The Arms Race Must End

[Cassandra]

1 hour ago, Ninja-Bear said:

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, pulling your punch shouldn’t involve a penalty to your roll and if you tied you don’t do full damage. 

 

That would be a good house rule, especially for a Golden Age Campaign.

[massey]

I don't think you should punish players for knowing how the game works.

 

Your average VIPER agent has 10 PD and ED, 6 resistant (at least in 5th edition).  He has 30 Stun.  A 12D6 attack, on average, will barely put him unconscious.  If you pull your punch, so you're only doing like 6D6 or so, he won't even be stunned.  And "Viper Agents" are often code for "the GM wants to use dirty tricks to teach you a lesson".  Why not hit these guys full power?

 

The characters should know that when Strong Guy (Str 60) hits a Viper agent in armor, the guy maybe gets a cracked rib and he gets knocked out, but he's otherwise fine.  They see it happen again, and again, and again.  The fact that 100 tons of force would splatter a guy in the real world, doesn't mean it works that way in the game world.

[Cassandra]

5 minutes ago, massey said:

I don't think you should punish players for knowing how the game works.

 

Your average VIPER agent has 10 PD and ED, 6 resistant (at least in 5th edition).  He has 30 Stun.  A 12D6 attack, on average, will barely put him unconscious.  If you pull your punch, so you're only doing like 6D6 or so, he won't even be stunned.  And "Viper Agents" are often code for "the GM wants to use dirty tricks to teach you a lesson".  Why not hit these guys full power?

 

The characters should know that when Strong Guy (Str 60) hits a Viper agent in armor, the guy maybe gets a cracked rib and he gets knocked out, but he's otherwise fine.  They see it happen again, and again, and again.  The fact that 100 tons of force would splatter a guy in the real world, doesn't mean it works that way in the game world.

 

Character who leaves a lot of Viper Agents alive, either unconscious with no BODY damage or Entangled - Superhero

 

Character who leaves a lot of Viper Agents alive but beaten to a pulp (At least half BODY damage) - Vigilante

 

Character who leaves some Viper Agents alive (More then half BODY Damage) or dead - Supervillain

 

Superheroes get called in by the Police, and receive cooperation, and do not have their secret identities uncovered by detective.

 

Vigilantes don't get cooperation by the Police except for a few rogue officers, and will have their secret identities uncovered just in case they go too far, and Superheroes will try and stop them.

 

Supervillains are hunted by Police and Superheroes.

[Christopher R Taylor]

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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, pulling your punch shouldn’t involve a penalty to your roll and if you tied you don’t do full damage. 

 

Yeah I think maneuvers and abilities which better simulate the genre should be encouraged, not penalized.

 

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I don't think you should punish players for knowing how the game works.

 

I don't think you should punish people for that, no.  But you should definitely encourage players to play to genre.

[Cassandra]

If Arrow used STUN Only weapons he would have a lot of the problems he has.

 

He would still have a lot because he can't seem to get along with anyone.  And gives up too easily.  And can't pick a lock to save his life.  And has a long list of enemies.  And his girlfriends end up date and replaced with evil doppelgangers.  And he's hunted by the league of assassins.  And the Russian mob.  

[BoloOfEarth]

Y'know, I'm thinking of throwing something kinda like Gilt Complex into my game, albeit with a twist.

 

I'm going to have a article in next session's news, about the police killing a fake supervillain - a normal guy dressed as Utility (but with the costume not being bullet resistant).  There will be an implication that the guy may have been mind controlled, since robbing a bank is completely out of character for the guy (good job, wife and kids, law abiding, and so on), but they can't verify mental power use because the guy was killed.  This will be the heroes' advance warning.  Maybe I'll have a similar item in the next session's news as well (but this time an NPC superhero being the unwitting would-be killer), so they can't say they weren't adequately warned.

 

And then a session or two later, have a random PC happen upon a lone supervillain pulling a robbery of some sort.  (Maybe make him look like Brainchild, so the PC mentalist is less likely to just mind blast him unconscious.) There are two PCs with 12d6 AP Blasts they use quite often, and another with a straight 13d6 attack, plus a brick with 70 STR.  Any one of them would bring a normal to 0 BODY in one full-powered shot. 

