GAZZA

Re: Look out! It's Conservation of Energy Man! I'll check those other threads out; I'm always looking for good ideas to nick. Not sure why you'd need an END reserve. If the EB is linked to the Dispel, then you can't use it unless you've just Dispelled something, so that's all good. Technically you need GM permission to link an entire framework to a power (assuming that's what you want to do - ie, link the VPP to a Dispel), but if you're the GM that's no problem (and if you're not, I think you have a decent chance of persuasion - it doesn't seem that abusive to me). If you're not the GM, then you can always try sneaking a limitation such as "can only be used in a multiple power attack with Dispel" and seeing if he recognises it as "Linked". I would imagine, BTW, that you would be able to whack this in a Multipower; I would have thought that an RKA, Energy Blast, TK, Running, and Flight would pretty much cover most effects. With a Multipower the linked limitation (assuming it's allowed) reduces the reserve cost as well, whereas with a VPP you're going to need (at least) the +1 "change as a zero phase action" modifier, and probably also the "no skill roll required". You might squeeze out -1 or so for "only for kinetic energy or thermal effects", but it's still going to be more expensive; of course, if you have lots of different ideas for what effects you can get, a VPP might be needed. Not mutually exclusive anyway; you could start with a multipower and switch to a VPP as the number of slots grew to the point where it made more sense. Your Mileage May Vary. (Or sometimes "Your Method May Vary", but I prefer the former). Basically it means, "That's the way I'd do it."

Re: Combat skill levels For what it's worth, +6 combat levels isn't necessarily unbalancing (low DEX characters might need that many just to have a decent chance of hitting), but if they've got decent base OCV/DCV (from a good DEX) and they're piling on 6 CSLs on top of that, then it can become problematic. Essentially the players have defined "competent in combat" as somewhere around 4-8 combat skill levels, so that's what all the villains should have (and those that are good at combat have even more). I concur with the other posters that you should have a talk to your players first, but if they are insistent by all means go and give the villains the same. They defined the reality, after all.

Re: Newbie to the HERO system I realise that if you've never run Hero before you might think it's a bit soon to start with house rules, but I have a few that are designed with new players in mind - things like switching it so you always want to roll high, a means to simplify combat (OCV vs DCV) calculations, and so on. If you're interested, drop me a PM (I completely understand if you'd rather run things as written for a while).

Re: Measurement in HERO LOL. Not your best material, but well worth a giggle.

Re: Theory Discussion: Defense Alternative Perhaps. But it is at least theoretically possible to use a spoon (or several spoons) to slowly make a 2 metre hole in a concrete wall. Hero doesn't allow this to ever occur. Is this a crippling problem that means we should immediately abandon Hero and go play "torture chambers and flying lizards"? No, but it is a somewhat legitimate complaint (perhaps not an important one, but that's going to be subjective to some degree).

Re: Look out! It's Conservation of Energy Man! The reason I don't think this (or the similar Transfer or Drain ideas) works is that I think only an instantaneous change is desired. Transferring Running to an Energy Blast would mean that the car (eg) couldn't move next phase either, and that the EB would be good for several blasts (ie until the fade rate expires). Absorption wouldn't necessarily stop the car (though if you have enough Knockback Resistance it would), would quite possibly damage the car (which isn't what I think is desired - it should just come to a dead stop, like The Reflector/Snotman in Wild Cards), and again would power up the EB for several phases afterwards. Possibly you could apply some sort of limitation for "fades immediately" or something, but I think that Dispel + Linked EB is cleaner. YMMV. On one thing I think we all agree - this is a cool power idea!

Re: Measurement in HERO I imagine there was the odd French guy in his army, though.

Re: Look out! It's Conservation of Energy Man! Personally I like Drain BODY more than RKA NND Does BODY. I'm not saying the latter construct is never appropriate, but I do tend to think it's overused. To each his/her own.

Re: Implicit Mental Senses I see what you mean. I think there was an old Haymaker issue that expanded on Senses and included things like balance and so forth, but you're right - there aren't any core ones.

Re: IR Perception Question I dunno, that sounds dangerously close to a free +5 PER modifier for IR (as this would come up fairly often, I should think).

