Watchdog

Re: How to build this power I looked in my old DC Heroes book (Mayfair edition). They called the power Personality Transfer, and while it wasn't cheap, it was less expensive than the Hero version, based on a percentage of starting points. Add me to the list of those who like Doc's build, though I don't really have a problem with the bodyjack power in USPDB. I do have a question for those with characters in their campaign. If the character has the "no range" limitation, do they also have to touch the character's skin? In other words, is someone like Iron Man immune to the transfer?

Re: Spiderman Vs. Firelord If Firelord indeed has a 43 DEX and a 9 SPD, I might agree with you. But you appear to be an army of one making that argument. Even those on this thread who agree with you that Spiderman would never beat Firelord are doing so on the basis of the damage Firelord can deal out and his inherent toughness - not because he's more agile and quicker than Spidey. I could see giving Silver Surfer numbers like that, but no other herald has proven to be as powerful - and AFAIK no other herald has shown to be anywhere close to Surfer in speed and agility. Might I ask what Firelord has shown you to make you believe he merits stats that high in those characteristics? Do his opponents often miss him, or just fail to hurt him? When I look at Firelord, I fail to see any display of amazing DEX or SPD. Why would he? He has an area effect attack that can apparently vaporize several city blocks. He's grossly overconfident, and we agree he doesn't spend a lot of time/xp on combat skill levels. Do you have a better argument for giving him a 43 DEX than that he's obviously built on a lot of points? If he's given Thor a tough fight, and has no CSLs, I could see putting Firelord's DEX as high 29-30. The SPD? I think 6 is as far as I'd go. Does he really get that many more attacks than Thor? So when I give him those stats, a loss against Spidey becomes plausible when Firelord isn't using his ten block area affect inferno. Spidey dodges on phases where Firelord can attack, which gives Spidey two free shots at him a turn (assuming an 8 SPD for Spidey). If he can hurt him even a little bit - enough STUN to overcome his defenses and recovery each turn - he can wear him down if Firelord doesn't get a very lucky shot in. But then, that's just me. Someone with no knowledge of the genre who is seriously lame and without credible ideas.

Re: Spiderman Vs. Firelord OCV 8 + 5 levels HTH + 5 levels w Mjolnir + 3 all combat levels = 21 OCV. So even if you give Spidey a 14 DCV, you're saying Thor will miss Spidey one time in 216 if Spidey's not actively dodging - the same precentage of time he'll miss Aunt May. Is Spidey Dodging, giving him a DCV of 17? Thor will still hit him 95.4% of the time. Martial dodge? 83.8%. Imo, those percentages just don't jibe with what I've read in hundreds of Spider-man comics. Spidey simply isn't that easy to hit, even if the god of Thunder is doing the hitting. YMMV

Re: News Headlines as Plot Seeds Thread GROND DENIES BALCO LINK Insists substance was "flaxseed oil" (AP)

Re: Spiderman Vs. Firelord With respect, you need to start addressing the points I'm actually making, because what you're "responding" to bears little if any resemblance to what I've actually said. Please show me where I ever said that Spider-man beating Firelord would be the "norm." I'll save you the effort: I never did. What I did say was things like: I'm not saying Spidey will win every time, or even the majority of time. I am saying that unlike you, I can see plausible ways that Spider-man could occasionally win. How often? I'm not sure, but 10-20% of the time sounds about right to me. Your "by the numbers" approach means little as you're deciding on both the stats and the tactics. For the sake of argument I'll give you the stats - for the most part. But most people on this board - and i'm one of them - have a conception of Spider-man being able to do additional damage with his acrobatic maneuvers. Just by giving him the equivalent of a passing strike maneuver, he's going to do at least another 3d6 damage with each hit. So even if he's dodging five of his eight phases, he's doing 12d6 a hit - and with an OCV of 13 (12 + 1 for passing strike) he's going to hit unless he rolls an 18. I don't even need to push for him to do an average of 36 STUN a turn (42-30 X 3). That's 16 STUN net, after Firelord's recovery. I could stop it right there. Using those two numbers, Firelord goes down in 5 turns. If Spidey's losing 10 STUN after REC each turn, he's going down in six turns. Spidey wins, just by adding a 5 pt. martial maneuver that many on the board would agree fit into Spidey's combat style. But it's even more lopsided in Spidey's favor, because Firelord isn't going to hit as often as you estimated. By dodging every phase Firelord gets an attack, Spidey's DCV will be at least 15 (we'll assume it's not a martial dodge.) Firelord's OCV is 7, which means he needs a 3 to hit Spidey. Even if he spreads his blast to increase his chance of hitting Spidey as much as you say (unlikely, given that he refused to use a several block area effect attack to take him out in the first place, but what the hey), he's going to miss almost one attack out of five (He's about 84% to hit with a 13 or less). That's 5 less STUN damage per turn, meaning Spidey's only taking 5 STUN a turn. Now he'll last twelve turns to Firelord's five. Edited to add: If I make it a martial dodge, Firelord's going to miss 2 out of 5 attacks by spreading the same amount. We could quibble over the number's ad nauseum - Firelord should have more combat levels, Spideys defenses should be lower, etc. The point is, I didn't have to "tweak" your own example much to make Spidey a slight favorite. That's part of the reason I feel we don't have to attribute his win to a "writer's snafu."

