Folded

Re: KA.'s Idea Thread Check out Schlock Mercenary's Gatekeeper storyline (I think they're called the F'Sherl'g'hanni). It's got some great ideas about how such a thing would work, and how someone could take advantage of it.

Re: What would superheroes Twitter about? @GenericSuperhero: He's monologuing. Again. So yeah, I'm doing my taxes.

Re: Hero System Good Idea/Bad Idea... Good idea: Stargate Hero Bad idea: Tollgate Hero Awesome idea: Tailgate Hero

Re: Help naming characters? (Teen Champions) A few suggestions (pardon me if some of these already exist in CU, I'm not read up on it): 1. Gizmo, Tick-Tock, Mechanic, Camo, Blackbird (after the SR-71) 2. Thumper, Impulse, Smackdown 3. Kevlar, Reliant, Ironclad, 4. Skywalker (I will not turn to the dark side), Sage, Scholar, Adept, Talent, Potter (FT-pop culture-W) 5. Catseye, Blake (from his poem Tyger Tyger), The Lady (from the 'Lady or the Tiger' by Frank R. Stockton), Traveler

Re: Two 'Gadget Archer' questions Many years ago, I was in a D&D campaign, and we had two hirelings for ranged support. Yeoman Bowman was a god. He dished out damage like a professional sniper. His friend, Arrow Lad, well, he cost us a lot in bowstrings. So Yeoman Bowman would be my vote, since it seems to have some good karma associated with it. Other thoughts (mostly from a quick Google on "glossary of archery terms": Arc (the root word for archery, sending the arrow in an arc) Bodkin: A three bladed broadhead arrow. Broadhead: A hunting arrow, but the name will draw jokes Fletch: So you can model your character after Chevy Chase Lady Paramount: A lady assistant to the field captain. In charge of the women's shooting line or division in a tournament. Nocks: The grooves at the tips of the limbs of a bow into which the bow string is fitted, also the slot at the feathered end of an arrow. Point Blank: The act of aiming directly at the target. Rover: An archer who engages in field shooting. Shaft: He's a mean mutha- SHUT YO' MOUTH - I'm just talkin' bout Shaft. Spiral: The curved position in which the feathers are attached to the arrow shaft. Steele: Same as shaft. So you can model your character after Pierce Brosnan. Paradox: From the term Archer's Paradox Daikyu: A japanese long bow. Noted for the grip not being at the center of the bow stave (asymmetrical). Draw: from Draw Weight, the number of pounds of force required to draw the bow 28 inches. Also great potential for introductions: "Who are you?" "Draw". Gungdo: The Korean practice of archery Hankyu: A short Japanese bow. Also asymmetrical, like the Daikyu.

Re: 6E What happened to HKA? Okay, if that's the extent of the value of Killing Damage, why include it at all in the system? (I am not being sarcastic here) It does a little more BODY, and less stun. About all it really accomplishes is to make Players certain to buy up some resistant defenses. Tell me the last time you had a super with less than 8rPD/8rED. I usually start at 12 each. Seems to me that buying an attack with AVAD: rPD or rED would accomplish the same goal as Killing Attacks and eliminate a complicating factor in the game (different types of damage rolling). Of course, HD considers rPD and rED to be Very Common defenses, and it's a +0 wash. It might even be more useful to turn KA's into Normal Attacks with Armor Piercing or a specifically written Advantage (as Chris Goodwin suggests, above). The reduction of the STUNx in 6e seems to take the teeth out of Killing Attacks. No more STUN Lotto make Folded sad.

Re: Normals I'd like to see some of the following: Emergency responders - EMTs, firefighters, HAZMAT, people likely to show up at a battle who are not combat types Taxi and other professional drivers Ship captain and crew, same for airlines and trains Real-world crook types - smugglers, arms dealers, drug dealers, ID thieves, bank robbers, and the like, without special abilities or equipment I'd also like to see a military book, Special Ops Hero, say. Something that lays out some basics of how military groups work, from the ground up, and gives some ideas about how to use them in a campaign setting. I'd love to run a military campaign, mixed with Star Hero or PAH.

Re: 6E What happened to HKA?

Re: 6E What happened to HKA? OK, simple arithmetic then. The following 2 characters both have a 10d6 Normal HTH Attack and a 3.5d6 HKA. Character 1: 50 STR - 40 Character Points 1pip HKA - 5 Character Points TOTAL COST - 45 Character Points Character 2: 10 STR - 0 Character Points +8d6 HA - 32 Character Points +3d6 HKA - 45 Character Points TOTAL COST - 77 Character Points On top of which, Character 1 gets the other benefits of a high STR, and Character 2 does not. Yes, Character 2 can limit his abilities (focus, real weapon, etc) and get the point costs to be similar. But he is still paying more base points for less effective abilities. I am willing to accept some discrepancies in different builds of similar characters resulting in different point costs, but paying 32 more points for less effective abilities seems a little unreasonable. I'm not generally a minmaxer, but I'm certainly going to think twice about the build when the differences are that extreme.

