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The following options are assumed to be in effect for this paradigm.
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X
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O
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O
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OC
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OC
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X
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X
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X
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X
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X
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X
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X
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X
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X
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X
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X
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X
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X
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X
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X
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X
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X
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X
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*Resource Pools as described in the Dark Champions Genre book are in effect
Starting values: Equipment (60), Vehicles / Bases (10), Contacts / Followers (5)
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O: By Origin
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C: Caps Are In Effect
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X: Selected
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HEALING: UNCOMMON TO RARE
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Combat effective Healing is unusual, though some high tech first aid kits might
be represented by Healing at the GM's discretion. MetaCyber characters get hurt
often and will frequently have some residual damage from previous encounters. However,
out of combat healing is fairly common assuming a character can afford professional
medical treatment in a high tech facility. However, it is expected to be very common
for characters to have the Rapid Healing Talent and / or lots of BODY.
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With the Injury options in use it is also expected that characters will eventually
need some form of cybernetics to replace destroyed body parts.
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While high tech medical facilities can save a character from the verge of death
if they are accessible, there is no form of resurrection. Thus a GM might want to
consider having all players prepare and maintain an "understudy" character
that is ready to be brought into play fairly quickly in the case of the untimely
death of their primary character.
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DEADLY BLOW
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Deadly Blow is a new Talent that is expected to see heavy use in MetaCyber campaigns.
Deadly Blow is an interesting ability that is flexible enough to model a large number
of common effects, and serves as a perfect foil to Combat Luck and high defenses.
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However, Deadly Blow can also get out of hand if left unchecked; thus I recommended
that some form of control be implemented to limit how much Deadly Blow can be taken
by a particular character.
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RESTRICTION BASED ON ORIGIN
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Deadly Blow is considered to be a Super Skill in the MetaCyber setting, and is thus
limited to Origins that allow Super Skills. Each seperate kind of Deadly Blow is
considered a single seperate Super Skill "slot", thus a character could have three
heavily limited levels and two limited levels counting as two seperate Super Skill
"slots". The GM might put limitations on the total number of dice allowed on a case
per case bases however (a max of 3d6 per Super Skill "slot" is recommended).
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INANIMATE OBJECTS
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Deadly Blow adds damage to a character's attacks. This causes the odd side effect
of characters being able to hack through inanimate objects with ridiculous ease.
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To prevent this from occurring, I recommend that a House Rule be implemented stating
that Deadly Blow does not effect inanimate objects unless specifically purchased
to do so. Thus a character couldn't normally Deadly Blow through a wall
with their pistol for instance, but a character could take Deadly Blow Only vs Doors
to represent a SWAT-like adeptness at busting in doors.
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AUTOMATONS
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For this purpose Automatons are considered "inanimate", though the SFX
for various Automatons may not be clear cut. Regardless, under this House Rule Deadly
Blow will only affect Automatons if specifically defined to do so, though this can
be categorical.
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BASE DAMAGE
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Deadly Blow adds to base damage; this usually makes sense but it does cause some
odd side effects, such as when performing a Move By with a weapon while using Deadly
Blow.
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To prevent this it is recommended that a House Rule be implemented stating that
Deadly Blow only adds to base damage for purposes of determining maximum damage.
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KNOCKBACK AND KNOCKDOWN
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Another odd side effect of Deadly Blow is its effect on Knockback and Knockdown.
Each die of Deadly Blow results in an extra 3" of Knockback or 1.5" of
Knockdown on average, which can get ridiculous quickly.
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Thus it is recommended that Deadly Blow dice should be differentiated from normal
damage dice, and not included for purposes of Knockback / Knockdown. Typically different
colored and/or sized dice are used to accomplish this quickly and easily.
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FORGETFUL PLAYERS
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If a player forgets to differentiate their Deadly Blow dice and rolls for damage,
simply add the same number of dice as they rolled for Deadly Blow to the Knockback
roll or take an average of the damage inflicted times the correct number of non-Deadly
Blow dice if using Knockdown. This is a flawed solution due to the potential for
the Deadly Blow damage dice to roll abnormally high or low, but it is generally
preferable and less disruptive to the game than forcing the player to reroll the
damage completely.
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STACKING DEFENSES
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A concern when running MetaCyber games is characters who layer defenses to the point
where they are invulnerable. It is important to remember in a setting like MetaCyber
that most guns hover in the 2d6K range and thus armor of 10+ is extremely powerful
and armor of 13+ will require heavy weapons to put a dent in. Thus a GM should be
careful to keep DEF under control or else characters can become bullet proof.
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The commonality of layered defenses becomes more prevalent if cybernetics are more
common. For instance, what happens when a character with Dermal Armor wears Body
Armor, both built using the Armor Power? Or when a meta with Steel Skin puts on
a suit of Powered Armor?
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To limit the ability for a Character to stack several small defenses on themselves
of the same type and attain Tank-like resistance to harm, it is recommended that
a House Rule be implemented as follows:
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Thus if a character has two Defenses that apply to the same attack that are based
on the same HERO System Base Power, they use the higher Defense +1 PD or ED
for each other Defense that also applies.
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For the purposes of this House Rule, the following are considered to be distinct
Defenses.
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DISTINCT DEFENSES
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- Armor
- Damage Resistance
- Force Field
- Damage Reduction
- Combat Luck
- Flash Defense
- Mental Defense
- Power Defense
- Triggered Missile Deflection
- Triggered Dispel
- Triggered Suppress
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NOTE: Force Wall is not on this list. A Character protected by multiple Force
Walls gets the benefit of all of them.
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NOTE: A Force Field can also contain Flash Defense, Power Defense, and Mental
Defense. This would add to each of those Defenses bought separately if a Character
had both.
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COMBAT LUCK
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Combat Luck is a new Talent in the HERO System 5th Edition and 5th Edition Revised
that is essentially a limited form of Armor. It models the heroic "just missed
me" effect very well, and is a great addition to campaigns where a certain
heroic "fudge factor" is desired.
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RESTRICTION BASED ON ORIGIN
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In the MetaCyber setting Combat Luck is considered to be a Super Skill and thus
is only available to characters with Origins that allow Super Skills (Tubers and
Adepts by default). A character can have up to three levels of Combat Luck (9 PD
/ 9 ED) as a Super Skill. A GM may allow a character to take more Combat Luck as
additional Super Skill "slots", and if so each "slot" can have up to three levels
of effect (9 PD / 9 ED).
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COMBAT LUCK AND AREA OF EFFECT ATTACKS
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To maintain some sense of realism it is recommend that a House Rule be implemented
stating that Combat Luck will not protect a character from an Area of Effect that
effects the hex that the character is in and all the hexes around them.
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ADJOINING OPEN HEX
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If there is at least one open hex to any side of a character which is not in the
Area of Effect, then that character may opt to use their Combat Luck vs. the AoE
Attack but must move into the adjacent open hex of their choice as a Non-Action
which takes no time; this can be done even if the character is unable to move normally
because they have already acted in that Segment or would not act in that Segment,
but may not be done if the character is immobilized. However, the character is prone
in the new hex and at 1/2 DCV, just as if they had performed a failed Dive For Cover
maneuver.
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In this circumstance, the character subtracts their defenses from the AoE Attack,
including applicable Combat Luck, and takes the remainder as normal.
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