Doc Democracy

I think the book should mention/ promote the cards, give some pointers on their use. Begin building a gateway for new groups to use the rules.

To be fair, something Champions Complete should have included, the big Hero System tomes would have had to include for EVERY genre and would then have needed a third volume! 🙂

I agree with the Hall of Heroes idea. First thing a bunch of basic archetypal characters. $3 or $5, easy to layout cash. For each archetype a separate document. The basic brick (again) but then tricked up to be a more complex generic brick with a few examples of comic book styles, so Hulk, Thor, Colossus and Superman. It gives something for a beginning GM to pick up and hand out to friends. If friend playing brick says "I wanted something a bit more like..." Then he can pick up the brick book and if really interested later on The Ultimate Brick book. Would be a valuable resources for new players and GMs.

You are new here, Neil is never trying to start a flame war but he is quite dedicated to examining suggestions on rules and whether they work or not. He has been engaging with the topic and taking your suggestion seriously enough to look at it and test it to destruction. I understand you are feeling like he is attacking you and your idea, I just want to assure you that as someone who has shared these boards with him for over 15 years, that is not what is happening. Doc

I realise I did not answer either of your second two questions. Question 2 was power building and, if you stick with the system you might burn a lot of time doing just that kind of power building. The key principle is to build from effect. You need to look behind the SFX to understand what is happening. If I remember correctly "lightning toss" is something Flash does by running hard, gathering up the Speed Force and the stopping suddenly to offload all the gathered power at an opponent. All that is SFX. This is, at its heart a ranged attack against energy defence. That is often represented by Blast. You can the switch it up be adding advantages and limitations. I would give it, no range but a line of area effect, so there is a line of damage emanating from Flash and affecting everyone in that area. I would also say that it only works the phase after a full move. Doc

Personally, I would be inclined to suggest everyone plays the game first. Character creation is THE most complex part of the game ( though ultimately the most rewarding). The system is pretty straightforward. I suggest using the pregenerated characters in a very simple scenario (bank heist in your home town). Get a handle on how things work. Especially as a new GM with new players. Once you are comfortable with how things work in-game,. THEN think about designing heroes etc. Bring questions to the boards, you will get a variety of answers and you can begin to decide how you want to play the game. Doc

well, D&D 3.5 (the players handbook sitting next to my desk) says the light spell sheds bright light in a 20 foot radius and dim light for a further 20 foot radius. So buying light that affects a radius is exactly what you should expect. 😄 In HERO you buy images which has a radius. Within that radius the Images make it look as if that area is well lit. Outside that area the light does not reach (or the images do not change). The core mechanic of images works because it is changing how other people see things and the ways that impacts everyone are quite clear. It is because the power is called Images that causes a mental disconnect. If he wants to be able to create illusions as well as light then it is simpler to do it all within Images as a power. Doc

Here is a British newspaper’s take on it... https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/07/donald-trump-charity-foundation-misuse-lawsuit

I think I would get round that by saying that the Change Environment was not providing bonuses, it would only counter penalties due to extant environmental conditions which are being remedied by the Change Environment power. 🙂

This is a strange thing. Light existing in a hex means that folk many hexes away can see what is in the hex. The light you produce in a hex (by its nature) does not stay in place - it moves and allows you to see well outside the hex. Producing light therefore is a special effect of something else in game mechanics. I don't like the use of images as a way of producing light, it seems the wrong way round in HERO terms. And because of this, it doesn't really work well. My direct response would be that, if you buy Images, only for light, then you do indeed need to buy the entire area it covers. If you buy your light spell with only one hex, then you will not be able to see further than the hex you bought. If you lean on SFX to say that the SFX of light allows the light to travel and you can see further away than you purchased then you are getting significant added effect on the very thing you purchased in the first place. I would be more content with using a 1D6 STUN only blast with light SFX to provide light....that way at least the lean on SFX is to the side of the main power rather than the exact same thing...though this solution would be purchasing a completely different effect to deliver the desired result. In HERO you are supposed to reason from effect. The effect I am trying to produce is to allow everyone in an area to be able to see better (in effect, to stop them being affected by the environmental effect of being in darkness). I much prefer to use Change Environment to provide skill levels to cancel out the effect of darkness on perception rolls and CV, providing people within that area to fight and see things. The special effect is an area of light. The downside of that special effect is that people in the darkness, well outside the area of effect you purchase in Change Environment, will be able to see you and target you. Doc

Something simple. Something straightforward. Something that allows him to use his powers and to generate that feeling of awe among the general populace of just how awesome this mystery man actually is. The classic is to have something go wrong at the World Fair, robot coming to life, a sea monster attacking, some villainous agents coming to rob the great and the good. Really the nature of the PC should drive the detail of the scenario - something tailored to show off the abilities rather than to test them to destruction. Doc

You thought about listening to a podcast. Chimpions is a decent play podcast (UK based) using Champions and playing through some of the modules available to buy (like the Coriolis Effect). http://chimpions.co.uk/ Doc

Was looking at the sheet, you have MASSES of movement but I don't see it accounted for in powers etc though I have not studied it in detail. I think you need to scale back the power level a bit. I think I could save you at least 40 points in skills that you do not really "need" and possibly the same in characteristics. It is difficult to know how far to cut and whether 25 DEX is enough or far too much due to a lack of campaign information. In my current Golden Age campaign, 20 DEX is the highest and most of the characters are between 13 and 18 DEX. 25 would be massive in my game and possibly a waste of points, especially when you can boost it a further 10 points. Doc

My favourite way to deal with the loss of a battlesuit is to allow the character to jury-rig a second suit. Only issue is reliability,. All the powers CE with activation rolls etc.

