Vanguard

It's been a long, long time but if i remember correctly, Star Frontier. In that game setting, humans were pretty much as unspecial as you could get. No stat bonuses, no tech bonuses, nada.

Truer words Ninja . .. Truer words. "On Paper" is sometimes totally different from real world implementation. And you won't know what the practical consequences of a build are until it's actually used in a live environment. This can, and probably is, due to how the player interprets how the combination of limitations and advantages work as opposed to how the GM does. PS: I hope you don't mind the paraphrasing of your comment in my reply . . . .

I used up my likes for the day but I wanted to give this a +1 because it would be something I would do. So +1

Hyper-Man gave you a good starting point and Johnny there gave you a decent starting write-up so I'll just toss this out there . . Are the PCs every going to gain access to these drugs? If so, then you'll not only need the write-ups but you'll also have to decide how to handle the fact that the once the drugs wear off, the users are going to be all but useless till they recover. Do you really want you PCs out of action for several days? If the PCs aren't going to have access then you might not need a full write-up but just a general outline of the drugs effects and, since the PCs probably won't be around to witness the side-effects, just not worry about them . . .

How did you come up with your 'handle' (forum name)? First Champions character I created and played. It's also the oldest character I've played. What was the first tabletop RPG you played? Star Frontier What was the first tabletop RPG you GMed? Star Frontier What are you currently playing/GMing? Nothing at the moment. The one game I was playing in was put on hiatus (probably permanently).

Sorry it took me so long to reply . . . Exactly. Scary and deadly. And it's all well and good when that scariness and deadliness is on your side but an entirely different story when it's on the other sides. Like I said, with the 202/20 of hindsight, I can look back on the scenarios and see how we could've handled them but I know for a fact that the players of the time wouldn't have been able to deal with the outright death of an NPC (our GM isn't cruel enough to take one of the PCs out like that) with absolutely no way of stopping it. ::nods:: I've got ya but the NPCs we usually cart around are all "part of the gang", so to speak. So that's not really an option. But, I do get where you're coming from. Like I said, we use snipers. We just, normally, don't have them used against us. At least not in that way . . .

Got the invitation and reserved my free upgrade around julyish . . . (I think) Then I was a goober and clicked something I shouldn't have and kept getting "you're upgrade will begin in 1hr!". Luckily, it had a "reschedule" option, which I have used up until today. Finally pulled the trigger and upgraded. So far everything's working okay. Just going to take some time to get used to where everything is at now. PS: Did have moment were memory was at 92% and CPU was at 100% but a reboot (which seems to take forever now) fixed it.

We've rarely even done #1 as, for the most part, some of the players in our group usually don't form any attachments with the NPCs. And, if you were to use one of the NPCs they do care about as the "warning shot", all hell would break loose. So, basically, we've only encountered an enemy sniper when we can use #3. Otherwise, the GM just thinks it's way too unfair to use a sniper against us. Not sure if he's doing it because he really thinks that, or just doesn't think the players can handle the stress/etc of dealing with an enemy sniper "in the wild". I mean, I'm sitting here thinking of all the times we've played and he could have put us against a sniper and, most of those times, would result in the sure fire one shot, one kill of a party member. Be it a PC or NPC. Now I'm thinking of ways we probably could have handled it, even without a sniper of our own, but I'm not sure how the players themselves would have dealt with that initial death.

Yeah, I managed to get into the Closed Beta test yesterday. Wildstar was something I was looking at when it first came out but the video card I had then had, um, issues with it. Upgraded and then found that it was going free-to-play. Which made me happy because I've been looking for some kind of Sci-fi based MMO for a while. I'm kind of burnt on the ninety-nine bazillion fantasy mmos that have flooded the marked. And, yea I know about STO and STOR, but I'm not a big fan of STO (and I've tried it a couple of times) and STOR oddly enough doesn't feel like Star Wars to me. (Maybe it has something to do with the fact that my trooper can't pick up a blaster and use it if he wants but all the cut-scenes show him with one . . . ). But so far, I'm liking what I've seen of the FtP model and am setting aside some cash to purchase a few of the account unlocks when it goes live.

Also remember that he's been "retired" for a while. It would explain why he's not as "scary" as the hype portrayed him. As for the write-up. Nicely done Hyper.

Odd. I've always thought of both complications and disadvantages as optional. Sort of. You don't have to take them but then you start out at way less points than everyone else so, as noted above, it's basically mandatory without being mandatory.

I dunno . . . both seem pretty straight forward to me. In 5th if it was 75 points with 75 points of disadvantages, you didn't get to be a 150 points character without taking those 75 points of disads. In 6th, if it was 150 points with 75 points in complications, if you didn't take those 75points of complications, you were just a 75 point character.

Now that's something I didn't think about . . . The melee combats in out game just got more brutal . . . .

A question came up during a game session where one player disarmed the NPC with his rifle. The Ranged Disarm maneuver gets penalties to OCV based on size of weapon. OCV penalties that the HtH version doesn't seem to get. With some research, it seems this is because the Ranged Disarm gets to count the DCs of the attack and then convert to STR, where as the HtH one has to rely on the burliness of the attacker. Relying only on raw STR and/or Skill Levels/Martilal training. To me it seems the trade off is good due the high unlikelihood of a character resisting a Ranged Disarm. Where as the HtH version seems much easier to resist . . . Is this correct thinking? PS: Sorry if the question is confusing . . .

