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massey

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  1. Like
    massey reacted to Tjack in How do you handle Cell Phones   
    I was flipping thru the Bureau 13 sourcebook last week. (The good one w/ the Phil Foligo artwork) circa 1980 and a lot of the super-tech available to the players you can now buy at Walmart. GPS, cellphones, cell phones with cameras. My I-Pad has more processing power than the computer in their mobile base.
      You don’t make players pay for wearing pants or having a normal amount of cash on hand, don’t sweat the small stuff.
  2. Like
    massey reacted to IndianaJoe3 in How do you handle Cell Phones   
    I've always treated mundane equipment as having the equivalent of 3d6 of Unluck. Rolling one 1 means the device works poorly, two 1s means it's temporarily disabled, and three 1s means that it's broken and must be replaced.
  3. Like
    massey reacted to steriaca in Bag of Holding…   
    The pouch seems to me like a great excuse for a Variable Power Pool ("I'll pull that freeze gun out of my pouch.").
     
    Other stuff comes from The Hero System Advance Player's Guide 2 pages 27-28 (Extradimensinal Spaces, which allows you to put normal objects and stuff into the pocket), and pages 32-34 (Object Creation, which let's you pull out normal objects out of your pouch).
     
    The best thing about Object Creation and VPP is that you don't have to keep track of what your holding in that pocket. What you can pull out is if it is an power (various attacks, armor, etc) is covered by the VPP, and what is considered a normal object is covered by Object Creation  Extradimensinal Spaces can just be a special effect unless he wants to pocket things into it, then Extradimensinal Spaces is needed.
     
    But what if I don't have The Hero System Advance Player's Guide 2? Well, VPP covered taking stuff out of the pocket, Extradimensinal Travel sends things to another dimension (Usable Against Others is a godsend), and using the VPP to buy Skill Levels in what you wish on a focus.
  4. Like
    massey reacted to Duke Bushido in The Non-Martial Art   
    Had numerous phone calls today (we didn't go anywhere, and all my friends and family out of town were made well aware eight weeks ago that traveling in from somewhere and coming up to my door was a great way to get hit with a brick and sent packing: my wife and daughter are both high-risk (asthma), and my age and heart problems aren't helping me too much these days, particularly with the drop in fitness by eight months of "go nowhere; do nothing." 
     
    Anyway, during the phone calls from old friends, many memories and much celebration came out, including a bit of "group lingo" referring to things from games gone past.  One of those terms led me to this:
     
     
    Martial Sneer:  3 pts --------+1/+2-----------Must Follow Presence Attack; Target falls.
     
    I didn't really want to add the OCV, but there's a minimum cost of 3, so why not?   Turn an entire team of opponents into Fainting Goats.   
     
     
    The term goes way back to a game just about the time 3e was being distributed: Jim had picked up both the boxed set and the perfect bound single-volume printings  (he was like that).  I hadn't picked them up yet (and, it turns out, wouldn't for roughy thirty years).  Anyway, we had a new guy who was what we used to call a Some Timer (not to be confused with a part timer, who was someone who, while not always available, could be counted on to show up when he said he would).  I honestly don't recall his name, but something in the back of my mind says it was Keith, and since it doesn't matter, that's what we're going to call him. 
     
    Keith was excited for the game, for the social activity, and for the hoots and hollers of well-played sessions, but Keith was suffered from a chronic crippling shyness that we had spent several sessions working on (mostly me yelling at everyone else before Keith arrived, telling them "Look; he's got comfort problems being around us; we're relative strangers.  Whatever he does, you _love_ it, period.  Talk to him in character, out of character, whatever it takes."-- that sort of thing.
     
    Because of his shyness, Keith wasn't really good at the descriptive part of the game, or the interactive part of the game, but he really did try, at least as best he was able.  The bad guy is before the team, Keith's Batman Clone is in the rafters, observing closely while the team moves in.  The boss smiles, laughs, and haughtily announces "you people have the worst timing.  Any other night, I wouldn't have been here, and you would have lived...."  looks back at his business and jerks an extended index finger toward the group, a signal that sends a dozen armed minions out of the shadows toward the team.
     
