Doc Democracy

Re: How can I judge if an encounter is balanced?

Re: How can I judge if an encounter is balanced? This is a real divergence between fantasy type games and superhero ones. My mind rarely worries about the overall balance of a fantasy encounter, it is very much about how the characters approach that encounter. In superheroes there is a very much greater focus on the head to head of the villains and heroes... Doc

Re: How can I judge if an encounter is balanced? Focussing on points and effectiveness can be misleading. One of my friends, years ago, was worried that the characters in our group were too powerful and he could not make effective challenges without going overboard. I promised to demonstrate, in the next scenario, that this was not true. The characters were all about 325 points, well customised mostly and effective. The scenario began with a series of robberies. Each hero lost a focus. Each hero was face with two opponents, neither of which were built on more than 125 points. However, each opponent was customised to the hero in question - tough against the hero's main attacks and attacking the hero's weakest defences. In only one of the five encounters did I have to use the second opponent. So balance is an ideal that does not always count in combat. My method is to look at the base combat values with skill levels deployed somewhere. Look at the main attack and the main defences. I write this down for each side. I presume rolls of 11 to hit and standard damage. I run through a turn of combat and write the damage inflicted. You will quickly see if one side or the other has a major advantage. You will see whether the bad guys are failing to hit, failing to inflict damage or simply taking too much damage per hit. You can then alter those things to get the kind of encounter you want. You could up the CV to the point where the good guys find it hard to hit but when they do, one hit will take out the bad guy. Or change the defences such that the bad guys can walk through the good guys almost ignoring their attacks so that the heroes have to explore alternative ways to defeat them. Or bump up CON and STUN such that it is a matter of wearing the bad guys down... Obviously any mock will not demonstrate a real fight as the players will use options and leverage environment etc. But this should give you a decent measure of where the base level of the combat lies. Doc

Re: Regenerating teeth I think the losing of teeth during combat etc should be part of the SFX of the game. It should not fundamentally, impact on gameplay but it should make that gameplay more interesting and the game more fun. For example. A players hero has just taken a real thrashing at the hands of a villainous henchman. Repeated punches to the face have loosened a tooth and it is very dramatic for the hero, as he tries to lift himself to face this beast, to cough and see one of his teeth land on the floor. Depending on how the GM narrates it, it can be a message to the hero that this is not a fight he can win, or cannot win in a conventional way, or inspiration to push himself to new heights and be a hero. All kinds of good story-telling stuff can result. However, it can also be something that sows the seed of future adventures. is the tooth carelessly left behind by the hero meaning that some enterprising young villain to be swipes it to create a villainous clone for future strife? Is the gap to be filled with some piece of electronic wizardry that provides a completely new aspect to the hero in the future? Does a key contact have an aversion to poor dentistry and relations become a bit strained? Lots of story-telling opportunities outside whether the tooth actually regenerates or not... SFX - very important ephemera that lead to more game fun.... Doc

Re: How to do Psychomancie ? The items become essentially foci for the powers in his VPP. He hass no real control over the VPP, it simply replicates the abilities that others had depending on the items the character can find to use. It is a lovely idea - reminiscent of some Tim Powers stories. You seek out the artifacts of famous people because their psychic imprint imbues the items through which they exercised their skills and talents. If you can find something proper - you get good abilities; if you find something related you might get a lesser ability (either lower ability level or activation roll). Having the item does not mean it is active, just that it is available and if someone takes the focus then he loses access to the ability. The question of looking like a gadgeteer is simply in the write-up of the stats. If you, instead overlay the flavour of the items he has acquired then it looks nothing like a gadgeteer...he looks like a wizard of some kind... Doc

Re: How to do Psychomancie ? Hmmm. It is an interesting idea. I am for the idea of using a VPP. I think that I would avoid skills if I could and instead provide powers that reflected the ability of the last user. For example, wearing the camouflage jacket of John Spectre, the CIA's most effective sniper, the player would get stealth (represented by invisibility to sight and sound, limited to requiring a DEX roll). Using the pistol of Billy the Kid, the player gets a ranged killing attack built advantaged to get the first attack in. I would also purchase two or three overall skill levels, only for use with these powers. Doc

