Ndreare

Ghost Angel that is a really well put argument and I changed my mind because of it.

Thematically how about instead of a bug flying off. It is a scorpion that receives the message, burrow into the ground, then re-emerges at the targets l location. Mechanically I would use mind scan and only 2 or 3 dice of telepathy with -2 only to fulfill one task -1/2 restrainable : stepping on the scorpion. -2 on the telepathy only to deliver 12 second message our 10 words.

Is the weapon on his hip/in a scabbard or is it in his hand? I would say to get a weapon from someone in the heat of combat without them noticing would be pretty hard (-5 maybe) but not impossible as it has been known to happen that a person in combat was disarmed without noticing. However out of combat I would think it would be fairly simple and a routine bump or flash should be enough of a distraction with a small modifier + or - depending on the size of the weapon and the holster. For example a dagger is a normal holster would be easy to pull and likely receive a +1. A pistol in a tactical holster would be very difficult with a -3 or higher depending on quality. A war hammer is heavy and awkward, so it would be easy to notice it is missing (harder to slight of hand it away) so a large penalty would be applied (IMHO). I know from playing around with friends, even if I stand still it is very hard for them to get a pistol out of my tactical holster. While soft soft carry conceal holster, that sits in the middle of my back is relatively easy for them to pull from. If you have access to weapons and are 18+, play with them a bit (unloaded) and see how your group feels about it.

If the attack was targeting the focus then I would say yes. This is the equivalent of trying to hit Juggernaut's or Magneto's helms upwards to get it off their heads. It is a know technique in the setting and the X-men often try it knowing otherwise the foe is too powerful. However when generally attacking the armor works as normal, but their is no penalty to attack the focus.

Personally Christopher the 0.5 speed system proposed would be frustrating for me as a G GM and all of my players.

While personally I see no problem with dispel coming from a bullet. I would never allow the player to specify only the PD portion. Had the player considered making a called shot with the normal modifier (-2 I think) to hit the focus, this destroying the focus with his bullet?

Persistent and Uncontrolled both bought usable as attack and ranged.

I really like the format you choose. It's it an export or manual?

Mind Control with a -2 limitation seams the best option.

PPS: If you are one of those GM's that give Invisible Power Effects as a freebie to mental powers then Mental Powers are equal IMHO. But most GM's I have know require mental powers to be visible to 3 senses just like other endurance using powers.

Convincing trained active sentries to go to sleep would be an Ego +30 in just about every game I have ever played. But even if you had it at Ego +20 that still is almost impossible at the suggested active point caps for a Normal heroic game (30-50 active points). To do that to multiple guards would reduce your effectiveness even more as you would have to add area of effect or do an option multiple attack reducing your OMCV by -2 and your DCV by half. Even versus a Ego (10) + 20 effect and a 40 active point (8d6) ability you have a 50% chance of affecting them if you even hit which is you are +2 OCV over your opponent is about 83% hitting meaning your chance of disabling the random mostly unimportant guard is about 0.83*0.50=0.42%. Which inversely means your character who spent all his points on mental stuff has a 58% chance of things getting physical. As soon as you make the attack your target becomes aware and your difficulty escalates, because without a doubt the difficulty versus a person who knows someone is trying to influence him is +30. Our experience has generally been a normal ability bought attack versus alternate defense and uses Mental Combat value is almost always superior. However skills tend to blow even that out of the water as a character with the same points on skills such as Acting, Stealth and Climbing or other adventurer based skill will do way better in just about every non-combat situation. PS: All this compared to using a direct Blast attack for 8D6 which they only get to subtract 2 PD + 2 from armor against and you will see one 8D6 attack they subtract 10 from, the other they subtract 4 from one is obviously better in our experience.

I always felt like mental powers, and mental illusion in particular are too expensive for what you get. Especially if the game is at the heroic levels. After all the modifiers you need to achieve an effect make it so you have to completely blow through whatever active point level is suggested in the book to have a useful effect on someone with the suggested defences at the same levels (heroic, very powerful heroic, or even Super heroic).

6th ed 1 page 400. Under limitations. It is only 3 paragraphs so easy to miss

Yes, both are legal. It is more explicit in Hero 6th or Fred, than it is in champions complete. But as long as all slots have the limitation the whole pool can have them up to the lowest level.

I changed images to ego roll instead of perception. Then used Attacks versus Ego defence instead of DCV for +1/4 modifier when I made my Illusionist, it works really well and required no rules alteration.

Cool, will have to check it out after work.

That was a great book and the sequel is just around the corner.

I am thinking the following are reasonable skill modifiers for rituals based on the feel i want for thaumatology. Sympathetic Objects +3 Strong representation of effect desired (Example: a weapon that has actually taken a life to represent violence) +2 Major representation of effect desired (Example: a weapon that has been used to represent violence). +1 Minor representation of effect desired (Example: a house hold knife to represent violence.) +0 No symbols Multiple Symbols. +0 1 Sympathetic Object (see above) +1 3 Sympathetic Object (the power of threes) +2 5 Sympathetic Object (the five elements) +3 12 or 13 Sympathetic Object (the completed cycle or moons of the year) Times and Seasons +1 Midnight +1 Noon +2 Within the 1 hour window of the full moon +3 Lunar Eclipses & Occultations during the climax +X Planetary Eclipses & Occultations +3 per planetary body in alignment during the climax Places of Power Some locations are themselves considered sympathetic to certain types of magic and provide from +1 to +4 to casting rituals appropriate to their sympathies. For example a cemetery will be highly sympathetic to attempts to speak with spirits, a church would be highly sympathetic to protection and warding magic. The culture involved will highly affect this. For example East Asians may find Jade to be sympathetic to magic, while Western Europeans may feel iron is antithetical to magic.

