Thia Halmades

Another option is allowing for “speed healing” in limited circumstances, an idea I’d toyed with but not committed to. In dramatic cinema, the protagonist takes “hospitalization levels” of damage ... and uh... keeps going. Limping in one scene, running full tilt in the next. This is usually attributed to STUN (or in Palladium, SDC).

Okay, what if it’s not? What if instead the hero (and all heroes, as applicable) have a power called “From the Brink. Regeneration, (Only up to 1/3rd total BODY, Trigger: only activates when BODY drops below 1/4 (-1), Extra Time,), and if you want to make certain people are being cautious instead of dancing on that katana’s edge, Charges (1-3; Charges restore after a long rest). This is the only way I can actually explain John Wick, and it’s an explanation I actually rather liked, just as I mentioned, haven’t implemented, but I think it captures the genre well.

Oh my goodness, I don’t know if I missed this or if I’m ready to wander off back into the desert.

Guys guys guys. Listen listen listen.

Let’s remember that the GM & the player have to reach an agreement, and I would point out that Extra Limbs is a whopping 5 points. I see this going in this weird circle where we’re comparing a flying super to a multi-former. Far as I’m concerned, if you’re paying to become a car, then there’s no reason not to assume it’s... a freaking car. Even HERO doesn’t include “seat belts” in its builds.

This boils down to granularity and campaign function. I really think this one is over thinking the problem into madness. Which is fine. I’m mad. You’re mad. We’re all mad, here.

@Ninja-Bear Remember, there are a lot of ways in HERO to mitigate damage, from being a dodge tank (DCV? Have some) to aggressive use of the Counter Martial Art maneuver. It’s down to what you want to represent and the level you want it; I would start doing some number crunching and come up with a sliding scale — how much DCV you’re comfortable with vs. how much straight damage mitigation you’re comfortable with. You could also build a force field, call it “blinding hands,” must be aware of attack, etc., but it could easily simulate that level of defense.

Another thing I did in Persona was add a new abort maneuver, Soak. Abort to Soak: Raise a specific defense value by 1.5 for the duration. It functions like any abort, but the player has to identify which defense value they’re using. 

What I’m saying is, Wuxia is all about doing nutty things for the sake of cinema, so craft powers that are cinematic in nature. Another great point of reference is the (...utterly superb, GOTY worthy) NIOH 2. I’m 400 hours or so into that game and not bored of it. 10 weapons currently, lots of unique attacks that HERO can handle very well.

For me, it always comes back to activation and placing limits on the buffs. For Aiden (closest thing I ever played to the Hulk) his “transform to dragon form” was a special effect, I never purchased multi-form. I think it’s a great function, but I personally always found it incredibly awkward. That’s me though. 

Special Effect: Seat Belt, but it all (to @Tech’s point) comes back to available STR.

13 hours ago, Greywind said:

Striking Appearance: Makes people want to strike you.

This is a brief explanation of my life.

I understand the problem. The answer is, “stop thinking of it in terms of armor.”

Instead, think of it as a power, then define its rules and its application. For Persona, I wrote Combat Luck as: 3 rPD/3 rED, Does Not Stack (-1/2), Character Must be Aware of Attack (-1/4). What that means is that if you put on actual armor, your Combat Luck gets replaced, and of course because you’re made of bloody, bloody flesh, if you don’t see the spear, you can’t dodge/deflect/miraculously survive the spear.

So let’s go back to your concept, where everyone was Kung-Fu fighting. And let’s stay with weapons being stabby and lethal. Now, how good are you? You’re really good. You have [campaign limit] of rPD, Only While Kung-Fu Fighting (-1/2). Or, Must Be Aware (-1/2), Must be Armed (-1/4), because in these settings a stool qualifies as a weapon, #becausejackiechandidit. This means you retain the dramatic horror of people leaping from rooftops and stabbing folks in the back, catching them off guard, or more importantly, watching as some poor nameless NPC gets the knife and suddenly the players turn around and they are now fully aware and ready to fight.

That’s why it was taken out. 

