Trebuchet

How would one go about building a "normal" human that can run 100 meters (50") in just under 10 seconds?

As I understand the 5ER rules characters perform all actions as if they are SPD 2 except while they are in combat even if they have a higher base SPD. Obviously a sprint on a straight track would use Non-Combat Movement by default; but that seems to imply that such a runner could do 25" per Phase - a movement that even many supers couldn't hit.

If base Running is 6", should the character Push to get five more inches and then buy a few more inches of Running; or can characters even Push when out of combat?

Suggestions?

Re: Sherpas or other high-altitude normals?

Of course it has! Long term Endurance, 6E2 132

 

 

According to 6E2 144 low Pressure causes Minimum END expending/phase and might reduce your Recovery.

Lots of good food for thought here. Thanks everyone!

5ER lists a Life Support for Low Pressure/Vacuum but obviously even a guy from the top of the Andes can't survive in outer space.

So how best to build that ability? Just put a Limitation on the Low Pressure/Vacuum LS? Buy Environmental Movement (Mountaintops)? Very high REC?

We thought we would post a link to our campaign's online encyclopedia. It's still a work in progress but hopefully there's enough meat on the bones to make rummaging around an enjoyable past time.

Although it is call the MidGuard Universe after our primary Champions team, characters and other items from our Hudson City (street level 250 point base supers), Justice Watch (Standard level supers in a government-sponsored team), and New Century pulp campaign set in the early 20th Century are also included since all take place in the same game world (albeit New Century being 100 years earlier). All characters and rules used are 5ER.

http://home.earthlink.net/~jeffspur/

Re: Obfuscation and Unbreakable Vows...

Why not a large scale AoE Invisibility with Invisible Effects?

Re: Sherlock Holmes?

Treb' date=' I'm interested in how you're going to use Holmes in a game. A PC based on him? An important NPC?[/quote']More likely an opponent (not an enemy). Our pulp game is set around 1910, so Holmes is still around although semi-retired to Sussex. His final published adventure (chronologically speaking), His Last Bow, supposedly takes place in 1915.

Does anyone have plans for a late 19th century sailing ship?

1) Wu Shu Master, the scourge of the Chinatown tongs, is the only living practitioner of the ancient Fou Lang style of Scottish kung fu. In his Secret Identity as Armstrong Chen, humble self defense instructor at the local YMCA, he has entered a charity martial arts tournament. As he prepares himself for his first match, he realizes his opponent is a leading lieutenant for one of the tong leaders whom he has fought several times. Wu Shu Master is faster and stronger than Armstrong but not different in physical size or build, and Fou Lang is a Distinctive Style. His opponent – one Armstrong knows has Analyze: Style - is quite likely to recognize it and hence discover Wu Shu Master’s secret ID.

He can’t just drop out; this match is for charity, and the orphanage needs his help. What 5E Skills, Powers, and/or other abilities could our hero use to disguise his style and thus protect his secret identity?

2) One of Fou Lang’s most devastating attacks is a precise strike to a nerve cluster which temporarily paralyses the individual limb struck, rendering it useless for several seconds but otherwise doing no actual harm.

How could this ability be built in 5E?

Re: Team size

Our gaming group has 8; but 1 is GMing so max actual team is 7. I find that a bit unwieldy as player or GM and prefer 4 or 5 person teams. This gives us plenty of variation but still is small enough to keep track of.

I'm considering building a Zodiac-based villain team but I'm not sure I want to run 12 characters at once.

Re: Sherlock Holmes?

Holmes is less of a brawler in the series than in the Downey movie. How good a brawler he is is also in question' date=' as he's much too smart to put himself in a position where he [i']must [/i]resort to bareknuckles fighting.

IIRC there was another story where a retired professional boxer remembered Holmes fighting in the ring and thought he would have gone to the top of the profession had he kept fighting in the ring. Even though he was slender Holmes of course was very tall for Victorian times (around 6' 2") and must have had an impressive reach.

Re: Sherlock Holmes?

I saw a version posted in the Hero Designer Character Vault some time back. If your service contract for HD is current, you might check there.

 

-Carl

Re: Sherlock Holmes?

You could always take the radical view and just base in on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fiction

The canonical written version is what I had in mind. Like Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan, the films and TV stuff missed the mark.

I was wondering if anyone had done or seen a Hero version of the Great Detective?

Re: Over Heat (5e)?

I like the idea with accidental change' date=' but I would like to do something to make it so he can't just pop back into normal hero mode afterward. Overheat should do just that. It over heats him. It's an all-or-nothing attack that if it does end the fight, it ends his role in it.[/quote']Well, except for running away screaming because he's a non-super in the middle of a supers fight.

Re: What value for Limitation of a defense Power that only works when Combat Luck doe

As for Combat Luck' date=' I consider it a constant power that can't even be turned off[i']; [/i]if it's 'not working, not applicable' that is not the same as it being 'off'.

