Farkling

i could never use Bureau 13 for the American side of the story...look at the wizards in those stories...they are all fruitier than nutcakes. Seriously...I'd rather have Bureau 13 exist off in the sidelines, they just don't seem mainstream compatible to a Potter universe...what with all the B-Grade science fiction monsters wielding eldritch forces and dimension hopping. Though that milepost near Bangor, Maine is certainly a realtive of Harry's train platform. Hmmm.

1) The Atomic Bomb is a good way to rearrange the Heroes powers and abilities at the end of the campaign. 2) If you are a reader (especially conmsidering your end line about the saucers), you should grab up copies of Harry Turtledove's WORLDWAR trilogy. An excellent look at an alternate WW2 history written by a holder of a Masters IN History. 3) The last time I did this, the Nazi's won. The heroes were VERY surprised when the Allies began to sue for peace after Russia turned on them...amazing what some heat based climate control from Nazi mad scientists can do if unchecked... 4) Nazi's will have supersoldiers...in more quantities...think of stuff more advanced and ruthless than the "Castle Wolfenstein" series of of computer games. The Nazi scientists were perfectly willing to experiment on human subjects in all fashions, and were cold about it. More so than our government ever was over chemical weapons or nuclear testing. 5) Nazi scientists were into everything from advanced weapons research to raiding occult artifact locations. Hitler had them working on anything that could help, no matter how far out. Primitive power armor for the elite SS squad members to use is not beyond the possible. Rocketry was birthed by Germany. The V-series rockets were meant to become ICBM's. A rail gun that fit on a railroad flatcar had been designed. Push the science. More resources are freed up if Hitler and company are using metahuman resources. 6) If you can find it, read the Philadelphia Experiment. There's another paperback I recall related to a destroyer and teleportation, but I cannot remember the title. Heck, rent the FInal Countdown, it might give you some historical insight, or refresh your memory. A lot of OUR research was recently declassified, I imagine much is now available on the net that I originally had to research! 7) Keep in mind the differences in American social structure. Check out To Kill A Mockingbird (rent or read) to get a brief picture of the rural South and society. The race riots were mostly AFTER the war, even though slavery ended so much before then. 8) Before CasaBlanca (heh. re-watch this with an eye towards the propaganda hidden in it) America was staying out of the war, but a coalition of the BIG businessmen got together, built aircraft, and rented the planes to England. For $1 a year. Getting around the non-interference policies from Washington. That's off the top of my head. There's myraids of good story ideas, both foriegn and domestic, depending on the flavor you want.

it just sounds like a Block followed by a Grab to me.

Mechanics Observation:: INT/PER roll to spot it. EGO roll to keep from blurting out an answer to the question in their native tongue. You should interroagate them all at once...they'll think they are being allowed to spot something. Mastermind:: "so, Mr. H, you are not actually Captain Dylan Hunt of the starship Andromeda in disguise?" GM:: "Everyone make a PER roll, who didn't make it?" "Those of you who made it, roll an EGO roll, those of you who failed, roll an EGO roll. Your missed PER roll counts as a penalty." GM:: "Duncan, you failed by how much? You blurted out the answer in Tellurian Prime. I think you just blew your cover." Mastermind:: "ah...so our spies were correct" As a side note...anybody making a roll by half (or -10, whichever your rule) should be allowed some leeway/response to assist others in the room. This method without the INT/PER roll also works for a Mind Control or Telepathy based attack of limited ability. Oh, and give them a bonus on successive EGO rolls to resist this tactic, but penalize the PER roll based on the length of questioning, level of torture and sleep deprivation, yadda yadda yadda.

"Wishes and Curses and Everfilled purse Prophecies, wishes, and knells" -- "The Sorceror" , Gilbert and Sullivan. Heh. Drugs....Curses.... 1) N-Ray still gets its PER modified by what it is peering through if I remember right. 2) Curse/Inhibition Spell - 6d6 INT Drain. Also works with dazzle flares and white sound generators. "Too much noise" destroys characters concentration completely unless he can block it out. 3) Drugs - Mental Illusions (10d6), only to distort reality 4) The Thomas Crown approach is great. So many moving about that tracking one requires REPEATED PER rolls at -1 per additional person moving in the room.... A more interesting approach is -1 per doubling of targets moving about each other. A crowd might hit -10 easily (1000 people) Kinda like the Mind Scan approach Let's apply the -2 modifier at a reasonable amount that we can juggle... say 5 events -2 = 5 events -4 = 10 events -6 = 20 events ....yadda yadda yadda using the amount of tracked events instead of the range mods would be 'firmer ?'...considering your explanation of what he is tracking. It actually sounds like a Mental perceptual power to me as you explained it.

