phoenix240

Re: The Upgrade Sorry, I mean if someone lived in the area while the effects of the Upgrade were taking place they would recieve it as well. I didn't want anyone assuming that only "real Americans" or some other odd criteria applied. Its purel geographich (I suppose if someone lived in near complete isolation in the region they would not receive it but such individuals would be pretty rare). The Upgrade process lasted for about two years.

Re: THE BOOK OF THE EMPRESS -- What Do *You* Want To See? She seems like the kind of character that would BE the campaign.

Saw this on rpg.net and it sounded interesting but the thread quickly got derailed into a political argument and lecture on why anywhere but the US would be more interesting then fell into oblivion. So I thought I'd try posting it here and see if it more productive. To forestall any flames or rants, this is not intended to insult, belittle or ignore anyone home nation or propose that the US is innately superior or more deserving than anyone else. It's just an idea for a fictional setting/premise for a game. Suppose a naive supergenius doped the population of the US/North America with a battery of chemicals and handwavium that caused them to be genetically enhanced across the board, sort of like giving everyone the Super Soldier treatment that created Capt. America. Faster, stronger, healthier, with longer lives and greatly enhanced resistance to disease, able to fight of degenerative illness like cancer and Alzheimer’s with smaller but significant mental enhancements like near perfect recall and heightened senses. In Hero System terms everyone would get 8-10 points add to their base Characteristics across the board, more of they're already strong in those areas genetically or work to improve themselves up to the human maximum. Someone who was a genius originally would be smarter, an athletic more physically developed and a person that pushed or tried to develop their abilities would benefit more from the upgrade. The changes are genetic and would be passed on to off spring. Anyone in the geographic location for longer than a few weeks would be affected as well. What happens in the US and across the world?

Re: THE BOOK OF THE EMPRESS -- What Do *You* Want To See? V'han, of all the master villains, probably has one of the largest or at least motivated cadre of turncoats and sympathizers among the hero and civilian populations that know about her. You can make a good argument that letting her conquer Earth isn't a bad thing. An examination of this network would be interesting, maybe even a campaign seed where the PCs ARE a part of it, trying to help the Empress conquer the world for its own good either overtly or covertly. Conversely, it seems like there must be some rebellion in her emprire, some internal enemies that could be potential allies or the PCs could be part of this "Rebel Alliance" come to Earth, the only realm to stymie V'han, so much in centuries, for help...

Has anyone ever run a campaign based on really young supers like Power Pack or PS 238? How did it go?

Re: Gremlin

Re: Gremlin Okay, I thought the effect might be tied into the name "gremlin". I can't really think of any big advantage to them but others might come up with a few. Perhaps some extra Leaping since he's lighter than his frame might suggest. If he can fly/glide the hollow ones might be part of the rationalization for how he pulls it off (like the X-men's Angel).

Re: Physical Strength that affects the whole object... FWIW in one "supers in the real world" campaign we used a +1/4 Advantage for powers in general "Comic book physics apply" as a House rule. It worked pretty well.

Re: Physical Strength that affects the whole object... Well, I know I didn't see it there since I haven't read that book.

Re: Gremlin Meadyon, Are you trying to model a character that is immune to "high tech" weapons like laser cannon, Stun rays, etc? That's the impression I got from the thread title and requested powers.

Re: Gremlin The character might have a Vulernability to crushng/falling/Knockback damage. He'd be physically lighter and might take more KB. Benefits would vary. Whatever you think might stem from being lighter... more Swimming?

Re: ADVANCED PLAYER'S GUIDE II -- What Do *You* Want To See? That's why I used quotes. Char rolls might be used in a manner similar to saving throws in that other system as mechanic in Heroic games and having some general guidelines for that would be quite helpful as well a general discusssion of characteristic rolls. They are a mecahanic that I don't think gets enough attention in Hero System. The above is fine in a game where you are going to stat out every disease, disability, etc or they're only going to show up as supervillain attacks but in Heroic games, particularly gritter ones a different approach would be useful for Hero System players. It would add to the univeral aspect of the system. I and some other Hero gamers have wanted to see something like that for years and a book of optional rules seems like a good place to put them.

