Doc Democracy

Well, one of my players plays Colonel Mustard, a dashing aristocratic speedster with an array of grenades and explosives. He is not the leader of his "home" group and he is loosely associated with several groups and seems to turn up when something looks fun. He is primarily associated with ‘The Convocation’ a group based around the estate of rich and eccentric Lord Lyon. The Gryphon (HtH Damage Dealer) – Daughter to Lord Lyon. Leader of the group. Flying, Speed defence. High damage. Lord Lyon (Mad Scientist) – Not wholly with it, but creates an array of fantastical devices. Father to the Gryphon. Occultish visions that help guide the team. Doesn’t really have an alter-ego. Very reclusive though so not really needed. Rarely leaves his grounds. The Missionary (Tank) – Clergyman tough nut. Defensive tank with some mystical powers. If you wanted I would build these for you? Doc

I am ashamed, I said I would do these and was only halfway through. Kudos to GMGM for his dedication.

It is fortunate we are seeking to recreate the movies rather than the real Old West! 🙂

Yeah, I think there needs to be a tension there, I think they need huge considerations before entering into one and a real threat of instant death (not almost certain death) needs to be an element in that. Someone suggested in another thread that players should be able to access instant regeneration by taking on some kind of complication that could be “healed”. I would be in favour of that. I also think that a duellist fighting for a noble cause should be able to either survive a duel or win a duel that they might otherwise have lost. You should get HERO points for actions that can mitigate the worst consequences or change a minor success into a major one. The game needs to enforce the genre and those that want to subvert the genre (against the wishes of the GM and other players) should need to work hard to do that (or quickly build up some kind of karma debt for the final showdown). 🙂 Doc

I can see some kind of Dutch auction with duellists waiting another phase to gain the ability to alter the location roll with each phase forgone another DCV lost. The person who draws first gets a bonus on the quick draw but a penalty on the to hit roll (their nerve broke) unless they wait until their DCV is zero when they simply get a bonus on the quick draw. I think every round of a duel should raise the stakes and tension. I think there should also be a bonus at the start by having a Dutch auction. The person who drops the most DCV in the opening phase gets a bonus on the quick draw and a bonus on modifying the location roll. Doc

Well, I think that the one big thing a western is getting the duel done properly and for it to be a bit separate to the usual combat scheme to make it special. I also think that reputation is a huge thing, becoming a Named Character should be a thing, people might seek you out to test your skills and others might actively refuse to draw. I would make the duel more deadly than normal combat, there should be a real concern that this will be an instant death moment. will think about other aspects. Doc

Typo alert! That is killershrike.com rather than killerstrike.com You might have got there anyway but... Doc

I have said this before. I worked and lived in Nashville, TN for two years. One of the major reasons for coming home (the other was to marry my girlfriend) was the insecurity I felt over there, even though I was barely ill. I came back and appreciate the NHS so much more than I did before I went to the US. I am not saying that we have got it perfect, the politics and negotiations surrounding health and the mission creep are immense. I am saying that when anyone in my extended family has been sick, our only concern was getting them to a doctor/hospital to get it fixed. When my wife collapsed saying her heart was racing we went to the nearest accident and emergency where the only bad thing that might happen is that she might die. If she survived then there would be no down side. I do not know how you guys live with the uncertainty and expense. Doc

A topic folk have been talking about for decades. I remember devouring the article on Designing a quasi-medieval economy for D&D way back in White Dwarf (I looked - issues 29 and 30 in 1982). What is different in HERO is the fact things are bought with points as well as money. As GM you need to consider what is bought by points and what with in game currency. You also need to think what difference there is between a sword bought with points. However, if you want to begin with the money economy, pick a random game in the genre you plan and steal their economy wholesale. Too much work to come up with yourself IMO. For fantasy pick D&D for most ubiquitous books you could pick up second hand almost anywhere. For detailed pick C&S or Ars Magica. Unless you you want to do something clever, use stuff where clever folk have already done the heavy lifting. 🙂 Doc

If you want the genie to be a”thing” in its own right then you get that with summon. The genie would have the VPP being touted by others with a big NCC limitation “only to fulfil the wish of current master”, the genie itself would have psychological limitations to describe its relationship with the owner of the lamp.

Well, as a starter, one player with an area effect attack working with a high damage, low OCV ranged attack. The area effect attack player attacks hoping a low defence/ high DCV opponent who is most likely to dive for cover leaving the second player who has held his attack to immediately shoot at the now DCV reduced opponent. Doc

It all depends what you want from the sheet. There is a need for a long detailed build sheet, that you have and update and is the authority reference for the character but there should also be the play sheet that you can bring to the table and use most of the time with no trouble at all. I think I did a half page sheet for a character once because someone challenged me to it and I think it does all you would need to sit and play it (as a player). I uploaded it to the site and, by happy circumstance, it remains there. Doc

Well, I think it is also better to be prepared when you ARE taken by surprise. You sometimes need to act rather than thinsf

I dont think you need more space, if you introduced a break in the lines so that it was two columns you would double the available lines to 18 and even Duke should be able to use that. The lines are currently about 2/3 of a page wide, 1/3 of a page per column should be more than enough.

