Hugh Neilson

I'd be OK with the EDM provided the Base was paid for. As a GM, I'd be looking at the -2 (or higher) limitation for those END costs and expect it to have a commensurate in-game effect. The only way that happens is if there are reasons for you to switch to other slots, so you either have to decide to live without those other slots or pay a huge END cost to switch.

Or just wait wait for you to pass out from exhaustion after spending 40 of your 50 END to activate it. DEMON needs to field a team armed with mystic rings that provide a bit of Teleportation, Invisibility and Gaseous Form (Desolid), ideally with a mix of AP and mental attacks or adjustment powers. And a power that swaps OCV with OMCV (maybe also vice versa) in an area. Maybe a CE (penalizes OCV down to match OMCV and vice versa) would simulate that adequately. Otherwise it's the kludge of EDM. Why isn't ExtraDimensional Home a base with EDM to get there?

The control cost base (before advantages to change with no skill roll in a zero phase) is half the maximum AP of any single power in the VPP. Since your highest single AP power is 26, your control cost is 13 x 3 = 39/1.25 for UP = 31. The pool itself is the total real points of slots the pool can hold at one time. As the RP cost of each power depends on its limitations, that's more a moving target.

That being the case, you only need a control cost adequate for 26 AP, so 13 x 3 (no skill roll; 0 phase)/1.25 (unified power on all powers) = 31. If I am adding the 3 Multipowers correctly, they total 52 points, which leaves a 21 Real Point pool. If all the powers have Incantations and 2-handed gestures as well, the Control Cost is 13 x 3/2 = 19. which leaves enough for a 33 real point pool - enough to run a few 26 (or less) AP powers with -1 limitations at the same time.

Am I missing something (probably!)? The biggest AP power I saw was 45, so a 23 point control cost would be enough. The rest goes to the pool. With a 60 (or so) point pool, and at least -1 in limitations on every power, you can fit several 45 AP powers in at a time.

On the broader "cinema vs streaming", we saw BW at the new theatre that was just about ready to open when COVID hit. Their concessions are largely self-serve (excuse me, "touchless"), so you pick up your own snacks and go to cashiers on your way into the theatres. [I note they still control the butter dispensers, though.] Lovely reclining pre-booked seats were nice. In the pre-show, I lost count of how many times I heard some variation of how great it was to be back in the theatre seeing movies in the only way they were really meant to be seen. I think the industry gets just how precarious its current situation is. But I can also remember the theatres and the screens getting smaller and smaller in the late '80s and early '90s, until they figured out people stopped going, and just waited for the VHS/DVD to watch at home, on a slightly smaller screen without sticking to the floor or having some kid kicking your seat or yapping all through the movie, with their home-purchased snacks. The industry reinvented itself to make going to the movies more of an event then. I expect they'll have to do it again now.

Just glancing through, I'd be wary of "massive multipliers to END costs, but only once when I activate it". It's not very limiting when you can Activate all of the powers as part of the morning routine and have them available for the remainder of the day (i.e. basically whenever they are actually relevant). For a net -2 limitation (e.g. Tongues spell), the ability should be losing most of its effectiveness. It does not seem to lose much effectiveness at all. It's at least a bit more limiting when the abilities can't be maintained in perpetuity, like the Lockout ones, especially if I make sure most teams include a Mentalist, someone with Armor Piercing attacks, a Teleporter and a Desolidifier. Actyually, if the Mentalist is subtle and keeps suggesting you switch targets, or that the guy you are fighting might be able to teleport, that 50 END could run out pretty fast. Of course, "sauce for the goose" - every NPC can do the same thing. Say a suite of Limitations on some Triggered powers like "1 charge (-2;), OAF Potion (-1), Costs END (only to activate; -1/4); 8x END (-1 3/4) [it's EXHAUSTING to prepare that potion]; Extra Time, 1 hour (-3) [it takes FOREVER to prepare that potion] [I could toss on Concentration and 2 handed gestures while activating as well, I suppose] Total of -8 Limitations for some one-shot potions (drink, or throw) DEMON teaches all its low-grade agents to make. Maybe a single Drain of one magical effect, with a 4 meter radius, perhaps with Damage over Time and reduced recovery rate? That would certainly reflect the fact that they are more powerful, and make getting that walking magical artifact easier to subdue and haul back to the Morbanes. Maybe make them all Usable By Others - the Potion Master who never leaves the base makes them, and gives them to the agents so they don't even spend their own points! I also agree with Nekkidcarpenter's reservations on coupling Power Defense and Unified Power, although the wonders of limitation stacking mean UP isn't having much impact. I suppose it would not take much for a Morbane to develop some Drains that are AVAD Flash Defense (pick any sense desired), though. We'll call it the Limburger Death of Magic.

I have no problem rolling 1d6 every phase to average 3.5, especially if I'm otherwise paying the same price for 2 per phase. I don't believe there is an official "1d6+1" Healing as it's 10 points per 1d6. The biggest issue with allowing a greater frequency than 1/turn is that the character's SPD now has a significant impact on the pace of recovery, which is an issue for any Constant ability, less so for one requiring phases. If, instead, we priced from 1 turn down to every 3rd segment, SPD would not matter. Of course, the pace of regeneration/healing also matches the pace of END use - REC is less useful to a high SPD character outside the rare occasions when he can sacrifice phases to take recoveries.

While I agree that cost plays into these issues, it's far from the only relevant factor. Ninja-Bear sets out a few above (although I would suggest the GM who sets adventures where certain abilities are never useful has altered their relative value himself, a different concern). Some abilities are simply more common than others, in the source material and thus reasonably in the game. Both Multiform and Summon were absent from early Hero products, probably for the reason that they were less common. If I were seeing Summon and Multiform with identical frequency to Blast, Killing Attack, Resistant Protection or Flight, I'd believe Summon and Multiform were underpriced. They are not that common in the source material. They are also more complicated, which makes some players shy away - write ANOTHER (or multiple other) character sheet(s)? No thanks! How common are Drain or Mind Control relative to Blast or Killing Attack? I don't think their relative costs are unbalanced. I think the former are less common conceptually than the latter. An INT Drain is very powerful directed at a typical Supers team. So is an END drain.

It's also not great healing if it just seals up over something that definitely does not belong in there.

While I'm not opposed to possible repricing, we'd have to assess all "5 points for 1 point" constructs, and to date I have not seen a lot of suggestions that they are unbalanced.

It is somewhat disappointing to see what was an entertaining series turned into just a prologue for the next cinematic event. I guess that means they ARE getting better at emulating the source material.

Pretty much agree overall. We saw it yesterday. As for Taskmaster

I think, UncleVlad, that you (like me) were optimistic enough to think that, as the vaccinations rolled out, case counts among the vaccinated declined, and vaccinated people did not start developing random mutations, dropping dead in droves and/or setting off metal detectors due to all those NanoTrackers, people would realize that we have vaccinations to stop illness, not several different versions of some vast government conspiracy. Or at least figure out that, if the government REALLY wanted to get a foreign substance into much of the population, it could be distributed through drinking water, or alcohol (how many anti-vaxxers would give THAT up?), or in the air (we'll just claim that smell is smoke from forest fires...which we have a lot of in the air here in Western Canada right now). Whether I believe our government(s) would be above implementing Project: Nanobot or not, I give them credit for being able to do it less obviously, and with vastly less work,than staging a pretend pandemic. Sadly, that requires the ability to reason, which seems to have been stamped out of a substantial portion of the population. Why would any government fund education? A well-educated society of critical thinkers isn't helping them on election day!

Actually, that sums it up rather well, Derek!