TheEmerged

Re: Origins of Power Generally I run a "unified" origin, although usually the point of origin is so far back that you can still have a mage, psionic, battlearmor, and mutant on the same team For example, in "NeoChampions" (my current campaign) the "truth" (unknown by the players) is that all of the above are possible because of 'leakage' from the Dreamspace -- and it's also the "dark matter/energy" that's allowing gravity to work. This is somewhat unsatisfactory for some high-tech fans, but it allows me to "check" the campaign-world effect of super-tech by saying the resulting equipment only works when used/maintained by an appropriate nova...

Re: The Most Unusual or Interesting Build You've Seen Most Rule-Bending Concept That Actually Worked In Play. Had a player come to me wanting to run a one-off of a DC character named Damage. The short description is that he's a mid-strength, mid-speed brick that 'powers up' as the fight goes on, but if he gets too powered up he explodes. I started this with an Aid to virtually everything (+2). I gave him an Explosive Energy Blast, and then gave him a physical limitation that he has to make an EGO roll, penalized in a "reverse RSR", to keep from blowing up that turn. Then to bend things, I gave the initial Aid a "side effect" of aiding the explosion -- as such making it even larger and in turn making the EGO roll harder. I did the same with a second Physical Lim, added 5 additional active points every phase there were any points in the "Aid Pool". As such it continually got larger, and therefore more likely to go off even if he wasn't using the aid. In theory, this looks abusive. In practice it worked because the Explosion was rarely his most dangerous attack; quite often it amounted to burning his phase to barely hurt his opponents. Most Interesting -- And Most Likely to Get Me Killed If I Ever Use Him Again! Annoying Man began as a simple experiment: with merely averages scores (for the campaign) in DEX, STUN, and DEF, no Damage Reduction, the same active point limit, and no damage-dealing powers, how long could I keep a single character in a fight against the PC's? The result was the first HERO fight I ever saw go into a second minute -- as well as the first HERO fight I ever saw go into a third minute. And I mean that as in more than 10 turns, or more than 120 segments... He begins simply enough, with teleportation. Then add invisibility, so the PC's don't know if he teleported away or turned invisible. Then added Images, so the PC's don't know if that's him or an image that appeared in a different spot. Then added Desolidification, so just because your attack passed through him didn't mean it was an image. Then added Summoning, so just because something that looked like him appeared didn't mean it was an image... And just to really screw with everyone, he had two seperate sets of images/summons/invisibility; one set that was visible to radar & sonar, one that wasn't. So just because it didn't appear on radar... The players have threatened to kill me if he ever shows again. Even a passing mention of him in a campaign handout got them riled...

Re: What types of Skill Levels do YOU allow with Dive For Cover? RE: "It's already pretty harsh" Not in the "boss battle" scenario, where there aren't other fireballs coming from the single opponent. In this scenario the "side effect" issues generally won't matter -- and the DEX roll is too easily made, and the attacker's skill doesn't affect the difficulty the way it should. added: And just to clarify, if you find DFC is working for you? Great! I'm just noting something that doesn't work they way I think it should...

Re: Mutliform and Followers/Bases RE: Jaguar. Of course, Jaguar is the "base form" (pun intended)...

Re: What types of Skill Levels do YOU allow with Dive For Cover? RE: How often does it happen?. /cliche on TOO often /cliche off Jokes aside, it depends on the scenario. Generally the players didn't bother with it vs normal attacks until I showed some of them the "Champions vs Viperia" rundown I did for the boards. I used the mechanic against them in the next scenario (which involved a "boss" battle) and none of us liked the result -- it felt cheap, and at least in my opinion turned the game into "who fails their roll first". Its main effect is in the "boss battle" scenario; against mooks and the like it isn't necessary, and against similar size/power teams it's not worth the lost attack.

Re: What types of Skill Levels do YOU allow with Dive For Cover? Yeah, that's on the list of a couple suggestions I've seen (might have been from you) I want to run through the paces the next time the group gets together. Another suggestion that's been tossed my way by one of the playes is to start it as DEX vs DEX, with an l penalty of -2 for each successive DFC as per Block. Another suggestion I want to run through the paces is to let the attacker make the attack roll, and how much it is made by is added as a penalty to the roll.

