Stonewild

.i havent commented much here as I have nothing to add, but this is something I have done for some time; it seems to help d20 players intothe system.
 
I use CON rolls against non_exotic poisonings, tainted water, etc, or as a gateway to staying on your feet at 0 STUN, and against possible infections.  Sometimes to award a pip or two of END when recovering, and sometimes a Pip or two of BODY when healing (normal healing).
 
I also use them to benefit first aid rolls, etc.
 
 
 
The INT roll habs existed since the first edition.  Its use has never changed.
 
 
 
 
 
Tie breaker in SPD order or when I am not one-hundred peexent certain that a character could realistically dodge something.  Also used similar to (but inferior to) fast draw.
 
 
 
To remain standing _and able to function_ while at zero STUN:  I have to pull that lever to deactivate the death way and save the moon colony!
 
Okay. Make a STUN check to see if you can stay on your feet long enough to do that.
 
 
 
Out of END and want To keep going?  Make an END roll to see if you are going to burn STUN (book legal version) or go to negative END. (House rule, so I dont expect anyone acknowledge this one)
 
 
 

I can add that I have made progress on a Hero Designer importer. It's only a start, but my current HDE and Roll20 API script will import all the standard characteristics and background text into the sheet. Basically, Page 1 of the Roll20 sheet above. The next bits will be harder to implement, but since I have a skeleton working, it should be only a matter of effort.

I like it.  Especially for skills where multiple rolls are more fun.  Solving a complex puzzle, etc.  Problem Complexity can be represented by the defense, and body of the puzzle.  Multiple players can work on the same puzzle.  The heroes can roll body until they bring down the wall of confusion with intelligence / skill rolls.  

We have not played in 20 years.  Everyone moved away.  We got stuck in our houses.  We learned to online connect.   3 games a week.  1 is Champions based. 
Rediscovering fun.  I keep looking for a decent VTT, might be my Technology skills are the problem.   Theater of the mind is working too. 

I do have a passing familiarity with the concept, but the point I was flailing to make is that Strength is a measure of force not momentum.  Indestructecon is a powerful robot that can lift over 50 tons and can tear tanks apart but it does not do so quickly.  It does not punch through the armour, it grabs it and applies force.  Slowly.  The armour tears, such is the power of Indestructecon.
 
Shalamar, on the other hand is not strong.  If Shalamar were to grasp both ends of a thin steel bar, Shalamar would struggle to bend it.  Shalamar can lift a full beer keg, but probably not two of them, at least not for long.  Shalamar is quick though and can punch so fast the blow lands like a 76.2mm tank shell and can burst through tank armour.  Hopefully Shalamar is wearing something that prevents Shalamar's hands turning to jelly when Shalamar does that.
 
Krondite is both strong and fast and can tear armour apart or tear through it.
 
In combat, Shalamar is more effective that Indestructecon because Shalamar does not need to grab a target or wedge it into a corner where it cant move.
 
In a situation where a building has collapsed, Indescructecon can hold the roof up and bend steel I-Beams to rescue people.  Shalamar, if Shalamar was not immobile under a pile of rubble, could punch through those I-Beams but that would probably bring the whole unstable structure crashing down and kill everyone.
 
Krondite is great in combat and great in dangerous rescue situations, but paid more points to be more versatile.
 
You see where I'm going with this?
 

Absolutely: Perception is a complicated thing, but it can be simplified.  In reality it is two things:
 
1. the ability to actually perceive something.  No matter how smart I am I can not actually see if there's no light.
2. the ability to attach significance to something you have perceived.  I might be able to hear the slowly rising background hum, but I have no idea that means the reactor is going critical.  Perhaps red lights and a klaxon next time?
 
The first is dealt with by way of the normal and enhanced senses you get or can buy in game, the second is where intelligence seems to matter, but it probably doesn't.  Intelligence is not the same as knowledge.  If you study something then your native Intelligence helps you study better, retain more and apply that knowledge to situations but if you don't have the requisite knowledge then being generally smart probably won't help: that disturbing slithering sound is actually the harmless wide snake, not the terrifyingly aggressive and deadly narrow snake, but you don't know that because your degrees are in astrophysics and set theory.  
 
