Brian Stanfield

As I indicated, it's not an issue of what Advantages add to Damage Class. It's an issue of pro-rating Strength over the total Advantages of all sorts on the HKA.
 
I couldn't find the rule spelled out in Champions Complete (I don't have the full 6E rule set), but 5ER pp. 408 and 409 does describe it, and based on published character sheets I've seen I don't think it's been changed:
 
"If a character adds STR damage to an Advantaged HKA (or other Killing Damage attack), his STR adds to the attack's damage at a lesser rate.
To determine how much STR it takes to add +1 DC, apply the Advantages on the Power to 5 STR (the basic amount used to add 1 DC). The result is how many points of  STR it takes to add +1 DC to the attack. For example, if a character with 30 STR has an HKA 4D6, Armor Piercing [which was a +1/2 Advantage in 5E], it takes 7.5 points of STR (5 x (1 + 1/2) = 7.5) to add +1 DC to the attack (so, with 30 STR, the character adds 4 DCs, increasing the attack's damage to 5D6+1; adding +3 DCs would require 22.5 points of STR). As indicated in this example, the standard HERO System rounding rules do not apply when determining the amount of STR required to add damage (don't round at all).
For purposes of using this rule with melee weapons, ignore the Reduced Endurance Advantage (which all melee weapons must have). STR adds to a weapon with Reduced Endurance as if the weapon was un-Advantaged (or only has whatever other Advantages are applied.)"

When I've played under 6th edition... actually sitting down at the table and rolling dice and counting movement and BODY and STUN... I was hard-pressed to notice a difference between 6th and other editions.  If you had looked really closely you could tell, but it was pretty hard.  
 
Sometime during the period between the last year or so of 4th edition and the first couple of years of 5th edition, I decided that the way I would run my games forever henceforth would be: if you can describe what you want your character to do, I will figure out how to make it work within the rules, even if I have to come up with some new rules.  Now it's "... or use some from another edition".  
 
We have one system, spread out through a bunch of games from 1981 to the present; gameplay is close enough that the editions are completely illusionary, and every piece exists as part of the toolkit.  
 
It's almost enough that the real differences are:  1st through 3rd used 1 END per 5 Active Points (and levels of halving to reduce it), a -1/3" Range Modifier, and diminishing returns on Disadvantages.  4th and 5th used 1 END per 10 Active Points (and a flat Advantage to reduce it to half or zero), range modifier based on doubling distances, and caps per category on Disadvantages.  6th is just like 5th, except it decoupled Figured Characteristics and got rid of Comeliness.  

There are plenty of dials and switches GMs can set... Knockback or Knockdown?  Impairing/disabling wounds?  Hit Locations or not?  To me, we can add END Cost and Range Modifier and Disadvantage handling to that.  
 
All of this nitpicking to figure out which edition is better?  I have to admit I've done my share of it... but I don't think it's relevant anymore.  We can all get ahold of very nearly every Hero Games publication, ever, legitimately on PDF, and use whatever pieces and parts from whatever book we want in our games.  It's all "the HERO System".  Does it really matter if one part was invented in 1981 or 1985 or 1989 or 2002 or 2009?  
 

That's fine, but is it a _wrong_ build? 
 
To clarify where I was coming from:
 
I'm on a touch screen during the day, which means it takes a stupid amount of time for me to type anything.  At the time I was composing that post, the conversation was about agents and the Thing, who where high SPD because of training, and the dissenting view was something olong the lines of "how does combat training make them Olympic class sprinters?" 
 
It doesn't, obviously.  But just watching even an amateur boxing match demonstrates that a normal human can train to up his reaction time well up to what we consider a speed 5 or even a 6, able to dodge, block, strike, and counter-strike at speeds most of us are just never going to achieve.   
 
For a more personal real-world perspective, reference my own post about getting my ass kicked by a guy who had only a modicum of combat training.  I grew up scrapping, and generally held my own.  I couldn't compete with one guy my own age who had only the training he got in the Army:  nothing complex, but more than I had. 
 
As far as seeing it done, I've got four agent groups for my supers games that use that build: up SPD and cut movement.  It gives what I'm looking for: a couple inches per turn more movement than a normal, but heightened reaction speeds. 
 
