sentry0

I recently purchased https://www.herogames.com/store/product/1056-the-void-pdf/ for $2.  It's a light read for a bunch of space opera-esq ideas set in a specific region of space (The Void) that I think have some cool ideas that would fit nicely into what you describe.

It's crammed full of ideas for a region of space you could conceivably use as a setting (with work) or just as a stop along the way on your travels.
 
Worth $2 IMO.
 

I just updated the original Rule of X file... 
 

Actually, there is a closed-form solution to the problem P(X=R) where R =  the sum of N 6-sided dice.  It's just...pretty messy, as it gets into combinatorics.  Scroll down about halfway to point 6, which gives the form:
https://www.omnicalculator.com/statistics/dice
 
With a larger number of dice, another approach that'd be accurate enough would be to use the normal distribution;  as the number of dice grows, the sum of them gets closer and closer to being normally distributed.  The mean and standard deviation on Nd6 is easy.  The mean is N * 3.5;  the standard deviation is SQRT( [N * (6^2 -1) / 12] )  or SQRT(N*35/12).  Then, Google Sheets has a NORMDIST function:

NORMDIST(R, Mean, SD, Cumulative)
R is the number to roll
Mean and SD are the distribution mean and standard deviation from above
Cumulative is False here, we want the probability of rolling exactly R.  Cumulative would be, I believe, < = to R.  
 
So
=normdist(D6, 3.5*$E$5, sqrt($E$5*35/12), false)
 
Where E5 has my # of dice to roll, then in my test sheet, column D has R values.  
To cross-check?  AnyDice.com has a great calculator that does it exactly.  The differences were small on my 12d6 test;  they'd be somewhat higher on, say, 8d6, and probably excessive if you drop down to something like 6d6.
 
Note that in a loop?  You can save some time by starting the loop at DEF+1.  At DEF or lower, the stun is gonna be 0.  Plus, for a reasonably large number of dice...say, 8 or more...the probability of reaching 5*N is TINY...that's 40+ on 8 dice.  Even 4.5*N, 36, is a pretty extreme outlier...AnyDice says 36+ on 8d6 is only about 6%.  In most cases, what you're looking at isn't how this adds to being KO'd...it's the risk of getting stunned.  But this should be fast enough that you can run the loop from DEF+1 to full max N*6 readily enough.  (Best rolls I EVER saw...11d6.  19 BODY, 58 STUN.  And once, a perfecto on 6 dice...all 6's.  The latter is pretty obviously 1 in 46,656;  the 11d6 roll is about 0.01%, or roughly 1 in 10,000.)
 
A rough gauge for this, tho, might be to say how many strikes before KO, using 4 per die as the average?  That's what I use for my personal estimations.  The low damage rolls, as you note, do nothing.  The VERY high damage rolls, I'll worry about Probability of Being Stunned...which you can also estimate here.  
Given DEF D, and CON C, then it should be
 
1 - (D+C+1, Mean, SD, true)
 
 

I added configuration parameters to the table you provided and rejigged a few things @WhiteShark
 
Everything in column U is used to calculate the values in V3 to AD30.
 
rDEF % - What percentage of your PD should be resistant Mitigation %- The desired amount of damage you want players to mitigate (on average). TTU - The desired TTU you want your defenses to reflect (you may not get this exact number) TTK - The desired TTK you want your defenses to reflect (you may not get this exact number) Min BODY - The minimum amount of BODY you'll allow on the low end Min STUN - The minimum amount of STUN you'll allow on the low end  
Things get weird on the low end so I added in the Min STUN/BODY columns
 
See the screenshot for what it looks like.  Everything is configurable so I hope it is versatile enough for different GMs and styles of play.  Theoretically, you should be able to adjust those parameters and have a more/less lethal game.
 
 

I updated the spreadsheet.  I did some custom scripting so that the values you calculated show up as tooltips for the user.  Now when you edit the DC column the tooltips will automatically update for you.  I think it's unobtrusive this way, people can choose to ignore it and adjust things however they see fit.
 
I ditched the dropdown pickers... they actually didn't allow for editing after the fact which is exactly what I don't want 😁
 
I cut a new version of the sheet at v0.0.3-alpha.

Again, this is super cool.  I already have a few ideas percolating about what to do with this information that may be useful.  I'm thinking something simple like a set of cells that suggest the 'optimal', i.e., calculated value for when someone sets the campaign baseline DC value.  People can safely ignore it that way 😁

Oh no, don't toss it. I'm going to USE it!

