Lord Liaden

Re: How would you use Gravitar? That's a well though-out program, Meta. Have to owe you Rep for it, though.

Re: How would you use Gravitar? In fact, that's pretty much the way she's described as motivated in CKC. As for playing it out, you might as well go with what's attributed to her in that book: take on supers, the military, and anyone else who's really tough, and stomp them into the ground. She seems to figure that if she does that often enough, everyone in her way will just give up and accede to her wishes.

Re: How would you use Gravitar? Nice story arc, KS. And thanks for the link. A few potential Gravitar relatives would be very appropriate to add here. Anyone remember Deadweight, from Enemies of San Angelo? Attitudes similar to Bulldozer, and just as dim, but with the power to tremendously increase the pull of gravity in an area. IMO it would be amusing if he was one of Gravitar's kin, and she tried to recruit him. Deadweight might end up running to the PCs to protect him from his exasperated half-sister.

Re: How would you use Gravitar? As long as his face was hidden to protect his secret identity, I can actually picture Holocaust doing this. According to his writeup he really is that big a jerk.

Re: How would you use Gravitar?

Re: How would you use Gravitar? I submitted this idea a while back to the Plot Seeds thread: Born Again Gravitar has suffered a thorough and humiliating defeat at the hands of the heroes, and has had her confidence and self-identity badly shaken. She has started to question her obsession with conquest. At this vulnerable time Gravitar is contacted by a charismatic individual who claims to be the leader of a new religion/philosophy/political movement. This person convinces Gravitar that her failure was due to a lack of a worthy cause to fight for, a purpose and focus to her life. When Gravitar next appears, she proclaims her allegiance to this cause which will bring about a new Golden Age, with her help. Moreover, her attacks are no longer random, but clearly working to a plan at the direction of the movement's leader. But is this person legitimate in his or her intentions, or merely manipulating Gravitar for some more insidious purpose? And what will Gravitar do if she discovers she's been someone's pawn?

Re: Anyone know anything about Naked Modifier? Well, that isn't really much of a distinction IMHO. Most rules in HERO have that "GM permission" allowance. Even Steve Long has put a Naked Advantage as a slot in a Multipower for a published character, which is explicitly forbidden.

Re: How would you use Gravitar? Great stuff already! WilyQuixote, that sounds like a grand concept for a major plotline. Imagine a whole family of gravity manipulators! It's a shame you never got to run with that, but the notion of the jetsetting father spreading his seed is still a great premise for a hero or villain origin. Victim, good suggestion for a political career. Gravitar could end up as a more-stable version of Holocaust, if she develops the discipline to exploit her assets effectively. As for inventions, I've considered pairing her with Tesseract, another brilliant scientist and formidable supervillainess with ambitions of conquest. With their combined expertise, and Tesseract's power to warp dimensions added to Gravitar's mastery of gravity, it's frightening to contemplate what they might come up with.

Re: Anyone know anything about Naked Modifier? No, I've yet to come up with an Adjustment Power that targets Naked Advantages only. However, I've seen plenty of Adjustment Powers that target all Powers of a given SFX. IMO a Naked Advantage would generally have the same SFX in common with the Power(s) it modifies, and would therefore be affected by such attacks. OTOH I would usually rule that a NM applied exclusively to, say, Darkness, would be affected by any Adjustment Power vs Darkness as a separate Power of that class.

Re: Anyone know anything about Naked Modifier? IMO the Naked Advantage is still a cleaner method of dealing with Advantages that have different Limitations than the Powers they modify, like my AP gauntlets example above, rather than trying to describe and cost that within the Power writeup itself. In fact it's recommended that Naked Modifiers generally be reserved for constructs that do have different Modifiers from their base Power. And there is a disadvantage to using a Naked Modifier rather than simply attaching it to a Power or Characteristic. The NM counts as a separate Power, with a lower Active Point total than if it were attached; so it's more vulnerable to Drain, Transfer, Dispel and Suppress, and if it's built as a Breakable Focus it may have a lower Defense to protect it. BTW Sean, I'm not in the least upset or offended that you disagree with me. I have great sympathy for the misguided.

