Forums of the Megaverse®

#1: Heroes Unlimited FAQ Author: Guest, Posted: 18 Feb 2005 13:28
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Question: Excuse me but my gaming group and I are confused by the Hardware: Analytical Genius characters. Do they roll for education like everyone else or do they simply have the skills of their class?
The part that confuses us is the in the description for education for the Hardware type character it mentions that the other Hardware types lose one Skill program and the Analytical character does his differently only getting the ones mentioned in his class and that is all while in the ones listed in his skills it says, in addition to Skill Programs and Secondary Skills.
The only thing I can think of is this is another example of bad editing in Palladium books, and that they simply copy and pasted it, instead of saying definitively that these are the only skills you get.
Answer: They automatically get specific scholastic skills (HU2, p. 128) and do not roll for education (HU2, p. 122).
It says "in addition to Skill Programs and Secondary Skills" because in addition to the predetermined skills, the Analytical Genius receives one skill program of choice with a +10% bonus, and six secondary skills. Also, all characters in HU2 have the option of going back to school and learning additional skills and skill programs beyond their initial allotments.

Question: If you begin with a Weapons Expert, Mechanical Genius, or Electronics Genius and you wish to be a Analytical Genius as well do you roll your education still?
Answer: No. The Analytical Genius' skills replace the education roll, and the other Hardware types replace one skill program. Thus, such a character will have the combined base scholastic skills of both hardware types, and be unable to choose any additional scholastic skills or skill programs except by going back to school. The character will also have only six secondary skills.

Question: This has cropped up on the message boards... What are the limits to what these powers? What exactly does "equipment" cover?
My intreptation is this:
Instant Wardrobe: Makes you switch out your *entire* suit of current clothing. If you are a gunslinger type character, then you can havea suit of clothing wiht a pair of pistols on it, a set of armor that has a shotgun, and another set of clothing with a rifle with it (as long as the weight limit is kept ;D). But the *entire set of clothing has to change along with it*.
Instant Weapon: You can just change weapons out. The weight limit is higher, the dimentions are less. This way you can dont have to haul around your LAW rockets, your heavy shotgun (with abundance of ammo) and whatever guns you want.
There are two notable people (names with-held) that seem to think that anything considered a weapon is immediatly dispelled from the suit, even if the weight limit isent topped. Someone else mentioned it would take hte same place on the new set of clothing (even if it was a gun in a shoulder holster).
Which intpretation is correct? Or are we all off base? Help would be appreciated as I would like to know this as well.
Answer: I see no reason why small weapons or bandoleers of ammo clips couldn't be part of an outfit. They just would always appear holstered, slung, sheathed, or otherwise stowed on the user's person, rather than in the user's hands. Also the weapons would have to fit in pockets, hang on belts, slide into boots, etc., so no bazookas or cases of ammunition, just pistols, knives, swords, throwing stars, and possibly even bows and arrows or two-handed swords (GM's call).

Question: I wanted to create a Demigod R.C.C. for my HU campaign. Under O.C.C. skills, Pantheons mentions the Demigod can be anything from HU with a few exceptions. Does this mean he gets all of the abilities of the power category he choses, or just the skill sets.
Ex. Would a Physical Training Demigod get the skill and abilities from Physical Training and Demigod or the super abilities from being a Mutant / Demigod?
Answer: I would think, yes. Because in Rifts, he get's any one of the powers listed under the Godling and can then pick an OCC. (ie he could take one magic class for his RCC and then take a second magic class as his OCC; which is essentially dual class)
However, under the demi-god description it states that certain OCC's are off limites or will possibly cause the demi-god to lose his natural abilities if those OCC's are chosen (ie Juicer, crazy, etc).
Choosing a Heroes Unlimited Power Category is effectively the same as taking an OCC, thus the Demigod would have all powers and skills appropriate to the Power Category, plus the normal Demigod powers and must use the Demigod XP chart. Note that unless the character's divine parent has a well-known presence in the campaign world, most people will consider the Demigod to be a powerful mutant, alien being, or perhaps just an anomaly.
Note also that Heroes Unlimited, second edition has an alternative to the Demigod RCC in the form of the Mega Hero.

Question: In Heros Unlimited under supernatural strength it says that a charcter can carry 300 times his PS in pounds and lift 500 times, in the revised conversion book it says that a character with a PS of 18 or higher can lift 50 times his PS. when a character from HU comes to rifts does the rules shift to the revised version or does it stay the same as the ability discribes?
Answer: Well, the question was originally about how it was written in the revised Conversion book - since that book is the most current, (and to answer the original question more directly), I'd say that you should use the rules in the Conversion Book when bringing HU2 characters into Rifts - that seems to greatly simplify things.

(OFFICIAL) Re: Powers Unlimited Book 2
All answers provided by author Carmen Bellaire.

Question: Empowered Psychics are listed as Latent Psionics with 3d4x10 ISP +1d6 ISP a level. It is unclear however if they pick up additional powers as they grow in level.
Answer: No, they do not gain additional powers, just those listed to compensate for their disability.

Question: Under the Empowered Psychic option Superior Telekinesis it says that the "maximum weight that can be lifted is double the usual amount for the telekinesis power". However, using Superior Telekinesis uses NO ISP, so what is the maximum weight? Are we supposed to treat the character's ME (which works as his Spd attribute normally) as also his strength. i.e. a character with an ME of 20 has 20 ISP permanently invested in Telekinesis. Finally, what version of telekinesis is this based on, the super version or the physical version?
Answer: The ME is used both as the Spd (at x3) and as the PS (at x2, with an extraordinary P.S.) of the superior telekinesis, i.e. a M.E. of 16 can carry 1600 lbs and telekineticlly lift 3200 lbs.

Question: The text for Lycanthropes and Underwater Abilities seems to suggest they can have OTHER super powers but they are not given any. Do Empowered Lycantrophes and Mermaids only have that one single power or do they get superpowers like the Demigod and Monster options?
Answer: That seems to have been omitted, just use the table on page 71 (minor hero chart) as the additional powers, this makes them roughly equal to the "super abilities to compensate" hero.

Question: Some of the Eugenics prices make very little sense. Heightened Sense of Hearing, only costs 50,000 dollars while Ultra-Hearing costs 200,000. Similarly, you can by a "package deal" called Scent Pits that gives you Heightened Sense of Taste and Heightened Sense of Smell for 250,000, but if you bought Heightened Taste & Smell separately it would only cost you 70,000 each and wouldn't be disfiguring! Am I right in assuming that Heightened Sense of Hearing, Taste and Smell is missing an extra zero?
Answer: Heightened Sense of Hearing (500,000 dollars), Heightened Sense of Taste (700,000 dollars), and Heightened Sense of Touch (700,000 dollars), all have typos in the book, each is missing a zero. Scent Pits is the correct price. On a similar note, the supervision prices seem weird, but they are correct, as some of those vision powers are much easier to produce genetically, than the others.

Question: Eugenics characters have two different base SDC's listed, 1d6x10+10 and 1d6x10, which one is correct?
Answer: 1D6x10, the other is a typo.

Question: Some Imbued Heroes are limited to one use of his powers every 48 hours. It says later that taking it sooner/more frequently will make the hero dizzy and make his powers work at half strength. Does this apply to the other options for how many times you can take an imbuing agent? i.e. the guy who can only take his drug once per 24 hours can choose to take it more often but has to live with penalties.
Answer: Yes, but they too suffer all the same penalties as the 48 hour heroes.

Question: Do Demon Lords and Lesser Demons get supernatural strength automatically?
Answer: The Demon Lord is a mega-hero, so automatically has supernatural P.S., the Lesser Demon only has supernatural P.S. if it is selected as one of his super powers.

Question: The Undead/Vampire option for the Immortal category is missing any attribute bonuses, combat bonuses, and doesn't have a PPE base, HP base or SDC base. Are we ever going to get to see these? If not, what should I use instead?
Answer: There are no attribute or combat bonuses, just those gained with the Undead power. PPE is listed on page 59. HP and SDC are calculated as any non-Immortal would be (double the normal SDC bonus given for the Undead power), thats all.

Question: Do the other supersoldier options recieve Special Supersoldier Enhancements? I can understand why the Chemical, Brain and Endoskeletal characters really wound't need any, but the Latent Psychic supersoldier probably should.
Answer: ALL Supersoldiers get to roll for supersoldier enhancements, even the chemical, brain, endoskeletal, and psychic. This is part of being a SUPER soldier, it is no different than all the charts an Alien gets to roll on. The line that reads: "Instead of the above, the player may select and roll up one of the following three augmented characters." just means that the player can pick one of these types instead of rolling on the Number and Type of Super Abilities chart, the character does not loose anything for picking, instead of rolling on the random chart.

Question: Under the Immortal Category, the "76-80: Master Psychic" option doesn't seem to gain any additional powers as he goes up in level, is this correct?
Answer: Yes.

Question: Under the Immortal Category the 81-90: Super Abilities & Psionics option doesn't have an ISP base.
Answer: Same as 36-40% so ISP equals 1D6x10+50.

Question: Do all Immortal Characters automatically get the Immortal power?
Answer: NO, just those that list it, but all Immortals are extremely long lived, as per the rule on the top of page 64, living hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of years based on the G.M.'s game.
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#2: Author: Guest, Posted: 1 Mar 2005 11:23
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Question: I rolled up an experiment NPC villian that has the powers of APS: Plasma and Rocket Fist ( I am treating this as his lower legs turning into a super plasma jet like the flight:energy power).
Anyways back on track. My problem stems from the rocket torpedo attack. The APS power states that any contact with the plasma being does 1d6 ( or 2d4 ) X 10 damage, now the rocket power states that the character can torpedo into someone, that the power produces a protective impact negating energy field that prevents damage to the attacker but not the victem, and damage varies with range and speed.
If this character torpedos someone in his "Solar Comet" strike would he only do the damage of the rocket collision or would the damage of being touched by plasma also add in?
Answer: The plasma does nothing.

