pawsplay

Re: Weird Idea: Clairsentience as a Disad But you can at least speculate that the President will appear to be assassinated. That's a huge amount of knowledge that other people don't have.

Re: How To Build: Jedi Force Slam My notes are coming together. I'll be posting something soon.

Re: Power Thresholds The reason thresholds were in place was to prevent cherry picking of minor benefits. The reason they were tossed aside was that every single genre book had to break the rules to build very basic effects.

Re: Weird Idea: Clairsentience as a Disad A PsychLim might be incidentally useful, but any knowledge of the future on which you can act is intrinsically useful.

Re: New Disadvantage Idea: Phobia I think phobias are very situational. A person with a fear of elevators might be in a panic if they had to take one to escape a killer, but they might do it; in this, a penalty to PRE and skill checks is appropriate. They aren't likely to flee, but they might if someone they are trying to impress is on the elevator. Usually, they'll just refuse and try to make excuses.

Re: How To Build: Jedi Force Slam You said any. Also Coleman Trebor happens to be a member of the Jedi Council, which makes him among the best of the Jedi.

Re: New Disadvantage Idea: Phobia People react in such varying ways to phobias that I think PsychLims are actually the best way to handle it.

Re: How To Build: Jedi Force Slam Okay, I pick Jango Fett versus Coleman Trebor. For the second round, how about General Greivous versus any Jedi other than Anakin or a member of the Council?

Let's say a character in a Heroic campaign has a custom piece of equipment, like Han Solo's Millenium Falcon, Odysseus's bow, and the like. Is it paid for with points? Is is accounted for with character wealth or special Perks? Some combination? What if a character wants to "hot rod" a vehicle or weapon?

What comparative advantages does the double-sided lightsaber have, in HERO terms? The Disadvantages are obvious: it requires a separate WF for a weapon with few intrinsic differences from a lightsaber in terms of damage or OCV. Possibilities I've considered: - It might be helpful for making Sweep maneuvers. Perhaps a limited CSL for making Sweeps? - Since it uses wider, more sweeping strokes, perhaps it sacrifices the lightsaber's +1 OCV for +1 DC instead - Perhaps +5 PRE, "Only for making PRE attacks against melee opponents" due to its vicious appearance The way Maul's saber is built into a Multipower is probably not a net point gain for him in a Superheroic campaign, but it does offer some options (CSLs that you move around are probably cheaper than a multipower version of a lightsaber), and in a heroic campaign, Maul is likely not spending points on his saber.

I notice that some Martial Weapons in UMA get bonuses like "+1 with Block, Takeway, and Disarm." I recognize this from 4e days (when non-strike maneuvers were given an exception from the general rule about CSLs and Limitations). I was wondering, how is this built in 5e? Some guesses: - The 4e exception still exists, but is implicit or I missed it somehow - The CSLs are subject to Limitations that restrict them to certain maneuvers - Those modifiers are for adding extra detail to Heroic campains and don't have an official rule for building similar things in Superheroic campaigns or as magical weapons

Re: Weird Idea: Clairsentience as a Disad Plot point it may be, but if it is useful in any fashion, it's a Power. In fact, even if it's pretty dismal, I'd still build it as a Power, with Side Effects (usually sucks).

Re: City of Heroes I wasn't suggesting a wholesale conversion of archetypes/powers. Was that not clear? You can however say things like, "Tanks converted to HERO should have at least 15 PRE to mimic the effects of Gauntlet, more if they use Taunt." Or, "Here is a way to build Lightning Field, if you wish to represent that power specifically."

Re: How To Build: Jedi Force Slam The Skywalkers are a breed apart. Most Jedi? Jango didn't look too nervous about shooting one down. They're super tough, but there are other things out there just as dangerous. Vader may the be the "best pilot in the Galaxy" according to some, but to my eyes, Han owned him.

Re: What were: the best Marvel titles of the 80's? At the time, I was reading: Uncanny X-Men The Avengers Alpha Flight Amazing Spider-Man Amazing Spider-Ham Captain America Honestly, I found West Coast Avengers a little weak. New Mutants was fun, but it lost me pretty fast. I can actually pinpoint the issue: a techno-organism named Warlock was stuck in some pocket dimension battling his techno-organism father while a character named Magick was stuck in a pocket dimension full of demons with an alien dragon. Oh, and everyone else was back in time in Scotland or something. Lack of focus much? Pointless genre mashing much?

Re: What Age are we in now For the most part, we are considered to be in the Post-Modern era, which is to say, there is a very wide palette to use. Everything Bronze to Iron, in any combination, played anywhere from pretty straight to total deconstruction.

