Conversion from 5th to 6th Edition

From Champions MUSH

This document contains three sections. The first is the most important; it advises on how to move from 5th to 6th edition, even if Character Points prove to be on the short side (and note the section regarding CV Scaleback in particular: this affects everyone). The second is informative, pointing out some of the major changes and where you can find the equivalents of things in 5th Edition that seem to have disappeared. The third is a suggested character sheet format.

The House Rules for Hero System Sixth Edition can be found here.

Conversion and Saving Points

Several factors in 6th Edition have made many characters costlier; for instance, Elemental Controls have been replaced by a Limitation giving a smaller discount. More significantly, in the absence of Figured Characteristics high values of one Characteristic no longer provide benefits in other Characteristics. In particular, this makes STR and DEX now cost almost double the old STR and DEX when previously figured Characteristics have also bought up, which is devastatingly more expensive to high-DEX and high-STR characters. The new edition provides 50 more points in compensation, but a sampling of characters showed this was insufficient.

Accordingly, please take the following into consideration when converting your characters:

Characters are built on 425 points, but expect to spend a lot more on Characteristics.
That includes the points from 75 points of Matching Complications (formerly "Disadvantages").
The Balance Chart has been changed such that all numbers in the CV column are 1 less (lowering legal CV).
You will probably need to "scale back" your CV when converting to to comply with the new Balance Chart; see CV Scaleback below.
You might want to "scale back" some Characteristics too in light of the new Benchmark chart; see below.

CV Scaleback

Even 75 more points isn't enough pay for the increased costs to high-DEX characters, and so we need to reduce CV on the MUSH as a whole.

Accordingly, the typical CV of the entire MUSH - NPCs included - is being lowered by 1, and mostly likely your character should have a CV 1 lower to match. (Of course, this is not to say that both OCV and DCV both need to be lowered by 1 - you could for instance lower OCV by 2 and DCV not at all, if appropriate.) Note that the revised Balance Chart will enforce this CV Scaleback for most characters.

Additionally, you might want to consider if it's appropriate to lower it a bit more. There has recently been a shift towards high CV characters on the MUSH resulting in an increase in the overall CV average, which can be a problem because certain character types, such as speedsters and martial artists, typically rely on their edge in CV to be viable. Please check out the Balance Guide by Archetype chart and, if your CV is high for your archetype and it's not part of your character concept that it should be high for your archetype, consider lowering your CV. And remember, we need heroes who can handle tough villains as well as heroes who can handle fast villains!

Characteristic Scaleback

There have been instances of people taking higher Characteristics than appropriate for their character conception simply because we lacked benchmarks indicating how good, for instance, a PRE of 18 is. There is now a chart to show just this; you may wish to re-evaluate your Characteristics in light of it and perhaps save a few points by scaling them back a bit. In this case the scaleback is individual, not systematic - although INT, EGO and PRE may especially be affected (since the obsolete Age chart implied that normals could have these Characteristics up to 30 at times: this is no longer considered the case).

Otherwise, most Characteristics carry over exactly, though their costs have changed. OCV and DCV are old CV (DEX/3) - but don't forget to scale them back. OMCV and DMCV are old ECV (EGO/3).

COM has been replaced by the talent Striking Appearance. Notionally each level of Striking Appearance is the equivalent of 5 COM (that is, a COM of 14 to 16 is one level of Striking appearance, one of 18 to 22 is two levels and one of 24 to 26 is three levels), but again there has been some COM inflation; check the benchmarks and see if you really mean that. The equivalence in Striking Appearance to low COM is harder to specify; see the House Rules for more.

What To Do If You Still Don't Have Enough Points

We will allow (as a matter of course) DEX, OCV and DCV, in full or in part, to be bought with Unified Power (-1/4): this after all represents the same situation as in 5th Edition. You may wish to keep in mind that taking Unified Power on some or all of DEX, OCV, and DCV, will save points but also will make your character more vulnerable to the effects of a Drain to any of those characteristics. That is, after all, why Unified Power is a limitation.

If you do a close conversion of your character from 5th Edition (i.e. with as close as possible the same functionality, and have bought your DEX, OCV and DCV with Unified Power and have made every reasonable economy you can and still can't afford your character, talk to the staff. We'll see what we can work out. However, in scientific tests nine out of ten owners of Jade and Jennifer, probably the two most difficult of the current characters to convert, expressed grudging admission it was possible with some squeezing to convert these characters. So it may be painful but should be possible for existing characters to be converted within the allowed points.

Some Changes in 6th Edition

Things No Longer Free

Earlier editions had a number of Characteristic and Powers that had a base value determined by something else. This has been changed in 6th Edition: note the following in particular.

There are no Derived Characteristics: all have a fixed base value.
Leaping is no longer based on STR, but instead has a fixed base of 4m.
EGO no longer provided a bonus for Mental Defense; you have to pay for all the points.

Note also that EGO can no longer defend against Presence Attacks: only PRE can. If your EGO is higher than your PRE and you want to be able to defend at that level, buy PRE, Defensive Only (-1), to cover the different between your EGO and PRE.

