Rapier

Re: MultiMagic in FH

WOW. You rock, man.

That is the kind of detail I have put into my Champs and Hero campaigns. Our FH campaign is not even really a campaign. Its more really like minor adventures with the same cast (episodic semi-related adventures...more like a Star Trek FH than a real campaign).

I'm workin now and trying to develop a FH campaign. It would be a lot easier for me (and more fun for my players) if I could coalesce (sp?) things into a contiguous campaign.

It would also give me the potential to drop a FH game in the midst of our Champs or Hero games to break up the monotony.

Would you be at all upset if I stole some of that (giving all due props to the Shrike along the way)?

Re: How much are these limits worth?

1) I thought (perhaps wrongly) that you check to see if you are stunned as the damage occurs, each attack checked separately - even if linked. So a 10d6 Cold & 10d6 Impact EB linked counts dmg separately for purpose of determining if the target is stunned.

 

2) you do not re-check to see if the total dmg in a round stuns a foe.

Hmm. I was thinking of coordinated attacks. If not coordinated, you are correct.

3) Stat altering effects kick in after the damage is calculated

Defsnive Power altering affects occur after damage. The only question is whether CON is a Defensive "power."

If these premises is wrong, I may have to re-think my goal. My understanding is the above are true, but that may not hold true for 5th...

 

#) and case 1 has a fellow being stunned by another as a result of my attack - something I specifically do not want to do. This attack is supposed to stun you, not make you prone to being stunned by other attacks.

Eh. Actually turns out I was more incorrect. Ah well. This is what happens when you don't have your books handy. Well, I tried. Back to the drawing board.

Re: Shapeshifting

Shrinking' date=' to reduce mass enough to be worn comfortably. Lots and lots of skill levels with Disguise, to Disguise oneself as a dress.[/quote']

Which brings up the question, why isn't there a Density Decrease? I've got one that I created. Rather, I would like to see two powers: Control Size, Control Density.

 

As a default, it would allow you to alter your size or density (respectively) up or down. You could limit it to positive levels (growth only) or negative levels (shrinking only).

Re: How much are these limits worth?

Rapier: ah' date=' but a CON drain occurs after rolling damage, so would never apply to the attack that includes it - but does lower CON for stunning for future attacks by me & all others. Its cumulative effect would exceed my goals, while the drain would fail to assist in the initial attack, and aid all other attacks against this target. I'd need to limit it so it was 1) non-cumulative, 2) the CON drain only against my attacks. I'd be better off with an attack that inflicts full stun with the limit that the additional damage caused by the attack heals on the following phase. Ick.[/quote']Ah, but would that necessarily matter? Stunning is most clearly a cumulative effect (all attacks that have hit in a single phase are added together to determine if the character is stunned).

 

Case A:

Segment 6:

- Donnie Draino hits the Scarlet Marmot with his EB w/ Linked CON Drain.

- Scarlet Marmot is not stunned by the EB, but has his CON drained.

- Zippy Zap (the electric superspeedster) hits SM with his electro-punch.

- SM adds the STUN done by DD and ZZ and finds that the total is over his now drained CON.

- The Scarlet Marmot is Stunned.

 

NOW, this area is a bit fuzzy. Obviously, if it were an Armour Drain you would never get the effects with the attack...but with a CON drain, CON has an effect at the end of every phase (eg determine if character is Stunned). What if ZZ (above) was not there?

 

Case B:

Segment 8:

- Donnie Draino hits the Scarlet Marmot with his EB w/ Linked CON Drain.

- Scarlet Marmot is not stunned by the EB, but has his CON drained.

- SM compares the STUN done by DD to his now drained CON.

- The Scarlet Marmot is Stunned.

 

But, wait. This isn't as far fetched as it would seem. What if:

 

Case C:

Segment 10:

- Zippy Zap hits the Scarlet Marmot with his electro-multi-punch (AF5) and hits 3 times.

- SM calculates that each of the separate punches did not stun him.

- SM adds the STUN done by all of ZZ's punches and finds that the total is over his CON.

