Jump to content

Bloodstone

HERO Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    7,790

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Bloodstone

  1. VPP Frequency?

    in HERO System Discussion

    Posted

    Re: VPP Frequency?

     

    Of course' date=' I tend to view VPPs as reserved for mystics, gadgeteers, and cosmic types. (Things like Brick Tricks VPPs tend to set my teeth on edge for anyone with less than a full Kryptonian assortment of powers, and even for Menton I preferred the Multipower approach to his 6th edition VPP.)[/quote']

     

    I get that reaction a lot. Especially if someone utters the word "Cosmic" as a short hand way of saying No Skill Roll Required, Can Change as a Zero Phase Action ;)

     

    Personally, I see no reason to place an artificial limit on a tool like VPPs.

     

    Sure, I will tend to build things like Brick Tricks or Utility belts as MP's, especially at the start of a characters career when they don't necessarily have that many tricks up their sleeves.

     

    But once that pool gets to a certain size and cost, you outgrow the MP.

     

    I see no reason to continue on that path when there is a superior and sometimes cheaper tool at hand.

  2. VPP Frequency?

    in HERO System Discussion

    Posted

    Re: VPP Frequency?

     

    Yes, could be built as a MP with new slots added with XP. But the MP approach doesn't allow for powers to be added "on the fly." IIRC Spidy once went up against Lava Man, was taking damage from LM's damage shield every time he punched him, whipped up some webbing boxing gloves. "Extra ED, only vs damage shield."

     

    If the GM allows adding MP slots on the fly, then it's a moot point.

     

    That's exactly what the Power Skill is designed for though.

     

    Plus if you ever upgrade that MP to a VPP, you'll need a Power skill anyhow, so may as well get it early on in your career ;)

  3. VPP Frequency?

    in HERO System Discussion

    Posted

    Re: VPP Frequency?

     

    In the source material' date=' seems like many characters have a VPP. That's how I would build, for example, Spiderman's web shooters. Most of the time he uses them for swinging, or as an entangle. But also has used them as a limited form of stretching to retrieve an otherwise out of reach object, or fired webbing into someone's eyes as a flash attack. Every once in a while will use them in a way he never has before, like the first time he made a parachute. [/quote']

     

    I can totally see that, but I'd usually build such a character with a moderate sized MP and a decent Power and/or Inventor Skill roll(s).

  4. VPP Frequency?

    in HERO System Discussion

    Posted

    Re: VPP Frequency?

     

    I use them in quite a few of my builds. At a certain point, it's more cost effective than a large MP anyhow.

     

    I still find most GM's are reluctant to let me play with VPP's, refusing virtually our of reflex, even when the VPP has a very tight concept and/or is highly limited.

  5. Ben 10: Omniverse

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Ben 10: Omniverse

     

    What four year old did they hire to draw this? If this is the real art style' date=' I am *not* watching this series.[/quote']

     

    That was almost exactly the reaction I was expecting ;)

     

    I'm in it mostly for the story and characters and I'm pretty forgiving of cartoon art. But I did kind of facepalm when I found out who was doing it because I KNEW there would be outcry.

     

    Personally, I'm reserving judgement til I see a full episode. Having seen a few clips, the animation itself looked pretty nice...

  7. "Neat" Pictures

    in Non-Gaming Discussion

    Posted

    Re: "Neat" Pictures

     

    So if a zombie bites Wolverine' date=' what happens? Nothing? Or adamantium-laced, claw-wielding, regenerating, brain-eating undead?[/quote']

     

    Well, in the Marvel Zombies alternate earth, the Zombie virus some how managed to get past his healing factor and infect him... so you'll get plenty of pics from that series if you google Zombie Wolverine.

  9. Ben 10: Omniverse

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Ben 10: Omniverse

     

    it was confirmed that feedback does have electric powers

     

    I know it's been stated that he can shoot energy out of his antenna, but never seen them state what the energy is.

     

    Of course, with the antenna looking like gold plated power plugs, some sort of electricity powers would seem natural for the design...

  16. Ben 10: Omniverse

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Ben 10: Omniverse

     

    Kickin Hawk

     

    While I heard the name from an official source, I've never actually seen it in writing. Not 100% I heard right, so this one is subject to change.

     

    EDIT: seems the correct name is Kickin Hawk, not Chicken Hawk.

  23. Ben 10: Omniverse

    in Champions

    Posted

    Here in the USA, Ultimate Alien is coming to an end at the end of this month (it's already done in other countries). CN has announced that the next series will be starting some time in Q4, so starting this thread now may be a little premature, but folks seem to be getting antsy about it.

     

    Also, I'm going to be changing the style of my write ups and figured I could start experimenting with that style now. Updates to Ben that affect all alien forms will be marked in some way (bolded and in green?) or possibly even kept in a separate part of Ben's writeup (will probably be easier to read that way).This is pretty similar to how Prefabs in HD work already anyhow, so this isn't a big jump from how I do things. I was thinking about doing it for the UA writeups, but didn't feel like going back to edit everything. But in this case I'll be starting fresh, so why not start off on the right foot?

     

    Anyhow, the aliens won't have Ben's skills, martial maneuvers, perks, talents, Omnitrix based powers or common Complications listed on their sheets anymore. They are still assumed to have these abilities, of course, I'm just going with this modular posting style to make updates much easier. No more trying to update 20+ posts worth of aliens just because Ben suddenly displays some new found skill or ability, instead I'll just add it to the shared abilities post.

