Character concepts that cry out for GM Vengeance

[Susano]

Re: Character concepts that cry out for GM Vengeance

 

Gods save me from 15yr olds who want to play EXACT copies of Dante from Devil May Cry.

 

I was asked if my site had or would have such a character sheet. I said "who"?

[Wolf1066]

Re: Character concepts that cry out for GM Vengeance

 

Gods save me from 15yr olds who want to play EXACT copies of Dante from Devil May Cry.

A quick google and I'm nearly up to speed.

 

Please explain, for the benefit of those of us who play RPGs rather than computer games, what Dante's vital stats are - aside from some stupid UberHollywood fighting techniques and running up walls?

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Character concepts that cry out for GM Vengeance

 

The seeds of his own demise built in, as it were.

 

GM: The ten-year-old just failed his weapon handling roll and accidentally shot your character in the head...

 

Oh, it gets better. Got some new information about the game last night ... it was a laser, offered as a loaner from a vigilante/merc type.

 

So, at some point, in this game, Ben '10' Tennison is going to be running around brandishing a laser pistol while he waits for the Omnitrix to recharge (see Bloodstone's Ben 10 writeups, which the GM permitted him to use en toto).

[Wolf1066]

Re: Character concepts that cry out for GM Vengeance

 

Oh, it gets better. Got some new information about the game last night ... it was a laser, offered as a loaner from a vigilante/merc type.

 

So, at some point, in this game, Ben '10' Tennison is going to be running around brandishing a laser pistol while he waits for the Omnitrix to recharge (see Bloodstone's Ben 10 writeups, which the GM permitted him to use en toto).

Is the Ben 10 character a PC or NPC in the game? Who determines how well or badly he does and who is likely to cop it if he screws up?

 

I take it the vigilante/merc type is the character who's just asking to be handed his own head with a side order of "you should have known better" and a heaped helping of "I told you so" for afters?

 

Edit: I've noticed I've passed the first mile-stone for "Forum Whore" - my post count now exceeds my age...

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Character concepts that cry out for GM Vengeance

 

Is the Ben 10 character a PC or NPC in the game? Who determines how well or badly he does and who is likely to cop it if he screws up?

 

I take it the vigilante/merc type is the character who's just asking to be handed his own head with a side order of "you should have known better" and a heaped helping of "I told you so" for afters?

 

Edit: I've noticed I've passed the first mile-stone for "Forum Whore" - my post count now exceeds my age...

 

It's a PC, so it's unlikely that there'll be an accidental shooting.

[Enforcer84]

Re: Character concepts that cry out for GM Vengeance

 

???

Sometime's people cannot wrap their little brains around the simple concept of SFX vs. game effect.

 

I just rejected a character that had an indirect physical EB that represented a hovering drone (think fast, agile version of the death star interogator droid) that shoots baseballs. The character has missle deflection bought through a baseball bat focus, with reflection at any opponent limited to physical attacks. Now, this I could live with and I congratulated the player for coming up with a nicely themed character. I rejected it because the indirect was, get this, "only at self." No matter how hard I tried, or in how many ways, he couldn't understand that this could be bought simply as an EB that required both foci, with the special effect being that the drone fires the ball at him and then he hits it (for six).

 

Sory about the cricket reference, but we don't really play or watch baseball here. Oddly, I really get into american footbal. *shrug*

COuld have used the "Requires Mutliple FOci for full effect" limiter...

[Enforcer84]

Re: Character concepts that cry out for GM Vengeance

 

A quick google and I'm nearly up to speed.

 

Please explain, for the benefit of those of us who play RPGs rather than computer games, what Dante's vital stats are - aside from some stupid UberHollywood fighting techniques and running up walls?

That would be it.

 

 

[Wolf1066]

Re: Character concepts that cry out for GM Vengeance

 

That would be it.

 

In which case, so far as GM Vengeance is concerned, the best (or nastiest) would be to let the player have the character and let the other PCs have their "fun"...

 

It'd have the life-expectancy of a bleeding lamb in a piranha tank in one of my campaigns. My only hope would be that I'd have enough time to pour a drink, light a cigarette and get seated before the entertainment started.

[Wolf1066]

Re: Character concepts that cry out for GM Vengeance

 

It's a PC' date=' so it's unlikely that there'll be an accidental shooting.[/quote']

There are ways and means. Always ways and means. A "miss" always hits something - it's up to the GM to decide what "somethings" are in range and assign the number values to them all. "3 to 6, you shoot yourself; 7 to 10, the bolt hits a wall and does minor damage; 11 or 12, you hit Bill..."

