Supreme

Re: Hope This Works You should submit this to Digital HERO!

Yeah, just a touch outside human limits. Not that that kept me from buying some armor and other chi-assisted movement powers. But these are basic necessities for a 350pt character. I also realized that I left out rapid attack, and multiple attacks (two-handed fighting?, are these different?). He's got to be able to do the old Jackie Chan leap up and kick two people at once. I'm working on an image of Iron Cricket at home beating up two thugs at once. Watch for it. Thanks for the Copious Compliments Supreme, Vimes. It's funny, this thread hasn't gotten much response, but the files have been downloaded dozens of times. I guess people are digging on the character sheet.

Well said, Trebuchet. However, I do believe there is something to be said for the concern that when we no longer risk lives on the battlefield we may become even more capricious in declaring war. Of course it also means that we'll not have to sacrifice ourselves for war either. Personally, I think that the more we use robots for things like war and space travel, the more dissatisfied with life all of us will become. We'll feel like there's no chance for personal glory anymore. Don't take any of this to mean that I'm for or against robot soldiers (though I am against robot astronauts). It's just a Prediction Supreme about the consequences of such an advancement. Every advacement in technology brings with it a change in our society, our perceptions, and our values.

I brought this up once before, but I didn't get much of a response. How disadvantageous is being 'Watched' as opposed to a full-blown hunted? I mean, really, since they don't do anything but watch you, what's the danger or problem. The only time I ever saw a watched character have a problem with his watchers was when he took "IRS" as a watched and they showed up one day to audit him and search the house. He had to go through some hoops to keep the IRS from discovering his hidden base, and he had to miss a significant encounter to handle this.

As Chaosliege mentioned, it would be copyright infringement for HERO to publish "official" conversions of characters. And Marvel and DC both have their own RPGs, so allowing such conversions would undermine their own games, and violate any contract that they had with the game-makers. Of course someone could easily sit down and work out system-to-system conversions based upon what each games stats are supposed to mean in real terms (i.e., to lift 100 tons is a 60 STR in HERO, but in Marvel RPG its...). Of course you may want to base a character's write up on the most recent "Universe" book from DC or Marvel (I think DC's "Universe" book was called "Who's Who"). I would trust such a conversion over what's published in one of the other RPG books, as the people who write those are not necessarily die-hard enthusiasts like the rest of us. My problem with most of the write-ups I've seen is that the older and more beloved the character is, the more insane the write-up. I'm sorry, I know I'm going to get flamed for this, but I just do not believe that Batman has a 30 DEX. That is 4x the human limit (with the doubling every 5 points rule). 20 DEX with 8 overall levels, sure. But not 30.

Re: Need help with a character idea Well, since the entire concept is based upon the phoenix, the "phoenix" should at least be a part of the name. Something like "Red Phoenix" or something. Failing that you could do a resurrection theme like "Lazarus" or something. As for powers, you could do this as a multiform activated when you get knocked unconscious. I'm not 100% on the rules of STUN loss from form to form, but if the second form has enough STUN you should snap back. Of course, if your GM does STUN loss as a percentage of total STUN, then you'd be just as unconscious. You may also consider a host of powers, including a STUN boost that kicks in when you're knocked out. That would probably mean less book-keeping, and fewer rejections from your GM.

And here's a sort of blah sketch I did of him with Heromachine.

Yeah, though stolen heavily from "Two Towers" it did bring something of a chill to even my Spine Supreme. Makes you wonder how much more power the ancient guys were going to offer her. Maybe they would have turned her into what she became at the end of Season Four. Yeesh!

For those of you who are interested, I've taken in all the suggestions posted here and posted the resulting character under "Iron Cricket" in this board area.

And this is Iron Cricket's origin story.

All right! Attached is the fruit of all the labor from the "Martial Arts Suggestions" thread. It's a very rough draft. I don't have the book with me, so I'm just guessing the cost of most of the talents (I don't usually buy talents). Feel free to set me straight on the various costs.

Sure, the password for making changes is "password".

Sorry, I'm on the Atkins diet. No pizza for me. Ribs are fine, though.

Here 'tis. Keep in mind a couple of things. 1. This was formatted for Excel 97. Other versions of Excel, particularly for the Mac, are going to treat margins, column widths, and comment field dimensions differently so resizing may be necessary. 2. I still haven't updated the sheet for 5th Ed. Thus disads will not include Social Disadvantages. However, typing "Secret ID" or "Public ID" into the disads list will still generate the appropriate number of points. 3. READ THE COMMENTS. Without them you'll be quite lost. Feel free to give this a try. If you spot any bugs, let me know. I also have to share credit for creating this sheet with my Friend Supreme, Peter. He helped me devise the auto-populating lists which, among other things, updates the maneuvers list when you buy martial arts maneuvers. Enjoy!

