Reality Czech

Re: Reducing Movment speed... Drain or Entangle? Yeah, I decided on this power that CE was more appropriate than Entangle.

Re: Seeking build suggestions for "Always on" missile deflection I know this power concept is wretchedly abusive, it's not something I'd bring into a game... unless I was the GM and the players got really cocky. The main thing I wanted to work out with this is how to build it as I envision it. This power concept is one of those that is (IMO) only limited by imagination and AP caps. What does "thin end of the wedge" refer to anyway?

Re: Look out! It's Conservation of Energy Man! Help yourself, the dimensional distortion concept is actually my personal favorite idea for a character, ever. Nick away. Good point.

Re: Combat skill levels When I've run games I've usually been able to prevent things from getting unfairly weighted toward the players. The way I see it, when you see the players winning without feeling as if they've earned it, you have a few basic options. 1. Admit you were wrong to permit a power and nerf it (I shy from this one, since studies have shown that except under laboratory conditions I'm never wrong) 2. Create a symetrical balancing factor to bring events back under control (I.E. more DCV to keep villans from getting hit so much, more defenses to make it matter less how often they get hit, etc.) 3. Create an asymmetrical balancing factor to bring events back under control (I.E. put the party in a place where having a sword with you is cause for harrassment by the authorities, increase the incidence of ranged attacks used by opponents, villans use noncombat influence rather than brute force to exert their will on the party, etc.) 4. Take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Re: Measurement in HERO Hey, it's only 7 AM and I haven't had any coffee yet Thanks for the giggle though

Re: Look out! It's Conservation of Energy Man! Yup. it's a lot more complicated this way, but this is my second "Magneto" idea, the first being the dimensional distortion concept that’s mentioned here and here. I'm trying to model another simple power concept with wide-ranging applicability. Thanks, glad it's interesting at least... I feel better asking questions when I feel that I've provided a challenge and maybe a little entertainment.

Re: Measurement in HERO I do feel a little bad for Napoleon, how hard would it to be to go through life with some short person complex they don't have a name for yet?

Re: Look out! It's Conservation of Energy Man! Your point on potential abusiveness is well taken; that's what I'm mostly trying to avoid along with getting some feedback on build ideas... I'm less concerned with cost as this is just a (admittedly elaborate) flight of fancy.

Re: Measurement in HERO Technically none, but if you had to pick an area in Europe that had a relatively untangled heriditary path, Corsica would not be it. For instance, at that time, the Anglo-Saxon line was relatively intact, so a number of countries in Europe could actually summarize their hereditary basis pretty simply.

Re: Measurement in HERO Nope, apart from the possible exception of Native Americains, there aren't. "American" isn't a heriditary path.

Re: Measurement in HERO Not if he isn't French... my only point is if we're looking at heredity... odds are Napoleon wasn't actually French. Corsica was a hodgepodge of other ethnicities not directly linked to the French.

Re: Newbie to the HERO system Welcome, Rusa! So, for a little more refined guidance from the gurus here (that dosen't include me), what genre are you most interested in playing? You can go quite a while without "needing" the supplement books, but they are all good resources and provide more detailed looks at the areas more directly attributable to a specific "game type".

Re: Measurement in HERO Corsica- A brief history: Under Carthaginian influence and domination until 237 BC. Part of the Roman Republic until AD 430. Controlled by the Vandals until 522. Conquered by the Byzantine Empire until its collapse. Held by various inflences including Arabs and Lombards before it finally fell to Geona in 1284. Geona held control of the island until sold to France in 1768, despite brief occupations by Aragon between 1296-1434 and France between 1553-1559. So, Yes, it was owned by the French, but Naploeon's heritage can easily be called into question when trying to quantify him as a "French War hero"

Re: Measurement in HERO Ok, Corsican.... my point is, not French.

Re: Measurement in HERO Aren't most French guys a little odd?

