Steve Long

Re: I still don't understand why Linked is always a limitation This seems to be a request for a conversation, not a rules question, and to the extent there's a rules question here I think it verges on game design/philosophy, which I typically refuse to delve into for various reasons. So I've moved it to Discussion where a conversation can occur.

Re: Charges and UOO See 6E1 360.

Re: Pulp Era City Guides Nice find! I have original copies of a couple of those in my maps and travel guides collection, but it's always useful to have access to more.

Re: Is There a Canonical List of Stronghold Escapees? Sorry I didn't see this before. There is no official canonical list of everyone who escaped in the 2009 breakout. A bunch of escapees are covered in Champions Villains, of course, but they're not the only ones. There could be plenty more, including some of the never-written-up villains mentioned in Stronghold (which was written before 2009 and thus doesn't discuss the breakout at all). As LL mentioned, it's easy to search the PDFs, if you have 'em, for all references to terms like "Stronghold" and "breakout" and "escape" and "2009" to start assembling a list, if you're so inclined. That, in fact, is kinda the point. Also it saves me a lotta work.

Re: TK, Shove and Area of Effect 1. Yes, it is. 2. The same logic generally applies to other Combat Maneuvers a character can perform with his Telekinesis, unless the GM rules otherwise for some reason. 3. This is a how-to question, not a rules question, so I’m not going to answer it here. Post it in Discussion if you want to get peoples’ input. 4-5. If a character has Telekinesis, and he buys a naked Advantage for it, generally speaking that Advantage applies (if he wants to use it) whenever he uses Telekinesis to perform any Combat Maneuver (either ones he can freely perform, or ones he’s paid Character Points to be able to perform). The use of a paid Combat Maneuver doesn’t affect the cost calculation of the naked Advantage. The GM, of course, can change any of this if he prefers or considers that necessary to maintain game balance.

Re: CHAMPIONS BEYOND Sneak Peek: The Cover! 'Fraid not. In CU terms, there's just not that much going on, though there are definitely some plot seeds. I could see doing a "Mars Hero" book... except that given that there's already a GURPS Mars, and by the same author we'd want to hire to write it, I don't think there's any point. Assuming CBY sold really, really well, I could see doing an expansion supplement, probably a book of villains, but that's probably it. Sourcebooks covering specific parts of the Galaxy or Solar System don't strike me as likely.

Re: Hero Dice ...collector's item, but still in demand. Sorry, but that's not going to happen. Even if we wanted to make them that way -- which we don't, because it interferes with the ability to use small pips to indicate the BODY rolled -- the molds have already been made, and we're not going to pay to have 'em re-made.

Re: Autofire Questions 1. Choosing to use less than the full number of Autofire shots a character has available to him does not in any way affect the calculation of how DCs are added to the attack. 2. If a character applies a naked Autofire Advantage to an attack that has the Reduced Endurance Advantage, the following occurs: Reduced Endurance (½ END; +¼) affects the base power as normal but has no effect on the Autofire’s END cost; Reduced Endurance (0 END; +½) affects the base power as normal but only reduces the END cost of the Autofire to ½ END per shot. Thus, a character who expects to use a naked Autofire Advantage frequently with an attack and doesn’t want to spend a lot of END should consider paying the higher Reduced Endurance cost for Autofire attacks for the base power, even if that won’t have any additional effect when he’s not using Autofire.

Re: Sticking an Attack Power + AoE to a target 1. Yes, that's exactly what it means. Names aside, UAA is the "force this power on another character" Advantage. Nothing about any of the Attack Powers allows you to "stick" an Area-affecting attack to someone and have it move as he moves. To do that, you need UAA. 2. Yes, you still have to buy Ranged, even if the underlying Power is Ranged already. 3. No worries on the double post; that's happened to all of us a time or two I expect.

Re: Active Point Total for Differing Modifiers The Active Point cost of 36 is correct.

Re: Constant Area Effect and END Good lord, no, that would make no sense whatsoever. If a character uses a Constant Area-affecting power, he pays the standard END cost to maintain it each Phase. He doesn’t have to pay the END cost per person affected. Otherwise the END cost would fluctuate as people went in an out of the area, which would be absurd.

Re: Weapon Familiarity and Weapon Elements... Per 6E2 92, a Heroic character can only buy a Weapon Element with a weapon he has a WF for.

