Mister E

Re: How Long Does It Take?

You can just buy PSLs to counteract penalties from moving up the time chart on tasks. If you want to do something that would normally take 30 minutes in 5' date=' that's going up one level on the time chart and imposes a penalty accordingly, you can just buy PSLs to counter the penalty.[/quote']

 

Yes. Using Penalty Skill Levels is the way to go. If you bought the 3pt, (+1 to offest Time Chart Penalty modifier with all skills) PSL, you wouldn't be any better with those skills, but you would be faster, potentially exponentially WAY faster. See pg 28 (The Time Chart, under Skill Modifiers), and of course Penalty Skill Levels on pg 46.

 

There are other ways of simulating this (Transforms and Change Environments), not none, IMO, are as elegant.

Re: I love The Ultimates

Man I just read the first two Trade Paperbacks of this series and it absolutely rocks the house. I really love it, I know many people don't like Millar, but I guess he just strikes a chord with me, I love it. I can't get into that Silver Age stuff, anyone run any games in this kind of more gritty style?

 

BTW Nick Fury and Captain America are the best... and of Course I think Thor is off the scale... anyone done writeups based on the Ultimate versions?

I personally believe the "Ultimates" comic book represents the beginning of a new renaissance in the comic book industry. I love it.

"Surrender?! Do you think this A on my forhead stands for France?!!"

My current game is wholy inspired by the Ultimate Universe. It's not Marvel based though, it's my own setting.

If you like these comics, I also recommend "Powers" by Image, and "X-Statics", which replaced X-Force. Neither, IMO, is as good as the Ultimates, but their pretty darn good.

WOW, look at me! I'm a Fan-boy!

Re: Recreational Drugs

To simulate PCP, I might use Damage Reduction (Stun not Body), to repressent the pain tolerance.

I'd also give Precognition, Telepathy, and either Flight, Gliding, or both.

Sleep Resistance, (Life Support: Diminished Sleep-8 Hours per week) and (+20 Stun; only to resist sleep attacks (-1)) on page 39 of USPDb, would be good for Stimulants, like amphetimenes.

I can't remember where, but there's probably a write-up for Sodium Pentathol build with Telepathy in the books.

If you do make a Recreational Drug List, could you post it? It might be handy for the rest of us.

Re: Answers & Questions

Q. Okay' date=' I've heard that "the medium is the message", but don't you think "The Seance Channel" is taking that a little too literally? Come on, where is this supposed station gonna [i']broadcast[/i], anyway?

 

A. Well, Shangri-La-De-Da!

Q. What do you think of Dr. Strange's new Sactum Santorium based in Amsterdam?

A. Papa Smurf's evil twin brother, Surf 'n Turf Smurf.

Re: Master List of Physical Wound Effects?

Yes' date=' thank you, but I was really interested to see a simple list, much like the Master Psych Lims/Master Phys Lims, but more like a list of 2d6 Drain for Hit to Nerve Center - Knee, 3d6 Flash for Eye Poke, etc., some of these are scattered throughout books (and of course many are in the Martial Arts write-ups), but it would be cool to see all sorts of things (poke in ear, slice to kidney, slit of wrist, cut off nose, etc.).[/quote']

 

I haven't seen anything like what you describe, but I bet we could come up with something pretty easily for this link. I might break it down into basic organ systems:

 

Nervous System

Brain

Spinal Cord

Nerves

Sensory Organs

 

Respiratory System

Nose

Mouth

Throat

Lungs

 

Muscular/Skelatal System

Head

Hands

Arms

Shoulders

Chest

Thighs

Legs

Feet

 

Circulatory System

Veinous

Arterial

Cardiac

 

Internal Organs and other random attacks might have their own section, full of stuff like: Open Abdominal Wound, Castration, Kidney/Liver Damage. I imagine pulling an Entangle on someone with their own intestines would be gruesome, but possible, ala the Main Man LOBO, from DC comics.

 

P.S. I live in Eugene

Re: Master List of Physical Wound Effects?

This might seems like a lame obvious response, but have you checked out the "Broken Limbs" section on page 275, or the "Optional Effects of Damage" chapter from 276-282. The tables on Impairment Effects and Disabling Effects on pages 278 and 279 are pretty decent.

It's pretty general, and leaves many decisions up to the GM, but you can conceptually sever your achilles tenden and recieve a -2 DVC penalty, plus your Running will be halved.

Re: Non-standard mythologies

Another thing to consider, is the fact that mythologies that on the surface appear to be unique and distinct, can really be quite integrated. For instance, take Odin, Hermes, and Thoth. They don't resemble each other at all, but in many ways, as the different cultures encountered one another, these gods took on similar aspects, and merged into one unified mythic consciousness.

