LoneWolf

How do you deal with the fact that different weapons within a group often use different damage types? Does that mean that someone who picked up Blades (slashing) does not know how to use a stiletto? What about someone who picks up common melee? If I pay the points for a skill I should be able to use the skill for what it says. How do I pick up something during the game that does not cost points? Does it mean I simply have to do it once? If I am an expert with the sword and spent my life training with it should I not realize that the sword has a point and I can stab someone with it? A character that spent points for weapon familiarity, martial arts, and skill levels should be able to use the weapon in any way he wants. Most weapons are more similar to each other even if they use different damage types. Some weapons are designed with a particular purpose in mind, but for the most part they already have combat advantages. Stilettos for example are armor piercing not because they are a piercing weapon, but because they are designed to punch through armor. Some hammers may be balanced to hit harder (+1 stun multiple), but that does not mean my staff has the same effect. These types of adjustments should be handled on a weapon by weapon basis, not using overly broad house rules.

I think this is a gross oversimplification of weapons. The problems are that many weapons can actually be used to deal other types of damage besides their primary damage. Most swords for example have both a point and an edge. Polearms often incorporate multiple methods of damage. For example a halberd in reality can deal any of the three types of damage. It has both an edge and a spike. You can even use the haft of the weapon like as a staff for bashing damage. For the most part any advantage from a weapon should be built into the weapon. I do not yet have access to the 6th edition Fantasy Hero, but in 5th edition many of the weapons listed have advantages already built in. All armor has padding under it especially plate. What the armor really does is to distribute the force of the blow over a wider area and allow the padding to absorb the force of the blow. Without the padding the armor will not do the job it is supposed to. A person I knew made a helmet for the SCA but used substandard padding. One shot to the head knocked him out. The hit was not even that hard or fast. After the more experience members saw what he was using for padding they told him not to use that and to get thicker more absorbent padding. Once he did that it worked much better and he was not in danger.

Is the talent striking appearance allowed? If so that is a good way to get some extra dice on a PRE attack. Also don’t forget to look over the chart for way to increase the dice on a PRE attack. The key is to get your PRE attack high enough to do more than just go first. Don’t forget that you can also use your own PRE attack to counter those of other people. If interaction skills are not used that does not leave a lot to do with PRE. Are they outright banned, or simply your group does not use them because no one bothers getting them? I don’t see to create certain types of characters if they are banned. The whole just roleplay the skill does not take into account that most people do not actually have the skill in real life. Just because I am not able to lie worth a dam does not mean I cannot play a smooth talking character that lies through his teeth. If the interaction skill can be used I could give some ways to use them.

Damage Negation applies to AVAD even if the character lacks the specific defense vs the attack. Since NND is a form of AVAD the character can apply Damage Negation to NND’s. In most cases this is pretty obvious. If the NND is energy beam that can penetrate any defense except a force field than Energy Damage Negation applies. But what about things like a gas attack where the defense is life support? Does this apply and if so is it considered energy or physical.

Bluesguy is correct that it makes a big difference if the game is a heroic game or not. In a superhero game any significant equipment must be paid for. Most GM’s will allow some basic equipment like watches and probably cell phones, but almost anything else needs to be paid for. In a heroic game a character uses money to purchase equipment. Most mundane equipment is fairly cheap but some of it does cost a significant amount. Typically heavy armor like plate costs a decent amount of money. Unless there is some sort of campaign rule magic using characters can also use normal equipment. One of my best wizards actually uses light armor and knows how to fight with his staff. Due to a couple of lucky rolls while using his staff he ended up doing better in melee combat than the “fighters” of the group. I managed to get a critical hit to the head of one of the heavily armored foes we were fighting. In a heroic campaign all a warrior needs to do is to pay character points for the weapon familiarity and he knows how to use any weapons in that group. Considering common melee and common ranged weapons only cost 2 pts each that is nothing. For 4 pts you can use most weapons. Magic items usually cost a lot more, but are also usually a lot more powerful. In a heroic campaign even these don’t cost character points.

Ask yourself this game mechanic can you not do with either magic or technology? Is there any power you cannot buy with magic? Is there anything you could not build with technology? Since your character is going to be able to both and even combine them chances are there is nothing that you cannot do. Personally I would not allow either magic or technology to be any kind of limitation. If you wanted to further restrict them maybe. If you were only able to do elemental magic, or only able to do electronic gadgets those might be worth something. Why would you not be able to do psychic or mutant abilities with access to both magic and technology? Genetics is a science, and not just a rubber science. It is a real world science that we actually use today. There is no reason why a geneticist could not genetically engineer a mutant. Psychic abilities are often considered to be magic. Dr. Strange can easily do anything a psychic could do without a second thought. If you really are going for a Dr. Doom type he mixes them so thoroughly you cannot distinguish one form the other. When he teamed up with Dr. Strange he actually used his armor’s computer to analyze other people’s magic and used it to boost his own magic. Strange even noticed that Doom techniques were very precise, but seemed kind of mechanical, and strangely familiar. Just create one big VPP for both of them. You actually should take the advantage can choose which of two rolls to make from use to use (+1/4)

Why not the Moirai after the three fates from Greek mythology?

