Steve Long

I may be overlooking something here, but the rules don't specifically say, "A character cannot use Absorption on attacks by Mental Powers." All it says is, Absorption only works on attacks that do BODY. Admittedly, few Mental Powers do BODY, but unless the GM ruled otherwise a character could Absorb from, for example, a Mental Blast with the Does BODY (+1) Advantage. The "way to have Mental attacks absorb and increase a power" is to use the optional rules for Absorbing from Mental attacks on APG 80. Good luck with the rat ranching!

1. Yes. 2. No, that's taken care of by Usable Simultaneously. Since the recipient gets the same power you're using (absent the ability to grant it to others), he'll have his own Focus for it. I'd say you could envision it as you handing him his own copy of the gadget, saying, "I'll need this back later." 3. No. If you buy an extra piece of equipment using the 5-point doubling rule, you can loan that piece of gear to another character (unless it's a Personal Focus, of course). However, the GM may prefer for you to buy this as Usable Simultaneously instead (for various possible reasons), so make sure he approves of what you're doing first.

Come to think of it, it's probably time for an update on the project. I am currently in the middle of the Celtic Mythology chapters (that's plural because there are three of them; it's too large and diverse a topic to handle in just one). Unfortunately things have been at that stage for a long time, due to various distractions and real life what-not getting in the way of what I really want to. But fortunately, the main distraction actually helps me write Mythic Hero! What I've been working on for most of the past year, and pretty steadily for the past few months, is a nonfiction project: The Encyclopedia Of Mages, Magic, And The Arcane (or "EMMA" for short ). For years I have looked for a reference book specifically about terms for magic and users of magic. For example, I want to be able to look up what they call a witch or a wizard in, say, northern Australia, or Borneo, or among some obscure African tribe, or in parts of historical Europe. And then maybe I could also read about their terms for magic, how they think spells work, and other fun details. But unfortunately for me, AFAICT, no such book actually exists. So after decades of looking and hoping, I finally decided, "The hell with this -- I'll just write it myself." So as I read and did research for other projects (primarily MH), when I ran across a term I wanted to remember, I wrote it down. I began doing this years and years ago in an informal way, but now I really started paying attention. And if I had some spare time, I'd pore through the various encyclopedias of the occult that I own and copy out relevant terms. Eventually I had a long enough document that it hit a tipping point early last year where I finally had to begin focusing on EMMA full-time and turn it into a published book. And that's what I've been doing ever since. I've read dozens of books since then for research, and I have a bunch more I can work with -- but I am also entering the information I get from reading them into my master document. When I have no more books to enter data from, I intend to stop research (no matter how many books still wait in their stacks, as yet unread), and get the book ready for publication (layout, printing, etc.). Otherwise I'll just go on researching until I keel over. As I like to put it, EMMA is "a reference book listing and describing terms for magic, people who use magic, and related subjects from around the world and throughout history." It's intended in part for writers and gamers, of course, but I think it has some solid academic value as well (since, as I said, AFAICT no other reference book about this specific subject actually exists). Its chapters cover the following topics: —Terms For Magic (general terms for supernatural, arcane, or occult power); —Specific Magic Powers And Abilities (words for magical powers or spells of more limited scope, such as inedia, the magical ability to survive without eating); —Divination (various ways to foresee the future, often called “mancies” because of the frequent use of the suffix -mancy, which derives from the Greek word for divination); —Users Of Magic (names and titles for practitioners of magic, such as “wizard” or “karcist”); —Other Mystic Terms (any other mystic, arcane, occult, or “weird” term I considered worth making note of, or which I thought I might use someday); —Amulets And Talismans (names and descriptions of these enchanted items from around the world); and —Mystic Stones And Metals (mythical and legendary stones and metals which purportedly possess special magical powers). Naturally, this is a subject I can never fully exhaust. Once the book is published, I'll continue taking notes as I read, and eventually there'll be a Second Edition. Heck, there's stuff I could add (like more detailed info on Alchemy and Voodoo). I hope to have it all finished within a few months so I can get back to working on MH, but the fact of the matter is that a lot of my work on EMMA is also work on MH. As I read through my various references, anthropology books, and the like, I come across information on various religions and mythologies in addition to information about magic and its practitioners -- after all, for many peoples, the two subjects are closely related. So I take notes about the myth-related stuff too, and it will go into Mythic Hero. Heck, thanks to all the work I've already done, the MH chapter on Uralic/Siberian Mythology is practically ready for me to start writing! That goes for some other chapters, too -- and my EMMA research has even provided me with enough data to add some chapters (or significant subchapters) to MH, such as Huichol Mythology and Ulchi Mythology. I am not sure yet how I will publish EMMA, since I've never done anything like this before. It would be great if I could interest an actual academic publisher, but I don't know any and I'm not sure if they'd publish a (largely un-annotated) book by someone with no "academic cred." Still, I may ask a couple friends in that general field for advice about who I might approach for this. Beyond that, if I want to keep it simple, I could easily turn the manuscript into a basic PDF (few/no illustrations or whatnot) and sell it on DriveThroughRPG and other such sites. (And there has to be a well-prepared PDF of the book available; that way people can search it easily and bounce through the hundreds, maybe thousands, of cross-references with a click of a mouse instead of lots of page-flipping.) And of course there are lots of other ways to self-publish -- assuming I can't find a publisher inside or outside the RPG industry who wants the book but will let me keep all the rights. Depending on how this all works out, I may just finance the whole thing out of pocket -- if I stick to just a basic PDF and only free art, and do the layout myself, it won't cost that much. (And there could be a POD option, too.) But if I have to print a whole bunch of books myself, it may be time for another Kickstarter. Though I have my doubts that a project like this would succeed as a Kickstarter if I asked for what I think the book's legitimately worth. So anyhow, that's the update on MH, by way of EMMA. I hope you enjoyed it. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to PM me or post 'em below. And keep on HEROing!