It works like this. Joe rolls 3d6 gets a 12 ads his OCV of 8 and tells the GM he ruled a 20. The GM looks and sees the bad guy has a DCV of 9 adds 10 for 19 as 20 is equal to or greater than 19 Joe his. In play it is smoother and easier. While mathematically it works out to the exact same odds.

So I am thinking about putting together an urban fantasy setting heavily inspired by Dresden Files. *************************************************** A Wizard will have an incredible amount of power if prepared or when acting proactively. However when acting reactively the wizard will have only a few incantations to draw on. To represent this power in Hero terms all magic will draw on one of two intelligence based power skills; Rituals and Incantations. In additional the wizard may have science & knowledge skills for different types of magic or styles to work as complimentary skills. Such as understanding physics, chemistry or being exceptionally good at fire magic. Ritual magic is wide and varied in nature. A wizard using rituals can do amazing feats of power. Not all wizards are created equal and there are three basic levels of power. However power alone is not enough and even a powerful wizard will need to have the skill to safely channel such awesome powers. The wizards talent has the following limitations witch apply to both the control cost and the powers in the pool as a single limitation called Ritual Magic -4; [RAR: Skill Roll -1/2, Major Side Effects -1/2, Extra-Time -1-1/2: Minimum of 1 minute , Concentration throughout ritual -1/2, Gestures throughout ritual -1/2, Incantations throughout ritual -1/2, Limited Power: Magic Sympathies -1/2.] 15 Wizard - Lesser Talent: Variable Power Pool, 9 base + 60 control cost, (39 Active Points); all slots Ritual (-4) 25 Wizard - Full Talent: Variable Power Pool, 13 base + 125 control cost, (76 Active Points); all slots Ritual (-4) 40 Wizards - Major Talent: Variable Power Pool, 23 base + 175 control cost, (111 Active Points); all slots Ritual (-4) The second type of magic called incantations is the less subtle and more vulgar art. Incantations are limited by the wizards will and skill. The maximum total real points a character may have in incantations in equal to the characters Ego. The maximum total active points a wizard may have active in incantations at any given time is equal to skill times 5. All incantations must have requires a skill roll with a penalty of -1 per 10 active points. However if the characters effective skill is 13 or higher no roll will be made to speed up play. There are a few limitations to be considered for all characters in this setting. The maximum skill levels or combination of skill levels a character may have without exception is +5. This is for both combat and non-combat skill levels. Not all wizards have incantations, but all wizards are required to buy the Wizards Gift for 15/25/40 points respectively. Labs and assistants are super common for aid in casting and multiple wizards can work together on powerful rituals allowing each to perform a component of a compound spell. For example one wizard can perform the clairvoyance, another character performs the mind scan and a third character performs the attack allowing three characters to work together in a single ritual finding, targeting and attacking. The player’s characters do not have to be wizards. However a wizard may the following talent, but the talent may only be selected once. 10: X Talent; The wizard receives +3 to rituals and incantations only to offset active point casting penalties with a narrow area of power, such as one of the schools of magic. Built as +3 Rituals (6 points) and +3 to Incantations (6 points) = 12 points with the -1/4 limitation only for X. This talent does not count against the limit of no more than 5 levels used on a single roll. This is done to encourage caster to have a "flavor". Other supernatural beings will exist in the world, with a default write being exactly as they are written in the Hero System Bestiary 6th Edition. Individuals may have more or less talent. However those other supernatural beings will be much less frequent that in the Dresden verse as the focus of the game will be political maneuverings between wizards. When those beings show up it will in almost all cases be because a Wizard summoned them. From here I plan on letting the Hero System rules themselves and the individual designs of characters be what seperates the powers of others. For example The followers of Forte's School of Magic may have learned their incantations in the form of multipowers, moving powers around as needed. While The Eastern School of the Jade hand may have learned simply how to make oneself invulnerable. ****************************************************************** So with all that said any feedback on something I should consider or not consider?

Hopefully they make this sticky, lock it and delete my post. Do you think it would be apropriate to report it and see if Dan, Jason or whoever is in charge would be willing to do that?

We have used Hero for tactical leveled war gaming and it worked okay. But there were three rules we used as guidelines 1: No limitations on powers that do not limit tactically in game. 2: Open character review prior to play. Much like in Warhammer you have your army list ready for the other player to audit. 3: No selling back attributes. And the general guideline of If it is stupid, we both know it is stupid so no. All in all it worked okay. We both built 500 point armies with minimum of 50 points per man and maximum of 175. Everyone had to be built within standard heroic guidelines. Our Experience: More lower point characters with tactics skill for teamwork worked better than 3 high point characters. The characteristics that seamed most useful were Speed and OCV The powers that seamed most effective were unmodified Blast, Entangle and Barrier. The most useless abilities were Intelligence, and Flash. Of course our motivation was to teach Hero so your experience could completely vary.

This has the advantage of being highly intuitive and easy to teach.

Yes, but the woman we pay with likes "classy sexy" images for females so this is not her style. My wife thinks it is cartoony but that is only two answers from women I know. Personally if I saw that cover, I would not be inclined to look at it or buy it. I prefer serious art. And I love hero, so much so that I ordered book 1. I will buy every Hero Games product because I love Fantasy Hero so much.So I guess they do not have to impress me.

Yes, but the woman we pay with likes "classy sexy" images for females so this is not her style. My wife thinks it is cartoony but that is only two answers from women I know. Personally if I saw that cover, I would not be inclined to look at it or buy it. I prefer serious art. And I love hero, so much so that I ordered book 1. I will buy every Hero Games product because I love Fantasy Hero so much.So I guess they do not have to impress me.