Deadman

Here are a couple of ideas based on my years of running Dark Champions games. Resolve actions in Half Phases rather than Full Phases. This means that if one person is moving and another is just firing the person shooting gets his shots off before the guy moving gets his attack off. Make use of both Hipshot and Hurry (from 5e) for shooters to get off shots before HTH opponents act. Drop the DCV Penalty for Rapid Attack to a straight -3 instead of halving. That will encourage more players to use it. Don't drop it for HTH attacks if you want to dissuade its use. Use Hit Locations. The danger posed by a hit in a crucial area will make players much more wary. I personally alter the Damage Bonuses so that they aren't quite so harsh. I've found that not doing so REALLY makes combat deadly. Coupled with the above, have shooters do called shots like "High Shot". This makes their chances of scoring a Head Shot higher. These suggestions do slow combat down even more than its usual snail's pace but balance the Ranged/HTH issue that you mentioned. I use them primarily in my VTT campaign where I can let the Macros do all of the heavy lifting. YMMV, Deadman

Hi Dan, I was wondering if it would be possible to get the adders put into Computer Programming as detailed in the Hero System Skills pg. 131? I think it is basically a copy of what you already have in 5e. I've been doing it with Custom Adders but if you are going to be doing an update anytime soon it would be great to have. Thanks, Tom

From 4e Classic Enemies pg. 83

A couple more of our favorites from 4e. Gremlin and Plague

Thanks, took care of that.

Keeping with the CLOWN theme... Here is the defector. Followed by a couple more 4e favorites. Popgun, Griffin and Armadillo

My campaign deals a lot with PRIMUS and I find myself writing background for the organization frequently. Through the various editions there have been a few documented defectors and other Avengers who left the ranks of the organization. Off the top of my head I can come up with the following. Darin Falswell - Left PRIMUS and eventually became Vengeance, the White King's bishop for Genocide. (The Mutant File - 4e) Kevin Armstrong - Left PRIMUS by faking his death and joined VIPER eventually becoming VIPER-X. (Viper: Coils of the Serpent - 5e) Lyndon Kaufman - Left PRIMUS and joined the Supreme Soviets and eventually Red Doom as Red Shield. (Classic Organizations - 4e) Robert Kaufman - Original Golden Avenger. Killed in a battle with Eurostar. (PRIMUS - 4e) Does anyone know of any that I missed? Thanks,

This is a very interesting discussion to me which I have explored before back in 5e. There seem to truly be two distinctions between an attack that is HTH and one that is Ranged. The first is obviously the attack can be used at greater than HTH distances. The second is that the attack adds to a character's STR. Let's take some examples and compare and then I will make my pitch for a whole new Advantage (Adds to STR). Blast: Blast is natively usable at range and does not add to STR per the RAW. Hand Attack: Hand Attack natively adds to STR but is only usable at HTH distances. It natively gets a -1/4 limitation, HTH Only (which I take to be a watered down No Range Limitation). Killing Attack - Ranged: RKA is natively usable at range and does not add to STR (sounds exactly like Blast above). Killing Attack - HTH: HKA natively adds to STR and is only usable at HTH distances. It does not get the -1/4 limitation that Hand Attack gets. In 6e they even opened it up so that you aren't limited to the 2x HKA effect (which further supports its comparison with HA). To me this is important because you have essentially robbed HKA of the same treatment that HA receives. That doesn't fly in my opinion, they should both be the same. To rectify this I instituted another Advantage in 5e (which essentially could be used in 6e since the rules really haven't changed) Adds To STR: This Advantage grants the additional Damage Classes that the Character's Strength Provides to the power. It is a +1/2 Advantage and only applies to powers which do either Normal or Killing Damage. The Character pays END for both the power and Strength when using it. You could further expand the advantage so that it adds to other powers (e.g. Adds to Telekinesis, etc.) What difference will this make? It will unify the rules for the powers above making a Blast or RKA natively ranged and not adding to STR and HA or HKA natively non-ranged and adding to STR. If you want to start monkeying from there you are free to do so. This has the effect of taking away the "HTH Only" Limitation that HA currently receives but rightly so IMHO. It also works with current Advantages and Limitations (Ranged is +1/2 and No STR Bonus is -1/2). The other option is to allow characters to buy the HTH Only Limitation on HKAs to unify them with Hand Attacks but I think the way that I have suggested better balances for gameplay. Of course this also brings up another question. Why not just buy an attack as additional STR and limit it down to Strikes Only? It is cheaper that way. I know they did a lot in 6e to better balance STR by removing figured characteristics but with the Damage Classes being based on 5 points it still leaves STR pretty powerful. I would lobby for an increase in the cost of STR to 2 CP per point but I guess that is just me meddling with things unnecessarily. Your thoughts?

I haven't posted to this for quite some time but thought I would show you a collection that I have been working on of late. I am sure that most of you will immediately recognize this group from way back in 4th Ed. Let me know what you think. Here are a couple of others not with the aforementioned group.

