Doc Democracy

Re: Curious of Other Opins

What is the rationale behind the power?

Doc

Re: A new look at shields

What I am going to suggest decreases the utility of shields compared to nromal play but provides some of the 'gets in the way' feel without another roll.

You could simply attest that the DCV provided was an indicator that the weapon hit the shield rather than simply missing - thus you get three combat results: hit, miss and shield hit. A shield hit would be like a normal hit except that the shield DEF removes dice from the attack (like a force wall). When more BODY is done than the shield can withstand it becomes 1 DEF less effective against future attacks.

A bit more working but no more rolling and some additional flavour for those one-on-one duels....

Doc

Re: Mass Area Effect

Hmm.

The big problem that hit me looking at the effect was that it needed some variable cost depending on the spells known by the wearer.

What about it simply being a transform attack that changed every spell known by the caster into one with variable advantage (though it would be a limited advantage in that he could vary between area effect and reduced/increased END).

You could even mitigate added END costs by having the amulet come with an END Reserve that could cover the first few uses of the area effect at added END cost.

Doc

Re: Troop morale

Looking at the system as written you have a lot of events that require tracking and noting (it could get ugly if there are more than one or two opponents on each side).

I would have more definitive events that happen less often or only have a check for every phase the henchmen operate (only one check per phase is easier operationally).

Doc

Re: Duplicating alot

The last duplication character that I had used the infinite duplicates as SFX for other powers.

What does the player want the duplicates to do? My game was rather iron age and the SFX of his force field was multiples of duplicates getting killed as more poured forward to continue whatever was going on. Clairsentience as duplicates moving elsewhere etc etc.

It only takes a bit of thought to see what might be possible - build in some time delays for bringing the duplicates forth and those infinite duplicates are all just SFX...

Doc

Re: How can you feed this many people?

Interesting thread.

Keyes Bill had said that there was magic about and there has been some attentiont paid to that but I had my head around the elfin style stuff and the thoughts that a forest was no good as a food source.

Obviously a mundane forest is no good as a food source and a mundane forester would have no way to know how depleted the animals in there were. In a magical world both of those statements are no longer true.

I see foresters going to trees on a rotational basis and coaxing a harvest out of them. Thus you can predict how much the trees will yield and you rotate so that you do not exhaust them.

You can also draw animals to you. With magic you can ensure that you are taking surplus population and possibly those that are detrimental to the normal population in the forest.

Thus the forest would be a good place to draw your sustenance from without recourse to intensive agiculture or even the possibly magical monocultures suggested. Instead you look for a magically enhanced and magically managed resource.

Doc

Re: A Percentile Analysis of Relative OCV

Indeed, and you cannot simply divide by 18, as the distribution is not flat. The chart should be (to the nearest 0.5%):

 

OCV-DCV+Mods  Hit Prob (%)
------------  -----------
+6 and up     99.5%
+5            98.0%
+4            95.5%
+3            90.5%
+2            84.0%
+1            74.0%
0            62.5%
-1            50.0%
-2            37.5%
-3            26.0%
-4            16.0%
-5             9.5%
-6             4.5%
-7             2.0%
-8 and down    0.5%

I always thought that 11 was a strange number to set the standard in HERO because of that 62.5% chance - it would be far better for it to be 10 - a straight 50-50 chance.

Its always good to see it written down - makes you appreciate that the 8- is a 1 in 4 chance and the 14 or less that you get a -1/2 limitation on a power still allows it to work more than 90% of the time...

Doc

Re: Walking On The Sun

I guess I'm waiting for The Ultimate Option.

I think I'd like this as well.

I see it as being a book that discusses the various options for those things that the core rules do not really touch on - and those issues that people use to beat on the system.

I would have discussions of absolutes (including invulnerability), of possession and of SFX based adjustment powers.

I guess it would be the Ultimate Heroglyphs where Steve could wander about discussing a variety of options on how to model various effects using the system.

Doc

Re: Announcing — DIME HERO ADVENTURES!

I liked it when Pinnacle did it for deadlands - I'll like them for Pulp Hero or any other genre.

Its good business to have a product that people can buy without any reference to budgets etc.

