YOUR Favourite/Funniest/Silliest [b]Presence Attack[/b] Moment?

[TheQuestionMan]

Greeting Herophiles, I have noticed a few threads of late addressed to my one of my favourite aspects of Hero System "PRESENCE".

 

"So no $#!) there we were..."

 

Blur the Speedster, ??? a Brick/Energy Blaster/Flyer, and Cougar a Martial Artist (w/ Fists of Fury). The mutant supervillain Holocaust and his Mutant Agents have attacked a huge Yacht in docked in Vancouver. The Heroes(us) arrive and pick off several Mutant Agents before confronting Holocaust.

 

Suddenly, Holocaust appears out of no where and "Presence Attack" Blur and ??? freeze and then flee in panic. Cougar(me) had been sneaking up behind Holocaust and froze in place.

 

Meanwhile Holocaust begins to pursue the heroes. Finally Cougar snaps out of it Leaps into the air unleashes his "Fist of Fury" from surprise and knocks Holocaust unconcious.

 

Cougar doesn't see his partners until the next day and both are in need of psychiatric help.

 

Lesson learned, never forget to buy EGO or PRE during character creation. Always sneak up on the bad guys, because otherwise you may be unprepared for there attack.

 

Or to quote one of the Heroes "Don't take time to think things through, because you'll soon realize how nuts you have to be to even concider attacking someone like that"

 

 

Cheers

 

QM

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: YOUR Favourite/Funniest/Silliest Presence Attack Moment?

 

My favorite was intimidating some thugs for info with Jack O'Lantern, 1930's crimefighter.

 

"You guys know about the Shadow, right? Heard about him on the radio?"

 

"Uh, yeah."

 

"Well you see, the Shadow knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men. Me? Me...I gotta go look." (draws sword)

 

[Duke Bushido]

Re: YOUR Favourite/Funniest/Silliest Presence Attack Moment?

 

I think my favorite is one I found posted on Surbrook's pages a while back:

new hero, role-paying his origin story. So far, he's even unnamed (If I am remembering the correctly).

 

He sees a crime being commited, wraps a scarf around his face, leaps into the fray with act of violence, soliloquy-- the whole hero Shtick. And apparently it gets some results, right up until the started leader gasps out "Who are you?!"

 

At which point the player evidently realizes he has not yet named his character. So he replies with "I don't know....."

 

I'm not sure how accurate that re-telling is, but there's a few funny things on Surbrook's site; he has a couple pages of it. Fun reading!

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: YOUR Favourite/Funniest/Silliest Presence Attack Moment?

 

One of my best one I didn't even know that's what it was - I had only been playing Champs about 3 weeks, and I was running a female TK/telepath who had a fairly decent forcefield. So she was getting into it with an energy projector (who had a hates/fears women as a psychlim, I found out later). He blasts my character and does like 1 stun. I ego attack. He blasts again, and does 3 stun. I ego attack. He pushes (obvious by description) and rolls crappy and does 6 stun. I say with much disdain in my voice "Is that the best you can do?".

Gm Says "Presence attack"

I say "What's that"

[Flames]

Re: YOUR Favourite/Funniest/Silliest Presence Attack Moment?

 

Years and years ago, probably in the mid-1980s, I decided to have the heroes in my Champions campaign go up against a giant Godzilla-like lizard.

 

I figured out how tall the thing was, and how many levels of Growth it would have, and wrote it up.

 

Well, with all the Growth, the thing had something like an 80 PRE.

 

So when the heroes showed up and started attacking it, the creature smashed its foot down and roared, committing a violent action and adding a couple of dice to its 16d6 PRE attack.

 

The heroes hadn't neglected to buy up their PRE, per se, but a lucky roll on 18d6 is going to be between 65 and 75, and the heroes were so overwhelmed on the PRE attack result chart they all just ran and flew away from the huge scary monster.

 

It was like in Ghostbusters, when Venkman says to Egon, "Ray has gone bye-bye, Egon, whatta you got left?" and Egon replies, "Sorry, Peter, I'm terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought."

