wick

Re: "Normals" gaining superpowers: how would they change in terms of mentality?

Telepathy. Reminds me of the Stephin King story "Dream Catcher" one of the characters can read minds and he is a Psychiatrist. You would think that be able to read minds would make his job easier but it ends up backfiring, becuase their are your true thoughts and then there are what you are what you want to openly admit even to yourself.

Regen would be nice. I think a regenerator would be a thrill seeker...hang gliding, climbing mountains etc....All the fun without the risk of death or permanent injury.

Re: Mental Parasite

How about "Only in Heroic identity" lim on the physical enhancements? I.e. only when wearing a body.

There are a few ways to try to model this, Summon, multiform, mind control.

Maybe a form of mind control linked to a drain that over time drains a stat when that stat hits zero it needs a new body.

Re: Somebody Else's Problem

Check with contacts at the Police department, perhaps he had a Rap sheet before he developed his invisibility or mind control trick. Once I get a name and/or address you can investigate the area incognito and see if anthing strange has been happening in the area. Maybe do a little research, social workers, teachers, or even other street kids may be able to give you a little more insight.

The perp should be confronted only after determing if you can handle him. Is he violent, will he run. What is the nature of his powers. You may approach him openly if you think there is a chance to reason with him. Otherwise you can set a trap to capture him, based on his power and yours.

No need to go all out on this guy yet and take him down but he probably needs to be put in check before he starts to use his power for more nefarious deeds than shoplifting. Maybe he can be enlightened or maybe he needs to be locked away; depends on his tendencies and his motives.

Re: The Adventures of Ultragirl

Real life fun fact: Zombie powder is a paralytic poison that slows down the victims vital signs so much that even modern medical examiners would pronounce them dead. In the poorer countries of Africa and the Carribean they would bury their dead without embalming. The dusted people would wake up underground suffocating but would be dug up by voodoo priests before they die. The brain damage they suffer from lack of oxygen makes they susceptible to suggestions and easily controlled to be used as slaves. Relatives would see their "dead" relative walking around and not really responsive, thus the legend of Voodoo zombies.

Creepy huh?

Re: My Failed Project

Armored costumes for the X-men is not out of the question since at one point at least Forge designed some costumes (1995-6?) that were bullet/damage resistant but light weight and flexible. I am sure this tech has been copied or reinvented by some of the other super genius types as well.

I defintely like the concept of reasonable stats. Cyclops may be in pretty good shape but that is no reason to make him more agile than an olympic gymnist or be able to beat most professional arm wrestlers. why would it be embarassing for a thug that gets the drop on Cyclops to knock the crap out of him? His powers don't have anything to do with his stats. I would give him some martial arts training, tactics and team work to represent his combat experience and Danger room training. he would definitely be in the competent human range.

Just make sure you skew the entire world to that standard and you should be ok. In the Conquerer, Killers, & Crooks book you are hard pressed to find a villian with less than 4 spd in there, it is like standard. Heck even Bulldozer has 4 SPD & 20 DEX.

Re: Distinctive features

How about when he tries to disquise himself to sneek into somewhere? He should some level of DF. Of course if this type of stuff never happens in your game then I wouldn't worry about it.

Depends on how easy it is to disguise based on the DF; a 15 point not concealable no way while a 5 pt easily concealed sure. A 10 pt concealable with a disguise skill...I am not sure how much harder it would be than to disquise a regular character. Frankenstein or Ironclad might have issues unless they disquise themselves as another tall person+large person i would give them the 15 pts of not concealable. According to the Champions book, since Ironclad does not have a DF he could put on a trenchcoat and a fedora and not stand out.

From this view point it looks like being disadvantaged by not be disguisable is not enough to be a DF. Also under the disguise skill he would probably get a -5 penalty to look like a normal sized human rules as written and probably not at all under a GM's discretion. I don't care how much skill you have in disguise, you can't make Godzilla look like Bambi.

Re: The Adventures of Ultragirl

Finally a thief thats talks common sense. i like the line about him being only a thief and aren't there more important things she could be doing. Reminds of superman running around beating up muggers, at his power level that is pretty much beneath him.

After she was frozen in place, you followed with a description of her physique, skimpy costume, and beautiful features, no wonder readers minds took a short cut to the gutter (NSFW territory, whatever that means.)

