Peregrine

Re: A White Wolf aneurysm

And, IIRC, oWoD had an uber-NPC who was exactly that - a vamped werewolf.

Re: Normal Human

NCM Limits you because it means there are some things you can =never= do. Some attacks and types of environmental stresses you can =never= adapt to, train for, or withstand.

 

To do so would require the ability to develop stats far beyond what HS Sapiens genetic code allows for.

 

Such people have always been among us. They are members of HS Super.

 

HS Super bodies literally use a different way of transmitting nerve impules and have types of muscle and bone tissue NCM humans do not. Some of them have a radically different auto-immune system than NCM humans. And on and on and on.

Think about the real biology and physical changes that would have to occur for a human to be able to perceive, think, or move 2-4x or more faster than a NCM human. Let alone the changes needed to suport STR, CON, and DEX 4x, 8x, 16x, etc that of a NCM human.

 

Even "unactualized" HS Super can survive environments and accidents that NCM humans have no chance of. (_Unbreakable_ is about such an example HS Super.)

This is the source of many of those "miraculous" deeds and survivals on the part of some.

Yes, some were about lucky HS sapiens. But most of them were events that involved a member of HS super.

 

Taking NCM means that you as the player and I as the GM agree that your PC is basically a being of what we ITRW consider normal flesh and blood.

And I get to =use= that both to put limits on the direction and extent of your stat development and to imperil you in ways Homo Sapiens Super can't be.

Then you have exercised your Right of Houserule and are using NCM far beyond the 5eR RAW and completely outside the scope of 6e CM. Right of Houserule means that, if it works for your gaming group, You're Doing It Right =For You=. It also means that it is not necessarily applicable to The Rest Of Us - and for me it is not.

Re: Alterate Timeline: 9-11 Averted

... and I'm staying off of NGD 'cause if I got into it there, my mean time until re-banning would probably be circa 1 week.

You're mellowing out in your old age. Back in the day it woulda been a day; two, tops.

Re: Normal Human

If I'm going to allow a disadvantage for "This character pays double for characteristics above 20/other limits", then I want to know the disadvantage value for the following:

 

- character pays 50% more for characteristics above the same limit

- character pays triple for characteristics above the same limit

- character can never buy characteristics over the NCM limit

- character pays 50% more, double or triple for characteristics over 30 (adjust characteristics whose usual max isn't 20 pro rata), or may never buy them

- character cannot buy Mental Powers (or pays 50% more, double or triple)

- character cannot buy Frameworks (or pays 50% more, double or triple)

- character cannot buy Ranged Attacks (or pays 50% more, double or triple)

- character cannot buy powers that could not be achieved by a normal human (or pays 50% more, double or triple)

- character cannot buy skill rolls greater than 14- (or pays 50% more, double or triple)

- how are these modified if placing a power modifier on the characteristic does not circumvent the restriction?

 

etc. etc. etc.

 

No one takes NCM if the result would be paying more than 20 extra for characteristics. Instead, they find another concept ("my highly dextrous archer is also a mutant/has alien DNA/was bitten by a radioactive mongoose/whatever").

 

NCM as a disadvantage either awards points for your choice of character design (where it is optional), or penalizes the "trained human" archetype (where it is imposed on all such characters).

This is, IMSWAG, part of why CM is not a Complication in 6e. The other part (again, IMSWAG) is that Complications are story-driven (their value depends on the frequency with which the Complication routinely affects the story), while CM is a mechanical restriction on character construction. How often would CM routinely* affect the story?

*as opposed to unusual or contrived circumstances

Re: Post "gotchas" here

HS5eR, p. 25: "Heroic characters are typically subject to the Normal Characteristic Maxima rules, which restrict their ability to buy Characteristics: beyond a certain point, they have to pay double cost to improve their Characteristics. They do not receive Disadvantage

points for this."

HS5eR, p. 32: "...Normal Characteristic Maxima, applies only to Heroic campaigns; usually it acts as a “default” for the campaign and does not count as a Disadvantage."

So, in 5eR, CM was not explicitly mandatory for Heroic campaigns, but the language used implied heavily that CM in Heroic campaigns was an assumed standard. However, 6E1-49 is explicit in declaring CM to be optional for any campaign, Heroic or Superheroic. It is also explicit (where 5eR was not) in indicating that CM is setting-wide, and not a dividing line between non-super and super characters in a Superheroic setting. (By the way, 4e explicitly stated the opposite of the latter...)

