Mister E

Re: How to build a couple powers. (Issue #1) I'm pretty sure Inherent and Always On should be thrown right out. As for OIHID and the Focus Limitations, you really should pick one or the other, and not go with both. If you go with the Focus Limitation, I'd choose Obvious/ Inaccessable (OIF). I also wouldn't choose to buy Growth, and would instead just pick up all of the Size Package accessories, that you can find 5er (and other books). In the end, I think I would simply build it as a vehicle. I don't have the book on me, but I think the Ultimate Vehicle might have a good Hit Location chart in it that you can use. Gadgets and Gear also has a great section in it for Power Armor. (Issue #2) The two powers you want to use, Darkness and FF, work fine for me.

Re: Flashing Paralyzing attack I'm not sure how realistic you want to go with this. An epileptic seizure isn't the kind of thing that you can just break out of and then go back to kicking butt in the battle field. I think an 6d6 EB, AVLD (Flash DEF, +1.5), Constant (+1), Uncontrolled (seizure is cut short if the victom's mind is realigned/jumpstarted by any kind of external invasive Mental Power, +.5), would be closer to the experience of a real seizure. This way, when it's all done, the power also simulates the major after-effects of having a seizure, by harming the victom significantly with Stun Damage. My example for what could be used to turn off the seizure prematurely, before the END of the Uncontrolled attack was used up, is just fanciful speculation. I imagine the party's Mentalist could perform Telepathy on the victom to bring his brain back to normalcy. But I'm just brainstorming.

Re: What is Casual STR meant to be? You are, of course, right. However, despite the fact that the exponential factor of damage and BODY can only be shown accurately in a few scenarios before it breaks down into a more linear system, I think, at its heart, that this was the intended quality the system is meant to have... at least theoretically.

Re: Dear G-D, NOOOOOOOOO!!! I hate Hollywood! I actually like the second one better.

Re: Spider-Man: Elementalist? There is a great write-up in Gadgets and Gear, for Web-Shooters. I'd post it, but you know... Plus I don't have my books with me, right now.

Re: Dear G-D, NOOOOOOOOO!!! I hate Hollywood! Okay... settle down, everyone. It is impossible to deny that Wolverine is kewl. You must all admit, that in X-Men I, when Hugh Jackman as Wolverine is introduced in the cage-match... you were all jazzed.

Re: What is Casual STR meant to be? Okay. Hypothecial situation, here: You have an object with 10 BODY, and you have another object with twice the mass of the first, composed of the exact same materials, with 11 BODY. The material both of these objects is made of has no DEF, for simplicity. Lets think about this for a second. The second object is twice the matter of the first object, yet it does not have twice the BODY. It is only 1 bigger in BODY. That shift of +1 in BODY is meant to represent an object that is twice the mass of the first. One Damage Class does an average of one BODY. If I have a 50 STR, I can punch objects and do 10 DC's worth of BODY, which is 10, and can on average destroy the first obect in one punch. If I have a 55 STR, I can do an average of 11 DC's worth of BODY, which is 11, and destroy the second object, which is twice the mass of the first object, in one punch. Coincidently, if I have 55 STR I can lift twice as much as wieght as a man with only 50 STR. Along with that doubling in lifting power... I have just proved that a man with 55 STR can do twice as much damage to material than a man with 50 STR. A man with 50 STR will have to hit an object with 11 BODY twice, on average, in order to break it. A man with 55 STR will only have to hit it once, on average. 5 STR = 1 DC = 1 BODY +1 BODY = a doubling of mass... thus +1 DC, or +5 STR = the ability to do twice as much damage. It is false to assume that 20 BODY is twice the matter of 10 BODY. Likewise it is false to assume that 20 DC's does twice the damage of 10 DC's. The point where everything becomes wonkie, is where characters come in. A character can have whatever BODY he wants, and likewise, isn't going to be considered 'destroyed' until receiving twice his BODY in damage. This is totally cool, however, because heroes are supposed to contain some ineffable quality of story-telling that makes them much more than the sum of their base parts... and, the system distinguishes a difference between inanimate objects, and biological life-forms, for the purpose of game-play. Another place where this concept of doubling breaks down, is in any situation beyond simple doubling, and I think this is your argument. 12 BODY is four times the material of 10 BODY, but without DEF, with 50 STR, you will only need to hit it twice... Likewise, with an object with 20 BODY, which (doing the math in my head) I think is 1248 times the material... two puches should do it. Oh well...

Re: Dear G-D, NOOOOOOOOO!!! I hate Hollywood! These are actual rumors? WTFudge!

