Koshka

Re: Consequences ...

 

3) Some of the bad guys start a whispering campaign against the mystic. The team's allies and contacts become antsy and nervous and will only meet the team when she's not present. Dodgy politicians' date=' semi-legit mobsters and corporate sleazebags get restraining orders to keep her away from them.[/quote']

 

This one would be easy to bring in. Madame Mystique already has a Watched by the Trismegistus Council and a Mystery Disad that I defined as a negative Rep in the Mystic World (seems her family has a connection to a big-name Satanist clan ... her parents died when she was a baby, how would she know about it?)

 

With regards legitimacy of the information gained, I think the "silver platter" laws started somewhere around the 1920's. The upshot is that the fourth amendment (police needing a search warrant, etc) doesn't apply to private citizens. Thus, evidence obtained by illegal means and turned over to the police is still admissable. Whether it will be deemed reliable will depend on who obtained it and by what means. And the private citizen is still wide open for prosecution on a B&E charge if he broke into a mobster's home to steal his files...

 

Reliability will be the big issue here. I think Houdini is dead by this point, but there's plenty of other big-name stage magicians who could demonstrate "how to fake telepathy" to a court. Heck, I can toss in The Great Merlini (fictional, but written by a trained stage magician) as well, he challenged spirit mediums in some of his stories.

 

I'm guessing I would have to prove Telepathy exists (or at least convince the government that it exists) in order to let the government enact laws against it. This might make for some interesting RP -- if Madame Mystique proves Telepathy is real, she won't be able to use it as freely because she could be sued for Mental Invasion.

Re: Consequences ...

 

A Golden Age Hero should always feel like what they are doing is right, even if it falls outside the boundaries of what we would consider good behavior today. Quibbling about whether it is against the law is not the right tone.

And the 'rip through the General's mind' is a little Iron Age sounding, even if the act itself is okay.

I would have felt a lot better about the same action described as:

"Innocent lives may be at stake. We don't have time to waste. I am going to have to use my Mind Reading Power to probe the General's thoughts."

 

Thing is, there weren't any innocent lives or innocent anything else at stake. The heroes had already won. I would have been happier with the action if, say, the heroes needed to find out where the scientists were being held.

 

If you can't punch you own Nazi, you don't deserve the title of Hero.

 

Sigged

Re: Pulp Reading

 

From this week's update:

... though I did just order a couple more books, including what looks to be a darn good one about voodoo in Haiti circa 1930.

 

Sounds tempting, got a title/author for us?

In last night's Golden Age Champs game, the PCs defeated one of the mysterious Lord Raven's* generals, captured several of his soldiers and the prototype Weather Controller, and rescued the kidnapped scientists who had been forced to work on improving the prototype. All fine and dandy ... and then the mystic's player (who is more used to Iron Age games) announces that since there aren't any laws regarding telepathy yet, she's going to rip through the general's mind and grab all the information she can. Despite having a mind-linked teammate ask all the questions for her, thus pulling the appropriate thoughts to his surface mind and making it much easier to use telepathy, she refused (twice) to try to conceal what she was doing. Granted, she's got Incantations on that spell, and the verse she came up with is almost guaranteed to creep normals out, but she could have left him thinking the spell failed for heaven's sake! As is, everyone who was present knows Madame Mystique cast a spell on the general to get information, and the general knows and will tell anyone who will listen that the spell let her rifle through his brain.

 

AFAIK, while the police could get away with coercing a confession in this time period, civilians could not -- and the group isn't sanctioned. I told the group back when this campaign started that while I had no interest in running a WWII Iron Age game, their actions would have consequences in the game world. My question for the group is what sort of consequences would fit here?

____

*I'm modifying the RAVEN organization from Super-Agents -- it's still a bit too early in game time to use Nazis on a 17- roll.

Re: Has anyone ever had...

 

I was asked to run the first scenario from Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth as a one-shot once. I presented them with the mysterious postcard that was supposed to get them interested in the dude ranch, and the guy playing the party leader basically said "we don't have any reason to investigate this, so we won't". Oh, yes, the team leader's player was the guy who wanted me to run this.

 

I should have just cancelled the game. Instead, I got some help from another player to toss choke chains around the "heroes" necks and drag them into the adventure. (The same player told off the team leader's player after the game as well.) That whole mess wasted an hour of game time, though.

Re: What??!! The Roman Empire fell to pieces while Jesus was still alive??!!

 

Actually' date='I think that the Papacy could still have come about. The Christians stole everything from someone else,and the idea of an Emperor was hardly unique to the Romans. Now the college of Cardinals and down the line might look a little different, but even then, arguments could be made for keeping a similar structure(aside from utilitarian evolution, they could have stolen the ideas from another culture like the Germans who used a system for selecting a king not unlike the college of cardinals, where the King was really the most powerful duke, but who had to have the approval of the other dukes to assume control.)[/quote']

A "first among equals" arrangement would give us a less powerful papacy -- the Bishop of Rome might have prestige out the wazoo, but he couldn't dictate church policy and beliefs on his own.

