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I agree that expecting the RAW rules to provide "balance" is a bad idea, it is up to the GM to provide balance, either through GM fiat or allowing the RAW rules to be bent/broken in certain cases. If a player wants to play a Peasant who is brought along on an adventure with Warriors and Mages. There are two ways the GM can allow that to happen, either have the Peasant character start with a realistic point total to the concept (Normal Human, so like 50 pts or less) while all the other Players are built on 200+ points, but because of GM control of the game, the character is almost n

Something else that needs to be considered in premade Super Hero campaigns, and especially in premade Hero System Super Hero campaigns, is what powers to warn the GM to not allow. As we've all experienced (and seen in the threads here), two different characters, built with the same number of points, can be vastly different in effectiveness, not only in combat, but in their ability to bypass or overcome challenges. So if the campaign involves a lot of double crossing and deception a character that can Read Minds or Detect Lies is going to ruin a lot of the fun and surp

And Call of Cthulhu had a great couple of modules published like that as well, The Vanish Conjuror and Statue of the Sorcerer.

I voted for Aarn, and while I understand some of the points others have made as why not to do that city, my counter to that would be that: a) for many new players having a book for the largest/main city in the setting might be expected/welcomed as it could be considered the "heart" of Amberthal. b) for some of us long-time Turakian Age GM's/players who were really looking forward to getting the Aarn book back in the day it would be a dream come true! c) A city as big and important as Aarn would have some connection to almost every other area/city/kingdom and/or major org

The God of Filth and Disease. I would cut out the "filth" part, but in a superstitious time, diseases might be thought of as being caused/cursed/punished by the God's for some transgression, and this "god" might be the one the other God's send to inflict the disease upon someone. So it might be a minor God or "messenger" God, but people might still pray to him/it to try and win his favor and not give them a disease, or bribe him with offering or sacrifices, especially if they feel guilty over something they have done that think might cause one of the other God's to want to punish

Does the door actually OPEN when the hand is near it, or does it just unlock the door? If it only unlocks the door, maybe the GM would allow this?: Hand Of Glory I - Unlock Door: Lockpicking 21-, Usable As Attack (+1/2), Grantor can only grant the power to Locked Door, Door must be close to Grantor (40 Active Points); OAF (Dead Man's Hand with Candle)(-1), Extra Time (Full Phase, -1/2), Gestures (Must hold stable in one hand), Requires Gestures throughout (-1/2), 1 Continuing Fuel Charge lasting 1 Hour (Candle) (Fuel is Difficult to obtain; -1/4) AC: 12 If

As a Gm, I also wouldn't allow this build, for all the reasons listed by others. It would be like building Tony Stark, but buying the Iron Man suit as an Follower (since Jarvis the AI is technically running the suit and just "giving" all the powers to Tony). Rather I would suggest building it like Iron Man's armor, just a creepy, organic, sanity destroying version of it, and then buying the Shoggoths's "Mind" as a Follower, with its own senses, intelligence, skills, knowledges, maybe even a couple of its own attacks the player doesn't control (tentacle shoots out), etc... And then

So, does it require two activation rolls to work? If only one of the activation rolls succeeds then does only that aspect of it work, or do both fail? And, if both aspects are working would that make it maybe too powerful in some campaigns? Would only one of the aspects be enough? A shield in the game only gives +X DCV to the user, it doesn't also add rPD and rED to the user, but this build does both. The person with this spell active gets +5 rPD and rEd AND +4 DCV if both activation rolls succeed. So it is really like adding a Shield and Armor to the caster.

In games where all spell casting (combat and non-combat spells) require a skill roll, do you (as a GM) apply the "Combat Conditions" skill roll modifiers (-1 to -3) to the Player's Magic skill rolls during combat? If not, and I assume most people will say no (I never have in many years of Gm'ing, but have been re-reading the skill book lately and this question came to mind) it basically means they get the "Combat Ready" Talent for free for their magical skills. Is this unfair to other Player's who want to use some skills during combat who have to take the modifier or

I agree players (and GMs) should make the most out of their points and I think that all the discussion has also shown that the Game is much different then the source material, or at least the game stat "Descriptions" are different then the way most people play, compared to the comics and movies. For example, I've read a fair amount of Batman comics over the years, but I've never seen him lift something as heavy as a piano, or a sailboat, or a sports car (STR 15, 23 & 25 respectively), so from what I've seen in the comics (and movies) a "true" Batman build wouldn't have more th

I think as a general statement that yes it is bad. By that I mean people should be building to their concept, not to the point breaks or such. In your exact example of buying DEX at 18 instead of 17 because the breakpoint is at 18 is a perfect example of this. A character "shouldn't" be buying DEX or any other stat at the break points, or at higher point levels, if it isn't part of their concept/build. If the (starting) character should only have a 12 DEX then the player should buy it at 12, not 16, 17, or especially 18 because of the break point. The chart in the main book pretty

I would agree on side effect, but maybe it would need to be differently worded. The bad guy’s “Nearest minion” might actually be 100’s of miles away or even on another planet in certain settings, which is still rules legal, but probably not the effect they are going for. so maybe “nearest minion within 100m dies” plus a second limitation “power doesn’t work unless at least one minion is within 100m of user”.

It could also be used for a “backup” END reserve. like the power armor has its main END reserve for all its functions, but the players also buys a second “back up” END Reserve that only applies to Life Support and Flight. so if the main reserve ever goes down/is drained, etc... the back up kicks in and he/she still has life support and can fly away to safety, but can’t shoot lasers any more or anything.

This is actually quite interesting. At first I agreed with IndianaJoe, Then my opinion changed to agree with Lonewolf, but now thinking about it, and re-reading the Stealth listing in the Ultimate Skill, I think something a little different from both. First, though, and in general, I would go with Lonewolf's suggestion of just applying the bonus to the player and move along, keep it simple and quick. But... if realism and/or more detail is required, then I think it would actually be like this... The Stealthy character gets no bonus from the darkness. Why?

One option might be to allow shield users to attempt to make a block as a half phase action, which doesn’t end their turn. So they could block, then use a half phase to attack or retreat at 1/2 or 1/4 movement. That might be a bit powerful, so I would add that what is currently the DCV bonus of the shield be changed to floating modifier. For example, a large shield currently gives +3 DCV, in this variation instead it could give up to +3 OCV to block (like current rules allow) but whatever + the user takes to their block attempt, they get an equal -OCV on whatever attack they might do