unclevlad

AHHH. OK. Found that...Notepad++ manages this kind of formatting reasonably well too. I think I can work it out from here. Thanks, Dan. I shall make sure to save the jar before going crazy, but this should be amusing to play with.

The point of the power is a scaling alternative to Desolid. APG's Alternate Desolid doesn't make that much sense, in that for 5 points you can, if slowly, pass through completely solid objects. That's like you're phasing into a different dimension. Here, the notion is you're becoming dispersed; all parts of you are solid matter, but now with gaps/spaces.

The size change is not actual. There's no Shrinking going on, per se. The "size change" is for determining how readily you can pass through things...so, for example, with 1 level you can't pass through a chain link fence. You're still too solid.

Looking for feedback. Alternate Desolid from APG doesn't really work for me; being Desolid is more about damage negation or reduction than straight PD or ED to me. Reduction would probably work IF I went with the expanded Damage Reduction charts/power choices, but I first thought of this as using damage negation. So...what I'm considering. Quasi Solid is purchased in levels, like Shrinking or DI. Each level gives: 1 DC physical and energy Damage Negation. This does NOT apply to powers with Affects Desolid. (Like the PD/ED from Alternate Desolid.) x1/2 Mass x1/2 Size, only for purposes of passing through non-solid objects. I define a standard character box, for this purpose, as 2m by 1/2 meter by 1/2 meter. So with 3 levels of quasi solid, you can pass through bars 3" apart. +2" Knockback. This affects distance only, not velocity or velocity-related damage. (This is straight from Alternate Desolid.) The power is Constant and costs END. For the time being, I assigned a temporary price of 12 points per level; the damage negation is 10 on its own, but normally doesn't cost END. The small size helps infiltration often enough to be worth something...but perhaps not as much as I'm thinking. The move through solids of Alternate Desolid is generally stronger. So I could certainly see making this 10 points per level. Note that this is not Desolid, and you don't need to buy anything with Affects Desolid. It has no Life Support issues. So it's closer to Desolid with Selective Desolidification. It probably only makes mechanical sense if buying around 3-6 levels; more, and you're probably better off buying Desolid and Selected Desolidification, even if it feels like a dodge (and it does to me, I'm not a big fan of Selective Desolid). Less, and heck, just buy the Damage Negation. The size aspect won't help *that* much. Thoughts? Modifications? Change how you pass through objects somehow? I'm not saying this is perfect, but it at least does scale, and I don't like Alternate Desolid's allowance of passing through completely solid, if not terribly robust, items. I want this closer to Not Through Solids...with something scaling to say your penetration ability improves as you buy more.

Alternate Desolidification is in APG I. I like the approach, but I can't see how to incorporate it into HD. Gone through the HD docs. Custom Power doesn't seem to work. There's no Character Pack for APG per se. So...is it in a different Char Pack I can grab...or am I just missing something on how to do it? EDIT: I suppose I can just define the whole thing as "25 points Alternate Desolid" as a Custom Power, and list all the game effects in the Notes. Right now this looks to be my best choice, if not exactly elegant, because there's gonna be Usable Simultaneously on this, along with (possibly) some limitations if I need them for costing.

On the subject of possibly Japan using chemical and biological weapons... It's not reasonable they can "win" this way. They can stop the advance, but they can't win. The plagues aren't going to make it back to the US coast; they'll be noted long before then, and isolated. Even if it does, it's a major leap to say that this creates a Mad Max, post-Holocaustal situation. Bioweapons are very tricky at best. If Japan uses a bioweapon...well, when? Against what? Bioweapons and chemical weapons are both better used against ground forces. OK, so...during the island hopping? It gets reported, and almost certainly, the affected Marines are monitored closely and in isolation on the island. Plus, if Japan does use a bioweapon, well forget ANY chance of peace. Ever. Even if the Manhattan Project hadn't really kicked off...it would be now. And I really, really doubt it would be used with the restraint shown historically. Good bye Tokyo FIRST, is my guess. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were as much about forcing the Japanese to surrender to *save* lives...on both sides...from the radical, fundamentally insane component that was all Death Before Dishonor. That was totally established during the island hopping. Well, if they're willing to drop a bioweapon....???? That's No Quarter time. EDIT: if you don't have the Manhattan Project kick back in, then SEVERAL fire bomb raids would be another option. I'm just saying that the US would feel justified in getting MUCH uglier in their actions.