Re: How To Build: Multiform Multipower with 4 slots, one charge each, with an associated END cost. Or, use a custom Limitation (around -1/2, I'd think) Each Form Once Per Day (Recovers Like a Charge). The END cost could be simulated with a Side Effects Limitation of some kind, but that's even clunkier than Charges w/END.

Re: Escaped Amorphoid Nemo, who is essentially such a being wrapped around a humanoid skeleton (and not really a hero), would hunt the thing down for ideas on how to improve his own abilites, and maybe pick up minion (I mean ally).

Re: Alternate terms for "superhumans"? "Now can you show me on the doll where the bad GM Touched you?"

Re: Alternate terms for "superhumans"? Positive/Official/PC names: Darwins - applies primarily to mutants or similar Manhattans - experiment gone wrong/right types Awakened - psi/magic based supers, stolen from Shadowrun, but still one of my favorite terms Specials - from the PC term, mostly applied to those whose physical abnormalities make life 'difficult' Savants - from the psychological term, indicating one of abnormally high mental abilities, but could be applied to supers as a whole Wunderkind - adapted from the german for wonder-child Negative/Insulting terms: Mutes, and variations thereon (Muties, Mutts, etc...) Clowns - for those who wear the costumes Vigs - from vigilante Schachs - from guess where Stumps,Twigs,Shrubbery - from the concept of the evolutionary tree (and Monty P) Igors, Stunts Sports - an evolutionary throwback, term primarily used by 'pacifists', referring to the tendency of supers to solve problems with violence

Re: Blowing Up Prootwaddles, or Character Self-Destruction I'm thinking that finding oneself surrounded by Prootwaddles might be an unpleasantly relaxing experience (well, part of me would relax...).

Re: The Snatcher Advantage from GURPS The real problem with this power is not money. Most heroes/supers are powerful enough to rob people or institutions more or less at will. Anyone with a high PS or Inventor skill could easily make lots of money legitimately. The problem is when the players start getting creative. If you can summon ten pounds of gold, why couldn't you summon ten pounds of C4? What about the substance that the villain happens to be Susceptible to, that is normally very hard to find? The first thing my player wanted to do with a similar writeup was go grab half a dozen M16's and distribute them to the group or NPC's. Why not NBC suits to protect characters from poison gas traps or other situations? Fresh water, food, medicine (the 'cure to cancer' might be a popular one), all could be unbalancing in play. If the power truly represents a dimensional teleport of some kind, almost anything could be summoned. Trying, as GM, to come up with reasons that the character can't summon adventure-wrecking items is difficult. Another possibility is the summoning of information. What if the character wants to call up a 'piece of paper with the 'answer to the riddle' (that is supposed to be the mystery the players are supposed to figure out)? Players will quickly start inventing language that GM's will have a hard time working around (as anyone faced with a Wish spell knows). Putting restrictions on all of these possibilities is necessary from the beginning. A lot of it depends on how much you trust your player not to abuse the possibilities.

Re: Martial Art: Lunch Money For those of you not familiar with the game (we play frequently in my group), it has some of the most disturbing text and pictures of any game I've ever played. Really creepy stuff, and worth having just for that reason. I'm definitely going to bring this writeup to my next session.

Re: The Snatcher Advantage from GURPS Having read a version of GURPS that had this power in it, I suspect that it was intended to imitate one of Merlin's Logrus powers in the second Amber series. But, since he was in the godlike realm of power (Prince of Chaos and all), it wasn't really unbalancing. It could be, in a Hero campaign, though. I have a player in my current Champions campaign who's trying to build something like this. He's a teleporter with long range capabilities, and wants to build a base that's 'full of stuff'. One MegaScale tport to his base and he can select one useful item from it. Since he's already Wealthy (bank robber), it's not unreasonable in general terms. However, I've ruled that, when he builds his base, it can't include anything that duplicates a significant power (with limited exceptions, like lights, cell phones, etc...). In essence, it becomes a special effect of the Money/Base points he paid. I'm interpreting that based on the 'player must pay points for everything' rule. So, I've told him that he has to buy a shotgun with points if he wants to put it in his base. When he wants to advance the ability to a real Power, I'm going to have him convert the points into a VPP with the Limitations - Only things already on the list at the beginning of the session and Only things that can be reasonably purchased by a normal person or acquired through gameplay. This is a potentially unbalancing ability, and I would advise putting strict limits on it, depending on the power level of the campaign. If it's really intended to duplicate Merlin's kind of ability, I'd call it a VPP with an Advantage (any power) and Limitations (Extra Time based on specificity and Must involve a Focus). There's also the question of duration. If I can sit and summon gold until I've got as much as I want, it's unbalancing. If (as with a VPP) I have to lose one Power to gain another, it's more reasonable.

