Silbeg

Re: Name Something You'd Allow That The GM At The Convention Didn't I have to say, were I to do a "bring your own" character game, I would be very hesitant to allow a multiform character. Not because they are intrinsically unbalanced... but that it would take too much of my time to review them. All this talk makes me want to do a "build your own" battle royale game next CotN... Have to have a session prior to the game to build characters... all characters have to have their math, etc., checked by entry in to Hero Designer. 8 heroes enter, only one walks away!

Re: Opinion Fluff: Game Mastering Styles I have had that player...

Re: Published test pilots Which would require a good level of the perk Security Clearance, since that is a secret base. There would also probably be required Social Limitations and/or Watched Disads. But, this all would assume we are talking a test pilot of cutting edge USAF technology.

Re: Would you allow this

Re: Would you allow this I would have no problem allowing that. The -1/4 is probably appropriate, since there should be a price break for this...

Re: EC's cannot have non-END powers!!!! What I would do (assuming I even allowed it) would be to treat the character as if he had a reputation as the most powerful character on the team (which he very well may be). Then, since villains are not all idiots, that character would see an inordinate amount coordinated attacks against him, and stuff like that. He would be the primary target of mentalists (say, does the big oaf have a high EDCV, Ego, and Mental DEF?)... the group will really like him when he is Mind Controlled to attack them whenever he turns the corner. I have dealt with players like this in my game... but instead of allowing the character in, I have had to deal with the continual whining. Other things you can do to annoy this sort of character is put him up against a martial artist that uses a staff (with 1" stretching) in order to perform a Legsweep maneuver outside of HtH range. Or stuff like that.

Re: Stronghold Yeah... still waiting on a review of this book. Last week I wandered in to my FLGS, but they did not have any copies of the book available. I have been waiting for this book for years, but as always, wanted to check it out first, to make sure my limited gaming $$$ is going to something I can really use. Thanks!

Re: EC's cannot have non-END powers!!!!

Re: Name Something You'd Allow That The GM At The Convention Didn't I would agree with you there. In the Con games I have run (about seven or so), I have always provided pre-gens. I've offered to pre-approve characters (via email, or whatever), but have had no takers. My reasons are two-fold. First is balance... it is a lot easier to create appropriate challenges when you know the characters. Only second is the time factor. I have played in Con games that allowed you to bring in a character (I can think of a couple of Shadowrun games that I have done so)... I also remember the GM saying "I am not allowing Stun Ball in any future Con characters." (I was playing a dwarfish sun shaman in that Shadowrun game... something about being able to take down most of the adversaries with a single attack upset him. )

Re: Name Something You'd Allow That The GM At The Convention Didn't PS: Speed-weeding (based on DEX?) Anything can be found with the right background skill.

Re: EC's cannot have non-END powers!!!! What difference does it make? After all, any sane GM is going to disallow it any way. Any non-sane one, well... isn't going to be reading this? And talk about thread-theft.

Re: Multipower vs. Elemental Control for attack powers. Well, I think the exception here is for linked powers (which have to be part of a single slot). So, for example, if the light-based blaster has a slot in his EC which has a linked EB and Flash, that can be fired as an MPA. However, if he has separate Flash and EB slots, he cannot fire them as an MPA. Hope this make sense.

Re: Multipower vs. Elemental Control for attack powers.

Re: Gang members Remember, also, that shooting "gangsta" style should be at least a -1OCV penalty!

Re: Hero System: Sidekick Champions Battlegrounds has complete encounters, etc... and was very good. I enjoyed running it, and I think my players enjoyed playing it. Once you get through that series, I would suggest getting Villainy Amok. This book covers many of the shtick encounters, such as the bank robbery or alien invasion. It gives you a lot of plot hooks, and can help a novice GM a lot! Other than that, start making characters, heroes and villains, and start playing!

Re: Build that Character on 350 points Challenge I have to ask, which Flash? Which era? It probably does matter... or are we free to choose which one?

Re: Must use villains Forgot about him... how could I forget about Mechanon? The world may never know. Yeah, I use both of these often... but I still see Ogre as being more iconic.

Re: Must use villains Ogre. Got to have Ogre. He is the epitome of bricks in the genre, and has always been a good rube to have in the game. Foxbat, of course. Dr. Destroyer... well, he should be in the world, but not necessarily a force that the PCs will ever want to deal with. VIPER is pretty much a must, as the arch-typical villainous organization. Great for background stories of both heroes and villains, and always a popular source of plots! There are many that I have used over the last 20 years, but these definitely come to the forefront. Personally, I like GRAB (Cheshire Cat, Hummingbird, Black Diamond, Bluejay), as villains who are not all about combat and damage causing.

