Sougen

Re: Why the change in destroying planets between SH 5E and SH 6E? With a low roll of 20, the planet will still have half its body. That isn't to say that everything is right as rain, but I think you may be slightly exaggerating the destruction level. After all, we don't kill of characters who have only taken half their body in damage. Nor do we destroy vault doors that have only taken half their body in damage. So why kill off the planet if it has only taken half of its? And again, this assumes that 10d6 is the standard for use. It can be adjusted up and down to help get the various levels of potential effect desired. For example, a 6d6 attack on this kind would average out 21 body damage of which only 11 (or just over half the total body of the planet) would be lost. That seems like a dire straights' situation, but not a "all is lost" / the planet is destroyed situation.

Re: Gaming in the Magic: The Gathering setting It has been awhile since I really looked into the 'storyline' of Magic and thus I could be a bit off, but I think it is important to remember that the duels between players (who are, btw, planes walkers) is suppose to take place over days, weeks, months, and even years. Every battle is its own representation of a LOTR's style adventure. The lands don't necessarily represent your personal strength or even give you strength, rather they represent the various connections and associations you have formed. Establishing connections in the deep forests allows one to better martial an Elf alliance who come with their own unique blend of forces. Likewise, by making packs with the under dark, one can better martial the forces of the undead or nigh dead. Likewise, most of magic takes place on the same world. The planes are suppose to be representative of the various regions of the world. The true variety in the story comes from the extremly long arching nature of the world. There are, iirc, some alternate 'worlds' that various things dwell on, but it is largely the same location. I also think Urza and his Rival were the first true Planes walkers in the game (in the since of internal history of MTG), but I could be wrong once again. Now with all that said, I think the best way to reason what is going on is to build planes walkers in much the same way we build the "benders" from Avatar. They have various internal associations with certain elements. Those associations then give rise to particular styles of ability. The big differences being that a Planes Walker can have more than one association and the existence of many major items of power. Urza is famous for the extreme number of magical / mystical items he possessed.

Re: Why the change in destroying planets between SH 5E and SH 6E? But it is more than just 19 body. It is 19 body plus the 10ed (or 5pd) defense. So we are really looking at 29 damage being needed - this is still below the low average that Standard Effect is set at, but not by much. Likewise, the 10d6 attack can be adjusted up and down to make it more or less effective. Thus, it is possible to build an attack that would level most everything on a planet without destroying the planet itself just by lowering the damage value. It also provides a nice clear mechanic for astral bombardment that isn't on the "planet destroying" level just by adjusting the megascale and / or damage values. All in all, I like the way it is handled.

Re: Why the change in destroying planets between SH 5E and SH 6E? I think it makes sense for it to be done that way. We are still talking about an extremely expensive attack (500pt range) that allows the GM to handle the 'destroy' mechanic on just 10 dice. Likewise, since it operates on the assumption that the planet is made of one uniform substance and that in order to destroy the entirety of the planet, one must destroy the substance in question, it allows GMs an easy to reference chart for determining the difficulty of destroying a variety of planets (ones with a harder core or softer one). Lastly, it gives us a quick way to judge 'non-lethal' damage. What happens if we didn't destroy it all? Well, the law of averages on 10 dice is strong but not absolute; so one can expect to see attacks that fail miserably or succeed in the most devastating of ways.

Re: Horror Hero DeathClaw: I think perhaps the essence of what I said didn't get communicated properly. My main point was the nature of the game. Every character has weaknesses and they can all be exploited. Superman can lose Lois Lane. Such an event would be a true trial upon the soul of Sups. BUT even at his lowest (alternate Earth when he kills Luther, for example), it never quite matches up with the hopeless feel of "horror". At the end of the day, A champion's story (a Superman story) is one of trial and tribulation but with a strong sense of right n' wrong. A horror story, however, focuses on the desperation of survival. What would you do to survive? The fact that this is not a constant choice in a Champion's game is a key separation for it from Horror. Even against the character's I listed, It would best if it was almost a Post Apoc HERO setting (by the way, this is a great buy!) with those characters having taken over. IIRC, Lord Laiden has a write up for sever post apoc worlds where even the bad guys become simi-good.

