Steve Long

Re: THE BOOK OF THE EMPRESS -- What Do *You* Want To See? Sorry, but that's highly unlikely. My Iron Age-ry only goes so far. We're special because we're Earth! We have that certain something that no one else has. That's pretty much it. Some genre conventions I'd just rather not explain. Well, OK, I suppose I could claim the shape of our continents gives us magic powers or something. But that exceeds my desired level of goofiness.

It's Thursday, so time for a chat! I'll be in the Chat Room tonight for an hour beginning at 9:00 PM Eastern, 6:00 PM Pacific to talk about all the fun we had at Origins, our plans for GenCon, the books I'm currently working on, and other great stuff. Come on out and join the party!

It's Thursday, so time for a chat! I'll be in the Chat Room tonight for an hour beginning at 9:00 PM Eastern, 6:00 PM Pacific to talk about all the fun we had at Origins, our plans for GenCon, the books I'm currently working on, and other great stuff. Come on out and join the party!

It's Thursday, so time for a chat! I'll be in the Chat Room tonight for an hour beginning at 9:00 PM Eastern, 6:00 PM Pacific to talk about all the fun we had at Origins, our plans for GenCon, the books I'm currently working on, and other great stuff. Come on out and join the party!

Re: THE BOOK OF THE EMPRESS -- What Do *You* Want To See? This probably won't happen. I don't envision her as a character who uses her attractiveness that way. She's gorgeous, but it has no game effect for her, so no reason to pay for it. This will be covered. My general current thinking is that she has no children. We already have that "what are the ruler's kids like?" dynamic with Skarn, and an inability to have children is certainly one possible motivation for wanting to make your mark on the world (or the multiverse! ) now, since you have no chance at a "legacy." Yup, these'll be covered, though some may only merit sidebar descriptions. That's the ideal sort of thing for sidebars in a setting book.

Re: THE BOOK OF THE EMPRESS -- What Do *You* Want To See? With all due respect, in what way, shape, or form is this pertinent? You're certainly entitled to your opinion. If you don't like the idea of this book or don't want this book, I'm sorry to hear it but that's absolutely your decision to make. But this is a thread for people who actually want to discuss the content of the book. If you don't, fine, but don't insert this sort of meaningless nonsense into the thread, please.

Re: THE BOOK OF THE EMPRESS -- What Do *You* Want To See? No one's saying that, AFAIK. Anyone who is, is wrong. She's conquered more than one dimension that's similar to the CU; she has lots of superhumans in her Imperial Battalion. So far, though, Earth has proved too tough a nut to crack... as usual, we're special! Well, this is one of the philosophical underpinnings that makes using IV so potentially interesting, in my opinion. If she were implacably cruel and evil, the whole situation would be pretty easy. The fact that she is in many ways a tolerable ruler who often improves things for her subjects gives the issue a lot of dramatic and roleplaying potential. What's your freedom worth? She may be a relatively benign ruler, but she undeniably deprives her subjects of their freedom. For me, the answer is "It is beyond price." I don't care how good she makes things, I refuse to submit to being ruled. Perhaps you or your PCs feel differently. If so, great! Awesome roleplaying opportunities ahead, Cap'n! (Side note: In Rod Currie's 30th Anniversary adventure for Champions at Origins, we ran into more or less this same issue. Several players said, "Wait a minute. So Foxbat's messed around with time and changed reality to make himself the world's greatest hero? What's so bad about that? Sounds like things are actually better. Why make him a villain again?" I had to argue, quite forcefully at times, that there's a Right Reality and a Wrong Reality, and you never tolerate Wrong Reality no matter how good it is. Just like in CALL OF CTHULHU, even though characters would often be better off ignorant of the lurking horrors, you never turn down an opportunity to learn; knowledge is better than ignorance. But I digress. ) No, but there are interdimensional incorporeal hereditaments. ::lawyerly drumroll:: Well, there's that neat little hammock dimension, down in the Hammock District....