Question: In Powers Unlimited 2 EMPOWERED on page 12, Demigod Metamorphosis.
The character obtains a new strength of 3D6+20 (Supernatural).
Does this mean the Hero cannot choose "Supernatural Strength" as one of his Major power selections?
Answer: No. As long as there is not a specific exclusion then the Hero may choose from any of the powers he wishes.
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#3: Author: Tinker Dragoon, Location: Newberry, Florida, USA Posted: 1 Mar 2005 13:44
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OFFICIAL
The following answers were provided by author Wayne Breaux, Jr.

Question: Do Psi-Swords damage characters with the Invulnerability power?

Answer: Psi-swords do damage invulnerable characters. Kev and I differ on how much, thus leaving the full or half damage decision to the individual GM, but psi-swords are composed of pure psionic energy and will damage an invulnerable character.


Question: Invulnerable characters take half damage from attacks by supernaturally strong creatures, and full damage from magic weapons. What happens if the magic weapon is wielded by someone with supernatural strength? Does the Supernatural P.S. damage bonus apply in full or is it halved? What about Superhuman and Extraordinary P.S.?

Answer: When a supernaturally strong character swings a normal item, be it a weapon or a fist, the item is pretty much inconsequential to the force behind it, thus when using such objects, the damage dealt is either that of the object (in the rare case where the item is more massive/hard hitting than the P.S. swinging it, such as a bus) or the punching damage of the attacker (as is the case with swords and any other hand held weapon). Normal items do not normally combine their damage with that of the supernatural strength because if the force behind the blow is powerful enough, the item will simply shatter or break. This is where the comments on breaking weapons comes from. I don't have time to grab my book, but there were supposed to be specific formulas for when a weapon breaks (a la Nightbane). So, when dealing with normal items, even those that weigh several tons, it is either the mass/size of the item or the power of the strength that does the damage, not both.

Magic and indestructable weapons are a different matter and they allow the wielder to put the full force of his strength behind their damage potential. In this case, the weapon damage and the punching damage (the full force of the SN P.S.) are usually added together. Against an invulnerable character, there would be no halfing the damage of either the punch or the weapon since the weapon does full damage and the punching power is focused through it, thus negating the natural, limited resistance an invulnerable character has against SN punches. Magic weapon + SN force = one supernaturally powered magic spearhead of damage.

However, do note that the magic weapon power that provides supernatural PS only provides the 'equivalent to' SN strength, meaning it only converts the character's existing P.S. score to the supernatural scale, it does not give them the full blown major power of Supernatural Strength, thus all of the massive bonuses inherent to that power are not included in the final P.S. score and the resulting combined damage ratings of the magic weapon and the SN P.S.


Question: How is a robot's P.P. determined? I can't seem to find it in the book. Same thing goes for M.A.

Answer: There is a discussion of robot attributes with suggestions for purchasing P.P. in the HU2 GM's Guide on pages 12-14. [FYI, the cost of increasing the P.P. attribute is the same for robots and cyborgs -- TD]


Question: I was looking at the Enchanted Object sub-power of Impervious to Magic today, and wondered the actual extent of it. Does it offer complete immunity to magic, or is it pretty much just like the Immune to Magic superpower? And for that matter, what kind of resistance would it give against magic weapons?

Answer: It's not just resistance, that's why you are penalized on your hit point/S.D.C. advancement. It's immunity to magic. Anything that requires you to save against magic automatically fails, so you would still take damage from a magic sword and a fire bolt spell, but you could ignore a carpet of adhesion and cloud of slumber. It's an immunity to magic itself, not all of the effects created through magic, thus it is still vastly powerful, but not an absolute stopper when fighting a mage.


Question: Okay, I like to think I have a good understanding of the powers the books provide, but Force Aura has bugged me for awhile. The concept of 'I'm supercharged, but stuck in one spot' is kind of weird in itself, then you get a bonus to roll? So you mean to tell me others can move me, but I can't move myself?

Answer: Force Aura is a suit of supernatural power armor and affords the full mobility of that analogy. The only time it is rooted in one spot is when it is extended to protect multiple people.


Question: The Aliens Unlimited Galaxy Guide seems to suggest that a Force Aura is airtight (and one assumes watertight), allowing its users to seal holes in their space suits and survive ten times longer than normal without a fresh air supply. So does this mean anyone using a Force Aura has to hold their breath?

Answer: Yes, but they get a sizable amount to 'hold'. The field manifests 1-2 feet from the body, providing something like 138 cubic feet of air inside the field after subtracting the volume of the person. So the air supply will be used up eventually, but it will have more than enough to last any given combat, although I wouldn't have any idea how long a person could last on that much air. The force aura is supposed to be a fully sealed, psychic/supernatural exoskeleton.


Question: The description of the Arerri in Aliens Unlimited mentions that they've "perfected superpower inducing experimentation" but only a handful of Arerri are Mutants. What exactly does this line mean?

Answer: It means that the Arerri do not have to roll for side effects the way other experiments do. They can select any they might desire or they can choose to have none. A GM could also come up with a list of minor, beneficial side effects if he wished to go along with the process. It also means they have control over what kind of powers most subjects will receive. In character terms, this means the player could choose their power sets (within the existing limits of numbers of powers available to experiments) or if the GM prefers, roll several times on the tables and pick from the resulting powers.


Question: The S.D.C. listed for the Mystically Bestowed Power Category in HU2 is confusing. On one page it says they gain +3D6x10 S.D.C. in their 'powered-up' form, on another it says they have +10 S.D.C. in their normal form and 1D6x10+30 in their powered-up form. What gives?

Answer: Mystically Bestowed characters are supposed to have a base S.D.C. of 30, giving them 40 S.D.C. in unpowered form and 3D6x10+30 S.D.C. in powered form.


Question: How is Gravity Manipulation supposed to work? The power gives the ability to increase gravity by 50x at first level, which should pulp just about any living being. That's a lot of power to give a first level character, and the power itself is without any warnings or penalties but the inability to move. I maintain that since there are no such warnings or penalties, the power is not intended to be used as a 'squish attack.' I think of it along the same lines as Weight Manipulation, which apparently ceases to do damage after the target is rendered immobile, but others disagree. Am I off base on both powers, or am I ignoring the potential for destruction?

Answer: Good call, 'squish attacks' are certifiably munchkin (not to mention quite evil for any hero to be routinely participating in) on the scale you are referring to and the logic conclusion is to default to existing examples of similar power effects and go with the immobilization.


Question: What is Komodo's race? Are there any basic stats, powers, and other data available for this race?

Answer: Komodo is supposed to be a low gravity alien with the demonic appearance and the super soldier sub-category of experiment, but he got a little muddled in editing. His natural A.R. and extra S.D.C. come from the super soldier limited invulnerability power; he is not supposed to have full invulnerability. I guess I should present his race in detail in some future supplement. It just never occured to me to do that once I had him set up, despite the fact that he was created to be featured in a book about alien races. Go figure.

Question: How are the Humanoid but artificial life form/robots (roll 97-98 HU2 or 98-99 AU) affected by powers like Cloaking and Machine Merge?

Answer: Machine merge would have little effect other than fortifying a grappling contest. Just as the description states, the machine merge character can not affect machines controlled by an artificial intelligence and all aspects of such a highly advanced android would be considered integral and protected systems, making them immune to any effects of machine merge.

"Even artificial robot intelligences and bionic sensors and optics will be fooled; they see only a slight blur that is hard to follow or target." So your cloaking question is answered right there in the description of the power. I'd say robots of all types and characters with bionic sensors would have to make called shots just to try and hit a cloaking character, and those same characters would have no chance of identifying or describing the cloaked character. Such a cloaked character would also gain a massive stealth bonus against such characters, +50% at least.


Question: In another thread the notion of Mutant Animals came up and someone complained about the low BIO-E for the Tiger. Looking to After The Bomb, I saw that the Lion, which was statted with the Tiger in HU2E had more BIO-E in After the bomb than in HU2E. Would you up the BIO-E to the levels in After the Bomb 2e, or deliberately leave them as in HU2E?

Answer: I always thought the mutant animals as presented in HU were a bit underpowered compared to other heroes, so I would definitely default to the wonderful new edition of After the Bomb for creating mutant heroes in HU2.


Question: HU2, p. 70 lists the SDC for common objects and items. Brick walls, cinderblock walls, and reinforced concrete all have SDC listed lor 10 square foot areas. This works okay for brick and cinderblock walls, because they generally have a set thickness, but how thick is the reinforced concrete wall supposed to be?

Answer: 12 to 18 inches.


Question: Wayne, How do you interpret the rules for concentration in combat regarding super powers, i.e. what can a character do or not do if they are trying to maintain force fields, mental illusions or what have you?

Answer: If there are limitations given in the power itself, then it is demanding enough to require such penalties (i.e. lost attacks, penalties, etc). If there are no noted penalties, then the character is able to maintain that ability with no adverse effects on their combat performance; however, because they are concentrating on that power they can not use any other super/psionic/magical ability until they let it lapse. Likewise, other skills and abilities requiring concentration would be impossible or heavily penalized, including aimed shots and any skill roll with modifiers (such as lockpicking, hacking, construction, etc).


Question: How do you handle See the Invisible vs. Bend Light or Invisibile Haze in your campaigns?

Answer: See the Invisible can not penetrate invisible haze, the power specifically states that. This is because the person does not actually become invisible, the power instead affects each individual viewing the target and forces them to ignore him completely, thus you will still physically see the target with the mechanisms of the eye, but once the images get to the brain, it ignores them. So even though you are seeing an item or person, whether it is actually visible or not, your own mind is against you and ignores it if you fail the saving throw.

