Hugh Neilson

Re: Hard to build powers. I've yet to find a power Hero can't do (especialy thrown out to the gurus on this board). Some, however, are overbalancing (thus excruciatingly expensive) or just work poorly in a game context. Luck or probablity manipulation (eg. Scarlet Witch hexes, Longshot, Marvel's Shamrock "luck") work poorly. I'd use either a huge multipower or large VPP, but they all have No Conscious Control because the character lacks control over how the powers will manifest. That's not too hard to stat out, but a pain to GM, and not a lot of fun to play, since the player lacks control over the character's powers. The ability to mimic other characters' abilities has been a tough one since Day One. It needs to be, from a game balance perspective. If a character can do anything anyone else can do, the character is pretty quickly overpowered. As a result, the ability is pricy. Rogue (Rouge is makeup, by the way - that seems the most common RPG spelling error and is a "personal pet peeve" ) removes the powers of her target as well, making her even more powerful, and thus even more pricy. Steve's mechanic in USPD is pretty accurate, and very costly (I think upwards of 600 points, although there are a number of ways one could bring that cost down by sacrificing some power). I won't restate it here - buy the book for Steve's proprietary knowledge. [steve, out of curiosity, how much thought went into the power - ie how many different mechanics did you try before settling on the one you ultimately chose?] A common mechanic for similar characters is a Variable Power Pool to mimic the powers of others. Again, though, copying the powers of a number of characters requires a very large VPP, so very expensive.

Re: accepting rules suggestions for 1st Annual Combat Wombat Steel Cage Grudge Match! A lot depends on which school of thought you're taking here. There seem to be two approaches. The first is a pure cage match - build the most combat-capable character possible. This would seem to argue for things like: - restricted limitations and disadvantages (ie only those that will come up in combat) - no AP caps, advantage caps, CV caps, etc. - probably need some "disallowed" abilities, mainly things like "megascale flight usable against others" The second is for role-playable characters. In this case, we probably need things like: - AP caps, CV caps, etc. - still some "disallowed" abilities - no restriction on "in concept" disadvantages and limitations - perhaps a lower total points limit to accomodate non-combat abilities (eg. all characters have 300 or 325 points - the other 25 or 50 represent non-combat abilities like sciences, COM, Megascale movement, whatever) - maybe a similar structure for disadvantages - ie you only need 50 or 75 points of disad's, but all must be combat-related (the other 75 or 100 are assumed to be non-combat disad's like Hunted, Dist features, etc.)

Re: Is OAF worth a -1 limitation? I thought Green Arrow Conner Hawke was considered DC's top HTH fighter after he defeated Lady Shiva in HTH combat a few years back.

Re: Global Guardians - Champs by email (review) The audit process discussion is an interesting one. It bears noting that two key gripes exist. The first is that turnaround is too slow. The second is that there's limited opportunity for discussion/debate with the auditor. It seems pretty obvious that the more opportunity there is for discussion, the longer each audit will take. The longer each audit will take, the slower the turnaround will be. Worldmaker's going to have to decide what the balancing point is. Certainly, steps can be taken to streamline the process, and a lot have been suggested. But faster turnaround relies, in part, on each audit being faster. More back & forth = more time per audit = slower turnaround. Maybe it would be more efficient if the auditor and player could have an "audit meeting" in an IM program to get back & forth speedier than an email process. Maybe that's not viable, but it could be worth considering, as it could enable more discussion with less turnaround implications. nb: I have no direct experience with the GGU, so I'm commenting only from my own experience in my campaigns, and the (vivid) descriptions of the audit as already posted.

Re: Global Guardians - Champs by email (review) I think this is a key point. Like any campaign, there is a GM who has his way of doing things. Like any such situation, some people will like his way of doing things, and others will not. In Worldmaker's case, there appears to be little room for negotiation, and that appears to work for him and those who play in his games. As with any other campaign, if you don't like the ground rules, you won't enjoy playing so why hang around.

Re: YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING! True, and a good point. However, most GM's, or at least most experienced GM's, would think twice about actually allowing it as a MP slot (I think the fAQ talks about this as well). However, it does work well as a spell in a fantasy game, where this sort of thing is more common. If your fantasy game uses a framework system for spells, it's a shame to force the "polymorph self" spell out. But in a Supers game, I'd look pretty hard at a slot for Multiform in that 75 point Multipower, and "by the books" nothing really leads you to look sideways at it. That makes it easy to be overlkooked by a new polayer (whose character is now shot down by the GM) or a new GM.