Re: THE BOOK OF THE EMPRESS -- What Do *You* Want To See? Thanx for the responses so far folx! I've seen lots of great suggestions; please keep 'em comin'! A few general responses to some points that have been made: 1. I definitely appreciate the suggestions, many of which are at least making me think about certain aspects of the book. However, please keep in mind that I only have so much time and so much page space to devote to this book. F'rex, I can't detail a whole Green Lantern-like interdimensional organization devoted to fighting her. That's a cool idea, but I don't have the time. At most I might mention an organization like that by name (probably in a section I already have outlined, titled "Rebels Of The Realities," a title I really like ). Beyond that and maybe a paragraph of detail, I have to leave it up to the GM to flesh that idea out. Now of course, if the book were to sell really well, we could consider publishing a supplement where I could delve into subjects such as these in detail. 2. By and large I have no intention of borrowing directly from Champions In 3-D. The specific, detailed settings (e.g., Horror World) don't really interest me, and in any event aren't really appropriate for BotE. The generic mini-settings (Aztec World, Dinosaur World, etc.) aren't something you really need my input on -- I think just about any GM can whip up a "destination" like that in just a few minutes. To the extent I describe new dimensions -- and I do intend to describe plenty of 'em -- I hope to make them more imaginative and detailed than that. I've mentioned a few in CU (like Britworld or Popeworld), and there are plenty of other, far weirder, ones that can be concocted. Nor are all of them alternate Earths; some may be nothing like Earth's dimension. Of course, to some extent the two books have significant overlap, specifically in the GMing chapter. That chapter will discuss issues pertaining to dimensional campaigning, much like the early sections of C3D did, but I don't really intend to "copy" it. Similarly, while BotE will probably have a Random Dimension Generator, it's not going to be the same as the one in C3D. Among other things, it'll be more directly tied into the Champions Universe and its multiversal arrangement, since this is, after all, a setting book.

Re: ADVANCED PLAYER'S GUIDE II -- What Do *You* Want To See? Folx, the book is done, so there's no real point in continuing this thread. If you have specific rules-related issues you'd like to discuss, I suggest starting a new thread. Thanx!

Re: THE BOOK OF THE EMPRESS -- What Do *You* Want To See? Mega -- have no fear, I have plenty of ideas on the ways V'han's legions work... and more importantly don't work! "Realistically" she has to face some pretty serious obstacles, or else she'd just squash Earth like a bug, given her resources. And from those obstacles can grow stories....

It's time for me to get started on our next Champions supplement: The Book Of The Empress, which will take an in-depth look at Istvatha V'han (the same way previous "Books of" have detailed Dr. Destroyer and Mechanon). As currently envisioned, BotE will include such things as: --a history of V'han and her rise to power as a dimensional empress --detailed info on V'han herself, including an expanded character sheet, psychology and motivations, her powers and abilities, and so on --what V'han might be like in other genres --the Imperial Legions, including (a) the Imperial Battalion (her several thousand superhuman soldiers, bodyguards, etc., with character sheets for half a dozen or so and notes on dozens more); ( her navies and armies; © her military equipment; (d) her starships and ground vehicles; and (e) her D-Soldiers (of many, many varieties) --a look at the Multiverse of the CU (this will largely be reprinted from TMW, but will be expanded upon as needed and tweaked to be a bit less mystic-centric) --the V'hanian Empire itself -- how it's organized, what its laws are like, and what territories it includes (with descriptions of a bunch of sample dimensions) --how V'han goes about conquering other dimensions and expanding her empire, including the various administrative, bureaucratic, logistical, social, and strategic concerns that prevent her from simply steamrolling Earth (or any other dimension) --V'han's specific plans and intentions toward Earth --major enemies of the Empire (Skarn, Tyrannon, and more more more!) --GMing Istvatha V'han, including a general discussion of dimensional campaigning and related matters That's it in the broad outlines, at least. So... what do you want to see in BotE?

Re: Pardon Me for asking but ... It is complete. But Star Hero is slated to be our big GenCon release, so we're waiting to release the PDF until closer to that time. We're not necessarily going to wait until that date to release the PDF, but we don't want to spoil the fun by releasing it a month early, either.

Re: ADVANCED PLAYER'S GUIDE II -- What Do *You* Want To See? I'm finishing up the book later today, so it's time to take this thread down. Thanx to everyone who made a suggestion!

