IndianaJoe3

The flip side to this is, "Are these skills sufficiently useful to be worth three points each?" From Phil's example, Breakfall is almost certainly worth three points. Characters get knocked down all the time. Is Acrobatics as useful?  If not, maybe they should be combined.
 
I feel that there has been a lot of, "splitting skills for concept" without analyzing if the resulting parts are actually worth the extra cost.

In one magic system I've renamed MCV to "Mystical Combat Value".  It doesn't change anything about the mechanics or which powers use it to target, just the name and special effect.  It represents the caster's ability to target spells that aren't based on physical dexterity, but on their mystical abilities.  If I were to use it in a pre-6th edition game, I'd probably replace ECV with it, or base it on another stat (maybe OMCV is INT/3 and DMCV is EGO/3).  
 
Edit: I typed the above before rereading the previous posts on the thread.  Wheel, reinvented.  You could also do it as Combat Skill Levels with magic, that represent the caster's mystical offensive abilities, and add to their OCV or OMCV regardless of what the "M" represents.
 
Edit edit:  It looks like this thread was bumped by a spammer.  It was a pretty worthy thread to have bumped, though.

Barrier is probably overkill here. Change Environment (Precipitating to Non-Precipitating, AoE: 1m radius) for 1 point seems about right.

Autofire skill levels, Visible.
 
 

Probably. Watch some of the 2-Gun Action Challenge videos at In Range TV. It's not actual combat, but they do try to impose physical or mental stress.

Foxbat plan is simple: Kidnap Steve Long, force him to rewrite Foxbat's stats to huge values and CHANGE REALITY AS WE KNOW IT!

"That's a novel failure mode."

I'm kind of thinking aloud here, the more I think about it the less it seems like Resource Pools (although that's where I started)  The, "loadout" rules would depend heavily on how magic works in your campaign.
 
The caster would start with a certain amount of "free" spells, roughly equal to the real cost of a fighter's equipment. These spells would all be GM-created (much like equipment would be). If the player wants custom spells, or more spells, then he has to pay for them normally.
 
The introductory spell list would cover the basics, but not be overly powerful. There should be enough to give the player a reasonable selection, but limited enough to give him incentive to spend more points on something special.
 

This sounds like a Presence Attack.

It's built as a combination of Extradimensional Movement (UAA) to put stuff into the bag and Stretching (Extradimensional) to pull stuff out. (FHC 243).

One magic system I've used for divine magic is to have effects powered only by an END Reserve that will only recharge while the character is performing religious acts, such as prayer. I did this specifically to emulate HarnMaster's ritual and piety point system, and to give divine magic a very different flavour to arcane magic.
 
You coud vary is somewhat - recovering END only while on ground consecrated to the character's deity, for example (though one might then allow a specific temporary Consecrate ritual which costs no END but requires significant extra time so you can set up a temporary shrine where you stop to camp, but can't recharge your reserve in combat).

Hero Games will be launching a fan-driven community content program on DriveThruRPG in about a month, similar to Dungeon Masters Guild and Storytellers Vault. It’s going to be called Hall of Champions, and it will allow you to publish your own work on DriveThru for profit under the banner of being a Hero Games product. (Though solely for commercial purposes on DriveThruRPG.) You’ll be allowed to publish using any version of the Hero System you like from 1st to 6th, including Champions Now. You will also be allowed to use both intellectual property that belongs to Hero Games, as well as the Champions Universe, which belongs to Cryptic Studios. The program will supply artwork and templates to work from to make the entire process as easy as possible.
 
To being with, what I’m looking for are some initial fan contributions from you guys so that we have a certain number of products ready to go at launch. I’ve already received commitments from two of our third party publishers, but could use a bunch more from fans. There are (of course) significant rules governing the community content program, which I will share with you should you contact me. If you have work you would like to contribute, it needs only be in PDF form and have a JPEG cover image available. (This can simply be a copy of the front page.)
 
Thank you as always for playing the Hero System, and I look forward to hearing from you.
 
Jason Walters, Publisher
jason@herogames.com

"Only perceivable by people I want to perceive it" is not a Limitation. I think it's probably worth a +1/4 Advantage.

This is pretty well-developed technology. The first Pegasus was launched in 1990.

Okay, that was a lot of wasted effort--
 
not you guys; the wall of text I just wrote and deleted.  My apologies, but upon proofing it, I realized it sounded far more adversarial than I ever intend _anything_ (not work-related) to sound.  After a couple of attempts at tweaking it, I realized it just couldn't be salvaged, and frankly, with the down votes already being thrown around, I'd have to say that things are already adversarial enough in here without accidentally contributing to it.
 
