steriaca

This is the Hero System. If someone tells you there is only one way to do something, they are lying.

If (and it might not be; I may have missed the actual thrust here) the point is to simplify or reduce the size of the rules book(s), this apparently can't happen.
 
While I personally (this often-overlooked term is a word that indicates I'm offering an opinion and not just trying to stir up hate and discontent that leads to a thread-derailing argument of hurt feelings and wounded pride) think that a considerable amount of the rules bloat came from a shift in attitude of the rules themselves.  Someone else on these boards stated it more concisely than I could have:  the rules have gone from "permissive" to "restrictive."  That is, once upon a time, powers and skills and such included whatever you expected them to include-- put another way, whatever you and your group / GM expected them to.   Then came the creep-in of "NO!"  Bits and pieces were slowly pulled out and teased apart and suddenly became advantages and adders and modifiers, all of which had to be explained, costed, and demonstrated.   One small example is "Change Orientation" for Teleport.  Used to be assumed, now it costs money.  A recently-discussed second option is "Rapid" for perception.  What was once just a schtick now costs points, and from that same recent discussion, it seems like it can cost a hell of a lot of them for what, if actually role-played to meet the description, would absolutely wreck everyone else's good time in addition to being totally impossible to do.   (we don't make people with flight by life support vs cold to fly higher than a kilometer or so, but we _do_ make speedsters pay for the ability to see where they're going?!  Crap; I shouldn't have said that.  Edition 7 will now include "able to survive the use of your power" as a separate element for half the powers now....)
 
Once upon a time, you assumed things like "can see where he's going" and "can fly at least 3km up because there's air for him to breathe there" were already included (and you didn't bother with math about the energy expenditures for parabolic travel versus plowing flat over the ground at a height of ten meters, nor the loss of distance traveled in the same time between the two techniques.   That'll have to wait for either 7e or APG 9 or wherever it is we decide additional complexity should go.)
 
 
 
Agreed, but given the creep toward restrictive build rules -- i.e., "No; not unless you also buy this and this and this and this, (which made the 5e out-of-nowhere inclusion of "Growth Momentum" really glaring.  All other editions recognized that there was no inherent momentum in "I get bigger," and characters wanting it built it as a separate attack (or extra damage) with "Growth Momentum" as a separate attack.  I didn't mind the inclusion of it, but it seemed to weird next to new rules that were pulling stuff _out_ of "this power comes with" and turning it into "costs extra.")  it won't work.  If you are going to design a rules set that requires those options to build what the player envisions, then you are going to have to actually present those options.
 
Now it might seem that I'm being really hard on the new overall attitude of the rules, but I'm _not_.  I'm pointing out one of the main reasons that the rules _are_ so big and _why_ there are so many options presented.
 
Here's the edge you have to walk to write a set  of rules for this game:
 
Keep it short and brief.  Okay, one paragraph each for powers.  Let's be kind and say "no more than three paragraphs each for powers."   If you want to limit the size of those paragraphs to less than a page each, you'll have to include "not written by a lawyer" or possibly even specify "must be written by a mathematician  (Why is that word so hard to type?!!!)."   I can't _fully_ endorse either of those things, though:  lawyers are trained for keen and specific use of verbiage, and tend to be careful about selecting their words and ensuring that contradictions either don't exist or are well-explained (which leads to the verbosity, of course, but now we know why that's not always bad) and I don't know of anything I've read written by a mathematician (I am so done typing that word!  We're going back to AMG: amazing math guy), but if playing with numbers is your real joy, well there are likely to be great and lengthy sessions of tear-out and build-in of the various elements to seek the mythical "perfect balance" between Swimming and  Ranged Killing Attack. I can't see that _not_ ending up with more and lengthier "power does include this, but if you want any of the following sixty-two elements, you must by the appropriate advantages, so let's explain them, too."
 
 
Now I started out saying that this shift in the attitude of permissive / restrictive rules is _part_ of the bloat.
 
 
The rest of it is us.
 
You heard me:  It's us.  The players.  We _had_ the very thing we're sitting here crying about not having.  First edition was 56 pages start to finish (+10 if you add the covers and eight character sheets).  2e was eighty pages (which included a selection of villains to get off to a quick start).  3e was 96 pages (boxed set) and had _no_ character sheet (it was printed on the rear cover of the separate 40=page Campaign Book in the boxed set).
 
Third edition gained ever more rules spread through supplements, adventures, etc, all of which were specific to situations presented in those supplements and adventures and eventually even entirely new games build using Champions rules with custom tweaks for the game being presented.
 
