TheEmerged

There was also a product called Brave New World, which was part superheroic and part alternate history. It had its good points (in some ways more believable than any superheroic campaign I've ever seen) and bad points (excessively low powered, in other ways comes close to GURPS IST for wishful thinking, spotty editting, major continuity points of later books not being properly foreshadowed in earlier books (insert "midichlorian" crack here)). I've borrowed a lot of material from their products -- but not one of the adventures, which tend to be too dependent on the setting.

Just a couple of general ones. 1> I think any GM that's been with this system for a while will tell you that one place HERO can (and usually does) break down is whenever you have a power with a low base cost and a high level of advantages. In my experience, any power with a base below 10 or more than +2 advantages needs to be looked at closely. If nothing else, you just presented an excellent example of why In My Opinion you shouldn't be able to apply Megascale to a movement power of fewer than 10 hexes. I just feel the need to point out the phenomenon behind your example is in no way limited to Megascale. 2> Personal Rant! Personally, before 5th Edition I'd seen some people that adopted the FTL Travel costs to create a power called "Campaign Movement". In a modern campaign this would be Supersonic Speed, for example. The more I play with Megascale, the more I wonder if that would have been a better way to go.

SPAM Gun: Mine. Feel free to steal it As for my campaigns, the PC's (villains in the current one) generally operate out of Butler County (just to the north of Cincinnati) but tend to move around a lot. Next adventure session takes place in Paris Kentucky for example...

RE: The "Play it before you whine" Defense. Um, I have been playing it Note that a lot of my suggestions were layout or example issues. In some cases, where I became aware of 5th Edition changes in advance, I've been playing with the 5th Edition changes for some time. Flash at 5pts per d6 (and operating by Segment) and Aid at 10pts per d6 (although we had it costing END and still healing) are things I've used for a couple of years now, and they work well. 5th is EASILY the BEST, most COHERENT and INTERNALLY CONSISTENT system out there -- by far, no comparison. That's not saying its perfect, because it isn't. Granted that many of the issues only appear in limited circumstances (the whole STR/CON thing isn't nearly the issue in superheroic campaigns it is in NCM-default campaigns) -- they still exist. But don't mistake my efforts to improve on it for a statement that it doesn't work or I don't like it -- far from it. I would say that I love it enough that I want to make it better RE: 1/4 advantage/limitation steps. Disagree with the suggestion to eliminate this, and strongly. One of the things I like about 5th over 4th is the increased number of purchase-worthy +1/4 advantages, because in a low-active-cap campaign quite often even a +1/2 advantage makes the power borderline useless unless the advantage is specifically geared toward affecting the damage (NND, Penetrating, Armor Piercing, Autofire, etc.). Take AVLD for example. How many times have you actually seen a power built with this? I'd be willing to wager the answer is, Not Often. The reason of course is that in many ways you're paying an extra +1/2 advantage to have a power less useful (more likely to do less damage) than an NND. Which reminds me, I knew there was something else I would like changed in 6th

The Cincinnati Police: Condemned if they do their job, condemned if they don't. I understand we're already over 16 homicides this year. Seriously, though, the most wonderful invention for police in the NeoChampions Universe is the SPAM Gun (Serve/Protect/Assault Mechanism). Basically a 4-slot multipower: 8-shot RKA, 16-shot NND, 4 Shot Force Wall, 1-shot entangle.

Never underestimate a good PRE score. Nothing says lovin' like a 12d6 PRE attack before any modifiers

Excuse me, my brain just leapt from my skull after reading that. I've *got* to get a leesh for that thing...

Ditto on the "curious" statement. My own known to be flawed and biased memory is saying something about "whole lot of wishful thinking"...

