Doc Democracy

Re: 1755 Your characteristic points total comes to 184 but my arithmetic makes it 122... Maybe I'm missing something (don't have the rules yet) but is the sheet simply bundling up costs?? I'm not actually reading the character sheet very well - too many numbers without obvious meanings Doc

Re: What's a good introductory adventure? An old favourite of mine as an introduction to the system is the Hawkes Phantom form Adventurers Club #5. It is a great adventure and can go a number of ways. It varies depending on the group from Miss Marple to Amitville. Doc

Re: Sean style pointlessness!

Re: Sean style pointlessness! I was thinking of very short time-shifting that provides a combat advantage but which had to be balanced out - no extra actions, just the ability to shift them small spaces in time. I would expect GMs to look very closely at the build, costing and desirability... Doc

Re: Sean style pointlessness!

Re: Sean style pointlessness!

Re: Multiform for Free? Frustrated.... OK. Been thinking about this and I think I have a gestalt of stuff discussed so far. It is interesting to see how people go about this kind of thing. My biggest problem is seeing how these things would work across genres...my core games have always been Champions but that is now shifting to Pulp and LoEG style games, possibly fantasy in future. So. What is my contribution? MULTIFORM: This power allows a character to switch forms. This power is usually used when the shift involves gaining or losing inherent powers rather than simply assuming a new form. The base character will purchase the multiform power. The base character buys a multiform pool that provides a base power level for alternate forms. The largest pool size is the campaign maximum (350 for 5th edition superheroes). The cost of the pool is 1pt per 5 points in pool - so 70 points provides a base of 350 points. Forms are then purchased that can draw from the pool. Forms are bought as if they were a new character and the cost to the base character is 1 point per 5 real points of the form. So a 150 point form would cost 30 points and a 350 point form would cost 70 points. If a character wants a form above the base power level, then he must purchase form limitations (such as focus) to bring the overall points below the base power level. The point cost is still based on the original real cost. So, if a Champions character with multiform purchased at 350 points wanted a 600 point dragon form then he would need at least 3/4 in limitations and the form would cost 120 points. This would mean the Champions character above with a 350 point form, a 100 point form and a 600 point form (in addition to the base character) would leave the character with 70 points to spend on characteristics and skills. I am not sure of the cost - I think it makes sense that the base form be mostly taken up with the multiform power - that is the basis of the character. I would, as a base, make the power non-persistent - when a form is knocked unconscious, they would revert back to the base form. However, I think that forms should be able to purchase advantages such as persistent, if that makes sense for the particular shape-shifter. I think that form limitations should only be half the value they would normally be worth - OAF would be +1/2 rather than +1. My only point of concern is whether this is too expensive. 1 per 10 points seemed to cheap....other ratios seem to 'difficult'. Doc

Re: Sean style pointlessness! I was thinking -1/2 and then I thought, well, with SPD 9 I could probably do the phase holding thing and get nine phases as well! :-) But -1/4 seemed to cheap... I'm pleased to see the thought process working in the same way.... Doc

Re: Sean style pointlessness! Held phases would not allow you to act on segments 1 through 6 before having to stop until after post segment 12 though. Or wait until segment 6 and then go every segment until 12. I did consider this but this is definitely worth points, the question is, how many.... Doc

Re: contact's with powers Hmm. Most of the contacts in my games have been used by the players as sources of information. So I think I'd model it as Clairsentience with some level of reading history of an item or person. Doc

I was thinking today, while watching my son tear round a soft play area, about SPD. Sean walks the dog - I needed an equivalent. Anyway - what was going through my head was a time shift style character and one of the powers I was thinking about was the ability to go on any six segments of a turn - no more than six but any six you wanted. Obviously the way to do that would be to buy +6 SPD, only to vary segments acted on. The big question is, what would you give as a value for that limitation? Or would you do it another way? Doc

Re: Multiform for Free? Frustrated.... Hmmm. I think this has possibilities, will go and play with some numbers... Doc

