Tech

Re: What kinds of abilities should my charater have? Don't know if you've got it or thought about it but having extra Combat Levels would easily fit right in: being able to know when and/or where a blow or attack will come allows you to counter it easily.

Re: Move Through without Knockback or Knockdown I've got a nice easy question for you, and if it's been answered already, please just point me to the answer. I've seen numerous times in movies where one guy is chasing another and manages to jump the fleeing thug to knock them down. Both get up and start a fight.. To the point: I wouldn't consider that a move-through nor would I consider the attack a grab. a) It's not a move-through because the intent is not using your body mass and velocity to cause damage, it's just to knock the running person down it's not a grab because it's more of a tackle I'm not going to argue hard & fast about rules but would appreciate some suggestions how to handle this. Thanks!

Re: Old School Hero Newsletters Cool! I'm one of the proud to still have the original newsletters.

Re: Stronghold I have the two previous versions of Stronghold, so I'd have to say 'Oh yes'

Re: Knockback and Bullets Well, last I heard, the French newspaper was wondering where the flying carcas of a dead pig crashing on top of a street cafe' came from.

Re: New Perk Yep, she's underaged. That being the case, ordinary people would be assigned a legal guardian or given into the custody of an aunt, uncle, older brother or sister or something like that. However, this heroine is legally treated as being able to take care of herself, hence the Perk. Otherwise, it will naturally be questioned: who's taking care of her? Just in case, no the public doesn't know she's a superhero.

Re: [Rules-fu] Resistant Power Defense To which I agree. Although I think this thread answers a question I've somewhat had for awhile in this matter, it won't matter because it won't happen in my campaign since to me it seems too munchkinist for bloodthirsty players. My opinion, my rules, my campaign.

A player of mine, ok - my brother, wants to have a young heroine get a perk not mentioned. That would be: PERK: LEGALLY INDEPENDENT. Although the origin isn't finished yet, the heroine would be under 18, yet legally responsible for taking care of herself since her parents are presumably dead. At what young age do you think the heroine could get it (in a superhero world, not reality) and how much?

Re: Money in Superheroic campaigns Anything ordinary would be allowed to be bought due to the Wealthy perk: airplane, fancy car(s), fancy boat(s), your own island to spend Summers at. However, if any one those become regularly used, time to spend real points on those puppies. You say you now use your island plotting against evil? Time to cough up points to buy a base. Your 'ordinary looking' motorcycle not so ordinary? Pay for them. As others have said, it allows for greater roleplay.. and problems. "Mr. Wealthy, your Vice-president left the company with over $10 million dollars and we have no idea where he is. Oh yes, I forgot to mention the IRS is here to see you." The IRS.. now that's real evil!

Re: Multiform and Experience Ok, I've read the Hero Games FAQ and unless I missed it, it didn't answer my question. The FAQ mentions 5ER but unfortunately, I don't have the money to buy it. So, hopefully, someone better informed than I can help. As I understand 5th Ed, the book seems to indicate that once the 'most expensive form' is bought, that experience needs to be spent as a 1-to-1 cost. Also, if I have 4 multiforms and use 50 xp to upgrade the first form, does that mean the other forms can be upgraded by 50 pts? Am I simply way off on this? Btw, the web page didn't speak about this power.

Multiform as explained in the 5th edition is unclear on the concept of upgrading your multiple forms. ex. Tom is the base character. He has 2 other forms bought via Multiform: a bear and a bird. The bear was built at 300 pts and the bird at 100 pts. The cost to Tom for the Multiform power is: Bear (most expensive form): 300 pts/5 = 60 pts Bird: +5 pts for 2x # of forms: another 5 pts. Total: 65 pts Later, Tom wants to buy more powers for the bear, say another 40 pts. He also wants to add 40 pts to the bird. Okay, how does this work now regarding expediture of experience pts? You can't add more disadvantages so does Tom have to pay 40 experience pts for the bear and 40 more xp pts for the bird for a total of 80 experience pts? Also, does the bird get the 40 pts for 'free' since the 40 pts were paid on the most expensive form - that being the bear? I see no point in paying double pts (80 xp pts) and think it should only be 40 pts since the bird is a mere +5 pts to the most expensive form. Also, regardless of how many forms Tom has, the power - Muliform - is just that, a single power. I need some heavy clarification of spending experience pts here. Help?

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. Yes, Yes! Go into details.

Re: Your character's theme song would be? I'll have to get back to this one. Too little time right now & got too many to write out.

Re: Why should I play HERO? Reasons to play HERO: 1) Champions was voted into the Gamer's Hall of Fame. 2) Champions was voted by the Inquest gaming magazine as #1 of the top 100 rpg games. 3) There is a massive fan-base for anyone who has a question or just wants to throw out ideas. 4) Hero Games continues to sell books for multiple genres (superhero, sci-fi, etc) 5) We all here on the forum think it's pretty cool. 6) Why not? In my opinion, it really is the best overall game system out there.

