Duke Bushido

Come on, we know what happens.  If we ignore the foreknowledge, of course we do.  If not...forget it!  With the Tardis, well, MAYBE nothing bad happens.  With the Titanic, it WILL happen.
 
The Titanic is one of my "if you had a *small-sized* time machine...wearable unobtrusively, where would you want to go?" scenarios...after it starts to sink, either
a)  hit up the First Class bars and stash the booze...just because...or
b)  for value, hit up the purser's vault.  There would be hundreds of millions in jewelry there.
c)  hit up the staterooms of the elites for furs, jewelry, etc.......
 
In case you aren't familiar?  The Titanic would have TOP end wines from before the disastrous phylloxera plague that did MASSIVE damage to the French vinestock.  The only fix is to rip out the old vinestock and graft new, resistant vinestock...but that also means you've changed the wine.  The value per bottle would be......incredible.
 
This doesn't even create causality issues per se because in principle, no one would ever know what you took.

The reason we ask whether HERO is too complicated is because we have more detail to argue about.  I would bet @Duke Bushido would be more than happy delivering this power in his 2ns Edition game. 
 
As players we have pushed the game designers to give us more and more "official" rule options.  Those options already existed but we think, if they are written in a rule book, we can use them without too much thought or discussion, just punch the numbers in. We then wanted more guidance on those options, it is no wonder the core rulebook got so big.
 
I don't think HERO is any more complicated, I worry we make it too complicated.  We begin to obsess over the detail and fret more about getting the numbers right than getting the feel right and delivering a decent game.
 
There is something about us that loves the detail and makes us question the minds of other folk that bounce off this beautifully detailed system that "can do anything" but in the process we insist on showing all the detail, ensuring that every micro-point is audited and processed.
 
I love the availability of the derail, I appreciate others who know it far better than me, pointing out when I stumble and permit things that could be exploited in unanticipated ways.
 
What I appreciate most however, is not a complex build but an elegant one, one that achieves a game effect that would awesome to see in play, that HERO can put together from its parts that would be a total black box everywhere else.
 
The detail for me is about helping adjudicate the effect in game, being able to explain to the player how this would work and how it might be changed to deliver different game outcomes.
 
It is not the system, it is us that gets too complicated.
 
Doc

It was a picture of a person maybe wearing a bird like helmet and giving a sonic scream. Real life had intervened and I have not been able to formulate an idea yet. The thread was dormant for over a year so give us a chance it is a busy time of the year
 
Thank you Quackhell for restoring the image.
Hmm Bird like helmet. A scream or electricity surrounding the figure. And a radio like thing on their chest.
It shouts out for something silly.

Definitely some good ideas. I will probubly try just make it a single power healing and give the undead in my campaigns a complication (damaged by healing from a Divine source, and heals from a Negitive source.) If I find that too OP then I can go with the Combind Power with blast.
 
As far as the comment Hero System isn't Dnd or Pathfinder. That isn't helpful. Hero System is system agnostic, so frankly, its whatever I want it to be. Sorry but I get frustrated at people who say things like that, when adopting things from other games, and try to hint at they shouldn't try to adopt things from other games. You can make anything work, it just how to go about it to be more balanced for what you are doing.

Which is a Very Good Thing!!!

You are not wrong, but if you were of an age to attend lots and lots of action movies of the era, you'd find that _both_ were derivative of the genre as a whole at that time:  the anti-HERO edgelord stuff ran _deep_ at the time.
 
Yeuch.
 
 

Since the name on the cover is an obvious pseudonym, one wonders which Hero Boards member is the actual author.

You are not wrong, but if you were of an age to attend lots and lots of action movies of the era, you'd find that _both_ were derivative of the genre as a whole at that time:  the anti-HERO edgelord stuff ran _deep_ at the time.
 
Yeuch.
 
 

I see a lot of advertising designs that tell me whoever came up with them never asked anyone else to look them over.