Is that suitable for a Minor Transform, or as Greywind notes, is this just Oratory and Persuasion?

Lots of abilities, but she was a goddess after all. And never once used them nicely that I can recall, altho it's been decades since I read Greek or Roman mythology. To be sure, the best you could say about any of the Greek gods is they were narcissistic. Oh, you actually, ACCIDENTALLY, see your goddess naked. Of course she turns you into a stag to be ripped apart by your own hunting dogs.

Probably People to Animals for the major Transform. Pretty common retaliation in Greek myth, and IIRC, Hera did do this to some of Zeus' amorous targets. For the minor...not sure. That's a TON of minor transform...not sure what that's for. Perhaps in response to hubris...but even that drew Major Transform responses. Arachne claimed to be the greatest weaver...greater than the gods. She got turned into a spider. Cassandra perhaps. She had the gift of prophecy, and said something a goddess took offense to...even tho it was the truth. So Cassandra was cursed to never be believed.

Yeah, a lot depends on when things change. People have talked about Pearl Harbor, but another turning point would've been Midway. Say the Japanese took less damage in the Battle of the Coral Sea, which then led to a victory at Midway. The US push is seriously blunted. With that, the US pulls back and has to concentrate on building up the fleet...again...while concentrating on Europe first. So, the relative timelines shift, enough so the Nazi atrocities in Europe are allowed to come to light *before* the island-hopping in the Pacific can advance. The Russia-US aspect of the alliance gets shaky. So...the US starts worrying more about the European situation. Russia (say) is not as hammered, so a larger presence is necessary. This, along with the urgent rebuilding, and the Holocaust aftermath, put the Pacific on a lesser footing. Japan consolidates the eastern Pacific and coastal China, and doesn't become...an ally...but as the Communist Menace starts to loom, it's viewed as more expedient to let Japan and Russia battle it out. Especially as this keeps the Chinese Communists more contained. In this construction, the war with Japan never really ends. Japan 'wins' by holding onto the old colonial holdings. The islands (Marshalls, Gilberts, Wake, Midway) form the effective DMZ. The Korean War, if it happens at all, has no US involvement. The Cuban crisis, on the other hand, DOES recur because the Russians are feeling even more boxed in. Here, tho, the US response is likely much more forceful, and Castro's tossed out. Cuba becomes a protectorate. Now, an interesting twist: with Cuba and Puerto Rico controlled, and the ongoing decline of British influence, Jamaica and Bermuda agree to a Caribbean alliance, to which Haiti and the Dom Republic eventually join...it's a mini EU. Cuba's economy never tanks. South Florida develops much more slowly. Moving forward...if the Russians remain belligerent...so they stomp in Hungary and Czechoslovakia as they did...then an uneasy truce, if not a full alliance, can firm up between the US and Japan, with the goal of keeping the Communists contained...especially if the Russian system of gulags is fanned to create an image of a Second Holocaust. Would this be stable? No. The US never drops atomics here; that creates different tensions. Fundamentally, tho...I don't see Japan ever trying to occupy more than this: http://www.emersonkent.com/map_archive/imperial_powers_pacific.htm They never had territorial ambitions further west.

#1: Is Firewing's power level appropriate? #2: even if it is, why duplicate? Heck, how about going another way altogether? Furnace...hot metal. Colossus with a big heat-based damage shield! (And, yes, I do intend to mean a big Only In Alternate ID basis.) #3: Will the Malvans mind? Only one opinion matters there...yours. Any kind of reaction can be justified, unless the source material specifically has statements on this...and I rather doubt that.

