Gnome BODY (important!)

The only stipulations mentioned on using a CSL to increase DCV are the "at least 3 points" and "same types" stipulations. Rules-as-written, the CSL would apply. I can't say I see the logic behind making a skilled warrior become less competent at dodging just because he's not holding a metal stick. Blocking of course, but blocking already keys off OCV.

If The Grabber declared his two grabbed limbs to be the arms, of course it'd break the grab. And if he doesn't grab the arms, then the arms are free to do whatever with, such as shooting The Grabber while he's grabbing.

It's limited in the same way 20 PD Extra Time 5 minutes only to activate is limited. If the player is walking around with their PD on all the time, the limitation isn't applying and they need to buy it off. If the player is walking around with their beamy less-than-lethalray primed and ready all the time then the limitation isn't affecting them very hard. I'd just tell the player that putting Extra Time only to switch slots on a multipower reserve means it starts each fight with no slot selected unless they know they're on combat footing.

Netzilla and Duke have covered the basics. Another possibility would be to have the ship just be SFX. Instead of buying the ship as a character, have the avatar buy powers like "Call In Cannon Fire" to represent the ship's combat-support abilities. This has the advantage of being much simpler to make and play, but the disadvantage that if a fight ever comes near the ship or you get in a naval battle you won't have ship-stats to use.

Why are you throwing normal humans at mountain-punch-girl? At that scale of effect every opponent should be described as superhuman and/or go down in one hit.

Plus 1/4? Please run your logic by me, I'm not understanding how inability to pick mode is advantageous.

Maybe the problem is in how you're trying to model it. The example object table suggests that a 60 STR superhuman will struggle to rip a safe door off its hinges, smash a boulder, or crush a car. Does this mean 60 STR is too low to be The Thing or Thor or Superman? That your GM can't let you be one of those hulking muscular superstrong comic characters in a 12DC game? Of course not. It just means the object-durability model is wrong for the desired game. If your GM decides to run Jet Pilot HERO, does your Raptor have to buy hundreds of points of movement to dogfight at mach 1? If your GM is running 75+50 Robot Detective HERO does everybody's first 50 CP have to go into "Life Support: Is Robot"? If your GM is running some fantastically over-the-top rule-of-cool action game does it mean you have to slow down and figure out the exact mechanics of every flashy power stunt or apply, may Bay forgive me for uttering these words, real world logic to things like "You can punch through an entire mountain but not a human villain."? No! HERO is a toolkit. It does what you want, because you can change what you don't like.

Two methods come to mind. One option would be to plan particular moments as "off-scale" and just ignore the rules for a bit during those moments. Tell the players that everyone with an idea should roll off, best roll gets to narrate how the problem is solved. Player Fiat, if you will. The other option would be to down-scale challenges (the mountain is DEF 3 BODY 20, about right for two 12 DC characters to take out with a pushed attack each) and up-scale narration ("Alright, Flash, you with your move-through, roll your 16d6. Ok, that's the KO. The Flash pivots on his heel before vanishing off to the east. An instant later, he slams into Lex from the west in a streak of light, then again, then again and again. Lex reels under yadda yadda yadda"). In general this makes the game more "cinematic" since actions can have larger impact than is "realistic".

Nothing wrong with not using the standard numbers. If every PC is getting 40 in disads just for being in the campaign and you were planning 75+50, there's nothing wrong with just going to 35+90.

I actually assumed he just screwed the link up, not that it was moderation. Doesn't grok to me that they'd nuke the link but leave the instructions on how to get to where the link pointed intact. Either way, it's instructions on how to get to a site that's got copyrighted stuff and he posted it on the copyright holder's site so I'm still wondering what he expected to happen.

And you're posting this here why?

I'd build that as a Multipower with 1d6 NND Blast and 1d6 Ranged Drain and a -1/4 "Randomly determine used slot" Limitation on the reserve. Then just Multiple Power Attack (Combined Attack in 6e) with [whatever] and a Multipower slot.

Clarification please. Is the chaos added to all attacks this character makes or is it added to all attacks made at a particular target? The former is just a Multipower and use of the Multiple Attack rules or maybe a Trigger. The latter is a lot trickier.

