Thia Halmades

So for me, as I mentioned before, I roll everything in the open; when I want to keep the results a secret, I just don’t tell them the target number they’re going for (remember, if I didn’t mention it here I mentioned it elsewhere, I don’t use the “roll 11-“ thing, I handle skills like combat, where I set a DCV for success and determine it’s scale. This gives me a lot of flexibility to shield results on an as needed basis.

nope. Still lost. I’ll try again: so they roll dice behind a screen and don’t see their own results?

They are vile, evil things and I don’t allow them. They’re nigh impossible to balance and require a massive amount of buy in and trust. If there’s a VPP, then I’ve defined it, soup to nuts, to do something very specific. I have not, and would not. Just way, way too easy to break the game.

I think the question could be phrased a bit better, but the answer is: You can set a limitation at the framework level; most commonly something like Gestures, or OIF, and when you put it on the framework, then the framework is cheaper, and every power in the block inherits it. I don’t know of a limitation with charges nor would I allow it. I don’t know if that helps or not!

While back I wrote a whole post about this, that boils down to this core idea: HERO isn’t complex. HERO players make it complex. That’s not a dig in either direction; I find HERO remarkably straight forward and when managed well, the foundation of the system is very simple: roll low for skills and hit rolls, roll high for damage. The big thing to overcome is SPD and the Speed Chart, and unleashing the text on new people. If you want to introduce beginners to HERO, here’s how I would do it: * Get everyone together over Discord (or here, or wherever) and pitch them the setting; get buy-in (I have rules for what this actually means but we’ll skip that) * Once the setting is established, ask that most critical of questions: What do you want to be in this setting? If that’s too broad, give them some classic options: Gunslinger, Apothecary, Swindler, etc. * You write up the builds based on that input; this is absolutely crucial for new people; I never ask new players to build, just feed me ideas This way, you’re setting the balance, you’re setting the point limits, you see where I’m going with this. Then, send them their characters and walk them through the specifics and unique bits. Say the Gunslinger has “Fan the Hammer,” which is autofire, up to 6 shots, depending on how many rounds are left in the chamber and/or how many they want to unload. They also have “Speed Loader,” a skill check to reload, -1 for every 2 bullets, if successful it consumes no time. Once they’ve seen it, and they start relating limitations as form and advantages as function, they’ll be hooked. I mean. Assuming you’ve got GM skills, that is.

PennDOT. They may be the hardest working road crew in the 48, but no one would know it. Sinkholes are like their own hydra. Fill in one, and two more take its place.

Like terraforming, but without all the messy science!

Hey E; Sorry, I’m not actually following you here. I don’t mean to be difficult, I’m just not certain “what I’m looking at.” I see maps and trees, and I would assume that if I’m behind a tree I have some measure of cover. Am I just being dense? Am I missing something?

And if Chris doesn’t answer it first, I will, and odds are good I’ll go to the text exactly, rather than rely on a previously supplied answer. Bear in mind that CE is just that — it changes environment. If for some reason you have a CE +20 degrees, and it’s currently frozen, you could theoretically unfreeze it. But we’re talking super fringe cases. That aside. Where’s my hat? Ah, here we are. You’re talking about a Transform; damaged road to road, minor. Rough path to road is probably major, and “nothin’” to “road” is whatever 15 points is (I always forget the nomenclature). Now if you want to build a road through a mountain? Yeah, that’s Tunneling.

1) Absolutely not. Mainly because, it’s not in the rules and there’s no need to create a handwave/house rule that does this, it would be wacky bonkers unbalanced. The closest you could get would be if a bunch of summoned creatures cooperated with the mage, but just casting on its own? Nah. 2) Yes, because everyone is either using spells or innate abilities that operate like spells. I also use LTE because being in the Metaverse is draining.

In this case I’m specifically using the skill as a spell. Oh, I forgot; Only to Find Water (-1/2). That was important. But ultimately it’s a spell that finds water, and I used Survival as the most reasonable way to get there. Not actually a skill, but a spell the uses the mechanic of the skill to generate results. Although, this is HERO; you can call it whatever you want as long as you pay the points for it and adhere to the special effect, but the IDEA was “write me a spell that summons water.” So that’s what I did.

This is one of those topics, having GM’d almost weekly for the better part of 30 years, that I could go on about and still not have established my thesis. So instead of doing that, I’ll answer the question posed. Bear in mind, this is my answer, and I’m not poisoning the well by reading other people’s responses, which are no doubt many and varied. To a certain level, I expect it, and certainly I’m all for optimization. When optimization turns to cheese, I get annoyed. And when I offer a compromise and get an argument, I get flustered. And when the point gets pressed — and pressed. And pressed, I just start lashing out. Make a build. Make a case. Present your case. Accept the outcome and let the GM do their thing.

So this is actual “Magic,” right? You are effectively, mechanically, calling something out of nothing. Like. Bang. There’s water now. Both of the canonical ways to do it have already been covered: LS & Transform. And of course, neither of those is how I would do it. Call Forth the Wetness: Skill, Survival (14-). This spell allows you to call forth wetness from the ground, or in certain cases, from the very air around you. The wetness you call forth is specifically potable water; container sold separately. For every point the roll succeeds by, X amount of water is called forth (as an Advantage on the power; so at base, I would say 1 liter/per point; then 2 liters (+1/4), then 4, and so on, each doubling of effect doubling the cost). Call Forth the Wetness; As Survival (14-); Environmental Modifiers apply to roll (-1/4), Extra Time (1 Turn), Costs END (-1/2); Wetter is Better (4 liters per point the roll succeeds by, +1/2), RSR (-1/2, as the roll can fail and no water summoned; you can remove this), Enhanced Effect Roll (+1/4; every point the roll succeeds by adds one volume of water), Container not included (-0; the water “springs forth” or, if a basin is carved in advance, flows into it as reasonability allows). Plus Life Support (Potable Water), even if filthy swamp water full of weird bugs, parasites and alien diseases is used, the water provided is pure, clear and potable. — While the Survival skill already makes it clear that the point is to summon potable water, the nature of this Compound pushes it into the realm of magic and avoids any additional fuss or arguing. Season to your liking, but that’s how I would handle this. And pardon my notes, I’m writing off the top of my head because my iPad doesn’t JAVA and there’s nothing I can do about that currently.

Amusingly, I do the complete opposite; I make all my rolls on the table because I’m too prone to altering the outcome; I’ve found that having the result be public out of the gate to be sufficiently terrifying, and having done it that way for so long I wouldn’t go back. One of my players was on a streak, slinging his powers, attacks bouncing off, he got brave, and hard charged a boss. I rolled a 3 to hit — with a power that I legitimately unknowingly exploited his weakness. In the game in question, everyone always has at least one fundamental vulnerability; Slash, Pierce, Bash, Fire, Electric, Cold, etc. In that case I think the power was electric and ... he went negative stun and negative BODY. They dragged him out of that dungeon on a make shift stretcher. Took him 2 weeks to recover from his wounds. Or as we say in the lingo, “He got rekt.”

If I understood your question, does anyone make hidden rolls on behalf of the player. I’ve honestly never even heard of this. When I need to keep someone in the dark regarding success or failure, I ask for the roll without providing a target number. Oh. I use the alternative Target Number system, so every roll the players make is actually an “attack roll.” That’s just a me thing, because I found the whole “11 unless” system didn’t really work for me. Works for the vast majority of people, but I needed something more dynamic. So my solution was to toss the entire system and switch over to a bunch of fringe mechanics. IOW: I didn’t like the ice cream at the corner store, so I moved across the country to live next to a craft creamery.