Doc Democracy

oh! And don't just consider the appearance of the villain. A hunted can be considered by that person giving some other opponent useful detail on how to defeat the hero without actually making a direct appearance in the scenario.

personally, I roll hunted when I am beginning to put together a scenario. I want to know, before I begin which of the rogues gallery will be showing up as I can tie them into the fabric more easily. That faceless corporation just became a local franchise of the Chicken King, and the unknown bank raider becomes the brother-turned-bad of the group's flagsuit wearer.

If you couldn't do the adder you could just buy dice limited with "only to extend maximum". Easily worth -1 if not more...

I know Aid is cumulative but I remember older editions allowed you to increase the maximum effect. I don’t see that in the sixth edition rules. Cumulative allows effectsto be added and max effect to be increased for additional +1/4 advantage. If I wanted to increase the max effect of my Aid STR power would I have to buy+1/2 cumulative before buying the +1/4 increased maximum effect advantages? Given aid is already cumulative, would the first +1/2 increase the maximum effect? Really trawling round rules I rarely use except in vanilla ways... Doc

To me, a politician is supposed to go to wherever politicians in the country go, participate, become involved and vote in ways that his or her conscience says are the right ways. Now, if he or she consistently does things his or her constituents do not like, then we might expect to see a change in representation at some point in the future but that can depend on the local political context... Doc

Again, thank you, I had not considered that. If you walk out you find yourself outside a tumbledown ancient church. When you walk back through the door, you are still in that tumbledown church, looking through the rafters at the sky. No way back to the Healing Halls. I am planning on giving the Preacher a very low level area effect healing style power that only works in the Healing Halls. He normally does not enter the halls himself as it is inconvenient to go back to the fens each time he does, but if there are a lot of people that are very sick he will go to the Healing Halls to tend to them. The specs from the player were VERY narrative (as he is much more of a FATE style player) and this is going to be a challenge to build a playable HERO character. I am determined to provide him with something that will be just as cool and playable as he thinks he would have in FATE.

well, travelling to England should, in most circumstances be a minor inconvenience as that is where the game is set. the comparison with travel is what makes me uneasy actually, if I pick someone up and move them a distance, in most circumstances they can move back. In this case they cannot. Oh! I think I have it. Anyone in the Healing Halls that makes an aggressive action will be cast out. I am thinking this will be to a random wasteland on Earth with a small chance of being somewhere entirely different (planet or dimension). If that does not open up the potential for nazi alien reinforcements or alien-tech equipped samurai, I fear for my campaign... Thanks Duke, sometimes just talking something out helps... Doc

It is essentially heaven, or his specific vision of that, a micro-dimension with almost noting there except beds and folk to make you feel comfortable...

This is one of the funky powers that I pretend does not exist in most of the builds for most of my games but I have a character in my upcoming Golden Age game where Ithink it is necessary. The Preacher walks through the battlefield dispensing aid and help, where required. If someone is desperate he may offer them Sanctuary where they go to the Healing Halls from where the only exit is a small church in the fens of England. I can can see that “offering Sanctuary” might be XDM, usable on others (only on willing or unconscious recipient). My question is that once someone has been transported to the Healing Halls, can the XDM be used to transport someone else, even if no adder has been bought to increase the mass that can be affected. I can see the argument for there being no need, those transported are now “at rest”, though I can also see the argument for paying more to have five people in the Healing Halls than to have one. I lean towards there being no need for the adder but I thought I would canvas the InterBrain... Doc

Just playing Devil's Advocate, your use of an offensive weapon to reduce an opponent's ability to hit you does not necessarily involve blocking but it might require you to have the weapon in hand. If you are chasing me and I have a gun, that I use to threaten or actually shoot at you, I can degrade your offensive capabilities. If I did not have the weapon in my hand then I would not be as good at doing that. #ItsNotAllAboutDodging ? Doc

Hmm. if you are handcuffed and have 5 indirect strength, would you allow the cuffed character to use his strength to, for example, open a door or grab a weapon??

I am with Pegasus but I might be willing to be lenient and allow use of CSL with Sword for DCV if the opponent is actually using a sword....

You know, the idea of what is the base character is meaningless in terms of gameplay - in either case you are going to have two entities, one with the party and one remotely. It is the mechanics that change. I like Massey's version of the character, I think this would be easy to play in a face to face game because everything is going to make reasonable sense. If you build it the other way there are likely going to be little things that do not quite work the way you think they should and require tweaks and changes until they do work. As far as the clairaudience thing is concerned - to get around the need for the physical manifestation to interact with things in a game mechanical way, I think I would also buy a summon Avatar style power and make that avatar the physical manifestation of the clairaudience. That means that you would have a thing that can walk talk etc etc without any handwavium involved by allows the ship to target stuff nearby and be completely informed of what is going on. It would also mean that when the avatar is wasted by some attack, you might still be able to attack as the visual component of the avatar may still be active, even if the avatar itself is dead/broken/smashed to pieces... (I have a picture of half a face lying on the battlefield with the eye tracking the bad guy and a salvo on its way... Doc

