phydaux

This is a superhero RPG. There are as many different kinds of magic as there are players who say "Dude, I'm playing a mage this week. Here's my character sheet."

see, my thought is this: Mage Man gets into a battle with the notorious villain Ice Guy. Mage Man is built with a 60 pip VPP that has the disadd Magic Only, so Mage Man can only do attacks like 12d6 EB Mystic Bolt, cost 6 END. But Ice Guy is vulnerable to fire based attacks. Hard luck, Mage Man. Because you bought your VPP as Magic Only then no Fire FX attacks for you. You don't get to exploit Ice Guy's vulnerability. My question, then, is would you allow Mage Man to whip up an 8d6 EB Mystic Blast VSFX Mystic Fire, 6 END? My thought is that since the PC is paying END on 60 active points for only 40 active points worth of power then yes, Mage Man may conjure Mystic Fire in his Magic Only VPP.

One of the classic VPP disadds is "Magic Only." To my mind that means no "Fireball," No "Lightning bolt." EB = "Mystic Bolt," RKA = "Mystic Blast," AOE EB = "Mana Ball," etc. Would you allow a power in a Magic Only VPP to have the Variable Special Effect advantage? I'm thinking that would be OK because you would be paying 60 active points worth of END for 40 active points worth of power. What is your take on all this?

Exfoliate?

Wow. Targeting? Telescopic? Megascale? 62CP? I'm talking about a version of Mental Awareness only for The Force, just like the Mental Awareness that Ego power users get for free with a 1d6 Ego Blast.

From a metagame standpoint teen supers are not nearly as powerful as their adult counterparts. so while fully superheroic toons might have a 60 active point limit on powers a teen super might have a 40 active point limit. The idea is that you want a single fully superheroic villain (supervillainous?) to present a serious threat to a single teen super. but a group of 3-4 should be able to gang-tackle and drag down a single supervillain. You might think about allowing (IF these are going to be PCs) each player to have a single 60 active point power but bought with MANY disadvantages to show that they have not fully "grown into" their powers yet.

IMO the Lightsaber is a SFX. That way the toon is never disarmed. I'm using 5th Ed. Any ideas for other powers to go into the framework? I figure I'd also want Danger Sense and "Force Awareness" that will function like Mental Awareness but for Force powers.

A power with 138 active points? Yeah, most GMs would have no problem with that. LOL. So zero phase change, no skill roll is +2 to the control cost? So my 60 pip VPP would have a control cost of 90? So if I did it as a 60 pip Multi and my Ultra slots cost 6 pips each then I don't get any VPP "savings" until I pass 15 slots? OK, 60 pip multi it is. What powers should do in it, other than: Force Lightning 4d6 RKA Telekinesis 40pips TK Push/Thrown Object 12d6 EB Lightsaber 3d6-1 AP RKA No Range Low Power Lightsaber 12D6 0 End Hand Attack Precognitive Lightsaber Block 16PD/16ED Hardened FF 0 END Force Leap 30" Super Leap What else? I'm thinking a heal, some kind of mind control, maybe an Ego Blast but I'm not really sure that fits, and some sort of clairvoyance/clairaudience with no conscious player control.

So I've been playing WAY too much Star Wars: The Old Republic lately. I've decided that my next ton will be a Sith Lord. I was going to use a Multipower, but as we all know once you get past five slots then it's cheaper to go with a VPP. So 60 pip VPP Force Powers Only, 30 pip control cost. This allows me to change powers on the fly as a free action without a roll, right? So what powers? 4d6 RKA Force Lightning 40pips Telekinesis 12d6 EB TK Push/Thrown Object 3d6-1 AP RKA No Range Lightsaber 12D6 0 End Hand Attack Low Power Lightsaber 16PD/16ED Hardened FF 0 END Precognitive Lightsaber Block 30" Super Leap What other Force Powers should/could I include? And if my math is wrong on the control cost (change powers on the fly as a free action without a roll), at what number of slots does it become cheaper to go VPP over Multipower?

First off yes, even a little Mental Defense goes a long way to shutting down a mentalist. Now take into account that not even most supers, PC or NPC, have Mental Defense. The odds of an agent having it are very low, and a street cop nearly zero.

Quazar - He'd let his ID go public. His DNPC daughter is old enough now to handel it (she was 12 when I first made the character back in '85) and if my wife hasn't figured it out by now then she's not the woman I think she is. Mystica - She has a public ID already, and doesn't do nude photo shoots. "Your powers, they are mental, da? No mystic? No consorting with spirits? You commune with a demon to gain information, it will not end well for you. Please understand me. This, I will see to." Shadowhunter - "Oh my God, the old man is SO going to kill me!" (The current Shadowhunter is the old sidekick of the FIRST Shadowhunter, a street vigilante who was crippled years ago during a superfight.) Shadowhunter runs this Cybermind guy to ground and via "enhanced interogation" finds all the copies of the data. Shadowhunter doesn't have a CvK like Quazar, but he's also not a stone cold killer like Mystica (She has Reputation - Slayer of Morbanes). But revealing the Secrit ID crosses a line. Shadowhunter would cross lines to keep it under wraps.

