay points for something with charges, the charges probably won't come back. An ak-47 with one clip isn't world shaking. 4) if the player really wants to keep an item, let them. Just start withholding XP until it is bought off. 5) items bought with the limitation Independent ignore most/all of this.

There are at least 5 ways to attack and move in Hero. 1) use the snap shot maneuver to attack then move behind cover 2) use a move by or move through to attack during a move (could be at start or end) 3) buy a high speed so that you attack and then move before your opponent gets to go, effectively giving you an attack and move 4) hold a phase and then attack right before your next phase so that you get to attack and then go again right away, giving you effectively an attack and move 5) attack and then on the next segment abort to dive for cover.

the only drawback to megascale is that you can't do it over a short distance. If you want to teleport someone across in Chicago across the street you have to teleport them someplace over 1km away, then to across the street. You could do something similar with people inside the sattelite - teleport them twice to get the required distance for each teleport. The JLA teleporter I remember is from the late 80's/90's I think and was a booth they had to walk in, so I'm not quite sure of the effect you want.

I would charge 1pt for it and call it special literacy. It only works for languages you already know, but doesn't come free for modern characters.

I think he was talking about the governor of California.

targetting an adjacent hex is DCV 0 a hex is DCV 3 at range

a nifty alternative "undead" I had a GM use was a desolid undead that had the naked power advantage for strength "affects solid" linked to OIF-bones of opportunity. It haunted a graveyard. Bones would rise up and attack us, we would smash them or "disarm" them and it would then have to grab another. It also had a base move of something like 4" but had +4" bought OIF-bones of opportunity as well. So it would pick up leg bones so it could walk. Not being able to affect desolid we couldn't kill it, but we could literally disarm it. It was very cool for a chase (we were the ones running away).