 

"What If? 2" has an essay on "what if Jesus wasn't crucified"; while Rome is still around in this alternate there might be something usable here.

Re: Could your Champions character beat...

 

(using Trebuchet's writeup here)

 

Falcon: 250 point gadgeteer/MA. Yeah, right. About her only chance would be if she hands out knockout gas grenades to all her teammates and gets everyone to coordinate a surprise attack on Cap. Of course, she's a golden age character, which means if she's fighting Captain America it's really a plan they came up with to trick a Nazi villain into thinking one of them is a mind-controlled dupe. The real "fight" between them would be keeping track of how many Nazi agents each of them takes out when they charge side by side into the mastermind's base; unless Falcon's rolling hot Cap will probably win this one, but it'll be a close contest. (Falcon will host the celebration afterwards, she's got more money than Cap.)

Re: Freedom Force vs. The Third Reich Review

 

Weird. Some people are having issues' date=' others are not.[/quote']

 

Couldn't get to the review via link with either IE or Firefox, but going through the "News" link on the main page got me there no problem.

 

(I'd wondered if my security settings on IE were causing this, but since I haven't tweaked Firefox's settings that can't be it.)

Re: Teen Champions to critique

 

The Everyman Skill list in 5ER includes a PS at 11- for the character's job/hobby. Swapping it out for a science skill at the same roll seemed fair to me.

I got to thinking over dinner ... and given that high school is a little early to concentrate that much on a single topic, what would everyone think about changing the Everyman PS 11- into two PS/KS/SS at 8- each? It should be balanced, it's the same point-equivalent as the "official" 11- skill.

Re: Teen Champions to critique

 

Chemistry 11- for no points??? Why?

 

The Everyman Skill list in 5ER includes a PS at 11- for the character's job/hobby. Swapping it out for a science skill at the same roll seemed fair to me.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

 

In last night's D&D game, we were trying to solve a murder mystery. Not that we have any real ability at this, but since one PC's boyfriend was framed for the murder we've got a certain amount of incentive.

 

The party's ranger just took a level of some prestige class that's giving her a wolf's sense of smell, so she was sniffing around the murder scene to see how many people were there. She made her roll well enough to get a rundown from the GM, then the player asked about checking the scents of everyone else in the house. The GM pointed out that not only would the ranger have to get very close to those people to check their scents, but that the best places to check for scents would be armpits and crotch/rears. The ranger's player then asked the druid if she would change shape into a wolf and check the scents herself. The druid's player immediately stated "I don't want to sniff your butts, and you're my friends."

HyperdriveHyperdrivePlayer:

Val**	Char***	Cost
10**	STR	0
23**	DEX	39
13**	CON	6
12**	BODY	4
13**	INT	3
10**	EGO	0
13**	PRE	3
12**	COM	1
	*
4/12**	PD	2
5/13**	ED	2
4/8**	SPD	7
8**	REC	6
56**	END	15
24**	STUN	0

*25"**RUN02"**SWIM02"**LEAP0Characteristics Cost: 88

Cost**	Power	END
27**	Hyperdrive: +4 SPD; Costs Endurance (-1/2)*	4
38**	Hyper-Running: Running +19" (25" total)*	4
19**	Armored Costume: Armor (8 PD/8 ED); OIHID (-1/4)*	0

Powers Cost: 84

Cost**	Skill
9**	+3 with Move-By and Move-Through*
3**	Breakfall 14-*
3**	Paramedics 12-*
3**	Sleight Of Hand 14-*
3**	Tactics 12-*
**	Everyman Skills*
0**	1) Acting 8-*
0**	2) Climbing 8-*
0**	3) Concealment 8-*
0**	4) Conversation 8-*
0**	5) Deduction 8-*
0**	6) Language: English (native)*
0**	7) Persuasion 8-*
0**	8) PS: Computer Use 11-*
0**	9) SS: Chemistry 11-*
0**	10) Shadowing 8-*
0**	11) Stealth 8-*
0**	12) TF: Small Motorized Ground Vehicles*
0**	13) AK: Home country or region 8-*

Skills Cost: 21

Cost**	Talent
3**	Lightning Calculator*
4**	Speed Reading (x10)*

Talents Cost: 7

Val**	Disadvantages
15**	Social Limitation: Secret Identity (Frequently, Major)*
5**	Social Limitation: Minor (14 years old) (Occasionally, Minor)*
20**	Psychological Limitation: Code Versus Killing (Common, Total)*
10**	Psychological Limitation: Showoff (Common, Moderate)*
20**	Vulnerability: 2 x Effect from drugs/poisons/toxins (Common)*
5**	Hunted: Ravenswood Academy 8- (Mo Pow, Watching)*

Disadvantage Points: 75

Base Points: 125Experience Required: 0Total Experience Available: 0Experience Unspent: 0Total Character Cost: 200

Height: 1.65 m	Hair: Reddish Brown
Weight: 51.00 kg	Eyes: Gray

Appearance: Personality: Mark, who chose the codename Hyperdrive shortly after he arrived at Ravenswood Academy, is a generally happy teen. He's adjusted well to both his powers and the radical change in schools (public school to private academy in another state).

