Kenn

Re: Help with theme archer

I never figured who was kinkier, Zeus or his assorted lovers. Io, he showed up as a Bull. Leda, he showed up as a swan. Then there's Perseus' Mom and the "shower of gold."

Poseidon was also the god of earthquakes, so perhaps some kind of Tremor Arrow (Area of Effect, heavy knockback).

I'd let Hephaestus' gift be the indestructible bow he forged. It could double as a club.

Re: Dextracardial

There are rules for a called shot to the heart?

Re: Two adjustment powers sharing the same maximum.

The Aid is 1d6, with +24 for a maximum aided points of 30.

Gradual build up is the goal, with the idea that the sun's position in the sky and the weather could cause the GM to only allow a half die for a time, or that to say the max cannot go above _____.

The Absorption I've not had any set amount in mind. 1d6, +24 max. ; 3d6, +12 max. It hasn't been decided.

Re: Rolling High

really? I guess I'm the unlikely GM then . I thought that was the whole point of the easy to difficult etc modifiers under skills.

 

I know this is just my perception.I just feel more competent with roll under. Wow1 look at me if I roll under 13 with my skill I succeed . Ha! Ha! Feel my basassness. As opposed to "I have to roll a 5 or better or I fail. Well, a five should be pretty easy "sigh".

8 or better would have the same odds as 13 or less (3, 4, 5, 6, 7 failing compared to 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 failing). I'm just sayin'.

Re: Rolling High

The advantage of a Always Roll High system is that then one only needs one set of "cheat" dice. In the current system, one needs to remember which dice in the set are the ones that roll low and which ones are the ones that roll high. You can get by, maybe, with different colour dice. But there's a greater risk of someone noticing that you always roll skill and attack rolls with the red dice and always roll damage with the green dice. If you only have to roll high then you can use the same dice for both the attack roll AND the damage roll.

Re: Two adjustment powers sharing the same maximum.

I'd probably go with a -1/2 Limitation on both and be done with it. Doesn't seem to halve the effectiveness of each because the circumstances under which it would come into play probably wouldn't be all that common. Yet it "seems" more limiting than a -1/4. Don't forget to save some headache and make their fade rates the same also.

The fade rates being the same is something I'd already concluded would need to happen.

There are several reasons why I like using the Adjustment Power route. The gradual fade of ability in the dark is one. Another is that the I want the multi-tiered effect expanded, so being in the tropics the character would be more powerful than if he were in Seattle; noontime is more effective than dawn or dusk. And this can be achieved with a single limitation on the Aid.

There are ways of keeping the bookkeeping in check.

The idea of just including the use of solar/stellar powers on him is what I've been doing. But it doesn't quite catch the same feel as Absorption. The idea that blasting him with a solar blast during the day is going to make him more powerful than him just being out during the day.

I've been debating between the -1/4 and -1/2. I think the -1/4 might be more apt for the Aid since the Absorption being applied won't be that often. But since the Aid would have added points most days, it would be rare that the Absorption would ever not be limited.

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine

That aquatic Egyptian charcter looks like she'd be one Tefnut to crack.

Re: How Many "Super-Cities" is too many?

I don't think there's any one answer. It's going to depend partially on just how "super" you make the cities and partially on the scope of the game. It's also going to vary if you're sharing your game world with any other gamemasters, and how super those gamemasters want "their" cities to be.

I run my game where the heroes live all over North America (and beyond is a theoretical option) and they go all over the world. Empire City, Delaware isn't necessarily any more or less "super" than New York, Chicago, or London. They are, however, more "super" than Williamsburg, New Jersey or Fort Bernard, Indiana, just because these latter two are supposed to be dirtier and grimier. (Think Millennium City vs Hudson City.)

I have a character who has an Aid to self that's based on environmental conditions. I want to give him Absorption (only vs attacks with the same special effect as the environmental conditions). I intend the points from Absorption to go to the same place(s) as where the Aid goes.

The idea is simply that if the character is empowered by sunlight, that a solar blast should have a similar energising effect.

But I don't want the maximums for the two powers to stack; I want them to complement.

If the maximum for the Aid is 30 pts., I want the max for the Absorption to also be 30 but essentially the "same" 30. If the Aid has already provided 18 pts. then I want the Absorption to have a maximum of 12. If the Aid has already provided 27, the Absorption has a maximum of 3. If the Aid is has provided 1, then the Absorption has a maximum 29.

Obviously, this sounds like a "Limited Power" limitation. My questions are

1) how much of a limitation should it be?

2) should the limitation be applied to both the Aid and the Absorption?

Re: sticky electric bolt

Might want add "Initial Target must be targeted normally(-1/4)". From the description, the usual AoE/Explosion targeting the hex shouldn't apply.