Hero Designer helps quite a bit. It'll do all the math, and tracks the various interconnections. Fictional characters are actually *often* a pain because writers don't play by rules, they're just doing whatever they want to fit the story. Rules, schmules. Writers don't need stinkin' rules. And they don't think of points. A good way to start is with core tropes: --the Brick: massive Str, punches things. Massive defenses, doesn't care what tries to hurt him. Ben Grimm, Colossus. --the martial artist or acrobat: doesn't have the raw Str or defenses. Relies on skills and/or dexterity. --artillery type: ranged attacks. Sometimes simple, like Human Torch; sometimes complex like most comic book archer types, who use lots of special effects arrows. I'm biased towards flying energy projectors, always have been, always will be. Of course it's wish fulfillment. After that, martial artists with good movement and fairly good defenses. A character notion I built for grins was based on the D&D 3rd Ed prestige class, the shadowdancer. Mostly a martial artist, with "shadow dimension" powers...shadow step is a teleport. Shadow staff is either a plain HA (no focus) or an AVAD attack vs. Power Def or Mental Def. AoE Darkness. Depending on point level...spatial awareness, but if not, night vision. Spatial means you're immune to your own darkness. I believe the defenses included more Damage Negation (essentially a damping field) than normal damage resistance...altho some of both, cuz damage negation is fairly expensive. It's a nice, clean concept that works out well. Multipower is a way to add flexibility. It's usually "I can pick ONE OF the following"...like a gun versus a sword. A variable pool is flexibility. What kind of power do I want here...a Flash, an Entangle, a Blast? 10 grunts, I want to AoE Flash. Speedster...never gonna hit him, AoE or explosion so I just have to hit the hex. It's leaving yourself a pool of points that you can define in the moment rather than in advance...but it's *expensive*. To be honest, you'll do fine to just say no, no VPPs to start with.

275 is very high end for Heroic, altho if there's going to be prevalent magic, even if it's not high-powered, that might be a reasonable number. Street level Supers is 250.

And STUN as well.

The RULE for Multiform is 1 CP per 5 points. The rule IS NOT divide the cost by 5. The statements ARE NOT equivalent BECAUSE of the rounding rule. The statement in the rule says that the rounding DOES NOT APPLY because there is no division involved by the statement of the rule.

No, there's no HD problem. You're asking to buy a "fractional die" if this was, say, Blast. No. 1 CP gets you 5 character points...that doesn't reverse. The rounding rules don't apply because there is no rounding to be done. Multiplication and division happen with Advantages and Limitations, not with basic purchase cost. You can't buy "3 build points" worth of Duplication. The rule is there. 6E1, p. 40. Buying less than the full amount.

This is an attack, move, attack sequence. So... --full phase --requires Rapid Attack --Penalties: a combination of Strafe and Multiple Attack. Strafe comes kinda close, as it's the most involved move/attack combination. Strafe gives -v/6, -2. Multiple attacks on same target gives -2 OCV for the 2nd attack...both attacks are still punches. For v, let's call it the maximum possible...perfect roll damage roll, lowest possible roll on the subtraction part (so, 1 or 2 usually). So for a 10d6 regular against a normal opponent not flying, that's 18...20 Body, snake eyes on the 2d6 KB reducer. v=18 means -3. OCV So this maneuver becomes -5 OCV, -2 DCV. Oh, and this isn't a rounding situation. If the max KB distance is 7, the OCV penalty is -2, not -1. --The movement power costs the END it would cost for the maximum distance possible...REGARDLESS of the actual distance covered. That's in addition to the attack END. The move in the middle is SFX. There's no damage bonus anywhere.

Yah, figured someone had done this: Looks like they're Hero Designer files, but if you're willing to spring for it, HD is a big help in tracking costs. There may be PDF versions too. Browse the whole Downloads area. Lots of useful stuff.

It's complicated if you want to make it complicated. So my suggestion is to start easy. Starting in a "heroes in training" motif can help keep expectations down. Keep the power straightforward. Set some guidelines, like maximum attack and defense levels. If you're going with the high school equivalence...the nice thing is you can darn near skip skills. Everyone mostly has just Everyman skills. You can actually give some extra points only for skills as you go along.