Since we ended up soliciting many good ideas for using Takofanes in a previous thread, I thought it would be fun and beneficial to start one for another of the CU's more maligned and underused "master villains," Gravitar. This is a villain who, based on her character sheet, has a lot of potential to be a major menace. However, there's been very little published about her activities since her infamous butt-kicking of Eurostar. I also notice a distinct lack of respect for the character here on the discussion boards. I daresay this has been contributed to by the way her activities are described in Conquerors, Killers And Crooks: essentially she tries to show how unstoppable she is by beating up heroes or villains and devastating property, perhaps assuming that this will persuade everyone to grovel before her. Not exactly a grand plan for world conquest. OTOH CKC also notes that Gravitar is still young, and that with time should gain maturity and focus. Since she's been active for a few years now, one could assume that her slightly lower profile reflects a growing seriousness toward world conquest. Also, Champions Worldwide notes that she had a rematch with Eurostar which ended inconclusively; perhaps that event helped persuade her that even her raw force isn't sufficient by itself for her to achieve her goals. I've decided to extrapolate from those assumptions as to what Gravitar might decide to do if she puts some real thought into her plans. It's easy to focus on Gravitar's Powers, because she has both great raw might and great versality. However, she's also very intelligent, strong-willed, and charismatic (high INT, EGO and PRE). After learning a little more self-discipline, these qualities would make her well-suited to leading a team of villains. Gravitar would benefit from the support of villains who could cover some of her own weaker areas, such as rapid Movement for tactical assaults or for escape, or mental powers to deal with mentalist opponents. (Although she lacks Mental Defense, with her high EGO Gravitar is not as vulnerable to mental attacks as some have assumed; but she's at a significant disadvantage against a mentalist in her weight class.) If you were interested in forming an all-female supervillain team, Gravitar would be a natural to lead it, and there's no shortage of CU villainesses who would be sympathetic to her goals of conquest, or at least to squeezing as much of the good life out of the world as they can get away with. Gravitar has another often-overlooked asset: she's loaded with filthy lucre. She can easily afford to hire mercenary supervillains, agents, scientists, construct bases, and add all the other trappings of a typical would-be world conqueror. Speaking of scientists, Gravitar herself is a very competent scientist and inventor, especially in fields related to her powers. I could definitely see her developing a world-threatening device based on gravitic principles, possibly enhancing her own native abilities, which she could readily pay to have constructed. If she surrounded herself with other capable super-scientists she might start turning out sophisticated weapons, vehicles and other devices for her operatives. She would likely make it a priority to develop devices to compensate for her lack of Mental Defense, grant her Enhanced Senses and Defenses to deal with sense-affecting Powers, and perhaps modify her Powers to deal with Desolid opponents. In her secret ID of Erica d'Monstressart, Gravitar travels in the highest social circles. It would be prudent for her to start cultivating Contacts, Favors and Followers among the economic and political elite, to enhance her intelligence-gathering capability and noncombat influence to use against foes for whom force would not be a practical option. I'm going to stop here for the time being, to see what comments and ideas you creative folks will come up with.

Re: "Naked Advantage" If it's "all the time," I think you're the one with the Advantage.

Re: Anyone know anything about Naked Modifier? To your second question, I would say, most definitely. A Naked Modifier is a great way to construct a special ability that a character has that he can apply in a wide range of circumstances, like being so fast and accurate with any gun that he can effectively make any gun Autofire, even if it normally isn't; or to have an Advantage for a Power that itself has different Modifiers from the base Power, like building gauntlets that make your Strength Armor Piercing, but those gauntlets can be taken away from you (Focus Limitation). Ad for how to use it, I don't want to relate all the info about it from the rulebook due to copyright issues, but essentially it's calculated in two ways. If you intend to apply this Advantage or Adder just to a single Power, you calculate how many points it would cost if it were bought for the Power as normal, then add those points as a separate entry on your character's sheet. You then apply any further Limitations or Advantages that you want the Naked Modifier to have directly to those points. If you want the Naked Modifier to apply to several different Powers or weapons at once (e.g. all handguns or all flame powers), you do essentially the same thing, but calculate a Naked Advantage as if it were being applied directly to the largest Active Point Power in the group of things you want it to work with, including any Advantages or Adders that Power already possesses. Again, the Fifth Edition, Revised rulebook has more details, and the online FAQ also answers some questions (look for the FAQ link in the blue banner at the top of this page). If those don't tell you everything you need, feel free to post followup questions.

Re: Stretching a point I don't necessarily see such a conflict as being boring or static, any more than two bricks or two martial artists fighting. As long as each combatant has some kind of damaging power, just apply the same creativity and tactical sense as you would for any other fight, roll the dice and see what develops. I do want to add that the Mr. Fantastic vs Plastic Man scenario is a bit of a special case. As he's been depicted Plastic Man is the king of malleability, and would almost certainly give Reed Richards a literal Gordian Knot in a stretching contest. However, Reed's greatest power has never been stretching, but his incredible intellect. Mr. Fantastic has been beaten lots of times, but then he retires to his lab, whips up some technobabble gizmo to even the odds, and returns to kick butt. I'll grant you that Plas will likely win the first battle, but for my money Mr. F wins the war.