Ah there's nothing like myths for hyperbole, huh? The Earth itself is only 8000 miles across and 25000 miles in circumference. 108,000 miles is nearly half the distance from the Earth to the Moon. I should have a write up of Iron Cricket later today (work looks like its going to be boring again).

I made a stretching character once that I never got to play (sigh). I gave him telescopic vision and hearing, and discriminatory smell, all defined as stretching his particular sensory organs. I applied concentrate and END use as limitations. I got the idea from DC's Elongated Man.

Sounds like the Japanese "Gunsmoke". Yes, grasshopper powers would be cool, but not where I'm going to go with this. His abilities are all going to be martial-arts and associated talents. Though I might give him a little Chi Kung based leaping and armor, just for sheer necessity.

Re: "Every team needs a fire guy" I thought Igni was the Greek fire god. Generally, I don't like to name characters after classical characters with such tragic stories. Of course that does limit my options quite a bit. I don't know if I agree with the statement that every team needs a fire guy. But I've rarely seen a team without a brick.

Well, curious and meddlesome -- or "troublemaking". I did some more digging and found that the cricket was seen as a symbol for a courageous "warrior spirit". I like it because its unusual and a little humble-sounding to my western ears. So i'm going to go for one of the following: Iron Cricket Red Cricket Bamboo Cricket Jade Cricket Red Jade Cricket Golden Cricket I'm kind of leaning towards either Iron Cricket, or Red Cricket. Red is supposed to be an "anti-evil" color. Of course Bamboo also represents integrity (as opposed to growing one inch a day). As for all the weapons and what-not I'm leaning away from those. My evolving concept for the character is that a group of good-guy Chinese martial-arts mystics were preparing to implant a "golden egg" of martial wisdom and might into a guy they had been grooming for the role of champion for many years. Unfortunately, the forces of evil managed to assassinate him. Forced to find a new vessel quickly, the mystics scrambled and found the most viable candidate (based upon proximity, familial relations, and pureness of heart). What they found was Albert Chan, a comic-book reading American-born third cousin of the originally intended vessel. Al has been imbued with the spiritual energy of the "Golden Egg" meaning that he has the martial wisdom of centuries. Unfortunately, Al's own personal "wisdom" can sometimes be a bit of a problem.

I'm not too worried about the points. I've been playing this game for almost 20 years. The average other player in the game has been playing for 20 months. So the pressure to make the most point-packed character is significantly reduced. Plus, I rather enjoy the sport of making a deliberately inefficient character work. Also, I wouldn't allow MA maneuvers in an MP, so I shouldn't try to make a character with the same. So it seems like everyone is recommending (in order of posted frequency): Defense Maneuver ("Blind Fighting" is Defense Maneuver, right?) Combat Sense Find Weakness Analyze Style What do people think of "Rapid Attack"?

Interesting point about the Commandments. Though isn't #10 "Don't take the LORD's name in vain?" Wouldn't that be more about our relationship with Yahweh, or is it simply a matter of proper conversation? Glad you like the Susceptibility. The thing about Watched for me is that I can't see how it's a disadvantage (and the fact that so many people use it tends to support that idea, I think) unless the watcher periodically sells their info on you to other enemies. I doubt an angel would be capable of doing that (divine beings not being able to sin or tempt others to sin and all).

Re: Re: Martial Artist Suggestion I'm well aware of the awesome accomplishment that is the UMA. I pprogrammed all of the maneuvers listed there into my character-generator spreadsheet. You just type in the name of the maneuver and it appears on your maneuvers list complete with adjustments for OCV, DCV, and all DCs. It also has the cost listed so you can type it in. For this guy, I'm just putting in all of the non-redundant (i.e., I'm only buying one block, not all three) maneuvers I can stand. That comes to about 35 points or so.

Re: New Campaign PC Issues Being concerned about the enjoyment of the players is good GMing, but meddling without being asked it bad GMing. Talk to them about it. If they're not enjoying the game because they're so low-powered let them upgrade with a "radiation accident" or something. Also, more experienced players can get a lot more out of their characters.

Well, according to the site, the Monkey King is a master of disguise, and is generally representative of curiosity. Not what I'm going for.

Awesome! My Thanks Supreme, Liaden!