Also another typo, the thief should be short in "stature."

Interesting story good job. i think I see our little thief budding into a dust throwing supervillian my an arch enemy.

Re: Distinctive features

This is how I have used it to represent Superman's sometimes unique status:

 

5 Distinctive Features: Last Son of Krypton (Not Concealable; Always Noticed and Causes Major Reaction; Detectable Only By Technology Or Major Effort; Not Distinctive In Some Cultures)

 

Basically, it means that only alien tech can tell he's not human and that most alien cultures consider a live Kryptonian a myth right up their with what we think of the possibility of living dinosaurs and finding Atlantis.

What's the "Major Reaction"?

I guess if you know that he is Kryptonian, then you probably know about a kryptonian's weaknesses?

Re: Distinctive features

The HERO deal is simple: If he didn't take DF, his distinctive features don't cause him problems. If did take DF, his distinctive features cause him problems.

 

The fact that he has distinctive features does not mean that he must take the DF Complication/Disadvantage. The GM is well within his rights, of course, to say, "Sorry, I can't wrap my head around this. If you want to look like that, you need to take DF."

That would be my point, it should be a compication rather than just standing out in a crowd.

Example, not only does 7'+ tall Frankenstein's monster look strange and makes an impression everywhere he goes, but he also causes negative reactions in those he mets. like causing women to flee screaming, shop venders close up shop, etc. He probably would have a village mob coming after him as well, but that should be bought as another disadvantage; Hunted: Village mob.

Ironclad, on the otherhand, would not have the DF (despite his distinctive appearance) becuase people know about him through his Public ID as a hero or maybe they are used to seeing large, obviously, Alien humanoids walking the strrets of Millinieum city. Whatever the reason his alieness is not a disadvantage to him in the least. Maybe he had a small one when he came to Earth but has since bought it off when the world accepted his presence.

Re: Distinctive features

Take Ironclad for example, I would expect that a huge alien dude (7 foot tall) with metal skin would have DF, but he does not. And just reading the "Apperarance" section of his sheet you would think that he would. I am pretty sure that he would stand out in a crowd. And since he does have a public identity, people would probably recognize him and know his name.

I am sure that there are many examples of other heros/villians that should have a DF if it was just as simple as being easily recognized, remarkable, or out of place.

Re: A Stranger in Space

I certainly looked forward to reading the story. I like Cygnia' date=' that character has lots of growth potential especially now that she is away from her represive, culture. Maybe through some trials she can learn to think more on her own (rather than follow regulations etc) and develop as a character.[/quote']

 

Interesting, it seems that Cygnia was actually rescued from her jettison into space. I wonder who the mysterious benefactor is that safely transported her "coffin" onto a habitable world. That is pretty unlikely to be pure accident or by the design of her superiors. Just the safe landing would be miraculous much less surviving the journey.

 

There is a lot of potential for character growth for her too.

Awesome story. Has a nice 40-50s vibe to it.

What is your take on distincitve features? From what I have read on the forums there seems to be a debate on what should qualify as a DF. Certainly many heroes or villians will stand out in a crowd due to strange origins or by the SFX of their powers, but does that necessarily qualify as a disadvantage.

Looking on the master list of limitations :

http://web.archive.org/web/20080415152917/http://lostcoastgaming.com/files/masterlists.htm

There are lims like "Unearthly beauty 15 pts" or "Could have been a model 10 pts" or a variety of other DFs. But surely there must be something more to a 10-15 pt disadvantage then just attracting attention by walking into a room.

Most of the effects of having a "Distinctive Feature" can be simulated more appropriately with other disadvantages.

What are the disadvantages?:

-Attracts attention which makes the character easily to track or find. Just follow the sounds of cat calls and flashbulbs. Or follow the 9' tall, green guy as he walks through a crowded street.

-Paparazi (sp?) might hinder the character but this can also be purchased as Hunted: paparazi or even as DNPC: paparazi if they commonly get between villians and the character. Maybe even Rivalry: paparazi if they seek to humiliate the character.

-Maybe the public automatically has preconceived notions about the character due to their appearance. But this seems more like a social limitation...i.e treating the Beautiful Blonde Amazon like she is an airhead. Or maybe the character is never treated seriously by the media..but this can be bought with Reputation disadvantage instead.