Re: Gremlin Why not give him loads of Energy Damage Negation up to the highest level that could be expected in the campaign? With moderate to high ED on top of that he'd be effectively immune to most energy attacks except for ultra high powered plot devices. I never get the problem with a character being more or less immune to something. So one guy can't effect you? Unless he's the only atagonist in the world what difference does it make? Just beause Electroman can't hurt this guy (directly, there's may be ways he can) doen't make the character overpowered. Claims its not "realistic" seems a hypocritical compared to all the unrealism strewn about the comic genre. Most superhumans violate several just be existing. Superpowers aren't realistic by definition and there are plenty of characters that can ignore the heat of star or even more particularly when you start bringing magic sfx into the deal. There's a difference between just not liking the idea of Immunity and claiming that its somehow "badwrongfun".

Re: Physical Strength that affects the whole object... I recall a passage about TK having an "arm span" like effect and being able to do things like lift sand, gravel, like a scoop by default. Can't recall where it was though. That said, I would say getting the TK "Effects entire object" would get the result he wanted as far as lifting and throwing went, the character could have regular TK for damaging things (if he could) or enhanced Strength. Honestly, I agree with Advantage mentioned earlier. Its simple and does what he wanted: gives his Strength an advantage not present automatically in the game. But its more of a House Rule and some people really don't like those.

Re: ADVANCED PLAYER'S GUIDE II -- What Do *You* Want To See? Late to the party but I'd like to see a discussion of Characteristics in some supplement. What exactly to they mean outside of their mechanical function. How healthy is a Constitution 10 compared to an 8 or a 20? What are Characteristics rolls good for vs Skills? This discussion might be an good place the "saving throw" concept to be tossed around and rules for Disease, Infection, advanced rules for healing and overall long term stamina, etc.

Re: Physical Strength that affects the whole object... I didn't get that he wanted to have less of a chance of injury but wanted his character to be able to do things like life a large objects without them ripping apart in his hands (like lifting a car by the bumper). The injury aspect would probably be a matter of the campaigns Defense limits, etc.

Re: Physical Strength that affects the whole object... I gathered that in the OP's campaign "comic book physics" aren't going to apply (or not as much) so they're looking for an ability to simulate the effect for their character. I'd go with Telekinsis: No Range possibly wth IPE (SFX) since it just looks like he's really strong.

Re: Mathematics based mental attacks? I love that episode. Spent awhile trying to model that ability in my head and never could get anything that worked quite right. Ended up chalking it up to role playing and GM fiat attached to a big Killing Attack with Totally Invisible Power effects

Re: Mathematics based mental attacks? Are the character's power based on psionically forcing his target to focus on the problems or does have the ability to actually manipulate some "higher" order mathematics that can effect reality?

Re: Community Build Project - Doctor Thunder! (5th Ed Friendly Please!) I approve and endorse naming superhumans from soft drinks.

Re: Taking Body from excess Stun Damage Negation didn't feel quite right for what I wanted. I didn't want the characters to be invulnerable to attacks below a specific level just more prone to taking Body without jiggering around too much with Defense levels or mandating that everyone take high DC or heavily Advantaged KAs regardless if it fit their concepts or not. I also felt too much like the MDC/SDC divide in Palladium, something I never liked very much.

Re: Taking Body from excess Stun Yes. The Excess total is calculated after all modifiers to Stun have been applied. Body Vulnerabilities don't increase the final Body taken in any case.

Re: Taking Body from excess Stun It's not intended to be a universal replacement for the base rule. I never said there was anything wrong with base rule. It didn't give the play experiene I wanted for some settings. House Rules aren't always around fixing something at least AFAIC. They can be implemented to adjust the rules for different playstyles and settings. In this instance, I wanted a rule the gives combat a somewhat more dangerous feel both on the offense and defense side and longer term consquences. As I said earlier, it's not suitable for all the genres (It's not 4 color, for example). So far its been in a play three sessions and had the desired effect.

Re: Taking Body from excess Stun

Re: Taking Body from excess Stun Yeah. That sounds like overkill (no pun intended). The intention is to make Body damage somewhat more common not to make combat insanely lethal. Characters will have to pace themselves and several combats a day will be more dangerous. On the other end, Characters with CaKs won't be justified in whaling away on lightly armored target secure that they can't really do much if any lethal (Body) damage to them even though their attacks would blow through walls.