Glossary of Hero System terms

• Action
  Any act a character can perform during a Phase (q.v.).
• Active Points
  The total cost of a power after all Adders and Advantages are applied (without reducing the cost via Limitations or other modifiers).
• Attack Action
  An Action requiring or involving an Attack Roll (q.v.). Performing an Attack Action ends a character’s Phase.
• Attack Roll
  The roll made to determine if an attack hits the target. The player rolls 3d6 and must get a number less than or equal to 11 + Attacker’s OCV - Defender’s DCV to hit.
• Casual Strength
  Half a character's STR. Casual strength can be used as a Zero Phase Action.
• Characteristic Roll
  A roll, similar to a Skill Roll, derived from a Characteristic using the formula (9+(CHAR/5))
• Combat Movement
  Moving while trying to present a difficult target and seeking out targets to attack. A character using Combat Movement gets his full OCV and DCV, but moves more slowly than one using Non-combat Movement (q.v.).
• Complementary Skill
  A Skill used to make another Skill Roll easier.
• Count The BODY
  Determine the number of BODY rolled on the dice as if Normal Damage were done by the attack. This is referred to in the text as “count the Normal Damage BODY.”
• CV
  Combat Value, determined by dividing your DEX by 3 and applying any modifiers from Combat Manoeuvres, equipment, surprise, and the like. For Mental Powers, use Ego Combat Value (ECV), calculated by dividing your EGO by 3 and applying any modifiers. CV is divided into Offensive Combat Value (OCV) and Defensive Combat Value (DCV). OCV and DCV both equal CV, but modifiers may affect them differently. Similarly, ECV is divided into Offensive ECV (OECV) and Defensive ECV (DECV), which equal ECV.
• ED
  Energy Defence, a Characteristic.
• END
  Endurance, a Characteristic. Used to represent fatigue. STR and powers draw END when used at the rate of 1 END for every 10pts of STR, or 10 Active Points of a power. Every phase 12 a character recovers their REC in END. They may also choose to spend a phase doing nothing, but recovery.
• Full Phase
  An Action which requires a character’s entire Phase to perform. The character may take no other Actions that Phase. Examples of Full Phase Actions include using more than half of your inches of movement (i.e., a Full Move), taking a Recovery, recovering from being Stunned, changing a Clip, or attacking before making a Half Phase Action.
• Half Move
  An Action a character takes in which he moves up to half of his inches of movement.
• Half Phase, Half Phase Action
  An Action which only requires half a Phase to perform (in other words, a character can perform two Half Phase Actions per Phase). Half Phase Actions include using up to half of your inches of movement, opening a door, or using the Power Find Weakness. Attacks only take a Half Phase if made after performing any other type of Half Phase Action.
• Held Action
  An Action not taken on the character’s DEX in a Phase, but instead “held” or delayed until a later DEX or Segment for some reason.
• Hex
  A standard unit of measurement in the game — a six-sided area one inch (25mm) across on a map, representing an area 2 meters across (approximately 6.5 feet) in the game setting. Hexes are used to measure range, movement, and areas in the HERO System.
• HKA
  Hand-To-Hand Killing Attack (a Power).
• Knocked Out
  Unconscious. A character is Knocked Out when he loses all of his STUN due to damage from attacks.
• Non-combat Movement
  Moving without trying to present a difficult target or seeking targets to attack so as to achieve higher speeds. Characters using Non-combat Movement are at ½ DCV, 0 OCV.
• Normal Damage
  The damage done by most attacks, including Energy Blasts, fists, clubs, and the like. To determine it, roll the dice. The total on the dice is the amount of STUN the target takes. The BODY is determined by looking at the numbers rolled
  every 1 rolled does 0 BODY, every 2-5 rolled does 1 BODY, and every 6 rolled does 2 BODY. (Thus, the number of BODY done is usually close to the number of dice rolled.) Normal Damage is affected by both Normal and Resistant Defences.
• Normal Defences
  Defences which protect against Normal Damage, but not against Killing Damage.
• Penalty Skill Level
  A type of Skill Level which can only be used to off set a specific type of negative modifier to a character’s OCV. Examples include Range Skill Levels (RSLs) and Targeting Skill Levels.
• PER Roll
  Perception Roll, a roll made to see if a character perceives something with one of his Senses. A character’s base PER Roll is (9+(INT/5)) or less.
• Phase
  A Segment (q.v.) on which a character can perform an Action. A character’s SPD determines his Phases. See also Full Phase, Half Phase, and Zero Phase Action.
• Placed Shot
  An attack made with the intention of hitting a particular part of the target’s body, such as the head or hands. This involves a negative OCV modifier.
• Post-Segment 12
  A period between Turns which takes no time. After each Segment 12, a Turn ends, and in the Post-Segment 12 period before the next Turn begins, characters automatically get to take a Recovery.
• Range Modifier
  A penalty to an Attack Roll which represents how much more difficult it is to hit targets far away from you. The further away you are from a target, the greater the Range Modifier (and thus the worse the penalty). The Range Modifier also applies to PER Rolls.
• Real Points
  The final cost of a power after all Advantages and Limitations are applied — the actual number of points the character spends to buy the power. For example, an Energy Blast 8d6 bought with the Limitation OAF costs 20 Real Points (a base of 40 Active Points, subject to a -1 Limitation). Also referred to as Real Cost.
• Recovery
  • A Characteristic (REC) which measures how fast a character Recovers from taking damage.
  • An Action in which a character gets back his REC worth of STUN and END. All characters get an automatic Recovery in Post-Segment 12. This is also called “taking a Recovery.”
• Reserved Action
  See Held Action.
• Resistant Defences
  Defences which protect against Killing Damage and Normal Damage, such as armour.
• Segment
  The smallest unit of time in the game, equal to 1 second. There are 12 Segments in a Turn. A Segment on which a character can act is one of that character’s Phases (q.v.).
• Skill Versus Skill Contest
  A method for resolving competing actions. The character taking action makes a Skill Roll, and if he succeeds, the character opposing him has a -1 to his Skill Roll for every 1 point the first character made his roll by.
• STR
  Strength, a characteristic. Every 10pts costs 1 END to use. Every 5pts will do 1d6 of Normal Damage. Characters with a negative STR must make a STR characteristic roll whenever they wish to use it. A character who drops to the negative amount of their initial strength cannot move. Any lower than that and they begin suffocating.
• Stunned
  A character becomes Stunned when he takes more STUN damage from a single attack than he has points of CON.
• Turn
  A unit of time in the game equal to 12 seconds. Each second is called a Segment.
• Zero Phase Action
  An Action which takes so little time that it can be performed at the beginning a Phase or after a character makes a Half Phase Action, but not after performing a Full Phase Action or making an attack. Zero Phase Actions include turning a Power on or off or switching slots in a Multipower.