Thia Halmades

Re: Abort phase rule

Re: Abort phase rule Said another way: Rather than capping SPD 3, I'd suggest you enforce the Normal Characteristic Maxima. You can imply that max speed is 3, but some characters can, and probably should, have a SPD 4. Additionally, yes, things with the same SPD go on the same Phase, and then are divided by DEX order. This makes attacking (and knowing you can't abort) the tactical decision it's meant to be. You attack? No abort for you. You hold? There's a chance you'll HAVE to abort. That's elegance in design, not something to be worked around. As KS said (and he's on a short list of people I rarely disagree with when it comes to understanding the system) the problem is self inflicted. My suggestion? Run the game by the Rules As Written (RAW) and go from there. Start with the game as designed. If you absolutely, positively, have to make a fundamental change to the mechanics, we can probably help. The request as I understood it, though, wouldn't clarify anything, only twist it into new knots, and we can't speak to House Rules, only to the text.

Re: Best genre to learn HERO system? There you go. I try to not give bad (or overly specific) advice when I can reasonably avoid it. The trick to HERO has always been "reason from effect." Figure out what you want a thing to DO, and then going to the rules and finding the best way to accomplish that. Everything scales pretty much "within itself." Understanding HERO is really much like speaking a language; once you "get it" it all sort of snaps open in your brain. The fastest way to get it? Play your genre. You'll start asking "How DO I model a full body tackle? Is that a standard move, or a Martial Maneuver?" or "What would it look like if the QB could just huck the ball through someone else's chest? Well... that's a focus... he throws it, so it's Ranged Based on STR... it's heavy, so probably 2d6 total damage, plus his STR modifier... yeah, that'll do." And poof. See? Once you give us "the idea" we can spit builds like they're nothing. Trickier is designing everything; the BUILD part is easy once the idea is solidified. Biggest problem tackling and finishing my own project. I know roughly what I want it all to do; now I just have to hammer it into shape.

Re: Potions Actually, I use X Charges that Never Recover, and indeed, even if the bottle is taken from you, common sense says the power is running. This is a question of common/dramatic sense. You could put on a Custom Limitation, OIF (Only to Activate, +0) if you really wanna get technical about it.

Re: Think I got it! Limited range EB. That was it. Knew it was in there somewhere. Thanks, McCoy. Brain still clogged with Tryptophan. I generally don't use it (Karas carries an auto-pistol) but in fact it is a Limited Range (10", -1/4) Energy Blast.

Re: Character Build question You can't Aid OCV, as it's a Derived Stat (that's canonical from Steve Long). You can, as Pol said, Aid DEX, Only to Affect OCV (-1). Your Aid/Drain can be bought with the Advantage "Variable Effect," [X things at a given time,] usually up to four. But for example, you could do this: Super Injector: Aid any one stat, one at a time (+1/4), Only Base Characteristics (-1/4) and voila. Drain is the same thing; you can Drain someone's Fire powers, you can Drain a Force Field, what have you. There's a specific ability in Fantasy HERO wherein the character Aids [One Spell] and cranks it up for a larger effect, which is a very groovy use of it. Also remember: Change Environment is an attack option only; you can use it to really FUBAR your opponents, but it can't assist your allies.

Re: Think I got it! Oh, and your Vulnerabilities should be, canonically, "2x Effect." It'll clean it up and give you the appropriate cost for EMP & Sonics.

Re: Fallout 3: Postapocalyptica Nope. And they always drop PLENTY of it. That's part of my beef. At this rate, there should be no ammo, no functioning guns. Just morons with clubs.

Re: How do you build this QFT. All the ideas you've gotten are valid, but this is HERO. Without having a strong clue as to what you really want to build, we can't really help you build it. Your options include: 1) Multiform 2) OIHID (frex, "He-Man" could be a manswordthingy; he has a suite of powers that only activate when he's in "Heroic Identity." Generally used in precisely these situations) 3) The Sword is a "follower" or similar, and has abilities it can grant as UBO (Usable By Other, Only the Owner, Requires an Activation Roll, Continuing Charges, X charges for Y minutes). Build a WHOLE separate power suite where the sword is only a special effect (such as a VPP or an EC or similar). You've got a vast array of options, but we need to understand the concept first. Note: We don't need an explanation of 'what you want to do it and how to do it mechanically.' Mechanics, we got. What we need is something like: "This is the sword of his father, and is passed down every third generation; the number three is a mystic number and has always held both power and portent. In this case, the sword can, for brief periods, tap into the tri-core of the characters being and blend man, world and magic into one, creating a new, powerful hero." Or something like that. You follow? The powers follow the CONCEPT; the concept doesn't follow the powers.