And shutting down electrical devices and areas is a Suppression or Dispel or Drain depending on how you picture his control. Animating devices is a limited TK effect. Animating an electrical "field" is Summoning or TK... Burning out electrical devices is usually a drain effect. Suppress is temporarily damping their power.

I don't want to get involved in the blackout argument. Except for one thing; I don't think it needs usable as an attack either. I was under the impression Darkness and Change Enviro with no range move with the character by default...it makes logical sense...the usable as attack argument seems to imply I am unallowed to effect anyone who wanders into the area...and I KNOW that isn't right. About the Electrokinesis...I am unsure how to model all of Pyro's effects, but here are some things for you to consider:: One) An Energy Blast could mimic his special effects of requiring it to come from a "source" with an Indirect limitation. Two) You can model his "energy constructs" as TK fields, much like a green lantern. You may get to include Visible. Add "Affects Object as a Whole" and a linked EB (Continuos? Damage Shield? Somebody Help me out here) that only affects targets grabbed with the TK. Rolling to hit would be a moot point if the target is grabbed by TK. Three) Alternatively, monstrous energy constructs could be Summoned I imagine...complete with Damage Shield and BODY, since sufficient force will disperse one of Pyro's contructs. Four) Force Walls purchased with a linked Damage Shield power will cause damage. It's actually in the book. As a lenient GM I would probably let you apply the Force Wall Damage Shield style contruct to the Telekinetics, but I would charge you an Area Effect modifier for it to cover large constructs. That's my two cents.

I'll be damned. Unlike the BBB, FREd does NOT mention charges as applied to constant powers costing END. The implication is that the constant power is activated up to x times a day, and can cost END normally, coninuing charges are for those uncontrolled effects we want hanging around at no END cost. (ie, fire 'n' forget smoke bombs). However, implications are open to interpretation by EVERY GM. Guess y'all will have to ask Steve... I see nothing wrong with the first contruct myself, and that's how I use it. It has a kind of inherent Always On limitation as I look at. No need to define it as a continuing charge, because it doesn't have a set operation limit. In my interpretation, charges can be just for turning the power on...and then cost END normally afterwards. I run High level Anti-Mutant and occasional Shadowrun level games, where there is a detriment to being required to keep the powers on full time. Remember, one cannot eat, shower, etc... through the mystic force field protection granted by the gods... Yes...this does not appear as limiting to constant powers, but most constant powers are defensive or noncombative in nature. Defenses are always supposed to be cheaper. As a footnote, I would point out that "continuing charges" is rather like feeding END to a continuos power...except you are feeding a "pool" of charges...this is why it slides on the scale as you change the duration of the charge.

And as to the recoverability and rare elements, you could purchase an AID power that requires the previously mentioned charges or expendable focus or a combination of the two to exemplify the rare elements. If you buy the Aid for "+1/4 one power of crystal special effects" then you could pretty much burn the rare elements to boost powers temporarily, or in an absolute emergency, possibly recharge the empty END reserve (depends on GM). Be sure to buy the fade rate down though, or extra power will fade very fast in comparison to recovery effort. Expendable Focus for tracking down and remaking the rare earth "core" if you will. Personally, for a character in a campaign, I woul dopt for "difficult to recover, charges" of some amount. I hate needing a one shot power in an adventure and using it in the wrong place.

Hmmmm. He could always buy two powersets and link the bettery set to the personal set. THen he could function if the battery was flat, just not well. Wimpy Example:: 6d6 Energy Blast purchased normally, and an additional +6d6 Energy Blast linked to the first EB, and drawing from the END battery instead. 15" Flight and an additional linked 15" Flight utilizing the END battery. 30 + 30/1.5 = 50 points each. Looks like a great deal of mathematical shenanigans for such a minor savings. Many GM's would just choke on the construct. Let's see...how about a 1/4 Limitation on all the powers stating they must draw half the END expenditure from the END battery? That is just about the same point reduction. 60/1.25 = 48. It also follows Fireg0lem reasoning... Custom limitations are much more acceptable in general than custom advantages...

Have a rich NPC (or the governer) hire (or request) the Beret to run security at the gala charity event of the season. The judge is attending. He or a close friend is giving a speech. The dot.com is hired by the Beret or a third party to observe the event. Allow him time to set up surveillance beforehand. Arrange to have the priest pursue a bloodthirsty demon and his possessed minions onto the premises. The ensuing fireball/exorcism should be plenty interesting. Extra incentives: Some of the possessees are familiar to everyone. One of the dot.com's oild business contacts or suppliers. Retired military personnel of the Beret's acquantance. And a street kid or two that the judge kept out of (or sent) to juvie. The priest of course, was pursuing the demon, who is married to one of his best church supporters/contributors. How's that?