Re: What types of Skill Levels do YOU allow with Dive For Cover? For myself? This is a scaling penalty, so I initially allowed PSL's to be applied to it (I allow PSL's to be applied to characteristic rolls and skill rolls). However, to say this trivialized the roll is putting it gently. I have since disallowed it. Currently I'll allow 10pt "Overall" levels to be used for DFC, and skill levels bought explicitly for characteristic rolls. And to be honest, I'm currently toying with a rule to apply a stiffer penalty for DFC rolls vs non-area attacks.

Re: Mutliform and Followers/Bases My rule of thumb is that a character can only buy "1 for 5" items (followers, bases, vehicles, etc) on the base form, excepting a Darn Good Reason. One of the exceptions I've allowed was a Multiform character that had Multiform on one of its forms -- because Multiform was the easiest way to build that form's "change into animals" power

Re: Drain It's worth mentioning that making MD a figured attribute was mentioned in several 4th Edition supplements; my gaming group has done this for quite some time.

Re: Top Ten: Some Comments on Multi-Woman I've see your 7 and raise you 9 (one of the PC's in the campaign I'm running is named Hexadecimal, for the number of alternate forms she has). If necessary, I'll re-raise you to 26/32 (my lone submission to the Name A Hero contest, AlphaBeth, with 26 defined forms and the possibility of up to 6 more...). It's a fun build that at times feels dangerously close to being broken. Then she'll get hit out of the proper form (last session, the 30 STUN mentalist got nailed with a massive NND most of the other forms could have shrugged off) and you allow it for another couple of sessions

Re: Help me make a choice... Do you prefer competent agents to mooks? Are you running a supervillain campaign? If yes, snag "UNTIL" Is magic a strong element of your campaign? Want a darker city to station the PC's in than Millenium City? If so, snag "Vibora Bay" /humor on Give a hoot about a superhero system other than HERO? I hear there was some kind of crossover project...

Re: see below for sarcasm RE: 3.5 DnD Psionic Tangent. Depends on your definition of "fixed". They "fixed" psionic combat by effectively eliminating it (technically they made the combat modes powers). They "fixed" the fact that many of the feats were of wildly different usefulness by creating a new complication (the "focus"). They "fixed" the fact that psions didn't measure up to wizards or sorcerors by effectively requiring everyone to rewrite all their characters. They fixed -- no scare quotes -- the power redundancy problem by doing what many of us on the psionic board clamored for, by replacing the absurd "power chain" mechanic with the mechanic used for Call Weaponry in 3.0 (insert crack about how they had the right mechanic in 3.0 and didn't use it).

Re: Viperia: Less Pow Than Champions??

Re: see below for sarcasm FSBNNR = Feats Should Be Nice Not Required. During 3.0, WotC's reaction to the (sometimes glaring) flaws with the psionic rules was to create feats -- feats that in a couple of cases were effectively required by any psion. They were effectively requiring you to either take certain feats or accept a hole in the rules -- so naturally the result was that everyone that was serious about the psionic rules basically created their own psionic house rules, and as a result it wasn't long before we could barely hold a conversation on the boards without diverging into discussing them. RE: Grandfathering and HERO. Um, I've made that very argument, more than once. In particular about figured attributes. I understand why the decision to grandfather this was made, I just feel that was the poorer decision. RE: Insufficient testing. This one I've got to disagree with, after making the caveat that I've adopted a policy of basically ignoring Steve's question board. I haven't seen *anything* from HERO/DoJ that can compare to the bad joke that was 3.0 Psionic Combat rules. Which isn't to say there aren't some things I disagree with, sometimes strongly -- making Suppress cumulative and the Damage Shield requirement of Continuous come to mind -- but rather that there isn't the total disconnect from the realities of gameplay that I've run into with some parts of 3.0 And I specify 3.0 because I've done little more than glance at 3.5, except for the 3.5Psi

Re: Viperia: Less Pow Than Champions?? Currently I allow it -- currently. I don't like some of the effects of allowing it, though, and there's a good chance I'm going to try and work out a balancing factor.

Re: see below for sarcasm RE: DnD Criticism. Goes back to my favorite joke -- the biggest problem with d20 is the d20 itself. Use 2d10 instead and it's not bad. It's still usually level-based (I've heard there's some decent levelless d20 stuff out there) and there are a host of other minor issues -- usually because there are some aspects that got grandfathered without adequate testing (like the idea of 9 spell levels). There are also a couple of aspects that *obviously* didn't get anything other than cursory testing (3.0 Psionic rules, especially psionic combat), and then were pointlessly defended and desperately shoehorned (insert the FSBNNR arguments on the DnDPsi boards...)

