TheEmerged

Re: In a Bind

Like a lot of things in HERO, there's more than one way to skin this cat. One I have used in the past was to allow a Contortionist roll against appropriate bindings/entangles to add 1d6 STR damage for every 2 points the roll was made by.

Example: Sting is bound by 12 DEF 6 BODY megacuffs, and has 60 STR and a 14- Contortionist skill. Normally he'd just have 12d6 to roll each phase, meaning he'd need a good roll or pushing to do BODY damage. However, if he makes his Contortionist roll he does 13d6 -- if he rolls a 12 he does 14d6, if he rolls a 10 he does 15d6, and so on.

Re: CSLs for ECV

And, of course, 8-pt "All Combat" levels include both PCV (Physical Combat Value) and ECV attacks...

Re: Is missile deflection needed?

See, that's one of the reasons my gaming group was trying to come up with a different costing mechanic -- determining the cost by FX doesn't make sense relative to the rest of the system operating independent of FX...

Re: Pros/Cons of an 'official' campaign world

I'd just like to chime in as someone running a campaign in a modified 5th Edition CU. I call the campaign NeoChampions because it's "Not Exactly the Champions Universe", if you will. The following is my opinion based on my experience -- no more, no less.

PRO: Suggestions, sometimes very good ones, about various interactions or characters to put in certain roles. The 5th Edition take on GRAB, for example, is a good case of putting the characters in the right "role" of greedy non-killers.

/soapbox on

CON: Glaring omissions that force me as GM to do a lot of work I shouldn't have to do. At the risk of repeating a pet peeve, not everybody's PCs are heroic. I've had to basically write up all but a small number of heroic super-powered groups for my campaign world -- and I had to rewrite several of the others anyway (see below).

/soapbox off

PRO: Artwork for the characters. Hey, some of us stink at this but are unsatisfied with the results from some of the tools out there.

CON: Having to accept someone else's campaign standards, or do enough rewriting you might as well have written from scratch anyway. I'm not badmouthing the standards themselves -- hey, if you want Missile Reflection to be the ultimate power in the campaign world be my guest and I'm not being sarcastic. I like my characters able to survive a couple of blows from campaign-average attacks, but fully understand my taste is not the only one.

PRO: Having a lot of the naming of background characters done for you. Saves me more time to tweak the writeups Seriously, this can be a big help for those inevitable investigation scenarios.

Re: Subject to Orders Vs. Hunted: Watching

As GM, I probably wouldn't *allow* the player to get points for both disadvantages -- that's generally going to be a case of getting two sets of points for the same problem.

If you do give them points for both, make sure they pay for both Not only should the orders cause problems, but so should the surveilance to make sure they're following the orders.

Re: Is missile deflection needed?

Missile deflection should have a cost associated with it. I'm not sure I like the current cost structure, though. It's one of those powers that doesn't scale well in the higher-point campaigns. We once toyed with the idea of making it scale according to the DC's of the attack but we couldn't come up with a satisfactory structure. One that came close was base 10pts to deflect 6DC, +1DC for 5 pts; keeping the roll but eliminating the -2 OCV cumulative penalty for additional deflects.

Re: Finding Invisible Woman

A classic invisibility hoser -- "Detect Use of Superpowers". Be warned that this one can create campaign issues if it is widely available.

Re: For the latest in superhero fashion...

No XXXL mens size? I guess there is some kind of EPA reg against that size in spandex.

Not necessarily. I'd be XXL and I'm by no means obese; I needed some shirts to be XXXL when I was at 275...

Re: Drawing END for the surroundings

If you're willing to apply an END value to surroundings, your best option would probably be an END to END Transfer with a -0 "healing" switch (doesn't fade, can't exceed maximum).

Another option for a slightly different effect would be to apply Expendable Focus to REC, possibly in a graduated fashion (+5 REC for an easy item, +5 additional for a not-so-easy item, +5 additional for a hard item, etc). I won't get into my usual argument/tangent as relating to putting limitations on END Reserve

Re: Advice for new GMs

1> Start with premade characters if possible/feasible. Character creation in HERO is the hard part.

2> There is no substitute for preparation. There is no substitute for preparation. This should be your mantra as GM. For example, one way to save time with END costs is figure out a few likely scenarios in advance and list them on the character sheet ("Half-move and main attack", "Standing Still and main attack", and "Likely backup tactic" are good starters).

