PhilFleischmann

Re: HERO SYSTEM MARTIAL ARTS -- What Do *You* Want To See? "Brace for impact" maneuver. A really wierd idea: Vehicle Martial Arts. Just a thought that came to me.

Re: HERO SYSTEM MARTIAL ARTS -- What Do *You* Want To See? I like the idea, but it seems to me more appropriate to give up DC of damage, rather than DCV, in exchange for moving an opponent back. So your example would become +2 OCV +0 DCV, Standard DC, moves target 1m back. Though it might be better as 1m per DC lowered.

Re: Alternate Blindness/Deafness

Re: Alternate Blindness/Deafness I don't see why not. I've been allowing this in my games for years and find it works quite well. There is a defence of course, Power Defense, as with any Drain. And to truly blind someone, you have to drain *ALL* their sight - if the target has any enhanced vision, those powers have to be drained first. Just like if you were draining STR or anything else - it takes more effort to Drain a 100 STR down to 0 than it does to drain 10 STR down to 0. Likewise it takes more to Drain IR+UV, +5 levels Telescopic, +5 Enhanced Vision, +X-Ray Vision, and Normal Vision, than it does to just Drain Normal Vision. And you should probably let it work (both Draining and recovering) gradually - e.g. Drain half of sight means they make PER rolls at -3, or something like that. Has the slower fade rate cost been changed in 6E?

Re: Selective AoE is an advantage? I've allowed it in my games for years (going back to 4th ed) by reverse-engineering it as you mention. So it's a total of +1.5 (+1 for the Area, +.5 to only hit who you want).

Re: HERO SYSTEM MARTIAL ARTS -- What Do *You* Want To See? Don't talk about coupons for key lime pie and then act surprised when other people talk about stujutsu, or otherwise get off-topic. How about "beginner level" maneuvers? How do you build a beginner martial artist? If you only buy a few of the maneuvers, you've got a guy who's just as good at those maneuvers as someone who's bought all of them. It might be useful to have "toned down" versions of some of the maneuvers to reflect that a beginner hasn't yet fully mastered those maneuvers. Then, when he gains experience, he can upgrade them to the normal level.

Re: HERO SYSTEM MARTIAL ARTS -- What Do *You* Want To See? If there's no room for Stujutsu, then there better not be room for chucking! Stujutsu is a higher priority!

Re: A way to fend off attackers Can you combine Cover and Spread? Or Cover and Sweep?

Re: A way to fend off attackers Stand beside an open door with your fist up, ready to punch anyone who comes through the door. Isn't that covering a location?

Re: A way to fend off attackers But it seems more like a maneuver than a power. And maneuvers are free. But yes, if you pay more, you should be entitled to better results.

Re: AOE and DCV weirdness The issue is the difference between attacking a stationary area (The area right in front of the doorway to the bank) and a moving area (The front of the flying airplane). Currently the game rules do not draw any distinction between these two AoE attacks (AFAIK), but maybe it should.

Re: A way to fend off attackers Dodge - full phase, harder to hit Cover - "attack" a location - anyone who enters that location is hit Cover with Spread/Autofire/Sweep

Re: Too Transform It makes no sense to allow a PC to control what exists in other dimensions, any more than he can control what exists in his own dimension. I'm a pretty generous GM, and I might allow for an infinite number of other dimensions that a EDM-guy could use. And just to keep things flexible, I'll say that there's a good supply of "default empty" dimensions. So a character could EDM to one of them, and then do a bunch of Summons/Transforms to fill up the dimension with all the things he wants there to be there. Heck, I'll even throw in the breathable atmosphere for free, because I'm a nice guy. It's not a matter of SFX. That's the actual game mechanics of the power. Of course not. No one is advocating a "gotcha". It's not so much about GM leniency as it is about how many points characters are built on. A wish spell, if truly built to grant any wish would have to cost an infinite number of points. By deciding how many points to spend on the VPP, and the other details of how it's built, the player is choosing the limits on what kind of wishes he can do. Which is a pointless argument since a GM could dislike anything, and any power construct could be in the hands of a player how doesn't know how to use it. No. It just needs to be priced appropriately. If the true wish power costs a billion points (which is a bargain!), most characters won't be able to afford it, but they can still buy some toned-down version of it for the points they can afford.

Re: Too Transform King? I'd call it more like the court jester of "dark matter" powers. It's a joke the way some people try to twist it to fit what they can't figure out how to build (or try to build for much cheaper that it should cost). I've said this before, but I'll explain it again: The M in EDM stands for "Movement" - you *MOVE* to another dimension. It does not *CREATE* a dimension to your specifications and then put you there. With a bajillion levels of MegaScale Teleport, I can teleport anywhere in the universe - but only to locations that actually exist. I can't teleport to Shangri-La or Fairyland. EDM can only take you to dimensions that exist - and there's no reason to assume that any dimension you can conceive of exists, no matter how much you'd like it to exist, no matter how convenient it would be to you for it to exist. I would not miss it one bit if people stopped making the dumb claim that EDM is a "do anything" power, because all you have to do is move to the dimension where the thing you want is true. It's a lame idea, and not justified in any way by the rules. And for the sake of argument, let's say you could just go to any universe you can imaging where things are as you want them to be. Suppose Doctor Happykitty is getting close to his goal of enslaving the world. People are dying all over and there's misery and suffering due to his ultimate evil. You decide to "defeat" him with your "EDM to a dimension just like this one, but Doctor Happykitty never existed". Well, goody for you! You've just abandoned all the people of this universe to save your own skin. You haven't defeated anyone, you've simply run away.

