bigbywolfe

If the important part is you can't use the Power for an hour after it's used then just add a Custom Limitation "Can only be used for 5 Minutes, then Cannot be used for 1 Hour after That Period" -1 or 1 1/2, whatever the GM feels is appropriate. It's really that simple.

Justice is a dish best served cold, if it were served warm it would be justwater.

I wouldn't necessarily say that magic is more common in Ambrethel than many other fantasy locations, as far as when and how the average person interacts with it. However, magic does seem to be integrated into the social fabric of that world to a greater extent than in most other fantasy RPG settings. There are quite a few well-known and respected schools of magic across the known world, often focusing on distinctive styles of spell. There are also at least two mageocratic nations, Arutha and Kurum-Sathiri. Powerful individual wizards also seem to have had an unusually prominent role in shaping the (extensively detailed) history of the Turakian Age.
 
A particularly distinctive element of TA is how religion is handled. While most fantasy RPGs confine themselves to little more than lists of gods in pantheons, with their powers and "spheres of influence," and what abilities they grant to their priests; TA delves more into the theology of the major religions, what their doctrines are, their hierarchies, their politics, and the practices their adherents follow which shape how they live their lives.
 
If the main continent of Arduna adapts many of the familiar conventions of D&D and its imitators, the smaller continent of Mitharia is where those conventions are often subverted. There you can find surface-dwelling Dwarves, demon-worshiping Elves, civilized Orcs, rugged outdoorsy Halflings, a benevolent Lich. The Drakine (dragon-men), a people long in decline on Arduna, rule the most powerful realm of Mitharia. Mitharia also holds civilizations of Men not connected to and predating the oldest legends of the Men of Arduna; civilizations inspired by real ones from Earth which have rarely been adapted to games like these.
 
As the common designation of this setting implies, Kal-Turak is the dominant figure of his era. His intentions are feared by all. The "GM's Vault" info in the TA source book describes his hidden machinations to weaken the world as prelude to his campaign of conquest. Yet it's surprisingly easy to run the setting completely excising Kal-Turak and his realm. Turakia is located far to the north of Arduna, well beyond the territories of any other peoples. It conducts no trade or diplomatic relations with other nations. While the Ravager of Men has covertly meddled in global affairs for centuries, many of his described schemes occurred long before the default start date for a Turakian Age campaign, and have had little to no lasting effect on the "present day" world. For other more recent events where Kal-Turak's involvement isn't suspected, the public frequently have their own explanations for them, which a GM can choose the make the "correct" explanations. The few that don't fall into either category are not hard to rationalize without the Ravager, or to just ignore.
 
Excluding Kal-Turak still leaves a number of major foes which could become the focus of a campaign, from such world-shaking menaces as Vashkoran holy war, the freeing of the gods of Thun, or the imperial expansion of Orumbar; to more regional threats like the Yellow King of Valicia, the Vampire Lord of Dragosani, or the Seven Sorcerers of Vuran.

Continuously being pounded when you are on the ropes is not disadvantageous?
 
 
Going twice in a row is pretty advantageous regardless.  Do you find players often hold their phase for that benefit, or do they tend to take their actions as soon as their turn comes up?  What prevents their opponent also holding his phase, so that they just stand there, bobbing and weaving, waiting for an opening?
 
 
Other than a build to say "oh, look how dumb this rule is", why would anyone build, or permit, a construct like this?  What does this power simulate in-game, from an SFX perspective?  What is the defense, and why does it prevent this jab from landing with any impact when, otherwise, it could punch through full plate mail, or even 30 rPD of armor, to inflict a bee sting on the person inside?
 
From a purely mechanical perspective, why not just buy +4 OCV with the attack that inflicted the critical hit in the first place, so it can hit and do real damage more often? 
 
I find it far more incomprehensible that anyone would bother with such a construct, but maybe every two or three hits stuns an opponent in your games.  That has not been my experience.  Even then, I'd rather invest the points to improve the chance I will hit, enhance the damage I will do, or enhance my own defenses to avoid a retaliatory strike, increasing the number of stunning blows I will land and/or reducing the number that will hit me.
 
