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Durzan Malakim

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Everything posted by Durzan Malakim

  1. My Champions group has run into two different villains with exotic AVAD powers. Since they both appeared at the same time, I'm pretty sure they were a "clue by four" meant to convey, "You are not ready for this fight. Time to run away now." After getting our noses quite bloodied we eventually implemented plan "Brave Sir Robin" and got out of there. I can see why a GM might use exotic AVAD powers to herd players down the plot railroad tracks. I haven't seen much or any player use of exotic AVAD powers, but our group doesn't contain any ultra-competitive sorts who feel compelled to win every fight. As the math shows, AVAD powers are not the "I win" button most people might think they are.
  2. How about using suppress on run? Pit Trap: Suppress Run 3d6, Area Of Effect Accurate (2m Radius; +1/2) (45 Active Points); Costs Endurance (to maintain; -1/2)
  3. I suspect telling your players the spirit of the rule will help drive the desired behavior. "This rule encourages people to take advantages they may not otherwise take. Since I know you're going to min-max anyway, min-max by adding more advantages." I would anticipate all Multipower and Variable Power Pools frameworks to be built around the -2 total limitation such as: Blast one Area of effect (16m radius, Selective, Accurate) (+1 1/4) Armor piercing (+1/4) Penetrating (+1/2) Blast two Affects Desolidified (+1/2) Damage Over Time (2 damage increments, damage occurs every 6 Segments +1 1/2)
  4. Continuing Deadman's thought, the min-max goal changes from getting the most active-points for the least real-points to purchasing advantages equal to your chosen limitation total. So if you know that you're going to take an Obvious Accessible Focus with 4 charges for (-2), I suspect players will shop for +2 worth of advantages to avoid wasting the points. Can't you accomplish the same or better results with active point limits and GM review of limitations? Or if that feels too much like a tax audit, you could just put a hard cap on the number of limitations on any one power; say a maximum of 3.
  5. As a known user/admirer of the HERO System, I wish Patrick Rothfuss would release his Kingkiller series as a HERO System setting or supplement. I know the chances of it actually happening are small, but that might bring in some new blood.
  6. Which complication best describes you? I prefer the HERO System [Psychological Complication]: Situation Is (Common Intensity Is Moderate) 10 If it ain't HERO System, it's crap! [Psychological Complication]: Situation Is (Common Intensity Is Strong) 15 I am one with the HERO System, the HERO System is with me... [Psychological Complication]: Situation Is (Common Intensity Is Total) 20 I only have a 10-point complication myself but that might be because of skills: 11- KS: D&D Editions 2 11- KS: GURPS editions 2 11- KS: HERO System 6th ed 2 8- KS: HERO System editions 1 8- KS: ICONS 1 11- Conversation 3 11- Deduction 3 11- Persuasion 3
  7. I keep reading your handle as 1-up-us as in "one-up-us", which may be putting unreasonable pressure on you to perform but sounds way cooler in my head than lupus. In any case, welcome to the HERO-hood.
  8. I bought resistant mental defense after running into a Big Bad Mentalist with that flavor of AVAD. I didn't realize how rare it was in other games. I probably wasted some points on a rare Bogey Man, but I also might be the only one left standing should he show up again.
  9. Version 2.09

    437 downloads

    This export template is a derived work based on The Ultimate Character Sheet version 1.5.4. The template is style-sheet-driven so you can change colors, fonts, and text-sizes easily. I have tried to make the style class names as human-readable as possible so you understand what content the style class controls. All layout is done with HTML tables. In general, each page is organized as follows: Each page has a separate <div> element. Each page also has a page-border <table>. Each page-border table has a header row and one or more body rows. Each row of the page-border table contains one column (cell). Each page-border table cell contains one or more content tables. The template page order is: Page 1: Special header with HERO logo Characteristics Computed values Track END, STUN, and BODY Experience Points Movement Complications Page 2: Normal page header Skills Perks Page 3: Normal page header Combat Values Combat Skill Levels Combat Maneuvers Range Modifiers Called Shots Hit Locations Page 4: Normal page header Attack powers Defense powers Movement powers Sensory powers Equipment Martial arts Talents Page 5: Normal page header Powers Equipment Page 6: Normal page header Information Character image Background For quick reference, here are the template colors: Background color of headers (dark gray): #4c4c4c Text color of headers (golden-yellow): #ffcc00 Background color of normal defenses and STUN (light blue): #a8a8ff Text color of normal defenses and STUN (dark blue): #0000aa Background color of resistant defenses and BODY (rose red): #ffa8a8 Text color of resistant defenses and BODY (dark red): #aa0000 Background color of END (light green): #8ad18a Text color of END (dark green): #006b00 Background color of mental defenses and mental combat values (light purple): #feaefe Text color of mental defenses and mental combat values (dark purple): #660066 Background color of power defenses (light orange): #ffcfa8 Text color of power defenses (dark orange): #ff6600 Text color of power names (orange bronze): #cc6600 Text color of complication names (dark red): #aa0000 Notes: Most browsers require extra configuration to print background colors. You must manually select or clear the resistant defense check-box from the HTML output.