Re: Spiderman Vs. Firelord Must? That strikes me as rather dogmatic and short-sighted. You can't imagine a scenario where character A will almost always beat B, character B will almost always beat C, but C will almost always beat A, without there being a flaw? I can think of several, based on the characters' respective powers, abilities, and flaws/disadvantages: Mentalist with high SPD ego blasts or mind controls brick before he can punch her out Brick's high defenses and STR prevail over marital artist Martial artist with high EGO can chop-socky the mentalist When a coach or manager for a top team is asked why his team doesn't do too well against a team with a worse record, his answer will often be a variation of "They cause us some matchup problems." For whatever reason, that team causes them problems. That's real life, not a flawed story.

Re: Spiderman Vs. Firelord What you actually said was: My point about "can't" being a poor choice of words stands. If you're saying Spider-man would not win many best-of-sevens against any herald of Galactus, I don't think you'll get much of an argument for those of us on the other side. But we are saying that it's certainly plausible that he could beat Firelord, which you initially seemed to dismiss with comments like the one above and your "PSI" comment. Now you seem to be willing to accept it as a "fluke", and that's fine. Only in the very narrowest interpretation of "effects". Yes, a normal losing six BOD doesn't lose CV or damage classes, unless some of the optional rules are used. But as Hugh mentioned, the implications of such an attack are much greater than that with any amount of decent roleplaying on either side of the combat. The thug knows that another punch like that will kill him. Not KO him, not hospitalize him, but kill him. He'll attempt to flee, immediately surrender, and/or start planning his excessive force lawsuit. The hero also knows that not only would two "average" punches kill a normal thug, but it would just take a slightly above average roll to put him at zero BODY - or even an average roll on a 10d6 attack if we're using the 5th ed. baseline for norms, which would be 8 BOD, 2PD. If the hero doesn't have more than a FAM in paramedics, he's risking a kill with every punch. Knowing those effects, a character with CAK (And I'd say Spidey has at least the 15 pt. version, if not 20) is going to be very careful in fights with normal thugs. It's another point in support of the "Spider-man is often holding back" argument.

Re: Spiderman Vs. Firelord No, there are thousands of issues where he doesn't do those things. That's not the same thing. Why doesn't he? Others have touched on this already. Spider-man is wracked by doubts and insecurities. He doesn't want to really hurt anyone. He catches colds and flus. All have shown that on his bad days - and Spidey has a lot of bad days - he's not at 100%. But when everything is clicking for him...when he's not holding anything back...he's shown that he can fight just about anyone in Marvel and give them a tough fight. I don't even have a problem with calling his win over Firelord a "fluke". But it's wrong to say that the fluke "can't" happen because it doesn't happen very often. Lots of gamblers get burned by this way of thinking. But in the game, Spidey's typical punch would do 6-7 BOD of damage to a normal thug. Assuming 8-10 BOD in the thug, we're talking multiple broken bones and internal bleeding with one shot to the gut. That seems pretty dangerous to me. Even if he's using the "pulling the punch" maneuver, he'd still end up fracturing a few ribs or limbs with every punch at full STR. But that doesn't happen when he KOs some thugs, so he's either using 1/2 powered attacked to start with, before pulling his punch, or the gaming system has some limitations when it comes to simulating supers vs. normals.

