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Duke Bushido

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Everything posted by Duke Bushido

  1. Just out of curiousity, am I the only guy who assumed that the blank character sheet-- straight 10s and do Figureds from there-- _was_ the human baseline, and you compared against that and the few examples from the book to decide how "super" your characters were?
  2. I have no idea for a name, but I see "behold! My ninjabot, and his deadly Steel Fist technique!" And I'm tapped.
  3. Oh, and given the wierd oerformance issues with my phone acter installing that Microsoft keyboard, I have nwver been more certain in my life that I was being key logged, so please, everyone, let's have a round of applause for the rerurn of the ten-thousans typos brought to you by the tiny little factory droid keyboard and its preference for korean over any other language.
  4. The Leviathan is dead. It came as no surprise; at 420,000 plus miles, it had made no secret of its various problems. She's been blowing compression into one of the water jackets for nearly two years. Most folks thoughr she was a diesel from the valve and lifter rattle. Hydraulic lifters means no valve lash adjustment, and sludged lifters means sloppy push rods. Yeah; I have had the heads off a xouple of times, dropped,in new lifters and push rods, but she just refuses to keep them clean no matter how frequently I changed the oil or what oil I used. And of course, there were two hundred other problems..... Parked her a few weeks ago pending a long block; figured I would give myself a couple of moths to set aside some money so it wouldnt be a big dent out of savings. The wife pointed out the couple-hundred non-engine issues the truck also had, but frankly: she doesnt drive it, and they werent issues to me. Is the front sear -really- "destroyed," or does it have a perfectly-sculpted butt groove? Is the large chunk misssing from the steering wheel an eyesore, or the ideal place to rest my hand when I am driving? And if a good chain and a couple of bolts have held fast for nearly a decade, do I really need a transmission mount? The sad truth is that while no engine that isnt a Chrysler 383 is perfect, the Chevy 6.0 gas burner, while strong enough for the trucks that received one, never was their most durable example of engineering. Still, she had everything I want in a truck: air conditioning and a bench seat. There might have even been a radio in there; I dont know, since I haven't turned one on since the mid nineties. Hand crank windows, manual locks, rubber floor cover-- look, I am not some stoic masochist. I like nice bikes and nive enough cars, but for me a truck isn't a pleasure wagon. A truck is a tool, and the simpler that tool is, the more reliable it is. No drills mean fewer headaches when one of those drills needs attention. Besides, it's nive to xome home from a particularly foul job in the field, open the doors, and clean the truck out with a garden hose. For those of you who know they exist: yes; I popped out the drain plugs first. For those of you who are hearing of them for the first time: yes; they exist. You have to cut the caulk away before you can pop them out. And a couple of months ago, the front main started seeping. Then leaking. Then it turned into one of those "fill 'er up and check the gas" situations. Then one day I walked up to her ans she was straddling a black pond. "Well, she's gotta be empty now..." The rear main had blown. Seven quarts later, I got her home and parked her over a couple of buckets and made some calls into the going rate on a long block. I called my brother who runs a garage; I called my brother that owns one, and my sister that runs a parts store.... No good news, but I had a dollar target to shoot at. This was about six week's ago. Now as I have mentioned before, I have a dozen younger siblings. Most of them have sone better than I have, and I am very proud of that. I would like do think I had somethinf to do with thatc seeing as how I more or less raised the ones ten and more years,younger than me. Six of them ended up living with me when they went on to college- my insistence: you sont need loans for a form or a job dor housing. Stay with me. I will feed you, and you can take my car or