wick

Psi Fox:  Keep an eye on the hero but otherwise could care less about street level crime. Too busy fighting villains that  cannot be easily fought by police or military forces to worry about a cat burglar, unless her activities pose a major danger.

Street Justice: Would take some time to track her, monitor, and find out who she is via his underworld contacts.  He would definitely confront  the other hero and out him in front of the others

Create a vast dependency on the evil organization slowly nullify rights and creating dependency on the organization by providing inefficient and substandard service. Oh wait a second, that is already happening in the US.

I think the big difference as to this being just a hosts of disadvantages or bought as a power comes to how its used and does it give a direct advantage.  It could also be a combo.  The Phantom ( or the Korean copyright knockoff the Phrantom ) seems to use his memory erase more as a power. In the Op's post it just seems to be a set of disadvantages mainly. I do like anonymity bought as a power linked to Healing to represent the positive aspects of the memory loss, which should really cover the benefits. The Anonymity should cost more than 3 but I am not sure how much.

I was thinking it was a disadvantage but I would say the expensive side effect is good too, It may even be multiple complications. Perpetually homeless,  unable to form lasting relationships, a strange amnesia only affecting others, etc...  You could build all of her disadvantages around this effect.  But mainly it is a special effect and really does not need to be bought as a power to simulate (i.e. no need for INT drains, or extra dimensional movement, etc). Overall a big pan in the butt  especially for a character compared to the small advantage of being anonymous.

One problem would be maintaining group cohesiveness with a character that is often forgotten. Not as bad if the character is solo after all you don't have to keep explaining who you are to your teammates Mustard Man and Kangaroo Girl.

Cassandra: Would you really need to buy the cling ability?   Wouldn't  it depend on how often the character uses the ability?  If she only occasionally uses her great strength to scale buildings should she be charged?  Say I have a brick in my campaign who does not have a cling ability but finds him/herself in a situation where they want to do this particular stunt, would I tell them no because they did not buy cling or should I let the brick but if it becomes a common schtick I insist they buy the cling ability either by taking an equal measure of Disadvantages or through future accumulated XP? How  often is too many times of using this stunt before you lay down the law?

Lars "Lard Assman" Hanson, felt all of his dreams were coming true, he was obese and was a virgin but he was selected to appear on a new TV show called "Life makeover".  He met with "personal trainers" and went on a special diet of shakes. He opened his heart to the camera revealing all of his insecurities and dreams. He was even introduced to gorgeous women that fell in love with him. His life was turning around, or so he thought. As the show neared its end it was revealed on live TV that it was a hoax. The real name of the show was "big fat loser" and the diet shakes he had been consuming were designed to make him gain weight. he came into the show weighing almost 300 lbs and ended weighing nearly 600 lbs. The women professed their disgust and how they could barely stand to be near him.  Something fragile inside him snapped and he went on a rampage, stomping the host flat and breaking the necks of more than one girl.  At one point he even took bites from the corpses. He fled to the streets his hunger unsated, killing and stomping anyone he felt like killing.  Until he was picked up by like minded souls bent on revenge for the wrongs of the world.

Little did anyone know that his ordeal not only broke his sanity but also unleashed a latent mutant power.  He  is incredibly tough, resistant to damage, and strong.  He is vicious beyond belief and even has sharpened his teeth to points.  The cops had dubbed him the 10 ton cannibal but his childhood nickname of Lard Assman stuck. 

This train does seem to be getting derailed. My point was that civil rights, equality, etc... was not the sole propriety of one political party since both have found themselves on either end of the discussion. Also there are individuals from each party that don't agree with their party's overall attitude towards the subject.  In my example about firearms one could potentially extrapolate gun control ideas to super powers and since the Liberals seem to be more anti-guns in general than conservatives you could see how the Democrats could potentially fall on the other side of the civil rights issues when it comes to mutant powers.  Not to say they o would or would not. One could look from the conservative religious angle and imagine them viewing mutants as devils and an abomination to god.  That is why I don't think it is as clear cut and dismiss either party out of hand.

But to move subject along.  Patriotic heroes usually follow conservative values like truth, justice, and apple pie.  Example, Captain America.  On the other end you may have heroes that are like patriots but instead champion more liberal causes like environmentalism, fighting evil corporations, etc...

JFK is a fine example of a democratic civil rights leader, but Abe Lincoln was a Republican and Jefferson Davis was a Democrat. And with mutants they could possibly face harsher penalties that are closer to those imposed on Blacks in the 1860's than Blacks in the 1960s.

However, I think Conservatives would err on the side of caution with people as dangerous as mutants seeing them as a threat to national security, more in line with potential terrorists. They would have the FBI monitor them and track their activities. Many liberals may just want to protect their individual rights despite the potential or even actual threat. Think of the two parties ideas on the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay Cuba. So if libs back mutants the X-men would back them.

