Mentor

Re: Any Good Non-Four Color Super Game Needs:

Every hero's parents are supervillains, archcriminals, or secret government conspirators.

The base computer is an evil/corrupted/possessed AI.

Vampires, Psychopathic loners, unstable virus infected androids, and sociopathic angst filled teens are all viable character concepts.

Police, security and military organizations are all rogue or corrupted formations.

The average citizens are generally protected despite the fact that they will form xenophbic, bigoted anti mutant/super mobs at the behest of the most unlikely politician.

One of the PCs will have their costume, power armor or focus take on an independently evil personality far outstripping the capabilities it possessed when in the character's possession.

Re: A Thread for Random Musings

Rumsfeld has apologized. All is forgiven. We are all one big happy nonpartisan American family again.

Maybe I should have posted this on the "Tell a Lie" thread.

Re: "Reality Storm" Almost Here?

Oh crap' date=' you're right. Damn! Here I was thinking Reality Storm would be something I [i']might[/i] want to buy later. Now I have to come up with plausible explanations can give my wife as to why I'm buying yet another game system.

 

"...but honey, it isn't really a new game system. Think of them more like supplements for an existing game system."

 

"...but honey, it's important for the chirdren to see us read. It teaches them that literacy is important. Reading is fun for mentalist...er...fundamental"

 

"...but honey, Guardians of Order isn't run by a caffiene powered writing machine. It'll only be a couple more books a year."

 

"...but honey, the more time I spend reading and fiddling with gaming stuff, the less time I'll be bothering you for sex. It's a win-win situation!"

 

I'll have to keep working on it.

Remember if my wife asks, I bought Sidekick for the boys.

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

Ummmm' date=' sure. Send a note to [email']richardgere@gerbiling.com[/email] and ask for help.

 

OMG. I forgot all about that old story. LOL

Re: End of an Era

The cool thing is that these scenarios are very liberating. My original PC, Double Eagle, sort of a cross between Batman and Captain America, was to be retired by the myself and GM. In the ensuing combat with dozens of ninjas (his longest term Hunted), each "hand" more powerful than the previous, we were down to three PCs back to back against the Supreme Ninja (an independent supervillain) and the heads of the five clans of the "hand" when we were called upon to surrender even though we had defeated scores of undelings. My PC told the supreme Ninja to take me to her employers as we don't negotiate with minions. Little did we know that we set off a couple of Psychlims, including an Enraged, which caused the Supreme Ninja to dispatch her erstwhile masters and take one of the other male PCs prisoner.

The moral to the story: Even in a swansong scenario, if played straight by both the GM and players, you can still win. Never give up.

Re: Evil Businessmen.

Rupert Murdoch seems to be a natural to be an evil businessman who's a member of the VIPER Council, though it does seem rather obvious. I can see characters not finding it too surprising at all. Ted Turner would be about the same way.

 

Of course, Ted Turner used to own World Championship Wrestling. What if he bankrupted WCW on purpose as a cash cow and money laundering service to VIPER? All the poor lower card wrestlers who were fired ended up being recruited by VIPER! Those poor luchadors had thier careers ruined, their skills mocked for the financial benefit of VIPER!

 

This stain on the proud tradition of Lucha Libre must not be allowed to stand. VIPER shall fall! So swears....EL HIJO DEL ESPECTRO!!

 

or is that just what they want everyone to believe, Mwa, ha, ha.

Re: Evil Businessmen.

Joseph Coors.

My sister in Santa Cruz used to call Coors "Contra Beer" because of Joseph Coors opposition to the Sandinistas in Nicaragua.

Its not like anyone can drink the foul brew.

Re: My House Rules. Comments Welcome

These are completely reasonable "balancer" house rules, especially in the context of a PBEM game. Is there some major contovery over these rules, WM?

Re: Minor player problem ...

I need confirmation from this from someone who actually knows. My player won't believe me.

 

True or False: The military will let you keep high-powered weaponry (in the assault rifle/submachine gun mold) when you leave the organization.

 

He swears up-and-down that they do, I'm reasonably certain that they don't.

Not unless the character wants to end up in a federal penitentiary. This includes any weapons or ordinance captured or picked up as a souveneir on the battlefield. Your player is dreaming.

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

I'm sorry! The mentally challenged are all on the political threads. Please try again.

