Mark Taylor

Re: Campaign Idea - Suggestions Gratefully Welcome A friend or associate of one of the PCs, one they could never possibly believe capable of murder, turns up on their doorstep covered in blood and begging for help. He claims he blacked out, and woke up to find himself at the scene of a particularly brutal and sadistic murder, covered in the victim's blood. On further investigation it turns out there has been a series of these murders, all following the exact same pattern, but a different set of fingerprints / DNA appears at each crime scene. The cops (or whoever is the law in your setting) are treating it as the work of some kind of cult, whose members they reason are going out and committing the murders, perhaps as part of some sort of initiation ritual. But the PC is sure their friend was not involved in any such thing... so what awful truth really lurks behind these appalling crimes? To complicate things and create a little more tension, perhaps one or more of the other PCs has some reason to be suspicious of the friend who's asking for help. I'm going to use this one in a campaign of my own some time, but I'll let you come up with your own answer to the mystery.

Re: Paper Burns! Well looking at The Paper I probably wouldn't apply these Limitations to her VPP as a whole because it could include Instant powers on which they would probably be inappropriate (unless the GM allows attacking a Focus / Physical Manifestation as a defensive action, and I suspect most wouldn't). However they would probably apply to any Constant or Persistent power which relies on some kind of paper construct for its ongoing effect (like the paper aeroplane).

Re: Paper Burns! Personally I would apply Physical Manifestation (-1/4) [5ER page 302] to the powers, because paper isn't that tough and it isn't just fire that can destroy it. For the more specific vulnerability to fire, you might want to look at Restrainable [5ER page 306], which at the -1/4 level can be used to represent obvious or well known vulnerabilities to certain phenomena (cyberware being affected by electromagnetic fields is given as an example).

Re: How do you track END? My groups play on a chalk mat (a large black vinyl mat that functions just like a battle mat, only using chalk to draw on it) anyway, so the players tend to just chalk down their current END (and STUN) totals on their bit of the mat.

Re: Tentative 2006 Schedule Happy to see Horror HERO, even if NNN, The Underworld Sourcebook and The Ultimate Mentalist have been pushed back a little. The Celtic Bestiary is also a definite plus. I'll just keep on waitin' for Cyber HERO... maybe 2007.

Re: At what point can HERO sue? Err... if RPG companies made a habit of suing each other for taking ideas from (or even blatantly ripping off) their game mechanics, practically every RPG company on the planet would be suing practically every other RPG company on the planet. It just doesn't work that way, and we should all be grateful for the fact, because if it did, RPGs (including the HERO System) would simply never have been able to develop and advance to the extent they have today. If every system designer had to design a unique and orignal game system that was different from everything else that had previously been done, we'd be stuck with an awful lot of bizarre and completely unplayable systems, because most of the ideas which actually work in practice have already been done. Fact is, if you look at a wide range of RPG systems rather than focusing on HERO and d20 it becomes obvious that there is not one RPG on the market today that has not adopted a significant amount of system ideas from other RPGs. IMO, the whole concept that HERO Games could or should sue WotC or SJG over something like this seems to run utterly against the grain of the entire game design scene and how it has developed over the years.

Re: What's the Worth of 4th Ed. Books? I just bought the Fourth Edition versions of both Cyber HERO and Horror HERO on eBay, but I haven't received either of them yet so obviously I can't comment on the quality of their content right now. My main reason is because I'm planning to run a Cyber-Horror campaign at some point and obviously both of these supplements would be a boon to such an endeavour! Of course, these purchases do not affect the fact that I will buy the Fifth Edition versions as soon as they become available, should DOJ choose to produce them!

Re: Horror Hero

Re: On balance...when no one else follows it. Hmmm. I'd be very wary of a GM who just caves in to whatever the players want.

Re: PREDATORS -- What Do *You* Want To See? His count is now estimated to be more like 250. What would be interesting about a killer of his type in a gaming context would be for the PCs to try to piece together enough evidence to make a case (provided you have players who like investigative style games at any rate, they're not everybody's cup of tea).

Re: PREDATORS -- What Do *You* Want To See?

Re: PREDATORS -- What Do *You* Want To See? I agree. I don't want to see this stuff omitted, but it doesn't have to get too explicit. In any case, it's always possible to convey the necessary information using very neutral, "factual" and inoffensive language. Reporters for the more respectable type of news sources do it all the time when they cover that kind of thing, and I'm sure Steve's writing skills are up to it.

Re: Julie? ...In fact, a quick survey of the actual posts made to that thread shows that 5ER got more "write-in" votes than all of the actual votes for the options on the poll put together, so I think that tells us something.

Re: Julie? There was a poll, but to be honest I don't think it really solved anything, and with seemingly as many people expressing the opinion "none of the above" as voting for the options, I don't think it really carries much weight among HEROdom in general. The "official" comment in paigeoliver's sig is either intended in jest or jumping the gun IMO.

