MrAgdesh

On 2/15/2021 at 4:25 AM, Spence said:

 

Combats in supers or fantasy always seemed to drag on forever with 1/10, but had a built in sense of urgency and a faster pace at 1/5.

 

I've never known END use to drag out combat. My only experience on malingering combats has been when defences have been too high compared to average damage dealt.

I am using 6E. I keep End at 1/10 for Supers and 1/5 for Heroic level games. 

Pirates for me out of that lot. I started doing some 7th Sea conversion stuff awhile back. Its a great setting but the mechanics are too Theatre of the Mind for me.

Other than that, I'm currently only interested in Westerns and Modern horror (a Stranger Things/Kids on Bikes game being a lighter approach to the latter).

I think that you can stun them all right, without causing BODY, (so I'd drop the Takes BODY Only).

And add Susceptibility to Ion weapons  - 2 x STUN.

(38) Jawas Capture R2-D2 - Star Wars: A New Hope (in 1080p) - YouTube

A lightsaber and a very steady hand..?

17 hours ago, death tribble said:

 

 

The Death of Stalin This film is about the power struggle between Beria and Khrushchev following the unexpected death of Joseph Stalin. Round ups that were the order of the day which were mainly Beria's prerogative. But he seems to have underestimated Zhukov the Army Field Marshal who Khrushchev brings onside and they depose Beria and eliminate him. This is mostly a British film with Steve Buscemi playing Khrushchev. The film is banned in Russia. I wonder why ?

 

Ah! Thank you for reminding me that I need to see this, along with the Lives of Others (2006) about the East German Stasi. I've been to the Stasi museum in former East Berlin and its a very interesting place. East Berlin is notably grey and concrete and very early 70's styled in terms of furniture and decor (rather like the Bar Bohemia in London's Shoreditch) The only outstanding feature was the telecom tower there which is in the style of a Red Square Minaret and was apparently built much taller than the West Berlin equivalent as part of a one-upmanship thing, comrade.

But I digress. 

I've quite enjoyed the Queen's Gambit series of late. The Mandalorian is great too. Its the best Star Wars in 40 years I think, with the sole exception of Rogue One.

On 11/30/2020 at 2:43 AM, Duke Bushido said:

Let's go with Conan wenching his way across the continent.

 

“Conan, what is best in life?”

”To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their Non-Binary Gender Identifying Civil Partners”

21st Century Conan. 

13 hours ago, Ninja-Bear said:

@MrAgdeshso in Hero terms, would you say them a Speedster should be? Now being a rpg I wouldn’t say we have to 💯 % faithful to the comics. So perhaps Defenses x1 1/2 of DC average?

I played Heroclix for years and it really took me back to source material. Most fights in the comics do not last long if you tally up how many blows land in the frames. Again, I don't have my Avengers Essential collection to hand but in the early Avengers issue where the Masters of Evil invade Avengers Mansion, Radioactive Man (I think) one-punches Hawkeye. That might be a bit of a blow to the Hawkeye player but as it doesn't usually prove fatal (Radioactive Man doesn't walk up and slit his throat) its easy to come back from, even if your ego suffers a little, and so long as the rest of the fight doesn't drag on (but that depends on how you set your game up and is perhaps the most difficult aspect of Hero in managing). In early Amazing Spiderman (not Doc-Ock's inaugural issue but maybe his second appearance - going from memory here and its sketchy) Spidey comments on how fast Doc Ock's tentacles are. He speaks of if they hit him he's "done for". When I built Spider-man for my game, I bore this in mind. I had Doc's tentacles dishing out 10d6 and Spidey came in with 9pd and 25 Con. On average, if Doc hit him, it would be 1 body and STUNNED ("done for").

19 hours ago, Ninja-Bear said:

Is that how Speedster were portrayed in the comics? 

I can't speak for DC but for Marvel, yes. If they get tagged it can be lights out. Even worse for Quicksilver in Avengers: Age of Ultron (MCU).

I don't have my old comic collection anymore so I can't give you specific issue references, but if they get hit they tend to get stunned or even KOed by what is probably your campaign's high-end mid-range attack. 

But then, fights in the comics tend to be over way sooner than a typical Hero skirmish (defences too high compared to damage dealt usually).

It isn't unusual for street level heroes to get one punched by bricks for example. Even brick on brick might be 4-6 landing blows, max. (I can help you there; Sub-Mariner #8 Namor vs Thing) 

2 minutes ago, LoneWolf said:

That is completely untrue.  The only time you cannot abort to a defensive action is if you have already gone.  Besides if Bob is smart he is not even going to try to go first, he is simply going to declare he is blocking. 