 

Chris's second (obnoxious but at least useful) character, Jake, had a habit of killing people to up the Kill Count displayed on his arm and the MedTech was getting seriously fracked off - to the point of saying to Jake "you *#$@ing kill one more person, I'm going to kill you."

 

Later, they're first on scene at an MVA, drunk driver slumped in seat. MedTech is tending to injured passenger in the back of the car, Jake decides to give the drunk the Learn. Opens door, drags out drunk and Chris says, "I hit him in the face but I pull my punch". He rolls a critical failure and I decide that there is no way on Earth he could miss a target being held up by one of his own arms so I say "you fail to pull the punch, roll damage please. Chris gulped, looked really worried and began to roll - and Jake was capable of considerable damage.

 

So, from the MedTech's point of view: He's leaning into the back of the car tending to the injured girl. Out of his peripheral vision he notes the driver's door open and a pair of hairy arms - one marked with a glowing subdermal kill counter - reach in and drag the driver out of the car. There is a sickening SPLAT and then two hairy arms - one marked with a glowing subdermal kill counter - carefully place the nearly headless corpse of the driver back in the seat and the driver's door shuts quietly.

 

Poor Chris, he was sure that Jake was going to be killed by the MedTech.

 

Deliberately killed, rather than the usual way our MedTechs kill other PCs....

[Manic Typist]

Re: Character concepts that cry out for GM Vengeance

 

 

Deliberately killed, rather than the usual way our MedTechs kill other PCs....

 

Oh, don't be a tease!

 

What does the MedTech do?

[ghost-angel]

Re: Character concepts that cry out for GM Vengeance

 

Oh, don't be a tease!

 

What does the MedTech do?

on a good day fix people.

 

on a bad day.... not so much.

[Weldun]

Re: Character concepts that cry out for GM Vengeance

 

A quick google and I'm nearly up to speed.

 

Please explain, for the benefit of those of us who play RPGs rather than computer games, what Dante's vital stats are - aside from some stupid UberHollywood fighting techniques and running up walls?

Try this link, I find it explains it best. They didn't want to just play a character with his powers, they wanted to play this character. *Whimper* "Mummy. Make the bad gamer go away!":angst:

[Tim]

Re: Character concepts that cry out for GM Vengeance

 

2 words: Power Munchkin.

[Wolf1066]

Re: Character concepts that cry out for GM Vengeance

 

Oh, don't be a tease!

 

What does the MedTech do?

 

Pretty much what ghost-angel said. It's amazing what even a couple of failed rolls can do.

 

A couple of spectacularly failed rolls trying to stabilise mortally wounded people and one of our MedTechs (my wife) got a reputation that surpassed Dr Kevorkian (sp?).

 

After that, her rolls seemed to go to sh*t and the players were terrified they'd get into some action, get badly wounded by their enemies and then get killed by their own MedTech.

 

"I'll stabilise him."

"For God's sake, NO, we want him alive. I'll do first aid."

 

"We're under attack!"

"Find hard cover, we can't risk being wounded."

 

The PCs were even threatening the NPCs with "tell us what we want to know or we'll let our MedTech "heal" you."

 

This campaign she's playing a Techie and the one of the other players said to another "you sure you trust her to check out the AV?"

 

Don't worry, the AV didn't crash because she muffed her AV tech roll - t'was a seagull through the inlet nacelle that caused the "Unscheduled Descent" (and the players were praying that their pilot didn't fumble her emergency control roll.)

 

The MedTech who threatened to kill Jake if he murdered anyone else was previously confronted by a CyberTiger and in a spectacular Critical Success quick-drew, fired from the hip one handed with an assault weapon and obilterated the tiger. That was a high REP moment. He had also proved himself in combat on other occasions.

 

He didn't have my wife's "Dr Death" reputation but he was better known as a (deliberate) killer than a healer. No small wonder that Chris was fearing for his character's life.

 

"Don't f*ck with us, even our MedTech can out-shoot you!"

[Susano]

Re: Character concepts that cry out for GM Vengeance

 

2 words: Power Munchkin.

 

Or: Obsessed Fanboy.

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Character concepts that cry out for GM Vengeance

 

There are ways and means. Always ways and means. A "miss" always hits something - it's up to the GM to decide what "somethings" are in range and assign the number values to them all. "3 to 6' date=' you shoot yourself; 7 to 10, the bolt hits a wall and does minor damage; 11 or 12, you hit Bill..."[/quote']

 

Well, admittedly I'm on second-hand knowledge on this one, so I'm really hoping that this is hyperbole rather than fact, but ...

