sbarron

Re: The Cost of STR & Other Characteristics: An open discussion You'll notice that for 4 fewer points, we now have an Energy Man that is 8 times stronger than your Energy Man. He also does 3d6 more in punching damage, and has 3 more dice to attempt to escapes from grabs. He also has an additional point of PD. Did I mention he can lift motorcycles over his head? For 4 fewer points... Why would a player not do that? Character concept? Then I salute you and him. Because I almost never see the concept of the weak character gets energy powers, without the obligatory "the energy changed the structure of his body, granting greater strength and toughness." Yes, it does happen in games with good players. And I'd bet most of the people on this board fall into that category. But you are not rewarded for making a weak character. You are punished, because a character that doesn't buy up his STR is inefficient as heck. 2:1 goes a long way toward fixing that problem.

Re: questions about disads for dryad-like race I don't think I'd do anything with these three things except discuss with the player what it means. In reality, these disads are all similar to things that normal characters take for granted and don't get disads for. Those being, 1) must sleep, 2) must eat food that is consumable by humans, and 3) will die if they lose their soul. But, for arguments sake, I guess these are marginally more limiting than the human needs. Like the must root in soil. This couldn't happen if the dryad where inside a rock mountain, where there is only rocky floors and no soil. Or at sea. So they'd have to take special care to bring some soil along in situations like this, or suffer the effects of not sleeping. Depending on how much soils is needed, you could make this a 5 pt. or 10 pt. physical disad, I guess. Can't sleep without soil. Any place you have humans that have food, you're going to have something close enough to sugar and water for the character to get by, I'd think. So this isn't really much of a disad. As you say, more of a quirk. (And I don't mean that in the GURPS sense) The last is really just a special effect of being a dryad. If their tree is hidden, and not identifiable as a dryad's home, then the only real concern would be mass de-forestation. Like a logging campaign or a forest fire. But since the GM is in complete control of this, I'd say its no more dangerous to a dryad than a human's concerns about having his soul stolen, or being posessed by a demon. Again, I'd just call this a sf of being this character, and therefore not worth any points.

Re: 3 spell potions arent working... If you're asking about how to make them potions, I don't have the answer. I'm pretty sure FH or the FH Grimioure covers that, but I've never been big on pointing potions out, so I've never worried about the mechanics of how to build them.

Re: 3 spell potions arent working... I'd suggest describing these potion effects without gaming turns the first time. Then figure out in HERO how best to model them. Trying to model another game systems mechanics in HERO is always way harder than just figuring out what the special effects of the power are, and then building it. For example. Berserker potion. What does it really do? To me, it apprears that it makes the drinker better at combat, and more difficult to damage in combat. How would you model that in HERO? I think I'd go with 50% damage reduction, and +2 H-to-H levels. But that's because I'm not comfortable with the character taking "no stun." It just doesn't make sense to me. There are a dozen other ways to model this, you just need to find out which one works for you. The same is true for the others. Answer what the power does in layman's terms, and the rest will become clear.

Re: The Cost of STR & Other Characteristics: An open discussion

Re: The Cost of STR & Other Characteristics: An open discussion I agree that 2:1 STR works great for a fantasy game, and I enfore it in any herioc level game I GM. I think for supers it breaks down, because the Brick "STR power framework" isn't there to balance against the other characters taking frameworks. About Heroic games. My primary problem with STR at 1:1 in Heroic games is that its so cheap that everyone buys some of it. "Oh, you're a "frail" non-combat-oriented necromancer? Then why do you have a 13 STR?" I like to play a game where the strong city guard/street tough has a 13 STR. These guys are in the prime of their lives, and make it their business to be able to beat people up. 13 STR is above average and fits that to a tee. These guys should be tougher than your average Joe. I'd rather not have the "weakest" PC be able to bar-room brawl with these street toughs 1-on-1. It just doesn't fit my idea of how it should work. Making STR 2:1 forces the physically weak character concepts to pay for being strong. Further, it allows the mid-STR character types (strong theives, light and medium fighters, clerics) have a bit more of a protected niche in the 13-18 STR range. Because with normal 1:1, mages and other non-physical-combat types frequently buy 13 or 15 STR. Light and medium fighters, in order to differentiate have to go 18-20, and heavy fighters and strongmen have to go 20+. And that's way beyond where I want the campaign standards to be.

