Farkling

I'll chime in on Bats and his saved phases. Bats does a lot of "standing and observing" in team situations (delay delay delay). Then when his moment arrives, he acts use held phase). If something comes at him prior, he ducks/dodges (abort/uses held phase, and observes again when he has the space to do so (delay. My brother is a Spidey/Batman fan. We occasionally have theoretical discussions. He absolutely loved the confrontation between Cap and Bats in the recent Avengers/JLA publication. Thought it admirably showed the difference in where the excess experience points were spent.

FlameJet:: Swipes the video and the picture and fires "stray" plasma bolts into the hiding places. A copy of the videotape is forwarded to the PI firm he publicly keeps on retainer. The note reads "Full background check, possible multi-generational identity theft scam. Investigate. Report full history back to Civil War, no matter how unlikely, eyes only. Double standard rates paid for possible hazard" Jet would love to meet an actual Highlander... Lightning:: "Hmmm. Another one." Lightning IS a one man investigation team. He attempts to find the fellow and discuss the manner in which he deals with immortality. Lightning is hoping for clues to deal with his apparent lack of aging. Lightning will be very depressed if it turns out to be a time travel plot. He hates getting involved in those on the front end.

The powersense or the power should have a weak version of No Conscious Control on it. If your SFX dictate that it cannot effect certain SFX powers, then the GM has a right to "shift the target power" Actually, if it suppresses the largest power that it can affect, then it doesn't need the linked powersense, that can be dictated in the writeup for the power. "Affects one power of target" "Cannot affect powers that are external to target" "Lack of Control-largest power is affected" I need to think further on this.

So, general consensus is that we need to collect an asteroid. While we are at it, we will melt down Phobos and use it for raw material, or we can try blasting it into a higher orbit. Now the Space Elevator can be built. Pity. I was growing attached to the martians having a concealed magnetic accelerator cannon. "If you inconsiderate humans drop one more icesteroid on our planet, we are going to start shooting back"

A valid point. Which leads to a comment on the system I played in (3rd/4th ?) a prior edtion of Champions (10 years ago maybe?). The game at the con was an X-Men team versus villains, another table played Avengers vs villains, and for the culmination, they played a second round with the X-Men vs the Avengers. They had an ENTIRE notebook of changes to the Champions system. The combat changes took up 4 or 5 pages. They felt that the phase rulings weren't "up-to-snuff" and had split each phase into half phases. Yes, a bastardized 24-segment Time Chart, with everyone performing a half phase action then performing their second half phase actions in DEX order. Gods that was a horribly slow and wierd combat. I should've been warned when I was handed my 750 pt edition of Beast to play. Cyclops was 1000 pts if I remember correctly. They wouldn't let us do a Fastball Special, not because it wasn't in their rulebook, but because it was more than a half phase action. Colossus took a few hits while the split phase combat system continued to step us through "Grab", "Haymaker STR","Toss Beast at Magneto." Colossus was decked right after he threw Beast. lWe finished the combat. We damn near took out Magneto in spite of his tremendous defenses. I got the "best roleplaying" prize, my pal got third runner up. We refused to play in the second half of the game, and told them we wanted to play a fun game, not learn a new and strangely obtuse combat system for Champions. (Thus, these people were responsible for my finding the White Wolf system, as I played a game of WereWolf after that. I bought Mage because of that WereWolf game and the subject matter of the Mage-verse. I don't care much for WereWolf, and less for Vampyre) To this day I meet rabid anti-Hero players at cons that have told me the Hero combat system is way too complicated to be fun to play. 50% of them say they played in a horrible Avengers/X-Men game that put them off of Hero, because it had such a restricted action sequence. I do my best to show them they were misinformed. Moral? Be careful what you tinker with, and be sure to note it as house rules...

