BobGreenwade

I had the same image....

Time Not Wasted

 

Now that really makes me feel like the time I spent on the book was not misplaced.....

The ejection seat, as written, is meant for automobiles (such as those used by Batman and James Bond). For a jet fighter's ejection seat, just apply the parachute separately.

 

As for the sample aircraft not having parachutes to go with the ejection seat, I will confess that this was an oversight on my part. Sure, one could argue that Steve should have caught this as well, but the initial responsibility lies with the originator, and that's me. (Now that I think on it, I may have even neglected to include the ejection seats at all on those vehicle sheets -- with all Steve had to worry about on that book, he was doing well enough just to catch that much!) The "ejection seat parachute" (Linked to the TK, perhaps?) should be added to each of these craft.

 

As to whether it will be added to the TUV Errata and any future edition of the book... well, that's for Steve to decide.

Re: Re: Power Destruction under 5th Edition

 

Originally posted by JmOz

I think that the liim should probably be a -1/2 in any super heroic game, as the average recovery is higher, and regeneration is more common, for that matter in fantasy as well as any setting that does see a lot of use of powers

If the recovery time wasn't expanded to a month, I'd say you have a point. The point of the Power, however, is to seriously disrupt the target's life while the character goes about his business. In a fantasy or sci-fi game, keeping the target out of commission for only three months instead of six can make a reasonably big difference, but in a superhero game things tend to move much faster than that.

 

I also double-checked the Healing rules, and regular Healing (without the Simplified or Regeneration options) will affect points lost to Adjustment Powers -- so at least part of the Limitation value for that is set aside.

Originally posted by Agent Escafarc

Very much what I have plan but my players are going to be members of an elite "Emperess' Own" type units with shades of the Three Musketeers thrown in.

It just occurred to me yesterday that maybe we ought to try coordinating our efforts, at least as far as the Imperial agency our PCs work for. Then we could forward the results to Steve, and maybe (just maybe) they could influence something in a future publication.... Or at any rate we could more easily let each other's PCs make "guest appearances" in our games.

Originally posted by Steve Long

But hopefully it ends up being more "Cambias" and "Long" than anything else.

And just as hopefully we can see a few more surnames tacked onto that list before too many years pass by....

My thoughts here mostly echo suggestions people have already made:

 

1. On spaceships and stations, firing high-velocity projectiles is a bad idea because they might puncture the hull or damage sensitive or dangerous equipment. Thus the return of martial arts and hand-to-hand weaponry in such situations.

 

2. Personal force fields only stop energy beams and high-velocity projectiles, but aren't as useful against relatively low-energy attacks such as fists and hand-held weapons.

 

3. Ammunition is hard to come by, hard or hazardous to carry, or limited for some other reason, so ranged weapons are used only when really necessary.

 

Any combination of these should do the trick.

Power Destruction under 5th Edition

 

I think one could create Power Destruction under 5th Ed by using Drain with the Fade Rate bought to One Month (a +2 Advantage), and applying a -1/4 Limitation that the recovery is at the target's REC (rather than a straight 5 points) and may also be returned with Healing (Regeneration or otherwise).

 

Just trying to give a bit of help here...

Originally posted by feywulf

You could use the option of the perception modifier making the image easier to percieve as a way of representing brighter lights, or the +1/4 advantage to increase the area.

Actually, both of these should be used. To get normal lighting from "dark night" needs +4 to PER; the diameter would be the area affected by the lighting (I think about a 4" radius area would be average for good nighttime street lighting).

Re: Stupid villains concepts

 

Originally posted by Tech

What are some stupid villain concepts that you have in your game - and still use because the players actually like them?

 

One of mine was 'The Squirrel'. A real squirrel given above average intelligence but still thought like a squirrel. Didn't have much PD & ED but just try and catch him... as in DCV 16 with Dex and small size.

Note to Dave Mattingly and Mike Surbrook:

 

Too late -- I saw it already!

 

(For those who don't understand... don't worry about it.)

Originally posted by Agent Escafarc

Ther is an example of Power Armor as a Vehicle in The Ultimate Vehicle book.

Yes, on page 83 -- along with a couple of reasons for a GM to not allow it (at least, in a Champions game; it might work OK for a Star Hero game, subject to the discussion on page 7).

My personal favorite isn't superhero related (or directly related to anything adventure-oriented for that matter), but is a lot of fun and a good source of ideas for animal-based gags and computer puns:

 

Kevin and Kell

For a more masculine option:

 

Law Enforcement Response Overseeing Intelligence (LEROI)

 

Vanguard Emergency Response Network (VERN)

 

Or for something even more whimsical:

 

Sentient Technological Underworld Policing Intelligence Device (STUPID)

Originally posted by GamePhil

Actually, he did the exact same thing in 4th Edition, when the Advantage was more to your liking, so that does not constitute proof that he even agrees with your sentiment.

As a point of clarification, Fourth Edition was the work of McDonald, Petersen, and Bell. It had already been in print for quite some time when Steve's first gaming book, Dark Champions, was published.

