Doc Democracy

this would be even more fantastic if it worked on long term endurance...

yeah, cant you tell from the picture that I am a big fan...

This is an intensely personal judgement. In all games I find 4-5 to be the sweet spot, enough to spark ideas and character interaction, not so many that any one person is out the spotlight for too long or that it is difficult to find your niche. Doc

Oh, there is also Woad, making the natural PD resistant to killing attacks. low cost but with a surprising effect on a low power heroic level campaign.

I thin stuff like this is great, especially if you can add some colour to the setting through them. All kinds of little benefits and stuff. Like the Wanderer's Knapsack that contains one meal per day, the Amulet of Second Wind that provides a REC boost (the powerful one provides +1 SPD, only to recover in addition to a small REC boost), the Gloves of Scaling (1" Flight, only while touching surface) that allow thieves to scale any surface without fear of falling and the ever reliable Combat Saddle (10 STR clinging - only to stay in saddle) that allows warriors to fight from horseback without fear of falling off. :-) Doc

Not arguing with the whole dont make life too difficult for yourself as GM. I like to make the build even if I dont actively use the numbers as it allows me to make better (and more consistent) judgement calls during the game. Even with the different power level versions you still need to think about when and how they switch in and out. Making the build often makes me think about some of the detail that give the players the confidence that I not just making this stuff up as we go along!! :-)

I *think* the OP was looking for ways to model this worship power. The obvious first route for me is to have an endurance battery with a limited recovery. The recovery does not work unless there are worshippers nearby (how near is for you to determine) and the more there are the greater its rate of recovery. That means that all of the powers are useless unless he has worshippers around. I would also not build any of his powers with END efficiency in mind - that means that he will quickly become useless without those folk around him. He will also need a way to make people into worshippers. Obviously he can buy followers and this is good for the core 'church' but I think he will need a minor transform, one with gradual effect and it simply adds a complication "follower of XXXX" to the character. He may have more powerful effects that transform people from follower to initiate to devotee to disciple. All of that can add some complexity to the REC if you want. What it can also do is provide limitations to the powers available. You could build him, for example, with a 6D6 energy blast and then have bonuses to that for groups of followers, proximity of devotees and disciples etc. If you take this guy on in his temple then he is going to be maxed up, firing huge energy blasts at will and manipulating the very foundations of creation. If you can isolate him, then he will quickly run out of juice and not have access to the mega-weaponry that he otherwise enjoys. He obviously needs a healthy dose of megalomania and believes his own hype to allow him to be drawn away. He has been among the faithful so long he has forgotten what it means to be deprived of the heady joys of ultimate power. I would also have there be some way the heroes can discover to disrupt the flow of energy/power from the followers to the God. That provides them with a way, if they are clever, to beard him in his lair and still fight him when he is not at the zenith of his powers. Doc

Christopher is right, there is a quite decent thread in NGD to discuss politics... However, some of this detail is quite illuminating for anyone running a game in the UK.

Yeah - it could be as simple as Christopher points out. I am suspecting that there is something mechanical that you are concerned about and it would be useful to be explicit about what that practical aspect is. Snakes swallow prey larger than their mouths but that only comes into play once the prey is dead. Am not sure what you might be imagining - in a superhero universe all kinds of things might be possible... Doc

Beg your pardon!? If it is breaking a state, it is not one that has existed since 1957. Britain has been part of European Treaty based organisations since 1972 when it passed the European Communities Act. If it is breaking anything it is the cooperation that has existed since then. The European institutions, based on a number of treaties have changed and adapted several times, each time admitting more and more new members which has changed the balance and nature of the organisation. The EU today (based on the Lisbon Treaty of 2009) is nothing like the European Coal and Steel Community of 1951 (Treaty of Paris), the European Economic Community of 1957 (Treaty of Rome) or even the European Community of 1993 (Maastricht Treaty). Every time we tinkered, things changed and altered and balances differed in what was allowed and what was required. Personally I don't think the City (our shorthand for the banking community based in London) sees being in Europe as a particular advantage but probably prefers to remain as it abhors uncertainty. However, doing things simply because the City thinks it is a good or bad thing is the best way to a spiritless existence....IMO of course! :-)