one of the bikes so you have transportation. You don t need a job or anythinf else to pull on your study time. Hell, four of them I paid for half of their school, too. Yes, in spite of what you learned in the funeral thread, they are, even if it is in a way that doesnt show, good people. And I am foing to have to spank every one of them. Again. A guy showed up at my job mid-day today. "Yes, Ma'am. I am looking for Duke Oliver." "Duke? Are you at your desk?" "No, Ma'am. I went to lunch about ten minutes ago. I should be back inbtwenty minutes or so, but I have some counts this afternoon, so I will probably go straight into the plant, so you probably won't see me until four or so. Sorry." "So you're _not_ here?" "No, Ma'am. I think I'm downtown Lyons right about now." "Okay, well, when you get back, there was a guy asking for you while you were out...." So I got up to see this guy and realized that I had never seen him before. I also realized that this was a normal and annoying part of my job (the cold-call salesman who _always_ shows up just before lunch or when you are neck-deep in fires to put out. Ten thousand slow days? Not a salesman in sight. One day where you are neck deep in dead trucks, no-show employees and seven deadlines? Thirty seven of the damned things want your time. Never fails. Never! "Good afternoon. Duke Oliver. What can I do for you?" "I have some papers I need you to sign." "A lawyer in a checkered polyesther polo shirt?" "No, Sir." "Good. I rhought maybe I was foinf to be single,by surprise for a minute there." "It's about your truck, Sir." "You can have it; it needs an engine. Unless you've got an engine; then y I I havevthe wrong address." You see, it would not be out of character for my brother with the shop to have biught the engine before I had the funds, Bill it to his shop, and let me pay him later. This guy looked all kinds of confused then said "I'm a driver with the Ford dealer in Meter." "Then you have the wrong guy." He checked his paperwork. "You are Duke Oliver? " Yes; I am. "You have a brother J, D, J, K, M? And sisters M, L, C, A--" Yeah; okay. You got the right guy. "And You have a new truck, Mr. Oliver." He pointed out the window. "It's a 2014 F-150, 5-liter crew, 4x4 short wheelbase, with the Lariat package. Sign here, please, and happy birthday, Sir." It is everything I dont want in a truck: micro bed, half ton, and so damned many fancy geejaws that I discovered it had a sunroof whike trying to figure out how to turn the heater off. Didnt exactly turn the heater off, but it let the heat out rather quickly, so close,enough. I have been on the phone the bulk od the eveninf screaming and scoldinf them that every one od them new better than to waste money, and certainly not to waste it on me. If I wanted another truck, i'd find another plain-jane truck with an eight-foot box and zero features. Look, we all have things we like, and that is how I like my trucks: no extras means no extra problems. If I could arrange it, there would only be one windshield wiper so I wouldn't have to worry about the linkage going bad. The argument I got: Monday you will,be sixty-three years old. You wont ever do the kind of heavy work you used to again (bull!) because you don't have the time and you are too old (this, by the way, is the comment that earned them all spankings. Hadn't had to do that in a while....) . You never buy nice stuff for yourself. (Yes I do. We just have really different ideas of "nice." Seriously: if I didn't genuinely prefer no-frills vehicles and a low-frills lifestyle, then motorcycles would probably not be my vehicle of choice, would they?). We bought a four-year bumper to bumper warranty, too, that covers everything but breaks, tires, and oil changes. You dont have to worry about anything for four years; by that time, you will be retired (joke's on them! Given the economy we have crafted ourselves, and the fact that the only time in my life when I _could_ have saved money I was putting half of them through school, my current retirement plan is to die at work some time in my seventies). Still, as a truck, it's a damned nice car. And it is raining right now. Supposed be raining in the morning, too. Probably wont hurt to drive it once in a while. (I am still seriously angry with them about this, though.)