Yah, I mentioned it in large part just to get OP to thinking about it. Once some of these questions are addressed, it may help frame the naming convention question. Mission will also frame the kinds of capabilities desired. Or, of course, we've only made OP's head explode.

Oh. OK, my bad there for sure. I'm not sure that the supers would follow the same pattern, tho. But if it does, I think that argues for English as a common language if this group works together. That's a very diverse set of languages, and *some* common language is gonna be needed. And there's still a big question, at least in my mind, as to what the mission of such a group would be.

Makes sense. The NATO phonetics would at least be a Euro-bias rather than strictly US bias. Heck, you could do function-related code/keynames...but not all in English. Altho that gets awkward if the hero doesn't speak the language of the code name. Some of this could also depend on the purpose of this team, within a UN context. The UN...at least here...doesn't support a direct-action combat force, so...what is it this team is expected to do? And, who's supplying the majority of the forces? UN peacekeepers tend to be US and Europe. Relations between the West and Russia/China are not particularly open in our world...what are they there? And are they willing to kick in their heroes? It's a reasonable assertion that most smaller countries can't afford to...even if they're not embroiled in messes of their own.

Those are the official and working languages of the Security Council and General Assembly. To me that means documents issued by these bodies will be available in these languages, and that translations into these languages will be available during debates. What languages are used for UN peacekeeping forces, or other UN-sponsored multinational efforts? At least at the command levels. It's not clear all troops of a peacekeeping force would have to speak English. Yeah, code names wouldn't have to be translated, but some languages are rather harder to read and/or pronounce than others. Transliteration is an issue when dealing with non-Latin alphabets. Saying it's English-only, or using the NATO phonetics, isn't gonna please everyone but it's enormously simpler and more practical. The NATO phonetics put the emphasis on being a part of UNERF...good name there, the acronym being somewhat humorous is gonna be missed by bureaucrats anyway. (Nixon era classic...the Committee for the Re-election of the President, AKA CREEP. Oops.) Functional names like Recon, Tank, and the like do OK with that. The more personal the code names are, tho, the more the person in the job is emphasized. That's not particularly desirable here.

One point on languages...English is the accepted language of business. It's the closest there is to a lingua franca, and the one you can most reasonably expect people to speak at a basic level. If code names could be in Mongolianor Swahili, how many people won't understand it? And what kind of confusion does that entail? From a tactical perspective, that's not a good idea. No, I'd say they'd all be in English. Another option is the NATO Phonetic alphabet. From Wikipedia: The 26 code words in the NATO phonetic alphabet are assigned to the 26 letters of the English alphabet in alphabetical order as follows: Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliett, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu. Assign a general *style* to each. Bravo and Kilo are strongmen. Echo and X-ray are detection specialists. And so on. That leaves flexibility in terms of filling the slots, while maintaining a diverse set of powers. Who do we need for this? Alfa, Hotel, Romeo, and Yankee power sets. Oh, Hotel and Yankee hate each other? OK, we can use Oscar instead of Hotel. Also note that this is a NATO construct, so it's already a multi-national, polyglot convention.

Downloaded, copied JAR file over to its network home, kicked it off. It loaded up the clairvoyant, but with this: WARNING: An illegal reflective access operation has occurred WARNING: Illegal reflective access by org.jruby.ext.posix.util.FieldAccess (file:/H:/HD6.jar) to field java.io.FileDescriptor.handle WARNING: Please consider reporting this to the maintainers of org.jruby.ext.posix.util.FieldAccess WARNING: Use --illegal-access=warn to enable warnings of further illegal reflective access operations WARNING: All illegal access operations will be denied in a future release Doesn't seem to have caused a problem, as it loaded. H: is a mapped drive (Windows 10) to my NAS, because browsing networks with Java can be *painfully* slow on a WIndows network. And it's reporting x2 Range is 400m, which means yeah, everything's adders and not counting, which was how I read the RAW.