mallet

Re: How far have you gone?

Re: Sleeper This sounds really good. I haven't been getting comics since Global Frequency ended, but I might have to look this one up. How many issues did it run for? And has it been collected into a Trade yet?

The HeroSystem is the Ultimate Toolkit, it is made to be adapted, molded and juryrigged into your own unique game and system. But for the most part all the games I have played (and, I will admit, GM'd) have basically just picked the power level, then taken the rules, as is (with differing amounts of the optional rules), and started playing. This isn't using the "toolkit" aspect of the game though. It just playing the full thing, but I have always thought about "going all the way" with the system. How about you? Have you actually made use of the toolkit aspect of the game? If so, how far have you gone molding and adapting the rules to create your own game? What are the biggest changes you have made? Do you make pre-created power lists that the players have to choose from? Do you drop all of the power advantages and limitations or just make all of them cost a base amount of points (like adders)? Do you drop some stats from the game? Drop whole sections of rules? Change combat? No martial arts? If you droped whole stats, how did you balance out the begining character points to make up for this? Did you add new stats? And if you did, how did they effect and balance, with the others? How far have you actually gone with the Hero System?

Re: Alternate Initiative Rolls How about DEX + 2d6? This way characters who have spent the points on a high DEX will still almost always goes first, but it does allow for the rare times when a lower DEX character has a chance move first. Kind of how Warhammer does Init.

Re: Top Down Bottom Up I wouldn't make it a "power" at all. I would make the ability to tap into the "magic" a talent (a really expensive talent if you do not want all of the players to have it). Then just make a "control power" that the character puts points and experience points into. This could be used like a skill for controling the magic. The more they make their "control roll" by the better their control. The more they fail it by, the more wild and uncontroled the effect is. All you need to do it work out how much effect/damage each level of success or failure does (maybe use the indirect/missed target/area of effect rules as guide lines).

We had a big wind storm here last night and I couldn't get to sleep with all the nosie, so my mind, of course, wandered into that lovely "twilight zone" of RPG campaign ideas that I will never get around to using. I came up with one and I thought I would post it here for everyone to pull apart, comment on, and the like. ==== The game would have to start out with the GM being a little bit sneaky, and at some point a few weeks before starting (maybe on a night with all the player there, but nothing really happening) the GM comes up with the idea that the group should work together and make the "perfect all-around-superhero". Then eveyone sits around and with a group discussion slowly build up what everyone will agree to be a cool, playable super-hero (Not just powers and stats, but disadvantages, personality, everything). Time passes. Then one night the GM says "Hey, let's start that new Champions game we have been talking about playing." Of course the players will be "But I haven't spent the last 2 weeks min/maxing points and ideas to make a superhero", but the gm just laughs and says, "Don't worry, we'll try something different this time. Lets start out like you are normals and we will roleplay your "orgin story". Sound good?" Eventually the players agree and they sit down to play... GM: You wake up with a killer headache and the faint smell of smoke still lingering in your nose. Somewhere a window is broken and a strong wind rushes through the room. "Where are you?" you mutter as you slowly pull yourself to your feet. Damn, you hurt in places you didn't even know you had... Somewhere in the gloom around you other figures are slowly moving and getting up, but right at your feet is a body that is not moving. You slowly bend down to get a better look and see if he needs help. With a startled shock you leap back from the body! It can't be... It's impossible... But the body at your feet is yours! Not compreheanding you look about the room and slowly emerging from the darkness you see... yourself... 3 or 4 more exact duplicates of you. What the hell is going on? At that point the GM hands out the character sheets to the player. They are all the same. Everyone is playing the same "Perfect All around Superhero" the group built a few weeks back. Chaos insues and the campaign begins. ====== The basic story is that the players do not know what they are. Are they alternate reality versions of the same person? Are they clones? How did they get here? Was it a supervillains attack that made them? Or a scientific experiment gone wrong? And who killed the original version of themselves? They all have the same memories leading up to two weeks ago, when everything goes black until the moment they woke up in the room. Talking to DNPC's shows that the hero disappeared two weeks ago and no one knows what happened to him. Now the players have to get on with their lives, but with the problem of having 2-3 more versions of themselves running around town. That posh penthouse apartment, doesn't hold 4 people so well, and who is the one that gets to keep dating the Girlfriend? How do you split the money? And what will the city do with 4 or 5 idential caped avengers" running about? In time they would find that their are slight differences between them in temperment and personality (because each player will play the hero differently) and when they spend xp they can spend it on different things, like one player becoming more of a brick/MA, the other a Mentalist, another a EP, or buy off disadvantages the others do not, etc... So slowly over time they will all become distinct and different heroes, but ones that all come from the same root and the same orgin that links them all together. ==== I don't know why I came up with this ides, maybe it was reading all the posts about how people always want their characters powers to be distinct, unusual, stand out from the others, etc... where what really makes a character different is how he is played and what the player using him is like (just like in comics where a different writer can make the same character very different). So what are your thoughts? WOuld you GM a game like this? Play a game like this? How would you solve the problems? Would they be clones? Alternate versions? And what are other strange or different campaign ideas that you have come up with in the past that you would never run (or have never gotten the right players together to run)?