Well I think the reasoning was to make HKA more like Hand Attack which adds to STR as well but has never been capped at x2 DC. I think the premise is sound if you approach it similarly. Think about it, if you take "Superhero Physics" out of it, a baseball bat couldn't do 20d6 of damage regardless of the user's STR because the material would break down before getting to that level. This has always been the argument for HKAs. How can a steak knife do 6d6 of Killing Damage? Well how could a mop handle do 18d6? Now that they have removed the STUN lottery it really boils down to the intent of the attack. Are you looking to do lethal damage or incapacitating damage? You really aren't getting a deal with Killing Attacks anymore (well unless you start adding to the STUN multiple...but I digress). To be honest I think that Kiilling Attacks get gypped since Hand Attacks get the benefit of a -1/4 Limitation while Hand To Hand Killing Attacks don't (why? Because they add to STR.). So I would ask the question, why don't they just unify the concept and make "Adds to STR" an Advantage? No Range and Adds to STR would cancel out generally (at least in my mind leaving the concept intact (except in the HA case where it would begin to cost 5 pts. per DC). My personal opinion is that it does what it sets out to do. Can it get out of hand? Sure, but so can a Hand Attack if you let it. Would Hulk really need a mop handle or a steak knife? No but according to the rules he would do more damage with them. As a GM you would just need to call BS and disallow it or come up with a way to circumvent it. Here is one way you can do that. If a mop handle has 3pd/ed you can limit the damage to twice that amount and then it breaks. You could do the same thing with a knife or any other weapon it will just require more bookkeeping. So if you don't want Bricks taking advantage of the situation just impose that restriction (I would also suggest making Durable and Unbreakable cost something). Of course this does nothing to a personal ability (like claws or a stinger) but you could still impose rules to prevent abuse if you like. I know, I am rambling....Sorry for that.

Hi Steve, First let me say Thank You for continually supporting the game and answering our questions. I don't think there are very many authors who do this and I want you to know that it is greatly appreciated. Now, of course, I have a question. If a Mentalist attacks a target with Telepathy and chooses to expand the effect by saying that he/she doesn't want the target to know (+20) is there a difference between the Level and the Effect? Example: Mindmaster (Telepathy 10d6) wants information from HeroGuy (EGO 18, Mental Defense 10) and uses Telepathy to read his mind. Mindmaster decides that he only needs to read surface thoughts but he doesn't want HeroGuy to know he is doing it so he chooses to add +20 to the Effect so that HeroGuy won't know anything is amiss. Mindmaster rolls 37 points on his 10d6 and subtracts HeroGuy's Mental Defense for a total of 27 which would normally be enough to read HeroGuy's surface thoughts BUT Mindmaster didn't roll high enough to make it unnoticeable by HeroGuy (+20). Is HeroGuy alerted to the attack? Or, because Mindmaster achieved the Level for surface thoughts but not the total effect he wanted, is HeroGuy unaware of the attempt? My feeling is that the Level is adjusted by the Modifier and is therefore synonymous with the Effect. Am I thinking about this correctly? Thank you, Tom

Hi Steve, I am a bit confused with hardened defenses when it comes to Normal Attacks. If a character buys Resistant Protection with the Advantage Hardened does it protect vs. both Armor Piercing normal attacks as well as AP Killing Attacks? Example: Rock has Resistant Protection 20 PD/ED in addition to his normal 10 PD/ED. He buys Hardened on the Resistant Protection but not on his Normal PD/ED. In play he is attacked by Blade with a 3d6 AP Killing Attack and is able to apply his full resistant defense (20) against the Body of the attack. He is then attacked by Starling with a 10d6 AP Blast vs. ED. Does his Hardened Resistant Protection apply to the Stun of the damage done by the attack? Meaning, would he would have 25 ED versus the attack (since his normal ED is not Hardened it is halved) or 15 ED (since the Hardened Resistant Protection doesn't apply to Normal Attacks)? Thank you Tom

As a GM I don't allow continuous redesigns of characters as I feel that it leads to a constant flood of characters that I have to approve in my inbox. I allow my players to do optimizations at specific points in the character's progression (every 50 XP). They aren't allowed a full rewrite but can make powers more efficient/effective at that time. One thing that generally frosts my ass is the tendency for players to be very reactive to the game before. The "Oh Crap we got hit by a ton of drains!" purchase of Power Defense and such. I like players to develop their characters organically and grow as such. Personally I have a tendency to hoard XP to spend on larger purchases, the occasional skill purchase notwithstanding. I also require my players to describe how and why their character grew in a specific way. Just my $.02,

Are you talking about this thread? http://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/94103-damage-negation-vs-other-defenses Most probably Killer Shrike's take on it located here. http://www.killershrike.com/GeneralHero/GeneralThoughtsOnDamageNegation.aspx

According to the writeup for Move By in 6E2 pg.70-72 the Weapon is at normal damage (subject to the GM's discretion) which means your attack would look like this. 1d6 Penetrating KA +(1d6+1) for STR 23 (STR Halved per Move By; Penetrating) +1 for Movement (20/10)/1.5 = 1.33=1 DC (Adjusted by the Penetrating Advantage) Your Move By with Claws would do 2 1/2d6 Penetrating HKA. She would take 1/3 of the total Active Points in Normal Damage so 60/3=20=4d6. If your GM made you half all of the base damage it would be 2d6+1 Penetrating KA

Ya, but I think they kind of got away from that when they dropped the cost of Armor Piercing to +1/4 anyway. Technically it is a bit cheaper since you do get a slightly higher average but then you have to deal with the random dice roll. Personally I think it works pretty well all things considered. Not cheap, as you mentioned, but I don't think it is really out of whack unless you let Diseases have ridiculous Active Points.

