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Message: <blockquote data-quote="swrushing" data-source="post: 1492958" data-attributes="member: 14140"></blockquote>Actually, it seems like the point is much simpler than that...the default in HERo is that what you want to be able to do is either FREE (maneuvers and such) or it is bought with very little room in between.Super-heroes are often not that limited. They frequently come up with creative uses on the fly that may never be used again.To require IN DESIGN of characters who want to have that ability to either a. use VPPs (thats cool for newbie intro games... hand them a VPP!!)b. detail every power usagec. or now, in FRED, buy up the use power skill and HOPE this Gm is nice in his entirely subjective interpretation of how much can be done.is seeming wrong..Now, as a for example... in Mutants and Masterminds...every hero can, without a VPP, without buying a skill and such, without thinking of every power combo imaginable, spend extra effort (in pre\actice a hero point) to add a power/extra or feat or stunt that makes sense for a short time (in some cases maybe an hour.)Webs wants to web-in-the-eyes? He says extra effort, spends a hero point to avoid the downsides, and sploosh, he makes a dazzle attack against the bad guy. roll to hit, enemy makes reflex save to avoid, or he is blinded. its quite simple and very much gets the "just like in the comics" feel. BTW. i often got comments of "wow, just like in the comics" when my guys were doing mnm characters after our hero games folded. Interestingly, in well over a decade, almost two, of HERo Gming, i never ever heard anyone exhult during hero chargen "wow, just like in the comics."I have seen other D20 games which use the action dice or hero points mechanic to allow "use a feat you do not have for a scene" as well.There is a difference between the Gm not going beyond the rules and him just screwing up. Which does not mean the system was good or right.Honestly, the example he gave seems to be a mediocre GM who WAS playing by the rules. Did he provide a well rounded character? nope.Did he provide a character that goodly imitates spidey? nope.But was his refusal to allow off the cuff powers that were not prefigured wrong or an abuse of the system? nope.is it a characteristic of HERo, back then if not now, that its common and routine for powers not paid for to be allopwed off the cuff? nope.or possibly not one well suited for the hurley burly world of supers. i mean, it is possible that there are some genres hero doesn't do perfectly, isn't it?I would add... "reasonably"I mean just because given a 100 slot long multipower i CAN do spidey, doesn't mean that this is a good thing, especially if common PCs wont be able to pull that off in chargen.I mean, sure, he could have handed the player a char sheet with VPP 200 pts cosmic power web powers... but that would not be any more playable.I think perhaps, had the game had a mechanic similar to MnMs, where say a limited number of "off the cuff" powers could be described by the newbie player and quickly handled in play (the MnM would simply be a dazzle at the same level as the web, in HERo maybe a flash vs sight of similar ap poof done) then he would have walked away wanting to play the system.What the Gm showed him was with HERo its about the points. Its about the chargen. Had the game provided a reasonable mechanic in the to allow you to adapt on the fly off the cuff, he would have walked away with a sense of it being about the playing, not the building, about the choices and not the points, about the do and not the buy.HERO5 has begun to move that way with the vague and unspecific POWER SKILL.However, IMO, as hard and precise as HERO is, I find those who played it a lot tended to avoid the vague and unspecific parts in favor of the hard and defined.[/QUOTE]

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