    Keith:  Okay, uhm...  I wanna- can I jump down?  I wanna jump down.
     
    Sure.  It's only eighteen feet or so, and you've got Superleap (2e, remember?), so sure; you won't have any problem with that.
     
    Okay, I jump down-- ooh!  Can I jump like on one of the bad guys?
     
    You can, but remember two things: you can totally kill a guy like that if you break his neck, or paralyze him if you damage his spine.  If you still want to try, I will let you, of course, but remember you're one of the good guys.  Also remember that such a move would technically be a move-through, and you'll take half the damage.
     
    Okay....  uhm....   Can I....  Can I jump down, like right in front of one of the guys?
     
    Sure.
     
    Okay, I hit him!
     
    You can't.  You're still in the rafters.
     
    Wha--  oh, yeah, okay.  I jump down in front of a guy and hit him.  Like, really hard.
     
    Which guy? I nod toward the impromptu map.
     
    Okay, the so the big red round dice there...  that's the boss, right?
     
    RIght.
     
    And this pencil eraser here, that's a bad guy?
     
    No; that's a pencil eraser.  Sorry about that.  Brent, pick that up and keep it out of the map!
     
    Okay, these two dice on top of each other...?
     
    That's a bad guy.  He's standing in front of the boss as a sort of ersatz bodyguard until the team is taken care of.  He's not likely to move from that position unless things go really, really badly for his guys.
     
    Okay, that's the guy I want to drop in front of, and as soon as I land, I want to ...   I guess just hit him?
     
    Sure.  How?  You've got weapons and your punches and kicks.  Which are you going to use?
     
    The club thing-- the baton.  Wait!  Does he look tough?
     
    He looks big and tough, and just like the other guys, he seems to be wearing a motorcycle helmet of some sort with a flaming eyeball painted along the crest of it.
     
    Okay, I...  I _jump_!  I jump down and I hit this guy, like with the stick, as hard as I can!
     
    We roll, the body guard goes down even before he registers what happened.  The boss looks up, shocked by the instant appearance of a hero right in front of him and the crumpling of his henchman.
     
    Okay, Keith; you have the higher SPD and the boss is clearly shocked.  What do you do?
     
    Okay, I get my club--
     
    Someone butted in with "Presence Attack, Keith!  Perfect opportunity for a presence attack!"
     
    Okay, yeah-- I do one of those!  Wait-- that's when you scare them, right?  And I can get extra dice if he's already scared, right?
     
    Yep.  You've got the appeared-from-nowhere thing going on, the extremely violent action going on, and you dispatched his most capable henchman as if he were a mannequin.  [I tossed him four extra dice].  Add those; you've got eight dice now.  What sort of Presence Attack are you making?
     
    ??
     
    What do you do? What do you say?
     
    Oh, I uh..    Okay, I stand there looking cool; I don't even check the guy I just knocked out to be sure.  I turn my head and ....   I look at the boss.
     
    You look at him?
     
    Yeah. Like _hard_, you know?  I look at him like, really _hard_.
     
     
    "Ah, yes!"  Chimes in Jeff, who, while an extremely amusing dry-witted type, had a really hard time remembering the "don't shake his confidence" sessions.  "Nothing more intimidating than a good sneer, really.  It's all the rage in gunfights nowadays...."
     
    We all pointedly ignore it; Keith rolls his dice.  easily _half_ of them were sixes.  There was one three and one four.  No ones; no twos.
     
    Jeff's eyes bugged for a moment.  "Oh; my bad!  I didn't realize you were using your Martial Sneer......
     
    Anyway, Keith managed to get the boss shook up long enough to wrangle him with bolos and cuff him.
     
    It was a hilarious moment for all of us, but a great one for Keith.  It also brought "Martial Sneer" into our lexicon.   
     
     
     
     
  5. Like
    massey reacted to Christopher R Taylor in The Non-Martial Art   
    Some years ago I built "zero cost" martial arts using the system in various editions of Hero martial arts, lowering the cost by reducing OCV, etc.  Basically it let people use any maneuver in the book, but they sucked at it because the DCV and OCV and so on were so bad.
     
