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Advice for a rookie GM with rookie players


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8 minutes ago, Killer Shrike said:

I would recommend that you run a lower pointed, more heroic / street "supers" campaign at the tv-show superheroes level first before trying to run a movies level superhero campaign. 

As previously mentioned the intro adventure is intended to be more pulp-y, with both sides basically Competent Normals straight off the chart plus one lower-level "weird power" each - The Pelican's storage trick, a little Tk, personal illusions, etc. One of the players emailed to pull out earlier though, and the others were kind of (goddammit what's the word? uncommitted, blase, lackadaisical, none of those are right and the one I want is hiding) so it may be I'm the only one who shows up ready to go, but I wanted to try at least...

 

Anyway, here's what I was writing as the new message alert came in:

 

So after rechecking the Champions builds in CC, I can only conclude that their defences are, by the standard above and their attacks ranging from 9d6-12d6, WAY too low - Kinetik has 9PD/8ED, and the rest are mostly in the 10-15 range except for Ironclad's 25s. I fiddled a little more and got Ten-tickles up to 20s while lowering top damage output to 10d6 as suggested, mainly by dropping Resistant from the damage reduction and lowering swim speed again, and even fit Mind Control into the multipower too, though with 13 Ego and base OMCV he's not going to be controlling much except animals and willing clients listening to his pep talks for their training, or maybe trying hypnosis to quit smoking :lol: That's fine though, it fits better with the overall concept than Auquaman-like sea creature control to begin with.

 

And the point split is still pretty close to even too, just a little less off toward the powers side. Flavor feels the same, so a win I guess?

 

Still kind of annoying about the example builds being so all over the place when they're supposed to be a single team facing similar threat levels though.

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I did on the previous page, though I haven't gone back and edited it with the 20 PD/ED revision. I'll do that shortly since I'm in the middle of poking at the vehicle design system to make his flying saucer at the moment. Really though, it's just for practice and because the heroic Beach Patrol version of an H-anime tentacle monster amuses me.

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That'll be good, Ninja-Bear. Thanks!

 

Here's the revised version of Ten-tickles, now with flying saucer stats at the end as well. It came out to 50 real points exactly including the flight computer, somehow...

 

Edited again with the revisions suggested further down the page. Gettin' propa tanky now, wot?

And again to mess with the Multipower slots, reducing some ranges and adding Grabby Tentacles.

One more thing! Added Group Grabby Tentacles to the doggy bag.

One more thing! Switched 6 resistant PD/ED for two levels of the Combat Luck talent, and brought up BODY and END with the six CP saved.

 

Rulishness:
10d6 max on attacks, PD/ED should be 20-25, or 30 for someone it takes a whole team to fight


Ten-tickles Therapist (pseudonym)
real name requires chromatophores, telepathy, or images (sight)
Public identity

Heroic Alien (cephalopod, humanoid)

 

Physical description:

The first thing anyone will notice about Ten-tickles is his sheer bright colours like a living tie-dye or kaleidoscope with constantly changing patterns flowing over his skin, which is almost entirely exposed except for a pair of sunglasses and a flowing red-orange sash around his waist. The sash conceals an inner belt with many pockets for personal items.

 

Similar in overall size and build to a typical human, he has a tall conical head with a narrow fin on either side, large eyes and a snout-like siphon but no other apparent features. A wide flap of skin wraps around his shoulders down to the bicep like a mantle, connected to his arms and the four prehensile tentacles that are evenly spaced across the front and back of his upper body. His mouth is underneath this flap on the front, and the openings for his lungs/gills and water jet to assist in swimming in the back, with the siphon on his face only used as a respiratory intake or to spit blasts of water or ink.

 

His arms, hands, and fingers are slightly longer than normal human proportions and unless he deliberately spreads his fingers the partial webbing between them tends to blend into a diamond shaped pad like a squid's arms. There are suction cups on Ten-tickles' fingers, the palms of his hands and soles of his feet, as well as all along the eight tentacles and the inside of his forearms. These allow him to cling to surfaces or targets and his body is exceptionally flexible and elastic, allowing him to move on any reasonably solid surface or through tight spaces and reach things a considerable distance away.

