Lupus

Re: Rapid Fire reality check Twilight 2000 did this. Couldn't have been that game? (Come to think of it, isn't squre root itself not accurate? Wouldn't you need a cube root to accurately model a three-dimensional explosion?) (I don't mind games that don't attempt to be totally realistic, like Hero. I do mind games that try to be absolutely real, yet fail miserably.

Re: A little help with a power construct? Shaman of Alpha Flight Total agreement. Whenever Cap lost his shield, he either scored a replacement (usually not QUITE as good - maybe he got to shuffle his points around?) or he got his own back. And, at least twice, his shield got destroyed and rebuilt. That likely invalidates Independent right there. Unless, of course, Cap had been hoarding XPs over the years, and dumped down a whole new load on replacing the shield. Eh, could go either way. I think all the arguments have been made, no sense hashing it out any further. Yah?

Re: Ion Cannons Could also be a suppress of the starship's END reserve (power plant)... Entangle sounds good, though. Could possibly just include a time limit, rather than bothering with breakout... Won't be too cheap, though. Entangle necessary to hold a Starship's STR will be pretty enormous.

Re: Pistols = Reduced Penetration How wide is the coverage of the defence? Are we talking a full flak jacket here, or is it the vest inserts?

Re: Green Lantern Object Creation...

Re: Weaponsmithing/Armorsmithing question I intend (when I finally get around to FH) to make Armoursmith a generic skill. If you have metalworking, you can make metal armour (at a penalty). If you have leatherworking, you can make leather armour (at a penalty). If you have armoursmith, you can make any armour, at no penalty. But you can't create metal sculptures or leather clothes. But I'm something of a fan of skill crossover. I see no reason to have absolutely distinct skills.

Re: Hot Enough For Ya? I fully understand that. In very few of my games would I allow that powerset. But I like that, in Hero, it's possible to build just about whatever you want. And I'd like the game to be able to support silver age silliness like standing on the sun and stratospheric punches, just as it supports Dark Champions street-level 'skilled normals'. You might have to go through a few kludges, because no system can natively support both extremes, but I'd rather it not be written off just because 'that's silly!' YGMV.

Re: commonality of unusual defenses Getting into the discussion late. Unusual defences are pretty rare in my games, usually. But then, drains/mind controls/etc big enough to one-shot a character are also pretty rare. What tends to be a little more common are limited defences. Power defence, only applies against [sFX] drains. Say, the power-armour guy who has his suit armoured against EMP. Will help against EMP-based drains/suppresses/dispels, but won't help against poisons or anti-technology spells. Similarly, the healing-factor guy who has power defence, only against poisons (won't help against neural stunners that drain DEX, or magical 'slow' spells). Or the mage who has power defence that protects his magical powers against magical drains, but is vulnerable against other forms of suppression. The list goes on. I'm much more of a fan of these limited SFX protections, particularly in regards to Power Defence. (I think there was a thread a short while ago, about whether power defence was too broad to begin with. Related topic here.) Other defences are difficult to limit, mental defence being the main one. I guess there, you can have 'strong will' - defence against mind control, perhaps also against telepathy, but not against mental illusions. Flash defence: goggles might be 'only against bursts of light', so that magic flashes which simply flood the eyes with light (without having actual light rays coming from a source) won't be protected against. That's a kinda minor limitation, however... I think I'd call that -0, but require it to be taken for goggles that people simply wear, as opposed to flash defence that's genuinely part of a powerset. (But that's part of my own bias against gadgets in superhero games. I freely admit that.) Lack of weakness can also apply here. It's limited to begin with, as it has to be bought per defence. But it could be SFX based, too. 'Perfect style' for a martial artist - LoW only against other martial artists. But a technological structural weakness scanner (or a magical effect) will bypass it entirely. I think adding limitations like this adds a lot of flavour to the defences, too. I try to encourage nuanced powers as much as possible, as opposed to simple out-of-the-book ones. Unless simple out-of-the-book powers are most appropriate.

Re: Hot Enough For Ya?

