phookz

Re: Kill the Dude with the Thing

Then you take the Thing. That's how your team get's points. It's all been covered, why are you talking about it and not looking for the Dude with the Thing?

Re: Real Costs for spells and how you handle them?

VPPs are cool if that's what you have in mind for your system. They also run the risk of slowing down gameplay if the player is not prepared well.

With regards to your use of Flash, that's how it used to work in pre 5th, back when it was (I think) 10 points per die. I was just pointing it out because I noticed it was not consistent with the new rules. If that's how you roll with it I can certainly appreciate that - there's been plenty of debate about the best way to do Flash anyway.

As for the tactical decisions on the wizard vs the fighter, it doesn't matter what you put up, someone's going to recommend you choose different tactics, so you can't win anyway. I like seeing the example combats - I think they can be fun to read and are also of value to new players to see how it all fits together. I'd still like to see how this one plays out

Re: Old West Setting?

There was indeed a "Western Hero" produced as a 4th edition product: http://www.amazon.com/Western-Hero-Campaign-Book-System/dp/1558061185

I never picked it up myself, so I can't speak to its quality. Post Apocalyptic Hero touches on the subject briefly, according to the Table of Contents, but I don't have that product either: https://www.herogames.com/get/PAH_preview.pdf

HERO makes a pretty good platform for porting other games to. You could probably use Aces and Eights as source material. GURPS Old West could be good source material as well: http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/OldWest/. There's probably something on these forums for the genre as well, but I didn't find it with a cursory search.

I think HERO scales well to games like that, it would work well for it.

Re: Real Costs for spells and how you handle them?

Cool stuff, I want to see how it ends.

Couple of points, however. You doubled up on Segment 12 at the end. Also - 3 BODY of Flash is 3 segments of Flash, or are you using pre-5E rules for Flash? With 3 segments the Wizard needs to be either going first or even better holding an action until right before the Fighter goes in order to get the Flash off and then be able to benefit from the lower DCV.

Re: FANTASY HERO Sneak Peek #1: The Cover!

That cover is phenomenal. Fantastic, makes me want to play BAD. That's the kind of cover that will really drive people to pick up the book and peek inside. Best cover I think yet.

Pure awesome.

Re: Real Costs for spells and how you handle them?

(Really' date=' this all gets back to one of my bigger complaints about the Universal HERO System, which is that powers are costed totally wrong for fantasy. But multipowers exacerbate the problem.)[/quote']

 

I wonder if some of this could be mitigated by imposing rules on what you can do with a Multipower. What if the GM reduced the AP cap for Multipowers? For example, maybe the AP cap is 40 points in a campaign world, so for Multipowers you restrict it to only 30 or even 25 points. Now you pay for the versatility and cheap real cost by knowing that you'll never be able to it the same total cap.

 

I'm not sure this would fix the problems, but it might be worth a shot. I'm in agreement that the sheer versatility of the spellcasting players will outshine specialized characters quickly. In most game systems you counterbalance versatility by reducing the effectiveness of it when compared to specialized characters/power sets.

 

Just a thought.

Re: World of Balance: A campaign for an eight and nine year old

This is really cool. I've been thinking about introducing my kids to gaming.

Re: Ioun Stones [6E]

Sounds like an OAF to me since you can grab them.

Re: Mind Control Bug

I think it might be a Severe Transform based on this:

giving to (or removing from) someone up to 20 Character Points’ worth of a Complication (possibly more' date=' at the GM’s option) (One exception: making someone a character’s slave; that requires a Severe Transform.)[/quote']

 

Other than that I think this looks pretty good. You might consider adding Trigger if they're a sleeper agent and it doesn't actually go off until some command phrase or something.

Re: Mind Control Bug

Ah. Even easier - this sounds like plot device to me. You can point it out if you want, but it's probably not really necessary. I like Hugh & Prestidigitator's idea of Mental Transform.

Re: Beginning of the End (Just want to share)

Sounds cool

Re: Taranis-The British plane that deserves to be in a comic book

Nonsense. Just buy enough dice of Dispel and you can easily jam those communications.

All kidding aside - it is a very cool looking plane, and looks more like something from a movie or comic book than the real thing. I wish there were more photos of it.

More/better pictures/information available:

http://defense-update.com/features/2010/july/taranis_12072010.html

http://www.defence-update.net/wordpress/20100712_taranis.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BAE_Taranis

Re: Mind Control Bug

I think this depends on how easy it is to remove. If the bug can be removed in one turn out of combat, and an Inaccessible focus would be appropriate. If it takes longer than that I don't think it would be a focus at all - it sounds like it would just be the SFX of the power. Physical Manifestation are considered obvious (6E1 126), so if this is the classic brain worm grub think like Star Trek II, then it doesn't sound like it's obvious.