Re: Brooklyn Superhero Supply Company - Omigod... Huzzah! We are not worthy!

Re: Found something today....

Re: Would you allow this or is this too cheesy? No, No, I could never allow this, I could never.. um, what was the question again? Seriously though, as interesting as the above idea is, I don't think it quite matches what Stone has suggested. If the idea Stone has is that the attack reduces a target's regular ED (not Forcefield or Armor, etc), then any other attack would going against the subject's ED would have greater effects, not just the Matter Erroder attack. I would go with the ED drain.

Re: Found something today.... I'm glad this got brought up because I have a little surprise for you.. I have a photocopy of that Dragon article on Champions from 1982. I could either scan it in or simply re-type the article here, assuming Scott Bennie ok'ed it.

Re: Campaign length It's changed and gotten bigger but the campaign originally started back in 1981 is still running. It's still fun to be player and even more fun to be GM. Of course, there's not as much gaming now: growing up does that to you. Still, my group can generally squeeze in 3-4 games a month.. until the holidays hit.

Re: Need help with 'tree' superhero concept Interesting idea but unfortunately, I know very little about Swamp Thing.

I long thought about making up a hero who can transform into a Dendroid (ala Heroes of Might & Magic 3). If you're not familiar with the game, think of a treant from Lord of The Rings, except only 6-12 feet tall. Now there are a lot of real cool ways I could create the hero but one thing I've been concerned about alot is growth. I mean, ok, the guy changes into a powerful, walking tank of a tree but what then? What about 50, 100, 200, etc experience pts from now? I know about Thorn from CKC but I don't care for some of those powers. Sooooooo, I could really use growth ideas, i.e. powers/skills/etc., to pour the experience pts into later on.

Re: Appropriate challenges: how many points?

Re: I want to play Hero, When I first got the Champions book (1st edition) so many years ago, I learned the system first and learned it well. Why? In preparation to explaining it to a bunch of D&D'ers who'd never heard of a superhero RPG before. Those players are now still playing Champions and D&D was dumped so long ago I can't remember in favor of permanently playing the Hero System. Learn the system so when it comes time for you to pitch your suggestion to try the Hero System that you can explain it well to them. With you sounding excited about the hero system, it helps build a case for them to try it. I'd let them know first that you'd like to try something else for a change. That's when you give them the excited hero system speech. Let them see that there's more to life than DnD and Rifts. The concept of a superstrong hero punching their foe through a building might help your case to try something different. Also, try looking on this website in the Player Finder section for people near you. Put out a request for players in your area.

Re: Is my campaign too low-powered? Too high-powered? Cool, Fox1. My campaign comes out to.. Dex range in supergroups has ranged from only 3 pts difference to an incredible 13 pts difference for one supergroup (Dex 18 to Dex 31) Generally, we have a 1 or 2 pt SPD difference, although the supergroup I mentioned above has the biggest difference, SPD 5 to SPD 10. OCV differences aren't so high here, generally 1 or 2 pts, though with levels it can range up to 4 pts (OCV 8 to OCV 12). One hero can go up to OCV 16 in a special situation. Average defense runs generally 2.0 to 2.5 times the defense for me. Varies on the hero concept in my campaign. It'd be hard to give a typical idea of how many hits a hero could take before going unconscious. The point it, it takes time to figure out what a good idea is for your campaign. If you find something doesn't work, change it. When I think about introducing something to the campaign, I alert the players beforehand about the new change and give each player a handout indicating what the addition is. I let them know that for this episode it will be tested. Sometimes I test it by myself although that's a little harder to be objective. It also depends on the type of campaign you're running whether light-hearted, dark, in-between or whatever.

Re: More Strength for Martial Artists? If we're going to start segmenting types of characters, then the brick-type is going to theoretically have a harder time vs an Egoist. "Your puny strength is now mine to control!" Likewise, the brick's also going to have a 'fun' time versus a flying energy projector. "I'm 20 inches away from the brick. I blast him despite the range modifier." The martial artist can do things the brick can't, like bypassing the brick's high PD with a Nerve Strike. Also, with more Damage Classes, it's awfully humiliating for a brick to be grabbed & held from behind by a 'puny' martial artist who's DC gives him a 50 or 60 Str to hold onto. I have not had any problems with martial artists vs bricks and have found the generally bricks have a hard time with martial artists because of the versatility of the martial manuevers. Let's not forget the normal Dodge is +3 to DCV versus the Martial Dodge which is +5 to DCV. While the brick is spending points pumping up his statistics, the martial artist is gaining quite a wide range of skills & stats, i.e. martial manuevers, DC's, skill levels, generally higher Dex, Speed and often Ego (so there you Egoist). Also, if your GM allows it, levels can be used to increase your martial artist's DC. Don't forget about Sequenced Attacks..