Mestopheles

Re: Never GMed HERO before, a few pointers? If I'm backed into a corner I may "do" cyberspace, but it will be as narrative as I can get away with, possibly supported by a few skill rolls with KS: cyberdeck or PS: annoying character concept.

Re: New Mechanic: Effective Range Again, I like the general idea, but I think the mechanical constraint should result in no damage or full damage past optimal range, with a penalty to hit for exceeding the stability and optics of your weapon. If someone hits you with a .357 magnum revolver from 150 meters away, the difference in velocity is barely measureable. It's just extremely unlikely anyone is going to score a hit with an iron sights pistol at greater than 25-50 meters. I don't think your concept is unnecessary, but the adjustment of DCs seems inappropriate.

Re: Never GMed HERO before, a few pointers? Thanks again for the continuing input guys, I appreciate all the advice and will give everyone's opinions the attention and consideration they are due. I'll answer a recurring question in this thread since a few of you asked; to wit: "What is the concpet of your campaign? I can't advise you if you don't give me a point of reference." Here goes: I'm basing the campaign world loosely on the world of "Shadowrun", a dystopian society around 100 years in the future. There will be Cyberware, high tech gadgets and information technology, and corporations run virtually everything. In Shadowrun, there was magic and D&D-esque “metahuman” races that appeared due to the reappearance of magic in the “real world”. I will not have orcs, elves, or dwarves, etc. in my campaign, nor will there be magic, but I’m adding in Supers, explaining them as mutants as they are described in X-men… mutants just started appearing and now folks in power are trying to decide what to make of them and how to treat the incidence of these new human abilities. The backdrop for the campaign will be a large city (I haven’t decided which yet, but I’ll select a big one and remap it as I wish to support the “future” feel. Corporations have basically taken over much of what is in today’s society the purview of the Federal government, and virtually all of the State government and below. If you see a police officer, he’s not going to have an L.A.P.D. badge, he’ll be wearing one that says FORGE, Inc. or what have you. Megacorps have purchased large segments of urban areas in toto and turned them into private sector residential and commercial areas. If you’re not a FORGE employee, you don’t get tot live there. If you disturb the peace, little, or break any of the ordinances the Corp instated for their area, you are subject to their laws because you’re on their property. 80% of the population of the country work for one of about 3-5 megacorps or their subsidiaries, it’s just expected that any “normal” job will come from a huge corp. (Imagine Bruce Willis in “The 5th Element driving a taxi for a corporation with hundreds of millions of employees). If you don’t work for a megacorp, odds are you’re a vagrant, homeless, with no social security number, living on some kind of welfare program (maybe provided by a megacorp, to improve their image and give them unobtrusive access to a pool of test subjects for pharmaceuticals, etc.) Huge shanty towns and tent cities exist on the outskirts and underdeveloped areas of the urban sprawl, with masses of people existing at or below the poverty line. In this environment, the corporations have free reign (ceded by the government under pressure from past eventsI haven’t completely decided on) to pursue profit by any means they can, including the hiring of private contractors to conduct black ops-style raids on competing companies to steal plans, high-talent engineers, access information, or anything else that could provide a competitive edge. These contracts would be shelled to conceal which corp was actually doing the hiring (plausible deniability) and to reassure the contractors their identities are being protected (whether this is true or not). The appearance of cybertechnology and supers add an additional wrinkle to this chaotic system, as people can now exceed human norms in varied and unpredictable ways… Corps are battling to hire the best supers and keep them on retainer to further their own agendas, providing mind-numbing pay and benefits and if necessary forcing loyalty with threats. The characters will be supers, and will have (at creation) at least some experience doing runs for corps as private contractors. They will all be strongly encouraged to play supers whose powers are unobtrusive (at least while walking down the sidewalk) and have some sort of character concept that allows them to conceal their status as supers for their own protection. I’m not going to make them feel powerless in their ability to affect their lives, but they will constantly be aware of the influence of the enormous corps vying for power. Paranoia will be the norm, and it will rapidly be evident that almost everyone you meet is looking out for themselves first due to the extreme social Darwinism. Corp assignments will pay well and be exciting, challenging, and allow access to comforts and services usually only available to the rich (or indentured). The private contracts are one of the only ways a person can have a comfortable lifestyle without signing their life away to a corp for 25+ years. Once the group have done a few missions together and begun to become interested, I will initiate the main plot, where they find themselves with an opportunity to actually have an impact on (at a minimum) the entire city. They will see a chance to make a positive change in the state of humanity where they live, and then have a chance to decide whether that is meaningful to them (morally). If not, I’ll gently prod them through their backstories to make them see that if they don’t step in, noone will and society will continue to decay. If that fails, I’ll improvise. Basically my overall concept is to present a dystopian backdrop and then provide the characters a chance to bring up the standards of existence meaningfully. I get to have a rough, gritty, and oppressive world where anything goes and everything’s for sale and give the players a chance to bring humanity back to humanity. Based on the rough character concepts I’ve listened to already, I should have a chance to bring in some themes of redemption, atonement, and personal growth in the setting I imagine, which I think will make for a strong, appealing, and visceral theme for all of my players (based on their personalities).