That being said, it's clearly a limitation - but it sounds more like it's a limitation in how the power is applied in the first place. To put it another way, you can't just your attack against a character and go with this - you need to get the bug in them. Working reason from effect I can think of the following questions:

1. How do you get the bug in them? Do you need to be in physical contact with them? Can you just throw the bug at them? Does it require surgery? This could imply requiring a skill roll, or range limitations. Surgery would probably be gestures and concentration, along with limitations for requiring tools or other equipment.
   
2. How long after the bug is on them does it take for the power to take effect? Is it instant? Does it take a phase or two, or longer? This would imply extra time limitations. Another way to do this might be to have a low grade attack that is cumulative.
   
3. How easy is it to remove the bug once you know it's there? This can likely be derived from the answer to how you place the bug in the first place.
   
4. How long will the target be under Mind Control once applied? Based on the notion of sleeper cells, it sounds like it could be really long time. You probably want 0 END and Constant to keep the breakout rolls from getting better. After a few steps on the time chart it becomes unlikely someone will break out on their own without assistance. Check 6E1 148-155 for more information on this.
   
5. Does the target know the bug is there? The answer to this question and how the bug was implanted might imply other powers to remove their knowledge of the attack. You might be able to pull this off with the +10 or +20 Mind Control modifiers.
   
6. Future Command could be the Set Effect limitation on Mind Control.
   

I hope this helps. If you can post more information related to this we can probably offer more suggestions. I'd like to see what you come up with either way, this is fun stuff

Re: 6th Edition Books on eReader?

I have the Kindle 2 - it's great for reading novels and does have PDF support. They recently updated the firmware with better PDF support, and now it does a passable job for the 6E ruleset because of the zoom feature. I can't speak for the sony reader, the only thing I can suggest is download a sample of the PDF from 6E - I think Steve posted a few pages in the sneak peak forums, and take a look for yourself.

As to getting content on the Kindle - it's actually very easy and cost free for PDF and TXT files - just plug it into your computer and copy them over. I'm not sure why they don't advertise this more, as it's very simple. DOC files need to be converted to a Kindle friendly format - I haven't played with the MOBI converters that are out there but I know there are some free tools for doing this. Another alternative is to print to PDF using CutePDF or another freeware PDF converter.

I've played with the iPad - it's a sleek device but still a little pricey IMO for a device that doesn't even give me all of the web. Like Flash or hate it, I'd rather be the one deciding if I can view it rather than Apple. Having said that, I have an iPod touch and GoodReader on it does a fine job with PDFs, including the 6E rules. Very easy to zoom in and out, but tough to really read the whole page without zooming so some tables are difficult to read.

Re: Traps?

It happens. To be honest, I didn't even think to look in TUS until Steve posted about it.

Re: Unique Bow Talents

Those are really nice NuSoardGraphite. Repped

Re: Traps?

I had a look at that last night' date=' Steve. There wasn't that much there well, nothing too specific.[/quote']

 

What exactly are you looking for? TUS pp 271-275 lists a dozen or more different traps, complete with descriptions and how they are built. Are you looking for diagrams, or more elaborate traps, or did you have something else in mind?

Re: Unique Bow Talents

I like the suggestions Folded provided - they're pretty good.

How about a Ranged Trip - TK or stretching, only to perform the Trip.

The video game Thief had some cool arrows in it. These weren't so much talents but physical items you could buy and use, but they might be good food for thought:

Water Arrow - put out torches and lamps. Buy as a dispel to images, limit to those that can be doused by water.

Moss Arrow - soft moss on the ground to deaden the sound of footsteps. Buy as a change environment

Gas Arrow - puts out a cloud of sleeping gas - 1 hex (2m) NND blast, all or nothing

Rope Arrow - provides a rope for climbing

Fire Arrow - exploded on target

There might have been others, it's been a long time since I played that game.

Re: Cover Fire ability. Comments?

Of course' date=' there's nothing wrong with having the defense be PRE or INT/PER depending on what SFX you're going for. But saying that those are the [i']only[/i] things that anyone should ever use is silly.

I agree with this. My stance was simply that if it's fear based (duck or you'll get hit) it should be vs PRE. I also offered another build that was just a distraction to increase the range penalty. I could see that being limited by PER or not, or even allowing other types of perception to get around it.

Re: Dragons

How to Train Your Dragon was actually very good. There haven't been a lot of good movies with dragons in them. Dragonheart was well done from a technical standpoint, but I thought the movie was a bit flat. Dragonslayer was good, Beowulf's dragon was good. I'm really hoping the new "The Hobbit" doesn't get scrapped - I'd love to see how they do Smaug and there's a good chance it would make the top of my list.