 

I don't remember how that scenario resolved itself. Maybe the military came in or something.

 

From that point on, I had my giant monsters all sell their PRE back to pay for their Damage Reduction.

[Egyptoid]

Re: YOUR Favourite/Funniest/Silliest Presence Attack Moment?

 

White Knite, my Green-Lantern like Energy projector,

has just gotten cornered in a HtH fight with

a large female brick villain. His entire power pool is

in things completely inappropriate for fisticuffs.

 

He's gonna get pasted until he re-arranges his VPP,

if he can rearrange his powers....

 

Blue Bat, the team gadgeteer, has a spare phase handy just then,

so he tosses a battarang (focus RKA) at Lady Brick.

the player rolls a natural 18, total fumble. so the GM has

him roll to see how bad, but the blade just stuck

into the wall behind White Knite. (I'm glad, could have hit my character)

 

But I'm quick thinking, so White Knite cowers down away from the battarang.

and says to Lady-Brick:

"That's weird, Blue Bat never ever uses the batt-bombs indoors!!?!"

she bought it, but only by a few points, but one extra phase was all we needed....

 

[Hermit]

Re: YOUR Favourite/Funniest/Silliest Presence Attack Moment?

 

While not my favorite, one on HEROcentral I enjoyed was with Gaze. He controls minds, but is not a telepath, therefore he has to order them to tell what they know etc. Part of his background includes the fact that he left a crime lord a twitching vegatable (it was when he didn't understand the full implications of his powers). Later he interogated Ankylasaur after the Saints had stripped him out of his armor.

 

"Do you know me? I am the Gaze. You can tell us all we want to know, or I can -make- you say it. If you are fortunate, VERY Fortunate, my touch on your mind will be gentle... but I have slipped... once. Make your choice."

[teh bunneh]

Re: YOUR Favourite/Funniest/Silliest Presence Attack Moment?

 

I had an Air Elemental character named Wind. She bought her PRE down to something like 6 (she was supposed to be shy and timid).

 

We're in a big battle against Thor (not the Marvel Thor -- the real thing) and she attempts to suck the air out of his lungs. "What's this? A mortal tries to use the air against me? Foolish creature, do you not know that Thor is master of the atmosphere? Bow down before me!"

 

GM rolls his PRE attack, and rolls phenomenally well. It is so off-the-chart that I just handed my character sheet over to him. "Looks like Thor's got a new servant," I told him.

 

Luckily, at the end of the session, Thor told her to spread his name and worship among mortals, so I got my character back (with a new Psyche Lim to show for it!).

 

Bill.

[Alverant]

Re: YOUR Favourite/Funniest/Silliest Presence Attack Moment?

 

We were stopping a back robbery as a prelude to a bigger plot. They come out as we come upon the scene. My character shouts out, "Stand back! My sidekick will handle this!" After the laughter died down he said, "Go get them,___" and say the name of another PC with low presence. The "presence attack" worked and our teammate actually charged out to attack.

[Susano]

Re: YOUR Favourite/Funniest/Silliest Presence Attack Moment?

 

I think my favorite is one I found posted on Surbrook's pages a while back:

new hero, role-paying his origin story. So far, he's even unnamed (If I am remembering the correctly).

 

He sees a crime being commited, wraps a scarf around his face, leaps into the fray with act of violence, soliloquy-- the whole hero Shtick. And apparently it gets some results, right up until the started leader gasps out "Who are you?!"

 

At which point the player evidently realizes he has not yet named his character. So he replies with "I don't know....."

 

Allow me to quote: "I... don't have a name yet...."

[Enforcer84]

Re: YOUR Favourite/Funniest/Silliest Presence Attack Moment?

 

My best is the old: "Golden Avenger thank God you're here!" line I pulled on a traitorous vampiric Silver Avenger. Got him to look around and smashed him into a highspeed/security elevator in Stronghold.

