Steve Long

Re: Club Weapon: specific maneuver or general concept? Generally speaking, Club Weapon should be considered a distinct Combat Maneuver. However, as always common sense, dramatic sense, and game balance should be considered. If it’s not going to upset the apple cart too much, the GM can certainly allow a “Move By Club Weapon” attack. After all, Move Through/By have some specific rules on performing them with weapons, which could easily be adapted to this sort of thing. Personally I can think of plenty of campaigns where I'd allow this sort of thing -- some Martial Arts and Fantasy games, f'rex. OTOH, I can also think of some where I'd probably forbid it, or at least only allow it in restricted circumstances.

Re: BOOK OF THE EMPRESS Kickstarter Ha! No such luck; the art's already been drawn. She's wearing plenty of elegant gowns, but nothing that's particularly revealing.

Re: Mixing up movement for a Move Through 1. See Champions pages 179-81 regarding "fastball special" attacks (particularly the rules for how they interact with movement on pp. 180-81) and adapt accordingly. 2. As discussed on 6E1 301, Teleportation doesn't affect existing velocity or facing (absent the use of certain Adders discussed on the next page). So Teleporting a moving person in mid-move so he can Move Through the target is possible, though of course the moving character's limited to how much velocity he had attained before being Teleported (the act of Teleporting him neither removes nor adds velocity).

Re: BOOK OF THE EMPRESS Kickstarter I believe the shipping cost to other continents would be the same as Europe. I'll check and get back to you.

Re: Endurance Costs for Movement with Adders... See 6E1 156 regarding the END cost for Movement Powers. If you still have questions after that, please post a follow-up.

Re: BOOK OF THE EMPRESS Kickstarter LL -- the Kickstarter says: "(Price includes shipping within the continental United States; for shipping to Canada or Mexico add $30; for shipping to Europe add $50.)" It's right there in the reward description. I expanded on my comment above to make sure this was clear.

Re: BOOK OF THE EMPRESS Kickstarter This is true. But as I've also observed: 1. There's a limit to how many reward tiers that can be offered. Too many and you create "choice paralysis" in your potential backers and can very well end up shooting yourself in the foot. Kickstarter's experience and research suggests that 5-7 tiers is the optimal number. Creating a lot of tiers, each with only minor variations, to cater to any possible permutation of customer desires, isn't a good idea. 2. So, say you don't want the PDF or Character Pack. Wait to order the book. You'll pay $40, plus shipping from the Online Store. The $50 tier comes with free shipping (in the US at least; not abroad). So the overall price isn't all that different, and you're still getting more goodies with the $50 tier. Give 'em away if you don't want 'em. Plus you get backer-only rewards like copies of the $150 tier characters that people who wait to buy just the book later won't get.

Re: Overlapping Psych Complications--how does that work? All this should be left in the comfortable, and no doubt wise, hands of the GM. There are so many ways for Psychological Complications to overlap, intersect, complement, or contradict each other, and they're such an inchoate sort of thing, that I think resolving these issues is best left to the GM.

Re: BOOK OF THE EMPRESS Kickstarter While I can't speak for the company officially, I feel pretty confident in saying I can guarantee you that won't happen. In fact I'd expect that international shipping costs for all orders are likely to rise. The years of Hero Games subsidizing international shipping to generate sales are going to end, and soon. It's true, as some people have pointed out, that there are cheaper ways to ship books internationally. But Hero's experience has been that when it uses those methods, the books get the crap beaten out of them. Then, of course, the customer complains to Hero and demands a new book, further increasing Hero's costs. Sturdy boxes cost more, but in the final analysis they work better for Hero's needs. As I've said in a couple other posts here, backing the Kickstarter actually ends up being a real bargain. For $50 you get the $40 book, plus PDF, plus HD Character Pack. All three of those things purchased separately are significantly more expensive. So in fact for many (if not most) customers, "waiting for the trade" is a bad idea. Add to that the fact that backing the KS makes it more likely that a book will actually be produced, and that backers get goodies that ordinary customers cannot, and becoming a backer is a win-win.

Re: BOOK OF THE EMPRESS Kickstarter Heya Herophiles! We've got less than a week to go and things are lookin' pretty good. But we're still about $1,500 short of our secondary goal, which unlocks a cool new reward for everyone who backs the Kickstarter. So if you haven't become a backer yet, we'd certainly appreciate it if you'd consider joining us and help make The Book Of The Empress a reality! Book Of The Empress Kickstarter

Re: BOOK OF THE EMPRESS Kickstarter Heya Herophiles! We've got less than a week to go and things are lookin' pretty good. But we're still about $1,500 short of our secondary goal, which unlocks a cool new reward for everyone who backs the Kickstarter. So if you haven't become a backer yet, we'd certainly appreciate it if you'd consider joining us and help make The Book Of The Empress a reality! Book Of The Empress Kickstarter

Re: Speed (only for specific actions) See APG 13-14 (you can find the same rules in The Ultimate Speedster, if you prefer). If that doesn't answer your questions, please post a follow-up.