Re: Welcome to McGuffins. May I take your order? That definition reminds me of one of my favorite maguffin movies of all time: Alfred Hitchcock's The Trouble With Harry. If you haven't seen it, it's a wonderful example of Hitchcock's humorous side (although it's definitely black humor). 5 out of 5 stars in my book.

Re: A random thought I had - A valid HKA Usable As Attack... I'd be very wary of this kind of thing. If you're forcing someone to cast a spell (complete with Gestures and Incantations), that sounds more like Mind Control. If you're casting the spell and you want to make it look like they are, Indirect and IPE(source only) might be more workable, or a Linked Images. I see the tactics you're going for, and I agree they would make things interesting (at least). It also depends on whether this is a PC ability or NPC, and how restrictive you're going to be about the SFX and what defenses will prevent the UAA from happening. Whether or not I'd approve it as GM would come down to questions like these, and how often I want to deal with this kind of battle tactic. Constantly playing out combats where the bad guys are shooting at each other would get rather tedious, rather quickly. As an occasional thing, though it could really spice things up.

Re: Gravity well power - how to write it?

Re: Gravity well power - how to write it? OK, serves me right for relying on memory (I was thinking of the No STR Limitation). However, it doesn't seem to me that TK really simulates the effect properly, because it doesn't scale with the target's mass. 30 STR TK applies a fixed amount of force, regardless of the mass of the target. To get a true change in gravity, you'd have to affect a 1kg mass differently than a 100kg mass in absolute (but not relative) terms. I'd suggest a Transform that results in a set of penalties based on the Encumbrance rules and the target's final mass as compared to its STR and/or Movement Power.

Re: Gravity well power - how to write it? Seems to me that Density Increase, Usable as Attack, covers the idea nicely. IIRC, when used as an attack, the target doesn't get the STR bonus to help him/her to keep moving. And it would scale with the mass of the target, not its STR.

Re: Weird Weapons for your Games The weirdest weapon I have ever come across in my reading is the Sex-Change Gun. A very strange and silly little story I read somewhere. Here's the writeup Transform (human into human of opposite sex) 7d6, Standard Effect (21 points, enough to guarantee transformation of a Normal). Linked EGO Attack 2d6, Transform must take effect, to represent the psychological shock of suddenly being a different sex. Healed by another shot from the gun or specific medical treatment.

Re: Unique Bow Talents Seems to me that could be used as a very effective PRE attack bonus, say +2-4d6 (Requires a Skill Roll to just barely miss a target, or to target clothing or similar). How about these? Ricochet Strike - -1 DC & -1 OCV per ricochet. Adds Indirect. Each ricochet reduces damage and makes the shot harder, but this allows for striking targets otherwise difficult or impossible to hit. Archer must show the path of the arrow on the map (if you're using one). Multi-shot - Fire more than one arrow per shot (2-3 max). Adds Autofire to attack. -1 OCV per extra arrow, maybe? For an extreme possibility - Missile deflection (thrown, arrows, and the like). Only usable with a held action and a PER roll to spot the incoming object. Not against large missiles. Zen Archery - Attack does not require visual perception of the target. Detect Target, Unusual Group, Sense, Passive, 360 Arc, Ranged, Targeting, Partially Penetrative (through any barrier the arrow can pass through), Discriminatory (Friend vs. Foe), only while unable to see (eyes closed counts). While the power rests in the character, a Focus limitation would be appropriate (OAF, any bow/arrow).

Re: Help with plot I am not yet a very experienced GM. Lots of mistakes. My first two campaigns had a fair amount of railroad written into them, but I found that everything was more fun when plots were more improvised. In fact, I COULDN'T railroad the characters. They occasionally agreed to follow the plot hooks I handed out, but spent more time getting themselves involved in totally random things. A lot of fun. So, I decided to build a campaign around that. I built a setting, a bunch of NPC's, and a very basic situation. I figured I wouldn't need to write anything big, just deal with their randomness, allowing various threads to emerge. They sat there, patiently waiting for me to lay EVERYTHING out. I told them, hey, this is an improv campaign, go nuts. And the next campaign? They complained that it was too structured. On the plus side, I was acquitted of all charges, and they didn't spent too much time in the hospital. In terms of advice, maybe try a different direction? Maybe someone comes to the ship, says he understands the character's legal problems, and he can help (the more sinister, the better). Or let the law lay off, get them into another job or two, then let them find themselves on Fomalhaut. Curiosity might do the trick, there. If it becomes too much of an issue, just give up on that thread (I know, lots of work invested), turn it into something new, that they will follow. Whatever you choose to do, good luck.