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER I'm told their salads aren't bad. Not great, but not bad.

Re: Hot Enough For Ya? The problem I can see is that the nuke blast should be more LIKELY ot damage (better penetration, maybe?) while the sun is sustained. Therefore, what about reduced penetration on the sun? Make the core 100d6 KA, with reduced penetration... oh, 5 or so. So 150rED will still protect fully against the Body damage... not necessarily the stun. That might allow some things to survive that shouldn't... perhaps AVLD (high-level resistant defence). GM can decide if the cahracter doesn't have high enough defences. If you don't, they don't apply. Damage: You Are Dead. Personally, I'd call 70 rED 'high enough defences.' Anything less than that (or some other craziness to compensate), you die.

Re: Self-Exiled Angel -- Character Background Brainstorming

Re: Aliens, as in ... well, "Aliens" Yeah, I agree, was a great scene. Creates a slight continuity problem between film 1 and 2 (Ripley's reaction), but that's not a big problem.

Re: Aliens, as in ... well, "Aliens" Yeah, pretty much. I saw it in the cinema, 'cause I'm a fan of both franchises. I went in expecting a crap film, I got a crap film. It was still fun, though, in my opinion. More or less like watching kinda good fanfic with a $50m budget (or however much they spent).

Re: Aliens, as in ... well, "Aliens" Yeah' date=' those things often have a habit of dropping out of play, though. The deleted scenes from the original film included Ripley finding an area of the ship covered with secretions and Captain Dallas coccooned there, asking her to kill him (exactly like similar bits in film 2). Yet, in film 2, Ripley had never seen something like that (she didn't recognise the secretions). It's fair enough to include a writeup, because the stingers weren't explicitly written out by anything but the AvP movie, but I'm glad they're added in as optional powers. Yeah - was really talking to the GM here. One thing I did like about your writeup was that it drew essentially from the first two films.

Re: Aliens, as in ... well, "Aliens" Surbrook's writeup looks good to me. I'd prolly agree that 1 pip HKA is too low, but everything else looks good. I especially like that it doesn't go extreme in terms of speed. The aliens I remember from the film (rather than the games) were quick like snakes - fast in reactions, but not necessarily fast on the ground. I certainly don't remember any fast-super-pounces like the computer game versions (as much as I like the flying-blender-of-death when I'm the bug). The stinger was also there in the Leading Edge Games writeup. It incapacitated victims temporarily. I personally consider its existence sketchy... definitely, if it exists, it's not as powerful as it is in that game. If it were, why would the aliens ever bother biting someone? They'd just sting 'em and drag 'em off. Surely live hosts are better than dead meat. Just be careful about adapting from sources - look at what you're bringing in and (if you're a canon freak like me) check it against primary sources (the films). But above all, consider what it'll do to your games. Surbrook's primary writeup looks like a good opponent for marines packing armour-penetrating, explosive bullets. Meat at range, troublesome (if not overwhelming) up close. CV 6 and 25 strength makes for an excellent grab. (Certainly, be wary of adapting the Aliens vs Predator movie without REALLY thinking about it. I think it's a neat film, but I'd personally be very reluctant about considering it 'canon'. Particularly in terms of the speed of alien reproduction, or their strength.)

Re: Stargate Hero Here's one idea - I'd suggest that all of SG-1 should have Combat Luck. This is because, if I ever run Stargate Hero, my writeups for Goa'uld weaponry will include Reduced Penetration, vs Combat Luck. Explains why the series stars can get away with being shot at so much, while crunchies (especially Jaffa) get wiped out very quickly. This isn't necessary, of course. It's the genre-simulationist in me who wants to get things matching up to on-screen as closely as possible.

Re: Help with Racist Slang "So, I went over to this chink..." "Dude, you can't say that." "What? Oh, is he a gook? Well, I went over to this gook." "Dude, seriously!" "Um... what are you telling me, he's a nip?"" "Okay, I give up, you racist shit." "What the hell are you talking about? I'm not racist! They're not like the wops." The scary thing is, I've met people who think like this. For them, the insulting words for other races are the only ones they know. They're used so frequently in the communities they've come from that, to them, the terms have lost all sting. They aren't meant insultingly, and they can't understand how anyone could possibly be offended by them.

