jwpacker
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Posts posted by jwpacker
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Re: You. Make. The Call.
That's where I'm leaning too, Alibear. The day this guy turns his FF down below some reasonable number is the day he decides he must, to use his full strength TK to keep a building from falling on a crowd of puppies.
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Re: You. Make. The Call.
Y'all wanted to see progress...
Val Char Cost 15 STR 5 23 DEX 39 20 CON 20 12 BODY 4 13 INT 3 18 EGO 16 15 PRE 5 10 COM 0 4/64 PD 1 4/64 ED 0 5 SPD 17 7 REC 0 50 END 5 30 STUN 0 6" RUN 0 2" SWIM 0 3" LEAP 0 Characteristics Cost: 115 Cost Power 100 Telekinetc Powers: Multipower, 120-point reserve, all slots Reduced Endurance (1/2 END; +1/4) (150 Active Points); all slots OIF (Diadem; -1/2) 15m 1) Remote Hands: Telekinesis (70 STR), Fine Manipulation (115 Active Points); OIF (Diadem; -1/2) 16m 2) Autolifting: Flight 50", Position Shift, x16 Noncombat (120 Active Points); OIF (Diadem; -1/2) 16m 3) Personal Shield: Force Field (60 PD/60 ED) (120 Active Points); OIF (Diadem; -1/2) 16m 4) Remote Shield: Force Wall (20 PD/20 ED; 5" long and 2" tall) (Opaque Sight Group) (120 Active Points); OIF (Diadem; -1/2) 15m 5) Telekinetic Shove: Energy Blast 13d6, Double Knockback (+3/4) (114 Active Points); OIF (Diadem; -1/2) Powers Cost: 178 Cost Skill 3 Bureaucratics 12- 3 Conversation 12- 3 Deduction 12- 3 Electronics 12- 3 Inventor 12- 2 KS: Nanotechnology 11- 3 Mechanics 12- 2 SS: Microelectronics 11- 2 SS: Force Field Mechanics 11- 3 Security Systems 12- 3 Stealth 14- Skills Cost: 30 Cost Perk 11 Money: Filthy Rich Perks Cost: 11 Cost Talent 3 Absolute Range Sense 3 Bump Of Direction 5 Eidetic Memory 5 Rapid Healing Talents Cost: 16 Total Character Cost: 350
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Re: You. Make. The Call.
Maybe so...but I've yet to be in a game...where 75 PD/ED was needed to be competitive. I've never even had a MASTER villain with such high defenses...so I don't see the rationale for a hero in this point range to have it.Rob
I think his take was that he'd not often find much need to put full power into his force field, that nine times out of ten, it would be more on the level of 25/25 than 75/75, but that, like many comic heroes, he could, at need, exceed everyone's expectations and do what needed doing by sacrificing in other areas while he's doing it.
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Re: Catalyst: A Champions campaign on Hero Central
Since the spikes are magic, how about RKA 1d6+1 AVLD (Power Defense, +1½)(50 Active Points)?
~Gabriel
That's gonna get pricey, when you add in "Does Body" for an additional +1...
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Re: You. Make. The Call.
It all raises for me a question I've had since I delved back into Hero - and it's a philosophical one. If the system is truly balanced, then shouldn't characters built on the same number of points be, technically equal? I mean, sure, some people will be better at power gaming than others, but oughtn't the characters be on par with one another in the long run?
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Re: You. Make. The Call.
I wouldn't be to hard on them. It sounds like a new player unfamiliar with the subtleties of HERO. Some people start with middle-of-the-road concepts and add to them. Others start BIG and whittle them down as necessary (I've always been in the second camp). Everybody has got to start somewhere.I'm really learning a lot watching them hack their first characters together (the only experience they have is in old-school traditional systems or console games). One came with a rock solid concept and back story, another built from Disadvantages first, and expanded from there, and the third just knew that many cool heroes really only have one power (he talked about Nightcrawler, for example) so I think he'll get there once he's had some time to cogitate on the system.
And don't feel like you have to pull any punches. I'm pretty sure none of them are reading here... I don't intend to tell them about the place just yet. They might read too many of the good ideas I've stolen!
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Re: You. Make. The Call.
Doh!
I must have been thinking of 1st edition END costs for a second there.
Seeing as I went from 1st Ed to 5th Ed with a near 20 year gap between, I do that all the time
Please let us know what you and the player end up doing regardless.Oh, most assuredly. I'm not sure who is going to give me the biggest headaches, this guy, or the one with the 15 point multipower with twenty five slots in it. Talk about your Boy Scouts, this guy is prepared.
