Christougher

I'm pondering a sci-fi campaign where the PCs would be Space Marines. I started working on equipment rated for actual normals with 8's for Primary Characteristics. For 150 point PCs(the level we usually play at), that stuff is going to be over/underpowered. Should I tweak the equipment towards 50-75 point soldiers, tone the PCs down to 75 points, or is there another option?

What is the effect of buying Healing 2d6 @ 0 END Persistent?

What if Continuous and Uncontrolled were added?

After receiving The Ultimate Mentalist as a gift, I've become someone infatuated with the idea of running an ESPionage type game. But like the title says, I don't know exactly *what* to run. I need plot ideas!

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

Sounds so much like one of my players. She has BAD dice karma. She frequently rolls in the high teens (probably averaging 13.5).

 

Although I have to admit that lately we've been having some dismal STUNx rolls. I can't tell you how many times in the past few weeks we've hit the 9 STUN, 9 BODY. Of course, there was that time when Wendigo did 60 STUN or something obnoxious.

Bah, I got you all beat. Fantasy Hero character pushed her STR to 25 trying to break something. The roll: Yahtzee! Five ones. ZERO BODY.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

Fantasy Hero, members of the party include Feyor the half man/half goat, Thorn the half-elf, Yoshi the (half)samurai, and Dalen the (half)nature mage.

We wind up on the island that is the final test for mages. On the last test, a crop of plant monsters knock out Thorn and Yoshi, breathing spores on them that starts turning them into said plant monsters.

Shortly after that, we encounter a haughty manticore that assumes Dalen to be the leader of the party, calling her the Mistress of Flora and Faun.

Re: Friday Night (song parody)

A variation on the theme:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1479524500808777217

Given the previous "No" to Constant Persistent 0 END Healing, *IS* there a way to make healing occur every phase, possibly with Uncontrolled?

Re: Limitation: Exact Roll Required?

As the vict^H^H^H^Hplayer in question, the Requires Skill Roll suggestion was received, appreciated, and applied. However, to throw a bit of a twist into the question, the "exact roll required" was originally a damage roll. To properly shatter an unusual object, the exact DEF+Body would have to be rolled.

I went looking in 5ER for the cost of increased perception, and seem to have failed my PER roll.

What's the price for increasing perception of either a single sense, or all senses? I don't mean PSLs versus penalties, but an actual increase to the roll above (9+INT/5). Is this a skill or a power?

Re: Villian Slush

One villian I've though up but haven't done any stat work on is Poltergeist.

 

A ten year old girl with Teke powers under control of an evil mentor.

 

The twist, she doesn't think she is the one with powers. It's her stuffed bear, Mr. Bear, that has them.

Her Quote? "Mr. Bear says you've been bad and need to be punished."

 

If you take her bear from her be prepared for a NCC EB, AE'R, Megascale, Penetrating, and low str tK to bring the bear back to her. (Of course the bear rescues itself.)

 

TimS.

Thread crossover to "top 5 most powerful characters", at least in the local group. "Bag Lady" had essentially only two powers. 100 STR TK and Timestop. She was actually a little girl's psychic projection, until the mother of one of the heroes she killed returned the favor. In a later adventure, the gate to Hell was *left open* and Bag Lady came back, without the little girl...

Re: Secret Wars type in your campaign

The one version of that I know of predated my involvement in the group - it was called the Revision Wars, and occurred when the BBB was released. Many characters who couldn't be rebuilt under the new rules died, some experienced changes in powers.

Re: Uberworld - a new Champions PBEM Universe

Hey' date=' I just found a couple of your NPCs on the Guardians site. Did you know they're taking your characters?[/quote']

 

If you'd read the rest of it, you'd see the note that those characters are used with permission.

Re: Bennie's Head Swells, Film At 11

I went out and bought Villainy Amok this weekend. All based on the four previed pages linked here on the Hero site. Excellent book, when are you going to publish a sequel with even more plot ideas?

Re: THE ULTIMATE SPEEDSTER -- What Do *You* Want To See?

I'd like to see the DEATH of my pet peeve, the *barehanded* dissassembly of things at superspeed power. Very little can be dismantled without the use of tools.

The real challenge I'd like to see addressed though, is to separate movement from SPD. So a normal running noncombat moves 2" per segment, not in fits and spurts on phases six and twelve.

Re: "What do you mean, the character came off the paper and won't come back?"

I'd just finished designing a character, and thought to myself, "Man, this guy will be a great hero!". Character's voice told me, "Screw that, I'm a villain."

*Rip*rip*rip*Riiip*

Re: Rethinking Growth DI and Shrinking

Would it?

Would having 70 AP of Growth instead of 90 AP of Growth because you started with 20 STR mean you don't have Growth as your signature power?

 

It just makes it cheaper, and then you can spend the 20 saved points on the extras needed to make Growth work better. Extra inches of running, stretching, AoE for STR, or something like that...

Yes, by definition a signature power is one that is allowed to exceed the otherwise normal 75 AP cap. Anyone can have 70 AP of growth, only Siggy Tall should have more.

Re: Rethinking Growth DI and Shrinking

And in any case, this is less a problem with growth, DI and shrinking (none of which are killer powers due to the END cost) than it is with points caps.

 

If I was going to modify I'd target the problem directly.

 

cheers, Mark

How?

Re: Rethinking Growth DI and Shrinking

I think you're missing the obvious solution, which would be to do the same as you do for HA/HKA. Simply include the base STR with the points from Growth/DI.

And similarly include the base DCV with the DCV bonus from shrinking...