You want to build The Hulk. Your primary power purchases are going to be Growth, Density Increase, and if that’s insufficient strength, I would purchase Strength, (Only in Heroic Form, -1/4). I forget what it got called in 6, it was “Only in Heroic Identity,” commonly shortened to “OIHID” and it was adjusted from -1/2 to -1/4. 

Aid is used as a temporary boost that has a specific drop off level; it’s a classic buff to ability, and how we build things like D&D Haste, or a shot of Adrenalin, etc. Not usually appropriate without a lot of hammering for someone who is transforming from state A to state B. 

Lemme know if that answered the second half of your question.

The reason I take issue so specifically here is because it is a defining difference between how HERO “works” and how most other games, certainly games where you can’t build your own stuff from the toolbox, work. So whether you’re brand new and watching in fascination as your GM snaps together pieces from a jumble of LEGO into a fully functional set of wrist-mounted lightning blasters, or you have just enough knowledge of the system to tinker successfully, our primary means of defining “power level” is Active Cost. Every system has a means of dealing damage, but very few systems have a means of measuring the cost to build/wield that.

3 minutes ago, Duke Bushido said:

I know I'm the odd man out with my tendency to rely more on the SFX than do a lot of other GMs, but I just don't see a conversation here outside of "what kind of car and how many people can you stuff in one of those?" 

Assuming STR is sufficient, of course. 

I would like to point out the first thing I said was, “if the vehicle is properly defined and has sufficient strength.” You’re not the odd man out, I think this is a case of “HERO being HERO” and people wanting to micro things that I would — and this is a pretty good example — merrily handwave. “You’ve got strength 100? Yeah, by all means, carry all the people you can fit on your badonkadonk.”

This is going to take me a while to go through, but let me jump ahead to this:

@Sveta8 said: “Damage is done in DC in this game. DC, standing for Damage Class! Simple enough, no? Without Adders, Limitations, or Advantages, nearly every Attacking Power is built to have one Damage Class per 5 Points put into it. Your GM probably has a Benchmark of what the maximum Damage Class they are comfortable running is! You'll want to stay within that limit. If you aren't certain on what Damage Class  you are doing though, there is a handy chart for figuring that out on pg 97 on the 2nd Core Rulebook.”

In terms of campaign structure, most experienced GMs use an Active Point cap, rather than a DC cap. If I’m holding a cap of 12d6 EB/4d6 KA, both of those are 60 point caps; if I start applying advantages, however, my Active can jump from 60 to 120 almost instantly. It’s why we divide costs in Active Point (before limitations) and Real Cost (points paid). Bringing the Real Cost down to the cap doesn’t work either, because an experienced player can do all kinds of crazy nonsense that a newer player cannot.

In Persona, I built out spell levels with each one going up (I believe) 15-30 points per spell level; that was rarely for more damage, although it came into play, but more for building Compound powers, adding advantages, etc. Holding myself to that AP cap was the equivalent of drawing inside the lines; some powers had to get toned down, moved, or adjusted so that rule stayed in place and ensured that regardless of which spell you selected, you were getting a fairly built power that would play properly with the rest..

...wait.

What’s the question? How to carry other people at speed? it’s not fluffing it, per se, if the vehicle form is properly defined and they have sufficient strength. However, I agree with a prior post, the best, albeit weirdest way to do this, is Extra Limbs (Mama, I got seats!, -0). You can also purchase STR, only for seats, if you’re really looking for the full bucket reclining experience.

On 8/17/2020 at 9:45 AM, PsiJudge McCabe said:

The Presence attack is flavoured with whatever style you want to give it (scary mobster, impressive robot, seductive snake-person). That means that the Striking Appearance rarely affects it (only when the style of flavour includes "being attractive" and the target can percieve the style of flavour that your Striking Appearance takes) but when it does affect the roll, then your Striking Appearance adds +X/XD6 to the roll. +X to the difficulty you must roll under to affect the target, and XD6 added to the 'Damage' effect dice if the attack 'hits home'. The number for X is the number of levels of the Striking Appearance that you have that are applicable.

So, apologies. Fun thread but I’m going to do the thing where I ruin it for everyone. Sorry, pardon me.

Where’s my hat? Ah, here it is.