 

His legs have a fin on the outside of each calf, but he has no hair, fingernails, or toenails, and no visible genitals below the sash. His skin is no more wet or slimy than a human's under normal circumstances, though it rapidly generates a thin, protective mucus layer when wetted which may take several minutes to reabsorb after returning to open air.

 

History:

A personal trainer specializing in sports medicine and massage, Ten-tickles was flying a private saucer to an interview where he was scheduled to meet a prospective new client. Unfortunately, he managed to plot a course directly through a hyperspace vortex and ended up crashing on Earth, leaving him stranded.

 

Unable to produce any sort of vocalization and having a name that can only be expressed as a flowing pattern of colours, he adopted the rough approximation of his professional title suggested by the first local he met who didn't attack on sight or run screaming, not realizing that it could be taken to have unfortunate implications if mispronounced or interpreted through certain pop-culture tropes.

 

At least getting legally settled as a disaster refugee wasn't too difficult, and while the authorities do consider Ten-tickles a person of interest they aren't too intrusive about keeping an eye on him. Medical accreditation is a trickier matter, even if experience with the wide variety of body types in galactic society means he'll only need a bit of brushing up on humans' specific physiology to be just as effective as a dietician and excercise coach. Perhaps this "super hero" thing will be an interesting new current to follow? If nothing else, his professional skills will be useful to such a group.


Characteristics:
STR 33 23cp 14- Lift 2400kg (1600kg w/o filling in the table); 6 1/2 d6 HTH dmg
DEX 18 16cp 13-
CON 23 13cp 14-
INT 13  3cp 12- PER roll 12-
EGO 13  3cp 12-
PRE 13  3cp 12- PRE attack 3d6

 

OCV  6 15cp
DCV  6 15cp
OMCV 3  -
DMCV 3  -
SPD  5 30cp


PD   19 17cp 14r, +6r from Combat Luck
ED   19 17cp 14r, +6r from Combat Luck
REC  10  6cp
END  50  6cp
BODY 20 10cp
STUN 50 15cp

 

Total characteristics cost: 192

 

 

Powers:
 5 Extra limbs: relatively standard arms and legs plus eight prehensile tentacles
10 Clinging (normal strength)
30 Stretching 15m, x8 body dimension
 5 Amphibious: Life Support (Expanded Breathing: Underwater, Safe Environment: High pressure & Extreme Cold)
10 Swimming +20m
14 Resistant (+1⁄2) for 14 PD & 14 ED
92 Cuttlefish Powers: Multipower, 60pt reserve
* 1f The Best At Cuddles: +30 STR; Only To Disarm, Escape, Grab, And Throw (-3⁄4)
* 2f Crushing Tentacles: HA +4d6, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1⁄2); Hand-To-Hand Attack (-1⁄4)
* 4f Piercing Tentacle: HKA 2d6, Armor Piercing (+1⁄4)

* 4f Wall of Tentacles: Barrier 8 PD/8 ED (24cp), 14 BODY (14cp), 4m L x 3m H x .5m (12cp), Dismissable (+5), Opaque (Sight Group) (5cp), Limited Range (Stretching range) (-1/2)
* 4f Grabby Tentacles: Entangle 5 PD/5 ED 5d6 BODY (50cp), Additonal PD/ED (+1ea) (5cp), Dismissable (+5), Limited Range (Stretching range) (-1/2)
* 4f Water Shot: Blast 8d6, Double Knockback (+1⁄2), Limited Range (1/2 std) (-1/2)

* 4f Ink Shot: Sight Group Flash 12d6, Limited Range (1/2 std) (-1/2)
* 3f Electro-Encephalopod-O-Gram: Telepathy 6d6
* 3f Electromagnetic Aura Sense: Mind Scan 6d6
* 3f Hypnotic patterns: Mind Control 6d6

 

