Zed-F

A deliberate headshot with a gun, in a 4-colour game with no hit locations, *is* a Haymaker. (Or a ranged martial art maneuver, or a superskill, or something of the sort.) Conventional military forces should be a potentially serious threat to heroes/villains in any game below JLA power levels, IMHO... at least unless you want to explore the ramifications of changing the entire basis on which global military and political power is projected and employed. The main advantage superheroes have is simply their ability to be in the right place at the right time in a way no military organization could hope to match. Partly this is due to the fact that they are the stars of the show, of course, but it's also partly because the average hero has unparalleled personal mobility options compared with the average platoon of soldiers. If, on the other hand, you *are* running a game at a JLA power level...

Re: how do you deal with guns and superheroes in your campaign My campaign runs at a bit lower power level, with fewer nods towards comic book conventions such as supers being invulnerable to gunplay, and with more of an emphasis on the way things work according to the Hero System mechanics. The PCs in my game are more 'people with powers' than they are true blue superheroes. Enough guys with guns *will* ruin their day. Especially so if the guys with guns are actually skilled in using them, and know something about tactics and teamwork. They have taken on groups of upwards of a dozen mook-level villains at once, and emerged victorious, but none of those mooks have been especially well-trained. Going up against a couple squads of special forces types, led by someone who knew what they were doing, would be another matter. So, I think context is important, when talking about guns. Are we talking about Joe Gang Member with a pistol? Yakuza bullies with surplus assault rifles? Green Berets? The Punisher, or a similarly superskilled individual? Depending on the campaign, where certain lines get drawn, as far as effectiveness vs. the average super goes, may be different.

Re: Characters favorite manuever Sylph: Entangles. She has a reasonably strong entangle that she also often uses to make entangle barriers for self-defense or for the defense of others. She also has the ability to selectively apply a moderate entangle (DEF 3 BOD 2) over a considerable area... perfect for tying up whole swarms of agents at once. Though she has a wide variety of other attacks available, in a combat she will almost always open with an entangle unless she's fought that opponent before and knows it will be ineffective. Soulbarb: Doesn't really have a signature move; her fighting style is pretty eclectic.

Re: metamorphs to my right, metamorph's to my left Easy. A face-shifter, i.e. master of disguise. Give him some martial arts so he can defend himself, but he's really more of a spy than anything else.

Re: Top Signs You Need to Rethink Your Playing Style....

Re: Building Caltrops: How would you do it? IIRC it's normally treated as NND damage, and you have to specify what prevents the damage from happening. At least, I seem to recall the example in FREd describing a CE that causes damage as due to a change in air pressure as not causing damage against the appropriate LS (high pressure.)

Re: WWYCD: "He'll be back." Unfortunately, neither Soulbarb nor Sylph are any great shakes when it comes to technology. Both will have to rely on locating others to do the mental heavy lifting at least on the science side -- though Sylph will have an easier time there since Speedzone and Steeltrap are both scientists. Soulbarb at least will not be interested in doing much to stop the robot until she has heard both sides of the story. She would be tempted to try to find a way to get them both back to their own possible future and let the chips fall where they may. Neither one is admirable enough to convince her that they need her assistance, when there's other present-day problems that need to be dealt with.... although the piece of advice that the transhumanists might be better off just shipping out lock, stock, and barrel for some less hostile part(s) of the universe would spring to mind. Sylph would be more sympathetic to the human, but would be a lot more interested in trying to open some form of negotiations to sort the whole mess out. Never mind that that's been tried already and failed repeatedly... it's what she does.

Re: WWYCD: Only So Many Shopping Days Till Christmas Soulbarb doesn't really have any teammates... at least not in her current continuity. Sylph does, kinda... if the New Pantheon can really be called a team. (They're a bit too disorganized and more of a non-team team.) She's thoughtful enough that she probably would want to come up with something, and would likely wind up growing some kind of decorative crafts out of wood for them, not really knowing what any of them would like.

Re: No combat respect I disagree with the advice to drop the overall levels. That depends *heavily* on how much rolling you do for stuff outside of combat. Overall levels can be and often are one of the best investments around. That said, you might not need 3 of them if you can get away with fewer. I agree with the advice to drop or at least change the martial arts so that they will be more useful. For instance a ranged martial arts package would be a lot better. If you have martial arts, you certainly should include at least one defensive maneuver, such as a dodge. Buying up CON would definitely be a good idea. Otherwise you are extremely vulnerable to any NND, EGO attack, or Stun Drain tossed your way.

