Doc Democracy

Very quick and dirty switch of honey badger with UK comedian in the Sun newspaper. This thing has an impact on how folk treat you... http://www.herogames.com/forums/files/file/383-honey-badger-tabloid/

Well, charges generally provide 0 END, I would be content to allow this without requiring END expenditure. Doc

I think that you are misusing the word ordinarily here, Cantriped. That is not a weasel word, it is saying that whilst the usual rule of an area affecting constant power cannot move after it is invoked, it may if it has the no range limitation. I think you are allowing your very obvious dislike for our core rules colour your every interpretation of them. Doc

You don't get added functionality by taking a limitation. :-) You will need to buy ranged on the drain if you want both powers to work at Range...

Though, Marcus' suggestion is not unreasonable. If all demons/fey have a susceptibility then the ability to make holy sounds could be a perk of being within relevant organisations... It is much easier mechanics wise and potentially cheaper. Doc

Well, the Change Environment power would allow you to create an area which imposed effects on anyone within it. The GM would have to decide on what you need to spend on it. I would say 5 for each -1 to OCV, extra for each -1 to PER rolls cased on sound, then you need to add area effect on it. I would link this to an NND. You could the limit change environment to "only if NND is damaging target". The need to make a bravery roll is simply a GM call. I would do it in a limited fashion as it would slow play. It might, if used in a limited way, add to the drama as you check if an imp is brave enough to take the damage so it can act. Doc

I think you answer this yourself, your idea is the special effect, you need to think about what exactly you are looking to do. Each phase the demon can either do what it wants or it cannot. your power is looking to give it a reason not to act. So, you could impose a damage effect, I would be more inclined to impose a -4 to all actions AND some NND damage. The defence to the damage would be covering your ears. So, the demon can do what it wants if it accepts the -4 and takes the damage. If you wanted to burn more time you could require a demon to make a bravery roll (at -4) to be able to not cover its ears. Doc

This thread shows why senses have always been a difficult area, there are just enough variables and conflicts of real world stuff to confuse. Hearing and vision, two different senses doing different things, how does darkness affect each? Cantriped makes a good point that darkness to hearing could be a decent model for a silence spell. That highlights the different nature of the senses, sight more actively scans an area and 'looks' into it whereas hearing is more passive relying purely on sounds arriving at the ear. In physics terms there is no distinction, eyes detect light waves arriving at the organ, ears detect sound waves arriving at the organ. The difference is biological. With vision, the brain constructs a model of the world based on those light waves, mapping everything into that model and making the absence of input from an area obvious (a black hole in the model). Interestingly, if the hole is small enough, your brain will "fill in the blanks" based on previous expectations. The brain does not do that with sound, probably because vision is so much better for most things we needed evolutionary-wise. To me that suggests that hearing lacks something, probably an analysis or discrimination that hearing possesses. The question is whether mind scan is more like hearing, or more like vision. I don't think the rules are explicit enough to tell us that. I could imagine Steve coming back with a provisional answer such as "well it depends on how many minds are around. If you are in a crowd and someone uses this power there would be an odd hole on the mindscape, empty of minds and where minds appear and disappear when folk enter and exit the zone. If you are an isolated location it would be like darkness used in a dark room, possibly unnoticeable". Looking for compromise? Nah. Enjoying exploring how the rules model real things and extrapolate to extraordinary things? Hell yes. Need to be right? Probably not. :-) Doc

Your whole premise is based on the fact that Darkness is not a mind. I would say darkness to mental group is essentially an area comprised of whatever it is that is detected as a mind (not necessarily a mind but 'mindstuff') and so the scan would see a large patch of impenetrable mindstuff. I reckon I can assert that as confidently as you might disagree with it. Neither of these things are a given under the rules but neither is ruled out.

It does not have cost on it, but the table on page 162 is pretty useful - I think cost would have been more useful than whether it was a standard, special etc power.