    Using that and skill levels you can make a pretty impressive martial artist.  But there are too many maneuvers which aren't available using only skill levels.
  6. Like
    massey reacted to Duke Bushido in The Non-Martial Art   
    Well this is all sounding very familiar....
     
     

     
     

     
     
    Not an insult, folks; not a disparagement.  
     
    I promise.   
     
     
    It's what I've advocated for years, and usually get told I'm doing it wrong.   It's the Batman martial art:  I am a master of fifteen martial arts styles, and am proficient in eight more.
     
    Assign your skill levels and yell "Hi-ya!"
     
     
    Martial Arts.
     
     
  7. Like
    massey reacted to LoneWolf in My Players Never Block   
    Actually when Steve stabs Bob in 9 he does not abort he continues his block with a 10 or less chance.  A 10 or less is actually a 50% chance.  Even if he misses Steve still needs to roll to actually hit.   This means that the odds are that Bob does not get hit.  So on 10 he can attack Steve.   
     
    Basically by blocking Bob gets two segments of attacks out of 5.  Steve on the other hand is probably not going to get any attacks off.  Bob blocks in 12 & 3, attack in 5 blocks in 6 & 9 and attacks in 10.  
     
  8. Like
    massey reacted to LoneWolf in My Players Never Block   
    Blocking is quite common in the group I game with.  I suspect the reason your players are not blocking is they are not familiar enough with the system.  Hero system is a very complex combat system with a lot of options Players from games like the D&D often don’t take advantage of the tactics it allows.  I guarantee if your players went up against the players from my group they would get slaughtered.  
     
    Proper use of blocking often depends on using the SPD chart to your advantage.  This works very well if your SPD is different than the opponents.  It works if you are faster or slower than your opponent.
     
    If you are faster than your opponent blocking is a good way to recover from an all-out offensive maneuver.  If you are going in a phase when your opponent does not you put everything into taking them down Use maneuvers that give you a bonus to attack and damage, but penalize your DCV.  This type of attack has a high chance of taking down the target, but leaves you exposed. After the attack is over and you are about to be attacked you abort your next phase to block.  This also allows you to adjust your skill levels as needed.  Most of the time your will put them into OCV to increase your chance of blocking, but sometimes putting them to DCV is better.  Since you can continue to block at a -2 penalty per attack you can keep going over multiple phases.  Eventually you will reach a phase where you are going and no one is attacking you.  At this point you simply repeat the process over again.  With this tactic you can safely take down a lot of opponents with minimal to no damage to yourself.
     
    You can also reverse the strategy for someone who is faster than you.  Use block to avoid his attacks until you have an opening and then take advantage of the opening.  If you are still being attacked after your big attack, go back to blocking until your next opening comes up.
     
    Dodge can also be used the same way.  The idea is to create an opening that allows you to attack your enemy without endangering yourself.  
     
  9. Like
    massey reacted to HeroGM in 1963 [Image]   
    Welcome back to the Silver age people.
     

  10. Like
    massey got a reaction from Ockham's Spoon in Teleportation trick   
    I wouldn't worry about the linked Entangle.  It's going to come up so rarely that it shouldn't matter, and it's also special effect dependent.  If Batman throws his batline around you and ties you up, when you teleport away it should just fall to the ground.  Even if you switch places with somebody, they probably aren't positioned in exactly the same way that you are.  They probably don't have the exact same body measurements either.  Why would the batline magically resize itself and reposition so that the other guy is tied up?
     
    On the other hand, if Mr Freeze shoots you with an ice beam and now there's a 10 foot thick chunk of ice surrounding you, it makes more visual sense for you to switch places with somebody and now they're stuck too.  Logically the exact same problem exists as with the batline, but it still seems comic-booky to me to be able to swap places and leave somebody trapped in the ice prison.
     
    So I wouldn't worry about the Entangle.  You can't use it on your own, you have to wait until somebody else Entangles you first.  Though I do think you need to purchase Indirect on the Teleport Usable As Attack.
  11. Like
    massey got a reaction from Ockham's Spoon in My Players Never Block   
    Block becomes more valuable as attacks outstrip defenses, and when you have a high OCV.  When you don't know if you can take a hit or not, you block.
  12. Like
    massey got a reaction from Tom Cowan in My Players Never Block   
    Block becomes more valuable as attacks outstrip defenses, and when you have a high OCV.  When you don't know if you can take a hit or not, you block.
  13. Haha
    massey reacted to Duke Bushido in The One Point Power Armor Challenge (5e)   
    Don't be a mutant.
     