Re: Look out! It's Conservation of Energy Man! I'm not so sure Transfer works; the general effects Reality Czech seems to want are: Stop someone from running/flying/whatever, and burn them with their converted kinetic energy Stop something from flying and instead hurl it far away by converting the thermal energy to kinetic energy I would think that Dispel is the power you're after, since it doesn't look like you're permanently robbing the target of the energy - merely doing so for an instant. The first effect is Dispel any kinetic based movement power (+1/4) with a linked Energy Blast (or RKA); the second is Dispel any thermal energy based effect (+1/4) with linked Telekinesis. That would be my first stab at the main sorts of effects. From the sounds of it this sort of character will often be using Held Actions to interrupt another character; Lightning Reflexes (possibly with a limitation) will help that work out.

Re: IR Perception Question I believe the RAW give the Shrinking PER bonus to all forms of perception, that is, she'd be harder to spot with IR because she's tiny (just like her tiny mind makes her harder to spot with Mental Awareness, she has a tiny Radar image, and so on). Now, one could certainly argue that the contrast would make her size work against her here - on the other hand, though, perhaps there's a sort of "aliasing pixelization" technique working in her favour (that is, although she's a warm dot contrasting against a cool background, the IR eyes pick up a "mostly cold" area and perhaps have a "blind spot"). I'd go with that for the sake of simplicity (ie basically I'm inventing some semi-plausible explanation to let the RAW stand); YMMV.

Re: Measurement in HERO That's kind of my point; cultural preference for Americans appears to have been "anti-British" (understandably enough). And everyone was used to Imperial at the time. It's quite interesting to me that Australia, New Zealand, and others (all former British colonies with strong ties remaining to the UK) have adopted the metric system almost universally, but the US has not. You guys must really hate the French - was the statue not built to your specifications?

Re: Reprints - worth it? I'm utterly uninterested in Hero Designer. Sorry.

Re: Implicit Mental Senses (snip!) Why wouldn't that also be a Sense in game terms? I'm just curious - it's obviously not one of the "classic 5", but what you describe certainly sounds like a sensory phenomenon that you could absolutely write up as a Hero Sense.

Re: Sickness in Hero Hmm, now that I see what Negative CON does, I suppose the effect is reasonable if you just drain CON away.

Been reading through the UNTIL super powers guide (thoroughly recommended, BTW - sort of like a mini "Super Ultimate Series" book), and I'm at the Radiation Powers section. I notice that many powers to inflict "radiation sickness" and similar are done with CON drains. I admit that sounds right - CON is health, right? But in Hero terms... is it really correct to model it this way? The only thing a CON drain will do to you is make you easier to STUN (since drains don't affect figured characteristics), and that's not really the effect that springs to mind when I consider debilitating sickness: Should make you weaker and less coordinated Should make you less able to bounce back from other injuries Should make you tire more easily I think sickness would be better simulated with an effect that simultaneously drains STR, DEX, CON, and END, and REC. But I'm not 100% sold on the STR, to be honest; I'm not sure that STR is necessarily lowered (since the typical effect if I'm getting over a nasty flu isn't that I'm weaker, but that I can't exert myself for as long - and the END drain would deal with that). So perhaps just DEX, CON, END, and REC (a Drain with a +1 advantage covers it nicely). Thoughts? Am I over complicating things here?

Re: Making Growth power Inherent Not by any means impossible. However, I would argue that there is a difference between making something point efficient and making something cheap; the former is about how much bang for buck you get per Active Point, while the latter refers to Real Points. In any case, since Growth gives you reach on a doubling scale, there's always a point where it's better: 15 points of "Growth the RAW way" is +15 STR, +3 BODY, +3 PD, +3 REC, +10.5 STUN, +3 KB resistance, and +1" Stretching 0 END (+1/2), Always Direct (-1/4), Non NC Stretch (-1/4), No velocity damage (-1/4); this costs 27 points for everything except the Stretching, and 4 points for the Stretching (31 points total). 15 points of "Growth the Inherent way" is +15 STR, +3 BODY, +3 STUN, -3"KB Resistance, +1" Reach; it costs 22.5 points and you need to spend another 16.5 points on figured characteristics to match the above, so that's 36 points total. But: 75 points of the first method costs 135 points for everything except the Stretching, and then 69 points for the 16" of Stretching (204 points total). 75 points of the second method costs 112.5 for the Growth and another 82.5 for the extra figured characteristics (195 points total). Here and onwards Growth Inherent is cheaper thanks to the fact that Stretching costs more than doubling reach does.