Re: Silliest Disadvantage Ever

HERO System Fifth Edition, Changing the Rules, Page 356:

 

"We think the HERO System rules work well just as they are, and encourage you to use them that way. However, you may find that certain rules do not suit your style of play, or make it more difficult for you to do what you want to in the game. If that's the case, change the rules! The whole point of gaming is to have fun, so you shouldn't let the rules hold you back if they're getting in the way of that goal."

 

This passage is perhaps the single most misunderstood or ignored portion of FREd. Some people (not necessarily those involved in this discussion) can't deal with the idea that when it come to house rules, Steve Long even put in a rule that says "Cool."

Rules lawyers automatically must defer to the GM, according to the rules. 'Nuff said.

Re: A Thread for Random Musings

Politics be damned.

Worldmaker helped me decide what Sunday dinner must be. Excellent recipe, Jack. My obsession with beef must be countered.

Re: How much of a Limitation...?

Actually' date='you'd have to get GM's permission for this EC, as only Powers that naturally cost END are allowable in Fifth Edition EC's.(If i were Steve Long,I'd just have forbade all Always On Powers from being in Power Frameworks unless all Powers in the Framework have the Always On limitation.But I'm not Steve Long,unfortunately).[/quote']

Really , you have to get GM permission for any character or set up that would take away from the game enjoyment. There are a lot more problems than power legality that can ruin a game.

Re: What superhero world concept are you tired of seeing?

I don't agree with either of those ideas' date='but the idea that "Only Americans should have superheroes" is the worst of the lot.Just think of all the bragging they would do...[/quote']

It would just be boring if the Superheroes on a team were only American. Our team has a French detictive/Wizard, an Italian geologist demi Brick/Energy protector, a Russian gymnast Martial Artist, a Mescalero Apache shaman Energy Projector, an Atlantean Psychic (born in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Outremer), A Bhutanese/Apache Martial Artist, a Filipino Martial Artist, an three Americans. The are Headquartered out of Norway.

 

Lots of languages and lots of plot hooks.

Re: Name for a "I-hit-all" girl

I prefer heroes to use their native language for character names, as a rule, since it gives them much more flavor than the vanilla Anglicized translation.

Nahuatl is especially good for mysterious origins, as so few peole speak it these days. Go for the Nahuatl name.

Re: Player-Built Characters...

For ten years we built PCs as etherio described, and were disatisfied with the imbalance of characters and their abilities.

Our current campaign started with the primary GM (Trebuchet) creating a set of power guidelines (good be worried by military heavy weapons) as well as personality requirements (ie, no psychopathic loners or superior alien gods) making the team aspect primary. Power levels based on then fairly standard fourth edition recommendations were instituted with any deviation being approved by the GM.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the game was by invitation. Those individuals in the fairly large local gaming community of our acquaintence who are abusive, disruptive, egocentric or inept were not welcome. Thus we have a great campaign with a terrific group of players and a glorious team. The transition to 5th edition was easy and the combat abilities rose only slightly and in only some of the heroes. We used the points mostly to round out the personalities and noncombat skills, which we use a lot.

Re: Super Metals and Alloys

I think the Molecule Man dissolved Cap's shield once.

 

-AA

They got better.

Re: Special effect or something else? Power Question.

I am a bit unclear on the effect you are trying to achieve.

Buying Invisible Power Effect can prevent an opponent from recognizing that you are protected, but they will be aware that you are not taking damage from the attack.

Creating the appearance of bullets or beams striking the PCs body would be tougher. An illusion power would have to be well within concept to be acceptable.

SFX can only do so much.

Re: Is It Worth The Points?

As a GM I think of a PC's skills and powers as an opportunity. I approach a scenario like a writer -- okay, I've got characters that can do X, Y and Z; how can I turn those into an interesting story? Much of my game design is based on picking out a handful of PC abilities and developing an encounter around them. I love the moment when a player is wracking his brain trying to figure out a plan, then remembers an obscure power that applies perfectly to the situation, or a common power applied in an obscure way. It's a creative challenge for the player, rewarding for him and me both.

 

Of course it's equally rewarding and challenging for the GM to have a player who thinks up creative responses for his character. That's my kind of player. For a variety of reasons, though, I've learned that you can't count on that in your scenario design.

 

-AA

Re: Limitation punishment

1) disadvantages:

 

I consider these "GM's option." I use them if they advance the story, or if they give me a chance to push development in terms of roll playing. I don't let my players disads dictate my games to me. I do pick a character on a rotating basis and glance at them to see if there's something there I want to use - but that's about it.

