Christopher

Re: Black Falcon 3.5 With the words of Solomon Grundy: "Nice birdy"

Re: Fading Stars...when and why should superheroes retire? I think something we overlooked so far (except for age and family based retirement) are "mundane" resons you can get disabeled/unable to do your profession: Normal diseases and injury's, being caught in a normal accident, or "after all the villians I fought, the one that gets me is a random robber that caught me in my secrect identity". This can have an ironic side: Image the ultimate electro-suite hero, one of the most powerfull beacons of heroism. Suddenly he disapeared. Not even his teammates know why, since he never called again and his suite was never found. There a dozens of rumors and wild guesses what hapened to him. No image your "uncle", sitting in a wheelchair ever since he fell from the ladder, after getting a electro schock while installing a new Ceiling Lamp. Now imagine you find the electro-suite in your uncles posessions.

Re: Fading Stars...when and why should superheroes retire? I still have ideas: The cursed power. A power with its own mind (preferebly a cursed weapon). Can't do anything alone and only very few are "destined" to wield it (one every other generation). On the pro side, it makes you immune to aging and similar things (anything but dying). The downside is, it tries to take over your mind (with the sole result of going berserk) and suddenly a lot of people are after you (the weapon is an enemy-magnet). Of course you can't loose or destroy it. So there are basically two paths for the end of your career: a) the weapon takes over, goes beserk and someone has to kill you to stop you (making the power dormant for some time) you get killed before option a) can happen (only a little bit better than option a, but most heroes prefer that) Of course this could also aply to a local protection legacy hero that always faces such unspeakable horros, every one so far has been driven mad.

Re: Spiderman's Web Thats wierd, since that would only amount to a acellaration/deceleration of about 2m/segment. (Like would a STR 5 Telekinesis in no gravitation vacuum per phase). Perhaps the weight is somehow added to that? Otherwise, light wind could would allow you to float when hitting you from the right angle.

Re: Fading Stars...when and why should superheroes retire? Depending on the character, it may be a "child he never knew about". When you think about it, Son Goku ended his main "run around and kick bad guys"-carreer because he was suddenly married. he continued his training to stay on par with picolo, but he was more or less limited to the area around his house (until radiz showed up). And I agree with the palindromedary, all we can do now are thinking of more specific version of what was already said. That said, lets have some more of them: "I've become an artist": Especially for Elemental/Force/energy Manipulators, perhaps they realised that they would rather use their power for Art than for battle. You can do exceptional Art with the fine controll of your power or when you can produce self sustaining forces at will. "Ive become a construction worker": Just imagine how usefull a brick or superman is on constrcution site. On the other side, he may take people the job.

Re: A not so evil Master(Mistres?)mind... I had one adittional Idea: Summon Relay: "Controlls an Civilian and imbues him with some of your powers" From the Rule-Piont-of view, just a summon with high Piont Value for the Summon (that are used to buy Mental Powers). Put an illusion over him to make him look like you and you got a perfect "Relay" for your powers or a convincing "Decoy". After all, a GM never fights in the Frontline. He always has Minions to do this.

Re: Fading Stars...when and why should superheroes retire? - Your powers aren't cut out to fight the crime anymore: Either they have a easily exploitable weakness that got public (Green latern weakness vs. Yellow), or suddenly halfe of the criminals can mostly ignore your attack (a lot guy with flash resistence, you only have weak blasts). Perhaps one of your weaknesses increased or your a new one (Like Suceptibily to "Scenes of active/past Crime") or your weakness became public (Where is all this green Argonite comming from?). Perhaps there is a flaw in your self, that was easily exploitable by half the enemys (Low Mental defense/EGO, when half the villians are suddenly Mentalist). Even if you are in a team, aren't you becomming a limitation to them rather than an advantage? - Crime never was organised and you were very effective, putting many in Jail. But now they are organised(see Grod's Secret Soceiety). Or threre was a really big Jailbreak in Stronghold (Never gets old). Interview with nameless hero: "I always wanted to save the world/pervent others from loosing their parents/make this town a better place to live. Then I realized: What is this world I helped creating good for, when I can't live in it. There are now enough young heros out there to take my place and it is much better then the first time I put on the cape." "I was out saving the galaxy, when your grandfather was in daipers. Besides, I think the galaxy owes me one." - James T. Kirk to Picard,