Touche'. More like candidates for equal rights to mutants not for the right of mutants to rule. LOL. And I doubt the big A would bother running for office. 

-Storm seems very earthy and pro nature so she would follow environmentalists (liberal)

 Other than that it is definitely equal rights and protection of mutant issues.   Can't think of any instances that would shed any light on team values. But they do care for the weak (mutant or otherwise.) I doubt they would begrudge gun owners the right to bear arms considering they themselves wield more power than the entire NRA as individuals. And like the NRA they don't care to register their lethal weapons. 

Raul the pool boy was good at 2 thing  before the accident, 1. cleaning the pool( well not really that good) and 2. doing special favors for bored trophy wives (his real talent.) After the accident he was horribly disfigured now a living pool of water. Losing his primary vocation and quite angry about the loss of the fringe benefits, Raul decided that it was time to get his own. He decided to join up with his fellows and take from the world what he deserves. He is able to flow into secure areas, shoot out columns of water, and he is quite resistant to physical damage. If water can get in than he can get in and water can seep in virtually everywhere.

Calculus the mastermind.

Possessing super savant like ability quickly calculate complex problems. He can respond to attacks or to changes in strategy or tactics quickly and efficiently (Good levels of OCV , tactics skill.)  He can set forth a seemingly random chain of events to produce a desired outcome. This power is bought as levels of luck for himself and unluck useable as attack.  He also has the ability to find weaknesses in his opponents and has great ability to analyze. he uses an omnium steel quarterstaff in combat and is very skilled in its use

It's only a matter of time before some villains decide that the V'sori will eventually win and that by flipping sides they can guarantee a nice cushy position under the V'sori regime. Some may think they are strong enough to topple the V'sori from the inside thus continuing their business as usual of trying to take over the world only taking on the V'sori masters after they have cleared the board of the other competitors.

I would say the X-men would be behind government interfering less in their lives (conservative),  but would probably back any pro mutant candidate

Why would the characteristics be the same between forms?  I hardly think an SUV would be as strong or durable as the robot.   Just build the robot form with everything besides the multiform and then build the SUV without multiform. once you know how much each form costs you can determine which form pays the multipower and how much you need to pay.

Now if the SUV form is as strong, durable, and as armored as the robot form...i.e. it only looks like an SUV. You could just give it a power of extra running with a SFX that it turns into an SUV.  You could also give him a disguise power with limitation to only look like an SUV.  You can still use multiform but it is not really needed if little changes between forms.

Hero Stats for After life.

Healing 1D6: Regeneration. Resurrection.   Persistent (+1/2), Reduced END (0 END; +1/2), Resurrection only (-1/2), Focus IIF (-1/4), Extra time(1 Day; -4), Self only (-1/2), Side effects: Coma for 24 hours after 24 hours from activation and complete amnesia until activation roll can be made with bonus or penalties based on familiar places or people assisting or penalties if in unfamiliar areas or with strangers; roll allowed twice per day (major side effect, occurring automatically -1), Charges: 1 charge with extra recovery time  of 1 month as the body replenished the chemicals in the device (-3)

Total cost: 6 Real points

Deep within the bowels of an undisclosed Omni Corps research lab, General Wilson (USA), Admiral Helmsley (USN), and General Ransom (USMC) paced about the room in irritation;  a small group of scientists shuffle their feet nervously. One gentleman in a lab coat leans back in a swivel chair, nonchalantly sipping coffee.  "What is this all about Dr. Heinrich?", Wilson complained grumpily, " Why have you asked us to be here on such short notice? I had to cancel several important meetings."Heinrich, replying in a thick German accented English, " General Wilson, we have had a break through that may be of great interest to the Department of Defense." Just then a tall figure enters the room wearing a sleek business suit and conveying a sense efficiency and power. "I apologize, for keeping you gentlemen waiting, I am Arthur Trent founder of Omni and I think we have something you may want." Arthur signals to one be speckled lab assistant and within moments the wall blanks and then reveals images of lab tests in progress. "Our first tests of drug AFT3105 or as we like to call it 'Afterlife' were very promising.", Arthur continues as the group of military officers take their seats. The video depicts lab coated scientist humanely killing rabbits who are hooked up to devices. The video time lapses forward a day with the heart rate monitor constantly flat lined.  At the 24 hour mark the monitor begins to spike in a low, regular rhythm. The sides on the rabbit rise and fall almost imperceptibly.  A collective gasp escapes the lips of the befuddled officers.  The time lapse continues to 48 hours at which point the breathing and heart rate increase and the rabbit begins to stir from its torpidity.  "Gentlemen, this is no trick we have repeated this experiment on hundreds of animals including chimps and apes with great success."