Re: Problems of the small 1. Attacks against characters who are smaller than normal Human size do not automatically count as Area-affecting attacks. They do a sort of enhanced Knockback, as described under the Size Templates and under Shrinking, but that’s it. In fact, unusually small characters are actually harder to hit (they get a DCV bonus from Shrinking, or pay for one as part of a Size Template). Converting attacks against them into Area-affecting attacks effectively eliminates that part of the Power/Template in a way that strikes me as particularly unfair. 2. A character’s size has no effect on the Hit Location modifiers. If a very small character tries to attack someone in the Head, he suffers the standard -8 OCV penalty, regardless of the fact that the head may actually be larger than he is. (This assumes, of course, that the character wants the standard bonuses for hitting the Head. If that’s not the case, the GM can toss both bonus and penalty out the window if he’s so inclined. The penalty exists to balance the bonus, after all.) 3. Being unusually small, whether through using Shrinking or buying a Size Template, has no effect on a character’s standard 1m Reach under the rules. It would certainly be possible to apply such an effect as an automatic Side Effect on Shrinking, or a Physical Complication for a permanently small character, but it’s not part of the standard HERO System rules. Of course, a GM is free to rule otherwise if he wishes on any of these issues — it’s his campaign so he gets the final say. But I would suggest that if he’s going to unduly penalize a character who’s small (by, say, converting most attacks against the character into Area-affecting attacks), he ought to balance that by giving the small character some other bonus (like reduced or eliminated Hit Location OCV penalties in HTH Combat).

Re: BOOK OF THE EMPRESS Kickstarter Sorry, but I don't. The PDF could conceivably be available sometime in February, though that's not guarantee the company will want to make it available right then. For the printed book, Hero will have to wait approximately three weeks to get the money from the Kickstarter, then schedule the printing and whatnot. The KS lists the estimated reward date as "April," which is probably a pretty good estimate allowing for all the factors involved. But of course the priority will be to get Kickstarter backers their copy first, so that may delay when the book itself makes it into the Online Store (and potentially to other retailers).

Re: Question About Constant Generally if it only lasts for one Phase, then there's no need for Constant at all. That's what Instant Powers do already. If what you mean is just one extra Phase, then you should discuss with your GM whether he'd be willing to lower the cost of Constant to +1/4 (that'd be simpler than keeping the value the same but applying a -1/4 Limitation, though not necessarily mathematically identical).

Re: 6ed Basic Rules Transfer Transfer doesn't exist in the 6E rules. You just do the same thing with a Drain + Linked Aid. See the "STUN Transfer" example on 6E1 197 for a typical power construct with necessary Power Modifiers.

Re: Cramming Follow-up: Craming And "Use Art..." No. Characters cannot Cram a Weapons Element -- or at least not under the standard rules. What any given GM wants to allow is up to him.

Re: BOOK OF THE EMPRESS Kickstarter At any given time the gaming industry is fortunate to have a lot of talented, dedicated individuals who create RPG material because of their love of the form/hobby. But it's also true that the hobby has lost a lot of superb talent over the years, mostly to computer game companies, because creating RPGs pays so very little and rarely involves insurance or any other benefits. The benefit, of course, is doing something you love. I've certainly found it to be pretty awesome -- but then again I'm single and have no dependents. I was once briefly involved with an attempt to put together a new RPG company. The primary purpose of the company, long-term, wasn't to produce RPGs, but to generate IP that could be sold into Hollywood (and we had people on board with the connections to do that). This plan could easily have worked because, despite the fact that I was going to be paid over twice as much as I've ever been paid for any other RPG job I've ever held, I could still produce a lot of quality IP for a tiny fraction of what Hollywood creative people would cost. But so it goes. I'd love to live in a world where RPGs were as popular as movies or novels and I could do lunch with Quentin and Uma before before whipping up a few thousand words on evil cults in Vestria. But that ain't the world we live in -- and in any event, getting to talk gaming with, and sometimes even play games with, great folx such as Hero fans is even more rewarding than fancy Hollywood lunches in many ways.

Re: BOOK OF THE EMPRESS Kickstarter Yes, Derek, that generally tends to be true.