Well pointed out. He is possibly the only one folk think of and why the title has been 'retired'. :-)

Ah. My bad. i presume a RQ fan is a Glorantha fan. You did not play much in Glorantha proper? - was a real disappointment to me that RQ3 introduced a division between the system and the setting and possibly the reason the system did not ultimately succeed in overtaking D&D as it was seeking to. The BRP has become pretty prevalent in many things despite its flaws. Anyway - shades/darkness elementals are the ones that Gloranthan trolls would use - so I was on the same page! :-)

I dont just remember them. Am currently running an RQ2 game with my gaming group - have them currently stuck down some krashtkid tunnels in the Big Rubble, running from a priest of primal chaos. When they get out they will have to negtiate the troll lands where a shade may be a distinct possibility...

Took me a while to understand what you meant here. Yes, you could be attacked by spirits, usually chaos or disease spirits or simply ghosts. The big tell here is that they could attack you, you could not attack them. That suggests to me that they live slightly apart from the world and in HERO that is best reflected as being in a different dimension. Even in the Gloranthan material there is heavy mention of the spirit plane. Will try to find something to quote. :-) You find spell spirits on the spirit plane, some priest has to go there, hunt one down, bind it and bring it back to the mortal plane to combat the person who wants to learn the magic.

Peers don't really have an area any more, there are no ties to geographical locations. In the days of ancient feudal rights there would indeed be someone given areas by the king and the king was able to switch things round. However, if you want a Duke, the Duke of Westminster is probably best. Current Duke of Westminster is the wealthiest landlord in London

I did but they are working now...

It just isn't the HERO philosophy to kibosh the use of a mechanic based on a special effect. To be honest, I never liked the accurate advantage for pretty much the reason you posit, didn't particularly like the one hex area effect for the same reason. However, if you allow it for one SFX you allow it for all. Again, I do not think you leave high DCV guy swinging in the wind, give him clues with each attack but do not provide game mechanics...what a mood killer...

Well now, you are quoting that like it is a rule. If it is, it is a rule I have never read (entirely possible, I am not the most scrupulous reader of rulebooks) and I would appreciate you spelling it out for me. I am more than happy to accept that it would be fair for GMs to indicate to players that there is something strange about the attack, that it seems to be more than normally accurate. I have never told players in advance that an attack is area effect before it is used. I have always allowed the players to react to the effects they experience rather than explain the game mechanics behind the powers being used against them. As I (and Neil) pointed out, dive for cover is ALWAYS an option and works for normal EB as much as it does for area effect EB. I need to go back to my 5ER book to look at applying dodge to an area effect attack, not something that I ever remember using so there must be some kind of wrinkle there that I missed (as I said, not the most assiduous reader of rulebooks!). :-) But even if it does allow a dodge modifier, that still disregards DCV. Doc

There was the APG and APG II. I think the possession rules were in the APG available in pdf here. The physical book for the APG II is still available in the store. There is a common problem with folk thinking about HERO where there is disconnect between the description of something in game mechanics and what that means in game narration. In Glorantha spirits were separate from the physical world. PCs were not able to affect the spirits unless the spirits engaged in spirit combat with them. Spell teaching was something Rune Priests learned to do and that used Rune Magic to force a spirit into spirit combat with the PC so that the PC could gain access to the magic. Now. As far as HERO mechanics go, the easiest way to reflect that is to put the spirits in another dimension that interfaces with the physical world and where suitably powered up individuals on either side can work across that boundary. That works for Glorantha as the spirits were on the Spirit Plane - the place that Shamans would go to work more closely with spirits. This was different to the God Plane where rituals could be enacted to change or strengthen the mythical underpinning of the physical world depending on how powerful the HeroQuesters were. Otherwise you will have to explain why PCs cannot simply walk up to spirits and engage them in combat (physical or mental) anytime they so desire. Why is there a need for priests and shamans? Doc

