Blue Jogger

Re: I'm working on Roman Era campaign The death of Sejanus' daughter was one famous atrocity. Because there was no precedence for killing a minor by capital punishment. They found a legal loophole (forced her to be with a man), while she had the rope around her neck and then hung her as an adult.

Re: I'm working on Roman Era campaign Here's a quick list, although it just has a body count, nothing spectacular from a RPG standpoint. http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/romestat.htm “The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic.” -Joseph Stalin

In 6th edition, one can make a perception roll to immediately recognize a base for what it is, and who owns it (assuming no disguise or concealment). Yet, there does not seem to be a prohibition that a base can also have Distinctive Features, which at the lowest level is Noticed and Recognized. Is there a difference between a standard (no disguise, no concealment) base and a base that is Noticed and Recognized? The absurd example we ran across was an underground base (with no disguise, no concealment) and (by strict rule lawyering) was therefore a simple perception roll would reveal that not only was it an underground base, but that the heroes were the owners. I was on the side that it did not make any dramatic sense to go through all the trouble of having an underground base and somehow it was Noticed and Recognizable and yet, I didn't get the points for Distinctive Features that one assumes the Fantastic Four gets with a huge rotating 4 on their building. If it helps, I thought this was a perfect April 1st posting even though we have been arguing for two months now.

Re: Volume in Ultimate Base A little algebra can fix this problem. Size N can be calculated from looking at Size N-3 and doubling each dimension and octupling the volume. Extrapolating from the table on 6E2, page 189: Size 18, 500 m, 250 m, 250 m, 32 million cubic meters (from 6E2, page 189) Size 19, 640 m, 320 m, 320 m, 64 million cubic meters (double each dimension of Size 16) Size 20, 800 m, 400 m, 400 m, 120 million cubic meters (double each dimension of Size 17) Size 21, 1 km, 500 m, 500 m, 250 million cubic meters (double each dimension of Size 18) Size 22, 500 million cubic meters Size 23, 1 cubic kilometer Now, we can use a trick that 10 doublings is roughly 1000 (2^10=1024). Size 33, 1000 cubic kilometers Size 43, 1 million cubic kilometers Size 53, 1 billion cubic kilometers Size 58, 32 billion cubic kilometers, Moon (by Volume) Size 63, 1 trillion cubic kilometers, Earth (by Volume) Size 73, 1 quadrillion cubic kilometers, Jupiter (by Volume)

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Our group illusionist had just had a scene where a woman handed her baby over to the illusionist. She then realized the woman was missing a foot, had a broken neck and was a zombie, who said "thank you" and proceeded to fall over dead. Freaked out, she called my character, I quickly flew over and she explained what happened. Me: "And that's it?" Her: "What do you mean, 'is that it?' The dead are walking around... Does this seem normal to you?" Me: "Honey, I fly."

Re: Some basics of trade and the town/city of Saltmarsh

Re: Life Support Suit and Total Immunodeficiency I'd write up like this: Quarian Life Suit: Does not breathe (10 active points); OIF (-1/2) cost: 7 points Quarian Life Suit: Safe in Vacuum (3 active points); OIF (-1/2) cost: 2 points Quarian Life Suit: Armor 3 rPD/3 rED [9 Active Points]; OIF (-1/2) cost: 6 points Quarian Immunodeficiency (Wear space suit or die): Physical Limitation (Infreq, Greatly) total: 15 points Most of the time, it's pretty much a special effect. Yes, you gain 15 points of space suit. On the other hand, you gain roughly 15 points of "Wear a space suit or risk dying of a really bad infection." If he started "drowning", I'd give that 20 points. 25, if it happens more than Infrequently.

Re: Collaborative World Ending… It took awhile for the players to catch on to the unspoken rule that magic can help solve problems, but it can't solve the adventure. Everytime they tried to use magic to solve the adventure, it had terrible side effects. Eventually, they learned to stop using magic and start using their brains, but it took awhile.