Skills, Perks, And Talents

12 Combat Luck x2: +6 Resistant PD/ED unless surprised/unable to percieve the attack and fail non-Target PER
15 Martial Arts: Way of the Squirming Tentacle
* 3 Toppling the Heron (Legsweep: 1⁄2 Phase; +2 OCV; -1 DCV; STR +1d6 Strike, Target Falls)
* 3 Uprooting the Clam (Martial Throw: 1⁄2 Phase; +0 OCV; +1 DCV; STR +v/10, Target Falls)
* 4 Swimming Scallop (Martial Dodge: 1⁄2 Phase; no OCV; +5 DCV; Dodge, Affects All Attacks, Abort)

* 5 Turtle Fin Slap (Passing Strike: 1⁄2 Phase; +1 OCV; +0 DCV; STR + v/10 Strike, Full Move)

1 Familiarity: Navigation (Space) (8-)
3 Mechanics (INT) (Galactic-standard level technology)
3 KS: Sports Medicine (INT)
3 KS: Way of the Squirming Tentacle (INT)
5 CSL: Way of the Squirming Tentacle (assign +1 to OCV or DCV as a zero-phase action)

 

Specific Everyman skills:
KS: Area Knowledge (Tower district, Iedo City, Sunrise Archipelago, planet Thalass) (INT)
Language: chromatophore color display/tentaculiform ideograms/GalBank Esperan phonetic glyphs
PS: Sports Medicine (INT)
Transport familiarity: Small Galactic standard spacecraft (8-)

 

Total Powers & Skills Cost: 208
Total Cost: 400


Matching Complications
25cp Physical Complication (has no voice): All the time 20, affects slightly 5
15cp Distinctive Features: 15 Not Concealable, 5 Always Noticed/major reaction, -5 not unusual for species
10cp Social Complication (unfamiliar with Earth culture): Frequently 10, minor
15cp Psychological Complication (Code Versus Killing): 10 Common, 5 Strong
10cp Hunted (the authorities): Infrequently, More Powerful, Non-Combat Influence, Watching

 

Total Complications Points: 75
Experience Points: 0

 


The Doggy Bag (items saved for later):

FIRST THREE XP: Learn the local language, because while not being able to talk except via telepathy is a little annoying, not understanding what anyone is trying to say when using powers other than telepathy sucks a lot. Unless it still counts as an everyman skill and can be had for free, because there's always more to spend points on.

 

More INT/PRE/EGO DMCV/OMCV, by rough order of preference. Psychic stuff is more of an afterthought on this build aside from TP to communicate.

 

Running/Leaping - might as well make full use of that super strength

 

More CSLs

 

Martial Arts: WotST
* 5 Nautilus Whip (Defensive Strike: 1⁄2 Phase; +1 OCV; +3 DCV; STR Strike)

 

3 Defense Maneuver I (No attacker is considered to be attacking “from behind.”)
2 Defense Maneuver II (Eliminates Multiple Attackers Bonuses for attackers the character perceives.)
3 Defense Maneuver III (Eliminates Multiple Attackers Bonuses for all attackers)
2 Defense Maneuver IV (Takes no time to use, and makes any Combat Skill Levels that improve the character’s DCV Persistent for this purpose.)

 

Multipower slots

(+2cp upgrade) * 6f Group Grabby Tentacles: Entangle 5 PD/5 ED 5d6 BODY (50cp), Additonal PD/ED (+1ea) (5cp), Dismissable (+5), Limited Range (Stretching range) (-1/2), Area of Effect (Any, up to 2x 2m hexes) (+1/2)
* 6f Grabby Tentacle Trap: Entangle 5 PD/5 ED 5d6 BODY (50cp), Additonal PD/ED (+1ea) (5cp), Dismissable (+5), Limited Range (Stretching range) (-1/2), Area of Effect (Surface, up to 4x 2m hexes, activates on contact) (+1/2)
* 6f Water Spray: Blast 8d6, Area Of Effect (16m Cone; +1⁄2)
* 6f Ink Cloud: Darkness to Sight Group 12m radius
* 6f Cuttle Command: Summon up to 3 cephalopods built on up to 200 Character Points, Expanded Effect (+1⁄4), Friendly (+1⁄4)

 

Wearable END Reserve item with Heal STUN/BODY and possibly Aid END, salvaged from the flying saucer's medical kit.