 

Full disclosure - the team mage has a healing spell he's used before when a villain's armor activation roll failed (he's one of the ones with a 12d6 AP blast), to save a target's life, and also to heal BODY damage done to other villains during fights.  So the players have a somewhat cavalier attitude toward doing (or even taking) BODY damage.  ("Sure, I'm down 5 BODY, but Malarkey can heal that, no problem.")  And even if that PC isn't there when the faux villain takes a major hit, the team teleporter can bring him there quick enough.  Unless I throw a road block or two in the way to build dramatic tension...

[Christopher R Taylor]

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He would still have a lot because he can't seem to get along with anyone.  And gives up too easily.  And can't pick a lock to save his life.  And has a long list of enemies.  And his girlfriends end up date and replaced with evil doppelgangers.  And he's hunted by the league of assassins.  And the Russian mob.  

 

And the neckbeard.  Don't forget that, its a pretty big drawback.

[dsatow]

49 minutes ago, BoloOfEarth said:

Y'know, I'm thinking of throwing something kinda like Gilt Complex into my game, albeit with a twist.

 

I'm going to have a article in next session's news, about the police killing a fake supervillain - a normal guy dressed as Utility (but with the costume not being bullet resistant).  There will be an implication that the guy may have been mind controlled, since robbing a bank is completely out of character for the guy (good job, wife and kids, law abiding, and so on), but they can't verify mental power use because the guy was killed.  This will be the heroes' advance warning.  Maybe I'll have a similar item in the next session's news as well (but this time an NPC superhero being the unwitting would-be killer), so they can't say they weren't adequately warned.

 

And then a session or two later, have a random PC happen upon a lone supervillain pulling a robbery of some sort.  (Maybe make him look like Brainchild, so the PC mentalist is less likely to just mind blast him unconscious.) There are two PCs with 12d6 AP Blasts they use quite often, and another with a straight 13d6 attack, plus a brick with 70 STR.  Any one of them would bring a normal to 0 BODY in one full-powered shot. 

 

Full disclosure - the team mage has a healing spell he's used before when a villain's armor activation roll failed (he's one of the ones with a 12d6 AP blast), to save a target's life, and also to heal BODY damage done to other villains during fights.  So the players have a somewhat cavalier attitude toward doing (or even taking) BODY damage.  ("Sure, I'm down 5 BODY, but Malarkey can heal that, no problem.")  And even if that PC isn't there when the faux villain takes a major hit, the team teleporter can bring him there quick enough.  Unless I throw a road block or two in the way to build dramatic tension...

 

If this is the route your planning, this question I asked of Steve might be useful.

 

 

[Ninja-Bear]

I have considered of modifying them as to be more playable but keeping with they’re gold theme.

[BoloOfEarth]

9 minutes ago, dsatow said:

 

If this is the route your planning, this question I asked of Steve might be useful.

 

 

Yep.  One time a year or two back, I had a bunch of mystic undead whose deadly touch included Power Defense, Usable as Attack, with a Time Limit, so the heroes couldn't just heal the damage.  The two people with Regeneration were fine, but the others certainly got worried until they figured out how to undo it.

[steriaca]

10 hours ago, Ninja-Bear said:

I have considered of modifying them as to be more playable but keeping with they’re gold theme.

You'll probably have to pad out the group. The original group was only three. Most groups are about five members deep. So...

 

Goldbrick: High strength, a bit lazy, bare minimum defences.

Gold Mind: Mentalist who can dish it out, but can't take it.

Gold Rush: Speedster with a terrible DEX roll. Should have a theam song "Wipe Out".

Gold Bug: Guy with bug powers, but is rather squishable.

Golden Rod: A bare bones martial artist with a weapon (the Golden Rod). In fact, his entire skill set is tied into the rod. Once taken, he is rather helpless.

 

Midis Mercury : Excentric millionaire who wants his own supervillain team at his beck and call. Has a golden glove which covers everyone touched in a fake golden substance.

[BoloOfEarth]

9 hours ago, steriaca said:

Gold Rush: Speedster with a terrible DEX roll. Should have a theam song "While Out".

 

I'm guessing you mean "Wipe Out."

[steriaca]

23 minutes ago, BoloOfEarth said:

 

I'm guessing you mean "Wipe Out."

Thanks. Fixed it.