Trebuchet

Re: Sexy costume power

supermegatopia?

 

Um... Is that site work safe?

Re: The Olympics

Zl'f was a gymnastics Bronze Medalist in the 1996 Olympics; and now she's immensely better (24- roll in Gymnastics with Levels) than she was in '96. I doubt she'd compete because she has a more important job nowadays (as a superheroine), but she would certainly follow the gymnastics events with interest.

Re: How do I build this power: Always face away from me

And' date=' of course, Doc only has 32 discs.[/quote']Methinks thou dost protest too much.

 

"Only" 32 charges when the average Champions combat probably lasts less than 2 Turns. That's so much of a "limitation" that it costs an extra +¼. So he can "only" get behind his target(s) 32 times to halve their DCV. You know, some characters actually work to make a tactical advantage; yours just metagames it. If he'd had just a few charges to make this an occasional surprise maneuver, it'd be cool. But IMO you're just working the system. Pure unadulterated metagaming.

Re: Cloud Form + Flight + No Running

I don't see where Running is defined as Non-Combat mvmt.

Re: Life heroes of your heroes

Zl'f: Alexander Nevsky; who defeated a German invasion of Russia in 1242 AD. (Technically it was an invasion of Teutonic Knights, but no Russian ever considers them anything but Germans.)

Her father, Yurii Alekseyev, who helped do the same thing between 1941 and 1945.

Justicar: St. Augustine. (As a former Marine, he can relate to a sinner finding God.)

Re: Cloud Form + Flight + No Running

+ How to forbid running ? (thus only flight 1" would be possible)

Re: Custom Mechanon

I threw a pair of redesigned Mechanon mods at our team MidGuard. They're 30 foot long centipedes with clinging, HKA jaws, and seismic sensors to track unseen ground targets. They're time-traveling alien robots in our campaign, but there's no reason not to make them revert to being (unusual) Mechanon bodies.

HDC file attached.

Re: How do I build this power: Always face away from me

I wouldn't allow such a big Limitation on the TK; at most it'd be -1. Although you've carefully avoiding saying it, IMO what you're trying to do is get behind every opponent to gain a combat advantage for minimal cost. Unless you could come up with a plausible SFX and rationale, I wouldn't allow this.

Even if you do this, you're in for a big surprise the first time you run into an opponent with Defense Maneuver III or IV.

Re: Let's Do Lunch

Your character is approached regarding the movie rights to some of their exploits. The offer seems legitimate, although the studio does reserve the right to change a few details to make the script more saleable.

 

Would your character accept? What adventure would the film be about? What changes to the facts about the incident and your character would have to be made to protect identities, the innocent, and your dignity? Would it be big-budget, cable, or direct-to-DVD?

 

And who does your character want playing you? Conversely, who would you as a *player* want playing you?

Unfortunately, my primary character Zl'f doesn't really have any such moments or adventures she'd be willing to relate or that is public knowledge. The closest one would be her taking down Mentalla of Eurostar in a fight on a trawler on the Aegean Sea*, but she had plenty of help and (more significantly) I'm not sure any film studio would be willing to risk pissing off Eurostar -several members are still at large.

Zl'f might be willing to deal with a general history of her life from Olympic gymnast, orphan, metahuman fugitive, and finally field leader of Earth's most respected superhero team, MidGuard. Sounds more like a Lifetime miniseries than a feature film.

* http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6990

Re: Super Transportation

Modified as an experimental special-ops vehicle by the Japanese government, the Sea Raptor is capable of both supersonic flight and submersed operations.

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

I'm currently working my way through the Harry Dresden series and enjoying them quite a bit. These are what the Anita Blake series could (and should) have been.

It'd be a great world to run a Dark Champions or low-level supers campaign in.

Re: Modern Swordsmithing

I'd do some research on metallic glass.

Re: Caltropes

I wonder if a character with the Talent Trackless Stride could walk safely over caltrops without injury?

Re: Is it Flash or is it me?