Re: Stretching and Running As usual, this is a question to which the GM needs to apply his common sense and dramatic sense to determine an answer for his campaign. On the one hand, the rules are quite clear that Stretching doesn’t improve a character’s movement capabilities (much less give him new forms of movement). A GM who wants to stress this sort of thing in his campaign would probably forbid a character to “step across” a chasm, which would ordinarily require Flight, Leaping, or the like. At best he might only let a character do this if he succeeded with a Stretching Tricks roll or the like (this strikes me as a great use of the Power Skill). On the other hand, 6E1 286, middle left column, describes how a character with Stretching can pull himself to the tops of buildings. A GM who prefers a looser style of play could analogize “stepping across” a chasm to pulling one’s self to the top of a building and allow it if the character has enough Stretching. Personally I’d probably take the latter approach, but each GM’s mileage may vary.

Re: Aid and Extra Time No, but the standard fade rate takes effect as soon as the Aid’s applied. So in the sort of example you’re describing, unless the Aid has enough DRR it will probably fade away entirely before the power’s activated.

Howdy Herophiles! It's Thursday, so it's time for the weekly chat! Come on by the Chat Room at 9:00 PM Eastern, 6:00 PM Pacific, to find out what's going on, ask questions, and talk Hero!

Howdy Herophiles! It's Thursday, so it's time for the weekly chat! Come on by the Chat Room at 9:00 PM Eastern, 6:00 PM Pacific, to find out what's going on, ask questions, and talk Hero!

Howdy Herophiles! It's Thursday, so it's time for the weekly chat! Come on by the Chat Room at 9:00 PM Eastern, 6:00 PM Pacific, to find out what's going on, ask questions, and talk Hero!

Re: Megascale costs This seems to be a discussion topic rather than a rules question, so I've moved it to the Discussion board. My general response: The first power allows a character to Teleport 1-10m as a personal action, whereas the second would only allow a character to Teleport 1m as a personal action, which is largely pointless in most situations. The use of the power on a personal (as opposed to MegaScaled) level may provide some tactical benefits to buying more meters of Teleportation rather than simply buying the MegaScale to a higher level.

Re: ADVANCED PLAYER'S GUIDE II -- What Do *You* Want To See? As Armitage kindly pointed out, I discussed the topic of "saving throws" in DH #18. That's about all I have to say on the subject, and I don't plan to put that material in APG2. It's a fun theoretical discussion but not really useful for the vast majority of HERO gamers, methinks.

Re: Multi form allowable point max. As noted in the phrase you quoted, the alternate forms a character buys via Multiform are typically built using the same Total Points (including Matching Complications) as standard characters in the campaign. However, as noted in the text following that, there are ways for characters to buy more expensive forms (assuming the GM doesn't simply let them do so regardless of campaign standards). This is necessary because some campaigns feature characters built on relatively small Total Point amounts, whereas many forms commonly assumed by characters in the movies, novels, comics, etc. we draw inspiration from are built on significantly larger point totals. As explained on 6E1 266, alternate forms can be built on more points than the character's true form. So yes, it's entirely possible for a character to buy a 600-point Multiform by paying 120 points. However, just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. As the GM, it's your prerogative to say what you will and won't allow in terms of Multiforms (or anything else). If you don't want them to have 600-point alternate forms, just disallow that. The rules are written to apply to a broad swath of campaigns, characters, and situations in a way designed to ensure the maximum amount of fun; GMs exist to adjudicate, tweak, and tailor the rules to suit their own specific campaigns and preferences.

Re: CHAMPIONS BEYOND Sneak Peek: The Cover! That Golden Hunters illo on p. 102 really is superb -- excellent work by the Fraim Bros. as usual. It's like they were reading my mind, pretty much.

I thought y'all would enjoy a sneak peek at the awesome Star Hero cover art! It's by Tyler Walpole, who did last year's equally awesome Fantasy Hero cover.

I thought y'all would enjoy a sneak peek at the awesome Star Hero cover art! It's by Tyler Walpole, who did last year's equally awesome Fantasy Hero cover.

Re: ADVANCED PLAYER'S GUIDE II -- What Do *You* Want To See? Nothing to see here, folx -- just putting in a "place marker" so in case any further ideas/suggestions are posted I know where I left off in my reading.

Re: Damage Based Endurance cost for Defenses 1. You determine the END cost for a damage-based END cost Defense Power based on the STUN rolled for the attack; how much STUN the character takes after applying his defenses isn’t a factor. 2. If a character wants to apply the Defense-Based Endurance Cost Limitation to a defense that applies to attacks that don’t ordinarily do STUN damage (such as Flash or Transform), it’s up to the GM to determine how to derive the END cost. For Powers that take the total rolled on the dice, such as Transform, it’s probably easiest to equate the rolled total with a STUN total; for Powers that count the BODY, such as Flash, the number of BODY rolled could be considered the END cost as well. But ultimately the GM should decide for himself what works best for his campaign. 3. The END cost for Defense Powers using this rule is the same regardless of whether Normal or Killing Damage is done to the character.