Re: Menton is up and how exactly did they capture him? Maybe this "newer younger" body is just a ruse, that Menton was able to implant some abilities on some poor black kid, and set him up to be captured? Wheels within wheels!!!

Re: Beefing up Villians I have to agree with much of what has been said here. Give the villains mooks, to distract the heroes. Try to keep the numbers of villains about the same as the heroes, as 3 characters totalling 1400 points does not compare to 4 characters with the same point totals (especially if the heroes are coordinating attacks, etc). Use smart tactics with the villains... if the heroes can do it, so can the villains. What else? From personal experience in my game, I pretty much cannot use "book villains" as written. They tend to be built with lower defenses and often CVs than the PCs, even those built on 500+ points (this is less the case with the characters in CU:NOTW). The design philosophy on them stresses higher attack to defense ratios than my game typically has. So, beef up defenses! In some cases, you may need to beef up OCVs as well, and watch the balance on the attacks. If you have a lot of heroes with high defenses, or high OCVs, then you may need to go an additional route. For high DEF targets, exotic attacks (NNDs, Ego Attacks, etc), and for high OCV, 1-Hex AE is always "nice". Other than that, always remember that your goal should not be to defeat the heroes (at least not in every fight), but to give them a strong challenge. Other things that help in the fights will be thinking ahead of time where environment can be a help to the villains. Are there large heavy things for bricks to throw (to get AE attacks)? Are there innocents around that villains can grab as hostages? What about gas mains they could blow up, or cars?

Re: 250 character points vs 350 character points I cannot but agree with you here, Hugh! Rep to you! I do have to say that I enjoy seeing players add "background" stuff to their characters. Eventually, a few of the characters may become something more than the socially inept walking cannons that they start out as! With 350 points, most players can find a power level that they are comfortable playing the character at, without having to constantly increase DCs, CVs, DEF, etc. From there, most XP expenditure can be used on making a more rounded character (though hopefully some of that was already done), and a more interesting character.

Re: 250 character points vs 350 character points Having the extra 100 points certainly makes it easier to balance out the "extras" that any good hero should have. Things like non-combat skills, PRE, COM... Also, the typical attacks have increased to 12DC/60 AP, rather than the 10DC/50AP of previous editions. You also may tend to see rampant use of limitations decrease, since you don't need to make all of your powers OIF just to have the points to build your concept!

Re: System Gurus...help? Well, just because the FAQ says it works that way, doesn't mean I like it. In fact, I personally think it is a poorly thought out ruling. In fact, Steve's posts that refer to Flying Dodge often have a lot of "wiggle room" about them. Personally, I think the real issue was that this was a late addition UMA, and wasn't well enough thought out as to how it interacts with the rules. In fact, other than on the maneuver chart, I don't think there is much about it in UMA... especially not the stuff that is in the FAQ. I believe the intent was to allow a dodging full move... that the real problem with the maneuver is the Abort portion. If it were like the Block that could also Grab (the latter of which you cannot abort to), then I think it might be more balanced. In other words... Since you cannot abort to movement, I should think that you could not abort to a Flying Dodge if you are going to use the FMove component. If you are only dodging, then you can abort to it. However, just making the movement fall after the attack goes a long way towards balancing it. At least in my opinion.

Re: Dodge Giant Blows per 5ER248, you can still gain the benefit of Dodge or Martial Dodge when the attacker is using AE One Hex Accurate. In addition, defensive CSLs may apply if the target is performing a Dodge, Martial Dodge, or other defensive maneuver. The DCV bonuses will add to the hex's DCV3, rather than the character's DCV. In some cases, an Accurate attack may also be Blocked (but I do not recall where that rule comes from)... Correct, but the target's DCV is used rather than the hex's DCV. So, dodging helps here. Correct, with the same additions as above.

Re: System Gurus...help? This is something that we have "house ruled" in my game, as it seems to be an abusive maneuver. Flying Dodge is unique in the HERO System, as it allows you to abort to movement. http://wiki.silbeg.com/index.php?title=House_rules#Flying_Dodge Basically, we still allow the movement to happen, but after the attack has taken place. This seemed to be a good compromise. Otherwise, Flying Dodge is the best 4 points that you can spend on any character.