Roy_The_Ruthles

Re: Animated JLA, 6th Edition I must have confused the control cost and the character point cost of the control cost (i thought it was 30 character points for the control, thus 60 AP)

Re: "Encounter" Powers Recoverable Charge, possibly continuing for some powers (like that cleric one that increases healing done for the rest of the fight)

Re: Question about keeping equipment balanced in heroic campaigns? Quality and Quantity of Equipment is important, especially when compared to characters who are psykers. HERO can run into problems if one character buys powers with character points, and another buys them with in game (i.e. fake) money. For example, if character A has a psychic power to enhance their strength and toughness, as well as the power to cause people's heads to explode. Character B has power armor and a laser rifle (which they bought with money). The person who plays character A will generally be sad because they could have had more useful psychic powers (stuff that can't be duplicated with technology). Occasionally the laser rifle and power armor will be taken away, but will it really disappear enough to make the two characters balanced? So I'd determine what you pay points for, and what you pay money for. Then never the two shall meet.

Re: "We don't need gas money" I vote for OIF, since you can't actually disarm them of flying objects. They can just touch their shoes and fly around (and those are OIF).

Re: "Leadership" multipower That looks like a sufficient multipower. I would just do Overall Skill Levels UBO (or UBNearby). Then players can put it into OCV, DCV, Damage or relevant skills.

Re: Rapid Clotting I agree. It depends entirely on what exactly you want the power to do. Both are fine methods.

Re: How Much DCV? OCV doesn't add to Damage Classes, AoE does. So you might want both, but in most games (where they have DC or AP caps) your non-AoE attack will do more dice of damage. Plus you can get hit locations (if you use them) with the non-AoE. So for a +1/2 you could get +2 Stun Multiple, since you are just going to headshot that guy anyway.

