Hotspur

It has been mentioned a few times, some folk wanting to use the dice rolled to count BODY as if a normal attack, some content to use the BODY healed for knock back purposes.
 
I think for simplicity purposes, you roll the dice, find out how much BODY people will be healed or will be used to determine knock back.
 
Personally, I think that if you create a wave of healing energy, then it will heal and knock back regardless of whether there are people to heal or people to knock back in the affected area.
 
The big takeaway is that it is pretty much a GM call on how they want their game to run.
 
Doc

Egad! 
 
I went into all that detail, but never bothered mentioning the 'final form' of the House Bushido Skills System. 
 
First, I wish to apologize to anyone who came over here because you got a notification that you were quoted. 
 
If I may explain:
 
Evidently, when you spend a really long time working on a post, it "saves" in your editor.  In that past, that has not been a problem, because the next time you pull the editor up for that thread, there is a "clear editor" button. 
 
To make the first lengthy post via phone, I opted to crawl the various ap stores and downloaded a keyboard with buttons almost large enough that you can only touch one at a time.  Usually.  It also has the unexpected benefit of an autocorrect that speaks English (just not enough English). 
 
Problematically, I havent see the Clear Editor. Button since, nor have I been able to delete quote blocks as I could before.  Not sure why the keyboard makes that kind of difference, and of course, it could be coincidental.  (it is a Microsoft app, so I am pretty sure I am being keyligged the entire time, but her!  If they learn about Champions against their will, who's fault is that, ultimately? 
 
Next:
 
I promise this will be _short_! 
 
All the above about the skills system was in use for years, and still is with my primary group, but I have been testing a simplified version of it with the youth group:
 
When you want a Skill, you define it and buy a Skill level.  Your skill is Characteristic roll plus 1.
 
Rhis was derived as such things as buying +1 to Per (an INT roll at heart) with a skill level, or bonuses to coordinated attack when working with a particular character or maneuver, or even just bonuses to INT rolls when working on a particular item or topic (+1 when repairing antique computer tape drives). 
 
These are at their essence skills.  You get a base characteristic roll and take a bonus because you are doing something with which you are familiar.  Because you have skill in that area. 
 
A specific skill is a three-point skill level (+2 when cracking Defender brand sages or +1 when cracking old-fashioned sages).  It is improved with additional 3 pt skill levels. 
 
A broader but skill that covers closely-related fields (+2 with woodcraft) is a 5pt skill level, and defaults to Characteristic roll +1.  This "broad skill' can be improved with 5 pt skill levels.  Additionally, a player may opt to break out an individual skill or three and raise them independently with 3pt skill levels:  the woodcraft character might decide he is particularly good at tracking, and put an additional skill level in just that aspect of woodcraft. 
 
For an 8 pt skill level, the character can have what conversationally refer to as a broad skill (Science +3, for example).  This skill starts, like the others, at characteristic roll plus 1.
 
The player may opt to use a 5 pt skill level on a tightly-related set of skills (or science field in this case, such as 'chemistry') ) or he may opt to use a 3 pt skill level to break out one particular skill.  (an additional bonus for 'Chemical analysis,' perhaps). 
 
 
I was concerned that it would get pricey quickly, but since the default is Char roll +1, a lot of initial cost is offset (versus what we had been doing) and we are able to mix broad and narrow and "cluster" skills on the same game.  Thus far, it has been working well.  It might not work as well for heroic, abut then I have to wonder how much of my concern there is based on some wish that points be expensive to slow down character progression, which I can just as easily do two other ways:
 
Declare up front that XP will accrue somewhat more slowly than the group is used to
. 
Put a gate between XP and Skills- some sort of rule like 'you must have used this skill for consecutive successes before you may use XP to raise it (woah- I am just spitballing at this point, folks) 
 
Or you must roll a certain number of 3s, or some such thing.  I suspect if I go this route, the gate will depend _a lot_ on the intended length of the campaign. 
 
 
 
There. 
 
I apologize for totally forgetting to mention the current rules being (successfully) playtested at the moment. 
 
 
 
 
 

I am not a huge fan of the more heavily narrative systems but I do get frustrated by the 40 year-old game skeleton of the HERO System.   There are things to learn from what has happened in the gaming world in those decades.
 
In Spectaculars there are environmental elements that need to be addressed.  powers work narratively some if the time and not in others - for example, SpiderGuy can (narratively) swing down and gum up all the CCTV with his webshooters but looking to hinder BigBadMonster needs (more gamist) engagement with the mechanics.  There were disconnects in the system for me but I hit a more heavily superheroic "feel" to the game more often than I do playing Champions.
 
