Arthur

Re: What about the warriors I remember seeing something on the web about a bunch of ways to help warriors be more distinctive, interesting, and competetive. I wish I could find it and attribute it. However, the ideas were similar to ones I'd used before (but the web document had more ideas than me). Some ideas: KI POWERS: A martial artist can do near-magical things by control of Ki. Some options: Extra Time (to summon ki), RSR (Ki Control), Concetration (focus ki); Incantation (kiai). Typical powers: Iron Fist: HKA. RSR, Incantations. Stoneskin: FF. RSR, Conc to start. Healing Trance: Healing. RSR, Self Only, Extra Time, Total Concentration throughout. Walk Through Walls: Desolidification. RSR, one phase only, Only to pass through barriers. Come to think of it, this is probably all well covered in UMA. TOUGH GUY: Allow the iron-jawed fighters to buy small amounts of Armor (up to 2/2) to represent innate "toughness". I personally recommend an additional +1 Advantage due its extreme usefulness. RAPID HEALING: Regeneration up to 1 BODY per hour. I have a House Rule where Healing has a base Reset Time of 1 Day. That is, the same Healing can only be done on one person per day. Regeneration is no exception. To increase the Reset Time by one step on the Time Chart is a +1/4 Advantage. Therefore, the 1/Turn Regeneration requires an additional +1 1/2 Advantage. I find that the values generated this way are far more indicative of the Power's actual utility. Anyway, this also has the effect that slower levels of Regen are significantly less expensive than the 1/Turn version. You can actually save enough points to make it a viable option. The current rules really discourage constructs like "Regen 1 BODY per hour" which are quite common in the source material. I'M THE [X] MAN IN THE WORLD!: Let characters buy one aspect of their characteristics (or a linked set) to superhuman levels. The Strongest Warrior in the World (Fezzik!) would have STR 35 and the Tough Guy Package (but would be limited to DEX 18 or so, max). The Master Rogue could go to DEX 23, SPD 6. Etc. I'm sure Herodom Assembled can come up with plenty of other ideas. I sure don't have the market cornered on creativity around here.

Re: Invisible to Infrared only Sure, but that's true of ANY modifier. It's true of any Power, for that matter. Unless you run a very unusual game (it's on a planet shrouded in darkness, and IR goggles go for $2.95 at Wal-Mart), it still shouldn't be more than ten points, base. How often will the character be in a situation where he can be seen by IR but not by normal sight? More than a quarter of the time? That would be an unusual game.

Re: Dust Raven You said it. The first thing I thought of that could even come close would be a weird variation on XDM: "transport me to a dimension where economic indicators are such and such". The greater the change, the more exotic (and hence, "farther away") the new dimension would be. I'm not real sure about this approach, though. It seems ripe for abuse. Maybe a huge Change Environment, with some huge Adder and/or Advantage to represent that you are trying to use CE for beyond its intended scope? Anyway, the bottom line is this: this is a HUGE effect, and if it doesn't cost a LOT of points, then something is wrong.

Re: Spell for making a sailing vessel move more quickly Sounds elegant enough. I'd add enough AoE to encompass the ship. After all, it should be more expensive to speed up a battleship than a rowboat.

Re: Invisible to Infrared only If Invisibility to Infrared isn't dirt-cheap (five points or less), then something is wrong. You have an effect here where the character will be visible to most characters most of the time. How often would Invis to IR really effective? It would have to be in pitch darkness, against someone using IR. I would do Invisibilty and slap a HUGE Limitation on it; at LEAST -4. It's just not all that useful.

Re: New Limitation: Does not Stack. Gm's please look Actually, it's a very good point. It's partially valid. The simple answer is that "resistant defenses" and "normal defenses" are not the same thing. IMO, that's valid in the sense that Normal Defenses are meant to model "resistance to pain", at least to some extent. That works fine when subtracting from STUN damage. However, it may not be so accurate when figuring how much BODY to subtract from Normal Attacks. If you want to be really accurate, you would use the logarithmic armor-stacking rules when subtracting BODY damage, and regular addition when subtracting STUN. However, Normal and Resistant Defenses are just different enough to let them stack. Furthermore, the large amounts of STUN damage relative to BODY damage that usually happen make it better in play to have them stack linearly. It's kind of a kludge, but seemed to work best in play.

