Ockham's Spoon

Re: Anyone else hate Wolverine? Conceptually for a comic book character, Wolverine is great. He had the mysterious background for good plot hooks, he doesn't take crap from anyone, and he has those wicked claws (so much cooler than oversized fingernails) and he is nearly indestructible (and maybe it is just me, but if I could pick any one superpower, regeneration would be near the top of the list). Yes, his character has been written to death; a victim of his own success, but any great character that lives too long will fall prey to that (don't get me started on Batman). As a role-playing character, I do hate Wolverine and all those Wolverine-wannabes. The stoic loner is terrible for a good RPG. In the comics you got to read all of Wolverine's thoughts, and that made him complex and interesting. In a RPG scenario, you don't get that so Wolverine comes off like an anitsocial jerk that doesn't play well with others, and that is no fun.

Re: Double Tap Either Rapid Attack or Autofire will work, depending on how much you want to spend and whether you want your DCV halved or not. I have used both for this kind of thing, and it boils down to how realistic a tone your campaign has. The Rapid Attack is good for a gritty or espionage type setting, Autofire is better for wuxia or comic book type setting. I will say that the Rapid Attack version will make the player think twice before doing a double tap because of the DCV penalty, whereas the Autofire will get used a lot since there is little reason not to.

Re: Hero (and other generic systems), too flexible? My guess is that your players are suffering from one of two hang-ups. The first is the paradox of choice - when you have too many choices you get lost in the variability and can't decide. HERO lets you have an almost infinite number of choices, which ultimately is a good thing when you have a unique character you want to make. But there is something to be said for a little structure to help guide your choices. The other possible problem is that HERO doesn't have a built in mechanic for "leveling up" which a lot of people (esp. video-gamers) find appealling. The trickle of experience points, even if saved and spent in a large block, is somehow less satisfying than suddenly going up a "level" and being able to access new and cool abilities, despite the unrealistic nature of the "level". The solution for both problems is the same, although it is a lot of work for the GM. Basically the GM writes up pre-defined powers that the characters can have, built with several levels of effectiveness (you might draft the players to help with this if there are particular powers they want). Characters can access these abilities as their "level" increases. Then define "level" as a fraction of the character's point total, minus the base points. For example, if you start with 300 point characters (at 1st level) and define a "level" as 10 points, then an experienced character at 350 points is (350-300)/10 = 5th level. Now define what the levels get you. For instance, make combat value and damage caps based on level (i.e. max DC is 6 + level/2 and max CV is 7 + level/3, or whatever you deem fit). For your set of powers, make some available at the start, but others not until a higher level. Take an Archery power for instance (can anyone get this or only warriors? or only elves? Your call) Archery I: +1 OCV and +2 DCV with Bows (cost 6 pts) Archery II: +2 OCV and +2 DCV with Bows and +1 pip RKA only to increase bow damage (-¼) (requires level 2, cost 6pts since 6pts are already paid for with Archery I) Archery III: As Archery II but include Fast Draw with Bows and +½d6 RKA only to increase bow damage (requires Level 4, cost 7pts) Archery IV: +3 OCV with Bows and 3d6 RKA OAF - bow, DC limited to normal bow damage +3 DC (-¼) (requires Level 6, cost 7pts; here we sell back the extra bow damage RKA and the DCV levels because this RKA doesn't have the limitation of half DCV while shooting like a regular bow) You can do similar stuff for other powers or abilities. The players still spend XP on whay they want, but now they have something to work toward. Also, it lets the GM define exactly how the game works, which can sometimes be worth the effort.

Re: How would you do a wish? You make an excellent point. In D&D wishes were thrown in (I believe) simply because they existed in the source material. But if you look at those stories, human wizards never granted wishes, it was always djinn and other supernatural creatures who did the granting, and sometimes the wish couldn't be granted because the djinn wasn't powerful enough. So really it wasn't an open-ended "anything-you-want" wish, it was a "your-wish-is-my-command" sort of thing, to the best of the djinn's ability. With that in mind, my favored method for modeling a wish is Summon 1000pt djinn (who has a big VPP) and he will do whatever you ask of him within his power set (which is big, but not infinite). A lesser wish might only get you a 500pt djinn. That said, I am still curious to see the official write-up.