  5. I could quote that exact same statement, except that I did actually buy one, with thirty rounds. Fired off about half (just over; I sold it with an even dozen rounds). The concept was interesting; I feel like automated manufacturing needed to step its game up before those things vaught on mainstream, but instead they just sort of died. Still, I would have loved to have seen a truly recoilless 50 cal handgun.... For anyone wondering, "grouping" was not a thing that was ever going to happen with the one I had, and I am fiven to understand that consistently hitting a target at all was something to be proud of. Of the meager handful of rounds I fired, there were three complete duds (something had apparently allowed a slow breech of the duel chamber I suspect) and one that spiralled off so hard to left right out of the barrel that the folks watching us shoot it moved an masse to directly behind us. (My brother J and I bought it together because we had always wanted to shoot one). Accuracy was incredibly poor at anythinf greater than thirty feet, and the projectile was literally _visible_ for the first ten feet or so. Inresring idea that required mass production at a scale of efficiency and economy that just wasn't available in its day. A part of me really wants someone to tackle it again, just to see what we could now. Honestly, I have seen better performance from pneumos-- ooh! And a few steam guns, but those are still wildly impractical. (And yes: Star Frontiers sis in favt make us do it)
  6. Lee Gold.... Wow that takes me back... Alarums and Excursions, anyone? I.... I, uh... Wish there was a tactful way to ask this, but is she still with us?
  7. To be fair, we had quite a lot of fun with that thread.
  8. Wrong thread; deleted. Sorry, California. And Australia.
  9. Yes. That is _exactly_ how a hold works. As Hugh mentioned, that is _not_ the only option for a _grab_. I can come up behind someone and spin them around by their shoulder, lining them up for a sunker punch. I could do this to a guy twice my size (so I had better hit him real, real good. ) I can _grab_ him by the shoulder, even if there is zero chance that I can _hold_ him by the shoulder. In fact, that particular grab is almost impossible to turn into a hold because you pull across / away from the target to turn the target. We're you to try and _hold_ after that sort of thing, your wrist-- and to some extent, your fingers-- would have to have joints that flex 180 degrees because your palm will be more toward you than it is toward them.
  10. And that's fine; if it doesn't work for you in Supers, don't use them as separate things. I play mostly not-supers, and the idea that Agent Joe snags a guy by the lapel and the guy in the suitcoat can't escape because he isn't as strong as agent Joe is nine kinds of bass ackwards.
  11. IShort on time, so forgive the lack of quotes: suffice it to say that for the most part, I am in line with Hugh's thoughts on this. The biggest thing I am seeing is a laundry list of issues that could be resolved by splitting Grab and Hold into 2 distinct actions: a Grab would of course have the automatic breakout roll; it may be possible to replace that roll with a STR v STR toll. As this is an attack action, the grabber's phase is now ended. If the breakout roll is failed, then on his next phase (remember that a higher SPD target may get additional breakout attempts), the grabber may then attempt to either place the target in a solid hold, or execute a follow-up attack. Grabbing someone makes it much harder to avoid that Haymarket, after all. Of course, the grabber has the option. To release his target at any time. So what does Grab do that it achieves without Hold? For one, it interrupts any Extra Time Required actions the target is attempting. It serves as a distraction to the target's concentration, and may even re-orient him enough to affect his OCV (If a brick snatches a sniper around to face him, he will lose track of his own target. My own suggestion (that is to say, the way I have been doing it) is that a grabbed character who succeeds his initial breakout roll is at 1/2 OCV for ranged attacks and is at 1/2 DCV against the grabber. If the grabber is unsuccessful with or chooses not to make a follow-up attack immediately (first action in his phase), the grabbed character gains a +2 bonus for his breakout roll. At the end of this phase, the person in the Grab will be free, presumably by his own actions. Why? Because a grab is not a hold. It is about disadvantaging the target to gain the upper hand with your next move. With this in mind, a tackle is a grab with a move element, and the penalties that the attacker falls, and his only viable follow up action (if the iooent does not succeed his breakout) is to go into a Hold with the Target falls element. Both are prone, and the target may even receive partial cover from his own attacker.
  12. I do not think that a football tackle and a combat tackle are inherently the same. For starters, there are a number of rules for football tackles, theoretically intended to avoid or minimize injuries. Thus, only certain techniques or types of tackles are allowed on the field. Further, the ultimate goal of a Football tackle is to stop advancement of the handegg, not necessarily the guy carrying it. In combat, the goal is much more likely to be preventing escape or capturing the target, making the hold a more integral part of Tackle as a combat maneuver. Even then, though, you don't always pull it off. Consider "you fall" as a mandatory element, and "target falls" only on some condition: a successful attack, or even a DEX roll or perhaps a direct STR v STR contest.