The best way to buy this is to purchase an NND attack. 2d6 NND, Continuous (30 active points). This way you don’t take the penalties for performing the maneuver. You also don’t have to worry about maintaining the hold, or the person being able to escape the hold. You make the attack which goes against his ranged DCV so you are more likely to hit. Once you hit the target takes damage, and cannot escape until you release them. They can move but still take damage.

What I mean by the statement the relationship between the speed of communication and travel is an illusion, is that there is no relationship between the technologies utilized. How does an advance in the technology of a jet engine affect radio transmission? The answer is that advances in jet engines do not affect radio transmission. There is no link between the two technologies at all. Just because technologies are used for similar purposes does not mean they are linked together. They develop independently from each other and an advance in one does not mean the other will see any advancement. Both the internal combustion engine and nuclear power can generate electricity, but just because there is a breakthrough in nuclear power does not mean the internal combustion engine advances at all. In fact advances in one technology may actually render another technology obsolete. The only relationship between travel and communication is that one can often allow us to become less reliant on the other. When communication improved beyond travel we became less reliant on travel. Why is it so difficult to envision that in some point in the future things may reverse and travel will become more efficient than communication? Going back to the computer industry we can look at external storage technologies. The original storage technology was punch cards, but that was soon replaced with magnetic storage. Then we developed optical storage in the form of CD’s and later DVD’s. Recently we have gone back to using magnetic storage in the form of memory cards. According to Zslane that should not have happened, we should have developed more sophisticated optical storage. But that is not what happened.

Hero system can quite easily simulate any setting. The thing is when you start changing too much of the setting you are not really using the setting. It seems pretty obvious that Zslane does not care for the traveler setting. Which is perfectly fine, everybody is entitled to their own preferences. I also don’t see why all technology needs to advance at the same rate. The relationship between the speed of communication and the speed of travel is an illusion. The advances in one have little or no effect on the other. Some technologies like computers have advance at incredible rates, where other like radio have not really changed all that much in decades. In some cases technology may be made completely obsolete by advances in other technology. Even today many manufacturing and construction technologies are being slowly replaced with3D printing. In a couple of decades we may look back on some of the things we use now as completely archaic and obsolete. Actually Traveler does have one technology that could allow for FTL communication, but it has been generally suppressed. I am of course speaking of telepathy. This is also a major factor in the writings of Christopher Stasheff. But telepathy and psionics in general are looked on with suspicion and fear in most parts of the Imperium.

Weapons and armor tend to cancel each other. So do like the game did and start them off with lower powered weapons and armor. As it progresses introduce more powerful weapons and armor. As to the talents and perks those also scale well. Some of the talents are expensive especially in 6th edition. Things like weapon master or deadly blow cost quite a bit. Most of the time starting players cannot afford them. Start out at a lower point value and you characters will have plenty to spend their experience on. It won’t all be on talents and perks don’t forget things like skill levels and martial arts. Most beginning characters cannot afford everything they want. If the beginning characters are too powerful lower the starting points.

One thing that a lot of people are forgetting is that the Traveler Universe does not have actual FTL travel. With a jump drive the ship is taking a short cut through another dimension instead of actually traveling at FTL speeds. It takes a week to make a jump regardless of the distance of the jump. Ships in J-space are not able to communicate with each other. To make the jump into J-space requires a significant amount of time and must be made each time. Failure to correctly calculate the jump can has disastrous effects, the least of which is a misjump. Since jump drives use 4 dimensional travel (3 of space, 1 of time) each jump is completely different from other jumps. It also takes anywhere between ½ hour to a day to calculate a safe jump. This is the only known method of traveling faster than light speed in the traveler universe. There are hints of other technologies particularly those of the Ancients being able to ignore these constraints, but those are myths. Jump drive technology is poorly suited for communication for several reasons. First is it is inherently unreliable. If calculations were wrong or something interfered with the transmission you need to verify this so the information can be sent again. This would probably something similar to what we use today that after a packet is sent the receiver sends an acknowledgment it received it. If the sender fails to acknowledge the packet it is resent. So each packet is going to take slightly over 2 weeks to send and acknowledge. Considering how many packets are sent back and forth for normal communication this is going to be completely unwieldy. You could reduce the amount of packets sent by increasing their size, but that would mean transmitting large segments of data. So you would in effect be sending long recordings. Instantaneous two way communication would be impossible. This is of course assuming that a signal can be sent through J-space. Now it is possible that there could be other technologies used to transmit the signal. But if they have another way to send something faster than light why don’t they use that for travel as well? Jump drives may be rubber science, but that is what the setting is based on. If you don’t like the technology use a different setting. Not every setting works for everyone.