Re: Horror Hero I actually scooped you to the shameless plug. ^^

Re: Horror Hero As far as looking for Horror critters, take a look in the bestiaries in 5th ed. I know the two Asian ones have some very useful horror critters. Also, you can take a spin of horror on most Champion's villains. What is Mechannon if not an existential threat of the exterior, the foreign, the bizarre? What is the Island of Doctor Geroe (sp?) if not a classic take on Teleios? The dark arts of the Eldritch horrors are steadfast supporters of the Crowns of Krim whilst the eternal dead follow their God-King Tekofones (sp?). There is a wealth of options but the biggest part is finding a way to add the 'feeling' of horror. Even when Superman is face with proportionally strong villains as Humans vs Zombies, he does not cower in fear. We do not view this as observers and feel helpless and lost. It is a Hero's story, not a survivor's story. This element twist is what defines horror so boldly. Without it, it is just a monster mash. Anyway, best of luck!

Re: Can be used as... One possible idea is to use a third and yet unmentioned power: Entangle. The idea for the tangle is that it must follow a Grab TK and then proceeds to 'tk hold' the person in place while you follow up with the Killing strike. A sufficiently large entangle can easily model the TK grab effect both cinematically and mechanically. The benefit being that it is naturally a 'simi-continuous power. While 'held', they would be subject to your TK Killing much the same way they would be if you grabbed them and then tried to stab them with a knife. The drawback could then be that the entangle MUST follow the TK grab and immediately goes away after you re-establish the TK on the target or any other.

Re: Falling damage: all the right angles?

Re: Falling damage: all the right angles? Ah, sorry for the misunderstanding, Manic. I was getting a slightly different impression on what you said.

Re: Falling damage: all the right angles? I watched the first 30 seconds of the video where they are sliding. Is that the stop you wanted me to watch? Assuming it is: First, we don't see them falling and landing on an angled surface, we see them sliding. That is an important point. It is like trying to compare skiing down a slope and being dropped of a helicopter from a hundred feet and skiing down a slope. That is to say that they aren't comparable. One doesn't have initial velocity - the falling velocity - to compare. Next, we are talking about a CGI rendering of a game not real life footage. Real World and Game World physics are not always the same. And last but certainly not least, you seem to be operating under the assumption that the person sliding down is not taking damage. I can assure you that the act of sliding down that kind of surface is harming his clothes at a minimum and he is probably picking up a few bruises to boot.

Re: Falling damage: all the right angles? In a rather gory way, Ternaugh conveyed my point. Any surface curved enough to slow your decent is flat enough to cause harm. The difference is you are exchanging instantaneous harm for a more durative harm. There are benefits to it, the same way there are minuses to it. And you can bounce off of even baby smooth granite. Because no mater how flat and seamless a surface is, the human body isn't. Imagining a situation where you are in the perfect sweet spot of a smooth and properly angled surface, well trained and clothed person, and have such a long distance as to be able to slow down enough that by the time the surface levels out you aren't still moving at deadly speeds is such a convoluted condition as to not be reasonable to contemplate in anticipatable situations.

Re: Falling damage: all the right angles? Well, although it is true that I did have a 'naturally formed hill' in mind. I don't know if the kind of angle surface affects my statement. That is why I was perplexed by your response. Indeed, I still am.

Re: Falling damage: all the right angles? I'm going to make a quick assumption on what you mean here because it isn't quite clear. You want to reference that the surface one lands on at the 45 degree angle could be flat. And from that you want to dispute the idea of "bumps and scrape that come with sliding down a hill at high speed"? Is that correct?

Re: Falling damage: all the right angles? I think their is an unstated fact about >90 degree angles - when you hit, you still aren't finished falling. If you hit a 45 degree angle, you will still be rolling down the ground, just with all the bumps and scrapes that come with sliding down a hill at high speed. So, any damage differences would seem to be made up for by the aspect of continuing damage. At the end of the day (or fall), I think the damage shouldn't change based on the initial angel of collision. You either will take all the damage at once, or you will take damage over a longer period of time. And the damage over time will probably be higher on total dice but there will be more moments of application and each application will be lower.

Re: A Thread for Random Videos I think that is the third or fourth posting of that same video so far. Edit: Yep, 3rd time.

Re: Make Your Own Motivational Poster This one is for Lucius This one is for fun: http://www.2epix.com/friendships_454.html

Re: Regenerative Shields What you can do is buy an Aid power that is used to restore the shields. Have it work on a trigger or built to be constant, etc.

Re: Low-End/Less Flashy Superpowers suggestions needed... I think Chris's point was that there are better ways to create equipment than with transform. Fixing something so that it works as designed or editing it in some small way seems like a good use of transform. Creating new pieces of equipment base base parts or widely altering an existing piece of equipment does seem more suited to a VPP.