Re: New Champs Campaign. Advise/Suggestions appreciated 1. You can chalk up the powers to any significant scientific breakthrough. The rest of the question is a little more complicated, imo. It's possible, even in real life, to implant false memories in a subject. Psychologists have been successful in doing this with everything from mundane false memories (you got lost in a department store when you were six) to more troubling delusions (you were abducted by aliens.) So if you have a world with superpowers, it's certainly not a big stretch to do it on a greater scale in your campaign world. But how they interact with the rest of the world could be problematic - do they have friends or coworkers (in a secret ID) that they socialize with? Pretty much everyone in their circle would have to be a government plant, I think to keep up this masquerade, you would make their government contact a combination of the old Gyrich liasion with the Avengers, and Professor X - it should be a lot harder for them to discover the truth that way. (He could be from an earlier "generation" of experiments.) 2. How the government uses them will be interesting. I think the question of "Why has the government decided to reveal their presence at this time?" needs to be answered first. Was a Congressional Committee or General Accounting Office audit getting close to the truth? Was there a leak? Or as Scifi suggested, is this just a distraction so the government can work on their really badass paranormal project? 3. After the first publicity stunt, the public will have very different ideas about how they should be used. Someone with a spouse fighting in Iraq will be wondering why the guy who can't be hurt by bullets or car bombs isn't fighting there. Those on the left will be concerned by this new potential threat to privacy, especially if there's a mentalist. And the entertainment based media will be pushing very hard for personal details. 4. Rather than make it a total "black op" (though some deaths may be necesary) take a page from Men in Black, and "leak" something close to the truth - to the Weekly World News, to the Chris Carter X-Files production team (great pitch to the network!), etc. Discredit the idea before it starts. A good press secretary would also help here: "We created them? We can't even get the president to stop saying 'nu-cu-lur".) 5. Will this lead to a paranormal arms race? How will the Russians, Chinese, Islamic nations react? Do they already have programs of their own, using the same or different methods? 6. Each character should have a vulnerability and/or susceptibility that the government can take advantage of. Even a few Park Rangers could take out Superman if they had kryptonite bullets. They could also have microscopic tracking devices implanted in them without their knowledge, so the government will always know where they are. And if you want to get really grisly, it could also be the equivalent of a cortex bomb...

Re: Roll up, roll up... Let's see how YOUR Marvel Select will do... With the exception of the mental defenses, I think Plastic Man has the edge in every category you mention: Hydro Hand that can do some different things vs. entire body that can do anything. Stats are harder to determine with Plastic Man, but his strength and mass certainly gets a boost in certain forms: he can hold up a collapsing building, crush something when in the form of a tank, etc. In Champions terms, any DEX advantage Aquaman may have is negated by the various HTH attacks Plastic Man can make with an area effect. Decent defenses vs. near indesctructible defenses. And if sovereign nation ruler meant much in the scenario the op is giving (JLA vs. any Marvel) there'd be more Marvel teams with Black Panther. Plastic Man is so versatile than that he could create difficulties for most of the Marvel characters. I just can't see the same being said for Aquaman, especially in a fight on land.

Re: Roll up, roll up... Let's see how YOUR Marvel Select will do... The other JLA members hang out with them too, but somehow manage to avoid looking like chumps. No one disputes that...as long as they were at the bottom of the Marianas Trench, and Cap didn't have an oxygen tank. Assuming the fight isn't taking underwater, would anyone rather have Aquaman than Plastic Man if they were running the JLA team?

Re: Who is your campaigns "Bad Guy they love to hate" Camden Brown, attorney. He went from a brief mention in the Shadows of the City Dark Champions book to the #1 pain in the ass of the PCs. I certainly didn't plan for him to have a major role in the campaign, but when someone inspires such loathing from the players, I go with the flow.

Re: Spiderman vs... Reminds me of their brief encounter in Secret Wars #3: Nightcrawler: I'll get him! I'm as fast and agile as he is! (gets webbed) Spiderman: Not on the best day of your life, Nightcrawler. Nightcrawler (thinking): His strength! His speed! Unbelievable! He is awesome!