Ooops. Retrograde orbit. That's what I get for being a science fiction reader instead of an actual astronomer. I certainly can't see Niven, Bear, or Steele making such a mistake, and Bujold stories seldom touch on real physics. If near psuedoscience allows for us to insert an asteroid into an appropriate orbit, then we have three possible solutions:: 1) We pick an asteroid we can place BELOW the P & D orbits, so collision won't happen until further degradation of the PnD orbits. This could cause either unwanted tidal effects (on the crust, after all, there is no ocean), or it may not be HIGH enough for a functioning elevator. 2) We put our elevator anchor beyond those orbits. We now need to outfit PnD with some form of steerage, OR we ned sufficient construction technology to "bend" the elevator. Though that may not be necessary, as the elevator would be an extremely small target in their orbits. We may just need attitude adjusters/jets to cope with stresses from the lunar bodies. Or the martians crunched up the moons to build the elevator, making the question moot...easier than hauling the materials OUT of the gravity well. 3) This idea is scrapped, and a magnetic accelerator cannon with a gigantic capacitor system is built beneath the Mars surface, after all, the martians have been there a very long time. The accelerator is underground and gradually curves, like a roller coaster, dipping down and then curving upwards (after miles?) to exit through Olympus Mons. Actually, the diameter of Olympus Mons might be sufficient enough to spiral the accelerator up the crater itself. We could then assume that the Martians camoflauged it against casual recognition from space or ariel flyovers. Depends on the size of the accelerator. Olympus Mons is a huge target to home in on, and once in range pilots can adjust trajectory to hit the intake of the accelerator for landing. The accelerator also makes a fantastically powerful difficult to aim weapon if they have enough ferrous material available. They could throw it at planets, moons, asteroids...

I was thinking about theoretically changing the density of an existing moon of mars and finding a "safe" way to anchor it. I read a reprint sci-fi novel on elevators recenty...the concept seems "just close enough" for game physics. I just don't know if the moon would need to be heavier or lighter...I cannot remmeber the name of the book. It involved a mechanical spider weaving a high test cable array, and asteroids. There is a really good section on the concepts for "planoforming" asteroids also. Heating, spinning, restructuring... If the moons need to be denser (ie, mass added), it might be more practical to MOVE an appropriate asteroid into Clark orbit Stellar Mechanics and gaming:: A) Read "Clarke County Space" if you can find a copy at the used book store. Alan Steele writer. The space colony/habitat physics are pretty good in that. Theoretically, if there were a usable engine/source, asteroids could be relocated from the belt, or a comet captured. Even an engine that burned the material ON the rock would be appropriate, as would a "tranport engine" crew to mine reaction mass and care for the engine. Only a small steady thrust is absolutely necessary. C) The martians could have had their attention called to near space upon the initial colonization attempts. Fits in with the moving of asteroids/icesteroids. Fresh water would be desperately needed for us to colonize Mars, so we fetch it from the asteroid belt. Perhaps the first one got dropped and the tectonic upheavel brings Mars into the stellar picture with "Who threw this trash in our yard?" Large scale fusion reactors negate the need for water at best, as there is enough power to MANUFACTURE water from the Oxygen and Hydrogen cracked from compounds mined on Mars or Luna, or various other moons. At worst, the fusion reactors greatly accelerate asteroid transport ability, and make small water and hydroponics demands elementary.

Ah...that's it...it must've been a "sight not-sight" sense...the full Discrim and Targeting were paid for on the N-Ray...

If you want to hit someone and move away from them, then technically (ie, by the rules) it IS a Move by, not an attack and half move. I still impoose a -1 penalty for half move and attack, out of preference. ONE player I know actually ever braced or set...so I imposed the half move penalty to encourage more tactical thought...

I'll go find my book and reread it.

Thanks for the books Ben...my order came prompter than I imagined, and for damaged books, well, to quote my little brother (who examined them...he works in a bindery/print shop) "they look like you've had them about two weeks" Perhaps Donald is merely misunderstood...but let us consider this... Uncle Donald and his three nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie... Who also refer repeatedly to their Unlce Scrooge... Perhaps Donald's supposed rage stems from Scrooge's tightfisted approach to money, after all, assisting those boys with school and college would have been of little effort to him, when poor Donald had to work two jobs to support the ungrateful little tykes. This led to his eventual breakup with Daisy, who returned home, leaving Donald living in a one room studio apartment and eating corn on the cob from care packages sent by Daisy's family, who always appreciated Donald's honesty far more than Daisy did. The boys you are aware, confiscated the house and turned it into a multiple bedroom party pad while they attended college....and Donald went along with it, because it was for family. Donald, depressed and valiantly attempting to move on with his life, re-enlisted in the Navy following the political upheavels of terrorist activities in America. Now he happily works on the decks of a modest aircraft carrier, sleeps in a bunk with a few mates, and occasionally wins a poker pot or a bridge game. Then along comes Launchpad...with tales of Scrooge's death, a mad plot, and the boys inheritance. Donald once again put his life aside for family considerations, and went AWOL.

