Metaphysician

Re: Holding the end of the world

Hermes: As long as the device is stable enough for the moment, first priority would actually be researching what it is, so as to figure out where it came from and who built it. After all, this is a weapon of cosmic destruction, such are *extremely worrisome*. . . especially since the most likely candidate for having any desire to make one is millenia dead. Hopefully.

Once that's done, dealing with the thing is comparatively easy: have someone open a portal into deep space, and then cut his own hand off in precise time with the closing of the portal. He could do this himself, or he could ask for help from someone way faster than his already incredible speed if further insurance is needed.

Re: Time Travelling "Historian"

Hermes: Despite the context not exactly fitting, this could happen. And it would be a guy we know called Darius.

And it would somehow end with Hermes responsible, directly or indirectly, deliberately or accidentally, for screwing up what the guy was doing.

Re: The Emergence Of Superhumans

How wars are fought would be quite different in this alternate timeline.

 

Since superhumans would be the biological equivalent of fast-deploying mobile artillery pieces, an earlier poster pointed out that armies would likely be much smaller, and opposing countries would use superhumans to decide their battles. Wars may have similar winners and losers to those that came about in our timeline, but the collateral damage may not be as severe.

 

Something like the First World War might have been fought, but since millions of dead in the trenches in our timeline wouldn't have happened in this one, the conditions that formed the Second World War were probably suppressed.

 

The Civil War in America, I'm inclined to think came out a stalemate leading to a divided nation. Partly this is because I think it would give more potential plotlines to have the US divided up a bit. This would have had a major effect on expansion to the west as well.

You forget one of the *BIG* factors on that last one: assuming that metahumanity is evenly distributed? The majority of the metahumans in the South will be among the black slave population.

Re: The Emergence Of Superhumans

This thread reminds me of the Ancient Aberrant campaign I am in, where the question of "What happens when supers emerge in a pre-modern setting" is answered in many. . . and conflicting. . . different ways. The results ranged from "a society founded on the principle that men and gods both can work together to build a better world for all" to "Apokalips in single city form", with various things in between.

Re: Mutants and Masterminds: Iron Age Opinions?

Are you asking me or just being rhetorical?

Mostly rhetorical.

Re: Mutants and Masterminds: Iron Age Opinions?

If you like running iron age games, its not a bad buy. In particular, if you are already using Freedom City setting material, and want to touch upon the iron age, I'd say definitely buy it.

However, its not a "must have" if your interested in just the genre support, as opposed to the setting material.

( and the natural question is "If you want to use everything in the book, why not just grab M&M 2e and use it in the original system?" )

Re: WWYCD? #80: Future Hope or Hellspawn?

Huh' date=' I should totally poke meta to post [i']Hermes[/i] reply to this. But for Artemis...

 

Okay, Artemis's and Telemachus's daughter being a conqueror would not surprise, though Artemis would not like the time travel part at all. Of course, she's also as likely to take Artemis's caring for others if she was raised by her.

 

Of course, if we're going with less likely parents, especially given Artemis's adoptive mother has already spoken of setting up a suitor's party for her...hmm, I'll have to ask the group, any of the five I can think of would shock the hell out of the group.

 

Of course, Artemis's reaction to this is shaking her head, cuffing them both when they start to fight, and a look to Hermes to work on this while she works at keeping the peace between them...If they really are her children, she wouldn't hurt them, and she's quite comfortable with people who have very, very different philosophies.

*snicker* So who are the shocking candidates? :-p

As for Hermes. . . well, odds are one of the kids claims to be Anastasia Seeker's. As for the other kid. . . I can't think of any candidate that wouldn't have Hermes looking on in bafflement.

Still, he'd try and handle whatever romantic embarassment arises with as good humor as possible, while trying to keep his kids from killing each other ( or him ). Presuming they both can be confirmed as truthful. . . well, that means at least one of them is from an alternate timeline and is lost.

Re: Why the dislike for Find Weakness?

I never liked it because it was headache to properly balance with DCs of damage. FW could be weak or strong, narrow or broad. . . but in a totally different manner than attacks are.

Re: The Emergence Of Superhumans

Another important question is "Are superhumans around continuously, or for whatever reason do the numbers vary over time?"

If the first superhumans appeared in 4000 BC or so, and are present continuously thereafter? The world won't really resemble ours at all.

OTOH, if they first appeared in 4000 BC, but they follow a cycle of a few centuries of high superhuman activity, and then a millenia of low activity ( with extremely few new superhumans, and lower levels of power when they do appear ), you could get something resembling normal history, as enough time passed between peaks for it to ( usually ) get written off as myths.

Re: I Just Shoot Marvin In The Face

Shoot the GM.

Re: What would your sidekick be named?

Hermes: for irony value, Djehuty.

( Toth is already taken )

Re: The Death Of Vinnie The Viceroy

I figured that BrokenDark the Munchkin Lord probably started off with some kind of "close the room" or "paralyze everyone with fear" spells.

Re: The Reason Behind Teleios

Reasons vaguely related to these, are why in one campaign I played in, Teleios turned out to not be Jakob Stroessen. . . but rather Dr Gerhardt Spregen, a character originating in the Dark Champions line, IIRC. Nazi biological scientist, who figured out a means for extending lifespan, and managed to evade the post-war hunt. By the time of the current Champions era, he has basically the capabilities of canon Teleios, so its mostly a background alteration.