    There.  You got that one for free.
     
  14. Like
    massey reacted to Chris Goodwin in Idea: Active Point "target", rather than Active Point limit   
    The idea is that you set a basic Active Point level, and that powers higher than that have to take a lower Real Point limit at a rate of -1 Real Point per +1 Active Point.  It doesn't change how Limitations apply, so you'd have to reduce the Real Cost with whatever Limitations against the Active Points are necessary.  
     
    For example:  a GM sets a 50 Active Point target for their game.  A power could have 60 Active Points, but a max of 40 Real Points; 75 Active Points with a max of 25 Real Points; or any combination.  
     
    The GM could of course set limits so that ridiculous values aren't reached; the GM in the above example might set an absolute max of 80 Active Points with required Limitations to reduce that power down to 20 Real Points or lower.  
     
  15. Like
    massey got a reaction from Scott Ruggels in What happens if a character's velocity is greater than 0m when the character gets a Phase?   
    I believe that sentence is a new addition to the 6th edition rules.  I don't recall anything like that in previous versions of the rules.  Understand that the guy who wrote the 6th edition rules (Steve Long) is a lawyer, and sometimes his lawyer tendencies get the better of him.  I think this is one of those times.
     
    There's a difference between the Rules As Written, and the Game As Played.  I've played in a lot of Hero games over the decades, and I don't think I've ever once seen this come up.  The only time this might be an issue is with noncombat movement, in regular movement it shouldn't be an issue.  Also remember that there's nothing saying you can't slow down again during your initial movement, and that's probably what characters should be considered as doing during the game.  It keeps it simpler that way.
     
    Captain Speedster has 50 meters of Running.  On Segment 2, he begins moving towards the Mad Scientist and his Doomsday Device.  The Mad Scientist is exactly 50 meters away.  On Segment 2, Captain Speedster accelerates up to 50 meters per phase of velocity.  He travels 10 meters while building up to speed.  He travels forward 50 meters and is now standing next to Mad Scientist.  He can choose to retain that 50 meters of velocity (in which case he'll have to slow down next phase), or he can simply say that over the last 10 meters of movement, he was reducing his velocity.  So the first 10 meters he speeds up, then he covers 30 meters at full speed, and the last 10 meters he slows down.  He is now standing next to the Mad Scientist at a velocity of zero.
     
    For normal everyday interactions, that's probably how you should handle it.  It's a lot easier.  Maybe you'd want to handle vehicles differently, or large noncombat multiples.  But just for everyday combat movement, you don't want to give yourself headaches.
  16. Like
    massey reacted to Duke Bushido in Mental Invis   
    Up front:  
     
    I am _not_ calling you wrong; I want you especially, and everyone else who might still be following along (we're almost at page 3, when it just becomes a philosophy discussion-- and where I try to bow out, because by page 4, it's a shouting match ) to understand that you are _not_ wrong when you say :
     
    3 separate groups: bending light, being transparent, or simply being unnoticed.
     
    You're not wrong.
     
     
    I want to raise the point, however, that the absolute ultimate in-game mechanical effect of "invisibility" (which I am sorely tempted to rename "unnoticed" ) is that no one knows you were / are still here / there.  You can stand in the corner at any board meeting and no one will know you are there.  You walk straight up to the villain and poke him directly in the Stun and he will do nothing to defend himself (the first time) because he doesn't know you're there.
     
    Side effects of no one knowing you're there include no one remembering you were there and you officially have the most terrifying of all evil twins, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
     
    I would like to point out that 2 of the 3 three groups to which you referred are by themselves neither Invisibility nor necessary mechanical components of it, but are in fact _special effects_ of / justifications for being invisible.  For example, should a person be able to bend light around himself in such a way that he is edited out of your visual perception, you won't notice he's there, and since you don't notice he's there, you won't remember him being there.  If you are able to become completely transparent, well then you really don't need to bend light at all: people just aren't going see you because they can look right through you.  (and of course, if you can bend light, you can dress like a flamenco dancer and still not be seen).   
     