 

Fix and/or reverse engineer the saucer itself for use as a vehicle.

 

Flying Saucer, small private:
Size 5 (5.7m radius x 2.5m, 64m^3), OCV +3, Mass 3.2t, KB -5, STR 35, DEF 4, BODY 15, OCV 3 (25cp)
DEX 15 (30cp), PD 6 (9cp), ED 6 (9cp), SPD 3 (30cp), DCV 3 (15cp), MOV 20m Megascale x1km (40cp)
FTL 120lyph (50cp)
Facilites:
* 3 Mechanics (Galactic standard) (9-)
* 3 Survival (9-)
Cost 214 Active Points/5= 43 Real Points

 

Flight computer (Follower 37 Active points/5= 7 Real Points)
Characteristics:
INT 18 8cp 13-
DEX 10  -  11-
27cp Skills:
* 3 KS: Survival (INT)
* 3 KS: Flying Saucer Repair Manual (INT)
* 3 KS: Area Knowledge (sector containing Planet Thalass) (INT)
* 3 Mechanics (Galactic standard) (INT)
* 3 Navigation: Space (INT)
* 6 Combat Piloting +3 (DEX+3 = 14-)
* 3 Language (Tentaculiform ideograms)
* e KS: Area Knowledge (the civilized galaxy)
* e Language (GalBank Espera)
* e Paramedics
2cp Programs:
* 1 Autopilot to navigate and fly
* 1 Guide to survive after a crash and make repairs


Magical Girl style sidekick?

 

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4 minutes ago, Ninja-Bear said:

Oh for the Pelican pouch? I’d say EDM - Base of 20 CP and Gestures (-1/4) as it seems he needs to swallow the object which is more involved than touching it. 

Not really - In the original conception, before he developed his TK he was a D-list villain called Locker-Man who had an armoured costume with a door on the front of it that he originally believed he needed to put things through in order to store or retrieve them. After being captured and convicted for assault, battery, and felony theft, he discovered in prison that he still had access and began making plans to use it to escape, but also discovered his strength seemed to shoot up at an unnatural pace as he worked out on the weight equipment - actually his TK developing. Like any kid he'd had dreams of becoming a superhero when he was younger but a poor upbringing and the way his original power seemed useless for heroics - what would he do, carry a bunch of guns and shoot people? Just a villain in a gang war anyway, at that point - had led him down a darker path. With superstrength coming in and soon discovering he had a TK force field making him super tough as well, he figured it was his chance to try to go legit, and worked on training himself and trying to reach out to existing heroes with good reputations to try to get a place to go and a support network to help stay on the side of the law after doing his time. Eventually he found $teammentor, and after foiling a mass breakout attempt was released to the team's custody, partly for his own safety and officially as a model of the success of the rehabilitation program. Supposedly. Well, he's a good guy now at any rate, so I guess so?


Anyway, he just calls it his Pelican Pouch, all he really has to do is get solid skin contact on whatever he wants to store and pick it up, with TK assistance if necessary. If the thing is big it appears to squish down cartoonishly into where he's holding it by, but no damage is done.

 

Of course, all that is irrelevant to how I plan to use him here, or perhaps it's just the very beginning of that career, or his grandfather or something. He's the opposition for the pregens in the 1930s pre-title card scene introducing the Precious MacGuffin (and the common tasks of playing with Hero System) to the players.

 

Oh, and in case it isn't clear just from looking at the sheet, (probably not) Ten-tickles' job in combat is first to put the opponent on the ground with his water blast or martial arts, then to blind them with ink, and to grab or block with his wall if they need further wrangling. He can, of course, also throw them heluva far, or into other enemies for crowd control. Actually doing damage is mostly the rest of the team's job, though he does of course have Crushing and Penetrating Tentacle attacks if needed, as well as the previously mentioned KD/KBs.