4e, as we all know, was little more than gathering _all_ that material in one place.  All of it from all the supplements and previous editions and hammering it all into one cohesive rules set that would cover _everything_.  You would never need another rules set again, because it was all here.   The the genre books came out and totally wrecked that idea:  Here, have new characteristics!  Have new Talents and Skills!  Have new modifiers for other powers!  Have some Kung Phooey!
 
5e was lather, rinse, repeat, meaning that it had the ground work of 6e already laid in.....
 
 
So why this constant growth?
 
 
Us.  We weren't happy with what we had.  We had questions.  We had problems.  We didn't want to answer all of them ourselves.   We have this super-anal fetish to make sure we're doing our thing exactly the same way someone else is doing their thing (or vice-versa).  We might be having the time of our lives, but we're not happy until we know it's a book-legal time of our lives.  (Yes; I know every time someone mentions this inherent need to be book legal, we pay great homage to the idea that "the game is yours!  Change it how you want!"  Then we run off to some other thread to make sure it's all nice and book legal. )
 
 
There were _so many_ great points you raised, and I wanted to address so many more, but I have _got_ to get going, so if I may simply offer a poor wrap-up of what I've started  (I _am_ sorry to lurch off like this, but the pop-up says Hugh has replied, and it made me glance at the time, and I really have to be somewhere in just a few minutes):
 
 
We wanted more rules.  Some people figured out their own vehicle rules, for example.  Others didn't.  Others _wouldn't_, and demanded to know how to do that "officially."   
 
We ran into situations we weren't sure how to handle.  We wanted rules for that.  We developed the habit of building the entire world in HERO stats (what was the DEF of Granny's screen porch again?  Doesn't it take x4 BOD from fire-based attacks?)
 
We _wanted_ rules.  We asked for them.  We begged for them, and lamented the lack of new ones all through the long years of 4e when everything HERO-related stopped, and we turned to the internet and our fellow fans for new ideas.  We wanted to hard limits to help the different kinds of players work well at the same tables.  We wanted to be able to mathematically simulate (and to price in character points) every single aspect of the world we were building, and wanted it all to be precisely relevant tot he world in which we live.  Hell, I'm not claiming I'm exempt!  I _love_ building stuff in HERO terms!  
 
We just wanted lots and lots of rules.
 
 
Well now we've got them.  
 
 
Yet look at the number of "how do I...?" threads.  There are still issues that are not clear.  There are still problems.  Yes; I personally think the restrictiveness creeping into the massive rules tomes is part of that problem, but I also don't see a solution in simply doing away with it and stating "Okay, just decide that a power features all its elements automatically, and take Limitations on any of them you don't want in your build."  Honestly, either way still gives advantage to the clever or the highly-motivated.
 
Obviously simpler rules ins't the answer:  I don't think the PDFs of 1, 2, or 3e in the HERO store are selling like hotcakes.  I'm pretty sure even Sidekick isn't doing anything appreciable, nor even HERO Basic (Sidekick 6e, dammit!    )
 
Look also at the fact that in the subsequent books, bloat wasn't just in the build rules.  It wasn't just in the breaking things rules.  It wasn't just in combat or movement.
 
There was more and more bloat in the "tell me about the world I'm going to be playing in" sections, too.   People have _always_ wanted playable-out-of-the-box worlds.  People have _always_ wanted pre-build adventures.   Given the amount of time it takes to create from whole-cloth in the new rules (much, much more to select from when you're building _anything_, after all), people need them more than ever.
 
 
But not everyone.  Not at this point.  Most of us have game worlds and game groups with long-established histories at this point.  Let's face it:  new players aren't happening as fast as the old ones are dying off.   There's not a big enough market to support it anymore.
 
 
So let's try this:
 
Fan-built adventures.   Post 'em here.  Co-operate and build one together.   Get with Jason and see if you can toss them into the store: a buck a piece, even.   I won't lie:  I've got three groups I have to run, and a  job  that eats up over 70 hours a week.  I'd buy even a passable adventure in a heartbeat.  As much as it shames me to say it, I've been recycling from group to group for over a year now, simply because I don't have the time to come up with new stuff like I used to.
Now I really, really have to go.  I wish I could have addressed more, but such is life.
 

Nope. The universe froze in 2009. Everyone fell into suspended animation. Nothing to see here.

Apparently Steve Long didn't get that memo...

What you absolutely need in your Champions campaign...
 
1) A huge criminal empire of some kind. They might simply want riches. They might want to rule the world. But they are there.
 
2) A mega-villain. That one huge powerful guy in the background who the heroes can't reach just yet...
 
