Anatosuchus

Cool, thanks. I haven't look at at HERO for years and I'm trying to remember how it all hangs together...

Hi, I'm looking to stat out a power which mimics the (rapid) skin colour and texture changes like that of a cuttlefish (let's say our hero got a bunch of cuttlefish DNA spliced in). Here's an example of what the amazing little critters can do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnKDeuZU1QY Although this is mostly cosmetic, I guess it could be built as invisibility with the "chameleon" and "only when not attacking" limitations and have the main cosmetic effect as the "special effect". Does this make sense, and do you think an additional limitation of "only effective while naked" is warranted in modern society?

Re: Queer heroes Thanks for the responses - this makes much more sense to me now given the theme of the content under discussion at the event. My initial reaction was coming from the point of view of activities which cannot (AFAICT) have a "gay context". For example, being a biker, I have become aware of gay motorcycle clubs and the like which still cause me confusion. I shall now shut up and therefore cease causing excessive topic drift.

Re: Queer heroes OK, this really isn't designed to annoy anyone, and further it's a bit of a threadjack, so I'm perfectly happy to accept "shut up" as a response, but... The original catalyst for this thread was a gay science fiction convention. Can somebody please tell me what one's sexual orientation has to do with science fiction? I like sci fi. I have a sexual orientation. I'm happy to talk, appreciate sci-fi and game with pretty much anyone* whoever (or even whatever, as long as the whatever doesn't mind) they are attracted to. I might have missed an explanatory post, and I notice the OP states this as a hot button for him, so I thought I'd ask. It seems to be that people such as the organisers want both equality and exclusivity - we want access to your club, but you can't come to ours. *Unless they are odious in general, which I will admit can cover a lot of ground especially at a sci-fi convention.

Re: Starship combat games Just to say I've had Full Thrust for many years now, and it's a great system - very simple, and fast-flowing. It has the odd peculiarity but in general works very well.

Re: Everyman - what's the content? Thanks, chaps. Looks like it might make my PDF list once that format is available.

Hi, I've noticed my FOLGS now has Everyman available, but I have yet to run down any information on the content beyond the blurb in the online store. Can anyone give me an outline of exactly what is in there so I decide whether to get it, pay less and get a PDF or wait for the Ultimate Skill before making my next Hero purchase. NB: I don't actually play superhero genre, so the book's usefulness with DC and Pulp Hero would be most interesting. I figured this was the best board to try as it is officially a Champions book. Thanks in advance!

Re: The probability and predictability of dice. This, however, has nothing to do with predicting the amount of damage you are likely to do to a foe with a given die pool. Which is the point of the thread.

Re: The probability and predictability of dice.

Re: The probability and predictability of dice. I most definitely do if there are going to be significant consequences in the event of failure, which is a lot of the time. Your question might explain I have found this whole debate very peculiar as some people seem* to be arguing that players aren't interested in knowing the odds of any given outcome prior to rolling, only in knowing the actual outcome after the fact. This seems a very odd way to play as it effectively removes educated guesses as to the effectiveness of any given plan of action. *I say "seem" because many of the posts have been so long as to defy my ability to raise enough interest to decipher them.

Re: Living Steel? I completely beat you to that on the previous page!

Re: What fundamental thing would you change about the Hero system? Hmmm, I'd split DEX into Agility and Dexterity for a start.

Re: Midnite Maid Isn't that a yari?

Re: Casual Survey: Age of players and Hero's utility vs. other games I'm 34, and bought HERO 5th last year. I had a really old FH for years but never actually played it. Amongst my gaming group, I am the one most likely to mess with new systems. Most are pretty hidebound not in that they object to new systems, but they never put in the effort to learn them so they are still asking "what do I roll for this?" 10 games into a campaign. HERO is the published system closest to what I want in a game (I think) though of course nothing is perfect.

Re: HERO 5th LARP? I don't wish to be negative, but I think HERO might be the wrong system to try and use for a LARP (to be honest, I'm not sure there are many tabletop systems which are good for this). In my experience of "boffer" and non-contact LARP, it's vital the rules and system are as compact and memorable as possible. So, I think you could probably create characters and so on using HERO, but you will have to simplify a huge amount to get down to a workable LARP ruleset. Honesty, I think you'd be better off determining what you want the game to feel like in play and build from the ground up, perhaps using some existing LARP-specific rules as a basis.