That is what I had in mind back in the beginning... Guess I got caught up in the discussion.

my my my...I like tha Duplication approach involving the Hydra sample...right there in the margin on page 101. Cool. I'd go with that option for sure. The tentacles can have different regen rates than the main "body" of the squid, and the tentacles could be bought with the resurrection option to "regrow" after amputation...required amputation requirements are already included in this manner...when the Tentacle BODY is gone, it is amputated and may just lash around blindly. I like it very much. The main squid pays for the Duplication and it's radically altered duplicates...and perhaps megaswimming and darkness (ink). Mind link it to the Tentacles, and buy the Body the best enhanced senses. The Tentacles can cheat with "Detect Papa Squid Target"

Isn't that how the Lockout limitation works? And no, I wouldn't allow "Increased Active Points" as a limitation either. It actually would increase the range of most powers...that is an ADVANTAGE. For a REALLY good argument, I might go as high as 1/4 regardless of how much of the reserve it chewed up. From PowerGaming 102 :: Mostly Legal Munchkin Effects ***To put underpowered powers in Elemental Controls, you buy Hardened or Difficult to Dispel, or Affect Desol...those chew the points up fairly quickly.

I don't think I would buy the EB or the Autofire. Extra Limbs. Stretching. HtH Rapid Fire. A stack of PSL's to counteract Sweep penalties. Spend the EB points on STR directly. Now the squid has a full range of combat manuevers, and can Sweep the characters with multiple hand to hand attacks. Grab a couple. Lash a couple. If you feel guilty about the expense, put Rapid on it's Targeting Senses, and/or give it 360 degree perceptions.

I forgot to say... Anyone have troubles with this construct??

I'm back. And I have an observation for the origianl questioner that is influnenced by my Force Wall and Tunnelling discussion... Buy a small AoE Entangle that can only form barriers. Give it one BODY, and you can even make it Susceptible to something. The rules on Entangle state that an Entangle that is used to buid barriers literally "surrounds" the chosen area, and does not encompass the people inside. A linked Change Environment can be added to "only cover the internal area" and the Entangle has one recoverable charge. The charge recovers when you collapse the barrier. The Change Enviro field could be sold as a seperate attachment. 2d6 Entangle (20), DEF 4 (+2 DEF = +10), Blocks Normal SIght (+5), AoE (+1) (covers 4 Hexes), 1 Recoverable Charge (-1 1/4), No Range (-1/2), Has 1 BODY (-1/2), Only Forms Barriers (-1). Active 70 pts, Real 16 pts. Then the Tunnel keys work as advertised. 1" Tunnelling (+5) through DEF 4 (+9). Invisible Power Effects (+1/2), , Can fill Tunnel in (+10), 16 charges, can only be used on EnviroShelters (-1), OIF - Control Baton (-1/2). Active 24 pts, Real 8 pts.

Tony has a completely valid point. Making your PER roll for the exact numbers in the city should be HARD, but it IS a PER roll, so to check the weather over the CITY should get HUGE modifier for "size of target" should it not? Let's see, a 256-HEx object (a large building perhaps?) has a +18 modifier all by itself. A system reflecting that nature has the "inherently vague" built into it for the tiny specifics, and more accuracy for the larger area... How's that for a solution? Does FREd imply anywhere in writing that PER rolls for precognition takes penalties for the TEMPORAL distance? Admittedly, it should be more difficult to look "farther" into the past or the future, but does FREd consider that? I can't find it in the FAQ. anywhere. ***EDIT:: The time penalties are imposed by a Limitation !! Just take the limitation off! It can't be saving enough points to be worth the headaches. (Or reduce the limitation to (-1/4) and have the modfier at -1 per step). Have him put the (-1) on for Precog only, unless the character can read the weather patterns backwards (into the past) also. *** EDIT:: THIS PARAGRAPH IS NOW IRRELEVANT, BUT PRESERVED FOR POSTERITY ***From my experiences with temporal powers, I would recommend applying EITHER the PER rolls as Tony implied (mentioned above), OR I would recomment applying temporal modifiers. Temporal modifiers would be penalized for distance to the future, and bonused for the amount of time scanned. Braced/Set should be allowed also...it IS a PER roll. Heck, this is Hero, you could apply both sets of modifiers, Hero gamers like accuracy (math).*** I would actually ask the character to buy a "Weather Sense" also, even if ONLY for use with the Precog. The Detect Weather would give intimate knowledge about the weather. Clairsentience without a weather sense attached is only going to tell Jake the Rain God what his eyes (ears?) see or hear. The Discriminatory, Analyze Weather Sense, IMHO, on a good PER roll will include all the little things he wants to know. Average Temperature, Humidity, WInd Speed, yadda yadda yadda. Shortening the time he needs to observe the future. And anyone who can accurately predict the weather should have good knowledge of the weather immediately surrounding them.

