Derek Hiemforth

The following is from CC, p6. I don't know how to say it more clearly. "You won’t find many phrases in this book like “at the GM’s discretion” or “if the GM allows” or “with special permission from the GM” because all of those are assumed at all times. For example, the rules just state that Special Powers can’t be bought in a Power Framework. They don’t add “unless the GM gives special permission” or the like, because it’s assumed; the GM can always give special permission. Likewise, even though nothing in the rules implies that the Stealth Skill is optional in any way, that doesn’t automatically mean every GM must permit any character to buy Stealth. Every campaign is unique, and if a GM thinks his game will work better – be more fun for all involved – by allowing something the rules as written don’t allow, then he is absolutely empowered to allow it. Likewise, if disallowing something normally allowed would be better, or if some rule in the system would suit his game more if it worked differently, then he can certainly make those changes."

Hero Designer is enforcing the rules. Floating locations for Teleport aren't allowed in power frameworks (5ER p233). If you don't want that behavior, you can turn it off in the preferences, under Modifier Intelligence.

Well, but if the power was not already Constant, and you didn't add Constant (+½), then it wouldn't be "A Constant Area Of Effect (Surface) power that a character applies to himself..." Yeah, this one is a matter of logistics. One of the ways I saved space was to refer to things instead of repeating them. When you're trying to cram HERO System Sixth Edition and some superhero genre material all into 240 pages, there just ain't room for repeating stuff... 😆🤷‍♂️

Why your username? It's the name my mama gave me. Why your avatar or if no avatar why not "Rhino" was a nickname in college days, so a cartoon rhino running through a hex seems apt for an avatar on the HERO System forums. What area do you live in? The San Francisco Bay Area in California. I live in the East Bay region, about 35 miles northeast of Oakland. What's your profession? I'm a professional writer. Very occasionally, that means I'm a freelance writer in the RPG world. Usually, it means I'm a technical writer in the energy industry. However, the career of my 20s and 30s was I.T., so I still feel at home here. Are you Windows, MAC or Linux? Mac and Windows. Mac preferred for most things, but fine using Windows when it's a better fit for a given activity. I've run Linux before, but I haven't had a Linux build on one of my machines for a while now. Are there TV shows and/or movies you like to binge watch? Way more of them (mainly TV series) than I have time for, especially with all of the other distractions available. I don't even know how many complete series I own on disc, much less everything available on streaming. At least 50-60 complete series on disc, of various genres. What drew you to the Hero System? One of my best friends went to SJSU the year we graduated from high school. When I went to SJSU the next year (after a year at the local JC), I picked the same dorm as her (so I would know someone). Her boyfriend at college was a gamer, and I fell in with his gaming group. They were playing Champions at the time. I still play with that group today (albeit remotely now, and with some membership changes). However, what kept me with the HERO System was its creative freedom, the concept of "reasoning from effect," the concept of Speed, and the separation of damage into STUN and BODY. Since almost all of my previous gaming had been AD&D, these were pretty revolutionary concepts to me, and I've never tired of them. Which edition did you start with? Third Edition Champions (the Mike Witherby cover) What have you used the game for? No way I could remember them all. A partial list includes: Champions: Modern era (eleven campaigns), golden-age (two campaigns), pulp-era (mystery men, but with actual low-level superpowers), anti-heroes (a la Suicide Squad), sci-fi-flavored (two campaigns), and fantasy-flavored (PCs as demigods protecting their tribes or peoples, facing evil demigods, all with fantasy trappings in the supporting roles, such as knights and necromancers instead of UNTIL and VIPER agents, etc. It was not like Fantasy Hero; it was like Champions, just with fantasy trappings instead of modern trappings) Dark Champions: Two solo campaigns (one GM, one player) Fantasy Hero: A game set in The Turakian Age, a game set in Steven Brust's Dragaera, and four games set in various home-brewed fantasy worlds. Urban Fantasy/Modern Weirdness: The Darkwalkers (think Men in Black, but vs. magic and monsters instead of aliens, and sponsored by a secret society instead of a government agency), The Warehouse (think of the Warehouse 13 TV show or the GURPS Warehouse 23 RPG book). Worlds Crossing: One campaign based on Monte Cook's The Strange (but in HERO), and one based on GURPS Infinite Worlds (but in HERO). Assorted Convention Games: Challenge of the Super-Friends. TV Detective All-Stars. Scooby-Doo. What point system have you ran or played in? Truly all over the map. Games in which I played or game mastered have featured starting PCs with as few as 50 CP, and as many as unlimited CP. Do you still play or GM the Hero System Yes. I'm currently a player in two groups that both play HERO at least part of the time. I'm also ramping up to GM a new Pulp Hero campaign (my first) that will hopefully kick off sometime soonish, after COVID settles down. Our there other games you play I've played a bunch of games a handful of times or less, but the only ones I've played extensively are HERO System and the D&D/AD&D/Pathfinder lot. Currently, I'm playing HERO and Pathfinder. However, I haven't run a game in any rules system other than HERO in... I don't even know how long. A long time. There are other systems I would be willing to run if I had to. But I don't have to, so I run HERO. On an A to F scale how do you rate the system overall For the type of game it seeks to be, it definitely gets an A. I think it's the best game of its kind. Now, that kind of game is not really the sort of game that's currently in vogue in the RPG world, so despite my love for it and my high regard of how well it succeeds at its goals, I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to everyone. It very much depends on what one's expectations are. For example, if you want a game where the rules of the game reinforce the feel of the story and the world, then HERO would probably be, at best, a C for you. If you want a game where the GM and the players trade off story control and your narrative choices affect the game on a meta level, etc. then HERO would probably get a D or an F. Different strokes for different folks, etc. Fortunately, I like the kind of game system HERO is, so I'm a happy camper. What are some house-rules, if any, you use in the past? Oh geez... many have come and gone over the years, though I will say that as the rules have improved with each edition, and as I've gotten older and more tired, the appeal of house rules fades more and more. One I've used pretty consistently is a tie-breaker system for combat order, rather than rolling dice to break ties. For years, I used the Hit Location chart for rolling STUNx on killing attacks (not necessarily the other HLC effects; just the STUNx, to flatten the curve), but with 6E, the need for that one has gone away. I'll often ignore END in games where it seems like an unnecessary complication. If you could put together a 7th edition what are some things you add, omit and/or change? I'm not sure I would change too much, to be honest; I think 6E is pretty solid. I might look at unifying the Skill system a little more (so that all Skills are built the same way and cost the same amount) and I might try to simplify the rules for adding damage. I'd probably also expand the concept of Dormant game elements, and better define what that means. For example, the current Characteristic descriptions talk about what happens at 0 value; I'd expand that to talk about what happens if a character lacks that characteristic entirely. This might have a lot in common with @GamePhil's "Incomplete Characters" rules. Otherwise, just minor tweaks and presentational changes, I think.