Re: Pre and Postcognition?

My proper reply won't make any sense until we get to the 37th post in the thread.

Re: To gun fu or not gun fu?

There is one character in the Champions of Justice where the player and I (I GM) agreed to actually slightly depower the character's energy blasts and then add ranged martial arts.

The rationale is that Powerball's shtick is that he is an ex-major league baseball pitcher, and that he actually is THROWING the balls of energy he produces. As such, we concluded the martial art was a way to represent his skill and different pitches that can be thrown.

4 Fast Ball +0 OCV, +0 DCV, Range +2, Strike+3 DC

4 Breaking Ball +1 OCV, +0 DCV, Range +0, Strike+3 DC

4 Change Up +2 OCV, -2 DCV, Range +2, Strike+1 DC

0 Weapon Element: baseball (default element)

1 Weapon Element: personal energy blasts

4 +1 Ranged Damage Class

The fastball is more accurate over distance. The breaking ball has that little dip at the end which might make hitting the target easier. The change up is slower, but could be even more surprising.

This was a rebuild to better represent the concept rather than a new development. So far we're pleased. It hasn't had that much impact one way or another.

http://www.rcuhero.net/hsheets/powerball.htm

Re: Earthquake

That is a very good point What's more - it works!

 

Earthquake: (Total: 124 Active Cost, 72 Real Cost) Change Environment 8" radius, -4 Characteristic Roll and all Skill Rolls based on Characteristic, Long-Lasting 20 Minutes, MegaScale (1" = 1 km; +1/4) (46 Active Points) (Real Cost: 46) PLUS Tunneling 1" through 8 DEF material, MegaScale (1" = 1 km; +1/4), Area Of Effect (6" Radius; +1), Two-Dimensional (-1/4), Usable As Attack (+1) (78 Active Points); Extra Time (5 Minutes, -2) (Real Cost: 26)

 

So you trigger the power, the ground shakes for 20 minutes and 5 minutes in all the buildings that have not been specially reinforced, as well as various bits of miscellaneous scenery, come crashing down. Thatnks to megascale the shaking takes place over an 8km radius and buildings within 6km of the centre come on down. You could probably bring the cost down quite a bit more with various limitations.

That 6 km radius seems a bit large for the quake's epicenter.

Also, as written, it could be interpreted that everything in the 12 m radius drops one kilometer! Oops.

Otherwise, I like this.

Re: The Magnificent Magnetron

Okay, I give up. What's supposed to prevent Magnetron from being used indefinitely? What's the "off" part?

Re: Does the CU have a Submariner or Aquaman analogue?

Feel free to make use of my aquatic brick types

http://www.rcuhero.net/hsheets/riptide.htm

http://www.rcuhero.net/gsheets/tritan.htm

Re: How about anime Campaigns?

Wasn't the mid-to-late 80s Hero Games product "Robot Warriors" a "Mecha Hero" game (albeit a 3rd edition game using it's own rules)?

Re: Adventurers Club #1 for sale

Link?

Re: What would your sidekick be named?

And why do sidekicks have to be kids?

Since you've undoubtedly heard of Kenn and Barbii before this thread started, what makes you think Barbii's a kid?

Re: what books should I buy next?

Save your money, since you'll have to repurchase everything after August anyway.

Re: Someone Please Explain This to Me?

Yeah, but the story lies somewhere other than the average. Average means not so much as far as HERO combat is concerned. Damage is lumpy because everything that is less than the defence might as well be zero. Anything above the STUN# is a bonus due to the added effect.

 

So, the big thing about KA with the 1D6-1 is how often you get results that give you STUN# and possibly the average damage that gets through the defence.

 

People have looked at this before and there is a point for every combination of DC and defence where KA begins to average more through defences and stun the opponent more often. Most games play at points where similar DCs of normal and killing ar past the point of parity.

 

Doc

I take it that you're referring to that do 3d6 K to 20 DEF will do more than 20 approximately 56% of the time and the average STUN for those 56 times will be about 20.8.

And that for 9d6 Normal against that same 20 DEF will do more than 20 98.5% of the time and that the average of those hits is around 11.7.

And at that point, out of 100 attempted shots the former should do around 1163 STUN total and the latter will do 1152.

So for 9 DC, against 20 DEF, a single shot past that DEF will be a more likely to stun more people, and in a protracted battle, the amount of stun done to the opponent should be close to equal (but favour the Killing Attack.)

Of course, that "having 44% of your hits doing no stun at all" tends to skew the effects as well. As do things like normal attacks generally doing more knockback, and, of course, how ofter you're hitting and how often your opponent is hitting you.