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4 hours ago, dialNforNinja said:

So after rechecking the Champions builds in CC, I can only conclude that their defences are, by the standard above and their attacks ranging from 9d6-12d6, WAY too low - Kinetik has 9PD/8ED, and the rest are mostly in the 10-15 range except for Ironclad's 25s. I fiddled a little more and got Ten-tickles up to 20s while lowering top damage output to 10d6 as suggested, mainly by dropping Resistant from the damage reduction and lowering swim speed again, and even fit Mind Control into the multipower too, though with 13 Ego and base OMCV he's not going to be controlling much except animals and willing clients listening to his pep talks for their training, or maybe trying hypnosis to quit smoking :lol: That's fine though, it fits better with the overall concept than Auquaman-like sea creature control to begin with.

 

 

I think Kinetik's character sheet is wrong.  He's listed as having 9 PD and 8 ED, and then he's got a "protective suit" that gives him 6/6 additional.  If you look at his total Def on the right of his PD and ED listing, it says 15 PD and 14 ED.  But he's also got +10/10 in his powers section called a "protective aura", with the limitation 'only while moving'.  So his total should be 25 PD and 24 ED.  That's not that bad, really.

 

But Kinetik isn't really a great build.  He hits for 9D6 and then he has some minor 30 point attacks that aren't gonna do much more than be annoying.  I think they tried to get too fancy when they built him.  One thing that really makes a character useful is to just have one attack that is straight dice damage at the campaign average.  Kinetic doesn't have that -- his normal dice attack is only 9D6.

 

Witchcraft is the only member of the Champions to have less than 20 Def, and she's a mentalist.  The thing about mental powers is that they don't have a range modifier -- she can be sitting on a rooftop half a mile down the street and still hit just as effectively.  That may be why they gave her lower defenses.

 

On your character build, I'd drop the Damage Reduction.  It's a pain in the butt to calculate during battle (particularly the 25% version), and you could probably use those points elsewhere.  Generally Damage Reduction isn't worth the points compared to just putting more into PD and ED.

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42 minutes ago, massey said:

On your character build, I'd drop the Damage Reduction.  It's a pain in the butt to calculate during battle (particularly the 25% version), and you could probably use those points elsewhere.  Generally Damage Reduction isn't worth the points compared to just putting more into PD and ED.

 

Okay, that's easy enough. Pushes them up to right proper tanky if I do that directly, though maybe I'll add some stretching back in too, or get them to 25 and then split the rest between that and movement speed. A little Running to keep people from getting out of reach would be helpful, I'm sure. Or any of the stuff in the doggie bag.

 

edit: and so I did, PD/ED 25, Stretching to 15m, and Turtle Fin Slap moved from the doggie  bag to the bought Martial Arts list. Still not sure about whether to do that or add another CSL though...

 

41 minutes ago, Amorkca said:

Sorry DialNforNinja I totally missed seeing the page with the character on it!

 

Please note that your Complications are 85 points not 75.

 

So they are... Since he's from a literally cosmopolitan galactic society, I'll say to drop the Enrage - he amy not be knowledgeable about our pre-space backwater specifically, but the idea of other cultures is familiar enough not to lose his temper over unintentional provocations.

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Okay, so after flip-flopping a couple times I have to ask, how much KD do you actually typically see in use? How much Resistant Defense is enough before it starts getting excessive? I don't think I've seen more than 3d6 in the builds I've looked at, at which point 18 or 20 points seems like it would be plenty, and 12-15 decent. Opinions?

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1 hour ago, massey said:

 

I think Kinetik's character sheet is wrong.  He's listed as having 9 PD and 8 ED, and then he's got a "protective suit" that gives him 6/6 additional.  If you look at his total Def on the right of his PD and ED listing, it says 15 PD and 14 ED.  But he's also got +10/10 in his powers section called a "protective aura", with the limitation 'only while moving'.  So his total should be 25 PD and 24 ED.  That's not that bad, really.