Re: Think I got it! There are a LOT of nitpicks on this build, not the least of which is why your DI Brick has Hellfire missiles, but that's a question for another time. Some general guidelines: 1) Most folks don't allow more than X points in a single group; usually it's Psych Lims (cause it makes you all ... CRAAAAZY) but it can apply to anything, so check with the GM (unless you ARE the GM in which case, you know... just sort of be advised). But let's talk about the Hellfires, since weapon design is something I'm familiar with. You slapped on Non-Selective, which means that you'd need to make a to-hit roll against EVERYTHING in the Area of Effect radius. In other words, your missile isn't guaranteed to damage anything, which may not be what you want. Selective is an Intelligent weapon; for example, a fracturing round that intelligently seeks hostiles may rain down in an AOE and be Selective; that would let the weapon IGNORE friendly targets. A normal AOE hits everything in the zone, and Explosion is an AOE variant. So a Selective Explosion does diminishing damage over a radius and only hits specific targets; an AOE Non-Selective is best described as "shrapnel." You could get lucky, and get missed, or get unlucky, and get nailed. Why does it have 6" Stretching? What's the special effect? You'll hear us say this a lot; when we (collectively) go to validate a character, we look into the mechanics and then view them as they would "appear." For example: My PC, Karas, has a mystic chain on his arm. The chain is a Multipower that gives him: Stretching, 10" Entangle 5d6 (or so) Swinging 20" (2x the chain length of 10") And... something else I've forgotten. Point being: They all share a limitation, "Lockout." The chain can only do one thing at a time, and I've got the points that I could do multiple effects, but by design, it doesn't allow for it. Am I making sense? The question isn't "How much cool stuff can I pour on before the points break," it's "What am I going for, and how do I design that?" So I'd begin at the beginning (and you wouldn't be the first poster to do this). Tell us what you want to do, and see what all builds pop up, and roll from there. Reason From Effect. It's how you build Holy Ice Cream Cones. With which to SMITE YOUR ENEMIES.

Re: Fallout 3: Postapocalyptica Oh, entirely. There's even special-issue Unarmed Weapons, like the Deathclaw Gauntlet and Power Fist. There are also some AWESOME melee weapons, like the Shishkebob (a lawnmower blade, a motorcycle handbrake, a motorcycle gastank... and a pilot light, I think) to create a flaming sword. So you can absolutely do melee combat. Be advised. Your sense of honor may come up short in the face of, say, a Super Mutant with a mini-gun. But yeah, those things are possible. You'll probably want a high Stealth skill to get up behind fools and then punk them for high critical damage. If you build up your unarmed you'll have the one weapon in the game that does not require constant maintenance. For that tree I would take: Unarmed Combat, Melee Combat, Explosives (you can't really go wrong with Explosives... seriously), Stealth, Lock Picking, and then start building in Perks that give you additional Stealth & Melee or Unarmed; Little Leaguer is great because it grants +5 Melee & +5 Explosives, I think (swinging bats & throwing grenades). Silent Running means that you never take a Stealth penalty for running, and so on. There's also a Ninja perk, a Sandman perk (killing people while sleeping) and so on. You may want to get the Dart Gun (I BELIEVE I got those schematics for finishing Head of State) as it cripples your targets and does Damage Over Time.

Re: Fallout 3: Postapocalyptica

Re: Power cost calculator? Echo. The math is easy enough with a pocket calculator and some time. I'm to the point now where I can design on the fly with a computer calculator, but I know all the costs, and the advantages/disadvantages by rote.

Re: Anyone actually playing anything? I play in both a Traveler game & an Alien Legion game; Aroooo runs both, and he's a HUGE fan of the Traveler material. While I take some issue with the design decisions, it's very functional and flavorful, so it's hard to go 'wrong' with any of them. My personal preference aside, I can easily recommend them if you want to play Traveler. I'm designing... four or five campaigns in my head, none of which I can work on until my current project is done.

Re: Fallout 3: Postapocalyptica That really depends on what you want to do; if you're going for a smooth-talking type, you'll need Lady Killer/Black Widow, Child at Heart and the Scoundrel perks. If you're going gun-bunny, you'll want Finesse, Bloody Mess (annoying, but hey, what are you going to do?) and then weapon-perk-flavor-as-necessary, such as Gun Nut (5 Small Arms/5 Repair) or Size Matters (15 Big Guns, which if you use Big Guns, is probably one of the single best perks in the game as it gives you a full dedicated level of skill points in a single shot). I tend to avoid: Here & Now, Personal Training (I forget the exact name, but it's +1 SPECIAL) and other 'light weight' perks. Here & Now is particularly useless because all you've really done is gained HP & Skill Points, and lost a Perk. I'm sure there are arguments the other way, but I don't see the purpose. There are more perks I'd like to see; I'd like to see improved auto-fire, that kind of thing. I listed some of my other 'to improves' on the list. Hopefully we'll get new Perks with the DLC. But those hopefully get you off in the right direction.

Re: No Damage Knock Back Wave Correct; the conversion of a Presence Attack into a physical attack changes its very nature, and thus makes it a half-phase/attack action.

