Scott Baker

Sounds like Jason wasn't able to get them to put up a rebuttal. (He was going to ask.) Sadly, I think the most enthusiastic of us supported the Kickstarter, so we can't post reviews since we didn't buy it on their site.

The rules are mechanics. Sorry if that de-railed the thread. I'll go elsewhere.

Re: It shouldn't matter Why not? You're quoting the rule as it is different from 5E/6E. It makes a very clear statement about both conditions applying and how that requires recovering from being stunned, Re: 4E p160 That doesn't refute or support anything that you or I have written regarding the Stunned and/or Knocked Out portion, so I'm not sure if that's really the quote you were looking for. Re: "technically" and 6E2 p106 I wasn't commenting about 5E or 6E, so I don't find that to be persuasive regarding the 3E/4E RAW. I do agree that in 5E and 6E they are separate; I also agree that the newer rules have stated a difference in handling Stunned and/or Knocked Out--which is the start of this whole thing.

To pick a nit, the text for 3E and 4E both say, "both Stunned and Knocked Out by the same attack." It is very possible that the attack that knocks a character out is not the attack that stunned them. So, as written, it does not say that the character loses their recovery that phase unless both criteria are met in a single attack. I don't remember how my gaming groups used to actually play that.

The 6E1/6E2 PDF bundle is available in the store for $30 (http://www.herogames.com/forums/store/product/69-hero-system-6th-edition-bundle-character-creationcombat-and-adventuring-pdf/). Physical books are more difficult to come by (primarily 6E1 in my experience).

I don't recommend this for your main antagonists. Do a complete build for them. After all, the villain often comes back, or does things out of game. Use some common sense, and dramatic sense. If you have a heat ray and want to start a fire without destroying the wood, I'd let you. You want to melt the lock so it can't be opened--that's just the special effect of "destroying" the lock with your blast. You should also check out the Power Skill which seems somewhat analogous to what you are talking about, letting someone use a power in an unexpected way (even if it crosses over into another power's realm). That's the case where you would probably look at having someone buy the actual power if they intended to do that action regularly. See above.

Don't forget the mecha in the background.

Just some quick thoughts. 1. The math's not really as complicated, or as much as you may think. Most of the work is done during character generation. You have HD to help with that. During the game it's to-hit rolls, counting up damage, and subtracting defenses. Using HD you can try a character export format that doesn't include all the modifier numbers. You need those values to build the characters, but not for normal game play. I don't know of a specific template, but I'm sure someone else will chime in, and you can always look at the ones available in the download section. 2. I wouldn't worry about choosing Heroic, Super Heroic, or any other particular power level to start with. Choose something everyone wants to play. Avoid optional rules. And plan to allow updates to (or replacements for) characters after the first 2 or 3 sessions as everyone becomes more familiar with the system. 3. Crusher Bob has some good points. I'll also point out that you have HD, which makes things a whole lot easier for you. And, as the GM, points don't matter. Build what you want, how you want it, and don't worry about the points. Playing should be about having fun, so make villains or opponents that will challenge your players and add value to your game. 4. I know, you didn't have a question 4. Hero System is a framework. Use what works for you and your game. Don't use things that don't work. And, as you've probably already noticed, there's a lot of information on the forums here on variations that people use in their own games. And welcome to Hero system, in whatever genre(s) you decide to try.

Welcome back. You seem to have identified the basics for the rules. Other things I recommend: Hero Designer (software): makes it so much easier to create characters 6E Bestiary: Lots of animals and creatures, already built for 6E. You may not use them all for pulp, but that's OK. Depending on the tone of your game, you may be able to use more than just the obvious. 5E Masterminds and Madmen: a villain book for Pulp Hero. The characters would need converting for 6E, but you already knew that

Big Trouble In Little China. Netflix popped up with it available for streaming, it's just that kind of an evening, and I'm too lazy to go find my DVD of it. Classic. This is the Porkchop Express, signing off.

