What Would You Like To See In Upcoming HEROglyphs Columns?

[Steve Long]

As readers of Digital Hero know, every issue I write a column called HEROglyphs, in which I present optional rules for various parts of the HERO System, provide additional optional Powers or Power Modifiers for various things, show how I'd create some difficult concept using the HERO rules, and so on. Basically it's a sort of rules experimenting/tinkering column where I get to have fun puttering around in the HERO workshop.

 

I should have some time coming up soon to add to my library of columns, which is getting a little thin. So I thought I'd take the opportunity to ask what y'all, the readers of DH, would like to see me talk about in HEROglyphs. Got any good ideas?

 

If possible, please try not to suggest things I've already covered. The DH page has tables of contents for every issue that describe the HEROglyphs column for each one, if you're not a subscriber.

[Vanguard00]

Re: What Would You Like To See In Upcoming HEROglyphs Columns?

 

For those who need a list of previous articles:

 

1. This issue – What to expect in future columns

2. This issue - magical missiles.

3. This issue - casual characteristics other than STR.

4. This issue -- probability alteration. Do ya feel lucky, punk?

5. This issue -- Entangles?

6. This issue - Extra-Dimensional Movement.

7. This issue – make the most of things with the new Object Creation power.

8. This issue – Stop all of time throughout the entire universe!

9. This issue – Turn back the clock with Time Manipulation

10. This issue – You can’t hug a supervillain with Nuclear Arms (nuclear weapons)

11. This issue – Trigger Happy; new uses for the Trigger Advantage.

12. This issue – alternate methods of resolving the Speed Chart

13. This issue – Armor Piercing rules and options.

14. This issue - Activate your machines with this new power.

15. This issue – experience the joy of DEX.

16. This issue – Charge into action with new rules for Charges.

17. This issue - the Proportional Modifier for powers that wax and wane

18. This issue - Learn to catch a Saving Throw (avoidance rolls).

19. This issue – Pile on the layered defenses.

20. This issue – Unclogging the Drain on modified Characteristics.

21. This issue – get a grip on these expanded Climbing rules.

22. This issue – encrypted radio transmissions.

23. This issue – look your best with these expanded Comeliness rules.

24. This issue – many options for music powers.

25. This issue – Let’s get Physical Limitations

26. This issue – That’s about the size of it for Growth and Shrinking

 

 

Did I miss one?

 

Steve, I don’t think you ever discussed the “Portmanteau Powers (a discussion of Powers that combine one or more abilities), nor did I see “And I’ll Form The Head! (creating “combination†characters in the Hero System).

 

Those are two I wouldn’t mind seeing. I'll probably think of more, but I thought I'd get this out of the way first.

[Steve Long]

Re: What Would You Like To See In Upcoming HEROglyphs Columns?

 

"I'll Form The Head" made it into TUV, so there's no point covering it in a column. I'll think about Portmanteau, but in retrospect I'm not sure it's worth covering.

[Herolover]

Re: What Would You Like To See In Upcoming HEROglyphs Columns?

 

How about an article where you make up items, equipment, powers, etc from popular culture. Of course some of these items have been done in other books, but not so much for Science Fiction and Fantasy.

 

An example of this might be a write up of famous sword from a common fantasy setting or a piece of equipment from a science fiction setting (a tricorder for example)

 

I will give more ideas later.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: What Would You Like To See In Upcoming HEROglyphs Columns?

 

I've long wanted to see an expanded discussion of uses for Presence Attacks, particularly:

 

The continuing effects of +10 or more PRE Attacks - for example, what kind of effects could be expected to linger, and how long would they would they continue to influence character behavior;

 

How PRE Attacks interact with other attempts to influence or control a character, such as Interaction Skills and Mind Control;

 

Guidelines for effective range of a PRE Attack and area of effect/ number of targets affected.

[Hierax]

Re: What Would You Like To See In Upcoming HEROglyphs Columns?

 

COM: Something giving players an incentive to buy Comeliness for their characters -- make it have a game effect and actually do something.

