Fake Organic Suit.

[Enforcer84]

Okay, I am reprising a group of heroes I made for 4th edition.

One of them a man in a powered armor costume that is designed to resemble an organic being with "convincing" blood and muscle movement, etc. My question is should I try to "build" this effect or simply say it a special effect?

[Blue]

Sounds kind of like a hero ID, assuming he can be in a form other than hero ID.

[Kintara]

Well, it could easily be a matter of special effects. But why does the character wear it, and what does it look like?

The fact alone that it seems organic doesn't seem to need a rules effect, not that one couldn't think of things.

[Enforcer84]

The Tomorrow Legion (who will be appearing in my Hero A Day thread once I get them going...)
are a group of former gamers who used thier genius in a variety of fields to get into the supers games for real.
I got the idea in part from "the Flashmen" from Allies and from (though I am loathe to admit it) Heroes Reborn, in which Ben Grim mentions THe Think Tank or something like that; apparently in the HR universe Richards, Von Doom, Tony Stark, Hank Pym, and Bruce Banner all attended Empire State University at the same time and hung out together.

The TL, in the spirit of the Role Playing days try to keep the game going so to speak by pretending to be other things than a team full of gadgeteers.
Grogannus, the guy I'm talking about is a "jack of all trades" who took to hollywood after graduation to become a special effects and costume design expert. He has several Tech Skills and is a brilliant Chemical Engineer, he has studied Computer animation, claymation, anatomy, costuming, etc and is a decent actor (played a few monsters in his days in La La Land).
He is the team's brick and his costume, for kicks, looks like an alien monster, kind of a humanoid insect with an exoskeleton.

[Enforcer84]

Originally posted by Blue
Sounds kind of like a hero ID, assuming he can be in a form other than hero ID.

Yeah, the suit is Only in Hero ID rather than a focus.

[Jhamin]

I would say it comes down to game effects. If there is a big advantage to be gained by real blood and realistic wounds, it should cost something . Maybe a bought-as-a-power disguse roll.

On the other hand, if it is no more useful than the disguise provided by the difference between young Billy and Shazaam! then I would say it is just special effect.

[TheEmerged]

Hmm, this does sound like a case of OIHID as far as the disadvatnage is concerned -- unless that suit gets removed a lot or doesn't cause other problems it shouldn't be worth OIF's -1/2.

After that? What you effectively have is basically a reverse fake focus. Instead of the usual "trick someone into waste an attack action 'disarming' me", it tries to trick opponents into NOT disarming him.

Sounds like the Disguise or Concealment skill to me, as others suggested.

[Kintara]

I'm unconvinced concerning this talk of "concealment." In fact, I'm not sure I get it. At any rate, it doesn't seem worth putting into rules.

[Champsguy]

I don't think it takes any points to fake an organic. My girlfriend says she does it all the time. Oh wait, that might have been something else...

[caris]

Well, as an alternative thought, if you were wanting to keep some of the focus aspect (i.e. breakability), this certainly sounds like a fine justification for IIF.

[Enforcer84]

Well, It was either IIF or OIHID. True the suit can get damaged. I guess I'll focus it.

[KA.]

Originally posted by Kintara
I'm unconvinced concerning this talk of "concealment." In fact, I'm not sure I get it. At any rate, it doesn't seem worth putting into rules.

I think they might be talking about the "exoskeleton" taking damage, and appearing injured, when the character inside is unharmed.
This could lead to a tactical advantage.
For one thing, any villain with "Code Against Killing" will likely stop attacking if the "suit" appears to be "bleeding" or "badly injured".

Since it would be impossible from the "outside" to tell if the character is taking damage, I might buy "Invisible Power Effects" on the Armor/PD+ED/whatever Defense the Suit gives you.
That would reflect the idea that it is keeping you from harm, but it looks like you are taking damage.

Just my opinion,
may be too "tight" of a ruling if this situation doesn't come up much, or based on how easily the suit "bleeds"

KA.

[Kintara]

I guess I get it, but if I would imagine that if it looked like it was damaged, it would be damaged. The special effect is simply that it looks organic when it is. That makes more sense to me.

I guess I just distinguish between false "possum" damage, and "organic looking" real damage.

[Enforcer84]

The "Organic" feel is predominately to conceal the fact that the suit is a suit, aiding his secret identity tremendously. If it gets significantly damaged, then the wearer risks the revelation that its a guy in a suit and not a true alien.

IIF seems the most efective way to do this.

[TheEmerged]

Originally posted by Kintara
I guess I get it, but if I would imagine that if it looked like it was damaged, it would be damaged. The special effect is simply that it looks organic when it is. That makes more sense to me.

I guess I just distinguish between false "possum" damage, and "organic looking" real damage.

Well, my logic was that it seemed that the purpose of the suit appearing organic was to "trick" people into not removing it when captured or somesuch. Hence the concealment roll -- to "conceal" the fact that there is a focus involved.

[Crimson Arrow]

No, they won't remove the suit, but might try to disect him. Also, instead of restraining him as a normal, they will use some horrible device. Hey, is that a Limitation or a Disadvantage? :rolleyes:

I'm on the side that says IIF/OIHID and the "organic" nature is just a special effect.

I'm reminded of the way that an RKA could be a shuriken or a laser beam. It costs 5 points to buy Missile Deflection against the former, 20 points for the latter.

I don't recall Laser Lass paying more for her power than Dark Ninja did for his (assuming she uses an OAF too, of course, before I get any clever comments). She has a small advantage over him, but it's so tiny and possibly balanced out by other things, that it doesn't seem worth statting out to me.

Just my opinion.