Re: Never GMed HERO before, a few pointers?

Re: Never GMed HERO before, a few pointers? I'll give it some thought, I may be able to add a 3-6 session "mini-plot" at the beginning before the plot I have in mind already. I can always pull some of the threads from that beginning phase into the main plaot as well. That would permit the lower-powered beginning for a while so the players get more comfortable first, and they won't be so locked into their character build since they can add exp later. Thanks for your thoughts.

Re: Attack type Inconsistancies I think this is just antoehr case of the rules making perfect sense unless you happen to find a slightly wonky perspective on the interaction of 2 or more powers. I think this is another great example of "Yes. No. It depends."

Re: What rule don't people know? Naw, it's just a stupid semantic joke... since all of them have white borders, it's a valid statement that sounds like interesting trivia, when it's actually just like saying "So far, this is the oldest I've ever been."

Re: Attack type Inconsistancies Right, all I was saying is that most of these would be hindered by an entangle. That's why why I incorrectly replied that entangle typically prevents HtH attacks in the RAW. What I should have said was "Most HtH attacks (unless they're unusual ones or the circumstances/SFX justify it) will be restrianed by an entangle, but the rules don't prohibit it by default"

Re: Attack type Inconsistancies

Re: What rule don't people know? Have a look a the next few stop signs you see, you'll see what I'm getting at.

Re: What rule don't people know? It's off topic, but a lot of people don't realize you only have to observe stop signs that have a white border.

Re: Attack type Inconsistancies Ok, I got it backward, I thought the default was "no, unless there are unusual circumstances" but the answer is "yes, unless there are unusual circumstances". I prostrate myself before the HERO guru consortium.

Re: Some thoughts The "I" word?

Re: Attack type Inconsistancies That's correct, unless there are mitigating circumstances or SFX-related GM fiat to the contrary, you can't use Hand to hand while entangled.

Re: Never GMed HERO before, a few pointers? All great input, folks. I'm thinking I'll go with the "350 points and rapid experience rewards" model for the reasons given, I really appriciate everyone's input. I've seen how helpful you all are in the past but I'm really glad I created an account now, I'm excited about getting my game running.

Re: Never GMed HERO before, a few pointers? Oh, I know 400 points is sort of a lot, but this team will eventually be up against megacorporation-sized opponents (unlimited resources, unlimited ruthlessness), so I want them to be able to both hold their own (at least for a while before they decide discretion is the better part of valor) and feel as if their actions are having a measurable impact on the opposition. I don't see them toppling a multinational megacorp with half a dozen 400-point supers, but they ought to do enough to feel like they played a part.

Re: Never GMed HERO before, a few pointers? Thanks for the input so far guys, all good points. As to running a few one-shot games, I typically run a 1-2 session "teaser" plot in any new campagn I start, I aim low on difficulty in combat to promote character's confidence in their character, bring in the "hey, my guy is pretty powerful and fun" mentality, identify group dynamics, and get an idea for threat balance before I commit and am forced to change things that might force me to make changes to the "main story". It's also consistent with a lot of action-type movies; think of the first Mission: Impossible movie as an example, if you start with a "successful mission", it establishes the team as a group who have a history together (or outlines their meeting) and shows how effective they can be together when everything goes to plan. It also makes the conflict later in the story more dramatic, because you've already seen how tough your heros really are.