Re: Fading Stars...when and why should superheroes retire? - you felt it was time to leave the field to "the next generation" of heroes (not nessearily one that follow their legacy) - you started training new heroes and with time were less and less out there, doing the fight (Black Cat from JLU) - similar coordinating role - you wanted to realy "change" the world, and started to go into politics (see Thundrax from Champions Of The North Outtakes). By the time you realised you got even less done this way, your were to old/to long out to just start again. - you became your "mirror-universe-version" - and you liked it - perhaps a different (civil) duty called you. You could have found out you rather wanted to be a normal police officer, doctor, psychatrist, etc...

Re: A not so evil Master(Mistres?)mind... Okay, let's try this semi-serious this time: What characteristics got notice and how often: INT: 3 PRE 3 EGO: 5 So definitely some type of mentalist, with a way of summoning allies. Wich may mean, "controll local civilians/police/military", see "Arives on own Power" and "must inhabit locale". Relatively high PRE, so destined to support their (wo)men against presence attacks (just make one/phase so your allies get a bonus). May also make presence attacks against enemys. Intelligence supports planning, as well as tactics so she can use her minion/summons effectively. Same is true for illusions. She would be totally missing the relevant physical charakterstics, but hey: What are minions for? How about something themed around a "spider in the center of her net", subtely pulling the strings? Some type of Clairsentience helps here. Can be limited with "Only Through The Senses Of Others", limited to your minions/summons (this is "technically" mind link, but game effect of Clairsentience).

Re: Fading Stars...when and why should superheroes retire? - Legacy Heros: There will always be a Red Ensign/Batman. You are burned out. When you have a sidekick/descendant itching to take on your cape, he can simply start. If not, maybe the next generation has somebody. - Psychical Complications: Not nessesary burnout, but perhaps you got more and more brutal (like what hapened to Superman and Wonder Woman during JLU) after all these years of crimefighting and you fear to become a "mirror-universe" version of yourself. - When your familiy knows of your identity, perhaps they want you to no longer risk your life. - perhaps the crime was relatively silent for years, effectively driving most heros to more "active" cities. Overall low crime rate also means fewer "traumatic childhood experiences" like seeing your parents shoot, ergo fewer new superheroes. - Something really ruined your reputation and perhaps even the police started hunting you (i.e. accidently killing someone). You can't continue your heroic iddentity anywhere in the land, you don't want to leave it and you can't just "switch" your cape (distinctive power, unwilling). - your Power has it's own mind and you got less and less able to control it (intelligent weapon; multiform w/ spilt personality) One fitting campaing from herocentral with exactly that theme: Revival 2

Re: A not so evil Master(Mistres?)mind... I think I have a answer for the following pionts: Now I give you an peice of text, but tell you where it comes from afterward: "An appointment or roleplay is referred to as a "session", and is often conducted in a dedicated professional play space which has been set up with specialist equipment, such as a "dungeon". In the contemporary era of technological connectivity, sessions may also be conducted remotely by phone, email or online chat." - Wikipedia (english), Dominatrix Take a look at the article, it may fits better than you think for that concept

Re: Reactive Damage Shield No. It has a maximum Active Pionts and suffers -1 OCV for the block for every instance of Relfection missing. Dosen't work on attacks greater than Twice you "normal" relfection capacity. Also, you may need to add "Feedback", or you wouldn't get any damage from the attack (wich is not what you wanted). One most likely useless idea: Absorbing the attack, and aiding some type of counter attack (that imedeatly after activation looses all his aided active pionts). I would definitely go with the Damage Shield and Limitation as sugested above. How much Limitation that is, depends strongly on the Enemys you are going to face.

Re: Spiderman's Web

Re: Spiderman's Web That sound eqaully good, escpecially since there is a falling-speed table on the following page. Of course you would need something around 150 STR to stop a max speed fall in one phase. Edit: The basic rule for velocity, str and damage seem to be "2m speedchange equals 5 STR equals 1D6". Gravity pulls with about 25 STR/Segment (or phase, asumg it acts in every phase) Wind resistence is a counter-force equall to 5 STR at a speed of 60m/segement. Hitting the ground is then just the abrupt aplication of a "breaking" force, equall to 150 STR.