 
I'm not making that argument, though: I am suggesting that HERO combat _models_ people moving non-stop while attacking and defending, and that the fact that it is modelled in stop-motion, stop-go-stop-go-stop as its broken across phases seems to lead toward an acceptance that this is what the characters are actually doing.  They aren't.  X inches isn't when you stop then go again, it's the point at which you are able to react or make a decision. 
 
 
I would prefer that myself.  I'm a huge propenent of movement-by-segment.  Partly because I think it would more clearly demonstrate SPD as something more than "it's how fast you move," and partly because it segues nicely into figuring mobe-throughs based on inches-per-turn.  With the current model, someone with SPD8 doing 20" hits only as hard as someone SPD1 doing 20", which right there should be something of a hint that SPD and movement could use a bit of separating. 

6e2 p. 98 has a list of what Advantages are typically considered to add to DC (including the "final list is up to the GM" disclaimer).  Range Based On STR is not on that list, nor is Reduced END, and I wouldn't consider it to be one that affects the way damage is done to the target. 
 
It seems to me that there's a quirk of some kind in Hero Designer that's displaying it as +1 DC.  It looks to me as if it should be +2 DC, and I'd just treat it as that.  It's a "cross out machine gun, write in pizza oven" kind of situation.

Having a SPD 6 doesn't mean you run three times as fast as a normal person.  It means you react three times as fast; can make three times as many adjustments to your plans. 
 
We all remind each other all the time when seeking / offering help with unusual builds that it is entirely possible to sell speed back.  SPD 6 with 2" movement means you don't run one cussed bit faster than SPD 2 with 6" movement.  However, youre reaction time is way, way better. 
 
Why is it that while we all know this, every time the DEX / CV conversation comes up, we conviently forget it? 
 
 

But SPD 6 means that he does 100m in about 8.5 seconds leaving Usain Bolt in a heap of trembling muscle...do you see Thing as a sprinter???

I suspect that Hero Designer does not distinguish between STR Min 4 and STR min 8.
 
Lucius Alexander
 
The palindromedary is also surprised to see "Beam" as a Limitation on a hand to hand power....

No, when you have the wrong numbers then your numbers are wrong.  I don't give a caped donkey about liking things, I fully agree that DEX was underpriced before 6e and removing figured characteristics was the correct decision.  That doesn't change the fact that your table is full of Sewer-Man's extra-putrid leavings.  12 DEX 4 CV does not cost 36 points. 
 
This table describes the relationship between DEX, CV, and cost.  The DEX column is the DEX of the character.  The CV column is the CV of a 5e character with that DEX.  The 5e NFC column is the cost for a character in 5e to buy that much DEX (and thus CV) with No Figured Characteristics.  The 6e column is the cost for the given DEX and CV in 6e.  The 6e no DEX column is the cost for 10 DEX and the given CV in 6e.  The 5e _ 6e column shows the relationship between 5e NFC and 6e.  The 5e _ 6e no DEX column shows the relationship between 5e NFC and 6e no DEX. 
DEX CV 5e NFC 6e 6e no DEX 5e _ 6e 5e _ 6e no DEX 3 1 -14 -34 -20 > > 6 2 -8 -18 -10 > > 9 3 -2 -2 0 = < 10 3 0 0 0 = = 11 4 2 12 10 < < 12 4 4 14 10 < < 15 5 10 30 20 < < 18 6 16 46 30 < < 21 7 22 62 40 < < 24 8 28 78 50 < < 27 9 34 94 60 < < 30 10 40 110 70 < < 33 11 46 126 80 < < 36 12 52 142 90 < < 39 13 58 158 100 < < 42 14 64 174 110 < < 45 15 70 190 120 < < Conclusion: ANY CV above 3 costs more in 6e than in 5e.  Period space space carriage return line feed.  6e's DEX/CV changes do not give any hero a "cost break" like you claimed, unless you're proposing that bystanders are more competent than your heroes. 
 
And what's most appalling to me this that this is mathematically obvious.  Painfully so, even.  +1 CV in 6e is 10 real.  Even 1 DCV and a 2-point CSL is 7 real.  And 3 DEX NFC is 6 real.  And 6 is a smaller number than both 7 and 10. 