Re: Measurement in HERO

Re: Look out! It's Conservation of Energy Man! The real problem I see with this concept (in modelling it realistically and fairly) is that the character could often make use of ambient energy (passing car, nearby fire, falling piano) to "power" his abilities, but he would also have the option of using a drain/transfer against opponents if that better suited his needs. So it seems like there would almost have to be two sepaate builds for a lot of his abilities, since using ambient energy is going to be relegated to SFX a lot of the time (and rightly so). Side note: how would you write the "Drain thermal energy from opponent" attack? I'm thinking NND RKA (does body), but I'm open to suggestions.

Re: Look out! It's Conservation of Energy Man! I was just in the smoking area and I relized that this guy would definitely spend a lot of combat waiting for opportunities to act, I was even thinking about extra SPD (only to use powers, no movement powers) which might be a -1/4... all I can think of that he's really losing is movement. Basically I think if all he has to do is wait and think of reactions, he could be pretty quick if he's a good problem solver under hostile fire.

Hey guys, another wacky power set I'd like some feedback on... I had an idea for a guy who could convert kinetic energy into thermal energy and vice versa. I'm also looking at the ability to transfer kinetic or thermal from one object to another directly. A couple examples of powers I can see with this... TK throws and grabs, KB resist, thermal EB's, change environment, missile deflection/reflection, and my personal favorite, an NND RKA (does body) caused by removing most or all thermal energy from an opponent's body and transferring it elsewhere. The reason this guy seems so potentially complicated to me is he's not actually creating any energy, he's just redirecting it. A lot of times this'll just be a SFX issue, but what if he wants to stop a car that's about to run him down by removing its kinetic energy and use the resulting energy to fry the driver? just call it a MPA and be done with it? For his host of potential EB/TK/RKA attacks I was thinking about having it tied to a drain (vs. kinetic or thermal energy), but that might end up becoming either complicated, limiting, or both... I'm sort of thinking a VPP with prewritten "common" uses might be the simplest way to do this, but my rules-fu is not as strong as some of you, so I thought I'd ask for input. One thing I like about this concept is you can power stunt the *%^(* out of it (which to me is always fun). Thoughts?

Re: Measurement in HERO Any sentence containing the words "French" and "War" is at least 60% likely to be amusing. I stopped taking French in high school because I couldn't remember all the different words that all translate in English to "surrender"

Re: Hadoken! I thought of a pretty simple solution; STR (only for knockback)... I'm thinking that's around a -1 1/2 lim or so... thanks for all the input guys.

Re: Hadoken! Nice, hadn't thought of that one.

Re: Hadoken! I considered that, but was looking for a build where the knockback is completely decoupled from the amount of damage done.

Ok folks, simple power build question (I hope)... I'm envisioning a Martial strike or HA that does damage, then throws an opponent back to a degree way beyond the normal distance associated from the damage done. I could name a hundred movie moments where the KB done by an attack would have to be caused by an attack that'd kill the target long before they ever hit the wall behind them. I think I want to build this as a MPA, adding a TK attack to the standard Martial strike or HA... to make it more complex, what if a character had more than one Martial Strike/HA/HKA and they could apply the "TK knockback" to some or all of them? Would it be best to make multiple MPAs like this: MPA 1: (HA1 + TK power 1) MPA 2: (HKA1 + TK power 2) MPA 3: (Martial Strike + TK power 3) etc. Or is there a way to have a single TK power that could be applied to multiple attacks like this: (HA) + TK power 1 (HKA) + TK power 1 (Martial Strike) + power 1 Can the single TK power have a "trigger: Anytime I successfully deliver a melee attack" on it?

Re: Beam vs. Walls and Entangles This could work, but having fired a lot of firearms I'll say that it'd be more likely to hit your target with chips of pavement, rock, etc. as a result of the bullet hitting nearby. That'd usually be enough to knock someone down and cause them to drop their weapon, which for most practical purposes is 75% as effective as fatally wounding them. (Talking real life only, in cinematic situations I'd accept the belief that the rock chip spray is only a mild distractor.) Basically unless the bullet stops in the pavement, it has to bounce somewhere... the law of averages says eventually one will bounce into your intended target.