Re: Post "gotchas" here

To me' date=' CM made it impossible to price skill levels. At 5 points (in 5e) for +1 to all INT or PRE skills, clearly it was better to just buy the characteristic. But if the characteristic cost were doubled, less than 5 points would be a huge bargain. So the choice became "overprice them for games without CM or underprice them for games with CM'.[/quote']

 

Which may well have been one of the motivations to make CM explicitly optional. I have no firm knowledge, however; only speculation.

Re: Post "gotchas" here

Don't forget about Characteristic Maxima (at least in Heroic campaigns)' date=' and that Draining Skill Levels, while not illegal, are very unlikely.[/quote']

 

Don't forget that Characteristic Maxima is explicitly optional, even for Heroic settings. 6E1-49

Re: Oyster-Woman

Umm... yeah.

And what exactly is her "valve"? Porn Champions, here?

Re: Ever need blueprints for the USS Missouri?

To get mildly picky, as I understand it, they were the last four battleships that the USA actually COMPLETED.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Montana_(BB-67)#USS_Montana_.28BB-67.29

 

The entry is confusing, since it states that none of the 'Montana' class were actually built. But I am certain that I read elsewhere that the Montana reached an incomplete state - basic hull that could float, and not much else - before being scrapped.

Yeah. Those bad boys would have been monsters...

Re: Miles Vorkosigan RPG

"Dystopia" is a bit harsh; "anti-utopia" is closer to the mark - intended as utopian but twisted by a fatal flaw or unanticipated problem. Beta Colony is egalitarian to a fault (recall Cordelia's complaints about "commanding" a ship whose crew is likely to take a vote to do something else) and sexually permissive to an uncomfortable degree for some outsiders. It also has some very rigid social and reproductive controls due to its establishment on a pretty inhospitable planet. Kind of bi-polar' date=' I guess.[/quote']

 

I read Beta Colony as late 20th-early-21st century Western Progressivism (Liberalism) taken to its logical extreme across the board. Not someplace I'd want to live, to be sure.

Re: APG Cover Preview

Echoing upthread: that's nice!

Re: Thats one nimble little bull

What I find amazing is the assumption/expectation that the published CU content will change from the previous simply because 6e makes it easier to do so.

Keep dreaming.

(To echo others, play the way you want to. If you're having fun, You're Doing It Right (For You).)

Re: Haymaker a PRE attack?

The trouble with haymakering a PRE attack, IMO, is that it takes an extra phase, which from a zero phase action is a bit of a jump.

 

Presumably you have to spend the whole 2 segments PRE attacking and can not just get on with something else? Or maybe you can - perhaps attacking and punching out someone's lights might be what makes the attack so effective.

 

Thing is though you can't just 'do' it as you can with other attacks: you have to work out how it functions mechanically first. Are you still at -5DCV? Does that affect what actions you can take - if you can take any - in the 2 segments the PRE attack takes?

 

PRE attacks upset me as it is, so I very much doubt I'll be encouraging anyone to haymaker them.

I think I'd houserule a Haymakered PRE attack to be a Full Phase Action, with all of the other limitations of a Haymaker otherwise in effect. The first SFX that comes to mind is the character stopping everything they are doing, striking a suitable pose, etc. This differs from the normal PRE attack modifiers in that the character is trading a Full Phase Action and taking the Haymaker limits for a guaranteed +4d6 on their PRE attack. I'd call it square.

Re: Post "gotchas" here

So is Characteristic Maxima. Which, come to mention it, is now also an explicitly optional and setting-wide rule; either all PCs and NPCs are under the limit, or none of them are. (Right of Houserule aside, of course; the above is the RAW.)

Re: Who is your favourite Champions Character Background/History?

Dr. Gerhardt Spregen (sp?), from one of the 4th Dark Champions supplements (I forget which at the moment). Our local group took that character and background and spliced it in to Teleios for a nasty worldbeater...

Re: Clyde Barrow's Sawn-Off BAR

I got it.

 

I just explained the set up, and left the subtext for the reader to discover once the initial misunderstanding was resolved.