"Has any human trials been conducted?", asked Helmsley.  "What about side effects?", Wilson chimed in. " What is the cost to develop and implement?", Ransom grumbled.  "Gentlemen,  it would be unethical to conduct human trials after all would require killing someone, which also limits our tests on side effects particularly on psychological factors," replied Arthur.  "As for costs, at this point it may be prohibitively expensive  to implement on common ground soldiers. For a comparable cost you could purchase a couple of jet fighters," Arthur continued.  "Yes but it may be worth while to use this technology on Elite units like our SEALS in order to make them invincible!," exclaimed Helmsley. The group erupted into argument and questions all talking at once. "Gentlemen, gentlemen!," Arthur yelled, " there are a few limitations to the technology.  The subject is not invincible.  They can still be decapitated, burned to ash, or suffer from amputating injuries. And the subjects are out of action for 48 hours with signs of disorientation for days after words."  The clamor died down and the group asked in unison, " So the tech is worthless to us then, why did you call us in here?"

Arthur cleared his throat took a sip of water and said, "First off the technology is not worthless, petty dictators would bankrupt their countries in order to have this technology for personal use.  Secondly, the technology has potential once its kinks are worked out and it could be developed to be more cost effective. What am asking for you here is your assistance in circumventing some laws and to protect my company. We have invested billions in the technology which means I must turn a profit.  But to do that would mean patenting the technology, which as you know only remains proprietary for 20 years thereafter anyone can copy the tech.  I doubt many countries would bother to wait that long before producing their own knock offs. This would make your jobs of killing evil men that much harder.  Frank Thompson, the director of the CIA agrees that this genie should not be let out of the bottle but his organization lacks the funding to buy my silence."  "This is extortion!," exclaimed Halsey.   "No gentlemen, this is business. Anyone else would not consult you at all and they would be legally within their rights. I am afraid of what this technology could do in the wrong hands but I am also beholden to my partners and company. What I propose is exclusive rights to the U.S. government which under the purview of sensitive military technology will be protected.  If you so choose to develop this technology, Omni Corps get exclusive rights to continue to develop the technology.  I don't trust any one else with it."

Leaving the meeting Dr. Heinrich catches up with Arthur walking down the hall. "How did it go sir?," asked Heinrich.  "They need to go back and discuss it with their boss, but I believe they will come around.," Arthur replied coolly.  Walking to a display window over looking an operating theatre where a surgery is being conducted, Arthur looks on with interest as a small device is being placed into the patient. "How goes the procedure?"  Dr. Heinrich replied, " She is stable and the device has been grafted to her system without any complications. She should recover with little discomfort."  "Doctor could you also arrange for some flowers and balloons in the recovery room?," Arthur asked.

"Yes sir."

"Oh. And don't forget the ice cream, she was also getting her tonsils out so her throat will be sore."

"Yes sir, I will make sure your daughter Caitlyn is in the best of hands."

You could have a cosmic VPP to simulate giving him an edge on say skills or bonus OCV and DCV: in combat.

For example, he is cutting the wire on the bomb so he reaches into the VPP for a bonus to demolitions, or gambling bonus while playing roulette, etc...basically whatever the situation calls for at the time.

Maybe Danger sense. N-rays to know what is in a room before he enters. Give him bonuses to dodge, block etc..  he knows he is about to get kicked in the face so he aborts to dodge.

Of course you could have him game normally and when something bad happens he can time travel back to before it happens, but limit that to maybe one do over for a single event. Simulating that he saw the fight for example and knew after his third punch that he would need to duck because he was about to get clocked; he may still not be able to duck or otherwise change the outcome but he can try. 3 seconds into the future really equated more to bonuses not really allowing lots of time to figure a way out of a situation

Also, there could be problems if you have a secret ID.  It can create a pattern pegging you to a location.  A  yacht is usually registered, or cars\ licensed. You going to file a flight plan with the control tower?  Serial numbers on lost items could be tracked.

A villain  who is a hacker or employs one can hack your cell phone and activate your GPS,speaker phone, recording features, call records etc...and that is well within real world capabilities.  Even a heroic level villain could exploit cell phone use much less a techno marvel super genius villain. How does the bad guy know or ever move, where we are, my secret ID, and who my DNPC's are (Palm to face)? This tactic may cut it  with low level thugs but really not much more than a gagsta or biker gang and even those may surprise you.

I ran into an issue in a game I ran a few years ago where the clues lead our team to the water. None of us had a "bat boat/sub" , nor any other means to survive under water or travel effectively.  Now my character was very wealthy, so I figured to use the wealth to rent scuba gear and use my personal yacht that any filthy rich character should have. We ended up finding clues elsewhere but I was wondering what ways to simulate this ability to call on mundane equipment in a super heroic world.