 

CHAR: Other inventive ways to use Characteristics -- e.g., Characteristic "X" vs. Characteristic "Y" contests that roll dice like STR to determine the outcome.

 

REC: Recovery options for Fast Healing Regeneration by just moving on the Time Chart.

 

STUN Lottery Fixes: one of the most complained about problems, lots of people have house rules to address this, be interesting to hear a few unofficial options from the Steve.

 

Alternate Damage Shield rules: hey, it's one of the most complained about 5e changes, if you aren't sick of hearing about it, how about some unofficial options that the complainers might find more to their taste.

 

Something about what to do if you don't buy into some of the underlying HERO System Meta Rules because they don't match the concept of a certain campaign: e.g., Defence Powers being Cheaper than Attack powers how about making them equal?

 

Mental Power options like in the now sadly out-of-print Ultimate Mentalist. you could use the column to test out some more ideas for the 5th edition version.

 

New types of Power Frameworks options.

 

One could go on and on, there's tonnes of options to look at...

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: What Would You Like To See In Upcoming HEROglyphs Columns?

 

I've long wanted to see an expanded discussion of uses for Presence Attacks' date=' [/quote']

 

Yeah, I second this. The old AC with varient uses for PRE attacks, like heartening the troops, and other modifiers (like +1d6 for logic) would make a good starting point for expansions.

[Steve Long]

Re: What Would You Like To See In Upcoming HEROglyphs Columns?

 

(like +1d6 for logic)

 

You mean, like the modifier that's been in the 5E rules since the day we published 'em?

 

COM: Something giving players an incentive to buy Comeliness for their characters -- make it have a game effect and actually do something.

 

See DH #23. I think that's about all I want to say on the subject, lest people come to think I'm obsessed.

 

Thanx for the ideas, everyone! Keep 'em comin'.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: What Would You Like To See In Upcoming HEROglyphs Columns?

 

All of Hierax's ideas are good, and I'll add a vote for discussion of long-term effects of PRE attacks at the various levels.

 

What about ba discussion of special effects and liomitations for VPP's (for example, addressing what, exactly, might limit a Magic Pool to support a -1/4 limitation, and what, if any, restrictions might aply to aq VPP which has no such limitations).

 

Hmmm...an article on any rules or "how to" discussion running more than three pages on the site might be an idea. At least you'd have lots to choose from

[Delthrien]

Re: What Would You Like To See In Upcoming HEROglyphs Columns?

 

(brought over from the Digital Hero board...)

 

Hmmm... Some (or all) of the following may have been covered elsewhere, but:

 

Defenses (general): Perhaps something that covers a single defense characteristic, or additional defenses (like a base score for Mental Defense, Power Defense, etc.)

 

Tweaking Powers: Like getting rid of Energy Blast & the "Hand Attack" limitation in favor of "Ranged Normal Attack" & "Hand-to-hand Normal Attack" powers (much like RKAs & HKAs)

 

Battlesuits/Powered armor without using focus limitations: OHID covers the inability of Joe Villain to remove the armor from John Q. Battlesuit, but other technology related problems/situations occasionally arise (though not often enough to warrant a limitation...). Something to address the occasional damage to the armor, re-wiring the circuits for a new (temporary) effect, or some even the odd system "crapping out" at inopportune times. "Field repairs" could be covered with this as well...

[JmOz]

Re: What Would You Like To See In Upcoming HEROglyphs Columns?

 

One thing I would like to see more on background skills, espesialy the difference between Cultural Knowledge and normale Knowledge skills...

[PhilFleischmann]

Re: What Would You Like To See In Upcoming HEROglyphs Columns?

 

Thanks to all the previous posters for kickstarting my thoughts here. When I first read this thread, I couldn't come up with anything, but now:

 

1) Alternate PRE Attacks - There doesn't appear to be anything in the rules for "subtle" presence attacks. As an example, I have a Champions character who, while not especially combat effective, is very hard to keep down. His defenses are pretty low, but he has high REC and Regeneration. Once, when attacked by a large group of Viper agents with machine guns, he was essentially reduced to a pile of mangled flesh. However, a couple of phases later, his body reformed, and he got back up to rejoin the fight. Now even though, I didn't do anything more violent than stand up, shouldn't that be considered a PRE attack under the circumstances? Wouldn't that be pretty darned impressive, not to mention scary, to a typical Viper Agent? My GM thought so, and awarded me the equivalent of an "Extremely Violent Action" bonus to my PRE Attack. He figured that shrugging off an extremely violent action is just as impressive as performing one.