 

But Kinetik isn't really a great build.  He hits for 9D6 and then he has some minor 30 point attacks that aren't gonna do much more than be annoying.  I think they tried to get too fancy when they built him.  One thing that really makes a character useful is to just have one attack that is straight dice damage at the campaign average.  Kinetic doesn't have that -- his normal dice attack is only 9D6.

 

Witchcraft is the only member of the Champions to have less than 20 Def, and she's a mentalist.  The thing about mental powers is that they don't have a range modifier -- she can be sitting on a rooftop half a mile down the street and still hit just as effectively.  That may be why they gave her lower defenses.

 

On your character build, I'd drop the Damage Reduction.  It's a pain in the butt to calculate during battle (particularly the 25% version), and you could probably use those points elsewhere.  Generally Damage Reduction isn't worth the points compared to just putting more into PD and ED.

Disagree with your assessment with Kinetic.

 

First CC has nowhere printed (as far as I can look) what is the campaign level. (Good or Bad).

 

Second if you look at the sample Villains, the highest PD is Esper at 18 and the lowest is Green Dragon at 10 so if we go by Def should be x2 DC, Esper is right there.

 

Third, even if he’s slightly under the average, so what? Perhaps that is the concept of the character? Now as the Master of ineffectual characters, I do understand that there is a minimum that a character should be able to do however not every character should have a campaign maximum attack. Can we move pass the BBB builds (in this respect)?

 

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30 minutes ago, Ninja-Bear said:

 I do understand that there is a minimum that a character should be able to do however not every character should have a campaign maximum attack. Can we move pass the BBB builds (in this respect)?

 

 

No we can't.  This is a thread for advice to a rookie GM, who is building characters for his players.  You are free to build your character however you like, but let's save the "your character has a low attack because sucking is part of his concept" for another time.  We want example characters to feel useful, every single one of them.  A degree of sameness is necessary.  The BBB builds are wonderful for that.

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Kinetic's defense total also isn't wrong. The "Only While Moving" defense isn't added into his total because it's situational, while it's generally assumed he's going to be in his protective suit for most encounters. It's like ticking the "do not add to totals" box in Hero Designer. Plus his DCV is higher than anyone else's.

 

The rest of it, eh. His NND and KA are much more likely to do damage to a target than any other "I just hit them with my fist" basic attacks of the rest of the champions. Speedster types often hit a little less hard, but definitely more often.

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1 hour ago, massey said:

No we can't.  This is a thread for advice to a rookie GM, who is building characters for his players.  You are free to build your character however you like, but let's save the "your character has a low attack because sucking is part of his concept" for another time.  We want example characters to feel useful, every single one of them.  A degree of sameness is necessary.  The BBB builds are wonderful for that.

It's not about sucking.  A character with higher SPD or OCV should have lower DC to compensate.  Definitely not "9DC in a 12DC 25DEF game", but slightly lower DC so their damage throughput isn't overwhelmingly higher than everyone else's. 

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RE:

 

Endurance tracking:

 

My current youth group is the only time I've _ever_ had issues getting someone to comprehend tracking END, and even then it's just the younger ones.  I mean, players have no problem tracking STUN, BODY, and until this one group, track END.  It's not like it's totally foreign if you can track the other two, right?  My suspicion is the "youth" part: they're in a hurry to do amazing things in their magical new world.

 

My solution was this:

 

Round-head-Golden-metal-Paper-Fastener-B

 

Combined with this:

 

 

41GO-+29nXL.jpg

 

 

Yes, as an American deep in rural farm country, I was startled to find a dozen 45 cm plastic rulers in my local office supply store (I mean local; the nearest chain place is ninety miles from me).  The ones I found were wider and thinner than the one pictured, and they had a narrow little slot running down almost the full length (presumably some sort of cutting guide?)  At any rate, I tucked A paper rivet through each slot and folded one tab one toward the center and the other tab toward and up around the edge of the centimeter side, making something of a pointer.  I explained to them that they put the pointer on their starting END (mercifully, the highest END was dead-on 45) and when they did anything, they slid the pointer down to indicate their current END score. 

