Duke Bushido

From the photos, I assume. Just the ones autographed in Biro, though, to be certain of authenticity.

Yep. I have always interpretted it along the lines of pausing, kooking for that one perfect opening.... Oops; he stepped back! That kind of thing.

Anyone run across one that measures breadth of beard? This shirt is only going to show off half of my glory! And unlike the guy in the picture, I sont have to resort to chemical straighteners and,brushes to get to Leonidas. (Anyone want to clue me in as to why that name,is vaguely familiar? Was it 300? Was that where I heard that name? It feels like it was 300. Man, that was two of my life I will never get back....)

Your not the first one to think this way. Frankly, the characteristics-based skills are my favorite thing to point at when people complain that one particular power build makes you effective for fewer points than some,other build (usually it has something to do with adding "free" Strength damage to something or other). But these same people dont seem to,be bothered that for a mere dive points of INT, I can improve twenty skills at one lick. If the trend is to reduce the mechanics to their essence, de-coupling stats from skills is as big a must as is removing damage from everything and creating a new 'inflict damage' mechanic, modified with "Ranged" or "Killing" or what-have you. Sometimes you can get a few people to discuss that one, with up until you mention that "martial Arts" is SFX for "deliver damage" and a few skill levels. Some cows are too sacred, I suppose: "I don't want to buy two skill levels and some more damage; I want to buy a _maneuver_ that gives more damage and some skill levels!" I mean, I _get it_; I really do. I have played with decoupled skills. It works fine, and enforces a fairness of expenditure to reward and, ( important probably only to me) it tends to reduce the overall number of skills in play-- people tend to focus more on "character-defining" skills instead of "and I will nab a few incidentals because they are cheap and my Characteristic for them is pretty high, so....". As an added bonus, they are more willing to both step aside when another character has a relevant skill (because there tends to be a little less overlap) amd to role play out things where they dont have a skill on the sheet, but logically have a shot at doing the thing owing to who they are, etc. I don't do it often. It works fine- even a little better, really, as it drops out overlap and creates an uptick in tense moments of giving it the I'm college try... But it doesnt feel like Champions to a 2e player.

Ah; okay. Thank you, Sir.

A little help? I got the "HERO" part, but which book is LS?

I need this!

Well-timed post, Sir. I just started crawling through books (see my earlier comment that i would have to review the 6e rules on Impenetrable before taking a SWAG at it. I never got that far, becauae I notices that from ita inception. AVLD / AVAD makes itself illegal in its onw text. That is exavtly what seems to be going on with AVLD. In the text, I mentions being available for Killing Attack, Blast, Drain, Mental Powers- then says "not Flash, because it isnt legal for any power where Normal BODY Damage is applied against a defense. Meaning it isn't legal for Killing Attack or Blast, either, as both od those have their "normal BODY damage" applied against a defense. Everything in the book that either deals BODY or counts BODY has that BODY apply against a defense. Surely, most everyone else has always ignored that, too, but as bad text goes. That has now survived from 4 to 5 to 5r to 6 and never been addressed for clarity.

I know it isnt the answer you are looking for, but I have been ignoring that prohibition since Haymaker was opened up for ranged attacks. The game hasn't shown any signs of suffering from it.

I am going to have to review 6e Impenetrable to tell you if those things are the same that hapoens with Hardened, but here is what hapoens with Hardened: Your two points of Hardened defenses count at full value (in this case, 2 points) against an Armor Piercing attack. All other non-hardened applicable defenses are cut in half. You can stack them anyway that you like, but Armor Piercing halves anything that isnt Hardened; Hardened does not simply stop an AP attack. An opponent can buy Armor Piercing twice (or more) on the same attack. The second (and any additional) purchase of Hardened does not further halve the defenses; no matter how many multiples of AP an attack has, it cannot reduce defenses by more than 1/2. What additional instances do is negate Hardened. In you example, were I using a double AP attack, I would halve all of your relevant non-Hardened defenses. The second instance of Armor Piercing will negate an instance of Hardened. Thus, with my double AP attack, I would have your non-Hardened defenses _and_ your Hardened defenses (cutting that 2 to a single point). Now let me be clear: what I am saying is that a double AP attack will reduce the value of _any_ and _all_ single-hardened attacks. If you have a hardened breastplate, a hardened undershirt, and a hardened chest tattoo, a double-hardened attack will halve _all of them_. What it will _not_ halve is a double-hardened defense. That'a right: just like Armor Piercing, Hardened may be purchased multiple times on the same defense. So if you double-harden your breastplate, a double-armor piercing attack will not halve this defense, but _will_ halve the single-hardened undershirt and tattoo. Now if you _triple harden_ that tattoo, then your attacker would need to have a _triple AP_ attack to halve its defense value. Even if he _does_ have a Triple Armor Piercing attack and you have no hardened anything, his attack will never reduce your defenses to more than 1/2 their value. Hope that helps.

