OddHat

Re: Who's doing that?

Re: Who's doing that?

Sorry Steve, very basic question: The rules for IPE on p.262 seem to read such that if an attacker with IPE at the +1 level should launch an attack, by default no one will know who launched that attack. However, in special circumstances such as the Fully Invisible Gun, some viewers may notice that the attacker was pointing at the target. Such circumstances may not apply for something like, for example, eye beams. Is that reading correct? As always, thanks.

Re: Order of the Stick "Roy, this is your Oedipus Complex. Oedipus Complex, meet Roy."

Re: [Review] Arcane Adversaries Good review. I was ultimately disappointed by this book. Some aspects strongly appealed to me, most notably the ideas behind the CotSM, and the mystic families (a Champions staple). Still, the power write ups just felt overly clunky, very hard for novice GMs to even get through and challenging for intermediates to use. Fewer multipower slots and more suggestions on how to expand each characters range if required would have helped.

Re: Ps238

Re: Who's doing that? No. Hide Effects of Power, the x2 level of Invisible Power Effects, unless a ruling has been made against that since the last time I checked. Other than that, MC or the +20 level on mental powers is the way to go. -1/4 Drain One Drain All; I think Ultimate Energy Projector may actually have upped this to -1/2, but don't have the book here.

Re: FRPG Ideas from D&D that ain't necessarily so

Re: Your characters, favorite by Archetype Favorites were probably Harlequin (a Cosmic character closest to the Mentalist and Mystic archetypes) and Flesh Gordon (a luck based martial brick, very inefficient design but fun to play).

Re: A Thread for Random Musings Started a weight training and diet blog. Thought about doing it as a thread, but a blog seems like a better choice. If you're interested in either, please stop by.

Re: Just For Fun - Comedy Clip RE: "Superscience" Really depressing. Reminds me of a convention where the conversation became so intensely nerdy that my wife, herself a gamer, went and hid in the car.

Re: FRPG Ideas from D&D that ain't necessarily so

Re: Order of the Stick I owe Hermit five Internets. Never thought Roy would go in without his father.

Re: Order of the Stick The rules refs became fewer and farther between after the first hundred strips or so anyway, though I still get a kick out of them when they come up. OotS has done more to keep me interested in D&D than anything since the ToEE CRPG.

Re: FRPG Ideas from D&D that ain't necessarily so

Re: Order of the Stick

Re: Order of the Stick Agreed. I bet five Internets that he starts to go through, can't make himself, and then offers his place to his father.

Re: FRPG Ideas from D&D that ain't necessarily so This one always bugged me. You can fan wank it, but it just doesn't hold up. Also, 55) Evil is a club. Evil people of all races and nationalities, as well as monsters, humanoid and non, get along fine, and will cheerfully unite in coalitions of the Evil to fight the Good. 55b) Evil is objectively measurable, and if you are Evil, you know it. It doesn't worry you; heck, you're probably proud of it. You put it on your business cards. Dirk Fangbottom: Evil Madman.

Re: Hero's List Mostly the same in my games. Except for Butch Beefbrick, Master of the Manly Men! Gay as a Christmas Tree, that one, and with even more glitter.

Re: Overhauling mental powers In a pulp game, I once ran a "Telepath" using only the extraordinary skill use rules. Mind Reading = Analyze Body Language + Conversation, both at 24-, resisted by Acting. Thought Sending = Ventriloquism 24- Mind Control = Persuasion 24-, resisted by EGO Mass Mind Control = Oratory 24-, resisted by EGO Mental Illusions = Acting 24- + Sleight of Hand 24- + Persuasion or Oratory 24-, resisted by PER Etc. Fun, pretty simple and intuitive, very expensive but he was an NPC. If writing it up for a player I'd probably allow various cost breaks, say only require that the skills be purchased at 18- (base entry level for Extraordinary Skill Rolls) and then allow levels with "All Psychic Skills" at 3 per level from there.

Re: Hero's List I don't buy his premises. Female characters in general are treated horrifically badly in comics (see Women in Refrigerators), and I don't buy that Lesbian characters are treated any worse than female characters in general. I am not saying that the lousy treatment female characters get is excusable; I am saying that the author is so focussed on his issue that he's missing some of what he's looking at. Gay characters were extremely rare until the 1980s, fair enough. That follows the same trend as American popular media in general. Superhero Comics in the 50s, 60s and 70s were mainly a kids medium, and one under attack and close scrutiny by groups with what we now consider homophobic views; it's not all that surprising that they avoided sequences with Batman and Robin formally declaring themselves Life Partners. I thought the gay characters in Watchmen were handled well. One was the First Hero, one was a highly respected long time hero, one died tragically as a result of the weakness her fellow heroes showed in rejecting her to avoid bad publicity related to her sexual preference. In my own campaigns, there have been gay PCs and NPCs. Only one was run for camp value (by a gay player). Generally it hasn't been much of an issue.

Re: Mad, Beautiful Ideas I don't agree that there are many Superhero concepts, no matter how silly, you can't write up in Hero, so long as the GM is willing to interpret the rules liberally, allow Transformation Attack, Summon, EDM, and Power Skill, and apply custom limits and advantages where needed. That doesn't mean that there aren't characters that will break a given campaign, or that there aren't characters that are completely unplayable; just that there really isn't much you can't write up. This reminds me of claims that you couldn't build a 350 point character that could smash tanks. Eventually, after multiple 350 point characters that could smash tanks were posted, the assertion changed to "You can't build a 350 point character by the CU Guidelines for starting characters who can smash tanks". So long as you adjust guidelines and campaign ground rules to fit the characters you're trying to build, you have a lot of wiggle room in HERO. The opening opponents in my last GenCon game were an army of gorillas in diving helmets. My games get fairly mad.

Re: FRPG Ideas from D&D that ain't necessarily so Exactly so. Which is why I said that I wasn't sure that adventure-centric design could be seen as a flaw. I also don't see it as all that unrealistic, again depending on how magic is viewed in a campaign. Nothing improves language skills faster than a mix of academic study and full immersion, especially in situations where language skills are necessary for survival. If magic is viewed as a skill similar to language acquisition and use, the adventuring Wizard should learn faster and perform better under stress than the ivory tower academic mage.

Re: FRPG Ideas from D&D that ain't necessarily so Well, there's "XP from means other than killing things" and then there's "XP from a path other than adventure". Almost every system, even D&D, allows XP from means other than killing. I agree that there aren't many that allow much XP from pure study. GURPS had (and presumably still has) a system for it, don't remember many others. Not sure that adventure-centric design can really be seen as a flaw, either, depending on how you look at the roles of XP and Magic in a game.

Re: What if: Japan won World War 2? Why not just set your game in Japan? If you want a mix of Americans and Japanese, American Culture and Japanese Culture, they already have it. Increasing the number of Americans (if for some reason you want to) is trivial. Much easier than finding ways for Japan to rule America's West Coast without getting silly. For that matter, didn't you once do a campaign with Slayer Ninja Jedi trained by Batman? If that will pass muster with your players, waving your hand and declaring "America is Japanese; just go with it" is nothing.