When Odin went down into Hel to petition for Balder's life, He was referred to as "Hermod", which is like a contraction of "Hermes" and "Odin", Hermes being the transporter of souls to the underworld. Thoth was also identified with Hermes, and the Greeks called him "Hermes Trismegistris" or "Thrice-Great Hermes". The Book of Thoth, writen by Thoth, who was the inventor of magic, is called the Hermetica by the Greeks, and might be where the assossiation between Hermes and magic comes from. Odin, in that respects, is like-wise very similar with his runes, prophetic visions, and knowledge of the Mimir.

In my campaign, I'm designing an NPC called the "Tri-Majestrix", who is going to represent an upper bench-mark for mystical power and knowledge, and is loosely based on Odin, Thoth, and Hermes. He was born a man, tens of thousands of years ago, in an age beyond that of prehistory, and was a genius of unique stature, even on the temporal expanse of eons, which allowed him to craft the fabric of Earth's magical nature wholesale out of nothingness with his will. In this respect, the Tri-Majestrix takes on the aspect of a cosmic demi-god, bound to Earth. He lives all alone in the lost city of Hermopolis on the far side of the Moon, which is the last remains of an ancient eldar star race of pyramid shaped giants called the Mimir. When he found the empty city, he discovered an artifact called the Mimir Matrix, which is a kind of intellegence booster that awakens the finite mind to the grandness of infinite realitiy. He now exists on the boundry between "here" and "there", the Universe and the Abyss.

Anyhow, you get my drift.

Re: Non-standard mythologies

Just a quick note, I often take mythologies and horribly mutate them. Under the theory that oral history and legends do not equal true history.

 

Examples from my campaign:

~Babylonian Pantheon were founded by a dragon. Dragon was sent to Earth to create and protect human civilization.

~Greek Pantheon was founded by Kronos/Saturn, who was a PC time traveller. This opens up the whole paradox situation. Give Hercules a spaceship, so he can chase after Minos and the Zodiac.

~Odin was a cyborg, abducted 20,000 years ago by aliens. He keeps one eye always covered, as the aliens put a camera in it...

~Titans (greek Mythology) factor in big. They are basicly immortal guardians of the earth, trained by aliens to act something like the Peace Corps. They are master manipulators, behind many historical events.

~Egyptian pantheon is my players favorite. Combine Egyptian Pantheon with old Thundercats cartoon. Mix in blender, spew out result. Surprisingly very workable, for players to encounter when time-travelling or flashbacks. Not very workable in modern day...

 

This strategy works well if you have players raised on D&D mythology.

I think Ghost Who Walks is totally on for what a comic book mythos should be like. You need to mix it up, and bounce around a little of the super-bizarre rubber-science. I've recently been doing a lot of research into coming up with a common amalgamated cosmology for my game, where the differences in the heroes and deities from normally estranged mythologies, is not inherently apparent.

When you throw in the reality warping possibilities of time travel, and alternate dimentions, Ramayana, the Avatar of Vishnu from Hindu myth, could very easily be a super powered trick-archer, named "Golden Pheonix", who fights along with the Cuchulainn-like "Blue Fury" against the cosmic villain "Psychromatron", a sentient synthetic astral contruct that's taken up base on the far side of the moon, and is stylized after Questzalcoatl, and has kidnapped Golden Peonix's girlfriend, "Sita", in order to blackmail him into waging war on the Planet of the Apes, where Hanuman, a titanic grower, is the reigning superhero.

I love this kind of stuff. It's what it's all about for me.

Re: The Crazy8!

Mad Max (or other M name): A sociopathic martial artist.

 

Screwball: A brick with drills for a head or hands or feet (take your pick) who tunnels.

 

Moonstruck: A mentally disturbed mentalist with the power to instill hysteria and paranoia in her targets.

 

Consperacy: A mutant who can duplicate himself. Each version would have a Physhic Bond with all the others, plus Teamwork and possibly Skill Levels only usable within a certain range of each other.

 

The Touched: A truly disturbed person who's prone to maniacle cackeling. He's strong and fast and tough (possibly the most powerful in the group) but is obsessive compulsive, and will pick a single goal to which he will accomplish, and will only push other out of his way rather than stand and fight them. Though he can't fly himself, he likes to pick on supers who can.

 

That's all I can think of for now. I might be going to weird party tonight, so I might have more ideas when I get back in the morning...