Re: HERO SYSTEM MARTIAL ARTS -- What Do *You* Want To See? How 'bout some words about the effect of size differences on MA? By that I mean *real* size differences. Giant vs human, human vs halfling, human vs pixie, etc. (Catching a fly with chopsticks?)

Re: Transform Self

Re: Too Transform I've never seen any reason why Aid shouldn't be used to grant powers to others. If you really think it's too powerful, just tack on an Adder (or maybe an Advantage "Can Aid Powers from 0 (i.e., grant new powers)". What's it worth 5-point Adder (the cost of the VPP Sean gives above), 10-point Adder (to account for no LOS needed to maintain, and the granter doesn't pay the END)? You could also buy, say 5 points of whatever power you want, with UBO, for 6 points, and then Aid it from there.

Re: Transform Self There's no reason why you have to let Transform add just *any* amount of power to the recipient (self or other). I remember way back before 4th ed, the rule was that the maximum amount of power added was the pips on the effect dice. Want to give someone wings with which to fly at 20" (40 m)? You need to roll 40 points on the dice. This still isn't the best way to grant powers to someone, but you could do it this way. In general, it's probably not a good idea to allow a Transform on self like this. But I don't have any general problem for an "Anti-transform" Transform power on self. Such as a cure poison, remove curse, etc., as has already been mentioned. You could theoretically even do Transform Dead Self to Living Self. Of course, you'd need Persistant and Trigger, and probably other stuff, too, so it would be expensive.

Re: 6th Edition Character Sheet I always make my character sheets in MS Word, using a custom table so I can easily change the size of the various boxes. Some characters need more space for powers, and some need more for skills, and some need more for maneuvers, etc. But I have to admit, it never occurred to me to use a landscape format. I'm going to have to try that next time.

Re: HERO SYSTEM MARTIAL ARTS -- What Do *You* Want To See? I remembered being a bit confused about the Martial Shove maneuver in 5e UMA. What are the rules for non-martial shoving? I have about as much MA skill as the average potted plant, but I can still shove people. It might be a good idea to include additional non-martial combat maneuvers such as this. I'd like to see, say, two example characters from each genre, just to show more variety. IOW, a "standard" MA superhero like Seeker or Crusader, but also a wierd one, like a multi-armed mutant whose MA is based on a non-standard physiology. A fantasy swordmaster, as well as an arena wrestler or monster martial artist. It could also be helpful to see example characters from the "minor" genres, like Victorian/steampunk. You definitely should include stujutsu, also known as mojutsu, kalarrypayit, and kurli, especially since you're including a coupon for key lime pie, since pies are one of the weapons elements of this martial art, as are common household and carpentry tools, even though it's mostly an open-handed art.

Re: Normal rolling (6E)

Re: Normal rolling (6E) In fact, you could color one of the pips on the 5 side orange (instead of red) or something to remind you when you use the dice as normal attack dice. And if you like, you can color one of the white pips on the 6 side gray (instead of white) or something. Thus: Normal: BODY = Red pips, STUN = Total pips Killing: BODY = Red & Orange pips, STUN = White Pips No other calculations to do! Just counting! (Until someone wants to use hit locations or increased STUNx, or Damage Reduction) Dang! I think this is a good idea, if I do say so myself. I'm going to mark me up a set of custom dice this way!

Re: Normal rolling (6E) Something I've recommended before is to roll normally for killing attacks, but let both 5's and 6's count as 2 BODY, and subtract 1 from the regular pips of each die for the STUN. But that was for 5e. With the new, lower STUNx in 6e, I'd recommend subtracting 2 from each die (still with a minimum of 1). Or for a slightly more complicated method, count the "Non-BODY pips" as STUN, thus: Die Roll: 1 2 3 4 5 6 BODY: - 0 1 1 1 2 2 STUN: - 1 1 2 3 3 4 Yes, that last 4 should really be a 3 to keep the average the same, but it seemed so elegant to let each die face have its STUN and BODY pips depicted. You could take dice with, say, white pips, and color some of the pips red: 1 each on the 2, 3, and 4 faces, and 2 on the 5 and 6 faces. Then when rolling killing damage, the Red pips are BODY, and the White pips are STUN.

Re: Lucky Damage Dice In that case, it's a good price. Well, yes, but it doesn't matter which is the "additional" daamage. The 1/6 of the time occurs when the die roll is 1, and then you get another die. So if you didn't roll a 1, you're already doing better. An average of 4 goes up to an average of 4.5 (more actually because of the rerolls) - that's 1 + the 3.5. The average of the die roll in the first place was already 3.5. Then when you roll a 1, you get to add another d6, which has the same average as the previous die. Yes, I understood that, and it does a good job of that. I wasn't arguing against the idea, just analyzing it. A perfectly understandable concern, and a fine solution.

Re: Character Backgrounds (free for all)