Re: Multiform... maybe old question...

Re: Power Skill...How Do You Use It? This I really like - an excellent mechanic for enforcing the "if you want to use it regularly, buy it as a power" concept.

Re: Multiform... maybe old question...

Re: YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING! Well, possible anyway. This gets us off to a start. What if we have two forms that are more or less equal? Let's say the "true form" is a 300 point character, plus a 50 point multiform for a 350 point base form and a 250 point alternate form. Well and good. Our true form now earns 25 xp, and wants to spend it on Multiform, making his Mutiform cost 75 points. Also good. He's now a 375 point character, and the Multiform is a 375 point character. If he earns 5 more points, and wants to boost te multiform, the secondary form now becomes the base form, since it has more points - and we have to transfer the Multiform power. Bit of a mess there... I find it easier to simply impose some common sense campaign guidelines. Technically, my character could be a baseline human norm with 350 points all spent on Multiform, making a 1,750 point secondary form (with 1,550 points of disad's! ). But, for game balance, I would simply rule that no form may have more total points than the base character (ie 350 + xp of the base character). Now, that may let out a build of some form, and I'm open to concepts that may requiore a breach of the rule. An example may be a FH mage with a spell that transforms him into a Dragon. But as a base rule, I would not allow a character to have more points in the Multiform than the character would have. Captain Marvel with Billy as the base form? I can see a few ways to deal with him: (a) Billy gets 1/5 the xp of everyone else, which he spends to buy up the Multiform, such that Cap gets the same increase to total points that all the other heroes get. This would work best where the second form is the "real" character, and basically writes off the Multiform as a special effect. ( Billy can't send more than 1/5 of his xp on the Multiform, so Cap stays at the same level as his peers. Billy spends the rest on other things, but not on the Multiform. This acknolwdges Billy as a second form, with its own abilities. © Why Multiform? Use Billy as the base and buy all of Cap's abilities "only in hero ID". Certainly, there have been stories where the magic lightning is inaccessible, so the OIHID powers aren't available. This, to me, is the classic Big Red Cheese, since he can do everything Billy can anyway.

Re: Global Guardians - Champs by email (review) hmmm...a fair and balanced comment. These are rare and should be encouraged, methinks

Re: Super Speed Accelration Rolls are always fun!! But my bonus +1SPD, on activation, will be rolled only once per turn, at the start, to determine whether the extraphase will be there. [Now my +1 DEX gets a roll every phase...]

Re: Super Speed Accelration Well, I don't know what your experience has been, but mine is that END is a finite resource. An extra 4 END per turn can definitely have an impact. A major impact? maybe, maybe not - but the limitation is only -1/4. Now does this guy with extra Speed have other powers that cost END? He now uses them on 2 extra phases. What happens when he recovers from -3 STUN? Suddenly, END is a much more finite resource, isn't it? So I would say yes, it is sufficiently limiting to merit a -1/4 at least. Is it enough for -1/2? Well, probably not, since spending 2 END every phase would be -1/2 for "costs END" by the FAQ.

Re: Super Speed Accelration

Re: Ye Old "Hero is Hard" Debate

Re: Ye Old "Hero is Hard" Debate

Re: Super Speed Accelration All he has to do is **not** pay the END to keep it going. He gets a phase in 10 from both 8 and 10 speed anyway. But poor phrasing on my part to say "attack and turn off", which implies an ordering I wasn't actually intending. Actually, I'm a bit down on the whole "costs END for characteristics" issue anyway. Does it cost END to have it, or to use it? After all, +10 STR, 2x END, costs no END unless you exert the STR. When do you "exert" Speed? And, at the same time, PD Costs END, is pretty much a Force Field, and it costs END whether you actually use the PD or not. Speed's probably the toughest stat - is the character USING his +2 speed in phases he would have had anyway? Easily applied with Spd 8 and 10, where all SPD 8 phases are also enjoyed by 10. Tougher with, say, 3 and 4 SPD. I think the FAQ answer is probably the best one - you have the SPD, so you pay END for it. But I think that also makes tactics of switching on and off to preserve END technically correct, albeit a possibly sleazy approach. But you wouldn't fault me (I hope) for only using my +10 REC, costs END, when I plan to take a recovery. So should you fault me for only using my +2 SPD, costs END, when I will get an extra phase? NO - I'm just making prudent decisions in accordance with the game mechanics. YES - I'm metagaming the speed chart, not making choices my character has any basis for making.