     

    I also want to tinker with my export format, as I think the one I was using for UA still had some 5E elements to it...

     

    I'll be editing some spoilers back into this post shortly, including some character art, pictures of the new toys and some thoughts about the upcoming series and how it will affect my writeups. However, first I want to reserve the next dozen or so posts for the initial batch of writeups, which will have some minor spoilers in and of themselves. I ask that no one post in this thread until I have edited this post to remove the big bold:

     

    The following spoilers pertain to both the end of UA and Omniverse, so you have been warned:

     

     

     

     

    - Azmuth gives Ben a new Omnitrix at the end of UA. The new Omnitrix lacks the Evolution feature, so we will probably not be seeing the Ultimates in the new series.. or at least not any time soon. In addition to the new aliens we can expect to see just about all of the other aliens at some point, including Alien X who I have been told has a magnificent chin. Of course, I am hoping there are 10 new aliens, but so far I only know the names of six and have only seen pictures of four of them. Ben's existing aliens have received considerable redesigns as well. Shocksquatch was virtually unrecognizable from his initial appearance in Heroes United.

     

    - The Omniverse is apparently the name of the pocket dimension inside the watch that we saw in The Ultimate Sacrifice. Not really sure of the significance of that yet. There have been rumors that teen Ben is actually trapped inside the Omniverse in the new series.

     

    - Ben 10: Omniverse is a simultaneous continuation of both the original series and UA. It will be following the adventures of Ben 10 as both a 10 year old and a 16 year old. It's unclear at this time if we will be observing separate timelines or if time travel is involved. One of the objectives is to fill in the 5 year gap between Ben 10 and Alien Force. This will probably complicate things for my writeups, since I will have to keep track of young and teen versions of at least 20 alien transformations, which is another reason I'm moving to the more modular posting style. This may also be why

     

    - Teen Gwen and Kevin will have some parts in the new series, but will apparently not be main characters (I strongly expect they will have bit roles in the first episode and then not much after that). Not clear how much we will see of kid Gwen or Kevin at this point and the exact status of Grandpa Max hasn't been officially announced either.

     

    - Ben has a new partner/sidekick named Rook. He's an alien Plumber and gadgeteer that uses a blaster known as the Proto-tool. Pretty sure he's teen Ben's sidekick, but he apparently drives around Bellwood in a van with a "Max's Plumbing" sign on the side... I'm betting they call it the Rustbucket ;) There is also talk of a Plumber's moon base that presumably teen Ben will be spending some time at. It's apparently staffed by Plumbers that include the comedic duo of an as of yet unnamed tall skinny Galvan and a short fat Galvan. Also, Magister Patelliday, the Mr. Limpet inspired Piscciss Volann (Ripjaws species) from Mother of All Vreedles.

     

    - the new Villain is named Khyber. He's big, blue and evil and that's about as much I know about him.

     

    - As for the staff, a lot of old faces form the previous series are returning, including many of the voice actors and writers. Dwayne McDuffie was involved in the early stages of the development before his untimely passing and Glenn Murakami is still involved (though I'm not sure of his exact title this go round). Derrick J. Wyatt of Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated! and Transformers Animated fame/infamy is the new Art Director. This has cause a huge uproar in the community, just as it did in the Transformer community. Below is a very small sample of what we can expect, though I am abstaining from posting more pics of the various toys. Also, I cannot take credit for ANY of the pictures, I just collected them from various sources:

     

     

    [ATTACH=CONFIG]42167[/ATTACH]

     

    Here we can see the designs of both young and teen Ben. Note the different shape of the Omnitrix symbol on young Ban's watch. Teen Ben's Omnitrix is actually hidden under the green and white cover you see there. Teen Ben looks more like a skater again and less like a jock.

     

    [ATTACH=CONFIG]42166[/ATTACH]

     

    From left to right:

     

    Blox: Ape like alien that looks to be made of Lego's, though based on the poses I have seen the toy in I assume he's actually kind of rubbery.

     

    Gravattack: Uses gravity as a weapon, appears to be made of stone. Allegedly a living planet or at the very least a living meteor. Not sure if he's a tiny living planet, if he;s got growth powers or if those images are not to scale... regardless, as living planets go he very modest, what with the pants and all (love to see the alines in costumes again) Also of note is that we are getting away from all Omnitrix symbols being on the chest, though so far they are still all centered (symmetrical designs make animation easier)

     

    Rook: The black and blue guy.

     

    Shocksquatch: Like I said, pretty wild departure from his previous design...

     

    Feedback: he's got head tentacles and a tail that end in what look like gold power plugs. Not sure what his powers are. Thinking sonic or perhaps some kind of technopathy....I'm hoping not electricity, since they have Shocksquatch. I've seen him in a very Spider-man/Nightcrawler style crouch, so I'm hoping he's super agile.

     

    [ATTACH=CONFIG]42165[/ATTACH]

     

    Here we can see Rook's Plumbers van and Ben's new bike. Not sure how big of a role the bike will play in the show (Ben's motorcycle and hoverboards never saw the light of day in UA)

     

     

    I would ask that, love it or hate it, you abstain from posting any long rants about the new art on this thread. By all means, start another thread if you like and I will gladly participate there ;)

     

     

  24. Ben 10: Ultimate Alien

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Ben 10: Ultimate Alien

     

    Many. I haven't talked about it or posted anything because of potential spoilers... and I'd prefer not to derail this thread with things that belong in the inevitable Ben 10: Omniverse thread ;)

×
×
  • Create New...