HERO has focused so heavily in balancing the power system in character creation, it has neglected making those powers feel more superheroic during play.  I have ideas and trying to put them into words, and when they are good enough, I will share them.
 
Doc

There is limited value in referencing real life history as we are playing in a reality where the gods are verifiable real, where there are many different sentient species with varying modalities and some so alien that their morality may be incomprehensible.
 
The idea that there is true evil, not people doing evil acts, is difficult in our relativist normality, where we might even choose to watch a movie humanising the Joker.
 
The existence of absolute good, or absolute evil is difficult to comprehend. We tend to do poor approximations because we are stuck in our heads.
Though the telling of historical stories is interesting and a reason I keep reading!  🙂

I would be content with creating a barrier of water.  I would be content with the SFX being "water" and applying the usual environmental effects.  It would be DEF 0 with enough BODY to soak up damage, should people decide to try destroying it rather than swimming through.
 
If the barrier was in a hole, then once the DEF of the barrier was overcome, the water would still exist and fill the hole.
 
Doc

In what way?  It reduces at least a dozen arithmetical operations. 

Kind of, but I wouldn't call it universally true.  The GM can use whatever tracker length they like, but longer ones are usually used for big, epic scenes - the climax to a multi-session story arc is an example the designers use - and shorter ones are often minor scenes with an obvious "win condition" that the heroes don't need as much time to complete.  In practical terms that usually translates to difficult scene (following their guidelines for scene construction) = longer tracker while easy scene = short tracker, but again there will be exceptions.  The encounter budget system seems optimized for moderate scenes with the 8-round 2/4/2 GYRO tracker, but it work for easy and hard scenes fairly well.  I think the design goal was to have the tracker almost equal the expected time for the heroes to win (or have a Total Party Knock-Out), with the ideal situation being that every hero has something meaningful to do on their turn (even if it's "just" Boosting a fellow hero) until the win/loss condition plus an extra round or two as allowance for PCs going Out (at which point their options are sorely limited).  Action economy is pretty important, as you might expect.  Makes challenges (which often require multiple Overcomes) more meaningful than they'd be without time pressure.
 
The spread of GYR rounds is also important for determining hero (and, rarely, villain) effectiveness as you surmised, and the more Red rounds there are the more impact those potent Red abilities will have.  Pretty rare for a scene to last more than two rounds once you're in Red, both because the team is now firing on all cylinders and because you may have a TPKO from heroes going Out back in Yellow.   By comparison, Green rounds really limit the PCs, and often get spent doing Overcomes on existing challenges, swatting some minions, or putting out mods with Boosts and Hinders rather than whaling on villains.  The book's suggested epic scene tracker has a 1/6/4 GYRO spread IIRC, and I don't think I'd ever bother with more than two Green rounds in an action scene unless something really weird was going on narratively.  Green is the calm before the storm in an action scene, Yellow is where the bulk of the action is, and Red is where the end (whatever that might be) is near.  Having the scene tracker run out is almost always beneficial to the villains, but what that benefit is can vary a lot.  Maybe the heroes get a fiat KO and wake up partially healed in a prison or deathtrap, maybe the villain's gadget/ritual/scheme seriously changes the world and everyone has to deal with that (Thanos snap, summoning Cthulhu, etc.), or maybe they just stole what they wanted and get away via a pre-planned escape scheme.
 
Worth noting that there are a few ways to use Red abilities before the tracker is in the Red, including just getting beaten up really badly early on.  A big part of the game's tactics involves around deciding when you need to (say) invoke a twist to use a key Red ability while still in Yellow.

So it is, like many narrative systems, very important to set up the contest: what victory means, what failure means and the consequences of each, with a handful of fuzzy edge elements you might throw in to qualify both victory and failure.
 
You say normal 8 round tracker. I presume longer teackers are easier for PCs, shorter ones harder.  I also presume that turning red sooner makes it easier because PCs get access to those abilities for longer in the scene?  Though that feels a bit counter-intuitive...

Be careful when trying to convert from D&D to hero.  It seems like it should work, but for the most part it often ends up being very difficult.  The rules systems just don’t match and often what is a low level power in D&D is extremely expensive in Hero.  Just as often the reverse is also true.  Every time I have seen someone try this it ends up taking more time and effort than it would be to start from the ground up.  
 
Real weapon is not appropriate, it means the weapon can be broken and needs maintenance.    
 

For me, looking simply at the game implications, a novice is creating a weapon that has all the limitations of a real weapon.  I would base the cost on whatever weapon is being summoned. I would do it this way because if, in combat you are deprived of a weapon, and you have another, you would probably be roughly as disadvantaged as the mind blade wielder. You would not change the cost of a weapon if a character had a bag on many things and just kept pulling weapons out of it in combat.
 