I'm going to talk about my writing in this thread, but anyone should feel free to throw in their own anecdotes.

I managed to flip a switch in my head recently, and I'm writing again. I'm writing a lot. On my main project, I've written over 40k words this month, with a few thousand more that I've ditched or set aside for possible future use. This makes me very happy.
 
Quite a while back, I posted a link to the one novel I've completed. anyone who remembers that would be unsurprised to learn that my current project is about teens with super powers. The protagonist, Frank,  is a character who was the antagonist in a bunch of stories I used to tell my kids at bedtime (but aged up a little, and with the G rated filter removed). Her worst enemy is the protagonist from most of those stories, Emily. I'd tried to write stories with Emily in the past, but she's just too good. She's based on my second Champions character, altered to be what my kids wanted in a superhero (e.g. she always won). That image of her is too stuck in my head for me to tone her down, much, so she wasn't really workable as a protagonist. As an antagonist, or even supporting character, though, she's fine. So her nemesis Frank became the protagonist, and Emily is the thorn in her side.
 
Since I'm essentially writing fanfic (even if it is for a world that's only in my head), it's probably inevitable that Frank and Emily would get thrown together, and get, if not an enemies-to-lovers arc, at least an enemies-to-girlfriends arc. It turns out that that's a lot of fun to write. Of course, that requires a redemption arc for Frank, which is fine, because I'm a fan of redemption arcs.
 
If Emily had been the protagonist, these would have been flat out superhero stories. With Frank as protagonist, though, they're not so much that, at least not at first. She isn't looking to save anyone. They're more slice-of-life or adventure stories.
 
The story I'm currently working on has Emily and Frank thrown into a parallel universe where the event that led to superpowers in their universe never happened (essentially our world). I wanted a fight scene while they're stuck there, partially because I just wanted a fight scene, and partially to advance Frank's redemption arc. 
 
So I started this scene. Getting them to it was no problem; Emily is drawn toward places and times where someone will need protection. Truck crashes through a window, Emily deals with that while Frank teleports around being a bad-ass and dealing with the armed men charging in. It sucked.
 
Sure, Emily's been doing this crap since she was thirteen, but Frank hasn't been in any fight more serious that a high school tussle or a sparring match in her life. She's very competent at [martial art tbd], but that doesn't mean that she'd have any idea how to handle herself in fire fight. Plus, she could just teleport away and leave Emily to deal with things. Facing a bunch of nazis with rifles and handguns, Emily's biggest worry would be not killing them (and keeping innocents safe, of course). I scrapped those 700 words and started again.
 
Now Emily gets taken down by a sniper rifle* as the start to the combat, and Frank needs to deal with the sniper on her own, or a bunch of people are going to die. She chooses to fight, and it's a really hard fight for her. It was so much more satisfying to write than if she'd just been kicking ass and taking names.
 
* I'm open to suggestions as to an appropriate real world weapon to use for this. Emily is a flying brick, with an emphasis on the brick. Small arms fire is basically a minor nuisance to her, and even normal assault rifles can't usually do more than cause a bit of pain or minor bruising. Military grade is fine, as long as it's something that could be lugged by one person up fourteen flights of stairs.
 
 
 
 

Thanks, OM.
 
 
Yep.  Sad.
 
On the plus side, I am now happily aware that the "other word" doesn't even come to mind. 
 
I am never terribly delighted with me, but today, I am very proud. 
 
 

Thanks, OM.
 
 
Yep.  Sad.
 
On the plus side, I am now happily aware that the "other word" doesn't even come to mind. 
 
I am never terribly delighted with me, but today, I am very proud. 
 
 

Thanks, OM.
 
 
Yep.  Sad.
 
On the plus side, I am now happily aware that the "other word" doesn't even come to mind. 
 
I am never terribly delighted with me, but today, I am very proud. 
 
 

Thanks, OM.
 