I like the train of thought that Dusty is taking the CRAZY 8. They don't all have to be lunatics, though that might be cool, but I'll stay away from mundane sounding names. METALHEAD is totally rad. It's got a dynamic ring to it. The FOLD doesn't grab me as much.

How about:

Speed Demon

Motor-Man

Wildclaw

Mad Monkey

Baron Bizarre

Pandora

Captain Coyote

Re: Redundant Internal Organs

Off hand' date=' I'd say just buy extra BODY. When it comes down to it, all extra organs would do is keep you alive and reduce the effects of damage. Sounds like extra BODY to me.[/quote']

 

I agree.

 

However, depending on the genre, why not go for +5 BODY, and +5 CON, listed as powers, to reflect the fact that this character is "twice" as healthy and tough with his redundant Internal Organs. I like the extra REC idea as well, and with this you will get 1 point's worth.

 

A little Power Defense (Maybe 5 active points worth), taken "Only Protects Against Chemicals/Poisons/Drugs (-1/2)," might also be appropriate.

 

And don't forget that having redundant internal organs could protect you against some NND Martial Attacts, or Dim Mak attacks might not work on you.

Re: Liberty or Freedom League?

Of course' date=' I'd be tempted to call them the Centennial Sentinels myself, but I'm a weirdo.[/quote']

 

I think the "Centennial Sentinels" is a sweet team name, but what about...

 

THE FREEDOM RING!

 

And yah, these sound more golden than silver to me, but that's cool! It's a free country, especially in Nevada.

Re: The Usual Need A Name Sorta Thing

How about:

Motley Crew

Chaos Incorperated

Secret Soldiers

Mixed Nutsoes

The Enigmen

The Psychedelic Transcendental Astromonkeys... or the PTA (Do you mind if I use this one?)

Re: Need a name for a hero...

How about:

Miracle Man

Golden Goose

Doc Wilde, the 24 karat man.

Surgical Steel

Doctor Body-Zen

Asclepian

Saviour

Operator

Red Cross (Kind of a boxing thing)

First Responder

Good Samaritan

Mr. Emergency

Doctor Ether

Corpsman (which is Navy/Marine Corps, not army)

Medi-Pac-Man

Hospitaller

Doctor Hero

Flying Physician

Re: CV based on multiple Stats

So you use that instead of allowing them to buy BODY or that's just how your figure the base stat?

This is the figure I use, basically as a guideline, for how much BODY to buy. It's not supposed to be a Figured Characteristic, though I guess it could be, if that's what you mean. To me, it's perfect. You have the base BODY, generated from the Object Body Table, and you modify it depending on how well put together the character is (CON), and how fierce its will to survive is (EGO).

Re: CV based on multiple Stats

Has anyone else out there tried this or something similar? Did it work? Any negative side effects you found?

 

Rob

For BODY, I reference the Object Body Table, on page 304, which is based on mass, (a living object weighing 100kg has a BODY of 10), and I add what I call the "Health/Drive BODY Factor", which is:

H/DBF = (CON + EGO - 20)/2.

(This can yield a negative number.)

Example:

CON 26 and EGO 9, on a character who weighs 200kg, gives you a BODY of 19 (dounded up from 18.5).

18.5 = (26 + 9 - 20)/2 + 11

My players had their reservations at first, but after using it once, they all loved it.

Re: "Get Over Here"

One of the sample powers in the USPD is an 'Apport Punch'' date=' which involves teleporting someone to you then belting them ... the end result, if not the actual effect, is quite similar.[/quote']

 

That's pretty snazzy! I checked it out, and I think option 5, the "Skillfull Aport Punch, " would be the best, unless this manuever was something you did all the time. It adds "Requires A Teleportation Tricks Roll (-1/2)."

 

Just curious, do you think this could be something you could do as a simple Power Skill stunt? Esspecially if you rarely ever attempted it? That way, you wouldn't have to spend points for the specific power.

Re: I need a Super Hero Name for TinkerBelle....

How about:

Flutterbye

Feydust

Flickerfly

Flitterflash

or

WonderWiz

Marvelmuse

Supersprite

Cosmicutsie

Re: Newbie Question

You're definately on the right track with this train of thought.

If you consider computers to be intellegences with "Machine Class Minds", it gets simpler. For instance,

"Telepathy (Machine class minds) 12d6,"

would allow you to communicate directly with a computer, and also gives you a chance of being able to delve intrusively into its memory. Other mental powers work pretty much the same. Check out page 79 of Hero 5th ed. for a discription of "Classes Of Minds".

Clairsentience is also the way to go if you want to be able to see through security cameras or something. I'm not sure exactly how this should be built, but this might work:

"Clairsentience (Sight Group)(20 Active Points); Only through the Senses Of Others (Very limited, Security Cameras only; -3/4). Total cost: 11 pts."

