Ockham's Spoon

Re: Size template question Ah, since I have only the 5th Ed and not the revised I missed this. But I notice now that my 5th Ed has only 370 some pages, meaning the revised edition is AT LEAST 200 PAGES LONGER! Wow, I had no idea I was missing so much. Size templates are just the tip of the iceberg apparently.

Re: Speedster trick, would you allow this? I'm with McCoy for using the multiple move-by and grab. You have those combat manuevers available, you should use them. You might need some penalty skill levels to offset the difficulty of doing this to a lot of people at once. As for the +40 STR, I think that can be rationalized like this: it happens so fast that the opponent doesn't really have time to get a good grip and struggle with the speedster. They just don't see it coming. That is best represented by extra STR, even if it is beyond the speedster's normal STR. _________________________________________________________ "Why follow me to higher ground, lost as you swear I am?" - Ed Roland

Re: Luck Options I have never liked Luck either. When I have a character who is "lucky" they just buy Overall levels. Luck in my campaigns is GM fiat. When it serves dramatic purpose, I will give the characters a break. I do the same for their opponents when it enhances the storyline. I don't do it a lot, but a little here and there can make for better gaming (and cover up my ineptitudes as GM at times). __________________________________________________________ "Why follow me to higher ground, lost as you swear I am?" - Ed Roland

Re: Size template question First off, let me display my thundering ignorance. Size template? Where would I find that? I think what you need to do, whether you use Shrinking or the size template, is figure out what effects are reasonable for your character, and then add powers or disads to reflect that. For instance, if Character A with Shrinking has 6" of Running but reasonably would only have 1", then sell back 5" of Running. If Character B should be taking lots of Knockback due to small size, give him a Physcial Limitation: Takes +x" of Knockback (or maybe Vuln x3 Effect from Knockback or something). ________________________________________________________ "Why follow me to higher ground, lost as you swear I am?" - Ed Roland

Re: Ghostly Possession Very nice Cwylric. I will have to borrow this character if you don't mind. Thanks for all the detailed posts.

Re: Build me a power - Paralyzing Touch Good point Phil, although it might depend on the effect you wanted. My thought was that if it didn't drop the CHA below zero then it meant you missed the nerve cluster. That and it would make it cheaper, but your version has more utility.

Re: What power would you buy (with a twist) Eidetic memory and speed reading would be awesome. I can never read as much as I'd like to, and my memory is like swiss cheese. or Aid to INT with Area Affect and a few levels of MegaScale, Fade 5pts per day, only useable on the night before an election. Let's vote in a government based on logic not emotion. Or would I need an Aid to EGO for that? or Mind Link to any one computer. Throw in a Detect and Analyze Computer Operation. I will not be stymied by a locked up keyboard or inscrutable computer glitch again. or Eidetic memory and speed reading would be awesome. I can never read as much as I'd like to, and my memory is like swiss cheese. __________________________________________________________ The only two infinite things are the universe and stupidity. And I am not all that certain about the universe. - Albert Einstein

Re: A couple questions for GMs 1. I don't require detailed backgrounds, but I encourage them. This is as much for the player as for me, because the better defined a character is at the outset, the easier they are to play, and you end up with a more consistent character. I have seen more than once a character go sour because they were poorly defined at the outset and didn't end up being quite what the player wanted. I do like my players to write the backgrounds down so I can refer to them later, because my memory is, well, its... What was I saying? 2. I use Disads as often as I can work them in reasonably, but on the whole my players probably get more points for their Disads than I generally enforce. In fact, I will not allow a Hunted at more than 8- because I am so bad about inserting them into the game. Psych Lims are my favorite, because they are not only the easiest to highlight, but they help define the character (see above). That said, I want a reason in the background that the hero brings hope to the hopeless, help to the helpless, and hap to the hapless. I don't want to hear that he is just a nice guy.

Re: Build me a power - Paralyzing Touch As is the beauty of the Hero system, there are several ways to go about this. In my mind you need to define how the target character recovers from being paralyzed before you can determine which power build is the most appropriate. As I see it (and bear in mind I do wear glasses) for a nerve strike, this is a physical thing, so mental powers are inappropriate unless the Based on CON limitation is used. I don't see that EGO or STR would help overcome nerve damage, but CON might. If I were to build this, I would go with either the Transform mentioned earlier or a massive Drain against STR, DEX, or SPD to put the target CHA at zero or below with the limitation "No effect if CHA isn't reduced to zero or less." The target then would have to make a CHA roll to do anything, which would effectively paralyze them. (well, do you have to make a STR roll for actions at a negative STR?). I would also make the defense of the Drain hardened or resistant PD instead of Power Defense to reflect the SFX. With a Drain or a Transform, the nerve damage just slowly recovers on its own, which is a better way to represent it than an EGO roll or something IMHO. ________________________________________________________ The only two infinite things are the universe and stupidity. And I am not all that certain about the universe. - Albert Einstein.