Re: I'm going to make a big noise...BOOM! Soulbarb (High-powered): Since the dead scientist's soul is likely enroute to Hell at this point, Soulbarb is likely to be able to come up with a spell to converse with him, and make him come to the realization that even in Hell, things can always be worse. Armed with that, she will convince him to come clean regarding how to reverse the ray's effect. Alternatively, she *might* be able to come up with a spell to dispel the ray's effect, and/or drum up some help to do so. All else fails, she can gate herself a few KM straight up (or wherever necessary to avoid casualties) but she would far prefer to bend every effort to (a) identifying whether the ray will *really* make her blow up and ( if so, reversing it, before doing so. Staying in the vicinity of the ray gun and examining it or having others examine it will improve those odds, so she won't go until the last moment. (Low-powered): Has no mega-movement powers and no way to contain such an explosion -- if it's powerful enough to take out 10 city blocks a bank vault won't stop it. Start combing through the mad scientist's lab for a possible cure and/or an escape vehicle of some sort so she can at least get airborne or something. Sylph: Use her healing powers to neutralize the poison the mad scientist ingested, or at least delay his death. Try to reason with him (if she hasn't already had a chance to do so) to convince him that blowing up the city isn't going to solve whatever problems he's facing, and get him to reverse the ray so they can turn to looking at addressing his 'issues.' Failing that, use her hypnotic fragrance power to assist in the convincing.

Re: WWYCD (kind of): Advice Time for Scarlet! Soulbarb: "You really want the kind of constant scrutiny that level of publicity will immediately conjure up?" She shakes her head. "If it were me, no way in hell would I do that. There are better ways to get back at your folks." Sylph: "Well, far be it from me to criticize someone who wants to go public -- I have enough trouble keeping my secret ID, and I've seriously considered going public myself. These days it seems like half the folks on campus are in on the open secret of who I am when I'm not running around in costume... and while most of them are friendly enough, it has brought trouble my way as well. But are you sure you're going public for the right reasons? What will let you help more people, staying an unknown in your downtime or becoming a full-time hero?"

Re: WWYCD: Welcome Divinity? Sylph would be very concerned about what Dionysius might have to say about such an occurance. Besides, she's got enough self-confidence issues with the powers she's already got; being offered a spot as a goddess would really throw her for a loop. Soulbarb on the other hand wonders what these folks are thinking, offering divinity to someone whose soul is bonded to a demon. She'd settle for help ridding herself of the latter without also ridding herself of her powers. She'd naturally be suspicious of what strings come with the offer of divinity, as well.

Re: Twist off the WWYCD I dislike spending XP on stuff that hasn't been at least touched on in-game, so all my characters probably just sit on the XP until a good reason to use them comes up.

Re: WWYCD "super" registration The nukings at Mexico City in the After the End gameworld were not a consequence of failure to register, they were a consequence of (a) increasing escalation of collateral damage on the part of heroes and villains, ( a general inability to control and contain supers and superbattles on the part of governments and government agencies, and © a general shift in public opinion against superhumans as a result of the above. The world basically went over time from a silver age one to an iron age one (as part of the campaign backstory, not in-game) and the supers that didn't adapt well to the transition and lower their profiles got nuked. That said, you're right that there is definitely something rotten in the state of Denmark (and the US, and pretty much every other country) as there are a number of ramifications to governmental policy at the time and since that time that range from impractical to downright suicidal. Partly this is typical government shortsightedness, but there seems to be more to it than that. Likely, figuring out what's going on behind the scenes will be a significant plot thread going forward.

Re: Attack multipowers [spoilers] I wouldn't use any of the Minimum STR, Required Hands, or other heroic item construction lims for a weapon in a supers game. Those are purely intended for heroic-level games and don't make sense (i.e. are not really limiting) in a superheroic game. However, I can see a charge limitation if there is an actual reason why it only has one charge. Suppose it's a laser sword with only enough energy in the battery for one attack? (Crummy design, maybe, but theoretically possible.) Or maybe it's a glass sword which will shatter after one use?

Re: WWYCD: Halloween From Hell 2007 Soulbarb: Didn't I already have this adventure? Soulsight makes this not too tough for her. Sylph: Probably winds up going out to a Halloween party with Alaric and Magnesia, at which point things start getting very risque...