  13. Agreed. Same with Adventurers Club. I expect that given the nature of magazines built as anthologies by community contribution that there are too many copyright hurdles. Even if there are comparatively few legal hurdles, I see many, many ethical ones.
  14. Gotcha covered: 5 skill levels with football-like maneuvers. Martial artist must shake jowls and drool slightly doing his best Joh Madden impression yelling ' Now that's FUUT BWAWL!!! " Done. Hee-yah!
  15. STR: 12 Animal follower (a squirrel) Language: Squirrel 38O pts Luck Dump the rest into END. (suggested by my daughter, a fan of the character)
  16. Sweep is wierd. I remember seeing it long hand (paragraph description) in more than one edition, but I don't remember _ever_ seeing it in a maneuvers or combat options chart. 😕
  17. Just remember: The easiest way to put together a four-hour session is to plan a thirty-minute one.
  18. Okay, finally home, and all I want is the bed... Since that's not likely to happen (the people not in their sixties working manual labor 12+ hours a day since both of his assistants missed their court date seem to think that is time for a rave in the living room), I am going to at least get started. 3e, from Champions: This time, all of those unlabeled charts from 2e have been cleaned up and broken into three distinct charts, each with their own heading. However, for this project, I am going to list anything that either imposes a CV modifier or takes precisely full or half segments, as these are _all_ things you can elect to do in combat that affect your options by being selected. And of course, soliloquy and rolling dice, because the fact that are on the chart at all amuses me. Here we go: 1. Punch 2. Haymaker 3. Kick 4. Block 5. Grab 6. Move By 7. Move Through 8. Other Attacks 9. Martial Punch 10. Martial Kick 11. Martial Block 12. Martial Dodge 13. Martial Throw 14. Recover from being Stunned 15. Half Move 16. Throwing Someone 17. Find Weakness 18. Missile Deflection Make an Attack (I did not number this one because - yeah...) 19. Soliloquy 20. Presence Attack GM asks for a rolling (not number) 21. Auto fire one target 22. Auto fire Many Targets 23. Brace 24. Move and Attack 25. Set 26. Spread Energy Blast 27. Surprise Attack 28. Surprise Maneuver There we go. 28 (ish) combat "maneuvers." So many other books.... So here we go! We did the other 2e game, Espionage!, above, and Espionage! became Danger International, and it is all nice and alphabetical, so sure. From DI: Attempting to eliminate redundancy from Champions, we will add 29: drawing a gun 30. Firing a gun 31. Flying Tackle 32. Full Move 33. Leaping 34. Making a roll (variable) 35. Maneuvers (?) Opening a door is a half phase, but it doesn't seem like a typical combat maneuver, so it isn't numbered. 36. Preparing a grenade 37. Reloading 38. Starting a car 39. Take a Recovery 40. Throwing a grenade 41. Burst Fire 42. Controlled burst 43. Off Hand attack 44. Surprise move. 45. Cover (a target) 46. Disarm 47. Hold (someone you have grabbed) 48. Killing Blow 49. Strike On to Fantasy HERO: Dialogue, I feel, is an outgrowth of Soliloquy, and so is not numbered. 50. Drop pack Fire a Bow is an extension of attack, so... 51. Throwing a Spell (is not covered by Throwing grenades for some reason) 52. Club Weapon 53. Charge 54. Flail 55. Lance Charge 56. Pin 57. Retreat (you won't find that cowardice in Champions!) 58. Ride By (not like a drive-by) 59. Shield Block 60. Trip (emphasis so that it catches Hugh's eye, as well as everyone that has ever told me it isn't possible without Martial Arts) 61. Unhorse (but not Dismount) Use Sligh, like fire bow, is just another attack, and so not numbered. That is going to do for now. Good night.