If you have the book, Conquerors, Killers, And Crooks has a villain on page 141, called "Cybermind," whose all about controlling computers and machines.

Re: Character Help:Voodoo Doll

The following power would represent an unconscious psychic attack that delivered sympathetic biofeedback damage to the target's body and stun when that person harmed the character:

Voodoo Doll Effect: RKA 7d6 (Standard Effect 21 BODY/63 STUN), BOECV (+1), Does BODY (+1), Invisible Power Effect (Only detectable to Mental Senses; +3/4), Mental Damage Shield (Effects both mental and physical attacts; +1), Continuous (+1), Persistent (+1/2), Reduced Endurance (0 END;+1/2), Ranged (+1/2)(817 Active Points); Limited Power (Only up to amount of damage received by character; -1/2), Always On (-1/2). Total cost: 407 points.

The reason I went with a RKA BOECV is because the defense for an attack like this would have to be Resistent Mental Defense, which is generally pretty rare. The reason I went with 7d6 worth was purelly based on the assumption that the character had 10 BODY, and that she could only take 20 points of body before she was dead. The Limited Power was inspired by the option for the Absorption power (on page 88 of Hero 5th ed.) that simulated Absortion that functions as a defense. The range of this power is more of an immediate proximity thing, as apposed to global or transdimentional. The stadard Effect rule was used to cut down on unnecessary dice rolling. Plus, it was important to know how much damage could be done with the power.

The major problem I have with this power is the "Ranged" advantage. It really seems like the best way to go, but I haven't been able to find any kind of precedence for it in any of my books. Also, of course, the Active Points in the power are incredibly high.

Other than that, I really like the power. I don't know if I'd let a character have it, but it has a lot of fun in-game plot potential.

The other power, that of being able to wound yourself, and sympathetically transfer damage over to someone else whom you have a personal possesion of is as follows:

Voodoo Fetish Effect: RKA 7d6 (Standard Effect 21 Body/63 Stun), BOECV (+1), Does Body (+1), Invisible Power Effect (Only detectable by Mental Senses; +3/4), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2)(446 Active Points); Limited Power (Only up to amount of damage received by character; -1/2), Side Effect (Character must deliver damage to herself; -1/2), Focus (Personal possession of target; Inobvious, Inaccessable; +1/4) Total cost: 198 points.

This power is very much the same as its complementary power. The Side Effect was inspired by the "Empathic Healing" power on page 86 of the UNTIL Superpowers Database.

Re: Need some name suggestions please

Something alone the lines of Spider-Man's "Sinister Six" might be kind of cool, if you don't think that's too silly, or plagiaristic... like the "Infernal Six", the "Souless Six", or the "Black Six".

If you added one more, considering that these are the world's first super-villains, the "Seven Deadly Sins" also has a ring to it.

I don't know why, but all of my current ideas have a cthonic undertone today.

Re: Giant Character Help

Also, with the Stretching, he can get added velocity damage, unless bought with the No Velocity Damage (-1/4) Limitation, which would be appropriate if conceptually he is just getting the stretching from having gaint-sized arms.

What other kinds of characters are in this campaign, just out of curiosity?

Also, what's the name of the character? I dig that kind of stuff.

Re: "Get Over Here"

Ah shucks, just do'en my job. Does that mean I won't be an Incompetent Normal anymore?

Re: Conspiracy X HERO

The one true conspiracy, behind all the conspiracies in Conspiracy X, is that it is actually just an endless character creation system, not a role playing game. You will have a great time reading the books, rolling up characters, and talking about the setting with your friends, but you will never actually play the game. In many ways, Hero 5th ed can be very similar in that respect, which makes it kind of ironic that you want to combine the two games.

Reality is twisted.

Sorry that was a little off topic. I just felt obligated to enlighten you all to one of my versions of the truth... which is out there...

Re: "Get Over Here"

In the Champions genre book, page 89, there is a "Trick Ammo" multipower that contains basically what you are describing:

"Line Ammo: Stretching 12"; 2 Recoverable Charges (-1),

Only For Grabbing, Pulling, And Climbing (-1)."

and

"Swingline Ammo: Swinging +60"; 8 Recoverable

Charges (-0)."

A lot of the Power Sets in this book are nice to use for inspiration.

Re: Character for Review:Valkyrie

Note page 74 of Hero System 5th Ed., "Adjustment Powers And Defense Powers... The effect of any Adjustment Power which affects Defense Powers, PD, ED, or the like (whether to decrease or increase them) is halved."