Re: No Damage Knock Back Wave You can do it that way. Or. 46 Bedroom Rockets are Bouncing, 5d6 Energy Blast, STUN Only (-0), Double Knockback (+3/4, IIRC), AOE Cone (+1) (69 Active Points), Gestures (-1/4), Extra Time (Delayed Phase, -1/4). Costly. Add lims for flavor. But that's a perfectly functional framework. The whole point of bowling people off their feet is to shake 'em up without dealing any actual damage. Bear in mind: smacking them into a wall can deal BODY, but the power as designed in this instance does none. The AOE combined with the Double KB make this riotously expensive; most powers in Super Heroic deal Knockback naturally; making it double knockback can send some poor sod halfway across a warehouse.

Re: Which Champion are you Came up with Witchcraft. Can I mention I've never HEARD of Witchcraft?

Re: Best genre to learn HERO system? The best genre to learn HERO is... The genre you want to run. I know, cliche, but trust me on this.

Re: What ratio of superhumans to humans do you use? Eh... I really fall into the "as many as the plot requires" category. For example, when I ran World of Darkness (I know, I know, Thia? Emo? THIA?! No one knows me anymore... I'm going to go into the corner and drink spoiled milk just so I can feel) I really struggled to minimize the number of 'supers' (i.e., Vampires, Mages, Garou) to make a) the world make sense and the world believable and c) the characters feel special. I think I view everything through this same sort of Iron-Age value set, where being a hero is WORK. This is why my Dark Fantasy shines with a beautiful black sheen; because I can communicate the need for hope for the characters again the more traditional view given of "Hooray! BadGuyOfTheWeek is causing problems! PC Team! Do Stuff!" Yeah. I can't do that. I'm missing some sort of gene. So my worlds lean towards humans handling the bulk of their problems for that reason. No ratio, but if you think "Every club is full of Vampires," then that's too many vampires. If every crime is interrupted by a super, that's too many supers.

Re: Fallout 3: Postapocalyptica

Re: reincarnation But it's not... Never mind.

Re: Fallout 3: Postapocalyptica Seriously. Railway Rifle for the WIN. Things I'm not sure I can give up in any run through of this game: My Repair skill. The rest I can fake, but Repair is THE reason I'm successful. I can take a collection of five garbage shotties and turn them into decent weapon. I find Hunting Rifles like they're candy. I have a stack of 10 good condition 10mm pistols in a closet. It's SILLY how much stuff you wind up with, and that's the inherent failing. You get good, you kill bad guys. Bad guys drop stuff. You collect stuff. You get better. A vicious cycle.

Re: Painted into a plot corner and the muse has fled! I keep forgetting not everyone thinks Iron Age. Assault is right on just about every point; Scientists aren't conveniently gathered into one location, unless it's a summit or similar. Especially not on a college campus. And okay; you've taken out the core communications hub, but cell phones will immediately default to the next available satellite/bouncer; it's nearly impossible to kill cell phone reception. It takes one student with a camera phone and a clue to contact their Local Authorities and for those Authorities to put 2 & 2 together long enough to scream "It's a trap!" Admiral Ackbar style. I don't have a problem with them getting away with murder. I DO have a problem with them having the time, talent and resources to knock these people off in swift succession and then an additional assumption that no one else will know what's going on. Traditionally, someone always steps up, probably someone no one expected (so long as they're 18 or older, this is fine; no "wonder children" please). Remember, also, that a lot of disaster coordination is common sense combined with efficient communication. Short wave radio and (again, cell phones) won't be affected by the land-line blackout. Beyond that, if that many people were murdered with that obvious an affiliation, that gives a certain amount of fore-warning. As one of my players said to me: "The thing about your world, Thia, is that when someone dies, that wasn't 'NPC 414.' That was Joe. Joe has friends and family. Joe will be missed. People ask us, "Why did we kill Joe?" and that's what makes it compelling. Create a reasonable (note: not REALISTIC) situation for your campaign, light the fire, then let it roll from there.

Re: "Outsider" perspective on Hero System I'm just lost. Simply put, and without an even vague attempt at diplomacy: You (Wolfgar) posted genero-garbage of the worst, most unqualified sort on a board that has a reputation -- at least here -- of promoting closed mindedness, rage and trolls as its primary purveyors. You then come to this board, say "I post here too, guys" and promptly apologize... to people who don't need the apology. An apology, to me, would be a complete retraction of the nonsense you spewed in the first place, an acknowledgement to let HERO be what it is, which is a Toolkit System, and if you want to do absolutes? GOOD NEWS. You can. At WORST it requires a minor application of handwavium, but Steve does cover it. Additionally, the examples you gave really are awful. Say that HERO doesn't do "pick up and play" well (it doesn't, that's a legitimate gripe) or say that because it is a toolkit there is a barrier to entry (there is; another perfectly legitimate gripe) but don't say that the game doesn't do precisely what it does best: Let you put what's in YOUR head into YOUR language for YOUR game. Seriously.