Talon

Re: New Option for Vehicle Combat Haven't hit the website yet, but I agree that the vehicle rules are generally weak. I think the biggest reason is that they have never really been overhauled -- the rules now are pretty much the same as the original vehicle rules. It's definitely an area that deserves a lot of attention and change.

Re: How to do very small creatures?

Re: Curious of Other Opins I wouldn't allow a power like this in most campaigns because: a) Conveying the information would be a major cause of delays unless the character was very on the ball. Possessing that information kills a lot of mystery in the campaign and makes it harder to sustain mood. (Constructing the power appropriately can negate this, of course.) Also, the way it was presented to us was very game-mechanic oriented, which makes it seem like the player was more concerned with mechanics than special effects or roleplay. This always makes me suspicious of "questionable" constructs.

Re: Firefly Book is in the movie, I spoke to Ron Glass (the actor who plays Book) at GenCon and he confirmed it. I also ran 3 sessions of Firefly Hero (using the crew as PCs, set right after Objects In Space), which were VERY well received. Hijinks ensued.

Re: Overland Movement I did this (or something quite like it) and found that the numbers matched up well with real-life. It had the added bonus of working at different scales (i.e., it was easy to come up with LTE loss and movement per 10m, 100m, etc., for medium-scale scenes). Here is the end result (i.e., calculations taken out, designed for ease of use by players). I also used an exhaustion house rule (penalties accrued at 3/4, 1/2, and 1/4 of max END), so that burning too much LTE would have immediate consequences. You don't need that rule to make this work, but it did help. Obviously, if you use rules like these, Reduced Endurance on movement becomes very, very useful.

Re: What is a pip and how much damage does it do? "By the way, exactly what is tat, where do I get it, and how do I turn it in for the other thing?"

Re: Need feedback on house rules for my new campaign I would come up with a reasonable metric of combat ability (for a low-magic fantasy game, I use a simple formula involving DEX and CSLs), and make sure the PCs a) don't go above a set limit, and don't circumvent the metric. Set your NPCs at or below the same level and voila, instant balance. A more direct way to do it is to make public a couple sample NPC sheets and say "these guys should put up a fight, but eventually lose, against your character." Fight combats as necessary to test.

Re: Advice on map detail One thing I always do for my fantasy cities is a list of taverns. For each tavern, include: -- Name of tavern -- Name of owner with personality "tags" (happy dwarf; crazed veteran; etc. -- enough to improv a character) -- Location of tavern (what quarter of the city) -- Type of patron (merchants; nobles; art patrons; etc.) I try to do at least 12 for a reasonably sized city. When the PCs arrive and look for a place to stay, you get to seem super-prepared when you can fire off several names without batting an eye. The other thing I focus on is a conceptual layout of the city: how did it grow, how do the different parts relate to each other, etc. For example: the PCs in my game recently came to the city of Swayvin, which is built on and between three low hills (NW, NE, and S). The NW hill holds the royal castle, and is thus home to most of the royalty and nobility of the city. The NE hill is the site of a monastery, and so most of the city's major temples are located there. The S hill holds the main gate (for campaign reasons there are few gates), so traders, merchants, and "foreigners" congregate down there. The middle of the city is actually farmland (again, campaign reasons here), and there is a substantial contingent of "city farmers" who keep to themselves and tend to resent the city's more urban inhabitants. The fields provide a natural hideout for illicit activity...but don't let the farmers catch you!

Re: When do you Abort? This is a common issue and debates have raged over it for years. The GM is within his rights to do it this way, but if he doesn't do the same for the NPCs you should call him on it big time. The "jerk response" is to play a character with two attacks with identical SFX, one of which is area of effect, the other of which is not.

Re: DCV to Weapons Go to the Powers List and select Skills -> Combat Skill Levels. Buy two levels with DCV. Add a Custom Modifier "only for HTH" (-1/2), along with Focus modifiers and whatever else you want. Sprinkle lightly with GM's permission.

Re: Attacking from Behind I have a house rule for Attacking From Behind in heroic games which basically boils down to "your opponent has to choose to turn his back on you in order for you to get the bonus." Thus, if you start the Phase in front of someone, you can't get the modifier regardless of your movement. If you start the Phase behind them, you can get it. In superheroic games I pretty much play as above, where you don't get it unless you surprise or surround someone.

Re: Coming from D&D-question about power level of starting hero In my games, I'd rate 150 point characters (75+75) as roughly equivalent to 7-9th level D&D characters. However, as others have pointed out, it's hard to make a single comparison since how you set up the campaign has a big effect on character effectiveness. For example, the amount of magic the PCs have relative to what NPCs have makes a big difference. If PCs don't cast spells but NPCs do, they will probably be a lower level equivalent regardless of their point total. If you aggressively limit resistant defenses, characters will be a lower level equivalent. Allowing "tricks" (combat abilities bought as powers but defined as exceptional skill) will increase level equivalent.

Re: With GM's Permission ... I pretty much look at the questions Outsider mentions, except instead of "does", I use "would, given the player in question". I've allowed things for one player that another player in that game would have abused horribly.