Re: New Limitation: Does not Stack. Gm's please look Exactly! Beat me to it. You made the argument as well or better than I could have. This was meant as a straight compliment, even though it may seem a bit backhanded.

Re: New Limitation: Does not Stack. Gm's please look Two points: 1. If DEF 20 is "really" ten times the protection of DEF 2, then the Abrams tank armor is equivalent to ten layers of medieval leather armor or 2-3 layers of medieval plate. Using my derived logic, the tank armor is equivalent to about 500 layers of leather or about 50 layers of platemail. Which one do you think is more accurate? 2. Damage is also logarithmic. A medium tank gun does about 4d K or DC 12. A handgun does about 2d K or DC 6. Are you honestly trying to tell me that a 90mm Tank Gun has only twice the energy of a .45? In point of fact, up to about DC 15, each +1 DC for guns represented twice the KE (at least pre-FRED: as wonderful a job as DOJ has done, they don't seem to grasp the underlying mathematical model of the system). However, even now, +1 DC is FAR closer to x2 damage than anything resembling a linear progression. Note that this matches nicely with +5 STR exerting twice as much force. Once again, a doubling.

Re: New Limitation: Does not Stack. Gm's please look It doesn't say you can't. It says they don't add up linearly, because the numbers for DEF don't represent integers - they represent powers of sqrt(2). Similarly, STR does not stack because the numbers don't represent integers, they represent powers of 2 (in 5 point increments). What if your character has a STR of 30? That would be an easy load for someone that strong. How in the world do you reality-check THAT? Do you have access to real magic force-fields to test? Magic is a GAME CONSTRUCT that can do whatever you want it to do. However, if force fields stack with armor in a Heroic game, be aware that you are representing many times the protection, not just adding them up. You're missing the point completely. I used the armor weight as a guideline. Since I know that Hero is non-linear (the +5 STR = double the STR was pretty much the basic building block of the whole system), I needed to determine how much DEF was the increment for doubling. I had already derived a formula for combining STR (e.g., a STR 10 and a STR 15 character working together have an effective STR of 18). I simply changed the 5's to 2's in the STR formula to get layered DEF totals. As far as your examples about adding up damage: those values all represent exponents when comparing to real-world energy (or at least they did before FRED, when some of the designers were engineers; they still do in most cases, still). It means plenty. It is used to carry said armor. A 25 STR can lift 8x as much as a STR 10; it should also be able to carry 8x the protection (all else being equal). Also, remember STR was the basic building block of the whole game system.

Re: Balancing Attacks and Defences Power Levels [/b] An average die roll is 3.5, not 3. 12d EB averages 42 STUN, not 36. You'll average 12 STUN after defenses. Likewise, a 4d Killing Attack averages 14 BODY. The average STUNx multiple is x2.5, averaging 35 STUN. An average roll of 14 with a maximum STUNx of x5 does 70 STUN. You should refigure all your averages using the real average. You're off by a significant margin.

Re: The great armour race... So I take it your ruling is that four STR 15 guys working together can lift 100 tonnes. After all: STR 15 + STR 15 + STR 15 + STR 15 = STR 60. STR 60 can lift 100 tonnes, right? If HERO is linear, this is your conclusion. Isn't that right?

Re: New Limitation: Does not Stack. Gm's please look [/b] The problem is that Hero is not linear. Like STR, DEF is logarithmic. Based on armor weight, each +2 DEF is twice the linear protection. Hence DEF 10 is "really" sixteen times as much protection as DEF 2. In a different thread (the one about armor) on this same board, I presented the formula I derived for stacking armor. In many cases, it does reduce to "defenses do not stack". In many other cases, two layers of armor yield only a +1 to DEF (for instance. DEF 6 and DEF 4 layered together yield DEF 7). Now, last time I had some folks declare "Hero really is linear, not logarithmic!". Fine. That means that four STR 15 characters working together can lift 100 tons, right? STR 15 + STR 15 + STR 15 + STR 15 = STR 60. STR 60 can lift 100 tonnes. Isn't that right?

