Steve Long

Re: Time for a Talk Generally speaking (no pun intended! ), I think this is a common sense/dramatic sense matter that's best left up to the GM. I'd guess that most of the time, most GMs are going to consider "giving orders" (either verbally or mentally) to be roughly the same as a soliloquy and have it take no time. However, if a character wants to give lengthy or complex orders to someone in mid-combat, some GMs might want that to take a Half Phase Action, or even longer. I'd say that's even more likely if a character wants to give separate orders to each of a large number of Followers/Sumonees/etc.

Re: MYTHIC HERO: What Do *You* Want To See? If you're interested in learning more about my current thoughts for Mythic Hero, check out my latest blog entry: Thinking About MYTHIC HERO A lot of what you read there will already be familiar to those of you who follow this thread, but there is an updated list of mythoi and some other enjoyable tidbits.

Re: Barrier Versus Class of Beings If a Barrier’s built using the rules on APG2 23 to only work against a specific type of being (e.g., only demons, only goblins, only Evil persons), the Barrier in effect simply does not exist for other types of beings. They can move through it freely, attack through it without hindrance, and so forth.

Re: Damage Shield Yes, it affects someone the character hits, as discussed on 6E1 321. There's no difference between standard and Basic rules on this point, though the edited-down discussion in the BR may not have mentioned it specifically.

Re: Ranged Martial Arts I'm not sure if you mis-spoke here or not, but just to be clear, it's specifically not legal to buy the Ranged (+1/2) Advantage for STR, as mentioned on 6E1 294. (The GM could allow it, of course, but if so he has to deal with the implications. ) The way to exert STR at Range is to buy Telekinesis. Once you've bought Telekinesis, 6E1 295 has rules for using it to perform Martial Arts attacks. You don't need to buy Ranged Martial Arts, but you do have to pay points to be able to use some Maneuvers with TK. Of course, you could buy a Ranged Martial Arts style and define it as "I can use Martial Arts at Range," but since RMA has fewer options than regular Martial Arts that probably won't satisfy you. Another possibility is to buy powers that simulate what you want to do. In Champions Powers, check out such powers as "Float Like A Teleporter, Sting Like A Bee," "Teleportation Boxing," and "Reflex Teleportation" -- they're great for this sort of thing, and you can use them as the basis for designing similar powers. I've played teleporting martial artists built using those abilities and it's a heckuva lot of fun.

Re: Striking Appearence That's entirely up to the GM. Speaking personally, I would probably say "no," or at best apply a reduced bonus.

Re: BOOK OF THE EMPRESS Kickstarter If the Kickstarter succeeds, that should allow Hero to print enough copies to make the book available to other customers. However, AFAIK there are no plans to offer it to distribution, so even at that the odds are you won't see it at your local gaming shop -- you'd have to order it directly from Hero here at the Online Store. If you want a copy, by far the best way to get one is to back the Kickstarter. That makes the project (and thus the printing of the book) more likely to succeed.

Re: Surrounding a character A character couldn't do that with just Shape Shift, since that doesn't allow a significant increase in size and to surround a human-sized target a character would probably need to be approximately twice human size. Thus, you'd have to Link some Growth or Stretching to the Shape Shift (or possibly just substitute Stretching -- Shape Shift might not even be necessary). However, adjudicating the effects of surrounding another character that way is up to the GM. While the surrounder might take the damage from any attacks, personally I'd probably rule that their CVs are both affected as if the surrounder were performing a Grab, and I probably wouldn't let the surroundee do much (if any) moving or attacking.

Re: BOOK OF THE EMPRESS Kickstarter We're at 17% as of this morning, which I consider good progress. Statistically, 90% of Kickstarter projects that reach 30% of their funding goal at any point in time get fully funded by the end. So reaching $3,000 in pledges is a sort of sub-goal... or at least a good benchmark.

Re: BOOK OF THE EMPRESS Kickstarter

Re: BOOK OF THE EMPRESS Kickstarter The amount quoted is correct -- it's based on the US Postal Service rates for sending a book of this size to Canada. Traditionally Hero (and many other companies) have been willing to eat a large chunk of that cost, but this isn't something Hero's willing to do with a Kickstarter. None of us here are happy about it, believe me. As I understand it you would pledge $80 and indicate with your pledge that it's a $50 pledge with $30 for shipping -- I believe there's a way to do that when you make the pledge. If you find that's not the case please let me know.