I didn't miss that, it essentially sums up exactly what I have said. Even if it has Standard Effect (to get rid of the random nature) it can dispel the same number of Active Points as it costs.

I guess I still don't understand what you mean. For 60 Points you can have a 20d6 Dispel which would provide, on average, more points of effect than it's cost. With 3.5 being the average a 20d6 would come in at 70 points of effect. If you want to make it easier you can just use Standard Effect for 60 points of effect which would essentially nullify any power of the same point cost (6d6 Drain, etc.). Directly from 6eV1... DISPEL Type: Standard Power/Attack Power Duration: Instant Target: Target’s DCV Range: 10m x Base Points Costs END: Yes Cost: 3 Character Points for every 1d6 of Dispel

What am I missing here? Dispel costs 3 points per die of effect and is much cheaper than attacks. Even if you use Standard Effect you would essentially be dispelling the same points you spent on Dispel. Additionally, as stated before, Cumulative makes Dispel very potent. For the same 60 AP as a 20d6 Dispel you could have a Cumulative 10d6 Dispel that would wipe out a 240 Active Point Disease (built on Drain). Sure this would take 8 Phases to accomplish but it can be done. If you really want to make it powerful just add Constant to it (and probably Reduced END) Here is a quick build that could handle most Diseases in a fairly short period of time. This is of course if the GM is willing to allow an Uncontrolled power at 0 END. Now whether or not it will be able to vanquish the disease before it really damages the target depends on how the Disease was constructed. Cure Disease: Dispel Drain 5d6 (standard effect: 15 points), Constant (+1/2), Uncontrolled (+1/2), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Cumulative (120 points; +1) (52 Active Points) Perhaps I misunderstood the issue you are talking about though..

I guess I will admit to being the GM in question. My take on it is that DMCV represents the target's willpower and I cannot see it being diminished because a character can envelop an area with his mental power. That is why I require Selective or Non-Selective. That means that each individual defends with his own DMCV and it is not represented by an "area" (and therefore DMCV 3). To minimize the rolling I just have the Mentalist make one roll and apply the result to all of the targets in the AoE. As for the power mentioned above, "Psychic Deathcry". I figure this could easily be done by using Alternate Combat Value OMCV vs. DCV and then tacking on AoE. Seems pretty easy to me. The distinction needs to be better defined. Not everything that applies to OCV/DCV should apply to OMCV/DMCV in my opinion. If a character is grabbed is he also 1/2 DMCV? In my opinion, No. Why should an Entangled Character have 0 DMCV? Did his ability to resist Mental attacks somehow diminish because he got hit with a Net Gun? Sorry, I am Not Sorry that I don't just take the RAW as gospel. I was accused of not reasoning from effect and frankly that is exactly the opposite of how I see it. I am trying not to shoehorn in some game mechanic that doesn't make sense. I would rather change the rule in my game. Peace Out, Deadman

They are in Villains Unlimited by Palladium.

Quickdraw, Ultimax, Youngblood and Zipgun Missing Explosion, Jackhammer, Napalm, Overkill, Plastique, Redhawk, Stinger, Vulcan and Exocet...some day perhaps.

Bolo, Claymore, Derringer, Firefight, Incendiary, K-Bar and Longbow

I started working up all of The Arsenal but haven't quite gotten them all finished yet. Here is Arsenal and his Lieutenants. Arsenal, Gatling, Heatseeker, Magnum, Troubleshooter and Widowmaker

In my Champions: The Mutant Chronicles campaign I have resurrected many of the Mutants in TMF. I have made Genocide the militant arm of the IHA and have been slowly introducing them. As has been stated previously the characters within need some massaging to fit in the campaign and I have toned down the idea of "Advance Generation Mutants". So far the PCs have run into The Downtrodden, Scorch, IMAGE, Genocide Pawns, Knights, Minutemen and even Vengeance (the White King's Bishop). Having been a huge X-Men fan I really enjoyed this sourcebook. I liked the structure of Genocide as a whole and enjoyed IMAGE as well. The power level was a bit out of whack for some of my games but overall I thought the characters were pretty good and did have some great design ideas. Many of the characters actually work better with 6E since many of them were designed to seem like normals who have powers and have rather low DEX scores as well as other characteristics. The book goes into detail about the Mutant "epidemic" and has several mutant organizations and independants. There are some decent plot seeds and a full adventure using Genocide. I would classify it more as an Enemies book than anything (possibly because that is what I primarily used) but it does have a lot of information on mutants in general. There are some used copies available on Amazon for ~$17 and if you are a fan of the 80s-90s X-Men you probably won't be disappointed.