Bend light is a variant of invisibility and see invisible should work normally against it since the power affects normal light and see invisible is a supernatural form of vision.


Question: Regarding Intangibility: Is the limitation of a character only being able to sink into the Earth up to their nose so that they can breathe? If the character doesn't require air, can they overcome this limitation? Also, in regards to turning intangible and throwing an object, expecting it to turn tangible mid-flight: The book simply says "it doesn't work that way." So how does it work? Does the object stay intangible as long as the character does, or until they pick it back up and return to tangibility? Is there a certain passage of time where an object 'fades' back into tangibility? Does the item drop to the ground and, having no will of it's own to resist the pull of gravity on it's less-dense state, pass through the ground until it is destroyed by intense heat and pressure? Also, does pressure affect the character when intangible? Do they have a resistance/immunity to it, greater vulnerability, or do they somehow retain the capabilities of their normal state?

Answer: If a character with intangibility also has an ability that allows them to breath or survive without air/atmosphere, then they should not be limited by depth or thickness of the substance they are passing through. Of course, I think there should also be a limitation to the intangible state, especially when fully 'submerged', to reflect effort and exhaustion. Any such time limit should be based on the exertion rules, such as P.E. x 4 in minutes or something similar.

Throwing intangible items: when would it become solid? My guess would be that either the act of throwing would break the person's intangibility (since all aspects of intangibility are pretty passive and require little to minimal personal exertion, such gross effort may force the character out of the state) or perhaps the situation where an item the character is maintaining as intangible suddenly separates from his control is a trigger that breaks the entire intangibility. In the latter case, separation of such 'linked' objects (i.e the character and the thrown object) may well break the person's concentration, or perhaps the coupling of this separation and the intense effort needed to throw it combine to break the person's concentration and return them to solid form. Regardless, the power is very clear that to throw anything or attack at all, the person must be solid, so this is the only reason I can see why that might be so.

Can pressure crush or affect an intangible person? I would say 'no', but if the physics peeps can give me a good reason to the contrary, I'd be glad to consider it.


Question: I would like to know how the Major Power of Natural Combat Ability is applied. The wording is VERY confusing all this "same level", "comparable style (but not level of experience)" mumbo jumbo is got my brain all bent out of shape. It says likewise between the two which implies similarity of application but then it clearly contradicts itself with the passage noted in parentheses.

Answer: How does it work? Well, apparently not very well given the number of times people ask about it.

First of all, I would ignore the entire first paragraph since it seems to generate all the confusion. It appears it is intended as descriptive text, but some of the wording gives false impressions to many people. Simply put, the character is able to naturally fight in an adaptive style that allows them to mimic the moves and techniques of their opponents, no mater how exotic, without any formal combat training. The character can not learn any formal combat skills and relies solely on those bonuses and abilities given to him by the natural combat ability power. Other super abilities will modify the bonuses and abilities, as will attributes, but skills will not. Beyond that, the power should be pretty much self explanitory. Use the NCA chart as if it were the character's hand-to-hand skill and adjust bonuses as he levels.

Of course, the super ability does not give any strike, parry, or dodge bonuses, which further adds to the confusion, especially if you do ignore the first paragraph. If this is supposed to be the character's only combat 'skill' then it puts him at a significant disadvantage, especially for a major super ability. Is he supposed to get these bonuses from the style of combat used by his opponent? I'm not sure. The power is very badly presented on a number of levels, and that's one of the reasons I've never been that jazzed about this particular power.

So how to fix the confusion? Here's my suggestion: The character gets no combat skills at all as noted in the description. All of the bonuses given in the power write up apply to th character as he/she levels up in place of the same bonuses that would have been gotten via a hand-to-hand skill, but the missing bonuses (strike, parry, dodge, etc) would come from the hand-tohand skill of the opponent being fought figured at the level of the PC with NCA. As far as I can tell this is the best way for the power to work as it is presented, even though it will take some calculation of bonuses each time the PC fights a newly skilled opponent (unless you want to write down separate bonuses each time he levels for each combat style used in the campaign). Just keep in mind that the ability states that the character's natural skill is roughly equivalent to hond-to-hand: Expert, so he shouldn't ever be using the bonuses for anything less.


Question: Is there any way for Transferred Intelligence robots to be detected as such (ignoring any psionic or magic ways)? I'm thinking primarily of AU but anything HU related is meaningful. AU has the Aberrant Energy detector but I don't think this qualifies. Do the Atorian TI bots need to be distinguished as such for the commoners (or aliens) they might deal with?

Answer: There has to be some kind of containment system for the TI, very much like an artificial brain to house it, but it does not necessarily have to be in the head; in fact, flesh and blood Atorian soldiers either carry or have implanted the equivalent of a 'black box' so they can transfer into an armored haven should their body be severely damaged or killed (and there are no long range means to verte' out). However, that artificial brain will usually be within an artificial body, so only the lack of organic brain waves could give it away. Short of psionic and magic means, detecting the robot body would far easier than pinpointing the nature of its intelligence in most settings.

The Atorian neural networks (NITTs) pick up thoughts, emotions and the kind of directed contact we equate to speech, a kind of technological telepathy (yes, Atorians do still talk, they just don't have to talk to each other if they don't want to; and yes, the NITT can be adjusted on the fly to filter out as many forms of input/reception as the user wishes, including sensations, idle thoughts and emotions, leaving the equivalent of direct speech only between two NITT users). Because of this, it will be quickly, if not immediately obvious to an Atorian when they are talking to a machine because though it may have an artificial personality and education, it will not have the same life-like 'feel' of a living person (yes, robots in the EMpire are given a variation of the NITT; the easier to direct and control them with but a thought). The TI robot will 'feel' just like any other living person, because they are another living person, regardless of the state of their body. Because of this, the Atorians do not place any stigma on artificial bodies, nor artificial intelligence IF is is advanced enough to be considered 'human', and few people can make AIs as advanced as the Atorians (though not all of their AIs are so advanced....someone or something still has to do the menial chores, now don't they?).

Question: Interesting, similar to the "telepathy" the members of Section 9 share in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, or the borg in Star Trek Voyager (not the hive mind where all thoughts are shared, but their cranial receivers/transmitters). I wouldn't expect the brain to necessarily be housed in the head since better armor is likely to be found elsewhere. I'm imagining something roughly the size of a Coke can but of a bit more solid construction as the container.

Answer: Yes, very much like the members of section 9. I had forgotten all about that until you mentioned it. The basic Atorian unit is about the size of a CD case, but armored versions would be a bit bulkier. Earth based units would be about the size of a large grapefruit, I would guess.


Question: In regard to Cyberjacking, how prevalent do you see RES as being? Would individual starships have them (primitive ones anyway)?. It seems the computing power of a starship would be fairly powerful, and while they'd be forced to concentrate a great deal of their computing power to running a complex starship, it seems it wouldn't be unreasonable, especially very large ships. Any way to thumbnail-sketch the approximate "power" or "size" of a computer needed to run a RES? (in PB terms). I'm not looking for specifics, just an idea of how you gauge them.

Answer: In a galactic setting, any computer valuable enough to have security will have a RES. So most starships will indeed have even a basic RES system, even small ones. The requirements to run a RES system will vary with the technological level of the society that created it. A super advanced society like the Atorians and Struthio can put impressive RES on a lap top, while many galactic societies can put basic RES in a PC; however, most societies even in the advanced cultures of the galaxy would require something the size of a dedicated server or PC to run a basic RES and more advanced systems would use a server-farm type set up with a number of linked systems. On Earth, RES systems will be rare and would likely require a mainframe or significant linked systems to run it.


Question: can the Hardware category create Artificial Intelligences? What Power Categories can build a TI system? I've also rolled up a Natural Genius Character from PU2 (which you're probably not familiar with) and he makes a great cyberjacker program maker. Would you reduce the penalties if two or more qualified characters worked on the project?

Answer: There should be some rules for AI programming in the Robots Unlimited sourcebook (I'll make a note not to overlook it). Anyone with programming skills can program an AI, but a Hardware character is most likely to be able to complete one in a lifetime without a whole lot of people helping out. I believe I actually wrote some rules for building an AI for the GG, but the entry may have gotten edited out. If I get the time I may be able to whip up some time and modifier idea for you, but no promises.

I'm not surprised the Natural Genius makes a great anything-computer-related. They only get 90-something percent of the skills in the game.

I'm quite familiar with the contents of PU2; that's why I have so many problems with it. I try my best not to condemn anything out of ignorance if I can help it (and sometimes I still do, but heck, we're all human), but that isn't the case here. They get superhuman abilities on par with any other class (in fact the description says you can use each of their abilities as a minor super ability) and they get the skill selection of a couple of Ph.D. Hardware characters rolled into one. I also seem to recall their getting the equipment budget of some hardware characters to boot, but my book isn't here for me to double check that. The capabilities of 4 characters all rolled into one? I love the Natural Genius...as an NPC villain, which it seems tailor made for, but as it's presented, I can't accept its use as a PC, not in my games anyway.