  19. Yep. Espionage was awesome and underrated, possibly underpublished, but so far ahead of its contemporaries in many ways. It is a shame it didn't get any first-party support; the third party support might have kept coming.
  20. Okay.... Because tracking all of this on the phone screen isn't working out, just to clear up a couple of things, I present the (incomplete, but with all entries) maneuver charts from the first four editions: 1e (and for the guys on the other thread, Steve "Force* Goodman is listed exactly like that on the dedications page) Punch Haymaker Kick Block Dodge Grab Mover By Move Through Martial Punch Martial Kick Martial Block Martial Dodge Martial Throw. That's right; by the book, you had to have martial arts to throw someone. You might have a STR:30 and a successful grab, but you can't just chuck that Viper goon without yelling "heeya!". And you can't yell heeya if you aren't qualified. Fortunately, we ignore that completely. There were rules for throwing things, after all, maneuver or not. One of the examples included "uncooperative character.". What more do you need? 2e: This one is odd, as there is the maneuver chart: Punch Haymaker Kick Block Dodge Grab Move By Move Through Martial Punch Martial Kick Martial Block Martial Dodge Martial Throw I say it is odd, because while this is not exactly combat maneuvers, there is an additional chart of actions that lists their combat time: Move By Move Through Haymaker Kick Other Combat Maneuvers Full Move Leaping Change Clothes. (full phase, by the way. A SPD:4 character can change his clothes in three seconds. Amazing. Recover from being stunned Half Move Find Weakness Missile Deflection Making an atrack Acrobatics Turn on a Power Turn off a Power Shift Multipower Danger Sense (no time, but the fact that it is listed on a chart of player-selectable actions implies that it isn't as automatic as it should be) Soliloquy (also no time; never fails to be hilarious) Presence Attack (no time, even if your violent action is attacking someone or something. Yes; Davien tried to exploit this - constantly! House rule: violent action _can_ be an attack, but all the rules of an attack apply.) And my favoritw: GM asks you to make a roll. (also no time, if you were wondering.) Champions II gave us mental combat maneuvers: Mind Block Ego Evade MIndbar Note that there are no allowances to make these Martial, so no Ego Ninjas, please. MIndbar was just amazing. It really was. Kind of like pinning an opponent's arms so he could not punch, but grabbing him by the mental power so he can't do that. C2 also gave us some nifty new Combat Maneuvers: Dive for Cover Pulling a Punch Rolling with a Punch (this one was so overlooked, in spite of having "Heroic-level characters" written all over it in lipstick. Red. Mine, because I loved it so much....) And the famous Coordinating an attack. Those last two-- especially that last one-- weren't really maneuvers as much as they were options, but as Hugh noted above, this game has been riddled with semantics issues since its inception) Then one final maneuver, just for you Speedster, the Multiple Move By. (Multiple Move _Thriugh_ was not listed, but hey; knock yourself out. Out cold. Champions III gave us Shockwave, which is _kind of_ a maneuver, in as much as the character takes a specific action and suffers a CV adjustment It also gave us the awesome Centipedemobile. We also see the first example of losing experience points forever, way back in 2e, even before Fantasy HERO made it part of enchanting an item, yet the "but the points will be gone forever; that isn't true to the game" argument still comes up when I mention things like stealing foci. But back on tooic: The last entry for 2e is Espionage! (emphasis not mine, but as it is part of the title, it is apparently mandatory). You may remember this as the game that gave us the exhaustive Skill list that found its way into 4e. Also, you may not remember it at all. If you don't remember it, it is the game that introduced the Hit Location Chart, the Time Chart, Package Deals and "knowledge skills" and roll-your-own skills, also re-introduced in 4e, and with us ever since. And of course, it introduced Flying Tackle. Here we go: Flying Tackle Other Combat Maneuvers Maneuvers Half Move Full Move Acrobatics Leaping Bracing To "set" Set and Brace Drawing a pistol Firing a gun Reloading. (half phase. Not even "varies.". Automatic? Revolver? Cap and ball? Half a phase, done) Preparing a grenade Throwing a grenade Making an attack Recover from stunned Take a Recovery Open a door Starting a car Soliloquy (still no time!) Presence Attack (still sporting the "no time" loophole!) Making a Skill roll GM asks you to make a roll Whew. At some point, I am going to put all of those into one chart. Again. Of course, I will have to include "combat modifiers" on p29, since it includes a number of actions as well: Autofire v 1 target Autofire v many targets Burst fire Bracing Set for 1 phase Bracing and setring Made a half-move Surprise Maneuver Double Firing Snap Shot Attacking with off hand Using unfamiliar weapon Using unfamiliar weapon (omitted those things without CV mods) As I think about it, 3e is huge. Maybe later. I am going to bed. Really rough day.