Re: Just Plain Unnerving

Just wondering whether it might be worth attacking this from the other side.

What about the fact that she has an area effect PRE drain? It should be something that has a low effect and builds through constant exposure.

This would simulate that people next to her are more susceptible to any PRE attack due to their discomfort - not just from her.

I was going to suggest that there was also a PRE defence drain but possibly PRE defence should counteract the weirding out ability and a limitation might be that PRE defence would add to POW defence against the drain.

Doc

Re: Walking On The Sun

In many genres (Dungeons and Dragons FOREX) some characters are like you say immune to one or at most two types of attacks (Blue Dragons are immune to electricity' date=' Oozes are immune to polymorph spells). HERO needs to embrace the idea of absolutes. [/quote']

 

This is a resistant topic - nothing seems to kill it!

 

I think that fantasy is the one genre where you actually get absolute immunities. I'm not sure that HERO needs to embrace the idea of absolutes to accommodate fantasy but there may be an argument for Fantasy Hero discussing this kind of trope.

 

I personally think that Steve's 350 pointer does that but I would possibly leave it for those particular Fantasy Hero things.

 

More importantly the system needs a absolute that will not break the character bank' date=' because what ever games you run (500+ points), Fox1 runs (pointless), or I run (410 points) most Players are in the 350 points or less bracket. And the ability has to be affordable in those arenas. [/quote']

 

And here is where we diverge. I see no need for these to be affordable to characters. Very few characters are immune to anything unless there is artifacts, spells involved. In those cases the limitations that can be applied to make things affordable are available for use.

 

Even with spells you find the genre providing examples of where people believed themselves to be invulnerable being overwhelmed by more powerful magic, which means they were never invulnerable in the first place - just functionally invulnerable until that moment.

 

In my Union of Outstanding Companions game my players have no mechanics infront of them just the stats that vary like END/STUN/BODY

 

One of the characters has a power description that sounds very much like invulnerability (all of the scrapes he has ever been in including some airplane crashes have resulted in nothing more than simple cuts and bruises). The player who went for that character played him as invulnerable and it worked. he was amazed to find out that his invulnerability was no more than 13 rPD/rED.

 

I think it is all a matter of perception.

 

I also think that it is a mistake in a system like HERO to think that an ability should be covered by one power on its own. If a character wants to be able to Walk on the Sun then the GM should be ensuring that their power set allows them to cope with the environmental aspects of that as well as the more fundamental side benefits such as the rED and STR to deal with the tidal solar blasts of the various light and sun based opponents that they may face.

 

 

Doc

Re: Best way to do this....

The simplest way to do this would be to use a partially-limited power, I'm thinking.

 

So example, buy the base power (xd6), then buy another xd6 with "Only if cool, dim or wet, (-1/4)", then another xd6 with "Only if two of cool, dim or wet, (-1/2)" and finally another xd6 with "Only if cool, dim and wet, (-1)"

 

If you want to be able to overcome the limitation with extra END then change each of those conditions to variable limit, so that you can choose to carry the extra points with increasingly high endurance costs, instead.

 

cheers, Mark

Good advice - I was wondering whether the END could be done by purchasing various parts of the base power with variable limitations. The first part (say 4D6) could be bought at multiple END (maybe times 2?) (only when hot, dry and bright) and then three other portions (three extra 2D6) could be bought with 0 END (not when hot/dry/bright respectively).

That would mean that in ideal conditions the only END would be on a 4D6 of the base power (2 END), in dry conditions one portion would also kick in (3 END), in dry & hot conditions a second portion kicks in (4 END) and when it is hot, dry and bright you get END on the whole base power (5 END) and extra END on the rump of the base power (7 END).

The whole thing becomes very complex in construction but you get a power where, in cold wet and dim conditions you can throw 16D6 (for example) at a cost of 2 END but in hot, dry and bright conditions you'd be limited to 10D6 at 7 END with a whole variety of ENDs and D6 damage in between....

Doc

Re: Glorantha Hero

Since I'm not fond of "new model" Glorantha' date=' the stuff in this thread fills me with joy. I ran Glorantha Hero a long time ago (c. 1989-91), and these guys were real heroes: 100 + 100 disads. Worked great.[/quote']

 

Did you do anything funky or just provide Hero equivalents of the Gloranthan spells etc?

