Manic Typist

Re: Facing and Passing I really feel we don't need it, in a situation where there is ONE Knight and open space. There is plenty of freedom of movement, even sticking relatively near the Knight, for me to be able to move around without any sort of significant interference from one single guy in an open place. Several guys, in a line or even a loose formation, however.... would be another story entirely.

Re: Facing and Passing So far, I don't see a problem. We have the Speed Chart in hero. There are Segments and Phases. If I have already used my Phase on a specific Segment, then I have to wait until the next Segment in order to Abort my next Phase (someone up thread I believe mistakenly claimed that you have to wait until your next Phase after you act to do so- my understanding is that you cannot use up two Phases in one Segment, but you can use your current Phase in one Segment and your future Phase in the next Segment). Well in that case, you've just used your action to make a DEX roll to do that. Princess is safe. Why should the status quo, in this situation, be changed? I'm open to hearing why, but so far all I've heard is that it SHOULD be changed.... without a reason as to why. Does it not match genre or reality? No.... you attack me, I avoid your attack and run around and attack the Princess. That seems perfectly realistic- you are still recovering from your swing while I've already moved the other direction- you'll be running after me even as I begin my attack on her, but that's just the narrative we construct out of Phase 4 and Phase 8 put together. This is not new to HERO. Is it frustrating? Perhaps, if you find failing to defeat your opponent with a particular blow or being at a tactical disadvantage frustrating. It could be, in a certain context (i.e. GM is beating up on you or something but that is really far outside the bounds of the issue). Give that it IS the status quo, and that it SEEMS to mimic reality and fiction reasonably well within the Speed Chart.... why should we change it? Why is it broken that the Orc can bypass the Knight who has already used his Phase that Segment?

Re: Facing and Passing Returning to the original scenario.... Why should the Orc suffer an additional penalty (on top of the DCV penalty he would probably suffer) for trying to bypass the Knight, assuming that there is sufficient space and he has the movement to do so? You try to run past me. I slash you with my sword. I may or may not deal a serious wound, but I've done nothing to physically prevent you from moving past me (I could have chosen to Block or Shove you instead), and I don't expect that I would suddenly become faster and gain another attack (AoO). As I've said before, I am at a disadvantage by having to protect the Princess, so so far I see nothing too objectionable. Also, if the Knight is right next to the Princess, why can he simply not Block for her? He has the reach to completely cover her hex- isn't that sufficient? It doesn't matter how far away the Orc is when it attacks (it could be using a polearm, for instance)- the attack must arrive at the same hex as the Princess, and that is where the Knight Blocks. I'm not sure if I buy the notion that it is more dangerous/difficult to disengage- from my experiences, it is (usually) pretty easy to disengage. Now, your opponent may choose to pursue you, but you didn't suffer any particular additional risk in the moment of backing away from the enemy.

Re: Facing and Passing Hm. Two things. One, if an opponent is willing to run past you and expose himself for a tactical advantage (potentially), well... that sounds familiar from both source material and the real world. Perhaps he should specifically take a negative to DCV since he is deliberately ignoring his opponent's attack in order to pass closely to the opponent to reach his target (the Princess). Two, even if he doesn't take a negative to DCV (which again, might just be the thing we are looking at- he is engaged in an action that seems to limit his ability to behave/move defensively), he still has to risk receiving an attack to which he cannot respond... and for what? To arrive at another potential impasse. "Move and I'll kill the girl!" "Kill the girl and you die!" Having to defend a PITA Princess is a tactical disadvantage, and that seems to be accurately reflected in this scenario.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... That's not an update! What happened???

Re: Order of the Stick So, did Haley find it because she is that good now....or did Haley find it because V had previously triggered it?

Re: Quote of the Week From My Life. I was not yet born in 1986.....

Re: Hero GUI I'm sorry, I was being genuinely curious. I know Linux exists, I understand it to be "useful if you're willing to do the work yourself." I don't even know how much of the work you have to do- do you have to program your own start menu? *Shrug* Hence my confusion. That right there represents the entire sum of my knowledge of Linux.