 
Yep.  Sad.
 
On the plus side, I am now happily aware that the "other word" doesn't even come to mind. 
 
I am never terribly delighted with me, but today, I am very proud. 
 
 

Thanks, OM.
 
 
Yep.  Sad.
 
On the plus side, I am now happily aware that the "other word" doesn't even come to mind. 
 
I am never terribly delighted with me, but today, I am very proud. 
 
 

Thanks, OM.
 
 
Yep.  Sad.
 
On the plus side, I am now happily aware that the "other word" doesn't even come to mind. 
 
I am never terribly delighted with me, but today, I am very proud. 
 
 

Thanks, OM.
 
 
Yep.  Sad.
 
On the plus side, I am now happily aware that the "other word" doesn't even come to mind. 
 
I am never terribly delighted with me, but today, I am very proud. 
 
 

Thanks, OM.
 
 
Yep.  Sad.
 
On the plus side, I am now happily aware that the "other word" doesn't even come to mind. 
 
I am never terribly delighted with me, but today, I am very proud. 
 
 

By starring out the "ass" in "Nasser", whatever video game that is has caused "Nasser" to appear as if it were another, more offensive, N-word.

I had the same puzzlement as Duke.

You remind me of a wonderful session back about '88 or so that ended wonderfully and awfully at that same time, but it was ultimately a good thing:
 
When I took over as GM for my original Champiins group, one of the many things I inhereted was one of those little cheesy sand timers found packed in with various ouzzle games since time immemorial.  It was allegedly a sixty-second timer, but repeated testing (across a couple of _decades_)  had proven it to be a sixty-two sexond timer....  Yeah, not important, unless you were the guy who was waiting for your turn, in which case it was the thing you complained about most.   
 
Anyway, Jim (my predecessor) had a policy:  if you weren't ready when your turn came (everyone got a few seconds, of course, but if you werent ready after a quick "uuhhhhh....," then the timer hit the table, and you had until it ran out to complete and execute your actions.  (Newbies had exemption, of,course, for the first couple of hours of game time.)
 
The fact is (and it could have been simply the threat of it) no one ever actually needed all sixty-two seconds unless we were playing Starfleet Battles (not sure why we were all of so tediously cagey for that game).  But when the timer was put into play, whoever's turn was up suddenly became the poster child for efficiency: whatever wasn't done when the last of the sand flowed out of the top didn't get done.
 
 
And that policy had an inconsiderate corollary that bit us in the butt in the most amusing way....
 
One night, we had one player-  I don't know what her deal was: she was falling in and out of attention, constantly distracting herself with some internal thing--  I had asked after about an hour if she felt okay; if ahe wanted a break; if she would prefer her character moving onto a side-plot to be resolved later so ahe could bow out and go home--
 
It was confusing to me, because she was actually a few minutes earlier that usual, claiming she had blown off a party to come to the game.  Well, she wenr to the party, had some fun, ended up stuck talking to some creepy dude for fifteen minutes, got 'that vibe,' and left in an attempt to bail on him.  Instead, he walked her all the way to my place, said his good-byes, then beat feet back the way he came.
 
 
She kept insisting ahe was fine, and I figueed she was probably just shaking the creepy vibe off, so we kept playing.
 
We had never had to use the timer more than three or four times in any game, and frankly, it was a pretty rare game that saw it in use at all.  That night, it was used more than a dozen times, almost all of them on that same player (who was now distracted in-game; it was the only way to resolve all of this!).
 
And after waffling for a bit, the timer came out for the final time that session.  Her character had been hiding behind a column in a darkened maintenance room ( for what it's worth, we were playing Daredevils), pistol drawn (she was supposed to be covering another character as he advanced towars the villain, but had gotten distracted, etc.  Two other players were making the attempt, and were nearly,out of ammo.  Distraction Player was the only one who the villain had not yet been made aware of.
 
