Opal

Re: so is this broken? In 4e, you could take a variable limitation on a multipower reserve. Among many other things, you could use different OAFs, that way. So, take 'various OAFs' -1/2 instead of -1, and you cover the fact he's harder to disarm than a character with a single multi-function OAF. I'm not sure if or when that option went away, but it's always easy enough to throw in a custom limitation if need be.

Re: Impact of Figured Characteristics It would not be a good idea to go back to Figured Characteristics without also re-introducing Elemental Controls. Of course, I don't think it was a great idea to nix Figured Characteristics while retaining /any/ frameworks. Elemental Controls were the power-oriented cost break most comparable to Figureds, though. It would probably be easier to stick with 5th (or 4th, they're not that different) than try to add figured characteristics back into 6th. If you're committed to 6th, I'd definitely advise you to leave Figureds out of it, it's been extensively re-balanced to work without them.

Re: Parsing and refining skills Skills have never exactly been Hero's stron suit. While powers are beautifully effects-based, and characteristics were pretty good (and still aren't bad, I suppose), skills have always caused a problem, particularly with point-inflation. The problem is that each edition from 1st through 4th added skills, often a lot of skills. And, on top of that, since Champions II, there have been player-defineable skills with an unlimitted degree of granularity. This skill proliferation meant that being a lawyer in your secred ID went from a line in the Secret ID disad ('Lawyer') to a 2-pt 'background' skill, to a package deal, to whatever it is now - you could easily spend 60 or 100 points on being a really good lawyer in 5th, and 6th aparently hasn't changed it apreciably. My advice would be to put as much of a lid as you can on that aspect of the skill system. Buy those listed 3-point skills that cover what your character does. If you want to differentiate him, buy a few levels. Then, buy a few, a /very/ few, player-defined 'speciality' skills that serve only to differentiate the character a little, and add to the occassional complementary skill level. Don't let lack of a player-defined skill keep a character with the closest aplicable real 3pt skill from doing something, and you might be OK.

Re: Regeneration Costs There's long been a simple way to cost regeneration that's consistent with the normal healing rules and doesn't give you too strange a cost structure. I can't recall if it came from FUZION or if several folks suggested it on-line at various times, but I've been using it since the 90s. Cost Regeneration based on the time increment, only. Use REC for the amount of BOD recovered. You start out at normal healing: REC/month. You buy a little regeneration, it becomes REC/week. You buy a lot, it's REC/turn. Simple. I like 5 points per step on whatever time chart you use. (Personally, I rather liked the 4e Time Chart)

Re: About 6th edition

Re: Dummies Guide to Rule of X for 6th Ed This may be a little too dumb, but Rule of X was never that good an idea. In Fuzion, it encouraged extreme characters - heavily weighted toward CV or Damage/defense, with 'balanced' characters being somewhat ineffectual. Of course, it all varied with the mind-set of the given group, but that's how it seemed to me. I find the old-fashioned Apt guidelines (not limits) or DC/defense limits ('soft' limits, that is) more conducive to a playable campaign, with plenty of GM judgement thrown in, of course.

Re: 4th ed vet-- how different is 5eR? You can pretty much play a 4th ed character in a 5th ed game with minimal difficulties. I've done it at cons and the guys running 5th didn't even notice. There are /lots/ of surprising little tweaks and expansions, though. Complex characters might require a lot of re-building to get exactly right. Straightforward ones, not a problem.

Re: Super Powers, Cybernetics, Magic, etc....getting back into the swing of things.

Re: Advice for creating a custom setting

Re: Steve's Chat Tonight (Wednesday, Feb. 27) I'm putting off my commute half an hour so I can drop by for a bit with a better connection...

Re: Limitation? Or just flavor... Since the FF /would/ help you if it worked vs fire (fire attacks would be even less effective against you), it's clearly still a limitation. If you had some sort of absolute immunity to fire, the idea that it's not really limitting you would have more credence.

Re: Random campaign idea: Super Who I played a character in a Champions game who was from the Traken Union. Her 'super' power, the ability to change the colors of things in an area around her, didn't have anything to do with her Whovian origin, really (she was just another mutant, but from an alien world), but her costume and apearance were lifted directly. An early character of mine carried a shield/gun inpired by those used by the Minyans in 'Underworld.' I also lifted the Doctor's throwaway detail description of that weapon "A lieberman laser, it fires charged particles along a laser beam" as a throwaway detail for my Champions! campaign.

Re: VIPER Athame's Mage Slaying blade. AVLD does BOD is something I generally dislike, but, I suppose the LD could be 'non-magical resistant defense?'