Re: A Thread for Random Videos

Re: Low-End/Less Flashy Superpowers suggestions needed... How about "The Conduit". He is a Energy Blaster with the electric special effect. But he, like Pyro from X-Men must have a source of Electricity to work with. So, he grabs power cables or something similar and can channel out the energy as a high power attack. To help compensate for the times he doesn't have access to such cables, he brings his own mobile defibrillator so he can do it a couple times 'on battery'. How about "The Archivist". She is a recog that can see/feel/hear/ sense the past of objects she touches. It can take time to pin down any particular moment in time, but she can pick up high emotion moments. How about "Sympathy". She is a emotion manipulator. It works via the transfer of various hormones, and chemicals into her victim's blood stream via physical contact. They fall susceptible to suggestion from her. Or she can even release air borne pathogens that fiddle with the senses and emotions of near by individuals (Adrenaline spikes, serotonin spikes, etc). These make people feel tough, angry, depressed, happy, etc. But they are non-discriminating, so her team may have to wear protection lest they fall prey, too.

Re: Using a limitation only on an advantage I'm not saying that the Naked Advantage doesn't add utility. I'm not saying that it can't be abused. I'm saying that in spite of that, I think the current pricing scheme is correct. I say it is good because it allows for simplicity in the system (Combat Accel / Decel is always +1/4). This bit of consistency and simplicity I think is good to have. Now, something that I don't think people consider is that not having the advantage on a power but off to the side is in and of itself a limitation. lets take three comparable builds: 1st: 10d6 Blast - 50 active - 50 real 2nd: 10d6 Blast w/ AP - 75 active - 75 real 3rd: 10d6 Blast - 50 active -50 real AND Naked Advantage (AP) - 25active - 25 real. If I have a character with a drain v Blast, the degradation of the 1st and 3rd power is equal, but is effectively less vs the second. After applying 10pts of drain vs each power, I'm left with: 1st: 8d6 - 40active available 2nd: 8+1/2d6 - 65 active available 3rd: 8d6 - 40 active available AND AP - 25 active available. Thus, to take down to 0 the second power requires 25pts more from an adjustment power than the 1st or 3rd build. In essence, the very thing that makes NAs too advantageous (cost management) is also their weakness.

Re: Make Your Own Motivational Poster So, what was the purpose of the charade? Was there some unusually personal benefit to him because of doing it?

Re: Make Your Own Motivational Poster Okay. I came to the boards after all the "Rachel and Kara" stuff, but can anyone explain it to me?

Re: Barnstormer, flying speedster Comparing my MPed Naked advantage to this is that the creation of new slots in my MP nets you much less cost. I can add in a great many 1/4th advantages for only 1-2pts. Downside is that it is geared toward 1/4th advantages. If you want a 1/2, the cost differences start to even out. But there aren't many 1/2 advantages that I can see you needing. Also, I'm not sure how important the x4 non-combat multiplier is to you. I understand that part of the reason is that you can speed up quickly, but if you are willing to settle on it being a bit slower build up, you can take off that advantage, save that 5pts, and place it elsewhere. Then buy 1" of flight in the MP that has the advantage. Alternately, you can keep it as is and build an even higher flight rate (it just can't be used with the advantage). That build is as follows: [TABLE] [TR] [TD=align: right]Cost [/TD] [TD]Power[/TD] [TD=align: right]END[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=align: right]62[/TD] [TD]Flight 26", Position Shift, x4 Noncombat[/TD] [TD]6[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=align: right]17[/TD] [TD]Multipower, 17-point reserve[/TD] [TD][/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=align: right]1u[/TD] [TD]1) Naked Advantage: Reduced Endurance (1/2 END; +1/4) for up to 62 Active Points (15 Active Points)[/TD] [TD]0[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=align: right]1u[/TD] [TD]2) Naked Advantage: MegaScale (1" = 1 km; +1/4) for up to 62 Active Points (15 Active Points)[/TD] [TD]1[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=align: right]1u[/TD] [TD]3) Naked Advantage: combat acceleration/deceleration (+1/4) for up to 62 Active Points (15 Active Points)[/TD] [TD]1[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=align: right]1u[/TD] [TD]4) Naked Advantage: rapid Noncombat movement (+1/4) for up to 62 Active Points (15 Active Points)[/TD] [TD]1[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=align: right]2u[/TD] [TD]5) Flight 1", x16 (x32) Noncombat (17 Active Points)[/TD] [TD]2[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] Powers Cost: 85 The max speed on the character (not counting megascale) is 1861mph.