VPP Nightmare!

[Kirby]

Re: VPP Nightmare!

 

Making up new uses for the VPP is the whole point of having a VPP.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't ever allow new uses, I'm saying don't allow it during gameplay. In-between games or in-between adventures (depending on SFX and limitations) is fine. It's possible and probably that the player will already have a dozen or so powers created before game 1; that's fine. But I wouldn't allow a new power to be created on the spot during gameplay. One of the many reasons is just the thing this player is doing.

[Roy_The_Ruthles]

Re: VPP Nightmare!

 

i'm totally in favor of coming up with new powers as the game goes on. I'll spend the whole sesion in a hero book sometimes, just to appear, with a carefully crafted power (usually everything on armor) and smite evil with my mage powers (usually repesnted by a big sword i have)

[Kirby]

Re: VPP Nightmare!

 

10 Distinctive Features: Buck Teeth and Braces (Easily Concealed; Always Noticed and Causes Major Reaction; Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses)

30 Enraged: When appearance is made fun of (Common), go 14-, recover 8-

10 Vulnerability: 1 1/2 x STUN Hits to face (Common)

15 Social Limitation: Secret Identity Frequently (11-), Major

20 Hunted: DEMON 8- (Mo Pow, NCI, Harshly Punish)

10 Social Limitation: Reputation for violence (Frequently), Minor

5 DNPC - Brig. General Andrew Singer: Father 8- (Slightly Less Powerful than the PC; Useful Noncombat Position or Skills; Unaware of character's adventuring career/Secret ID)

I don't think buck teeth and braces qualify for a 'major reaction' though if it's that rare in your campaign world, or that much of a taboo, I suppose so. The Enraged just seems munchkiny. She gives herself a 6 COM and will fly off the handle? I hope she never asks a normal if a dress makes her butt look fat. I don't understand how her DF is Major but that her rep for violence is Minor. That seems awfully strange.

 

As an aside, I think a 5 PRE is just ridiculous for a hero, but it may fit for the campaign.

 

With NCI, I would think DEMON would put up posters and billboards making fun of her left and right, once her Enraged is discovered. Then she goes crazy attacking all of the 'advertisements' and gets herself arrested - by a DEMON agent posing (or even working) as a police officer.

 

Crud, once again I've digressed from the subject matter (VPP), but it's just so easy.

[Roy_The_Ruthles]

Re: VPP Nightmare!

 

that's as bad as my character with enraged "insults to orc culture" who was a time bomb waiting to happen. Someone called him a smelly orc, and he leveled a bar.

 

I expect to see similar distruction here.

[Vorsch]

Re: VPP Nightmare!

 

Even a Cosmic VPP is limited in what it can do, -0 only powers of a specific sfx

Just means you can change it effortlessly rather than take half second and a skill roll, neither of which affect the powers you can try for.

 

A Gadgeteer VPP that cant produce breathing apparatus or IR gogles is absurd, while a Power Cosmic one that could would be equally absurd. Sfx defines what you can try for.

 

As stated the VPP she has is not limited by resources, if it was that would be a limititation, so arguments saying she has not the right materials are wrong.

 

If time travel is possible tech wise then theres nothing in her description that says she cant do it, apart from a special power, but then again so are gas masks.

[st barbara]

Re: VPP Nightmare!

 

Why are the gadgets OIF rather than OAF ? Way back in the dim dark distant past we had a PC whose power was defined as the ability to cobble gadgets together from whatever was handy. They only worked when SHE used them or was in the near vicinity. Part of her VPP was however taken up by ONE gadget (a variable force field belt) which she wore, leaving her with not a lot of other gadgets on hand so that, in an emergency, she had to spend time (and roll dice well) to "invent" something with the points that she had available at the time.

[Sean Waters]

Re: VPP Nightmare!

 

As for the robot/mystical spider' date=' remind her that the android was what you were originally told and it's going to stay that way. For the gadgeteer pool, I fail to see how she could create Life Support in the Ice Age.QUOTE']

 

 

....easy enough, if you have some bits and pieces with you (even if you have not got the bits, you can eventually make them, although it might take years...)- some sort of ice based stasis chamber. Something positively Merlinesque. Mind you, this does seem like a player being petty and childish. Fine. Actions, consequences...

 

She makes her stasis chamber and goes to sleep. Make her sit there while the others take their actions - hopefully they'll sort out the plot, get back to the modern day and maybe even stop her doing something un-heroic like killing a mad scientist.