Re: Animated JLA, 6th Edition So the first thing I want to say, is I am enjoying reading your builds. Please keep them coming (I really want to see Martian Manhunter and Hawk Girl)! Now for the things I'm noticing (Superman): 1) Does Red Sunlight or Kryptonite come up enough to be a -1/4? I don't remember it doing that. Maybe that's better off as a physical complication: Powers don't work in X conditions. As a GM I'd never allow that limitation because (much like Foci Man) he's built to either be 100% or 0% effective. 2) I don't like the MP build of Superman, because it means he can only do some super stuff at a time. Particularly his defenses (he can't get his PD and ED DR up and attack with anything above a 8d6 attack), although he does have some out of his MP. I would personally move the DR out of it too. 3) Speed in an MP will play havoc with your actions, remember that changing speed makes for potential problems. 4) Why does he have x128 NCM instead of Mega Scale 1m = 1km? It would be cheaper and just as useful right? 5) As mentioned, both Enhanced Senses and Naked Power Advantages in a Framework. I would figure out why you are building him on 400 points. If it is so a player could use him, I would focus on a less "GM can allow" build style. If it is for GMs, I would give him more points. There are lots of point saving methods that I would consider questionable, and the best solution is probably just more points. Batman: 1) He has more Martial Maneuvers than I usually use, but that's not an inherent problem, just a place I would take points out of if I needed them. Examples of this are both Block and Dodge, but no Escape or Flying Dodge. If he had any two defensive maneuvers, I would go with Escape and Flying dodge, so he can avoid being hit by dudes, and escape them when he gets grabbed. 2) I also wanted to point out that batman must predefine what he is carrying, and can only change that at bases, yet his pool is cosmic. I think this means when he gets to his base, he can swap all his gear as a 0 phase action. He may want to go with a longer time to change than that, at least a few seconds. I assume this pool is for "just the right solution spray" based powers? 3) Plenty of skills is good. Don't really have a problem with that. 4) I notice he doesn't have any OSLs, he should probably sell back some of his base OCV/DCV for OSLs. It will greatly increase his skills and be nearly as effective when fighting. 5) Maybe his VPP should have 0 END on it so he doesn't pay END for his equipment. That's not a requirement, just a stylistic thing. So that's my review of the characters. Then after reading them, I did some though experiment fights in my head to see how they throw down. Assumptions: 1) They know how each others powers work, (seems reasonable) 2) They fight using their normal tactics, modified based on the opponent (superman will default to melee, and use his eye lasers if that doesn't work. Batman will use his gadgets and martial arts). 3) Superman walks around with his MP on defenses (I'm going with 50% PD, 50% ED, 10rPD/10rED, 5rPD/5rED Hardened etc) when he's not using it to attack. Scenario 1: No Prep Time Superman walks up to Batman and says "Hey, Lex Luthor said he will donate a million dollars to sick orphans if I beat you up." Batman: "That's stupid. I'll donate two million if you just leave me to brood" Superman: "Eh, no dice. We kung fu fight now!" Phase 12: Batman goes first on Dex 23. He makes a tactics roll (14- so we'll say yes); and knows: 1) Superman is faster, so aborting just delays gets his head stomped 2) Superman is basically invincible when not attacking 3) If he gets touched by Superman he is in a world of pain. So Batman decides he needs to wait until superman attacks him, then punch him as hard as he can. Batman holds Superman doesnt' have tactics but does know Batman is delaying. He decides to go with his good old fashion "Bat Crunch". He switches over his DEF slots into "Strength Tricks" with AoE as his advantage, and goes for the grab. At this point they both roll DEX rolls to see who acts first. Superman is a 12-, Batman is a 14-. Even if Batman wins though, he has to hit Superman's DCV (10) with his Offensive Strike (OCV 8), and only does 8d6 damage (average 28 Stun). Superman subtracts 20 from this, and then his DR knocks it down to 4 STUN. If he had left up his DEF, he wouldn't be taking any on average. Conclusion: Batman gets owned hard (as it should be). This will happen nearly 100% of the time if no body messes up and Batman doesn't have anything useful in his pool at the moment. Scenario 2: Prep Time While Superman flies off to go give money to orphans Batman limps over to the Bat Cave or Bat work bench or whatever. Upon arriving at the bench, Batman grabs a Bat Healing Potion and heals to full (this can be increased reuse rate, it's mostly so he can be at full when our narrative continues). Standing tall the Dark Knight looms over the work bench... "I will teach that Boy Scout to abuse -1/4 limitations! And to beat me up. Mostly the limitations thing though." Batman picked up a handful of "Weakness Darts" 6E1 197, and attached a Batsticker to them, turning them into Bat Weakness Darts! Bat Weakness Darts!: 6d6 Drain STR, OIF: Darts (he has unlimited, so you can't disarm him, and he shoots them out of his wrists or something so grabbing him doesn't matter) (-1/2), Range Based on STR (-1/4) [60AP] [34 RP] Batman looks at the remaining 6 points of gear he could take, and grabs some Bat Armor (5 PD, 4ED). Batman then goes to meet the (now) returning Superman. Batman: "Hey Superman, Gorilla Grond says he will donate a million dollars to sick orphans if I beat you up." Superman: "That sounds incredibly contrived, and like a thinly veiled excuse for another fight" Batman: "We kung fu fight now!" Phase 12: Batman decides he should act first and give Superman a dart. He needs to weaken the Man of Steel before he gets beaten like the Martian Manhunter. He attacks with a Dart, sad about the fact that he has no OSLs to apply. Batman OCV 10 vs. Superman DCV 10. 55% of the time Batman hits. When Batman misses, Superman grabs him and see scenario 1. Assuming Batman hits, Superman gets Drained for 6d6 of STR (21 points on average) (designating his Bend Steel as required on 6E1 135) . Superman then proceeds to gloat about his invulnerability Superman: "Is that the best you can do? I'm still as strong as you, plus I have Super Everything!" Batman: "Not anymore! These generic Weakness Darts taken from the 6th Edition Core Book and slightly modified by addition of the word Bat and removing a few limitations have massively crippled you. How are your much valued Super Senses? Superman: "Ye gods! My X-ray vision!, my telescopic Vision, my Super Hearing, my Ultrasonic Perception, My Super Swimming, and my Flight have all disappeared! Also my Life Supports and two points of Speed!" Batman: "Yes, I have carefully studied how your powers work, and I realized that because you use Unified Power on every single one of your abilities, any negative adjustment power that affects one of them affects all of your powers; as described on 6E1 page 395." Batman then PRE attacks, because he's the Batman. 4d6 base - 1d6 in combat +1d6 displaying a power, +1d6 made a social skill roll (he has tons, he will pass this), +1d6 violent action (he did do some damage, since Superman lost 6 Stun), +1d6 good soliloquy. 7d6 = 24.5 PRE. Superman is impressed but not deterred. Superman is now in a bad place. He can feel himself weakening but cannot wait until phase one (after 5 points have returned) to attack, as then Batman will be able to abort to dodge, which will last until Superman's phase 6 and Superman no longer has a Speed advantage. Plus he's rash and headstrong so he might as well go in swinging. Unfortunately he has lost 20 points from Bend Steel, 20 points from Super Strong (13 STR), so he can no longer throw out 16 DC attacks (he's down to 8DC attacks, 1 DC STR, 3 DC Bend Steel, 5 DC Super Strong). At this point Superman has 2 moves. Either attack with his reduced STR (which will still16 Stun on average past batman's defenses (no stunning him) or hit him with a combine attack of Heat Vision and Super Breath And Heat Vision (yes he can fire 2 eye beams at once, don't ask why), doing 2.5d6 RKA + 1.5d6 Penetrating RKA. This on average does 8.75 + 5.25 Body, or 14 Body to Batman. Superman knows that Batman has no resistant defenses normally, but is worried about killing Batman (seeing as this is going to be at least an impairing wound, and leaving him at 1 BODY, while a good damage roll can send him into negative body with a disabling wound. A good roll and a head shot will actually just kill Batman). I'm pretty sure this is where Superman's Code vs. Killing applies, so he make a 7-. Superman generally doesn't feel like giving someone the double laser eye stair of Doom. If he was fighting for his life, he might. If he did, he'd probably win as Batman would be stunned and go down like a punk. He is a little worried about just melting Batman's arm off though. So he goes for the punch. Superman then turns all multi power into various STR powers, hits Batman, (OCV 12 vs. DCV 10), and fails to stun (doing 16 STUN). Post Phase 12: Superman recovers 5 drain Phase 3: Batman gives Superman another taste of Bat Weakness Darts. Superman feels very bad about this, and loses most of his 30 AP powers (not defensive ones). Superman can go with the double Eye beam thing now, but it's only doing 1.5d6 + 1d6, or 9 Body and 18 stun (using default rules, 27 with hit locations). He probably wants to Eye Beam if he's using hit locations as he won't kill Batman but will stun him. If he's not, he's pretty shafted. Phase 6+ Batman zaps him with a few more darts, Superman gets turned into Really-Sad-That-He-Bought-All-His-Powers-With-Unified-Power Man. Then Batman just beats him up with Martial Arts while Superman has 5 STR and takes it. Conclusion: Batman Can win this one without Kryptonite but it does require 1) He hit Superman on Phase 12, 2) Superman not want to kill him on phase 12. If either of these don't happen, Batman is going back to the Bat Hospital. So yeah, about what I expect. Good Job!

