Green Goblin Jet Boarding Questions.

[Demonsong]

Hello All,

 

So I went and saw Spider-Man 3. It was ok, but overall I was disappointed. However I have always loved the Green Goblins Jet Board (the one in the first movie looked the best if you ask me). Any way I am trying to figure out how to work it out in Hero and I am having problems with it. So I am hoping some of you Hero System masters out there can help me out.

 

The basic board is simple, flight with –1 OAF, and either 0 END or a Fuel Charge. But how would you…

 

1- Simulate the fact that you could potentially get knocked off it?

 

Just call it a special effect. When you get hit by knock back and actually hit something the board just fly’s itself back to you on autopilot? So its not a real penalty at all?

 

2- Make it come back to you, via remote control if it gets taken away?

 

Flight with a zero action trigger, Usable as an attack (Jet Board only), only to return to owner?

 

3- Attack people with its blades when you are not on it, via remote control?

 

An indirect attack with a starting location being where ever the board is at? And how would that work that when you don’t have the Focus.

 

Should I be making a vehicle here and not a focus? I don’t know, but a vehicle just doesn’t sound right. Can any one give me any hints? I don’t own the ultimate vehicle, because I generally don’t use vehicles in my super hero games.

 

Thanks a lot,

[MitchellS]

Re: Green Goblin Jet Boarding Questions.

 

Build it as a vehicle rather then a focus.

[Zed-F]

Re: Green Goblin Jet Boarding Questions.

 

Most of that stuff you can get by making the board an OIF rather than an OAF and chalking up the difference to SFX. For instance...

 

-- You get knocked off the board but the board flies back to where you can land on it, can be done via OIF focus. (This won't work if it's OAF -- in that case, if you fall, you fall.)

 

-- The board comes back if it gets taken away, so long as there is a reasonably obvious way to prevent this that can be accomplished in a turn, can be done via OIF rather than OAF focus. For instance, a remote control device that can be removed.

 

-- Attack people when you're not on it, if it's a single phase action (e.g. the board flies off, hits someone, and comes back to you all in one phase) can be built as a regular EB or RKA with an OIF focus and chalk the rest up to SFX.

 

It's only when you want the board to be away from the owner and acting independently over multiple phases that you need to make it a vehicle.

[Checkmate]

Re: Green Goblin Jet Boarding Questions.

 

Hello All,

 

So I went and saw Spider-Man 3. It was ok, but overall I was disappointed. However I have always loved the Green Goblins Jet Board (the one in the first movie looked the best if you ask me). Any way I am trying to figure out how to work it out in Hero and I am having problems with it. So I am hoping some of you Hero System masters out there can help me out.

 

The basic board is simple, flight with –1 OAF, and either 0 END or a Fuel Charge. But how would you…

 

1- Simulate the fact that you could potentially get knocked off it?

 

Just call it a special effect. When you get hit by knock back and actually hit something the board just fly’s itself back to you on autopilot? So its not a real penalty at all?

 

2- Make it come back to you, via remote control if it gets taken away?

 

Flight with a zero action trigger, Usable as an attack (Jet Board only), only to return to owner?

You could always go with a simple Flight: Physical Manifestation. This removes the whole focus problems and the falling off problems. Calling it back would just be the SFX of turning the power back on, which takes care of your first two questions.

3- Attack people with its blades when you are not on it, via remote control?

 

An indirect attack with a starting location being where ever the board is at? And how would that work that when you don’t have the Focus.

 

Should I be making a vehicle here and not a focus? I don’t know, but a vehicle just doesn’t sound right. Can any one give me any hints? I don’t own the ultimate vehicle, because I generally don’t use vehicles in my super hero games.

 

Thanks a lot,

Now that your board is basically just an SFX (gotten rid of the focus lim), you could make it this an indirect attack, which also locks out your flight.

[Demonsong]

Re: Green Goblin Jet Boarding Questions.

 

Good Stuff Zed, I agree with your last two points but I am confused about the first.

