Steve Long

Re: Triggerd Movement Powers vs. Dive for Cover Using Movement Powers, whether they're Triggered or not, does not inherently provide the benefits of Dive For Cover. If a character wants those benefits, he has to declare a D4C maneuver. How to handle this situation is of course up to the GM. The first thing to consider is whether to allow a character to apply Trigger to a Movement Power in the first place. If the GM chooses to allow this, he should figure out the implications and let the player know in advance so there are no difficulties. At the very least, adapting the D4C rules (as you suggest) might be appropriate.

Re: STORMlords Update Once more, a STORMlords update! STORMlords: The Roman Catholic Church

Re: Desolid and Damage Shield Hmmm, that’s definitely one for the “I wonder why no one’s asked this until now” file. A Desolidified character may have the Affects Physical World (+2) Advantage for his STR, or for an attack that has No Range and is defined as requiring him to touch the target. If while using the Advantage he touches a target that has a Damage Shield, he suffers the effect of the Damage Shield regardless of the fact that he’s intangible.

Re: Power clarification: Drain ( STUN and CON ) PART TWO I wouldn't refer to it as "increasing" the effect just because STUN costs 1:2, but your steps are correct. If you want to "think of" Drain in the way you describe, that's fine by me.

Re: Power clarification: Drain ( STUN and CON ) First, just so everyone's clear, don't forget that per 6E1 135 and 141, CON and STUN both count as "defensive" Characteristics and the effect of a Drain against them are halved after Power Defense is applied. I expect you're already aware of this, but I wanted to mention it in case anyone reading the question and answer is confused. Second, as discussed on 6E1 135, when you Drain a Characteristic, you're Draining Character Points' worth of that Characteristic, not direct points of it. So using STUN in your example, if you Drain 5 Character Points' worth of STUN, that means you reduce the target's STUN by 10, since every 1 Character Point spent on STUN gets you 2 points of STUN. (Though of course, as I mentioned above, the effect on STUN is halved, so the ultimate effect of this particular attack, assuming there's no Power Defense involved, is to Drain (10/2 =) 5 STUN.) Whether a character's spent any Character Points to increase a Characteristic is irrelevant for these purposes. The value of STUN is 1 Character Point = 2 STUN, for example, whether a character has STUN 20 or STUN 100.

Re: Just got my Book of the Empress Glad you liked it. You're right that a lot of it is reprinted from TMW -- but I had to expand it. The TMW stuff looks at the Multiverse from a purely mystical and purely human/Earth-centric perspective. Once you start approaching the subject from a broader point of view, with science as well as sorcery potentially involved, and contemplate the true potential vastness, complexity, and game-usefulness of the Multiverse -- things the Empress's existence implies -- ya gots to expand yer coverage of the subject.

Re: Teleport UAA; 5pt x2 Mass adder or +1/4 Increased Weight (x2) or both? As noted on 6E1 355, you don't use the mass-increasing Advantage for UAA if the Power you're applying UAA to has its own rules for increasing the amount of mass it can affect. So in this case you'd use the Increased Mass Adder for Teleportation.

Possibly useful to GMs as inspiration for adventures, or as handouts for the players: Vintage Crime Scene Photos

Re: CHAMPIONS LIVE ACTION Kickstarter from Darren and Silverback Press! Congrats to Darren and the Silverback crew! Have a banana daquiri to celebrate, then back to work!

Re: Endurance Reserve with Slow Recovery It states in the text of the Limitation that the REC of the Reserve, not the END, receives the Limitation.

What Darren and I envisioned years ago begins to take shape... but in Portugal rather than Michigan: http://www.salon.com/2012/04/28/science_fiction_no_more_the_perfect_city_is_under_construction/singleton//

Re: STORMlords Update I've just put up a STORMlords blog post that includes six pre-generated characters: STORMlords 275-point Pregenerated Characters

Re: STORMLords For those who are interested, I've updated my blog to add the pregenerated character sheets I used for the game I ran for Ndreare and his group: STORMlords 275-point Pregenerated Character Sheets

Re: Movement Powers and Variable Advantage/Limitation As stated opn 6E1 396, changing a Variable Limtation is a Full Phase Action, so it could not be done while a character is taking Half or Full Phase Actions to move. As stated on 6E1 261, changing a Variable Advantage is a Zero Phase Action. Therefore, as stated on 6E2 18, it can only be done at the beginning of a Phase or after performing a Half Phase Action. If a character wanted to make a Half Move, change the Advantage, and make another Half Move, with the special effect being “I change Advantages while moving!”, that would certainly work as a special effect.

Re: Sense group followup: Cost/Benefits There is no cost. Sense Groups aren't built with points. To the extent you're asking "what do Senses cost," the costs for various Sense components and modifiers are as listed in 6E1 207-14.

Re: STORMLords Print on demand was how I was intending to print MH... and how I'd likely print any other book I did for the HERO System as a Kickstarter, since there aren't going to be enough copies to justify traditional printing. POD isn't a separate option at all, it's part and parcel of any such project.

Re: STORMLords Well, I don't want to post the full character creation guidebook I sent you. If I do that I'm essentially giving the book away for free, which for obvious reasons I don't want to. (Besides which, it's already a bit outdated, what with various additions I've thought of. ) I might, however, post some of the STORM handouts, like the 5-page one summarizing the setting. And I to meet you. Thanx again for your support of BotE!

Re: Barrier & Autofire Assuming, as you say, that a GM would allow Autofire Barrier, yes, things would work as you describe: each Barrier would have to be targeted against its target area (which of course has DCV 3). However, due to the restrictions on having to “connect” the areas (see 6E2 42), this might not be effective at all; the character might have to buy Skipover Sprayfire to make such an ability useful. But I doubt many GMs would allow this. Personally, I’d require the character to buy a very large Barrier with the special effect of “I “Autofire” a number of smaller Barriers into place to create one big one.”

Re: No Figured Characteristics And Leaping I'm sorry, I no longer answer rules questions pertaining to the 5th Edition (or earlier) rules.

Re: How do I create a new sense group? There are no rules for creating new Sense Groups. You just create one, decide what Sense Modifiers it automatically provides and which Senses belong to it by default, and bam! you're done.

Re: Skill Level for Breakout Roll If the GM permits, characters can buy 2-point Skill Levels that apply to Breakout Rolls. These SLs only apply to standard, EGO-based, Breakout Rolls. If a character wants Levels with CON-based Breakout Rolls, he should buy those separately (or he can buy an SL that applies to both for 3 Character Points per SL).

Re: VPP and Unified By definition if all slots are Unified, then any slot created after the VPP is Drained (or the like) will automatically be affected.

Re: STORMLords Thanx for the review, Ndreare! Gaming with you and your group was all kinds of fun -- and renting a room at the pizza parlor for the game was a stroke of genius! As I work through my list of just-got-home chores, I'll have to see about posting the sample character sheets I prepared for the game to my STORMlords blog, so other fans can get a bit of a look.

Re: Takes No Stun and Absorption as a Defense If a character has the Takes No STUN Power and wants to buy Absorption with the Defensive Absorption Advantage, the cost of the Absorption is multiplied by 3, per the usual rules for Takes No STUN and defensive powers.

Re: Discriminatory and not Targeting? It means just what it says in the book: the Sense can identify, distinguish, and analyze. That's not the same thing in game terms as functioning as a Targeting Sense. The term "Targeting" has a specific meaning in the HERO System that has nothing to do with identifying, distinguishing, or analyzing per se; it has to do with being able to attack the target at full OCV. A Sense can be Discriminatory without being Targeting, or Targeting without being Discriminatory; neither has to be bought as a prerequisite for the other.