Any thoughts on how distinctive features are a disadvantage?

-

Re: A Stranger in Space

I certainly looked forward to reading the story. I like Cygnia, that character has lots of growth potential especially now that she is away from her represive, culture. Maybe through some trials she can learn to think more on her own (rather than follow regulations etc) and develop as a character.

Re: GMing style, what else apart from 'Round the Table'?

Some players you have to train. Like when I had a player with a DnD 3.0 theif that wanted to solo adventure him stealing stuff while everyone else sat around the table. I instead had him roll his skill to see how much money he earned and how much time he spent. Not the effect he was going for but he was not the only person at the table. Later on he went off by himself in the dungeon, despite my warning him that I had designed the encounters for a party, One encounter with a pretty large Tendrilicous later, and the party was without a thief.

I do like some of the methods that other GMs have used with Champions. Combining disadvantages seems pretty smart. I mean if one guy in the party is hunted: Viper and Viper agents attack him, the group won't just stand by, they will help the guy out and gain the eminity of Viper, so they may as well take "hunted: Viper" for a disadvantage (maybe to a smaller degree than the main hunted character) too. And it keeps them involved.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

Shadow run ed? several years ago.

My character: Human with some bioware and a Salette gaurdian

Fellow Runner: Large Troll with Panther Assualt cannon

My team were sent after a female elf decker ( I forget why). We asked around a night club and we were able to figure out that she had a lair somewhere beneath it which lead us to some old sewers. We manage to track her to a tunnel that had a pipe that was leaking natural gas. Thinking it the wise course I turned off the gas and proceded down the tunnel where I had a little scuffle with a few R.O.U.S's but otherwise emerged unscathed on the other side. I entered a well lit chamber occupied by a topless Female elf holding a Ruger Super WarHawk.

Elf: Who are you ? What are you doing here? Are you alone?

Me: *Giving her an apprasing look* No just me and my big friend.

Elf: *she looked me over* Big friend...yeah right? *she scoffed*

Just then the Troll emerged from the tunnel behind me.

Me: Yeah! *grinning*

Re: "Normals" gaining superpowers: how would they change in terms of mentality?

Many people would turn to crime if that was not already their inclination.

Like the saying goes, " A lock is used to keep an honest man honest."

For example, take a bicycle locked to a bike rack with a chain. A criminal will easiy cut the chain or lock and take your bike, the lock is not a deterent. An honest man seeing the lock would walk on. If there were no lock and chain you may not have a bike in the case of either man.

With super powers even a bank vault may not be locked to you.

Re: "Your Most Embaressing Game Mastering Moment"

In my DnD 3.0 game from a few years back we had been playing every week for about a year with mostly the same players. I kept tempting the players with evil power in various ways to cause moral dilemas and tension in the group. The 3 elves who were all related in game started to slide towards Evil and then suddenly embraced it. I just went along with it to see where it would go.

The good players got with me out of game and formulated a strategy for taking out the Evil half. In their defence the bad members where growing more powerful and less discretionary in their behaviour. It ended with the good half of the party seperately ambushing the members of the Evil half for their own good.

This lead to the players of the evil side feeling betrayed and it was a few weeks before they would talk to me again. And after that I let someone else DM.

In retrospect I should have intervened well before it got to the point where it wrecked the game. Maybe take away their characters just for a little while and later bring them back under the players control after causing many problems in the world that the party would then have to go out and fix and that the players would be shocked at the logical extension of their own characters actions.

Re: Supers vs. Military

With what? In some cases you could kidnap the character's spunky reporter girlfriend' date=' but even then you'd be better off going with cruise missiles and high-altitude bombing because both of those things are faster to deploy and can more easily catch a character off-guard. Not to mention the few characters you could catch flat-footed with an artillery barrage are precisely the characters who could walk through the blast-radii without taking more than a bit of stun. Leave artillery for the set piece battles and fortification reduction missions it was intended for.[/quote']

 

Actually Artillery can be used to take out moving vehicles, therfore it should work against most non fliers. Modern artillery is not as slow, inaccurate, and ponderous as the previous post lead one to believe. Artillery can and is used to hit moving vehicles.