Re: OK, Math And Science Experts: Cubic Hexes

Re: The great armour race... It shouldn't stack in a linear fashion. HERO defense is geometric, like the rest of the system. The only way to really try to figure out how layering armor translates into Hero is to note that +2 DEF of real armor is double the mass. So every +2 DEF is double the linear defense (in the same way that +5 STR is double the linear STR). This can be solved for adding DEF. The final formula is: 2 * LOG2(2^(DEF1/2) + 2^(DEF2/2)) Where "LOG2" is "the logarithm to the base 2". You plug one layer of armor in as DEF1 and the second layer of armor as DEF2. Note that in a lot of circumstances, this will mean that the armor will not stack. However, if the armor values are close, the second layer will add a bit of DEF. This was an obvious candidate for a spreadsheet, so I created one. Any math geek should be able to duplicate that easily. Some examples: DEF 5 over DEF 1 padding: DEF 6 DEF 5 over DEF 5: DEF 7 DEF 7 over DEF 5: DEF 8 It's also fairly easy to make a table up to DEF 12 or so. Does anybody think this would make a good Digital Hero article?

Re: Give me your best... I once transported super-characters to a world that had been invaded by aliens - and the aliens had won. I used "Lizards" a la the "WorldWar" series by Turtledove (but I ran that game five years before the books - not that it's a terribly original idea). Humanity had been reduced to a few million, mostly in slave-labor camps and such. There was a tiny resistance movement fighting a hopeless losing battle. Well, it WAS hopeless before the superheroes showed up. Now, thanks to the PCs, humanity has a fighting chance. It's about as heroic as a PC can be. Can you save the world? Can anyone?

Re: The great armour race... [/b] Sure. I didn't think Europe was in a permanent Ice Age. However, you can't think that Poland is going to be as warm as Egypt. Also, several centuries ago, the climate was considerably cooler in general. Which is another area where literature and gaming are hard to reconcile. In literature, characters don't wear platemail all the time because the author says they don't. In a game, if there are no penalties for wearing plate, there is no "author" to prevent PCs from wearing their ironmongery 24/7.

Re: The great armour race... What's the climate? Ever try wearing plate armor in ninety-degree heat? That would reduce anybody human or near-human to a quivering pile of jelly in short order. There's a good reason that heavy armor was, historically, predominantly a northern European artifact. Check a map; Europe is about the same latitude as Canada. How to game that out? Apply LTE END penalties FAST as temperature rises. 1 END every minute would not be out of line as a maximum: I doubt anybody could last an hour in the hot sun wearing full plate. When END is gone, start draining STUN. When STUN is gone, start hitting BODY (maybe a bit slower). This leads to one of my favorite home-grown magic items: Comfy Armor. It's a set of full plate with two Change Enviroment spells, each with its own Trigger. It warms up when the weather is really cold, and cools off when the weather is hot. Keeps the wearer at a steady 68 degrees F. Alternately, it could be designed with LS.

Re: OK, Math And Science Experts: Cubic Hexes Actually, there was a much more exhaustive and accurate site posted on the "Ultimate Brick" thread a week or so ago. I wish I could take credit for it, but I have to nod to whoever posted it. Anyway, here it is: http://www.simetric.co.uk/si_materials.htm Densities are given in "kg / m^3". Since a 2m hex-cylinder is 7 m^3 (as has already been pointed out), just multiply density by 7 to get "Kg per hex".

Re: Authority supplement cover shot Whoa now. I don't know much about Authority, but Wild Cards I know plenty about. WC makes a GREAT RPG setting. I have used it as such in both GURPS and Hero to good effect. Some of my best games ever were in the world of Wild Cards. I also introduced the WC virus into other settings (GURPS Fantasy world of Yrth, for instance).