 

Not only did it work, but they want one for tracking STUN, too.  :lol:

 

I don't think the math bothered them; I don't think that they were unaware that things cost END.  I think they got wrapped up and forgot to stop and do it.  This, being a bit more in-your-face, seems to have stopped the problem cold.  They have taken to moving the counter as if it were the most important part of the game.   Unexpected bonus:  I can tell at a casual glance about where anyone's END is at any given moment. ;)

 

 

 

 

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6 hours ago, dialNforNinja said:


* 6f Tentacle Block: Barrier 8 PD/8 ED, 8 BODY, 4m L x 3m H x .5m, Non-Anchored, Opaque (Sight Group)

 


If I understand this, it allows you to create a wall and  walk away from it leaving the wall standing there.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary says we were also going to point out that doubling costs of Characteristics after a certain point is a bad idea that should be avoided, but it seems you're already steered well clear of that mistake.

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10 minutes ago, Lucius said:

If I understand this, it allows you to create a wall and  walk away from it leaving the wall standing there.

Well, as long as you're within Stretching range, yes... I suppose it could be some kind of "tear off and immediately grow back" thing, but without regen anywhere else in the build that's, ehh... Stretch range has been cut down a fair bit from the original "this seems like a good length" too as other things ate the points and honestly I just plain forgot to come back to it to examine in detail after copying it from a different build on the internet and renaming it, because it was sitting there working as is. ...I kind of like the idea of the not-hentacle being able to quickly throw up a bunch of tentacular walls around the place actually, but it doesn't fit the theme as written.

 

Botheration.

 

Now I'm all conflicted about it.

 

What is with people being all logical and making me think when I just got up because as I was waking up a voice asked me "What if Smurfette found the Witchblade?" and I wanted to come write that down? Then the browser had to bloop at me with an alert since I forgot to turn scripts back off here earlier. Now I'm going to be too haired up to get back to sleep :lol:

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Yeah, I think I'll keep it that way. Well, mostly, because after checking what Standard Range actually is and finding it's really long, and checking Entangle as a possible alternative and finding that no, it didn't really do that at all but also serves my lols just as well, I decided to replace the existing versions of that and Water Shot with this:

 

* 4f Wall of Tentacles: Barrier 8 PD/8 ED (24cp), 14 BODY (14cp), 4m L x 3m H x .5m (12cp), Dismissable (+5), Opaque (Sight Group) (5cp), Limited Range (1/2 std) (-1/2)
* 4f Grabby Tentacles: Entangle 5PD/ED 5d6 BODY (50cp), Additonal PD/ED (+1ea) (5cp), Dismissable (+5), Limited Range (1/2 std) (-1/2)
* 4f Water Shot: Blast 8d6, Double Knockback (+1⁄2), Limited Range (1/2 std) (-1/2)

 

Grabby Tentacles, of course, creates a patch of more active ones in a similar way tot eh wall, but which gently supports the target and gives them a lovely, relaxing massage. Because he's a physical therapist specializing in sports medicine.

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1 minute ago, dialNforNinja said:

Yeah, I think I'll keep it that way. Well, mostly, because after checking what Standard Range actually is and finding it's really long, and checking Entangle as a possible alternative and finding that no, it didn't really do that at all but also serves my lols just as well, I decided to replace the existing versions of that and Water Shot with this:

 

* 4f Wall of Tentacles: Barrier 8 PD/8 ED (24cp), 14 BODY (14cp), 4m L x 3m H x .5m (12cp), Dismissable (+5), Opaque (Sight Group) (5cp), Limited Range (1/2 std) (-1/2)
* 4f Grabby Tentacles: Entangle 5PD/ED 5d6 BODY (50cp), Additonal PD/ED (+1ea) (5cp), Dismissable (+5), Limited Range (1/2 std) (-1/2)
* 4f Water Shot: Blast 8d6, Double Knockback (+1⁄2), Limited Range (1/2 std) (-1/2)

 

Grabby Tentacles, of course, creates a patch of more active ones in a similar way tot eh wall, but which gently supports the target and gives them a lovely, relaxing massage......