Re: Supergenius from Fringe **SPOLIERS** Sounds a little Rube Goldberg. My basic problem with this kind of character (and yes I have tried to make them before) is two-fold. First, is the computer adage GIGO - garbage in, garbage out. Mr. Wiley Coyote supra-genius can make brilliant deductive leaps bordering on precognition, provided all his initial assumptions are valid. When one considers the number of unknown variables to deal with, this kind of precognition tends to fall apart (how would he know the driver of the bus was up late last night with a colicky baby or that Sally would suddenly remember she needed change for bus fare and goes back into the store, that a pigeon would fly by and excite the dog Joe is walking, and a million others...). I can handwave this with enough applied statistics, but still any such power is going to have to have an activation roll independent of Wiley's INT. The second, more mechanic problem, is this power often requires extemporaneous setting additions to make the "trap" work because even if the NPC is an ultra genius than can predict stuff with uncanny accuracy, the GM can rarely predict his players as well. If you are writing a story all by yourself, it works just fine, but add some other authors (your players) and things get a bit more unpredictable. It is doable, but it requires some effort on the part of the GM. My suggestion would be to buy a multipower with a bunch of Indirect Triggered powers in it that represent various traps (attack powers), hazards (Change Environment or TK), or escape plans (limited Flight or Teleport). This will give you a handle on just what the guy can pull off, and it will let you set the power level of his abilities so it doesn't sound like you are making it up all the time. To some extent it by defining what he can do, it will give you some guidelines on what the actual tricks are, which will make them easier to invent on the spot.

Re: Find Weakness and Lack of Weakness for 6th Edition. I always thought the Find Weakness ability to keep halving the defenses was a poor mechanic, and I am perfectly happy to use AP or just extra dice of damage with a Requires a Roll limitation. But if you like the idea of being able to effectively bypass almost all the defenses of a target with successive FW rolls, I think I would do it with a naked advantage AVAD, Defense is 1/2 of regular defenses per FW roll, Does BDY. I put that at +1½ Advantage, although you would get the limitation for Requires a Roll to offset the cost.

Re: THE HERO SYSTEM GRIMOIRE: What Do *You* Want To See? Mostly I think of spells being built using powers, but I have run a couple low-level "realistic" magic-using characters that just had a collection of skills and some levels for them that cost END. So Mind Control would be built using the skill Persuation with a bunch of levels tacked on, or a Vanish spell done with Sleight of Hand, etc. I don't know that this would justify its own section or even inclusion as alternate builds for some of the spells, but I throw it out as food for thought. As for specific spells, there are some that are classic but are not straight-forward to build that I would like to see. Namely: 1. a Wish spell 2. a Possession spell (for ghosts and demons really) 3. a Freeze Time spell 4. a spell that lets the caster lock his soul away in some object so that his physial body is invincible. I have built all of these myself with varying degrees of success, but having an offical write-up would be nice, especially since these spells crop up semi-regularly.

Re: New Product: Bloodsucker Rampage I went and got it and this is a nice little package. A good vampire reference in a simple, clean format but enough visual interest and fun quotes to make it engaging. Vampires can be used in almost any setting or genre and this is just in time for Halloween! For only $4! (certainly you can spare $4) I'm am not going to tell you to buy it (although you should), but it is a great deal.

Re: SPEED Beyond 12 In all my years of gaming I think I have seen maybe 2 characters with a 12 SPD and only one SPD over 12 (it was 15 IIRC, and the character was build for the sole purpose of having bragging rights to a character with a SPD over 12). IME if you want a speedster character to be able to whack a whole bunch of guys really fast, it is much more cost effective (and more true to the source material IMO) to do it with AoE and Autofire type attacks. Having a really high SPD is nice and all, but it is not only really expensive it also tends to be a little frustrating for the other players (Oh, its Speedy Gonzales's turn to act. AGAIN. Didn't he just go? Twice?)

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Rumbaba and Al the Wizard make a great comedy team. If they ever give up adventuring they could take their act on the road. Sadly too soon to rep you again.

Re: Transform - for plot device I'm with Greywind; I wouldn't bother costing it. In fact I might not even bother formally writting it up - just say the Transform does 3 BDY a day or whatever to give them a timeline and then just be descriptive about the advance of the poison. Really it is a plot device after all.

Re: Champions the New Millenium using HERO System 6th Edition Campaign From previous experience, I can say that players almost never mind getting extra experience points, no matter how flimsy the excuse. When I have had point total imbalances for whatever reason, I have just made the highest point character the default point total and given everyone else enough experience points to catch up. That said, I have never had a gap anywhere near as big as 200 points, which could really up the power level of your game. If it were me, I think I would try to talk the players into an overhaul, with the point totals in the mid to low range of what you have now, as a result of a radiation accident or black magic curse or something. The upside is that everybody is at the same point level and they all get to rewrite any of their abilities they wish. The downside is they have fewer points and so will be less powerful, but that also means the heroes won't outgrow the threats from the bad guys as quickly either.

Re: Is 6th Edtion worth the money? I had some trepidation over a few of the rules changes in 6e (Figured CHA esp.) but I have to say that overall the changes were solid and well thought out. IMHO it is much better than 5e, which was pretty darn good to begin with. I probably wouldn't bother converting an existing 5e campaign to 6e, and I would even borrow unconverted 5e characters for NPCs a 6e game (because I have limited time), but if starting up a new campaign I would definitely recommend the latest edition.