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Re: You. Make. The Call.
so someone actually proposed such a boring MP?Hey, I was just impressed that a new gamer wanted to use multi slots in a multipower. He seemed to grok the flexibility that it gave him right away.
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Re: You. Make. The Call.
At first glance it looks like a very thinly disguised Green Lantern clone.Wow, I didn't see that at all...maybe just because I know the player...
Honestly, the biggest concern for that character is the 18DC Telekinetic Punch he can deliver. However, it and all the other powers have one huge built in drawback.They will all cost him 30 END per Phase to use! If 'all' the character's powers are in the 'amulet' then I would allow it and enforce the character's END to be within normal human range.
Your math is a little off - it's only 150 active points, so 15 END per turn, maximum, no matter how he splits up the points. But, again, your point stands - with a SPD of 5, he'd burn 75 END per turn...
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Re: You. Make. The Call.
I would disallow this construct for exceeding active point limits.What constraints do you typically run with in your games? And is it strictly AP, or do you also limit DC, CV, etc?
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A player comes to you with a character with this power construction:
120....Telekinetic Powers: Multipower, 150 point reserve, all slots IIF - Power Amulet 23m....1) Telekinesis: 90 STR, Fine Manipulation 24m....2) Telekinetic Shield: Force Wall, 26PD/26ED, 5" Long, 2" Tall, Opaque to Sight Group 24m....3) Personal TK Shield: Force Field (75PD/75ED) 24m....4) TK Flight: Flight 55", Position Shift, x256 NCM
It's a standard 350 point characters campaign, they're spending 215 on powers, and presumably the remainder on characteristics and skills. These are the only powers they intend to take.
Do you allow it? Or do the extreme numbers send him back to the drawing board?
I know many GMs who would veto this immediately, seeing that TK strength and not wanting a hero who can mentally lift an ASW destroyer, or fly at 30+ times the speed of sound outside of combat, or whose force field, in full effect, can nearly stand up to artillery, in their campaign.
But when you get right down to it, most of the time this guy is going to have a pretty even balance between offense, defense and movement, right? Or you're going to paste him the minute he uses all his power to deliver an 18D6 TK punch...
So, what do you think?
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Re: Catalyst: A Champions campaign on Hero Central
They both look fine. Do you want me to accept both of these as finished characters?Yes, if you're satisfied with their depth and point balance, I'm satisfied with them as well.
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Re: Catalyst: A Champions campaign on Hero Central
Okay, updated character specs, very basic mods to Requiem, significant backstory update, tweak of a few disads, and significant tweak of skills to suit new status.
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Re: Catalyst: A Champions campaign on Hero Central
Okay, I've made the appropriate changes to The Ward. About my only concern is that she is on the edge of town; her response time to anywhere but The Bends (River District), Cinder City, Switchback and the Market District is going to be slower than the rest. Given that I want her to have the classic Old Haunted Mansion in a 'bad' part of town, this might be unavoidable.Surprisingly, I'm not sure why, but she's not for the Rookery. I'm actually tempted to take the River District- central River District- because that seems like a nice hotbed as well.
Maybe I'm thinking about this too hard?
Something about this campaign world tends to make me do that, as well.
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Re: Sapphire up
Significantly better than the depiction in the books, but I agree that her ethnicity has been utterly lost in this depiction.
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Re: Worth a thousand words?
The power to experience anorexia without losing fat from her breasts?Yeah, sorry, but most of the females thus depicted are pretty much all possessed of the same powerset - or at least outfits that have a very limited form of telekinesis to keep themselves in check.
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Re: Catalyst: A Champions campaign on Hero Central
I'm considering this as an updated backstory for Engram. Little has changed about his past, but his present has been updated for a little more chance to get out and about. If you think this will work better, I'll update disads and skills to suit.
Armando Gonzales was the born into a large, but poor family in Sugar Hill. The seventh child of seven, no one was terribly surprised when Armando seemed to have a lot of imaginary friends. Perfectly normal, the school psychologist said, for a child who can't be the center of attention for his parents to invent people who give him their undivided attention. Everything was fine, in fact, until one of Armando's imaginary friends showed up on their front porch.
The woman, for a real woman it was, introduced herself as Dr. Masterson, a young researcher from up in Thebes proper. She told Armando's parents that he had contacted her telepathically, and said he was trying to find a friend, and he wondered if she would be his friend. At first, she played along, but over time came to realize two things. First, if Armando had been casting about for friends using his innate psychic abilities, it seemed likely that he might be contacted, eventually, but someone who didn't have his best interests at heart. And second, that given that she had had to drive a significant distance to find the family, Armando must be a very powerful psychic indeed.