Interesting. The cut-off (as of right now) appears to be January 11, 2015. Other posts from earlier still have images, but they show as attachments as well.

Then it sounds like a good idea. The most important thing is for everyone to be on the same page as to what the campaign is about and where it's headed.

IMO, the main problem I see is that Hero is so wide open, especially when it comes to superheroes. Whatever someone builds or puts into a module is unlikely to work for many campaigns without modification. This leads back to Greywind's comment about module not being pick-up-and-go. It was significantly easier to use modules back in the 1E/2E days because there just weren't as a many options. (Yes, there were still a lot, but not like today.)

While true, it also doesn't stop modules from selling for other systems.

1. This is certainly doable. The one thing that you don't mention which I feel is important is whether the players want to play this sort of game. When I'm starting a game, we always have a discussion about what sort of game we'll be playing. Before you put a lot of work into this, talk to the players to see what they think. 2. No. They could actually be quite short if you have normals getting shot by modern firearms. 3. There's no rule that says you have to have a supervillain for every adventure. But see #1.

What Comic said. Manage your campaign caps, and work with the players to develop characters within those guidelines. And, just to be clear, this isn't a problem limited to the Hero System. Any system where you roll the dice to hit with an attack will be unbalanced if the bonuses between characters/NPCs/monsters varies too greatly.

Welcome back. The biggest issue I see here is that Dispersers are basically built as a series of absolutes. The Hero System was not designed to model absolutes. So all of your questions about invulnerability to <insert type of attack here> come down to your campaign limits. If you set the limit for flash attacks to 4D6, as an example, then 24 Flash Defense makes the Disperser "invulnerable." Apply the same sort of calculation to other types of attacks/defenses as you see fit. To me the Dispersers seem like they would be more of plot device than a creature you might just run into to fight. Since, as GM, points don't matter, I wouldn't even bother building them out completely. Take your absolutes and just say, "they're immune to X, Y, and Z." Ignore buying STR since they appear to be far more powerful than anything else, so they always win any sort of STR contest (and can throw a mountain). Figure out their defense (presumably PD and ED?) and make it low enough that they can be damaged within the campaign limits. Remember that they don't take STUN, so only the BODY damage done counts. If the defense is resistant it works against Killing Attacks (and I'll just assume that you hand-wave that they are hardened and impenetrable). Your example of 20 PD/ED means that an attack would have to be greater than 10D6 (or equivalent) to even have a chance to hurt one. It sounds like their attack is another absolute, so unless you change your mind on that, just say that if it grabs you, you're dead. SPD, OCV, and DCV should again be built around your campaign limits. If it's so slow, but the characters in your game are only SPD 3, then the dispersers are no longer slow. Drop them down to 2, or even 1.

There's a reason that advantage has a Stop Sign on it. As with everything in Hero System, just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should, or should be allowed to. It sounds like you're not comfortable with what is being asked. If that doesn't fit your campaign, exercise your option to say, "No." Then discuss what the player is really trying to accomplish, other than stretching the rules. Barring that, 6E1 355 gives you some guidance about defining, "a reasonably common and obvious set of defenses that cancels out the attack." Everything has a defense.

Since this is totally a GM option variation of recoverable charges, why not just state that they recover 1 charge every X segments (not sure what would be appropriate for your game). A variation could be that the recovery only starts after 1 phase of the power not being used--representing that the weapon doesn't actually start cooling down until they stop using it.

I hope you made a worthwhile wager on this.

You could play this as the SFX for an END Reserve. The power uses END from the reserve (building up the heat, or whatever). It cools down as it recovers. You can even play it that way by just tallying the total END used (increasing) and then subtracting the recovery from the total. Or try it as recoverable charges. The recovery condition is time.

And FHC 172.

When you are posting, click on the More Reply Options button in the lower right to get the full set (including attaching files).

They also added the cardboard characters. (I tried to post when the bundle went live, but that's when the site went down.)

Don't you mean Happy Center of the Earth Day?