Re: Hero GUI .....wait, I do not understand that Linux analogy. If I use Linux, people will fix it for me while I sleep?

Re: Building times ....not necessarily. You could have a LOT of fun with this, as long as you make sure you don't let it steal the spotlight of the campaign. You could even devote a season or a few campaign arcs to it, or at the very least intertwining with it.

Re: Consuming a defeated Foe to gain his Power; It's the Demon Way. Well, regarding time... you can always play around with it. "Alright, you guys set the next phase of your plot into motion.... 30 years pass, and you manage to eliminate two bands of heroes and a rival imp. Here's 30 XP. Now, about that child you planted in the mortal world...."

Re: Order of the Stick .....yeah....

Re: Vincent (Collateral) Hm, sociopath might be a little strong. MIGHT. He does seem to strongly dislike urban living and the ills of anonymity that comes with it.

Re: Consuming a defeated Foe to gain his Power; It's the Demon Way. Word, Lucius. This can easily be represented by XP and prebuilt expenditures of XP.

Re: Alternate History Trooper Loadout? Rather than are, don't you mean "could there have been?" It seems that there were sabot flechette rounds available for the M16 around the time of Vietnam, for example.

Re: Alternate History Trooper Loadout? Hm....needle weapons? (Fletchee? Something like that?)

Re: AoE HTH attacks and Blocking I promise you that I do, and I promise you that is (or rather CAN BE, there are often multiple yet equally valid ways of doing things in this system), a Block. Bigbywolfe makes my points for me nicely, regarding the SFX. I know that I would have a House Rule to effect of "barring truly unusual circumstances, a halfling cannot block a giant's attack." But I need to mull this over so that I can have a well thought out rule, as opposed to a mere inclination lacking fully articulated justification. Edit: Maybe I would merely restrict the SFX of the Block. So, you chin blocks for the halfling against the giant. Perhaps that is the simple solution.

Re: Point Caps: Why are limitations inferior to advantages? ....so, HERO DOES balance.... US.

Re: Order of the Stick What Trope is that? Edit: And Elan I thought had been drained significantly by the succubi.

Re: AoE HTH attacks and Blocking It does add up, because I wouldn't have built the small "giant's" attack as an AoE. From the size description that I thought I read, I would not consider that attacker to be large enough to justify an AoE attack based upon the SFX of having truly HUGE hands. Like you said (and I'm taking your word for it), you would need something on the order of eight size doublings. Is that clearer? However, now I'm rethinking things. I need to go review Block and digest this.... because why shouldn't a really strong character be able to Block a GIANT'S attempt to squish him? Imagine Hercules versus a Titan or the Cyclops or somesuch- foot comes down to stomp on him, he reaches up and catches it, and with much effort, prevents the foot from descending further, giving time for the little orphans to crawl out underneath to safety (Granted, "realistically" I might argue that sure Hercules is tough and strong enough to pull that off, put the dirt underneath him might not be, and thus he is shoved into the ground relatively unharmed.... but not so the children. Then again, we're all here to have fun, so that's a judgment call). Now, the attack WAS directed at Hercules- but he didn't just dodge it because it was an AoE and he didn't want the kids to get caught in the "blast." Hmm. Hmmm......

Re: Time Hero Well, we are all time travelers heading into the future, really...

Re: AoE HTH attacks and Blocking Well, if I want it to be "unblockable" then AoE would be the way to go. More accurate AND efficient.

Re: AoE HTH attacks and Blocking But in the Sweep example (another thing that bugs me- missing one Sweep ends the entire sequence. No me gusta)- wouldn't each subsequent hex be the target hex? Thus, the PC should be able to Block when it gets to his/her hex.

Re: Miracles vs Magic: The Faith Reserve And of course, if you're really concerned with the balance between magic and faith, you could restrict certain effects to faith based miracles only, and of course arcane magic might not be able to block faith effects (but perhaps the reverse is NOT true?).

Re: AoE HTH attacks and Blocking Building the (small) giant's attack with the Can Be Blocked Lim is the easiest, clearest, and probably most rules accurate path to dealing with this situation. However, a truly GIANT hand.... a shield should not be able to Block it.