Doc Democracy

Re: Need Help: Costing MoS Based Hero Just thought I'd do a little bit of number crunching on this system (it was less time consuming that coming up with a custom character sheet! ) Looking at someone with a 2D6K attack facing an opponent with 9rPD. If the MoS is 0, then the result will be 6-3 = 3 and result in a flesh wound. The chance of getting instant death from this encounter is 1.85% (4 or less on the roll). So in in every 50 rolls will be an instant kill. This is either a bug or a feature - depends on the feel you are looking for. It got me thinking though that tying in the MoS to the damage means that a highly combat advantaged opponent with a 1 pip killing attack might get lucky more often. To have the same chance of an instant kill with a 1 pip killing attack you need to have a CV advantage of 5. Be careful what bonuses you give for hitting from behind etc. With a 7 CV advantage you get 9.26% chance of an instant kill and with a 9 CV advantage you get 25.93% chance of an instant kill. These are figures worth the GM having at their finger tips. Doc

Re: Elemental Control Vs. Multipower

Re: Elemental Control Vs. Multipower There are ways around that - the high speed allowing the character to appear more dextrous than they would otherwise be in avoiding attacks - it is another GM option thing but +24 DEX would only be 72 points and if the value was to be restricted to only for DCV then I think I might allow at least a +1 (DEX would normally provide OCV, DCV and DEX skills). I could be persuaded on something like that.... Doc

Re: A different way of doing Disads Ideas are never stolen, only shared. Doc

Re: Elemental Control Vs. Multipower I'm not going to talk about the powers just now but you seem to be making a costing error somewhere - here's those two pools costed as I think they should be.... 20 EC - Speed Powers - pool cost 20pts 20 1 - +8 DCV 20 2 - +20" Running 25 3 - +15PD/ED Elemental Control cost 85 points 45 multipower reserve cost 45 points 8 m +8 DCV 8 m +20" Running 9 m +15PD/ED Multipower cost 70 points So the difference in costs is only 15 points and you are limited in that you can only run one of those at full power at any one time. I think you have been omitting to buy the reserve for the multipower...

Re: A different way of doing Disads They become what are essentially narrative tokens. They allow you to take control of aspects of the narrative when you dont like it. The GM, by handing them out is inviting you to take some control over the direction of the storyline as a whole as well as just your character. As a player you are indicating what hooks you'd like the GM to use in stories and when he does you get benefits. Doc

Re: A different way of doing Disads Well, one of the things we have toyed with in a homebrew superhero system that we have been playing with is that of a 'spotlight' mechanism. We have done it a number of ways but the essence of it is that there is some mechanism by which one of the characters can be placed into the spotlight (reflecting the way that group books often have one character in the forefront of the story for a period, an issue or even a whole story arc). When that character has the spotlight pointed at them they seem to be capable of of mightier feats and/or more flexible use of powers than they tend to display in normal stories. I was wondering what you might think of rating disadvantages in terms of added capabilities. For example: Code versus Killing, total provides +4DC of effect on powers while the disad is in play. Smaller effect disads might provide less impact. The added DC might be used to do more damage, be more accurate vary the power by adding some level of area effect, added flash to a laser etc Disads are often seen to be a way to screw over the character - this would put them more in the light of a way for a character to rise to adversity.... Just a suggestion.... Doc

Re: This Human doesn't smell threatening What?? Much more of this EDM buffoonery and we'll save up and get Steve to create a power to EDM you to a world where you are Eliza Doolittle..... Doc

Re: Spell Advice

Re: This Human doesn't smell threatening May I suggest Wildlife Harmony? Doc

Re: Need Help: Costing MoS Based Hero Nice to have the options there. It wont be soon. My group will be finishing a D&D 4th edition game and then moving to a Mongoose Glorantha game. I might be ready to run a Vondy style FH Glorantha after that - maybe early in the New Year. It desreved a bit of thought - things like this demonstrate the value of GMs putting a bit of effort in and getting HERO to give them the game they want. Repped for innovation. Doc

Re: Need Help: Costing MoS Based Hero OK, I've had a look at this and it is an interesting way to set up the game. My thoughts are that there is a lot going on and it is difficult to do it exactly the way you have been looking at - the difficulties arising as soon as we move away from average Joe Average and Joe Schmoe. I think we need a currency to trade between the systems, one I have called hurts. I thought to define a hurt as a quantum of damage that would be unique to each character based on their BODY. So for Joe Average he would have a hurt value of 4 (2*BODY/5). Doing BODY damage to Joe of less than 4 causes a flesh wound but each 4 BODY that is done qualifies for 1 hurt (so 2 hurts for 8 BODY, 3 for 12). A light wound is sustained by an attack that does 1 hurt, a serious wound by 2 hurts, a grievous wound for 4 hurts and instant death for 8 hurts. With the margin of success I have a couple of questions. I presume an attack that has no margin of success misses completely. What if the defender makes a great parry roll and the attacker misses? Can the defender have some kind of test to disarm or pin the weapon of the attacker? What happens if the defender has a positive margin of success - can he then reduce the BODY damage? If so (and I see no reason why not) I would do this subtraction after the multiplication for the attacker's MoS. Beyond that, I am tempted to try the system for myself in the next HERO game I run. Doc

