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Re: Tactics Ignoring in-game chain of command. In most other kinds of campaigns, who is leader and how much power that leader has is negotiable between the players. But if we're a SWAT or SpecOps team, and my character is specifically in charge, then I expect my players to follow orders. And they don't (or do so rarely). It's very frustrating the few times we play such games (mostly Battletech), and I can't find a solution to the problem. Any punishment of the character is completely ignored, and any punishment of the player just draws the "But I'm playing in character" response. No, you're not. You're a member of a military unit and you're disobeying or ignoring direct orders. The funny thing is, the one time I managed to enforce my authority and carry a planned tactic all the way out, everyone was surprised by how effectively we defeated our opponents. The only casualty we had was from a freak critical shot to the head and a couple of damaged mechs. I still don't think anyone has made the connection.

Re: A thematic question regarding Life Support (Disease) and (Poisons) There is a good article on Toxicity on wikipedia. It is, in fact, a very complicated subject. Some toxins act directly on the body, interfering with normal function. Others cause problems only when the body breaks them down, resulting in different substances that then go on to interfere. Some bacteria and viruses work in a similar way. They do not have an effect in and of themselves, but their waste products or the results of the body's immune systems breaking them down do have toxic effects. As cutsleeve pointed out above, some toxins have beneficial side effects if prepared and dosed properly. Sometimes, a little bit of a dangerous effect (blood vessel dilation, for example) helps counter another problem. Furthermore, there is the concept of levels of resistance, which could be applied to people in general, not just those with Immunities. I used to be able to drink a pint of strong beer and a double shot quickly without any significant effect. I've known other people who would have passed out from that. Even knew a guy who could drink ipecac and just sit there, smiling. Some people are so allergic to certain minor toxins (bee venom, nettles, poison oak/ivy) that what causes other people to have an uncomfortable reaction puts them in the hospital. How realistic (i.e. detailed) do you want to get? We gloss over a lot of this kind of thing for the sake of the game, but this is where the question leads. Ultimately, this is a question that is up to the GM. For some characters (a sentient robot, for instance) the answer is obvious - they have no biological system for the alcohol to effect, so they can't get drunk. I had a character with an altered body who required alcohol as part of his diet, he couldn't get drunk because his metabolism was fundamentally different. The Newcomers in Alien Nation didn't get anything from alcohol, but spoiled milk was the equivalent of fine wine or scotch. Judge it on a case by case basis, apply common sense and strive for an enjoyable interpretation. But remember that the pleasurable side effects are still the effects of a toxin. Hence the term 'intoxication'.

Re: A thematic question regarding Life Support (Disease) and (Poisons) I would say that Immunity is immunity. No side effects from any toxin/disease would be felt. But here is a suggestion for a modifier to Life Support. Call it Partially Effective (-1/4 to -1/2). It could allow you to feel the side effects of a toxin or disease, but without any risk of suffering the major effects. This would allow the character to get drunk, possibly even to the point of passing out, but not be able to succumb to truly dangerous levels of alcohol poisoning. Or contract something like the Black Plague, feel unbelievably awful for a while, and then recover (as did Corwin in the Chronicles of Amber). At the -1/4 level, the character would suffer no reduction to characteristics, including STUN, END or similar due to toxins or diseases, but would receive penalties to various rolls based on the side effects. NND/AVAD attacks which are prevented/reduced by the Life Support are still prevented/reduced. At the -1/2 level, STUN and END damage could result, or some damage to characteristics, in addition to the side effects, but no BODY or other permanently damaging effects would result. NND/AVAD attacks are not usually affected by this modified level of Life Support, except for the BODY or other long-term damage associated with the attack. Thoughts?