- The Scarlet Marmot is Stunned.

 

Is there REALLY any difference between Cases A, B and C? Case B is a little bit fuzzy, but I think a case could be made to let it stick. I would have no problems letting this construct into my game. ESPECIALLY, if you just wanted it to last a single turn, purchase it as a Surpress with an extra phase.

Re: Haymaker or mere Push?

I'm sure you're right, but I can't think of an example...

 

My view would coincide with JMHammer's: no haymakering in entangles. I know you could have a 'charge up' SFX for your haymaker, but not in my game, sunshine. If your hand gets that hot in the confines of an entangle, you take feedback damage, or whatever justification it takes. The DragonBall example is probably adding energy damage anyway?

 

It is a combat manoeuvre and you are not in combat with the entangle - allowing haymakers breaks entangles, both in game and as a mechanic. Don't do it. I also don't allow most martial arts manoeuvres to be used by someone trapped in an entangle, or, in many cases HA damage or damage caused through foci, although I am a little wary about putting too much limitation on SFX.

 

Pushing is fine. Pushing is heroic. Pushing is tiring.

I couldn't necessarily think of an example either, however I am entirely willing to admit that there is, most likely, an example or three out there. Especially since the SFX of the two attacks are very different.

In my mind a Haymaker is more of an "overcharging" effect, be it winding up etc; a Push is increasing an exertion (gettin a couple extra STR to pick a car off a child etc). They are both similar, but different.

I agree almost totally with you, but my dramatic sense won't allow me to rule it out, out of hand. In certain cases, darn near anything is possible.

Re: Haymaker or mere Push?

Strictly speaking by the rules (p. 257)' date=' "Haymaker applies to any attack, not just punches." (end of the first paragraph).[/quote']

In theory yes. However, as always, dramatic sense, SFX and a few other considerations trump all. You cannot Haymaker a shot from an AK-47, but the attempt would look rather silly.

Re: How much are these limits worth?

What is the limit for a HA that inflicts no damage nor knock-back' date=' but is counted for purpose of stunning and knockdown?[/quote']

I would disallow the only for stunning portion entirely. Stunning is a side effect and metarule. I would disallow this the same way I would disallow and RKA listed as "Only to cause Bleeding." In this case, Stunning is specifically caused by taking more STUN damage than the character has CON in a single phase. If the character takes no STUN from an attack, he cannot then be stunned by the attack.

 

If you want to increase that chances of Stunning an opponent, use a CON Drain (or Suppress etc).

 

While I would allow and attack (Knockdown or Knockback only, does no damage...probably at the -1 level), I dislike this construct. I would rather have the character purchase some TK and shove the target. I think this gives a more "real" feel to the attack.

 

As always, these are just my opinions. Feel free to completely ignore!

Re: MultiMagic in FH

The Grimorie's cover different types of magic pretty well. Pretty much whatever you want to use' date=' use.[/quote']

Ah. Haven't got to them yet. They are next on the list.

Re: hanging PCs together

What other inventive ways have you used (or seen used) to draw a group of fantasy PCs together?

- Prison Break

- Innocent Bystanders (wizard hops in and blasts apart a player's farm or takes his sister hostage)

- The DRAFT (kingdom on war footing and the king starts drafting soldiers)

- All the PCs live in the same town/village that is overrun/attacked by monsters

- Want Ad (WANTED: Adventurers to kill evil guy, enquire after sundown at the Fluffy Marmot Inn - FYI there has been a Fluffy Marmot Inn in every single campaign I have ever run and all the patrons are pretty much the same).

Thats all I can think of off the top of my head.

Re: Haymaker or mere Push?

SFX. I would have to say it all comes down to SFX.

If the character wants to throw a Haymaker Punch to get out of an entangle defined as a blob of superstick bubblegum, I would say no.

If the character wants to throw a Haymaker EB to bust up some handcuffs, I would say yes.

If the character wants to throw a Haymaker with his WoodAxe when encased in an entangle defined as a 1" globe of yellow force, I would say yes.