I think that my response here is, of course you will get the value of the points back but we are going to have to talk about how that happens. There are no more items like Stormbringer in my campaign world, so that is not going to happen. If you want a similarly unique item we will need to think about what it is and how it might end up in your possession...that will not be immediate and you will be missing a chunk of ability until it is. I agree, doing a stupid thing deserves punishment. I have often given players the ability to travel back in time when they do something stupid. So after he threw Stormbringer in the volcano, I might say, you have accurately imagined the likely outcome, you still want to throw it in? Gives them a second chance. Doc

It is a problem in every game. It is important for the GM to find ways to keep players involved, even if characters are not. I have found that handing one of the players, whose PC is hors de combat, a villain to run for the duration of the combat keeps the player very much engaged. I am content for those players to see the powers and skills of my villains (though I keep some of the the complications hidden) and I find that those players play that villain far more effectively than I would have. There is obviously nothing more satisfying than driving your friend's hero through 6" of battleship plate armour... 🙂

Now, I simply use a flat x3. It is another thing that makes stuff faster...if I want drama, then I introduce GM flimflam, "they have reversed the polarity of the neutron flow and things are more uncertain, killing attacks will do d6-1 for the duration of this combat".

It is a gap in the rulebooks, it is surprising that in so many pages there was not enough guidance on how to set up a game. To run a HERO game you can simply pick one of the suggested power levels in the book and allow everything to be in play. Most long-standing groups have developed an understanding of what they mean (and want) when they start a game because they have had all the discussions - new groups have none of that learning to lean on. I reckon one of the things this new Hall of Champions might usefully have are templates for GM Guides. Something a GM can hand out to a group that contains all of the detail necessary for a player to begin designing a new character for the campaign. Doc

I comprehend the logical element to this and that the concept of an AE smoke screen costing someone more END per Turn because they have more phases that Turn seeming odd as they get the same cover (12 segments of smoke) regardless of SPD. Using smoke screen as an example makes it seem a small thing though. What about force field? That is a constant power. I think that increased END usage is one of the things that helps keep the cost of SPD down to 10 points per point. I think that de-coupling constant powers from SPD might be something to think about in any future edition but some consideration should be given to what that means for costing (and not just for SPD). I think, if constant powers were to cost END, by default, four times a Turn, then it is an advantage for most characters. If I made my Energy Blast constant, does that mean it only damages four times every Turn, does it mean it damages every segment (with concomitant END costs). What about damage shield? Does it only cost in a phase where someone gets damaged or does it cost every segment, or would it only cost four times a Turn? I think that the benefit of the current system is a bureaucracy one. Every phase you pay your END. It is a simple rule. It would be odd for a SPD 3 character using a constant power to have to spend personal END on segments 4, 8 and 12 while paying for the constant power on segments 3, 6, 9 and 12.... 🙂 We already have a game that carries a high bureaucratic burden, changing things that add to that burden with no compelling in-game advantages feels wrong... Doc

My most recent campaign has average defences set to mean that being hit by three average attacks would take someone out of the fight. I have allowed players the ability to raise their defences or attacks if, by doing so, they incur defence, CV or END penalties. I did this to try and encourage players to think about their tactics, increasing defences at the cost of being able to hit opponents, able to do more damage at the cost of being easier to hit or becoming fatigued. It is the ability to make significant decisions that makes combat interesting, this is probably more for knowledgeable players but it is the kind of thing that experienced gamers pick up reasonably quickly.

Do you use standard character sheets or custom ones. It is quite easy to set up custom ones that work for you. The big saving here is that you can describe a strike for Mr Muscle as OCV 6 DCV 6 Dam - 8D6N and for Mr Agile as OCV 7 DCV 8 Dam 6D6N. This means that each player looking at the manoeuvre on their character sheet get their base chance with OCV and DCV built in - your skill levels still have to be assigned. It saves some time. You describe hit locations as a waste of time, so do not use them in normal combat. You lose some detail but if it is detail that is not adding to game enjoyment, then you will not miss it. You can leave the potential for targetting those areas - for when only a headshot will do or when you want to stop someone running away but do not want to kill them. Doc

If you take someone else's focus and you use a power through that focus that requires END, then it is the character who is wearing the ring/using the power that pays the END. IBO in 6th edition can be set up to work the same way. Doc

That alone deserves kudos. All these years, I have never considered designing to make my life as GM easier...🤢

As GM I would also disallow the extended duration, PRE attacks are cool and in genre but they are apart from the whole power building mechanic, no END no to hit roll, free area effect. In my game, stretching the PRE attack in this way would be too effective. Massey was demo-ing 100 point powers and you are getting possibly more effect from a 20 point power, 8 real points? That should show you this construct is broken in some way. Doc

I don't see why you are dismissing mental paralysis. I would make it mental paralysis using OCV versus MDCV (your prestidigitation capturing their attention completely), I would reduce the range (close up magic), not allow it to be used after combat starts (too many distractions), make it All or nothing (the target is either fascinated or is not) and allow it to be broken by the first point of STUN received by the target (nothing breaks fascination more than pain). I might think about bundling it up with some levels against people recently affected (as they are distracted, still trying to work out how it worked), and in that case I might go with area effect, no range for the mental paralysis. Doc