So let me try again, if you would be so kind as to bear with me.
 
First, I'd like to say that I'm human.  I'm willing to be that everyone here is _human_-- except possibly Hugh-- who isn't here yet-, and may well be a web-based AI whose sole purpose is to remember every single detail of a rulesbook and several thousand conversations, all the while mathing our entire universe down to it's base prime number.     (Love ya, Hugh.  Seriously: thanks for all the times you've been a great sport, and hopefully will be one for this, too.    ).  Because of that, and because this is a both an informal and a  conversational format for communicating to people who have at least one thing in common (appreciation or at least interest in some incarnation of the HERO System), our opinions are _going_ to leak out; they are just going to leak out.
 
And before anyone points out that I have no right to speak for everyone, you're absolutely correct.  That was my opinion leaking out.  It's going to happen a _lot_ throughout the rest of my life, and while we can all protest otherwise, I am willing to be that makes me the very-most-possible opposite of unique here.  When you see my opinion leaking out, I implore that you do _not_ assume that I am presenting it as any kind of fact; more importantly-- much, _much_ more importantly, I humbly request that you do _not_ read it as any kind of insult to anyone in any form or fashion.  For example: do not assume that I insult the way you or someone else is playing the game.  I play 2e, for Pete's sake!  I _know_ I play it different than most of the people here; I'm not going to call you out for doing your thing different.  So again, I ask that you take no offense at opinions leaking out: that's all they are: conversation, sometimes offered as quips, humor, lightening tension, or something that I personally (you know: in my own opinion) thought might be interesting to think about to perhaps one person who might read it.
 
And that's _it_.  No insult; no sarcasm; no attack.
 
You know, if I was Canadian, I wouldn't have to make such a preamble.....
 
 
Second, I almost _never_ get involved in these "how do I build an everyday thing" threads.  Why?  Because they end up adversarial.  Assumptions get made, down votes get tossed around, and people start getting their feelings hurt.  (No: I will never down vote anyone for anything but the most extreme and offensive of personal attacks (against anyone who isn't me.  I genuinely cannot get too terribly worked up over a total stranger's opinion of me, so have fun with it  )-- well, and that one NGD thread where we are all passing out down votes for fun.  That was damned amusing   .  I tend to think of the down vote button as a special kind of passive-aggressive dickishness that I just can't get behind.)
 
At any rate, these tend to break into two camps:  the camp of "I just want to play with this idea" and the camp of "you must do this."  I only decided to post to this one because, after a quick read of the thread, the OP doesn't say at any point that he is either going to require players to do this, or that he is being required by a GM to do this.  Without that direct statement, I'm going to work on the assumption that this is one of those "fun ideas I want to play with" posts, and run with that.
 
That being said: 
 
I'd build a smartphone using the computer rules of whatever edition you're using.  That will cover pretty much all your apps-- they're just programs.  Your processor is just INT.  I'd take a really hard look at what actually _is_ an app, and what is actually web-based: while they may be out there, I've yet to see a phone where "Translate" was hard-coded into the phone as opposed to being something web-based that is accessed through your phone.  Now you can build a special "internet accessing device" perk for your gadget (I wouldn't), or just let that fall into the SFX of your HH Radio Communication: Phone, Text, internet access.  Ho-yeah!
 
Then-- now keep in mind that this is assuming it's an off-the-shelf phone-- I'd mandate that it be a fragile/breakable focus.  Yep: you get hit with the fire blast or whatever it was that Doc D mentioned up above, there's a good chance you'll break it.  However, you paid points for it (in a game run by someone who wasn't me), and I'm not going to keep you from your points; I am merely applying the Foci rules.  You will be able to replace it-- without the expenditure of additional points-- by either handing it to the team gadgeteer (if you have one) or stopping at the next phone store (or Wal-Mart, or Dollar General, or Family Dollar, or pharmacy, or large, upscale gas station-- or pretty much anywhere that doesn't sell building materials, potpourri, or gold chains by the foot (14 or less for the gold-by-the-foot kiosk selling them anyway))  you pass.
 
I would implement the other disadvantages of a "real" cell phone, too: as mentioned above, you can be tapped, traced, hacked, located, and telemarketing robots can call mid-stealth roll.  You _did_ remember to silence it, right?  NO, DAMNIT!  I _don't_ mean put it on vibrate, since that seems to be the loudest damned setting the things have!
 
