BlackCobra

Re: Good examples of gadgeteers? Ha! You're forgetting an entire category of gadget-using superhero as an example: Movie James Bond (as opposed to book James Bond, who was just a very talented thug). For an example, I include my character Black Tiger, reformed international jewel thief and playboy, who has a sidekick genius to make his gadgets for him (his own Q). While he doesn't have a lot of gadgets, what he does have greatly enhances his abilities as a crime-fighting Batman-esque hero. Note the Inobvious Accessible Focus limit on all the gadgets --- they're disguised as something else until they're used (listed in the description). Black Tiger Player: jbs Val Char Cost 15 STR 5 18 DEX 24 13 CON 6 12 BODY 4 13 INT 3 10 EGO 0 15 PRE 5 14 COM 2 9 PD 0 9 ED 0 4 SPD 12 6 REC 0 26 END 0 27 STUN 0 7" RUN02" SWIM03" LEAP0Characteristics Cost: 61 Cost Power END Nifty Gadgets (from Steve), all slots IAF (-1/2) 7 1) Belt buckle and belt: Swinging 10" (10 Active Points); IAF (-1/2) 1 3 2) Camera (red pen): Eidetic Memory (5 Active Points); IAF (-1/2) 3 3) Audio recorder (blue pen): Eidetic Memory (5 Active Points); IAF (-1/2) 15 4) Throwing knives (playing cards): Killing Attack - Ranged 1d6, Autofire (3 shots; +1/4), 52 Charges (+1/2) (26 Active Points); IAF (-1/2), Range Based On Strength (-1/4) [52] 7 5) Rebreather (asthma inhaler): Life Support (Self-Contained Breathing), 1 Continuing Fuel Charge lasting 1 Hour (+0) (10 Active Points); IAF (-1/2) [1 cc] 15 6) Tuxedo / Black Tiger Costume: Armor (6 PD/6 ED), Variable Special Effects (Limited Group of SFX; +1/4) (22 Active Points); IAF (-1/2) 0 2 7) Parachute (suit jacket): Gliding 6" (6 Active Points); 1 Recoverable Continuing Charges (lasts until you reach the ground, or chute fouled) lasting 1 Extra Phase (-1), Limited movement (it's a parachute) (-1/2), IAF (-1/2) [1 rc] 4 8) Smoke pellets (buttons): Darkness to Sight Group 1" radius, Personal Immunity (+1/4) (12 Active Points); 4 Continuing Charges lasting 1 Extra Phase each (-3/4), Removed by wind and rain (-1/2), IAF (-1/2), Range Based On Strength (-1/4) [4 cc] 3 9) Nice glasses: Nightvision (5 Active Points); IAF (-1/2), Fragile (-1/4) 0 7 10) Magnetic Watch: Telekinesis (10 STR), Fine Manipulation (25 Active Points); Only works on metal (-1), 8 Charges (-1/2), IAF (-1/2), Affects Whole Object (-1/4), Reduced By Range (-1/4) [8] 5 Cell phone: High Range Radio Perception (Radio Group) (12 Active Points); OAF Fragile (-1 1/4) 0 10 Batman Trick: Teleportation 8", Position Shift (21 Active Points); Only to vanish when no one is looking (-1/2), Must Pass Through Intervening Space (-1/4), No Noncombat Movement (-1/4) 2 2 Running +1" (7" total) 1 Powers Cost: 83 Cost Martial Arts Maneuver Kung Fu 4 1) Martial Block: 1/2 Phase, +2 OCV, +2 DCV, Block, Abort 4 2) Martial Disarm: 1/2 Phase, -1 OCV, +1 DCV, Disarm; 35 STR to Disarm roll 4 3) Martial Dodge: 1/2 Phase, -- OCV, +5 DCV, Dodge, Affects All Attacks, Abort 4 4) Martial Strike: Punch: 1/2 Phase, +0 OCV, +2 DCV, 7d6 Strike 5 5) Offensive Strike: 1/2 Phase, -2 OCV, +1 DCV, 9d6 Strike 8 +2 HTH Damage Class(es) Martial Arts Cost: 29 Cost Skill 5 Acrobatics 14- 3 Acting 12- 3 Breakfall 13- 3 Climbing 13- 3 Combat Driving (cars) 13- 3 Combat Piloting (hang gliders) 13- 3 Concealment 12- 3 Contortionist 13- 3 Conversation 12- 2 Gambling (Card Games) 12- 3 High Society 12- 2 CuK: rich people 11- 2 AK: Resorts 11- 3 Lockpicking 13- 3 Paramedics 12- 3 Persuasion 12- 3 PS: Origami 13- 3 Security Systems 12- 3 Shadowing 12- 3 Sleight Of Hand 13- 3 Stealth 13- 7 TF: Common Motorized Ground Vehicles, Helicopters, Parachuting, Advanced, Parachuting, Basic, SCUBA, Skiing (snow), Small Planes, Snowmobiles 2 KS: Kung Fu 11- 6 +2 with any three maneuvers or a tight group of attacks Skills Cost: 77 Cost Perk 1 Fringe Benefit: Passport 5 Fringe Benefit: Really good lawfirm, Disano Partners: Member of the Aristocracy/Higher Nobility 5 Follower: Steve the Wiz 8 Money: $3M/year: Wealthy Perks Cost: 19 Cost Talent 3 Environmental Movement (Supreme Balance) Talents Cost: 3 Total Character Cost: 272 Val Disadvantages 15 Social Limitation: Secret ID, really Black Tiger: Frequently (11-), Major 15 Psychological Limitation: Thrillseeker: Common, Strong 15 Psychological Limitation: Honorable: Common, Strong [Notes: - Keeps his word - Won't hit a lady (women who hit him first aren't ladies) - Won't leave his friends behind - Do no lasting harm] 20 Psychological Limitation: Won't kill: Common, Total 10 Unluck: +2d6 5 Reputation: International Jewel Thief Black Tiger, Sometimes (8-) 15 Hunted: Soon-to-be-SuperVillain 8- (Occasionally), More Powerful, Harshly Punish 1 Quirk: leaves little black tigers after jobs 1 Quirk: Reputation as a playboy (dilletante) 1 Quirk: Health food junky 1 Quirk: 1 Quirk: Disadvantage Points: 100 Base Points: 150 Experience Required: 22 Total Experience Available: 23 Experience Unspent: 1

