Chance To
Category Catch Fire* Examples
Highly Flammable 16- Paper, gasoline, gunpowder, matches
Flammable 14- Cloth, hair, fur, twigs/kindling/small wooden objects Mildly Flammable 10- Large wooden objects, many plastics
Inflammable 6- Earth/stone, brick, most metals
*: Chance to catch fire assumes the Fire/Heat attack does at least 1 BODY damage after the object’s DEF is applied. If not, reduce the roll by 3 or more.
Campfire, Hearth Fire: An average-size campfire provides full illumination (no Sight PER Roll penalties for darkness) in a 4” radius. For the next 4” beyond that, it reduces the darkness pen- alty to -2. For the next 4” beyond that, it reduces the darkness penalty to -1. Beyond that distance (a total of 12” from the fire), it provides no meaningful illumination.
See Fantasy Hero, pages 359-60, for more information.
Since Fire/Heat can be so bright, Linking a Sight Group Flash to a Fire/Heat power is appropriate.
OXYGEN
Fires require oxygen to burn... which means they use up oxygen just like they use up fuel. In most cases this has no game effect (though it causes air to flow into the areas losing oxygen), but in situ- ations where characters are in an enclosed space using Fire/Heat powers could deprive the space of oxygen and cause everyone in side to suffocate. In most situations it’s simplest for the GM to use oxygen deprivation as a dramatic device, but if you want more precise rules use the following.
Calculating the exact rate at which a fire uses up oxygen is difficult and depends on many factors, including the size and intensity of the fire. For game purposes, a cubic hex contains 7,000 liters (1,850 gal- lons) of air (which on Earth is 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1% other gaseous substances; in some cases this is adjusted to allow for water vapor). That means there are approximately 1,470 liters of oxygen in a cubic hex. Assume that any Fire power uses 1 liter of oxygen per 10 Active Points per Phase of use. The GM can increase or decrease this rate to allow for area-affecting powers and the like.
Applying pure oxygen to a fire, in either gaseous or liquid form, causes a fire to burn with great speed and intensity. In game terms you can think of this as a large Aid to Fire damage, but with the effect that the flames use up their fuel much more quickly (perhaps even virtually instantaneously).
SCARRING AND CAUTERIZING
Like Acid attacks, Fire attacks and attacks involving heated materials (such as lava, molten metal, or steam) are more likely than most attacks to cause scarring. Use the guidelines for this under
Acid, above, if desired.
Heat (whether from Fire or some other form of energy, such as Electricity) tends to cauter- ize flesh. In game terms, this may mean that such attacks do not invoke the optional Bleeding rules, that characters reduced to 0 BODY or less by one do not continue to “bleed to death” and lose BODY every Turn, and/or that either type of bleeding stops when the affected area is hit by one of them.
STARTING MINOR FIRES
At the GM’s option, a character with Fire/Heat powers can start minor fires for everyday purposes (light a candle, a cigarette, prepared kindling for a campfire, or the like). Depending on the situa- tion and the GM’s preference, a character can do this automatically, or it may require a successful
Power Skill roll (in a Champions campaign, the Skill
is Fire/Heat Tricks or the like; in a Fantasy Hero campaign it might be Fire Magic; and so on). The GM may modify the roll based on how flammable the substance is; setting a candle or piece of paper on fire is much easier than causing a wooden plank to burst into flame. Characters cannot do this in combat, or as a way of inflicting injury (e.g., by set- ting an enemy’s clothing or hair on fire) unless they pay Character Points for the ability.
WARMTH
Fire/Heat powers generate warmth. This has several implications and possible uses.
First, a Fire/Heat-using character probably doesn’t have to worry about feeling cold in most situations, since he can use his powers to keep himself warm. If he wants to have this as a combat- effective thing, he needs to buy Life Support (Safe Environment: Intense Cold), but if he just wants to walk around in the wintertime without a jacket it’s not necessary to buy this as a power.
Second, in a similar fashion having a Fire/ Heat-character nearby may help to keep other characters warm when it gets cold (when they’re caught in a blizzard, locked in a freezer by a master villain, or the like). Again, this doesn’t immunize them from damage or have any combat effect, but in everyday situations it’s a nice way to give the Fire/Heat character a “perk” for choosing that special effect.
Third, the use of Fire/Heat powers can raise the temperature in an enclosed area (in a large area or the open air he’ll still increase the temperature near himself, but it won’t create a noticeable combat effect). For game purposes, add up the total Active Points of all the Fire/Heat powers a character uses in a Phase. For every Phase in which the total exceeds 100, the character raises the Temperature Level in his hex by 1; if it exceeds 200, it raises the TL by 2; if it exceeds 300, it raises the TL by 3; and so on. After the character has warmed his hex for 1 Phase, the warmth spreads to the “rings” of hexes around him, sort of like an Explosion. The ring of hexes immediately surrounding him becomes half as warm as his hex; the ring beyond that half again as warm (one-quarter of his hex’s warmth), and so on until the Temperature Level reaches the ambient TL of the local environment. The longer the char- acter uses his powers, the hotter it becomes around him, and the further out the noticeable heating spreads. If he’s not careful, he may make it so hot that nearby objects catch fire!
See pages 441-42 of The HERO System 5th Edi-
tion, Revised for more information about Tempera-
ture Levels.
Ambient Heat In Fires
Even an area that’s not on fire can be harm- ful if it’s in the midst of a fire — the heat alone can burn and blister skin, dehydrate and exhaust people, and so forth. A hex that’s surrounding by fire on three or more hexes that are on fire does one-quarter damage if a character stands in one place, and half damage if he attempts to move through the fiery area (standard rounding rules
apply). Characters with Life Support (Safe Environ- ment: Intense Heat) do not suffer this damage.
OTHER EFFECTS
Some other possible damaging effects of a fire include:
Hot Metal: Inside a burning building, metal (doorknobs, steel desks, and the like) can become superheated. If touched, superheated metal without protection does 1d6 Normal Damage per DC of the deadliest surrounding fire’s Killing Damage (e.g., metal heated in a normal house fire [1d6 KA, or 3 DCs] inflicts 3d6 Normal Damage). If a character uses something to handle the hot metal (such as a towel or wet rag), it may act as DEF against the damage, or in the GM’s option may prevent him from taking any damage at all. If the character has personal Defense Powers (like an ED Force Field), they provide their usual protection.
Spray Of Sparks: When something begins to com- bust, there’s often a spray of sparks. Anyone caught within 1” of a spark cascade takes 1d6 x 6 points of fire Killing Damage.