Utech

Re: Plot vs. Rules - Species Burnout Have players randomly determine their character's lifespan at character creation. Have them roll a number of months, weeks, and days. If you wish for this to be a secret, create and use a simple substitution cipher. Start the countdown clock and when it's a character's time...

Re: "Rolling a Critical" You might want to disconnect to-hit rolls and criticals. Hand out "crit chits" for excellent roleplaying, strategy, tactics, service to the gods, preparation, or whatever suits your game. Let your players play crit chits whenever they'd like. You'll almost certainly find that they save up their chits for important, dramatic moments where the critical strike is particularly interesting.

Re: Natural Disasters and How to Deal With Them I know this was addressed not too long ago. You might want to search for that thread. My take: It all depends on the sort of game you're playing and the power level of the heroes. Very high-powered heroes might be able to mitigate (even eliminate!) the disaster through powerful Dispel, CE or similar Powers. The major challenge for them is to summon up enough inner resources (or arrange for some sort of amplification device?) to take on the disaster. High-powered heroes might be able to mitigate some of the catastrophic parts of the disaster. They might hold up a building long enough for people to escape it, clear rubble to make an escape route, redirect the flow of lava, clear downed power lines, etc. Standard heroes will be able to perform some dramatic rescues, assist paramedics and other responders (maybe just with transport), and serve as symbols of calm to inspire others to find the hero within. Low-powered heroes will have to work hard just to stay alive themselves. They might be able to help a few people at the same time. Keep in mind that the disaster may be terrible, but the real problem might be what else is happening -- either at the same time or immediately afterward. Villains may take this opportunity to put their grand scheme into operation. There may be a breakdown of order. Looting. Hungry, injured people losing patience with an overstretched relief system. Damaged infrastructure may be a problem for months or years to come in your game. You might have a bunch of orphans to deal with. Injured people. Traumatized people. Accidents during the disaster might create a new supervillain or superhero. Or change one of the PCs in some dramatic fashion...

Re: Free Character Defining Skills

Aside from HERO, I am a big Call of Cthulhu fan. One of the things CoC does very well is to include apparently silly skills in the quick write-ups for NPCs. These skills seem silly because they do not seem to have any utility in the game. Often I find myself scanning through the NPC numbers and stumble upon such a skill. Over the years I've become convinced that they serve a very important purpose: they act as shorthand for understanding the character and how it is to be used. I'd like to see this used in HERO as well. Players can be encouraged to add one or more skills to their character purely for the purpose of understanding that character. The skills cost no points and will almost certainly have no in-game utility. CoC Examples: Erupt in Frenzy 40% Mumble Ominously 60% Sinister Stare 75% Shout Orders 85% Stare Glassy-Eyed 80% Squeeze Out Profits 75% Shuffle Papers 25% Get Attention 50% Disapprove of "Townies" 100% Give Strangers the Cold Shoulder 55% Inflexible Religious Dogma 30% Scream 80% Be Subservient 80% Shrug and Mumble 80% Any thoughts on HERO Skills that might serve the same purpose? Here are a couple from me: Appear Decisive 13- Brood Dramatically in Shadows 14- Hit Upon Solution With Mouth Full of Food 11-

Re: Parsing and refining skills Another way to handle this is to decide that any broad Skill is the average of minor Skills you could parse out of it. Have players to parse out as many minor Skills you feel comfortable with (always check) and then let them work out the numbers so that the average fits the broad Skill. Example: Player Bob takes the Skill: Computer Skills at 13- but would really like to define the skill more precisely. He parses out the follow minor Skills: Hacking Data Search Programming Office Skills (word processing, email, spreadsheets, presentations, etc.) Player Bob clears his list with his GM and then sets the levels on his minor Skills to average out to 13-. He decides to take: Hacking 9- Data Search 13- Programming 9- Office Skills 21- With GM permission, Player Bob's character is now distinct from other characters with the broad Computer Skills at 13-. Bob's character doesn't know much about how computer programs work and would have a hard time writing one, but he's simply incredible when it comes to general office skills. He'll definitely be the go-to guy when it comes to writing up reports, making spreadsheets, creating presentations, and sending it off by email to the right people. His work will be finished with incredible speed and by leveraging everything those programs can do, the content of his work may well be extra persuasive or effective.

Re: States of Matter Reaction Shift

Re: States of Matter Reaction Shift It's probably simplest if he doesn't . . . or if we arrange for some sort of technological (or magical) fix for him. That might be represented as a Complication. Otherwise, finding the right thing to eat might be really tricky. And he might find it tricky to talk to people.

Re: States of Matter Reaction Shift

Re: What does a Time Elemental do? If you're a Flatland fan, there's not much a time elemental couldn't do to those who are stuck in time as we know it.

Re: States of Matter Reaction Shift That all looks reasonable to me. Any thoughts on how he should/shouldn't deal with attacks?

