Doc Democracy

Re: Can be used as... There is also the fact that it is possible, with no advantage, to use TK to grab someone and, while holding them, create another TK to do damage to the person currently immobilised. Multiple attack with one power as long as END paid for. If it is possible to use it to do normal damage then why not killing damage. That is the conundrum...

Re: Can be used as... Can I be the first to say that, while an elegant solution, this would be cruel and unusual punishment. I love the fact that Sean plays this game, he asks questions of the rules that provoke discussion and that is the reason I come here - the discussions.

Re: Can be used as... Hugh, hugh hugh! Have you not watched the man in action? You are not seriously expecting a consistent approach in matters such as this. Our dear friend posits points of discussion that he thinks may stimulate us to ponder the nature of things. He seeks to find the consensus that an adversarial approach might bring but he does not seek to find himself consistently on the same end of the argument. :-) Doc

Re: Can be used as... I have always thought that there was a hole in the rules that needed fixed about the manipulation of powers. Obviously there is the Power skill that allows for stunts but that is not supposed to provide lasting tactical stratagems. I reckon that there is a need for an advantage or adder that would allow powers to be a bit more fluid in their use. So if this was the case then you might buy Fluid TK (+1/2??) that allows the game effects of the power to switch as long as the SFX was stable. Obviously such a power is more expensive than a bog standard one but it does provide a huge amount of flexibility. Using webshooters to block CCTVs etc, or this idea of having a TK power that can be used to move things about or to slice and dice them. I am not sure how this might fit, cost wise, by making both the TK and a killing attack with unified power limitation on it but my way may be more flexible while costing a tad more.... Doc

Re: Bell curve spread? Look! RDU Neil is back!! I had forgotten we had the discussions that lead to your sig: Axioms: The sacrosanct core assumptions of the game. Mechanics: The basic functional building blocks derived from the axioms. Game Rules: The specific and variable application of Mechanics that define the play of the game. Play Experience: The resulting behaviors of play and shared imaginary event unique to each group.

...or at least the one that counts as 3000 (NGD posts not being eligible!) I have begun an SF related poll in NGD where I hope we can come up with the ten core SF books to read. I have cross-posted to Star Hero because this is probably where the greatest interest in SF should naturally be and there may be those of you that do not regularly carouse in NGD. You can read the original post (and current books) at this link. There are links in that post to vote on proposed additional books. Doc

Re: Brain in a jar People are throwing out suggestions as to what you might want to do. If I wanted to play the character as drawn but he had no abilities beyond human normal, he was able to walk, talk, interact with people and do everyday tasks like anyone else, then you have your baseline character. If you want him to be better than a normal human then you buy him powers, probably with some relation to the look and feel but that is not necessary. If you want certain things to be worse than a normal human then you buy complications. If you think the robot body should be tireless then you buy 0 END. If you want the rocket boots to work regardless of whether the robot body is hale or tired then you give them their own END Reserve. If you want the robot to be concerned about healing damage then you limit the REC with a limitation such as , only with successful repair roll. If you do not want that problem for the character then you do not and presume that the robot body has nanobots etc that repair on the fly - just like a human body. As for eating - you can decide that the robot has a power plant that can utilise normal food to generate energy, you could introduce a complication to require a specialised form of food or energy. There is no complication about the brain glowing - that could simply be the SFX of the psychic power - and so you would put the limitation 'visible' on all of the psychic powers. As for how he got the way he is - read Robotman: http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Clifford_Steele_(New_Earth) Doc If you want the character to experience the loss of his arms and legs then you make them a focus - gives you discount on price but at some point the GM will ensure that the character finds himself without any arms or legs bought in this way.

Re: Brain in a jar Hmm. To me the only initial complication would be the freaky look of the visible brain. Unless you wanted there to be further complications then, I do not think that anything else would be an obvious complication.

Re: Regenerative Shields Christopher's post just made me think of an advantage of using STUN for this kind of force field. I am presuming it remains inside the defences but it defends against all of the things that those defences do not usually protect against. It will soak up NND damage, it is not subject to armour piercing etc. So it could be quite an effective defence in a game where attacks veer to the exotic... Doc

Re: Regenerative Shields I am looking at the REC aspect of the power. Is this a post segment 12 recovery only or would it add up if you spent a phase recovering as well? Doc

Re: Regenerative Shields

Re: Regenerative Shields Hmm. I was thinking that if the forcefield is STUN then REC is the obvious feeder for that. If you want a slow feed of STUN each phase then I reckon that you need to buy more REC upfront with delayed effect on it. So that if you are SPD 5 and buy REC 20 then after the post segment 12 recovery, you get 4 STUN back on segment 3, 4 on segment 5 etc. You would limit the REC, "only for forcefield STUN" (removing the recovery of END would be worth +1/2 in my estimation) and "delayed effect" (I think it is all at the lowest level here). By taking an additional recovery in a normal phase you can boost the recovery for a turn to 8 STUN per phase. If you did not want to have the option of mid-turn recoveries then there would be an additional limitation, possibly another +1/4 to +1/2?? This seems a pretty straightforward use of limitations to service an already agreed set-up. Doc

