Runehammer Posted June 8, 2005 Report Share Posted June 8, 2005 I'm having this idea roll around, comes from having an hour train ride to work in the morning that allows me to think of this stuff... Currently one of my players is a focus hog. Add to that the fact that he may be convincing one of my other players to help him out and start confiscating foci from the bad guys as research points I came up with this adder.... Take any focus, say an alien tech battlesuit ala Guyver (yes, I carp back to that one), be annoying and make it an OIF,OIHID, and throw in Independent to make an impossible to pass up lure, (You mean I could put this on now and use it? Yes...go ahead...). Now add the following: Side Effect: Suppress Ego Xd6, with Berserk Rage 14-/8- (Bomabarded with alien images of death and destruction) Or Side Effect: Suppress Ego Xd6 w/ Mind Control Xd6, single command (Kill!) The Xd6 I'd figure out once I build the thing from scratch, figure the previous owner managed to slowly get that aspect under control to a certain degree, gets me a chance to teach a lesson, yeah it may mean that the party may have to pummell one of its own but hey... Which wold work better? Or anyone else have any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted June 8, 2005 Report Share Posted June 8, 2005 Re: Devious Idea that may work once....once... For tech items, the answer is obvious, thinking about how corporations and governments control their hardware even nowadays. Give the focus a password. Authorized user gets the password with the hardware. But, the password needs to be changed at least every 60 days. You need the old password to set the new one. If you are so ditzy that you let the 60 days expire, then it locks out all other function waiting for password reset (so while waiting for the password, the focus is a boat anchor). Flub the old password 3 times, the focus self-destructs. That last could be as harmless as a memory wipe (turning the thing permanently into a paperweight) to the archtypal explosive or incendiary charge. An HKA with the same number of active points as the effect of the focus could be interesting. Of course, if it's a suit of powered armor that goes catatonic with the character in it, getting the character out of it could be an adventure in and of itself. The password update message box could be an annoyingly persistent Mental Illusion that won't leave your field of vision until you complete the procedure. All those annoying messageboxes ... but they're inside your head ... Now, a possibility is that the original owner is as careless about passwords as most real-life people are now. E.g., the armor has the old password scribbled with grease pencil on the back of its left hand. Roleplay that right, and the player has a chance to keep his toy. But if the scribble is in an alien language (remember that handwritten characters often don't look much like their keyboard equivalents), or if the focus has seen a month of hard use and the password has got smudged, that makes it a lot harder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ternaugh Posted June 8, 2005 Report Share Posted June 8, 2005 Re: Devious Idea that may work once....once... That would work, or you could try any of the following: The original owner shows up for it and demands it back. The suit requires rare "batteries" to recharge (lumps of unobtanium, bottles of tritium, or the souls of victims). Oh, and that little flashing icon in the suit? Well, that just let the wearer know before all of the servos lock, and you can't get out of the suit (or move). The suit has an automatic return circuit, which causes it to fly back to home base (wherever that is). The suit's AI automatically detects the intruder, and proceeds to subtly affect targeting, movement, and (occasionally) life support. The suit's reputation is wholly associated with the former wearer. The current user is now wanted by major law enforcement agencies for a laundry-list of crimes. Related to this theme, law enforcement wants the suit as evidence to prosecute the former wearer. Without it, much of their case goes away. The character is sued by the developers of the suit under the DMCA for violating certain encryption schemes in order to reverse engineer/use suit. The suit fits perfectly, if you're 5' 6" and weigh 120 lbs. Or, you could just take them aside, and tell them that it doesn't really fit genre to keep the loot (though museums that hold the "trophies" seem to be genre, just not reverse engineering). YMMV, JoeG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hugh Neilson Posted June 8, 2005 Report Share Posted June 8, 2005 Re: Devious Idea that may work once....once... Since you didn't pay points for it, you're a non-proficient weilder. That's -3 OCV, and whatever penalties you see fit for non-offensive powers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Black Lotus Posted June 8, 2005 Report Share Posted June 8, 2005 Re: Devious Idea that may work once....once... Since you didn't pay points for it' date=' you're a non-proficient weilder. That's -3 OCV, and whatever penalties you see fit for non-offensive powers.