All that being said, I wouldn't do it, period.  If my game was still set in 1982, sure: these things would be _amazing_ game-changing devices that could provide a _huge_ advantage over the bad guys!  Well, except for translation, streaming, texting, and anything else that's internet-based.  If memory serves, the internet was a pretty dull place in 1982.....
 
But let me explain why I wouldn't charge for it, at least not one bit more than HH radio com, as a phone, if someone really felt that was a game breaker or charged more than a single point for a team communicator:
 
What can we do with it?  We can put books in it!  Cool.  So we first have to find out the point value of a single book.  Then we can charge that much for each book that's loaded into the phone.  Or we could, since you'll never read more than one at a time, charge for that one book and sort of "gadget pool" it out via the internet when you need a different book.
 
So let's build a book in HERO.  To use something I think most of us are familiar with, let's use HERO System 5e book.  What value does this book have?  Well, it's bulletproof; we know rPD is worth some points.  So let's day that books have what--?  3 rPD?  Was it a high-powered rifle?  We'll give books 5 rPD, just in case.  Having access to this book at a moment's notice means we effectively have the all-important skill set all superheroes and adventure characters need:  KS: how to use the HERO System, 14-  (because you were probably wrong, and should look it up); Extra Time (you have to look it up, remember?)  Okay, now what's that skill?  Well, for most of us, I guess it would be a KS-- just a couple points.  But for those who have to be _way_ more familiar-- those who write for or about good ol' HS, well it's going to be the source of a Professional Skill: some part of their income depends on getting everything right, after all.  You know, let's just call it 2 pts anyway.  We know now that books are worth character points, the same value as a die of blast or doubling your lifting strength.
 
Seems right.
 
But there are disadvantages to books, too: they catch fire.  They hate water.  They fall apart under extreme abuse.  So let's call them fragile foci, too.  What's the final value on 5 points of OAF fragile/breakable in your favorite version of the game? What other advantages or limitations are there to carrying around books?  I'm not going to worry about that simply because this has already gone on far too long; I have little doubt that anyone more interested than me could justify both books that cost 30cp and books that were completely free; possible even books that give you a point back just for owning it (I'm looking at you, Deepak Chockra or however you spell it).
 
But once we have that cost, we multiply it be the number of books we want in our phone: using the base five points determined above by not-quite-completely-arbitrary means, I decide I want sixteen books in my phone  (I cheated: I just looked at how many books I actually have in my phone right now    ).  At five points each, my phone-- before anything else gets bought-- costs 80cp.  I think I'm going to build a gadget / book pool instead: after all, I can only read one at a time, and I can switch back and forth almost whenever I want; it's a nice simulation of downloading / deleting, too, so... Bonus!    .   Of course, if I just pay the 80 cp, then my phone now has 80 rPD, because five per book, right?  No?  Is it because different books have different rPD and we have to figure all sixteen of them individually?  I'll need to make a cheat sheet for my book pool, then.
 
That wasn't the problem?  Ah, of course: the STR minimums for the books!  I could never hope to carry sixteen copies of HS 5e without suffering an encumbrance penalty.  What was I thinking?  So let's round it off and say that with these sixteen books my phone now weighs  one-hundred-and-twelve pounds.  That's not going to cut it.  Fine.  We'll use PDFs.  No STR minimum; no encumbrance, much more powerful reliance on electricity.  So now we've got to figure out the value in CP of PDFs.  For simplicity's sake, let's say that they are the same AP as books, minus that rPD.  Sounds like a savings, but you don't get to down-cost with STR Min, either.    
 
Yes; that's gone on _way_ to far.  Thanks for indulging it.  Sincerely: thanks for putting up with that.  But it does come down to what do you charge a superhero for a book?  What do you charge him for a calculator?  What do you charge him for the world's absolute crappiest flashlight?  What's the END cost for lighting up the screen?  How does it vary when it auto-levels the brightness?  How much END for each additional window / tab / program you have open?    We're going to have to keep up with that if we build the thing.
 
 
Now I'd like to take a minute to revisit an earlier comment: I would charge for this sort of super crime-busting equipment were my game set in the world of 1982 because of the advantages it presents.  Maybe not much, because of the disadvantages it has as well.  To be equally straightforward, I would charge _today_ for a no-limitations custom, super-device with none of the inherent problems of an off-the-shelf phone.  But I can't charge for a cell phone because it doesn't provide an advantage or a leg-up or anything that your villains don't already have.  In fact, unless you were born super, you probably had this amazing device-- or something not unlike it-- before you actually became a made character.  It's something that, in the first world, at any rate, a staggering number of adults and pre adults have.  I might actually consider giving a _disadvantage_ to a character who refuses to have one in a modern setting.  (which, interestingly enough, is another rules-legal way to give everyone an "everyman" cell phone that works the way the GM says it does).
 