    That leaves "being unnoticed."  Well, that right there-- _that_ is the absolute heart of Invisibility.  No matter how you achieve the result, the result you are after is "no one notices me."  I put forward the idea that-- pedantry and semantics and etymology aside, _within the game mechanics_, "being unnoticeable" is the _single_ definition of Invisible.   How you achieve the state of being unnoticeable is pure SFX for your build.
     
    Maybe you bend light.  Maybe you (and your clothes) become perfectly transparent.  Maybe you radiate a constant mental command "you can't see me," causing the target's mind to edit you out of the target's perception and memories of you.
     
    I think, at this point, we are all agreed that this is valid (at least this time.  When I dusted off Fade a couple of lifetimes ago, it didn't go so well).
     
    So we have the power: Invisibility and the SFX "constant mental command."
     
    Now to the rest of the build-- what are the Modifiers-- the Advantages and Limitations?  Which ones are mandated because of the SFX? 
     
    Well, the Power rules _require_ "Fringe Effect," which you may want for your character.  But here's a nifty thing that, in today's ever-more-specific rules set you'd have to discuss with your GM, you might consider:  Decide that _your_ Fringe Effect doesn't work with a PER roll, but perhaps an EGO Roll!  You could do this to simulate that those unaffected have "some quality of mind" or "some quality of will power" that doesn't allow you to fully-dominate their subconscious, and their strength of will fights and does not edit you completely, hoping that your conscious mind will pick up on the attack, etc, etc, etc.
    Or you could make it an INT roll: you are so self-aware that you realize that _something_ isn't right; something is playing with your mind, and the source of it-- right there!  I swear I saw something!  No; There!   You see where that's going; I'm certain.
     
    Of course, the power description also gives you the option to buy off the fringe effect completely; you are free to do that.  Wait-- you've decided that this is a mental power, and that means---
     
     
    Nothing.  It doesn't mean a stinkin' thing.  It means you have decided on the special effects for your Invisibility; that's what it means.  You can leave the Fringe Effect based on a PER roll; that is the default.  Let's remember that the power is _not_ "affects light so that when the light is perceived you aren't there," and it is _not_ "the light passes right through me so that there is no image of me transmitted to the senses," and that the power is not "my chameleon abilities are so refined that every cell of my body projects an image of that which is behind me."  The power is "I am unnoticeable."  How you arrive there does _not_ change that, _NOR_ does it mandate _anything_ that you don't want to include in the build.
     
    For example: You _could_ use an EGO roll to detect the Fringe Effect.  You don't have to.  You don't even have to have a Fringe.
     
    You _could_ allow characters with higher EGO scores or Mental Defense to have some bonus-- some additional chance to detect you.  But never, _ever_ forget that no matter _what_ you picked for your special effect, you are _not_ mandated to choose certain modifiers, _ever_.  If you decided to take a custom Limitation: characters with EGO 15+ / EGO Defense have a +x to their PER roll to notice you, it's because that's how you _want_ the power to work.  It is _not_, and no matter how much you hear to the contrary, it is _never_ mandatory to take certain limitations because "your SFX mandates"-- that's nonsense being spouted by someone who might really believe he understands the difference between mechanics and SFX-- someone who may well have made great strides toward that very understanding, even!-- but as long as he believes that a particular SFX _mandates_ anything, he hasn't gotten there yet.  Either that, or he's reading more into the rules that was ever there.
     
    It is absolutely true that your SFX will open up interesting justifications for any modifiers that you may choose, particularly if you a very specific idea of how the power works, but no SFX will _ever_-- both by the source material and by the rules themselves-- _mandate_ anything you don't want.  You bought a 6d6 Energy Blast, AoE: Radius, Fireball?  It will very much work underwater and in outer space unless _you_ decide it doesn't.  "But there's no oxygen in outer space, so it can't work ther--"
    "This flame is my righteous and glorious fury.  The flames you see are merely mirrors of my incredible passion.  This fire needs no oxygen!"
     
