CBikle

Re: How would you have handled this (GMs)?

Two other thoughts:

1 The UN bureaucrat who recruited an avatar of a war god onto their peace-keeping force, is probably looking for a job in the private sector.

2 Realistically, CLOWN's "Mechanon Goes To Washington" ruse, probably would've created a lot of chaos with police and other emergency services and led to at least a few incidental deaths/injuries related to that chaos.

As a GM, you can always hand-wave and say "None of that stuff happens" (kind of like how the Hulk's rampages used to never have any loss-of-life consequences), but in that case, it almost behooves you to do the same thing with the PC's excessive force.

Re: How would you have handled this (GMs)?

Sounds like you and Avatar's player may not be on the same page regarding degrees of campaign lethality.

Also, nothing good ever comes from using CLOWN. Somehow they just always seem to bring out the worst in players and GMs.

Re: Eygptian Sorcerer spells?

If you have access to the short' date=' but ultra-cool, "1963" series of Silver Age manques from (of all companies) Image, check out the one titled "Horus, Lord Of Light." It'll give you plenty of ideas, I 'spect.[/quote']

 

Re: Entangling giants

Hey James.

Since the rules very specifically say that Growth Momentum can be used to break Entangles (page 168 in Revised) I would not allow flexible Entangles to be immune to it. Justification is easy, the target simply grew too much, too fast for the Entangle to "keep up" and it "rips". Though the flexible, adhesive Entangles will keep a shrinker from just shrinking out of it the way they would a net, so there is still some benefit to that sfx.

Also, the adhesive angle works in preventing an already-grown giant character from escaping an entangle by "shrinking" to normal size.

Re: Blocking Move Throughs: An Optional Rule

Re: SFX vs. Mechanics.

You should not wait until "game play" to suddenly have to wrestle with confilcting interpretations...

For me, the only time this is really an issue is when it occurs in the middle of combat and if it involves:

1 an NPC's sfx or:

2 the GM looking critically at a PCs sfx in relation to some aspect of the environment.

Generally speaking, ill-defined or fictitious sfx tend to work better in game than well-defined or mundane sfx.

Even if they are built the same mechanically, my "bat-rope" entangle is going to run into more problems in game than the player who bought his entangle as "bands of cosmic energy". Let's face it, the "Power Cosmic" will trump a "utility belt" every time.

When PCs go "SFX fishing", it's not really an issue because most GMs will tend to adjudicate in the PCs favor granting them some minimal bonus or one-time effect; there's no real "debate" (When I'm GMing, I'm more generous if the player suggests how to do it mechanically).

Re: Mechanics vs. SFX... Where is the line?

Missile deflection was a perfect example to bring up.

Were it to be rewritten to look like the rest of the system, it might look something like this:

10 pts. Deflects physical attacks

10 Pts. Deflects energy attacks

With the rest of the adders being their respective costs.

Re: Recommended Power Levels....

I think the standard power level (350 pts.) works fine.

Only thing is you'll have to figure out how you want firearms to work.

In 5E, most of the mid-heavier weapons have become a LOT nastier.

My recommendation would be to use the 4th ed. levels for weapons.

Re: Millennium City walled or not

The lack of mass transit in Detroit is a similar issue that has happened; Detroit has no real transit system (other than spotty bus service I would not take on a bet). Figure that if the auto industry could make a buck off something' date=' they have forced the state/city government to adopt or avoid as appropriate. If the auto-chip burns out every 5000 miles requiring several thousand dollars in repairs so much the better (world dominance through planned obsolecence is the wonderful theory domestic auto makers have been riding their great "success" in the markets with).[/quote']

 

I thought Millennium City had a monorail ?

 

anyone know if the real-world Detroit has a subway or rail system ?

Re: Entangling giants

Another thought:

If a normal-sized character gets entangled and then switches to a multiform that has 8 levels of growth always on, but doesn't have enough strength to break the entangle, what happens ? (nobody say it depends on SFX or "the story", I'm just interested in how people would handle this just based on mechanics).

Re: Entangling giants

This is a little tough.

It's always been implied in the growth (and shrinking) power descriptions that those powers naturally gain lots of free unspoken advantages and limits related to those powers and you could argue that Glue Girl's entangle being largely ineffective against a giant just happens to be one of those examples.

However, although I think it's ok to hand out minor advantages or limits to a power based on an SFX, I don't buy into the notion of SFX completely overriding (or being useless against) another power.

As a GM, I'd probably rule that the entangle works as it normally would, and I (and/or the pc) can "narrate" why relating to sfx.

Re: Tactical Principals

I don't have 5E in front of me, but mechanics-wise, having neither target take damage seems like the fairest way to rule it.

As far as the lack of damage from velocity goes, you could rationalize that depending on SFX, genre and circumstances.

Re: Entangling giants

Just for game-balance alone (IMO, the entangle power has become too-watered down), I'd be inclined to say that the entangle affects the giant as it normally would.

Usually, you're only going to see NPCs reach the really high ends of growth and I'd think that most GMs would be inclined to rule in the NPC giant's favor (especially if it's a lone monster type NPC giant).