I dont think it is particularly in the addition of a particular power - I think that the core power list is pretty much the same but the surrounding back-up on use etc is important in being able to better model things. Obviously Damage Negation is a big addition - being able to model defences that are effective against a particular special effect rather than a particular game mechanic hugely changes the design principles. The move away from figured characteristics is very liberating in how you build things - in two characters I HAD to buy increased CON as it would be criminal to throw away points in buying up the other stuff. I look forward to a future edition which pushes the key effects of characteristics into the powers section and cuts characteristics down to simply those game stats like BODY, STUN, END and SPD. I think the big thing that is there in 6th is the vast array of modifiers and examples that explain how to toolkit your game, how to expand and modify the powers to better reflect things in the genre. Doc

I just want to say that there is nothing like going back to 4th to really appreciate 6th. I did the vast majority of my HERO gaming using 4th edition and it makes me appreciate all the things that have been added since then. It really does feel more flimsy. I have gone back and played 3rd edition D&D and 2nd edition Runequest and appreciated those iterations of the systems, in some cases superior to later editions. That has not been the case with 4th edition HERO. I love the fact I am looking through the same pages I remember but then get frustrated by the lack of the new stuff and even the convolutedness of figured characteristics (which I remember enjoying playing around with). Kudos to the HERO team for improving the choice available for making characters. Conversely I better understand what a barrier to the new person 6th edition is - there is so much more there than there was in 4th edition. Doc

Oh good grief, it balks the mind how darkness might work if it is not obvious to the sense it blocks. Mental powers are always difficult because we cannot know how they work or how we could percieve them. As such, we have to rely on current senses for analogous situations. So, explain to me (regardless of what the rules say) what darkness to sight might look like when it is not obvious to sight. I might then accept a darkness to mental power that is not obvious to mental powers. I am suspecting that when Derek drafted the book he might have failed to anticipate this situation and write the rule to accommodate it. Doc

I don't think that you need to worry about adventures being specifically written for sixth edition. The core HERO is so similar in gameplay that it mostly does not matter how they are built, they are easily used as written, combat values, defences, STUN, BODY and END will all still be there. I had a great time with the Coriolis Effect including a memorable ad hoc, haunted house addition when exploring the Black Enchantresses childhood home. What you really need to think about is what kind of adventure you like to run then choose from one of the many out there and use them as the base for your group. When doing supers (IMO of course) don't get too caught up in the idea of investigation, or fights or anything else. Superheroes should get an opportunity to show how powerful they are, should get an idea of how powerful their opponent might be, be given a challenge or moral dilemma, be allowed to be heroic, even if the numbers don't always stack up, then bask in the adulation of the mortals around them... :-) Doc

Ooh Cantriped, isn't the second slot a bit cheesy? If you can satisfy the requirements by using another slot in the multipower, then the second slot is not as limited as the limitations might suggest... I can understand if you are GM and decided that is how you wan summoning to work but would it not be more legit to house-rule summoning so there is no need for the second slot? Doc

Yeah Nolgroth, if you have some grunt work, proof-reading or messing about with character sheets, I am willing to pitch in. Doc

How you bridge is having PlayBooks or beginners boxes come with pre-gens with some basic customisation options. If you want a character that is truly your own, you need to delve into the system more deeply. If you don't want that you can transfer your pre-gen between PlayBooks. The bit that shines for us might not burn so brightly for lots of other people.

Yeah, I would go with that. I can see an argument for a multipower to require two or more slots to have two or more Force Walls but was wondering where GhostDancer was coming from. Doc

It wasn't competition, it looks like it is going to be...

If Checker were looking to promote an RPG, it would have been good if they had come to HERO. All those graphic novels as content would have been useful for adventures etc. Doc

Just saw news that Superhero 2044 will be re-released this autumn... http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?4166-Superhero-2044-Returns-This-Fall!#.WS7CDOsrKUk I have to say that it was this game that put me onto superhero RPGs and Point buy characters...I am thinking that I want to buy this. Doc

But not if it was in another power framework? Care to expand on reasoning?

To be honest, I think I would only allow the characters to choose maybe 25 points of complications and assign others dependent on their origin. This would give a much heavier tie into the setting and ensure players were tied into the right tropes. I also think that the players should be relatively low powered, so perhaps no more than 100 points at the very most, I would also be heavily limiting the CV and defences of the players. Harn is pretty low fantasy but the characters should be richly rewarded for having lots of skills and knowledge. Combat should be dangerous and something you enter only when you are certain of success. All in my humble opinion of course... Doc

I remember one of my first AD&D characters to survive to high levels was a monk that switched class to Wizard. I "think" it was 12th level monk walking about as a first level wizard, looking to gain experience without utilising his monk skills. When he got to 12th level wizard, both sets of skills were available. It was an awesome combination...