    Don't let someone tell you that "justifiable equals mandate."  That just makes it so much harder for anyone following along to learn to separate mechanics from SFX.
     
     
     
  17. Like
    massey reacted to unclevlad in Mental Invis   
    Oh, I was gonna mention.  Regen cost.
     
    I agree that pricing it is tricky.  My problem is that the cost difference based on the time chart is poor.  The notion of having self-healing is principally to obviate the need to be healed;  reducing longer-term recovery time should be VERY minor.  Well, even 1 BODY per hour is typically not fast enough for "I'll be fine"...and you're at 8 points.  You've already sunk in so many points that there's little reason NOT to go faster.
     
    The other issue is, there is no point in taking 2 BODY per hour, for example;  that's 16 points, whereas 1 BODY per 20 minutes is both strictly more effective and cheaper.  
     
    Much of this is probably a legacy of the 5E definition, which is Healing with a package of advantages and limitations, and another instance of 6E's sometime rigidity in using (in this case) the time chart in a manner that isn't necessarily sensible.  In 5E, you're starting with a fairly expensive baseline...20 points...then applying 2 significant limitations (self only, 1 turn) which fundamentally mean that slowing it down even more makes no sense...increasing the limitation is already well past the point of diminishing returns.  The awkwardness of the 5E construction can be seen, I think, in that they mandated the full extra turn...because otherwise there'd be almost no reason not to go all the way to Extra Segment.  Extra Segment would only be 10 points, and it'd still be your SPD in BODY recovered per turn.  But Extra Turn is still 7......so you'd buy up.  Much of the problem is that you're taking such a broad power and trying to narrow it...but the math of limitations is bad for that.  
  18. Like
    massey reacted to Chris Goodwin in What happens if a character's velocity is greater than 0m when the character gets a Phase?   
    Being curious, I just checked 3rd edition Champions, and it (edit) doesn't (/edit) say it in there.  Specifically, 3rd edition advises players to say whether they're maintaining velocity or not at the end of their Phase, and that it could matter for a character switching to Noncombat movement.  
     
    That aside: while it's "technically" correct that it takes a Zero Phase action to activate or deactivate a Movement Power (Running, Flight, etc.), and while it's also "technically" correct that a character has to accelerate at the beginning and decelerate at the end... in practice, you'll never, ever be in a game where anyone even bothers with that.  "I move from here to there" is shorthand for all of that.  
     
    If you have 30m of movement, then during your Phase, you can move 30m.  Despite any calculations for acceleration or deceleration.  
     
    @Hey I Can Chan  I'll strongly advise common sense.  Assume that a moving character in combat is not keeping their velocity unless they specify, or unless context clues indicate otherwise.  A chase scene, or running along with traffic on a road, or attempting a Move By or Move Through, or leaving combat, or movement outside of combat time, might indicate the moving character is maintaining their velocity.  When in doubt, ask.  
     
     
    Here's the part that I keep tripping myself up on.  This will almost never be the case, unless Slick's player specifies that they're maintaining velocity at the end of their Phase.  Or unless there's some context that indicates otherwise, but that context will almost always be obvious from what's going on in play.  
  19. Like
    massey got a reaction from Chris Goodwin in What happens if a character's velocity is greater than 0m when the character gets a Phase?   
    I believe that sentence is a new addition to the 6th edition rules.  I don't recall anything like that in previous versions of the rules.  Understand that the guy who wrote the 6th edition rules (Steve Long) is a lawyer, and sometimes his lawyer tendencies get the better of him.  I think this is one of those times.
     
    There's a difference between the Rules As Written, and the Game As Played.  I've played in a lot of Hero games over the decades, and I don't think I've ever once seen this come up.  The only time this might be an issue is with noncombat movement, in regular movement it shouldn't be an issue.  Also remember that there's nothing saying you can't slow down again during your initial movement, and that's probably what characters should be considered as doing during the game.  It keeps it simpler that way.
     