Sorry for the delay in responding — the latter part of February was unusually busy, and then food poisoning/a stomach bug sidelined me all last week. I’m only now catching up with things. Good questions! 1. If you’re going to use the AI as a character (be it PC or NPC), build it as a character, not like a Computer. So he has all the Characteristics, Skills instead of programs, and so on. You may need to use Complications to reflect the drawbacks of having a robotic form. 2. In this case, I’m assuming you mean that you want to buy an AI (we’ll call it MegaBrain) that rides in a robotic body (called RoboForm) and “runs” it. Here again, the best and simplest way to do this is just build it as a character, using Complications (and possibly some specific power purchases) to represent the robotic form. But if you absolutely, positively, have to have the two things separate — perhaps because MegaBrain won’t always ride around in RoboForm — then you build MegaBrain as the character (or as an AI if you must) and build RoboForm as a Vehicle for him. Make sense? If I didn’t cover what you need to know, please PM me or post a follow-up. You might also want to check out The Ultimate Vehicle for ideas and other information that could help you create the character you want.

Sorry for the delay in responding — the latter part of February was unusually busy, and then food poisoning/a stomach bug sidelined me all last week. I’m only now catching up with things. If the Endurance Reserve only applies to one of the character’s forms, when he changes into that form the Reserve has its full END. (If he uses some, switches to another form, and switches back before the Reserve would Recover completely, then the rules on 6E1 269 about “Changing Forms And Damage” would apply, as they would if two or more forms had the same Reserve.) Note: this answer is easiest to apply when using Multiform, as you probably would in most circumstances that would give rise to this issue. The GM may need to tweak things a bit if a character uses some other way of "changing form" that isn't closely analogous to the way Multiform works.

Sorry for the delay in responding — the latter part of February was unusually busy, and then food poisoning/a stomach bug sidelined me all last week. I’m only now catching up with things. OK, so there are two questions here: 1. Yes, that’s how the power would work. Not sure how many GMs would allow a character to buy that power, though — it makes it ridiculously inexpensive to blind characters with Sight Group Flash 1d6s. 2. Here’s a more general question: Can a character who uses an Uncontrolled power “turn off” that power at any time after he uses it? The answer is No — once a character uses an Uncontrolled power, he loses all control over it (no pun intended). However, assuming special effects permitted, he could easily specify “I decide to cancel the power” as one of the conditions that make it stop functioning. That can’t be the only condition to stop the power — at least one has to be something the target of the power could do (or take advantage of) on his own — but it could easily be one of them. This makes a lot of sense for certain spells in Fantasy Hero games, for instance.

Sorry for the delay in responding — the latter part of February was unusually busy, and then food poisoning/a stomach bug sidelined me all last week. I’m only now catching up with things. When a character declares that he's Holding An Action, he has to specify how long he's holding it. If he says, "I'm holding until DEX 15" (perhaps to act together with another character), then when DEX 15 comes up he has to act, or he loses his Phase. He can't "mulitple Hold," DEX by DEX, as you describe. What he can do, of course, is specify some other condition that ends his Holding -- such as, "I'm going to Hold until the end of the Segment" or "I'm going to Hold until he comes around the corner." Then when the stated condition arrives, he has to act or lose his Phase. That's the strict, by the book, answer, at least. In my experience, most GMs aren't particularly picky about letting characters Hold their actions for all sorts of reasons, so things like this don't often come up.

Sorry for the delay in responding — the latter part of February was unusually busy, and then food poisoning/a stomach bug sidelined me all last week. I’m only now catching up with things. The power described uses 1 Charge per target, up to a maximum of 5 (and assuming, of course, that they’re all standing close enough together to hit, or that he can overcome that with the right Autofire Skill). Using more than 1 Charge per target involves the Requires Multiple Charges rule on 6E1 371. Those rules usually apply to Power Frameworks where some slots use more Charges than others, but you can adapt them to a single power.