Re: House Rule: Banning Multipowers & Elemental Controls? I think that before "fighting" the GM on the issue you should find out exactly what feel/genre of superhero game he is going for. If it is a full blown Champions game using the published rules and setting, then, yes, he should allow frameworks because some of the published villians and supers have them and the players should have access to anything the NPC's have. On the other hand if he is going for a custom built low powered super-hero game where all the characters are "mutants" who should only have one main power, or where all the powers are "gifts" from some supernatural source of something then not allowing frameworks might fit the feel of the game better. I have played and GM'd super games that have not allowed frameworks (I am currently running a "Psi-Hero" game that does not allow frameworks), and they can be fine. I just depends on the setting, the NPC's, and the players. As long as those three factors are in alignment then it can be fine and fun to play with out frameworks.

Re: post-apocalyptic genre book I don't think anyones mentioned this yet, but the best Post Apocalyptic setting that I have ever come across, be it in film, book, tv, or game, is L. Ron Hubbards novel "Final Blackout". It is a fantastic look at life amongst the ruins of a world war 2 that never ended, but rather just kept going and going until biological and chemical weapons have basically wiped out all of mainland Europe. I would suggest that anyone interested in the Post Ap. genre should definately read this book. (And don't worry he wrote this novel 25+ years before he ever decided to create Scientology, so there are no "messages" in the novel, just good, violent, life during the apocolypse fun.)

Re: Neverwhere HERO Well, in the "What is Neverwhere" section you should try and include a look, however brief, at the "big picture" going on in the world. I mean apart from the other cities below, but to even include such things as the Angels, the City of Light, Demons, etc... And while it is never explicity stated, I think it can be infered that the world Neverwhere takes place in is the same world as the Sandman series and, quite possibily, the books American Gods and Anansi Boys. Of course that could take things in a vastly different direction so maybe those things should only be mentioned briefly, and then expanded on in later supplements. Some kind of "Gaiman HERO".

Re: Using enemies as human shields I agree with what Ghost-Angel said, accept if both Grabber and Gabbie were about the same size I would give a 14- activation roll (adjusted by the dramatic situation), since a majority of the character would be "behind cover". Also, I might allow the character who is using the NPC as a human shield to shoot at BadGuy2 (this is done a lot in the movies) but he would have some strong penelties to his shot and BadGuy1 ("the shield") would have an easier check to breakfree (not sure how I would do this off the top of my head, either a +10 STR to escape or a -10 STR to maintain the grab. I guess it works out to the same thing either way). Of course in most games badguys do not place much value on their co-workers so you would not expect the "human shield" to live long enough put up a struggle.