Re: Super Powers, Cybernetics, Magic, etc....getting back into the swing of things. You know, I probably shouldn't have mentioned that. Over the years it's become the poster boy for limitations that you shouldn't get any points for. Yes, it would be apropriate for a cyborg, in theory, but it's rare enough that you can't expect to get points for it - unless there are anti-cyborg types running around with EMP generators or some other reason you might encounter such a field now and then. IIF for cybernetic components that can be removed with some effort, though not generally in combat, is OK - it'd be quite apropriate for a 'modular' cyborg who can swap out some of his own components. Restrainable is actualy perfectly alright, too. A lot of cybernetic powers might be limitted to only one limb, or represent a pop-out bit of equipment, that, while it couldn't be removed short of surgery or something, /could/ easily be restrained in combat or when the cyborg is captured and tied up or whatever.

Re: Invisible damage? Is the idea an attack that doesn't leave the victim looking damaged, or a character who doesn't apear to take damage until he finally collapses? Ghost-angel anwered the former. The latter could be seen as the way it actually works (stats aren't 'visible' by default), but the majority of GMs like to describe 'how hurt' a character looks. Taking a hit and not showing it could just be an interaction skill - it's just a non-verbal lie.

Re: What do you need to have in order to play the game? My experience as an older gamer (well, 27 years older than I was when I started), is that I just miss when some new book comes out. I'm busy, I don't hit the gaming stores that often, and they just slip right by me. I got caught up on Hero for my 40th, just went into the local shop with a list from the website and dropped hundreds on thier stuff. The next year, I realized I hadn't picked up any Hero books in a whole year - I also had hardly read any of the one's I'd 'just' bought. But, I tried to do the same only to find that they'd stopped carrying Hero.

Re: Super Powers, Cybernetics, Magic, etc....getting back into the swing of things. They can be, yes. Multipowers are often a good framework to use for psionics, as it's easy to picture them needing to concentrate on one power at a time. Since psionics are a reasonable special effect and mostly cost END, they'd also be good candidates for an EC. Good limitations for psionic powers might include: Concentration (the most obvious one), activations rolls, side effects, and increased END. Psionics who focus primarily on mental powers can ignore most physical stats, and even DEX, and use the LoS range of thier powers to stay out of reach (or even out of sight) and out of trouble. Psychokinetics, need more DEX to use TK, Energy Blast, or whatever other powers they manifest, and can be tougher, protected by a psychokinetic force field or the like. Cybernetics have never been easy. The obvious impulse is to buy them as foci, but foci are only apropriate if they can be taken away, which is not often the case with cybernetics. You could buy cybernetic powers with charges (perhaps 'fuel' charges), limitations like the infamous "doesn't work in intense magnetic fields," activation, foci (for components that can be removed), restrainable (if your cyber blaster is only in your left arm, and a weak electric motor raises it into firing position, for instance, it could be easily prevented from working when you're grabbed, engangled or bound). You could also buy most cybernetic powers straight, but use Disadvantages to model the cyborg aspect - dependence on power sources, vulnerability to certain kinds of attacks, susceptibility to attacks that only affect non-living things, physical limiations and so forth. Cybernetics doesn't lend itself as obviously to any one framework. A highly integrated and efficient cyborg could even have no particular limitations or frameworks or even disads: just very high stats and some apropriate powers. Classic limitations on magic could include: Incantations, Gestures, Requires Skill Roll (possibly w/Side Effect), and Foci. Magic really lends itself to a myriad of 'limmitted power' limitations, since a given spell might arbitrarily only work at only a certain time, vs certain creatures, etc. One that I like is Limmitted Power: power comes from a source - the idea being that you invoke a demon/angel/god/spirit/whatever to gain the effect, and that entity can withold it when you're working at cross purposes with it, or if you don't occassionally do a little 'favor' for it. When I say I like that one, I suppose I should clarify that /as a GM/ I like that one. Magic really lends itself to the VPP framework, as magic can do virtually anything, and it's often just the matter of finding the right spells or correct enetity to invoke.

Re: Debriefing Though she's not bi, once the situation was explained to her, Opal might very well go along with a plan to make the homicidal Hyena jealous enough to take 3 back. Plus, a pair of inhumanly beautiful aliens out on the town would just be too much fun to pass up.

Re: Excalibur? Excalibur was a sword, so there's an HKA in there. It's propperties were that the wielder was the rightful King of England (perk), and 'invincible' in battle. Excalibur's sheath also had the propperty that it's owner 'couldn't bleed.' Does not Bleed is 15 pts, IIRC. 'Invincibility' would be somewhat more involved...

Re: A New Edition Move on to another dimension and hope for something better. (Ironically, Opal, as of 4E was built with an uncontrolled multiform, when she goes to a radically different dimension, she can undergo just such changes.... For instance, when she wound up in a fantasy world where science doesn't work, she was transmogrified from a 'higher dimensional alien capable of absorbing energy' to the semi-divine 'Daughter of the Sun,' Topaz. Play a character long enough, it gets wierd.)