[Duke Bushido]

Re: YOUR Favourite/Funniest/Silliest Presence Attack Moment?

 

Allow me to quote: "I... don't have a name yet...."

 

 

Thanks for the correction, kind Sir. :wink:

 

I was going by memory;

I need to get back around to looking at your site. I haven't popped in since I was last on the Sysabend list.

 

Good stuff, as I recall.

 

Duke

[hooligan x]

Re: YOUR Favourite/Funniest/Silliest Presence Attack Moment?

 

My first BBB character was a noble vampire (I know, I know...)

Our team was trying to stop the assassination of Queen Elizabeth II and Darkfang (or whatever I called him) had found the sniper on a rooftop, grapped him and drained him. He spotted another shooter in a sixth floor window across the street so he jump/glided over the motorcade and through the window, shattering the glass. He dropped the first assassin at the feet of the shooter and said "Fresh meat! in his spooky vampire voice. The sniper wet himself and fled. Then the third baddy hiding in the shadows blew Dorkfang back across the street with a LAWS rocket. Four recoveries later, dorkfang was conratulated by his teammates for foiling the ambush.

[Big Willy]

Re: YOUR Favourite/Funniest/Silliest Presence Attack Moment?

 

My favourite comes from the first epilogue to my old Overwatch campaign.

 

It's the 22nd Century, and the entire human race has been enslaved overnight by a machine empire from another galaxy. Only the great immortals of the old 1960s campaign are immune, since they were never issued with the ubiquitous cyberware the aliens have hijacked. So the Amazing Bolt leaves his Himalayan retirement fastness; Duke Nightmare returns from Hell; God Girl pulls out of the Galactic Inter-Pantheon Grand Prix, leaving Nodens to triumph for the third millennium running... et cetera, et cetera. These are all 2000+ point characters, inspired by the inflatio ad absurdum approach of DC One Million.

 

So they all get together and decide to wipe out the aliens, and I'm gearing up for a series of enormous space battles, with much shaking of the Saucepan of 40D6. But before they proceed to the heart of the alien empire, they have to liberate Earth - so Bolt flies up to the colossal Governor-vessel in charge of the Solar system, pumps all his VPP points into PRE, and says:

 

"Oi! You! Stop!"

 

The Saucepan shakes... D6 roll out all over the table... a couple of extra dice are rolled for reputation and the like, for all the difference it makes...

 

...and the Governor-ship does what it's told. It terminates activity. Full system shutdown, and no more signal to its drones on the ground.

[Yogzilla]

Re: YOUR Favourite/Funniest/Silliest Presence Attack Moment?

 

Definitely a toss-up for me...

 

(1) This was back in college, when a friend of mine was running a large group of heroes going up against a neo-Nazi force of baddies. Before the fighting could begin, our resident trickster god (easily the highest point PC in the game; even though the campaign was only a few months old) started making this very inspiring and patriotic speech. GM ruled that given his phenomonal PRE, everyone just stood there listening - - a PRE attack would be made at the end of speech to determine the final outcome. So, he goes on, getting loud and stirring, using his sentient costume (story for another day :-) to take on a very proper and dignified look. The team illusionist leaned over to the GM and said, "I'll project a waving American flag behind him as he speaks." It was truly something; one of those "man, you had to be there" moments... As the speech reached its climax, the GM was ready to afford HEFTY bonuses to his PRE attack, when the team empath states, "I'll subtly influence the emotions of the bad guys to make them even more awe-inspired." She rolls her dice - - and critically fails (we were using the nat-3 = critical success / nat-18 = critical failure method )!!! GM: "Ok... Well, they attack en masse." Sigh...

