Thrakazog

Hypothesis: the rules invalidating powers that don't cost END from being placed in a framework, specifically an elemental control, hose the average brick. Most plain-vanilla archetypes can arrange an EC for their mainstay powers, but with the exception of STR, a brick's mainstay (mainly defensive) powers like increased PD or ED, armor, damage resistance/reduction, increased CON or BODY, etc., aren't allowed in an elemental control. This makes bricks more expensive to build in general than other archetypes. Would you agree or disagree with the hypothesis? Do bricks get hosed? Do you allow these powers in ECs as a house rule?

Re: What was your best plot twist And they believed him? My group would likely have killed him or at least left him imprisoned until the lich was dealt with. It's the only way to be sure.

Re: Increasing Target Visibility I had to deal with this issue in my Car Wars Hero campaign. A rare but effective gadget is the limpet beacon. Attach one to a vehicle and scoring hits with radar or laser-guided (depending on the beacon used) ordinance is a piece of cake. It's still a work in progress.

Re: Perk: Gold Cross Policy? In my Car Wars Hero campaign universe it's considered equipment. Equipment is paid for in cash, not points. Gold Cross policies are just something you can buy if you can afford it. As for regeneration, it's the Gold Cross people who have the power, not the player. It's Regeneration, OIF immobile, UAO, extra time, requires DNA and mind backup tape. Even if you have a policy, there's precedent for Gold Cross to refuse to honor the policy, so you could even add no conscious control.

Re: Car Chases and vehicle combat FWIW, I'm about to start a Dark Champions campaign based on the Car Wars setting. As I expect to be running a lot of vehicular combat, I'd be happy to post feedback on it from time to time.

Re: Top 10 Action Hero One-Liners Simon Phoenix: "I been dreamin' about killin' you for forty years." John Spartan (w/shotgun): "Oh yeah?" >chuk-chuk< "Well keep dreaming." BLAM

Re: Top 10 Action Hero One-Liners I'm surprised "I'll be back" didn't make the list.

Re: Traveller=Pulp Hero+Star Hero I don't know who Norton is. I just think Classic Traveller is cool.

Re: Blowing up your own power armor My powered armor suits typically run on either a flat-design chemical battery or a fusion power pack. The former wouldn't make much of a bang, really, while the latter would technically make my suit a weapon of mass destruction. But it's an interesting question. Give your END reserve (the battery) a limitation denoting that it can be eliminated. Create the explosion power with the side effect that the battery is eliminated (along with the suit, I guess) until replaced. Or just build the explosion and handwaive the damn battery-n-suit-be-gone thing. Sometimes these rules just give me a headache.

Re: Megascale and Teleport Sighting Details in real time.

Re: Megascale and Teleport Sighting

Re: Megascale and Teleport Sighting Just a cool idea: build the megascale pwoer as a rapid-fire teleport, or a "teleport on water". She ports shorter distances multiple times, but each port is so fast that she's never in one spot long enough to sink below the surface. The end result is a megascale teleport.

Re: Megascale and Teleport Sighting Emphasis mine. Full stop, right there. She can't see her target location, hence it's a blind teleport and applicable rules regarding blind teleports apply. Simple. For the points, SBT is a must-buy for any teleporter able to jump beyond his line of sight, IMO.

Re: Supress & Dispel: How effective? I, too, have never played a PC with either power. I don't like the all-or-nothing dilemma of dispel which makes me want to buy obscene amounts just to make sure. And I've just never gotten around to suppress, which I find expensive.

Re: Smelly Bob I liked this model, so I went with it. In the first round of the tournament, where matches are decided at random, the player gets paired with Smelly Bob (of course). They get into the ring and I describe the unfathomably sick stench coming from Bob and ask for the Con roll. It gets missed, and I describe the effects of watering eyes, wretching, gagging, etc., and that it's going to affect how well he can fight. The player hands me his sheet and tells me to take a look at the disads. Physical Lim: No Sense Of Smell. Rats. Smelly Bob got his arm broke and tapped out.