My current campaign is called Last Chancers. They are the charter members of a new super team, in a world where superheros are treated like rock stars and super teams are run like NFL franchises. Each player was requiored to have a reason why they aren't on a super team now (PR nightmare, uncoachable, not a team player, drunkard, too ugly for their face to sell lunchboxes, etc.). They also had to provide the reason why they wanted to be on a super team now (love the fame, need the money, no sense of identity unless they are a super). This is mostly so that when the team manager threatens to cut them, it's a threat with teeth in it.

Re: Running older scenarios I never try to kill PCs. But three dynamics do come into play: If the villians & traps I present to the players don't present a credable threat to the PCs, then the scenarios have no challange. That's boring for everyone. Not every PC is built to the same relative power level. Things that are only a stiff challange to a brick can be a deadly threat to a mentalist, or to a martial artist if he gets flat footed. Some players, by the choices they make, demonstrate that they simply don't want their PCs to live. "You look through the skylight into the abandon warehouse. You see Dr. Destroyer, Gigaton and Menton. Dr. Destroyer seems to be finishing up some adjustments to a robot that looks like Mechanon." "OK, Shadowhunter uses his Editic Memory OAF Video Camera to quietly record the meeting..." "No problem, guys. We got this! Captain Canolli jumps through the skylight and does a Move Through on Mechanon!" "All right, Leroy is having his character do a Move Through on the seven ton deactivated robot that's surrounded by archvillians. Pete, what are you doing?" "Browsing Facebook for a different gaming group."

Re: Campaign Guideline Help (Rule of X?) To quote 'Tater Salad, "You can't fix stupid."

Re: Campaign Guideline Help (Rule of X?) Simple truth - Bell Curve game engines break as target numbers pass 13. The only thing that saves the Hero System game engine is that it is an opposed skill game engine. OCV of 25 is perfectly fine just so long as every NPC has a DCV of 25. Give a GURPS PC a DEX & INT of 20 and they become Captain Never Fail, even at skills they only learned this morning. Give the players rules for character creation, whatever they are. Just let them know that you're not going ot screw them over and that NPCs will be built to the same standards. Balance DCs vs PD&ED. Keep CVs in a tight range. SPD kills. All other things equil, one PC with a much higher SPD will turn all the other PCs into his NPCs. And that's no fun for anyone except the munchkin. Sad as it is, there are some players whoes idea of fun is making sure no other player has ANY. Campaign rules exist to keep those players in check.

Re: Running older scenarios You mean I killed off all those PCs for nothing?

Re: Running older scenarios Here's the link: So I ran my Island of Dr Destroyer one off

Re: Running older scenarios AFWIW remember that the old Day of the Destroyer module was a last gasp before the new edition of the rules came out, and was speciffically intended to kill off as many PCs as possible so that the players had to make new characters using the new rules. If that's not your intention then you may want to tone that mod down a little. Not sure if Island of Doctor Destroyer had the same intent. I tend to run that one with every new Champions gaming group I manage to get together as a 3rd or 4th session, and usually only manage to kill off 1-2 PCs each time. I have a write up of one session that I posted here once. I'll hunt for it.

In a 150 point campaign where every party should reasonable be expected to include at least one magic user, how much Mental Defense do you guys put on your fighter-types? Do you even bother with Flash Defense?

Re: Need help with first Fantasy toon Thanks a bunch. I think I've got a good handle on how I want to build the toon. Str 15 Dex 18 Spd 4 Bastard Sword & Shield No special Powers as Skills, just a bunch of 3 & 5 pip skill levels.

Re: Need help with first Fantasy toon Thanks! How many DCs to take 1 1/2d6 HtH KA to 2d6? Is it 1 or 2?

Re: How to build a duel wield attack Also, weapons have STR requiorments, He won't be swinging great swords, one in each hand. So he'll be swinging smaller swords, each doing less damage. And, assuming both attacks hit, the opponent will be able to apply their PD to each attack. While the player will have to spend END for both attacks every swing.

Re: How to build a duel wield attack Isn't that just a Talent? Two-Weapon Fighting?

Re: Need help with first Fantasy toon Bastard Sword is 1 1/2d6 HtH KA. +2 Skill Levels Common Melee Weapons +DC Only will take it to 2d6 HtH KA. STR 15 will take it to 3d6 HtH KA. And Deadly Blow will take it to 4d6 HtH KA. DEX 18 gives him a CV of 6. What level of Combat Skill Level gives +Melee OCV or +Melee DCV, to be declaired at the start of the action phase? 5 pip per or 8 pip per? 5 isn't it?

Re: Need help with first Fantasy toon I'm going to try to avoid going the MA route just on GP. That said, has anyone written up a really cool Sword Fu? Say the GM does allow powers as skills (and I think he will, because several of the long time players are total munchkins and will insist on it) will I be OK if I don't buy a bunch of "Feats" and just spend the points on more Skill Levels? If I can use Skill Levels to improve DCs (and I didn't know that I could), can I buy Skill Levels for +DC Only? Just like I know I can buy Skill Levels just to offset Range Penalties, or just to offset Called Shot penalties. "Called Shot to the head! Called Shot to the head!" Regarding Deadly Blow, does that give +1d6 normal damage (+1DC), or since it's a Sword does it give +1d6 KA damage (+3DC)?