Some things to remember:

- Haymaker doesn't always mean a punch.

- Some attacks can't be pushed, but they can be haymakered.

- Some attacks can't be haymakered, but they can be pushed.

- ANYTHING can happen if dramatic sense, SFX and furthering the story require it.

In this case, if the Little GM with the Halo (the one that sits on the left shoulder) is telling you that there is something funky going on, go with it. Chances are if your GM-Sense is going off...there is a good reason.

Just got my books today (YEAH UPS GUY!). I was reading/skimming through FH. I've been considering putting more effort into my FH campaign...making things a little more concrete and making it an actual campaign instead of episodic adventures loosely linked together.

I was looking through the Magic section right now, and I have been thinking that it would be really cool if there was more than one kind of magic in the realms. Runic, Sorcery, Elemental etc. This is more similar to how our heroic (and even superheroic) campaign runs magic, and we really like the effects.

Has anyone used multiple magic systems (or maybe I should say multiple magical SFX) in a campaign? Any suggestions?

I was thinking that if I define spell cost as AP / 5 (or 3...whatever the book suggests), I think that the style of magic (runic vs sorcery vs druidic etc) would fairly balance out the rest of the system.

- Runic takes more time, complicated, limited effects but pretty powerful.

- Sorcery is quick, easy, large effects but low in power.

- Druidic is sometimes quick, sometimes ritualistic, VERY powerful, but requires good circumstances (weather, seasons, moon position etc).

Thanks.

Re: Batman's two-wall jump

I'm thinking an Acrobatics roll for each bounce. A bounce will happen every 1", possibly every 2" (every other "). That makes it good for small walls, but would require an actual power for large walls which I think is appropriate for the utility (climbing up a 4 story building etc). Besides, it is necessarily dramatic and quite nifty.

Of course, provided it is a fence wall (as opposed to a buidling wall), coming off the other side is where the Breakfall would come in.

Re: Goodbye Washington DC

During a State of the Union address would be the time to get the most damage in.

 

There's always someone not there specifically for this type of situation, so succession would continue. There are some cold-war era movies where this happens, IIRC (in one, the Sec. of Agriculture becomes Pres).

 

I think alot of the international/global, even a lot of the national effects, would be dependent on how it happened/who the US knows/thinks did it. Of course, if the blast is big enough to get Langley and other local Intel HQ's, it might be hard to tell unless someone claims it. ie who gets nuked in response?

 

IIRC, Denver is the provisional "second capital" of the USA if something happens to D.C.

There is a book...either Tom Clancy or Dale Brown (perhaps both) that posits just such a thing.

The impact of such an thing will also greatly depend on the campaign scope. Most government benefits would most or less cease (I'm sure the VA would still treat people, but no checks). World financial ruin is very possible as the value of the dollar would plummet to make me consider converting all my cash to pesos. If this took place in the 80s, Russia would be sorely tempted to attempt an invasion.

It is entirely within reason that the federal government could collapse, being that there wasn't enough infrastructure left to support itself. If the federal government would/is about to collapse certain states could very easily seccede (sp? god my brain just totally shut down), most likely Texas, California and New York City (not a state but still possible).

Also consider that NYC isn't far from DC. If NYC gets hit with enough fallout or gets evacced etc, the catastrophe would be compounded as the major financial markets stop functioning.

It's hard to encompass, intellectually, the ripple effect but I could see something like this being the pivot point that would plunge the earth into a cyberpunks worst nightmare. Wide spread, large scale war, rioting, poverty, starvation, famine...everything. If noone is keeping up the roads, those areas that are heaviy dependent on importing goods would be in serious jeopardy (most large cities have to get their food from somewhere).

Re: Ranged OK for HKA, not for HA

There's a difference between HKA and HA that no one has mentioned yet. You add your STR to HKA, but you add HA to your STR. Therefore, keeping in mind that Ranged STR is explicitly forbidden, this ruling makes perfect sense.

 

The restrictions on the base power are what matter. With HKA+STR, HKA is the base power, and HKA isn't forbidden from being Ranged. With STR+HA, STR is the base power, and STR is forbidden from being Ranged.