Combat Luck is a Talent, not a Power, and any Power that is not Inherent or Always On can be turned off at will although the methods, depending on the sfx, can certainly vary. The same would undoubtedly apply to Talents.

Re: What value for Limitation of a defense Power that only works when Combat Luck doe

I wouldn't link it. I'd just build the second defense power with the same limitations.

Thanks for the input, everyone.

Now for another question: Does non-Resistant Damage Reduction still apply against the Stun from a Killing Attack, or does that require Resistant DR?

As the thread title says, what Limitation value in 5ER would you give for a supplementary defensive Power that only works if Combat Luck applies? (There are other Limitations on this Power, but even if those conditions are met it still doesn't protect if the PC's Combat Luck wouldn't apply.)

I have a value in mind, but I thought I'd see if I'm out of line.

Re: Combat Luck when you cannot be surprised

Seems to me if the character has "Combat Luck" but it isn't possible to catch him in an "unlucky" situation then it should simply be bought as raw defense of the same level and appropriate Hardening.

OTOH, you could just rule that the reason he has Combat Luck is precisely because he has all those other abilities making him very hard to catch off guard and just use the Talent as written. There will still be occasions it doesn't work; both Danger SEnse and Spatial Awareness still require rolls.

Re: Game Master Lament

Rights? no. Respect yes. If someone is such a flake that

watching a movie is within their definition of undesirable homework,

then they're not welcome in my game.

 

I've required novels to be read for some of my games.

 

and they're been read, cause I game with adults.

*I gamed with them for many years; my own group is essentially a spinoff because I didn't like the direction that group was taking (or some of the players, for that matter). Several of my current group participate in or are recruits from that one.

Re: Game Master Lament

I think the mistake was with the semantics. Calling it homework was a bad idea. It should've been "I've got copies of several Three Musketeers films; and anyone who can't watch them on our movie night is welcome to borrow them."

No tests, no quizzes.

Re: Lariat, Lasso, or Noose

Hello all,

 

I've been looking for game mechanics for a lariat. I can't seem to locate a fifth edition write-up for one. Fourth edition Western Hero states that a Lariat allows for a grab at up to 15", and that it can be used as a garrote. Is that it? What about the ropes BOD & DEF? Ropes are hard to break but easily cut, so the DEF may have two stats (or a Vulnerability to cutting). I appreciate any thoughts you'd wanna share.

 

Q:)

Re: The Golden Apple

Zl'f would turn it over to the non-governmental organization she (secretly) works for for evaluation as to the contents. If there are crimes, then she'd pass the drive on (after copying it) to the International Criminal Court for prosecution. If the ICC doesn't proceed, then her team MidGuard might see fit to do a bit of vigilante work.

Re: Speeding up combat "Restrict SPDs" is Dead Wrong

I wasn't talking about it becoming more effective' date=' but about it becoming more effective vs. high-Speed characters. When your Speed (and/or the average Speed) is 3, a 6 Segment Flash can be painful. When your Speed (and/or the average Speed) is 8, a 6 Segment Flash is going to be absolutely devastating.[/quote']Why? The SPD 8 character loses exactly the same percentage of Phases blinded as does the SPD 3 character. I don't see that as being more devastating; I see that as parity.

 

As an aside, even Flash- (or Darkness-) blinded characters haven't "lost" their Phases. They may be less effective while they can't see, but they are emphatically not helpless. Our team's MA Cloud Dragon was Flashed and while blind he located an opponent by a hearing PER roll, put a Choke Hold on him, and took the bad guy down after several Phases - all while entirely blind. And no, Cloud Dragon doesn't have any funky senses except +3 to his Sight PER - in fact he takes 2X Effect from Flash Attacks.

 

Losing more Phases due to being Flashed is annoying, but I suspect that's mostly for the player.

Re: Rule of X?

They acted as a team, to achieve victory as a team. They were not loners looking to one up one another and needing to be balanced against one another.

 

One could retort that it is not a matter of balancing between players but rather balance in the campaign. I disagree. Any campaign can be easily tweaked to accomodate a lower or higher powered group, simply buy adding blanket additions or subtractions of offensive and defensive capacity to the villains of the world. The question is; is everyone having fun? And that question cannot possibly be answered with arithmetic. ;-)

Re: Rule of X?

IMO a "Rule of X" is just one tool to help you do that self policing. Like I said above' date=' I don't like them as hard and fast rules either (in fact they are probably less suited for hard limits than simple AP or DC maximums are). They serve as rough metrics to show how powerful a character's offense and defense are compared to others.[/quote']And, as a general guideline to character power levels, I agree they can be useful if not too rigidly applied. Obviously if three players build characters with power levels appropriate for a galactic-level supers and the fourth builds one for a conventional 350 point game there's going to be a problem.

 

Our campaign's SPD + DC <= 20 "Rule of X" is also more a guideline. We did originally start our campaign with caps; we just dropped them when we converted to 5th Edition.