Qelan

Re: Character Effectiveness Very nice article!

Re: The Most Powerful Laxative Known To Man This is one of the meanest power concepts I have encountered to date. I think change environment with a variable combat effect of lower OCV or DEX rolls, actually just about any negative stat modifier could be justifiably based on the description of cramping and err… having leakage… Man, this is a really terrible thing to do too someone. Is this a NPC or Player idea? Ok, I want to use this against some players now.

Re: Character Effectiveness The eyeball guide line is how most people I know measure the effectiveness of character but with a point based game system and the mathematical effects of advantages and limitations the real points spent on a character should give a good idea how effective a character is compared to others. Of course character design plays a large roll as well as some abilities are just too expensive (i.e. Life Support) therefore using a factor that’s applied to the RP cost vs each ability could rectify the problem. Character Design will be much harder to quantify mathematically but with so many pre-generated ones to sample from it should be possible.

Re: Character Effectiveness It is true that a skilled player makes a difference but my objective is to create a rating system that will measure the abstract concept of game effectiveness. By polling the game community I hope to generate a semi-accurate system that should be less bias then one generated from my own opinions.

Re: Character Effectiveness Actually, I should not have given it a .01 it should really be 1.0. I assigned it that value because the stat should have more social modification as PRE is defined or should just be another aspect of PRE stat. But, by my own definition of effectiveness it should be rated 1.0 So, yes, I agree with you

Lately I have been entertaining the idea of coming up with second effectiveness rating system. I dug up the first EF system and noticed quite a few things I don’t agree with and after awhile I realized I might want to start from scratch. After some thought I asked myself, why in a point based game system would I need an EF system? A 350pt character should be more effective then a 250pt one. A power that’s 75AP should be more effective then a 60AP one. But, a 75AP power with limitations should be less effective then a 75AP power with fewer limitations. At this point I realized that the real point cost should factor into evaluating the effectiveness more than or almost as much as the AP of a power. After further examination I concluded, The main reason an EF rating is wanted is because I or maybe some of you disagree with the point cost of some powers. The evidence is pretty obvious when you compare 2 character built with the same amount of points but somehow one comes out way more effective, oh, maybe I should have defined what I see as effective before I started this. When I say effective I don’t mean just combat I also mean having influence in a game world out of combat also. Powers that affect the flow of a story and control its directions could be more effective then a 10d6RKA (hehe). So, after this conclusion I want to start coming up with factors for all the powers and characteristics separately, and maybe skills on a whole. Then use the factor against the real points spent on each item, add the totals together to get what I would call an effectiveness rating. The factors should be how we evaluate each item as a percentile. For example I would rate comeliness as 1% effective so I would give it a .01 factor vs the real points (RP) spent Life Support .5 factor Most Skills .5 factor Powers in a framework need some conideration So now the work begins. If I am off base on any of my observations I would appreciate any clarification anyone would like to add.

Re: Brooklyn Rage! I stopped using absorption and just purchased extra stats or powers with limitations to simulate the effect of absorption. It was much cleaner and the results predictable pertaining to campaign limits. Everyone was much happier after that.

Re: Switching Places From the description of the power it sounds like an attack must be launched. If it is an attack then you can not abort to it so to use it defensively you will need a held action to launch it. Teleport UAA w/ triggered Teleport seems to perform the task with these constraints imposed on the design. Oh, dont forget to add limited range on the UAA power to match the triggered teleport.

Re: Machine Class of Minds The more this topic is analyzed I start seeing the merit of your statement. Mind Powers – Machine Class of Minds does seem to require a bit of handwavium or logic leaps but in the end as long as you end up with a definable power that performs with repeatable and consistent results then that’s all that really matters. But then that’s the real trick in character design.

Re: Personal Sacrifice Build a Power or Power Framework that is only usable every 5 mins. Once active it can be accessed for 60 seconds without penalty. The Penalty; Lose a percentage of STUN or BODY or both each time power is activated. Maybe lose END also or all 3 stats.

