Steve Long

That's entirely up to the GM. I don't see any reason why you couldn't build a Detect for that purpose, but the GM may have a different perspective.

No, see 6E1 139.

"What's allowed" in this sense is entirely up to the GM. Personally I wouldn't allow the Susceptibility (unless perhaps the armor is easily damaged or prone to being turned off), but I would allow the Physical Complication (assuming it actually qualifies as a restriction or hindrance that's likely to come up in game play).

The rules state that you have to buy a specific form of the Power Skill to change a VPP. You can't just use some existing Skill. However, as always, what the GM's willing to permit is up to him.

Here's the second blog, where Ron and I tackle the Question and his somewhat less reputable brother, Mr. A: What was the question again?

If a power is active when a character begins to Push it (for example, Blast with the Advantage Constant), when the character stops Pushing the power does not deactivate. It continues to function at its non-Pushed level of effect. If the character continues to use the power he can Push it again later if he so desires; he doesn’t have to restart it to Push again. In light of that answer I think the last two questions are moot. If I've missed something, please PM me or post a follow-up.

Nope, you can continue to function as you slowly bleed to death. I suggest making some Paramedics rolls!

I'm sorry, but I don't answer game design/philosophy questions. However, if you post this on the Discussion board, where anyone can reply, I'm sure it'll lead to a lively conversation with other Herophiles.

No; that would more or less invalidate the rule about CSLs and Multiple Attack. If the GM wants to allow it anyway, he can decide on the value of the Limitation.

As a default rule, no — those sort of things completely contradict the very nature of Persistent. But of course if the GM wants to allow it for some clever character or power concept, I won’t send the Gaming Police after him.

There are no rules for how much an Entangle or Barrier weighs, and I’d prefer to leave it that way. That level of detail isn’t required for the vast majority of games, so it’s the sort of thing that should be left to the GM to rule on if it’s important for his campaign. It would be easy enough to devise a weight rule based on, say, Active Points, and then a cheap Adder to make the Entangle or Barrier weigh less (or nothing).

Since this is a "how to" rather than a rules question, I've moved it to the Discussion board where anyone can respond.

See 6E1 223.

You just figure out where the hits should land. If two or more of the Areas overlap (as in your example), then anyone in the overlap area takes one hit for each shot that overlaps him. If rolls are needed (as with Nonselective), then roll once per overlap to see if a given target is hit.

All right, I'm home now and have access to my books, so it's time to answer. It refers to all CSLs. While the 2-, 3-, and 5-point CSLs would be the only ones where you’d name “Multiple Attack” specifically, you can’t apply any CSL to Multiple Attack per se. You have to apply it to the attacks you’re making a Multiple Attack with, as in the example on 6E2 77. This may be a good reason for some characters to buy 5- or 8-point CSLs instead of cheaper CSLs, since those Levels cover more attacks and thus make it more likely the character can use the CSLs when making a Multiple Attack.

Well, that may depend on the special effect of the Images-based power, but as a general answer, yes — Sight Group Images cast shadows.

It does what it always does: changes the special effect. STR basically comes with the pre-defined special effect of "using your muscles to exert physical force." With VSE you could change that to be technology instead of muscles (as with many suits of powered armor), for example.

This might interest some of y'all -- it's the first series of blogs about vigilantism in 1970s-80s comics that Ron Edwards (of Sorcerer fame) and I are writing. We open with a look at everyone's favorite gun-toting crimefighter, the Punisher. This blog covers 1974-1986; we'll do another one covering 1986 and onward. We've got plans to cover lots of other characters -- the Question (and Mr. A), the Vigilante, Rorschach, the Scourge of the Underworld, the Prowler, the Foolkiller, Batman, and many more -- so stay tuned and let us know what you think! Eat hot lead, comics readers! There's no direct correlation to gaming, but the blogs are written less as full scholarly treatments of the subject and more as our personal impressions of them, how they affected us, what we came to see in them, and so on. In my case, that means looking at them in large part as influences on gaming and what eventually became Dark Champions, so I figure that lets me get away with posting about this here.