3> Play out a couple of easy "test" scenarios before you try a full-tilt campaign. For example, let's say you have 3 players. Have one of the characters be the bank robber and two being heroes that happened to be in the bank. Start the fight in Segment 12 and watch what happens. It doesn't matter what the motivation is, anything before or after -- but the players will get a feel for what combat is like.

Think in terms of challenges, like the bread-and-butter of Insufficiently Scripted TV shows (less-correctly known as Reality TV). Work it out.

4> When you're ready for a campaign, make sure the players not only have a motivation but a reason to pursue it as a group. Loners make for good comic characters but lousy gaming characters, IMO.

5> Accept that players will miss obvious clues, forget important backstory elements, and go off on the strangest of tangents. The difference between a capable GM and a good one is to look like you know what you're doing when nothing is going according to plan. Insert crack about having a goodly stash of premade "standard" NPC's here.

6> Ignore ALL of the optional rules at first. Slowly test the ones that appeal to you and/or seem appropriate for the genre. Don't allow external pressure to affect your position -- I may swear by using Hit Locations instead of the "stun lotto" for killing attacks, but that annoys no small percentage of HERO players. Similarly I have come to despise the hurry/hip shot options, but some players feel they add an important degree of uncertainty to initiative issues.

Re: Beyond Conquerers, Killers, and Crooks: Your favorite villains?

My HERO purchases have been limited for the last year, I'm hoping to catch up soon. However I still have some ideas to through out

1> "Cameo" character I'm most looking forward to seeing a writeup of: forget his name, but the 'mental illusion' guy in the UNTIL Super Powers Database.

2> Fourth Edition character/group I'd most like to see in 5th Edition: CLOWN, or at least Merry Andrew

3> Fourth Edition character/group that I'd like to see that has more than a cat's chance at a dog show of actually appearing in 5th Edition: Leaper, from Champions of the North. Foxbat with more of a gadgeteer bent, slightly less looney but just as funny.

4> 5th edition character outside CKC I've had the most fun with: Disgustingly Powerful Ninja, from "Ninja HERO". Except I added enough 'combat luck' to meet campaign standards, and gave him duplication. 'Nuff said.

5> 5th Edition rewrite outside of CKC I'm most disappointed with: Oculon. Hey, I *liked* the whiney twerp characterization; he was my own personal Cyclops parody

Re: Introducing player to the HERO System

RE: Player's might not like having their characters created. Perhaps you could allow them to create *the character* -- say, a 75/75 or 100/50 without super powers -- and then you finish the character with mystery powers & limitations. This will mean the first session or so will focus on them discovering their abilities without them having to deal with the nitty-gritty of power construction yet.

Re: Spider Man Clone

Spiders are an extremely diverse species. Go for some of the OTHER spider powers, like tunneling and walking on water.

Look at some of the spider aspects Spiderman didn't touch on. Poison, for example (this was one of the aspects of Spiderman 2099 that was an improvement, IMO). Perhaps instead of leaving crooks tied up, your characters leaves them paralyzed...

And don't discount the simple effects of giving him Extra Limbs. My own NPC Spiderman knockoff has four extra arms he can retract, for example

Re: Penalty Skill Levels

RE: PSL instead of Environmental Movement. You do realize that Environmental Movement is built using the PSL mechanic, yes?

Re: Social or Psych Lim: which is it?

The rule of thumb I'm using is that the difference depends on the kind of problems it causes you.

To use a real-world example, I'm noticeably eccentric. The *source* of the problem is my noggin, but the problems it causes me are social. So it appears on my character sheet as a Social Limit.

Under this standard "Subject to Orders" would probably be Psychological (IMO) because the problems it creates for you are psychological in nature -- I want to do X but my duty is to do Y. Similarly "Unfamiliar with Earth Culture" would properly be a Social Limitation since the lion's share of problems this causes are social (and don't get me started on the "can't be mind controlled" argument, it's a pointless tangent).

However, my advice would be to establish your own standard and run with it. It's more important that your campaign is consistent than that you agree with everyone

Re: Penalty Skill Levels

RE: The standard isn't clear. Actually it's really clear on one point: it can't apply to DCV penalties. Having toyed with allowing it, I can see why too.

RE: Applying it to Sweep/Move By. Good example here is one of the PC's in the campaign I'm running. He has 4 PSL's versus the multiple-attack penalty to Move By, Move Thru, and Passing Strike. He always suffers the -2 OCV penalty for Move By -- but he can negate the additionaly -4 OCV penalty if he's attacking 3 people instead of 1. This allows him to attack 3 people for the same -2 OCV penalty he'd get for attacking 1.