[/quote'] Personally, since I like hard or at least gritty sci-fi, I let them take/ carry whatever they want to from whomever they defeat. They defeated them, after all; the stuff is now there for the taking. Why would i punish them for taking an item which I allowed their enemies to use against them? As long as they can carry everything, fine. However, a good "hard science" option for after-battle corpses is that the armor of the defeated person is "damaged", perhaps beyond repair. I always do this with Power Armor. Weapons, however, are free for the taking. If you play mostly Supers, well, the rules say "If you keep a won item long-term, you have to pay character points for it to use it permanently." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
proditor Posted June 8, 2005 Report Share Posted June 8, 2005 Re: Devious Idea that may work once....once... And the genre convention for Supers is to make some Trophy hall where they store every insanely deadly device that was ever used against them so that at some point the Writer (GM) can have the "Superbrain breaks in and uses The Alchemist Stone against you!!!" plots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roy_The_Ruthles Posted June 9, 2005 Report Share Posted June 9, 2005 Re: Devious Idea that may work once....once... They idea for a combat suit gone wild is a fantastic one. I'll never forget when we went treasure hunting and my GM was busy that week, so we encounted a dungeon with no monsters, just a hat. What did this hat do? something like 15d6 of MindControl -> "Kill Everyone" so a few of us walk into the room, and then walk out and start attacking our friends. Eventually we had to break it just to get it to stop making us hurt each other before someone died. Now we don't treasure hunt as rambunciously Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karmakaze Posted June 9, 2005 Report Share Posted June 9, 2005 Re: Devious Idea that may work once....once... Now I have a mental image of a power suit with it's left blinker stuck on... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Pants Posted June 9, 2005 Report Share Posted June 9, 2005 Re: Devious Idea that may work once....once... Add to that the fact that he may be convincing one of my other players to help him out and start confiscating foci from the bad guys as research points I came up with this adder.... I used to have this problem. When I first started GMing Champions at the tender age of 15 (19 years ago), I had a group of players who were used to playing AD&D, and their focus was on combat and getting loot. Genre convention? What's that? All they saw were numbers on a sheet. At the time, I solved the problem passive-aggressively by using fewer focus-oriented villains, having any interesting foci disappear from unconscious villains, or making them too hard to take. Powered armor villains, for example, had armor that was extremely difficult and dangerous to take off. It was simple, and it worked. Later, after reading how the rules suggested I handle it, I started just bluntly informing players that in a Champions game, per the rules, foci gained without paying points will fall apart, be lost, stop working, etc. They can pick them up and use them in combat if they can... shortly thereafter, it's dead weight. If they whine and cry, I just explain that it's there to enforce the genre and game balance. If an item is of particular interest, and I allow it, a player can make it part of his repetoir by committing all of his forthcoming experience to paying for it, but it doesn't work until he pays all the points. Sort of like layaway. It does cause some whining among d20 addicts and focus hogs, but as long as you're firm and consistent, they should eventually give up. If they don't, you can always tell them to shut up or leave. - Cap Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roy_The_Ruthles Posted June 9, 2005 Report Share Posted June 9, 2005 Re: Devious Idea that may work once....once... i agree, it's a genre thing. If you're playing a high fantasy game where focus is on dungeon crawling (orcs in a 10' by 10' room with a chest) then they're gonna stop and loot, but if you explain to them that's not "in genre" then genre things should happen to them that prevents that like... space ion storm prevents foci they haven't payed for from using while the ship is attacked by aliens living in the storm or Pay for Focus Man -> Supress vs Foci not bought with character points, always on (-1/2) etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runehammer Posted June 9, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2005 Re: Devious Idea that may work once....once... My problems are