Gnome BODY (important!)

No, I'm saying that if you buy 4 powers with 6 charges, you have 4*6=24 charges. You can use one power 24 times, each power 6 times, or anywhere inbetween. Thinking more I'd probably tell you to also throw on Unified Power at -0 to pay for the flexibility. If this proved to be really effective I'd ask for a recosting. If this proved to be abused (say, a dozen tiny powers that added shared charges cheaply but weren't used) I'd force a switch over to an END Reserve.

I'd say to buy the same number of Charges on each power, then sum the total number of charges to create the charge-pool.

I'm going to focus on games with strong rules systems, because that's HERO's competition. There's no point in getting in a spitting match over FATE versus HERO, they're different strokes intended for different folks. And on that note, I'm going to clarify in advance that I think the idea of "best RPG" is silly. A system is a tool. You don't point to a hammer and say it's the best tool ever and try to use it to cut a 2x4 in half. That's a saw's job, and even a mediocre saw will do a better job than a great hammer. HERO's a great tool for a great many things, but I'm going to point out where I think there's much better tools for certain jobs. First of all, I'm so happy to fulfill my mandatory volunteer duty by informing you that "best RPG" isn't silly at all! Because PARANOIA is factually the best role-playing game of all time, unless the Computer says otherwise! This is because the rules [THIS INFORMATION NOT AVAILABLE AT YOUR SECURITY CLEARANCE] which is great! Anyone who disagrees is a commie mutant traitor!! Tone is critical. Tone-of-book sets tone-of-game. The GM can reverse it, but HERO reads like a lawyer wrote it in a desert. If I'm introducing players to a genre I want the rulebook to seize them by the hand and drag them in without me having to provide a tone primer or show an hour of TV. I feel Honor+Intrigue is better than HERO can hope to be at swashbuckling action. It's fast but keeps enough choice and mechanical weight to have punchy decisions that support and reward emulating the patterns of the genre it focuses on. Of course, I'd never think of using H+I for anything much beyond "Melee-centric Action Movie". But if I'm doing swashbuckle I'm not reaching for HERO. The same is true of a lot of niche-genre-emulators. HERO's great for supers. HERO spreads that greatness to some supers-adjacent genres. But HERO has a very particular numbers-and-tactics feel to it that is anathema to some genres. On top of that, many genres want certain narratives that HERO just doesn't do without some heavy tweaking, like the position-as-health common to many swashbuckling fights. On a similar note, HERO's basic conflict resolution mechanism is sorta boring. There's a lot of little fun bits and choices involved in "reduce enemy STUN before enemy reduces your STUN" but it really does come down to my-turn-your-turn and dueling subtractions. To say nothing of the social lack-of-system and clumsy binary skill resolution. If I want to zero in on one thing, there's systems that do those things better. Exalted 3e has a beautiful social system, any social-focused game I ran would likely be based in that if I hadn't outright stolen the social system to plug into another system (uh, again). And if I want combat itself to be the focus I'm heading for Nechronica. Absolutely no hesitation, the combination of interrupt-friendly every-turn-is-your-turn initiative and visceral don't-get-hit combat that manages to also be getting-hit-is-ok is a work of bloody art. HERO's strength is that it's rarely a bad choice. But it's also outclassed by at least one thing in many aspects. So when those aspects are what's important, HERO isn't "best".

To shift the conversation to a brighter note: I think one of the ways to make HERO less "unapproachable" and "hard to learn" would be to refine the character sheet. People have commented that power writeups look like black magic chants, and we can fix that. It's the future already, people! Put plain-english writeups of each power in an info box under each power and Characteristic. Something like: Blast 6d6 AoE 3" NND: Force Field Even just doing it to the pregen heroes provided with a module would be a huge help to learners, because they could ignore the giant tomes and just focus on learning half a dozen pages of sheet.

I believe it to be caused by the intersection of "8/10 BODY is normal" and "these weapons KILL INSTANTLY". Same thing with Falling, the damage is scaled for what happens in "real life" not a comic book.