The timer came out, she hesitated, waffled, studied the map, asked questions that demonstrated she had lost focus about four rounds prior to now....
 
I put the timer on the table _again_.....
 
And it didn't help much.  I think it was half empty before she really registered its presence (in spite of the traditional "oh no!  It's the timer!" drama from the usual suspects).  As it got more and more empty, she just choked.
 
Then the timer did, too.
 
There was a tint bit of sand that had somehow managed to get lodged in the neck, and it just hung there.  Hoots and howls from around the table, but my Player remained... Off....
 
She turned to another player and started with "oh my God; I don't know what to do!  Do I shoot this guy?  Do I run away?  No matter what, he is going to see me, and my character isn't going to survive getting shot with his tommy gun--"
 
Helpfully, he suggested considering her motives, which degenerated into a group recap of the last four sessions-  the villain did this; the villain did that....  He framed your fiance and got him arrested, then stole his research;  
 
On and on.  "Guys...."  I started.  "She's out of time...."
 
"Oh, no!" This from my rules lawyer brother.  "She's out of time when the timer runs out!"  Everyone suddenly remembered the timer and burst out laughing again.
 
"I know it's stuck, but-"
 
"Nope!"  Quipped my brother John.  "It's in Flashback mode!"  More laughter, considering the recap underway.
 
"Yeah!" Agreed the Rules Lawyer.  "You know how it works-  every movie there's a pivotal moment where someone has like a twenty minute flashback and then we snap back to the moment and like, two seconds have gone by!  The Timer rule says (and it didn't, really; it was just an accepted interpretation, and this is how I learnes to be careful about letting that happen again) 'when the sand runs out,' which it hasn't--"
 
Distracted Player said "Okay, you're right- villain did this and this and this and this and this and it affected you this way and you that way and you this way, and it did this, this, and this to me, and he has always been this and that and the other to my fiance and his father-  this is it!
 
 
"Okay, Duke: I step out from behind the column and say "you will leave me and the French family (her fiance was Dr. Conrad French, scientist extrordinaire) alone!'  Then I shoot a couple of times to scare him back so the others can take him down."
 
Then she rolled a pretty sweet critical and he dropped, dead at her feet.
 
Howls from around the table.
 
Then she (the player) got incredibly sick on my floor, and we all freaked for a moment, and John and I loaded her into his car and we took her to the ER.
 
 
Turns out her vibe was right, and leaving was the best thing for her.  Someone had roofied her.  The only thing that saved her was her health (she was on swim team scholarship), and creepy guy not using enough to black her out, and the fact that she left.
 
We couldn't talk her in to preasing charges, but her coach did.  Creepy dude was caught with enough on him to knock out choir.
 
Sorry-  that last bit was to be left out, but in anticipation of the discussion about her 'shouldnt have shown up' or 'bad player' or whatever,  and I wanted to defend hee showing up: I suspect she felt safer in the company of her wierd friends than she would have in an empty dorm room.
 
 
We would learn later that another girl at the party had not been so fortunate.
 

Free gravel for life

Yep; pretty much nailed it.  Though there were a lot of players who would make their move, then _carefully watch_ as their opponent(s) made their moves, _then have to study the board_ for fifteen minutes....
 
Ugh.
 
 
You know what changed!  You watched it change!  You made half if the changes!  Now play!
 
 
 
 
I can date the story, actually:  I had ordered the game from an add in the back of White Wolf (remember when that qas an actual gaming magazine and not a catalogue? Ha!) And had recieved it about three months earlier.  This campaign was our inaugural run with Daredevils.
 
 
I borrowed the term "roofie" for the telling.  I honestly don't know if rohypnol was a thing then, but there were plenty of street drugs and home-brewed concoctions floating around for that specific purpose, even back then.
 
As to getting him off the streets, etc...
 
I wish I could say it was true.  Date rape wasn't taken seriously as a "real crime" back then.  He served a few months foe possession, but not much else.