Steve Long

As discussed on page 30 of The Ultimate Mentalist, with the GM’s permission, a character can buy Concentration for Mental Powers so that it affects his DMCV instead of DCV. This is most appropriate for psionics campaigns where characters can expect to get attacked with Mental Powers frequently. Also with the GM’s permission, the character can take this Limitation twice, once to affect each form of CV. Similarly, if a character wants to take the Inaccurate Limitation for a Mental Power or attack, the GM can allow him to take it define it as affecting his OMCV instead of OCV. In fact, the GM should require this if the power uses OMCV, since otherwise it’s not a restriction or hindrance of any sort.

You're not applying the "Adding Damage" rules correctly -- you have to account for the Advantage. See 6E2 100-02.

As discussed in the rulebook, it means taking the amount of points spent on FTL Travel and applying that to buy the same amount of Flight. So if a character buys 20 points' worth of FTL Travel, he'd also have 20 points' worth of Flight, or 20m. The character doesn't have to buy any Flight separately; the whole point of the Advantage is to make that unnecessary and keep the character sheet from gettin' cluttered.

The text you quoted deals with the situation where one form of Movement has free meters and the other doesn’t (e.g., Running and Flight). That’s pretty straightforward. The issue you’ve raised is what happens when both forms of Movement have free meters, which complicates matters a bit. As discussed on 6E 157, if a character wants an Advantage to apply to all of a Movement Power that he has free meters of (i.e., Running, Leaping, and Swimming), he has to apply that Advantage to the cost of all the meters, even though he gets some for free. Following that logic, if a character buys Running +4m, Usable As Leaping (+¼), he has two choices: 1. Pay for the Advantage for all of his Running (16m in this example), and then have that same number of meters worth of Leaping (16m here). He ignores the Leaping 4m he gets for free, since he hasn’t applied the Advantage to it. 2. Pay for the Advantage for just some portion of his Running (4m in this example) and then have that same number of meters of Leaping (in both cases ignoring the free meters of each form of Movement he gets because he hasn’t applied the Advantage to them). Obviously this only makes sense if the character buys a sufficient amount of the more expensive form of Movement (in this example, he already has Leaping 4m, so the Advantage is a waste of points).

There is no "official" way. I might write them up in a particular way in a book, but that only makes it "official" as far as our publications/settings go. Other campaigns may have different preferences. In a book I'd probably do it as one VPP and then apply the 5-Point Doubling Rule. But some GMs might prefer other methods.

Don't worry, Ndreare, you didn't miss anything. Because EE is a product that comes in multiple versions for multiple rules systems, it wasn't specifically pitched as a HERO System-based product, but as a setting. That doesn't detract from its quality, of course.

My Gun Fu article certainly includes ways to do all the tricks in Equilibrium. You'd just have to rename 'em.

I have actually be thinking about polishing that stuff up and publishing it as a PDF. It depends largely on whether I decide to make a serious push to get STORMlords into shape to publish, since I'd rather keep the material in context if I can. Yes, that'd absolutely be Dark Champions. And you can already find a good many Gun Fu abilities in the "Super-Skills" section of Dark Champions for 5E.

I suppose that might be possible for some power levels, but I fear that at higher power levels it would be difficult (at best) to keep each character restricted to no more than a two-page spread, which I insist upon. The more points, the more stuff one can buy. Honestly, though, if I do any further Gallery work, I'd rather add to the existing Gallery at the existing power level, and then maybe look into Galleries for other genres. Changing the power level is a good ways down the list o' priorities.

Not seriously. Every now and then someone asks about this, and while the idea has some appeal, it also faces some significant hurdles: 1. I think a lot of potential customers are unlikely to have any interest in "a book that makes my character weaker." That's not what it would be, of course, but that's how many would perceive it, IMO. 2. The book has little, if any, appeal outside of HERO System die-hards, IMO. Even the Ultimate books, which have a heavy HERO focus, have some degree of appeal beyond those who are interested in rules. But while a few non-die-hards might pick it up just for ideas, by and large I think the customer base is very small compared to the customer bases for other products I could produce with the same amount of effort. 3. Beyond a certain level of intellectual appeal, I don't think it would be all that much fun to write (especially not compared to other projects I could create with the same amount of effort). So, as always my philosophy is "never say never" -- but "The Ultimate Complication" doesn't command much of my interest or attention.

There's a PDF called Bloodsucker Rampage with lots of different vampire write-ups. I have yet to tackle were-things in-depth, though. Perhaps I should add that to the list. Everyone needs a were-crocodile character sheet!

Jonesin'. I haven't gotten a hit of that sweet, sweet vigilante justice in ages.

For those interested: Ron has posted a blog entry about HERO System math and some of his approaches to it: https://adeptpress.wordpress.com/2015/07/21/math-is-not-hard/

For those who are interested in such things, in response to a question from Ron I just posted a 1,400 word "comment" detailing my personal gaming experiences that gave rise to Dark Champions.

This is definitely one of those “I wonder why this has never come up before?” questions. So I’m glad you asked it. A standard Grab doesn’t prevent the target from using any of his senses or his voice. However, the rules for the Choke Optional Combat Maneuver, which is in essence a form of Grab as the text on 6E2 84 explains, specify that it prevents the target from speaking or shouting. So that’s how to stop someone from screaming. If the attacker doesn’t want to hurt the target, he can settle for establishing a grip and not roll any NND damage. As an optional rule, the GM can permit someone to establish a Choke that doesn’t “block” the mouth, but instead blocks any one ordinary Sense (Sight, Smell, or Hearing) from functioning. Again, the character can decide whether or not he wants to do NND damage in addition to establishing a firm grip. In either case, Hit Location penalties don’t apply, just the standard -2 OCV, -2 DCV for performing a Choke.