Striking Appearance. Your definition is one interpretation; doesn’t matter if you’re attractive, hideously ugly, or a super cute toddler. Striking Appearance gives you its bonus circumstantially based on how you defined it upon purchase. Striking Appearance: Clearly a f*ING DEMON, is going to get certain types of people’s attention. Conversely, people accustomed to dealing with Tieflings are going to blink and shrug. Striking Appearance: Bow chicka-wow-wow, only works at full value on people who are into whatever it is. And so on.

The rest of your post implies that, but I wanted to make it clear for anyone coming in; define how your appearance is striking, and then apply accordingly.

As you were.

Verisimilitude is one of my favorite words. I want to pick something specifically from that stack:

Restrainable. You already have this, because the power has Incantations (-1/4), so Restrainable would be redundant, unless, there’s another way to do it, such as ringing a huge gong (Venom), completely drenching your GLB with water (Sandman), or by knowing the exact modulating frequency of the shriek and running a counter frequency (this is one of those long term things where they have to go, get hit, sample the sound, discover the sound breaks their silly weak machinery, find a specialist, save that specialist from the fridge they got trapped in, finally run the sample, discover the clue, build the device, THEN they use the device for three turns before the GLB adjusts and OH SNAP HIS HEAD EXPLODED!) ... where was I? Oh yes.

This is where we really start to ask, “HOW restrainable are we talking?” Restrainable on its own is -1/4, although depending on the ease by which something can be restrained could go up to -1/2, if its harder to release the condition, what have you. My other primary HERO character I created as my personal take on Venom, and based in part on a novel I read as a kid which I think was “A Mote In God’s Eye,” but it could have been a different book entirely. Anyway. Symbiote. All of his powers were restrainable, subject to sufficient magnetic fields (-1/4). 

It came up the exact same number of times I’ve been to the Moon. Zero. Now, -1/4 isn’t a big deal either way, but that’s neither here nor there. My point is that in the case described, Restrainable is redundant. You already have Incantations (-1/4), so anything that interferes with your GLBs ability to scream — lockjaw, paralysis, lack of transferable material, etc. etc. — already meets the condition. Restrainable is what you use when Gestures, Incantations, or whatever don’t cover all of the reasonable ways you/the NPC can be stopped.

Amusing side thought! You could also do this with Reduced Penetration. I’m not suggesting it, as much as this is exactly the kind of power —.a sonic shock wave — that could as its special effect be mitigated by armor, which absorbs and redistributes the damage wave, while leaving everyone fully susceptible to the STUN effect. Just bringing threads full circle.

Again, critical point, “could as its special effect.” Reason from effect, always. Maybe I’ll update a tag somewhere.

55 minutes ago, Ninja-Bear said:

I forgot that Shotguns are typically bought this way.

As my former manager has said to me in similar situations, @Ninja-Bear, “You’re lucky I was here!” 😉 (he always was a complete smart ass).

On 9/11/2020 at 5:13 AM, Sveta8 said:

Hello there! I'll get down to the meat of the question.

I'm currently working on a basic sort of stunning power. The goal is for an overwhelming being to let out a horrific screech to cause the enemy to falter in their tracts. Now, I've come across a few ways to do this and am curious on ya'lls takes on them. More specifically, as last time people grumbled for me asking which of a set of options was right... What of these powers would you not want to see at your table? Either for abuse, or thematic, or just that you don't like it.

 

Firstly, is the one with the least... ruling for it. Treat it as either a Radius or cone based Flash attack against both Hearing and Touch. A scream so strong it sends shakes through your bones! Now, neither of these are targeting senses normally, and thus, it really is up to the GM how effective this ability might end up being. But, that is the first option.

Secondly, is a Presence Attack. Presence specifically bought with the Area of Effect Advantage, likely Cone, that effects those in the area. There are already descriptions for how differing levels of successes may effect opponents, Large creatures naturally get some extra Presence that's paid for, and it effects things properly! Heck, if the points allow, could try to have either the Presence attack, or the Above Flash be set to Trigger off one another.  My problem with this one however... is action economy. Presence Attacks don't... really have a cost there, and I don't want to have an ability that could be seen rife with abuse.