Re: Smelly Bob

Smelly Bob is a pit fighter. One of his keys to success is that he doesn't shower and lives in a sewer. He's so smelly that opposing fighters have a hard time when getting in close. How would you model this? It's a no-range one-hex CV penalty.

Re: Shapeshift: Still having trouble adjusting from 4th to 5th. My understanding is thus: SS: Sight, you turn into a chair. This means that you look like a chair and have the shape of a chair and can be sat on like a chair, and you can even look like a wooden chair or a folding metal chair or whatever, but anybody who touches you will feel a chair made out of human flesh. With SS: Touch, when they feel the chair, they'd feel a chair made out of whatever substance the shapeshifter wanted them to feel, whether it be a wooden chair, or a metal folding chair, or whatever. So "sight" gives you the shape and appearance, but not the texture. Touch adds the texture. SS: Touch by itself wouldn't allow somebody to touch you and feel "chair", nor would it let you look or take the shape of a chair. You could make them feel a texture, however. You could become a person made of wood, or of steel, or whatever "touch" you wanted to convey - but you'd still have the appearance and shape of a person, specifically you. Using the Plasticman example, he'd have SS: Sight only. He could become the chair, but a chair made out of Plasticman only. He couldn't become a chair made out of wood.

Re: Physical Limitation: Mute The chimp is joining a team where nobody knows sign language. Presumably, somebody will spend some xp in that direction. He can understand spoken English, read and write English, and he can speak with other chimps in their "language". I think I'm going to go with a speech impediment lim and just not have him talk that much. And hello to you, too, Zorn and McCoy.

Hypothetical: an intelligent (10 INT) chimpanzee character I'm wondering if I should go with Physical Limitation: Severe Lisp, or Physical Limitation: Mute. I'm leaning towards mute for the roleplaying quality (and I hate typing a lisp) but he can still make chimp sounds and speak to other chimps in chimp language. He also knows Universal Sign Language and can fully understand and read English. Would "physical limitation: mute" be appropriate?