Wow. That deserves a Rep but it's too soon. Now that you explained it like that (which makes PERFECT sense) it all clicks into place. This also clears up the whole STR at range is Stretching argument too. It also expalins something I've never really considered before...the way that HA is always listed as +xd6 HA and HKA are always listed straight out.

With these insights, it's almost like you know someone.

Not a rules question, per se, and I couldn't find an errata for DC...

On page 204 of DC (bottom of column 1) there is a construct "For Firearms whose base attack is less than 80 AP" and a construct (top of column 2) "For Firearms whose base attack is greater than 80 active points."

I've looked at them half a dozen times now and can't seem to find anything different with the constructs. I'm assuming there must be some difference around the 80 AP point, perhaps some side effect (since SE is closely related to AP cost)? I probably missed something along the way (DC arrived today - YEAH UPS MAN - and I'm still skimming), and if so...apologies!

Re: When Worlds Collide: ideas for universe crossovers

I got a wild idea yesterday. The Avengers' date=' from Marvel, in the San Angelo universe. We also bring in PRIMUS, UNTIL, VIPER, and DEMON from the CU. Additionally, a female Waterdeep City Guard, from D&D, crossed into the game world and is currently an Avengers reservist. Other crossovers are pending. Some will be very important, some will be slightly important, some won't be important at all, and some are only of historical value.[/quote']

I have always wanted to get my mitts on SA. I saw a copy of a friend of a friend and REALLY liked the work. It is very similar to my campaign universe and I was hoping to do some shameless thiefing. Besides, we do a lot of hopping around in dimensions at times, and having a complete campaign setting I can use with little, if any, changes comes in handy.

 

If Steve would actually type a little slower I might be able to actually to prioritise it. Maybe I'll throw it on the old XMas list this year. : wanders over to ebay :

Re: When Worlds Collide: ideas for universe crossovers

YOWZA!

She must get cold.

Re: Proper use of Hardened & Defenses

Yes' date=' AFAIK, you *have* to purchase Hardened for both resistant and nonresistant components of defense.[/quote']

Yep. For some reason I was convinced, in my head, that HD would apply to cost to the nonrestiant too. When looking at his construct I realised the cost was much to low. Loaded up HD and low and behold...it doesn't. Then I thought about it for a second and was all "DUH!" You can't partially harden defenses and you don't HAVE to resitant-ify all your DEF, so it all makes sense. I chalk it up to lots of drinking last night.

 

It also explains why we couldn't connect. We were talking about the same thing and making the same points...just from different starting points. Shrug.

Re: Proper use of Hardened & Defenses

Acutally, I have to make a small correction. I believed that HD would apply the hardened cost to the underlying PD. It appears as if it does not. There is a setting on Characteristics bought as Powers that allows you to apply the modifier to the base characteristic, apparently Damage Resistance does not have that ability.

That being the case, you must purchase the hardened (separately) for both the PD and rPD to get any effect.

Re: Proper use of Hardened & Defenses

Please read what I said again. I've been fairly careful in the examples I use.

 

The attack is an Armor Piercing STUN attack, not a KA.

 

Therefore, unless I've missed something, the rPD would not protect the character at all, ergo, the Hardened applied to the rPD but not the PD would do nothing to cancel the AP on the STUN, meaning the character would be hit with 10 STUN instead of 0 STUN.

 

Or am I wrong? (Which is the whole point of my asking, as I'm unsure that I needed to buy Hardened on both.)

As I stated above, both rPD and PD will protect against the STUN of ANY attack (with the caveat that you must have at least 1rPD to get any effect of DEF against the STUN of a killing attack).

The only difference between rPD and PD is that one (rPD) is the only thing that will protect against the BODY of a Killing Attack.

You have 20rPD Hardened. This will provide 20 DEF against ANY attack (for both BODY and STUN), and will neutralise one level of AP, Penetrating or Indirect.

Re: Proper use of Hardened & Defenses

Except your post still doesn't answer my question.

