Christopher R Taylor

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 Or, the heroes are framed for a crime (or really committed one) and actually sentenced to Stronghold, and perhaps have to plan their own escape while dealing with the rest of the prison population.

That is, in a way, the plot concept I have for the Escape from Stronghold adventure, but what has jammed me up is trying to figure out how much of Stronghold I need to put in.  I do not want to just duplicate huge chunks out of the 5th edition version, even though its good, because it would be way too much setup.  But you have to have enough to actually, you know, escape.  It was getting too big so I have to pare back a lot and keep the essence of how the place runs and is structured, because you cannot expect a GM to buy Stronghold just to run an adventure.

Honestly?  I prefer to just not think about what happens to supervillains after they are caught.  The multiple types of prison in Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes was cool, but I just don't even wanna know.  They are defeated, and that's enough.  They come back eventually, and need to be defeated again.  Anything else results in some really depressing, awful stuff like putting villains into an enforced coma or locking them in an energy field at the bottom of the ocean, etc.

That said I am looking closely at Stronghold to redo the Escape from Stronghold module, so it does come up.  As I understand it there are multiple layers of security where bad guys are kept.  If you are just Johnny Gadget, you can put them in general population in a normal prison.  If they have powers, they are put in the prison with the power dampers, and treated like regular guys.  And the worst are put into the super high security area.

I like art for that for inspiration, gives me ideas by looking at a clever or interesting image.

That's why I had Dr Destroyer trash the entire Champions for the Island cover.  Equal opportunity.  Seeker isn't part of the new flavorless bleh team or I'd have had him front and center, as tradition dictates.

On 1/28/2024 at 10:52 PM, Pattern Ghost said:

/imagine chaotic hellbeast that looks like a cross between an elephant with no trunk and a warthog --v 6.0

 

This one landed closer -- sort of -- but 3/4 of the generations had trunks:

 

Seems like "chaotic hellbeast" shifted the context enough to allow more of a hybrid, maybe?

That is a lot closer to what I as looking for yeah.  But I like the A-10 Elephants :))

Star Hero complete sounds good but my sense is that we need more adventures.  Many, many more adventures.  dozens of them for every genre.  Tons of support.

Another, optional idea is to use it vs Body: controlling them physically through your mind.  Not exactly telekinesis, but controlling machinery.

I think the Tenent deal is less about buying D&D and more about getting rights to D&D for games, they aren't a publishing house.  But I agree, I don't want China in charge of any games or properties like this.

This is new to me as well, never heard of it I used to surf Red October!

OK so here's the example of how to build Transfer given in Volume One of the Hero System Rules:

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STUN Transfer: Drain STUN 3d6 (30 Active Points); Unified Power (-¼) (total cost: 24 points) plus Aid STUN 3d6, Trigger (when character uses Drain, activating Trigger takes no time, Trigger immediately automatically resets; +1) (36 Active Points); Linked (-½), Unified Power (-¼), Only Aid Self (-1) (total cost: 13 points). Total cost: 37 points.

Now notice in that build: its two powers linked together... with a trigger.  Why on earth have a trigger?

Because in the linked rules, it states this:
 

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If the lesser and greater powers are both Attack Powers, he must use them against the same target.

Aid is an adjustment power, which in this case Steve is treating as an attack power: you have to roll to hit someone who doesn't want to be Aided, so it can kind of be treated as one. Since the Drain is on one target and the Aid is on another (you) then it has to have a mechanism to go off in addition to aid, by that logic.

This is where we part ways.

-First off, you do not need to roll to hit a willing target, per the rules.

-Second, if your "target" is Self Only (-1) then its not a targeting power at all nor an attack power.  It literally cannot be used on anything but you.

-Third, the purpose of this build is to simulate the Transfer power, which means it should be as clean and simple as possible to get the build across for ease of use.

-Fourth, you can use any of your powers on your own phase without needing a trigger to do so.

-Fifth you are fixated on Aid being an attack power, you could treat this as a Multiple attack in which you use several attack powers on any number of targets (including yourself) in the same attack action.