Re: Armor Wars It is possible to have masked adventureres in a game where the cops are on the same level as the crimefighters. Look at Watchmen, Rorscach, The Comedian, Silk Specter, etc. are all pretty much just baseline humans who followed plot hooks. Yes, some of the characters were more powerful than regular military/police (Veidt, Nite Owl, etc.), but it was still possible to have a setting where the police were just as badass as the heros. Just scale the whole thing up to power armor. If both cops and super heros have power armor, then the role of super heros is to exist outside the law. To bust people who can't be proven with crimes etc. They are a force unto themselves because they act without red tape. You can have a universe where everyone has power armor (even civilians, think about in 100 years when you wake up in your armor, and wear it all day) and the heros still go adventuring. At least that's my thoughts. I've never tried it in game or tried to sell it to players so it might not fly.

Re: Questions from a newbie

Re: TASER in 5ER First thought, If you are going for a realistic taser, you may also want to add on a side effect for multiple tasers zaps (such as death or BODY damage). Or some people just might have suceptibility/vunerability/physical disad to tasers. Second thought, if you suppress someone's STUN to 0, and then have a continuing charge on it (that represents them not getting back up), they don't get back up until the supress ends right? So maybe a combo of supress + continuing charges. NND also works, but does result in people getting back up again rather quickly (on the order of 12 seconds or less). If it was an NND, what would the defense be? Is it possible to have thick enough clothing or whatever that a taser doesn't hurt you?

Re: How to build: melting a bank vault 1) hand wave with environmental effects 2) actually give it a side effect (or linked transform) that gives the target an AoE: surface 3) Make UmaroVI's dot sticky.