Re: Casual Survey: Age of players and Hero's utility vs. other games I am 36 and have been playing Hero since 3rd Ed. I have played several other systems, but few have as coherent a system and none have the flexibility of Hero. I would still play another system if someone else ran it, but I will always prefer a Hero-based game. I haven't decided whether to teach my kids the Hero system once they are old enough (or at least able to read) and run the risk of them thinking it is square like their old man, or if I should pretend it is some kind of subversive activity so that they will just be naturally drawn to it. _______________________________________________________ Insanity is hereditary. You get it from your children.

Re: No scar tissue Disadvantage So you can regenerate and you want a Disad for it? Yeah, I'm with Oddhat on this one, a -0 Limitation on the Regen; SFX really. Even if projectiles were common, which you said they weren't, I wouldn't give a Limitation or a Disad. Not all bullets stay lodged in the body, some might be expelled, and some could be encysted even if no scar tissue was formed. If you want to give a character lead poisoning, just treat it like catching a disease and use it like a plot device. Oh, and thanks for the reference to the mice. Now that is cool! ____________________________________________________________ The only two things that are infinite are the universe and stupidity. And I am not all that certain about the universe. - Albert Einstein

Re: Taipan...wow!

Re: Are These Weapons? I don't understand the rationale for the M. Arts damage adding rules really, so I ignore them. In my campaigns, every 2 DC that M. Arts adds to a Killing Attack just adds 5 Active Points to the attack, rounded down. So if he is using his Offfensive Strike (+4 DC) then he boosts his 4d6 KA to 4½d6 and his 2½d6 AP KA becomes 3d6 AP. Despite what the rulebook says, this strikes me as more balanced, and when you have a character with a lot of different attack powers useable with M. Arts it makes it easier to deal with IMHO. ____________________________________________________________ "Some people spread joy wherever they go. Others, whenever they go." - Oscar Wilde

Re: Running as Swimming I'm with Bloodstone; it depends on the SFX, but by default I would say it does allow you to stand on the water. Is there some reason you are not buying this as Swimming only on surfaces? It would be cheaper. This topic does make me wonder if Hero shouldn't have a generic movement power that you put advantages and limitations on to reflect the nature of the movement. In a Champions campaign in particular you end up having lots of cross-over movement powers, like your running on water example, that would benefit from such a setup. Also, having Flight and Running cost the same per 1" makes Running seem like a ripoff since Flight is inherently more useful (Turn Mode restrictions or not). I guess it is more intuitive to buy a movement power by name rather than a generic "Move" and modify it as needed. Maybe I should be looking at this part of the versatile, flexible beauty of the system that you can build a given power in as many different ways as it suits you rather than harping on slightly skewed point costs. Maybe I should shouldn't post before finishing my morning coffee. ________________________________________________________ "Some people spread joy wherever they go. Others, whenever they go." - Oscar Wilde

Re: "Lethality", Improve Critical Chance Just from personal experience, I would go with the Deadly Blow ability and buy extra damage that required a skill roll or had whatever limitation suited your conception of the power rather than buy penalty skill levels against hit locations. I did the latter with an assassin-type character and it made him kind of all-or-nothing in combat. Either he made the head shot which was virtually certain to take out his foe (x2 BDY and x5 STN muliplier for a killing attack) or he missed completely. It kind of took the problem with the STN lotto and made it even more extreme. Just my 2 cents. ___________________________________________________________ "Some people spread joy wherever they go. Others, whenever they go." - Oscar Wilde

Re: Experience increasing This is an excellent point Derek. Furthermore, because of the bell curve, buying any skill up higher gives diminishing returns, unless, as you mentioned, you are just cancelling out penalties. I think that between this and enforcing Normal CHA Maxima in heroic level games you can curb people from overly high ability levels. Okay, well, at least to my satisfaction.

Re: Funny game voices I think using speech patterns, accents, or whatever you can muster is a great way to add interest and fun to NPCs. Tragically, I am terrible at it. For one campaign I made a concerted effort to give at least all the main NPCs unique voices; sadly I mostly just confused my players. But every so often some voice will just click with a particular NPC and I can pull it off effortlessly. Those are invariably are my best NPCs. I wish I knew why I can't do it all the time. Do I lack character conception? Technique? Talent? Caffiene? Who knows. Right now I just enjoy it when it works, like a surfer hitting the perfect wave. _____________________________________________________________ I have never actually gone surfing. It just seemed like a good metaphor.