    Captain Speedster has 50 meters of Running.  On Segment 2, he begins moving towards the Mad Scientist and his Doomsday Device.  The Mad Scientist is exactly 50 meters away.  On Segment 2, Captain Speedster accelerates up to 50 meters per phase of velocity.  He travels 10 meters while building up to speed.  He travels forward 50 meters and is now standing next to Mad Scientist.  He can choose to retain that 50 meters of velocity (in which case he'll have to slow down next phase), or he can simply say that over the last 10 meters of movement, he was reducing his velocity.  So the first 10 meters he speeds up, then he covers 30 meters at full speed, and the last 10 meters he slows down.  He is now standing next to the Mad Scientist at a velocity of zero.
     
    For normal everyday interactions, that's probably how you should handle it.  It's a lot easier.  Maybe you'd want to handle vehicles differently, or large noncombat multiples.  But just for everyday combat movement, you don't want to give yourself headaches.
  20. Like
    massey reacted to Ninja-Bear in Mental Invis   
    I’ve noticed that in rules discussions, some people can’t seem to separate How you can you build this in Hero with Should you allow this in your game.
  21. Like
    massey reacted to Grailknight in Mental Invis   
    I'd give you either a -1/4 or -1/2 on this depending on the campaign.
     
    If it's going to be low tech and animals are your main problem then -1/4. 
     
    In a futuristic setting with AI's and robots, definitely -1/2, maybe more depending on the nature of the most  common opposition.
     
    Then we come to modern contemporary settings. Animals will be a very rare issue but surveillance systems can pick you up but this is only an issue if they are being actively manned. i can see some scenarios where this would be an issue but not  enough to be half the time so again -1/2.
     
    Don't worry about SFX, any inconsistencies are more than covered by the fact you took a Limitation in the first place and if you hadn't then it would have been my role as GN to give you that -1/4  to cover how you say the power works.
  22. Like
    massey reacted to Duke Bushido in Mental Invis   
    With every bit of respect I am capable of offering:
     
    Oh, no....    I'm not getting suckered into that one again!   
     
     
    To explain:  some time ago, I participated in a discussion on the same topic and was shouted down as being "too stingy" and "too liberal," and my favorite, "wrong" because if it's the mental command "ignore me!" then it should be mind control, period, and all else was wrong, wrong, wrong.
     
    (you may have noticed that I _never_ post builds, _ever_.   It's the history of Bash Behavior from way back when that guarantees I never will.)  I don't expect anything I come up with in response to any question or to my own needs to be perfect, or to even be what someone else is looking for; really I don't.  But I am _not_ going to put work into something just to have it insulted out of hat without any actual discussion as to why.  Yeah, it's not so bad these days as it once was, but still-- lesson learned. 
     
     
    Then more recently I screwed up and alluded to a villain I dusted off whose invisibility is the continuous mental command "forget me" and got a few waves of "no; that's not inviso" and "no; you can't do that."  (let's be fair:  it's my game.  I can set the stinking table on fire if I want to, right?    )   Lesson remembered.
     
     
    So let me offer this:
     
    Keep in mind that defining it as a mental command means, as you point out, that it won't work against non-sentient recording instruments, but that it _will_ work equally as well against the character with Damage Reduction: EGO-based attacks and an EGO of 80  as it does against Captain Orange Patriot with his susceptibility to any thought-based power and his raw EGO of 6.
     
    In short: there's undeniably some disadvantage in there, but it's accompanied by some considerable advantages as well-- at least in terms of the SFX / description of the power.
     
     
  23. Like
    massey reacted to Duke Bushido in What happens if a character's velocity is greater than 0m when the character gets a Phase?   
    Yeah....
     
    That....    That's one of those moments where clean, plain, simple language still manages to pile up into lawyerspeak: that is to say, the inclusion of something that would seem completely unnecessary, which leads to complicating something that should be extremely simple.
     
    So, what that says:
     
    The character may not stop Running until he stops running.
    The character may not stop Flight until he stops flying.
    The character may not stop Swimming until he stops swimming.
     
    More simply: you can't turn off a Power and still be using it.  Now what I just say sounds a little goofy, but the more clearly-stated version of that is "you can't use a power that is turned off," and that's not something anyone would find necessary to say, in light of all the other discussion of turning powers off and on.
     
    So:  If you're running at 100kph, you can't decide to "turn off your running."   
     
