Talon

Yes, it's abusable -- you have to watch for it during character design, and even then quite reasonable characters can use it to devastating effect in the right circumstances. IMO, the best solution is the optional velocity rules in FREd; they modify the linear nature of the damage, which is really what causes the problem.

BOECV is not needed. I wouldn't consider the Ego vs. Ego roll to be the fringe; if you want no fringe for people who fail the roll, buy it (with some of those points saved from BOECV).

Question: How often do targets get to make the Ego vs. Ego roll? If they fail it once are they screwed for the rest of the encounter?

Only vs Sentient Minds: Does a character watching the scene live through a closed-circuit camera (or television) see the character? What about a battlesuit character on the scene who sees through video cameras (i.e., no actual windows in the battlesuit)?

I'm working on a "Orbital Mechanics Hero" article that will include writeups for contemporary spacecraft: the Space Shuttle, Saturn rockets, Russian rockets, etc. I'll be proposing to Dave for Digital Hero, but if it's turned down (it is a wee bit specialized ) it'll show up somewhere.

I think Hit Locations are necessary if you want a gritty, low-fantasy feel. If you're running a high fantasy game, they're definitely optional.

I don't find they slow things down much; if you're worried, use dice of multiple colors and roll to-hit, damage, and hit location all at once.

Oops, my mistake, I thought you were looking for a "replay" effect so you could Dodge or whatever.

Yeah, to duplicate any possible attack you'll need a large VPP, Transform, or something similar.

Extra Dimensional Travel, with the time travel option, only for replaying recent event.

Re: Re: Distance Measurements for Teleportation

Originally posted by BasilDrag

Neither time of year nor phase of Luna matter.

Not actually true -- the Moon's orbit is not perfectly circular, and the difference is potentially significant.

Originally posted by Acroyear

Would you have the same opinions if it was a psych (total) which, also, makes it more difficult for something like a mind control to work rather than an absolute stop? All psychs essentially have this positive effect that it's increasingly difficult to force them to do the opposite (above and beyond the Ego+X scale), moreso for broad psychs like "code of chivalry" or "driven to be heroic" and such.

Yes, I'd have the same outlook if it were Psych Lim: Does No Evil; the degree of "mental defense" it provides needs to be weighed against the downsides of the disad.

Interesting point on "be heroic" Psych. Lims; I don't think I've ever seen anyone try to claim extra resistance to Mind Control based on those. I suspect a lot of people implicitly assume that such behavioral Psych Lims don't really stop a Mind Control.

At lunar apogee (the point when the moon is farthest from the Earth), it's about 405,500 km away, or 202,750,000". Megascale is your friend.

Assuming you don't mind Teleporting through the Earth, then you should need an amount of Teleport equal to the Earth's diameter to get anywhere on the planet: about 12756 km, or 6,378,000". If you're worried about high altitude teleports, mountains, you might want to pad that a little bit.

Originally posted by Acroyear

It's certainly a healthy way to look at it, however. Would you suggest Infrequent/Total? Or reduce it even further based on your take on it?

 

The player in question, however, has earned the nickname "Body Count" and, uh, a lot of that count isn't the bad guys... so I'm sure he'll want to do the bad stuff often. The disad is kind of a way of self policing, perhaps, in addition to being an interesting background thingy.

With the player specifics in mind, I might be more inclined to just let it go...although I'd be that much more concerned about coming up with a clear definition of Evil. In the general case, I'd probably make it Infrequent, Greatly impairing...and I'd go Slightly if I knew that the Mind Control issue was going to come up a lot in the campaign.

Originally posted by Acroyear

One of the reasons I was asking for opinions and explained that aspect. He can still be mind controlled, just not to do anything evil, himself.

Right -- but a villain who says "Attack [or kill] your friends!" will have his command fail, because that would be Evil. Instant Mental Defense.

However, we don't diminish the value of "Phys: Blind" if you can't see images or flashes, aren't affected by darkness, and target that invisible guy like anyone else nor "deaf" if you can't hear a Mind Control command (not all of them are telepathic).

Actually, I would say that those things are taken into consideration, but the overwhelming frequency of the disad pretty much subsumes those things.

For Phys Lim: Does No Evil, unless you're playing in a villainous game, the Mind Control scenario is much more likely relative to the frequency with which the character would want to do evil but cannot -- especially if he has no problems with other people doing evil (e.g., Simon's method of circumventing his mental block in Demolition Man). Thus, the reduction should be significant.

Firstly, I would clarify how "evil" is defined to avoid ugly "discussions" in-game.

