OddHat

Re: WWII Era Superheroes and Villains Sounds fun. My own Eel O'Brian homage is an ex-petty thief who survives contact with a shape-changing Thing (recovered by my Doc Savage Homage from a crashed flying saucer in the Artic), or possibly that same Thing driven insane and trapped in human form. If he survives, he'll end up leading a quartet of Fantastic scientific adventurers in the 1960s.

Re: [Character]Blackstar, The Human Black Hole! Visible added to an already visible power is legal, just making it more visible; noisy and visible are effectively merged in 5th.

Re: Villains Vandals And Vermin (VVV)

Re: CU Pondering... So, if Dr. Destroyer's predictive computer systems told him that either Charm Girl or Teen Dream could provide him with a "Perfect Offspring", a new young body to act as a receptacle for his genius, and Takofanes became aware of a prophesy that either Charm Girl or Teen Dream would make the "Perfect Sacrifice", finally uniting his Lich's body with his lost spirit and fully restoring his power, what would happen?

Re: CU Pondering... Encounter A: CG: Sugoi! TD: Wow! CG: Sugoi! TD: Wow! CG: Sugoi! TD: Wow! (Repeat until players attack) Encounter B: [Censored, but internet video downloads exceed all previous records]

Re: "Batman, but with..."

Re: "Batman, but with..." 1) Martial Arts abilities, one or two steps under the best "human" martial artist in your campaign: If your best human martial artist has STR 30, DEX 30, +10 MA Levels, and +6 DCs with MA, then a mystic Bat Clone gets STR 25, Dex 26, +8 MA levels (total, including any HtH or Overall levels), and +5 DCs with MA. 2) Detective / Savant abilities, probably the best possible for a human in your campaign. INT 28 or better (depending on where you set your cap), many Detective, Knowledge, Acrobatic and Interaction skills at a base 18- or better to take advantage of the Extraordinary Skills rules on 5thER p.47 and in the Ultimate Skill book. Remember that skill levels and complimentary skill rolls can be applied to Extraordinary Skill use, so long as the base skill starts out at 18- or better. 3) Luck, and lots of it. Stands in very well for subtle magic. 4) An actual magic pool, mostly in gadgets, with active point levels at 1/2 the campaign limits or less. In other words, if your campaign's Sorcerer Supreme has a 120 point cosmic VPP, your Mystic Batman should have around a 40-60 active point limit on his gadgets; enough to be effective, not enough to challenge for the Sorc Supreme title. Here's a 350 point Mystic Batman type I used in my New Circle convention games: http://www.killershrike.com/NewCircle/Night%20Hunter.HTML Here's the same character at 750 points: http://www.killershrike.com/NewCircle/Night%20Hunter_750.HTML

Re: Ghosts and other Spirits It's one of those areas that's always trickier in an RPG than in fiction, even more so in a point based system where characters are meant to be balanced. The Enter the Microverse/Megaverse/Speed Zone/Mind Zone approach can be used here, with all the caveats that go along with those powers; they work really well at simulating the genre, but only work in a campaign if treated as major elements with scenarios adjusted accordingly. In my Imperium Romanum games it works out well enough; ghosts and spirits are formidable against many NPCs, especially mooks, but very vulnerable to spell casters and the dangers of the Astral. I wouldn't use the same approach in my WWII Supers game; not enough psychics and spell casters to keep EDM Ghost types from being disproportionately effective compared to the price they paid.

Re: Ghosts and other Spirits Good summary. From my own experience, EDM Ghosts work with a minimum of book keeping and fiddling around; so long as ghosts and spirits are a major part of the campaign, with adventures and NPCs designed accordingly, it's a viable approach. If NPCs and adventures are not designed to deal with Ghosts, Ghostly characters effectively get Invisibility, Desolidification, and APW on attack powers at a deep discount. They're also technically immune to ADSO attacks. That's effectively a lot of free points to be handing out.

Re: Ghosts and other Spirits My Imperium Romanum thread over in the Fantasy Hero forum deals with how I currently handle this. YMMV and all that. In short form, Ghosts naturally inhabit Astral Space. They have to pay for Transdimensional on the Sight Group to perceive the physical world; if they do so, they can target the physical world with EGO powers or powers based on ECV. They can always be perceived by Mental Awareness, appropriate Detects, the Mental Sense Group, or Transdimensional (Astral Space) Sight, and may always be targeted by ADSO attacks and powers BOECV. Ghosts perceive and interact with one-another normally, and Astral Space is both inhabited and multi-leveled, with its own dangers. The upshot is that Ghosts become somewhat cheaper and more standardized in their abilities. In a magic oriented campaign, where PCs and important NPCs have Mental Powers and ADSO attacks, Ghost characters aren't overpowered for the price they pay. In a campaign where the GM doesn't want to go to the trouble of creating Astral / Spiritual threats for Ghostly PCs, or where the PCs or NPCs aren't regularly going to have the powers to deal with Ghostly foes, I'd recommend against this approach, and instead use the standard Invisibility plus Desolid; the EDM option quickly becomes a game breaker if no one can spot or affect the ghost.