Re: Dear G-D, NOOOOOOOOO!!! I hate Hollywood! Just thinking about how much this movie is going to suck, is making me sad. It's just like Episode III, all over again. I must meditate on Batman Begins...

Re: Dear G-D, NOOOOOOOOO!!! I hate Hollywood! Yes... this is a stupid direciton for the movie. Stacy-X, (who is in the current continuity of the X-Men comic books), is a way lame character. We have yet to see either Angel or Beast, and this schmuck wants to add in a hooker mutant with snake scales from Nevada? Weak. What about Mr. Sinister? Sentinals? Mojo, for Christ's sake... Maybe this new director can convince Jackie Chan put on some roller-blades, chew bubble-gum, and play Jubilee? That would be novel...

Re: What is Casual STR meant to be? The OBJECT BODY table is in the book, somewhere, if you want to look it up. There is a correlation between Damage Class and BODY, that showes that the damaging aspect of STR is every bit as exponential as its lifting ability. Thus, halving the number of damage dice for casual feats of strength, isn't very fair. You can do it if you want. As a matter of fact, I'm not sure I want to change this aspect of my game. All I know is that in order to accurately simulate the way STR functions in the game, the current method is flawed. Playable, but flawed. If you think it is fair, (if you think that a 5d6 attack averages half the damage of a 10d6 attack), that's cool. I disagree. I think a 9d6 attack averages half the damage of a 10d6 attack. I'm sure this sounds crazy... but this is the way I have rationalized the system from the material I have read. DEF is a factor of arrangement, or composition, not mass, or size. This, I know.

Re: Throws and Sweeps

Re: Mystical Hero Team Archetypes Nice stuff... Back-tracking a little bit, the old "Midnight Sons," from Marvel, fall into this catagory... Doctor Strange, Ghost-Rider, Blade, Werewolf-by-Night, Morbius...

Re: What is Casual STR meant to be? I don't want to be argumentative, but +5 STR equals +1d6 normal damage, which translates to +1 BODY damage. The BODY of objects goes up +1 for every doubling of size. It's all pretty eligant.

Re: Yet another cyber-question: Chipware Socket Putting Skills in a VPP is 'verboten,' but that is how I would do it. I'm not sure how Variable Special Effect can be used to simulated Skill-Chipping... EDIT: "Chipware Socket to use Chips: 1 point per Socket/ Chip that can be used (variable special effect)" Maybe the VSE is the difference between the character's normal skills, and the cybered skills.... I honestly don't get this build. Maybe this is supposed to be a Naked advantage, to enable a character to use the chips.

Re: invisible, desolid follower Or, you could give the pixie Mental Images (Only to create images and sounds of the pixie itself). I'm assuming that the pixie can manifest itself to anyone it wants to, selectively. "Detect Faeries", would be another way to go.

Re: What is Casual STR meant to be? How many sticks of dynomite does it take to blow up the Earth? Strength, Damage, and Body, are all exponential in the HERO system. Casual Strength is broken, because it treats Strength, Damage, and Body as linear. Make up your own rules, if this fact bother's you. I think using -10;15;or 20 to STR does a better job, then 'halving' the number of dice you use. If you don't have a problem... play the game as is. Fun-wise, and effects-wise, the original rules are just fine.

Re: Why does STR vs. STR use Normal Damage Body? Yeah. Predictability isn't always a virtue. In a superhero game, where the player's stats are generally better than the NPC's, the extra randomness may hurt them more than help them. However, in a heroic campaign, where the playing field is more even, (if not tipped against the players, often-times),... not so much. And when you consider GM designed plots, where it would be nice to have villains escape the heroes... 3d6 starts looking a lot better.

Re: Why does STR vs. STR use Normal Damage Body? This is exactly right, IMO. Just about any 3d6 roll is going to be way more random than a STR vs. STR: Normal Body Damage roll. When you figure that +5 points of Strength implies that you are twice as strong as the other fellow, this is a pretty significant difference. Even though so much of the system is derived from a superhero game, where characters have Strength scores as high as 60, if not higher... and some of the characteristic rolls can get pretty ridiculous... a 3d6 is a pretty big variable. (not as bad as a d20, though ) STR is generally thought of in terms of dice of damage, despite the fact that there is a section on the character sheet for its characteristic roll. However, odd things are always coming up in game, and it's often handy for the GM to use quick characteristic rolls, rather than slow down the game looking for some obscure rule that might not even exist. IN CLOSING: None of the rules in the game are really needed. Rolling 3d6 opposing STR's is totally fine... there will probably be a few more instances of miraculous "David vs. Goliath"-type encounters, but no more so than in most other game systems, and they won't be the norm, of course. The more I think about it... the more I like it, in fact. It may also be a little simpler to encorperate things like gaining assistance from skills like Escape Artist, Analyze, and such, to add to the opposed STR rolls, if appropriate. TOTALLY OFF SUBJECT: It might even be conceivable, (going down the slippery slope, which isn't always a bad thing), to one day have a system where damage dice are totally thrown out... weapons and powers act as roll modifiers... and how much damage you do in combat is figured using some kind of opposed STR vs. BODY roll. The difference, if on the STR side, would equal the amount of BODY lost, which would effect future rolls. If the BODY won the roll, then the damage from the attack could be disregarded as a minor flesh wound. Hm... Weird...