Originally posted by JmOz

And of the three ways to do it in there (I think it is 3, no book here), I prefer the Multiform (with rapid change), to figure out the base form I ask the following question: When I park it what form is it in? For instance I beleive the Veritech fighters from Robotech were docked as Fighters, so Fighters they are

Actually, for shape alteration the only method discussed is Multiform (though the name of the Power is never mentioned in that part of the text -- and I sure don't know how that happened!). And the Instant Change Adder is advised against. It's combining that has multiple options (four).

Yeah, it's right there on page 107 of TUV.

Originally posted by Steve Long

Glad to be of service.

Ditto.

 

Personally, I consider Greg Porter's VDS to be the perfect companion to TUV (and vice versa). With those two books a prospective vehicle builder can do just about anything, even if HERO isn't the game system in use. (I'm still bummed that my copy of VDS got lost. I'll be getting a replacement some time before long, though, be sure of that!)

Originally posted by Tetsuyama

Of course, since there are no Psychology-type skills in the list currently, the character won't know why the crime was committed, or what the criminals' likely next move is...

You could always use Analyze.

Originally posted by Ghost Archer

I'm sorry but isn't this a case of creating a Power that duplicates an existing one? Okay, so it's a Power that duplicates a Skill in this instance. I am curious why you need such a 'fool proof' form of Criminology? It's a neat idea but maybe all you need to do is watch CSI a few times.

 

Criminology is already Based On Available Physical Evidence and can even give clues many years after the crime. As a GM, I wouldn't allow this Power because it already exists in Criminology. We all know Retrocognition is one of those Powers that can destroy a story line. I create mysteries for my team, I leave clues, I leave physical evidence, I don't want to have surrender information to the team because they are too lazy to think. I will gladly answer any questions they ask and don't expect them to be Forensic Scientists or pathologists. All I need it an inkling they are on the right track. If they aren't, time for a little Skill roll and some hints but I much prefer to roleplay it without dice.

I tend to work the same way, but sometimes there's an important difference between the lead characters in The Profiler and the average criminal profiler in fiction or reality. Sam Waters and Rachel Burke had the "gift" of being able to immediately "see" what happened based on tiny clues. Similarly, a reconstructionist with this ability would be able to tell the sequence and location of events at a glance without having to carefully measure and string spatters, footprints, and other visible clues. It's the same information, but the character gets it in a matter of minutes -- or less -- instead of hours or days.

Rather than the time and faces limitations being discussed, I'd just give a simple Limitation Based On Available Physical Evidence for -1/2. That way he couldn't see a criminal's face no matter how quickly he arrived, but he could reconstruct activities three or four years after the fact based on blood spatters revealed by luminol or fluoriscin.

Originally posted by Arthur

Forewarned is four-armed.

Been there, done that. I actually had a character with that combination of Powers once -- though I'd played him for about four months before I came up with the pun.

 

Of course, there's always the old saw of buying Luck with the Costs END Limitation just so you can Push your Luck....

 

Getting back to the original topic, though, I once created a villain with Invisibility with Invisible Power Effects. I hadn't been going to actually do it until an interesting Special Effect occurred to me: you can see that he's there, but he appears to be standing a couple of feet to the side of where he actually is. Thus, in combat, if you scored a hit on him you actually missed, but if you rolled a miss you had a 50% chance (left/right) of actually hitting him.

 

Of course, this was way back under 3rd Edition; under 5th Edition I'd construct the same character using Linked Images.

Originally posted by Nelijal

Just turned 41, but I'm young at heart (and single).

"Heart," in this case, being truly the operative word here.

 

(This from a man about to turn 42.)

Thanks for the clarification, Steve. I was wondering about that myself, and those of us posting here are probably not the only ones.

Originally posted by Nato

new thread per book

Ditto.

Okay....

 

Actually I have several potential candidates for reform, some of which Steve has already addressed in either the FAQ or a HEROglyphs article (in Digital Hero).

 

However, the only one I'm really adamant about is Telekinesis. When I saw in 4th Edition that the cost had been raised, I was crushed, because I could no longer make one of my favorite characters viable in a game with Active Point limits.

 

My fix for Telekinesis is to 1) return the cost to the earlier 1 point for 1 STR, and 2) completely remove the Punch/Squeeze aspect of the Power. That should never have been introduced in the first place, or at most should have been a Power Advantage. It's a violation of Meta-Rule #5, "One Power should not be used to do what another already does." Currently, for 60 points I can lift and move things with 40 STR, and I can also do 8d6 of damage -- but isn't doing Normal damage at range the function of Energy Blast?

 

Then again, if my superheroes have a limit of 60 Active Points for their Powers, that 8d6 is going to be a bit wimpy, so I'd better buy a real Energy Blast at 12d6 -- except that I can still do 8d6 damage with Telekinesis. But why would I want to, if I can do 12d6 with Energy Blast?

 

I could go on and on about this, but I think you all get the basic idea.