Re: Challange rating and balanced encounters

It's much harder to do than that. Design philosophy has a lot to do with that.

 

If your PC's all throw 10-12 dice, then an agent should throw around 8-9, and an agent leader, or specialized agent, should throw 10-12.

 

An agent commander or agent base leader is probably an actual super villain.

 

I have a unique problem regarding this. One of my players hates fighting mooks and minions. He always attacks the leader. He gets frustrated when fighting agents, especially tactically competent ones.

 

So I'm fixing the problem. I'm going to build a villain who's a total loser other than the fact that he's greedy, charismatic, and makes great plans. His agents, on the other hand, will be 225 point horror stories. Hopefully, he'll be begging for mercy by the time phase 5 rolls around.

Hence why I specify "Unless they get free agent equipment" for my rule of thumb. 50 point agents, that have 10d6 blaster rifles and equivalent equipment, aren't really 50 point agents.

Re: Your PCs might be Underpowered if...

You notice you have even less clout than usual.

 

Then you notice all your Perks and Talents are worded strangely...

 

Wait, that's not a Perk, thats a Feat ?!? Why do I have a Wisdom but no Ego !?!

Bad Egyptoid, no biscuit!

M&M totally supports the same power ranges as Champions, moreso even.

Re: Challange rating and balanced encounters

It should also be noted that, even in cases where point total is a reasonably accurate measure of capability, the scale is not linear. Four 250 point characters are not generally a match for one 1000 point character; in fact, they generally won't even be a challenge for him. Likewise, five 50 point mooks won't be much trouble for a 250 point character ( *provided they aren't benefitting from free agent equipment* ).

This is because most game mechanics don't follow a purely linear progression. An OCV of 12 isn't usually 20% superior to an OCV of 10, its notably moreso ( unless the attack is a sure thing or hopeless effort in both cases ). Damage tolerance involves a lot of thresholds ( avoiding all damage, avoiding stun, avoiding knockout ), and when an attack passes a threshold either way, the result is a major change in efficacy for better or worse.

If I had to make a rule of thumb, I'd say that when comparing point values of characters, every doubling ( or halving ) of points is equivalent to a quadrupling ( or quartering ) of potency. This is a very vague rule, though, and only really applies if the lesser characters can actually hurt the greater one.

Re: The Reason Behind Teleios

His Reason? Totally Yosuga, he's totally a believer in individual ( his own ) supremacy.

*waits to see if anyone gets it without resorting to Google

Re: Captain America and Cast

One of these people has trouble with the Green Goblin. One of these people gets into issue-long slugfests with guys like Thor and Hercules, and has been known to blow up planets.

If HeroClix gives Firelord a glass jaw, than it just means they got it wrong, too.

Re: Captain America and Cast

Where I came from, we called is "Spidey vs Firelord". . .

( code phrase for "Bullshit we'll pretend didn't happen, because it damn well shouldn't have )

Re: Surprisingly Effective Builds?

In fairness,

 

I recall seeing a ruling somewhere (Rules Forum or FAQ) by Steve stating that STR could only add to a HA with NND if it also had the Does Body Advantage (presumably this would also be the case with BOECV as well).

 

The Autofire version will also cost 30 END before adding STR.

 

Wouldn't the strength DCs also have to be pro-rated?

Re: Power Level of a the Mafia

I disagree - the Power of a Hunted is the overall Power in all arena's - especially if the Hunted has NCI.

 

Or put differently - no the physical threat is NOT the primary matter of debate. It is an ASPECT of Power. Not Power itself.

I think we are talking past each other. I agree with you.

Its just, for purposes of measuring whether a particular Hunted is LessPow, AsPow, or MoPow, look at the level of physical threat he can bring to bear on a character ( /including that of hired or manipulated minions/ ). This will suitably benchmark a character, as a character who is MoPow in purely social fields can *also* use that capacity to acquire and deploy MoPow physical threats.

Its not that social capacities of a Hunted don't matter; its that, as a general rule of thumb, a character with social potency is also a physical threat, so you don't need to benchmark them separately.

Re: Power Level of a the Mafia

Your statement implies that Power of the Hunted is based off of physical confrontation only. Which doesn't do the Disadvantage or the Character any service at all.

No, but the nature of the Hunted rules is a bit vaguer on the matter of social attacks, since NCI is broken into a separate modifier. My rule of thumb is, use physical ( not necessarily combat ) threat level as the baseline for determining power scale, then apply NCI as needed. You can then modify if necessary, but you should only rarely need to ( after all, the same money and influence that buys social threats, can also buy physical threats ).

Or, put differently, Viktor does indeed pose a MoPow social threat to the PC, here. However, he also poses a MoPow physical threat, and the level of physical threat he poses, is the primary matter of debate.

Re: Fallen Avenger

IIRC, there have been efforts to infiltrate DEMON. . . horribly failed ones. He could *conceivably* be involved in one.

Re: Power Level of a the Mafia

Okay, given the descriptions? Definitely MoPow. Your a highly skilled brick, but with only 17/17 resistant, not even hardened? He can hurt you with conventional military hardware if your not careful. Which, given it sounds like he's basically the Kingpin. . .

Re: Captain America and Cast

Mental Defense. Lack Thereof.

Also, Ego 20 is really too low.