Re: Collaborative World Ending… The one I did (although it was done as 60 years later) was based on the book The Magic Goes Away by Larry Niven. Literally, the world was dependent on magic much like ours is dependent on oil and electricity and suddenly without warning, magic stops working within a few days. Floating city-castles crash to the ground. The elves started to get sick and die, unable to live in low to non-existent magic. Half-orcs, half-elves and humans survived. Dwarves drank themselves to death after losing their amazing tolerance for alcohol but not their thirst. Dragons slowly collapse under their own weight. There are famines as food was magically created or farmed with powerful magics. And getting fresh water is now a challenge. The illusion on all the gold pieces went away. The vast majority of huge piles of gold turned back into worthless yellow rocks (or shells or wooden coins). The moral challenge is magic will still work, occasionally, in distant parts, but will quickly run out from use. So, how do you find and use the remaining magic?

Re: Underground Bases and Concealment Yes, If I spend 9 points, I get 45 base points, of which, I've spent 39. I suppose I could only spend 8 points and get 40 base points. It's not the points, it's a matter of buying what I'm envisioning the base is like. I have 15 points available, I could just buy the whole 75 point base with NO disadvantages and FULL Concealment (no limitation) on the whole 1290 hexes. But where's the fun in that?

Re: Underground Bases and Concealment Ok, here it is so far. The Partial Coverage should be a -3/4 since it is 3 levels above, but we have a house rule limiting limitations to a -1 total. This is to prevent excessive weaseling. Shaylee's Underground Base Val Char Cost 11 Size 22 5 DEF 9 5 BODY 3 Characteristics Cost: 34 Cost Skill 10 Concealment 18- (21 Active Points); Self Only (-1/2), Partial Coverage (322 Hexes) (-1/2) Skills Cost: 10 Cost Perk 20 Location: City; Modifier Underground Perks Cost: 20 Total Character Cost: 64 Pts. Disadvantage 10 Unluck: 2d6 10 Watched by Underground Creatures: 14- (Less Pow, PC has a Public ID or is otherwise very easy to find, Watching) 5 Social Limitation: Somewhat Known (Occasionally, Minor) Disadvantage Points: 25 Base Points: 45

Re: Underground Bases and Concealment Looking at the book. "This means that everyone, but everyone, knows its (current) location, who owns it, its prominent features, what can be found inside, and so forth." It's really close. It might be 5 points Somewhat Known, instead of the 15 that Public Identity gives.

I was constructing an underground base and realized that it needed Concealment. According to the rules, a base (even an underground one) without Concealment is discovered with a simple Perception roll. After much discussion, I decided to expand my base from 322 hexes to 1290 hexes and use Partial Coverage to give the original 322 hexes Concealment at 18 or less. Technically I saved points. It costs 6 points to expand the size and saved 11 points on Concealment. Anyone can easily find the 800 hexes of access tunnels, but to find where the secret base is along those tunnels is very difficult. Now, the question is, can I put Publically Known on the base? And did they clarify this in The Ultimate Base?

Re: Dwarves, Elves and Hobbits Need Not Apply! In my fantasy world, all the elves and dwarves died (or otherwise disappeared) when magic went away 60 years ago. It came back about 30 years ago, and with it all these furry animal humanoids. Still, one player is playing a half-elf (had enough human blood to survive the lack of magic) and another is playing a dwarf whose clan managed to survive 30 years of no magic through incredible hardship and sacrifice. Some tropes are just hard to kill.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Dwarf (OOC): I hope combat happens soon. GM: And then the wizard you were talking to slumps over dead. Dwarf: Wait, what just happened? GM: Phase 12, you see two thrown axes in the back of the wizard.

Re: Balls of Steel Easily fixed: 75 Super Strength MP (75point reserve) 7u +50 Str, 0 END 6u 12d6 EB, Range Based on Str -1/4, 12 recoverable charges (+1/4) 10 +20 STR, Linked to 12d6 EB (-1/2), x2 END (-1/2)

Re: What can you do with five points? "Say, we can go where we want to A place where they will never find And we can act like we come from out of this world Leave the real one far behind." - Safety Dance by Men at Work Extra-Dimensional Movement (Any Dimension, Single Location) (30 Active Points); 1 Charge which Recovers every 1 Month (-3), Extra Time (1 Day, Only to Activate, -2) I figure if you guys are going to blow up the Earth, might as well start looking for a new place to live. Once a month, I can spend a day opening a portal to a whole new world. Not bad for five points.