myriad with the current genre I'm running but my players seem to be happy, the genre is based on Bubblegum Crisis/Ghost in the Shell at present so there are battlesuits, cyborgs and fun vehicles with superheavy weapons, I rather like the mental image of the stuck blinker, however... I think I may just run a Black Magic M-66 type villian the does a metalstorm on the stray foci, possibly a permanent transform that targets foci only, I only have a couple foci that are getting unwieldy, I believe the Guv'mint will show up and confiscate those to have them studied by 'Top Men in the field'. Who? Top...men. Don't worry, it's all being taken care of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dust Raven Posted June 9, 2005 Report Share Posted June 9, 2005 Re: Devious Idea that may work once....once... In campaigns were characters pay points for their equipment, I've used a system of karma for picking up and using things you haven't paid for. Basically, if you put it down during the advanture you picked it up in, nothing bad is gonna happen. But if you keep it... For every five real points of item you keep without paying for, you immediately receive 1d6 Unluck to compensate. This immediately balances your character, and after picking up and keeping a few things you "shouldn't" have, the world starts to hate you. It's good karma for a hero to defeat this villain and take away his weapons, but very, very bad karma for that hero to use those weapons himself. Of course, if the hero really wants to, he can pitch in the cost of a piece of equipment from his XP and all will be good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Waters Posted June 9, 2005 Report Share Posted June 9, 2005 Re: Devious Idea that may work once....once... You could have something that looks like a focus but is in fact an alien parasite/symbiont that...hang on I think that one might have been done... Actually I'm more into subtler lessons, I mean, let them have the powersuit. It works fine. Mind you, haven't worked out how to unlock it so the poor shmuch is stuck in there with very limited food/water and possibly air.... Good fodder for a 'race against the clock' adventure: finding how to crack Gadget Girl out tof the armour before she suffocates Maybe they've put the original wearer in prison and they have to do a little quid pro quo before he'll fess up with the magic word...I'm sure you'll think of something cruel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karmakaze Posted June 9, 2005 Report Share Posted June 9, 2005 Re: Devious Idea that may work once....once... In real life, I once had someone walk up to me in a parking lot and mention that they had just purchased a car of the same make and model as mine. Sheepishly, the question was "I've acidentally hit the emergency flashers and can't find the button to turn them back off. Where is it on this kind of car?" I was very kind and did not laugh until I was well outside of earshot. As far as funny battlesuit quirks, there's also having the battlesuit's previous owner be a fan of whatever kind of music the PC hates. And apparently the sound system was wired in to always provide a soundtrack... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badger Posted June 10, 2005 Report Share Posted June 10, 2005 Re: Devious Idea that may work once....once... No not Celine Dion NOOOOOO!! Please help me for the love of God. Help me please.....Kill me, just kill me (something like that) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Negative Posted June 10, 2005 Report Share Posted June 10, 2005 Re: Devious Idea that may work once....once... Well, given an alien battlesuit as an example, not all foci have to fit neatly into the Personal/Universal dichotomy. For example, with an alien battlesuit: It may be controlled by neural interface, pluggin a jack into a socket at the base of your spine. Don't have a socket at the base of your spine? Either you discover this before cracking open the suit and climbing in (nice), or you now have a hole in your spine jammed full of active electrical wiring (nasty). The suit protects the wearer's internal organs (which aren't in the same place as yours). Oops. The suit bends at the wearer's joints (which aren't in the same place as yours). Crack. The suit's trauma systems alleivate pain and injury by injecting medicines (tailored for an alien physiology-and varying from useless to lethal for you). The visual sensors are calibrated for a species with eyes spaced differently, with different focal points, and which sees on slighly lower wavelengths, making all images blurry, indistinct, and nauseating. The suit is controlled by interpreting electrical impulses in the wearer's body. Unfortunately, there's no easy or obvious way to recalibrate those settings for a new user. The suit (alien or otherwise, is designed for use by a skilled, well-trained operative. Use by an inexperienced goob from