Assuming I'm reading Prestidigitator correctly' date=' he's noting that the 6 SPD character also retains the advantage while blind - he has 3 phases while blind in which he can take action. His choices are restricted by his blindness, but three opportunities to take even a penalized action is better than just one.[/quote']Ah. It seemed to me he was disagreeing with points he'd made earlier in the thread. Now I see he was just expanding on those points.

Re: Is it Flash or is it me?

And three times as many penalized Phases as well. Tell me' date=' would you rather have one Phase in which you can do a limited amount of stuff or three Phases in which you can do a limited amount of stuff? I'll take the three Phases any day of the week. Heck, maybe I could even work a "free" Recovery in there while my eyes are busy working things out to make up for the world of hurt that flasher is going to do to me on his one Phase. Remember the attacker is going to get the same number of his Phases to do crap to me while I'm blind no matter what MY Speed is, but I at least have some chances to protect myself or make up for it. There are plenty of other examples.[/quote']I'm not sure what point you're trying to make here. If a character has 3X as many Phases then he's affected by a Flash 3X as many Phases but he also has 3X more unpenalized Phases remaining. Both characters in the stated example are penalized for half of their Phases. It's totally proportional and quite fair.

Re: Is it Flash or is it me?

Tell that to the guy that lost 3 phases. "you're the same as him, you lost only half your phases! It's no worse!"

 

Yeah. Keep telling yourself that.

You're clearly not even paying attention to the counterarguments.

Re: Is it Flash or is it me?

...which reminds me' date=' Touch is a second Targeting Sense that everyone gets for free. [/quote']Shhh! Don't mention that. We GMs want anyone Flashed to just give up because everyone knows "Flash, objectively, hurts people with higher speed worse than those with lower speed." That keeps our villains from getting bruised by blinded heroes who actually, you know, act heroically.

Re: Is it Flash or is it me?

And even in his hand picked example' date=' the two characters are penalized the same. Each "loses" 1/2 of their Phases. Which still gives the SPD 6 character 3 times as many remaining Phases as the SPD 2 character.[/quote']Yeah, I noticed that too. IOW, Flash affects characters proportionately to their respective SPD. Quite frankly I don't see how it could be more fair than that. This is nothing more significant than seeing the same glass as half-empty rather than half-full.

Re: Is it Flash or is it me?

Think of it this way. Let us compare.

 

Speed 2 character flashed 6 segments:

1/2 DCV for each segment blinded in HTH and 0 DCV vs range

1/2 hit location penalty each segment blinded

blinded for each segment (can't see what's going on, etc)

Loses 1 phase of effective action

Has 1 Phase of effective action remaining

 

Speed 6 character flashed 6 segments:

1/2 DCV for each segment blinded in HTH and 0 DCV vs range

1/2 hit location penalty each segment blinded

blinded for each segment (can't see what's going on, etc)

Loses 3 phases of effective action

Has 3 Phases of effective action remaining

 

Which of these is worse off, objectively? Flash, objectively, hurts people with higher speed worse than those with lower speed.

Your examples only work if everything else is equal; which is highly unlikely in anything but a purely theoretical comparison. You're deliberately choosing an extreme example by comparing a SPD 2 to a SPD 6 one when SPD 3 and 4 are far more typical floors for SPD even in a heroic campaign and either of those might "lose" 2 Phases (and again, they're not lost - just penalized). The SPD 6 character still has 2 more unblinded Phases and 2 additional penalized Phases. That makes him objectively much better off. Besides, given the rather obvious advantages a SPD 6 character has over a SPD 2 character in virtually every other instance, I'd say at worst Flash redresses some of the imbalance just as a defensive Damage Shield uses a high-DEX/CSL character's own OCV against him.

In the meantime, I suggest you make all your player characters SPD 2 to counter the unbalanced danger from Flash Attacks. Let us know how that works out for you.

Re: Is it Flash or is it me?