Re: Package Deals in 5ER This is also how I use them as well. Sure, anyone can have all or most of the same skills as a "Basic Milliarty Soldier" Package Deal offers, by training themselves off in the woods for a few years, but if the player takes the package deal then he gets all of the little incidentals that go along with having the career that are not bought with character points. Things like a military record, old friends in military, etc... Basically Perks that go along with having been in that job, but not major enough one to warrent spending character points. A character who did not take the package deal might have all the same skills, but would not get the "incidentals" that the package offers.

Re: Too balanced Another option would be taking the xD6 damage and splitting it randomly or evenly over all the hit locations. maybe in 1 or 2d6 increments. This would take longer to work out but might give a more realistic effect. I believe the old Top Secret/S.I. rules used this system to work out explosion damage. For example a 10D6 explosion might (after random rolling hit locations): 2d6 damage to the left arm 4d6 damage to the left leg 1d6 damage to the head 2d6 damage to the chest and 1d6 damage to right arm This would take into account the explosive/AOE SFX of an explosion while not increasing the damage. Also if you use the MAX damage to a limb rule (3 BODY) for a normal person you might find some people take less damage over all (although they are now missing arms/legs). This would also help explain why some people do survive being close to an explosion but with massive crippling injuries.

Re: Too balanced Good point on the explosion effects. I had not considered those. But, I'd have to say that with explosions thier effect should effect every hit location (and that is how they work in real life) because in say, a fire bomb detontation, every part of a person would be burned, not just a single location. So I think if your are right, that this is not something the rule explicitly state, but common sense in the applying of the optional rules would generate the realistic and very deadly effects of explosions and being run over by heavy objects.

Re: Too balanced

I have a player who is making a character for a DC game that is/was a bodyguard. He was wondering about what type of ability/power would let you "take a bullet" for someone else. And I really did not know the answer. How would you guys build a power like that? I was thinking something like Missle Defelection with the At Range modifier because this lets you block attacks at people standing with in a 1" radius of the character. And then addon a big limitation that you can only "deflect" attacks by taking the damage yourself. Or something like that. I also thought "armor" with a "trigger" might work. What does Herodom think about this?

Re: Too balanced Dealing with the issue at hand: Crushing Damage, I believe that it should be considered an instant effect, not constant. Once something is crushed, it can not take any more damage, so a character should not be taking damage "per round" from something crushing them... Unless, as in the example above, it is a moving object, then each time it moves it can crush a new location on the target' body. As a real life example: If a boulder falls and lands on your leg crushing it and trapping you, you do not keep taking damage each phase you are stuck (except possibly from bleeding- but even then the weight of the object often stop the bleeding). You are stuck there until someone moves the boulder off of you or you cut your own leg off. But you do not keep taking damage every phase from the "Crushing effect". And in the case of the Tank rolling over someone, then in that situation the person should be taking the Crushing damage (10d6 in this case) to each Hit Location effected. So starting at the feet and moving up every location takes the damage of the crushing weight (up to maximum BODY for the hit location). This seems to be one situation where you should always be using Hit Locations and Maximum BODY damage to a Hit Location (average person has 3 body in each arm or leg before it is severed/destroyed) rules. Thus if a Tank rolls of a persons legs they (the legs) take on average 10 BODY damge. Way more then the 3 BODY necessary to sever/destroy them, but, if given medical aid, the person can still live on with out them. And if a person is fully rolled over by a tank then all locations are taking more then enough damage to be destroyed (especially the head with an average of 20 BODY damage) causing death. So, I do not see the problems of the rules, in a realistic setting. In a super Hero game (where a person could weight 47 Tons with Density Increase) then you are playing a comic book game and people should be able to "roll" out of the way, fight off the weight, etc... It's already unrealistic, so everyone should have a chance to do super heroic things, especially in combat. realistic? No. But then a person weighing 47 Tons is not realistic either. And If you want to have a "realistic" super hero game then if said character "Whimper" was asleep at home, then he has no worries, because a 47 ton person would fall through the floor or any building before ever reaching him. Most likely they would also be unable to walk very far because their feet would sink down into the eath with each step (imagine 47 tons all resting on a location only the size of one human foot). This is deffinately one of those situations where you are either relaistic, so the heavy person falls thorugh the floor, sinks into the ground, AND Whimper, if steped on, has the location hit crushed and destroyed. Or you go unrealistic superhero comic style where a 47 ton person can walk around a building or on normal ground with out sinking/crashing and if you try and step on someone they can aviod the damage (just like the building floor you are standing on (which seems to automatically make it's roll)).