Re: I picked this up and only have this to say... Chimney Rock is believed to be a natural landmark, but perhaps it isn't, at least not entirely. Perhaps it marks the site of ancient Atlantean ruins, and some of their advanced technology - a tempting target for ambitious Nazi or Bolshevik agents. Or perhaps it conceals a beacon for aliens who visited the Earth in the distant past, and are about to return. Nebraska was once counted as part of the "Great American Desert," but that term is now considered erroneous, as settlers found the land to be fertile for farming. What if the designation wasn't erroneous, though? What if the land was actually transformed, through dark rituals and blood sacrifices? Or at the least, there were people at the time who believed that such sacrifices were needed to make the land liveable. Thing is, those people also believed that sacrifice would continue to be necessary to maintain the land, and so their descendants continue to practice it...

Re: Old School

Re: Darkness and Evil -- Examing the Metaphor One of the most obvious explanations for this metaphor is that we are a predominantly vision-based species. The light reveals the reality of our environment, but in the dark terrible things may be hidden, not only real dangers but the even more horrible ones of our imagination. It's worth noting, though, that not all manifestations of light and dark in popular culture necessarily follow those conventions. For example, in civilizations surrounded by desert such as Egypt, the sun and the gods associated with it were sometimes depicted as fierce and destructive, bringers of drought and fire. OTOH for some fictional nocturnal cultures, including Tolkien's elves, the night is a cool and quiet time of rest and comfort.

Re: Elements, Energies, and Wierd Science

Re: Elements, Energies, and Wierd Science Welcome to the forums, redknight! I hope you enjoy your visits here - we're generally pretty friendly to newcomers. Here is a Wikipedia compilation of a long list of fictional elements and materials from numerous sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictional_chemical_substance This thread from our discussion boards brought up a lot of original materials from the campaigns of our boardmates: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2589 Here's a great website with "how-to" instructions for creating devices based on various new age quackeries: http://www.quantumbalancing.com/projects.htm BTW redknight, are you familiar with the materials and technologies of Hero Games's official Champions Universe?

Re: Old School Well, I'm not one of published creators that you're doubtless asking about (although I am pretty old), but I am aware of a few veterans that post here from time to time. For example, Scott K. Jameson drops by fairly often, under the username SKJAM! Scott Heine also graces us with his presence, using his own name. Persuant to your question, you might be interested in this thread from the old forum archives, in which Scott reminisces about many of the developments in his classic Protectors campaign: http://www.herogames.com/oldForum/Champions/002229.html http://www.herogames.com/oldForum/Champions/002229-2.html Steve Perrin also visits, as Captain Liberty. You can read more about his gaming pastime on his personal website, particularly the records of his campaign world, the Perrinverse. May I assume that you're aware that Scott Bennie, aka GestaltBennie, posts here frequently?

Re: Need help finding dice roller Dan Simon created a really nice JavaScript-based die roller which should handle all your HERO dierolling needs. The updated version of it is Attached to this thread: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26898

Re: Kirby's Eternals: worth $75? My own answer would depend somewhat on how you feel about Kirby's work overall, particularly his "cosmic" stuff as appearing in Fantastic Four and Thor, as well as Eternals and the New Gods themselves. I bought this collection years ago as a series of softcover graphic novels. Kirby had written and drawn a final chapter for that series which didn't follow later DC continuity, and which purported to finish the storyline as he would have wanted to. (It really didn't finish the story, leaving several elements dangling.) In any case, while New Gods did feature some of the elements that annoy me about Kirby's work - stilted dialogue, broadly-drawn characterizations, groan-inducing character names - IMHO his strengths as both a visual and verbal storyteller shone through here better than in almost all his other work: mind-blowing concepts, epic plots, passionate characters, explosive action, awesome good-vs-evil conflicts. If you like those things about Jack Kirby's work, and would be willing to spend $75 on any graphic book, then I would say that this is the one.

Re: The Gem Archetype So what exactly will the titles of the heads of those orders be? Just "Ruby" or "Sapphire", or "The Ruby ____"? There are different stones, or variations on the names of gems, which would sound better as titles. For example, the head of the blue order could be called "The Azurite," which is the name of a gemstone but also sounds like a title of a religious order IMHO. Similarly, there's a deep-red variety of garnet called almandine or almandite. I'll see what I can find for yellow. (FWIW I once created an order of evil mage-priests for a fantasy game. The head of the order was known as "The Incarnadine," which means blood-red or crimson but is also an obvious play on "incarnate".)

Re: Homebrew Cosmic Setting (bit longish)

Re: New Power build: Supernatural Invisibility I dunno... being Selectively Invisible sounds like more than a +1/4 Advantage to me. No need to roll to target anything, your allies can see you but your enemies can't... and you're not actually making the Invisibility Selective, you're making the ability to see through it Selective. Personally I'd still favor a Sense that's Usable As Attack. So you have to roll to hit; make it One Hex Accurate and you'll likely "hit" almost every time. If you happen to miss the first time, roll it again - this isn't for a combat situation, so you have time. Heck, you're Invisible to your target, so he's already at a DCV penalty. But of course, this has to be what feels right to you.