Perception is the ability to, well, should be the ability to realise that something is amiss.  You can be smart and not pick up on the obvious (a common trope) or have animal level intelligence but still know when it is time to get out of Dodge.  Perception should therefore be a General Skill IMO, starting at 11- for which you can substitute appropriate knowledge or professional skills that apply.  That makes KS and PS more useful in a game to game setting.  Danger Sense could also usefully sub in if the situation called for it.  If you are specifically looking for the thing that is amiss, you are not distracted and can (actually) perceive it then you probably won't need a roll at all. A simple 'no Intelligence' computer programme can tell if there's something on the camera that shouldn't be, so is always going to succeed in a 'perception check' unless you can find somewhat to misdirect or distract it.
 
The ability to do the Sherlock thing, draw valid conclusions from apparently limited data is something else again.  I am not sure how to handle that because it is a bit of an 'editor power': it is there mainly as a plot device and would be tiresome to have to GM if a PC had it.  You could, I suppose, have an INT based Observation skill, or a limited form of Pre/Postcognition that allows you to make connections that other's can not see.
 
Don't like that though because when I write a deep and involved plot I want the players to gather clues and put them together, not just roll low.

THE CANARY RESUSCITATOR
 

EGO / 5 Adding to ego damage would be game changer.  I like it, put it in the game.  Maybe Dex can add to OCV, no wait, have I heard that before?
 
  

The original concept can come from a fictional character, or a need in the group, wild imagination,  or from a power gaming desire to work the system.   The character concepts and powers usually take several day-dreaming moments followed by number crunching.  Total time,  an hour or two.  

I like this format better than what we have been seeing from HERO games for the last... year... decades... The worst features of the official layout are 1) the wall of characteristics (which you avoid on the sheet by grouping them thematically) and the block of text we often see with powers which you do not quite avoid here but it still feels less cluttered because you took away the costs. Personally, prefer to do away with the advantage and limitation values but add the Active Points of the power and the endurance* cost at the end; like this...  (60AP); END 6.
 
* But to be honest we quite often totally ignored endurance (less book keeping) which made the game flowing with no  significant loss of anything really.
 
For Skills and Talents, I prefer to have them one by line (like you have done with complications) rather than skillA 14, skillB 12, skillC 13, etc... because when a sheet as many skills it hard to scroll through  (to save space, I am using 2 columns for skills). 
 
Again, to save space, I am write DCV and DMCV on the title line with Defensive, OCV, OMCV with Offensive and SPD and Phases with Movement (Title is left-justified, OCV centered and OMCV right-justified).
 
None the less, I like your layout and the font chosen, it looks really clean.
 
 

I think having a stripped-down basics sheet to play and an HDC character to build and spend xps on is the best approach.  Nobody needs to see the modifier values of every modifier on their powers, much less all the modifiers.  "Fireball: Blast 9d6 vs ED (fire) Area Effect: Radius 4m (+¼) Explosion (56 active points)" or "Fireball: 9d6 Blast explosion 4m" which is best for a character sheet?  The latter, I believe.  You can have all the rest in the HDC file.
 
Similarly we don't need how much each characteristic costs on the character sheet.  That's a throwback to the "fill out your sheet by hand as you build it" days.  You just need Stat - Value - Roll.
 
And if you break OCV, DCV, OMCV, DMCV off to its own section, that helps greatly unclutter the characteristics section.  I'm not a huge fan of splitting too many characteristics all over the page though, because then you have to hunt your stats instead of just use them.  I mean D&D does that, they put saving throws and resistances and hit points and AC all over the sheet, but that makes me have to hunt things on a sheet until I'm really used to it; not great for beginners.

I've played in some of Bill Keyes' Hero games at local conventions, and he did a great job creating thematic sheets showing only what the players needed to play the characters during the adventure.  I think there's a good argument for creating two character sheets for each character - one to use during play, and another to "show the math" that makes the character work.

I tend to use more the practical side  - I will know what the character's race,  beliefs,  and general attitudes are. Other than that,  (even the name) will have to be created in the moment as I am playing the character.  

And if you enjoyed that hour, it was time well spent.   What are these games supposed to be, if not fun? Whatever part of the game experience is fun for you, you never have to apologize for.
 
As for me, I eat up background details with a spoon. As a theater teacher I resonate with the Realist school of drama, in that I love to be able to draw a psychological through-line delineating how characters become the people they are; what environments and experiences shape them into the form in which they enter a book/play/movie/game. In role-playing I want a thorough understanding of what makes a character tick so I can imagine how they'll react to any situation that comes up. I can build on that foundation as the character evolves over the course of a campaign.