 

(2) More recent campaign, this time I'm GMing. New Year's party, group of heroes (unknown to the world at large, mind you) are at a 80's-style dance club where admission is $$$ being raised for charity. Suddenly, a para-military squad (think proto-Viper) rush in and attempt to get the $$, valuables, and some high-profile hostages. Heroes go into action. The resident shapeshifter (same player as the trickster god above; go figure ) sneaks past the squad to block their exit. The other heroes rout the squad, and those not already taken out decide to retreat. Shapeshifter decides to take on the form of Cthulhu - - player asks me, "So, the VPP to handle abilities in different forms; that also can cover stats, right?" I'm thinking he's going to boost his STR and entangle the baddies in mutliple tentacles, so I say, "That's right." Shapeshifter: "Cool, then I dump the entire VPP into PRE and try to scare them." Me: ""

Probably shouldn't have allowed it, but I have to admit it was awfully fun to apply his roll versus each of the goon squad's PRE stat... "Ok, he's barfing, so's he, he's screaming, clawing his eyes out, screaming, barfing, coronary, etc etc etc..."

[Mentor]

Re: YOUR Favourite/Funniest/Silliest Presence Attack Moment?

 

My favorite PRE story goes back to the 1980s when I was still deciding if Hero was a reasonable system for non Super games. Our players wanted to be a villain team and they designed a number of terrorists and agents infiltrating the US. Trebuchet had designed a particularly tough and intimidating GRU thug.

 

I decided to oppose them with...The A Team. Yep, the fearsome foursome whose weapon skills were the bane of auto tires, diabolical devices and handheld weapons everywhere. Anyhow, the plot was that the A Team had inflitrated their hotel but been captured by the communist agents, rather too easily, which demonstrated my lack of skill as a GM more than any inherent problems with the NPCs.

 

IIRC, just as the PCs were about to off Murdoch, mostly for just being annoying, the door is kicked in by a heavily muscled African American male with a Mohawk haircut, wearing enough gold jewelery around his neck to prove his strength, ripping channels in the ceiling overhead with an M-60 machine gun. The effect of B. J. Barakas blasting the room with machine gun fire, bellowing "I pity the fool who lays a hand on my friends!", to the accompaniment of 7.62 casings jingling like little bells as the ricocheted of the floor and each other, combined with a really decent roll of the PRE attack dice, caused the majority of PCs to surrender immediately and in the case of the GRU thug who had like a 20 PRE himself, to faint dead away.

 

Since then, I have decided that I don't as a rule like to use PRE attacks of that sort against the players, but the incident really sold me on the ability to design any fictional character or archtype with the Hero system and make him operate close to my view of their abilities.

[Ura-Maru]

Re: YOUR Favourite/Funniest/Silliest Presence Attack Moment?

 

Heh. The worst presence attack ever, followed by the worst assist ever. From the first ‘real’ champs game I was a player in, circa 91, or maybe a little earlier. Exact words I’m not sure of, but something very close to this:

 

Desolid Ghost Man: “Surrender, evildoer! -mumble mumble- The SPIRIT WORLD Will be angry . . .

 

ah . . .

 

otherwise?â€

 

Whole Table: “What?â€

 

Me: “No! say ‘I am the ghosts of all the men you have wrongly killed!’â€

 

DGM: “Oh, to hell with it. ‘I am the ghosts of all the men you have wrongly killed! And, ah . . .’â€

 

Evil Agent: “Actually, I’ve never killed anybody.â€

 

DGM: “Ah, I am the spirits you WILL kill! . . . ah, I think.â€

 

 

This actually went on for about 10 minutes.

 

That’s also the game where the team brick through a military helicopter into the lobby of a bank. During peak business hours. And then acted surprised when there were casualties.

 

“I am the ghosts of all the men . . .†is still tossed around today. And mention of the bank, of course. Along with my own contribution to gaming culture, “I’m best against weak foes!â€

 

My non CAK vigilante, by the way, had the lowest body count on the team, and the one punk he did kill was an accident. (12 body on an 8d6 attack! You can’t hold me responsible for that!)

 

---

From the same game: “I’m supposed to be the dark avenger! Why aren’t they scared of me?!â€

[Ura-Maru]

Re: YOUR Favourite/Funniest/Silliest Presence Attack Moment?

