Tech

Played a lot of Champions back in the day, using what I now know is the "3rd ed."  My friends and I played a few years after the 4th edition came out, but we were basically a 3rd edition group.  Strict adherence to any rules was not really an issue.  We played for fun.  If a dice role would break something, we looked away and rolled again.  And we took turns being GM, but each had our own character who would, when we were GM, essentially tag along as an NPC.  That said, we took our characters seriously and loved working within the rules to build and then, with experience, flesh out characters over time.
 
Anyway, many years after I stopped playing but many years ago, now, I bought a copy of the Hero System 5th edition rule book.  I just got it, in mint condition (minus a little yellowing of the pages), out of an old box of stuff I brought over from my parent's basement.  Now, my kids want to play!
 
My son has an idea for building a character, and I'm looking through the 5th edition rule book (I no longer know where my 3rd and 4th are) and thinking about how to build the powers he's described.  I could definitely use some help from "the experts."  Is this the right place to post about that?

3rd had "piercing points" that could make a normal attack deadlier to low-DEF targets 🤷‍♂️

I always liked Find Weakness, it always screamed the Inhuman character Karnak to me.

5th edition worked pretty well as it was.
 
So did 4th.
 
Don't see the need.
 
I suspect giving up EC for Unified would hurt characters who had any common limitations on their ECs, relative to other frameworks and bricks... points did still matter in 5th...

I also still use Transfer, as does the group I'm in.  (I also still use the simpler Instant Change; simple is better.)

I also still use Transfer, as does the group I'm in.  (I also still use the simpler Instant Change; simple is better.)

I still use Transfer. Personally I never found it unbalancing, and it makes many effects so much easier to build and run. I never really grasped the rationale for removing it.

A long time ago, a player created a hero called Darcrest: a mix of batman and weird. The player routinely came up with lines to throw off the GM and did it so well. The hero's battle cry was: "Revenge, cries the larynx of the merely magnificent Darcrest!"

A long time ago, a player created a hero called Darcrest: a mix of batman and weird. The player routinely came up with lines to throw off the GM and did it so well. The hero's battle cry was: "Revenge, cries the larynx of the merely magnificent Darcrest!"

Possibly one of the funniest moments we've had:
 
The players have started a new hero team and only that day came up with a hero team name. The meet up with the bad guys...
 
Hero: "All right! Now you're going to have to deal with us! We're..." (player looks at other players) "Who are we again?"

Possibly one of the funniest moments we've had:
 
The players have started a new hero team and only that day came up with a hero team name. The meet up with the bad guys...
 
Hero: "All right! Now you're going to have to deal with us! We're..." (player looks at other players) "Who are we again?"

Possibly one of the funniest moments we've had:
 
The players have started a new hero team and only that day came up with a hero team name. The meet up with the bad guys...
 
Hero: "All right! Now you're going to have to deal with us! We're..." (player looks at other players) "Who are we again?"

Possibly one of the funniest moments we've had:
 
The players have started a new hero team and only that day came up with a hero team name. The meet up with the bad guys...
 
Hero: "All right! Now you're going to have to deal with us! We're..." (player looks at other players) "Who are we again?"

Watched "Frozen Fever"

As a single power can be written up multiple ways in the Hero system, I still think this was supposed to be a contact poison attack; they just decided he needed to Grab you to effectively use his attack. A Black Mamba uses a neurotoxin bite to deal with its prey; so I wouldn't use this as a constricting power.

I remember this because a follow-up game was done this weekend for an episode done many years ago.
 
A mob figure called Ferrari is having lunch with a hero at an Italian restaurant. Ferrari is warning the hero to stay out of his way.
Ferrari finishes the conversation with: "I hope this conversation didn't hurt your feelings."
Hero reply, "It's not your feelings I'm planning on hurting."

I am curious as to the various details you GMs put into your game. Do you:
a) Give your episodes titles?
b) Do you give origins to all your villains
c) Are your important NPCs stated out?
d) Do you go above and beyond the duty with special props for any of your games?
e) anything else?
 