Unfortunately, there's no "Rule of Player Competence", which accounts for a lot. 🤣

I was messing around, and I felt that that whole weighting disproportionally favored offense and had been weighted some time ago by myself before certain additions were made to the sheet, like BODY.  The main pivot points remain the most expensive, SPD and DCs are what I try to horsetrade at about a 1:2 ratio.  I'm also rethinking the statement that you should keep things between +/-5% at character creation.  I think doubling it to +/-10% adds much more flexibility for players to get those outliers (Bricks and Speedsters) squeezed into the game.

EGO is at 5% partially because I had 2 points left over 😁 Seriously though, many EGO powers like MC are directly tied to how high your ego is, so I think I think if anything perhaps it is still undervalued.  It really all depends on the campaign and the commonality of psychic powers, also: pushing... it's all very subjective at the end of the day.

If nothing else, they sometimes serve as a way to make things about your PC come up in game.
 
Like, I *could* simply mention the fact that I've got this tattoo from whatever mystical mentor trained me, or that his old archnemesis is now looking for me, the best of his old enemy's students, to prove his superior magic, or even that I look very strange to people who view souls ever since mine started that change that my magic causes to a caster's spirit. But then everyone can feel free to ignore it totally to go right back to some other thing that they wanted the game to be about.
 
But by having disadvantages and complications become an option for a PC, you suddenly have that way of letting everyone know, the things I want to add to the game as a whole include...

I just cut a version called v0.0.1-alpha of the spreadsheet this morning...
I reweighted the base percentages on the baseline table I think they're tighter and a little better, I dunno... you tell me I added some general statistics to the document I added a chart for people who like visuals (like me) The closer the character is to 0 the closer they are to the Rule of X The first character on the sheet is now used to run calculations on the subsequent characters I added the TTU and TTK columns to the character entries TTU is "Time To Unconscious" and it uses your STUN calc from the table you added TTK is "Time To Kill" and it uses the killing damage calc I did a pass through the 400 and 225-point characters we have on hand while messing around.  225pt has some egregious outliers like a 94 velocity on the Cheetah and 0 stats on the egoist.  I added the "Standard Deviation" entry to the stats to try and shine a light on datasets with potential issues.  These types of characters definitely will skew the calculations and one needs to be careful.  The living brain things could be a very deadly fight for the players unless your campaign includes psychics to the point of it being common for Mental Defense, I wouldn't recommend pitting a group of egoists against a group of unprepared (low ego, no MD) players.
 

I wish I was good at coding!
 
I don't use a rule of X, but do something similar.  I know the kind of combat I want in my game, if players go toe to toe, fights will be brutal and short, I want the character builds to effect that.
 
So I have a campaign "straw man", based on best offence, and best defence, I run a "combat" based on average roll/average damage and see, over two turns, the damage delivered/taken.
 
So (picking numbers off the top of my head).  If straw man has offence (12D6 damage, SPD 5, CV 6, defence 20, STUN 50, CON 30) and the player has offence (8D6 AP, SPD 6, CV 7, defence 25, STUN 40, CON 25). 
 
I can say that the player, in an offence versus offence fight, has a 74% chance of hitting, doing 18 STUN and 0 BODY with less than 1% chance of stunning his opponent.  Over 2 turns that would mean on average 9 hits doing 162 damage.
 
At the same time his opponent has a 50% chance of hitting, doing 17 damage and 0 BODY with a 10% chance of stunning.  Over 2 turns that would mean 5 hits doing 85 damage.
 
I do thus straw man three times with each PC and villain, it gives me a decent idea of offensive and defensive power and whether I want the player to tweak his character up or down to get the kinds of fight I want.
 
Obviously players are unlikely to stand and trade blows but that comes into tactics for me, a good thing and irrelevant to raw power.
 
My issue is that it is reasonably work-heavy.  It should be possible to do a spreadsheet to do this for me, but I am a pen and paper man at heart, and so I use a LOT of scrap paper at the start of a campaign!  And I do not often test characters against villains, which I should.
 
Doc

Just because this has become a thing again for me, I wanted to (at the risk of rekindling a war) shine a light on some work being done on this old project.
 
 

Just because this has become a thing again for me, I wanted to (at the risk of rekindling a war) shine a light on some work being done on this old project.
 
 

Well who could argue with such a well-dressed cat

I like 6th edition's handling of Complications being less numerous and, by extension, a little more important.  Complications/Disadvantages are a breath of fresh air compared to the traditional alignment systems and other systems that attempt to sum up an entire character's motivations in 2 words.  Not to mention the number of arguments started by people on the nature of Good and Evil as they apply to fantasy games, I wouldn't say I like these philosophical debates these systems of morality cause in some games.
 
