dsatow

Re: THE HERO SYSTEM GRIMOIRE: What Do *You* Want To See?

Re: THE HERO SYSTEM GRIMOIRE: What Do *You* Want To See? I think Steve is just trying to create a resource so players can quickly grab spells and make a mage. Kind of like the old Players Handbook from AD&D of old. I would group by power level under each class of magic for the spells. Players can then call the lower powers spells, cantrips if that fits their games, and higher powered spells can be called rituals if need be. I would also group powers in 3-6 DC increments. So low powered spells would be group such that they do not exceed 30 active(6 DCs), mid level spells would cap out around 60 active(12 DCs), and higher level spells would start at 75 active and not have limits (15 DCs or higher). Reasoning? Well, of the fantasy games I seen in play, either its lower powered with few martial maneuvers and skill levels which results in most players doing 4-6 DCs or is a moderate games where most of the fighters do 9-12 DCs based on skill levels and martial arts. Most Champions powers reside at start of a campaign around 12 DCs.

Re: Is 6th Edtion worth the money? Personally, I'd get the core books and the Martial Arts Book. The advanced player guide is useful but not really necessary. These 3 books should allow you to create characters compatible for most campaigns or set up most campaigns. As far as the rules, I am growing to accept some of the rule changes and deletions. Bricks are more expensive than 5ER and earlier editions, but they were fairly cheap to begin with. At first I was irked about losing Find Weakness, but I can see how it works from a game balance perspective. Losing EC was tough as a GM, but as a player, only two maybe three powers were ever in it on my characters. Not enough to gripe about. On the bad side, I still don't like Damage Negation. I understand why its there and why they think its worth 5 points per die, but I think its too easily abused (to me its worth 9 active points with a -1 limitation). The cost for growth is too high in my opinion for all its limitations despite all the advantages it gives you. In contrast, density increase is cheaper by far. While I like the general growth stages, the point costs to make Gi-Ant Man is difficult. I still dislike the flying dodge as a dive for cover maneuver, and I know a couple people that dislike passing strike/charge vs move-bys/move-throughs. All in all, I would buy it. I resisted buying 5th for a long time, but found as time went on, games moved to 6th editions at cons and at home. Resisting buying 5th, generally, made life harder on myself. I couldn't get rules clarifications from Steve online, I kept twiddling with Hero Designer, etc.

Re: Circle of Protection ("Realistic") If this is a heroic level game, I think you are going about this in the wrong fashion. In a heroic level game, the easiest way to simulate this is to put a physical limitation on the monster, subject to "rules of magic". In this aspect, anyone who puts down a circle of salt may be protected from the monster. If this is a superhero game, I've found what simulates best is a AVAD Xd6 suppress of outside magical forces. Magical creatures attempting to enter the area would have their BODY drained, effectively discouraging entry. Spells and abilities attempting to enter the area would likewise be suppressed.

Re: THE HERO SYSTEM GRIMOIRE: What Do *You* Want To See? I did not see the following but hopefully they are covered in other areas Illusions - Such a basic category not seemingly covered by any listed Chi Spells/Reiki are those based internally and hopefully aren't being covered by Chinese Magic which is different. Good examples of Chi Spells are legendary feats done by Shaolin Monks, while Chinese magic is more like the Big Trouble in Little China variety. White magic (not divine, mostly protective/healing spells) Can also cover most Judeochristian spells Healing Arts - many games have healer guilds. Coincidental Magic - Not very flashy. Designed to manipulate luck/probability. Making weapons hit better, armor protect better, meeting people or summoning to an area, items falling on people, etc. Blood Magic - Not necromancy. Deals with sacrificing living things to get what you want. Also can deal with sacrificing other cherished items. Ex: Sacrificing sight for a while to see the future. Sacrificing Body to power attack spells. etc. Warding - Though this might be covered under Enchantment or White Magic Onmyodo - Japanese mysticism (I'm biased but its present in a lot of anime) You can also bundle Shinto spells here too. Mentalism - Spells which have a mental basis. Tantric/Sex magic - OK, this probably won't go into due to PG13 limitations. Song Magic might be better as Song and Dance Magic as there are spells based on people doing dancing. Just thought of adding some more Tarot based From Dead Lands: Huckster Seconding a previous post: Urban Fantasy Spells

Re: It was a dark and stormy... As a GM, I have seen many a scary thing, but the scariest was a character at a convention. With a 14 point single maneuver martial art move, Desol., affects normal world on 10 strength, uncontrolled continuous aid on self, in a powered armored ala vehicle version. As a GM it sends shivers in my mind just seeing it.