Re: Eccentric but plausible ways a character could be rich? Restaurateur, in the Emeril Lagasse or Paul Prudhomme style Owns one or more popular theme parks (I may use this one myself) Blackmailer - has good dirt on a number of people Magazine publisher (Hef as superhero, heh) Photographer - could be high-end journalist or artist Owns the likeness rights for a popular cartoon character Hacker can have multiple variations 1)Various ways to funnel digital cash into one's bank account, for actual money 2)Print your own credit cards 3)Want something? Break into the manufacturer's computer and order it delivered 4)The ATM trick from T2 5)Alter legal records to grant yourself ownership of land, corporations, etc...

Re: Unusual Magic Items Armor of Pacifism. Appearing to be an otherwise nice set of moderately magical armor, this suit was created by a very ideological mage. When the wearer attempts to engage in hostilities (regardless of who initiated them), the armor will completely lock up, preventing any kind of movement on the part of the wearer. It will argue passionately for all sides to put down their weapons and just talk things over until a peaceful solution can be reached. Alternatively, it will speak only to the wearer, and make them argue for a peaceful solution, refusing to allow them to move until this has been accomplished. It may or may not require special means to remove.

Re: Okay class: Make me a rogue. On the morality issue, remember that Robin Hood, Han Solo, and James Bond all qualify as rogue characters, and all have their own moral codes, as do the characters in Leverage. As the forum has focused on fantasy rogues, I offer this modern-day/near future variant, the Infiltrator. This is not a package deal, as such, but a list of guidelines. I figure the Infiltrator represents someone like Ethan Hunt from MI. His job is to get in and get out with the MacGuffin (likely a data file of some kind), without firing a shot. Can exist on any level from the very realistic to, well, MI. STR, CON, DEX, INT, EGO: +3-5 each, representing good training and selection by those trainers (find the best and teach them) BODY: +2-8 for general toughness and yet more training PRE: Arguably set to almost anything, depending on how social the character will be. Good idea to add PRE (only to resist PRE attacks) if nothing else. COM: +0 (the less noticeable you are, the better) STUN, END: Higher than normal, to a variable degree Skills: At least one Enhancer (Jack of All Trades and Linguist being very useful) Multiple Languages Security Systems Systems Operation (communication and data-storage as possible specialties) Cryptography, Hacking (enough to understand the concepts, at least) Stealth (very high) Tactics Architecture, Engineering (to be able to understand building plans and schematics) Forgery Conversation (excellent for acquiring information without the target knowing you've done so) Seduction Deduction, Forensics Weapon Familiarities (Small Arms, Modern melee weapons, and the like) Weaponsmith (for maintenance and repair, only) Paramedics Fast Talk, Con, Bluff, whatever you want to call it (yes, I know it's called Persuasion, but most groups have their favorite terms) Every Knowledge and Area skill you can lay hands on. Science skills can also be useful Powers/Perks/Talents: Contacts and Favors out the wazoo, possibly built as a VPP Luck: 1-3d6 Combat Luck: 1-2 levels +2-4 PER rolls Martial Arts - at least 10 points worth Multiple identities, or the means to acquire them (*sigh*, Who am I this time?) Gadgets of various types, including weapons, but focusing on surveillance, misdirection, security and informational items. Suggestions: Night-vision goggles, Climbing rigs, Vehicles, Disguise Kits, both Audio and Video bugs, hacks-on-a-disk, silencer, low-profile armor

Re: The Nightmare of Megascale Teleport I was looking at the Drain option, and there is a long view possible. Don't try to Drain anything significantly at any one time, try to Drain a little bit at a time for a very long period (1d6 Drain Teleport, Delayed Return Rate 5pts/yr, 42AP). Throw one or two of those at him every battle, and he'll start having problems quickly. It also sets up a plotline where he has to figure out how to reverse that Drain ahead of time. Add a Delayed Effect, and it might take him a while to figure out what's going on. Or it could be built as one big curse/disease or similar that slowly degrades his abilities over time. Which also sets up a good plotline. I figure anything that adds to the overall plot is going to slide down this player's throat a lot easier than the far more reasonable response of half a dozen snipers using Teamwork and 4d6RKAs the next time he tries to grab someone.

