Utech

Re: Help how do I balance PCs against NPCs I second (or third or fourth...) the notion that running a few example combats is a good idea. It will help you and your players learn the ins and outs of the system and give you an idea of what to expect from different numbers. A lot will depend on the kind of game you want to run. With just a little tweaking of a few characteristics, defenses, and damage, you can make your game: - big suits of armor bouncing blows off of each other until they can get lucky, get help from a friend, or something similar - an extremely deadly affair where a drawn weapon pretty much means somebody's going to die - swift, lightly armored folks twisting out of the way of blades and then darting in to land the perfect shot - a G-rated world in which hardly anybody important gets hit, nobody dies, and the teapots sing - or a hundred other things. Have fun!

Re: When sfx lie Leaving the thread bewildered and saddened.

Re: When sfx lie

Re: When sfx lie Just so. Say who? The build perfectly reflects the construct. You just explained how. He didn't tense up properly and so takes some damage. No conflict.

Re: When sfx lie Yes, it has. What's your point? As you're certainly aware, there's more than one way to skin a cat in HERO. High DCV is one way to model some aspects of invulnerability -- namely that people never get to roll to damage your character if they don't "hit". You don't agree that "you don't get to roll damage dice" can be represented by the sfx "I'm invulnerable to that attack". That's too bad. It's simply putting sfx on game mechanics. That's HERO.

Re: When sfx lie Explain please? I've said from the beginning that invulnerability would have to include a variety of defenses.

Re: When sfx lie Excellent. Then you'll agree that thinking "if they can't roll any damage dice against my character, I'm invulnerable" is perfectly logical. You'll know how both how the character works and how the game mechanics function. You'll have expanded your horizons and opened up to another way to play. Snap on!

Re: When sfx lie Congratulations, Markdoc, you've knocked the stuffing out of that straw man! I doubt he'll come up again. (I hope not. I'm tired of seeing him.) Let's start again: GM: "Invulnerable Man smiles a wicked smile as Corporal Punishment's bullets bounce off his chest. Clearly he was ready for the attack. You'll have to catch him unawares or aim better if you want to do any damage." Mind Lass: "OK, my TK is BOECV. I hit him with a thrown rock." GM: "He wouldn't very well be called Invulnerable Man if he weren't a tough nut to crack! He's a nut all right. And plenty tough. Roll to hit." Mind Lass: "How's that?" GM: "Not good enough. The rock bounces off his chin. At best, you helped remove a bit of scruff he missed with the morning shave."

Re: HERO SYSTEM MARTIAL ARTS -- What Do *You* Want To See? Ninja-Bear, thank you. You certainly took my point as it was intended. For those who missed it, I am in no way shape or form suggesting that parkour is a martial art in the real world. What I'm suggesting is it makes a good common reference point in popular culture for how someone might be inspired to create a new martial art.

Re: When sfx lie Obviously we've got strong disagreement here. I think it's fair to say that while some people can't abide the particular sfx-DCV combo described in the OP, others have no trouble with it at all. Neither camp is likely to persuade the other. Best advice: make sure your group agrees on what is and what is not acceptable. That's all that really matters. Game on.

Re: HERO SYSTEM MARTIAL ARTS -- What Do *You* Want To See? I noticed a few people asking about parkour and Steve's note that he would not include it as a martial art. I think that's fine, but I also think it might make a good example for writing up a martial art not included in the book. Something along the lines of: David Belle has seen a lot of parkour videos on YouTube and loves parkour sequences in movies. He asks his GM if he can take parkour as a martial art. David's GM says that it seems to him that parkour can be modeled with extra Running and Acrobatics. David whips out his notebook PC and plays the trailer for District 13: Ultimatum - a movie in which the traceurs engage in plenty of martial arts. David's GM says he's willing to create a new parkour martial art with David so the two put their heads together and come up with a list of moves. Kicking and punching seem really important. Fighting groups of people is also key -- as is the use of things in the environment to strike and/or disrupt opponents...

Re: When sfx lie

Re: When sfx lie A better roll to hit. The GM very clearly indicates (examples earlier in the thread) that you failed to be accurate enough to damage the target. You are in no way duped -- you understand that a better to hit roll would have succeeded in doing damage. Honestly, what's difficult about this?

Re: When sfx lie

Re: When sfx lie Sure it does. Someone attacks, they "miss", it is described as a "hit" -- the GM makes it clear that mechanically it was a "miss" -- and the character seems to be practically invulnerable. You'll have to roll much better to find the chink in that armor. Naturally, you'll also need more defenses to cover certain situations, but since when is that new? If you go with lots and lots of PD/ED, you'll still need to pick up tons of Power Defense and Mental Defense and Flash Defense (to counter those nasty AVLD attacks), etc. DCV maps extremely well to the sfx.

