handleyj

I've read some snippets here and there that say that BotE is done, but it's getting some kind of Kickstarter thingy going to do the printing...? Is there any chance of releasing the PDF now? Some of us are PDF only kinds of folks (PDF on tablet > hardcopy --- IMHO). I don't think I'm alone as this came up in an earlier thread. Anyway, I'll buy the PDF of BotE as soon as I can, but I'll never buy the hard copy, but potentially any PDF sales would help get the printing done for those that prefer that. Just an idea. -joe

Re: Interesting Announcement: HERO System Skills Any news on this PDF? I saw it referenced in Fantasy Hero, but I don't see it for sale in the store...? Thanks! -joe

Re: 6th Edition Hero System Boo grayscale! Yay color!

Re: Breakout

Re: Breakout

Re: Book Of The Machine Available Sweet! I'll buy the bundle as soon as it's posted. Thanks, Steve!

Re: Book Of The Machine Available Awesome! Is there going to be a bundle of the print book and the PDF? Does such a bundle usually go on sale at the same time that the print book is released, or is it a "months later" type of date? Thanks!

Re: Balancing Mental Powers Yeah, but Hugh is almost right. There is a level for "Making friends look like (but not act like) enemies." It's considered a "Cosmetic Change" and only requires an EGO+1 (i.e. "Greater than EGO") effect roll. Thanks everyone for the help!

Re: Mind Control EGO+10 and EGO+20 Examples Feel free to define those as well. A "whole" example is quite useful.

So I get the EGO+30 level of Mind Control, but I'm having a hard time thinking of good examples for the +10 and +20 levels. They don't necessarily have to be combat uses, but I'd find those the most interesting. So help me out! Give me some examples of commands that your mentalist would give that should only require a +10 or +20 result on the MC effect dice. Thanks!

Re: Balancing Mental Powers ...can really be implemented? Help...

Re: Balancing Mental Powers

Re: Balancing Mental Powers I'm going to start another thread on Mind Scan in particular. It's one of those powers that really confuses me.

Re: Balancing Mental Powers 1) Not sure how agents "automatically lowers the character's effectiveness?" I think you're suggesting he'd waste time using his powers on the agents. However, were I the Metalist, I'd ignore the agents, and Mind Control/Mental Illusion the Brick, and have said Brick take out the agents. 2) Hmm ... I like that! 3) AWESOME! I hadn't thought about attacking the LOS requirement at all. 4) Yup. 5) Another AWESOME idea! 6) Yup.

Re: Balancing Mental Powers Also excellent. Thanks!

Re: Balancing Mental Powers Yes! This is excellent. It gives a role playing way to dictate that a victim gets a breakout roll with more frequency. I may still impose the "everyone gets a breakout roll on post-seg 12" rule. As I also wouldn't want a player to be out of the combat for as long as the Time Chart dictates. Also, I'm not sure, but other mental powers (like Mind Control) may not have the same rule (I'll read up on it later). And so in the case of other mental powers, the post-seg 12 house rule still gives more breakout attempts ... at what I would consider a fair amount of time. But (at least in the case of Mental Illusions), those sentences give us the opportunity to make more breakout rolls. One of the interesting side effects of this rule is that if someone is attempting to help with a breakout roll, then they've effectively given up a phase in order to help. I like it.

Re: Balancing Mental Powers Yeah, unfortunately he's got "Human and Machine classes of minds" on all the powers. He's a cyborg type. But Aliens! Oh, the aliens are coming out! Thanks for the suggestion.

Re: Balancing Mental Powers Some really good ideas here! Thanks guys. I want to respond and ask further questions on some of them in particular, but I'm on my cell phone and it's a pain to type too much. However I do have one simple question for now: how bad would it be to house rule that everyone gets a breakout roll during post segment 12. So a breakout roll on the victim's first phase after attack, then every post seg 12 there after?

Re: How to Make Maps?? I looked at CC, but like you, I couldn't figure out if it could really do modern maps. I ended up buying Dundjinni after seeing example maps like these: http://www.dundjinni.com/info/images/urban_sample.jpg http://www.dundjinni.com/info/images/streets_ad.jpg After going through the tutorials, it's quite easy to build maps like that. But it is time consuming. The maps I end up making with it aren't nearly as detailed, but if I wanted to spend the time, I believe I could make one that detailed. And that's encouraging to me, since I have not an artistic bone in my body. I believe both programs have free demo's that you can try (I'm sure Dundjinni does, as I used it to go through the tutorial before purchasing). So you should try 'em out. Let us know what you decide.