Which means I'm still not convinced that the killing attack is the better tool, just a different one.

Re: Someone Please Explain This to Me?

The average stun roll on 1d6 Killing is 9.333333. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.

That's 3.1111 STUN per 1 DC. 0.3889 less then the average stun on 1 DC of normal damage.

The volatility of killing attacks means that one MIGHT get the needed higher rolls faster. But that's not reliable.

Hugh's example of the 12d6 normal vs 4d6 K is broken because he assumed that the BODY roll was average every time and the STUN was the only part changing. 37.3333 STUN is the average STUN damage for 4d6 Killing. How that would break down over just six rolls is impossible to predict but after an average of 6 hits with the KA vs a 35 DEF monster would be a TOTAL of 14 Stun, where 42 STUN vs 35 DEF 6 times is a total of 42.

BODY: 1 STUN MOD: 1 STUN: 1 ROLL: 1 TOTAL: 1

BODY: 1 STUN MOD: 1 STUN: 1 ROLL: 2 TOTAL: 2

BODY: 1 STUN MOD: 2 STUN: 2 ROLL: 3 TOTAL: 4

BODY: 1 STUN MOD: 3 STUN: 3 ROLL: 4 TOTAL: 7

BODY: 1 STUN MOD: 4 STUN: 4 ROLL: 5 TOTAL: 11

BODY: 1 STUN MOD: 5 STUN: 5 ROLL: 6 TOTAL: 16

BODY: 2 STUN MOD: 1 STUN: 2 ROLL: 7 TOTAL: 18

BODY: 2 STUN MOD: 1 STUN: 2 ROLL: 8 TOTAL: 20

BODY: 2 STUN MOD: 2 STUN: 4 ROLL: 9 TOTAL: 24

BODY: 2 STUN MOD: 3 STUN: 6 ROLL: 10 TOTAL: 30

BODY: 2 STUN MOD: 4 STUN: 8 ROLL: 11 TOTAL: 38

BODY: 2 STUN MOD: 5 STUN: 10 ROLL: 12 TOTAL: 48

BODY: 3 STUN MOD: 1 STUN: 3 ROLL: 13 TOTAL: 51

BODY: 3 STUN MOD: 1 STUN: 3 ROLL: 14 TOTAL: 54

BODY: 3 STUN MOD: 2 STUN: 6 ROLL: 15 TOTAL: 60

BODY: 3 STUN MOD: 3 STUN: 9 ROLL: 16 TOTAL: 69

BODY: 3 STUN MOD: 4 STUN: 12 ROLL: 17 TOTAL: 81

BODY: 3 STUN MOD: 5 STUN: 15 ROLL: 18 TOTAL: 96

BODY: 4 STUN MOD: 1 STUN: 4 ROLL: 19 TOTAL: 100

BODY: 4 STUN MOD: 1 STUN: 4 ROLL: 20 TOTAL: 104

BODY: 4 STUN MOD: 2 STUN: 8 ROLL: 21 TOTAL: 112

BODY: 4 STUN MOD: 3 STUN: 12 ROLL: 22 TOTAL: 124

BODY: 4 STUN MOD: 4 STUN: 16 ROLL: 23 TOTAL: 140

BODY: 4 STUN MOD: 5 STUN: 20 ROLL: 24 TOTAL: 160

BODY: 5 STUN MOD: 1 STUN: 5 ROLL: 25 TOTAL: 165

BODY: 5 STUN MOD: 1 STUN: 5 ROLL: 26 TOTAL: 170

BODY: 5 STUN MOD: 2 STUN: 10 ROLL: 27 TOTAL: 180

BODY: 5 STUN MOD: 3 STUN: 15 ROLL: 28 TOTAL: 195

BODY: 5 STUN MOD: 4 STUN: 20 ROLL: 29 TOTAL: 215

BODY: 5 STUN MOD: 5 STUN: 25 ROLL: 30 TOTAL: 240

BODY: 6 STUN MOD: 1 STUN: 6 ROLL: 31 TOTAL: 246

BODY: 6 STUN MOD: 1 STUN: 6 ROLL: 32 TOTAL: 252

BODY: 6 STUN MOD: 2 STUN: 12 ROLL: 33 TOTAL: 264

BODY: 6 STUN MOD: 3 STUN: 18 ROLL: 34 TOTAL: 282

BODY: 6 STUN MOD: 4 STUN: 24 ROLL: 35 TOTAL: 306

BODY: 6 STUN MOD: 5 STUN: 30 ROLL: 36 TOTAL: 336

DC: 3 OR 1D6 ROLLS: 36

A TOTAL OF 336 STUN WAS ACHIEVED.