With that attitude, we are most certainly not "cool". 

The other thing about needing a high DEX to be combat effective means that, for example, Thing only needs three points to have 14 or 15 or less in Acrobatics.  I just think that there is so many things tied together pre-6th that I am pleased to see the teased apart in the current rules.
 
I like high DEX to mean that the character is dexterous, not that they are good at hitting things.
 
Doc

I have a character with STR 14 in HERO Designer and a Dagger:HKA 1d6 (1d6+1 w/STR), Range Based On STR (+¼), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +½) (26 Active Points); OAF (-1), Real Weapon (-¼), STR Minimum 4 (-¼), Beam (-¼)
 
So here's what I can't figure out: The character has 10 points of STR over the STR minimum, but HD is only adding 1 DC to the attack (bolded above). Is the program charging the elevated DC cost because of the advantages of the weapon, despite their not really affecting the damage of the attack? The rule on this on 6e2 97 says that the Advantages in this case should not apply, since they don't directly affect the damage taken. Am I missing something in the rule, or am I missing something in HERO Designer?

I've been running a Roll20 "Cthulhu HERO" campaign set in 1925 using pre-published adventures that I've converted to HERO.  The players are fairly new to HERO so I'm able to hand-wave things a little in order to keep the game flowing smoothly.
 
I'm currently running them through adventures from "Tales of the Sleepless City", which is a collection of CoC scenarios set in 1920s New York City.
 
As they get more experience using the HERO System, I'm slowly introducing them to more of the rules.  It's working great so far.  For sanity checks, the players must make EGO rolls with various modifiers.  Failure can result in the characters acquiring a Psychological Limitation which could be temporary or permanent, depending upon how badly they failed the EGO roll.  Permanent Psych Lims can still be bought down or bought off with XPs.
 

And that, my friends, is why we play these games!

Just to make sure I wasn't confused, I fired up HERO Designer and created two Heroic level characters in 5th and 6th editions. They had identical starting Characteristics, except that the 6e character had twice as much movement. Regardless, I'm not sure how it comes across that the 5e character has more intuitive numbers than the 6e character, since they are identical. You want to bump up numbers in 5e, you purchase Characteristics, which may affect some of the figures. You want to bump up numbers in 6e, you purchase Characteristics to the level you want. So I'm not really sure what the complaint is here about starting Characteristics. 

You need to use them in combination with the other containers (e.g. IS_NOT_LIST_ITEM)

Just to make sure I wasn't confused, I fired up HERO Designer and created two Heroic level characters in 5th and 6th editions. They had identical starting Characteristics, except that the 6e character had twice as much movement. Regardless, I'm not sure how it comes across that the 5e character has more intuitive numbers than the 6e character, since they are identical. You want to bump up numbers in 5e, you purchase Characteristics, which may affect some of the figures. You want to bump up numbers in 6e, you purchase Characteristics to the level you want. So I'm not really sure what the complaint is here about starting Characteristics. 

How many people leave their figured characteristics unchanged, heroic or superheroic or otherwise? In both cases, there are suggested ranges for Characteristics to start with in 6e, where heroes and superheroes have different starting values that you then add to. It’s really not all that different from 5e, which renders starting values that you add to. There really are no added steps here. 

Actually, no. Basic Invisibility has a 'fringe'  where the subject can be detected enough to attack if an observer makes a PER Roll. Define the character's 'fringe' as all-or-nothing so that if an observer makes the PER Roll, then the observer clearly sees the character. If the observer fails, then they can't see the character at all. Use the points you saved from not buying the Trigger advantage to buy a linked Change Environment to give observers minuses to their PER Roll.

Hey all,
I'm starting a new Pulp HERO campaign in order to teach HERO System to some new players. After some preliminary planning and some brief correspondence with Steve Long, I've settled on Hudson City as the setting, and using the Carthage Club (Hudson City, p. 59) as the McGuffin to get all my players together as new adventurers. I'll eventually work them towards membership in the Empire Club, but that'll be after they've had some success as members of the Carthage Club first. I think it will be set in the 1930s, although there is a chance it may be set earlier if the players prefer it.
 