Re: What we like about HERO For me, the toolkit aspect is the #1 charm. Unlike the original poster I *am* a Class A1 tinker And tinker I have, quite a bit and repeatedly. And tinker I shall continue to do... Anytime I see something that doesn't work the way I think it should, you can bet I'm gonna work on it. Thing is, unlike other systems, HERO gives you a backdrop to balance against. To use an unfair d20 example, under d20 I know spells should do about d6 per level... But why are some area effect spells d4 per level and others not? Is the automatic-hit aspect of magic missile really balanced against its half damage? I'll be the first to tell you there are some places HERO breaks down -- the lower-point levels and in campaigns in which PC's have normal characteristic maxima by default being the key one. There are solutions to this, some of which are more radical (altering the figured attribute formulas -- or eliminating them) than others (changing the NCM cap to 25 instead of 20), and some require a certain mindset to work right (changing the skill base from 9+attribute/5 to 6+attribute/5)... ...but the toolkit aspect allows me to tinker with a better idea of what I'm doing. That framework gives me something to look at when I try to do radical things like creating a magic system with only skills (no powers or frameworks).

Re: Relinking Figured Characteristics You sortof asked two different questions, I'm gonna answer them both ------------------------------- Different Formulas = Keeping the concept of Figured Attributes but adjusting the way they're figured PD = Unchanged ED = Unchanged MD = "unchanged' [We long ago made this a figured attribute, since it basically is anyway) "FFD", Full Flash Defense = INT/5; you cannot change the base (up or down) SPD = unchanged, or 1 + (higher of EGO or DEX)/10 REC = (EGO+CON)/5 [Logic:Strong will recovers faster] END = EGO+CON [Logic: Strong will allows the character to push harder] STUN = BODYx2 or BODY+ ((CON+EGO)/2) We found that this did a good job of making STR and CON worth about what we felt they should be for the cost -- and found that it made EGO to cheap. The second time we experimented with making EGO a 3pt per pip and allowing it to substitute for DEX for figuring SPD and at what point in the phase you ask. The consensus was this changed too much. There is also a consensus we'd like to make Power Defense figured, but can't agree on a logical formula. Mathematically it should be PRE but we just can't justify it... ------------------------------------ Different formula, as in NO formula (everything is base attribute) The one we were discussing is similar to the one Gary proposed, with MD and FFD added. Half of us think DEX should go to 2 and the other half think it should stay at 3 (it's still pretty doggone useful) -- there was a debate about making it 3 per until NCM and 4 per afterwards, but that didn't survive the "unnecessary complication" test.

Re: Relinking Figured Characteristics That's precisely where the problem is -- in the genres in which the PC's will normally have Normal Characteristic Maxima by default (and usually, but not always, fewer points).

Re: Relinking Figured Characteristics We debated starting another Ninja Hero campaign (we haven't run one under 5th yet) partially to test out one of the "no figured" cost setups under campaign situations, but so far everyone is enjoying the current campaign too much to stop...

Re: 5ER - What's the difference? I hope to eventually do a 5 to 5er list, just like I did for 4 to 5. However some unexpected expenses (read: having to save my cousin's financial bacon again) have pushed my purchase of 5er back again...

Re: Can I get a list please? RE: STR Lay that one at the feet of the bit about doubling one thing for 5 points while increasing a second thing linearly...

Re: Move By and Move Through Okay. It's an easily forgotten rule, but your character does not have to slow to a stop at the end of his/her phase; you can carry momentum/velocity from one phase to the next. This can cause problems -- leaving you open to extra damage from a Throw manuever for example. So let's say that Sting begins the turn with 20" of momentum, and that Defender is right next to him. Sting can perform a move-by on Defender at the beginning of his turn and get credit for the full 20".

Re: Move By and Move Through Think of the half phase as being the *minimum* they take -- because it's possible to perform one at the beginning of the phase if you happen to start the phase within melee range of your victim. You'd just have to have momentum/velocity at the beginning of the phase for this to matter. Examples to follow.

Re: [Newbie] Is desolidification truly unbalancing ? Just a clarification: I don't ban Desolid, I require it to have limitations I feel are appropriate. That's a slight but mentionable difference...