Doc Democracy

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... I thought that it was a good end to the series (even if it did all wrap up pretty quickly). Like any good story it does not presume that this is the beginning middle and end and hints at what might happen after the story ends. It isn't neat and tied up with ribbons but it is a good ending point. One of my favourite sereis actually though the author has suffered from sever writer's block since the end of the series and done virtually nothing else. I hope he recovers soon. Doc

Re: Need suggestions Much better for the bottom part to be the Underdark where the land is in eternal darkness and the things there have adapted to life in that way. There are all kinds of implications as well as having things work in a turned around fashion. Some of the basic implications of life topside can be reversed for the Underdark. Doc

Re: Philosophical: Definition Of A Mechanic As Sean said, well analysed. This is not something you'd pick up immediately from the book (it shows a good knowledge of the rules to see the implications). Thus I think the defining sentence at the start needs to have the wrinkles like this defining what the core is. It is also word problems again. For anyone not in the know, ranged would mean, can attack at range, in Hero it has much different implications. If we dont change the words we need to ensure that the implications are very upfront. Doc

Re: Philosophical: Definition Of A Mechanic Would love to but I cant see them clearing that any time in the near future. Things would be clearer in DD World!

Re: Philosophical: Definition Of A Mechanic Was surprised to see you contribute - I have missed your contributions - nice to see you are still about, even if you aren't talking to us any more Hope you drop in now and again just like Zornwil does. What kind of gaming are you involved in? Doc

Re: Philosophical: Definition Of A Mechanic In most cases, the opening sentence or two does this to an extent. I think a sharp legal mind, like Steve's, could do a much better job. "A character with Energy Blast can attack at Range, doing Normal damage." Seems to get the core but range is not core to the mechanic EB provides as you take it away with the limitation no range. The core mechanic is normal damage. Some people build energy blasts that do no damage. I think that should be possible but you should be aware that you are going outside the intended remit of the power. I agree that an index descriptor would be useful. Yup. Would remove potential for confusion. Doc

Re: Philosophical: Definition Of A Mechanic I'm with JmOz. It seems that every power should be followed with a small piece of text that says what role it performs in the game. Energy Blast - this power is the core power to cause damage in the game and it works, by default against either of the default defences (energy defence or physical defence). Something as simple as that defines the mechanic being presented to the players of the game. You could add text like: It works at range, costs END and is visible when in use. By doing this you begin to add stuff that can and usually will change using limitations etc. I might even remove the second clause of the caption I provided. Keep the initial text simple and you get a good idea of what the power is for. Anything that changed that would indicate that you are stretcing the mechanic beyond what it is intended for and another power or new mechanic might be a better idea. Doc

Re: Help with the Regeneration Power? And I thought I was explicit about that. I think that people buying a high REC are almost buying a limited version of regeneration anyway. If someone buys rapid recovery on top of a high REC then they regenerate more quickly.

Re: Healing Healing provides recipient with an instant recovery of STUN and REC. Cost? Doc

Re: Help with the Regeneration Power? Now I agree with the first part of this. restoring damage should be the province of recovery and healing - though aid does do a facsimile of healing... However, I liked the construct Sean has below... However, I would possibly look at calling it rapid recovery and instead of giving points recovery per point you would change the rate of recovery one step in the time chart. I haven't looked at costs yet but you can recover 1/20 REC in BODY per day in normal terms? In HERO the average REC must be around 8 or so - so 4/5 BODY per day. It would take a few steps to get that down to about 4/5 BODY per turn but would be more effective for high BODY bricks than low BODY energy blasters... The adders and stuff that I snipped from Sean's post would work well here. The problem with regeneration is that it is not healing as presented in the book and it feels twisted to make it fit there. We accept that to change self in HERO you use shapeshift and multiform, to change others you use transform. I see no conflict in having to use healing for others and some other kind of power for self healing. I would prefer that to build on something we already have - ability to take a recovery when not resting or accelerated recoveries in the matter of BODY. Doc

Re: New HERO GM, Fantasy Campaign Advice One of the things that makes Hero easier for GMs and players alike is that they can define certain concepts early on and that makes certain things much easier to model later on. For example - look for threads on alignment and undead turning. In these cases early decisions about what you mean in your campaign by evil/good alignment stuff (if you are going to use them) or building undead with disadvantages that make things like turning or destruction of undead by holy men brandishing a holy symbol much easier. My best advice is set the ground rules early and later builds can reference them. Doc

Re: Healing I'm wondering why we dont use the recovery mechanism for healing power. Recovery is essentially healing except that it happens at rates too slow to be effective in combat (especially for BODY) - so why not manipulate recovery using the time chart to speed up the recovery of STUN and BODY to more useful times? Would that not be a more coherent approach than to invent new mechanics for such things? Doc

Re: Dealing with large-scale fights. Absolutely - IMO the biggest game night killer is the GM rolling dice to decide effects between two NOC characters. If there is a conflict that the PCs are not involved in then I decide beforehand how that will turn out. I will list a few things that might influence events one way or another but the action revolves (at all times) around the actions of the PCs. If PCs are heroic leaders then their actions may turn the tide of the battle, if they are drafted combatants then they may affect the outcomes for individual NPC leaders but probably not the overall tide of the battle. Doc

Re: Magic Jar Good luck with that. You have stumbled across one of the areas that Hero has had perennial problems with - possession. There are a number of ways that people have proposed to address that - see both mine and Killer Shrike's as serious attempts to get the system to do what we want. With each build there is a problem that can come out when it is used. It is up to the GM whether to accept the builds as valid and then play the builds logically as described or to play them systematically as written and stumble across some of the problems. Doc

Re: Magic Jar I have no idea. The transform power cannot change the form of the caster, only other things - so I think that your build is illegal in the rules as written. If it works for you then go ahead but I think that those side effects are pretty hefty.... Doc

Re: Indestructible Extra Limbs/Stretching?

