massey

A sheriff trying to do good:
 
 
https://news.vice.com/article/this-sheriff-is-battling-budget-cuts-and-fighting-to-keep-mentally-ill-people-out-of-jail?utm_source=vicenewsfb
 
La Rose.

I would watch this in a heartbeat.  But only if it was the '70s version.

Of Mice and Wolfmen -- Starring Lon Cheney Jr, of course
 
The Thin Red Chorus Line
 
Jason Takes Manhattan -- Directed by Woody Allen
 
The Silence of the Lamb-chops Play Along
 
Let the Right One In & Out -- with Kevin Kline
 
The Selma Blair Witch or The Blair Witch / Project A-ko

Of Mice and Wolfmen -- Starring Lon Cheney Jr, of course
 
The Thin Red Chorus Line
 
Jason Takes Manhattan -- Directed by Woody Allen
 
The Silence of the Lamb-chops Play Along
 
Let the Right One In & Out -- with Kevin Kline
 
The Selma Blair Witch or The Blair Witch / Project A-ko

Of Mice and Wolfmen -- Starring Lon Cheney Jr, of course
 
The Thin Red Chorus Line
 
Jason Takes Manhattan -- Directed by Woody Allen
 
The Silence of the Lamb-chops Play Along
 
Let the Right One In & Out -- with Kevin Kline
 
The Selma Blair Witch or The Blair Witch / Project A-ko

The Colour Out of Spaceballs

I think one if not both of the boys is her brother/are her brothers.
 
If my sister were being attacked like that, cop or not, I would like to think i'd at least take a step forward.

I feel safe.
 
Even though there could be a sniper on one of those roofs taking aim at Lucius right now.

Then it's a very good thing that I didn't say that, isn't it?
 
Go read up on the use of force continuum.
 
What I'm talking about is lazy/cowardly police skipping over lower levels of force.
 
What I'm talking about is when a TASER or a BULLET is excessive force.
 
I remember one case of a 13 year old girl who was seriously harmed because she took a taser prong to the skull. I'm pretty sure that either simply letting her run away or using soft hands would have been more appropriate. The charge in that case was something very minor, like truancy.
 
Or how about the shooting of the guy with the rock in Spokane Pasco? Was that showing any level of control? Were the officers not versed enough in team tactics to take the guy to the ground and cuff him without shooting him in the back as he fled? I will guarantee you that any MP unit I was in would have had the guy on the ground without too much trouble and carted off for the mental health help he needed, with half as many people.
 
My point here is that police these days have created a culture where they escalate beyond reasonable force in the name of "officer safety" without any regard for the public they're being paid to protect. Including criminals. Including suspects and persons of interest. Including bystanders. Including property owners.

The 6e rules are quite clear that a power is, by default, visible to TWO sense groups, not three. Many are visible to other sense groups by virtue of SFX, but this is not a requirement. This is a specific change from older editions, where three sense groups were the default, but there were no specifics on WHICH three were the default. Now, sight is required absent GM permission, and hearing is the default second sense group.
 

The rules indicate that, by default, the path of the power is perceivable. They also state that a gunshot is visible. Can you see the path on which the bullet is travelling? This seems like an inconsistency in the rules, before we consider that TK has an element of Indirect, an advantage which "allows a character to alter the Source and/or Path of an attack".
 
As many others have noted, it is possible to use Stealth while using a Power, so Visible powers in no way require the character be made inherently obvious by power use if they are otherwise concealed.
 

Especially for such a stickler on visibility, you're very lenient on point of origin. A power is not restrainable or a focus because its point of origin can be used against the character. No, read the "Point of Origin" rules on page 126 of Hero 6e Vol 1. Wolverine can still use his claws, but he needs to attack someone or something in close proximity behind him if his arms are tied behind his back. His claws, unlike Telekinesis, are not Indirect, so they can't strike anything his hands can't strike.
 


So, by your requirements for obvious, visible powers, there is no way that eagle can swoop in and catch the rabbit off guard unless he has IPE on his flight. His path of movement is Obvious, just like the path taken by an attack power to reach its target.
 
