Steve Long

Re: Multiform - Affects Body Only? You could have that as a special effect, but as stated in the rules you can't "carry over" powers, gear, or whatever from one form to another without paying for them. Each form would have to pay for the equipment (to take your example) and the special effect is "my physical body changes, but my gear stays the same."

Re: Concentrating on Regeneration If a character buys Regeneration with the Concentration Limitation, he has to Concentrate throughout the entire Regeneration time period or he won’t get any BODY back. (This would also apply in the Linked situation you describe.) Thus, Concentration is almost never taken for Regeneration.

Re: Aiding skills It's a GM optional thing, so it's up to the GM to decide. Personally, I would use it to increase the number of CSLs of X type the character already has. Aid generally can't add abilities a character doesn't already have, and expanding a CSL into a better type of CSL at least flirts with violating that rule.

Re: Duration of Deflection (followup) If a character Blocks multiple attacks, the END cost for Deflection is paid once for the entire sequence of Blocks. He does not have to pay the END cost for each attack Deflected. Charges work as explained in my previous answer.

Re: Duration of Deflection There isn't really a "duration" issue here. Deflection allows a character to apply the rules for Block at Range, as discussed in its text. Also as noted there, it can be used to Block multiple attacks. As described under Block, the Blocking of multiple attacks can in theory go on over many Segments -- it's just that eventually the penalties for doing so will become so severe that the chances of successfully Blocking drop to almost nothing. The Constant and Persistent Advantages have no effect. If a character takes regular Charges for Deflection, each Deflected attack uses up 1 Charge. Continuing Charges are discussed on 6E1 188.

Re: Up to date errata Sure, there's an errata page for each book that I update periodically or as needed; I last updated the 6E rulebook page about a month ago, I think. There's a link to the errata pages under "HERO System Games and Products" on the main page.

Re: Could FATE Aspects Work In HERO? Sure, that's incredibly easy. Building abilities that are triggered by various personality aspects of a character, or Complications, or what have you is child's play for Hero! Also there's a section of the forthcoming Advanced Player's Guide II that discusses using Psychological Complications in positive/motivational ways, which would probably apply to what you're talking about.

Re: Barrier that doesn't last forever? Just apply Costs Endurance (to maintain; -1/2) to it. There are plenty of examples of this in, for example, Champions Powers, if you want to look at some write-ups; there's also some discussion of this in the forthcoming Advanced Player's Guide II.

Re: Making a target blind via Transform 6E1 304 is correct; CP 9 is simply an oversight.

Re: The HERO System 6th Edition We have no set date for getting a new print run of 6E1 adn 6E2 done, and thus no specific date when they'll be available. Because we no longer want to print the books in China, we have to transition them to our current color printer in Texas, which will be extremely expensive. So it's not something we can just do whenever we want, we have to make sure it's all in the budget, etc., etc. On the upside, this will allow us to correct typos, errata, etc. from the first printing, so the second printing books will actually be a smidgen better.

Re: Partially Armor Piercing Blast I'm going to restate what I think you're asking and answer that question so everyone's clear. If I've misinterpreted you, please post a follow-up. Q: Is is possible for a character to have an attack that’s partially Armor Piercing (for example, Blast 8d6 plus Blast +4d6, Armor Piercing, Increased Endurance Cost (x3 END))? If so, how do you determine the effect on the target’s defenses? A: It’s not possible for an attack to be “partially” Armor Piercing. Unless Armor Piercing applies to an entire attack, the attack has no AP effect and defenses apply against it at their normal level. In the example power, it would be possible to buy it so that the AP applies to the entire 12d6, of course; in that case the attack would be Armor Piercing. The same logic applies to Penetrating; an attack either has to be all Penetrating, or it has no Penetrating effect. Re: the second part of your question, a character could choose not to use the second part of the power you described -- there's no Limitation or rule that requires both parts of this particular compound power to be used together at all times. However, I suspect that in light of the answer to the first part, the second part of the question is moot.

Re: What If? Fertility Control I don't recall to what extent the social implications were discussed, but IIRC there were several Fantasy novels/series in the Nineties (I think -- perhaps earlier, perhaps beyond) where foolproof contraception was available. For a while there it seemed like any stories written by women seemed to feature it, and probably some by men as well. The Liavek series had some sort of contraceptive herb women chewed (if memory serves), and there may've been something similar in the Thieves' World stories (or some other "shared world" anthology). An awful lot of them also seem to have analogs to coffee, which is near and dear to even more writers' hearts I imagine.

It's Thursday, so that means it's chat night! Come on by the Chat Room at 9:00 PM Eastern, 6:00 PM Pacific to hear the latest news and talk Hero! There is, as always, the possibility of pie. Throwing badgers forbidden.

It's Thursday, so that means it's chat night! Come on by the Chat Room at 9:00 PM Eastern, 6:00 PM Pacific to hear the latest news and talk Hero! There is, as always, the possibility of pie. Throwing badgers forbidden.

It's Thursday, so that means it's chat night! Come on by the Chat Room at 9:00 PM Eastern, 6:00 PM Pacific to hear the latest news and talk Hero! There is, as always, the possibility of pie. Throwing badgers forbidden.

Re: HERO System Grimoire now in the Hero Store! Most of it is a conversion of the 5E FHGs, but there's a significant amount of new material as well (or material that appeared in other 5E sources but not in the FHGs themselves). Some of the "new" stuff includes Cybermancy, Oriental Sorcery, Superheroic Thaumaturgy, and Voodoo.

Re: John Carter (of Mars) Trailer That's part of my concern. Every single thing I've heard the filmmakers say, or seen them do, about this movie leaves me veeeerrry skeptical that they "get it." But like I say... won't cost me anything to see it on Netflix.

Re: Just saw 6th Edition I'm sorry, but I don't answer game design/philosophy questions.

Re: THE BOOK OF THE EMPRESS -- What Do *You* Want To See? AAMOF, I spec'd out just such a thing on the art list (well, as part of a larger illustration, but still, it's there). Comes complete with 1984-style slogan.

Re: John Carter (of Mars) Trailer I remain skeptical. Still, it won't cost me anything extra to Netflix it when the time comes.

Re: So Which Hideout are you looking at? Looks pretty cool, Certified!... though hopefully you can soon upgrade from the folding chairs to something more permanent.

Re: THE BOOK OF THE EMPRESS -- What Do *You* Want To See? Well, no need to get too worried about it yet. Writing the whole thing is going to take weeks (especially with GenCon getting in the way), so it's not as if I won't have time to incorporate new suggestions that come in. That point will come, but we're not there yet. However, the more I write, the less likely I am to take further suggestions, since once things are "down on paper" it's not usually worth the extra work to change 'em.

Re: THE BOOK OF THE EMPRESS -- What Do *You* Want To See? Her action figures -- it's a product line with hundreds of individual items -- sell quite well. Collecting them is a common hobby in many parts of the Empire, and a complete collection is worth (in Earth terms) tens of thousands of dollars. At "V'han-Con" every year, there's a special competition for presentation of collections, in which the Empress herself does the judging and awards the prizes. Better yet, many of the action figures come with built-in mini-computers and cameras. They keep watch all around themselves and are able to report illegal or seditious behavior immediately, thus ensuring that children learn proper behavior from an early age!

Re: THE BOOK OF THE EMPRESS -- What Do *You* Want To See? So, I don't get to have any fun at all? That hardly seems fair!

Re: Active Point Calculation It's calculated this way: ((22 x 1.25) - 22). 22 x 1.25 = 27.5, which rounds down to 27. 27 - 22 = 5 Active Points for the naked Advantage in question.