Re: The Wire Yah, "the Wire" is great. I'd also recomend "Spooks (MI-5)" and, if you can find them, "The Sandbaggers." Both are fantastic realistic spy shows (especially the Sandbaggers) great for a DC or Danger International campaign.

Re: Gun-Fu or MA with guns question Thanks for all the input guys. I guess I'll have to mull it over before we start playing to see if I'll allow it.

Re: Gun-Fu or MA with guns question Ok, even if you do not use hit locations, that does not change the basic question. What is a reasoning behind allowing MA manuvers to work with firearms?

So, I just started playing Hero again after a vey long departure (about 15 years). And I thought I had a good grasp of the basics of the game (I own the rules and Star Hero) for what I needed in my Star Hero campaign, but recently other players in my area have expressed an intrest in playing in a Hero campaign (I won them over to the rules with a one-shot adventure). So rather then adding them into my Star hero game I thought I'd start up a new darker campaign. So of course I went out and bought Dark Champions. Great book, but I came across something that surprised me. You can use guns with Matrial Arts moves. This makes no sense to me. How can a Quick Shot with a gun do more then normal shot? Shouldn't only the location that is hit (and maybe how well you roll if you use some of the alternate rules) cause more damage with a bullet? I don't have the UMA (and I assume that this is covered in that book), but could someone please let me know the justification as to why this type of build is allowed? Because now I've got a few players itching to make "gun-fu" characters a'la Equilbrium but I am having a hard time seeing the logic of why a gunshot to the head would do more damage by using a "Quick Shot" then a gunshot to the head by a normal shot. Can any one enlighten me?

Re: Character for Review: Elaine Nash Well, this is just a thought (but it is also a pet peeve of mine) but STR of 15 is way to high. yes I know it is nice to get the extra 1d6 HtH damage, but very few people, even professional soldiers, would have a 15 STR (unless she is one of those unslightly female wightlifter types). I would drop her strength to a more realistic level, and just buy +1DC with HtH to represent more skill in doing damage, rather then brute force. but that is just my take (I often question my players who give male characters 15+ STR in Heroic level games). "Look here is my forensic scientist nerd character with 20 STR."

Re: THRILLING PLACES -- What Do *You* Want To See? I guess it depends on the years in question, but Los Almos (where they developed the bomb) or Area 51 could be cool. Or any other old school American military base working on secret weapons, etc...

Re: THRILLING PLACES -- What Do *You* Want To See? What type of book is this going to be? And can I buy two copies?

Re: THRILLING PLACES -- What Do *You* Want To See? I would love that.

Re: THRILLING PLACES -- What Do *You* Want To See? Hmmm... American Government's "X-File storage warehouse" a'la the end of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" including all the staff and security measure it has and a list of the few items various cults and groups are trying to steal back from it. A Lost Antartic Nazi Research station secretly built upon mysterious ancient ruins. Giant underwater sub that mysteriously sunk in the deepest, darkest trench of the atlantic ocean. A large network of caves under the american south west deserts and butes, filled with undiscovered natives, hostile creatures and fabulus treasures. Mars. And the real reason for all the cannals...