Talon

Re: Pokey Starships?

The rules aren't terrible, but not much attention was paid to those stats in Star Hero other than for comparison purposes (ship A is faster/slower than ship . It's been a goal of mine to actually do some straightforward ship to ship combat playtesting to come up with some coherent suggestions...someday, someday.

Re: Affliction Power in HERO

Wouldn't a Stun Blast just be a limitation on an EB: "Only to Stun target' date=' does no Body or STUN damage (-2)". That means in a 60 AP game I can roll 12d6 against my target, subtract his PD/ED and if I total greater than his CON he's Stunned. Either way, I do zero damage. It would only cost 20 points.[/quote']

 

Exactly -- but as you point out, it's complex and has Active Point issues. It's a tricky power to cost out -- too cheap and you can easily remove someone from combat (just keep Stunning him while your buddies take him down), too expensive and you might as well just use an EB.

Re: Why are there never any Fantasy Hero games at the Cons?

HAC' date=' or III, or whatever they call themselves now, used to run a great recurring Fantasy Hero game at GenCon. The characters belonged to a circus, if I recall...[/quote']

 

Yes, Madame Gutanov's...that game is the best Gen Con game ever to date, IMO. Unfortunately they stopped running it several years back, but there are rumors that it might return.

 

For me, the main reason I don't run Fantasy Hero is that I play a lot of fantasy in general, and it's fun to do different genres when you can. I've thought about running a fantasy game, but it's lower on the list than some other stuff (like Firefly, which I'm working on for next year).

Re: Dark Champions review posted

I'm sure what they really mean is that they want to have reviews for the months following Gen Con when no one submits reviews to them...

Re: Affliction Power in HERO

The power shouldn't require a CON roll, or be reduced by rPD: both of those things are easily simulated with Limitations, but hard to remove without custom Advantages. A power that Stunned or otherwise incapacitated the target is not a terrible idea -- you can do it now, but it's not simple.

Re: Changing the cost of Summon/Duplication

I think Hugh has the reason right: Duplication and Summon "converged" in 5th Edition, and are now so close to each other than you could easily get rid of one (Duplication). OTOH, we still have Armor and Force Field, so don't hold your breath.

Re: trigger and csl level for magic

Whether your trigger goes before the attacking spell is up to the GM -- some might say that your trigger goes at the same time as the attacking spell.

Also, the trigger has to be reset after it gets used, so if you are attacked more than once, it won't work.

A 2 point CSL will increase OCV for one spell; 3 point CSL will do 3 spells or a tight group of spells (I wouldn't allow Sorcery, but some GMs might), and you've got 5 and 8 right.

What exactly does WF: Homemade Weapons cover?

Re: Need help with an inherent power

That's a fine way to build it if you and the GM agree that the power is not a big deal. It does technically violate the Transform description (it actually says "don't use Transform to create swords"), but in a heroic game it's less of an issue IMO. What I might take exception to is that there's no balancing factor for the value of the equipment involved: getting leather armor, or a greatsword, or two suits of plate, would all cost the same.

A more scalable method might be Summon (use the point cost of all your gear combined as the point value Summoned).

Re: Skill levels in Magic Skills

I believe Steve has done it with 3 point levels in at least some places, but I'd require 5 point levels for sure.

Re: The Valdorian Age

It does sound interesting, and I look forward to seeing a true and unique magic system (Turakian Age sorta counts, but by design is a bit high powered and general to be unique). I'll be reading this playtest file for sure!

Re: p.s.l. for hit location

I was going to suggest the "make NPCs with the same PSLs" thing, but to me that's taking what should be an out-of-game issue and putting it in game. If you as GM find it unbalancing, it shouldn't be making it to the table; and if it did (or you didn't find it unbalancing until it hit the table ), you need to talk to your players about correcting the problem.

Re: p.s.l. for hit location

I generally just don't allow it, just like anything else that negatively impacts campaign balance.

Re: Firefly

There's a d20-friendly deckplan of Serenity which is easily found via Google. There's also a hard-core accurate version of Serenity which can be found on fireflyfans.net (go to Blue Sun Room, Graphics, look for stuff by gaidheal).