But what's the draw of a system Powered By Hero instead of a system Powered By GURPS, or Powered By Fate, or Powered By Powered By The Apocalypse , or Powered by D20? HERO's not the only point-buy fish in the pond, and GURPSers will avidly proclaim their point-buy is better for not-supers. Every system's going to label itself as "elegant and fun". Every game's going to proclaim it's "balanced". Every toolbox is going to vomit half a dozen genres it supports onto the back-page blurb. What makes HERO better? My answer is the powers system. If that's not put on display, I don't see any reason somebody would pick HERO over GURPS or another competitor.

My gut response is "What's the value of HERO if you're not investing in the power rules?", because I feel the power rules are what makes HERO stand out. I can't speak for anyone else, but they way they play impacts the way I play. No man is an island and all that. Their fun and ways of having fun directly interact with my fun and my ways of having fun. That doesn't make them objectively wrong, but my uncontrollable emotional response is that they're subjectively wrong. That emotional response is the answer to your question. It's a fact that my fun would improve if my group changed certain behaviors. It's also a fact that they have no intentions of doing so because their fun would decrease. I fully recognize that they won't, but I'd still like it if they did and I still keep trying to find work-arounds.

I'm asking a narrative question, not a mechanical question. Because I can't visualize a way to "just strike the goblin with it" that's distinct from "use the flail maneuver". How does one swing differently to Flail instead of Strike?

But I'm not asking what the difference between Flail and Martial Flail is, or between Strike and Martial Strike is. I think we can both visualize the difference between Strike and Haymaker, or Strike and Grab, or Strike and Club Weapon, or Strike and Trip. I'm asking what the difference between using a flail to Strike and using a flail to Flail is, because I cannot conceive of a way to use a flail in a way that renders it not-flail. (Well, without injuring yourself. I can imagine some movements that would deliver the haft into contact with the target, but they all leave the flail bit swinging back at you.)

How do you use a flail in a non-flail way? What does that look like?

They can take quite a few more bullets. Enough bullets to get away instead of being a dying mess on the ground.

I have to agree. This seems like a thing that's inherent to the weapon, not to the special specific method of using the weapon.

Real SWAT teams also don't fight people they know can throw 3-4m radius balls of electric death. EDIT: And for that matter, real SWAT teams don't use the pistols my fights included. They use much nastier things like assault rifles, shotguns, ballistic shields, and flashbangs. The flashbangs in particular turn it from "a fight" to "a slaughter" because Joules will be blind and deaf partway through P12 and on the ground KO'd and bleeding out by the time she recovers her senses.

Good point! Still probably wouldn't change anything for the reason I mentioned in the fight, but she could do that.

Well for starters, Witchcraft isn't going to inflict a Stunned result so Defender will have chances to shoot back. Same with against Ironclad. In fact, the only Champion she's at least 50% likely to Stunned with her attack is herself! She can't use her CSLs if she does that either.