 

She'll be bored stiff. Don't let her join in as she's in stasis. I know that is being petty and childish, but....

 

If you wanted to be less petty and childish, give the others some reason to wake her up, or have her come back in time from the future, just as she is about to go into stasis, badly disfigured from radiation burns, and warn herself that going into stasis leads to the end of the world somehow. Her future self can die before she explains why. When she decides NOT to go into stasis, her future self fades away, but keeps coming back if she changes her mind again.

 

Ultimately though, the only way you'll solve this is to have a chat and explain you are not enjoying the way she is playing the character, and ask her to be reasonable about it.

[Sean Waters]

Re: VPP Nightmare!

 

...and as for the spider, it may be that the gadgets are mystical AND electronic, so the EMP does work. Or you could just swallow that one and use a mystical EMP next time.

[shadow_walker]

Re: VPP Nightmare!

 

I like her disadvantages, Buck Teeth and Braces Causes Major Reaction? Hell I'm screwed then if my teeth cause a major reaction out of people. Anyway I agree with what people are saying, sit her down and explain what a gadget pool is. Heck I'm currently starting to embrace the glory that is a magic VPP.

[Kirby]

Re: VPP Nightmare!

 

...Buck Teeth and Braces Causes Major Reaction? Hell I'm screwed then if my teeth cause a major reaction out of people.

Actually, come to think of it, if her DF causes a Major reaction, then when she's around civilians, they should have Major reactions to it: some being grossed out and look away, some other stare, while the insensitive -perhaps teenagers- make fun of her. OOPS! Now she either beats the tar out of them with her MA, or uses her HKA on them if it's a common enough attack.

 

Scene:

PC: -Walking down the street-

Teen: Wow! You sure have some big teeth, chipmunk.

PC: WHAT?! How dare you! -Smacks teen around- Take this!

Witness: Oh, no! She looks like she's gone crazy again! Run!

PC: What? I look crazy? You'll pay for that! -smacks witness around-

[Zed-F]

Re: VPP Nightmare!

 

I agree with the others in many respects' date=' but I have to question this. Why did you send a robot with an EMP attack to destroy her robot? Was the robot breaking the game, or were you just being mean? This was a planned encounter with EMP weilding robots or did you just dream this up after she aquired her robot?[/quote']

Because GMs are supposed to challenge the players, maybe?

 

First rule: the players are supposed to win.

Not every game uses this rule. It's not appropriate for every genre. It's not even appropriate for every 4-color superhero game. The players should always have a chance, but they can screw up too. They can get in over their heads, make mistakes, or just suffer from bad luck. Otherwise, how would we ever get any deathtrap scenarios?

 

I think you need to stop GMing for a while, then talk it out with your players. Find out if the problem is you or her. I'm guessing some of both, but if you're creating NPCs just to take away her powers, I think it may be you more than her.

I'll all in favour of talking to the player, but stop GMing? Aren't you coming down a bit hard on the GM here?

[starblaze]

Re: VPP Nightmare!

 

I agree with the others in many respects, but I have to question this. Why did you send a robot with an EMP attack to destroy her robot? Was the robot breaking the game, or were you just being mean? This was a planned encounter with EMP weilding robots or did you just dream this up after she aquired her robot?

 

First rule: the players are supposed to win.

 

I think you need to stop GMing for a while, then talk it out with your players. Find out if the problem is you or her. I'm guessing some of both, but if you're creating NPCs just to take away her powers, I think it may be you more than her.

 

The robot attack was a planned encounter. This is from a published adventure.

 

BTW, I talked to the player last night and we straightened out some things. It basically came down to one of two things. One, she explained everything see does on the fly and take up time building all these powers, or two she just does what she does and I decide whther she can do it or not. As for the whole LS: Immortality thing she was just considering that as a last resort scenario, if nothing else helps to get them back home. And she was sort of pissed because she left most of her raw materials at home in the 20th Century (1963 to be exact).

 

As for the joke character reference, welllll, she likes to be goofy characters sometimes and she has fun doing it so I usually let it slide. Besides I have alot of fun with it at time as well. I might changed the braces and retainer to something more like a physical limitation, she really can't eat anything solid so she is always eating liquids which means she always hungry. She is also, if you noticed her COM, really ugly, which would translate better as a Distinctive Feature.

 

I think it really comes down to the fact the VPP's can be a real headache. They can be alot of fun but they are expensive and time consuming. So much so that I may just disallow them altogether or just run something heroic so it doesn't become an issue.

 

Oh, and thanks for your assistance.