Watchman-BN

Can I tell where the power's coming from? Is it obvious that the power is coming from an item? The it is an obvious focus, in my book. To compare to your cane/sword example: If WesternLady has a derringer strapped to her thigh, you can't see it until she's ready to use it... just as you can't see the sword until it pops out of the cane. But, at the point of exhibiting a power, you know where the bullet came from (she has to pull the Derringer... unless you want to give a whole new meaning to "shoot from the hip"). Magmarock is right that concealing the weapon is a different question. For Obvious/Inobvious focus questions, it's a matter of, "can I tell where the power came from?"

I think most Calvinist christians (and Russian Orthodox would share the same beliefs even though they wouldn't have been influenced by Calvin) believe in an omniscient, omnipresent God. As more than one critic has pointed out (not trying to start a debate, but just give you food for thought), if God knows what I'm going to do, then why do anything? In fact, everything, from Hitler on down the line was, in a sense, God's will. Recently, the "Open View of the Future" has become more popular and probably reflects the way most Christians live out their lives, seeing how the hardcore Calvinist position seems fatalistic. The Open View asserts that God is indeed omniscient, but that the future is partly settled and partly open. Because God values love, and love must be freely chosen (not programmed), humans are truly free. That means God knows pretty darn well what will happen, but not always, because humans are, indeed, free willed creatures. This means that God is, in a sense, fighting along side his followers to make the world more how God wants it to be. So Hitler (or Dr. Destroyer wiping out Millenium CIty), certainly wasn't "God's mysterious will", and insofar as God could act to persuade free will beings to fight Destroyer, et. al., it would make good theological sense. Those who adhere to the Open View, assert that it requires a God who is very powerful and wise to ever get His way, seeing how most humans tend to be selfish, powerhungry mopes. The "calvinist" God doesn't have to work to get His way: we're all just puppets anyway created and predestined to do exactly what we do, with no chance of ever doing anything else. By the way, you could draw on Biblical stories about Samson, Paul, and Moses to see that "super powers" are often granted by God for a specific purpose. The most interesting role play element, to me, would be to make sure the character is careful to give all glory for his/her powers to God. And, the powers could go away at any moment is God becomes displeased....

I think they were flintlocks. And, of course, they each had two of them, primed and loaded, and could fight with both hands. And they had enough skill that they were deadly with their only two shots, so few enemies got close enough for HTH. Oh, and I didn't paint the rest of the scene: The Vet wore fatigues and sat the whole night on the back of the couch, leaning against the wall. When he wasn't rolling dice, he was fondling a large combat knife. The Vamp sat on the floor in the corner, and would only look at you over his arm, or over a book, never directly. Then to see them break into "roleplay mode" calling everyone "Guvnuh" and excaliming "Crickey!"... I think that's when I developed this nervous tick....

Setting: 3rd to last night of a two-year long campaign. The heroes were climbing up from secret caves below to face the Dark Lord just before he replaces our plane with his, snuffing out our reality forever. Characters: Orignally built on 250, they had earned massive experience in two years of weekly gaming (ah! college) and were pretty powerful, well belanced, and fought well as a team. Essential Background: we usually started combat at end of segment twelve, assuming people turned on power, drew weapons, shifted levels, etc. on 12. For two years, every fight started with the same ritual, the GM (me) announcing: "Segment one, nobody goes. Segment two, Speed sixes...(etc.)" Scene: The heroes, after defeating several Namless Horros Who Must Remain Nameless, come to an entryway, clearly the back entrance to the Dark Lord's castle they had been told about. It is guarded only by two goblins. Dialogue: Karazor: "Ummm. Only two goblins? I spend segment twelve looking around for other enemies." (rolls, makes Per by 8 or so, sees nothing) Gemthalis: "This feels like a trap. The Dark Lord must be behind the door." GM: "Well, you'd probably hear him or sense him. Want to try?" Logran: "I'll detect magic on twelve." (rolls, no magic in the room, or 'just on the other side of the door. There is a general sigh of relief.). Sbron: "I bet we have to talk to them. They'll have a riddle or something." (general agreement) GM: On their segment 12, the goblins draw weapons and make threatening moves toward you. They don't seem to be in the mood to talk. Karazor: "Ok then. Let's take out these goblin punks, and move on to the big guy." (everyone shifts levels, those who still can draw weapons. GM: "Ok. Segment one. The goblins go." All: "No way!" Explanation: You see, aside from being Dex 30, Speed 12, these were fairly normal goblins. The two of them very nearly managed to take out an entire party. The look on the player's faces when the goblins attacked them on Segment One was classic. They all had to review the goblin character sheets to see what else I had changed (very little) because the buggers were so scary. Since then, if they heroes get a tad overconfident, I'll say, "Ok, you come in to a room. There are two goblins there..."

