Doc Democracy

I think dsatow means the time from a player perspective. Obviously from a character perspective is that a turn is 12 seconds. Easy. If you are a player and you are taken out a game for, or lose the use of an ability, for a turn and SPDs are 3, then you lose out on three chances to interact. If speeds are 6 you lose out on twice that many chances and for a longer portion of your gaming time...

I think the rulebook would benefit from showing the difference there can be between a sheet for designing/building a character and a sheet for playing one in-game. many of the folk on here want the builds visible as it provides them with good knowledge of what is possible but I think most new people want only the absolutely necessary information like what I roll for damage and how much END it takes to use it (as well as the cool descriptive stuff that bring home the game). If you are not careful you will set me off on my hobby horse of the character sheet being the game's GUI for players. Doc

Knasser, I was thinking that I should do a document that walked someone through making a character in preparation for an introductory scenario. I am happy to collaborate if you want. DM me if you have a definite idea. Doc

Well, now you are just getting silly and munchkinny..... :-/ :-) :-) :-) Doc

I might supplement that with a global area effect transform, all written and media reporting of supernatural events get similarly 'edited' so that reportage is not a good source of evidence after the event. :-) Doc

Oh! Lucius just reminded me. I was sitting in Fantastic Beasts, enduring the stuff about Potter films that annoy me, when an idea came to me. I was thinking that there must be an area effect power covering the whole world that is essentially a cumulative effect mind control that makes people dismiss the supernatural and explain away the source of disruptions caused by supernatural activity. Direct evidence in front of your face'heals the damage' but if you do not have prolonged exposure you will, after a while, forget or explain it away again. That would work for settings that rely on the world in general to ignore and fail to prepare for such stuff. If you want to be able to explain it in game terms. :-) Doc

I would think so! :-)

Knasser. Your problem is in terminology and you are free to change that. I change lots when I present a game to my group - I want them to engage with the game, not the system. HERO has two ways to do damage. it is up to you, as GM, to decide to use one or both of them. if it will be easier to make everything one kind of damage, then go with that. Normal damage is the baseline damage dealing in the system - it does both STUN and BODY but caters more to a cinematic style of gaming where people rarely die even when you are shooting at them (think A-team). Killing damage is designed to deliver more BODY to a target and will bypass a lot of the normal kind of defences people have. You can decide to run the game using either one. Your question of sword and quarterstaff is a decent one, D&D makes no distinction about such things but it then has to compromise when players want to knock someone out rather than kill them (all the subdual damage stuff gets quite complex). In HERO they decided a quarterstaff was more of a subduing weapon than killing weapon and gave it normal damage. There would be nothing preventing you from listing it with killing damage to keep everything simple. Most people coming to HERO for the first time are overwhelmed by the number of rules etc. They are there to help you get the game you want but there is nothing that says you need to use them. As for the shape-shift? It can be really simple. You could decide how many points it will cost to transform into a bear and provide the player with the stats for a bear provided in one of the books. Give all the XP to the main character - the bear will always be a bear. Now. If you want a more complex game where the player gets better at being a bear, there are rules that allow you to do that. personally I would ignore all of those to begin with and stick with a simple game that everyone can get used to. As you become more confident with the system there are lots more shortcuts and ways to do stuff but dont let the options get in the way of your ability to game the system right now. The actual core of the system is pretty simple but you can hack it to do almost whatever you want though there is no requirement to do so. Decide what you want, scale back most of the complexity - come to us with questions and you will get a variety of responses on how to do it. Then choose the one that suits you and your game best (there is no absolutely right answer) Doc

Well, this is exactly where a lot of the conversation swirls Christopher. I think that the question that sits there, and where my head is currently, is that all powers, unless explicitly stated may be switched off, either to convenience the character or if forced to through mental powers exercised by an opponent. Some powers, depending on their SFX, may be bought as Always as a +0 modifier to the cost of the power. If this is not noted, then the default is that the power can. I would expect GMs to be pretty flexible with a lot of this and there will be lots of times when it is obvious that the player's vision for a power was for it to be always on, for good or bad, but there will be margin cases and it is worth having a good knowledge of where the default is in the rules... Doc

I would challenge the word ALWAYS. Hero limitations come with the meta-rule that limitations that do not limit are worth no points. So any limitation may be applied that the GM may rule is worth no points. If the value can be taken all the way down to zero, then surely you can see times when a GM might compromise with a player and provide a halfway house of 1/4? Doc

My idea of superhero advancement is more about how mainstream they become, moving from being an unknown powered being, apparently fighting crime but an unknown quantity watched just as closely by the authorities as potential villains. As time goes on they begin to get resources and contacts with the potential to draw on corporate and/or government expertise. Ultimately getting fawning press instead of risking potentially being labelled vigilantes. There is often no need to increase power levels in a supers campaign, though everyone likes to get some personal growth every now and again, it cannot be the fantasy style zero to hero campaign, they should already be heroes...

