GreyGuardian

Re: dietary quirks / religious rules for a character umm looses his powers if he eats the wrong thing? That's a limitation on those powers.

Re: Low-Point Heroic PC's I usually add in anything that seems to be a fit for the concept and then trim back down to the point total. If what you are left with doesn't meet your concept for the character it probably means you need a different character concept for that game.

Re: CHAMPIONS UNIVERSE II - What Do You Want To See? Discussion of how to avoid overshadowing the PCs with NPC heroes. The Champions in my game tend to be ummm anywhere but somewhere accessible when the players ask about them. The Champions have been off in space, another dimension, other handwaving smoke blowing excuse a lot in the last few years. More on Primus would be useful (unless they are getting a bigger write-up elsewhere).

Re: Easily forgotten Change environment with negative perception modifiers only to notice the character? make it no range and moves with him and always on. Or if you want it for combat only just give him levels in DCV because people "just forget to look for him or target him etc." If you want people to forget about him as well then area effect transformation centered on him is probably what would be required.

Re: Undetectable Firearms There really aren't any undetectable firearms currently. There are some that don't show up via the typical metal detector but a personnel security x-ray system like SECURE 1000 or Bodysearch (real products in use in the U.S. currently) will pick up anything gun like unless it is concealed internally (ie a very uncomfortable place). For star hero the problem becomes even worse if you are using a space opera-ish setting like Terran Empires since the scanners are VPP and can be reconfigured to find anything. Anyway, I would think the best way to go is make the weapon a multipower like a rifle you can shoot or you can use the butt as an HA to wack someone. Or perhaps a compound power. The gun can shoot. The gun can make itself invisible to metal detectors (magnetic fields). Another option which is probably "cleaner" is the gun gives a bonus (ie gives skill levels) to concealment skill - which could be limited to metal detectors, or x-ray, or just all concealment if the gun is very small.

Re: Practical Costuming (not quite a WWYCD) Well you could do this - http://www.octanecreative.com/ducttape/superheroes.html It doesn't look all that practical though.

Re: Pulp Sci-Fi Resources for Star Hero Warren Ellis is working on a retro sci-fi comic called Ignition City - he's blogging his work on his website - http://www.warrenellis.com. Also check out his graphic novel - MINISTRY OF SPACE - http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=398 He also tends to post links to source material when he researches a topic, I remember seeing something about the old flash gordon stuff there awhile ago.

I'm confused by what appears to be self contradictory rules in the combat handbook, page 14, the second paragraph under the heading "darkness and flash versus the mental sense group. Specifically, darkness prevents the mental hearing of telepathy and mindlink. However apparently you can still mentally hear through telepathy and mindlink if you have a line of sight with another targeting sense. Whereas the section on flash to mental senses is clear that while you can target with telepathy and mind link you can't get any information through those powers if you are flashed since your mental "hearing" is deafened. Shouldn't darkness to the mental sense group work the same way as flash and in addition prevent transmission through mental powers (telepathy, mindlink, mental illusions, etc)?

Re: VERY new GM seeking Powers help... As an aside, Pulp hero might be a good source for info about the 30's even though it is aimed at a heroic level game rather than superheroic.

Re: Still not sure how.... As I recall, there were export templates for posting to the boards in the herodesigner export templates area - or they might have been posted to the hero designer message board ...

Re: Learning Hero Superheroic combat may be simpler than the heroic lvl stuff depending on what you are doing. Generally fewer of the optional combat rules are appropriate for superhero level combat. While you don't have to use them, things like hit location etc. do add something to heroic lvl combat. You absolutely do not NEED any other books besides 5ER. However, USPD still had enough good ideas on how to do things that I find it quite useful (I've been using HERO since 1984) - especially when trying to teach the system to someone new. The key to character creation is decide what you want the character to be able to do. Everything in hero is based on the "special effect" of what you are trying to create. What I do is make a list of all the abilities and skills that seem appropriate. Then figure out a way to build the powers and then go back and make the hard decisions on what needs to go in order to be less than the points allowed. Power frameworks and limitations allow you to get a larger variety of powers for the same amount of points. Appropriatness of combat challenge is mostly represented by the total points. However comparing the combat values (ie are they hard to hit, do they have a hard time hitting the player characters), the relative lvl of player defense vs mook offense and the other way around all are relevant. I believe that the 5ER has a section discussing balance. In my experience it is much easier to balance than that d20 fantasy game with the monsters. for mooks you need the OCV, DCV, speed, defense, movement, attack and if you are trying to speed things up decide how many hits it takes to put a mook down (1 or 2 shots usually should do for a mook - depending on the effect you are looking for) or you need to know their stun, body, and recovery as well. You can assume 11- for any other stat roll they might need to make like perception etc. generally you should know their motivation and if they have them, weaknesses but you don't need to stat out disads for mooks. Is hero designer worth it? heck yes, however you still will benefit from cranking through a few characters with pencil and paper first to get a feel for how character creation works... hero designer is like a spreadsheet.... as you try and tweak and refine things you can see how the points change - it is very handy. A villains book for whatever you end up running is a great way to look at how a bunch of characters were built (and can be a big time saver if you didn't have time to prepare). Heck there are probably a lot of characters posted on these boards that would do the job. I've also seen folks ask for commentary on characters posted to the boards (hero designer has an export format that posts very nicely) and that can be a good way to see if you are understanding what you thought you understood and like that. Or if there is a power etc that you are struggling with post a question to the boards in the right genra and you are likely to get helpful responses. Good luck, and I hope this was at least a little useful.