Re: Can you use a triggered power after the trigger has been set? Not sure exactly what you are asking here... Do you mean that you have a power that you would like to use as a normal power and that will, in addition, activate, just once when you die? There used to be an equipment rule that you could have a second piece of the same kit for +5 points. In this case you want a power that functions exactly like a power you already have but just once, when the character dies. I would call it +5 points on the cost of the drain... Doc

Re: Regenerating teeth Always important to ask this when we are talking about charging for stuff. We are supposed to be doing this for fun after all... Doc

Re: A powerful cosmetic transform Will have a look at what it says. Seems bad to start at 9 or less though when the normal skill would under usual circumstances start at 11 or less. Does it say anything about restrainable etc? Doc

Re: A powerful cosmetic transform My only problem with using lockpicking is that the skill is based on DEX (from memory) and how dextrous the character is should have no influence on the success of this power. It is also not likely that the transform power need be restrainable which the skill obviously is.... Now, perhaps we could look at other things to substitute for DEX or we could just say that Invisibility and Stealth Skill step on each others toes. A wizard opening a door with Knock and a thief picking the lock are two different things in my mind and that can be represented through the difference between a power and a skill.

Re: A powerful cosmetic transform I think that it depends on how broadly you define the effects. I think that it is indeed a cosmetic transform if you are talking about your standard 5 lever locks and padlocks etc. You should be able to gain entry to houses, offices, steal bicycles etc. If you extend that to other more complicated mechanical locks and electronic ones, then you are talking a much broader power which is less cosmetic. You say that you agree from an SFX standpoint. The application of HERO mechanics are nothing to do with SFX - they are all about balancing the game. The SFX are a layer inform the choice of mechanics and come after the mechanics are in place, during gameplay. If SFX are your only point of agreement then you are not really agreeing on the mechanics at all. Locked to Unlocked could represent a few different mechanics depending on what you are talking about - not necessarily just transform (cosmetic or not). Doc

Re: Zip-Line Flight It all comes down to what you want your character to be able to do. Swinging is a more limited form of movement - and it is probably easier to limit flight to provide less limitation than it is to make Swinging do more. If you are happy with what Swinging can give you - and your GM will be the ultimate arbiter of that - then go for that option. You might supplement the Swinging with a small multipower of swinging "tricks" that you can pull out of the bag - allowing you to get a few extra metres, or adding to your damage, or tangling an opponent up when you move by them. Doc

Re: Zip-Line Flight That would be another potential limitation but if you use a line to swing, it is possible to use your momentum to get to higher end point. To me it is all about the player's vision of how his character works and the special effects that go along with that. The player suggests mechanics that he thinks would achieve that (with an associated cost) and the GM decides whether he agrees and, if not, what he would require to achieve the vision. If the player has no ability to pay more points then the GM can advise what he thinks the mechanics would achieve and what the limitations of the build (as costed) would be. I do not think it is for the GM to indicate what the vision should be, just to elucidate to the player what are acceptable builds to accomplish certain things (this keeps the lid on things like turning evil etc and possibly indicating that regardless of how the zip-line is built, someone should be able to cut the line....) and how much those should cost. Doc

Re: Zip-Line Flight As a GM, I would be OK with Flight 20m (uses a zipline, +1). In my game that would mean that the character would be able to fly at 20m as long as he was no higher than the highest points available (not always the rooftop as there are usually pylons etc that can be used, and no bigger gap than 20m beyond zipline points). I would point out to the player that at key points in the story I might cause him to lose line of sight due to the erratic nature of the movement but that is part of the discount I was giving. If the player did not want to take the disadvantages then I would allow him to use the zipline as an SFX of flight with a limited height ceiling (+1/4). That should be the beauty of HERO. You can get exactly what you want, it all comes to negotiating the value of the limitations and what you and the GM are willing to compromise on. If you do not want that to be part of the story then you pay the points to remove that from the story potential. Doc