The experienced user simply removes the focus element.  He can no longer be disarmed or be deprived of the blade.  If the blade was restrained he would abandon it, move his hand, summon another and attack, no loss.
 
Ultimately the player gets an advantage because they have paid points for a weapon rather than something the character acquired through wealth, craft or theft.

I can join the chorus of appreciating simpler sheets for play, divorced from build sheets or hero designer files.
 
Watch your players, if they can't find numbers they are not obvious enough.  One place the game mechanics drive a bit of confusion is conflating ability stats with game stats.  By that I mean things like STR, DEX, INT etc sitting beside SPD, REC, END and STUN. 
 
I would have a combat box where all these useful numbers sit together.
 
In the Supergirl sheet, I would probably remove the detail from the Enhanced physiology, just note that asterisked features are enhanced, then add some asterisks through the sheet. The GM needs the detail, the player's playing sheet just needs to know what is linked in this way.
 
I might also push it out to two sides.  I would put the picture, the background and the complications on one side, possibly bulking them out with some strategy hints and tips.  I would then add a bit of text "colour" to the powers to encourage players to play the power and not the numbers.
 
 
Yeah, when I was younger that was no problem, today it is becoming more of a challenge. 🙂
 
Doc

I think that rule is there for someone using stuff beyond its intended use to achieve an effect that is reasonably directly covered by a power that costs more.

Well.  There are other options.  I had the shadows as the physical manifestation of the additional SPD I suggested.  I would consider allowing the attack to be Blast with a +1/4 no range (meaning the attack could be delivered where either the main character or one of the shadows was in melee range.
 
That not only avoids indirect and stretching, it gives a bonus.  The drawback is that it does not allow all of the skills etc that Zed might have.  However, you could buy indirect or stretching on a much smaller amount of STR to do much of that stuff.
 
These are not complicated in mechanics just a bit of a mind stretch to apply SFX to those mechanics.
 
I would be considering this as a bit of a speedster character, acting more times in a round than most other characters but not the 3-4 times as often as characters with Duplication or Summons.

I suppose it reflects a defence that is perfect until it collapses catastrophically.  I agree though that it looks like something only villains will use! GMs can afford to be profligate with their points...

Oh, it's not the system that is complicated, because it's the math, that gets complicated. But once character creation is done, Hero just flows, in combat.

Hugh provoked me to go look at numbers. 
 
If you look at the "full power" here you would have 16m Tunnelling through 13PD.  That is 3+15+24 = 42 points.  Any answer to the cost of the more limited power needs to cost less than this. 
 
If you look at LoneWolf's plan, then the core cost is 28 points, with an additional 12 points that add PD at the cost of reducing movement.  With a -1 limitation that is +12 points that comes to a total of 40 points.  I think the limitation on this power is probably worth more than two points.
 
If you used my custom limitation then you would be paying 28 points...it is the same as the extreme at either end so you might think that you have more flexibility than purchasing either extreme, so perhaps a 1/4 limitation is the right one.  that comes to a cost of 34 points.
 
Doc
 
 
 
 

😇
 
Ach, it wasn't just you, I need to understand that my brilliance will constantly go unappreciated.
 
It is like the women in teams that suggest stuff, get ignored and watch a male colleague praised for repeating the idea.
🤔😇
 

I have not read all the rules of any edition beyond the first.

I do think that all clerics should be more powerful in their sacred grounds as well, possibly defences and additional offence possible.

Have a look at the character sheet template I was thinking of using...
 
 

Well, it was 20 years nearly since @paigeoliver made the comment, and nearly 15 years since they last visited the site.  🙂 Not sure you are going to get an answer.
 
Blazing away is an optional manoeuver on page 384 of FReD.
 

I did not. 😞 My friend is the HD person and I only beg his time when we are definitely going to play the game.  Not there yet.

https://greyhawkonline.com/greyhawkwiki/Greyhawk#The_Greyhawk_Wars

Have seen what is out there but I think there is not enough for me to run my next game, Fantasy HERO in Greyhawk.
 
I want a classic Greyhawk "feel" which means identifying what makes Greyhawk feel like,e Greyhawk without seeking to emulate D&D. 
 
I will use this thread to talk out loud what I am thinking about, more than happy for folk to chip in. 🙂  can't promise to follow suggestions or advice but alternative views, at worst, sharpen my thinking and point out things I have not considered.
 
I will add to this as I work things out but would be interested what folk think are essential bits of playing in Greyhawk, the original Gygax setting.
 
Doc

Those are called polar bears, and they are being dealt with.