Re: I just can't get into Cosmic Level play Sure they are! I had a skills-based character in a galactic champions campaign. He also had a little equipment (not much, just an armored space suit with jets), lots of skills, a lot of contacts, a bunch of followers and I think a space ship or two (vehicles, nothing special). Doing skills-based characters are JUST as important in Cosmic level campaigns as they are in regular ones. Someone has to figure stuff out. Martial Artists at that level are best built in the Wild style (to use a phrase from the original Ninja Hero). Probably their martial arts are more than must skills-based, but multipower-based. Also throw in some Chi powers, some Ancient Healing techniques,etc. Or play the Galactic Gladiator (but PLEASE don't use that as a name) who's the survivor of a thousand arena duels. Lots of options. Also, there's nothing better than playing the Wise Old Martial Artist and applying the Death Touch (or something a little less lethal) to a supposedly "invulnerable" supervillain.

Re: Historical Champions I ran a fairly brief Hero campaign set in the late Victorian era. It was essentially a Pulp-esque setting, with a fairly alternate history. One tip -- make sure your players like and understand the time period in the same way that you do. Also have enough story material to last more than 10 sessions. I ran into serious writers block with it.

Re: I just can't get into Cosmic Level play I played in a great Galactic-level champions campaign. I believe we were around 500pts. What was great about the campaign was that in many ways it was very similar to the street-level superheroes games --- except our streets were interstellar space, our blocks were star systems and our enemies were demon hordes invading planets, star fleets and really nasty villains with time powers. In many ways your character might be stronger, be able to do more and a lot tougher, but the threats are so much larger. We had to restore a solar system that had been sucked into a time loop, rescue a planet from being overrun by very hungry demons, and rescue a dyson-sphere of superheroes from being erased in time. It was fun!

Re: Campaign Help needed Start with the most important question: Why now? Why is it just now that the powerful mutations (and others) are showing up? Was there some sort of experiment into improving mutations that went wrong and flooded the Earth with radiation/virii/nano-bots a few decades ago (effecting all the people who had kids who now have the enhanced mutations)? This begs the question of who was doing the experiment. What goverment or goverments were involved in it? Are they watching for the mutants? Do they have a Plan? Was there some sort of inter-dimensional incident? Some of the new mutants or beings could be from another universe. It could be the gate or gates that opened were caused by some lone researcher, or some big goverment project. Was the Earth flooded by some weird radiation by Aliens, who wanted to accelerate the mutation process? If so, why? Is it because they need help fighting some Super Threat in Space? Do they want soldiers to conquer more of the universe? Are they just weirdos? If it's Aliens, who on Earth knows about it? Hope that helps get the ball rolling.