1. 250m. The costs for the Clairsentience working with Senses beyond the first, and for whether or not it works Pre- or Retrocognitively, are included in its Base Points. Those are not considered Adders. 2. No, because the speed of the mobile perception point is not connected in any way to the range of the power. There's no reason to think that MegaRange on Clairsentience would speed up the mobile perception point. So you could place the perception point at the (now very distant) range, but moving it around at that location would still be at 12m per Phase. If desired, you could buy MegaScale on the Clairsentience again, this time as MegaMovement for the mobile perception point. However, that would make moving the perception point a Full Phase Action (as with any other MegaMovement), instead of a Half-Phase Action.

Although never called "Spell Resistance," I'm guessing you're thinking of the discussion of using Skill Versus Skill Contests to resolve a magical duel. For 6E, that's on Fantasy Hero, page 283.

Couldn't decide whether to react to this with "Haha" or "Sad," so I decided to just go with "Thanks!" EDIT: Also, this seems like a good place to add... it's pretty ironic that "Fatal Attractions" ended up being my contribution to Champions Battlegrounds. Because my own Champions games tend to be much more 4-color, and I would probably never run a scenario like that in my own Champions campaign. I restrict my darker-toned adventures to my modern urban fantasy-type games. 🤣

To Save The World definitely features in Champions Battlegrounds. In my "Fatal Attractions" scenario, the superhero-themed amusement park that Black Harlequin threatens is based on To Save The World and its characters. BH is obsessed with the show, which is what drives his plot. It also includes some additional information on various characters from the show.