Generally, I would come up with a concept that comprised the person and the powers at the same time. But however it started then would come the insane days & weeks of research.
    Whether it was on the history of the Navy Seals during Vietnam for a character who was a cross between Captain America and Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD or creating an entire history of a system of planets for the home worlds of aliens based on the D&D races because I had the notion of playing a Dwarven starship engineer for a Star Wars campaign. 
    It helps to have jobs with a lot of mental downtime.  Running a copy center, driving a courier truck, etc.
 Busy body, Zen mind.

Sometimes doing that helps you learn the person and what they are trying to tell you as a character.

Me...way too long.    
 
Started with...ok, need a dark, rich skin tone.  Lots of variations there, but the Pueblo tribes hit my fancy.  Had a wealth perk listed...cuz I can, of course...so that went into...why?  And that led to "tribe found a small but rich silver and gold deposit"...then moved forward from there.  So, WHICH tribe?  Map time...where are the New Mexico reservations?  Mescalero Apache...cool, and I love where they're located, but their reservation is also national forest land.  Keep looking.  Isleta...ok, that works....
 
Then there's the name.  Hmmm...mama's Catholic, lemme see some good patron saints.  Yeah...oh and there's a cool middle name.  Now...last name.  That's actually tough;  I did find a repository of native American census-based names, and they included Pueblo and Tiwa (the actual tribe) names, but a LOT of them are Spanish origin.  Hmmm...well..there's one that looks and sounds good...
 
All in all, probably an hour spent, but hey, it's Sunday afternoon.

It is, but it appears to be remarkably difficult to come up with that elusive play sheet

I agree. Martial arts needs to GO!
 
Martial arts are really just a special effect.  If a player wants a toon to do a (½ Phase; -2 OCV; +1 DCV; STR +4d6 Strike) and call it a Lizard spinning back kick then buy using the rules that exist outside of MA section.  Then No big problem.  However,  making a whole section in the rules giving a big discount to one group of "skills"  defined around special combat special effects, quickly becomes a problem waiting to be exploited.   
 
Also, if MA is used in a hero level game,  defined the MA maneuver as skill with Strength maneuvers or skill with Dexterity or some subset of existing HTH maneuvers.  The amount of damage should not be increased.  In a Hero Level game, only the OCV and DCV are changed.  Thus the greater damage comes from the ability to hit more often while not being hit.  Here again, defining MA as special effect with combat skill increase already exists wonderfully in the rules outside of the whole troublesome MA framework.   
 
As I think it over, I'm not going to allow Martial Arts as defined in the Complete.  Still considering.   Rather, we can use the perfectly available options outside of the MA frameworks.  For example,  we can buy a multipower with each attack or defensive move defined in the unifying  special effect Hand to Hand Combat Monster.   In my hero level game, they can use the points that would normally go into MA to pick up OCV, DCV combat values around HTH or a group of HTH moves. HTH moves which already available to everyone at zero cost but with balance.     
 

Lonewolf, my suggestion to you is to forget the rules for a moment and imagine how you want the powers in the powered armor to function.  I find it helps to put it in writing.  It forces me to stick with a single idea.  Once that is done consider when the powers work and when they won't work.  How limited are the powers?  To quote a book: A limitation which doesn't limit the character isn't worth any bonus. 
 
Simply requiring the a character have some END does not sound limiting to me but in your campaign it might be.  How often do characters have zero END?  Does every enemy have an effective END Drain?
 
Both Stonewild and Simon have provided solid advice in their earlier posts.
 
 

In any limitation value consideration, I start with asking how much does this really affect the character or power?  Endurance only matters when you can run out of it.   Like having 16 charges is no limitation, because you will hardly ever run out of 16 charges.  
 
As I understand your question:  there is no real disadvantage in most situations, thus no limitation value.  A limitation of -1/4 could be okay - if you think this would limit the toon in 1 out of 4 adventures?      

You're not talking about a Limitation for the character needing to have END-- if the Power uses END, then needing to have END available is just the nature of the Power.

If you want the Power to be used a limited number of times, use the Charges Limitation. There are a LOT of options to play with there where you can represent fuel (Fuel Charges, Recoverable Charges, etc.)
 
If you want the Power to be otherwise normal but draw off of a small battery/reserve, buy multiple END Reserves -- to power each individual component as needed.  Which Reserve a given component uses is defined when buying that component -- maybe the same as others, maybe one all its own.  In either case, not a Limitation, just how you set it up/build it.