Re: Magic Jar This is a complicated body swap stye power - there are any number of Jericho style constructs that have been discussed on the boards and few about the Wildcard Jumpers (which are a bit more relevant). Essentially I think that Markdoc has it right. When you look at the power it essentially entails taking over someone's mind and being able to make them do stuff. The problems are in the details - awareness of the victim's surroundings - not being able to make the victim use special abilities - the spell makes no mention of the caster's abilities. I would think that I might model it on transform and shapeshift. Tha caster shapeshifts into the jar focus leaving behind an inert body as a limitation. The shapeshift is limited in use (caster form, jar form or victim form and cannot go from caster to victim directly and requires the focus of transformed victim to shift from victim form to jar form) and locks out all other powers except for the transform. The transform is all or nothing and transforms the victim into the jar shape. The caster can then shapeshift into the form of the victim. If the inert body is killed then the shapeshift cannot be switched off and the caster loses access to all his other powers. If the shapeshifted caster is destroyed (jar destroyed) then the caster dies. If the transformed victim is killed (jar destroyed) then the victim dies. My problem is the killing of the victim form. In this build if the victim form of the caster is destroyed it would be the caster who was killed, not the victim... handwavium?? Doc

Re: Indestructible Extra Limbs/Stretching? Well. Ranged Clinging was one of things I did suggest. Stevezilla had fun with the concept. However, I think the complicated build does a decent job and would probably be cheaper as well - looking at the build it is 39 points (13+22+4) rather than 49 as quoted. Your multipower comes in at 17 points and then the extra for the TK. I think the complicated build might be less complicated in play and provide more flexibility in interpretation of what the power was capable of doing - you can't cling and swing? Doc

Re: Potential New Player Needs Advice Just to add to some of the good advice that has gone before. Only you will, ultimately, be able to say if a system is good for you. Personally I have gone off crunchy systems for superheroes but love using Hero for pulp adventures, fantasy and other heroic type games. If you are looking for a D&D replacement then I think Hero is a good move - I'm surprised Thia has not butted in here - go look at threads by Thia Halmides - he is a prolific contributer who recently converted from D&D. You might get an idea of what a convert looks and sounds like. If you do want to run superheroes then make things easy for yourself. Explain to your group that you want to get a hang of the rules first. Ask them what kind of superhero they want (in broad terms like "really strong" or "he can fly amazingly fast and shoot beams from his eyes") and then you build everything. It takes away the real GM job in Hero character creation (auditing player builds for game disrupting munchkinism). This aids you in a couple of ways. It allows you to build your expertise and familiarity with the system. It allows your players to concentrate on the playing aspects of the game - which are much simpler than the character construction aspects. It means that you can easily keep the more complex things out of consideration until you are happy with managing them. It means you can bring them to the board during construction to ask for advice (we LOVE doing that!). Doc

Re: Indestructible Extra Limbs/Stretching? I think that the -1 is a bit much under the circumstances. Often stretching is used for things like swords or other weapons that limit the usefulness of the power, -1 indicates that the usefulness of the power will be impacted about half the time (or that the power is half as useful). In your case the power is not really limited - you can only use the strength through your shadow tentacles but that doesn't really limit it its application in most circumstances. In my campaign - I wouldn't allow the double dipping aspects that Steve would - and would probably limit your 'only with stretching' to -1/2. Maybe I'm just stingy.... Doc

Re: Indestructible Extra Limbs/Stretching? I wouldn't feel the need to add any extra advantage to grab or drag people, part of the power really. I think that the Only in Hero ID verges on double dipping to have it on all three elements - you have limited the stretching by saying only with extra limbs (which are already OIHID) - you have limited the extra STR with only with stretching (which is already limited to only with extra limbs which is already OIHID). Beyond that, looks fine. Doc

Re: Indestructible Extra Limbs/Stretching?

Re: Indestructible Extra Limbs/Stretching? Out of reach of your arms perhaps but superpowers have a way of doing things. You buy range on a power then you get it. In this case the sfx is shadow tentacles reaching from you rbody that allow you to cling onto the outside of some object. Doc

Re: Indestructible Extra Limbs/Stretching? See now you are reading the description of a power and allowing that to affect the description of the special effects. If you purchase the does not cross intervening space then you avoid the need to be vulnerable and may also pick up the ability to surprise people. You decide to retain the lack of vulnerability to attack but instead allow the SFX to make it obvious the source of the tentacles. You lose aspects of the surprise and possibly the indirect attack nature but you gain in that people may attack the tentacles uselessly. I'd call it about even. Doc

Re: Indestructible Extra Limbs/Stretching? Hmm. As usual, I would say that you first have to think exactly what it is that you want to achieve with these arms. Then you apply the special effects of indestructable/impossible to attack. If you want to manipulate stuff you are looking at TK. If you want to grab things and get movement when they move then ranged clinging might fit the bill. If you want to damage stuff then there are a range of powers you might want to consider. You want all this stuff? then maybe a mulitipower or EC with all this stuff in it - or perhaps a VPP - only to recreate the effects of having long, indestructable arms... However you go forward though, the primary message has got to be, think what you want them to do then model that... Doc