Last edited by Tinker Dragoon on 1 Jul 2005 22:03; edited 1 time in total
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#4: Author: Guest, Posted: 29 Mar 2005 05:55
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Question: When Negation (Negate Super Abilities) is used on a being with Supernatural PS (30 +2D6), what does the PS get reduced to?How much can a character with Supernatural PS 85 lift/carry after being negated? What about HtH damage?
Answer: it would reduce to whatever it was before.
remember, Supernatural PS adds a hefty boost to your PS attribute and makes it supernatural.
negating it puts it back to whatever it was and normal strength. so if you rolled a 10 for your PS you get put back to 10 and do 1d4 SDC only.
yes, this means you should keep track of it. I always put the number I rolled in parenthatsis beside my final result after all bonuses added.
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#5: Author: Guest, Posted: 31 May 2005 19:10
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Question: What is the PS for Mineraloids? Its not listed anywhere in Aliens Ulimited. Now I see it says in Rifts they receive Supernatural, but I'm sure its not the same in Aliens. I've seen Insects are listed as having Superhuman. So what should it be?
Answer: Aliens Unlimited was originally written before Heroes Unlimited had Supernatural P.S., so they would have it under the HU2 rules.

Question: 1) Okay, I know that in HUII you do not add the PS powers together. I understand that a Mega-Hero doesn't get the attribute bonus of Supernatural PS unless he chooses the power separately.
But, here's my question:
If your character chooses Superhuman PS, but is a Mega-Hero (which automatically get Supernatural PS equivalent), do they add the Superhuman PS to their base PS, and then consider it Supernatural for the purpose of weight lifting and damage?
2) Since it's Superhuman to start, do you add all your physical skill attribute bonuses and then become Supernatural?
Or, since it will ultimately be Supernatural, do you not add skill bonuses?
Answer: 1) Yes. All bonuses and side effects (e.g. reduced fatigue rate) of the particular strength power will still apply, but the weight allowances and unarmed combat damage will be as per the equivalent level of Supernatural Strength.
2) Well, the whole thing about not adding skill bonuses to supernatural P.S. is based on the assumption that you will determine your base attributes, power category, and abilities before you determine your skills. Therefore, going strictly by the book, this hypothetical character's P.S. score cannot be increased by Physical skills, because it will have been determined to have Supernatural P.S. before you've even made your education roll.
However, a lot of people seem to add the power bonuses after the skill bonuses, in which case the book rule becomes basically irrelevant.

Question: If a character can mimic the appearance of body armor etc, the next question is this; When one shapechanges, does your clothing, equipment, etc simply become part of the new form (accessible or not)? Example: Bob has shapechanged so it LOOKS like hes wearing CS body armor, however he has his own suit of armor...can he keep this on and retain its protection while shapechanged into the CS body armor form?
Answer: Your shapechange power has no bearing on what you're wearing.

Question: I'm refering to the Heroes Unlimited super power Shapechanger here. My question is this; Can it be used to "mimic" a person in body armor OR human sized power armor (obviously power armor that doesnt exceed the size limits of the power)? I dont mean the MDC properties of the armor, but just the appearance of a person in armor? Example: Bob the Shapechanger wants to infiltrate a Coalition encampment (out in the field, where everyone wears body armor almost 24/7), he DOES NOT have a suit of CS issued armor...so he wants to use his Shapechanging power to make him look like the other armored soldiers. Can this be done?
Answer: He'd have to be completely naked to do so. However, having shapechanging properties, he could conceivably go everywhere naked, and simply look like he has clothing (changing its appearance when appropriate).

Question: On page 121 HU2 it is listing the penalties for using skills and mentions that the Analytical Genius is supposed to have a robot construction and repair skill. Was this in any previous editions? and if so what is the rating?
Answer: It's referring to the advanced/robotic/bionic technology penalties listed under the Analyze and Operate Devices skill (p. 129), which includes construction and repair of machines.
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#6: Author: Guest, Posted: 1 Jul 2005 11:33
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Question: I have an HU game that I'm playing in and my GM and I are having trouble interperting the Major Super Power, Natural Combat Ablility (NCA)on page 284 of the HU Revised 2nd Edition. Basically the source of our confusion is the Martial Art Mimicking. We can't decide if we're supposed to add the appropriate levels of the mimicked martial art to the table of bonuses listed under the NCA description. If a Level 5 hero with NCA is fighting a level 6 NPC with MA:Assassin, do we add the Cumulative bonuses for Level 5 NCA to the Cumulative bonuses for level 6 MA:Assassin and fight like that, OR, Is it simply that we just use the Bonuses for Level 5 NCA and it is merely a roleplaying effect that the hero looks like he's using MA:Assassin. Originally they GM ruled for the latter, but then I brought up the fact that NCA itself does not grant any bonuses to strike like a straight MA would, and it got us confused again and this was my course of action.
Answer: Natural Combat Ability...how does it work? Well, apparently not very well given the number of times people ask about it.
First of all, I would ignore the entire first paragraph since it seems to generate all the confusion. It appears it is intended as descriptive text, but some of the wording gives false impressions to many people. Simply put, the character is able to naturally fight in an adaptive style that allows them to mimic the moves and techniques of their opponents, no mater how exotic, without any formal combat training. The character can not learn any formal combat skills and relies solely on those bonuses and abilities given to him by the natural combat ability power. Other super abilities will modify the bonuses and abilities, as will attributes, but skills will not. Beyond that, the power should be pretty much self explanitory. Use the NCA chart as if it were the character's hand-to-hand skill and adjust bonuses as he levels.
Of course, the super ability does not give any strike, parry, or dodge bonuses, which further adds to the confusion, especially if you do ignore the first paragraph. If this is supposed to be the character's only combat 'skill' then it puts him at a significant disadvantage, especially for a major super ability. Is he supposed to get these bonuses from the style of combat used by his opponent? I'm not sure. The power is very badly presented on a number of levels, and that's one of the reasons I've never been that jazzed about this particular power.
So how to fix the confusion? Here's my suggestion: The character gets no combat skills at all as noted in the description. All of the bonuses given in the power write up apply to th character as he/she levels up in place of the same bonuses that would have been gotten via a hand-to-hand skill, but the missing bonuses (strike, parry, dodge, etc) would come from the hand-tohand skill of the opponent being fought figured at the level of the PC with NCA. As far as I can tell this is the best way for the power to work as it is presented, even though it will take some calculation of bonuses each time the PC fights a newly skilled opponent (unless you want to write down separate bonuses each time he levels for each combat style used in the campaign). Just keep in mind that the ability states that the character's natural skill is roughly equivalent to hond-to-hand: Expert, so he shouldn't ever be using the bonuses for anything less.

Question: So, what exactly are the conversion rules for the varying strength categories from HU2 when brought to Rifts?
Answer: Extraordinary Strength is equivalent to Augmented Humanoids/Cyborg. Superhuman Strength is the same as Robotic Strength. Supernatural Strength is Supernatural Strength. Use the Rifts tables as applicable.

Question: Does every type of Immortal as outlined in PU2 use the mega hero experience chart, or just the ones with "mega hero" listed before their sub-type descriptions? If they all use the same experience chart, then why make that distinction in the beginning of the sub-types?
Answer: All of them use the Mega-Hero chart.

Question: Can anyone tell me the RIFTS conversion rules for the Bio-Ghost Super Ability in HU2?
Answer: Bio-Ghost is covered in CB1 Revised, pg. 47.

Question: i need some help on this subject...i have a pc with the power of danger sense from powers unlimited for a heroes campaign...and it says in the power description that the warming time is 3 seconds per level....which would mean at 2nd level it would be 6 seconds...and the higher in levels my pc grows the time would also grow...so at 5th
level my pc would have a complete 15 seconds/.. one full melee to do something before the danger of the situation comes....is this correct ....my gm says its not that way
he says its a sixth sense....and by the house rules he set up for sixth sense..pc's
sixth sense would only get one attack before it happens....what in really want to know is
is the power danger sense from powers unlimited...does it work the way it says in the book or am i wrong...please help on this matter
Answer: It's not sixth sense, however, if the GM wants to treat it that way, it's up to the GM.
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#7: Author: Guest, Posted: 31 Jul 2005 18:56
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Question: Anyone have ideas on whether certain powers (say like Hardened Skin for example) that increase sdc are altered in Rifts RPG to grant a mutant character mdc protection instead?
Answer: There is no official guideline yet for PU1, so it's the GM's decision as to whether or not it will. Powers that inflict damage generally inflict MDC instead of SDC. This is how I would convert the powers (those not listed I either missed or I don't think they would change at all in an MDC environment):
Note that you don't necessarily have to turn super powers into MDC equivalents. It can be fun to leave super powers as SDC, depending on the style of game being ran.
Any power that deals damage through the power itself: SDC damage becomes MDC damage.
Adrenaline Surge: If an MDC creature, then the SDC doubling becomes a MDC doubling.
Alter Physical Structure of Limb: SDC of limb is MDC
Battle Rage: +40 MDC if already an MDC being
Bubble Glue: MDC of capture bubble is 5 MDC per level
Earth Empowerment: Minor MDC equal to 1/2 the character's Hit Points when in contact with the Earth.
All Minor Flight Abilities: All bonuses remain SDC
Giant: MDC equal to P.E. plus 2D6. An extra 1D4 MDC is gained at every growth spurt.
Hardened Skin: SDC becomes MDC
Heavyweight: SDC bonus only becomes MDC
Immovability: MDC equal to Hit Points
Increased Durability: Add Hit Points and SDC together to make them MDC
Indestructable Bones: Minor MDC equal to 1/2 the character's Hit Points
Lunar Strength: If an MDC being then bonuses become MDC bonuses
Personal Force Field: SDC of Force Field becomes MDC
Quills and Spines: Turn Hit Points into MDC
Sensory Orb: MDC of the orb is equal to M.E. + 1D6 per level
Solar Powered: If an MDC being, then +30 MDC in the daytime and bio-regeneration is MDC
Super Bounce: SDC bonus becomes MDC
Super Hibernation and Stasis Field: SDC of the Stasis Field becomes MDC

