Fearghus

I am running a game in a setting similar to Shadowrun. I have a player that wants to set up a drone rigger. For those that do not know a drone rigger controls a bunch of remote control drones. I was going to build them as a group of followers with various advantages / disadvantages to indicate that they can not act autonomously and are actually totally under the control of the pilot. But then it occurs to me that it is possible to hack the systems of a drone and seize control of it from it's pilot, so maybe I should build the power as some sort of mind control for the machine class of minds so that two riggers could actually battler for control over the same drone. The question I have is what advantages / disadvantages would you put in place to build this? Thanks in advance. I look forward to all your answers

Re: Looking for how to adjudicate telekinesis issue I was going to suggest adding a TK weapon element, I might even require the character to buy a Weapon Familiarity with TK before using it for anything other than a normal strike or grab. I think the real limitation to using TK in MA maneuvers is the range penalties though.

Re: Stun Blaster What I was thinking... That passing a con check to avoid all the effects is almost a limitation rather than an advantage. Granted the power is still all or nothing but anyone with a halfway decent CON will pass that roll 2/3 of the time. So in most cases the power will not work at all... kinda negates the idea of it being an advantage. An Active ED forcefield is a good idea... Thanks alot.

Before I begin this is for a 5th Ed game. OK I know the basics on how to build this. I am trying to build a non-lethal weapon for a Meta Human Enforcement team. Basically super weapons wielded by more or less normal humans as a sort of Meta-human crime SWAT team. I want them to have a super tazer of sorts... basically it would be an energy beam of some sort. You shoot the victim and they get knocked out. I don't want armor or super toughness to effect the effectiveness of the power. Now I have the thing worked out accept for one or two disadvantages. Basically it would be built as Energy Blast with NND, but I am stuck on what would be a reasonable defense against the power. Ideally I would have an advantage "resisted with CON roll" or something like that. basically it would be No Normal Defense, and the defense would be "Pass a CON roll" Is there already such an advantage or would NND be able to be used in this way... What does everyone think? Thanks in advance

Re: Is it worth converting I own the 6th edition books but have not played yet. Overall my first impression is positive and I intend my next game to be 6th ed. There are some things I will miss from 5th (Find Weakness, calculated characteristics) but I think over all the system is better organized and strait forward. They deleted several powers that were not needed or could be duplicated with other powers and they created new powers that you previously had to build using complicated advantage/limitation combinations to pull off. I'll post again once I actually play and let you know if there are any hidden issues or treasures I find in the system.

Re: Based on ECV and inanimate objects Good point. I had considered the vehicle question and agree that it would not effect a vehicle unless that vehicle was specifically built with a computer that controls it.

Re: Based on ECV and inanimate objects

Re: Based on ECV and inanimate objects The original concept was that it was essentially an ego attack that worked on machines. The only reason it was built on RKA was so that it could do body damage to automatons that do not take stun. Basically he would attack the computer in a robot which would eventually be able to shut it down. Later in the game he faced a villain that could animate things that I built as summons, and I allowed him to change the disadvantage from "machines only" to "Non living targets" because I would not let him use it at that point against an animated dumpster (not a machine). Regardless my argument is still the same... Robots and automatons still have intelligence which means they have minds. It might not be a mind like you or I think of but the book says to use Int rather than Ego for things like computers and Robots which do not have Ego. So a Robot has intelligence therefore it has a mind... A wall has no intelligence therefore it has no mind. I have no problem extending that logic to all automatons. Even an animated piece of furniture is built with intelligence and skills therefore it has some sort of mind.

Re: Always on Death Touch Yeah the active cost does get high but then it is a 9DC continuous AOE attack. It's pretty bad ass. given that it is NND you might want to cut it down to 2d6 or even 1d6. lets face it this attack has a good chance of killing a normal with one shot and should do some serious harm to almost any characters just because of the NND. I think the number of character I have built with Longevity can be counted on one hand... so it still effects almost everyone... AND they get no defense against it!

Re: Always on Death Touch Don't forget Reduced Endurance: No Endurance otherwise the character will bleed endurance every single phase and had better have one hell of a high recovery. Alternately you could pout the power on a trigger so that it activates when she is touched or touches someone, and make it uncontrolled.