 

It says a lot for Mark that he doesn't blame his family or his original doctor for his misdiagnosis and the resulting months of health problems. However, his experiences with (accidental) drug overdoses mean Mark is the first one to volunteer if a Ravenswood teacher needs help putting up anti-drug posters or working on the local anti-drug programs.

Quote:Background: It's unusual for a child to show no signs of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder until he turns 12, but not unheard of. When Mark Ruden started getting restless in school, the family doctor ran down the standard checklist. Mark matched enough of the criteria, and the doctor diagnosed him with late onset ADHD.

 

Most of the next year was a blur to Mark.. For some reason, even specialists couldn't get his medications calibrated properly. Despite triple-checking every factor they could think of, dosages that shouldn't have had any effect on him were borderline-overdose. Finally, after the third time Mark wound up in the emergency room from a medication change, one of the on-call doctors pulled a few strings. Doctor Silverback flew into town the next day, and within another day he had confirmed that Mark's problem wasn't ADHD, but the onset of superpowers. Dr. Silverback got Mark a referral to Ravenswood Academy, and his family transferred him immediately.

Powers/Tactics: Hyperdrive, when he gains full control of his powers, may be one of the fastest speedsters around. At the current time, though, using his "hyper-drive" powers tires him out easily.

 

In combat, he concentrates on Move-By and Move-Through attacks. He also favors the "dash in and grab the innocent who's about to get creamed" maneuver. He hasn't yet developed any speedster tricks, but is developing a good tactical sense; largely because if he doesn't use his powers efficiently, he'll be gasping for END while his opponent is still going strong.

Campaign Use: 

I'm running a Teen Champions game at GenCon this year. To make it more of a "intro to Hero", I'm writing all the pregens using only Sidekick. (And HD, of course -- but it's set to run strictly Sidekick.)

 

Here's the first pregen, more to follow as I get them done.

Re: GenCon Indy?

 

I can only speak for my games' date=' they will have pre-generated characters.[/quote']

 

Same for my games (two superhero, one Dark Champs, one pulp). It's easier to plan an adventure if you have some idea of what the characters can do (not to mention taking much less time to get started).

"The sleek, superpowered Black Beauty; streamlined car of the Green Hornet!"

 

This writeup is based off the movie serials ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031394/ and http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032559/ ).

 

The Black Beauty

 

Val Char Cost

4 SIZE 20

30 STR 0

20 DEX 30

14 BODY 0

12 DEF 30

4 SPD 10

 

Characteristics Cost: 90

 

Cost Power

24 Motorized Wheeled Super-Speedster: Ground Movement +30" (36" total), x4 Noncombat; OAF Bulky (standard tires; -1 1/2), Only On Appropriate Terrain (smooth surfaces; -1/4)

-2 Ground Vehicle: -2" Swimming

15 "Silence The Motor, Kato": Invisible to Hearing Group (+1/4); Nonpersistent (must be turned on [always off when car started]; -1/4) for up to 77 Active Points of Ground Movement

3 Wheel Well Armor: +4 DEF; Partial Coverage (covers 1 Hexes; tires only; -2), Activation Roll 11- (-1)

8 Superb Handling: +4 with Ground Movement

 

Powers Cost: 48

 

Total Character Cost: 138

 

Pts. Disadvantage

25 Distinctive Features: "That's the car of the Green Hornet!" (Not Concealable; Extreme Reaction; Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses)

 

---------------

Notes: In the first episode, Kato comments that when he tested the Black Beauty, it did "better than 200". I'm assuming Kato was going noncombat for that testdrive, but it should be impressively fast at combat speeds as well, which is why I didn't just keep loading on noncombat multiples. If my math is correct, as written the Black Beauty would be able to do around 215 MPH. If the handling levels seem a bit high, the car can outrace a train in the middle of a heavy downpour. Yeah, Kato's probably got a 14- Combat Driving roll, but still ....

 

The car isn't actually identified as bulletproof until the second serial, but I went ahead and figured it in on the grounds that it never seems to get banged up in the first serial.