Absorb Bio Mass: Will not work on MDC beings unless the character is already an MDC being
Alter Physical Structure (all of them): SDC bonuses become MDC, same as other APS powers.
Control Density: Can adjust MDC materials by 5 MDC per level
Create Force Constructs: SDC becomes MDC
Divine Healing: Combine Hit Points and SDC and turn them into MDC
Energy Doppleganger: SDC of Doppleganger is MDC
Matter Expulsion (all): SDC becomes MDC
Mega Wings: SDC of the wings becomes MDC; Hit Points of the character become MDC (divide by half if option #4 is chosen)
Power Touch: Costs 10 times as many PTP to affect MDC items. A 40 PTP combat touch can inflict 1 MD. MDC of MDC creatures/beings can be increased by 10 per power touch.
Reconstruction: Cannot repair armor SDC/MDC, but can fix broken features and equipment.
Rocket Fists: SDC becomes MDC; Protective Body Field has 200 MDC + 100 MDC per level, instantly renued when the power is turned off and reactivated.
Totem Energy Aura: 50 MDC per level


Question: OK, here's a weird one. Aliens Unlimited has races like the Manarr. THey have super powers, tho' not too many, and their base is SDC. Anyway, it has some rules for them coming over to RIFTS, etc, and the old FAQ says it could work for an alien to take an OCC if they were a cross-over character, instead of the usual Educations stuff.
So, I play a Manarr whatever and make sure the class allows D-bees. This seems kosher to me so far. But, here's the weird one. It says 30% of them can be Physical Training, Special Training, or Hardware.
Now, here's my weird thought. Special Training and Hardware choose your skills. So, they're out. But, could you combine Physical Training, which is basically a bunch of bonuses, with an OCC? You have to give up one skill program to have it in HU, so maybe cut OCC-related skills in half or by a quarter or something like that?
Any thoughts?
Answer: MOST of the character classes in HU don't have skills selected for them.
Physical training (to the superhero extent) is a way of life, not a hobby.
Technically, it's a "Power Category," just like anything else in HUII.
There are no actual OCCs in the game.
But they Power Categories serve the same function that character classes do.
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#8: Author: Guest, Posted: 30 Sep 2005 20:07
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Question: 1) I am playing a ancient master in heros unlimited, the ancient masters strength is equal to extraordinary strength, my gm told me that in another source book it said that with str equal to and equivlent to only give bonus to your lifting ability not to damage, I haven't seen the rule, but it seems to me that with the ancient master only damage not lifting ability would be importat
2) "plus the increased punch damage for supernatural strength" so I do get a damage bump on my attacks, what rulebook does it talk about this?
Answer: 1) The rule is in the HU GM's Guide. The Ancient Master uses the weight capacity of Extraordinary P.S., but does not get the actual bonuses to P.S. provided by the Extraordinary Strength power. This doesn't really matter though, as the Ancient Master already gets a high P.S. score by default.
Generally, whenever it says "Physical Strength is equal to the power of ____ strength" (or something along those lines), it means that you only get the weight limits of the equivalent power (plus the increased punch damage for supernatural strength). The single exception is when it actually says something like "all bonuses of this power apply," such as in the Physical Training category, giving you increased P.S., reduced fatigue rates, etc.
2) HU2, page 213, under Positive Energy. The Ancient Master only gets the supernatural strength damage bonus when using this special ability.

Question: I sat down last night with Heroes Unlimited and began rolling dice. When I was done, I had a neat new character with one big problem: I had no clue how to calculate his Speed attribute!
Here's the problem... I rolled 3D6 as normal, resulting in a mighty 8. Then I decided to roll up an Alien and got a Felinoid which adds 1D6 to Spd. That roll yielded a 5. Then I skipped straight to skills, since that often yields some physical skills that adjust physical attributes. I got several physical skills and chose Running as one of them. A 4D4 roll later, I had 12 more to add to my Spd. So here I am with a Spd. 25 and thinking 'cool, fast, but not weird-fast.'
This is where things get interesting.
I rolled for homeworld and got a High Gravity World. I rolled for for super abilities and got an Alien Mystic. I rolled for type of mystic and got Mystically Bestowed. I rolled for number/type of super powers and got two majors. I rolled for powers and got Gravity Manipulation and Vibration. Does anyone see where this is going?
High Gravity Worlders multiply Speed x3.
Mystically Bestowed characters multiply Speed x5
Gravity Manipulation multiplies Speed x3
Vibration multiplies speed x2
Can anyone please tell me what my final Speed should be and how you arrive at that conclusion?
Mind you, this is ALL the result of random rolling!!!
Answer: Base of 25.
I run things where each multiplier works off the base, not the modified total.
High Gravity World has a x3 multiplier. That would be a total of 75, so this counts as a +50 over the original attribute. The others would work the same.
Mystically Bestowed= +100
Gravity Manipulation= +50
Vibration= +25
25+50+100+50+25=
total speed of 250.
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#9: Author: Guest, Posted: 4 Feb 2006 19:10
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Question: Ok, I was doing some stuff tonight having to do with making an Alien Weapons Genius.
Two questions...
1. Skills. Being a Weapon genius is supposed to take away a skill program from you. Aliens don't use skill programs though...do you not lose any skills then?
2. Skills, take 2. Being the weapons genious gives you WP. Energy Rifle, but not energy pistol. *However* you get Sharpshooting (Energy Pistol). Are they supposed to buy WP Energy Pistol with one of their 2 free WPs, or are they supposed to have the WP anyway?
Answer: 1) You lose half the skills from your alien profession, as stated on page 15 of the HUGMG.
2) Yes, you have to use a W.P. slot on it. Energy Pistols are assumed to be extremely rare in a modern HU setting, making them almost exclusively the property of Alien characters.

Question: We just started playing HU2 a few weeks ago, when one of the player got the Teleport major power, a problem came up. One of the results for number of uses for the ability allows for X number of teleportations per round then it follows to state that a round equals 15 minutes.
So my questions are. Is a 15 second melee round different from a 15 minute round? or is this a mistake? has it been corrected somewhere? or if this is in fact true, where could I find more information as to the different time measures?
Thanks in advance for anything that might clear this up
Answer: It should state 15 seconds, not minutes. That is an error.

Question: In the Alter Metabolism super power, one of its abilities is "Accelerated Healing." My question is regarding its duration. The book lists it as 1 hour per level. It also then states that the normal rate of healing is doubled while this power is active. But the normal rate of healing, for most characters, is a rate measured in days, not hours (unless using Ninja's and Superspies, which I'm not for this example).
Does that make that part of this power "worthless" for anyone who doesn't already posess an accelerated rate of healing (Healing Factor, Bio-Regeneration ability, etcetera)? This aspect of the power does also instantly heal a small amount of health, but that healing is only usable once every 12 hours and I am not refering to that aspect of the sub ability, only the doubling of the natural healing rate.
Answer: To me there are two good ways to run this:
1. If you've used the Accelerated Healing power you heal double for the rest of the day. And that would only be double, no matter how many times you activate it in those 24 hours.
2. OR, the character has such control over her own body she heals twice as fast as normal all the time (and never scars). If you take only the first sentence as a description of the sub-power and the second as a general note about a character with the power and pretend it's poor editing.

Question: 1) One of the abilities of the Vibration power is "Vibrate to Become Intangible." My question revolves around the Attacks Per Melee - the power states that using this ability "Takes the place of all melee attacks and actions while intangible."
From reading that, it seems that the character is prevented from doing anything while intangible, including moving. All he can do is stand in one place and concentrate on making himself intangible. Am I interpreting this right?
2) Does that also mean that the character can only go intangible once a melee round, and regardless of it's length loses all his melee attacks?
3) What would be the sorts of situations where having this ability, with the limitations as described above, would benefit the character? The power description doesn't mention anything about using it as a defensive action, just that the ability can be used.
Answer: 1) Yup.
2) Yup.
3) Any time the character could conceivably take damage from being hit by something.
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#10: Author: Guest, Posted: 4 Mar 2006 16:24
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Question: 1) I am wondering how Weapon Melding (PU1) would work with, or rather should I say would it work with vehicles/robot vehicles or at least the weapons systems in vehicles?
The description says only weapons can be melded with, but that is a highly general statment (as a brick can be a weapon), and given to interpretation.
Also wondering about power armor. My take on this is that because the power allows melding with armor as well as weapons (and power armor could be thought of as a full body weapon in and of itself) that it would work.
2) Additionally, but not relegated specifically to just Weapon Melding, what is the ruling for an MDC being with a power that drains Hit Points? (For this example suppose said Weapon Melder has another power that has made him MDC on Rifts Earth). Would you just draw off of MDC instead? Any conversion? (ie. more MDC cost since total MDC is much greater than a character would have in Hit points.)
I can see that being MDC could become a very useful addition to any power that drains/uses Hit Points.
3) Lastly, and this is not necessarily a Rifts question. Weapon Melding and Multiple Limbs? The power specifically states two weapons and body armor, but was this intended with normal humans in mind or a hard and fast rule?
Either way I think this is an incredible combination, allowing either two big guns and two appendages to hold things/perform other actions or just equipping four big guns.
Answer: 1) Weapon Melding doesn't work with vehicles at all, though it would work with any vehicle-mounted weapons that the character can physically touch. the power description is pretty clear on what can and can't be used as a weapon for the purposes of this power. One might might be perfectly capable of bludgeoning one's opponents with a television, but one still can't merge with it. Power armor is essentially enhanced body armor, but then again, it's also kind of robot. I agree with your assessment, but I wouldn't consider it definitive.
2) As I recall, the general rule from CB1 was that HP = MDC in these situations. If the power normally drains its user of 1D6 Hit Points, it will drain 1D6 MDC in Rifts.
3) It seems to me that the limitation is inherent to the power and not to the user's body shape, but I can't say for certain. If one were to allow additional weapons for additional limbs, one should also alter the power's duration accordingly. No. Weapon Melding only offers the equivalent of W.P. skills. For piloting skills, you want Machine Merge, from the Aliens Unlimited Galaxy Guide.
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#11: Author: Guest, Posted: 1 Apr 2006 12:28
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Question: If you are a Hardware: Weapons Expert, you can trade 4 W.P.s and reduce skill bonuses by half, to get a second category. I am assuming that the reduced skill bonuses apply to both Hardware categories?
Answer: It applies to all the character's skills, whether they come from a Hardware package or from formal education.

