Hey I Can Chan

Is it important that the game's mechanics reflect the character's process, or is simply having an appropriate outcome sufficient? Because you're absolutely right that modeling this Power so that the game's mechanics are doing what the character is doing is hard. Faking it, on the other hand, is way easier. So if outcome is enough, it seems like this can be simulated by applying a Limitation to the Blast so as to make it a partially limited Power (see E61 366). For example: Kinetic Charge: Blast 8d6 (40 Active Points) plus Blast +2d6 (10 Active Points); Only On The First Phase After Which The Character Was The Victim Of A Successful Physical Attack (-1) plus +2d6 Blast (10 Active Points), Only During The First Turn After Which The Character Was The Victim Of A Successful Physical Attack (-½) plus +2d6 Blast (10 Active Points), Only During The First Minute After Which The Character Was The Victim Of A Successful Physical Attack (-¼). Total: 60 points. [4+1+1+1 END] In other words, Kinetic Ken is shot by one of Gungirl's bullets. On Kinetic Ken's next Phase, he can loose a 14d6 Kinetic Charge. Starting the Phase after that and until the same Segment next Turn during which he was shot by Gungirl, Kinetic Ken can loose a 12d6 Kinetic Charge. And for 48 more seconds after that, Kinetic Ken can loose a 10d6 Kinetic Charge. Then adjust the Kinetic Charge's damage and Limitation values to suit your campaign. (Also, Kinetic Ken's player should be reminded to not take it personally if one of Ken's allies, before combat begins, punches Ken in the face.)

So you know, Hero System Skills covers some of this on Degrees of Success (15–16). It provides a variety of general options for additional effects due to a high degree of success as well as a critical success (a Skill Roll result of 3). Hero System Skills doesn't seem to cover Characteristic Rolls, though.

First, is using the Power Reflection overtuning for the desired effect? I mean, Mr. Twisty (or Castle or Swap or Twisted Sister or whatever) can just Hold an Action. Then, when he's targeted by the opponent's attack, he can try to use the swap places power in response to his opponent's attack. To act before his opponent Mr. Twisty's still gotta beat his own DEX Roll by more than his opponent beats the opponent's own DEX Roll (as per E62 20), so there's a chance he'll get zapped then teleport—so embarrassing!—, but a few Levels with DEX Rolls (maybe with the Limitation that they're specific to this situation) should almost guarantee success. Alternatively, since Mr. Twisty's an NPC anyway, the GM could rule that Mr. Twisty's swap places power is a defensive action (as per 21) so no matter how Mr. Twisty Aborts to it (whether by Aborting a Held Phase or his next Phase), the swap places power always activates before his opponent's announced attack; this new GM would hesitate to do that, though, since the swap will likely require an attack roll, but more experienced GMs' opinions may differ. Second, I think there are just too many questions that need to be answered about the Entangle Power on Mr. Twisty before Mr. Twisty can use the Now You're Trapped Power. Because an Entangle can be defined as sealing the victim in a block of ice, handcuffing the victim, putting the victim in an actual small steel cage, or securing the victim within an emerald energy octahedron, the Now You're Trapped Power, according to its special effect, just couldn't work on a big foe, a little foe, a big foe, or a big foe, respectively. In other words, both the Entangle's special effect and the victim have to cooperate to allow Mr. Twisty's Now You're Trapped Power to work at all. That's a lot of juggling for a narrow effect. Alternatively, the Now You're Trapped Power could have its own unique Trigger that sees it pulled whenever Mr. Twisty uses the Swap Places Power when he's Entangled. Then the Now You're Trapped Power is itself an Entangle that creates (likely a weaker version of) a new Entangle on the victim like the one Mr. Twisty just left. That's complicated, tough to model, and expensive. Really, I tried to model it and even a weak entangle was working about to 70 or so Active Points. I'd recommend Mr. Twisty content himself with the block of ice collapsing in on itself, the handcuffs clattering noisily to the floor, or the craven hunter or the emerald enforcer being confused by his sudden disappearance. (So you know, even if Mr. Twisty didn't have the Now You're Trapped Power, out of combat, I'd allow Mr. Twisty, with a successful Power Skill roll, to use the Swap Places Power against a victim so that now the victim is in the handcuffs, the small cage, or the octahedron instead of him because that's awesome and in keeping with his power's special effect, but I wouldn't let Mr. Twisty swap a victim into a block of ice as I imagine the block is form-fitting; I could probably be persuaded, though, were the victim pretty close to Mr. Twisty's size.)

Thank you again, everyone, for your help. Those were some really good reads on this topic, and I appreciate it greatly. We ran a sample combat last week, and, by the end, we'd shorthanded already a lot of the game's bulk. Chris, also thank you for doing the research. It's great to learn that this a relatively new wrinkle for this game; that explains the limited amount of attention (and why everyone thought I was crazy). Lone Wolf, my understanding of the rules is that the GM should allow generally both acceleration and deceleration during a Phase's movement if that movement takes the character from his starting point to a checkpoint (i.e. the movement's plotted): "[T]he character accelerates while moving there, then slows down and stops when he reaches his destination" (E61 156). This is an exception, though. If a character wants to, for instance, take a full move but just wants to move instead of to go to a checkpoint, it seems to me that he moves meter by meter (unless the Movement Power has a Turn Mode or is unusual). This would seem to be the best way to, for instance, explore an unknown area except that any velocity gained must be kept, so the explorer must make sure his velocity isn't so great that he can't maneuver well if something surprises him (i.e. taking a Zero Phase Action at the beginning of the next Phase to remove velocity then taking a Half Move during which the character decelerates). I know that it may seem like the second instance won't come up very often, especially in a superheroic campaign like mine, but if that's what's supposed to happen according to the rules (and most folks are agreeing that should happen…) , I'd really like to be able to tell my players that and then ignore the rules (…as everyone is saying that they already do and that the game runs just fine without them).