*adds kerosene to open fire* Wait wait wait... Can't N-Ray vision see through Darkness? Then it would follow that it can see through night as well, would it not? We actually had a character with N-Ray vision that would not penetrate "well lit areas" ... we were incorrect?

Lightning:: "You know Tony, I would never want such a temptation to cross my path. My girlfriend emits radio waves naturally that I can be tracked with my natural powers, and she knows it. I don't know if I could recommend your method, but it certainly would make more sense to get her permission, you bastard. What if they decide to remove it, without a hospital or anaesthesia? Or even worse, what happens when they track down the frequency? They could follow her anywhere, anytime...like they just did...you idiot." Lightning's thinks Tony is now a waste of time AND space... FlameJet:: "You did WHAT? You couldn't have bugged some jewelry surreptitiously? Or her clothes? Or her cell phone or pager? You had to IMPLANT it, without her knowledge? I thought you were some kind of stealth and espionage EXPERT, and now who are you? The goddamend government? I expected more morals from you! The only people who get that kind of "for your own good" treatment are people in nursing homes with memory problems! You absolute BASTARD! IF she lives through this, I will personally bring it all to her attention, tell her WHO did it, and volunteer to pay for the removal operation. IF you have objections of any kind, you better come at me in the middle of combat, and from behind, because I will burn you down where you stand!"

I'm not sure I can add to this...but here goes. But be sure to include the actions of the Insidious Three, and their institution of questionable quackery in seeking domination of the world. Known only to their minions by the initials HDL, they do not own a Heron Distribution League as many believe, but are plotting the covert takeover of the world. They inherited the vast fortune of their mysterious Uncle S, upon his equally mysterious disappearance in the jungles of Peru. His companion, an L. McQuack was found over a year later, and told tales of sabotage. Given McQuack's erratic flight history, and the amount of (phony/framed) insurance fraud, he was locked up in a Tijuana jail long enough to be killed in an escape attempt. I actuality, Launchpad has corraled Donald, the other surviving uncle of the nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie; and has departed for the Amazon, in search of the presumed dead Uncle Scrooge. I always knew that those boys would turn out wrong one day, living with such an explosively tempered adult. Also, you should have ONE goose in charge of a massive villainy, that perhaps tons of other ducks are implicated in. Just for the joke... DUCK DUCK GOOSE.

Now, since the Golden Age GL could SUMMON his battery, then perhaps you should just buy limited REC... 200 END 10 REC/Turn (Incantations, Must reamain immobile throughout) (SFX: Big green powerbattery)...That'll recharge it in 5 minutes.