Thirdly, is a Area of effect... Psychic Entangle! Likely low Defense on it as well as Body, but it is a very very solid way to prevent the foes from going anywhere, stopping them in their tracks and functionally restraining them for just a moment. Can even throw on the Adder of Stops a Sense group so that they can't hear while it's lingering. My concern with this option is simply that it feels furthest from the intent of the power. It is a (mental) force that stops them. I don't so much want to stop them, as simply hinder them deeply. It's like... I want to attack there sense of balance.

But, options I am missing, ones that are generally disliked... Feel free to inform or rant as you see fit.

Earlier I replied to one of your posts and I said “you are unlikely to ask stupid questions,” and here is proof I was right — this is a perfectly reasonable question, particularly for a newcomer to a system that “has so many ways to do things.” [insert thematically heavy sigh]. So let me dispel {HA!} that idea first; yes, there are lots of ways to achieve a specific effect, but usually, if you reason from effect, there’s a single, clear best option. When I do a build, and this is a hard earned lesson, much of which I attribute to @Chris Goodwin and @ghost-angel for beating that concept into my skull. It’s why if you read my posts, particularly my later posts after I’d done six or seven full game designs and overhauls, you’ll see that theme repeated: What exactly do you want it to do, and how exactly do you envision them doing it? Once I have those two pieces of information, I can usually cobble something together. Let’s get to it then. Oh, pet peeve; avoid negatives in your writing. Rather than ask “what of these don’t you want,” it’s much easier to ask “Which of these do you prefer?” This also makes it easier for people to respond as their thinking is normalized.

Where’s my hat? Ah, yes.

You have a GLB who’s throwing a “banshee like wail” into a crowd that strips STUN (and possibly blinds/deafens) the target/group. Here’s the critical point I want to address; your first concept is the one with the most concrete rules, I just don’t think you have the familiarity to get to it. It is a Flash Attack, which has a defined number of dice; you can also do it as Darkness if you want it to really wreck someone. Then you add your Area of Effect and sprinkle in some limitations et voila! Champagne.

Next up, PRE attack. A Presence attack sort of by its nature is an AOE, it doesn’t need to be purchased separately, but you certainly can do that. You can also link a power to the limitation “requires a stat roll,” — for me, I’ve used this aggressively to tie off an ability to a power, such as PRE, so those points do more work for the character. I think PRE attacks tend to be unreliable; one of my signature HERO characters, Aiden, was a young dragon. And by “young” I mean he was only 600 points or so, so doing a massive PRE attack was one of his big things, and it was always fun to roll 12d6, but more often than not, the result didn’t eclipse the target by enough points to make it worth while.

Your third choice, Entangle. I agree with you; what you are describing is not an Entangle.

So I think none of those represent what you described; I believe that this is an Energy Blast, No Body (-1/2?), Compound Power, Flash (Hearing). Power Link; one set of dice is rolled and it represents the effect for both powers — that’s a home brew rule, by the way, and one I absolutely swear by. So you have a 12d6 EB plus 12d6 Flash, you roll the dice once, and done. Makes things clean and consistent. The object of the power is to overwhelm the targets CON so they get stun-locked into place, and if they happen to also get their STUN dropped, great.

The other way to do this is an AOE Change Environment, where the scream is so powerful that it makes the terrain quiver and grinds movement to a halt; imagine a series of waves going so hard that you can see concrete warp beneath it. This should have AOE, Lingering Effect, and you can also add in +Perception modifiers making it nearly impossible to hear anything other than the scream. 

Let me know if either of those are closer to your original vision.

Eeyah, that’s confusing to read. Okay, so for my own amusement, I keep rewriting it in my head, but the upshot is, “determine maximum damage, then split the dice pool, apply it to BODY twice, and apply defenses against each attack.” So the question was, “what is this appropriate?” And the answer is, as with me it so often is, “IDK, what effect are you going for?” 

Examples where I think this is appropriate:

* Shottys. Everyone always brings it up, and I am certainly on that band wagon. My shotgun does KA, my bad guy is wearing armor, it’ll put him against the wall and ring his bell, but may not drop him outright

* HKAs. So maybe you purchase killing attacks for your martial arts, or that’s your special effect, whatever, having that killing damage reduced when it meets armor makes total sense to me.