Armando's parents, along with Dr. Masterson, found some researchers at UT who were only too happy to help test out some of Armando's abilities. As Dr. Masterson had predicted, Armando was especially gifted for a boy of ten, with the potential for a significant increase in that power when he hit puberty. The university staff offered to provide an environment where Armando could safely explore the limits of his power and grow into them in a controlled way. Armando's parents agreed, and Armando became a regular at the UT Metahuman Studies department.
In addition to being able to read and send thoughts across great distances, Armando proved to have access to a whole suite of possible tools. He could create images that were so realistic that people at first thought he was in fact a latent summoner. In one competition with another budding mentalist, Armando, now sixteen, accidentally knocked the other man unconscious.
As soon as he turned eighteen, Armando applied for, and was quickly accepted, at UT, taking classes in Metahuman Studies from professors who had been like surrogate parents for him. Having grown up poor, it was only through grants and loans that he can attend the university.
After attaining his Masters degree in Metahuman Studies, he stayed with the university as an associated professor. He’s working at a leisurely pace on his PhD, teaching classes to undergraduates, and serving as a consultant to governmental and law enforcement agencies, called in often when Primes issues are involved, both in an investigative and a consultatory role.
To add to some more drama to his life, he's found himself involved in a relationship with his former mentor and patron, Dr. Tamara Masterson. No one - not his family or hers - is aware of this change in their relationship.
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Re: Catalyst: A Champions campaign on Hero Central
I wanted a name that really synched into the area. Since Memphis is nearby' date=' and there is this BIG river...
[/quote']And with Cairo, IN just up the 65 a piece...
I am really a BUILDER when it comes to campaigns. Ask Fed, I get INTO in the history to make a game. I usual make "modules" have a feel with critical junctures and wing it from there (works well in any urban setting). Dungeon crawling, no so much
.Nothing makes me happier than coming into a game world that feels like something real. There's enough raw story going on here to make for fertile storytelling ground.
PS, did you have a chance to look at my return questions about Engram from earlier?
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Re: Catalyst: A Champions campaign on Hero Central
Has anyone taken a look at this yet?Not until just now.
D'oh! I didn't realize we were so far south that we were, in fact, in Mississippi!
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Re: Continuing charges
How do continuing charges apply to linked powers?For example: A character has a sword that can be temporarily ignited using a special fuel system, represented by another HKA linked to the sword. Can the duration of its ignition be represented with a continuing charge? I.e. If the charges last for 20 minutes each, does that imply a single attack with the linked bonus, which sets a single enemy on fire for 20 minutes, or a the extra HKA itself, which lasts for 20 minutes? Or both?
As both are instant powers, I'm not sure I'd go with continuing charges, unless I wanted to target to be burning for 20 minutes.
I would either go with regular charges, or perhaps fuel charges.
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Re: Discussing Entangles
I agree that sfx are vital' date=' although they tend to be most vital when it comes to building the power in the first place. The expanding foam idea should almost certainly block sight and possibly hearing, which I did not include. I used expanding foam because wanted an sfx that immobilised the whole target not just a bit of them to interrogate the interaction of entangle and martial arts et al.[/quote']Maybe there's a different sfx you'd like to choose for your power then? A series of ropy bands that hit the target like a bolo, or, if there's no target, stretch out like a sheet of rubber?
Or maybe your expanding foam just has a susceptibility to hit locations 3-5?
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Re: Catalyst: A Champions campaign on Hero Central
I resent the idea of taking vegetarian as a psychological limitation.~Gabriel
Does that mean, when I write up the character sheet for me, I get to take a psych lim for Carnitarian?
Remember the credo of the Carnitarians: "If it's green, it's trouble, if it's fried, order double."
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Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine
It's gone. This is his new version.Thanks. I did have to wonder just how many programs, in Portugese, there could be.
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Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine
I had that URL... I was looking for the one referenced in the beginning of the thread - the one that'll let you have characters who aren't staring straight ahead...
[/quote']
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You. Make. The Call.
in Champions
Posted
Re: You. Make. The Call.
I think, on some level, the fact that his powers do top out in the 120 active point range makes him happy. I'm not sure how I feel just yet, but suspect it'll work itself out in the wash.
As for playability, this guy's a mathematician. I fully expect him to come prepared with a set of pre-set power levels he can easily shift through as the battle progresses.