-Being wealthy or possibly having fringe benefits with a group that may have the equipment would allow for short term use right?

-What about using that contact in the army to pick you up in a helicopter or fly you overseas or the coast guard to sail you to a watery location? 

-I could build a VPP and make up a few ideas to throw in there if I use those items off and on. Could be good for more long term use of an item if in the case above it had to turned into a sea going adventure, but may be a waste of points if VPP rarely used. 

I would think Fringe benefits, wealth, and contacts would be the cheaper choices but you wouldn't actually have constant access to items used often.

Any thoughts?

Granted it may be ok to be weak in some areas. Like a brick getting ego attacked by a mentalist or a brick throwing  a building on a mentalist. A little defense in those weak areas helps but it is not expected that the character be impervious to everything. That is why you have a team so your brick can switch off to a physical opponent and leave the mentalist to fight each other for example. Would be pretty boring to be the one man defense to everything and probably too expensive to do practically, much less have your own effective attack powers and movement abilities too.

My vote is Nexus or cross roads.

You could also just pick a cool sounding name that has nothing to do with your powers.

Narpent

Creuss

etc...

Compound names can be good. Just pick an adjective and a noun or 2 nouns:

Red comet

Saphire Moon

Razor Fist

etc...

Hyper man:

As far as I can recall Jean grey from X-Factor in the 80's/90's used TK as flight to carry her team and probably would use the regular TK grab on villains or to throw stuff.  In the comic her powers were visible but that may have been for the reader's benefit, because it was the same visual for when she used telepathy.  Interestingly enough in 5ed TK  is a standard power therefore has to be detectable by 3 senses including 1 targeting sense unless you take he invisible advantage. 

As far as the Hulk there was at least one comic where x-factor fought the Grey "Joe Fixit" Hulk. I will have to dig that up to see if he did an opposed strength check to brush it off.  I don't recall off hand any other TK grabs on bricks but there must have been some.

By the way thank you for the info on flying a group.  It looks like you it is not enough to just use Area of Effect with flight, you also need to have  useable on others/as attack/etc.. first.

Flight 10" , Useable as attack ( up to 4 people +1 1/2), Area of effect one hex and area doubled to include 6 surrounding hexes; Nonselective (+1/2), Reduced END (0 END +1/2)=70 active points

Unfortunately, there is not much I can do in the way of limitations that feels appropriate.  I could go with a smaller amount of reduced END or just pay the full END cost to use the power.   Making my flight cost 0 END is my way to help keep the END drain down  so I can use other abilities during a battle and not have to worry about having to land.

Using 5th Ed rules:

I am working on a Telekinetic character and I am trying to determine the best way to simulate the ability to make a group of allies fly.

As part of the Elemental control I gave myself flight But I want to also be able to pick up a few team mates ( say up to 4 others). I want to simulate how Marvell's Jean Grey, when she was in X-Factor,  would often use her TK to fly her teammates around.   I  did look up write ups for Jean Grey but the writers seemed to have missed this use of her power in their write ups, at least as far as I can tell.

Some thoughts on how to accomplish this:

- Just fly myself and grab ally using my TK , holding ally as I fly. May need to be able to grab multiple people.

- Buy Flight with advantage useable on others. Problem is that I only want to control the flight, they don't get to steer because I am simulating lifting them not giving them the ability to fly. I could take useable as attack but that seems awkward. I would definitely limit it to only willing subjects. 

-An area of affect advantage seems to fit  since the effect I am looking for was always in close proximity to the TK character. Would I need to also use "Useable as attack" or would I be able to grant flight to others with an area of effect?

-Since the builds may get too steep in cost I may want to split up the powers into :

A.) Flight for myself with fewer advantages. When flying solo I can fly faster but as a group it is slower (due to compensating for the added advantages and keeping Active points down).

B.) Add another flight power to my EC that deals with flying the group which may have advantages of Useable on others or area of effect.

Questions:

-Your thoughts?

-If you take a non-attack power with area of effect, will it work or do I need to also take "Useable as attack" as well to make it an attack power first?  

Re: Letters from a Stranger

And waht about OPSEC? "We will be retrieving his body in a few months"....I hope the German's don't get wind of that.

Re: The Adventures of Ultragirl

I would think that she was more familiar with bleach than chloroform.

Those mobsters are pretty incompetent. They should have kept her partially drugged, heck a good dose of Sodium Penathol (truth serum) would have have made her kinda loopy (harder to put 2 and 2 together) and made it much easier to question her. Or at the least give her drugs that imobilizied her and explain it away as part of the accident or to immobilize her for "her own safety."

Of course, if criminals were competent then well...they would probably not be criminals. I don't think that mob boss will under estimate her again.