Silbeg

Re: Name Something You'd Allow That The GM At The Convention Didn't

So I would whole-heartedly recommend against bringing a Multiform character to a con game.

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 used to GM like that' date=' used to have all this philosophy and goals in life, but :[indent']then I had the player who only likes to hit things,

then I had the player who only liked to amass shiny new XPs.

and I had the player who whined every time he took Body

the player who re-wrote his character sheet each week with diff.powers

...had the dude who only role-played his peculiar quirks, yet not fit into the campaign setting

[/indent]so me and the two guys who could actually play champions correctly would just look at each other knowingly and sigh as I yelled "okay, top of phase 12..."

I have had that player...

Re: Published test pilots

You might want to add:

 

KS: Lockheed Skunk Works, which of course, would probably entail KS: USAF as well.

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

Well' date=' enough Charges are an advantage, and it is a House Rule, so the answer is "No, I wouldn't allow it, because I would place the Charges on the MP," and "No, I don't think that it warrants an additional limitation, it's a special effect and should net a -0."[/quote']

Agreed.

 

Given the extra information, I would have to say this would be the way to do it. There are plenty of "book" examples that do this... so I have to agree with you, Thia.

 

I rescind my previous agreement.

Re: Would you allow this

A group of powers, each taking charges, then each one taking an aditional limitation "shared Charges" as a -1/4 lim, and permits the "Takes additional charge" limitation (See FAQ), probably simplified (to not include the bit about the number of main charges effecting the cost)

 

This is because I hate END REserves BTW

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!!!!

We had a player at one time who insisted his character could "only" be effective with something like a 30 DEX and 30 defenses. That would be in a game where one other character had a 35 DEX, and I think one had PD 35/ED 30. Discussions with the player were futile.

 

So it became a balance. What can we give this villain so he is effective against PushTheLimit Man, but does not crush the other characters?

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!!!!

Well' date=' its not too bad of a thread thft..I think these heinous abuises at least shares the spiriy of many EC abuses, where the framework is nothing but a random collection of powers crammed together and layered with an icing of an alleged common special effect to save points.[/quote']

not disagreeing with you there...

 

Just was noting, and teasing all of us "offenders".

Re: Name Something You'd Allow That The GM At The Convention Didn't

I've not played in a lot of Con games' date=' but [u']all[/u] of them used pre-gen characters. Usually because the setting was built around the pre-gens (or the pre-gens were built for the setting). I certainly wouldn't want to try and deal with looking over 4-6 350-point supers for a Con Game and hoping all went okay.

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

Ohhh you have Speed-Weeding at a 16-?;)

 

I didn't see that in my copy of 5er. Not allowed!

PS: Speed-weeding (based on DEX?)

Anything can be found with the right background skill.

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

Should we be giving out these ideas?

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.

On page 311, and again on page 358, the prohibition seems to be ironclad. However, on page 315 there appears to be an exception made for ECs. To paraphrase, the text says that the GM can allow a multiple power attack from attack powers in the same EC, though the default ruling is that it isn't allowed.

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.

Maybe I am interpreting the rule incorrectly. As I read it, you couldn't grab with TK and use EB in the same phase if they are in the same power framework. It wouldn't matter if it was an EC, a multipower, or a VPP. The example you gave is not in keeping with the rules. You could fly, keep up your force field, and either blast or TK, not both.

It's true that a character with the example EC would not be able to make a TK Grab AND EB attack in the same phase. However' date=' if a TK Grab was made on a previous phase the Grab could be continued on subsequent phases while the EB was used to attack another target. This would not be possible with the typical Attack Multipower.[/quote']

 

I believe that it is a little bit more complicated that this, but Hyper-Man is getting closer!

 

While it is true that you cannot perform a Multiple Power Attack with the Teke and the blast, I believe that you could perform a Rapid Attack (the ranged version of Sweep). Per 5ER 396, you can (with GM's permission, of course) fire two different weapons, one per hand. I would probably extend this to additionally allow different attack powers (regardless of their source).

 

So, Teke Guy could use his Tk to grab the target, and then blast him (with a single Rapid Attack action). He would take a -2 OCV on both attacks for doing this, and would be at 1/2 DCV. Note, however, both attacks would be against the same DCV (he wouldn't get the 1/2 DCV of the target for being in a grab...), IMHO.

 

I hope this helps (and is accurate. )

Re: Gang members

A gang member for me is.

 

CV 3 maybe less if they have no combat experience.

Body 8

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

Re: Hero System: Sidekick

Thanks for the info, guys I still have one basic question:

 

When I get the books Spence mentioned, do I make my own scenarios using information from those books? So I would maybe see Villain Group A and Location B, using one of the setting books Von-DMan mentioned and the Conquerors, Killers, and Crooks book, and then I would write up a mission that the players would go on incorporating A and B?

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

All right to for someone better known

 

The Flash

I have to ask, which Flash? Which era?

It probably does matter... or are we free to choose which one?

Re: Must use villains

Mechanon is a must because you need at least one evil robot out to exterminate organics.

Forgot about him... how could I forget about Mechanon? The world may never know.

Bulldozer is a great villain for letting the PCs have a good time wiping the floor with a punk that really, really deserves it.

Grond is good for the 'force of nature in raw strength' area, where as Ogre is a bit more sympathetic.

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

On the other hand, many characters have their backstory develop over their publishing history, as the character is fleshed out, while their powers change little, if at all. This could be reasonably viewed as spending xp for background abilities that coincidentally never came up before, instead of spending xp to become more combat-capable.

 

Part of the problem is that writers tend to want to make characters more "interesting" over time while gamers want to make characters more "powerful" over time.

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

Any feedback on why the extra 100 points in 5th would be greatly appreciated.

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?

The FAQ makes it pretty clear on how flying Dodge is intended to work in regards to AOE attacks

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

I don't have my book handy but I think it's

 

Accurate means only one thing in the target hex is struck but the attack is still vs the hex

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)...

Selective means you have to hit individuals in the AE but the attacker can decide who he wants to attack and who he doesn't

Correct, but the target's DCV is used rather than the hex's DCV. So, dodging helps here.

Nonselective is the same as the above except the attacker doesn't have a choice and must attack everyone in the Area of Effect.

Correct, with the same additions as above.

Re: System Gurus...help?

EDIT: I am in error. This Q/A clearly states that ehen aborting to a Flying Dodge, the dodger *does* get the movement element in the maneuver.

 

And this Q/A shows that it would make the AoE attack an automatic miss (if the dodger moved outside the area being attacked).

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.