Re: Strangest Perk you've seen? Strangest one was a brick who wanted the right to marry random people of opposite sex to each other. "YOU... (Grabs a man) YOU... (Grabs a woman) (Looked deeply at both) MARRY!"

Re: Dragon-riders of Pern To give a comparison, freeway fatalities are listed at 1 in 4000 chance. But, the odds are far from fixed for a dragon going in-between. Most of the time, the chance is negligible. However, if the dragon is fatigued or fatally wounded or just plain suicidal, the odds will increase dramatically. But, it's not really about the side effect, it's how often it would be really nice to teleport, but you can't because you don't want to risk going in-between with a wounded dragon. I think that's worth a -1. Imagine being halfway on the other side of the planet with a wounded dragon in the middle of a Threadfall.

Re: Dragon-riders of Pern Extra-Dimensional Travel by itself, I suppose, could be used. I'm not sure it is better. 24 Go In-Between: Extra-Dimensional Movement (Any Point in Time, Any Physical Location) (77 Active Points); Side Effects (-1), Extra Time (Extra Phase, -3/4), Concentration (1/2 DCV; -1/4), Unified Power (Psychic) (-1/4) Here, you take a minimum damage of two phases of in-between to get back (after spending two phases getting there). I suggest losing 1 BODY per phase in in-between. After coming back, if it doesn't kill you, you recover as per a drain attack. Each shift on the Megascale table or Time table (after 1 hour) is an additional phase in in-between. For example, to travel 100,000 km is 6 additional phases. To travel back to yesterday is 2 additional phases (in fact, if I remember correctly, a dragon accidentally travels back one day without too much trouble, they just don't unless they are confused or there is a dire need). I think dragons actually take some sort of temporal damage if they muck with the timestream too much, or maybe they have an instinctual desire to avoid reckless time travel.

Re: Western Spaghetti Samurai Frontier Feel to Fantasy Sword & Sorcery I did something similar. For traveling to other cities, I banned teleport spells and had people travel on magical carts that had to be guided by special markings on the grounds called "trains". People would then travel along these trains to get to other cities. The trip was often nerve-wracking since the "thing" that was ensorcelled to run along the trains wanted to run fast and free and was quite loud. The conductor didn't have to keep the "thing" running, but had a devil of a time keeping it controlled.

Re: Dragon-riders of Pern Ok, ignoring the once in a lifetime ability to move and teleport small planets... I will assume the dragon has the ability to lift what it can based on its internal STR, give or take. 34 Mental Lift: Telekinesis (40 STR) (60 Active Points); Very Limited Range (-1/2), Unified Powers (Psychic) (-1/4) 38 Mental Lift II: Telekinesis (45 STR) (68 Active Points); Very Limited Range (-1/2), Unified Powers (Psychic) (-1/4) 43 Mental Lift III: Telekinesis (50 STR) (75 Active Points); Very Limited Range (-1/2), Unified Powers (Psychic) (-1/4) 47 Mental Lift IV: Telekinesis (55 STR) (83 Active Points); Very Limited Range (-1/2), Unified Powers (Psychic) (-1/4) 51 Mental Lift V: Telekinesis (60 STR) (90 Active Points); Very Limited Range (-1/2), Unified Powers (Psychic) (-1/4)

Re: Cannot Combine Duplication I've always took the phrase "Cannot Combine" as you gain the benefits of Innate as well as the problems of Always On.

Re: A couple of brain cells connected...

Re: Dragon-riders of Pern Hmm, I guess we can assume they are at least as fast as a typical Speed 3 Horse. General: SPD 3 Then as they are trained, they get faster and more agile: Battle-hardened Veteran (option) DEX 23 SPD 4 +2 with Combat If you're roleplaying the dragons (with superheroic rules), I'd give them a SPD 5 or 6. But, since they have heroic riders that aren't passengers, you don't want to go beyond 4. I assume they have an area-effect breath weapon to hit thread, then the only question is what is their DCV before adjustment for size. Horses have a 5 or 6 before adjustment for size, so we should probably go with that. Enormous has -4 DCV penalty and Huge has a -6 DCV penalty. Therefore, I'm not afraid of making the dragons too nimble. Don't forget, we don't armor the dragons, so they must have tough natural hide Natural Armor (8 PD/8ED), Activation Roll 14- How's that?