Deceleration is involved, yes, but it's not the crux. I know how a character declares his intent to decelerate (the character takes the Zero Phase Action remove velocity), and I know how a character actually decelerates (typically by shedding velocity at the rate of 5m per 1m traveled). My confusion is still centers on this statement: A character "may not deactivate the Movement Power until he decelerates to 0m normally or through some outside means" (E61 156 and E62 25). (This, by the way, I think makes turning off the Running technically impossible while velocity remains.) Thank you, Chris, for suggesting Ultimate Speedster. (I had it on my shelf. I've acquired a lot of Hero Games material over the years but only rarely have gotten to play and have never played *6E*.) That book on Common Sense Acceleration and Deceleration says …which is fine, I guess. It still surprises me, though, that the 6E rules, given their depth, never actually come out and say what happens normally in this situation. Maybe my misunderstanding is more fundamental. Let me back up. My read is that because a character can only take a Zero Phase Action to pick add velocity or remove velocity once per Phase, a character that picks add velocity then takes a Full Move—if he moves at all—will end his Phase with some velocity if he doesn't first pick a destination: Yes, the GM could issue a blanket ruling otherwise, but 6E doesn't suggest that (and it suggests a lot!). Really, my read is that the character specifically picked add velocity because the character didn't have a destination and wanted to travel meter by meter using Running (or Swimming or Tunneling or Flight with No Turn Mode) so as to adjust his route on the fly. Is that correct? If that's a correct conclusion, then to me that sounds like the game kind of neatly simulating what I think many might view as "normal" travel—even down to, next Phase, having to take a Zero Phase Action to reduce velocity then a Half Move to travel some distance to decelerate before taking an Attack Action because of something that was spotted last Phase. That's complicated, but I'm okay with complicated. If it's an incorrect conclusion, what are the rules saying? For instance, is all movement supposed to be plotted all the time? Massey, I just checked the Fifth Edition core rulebook, and, you're correct, it does not say that a character "may not deactivate the Movement Power until he decelerates to 0m normally or through some outside means." However, Ultimate Speedster says that twice (27 and 205). And, really, I want to make sense of the rules so I do know the game I'm playing. I'm trying to educate myself on how to play this game so that the people I sit down at the table with—who don't know the game's community, who don't know the game's history, who don't know the game's norms—can look at the same book I'm looking at and see how I reached the conclusions that I did.

Thank you for the replies. I know that, as the GM, I can dispense with any rules for any or no reason. However, as a newcomer to 6E, I'm still trying to learn its rules. I'm trying to establish a baseline first so that if I choose to ignore a rule I know why I'm ignoring it and what impact ignoring it has on the game. For instance, here's my read: Skid takes a Zero Phase Action to add velocity then takes a Full Move to use Running to travel 30m, ending his Phase with a velocity of 30m. At the start of Skid's next Phase, because Skid has 30m of velocity, Skid can't deactivate his Running. Knowing this, Skid on his Phase takes a Zero Phase Action to remove velocity then takes a Half Move to use Running to travel 6m to reduce his velocity to 0m then takes an Attack action. However, if, as is suggested, I ignore velocity when it doesn't matter, my read's different: Skid takes a Zero Phase Action to add velocity then takes a Full Move to use Running to travel 30m, ending his Phase with a velocity of 30m. At the start of Skid's next Phase, because the GM opts to ignore excess velocity when it's unimportant, Skid can deactivate his Running. Knowing this, Skid on his Phase takes a Zero Phase Action to deactivate his Running then takes an Attack action. I see that difference as pretty significant. Essentially being forced to give up at least a Half Phase Action isn't nothing, and essentially being forced to move can be hazardous.

I'm preparing to run a Hero System, 6th Edition campaign, and I'm struggling to understand movement, especially velocity. Here's the question: When a character's Phase ends yet his velocity is still greater than 0m, does the character's velocity affect what Actions the character can take on his next Phase? For example, Slick's Phase ends, but his velocity is still 20m. On Slick's next Phase, can he take a Zero Phase Action to add velocity (E61 156), spend a Half Phase to take a Half Move during which he adds even more velocity, then spend a Half Phase to take an Action that requires an Attack roll, despite Slick still having a greater-than-0m velocity? Or, because Slick's velocity is 20m at the start of the Phase, must Slick first take a Full Move or Half Move to reduce his velocity to 0m before the character can do anything else besides move? My confusion stems from this statement: A character "may not deactivate the Movement Power until he decelerates to 0m normally or through some outside means" (E61 156 and E62 25). So far as I can tell, the game doesn't describe exactly what this means (i.e. I can't tell if not moving is supposed to be the same thing as deactivating a Movement Power). Further, the game doesn't seem to describe how already having velocity when a Phase begins impacts the character's ability to take Actions. Finally, I've found no examples that cover what I imagine is this relatively common situation. Any help would be appreciated.