Re: An inherent Jinx power? My guess would be that Limited Target Opponents means that, in normal operation, it affects only his opponents, and not his friends or neutrals. Important since it can affect either but not both kinds of targets at the same time. The Always On disad counts because he can't turn it off when it's hurting his buddies. Even when he ultimately becomes aware of the effect, he's going to have that sitting in his way as a complication. Important to put it in place now.

Re: Societies forming around advanced/alien/forgotten purpose technology? Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light is a variation on this. The ruling class still has access to technology (and knows it IS technology), and use it to control the peasants. Great book, BTW. The Rama books have societies developing on Rama in between star systems, as the specimens picked up establish themselves essentially as colonies. Since it's STL, there's plenty of time to run this forward a few thousand years and find fully developed cultures based on Rama tech. Gene Wolfe's series The Book of the New Sun is set so far in the future, humanity has risen and fallen multiple times, leading to a medieval atmosphere mixed with some truly impressive technology. Some are in the know, most are not. William Gibson has a short story called "Hinterlands", which puts humanity as a whole into a sort of cargo cult mentality. A wonderful combination of hope and despair in that one.

Re: Blasters: why? Except that Big Rocks are really just Slug Throwers writ large. Its still directed radiant energy vs. directed kinetic energy. OTOH, there is nothing cooler than using the highest technology to propel the very oldest of weapons to incredible effect. Except maybe building your own moon and then putting a gigantic blaster on it. Hmmm...

Re: Henschel-Wegmann Train There are some in Oregon and Washington. http://www.orhf.org/ is a good place to start.

Re: How to Build: Really weird idea! I'd be very hesitant about this as a GM (BIG Stop Sign). This (as Hyper-Man) pointed out, would involve a LOT of extra work for me. In addition, it could easily turn into a plot-breaker without any malicious intent on anyone's part. Part of the question would be how powerful the NPCs would be. Minor and largely powerless NPCs is a pain in the backside to keep track of, but largely doesn't rock the boat. Heroic and higher stand a real chance of upsetting the balance of any encounter or adventure I'd come up with. How often would this power get used? What (beyond GM fiat) determines where the NPC is on the friendly-neutral-adversarial scale? What are the odds that an NPC will be at a certain point on the scale? What determines which NPC is duplicated? What happens if a Duplicated NPC meets the original? What if the Duplicate is of significantly different personality? Do personality changes include possible psychosis or similar effects? Does the Duplicate possess all of the NPCs memories? Is the Duplicate permanent, or do they fade away after awhile? All of these would need to be answered, and probably more. It might work better as a Summon to which you could add a specific NPC. Perhaps a Transform to 'scan' them into your database (target is not BODY, but reflects their overall AP total), and a simple die-roll to determine what side of a fight they will appear on when you activate the Summon (different with each Summon). That would sit a lot better with me than something as open-ended as what you described. All of that said, it could add a very interesting flavor, if the balance issues could be worked out.

Re: Those poor humans I think it was Greg Bear who wrote them, but I can't remember the series or any of the titles. Machine cultures come through and destroy earth in the first book, and the remnants of humanity end up living (literally) like the rats in the walls of their ships. Arthur C. Clarke hit this a couple of times, at least, with Childhood's End, and the Rama books, not to mention 2001 and its sequels. Spider Robinson's Stardancer series does it, but the aliens are mostly in the background.

Re: What are YOUR character trademark(s)? Some kind of history. I need to know who the character really is, beyond the numbers. As to the rest. Resistant Defenses Moderate to high DEX Breakfall

Re: Need a name for batlike hero I have several mental disconnects when it comes to opera. Gilbert & Sullivan are this whole separate thing, in my head. They just never click to me as being opera. What, never? No, never. What, never? Well, hardly ever.