Re: Spiderman's Web

Re: Out There Idea: Universe as Mind Class

Re: Spiderman's Web If you want to do this with breakfall and barrier, breakfall may be 18+ (to make the extraordinary roll possible): "If the character succeeds with his Breakfall roll by half (after applying the height modifier), he takes no damage at all; if he makes an Extraordinary Skill Roll, he can survive (albeit barely) a fall from just about any height regardless of the height modifier. Furthermore: "Landing on a soft surface (such as water, a cushion or mat, or a featherbed) would make the roll easier(+1 to +3)". That gets me another idea: Persistant AOE Change environment, with enough "telekinesis STR" to catch/carry someone? Falling character makes move-through against telekinesis-strenght (or somehow falling speed is added to his "weight", perhaps just stepping up on the str/weight scale?). If the net is strong enough, it can catch him and can hold him. Add No Endurance, Physical Manifestation/Uncontrolled and things like that. Perhaps "Side effect: Very difficult environment" (ocv/dcv mali). If the net fails, at least his speed may be lowered. That's another good question, how do you break something in the first place (say, a car)?

Re: Out There Idea: Universe as Mind Class I smell cheese.... Seriously, what you describe are effects of knowledge, pregognition, being (locally) omniscient, and/or exceptional deduction. When I am right about where this goes for "Mind Controll" of the universe, I say that effects will be going to be blast, change environment, transform or something similar.

Re: Out There Idea: Universe as Mind Class What do you have in mind? Do you want to make things like local manipulation of the space-time continuum? And how big is "a small part of the universe"? Is there anything that is even remotly as big and powerfull as the universe in the official rulebooks?

Re: Anime Hero - What would be in it? In Bleach they explained that on a side note: Knowing the name (and saying it) makes a difference in the power. Very good points. Especially animes with fighters (Bleach/Dragonball) put way more story in the emotional state of the protagonists, than other anime genres. Some adittional ideas: Bad-Ass Transformation: Allows you to specify a transformation/Power activation visual effect of about 5 Minutes/20 Pages but that actually only takes a half phase in game time. Basically inverted speed viewing. Groupy-power: One fights, the other stand on the line and "comment" the fight (classical Dragonball/early Yu-Gi-Oh element). It is one way to support the fighting one ("We belive in you Yugi/Son Goku/Ichigo/Ryudo..."), basically moving his emotional/mental state towards better results. Smack-Talk: In anime-battles there a often divided between phases of "intense battle" and "talking a lot about who is more powerfull". In classicaly Hero System, 2 Minutes(10 turns) of talking would allow all batling charakters to fully recover. Perhaps it would help to use a "Side effect: Drain with Delayed Retunr Rate" to represent realy energy-intensive attacks (that will conitnue to affact you, no matter how much smack talk there is going to be). Alternative "Anime-Cinematics": Define one smack talk element to have only the in-game lenght of one turn (one time crossing phase-12 segment) or even one phase (so one recovery tops; not more, since both have to "keep their guard up"). Force-Pionts: Some way to boost rolls is a must-have for every anime-style campaign, at least from my piont of view.

Re: Encyclopedic General Knowledge

Re: Looking for Everyman Skill ideas I have found this version of an JLU-Style Earpiece Communicator: Comm Link: Mind Link , Specific Group of Minds, Freebie; Only With Others Who Have Mind Link (-1), Sense Affected As Radio and Hearing (-1/4), IIF (Earpiece; -1/4) But Considering that you can attack with Mental Powers through a Mind Link, this may not be the best way to archieve this (or a good way, for Audio Based Mental attacks)

Re: Ward to keep out vampires But a simple one: Dependence with Incompetent, Weakness and maybe Power Activation Roll. If he is a hero, negative Reputation or Social Complication may be used adittionally. ("He drinks blood!") @Manic: Sorry for that. Most likely used multi quote and then deleted the wrong quoute-start-tags. But I don't really remember it.

Re: Encyclopedic General Knowledge "Look out, the Mountain" "Where? All I see is this popup saying 'Enlargement so effective, even giganta would be suprised'".

Re: Counter-stereotyping