Derek Hiemforth

Seenar really mean? Abusive or just Righty? Bryan's not so bad

Michael Nenonen Split and vowed not to return The Left seems saner

Sheltered online home Invaded by porn spammers Shed a tear for Ben

My question is unrelated to the Limitation. I'm wondering how you have an Always On power in a Multipower slot.

It may also just be a matter of the new player getting used to this style of play. Nudge him along a bit when necessary, and I suspect you'll find it necessary less and less often as he "gets the hang of it."

This wouldn't allow portals only a few miles apart, though... How do you figure they'd be Accessible? They don't sound like something that could be easily taken away or neutralized in combat. I gave this -1/2 based on the logic that it was similar to being Linked to Teleport. According to the FAQ, Limitations on Fixed Locations can only be applied if they actually hinder them in some way. I don't think you could apply the Immobile modifier, because Fixed Locations are already immobile by their nature.

I wouldn't even bother with the Naked Advantage. Just buy Teleport, MegaScale, with Fixed Locations, Immobile Focus, and a Limited Power Limitation that only characters who have Teleportation powers of their own can use it. I'd make it as a Multipower, so you can scale between nearby portals and portals on the other side of the planet. For example, this would give you 10 "Ancient Portals" on a world up to four times the size of Earth: Cost Power END 11 Ancient Portals: Multipower, 40-point reserve, all slots: IIF Immobile (-1 1/4), Can Only Teleport To Fixed Locations (-1), User Must Have Teleportation Ability (-1/2) 1u 1) Nearby Portals (within a city): Teleportation 10", Megascale (1" = 1 km; +1/4) 2 1u 2) Short Distance Portals (within a barony): Teleportation 10", Megascale (1" = 10 km; +1/2) 3 1u 3) Medium Distance Portals (within a kingdom): Teleportation 10", Megascale (1" = 100 km; +3/4) 3 1u 4) Long Distance Portals (within an empire or continent): Teleportation 10", Megascale (1" = 1000 km; +1) 4 1u 5) Extreme Distance Portals (planetary; actual Earth diameter is 12,753 km): Teleportation 5", Megascale (1" = 10000 km; +1 1/4) 2 8 Portal Sites: Teleportation: Fixed Location (10 Locations); IIF (-1/4) Note that the Fixed Locations get the Focus Limitation (assuming there's some way to remove or deactivate these portals), but they don't get the Immobile modifier, because being immobile is part of the nature of Fixed Locations anyway.

I liked them too. 'Course I was 12 at the time... Seriously, they do have their charm. I dug 'em when I was young because that was all I thought RPGs were at the time, and I dig 'em now for nostalgia's sake. But c'mon... The Steading of the Hill Giant Chief has a room where over 9000 GP in gems are stuffed into a straw mattress in an otherwise ordinary room. This kind of thing totally encourages a hack-n-slash, sack-n-pillage, style of play that's just not normally seen in fantasy literature. The characters are supposed to be putting a stop to the giant raids on surrounding human communities. Instead, they're encouraged to take time out to ransack a bedroom on the off chance they might find 9000 GP in gems in the straw.

Well, with one difference. Brian wouldn't have put in the bit about character conception.

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Absent any ruling to the contrary, I don't see why not. There are, on page 79. The victim doesn't "try" to break out; all these attempts are subconscious and automatic... even if the victim is awake. They get an attempt after they're first affected, then they get further attempts at intervals on the Time Chart. You can't hurry this along by deliberately "trying" to break out.

While I don't disagree at all with your conclusion, I do disagree about it being a phenomenon of "these days." Have you ever read some of those old Gygax modules? Room after room with no personality, plot, or motivation information at all... just what kind of monster, trap, or dungeon dressing is in it, and what kind of booty you can find if you're thorough enough.

DEX is the most useful and cost-effective item you can purchase. I highly recommend buying it up as high as your character conception (and GM) will allow. 6 points of DEX costs 18 Character Points. For your 18 point investment, you get: +0.6 SPD (6 points) +2 OCV (2 CSLs with All Combat, Can't be used for DCV (-1/2); 11 points) +2 DCV (2 CSLs with DCV; 10 points) +6 Lightning Reflexes with All Actions (9 points) +1 with All Agility Skills (5 points) 41 points worth of stuff for 18 points. Not too shabby. Of course, this is just number-crunching and game mechanickhood. It shouldn't take precedence over character concept and campaign guidelines.