Re: New York Nights - Dark Champions PBeM Looking For Players The first moves are out! Here's a sample: Shadow Dragon Saturday, October 14, 2006, 1:40 AM Mieko strolled down the hallway from her bedroom towards the kitchen. Sleep was just beyond her reach tonight, her restlessness battling with her tiredness to leave her tossing and turning. The thought of some warm milk to help turn the tide of battle seemed a good one, and so she’d gotten up. She was standing at the island counter in her pale pink panties and a black Hello Kitty baby doll tank, waiting for the microwave, when she heard the sound of the elevator opening. She quickly killed the micro and drew a large knife from the block on the counter before she crouched to half-hide herself. She doubted anybody would be so bold as to assault her father’s house directly, but it never hurt to be careful. It turned out to be Ando Masahashi, one of her father’s most trusted men. Ando was a young up-and-comer in the organization, a man who understood and respected the old ways and traditions yet carried himself with ultramodern style. He was charming and handsome and had been subtly trying to court her ever since she’d been introduced to him at her father’s last birthday party. He was easy to like, but he was one of them, so while she had played coy and sweet to his face, inside she had him marked as just another criminal. Besides, she’d never be sure if he was really interested in her or if he just wanted to marry the princess to gain the status of heir to her father’s kingdom. He had one of his soldiers with him, an inscrutable grey-haired harridan named Kato. She laughed when she first heard that, her hand covering her mouth, and then quickly apologized to him and to her father for her disrespect. The man had never changed expression. He hadn’t even blinked. After a month had gone by she thought that he might be a mute until she heard him mumbling quiet prayers at the shrine on the first floor. Ando clearly valued him, however, and they were seldom apart. Rumors were that he was sempai to Ando, or that he was a priest, or that he was an owned servant, or that he was ninja, depending on who she chose to overhear that particular day. Nobody really knew anything for sure except that he killed with the best of them, and he never carried a firearm. She suspected that her father knew his secrets, but she could hardly ask. The two late-night visitors went straight from the elevator through the foyer to the stairs leading up to her father’s office. She crept to the entrance to the kitchen and watched them go up. There was light coming from the direction of the office. If her father was awake and expecting them then they had called ahead to wake him up, and that only happened for the most important business. She padded silently back to her bedroom and opened one of the three large windows, the one furthest from her bed. It slid up in its frame silently thanks to the careful job she’d done previously to lubricate the frame. It was a cold, bracing night but the situation called for haste. Time spent putting on a pair of sweats might mean missing something important. She stopped only long enough to grab a stethoscope from inside her desk drawer. Mieko ignored the goose pimples which spread across her arms and legs and the instant stiffening of her nipples as she climbed outside onto the third-story ledge. The balcony outside her father’s office was directly above her. She’d figured out how to climb up to it a couple of months ago. It was something she’d only dare do at night, given that the building was regularly watched by her father’s security forces. Fortunately, this face of the structure was somewhat concealed. Fingers and toes found now-familiar cornices and crevasses and half a minute later she was in her perch by the balcony doors. The glass doors were ballistic Armalite, but the stethoscope still worked. She gingerly placed the round receptor against the glass. “…plans on claiming the prize tonight.” That was Ando. Her father responded with a question. “When did he obtain the item?” “Not more than twenty minutes ago, according to my source within his organization.” “And you trust this source?” “Implicitly.” “I see.” Her father paused for a few moments before continuing. When he did, he sounded disappointed and a bit grave. “Very well. You will take the required amount with you when you go tonight. Do not overplay the loss, and do nothing until you see the item with your own eyes. This meeting tonight is too important. When—“ “Wait.” She didn’t recognize the voice which interrupted her father, which meant it had to be Kato. The room went silent at his word, but alarm bells were ringing in her head. There was a carved support underneath the balcony. She reached for it, overbalanced herself, and caught it just as her feet slipped on the cold stone. She hung precariously by both hands, directly underneath the balcony, the stethoscope still in her ears, its receptor dangling between her breasts as her hands scrabbled for purchase and her heart leapt. The balcony door opened abruptly and she held her breath, forcing herself to stillness. Two sets of footsteps made their way outside. “What is it?” she heard her father demand. A long pregnant pause followed. “Well?” he asked again. “Nothing.” It was Kato again. “I am sorry. I must have been mistaken. I beg your forgiveness.” The men retreated inside and closed the door. Mieko managed her way back down to her room and went straight to the bathroom to make water. As she crossed the hallway, Ando and Kato were making their way to the elevator, their upstairs audience concluded. Ando was too far ahead to spy her but Kato turned and caught her with his eyes as she was about to leave the hallway. For a long moment he only stared with a face that might as well have been made of stone. Then he gave her a bow which befit the daughter of his employer, before he, too, slowly left her sight.

Re: Space Pirates? There used to be two huge essays out on the Traveller webring somewheres that described in detail pirate methods and economics in the Traveller setting. It handled them in fine fashion and made for an excellent read. damn if I can find them now, though. I think they may have been pulled down.

New York Nights - Roster Announcement The following players and characters have been selected for play in the New York Knights campaign: Gary Ciaramella, playing La Fantome Ryan Stevenson, playing the Black Dove KL George, playing Shadow Dragon Zen Fairborn, playing Red Cross Nigel Cole, playing Red Cat “cyberblade8” (Dude, I need your name), playing Dark Huntress I need all six of you to subscribe to the game list ASAP. The website for the list is http://groups.google.com/group/nynights. Once everyone is subscribed and sounds off, we’ll begin. Those of you who submitted a character and didn’t get in on the first try, I encourage you to subscribe to the game and follow along. I’ll give you preference if and when a player opening appears. Thanks to all!

Re: New York Nights - Dark Champions PBeM Looking For Players Absolutely! Anybody can lurk on the list.

Re: New York Nights - Dark Champions PBeM Looking For Players Good morning, fellow gamers! The New York Knights campaign roster announcement will be delayed just another day or two, mainly because the GM is an idiot and failed to send a particularly bit of email to his work address this morning. That should be righted later this evening, and hopefully I'll have a roster announcement out then. The good news is that I've come up with what I think is one of my better and more imaginative plots. So, patience will be rewarded, I hope. Thank you for your patience. At this point, if you haven't subscribed to the game list already, you should.