Re: SFX Question: What should, or shouldn't, an electicity based force field stop?

I'll take a stab at answering them since no one else has... better late than never

Can you explain to me the mechanics of "Requires An EGO Roll to alter slots (-3/4)" on the multipower?

In order to modify the activated slots in the multipower the character will need to make an EGO roll. If he fails the roll, he cannot change the distribution until his next phase, when he can attempt a roll again. Remember that multipowers have a limited pool of active points that they may have active at any point in time. Shock Jock has an 85 point pool, so he can have up to 85 Active Points of powers that are active. So, for example, he could use his full 85 active points in Flight 14", but he won't be able to have his Force Field up or use any other slots while he has all 85 points dedicated to Flight. The slots are all listed as multi slots (the m) instead of ultra slots (would be a u). This is a 5E character - in 6E we call them variable ("v") slots and fixed ("f"), respectively.

..the "+2d6 Points of NND Does Body Damage" on the change environment

The Change Environment doesn't list an SFX with it, so it's tough to say. Obviously it's electricity based but hard to say what he was after with it. The +2D6 NND Does body doesn't list the defense for it. I suspect he was going for a linked attack here, I think this might be one of the things the poster mentioned as not book-legal.

and the "Cannot Be Used With Multiple-Power Attacks (-1/4)" on the Drain.

Here he's saying that if you use this attack, you cannot use any other attacks at the same time. Check FRED pg 258 (I'm assuming you're using 5ER as the example is clearly a 5E character). If you're using 6E check 6E2 73.

Hope that helps; welcome to the boards!

Re: Requires A Skill Roll: Skill Vs. Skill Contests?

That depends on what happens if both people fail' date=' though. If you're assuming that if the user fails but the opposer fails harder, then it works, it's probably a wash. If you're assuming that if the user fails, the power fails regardless of opposition, it's might be a limitation.[/quote']

 

Good point - there is a subtle difference. I don't think it's enough of a difference to warrant a change in the value of the limitation, however.

Re: Cover Fire ability. Comments?

Ah, I think I understand your position now. Thank you for explaining it.

 

One thought that occured to me is that this maneuver might be similar to the Interpose maneuver. Maybe you take a DCV penalty to gain an OCV penalty later if they don't attack you? Same idea only with guns (i.e. if you don't shoot at me, I will get a bonus to hit you)?

 

 

 

This makes sense, but didn't fireg0lem's build just make you immune to the drain if you were immune to the bullets? the same idea should apply to a similar power based around flame jets.

I don't think the drain is about being immune to the flames, it's about the flames causing you to duck and weave to avoid them. What if you're not immune to the flames, you just decide to take the chance that they might burn you? That's the fundamental disconnect.

Re: Cover Fire ability. Comments?

I have issue with any build which imposes a penalty to the target's CV without taking into account their PRE (or INT/PER to ignore 'distraction'). If the purpose of the build is to actually increase the chance of hitting the target with the bullets then don't use CE or Adjustment powers.

 

To do otherwise violates a core idea of HERO. For every effect there should be an appropriate defense.

That's even better said than my response. This was my core objection from the start as well. There are builds suggested that penalize the defender and give him an option to take either one effect or another with a penalty to their DCV. The only defense to the attack with penalty is to choose the other option.

Re: Cover Fire ability. Comments?

I just wanted to say' date=' that if you have a jet of flame so hot that nobody would try and fire for risk of getting burned, then by definition it would burn a fire elemental. The fire elemental is a body, it is risking getting burned. [/quote']

 

Technically true. I was unspecific with the use of the term nobody. I should have said "what if you had a fire so hot the average character..." In reality it depends on how hot the fire is and how resistant the fire elemental is. If it's a 10d6 Blast and the elemental has 10 levels of Energy DC Damage Negation, the fire elemental is not going to get burned.

 

Also' date=' I'm not sure what the disconnect seems to be about. It seems like some people think this should be a physical "spray bullets and if you don't duck you get hit" which would ignore your force of personality, and another group of people seem to think this is a mental effect, "I shouldn't stick my head up or I'll get hit" sort of thing. In the physical build, it doesn't matter if you are fearless, the bullets won't care. Is that what the disconnect is about?[/quote']

 

I think that's the gist of it. However, the OP wanted to give a bonus to the DCV of someone based on providing covering fire. So for that to work for the physical build and the fearless opponent, my position is that the most appropriate way to do that is to have the attack go against the defender's (the defender of the covering fire) PRE. A fearless opponent is going to be harder to impact with this.