Re: Balancing Mental Powers Also let me point out that this is a "standard" 350 point campaign with the Standard Super Heroic limits as stated on page 28 of the big book. Most of the other PCs have settled on 60-point powers instead of the 80 points suggested by the rule book. The powers in the top post above are all about 70 points. I don't mind making him lower them to 60 points -- but that's still 10d6. And of course, then I'm scared about what he'll spend those "saved" points on! ;-)

So I have to admit that I am a Brick by nature. But I'm GM'ing for a character that is a Mentalist, and I'm having a hard time making combat a challenge for this PC. A sample of his powers include: Ego - 26 (ECV 9) Mind Control - 12d6 Mental Illusions - 12d6 Ego Attack - 7d6 Telepathy - 11d6 And I find that not many (published) villains have Mental Defense. And not many (published) villains have an ECV above 5 (and most are lower than that). On top of that, when he uses his Mental Illusions to make an enemy think that his teammates are enemies (which only requires EGO+10 to accomplish ... too easy at 12d6), the villains basically only get 1 Breakout Roll. On the villain's next Phase, he gets to make a Breakout Roll. If he misses it, then he has to wait for a full turn before attempting another. And usually he's a gonner before that happens. If he does survive the Turn, and if he misses that next Breakout Roll, then forget about it ... he has to wait for a Minute (of game time) to try again (what is that, like 4.5 Turns?)! AND! Mental Illusions (and Mind Control) don't cost END to maintain. The victim of the power just has to make Breakout Rolls until they succeed. What I don't want to do is start giving all villains some Mental Defense, or artificially raise their ECVs. I find that HERO System usually has some way of keeping itself balanced, but I don't see it in the case of Mental Powers. What am I missing here? How do you all deal with Mentalists in your party? Does every villain team need a Mentalist to compete? Does every villain need 20 points of Mental Defense?

GIMP, PosteRazor, HeroClix When you find a map on the web, you probably want to scale it up to battle map size (1 sq (or hex) = 1" (or 1.5" if you're using HeroClix)). I use this process for doing that: http://www.enworld.org/wiki/index.php/Mapping_with_GIMP All software used to accomplish the scaling is free: http://www.gimp.org/ and http://posterazor.sourceforge.net/ As the article points out, you can also use it to scale up maps that you extract from PDFs. Also, I'll go ahead and answer the #1 question: doesn't scaling up graphics make them look all pixelated and bad? Pixelated, yes. Bad ... not so much. I was surprised at how usable and acceptable the final maps look anyways. At this point, my group only plays on full-color, full-size, pixelated battlemaps. And we (well at least I), think it's great. -joe PS: the article may not be crystal clear at first. But try it out. Also, if anyone needs some help, I could probably type up some step-by-step instructions.

Re: Tactical Genius Thanks, guys. These are all really good suggestions. I'm going to have to look at the price of CSLs. Obviously he'd want more than 1 (perhaps 1 for each teammate -- at least). I suspect that limiting the CSLs similar to how I have the VPP in the first post may be good. Killer Shrike, thanks, as always, for example characters! I'd completely overlooked Change Environment. Do you have the HTML export file you use for those characters available for download someplace? Ice9 ... awesome examples!

So I have a player that wants his character to be able to analyze a target, find it's weakness ... and then relay that information to the rest of the team. I thought about something like Find Weakness (Usable on Others), but it didn't really seem right. Then I came up with using Suppress, perhaps in a VPP. Perhaps something like this: [b]Analyze and Negate Targets[/b]: Variable Power Pool 55 base + 10 control cost, all slots Only Benefit Teammates (+0) (82 Active Points); Limited Class Of Powers Available Very Limited (Suppress Only; -1), Requires An Analyze Combat (INT) Roll (-1 to Analyze Combat roll per 10 Active Points in Suppress; -1/2), Restrainable (Covering Eyes Prohibits Use of VPP; -1/4), Real Cost: 65 points So the idea is that he can analyze a target and weaken that target in any way he desires (i.e. Suppress STR, or Suppress PD, etc.). I like the idea of using Suppress instead of Drain for balance issues. As soon as the character stops paying END, then the Suppress wears off immediately. As opposed to Drain which wears off at 5 points per Turn. He is supposed to be relaying the information telepathically to the rest of the team, but I don't see any reason to actually purchase Telepathy. It can just be the SFX, and when he stops paying END on any particular Suppress, then that just means he broke the link to the team for that Suppress. Comments? Thanks! -joe

Re: Character Markers for 1in Hexes Precis Intermedia sells the little stand up stands you're looking for: http://www.pigames.net/store/default.php?cPath=67 Do a "find" (CTRL+F) on that page for "Plastic Stand-Up Bases." There are black, red and blue ones available. I've bought a bunch, and they work great. I'll have to look up these Marvel dice thingys. I currently use Hero Clix. They are too big for 1" hexes (as the OP mentioned), but I've got a process down for rescaling maps. I should type it up sometime and post it here...