What I'm looking for are some adventure seeds for the players' first few adventures. I'd like to keep it simple and varied in order to teach the rules (as many skill-based challenges as possible, some conflicts, Presence attacks, etc. Stuff to really show the rules at work as easily as possible).
 
All the characters overlap a little bit to make the role playing interesting. A quick rundown of who I've got so far:
A Romani woman who left Portugal when WWI hit Europe, moving with the circus to Brazil, and then eventually to the U.S. where she became a silent film star. Now that the talkies have taken over, her accent won't let her continue in that career, so she is a bit of an embittered diva. A life of adventure seems like an interesting option. (She is a bit jealous of the younger Russian woman below) An American private eye who is a former Federal Revenue Agent who was disgraced for taking kickbacks. After doing some prison time, he became an alcoholic and a private eye who specializes in some of the cases that others won't touch. He has some kind of past with . . .  . . . An American WWI vet who returned home embittered by his experience. He wandered after the war, traveling the world wherever fortune took him and eventually started a new life of industrial espionage and other activities, calling himself a "shadow economy freelancer." He's gotten in some gambling trouble with the crime underworld in Hudson City. He's had some past dealings with . . . . . . The son of an American industrialist who made the family fortune supplying the war effort, including munitions and armaments. He is also a WWI vet who went to war at the behest of his family's honor, and as an ambulance driver he witnessed some of the worst consequences of what his family was selling the rest of the world. He began a new life in the family business, and has global business contacts, but is trying to convince the Executive Board that they ought to change that business to one of rebuilding the colonial areas that the Europeans and Americans have ravaged. There is also a Tsarist Russian woman who was trained as an unwilling young girl to be a specialist in an experimental "Red Sparrow" sort of program under Stalin. She eventually leaves the Soviet Union with Trotsky and makes it to Mexico City, where she eventually escapes the Communists and moves to the United States. She is trained in all the spy stuff that you'd expect, and is a linguist with PTSD and rage issues after her time in the Soviet Union. She and the Romani woman have a bit of a rivalry going on. There may be another woman playing, but I'm not sure yet. I'm open to suggestions for her. There's going to be a mysterious Mr. X operating in the background. I'm not sure about him yet, but he'll be an international industrialist as well with competing interests in the same areas that overlaps with our heros. He'll be the reason they gather together, and secretly watch them in action as they get together and become a team. (Think SPECTRE from James Bond, but in the 1930s)  
 
If you have any plot seed ideas for my first few adventures, that would be great. Thanks for your help.

The only problem with this is that it wouldn’t vary from person to person simultaneously. But I like where you’re going. 
 
How owe about buying DCV with a trigger for an activation roll every time the character is attacked? There’s only the need to keep track of Transdimensional Guy whenever there’s an attack roll against him, and not everyone else. The special effect explains the variable DCV for different attackers: “He was there a second ago . . . .” “No, wait, here he is . . . Oh, dang! He’s gone again!”

I suspect you'll be able to get close to what you want by using IS_LIST, IS_LIST_ITEM, IS_NOT_LIST_ITEM, IF_MANEUVER, and IF_NON_MANEUVER -- those last two are going to be important to distinguish between a List (like Aikido) and a non-listed Maneuver (like Jab).
 
The main difficulty you're running into is this concept of re-ordering things from the way they are entered/ordered on the Maneuvers tab in the application. It can be done, but you're going to need to jump through a few hoops to get there.

And that, my friends, is why we play these games!

Not really sure what you're asking...the export tags generally don't "interact with each other" at all -- you could have IF_NOT_LIST within an IF_LIST container and things would work pretty much the way you'd expect...the contents of IF_NOT_LIST would be removed if the item being exported was in a list...and the contents of IF_LIST would be removed if the item being exported was not in a list.

That 8 pound bow still put two arrows through chain mail, or at least appeared to do so. If this is true, I’d suppose that would be enough for any archer, even in game terms. 
 
Maybe not dragon scales though . . . 🐉

Probably black knit spraypainted silver like they use a lot in movies for chainmail.
 
Trick archers like this use super light draw bows so they can shoot quickly and easily from all angles.  A really powerful bow (the kind that you need to punch through mail) requires tremendous strength in the upper body and arms, in a few particular stances.