Question: I am sorry if this has been asked and answered already.

For Mystic Study characters, do they get use the 'Shortcut to Gaining New Spells Table' as well being able to utilise the 'Other Ways to Learn New Spells' (HU 2, p. 151). I think that the answer is yes, but clarification would be nice. I think it is the shortcut word that is throwing me off if that is the case.

Answer: Yes. The "shortcut method" is provided as an optional rule to simplify the acquisition of new spells. The other methods are always still available, and GMs may wish to exclude some spells (particularly Spells of Legend) from the shortcut method.

Question: Do the characters highlighted as Mega-Heroes (e.g. Demon Lord, Godling, Monster) get the Mega-Hero's "extra" abilities (Supernatural P.S., Increased Range, Healing & S.D.C, Saving Throw Bonuses) and the Special Mega Power?

Answer: Yes, they get all the standard Mega-Hero benefits and penalties, although the "Special Mega Power" is debatable. As these characters already have the Immortality Mega Power for free, the GM may wish to disallow a roll on the Special Mega Power table (HU2, pp. 181-182), excepting only those Immortals who specifically get an extra power from this table.

Question: I have Heroes Unlimited and Ninjas & Superspies as well as Villains Unlimited, and I am currently in a heroes game. Can anyone tell me what the strike, parry and entangle/choke bonuses are and the bonuses at level increase for bolas and whips?

I am unable to find any information about them except in Villains page 18 it tells you that a bola can be thrown 60' and does 1d6 and in the weapons sections it tells you about whips but they have no skill for it in the proficiency section.

Answer: Restricting the list to just those three books, bonuses for W.P. Whip are on page 62 of HU2. Bolas are covered by W.P. Targeting (HU2, p. 61) and W.P. Small Thrown Weapons (N&S, p. 46).

Question: Sorry if this question has been answered before, I did search for an answer on the forums to this, but found no such answer. The psionic empowered, as per Powers Unlimited 2, seems to suggest that one would only get one set of the psionics to make up for thier horrible disability (such as Psionic Sight, or Ectoplasmic Limbs, as opposed to having both and beyond for thier powers.)

Between the GM and I, we're uncertain as to whether or not I get all the psionics or if I get just one of the sets. Some clarification would be lovely, as I hope to finish up this character as soon as possible.

Answer: Apparently you get one power set, appropriate to the character's disability. At GM's discretion, characters with more than one disability may have more than one compensatory power set.

Question: In Powers Unlimited on page 48 there is a power called Un-trackable. The power states how it affects mundane means of tracking but does it affect magic and psychic tracking? As in do they have an aura, do they leave psychic imprints and so on?
Answer: Maybe. On the one hand it says that the character leaves NO traces of its presence, period. On the other hand, supernatural means of tracking are not specifically mentioned as being affected.
The way I see it, supernatural detection abilities with a possibility of failure, such as the senses of a Dog Boy, Psi-Sensitive, et al., would suffer -70% penalty to track the Untrackable character, but the character cannot hide from powers which automatically succeed (e.g. see the invisible, detect psionics).

Question: 1) I did a search for this a bit ago, didn't see anything relating to it anywhere, so here goes.
Alright, let's say I've got a HU char with Adrenaline Rush (PU1), I've got a cool 50 SDC to work with, then I get hammered by some villain, taking 10 points, so the GM rules my Rush kicks in, causing my SDC to double for a bit, so do I gain 40 SDC or 50?
2) When the rush is over, do I lose exactly the amount I gain or halve my remaining SDC or effectively halve damage given to me? doubling SDC would somewhat blow if say, I only had 2 SDC left when it kicked in, and if I take a deal of damage, I could easily die after the rush, so I'm not certain what's the deal
Answer: 1) 50. Adrenaline Surge either doubles SDC or increases SDC by 50, whichever is greater.
2) It's hard to determine from the power description, but I would reckon that it works like the bonus SDC from the Frenzy insanity (HU2, p. 33-35), i.e. once the power wears off, the extra SDC simply disappears, with no changes to the character's original SDC level. If the character managed to deplete all the bonus SDC, only the excess damage will come off the character's normal SDC.

Question: 1) His old rules (he has the first edition book) state that with Invul., he pretty much can only be hurt with magic, psionics, etc. Or at least so he says.
What I am wondering is if Invul. got changed any with the new edition, and is it possible for him to be hurt by a supernatural creature, or a creature of magic?
2) Could a Vampire hurt him?
3) What about a Murder Wraith?
4) What about a Titan Juicer with Supernatural strength?
Answer: 1) Yes, there were some changes.
2) Yes
3) Yes
4) Yes

Question: 1) If a character with the power of Multiple Selves elects to send one (or all!!!) of his duplicates to college, can the duplicate, and by extension the character, learn new collegiate-level skills in this fashion?
2) In-game, this would be unlikely, as most campaigns don't last long enough to allow a duplicate to go through even a bachelor's degree worth of semesters, but for a long-term game that skips several months or years between adventures or an Immortal PC who's already lived many decades or centuries, would this be possible?
3) If it is possible, how does it work?
4) Can the duplicate learn the skills at 1st level, but advance no further in said skills since duplicates gain no experience?
5) When the duplicate re-merges with the creator, would the skills then be available for advancement as normal?
6) This seems like a unique and creative way for a character to gain an enormous knowledge base, but is it 'game legal'?
Answer: 1) Yes, within the limits established on page 48 of HU2.
2) Yes
3) As listed on page 48 of HU2.
4) Yes, they're limited ot first level skills.
5) Yes.
6) Yes, though there are some limits that would and/or should be imposed. The character wouldn't be able to learn physical skills, as these are based on muscle memory. If the same skill is learned through multiple studies, only the highest education bonus applies (IQ factors in normally, and only once). Only one Hand to Hand skill can be learned, which means that the originator's HTH skill is going to be the one known and no others can be learned.

Question: Say your have a character with Multiple Beings, Multiple Lives, Regeneration Ultima, and Divine Healing.
1) One of your duplicates dies. Normally he'd be gone forever, but since he has Regeneration Ultima, does he come back?
2) Another duplicate resurrects someone with his Divine Healing power. Does he alone lose a P.E. point and 1D6 hit points or does the original character AND all his duplicates lose P.E. and hit points?
3) Since you have Divine Healing, can you resurrect your own duplicate, thereby saving one of his Regeneration Ultima resurrections for another time?
4) If so, could one of your duplicates do it instead of you? This could be useful if the answer to my question about duplicates resurrecting people is 'just the dupe loses P.E. and hit points'.
5) Say your character has Multiple Lives and Regeneration Ultima. Say he dies. Which resurrection power kicks in first?
Answer: 1) yes, in 72 hours as per the power
2) All of them do--they sacrafise a part of their very life essence, and the various selves are ultimatly the same being
3) if you have a body left to use divine healing ressurection on, you don't need to at all, sinse Ultima's normal ressurection dosn't have any limits. Only the total regeneration from being blown to bits has a limit, as long as you have most of the body intact, you revive with no penalty.
4) no, if the origional is killed, all duplicates cease to exsist, they are nothing more than manifestations of the origional. of course, once you come back to life thanks to regenerations ultima/multiple lives, you can make them over again.
5) they all lose it for ressurections.

Question: Hardware: Weapons Expert characters get W.P. Sharpshooter as one of their special abilities. Under the description, the write-up mentions the trick shooting options, but no other bonuses to strike.
W.P. Sharpshooter in Rifts gives all of the trick shooting options as well as bonuses to strike based on the character's P.P.
Were these bonuses intentionally left out of HU2nd, or was it an accidental omission?
Answer: There's a curious note at the end of the passage which seems to refer to a separate and supposedly more extensive skill description that is not actually in the book. I don't know whether the more extensive Sharpshooting skill from Rifts was left out by mistake or by design, but a mistake makes more sense to me given the power category's premise.

Question: Hi I am a long time gamer with questions regarding Heroes Unlimited. I have read a old book and I just bought the 2000 edition these are my questions
1. I assume that rolling for actions using skills uses the percintile method
but how about non combat rolls that have a relevant skill that no pc has that cannot be used untrained?..
i.e A reprogramming of a mad robot that has futuristic parts that no pc is familar with that resembles a series of crystals instead of circuts.
Now I believe that a percintile roll with no bonuses is needed anyway but if the pcs mess up then the consuquences will be hillarious am i right to assume this about the roll?
2. I have a idea that might seem kinda Riftish. My idea is similar to the x-men saga where the furure is ruled by killer robots that kill superbeings on sight. Are there any rifts books like that and if so what are they?
Answer: 1) Correct, you roll equal to or under the skill %, and yes, Palladium has no rules for untrained skill use.
2) Nope.

