ScottoStanek

Re: Global Guardians - Champs by email (review) The GGU has been a bumpy ride for me, but never a boring one. I happened on the scene right around y2k and submitted a character that was rejected for having trod rampant all over one of those fine print house rules. I even got one of those _rare_ (I've seen a lot of posts, but I'll leave it to others to dredge the old yahoo groups or the current lists for statistics) public rants as a result of my error. It didn't mention a name and I later found out the rant wasn't even a true result of my submission. I had seen a cool sci-fi offering and had tried to make a character cut from the same cloth. As had a dozen others at exactly the same time! The thing to understand is that the GGU is supposed to be world wide, that is there should be some variety. But every time a new movie (Spider-Man, Daredevil, Hulk) comes out there are a dozen submissions for _that_ character. Surprise! Uniqueness gets lost. I think that part of the reason that WM and WoWM were losing interest was that the trend was for each embassy --as similar as they were to each other-- to have the same set of characters with little differences between them. The world was sooo homogenous after time that it was getting boring to do anything but character byplay. The reboot caught a lot of us off-guard, because we (or at least I) didn't see the bigger picture forming. Post reboot hasn't started off real fast because it takes a lot of effort to get something this big moving again. A lot of us had to get out and push. One of the ways to do so is to help in auditing. I have participated in the audit process. I was even one of those people that changed a character's age. The character had taken the doctor package and written about years worth of research, but their birthdate showed them to be only around sixteen. I changed the year and sent it back, along with other nits, because the text description didn't give any reason to assume a 'Dougie Howser' young character in the campaign. I audited others and got some of the wierder concepts sent my way. Lately I have been doing more in the NPC creation arm. I can say that submitting an NPC based on what WM described is no less taxing than creating a regular PC, in fact they must fit the world even closer than a character does. (But they often _do_ get more points to play with, which makes it less a shoehorn process.) And some of these have turned up on the website very different from the original NPC submission. So be it. La. I have one character in play, heck my GM poked his nose in on the thread already --Banshee from GG Majestic. (Would that make her Leia? ) She sailed through audit in my mind at least, and she feels to me to be kind of on the bleeding edge of what could be allowed without campaign ruination. (Speedster + Desolid + invisible) While she is a rework of my prereboot character Spriggan, her history fits the new campaign. And even though WM is a bit touchy lately about cross-gender playing I think she comes across well enough --or I wouldn't play her. Two characters of mine are awaiting audit, Zand in New Zealand and Mariner in Force Pacific. Both are reworks of pre-reboot chars and seem like they gain from the chance to redress problems in the character construct. You think you've had problems with a character, well Zand has been reworked due to House Rule changes so often that I have to sort by datestamp on all the character sheet versions of his --let alone the sheets made to submit to the various post-reboot games I tried to get him into before he was accepted. But the core feeling is there, so the fun is there to play him. I've GM'd in the GGU before --in the Big Easy-- and it is very hard to step into shoes as large as WM who had let it go because of the breadth of work keeping the GGU at large going. I also let it go, and bless the new face who took it for doing so. I will wait this time to get all 3 of the games I am playing in going and settled before I attempt to GM again --it really is sooo different from a face-2-face game that I need more time to get past the rules and into the play. Sorry about wandering all over here, but there is no way to quickly put into one paragraph the amount of work I put into GGU. Then multiply that by a factor of 100 and you may get the work put in by someone more active. Multiply by 20 more and then you may approximate WM. I mentioned before that it takes a lot to get this thing moving, and it is still just moving along. Hopping on board a stalled car being pushed along then complaining about the speed of it is a little childish. Stick around, put some effort into it, the return far outweighs the work. Lurk on a few lists to get an idea about how game play goes. Actually _look_ at audited characters to see what will --ahem-- fly and what won't. And realize one thing, if it isn't in the description of the character somewhere, it probably doesn't belong on the character sheet. Scotto the Unwise

Zand would... Zand would be at a loss for a moment, but would then quickly place the necklace of silver and turquoise about their neck to protect them from further manifestation of the wolf spirit. Then he would make a coccoon of earth about the human form up to the neck and call on his team to assist him in taking the poor soul to the reservation. En route, he would call ahead on his cellphone and call for a singer to help cleanse him in the walking way ceremony. Few of the others would understand the needs for magic, but as a living sandpainting he knew how Coyote and Raven wanted to become more involved with man. With the worlds drawing closer together, the third world of man and the fourth world of the electron, the old ones sought to come again and pass with man into the next realm. It would sadden him to know he would be responsible for the possible death of this one he knew, and the sorrow of it would follow him as he continued to act to foil the doings of Coyote. Up until Raven came to claim him as she does all. IE I would fully expect to lose the DNPC in play and replace him with a psych lim or a reputation among the supernatural (or both). Scotto the Unwise