Another example might be Wonder Woman's ability to deflect a *lot* of attacks per turn. She probably has a number of PSL's versus the -2 cumulative penalty for each deflection. There are actually better ways to reflect it but this is a working one.

One that is probably book-legal but borders on abuse would be to allow this against the Autofire penalties. Given the autofire skills that reduce the penalty, it wouldn't cost all that much to be able to fire all five shots (or more) without penalty.

Re: New Book: Superheroes and Philosophy

Thanks for the head's up, I'll try to make room on the reading list for it!

Re: Roll the dice once - worth anything?

Looks like a -0 "switch" to me, as long as the number of dice are the same. Anything to reduce the number of dice rolls

Re: Masked Vigilantes In Trial

Disclaimer: Legal issues are not my cup of tea and most certainly not my area of expertise.

How I handle it for my current campaign is a strict registration act (NRA, the Nova Registration Act of 1979) and a government-run sanctioning system (SAT, the Superhuman America Team, enforced by PRIMUS). The nova in question 'identifies' themselves with the court via a PRIMUS certification -- that is, PRIMUS informs the court that the masked person on the stand has given them the appropriate security codes and is who they claim to be.

Oh, you're a vigilante that hasn't registered? Then using your powers without registering is a federal felony. Please try to look good for the cameras while you "die attempting to escape..." The bloodsucking lawyers are the least of your concerns.

RE: Security of data. Let's remember we're talking about a nova world. Not only do you have super-hackers, you have super-IT guys too. I doubt the actual give/take would be that different from the real world (where it's basically understood any data can be stolen & decoded, the trick is to make it so well encrypted it takes too long to decrypt to be useful).

Re: Teen supers ideas

I have to confess, I'm using the 'teacher who is pretending to be an evil mastermind as part of a meta-lesson for the students' schtick for my own super-school. Unfortunately the players haven't shown any interest in the super-school yet...

Re: Let your geek show! (or Science for RPGs)

Or Ohio? Because I drove in and out of rain 4 times on the way to work today...

Re: Definition of a "tight group"?

RE: The Martial Art example. Count me as one of the GM's that requires 5-pt levels if the martial art contains both hth and ranged manuevers.

RE: Original Question. Officially it's a nebulous concept Here's the system I use as a basis. Please note this is house rule not canon.

"Meta-FX". These are not considered a tight group. Adjustment powers which affect any single power of a MetaFX pays +1/2 instead of +1/4. MetaFX cannot be used as the justification for an Elemental Control. MetaFX are sufficiently broad that you do not get a limitation for "limiting" a VPP to one such MetaFX -- practically speaking, VPP's work on the MetaFX level by default. Detects against MetaFX are always 10-pt base cost.

The standard MetaFX are Magic, Psionics, UltraTech (AKA "Rubber Science"), and Nova Power (AKA "Super Powers"). Martial Art tricks should be considered one of the three at the campaign level (for my current campaign it's Nova Power, under the Emergence campaign we chose Psionics, etc.). For the purposes of limitations, "only vs" or "only for" a MetaFX can never be worth more than -1/2 and should usually be -1/4.

EXAMPLES

The Disruptor (my GM-PC) has a power called his "Gremlin Ray", defined as a Dispel vs Any One Technological power. He pays +1/2 instead of +1/4 because the effect is so broad. Similarly, my Witchcraft rewrite has a Sense Magic power; the cost for it starts at 10pts (instead of 3) because it works at the MetaFX level.

Witchcraft's official writeup in Champions has an EC called "Helpful Witcheries". This would not be an acceptable EC in my campaign -- practically speaking it's no more limiting than Any Magic Spell and therefore a MetaFX. My rewrite of her has an EC called "Useful Boons" -- by definition, no attack powers or debuff powers can fit into it. Hence it's more appropriate in my opinion (although I could see why anothe rGM might still disallow it).

Re: Sky High - Teenage Super Movie

Yes, it's a Disney movie. And like most Disney movies, the idea is, shall we say politely, borrowed

Re: Deathstroke

Actually, I wrote the "Identity Crisis" scene off as an example of the Martial Art Movie fallacy of a team of opponents taking turns against a single opponent -- made only worse by having them bum rush him at the end.

Re: 4th vs 5th

Pardon the shameless self promotion, but you might find the following useful

http://theemerged.blogspot.com/HERO425.htm