Supreme

Re: New Player + Speedster = ? The very reason I recommend bricks for first-timers. Everyone knows what a brick does (once you explain the term). They hit people!

Re: Need help with Super Patriot Pick a stat (STR, STUN, END, PRE, etc.). Buy Aid to that stat, area effect, selective targets (we assume he doesn't want to inspire his opponents). Put this as an ultra slot in an MP. The other ultra slot is a much larger AID to his own stats.

Re: "Primitive" Disads Well, I've discussed the various ideas with the Wife Supreme, and the one she seems to like best is "cannot distinguish between magic and technology." Now, what do you all think this is worth, and in what sorts of situations do you see this becoming a problem?

Re: another super-teen campaign w/ a shot of whiskey I ran a campaign once, where the PCs were all students at a boarding school who ran afoul of a scientific accident (when will Henry Pym finally retire???) and became super-heroes. The campaign focused quite a bit on their struggles to maintain their secret identities and get around the curfew rules.

Re: The Master List of Limitations Heh. I was just looking at your lists of "If I were the Hero..." Reminds me of a similar list I cooked up a while ago. Here's one you can add: If I were the Hero... When I'm auditioning for a side-kick, plucky kids, cute puppies, and accident-prone monkeys need not apply. Rott Weilers, tamed Alien monsters, and professional heavy-weight wrestlers are preferred.

Re: The Master List of Limitations WM, you continue to be one of the more crucial online contributors to the hobby. Thanks Supreme!

Re: New Player + Speedster = ? The most consistent complaint I've gotten from new-to-HERO players is that there are too many stats to focus on; too much stuff to keep track of. They've already got 14 characteristics, four charactertistic rolls (usually), four combat values, and so on and so forth. If their character also has 20 things on their list of Powers, skills, etc. that gets to be a bit much. For new players keeping that list down to less than six is optimal. The suggestion I always make to new players -- and none of them have taken it yet -- is to play a brick. This is especially good to people who are new to RPGs in general. Bricks are the most point-efficient, the easiest to conceptualize, and easiest to build with less than six things in Powers, etc. Let 'em take heapings of characteristics, a little Damage Resistance and some extra leaping, and you're done.

Re: Opinion poll I don't think that the DEF+BODY in dice should be exceeded. Hit something with a hammer as hard as you can. Now hit it with a dowel of balsa wood. 'nuff said.

Re: "Primitive" Disads True, people don't generally develop counting until they develop pastoralism (how many cattle?). Though I don't think the Wife Supreme wants to become completely useless. Besides, you could argue that some HG tribes will develop counting, such as when they barter with other tribes.

Re: "Primitive" Disads Excellent - and depressing - point. I think that we'll probably have one player in the group be filthy rich to help support her and pay for all the stuff she breaks.

Re: Assistance Needed The problem that I always had for this concept, the Batcave especially, is: how did it get built in the first place??? Something like the Batcave would have taken a crew of about thirty men a year to build -- minimum. As for your "Three Rooms and a Crime-Fighter" scenario, how did he build it? Did he have someone do it for him? If so, how does he deal with the fact that this construction crew knows he has a secret panel in his condo apartment? Is suppose he could subtly give them the idea that it was some kind of sexual-fetish playpen, and then suffer the usual rumors.

Re: Some holding phases questions... That's not a bad house rule. I just might adopt that...

Re: Some holding phases questions... To the best of my knowledge, actions cannot be held past the post-phase-12 cut-off, though I don't know why. 5th Ed. might have changed that. You can set up a haymaker on 12, I've done it many times. However, the target can abort their next phase on phase 1 to dodge, block, or activate a defensive power.

Re: "Primitive" Disads Didn't mean to offend. Just dutifully regurgitating all the stuff I heard in classes that I'm still paying for.