3) A comic relief villain. Someone like Foxbat or CLOWN to have some whimsy in the campaign.
 
4) A villain who is just plain spooky and scary. A disturbed little pr*ck who your heroes might forget there Code VS Killing.
 
5) A police super organization, to help heroes or turn against them when accused of a crime.

Apparently Steve Long didn't get that memo...

Heat NND Blast.
 
Transformation, liquid to steam.
 
Another NND Blast vs Plants, Does BODY (crops withering in the heat).
 
Change Environment (heat).
 
Darkness and Flash (dust).

Perhaps an Area of effect, no range, moveable Mind Control, only vs machine class of mind, only to command a machine's operations, telepathic?
 Is in order?

I guess the strangest I ran in freeform us The Legendary Nellie Splitbottem for a game on Zombieland Saga Amino. Nellie, when she was living, was a Victorian teenager in Canada who got sliced by a buzz saw. Somehow, her body ended up in Japan where the necrom@ncer fixed her up, 'sleep' taught her Japanese, and made her the first member of his secondary zombie idol group.
 
She is rather 'normal' in the contents of Zombieland Saga. Now try translating that to Champions.

I like a pony also. With laser cannons.

If END is cheep, then Endurance Battery is like air. But, in the Hero System, you must pay for the air.

Here's a image for Jabberock, turned out decent

Odd. Wasn't there a horror movie where the killer uses a "portable" jackhammer through the movie?
 
Yes. I found it. It is named The Jackhammer Massacre or simply Jackhammer.

A HKA Does Body NND Attack (defense is Damage Negation). When the blades are diamonds, they can cut into most anything.

Heat NND Blast.
 
Transformation, liquid to steam.
 
Another NND Blast vs Plants, Does BODY (crops withering in the heat).
 
Change Environment (heat).
 
Darkness and Flash (dust).

Are they still using Sparkplug (the heroic Pointsetia), Lady Arcane, and...I guess Gargoyle is not going to be available. Guys, this chocolate covered Gyro Jim microphone shaped candy bar is for you.

Chainsaw's update.
 
Tunneling, slowly as he cuts into walls, much like the tunneling brick trick.
 
+PRE, only to attack.
 
Deflection, No Range, Focus, Physical Special Effect only.
 
A few backup chainsaws (only 5 points per doubling).
 
Summon Chainsaw Drones.
 
A dislike for Texas Chainsaw Massacre series of movies. And Pieces, the movie. "I'm not from Texas, and I'm not a cannibal."
 
Reputation: "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is based upon him". It is false, but hey...

Chainsaw's update.
 
Tunneling, slowly as he cuts into walls, much like the tunneling brick trick.
 
+PRE, only to attack.
 
Deflection, No Range, Focus, Physical Special Effect only.
 
A few backup chainsaws (only 5 points per doubling).
 
Summon Chainsaw Drones.
 
A dislike for Texas Chainsaw Massacre series of movies. And Pieces, the movie. "I'm not from Texas, and I'm not a cannibal."
 
Reputation: "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is based upon him". It is false, but hey...

Desolfication, only vs AoE attacks, requires a dex roll.

Desolfication, only vs AoE attacks, requires a dex roll.

I understand. The final decision is up to each individual GM. Gatchaman is more Champions than Super Sentai is.

She is the top Russian super-agent whose code name translates to Blue Fist Iron Star (or In her own country Siniy Kulak Zhelizanyn Zyek, and prase to Google Translate). She prefers her entire code name to be shouted, and dislikes anyone using a nickname (but they call her Siniy behind her back, and the English speakers mistake it for Shiny).
 
She is a bonified Russian superhero. She is formally of the military (and was let go when she lost her left arm, luckily for her a friend made her an artificial arm which can still change her powers through), and uses military tactics and her ability to charge blue energy through her arms to fight crime in Moscow.

She is the top Russian super-agent whose code name translates to Blue Fist Iron Star (or In her own country Siniy Kulak Zhelizanyn Zyek, and prase to Google Translate). She prefers her entire code name to be shouted, and dislikes anyone using a nickname (but they call her Siniy behind her back, and the English speakers mistake it for Shiny).
 
She is a bonified Russian superhero. She is formally of the military (and was let go when she lost her left arm, luckily for her a friend made her an artificial arm which can still change her powers through), and uses military tactics and her ability to charge blue energy through her arms to fight crime in Moscow.

That is why you have a trusted NPC with the required power.

Also wondering if a "Forgotten Allies" supplement should be done for heroic characters who seemed to fall to the side, like Quantum, Jaguar, Starburst, the Zen Team, etc etc.