Re: Labs! for every occasion Map Room -- AK: City (plus some guidebooks, phone books, etc.) Summoning & Binding Lab -- PS: Summoning (circles, books, candles, incense)

In a very recently started campaign (last night) there was some discussion about what rooms to add to our new base. Between that discussion and the recent thread on bases, I thought it might be fun to post your favorite kind of lab. Pretty much ANY skill can be turned into a lab, and it's so much fun to come up with what they do. Fun, and in some cases, really really useful. So here are a few of the ideas we've come up with: - KS: Current Events Lab (cable TV in the lounge, with ALL the news channels available). - Streetwise Lab (either a rollodex of the Right People, or filiing cabinents full of blackmail material) - Deduction Lab (sound-proofed room with a white board and comfy chairs -- a must-have for any detective base) - Fast Draw lab (arcade full of shooty games, also helps with firearms combat) So what unusual or must-have labs do you have in YOUR base?

Re: Goofy hero names that you still love Trainwreck -- a flying super-strong brick. Got the code name mostly because he tended to go on missions that ended up in bad places. Spaaaace Noooomad! (you have to say it with echo and a reverb) -- actual name given to a character by an actual player. We couldn't stop laughing everytime he appeared and are still laughing about the name years later.

Re: Waterspout Spell: -21 to Water Magic Roll? One thing you might also try is what I use in my current Fantasy Hero campaign. There's a general Magic (Thaumaturgy in this case) skill, which can be used to cast any spell the Mage knows --- at a -1/5 active points penalty. However, the mage can specialize in one of the Schools of magic (in this case conforming directly to the categories found in the Hero Games Grimoire), by buying a skill in magic of that school. In that case, casting spells of that school only incurs a -1/10 active points penalty. But wait, there's more! A Mage can specialize in a specific spell -- buying a skill in that spell alone. In that case, the penalty to the skill roll is -1/20 active points. A much more manageable way of casting things like the Water Spout. This reflects the notion that the Mage has devoted a lot of resources to learning how to use that kind of super-powerful Magic. I also like all the other suggestions running around this board. Really good!

Re: Thoughts on having a multi-racial game... Because they're fun! I know that's fairly lame, but it does spice things up for folks if they get to play something off the beaten path. For me the trick is more than just cultural (although that helps), but some of the psychology of the race (maybe sociology is a better word) must derive in some ways from whatever abilities or limitations that race has as part of their being. Take, for instance, a flying race (dragons, bird-men, gargoyles). They will probably tend to congregate in lofty areas (because they're safer from non-flying races) and they'll tend to thing a lot more in 3 dimensions than their earth-bound brethren. They might also tend to be agoraphobic, and probably not be all that fond of crowded places. One thing I did in my latest campaign is blend the races together a little more -- in terms of countries and cultures. For instance, although dwarves have a homeland, they can also be found practically anywhere, among most of the other cities. (I don't use traditional dwarves.) In some ways, this makes them more like "humans", but it also makes the cultural differences more important in many ways than the racial ones. Hmmm, I think I'm helping your point. Well, doing the all-human campaign can be interesting, and yes it'll help in some ways to focus on culture, but don't think that even the same race in different cultures won't have similarities.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... "There you go again, using the bad We." (From the more morally-upright member of the group to the rest when discussing some, er, "nefarious" plan. No really, they're Heroes!)

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... From the rogue-type in my fantasy hero campaign, comes this real winner: "You can't swing a dead merchant's purse around here without hitting a few Nightcloaks!" (Nightcloaks being the term for thieves in my campaign and the city they were in was fairly ... heavy with them.)