Question: 1) Are there any rules or guide lines about creating super abilities?
2) Are there any rules or guide lines altering or making new super categories?
3) Should giving or adding one or two more Minor Super Abilities to a character be considered a Major Hero Special Power like Tremendous Physical Strength?
Answer: 1) No
2) No
3) generally speaking, one major ability is considered equal to a mega power, and two minor powers are equal to a major

Question: Okay, say you have an Invention that creates the effects of the power Flying Force Disc. Now FFD relies upon the user's Mental Endurance for weight limit and Physical Endurance for S.D.C., but the power isn't being generated by a person. It's being created by a machine with no applicable M.E. or P.E. to work from. How is this resolved? The same would apply to Create Force Field, Create Force Constructs, Power Touch, and a few other powers/abilities.
Answer: Assuming we're talking about Super-Inventions from Powers Unlimited 2, it would depend on how the device works, rules for which were unfortunately not covered in the book.
If the device draws energy from its operator, it would make sense to use the operator's attributes to determine effects. In other circumstances, it may be necessary to assign "virtual" attributes to the device, so that its power effects are defined by the device alone.

Question: If you are running a Mystically Bestowed Character or Immortal with the Multiple Selves power and a selection of spells at your disposal, do your duplicates have their own pool of P.P.E. to use as well? You could be a one-being coven with that set-up.
Answer: As far as I know, the rules don't address this.
My initial reaction is:
-Clever!
-Unblanaced!
But I'm not really sure that it is unbalanced.
The Multiple Selves power replicates any power other than Multiple Selves, and most super powers have no real energy limit, unlike magic.
For example, if you have Multiple Selves and Energy Expulsion: Electricity, then you and your clones can all fire energy blasts at the same target.
So logically the intention would be that if you can cast Fire Bolt, then you and all of your clones could cast Fire Bolt.
If you're all drawing from the same pool of PPE, then that would rapidly drain you of your reserves, which doesn't seem fair considering that Lightning Boy and his clones could all zap away all day for free.
On the other hand, what you're suggesting would allow you and your clones to pool PPE together for one big spell, allowing you to easily cast a spell that's intended to be pretty tough to pay for.
There are two solutions to this that I can see:
1. Rule that a person cannot share PPE with themself. Since the clones are still them, then the clones and the main character cannot share PPE with one another. Although they can still each access their own full pool of PPE.
2. Eh. Screw it. Just let them pool their PPE together and make powerful mojo together. A lot of powers combine to have powerful effects, this is just one more.

Question: 1) Other than budget, is there any limit to the number of Major and Minor powers a Eugenics character can acquire?
2) The 'Omega Blaster' of the Eugenics character says in one part of the description that it can fire once per round, and in another part that it can fire once per hour. Which is it?
3) In the rules for Mega Heroes it says that the character gets an additional 50% S.D.C. from each power that grants S.D.C. and then it goes on to give the example of a character with Inivulnerability getting an additional 240 S.D.C. points. The text says 50% and the example given says 100%, so which is it? Also, the example gives the maximum possible S.D.C. from the Invulnerability power rather than the range of 4D6x10 given in the power description.
4) Does the S.D.C. bonus for Mega Heroes apply to powers that give a total S.D.C. such as many Alter Physical Structure powers?
5) For the most part, a character with two different APS powers cannot use them at the same time (unless you're a certain NPC from the Century Station setting...). Does this restriction also apply to Matter Expulsion's armor ability? Can an APS and Matter Expulsion armor power be used together?
6) What is the game effect of the power Speed Tasking? The description is vague and it seems rather useless as written.
Answer: 1) Other then the redtrictions you place on the char yourself there is no limit as long as you stay in budget.
2) Once per round
3) Ignore the example, it's +50%.
4) Yes
5) I think they should be able to be used together. I also think that the most important line in the "Combining Super Abilities" section is the first one: "...use common sense to determine whether or not two different super abilities can be used at the same time."
6) you get done with mental tasks in half the time it would normally take.

Question: If a character has Super Regeneration (from Aliens Unlimited Galaxy Guide) and Regeneration Ultima (from Powers Unlimited) how would the two powers work together? Is the rate of regeneration (2D6 per melee for Super Regen and 1D6 per melee for Regen Ultima) added together for a total of 3D6 per meless?
Answer: Based on the rules from page 74 of HU2, it appears that when you have multiple self-healing powers, you take the best rate and add two. So, in this case the rate of healing would be 2D6+2 S.D.C. or H.P. per melee.
Regeneration of lost limbs is a little trickier. To simplify things, I recommend just using the faster rate between the two powers.

Question: 1) If someone with Divine Healing (Powers Unlimited) tries to use the regeneration aspect of the power on a reanimated vampire corpse (Powers Unlimited 2: Eugenics), what exactly will happen?
2) And how many times can each person be regenerated?
Answer: 1) Which regeneration aspect? Divine Healing offers several, of which two can be used on others.
Assuming you mean the Reanimation & Restoration ability, it should have no effect on a Eugenic Resurrected Corpse because the poor creature is not truly dead.
2) Infinitely, in theory. The only listed limitation is on the healer, not on the healed.

Question: I noticed that with Mega-beings in HU, the range of most of their abilites(senses, abilities and attacks) are increased by 50%. Does this mean that a Mega-being with Growth could, instead of growing two feet per PE point, extend the range by 50% to 3 feet per PE point?
Answer: No, it only applies to the range of the abilities, not the other effects. As Growth doesn't have a ranged effect, it is not modified.

Question: Is there a conversion book for making Heroes Unlimited characters for a Rifts game or is it simply plug and play?
Answer: See Rifts Conversion Book 1 and Skraypers for conversions of HU to Rifts.

Question: If a character that is Invincible in Hero's goes into Rifts is he invicible to the MDC technology or is he just M.D.C with full MDC weaknessess?
Answer: Assuming you mean "Invulnerability", then yes, a HU type Invulnerable character is still invulnerable to most things on Rifts Earth.
He has 700 MDC as per the original Conversion Book, but that has been changed in later books.

Question: I was wondering about the Super Consumption power, okay typically when supernatural strength goes under something's natural AR, half damage is inflicted, which is nice, however, I was wondering if perhaps the Supernatural Biting Power has some sort of armor piercing quality, since it mentions 'can bite and chew through anything with an AR of 17 or less against inorganic material'
Answer: Supernatural Strength does NOT do damage if the attack result is less than the target's Natural A.R. As far as the ability to bite through something with up to an AR of 17, yes it would do half damage.

Question: There is a bonus toward Coma/Death with an exceptional physical endurance, now is that applied to the recovery from coma with help? because for the life of me i cant find anything you have to roll for other than that for comas.
Answer: Yes, it applies.

Question: i'm using the old edition of Heroes unlimited, and under invulnerability super power states that only magic psionic and illusionary magic can harm him but energy based magic doesnt work againt it, so its this character truly invulnerable short of suffucation or mind control??? perhaps a magic sword or a magic powered character, other question how will be a psionic able to harm thsi character?
Answer: No, the character is not truly invulnerable, there are a wide variety of spells, psionics, and other attacks (N&S has a listing of all the martial art powers within it that invulnerable characters are vulnerable to, for instance). Not exactly. He is immune to damage, except for magic weapons and specialty weapons like the Psi-Sword. He can still drown, starve, dehydrate, be possessed/hypnotised, driven insane, etc. etc. etc. Oh, and he takes 1/2 damage from particle beams.

Question: I've had the same question answered both ways. My players are arguing over the application of Super Energy Expulsion Light versus Energy Expulsion Light.
The Super Energy Expulsion states "the exact nature of the blast depends on the type of energy chosen." Minor Light is the only expulsion power that has additional abilities with generating Light at 100 watts and Blinding flash. Does the ability to generate light (minor) translate to the Major Light ? I have heard both yes and no amongst my crew.
Answer: Super Energy Expulsion pretty much duplicates the powers of EE-Light. You have a energy beam (3D6+1D6 per level), you radiate 60 watts of light from eyes, hands, or similiar parts to glow (this is equal to a standard light bulp), and produce an aura effect that creates a spherical flash of energy that blinds everyone. SEE is a more powerful version of EE-Light just as it is a more powerful version of any of the EE. Almost any power that is a EE can be a super energy expulsion (fire, light, electrcitiy, sound, heat, cold, plasma, force, icy mist, shadow, and particle beam). So the powers are one and the same, only SEE provides more abilities since its a major.

Question: I just got into the game unlimited heroes and i noticed a W.P. Shield. Well when i look up in the equipment part of the book shields are not listed. and i try looking through the other sections of the book but cant find the stats for shields so i was wondering where do i locate the rules for the large and small shield for heroes unlimited?!
Answer: See the http://www.palladium-megaverse.com/cutt ... hield.html for PF shields. Also see the Compendium of Contemporary Weapons for modern shield types.

Question: 1) I have a couple of questions dealing with transferred intelligences from Heroes Unlimited. The first is, if a player puts a containment unit (for their brain waves) into a exoskeleton, PA, or robot vehicle, can they transfer their minds into it and control it?
2) Second, if they can, if they are in the Rifts universe and place a containment unit into a Titan made robot vehicle or PA, would they discover Archie's spy module and trace the signal back to Archie?
Answer: 1) I suppose the character could transfer his intelligence into an exoskeleton or power armor, but the suit wouldn't be able to move under its own power (except possibly by using a jet pack). Transferring one's intelligence into a modified robot vehicle should be possible. Triax & the NGR even has a character class for this.
2) Not automatically, except possibly through psionic means. It's no different than if a living character were to have a surveillance device unknowingly implanted in his or her body.
Note also that Archie's hidden surveillance module doesn't transmit a signal; it silently records telemetry from the robot's various sensors, which is manually recovered by Titan's repair androids when they service the machine.

