Primer of Terms and HERO System Concepts

There's a lot more stuff than this.  But here's the basics.

Combat Terms: OCV… Offensive Combat Value DCV… Defensive Combat Value ECV… Ego Combat Value CSLs… Combat Skill Levels PD… Physical Defense (Your PD stat, plus other appropriate defenses, like Armor or Force Field) ED… Energy Defense (Your ED stat, plus other appropriate defenses, like Armor or Force Field) Resistant Defense… Defense that works against Killing Attacks.  Defenses are not “resistant” unless noted in the power description. KA… Killing Attack.  A particularly lethal form of damage.  Club would be normal damage; A sword would be Killing damage. NND… No Normal Defense.  These are more expensive attacks that are all or nothing against a particular “unusual” defense (Such as not working if you have flash defense or if you are a robot). AVLD… Attack Versus Limited Defense.  This is even more expensive.  A specific unusual defense lessens the amount of damage done by this attack. KB… Knockback. Inch or Hex… 2 Meters (roughly 6.5 feet).  Yes, the game is metric. To-Hit Roll: Base is 11 Add your OCV (Including CSLs and other modifiers) Subtract your opponent’s DCV (including CSLs if in hand-to-hand, and other modifiers) The result is what you need to roll equal to or less than on 3D6. “Regular” Damage: STUN is equal to the total of the dice. BODY is counted as follows: Each 1 is worth 0 BODY Each 2, 3, 4, or 5 is worth 1 BODY Each 6 is worth 2 BODY Subtract the appropriate defense PD or ED (Physical Defense or Energy Defense) Killing Damage: BODY is equal to the total of the dice. Roll 1D6 and subtract 1 (Minimum result of 1).  Multiply this by the BODY amount in order to get the STUN total. If the target has NO appropriate RESISTANT defense, then all BODY and STUN apply to the target. If the target has some Resistant Defense, apply the resistant portion to the BODY, apply the total defense to the STUN. Effects of Damage: A player takes more STUN from a single hit than he has CON, he is “stunned” and unable to act on his next action.  He’s 0 DCV until that next action comes up. A player takes more STUN cumulatively than he has STUN points, he is unconscious.  The further below 0, the longer it takes to recover. A player taken more BODY than he has BODY points, he is dying, bleeding to death at a rate of 1 pt per TURN (12 Seconds).  When he reaches negative equal to his CON score, he is dead. Time: A TURN is 12 Seconds.  It is composed of 12 individual SEGMENTS. A PHASE is the next segment upon which you can act. Recovery: You can Recover STUN points equal to your REC score on your action if you do nothing but recover on your action phase. You can also recover on Post-Segment 12.  That is, after segment 12 ends and before the next turn begins, everyone gets a free recovery, even if they are stunned or unconscious. Recoveries may take longer (Per the chart in the book) if you are an exorbitant amount of STUN below 0. You recover BODY points in a Month equal to your REC. Knockback: Unless otherwise noted in a power’s description (such as Ego attack) or in an advantage’s description (such as NND), an attack does Knockback. To determine Knockback for normal damage, take the BODY rolled (pre-Defense subtractions) and subtract 2D6 from it.  The result is the Number of “Inches” knocked back. Exception:  If it has to pass through a wall or a force wall or other barrier, subtract that defense as well. To determine Knockback for Killing damage, follow the above rule, using 3D6 instead of 2. If there is an object in your path, you take 1D6 per inch of Knockback taken, up to the DEF + BODY of the object struck (If you took 12” of KB, struck a lamp post 4” back, you’d take 12D6 of damage, except the post only has 5 DEF and 3 BODY, so you can only take 8D6.  But you likely end up 4” past the lamp post). Hit Locations: We don’t bother with hit locations unless you are targeting and taking the appropriate minuses Bleeding: We don’t use the wounding “bleeding” rules.  You only bleed when you are dying (Below 0 Body).  Bleeding rules are more appropriate to non-superheroic games. Endurance (END): An action requires END to use unless otherwise noted or bought down to 0 END.  This includes using your 10 STR to pick up a normal and haul him out of the way (1 END), perform a 12D6 Energy Blast (6 END) or perform a standard 6” running move (1 END). END is recovered same time STUN is recovered. If you hit 0 END, you can still perform actions, but you begin to take 1D6 of STUN for every 2pts of END you drop below 0 END and can effectively knock yourself out. Combat Order: You have a number of attacks per TURN equal to your Speed (SPD).  The segments upon which these occur is shown on the speed chart in the book. Highest DEX goes first in a given phase attack phase. First round of combat takes place in Segment 12  (Combat starts in 12 because every SPD can attack in segment 12 except for SPD 1, and everyone then gets the post-segment 12 Recovery right after). If you attack simultaneously with a foe, both make DEX rolls.  The one who makes it by more goes first. You may hold your action if you are waiting to see what your foe does.  If so, your order drops to when they attack.  If you try to interrupt their action, again you make a contested DEX roll (Each of you rolls and tries to make your roll by more).  If he’s faster he’ll get his action off first, even though you held.  (Think of a movie with the gunman holding a pistol to a hostage’s head.  You can shoot first and hope you hit him or you can hold and see if he’s really dumb enough to pull the trigger, but if you hold then there’s the chance he gets off his short first). You can hold a half-action, such as if you opt to run up to a foe using a half action, then hold for some pre-condition (such as waiting to see if he attacks). Even if you are slower than someone else you may Abort to Defense.  If an action can be considered defensive by the GM then you may abort to it (Such as diving for cover, turning on your force field, or actively dodging).  In the case of something like Dodge, that lasts until your next action, so aborting to it gives you additional DCV for a considerable period, in game perspective.  Using your action ahead of time to do something purely defensive will cost you that whole action, regardless of whether it would normally take a full action or not. Important exception on Aborting:  If you have already acted in a phase, you may not abort to defense in that same phase!  Players 1 and 2 face off with a villain.  Player one is first and decides to move up to the villain and hold; The villain attacks player 2; Player two aborts to turn on his force field, which normally doesn’t take up an action, but in this case it does because he aborted to it, so he’s done for the turn.  Player one decides with his half-phase he’ll turn on his force wall and put it between them and the villain.  This is legal and both the FF and FW are up when the attack is resolved.