Clinging isn't the offensive power In a Tar Baby situation, the fact that they are stuck just means they cannot get free. By making it Clinging Dam Shld you get two distinct types of tar baby. The ones that have a large STR value who can squeeze on their next action (because the hitter caused himself to be grabbed), or you have those who have only bought up the Clinging STR itself which means they don't squeeze as hard (or at all in some cases) but are very hard to break free of the grab. While this could be modelled with a AOEHex entangle centered on self with personal immunity it gets kind of kludgy to handle the idea that the "tar baby" themselves could choose to "let go" suddenly. Anyone remember the Blob latching onto Colossus's fist when punched and then flinging him away suddenly? (Eeeww, extra limbs "Flab hand" only to push away ) Scotto the Unwise

Succor to Rec, when do the points Fade? Okay, that and the line from pg 89 "stop paying END, the points gained from Succor fade immediately". When is 'immediately' in this case? Do the points go away at the end of the phase in which the succor stops getting End? --That would allow this power to be turned on, the next phase it is turned off by no End payment to do a recovery and they get the higher REC in that _one_ recovery. On the next segment the REC is back to starting value. Weaker than intended, but still a viable power. If the lack of End payment means the points go away at the beginning of the phase, then this power could only possibly help by having it active over the phase 12, to get a boosted post-12 --nowhere else would it have any effect. Could you apply a timescale change to make the "immediately fades" part of succor longer? ie +1/4 fade at end of turn no end paid, +1/2 1 minute after... Scotto the Unwise

I saw how you flinched when someone asked about REC in a multipower slot. How would you react to someone buying 3d6 Succor to REC? In theory this would be a 3 END power that could give up to +9 REC added to the char's current level. An addition of up to 6 End per and 9 stun . Or does paying the END for REC count as an action that would prevent a recovery? The character concept BTW is a shapeshifter with Regen, earth based powers. He doesn't have a real hot REC normally, but after a KIA and wakeup (and one regular recovery to get some End to work with) this would let him huddle up for a couple phases to get his STUN back to combat levels. Scotto the Unwise

Could this version of Regen Limbs qualify for an OAF lim? "Needs original limb". It would work pretty well for robotic/android characters. Scotto the Unwise

The subtleties of balance aren't really an issue _yet_. Consider though an option of letting the fighter types take an equally restrictive VPP of "sword skills" and use the same real points adders mentioned above. Fighter: " I want bat away the arrows with my blade, knocking the brazier over at his feet, and use it to scatter ashes into the air to cover my retreat" {GM cocks head: Missile deflection, reflection, some luck, and a 1 phase invisibility OAF opportunity cause, possibly a flash...} "Okay, roll" Balance achieved. Scotto the Unwise

The idea with the transform option though is that the wizard may not necessarily "mark" the victim themselves, but could much more easily apply it to something they have on --or premark something and get it into their possession. After all, isn't it a staple of Fantasy that the 'homing item' gets handed off at just the wrong moment? For low-powered types, you apply direct. For Conan, you mark an axe and give it to him. Scotto the Unwise:)

Treat the adders similar to NonCombat (maybe after the first doubling). Then you could also set the amount doubled in stone so that they have the choice of paying 1 more XP and going from their 20/40 to 21/41 or paying 5 to goto 20/80 with anything over 40 being strictly NonCombat use. It could lead to some odd math but isn't that part of the joy of Hero? Scotto the Unwise

Why not Cosmetic Spirit Transform Try this: 9d6 Cosmetic Spirit Transform, only works on living things with "Spirit" -1/4 (Cosmetic as it does no damage and doesn't effect the current powers or abilities of the target) This tran creates a "sigil" which has the following power, ie grasfts this set of power/disads onto the target... Healing this requires either a Transform to another sigil (say "Ex-slave" or "Guildsman Bob") or a very rare Regen vs Spirit Body. Images vs Magesight 10pts (assumes it is targeting) 0End Pers Aon (20 AP) =13 Real + Social Limit "Marked for X" Freq 11- (10), Major (+5) = -15 These balance out so only need to affext BodyX2 which on 9d6 averages somewhere in 20-40 range or affects a normal 10 Body up to 20 Body target --assuming Power Defense is rare enough to ignore. Granted, this would only work if the "Magesight" was either a campaign freebie for mages of sufficient power (like mental awareness is) or _really_ common. If you are looking only for the "Highlander" effect, drop the images down to non-targeting and reduce the soc lim a bit. Scotto the Unwise PS Hey Ernie!