They are called mollases taffy, sometimes taffy ambrosia, and they are a gift from the most perfect of elder gods. They weed out the week and the inferior. They are divinity incarnate.

It never doesn't suck, Sir, but know that she knew you guys were with her.

Life is short, and it seems that thw best parts of it are the shortest parts of all. We all lnow this, and we tell each other to make each moment special and significant, but too often we think that means more than it does, and it is not until it they arw gone that we realize it was the smallest things-- the simple presence of a particular friend or the love of a partixular person, or even the company of a pet that made life bearable, and individual moments absolutely perfect. I wish it didn't have to be this way, Chris, for you or for anyone else.

Most modern religions have a presence in my Traveller game, albeit spotty. The characters may travel to world after world and not notice more than the occasional church or temple, then land on a world completely run by an organized religious sect. Most significant, though, is the Church of Brotherhood, which does not worship a deity, but an ideal. This is the organization that runs the TAS, and is aupported entirely by donations and individual members begging for coin on almost every inhabited world. Generally, if the planet has been inhabited for over a century, there is at least one church. Their ideology is complete pacifism, love of their fellow man (my Traveller games don't usually feature aliens), and a universe completely at peace, striving to find away for humanity to survive final entropy.

As a guy who has spent 43 years playing nothing but editions that have neither of these abilities, I can say that these are niether contrived nor as complicated as everyone wants to make them. Bestfully, (thanks, Slick Rick!) they work extremely well and without adding multiple actions to one player over all others, and you never have to dabble into things like "how do I recombine? How do I share damage? Do I need a mind link? What do I have to roll to make sure my summoned critters don't decide to eat me?" And whatever things have to be calculated and paid for and written out across a few lines of character sheet. They also avoid the duplicate discount, the Multiform discount, and the summoned critter discount (things that are never called out when the "you get what you pay for; you must pay for what you get" discussion comes around, for some reason). Complications arise when someone decides that things like "Indirect" should have shades of 'is this direct or not?' rather than offering guidelines on how to cost limited advantages or less-limiting limitations and then letting groups decide this for themselves what needs shading and what doesn't. Up front: I have enjoyed every conversation in which you have participated, and this one is absolutely not an exception to that. (Okay: there have been a lot of prefaces to my comments in recent weeks, so let me reiterate the reason: some weeks back, I attempted to crack an "in joke" with a board member whom I very much like and respect. Unfortunately, my phrasing was too casual; too familiar, and it was taken very, very wrong. I go to the trouble to type all of this on a dinky little phone screen with a touchpad (an interface designed by Satan himself) with an autocorrect that I am convinced has suffered traumatic brain injury specifically to ensure that this does not happen again. Stated more clearly: if anyone, at any time, thinks that I am targetting or insulting or otherwise harassing them, be assured that I absolutely am not. More likely I shortcutted the conversation (so very, _very_ tempting, given the limits of my interface with this board) and chose my ommissions poorly. With that being said...) I can speak only for myself, but the point, I don't think, was to make something here of which any specific person would approve or disapprove. I have been under the impression that the goal here was to provide book-legal constructs that the OP could consider or draw inspiration from as he sought to build his character. To that end, I haven't really looked for approval from anyone beyond "yes; that is a book-legal idea" or "no; that isnt book-legal, and here's why..." I didn't show up to cause a ruckus, but to maybe help someone else get his own creative ideas going. As he has already posted that he has opted to take some of the ideas to his GM, I am pretty happy with everyone's contributions, even those that would never see the light of day at my table for whatever reason. If the goal was for us to agree, well, let's say that this board has a terrible track record on that. Agreed. I confessed above that I had forgotten that, as I default TK to having that feature built in. Correct. However, everything I know about 'TK does damage' comes from this board and what I vaguely recollect from the later editions. For reasons stated above, I prefer TK (and half a dozen other things) _not_ have damage built-in. For the same AP-to-dice conversion, one could put "Ranged" on their STR, granting them both access to fine manipulation (which I give away anyway), the ability to do STR damage, and to use any martial art that works with STR. If the shadows are treated as the SFX of the ranged abilities and the SFX that make these powers Restrainable, they dont2 have to buy anything at all. Granted, that means giving up the duplication / summon / Multiform discount, and the duplication / summon extra actions for one player, but unless these are something that everyone else at the table is also going to dabble with, I don't have a problem with that.

I don't want this to sound as snippy as it does, and I have run through several choices of phrasing, but the fact is that anything can be taken wrong; as such is true, I felt this preamble to be in order. Again: not trying to be a jerk here: What are the in-game mechanical effects of a headache? Or a toothache? Or poison ivy? Or a wound that is showing early signs of infection? Or hemorrhoids? When we know that, we can then design their remedies. For my own games, these things do _not_ have mechanical effects unless they are specifically listed on a character sheet as Disadplications, in which case the mechanic as regards that particular chracter is listed on the sheet. I have never been submitted a character with hemorrhoids or allergies or "prone to sunburn," so I have never had to worry about it. Outside the character sheet, these are, in my games, _narrative_ problems, and they are dealt with in a narrative fashion: You were out way to late on patrol; you've got a spliting headache, and you can hear that alarm clock in your optic nerve. Looks like it is going to be another two-cup morning. I put the cofee pot on, pop a couple of aspirin and start getring ready for work. You've had your shower amd a quick breakfast, and soon you are finishing off your second coffee and rinsing your plate- not quite enough time to wash up if you're going to catch your ride share to work. At least that headache has eased off. Yeah, I dont want to be late! I am sort of hoping that sarcophagus we're studying might shed some light on the case my alter-ego has gotten tangled up in.... That sort of thing.