Re: Source Search These always sound like fun games. I think the problem with them is often the translation of the books/TV shows into a game reality. Gamers use stuff that characters in stories do not and in ways they do not, so there has to a difference in the start. I think it is really important to find out exactly what it is about the genre people want - the urban fantasy idea can be cut several ways. Are the players going to be into things being secret? Do they want things being an open secret among the illuminati but not the press etc or do they want the reality known by everyone. Just been reading the Demon trilogy by Peter V Brett - a present from Sean Watters of these boards - and there is an interesting situation where magic kind of exists but only as far it affects demons. The demons rise from the ground each night and have a seemingly mindless desire to kill people. But they can be kept out by wards, and the story is about people who begin to discover ways to fight back after a long retrenchment where humanities numbers have been reduced, communities live during the day and are behind warded buildings at night and only brave individuals travel between communities that are further than a day's travel apart. In this instance, everyone knows about the magic but most do not seek to use it beyond the normal bounds. We 'know' player characters would and therefore this is a great scenario to pitch players into - they can stretch and break the rules everyone else lives by and do things that everyone else would applaud (except those in power, who may fear for their positions if such heroics become widely known). I am only half way through the second book but I think this scenario could be transplanted to any time period. I do not yet know the provenance of the demons but there are some hints in the books that they may be of human origin in the distant past. You could have a high tech game that is fighting against the beginnings of such an invasion. The post-apocalypse of an invasion. The rebirth of civilisation after the invasion. Or any one in between.... Doc PS: public thanks to Sean. I no longer embark on trilogies voluntarily as I refuse to make the commitment unless I can be sure it is worthwhile...this one and his other gift - first book of the First Law trilogy, The Blade Itself - have both been worthy reads.

Re: Dissecting Powers Give away on the first one was Give away on the second was

Re: Revisiting Surprise Move.

Re: Hero System 101: Comments sought OK - some suggestions from reading this over. In the second example I would have the reference to the page numbers in a footnote - spoils an otherwise clean example. In the third example I would provide the alternative scenario in a final sentence "If she had rolled 14 or more the guard would have spotted her". Your opening sentence for attack rolls says "An attack roll is a specialised kind of success roll..." Would that not suggest that the text would siot better after your success roll section? In Hit Points and Armour, your second paragraph starts "There are also two kinds of damage sink..." I wpould have thought that prevention would be a better word than sink. I was also thinking that in this section you began to get too much into SFX of defences in the text. I think it would be better to stick to mechanics in the text and use examples if you want to describe those mechanics in use. In Damage Rolls you begin by stating that "Damage Rolls are a specialised form of effect roll". I would be inclined to put this at the end of the effect roll section with an additional sentence indicating that you come back to more the details later in the essay. I would then be inclined to insert the text of the next three paragraphs into the hit points and armour section, in between the discussion of hit points and armour. That makes sense as you progress from your hit points, to what reduces those hit points and then to what can prevent that damage from happening. The fifth paragraph essentially repeats the defence text in the previous section because the preceeding paragraphs demand something about defence. The damage rolls section can then focus purely on the rolls and how they work. You also get on, in the Damage Rolls section, to the Effects of Damage. I would be inc lined to hive that off into a section of its own, called Effects of Damage funnily enough! So, mostly structural comments. My inclination is for progressive text and small paragraphs with more headings! Doc

Re: Hero System 101: Comments sought Had to go check. 6th does indeed get rid of the rule that you needed some resistant defence before you could add normal defence against Killing stun. Will have to dig out my 5th edition book to check that. Very possibly a BBB truism that I have never checked up on.... Doc

Re: Hero System 101: Comments sought Andy. Had comments on original, will read amended and see if they are still relevant.

Re: A curse that returns? Yeah, cannot see it really being worth more than that. Doc

Re: A curse that returns? And therefore might be described as a 'healing' method in the description of the curse or, if you were feeling generous, have 'may be dispelled' as a limitation. Doc

Re: A curse that returns? Yeah - it would require some working but I think the mechanic is essentially good for this. The problem is that this would all be 0 point complication really - it is all character definition stuff and 'healing' back to your superhero persona could not be in any way called a complication - otherwise you lose your place as a superhero... I would be inclined to use it as GM to estimate how many episodes I might have before the healing would take place - or would have to be delayed by further action. It would be nice to know how many players you might have that want to lose their superhero powers. Doc

Re: A curse that returns?

Re: A curse that returns? I should go look at the rulebook but working from my 5th edition brain, I would go for Dependence. Ben needs some constant medicine or he will inevitably transform into The Thing. Once you take away the cure, then the transform begins working on him.... Doc