Re: "Primitive" Disads

Re: "Primitive" Disads That is friggin' brilliant! We both loved that sketch. RIP, Phil Hartman. She's eight feet tall (the runt of the litter) and blue (your kinda gal). Not sure that she should take both Distinctive Features: primitive and DS: 8' tall and blue. The social lims seem appropriate. I also thought it would be applicable in the sense that most people will assume she's too stupid to understand the most basic things. Stone-age, nomadic, hunter-gatherer, creates fire, animisitc, all cloth comes from a special kind of bark found only on her home planet. Yeah, I was wanting to keep her from loading too many of them on and especially the high-point stuff in case she wants to buy them off later. She should probably avoid taking disads for things that the character will learn eventually. And the anonymity perk is not an option for obvious reasons. One of the things that my mind was trying to wrap around about this is the difference in spiritual thought between the hunter-gatherers and us. According to anthropologists, HGs do not ever distinguish between the sacred and the profane - or at least non-sacred. To them everything they do, from eating to pooping to making love is all done in reference to their mythology. "I brush my teeth, as Gkjcslnsflh brushed his teeth in the before-time," and so on. Not sure if that's a disad, or a footnote.

The Wife Supreme is making a character who is an alien from a hunter-gatherer culture who gets transported to Earth in 1961. Aside from the usual, "Ignorant of Earth Culture" disad, and any of you think of other disads that would be associated with coming from such a culture? One that I thought of would be "Unable to Distinguish Magic from Technology." Any other suggestions?

Re: Invisible to Infrared only Ah, yes, Sorry Supreme. More expensive, but comprehensive. Still, needs more tweaking in the area of inclusiveness. What's to prevent you from, for instance, saying "invisible to non-visible EM spectrum" which would cover IR, UV, and radar.

Re: Need Help Building a Disadvantage I haven't worked with the "Side Effects" limitation much, but can't you specify a particular effect, like a Dex drain with a specific recovery time?

Re: Invisible to Infrared only Not IR hearing, but Detect IR should also not detect the character. I guess your IR Radar should cover that (since radar itself is built off of detect). Perhaps someone ought to come up with an invisibility vs a particular special effect...

Re: First game question Let me share with you my observations on 20 years of playing this game... Battles with One Big Villain The villain almost always loses unless the GM loads him with attacks that work against all of the PCs weaknesses (a gun that shoots Kryptonite, fire, AND yellow paint???). The advantages are that battles with one big villain are shorter, and the players (especially new ones) feel really great at defeating such a terrible menace. Battles with a Villain Group Here the odds are better for the side of evil, especially since the villains are really operating with one mind -- the GM. The disadvantage here is that the combats take a loooooooooonnnnnnnnngggggg time. Suggestions: have most or all of your villains have the same speed, use a speed chart, pre-generate all of your damage rolls (if you can't find an app online, just spend a few hours before the game and roll 10D6, 12D6, etc. about 20 times each and record the resulting Body and Stun damage). Superman is no Fun Without Kryptonite I've just observed from a lot of your recent threads that you seem to have players bent on making powers that have absolute effects: invisible to all senses, never misses, etc. Bad idea. Suffering makes us feel for characters, not unmatched success. Require your characters to have weaknesses and holes in their abilities then exploit them -- sparingly. Exploit their weaknesses enough to make them sweat, then make them work for their victory.

Re: Need Help with Some Villain "Lackeys" Don't dis the Lantern, dude. That's thin ice you're skatin' on, buster. Interesting stuff. The banshee is a good one, except I was hoping to keep this to Eastern European legends, the idea being that the Kirbanian UFO is actually the source of these myths. The golem is an interesting one, though golems are supposed to be protectors. Of course it could be that the Kirbanian UFO created one or more golems, which various Kabalah mystics discovered and bent to their will. Hurm...

Re: Dealing with Invisible Heroes I think "Detect: Motion" would be more plausible and work just as well.

Re: Need Help with Some Villain "Lackeys" I'd have to say no to that and make the Kirbian vamps more Whedon-esque.

Re: Invisible to Infrared only I think you should just be able to buy it with points equal to what you would pay for it as an adder.