Apparently not. 5rEd pg 360, 6E2 pg 19.

I like Asperion's suggestions at the top of this post. 

I look at it along the lines of how many more actions does the Speedster get in the comics than his contemporaries? In terms of 'frames' usually its not many, if at all. I therefore build them at the same speed as everyone else (usually four in a supers game) or let them max out at one higher. 

If you start giving dramatically higher speed to certain archetypes (2+) I would also think that you might have players opting for that type of character pretty much to the exclusion of others. They get to do so much more compared to everyone else. If you run a game where combat is lengthy then this is even more desirable.

Give them lots of movement and a high DCV. But low defences. If they get tagged it really hurts. 

12 hours ago, massey said:

Blockmaster Bob (Dex 20, Speed 5, OCV 10 with block) fights Stabby Steve (Dex 20, Spd 4, OCV 9 with stab).  On segment 3, the two make a Dex roll off to see who goes first.  Steve wins, and promptly tries to stab Bob.  Bob aborts his action to block.  

Except that once simultaneous DEX characters agree to that roll-off, they are both locked in. Neither can then abort that action if they don't like the result of the dice roll. You can Abort prior to the roll, sure, but not after.

I’m familiar with the d6-1 vs 1/2 d6 DC.

I’d never seen d6+2 (standard effect?) costed anywhere other than on the gun-fondling charts of the HSEG though. And it seems to cost 3 points.

What is the Active Cost of the +1 pip RKA to guns with polygonal rifling? On pg 111 of the HSEG it lists it as 'variable'

The Glock and HK examples on pg 72 seem to have it at 3pts based upon their Active Costs. Shouldn't it be 5? 

Can you buy up to +2 to a Killing Attack now instead of  1/2 d6? 

On 10/11/2020 at 5:07 PM, borbetomagnus said:

I enjoy painting miniatures, mostly Glorantha figures, but I also have a few superhero miniatures. But...

 

I've never used them in any superhero RPGs. I'm interested in how you've used miniatures with Champions games. Have they worked well or did their use in-game impede or interrupt the shared theater of the mind feeling of the gaming group?

 

 

Always used figures. Before Heroclix came along I used Steve Jackson Cardboard Heroes. Then came the absolutely wonderful Marvel Superheroes Adventure Fold-Up Figures (MHAC-3).

I can't imagine *not* using figures for Champions/Hero System. It's not a Theatre of the Mind game (its essentially a skirmish wargame). I use a 38mm (1 1/2") hex Mondo mat for the Clix and a set of water -soluble pens. If there is a specific 'scene' that a 'Clix map would work for (like a Junkyard or Lab) then I'll use that and get a tape measure out.

With the SJG Cardboard heroes, the old Champions 25mm Flextiles (remember those?!) work very well but they are out of scale with 'Clix. 

12 hours ago, Spence said:

It was what made me ponder about it.  But I can see how kludgy it could get if you had multiple opponents. 

I've run combats regularly with up to 6 players. The initiative Action Count is I think the best initiative system that I have encountered in any RPG. Your actions have a 'count' in tenths of a second and once combat begins it all works upward from there. In other words, if you say that you're going to draw down on someone then bring your weapon to bear (point it in their general direction, and fire, then once that resolves in game time you then then select you next option. There is no 'roll for initiative' or DEX ranking as to who goes first, who goes next is determined by the length of their action. 

As you get wounded, your capacity to fight back is reduced by penalties from your wounds and combat is extremely lethal. It's not a 'cinematic realism' game I'll grant - I consider it more Deadwood than Spaghetti - but it simulates the genre well, I find.

Admittedly, in the Covid Climate, I haven't run A&8s on VTT - I usually leave control of the action count to a player at the table to tell folks when 'they're up', but in Roll20 I need a Pro subscription for the API for that to happen. As the players were about to assault an old mining town where bandits were holed up, I've left the scenario on a cliffhanger for the time being. 

The gimmick of the shot clock is what drew me to the game, along with the poker chip mechanic for brawling, although in practice the latter gimmick just does not work - I default to the hand to hand rules instead and they work fine.

Westerns are certainly a niche genre and despite the fact that the Reloaded KS overfunded Kenzer & Co have had no interest whatsoever in supporting it, which is a shame.