 

2) Further discussion of the Size rules - As currently written, two 3/4 inch pixies with 20 DEX would have 7 OCV and 21 DCV. If they wanted to fight each other, they need a 11+7-21=-3 or less to hit! Even with +6 levels on OCV, they still only hit on a 3 (1 in 216 chance). Likewise, two 250 m giants can't miss each other, even if they're Martial Dodging! What if the PC's shrink down into the Microverse for an adventure or three? Will they be able to hit anything?

 

3) A discussion on what a GM might allow players to have for free, based on the genre and world - F'rinstance, most GM's I know allow PC's in a Champions game to have an ordinary car and home for no character points, even though these things could be built as Vehicles and Bases. Likewise, certain background skills that represent a normal job or hobby could be given free, since any non-super in the world will have such skills, and they have almost no impact on a PC's Heroic pursuits.

 

4) (Here's a radical idea, brace yourself) - A discussion of the impact of fundamental rule changes (which of course any GM is free to do in his game), and what would be workable. Obviously, only certain "standard" or common house rule modifications could be discussed at length. In particular, if a GM decides to make STR cost 2 points per point, how would that work?

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: What Would You Like To See In Upcoming HEROglyphs Columns?

 

You mean, like the modifier that's been in the 5E rules since the day we published 'em?

 

 

I've missed that at the bottom of the table for this long. But we've been using it for so long, I guess it didn't matter.

 

[Xotl]

Re: What Would You Like To See In Upcoming HEROglyphs Columns?

 

I'd love to see your take on a sort of Fate/Luck/Karma system for Hero, as in Shadowrun, WEG Star Wars etc. Though it can be done currently with a mixture of pushes, Haymakers, Limited Skill Levels, and the current Luck power, I don't think it's at all elegant. It's popular mechanic type that would make both a neat optional rule as well as something that would be nice to see emulated to ease conversions from other systems. I think that it's pretty much unexplored territory.

[Sean Waters]

Re: What Would You Like To See In Upcoming HEROglyphs Columns?

 

What about ba discussion of special effects and liomitations for VPP's (for example' date=' addressing what, exactly, might limit a Magic Pool to support a -1/4 limitation, and what, if any, restrictions might aply to aq VPP which has no such limitations).[/quote']

 

 

I'd second that, there's quite a range of opinions on the VPP thread at present - not necessarily mutually exclusive, and a bit of guidance and some useful constructs/limitations as models could be good. Perhaps more important than the construction aspect though would be application in game: what GMs should be wary of and what players should be wary of trying!

 

Other possible ideas, based on threads which have gone to many pages (and, admittedly, that I have an interest in!) are shapeshifting and killing attacks. Alternative rules and builds could be useful.

 

For example for killing attacks it has been noted that bullets and knives both use the same mechanic, but have very different effects in practice, even if they use the same 'base damage'. Appropriate advantages and limitations to construct different types of KA would have a lot of general applicability.

[zornwil]

Re: What Would You Like To See In Upcoming HEROglyphs Columns?

 

Steve, if you're still watching this thread, would you consider collecting the HEROglyphs at some point into editions that could be downloaded for credits instead of getting all the DHes? I mean no disrespect to the DH line, but I don't really want to get all the DHes (I'm far enough in reading as it is!), but would love to get a hold of all of these. I don't suggest you put it out "too soon", just collect the first year's worth perhaps now, and wait another year to get the next year's worth, that sort of thing.

[Steve Long]

Re: What Would You Like To See In Upcoming HEROglyphs Columns?

 

Yup, still reading -- though in fact last Friday was the day I had set aside to write columns (wrote five while attending a seminar -- multitasking, I believe it's called ). We're considering a collection, but if so we'd sell it as a PDF, not as an issue of DH.