Re: Physical Manifestation I think this is an issue but one that the GM should be able to address. Some characters might not be aware, others might blast away at any physical manifestation be it really PM or just SFX. However, the GM should be able to provide clues and, to those characters with some insight, then free hints or relevant rolls might just be appropriate. Doc

Re: Demonic Swarm

Re: From 4E D&D to 6E Heroes: The Intimidation Factor That begs the question of when it is not safe! I think that what Sean was saying was that there is no need to be intimidated, it would not be hard to begin by emulating D&D and then slowly begin expanding options and tweaking...there is no real need to be intimidated.

Re: From 4E D&D to 6E Heroes: The Intimidation Factor No-one can tell you whether the system is for you. However, you seem to want to tailor your characters and world to the extent that HERO must be a consideration for you. The prep time you save in world and class building may be partially taken up by game preparation. However that should become less as you become more familiar with the system. It is possible for you to run encounters with bog standard opponents with small stat blocks - there is little need to have hugely detailed opponents for the run of the mill encounters. The bestiary would give you an immediate leg up with that and you would learn the relation between the character abilities and those of the opponents pretty quickly to eyeball an encounter. One thing, you do realise that the system as written does not 'do' character classes but if you wanted to build your game to accommodate classes and that kind of advancement, then it would be completely possible. Doc

Re: Demonic Swarm Ooh! You made me think - naughty Sean - should not be thinking on a Monday moring!! Would the idea of attacks from swarms of imps be made even greater by compounding the power so that the dice effect gets greater with lower DCVs? So first D6 affects everyone, second affects those with DCV lower than 10 and the third affects those lower than 8?? That would capture the idea that the faster, more agile characters get hit less by those swarming imps??? Doc

Re: Demonic Swarm

Re: Demonic Swarm Well, IIRC, continuous uncontrolled should have a reasonable common way to turn it off. Why not simply rule that the way to turn it off is to make X number of successful attacks against CV Y doing Z BODY damage? That way those in the area remain subject to the attack until the turn-off condition is achieved...it is a bit of bureaucracy but not huge - a tick each time a relevant attack is made. I think that area effect and autofire attacks should make the switch off easier... Doc

Re: Using a limitation only on an advantage Hmmm. While this has all the characteristics of a technically correct answer, I prefer Derek's. :-) Does anyone else think that it is this level of detail that makes people think that HERO is complicated?? I think that one of the problems is that instead of a simple answer we, by the rules, have to give Christopher's response. [rant] I reckon we put too much emphasis on the mechanics and not enough on the power description. I like to have a one or two sentence description of the power on the playing sheet with only the relevant numbers and as few game terms as possible. That way any GM looking at the power knows what the player has been attempting to do and can rule based on that rather than on the game terms as written. [/rant]

Re: What do charges cost? Again - have not spoken to Sean about this - but you do not seem to be getting out of the standard HERO paradigm. I think Sean really is looking at the ammo and the power-ups to be temporary things that you do not get back at any time. So yes - if you go for the skill power-up then you do not get the ammo and may run out (or that's how it looks in my imagining of this). I find that the usual way around this is to say - yeah, that is a way of doing it. You realise that if you are able to do that, so are the VIPER agents and, given their usual lifespan in combats with you, would be a far more effective way of fighting you. [it also prevents player characters from using their stuff later!] If you want to do this, expect to see it as a tactic from VIPER agents in future... Doc

Re: What do charges cost? I think the answer (if I have read Sean's post properly) is that he is trying to model a first person shooter video game (like Doom). In my head I see a character shooting several demons and being rewarded with a clip of ammo or equivalents. Doc

Re: What do charges cost? Interesting question. I think there might be some mileage in the fact that +5 gets you double the items rule that was about for a while. You could consider every clip to be +5 points, though they are independent so possibly 3 points... Doc

Re: Creating a Wheel of Time Magic System with the Hero System. What level of campaign you looking to run and how many points you planning on giving players to build their characters with. What you are missing, for me, is a but of writing that explains how the magic works - it is not going to be like the books coz games are not like books. So. If I am a player wanting to have a man who can cast spells in the reasonably decent end of the spectrum do I need to buy: a 20 point talent one or two 10 point affinities a 20 point detect a 25 point VPP a 5 point sight group possibly a 11 point skill (if it is to be useful) and an endurance reserve That easily tops out at 100 points which doesn't leave much for a heroic level character for stats and skills... Is it your intention that those who use the One Power are worse than everyone else at other things? Just my knee-jerk response. Looks like a lotta points up front... Doc

Re: Exploding Armor That is going to come down to a GM call probably. And the result of the call will impact on the cost. All comes round in a neat circle. Anyway - I still think that the limitation is on the use of the armour rather than on the use of the explosion... Doc