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat He's smart, organized, driven, goal oriented, and wants what every six year old child wants: revenge.

Re: House Rule: Adding body damage to a game A house rule I've seen occasionally: For every 10 STUN that gets through defenses, 1 BODY gets through defenses. Makes for a much bloodier game, and encourages PCs to buy high BODY scores, regeneration, etc. Don't use it myself, but then I do include bleeding and bruising as SFX of taking Stun.

Re: WWII Era Superheroes and Villains One very sad story on Jess Nevins site: I've been thinking of folding Kabel's real life story into that of a German mystery man destroyed by the Nazis, maybe even give the PCs a chance to earn some payback for him and those like him. After all, it's a heroic genre.

Re: WWII Era Superheroes and Villains

Re: Heroes for HERO? Nope. We got Linderman's healing, we know from the comic that the Haitian's father was able to induce ecstasy and madness, and as far as I can recall that's it. Lots of speculation though. The next season's Generations theme is rumored to deal more with that.

Re: Heroes for HERO? Good write ups all, and the take on the Haitian's power set is particularly cool.

Re: Heroes for HERO? 1) Peter was trying so hard not to explode he couldn't access any of his other powers. That's what he meant by "I can't do anything". 2) The Hatian isn't immune to super powers; he might not have seen them, and might not have had his suppression field running. Alternatively, we know he was secretly working for mama Petrelli; maybe he wasn't sure what he should do about Peter, and so let him go. 3) We'll find out in season 2. 4) The Hatian was working for Mama Petrelli; he spared Clair. 5) Nope. Fan wanks include the idea that Hiro was already trained in Kendo and just needed some self confidence, or that his father's power is teaching through a training montage.

Re: [Character] Powderkeg I did notice. Good to see him still getting some use.

Re: Buying a Perk, Independent, Charges Never Recover.... Matter of point of view and simplicity of build, from my own pov. I'd say you didn't take the points away permanently; you took away the END until a particular ceremony was performed to regain it. After the ceremony, the lost points were back. The argument can be made that they could have used that time to build a higher END reserve if they hadn't burned END on their spells; not sure I entirely agree. Seems more a case of the player choosing how tough he wants the adventure to be (by using or not using his END reserve), and XP awards being adjusted accordingly. Not intended as a criticism; sounds like it worked well in play. Just not what I think of when it comes to permanent point loss; in this case, the player who "lost" points also has a chance to get them back not open to those who didn't.

Re: Gestalt Interview Happy birthday, GB.

Re: [Character] Powderkeg Cool character, reminds me of a less upbeat version of Dumb Bunny mixed with a more limited Flex Mentallo. Especially liked the Powderkeg Effect, and good use of SPD and poor tactics to limit her vs the PCs while still keeping her useful. Was using the 13 DEX + levels rather than going to 14 was intended to further limit her compared to PCs? For comedy effect, her 5 INT but perfectly respectable knowledge of supplements offers a chance for an entertaining scene now and then.

Re: WWII Era Superheroes and Villains

Re: Gestalt Interview What about future sales? There will be more Gestalt and TAFU books out eventually after all. I'd suggest that the ideal HERO consumer refrain from explosion as long as possible, in the interests of the hobby.

Re: Buying a Perk, Independent, Charges Never Recover.... I don't allow independent or charges that never recover, and I don't take away points in play for lost perks; the player gets them back and we'll work out something new to spend them on. I also explain to players that I take the view that limitations and disadvantages are not exclusively there to save points (though that can be part of why you take them); they are there as a request from the player to the GM that a given element be introduced in the story. When the player places OAF on his character's Power Staff, his asking me as the GM to occasionally have scenes where that staff is taken away; if he doesn't want scenes like that, he shouldn't take the limitation.

Re: WWII Era Superheroes and Villains Doktor Spira, adventuress and collector of antiquities. A Nazi pulp adventuress turned Super Soldier. To increase her power, re-do her gadget pool.