 

“-- You get knocked off the board but the board flies back to where you can land on it, can be done via OIF focus. (This won't work if it's OAF -- in that case, if you fall, you fall.)”

 

Normally you don’t loose an OAF Focus if you take knock back. Right?

 

Thanks,

 

**Edit**

 

That would certainly work as well Checkmate, but I am not sure that is the effect I am looking for. I will keep it in mind thought.

 

Thanks

[casualplayer]

Re: Green Goblin Jet Boarding Questions.

 

You can make it a Follower, or it can just be SFX for Flight.

[Zed-F]

Re: Green Goblin Jet Boarding Questions.

 

Good Stuff Zed, I agree with your last two points but I am confused about the first.

 

“-- You get knocked off the board but the board flies back to where you can land on it, can be done via OIF focus. (This won't work if it's OAF -- in that case, if you fall, you fall.)”

 

Normally you don’t loose an OAF Focus if you take knock back. Right?

It's up to the GM to say. I would generally make a character with an OAF focus who takes KB make a DEX roll to see if he drops (in this case, falls off) his focus -- this happens in action films and so forth all the time. There might be modifiers depending on how much he gets knocked back. Certainly if the hoverboard gets targeted, it can get knocked away... if it is remote controlled and can fly back on its own without the character having to go find it, that doesn't fit the SFX of a OAF focus. Hence, it requires something more involved to keep the thing away from its owner, and is at least an OIF. If it's even harder to separate from its owner than an OIF usually is, it might even be an OIHID item.

[Demonsong]

Re: Green Goblin Jet Boarding Questions.

 

Zed-

 

Hummm… Well I guess I can see your point. I have never seen a G.M. ever make a character make a DEX check to keep from loosing an OAF Focus when knocked back. But it is certainly not out side the realm of reason. I would just think that if such a house rule were to be used, that it would need to be used on all OAF Focus’s and not just a hover board because of its special effect.

 

Cool.

[rjcurrie]

Re: Green Goblin Jet Boarding Questions.

 

Zed-

 

Hummm… Well I guess I can see your point. I have never seen a G.M. ever make a character make a DEX check to keep from loosing an OAF Focus when knocked back. But it is certainly not out side the realm of reason. I would just think that if such a house rule were to be used, that it would need to be used on all OAF Focus’s and not just a hover board because of its special effect.

 

Cool.

 

It would depend on how the house rule is stated. For example: Based on the special effects of an OAF, the GM may require the player to make a DEX roll to maintain control of that OAF when the character using it is knocked back.

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Green Goblin Jet Boarding Questions.

 

I would buy the Goblin Glider as a vehicle, with the foot-clamps as Clinging, only to secure the rider, which would count against Knockback to knock the target off.

 

I'd give the glider a computer, with one of the programs being 'reattach to my feet if I'm knocked off', and a HKA for the pointy bits, only on a move-through, and a program to 'attack designated target'.

[Lucius]

Re: Green Goblin Jet Boarding Questions.

 

And here I thought the question would be about Goblins boarding commercial aircraft at airports....

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary can just imagine a Goblin raising a ruckus at Security...."This is racial profiling! Just because I'm green you think I'm a terrorist or something!"

[JmOz]

Re: Green Goblin Jet Boarding Questions.

 

First let me pimp hero a bit:

 

If your really interested pick up both the Hero System Vehicle sourcebook (Not ultimate Vehicle...well pick ultimate vehicle up as well, it's great, but for this conversation a distinction should be made) and Gadgets & gear. They each have a version in it, one build as a vehicle, one built as a foci

[Dust Raven]

Re: Green Goblin Jet Boarding Questions.

 

Build it as a vehicle rather then a focus.

This is what I did when I made a character with a similar power (a high tech Silver Surfer meats Green Lantern). It worked out great, though it was expensive to armor the sucker enough to encourage people to hit my character instead of the board.

[Checkmate]

Re: Green Goblin Jet Boarding Questions.

 

though it was expensive to armor the sucker enough to encourage people to hit my character instead of the board.