The problem with that, and why I started the thread - it essentially makes Siggy Tall, Siggy Heavy and Siggy Small untenable. Then again, I had no problem making that statement for HA/HKA... Have to think on this one.

Re: Rethinking Growth DI and Shrinking

WhammeWhamme, Signature Growth Man has the same STR as Signature Strength Man, plus he's 200 feet tall. That's the problem. Siggy Grow shouldn't be as strong as Siggy STR. Five points of Growth/DI is 5 points of STR *plus* benefits (and drawbacks). Your limitation is about the same as the figures I started from, only 10/15 instead of 3/5(9/15).

Bloodstone, the 90 AP cap = 18d6 damage cap. I don't really want to make an exception for a few powers though. Though STR currently is an exception of sorts - it follows a different rule - that you can add 90 AP to any characteristic. Banning the powers and forcing them to build by constituent parts doesn't sound like the right idea. (Oh, and *both* of them are going to lose the use of their STR if stunned or KO'd.)

In a Champions game with a normal 75 AP limit, characters are allowed to have a single exceptional "signature" power of up to 90 AP. HKAs and Hand Attacks include added STR for this purpose. But 90 AP of Growth or Density Increase gives +90 STR *and* incidentals (stun/body or pd/ed), while shrinking's DCV bonus hits the base DCV cap as well.

Characters shouldn't be prevented from having these powers at those levels, but they shouldn't be allowed a double-dip at that level. And rather than esoteric twists and bends, it seems like the most reasonable answer may be to redefine the benefits from those powers.

5 AP of Growth gives +3 STR instead of +5, everything else the same.

5 AP of Density Increase gives +3 STR instead of +5, everything else the same.

10 AP of Shrinking gives +1 DCV instead of +2, everything else the same.

Any thoughts or opinions other than 'drop the AP cap' ?

If a character has AOE Transfer (STR to STR), what happens if he's within his own AOE? Is his gain cancelled by his own loss (requiring Personal Immunity), or is this just handwaved?

Re: Knockback

MitchellS has a wonderfully simple idea, though Double Knockback suffers for it.

I was about to start tinkering with KB myself. One possible idea was give everyone base KB Resist equal to Body, and mostly eliminate the 2d6 Roll. The modifiers for KB for Martial/Killing attacks and flying/swimming targets would apply though. Haven't really worked that out though.

Re: Revamping the Horsemen

I wouldn't call my take on them a revamp, but I'm working on a supervillain team planning to call themselves the Four Horsemen. Took most of the module's horsemen and turned the ideas on their ears.

War: Ex Special Forces soldier experienced in all forms of combat - HtH and Ranged Martial Arts. Defeated early by the PCs as "Commando" (just another thug), conceives of the Four Horsemen idea and proceeds to recruit other villains to form his team.

Pestilence: Caught in a nuclear reactor and absorbed ultralethal levels of radiation, this stone cold killer called himself Fallout until he joined War.

Famine: Filling the brick slot, heavy damage reduction plus absorption. Darkness and vacuum powers, formerly called Wraith.

Death: Planned to be what may be a running gag, as War never seems to be able to find the right Death to go with the group. Success finally comes with speedster called Breakneck, stolen right here from the Hero boards.

Re: Not Quite another Killing Attack Thread

The other thing I don't like about KAs is the ridiculously disproportionate BODY/STUN damage delivered quite often: a character with 12 rpd and a total of 20 pd can take 40 stun but no body from a bullet. That just ain't right.

[/quote=Sean Waters]

 

That is THE reason I started this thread. It also applies equally to a 12 Body, 60 Stun normal damage attack too.

 

My players have never gravitated towards KA's. If they had, the easy fix would be "fix the STUN lotto".

[/quote=Hugh Neilson]

 

This sounds like you're admitting that KA's Stun Lotto *can* be a problem, only that you haven't experienced it. I have. I wanna fix it.

 

If a KA is virtually useless because it cannot inflict reasonable damage on opponents/targets, it is logical for no one to buy it.

[/quote=Hugh Neilson]

 

What definition of 'reasonable damage' are you looking for, stun or body? In my game, the only reason someone should buy a Killing attack is the desire to inflict large amounts of body and try to KILL someone. Stun is irrelevant.

 

Can you elaborate on the "other reasons" you had in mind? I'm interested.

[/quote=Lucius]

 

Mostly the rest of what you ran through. One of the triggers was the inability to make a Penetrating Flash, so I was trying to figure out a reasonable advantage for "Reads Stun as Body". Backfiguring the cost from KA to EB, then applying the results to Flash...tripling Flash's base cost to 15 AP/d6 was about the same, but could be made Penetrating. Been a while, and I don't have my thought process written down, so it's kinda muddy.

 

BTW, I agree that KAs and/or the Stun Lotto are overpriced; Hugh Neilson is arguing the other side. You quoted my answer to him and argued against it.

Re: Not Quite another Killing Attack Thread

I leave this thread for a few days, and just LOOK at what you people have done with it. LMAO.

Hugh Neilson: You don't believe KAs are underpriced. I do. As someone else said - more body, more stun, and AVLD effects for free. I'm not going to pick a fight over it, this is one to agree to disagree over.

Sean Waters: Love the Long Term Stun idea. Definitely going to have to consider it.

Gummibear: That's the exact effect I'm aiming for.

RDU Neil: This has been suggested before, but with different values of 20. A possibility, but I want people willing to pay the points to be unbreakable to be unbreakable.

Lucius: Daaamn. I'd been kicking around the ideas you presented in that essay for other reasons. Mucho fascinating, and you have rep coming as soon as I can give it.

Notable laughter from the derailment: Greywind, RDU Neil and pinecone.