The Power rules are applicable to Heroic games, not just Superheroic games. But in any game "The GM has the final say on how perceivable a Power is, and what characters can perceive about
it, based on common sense, dramatic sense, game balance, and other factors." That it is clear and obvious to a viewer who is using that Force TK seems, based on these factors, to support concluding that the power is Visible. The fact that Greedo did not see Han's Blaster under the table does not require he pay for IPE either, by the way.

No, that's the legend.  Road Warrior was the documentary.
 
If an Australian Outback populated by mutants with severe road rage is wrong, I don't want to be right.

I never said the attack had the Gestures limitation. "Touching hands to temples" is no more restrictive than any other "point of origin" power. The gestures are not going to be impaired by encumbrance or confined spaces, and are not subject to disruption by being attacked. And, of course, we are not necessarily discussing the Heroic Campaign to which they are most appropriate. However, it does seem like gestures "that are obviously out of the ordinary" renders an IPE ability less than invisible.
 
The rules require an attack power meet the following requirements:
 
- perceived by a minimum of two sense groups, one of which is sight (absent GM permission - we have sight here) and the other typically hearing (this one may be inaudible, but is perceivable by mental senses, one assumes).
 
- activity is perceivable (check - we can tell a power is being used)
- source is obvious (check)
- target is obvious (check - the person glared at)
- path (good question - I suggest this example is at least as obvious as a bullet from a gun - the TK shove path can be extrapolated from the direction the target flies back in, so more obvious than the gun, really)
- special effect (a blast of force which knocks its target back seems obvious - it's certainly clear watched on the screen)
- intensity (I wonder how many of us actually describe the level of power of attacks - seems no more or less than any other TK power)
- effect on the target (there he goes, sailing backwards)
- effect on the user (again, I wonder how many of us describe the visible tiring of the character when he uses an END using power)
 
If the character is hiding in a closet, then he has to make the same Stealth roll, with the same penalties, as anyone else to remain undetected when using his visible power. The mechanics do not say use of the power must immediately disclose the presence of the character, but that use of the power imposes a penalty on Stealth rolls. If you can't use stealth at all, perhaps this power has a Perceivable limitation.
 
Now, if the player wanted IPE Force Powers, that's fine too. Pay the extra points, get the mechanical advantage and you are less obvious using the power. Presuming our sample Jedi Power is visible to Force Senses and Sight, making the Sight Inobvious for a +1/4 advantage seems like a possible approach. Now, a PER roll will often be required to ID the Jedi as the source of the Force Shove. But it seldom seems difficult in the source material, and the few occurrences (C-3P0, for example) seem like they are as easily explained by Power Skill, Stealth rolls, a variation on Pushing, use of a Hero Point or simple artistic license. Or, I suppose, IPE on only a minor portion of the power - 10 STR is enough to move a normal weight being.

Re: Raiders of the Lost Ark
You got your Ancient Horror tm unearthed by those who insist on meddling with things Man Was Not Meant to Know tm. You got your Thing that's so mind blastingly beyond Human comprehension that it is dangerous even to look upon. You got your Old One worshipped as a God by cultists all over the world, complete with a Name that Must Not Be Spoken.tm .You even have the ending where the Horror is not destroyed or truly defeated, but only Sealed Away tm and hidden, waiting until the Stars are Right. tm
 
 
Lovecraft wrote about giant albino penguins, but even Lovecraft cannot make penguins scary.
 
 
Even brilliant ideas can benefit from proofreading.
 

 
Nobody can help Nero Grimes, for reasons massey explains:
 

For similar reasons, no one can help zslane:
 

They may be helpless, but Grimes at least is aware that nobody is going to see things the way he does.
 
 

Repeatedly, I'm sure.
 
 
Nero Grimes also claims to need comic relief; he's probably come to the right place. Not only are penguins funny even when Lovecraft is feeding them to shoggoths, many other things can be made funny by reimagining them as written by Lovecraft, as for example "The Pinocchio Fragment."
 
 
Finally, a person named Quinn is the proud possessor of a parochial library, a hotel with a breakfast nook, and a glitch. Not much else has been revealed about this person.
 
 
Did I answer your question, and did I leave anything important out?
 
 
 
Lucius Alexander
 

Seven times the length of a standard palindromedary tagline, but is it seven times as funny?

what ?

Agreed.
 