Re: 6th Edition Character Sheet

Re: Multiform for Free? Frustrated.... OK. I am interested in this discussion - first one in a while! I was wondering whether multiform might be a specialised kind of multipower - they sound the same, I'm surprised that I never wondered why they dont work the same. So. You buy your main character - he is the one that is going to carry round the multiform. In it he buys the multiform - it can only have ultra slots and can only use one slot at a time. You buy the reserve (which is the maximum value of any form in the multiform) and you then purchase slots (ie character forms) which add to the cost of things at 1/10 per form. The value of character forms is real points (not active points) and the forms can be limited in toto (as suggested by Markdoc above). So your 3000 point dragon must have 7.5 limitations to get down to the 400 point limit of the campaign, or more if you bought a much smaller reserve. Workable? Doc

Re: Power Building Question Good pointers from Steve there - you should feel priveleged - there are not many of these kinds of questions where he provides an indicative build. Must be the rush of finishing sixth edition and coming back from the Con!!! The question with this is very much how you model the drowning aspect as the system (in fifth at least) does not allow you to access the drowning mechanics in the game through powers. This is a pretty effective power - if the victim does not have Life Support. Players will hate it and thus you should be careful about using it... Doc

Re: A Thread for Random Videos

Re: A Thread for Random Videos I think it is like a song that he sings in nursery. He does make up plenty of his own though... He also loves listening to heavy rock and giving it large with the air guitar. Doc

Re: My PCs are made of GLASS! This is one of the things that I think we need to sit down and write for Steve or someone so that they can do it properly. It is a common trope in HERO games that I have been involved with that they inevitably end up with people tending toward damage types and defences that are pretty similar and looking for better descriptors to try and make things distinctive. Why should the squishy character be forced to get defences - because the story says she should or because the system means she has to or else she wont enjoy the game (or can roleplay healing in the hospital). I think this is mainly a system encouragement that good GMs can try to avoid. I tend to avoid big nemesis villains because I think that they are either too good for a party of heroes or they get too quickly beaten. I tend to work with a villain team or a bad guy with lots of mooks. I think that your group probably need to be looking at this kind of solution as well. The squishy PC can find herself fighting from the shadows against normal human mooks and may once or twice find herself in hand to hand with these. Much less dangerous for her, while Mr Slashy goes toe to toe. You make sure that the right powers are put against the right PCs - that's the way the comic book writers do it. Work on how she gets to enter contests that do not come down to CVs and defences but more about mental agility and knowledge while Mr Slashy gets to fight hordes of zombes or robots or the big bad guy. Doc

Re: A Thread for Random Videos Just a family one - my son who thinks he's going to be a rock star when he grows up... Doc

Re: The sound of silence Like I said, I'm not convinced that the mechanic for not being seen is the same as the mechanic for not being heard. One is passive and the other is active....

Re: The sound of silence

Re: The sound of silence Invisibility to sight means you cannot be detected by light (seen) - your physical being does not interact with light or reflect it. If you emit a light (for example, by shining a light) then that light is seen. You can also see when invisible, so your senses are not included. Invisibility to sound means you cannot be detected by sound (no equivalent that I know of) - your physical being does not interact with sound or reflect it. If you emit a sound (for example shouting or breaking a twig) then that sound is heard. You can also hear when invisible to sound, so your senses are not included. Doc

Re: The sound of silence I wouldn't say that it made you silent, it means that you are invisible to sound - the sound does not interact with you. I would be inclined to put this down to sonar not 'seeing' you and noise not interacting with you physically - so a good defence for NND attacks based on sound as well. I would rule that you can hear and so are still susceptible to sound flashes. It's a niche product Doc

Re: Fortune favours the brave I like this Sean. I would like to proffer you an additional part to the luck. If someone chances his luck too often, bad things are mor likely to happen - luck is a fickle mistress. I was wondering if you might add a dark side to your power. If you chance your luck and it is a small thing. You might set it at 0 chance. If you use the power for a small effect then on subsequent usage you get a bad effect on an 18 (one chance) - if you try to cause the earthquake you get a bad effect on 16 or more (12/3). This is additional and paid off when you do good deeds - the karma effect... Doc

Re: 6Ed Character Sheet? I am SO interested in this process - the character sheet is the GUI for the player to the system. I have been playing about with designer character sheets so that there is a working sheet for designing and building the character and a playing sheet - something that draws on genre aspects to make the character sheet more evocative of the GAME that you are playing rather than the SYSTEM being used to play that game. Doc