 

Oh, wait. There were another couple from the same campaign.

 

My character, Cougar, had an insanely high Dex and Speed, a moderately big KA (it was very big for the first half of the campaign, before we got Pools working right) and a hilarious tendency to roll max damage, or close to it, when shooting at targets with no resistant defenses.

 

As he always went first, (Dex 40 back in the days when everyone was 250 points) he usually got a shot off right after the bad guys showed up and did their identifying quote.

 

Two bad guys I remember particularly well.

 

Bad Guy: “You cannot teach me anything, but awe of my own power!â€

Cougar’s Gun: -Bang!- 14 body

Bad Guy: “Oh . . . God . . .†Falls over.

I wish I’d thought of something clever to say at this point, but I think it was something like “How about a bullet!â€

 

And the second one:

Bestial Bad Guy: “Ah! The thrill of the hunt! The joy of the kill! It is for this that I exist!â€

Cougar’s Gun: -Bang!-

BBG: “Uhhhh . . .†Falls over.

 

This was particularly funny, because we fought that villan team three more times. And each time, on phase twelve, Cougar shot the beast guy and dropped him.

 

---

The real question is, who WERE the bad guys? They were published characters, probably late third edition or early fourth.

[Adventus]

Re: YOUR Favourite/Funniest/Silliest Presence Attack Moment?

 

High powered campaign. Character had been around for years.

 

I had a player with a character in my campaign named Vi-man, an insectoid martial artist, with a 70 point VPP. This VPP only changed powers when exposed to radiation(random powers(gm fiat)) and when under extreme stress (powers to oppose said stress). Dr. D realizes that this being needs to be removed from the equation if He wishes to Take Over The WORLD. So he has Menton turn him into his puppet.

 

The character had disads:hates mentalists, Hates being mind controlled Vuln towards mental attacks. Now extreme stress: combat did not qualify as extreme stress. Being Mind controlled for 2 weeks does. Dr. D is 'allying' himself with prof Meurte in taking over the world.

 

Cut to Dr D's speech in the United Nations, the heroes are fighting his forces and losing. Viman is tough. Finally the stress of being Mind Controlled get to be extreme. His Vpp changes making him immune to Menton's powers. Viman does a move thru on menton. Menton realizing that none of his known powers now work on Viman he goes desolid. Viman goes thru Menton and bounces off of Dr.D. Dr. D looks down on the worthless piece of scum insect that dared to attack HIM! And he Crushes him like the bug he is.(does exactly the body the Character had in defence and didn't even stun viman. Of course Dr.D didn't look down to 'see' if his opponent was dead. Arrogance you know. of course he is dead. I am Dr. Destroyer. If I crushed him of course he is dead.

 

Character looked up, set, brace, pop the claw, Martial Punch to the Groin. like 9d6 HKA APx2. Dr.D has 1 body left. DrD goes up and falls to the Ground dying. VimanStands up, faces the camera. "New York is mine. Commit a crime here I will kill you Myself." Rolled his 70d6 pre attack. Crime rate skyrocketed in New york as every criminal TURNED themselve in with incriminating evidence and confessions. People in other countries were turning themselves in for crimes they just tought about committing..

[Hermit]

Re: YOUR Favourite/Funniest/Silliest Presence Attack Moment?

 

Most embarrassing one, details are fuzzy

 

Playing the typical "Huger than thou" Brick, standing about 8 foot tall, wide at shoulders etc...

 

VIPER fires its BIG gun... Brick aborts to Missile Deflection, the special effect of "Taking it like a man"

 

It has NO effect on him, nada...

One VIPER agent gapes, "It didn't even penetrate the skin!"

 

My Brick's hasty response, "Yeah, but I'm about to penetrate -you-!" Said with a fist smacking into a palm.

 

Then I thought of all the ramifications of what my character just said.

 

AFTER the folks at the table could stop laughing and catch a breath, I got a pretty good bonus on my PRE attack.