Re: Theory Discussion: Defense Alternative This "how does one break through a wall with a spoon?" discussion is interesting on its own merits. I can think of two ways to do this with Hero: Assuming that for every 2 (or 3, or 4, or whatever) steps up the time chart, you can add +1 DC to the weapon. Assume that everyone has Find Weakness on a 2- (so that you could never make the roll normally), and use the Extra Time rules to gradually raise that to the point where you find enough weakness in the wall to reduce its DEF to the point the spoon can break it. On another note, as Hugh (inadvertedly, I suspect) points out, if you roll multiple dice for DEF then you're going to still have the possibility of "unbreakable" things (or "unhurtable" characters). Roll 6d6 for DEF (not unreasonable - it only averages 21, and many supers will have 20 or more DEF normally) and you can't get less than a 6, so a 1d6KA will never do BODY to such a character. I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing.

Re: Reprints - worth it? Well, if fundamentally it's just new styles and a few new maneuvers, I'll stick it at the bottom of my list (I have the maneuver design rules from Ninja Hero 4th anyway, and I can't recall using them much).

Re: i Can't Die! No matter How Much I want To! "If it's Demise, don't look in his eyes". It was a shame when they cremated him.

Re: Theory Discussion: Defense Alternative Personally? I think there's already too much dice rolling in HERO. It may not take all that long to add up 10d6 (twice, for BODY and for STUN), but when you're doing it every phase it adds up. Combat already takes quite a long time compared to many other games (I'm not saying that's necessarily bad - it's also a lot more flexible and fun than most games), and making defences randomised is likely to as much as double that time. I'd actually be more interested in a system that removed the damage roll, combining it with the attack roll - not, in principle, an impossible thing to do with the right table (I just haven't gotten around to it myself). But that's a purely practical and subjective objection; I certainly don't see anything wrong with the idea on a theoretical level. (Heck, the "Superheroes With Fangs" company uses this - in effect - for their "soak" rolls).

On another thread, the idea of using a mental power on a target and having them think that the source of that power was someone else was floated. I want to expand on that idea. How does someone with no mental powers or Mental Awareness know not only that they've been attacked, but also who attacked them? I propose that the logical answer to this question is that everyone has a mental Sense that gives them this information (something like Detect Mental Attacker). Assuming that this is fair enough, it opens up some possibilities: Invisibility vs Mental Senses makes you "incognito" when using your powers. Invisible Power Effects is how this sort of thing is normally accomplished, but this isn't quite the same thing. If someone with Mental Awareness is in the area when you fire off an Ego Blast, they won't see "you" fire it off, but they'll still see "where" it came from. This is analogous to being Sight Invisible and firing off non-IPE Energy Blasts. (If you also had IPE on your Ego Attack, they'd see nothing at all). Shapeshift vs Mental Senses with the Imitation added can make it seem as if someone else was the source of a mental attack (this is the idea from the other thread). Images vs Mental Senses can make it harder to figure out who is attacking you (or not, as you see fit - you don't normally need a PER roll to spot your attacker, but you might reason that it was appropriate if you had Images up). Or alternatively you might be able to make it seem as if someone is being Ego Attacked when in fact they are not. Darkness vs Mental Senses can make it possible to Area Effect Ego Blast some poor saps without any of them figuring out the source. Physical Limitation: Mind Blind becomes possible (inability to realise when you've been mentally attacked). Of course it all hinges on whether or not this "hey, that guy attacked me!" revelation is, in fact, a mental sense, which is sheer speculation on my behalf. If it isn't, then what other possibilities are there to simulate the above ideas? I suppose you can always fall back on Mind Control or Transform, but they seem a bit like a hammer when I'm not sure these are all nails.

I have an extensive collection of 4th edition stuff, including Ninja Hero, the Ultimate Martial Artist, the Ultimate Mentalist, and the Ultimate Supermage. At least the first three of those have been reprinted as 5th edition offerings. To anyone who owns/had a part in writing/whatever both, would you recommend purchasing the 5th edition version if I already have the 4th? I realise there have been minor rule changes, but if the books are essentially just reprints I am inclined to do whatever minimal conversion work is needed myself. On the other hand if there is significantly new or different material, I'll grab the new versions.

Re: i Can't Die! No matter How Much I want To! If you're prepared to use a house rule or two, the Incomplete Character rules can simulate this pretty well (you just create a character that Lacks BODY). Doesn't seem to still be around anywhere, but if you go via the Wayback Machine: http://web.archive.org/web/20020410004943/http://jimalj.best.vwh.net/incomp.html