Re: Multipower and Experience Exactly. MPs and ECs are more or less necessary to balance the EPs vs. the Bricks and MAs. If I were about to play in a Champs game, and was handed a list of GM restrictions on MPs or ECs, I'd just stick to a Brick or MA or MA/Brick hybrid type (as much as "character type" really means anything in Champs). I tend to prefer those types anyway. My favorite character is a STR 35 guy with Martial Arts, Regen, and moderately low resistant defenses.

Re: just a note for the arduin fans My very first introduction to RPGs (1978) was playing in a D&D game where the GM made extensive use of Arduin. My very first D&D characters had an "Agility" stat. When I finally bought the three D&D books, I searched in vain for the Agility stat. I almost always played with the Arduin books; playing without them seemed weird and stunted. Oddly enough, this DM was by far the most non-MontyHaul DM I EVER played under. It was not unusual to play a dozen sessions without anybody getting a SINGLE magic item. Not so much as a +1 sword. And then, the magic items were usually cursed. On the plus side, this guy was a good storyteller. However, IMO, that's taking it too far the other way (even non-munchkins usually want a halfway decently powerful PC). It was frustrating as hell, and when some of us finally started taking turns as DM, a period of serious Munchkinism ensued. Since we all had the Arduin books, it got pretty crazy. We had to get it out of our systems. Some of the things I remember/liked about The Arduin Grimoire: The Critical Hit / Fumble tables. The table where each character would roll for some sort of modification. I remember a few of them (Mountain Man: +2 to CON; You are an obese glutton of foul and unsanitary habits: +6 saves vs. poison; You are half-demon and regenerate like a troll; You are an experienced sailor and will not drown even if full armor (you shed it); Undead friend - they recognize your aura and will not attack you.). The character classes: Barbarian (4d for STR); Techno (almost unplayable); etc. Then there were the Star Powered Mages. They were very munchkin, but I liked playing them back then. I made up GURPS and Hero conversions, quite depowered. The monsters. Back then, I went for the big ones. The Maggoth and the Ibathene were 30 Hit Dice each. Others: Kill Kittens; Undead Dragon; a large selection of Demons (Sea; Earth; Fire; Air; Storm; Night); a selection of new golems (Steel; Mithril; Orichalcum; Adamantine; Gold; Silver); new Dragons (new colors); etc. The spells: They went up to 20th level. The Hounds of Tindalos (summons the Lovecraftian creatures to stalk and kill the victim); Davalon's Death Star (half lightning; half cold); etc. I don't recall many spells.

Re: Ultimate Brick -- What Things Weigh Was it Champions II or Champions III that had an entire page of weights of stuff? It included off-the-cuff values for comic-booky things like "Alien Spacecraft" (small, medium, and large, no less). I had a copy of that sheet in my Hero Reference Notebook, but it is long gone. Anyway, it was a great reference for Champions.

Re: Autofire as Accuracy Booster In previous editions, Autofire carried an automatic OCV modifier: +2 IIRC. I can't understand why that was dropped. Automatic fire is used for increased chance to hit with at least one round as much as going for multiple hits. I have a House Rule where Autofire gets an OCV bonus of +(shots/2) rounded down. Therefore, AF3 gets a +1 OCV while AF5 gets +2 OCV. AF10 would get a +5 OCV. I think Autofire is plenty expensive enough (both in Modifier and Charges/END used) to rate this bonus.

Same here. Penalizing players for not understanding the rules completely is poor form. I take it one step further: when a player submits a PC to me, if I find places where the player blatantly wasted points due to not being an expert in the rules, I help the player rewrite the character. For instance, most players fail to realize that an INT which ends in any number other than 3 or 8 is wasted points. Etc.

I started playing Champions in 1984. Give or take a year. Haven't played lately, but I have logged hundreds of hours of play - possibly thousands. I never chose Block once. Dodge was a common choice for me. Make it a Martial Dodge, and it was even more useful.