Ditto

Way late to the party but here's my two cents. Along with some of the other suggestions you can also create the weapons with the "real world" limitation. This means that that hand gun, regardless of the amount of damage it can do in game, just can't damage that tank. The characters may not like that but that's one of the things that limitation is designed to do.

What those guys said. Only thing I can really add is to make sure it's alright with your GM to spend Character Points on your personal gear. This concerns mainly weapons because character created weapons are so much more deadly (versatile too) then RAW weapons.

Thinking back on the Horror Games we've played, I've come to the conclusion that we really didn't exclude any of the rules. Well, anything that propelled the game into the realm of "superhero" was nixed but all the other rules we kept. We found that it wasn't the rules that achieve the feel of the game but the attitude of the players involved. If the players don't settle down and become their character, then the genre suffers. To further explain, I like to use the first (or was it second?) episode of Season 1: Walking Dead. Where the one guy had his wife in his sights but just couldn't bear to pull the trigger. You could see the emotions playing on his face and the mind battling with the heart. And in the end, the heart one and he just couldn't do it. In our group, with the exception of maybe one or two players, you couldn't get that type of, for lack of better term, drama. The players would just shrug and go "It needs to be done" and pull the trigger.

Yeah, I'm going to have to disagree with that statement. Eh, I read somewhere that he had to wear a prosthetic to change the shape of his jaw so that might be why he looks a bit off. It also cause him to have trouble speaking, or so they say. I didn't notice anything but then . . . that's why they do multiple takes for scenes. Not really seeing where the story doesn't have depth. As for innovation, the scenes where the fighters are going at it and the wings are shifting to accommodate the various maneuvers and such seems pretty innovative to me. I dunno, maybe I just do set my bar high when it comes to the movies anymore but I didn't walk out of there going "Wow, that's 2hrs of my life I won't be getting back". Anyway, I thought it was a good movie. I hope the criticisms don't deep six any chance of a sequel but it sounds like they might.

Morning Steve, I was reading your reply to the other Steve and you made a comment about scaling down MegaScale movement to the point that it was "normal", in essence, choosing not to use the Advantage. It's been a while since I've read the MegaScale Advantage but I thought that once you bought the power, you could only scale it down to the lowest level you purchased it at? In case I'm not clear, what I mean is if I purchased MegaFlight at the 1m=1k level, I could only scale down to just the 1k but I could never go lower than that. To do so, I'd need to by "normal" Flight as another power. Is this the case or do I misremember or misunderstand the way the MegaScale Advantage works? Thanks! Van

I dunno, when we were playing Gate Crashers, with a good portion of the action revolving around gun-play, we still didn't have players maxing out their PSLs. Still, I can see how it could be a problem but that's when it's up to the GM to step up and go "Hey Guys . . . "

You assume incorrectly. We've played with random hit locations before. In fact, most of our games are Heroic Level were that's pretty much a requirement. And, in all of the games, we've played, I've never encountered a player that has 8 PSL's. 4 yes as that allows main body shots (and greatly speeds up play) but that's it. But Character Points in a Heroic Level games are a precious. Our players usually have something better to spend those points on then min/maxing a combat monster. Personally, I usually have a laundry list of skills/abilities that I need just to "complete" my character. So my Character Points pretty much already have a home. Spent before I even earn 'em. Also ,you seem to be over looking that it's up to the GM to approve, or disprove, anything on the character. It's up to him to say "No, you can't have 8 PSLs" and then explain why. You (general "you" not you specifically) then need to abide by the fact that sometimes you can't have something because it disrupts/unbalances the game.

This is how we usually dealt with characters dying or being forcibly retired. I think we did something like 15 xp less than the character with the least XP. The GM also gave out XP for logs etc but had to stop as it started to get out of hand. As for playing two characters at the same time, that never really worked out well for out group but it might for another. As I've never players MHI or anything, is it really more lethal than the "regular" hero? I find hero to be pretty non-lethal and that you actively have to work at making it lethal. (This is something that I mentioned in the other thread about hero's "superhero roots" coloring just about every other genre you try to play with the core system itself).

You are correct. Although "Sticky" probably isn't what you'd want. It might be more appropriate to stick a Side Effect limitation on the power.

I don't mind grinding as long as it doesn't feel like grinding. I did a lot of it in WoW. I do like a good story and it's why I hardly grouped and didn't like grouping with one of my friends. I liked/needed to sit there and read the quest txt and all he did was click "accept" and then run off to complete the quest. WARNING! Slight Tangent! - Interestingly enough, I logged in one day to find him swearing up a storm in Guild chat because of this quest he was on. Apparently, he'd just died like the 15th time and couldn't defeat the quest mob. After I asked what quest and he told me, I asked "Did you pick up and use the Hammer?" His response: "What hammer". I told him where it was and how to use it. I also told him that if he'd read the quest text, he'd have known what to do. Yeah, still not sure why I spent $10 on SW:TOR. It's just not Star Warsy enough for me. I do think I spent some money no STO, not sure how much or if I even did since it's been that long but I just can't bring myself to download it and start it up again. And while I know I can get most of the stuff through converting dilithium, when I did it before it felt like I was doing a job and not playing a game. (Also one of the reasons I don't Raid or join Raid Guilds. I don't feel I should have to fill out an application as I'm playing a game, not interviewing for a job). I think I tried a Borg Sector Alert once. Got creamed as I was very low level. I went to another one and just hung back and watched the fire works. The animations/space battle was an awesome sight to behold. PS: Hopefully my reply makes sense. It seems a bit disjointed to me but I'm not sure how to fix it.