Haven't posted much, so will y'all forgive the posting of several bad (but funny in retrospect) experiences? -I seem to attract people that like to try bad accents. We had one player who had a black, female, Jamaican character named Nexus, whose only noticeable Jamaican characteristic was ending every phrase with the word, "mon." "Hey mon. Lets kick their asses!....mon." Since this speech affectation was her only personality trait at all we started calling her "Cardboard." instead of her real name. -Then I tried a game, with a group I'd met on line. It was me (the newb), the Wacked Out Vet, the Vampire Wannabe Guy, and the Aggressive Gay GM who really wanted me to stay around. The GM developed a "realistic" early Renaissance game where I could have a cleric, but not a mace or any cleric-type spells. The only characters that weren't "realistic-ized" out of usefulness were rogues. The Vet and the Vamp, of course, both created min-maxed rogues. Worse, their only idea of roleplaying was to talk in Cockney accents the whole evening, while their min-maxed characters slaughtered every foe (with guns, no less), rolling their eyes at the uselessness of the Cleric-who-wasn't-a-Cleric. I lasted one night, although I got several emails and calls from the GM wanting me back. -In another group, during a heated game dispute we had a Big Gulp thrown, and $100 in gaming books ruined, by the player whose character was a minotaur fighter with....*sigh*...retractable claws that made a *snikt* sound as they popped out. In his defense, the player, not the character, had recently been fitted for Vampire teeth, so maybe biting his own gums had made him irritable. -Early on, in what turned out to be a wildly successful campaign, a fairly major villian died and collapsed on a shopping mall escalator. For some reason, I (as the GM) mentioned that his head was slowly bouncing as the escalator moved. Maybe I was trying to be a bit too descriptive, because one player, who hadn't been the object of attention recently and apparently couldn't handle it, announced, "My character pulls down his pants and kneels down by the the guy's head..." I'll mercifully end the story there, although he didn't. -Finally, we had a player who, while bored working his 3rd shift security guard job, would draw comic books about the characters in...unflatering stories. I have to admit, they were amusing as hell, but he turned all the characters he didn't like, into effeminate (or butch) mental cases. To give you an idea of the level of humor, one of the most creative characters was an energy projector type (Electron) who had inhabited the body of a dead enemy agent. He functioned in every way as a normal human, except that people recognized his face as that of an enemy agent (interesting roleplaying opportunities there). Of course, in the comic version, this character was drawn as a decaying body, complete with maggots crawling out of his orifices. Of course the maggots would die when Cardboard Nexus blew over in a stiff breeze, exclaiming, "Mon!" Each week in the comic, new body parts fell off poor "Electron" and the comic became so ingrained in our minds, Electron's player eventually created a new character just to stop all the jokes at his expense. Oh, and my character got off easy: In the comic he wore a Popeye hat and had a few extra zipper scars. The comic book writer wasn't dumb enough to really insult the GM.

Wouldn't that have effects I don't want? 1) On a low ego character, I would get +30 on the MC (attack friends) but also the entangle (stand around). The MC wouldn't work because they'd be stuck in the entangle, unable to move. 2) On mid--to-high ego characters, it might work out, but only if I can find a pretty consistent level of Mental Paralysis that non-mentalists have a decent chance of breaking. 3) On mentalists or very high ego characters, I probably wouldn't get +30 MC or the Mental Paralysis, but that isn't really the problem anyway. Regarding #1, Would others make the 'Mental Paralysis' entangle trump the Mind Control? I think I would, even if the MC was +30 level. If they were trapped in the Ego Entangle, they couldn't move to attack their friends even if they "wanted" to.