Re: "Down-to-Earth" special powers x-ray systems for looking through cars, trucks, cargo containers, trains, and peoples' clothing (while they are wearing it) exist today. As do passive and active millimeter wave systems for doing similar things. possible cop gadgets or cyberware would make sense... as would nightvision gadgets etc. And I heard about a recent idea to use nano tech to effectively make things invisible by diverting light around an object sort of the way a water fall diverts around a solid object in it's stream. tracking scent perhaps? people's noses can be more discriminating than current chemical sniffers... FDA still had someone tasting tea to grade it up until a few years ago.

Re: Xenovores *Possible Spoilers* suggested fix for those that don't like the dalek.... errr xenovore origin - agents of the elder worms manipulated the origin race into creating the xenovores. Then the elder worm (or their agents - aka the Thane) start the war and get the xenovores deployed. Thereafter they can use psionic manipulation to guide the xenovores assaults to be beneficial to the elder worms' agenda.

Re: Worlds of Empire - Waddya think? Heck I only read parts of the gm section so far (busy busy with other things alas) but I think it is solid support needed for the terran empire setting. The one thing I would really have liked to see is more about specific stations and distances in the star systems mentioned... ie it takes 5 days from the hyperspace point off of adamant or whatever. I But the gm section had very useful things that fit in with my current story line. I'm hoping the book has some economic and trading information to flesh out the setting a bit.

Re: Daylight Spell Nifty idea... I wouldn't think this is worth a limitation bonus though, it is more of an element of the spell system design... but a skill contest of who made their roll by more might be a good mechanic for all opposite effects. Although this would require tracking the casting skill roll for any continuous effect that doesn't have to be maintained by endurance (say an extended charge - darkness lasts for one hour.... )

Re: Atomic Rocket website Great site. It helped a lot when I was doing research for my star hero game.

Re: Space Adventure: The Five Essentials Firefly and Serenity as an example of a distopian retro tech approach to the genre. One of the Miles Vorkosigan novels by Bujold Foundation trilogy by Asimov Cobra by Timothy Zahn 2001 by Arthur C. Clark and the rest of what was recommended, B5, original star trek, starwars a new hope, many of the heinlein novels.

Re: Firefly I didn't see a link to the movie website in this thread so... http://www.serenitymovie.com I recommend checking out the Browncoats website as well. I saw Serenity June 23 in Chicago and it was very good. A few very minor continuity things were changed so that an audience that had not watched the show could get follow what was going on. I hope y'all plan to be in a theater on September 30 to see the Big Damn Heroes.

Re: Stretching/Multi-Grab, Area Grab Question why not just by extra limbs linked to stretching only useable for grabbing multiple opponents? the special effect is: there are no extra limbs it's just a stretching power.

Re: Mega senses As I said, you can ignore that whole physics thing it is after all champions. However, block does not mean you stopped a charging bull. It means you used your skill against it to avoid taking damage. Unless you are as strong (or heavy) as a bull that probably means you did some sort of shift out of the way at the last second (possibly by vaulting over the bull using it's own horns or twist at the last moment kind of thing). The underlying maneuver (or power etc) does not dictate a manuever's description, just like energy blast can be fire or metal shards.

Re: Mega senses There's a problem of not seeing things where they actually are using the immense telescopic or megascale sight. Anything over a light second away isn't necessarily where you see it. And if you look across the galaxy that planet you are heading hasn't been at the location you percieve for thousands of years. probably better to buy desolid only works with megascale flight so you don't have to worry about hitting things. And maybe dectect planet with discriminatory and megascale not defined as sight. Then again for galactic champs you could just ignore all that physics stuff.

Re: Need help with campaign ideas Watch the first few farscape episodes in order and it will make much more sense. there are two settings available from HERO for star hero, alien wars (military science fiction setting with interstellar war) and terran empires (an almost star trek tech setting with imperial elements like star wars and the foundation trilogy by asimov). If you want something superpowered then you might ponder galactic champions set after terran empires in the time line. There is a farscape rpg out which may or may not have lots of background material to grab. I haven't looked at it. Or you could just extrapolate factions from the ones active in the current champions setting. Viper, Until, Demon, aliens mentioned in CKC, etc.

Re: Space Opera resources Good work. Google brought me to the references page when I was trying to find more info about propulsion systems.

Re: Getting rid of the {tech} Thank you for posting that link! I'd been thinking about this problem for awhile now and this looks like an excellent answer.

Re: Pulp Film Recommendations I'm surprised no one has mentioned Big trouble in little china. Modern setting but lots of classic pulp elements. Actually, I remember Darren mentioning it around the time pretty but boring (Sky Captain) came out. Buckaroo Banzai as well is very pulp. I only remeber bits of this film but: Lost Horizon (1937) - A plane crash delivers a group of people to the secluded land of Shangri-La -- but is it the miraculous utopia it appears to be? HG Wells - War of the Worlds and Time Machine Regarding league of extraordinaire gentlemen - great graphic novel - awful hideously bad movie. (probably wouldn't have been as unpleasant to me if it hadn't been named for the original with which it shares very little.) and to toss out another From Hell. Again the graphic novel is amazing the movie has heather graham and johnny depp (but is still bad). Pulp by gas-light genre perhaps? Films based on HP Lovecraft stories - some of the stories are more pulp than horror.