It is possible in fiction to STUN a vampire. Damage Reduction is the better model, and doesn't add any question of the character's self motivation and independent actions. Also won't turn him into an unstoppable combat machine. You should limit the damage reduction also, so it doesn't affect Holy and Silver attacks. 50% Damage Reduction, Normal, Physical (STUN only -1/2, not versus Holy or Silver weapons, -1/2 to -1, depending on frequency, knowledge, ease of vamp identifiction) 8-10 pts, depending on the Holy/Silver limitation value. 25% ranges from 4-5, and 75% from 16-20 of course. Damage Reduction can be bought resistant if you want it to apply against damage from killing weapons such as swords also. 25% 6-12, 50% 12-20, 75% 24-30. Consider these numbers though...Vampire PD 10, CON 15 9d6 Body Slam - 36 STUN, 9 BODY (Note: 9d6 ~ 3d6 KA) vs. PD 10 = 26 STUN, 0 BODY. Vampire Stunned. vs. PD 10, 25% DR = 19 STUN, 0 BODY. Vampire Stunned. vs. PD 10, 50% DR = 13 STUN, 0 BODY. Vampire not Stunned, but perhaps cautious. vs. PD 10, 75% DR = 6 STUN, 0 BODY. Vampire Annoyed. With resistant Damage Reduction...and a mere 3 rPD Norm - 7 BODY, 25% - 5 BODY, 50% - 3 BODY, 75% - 2 BODY Additionally, you have more seasoning options. Takes no STUN applies against energy also, does it not? So a fireball will just leave yon vampire smoking, if large enough, and not even inconvenienced. If Vamps ARE inherently resistant to the "shock" (STUN) of spells, the reduction can be purchased for energy also. And at a different level of redution. Perhaps not working against fire, as we all know those dried corpses burn failry easily...and are terrified of the fact. Keep the high end effect of damage reduction in mind also, especially as a GM. Let me bust out my calculator here, and look at the same Vampire, CON 15, PD 10. He falls into DoomStar canyon, and impacts the ground at a 25" velocity, missing the sharp rocks (Doomstar Canyon, we can presume, is at least 5+10+15+20+25 = 75" deep, so 150 meters, or 450 feet). Let's give him 35 STUN. and a whopping 20 BODY, since vampires have a great will to live (or they wouldn't be vampires ) 25d6 Character Killing Death Impact - 100 STUN, 25 BODY vs. PD 10 = 90 STUN, 15 BODY. Vampire Stunned, very unconscious (-55), and may die of starvation or staking. vs. PD 10, 25% DR = 67 STUN, 15 BODY. Vampire Stunned. Unconscious (-32), and may yet die of staking. vs. PD 10, 50% DR = 45 STUN, 15 BODY. Vampire Stunned, unconscious (-13), and will likely be staggering to his feet in a minute. vs. PD 10, 75% DR = 27 STUN, 15 BODY. Vampire is Stunned, but conscious (+12). In seconds, he leaps to his feet and charges into hiding, so he can consider where to get his next meal. If the damage reduction applies against BODY also, well, a fall at terminal velocity (30d6) cannot even kill him with the stats used above. He will take 15,10, or 5 Body depending on the damage reduction level, and blunt weapons will be of little danger to him in combat. He will stand an even chance of walking away from the 30d6 fall within minutes if he has 50% Reduction.

Some of my players use magic beads... We started using them for Exalted Essence scores and it just bled over. One color for tens, one color for ones. If everyone did, it'd be four colors necessary, and at least 10 beads per player for the entire group, so roughly 70-80 beads of each color would hold for quite a while. Maybe a couple extra groups for charges...hmmm. I'll have to consider that at the next convention... The others use scratch sheets. I use a large scratch sheet. We throw them out after combat. Mine gets thrown out at home...just to be on the safe side.

Following Oruncrest's model... If the force field will block your outgoing attack completely, then it should be a force wall. They are the all or nothing fields. Turning it around the OTHER way, you can build your force fields with force wall, and put indirect on the weapons...with an activation roll. If the indirect doesn't activate...(thwap) it hit the force field and dissipated (unless its a powerful weapon, then some will still get through) "Captain, the Hyperstatic Nuclear Particle Cannon overloaded the shield generators and blew down the shields!" In the bigger picture, you may be doing too much at once. If you look at this as TURN combat between the capital ships, then the computer has a SPD 12, and drives the defense system. On the phases the crew fires weapons, the computer turns off the force field, and then turns it back on during the next phase...

Ohhh....I like #2....and the bugging idea is great too... makes notes in evil GM notebook

The Martians need a Space Elevator/Tether system. That will cut thier surface to space access even more. Mount gun cars on the elevator at either end to fight off pirates. I think it is within scientific reason to attach a tether to Phobos or Diemos, though you might need to alter the internal composition of the moon slightly for the correct mass on that anchor. Other real science effects: Bussard ramjets are not efficient within the solar system. Neither are most constant rockets. Delta Vee (velocity changes) are priceless commodities. If you are not pushing into Fusion technology or better, then solar sails will be pound for pound a most efficient long haul accelerator. Assitance from a large scale pumped lasers on Luna, or large stabilized asteroid in the belt, and even on an airless moon of Jupiter/Saturn would increase sail effieiency. (Could some madman turn those into wepaons?) Computers would co-ordinate the impact and flight paths of freighters requiring boosts. Also, magnetic accelerators would predate lasers/solar sails in the evolution of solar travel. The magnetic cannon is used to accelerate the object, and fuel sufficient for steering is included on board to hit the cannon and decelerate objects on the other end. This conserves energy too, as the braking effect in the accelerator could possibly be designed to return power to the accumulators by magnetizing the ship temporarily, or simply by proper accelerator design. Note that acceleration resistant goods (ore, organic pastes, indestructible alien artifacts, durable parts) can be shipped MUCH faster than liners using this system, as they can be accelerated by the cannons to a higher speed. The military also likes these as they are easier to convert to weapons thatn the solar sail lasers... Hydroponics can be engineered to grow from whatever source of organic material you have available, and seeds. Light can actually be generated by solar mirrors, though out Pluto way it will take a large array. Solar mirrors can provide heat for distillaion also, and an orbital solar furnace in production can melt virtually anything. Theoretically, a large solar furnace could be used to heat an entire ASTEROID up to the point where you could fractionally distill it...but STRICT temperature controls are needed.