I don't disagree with you on these points. In fact, Fine Manipulation is a necessity (I tend to play that Fine Manipulation is part and parcel of TK- mostly because "no fine manipulation" exists as a book-listed Limitation), so I tend to forget that it needs to be thrown in. Agreed one-hundred percent, which would solve so many problems _and_ reconcile 6e's (and possibly 5e) insistence that it taked 7.5 (or was it 6.5?) AP of TK to make a DC. _However_, I also completely understand the division of labor set up in the early system- something that the Long Editions seem to make pains to move toward (folding niche powers into larger or 'more primary' powers from which those folded-in powers could be created), right up until they don't do that and swing in the opposite direction ("growth momentum" and "stretching momentum," for example). At any rate, the division of labor specifies that if you want to deliver damage, then you must buy a damage-dealing power. Thus, a character with TK via-- let's say "wind manipulation"-- cannot use that TK to deliver damage at range; he can use the identical _SFX_, but he must purchase a damage-dealing _mechanic_. So now Tempest moves from a single power to a multipower containing TK: wind manipulation and Energy Blast (PD): concussive wind blast. At any rate: I personally believe very much in that division of labor, and believe it to be not just central, but _critical_ to the separation of Mechanics and SFX. (Which is why I so very much detest things like "Growth momentum" and other assigned SFX) So plain and simple, I have ever since 1e been torn on TK: I _like_ that it is a nice packaged power that can be defined by any SFX, and that it is (old editions player here) not able to double as a damage dealing power-- _at one point per pip_. _However_, I have also seen since "Day 1" (so to speak) that STR: ranged is the cleaner, simpler build, and more in keeping with breaking rhings to their basic components. I have a few mentalists who have this very build as STR comes with fine manipulation and the ability to deal damage and that there is a greater cost for the greater utility. _But_... (And I believe I mentioned that I have been waffling on this for years. If not , well, now you know) I also like the lesser-expensive version that does not include a means to do damage. Certainly it could be done with STR (Range), but then the build gets more complicated.

Beware the wrath... Of... The... Canned Ham!

Ah; yes, of course. Sorry: Martial Arts. Without going any further, we disagree there.

[Well, crud. There isn't a way to unpost this (upon re-reading it, I found it to contribute nothing useful to the discussion), so I guess we are going to settle on this edited post xhokinf up,the thread. Anyway, on this one point, I believe we should agree to disagree, Sir.

Let me revise that: my original call was Telekinesis, and I stand by that, as it lets you simulate both physical blows and the ability to grab or even carry. Put "physical manifestation" and "Restrainable" on it to simulate that the shadow guys must be able to reach the target before they can attack it. If need be, buy some,additional TK with "only to increase strike damage" for whatever martial maneuvers you might have available.

Line of sight. It's okay. I myself have never gotten used to the reflex to overcomplicate a build. From what you have said so far, I see whatever ranged attacks Zed has as being bought with Indirect and Physical manifestation and Restrainable (successful hit on shadow guy), which simulate shadow guys. The T-port and a couple of floating locations (again, with physical manifestation and Restrainable) work to, again, simulate swapping places with shadow guys. You can put ranged and indirect and physical manifestation and Restrainable and whatever else on your martial arts and strength (with GM permission) if you want, but i'd just buy a couple of dice of Blast or Ranged Killing Attack (versus PD) with Indirect and Physical manifestation and Restrainable and use that to represent whatever sort of hi-yah! Your shadow guy is dishing out. Done enough, at least until play testing.

Well, there are three components od your quearion with which I am unfamiliar (namely HERO Designer, HERO System Martial Arts, and any form of online tabletop), but I am willing to take a wild guess. Based on the name "distance shot," I would guess that either it requires a phase aiming prior to firing, or that it fires in one phase and hits in the next. Alas, anyone- literally _anyone_ else on this board is more qualified to answer this, but having seen that two people viewed it already without comment, I thought I might take a moment to prove to them that they know morw about it than I do.

Sorry, Dude. I'm cruising the site on a phone on one of two ten minute breaks from a location with spotty coverage. I do a lot of skimming.

Thank you! Thank you so much! I tried for _hours_ to remember the name of that limitation, and I just couldn't get it anywhere near the ol' forebrain! Yes; that is exactly how I saw the shadow guys working when OP described them as one-hit knockovers.