Re: Best and worst jobs for Superheroes True dat. Some other really good jobs for superheroes: Kept man/woman Similarly, housewife/househusband to reasonably wealthy spouse Salaried member of a sanctioned superteam Layabout friend to billionaire Bestselling author or self-employed inventor earning royalties Public appearances in costume (provided ID is public or secret ID is well protected) Homeless person with a safe deposit box Personal instructor (karate, yoga, personal finance, fitness) Especially bad jobs: Comptroller Social worker Migrant farm worker US Senator

Re: How To Build: Jedi Force Slam So my impression of the overall consensus for: There are three pretty good solutions: 1) Allow Does Knockback in a Heroic campaign, with all the attendant complications 2) Ranged Martial Arts 3) Extra DCs, Only to Add to Calculate Knockdown The last two are the most kosher, and hence in my mind preferable. Since #2 involves a rules expansion from Ultimate Martial Artist, I think #3 wins by a hair. I will report back with results. Incidentally, I am fully prepared to face the possiblity that Jedi are outlandish in Hero point terms. That in itself would be an educational discovery. But since the Jedi we see in the films all seem to specialize in a handful of tricks, rather than knowing ALL the Force powers, I suspect they are quite workable. My next big hurdle is a bigger one: custom equipment. Do Jedi have to pay points for their self-constructed, customized lightsabers? Does Han Solo have to pay points for the Falcon? Well, let's see how the Force powers go, first.

I've been musing about a CoH conversion for Hero. I did a little searching and found some thought-provoking threads like this one: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=776988#post776988 but not much in the way of a full conversion (and the vaporware CoH pen and paper game probably dimmed enthusiasm, too). I was noticing that one way that CoH is more like the comics than most superhero RPGs is the sheer amount of resources heroes have. Right off the bat, they have police powers combined with state of emergency peacekeeping powers and a high government security clearance. Every PC has at least one organization contact at a decent level, and any scientific or mystical hero has nearly unlimited access to labs, libraries, and experts. Then there's the hospital system; every new superhero, still wet behind the ears, gets a tracker and life signs monitor with a built in teleporter and unlimited use of a superscience recuperation facility (all OIF, and Difficult to Dispel as well). Finally, they have organization contacts with the city government and the Freedom Phalanx. I agree with the holistic conversion idea. The idea of converting every power literally is just not going to work. In the long run, most Invulnerability tanks in Hero terms are built with high resistant defenses, some exotic defenses, and good stats, for instance. Modeling something like Unyielding in mechanical terms is more trouble than its worth. On the other hand, some abilities are worth trying to convert faithfully. Flaming swords, fast regeneration, and the like. Also, some traits seem to be common to heroes in general. For instance, most heroes can be assumed to have Breakfall, Acrobatics, Computer Operation, and Stealth, the way they are played, so any character who is not conceptually weak in those areas should have those abilities. Also, most characters have a strong left hook, so anyone who isn't super strong or a martial artist probably warrants a +1d6 HA due to their hand to hand training. Given their ability to withstand gunfire, bulletproof spandex seems to be the norm. Inspirations could be dull or painful to try to mimic exactly. Conceptually, though, hey, there's something there. A few as signature abilities or used in a general way could spice things up. One thing about HERO is that you are kind of subject to the dice; Inspirations, built as boosts in ability, probably with Charges, could help heroes do those seat-of-the-pants acts of heroism.

Re: Possession Well, the net effect is that your opponent is gone and you get all their physical abilities. Since the effect is not quite, exactly, permanent, you want to go with Major Transform (person into your body), and unless you want to build a humongous Transform, a VPP for their abilities. The basic philosophy behind Transform is "if you can kill them, you might as well turn them into something else" which this basically describes. Effectively, you are defeating them and gaining their body as a hostage. The hostage effect is mitigated by the fact you now need their body. My other suggestion would be Mind Control, with a Linked Desolidification or EDM with 0 DCV. That would represent a force that inhabited a subject but did not actually replace their "mind," and would be relatively easy to dislodge. Cinematic devil possession might work more like this.

Re: How To Build: Jedi Force Slam They don't do enough, in this case. 6d6 EB AP is enough to do about 5 BODY, which will break someone's arm and knock them down, unless they have a BODY of 12, in which case it will do neither. 10 BODY will knock someone down and move them a couple of hexes, but will hospitalize them for months. In other words, knockdown in Heroic games is explicitly tied to maiming. Force slams do not seem to maim.

Re: How To Build: Jedi Force Slam I think that any time we see a Jedi do a Significant But Unnecessary Gesture, that actually signals they are using a power with Concentration 1/2 DCV. I don't think there are any required gestures. Just as example, they commonly gesture when moving objects, but in the Anakin/Padme brunch scene in EpII it is clear it is not only possible but not terribly difficult to make do without. If you wanted to, I suppose you could set up some kind of Variable Limitations, with Gestures, Concentration, and Extra END, but that seems like it might be simulation overkill. I don't think Lucas ever worried about that. The only time we see a Jedi get caught making an obvious gesture is when Qui Gon tries to mind trick Watto, who is not only resistant to the power but apparently familiar with Jedi mannerisms. Hm... Distinctive Features: Gestures while using the Force (Easily Concealed) -5 points?

Re: How To Build: Jedi Force Slam

Re: How To Build: Jedi Force Slam It does not appear to me that Force powers work this way. But that's a side issue, although I will say that Force slam especially does not appear to work this way.

Re: How To Build: Jedi Force Slam Some officialness to throw onto the discussion: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=62617