Doc Democracy

You know, it is a long time since I read a rule book cover to cover - I think that Champions III might have been it. I have gotten by with looking up stuff as I played the game and being here on the forums to keep up to date with changes. However, I no longer actually play HERO as much as I used to and the forums aren't as rules geeky as they used to be - I miss Christopher and Sean and a few other rule geeks. Anyway. I was reading the Voodoo Mind Screen thread and it struck me that there is room for an advantage that makes a defence power apply across a special effect rather than being stuck in its very game mechanic role. This might be in the rules just now - in which case can someone point me to it, as I said, I rarely read cover to cover any more. The example there was using shapeshift (mental) to make someone seem as though they had no supernatural mind abilities. It was raised that the shapeshift would have to be bought against every sense that might be used to detect that kind of thing. personally I think that it should be paid for with the most likely sense and then pay a supplement (dunno what +1/2, more?) to expand it to the special effect of hiding mental abilities regardless of the sense being used. There will be wider applications of this but too often things get too expensive to cover all the angles and then the game looks silly when the power does not work coz some villain has a different ability set. Doc

Re: Banish Demon with Extradimensional Movement (6E) Hmmm. Looks to me like it is a godly power - providing the ability to cast out demons. I think I would have demons built with a complication that they can be banished and have the grantor have a Transform power that provides the recipient with a perk that allows them to banish demons and a base PS: Exorcist 11- :-) Doc PS: sorry - just read the OP properly and I see that you specifically want to use EDM. My bad!

Re: Hero System Power Cards Repped for simplicity! Sometimes the old fashioned ways come through strongly! Doc

Re: Hero System Power Cards Hmmm. I'm sure there is an answer though. if the watermark was a different colour for the various things then it would not matter hugely about the hard to read - or even simply a border round the outside. That would provide an indicator without being a deal breaker if a colour printer was not available... As I said - colour is not a must but our brains usually sort by colour more quickly than by pattern or words. If there is a way to add it in - perhaps a flash on the main bar that would add if colour printing was used but lose nothing if you were limited to black and white. Doc

Re: Hero System Power Cards

Re: How to explain healing effect? For me, I think that this is the ultimate chirurgery ability. The eye provides the ability to look at the inside of the person at a very detailed level. The teleportation should allow for some manipulation of the matter down to molecular level and move things close enough that natural processes can take care of the rest. I would have the healing take time and concentration and possibly a medical knowledge! Doc

Re: Only while asleep I would be tempted to begin the character with the DNPC - he will have some feelings toward the DNPC and feel a need to protect but nothing else. I would also have the charcter have a bunch of points held back as a surprise - all ready to spend on the woman as she moves from being a DNPC to something more solid and more constant in his life. I have this idea in my head of them getting romantic and her disappearing at the stroke of midnight only to appear in his bed the following morning... nice scene for a movie! Doc

Re: Only while asleep Does sound like a DNPC to me. Not worth a huge amount of points probably but it does complicate the hero's life. Doc

Re: Ability Guidelines for Cosmically Powerful Characters (6e)

Re: Ability Guidelines for Cosmically Powerful Characters (6e) Hmm. All the replies seem to focus on the mechanics and numbers. My biggest problem when running a cosmically powered game was about everyone being able to do everything. I think there is a real need for the GM to focus on the schtick of the characters and make sure that they do not step on each other toes with respect to roles in the group etc. Even if you have all the numbers right you might find that everyone can do everything and it will all seem a bit bland. THAT is where the GM does a lot of work in a cosmically powered game IME. Doc

Re: 6th Edition Character Sheet or you could drop Dan Simon a line and ask him how to go about this - he manages the site for HERO. You'll find him on the member list as Simon. Doc

Re: 6th Edition Character Sheet The best thing to do would be to wrap it up into a zip file. You would be able to post it that way and others could unpack it if they wanted to have a look. If you do post it here then I would suggest posting a pointer in the rules and Champions forums as well - this is a pretty old thread that most people might not notice has a new post in it. Doc

Re: Speedster Shutdown (5e) Another approach might be a side effect on the END Battery. When the battery goes to zero there is a drain attack on DEX and/or SPD.... Doc

Re: Computer as a Network of Humans

Re: Reactive Damage Shield If I get this right, spiked chainmail should work better as the impact of the opponent on it. So it should not work if the opponent uses a sword to strike, only if they use a body weapon, no? I think this is hugely within GM territory and does not need modelled - if an opponent rams into you then you use the move through mods for damage to add to the damage of the chainmail. If they strike you with punch or kick then you use the STR add they are using to add to the damage of the chainmail - you would not reflect the damage of the attack, just what is added through STR. Doc

Re: Hearing Prayers

Re: Hearing Prayers I think it is all about those being initiated into a religion establishing a mind link with their deity. Each time they celebrate in a holy place they have the opportunity to re-establish that link.... Doc

Re: Drivers, start your engines! looks good, I like judging performance against the field as a whole. In the example, the performance showed that the hero gets to move up five places. I would be inclined to say that the performance was good enough to warrant moving up five places. I would then have a driver to driver contest to see if he could perform an overtake manouevre. If a manouevre is successful then the hero moves one place up. If not, he gets another attempt (if he has any left - the example would allow for five overtaking manouvres). This would allow for some individual contests and for the drivers to have a bit more individuality. Of course it works both ways, if if the hero team drives badly the driver would have to defend overtaking attempts. Depending on the level of detail you want to go into, you could decide where attempts would occur and give drivers bonuses or penalties depending on what they were good at. This is a much better way to do chases & races than the map it out. More cinematic. Doc

Re: Hero Games needs a new printer Probably better in company questions... Doc

Re: How would you make: characteristic drain/aid I had an interesting idea of using the energy to fill up an END battery that was usable by others. Others could purchase powers limited by extra END and within line of site of the END battery man... Hmm. Lots of ways to work this one if the team is designed properly. END battery Man could even have a small VPP that only produced powers usable by others and only powered through the END Batt.... Doc

Re: Help with Transform As GM, I would say that you have shrinking, flight, and possibly a sense or two. I would give the players this with the form of a raven for free - all the powers linked or part of a unified power (need to read the rules properly to get an idea of what is best - linked sounds better to me as they are all used at the same time). The form would be good for mooks and any cursory examination. If they wanted to fool even the closest examination then I would add shapeshift into this. If I had time I would find out what this meant cost wise. However, this provides you with the ability to gain the advantages of being a raven without attracting the disadvantage of that. Doc

Re: Help with Transform I presume this is a heroic level game. The question is whether the players really want to lose all of the other stuff, like defences, CV and BODY etc. You could go with flight and shapeshift which essentially means that the characters would look and feel (and potentially smell etc) like the shape they shift to without losing all of the rest of their abilities. As a GM I would be inclined to allow the shift to a different form (as it is always the same form) to be part of the SFX of the flight and shrinking being used - any ordinary person would be convinced - people with special senses would potentially spot discrepancies. Doc

Re: Help with Transform Hmmm. My first question would be do they really want to transform into those creatures. Do they want the strength of a raven and the BODY of a raven or do they simply want to be able to fly, be smaller and look like a raven? If they actually want to BE a raven then multiform might be the way. Otherwise you might be looking at Flight and Shrinking with a special effect of "looks like a raven". It really depends on what the player wants to be able to do when in raven or sparrow form.... Doc

Re: Proportional area attack

Re: Proportional area attack Ah, you see, special effect is the icing on the cake in HERO. You did a good job of describing the game effect (I think) and you create that from the powers in the rules. The special effect is what you use to justify having a power with such effects. It should not really matter if it was electricity, fire or jumping insects that drove the special effects. Doc