Re: Pulping the Renaissance You might also want to use Mary Gentle's Ash as a pulp style renaissance adventure. Doc

Re: Need Help: Costing MoS Based Hero Sorry for the delay - am trying to dig out the time to make a well considered response... Doc

Re: Spell Advice I've been thinking about this for a long time. So. In my mind what happens is that the people affected by the spell go into suspended animation. They are there physically but not accessible mentally. If they are moved from the area of effect they come to, if they are not they will eventually wake up. XDM doesn't seem to reflect that. LS does the 'living for an age' bit. I would say you need an all or nothing transform for the change to a 'living statue'. A bit more complex but unless you are going to do something with the future self, then I think you should concentrate on what happens in the present. If the idea is to roleplay the people in the future then the EDM may be the simplest solution... It is too easy to get drawn into what are essesntially special effects. Doc

Re: Building Hero with Hero I think it should be fairly consistent. That is why I would change those manouevres to invoke the suffocation mechanism and add a bit of NND damage to speed things up... So yes I would allow choking to kill someone. However, once they are unconcious I would allow someone to kill their opponent instantly. Doc

Re: Building Hero with Hero OK. There is a suffocate mechanic in the game. You are simply asking how we evoke that in a consistent way...no? With HtH combat we have choke hold. I would be inclined to say that if a choke hold manouevre can be made on a target that the suffocation mechanic kicks in and you get an extra bit of NND on top of that (speeds up the process). With powers it could be seen as more difficult - how do you do it with Entangle? Well - why not allow the choke maneouvre to be bought with powers if the SFX permits? Entangle (+ 5 point suffocate adder) allows a choke manouevre to be attempted using the power. If the attack roll hits then the victim is entangled and in a situation where they come within the suffocation mechanic. I'm sure most other powers could be dealt with in a similar way. It is an environmental effect that you are trying to invoke upon someone - if the power works then the victim has to either get rid of the power or get away from its area of effect (depending on the SFX). Doc

Re: Can this be done x 2 Just for clarity's sake. When you say "Teleport Object inside another Object" you mean something like a dirty cup to the dishwasher, or pencils into the pencil case type of thing, not a caltrop inside a heart? I think that there is an SFX disconnect here that needs to be made explicit. Newcomers to the system might expect these two things to be the same as the effect is the same - you are teleporting an object from one place to another. This is something HERO needs to be clear about when talking about itself early in the rulebook. I will need to go back to the rulebook and see exactly what it says about this kind of thing - I have skipped those sort of sections for so long that I'm not even sure they are there.... Doc

Re: First meeting of game group to consider HERO System Maximum game fun....??

Re: First meeting of game group to consider HERO System You haven't got it right. I'm not surprised - you are throwing up a lot of stuff writing about rules you haven't yet grasped. I'm not surprised that your understanding of what is being said to you is lacking... If a players wants the power to teleport an object from one location to another then he can do so. One of the problems he will face is getting an item from a location he cannot see, teleporting an item to a place he cannot see, or potentially both. Those are overcomable with some extra abilities because the core rules require sight or known locations. If you can accomplish this feat then teleporting a match into the gas tank of a chasing car, or a dirty cup into a sink of soapy water are exactly the same under the rules. The cup will get wet, the match may ignite the fuel (it would be up to the GM to decide if that match did it or whether it landed in a place with no fumes and snuffed out). In a heroic game it is likely the GM might simply decide that the explosion happens just like in films a crashed car always explodes. If the player wanted to represent always managing to explode a chasing vehicle by teleporting a lit match into its fuel tank, then he would buy the attack power (this removes a judgement call or extra luck roll from the equation). No supremacy of game mechanics over world logic. Simply extent of player control over the narrative. Clearer? Doc

Re: Cost efficient VPPs I dont think there is a cost effective way to build them. A VPP is. If you limit it then you limit it's effectiveness. It is for the player to decide hgow much flexibility they want to give up to have more powers active at any one time... Doc

Re: First meeting of game group to consider HERO System

Re: First meeting of game group to consider HERO System if you need to know then you should go read the absolute effects threads that Sindyr started. Lots of heat and a bit of light. Doc

Re: First meeting of game group to consider HERO System Exactly what a HERO GM should be doing - defining the context in which his players will design their characters. What you want in your game is your business.

Re: Spell Advice Hmmm. What about some kind of duplication attack MPA with EDM where one duplicate is sent in to the future and the other is left in place. The one left in place is different in that it is an automaton with no SPD stat. With the damge being transferred between the duplicates you get the desired effect of killing both by killing one. The duplication is reversed by moving the automaton from the area of the spell.... Doc