dsatow

Sorry, missed that on the first look through.

You should probably make part of his normal PD/ED resistant. As you said, there is a chance something might screw up and he takes damage. A single killing attack would really mess up his image at that power level.

Can flash be used with cumulative? I was thinking of making a power which acts as a painkiller or localized anesthesia.

I think we are arguing not about Desol being used to simulate Invulnerability, but rather how far you can use a special effect over the mechanics. This really is a decision for the GM. Some GMs will be more lenient and some will not. To me, its like asking "If I had a 12d6 Blast defined a Gentle Flower Petal Rush with no knockback and did no Body, then people could not get angry at me for using it as an attack.". I would still answer it is still considered a hostile action, even if the Stun damage was just you blacking out from the great feeling of joy and well being (don't laugh, I had a player with just such an attack). People attacked with such an attack would still fight back. So, I am in the less lenient crowd. I would say, if you wanted a misleading special effect, you should buy the power as Inobvious or Fully Invisible.

Being able to tell if you are desolid or not, is not a special effect but a play balance measure and a mechanic that is integral to all the powers. All powers which normally cost end have a visible effect. If you did not want to tip off people that you are desol, then you should but invisible power effect to the inobvious level.

I could see one person with luck pressing the button and rolling 3d6 of luck to have nothing happen. The next person to look at the button getting a face full of spray without pressing the button (like a party teammate).

While desolidified, per 6e1p190 all senses work except Touch. 1) Does this mean you are effectively Touch flashed while desolid to people who are not? 2) If you have Affects Physical World (+2), does it give you the Touch sense too? 3) It seems to state or infer that if you have Affects Physical World on your strength, you can use martial arts with it. Just to clarify, that means you prorate the martial damage based on the +2 advantage right?

The only problem here is that your special effect for desolidification tells people you are desolid. While looking up the page reference I also note, senses like Radar and Targeting Smell (do characters really want to know who farted?!?!) will note you've gone desolid. Interestingly, you can't feel things while desolid, which raises the question are you effectively touch sense flashed while desolid? Even if buy Str usable while desolid, it doesn't mean you have your sense of touch while desolid. Guess I have an interesting question for Steve. 6e1p190:

Hey! Do unified groans at my bad pun villain names count?

X-Men had Professor X for a while saying "To me, my X-Men." which if you think about it is sexist and kind of creepy. I think the New Warriors in Marvel had one, but I am not sure. The Batman 60s TV show had "To the Batpoles!" He-Man and She-Ra had "For the honor of Greyskull" The power Rangers had "Its morphine time" or something like that. TMNT TV show had "Turtle Power" Sailor Moon had "In the name of the moon, we will punish you" or something like that. Sorry don't remember the exact quote as I don't read that manga. Thundercats had "Thunder Thunder Thundercat's Ho!" which might be a yell for Cheetara. Star Wars had "May the force be with you" for the Jedi. The Dark side Sith only had choking sounds. Star Trek had "Red Alert!". Its sort of a rallying cry.

As GM, I would simply set the DC for the game on average to be X DC, say 12 DC, and then give the villain X * 6 pts of every defense possible. As GM, if I say a villain is invulnerable, they are invulnerable. I have no point limits. What I need to do is make an interesting and defeat-able villain. Just because you can make someone invulnerable does not mean you should.

I'd allow it as both are uncontrolled forms of flight. However, since the action is in reaction to an attackers move, I would make them abort and make an Acrobatics or Breakfall roll based on the distance thrown. So, if they got thrown 10", they would need to make the roll by -10 to not move anywhere. If they roll and get it by 5, they would move 5" and stop. If in those 5" they'd hit something, they would take the full damage from velocity of the throw (10").

Personally, I am a bit with Gnome on this even if it was a totally unexpected event. Here's how I would handle a rope and plank bridge crossing over a chasm which suddenly gives way. 1) The players get half way across the bridge. I roll 2d6 to determine what segment it occurs on. 2) Players are allowed to make normal Danger Sense rolls or PER rolls at -3. 2a) Those who make the roll can attempt to do something about it. Since they made their roll, they can abort to do something about it like grab for one of the ropes or leap to the other side (dive for cover). Grabbing for the rope is a standard grab against a standard average game DCV. A dive for cover has penalties based on how far they have to leap. If they fail, they fall like everyone else. 2b) Those who fail their roll roll at the end of their segment. Since this is mostly likely a Heroic level adventure, the bridge height is probably at least 30m (15") to 60m (30"). Depending on what is below them, they can try some other actions. 3) If there are any obstructions in the way, they can try and acrobatics on the obstructions as an action. They will take a -2 + -1/5" velocity to their acrobatics roll. If they make their roll with the penalty, they will take damage for how far they have fallen and stop their ascent. If fail they roll but would normally make their roll, they reduce their velocity by 5" (but are still falling), taking damage based on how far they have fallen. If they completely fail the roll, they continue on their descent using up an action to do this. 4) A player who stopped their descent can try to grab a hold of someone that is falling. They take any penalties they took to their own rolls and along with the penalty to grab the faller. If this is the second grab maneuver they make in this segment, they also take an additional -2. 5) Finally, if there is something to break their fall somewhat at the bottom, they can try to an Acrobatics or Dex roll -3 to target that rather than straight damage. The softer target would reduce the impact velocity by 5" and make the hit reduced penetrating. So why the elaborate mess of rolls? I am of the belief that one of the most aggravating things to happen to a player is something happening which they have no choice and no option but to take damage. This gives the player a number of decisions to make based on how good their Speed, Dex roll, OCV, and/or Acrobatics roll is.