What works in my Hero games is to write the character's background so that the Complications taken are reflected in the past motivations and actions.  It makes for a believable character to say, "Karl enlisted and picked up the sword to defend his family and friends from the enemies of the crown after living in fear for his life on the kingdom's border." than "Karl's Lawful Good."  One answer is boring and generic the other has something to work with motivation-wise.  A story arc revolving around keeping the characters' home safe or DNPCs out of harm's way is hopefully more engaging to this player and the other players.  Get people to bake the motivations into the character Complications and background story and you have a more cohesive picture and place to start playing from and planning games.
 
It's a gigantic positive feature that is sometimes misunderstood as a chore.
 

I want to reiterate that in my original post I said that I liked the way it was handled in 5th better than the Rule of X which was essentially campaign norms based on starting point levels.  The title of this thread is the "Vagaries of the rule of X" not "I love the rule of x"
 
The point of the exercise for me is to see if I can make a working Rule of X and see how well my first batch of 6th edition characters do.
 
I have been tweaking the weights in my spreadsheet and things are pretty different now both the speedster and brick show up above 10% which I think is fair.  The 17 die attack the brick has was questionable when I built him but I figured I would let it slide because it has Extra time and increased endurance costs.  Nothing the Rule of X would catch mind you but the new tweaks to weighting call it out pretty clearly as a culprit for his inflated +%.
 
I always pivot damage dice on SPEED and DCV in my games.  The lower you go under the average SPEED and the lower your DCV  the more defenses and damage I allow you to have, within reason obviously.  The inverse is true for characters with high SPEED and DCV.  It's simple and part art and part science but it allows for that spread so characters don't feel so homogenized.  I don't think I'm unique here either, I learned this from my Champions mentor and I'd wager that others do exactly the same thing.
 
I actually fully agree with you on the notion of the Rule of X being handwavy BS, especially the way it's spelled out in the official rules.  I still want to take a run at this and see how far I can take it without needing a degree in Math.
 
I guess I just like a challenge
 

Left my job today after 8 Years and 6 Months of public service. 4 fires, a mass shooter incident at the VA home, global pandemic response and so many Suicide/DTS/DTO incidents I literally lost count. Some of the best humans I’ve had the pleasure to work alongside, and the privilege of leading. 
 
Crazy transition. In 10 days I start my new gig (very similar to the previous one but different County). Really looking forward to the many new things I have to learn about the communities I’ll be serving, and the local priorities. Going to use the time to get my head on straight and study the community health assessment and other state/local reporting so I’m ready to go from Day 1. Very excited. 

Ah! I had uploaded them previously as Package Deals. That explains it! Templates is the preferred way in 6E, so it's good those are up.
 
Here are the Package Deal versions if that's your preference.
 
 
 

"The D&D monopoly ends here"
 
Riiiiiiiiiiiiight...  
 
As an avid desktop Linux user, I support those crazy kids.
 
Good luck with that 😂

"The D&D monopoly ends here"
 
Riiiiiiiiiiiiight...  
 
As an avid desktop Linux user, I support those crazy kids.
 
Good luck with that 😂

There is always the option of making the PRE attacks of various horrors fixed.  You might vary the number of dice in the attack but use standard effect so that the heroes roll to attack and roll to defend. 
 
It takes the dice out the hands of the GM and always in the hands of players.

I would love to see a feature to save and name/rename the random characters. 

I like the whole idea of this set of islands and think it is very well thought out. 
 
I can't comment on your concerns about representing something from the outside other than to say, treat it respectfully.  It sounds like you are being quite thoughtful about the whole thing, which is a good sign.

I built the "Cruncher" tool last night...lets you calculate power costs on the fly
 
Should be available next build.

I am pleased to announce the launch of the HERO System Mobile app on both the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store.  You can install the app by searching for it in your app store or by using the links provided.  The app is free to use, ad free, and respects your privacy.
 
Google Play - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.herogmtools App Store - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hero-system-mobile/id1352750917?ls=1&mt=8 Amazon App Store - http://a.co/byom955  
This project is an extension of an export template I wrote a few months ago.  I had so much fun writing that template that I decided to develop a full app.
 
Features
Import characters from Hero Designer using this export template Characteristics and Skills may be long pressed and a check will be made Dice rolling tools (3d6, Hit, Damage, and Free Form)  The H.E.R.O. tool generates random 250 point 5e supers (shout out to Cassandra for allowing me to use her original idea) Track statistics about your die rolls, including average values, distribution, total stun etc.  
This is still very much a work in progress and I have plans to add more features as time goes on.  For now though I feel that it’s mature enough to release to the general public.
 
Feedback is always welcome either here or at phil.guinchard@gmail.com
 
Happy Hero-ing