Re: Normals vs Zombies game - advice sought, please! Personally, I would do the following (just general ideas). Create 3-5 levels of zombies. From stale to fresh/mutant. The fresher the zombie the faster and more dangerous it is. Continuing transformation to zombie link attack, with the defense being making a successful Con roll. the amount of body taken and the amount transformed would subtract from the con roll. Zombies would generally not have any resistant defenses and the most stale would not have much normal defenses either. The lowest level zombie should be an easy kill but with enough abilities to let the characters know what they are dealing with to an extent. Give 3 NPC party members to act as red shirts. They should be low DCV, low PER and low def. Tell the players that these guys are red shirts and should be used as such. If the PCs don't use them, they are great to give the PCs a chance against surprise attacks. The red shirt dies in the surprise round vs. a player getting hurt. Plan on areas which may have survivors in hiding in case a PC dies. Spectacular deaths deserve an CP bonus on new character builds. Any time a PC dies a spectacular death whether as a scream queen or the drag me to hell hero, allow them to spend the 3-5 extra points on the next character. This ups the death toll a little as some will doing really stupid things in order to beef up the next character. Note that if there are no survivors in an encounter, no one should get the bonus. It's a bonus for it to be recognized as a great death. If no one is around to note it, its not a great death, right? A cool idea is the body part which keeps on functioning after dismemberment. Basically a triggered summon only when limb disabled. Summon animated limb. Another cool idea is the exploding zombie. A trigger transform explosion (contaminated blood and guts everywhere) when a zombie "dies" due to a head or body critical hit. Lastly, a mutant zombie which is an amalgamation of 6 zombies as the final actor would be cool. Hrmmm, this is a cools concept especially for Halloween. Might press it by my players...

Re: Excerpted PDFs Personally I'd like the idea for certain of the books which cross genres. A pdf that combines the relevant sections of the creatures book, the martial arts book, ultimate bases, and equipment book for say an asian fantasy campaign. Or a cross of the usable sections of those books for a modern spy campaign. They wouldn't really have to be rewritten, just sectioned off with a book and page reference number so that people intrigued could go out and buy the full book. This would be like a genre book for people like me which generally stick to one or genres and do not need all of the other stuff. (Though to be honest, I only generally always buy the creatures, martial arts, and equipment/vehicles guides.)

Re: 6e: Defense Misunderstanding I think its more balanced. A killing attack is supposed to do more body than stun, but players were always using it for its stun potential rather than body potential. I also think people seem only to look at average rolls and forget that the attack is still effective. If we look at a 3d6 killing attack against 20/12r (note that the attack is 1 DC less than the suggested average for this defense which would be 3d6+1) Body Stun=1 Stun=2 Stun=3 Chance of doing stun 3 3 6 9 0% out of 0.5% of rolls 4 4 8 12 0% out of 1.4% of rolls 5 5 10 15 0% out of 2.8% of rolls 6 6 12 18 0% out of 4.6% of rolls 7 7 14 21 33% out of 6.9% of rolls 8 8 16 24 33% out of 9.7% of rolls 9 9 18 27 33% out of 11.6% of rolls 10 10 20 30 33% out of 12.5% of rolls 11 11 22 33 66% out of 12.5% of rolls 12 12 24 36 66% out of 11.6% of rolls 13 13 26 39 66% out of 9.7% of rolls 14 14 28 42 66% out of 6.9% of rolls 15 15 30 45 66% out of 4.6% of rolls 16 16 32 48 66% out of 2.8% of rolls 17 17 34 51 66% out of 1.4% of rolls 18 18 36 54 66% out of 0.5% of rolls This means you have a smidgeon under a 26% chance to do at least 1 body. Doing 1 Body usually means doing 1 stun, at least in the games I play in, but we'll exclude that in this calculation. Out of 648 combinations of how the dice roll, 304 combinations do at least 1 stun in 46.9136% of the time. 23.9198% of the time, the character will do at least 10 stun past defenses.

If you have 4d6 HA with autofire(+1/2) at 0 end(+1), and 45 strength at 0end(+1/2), how much end do you pay to use your strength with the autofire HA?

After posting my last question, I did want to edit after rereading it. (Luckily it was answered with no problems.) Is there a way to adjust the forum so that the original poster could edit or delete their original post?

Re: Adjustment powers and 6th ed What's the value of the limitation? I didn't find it in the book.

How are people converting an adjustment power which had been bought with increase maximum in 5th ed to 6th ed?

If a person has absorbtion and rolls greater than the amount they can absorb, the extra points are wasted effort. The question is, if so, do the wasted points count towards the maximum that can be absorbed?