It can be, but it doesn't have to be, especially for newbies. Use a flat xSTUN multiplier instead of a 2nd roll; or better yet, don't use Killing Attacks for the first game or two. Skip all the optional damage rules - except Knockback if playing a supers game, and even then the GM can do all the KB rolling. Have a good character sheet that leaves off all the character creation math, but lists OCV+11 for each attack along with relevant skill levels. Don't pile on a ton of Damage Reduction/Negation, and keep your builds simple. Once mooks go down, they stay down. Ecetera. Pare it down, and Hero plays as quickly or quicker than most D&D/PF games I've been in.

Usually things are not ambiguous.  But special effects, especially nontraditional or weird ones, can force you to look a little closer.
 
For the sake of argument, can I define my Invisibility power as being so uninteresting that people just look right past me?  I can walk up and talk to them and I'm so boring that they immediately forget I said anything?  I can technically be detected by senses of sight and sound.  If someone takes a picture, I'm right there in the photo.  Of course, no one will notice because I'm just that uninteresting.  By all accounts, I'm not "invisible" in the traditional sense.  But by game mechanics, I am.

Usually things are not ambiguous.  But special effects, especially nontraditional or weird ones, can force you to look a little closer.
 
For the sake of argument, can I define my Invisibility power as being so uninteresting that people just look right past me?  I can walk up and talk to them and I'm so boring that they immediately forget I said anything?  I can technically be detected by senses of sight and sound.  If someone takes a picture, I'm right there in the photo.  Of course, no one will notice because I'm just that uninteresting.  By all accounts, I'm not "invisible" in the traditional sense.  But by game mechanics, I am.

Of course it's context dependent.  The obviousness of the user is the whole point.
 
You could decide that the visual aspect of his Force TK was the slow, unsteady, floaty effect that they used in the movies.  It might require a raised hand or eyes closed in concentration.  But you don't have to -- it's obvious because the rules say it is obvious.  Can your character see?  Then you can tell who it is.  What it looks like is unimportant.
 
Player:  Who is using the power?
GM:  It's that guy over there, in the black cape and hood.
Player:  How can I tell?  He's standing in a crowd.
GM:  You can just tell.  It's definitely that guy
Annoying Player:  But how do I know that?
Exasperated GM:  Ominous theme music is playing and the camera focuses in on him.

What I have found is that it is easiest to sit down with somebody and walk them through character creation.  Ask them what kind of character they want.  Help them make it.  Keep it relatively simple.  There's no need for a power to have 15 different advantages and limitations on it.  Then play a short 1 on 1 session so the new player can grasp the mechanics.  Be prepared to tell them what number they need to roll to hit for several sessions.  It may help to ignore End and Knockback as well.

Time to ask the Swedes if they'd be willing to open a police academy in the US.
 
"You hear a sound that sounds a lot like gunfire, but it could be anything, what do you do?"
 
"I get cover!"
"Good!"
"Then I chase whatever made the noise..."
"It's a car, two people are in there,  but you cannot make out if they are..."
"Afraid for my life I leap on the hood and fire as many rounds as possible through the car window..."
"Why would you leap on a hood if you were afraid for...?"
"Terrified!  I'm feeling threatened. I better empty the whole clip!"
"But after the first shot you should be able to see they were unarmed!"
"It's a trap! keep firing!"
"Okay, you need to stay after school...."
"Communist!"

I think that's why I like Golden and Silver Age campaigns. To my mind, the heroes should be rescuing innocent bystanders from the machinations of the villains, not from the "collateral damage" caused by their own heroic efforts. There's a kind of cynicism inherent in that "gritty realism" that I simply have no interest in exploring.

And while I don't always agree with the DoJ, I think them coming in is necessary. Too many prosecutors on the local level rely on and are in too tight with the local police forces for them to be effective and unbiased imo. The Feds have their own problems, but at least that isn't one of them.

No, but I believe they are influenced by different things.  A federal judge is a lot less likely to be a "good ol' boy" than a local judge.

I'm not sure what you're point about not seeing the gunman or the muzzle flash is. If someone walks up behind you and stabs you in the back you are at 1/2 DCV for being Surprised despite being hit with an OBVIOUS Accessible Focus. How is getting shot at by someone you didn't see any different? Powers being percievable doesn't mean everyone magically is aware of every attack before it hits them.