For myself:
a) Generally, yes, I give the episode a title, if only for my own purpose. Sometimes I tell
     the players beforehand, sometimes at the end, and sometimes not at all
b) Most (not all) of my villains have an origin of some sort spelled out, if only if a line or two.
c) A few times; only if there's a possibility of the NPC being involved where OCV, DCV, etc will
    need to be known.
d) Often. Battlemaps make for a refreshing change of pace and really shines on the range of an
    attack. As we have 4 GMs in the campaign, a couple of the others use props on the maps.
    During the Atlantis module, the GM played a special piece of music to help with the ambience.
    I've made over 100 commercials for various episodes and going strong.
e) Munchies are always welcome.
 
Your turns now.

Gauzy, hazy, diaphanous, glassy, ghostly, ephemeral, and more-
 
These are All words for things that are _partially_ transparent.
 
The concept of see-through-but-not-completely-invisible is a well-entenched one.
 
We have already established that there is no rule extant that prevents someone from using less-than-all of their invisibility.
 
We have established that the author of the current set of rules has used less than all of invisibility.
 
We have astablished that the rules have actually spelled out (and until the last few posts, I was floored as to why Steve had actually gone to that trouble: we all know it is possible to eun slowly, to hit softly, and pick up less than a colon-collapsing amount of weight.  Until the end od this thread, I would have thought "why do that far, Steve?  People can easily infer that you don't do everything full-on every time," but I realize now that expect too much) that one need not use a power at its fullest potential.
 
At this point, all we are doing is establishing that we need a rule that says if it is not in the rules, then it is not rule.
 
 
I love you guys; I really do- I hang out here all the time-  but watching stuff from  page 2 get rwdiscovered in page 4, and then this....
 
 
I want no part in the continued mistreatment of this poor horse.
 
You folks have fun.
 
Peace.

4) I create a new villain who will be a archenemy for the group. The villain is carefully created to be a match for the team. Two sessions later, I get the strong feeling the players don't like him so I quietly move away from any archenemy. On the other hand, a one-shot npc becomes loved by the players. The NPC's name? Edna Mode.    Really, I'm happy this happened and she's become a major NPC for any hero who needs a justification for supergear.
 
5) (Early GMing mistake here...)  Trying to create an atmosphere for the characters, which the players just aren't in the mood for. Bad timing.
 
6) Trying to do a serious episode on a Friday evening, when everyone's had a long day and isn't in the mood for anything serious. I remember someone saying, "I'm not in the mood for something serious. Do we have anything light-hearted?"  Instantaneous episode creation is a test of any GM... but I did it.
 

END reserve is useful in that it is a separate body, so if someone drains END, they won't drain it, or have to target it separately.  But that's true of regular END too: they have to target that separately and cannot get both if someone targets END Reserve.  Almost all of the conceivable advantages you get from END Reserve are in the recovery (it ignores your status, it recovers every time without needing to take a phase to recover, etc, etc.  I have for a long time through many editions of Hero thought END Reserve probably is over priced, especially the END portion -- compared to the price of END, at least.
 
In my opinion, END was way way WAY WAY WAY underpriced for this edition, like people said "we don't like or use END tracking anyway, let's just make it too cheap"

You missed the point. You just said "The rules are silent." It's not implied that it's denied or permitted. I gave a possible interpretation of the rule used elsewhere. Since nothing's stated certainly, I'll stick with with partial use on Invisibility because it's not denied.

Don't ask me where this is because I don't know specifically. However, it is stated somewhere that when you use a power, you don't have to use at at full power. You can shoot your 9d6 Blast of Air at a low 2d6. Not using your power at full applies to all. In this case, not using your invisibility at full power can easily mean part of you isn't invisible.

Don't ask me where this is because I don't know specifically. However, it is stated somewhere that when you use a power, you don't have to use at at full power. You can shoot your 9d6 Blast of Air at a low 2d6. Not using your power at full applies to all. In this case, not using your invisibility at full power can easily mean part of you isn't invisible.

And I still wouldn't charge anything more for this. That is just roleplaying and using the power with good thought and tactics. The invisibility power (and Stretching in this case) has already been paid for - don't penalize the player for using the power well.

And I still wouldn't charge anything more for this. That is just roleplaying and using the power with good thought and tactics. The invisibility power (and Stretching in this case) has already been paid for - don't penalize the player for using the power well.