 

If Tony DOES NOT have hardened on his PD but on his rPD only, what happens if he gets hit with an AP STUN?

 

TB

Actually, I did.

rPD protects against the STUN of a killing attack.

Since the rPD is hardened it will neutralise one level of AP, Indirect or Penetrating.

Re: Proper use of Hardened & Defenses

Check out my post above.

The rPD will protect against STUN from a killing attack since you have some resistant defence. It doesn't make much sense to purchase hardened for just your PD. Purchase it for the rPD instead (Tony 3).

Besides it would be hard to concept why the PD would be hardened and not the rPD since you purchased Damage Resistance (which makes the defences one and the same).

Re: Proper use of Hardened & Defenses

No, no armor.

 

His natural PD is 20, 20 of which is made resistant. I may have missused terminology.

 

Which goes back to my question, do you have to buy Hardened on both to cover any eventuality?

 

Two attacks:

 

20 Armor Piercing STUN

or

20 Penetrating BODY

 

As I read it, having Hardened applied to the 20 PD as a naked advantage would protect me fully against the STUN attack, but not against the BODY attack.

 

But if I applied Hardened to the 20 rPD it would protect me fully against the BODY attack, but would I be protected fully from the STUN attack, since my non-resistant PD is not Hardened?

 

Would just having Hardened applied to one or the other cover both attacks, or would I still need to have Hardened applied to both?

 

TB

If Attack is Killing Attack (and character has a minimum of 1 resistant DEF):

rPD or rED protects against the BODY of the attack

Total DEF (PD or ED) protects against the STUN of the attack

If Attack is Killing Attack (and character has no resistant DEF):

Character takes ALL BODY and ALL STUN

Non-Killing Attacks

Total DEF protects against BODY and STUN

In your case your have 20 rPD and a total of 20 DEF vs Physical.

Hardened will only stop the affects of an AP attack. If the character is attacked by an attack that is not AP hardened has no effect.

Re: GM's "rights"

The point of a team effort is that the combined effort is there to tell a compelling' date=' coherent story. It is not about players getting to play any character that appeals to them... nor is it about the GM running any old plot he feels like. It is about the group first agreeing on a theme, direction, concept. "We are international supers, representatives of our respective countries... so what characters and abilities make sense for this? What kind of stories would be appropriate for this kind of group?" As a GROUP the players and GM together come up with the campaign.[/quote']

Here here (or might that be Hear Hear?)!! I've always come out and said "I was thinking about developing a campaign like this....... What do you think?" I also have done some work on campaigns we decided not to use. They make GREAT subplots and are quite enjoyable as alternate reality/timetravel/dimension jumping adventures. I've also developed campaigns (that are still sitting on the shelf unused) based on a alternate reality/timetravel/dimension jumping adventure.

Re: GM's "rights"

I see your point' date=' but what about the player who wants to create an [i']original[/i] spider concept? Should he be forced to create a Peter Parker clone just becuase that is the 'only acceptable concept' for a spider-guy? I detest copycat characters and, as a GM, I want to see original concepts. Sometimes the means being open to new ideas, IMO.

 

Likewise, when I create a new character, I'd like the GM to not compare my PC to published heroes. And in the event that my character happens to be too similar to other like characters- due to points constraints like AP caps, then I'd appreciate some leniency in creating a background that will make my 'clone' PC distinctive.

With you 100%. I just want to scream when someone present me with a character sheet for the T1000. We all have very good imaginations rife with ideas. There is no need to stoop to outright cloning...unless you want to play a sheep (HA!).

I would also NEVER compare a character to a published character during an audit. The published characters have too much baggage. Character X gained the ability to Y. Why did this happen? The writer that just took over has spent the last 5 years writing for this other comic where all the characters had Power Y. Or a character will develop a unique power/effect because it is required by the storyline in yet another crossover plot. Comparing a character to similar published characters is a very, very bad idea.

Plus, you run into those problems oh "What do you mean I can't do that? I playing Thor and Thor can do this...that means I can do it! I don't care what my character sheet says, I'm playing THOR!"