Arrowhead has a 12d6 Blast, I'm not sure what you're talking about. Witchcraft's main attacks are her mental attacks. In particular, her Irresistible Slumber. Which, if you'll note, is 12 DCs. Every member of the Champions other than Kinetik has a 12 DC attack. 12d6 is a pretty average offense in a typical Champions game according to the Champions. Your permission is noted. As previously noted, she can't get +3 DCV from those CSLs if she Dodges. 6e1p69, "a character can only allocate a CSL on a Phase when he uses an attack/power that CSL applies to. For example, if a character has a 3-point Combat Skill Level with his Blast, he can only assign that Level (for any purpose) on Phases when he uses his Blast." You then blindly assume a SWAT team is dumb enough to gather together like bowling pins, just waiting to be dealt with. If you want cops in your game to have PsyLim: Makes idiotic tactical choices despite training and experience (Common, Total) that's your prerogative but I can't support it. And by now we're back at Joules taking down one cop a Phase and getting shot a bunch. And she loses that fight. But hey, since you're bringing up the Champions, let's quickly run her up against each of the Champions, one at a time! Defender has a 12d6 Punch, wins Initiative, and has OCV 11 and DCV 8. He hits easily, Stunneds Joules, then repeats it on Phase 3 for the KO. He's also faster moving. Ironclad loses initiative, but doesn't really care because he can take four hits. He has 60 STR which becomes 12d6 thrown objects with OCV 7, so he'll hit twice (and inflict Stunned every time he does) before Joules hits four times. He's also faster moving. Kinetik just shrugs and leaves. Joules can't do anything to stop him. We'll call that a win for Joules anyways though, since he can't really hurt her if she stays away from anything he could run up. He would win if he could force Joules down, though, he gets about as much damage through as she does but he's got better CV and SPD. Sapphire has better Initiative, CV, SPD, defense, movement. It's not really a contest. Witchcraft wins Initiative, easily hits with a 6d6 Mental Blast, yadda yadda it's Defender again but the probabilities are a bit less one-sided. So that's Joules going 1-4 with the Champions. But hey, what might happen if Joules didn't get Stunned by any incoming 12d6 attack and could take more than one hit?

This can't be stressed enough. People disengage when they're not being engaged with. A great way to keep your players in the game is by keeping their characters in the game and doing things. I'm completely certain this is the cause of because if the player is twiddling their thumbs with no ability to interact with the game until their next Phase comes up, why would they pay attention? They're not playing a role-playing game at that point, they're watching one when they came to play.

One does, one definitely does, one definitely doesn't, and one seems to but they don't talk rules outside their own character so they may just have learned a subset of the rules. It still irritates me because I feel their decision is selfishly costing the group game-time every time we start a new game. But "the things I can't change" and all that, unless I feel like running PARANOIA.

Oh no, they really want to play. They love playing. I can assure you of it, I've seen all the do-nothing-outside-game-time players get together and cheerfully organize a session before. Setting, system, characters, the works. But only during game time. They just really don't want to spend non-play time on play-things. They want to play TTRPGs, but only in one or two 4-8 hour chunks a week and not at all outside that.

OK, now we're definitely on the same page. I fully agree, something highly unlikely to come up mechanically shouldn't cost points mechanically.

My personal experience is that the members of my group who are problematic in this respect are problematic because they're not independently motivated. They won't do a thing during non-game time. Even leveling up is done at start/end of a session. So they've adopted the mantra of "I'll learn as I play" because they won't learn outside play. This infuriates me to no end. I'm around a hundred XP into my current Champions character and am at a point where I'm not really spending it anymore. The character very effectively does the things I want her to be good at doing, and with a large group I'm not interested in stepping too far outside her current role. I've seen a similar thing in a different game, where the pistol-wielding eccentric character was highly effective right out of chargen at the things the not-pistol-wielding eccentric player was interested in doing. As a result, they weren't motivated by bonus XP and didn't really get excited by mechanical progression. That state of affairs lasted around a year, until the player and character learned that revolvers were possible in-setting and started greedily accumulating XP to work towards making their own. And in treadmill-progression systems like D&D, I've seen players explicitly request the party not level up because they've realized it requires them to learn new abilities that don't actually make them stronger relative to their foes.

Why are all things divided into combat xor role-playing? Don't you have non-combat skills, powers, and challenges?

Arms races do not end well. Either the PCs find something the GM can't deal with, or the GM brings out something the PCs can't deal with. Generally the latter, given that the GM has as many NPCs as needed with as many points as needed. I've seen the former though, Cleric in a D&D 3.5 game who knew the intricacies of his class and spell list perfectly and had a good read on the GM. Either way the game falls apart and lands somewhere from boring to infuriating.

I'd personally have condensed that into "PS: Pianist and Singer". I feel that Background Skills are way too narrow generally for what you spend.