BobGreenwade

Actually I'd use Telepathy, Continuous (+1), Damage Shield (+1/2), Broadcast Only (-1/2), Mandatory Effect (EGO + 20; -1/2), with any other Modifiers (such as 0 END) to suite taste.

These, I think, would be scattered around the book a bit. If you can't fit them into Mental And Psionic Powers, Emotion Control Powers, or Hypersenses, just use Miscellaneous Powers.

Great to see such a nice review. Now, why can't Brand do a review of TUV?

I dunno about a direct conversion, but even before Spelljammer came out I wanted to see a HERO setting of spellcasters in space -- my personal title for it was "Space Wizards." I think in the HERO Universe meta-setting it would be a great thing to see in the early fourth millennium.

I've seen it -- a very cool and clever application that I never would have thought of myself. Oh, well.... I guess I can always go with "(Variant)" powers if I have something really different. If I have more than one (and I do have a bunch), would it be better to send them all together as one file, or separately?

Okay, Steve, I have a question about this. If I have some additional options for a power already in the USPD, how would I format it? For example, I have a few ideas for expanding Psionic Invisibility (page 151); would I just omit everything between the power name and the Options, and list the options starting with #7?

If that's your problem here, then just take the -1/4 Limitation Nonpersistent (FREd page 185) on the buy-off of Always On. I'm not sure of your math here... first, assuming the original power is 15 base points with no other Advantages, making it Always On (including the required 0 END Persistent) sends it to 30 AP, and 20 RP. That needs 10d6 Suppress (with the SER), which with 0 END is 75 AP. The above Limitations then take that down to 37 RP, and any further Limitations can reduce it even more.

At the risk of opening up a can of worms... Meta-Rule #6 (FREd page 348) is one reason.

Officially... what JmOz said. Unofficially, someone made a suggestion a while ago that really makes better sense. First, build the Power with Always On; then buy Suppress, using the Standard Effect Rule to give it just enough to turn the Power completely off, with the No Range and Self Only Limitations (-1/2 each).

New Jersey's on the west coast???

I know I saw it in the playtest manuscript.

Personally I'm anxious to see what the first ideas are that people come up with. Herophiles tend to be a highly creative lot....

Did you see Mark-Linn Baker's guest appearance on Law and Order: Criminal Intent? (If not, I highly recommend finding it in reruns; it's a surprising -- and excellent -- departure from the comedic roles we're used to seeing him in.) Personally, I'd take a cue from the packages already in use for size and density: apply a Physical Limitation (I'd call it Frequently, Greatly) for the negative aspects, and then whatever Skills, Talents, or enhanced Characteristics are appropriate for the positive side.

Coolness! Hey Steve, This thing looks extremely cool. I can hardly wait to see what people come up with. Any chance of a similar thing with The Spacer's Toolkit?

Hey Steve, out of impatient curiosity, will we be able to contribute entire categories of powers, or just additional powers in the categories already in the USPD?

Skill Levels represent a broader-based sense of expertise than just a simple bonus to a single Skill Roll. If a character has, for example, +2 Skill Levels with Bugging, Electronics, and Security Systems (for 3 points), this could represent a generalized knowledge of electronics as it particularly pertains to espionage and stealth activities. In a way, you can think of Skill Levels -- of any size -- as a Complementary Skill that always uses the Standard Effect Rule. (An Overall Skill Level, by that logic, is essentially KS: Everything.) Just as a Complementary Skill can only complement one Skill at a time, so a Skill Level can only affect one Skill at a time. Yes, it switches as a Zero Phase action -- though it's not often that a character will need more than one Skill Roll in a Phase.

You and I aren't exactly pikers in that respect either, Tom.

I've little doubt that I could "roll my own" Super Agents campaign. I'm actually in the middle of doing so right now (though whether I'll ever get to run it or not remains to be seen). I'd just like to see something official on it from HERO Games itself. It doesn't have to be next year, but by the end of the decade would be nice.

I was very disappointed to have missed the Super Agents bandwagon the first time around. I'd had to quit gaming just a few months before Aaron's book came out, and I didn't come back until well after 4th Edition was out. I'd actually been looking forward to playing a PC agent for a high-tech organization... and now that genre seems to have all but vanished. Is there any chance for a 5th Edition redux of this book? (Would there even be enough of a demand for it? Could it perhaps be considered a subgenre of Dark Champions?)

The correct, by-the-book answer to your first question is, "Yes." Neither of your two proposed solutions is incorrect, though you could put a Limitation on part of the Control Cost to reflect the Active Point limit (say, -1/2 on the Control Cost above the 32 points you'd need for the 65 AP limit). For the second question, the Focus Limitation goes on both the Control Cost and the individual gadgets. The same is done for any Limitation required for any Power bought through the VPP.

You obviously don't watch enough Warner Brothers cartoons.

I was about to suggest this site myself. I've found it helpful on many more occasions than just a few, especially when looking for a good name for a foreign national or other person with a heavily "off-the-beaten-track" ethnic name.

My idea of a great 25+25 campaign would be with the PCs as shopkeepers and other everyday folk, having to deal with a gang of thugs that the local guard can't (or won't) touch for whatever reason.

Here's my own personal list: 1. Really interesting alien cultures. I don't care if they look like a Human with a flesh-colored frog's head (to use the temptation that Keith just dangled in front of my nose), but make the cultures interesting and well fleshed out. This is one area where, say what you want about lackluster plots (and I'd probably agree with you), Enterprise has outstripped its Star Trek predecessors -- the cultures of other worlds are much more than the traditional one-note people. Even at that, they stick with the cardinal rule of alien cultures: don't dwell on them. At most, focus on just one aspect for the sake of a given story, giving the rest of the details just so the culture doesn't look like some Earth culture with a few knobs twisted around and the serial numbers filed off. Start with your interesting feature, consider why that feature exists, and then consider what other features would be produced by the same cause. 2. The right kinds of toys. Technology in a science fiction setting serves one of three functions -- enabling device, setting color, or logical extrapolation. Starships, for instance, enable characters to travel from world to world; energy weapons make the setting distinctive from modern day (though I can think of at least one or two decent sci-fi settings that still use bullets). When Gene Roddenberry decided to use the Transporters in Star Trek, it was because he wanted an easy way to get characters from the ship to the surface. 3. Internal consistency. This has already been mentioned, but it bears repeating. Decide how much "dramatic license" you're going to be using in any given area (science, action, whatever) and stick to that. If the science is extrapolated from modern-day technology, then don't introduce some commonplace "rubber science." On the other hand, if you have lots of "rubber science," don't suddenly become a stickler for real science. 4. A clear direction. Give the PCs an overall mission, a manifest, a duty assignment, or something that tells them what they're supposed to be doing. Are they patroling the border for pirates and invaders? Are they running around a troubled sector putting down rebels? Are they trying to overthrow the evil Empire? Are they investigating homicides on a thriving colony world? Are they shipping goods along a dangerous interplanetary trade route? Put this aspect of the game together as though you were developing a TV series.

[best Latka Gravis voice] Thank you very much.