Secondly, if this is a PC, I would reduce the value of the Limitation greatly due to the "can't Mind Control me to do evil" effect -- purchasing immunity to such Mind Controls should cost something.

I suggest venting your repressed feelings of rage by ruthlessly min-mixing your own character in a display of passive-aggressive vengeance that will leave their little OIHID characters squealing like little girls.

Works for me.

Take your petty gripes and go back to your kiddy games or design your own system!

Seriously, the granularity issue you point out does exist -- but I haven't found it to be an issue in the low-fantasy games I run. One reason is skill levels -- sure, stat rolls only range from 11- to 14-, but once you start buying skill levels, the range increases greatly. As GM, I make sure the range is relevant (by applying penalties and the like in a realistic fashion), so the players are encouraged to buy up their rolls.

The biggest advantage to using Hero for fantasy is that you can model whatever magic system you want to come up with. The biggest problem is that you have to do the work to create it.

I probably wouldn't, because part of the cost savings of using a vehicle is the fact that you can lose the vehicle permanently. That doesn't fly for most superhero games, so I wouldn't allow it.

Personally, I'd rather go the other route (surprise!) and de-randomize KAs; x3 fixed STUN multiple or something similar.

"Ed has a lighter than air pilot's license."

Somewhere in some version, they suggest giving the character's a base "on credit", then taking some of their XP as the campaign goes on.

If I were going to make falling damage more realistic, I'd start by making it NND or AVLD -- wearing a breastplate isn't really going to help you much. I'd probably just make the defense be PD bought with the limitation "only against falling damage" (or a Breakfall roll, or any other way to avoid the fall). That makes a fall much more dangerous.

I don't think you should make up extra STUNx and BODYx numbers for "new" locations. That said, Hero does have a mechanic for this: Impairing/Disabling wounds.

If someone wanted to attack the eyes, I'd give a -10 to hit, and rule that any Impairing/Disabling wounds would affect vision -- a Disabling wound would almost certainly mean blindness. For an attack on the jugular, an Impairing or Disabling wound might result in extra Bleeding (if that rule were being used) or 1-2d6 NND per Turn from blood loss (if not). I'd use the same guidelines that the book recommends -- lesser NPCs might be knocked out or killed by a wound that would have a more minor impact on a PC or major NPC.

Re: Re: Newbie Question

Originally posted by Chaosliege

Hero doesn't do fast battles.

I don't think this is really true any more. I ran a Fantasy Hero con game (with Hit Locations)...in 4 hours I had two major battles and three major roleplaying scenes, with time leftover for minor scenes. I've been running a D&D 3E game for a couple years now, and combats now take at least as long as Hero. Obviously, a fight with tons of combatants is going to take a long time, but 2 MGs, a tank, and 6 soldiers shouldn't take long at all.

Don't forget that not meeting the STR Min for a weapon is not a death sentence. -1 OCV is a small price to pay for the ability to dish out severe damage; take the penalty and deal with it.

For example, I had a 13 STR Fantasy Hero character who regularly used a greatsword -- the -1 for STR Min cancelled out the +1 OCV (this was 4th Edition), leaving her with a 2d6 weapon for net -0 OCV. Definitely worth it.

IMO, this is /more/ realistic rather than less -- for most people, a machine gun is less accurate due to it being more bulky.

I would add that if you want to be truly realistic, you need to apply realistic penalties to Paramedics rolls. Often, someone will be wounded -- but there's nothing that can be done to save them.

UMA does have extended rules for building martial arts -- possibly useful for a normal, realistic game. If you're not running superheroes, I would get it before Champions or Champions Universe. (Conversely, I would get Champions if you intend to run a superheroic game.)

FWIW, I'm working on an "Orbital Mechanics Hero" article which has the intention of taking Newtonian-style movement (Hohmann transfer orbits, etc.) and putting it into Hero in a manner that's reasonable for GMs to manage during a session.

I tend to start with a map as well, but I think the best idea is to start with whatever "hook" captures your imagination.

In terms of knowing what to do, I highly recommend getting a copy of the Forgotten Realms base setting book. Forget the content; the form in which it is presented makes a perfect template for worldbuilders.

My technique for worldbuilding goes more or less as follows:

1) Initial world idea: create whatever is inspiring you to make this world. For me, it's usually a map.

2) Make a rough pass at the rest of the world: gods, magic, history, races, nations, and other unique aspects. A couple of pages max.

3) Pick one of these aspects and expand upon it.

4) Repeat #2 with a little more detail, and taking into account the detail you just added in step 3.

5) Repeat 3-4 until you're done.