Question: i'm using the old edition of Heroes unlimited under the major power of mimicry it never states what happen if you try to mimic a psionic character:
1) do you copy his/her ISP reserve ? maximun or actual?
2) if you copy his ISP and you get out of range and return to copy do you get again all the ISP base?
3) If i go to the nightbane world can i copy the powers of :
A) nightbanes ( talents too?)
B)nightlords
C) hounds
4) if in such a world the copy works, how i get PPE to fuel those powers? do i copy the base PPE of the creature that i am coping? which is my own amount of PPE?
Answer: 1) In the second edition, it is not explicitly stated, but it is strongly implied, that the mimic duplicates the target's I.S.P. and P.P.E. (whether current or maximum is unclear; this goes for H.P. and S.D.C. as well). Note however that the mimic retains his or her normal M.E. score, which may have a corresponding effect on I.S.P.
2) There's nothing in the text to disallow it, though I personally think that's pretty lame.
3) According to HU2, supernatural beings cannot be mimicked, so that's a negative on all counts (though for all I know, the 1e rules may not have borne this restriction). However, you can mimic Nightbane Talents possessed by a Shadow Warlock, as well as magical powers bestowed by an Artifact.
4) See #1.

Question: A question dealing with the AG(Analytical Genius).
The only thing of prices on cost to make certain items are the gimmick weapons and whatnot. Which is fine. Then under Hardware Costs on page 121, it says "note that all vehicle construction prices are considered "Cost to Build" prices, so the "Cost to buy ready made" for the same item would be about ten times the "Cost to Build" prices."
Which I get.
But what about if the AG wants to build a robot, or cybernetics, or bionics. Do I take the Cost in the book and divide by 10? Such as if the AG in question wants to build an Exoskeleton or Robot vehicle, what would the prices be?
The same as for the Robotics character, or 1/10th of the price? Or maybe just 1/2 or 1/4?
Answer: As you've already noted, the book prices are build prices, and apply to all characters building such devices (or having them supplied by a secret organization). So, an Analytical Genius' exoskeleton costs the same as a Robot/Exoskeleton Pilot's, assuming equivalent features are purchased.
If, on the other hand, the character were to buy an "off the shelf" super vehicle, robot, or cybernetic device, the price would be ten times as high (give or take; the GM should consider factors such as availability and legality in determing the final price).

Question: In HU2 Invulnerability does not have any increased SDC recovery. Previously I've only seen it used in Rifts and Skraypers where it does have regeneration (if memory serves something like 1d6x10 per minute).
Is this an oversight in HU2 or does the power not grant any kind regeneration in non-MDC environments?
Answer: It only applies to rifts when you upgrade the power to MDC.

Question: The Immortal Mega-Power, does it allow the character to regenerate all the time, or just when he dies?
Answer: The bio-regeneration ability is constant, though it can be temporarily suppressed if the character takes incredible amounts of damage.

Question: 1) In Powers Unlimited 2 under "Super Abilities and Immortality" is stated "Each new level of experience add 1D6+4 to the character's total " and several power categories state something like "+xD6 per level" so this +xD6 is plus the 1D6+4 or it replaces it?
2) Also do the magic type immortal get the benefits of enhanced spell strength when leveling up?
Answer: 1) The plus denotes addition to the standard rolls. If there is no plus (e.g. if you roll 46-50%: Magic & Psionics on the Immortal Powers table), then the listed value supercedes the default.
Example:
An Immortal Dragon gets an additional 20-80 P.P.E. on top of his immortal P.P.E. base. If he also has powers of a Wizard Supreme, he gets another 110-210 on top of that, plus 15-20 P.P.E. at each additional level of experience.
A different dragon with Magic & Psionics would have a total base of 60-240 P.P.E., plus 2-12 per level (the P.P.E. base listed in the power selection replaces the default amount, to which we then add the dragon's inherent bonus).
2) Yes. Unless indicated otherwise, all spellcasters in Heroes Unlimited use the spell strength/saving throw table from HU2, p. 319.

Question: In the Experiment category in HU there's a side effect called breathe without air. Would that side effect prevent drowning or would one need to be able to breathe underwater using an ability like Underwater Abilities.

Answer: The character can't drown, but having a lungful of water probably isn't good for the character's health either (then again, the character might not even have lungs).

Question: A gun-toter in the group has often found the GM making it vastly difficult to get more advanced guns. Now, while he does have a nice pair of energy pistols, he found those weren't too helpful against some robot menaces the group encountered. So for him I ask, is there advice on ideas and ways for a super soldier to pick up skills, or find weaponry or someone to make them?

Answer: Any character with the Weapons Engineer skill (not to mention Hardware: Weapon Experts) can design and, in theory, make new weapons. If the super-soldier is on friendly terms with the organization that created him, he might also be able to get some shiny new prototype weapons from them.

Question: I'm fairly new to HU and have only played at a local convention. I decided to buy the book and was looking at creating a character for use at a local gaming group that plays HU2 every now and then. One of the most important things IMO that is missing is a good guideline for how powers combine and interact with each other. For example, can you use Body Weapons (Minor) to alter Tentacles (Major)? What about the distance you can Stretch (Major) Tentacles (Major)? Just how would Bio-Armor (Major) combine with Alter Physical Structure: Metal (Major)? Are these things that I'd have to consult with the GM about? Additionaly, the selection of powers listed in the book seems very limited to me, is there a resource out there that lists more powers that are compatable with HU2?

Answer: Rules for combining super powers are found on page 74 of HU2. The combinations you mention are specifically disallowed, although like everything else, the GM can rule otherwise. More super powers can be found in Powers Unlimited 1, 2, and 3, the Aliens Unlimited Galaxy Guide, and Mutant Underground.

Question: I have a question about how super abilities interact with a character's natural/species weaknesses. For example: I make a HU2 character as an alien from a cold world. He has a vulnerability to fire. If I were to choose a power that makes the character immune to fire, such as "Control Elemental Force: Fire", "APS: Fire", etc, does the immunity/protection offered by the super ability:
1. override the character's natural weakness?
2. cancel each other out so that the character doesn't have any unusual reaction to the phenomena, in this case fire?
3. not have any affect on the character's weakness, such that a cold alien could not benefit from a super ability offering resistance/immunity to fire?

Answer: It seems that super powers can indeed override innate vulnerabilities, although the GM may wish to disallow such power selections. Certainly, this should only be possible for Alien Experiments, Mutants, etc. Aliens whose powers are natural aspects of their physiology should not be able to eliminate their innate vulnerabilities this way.

Question: I have a mutant character with machine merge, metal manipulation, healing factor, and energy expulsion: cold. In a recent quest he lost an arm to save an innocent life. If he gets a bionic arm, will it affect his mutant powers, or could he use his powers to merge with the arm? Could he use his metal manipulation to repair it? I doubt that by merging with the bionic arm his healing factor would do anything since its not organically part of him.

Answer: A single bionic arm will not affect a mutant's powers. In fact, the character can have up to four cybernetic/bionic implants (one limb and three small devices) without penalty.

The Machine Merge power has no explicit prohibition against being used on bionics, although there are few reasons to do so. The character's ability to repair the limb (if he has any such skill) will be increased by the merger, and bionic weapons built into the limb may be used with greater accuracy if they have built-in targeting systems, but if the limb is damaged, so is the character, and merging with the limb is as distracting as merging with any other device.

I'm not familiar with the Metal Manipulation power, but it should be noted that bionics are not necessarily made of metal, at least not entirely. Some make use of plastics and/or ceramics, or even biological components in more advanced settings.

Healing Factor will not repair conventional bionics or cybernetics, nor will it regrow the character's lost arm, but it might work on Rifts-style cybernetic bio-systems, which are supposed to function as normal parts of the character's body.

Question: Hi, I can't seem to find either the starting P.P.E. for magic characters or the starting I.S.P. for psionic characters in HU2. I'm sure that they must be there however I'm at a bit of a loss. I'm re-reading the rules at the moment to try and find it but a reference to the page and or section the could be found would be extremely helpful.

Answer: P.P.E. for Magic: Enchanted Weapon is listed on pp. 146 (Weapons of Order) and 147 (Weapons of Chaos), Magic: Enchanted Object is listed on p. 149 (note that the object, not the hero, has the P.P.E.), Magic: Mystic Study is on p. 151, and Magic: Mystically Bestowed is on p. 156.

I.S.P. for the Psionic characters are on p. 190. Note that if you have an early printing of HU2, these I.S.P. values have officially changed. See the errata page here or p. 16 of the HUGMG for details.

Mutants, Experiments, and other characters who combine super powers & psionics have the same I.S.P. base as the Latent Psionic, unless otherwise stated.

Question: Aliens in HU2 have a skill "set" and not individual skill "programs". How would you handle an Alien in the Hardware, Physical Training, or Ancient Weapons Master power categories? I know traditionally you are supposed to give up a skill "program" with these.

Also, I know in the Aliens Unlimited Galaxy Guide they have some skill "programs" for Alien characters. How does this work? Using these rules, optionally can an Alien character have multiple skill "programs"? How do you decide how many? I also see at the bottom of the programs, it lists additional skills for "professional occupation'. How is this handled?

Answer: The answer to the first question is found on page 15 of the HUGMG. Essentially, you drop half of the skills you get from your Alien education/profession.

According to the AUGG, p. 190, an Alien character can choose ONE (1) of the new skill programs (or its equivalent profession) in place of the normal alien skills from HU2. Apparently, the book was also supposed to contain a revised Alien education table which would have included the new skill programs, but this is absent from the final publication.

As to the professions, each skill program was designed to form the basis for an Occupational Character Class (in the style of Rifts and other Palladium games), but it seems that they were pared down a bit in the final edit. Basically, if you choose to take one of the skill programs as a profession, you get a number of additional elective and secondary skills, completely replacing any skills that you would otherwise get from education.

Question: In Heroes Unlimited (2nd Ed), Missiles are mentioned a few times (Such as in the Bionics or Robotics section). And there appears to be three types of Missiles; Mini-Missiles, Short Range, and Medium Range. However it does not state the damage for any of these three missiles where they are located in the book.

Answer: See HU2, p. 82.