sbarron

I think all of these can be handled with Mind Control and various advantges. 4. "Act like your hormones are doing X" 9. "Don't remeber X and act like Y" 11. "Don't use power Z and act like Y" 12. "Sleep," Freeze," "Don't move." You get the idea. 14. I don't know what Pheonix Force is, but "don't use powers" seems to simulate this. 15. Same as 12. These powers seem impractical to me in a RPG in all but the most high powered games. I doubt powers on this scale would be much fun to play for very long. GM: You accidently blew up the President's plane. Other Players: "OH NO!" Uber-Mental Guy: "I make everyone forget he was president!" GM: "WHAT...Everyone!?!" Uber-Mental Guy: "Yes. Including myself. The guy we just shot down was a usurper trying to take over the country. He killed the real President before the plane took off. 30d6 Mind Control, AoE Radius, Mega Scale should get everyone on the planet, right?" GM: "(groan) Yes, I guess so." Other Players: "(groan) So what do we remember this time?" But, hey, to each their own.

Well, I'm here. That's one.

This is true. But Ego is on the whole less useful than Dex. I don't think there are any Ego based skills, but there are many for Dex. Dex is still used for DCV, and for Spd Calculation. I think +0 would work out fine.

http://www.realultimatepower.net Obviously, it does. Real ninjas (like Seeker) are cool; and by cool, I mean totally sweet.

2nd Edition Fantasy Hero (for 4th Ed. Hero) really frowned on power framworks for magic systems in general. It takes a lot of thought and planning to balance magic bought through a framework, and there wasn't much effort put into that in that Fantasy Hero. 5th Ed. is a completely different animal. Power frameworks have been embraced as a valid means of creating magic systems. It's still not the way some people do it, but Fred and the new Fantasy Hero go to some length to show a GM how he could successfully utilize frameworks for magic systems. GrimJesta, on your first question. In Hero, it is generally expected that GMs and players are trying to play a game that is balanced and internally consistant. A lot of limitations and modifiers on things like a magic system are going to be unique to the system the GM chose to create. So when you read a limit that says "Must study spellbook to change spells," it is left up to the GM to decide what that exactly means. Generally, I'd assume that you must put a spell into your spellbook before you can reasonably expect it to be there to be relearned. That being the case, the VPP you mentioned is limited to spells that the caster has already put into his spellbook. Depending on the type of game that is being run, that could mean 3 spells, or if you have an "Infinity Spellbook," maybe it means you have any spell you could imagine. It's up to the GM and the system he created. How do PCs get new spells? How many do they start with? How many spells can a spellbook hold? How cumbersome is a spellbook to carry around adventuring? All of these questions impact the limitation "Must study spellbook to change spells." Depending on these answers, it might not be hardly limiting at all, or it might be a crushing limitation.

I just order one of them. Better hurry!

Maybe Viper doesn't want their "mad dog killers" to have weapons that can easily be turned very effectively against their masters. Also, it's out of genre for supers and G.I. Joe type games for people to be getting killed left and right. If you want a more lethal game, make the switch to assault weapons.

Great job, McCoy! Herogames website is certainly on an FBI watch list now. Do you suppose any agents will be converted?

Man this thread is funny... http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?t=72146&page=1 Any takers for a Hero version?

Yes, they were. There are lots of potential problems with doing spells with a framework. My biggist one is with players wanting only one or two pretty powerful spells. This becomes very expensive to do in a framework, if not impossible. And if a player does do it, what's to prevent him (outside of GM fiat) from having all of his spells being powerful? He has the framework to support big spells now. Sure, a Gm could limit a framework in some way to suite his game if that's the way he wants to go. And in fact, he still can. I'm not trying to argue one method over another. Gms just have another option now. I like the new discount method for creating certain magic systems. I like power frameworks for other magic systems. That's the beauty of Hero. Options.

I'd like there to be a section on how magic works. But not as presented in the Grimoire, with a rules heavy, technical explanation. I'd like to know how the mages themselves think magic works. Do Necromancers and Enchanters have different ideas about why magic works the way it does? How about Wizards? Are any of them right? Do the Ulronai think magic is a giant pool of mystical energy, floating 1 mile beneath the earth (it's flat), just waiting to be tapped into by the "the Blessed?" What does Kal-Turak think about magic? Is he so powerful because he understands magics true nature better than most? Giving the "real" physics of magic could be useful, but I'd really like to know how different mages and different cultures view magic and mystical energy. Different ideas about magic will tell readers a lot about the cultures view of themselves, and their view of the world around them.

In a lot of games, going around barking orders at people "because I'm the Earl of Hogshead and could buy and sell this villiage 100 times over" would be a magnet for kidnappers and robbers alike. Unless he is going to take a bodyguard with him wherever he goes, his wealth might be more trouble than its worth. Like you said, as GM, you have the power to make these worth exactly as much he paid for them.