Players resent being captured and overpowered. All of this happens off camera and they are not in chains or imprisoned, they are simply somewhere strange with no idea how they got there or how to get home. it helps if you start with a fight they all win, and by that I mean start the session with, OK, Segment 12, here is the situation, what do you want to do? Doc

Well, if this is a get to know you style game, then you might consider the heroes being kidnapped and put in some alternate dimension with no obvious way to know where they are or how to get home... This should immediately give them some kind of motivation to help each other. I am tempted to suggest that the kidnapping is the result of a child's nightmares, not a coordinated attack, that the child has seen them and had a nightmare about them getting beaten by some strange enemy and the childs latent mental powers dragging each of the heroes into this alternate dimension while they sleep... Doc

Absolutely, and to immediately stop it the minute it seems to negatively impact the bottom line. 🙂 A pure capitalist society is quite a brutal one, capitalism, like socialism is a broad church and their congregations overlap significantly...

Absolutely. When the cartels got big enough they became quasi governments and brought with them the trappings of government (but not democracy). The problem is that government of this nature is way back to the warlords of old and the only law is that imposed at the point of a sword (or gun). It remains a free market simply because the expenditure comes not from obligation but because the people at the top can see an economic benefit from that spending, not because they think it is the right thing to do.

I think on every level that social security is a socialist programme. It is often the way that a government will implement a lesser form of something that radicals are proposing to take the wind out of the radicals sails. It is harder for the radicals to whip up the populace against the government when they cannot offer something different. While Bismark may have introduced a social insurance policy, a socialist programme, it was because this was the most effective way of dealing with radical socialists - it is why centrist parties dominated most liberal democracies - simply stealing the slogans from their radical opponents that had a wide resonance and implementing paler versions of the ideas behind the slogans. I went to a lecture in Cambridge where it was postulated that the only true free market in the world right now was drugs. They are completely outside government control and the production and distribution systems care only about maximising the profit for the guys at the top. Anything that gets in the way of the flow of money is dealt with, there is no thoughts about diverting the money for other things (that do not also make money). Drugs money in this market will not create jobs, will not deliver healthcare, will not do science and will not pay for national defence, roads or schools. It is pure capitalism. It is also something that the USA has declared war on.... Doc

I have very specific things I look for in a character sheet. I think this is a very utilitarian sheet. I think it exposes all of the necessary information in a decently accessible way (I think it is incredibly difficult to do a lot better than that level with HERO). It is clean and reasonably easy on the eye with a lot of white space. Personally, I would have a lot of the lines printed much more faintly on the sheet - too many visible lines spoil the flow of the sections in the sheet. It comes over as being designed for non-superhero due to the number of options included (such as locations and Armour DCV modifiers). If I was to use it for superheroes there are a few things I would discard. I like powers being an essentially lined page - you never know what will go in there. It completely lacks any sense of being written for a particular game or campaign though. When I go to the trouble of designing a character sheet I tend to customise to the campaign I am running, including some image that evokes the background and appropriate fonts - that is a really fiddly exercise and I know that it is not what most GMs might want. This sheet does not seek to achieve that but I thought I would express my hobby horse when the opportunity presented itself! 🙂 Doc

I would buy the Recovery for the END Reserve to be limited such that it will recover only as much as the BODY damage blocked by opponents PD in the preceding turn. A kind GM might allow you to pro-rate that recovery through a turn based on your SPD. So, if you buy 16 REC and have SPD 4 you can recover 4 per phase. I would not allow you, in this case, to accumulate REC across phases. Doc

Yeah, ninja-bear has it nailed. I always think of the penalties of CE relating to anyone interacting with that area. This is almost always the person inside the area but the change you describe could just as easily affect those outside targetting people inside as well. You would be adding bureaucracy to your game if you want increased penalties depending on how many metres but that is really my only argument against it - buy the CE with the highest possible penalty to those interacting and limit it with (reduced proportiionally on how many metres of cloud you are firing through (I would possibly be open to giving up to a -1 limitation on that basis).

Ah Christopher, I think you are missing the point, this is a soliloquy performed through the medium of interpretive dance...and (as we know) soliloquies take no time. Doc

I really like this, it puts power into the hands of the player. Keep the BODY with the greater potential of a future hit killing you or take some kind of limitation related to the injury you just recieved that provides you with BODY back. Of course, there needs to be a way of removing those conditions - some might last (at most) the full adventure, others will last the combat scene, others the gaming session that night... You could model this as an Everyman regeneration power - it would be most impactful on play in heroic rather than superheroic games but could be useful anywhere... I would rep you more if I could! Doc

I would question how the power "knew" it was an area effect attack and thus able to trigger. Aborting to a movement power I am fine with.