Re: U.N. Armament I wasn't accusing you of overgeneralizing, I was referring to MG (Ret.) Smedley's opinions as excessively broad and simplistic (I view this as overgeneralization). I'm a veteran, I've seen the things MG (ret.) Smedley refers to, and I've also seen people I care about die in combat, as I'm certain he has. I’m not going to say I’m more qualified to comment that him, but I feel it’s presumptuous for you to say he’s more qualified than me. Barring lack of experience, any person has a right to give their opinion and has equal likelihood to strike an issue in a meaningful manner. Maybe you made the “someone more qualified to speak on the subject…” comment defensively, since you seemed to take my criticism as being directed at your comments, not Smedley’s, but nevertheless I don’t presume to know your background and qualifications. Many of the times I lost friends it was due to international policy being unrealistic, a politician who didn't fully appreciate all the factors in the war zone made rules that inadvertently got someone (or many people) killed. That is an outrage, in my mind much worse than someone feathering their nest during war. I know profiteering is wrong, but in my opinion, a combat veteran has a responsibility for the lives of all service members, and if I were a General (Active or retired) I'd feel that my energy was better spent ensuring policy makes sense and doesn’t expose service members to unnecessary risk, not griping about opportunistic jerks looking to turn a buck. (Unless that profiteering was costing lives as well, but that's always the priority in my mind, not money.) Anyhow, I feel like you may have misinterpreted my comment and lashed out because you were offended. If that’s what happened, I’m sorry I offended you. I probably should have made my post more unambiguous to begin with.

Ok guys, I'm not a new GM by any strech, but I've never had the pleasure of running a HERO game myself. I'm starting a group where many have never played HERO before (though none of them are new to gaming in general) and I want to make sure nothing slips by me when I set the game in motion. My major concern is character creation... assuming a 400 point campaign: What's an "average" AP cap on powers? Is there a mathematical guideline for determining defensive power limits? Does it differ from other AP caps? Other considerations: What bookkeeping (i.e. notes) should I have done prior to a game session? Should I start with a whole copy of each persons character sheet in front of me until I get an idea of what I'm looking for? What questions should I be askingthat are popping into your head that I'm missing? Thanks in advance guys, I don't want the game system (which I love) to interfere with my plot, so I want to be prepared for at least the predictable administrative speed bumps.

Re: Is this Munchkinism? I sort of look at this question the same way I approach Power Defense (warning: house rule follows) A specific SFX group isn't a requirement to buy the Power Defense, but there's definitely a strong argument for there being one. If you buy a holy symbol that provides "divine protection" Power Defense, it shouldn't protect against a Drain power with the SFX "Molecular Acid"... but with the RAW it would. However, GM fiat covers this, like most things. With Danger sense, the justification for having a (for lack of a better term) non-sensory based sense, must be defined so I think it's only fair that you should have to define what this invisibility really is. Otherwise you’re asking for a blanket defense against a power that’s required to have a specific description (to me that’s munchkin.) An across-the-board (unlimited SFX) defense to a mandatory-SFX definition power is disparate. Maybe you exist in a probability envelope where your waveform only collapses when you act, so precognition doesn’t apply to you because you weren’t “going to do it” until it happened. (Particle man, particle man, doing things that a particle can…) So precogs can't apply their danger sense to you; but if someone's danger sense is defined as "reflexes of a predatory insect" you're still going to be "detected" because they're actually reacting to your action, just so quickly it's as if they're not caught by surprise. Whatever the case, I think this invisibility power needs to have its SFX defined or it’d be abusive (At least in my mind)

Re: Simple question (I hope) Thanks guys, I think I've got it now. You all are really helpful; I'm really glad I got myself a login

Re: Simple question (I hope) Ah, this is an NPC I'm thinking of, just want to make sure I'm not tossing unwarranted power at him just cause I'm the GM and noone can veto the build.

Re: Simple question (I hope) I see your objections and I think they're valid; what would you suggest to reflect the "I'm too alien for you to understand my mind" SFX without the "alien class of mind" solution?

Re: Rep Points Got it, thanks.

Re: Rep Points So how can I tell if anyone has given me rep? I worked out how to give it, but can't see where I would look to see who gave me any.