* As a way to represent vehicle armor, in a weird, way; vs. armored vehicles, all non-vehicle class weapons suffer reduced penetration (campaign rule, -0).

* Some variations on very gnarly rubber bullets that may be built as RKAs with high STUNx but you might want to reinforce the idea they are “less lethal” — not to be confused with “non lethal.”

In short; is it weird? Yes. Is it useful? Yes. Certainly one of the more niche limitations in the game, but definitely holds its own in the sense of a clear, mechanical way to represent something that would otherwise require a lot more kludging.

15 hours ago, Sveta8 said:

In short, hello! I may ask stupid questions. I am more likely than not, not being sarcastic. Apologies! May the day find you well.

Any question asked in good faith with an open mind to hear the answer is not stupid. Note, I did not say there are no stupid questions; I’’m saying that you’re most assuredly not going to ask one. HERO is hard to break through, it’s alphabet soup with a dozen lightsaber builds and rabbit hole arguments as to why “everything is a transform” (it’s not) lurking around every corner. Have no fear, we’ll help you navigate those waters. 

Welcome. 

On 10/15/2015 at 10:16 AM, bluesguy said:

It was suggested that maybe we create a thread for new people who are posting and especially for lurkers.

 

So here is what I would like to suggest everyone post as an introduction:

 

• How did you come up with your 'handle' (forum name)?
• What was the first tabletop RPG you played?
• What was the first tabletop RPG you GMed?
• What are you currently playing/GMing?

I hope this thread gets pinned.

 

The Lord Captain Thia Halmades is a signature character I created for my fantasy setting; I liked the name and kept it. Someday, I’ll change it, but then how would anyone recognize me?

My first table top was Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D/2nd Edition) at the tender age of “I’m too young to fully understand what’s going on,” but old enough to “not eat the dice.” AD&D was also the first game I ever successfully ran at summer camp. Even then, when I’m supposed to be getting exercise and meet girls, what did I bring? D&D books.

I am currently in a 5th Ed D&D game, and loving it. Should I get a chance to run HERO again, it will be my Persona setting.

Pinning of threads is outside of my skill set, and I do not get a roll.

Thia Halmades eyes you warily, uncertain of your intentions!

I don’t think that’s naked strength, just characteristic strength. I’m quibbling, but Naked has a specific sub-function which escapes me because IDHMBIFOM. That said, what everyone else posted is correct. The other way to go about it is to have an END Battery “only for feats of strength.” END is cheap. However.

I would also submit it may make the most sense, campaign/game wise, to not change a thing. It’s a Troll. Buy up the strength characteristic, and then buy up END to whatever the Troll Characteristic Maxima is, since it’s likely over 50. Call it 75 or 100 or whatever is appropriate and off you go. Consider that historically, Trolls aren’t fast; odds are good its Speed is going to cap at 4. So even swinging twice per round, 14 END per swing, 40... 16.... 56? Max in a turn? Before REC? Even Trolls have to resource manage. I would want to understand the goal; is it to not resource manage, or is it to feel “troll like” in strength and application? Because a high END and REC can do wonders for that.

2 hours ago, archer said:

If you're in a shipwreck, the equipment you bought with points just happens to wash up on shore with you (else the GM finds some other way to compensate you for the points which were lost along with the equipment).

 

On the other hand, the equipment you bought with gold most likely went down with the ship or you had to drop in order to swim.

 

 

If there was one truly bizarre HERO trope I would utterly ditch without hesitation, it would be this. I remember reading it when I joined, and every time I see it my hackles go up. And I mean no offense, @archer because that’s what everyone has always said, but to my original point, it very likely ain’t so, for a whole bunch of reasons. Not the least of which is, how often are you in a ship wreck and land with nothing? Rarely. In a super heroic game, sure. The Silver Gunman finds his guns — that were bought as OIF, or that lack the focus limitation at all. It’s not about the points, it’s about the application of those points and reasoning from effect.