  10. Supervillains need assistants that simultaneously meet and defy expectations such as Young Frankenstein's EYE-GORE.
  11. I suggest building your demo characters around their team role and a perhaps a shared team theme. As someone who played a lot of City of Heroes, I tend to think of team roles in these terms: Tank: A meat shield who draws enemy attention. The primary power focus is on individual survivability/defenses Scrapper: A close-combat damage dealer. The primary power focus is on hand-to-hand combat. Blaster: A ranged-combat damage dealer. The primary power focus is on ranged combat. Controller: A debuffing disabler of enemies or a summoner of allies. The primary power focus is on lowering enemy abilities or outnumbering them. Defender: A buffer or healer who supports allies. The primary power focus is on team survivability/defenses. Limiting your demo characters to these archetypes will highlight just how flexible the HERO system is when you allow players free reign to create their own characters. As for a team theme, I have two suggestions: An element-based team where each member controls a different element such as earth, fire, water, air, light, and dark (or mind and spirit). A pantheon-based team where each member represents a different god/demigod such as Zeus, Athena, Ares, Hephaestus, Hermes, and Hades. Combine a team role with a theme and voila! you have a hero for example: Earth tanker Ice scrapper Fire blaster Air controller Light defender Dark scrapper
  12. Version 1.0

    205 downloads

    There was a request to create a simplified character sheet suitable for new players. For this first effort I chose to stick with a basic portrait layout and use some colors to This three-page HTML character sheet introduces new players to the HERO system by presenting only the elements they need to start playing quickly. This template assumes someone with more experience will create or enter character information for the player in Hero Designer. What you need to do to use this template: Fill in the following sections in Hero Designer: * Character name * Alternate ID * Powers/Tactics * Personality/Motivation * Background/History * Complications * Campaign Use * Appearance * Campaign name Add the list item HTML markup around each line in the Background tab of Hero Designer. For example, <li>This is an example</li>. Limit images to 200 pixels wide x 300 pixels high. Add bold HTML markup around each complication type in Hero Designer. For example, <b>Hunted:</b>. When printing from the browser, enable the option to print background images.
  13. Doesn't this organization exist in real life as Amazon? Jeff Bezos is just a figurehead, right?
  14. Sounds like a promising game. If you're still looking for plot inspiration, here are several stories where powers come from an alien-origin. Raising Stars: The Second Ship (The Rho Agenda): The Reckoners:
  15. This satirical idea pulled an "Occupy Wall Street" on me until I had written it up. Hopefully it's good for a chuckle. If someone else wants to make the next Infringer I suggest Irony Man, an anemic superhero who has to take iron supplements. Corporate America: The First Infringer. 400 Total Points. A.K.A. Stefan Rodjurs BACKGROUND Stefan was the first and only recipient of Ayn Rand's super-executive serum developed during the Cold War. While granting him superhuman powers, the serum also caused Stefan to lapse into a coma-like state of suspended animation whenever his personal wealth dipped below the "poverty line" of 1 billion dollars. Starting with Carter's mishandling of the oil economy, Stefan was forced to slumber through several decades of economic downturns. Thanks to his financial manager's shrewd investments in derivative financial products however, he was finally able to awaken in 2008. APPEARANCE Corporate America: The First Infringer stands 6' 7" tall and weighs 220 lbs with Blond hair and Blue eyes. He is the very model of a modern major executive. PERSONALITY Corporate America stands for what is best about this country: greed and wealth. Wherever there's a shop selling a tie, wherever a new day trader cries, where there's a fight against the board and tear gas in the air, look for Corporate America, he'll be there. Wherever there's a sale on downtown land, or an easy job for a lazy hand, wherever corporations tack on a fee, follow the money and you'll see me. QUOTES Supermen