Re: DCV Drain

Re: Fused Powers

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Back in the days when I still played D&D we had a group that was basically good until it came to killing the opposition, at which point there were no-holes-barred. At one point they were routing orcs that were infesting some caves near a caravan route when they came upon the main cave full of orcish women and children. Elf fighter/magicuser: "I start killing them, because I'm and elf and I hate orcs." Halfling fighter/thief: "I start killing them so I can loot the bodies. Besides, halflings hate orcs too." Human cleric: "I start killing them too, so we can get this done faster." GM: "You're a neutral good cleric. You can't go killing orc kids." Human cleric: "My church believes in reincarnation. I am doing my duty to give them a shot at a better life."

Re: How to give Players their "Great Responsabilities"? Okay, I said "amoral thugs" just as an extreme example. Really the point it that they are supposed to be playing heroes, so whatever other idiosyncrasies the characters may have they need to be heroes first and foremost. One problem you might be facing is one unique to storytelling. You say the players act realistically, but consider that you are their only window into the world you have created. This very often means that anything you say or mention is somehow important and so no matter how you describe stuff red flags are always going up for them, because you wouldn't mention it if it didn't have some significance. In real life you encounter thousands of tidbits of info every day, most of which fades into the background because it isn't all that important. In a role-playing game you can't go into all that detail or you would spend the whole time describing the colors of passing cars and what direction the breeze was blowing and whatnot. It is tricky to give enough detail to camoflage the vital details in the description of the scene without confusing and boring players with insignificant minutia.

Re: DCV Drain I agree that Grab and Entangle are the most effective way to skunk someone's DCV, although the sfx might argue for a Drain. The "paint the target" approach to me sounds like Combat Skill levels, only useable after the target is "painted" though. That is cheaper, but it only works for allies that can use the paint to their advantage.

Re: Fused Powers If the effect is that the damage increases or an otherwise single-target attack can be made AoE, I think you are going to have to pay points for it, although for a one time event I would let the heroes use a Power Skill roll to do it. For the effect "Storm's whirlwind increases the oxygen level for flame powers so they do more damage", Storm needs to buy an Aid to Fire powers. For the effect "Storm's whirlwind makes a single target attack AoE", Storm needs to buy an AoE naked advantage, limited by objects of opportunity. She could make a fire bolt into a flame tornado, use a sword to create a giant blender, or a box of nails make a shrapnel storm.

Re: How to give Players their "Great Responsabilities"? Roleplaying is a joint story-telling game, not a competition between GM and players; there needs to be some degree of cooperation. When the GM lays out the campaign scenario and theme, everyone has to agree to go with that because every story has to have a premise. You don't let players run wizards for a sci-fi game, you shouldn't let them run amoral thugs in a story about heroes because it doesn't fit the theme. As GM you are already doing most of the work, so tell the players that you aren't going to force them to make any specific decisions, but they have to meet you half-way by having characters that are inclined to be heroic, for whatever reason the player deems reasonable. If they want you to help them plot out some event (like Uncle Ben's death or whatever) that's fine, but if they don't have a reason to be a hero then the game simply isn't going to get off the ground and no one will enjoy it.

Re: Radiation Shielding The numbers look intuitively inconsistent, but I don't know where Steve found them. They might be perfectly correct, but from different sources for different forms of radiation or for different atmospheric compositions. Safe to say that the GM has a lot of latitude in determining the relative radiation danger in any given location, so he can basically do what is deemed appropriate for the venue.

Re: KAs vs CvK That is going to make guns really deadly, but then again, most guns in the Hero system have cinematically low damage compared to their real-world counterparts, so if you like the gritty feel that works well. It also makes KA a really cheap way to kill, so if you have a Wolverine sort who doesn't have the CvK, he is going to be inordinately effective at taking enemies out for the price he paid for his claws.

Re: KAs vs CvK I agree with you theoretically, and if you have a gun you will probably buy a KA to represent it. But when the Phantom doesn't kill with the gun, he is doing stuff like disarming people with an amazingly well-aimed shot. But in game mechanics, that isn't a KA, that is more like a TK only useable for disarming or knocking things over. So when you build a gun-bunny with a CvK, you have to buy some multipower slots or something that aren't KAs because otherwise the only thing the character can do, from mechanical standpoint, is kill (or maim maybe).

Re: KAs vs CvK If they have a CvK and a KA is one of their attack powers, that's fine, as discussed above (and maybe even preferable as BNakagawa notes). If they have a CvK and a KA is their only attack, you have a problem (yes, I have seen players do this - usually they will correct this problem when it is pointed out to them). The bottom line is to talk to the player and make sure that everyone is on the same page as to how the KA will be handled in context with the CvK so there aren't any unpleasant surprises once the game is going.

Re: Radiation Shielding Radiation is a really vague term because there are so many types. For some types of radiation a little bit of atmosphere (or planet) means nothing, for others it is effectively a brick wall. It may also depend on the composition of the atmosphere (e.g. is there an ozone layer or not?). From a gaming standpoint, if you want to make radiation an environmental hazard, just say that the radiation in the area isn't affected by the atmosphere. If you don't want to mess with that extra compliation in a particular scenario, just assume that the atmosphere makes a pretty good shield.