ArgusSK

Hi all...Steve just let me know in the rules questions forum that the rules for improvised weapons have changed from 5E to 6E. I know nothing about 6E...can anyone encapsulate for me what the difference is? My complaint is that according to the 5E rules, if a superhero hits someone with a car, they just do their normal STR damage. That seems a bit silly to me as I would think smashing someone over the head with two tons of steel should hurt more than just punching them...but hey, comics don't have to be realistic to be fun...has this concept changed much in 6E? Thanks.

Hi Steve. I'm a bit confused by the rules in superheroic campaigns about using objects as improvised weapons. If I hit someone with a baseball bat, I'll do a lot more damage than I would with my fist. Similarly, shouldn't it hurt more if a superhero hits a villain with a car or a streetlight or something, as opposed to just punching? The rule states that the maximum damage that can be done is the character's regular STR damage, up to the object's DEF+BODY. Am I missing something here?

Hey all, One of my PCs has a mentalist with Invisibility to normal sight and sound. In a recent combat, his opponent used Growth to become 8" tall. Due to being Ego Attacked, the giant knew the mentalist was in the room somewhere, but didn't know where. I was going to have him simply kneel down and whip his huge arm across the floor in an attempt to land a lucky blow, since he had no idea where to target. What maneuver/rules would you use for something like that? I was thinking maybe a Sweep maneuver, but that generally has to do with targeting more than one opponent, and the giant wasn't really targeting anything. Would he get to use Area Effect? Just attack with 0 OCV? What if he doesn't aim anywhere near the mentalist's true location (i.e. turns the wrong way)?

On CH p. 134, it says "if an attack against an Entangle does the remaining BODY of the Entangle or more (but less than twice the remaining BODY), the character is free and may perform a Half Phase Action." Am I then right in assuming that the attack used to escape the Entangle does not count as an attack action for the phase (meaning that it has to be the last action taken)? Does that mean that the Entangled character could fire his Energy Blast to escape the Entangle, then fire it again at an opponent in the same phase? Thanks!

Is there a hand-to-hand version of Missile Reflection, like something that would bounce an attacker's damage back at them? Has anyone come up with a build for this sort of thing? My terribly complex version involves a variable power pool to mimic the attacker's power, bought as kind of a damage shield...yech...

A couple of the heroes in my campaign have an Entangle attack that is causing a lot of headaches. Besides not getting hit or hiding behind a Force Wall, is there any defense out there that you have used against Entangle attacks? (For the curious, one of the special effects is a cable gun, one is an ice attack, and another is a focused paralysis beam.)

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... I'm in the middle of drawing the map for the players to see, when one comes out with, "We're in Ottawa. Shouldn't you write the word 'bunker' in French and English?" The map of Department H quickly became unreadable...

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Our Brazilian heroine, Arana, spotted some "erratic flashings" in the jungle with her ultraviolet vision (it was a lightning elemental). The word "erratic" sounds like something totally different when spoken with a Brazilian accent...

Re: Your Hero Web Page Here's our blog. Please have a look and enjoy, and feel free to post comments and suggestions...we're new at this! This is the link to the welcome page, and within that, you will find links to the actual episode summaries, characters, etc. http://www.protopage.com/championscanada

Re: Comics you loved...but apparently no one else did Apparently my tastes have changed as I've aged, because all the "good oldies" I remember are Marvel, but all I read now is DC! (By the way, can anyone actually recommend an X-book as being worthwhile?) I must echo Alpha Flight -- at least the first half of the series or so (poor Guardian) -- as I have the entire run. Fun stuff. I also guiltily enjoyed Power Pack, and get a funny look from the comic shop owner whenever I buy the back issues I'm missing... Also, another vote for Infinity, Inc.! I thought this was an excellent series that didn't try to make too much of the "Earth-Two" gobbledygook (oops, that's DC, isn't it?). I actually wrote up the entire cast of villains for Champions...if I remember right, Mr. Bones ended up costing something like 750 points...

Re: Was watching Superman TAS and wondered about Mxyzptlk Slightly unrelated question (although I am enjoying this thread!!): You mentioned finding comics online. The only place I have managed to uncover any is through lovely sainted people who scan their collections in and share them over person-to-person services like eMule. Is there another locale I can find comics online that you are aware of? Argus -too cheap for my own good (or at least the good of the local comics store)

Re: Dr. Destroyer monologue I'm glad you mentioned that...I had brought the page to work and was about to type it in to post it here! Do enjoy...I find it works really well to speak into a plastic pail to give Dr. Destroyer that Darth Vader-type ring to his speech!

I know there was a previous thread that dealt with this, but I CAN'T FIND IT! If a mentalist does a Telepathy or Mind Scan attempt that fails, does the target always know about it? What if it's the ECV attack roll that fails, not the effect roll? What I'm getting at is, is there any way (apart from Invisible Power Effects) to fail at an attempt without the target knowing about it? What would the target know, exactly?

Hi Steve, Dumb question: Does Hand-to-Hand Attack damage add to Martial Arts damage? 5ER p. 184 says it does, but Hero Designer doesn't add them together. (For instance, a 40 STR character would normally do 10d6 damage with a Martial Strike (+2d6); if she also has 3d6 Hand-to-Hand Attack, does that make the Martial Strike 13d6?) Thanks!

Re: Help w/ Drain I might do this by purchasing the Drain with the "no range" limitation instead of the Trigger, since Drain needs an attack roll anyway. By the letter of the rules, the Charges would be expended whether you hit or not, although if you Link this power to your sword, you could choose whether or not to use the Drain portion and still attack with the sword as usual.