need super compensation. COMPLICATIONS Proponent of laissez faire economics. Psychological Complication (Common; Strong). Not being paid (Uncommon). Enraged (go 11-, recover 11-). Watched by Corporate Sponsors. Hunted (Infrequently; Mo Pow; NCI; PC has a Public ID or is otherwise very easy to find; Watching) Personal wealth dips below 1 billion dollars 3d6 damage per Turn. Susceptibility (Uncommon). Public ID. Social Complication (Frequently; Minor). CHARACTERISTICS STR 25 14- STR Dice 5d6, Lift 800.0kg DEX 28 15- CON 25 14- INT 10 11- EGO 18 13- PRE 25 14- PRE Attack 5d6 REC 12 PD 5 ED 5 STUN 50 BODY 15 END 60 PERCEPTION 11- MOVEMENT Running 22m (44m) Swimming 16m (32m) Leaping 16m (32m) DEFENSE DCV 5 DMCV 3 Total Physical Defense (PD) 5/25 (Resistant 0/20) Total Energy Defense (ED) 5/13 (Resistant 0/8) Briefcase Block. Resistant Protection (12 PD/8 ED; Protect Carried Items, Usually combined with Block maneuver), Impenetrable, Hardened; OAF, Must Be Aware of Attack, Lockout, Nonpersistent, Gestures. A Questionable Property of Questionite. Knockback Resistance -16m (16 Active Points); OAF Unbreakable (Questionite Briefcase; -1), Linked (Briefcase Block), Lockout. Armani Anti-Ballistic Attire. Resistant Protection (8 PD; Impermeable; 12 Active Points); OIF. TACTICS Corporate America prefers to use legal loop holes to out-compete his opponents in the market, but he's willing to bash people over the head with his Questionite Briefcase for money. OFFENSE OCV 5 OMCV 3 Initiative 28 SPD 5 on Phases 3, 5, 8, 10, 12 Attack Roll 16- Mental Attack Roll 14- +3 with Questionite Briefcase attacks Briefcase Bash. HTH +5d6 (25 Active Points); OAF, Lockout, HTH; END 2. Briefcase-a-rang. Blast 10d6, AOE (16m Line; 62 Active Points); OAF, Restrainable (Can be caught), Lockout, Range Based On Strength; END 6. SKILLS Acrobatics 15- Acting 14- Breakfall 15- Bribery 14- Bugging 11- Bureaucratics 14- Charm 14- Climbing 15- Concealment 11- Conversation 14- Criminology 11- Deduction 11- Demolitions 11- Disguise 11- Fast Draw: Questionite Briefcase 15- Forgery (Art Objects, Commercial Goods, Documents, Money (Counterfeiting)) 11- Gambling (Board Games, Card Games) 11- High Society 14- Interrogation 14- Inventor 11- Lipreading 11- Lockpicking 15- Mimicry 11- Oratory 14- Persuasion 14- PS: Executive 11- Sleight Of Hand 15- Stealth 15- Streetwise 14- Tactics 11- Teamwork 15- Trading 14- SKILL LEVELS +3 with Questionite Briefcase attacks LANGUAGES English (basic conversation), Corporate Speak (idiomatic) TALENTS Ambidexterity (-2 Off Hand penalty). +3/+3d6 Striking Appearance (vs. all characters). PERKS College Chums. Contact: Wall Street (Contact has access to major institutions, Contact has significant Contacts of his own, Contact has very useful Skills or resources), Organization Contact (x3; 15 Active Points) 8-; Contact has access to major institutions and significant Contacts of his own. Skull and Bones. Fringe Benefit: Membership; Membership. I am the 1%. Money: Filthy Rich. POWERS Questionite Briefcase. Multipower (62 pts), (62 Active Points); all slots OAF, Lockout. • Briefcase Block. Resistant Protection (12 PD/8 ED; Protect Carried Items, Usually combined with Block maneuver), Impenetrable, Hardened; OAF, Must Be Aware of Attack, Lockout, Nonpersistent, Gestures. • Briefcase Bash. HTH +5d6 (25 Active Points); OAF, Lockout, HTH; END 2. • Briefcase-a-rang. Blast 10d6, AOE (16m Line; 62 Active Points); OAF, Restrainable (Can be caught), Lockout, Range Based On Strength; END 6. A Questionable Property of Questionite. Knockback Resistance -16m (16 Active Points); OAF Unbreakable (Questionite Briefcase; -1), Linked (Briefcase Block), Lockout. Armani Anti-Ballistic Attire. Resistant Protection (8 PD; Impermeable; 12 Active Points); OIF.
  16. Darn you Darkness rules! (Conveniently available from 6E1 p186-187): I suppose the meta-rule, "you get what you pay for" applies here. If Character 1 pays for multiple foci, then she has a backup pair and can in theory use the backups when her primary pair is inevitably taken away from her. If character 2 pays for the backup pair, then that character gets to use them and see through the Darkness until someone inevitably takes the focus away. The benefit of paying for a separate power such as Enhanced Senses: Infrared Sight Group would be the option to see through other people's Darkness powers, not just Character 1's Darkness Power.