Re: Telekynesis Grab and Moving Targets Someone who's Grabbed with Telekinesis suffers all the standard effects of being Grabbed. That includes not being able to move, generally speaking. Depending on the circumstances a Grabbed character might be able to use his movement to add to his STR to try to break free, as described in 6E2, but once someone's Grabbed he's typically unable to move until he breaks free.

Re: 1d6-1 vs 1/2d6 1. There are no specific restrictions -- it's up to the GM. I think most GMs prefer to stick with the 1/2d6. 2. I'm not sure I understand this question. If what you're asking is, "If a character rolls a Killing Attack that ends in -1 (such as 1d6-1, or 3d6-1), what’s the minimum amount he can roll?”, the answer is: on 1d6-1 the minimum result is 1; on any other amount of dice the minimum amount equals 1 times the number of dice (such as 3 for 3d6-1).

Re: Vehicle: The Marauder Interesting find... have to remember to include a Marauder writeup in HERO System Vehicles.

Re: Beam and Boostable Charges Good question, and well-timed for inclusion in APG2. The Beam (-¼) Limitation (6E1 145) can be taken for powers that also have Boostable Charges (6E1 368). The power must still be used at its normal “full power” level, but can be increased beyond that by expending extra Charges — it doesn’t have to be used at its “Boosted” level every time.

Re: Adjusting Resistant Defenses When a character uses an Adjustment Power on Resistant Protection, the Character Points added/removed are applied to the power as a whole. The value of the defenses provided by the Resistant Protection are then recalculated, maintaining their standard ratio as closely as possible. Example: Ultratech has a force-field defined as Resistant Protection (8 PD/8 ED) (24 Active Points). If he’s attacked with a Drain Resistant Protection 3d6 that rolls 9 points of effect (reducing the power to 15 Active Points), his force-field is temporarily reduced to 5 PD/5 ED. Later Ultratech earns some Experience Points and increases his force-field to Resistant Protection (10 PD/12 ED/6 Power Defense) (42 Active Points). Another character uses Aid Resistant Protection 4d6 on him, adding 9 points of effect (to “51 Active Points”). The GM rules that this increases the Resistant Protection to 12 PD/14 ED/8 Power Defense. In some cases an Adjustment Power may be more precisely defined — such as Drain Resistant Protection ED 3d6, or Aid PD 5d6, Variable Effect (any sort of PD). In that case only the relevant part of the Resistant Protection is affected; the rest is not.

Re: Translation This is a "how to" rather than a rules question, so I've moved it to the Discussion board. For my response -- see the Read Script spell on page 348 of The HERO System Grimoire.

Re: Desolidification and Telekinesis Yes.

Re: Computer/AIs,Mental Combat Maneuvers,& END Yes. Buying a Mental Power, or any other Power, to 0 END has no effect on the END cost (if any) of any sort of Combat Maneuver.

Re: Poisons You want to use the Damage Over Time Power Modifier (not Gradual Effect, which no longer exists), possibly with Extra Time to indicate an "onset time" before the venom takes effect. That represents how the poison affects someone over a period of time. For "throwing off the effects," you just need to define that using the Limited Power Limitation -- probably something like, Resistable Effects (victim gets a CON Roll every minute, if roll succeeds poison stops accruing increments of damage; -1/2). The sample poisons on FH 201 and on HSEG 204-10 (which include numerous real-world poisons written up in HERO terms) are written up using DoT this way, if you want to look at some examples of how it can be done.

Re: Question about IR & UV perception There are two things to keep in mind here: 1. By the words of the rulebook, you are absolutely, positively correct and your GM is completely wrong. All Unusual Group Senses have to be defined as belonging to a Sense Group (or to no Sense Group, though that tends to inhibit their usefulness or make them more expensive). IR Perception and UV Perception are almost always defined as belonging to the Sight Group. When so defined, they're blocked by Darkness to the Sight Group, just like every other Sight Group Sense. 2. It's the GM's right and responsibility to set ground rules for his campaign, which may include changing the rules as written. If your GM wants to change the rules discussed in #1 above, that's his prerogative.

Re: Champions Beyond The Nekojin are not an official Champions Universe species. Therefore there's no reason they'd be in CBY. In any event, there was plenty of info on them in DH that's easily adaptable to the CU if you prefer.

Re: Swallow whole power anyone? Use the rules on HSB 40-41.