Re: Transplanted Immortality Possible? Maybe. Very iffy, though. We don't even have a basic model of how simple sensory memory works, much less personality components. Would I? Probably not. I agree with sinanju. It's not me, it's a copy of me. I'm still dead, and I can think of a lot of other ways to spend my resources before I die. OTOH, it would be incredibly useful in some fields. Doctors and scientists that could continue working and refining their abilities. As long as no-one (including the clone) makes the mistake of thinking of them as being the same person, it'd be fine. But that's a societal benefit, not a personal one (except to stoke the ego). It could also be useful on generational ships, to avoid the breakdown of information communication to each new generation of crew. For me, probably not. For others, if that's what they want, fine.

Re: Need a name for batlike hero Lighthearted opera? I was unaware that there was such a thing. I have sudden visions of Adam West as Dr. Falke.

Re: advice on power advantage Of course, Green Lantern can be reasonably described at various phases of his career anywhere from "Light Brick/Energy Projector" to "God". Personally, I like this Barrier build idea. It also has the added benefit that Barrier can still be used in much more traditional, battlefield/crowd control ways. I would love to see this in one of my games, but we voted to stick with 5er, and Force Wall just doesn't cut it.

Re: Need a name for batlike hero There's also the possibility of basing the name off of your character's personality, rather than apearance. "Bright One" occurred to me for some reason, maybe the light within the darkness? Gabriel is the first name of the main character in the German opera Die Fledermaus, which means "The Bat". His last name is Eisenstein, which doesn't work so well as a hero name, but it might be a good name for the Secret ID.

Re: An inherent Jinx power? I explored a related possibility in a story, once. The character appeared to have great luck, everything always worked out just right. But he really had a limited precognitive ability. He didn't know the future, he would just get gut feelings that THIS was the right action to take. And in his case, it was very sophisticated. He played the casinos, of course, but part of what the power did was to tell him when to lose, as well as when to win. Getting noticed by the house for being too lucky would obviate his ability, so it protected him and itself by making sure that nobody put together that he was really doing quite well. He'd spend several weeks going to different places, and at the end, would walk away with a nice chunk of change (a quarter mil or so). That might be an interesting way to describe a jinx. It's not that probability is being affected, but people's ability to make decisions. Good luck represents better hunches, intuition, and guesses, the character acting upon information they are not aware they have access to. Bad luck is the opposite, maybe even denying them access to information they do have. Make it powerful enough and it starts stretching backward through time, so that the (un)lucky character is at the receiving end of a long series of decisions that he or she indirectly influenced.

Re: advice on power advantage The book seems to suggest that Barriers are relatively simple shapes, walls, domes, boxes. The player wants to be able to create VERY complex shapes, like buildings with interior features such as walls and staircases, that people can actually walk into. Combined with (possibly) Images to make them look real. Essentially using the two powers to create realistic objects with which characters can physically interact. He also mentioned things like train trestles, and one or two more I can't remember at the moment. I'm thinking a weak Green Lantern effect.

Re: An inherent Jinx power?

Re: How much damage done "the chair" do? Out of curiosity, what character? If he has an affinity for lightning, his defenses might be higher against the chair than they are otherwise. Could even be a Desolid vs. Electricity kind of deal (no damage at all). I'm not turning up much specifically, but the period over which the charges are delivered appear to be in the thirty second range. Call it three turns. Remember that it's designed to kill by electrical disruption of bodily processes, not by damage as gamers usually think of it. Electricity has always been one of the hardest kinds of damages to model in any system, because it does so many different things to the human body. There's heat, nervous system disruption, cellular destruction, muscle spasms, sensory interference, consciousness effects and probably more. It is one of the most unpredictable forces when it interacts with the human body possible. Some people struck by lightning are dead instantly, but most survive with varying degrees of injury. Just trying to get a taser right can be a nightmare.

Re: An inherent Jinx power?

Re: Repercussions of mass-producing comic book technology