Just an idea I thought I'd pass on. Do with it as you will. This is meant as a B plot for an existing campaign -- not the main arc of a campaign -- but it could certainly shake things up in your campaign world. Our heroes are first alerted that something bad is afoot when all the lights go out in Campaign City. A powerful paranormal attacked and severely damaged the coal-fired power plant that supplies the power. Machinery is in ruins, the train tracks that lead to the plant have been slagged, and a coal-carrying train is afire. Plenty of normals are in danger and need assistance, but no one was injured in the attack. Later it becomes clear that coal plants and coal mines around the globe are being targeted and attacked. All by the same paranormal. Clearly, somebody has a thing against coal. The closing of so many coal plants and suppliers is causing terrible disruption in power supplies around the world. Known villains are taking advantage of this to commit crimes manipulate the commodities market spring their friends from prisons and so on -- as is their wont. Our heroes have their hands full dealing with all the disruptions and it's hard to find any time to track down the paranormal responsible for all this. The paranormal goes on a real spree. He hits a couple of large automobile factories and disables a couple of oil supertankers. He simply must be stopped. While other heroes around the world work to contain the chaos, our heroes are tasked with tracking down the paranormal and stopping him. Tracking him down is a problem since nobody seems to know anything about him. He's not known on any continent. At last (of course) our heroes do manage to track him down. He's a citizen of the Maldives, a superpatriot who cannot stand the thought of his entire nation going under water. That's exactly what will happen if global warming causes sea levels to rise. The Maldives cannot wait around while other nations dither and pass half-measures that won't change the looming doom of the Maldives one whit. He demands to know of our heroes, "Would you do anything different if you were in my position? I am a hero! I am saving my country. I am saving a people with 5,000 years of history. And here you are. What will we do now? Do we fight? I don't want to fight you. You should join me." And, of course, I leave that ending up to you and your players. Put the hurt on him, help him find a better way, join him... Whatever floats your campaign's boat.

Re: Talk to me about: Haymaker Grab bad guy (your choice: Brick character, Martial Artist, TK, etc.) and everyone gathers 'round for a Haymaker fest. Entangle bad guy (your choice: Takes No Damage From Attacks or simply a low level Entangle only meant to immobilize someone for a second -- 1d6 AOE can be nasty) and everyone gathers 'round for a Haymaker fest. Invisibility and/or great Stealth roll = Haymaker time! Blinded bad guy (your choice: Flash, Darkness that your heroes can see through, etc.) and everyone gathers 'round for a Haymaker fest.

Re: A way to fend off attackers Change Environment is clearly meant for just this sort of thing. Anyone entering the area will have to make a roll (your choice, but EGO, DEX, or PRE make sense) or be forced to back off. They take no damage from the attack and could certainly improve their roll by taking a little time and preparing. Likewise, with the proper preparation, they could easily counter the Change Environment -- a shield, long weapon, or cloak, for example, could easily be used to disrupt and/or foul the spear flourish.

Re: When sfx lie Sean, I really don't understand your basic premise. How could the sfx possibly lie? Your GM could lie to (or mislead) you, but the sfx can't. There's absolutely nothing wrong with building a character normally and saying that any missed attack roll is actually a hit that does no damage. You don't have to buy more DCV with this sfx, it's just the way you conceive of your character. As long as your GM agrees, you're good to go. You certainly want to be transparent about the mechanics of this with your players. Let people know that mechanically they missed on their attack even though sfx-wise, they hit. This is really no different from the way Powers work in the game. You can let people know that mechanically they've been struck by a Killing Attack even though sfx-wise, the fire blast didn't look any different from a normal attack.

Re: Invisible Armor

Re: When sfx lie No build can do that. Only a GM who isn't doing the job properly.

Re: When sfx lie It depends on what "hit" means in your games. It can mean at least two things: 1) Contact is made. 2) Effective contact is made. These lead to very different descriptions. If your game prefers 1, you might say things like, "Your blast passes within an inch of her face, but she must have anticipated the attack -- you fail to strike her and she emerges unscathed." If your game prefers 2, you might say things like, "She tilts her head in your direction, holds up a hand, and catches your blast. Though disappointed, you're certain that with better aim, you'd catch her unawares and wipe that smile off her face."

Re: Invisible Armor

Re: Apology I don't personally have any problem with archers unloading on hand-to-hand combatants standing right next to them. Sure, you need space to properly prepare and aim, but you also need space to attack with a two-handed sword. It strikes me as cinematic and exciting to allow an archer to duck, dodge, weave, and fire arrows at opponents whether those opponents are down the block or within spittin' distance.

Re: Beginner suggestion for a free download I think you'd want not just one quicky downloadable adventure, but several. One for each of the major HERO genres. I'm afraid I don't have time to work on all that right now, but it's something for the "someday" list.