Re: Ghostly Possession

Re: Ghostly Possession Does the ghost take damage that the corpse takes or does she just animate it? If it were me (and it isn't so feel free to ignore this), I would just buy it as a naked advantage on STR (give the ghost a 25 starting STR to match anyone she might pick up). For 25 STR: Affects Real World (+2), Invisible to sight (+½; visible to mental and touch), 0 END (+½), Only to animate corpses (-1), Limited to STR corpse had when alive (-½), and if appropriate Feedback: Takes same damage as corpse (-1) and/or Side Effect: PER rolls, DEX, and SPD only as good as that of corpse (-½) Active cost:75, Real Cost:25 to 19 points You might want to throw Clinging in there too as mentioned above to stay with the corpse. __________________________________________________________ "The rich scare me. They can already evade taxes." - Grim Reaper

Re: how to build: highlander-ish soul catching I ran a Champions campaign with a Highlander-inspired character in it. Long story short, there were 12 people who were engaged in a contest wherein killing the other contestants made them more powerful. Each of the contestants was built on 250 points, but only got to spend 202 points. Each time they killed another character, they got to spend 4 of those points on abilities reflecting the contestant that just died. If you killed a contestant that had already slain 3 others, then you would get 16 points to spend, until everyone was dead and you got all 48 points. This setup allowed the character to be balanced with the other supers but still advance quickly when killing another contestant. (okay he was kind of weak at the beginning but he rapidly improved as the other contestants were eliminated). Anyway, I don't know how appropriate this method would be to your campaign, but it worked in this case. __________________________________________________________ "Some people spread joy wherever they go. Others, whenever they go." - Oscar Wilde

Re: I can't wrap my head around a.... Antisocial loner characters are fun in concept and good for comics, but poor for RPGs unless you are playing a solo campaign, because the other players are going to get fed up with the loner. There are a lot of character concepts I have difficulty with just from a plausibility standpoint. Like the idea that almost all mutations result in cool superpowers and rarely in horrible handicaps. In my campaigns, mutants always arise from someone's tampering with the gene pool. Super high tech is a problem too for reasons mentioned by Bloodstone. For me part of the solution is that the technology does not lend itself to mass production, so "giving" the technology to the masses is not practical. In a similar vein, if the building the technology is as much an art as a science then only a few individuals would even be capable of doing it. Another "fix" for that problem is to say that the government has declared the technology top secret because of its destructive potential in the wrong hands and won't let it become common knowledge. Finally, if the technology comes from aliens or the future or something, the character may be able to patch it if it breaks, but couldn't duplicate it. I used to have problems with alien characters too. I still do to some extent because I have trouble putting myself in their skin. So what I find crucial is to expansively define their culture and technology. You can't just come up with a personality for the alien character, you need to know what that personality is in relation to the rest of its ilk. And make sure that you figure out what impact the alien's "superpowers" have on their society. I will let players run alien characters, but they have to jump through more hoops in defining that character than someone playing a human would. __________________________________________________________ "

Re: Mercy Bullets

Re: Collateral damage from missed attacks Collateral damage is mostly for color and drama. And although I usually have the normals clear out quickly, there may be some paralyzed with fright that act as an impediment and may need to be saved. I figure most buildings and stuff have insurance against paranormal battles, so the legal issue of property destruction usually only comes up if someone is trying to cause trouble for the heroes or if one of them is totally callous about it (like using other people's cars as thrown weapons on a regular basis). Of course in a dangerous setting there are always risks of broken power lines, gas leaks, collapsing structures, and explosions. Such events regularly occur at the villains' secret headquarters so that the whole thing can go up in a giant fireball with the heroes barely escaping ("no one could have survived that!"). I sometimes tell the characters to roll a few dice just prior to some potential catastrophic event occuring, but not because I necessarily pay attention to the roll, just so they will think twice about using a firebolt spell in a gas refinery (plalyer: "I rolled a 12." GM: *wincing* "Well that was close! You only nick the pipe so it is just scorched and slighly deformed. You hope it doesn't burst before someone can repair it"). And if the players persist in being reckless, well, they have high REC so their hair can grow back quickly after the explosion.

Re: Mercy Bullets I think I would just go with the NND, but maybe make the defense LS: Immune to drugs and/or hardened resistant PD to reflect the fact someone in significant armor is not going to be affected. Then just say that the skin puncture is so small as to be negligible BDY-wise. No need to really complicate it with linked attacks and such IMHO. _____________________________________________________ "Some people spread joy wherever they go. Others, whenever they go." - Oscar Wilde

Re: Monster Census Let's face it, we humans don't fully understand the ecology of our own planet, much less that of some fantasy world where magical creatures exist. For that reason I would strongly recommend that a large part of dragon subsistance come from some non-organic source so you can have as many of them as you see fit. If you want to make it seem plausible, if not realistic, consider "real life" predators the size of dragons. Right, they have all been extinct since T. Rex left the scene. But a T. Rex was hunting herbivores the size of modern elephants and bigger. Which means you might need to throw in a few giant herbivores into the mix, although what would be appropriate in a fantasy setting I don't know. Maybe the dragons primarily feed on the giant insects of the world and keep them in check, because those things have got to be voracious (even normal insects can strip a field or forest bare).