Re: "he's Dumb as a Sack of Hammers...." Thing is, even INT 5 isn't that bad from a mechanics standpoint (10- roll). I'd just go with a more generally phrased Disad (either Psych or Physical Limitation) and leave it at that. Psych vs. Physical: Boils down to whether or not the character can "try hard" to remember stuff (in which case it's psychological), or if they are just always like that (in which case it's physical). Physical also works if you want a different mechanism for remembering stuff (Psych doesn't, since it has EGO rolls built in).

Re: godless fantasy The way I generally see it is that "arcane" magic comes from worldly sources: innate laws of nature, low-level spirits, all-encompassing energy field, whatever. Divine magic comes from the gods -- even in D&D when you are worshipping an ideal, gods who favor that ideal are lending you power (again, this is just how I see it). Wizards gain power, but lack the support (both in this life and the next) that a god provides to priests. Playing a cleric in my campaigns has drawbacks (the god watches your behavior) but also benefits (the god may give you extra help in time of need). Anyone who worships can get help, but of course clerics are special. In my FH world it's a bit different but the basic idea is the same: laws of magic are there to be used, while powers of faith require a different kind of connection.

Re: Ewok, or similar beasties, stats 10 Overall Levels, only vs. Stormtroopers.

Re: Hero System is Just Alright With Me Bah, 40%! No, 30%! Seriously though, while there are many things I do change, and many (although fewer) that I would change in the core rules, Hero as a whole is quite alright. It's just that a) any sort of "toolkit" invites tinkering, and there are some areas where 5th Edition is behind "state of the art" in RPGs (unified mechanic being a big one). It's not possible to create a game system that everyone will agree with -- but that doesn't matter, as it is possible to create one that /I/ agree with.

Re: end Remember you pay END every /Phase/, not every /Segment/. So it really doesn't matter: you cast in Segment 12 and pay END, then you don't have to pay END again until Segment 4, at which point you can stop paying END or choose to keep it going. You don't need to pay END during Segments, 1,2, and 3 -- the payment in Segment 12 keeps the spell going until your next Phase.

Re: [Magic Item]Blade of the snake It looks more or less well-constructed...and extremely powerful. As GM, I presume you are cool with the power level -- it would trash my FH games, but I play very low-power games.

Re: The 'Elminster' of Hero: Harbringer of Justice? There's that tenet of GMing which says "NPCs shouldn't overshadow the PCs". 4th Edition Harbinger definitely seemed very inclined to violate that rule -- he was prominent, opinionated, and involved in everything. If the PCs got involved in something important, it seemed like it would be very likely that Harbinger would show up and by his very nature steal the spotlight. Hopefully that won't be the case in 5th.

Re: Would you consider this an abuse of the system? Can the character just hand the focus to a friend to invoke these other powers? If so, I would probably consider it a -0 Limitation and encourage the use of Multiform. (With Multiform, there's no problem keeping the same memories as a special effect; just make sure both forms have the same skills.)

Re: blowing out damage... oy! some minor designer q's Yeah, I would simply disallow that character. IMO, Deadly Blow should be used either for lower DC weapons (making a dagger wielder feasible in a game where everyone has armor, for example) or odd circumstances (like a demon-hunter). Adding it to a high DC weapon, especially when you also have martial arts, is a recipe for disaster. In my /low-fantasy/ games, Deadly Blow and weapons martial arts are not allowed for exactly this reason -- but I also disallow stuff like Combat Luck, and armor levels are generally low.

Re: Pokey Starships? A longer response. First, here's the rule I suggested (and plan to use in my games) for realistic flight acceleration in Star Hero. (This is from an "Orbital Mechanics HERO" article I've shelved because most of it is just too darn complex. ) To me, this does a better job of simulating how movement works in space. To that, you add the fact that the Star Hero rule of 1G = 60" / Turn is not an accurate representation. As another playtester pointed out during the SH playtest, 1G acceleration is going to vary based on the vehicles SPD: Vehicle SPD / Acceleration per Phase 1: 720” 2: 180” 3: 80” 4: 45” 5: 29” 6: 20” 7: 15” 8: 11” 9: 9” 10: 7” 11: 6” 12: 5” (The formula for this is 720 / SPD^2) If you assume that 1G = 60", a lot of the starship speeds make a little more sense -- even though when you translate them into actual speeds, not using any sort of realistic thrust rules, they are silly. If you use realistic thrust rules /and/ translate the speeds into actual G accelerations (for example, a SPD 3 ship goes to 80" per Phase for each 60" per Turn in the book), things get much better.

Re: Cultures chart - what key things should I include? Magic (power level, style, whatever makes sense for the world) seems to be missing.

Re: Pokey Starships? Yeah. I definitely feel that if you're going to list starship stats, they should mean something. Specifically: you should be able to conduct Phase by Phase combats with the ships in a balanced manner. I haven't tried it with the SH/TE ships, but I don't get the impression it would work too well.