So to your point, if I bought Arsenal as a perk, where I can return to base and equip myself with any OAF gun up to X class, I agree it’s reasonable to find a similar store house on the island. Or, maybe I don’t, because the island is a story beat and it’s more interesting to watch a character who is reliant on heavy weapons trying to get off an island with nothing more than a coconut radio. There’s as many reasons to suspend something as there are to provide it. Especially things bought as OAF, or OIF (and I would argue plane - ocean - island is a reasonable way to end up disarmed). 

On 8/15/2020 at 12:51 PM, Gandalf970 said:

We are using criticals where if you roll your attack skill by 10 you crit.  I had someone ask if it would work for magic as well?  Is this too powerful?  Second question would you allow someone with Nightvision to use a mirror and still get Nightvision.

 

Please answer these as your world and what YOU would do.

@Chris Goodwinbeat me to this when he pointed out that under RAW, a crit occurs when you beat your target by half (in favor of the defender, so rounded down); this is what I’ve always used and it works very well, particularly given how much manipulating of the numbers can be done by skilled players. In your system as proposed, I’d be looking at a pretty wide gap between OCV & DCV and that’s before application of CSLs or other modifiers like Surprise. Not saying it can’t work, just far less often. Also bearing in mind that you have a 0.5% (IIRC) of rolling 3 (that very specific combination; there’s a broader chance to roll any combination of 3 of a kind, but a materially smaller chance to get that exact one).

To the question you didn’t ask, a Critical Hit in my games doubles damage rolled. I’ve fiddled with different iterations of this, but I found doubling the dice to be the most entertaining; oh, and if you’re using rolled STUNx, double that and take the higher value. If you’re using the damage chart (almost forgot this) then by every two over the crit threshold, I allow players to adjust their targeting roll by 1.  So, on a crit, you roll a 12, you can move it to 13. 

Your second question is messier, because it all depends on what you mean by night vision. However as my games tend to be bouncy science in application, my answer is “no,” because the mirror needs to have something significant to reflect. If you can’t see it with normal vision, then the mirror can’t see it, and I’m pointing my eyes at the mirror and seeing what it’s reflecting, not bouncing my dark vision off the mirror, because my eyes are receptive, not emissive.

On 9/6/2020 at 3:14 PM, PaladinAg said:

Hi, I've recently spread my wings from Champions to Fantasy Hero and inspired by "The Last Kingdom", I feel inspired to do a low/semi-epic fantasy set in a divided land (although more later medieval rather than Saxon period). Most of the setting information I've seen available is for High Fantasy campaigns, not for low fantasy and I would welcome thoughts on creating one. I would particularly welcome thoughts on low power/subtle magic systems, which would mostly be employed by NPCs.

Low power magic generally means divination, long incantations, curses, hexes and alchemy. I would point to Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, particularly film one, for what low magic looks like; Gandalf is pretty nerfed compared to what he can do in the books. Prophecy also tends to make itself known. In terms of a low magic system, I know I’m going to sound like a broken record when I say this, “What do you want people to be capable of?” And on the heels of that question, “What is the thematic source of this magic?” I need both of those to provide a reasonable answer. But. As I’m late and speed posting, here’s a combination:

1) The Touched. Those who are “touched” are highly sought after, and for all the traditional trope reasons. Some folk want to hire them, some want to own them, some want to set them free somewhere... far far away from where they are. Some want to kill ‘em. The Touched all have something in common: near death experiences where they made a permanent link with the energy wall between worlds. This tends to manifest as classic divination magic, but has other manifestations.

2) You cannot create a Touched on purpose. People keep trying. No one knows why, or how, the Touched come to be and that includes themselves. Some people are born that way, some get it after nearly dying, but interestingly, no one who has sought to become one has ever succeeded. The energy has some kind of will, and it cannot be chosen, only choose.

3) I see dead people.

4) I see the future seven seconds at a time, giving me combat precognition. I see a soul who is about to die and I can through great effort, redirect them — Battle Meditation. I can place a curse on a family line; I can infuse a mundane item with magical energy.

5) I cannot cast any spell in less than 10 minutes. 

6) I am actually a conduit for magic; good old fashioned 6th element magic. But it was sealed away by time and ignorance. Which is why no one can choose it, because none of them know what they’re looking for.

So, there’s a few ideas to kick about.