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER In other words, standard Hollywood fare.

Re: D6+1??? No but there is in the old rules FAQ. Go into the Powers section and use the search function in your browser to look for "What are the standard costs of half dice for Attack Powers?"

Re: Minor Effects which cost a lot to build. Here's a new version of my original construction, adopting Blue Jogger's Recoverable Charge idea, which while it doesn't seem very valid for Mind Link, seems perfectly okay for Images. Magic Alarm: (Total: 39 Active Cost, 7 Real Cost) Mental Group Images 1" radius, +6 to PER Rolls, Trigger (+1/4) (29 Active Points); 1 Recoverable Charge (-1 1/4), Set Effect (Alerts Caster; -1), Extra Time (Full Phase, -1/2), Instant (-1/2), No Range (-1/2), Concentration (0 DCV; -1/2), Costs Endurance (-1/2), Limited Effect Mind Link (-1/4), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4) (Real Cost: 4) plus Mind Link , Links to source of Images instead of a specific "mind", Any distance (10 Active Points); Linked (Images; -1/2), Concentration (0 DCV; -1/2), Incantations (-1/4), Gestures (-1/4), Extra Time (Full Phase, Only to Activate, -1/4), Does Not Provide Mental Awareness (-1/4), Costs Endurance (Only Costs END to Activate; -1/4) (Real Cost: 3)

Re: Minor Effects which cost a lot to build. I'm not sure about the 1 Recoverable Charge on the Mink Link. A Mind Link built this way can only ever link to one target at a time anyway. You can't cast it multiple times and have multiple mind links active just because it's a spell, so it's not really a limitation.

Re: Minor Effects which cost a lot to build. I quite like that idea as a concept, so I'm going to try costing it.

Re: Minor Effects which cost a lot to build. Yeah my first attempt was using Clairsentience, though I must admit I wasn't quite as creative with my limitations as you were. Problem is, even the liberties I took with Mind Link seem minor compared to handwaving enough MegaScale to cover the whoe planet into existence without paying for it...

I'm converting a bunch of spells from WFRP, so expect to see more of these. There are some effects which are very minor, not at all likely to be powerful or unbalancing in game terms, but which cost a very large amount of points to build in HERO System. This is one of these. To paraphrase: The Magic Alarm spell can be cast on any spot the caster wishers. Thereafter if any living creature should pass within 1 yard of that spot, the caster will be aware of it, no matter how far away he is at the time. If he is asleep he will be woken. The spell gives no information beyond the fact that the alarm has been triggered. Only one Alarm spell may be active at any one time, and it only lasts until it is triggered or until another is cast. Sounds pretty straightforward, but almost every way I can think of to build it in HERO System is very expensive in terms of both Active and Real costs. Eventually I came up with this. This is by far the cheapest method I've come up with (probably because it's the only method that didn't involve enough MegaScale to cover the whole planet), and in order to work it breaks various rules, such as treating Mind Link as a sense and allowing a Mind Link to an instance of another Power rather than an actual mind! Magic Alarm: (Total: 39 Active Cost, 15 Real Cost) Mental Group Images 1" radius, +6 to PER Rolls, Trigger (+1/4) (29 Active Points); Set Effect (Alerts Caster; -1), Instant (-1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4), Limited Effect Mind Link (-1/4) (Real Cost: 9) plus Mind Link , Links to source of Images instead of a specific "mind", Any distance (10 Active Points); Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4), Does Not Provide Mental Awareness (-1/4) (Real Cost: 6) All that rule-breaking and it's still too expensive. Let's face it folks, it just ain't worth that much. Of course I could remove the +6 PER roll bonus, but technically that is required in order for the spell to wake the caster if sleeping, since PER rolls whilst sleeping are ordinarily at -6. Further rule breaking! That would make the spell cost 8 points, which to be honest is still perhaps a little more than it's really worth. Of course, maybe I'm being a duh-head and missing some obvious way to build this. I'd be interested in hearing any suggestions! Not just on this particular ability, but on how to handle minor effects which just seem to cost way too many points to build in general... because rest assured, I've got some more to come!

Re: New and trying to find out this question Always roll 3d6 for success rolls. Bear in mind that with a roll of 20-, you can still fail if the GM has assigned negative modifiers to the roll (perhaps due to a difficult situation or task) or if you roll a natural 18, which is always a failure. Edit: Beat me to it, Rigel.

Re: HERO 5th Revised I thought it was quite amusing that they even released a book specifically to help you wrap up your current campaign so you could move on to a new campaign with the new system and world. I wonder how HERO fans would have reacted had DOJ, around six months ago, released a $30 volume titled "Prepare for 5ER"!

Re: HERO 5th Revised Hey, at least you can acknowledge that part and are not claiming that DOJ are somehow forcing you to buy the book. That's a step forward compared to many.

Re: HERO 5th Revised