Re: Batman vs Midnighter If the power levels of their respective boyfriends enter into the equation, I have to give it to Midnighter.

Croc Hunter has been a character in our Can of Whupass event at Gencon the past two years. I won't go through all the stats, but here are some highlights: Dangerous animals multipower, 0 END, side effects (takes damage from attack if he fails an animal handling roll) u - A charging rhino! EB vs PD u - A school of piranha! RKA autofire u - A vicious crocodile! HKA, no STR bonus or KB u - A big python! NND (life support, no breathing), continuous u - A poisonous spider! drain vs COn & STUN Some of his disadvantages: Hunted by PETA 14- Hunted by the spies who want what the crocodile...ate? (Hell, we're still not sure what the plot of the movies was) 14- Psych Lim. Really, REALLY loves his job Psych Lim. Always talks to the "camera", even when none are around. Psych Lim. Indifferent to bipedal mammals Rivalry: Manimal (Croc Dundee was too obvious)

Interesting idea with the multiform armor, though I'd probably be inclined to to build them as a VPP: Armor accessories, only changed at Homestead. For Ironclad, I would up the defenses a bit, and give him lots of brick tricks. A resourceful gladiator should be able to do more than find weakness and punch. And assuming it takes time to acquire 100 XP, I'd probably have him buy off the "Doesn't understand earth culture" disad. Sapphire should put more points in wealth (A J-Loish celeb is only taking in 500K a year?) Nighthawk should spend some more points on the multipower, because many of them should not be ultra slots. ("Hmm, I'm doing surveillance on that gang tonight. Should I record what they say, or what they do? ") Then he would have to buy area effect Mind Control, persistent, always on, one command: Ignore the duck on my head when I do a PRE attack.

IIRC, the true forms of the demons in Demons rule were...well, demons. They assumed the forms of teenagers to influence the various gangs. If you changed the scenario, that's pretty brutal. But I like it.

This is an interesting idea, as there are a lot of creative things you could do with the characters' powers and skills... ...but instead I'll just give them each 100 more points of strength. Actually 200 for Defender, since his won't affect figured charactersistics, and is an OIF.

The players is my campaign frequent this board on occasion, so I don't want to say too much about the content of Battlegrounds. But I will mention a couple of things, so SPOILER ALERT, and all that. I liked the maps, and yes, I did put the entire mall on a battlemap - well, the first floor anyway. Then I spread about half a big bag of M&Ms to represent the shoppers and other innocent bystanders. It worked well. I do a fair amount of tinkering with any published adventure to make it fit my campaign, so I don't have a big problem with using characters in previous books. I did that in the second scenario, adding CLOWN - oops! 5th ed. no-no! - into the mix (their plan was to steal the fake diamond and replace it with a real one) I guess I'm in the minority on the speed charts. I like them, but perhaps they could be redesigned to put in a few other key stats (like CON and STUN)), and the primary attack powers for each character. Perhaps with a bare-bones version like this, you could run the battles even without one of the sourcebooks. I didn't see any wasted space in the product - no, check that. In the description of the park: "The shrubs themselves...have the Disadvantage, Vulnerability: 2X BODY from fire-based attacks." What?! And after all those times the PCs in my campaign have frustrated Firewing by taking cover in the shrubs!

Maybe I'm , but as of last year I thought someone else was running the con? http://www.gencon.com/display.aspx?file=company

I'll second the Buca di Bepo nomination. It's been a pre-convention tradition for our group to eat there Wednesday night. We feel lucky that there is another Buca in Indianapolis. The garlic mashed potatoes are awesome. It's family style, so bring a big appetite. There's a Hooters, too, so our dining out needs will be completely met. Since we're promoting HERO events, I'll point out that I will be running Can of Whupass for the fifth year, Saturday at 7 pm. Lots of old favorites will be returning, as well as six new characters. We're very proud of this event, and if you stop by, you'll see why. And Dave, make sure they let you out of the booth that night so you can play!

One week to go, and I'm getting psyched. As much as I liked Milwaukee, from what I've heard Indianapolis will be a real upgrade in facilities. Did you preregister for most of your events? Or do you prefer to get generic tickets and wing it when you get there? What are you most looking forward to?