The area of effect surface will also allow you to heat up other thing besides a focus. At the base level it can be applied to an area about 2m radius. Each +1/4 doubles the size. So it could also be used to heat up the floor, or a door. If you are only using it to disarm it is probably a waste, if you use for other things, it can be useful.

That would be an area of affect surface. They actually use that as an example in the description of the advantage.

What I am talking about is that when computers first started being used you had a big powerful computer that you accessed through a terminal by modem. You logged into the system and all the processing took place on the distant computer. Today instead of dialing in with a modem we use the internet. We still login to the system even if the actual login is automated. The processing is still taking place on the server hosting the website, or on one linked to it. Today we have better interfaces and more user friendly programs. But essentially it really is not that much different than how we did things in the 1970’s. We went from a centrally located system, to one of individual computers, to a network of computers, back to a centrally located system. You sate you can’t see technology reverting back to an earlier model. I used the evolution of computers as an example of technology reverting back to an earlier model. As to your single node approach that is unlikely to happen for several reasons. A single point of failure is asking for trouble. Where is your redundancy, and backup? If the single node goes down everything is down. Also what about load bearing? A single node will have trouble handling all the communication. Having multiple nodes allows the workload to be distributed and increase performance. What about maintaining and repairing of the system? Something that small will need specialized equipment that may not be available on a ship. The other thing you are overlooking is that the actual computer is only one part of the system. You also have things like routers, switches, backup generator, backup devices, climate control and firewalls. If you have ever been inside a server room, or data center you will know that the computers are only a one part of the info structure. In the future there will probably be other devices we have not even thought of that are part of the info structure. My point was really to show that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Technology often goes in cycles that often revert back to earlier models to take advantage of newer technology. I used the computer as an example because I am familiar with it and it is something that everyone can relate to.

In the beginning of the computer industry the computer was a big massive computer. If you needed to do something on it you would often use a terminal and do what you needed. The terminals had almost no power themselves and all they did was allow access to the mainframe. When the PC came around all that changed. Now you had a computer on your desk and it was able to do everything that the mainframe did. This led to the mainframe computer being less important. Sure it was still used for things that were too complex for the PC, but most of the work was done on the PC. The only problem was that you could not share your data with other users. The solution to this was to develop networks. Now you could share your data with other users. The first networks where peer to peer without any real control over the data. This led to the idea of the server that controls the network and handles the data sharing and security for the network. As the servers grew more powerful they started taking back some of the function from the PC. Now more of the programs where running on the server instead of the PC. Client servers program became the norm for most business. Even today the computer systems that run things still take up rooms. The only difference is that instead of a single computer they now use multiple servers. Even a small technology company of say a hundred employees will probably have a server room. Now when an employee needs to access the data it is all on the network. If they are remoting in they use a VPN or virtualization. Virtualization has now become the dominant networking strategy. Now you can setup a virtual machine for a user and load it with all the programs he needs and he can simply remote into the server and log into the virtual machine. So when an engineer needs a new system all the IT department has to do is to create a virtual machine for him and assign him however much resources he needs. The point is that in the computer industry we started with a centrally controlled system handling everything. From there we developed individual machines that made the central system obsolete. Now we are pretty much back where we originally started. Sure we have more sophisticated ways to do things, but we are essentially doing the same things we did years ago. Anyone who thinks that technology never goes back to the old ways really does not understand technology.

If the target loses phase due to the fact you got PRE +20 you will probably act first. Many GM’s don’t allow changes in SPD during combat. It can create bookkeeping nightmares so is often better to simply say no. For example I once had a player who wanted to purchase 5 SPD and then an extra +2 SPD only for attacks. If you look at the speed chart SPD 5, and SPD 7 do not have any phases in common. His idea was this would allow him to attack on every phase except for 1.

I have no problem with trigger it just seems that a lot of people want to use it for everything. The whole Mexican standoff argument is a perfect example of it. Why build and purchase something that can be done with something you already have? The only other person in my group who actually runs things loves low point campaigns. I usually cannot afford to purchase highly limited powers like these, so I have had to figure out other ways. PRE attacks do not take a phase to perform, although some of the things that give you a bonus do take time. PRE attacks are a good way to allow a slower character to act first, or to limit their opponent’s actions. Don’t buy extra SPD buy extra PRE. If you get PRE +20 you essentially took away the targets phase. One of the most effective characters I had was one that had a 50 PRE.