Sounds better, I think? My hit list, no order implied. I'll admit right out the gate some of these are petty. Anything I put in bold is something I couldn't personally put my name on a Sixth Edition without addressing. 1> Damage Shield's requirements/cost brought back into line. 2> Either eliminate the "Talent" section outright, or move the "no roll skills" like combat skill levels, defensive manuever, Rapid Attack, et al into it so it's something distinct and coherent instead of "collection of neat stuff you can let PC's have without calling them Powers". 3> List "Ranged" under "Range Advantages" instead of separately. Similarly, put "Does Knockback" and "Double Knockback" under a single "Knockback Advantage" header. 4> Make Autofire gain +5 shots instead of doubling the shots after the inital 5. Drop the advantage back to +1/4 5> Expand "Dispel" the way Change Enivornment (among other) powers got treated in 5th. This is an underutilized tool in many campaigns, IMO. 6> Give a more thorough discussion of the applicability of powers for EC's, MP's, and VPP's. 7> Eliminate that "Trigger: Whenever I need it" example. 8> Place at least one, and preferably two, additional steps on the MegaScale chart (10m and 100m). Explicitly state this can't be done for movement powers of less than 10" per phase or single-hex areas. 9> Address the problem of STR & CON's over-influence on figured statistics, especially relative to PRE, INT, and EGO. I don't think the answer is increasing the cost of STR/CON, I rather think the figured attribute formulas need to be adjusted. 10> Move Suppress back to its 4th Edition status of being non-cumulative/not stacking with itself. There were balance/cost problems between Drain & Suppress under 4th Edition -- that favored Suppress -- and making Suppress cumulative/self-stacking eliminated one of the few advantages Drain had. You want a cumulative/self-stacking Suppress, take the Cumulative advantage. 11> The picture of Seeker looking up Damage Resistance is simply too funny not to use. If ANY piece of art gets recycled, this is it 12> Give Multiform the same increasing cost rule that Duplication, Followers, Base, and the Computer/AI rules have: if the value exceeds the point cost of the character, the cost changes to 1 pt per 1 pt over the character's value. Consider giving it the mandatory +1 Advantage Duplication has, as well. 13> Eliminate any examples in the rules/power descriptions that says you "shouldn't use this power to do this". This violates the "never get worked up about the right way to do things" policy. I'll think of more, I'm sure.

I had a rash of this when the first HERO computer character creator came out. Rule 1 of my character creation rules quickly became "Just because you can trick the program into giving it to you does not mean it's legal." Oh, and for a while I believed you could put a Multipower in an Elemental Control.

Wendy's in Normal's Unbound, all right. It's actually a decent writeup for a normal, one that seems to be based on the idea that 8 is "average" not 10. However, she's described as standing her ground against a PRE attack from Foxbat, despite having only a 10 EGO and 10 PRE (Foxbat has 20 PRE in 4th Edition). Maybe he rolled low, maybe I worry too much

Actually BW, speaking as someone else from the area both characters are more pathetic than dangeorus (and I'm talking RL too).

CLOWN: Criminal Legion Of Wacky Non-conformists. Having said that, either the supplement or their Classic Organizations listing (maybe both?) openly stated that this might or might not be a legitimate acronym. I figure it was ex post facto myself, like the way FREd got retconned into meaning Fifth Rules Edition (or Fifth Revised Edition). COIL: Almost certainly not an acronym. I happen to have Classic Enemies at work tonight, and both Black Mamba & King Cobra use "Coil" when referring to the group. SAT: Special American Tactics. Highly redundant with Primus, SAT has been worked out of the continuity (first becoming a corporate group instead of a government group in HERO Almanac 2, then eliminated outright). Personally, I changed its meaning to "Superhuman America Team" and made it the American answer to the UN's Team Tomorrow -- an agency responsible for giving novas/superhumans official status. The Champions, for example, are said to operate with SAT authorization...

This is perfectly all right -- in fact, in my opinion Force Field is one of the best applications for the "variable slot" usage in a multipower. One of the PC's in my current campaign has a 60 pt multipower with 40 PD Forcefield in one variable slot and 40 ED Forcefield in another variable slot, and hence can vary her defenses as she feels the need/has the spare pool cap room. Having said that, don't allow a "cheap variable" setup. I'd allow your setup; here's what I'm talking about... 60 Multipower (60) 6u 12d6 EB (60) 5u 10d6 EB (50) 1u 5 PD/ED Forcefield (10) 5u 25 PD/ED Forcefield (50)

I'm from the "lack of invulnerability in HERO is not a flaw" school of thought myself. Any time you start throwing absolutes around you start running into conflicts & trouble. Having said that, I think I know why some people seem obsessed with finding it: because they don't like the idea of taking STUN, somehow feeling that this means they were hurt. STUN can add up, mind, but it's amazing what having a sufficient REC score can do for you...

The writeup for the SAGA Marvel Super Heroes gives him Power Duplication without any stunts. I only have Vol 1 of the current Encyclopedia (waste of money IMO so I haven't bought further) and he's not in it...

Yep, I've done that one before. Quite fun, especially when the one person in the group obsessed with it suddenly realizes he can only move through adjacent squares

The defensive side of his power can also be quite simple: buy Armor. Apply limitation "Only up to DEF of 'absorbed' item", probably no more than -1/2 and more likely a mere -1/4.