Re: Machine Class of Minds Very intersting stuff. So, this should mean only electrically powered machine class of minds would be a limitation, might be only worth +0 or +1/4 but it would be a limitation?

Re: Switching Places Teleport UAA, and a Triggered Teleport that moved your character in place. You would need a held action so you could use it to abort someone’s attack in motion before it connected to your target. End result, you get hit instead of target and the enemy loses his attack on you.

I am having a bit of trouble coming up with some real world examples of equipment that would be affected by Mind Powers – Machine Class of Minds. Computers would be obvious, most vehicles have computers in them so you could communicate and or control some vehicles in a limited fashion (turn on/off, read log, input error codes, etc…) after these examples my brain starts to smoke. Hmm, BTW, to input an error code into computer would that be mental illusions or mind control? I assume mental illusion but I could be wrong. Any assistance would be appreciated.

Re: Beastboy I know you were looking for a simple way to do BB but as someone mentioned earlier you might want to use a build like this; Shapechange( animal forms) Armor, Life Support, Movement MultiPower, Clinging, Extra Limb, all powers var. FX and powers based on ShapeChanging Growth/Shrinking Multipower +STR based on Growth +DEX based on less Growth Maybe some stretching or some skills based on ShapeChanging. The Armor will be subject to GM judgment limitation but doesn’t have to represent a realistic toughness of normal animals. (gee, his hide is like tank armor) If this is a new player I would most likely not give him the full character sheet but more of a cheat sheet for his character and let the GM hold the full sheet for the actual values needed.

Re: Game Mechanics I like this idea maybe more then the invisibility, instead of a -20 INT roll I would go with a -3 (if it was an NPC) because this would make it easier to have dialogue about the memory thief that is terrorizing the team. This makes a good case how invisibility could simulate the effect…err, in other words I agree with you. Several good points throught the thread

Re: Can you look this character over Yea, the scary part is getting the advantages on str for free. I have to admit I have used it myself (yea, usually on +1d6HA) but generally not adding more than +1/2 worth of advantages. I hoped lightning wouldn't strike me down when the character saved if I restrained myself

Any chance of seeing a graphic compilation of characters/NPCs art? Maybe even some dialogue and/or action scenes? Oh, and make it like 500 pages, yea, 500… that’s good.

Re: Game Mechanics If that worked it would really produce some interesting effects and dialogue after you turn it off.

Re: Ankylosaur is up Thank you, Its been so long since I seen that. I wonder if I can find any of my old champions materials? Maybe at my parents house somewhere

Re: Beastboy

Re: Can you look this character over I once put that same idea down in a HDC file for a character then after looking at it for a min I deleted the idea. It's one of the scariest thoughts I have ever had... It's just nasty

Re: Game Mechanics Why couldn’t memory be a sense? What is memory and how does it work? Can you buy invisibility to unusual sense groups or specific detect powers? Anyway, as you were saying, it really depends on the GM running the game.

Re: PRE Attacks I agree with The Rose, It is like an alternate form of experience that I feel will help add to the immersion of the campaign. I am getting a lot of good ideas from this thread. Thanks for all the input.

Re: THE BOOK OF THE DESTROYER: What Do *You* Want To See? That would be awsome, or have Mechassasin doing the deed as his last act of life. If I beg would they put that scene in the book?

Re: THE BOOK OF THE DESTROYER: What Do *You* Want To See? Based on the description of the technology D. Destroyer uses I imagine even when he is not wearing his formal costume (I am pretty sure its just for a psychological advantage) most of his normal clothing would include the bulk of his powers. Now and then I imagine scenarios with Destroyer interacting with the populace incognito for some inscrutable reason. What I would like to see is “your” image of a stately elderly gentleman, possibly some definable reasons he would interact personally, and should he have any of his powers without his costume?