Since I'm the GM, I can approve the +1 Advantage if I choose, so no problems there. The problem with doing two mind controls is that I want the MC Command (attack friends or stand around) to be a result of the "saving throw" of the target. If it's just two mind controls, and I buy enough dice to get +30 on most heroes, then some heroes will *always* get +30'd and have no chance to 'make a saving roll' (other than breaking out of the mind control. So I roll, get the +30 level on HeroX, but if she makes an (ego roll -3), she still only gets the "stand around" command. If I do it as two linked MC's, then I'm paying double endurance for something that lessens the power of the Mind Control. Why make it a huge advantage? Can y'all think of instances where it would be more beneficial to attack your teammates than to stand around stupified? I'm leaning toward this: xd6 Mind Control, Single Command: "Attack Friends as Enemies", Telepathic. Limitation (-1/4) If target makes Ego Roll -3, command becomes "Stand Around Stupified for 3 phases).

Holy Double Entendres, heroes! The confusion refers to my state of mind as well as power I'm trying to create. I've got a villain named Scatterbrain who has a specific set of mental powers, confusion based primarily. One power is inspired by (but doesn't have to mimic) a D&D confusion spell. It's a Mind Control that can be partially resisted by almsot anyone. If you fail to resist (miss your "saving throw") you mistake friends for enemies and are likely to attack them. If you make the roll (and thus partially resist the effect), you just stand around stupified for a short period of time. Of course, just like regular mind controls, its possible to shrug off the effects entirely with a high enough ego, mental defenses, or a poor roll by the villain. So how do you build a power that can have two effects based on a roll (say, ego roll) a hero makes? Is it two linked mind controls with a limit that the higher one only takes effect with a failed roll (points = ouch)? ***Insert clever sig line here***

Money and Perks If money doesn't do anything for the character (make his/her in-game life easier) then why buy it? I try to limit the usefulness of money by comparing it to similarly priced perks. How often is that 5 pt contact useful? Often, I've given a money perk to a GM controlled character just to make it easier to move the plot along. Players have taken the money perk because it fits their character conception. If that's the case, I strive to bring it in to the campaign as I do with other background skills. For instance: really wealthy types know people (media moguls, politicians, etc.) or can get appoints with them, even if they aren't contacts. Reasonably wealthy people have or know lawyers, etc.

I like both ideas. I've modified every roll in the game at one point or another but never thought about adding dice of luck to a roll. Cool thought, pinecone. And, Old Man, I agree (hey, I respect my elders!) with visualizing the setting. I don't have a problem doing it, but the players seem to have a hard time visualizing a reasonable setting unless I bog down the story line with exposition... I *think* I reward creative use of the environment sufficiently to act as an incentive. Certainly the villains duck behind tables (that I may not have drawn on the map, but would reasonably be there), wield candlesticks as weapons, and so forth. Anyone play a lot with HA or EB, OAF weapons of opportunity? Do you tell the player what's available, or let them suggest reasonable items?

I'd like some GM advice on adding items to the battlefield for players to use during fights, or even during non-combat time. One former player used to have a great visual sense of what items would be in a given room (chemical lab, night club, bank lobby, etc.). His character was somewhat underpowered--a skill-centered martial artist--but he used the environment brilliantly to his advantage. The really nice thing was, he'd suggest or ask if an item was there and it always made perfect sense. I've had other players who suffer either from (a) lack imagination or (b)a lack of common sense. I've experienced far too many, "it's a chemical lab so there must be a powerful acid in one of the vials." type of questions. For fun, sometimes there's acid, but there can't always be some poweful (destructive) item in easy hand's reach. Besides, it just takes too long to draw or describe everything in a room. Suggestions?