Or take your examples in the other direction... 40 ED vs 10d6 EB, AP = 15 Stun and 0 Bod 40 ED vs 15d6 EB = 13 Stun and 0 Bod 50 ED vs 10d6 EB, AP = 10 Stun and 0 Bod 50 ED vs 15d6 EB = 3 Stun and 0 Bod 60 ED vs 10d6 EB, AP = 5 Stun and 0 Bod 60 ED vs 15d6 EB = 0 Stun and 0 Bod As you can see, AP is better vs high defenses than the normal EB. It's just the nature of the advantage. That's what makes a good MP so effective. You can choose the attack that is best for the situation.

C'mon Enforcer! You've got to be able to do better than "Greatsword." Nightbane, Ghostcleaver, Anduril...something, anything!

I fear drainers the most myself. Nothing ruins a characters day like getting 2 levels drained from one hit. If you think about...oh...wait...I don't have to worry about that anymore. Nevermind

I doubt if it's been mentioned before, but I suppose it's possible. The stunning rules have been around for a while. It seems like a relatively clean, simple, and effective idea for preventing PCs from getting stunned too much. But, personally, I don't see the need for it. I like the current stunning rules.

I'd probably go with a MP. My initial reaction is small VPP, but I think some of the effects might be too espensive (missle deflect, mind control) to properly simulate in a small VPP.

Here is the link from Surbrooks stuff that has HERO write-ups by Scott Nolan for all the LOTR charcters. http://www.devermore.net/surbrook/adaptionsbook/bookchar.html It is a little bit on the lower powered end, and appears to be based on the books rather than the movies. But they are excellent write-ups and seem to be pretty comprehensive. Edit: When I say low powered, I mean in their characteristics. It is hard to be low powered at 300+ points.

Mind control?

Have the players play the NPCs that will actually be doing the legwork. It can provide a nice break from the ongoing action and allow the players to explore the setting and time period from a different perspective. In addition, the captured PC gets to participate in the search for his character. That way he doesn't have to sit around waiting to get sprung. Once the investigation is completed, the investigators can call in the commandos and brief them on what they found. Then the players slip back into the commando role and go in and kick some butt to bring their man back alive!

I played in a solo campaign once. My character was a Super-Mage, and not as optimized as he could of been because I thought it was solo so I would have a little more room for error... Fight I: 6 agents robbing a bank, though only 5 were in it. The 6th was a sniper who nailed my character as soon as he arrived on the scene. Recovering from the first shot, I proceeded to wack the sniper with 12 dice. He goes down. I then take down the rest of the agents. But they keep recovering from KO before I can finish them all off. Eventually my only recourse was to start wacking them again once they were down. By the way, the sniper hit me again when I walked out of the bank. Fight II: 2 supervillians robbing Smithsonian. Same deal. I put one villian down hard, then started focusing on the other. By the time the second is down, the first is up and fighting again. As a player, there is only one answer to this...hit them again after they are down. Hitting the badguy again after he is down isn't very heoic. But if they GM makes them keep standing back up, what are you supposed to do? Needless to say, this game didn't continue very long.

It could also just be the special effect of higher damage totals. Jimmy and Billy Battle Weretigers! GM: Weretiger 1 rolls a 5 to hit. Rolls 3d6 for damage...14 BOD. "The weretiger lunges at Jimmy, raking his stomach with both rear claws and biting deeply into his shoulder!" Jimmy's Player: "Unghhh..." GM: Weretiger 2 rolls 5 to hit. Rolls 3d6 for damage...6 BOD. "The other weretiger leaps at Billy, but only manages to slash him with its left front claw." Billy's Player: "Ouch! I'm glad he missed with those rear claws! They're powerful!" PS: Man I love this game.

I realize for a lot of Gms and players it seems that all characters have the same stats (ending in 0, 3, 5 or 8). If you are in this camp, you just might find this a little frustrating and unrealistic. I can certainly see where you are coming from. Almost all of the characters that any of us ever see written up have a fair amount of optimization in their design. It is the nature of character creators to try and sqeeze the most points they can into a character. All characters aren't statted out this this way, however. Just the ones that someone actually takes the time to build. Obviously, there must be lots of characters out there on the bell curve that have stats ending with 1, 2, 4, 6, and 9. But the very fact that they have spent points inefficiently makes them less heroic. They didn't maximize their potential, so to speak, and that's why we aren't playing those characters. Maybe it would be a good idea for GM's and Hero Games both to generally try and work some less efficient characters into their games and books. That pesky reporter, the stalwart police detective, or the troublesome mayor could all have characters that were less then efficient in their design, and not adversly affect the game one bit. It would help with the perception that everyone has the same optimized stats, and would better reflect the world of "normal" characters that I think we all agree is out there, even though we never get to see it statted out. You could even use these inefficient stats as hooks for the characters. The slawart detective played football in college, so he has an 11 STR. Or the pesky reporter likes to run in her free time, so she has an CON of 12. Better than average, but not enough to make much difference in combat. Thoughts?

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2003391098,00.html Sweet!

I think you will be fine without magical healing. Generally, the problem PCs run into with lack of healing is on more serial, day in and day out adventuring. A fight today sets up a fight tomorrow, which leads to the boss's henchman and his Lt., and finally the boss, which the PCs can't beat because they have been getting nickeled and dimed on Body over the past week. The PCs need the magical healing to get healthy for the big boss. It doesn't sound like your game will have a lot of this however, and as you said, there will be plenty of time to heal up between adventures.