 

.....as he walks away and leaves them entangled as he leaves the building.

 

Kind of the point I was getting at with Barrier. I don't think the way you have these powers written up does what you actually intended it to do.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Entangling a palindromedary

 

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7 minutes ago, Lucius said:

...as he walks away and leaves them entangled as he leaves the building.

Yes, it's a bit of feature creep - he stretches his normal ones out (possibly to much further than normal range) and weaves them together with a lot more squirmy bits that appear via alien space magic, then pulls his normal ones back once the effect is in place. Adding Dismissable is as close as I can see to anything that would directly be "form this shape, then go back to normal when done" and the amount of area the wall would cover always required some kind of space magic volume fiddling. I mean, range could be specified as "within Stretching distance" instead of just "half standard" but what more would you suggest?

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You'll notice the lift weight on Ten-tickles' stats up above mentions filling in the table. One of the things I really hate is "dead levels" in things like lift strength where several different scores are stuck with the same value before making a big jump that could easily have been spread out between them. Now, I understand that the last thing a Hero rulebook needs is to add another extra page to the count unnecessarily, but like I said, it bothers me. So I filled in the chart, at least to the point that the pattern repeats. Here it is so you don't have to. Yeah, it gets weird around 45, there's nothing I can do about that with the only decimal point on the official chart being stuck in there.

 

STR    Lift
0    n/a
1    8 kg
2    16 kg
3    25 kg
4    38 kg
5    50 kg
6    57 kg
7    63 kg
8    75 kg
9    88 kg
10    100 kg
11    113 kg
12    125 kg
13    150 kg
14    175 kg
15    200 kg
16    225 kg
17    250 kg
18    300 kg
19    350 kg
20    400 kg
21    450 kg
22    500 kg
23    600 kg
24    700 kg
25    800 kg
26    900 kg
27    1000 kg
28    1200 kg
29    1400 kg
30    1600 kg
31    1800 kg
32    2000 kg
33    2400 kg
34    2800 kg
35    3200 kg
36    3600 kg
37    4000 kg
38    4800 kg
39    5600 kg
40    6400 kg
41    7200 kg
42    8000 kg
43    9500 kg
44    11 tons
45    12.5 tons
46    14.5 tons
47    16.5 tons
48    19 tons
49    22 tons
50    25 tons
51    28 tons
52    31 tons
53    38 tons
54    44 tons
55    50 tons
56    57 tons
57    63 tons
58    75 tons
59    88 tons
60    100 tons

 

 

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On July 1, 2019 at 5:01 AM, Doc Democracy said:

because we insist on taking a continuity of 50 years as canon.  If we could escape from the prison of continuity, we could appreciate each story for its own merits,

 

 

Quote

I think the thing that makes superhero games superheroic is the iconic nature of the protagonists and anything that work against that iconic nature diminishes the genre and makes the superheroes merely heroes and often not even that.

 

That, Sir, is precisely why I like retired / heroic deaths for favored heroes that have seen "too much" play: i.e., "I have done everything I have ever wanted to do with this character; I have explored him as fully as I ever wanted to.  I want to stop playing him before he becomes a godlike mockery of the conception I once had."

 

After being more-or-less blackmailed into playing the same character for twenty years (off-and-on for the last five of those, to be fair), I almost _enjoy_ a noble death for a character I have thoroughly enjoyed.

 

 

 

(on a related note:  have you ever noticed that the same people who _insist_ that all fifty years is canon _refuse_ to let the character be ninety years old?  I hate cannon.  I detest canon.  Canon geeks have done more to ruin my enjoyment of serialized fiction than any author ever could have.  No personal insult meant to _anyone_ by that; it's just a vent that thirty years overdue. )

 

Duke

 

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