Even with that stinging jab and the critical taken for granted, if we are actually in a boxing match, great - you run out the round, we retire to our corners and both come out to start the fight as if that round had never even happened.  Maybe you delay again, so I punch first, get a critical and you are now stunned.  I won't be wasting my next phase trying to do exactly 1 stun - I'll be trying to turn that Stun into a KO and actually win the match.  In combat I actually see in games, Jab Man would get pounded into the ground by other members of the PC group, even assuming he got lucky enough to get that first stunning blow in, and was fast enough to get a jab in right afterwards.

If my character has a 23 DEX and, on his phase, is hit for 5 STUN at 20 DEX, then he cannot benefit from taking a recovery in that phase,  but can recover from being stunned.  They ARE NOT treated the same.
 
 
Altering your emphasis, since you seem to have ignore the fact that the inability to Recover means not getting back END or STUN, and does not mention recovering from being stunned.
 
As well, a character who is Stunned gets a PS 12 Recovery, regaining STUN and END, and does not recover from being Stunned, either instead of or in addition to regaining STUN and END.
 

It's right there in the wording.  They are obviously different things.
 
Consider this:  If being stunned means you can take no Recoveries - then how do you recover from being stunned?  The only solution to this is that they are, in fact, separate game terms.
Unless someone wants to argue that being stunned is a permanent condition.
 
Syllogistically speaking you are choosing between two choices given the wording:
 
A character who is Stunned can take no Recoveries.
Recovering from being Stunned is a Recovery.
Conclusion:  A Stunned character cannot Recover from being Stunned.
 
OR - And I would argue more sensibly
 
A character who is Stunned can take no Recoveries.
Recovering from being Stunned is NOT a Recovery.
Conclusion:  A Stunned character can recover from being stunned.

Taking a Recovery and recovering from being Stunned are two different things.  For one, recovering from being Stunned isn't capitalized.  It's not the same game term. 
 
For two, the timing is different.  Suppose I act on Speed 5, Dex 20.  On Segment 2, I get hit for more Stun than my Con score.  I am Stunned.  When Segment 3, Dex 20 comes around, I am no longer Stunned.  If I get shot again on Dex 15 of that same Segment, I am not Stunned any more.  Once my Dex has passed, I'm good.  But let's say I'm taking a Recovery.  If I take Stun damage at any point during the phase (including after my Dex), then I don't get any Stun or End back.
 
They are two different things.

Steve is fond of noting that this is a game, not a tax return.  The sellback of any stat should indicate some manner in which this character is inferior to an average person.  What defect of the character does selling back mOCV simulate?  IOW, what is the SFX of this sellback?

I castigate my son for constantly seeking to create false dichotomies, seeking to place me on the horns of a dilemma.
 
I do not consider it to be true that there are only two choices.  If this were true the game would never have come up with the adage that “if a limitation does not limit the character then it is worth no points”.  There is an acceptance that book values are not always true for each and every character.  Buying back characteristics is a form of disadvantage/complication.  
 
As my player, you come to me with a straightforward brick.  Your powerset is completely physical, pretty much like Colossus in the X-Men.  You have bought back OMCV to 1.  I ask you to tell me how it limits the character, I do not, as GM, intend to provide maguffins that require OMCV to utilise.  Tell me how it is worth the same as selling back your INT to 4, or your EGO, or even your DMCV.
 
Doc

If you have no offensive mental powers, you don't have anything to sell back to recover points from.  If you insist on spending points, then you start from 3 like anyone else would.  
 
In a campaign where no mental powers exist, then neither OMCV nor DMCV would exist, and no one would be able to sell either of them back.

As long as your character has no abilities that call for OMCV.
 
The moment you do, your OMCV will drop to 3.
 
While you're at it, would you like a free "Smash Goblins" Power for a game that features no Goblins whatsoever?  Note that the power vanishes if Goblins do actually appear in the world, so you'll never really get to smash a Goblin with it.
 