The dimensional portal opened and through it stepped a man who looked much as other men. For a moment, the scientists thought something had gone wrong and that they'd done nothing more than open a portal to some other place on Earth. And then the swarthy fellow dropped right through the floor. The scientists looked at each other in a mixture of surprise, confusion, and elation before racing out the door and down the stairs. The next long level down was the gym. Separated from the laboratories above by a full five meters of Colorado Rockies rock. Most of the scientists spent little time on the gym level -- it was more the domain of the bored security force -- but all had been pleased to note that the ultra-secret facility boasted a swimming pool. Just sitting up atop the water was the man who'd walked through the portal. Around him, two large security guards splashed in what they hoped might be taken for useful action. Their visitor suddenly did some thrashing of his own. Odd, slow-motion thrashing. Then he kicked off, swam through the air over the pool, reached the side and promptly thrust his head right into the tiled floor at pool's edge... <> "So what we've got here," Dr. Ravenslough said with a scratch at his bald scalp, "is a guy who reacts differently to different states of matter." Dr. Ivanov raised her hand. "Yes, Dr.?" "I know this is a quibble, but I think you may have overstated the situation. Our visitor reacts to different states of matter precisely as we do. It's just that the states of matter seem to have shifted for him." "Or he to them." "Just so. To our visitor, a solid acts like a gas, gas like a liquid, and liquids like a solid." "Are we forgetting the fourth state of matter? What would happen if we expose him to plasma?" "I rather doubt we'll have the opportunity to find out." ----- So? How would you build this visitor? No wimping out and saying that he's an NPC and there's no need to write him up.

Re: What skills are necessary for a trial? What sort of trial? Is this a matter of trying a murderer, a spy, a war criminal, an embezzler, a contested traffic ticket..?

Re: Anyone try removing Characteristics completely? Fair enough. Could you let me know what crunchy goodness you're getting from Characteristics?

Purely out of curiosity, has anyone tried removing Characteristics from the game entirely? I began to wonder if this might be possible -- even desirable -- after the latest thread(s) griping about Strength. I wonder how this might work. A couple thoughts: Skill Bases Naturally, no Skills could be based on Characteristics. Still, you might group them together for the purposes of Skill Levels. Strength Replace damage component with Blast at No Range. Replace lift component with a new Lift Skill (or move it into Hoist). Give heavy objects a penalty to Lift Skill Rolls. Replace throw component with a new Throw Skill. Give heavy, unaerodynamic, and/or unbalanced objects penalties to Throw Skill Rolls. Dexterity Replace combat initiative component with Initiative Skill. Constitution Replace stun check component with Daze Defense. Daze Defense can be purchased separately against physical, energy, and mental attacks. Daze Defense does not stop STUN or BODY damage. Any STUN damage that exceeds defenses and Daze Defense will Stun the character. Etc. Thoughts?

Re: Balls of Steel I think this thread has gotten quite a bit off track. Can we agree that since basic game mechanics allow all characters to grab and throw something nearby as a weapon, the steel balls in the OP -- in fairness -- ought to be costed differently from a Blast that represents something that the basic game mechanics do not give for free? If no, why not?

Re: Balls of Steel Sean, your figuring of the ability to throw objects of opportunity that STR gives for free neglects AOE possibilities...

Re: Stun Damage and Armor You'll want to tinker with the numbers to get just the game you want. Fortunately, HERO is all about that. To solve your problem, you could offer people defenses that only work against STUN damage, increase total STUN, fiddle with the numbers to make it more (or less) likely for people to hit . . . lots and lots of things.

Re: Balls of Steel I suppose if anyone really wanted to run the numbers on it, you could work out the point value of the "free power" bricks already have, compare it to the point value of a Blast with Charges, subtract, and get us a final value. Anyone?

Re: Fastball and Flaw

Re: Balls of Steel Again, I think the decision of whether or not to charge for the balls depends on how strict you wish to be in your game. Some games work best when everything is very clearly "paid for" while other games thrive by being looser. Assuming that you're in a strict game, the important question to ask is: What benefit does this character gain from carrying around these balls? The answer to that will (again) depend on the sort of game you're running. In many superhero games it's not at all difficult for your brick to grab and throw a telephone pole, car, dumpster, manhole cover, dropped VIPER weapon, dropped VIPER agent, etc. In other games it might be difficult to find, get to, grab, aim, fling, and do damage with anything in the environment. Surely the cost of Sean's balls will be lower in the first sort of game than in the second, no? I could easily see a flat cost* for Sean's balls. Anywhere from 0 to 20 points depending on the sort of game you run. *My source in Bournemouth promises to get me the official street price.

Re: Fastball and Flaw Does Flaw need to exist? Can she be sfx for Fastball's powers?

Re: Balls of Steel Depends on the game I'm running. Sometimes I'm quite strict about spending points on this sort of thing, sometimes I'm not. If I'm loose on this, I'll also be loose on things other characters might find helpful. Examples: Raging Flamer will be allowed to carry a med kit specifically set up to treat burns. Inter-Ned will be allowed to carry around a smart phone with Internet access that pretty much always works -- useful for looking up high-tech gadgets he can gadgeteer together. Mental Babe will be allowed to apply makeup and wear high heels and a slinky dress (usually kept in her bag) when needed to be particularly appealing to unsuspecting menfolk in bars.

Re: My Players looted the room You'll want to have a talk with your players to make sure you're all playing the same game. If looting is what they want to do, they should be free to do it -- so long as you don't mind running that sort of game. Looting is not the sort of thing I'd expect while playing in a supers campaign, but it might be interesting.

Re: What if superheroes only appeared in a limited region? I live in Hello Kitty Town. I can only presume that the beam would strike San Rio Purolando and make all the costumed actors in there into super-powered versions of the characters they play. And the cute would rule.