The big “trick” with HERO is figuring out how you want things to play out in game. You need a really good vision of that to properly model the game effect. If you think about the call in artillery, then you have a presence close to the rest of the party (the avatar) and a presence off-shore (the ship). The idea is that the avatar “spots” for the ship and the attack will not come from the avatar but from the ship. There are various ways to accomplish this. One. You make the avatar the character and the ship is an adjunct. You can model the artillery with an indirect attack and the range modifier is based on the distance between the avatar and the target. You might impose a slight delay between the attack being fired and the attack hitting. You might indicate that the attack might be blocked or prevented in some way from reaching the target. In this case the ship does not necessarily exist, it is a special effect. However you could indicate that the ship is a focus, or that the power has a physical manifestation. In either case that means opponents can interact physically with the ship, potentially depriving the avatar of access to the artillery. Two. You make the ship the character and the avatar a physical manifestation of a clairaudience power. The presence of the avatar means that the ship can target opponents close to the party but range penalties are based on the distance between the ship and the target. There are a variety of options for this method too that enhance the avatar or accuracy of the artillery. If you want the range of the artillery to be enhanced when the avatar is on the ship then you can model this as well. I think this is only an issue because, if the avatar is on the ship, how does the ship target an opponent. You need to be able to perceive a target before you can shoot at it. Doc

I think you really are at the coal-face of, is there a limitation, and is it worth anything. As a GM, I am looking and saying that, in my judgement, there will be times that the 12D6 blast will not be available to the character at times when he wants it to be. I am saying that the lack of this 12D6 will significantly impair the effectiveness of the character but perhaps only as often as an IIF focus. Good grief, ?I have just realised that I have wandered down a rabbit hole. I have stopped talking about the use of a no conscious control limitation on the reserve of a small bonus damage element to a main power to its use on primary powers. I am inclined to be a little bit more generous on the bonus colour items than the core stuff. Talking about the bonus additions, the player has no choice as to whether his 12D6 blast is supplemented with a small flash or minor drain or a bit of NND damage. It happens always and randomly. That is not hugely important and the savings over purchasing a flash that only goes off when the core power goes off is zero. I might allow the NNC to give a -1/2 limitation to the reserve, same as the linked limitation. In the event of NNC being added to the reserve of the multipower you were talking about, the player would have no conscious control of when the points in the reserve shifted. That would bring the time factor into play much more regularly and be FAR more limiting than a straight 12D6 blast... So while I see the principle you elucidated using the 12D6 multipower, I think it is a different judgement being applied to core powers and flavour elements around the core powers. I also think that there is a real difference in applying NCC to the reserve than time taken to activate. Each one comes to a different judgement when I apply the “will it limit the character” test. Doc

I think you need to think harder about stuff when you begin throwing large limitations around. I am of exactly the opposite opinion to you here. I think the reserve is limited but the slots are not and the limitation is not as severe as the rules say for no conscious control. If you allow a limitation that does that does not limit the character then you have gone wrong. I would have slashed the value of the limitation on the reserve to -1/4 making the reserve cost 48 points, a fixed slot cost 6 (no limitation as it is not the power that is limited it is the ability to switch between powers). So 60 points to have the ability to switch between blast and flash. Same price, more utility but I think I could live with that...or I might allow the full delay limitation but they apply to the slots as default, so it always takes five minutes to activate a power, much more restricted, much cheaper. Doc

It is a limitation, I am poor with the notation! As soon as you have no choice things are worth less (IMO). You have no choice to switch it off and cannot pick the most advantageous supplement to the attack. If it was simply a single power that always accompanied the first, I could buy linked, which would be worth more than -1/4

Hugh, I normally agree with everything you say. ? In this case, I disagree, I think that we are look at a +1/4 version of no conscious control (and that does affect everything quite equally). Doc

My problem with the whole “punch a nazi” meme is that most people are not equipped to punch a Nazi and the idea that you physically assault someone just because you judge their motivations to be suspect, is in itself, suspect. Doc

I would be happy to contribute. I am a better proofreader and idea suggester than author but am happy to contribute on whatever. Doc

My usual idea is to measure the characters against a standard straw man and see how they stack up. In your case I think I would construct a straw man SPD 5, CV7, 10DC attack defences 20 and CON of 20. Aquanet: Makes 5 attacks with 84% chance of success (both levels in offence) doing 15 STUN and 0 BODY. That comes to an average of 63 STUN per round with little chance of stunning. [could use skill levels for damage - 58 STUN per round still with little chance of stunning]. Bondage: Makes 4 attacks with 62% chance of success doing 15 STUN and 0 BODY. That comes to an average of 38 STUN per round with little chance of stunning. [could use NND to get 52 STUN and a reliable chance of stunning] Chronic: Makes 6 attacks with 62% chance of hitting doing 12 STUN and 0 BODY. That comes to 43 STUN per round with little to no chance of stunning. Delicious Rick: Makes 4 attacks per round with 62% chance of success (2 levels in offence) doing 22 STUN and 0 BODY. That comes to an average of 55 STUN per round with reliable chance of stunning an opponent when he hits. [bumps damage to 65 per round by pushing all levels in offence) Spandex: 9-10 DC, 5 SPD, 7/7 CV Makes 5 attacks per round with 62% chance of success doing 15 STUN and 0 BODY. That comes to an average of 46 STUN per round with little chance of stunning. I am not able to do much speculation about how much damage they would be taking with these stances, nor on how much END they would be spending. I think I would rather be playing Rick or Bondage with these numbers but there should be other factors coming into this. Doc

They could quite easily have the old hammer and sickle decals still partly visible under a hasty paint job...

It is the time to accomplish things good or bad that would not be possible in normal times. I don't think this is equivalent to internment camps, possibly more like Patriot, but this is an issue well mulled over, and I am not convinced that any response is, at this time, knee-jerk, or hasty. Doc

You notice what happens in other countries when there is a mass shooting? They immediately decide to change their gun laws... https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-16/new-zealand-to-change-gun-laws-after-mass-shooting-kills-49 Doc

It can also be useful simply having the lists of powers, advantages and limitations from the books for quick reference.