I did something similar to what the OP mentioned but when people lost their characters, I let people build a character based on the person with the least XP. So if the lowest surviving character was built on 100+50XP, then the replacement character was allowed to be built on 150 points. I don't know if it was because of this or that people playing HERO don't like uncontrolled disabilities ruining the image of their characters in their minds, that no one took the disadvantages.

One last thing about using desolidification is that because it costs end, its visible. So whenever you "invulnerable" you look desolid. I personally wouldn't do invulnerability this way, but that's just me.

I liked Mallet's and Dmjalund's suggestion as they mirror my own ideas on the subject. Years ago I was thinking about trying do something like Top Gun but didn't like the air combat rules. I devised martial maneuvers for side slip, slides, quick vertical climbs and drops. All of which you could do with Combat Piloting but if you blew the combat piloting roll or rolled a natural 18, you'd lose control of the vehicle and possibly crash. For instance, evasive maneuvers was a 3 point martial maneuver to give +5 to the vehicle's DCV, but to perform it with combat piloting, you needed to make your roll by 6. If you fail the roll, but didn't fail your combat piloting, you wasted your action and that's it. If you fail combat piloting totally or rolled an 18, you lost control of your craft and suffered a penalty based on a second combat piloting roll. Of course, if you bought the maneuver, you didn't need to make the roll. Recently, I get the itch every now and then to make a Star Trek style Hero campaign. To give the pilot more to do than always a single die roll, Combat Piloting would allow you to adjust OCV and/or DCV of the vessel. Vehicular Maneuvering would give you the ability to adjust turn mods. Finally, Vehicular Performance would increase acceleration and deceleration.

We have a saying: "Aborting to dodge is useless." Not because gaining a +3/+5 to your DCV is tactically bad, but with a lot of our luck, if you abort your next phase, the GM will end up always rolling less than an 8 making it effectively useless. The last time I heard the phrase from my fellow gamers, they aborted to a martial dodge making it a 6- to hit and the GM rolled a 5. To put icing on the cake, the GM rolled just over 4.5 points per die of damage.

I've played Marvel Superheroes(TSR), FATE's version of Supers, and V&V (all versions). I've read at some point DC Heroes, ICONs, Mutants&Masterminds, Marvel Superheroes (Marvel initiated) and Silver Age Sentinels but never played. Marvel has some interesting mechanics and V&V forces me to think in interest combinations, but I always seem to comeback to Champions. I tend to like the HERO system for its level of crunchiness and universal design nature(effect over special effect). I do have minor issues with the some of the powers/abilities and the bell curve on skill/CV resolution, but not enough to cause me not to want to play.

I actually liked the randomness of V&V sometimes. It would push me creatively out of a repetitive rut after a while. I would roll up powers in V&V and make a Champions style character out of it.

A common favorite is "Not in the face!" or "Delay!". Hrmmm, maybe I should make a speedster name Dee Lay, so when a tank yells out to Delay, he get a boost to his Ego!

It doesn't matter, the character only knows they have successfully hit once and the activation roll makes them believe they can hit a couple more times. The player may know how well they hit by how well they hit, but the character really doesn't know they rolled. So the trigger activates on any hit with an 11- or less chance to activate.

Arms flying off would be TK. Eyes, Nose, and Ears would be Clairsentience. Anatomical Separation would be the special effect.

For a little while, one of my groups was "Call the lawyers!"

Yeah, you guys are right. I think I have been couped up in my house for too long. A D'oh moment.

I can see his nickname on the street as "Flatfoot" 🤣 Any idea of the power level you looking at (8DC, 10DC, 12DC, 14DC)? I can see growth stats and maybe 3 levels of damage negation. A couple of PD/ED worth of resistant protection as toughness. A slight advantage in HTH OCV. Possibly claws and bonuses to climbing. A tiny little police pistol and the other standard equipment of police officers. Distinctive features. A psychological love of donuts, coffee, and beef jerky (Jack Links!)