Stone

How long will the PC's powers be drained? Will he be able to contribute in the fight or his he/she gonna be forced to watch from the sidelines or maybe duke it out w/Viper techs & agents? Chapter 1 - How bout have a series of robberies at some high tech places &/or diamond exchanges(easily portable currentcy). Let the PC's try to track down the reason behind the robberies and get the info on the next robbery, which of course be the trap. Could put the informant's loyalty in question or perhaps Viper figured out he was the PC's informant and know his/her life is in danger. Chapter 2 - sounds good, I like =) Chapter 3 - How many Heroes?

Are you trying to come up with tactics for villians or heroes? Hermit had a couple of good suggestions for heroes. If you are looking for tactics for villians, you could always project an image of a small child in danger as a way to set up a hero to be attacked. For heroes, the old multiple images trick could work to confuse villians on which to image to attack (just be careful that a missed shot doesn't take out a bystander or a crucial peice of equipment).

What if you just raise the cost of EGO from 2 to 3, then for your EGOist characters just use EGO instead of DEX to figure SPD. I know this is an optional rule already (SPD based on EGO), but this way it kinda balances out the costs and you don't have to do any major work when it comes to determining phases.

Re: Mental SPD figured stat Just making sure I understand this properly. If I have a regular speed of 4 (Dex based, phases 3,6,9,12) and a mental speed of 6 (phases 2,4,6,8,10,12), does that mean I could act in phases 2,3,4,6,8,9,10,12 with non-ego based powers being able to act on 3,6,9, &12? If this is the case then You could end with players effectively having a much higher speed then they actually have.

Stone - Relax and get back to work in his demolition company...for awhile at least. Quantum - Would be somewhat concerned. He would continue to patrol and try to make public appearences and try to work closely with the police. Specter - Something is very wrong here. He would lurk in the dark and try see what he could find out. Then try to get information from the police.

Hey, no fair! LOL =)

After the Avengers vs JLA & Bats vs Caps threads, I see my interpretation of human limits differs from alot folks out there. This is not aimed at anyone and is in no way intended to offend. I tend to agree with D-man on anything over a 20 is superhuman, and needs an explanation. Figured characteristics is somewhat more diffiecult to explain. I can see how PD/ED could go to 10 (non resistant), but not beyond that. Recovery 10. Stun & End I would say 40 (again for stickly non-superpowered characters). Speed is the killer here. I cannot see a non-superpowered character having a speed greater then 5. Just curious on how everyone else handles this in their campagins/game worlds.

I thought I would give this a try... You have just awaken in a hospital bed (or similar setup if you have a base with a medlab) after a terrible battle with a very powerful villian. You are then informed the rest of your team has defected to the villian's side. What do you do? This actually happened to my character (Quantum) in our game. Needless to say it was a pleasant situation. Quantum - Used his connections/contact to located a local Viper nest. Raided the base to gather equipment and organized a group of volunteers. He then set up a trap for his ex-teammates. Specter - Would immediately move to a new hideout. Then would begin trying to locate the villian's hideout. He would then try to find one of his ex-teammates alone and sneak attack him/her and take him/her with him to a different location to try and see if this a mind control issue or what happened. Stone - Pissed does not begin to describe his mood. Somebody is gonna bleed. He would begin shaking down local villians trying to get info about the powerful villian and his teammates.

Oh, without a doubt there would be some hard feelings if it comes to a fight. I'm gonna try to head it off if I can. I am hoping that I can talk to everyone and find out what the problem is. Confusinator knows the group I am talking about, I'm sure he will agree a fight may be unavoidable.

Well...the Fire PC has a weakness of darkness. He does not recharge (no recoveries) and therefore is a little afraid of the dark. I just happen to have a character whos speciality is darkness, so that is easy enough. The bright point is the Wind/Ice PC also has fire/fire power supression and has said he will use this against the fire guy. Could be an interesting fight.

Quantum (flying Energy projector w/high FF) - Would follow Mephron's plan, then take off into space to try and disable the cannon...or die trying. Specter (desolid spooky detective w/drains) - Advise the heroes and set out to delay Dr. D as long as possible. Stone (big brick) - Would go see his father and try to get him to leave the city, then would go find a steel i-beam and a wrecking ball on a chain and wait for the fight.

Quantum - He has a bad temper & holds grudges, so he would not trust him and would probably end up in a fight. Specter - Would begin to investigate the "Deacon" to see if this for real or some kind of trick. If it is real, then Specter would be hesistant turn his back on the former villian, but would be able to work with him...in a pinch. Stone - Buy the guy a beer and offer him a job in his demolition company.

Cool! Thanks for the ideas =)

Related to "Force my hand" post. I've decided to have a chat w/my group. If they continue on their journey to the "dark side", I'm going to send another group after them. That got me thinking. Normally I would create a big bad villian to scare them. I mean scare as a plot device. A previous GM in our group had two favorite villians - 1) Omega (excess of 500 pt energy absoption & power pool) & 2) Wraith (high point darkness teleporting and drains). We hated these villians. It always seemed we where never meant to beat them. In fact, it was Omega that supposedly killed Wraith, though we could never find a body. So, who do you use?

No, but she has! I just refuse to be a carebear!

The PC playing the anteater always plays off the wall characters...even in other types of genres. She likes to be the "comic-relief".