Things That Have Been Replaced

Armor and Force Field have been replaced with Resistant Protection.
COM has been replaced by the Striking Appearance Talent.
Damage Resistance has been replaced by the Resistant (+1/2) Advantage.
Damage Shield is built differently (see 6E1 321).
Disadvantages are now called Complications.
Ego Attack is now called Mental Blast.
Elemental Control has been approximately replaced by the Limitation Unified Power (-1/4); note that, because it is a Limitation, not a Framework, it may be applied to more Powers than EC could.
Energy Blast is now called Blast.
Force Wall is now Barrier with Costs END To Maintain (-1/2).
Hardened has been split into Hardened (+1/4) and Impenetrable (+1/4).
Sticky works differently in 6th Edition, but our House Rules provide the Contagious Advantage, which works like 5th-Edition Sticky.

Things That Have Been Removed

Find Weakness and Lack Of Weakness no longer exist.

Other Things That Are Different

Growth

Growth has been rewritten in 6th Edition the better to represent the scaling up of a humanoid figure to different sizes; while it is good for this, the cost is greater granularity and less flexibility. If you want to build a more flexible form of Growth, buy Density Increase with a minor Side Effect (lowered DCV, inconvenient bulk, etc) and Link other Powers to it as appropriate.

Killing Attack

Killing Attacks do less STUN (and with a narrower "STUN lottery") than in previous editions: if you're trying to do STUN Damage you're better off doing Normal Damage.

Unluck

The House Rules no longer cap Unluck at 3D6; you may buy up to 5D6 if you really want to.

What Not To Spend Points On

(6E1 31)

In 6th Edition you don't have to spend points on abilities you may have which will never or hardly ever see actual play. Of course, the decision on this is up to approval staff, but a likely candidate is obscure alien languages. If you're playing someone whose native language will almost never come up in play, you should probably use this rule to get that language for free and claim English as your Everyman "Native" language.

Suggested Character Sheet Format

The formating suggestions of section are advisory only. If you don't like these suggestion, feel free to ignore them. But whatever you do, these should be true:

Your character sheet should be clear, helpful and easy to read, both for reviewers and for players.
Your character sheet must be clear in black and white, even if you you color to make is clearer still.
Your character sheet must be complete.

If you want to use color but don't know how, type HELP ANSI().

Skills

Skills should always show the Characteristic they are based on, if any.

The suggest format is, in order

Abbreviated Background Skill type (e.g KS, PS, SS, if it is a Background Skill, followed by a colon
Name of the Skill (subskills may be shown following a colon)
Characteristic the Skill is based on, abbreviated and in parentheses (e.g. (INT)), or if not based on a Characteristic, (EM) for Everyman, (FAM) for Familiarity, (PROF) for proficiency) or (GEN) for General (based on flat 11-)
The roll associated with the Skill, followed by a minus sign

Examples

Acting (EM) 8-
Fast Draw: Swords (DEX) 14-
PS: Play Cello (GEN) 11-

Some Skills have less information to show; no particular format is suggested for these here.

Powers

A Power entry, in the suggested format, consists, in this order, of:

f or v if a slot in Multipower (fixed or variable, respectively)
optional (but recommended): designation of power, terminated by colon (optional becasuse sometimes, as with +2m Running, naming seems a pointless exercise
the formal name of the Power, with the number of dice and other such, terminated by Base Point in angle brackets (or by a comma, if showing Base Points isn't needed)
zero or more Adders, terminated by their points in angle brackets (or by a comma, if showing points isn't needed)
zero or more Advantages, terminated by their values, prefixed by +, in parentheses
zero or more Limitations, terminated by their values, prefixed by -, in parentheses
any other information, with no brackets needed and without terminator (unless PLUS or TOTAL: see below), including
- (obligatory) Active Points prefixed by AP
- (optional) Damage Divisor prefixed by DD
- (optional) notes on the power

For compound powers, use PLUS between the parts and TOTAL before the section with overall APs and anything (capitals because this is heavy punctuation and should stand out).

In general, it is necessary to show Base Points only if needed to show the range of the Power or if there are enough Adders that build is complicated and therefore difficult to review. Values of Adders should always be shown if there is more than one or the Adder's value is likely to be unfamiliar to reviewers.

Examples:

f Pool Minds: Telepathy 8D6 <40> Also Animal Minds <5> AoE 8m Radius
Nonselective (+1/4) Half END (+1/4) Communication Only (-1/4) AP67 DD1.25

Pocket Force Field Generator: Resistant Protection 5/5, 20 min       
Fuel Charge (-1/4) Perceivable (-1/4) IIF (-1/4) AP15

+2m Swimming to 6m, AP2

Omniscanner 1.1: Detect Matter, Energy and Lifeforms <20>                
Discriminatory <5> Range <5> OAF Fragile Scanner (-1 1/4) Also
Affected As Sight (-1/4) Concentration 1/2 DCV Throughout (-1/2) AP30
RP9 PLUS Analyze <5> Same Limitations (-2 1/4) Requires A Systems
Operation Roll (-1/2) AP1 RP1 TOTAL AP35

Complications

Complications should show the options chosen in building them.

The suggested format is, in order:

The type of Complication, followed by a colon; abbreviations are acceptable, so long as the Complication is clearly distinguished from other sorts of Complication
The main text of the Complication
The options chosen for the Complication, in parentheses; clear abbreviations are acceptable, since the possible options are few