 
And this whole thing-- well, mostly the reactions of "you have to build it and charge points for it"-- is what drove me away from this board years ago.  In my heart, I truly believe it's why HERO died in popularity:  when I hear or read people complain about the "complexity" and the "math" involved, I ask questions.  More times than not, it is not the actual math (though that comes up a lot-- unfairly, I think-- with regard to character creation),  it boils down to being sick to death of "_having to_" build every little piece of the universe.  Not GMs so much (we tend to enjoy that nonsense, just as a thought exercise), but even as players who suddenly find themselves required to "build" a costume that stays clean or a cape that always moves as if stirred by a soft breeze, or being told that their secret ID character cannot use the spike of her high-heeled shoe as a weapon applied to the temple of her assailant because she hasn't paid points to assign damage to it as a weapon, so she just gets STR damage.
 
  "No, Jimmy: you're clothing never has dryer lint!  No; I would _love_ to charge you for dryer lint, but I haven't had the time to build dryer lint just yet.  Give me a couple of weeks; things will slow down some, and I'll get right on it."
 
Cell phones.  Home furniture.  A place to live.  These are super-ubiquitous items that I just _can't_ charge for.  Doing so just drives home that nitpickiness that outsiders hold against the system to begin with, and ultimately, except as a fun thing to wonder about, it's a huge waste of both my time and the players' XP.  I won't charge for a cell phone anymore than I would charge for a domino mask.
 
 
Oooh!  Domino mask!   Concealment, 22 or less...    Or maybe +5 to the character's existing concealment?-- personal identity only... OIF-- OAF if we're feeling risky.....   Maybe plusses to PRE, since no one is _really_ comfortable being yelled at by  a stranger?  Actually, that sounds good:  Concealment 22 or less, personal identity only, +5 PRE.  Oooh-- would the Reputation Disadplication hinge on that mask?  If Robin showed up without his mask, would people still know he was Robin?  If not, then the value of the Reputation total should be reduced to show it's Linked to the mask.  Linked?  Only in HERO ID?  Does anyone have a reputation that only applies in HERO ID?  We should retcon all the characters in this campai-- nah; too much work.  We'll start it with the next campaign.  Maybe the Reputation has a Dependance on the domino mask?  Or it's like a spell ingredient?  Have to give that one some thought. :/  Wait!  Reputation:  Triggered by viewing the domino-- eh.. I think that has some problems, too.  Granted, when Robin's not there, he's still got the reputation when people speak of him...  Though they are going to see him as having the mask, every time.....  So the mask is important to it....
 
Oh-- can he get accidental change if the mask is prone to fall off?  Or take the same value as the focus and remove that value from his super-heroic physical and psych lims....?
 
 
It just goes on.
 
Some stuff just isn't worth doing, and for my games-- do yours how you want, obviously-- everyday stuff-- the things you have in pocket (unless you're like me enough to have a couple of knives on you as you sit here) as you sit down to browse a good book....   I'm not going to charge for, period.
 
(Cue Hugh finding some really clever and highly lethal combination of the stuff in my pockets that's worth at least 30pts as a combat-usable something or other.        (You can't use the knives; I've already copped to those))
 
 
 

Are we talking moo-dos or techni-cows?

Only 'til the end of the night.

And this is the point where paying points is of value.  If you rely on "free" kit then the GM has narrative control over that kit.  If you get hit with a flame blast and the GM wants to remove your access to the cellphone, then he can say that the heat causes it to fritz out and may indicate when you might get access to it again.  If you pay points and use the focus limitation to make it cheaper then you cede a little bit of narrative control and bring the functionality within the rules.  If you simply pay for it then you should expect to have the functionality at all times - you have narrative control.  With a weapon bought with a focus, you may be disarmed but expect the GM to provide you with access to it when you escape.  If the weapon was given to you as kit from a patron then when it is removed from you there should be no expectation that you will ever get it back.
 
Doc

I bet you were surprised to get a fortune cookie in an Italian Restaurant.

"Only perceivable by people I want to perceive it" is not a Limitation. I think it's probably worth a +1/4 Advantage.

"Only perceivable by people I want to perceive it" is not a Limitation. I think it's probably worth a +1/4 Advantage.

It is very hard to take you seriously when you claim that there isn't any difference between Democrats and Republicans. 

Always be punching Nazis.

Only 'til the end of the night.

Only 'til the end of the night.