I don't think that upcoming column has anything to do with HERO, but Ron hasn't told me anything about it so for all I know it might.

I believe Ron has more to say about Champions (he recently wrote a blog about Champions math and his method for evaluating character power), but AFAIK he doesn't have anything specifically slated for this "series" of columns. There's really not much more to say about HERO/Champions development other than maybe talking about 5E to 6E changes, and I think that's maybe a bit too specific for the theme of his blog. But we'll see. Hopefully I can get the Worldbuilding Guidebook off the ground sometime soon -- I figure I'll write most of it and then run a Kickstarter to fund production, something like that. The danger is in getting so wrapped up in researching various sections (e.g., climate or the development of cultures) that it bogs the project down. Gotta watch myself. Fortunately I already have the outlines done to keep myself semi-on track. In the meantime, if you want to get a taste for what it'll be like, attend one of the "Worldbuilding Workshops" I run at cons. In the space of (usually) two hours the audience, guided by me, creates a world through a process of suggesting options and then voting on them. It's hellafun and always results in something interesting and delightful. (Last GenCon I got to do the Workshop in seven 1-hour sessions, which was awesome. Going to try to convince Marc Tassin to let me do it even bigger and better next year -- or maybe in some different way.) Here's a link to a description of the world that was created at last weekend's Workshop at Congregate 2: https://www.facebook.com/fansofcongregate/posts/778946542218352:0

I think the benefits of using HERO for the Heroic genres have often been overlooked. In Fantasy particularly, the ability to create one's own magic systems and spells is tremendous compared to the "use what we've put in the core book" approach most games take. Unfortunately I think a lot of that depends not only on HERO's roots in Superheroes, but the fact that early published products never really showcased this potential. I loved both Magic Items and The Spell Book, but I don't think either was widely distributed/used, and both still only presented "a bunch of stuff to use." A book with, say, 6-12 magic systems and two or three dozen spells for each would have done more to open people's eyes. But if wishes were horses we could all join the Rohirrim at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.

For those who are interested, the second part of the overall blog post, written by me, is now available: https://adeptpress.wordpress.com/2015/07/16/90s-hero-guest-post/#more-2470 tl;dr version -- Steve liked Ninja Hero so much that it had a significant influence on his view of the HERO System, his approach to writing books for it, and ultimately his development of the rules as a whole. He also has nice things to say about other Hero books of the time.

Oh sure, I knew it was going to happen. The whole thing was pretty much a joke to begin with. There's been many a time I felt a GM call was wrong or unfair, but this wasn't one of those times.

Sure there's a defense: breaking out of them. It's not a defense in the "standard" sense, but given that a character can break out of them and potentially still have a Full Action, it's close enough. An NND Entangle is one which you cannot breakout of, period, full stop, unless you have the defined defense (in which case you're just not Entangled at all). When it came up in the game, the GM stopped, paused, thought about it for a second, realized what he had on his hands, and Retroactively Just Said No.

Typically I follow, more or less, the guidelines laid out above. Sometimes I'm a little more forgiving in the interest of keeping costs down or for some other reason. That's the case for Immobilize, where the large amount of Advantages would make it cost-prohibitive to try to follow the standard guidelines. Similarly, I have to confess that the Entangle 1d6 for Paralyze is partly a little in-joke. Years ago a friend of mine was running Champions for our gaming group, but he was, let us say, a little distracted from his GMing because he'd recently me the woman who'd go on to become his wife. I was playing Captain Chronos, and I convinced him to let me take an NND Entangle as a "Stop Time Bubble." He questioned it at first, but I said, "Hey, c'mon, it's only 1d6" -- and he bought it! That lasted for exactly one use of the power, after which he wisely changed his mind. But we still chuckle over it. Glad you like the PDF!

I've been busy lately finishing up a few old projects lurking on my hard drive, and Jason just put them up in the Online Store. Please check 'em out: Control Powers -- an article on simulating "controller"-type characters from computer games in the HERO System, derived from my attempt to help one of the guys in my gaming group build such characters to his satisfaction. Dark Champions Templates for 6th Edition -- all the Package Deals from Dark Champions for 5E converted into 6E Templates. Books of the Undead, Volume 5: Ghouls -- all sorts of undead corpse-eaters for your campaigns. Throw your heroes for a loop with a Blood Ghoul, Ghoul King, or Nachzehrer! Get 'em now while they're hot off the digital game forge!

Jackalope, that sounds very much like my own group's experiences. It's great to see the newcomers' eyes open and attitudes adjust.

I certainly wouldn't presume to speak definitively for Ron, but I think all he really means is this: as a thought experiment, he's intrigued by how Champions might have evolved if it had remained what it was -- solely a superhero game, driven (at least in his view) in part by genre considerations, and there were no 4th Edition that made the system "generic." Generally speaking, I don't think this has much (if anything) to do with specific, nit-picky things like how much Game Element X cost from one edition to another, or how to calculate the Range Modifier, or other rules stuff -- except to the extent that the overall changes between editions can be read as an indication of the writer's/designer's "game design philosophy." But in terms of general history it's certainly intriguing to trace such things. That's all, really. I'm not so sure I would entirely agree with him on the path the game would take, or on the extent of "genre" influences, but that's such a broad topic it's best saved for an in-person discussion. In any event, the second part of the overall essay, written by me, should show up online pretty soon and I'll be sure to post a link. Edit: here's that link: https://adeptpress.wordpress.com/2015/07/16/90s-hero-guest-post/#more-2470