 

I think that I saw the stats for a modern artillery piece on TV where one shell had a blast radius of 150 meters, so it is not like they have to hit exactly.

 

With enough artilley pieces you could blanket a large area so that even a speedster will have difficultly getting out of the AOE.

 

Against artillery the infantry have just a few seconds to dive for cover and sometimes that will only do so much.

 

There are also secondary effects like Hydrostatic shock not just shrapnel or the fireball. you could actually suffer no aparent damage and still have your kill switch flipped.

Re: How to build a Vampire Template?

Making the bite a RKA with no range is an easy way to remove the extra damage from Strength that is normally added to a HKA. I suppose that you could also just make it a HKA with a lim of no or zero strength added instead.

What kind of vampire are we talking about here? There are many different interpretations of the powers of a Vampire (just look at the variety of powers in Vampire the Masquerade) Just like when you simulate a character from any book, movie, TV..etc you need to know what they can do first and then build the powers/abilities to simulate.

Re: The ThunderCats Project

That's part of why I don't like OLD sci-fi. It's crap! It's full of ridiculous silliness. It's just how things were back then. I mean' date=' at some point, people thought godzilla and the giant spiders were pretty authentic and now we just laugh at them and think how stupid does that look.[/quote']

 

I can stand older SFX as long as there is:

A. interesting/good plot

B. Descent to good acting

 

Even new movies with state of the Art SFX should have these qualities to be rewatchable.

 

I also like attention to detail especially with military characters and equipment. I guess most movies skimp on the budget when it comes to military advisors. Or they just think the viewing audience are idiots.

Re: Supers vs. Military

Supes is broken. Especially in his last movie. "So he is picking up an island of kryptonite and flying it into outerspace....wow that stuff really kicks his butt *sarcasm*" And his nemisis is just a normal human..wow. That is like watching a Professional wrestler beat up a 6 year old.

Re: Supers vs. Military

double post

Re: Armor Wars

Regarding the use of conventional tanks in a world where powered armor exists' date=' there are a few reasons why older technology would be used. One reason would be cost. A conventional tank would cost considerably less then a high tech suit, and thus more could be bought. Armor might be needed on many fronts, and dependingon a limited number of hi-tech powered armored individuals might lead to strategic problems. Another reason would be politics. Not only would there be a debate on the wisdom of relying on powered armor, but the costs would become an issue as well.[/quote']

 

Do you know how much a modern Jet fighter cost IRL? Even at the extreme cost of a Stealth bomber (3 Billion?) you are much better off with a battlesuit as capable as Ironman's. Trust me cost would not be an issue.

 

As noted before Tanks will still have their niche role but would be greatly souped up with spinoff technologies derived from the Battle armor super Tech..i.e.. the whole argument of putting the same armor as the battle suit on the Tank, only thicker.

 

Strategic problems: When you get down to it the Armor suits are just conventional weapons in another form. Sure their will be knockoffs and a kind of arms race between hi tech countries. There already is with real life weapons platforms.

 

Politics: Nothing hurts worse to politicians than looking powerless to protect the people and/or property. Sure the Army comes in to stop the Hulk but are readily defeated and the Country is powerless. i would hate to be the Senator who voted down the poweruit project that prevented our nation's military from having the right tools to possibly stop this menace from killing, maiming and destroying a city. In other words, who is going to vote against such projects when such exist. Sure there are super heros but since they are not under governmental control can they be relied upon?

Re: The ThunderCats Project

Wouldn't you just use "Image" for the sword to call the other T cat's? I mean basically it is like the "bat signal" from Batman. It does seem like they are compelled to come and arrive usually about the same time despite distance and speed of travel so maybe "Summon" actually fits the bill better. Just depends on how you want to run it. I don't recall how it works if Lionel was underground where the signal could not go up or be seen or if the other T-cats could ignore it or be distracted easily from noticing it.

Re: Armor Wars

Why would Tony Stark, Hank Pym, and Reed Richards be able to whip up the cure for cancer anyways? All super Geniuses, but I don't care how smart the Polymath pHD Dr of Physics, Math, Atronomy, etc.. is, they are not a medical doctors. And yes at some point the MU should diverge from reality.