I think the Physical Limitation Model is a good idea, the penalties are on par with an inverted dependence effect that causes weakness. Also check the model from this direction:: Susceptible to Hyperspace (-3 to all rolls {imposed PSL}, Constant Effect, Affects Skills) What is that? About 30 AP ?? That's, um, a 3d6 Susceptible?

Heh. One of our gamers has (kinda) mental instabilities...she counts like 6...5...9.....3....10 ! I rolled a 10! Seriously now ZenStorm...my gaming group(s) prefer Exalted, Mage, and Hero (new converts). I have GM'd all. Heh heh heh. I got in on Hero in the stone age...when we used those packs of cheap dice we bought at Pic 'n' Save. HERO is versatile. Simulating MAGE isn't that easy, in terms of the magic system (though I have ideas about how to do the freeform part, charging flat prices for the spheres as perks or talents), but ROTES on the other hand are simply prepackaged powers. The rest of MAGE, the dark gothic world, the lethality, the mortals on the quest...that's all pretty easy. There's a converted MAGE-HERO site somewhere out there that can give you some bridging ideas. Exalted would be eminintly do-able in this system. Some of those over the top effects would fall nicely into Hero, and some won't. It's not as abstract out of the box, but the combat charms are pretty easily done if you think of END as Essence...I really like the HERO system, but I don't have the flair for an Exalted game, so I've never worked any conversion. I can't compare to Aberrant...I never played it...though I still look for cheap copy of the rules and sourcebooks...the ideas seemed solid. We play Exalted out of the Exalted system, because the GM prefers it. Since its a brilliant breakup game, I don't complain. We play Supers and hi-tech cyberpunk out of HERO, and we've run a James Bond/Sneakers type Superspies game out of HERO. We've played MAGE-like campaings in both systems. There is a definite flavor difference. We may try Fantasy HERO over DnD in the next six to eight months...depends, as the breakup GM for that is currently hacking up his DnD rules to adapt some more HERO-style stuff to them. (Yay, a mana-based magic system!) My last selling point is the willingness to trade off GM'ing that game with him if we convert to Fantasy Hero...heh heh heh.

We must have the concept right...we've found at least three ways to build it...

You are taking me out of context...I was referring to move bys and move throughs. My apologies on the statistical error...its been a while.

You're splitting your attention to half seconds, moving and focussing on hitting someone simultaneously..you shouldn't be in top form in any category, same as when you use multiple powers in a Multipower. I do see it that way. You want to do everything at once, then you cannot perform the actions as flawlessly as normal. Of course, I have found recently that my gaming groups are apparently the only ones on the planet that used multipowers for anything other than a selector list of cheap attacks. Maybe that is from DnD-itis too ? I don't understand how -2 to OCV is a 25% penalty as quoted...this is a bell curve. The value shift is relevant to the actual difference of the OCV's and DCV's. I had statistics, and I can do some of the math...but there are better people for it on these boards. Here's a fast and dirty look: If you had an 11- to hit a target, then it drops to a 9-, which goes from 50% to about 37% => (~13%). 16- to hit your target (~98%), that drops to a 14-, which is about 90%. => (~ 8%). 14- (~90%) drops to 12- (~75%) => (~15%) So mechanics dictate that you should not perform move-bys (or thrus!) on targets with close or better CV's than you, unless you have many levels (practice). That matches what I've seen in comic books. Don't charge someone whos is quicker or better prepared than you, or they will rip your arm off. You want to overcome the penatlies? Buy a couple of skill levels, they're cheap. Or spend the points on an attack that will do what you are picturing in your head. 8d6 EB, AE-Any Line of Hexes, only along path travelled with movement.