Re: Steampunk/Victorian fantasy setting questions Substitute nuclear with iron, and you would have a panacea of plot ideas for a game in Eorth. The Western Empire would likely propose an Iron Non-Proliferation Treaty with anyone they could get to agree to it. The mining, refinement, and manufacture of iron ores would be discouraged. The WE might even go so far as to offer effective magical or material alternatives (at a discount) to any country that was willing to agree to no longer mine, refine, manufacture, or export iron and iron-based technologies. PCs could be British Committee to Regulate Unsafe Steel Technologies ("C RUST") investigators trying to prevent the spread of iron and steel products and technology. - IITTA - International Iron Technology Treaty Agency - C RUST Inspectors - Sent to Iron Kingdom factories to ensure compliance with Iron Non-Proliferation Treaty. - Greek uprising made problematic by the sudden appearance of outlawed iron and steel weapons. - British Customs intercepts shipment of iron musket balls entering Bristol. The manifest was destroyed prior to being confiscated. Who is exporting iron weapons? Who's importing them? Why? - Is there internal resistance to Fey rule? Maybe it's the League of Extraordinary Anti-fey Patriots (LEAP) looking to get their hands on iron and steel weapons.

Re: Steampunk/Victorian fantasy setting questions

Re: Steampunk/Victorian fantasy setting questions The iron allergy/susceptability thing might be overstated a bit (if realistic simulation is a concern). Now, I'll be the first to admit that its your fantasy world, and if you want the fey to use alternative materials to iron because you think that's cooler, then by all means just do it. I'm just offering an alternative viewpoint on how things might work. Iron and the Army Kind of like testing for witches by dunking people in the river, or staking people in the heart to see if they're vampires, the logic of military leaders having concerns about troops with iron weapons being a threat to them seems faulty. Every soldier to take a battlefield in human history carried with him a weapon that could kill his commander...or himself. Unless the fey are immune to non-iron weapons, or they have a very strong allergic reaction from even being within the vicinity of something made of iron, then their fear of iron shouldn't be that much stronger than their fear of anything else. A bronze sword can still kill them almost as easily. Further, you have to be careful not to make their susceptability/vulnerability to iron too strong. While the fey troops can be prevented from bringing iron onto the battlefield, their enemies will certainly be using iron against them. Presumably the "Iron Kingdom" could litter a battlefield with iron shrapnel as easily as their historic counterparts, which would make it nearly impossible for a fey army to beat them in open warfare if they are allergic to its mere presence. Iron and Society When thinking about how a fantasy population might react to a useful substance to which it is allergic/susceptable, it might be helpful to think about real world equivalents. In the real world, humans make use of radioactive materials for power, medicine, and warfare all the time. Electricity is powered into every house, even though it can easily kill you if mishandled. Electical wires hang on every street in America, and subways and trains run on electric rails. Arsenic, mercury, and lead are in many, many products that people use every day, and these substances can all kill you. Gasoline is flammable, and yet it is used in almost every car in the world. I think The Empire of the Western World would make extensive use of iron. Iron is just too good a substance to not utilize. But like radioactive materials, electricity, and poisons today, the Empire would take precautions to ensure that the danger to your average citizen would be minimal. Some random thoughts... 1) Fence off iron train tracks the same way electrical rails are fenced off. Warning signs are a must. 2) Iron building materials covered with concrete or brick...how bad would this be to your average fey citizen? 3) Construction workers and railroad employees all wear haz-mat suits to protect them from exposure to the iron construction materials and railroad tracks. 4) Iron weapons can be hermetically sealed in sheaths and/or containers, similar to how radioactive weapons get treated today. 5) How much iron is there in the drinking water? At what percentage does this cause a problem for the fey? Maybe a victorian water filtration plant is needed to get the iron out. Maybe it involves magnetics?

Re: Only to affect secondary characteristics?

Re: Hey, what's in those ruins? People frequently bury in the ground valuables they want to hide. Depending on errosion patters, stuff that was not reclaimed may be buried even deeper, or it might be sitting right on the surface. There could some hiding places that still hold the occupants, just waiting for the PCs to open the door and have the bones spill out onto them. Not zombies, just clear, tragic stories that can be deduced from setting. - A wooden cabinet with a spear sticking out of the front of it. The body of the child that was hiding still pinned within. - An attic that still has the whole family in it. They died of smoke inhalation before the fires could be put out. Nobody bothered to check to see if anyone was in the attic before the invaders left town. If you want to get really heavy into this, the daughter/son is still clutching a diary, detailing the events leading up to the fire. Family's heirloom might be found in such a way. Burying the dead might merit bonus exp, or might activate the heirlooms powers which previously only worked for the family members. - a barricks or fort area where the evidence of failed organized resistance is still evident. A barricaded door that was never breached, smashed gates, broken walls, etc. Litter bodies around as appropriate. - An abondoned barn with farm animal remains still tied to their posts.

