Seguridad contra la violencia y la explotación

than Advantages, the Translation Only (-½) Limi- tation for Cryptography being just one example. Many of the Skill descriptions in Chapter Two suggest possible ways to Limit those Skills. For example, look at the “Subdividing” section of the descriptions, which discusses ways to split the Skill into two or more Skills for greater differentia- tion between characters. Even if you don’t want to subdivide a Skill, any of the suggested divisions could become ways to “specialize” the Skill with Limitations. For example, the text suggests splitting Demolitions into Setting Explosives and Disarming

Explosives. Instead of doing that, you could have

a character who’s particularly adept at disarming explosive devices buy +4 with Demolitions, Only To Disarm Explosives (-½).

CONCENTRATION

Characters generally shouldn’t take this Limi- tation for Skills. If a Skill requires a particularly high degree of concentration (either all the time, or for some specific uses), the GM should impose the appropriate restrictions on movement, DCV, and the like as situational modifiers.

FOCUS

Chapter Three shows that there are lots of ways to buy Skills (or bonuses to Skills) as Foci. As noted on page 220 of The HERO System 5th _Edition,

Revised, if a character buys a Characteristic-Based

Skill through a Focus, then the appropriate Charac- teristic is assumed to be 0. For example, a high-tech tool with the Skill Lockpicking would have a 0 DEX, and the base Skill Roll would be 9 + DEX/5 = 9-. (A character who buys a Background Skill on a Focus gets the standard 11- roll for 2 Character Points, but Background Skills bought as Powers do not get any benefit from Skill Enhancers the character has.)

GESTURES; INCANTATIONS

Most Skills involve using the hands to some degree. This does not entitle a Skill to take the Ges-

tures Limitation (or Restrainable), which characters

can only apply to Skills with the GM’s permission. Similiarly, Skills often require a character to com- municate verbally with someone; this does not qualify for the Incantations Limitation.

LINKED

In general, there’s nothing wrong with Linking a Skill to an ability, unless the GM forbids it. How- ever, Linking Skill Levels (of any type) to an ability is more likely to cause game balance problems than Linking a Characteristic-Based Skill. Characters cannot Link Skill Levels to the attack or ability with which they’re meant to be used; by definition, they only work with that ability. However, it might

be reasonable in some circumstances to Link Skill Levels with a completely unrelated ability — for example, Skill Levels with all Agility Skills that Link to a character’s Change Environment. Of course, the GM can forbid any such abilities if the Link doesn’t make sense to him or he’s concerned it may cause other problems.

The rules for using Combat Skill Levels with multiple-power attacks (The HERO System 5th _Edition,

Revised, page 359) also apply to Linked attacks.

REQUIRES A SKILL ROLL

Obviously, this Limitation interacts with Skills in important ways — not because char- acters apply it to Skills, but because it requires the use of a Skill. Here are some additional rules for Requires A Skill Roll (“RSR”) to supplement those on pages 304-05 of The HERO System 5th

Edition, Revised.

Even if a character has bought a Skill Roll up to so high a level that he’s unlikely to ever fail the roll (even taking the Active Point penalty into account), that does not change the value of the

Requires A Skill Roll Limitation. A character in that

situation paid a significant number of Character Points to buy his Skill Roll that high, so he should get the value of what he paid for. If the GM’s con- cerned about this, he can handle the problem by forbidding characters to buy their Skill Rolls above a certain threshold or instituting Normal Skill Maxima rules.

As noted in the main rules, if a character has two Characteristic-Based Skills for Required Skill Rolls for a single power, he takes a -¾ Limitation. If the two Skills are a Characteristic-Based Skill and a Background Skill/Characteristic Roll, or if both of the Skills are Background Skills/Characteristic Rolls, reduce the Limitation to -½.

With the GM’s permission, a character can have a Required Skill Roll that takes longer than a Zero Phase Action by applying the Extra Time Limitation and noting how it applies. In that case, the Extra Time adds to the time needed to use the power normally. For example, if the Required Skill Roll takes a Half Phase, and it’s applied to an Attack Power (which normally requires a Half Phase/Attack Action to use), then the power requires a Full Phase to use (Half Phase + Half Phase).

If a character defines a Required Skill Roll as an Attack Roll, making that roll does not require a separate Attack Action.

If a character has Requires A Skill Roll on every slot of a Multipower, he gets to apply the Limitation to the reserve cost (even if the slots don’t use the same Skill for their RSR). That does

not mean he has to make two Skill Rolls to use a

slot; he only has to make one. If the RSR Limita- tions have different values, the reserve uses the lowest value.

Since a character only has to make a Required Skill Roll at the start of using a power, technically he could make one roll at the beginning of the day to activate a Persistent Power (such as Damage Reduction) and then have the power remain in effect indefinitely. However, most GMs forbid this, since it can cause game balance problems and tends to flout the rules of common sense and dramatic sense. If necessary, the GM can establish a rule for how often a character has to make a Required Skill Roll to maintain a Persistent Power (such as once per combat, or per Turn of combat, once per Hour, or whatever seems most appropri- ate), but this should be significantly less than once per Phase.

If a character Pushes or Haymakers a power with Requires A Skill Roll, the Active Point penalty does not increase. Actions like using Haymaker (or other Combat/Martial Maneuvers) or Pushing don’t increase the Active Points in a power.

Naked Advantages

If a character takes Requires A Skill Roll as a Limitation for a naked Advantage, he calculates the Active Point penalty to the Skill Roll based only on the points in the naked Advantage (not on the Active Points of the power plus the naked Advan- tage). The same rule applies in reverse: a naked Advantage is a separate ability, and thus doesn’t factor into the calculation of the Required Skill Roll penalty for the power the naked Advantage works with unless the naked Advantage itself has RSR (which it probably should, if it’s intended to apply to an ability that has RSR). In that case, use the rule on pages 304-05 of The HERO System 5th _Edition,

Revised regarding activating two powers with the

same RSR at the same time.

If a character applies Requires A Skill Roll to a naked Advantage, he only has to make the roll when he uses the Advantage — if he just uses the power without the Advantage, he doesn’t have to make the roll, because the base power itself isn’t Limited that way. However, since naked Advantages are by default Instant Powers, maintaining a naked Advantage with RSR typically requires one roll per Phase. If a character only wants to have to roll once to activate the naked Advantage, then have it remain in effect until he changes the Advantage (or the like), he should apply Continuous (+1) to the naked Advantage to make it a Constant Power.

POWER FRAMEWORKS