Re: Help building a mental illusion-based invisibility

Hmm' date=' Darkness based on Ego somehow and always thrown on himself? It's essentially just Invisibility at that point, right, since he'll always hit himself with the Darkness and it's infallible?[/quote']

 

The EGO link could be a limitation to the darkness in that anyone who defeats the mentalist in an EGO vs EGO can see him standing in the midst of the dancers, quite clearly.

 

So not necessarily infallable but definitely along the lines of what you wanted. You would also need some ability to see out of the field or personal immunity bought for it...

Re: Help building a mental illusion-based invisibility

What about using Darkness rather than images. The special effect of the darkness could be a field full of human shapes dancing in flickering light where features and other useful things are hidden.

Everyone will see the figures dancing and the flashing lights and dancers. The game effects would be similar to that of darkness and give you the defence that you seem to be looking for...

Doc

Re: New Perk

My initial thought was that it should be 0 points - you woulldn't be getting the advantage of points from the disadvantage for being legally independent.

My second thought was that if the characters are all being given that disad as a campaign disad (no points for it), then the cost of the perk is what it would cost to buy off the disadvantage....

Make sense?

In a comic-book world I think that this perk could come at virtually any age though there would have to be some kind of rationale for it - better and better as the age gets lower...

Doc

Re: Ay Yi Yi! GM advice needed!

One option is to have the PCs enter a magical dead zone during a different scenario and have the memories flood back (with an awareness that they had forgotten). If they leave the area you can decide whether you want the spell to come back into force or whether you want it to be broken due to the time in the dead zone.

That way they know the situation and can address the spell that was cast...

Doc

Re: Martial Artist?

One of the ways that I built martial artists to get around the bell curve was to add dice of hand attack limited by only being effective givewn an attack roll better than that required by the system.

So KungFuGuy had a martial strike of 3D6 (STR 15) + 4D6 for his martial arts +5D6 (precision limited, capped) Hand Attack.

If KungFuGuy needed 15 or less to hit SlowMovingBrickMan then

on a roll of 15 he would roll 7D6 (average 24.5 STUN, 7 BODY)

on a roll of 14 he would roll 8D6 (average 28 STUN, 8 BODY)

on a roll of 13 he would roll 9D6 (average 31.5 STUN, 9 BODY)

on a roll of 12 he would roll 10D6 (average 35 STUN, 10 BODY)

on a roll of 11 he would roll 11D6 (average 38.5 STUN, 11 BODY)

on a roll of 10 he would roll 12D6 (average 42 STUN, 12 BODY)

But he would never do more than 42 STUN, 14 BODY for a strike (the maximums of 7D6) and using a less damaging manouevre would result in a lower cap.

This allowed me to up the damage done by martial artists without making them overmuscled. I often used standard effect and just added the damage rather than rolling extra dice - it made the martial artist seem different from the brick.

Doc

Re: Keeping them distant

My only problem with cover is that it simply says to your opponent that you either keep your distance or I do you some damage (which I suppose is exactly what Markdoc is describing as spearman tactics).

It does not give the ability to keep an opponent distant mechanically - just through roleplay and trying to keep metagaming out of our mechanistically inclined minds.

With the manouever that I proposed there would be mechanics to use that would keep an opponent distant as long as the attack roll was successful. I haven't seen anything else yet where a successful roll would guarantee the maintenance of distance.

Re: Keeping them distant

My experience - both personal and observational - has been that in one on one conflicts weapon reach really doesn't make that much difference: the guy with the longer weapon often gets to hit first, but he can only keep his opponent at bay if the opponent is too intimidated to commit to an attack (with consequent risk of getting hit) - the rules for extra reach and the OCV penalty on longer weapons seems to simulate that adequately.

I am quite happy to use this as a generic type thing. But if I have a hero who wants to keep someone at bay - out of reach using a reach weapon I don't have anything to hand to provide.