  21. Someone wrote a Viper scenario "Build a Better you.". It is totally usable as a four-hour session; I used it as an underpinning (combined it with a different into that I posted here called the Boneyard Scenario, then tossed in two or three other bits and a red herring and turned it into a campaign for the youth group that lasted an entire school year, so I am going to say that it is pretty flexible.
  22. Still standing by that. Thanks for trying, Hugh. Here we go; from 1e, p32: Haymaker: This is basically an all-out punch, and takes an extra segment for its execution. If a character states on segment 6 that he wishes to do a Haymaker, the blow will not land until the end of Segment 7, after all characters in segment 7 have taken their action. I would like to note that for a bunch of guys without a lot of role playing experience- or rather, without a lot of experience in the typos and oversights that marked the rules of the Era, the use of Segment instead of phase or half phase had us wondering about the visualizations of combat and comparing it to the ideas that a character's action took his entire turn, but he could take 2 brief actions instead. The way that reads, a SPD:2 character, with his action in Phase 6, declared a roundhouse swing and then it was over, and he stood around with folded arms until Phase 1 came back around. 2e made it better by including a maneuvers chart on p 51 that gave time requirements for the various maneuvers, and it noted Haymaker as taking 1/2 a phase. (for those still wondering about Kick, it, too, was a half-phase action.). There was a footnote for Haymaker (and kick) that still claimed "action takes place at the end of the next segment.". Obviously this was all very do-able on maps and with the speed chart, but it kept wrecking the visualization (still kind of does, really) because of the implication that all actions are resolved in a single segment, except these two that take up two seconds (or one entire Phase if you were SPD:12), which again gave the visual of completing everything else in the very segment in which you declared it, and then you stood around sulking while the fast guys played some more. In fact, the only way that Haymaker (or any other maneuver that took a single segemt to resolve) could be a half-phase action was if you were SPD:6! More than that and it a single segment was more than half of your phase. Less than that, and a single segment was _less_than half of your phase. It was the questions raised by this chart, more than the answers the chart provided, that helped us kind steer into our understanding of "what it meant.". No internet back then, so we had only the text of the combat section to go by, and simply determined 'well, an Alabama Windup is a big, slow, highly-telegraphed maneuver, so I reckon it means declare in the first half-phase, and then resolve Haymakers on the last segment of your phase,' which meant resolve them last. This is problematic at speeds 4 and above, where a Haymaker declared in the second half of your Phase will not connect until a segment (or more,up to 1-1/2 segments for SPD:12 characters) _after your phase has ended_. Remember that it is listed as a half-phase action, so you can declare it in the second half of your phase, so long as you have not already attacked. The delayed affect (especially at higher SOD) left it largely untouched by my players for more than smashing immobile objects (make of that what you will) or coordinating to hit "right here" as the speedster knocked a bad guy at you). So it got used for spectacular brick-things like knocking down walls and Presence attacks and occasionally on a stunned powerhouse villain (or an entangled one. We ain't all saints)., but by and large, in combat, not terribly often. But that is neither here nor there. Also in 2e, on p54, is a text description (mercifully typed with a sand serif font for this edition) is the description, and the only real difference between the two editions is the placement of words in a sentence or two, which does nothing to alter the original meaning (because English is goofy like that) : This is basically an all out punch, and takes an extra segment to execute. If a character states on segment 6 that he wishes to do a Haymaker, the blow will not