Re: Super Speed Accelration Well, you could activate your 10 SPD in your phase 2 (2 END), move on Ph 3 (2 END; 8 and 10 both move on 3), move on 4 (2 END) shut it off, move on 5 & 6, activate on 8 (2 END), move on 9 and 10 (4 more END) shut it off and move on 11 and 12. That holds it down to 12 END. Before buying SPD that costs END, I would carefully consider how you envision that "costs END" working and talk it over with your GM. I suspect many would disallow the "on again off again" approach as being metagaming (ie how does Accelerator Man know precisely which phases are "extra"), myself being one of them. I remain undecided whether I would charge END every phase or only on the bonus phases, however - I fail to see why this guy should pay 20 END per turn when a character with 4 SPD, +2 Costs end pays only 12 (same point savings) and a character with 4 SPD +6 costs END should pay 60 END per turn (mind you, he gets a bigger cost break, so that's more reasonable). All things considered, I think I'd be more inclined to take a small side effect or susceptibility on the extra Speed that costs some amount of END.

Re: Poison Field Works for me. By the way, as self-contained breathing is a defense, would a character holding his breath also be immune? I suspect she'll be attacked at range a lot (by those who need to breathe, anyway).

Re: charge for linked powers Another NND that does BOD...you're determined to inflict body damage, aren't you? Do a lot of your players have attacks that act againhst non-standard defenses and do BOD damage? It seems odd that the poison is injected even if the dart cannot penetrate the target's [select one] force field; rocky hide; steel-hard skin. I find 1d6 AP KA a lot for a dart that's only intended to inject a toxin. I'd be more inclined to make the NND fly solo, and call the defense "the character would take no BOD from a 1d6 AP KA" (or whatever level you want to set it at).

Re: Poison Field Dr D: the quotes here may be a bit off, and/or combine your and my comments: I have a lot of characters that 20 BOD (4 attacks) would leave stone cold dead. For a SUper, taking 5 BOD in one shot is a lot. That's fine if it's the intent, but accidentally dead characters are a drag. I don't think that's the effect you'll get. I believe the attack will affect everyone within 5" when she activates the power (explosion), its damage is rolled at that time, and then be applied over the next 5 turns for 1 minute gradual effect. Actually, I think they can recover the STUN taken at PS 12 as well, so it may have no impact at all If you're looking for more of a damage field effect with minor, but continuous, STUN damage, maybe buy the power as a constant area effect 1d6 or 1/2 d6 NND. 5d6 over 5 turns will average 0.7 STUN poer phase (assuming SPD 5). 1/2d6 averages 1 STUN per phase. I have "issues" with Inherent. I think my eyesight is inherent, and a fish's ability to breathe underwater is inherent, but both of these can technically be drained or suppressed.

Re: Poison Field I share the question of how the charges are "recoverable". [Visions of character sweeping up spores after the battle fill my head] I would remove boostable - you want to release more spores, attack again. This reduction to the advantage can be used to buy "continuous". I'm not a big fan of NND's that do Body (or any attack guaranteed to do BODY) unless it's controllable. 5d6 does BOD can kill a character very quickly. This one also implies that spores can be released every phase until the 9 end per shot takes the character down - is that the effect you're going for? I'd be inclined to go with charges, as well as take Gradual Effect to 1 turn as some one else already suggested. I'd probably make this more of a Drain effect than an attack that does only STUN (and BOD), but that's just personal preference. I'd still probably make it NND, though.

Re: how would you build this concept\power "Not vs target character"? Seems to me that's just the standard requirement that the Desolid character be affected by something. Now a better question is how mkuch extra DEF we give this Desolid construct against attacks that affect desolid from people other than the target, since he should be immune to these.

Re: how would you build this concept\power VERRRY CREATIVE!!!

Re: how would you build this concept\power If you want to use Mental Illusions, it sounds like you can only create a limited type of illusion (Yourself exhibiting superhuman STR), and must get to the level that the target can take STUN and BOD. Each of these is a limitation. I'm inclined to give -2 for the first - this removes most of what Mental Illusions can do - and say -1/2 for the second as it restricts, but not mnuch given the restruction already in place for #1. Some form of Selective or Nonselective Area Effect is likely also desirable to affect multiple targets. You'll also want to keep spending END to keep those breakout rolls capped.