Hey Larry! Sorry for the delay in responding — the latter part of February was unusually busy, and then food poisoning/a stomach bug sidelined me all last week. I’m only now catching up with things. I’m not sure I’ve ever written about this; if I did it was years ago, for one or two editions ago, and I have no idea what I said. So, I reserve the right to change my answer if someone finds the text you think you remember. (I thought it might be on 6E2 7-14, but I didn’t see anything there.) If a character applies Invisible Power Effects (Sight Group; +½) to Darkness for Sight Group (or any other combination of the same Sense(s) Group(s), or other Sense-Affecting Powers), how you describe it depends on the special effects involved first and foremost. The game effect is that there’s a “blank zone” in the character’s Sight with no obvious cause. He just can’t see anything there — not the Darkness (which the Advantage makes invisible), and not the underlying area (which the Darkness hides). The bizarre “logic” of this is a good indication that the GM probably shouldn’t allow this power unless the player has a reeeeallly good reason for it.

Sorry for the delay in responding — the latter part of February was unusually busy, and then food poisoning/a stomach bug sidelined me all last week. I’m only now catching up with things. The “minimum STUN damage” done does not add damage to what’s already taken, it simply establishes a minimum that the character can take. If the STUN damage the character takes from the attack is equal to or greater than the minimum, he only takes that STUN damage; if it’s less than the minimum, he takes the minimum. Example: Due to some weird Limitations on some of his defensive abilities, BobMan takes 6 STUN, 8 BODY from an attack (after applying defenses). Since the minimum STUN damage he can take equals the BODY damage he suffered, he actually takes 8 STUN damage — not the 6 STUN he otherwise would (and definitely not 14 STUN). In a later Segment, BobMan takes 12 STUN, 6 BODY from an attack (after applying defenses). Since the STUN damage (12) already exceeds the minimum STUN he could take due to suffering BODY damage (6), he just takes the 6 STUN damage — the minimum rule doesn’t apply.

Sorry for the delay in responding — the latter part of February was unusually busy, and then food poisoning/a stomach bug sidelined me all last week. I’m only now catching up with things. If a character has purchased the Affects Physical World (+2) for his STR (which allows him to use Combat/Martial Maneuvers against solid opponents), he cannot also use, or add damage with/to, an HA or HKA. To use those powers while intangible, he must also buy Affects Physical World for them.

Sorry for the delay in responding — the latter part of February was unusually busy, and then food poisoning/a stomach bug sidelined me all last week. I’m only now catching up with things. I’m not sure I understand the question. Crush has to follow a Grab, but it can’t follow a “Grab and miss” — if the Grab misses, by definition the character can’t use his Crush. So I’m going to restate the question to what I think you’re asking — if I’m wrong, please post a follow-up question and we’ll get it all taken care of. Q: If a character uses Martial Grab (or another Grab-based Maneuver that provides a bonus to STR for purposes of retaining hold on the target), and then uses a Crush or other attack that must follow a Grab, and the Crush misses, does the STR bonus from the Grab continue to apply for purposes of retaining hold of the target in later Segments? A: Yes, the STR bonus from a Grab-based Martial Maneuver remains in effect as long as the Grab remains in effect. A miss with a following attack (such as Crush) doesn’t affect that, unless the rules specifically state that the character has to let go of the target (as he would if he Threw him, for example).

Sorry for the delay in responding — the latter part of February was unusually busy, and then food poisoning/a stomach bug sidelined me all last week. I’m only now catching up with things. Strictly by the rules as written, an “Instant effect” Susceptibility should only apply in the Segment when the character is first exposed to the substance/phenomenon. In most cases that’s sufficient, since the substance/phenomenon usually doesn’t “linger” in any way. But in a case like you describe, the GM might decide to have the Susceptibility continue to apply — there are some great roleplaying and combat possibilities involved. In that case, it’s up to him to decide how often the Susceptibility continues to apply, based primarily on dramatic sense (“How will this best play into the campaign story and be fun?”), but also on common sense, special effects, and other considerations. In most cases the Susceptibility shouldn’t affect the character too often, or else he’s effectively out of the campaign. Taking the damage every Hour or Day would work pretty well from a dramatic standpoint in most situations — it’s frequent enough that the character can’t entirely ignore it, but gives him enough time to keep functioning so he can resolve the problem. Every 1, 5, or 20 Minutes would be a lot more harsh and give him a lot more incentive to get the substance/phenomenon away from him. That would work well if you want the character to solve the problem in the same game session that he acquired it, rather than having it affect the campaign for multiple sessions.