That's one of the reasons I'd go with a power effect instead of a focus or vehicle. Use the Physical Manifestation limitation, and it does everything you need.

[Zed-F]

Re: Green Goblin Jet Boarding Questions.

 

Or you could just make it an Unbreakable focus. Physical manifestations generally can be attacked and destroyed or otherwise interfered with anyway. Also, physical manifestation only works for constant powers, and would not be much use for the board's attack powers.

[Dust Raven]

Re: Green Goblin Jet Boarding Questions.

 

That's one of the reasons I'd go with a power effect instead of a focus or vehicle. Use the Physical Manifestation limitation' date=' and it does everything you need.[/quote']

 

For the exact game mechanics/effects I was looking for, it had to be a Vehicle. It had to fly on it's own without me via remote or computer control, pickup and carry other people if necessary while the character wasn't using it (could not be controlled by others; the computer or the remote control handled that) and could be used to ram things (which was the excuse I had for armoring it). It was a damn useful board and well worth the cost. It's just that cost was kinda high for something that couldn't be put into a Framework. Kind of a bargain though when compared to Flight 20" 0 END OIF. I think the board only cost me 36 or 38.

[Mike W]

Re: Green Goblin Jet Boarding Questions.

 

I'm with MitchellS on this one. Given the fact that it has remote control and all sorts of other gadgets in it at times, it really should be bought as a vehicle.

[Dust Raven]

Re: Green Goblin Jet Boarding Questions.

 

I'm with MitchellS on this one. Given the fact that it has remote control and all sorts of other gadgets in it at times' date=' it really should be bought as a vehicle.[/quote']

 

As it's presented in the movie, yes. If you don't want your's to have all those features in game, my all means just build it using Flight OAF.

[Zed-F]

Re: Green Goblin Jet Boarding Questions.

 

You can get most of the abilities shown in the movie with Flight OIF, as I described. The only thing you can't do with Flight OIF is have the hoverboard perform independent actions that will take more than one phase to accomplish.

[Dust Raven]

Re: Green Goblin Jet Boarding Questions.

 

You can get most of the abilities shown in the movie with Flight OIF' date=' as I described. The only thing you can't do with Flight OIF is have the hoverboard perform independent actions that will take more than one phase to accomplish.[/quote']

 

With a Multipower you can probably get it to do everything but break. You could always use things like Uncontrolled & Continuous for those multiple-phase actions. I just think it's far too expensive to buy it this way unless you want an unbreakable jet board.

[Zed-F]

Re: Green Goblin Jet Boarding Questions.

 

OIFs can be breakable. Making it a MP doesn't preclude the focus from breaking -- an MP counts as one power for the breaking focus rules and is likely to be the most expensive power on the focus, and thus the first lost. You just have to get past the focus's defenses, which can be easy with the right powers, depending on the board's construction.

 

As far as whether it's expensive... depends on whether it's the character's main shtick, or just an ancillary vehicle that sometimes gets used. In GG's case it's like power armour -- he's almost never willingly without it in combat. Vehicles are perks, and tend to get taken out of the picture more often.

[Dust Raven]

Re: Green Goblin Jet Boarding Questions.

 

As far as whether it's expensive... depends on whether it's the character's main shtick' date=' or just an ancillary vehicle that sometimes gets used. In GG's case it's like power armour -- he's almost never willingly without it in combat. Vehicles are perks, and tend to get taken out of the picture more often.[/quote']

 

I suppose that's true. I tend to think of Perks as stuff that's by default an Independent OAF personally. They can be used and used and used, but if it gets stolen or broken (or killed), you got to role-play getting it back, rebuilding it (or finding some way of resurrecting it), assuming your GM will let you. This goes for any Perk, including things like Police Powers or Membership. While those can't exactly break or be stolen, they can be revoked, and if so must be earned back if the character wants them, or else he just lost the points.

 

For this reason, I don't care how often the character has or uses it, so long as they acknowledge if it breaks, it's gone; and the more often they use it the greater the change it's gonna break.