land until the end of Segment 7, after all characters in segment 7 have taken their action. I mean, the verbiage this time implies that the extra time is on the front end, causing the blow to be delayed (which is accurate) where the 1e verbiage implied "this is a long maneuver), but game-wise, there is no practical difference. Only the implications have been changed (to protect the innocent, maybe. Who knows?). As for 3e, in the perfect bound all-in-one book, on p72, (all you lucky rascals fortunate enough to have gotten the 3e Teo books, dice, and a map boxed set will be pleased to know that it is on p72 of the main rules book as well. And give a shout out if you have an empty box you're willing to either part with or at least photograph in detail) there is a newer, more nicely-formatted version of the 2e chart (though this time it is a bit chooser about what it calls a combat maneuver, eliminating enteies like Find Weakness and the various movements-it looks like the brusquely-typed 1e chart-that-you-don't-recognize-as-a-chart until you are halfway through it and think "this paragraph makes absolutely no sense.... OOOoooOOOoohhh!") Again, Haymaker is listed (along with Kick) as "this maneuver takes an extra segment." So the pressure from the first three editions of the rules (all of which declare Haymaker to be a half-phase action _and it takes an extra segment (so again: SPD:7 or higher, and it is more than a half-phase, no matter what you do) suggests that if I have an SPD:3 or lower, I can half-move, declare _and complete_ a Haymaker entirely within my phase. Anyway, going to the verbiage: The second column of the same page (p72) has-again-_essentially_ the same description from all the way back in 1e, as did 2e-- _essentially_ the same, minor verbiage changes. However, the minor change in 3e is hilariously glorious! "This is basically an all out punch, and takes an extra segment to execute. If a hero states on segment 6 that he wants to do a Haymaker, the blow won't land until the end of Segment 7, after all heroes have taken their action. Okay, have all the heroes acted? Great! Haymaker time! Okay, villians; it's your turn now-- well, not you, Clyde. You just lay there and drool until you wake up. Those Haymaker are nasty.... And evidently, 3e kicks are also resolved between hero and villain actions, as the description there is "This is a full power kick, which is why it is somewhat awkward. This maneuver takes one extra segment to execute, like Haymaker. Yeah. Still having that weird thing where I can't delete quote boxes... Excellent choices! Now I can knock someone down without having to buy martial arts or beat them stupid.! I mean, I always could, but then 'rhat' discussion comes around again, and suddenly I have to buy three maneuvers to make someone fall. Wiersly, the verbiage for martial kick still says that it can be any high-power attack, including a backfist strike. Kick, however, is still just a kick. Feels wrong. Almost, my friend. _Almost_. If you wanted to make a logical decision, you would have stopped calling it Haymaker when you (well, not you specifically; the you who actually did it, namelessly, so that I cannot express my scorn. The "I Haymaker my energy blast!" Really? Your going to punch him with your laser? I Haymaker my Presence attack! Errrr..... Call it something else: "free basic pushing" or "Hakyo Kosaken School Desperation Attack!" or _anything_ but I "special kind of all-out punch him with my hypno spray!" Yeeesh.... It just _rankles_.... Same. Heck, I didn't even acquire it until we were well into this century. I have managed to snag everything but the actual box for the box set. If I can get some nice clean photos, I am willing to make one at this point. I have read the campaign book, and it is actually great! So much more comic adventure than the dungeon crawl of Viper's Nest, though I really wish Microfilm Madness had made the final cut. If I ever find time to do a custom, I intend to add it back in. As far as the core rules, I have skimmed it a few times, and read blocks here and there-enough to see that this is not just the primary foundation of 4e, but also where most of the really great 4e supers art comes from. You are correct. It seems _sort of_ logical (it is your