Re: 6E What happened to HKA? Just my $0.02 I didn't like it for HKA for a lot of the reasons stated here. For 5 points, bricks got a free large killing attack usually up to the game limit on damage. However, thinking on it, I see the following points. 1) In 5th Ed, HA worked just like HKA but people hated that and would constantly buy HA to just stack onto strength damage. 2) Now it makes sense to buy that Killing attack martial manuever. In Champions, it would be why bother as you got more efficiency out of the normal attacks. 3) In 6th Ed, Bricks really got shafted when you determined the cost of points. This one little thing isn't going to be a deal breaker and gives really strong people a break. 4) You can just add a -1/4 limitation can't do more than double base killing damage and it works the same way and makes the killing attack that much cheaper.

Re: THE HERO SYSTEM EQUIPMENT GUIDE -- What Would *You* Like To See? I would at least seriously think about revamping the monetary system. Money is treated like equipment by many players. I've seen them use it to affect the loyalty of minions, purchase better equipment to get better rolls, etc. But to just say, "fix this" without a suggestion on how it could be fixed would be kind of lame, so I have a suggestion, though I don't know how you may take to the idea. I have seen this style of system in games work ok. Alternate money rule suggestion: In the game, people would have an 14- "skill" to purchase anything in the world. Dependant on restrictions of sale or expense, the skill roll would rise or drop. The GM would decide on a base line for wealth in a game. Thus, if the GM decides $100 is the average expense, anything around $100 would require a 14- or roll to purchase. For cheaper things, a bonus of +1 will be added for every halve of the expense. Thus something which costs $50 would be +2. Something which costs $20 or below would be +3. Doublings of cost would work in reverse where $200 would be -1, $400 would be -2, etc. There would be no limit to the upper level costs. Penalties may be associated with the role due to rarity, unforeseen problems, etc. imposed by the GM. GMs may also bypass rolls which are greater than 14- and just say they succeed to speed play. Wealth people would buy levels to increase their wealth at +1 per 3 points. A very wealthy person might have a +10 to their roll ($102,400 in fun money!). Poor people would get a -1 to the roll per 3 points. So poor would be 9 points, 11- and Impoverished would be 18 points, 8-. When using money to increase chances with a skill, estimate how much it would cost for a bonus to the roll and then convert that to a penalty to the wealth roll. Ex: Alex is trying to determine how the fibers play a roll in the death of Bob. Getting better lab equipment would give him a better roll. The GM rules Alex would need to spend at least $800 or -3 to Alex's wealth roll. Alex needs to make the wealth roll 11- in order to afford the equipment to analyze the fibers. Alex rolls a 12 and fails. Guess he shouldn't have bought that game console last week. Ex: Carl is bribing David, a bum, for info. He starts with $20, but David isn't budging. Normally $20 would buy simple info. Carl raises it to $50 which should be +1 to the bribe but David still isn't budging. At $100 mark, Carl needs to start rolling. At +2, David seems tempted but the NPC responds "$100 won't get me far enough out of town.". Carl tries for $200 and barely makes his roll. The GM responds he has only about $250 in his wallet since he barely made his roll. Luckily, at +3, David accepts. Anytime someone purchases an expensive item such that their roll is not 14- or if the GM indicates it will temporarily decrease their wealth, their roll can be dropped by 1 or more for a period of time until their finances recover. Thus a person buying dinner for a friend could spend $200 on a very nice meal at -1, but hurt their finances by 1 for the rest of the game arc. A person spending $1600 for a party at -4 might hurt their finances by 4. Penalties to the roll generally recover at a rate of 1 per week or whenever the GM says their finances have recovered.

Re: THE HERO SYSTEM EQUIPMENT GUIDE -- What Would *You* Like To See? I for one want to second the idea of quick appendix charts with lists of equipment for campaign styles (modern, western, fantasy, etc.) The charts should list at the very least; name, real point cost, suggested era cost, and reference page in book. It would be cool to make this photocopy able with possibly 4 check box squares relating to availability(very common, common, uncommon, not available). It would also be cool, if it could add the build of the equipment, but that's not necessary and probably unwise as it would probably eat up too much space. This would allow us the GMs to simply photocopy the sheet and mark off items which the player may find for a campaign. I'd also like to see added a couple of other short chapters in the book. These ideas push the book from just equipment to all common things which costs money in a game. 1) Money systems. It always comes up in heroic campaigns since heroes need to buy equipment. The 5 points for wealth levels generally screw up games where equipment is logistics. So if you can define it better for heroic levels as starting income, that might be nicer. 2) Real estate. Actually rents for places to stay, costs of housing and places of business, food and boarding, and hospital stays. Most games have this and while not really equipment, its kind of related (a place to put your stuff) and would add value to the book. 3) Silly stuff to buy. This probably isn't a full chapter but could be added to the above appendix charts. I wouldn't mind seeing costs for 3a -> Meals at say 3 levels of quality (fast, diner, fine dining) 3b -> Having fun on the town (cheap date, night on the town, party hard) 3c -> Clothing at say 3 levels of quality (cheap - Jeans and a tshirt, common - slacks and button shirt, fine - Armani clothes) 3d -> Travel costs - fares for passage based on distance (short, medium, long) or rental costs.