 

The GM okay'd a character that amounted to Family Guy's Peter Griffin with the power to increase his density, both physical *and* mental in approximate proportion.

 

The dumber he gets, the stronger he gets.

 

So, I'm getting the distinct impression that this GM isn't going to grasp the concept of 'dramatic sense'.

[Wolf1066]

Re: Character concepts that cry out for GM Vengeance

 

Try this link' date=' I find it explains it best. They didn't want to just play a character with his powers, they wanted to play this character. *Whimper* "Mummy. Make the bad gamer go away!":angst:[/quote']

 

2 words: Power Munchkin.

 

I'd load up all the other characters with things that can neutralise Dante's abilities (I'd bloody invent them if I have to) and can send him to some dimension whence he could never return. Five minutes of Dante-esque game play and any of my regular players would have no hesitation in using said artifacts (actually, could be quite a good "Team-Building Exercise" for the rest of the players...)

 

Of course, dimensional portals are tricky buggers and are likely to gobble up the artifacts along with "Dante" but such is life...

[Wolf1066]

Re: Character concepts that cry out for GM Vengeance

 

Well, admittedly I'm on second-hand knowledge on this one, so I'm really hoping that this is hyperbole rather than fact, but ...

 

The GM okay'd a character that amounted to Family Guy's Peter Griffin with the power to increase his density, both physical *and* mental in approximate proportion.

 

The dumber he gets, the stronger he gets.

 

So, I'm getting the distinct impression that this GM isn't going to grasp the concept of 'dramatic sense'.

*gibber*

[Wolf1066]

Re: Character concepts that cry out for GM Vengeance

 

Oh, don't be a tease!

 

What does the MedTech do?

 

Sorry, I may have misconstrued your question when I answered it.

 

In the case of Jake accidentally pulping the drunk's cranium, the MedTech let it slide (so Jake lived to be killed by Mike's ex-Mafioso with the orbital crystal cyberarms and the impact-triggered forearm spike) - I think he would have happily punched the drunk's nose through the back of his skull, too - especially since the drunk, the wounded woman, the car load of people the drunk had hit, and the accident itself were all based on a real event at which the bloke who was playing the MedTech and I were first on scene.

 

Where the game digressed from reality was in the actions performed by the players.

 

IRL, the bloke who was playing the MedTech was not a paramedic but he was a first aider, as am I, so we rendered assistance as best we could and waited for the ambulance to arrive. IRL, we had to render assistance to the stupid drunk who had trashed a car full of young people returning from an office party (the driver of the second car was a designated sober driver) - fortunately none of whom were injured - and had seriously wounded a passenger in his own car - teeth through lip, broken shin-bone protruding through skin of leg. The drunk had suffered only superficial lacerations when he went through the windshield, owing to being so drunk that he flopped like a rag doll, but we had to tend to him and help the Ambos get him into the back of the ambulance - despite wanting to just "accidentally" drop him on the pavement.

 

I suspect a bit of the player crept into the character, enabling the MedTech to let Jake survive "just this once".

[Brandi]

Re: Character concepts that cry out for GM Vengeance

 

The dumber he gets, the stronger he gets.

 

Didn't something like this happen to Beast in X-Factor long long ago? (A bit of Google searching reveals that this is the case, according to rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks' FAQ)

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Character concepts that cry out for GM Vengeance

 

Didn't something like this happen to Beast in X-Factor long long ago? (A bit of Google searching reveals that this is the case' date=' according to rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks' FAQ)[/quote']

 

Similar, but in Beast's case, it was backwards; when he over-exerted himself, he lost some brain power. However, he didn't get it back when he calmed down.

 

And even at his dumbest, Beast was smarter than this guy ... when I say it's Peter Griffin, I mean it quite literally. A fat stupid white (censored) with dorky laugh and all.

[input.jack]

Re: Character concepts that cry out for GM Vengeance

 

when I say it's Peter Griffin' date=' I mean it quite literally. A fat stupid white (censored) with dorky laugh and all. [/quote']

 

Thats a bad GM. Allowing a character like that in a game is the same as putting up a sign that says "I cant control my own campaign".

 

Out of (morbid) curiousity, did the character go into bizarre side-line vignettes whenever he mentioned an anecdote?

 

(PS: Now BRIAN I might consider letting into my campaign...)