Re: Holy Susceptibilities: God and Champions How about a middle ground? Belief is enough, but not one person's beliefs. It has to be something that enough people believe about, all at once, very strongly, even if only subconsciously. Christian faith counts. Islam counts. Secular humanism may count, depending on whether you actually believe strongly enough that your faith will HELP you. I dunno, maybe even faith in 'vampires are evil and will be repelled by my human strength and the spirit of our species' may count. But single insane beliefs won't. That tends to be what I go for. I find it a good compromise.

Re: Holy Susceptibilities: God and Champions The way I do it: Holy power is allowed. As is Unholy power. They're not entirely to do with deities, however. It's more about tapping into primal 'good' and 'evil' in the world. 'Positive' and 'negative' energies, if you prefer. These energies (mystic forces, really) can be wielded by... well, usually by magic. By those who worship a deity (such as God), or just believe in goodness or evil very strongly. There's another thing, which is deific power. This isn't necessarily either Holy or Unholy. The Greek or Norse pantheon don't have Holy power, they have Deific power. Bacchus ain't gonna be projecting any kind of shining light of Good... but he will slam things like only a God can. I'd make exceptions for particular god. Horus-Re (from Chuckg's examples) would probably qualify for Holy power in my games. Zeus and his thunderbolts? Possibly, according to my conception of Zeus. Possibly just because he's SO powerful that he can wield the Holy power just 'cause. Athena, on the other hand, would prolly be Holy all on her own. As for Demons: most of them would be vulnerable both to Holy and Deific power. Someone like Horus-Re or Athena, personifying both powersets, would char demons like nothin' else. In short, yeah, I allow Holy as a special effect. It requires particular things to achieve, though, briefly gone into above. You can't get it through technology. I do allow things like holy water to be used by others, though it's stronger when used by those of faith - faith in God, or goodness, or something of consequence (not simply Belief). Holy water does, however, have to be blessed by someone of TRUE faith, not simply one who does the right rituals. It also has to be handled like a holy object. You can't have a watercannon-o-holy-water, because that's not handling it with the proper respect. If you don't treat it like holy water (proper containers, proper care, ets), it simply isn't holy water any more. Um... that's about it from me.

Re: Holy Susceptibilities: God and Champions I'd go with this as well. Rituals don't have any power in and of themselves - it's the power they tap into that matters. In this case, the power of genuine worship.

Re: IST San Angelo Only if that land is American territory. They can't seize embassies, because embassies are the territory of that county, and the UN is international territory. In the case of embassies, I believe they /can/ cut off diplomatic ties, give the staff time to leave, and THEN seize the land. Similarly, there may well be some mechanism for revoking the grant of land to the UN. It isn't quite so simple as exercising.. what's that power called over there? Eminent domain?

Re: Enterprise vs. Enterprise And Sinfest, it seems! Cool avatar.

Re: Enterprise vs. Enterprise TOS Enterprise wins. Sure, the D is higher tech (E is even higher still), but TOS has the advantage of having poorer continuity. Hence, its weapons were as powerful as need be for the episode at hand, its shields could withstand anything they really had to. Their drive could get them anywhere they needed - even well outside the Federation in a matter of hours. And the crew? They could change the universe at a whim simply by speaking. "But there's no way we can see through a cloak, Captain!" "There must be some way, Scotty!" "Well, Captain, there is one thing..." TOS Enterprise wins.

Re: Alpha Male Contest Y'know, the Belgariad actually had some kinda cool ideas, for all its inanity, and this was one of them. Two wizards squared up and summoned demons - the trick was that you had to squeeze them into a certain shape. As long as you maintained concentration, and a clear image of the shape, you kept the demon bound. If you slipped, or made a mistake and thus lost concentration, or let yourself get distracted, you lost control of your demon. Which would then, most likely, eat you.