I've pretty much talked myself into running Firefly HERO next Gen Con, so I'm going to be writing up the characters and will probably post them here for comment.

When you buy OCV levels for a gun, do you apply the Charges Limitation to the levels?

EDIT: Oh yeah, and Autofire too.

Re: Deadly Blow...

How can it be illegal if Steve built it that way' date=' and the FAQ expressly says to just add it and ignore advantages.[/quote']

 

It is a somewhat difficult position to maintain that something is illegal in the face of the Line Developer saying it's OK. What I mean is that without specific permission making it legal, by the rules previously in existence, Deadly Blow was not a valid construct.

 

I don't think there's a specific FAQ entry on it (at least not that I could find), but the principle is clear that dice in a power only add when they are bought together, as a single power.

 

Imagine trying something like Deadly Blow in a supers game: you want to be able to pick up Universal Foci blasters and use them with increased effectiveness. Simply buying +2d6 EB is not legal -- the EB has to be part of a particular power.

 

It's definitely a "this is how I feel" kind of thing, so feel free to disagree and I won't be hurt. It strikes me as an inconsistency in the rules, and those always bug me.

Re: Deadly Blow...

First, to answer the actual question: to be legal, either the Deadly Blow damage gets applied separately from the AP damage, unless you buy Deadly Blow with the Advantage. (Pro-rating makes sense and I'd probably do it, though it's not really legal book-wise.)

However, my opinion is that Deadly Blow is illegal because the Hero rules prohibit you from buying an attack power that adds directly to any other attack power you pick up. If I allowed it in a game, I'd rebuild it as buying the entire KA from scratch with OIF (Weapon of Opportunity), or as an Aid, either of which would make the cost more appropriate.

Re: The Valdorian Age

Arcady,

Get used to being unhappy. It seems pretty clear that Hero has made the decision to tie all their worlds together. To me it doesn't matter much (for example, there's little to nothing in Turakian Age that really seems tied to Earth, other than future plot stuff that's easy to change), but if it matters to you, I'd start working on meditation exercises or something to deal with it.

Re: Don't have it yet

No Harbinger of Justice that I can find (either in the ToC or Index, which does list other NPCs). I believe Mr. Long told me at the con that including Harbinger's current character sheet would have put the book too far over its page count*.

* This conversation may have been completely made up.

Re: Murderous intent

I'd say that Dark Champions focuses on "realistic" issues as well as low-powered ones -- the forensics chapter comes to mind. So while it doesn't really delve into godlike powers, it does have the cold hard viciousness part covered.

Re: Don't have it yet

Pulling out my Gen Con copy...

The table of contents lists the following NPCs. The first group is a "PC" group, Libra; the other are villains.

Sarge

Blade

Hammer

Knockout

Shadow

Abaddon

Caliber

Crossbow

Fenris

Triggerhappy

I'm 150 or so pages in and the book looks very good so far.

Re: Prophecies

In my current *coughdndcough* campaign I've issued two major prophecies, both newly-discovered tomes from an ancient prophet. Both were written after major Nostradamus-immersion programs, and have done a good job of dropping vague hints and proving perfectly accurate in hindsight.

Re: Challenge Talent Build: Sleep with Eyes Open

Life Support (does not sleep) Extra Time: 8 Hours, 1/2 DCV concentration.

Re: Adding Damage

Adding damage is definitely one of the most complex parts of 5th Edition. Hm, perhaps Revised will simplify the language or something...

Re: Math confusion

Thanks for the link LL. I'm not sure that my document properly covers this new case, mainly because I think Steve's ruling is messed up (something to talk about at GenCon!). I don't think you should /ever/ add STR twice for maneuver damage, and I don't think there are any rules in FREd which let you. HA damage adds to regular STR damage. Martial (and other) maneuvers add to regular STR damage. They shouldn't add to each other. Period.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I've noticed a couple odd rulings of late (the "all UBO powers cost END automatically" ruling being the other one) which seem to have no basis in FREd whatsoever. I hope that this is an anomaly and not a trend.