Re: Newbie to HERO needing advice about world building Let me start off with a question: what do you mean by "High Fantasy"? Do you mean a D&D-ish style world with lots of non-human races, lots of monsters, plentiful and powerful magic, etc. (That's how I'd define it, but I don't want to make any assumptions.) For the HERO System rules as a whole, you need either The HERO System 6th Edition rulebook (a two-book set, hardcover full color) or The HERO System Basic Rulebook (a much smaller softcover b&w book that "condenses" the full rulebook into 144 pages). At the most fundamental level, that's really all you need; you can use the elements of the HERO System to build anything you want. However, to save yourself some trouble, you might want to pick up books where we discuss how to do Fantasy stuff with the HERO System, or do some of the work for you in advance. Specifically I'd recommend Fantasy Hero (Fantasy genre book with lots of Racial Templates, Professional Templates, weapons, magic systems/spells, and other resources, as well as great discussion of genre-related issues), The HERO System Grimoire (hundreds of pre-built spells), and The HERO System Bestiary (hundreds of pre-built monsters and creatures). Depending on the style of your game, The HERO System Equipment Guide and/or HERO System Martial Arts may also be helpful. If you want to see a HERO System example of a setting similar to Greyhawk or the Forgotten Realms, check out The Turakian Age. For a different High Fantasy setting for a slightly more "mythological" flavor, try The Atlantean Age. Our other Fantasy settings include The Valdorian Age (a Swords And Sorcery-style setting) and Tuala Morn (an Irish/Celtic-themed Low Fantasy setting). These settings all use the 5th Edition rules, but the changes from 5E to 6E won't mess you up setting-wise. Hope that helps, and that you decide to give the HERO System a try.

Re: BOOK OF THE EMPRESS Kickstarter I just finished the third of the $150 characters, and like the first two I think it turned out great. For those of you who are big fans of seeing "old favorites" from past editions of Champions return in a new form, you're going to get a big kick out of this one.

Re: BOOK OF THE EMPRESS Kickstarter Let me see if I can shed some light. The difference is, even if you price the core RPG book at something below its actual smart-business-cost-of-production, it tends to sell quickly and in relatively large numbers, and thus is likely to pay for itself pretty soon (assuming any reasonable degree of success and proper planning). After that, barring reprint costs, every sale of the core book is almost pure profit. So while supplements should at least pay for themselves, and perhaps even make a profit on their own, to some extent their real purpose is to encourage sales of the high-profit core book(s).

Re: BOOK OF THE EMPRESS Kickstarter I just finished the third of the $150 characters, and like the first two I think it turned out great. For those of you who are big fans of seeing "old favorites" from past editions of Champions return in a new form, you're going to get a big kick out of this one.

Re: BOOK OF THE EMPRESS Kickstarter I can't speak officially for Hero Games, but probably not, for a couple reasons: 1. There's an issue of providing too many options/reward tiers. It creates an effect called "choice paralysis," which is something you generally want to avoid. In particular, you want to avoid having a lot of tiers that are basically the same, but with one minor variation -- each tier should be distinct in some notable way. 2. The cost isn't calculated by Hero saying, "Hmmm, a thank you is worth five bucks." The thank you has no effect on the cost to produce the book or its ultimate value. That's simply a way to do something nice for people who want the project to succeed but can only afford a small pledge. 3. In this particular case, BotE has a cover price of $39.99, so the company's certainly not going to sell it to you for $35. If Hero were selling it to you for $40, shipping wouldn't be free, so your overall cost in the US would end up somewhere in the $43-45 dollar range most likely. Thus, the $50 book+PDF with free shipping really isn't that much more. I'm sorry that you think the cost is high, but with all due respect, I think your expectations of what an RPG supplement should cost are low. RPG companies, Hero included, have historically charged less (often significantly less) than what should be charged for supplements under good business practices.* They do this partly because of consumer perception and partly because supplements are to some extent "loss leaders" designed to encourage sales of core rulebooks. When you shift to a Kickstarter model, that simply isn't feasible anymore. The costs charged for books have to be more realistic, and have to be fully accounted for in the money you raise, or else you'll lose money on the project. Again, I can't speak for the company officially, but since the project has succeeded it's likely that Hero will be able to print enough copies to have some to put in the Online Store after the Kickstarter backers get their copies. How many copies that will be, I can't say; could be enough to cover demand for months, or it could be just a few dozen copies. I am unaware of any plans for a PoD option. As I've said before, the one sure way to guarantee you get a copy is to back the Kickstarter. That also gets you things like copies of the $150 characters that are only available to Kickstarter backers. *: To be fair, you'll find people in the RPG industry who disagree with this premise. But Hero's not among them, and I personally definitely am not.

Re: RKAs maximum damage See 6E2 99 for a discussion of this issue.