austenandrews

I'd consider buying the powers at a higher level, and throwing a Limitation on the top levels like "Only to double Aid effects" or something similar. -AA

I could see a specific maneuver for this effect. The player decides his character is going to "guard" his area and engage anyone who enters. The concept already exists with Suppression Fire. Maybe build it something like an ongoing Sweep? -AA

STUN Suppress is fairly cheap. -AA

Don't forget that if you fall in battle, you magically reappear somewhere else. If you want your stuff, you have to go back to where you fell. -AA

I don't get it. If the bed is a vehicle with certain powers, what else does he lose, besides those powers, when he leaves it? -AA

I'd just call that a SFX decision. No points involved. -AA

My views on Lovecraft in HERO (and horror in general) are expressed in this old thread: http://www.herogames.com/oldForum/OtherGenres/000055.html -AA

I used to make distinctions, such as "KS means you know something, PS means you can apply it professionally," etc. But I've since given that up. It rarely comes into play. Easier just to say they're all basically the same thing, and let the specific character determine how to shade it. -AA

I agree, Morningstar. One of the things that really put me off of '90's comics was the absurd overabundance of strongmen who looked like the Hulk with a shrunken head. (That, and -everyone- wore a scowl, except for the token guy with an enormous grin.) Btw ... Chinese algebra? -AA

Hmm, I'm trying to remember my British GA characters, but it's been awhile. The main ones I recall are Domino and Scaramouche, a crime-fighting duo held over from the pulp era (guns, fisticuffs and detective work), and Gentleman Jove, who was essentially Luke Cage but replace the ghetto schtick with a London yob schtick. Jove rode around the WWII battlefields on a motorcycle with his 'kick Sparky in the sidecar. Sparky was your basic two-fisted patriotic kid, who grew up to become Gentleman Justice, the world's greatest detective. I know I had a pile of others, but they're not coming to mind at the moment. It's been too many years. -AA

I once GMed a short-run "B movie" game. My planned climax was a Godzilla adventure. I had found a big, inflatable 'Zilla that I calculated was very close to 1"=2m scale, so I was going to use him alongside our Cardboard Heroes. The game fizzled before I got that far, but I still think it was a wonderfully insane idea. -AA

The old Champions were cool! You had Hercules and Black Widow with their lovers' arguements, plus Iceman and Angel, and there was that time they fought Godzilla on ... what? Official Hero NPC's? Oh. Never use'em, don't know nothin bout'em. Carry on. -AA

I've modified the "average roll" bit from 5E, with great results. I will (almost) always allow a player the option of taking an "average roll" on any dice roll. Average is defined as 11 on a 3d6 skill-type roll, or 3.5 per die (round down) on a damage-type roll. So if the player knows his character will hit Joe Thug with an average roll, he can take the 11 with impunity, then he can opt for average damage to the chest and save half a minute of time and calculation. Those half-a-minutes make all the difference in the world. -AA

Yeah, I remember the first Star Trek RPG had an "action point" system that tried to be realistic. Marksmen could squeeze off five or more shots before anyone could close for fisticuffs. The result? A ST universe where there were no fistfights. Where's the fun in that? -AA

For my fantasy game, I built an incredibly convoluted version of Duplication to get that effect. It was quite expensive, but it worked. The details are left as an exercise for the reader. -AA

Upping the average SPD would make people get tired more quickly. As it stands, Joe Normal has a 10 STR and a 4 REC, meaning he handily recovers the END he spends in a fistfight. I don't know how realistic that is, but it might be something to account for. -AA

Let's see, if each of us must contribute $833, and we each know at least ten gamers who don't post here, that's only $83 a person. Sounds doable! Oh, who am I kidding? That's a month's discretionary budget for half the gamers I know, all of which is earmarked for Dr Pepper and manga. -AA

I second that. -AA

I've never been one to fret about point totals and whatnot. Writers don't. They do anything that makes the story more entertaining. My advice is, if it makes the game more fun, go for it. -AA

I run it as Shrike said -- you lose the previous held action at your DEX, when your next action begins. That is, there's no arbitrary "window" when a held action mysteriously vanishes. The first held action just blends into the following one, seamlessly. I should also add that if the character uses his held action before his DEX on that segment, he loses that next Phase. Just seems fair to me. I have no idea if the 5E rules agree with me, but I've done it that way for twenty years and I'm not about to change. -AA

I knew there was a reason I don't watch anime ... -AA

If memory serves, it was the secret code to unlock the door of the Doctor's chambers. -AA

Re: Whats your COMELINESS? My experience is the opposite. Seems like most PCs in my games wind up looking gorgeous. It's just so cheap to do! As for game effects, I use it as a subjective factor in NPC reactions. For Seduction and other PRE skills, it's much better than a complementary characteristic roll. -AA

Someone with an 8-less skill roll is always better than someone with no skill roll. If you want to be bad at something, don't buy the skill, but ply it a lot. As for minuses to specific maneuvers, as a GM I'd entertain suggestions of a Disad, though it probably wouldn't be worth more than a point or two (unless the maneuver was Strike). -AA

Re: Don't pee on the electric fence. If it was zero-gee, that's a valid form of propulsion. -AA