For the first time since I started GM'ing, I find myself in a position of having my players forcing me change the tone of a campaign. Currently I have 3 PC's in this game. The breakdown is as follows 1) Wind/Ice powers - flight, entangles, EB 2) Fire EB - FF & RKA 3) Animal (giant armored anteater - please don't ask) - armor, HKA, tunneling. The problem is the two w/the KA's like using them against normals. I have tried to explain to them that is gonna make the authorities very unhappy, but it seems to be falling on deaf ears. The wind/ice PC is also having the same thoughts as me. He is feeling some of the negative effects by being no longer able to speak to police. I afraid I'm gonna have to have the authorities start traking them down and that is not something I am looking forward to doing. Any suggestions?

Chuckg pretty much nailed it. Time for the tables to be turned. The Feds/Police should immediately eliminate any access the PC's had to any information (if they had any)...or try at the very least to use the access to track down the PC's location. If the PC's are high powered or High profile, then I agree any Govt sponsered team/hero, Primus/UNTIL, or notible non-Govt team/hero will begin to hunt them. Villians (especially Viper) could use the promise of big payday to lure the PC's into a trap and take revenge for all those times the PC's spoiled their plans. Then the villians could arrange for the unconcious or incapacitated PC's to be located by the authorities and end up in Stronghold. If the PC's decide they want to come back to the light, their journey should be made very difficult to say the least. All the bad press here (TV pics of kids crying "Why'd you do it?") would keep the public from trusting them.

I can see the majority if the team quiting. Even the original Robin finally got fed up w/Batman's controling nature. How could a group "new" heroes tolerate it for an extended period of time. That aside, Bats would probably have Wayne Ind purchase some land and then hire the heroes to work there in their ID's. While he would know their ID's it would be a long time before he would allow them know his ID...if ever.

This is not an attack on the Batman camp, just an observation.. Agent X makes a great point. If Batman is such a genius and incredible fighter, why are the Joker and the other non-superpowered villians still around in Batman's city? How did Joker manage to kill Robin? Is he smarter than Batman? Granted, there are just as many villians for each hero in publication that seem to always escape and resurface to annoy the heroes. It just seems that the overwhelming majority have at least one power that make them a dangerous threat. Batman's stable of regular foes (Joker, Peguin, Riddler...) are all very intelligent, but other than some questionable sanity I do not not recall any powers. Then again, I quit reading Batman about 15 years ago.

no offense was intended to Cap. Believe me, I'm not a fan of the current Batman. Personally, I find Batman to be one of the most annoying characters around. He started off as a detective with some MA training (judo I think), and now he can beat anyone he is put against....its stupid.

It is an interesting concept and one that I'm sure many fans like myself have been waiting to see, but the difference in power levels between the two is drastic. JLA should win this hands down. As far as the Cap vs Batman issue, from the scene as presented in the book Cap wins hands down. Now if its in a dark alley or warehouse where Bats can plan or set up a sneak attack, then he wins. Face to face combat, Cap has Batman beat.

I am trying to put together a new campaign. The idea is pretty much taken from the way psi's are treated on Earth in Babylon 5. So here it is.... Super powers have have only began emerging with in the last 20 years. The government immdiately began studying these "gifted" individuals and soon developed a serium that would suppress powers, but leave the person feeling empty inside. Each birth now includes a scan for potential abilities. If a positive response is found, then the parents are responsible for bringing the child in for regular "checkups" to see if the abilities are becoming active. If or when abilities become active, then there is a choice to be made. Take the weekly injections or come work for the government. Over the past 10 years the rise in suicides by persons on the injections has risen at an alarming rate. Now some are refusing to take injections and are on the run from the government. ...the PC's will get to chose which side they are on. Are they government enforcers or are they rebels standing up to the government. I am not sure if I want to use 350 pts to build the PC's. I am leaning more towards the old 250 pts. I welcome any suggestions any has on this idea.

I agree w/you on MD being a figured stat and with the cost for EGO being raised to 3 pts. I disagree on using BODY to determine PD. As for making Flash Defense a figured defense, thats a tricky situation. I understand your approach to the problem, but the PC's have to be aware of the potential flash before they can try to defend themselves from it. I will usually give my playes a few (1-3) free for actions they take (cover eyes or ears. etc...) once they realize a flash is about to happen.

I have used the Hero system for many years now, but I must confess I have never played a character or had a character in my group use this power. I have read the rule time and time again and still I am not quite sure I totally understand this power. As I read it, a PC only absorbs the Body from an attack prior to the attack being applied to te PC's defenses (unless the absortion adds to the defenses, in which case the absorbtion is done after the damage is applied to defenses). However, the stun is applied as normal. Rarely do I see attacks that exceed 14DC. meaning the maximum amout of points a character will absorb is 28 pts, but the character is still subject to the stun. Even if the character is able to absorb the 28 pts every one of the PC's phases (which I assume is the rule), I fail to see why a PC would purchase this ability. True, if the time scale is bought down & the PC is placed in an environment that optimizes the power (ex. Facing 5 villians w/an attack that the PC can absorb) the power can eventually begin to pay off, but until that time the PC would be stunned into a comma if the PC relied upon the absorption as a defense or as a way to boost the PC's powers. Am I missing something here. Can someone please let me know if I am reading this wrong?