[SirViss]

Re: What Would You Like To See In Upcoming HEROglyphs Columns?

 

I would like to second JmOz on:

 

One thing I would like to see more on background skills' date=' espesialy the difference between Cultural Knowledge and normale Knowledge skills...[/quote']

 

Specifically, for me, the difference between City Knowledge and Area Knowledge.

 

Also, A HEROGlyph about Bases, and rules about them. (Just to tie me over until the Ultimate Base. )

[BobGreenwade]

Re: What Would You Like To See In Upcoming HEROglyphs Columns?

 

I would like to second JmOz on:

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by JmOz

One thing I would like to see more on background skills, espesialy the difference between Cultural Knowledge and normale Knowledge skills...

 

Specifically, for me, the difference between City Knowledge and Area Knowledge.

 

Suggested title: KS: Knowledge Skills.

[SirViss]

Re: What Would You Like To See In Upcoming HEROglyphs Columns?

 

Suggested title: KS: Knowledge Skills.

 

 

Thanks, I needed that.

[00Machado]

Re: What Would You Like To See In Upcoming HEROglyphs Columns?

 

Building heat seeking missiles, energy blasts, or whatever. Like a powered armor hero who shoots off a couple of rockets that the heroes think they dodge, only to find that they come back for another shot or two.

[Eodin]

Re: What Would You Like To See In Upcoming HEROglyphs Columns?

 

Although it will probably be covered in "The Ultimate Shapeshifter", I'd like to see more on multiple forms that don't require a VPP and allow for the shape and powers to change, but the skillset is constant. You know, the character can be a tiger or an orc or an elephant in characteristics and powers, but the character's base skillset transfers through all forms. (Personally I like the cost structure of the Multiform, but I find a VPP is too expensive in most Heroic campaigns to allow the character to become an elephant or an elemental or such)

 

Entangle Defense: Every attack should have a defense, but entangle doesn't. I like to see various ways of creating a defense against entangles.

 

Cool Area Effect stuff: Like a Cone that rotates 60 degrees every segment until it makes a full 360 degree turn (Lighthouse effect), the Wave ( an AoE Line that moves like a wave, away from the caster, 1 hex per segment or phase, AoE accurate in multiple hexes, and such.

 

Variations to Reduced Endurance: Like the version of Reduced End in FH that costs per Turn or Minute, with tweaks like costing double to start and none thereafter, or you pay up front for 1 turn and it lasts 1 turn even if you get knocked out, and you can choose to pump in end per turn instead of per phase, and other wierd variations.

 

Variable advantage: variations similar to the old 1980 FH, where the character can have any number of [GM allowed] advantages, but the total AP remains the same (e.g. 8d6 EB or 6d6 EB 1/2 END or 4d6 EB AoE Radius, etc.), and perhaps Variable adder for powers that have adders.

[zornwil]

Re: What Would You Like To See In Upcoming HEROglyphs Columns?

 

Yup' date=' still reading -- though in fact last Friday was the day I had set aside to write columns (wrote five while attending a seminar -- multitasking, I believe it's called ). We're considering a collection, but if so we'd sell it as a PDF, not as an issue of DH.[/quote']

That's what I meant (despite the poor phraseology, hey, it was late!), so that would be outstanding, my hearty encouragement!

[bryanb]

Re: What Would You Like To See In Upcoming HEROglyphs Columns?

 

How about seeing a bit more "fleshing out" of the Mental illusions and Mind Control Powers and the appropriate modifiers for each - maybe more examples of which situations constitutes an EGO +10, EGO +20 and EGO +30 roll (e.g. MI making everyone believe the environment is 3m to the left out is a EGO +20)?

 

My 2c

 

Thanks

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: What Would You Like To See In Upcoming HEROglyphs Columns?

 

Since it was just mentioned on another thread, using those "funny dice" gamers from other systems have lieing around. [eg. a 3d20 Energy Blast instead of a 10d6 Energy Blast).

 

Oh, and something goofy for the April edition.