Re: Is this an OIF? What if I buy a HKA, defined as a sword, but then don't make limit it all with Focus? Can it be taken away? Is it magic? Do I need to swing it to attack someone?

Re: +? Disadvantages The "300 total" is the total character points the character has spent. 300 = 225 Disadvantages + 75 Starting. Actually, since I don't have my copy of MMM in front of me, I'm guessing about that. But I think its a good guess.

Re: Laser Gunship Revealed Aren't lasers like this usually invisible? No Star Wars light show? I guess it just might look like a car melting or blowing up.

Re: Active defense roll I like the idea of players rolling for the attacks against them. However, given a PCs ability to adjust his DCV from phase to phase, I'd hate to see them "game" the system because they know the OCV of the attacking mook. If you knew the mook only had a 3 OCV, and your 6 DCV makes it really unlikely that he'll hit you, you'll certainly shift levels into OCV, damage, or use martial maneuvers that do the same thing, to take advantage of your relatively high DCV. As it stands now, you have to guess at an opponent's OCV, and I think that's a good thing. Sure, you eventually are able to guage the opponents OCV, but it takes a phase or two, maybe more if the GM is rolling. This idea has merit, but I'm not sure about the execution.

Re: Adding a special effect

Re: Adding a special effect I guess I was asking you specifically for the game you had in mind. Magic, unlike fire, doesn't intrinsically do damage in all games. That's why I think this is difficult to cost out in HERO. If you put a layer of fire around your fist, then you're doing mostly physical damage, with a little energy damage thrown in. This could be done easily, with fire damage, UBO. You could also say that the fist actually turns into fire, which means it would do energy damage exclusively. This is harder, because its technically a transform. But at worst, I'd say you'd have to buy the fire attack up the the DC of a punch, UBO. Or you could stick a price on this power that you think is appropriate, like you've mentioned in a previous post. That's definitely what I'd do if this were my game. However, either of these are relatively easily modeled in HERO, because the special effect only defines the type of damage you're going to do. But with granting a "magic" special effect, there is no obvious result. Its totally campaign specific. You have to define it as something, then you can figure out how to model and cost it. Does magic act like fire, in that all creatures are burned by its touch? Are there special defenses that only magic can pierce? Define what magic does, and then I think it'll be more clear how to best model and cost it in HERO. That's why its campaign specific.

Re: A Thought on Speed Chart Order I've always been partial to ties going simultaneously. Order can only be broken down so far before it becomes, in effect, simultaneous. It just seems right to me. YMMV!

Re: Adding a special effect

Re: Combat Options In a Hero game, assuming that the damage that both did was the same (the claymore does more damage, but the rapier's lower STR min allows the PC to get the DC class back with additional STR) it would be a coin flip. In real life, the guy with the rapier would almost always win. The speed of the weapons is a huge factor in real life, that isn't incorporated into HERO.

Re: Stun/knock outs, overwhelming the combats

Re: reverse vulnerability And if you are hell bent on not using transform, then just create a power that does what you want, and set a price for it that you think is reasonable. Just because Hero is a toolkit doesn't mean every tool is going to be found within it. If you don't like transform, or Aid, or any of the other book rule options presented, then just make something up. Like this... Warlock's Curse: Character's afflicted with this curse take an extra 3 points of damage/effect from all adjustment attacks for the duration of the curse. The curse generally lasts for 1 month. The Cursing character can only cast this spell on 1 person at a time, and recovers the ability to curse on the full moon following his last cursing. (Real Cost: 5 points)

Re: reverse vulnerability So long as you are only talking about a small effect as a result of the curse, then why not call it a cosmetic transform? Would that still be too many points? How big of an impact do you envision the curse or blessing causing? From my initial reading, I imagined an extra couple of points from an adjustment attack. Turning them into a toad is clearly a major transformation. Giving them a small vulnerability to adjustment attacks (which are generally pretty rare) could easily be considered cosmetic. You could get a 10d6 transform for 10 pts pretty easy... Warlock's Curse: Cosmetic Transform 10d6 (standard effect: 30 points) (Transform person into person with x 1.5 vulnerability to Adjustment Attacks, Remove Curse by kissing toad) (50 Active Points); 1 Recoverable Charge which Recovers every 1 Month (-2 1/4), IAF (-1/2), Spell (-1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4)

Re: reverse vulnerability I'm all for changing the system to fit your game. But this is just wandering too far off the reservation for me. You're creating a very complex rule. It doesn't seem very intuitive and the costs seem to be way out of whack for the benefits. Also, for the points that you're talking now, Transform again seems to be a viable option, doesn't it? Good luck CTaylor. I hope you find what you're looking for...

Re: reverse vulnerability