Re: Dogfight rules -- do they work? You're absolutely right that description and storytelling should take precedence over rules. I think it sounds like a blast to try out a WWII biplane dogfight! My main concern has been wondering whether anyone can actually hit their opponent using this system. With all the penalties to OCV, it seems that it would be very difficult, and dogfight battles might end up going on a very long time. Opinions on that?

I was browsing through the Dogfight section (5ER p. 474) and planning for an ambush on my PCs' super-jet on their next trip. It seems from the rules, though, that it would be REALLY hard to hit your opponent! Between the massive range difference potential and always having at least a -2 to your OCV (and -4 more commonly), not to mention vehicles having to use their own OCV instead of the gunner's, it looks like it would just be a successive series of misses. Has anyone tried these rules out, and do they actually work? Any suggestions for an alternative?

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... GM describing a new supervillian: "She is dressed in a purple outfit, and she is OBVIOUSLY wearing a tiara that is helping her to FOCUS her powers..."

Re: Dropping Da Bomb, continued Thanks so much for your input, everyone! Excellent points. RE: the mass problem, I forgot to mention that the Shrinking is bought with a -1/2 limitation "Only useable at full strength, does not affect mass." The special effect is that his molecules get packed closer together, but his mass increases proportionately (just as the desolidification is spreading his molecules further apart). Actually, this idea came about from Marvel's original Power Pack comic (Jack Power, The Mighty Mass Master!). My player is less of a munchkin than someone trying to emulate a comic book character...I just wasn't a whole lot of help during the character creation process...

Originally posted on Rules Questions. Any more input would be much appreciated! Thanks all... I'm a GM with a player running a character "Da Bomb." Here are his main powers (in an EC): 40 points Desolidification (turns into a cloud form) 10" Flight linked to Desolidification 50 points Shrinking (condenses molecules) 30 points Density Increase linked to Shrinking His main attack is to fly over someone in cloud form, then drop on them. I originally ruled that he gets regular STR damage, which with his Density Increase is 8d6 (from his regular 10 STR plus 30 STR for the Density Increase), and also added damage as per 5ER 436 for dropped objects. Since his Density Increase causes him to weigh 6,400 kg, it would take a 40 STR to lift him, so that causes an additional 8d6 damage for a total of 16d6. My problems are: 1. 16d6 is a lot of damage for my campaign! Am I calculating this correctly? Do you have any alternate suggestions for how to calculate this damage? I did make a rule that he has to make a Breakfall roll to avoid taking damage himself, but that hasn't helped much so far... 2. If he starts his phase having Shrunk, his DCV is about 16. Until he acts, he is really hard to hit, at which time it appears he can take a 0-phase action to become Desolid, half-move fly to his target, take another 0-phase action to activate his Shrinking and Density Increase, and drop again. This makes him effectively unstoppable as he can't really be hit (except by mental powers or Explosions and the like). Am I missing something here, or do the rules allow this? Thanks for wading through this... Steve’s reply: Well, first off, ultimately it's up to you as GM to rule on how you want things to work. If something seems "wrong," or it's doing too much damage for your comfort threshold, forbid it or change it. 1. If a heavy character just wants to drop on someone, he does damage as if he's a falling object -- he doesn't get to add his STR or anything like that. And since the character has fallen himself, he also takes the full falling damage he inflicts on his target. If he wants to add STR while drop-attacking, he has to define the attack as a Move Through, with the attendant OCV and DCV penalties and the other restrictions (liking taking some damage himself). Use the Falling rules to determine his velocity, or if you prefer adopt some other method that makes sense to you. 2. Keep in mind that the rules generally forbid a character to both activate and de-activate a power in the same Phase (5ER 103). If he turns on his Desolidification early in the Phase, he can't turn it off after making a Half Move so he can now attack -- he has to stay Desolidified the entire Phase. Beyond these basic rules points, I'd suggest posting your problem on the "Discussion" board so other GMs can offer suggestions and advice. If you have any follow-up questions for me, feel free to post 'em here. __________________ Steve Long HERO System Line Developer

I'm a GM with a player running a character "Da Bomb." Here are his main powers (in an EC): 40 points Desolidification (turns into a cloud form) 10" Flight linked to Desolidification 50 points Shrinking (condenses molecules) 30 points Density Increase linked to Shrinking His main attack is to fly over someone in cloud form, then drop on them. I originally ruled that he gets regular STR damage, which with his Density Increase is 8d6 (from his regular 10 STR plus 30 STR for the Density Increase), and also added damage as per 5ER 436 for dropped objects. Since his Density Increase causes him to weigh 6,400 kg, it would take a 40 STR to lift him, so that causes an additional 8d6 damage for a total of 16d6. My problems are: 1. 16d6 is a lot of damage for my campaign! Am I calculating this correctly? Do you have any alternate suggestions for how to calculate this damage? I did make a rule that he has to make a Breakfall roll to avoid taking damage himself, but that hasn't helped much so far... 2. If he starts his phase having Shrunk, his DCV is about 16. Until he acts, he is really hard to hit, at which time it appears he can take a 0-phase action to become Desolid, half-move fly to his target, take another 0-phase action to activate his Shrinking and Density Increase, and drop again. This makes him effectively unstoppable as he can't really be hit (except by mental powers or Explosions and the like). Am I missing something here, or do the rules allow this? Thanks for wading through this...

If a character is trying to run between two opponents who do not act on that phase, is there anything stopping him? Is there such a thing as an "attack of opportunity" as someone runs by? It seems silly that the opponents would just stand there and watch the character go past them.