This. The pool cost isn't supposed to be affected by modifiers.

The text from 6E1 p142 does not contradict the text from 6E1 p140. The text on 140 notes that you can't adjust all of the slots by only adjusting the pool. In other words, if you want to Drain someone's entire Multipower, including all 5 slots it has, then you can't just Drain their Multipower Reserve and thereby clobber all 5 slots at once. You have to Drain each slot as if it were bought separately like any other power, and if you Drain one of them, the character can just use the others just fine. But 6E2 p142's text on Expanded Effect notes that Expanded Effect (potentially, depending on how you've bought it) lets you affect the pool and the slots together. Why would this matter? Well, if you have enough Expanded Effect (such as the +4 level), it might matter a lot, allowing you to affect a Multipower or VPP with many possible slots of the target effect all at once (which could make positively adjusting a power framework, in particular, much easier).

After. The Breakout Roll doesn't happen until the target's next Phase, per this bit from 6E1 p149: "Starting on the target’s next Phase after being successfully attacked with a continuing-effect Mental Power, he may attempt to break free from the Power." The mentalist's Attack Roll and Effect Roll happened on the Phase in which the mentalist attacked with the Mind Scan (per 6E1 p263-264). Or another way to think of it is, the target doesn't need a Breakout Roll until after there's been an Effect Roll, but by the time there's an Effect Roll, it's too late: the mentalist got the location from the Effect Roll.

I'm not sure why there's any question over this, really. Everything you need for it comes right out of the box as a normal part of Distinctive Features: Presumably, the leitmotif always plays, and there's nothing the character can do to conceal it from those who can hear it. Therefore, the concealability factor is Not Concealable (base 15-pt. Complication). The reaction factor would be dependent on how characters react in-game. You said the leitmotif would only be detectible by people who spent points on the appropriate Unusual Senses (-10). So it's a Distinctive Features Complication worth 5 points if it's noticed and recognizable, 10 points if it causes a major reaction, or 15 points if it's an extreme reaction.

FYI, I recently created a character sheet (in MS Word format) for HERO System 6th Edition, but done in the 3-Column style of the HERO System 4E character sheets. It's available in the site files section if you're interested.

FYI, I recently created a character sheet (in MS Word format) for Champions Complete, but done in the 3-Column style of the Champions 4E (BBB) character sheets. It's available in the site files section if you're interested.

Depends on the map. Game elements are measured in meters, so hexes on the map can equate to as many or as few meters as necessary to accurately reflect the size of the area the map depicts.

I think this is the best approach. Honestly, it sounds like many applications of this general effect would fall into the realm of "I want to get Limitations for having to do preparations at a time of my choosing, when I'm completely safe and not pressed for time, and then use the power without the restrictions of those preparations whenever I decide I need it." Which is totally fine, but also seems potentially close in spirit to "I want an invisible, desolid 'focus' that I can teleport to my hand." There's nothing wrong with that either, but the answer is to just chalk it up to SFX and not take a CP break. So in the end, I think you're probably looking at either no Limitation value (just SFX) or maybe something like Only in Alternate ID or some application of Limited Power for -¼.

It means you can only target characters with a Martial Throw. For example, you can Grab a manhole cover and then Throw it at Dr. Sinister or Sgt. Sneaky. However, you can't Martial Throw a manhole cover at either of them (to avoid having to Grab it first). However, you could Martial Throw Dr. Sinister into Sgt. Sneaky (or vice-versa), assuming it worked out otherwise (they were close enough, you had STR enough, etc.) As for the larger question about whether vehicles count as characters for this purpose, I think that needs to stay firmly in the province of a GM decision. I think there would be many cases in which special effects, situational factors, common sense, and dramatic sense would all agree that it should be possible (especially with a moving vehicle), and many cases in which all of those considerations would agree that it should not be possible.