 

2) limitations

 

I also consider these "GM's option." I had a GM who was a sadistic bastard in terms of limitations (the whole group got up and walked out, hence my launch into GMing champs) so I tend to tread lightly. I do have them come up now and again, but only when its convenient.

Hopefully both Disads and Limitations are bought with the idea of defining the character and not just to come up with those last few points to be invincible.

Spiderman without Aunt May or Mary Jane showing up and becoming hostages would destroy the concept of the character. The X Men without the goggles and the wheelchair and the negative reactions to mutants would be a generic arena battle. Cap loses his shield sometimes and Mjolner has to be hidden from the bad guys and innocents in secret ID. The Joker, the Riddler and the Penguin are supposed to mess with the Batmobile and get into Wayne manor or the Batcave.

Having disads and limitations is part of the genre and it is incumbent upon the GM to give players their glory and advantages to being a hero as well as to use (and they should use ) the limitations. They should never be used to screw the player nor as random happenstance to make the heroes look stupid. Overcoming obstacles is what makes them even more heroic.

Re: Too many stats in Hero

Caris already covered this one.

 

 

 

1) You're being very rude and insulting. Please stop

 

2) I'm getting a 13- perception roll and 13- Int skill rolls with that 18 Int. You're getting only 12- Perception roll and 13- Int skill rolls for a 13 Int and +1 Int skill rolls, for the same price. I have the better deal by far.

 

3) 12- is a 74% chance. 13- is a 84% chance. A very significant difference. And certainly there are going to be cases where the GM is going to impose penalties to the roll, either because it's an opposed action, or because the action is considered more difficult than normal.

 

4) We're talking about the general case for Int, not the NCM case. If you wanted to refer to a NCM campaign, you should have said so from the start.

 

 

 

We're not talking about NCM campaigns. We're talking about the general case. And some character types do better with +2 Int rolls and +2 Perception rolls than +1 overall.

 

 

 

Many of us here are experienced veterans with many years of play. We've created and played dozens of characters. Int is not a useless skill, and I wonder at your actual experience if you think it is.

I must agree with Gary on this point.

Our campaign is very heavily science and skill loaded, so a high INT is definitely not wasted. The average score is 18 and the high score is 28 (a Nobel Prize winning scientist) . In addition to Gary's correct per centages on the rolls, the liklihood of statistically successful complementary skill rolls on the main roll is increased by the INT score while leaving the Overall Levels free to do something else, like raising your DCV in case someone wants to violently prevent your use of those INT skills. (Whoosh. It missed. Whew.)

I have never regretted the points spent on a high INT and often wished my character concepts for average INT PCs didn't prevent buying everyone a higher INT.

Re: Answers & Questions

Q. We got ten rounds for the shotgun and the there's twenty Dalton boys, so what do we do, Sheriff?

A. Does that look like a duck to you?

Re: What superhero character concepts are you tired of seeing?

Why does the source of a character's powers have to be complex? Why does it have to be the interesting thing about his background? Do characters in other genres lack interesting backstories because they don't have 18 pages of "how I got my powers"?

Kryptonite became the second most common element on Earth after the writers found that Superman's origin could be used for story hooks as easily as his powers could.

Re: What superhero character concepts are you tired of seeing?

teenaged anything.

"cute and perky" anything.

The loner, misunderstood, angst driven (ie. whiney ) ones are worse, as it justifies the events that just force them to kill and maim.

"But he's really not a villain, OK."

Real heroes just lock 'em up.

"But, dude, he's part of the team."

"Not anymore." Double Eagle replies.

'Nuff said.

Originally posted by Trebuchet

Umm, Thunderbird was present in our battle against Eurostar, Mentor. If you'll recall he not only rather easily shot down Ultrasonique, but managed a 12d6 EB hit or two against Mentalla before she Ego Blasted him out of the sky. Without the damage T'bird had already done to her (and which kept Mentalla from focusing exclusively on Zl'f) it's unlikely Zl'f would have been able to take down Mentalla in one hit, no matter how magnificent the actual damage roll was. (44 STUN on 10d6)

 

While it's true that Zl'f was both the last MidGuardian standing and the one that ultimately knocked out Mentalla and finished the fight, without Thunderbird I seriously doubt we would have won that battle.

 

Still at large: Fiacho and Feurmacher.

Their Eurostar is pretty righteous, though.