See 6E1 330.

Good question! The rules for this are on page 45 of APG2. There's a lengthy example I don't want to repeat here, but the basic rule is this: Of course, if you're creating the magic for your world/campaign and you want to change this rule, you certainly can -- all's fair in love and magic system design. Assuming the same rules apply to all spellcasters, it may not have a serious effect on game balance. And you may end up with a cool magic system whose implications you can explore during game play.

1-2, 4. Naked Advantages cannot be slots in Power Frameworks, unless the GM waives that rule. If he does, he can answer the resulting questions. 3. If the Power Framework has enough reserve/Pool points to have two slots active at one time, then it's possible one of those slots could Trigger the other. But a slot that doesn't have reserve/Pool points allocated to it can't be Triggered, period.

You can assign the 2 points however you want: either 1 PD/1 ED, 2 PD/0 ED, or 0 ED/2 PD).

Sorry, I think my last answer may have been a bit confusing. Per the rules on 6E1 411, a character can change a VPP out of combat without making any Skill Roll; it just takes 1 Turn to 1 Minute. But if he wants to change them in combat, which is to say rapidly to respond to a crisis situation, he has to succeed with a Skill Roll using a Power Skill bought specifically for that purpose. This takes a Full Phase. Characters can reduce the time required or eliminate the need for a Skill Roll by paying for an Advantage. Similarly, if a character wanted to adapt the Required Skill Roll rules to change the standard penalty to the Skill Roll required, he could do that (with the GM’s permission, of course) by adapting the RSR rules’ values for various changes. Thus, changing to -1 per 20 Active Points would be a +¼ Advantage; changing to -1 per 5 Active Points is a -½ Limitation.

Generally I don't answer “how to” questions, but this one is more or less a rules question in disguise, so I’ll make an exception. Under the rules as written, the best way to do what you want to do is to but the Instant AoE power as a Multipower, with each slot being identical except for the size or type of AoE. However, that may not give you the flexibility you want, and it tends to clutter up the character sheet. So I think we need first, a rules clarification, and second, a new modifier for Area Of Effect: Rules clarification (just because I’m not sure I’ve put this in writing anywhere before): If a character has the Area Of Effect Advantage on a power, he has to use the full size of his defined Area whenever he uses the power. Unless the GM rules otherwise, he cannot choose to reduce the Area’s size. Adjustable: for ¼ more Advantage, a character can alter the size (but not shape unless it’s an Any Area) of the Area Of Effect on an Instant Power each time he uses the power. (For Constant Area-affecting powers, use the Alterable Size Adder on 6E1 128.) This does not allow him to make the Area Of Effect larger than what he bought for the power, only smaller. <<<CAUTION SIGN>>> For +1 more Advantage, a character can alter both the size and type of Area Effect on an Instant Power from use to use. For example, he could fire one shot that’s an 8m Radius, a second that’s a 16m Cone, and a third that’s a 5m Radius. Again, he cannot make the Area Of Effect larger than the base value he paid for (+½ in the previous example), only smaller. If the power also has Autofire, the size and/or type of Area chosen must be the same for each shot.

1. If a character has the Extra Time Limitation on a slot in a Power Framework, when he declares that he’s switching the Framework to use that slot and the Extra Time period begins to run, the points in the Framework become “dedicated” to that slot, which typically means the character cannot use any other slot (or cannot use the portion of the reserve/pool that’s devoted to the Extra Time power). So in short — no, the power being “dropped” typically cannot be used during the Extra Time period. As discussed on 6E1 374, the GM may allow this anyway if he feels it’s appropriate for certain powers or situations (such as when Extra Time represents an “onset time” rather than an “activation time”). 2. Sure, Required Skill Roll has rules for that. It just means less Limitation value.