opponent's modifiers to attack you), and it came with some nifty new formulae, but ultimately, the changes to CV given in all other editions gave "close enough" results without having to whip out the calculator every time you cajned size or position relative to you attacker. Now to be fair, I accept that there are a lot of players still alive with enough wafgaming in their blood that they cannot settle for 'close enough,' so if you want that extra little bit of recreational algebra, pick up 3e in the HERzo store. Not only are you helping HERO, you're getting more math! It's like a win-win scenario, but with out the second win! There have been enough discussions on the problems of this geometric v linear progression that I believe that you already know that I don't. However, there _have_ been enough discussion about it, so I trust you will understand when I say "I have _never_ accepted that.". Mostly, I think it was a deliberate fudge that made it plausible to put Batman and (who is in the super friends that isn't superman but is crazy strong?) Anyway, it lets archers and bricks be on the same team without archers feeling useless in combat. Period. In the movies, the Hulk has an archer-Clint? Samuel Jackson called him the Hawk in one of the early movies. So the whole thing with dou le STR but only a single die? I expect it is there so that the Hulk and the hawk can fight side by side and not look absolutely stupid. So that a 50 STR brick is only tossing around 10 dice in the days when 8 to 12 dice were considered "a good attack." I will accept that it is _necessary_, even though it is meta. It is one of the things I liked about old Haymakrr- not just the x1.5 damage, but the 'it is a _punch_. The Hawk can do his 8 to 12 d6 to an opponent 90 feet away, but in a pinch, and with a little luck, I can do 15 to this guy standing in front of me. OH, I am not denying that it was a _crap_ value, at least without Kick, it would have been. But you got considerably more than +2d6 for your Brick MA. Your STR: 10 Ninja paid 10 pts to get a "kick (any powerful Strike) that delivered twice his STR dice. 10 pts for 2 dice. A couple of drawbacks, but access to the martial maneuvers helped. A STR:50 ninja paid 50 pts and got 10 dice, access to the maneuvers, etc. So he also got damage dice at 5pts a die and the maneuvers. Now the "fake" martial artist spent those 50 pts on 5 ten-pt skill levels, opted for whatever he wanted: five damage dice, or two dice and +3 OCV- his choice every phase. Technically, he did not get access to the martial maneuvers, but he could fake the Hell out of them! Going a bit further, he spent 30 of those points on 10 dice of +50 STR, no figureds; no lifting (or, bluntly, "damage only") to get the same ten extra dice _and_two 10-pt levels, meaning that if he felt lucky, he could add up to 12 dice to his punch, or just the 10 with a +2 OCV. Or allocate them somewhere else and use that +2 for an INT roll if he wanted; whatever. And frankly, even after the big hit that HSM is, the 10 dice and two levels is _still_ a better deal: Take your STR:15 MA and buy him 15 STR, damage only for 9 points, then buy him even 5-pt skill levels ("martial arts") and for twenty-four points, you can still "martial Haymaker" (well, since it's not a "true" martial art as defined by HSM, you can just call it a martial Haymaker) for 4 dice on top of everything else. Martial arts in any forum of HERO has never been the best way to build a martial artist. It just hasn't. However, since you can pick and build maneuvers and design schools and all that good stuff, if such is your bag, there is a definite attraction there. If you want to build Batman, buy tten dice and five or six skill levels, and drop any HSM martial artist like a sack of socks. Well, the cheapest way I know to get 2 dice of damage is the STR: only for damage route above, and it is going to run you six points without the NND. So ten points plus whatever NND runs in 6e then do your limitation and-on a guess- you're going to end up at around 7 or 8 points. Makes 4 pts seem like quite the bargain, especially if I am building a heroic character at lower points totals. Ah- totally valid, and I failed to consider that. Thank you.
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