It seems to me that' date=' if anyone here on the boards knows high SPD characters, it has to be Treb. The fact that he doesn't find this unreasonable, to me, says a lot about actual game play experience in this regard.[/quote']Zl'f (deliberately) has no Flash Defense or Flash-bypassing Senses like Sonar or Combat Sense and has been Flashed several times during her career. It's never been a fight-ender for her. She goes to Martial Dodge each Phase or the like and waits till her vision clears; then gets on with the battle. Even blinded she's not that easy to hit for most opponents - her potential ½ DCV for DEX 43 plus 2 Overall Levels and Martial Dodge exceeds many characters' base OCV.

 

And his point is well taken - the character does not lose some number of actions/phases from being Flashed. He is placed at a disadvantage for a period of time. He still gets all his phases - if he gives up all hope and sits down and cries until the Flash wears off, that's his decision, but he still had the actions to take.

"Game over, man, game over!"

Re: Is it Flash or is it me?

While it is true you can time the use of flash to make it work for you' date=' that's true with [i']any[/i] level of flash on any target, but that still doesn't change the basic fact that it's significantly less effective on a slow target than a fast one. Sure, you can time the flash to get them flat footed... but the faster they are, the worse it affects them by losing more phases.

Re: Is it Flash or is it me?

Seems like a rather large change to be "only" a LImitation. I'm not sure how the "cures with time" would be handled as a CE or Darkness.

I was thinking in terms of creating an effect like RL fog or smoke. These seldom totally obscure vision, but they make it harder to see the further you look through it. The way to do that would seem to be a penalty for how deep and/or dense the fog/smoke is and they generally thin out over time. That seems pretty similar in game effect to your Dazzle suggestion.

Perhaps we could have a new Limitation called Obscure which could be applied to Flash, Darkness, or other Powers.

Re: Is it Flash or is it me?

Back when Adventurers Club was being published, there was a column called "GM Discretion," by Steve Perrin (IIRC). One idea put forward was to change Flash to "Dazzle". The idea was that the effect rolled on the "damage" dice is a minus to PER for the appropriate sense(s); if applicable it's also a minus to "To Hit". Each of the victim's Phases (as the last thing in the Phase), the modifier lessens by one.

 

So if someone if hit for 5 by Dazzle, they're -5 to PER with that sense/those senses for the first Phase, -4 the next, -3 the next, etc. Essentially, the victim "recovers" from being at reduced PER, based on the victim's SPD rather than the attacker, and without penalties to the faster compared to the slower.

 

Thus, the victim isn't "out of the fight", but is put at a disadvantage.

 

Frankly, if I ever ran a campaign, I'd use this as a house rule.

Repped.

Re: Is it Flash or is it me?

It doesn't take a very big Flash to make a SPD 9 character lose a couple of Phases' date=' but it takes a huge Flash to make a SPD 2 character lose even a full Phase. That's where the power's broke. A superhero can get by with a 3d6 Flash and still have something to show, but a cop with a flashbang has to break campaign Active Power caps.[/quote']It would depend on when the Flash goes off. A 3d6 Flash may or may not fall on the SPD 2 character's Phase, but I don't think most characters will opt to be SPD 2 just to protect themselves from multi-Phase Flash attacks.

 

Police flash-bangs would be very small flash attacks (1d6 or 2d6 at best). Their effectiveness comes pretty much because they're always used in Phase 12. Since the real purpose of flash-bangs is to disorient targets and/or make them hesitate for a few seconds, I personally think they'd be better built as PRE attacks perhaps combined with a 1d6 Sight & Hearing Flash.

Re: Is it Flash or is it me?

Well, SPD's only effect is to allow a character a certain number of actions, and I guess the powers that be decided that allowing SPD to affect how long someone was deprived of a Sense was outside that definition. Similar to how SPD is irrelevant to recovering from a Drain.

 

When it worked against Phases and faster characters recovered quicker, it could be said that it was one of the things encouraging SPD Inflation.