 

The main "power" of the Black Beauty was its ability to outrun anything on the road. I've got one radio episode that refers to a smokescreen generator built into the car, but without some more evidence that it was used I didn't want to add it in.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

 

One-shot game last night, and we were digging through the minis/shrinky-dink figures to see if we could come close to what the characters were. We'd given one of the guys a dwarf figure, then the woman playing the halfling decided she should have a shorter figure than the rest of us. She passed her figure (a bikini-clad superheroine) over to him to replace the dwarf, with the comment "Here, Rodney, you can have breasts for one night."

Re: Pirate-Theme Villains Needed

 

You're welcome to anything I've brought up, Libra.

 

I'm hoping to have time next week to bring my 5ER to work and start statting up a few of these. (One advantage to a theme team is that they can always recruit someone else -- I don't have to have everyone done at once .)

Re: Building John Carter of Mars

 

And different classes of minds is not a solution since Carter can clearly read Martian minds.

 

+10 points to add the Alien class ... but actually, once Carter and Dejah Thoris got together, could Dejah ever communicate telepathically with Carter? If no, then we would be talking Mental Defense, probably Always On. Either that or Invisibility to the Mental Sense Group, SFX "there's something here, but I can't get through". (Still pricy, but probably not as bad as enough MD to keep members of a naturally telepathic race out of his skull.)

Re: Building John Carter of Mars

 

He needs a huge barge load of Mental Defense. Nobody ever came close to reading his thoughts.

 

It's been a while since I read the books, how much of that is Mental Defense and how much is Humans and Martians being different classes of minds?

Re: I Give Up!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

True' date=' but I bet he thinks (thought?) he could get away with it.[/quote']

 

Oh, I'm certain of it, and I haven't even met this player.

Re: Pirate-Theme Villains Needed

 

Splinter- not sure on the power that'd work for him' date=' but the reference comes from a pirate documentary I watched where they talked about how most people didnt die from cannonballs, but the splinters, and shrapnel that broke off the ship and hit the crewman inside after the cannonball slammed into the ship's side. I guess maybe some kind of ability to psionically throw wooden objects at opponents. Might be more of a low end member of the crew.[/quote']

 

I've seen references to that in other sources as well -- while Admiral Nelson bought it from a sharpshooter's bullet, there were lots of people at Trafalgar who were injured or killed by splinters. In fact, there were lots of people injured or killed by splinters for as long as navies mounted gunpowder weapons on wooden ships.

 

As far as his powers go, maybe a physical RKA with Explosion and Area Effect: Cone (for the spray of splinters), plus No Range and Reduced Penetration?

Re: I Give Up!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Here's his "attack" power:

 

Side Effect occurs automatically whenever Power is used (Side Effect only affects the environment near the character; Side effect of speed cause damage. I don't think he's even planning on attacking anyone, just running past them (not move by).

Sorry about the thread necromancy, but I was just looking up Side Effect for something else ... and this isn't gonna work. 5ER, page 308:

 

This form of Side Effects is worth 1/4 less Limitation value, and the character should rarely, if ever, be allowed to cause damage to others with it or derive any sort of combat advantage or other benefits from it

(boldface mine)

 

He can trash the battlemap all he wants, but he won't do anything to his opponents except annoy them.

Re: Ten Best Superhero Martial Arts

 

Just saw the recent _Batman's Guide to Crimefighting_, which I think is a fun book (as well as a very helpful one), and it listed the 'ten must-know martial arts for crimefighters'.

 

Stupid question incoming: is this a comic, or a RPG supplement, or something else? It sounds interesting, I just want to know where to look .

Re: Pirate-Theme Villains Needed

 

Lots of good ideas here, thanks everyone

 

One of my PCs has Mind Control, and is convinced it's completely useless at a 45 point cap -- mind you, so far every single time she's used it she's deliberately tried to override Strong Psych Lims . I may have to do Press Gang just to show her how to use the power.

 

Supreme Serpent, you're right, it's a more lighthearted game. It's early 1939, but I could probably bump development of the Corsair up a bit. Jolly Roger might make a better name for the team leader anyway.

 

Given that the player who spent the entire "War Of The Worlds" invasion arc trying to steal a Martian Tripod (from either the Martians or the US government, he didn't care) left due to time conflicts, it should be safe to give most of the pirates a magic item to allow water breathing and improved swimming. "Mermaid" just doesn't cut it as a pirate name, IMO.

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

The old Champions II "Mastermind" rule doesn't really fit, but something on how the Evil Mastermind/Mad Scientist gets his weird science goodies would be useful. A mind control ray that will cover all of Campaign City isn't normal tech by any stretch of the imagination, so he can't use cash; but if he's got to come up with enough XP to pay for the thing he'll be 98 years old by the time he can finally start his Evil Master Plan and probably die of a heart attack when the heroes charge in.

 

(These rules could then be used for PCs whose players want to stick Art Deco ornaments on everything in Gadgets And Gear and use them in your Pulp game. I'm certain I'm not the only one who has run into that type of player.)