Re: Based on ECV and inanimate objects Yeah he built it for battling automatons and robots... this is the first time he has ever tried to blast something that can't blast back. Basically there is a villain I created that creates barriers to defend himself as well as split up the party block lines of sight and give cover to his companions... Part of this shtick was specifically so he could block line of site for the mentalist in the group (the group is fairly famous and the villains were intending on encountering the players so they were prepared) The player was getting rightfully annoyed that his line of sight was being blocked. His normal mode of combat is to hide a good distance from the combat and use mental powers from a safe distance. he can fly but uses it more as a quick way to get to his hiding spot because he has min-maxed the crap out of his character so have low DCV, low defenses, and basically can't stand toe to toe with a well rounded villain built on equal points... Basically one hit and he is down, and he is easy to hit. So if he is visible then he is vulnerable. The drawback is that when villains have cover... he can't effect them. I have problems with this player (he is a hard core D&D player). and keeps trying to find the optimum way to spend his character points. So he tends to build one trick ponies and then whines when in the very flexible Hero system there are a hundred ways to beat his trick. It is one of the advantages of HERO that the system mechanics reward you for playing a well rounded character. Where as in some other games playing the guy that has the unbeatable trick is possible. In HERO there is no such think as an unbeatable trick.

First the game I am running is still in 5th Ed revised... I know 6th edition has changed some of this, but for this game the group I play with has decided to stick with 6th. A character in my group has built a mentalist and he found that not having a killing attack was limiting so he built an RKA BoECV & Does Body... Last game session he wanted to use this power to blast down a barrier. I told him he couldn't do it. the barrier doesn't have an ego, therefore can not be effected by mental powers. His argument was that a Ranged Killing attack is not a mental power. My argument was that once he applied the advantage Based on Ego Combat Value to it the target needs a mind to be attacked by it. While it is not specifically a mental power you still need an ego to target. In the end I didn't allow him to do it but I told him I would ask you guys what you think. I have read and re-read the description of the advantage and it seems to me that I am correct. even id he could affect a wall with a mental power a wall certainly would have a different class of mind than human. What would the ECV of a wall be anyway? 3? Thanks for any help in advance.

Re: The Nightmare of Megascale Teleport I have a teleporter in my group and one of my teleporters abilities is an attack that specifically teleports a bad guy to a remote location... (Granted in my game remote is a few hundred meters away not an asteroid, but the principal is the same) I have four suggestions. First... If it's good for the goose it's good for the gander... build a villain with similar abilities that can both rescue his comrades, and strand players on far off asteroid so they are out of the combat. Look into suppressing the teleport ability. if the PCs are a known hero group and the characters use this as a common tactic... there is nothing wrong with having the bad guys be prepared for it but having a supress effect present that prevents effective teleportation. Third... target that player with almost all villain attacks. Again... If the PCs are a known group, and that character in particular has a reputation for putting people into deep space... The villains now consider him the biggest threat so he draws all the fire. Hope he likes aborting to dodge rather than teleporting bad guys into space. Finally... MINIONS!!! Presumably he can only do this one maybe two characters at a time... Mass combat with lots of mooks will reduce or even eliminate his effectiveness. There are other things you could consider as well. Like others have said it might be illegal to detain villains on your own... You could forbid megascale movement to be used as an attack... Make teleporting blind dangerous... etc.

Re: Hero Scale Normally have a 1" hex on my maps represent 1 meter. It seems to work pretty well but then I don't use terrain I just draw maps on a sheet of clear vinyl.

Re: Counters to problems? (Such as AoE spam and magic overuse) I just have to reiterate what crosshaircollie says. 1st... AOEs cut down on the damage done... So sure you get hit, but you get hit for less damage. 2nd... Ummm yeah... encumbrance rules are pretty much the only balance to heavy armor in a fantasy game. If you are not playing with them... Start playing with them. 3rd... If your non-mage character is only buying skills and stats with his XP he is not spending them correctly. there are all kinds of ways you can buy powers with out describing them as "magic" remember magic is only a special effect... so is sword skill... and acrobatics... and stealthiness. I have no idea what kinds of powers the character is interested in but there is nothing preventing him from buying powers that are meant to mimic combat skill. A few examples of this that I have built in the past... >A strong melee character that bought a naked advantage for knockback with his melee attacks >A thief like character that bought invisibility to hide really well. >An acrobat that has levels of clinging, flying, leaping, swinging etc. giving him more maneuverability in combat than others. >A samurai with a kiai yell that allows him bonus strength or extra damage. >A swordsman that had the ability to simultaneously attack everyone within one hex of him (AOE advantage applied to sword attacks) >Getting more into the fantasy realm a character that was so skilled at using a sword he could turn a sword slash into a ranged attack (common anime ability) Anyway you get the idea. Magic should not be the only way to access the powers chapter of the book. Just because a character is not casting spells doesn't mean he can't do incredible things. And my final point... Magic should be in itself a weakness as well as a strength. Powers like dispel magic, suppress magic, and drain magic can be devastating to a magic user. introduce a villain into your game that can block, absorb, suppress, or in some other way nerf the magical effects and I bet every character in the group will wish they had spent more character points on sword combat skill levels. Even powers like entangle or flash can be dangerous to a magic user who bought his spells with limitations like gestures, and incantations.