I think a lot of the personal and observational experience people have brought is in non-lethal combat (I hope a safe assumption!) I think there is a much higher chance in lethal combat that people will be more intimidated to commit to an attack - a good spearman should be able to delay someone - a hero should be able to hold someone off with good use of their reach weapon.

(All of those shoulds come from what I want to be true in my swords and sorcery stories)

Doc

Re: Same concept, new approach

Sorry, I should've have put more of the campaign up to explain the world. The character has been played up to 500 pt + level (started off at 250 pts, have been playing this campaign for quite some time now. The attack started off as 8d6 AP 1/2 END). The attack is a 12d6 AP 1/2 END cannot spread/bounce (105) pts. The attack is rarely used at full power unless I am facing a higher end villian . I usually use an entangle to set up villians for my team mates. The GM will throw villian teams that are 100+ pts higher than the PC's.

 

You are right, it should read for the same target. What level of additional dice would you feel comfrotable adding?

You could go a different way again. If the attack was linked with a PD drain for example you would need to lose (on average) 14 PD for the second shot to be worth an extra 7 after armour pierced defences - or 5D6 drain with standard effect.

Obviously the drain would only work if the target had previously been hit with the attack in the last minute which might be worth a substantial limitation.

Re: Finally played HERO... and a question!

A character has a few 3-pt CSLs on a Power Framework that's defined as "Demonic Fire Sorcery".

My first thought was that you'd need 5 point levels for a power framework - am I in wrong edition mode??

o If the CSLs are switched to DCV' date=' what can that DCV bonus be applied to? Anything at all that is defined as "Demonic Fire Sorcery" (whether it's BOECV or some wierdo Power with UAA, whatever) and nothing else? Anything using any of the same Powers that are in the Framework (this seems a bit powerful to me)? Nothing at all? [/quote']

 

Once again - don't you need 8 point levels to apply generally to DCV? You can use 3 and 5 point levels for HtH and need 8 pointers for everything...

 

o If 4 such CSLs are switched to add damage' date=' then presumably any Power in the Framework can have an extra 2 DCs of damage added irrespective of that Power's Advantages? Thus, Active Point Caps can be neatly subverted, and attacks with lots of Advantages can get a nice big boost [/quote']

 

From memory, its more complicated than that and that's because the advantages do count.

 

Generally' date=' people had a lot of fun, but I (as GM) had a tough time balancing encounters. I found that if any "boss" style monster kept attacking just one character, that character was in dire trouble, but if the monster alternated its attacks, the characters found it pretty easy [/quote']

 

That is one of the things that the heroes have to work out for themselves. If the boss monster is attacking one character then the others should be working hard to divert its attention while said character does whatever he can to make himself harder to hit and to hurt.

 

Doc

Re: Keeping them distant

Would you consider fiddling with the cover mechanic? Because that's effectively what the person with the polearm is doing: covering you. You have to open yourself to attack to get close enough to lauch your own (unless you have a modified bind manuever or some such).

Hmm. I hadn't considered 'cover'. It does however open the game up to the ability of players to know that they are unlikely to be taken down with one blow.

I was thinking that using the basics of the grab manouever would be best - it restricts movement of the victim (if the attack is successful) and allows damage to be done. Thus - keep them distant - if successful restricts the movement and does damage - very similar in basics.

If the attack is unsuccessful then the opponent is not kept at a distance and can attack while the polearm wielder remains at 1/2 DCV.

Willing to consider anything though...

Doc

Re: Keeping them distant

Since this is Fantasy Hero and no points are paid' date=' you may have to resort to a ruling to address this.[/quote']

 

I guess I could charge points for the manouevre to reflect the skill necessary to keep someone at bay using a large pointy stick.

Re: Keeping them distant

Well, I looked at this one myself. Polearms are effective at range, but you can get by them and when you do the polearm fighter is screwed.

 

I usually have 1" on stretching (persistant, always one) to simulate the length. To simulate the difficulty of getting inside the weapon... you might give the weilder a +1 DCV (or more if you are generous).

I had considered the extra DCV but it made the whole distance thing too abstract and probably takes away from the need for the polearm fighter to abandon his reach weapon when someone gets inside his reach.

I was looking for ways to reflect that, at distance the polearm is the better weapon but close up it's nigh useless.

Doc