So the upshot is, "When is an object not an object?" "When that object is a Force Wall" So, after RE-reading the opening of Force Wall, yet again...I am struck by the following concept:: Force Walls are pretty much designed as energy contructs, and if I want a physcal lasting wall I need to buy an Entangle instead of some kind of persistent Force Wall. Strange. One would think the wall construction ability would be under Force Wall. I guess the operative word is Force... The opening paragraph on P 116 says:: "Some examples include protective screens of energy, force domes, or walls of enchanted fire." All are energy constructs. So perhaps this explains Steve's ruling. So, next comes the question, how does Iceman create those bridges and building supports?? A large scale transform? Tangible special effects on Telekinesis? An Entangle? A Transfrom USED on his Entangle would be mechanically sound... Inquiring minds want to know.

Thank you Phil it does. Perhaps the shelter can be built with a limitation on the Force Wall... "can be tunnelled through", that should endure the ruling from Steve also...

Detect Weather with Discriminatory and Analyze, plus SC or KS: Meteorology? Now he's just guessing intstead of knowing...but he has better information than anyone else We cheated. Jake the Rain God had a Megascaled Change Environment. He was ALWAYS right about the weather within the city limits....

Okay, let's toss out the box and look at some more ideas. If you are carrying multiplte expendable foci, then each one could be a foci, or each one could be a Charge... Then the charges are defined as "recoverable only under rare circumstance X, between adventures" (implied by Charges limitations and VPP Control costs. I've seen multipowers that could only shift points "between adventures'...) As to the longer lasting effects, unless I missed it in my reading, the activation of a charged power costs the charge, if the power is persistent it used to keep running as long as END was paid, for no additional charge cost. I suppose worst case scenario would entail building it with the "fuel charges" gimmick. I dunno...and I don't have FREd handy to look it up iin.

Darn whoever was asking about the Traveller Shelter. Now I have this on my mind. The following is from "Penetrating ForceWalls" in the Rules Questions. I'd like a little input from the theorists out there... 2) Can Tunneling be used to move through a Force Wall if it is bought to move through sufficient DEF? 3) If so, does the tunneling automatically destroy the wall? 4) Or if bought with the adder "fills in tunnel behind him" does this allow the force wall to be repaired and not destroyed? STEVE'S REPLY 2. No. 3-4. Moot. __________________ Steve Long HERO System Line Developer And it's not important or Earth Shattering Character Destruction...just a question for the other folks out there. Shouldn't the answer to #2 be - "within the realm of special effects" FREd defines a Force Wall as an object or a real wall. Going by this answer, if Earthmover puts up a Rampart (Force Wall, 8 PD, 4 ED), MoleMan cannot Tunnel through it. Yet MoleMan has Tunnelling through all earth and rock. I must buy an RKA for the express purpose of blasting through Earthmover's Force Wall? This doesn't make sense to me, and I don't see any point to arguing with Steve. Any other GM's think my perception of Tunnelling versus Force Walls is within reason? After all, if I can tunnel through a tractor trailer with my Tunnelling, why couldn't I Tunnel through certain Force Walls? If my Force Wall is defined as "lucky imposition of objects", the Tunnelling will not WORK on those objects...so I am troubled by this.

Heh. 12d6 Mental Illusions (swap friends for foes, foes for friends) (cumulative, penetrating) The special effect of the penetration is to overlay "some" of the available targets. As this will occasionally lead to confusion in the target, those affected may simply stand around looking dumbfounded since they cannot accurately pick targets. Cumulative would gradually let you exchange everyone (achieve EGO+20). **This construct would be easier upside down. Standing around stupid is an effect of EGO+30, as the character is disconnected from reality. ** Alternatively, a multiple power attack or linked attack. One Mental Illusion to (exchange friends and foes) linked to a Flash (based on ECV) vs. enough/all perceptual groups. The Flash gets a (-0) limitation for not affecting victims of the Mental Illusions. Flashes frequently cause the "stand around looking stupid" or "disoriented wandering" effect. Special Effect:: the world is a senseless chaotic blur. Flashing someone for 3 phases is not "too" difficult. if for a villain, a linked set is comepletely valid. It bases on ECV because multiple power attacks are supposed to require an identical Attack roll. The multiple power effect is easily just as valid for the Mind Control construct, for the direct "destroy your friends" effect. There is a subtle difference. A Mind Controlled opponent would exploit the weaknesses of his former teamates. The Illusion affected opponent would exploit the weaknesses of the perceived target. How's that? No more bizarre than any of the others.

I'm fond of the multiple force field variant myself. In keeping with Doc's literature, you could even list them as 7th Order Screen, +x PD/+y ED, does not block 8th order or higher attacks (-1/4 ?). Come to think of it, x would be zero, as I recall the upper order attacks were all energy attacks of some kind. I think only the 1st Order screen was a meteorite shield. Where is Dr. Danger? He practically memorized those Space operas?