Re: Descriptors and Benchmarks (LONG) I think "Benchmarks" are vitally important in the creation, (and maintenance), of a campaign. The players need to be able to consistently understand what exactly the numbers mean, in order to have a solid grasp of the elements their characters are composed of. It might be further helpful to you, if you came up with brief descriptions of the graduated quantifications, in order to really "nail" them in everyone's minds, possibly including your own. (The differences between Remarkable, Incredible, and Amazing seems vague, to me, for instance.) This is just me, but I think your Combat Values are a little low. (This is because I like to give Capt. America a DEX of 25-30, and 5+ CSL's... which on your scale, would put him in the Cosmic level. If your scaling of such characters is much lower than mine, then you are totally correct in your current numbers, and I recall my lame critique ). AS A SIDE NOTE: I am strangly found of the qualification of Cosmic. It is a state of existence and ability, that falls in with a kind of God-like:Finiteness, that is pretty much solely found in the comic-book mythos. Acknowledging that Mythic is something less than Cosmic, is significant, to me. EDIT: I would also like to note, that I have created several lists, just like this one. I'm sure most people here have. This is very much metaphorical of Adam's responsibility to 'name' all of the creatures in the world. Biologists' need to classify varient life-forms, using Taxonomy, is also pretty much the same thing. Could this quality of man be a fundimental aspect of our nature? Sure it is. Why am I rambling about all this? Because it's late, and I'm tired.

Re: Helmet, cap and like I'm pretty sure I read somewhere rescently, that the Activation Roll Limitation to be used for armor that covers only one specific location, (like the head, the hands...) qualifies universally for a -2. EDIT: I just remembered where I saw this... on the PULP HERO genre book preview, put out by Steve Long. RE-EDIT: ...I think... now I'm starting to doubt where... It was definately in a preview for some new book that isn't out yet. RE-RE-EDIT: Okay... now I'm just about totally positive it was in the new EQUIPEMENT BOOK... phew, I'm glad I was able to barely rattle that out of my brain. RE-RE-RE-EDIT: This is the scrap they tease us with: -2 Only Protects One Location (or Two Locations): This is a Limitation for Defense Powers in campaigns using the Hit Locations chart. The builder of the power defines which one location is protected, or which two are protected. Each location covered must be one of the number locations on the Hit Locations chart; a character cannot say “This armor covers two of my locations, Head and Shoulders†because Head is already three locations (3-5) and Shoulders is another (9), making

Re: There's No "REAL HORROR" in a Horror RPG setting...is there? Maybe I'm a little confused... is the question whether or not the players 'themselves' are experiencing horror? I'm pretty sure, unless they are fairly insane, that that would have to be impossible. "The dice I'm rolling have 6 sides! What does this mean? This is beyond my understanding! OMG... OMG... OMG...! Maybe everying the DM says is for real! I must kill the DM, before he swollows my soul..."

Re: There's No "REAL HORROR" in a Horror RPG setting...is there? It might sound funny, a friend of mind, whose big on theatrics, actually does yell "BOO!" every once in a while, and it gets us every time... I remember one night, when he was running a CoC haunted house one-shot... he turned all the lights out, lit candles, and (the worst thing), he played the theme song from "The Exorcist" pretty loudly off his computer in another room. He had us totally freaking out, and we were playing brand-new characters we generally could give a rat's ass about. So with that said, I would say: yes, there can be "real horror" in a Horror RPG setting.

Re: Backgrounds, Personalities, and Archtypes Are you talking about specific material from the DC's book? If so... I'd say what's provided is a descent smattering of good ideas. If you are just talking in general... gawd yes!

Re: Super_Talk.com 6/29/05 This stuff is gold! I'm actually amazed at how much life you have brought to the Champions Universe, with these relatively simple articals. Thanks!