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.

Re: The Birthday Suit Boogaloo? I seem to recall at one point a friend built a power based on an advantage in GURPS called Naked armor. Basically it was bonus OCV and DCV that was triggered once you took enough damage that the majority of your clothing was destroyed. Not necessarily NAKED but major chucks of your outfit have been destroyed. Wolverine in the X-men would totally have such an advantage. His suit gets shredded and THEN it's like he realizes he has to take his opponent seriously, and doubles his efforts and kicks butt. Spiderman seems to have to be knocked up against the ropes in battle too before he turns it around. That is the only thing that comes to mind though. Maybe like others have said you might get a surprise action or something if your character jumped out naked and attacked someone not expecting it.

Re: Using a D20 It occurs to me that the bell curve on 3d6 rolls and the cost structure associated with CLs and Characteristics are interconnected with each other. The concept of the better you are at something the more difficult it is to get even better is a common theme in many RPGs. Most RPGs create an experience or character point bell curve... hero uses the natural bell curve in the dice. So rather than making each bonus more expensive than the previous bonus... each bonus becomes less effective, but they all cost the same. I for one would fee it necessary to adjust the cost structure of at least CLs if I were to attempt to convert to a D20 or a percentile system. I always look at it this way. the more you mess with the system... the more you have to document your own house rules... It is important that all players know what the rules actually are after all... So I house rule some things, but not many.

I am planning an adventure for my group, and one of the NPCs has more or less been seriously messed up by mentalists in the past. Messed up to the point that he is still acting under the effects of several different compulsions. With out going too much into depth he is a superhuman that was "trained" by an evil secretive group to basically be a totally loyal lap dog... How the mental conditioning is built might be an interesting discussion, but that isn't my question. My question is... could the mental awareness of a mentalist detect the conditioning this poor soul has undergone and under what conditions would you allow them to detect it? I have am pretty sure I have decided that the mentalists in my game will detect the conditioning once they interact with his mind... so not until they attack will they know. But I am interested to see how everyone else would deal with this.

Re: Well, hello there, HERO System! (New Guy) I have two points I'd like to make. I have found that in HERO it is very easy to min-max. I have also found that the HERO system punishes min-maxing more than other game systems. This might not apply with other game mastering styles other than mine, but in hero if you pile all your points into attack powers and nothing on defense (depending on AP limits and such) then you are going to jump into combat blow one bad guy away then go down yourself and leave the rest of your group to take on the rest of the bad guys. The min and the max seem to be more extreme so it behooves players to play balanced characters. Second... The combat system in HERO is quick, so if you are a power player even though min-maxing is easy in the system combat is normally not the central focus of a game unlike other games. Sometimes when I am playing a d20 based game that shall not be mentioned one combat takes HOURS and HOURS!!! I have never had that happen in HERO accept when I was teaching a whole table of players new to the system, and that only took a long time because you are literally taking every player by the hand... explaining all the combat options, and letting them make a decision on what they want to do. But once you get a group together that has a working knowledge of the system combat is fast so long as the defense and attack powers are balanced properly (and I find setting active point limits does this really well). Anyway... back to the point. Because combat is a smaller part of the game than in other systems, your character having powers that abuse the rules matters less than it would in other games. granted people can still buy high powered presence attacks and things like that to "help" them in role playing... but I find that good ROLE players thrive in HERO not good ROLL players. Just my observations though. I am sure that other game masters and players have other experiences.

Re: Custom Limitation OK alot of people are asking about background on the player. I have suggested some of the fixes that you have suggested here to the player. Basically he is used to playing a blaster so if his powers aren't working he is thinking they aren't powerful enough. He tends to go strait for the gusto with his mental powers mind control with a command like "attack your friends" and is disappointed when even mooks occasionally get the break out roll, and because there are 2 mentalists in the group MOST of my major bad guys have good egos to help them defend against that double assault mental attacks they are gonna get. So the player we are talking about does a mind control command on the main villain ordering him to basically foil his own plot, and the player is surprised when the villain fairly routinely passes the break out roll of it. I have suggested that if he give a command like "run away" he will be much more effective. I like the change environment idea... I might suggest that to him. Thanks for all the replies

My current campaign is in 5ER and since this question is specifically about this campaign I am interested in answers that apply mainly to 5th ed, but if a 6th discussion breaks out I am interested in that too even though it may not help my immediate situation. OK so here is what my player wants to do. He is a mentalist and wants to build a transfer of ego. the idea is that anyone with a high ego is too easily making the break out rolls and my player is whining about it (but that is a whole other story)... He is also whining that Transfer is overpriced and has come up with an idea for a custom limitation he wants to apply to make the cost more reasonable. Basically the limitation would be something like "only drains ego down to 10" I wasn't thinking that I would give that a very high value since the "limitation" is the make it not work against the people it would least effect. If you have an ego of 10 then you already know a mentalist is going to mess you up, so making the power not work against characters like that is just point stacking in my opinion. So... What would you value such a limitation at? As I am sure you can tell by the tone of this post I am not really excited about this power. mainly because I think transfer is expensive for a reason. It both weakens your opponent and strengthens your character at the same time. Combine that with the idea that you limit the power by making it so that it only affects opponents you are likely to use the power against and not against the people you are not likely to use it against isn't really a limitation at all. Anyway I appreciate any input you guys will have. I hope (as you normally do) you shed light on this situation and allow me to make a good decision for my game. Thanks in advance.

Re: How To Build: Unwanted Familiar It could be any of them or all three. I guess it would depend on exactly what this familiar will do, and look like. If the familiar is a rat-like creature and many wizards in the game world have rat familiars distinctive feature probably doesn't apply, but if it resembles a pastel colored fairy winged pseudo dragon and no body else has one... then it might if the dragon is always around. If the familiar actively tries to hinder the character bad luck might be appropriate, and if the character has some sort of obligation to care for the familiar DNPC could be appropriate as well. Obviously this all needs to be weighed against any useful abilities the familiar might have.

Re: The best approach? There have been a number of write ups for the grappling gun. I think my favorite is built as a multi-power with swinging, stretching, and entangle with various appropriate limitations. You have to start with what you want the power to do. He can climb walls with it, he can swing from it (swinging) he can strike objects at a distance (stretching) and he can grab/snare people with it (entangle). I would post this as a separate How to build question. I am sure you will get a large number of responses.

Re: The best approach? Doc has a bunch of valid points. I first began the system as a player with a GM who knew the system. I will say this though: the system seems daunting at first but there are enough constants in it that once you have the basics down in your head the rest can be referenced as needed. The system doesn't really do exceptions to the rules like other systems do, so things tend to be more consistent. The daunting part is the free form aspect to character creation which just makes alot of players brains explode (including mine). Since you are all starting as new players and GM alike I think your idea of beginning with previously generated powers is a good one. I would not try a long complicated campaign if I were you I would probable start with one or two shot adventures, and try to create/use a wide variety of powers to get accustomed to how various different powers work. Don't be afraid of using the stop signs and exclamation points, so that you can find out about why there is a warning.

Re: What Happened to Independent? It is my understanding that it was too easily abused. you take a weapon with the independent "limitation" on it and you can trade it between characters in the group, or give it to other characters... Some sort of Usable by others seems more appropriate. If I were to add this back in I would likely reduce it's value (maybe down to 1) and force the character to take usable by others.