My advice basically boils down to start simple. 1 - Start with whatever you want, but start with only some of it. Drip-feed mechanics will keep player sense of "I understand this!" much higher than dumping the books on them. Start with just Characteristics. That's all you use session 1. Then introduce skills. Then introduce the basic powers that act like characteristics except one thing, like Telekinesis or Blast. Then introduce KAs. People learn much much better when they're learning one thing at a time. 2 - Absolutely start with pregens. Tying into 1, make pregens but don't put everything on them at first. Make the whole character, of course, but then trim off everything that's not a characteristic. Then session 2 you re-add the skills. This ties into the mechanics drip-feed, and means a player isn't tempted to say "I have something called Entangle, can I use that now?" 3 - Universal rules first. Anything you'd need to run a drunken seduction attempt turned barfight. Once people have the everyman rules down, expand as desired from there. But they have to know how to roll a check or throw a punch before you can do fancy things. 4 - Only you can know your group, but skills -> combat and combat -> skills are both good paths to follow. 5 - Don't start with all the maneuvers. Have fight one be just Strike. Introduce Aborting and Dodge and Block next fight. Progress from there, and allow a player to "cut ahead" if they really want to Grab that one dude right now.

You don't have to buy the ability to kick. Anyone can execute a Strike with their arms, legs, head, etc. Punch, kick, and headbutt are explicitly listed as examples of the Strike maneuver. Grab-and-kick and grab-and-headbutt are RAW no-penalties. Please consult your GM before attempting. Which incidentally means I was wrong, you need five limbs grabbed to prevent someone from striking back, not four. The 3 real option is worse defensively than I thought! Extra Limbs is worthwhile if and only if you intend to initiate grabs frequently. It's very good for that, but that's all it's good for unless Required Hands rules are in play. This is all just dancing around the topic though. Should a centaur have Extra Limbs? Only if they intend to grab with their legs and can convince the DM that they'd be able to kick with their other legs at the same time.

If the opponent grabs your arms, kick him. If he grabs your legs, punch him. One's as good as the other. FRED also doesn't mention Extra Limbs when assigning the grabee's OCV penalty. Only if your opponent has Extra Limbs and sweeps/repeats a grab or you have multiple opponents grabbing you do you get any while-grabbed benefit from Extra Limbs. I wouldn't pay 3 real for that.

So a spider's extra legs aren't Extra Limbs, but a centaur's extra legs are Extra Limbs? Why do you draw that distinction?

And then you have to factor in the value of OCV and SPD and certain talents and other powers to determine further impacts on the performance of the power. Condensing the combat effectiveness of a power to a single number is doable, but it outright requires a computer program to crunch the numbers for you.

So you're refusing to address the question, then.

If you really feel this way and it's not just hyperbole, don't run this for them. No game is better than bad game, and if you've really landed a bunch of irredeemable murderhobos you're not going to see a miracle occur. That aside, it seems to me like they might be suffering from a mental worktime difference. If you're weaving all these intricate and slow-paced plots, you'll be thinking about them frequently and they'll stick in your head. Your players likely only think about these things when you've met for game and so will have much worse memory for things. Did you explicitly remind the PC that the 18th was the day of the bar dinner, and about the robberies, and the arson? If not, he may have completely forgotten those and felt the only clues he had were "so and so not robbed, girlfriend's car burned". Or they're [insert favored slur here]s.

I agree, getting things coordinated and on the same page is important. And some abilities the player does have to initiate use of. This doesn't actually address the question, though. When do you draw the line and look Normal Limbstaur's player in the eye and say "Extra Limbstaur can do that, but you can't."?

Well, let's run a thought experiment. Two players show up to your game at the last minute with centaur characters. One centaur has Extra Limbs, the other does not. There is, for some contrived reason, not enough time to rework anything. How do you make Extra Limbstaur's Extra Limbs matter? What benefit does Extra Limbstaur gain in this game that Normal Limbstaur does not receive?

By default, HERO is anthropocentric. Everyone starts with two legs, two arms, sight, hearing, speech, credit card, arithmetic skills, etc etc. Not having something a normal bystander has is a Disadvantage. So a horse without arms has the No Arms physlim and thus has no arms, whereas a centaur (who has not suffered tragic accident in his backstory) does not have the No Arms physlim and thus has arms.

Mostly what Duke just said, but also consider what advantage the extra two legs provides. Can they still walk if they lose a leg? No. Can they still kick if they lose a leg? No. Are they able to grab more people at once? No. Can they hold more objects? No. Do they need to buy more shoes? Yes. They're not paying for Extra Limbs because they're not getting any benefits you'd expect to come from Extra Limbs.

Making SPD 10 the new SPD 4 will certainly do that! Did you recost SPD to account for these changes? How frequent are post-12 recoveries under your system? Did you allow Lightning Reflexes (at a different price?), or was that cut?