Re: Your Gaming Group's Jargon We have a variety of short-hand, used to sum up what might otherwise be long and annoying topics. For instance, our group has a tendency to ramble off-game (OOC), and sometimes when it appears the thread of the conversation is going to a Bad Place (Family Guy style), we use a phrase that sums up an entire pun-filled horribly morbid discussion we once had (and which I won't repeat here, and you don't want me to) ---- much like a Conversational Nuke. "Break out the tea", "I had a Big Gulp" -- phrases used to describe a fairly commonly used tactic in our group normally referred to as "kick in the door, p*ss on the floor". Even that might be our own jargon. It means stomping on the NPCs harshly and making sure they know it. It has had varying levels of success. "Are you satisfied with your job?" -- one of our more people-person characters/players convinced a summoned elemental to tell her how to dismiss it from their mystic binding, because it really really hated hanging around for thousands of years and attacking unwary travelers through it's "trap". Ever since, when it looks like we can't get past someone who is obviously someone's lacky, we talk to them about how satisfied they are.

Re: Language Trees: Do you use them? I only give a passing nod to the idea of custom Language Chart, mainly because the Language Chart scares me! However, I have worked out a fairly detailed lineage for my languages and although much time has passed since the beginning of the world, there hasn't been that much linguistic drift (convenience, several long-lived races and VERY involved gods, who dislike change). Another factor in my world is that the language used for spellcasting (High Draconic) can't change, if you expect to actually cast spells. Of course, everyday draconic has changed over time.

Re: Name for an "I-hit-it-all" girl I'd go wiht "Dark Moon", because you can also have the "Metzli" name handy. Both sound really good.

I can't believe I'm replying to this, but ... I've had this dive (tavern) in a number of fantasy campaigns I've run, and it never fails to amuse. The place is called the Blue Dwarf. Why? Because that's what color dwarves turn when you hold them underwater. Really, it's a bad bad place. And generally on a seacoast, I'm not sure why.....

whoops Well, this was intended to be part of the options for Bases discussion, but apparently the extra hour today hasn't improved my mental capabilities in the morning. Anyway. Although you can make them, I don't recommend the Demolitions Lab, unless you have some seriously bomb-proof walls around it.

One thing our group (previous group?) discovered was that all Labs are just skills that assist when someone is using that skill. You can wander through the skill list and make up a lab for any skill at all. Well, science labs are pretty obvious. Everyone has some idea what chemistry lab or physics lab look like, but what about a Streetwise lab? Here's some amusing "labs" to have in your base: Streetwise lab: a room full of filing cabinenets, all jammed full of contact information, blackmail info and background files on a very wide variety of folks around the campaign city. Some are probably extensive photo-copies of the police files on the same subject. If they're inheiriting a base and it hasn't been used for a while, this information about be woefully and amusingly out of date. (Related to this is the Rolo-dex, which acts as summoning for the folks on it with a certain amount of extra time -- the person you call has to actually drive over.) Seduction lab: "Why are there mirrors on the ceiling in here?" Disguise lab: many have already mentioned a stable of costumes for infiltration -- but you should also have a full make-up room, with the ability to make those nifty full-face Impossible Mission masks. Forensic Medicine: the morgue! The base my players had in IST Anchorage, they had a morgue and a Secure Morgue, where they kept any of the bodies of things that were dangerous in some way -- vampires, radioactive remains, etc. Gambling lab: the base casino! With the right base staff, this could also be part of the High Society lab, although the downside is that you get James Bond-types wandering in all the time. Combat Driving and Piloting: the Arcade! Tactics lab: the wargame room. Anyway, that should give you some ideas. By the way, if you design your base to be disaster-proof (as they did for the Anchorage base), I highly recommend the backup computer being an amorphic, dispersed, redundantly arrayed nano-machine (a spary-on computer that looks like paint and is nearly impossible to find or turn off).