Re: Questions from a newbie 1) Put maximum caps in your games. I suggest figuring out what you want the maxium Combat Values, Damage Classes, Defenses, and Speed to be. Then assume everyone will be at those values because if you say "you can do 12d6 damage" players are going to want to (less experienced players may be less able to reach the caps elegantly, but that doesn't mean they won't want to reach them) 2) I've played 50 point characters and 800 point characters, both work. If you are using caps (as mentioned above), more points relative to caps generally means more options. This might be VPPs who have the right power nearly all of the time, combos of multiple powers, or even simple things like extra senses/sensory powers. Higher point characters generally take longer to do combats with, because you have more options, but experience can bring this down significantly. 3) This depends on the story. A game where characters start out as "low level" adventurers, and proceed to become kingdom owning badasses will gain points very quickly. A game based around "you are the crew from Firefly" might gain points very slowly. If you expect characters to be "complete" at creation (i.e. having everything they need for their concept) I would give 1-3 points. If you want them to grow significantly, 4-6 points. 4) With properly chosen caps (PM me if you want my cap rules), you can choose how lethal you want your game to be. Generally HERO is very non-lethal (make sure players have resistant defenses though). This is based on the dual assumptions that 1) You will run out of STUN before BODY, and 2) People ignore you once you are down. As long as both of these hold true, it is very possible for characters to be unconcious but not dead, and then to get back up after the fight. With very powerful characters, players are more likely to have defenses against any random attack (more likely to have Life Supports, or Flash Defense or Power Defense) so they are generally tougher. 5) Other suggestions for easing into HERO: Start small. I started on 50 point vikings. That game lasted 1.5 years and we gained about 200 points over that time. In the begining, we would start every session out by learning a maneuver. The GM would explain, for example, block. Then the enemies in that session would use block an annoyingly large amount of the time. This style made us learn all the maneuvers, when to use them, and at a fairly gradual pace.

Re: How to build: melting a bank vault Ok. If you want to hurt characters, buy multiple powers. You probably need 3+ powers: Transform Tunneling Killing Attack Killing Attack with NND Blast Flight (hot air baloon powers a go go) Images (flashlight) Flash (really bright and quick flame) Defenses (who doesn't need defenses? probably built as melting things before they can hurt her) just grab all the powers you need.

Re: How Much XP to Award? It depends on the game you want to run. A game based around weak characters who become more powerful over time might give out 5-6 points a session. A game based around powerful characters that stay around the same power level might only give out 1-2. Think about the story and if the players need to grow or not.

Re: How to build: melting a bank vault Tunneling with a gradiated extra time, so that the longer time period spent, the higher def she can tunnel through. Also buy the adder so it doesn't fill in behind you.

Re: "Bloodied" in HERO So in my gaming group, we used the term "Bloodied" to mean 1/2 STUN or less (with the idea that if you knock someone out, you can kick them in the head and keep them down most of the time). This is because in the games we play, BODY damage does occure (and I've seen people knocked to 0 or less BODY), but the fight ends when one side runs out of concious people rather than people alive. So in HERO we think of STUN like D&D HP (when you run to 0 of it, you cannot participate until someone gets you back up).

Re: Campaign I dea; Tangent Champions Iron Man: After falling into a vat of molten Iron, all his flesh melted away, leaving him an Iron coated skeleton. He has generic tough and strong powers, plus electromagnetic properties if attached to a power source. He's very Iron Age.

Re: Armor Wars 1) Clearly Iron Man lives in a universe where aircraft machine guns are 4d6 autofire attacks, while tank cannons are 2d6 RKA. I think either that, or he has vunerability to aircraft machine guns. And remember, his rocket was just a special effect of his 8d6 RKA, so what it actually looked like wasn't a big deal. 2) I actually go with the Star Ship Troopers definition of Suit vs. Mecha, specifically the distinction that a suit you can 'just wear' while a mecha you must pilot. In HERO terms, one is a vehicle and one is an OIF (or OIAD). In SFX terms, that means that a suit is anything you control by moving your own body, instead of with hands/foot/neuronet. Example: Elementals (from Battle Tech): Suits Battlemech: Mech

Re: How Much END? /agree. I've always just used AP/10

Re: Random Thought: Splitting Speed Can you take both an attack and a defensive action on the phase where they overlap? That might lead to some problems (such as hold defensive speed to abort when people attack).

Re: What Is The Deal With Talents? I do hate how the build information for talents is now hidden at the back of 6E1. Also, talents give you a point or two extra when buying massive amounts of combat luck (since it truncates to 6 points per level rather than rounding if you built it like a power).

Re: Ultra sonic interference device You do need UBO on mental defense, probably useable by nearby, which will help as a preventive meeasure (stay close to the generator, don't get mind controlled). You could also do it with damage negation or Damage Reduction

Re: Armor Wars In a "realistic" use of powered armor, you need to compare what role power armor is for, and how it stacks up to a tank price wise. Fallout is a good example of a universe where tanks became outclassed by powered armor, so there are no more tanks. In HALO, powered armor is too expensive to use, so tanks are still good. Most comic-book universes, still have tanks to make sure the reader can "relate" to the universe. It's basically the same reason that Reed Richards is Useless

Re: Ultra sonic interference device