I don't recall the rules for entangle (or TK for that matter) going into too much detail in this area.

Re: 6th Edition thoughts

Don't know if there's really a need for a 6th edition, at least not for 5+years.

Although they're only marginally useful for me, I think books like Gadgets and Gear, the USPD and the Ultimate series of books are exactly the right steps in the right direction. Basically, any book that de-mystifies Hero for the average, potential new player.

Re: Speedster Tactics

Here are some real-world observations I've had from GMing speedsters and watching them in other people's games.

Don't have your phases take a long time. A speed of 8 probably means that your actions will take up a good amount of game time, and so, most of yours should be quick.

That's not to say you can't occasionally do tricky stuff, but most of your phases should be relatively simple actions using the official and optional combat maneuvers you guys use.

Holding your actions isn't a bad idea, but I'd ease into it as the game progresses.

Some GMs get irritated/distracted by PCs who hold their actions all the time, with an 8 Speed, that's potentially going to happen a lot.

If there's a huge disparity in your speed and another player's character, try not to draw attention to it.

Re: Blue Beetle's Disads?

Ted also had a tendency towards overeating. In one of the much-later Justice League titles, this was a storyline.

Re: Foxbat: A place in your campaign?

I fell to earth and sadly to my misfortune, i landed in the pool area of foxbat who was loungeing drinking his famous bannanna daquris.. he looked at my passed out form , looked up to the heavens and said "thank you god, i have been inspired!"

next thing i know.. i wake up dressed in a GIMP SUIT, bound and gagged in the local leather bar with a sign above my head that says proudly who i am and to "treat me like the bad boy i am"

See that feels more like CLOWN to me than Foxbat.

Re: help my friend is overpowered!!!!!

Why didn't the GM just increase the rest of the group's point-levels to the 800-900 pt. range ? Then the disparity wouldn't be as obvious.

Re: Foxbat: A place in your campaign?

To me, Foxbat seems best used as a vehicle to show the stupider elements of comics, the comics biz and pop-culture overall. Usually focussing on something topical.

Things like Kidnapping the celebrities of "Skating With The Stars" and using an armored Hover-Zamboni to assault the ice-rink where the show is taping.

Stupid crap like that.

Re: Foxbat: A place in your campaign?

I've used Foxbat a few times in one-shot scenarios where he has some kind of elaborate and improbable plan that goes awry.

My experience has been that characters like Foxbat go over better (with PCs) if they make a quick entrance, do their thing and make a quicker exit.

Also Foxbat works because he's got sort of a "fun vibe"(unlike Clown, which had a "GM-fun" vibe.).

Re: Millennium City walled or not

The automobile-computer chip thing makes a little more sense if you figure that the initiative was pushed by the U.S.-based automotive industry (perhaps in collusion with the computer industry).

If this is part of a larger plan to extend the auto-chip vehicle rule to other states, with those chips and vehicles being U.S. made, it seems like the kind of thing that would happen.

At the very least, this would curtail the number of imported cars to the U.S.

Re: Your personal comic book origins

I first started reading comics in the early 70's. Mostly DC (especially the 100 page spectaculars that had tons of old golden and silver age reprints).

I think my 1st comic was part of a multi-part JLA story (I remember it had Adam strange in it)

The "look" of many Marvel books in the early 70's kind of discouraged my parents from getting those. Everything was kung-fu and/or monsters.

Later on, I started picking up Marvel titles. I remember liking how characters seemed to leap-frog and guest-star from one Marvel book to another.

One of the more surreal memories I had, was picking up an issue of Tomb Of Dracula, because Spider-Man was making a cameo in that book.

Re: Help with a power? Strange toxin arrows

Whether or not the target has an elevated heart rate could be determined by a Con, EGO or Pre roll with penalties. I think that limit might be worth more than a -1/2 limit though.

Alternatively, you could include one or all of the characteristic rolls as part of the NND's defense. If you do this, I think the NND advantage might be worth only a +1/2 advantage instead of +1.

Re: If YOU have been playing Hero since the 80's why do you still keep coming back?

To me the Hero System is (still) the best RPG system out there. I've seen other systems (D&D/D20) gradually "Morph" over time as they borrow elements from Hero (sometimes becoming unrecognizable from their original design in the process).

The only thing that I think could improve it would be to add cards that would allow PCs and GMs to alter combat and plot elements (basically, steal the idea from the Torg rpg from WEG).

Re: Too balanced

The bullet power at which in the real world a single shot will on average instantly kill a normal person. For the sake of easy' date=' I'll accept that level of power that will result in a death on average or a normal person before they have enough time to fall to the ground.[/quote']

 

That's pretty much how I've run it. Discourages PCs from trying to "play the numbers" when trying to decide whether a "normal" can survive a gunshot wound.

Re: The Power of Presence

For PCs and major, VIP NPCs, I think I'd go with the house rule that combat effects (lowered DCV, Dex hesitation, etc.) would still occur, but it would be up to the PC/NPC whether or not they flee from battle; engage in battle with bloodlust; etc.