I see Wealth in the game as being more a measure of, well, wealth than credit, exactly. Credit is a measure of how much you could come up with if you maxed out your resources, while Wealth is more a measure of what your resources are without maxing them out. Yes, some "middle class" people have good enough credit that they could get their hands on $100K if they absolutely had to. But their everyday lifestyle is still middle-class, and accessing that 100K would leave them with debts that would take years to pay off. Someone with even 5 CP of Wealth would be able to get 100K with much less long-term impact, even if it wouldn't exactly be a breeze, and it wouldn't leave them in as much of a crunch afterward. Also, if they maxed out their resources the same way, they could come up with considerably more than 100K. For the middle-class person (0 CP of Wealth), 100K may be more than their entire annual income (it probably is more). For the 5 CP of Wealth person, 100K is about a fifth of their annual income. That's still a big chunk, but 100K to someone with an 80K income is a lot bigger deal than it is to someone with a 500K income, even if their good credit technically means they could get their hands on it...

I can't help because I don't know, but I just wanted to say good on ya' for looking to credit the original poster.

After giving it a lot thought, I ultimately voted for NPCs in the poll. This surprised even me, because the truth is, I don't mind making my own write ups (or doing NPCs "on the fly" without a write up). But I view published material mostly as inspiration: as creativity seeds rather than as gospel to be used en masse. I realized that, for me, an NPC supplement (whether enemies or a cross-spectrum of character types) not only provides inspiration for NPCs, but also those NPCs imply a setting that they live in (and is half-written in their backstories) and spawn adventure ideas that would feature them. You might expect, then, that an adventure supplement would naturally include inspiration for NPCs and setting, and a setting supplement would naturally include inspiration for NPCs and adventures. And that's true... they both do both of those things. But in my experience, NPC supplements include more setting and adventure inspiration than the other ways around. Having said all that, though... poll aside... my real advice to you is to write what you want... not necessarily what you think we want. The truth is, tabletop RPG'ing outside of xD&D and its clones is a pretty niche hobby, "universal RPG"-style gaming is a niche within a niche, and HERO System gaming is a niche within a niche within a niche. So you're exceptionally unlikely to make a bunch of money from your efforts, or to write something that's somehow going to make everyone discover the joys of HERO, etc. It's important that, whatever you write, it be a fun and personally-rewarding experience for you, because the personal reward might be most of the reward. To be clear, I'm not at all trying to dissuade you from doing it. I just encourage you to go into it knowing that if you don't have fun doing it, then it's probably not worth doing. However, folks said that back in the day too, and adventures apparently still didn't sell as well as other supplement types. Also, to clarify for folks who might not have been around for those exchanges back in the day, I believe Steve's point about Hero fans being self-builders was mostly about why things like genre books sold well, and not as much about why adventures sold poorly. I think the reason adventures are believed to sell poorly is simply math. Adventures only sell to GMs, so right of the bat, you're eliminating a bunch of potential buyers. Also, in any given gaming group, probably only one GM will buy an adventure (eliminating some more potential buyers in groups that have multiple GMs). To maximize the practicality of adventures as a product type, I feel like someone needs to find a way to make adventure supplements a good buy for both players and GMs. I have a few half-baked thoughts about that, but I'll save those for another time/thread...

Yes, eventually (i.e., for Legolas-level characters). For starting heroes, I'd probably cap it at +4 to offset range penalties. Yes, eventually. For starting heroes, I'd again probably cap it at +4 to offset called shot penalties (even that makes a High Shot a normal chance). That's fine. It's no "worse" than a melee fighter adding damage to their swords from hand-to-hand martial arts maneuvers. However, I might only allow Extra DC to be bought with XP (especially if they also have bonuses to offset range, and bonuses to offset called shots, etc. as a starting hero). In fact, that's a point in general; how much I would allow of any of these things depends in part on how many of these things they have. Eventually, they can have them all, but they shouldn't have them all when they start -- even if they can afford the CP cost -- or they won't have any room to get better. All that said, these are still the relatively "normal" ways of building a skilled archer. As characters grow in power/skill, they're more likely to have things like Combat Archery and Rapid Archery, or even to "buy-off" the Concentrate Limitation on their bow as a "Nimble Archery" Talent or the like.

The details would depend on how you wanted the ability to work (so it might be based on Aid, or on STR with Usable On Others, etc.), but I think the key is that you apply a Limitation that it can't cause the recipient's STR to exceed 50. The value of the Limitation would depend on how you built it, on what typical STR values in the game are, etc.