A little help with a power construct? Shaman of Alpha Flight

[levi]

Re: A little help with a power construct? Shaman of Alpha Flight

 

Just to complicate matters...it could be put forth that some of the things Cap uses his shield for would be Independent or at least Usable by (an)other.

 

It seems likely that anyone could hide behind it or smack someone over the head with it like a trash can lid.

 

However, not everyone should be able to throw it, use it effectively in mortal combat or bounce it at the precise angles required to make it return to his hand.

 

As for the Champions write-up I don't know if you can assign specific slots in a Shield MP as Independent and others not, but U by O can be.

 

All that said, the Questionite Shield write-up from Gadgets and Gear is a fantastic representation of a gadget similar to Cap's Shield.

[Lightray]

Re: A little help with a power construct? Shaman of Alpha Flight

 

Okay. Before I make too many assumptions here' date=' why don't you tell me what you would consider to be an Independent focus if Captain America's shield does not qualify?[/quote']

Consider the Focus limitation - an OAF is going to be unusable about HALF the time. The rest of the time, it's been taken away and you're reaping the cost of those points you saved.

 

Independent is for items that are going to be taken away. For good. Not much in the superhero genre is Independent, but in Fantasy Hero or other genres it comes up more often.

 

And, for the record, super teams regularly scarfed up villain gee-gaws. I understand what you mean when you say "regular ongoing use" but wasn't the fact that Reed Richards kept the Ultimate Nullifier in the FF's HQ kind of a "ready to go at any time" kind of situation? Likewise, what about all the crap Batman has amassed over the years in his Bat-Cave or (shudder) all of the mega-weapons Superman had hanging around his Fortress Of Solitude for so many years? It's almost a cliche - Teen Titans, Legion Of Super Heroes, Avengers - they've all kept piles of godawfully powerful stuff at their headquarters that they have made use of numerous times in moments of convenience.

I just apply the Vehicle/Follower/Base rules to "Artifacts" -- the character pays 1/5 the point cost, and if he or she uses it any more often than every ten or so adventures, he or she is going to be paying more for it.

 

Mr. Fantastic, Batman, the LSH, etc. have essentially purchased those gegaws as equipment for their base, anyway, so mechanically it's the same thing.

[Lightray]

Just to complicate matters...it could be put forth that some of the things Cap uses his shield for would be Independent or at least Usable by (an)other.

 

It seems likely that anyone could hide behind it or smack someone over the head with it like a trash can lid.

 

However, not everyone should be able to throw it, use it effectively in mortal combat or bounce it at the precise angles required to make it return to his hand.

See the "Applicability" paragraphs under the Focus limitation for definitions of Personal or Universal foci.

[HeroGM]

Re: A little help with a power construct? Shaman of Alpha Flight

 

lil late but......

 

The idea was that Shaman's bag was a gateway to somewhere else. That whatever he seemed to need he could pull out of his bag, but he needed to know what it was he was getting. He couldn't just reach in and pull out something he had never heard of before (though you could argue he always got what he needed through role playing). He also needed to have faith in himself and his magic.

 

There are cases of people taking his bag away and him not being able to do anything because his most powerful spells depended on ingredients from the bag. There are cases of him levitating, casting seeing spells, etc without his bag. Also anyone who looked inside the bag "lost their mind" (Exept his daughter, Elizabeth).

 

I only read the first 50 or so issues, plus lil guest shots here and there so not sure if anyone has taken it away and actually used it.

[fbdaury]

Re: A little help with a power construct? Shaman of Alpha Flight

 

Other than Michael Twoyoungmen, his daughter (the Talisman) has been the only other person able to pull anything out of the bag, first removing her circlet and later I think she used the bag herself when he went off to learn to use a completely different form of magic.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: A little help with a power construct? Shaman of Alpha Flight

 

Great comments above from several people. There seems to be a point of confusion that "Independent" doesn't determine whether someone else can use the focus - that's Applicability, a free choice when you make a focus. Basic logic: if others can use it, it's as likely to be an ally as an enemy at any given point in time.

 

We were chatting about this thread over the holidays and someone noted that, if Cap's shield is independent, he should get it for free - after all, the government made it, then handed it over to him.

 

To me (YMMV) Independent is best suited to a campaign where characters pay money, not points, for equipment. If all the villains have Independent foci, the heroes should be able to take them, and arm themselves accordingly, at no additional CP expenditure. That's not in genre for four colour, but very much in genre for Swords & Sorcery. That makes Independent a tough sell, at least to me, for a four colour game, but a lot easier for S&S.

 

A comic character who had an Independent focus? Due to the genre, that's a tough one. How about Cable's big gun? Whatever happened to that? Also, his satellite teleporting HQ was destroyed, and was missing long enough that one could opine he had to save up the XP to replace it. For foci that aren't "signature", Independent becomes, perhaps, a bit more viable.

[Lupus]

Re: A little help with a power construct? Shaman of Alpha Flight

 

I think this whole conversation has been very interesting from the point of view of working out how different people feel about certain limitations. I think they're all valid, btw - it's just what you feel reflects the reality of the game or the genre better. Just neat seeing it all come out.