I could go on, but I think you get the point.  Its a linked power, not a trigger.  That's pointlessly increasing the cost and complication of the power to no good end.

Plus, there should be a small limitation on the Aid noting that it cannot Aid more than you drained.

Just kidding with the title, but this is about Transfer.

First off, I understand the reasoning behind dropping it as a power: its not flexible enough.  What if you want the points you gain to fade at a rate differently than the points drained off the target fade?  What if you want to give yourself several powers but only drain one?  There are a lot of possibilities, which without extreme complication, Transfer doesn't handle well as a simple power.

However, that said, there's nothing wrong with having it in the rules that Transfer works as it always has, and if you want a more flexible build, here's how you do it (Drain plus Aid, etc).  This would have been a slightly more complicated explanation, but a more elegant and streamlined rule set.  A second, less attractive choice would be to build Transfer as a Talent, then show the guts of it, and how it works if people want variations.

That's not what this post is about, though, so let me get to the main point in the next post.

Multiform is how I would build it, yeah

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the only places that the game actually says a character's powers stop working is in the sections under Independent

The rules for Persistent or inherent note that your powers stop working at death too, I believe

There's one in the adventure Atlas Unleashed called Recoil

I think the GAC character Assault has in mind is Long John Sliver.  There's also Origami Girl but she's more a shape shifter

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Trigger:  corpse takes damage should be fine...altho, come to think, is it legal overall?  Does a dead body *have* powers?

That's why I said to make it a trigger that goes off as they die (while still alive) and with a delay on it.  That way, if they are hit within x time period after death, then it works, otherwise nothing happens.

If a Triggered power won't go off after the character who set the Trigger dies, land mines seem to have an issue...

I think this is part of why Independent used to be a thing: to represent an object distinct from the person who has the power or who built it.

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That just means they missed. Something that doesn't happen often, but has happened

Well, what I mean is this.  Some very, VERY fast characters in the comics have outrun the beams for several pages at times, staying just ahead.

Right, thanks, Rogers art.  Another top notch 70s artist who never seemed to get enough work.  I think he was really slow.

Summoning works for Omega Beams in another sense: you can outrun them in theory.

I recommend Fantasy Hero Complete, because it has all the rules you need without the vast amount of examples, background, campaign concepts, etc that the full FH gives you.  If you need ideas and tips on how to run a fantasy game as well as a huge amount of thoughts on fantasy, gaming in a setting, the kinds of fantasy  games there are, creatures, spells, magic items, etc, Fantasy Hero works.

Regeneration would work, but it would take a zillion points to regen someone to full life right away, and I think that's what I understand that is what he is trying to simulate.

It depends on what you want your armor to do.  Its just easier and more clear in a game to have armor just give defenses, but it really does matter what you're defending against.  Plate armor doesn't protect as well as cloth armor against some attacks.  Chain is better than leather except against certain sorts of threats.  The kind of metal might work better against some attacks and not against others.  Light and hard might be great, until its hit by something that shatters it.  Flexible is better than rigid in some circumstances, but in others its worse.

So there's really no such thing as the best armor against everything.  But modeling that would require a computer to do all the calculations and your warrior would have a golf bag of different things to use and wear, playing the rock/paper/scissors game.

Yeah you can do it with a summoned thing that acts like the attack, behaving as an independent creature, although summon has its own complications (its stunned first phase when it shows up, you have to make control roll etc).

It works, but I'd put a time delay on the trigger: it always goes off, but takes a while, then a side effect to make it not work if nobody hits it.  That way there's no ambiguity about a dead creature using a power to res.

I'm not sure how well bronze chain would work, it bends pretty easily unless its reasonably thick, and that won't work for mail.  Small enough links to be flexible would not protect very well.

I have used custom adders, but only as a kludge for how Hero Designer works; sometimes you need it to do something it doesn't like or understand how to do, and adders can give you the numbers you need.  The more elegant way to do it would be to set up your own rules on how it should do things, but I don't know how to do that.