I've mentioned my campaign world before, so some of this may be a repeat for those who saw it. Anyway, in a previous campaign, I ran Primal Order where the players played gods. The setup was that they were very minor gods in a modern world, and they fought against the Big Guys who were THIS close to screwing up or ending their world. Anyway, they save the World and find out that the minor blacksmith god was really the Creator, and he's making a new world next door. The minor gods get to help create their own world. So, the players each get to choose a mortal race they want to enter the world. The world has a Moon corresponding to each of the gods, and acts as their celestial realm (read: Home Plane). It also has three Worlds, the Above (a sky-plane with floating islands), the Between (regular world) and the Below (kind of like the Underdark, only bigger). So now I'm working on creating a fantasy world based on their initial decisions. I've advanced time 10,000 years or so, and I'm adding a lot of spin to what they setup. Races are a mix of odd and standard. Dragons, the first race and the most magical, are also the most powerful (racial package came to about 200 points). Alvioli are feather-winged humanoids (kinda elves) and are also fairly magical (which translates to an END reserve to power magic). Dwarves, mostly standard, but since they are the favorites (proposed by) the Music/Trickster Goddess, that makes them the most common bards and the most fun. Humans (more about them later). Troglodytes, which are kind of like the intelligent morlocks in Time Machine (the movie version). They're largely an underground race, and basically a human variant with a Dark Elf kind of feel. Fey are the final race, and they're a little odd. There are five variations on the forms of the fey, corresponding to each of the other races, only small and odd. The player wanted them to be a helper race. So for the dragons, there's the faerie dragon (small dragon with butterfly wings); for the humans, there are brownies. The fun part for me is that one of the players gave the race "ambition" when it came time to hand out gifts, and that's just a truckload of GM helpfulness. One thing that I did to distinguish them from the norm is that at the race's creation, each of the "gods" (players) gave them a special gift (like Fairie God Mothers, only less well thought out in some cases). This means I ended up with some odd special abilities. For instance, dwarves were given "her love, always" by the Music/Trickster god, so I gave them the special ability: 3d6 Luck, only when making music or playing pranks. The Death god gave the dwarves "the ability to make things that will last", so they have 1d6 Aid to Body, fade rate 1/century, only for items they create (takes a full extra day on top of item creation). So, even where they are standard races, they have something a little different. Those are the races. I'll post more aobut Magic later.

Definitely Cosmetic Transform, and just require special senses to see it. This doesn't require 0-End or anything like the others do, and it has obvious ways to make it go away (*rub*rub*rub*). This is something I intended to incorporate into my magic system as a Magician's way of marking work they've done or signing spell books they've written.

Yum! Perfect!

One method I thought about using (and haven't tried yet) was to require characters using Divine abilities (magic) to have X points in psyche limits and/or social disads equal to the highest active point ability they could use. I'm still not sure if that's the best way to do it, but it reflects the faith they need to summon the power. If you wanted to adversarial approach, you could reduce the active points in an ability used against someone by the amount of "faith" (points in disads) they have for that deity. So in this system aggressive divine magic simply wouldn't work on another of the faithful.

Bah! Bah, I say! Are you people telling me that no one made the James Bond Magnetic Watch! Magnetic Watch: Telekinesis (10 STR), Fine Manipulation (25 Active Points); Only works on metal (-1), 8 Charges (-1/2), Affects Whole Object (-1/4), Reduced By Range (-1/4) , OIF (-1/2) Disarm schmoes, push the button, or grab the keys while you're in the cell. But don't leave home without the Magnetic Watch!

Last fantasy campaign -- one hemisphere and the action moved from country to country in a continent-spanning Epic Adventure. Current fantasy campaigin -- Greyhawk, plus all the planes. Action moves around a lot, as the players have reached Epic. Next fantasy campaign (being built): 3 Earth-sized worlds, in different planes. Plus a number of other planes that may be the target of adventures. I think I may go psycho setting up the big maps.

Followup to my earlier post. One of the last things I did before the gods campaign wound up was to have each of the god characters give a "gift" to each of the mortal races. This was intended to be a limited form of input on how the race would really work out, since they were all supposed to be involved in helping form them. Anyway, it turned out a lot like the Fairy Godmothers in some Disney-crossed-with-Animaniacs way. Some people gave fairly serious gifts and one of the players handed out things like "loves the surf and hawaiin shirts" -- not exactly helpful in a fantasy campaign. This turned into something of a grudge match in the gifts given to some of the later races, who were starting to turn out a little comical, so one of the players decides to balance the goofiness with something sharp: "Ambition". How's that for a racial gift? The one that turned out to create the most havoc for me, however, was "The freedom to love who they will." Pretty nice, huh? Certainly an appropriate gift for the Dragons from the Goddess of Love. However, when I really sat down to think about that gift, combined with the knowledge that the God of Dragons was planning on teaching his race shapeshifting, all I could think was how I now have 6 additional half-races (dragons & each of the other races). I'm just thankful she didn't decide to give that gift to all the other races. Phew! And about the magic pooling and fat wizards? Did I mention that breaking or warping the circle releases all the pooled energy in an uncontrolled fashion? You'd have trouble just bumping into to someone or laying down! No fat wizards! Once I have more of the Magic system writeup done, I'll post it. Stay tuned.