Re: Q: Mental effects & effect roll modifier 1. I'm not sure I understand the question. What I think you're asking is this: does the Effect Roll modifier rule (APG 66) increase as the required Effect Roll increases -- for example, +5 at EGO +10, +10 at EGO +20, +15 at EGO +30, and so on? The answer to that question is no -- the Effect Roll modifier (typically +5 or +10) is the same regardless of the declared level of effect the character's trying to achieve with his Mental Power. 2. Since Mental Blast doesn't have an Effect Roll like the continuing-effect Mental Powers, the Effect Roll modifier rule on APG 66 generally won't work with it. However, the GM could, if desired, adapt it by applying the modifier to the target's CON for purposes of determining whether he's Stunned by the Mental Blast.

Re: Triggered power interrupting anothers action That’s a good question — I’m surprised it’s never come up before. When a character has a power that’s Triggered by another character’s Action (such as making an attack), the character with the Triggered power does not automatically get to act first simply because his power is Triggered. In this situation, the default rule is to use the “Who Goes First?” rules on 6E2 19 to determine which Action actually occurs first. (Exception: if the Triggered power is a defensive ability that’s Triggered by an attack, the defense should be considered to “activate first,” much in the same way that an Abort to a defensive action always succeeds in providing the defense to the Aborting character.) Of course, the GM can override this rule in the interest of common sense, dramatic sense, game balance, or other factors and declare that one of the characters automatically acts first.

Re: Book of the Empress PDF? Just to follow up, the Kickstarter (which includes the PDF as the $25 and up reward level) is now live at: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/herogames/the-book-of-the-empress

Howdy Herophiles! Hero Games is proud to announce the launch of its first Kickstarter project: The Book Of The Empress! You can go to Kickstarter and pledge your support here: Book Of The Empress Kickstarter. Our goal is to raise $10,000 in pledges by January 29 to produce the book. We'd appreciate any support you can offer! For those of you who are unfamiliar with Kickstarter, here's how it works. Kickstarter is a form of "crowdfunding," in which people such as yourselves offer their financial support for a creative project to see it completed. You can pledge as much as you want, from $1 up to any amount. At certain pledge levels (such as $10, $25, and $50), there are special "rewards" you get for backing the project. For example, for the BotE Kickstarter, pledging $25 gets you a PDF of the book and thanks in the credits, while pledging $50 gets you all that and a copy of the hardcopy printed book. When you pledge to back a Kickstarter project, no money is taken from you unless the project reaches its full funding level. If it fails to reach its goal (in the case of BotE, $10,000), then no money is taken from anyone and the project doesn't see the light of day. But naturally, we hope that doesn't happen! Here at Hero we're looking at Kickstarter as an intriguing new way to continue to publish HERO System books the fans want. If this one funds successfully, then we'll plan and launch Kickstarters for other books. Please join us in leading Hero into a new and exciting era!

Howdy Herophiles! Hero Games is proud to announce the launch of its first Kickstarter project: The Book Of The Empress! You can go to Kickstarter and pledge your support here: Book Of The Empress Kickstarter. Our goal is to raise $10,000 in pledges by January 29 to produce the book. We'd appreciate any support you can offer! For those of you who are unfamiliar with Kickstarter, here's how it works. Kickstarter is a form of "crowdfunding," in which people such as yourselves offer their financial support for a creative project to see it completed. You can pledge as much as you want, from $1 up to any amount. At certain pledge levels (such as $10, $25, and $50), there are special "rewards" you get for backing the project. For example, for the BotE Kickstarter, pledging $25 gets you a PDF of the book and thanks in the credits, while pledging $50 gets you all that and a copy of the hardcopy printed book. When you pledge to back a Kickstarter project, no money is taken from you unless the project reaches its full funding level. If it fails to reach its goal (in the case of BotE, $10,000), then no money is taken from anyone and the project doesn't see the light of day. But naturally, we hope that doesn't happen! Here at Hero we're looking at Kickstarter as an intriguing new way to continue to publish HERO System books the fans want. If this one funds successfully, then we'll plan and launch Kickstarters for other books. Please join us in leading Hero into a new and exciting era!