Another way to do it would be to use a PRE attack. Just getting the targets PRE allows you to act first. If you get it by +10 the target can only take a Half Phase Action. If you get it by +20 the target will not act for 1 Full Phase and is at ½ DCV. Remember that if the target is in even a partial retreat you get a +2d6 bonus on your PRE attack. If you just hit and damaged the target that may also count as a violent action. Assuming the character has a 15 PRE, and a martial art with the sword and appropriate skill levels. This gives him a base PRE attack of 3d6. He does take a –1d6 penalty for being in combat. If he hits the target and does moderate damage to him that should get him a bonus of +2d6. If the target decides to avoid him that will get him an additional +2d6 for the target being in partial retreat. If the character is a better swordsman than the target, that should be worth an additional +1d6 (Superior skill instead of power). That brings his PRE attack to 7d6 which on the average will be 24.5. This is assuming the character does not get any bonus for soliloquy or reputation ect. With the GM’s permission the character could even buy striking appearance to simulate the character knowing how to intimidate his opponent. If striking appearance is not allowed you simply buy extra PRE with the limitation only for PRE attack. With a little effort you can get to around a 10d6 PRE attack which on the average will get a PRE +20 result on most NPC’s. This is also the way to shut down the Mexican standoff. Instead of looking to use rules from other systems why not actually use the Hero System like it was intended.

Instead of using an aid to OCV it would be simpler and probably cost less to simply purchase skill levels. I think part of the problem is that people tend to create elaborate and complicated powers to simulate something that does not really need to be that complicated. Skill levels can be very useful and that should be the first thing any character buys before picking up talents and powers. As to the trigger that automatically resets with no time, many GM’s would probably not allow it. Hero System is not Pathfinder organized play. It relies on the GM to make such decisions. A better way to simulate someone setting up a “Zone of Control” would be to use the area of affect radius selective, constant, no range and maybe a few more modifiers. This would require the character to spend a phase activating the power, but after that he could attack anyone in the area. He would have to pay END for it every phase.

What does the STR min. have to do with a disarm? I would assume that a person wielding the weapon has the STR min. The STR min has two effects. The first is that if you do not have at least the listed STR you take a penalty on your OCV and DCV. The second is what STR is required to add damage to the attack. Even if they do not meet the STR min they can still use their full STR in a disarm or other maneuvers. Say I have 7 STR and I am using a great sword, my penalty to OCV and DCV will be -2 because I am 10 under the STR min. When I disarm someone I take -2 to my OCV and DCV, plus any additional penalty for the maneuver usually -2 OCV for a disarm. I can then use my 7 STR to attempt to disarm my opponent.

Major transformation is required if it significantly alters some aspect. The books list removing abilities, or creating major combat related affects as examples of a major transfomation. A collar that that totally shuts down a spell casters spells, but still leaves his other abilities intact would be a major. Holy weapons also have major effects on certain creatures mainly demons and undead. That seems too much for a minor transformation, but less than a severe transformation. The appropriate level of transformation will depend on exactly how powerful a holy item is. If it did not shutdown a spell caster and had more limited effects on combat then you could use a lesser level of transformation. This is one ability (usually a spell) I give most of my divine based characters. Tack on a bunch of limitations like extra time, focus etc. to properly make it a ritual and it is dirt cheap, but incredibly useful.

Cassandra is correct in the fact shields are written up as OAF. I would say that it really depends on the shield and how it is used. Some shields were strapped to the persons arm and would be difficult to disarm, or to drop. Those tend to be the larger shields so I could see some shields being written up as OIF instead of OAF, but that would change how they are used. It would mean that you would have to spend time properly strapping it on. Readying or dropping such a shield would take time, probably a full turn. It would also prevent the person from using that hand for anything but the shield. I assume that this is a heroic setting instead of a superheoric, in which case there would be no point cost difference between the two types of shields. Just make sure the player states what type of shield they are using. If they want the advantage of the shield being harder to disarm, they should have to deal with the extra prep time involved. If it is done as a OIF it would not be subject to a disarm at all.

The standard grab allows you to pin up to two limbs, but there is no reason you have to pin any limbs. Just because a maneuver has an element does not mean you have to use it. If this is the case you would not be able to perform a dodge without aborting to it, or any maneuver with full move without moving your full movement. As far as it coming up in a game I think I have seen it once. It was when a brick wanted to grab someone and the person they were grabbing could not do anything to them.

I have to agree with zslane this is not something that needs to be done. If what you are trying to do is simulate a fencer ability it should be purchased with character points. It would probably be best done with a single attack instead of a naked advantage. So a fencer would purchase it as a triggered HKA, where someone who is doing it bare handed would use a HTH. The area of effect is not really appropriate for this either. How is someone with a rapier attacking someone 4 meters away? Another thing to keep in mind is that in the hero system a phase is 1 second, where D&D uses a 1 minute turn. You may also want to look at some of the marital maneuvers. In the 5th edition ultimate martial artist there was a much more extensive maneuver lists, and a section on creating your own maneuvers. I am sure 6th edition also has this, but I am not sure which book it would be in.