Narratio

Re: Physical and Energy Defense Agree with Supersquirrel. It doesn't detract from the game and adds another area where we can tweak to create what we feel is right for a character. Can't take too many things away, otherwise we end up with the DC and Marvel RPG's....

Re: Extra Extra: Is 5ER actually bullet proof I remember going to a con' a few years back and one lady wore a 'standard' combat bikini (I love book covers) which included a chainmail bra. She also had pierced nipples and... one thing leading to another, had to be cut free of it by her boyfriend. Wire cutters, don't leave home without them.

Re: 5ER review Well, it was a long time since I picked up 4th Edition (with a 3.5" floppy with the Hero Creator system on it... Oooooohhhhh!) So on my last R&R I picked up a copy of 5ER in Singapore. And then read solidly for next 9 hours of airport hell. I like it. It does a good job of explaining 'stuff', but I must agree with Sean. It's still written for the Hero system fan. None of us care about the pages of iffy artwork, but the newbies do. We don't care about the presentation much, heck, we're going to be colouring in, adding post its and taped flags to it within a week. But it lacks the pizzazz required to grab the fresh meat. I would have ditched a lot of the gratuitous art (although it does give me space to stick extra charts and comments in) and a different layout. Maybe going back to the original D&D idea of three seperate booklets in a slip case? It would have cost the same, looked flashier and made better bait.

Re: "I Can Kill You" Agreed. Ouch. It really does stop vampire resurrection.

Re: Shape Shift discussion Nice GM point Sean. Changing your mind this way would change who you were. Hmmm, DC comics 'The Killing Joke' where the Joker said "If I have to have a past I'd prefer it to be multiple choice.", might reflect this. The shape of your brain is your personality. Change your mental image of your self and you change you. There's story line in there.

Re: Permanent Size Changes... Agreed. I'm with you in liking the way 4th handled growth, it still seems right somehow. But as the 5th makes as much sense and, as it's part of the latest rules, I'll go with it. I just dug up a 1st edition 'growth' character. My word, the capabilities have changed and an awful lot over the years.

Re: I'm sensing something's wrong I'm on the side that doesn't see danger sense as a talent or a power but as both. And a wierdly nebulous both at that. I can see Sean's building it as a power. For Marvel's Spiderman (who is, after all, the root cause of this one) it makes sense Define it, delineate it and have it built as many ways as it pleases you. But a cut down, flat cost danger sense, as a talent, also makes sense, especially for heroic games. As an example, the pulp hero big game hunter, his subconcious picking up clues concerning the lions den he's going to walk into - a vague smell, odd marks on a tree, disturbed grasses - stuff that wouldn't make gaming it with 'detect' die rolls worth while. But this level of danger sense I feel is best covered by a good GM adding extra explanation or 'trigger' words into the the RP.

Re: Electromagnetic Pulse I'd go with AVLD, area effect, as some of the others have noted. Not that hard to model really. Jut a blooming large area.

Re: Help me model this disad I remember a similar character I built on first edition. Did it at the time using the "Only usable when in hero costume" kludge. 5th edition is so much nicer...

Re: I'm going to have a WHAT? What Kamikaze said. The metaboic changes might be truly wierd for the energy users and psionics. An awful lot of a womans stores of trace elements get depleted with a baby. (That's part of why they get the odd cravings. My mother, a non-smoker, needed cigarette ash for some reason with my sister...) Anyway, energy levels will fluctuate on a daily basis, and even become impossible to control. Same with psionics. At some point the child and the mother are starting to communicate, get wrapped up in each others existence. Maybe the precognition / astral projection, whatever will just stop, or they'll sink into a mind meld with the child for the duration of the pregnancy? Childbirth is an arduous process. Will the mother loose control? Will the baby be a multiplier of area effect for abilities? Will every person in the hospital suffer the pain and distress? Either / both mother and childs? I can't remember the comics handling it much, even the dark graphics.

Re: Repulsive Odor I like all 4 suggestions. A PRE attack, an Area effect, the NND and the Flash against sense of smell. My preference is for the Area effect. Once again proving why this play system works when other more strightjacketed systems (V&V anybody?) fail.

Re: Hero is broken Common sense, common sense? I'm not I've got any left, hang on while I check the sock drawer. And NuSoardGraphite sums the whole thing up nicely. The game is designed for midrange comic book effects. Don't expect reality, in any shape or form.

Re: Multiple Attacker Bonus We used to play it as the book, but Derek has a heck of an idea there. (Note to self; increase in non-wussiness dependent upon strenght of exclamatory words used!) Our GM is doing some simulations with it now. Simple, effective and easy to implement. But no more bonus than +5 'cos of the hex map.

Re: Another stupid easy question brought to you in part by TKD In an effort to add more non-wussiness, could you refrain from politness and add something concerning the other posters genetic background, moral character and physical attributes? How can we ever hold our heads in Board society when we're all so nice and pleasent? It's mystifying, it truly is.

Re: Is it a staff or a staff? This is one of those "Ah bugger" questions that came up in a game a year back. Our GM ruled that the common martial arts melee weapons staffs were those designed for the job. Properly balanced, and wieghted, sized for the person and with certain well known and long established movements learnt to use them with a maximum of effectiveness. Uncommon were any old bits of stuff that an expert in the use of uncommon martial arts melee weapons could utilize with no disadvantage but everybody else could only use as long'ish club and experts in the use of common martial arts melee weapons suffered a disadvantage while using them. The GM said it was a philosphy thing.

Re: Building Optimus Prime When you're building Optimus himself, watch out for the mass. The problem with the really big boys from cartoons and comics is that the wieght of the buggers doesn't cause as much accidental colateral damage as you might expect with such large point loads.

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... Plot lines in the Wheel of Time books? Difficult to say. But I think it can be summarised as The prohesied King, found among peasents, returns. With friends he beats the bad guys, restores peace and order and then dies. I've read the first 9, mostly as an act of will power, I would not let him beat me. It's safe to say that 2 inch thick book advances the plot by about 3 paragraphs in any normal book. Just re-read Starship Troopers for the 24th time.