I think this needs some really careful thought when setting up the campaign. Normal people could not initiate spirit combat, only ghosts etc could do so. Tame cult spirits were defeated under the supervision of priests to provide cultists with access to their magic. Shamans could initiate spirit combat with spirits. Essentially the spirits, if they won, took possession of the body of the person and though it was not explicit in the rules, we played that those spirits might be cast out and the original spirit restored if you could get the right person (or shaman) to help find the original and kick out the possessor. This means there is a spirit plane (XDM) that can be crossed if you have the relevant powers. It also means that the spirit plane is the source of spirit magic and folk can access powers if they have established a link with the relevant point of the spirit plane. To me, this sounds like ghosts have INT, EGO and POW, EDCV and EOCV. A person can be attacked by a spirit and defend himself but cannot initiate a combat unless he has the relevant power (has become a shaman). That is easily defined, for the spirit, as mental powers with extra-dimensional properties. For the non spirit, there is a need to be able to fight back. That does not reflect the current mental powers. I would be inclined to make spirits susceptible to PRE attacks - where a PRE attack accumulates "MIND CONTROL DAMAGE". [TM] The idea would be that each combatant was looking to achieve 4x INT in accumulated "MIND CONTROL DAMAGE" and the first to do so would achieve their aim - possession or access to magic. The possession power in one of the Advanced Player Guides is likely to be useful here though you could hand wave a defeat in spirit combat will result in either possession or servitude. The interesting thing is the spells - you will not be able to cast a spell until you have defeated a spirit and you will only be able to increase the power of the spell if you defeat a suitably more powerful spirit. It provides real detail in a way that RQ never did,

You can dive for cover from normal attacks if you want - there was a ruling from Steve to that effect. Dive for cover is not just for area effect attacks. :-)

If Lord Protector does not refer in some way to Cromwell there may be confusion as he is the one and only Lord Protector in UK history. Cromwell is a fascinating bloke and well worth looking at - there would be a lot of people that would support him right now if he rose to power today...a vigilante being successful in fighting crime and combating declining moral standards would definitely fit into a Cromwellian model. The Met does provide a lot of useful and interesting information that could be used as colour. http://content.met.police.uk/Article/Scotland-Yard/1400015476700/1400015476700

Yeah, you are right. Personally I think the toolkit should have the option for the GM and I would have this very much as a Champions option rather than the other genres. I reckon most Champions games do not use hit locations (not a scientifically arrived at opinion) while many other genres do (likewise). I never found hit locations particularly right for regular use in supers but useful every so often. This would provide an option that makes a link between damage and accuracy that feels better (to me). I also never quite took to the binary accuracy lottery. I am so accurate I either hit perfectly or miss completely. This provides a different route. It should be in place of hit locations, I don't see how they play well together. Lots of other wrinkles. What I am interested in deciding is the grading, is one for one too powerful, too much out of kilter with current options. What I am not interested in I whether it I right and moral to connect accuracy with damage. Doc

I am with ninja-bear here. The game mechanic is attacking an area that contains a particular target. SFX in HERO are entirely separate from mechanics, defined by players, and so there is no need for the SFX to reflect that area effect mechanic. Ultimately the player wants an attack that accurately attacks a single person, this achieves that. What other mechanic will achieve a DCV of 3 on every target regardless of DCV because I don't have one off the top of my head. Doc

London is very cosmopolitan. We accommodate criminals of all varieties. I would say that the most prevalent right now are the Eastern Europeans who have come in with the most recent waves of immigration and trying to establish themselves within the ecosystem. Crime in London is quite personal, mugging so and burglaries. The high value stuff is all stock market trading based. :-) As far as police is concerned we have regional forces the biggest of which is the Met (London's police force) which is headquartered at New Scotland Yard. There are more police than ever trained to utilise firearms but you almost never see them unless you are ganging round Parliament etc. Policing by consent is the big watchword in the UK. We may treat murder as a big deal because it is far less prevalent than it is in the US. Not sure I would believe most of the fiction procedural a though... :-) There is a lot of cctv but most of it is not high quality and we don't really feel heavily surveilled.