 

Most of human advancement is munchkinism, if you think about it...

Yep. When you can change the world around you instead of just reacting to it, that's munchkinism in most gamers' eyes.

Re: Thats one nimble little bull

What happens if a player ignores the sample character (or assumes Taurus is supposed to be highly dextrous) and builds a character based on the benchmarks set in the text? I can see a new player being turned off if he builds a character to the concept that he is "at the peak of human potential"' date=' and every other character on the team has similar or higher stats.[/quote']

 

Except that "the peak of human potential" is explicitly stated in 6e to be at the top of the Legendary characteristic range, however the GM defines that range; there is a suggested set of ranges given in the text that remain the standard for the CU. A character who is at "the peak of human potential" as given in that set of ranges will be a very capable character indeed...

Re: Thats one nimble little bull

Don't bet on it. Such a paradigm shift would require fundamental changes in the base assumptions that have not only been inherited from 5e and previous, but have been clearly stated in 6e.

Re: Opposed Presence Attacks

It is possible for two characters to both attempt to effect the same target or targets with a presence attack, or to attempt presence attacks against each other. When this happens, I would resolve it as follows: each contender rolls their presence attack as normal, with all modifiers. Then, take the *difference* between the two results. Whoever achieved a higher result inflicts this level of effect on the intended target(s). This applies even against people other than the person defending with a presence attack.

 

This rule represents how two people can contend for the loyalty or fear of a single individual or group, or how to opposed sides in battle could both attempt to intimidate and/or defy the other. It also increases the value of Presence, as not only can you use it to terrify the other side, you can also use it to embolden your own side. Agents and lesser superheroes who would otherwise flee from Armageddon Man, might stand and fight if Superman or Captain America leads them.

 

Conversely, it gives the villain a big reason to attack the Charismatic Leader, as not only is that one man down, but suddenly, he can make an unopposed presence attack against the survivors ( assuming no one else steps up to the plate with a defiant speech ).

Which also opens up the possibility for a great story event: Charismatic Leader is down, so one of the other heroes rises to the occasion...

Re: Clyde Barrow's Sawn-Off BAR

I believe he was calling Mr. Barrow's action munchkin...

 

Not to his face, mind you.

Close.

It was more of an ironic inference that if a player wanted to do something similar in a game, and no one in the group had heard of Mr. Barrow's having done so IRL (or maybe even if they had), that player would be (falsely, IMO) accused of munchkinism.

Re: Clyde Barrow's Sawn-Off BAR

Munchkin!

(Somebody had to say it... )

Re: Update to 6ed?

I recommend H6 (or H6.1) and H6.2. The supplements can each have their own number after the dot based on when it finally becomes available.

 

Hint: I'm STILL waiting for Golden Age Champions, a vaporbook if ever there was one.

Nope. PRIMUS is the vaporbook...

Re: Thats one nimble little bull

It all depends on the ground rules for the world. Are superheroes normal people who just have a few special things that set them apart? Are supers superhumans that additionally have extraordinary powers? My take on the CU has always been closer to the second than the first' date=' so in general I'm not surprised when supers whose powers are unrelated to strength or speed or anything like that are still stronger and faster than most normal people. They're superheroes, dangit. [/quote']

 

Count me in this camp as well.

 

(Funny, those of us in this camp seem to be more accepting of the other camp's views than they are of ours...)

Re: Post-Iron Age Champs: the Rio Accords

This is possible. In that instance' date=' I think the proper question is, was the public figure [i']intentionally targeted[/i], or was their death an unintended consequence?

I guess an example would be a stray "death bolt" hitting a random car going down the street...but in this case the random car happens to belong to the Mayor. Or to Brittany Spheres. But in that instance it's unlikely that lethal force would be the only way to stop the villain from firing off a blast.

 

This raises the question of how disputes over the rules would be adjudicated and enforced. Most likely, there'd be some sort of "death panel"...

I believe the literary term you seek is "Star Chamber".

And yeah; I choked on the celebrity provision. Maybe the term "assassination" would better cover it; that refers to intentionally targeting a person who is prominent for any number of reasons.

Re: Enforcer84's DC & Marvel HDv3 Files

Unfortunately, I don't have any of those files myself, so I can't post, but It's heartening to see folks helping out like this.

"Must spread rep..."