  17. For the teammate, the game effect of the goggles would be enhanced senses that provide +PER in smoke and possibly allowing Infrared or Ultraviolet vision. The teammate isn't buying personal immunity, but rather buying one or more related powers to counteract the effects of the darkness. Or at least that's what I would suggest.
  18. This may be beating a dead cat, but I got curious how cats actually kill their prey. If I can believe the Internet: In HERO System terms I'd say this is a maneuver that either increases DCs or changes their normal attack into a killing attack. The caveat being the prey has to be small enough to bite through the neck, or I suppose the cat has to be motivated enough to use its teeth on someone's neck. I still think the most likely outcome of any cat versus bigger animal fight is one or the other opponent fleeing because outside of hunting or psychopathy most animals and people don't go around killing things for no reason. Certainly this fits the anecdotal evidence.
  19. I don't know if Steve is going to report on this event as a GM, but as a player I can say it was quite fun to try and thwart these ladies. The points I spent in Knowledge Skill: Super villains actually paid off for about half of the crew by providing us some information about their power sets and tactics. Others in the group had previously fought Black Diamond and Shrinker and they quickly became primary targets. What worked well: Having our mentalist mind control Black Diamond was effective but "bad optics". Did I mention the whole event was broadcast live? Having our own shrinking character helped (briefly) acquire the MacGuffin gem. Using leadership and force fields to buff others. What didn't work so well: Having our shrinker suffer from foot-in-mouth disease on camera. Having more villains show up to seek retribution on our shrinker. Having our shrinker not-so-heroically continue to damage downed foes... on camera... Having to confront my fellow "heroes" about their actions. Having Microverse Nazis show up to claim a defeated Shrinker. End Result: Lady Blue and crew escaped with the MacGuffin, earned money for charity, and earned themselves pardons. We get to deal with Microverse Nazis and bad publicity of our actions.
  20. Keep your friends close and your enemies entangled. A Penny saved is a DNPC earned. The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men not to act on their phase.
  21. I think all that this discussion has revealed is that model of felis catus provided by the HERO System Bestiary is more than capable of winning a fight against a baseline human who is not allowed to use tactics and abilities that the rules would otherwise provide them (free gear and PRE attacks). Nothing prevents you from building better models of either opponent using existing rules. Most people just don't have a need to model such a fight in their games. More likely they model a power like Killing Attack with a special effect such as "swarm of berserk cats attack the target."
  22. Since we haven't heard back from the original poster I don't know if we've already answered his questions, but I'm wondering if his perception that "[points] are useless for balance" stems from a lack of guidance on how to match point expenditures to gameplay styles. For example, if you want to play a [Dial 1:][combat-heavy] [Dial 2:][Champions] game, you should spend points on: DEX and possibly Lightning Reflexes to gain a higher initiative. Enough CON to avoid being stunned by an average hit. Enough STUN and defenses to remain conscious after receiving an average hit. Enough END to fuel yours powers for a full turn. At least one power with straight DCs to damage enemies with high defenses. Spending points on these things make you "more balanced" for this setting. You can obviously spend points on other things, but your game economy favors some things over others. For this particular gameplay style, ten points spent in combat-effectiveness really is better than ten points spent on anything else. I suspect both the community and genre-specific source books have advice on settings these dials, but I don't know if new GMs and players know to look for them. They might naively assume, "Ten points is ten points. My ten points in contacts should always be just as useful as your ten points in DEX." Certainly just reading Champions Complete didn't prepare me to use a game-specific exchange rate to determine if I was really getting my point's worth in purchases. That realization took joining a game with set limits and suggestions to make a "more balanced" character.
  23. I suggest a combination of Images vs. sensations (itchy) plus Mind Control (remove items in contact with your skin). This combination does require GM approval however since Mind Control normally requires a "character must have some way to communicate the order to his target" (6E1 page 253). It seems reasonable to me that a failed PER roll against the Image attack counts as a command to "remove any items in contact with your skin," but since this is a matter of opinion, you may want to further limit the power to prevent abuse.
  24. Aside from hunting to eat, most animals do not fight to the death except in situations where fleeing is not an option. A more realistic cat fight is one where one or the other combatant uses a PRE attack to scare the other one. Whether it's the human screaming, "Get this crazy cat away from me!" or a feline thinking, "Time to hide from this big predator" the most likely result is one or the other fleeing or being cowed by the other. I suppose a human under some external threat such as "Kill this cat or I'll kill your family" or a cat defending it's kittens might stand and fight, but I suspect such a fight would still degenerate into an exercise in cat herding more often than not.
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