Western by Swedish company Askfageln is also something that I have invested into, although sadly, they have been disrupted by personal illness in translating their game to English. If you want to see how beautiful Western looks, Google their Kickstarter.

I run Aces and Eights: Reloaded. I think its a great system, personally. There are a few rough edges but the combat system works perfectly. In fact, I find it plays far faster than Hero and it's realistically incredibly lethal. 

On 10/22/2020 at 10:11 PM, dougmacd said:

Or if you're hung up on the Evil part, how about a different limitation: "Only affects individuals wearing black clothing"?

 

 

In GothWorld this is worth +0.

On 10/1/2020 at 6:37 PM, unclevlad said:

I'm looking at the Judge Dredd wiki, and unless the comics or movies actually show it doing the Bugs Bunny stuff...

The comics certainly do.  

I think that works perfectly. I’ll add Physical Manifestation too so that it can be shot/swatted out of the air.

So I was building a Mk I Justice Department Lawgiver and when I came to design the 'HotShot' (heat seeker) round I drew a blank. At first an Uncontrolled Continuous Attack seemed to be the way to go but that works in exactly the  opposite way to what I'm after. In other words, once you hit it carries on dealing damage for whatever duration you've set. But it has to *hit*.

By contrast, a heat seeker/homing missile can miss, but will keep re-trying (for whatever period you've set) until it hits. Then it's spent.

Saw some discussion on [url=https://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/58614-missile-and-homing-missile/]this[/url] thread with the beginnings of a 'homing' advantage,  but that's a while back now. 

Am I missing something somewhere or is a house rule advantage still the fix?

On 9/20/2019 at 5:41 AM, GM_Champion said:

Could someone please provide me a link to either a video or online article showing how one, after subscribing to Roll20 for $$$, sets up a Roll20 game to have HERO support, add hexes, etc?

 

 

Re: Hexes, you can set these up via the Page Toolbar tab - Page Settings supports horizontal and vertical hexes in place of the standard square grid  and you can set the hex size to represent 1 Hex=2m. 

4 minutes ago, ScottishFox said:

Just from the perspective who DMs a LOT of D&D 5e - The Moon Druid really power spikes at 2nd and 10th levels.  At lower levels, especially, they can seem incredibly tough.

They are decently balanced from 5-9 and 13+ as their forms have AC that is garbage compared to fighters/paladins.  Their seemingly endless piles of HP will get chewed up pretty quickly by standard attackers.

At lower levels (we are now 4th) they have seemed incredibly tough - to the point where the fighting types (including two paladins and two fighters) seem to pale by comparison. This particular player has played more 5E than us and says that "later on, after about 6th, I am outclassed by fighters of a similar level". This just seems like shoddy design to us. To design a broken killing machine early doors only to have it fade out if and when the party survive to mid levels?

We would undoubtedly be dead on more than one occasion if it were not for the Bear/Spider WildShapes. and not from any strategic play, just from damage dealing and soaking. 

In a D&D campaign I'm in, one of the players is playing a Moon Druid - he gets to 'Wild Shape' (assume different animal forms) which are effectively different combat suits he wears with a free set of hit points each. If the form dies he just has to wait a while (rest) before he rinse-repeats.

Our group has been chatting on how you would approximate this in Hero terms. Multiform is balanced in Hero in that any damage taken is proportioned to the form you assume, but this D&D monstrosity doesn't work like that (only if damage carries over past the form's hit points is it a problem to the Druid's main form hit points).

I've said that essentially under Hero this build is something that transfers its consciousness between several, summonable, essentially indestructible repairable robot bodies, but I'm having a mental block as to how best to set this up (although actually, there is probably something in The Book of the Machine that covers this, thinking about it).

This is purely from a design perspective in creating the above.  - not meant as a legit way to create a broken template. I say 'broken' because in our experience the Druid in question totally outshines all fighting types in our group. 

I might have three or four planned adventures to start the characters off, but as a product of how these these pan out, 'sandbox' opportunities will naturally occur. At this stage, I consider that the game has got to a position where 'it runs itself' - in other words, I do not have to necessarily come up with a new plot thread in order to run the next session of play. The players may decide to follow up on loose ends from previous sessions and all I have to do is come up with the plot of that adventure (which will largely be formed in my mind due to the previous escapades) rather than a completely new adventure for the next session.

That's what I'd call a Sandbox, and it's always great when a campaign gets to the position of being able to run itself because a) that's less work for me, and (b) the players are getting immersed in a reactive world.

Thanks Simon.