Re: Wait, you mean 5ER doesn't have all the rules?

Re: Wait, you mean 5ER doesn't have all the rules? Yes, I'm building my collection pretty quickly too. I honestly don't really expect all the rules to be thought of in advance, it's just that TUMetamorph was the first one which has managed to cross reference two books I don't have yet. Also, my trip to my FLGS was a bust - nothing I want there. Harrumph. Time to check out an on-line retailer methinks. Question is, can I afford... Pulp Hero Galactic Champions Ultimate Mentalist UNTIL datsabase All the other things I want...? Thia: It seems you don't like TUV. Can you tell me why? It's on the acquisition list so I'm curious.

Re: Wait, you mean 5ER doesn't have all the rules? Yes, my original post came across as rather more tetchy than I meant it to. I guess I was just surprised at something I thought was a bit fundamental not cropping up in the main book (the moment I saw "all terrestrial" in 5ER I thought "what about games not limited to terrestrial activity?" - the clue is in the text). I probably shouldn't post when I'm irritated at not having the source rule for something I'm reading to hand so I can't cross reference it. The whole resource system from Dark Champions is new, for example, so I should have seen that coming. I have UMA on order, it's somewhere between the US and me at the moment I think. There are several pointers to the UNTIL database in there as well, so I might try to get that. A trip to my FL*GS might be in order this afternoon. *Not terribly 'L' unfortunately, and there's a £5 toll between me and it.

As I thumb through my copy of The Ultimate Metamorph, I find a note about an extended version of life support (immunity to toxins/disease) which is found in Galactic Champions, and not covered in 5ER. Now, I thought that 5ER had pretty much all the rules, and everything else was genre information and examples built from that core, but it seems this is not the case. Can anyone give me an idea of how much new rules-based material is in Galactic Champions? How many other supplements contain new rules rather than simply builds using 5ER information? Unfortunately, Galactic Champions doesn't exist as a PDF, so I can't get it easily to check it out. I'm also concerned that I might be missing other options from books I wouldn't normallyu get (not being a big fan of the straigh superhero genre).

Re: Confused: RKA with "No Range" Limitation OK, those examples help a lot. Thanks chaps.

I can't fathom why this option might exist, but it does! In the Combat Handbook there is even an example of an anti-shark "bang stick" described as an RKA with No Range. Isn't this just an HKA? As I type this, I have had one thought: Is it a roundabout way of saying "you can't add STR to this"?

Re: Star Fleet Battles Well, there's also Star Strike from Iron Crown (and its ground-based cousin Armored Assault). Enjoyment of this one is totally predicated on "do you like the Rolemaster way of doing things?" - as I do, I think it's pretty good.

Re: SPD, but only for (x)? Well, I must say I wasn't expecting to open such a can of worms! In this case I think my looking at SPD was not necessary and that I can use other tricks to get what I want. To KS, there is no point range. Certainly the PCs are just being created for existing fictional characters (who are defeintely normals) and I'm not really applying points to them. Similarly, I'm just going for "slightly trained normal" levels for this NPC so I'm just adding the bits I think they need. Thanks to all for the info.

Re: SPD, but only for (x)? Hyper-Man, it looks like you are referring to Rapid Fire, and some penalty skill levels to offset the OCV modifier. As mentioned by KS and others above, this looks like a better way than mangling the speed system. Plenty of info from ANB there! I actually have Dark Champions but trying to avoid being to OTT was tricky. Plus I have so much HERO stuff finding anything specific can be a problem! Given the end result is for this chap to be a useful ally for the hopelessly non-combat characters against the planned ZOMBIE HORDE, I think I'll go for something along the lines of a bunch of penalty skill levels against rapid fire and called hit locations. Deadly blow is great normally, but these particular bad guys are going to need head shots!

Re: SPD, but only for (x)? Yeah, but for some reason whenever I do a search on this board I always get a bazillion results. I can't seem to put queries together which give sensible results. Not a problem I get elsewhere - I think it's a combination of the fact that there are very commonly used system terms and no boolean operators in the search functions.