I am relatively new to Heroes Unlimited and Palladium games in general (I'm used to the D20 system). Our group recently decided to give HU a try, and I'll be co-GMing the game with one of the other players (we'll switch off for different adventures, but collaborate for world-influencing details). While going through the rules and creating my own character, I've come up with quite a lot of questions. Lots of page flipping and head scratching has helped me decipher what some of it is talking about, but I still feel left in the dark about a lot of it. We can come up with some GM rulings if necessary, but I'd rather check with all you experts to see if there are valid understandings that already exist.
We all decided to roll up random characters, and I got an Alien with Bionic "powers." He has a Humanoid Ape appearance, comes from a Low-gravity world, and received Military Specialist education. Bionics itself confused me in a few areas, but I'm especially perplexed when I try to combine it with my alien background. My budget (and my desire to expedite this as quickly as possible) allowed me to pick a Brain Transplant Cyborg.
* Now, since I'm replacing the entire body but the brain with bionic counterparts, does that mean that I completely ignore the SDC bonuses given to my alien, or are they added on since that would be the effect on his homeworld?
* Does the SDC of a completely bionic character "heal" naturally like other characters, or is someone with mechanical skills required to repair him (I imagine the latter).
* He is supposed to get "Advanced Optics;" I had to assume that I got to pick one of the Special Optics. Is that what it means?
* Does my character get anything from Bionics when leveling up beyond the standard HP roll and an increase in his skills? I didn't see anything, so I imagine he'd have to purchase further upgrades out of his pocket.
* I get "one hand to hand combat skill of choice." This seems to mean I can pick any level of H2H, but I don't want to cheat.
* Do the physical skills still provide all their benefits to a mostly mechanical character? I'd like to think they were designed to work for Bionics as well, but I don't know if they expect us to assume that machines can't get stronger/faster simply through practice. If they do apply, does that apply both to bonuses like an extra melee attack, strike, dodge as well as SDC?
Those are the questions I can think of at the moment. If they were explained somewhere in the book or these forums I couldn't find them through my searches. For reference, we have the HU main book plus Powers Unlimited. That reminds me...
* Is there a table somewhere to randomly select powers including those found in PU?
I'll likely come up with more questions later, but thank to everyone in advance for your help.
Just my thoughts,
Poocho
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