Those don't seem contradictory to me. ECV and EGO Rolls are different things. The EGO Rolls for breaking out of Mental Powers might be seen, in some ways, as analogous to STR Rolls for breaking out of a Grab or Entangle. If you've been Entangled, your DCV is 0 (just as the ECV of an unconscious foe is 0), but that doesn't mean you can't still use your STR to break out (just as an unconscious target can still make EGO Rolls to escape from Mental Powers). Page 79 of H5E does indeed describe these breakout attempts as "subconscious" and taking no time.

I would assume it would also cover things like being able to see and take in the scenery around you while moving extremely quickly. For example, a normal might be able to get a normal view of their surrounds while moving up to 15 or 20 MPH (running speed). A speedster who can run at 2000 MPH might buy Rapid for his Sight at the 100x level, and be able to make out as much of his surroundings at 2000 MPH as a normal can at 20 MPH.

As I mentioned on the Hero System board, another possibility (if you want to keep it strictly book-legal, and not use Transfer on Skills or put Skills in a VPP) would be to use a VPP to allocate Powers that simulate the effects of Skills. For example, while you technically can't Transfer Stealth or put Stealth in a VPP, you can put Invisibility or Images (with appropriate Limitations) in a VPP and call the resulting effect "Stealth."

I don't think that you can technically Transfer Skills (since Transfer says you can use it on "any Characteristic or Power)." One interesting (and book legal) way to simulate this effect might be a Variable Power Pool that you can allocate to replicate the effects of any Skill possessed by a character you've successfully used Telepathy on in the last hour (or whatever). For example, while you aren't technically supposed to use Transfer on Stealth or put Stealth in a VPP, you could put Invisibility or Images (with appropriate Limitations) in a VPP and call the resulting effect "Stealth."

Well, page 274 lists an ECV of 0 as one of the consequences of being Knocked Out, so I'd assume that means you can use Mental Powers on unconscious targets. No reason to mention their ECV otherwise. As a GM, I'd probably rule on Telepathy that an unconscious target has no surface thoughts (or only whatever he's dreaming about), so they'd have to get at least the +10 level to be effective.

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I'm too far away to join your game, but I thought I'd let you know that you might also want to post in the Player Finder area. I know there are some Portland-area folks who frequent the boards... maybe some of them are looking for a game.

Re: Trolls There have been virtually none until the last week or so, and the moderators seem to be dealing firmly with these newcomers. The only area where childish behavior is likely to be widespread is the Non-Gaming Discussions area.

Looked in the rulebook and FAQ, and didn't find this. Hope I'm not duplicating an already-answered question... If you have a Power that costs no END, and you apply the Costs Endurance Limitation to it, can you then also apply the Reduced Endurance Advantage to it... to Half END if not to Zero END? For example, let's say I've got a 6d6 Aid that I want to cost END, but I only want it to cost 3 END. Can/should I take Costs Endurance and Reduced Endurance (1/2 END) on it, or should I buy 3d6 Aid normally, and +3d6 Aid with Costs Endurance, as a Partially-Limited Power? Whatever the answer, does the situation change at all if it's a Power on Charges that you want to cost END as opposed to a normally-non-END-costing Power that you've applied Costs END to?

To an extent, this problem is built into D&D. Many of the most interesting monsters (Undead, Demons, Dragons, etc.) require that you have magical weapons to hit them at all, and the more powerful the monster, the more powerful the magic weapon required. This means that -- assuming you want to use these classic monsters -- you must provide magic items for the characters. This in turn builds in an "arms race" mentality, where the stuff a character has is extremely important... perhaps even more important than his abilities. Since almost no fantasy literature works like this, it's little wonder that many D&D players have trouble identifying their characters and environment with the genre conventions of fantasy novels... the D&D world doesn't work like fantasy novels (other than D&D novels, of course).

Believe it or not, this actually came up in our last game... H5E page 329 lists a Stick as a 2d6N weapon with a STR Min of 5. UMA page 171 lists a Stick as a 3d6N weapon with a STR Min of 8. (A player was assuming one "version" of the Stick, and our GM the other.) Is one of these incorrect, or do they simply represent a stick and a bigger stick?

...assuming Hero A knocks Villain B back. If he doesn't then they both take full damage, of course.