Re: WWYCD: The Nightmare on Hero Street Soulbarb: Hogh powered -- can go without sleep for long enough to investigate, check her library, use her mystic contacts, whip up an appropriate spell or two, etc. Guy's toast. Low-powered version -- on the plus side she still has her library and mystic contacts for help, plus her affects desolid attack; on the downside she's much more vulnerable to mental attacks and can't yet bolster this with spells. She can probably still get the job done with help from friends, but it will be more touch-and-go. Sylph: Runs screaming as far and as fast as she can, which doesn't work well in the dreamscape. Freddy catches up and starts wailing on her. She transforms to Maenad, and suddenly it's a new ball game. Maenad is pretty near immune to fear and has considerably more mental protection than Sylph does. I tend to think that Freddy will find himself dancing to her tune in fairly short order.

Re: WWYCD: Out of Focus, in the know Soulbarb: High-powered version has enough mojo available to be able to whip up a few appropriare 'affects transdimensional' powers. She already has a good amount of affects desolid, and given her origin this would not be a huge stretch for her. Low-powered version... doesn't really have enough experience yet to be able to deal with this directly herself, but she can probably find help in her list of occult-related contacts. A GM plot device or two to make it possible for her to participate in the adventure, and she'll be in the thick of things, trying to figure out the extent of the plot, who the ringleaders are, and how best to put a stop to it. Sylph: At something of a loss, but doubless Dionysius will know a thing or two about alternate dimensions and may be able to lend a timely hand.

Re: Is Leaping too Cheap? You can only accelerate at your combat speed, if you are using NC running or flight. Thus, leaping is often already faster at non-combat movement than running or flying. Basically, leaping already gets the equivalent of the advantage 'Rapid Noncombat Movement' for free. To counterbalance that, with flight or running, once you get to your top speed, you can stay at that speed as long as you can maintain it, so over very long distances, flight or running will be faster. OTOH, teleport tends to be still faster, since it takes only 2 phases to do any arbitrarily long teleport. Of course if we get into megascale, it renders the discussion moot, since Megascale completely obviates the need to worry about doublings or acceleration concerns.

Re: Power Build: Chi Manipulation I'd have to agree that having a statted 'save the world' power is not so good from a storytelling perspective. 'I turn it on and wait for it to work. Ok, now what?' Sean's suggestion is one approach. Another approach would be that the character knows of a particular macguffin or other plot device which will do the job, he just has to do these 18 other steps in order to make proper use of it... maybe with some help or hindrance along the way. Similarly plot-based, without quite so much of a feel of being a cosmic errand-boy, in that you know the goal you're working towards and can measure progress against it. Besides, isn't saving the world sort of a job for all the PCs, not just one of them?

Re: Howl of Fear

Re: Trying to develop an interesting power set I would just make it a VPP Gadget pool with OIHID and Restrainable. I would not take Focus lim on any of the powers, because he doesn't lose the ability to use the power when his gun gets taken away (he can always build a new one from components taken from the suit.) I would also not take charges on any of his powers since he can, again, always build a new gun or whatever. I'd buy the powers down to 0 END instead.

Re: Your characters, favorite by Archetype Of the ones I've made? Probably too many to list. Played? Well, that's still quite a few but many of my Hero games have been short-lived or non-Champions. So paring down the list to Champs characters played for a significant amount of time: Soulbarb: Primarily a Fast Brick, with a minor in Gadgeteer (low-powered) or Mystic (higher-powered) Sylph: Sort of an Energy Projector except that most of her attacks are non-damaging. Sort of a Mystic except that she doesn't really understand anything about how magic works. Sort of a Brick when she transforms to Maenad, except that she does it only rarely and generally unwillingly. I guess she just refuses to be pigeonholed. Aviary: Pretty much a straightforward flying energy blaster, offensively, though she does have a few tricks up her sleeve. Cerulean: Mystic. VPP for Adjustment powers, supplemented by minor elemental magic and enchanted accoutrements. Stormwraith: Flying lightning-based energy blaster ala Storm. My first Champions character.

Re: Howl of Fear Personally I would probably go with the extra PRE to cause PRE attacks route. I wouldn't go with a Drain or the like because it would make the target afraid of everything indiscriminately, which might not be what you're looking for. (E.G. WildHuntMan drains HeroMan's PRE to 0, then MinorVillain executes a wimpy PRE attack which works because HeroMan is still scared of WildHuntMan... maybe not the best mechanic there.)

Re: Munchkin Build Contest? Try to make it something any halfway competent GM won't immediately veto the second he or she lays eyes on it. That will make it slightly more interesting. Although, given that the character is posted to this thread, odds are that pretty much no matter what you post it would get vetoed on principle anyway...