Howdy Herophiles! Hero Games is proud to announce the launch of its first Kickstarter project: The Book Of The Empress! You can go to Kickstarter and pledge your support here: Book Of The Empress Kickstarter. Our goal is to raise $10,000 in pledges by January 29 to produce the book. We'd appreciate any support you can offer! For those of you who are unfamiliar with Kickstarter, here's how it works. Kickstarter is a form of "crowdfunding," in which people such as yourselves offer their financial support for a creative project to see it completed. You can pledge as much as you want, from $1 up to any amount. At certain pledge levels (such as $10, $25, and $50), there are special "rewards" you get for backing the project. For example, for the BotE Kickstarter, pledging $25 gets you a PDF of the book and thanks in the credits, while pledging $50 gets you all that and a copy of the hardcopy printed book. When you pledge to back a Kickstarter project, no money is taken from you unless the project reaches its full funding level. If it fails to reach its goal (in the case of BotE, $10,000), then no money is taken from anyone and the project doesn't see the light of day. But naturally, we hope that doesn't happen! Here at Hero we're looking at Kickstarter as an intriguing new way to continue to publish HERO System books the fans want. If this one funds successfully, then we'll plan and launch Kickstarters for other books. Please join us in leading Hero into a new and exciting era!

Re: Dark Champions Believe me, dan, I'd love to write a new Danger International for 6E -- I've wanted to for years. The problem, as with Victorian Hero, Western Hero, and a number of other genre books, is that the time, effort, and expense to create such a book isn't likely to be justified by a corresponding level of sales. Maybe if the Kickstarters I have planned for Mythic Hero and other big books go well, I can contemplate doing a new DI. It'd certainly be a lot of fun to research and write. I just have to be sure it's worth the effort earnings-wise.

Re: Dark Champions I don't think that's likely, but I'm not in a position to speak for the company officially on this point.

Re: Damage Shield..ish Offhand I can't think of anything in the rules that would forbid it. Sounds like a potentially fun and interesting power to me. Though of course some GMs might not permit it.

Re: Computers as Foci Most Computers aren't built as Foci because they're built into something, such as a Base or Vehicle, but it's certainly possible (particularly in the case of one, such as the Hand Computer on SH 194, that's easily transported or taken away from a character). In that particular case I simply forgot to apply the Limitation to reduce the cost accordingly.

Re: Sweep/Rapid Fire choice of targets You choose and announce your targets before making any of the Attack Rolls. Or at least that's the official way; I suppose a merciful GM could change things to let players pick roll by roll if he wanted to.

Re: Possible HERO System Supplement Kickstarters From Steve -- What Interests You? That would depend largely on the amount pledged, since color art is more expensive, color printing is *way* more expensive, hardcovers are more expensive, and shipping heavier books is more expensive. What would likely happen is this: I would ask for $X to fund the project as a softcover, black and white book. If that target goal were reached in time, I could then establish a new goal: reach $X + Y (where Y probably equals an additional $10,000 or more) and I will instead make the book a hardcover full color. Asking for $X + Y to start means the whole project is likely to fail; saving Y as an "extra" makes it more likely the book will eventually appear in some form.

Re: Knockback Clarification 1. When a character hits an object (such as a wall) when Knocked Back (so that the PD + BODY of the object determine how many dice are rolled for Knockback damage), the calculation depends on the object’s current BODY, not its BODY when in full repair. 2. When a character is Knocked Back with sufficient force to go through a wall or other object, the damage he takes is determined based on the PD + BODY of that object, as described in 6E2 116. Even though the character might in theory continue on to hit another object (or, eventually, the ground), generally he doesn’t take further damage from doing so — the damage from breaking through the object can be taken to represent the overall damage he takes from everything involved in that particular instance of Knockback. If the GM wants to be more “precise” or “realistic” and calculate damage for everything a character hits along his “Knockback path” (including the ground, eventually), he’s free to do so, but it’s up to him to decide how that works rules-wise. 3. Knockback Resistance reduces the amount of Knockback taken, and thus the damage. Any sort of Physical defense (PD, PD Resistant Protection, Physical Damage Negation, and so on) reduces the damage as per usual — Knockback is just an ordinary physical impact, not an AVAD.

Re: Book of the Empress PDF? I can't speak for the company officially, but I feel pretty safe in saying that the PDF isn't going to be released separately at this time. It's part of the reward structure for the Kickstarter project, so selling it before/during the project would be counterproductive. Assuming the Kickstarter succeeds, the PDF (and eventually printed book) will be generally available to all customers (though of course the hardcopy book will sell out at some point, presumably). What will happen to the PDF if the Kickstarter doesn't succeed is up to the company to decide; I can't comment on that.