    For I what it's worth, I find that rule to be a violation of the spirit of the HERO system anyway.  If some part of my harebrained scheme to take out the villain involves "I accelerate to 200kph, turn off my running, stumble and roll along the pavement in great agony until my momentum is spent," then I should be allowed to do that.  No sane person would want to, but the insane should be allowed to (well, the sane, too; I just don't see it coming up as often).
     
    Now here's the part of that which saw the most discussion at my own tables:
     
     
    I have Flight, 10."  Given the current height at which I am flying, I can fall faster at terminal velocity than I can with Flight.  While dropping onto this strange new planet with my jump pack, the eggheads figure it's best for me to fly to a particular altitude directly over the beacon and _cut the pack_ for a full thirty seconds.   Then fire up the pack, full open to slow myself.  When the G-meter drops to .5, cut the pack again for another twenty seconds; repeat...."
     
    I haven't landed, but I most certainly stopped using Flight-- several times.   The argument can be made that I'm not flying; I'm falling.  So what's slowing me down?  Is the rocket pack some sort of platform on which I've landed and left and landed and left?  Is it "Gliding" like a parachute?
     
    A much more technical argument can be made that the entire process, from drop to planetary touchdown, is "the entire flight."  Problematically, we play that game turn by turn and even phase by phase.  How much END / Fuel Charge should I pay for the five turns it was "off" the first time?  Of the full twenty segments I wasn't using it the next time it was off the second time?
     
     
    Going less sciencey:
     
    "It's no good; I'm not going to make it; too much blood....   tired...    "  Captain Guywitwingz knows his time has come, yet he keeps pushing.  There must be something-- _something_-- one last way to serve his teammates, to thwart the enemy.  Then he sees the child, far below.  His Guywitwingz Vision-- part and universal parcel of the Guywitwingz package he received via that origin he had so many years ago recently, have allowed him to find the child.  He has escaped the Nazis, and is running for his life, but one of them-- one of them is about to stumble across the child's hiding spot!  "I can't.... I can't..."  He knows he doesn't have the END to fly down to the child, grab the child, and fly away.  What to do?!  The world is black, spinning.....   If only he could just stop flying and fall out of the sky, his impressive Guywitwingz physique would sure drop the Nazi in his tracks.    No...  the world just doesn't work that way....   The good captain knows that it's too late now....  without the power to fly down to the ground, he is going to become another of the thousands of floating dead, stuck here in the sky...   He couldn't even wish to be his own headstone for all eternity, because he was either going to be eaten, rot away, or get hit by a plane, eventually.....
     
     
    That rule, at our table, received the ignominious Black Highlighter Award, and has not been uttered aloud since the Ceremony of Deserved Desecration.
     
    It's your game, no matter what, but I would highly encourage you ignore that rule as well, and let, in the oft-oft-oft repeated words of 6e, "let common sense and dramatic sense" be the judge of when a character can or cannot turn off a power.  It certainly seems more right than a rule that says "your common sense and dramatic sense are utter crap; do this instead."
     

     
     
  24. Like
  25. Like
    massey got a reaction from Ockham's Spoon in Bronze to Steel (skipping iron)   
    My view on this is a little different.  A bronze weapon/shield/armor won't have significantly different stats than a steel version would.  In game terms, there's not enough difference to make a difference.  Def, Body, damage classes, those would be the same or very close.  The real difference will be in the types of weapons and armor available (particularly with weapons).  You just can't make certain types of sword out of bronze.
     
    There's a reason that historical weapons looked the way they did.  That was the best version that people of the time could realistically make, for their situation.  Most of the bronze age swords were short, stabby weapons.  As I understand it, the Roman gladius was made out of iron, but it still resembled bronze age designs.  You can't make a katana with bronze, or a medieval knight's arming sword.  You'd have to make them too thick to really be functional.
     
    Your artificer is going to be able to produce weapons that no one has seen before.  His swords will have a huge reach advantage over everyone else's.  They'll do more damage because they're larger weapons.  They might also have OCV/DCV advantages once the wielder knows how to use them, because opponents are so unfamiliar with them.  How would you fight a guy with a 19th century US cavalry saber if you've never seen one before?  How close can you stand before you're in danger?  People wouldn't know that stuff.
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