another planet is about as successful and dangerous as strapping a chimp into a scuba suit and tossing him overboard. Now if your player is grabbing foci to study, analyze, and replicate, then arguably, this is in genre. Numerous "super-scientists" have done the same. Determining the level of difficulty and expenditure of effort required is the province of the GM. I'd feel a bit "picked on" if a suit did something odd and specifically designed to screw over an unauthorized user. However, there's no reason to assume that all technology is as user-friendly as tools at Home Depot. Even common scientific equipment can be dangerous if used carelessly. There's no reason why alien weaponry wouldn't be the same. Just design features that are tailored to the original user, and they'll almost automatically be designed NOT to be used casually. This would encourage people to approach odd equipment carefully and if they wanted to use it, to spend long periods learning how to do so safely (and character points too). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ternaugh Posted June 10, 2005 Report Share Posted June 10, 2005 Re: Devious Idea that may work once....once... For those with Traveller experience, imagine a human trying to accurately fire a Hiver rifle. (What do you mean, you don't have six opposable tentacles on your "hand"?) JoeG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle A. Posted June 10, 2005 Report Share Posted June 10, 2005 Re: Devious Idea that may work once....once... Or do what I did, make the design make sense to an alien mind but not a human mind. For instance when they board the alien vessel and somehow manage to get it to guide them to the bridge. A strand of light appears on the wall and it moves back and forth. Chances are they'll follow it the direction its headed and not the direction it came from. The blinking red light on the alien beam weapon just came on after a heavy bout of firing? They'll assume its overheating and normaly toss it, when in fact its just recharging. They pressed a button on the bridge and the ship starts speaking and displaying what looks to be a countdown? Nine times out of ten they evacuate right then, when all its doing is asking for the passcode. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roy_The_Ruthles Posted June 10, 2005 Report Share Posted June 10, 2005 Re: Devious Idea that may work once....once... Kyle, that's genius Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onyxclaw Posted June 10, 2005 Report Share Posted June 10, 2005 Re: Devious Idea that may work once....once... heh, items like these are always fun. I'm also doing a kind of lay away, except I'm only requireing the person who aquired the item to pay one point per item siezed a session, up to the item's cost. But that's for all items. If you sell an item I'll let you transfer the points to another item, and if an item is destroyed then you loose them. We'll see if it works. Mainly I did this to keep the equipment based characters more in step with the non equipment based characters. That was a problem in a previous game I played in, especially with item creation rules. for x months of down time (5min in session) an equipment based character could make for himself a lightsaber! with sucess rolls, where well the PC dragon just kinda sat around. After a few months of down time the dragon was way behind in effectiveness since it didn't have another source of power creation other than waiting for xp. How does it feel to be a dragon and get your ass kicked by a professor?? This way (same as a few of the other ways above) a character has to think about wether or not he wants the shiney new toy, or he wants to improve his actual character in a lasting way and more permanent way. I do love the idea of the rogue armour...actually I have a few arcane items that have nasty side effects. One is this amulet for a litch. It drains strength while boosting intelligence and ego...it also slowly makes you look like a zombie. Yeah, she wasn't a litch, hehe just a poor shmoe who wanted the extra knowlege. It did slowly wear off though. in the one shot I did last week it was funny to see the character's faces when they went back to thier hold and instead of the litch they were supposed to bring back for their reward the body became a 20 year old girl! heh, see what happens when you play with toys? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onyxclaw Posted June 10, 2005 Report Share Posted June 10, 2005 Re: Devious Idea that may work once....once... yes kyle, I love it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle A. Posted June 12, 2005 Report Share Posted June 12, 2005 Re: Devious Idea that may work once....once... Kyle' date=' that's genius[/quote'] Thanks, its nice to get confirmation on what I've always known Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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