Doc Democracy

Re: Lower Water and Part Water Hark at him and his desolidification! Another potential route to tackle the issue. Adding the facility for Life Support to everyone who enters the zone might be useful - yup - ubo limited to within the desolid zone. No attack roll necessary. Doc

Re: Masterful Ambush Obviously this all depends on how your campaign works. Low level campaigns I think that I would use skills to determine how well the ambush was set up and skills to determine whether the potentially bushwacked were caught out and/or respond quickly to the ambush. The combat table provides information on the effects for those effects. Of course you could step up to use change environment for that concrete effect which is nice and means you dont waste lots of time with details - you have decided that an ambush means, for example, that those ambushed are at a constant -2 DCV. Or you go a bit further and do an area effect invisibility power and, until engaged in HtH all the ambushers are effetively invisible to their opponents... The last is the next step and the only bit I have added in this post. Doc

Re: Lower Water and Part Water Yup - another way to manipulate the environment - partially limited by scenery as to how much water sticks around. In water the problem would be the immediate displacement of the air by more water (but that is a science issue). I would allow you to use a continuous transform to transform a volume of water to air and allow that to remain in place as a corridor to walk across a river. We might thrash out some details but we'd get a point cost for that... Doc

Re: Lower Water and Part Water

Re: Lower Water and Part Water

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Re: Lower Water and Part Water

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Re: Lower Water and Part Water The only issue with creating a true vacuum would be how much game effect you planned on it having. If you wanted to use it in ways that would be more aligned with NND or killing attacks then that's what you should use. For complex stuff then you should possibly use a suite of powers for the suite of game effects you want to achieve. If that is expensive, well that's just the way it is... Doc

Re: Pulp Hero and Sidekick Not sure what you mean by everything from the Pulp Hero book. I'd say that you could have a great game playing Pulp Hero using that book for the background and sidekick for the rules. There will be some effects that you will not have the rules for but you could make them up or simply not tell those stories that require those effects. Doc

Re: What is Your Inner Character? Neutral Good Half-Elf Fighter! Not sure how that came about but probably close to where I'd pitch myself... Doc

Re: Lower Water and Part Water

Re: Penalty skill lvl question

Re: Lower Water and Part Water I think the problem is that once you really get into having game effects that are directly tied through their special effects then you get into the potential long-drawn out conversations bout how that should work. Real world physics - or real world cod physics - detracts from gameplay. For instance, in the part water scenario. If you are talking about creating a path across the Mississippi, how much water are you holding back? Are you really creating a path, or a dam? How much collateral flooding does that cause and how quickly? Do you get a nice path across the bottom or are you going to be wading in mud? In sand? Do you strand the fish in the path created? Do you get to walk in and out of the water wall? Etc Etc Etc Now if it is defined in game terms, then you know exactly what benefits you are looking for. Hero is built on deciding what benefit you are looking for and finding a convenient mechanic to provide that benefit. It is nice and clear. If you begin to get into environmental details and physics then it all gets pretty messy pretty quickly. Doc

Re: Hand-to-hand stun weapon That was my first thought, my second was that all or nothing might be more limiting for a stun causing power. If you are one of a group attacking an opponent, all of you using transform attacks, the small amounts of effect getting through from each person are not cumulative to the final effect. For stun causing effects they normally are. All or nothing therefore might be worth -3/4 or -1 Doc

Re: Hand-to-hand stun weapon One of the things I was thinking about for a stunner is that you rarely see them do a partial stun - they either take people out or they dont. I went to the book looking for an all-or-nothing limitation but didn't find one. What do you think the value would be for such a limitation? I can't work out what I think... Doc PS: dont do the worship thing for Thia, it makes him impossible for weeks!

Re: Lower Water and Part Water I think that anything based on manipulating the water is going to have just as many problems, it's not the way the system is designed to work. Doc

Re: First Couple Attempts OK - applying global limitations is within the rules so that is OK. The problem I'd have with this construct is that the powers would stop working if the character was KO'ed anyway. So I dont see the limitation in the limitation. You understand? I would also advise against activation rolls on constant powers that need to be constant to be of immediate value. Mind Link is a fantastic power as it allows characters to be in constant communication even when they are not in line of sight. Except, with the activation of 14- it will stop working something like 9% of the time, almost 1 in 10. She will have to make an activation roll every six seconds and so you can expect the mind link to work for about a minute before the connection breaks and you need to reset it Once again, your illusions will last for maybe a minute before they stop working. And the Mind Control and even the continuous Ego Attack. The cost saving is nice but it takes away much of what makes those powers valuable.... Doc

Re: Language Games and Fantasy Languages

Re: Setting a real point limit, instead of AP limit Come now Mark. Surely you aren't suggesting that GMs should take charge of things and actually make decisions are you?

Re: This old wound... Why not purchase some Dex limited by old war wound? Or even some skill levels that are activated 14- and when they dont work it is all about his war wound playing up.... Doc

Re: Origin 'Disadvantages' Welcome back Mr Waters, I've missed your distinct contribution to our diversity... As for the matter in hand, I do think that the most conscientious of GMs will spend a month or so pre-game putting in place the important things that should make his/her life easier in the future. In reality, most of us muddle through making decisions on the fly that we codify later, when we have time. It is not a bug in the Hero System, it is a definite feature and one that is necessary for the system to do what it is intended to do. So if, in your game, you want all magical creatures to be susceptible to a dispel ritual that may be performed by anyone with the relevant knowledge then you insist on that feature for anyone creating a magical PC - obviously you will include that in all the magical creatures you create. There is no need to do the math - this is a baseline from which everything is built - simply stipulate what the rules are. Players may want to build a magical creature that cannot be dispelled in this fashion. In that case they buy a defence to it - which would cost the same points that the physical limitation would have if it had been written on the character sheet. They are buying off that limitation just as someone who wants a character that is essentially human but can breathe under water buys the ability to do so. Player characters are special, they break the rules but in Hero they pay points to do so.... Doc

Re: Special Effects vs Rules My general rule of thumb has been that if the power is being stretched to accommodate the story (and it makes sense) I will allow it. If it is to allow the PC to shine, then the first time is free. If it is to accommodate a players wishes and does not make the story better not particularly make the character shine then it is disallowed until they stump up. Doc

Re: Lower Water and Part Water See, now you are getting caught up in physics and neither comic books or miracles should be dirtying their hands wit physics. If you want the closing waters to have a physical attack side to it then you're also going to want an attack that has a pre-requisite of having parted waters and be limited by the amount of water that is present. Doc

Re: Lower Water and Part Water Course it would. If the army are half way across the water (read safely cross through water hazard) when I stop using the power then suddenly they are no longer safe in the water and, considering they are in armour they are probably going to be using the drowning rules pretty toute suite. Doc