Personally, I've always used Mental Illusions at the +30 EGO mark myself. I especially like the way it keeps the victim from perceiving anything, but that would be a drawback for most.

Speaking for myself, I find the mechanic as presented less than satisfactory. The following is copied from my "General Character Creation Rules" at THIS LINK. Again, these are the rules I enforce for my campaigns. The following powers will NEVER be allowed in a power framework, even a VPP Duplication END Reserve (END or REC) Find Weakness Luck Multiform Skills The following powers will only be allowed in a power framework under very specific cases with a Darn Good Reasonâ„¢ Clairsentience Enhanced Senses Extra Dimensional Movement Extra Limbs FTL Travel Knockback Resistance Lack of Weakness Mind Link Talents Skill Levels (including Penalty and Combat Skill Levels). The following powers might be acceptable in a Multipower or VPP under the right circumstances but will never be allowed in an Elemental Control Characteristics Flash Defense Life Support Mental Defense (technically covered under Characteristics, listed here as reminder) Missile Deflection/Reflection Power Defense The following powers will be allowed in power frameworks but will be watched closely/require some limiting factor Armor (yes, even in an EC) Damage Reduction Damage Resistance (MUST be bought as a separate slot, not “tacked onâ€) Summon Editted for formatting reasons.

I didn't use High Tech Enemies much; I purchased this one during the Great HERO Drought (translation, when I and the rest of the local gaming group was obsessed with Magic: The Gathering) and so it never affected my campaigns. That, and the book lost me in the introduction when the author tried to excuse the "Defender Exploit".

Generic System, Generic Names. Personally, I find that wonderfully appropriate.

Well, given that the PC's of my group are the villains and my campaign is centered in the SW Ohio area... Oamen. Few pictures of this individual exist, primarily because he is nigh-constantly surrounded by a field of darkness. It is known that he has a major, longstanding grudge against Primus. Known powers other than the darkness field itself is an entangling shadow, missiles of dark magic that he can fire singly with great effect or in multiples, and the ability to project his darkness. He has recently been seen to summon a skeletal servant. Sting. This silent creature resembles a humanoid dragonfly, complete with the wings. Has quickly developed a reputation as a dangerous martial artists who makes devastating use of his ability to fly quickly and with great mobility. Rumors persist that he actually gets stronger & faster as the fight continues. Hexadecimal. The former Domestic Defender of Seattle (then known as the Hexadecimal Heroine) went missing during/after a battle with Vibron, and was not seen again until she was spotted assisting Oamen & Sting in rescuing The Disruptor from certain capture by the Champions. Hexadecimal herself is a powerful combination of tank & martial artist, but her most powerful ability is that she can change her form -- and hence, her power set, into 15 other "modes" of great if specialized power. The Disruptor. This battle-armored villain is one of the most hated novas on the planet, a reputation that began with his brutal murder of Princess Diana while escaping UNTIL agents in Paris during 1997. Hyperion himself (the campaign world's first nova, think Superman or Captain Marvel) publicly stated during an interview in 2002 that the only novas he could justify killing were Doctor Destroyer (believed dead at the time), Takofanes (the Dread Lord from CKC), and The Disruptor. The Disruptor's powers have changed over time, apparently because he is constantly tinkering with his suit and his MAPL gun. One power that hasn't changed is his Gremlin Ray, the bane of other technological opponents everywhere.

RE: Secret Page. Email is stranger894@yahoo.com Thank you for the offer and the time. RE: European Enemies. I hate this book with barely-bridled passion, but it's not entirely the book's fault. See, not long after I'd started playing HERO my friend and I tracked down an out-of-town gaming store that said they had HERO stuff. I was totally unprepared for the amount of material they had, though, and had only brought enough money for a few products. I seem to recall this is when I picked up Ninja HERO too, for example. What does this have to do with EE? Well, the other products I had purchased left me with enough to buy just one product, and my decision came down to EE and another product. However, the other product looked very specific to its own campaign world, so I figured EE would be of more immediate use to the campaign I was running. Besides, my buddy and I had already resolved to come back the next week with more money... Naturally, the other product was gone when we returned. It was a few years before I realized the enormity of my mistake. The punchline? The other product was Strike Force

Speaking for this GM, Dust Raven's take is pretty much mine. Martial NND's generally have a pre-determined hit location (choke hold always being the neck is a good example). I tried an optional rule involving nerve strikes and hit locs having "disabling" effects, but it didn't work as well as I'd have liked.