Lucius Alexander
 
The palindromedary says you can pay for the 0 pt Smash Goblin power by taking a 0 pt "Hates Goblins" Complication. But that wold be pointless.
 
 
 

A bar was walked into by the passive voice....

Yeah, it's an old one, but I always liked it.    It's my second-favorite, actually.
 
My first choice will always and forever be:
 


 
 

Finally, Running Man: The Game: The Book Version.

I really feel like I'm becoming a repetitive downer on this thread.   The Valdorian Age and Tuala Morn were both distinct self-contained settings which modified and tailored the default Hero System rules to reinforce a particular style of game play; the former for the well-established Sword and Sorcery sub-genre, the latter for a Celtic-myth-inspired setting which has rarely been done for the TTRPG market. Scott Bennie did much the same for supers with his Gestalt: The Hero Within. Hero System was also licensed for the well-established Traveller sci-fi game world. If you look through the website store you'll see plenty of third-party products with distinctive and inventive settings, for fantasy, sci-fi, post-apoc. There's no lack of interesting setting concepts using Hero; but if you target your product for a particular type of game, you're also targeting that fraction of the gaming audience interested in that type of game. The big sellers like D&D and Pathfinder use the generalized, bog-standard setting conventions most gamers are familiar and comfortable with.
 
Things like the settings above have appeal and are worth doing, and may draw in some new players. But none of them have a track record suggesting they're a magic bullet to turn Hero Games's fortunes around. As several folks on this thread have pointed out, the trend in RPGs right now seems to be away from the "toolkit" approach which has always been Hero's greatest strength and most distinctive feature. But if Hero game designers hew too far away from that, they'll have to play catch-up with all the other games already doing so. Maybe something like that could catch fire with the buying public, but without investing the money and time to produce it first there's no way to tell.
 
I don't think I can do much more here than depress myself and everyone else, so I'll shut up now.

I think, almost certainly. Even naming it Comeliness doesn't make it a Characteristic. The same people who have a problem with it now would have the same problem, it's just that instead of saying "Bring back COM!" they'd be saying "Make COMeliness a Characteristic again!"
 
Lucius Alexander
 
The palindromedary remembers....
 

1931, Virne Beatrice "Jackie" Mitchell Gilbert was one of the first female pitchers in professional baseball history. Pitching for the Chattanooga Lookouts Class AA minor league baseball team in an exhibition game against the New York Yankees, she struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in succession. 

did they run out of paint after the entry?

(shrug)  That same PC hero has a magic VPP he can change as a half-Phase action, so adding Hearing Flash Defense, or indeed any other defense, to his powers even on the fly is fairly trivial for him.  The team gadgeteer has a gadget VPP that can do the same thing.  And in this particular case, they had a pretty good idea who their foes were going to be - including that one of them has sonic attacks - as well as pretty much when and where they were going to attack.  (The news sheet I emailed before the game was as subtle as a brick.)  Overall, I think I telegraphed the punch pretty well.  If they don't want to duck the blow, or at least try to duck blows after the first one, that's their choice. 
 
And it's not like the bad guys immediately start using similar powers as soon as the heroes roll theirs out.  Malarkey has had that attack for well over a year.  He's been able to use it, fairly frequently, to great effect.  (In the game a few weeks before, he used it to single-handedly take out over a dozen Genocide Purity League Pawns in about 2-3 Phases - I think only two got any shots off at all - while simultaneously putting a decent hurt on the more powerful Rooks and Knights.)  Given that this particular power is a slot in a Multipower with OAF and Charges, he's gotten a ton of use out of those 4 points he paid.
 
It works the other direction, too - the players have copied powerful builds that villains have used against them.  If I roll something out against them, I'm perfectly okay with them buying something similar.  I'd like to think that keeps me from getting too cheesy with the bad guys' powers.

There's a difference between resisting and completely ignoring.  And these are anti-tank missiles, after all.  They should have at least a fair chance of doing some damage to a tank.  I mean, it's in the name, right?