Re: The Forever Man Teach him to 'discarnate.' One of the minor details of Opal's background is that her race doesn't really age, if they don't die by accident or violence they just eventually decide to pass on into a noncorporeal form and fade away into the universe. (Like the Martians in Stranger in a Strange Land, yes.) The ability is based on achieving a high degree of 'self awareness.' I think, even if it didn't work, it would solve his problem as he'd eventually come to terms with his true nature - whatever that might be. In return, she'd ask him to take up super-heroing with her. He could be her kid sidekick for a few years - or longer if he gets killed a lot.

Re: The Agnstigator I'd think you just have to be a little more careful in describing the 'one emotional state' and how it could result in either total apathy or nihilistic rage. As long as you have no control over which, it doesn't make the power any better.

Re: All-in-one box games Maybe something like "Wildstrike" as a lead-in to 6th ed (I think that was the name: simplified Fuzion as a super-powered gladiator microgame). I actually did get my Champions!-fearing gaming group to play it, and a couple of years later, got them to try Champions!...

Re: Steve's Chat Tonight I'll see if I can't tweak my schedule and attend. I'm usually on the road - I'll have to try to get home early, or stay late and log on from work.

Re: Apt cost of defesnses vs attacks That's a good insight. If you pay to be immune to KA, you're also quite immune to EB, as well. If you're already immune to 30 apts of EB, it's only another 30 (24 DEF, 12 resistant), to be immune to KA, as well. But, if you're immune to EB (36 normal defense), you're still entirely vulnerable to EB. That is, you can't be immune to KA without also being immune to EB. While you can be immune to EB without being immune to KA. Of course, Mental Defense defends against more than Ego Attack (Mind Control, Mental Illusions, Mind Scan, etc); and Power Defense defends against more than just Drains (Transfers & Supress). And, either of those, or even Flash Defense or Resistant Defense could be the defense of an AVLD or NND. Normal physical attacks /are/ extraordinarily common, regardless of genre or setting, since anyone with a STR score can launch one. Similarly, anyone with a STR or CON of 3+ has at least some defense against them. Your normal attack is never going to do full damage to anyone, as everyone has the defense. Flashes, Drains, and Ego attacks are specialty attacks. Most characters won't have defenses against these, so these attacks cost more and they don't cost much to defend against. That part does make some sense. But, how common they are is also a campaign issue, yet the cost isn't generally adjusted. The 36 points you spend to defend yourself completely from a normal attack don't actually defend you against a KA at all. But, they do make it cheaper to defend yourself from a KA, in that you'll only have to add 12 resistant defense (18 points!) and 12 more normal defense (12 points ) to do so. This is a good point. It would be helpful to look at defending against the likely range of results. For instance, if you wanted to stop 50% of 30 Apt normal attacks, you'd need 21 Apts. To stop 50% of Ego attacks, you'd need 10. To stop 50% of KAs you'd need 21 (15, 12 resistant). On the averages that's looking pretty good. But, to stop 75% of the same attacks you'd need 23 for normal, 12 for ego, 33 (27, 12 resistant) for the KA. To stop 90%, it'd be 26, 14, and 42 (36, 12 resistant) respectively. Because of the KA dice mechanic, the total delivered is /much/ more random than for any other kind of attack. Interestingly, if KAs did BOD only (or STN = BOD), 30 Apts of KA would be stopped by the same 18 Apts of defense as any other specialty attack. As it stands, that 18 Apts of defense stops the KA about 45% of the time. Here's the % Chance of rolling a given amount of STN with a 2d KA, with the cumulative chance of rolling that much or less, sorted in STN order. KA % STN Chance Cumulative 2 0.93% 0.93% 3 1.85% 2.78% 4 3.24% 6.02% 5 3.70% 9.72% 6 6.02% 15.74% 7 5.56% 21.30% 8 6.48% 27.78% 9 4.63% 32.41% 10 5.09% 37.50% 11 1.85% 39.35% 12 5.56% 44.91% 14 2.78% 47.69% 15 2.78% 50.46% 16 3.70% 54.17% 18 4.17% 58.33% 20 4.63% 62.96% 21 2.78% 65.74% 22 0.93% 66.67% 24 5.09% 71.76% 25 1.85% 73.61% 27 1.85% 75.46% 28 2.78% 78.24% 30 3.70% 81.94% 32 2.31% 84.26% 33 0.93% 85.19% 35 2.78% 87.96% 36 2.31% 90.28% 40 3.70% 93.98% 44 0.93% 94.91% 45 1.85% 96.76% 48 0.46% 97.22% 50 1.39% 98.61% 55 0.93% 99.54% 60 0.46% 100.00% One thing that's obvious is that it's not much like a normal distribution. With a normal attack, which does give you a normal distiribution, you're most likely to roll the average, and the chance of rolling more or less decreases smoothly. With the KA it's rather more choppy, with some numbers impossible to roll (17 or 19 for instance), and some very high numbers just as likely as some near the average - you're as likely to roll 40 (slightly less than 22 below average) as 16 (a little more than 2 below average).