Yes, it's still going on. I work on Mythic Hero as much as I can, which lately has been a lot. Once I finish one (maybe two ) semi-related projects, I will be back on it full time. I don't care if I have to leave final instructions for publishing MH in my will, it is going to be published!

Absorption applies after the damage from an attack is multiplied due to Vulnerability.

For that, you need to buy one of the Autofire Skills -- specifically, Precise Sprayfire II, described on APG 35. It lets your character do exactly what you're describing.

OK, never minding, then.

Nah, there are no silly questions. Well, not in this post, anyways. 1. He does not know the Fixed Location is gone until he perceives that it has been destroyed with one of his Sense. When he tries to Teleport to it and fails (when he’d otherwise have succeeded), he can probably guess that it’s been destroyed, but he won’t know for sure until he verifies that fact with his Senses — all he knows for sure is that he can’t get there for some reason. See 6E1 301, middle left column, the paragraph above the “Velocity And Facing” header, for some discussion of this general issue. 2. Since a Fixed Location can “never change” (see 6E1 301, very first words at the top), by a strict reading of the rules the Character Points spent on a Fixed Location that has been destroyed are lost. (Alternately, the Fixed Location remains in effect; it’s just not what he’s used to, and may now be dangerous to Teleport to.) However, I expect most GMs will let the character have those points back to create a new Fixed Location. In that case, what the character has to do to establish the new Fixed Location is up to the GM. Speaking only for myself, I would require your character to visit the new Location and spend at least a minute getting a feel for the place, but other GMs may differ (and of course, special effects may play into this consideration).

Back by popular demand! This file, which is also available for free from the Hero Games Online Store, contains all the errata known to me as of today. If you find an errata in the core rulebook which isn't listed here, please PM me to inform me about it. Please don't post it here, because I may not see it. Sending it to me directly ensures that I won't overlook it. 6E Errata 2020-02-09.pdf

I can't do a thing about the website; that's waaay beyond my computer knowledge. But I'll mention it to Jason and he can certainly get it fixed. Thanx for letting us know!

I can't answer questions about CC; I didn't write it and haven't read it. The best I can do is tell you that the full Damage Class rules are on 6E2 96-102. I believe Derek Hiemforth, who did write CC, is active on these boards, so you can probably track him down and ask him.

The question of what are "suitable" or permitted Trigger conditions is one I leave to the wise and understanding GM. Personally I tend to be pretty broad and permissive regarding what characters can do with Trigger, since I think it's a key way to build all sorts of cool abilities, but some GMs may be more restrictive regarding it. The same applies to your "dramatic effect" issue -- that's a definite GM call. Your reasoning is sound, and for that reason I probably would be pretty forgiving about not letting people PER Roll their way into Superman's secret identity. But OTOH, I can think of some intriguing roleplaying and campaign drama situations that might arise if someone did see through a character's disguise.... }:)

1. If you want to create new Combat Maneuvers, use the rules for building Martial Maneuvers in HSMA. The tools there should suffice to create anything you can think of, and if you post about this on the Discussion board I'm sure there are plenty of Herophiles out there who can provide ideas, suggestions, or help. 2. I can't really answer what is the "best way" to do something, since there's usually more than one way to build something in HERO System terms. The Targeting Skill Levels form of PSLs is certainly the way that I am most likely to build the ability you're thinking of, but I might try other ways, and three other gamers might have three other ideas.

My apologies for the delay in responding — I’ve been ill. I don’t think I’ve answered this question before, but I reserve the right to change my answer if I have. Calculating a Cone Explosion works the same as any other Explosion, basically. The power has its full effect at the origin point and for 2m beyond that. For each 2m of the Cone beyond that, you subtract 1 DC, as discussed on 6E1 323. In the case of Powers which don’t have Damage Classes, such as Images (the Power you’d use to create the flashlight you mentioned), you should work with your GM to determine the effects. For example, typically flashlights are built as Sight Group Images, +4 to Sight PER Rolls (+4 being enough to completely counteract the -4 PER Roll penalty for absolute darkness). So maybe the light gets its full +4 effect for 2m, then -1 for each 2m thereafter. (That seems kind of small, though, so you might want to buy a larger Explosion to extend the light further.) If you have any other questions about this, please post a follow-up or PM me. Thanks!

My apologies for the delay in responding — I’ve been ill. Technically speaking, for the Focus to be able to use Invisibility, it requires its own Invisibility power (and some means of knowing how and when to activate it, such as being a Computer). However, that would get unnecessarily complicated, and this is a situation that shouldn’t need so much fuss. So the answer is this: A character who has an Obvious Focus that provides him with Invisibility can buy the Invisible Power Effects Advantage for the power so that the Invisibility affects the Focus as well. For this to apply, the IPE must be bought to make the Focus “imperceivable” to all the Senses/Sense Groups covered by the Invisibility (see 6E1 338 for more info on IPE).