Pardon, I munged terms. Clarified below. If you martial art has a repeated maneuver for a different type of strike (say a martial strike for both kick and punch), can you buy the maneuver for each listed and then use both attacks in a multiple attack maneuver? Example if a person bought the above Punch +0 ocv +2 dcv +2d6 Kick +0 ocv +2 dcv +2d6 (not Punch/Kick +0,+2,+2d6) each as a separate skill, could they do a multiple attack with the punch and the kick

If you martial art has a repeated maneuver for a different type of strike (say a martial strike for both kick and punch), can you buy the maneuver for each listed and then use both attacks in a combined maneuver? Example if a person bought the above Punch +0 ocv +2 dcv +2d6 Kick +0 ocv +2 dcv +2d6 (not Punch/Kick +0,+2,+2d6) each as a separate skill, could they do a multiple attack with punch and kick

Can you do a teleporting move by if the special effect of the teleport allows it (say super speed teleportation)? Can you teleport around a curve by making multiple small teleport hops in a single phase? (ex: saying using a straight line teleportation and excluding blind teleports, it would take 4 ports of 5" to round a bend. If a person had 40" of teleportation, would they still have a 1/2 phase after rounding a bend or is the act of teleporting a 1/2 phase action?) I am guessing the answer that the total distance in teleportation is the amount traveled, and the number of small ports is inconsequential except as related to the distance traveled.

Re: House Rules Based on Steve's reaction and because Hero Designer doesn't work that way, I think a house rule on the resistant advantage is fine and will be added when I start a 6th Ed game. The point difference in savings and the pain to calculate isn't enough to warrant the use per Steve Long's ruling.

Re: House Rules I generally want to know what house rules other people apply to see what I might apply to my own games. So far, I have a few for 6th Ed, that I think I'll apply. Diving for cover or Flying Dodge, when used to avoid an area of effect, requires a Dex roll at -1 per 2m dived to avoid the area of effect. Using a movement power with position shift adder or a successful breakfall roll at penalty, a PC may stay standing at the conclusion of the dive for cover so long as the PC is conscious and unstunned. I do not like all the advantages that Flying Dodge gives a user, so this cuts it back some and makes it more even handed. For multiple attack (or when trying to multitask) players will receive a straight cumulative -2 to OCV, DCV, and skill rolls per extra action they want to multi-task with. Dodges may not be combined with any attack, though other defensive maneuvers may be. You may not abort to a multiple attack/action. Defensive maneuvers are applied first. If the action is not applicable, if fails and fails all subsequent actions. Other limitations still apply. I do not think that doing a multiple attack should drop your CVs so much unless you try to do too much with it. I also like the idea of doing a block and counter all in the same phase, like you see in so many movies, comics, etc. Adding the -2 to skill rolls allows players to try to say unlock a door while returning fire or jumping from the roof firing at a target and breakfalling to the ground.

Just a general question for those using 6th ed now. What house rules do people use for 6th Ed?

Re: Thor's Hammer, Mjöllnir Late to the thread, sorry bout this rehash. No Conscious Control would be bad as by definition, the player couldn't use it unless the GM says they can use it, not that only a select individual could use it. On some other ways to do it, you could have a trigger advantage which automatically resets. The trigger would be only if the person was worthy. The focus would also have the detect worthiness. Strength, Dex, Body, Stun, etc. would be on continuing recoverable charge dissipating after a minute. Of course the simplest way is a multiform with a dependence of the focus or revert to normal form.

Re: What value to limit additional Strength only for lifting and determining Encumbra I'd value it as a -1 Limitation. My reasons would be below. In Heroic level: Carry more equipment is very useful. You can carry more guns, armor, etc. You would not get the strength for strength minima of weapons, its a -1 limitation. If you do, its would be -1/2. In Superheroic level: You can still lift heavy weights off people or move objects around (ex: superman towing planets with this limitation). If you could throw said heavy weights, the limitation would drop to -1/2 as heroes throw automobiles all the time.