AVERAGE STUN FOR ALL 36 ROLLS IS 9.33

Re: Regenerating defences

40 20 PD armour, limited power(-1/2): loses 1 pt of PD per 1 BODY "taken"; regains at 5 PD per phase AND 20 ED armour, limited power(-1/2): loses 1 pt of ED per 1 BODY "taken"; regains at 5 ED per phase.

Re: Confused by Penetrating

I think the idea of this limitation is that the target would always take the lesser of the two values.

An unarmoured person (say the typical victim in a vampire story) being struck with a 1d6 Penetrating HKA with this limitation would never take more than 2 BODY, and usually just 1.

Whether that's actually a limitation or not would depend on the genre/rules.

Re: What would your sidekick be named?

Barbii

Re: Someone Please Explain This to Me?

The math is such that nearly half the time, the stun generated will be at or below 2.5 x the number of DCs, which means that unless DEFs tend to be particularly low, about half the hits will have no effect.

As far as what's "significantly higher" well, that depends a lot on what one considers significant.

Here's the break down for 1d6 - 5d6; the first percentage is 0-2 x DC; the second is 2-2.5 x DC; the third is 2.5 - 4 x DC; 4-4.5 x DC the fourth; 4.5 - 5 x DC is the fifth and everything above 5 x DC is the sixth.

DC: 3 OR 1D6K ROLLS: 36

19 ROLLS BETWEEN 0 AND 6 IS 52.777% OF 36

0 ROLLS BETWEEN 7 AND 7 IS 0.000% OF 36

8 ROLLS BETWEEN 8 AND 12 IS 22.222% OF 36

0 ROLLS BETWEEN 13 AND 13 IS 0.000% OF 36

2 ROLLS BETWEEN 14 AND 15 IS 5.555% OF 36

7 ROLLS BETWEEN 16 AND 30 IS 19.444% OF 36

DC: 6 OR 2D6K ROLLS: 216

97 ROLLS BETWEEN 0 AND 12 IS 44.907% OF 216

12 ROLLS BETWEEN 13 AND 15 IS 5.555% OF 216

46 ROLLS BETWEEN 16 AND 24 IS 21.296% OF 216

8 ROLLS BETWEEN 25 AND 27 IS 3.703% OF 216

14 ROLLS BETWEEN 28 AND 30 IS 6.481% OF 216

39 ROLLS BETWEEN 31 AND 60 IS 18.055% OF 216

DC: 9 OR 3D6K ROLLS: 1296

538 ROLLS BETWEEN 0 AND 18 IS 41.512% OF 1296

78 ROLLS BETWEEN 19 AND 22 IS 6.018% OF 1296

308 ROLLS BETWEEN 23 AND 36 IS 23.765% OF 1296

69 ROLLS BETWEEN 37 AND 40 IS 5.324% OF 1296

77 ROLLS BETWEEN 41 AND 45 IS 5.941% OF 1296

226 ROLLS BETWEEN 46 AND 90 IS 17.438% OF 1296

DC: 12 OR 4D6K ROLLS: 7776

3113 ROLLS BETWEEN 0 AND 24 IS 40.033% OF 7776

596 ROLLS BETWEEN 25 AND 30 IS 7.664% OF 7776

1726 ROLLS BETWEEN 31 AND 48 IS 22.196% OF 7776

404 ROLLS BETWEEN 49 AND 54 IS 5.195% OF 7776

606 ROLLS BETWEEN 55 AND 60 IS 7.793% OF 7776

1331 ROLLS BETWEEN 61 AND 120 IS 17.116% OF 7776

DC: 15 OR 5D6K ROLLS: 46656

18204 ROLLS BETWEEN 0 AND 30 IS 39.017% OF 46656

2925 ROLLS BETWEEN 31 AND 37 IS 6.269% OF 46656

11388 ROLLS BETWEEN 38 AND 60 IS 24.408% OF 46656

2115 ROLLS BETWEEN 61 AND 67 IS 4.533% OF 46656

3387 ROLLS BETWEEN 68 AND 75 IS 7.259% OF 46656

8637 ROLLS BETWEEN 76 AND 150 IS 18.512% OF 46656

So yes, if you consider above 4 x DC significant, at larger numbers of dice one get a significantly higher amount of stun, in theory, about 1 in 3 shots. And 9 out of 20 times you'll be doing squat. The rest of the time, you'll be doing stun comparable to a normal attack.

So in comparison to an average normal attack of the same DCs, you'll do more stun, more often, and you'll do far less stun even more often. I fail to see why this is a problem. A lot of it does still depend on the typical defenses, amounts of stun, and REC rates of the opponents to see how effective favouring Killing Attacks would be, but I'm sure not convinced the mechanic is broken.