I think the key word in that sentence us CAN, especially as HERO /= Champions. :-). I think we could find source material for one or more different reasons to allow or forbid things. As such, to allow for the widest emulation, we should not be too prescriptive on how game mechanics play in game. I do agree with the default requirement and I think HERO has slowly been stripping itself down to those defaults, taking out the elements that scream specific special effects and grouping the powers that duplicated effects into decent all-purpose powers. We will maybe get there by 10th edition. :-)

It does sound to me rather like we are trying to argue game mechanics from special effects perspectives. Ultimately I think that there is a decision to be made from players, pointing out the pros and cons of whether they can voluntarily lower their PD or not. It is probably a +0 limitation/advantage, but I don't think there is anything mechanically that says ANY of these characteristics or powers cannot be lowered at will unless they are bought that way in a manner that disadvantages (or advantages) or it is decided they are that way in a manner that neither enhances or limits the power. Whether we can think of comic book examples that support one or the other matters not a jot. Yeah? Doc

I don't have a lot of problem with that as choke holds don't feature in most of the superhero comics I read. I see the manoeuvre as something more common in spy and fantasy style games where natural resistant PD is much less common and sectional, hard armour more so...

Obviously, in game terms, avoiding the choke means defending against the mechanic used. The official choke says that the defence against this NND is having rigid armor on the neck, Resistant Protection PD on the neck, or Life Support: Self-Contained Breathing. To ensure the globe defends against choke, you need to have one of these defences. If your GM is content for your globe to be considered rigid armour on your neck , or resistant PD on your neck then you are good to go. Other than that you simply add self-contained breathing. The other aspect is the grab. I would be tempted, if you don't like the barrier idea, is simply to have additional STR only versus grabs. I like the idea of this because it means that while random martial artists cannot choke, a brick with enough strength might squeeze the globe to achieve a choke. It would look cool in a comic so I think it is my favourite way to do it... Doc

I have to admit that my problem with this is that we are giving some things a protection that others do not have simply due to our concept of what it means in game. Mechanically, PD should be no different from, for example, SPD. I understand the gut response, but I have game issues with the decision...

So if it is inherent, is there a list of things that should not be altered or shut off?

Always on, at a level greater than +0, is only appropriate if not being able to turn it off is actually a significant disadvantage...

You think hypnotises are using mental illusions? I think they are essentially telling people not to see and they cannot. Hysterical blindness is the brain refusing to process incoming signals despite there being no ohysical reason not to. I think if it is possible for my subconscious to refuse to see then someone with mental powers could successfully instruct me not to see....

Bob, thanks for the reply. The question is whether a mind control command to not use the power would work just as well. I am looking to explore what the rules say. Could my character decide not to use his regeneration? Could he decide not to use his PD?

This comes from the Hacking people thread. We were talking about using mind control to prevent people from using a power. The question is whether you can not use a constant power. For example, life support is not in many cases a power that a player consciously switches on. Or PD. Or regeneration. I dont think there is anything in the rules that say my character, just because I bought him regeneration, has to use the regeneration.... That does however cause some logical disconnects. I can decide to stop breathing, until I pass out and my body makes a more rational decision. I can close my eyes but cannot 'stop seeing' if my eyes are open. However, there is such a thing as hysterical blindness and hypnotists often convince people that they cannot see, or cannot read. Where do the boundaries lie? I presume that if my mentalist told your character the he could not use his force field, you would, if the numbers were good, have no problem with that. However would your reaction be the same if the power in question was Regeneration or PD?? I am not sure what I think here or where I think the boundaries might be... Doc

Yeah, in a story that is fine, the biggest temptation for gamers is that quick burst of power.... :-)

I do not think any power HAS to be used unless it is bought with no conscious control. If it doesn't have to be used then it can consciously be stopped.

Here is the bit I have been working from. It is implicit here that you reckon someone mind controlled would 'know' they could not use the power while someone hacked through a drain would not. If that is not your position then I am arguing against nothing and simply helping you with syntax for your next mentalist!! :-) Doc

What I would say is that when you look at the skill list it is large and has the potential to get even larger as many of the skill categories (like Knowledge Skill or Professional Skill) are essentially infinite - it all depends on what you want to know about or be professional about. When Champions was young all a character needed to do anything that a cop could do was buy PS: Cop 12-. In its current iteration the default is to have lots and lots of skills to fully detail what a cop can do. Neither of these is a bad thing but you need to decide early on in your game how big a role you want skills to play. If you are playing a superhero game then you might decide that skills are a minor distraction and that it will all be about the powers. Tell the players that - tell them to pick one or two archetypal skills alongside a couple of knowledge skills and a professional skill (if appropriate). If you are playing a superagent or CSI style game then it might be very important to have just the right skill set and it would be worth players investing a chunk of points in having lots of knowledge and practical skills to draw on in game. neither is wrong but HERO is a toolkit - it is for you to decide how much of the presented resource you want to use and exploit in your game. The important thing is for you and your players to be on the same page... Doc