BoneDaddy

I have to agree with outsider. An E-7 can tell an O-2 what to do because he knows, and the O-2, if he has any sense at all, knows he knows. The O-2 is in command. The E-7 is in charge. It has less to do with social standing, and more to do with contacts, skills, and presence. The average line unit E-7 in the Army has a combat patch and a hell of a lot of battlefield experience to go with it. The average O-2 has a Bachelors degree and REALLY shiny shoes. O-3s (Captains) tend to know what they are doing. The average Leiutenant does not. The E-7 does not get invited to the officer's club with the Colonel. The Louie might, even with a butter bar.

IIRC he can't effect anything yellow. I imagine him slipping on a lot of banana peels

or, 0.2

How 'bout Savate? A cutlass and some kicking. You could teach her a withering Armor Piercing crotch kick, and then call her the Queen of Cups. I should have resisted.

me too. I disagree. I haven't seen ballistics on broadheads, but I'd bet the hole they rip through a target is a nasty one. A super broad head, designed to maulmaimcripplekill, could certainly be nastier. Springloaded stilletto heads (I don't know the proper name, someone will no doubt correct me) that expand post-impact already exist. Super archer guy could just improve on that design.

I ran a one shot Shadowrun where the players were playing cops out to kill/capture/subdue/foil a team of runners. It was tough. I used the stock runners from the main book (not too powerful) and it was really hard, but a lot of fun.

I think there is a significant difference in their EQs. Just as I would have a hard time talking with someone with twice my IQ, I would have a hard time relating to someone with twice my EQ (a measurement of emotional intelligence). I think she's going to emotionally slaughter him. It should make for some exciting storytelling, though.

While we're on the topic, what's the general concensus on Entangle, Darkness, Change Environment, and Find Weakness in terms of offensive power point totals? A fifty point entangle doesn't seem as useful as I might want it to be, especially when put next to a 3d6 RKA or a 10d6EB. A 50 STR brick can shrug that off in half a phase. Fifty points worth of darkness is nice, but is 60 unbalancing in a 50 point limit offensive game? Change Environment is more diversely useful (I can create a radius around myself where you can't run away, or catch me. Xeno's Tortoise finally wins!) but I ask the same question - do these odd powers fall into the same category as EB and RKA and Flash? CorpCommander creates a great explanation as to why max power points are necessary. How far should they extend?

how about a 0 range entangle that reflects the damage back at the entangled party? Its not perfect, but its easy, and I think it gets the job done.

Well, I've been teargassed. IMHO, its a flash, and a change environment. Flash - you can't see, not in any meaningful (targeting) way. Change Environment - breathing is really difficult (hard to breath, harder to fight). Except for frail folks to begin with, its nonlethal, and unlikely to knock you out. I think EB is inappropraite. As for the targeting aspect, I don't know. Area effect, one hex, requires a targeting roll sounds right, and not too clunky, except its persistant and uncontrolled, dissipated by winds, and not vs. eye covering for the flash and not vs. gas masks or self contained breathing for the CE. Sounds expensive if you want more than 4 charges. Helpful? Anyone else get gassed for Uncle Sam? I think Wonder Woman could still deflect it, if it was aimed at her. Her Amazonian reflexes are superior. She could deflct the round with a glancing blow, enough to miss her, not enough to break. Aim it at something else in her hex, as per the instructions on the side of the box, though...

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Which is why I buy an EC for my telekinetic. If you bought the EB indirect, would it cost the same amount/ die of damage? I think so. Do I have the wrong meta-rule #5? I think you mean "if there is a more expensive way, it is probably the right way." There are exceptions to this rule. You can buy pretty darn good auditory images for what it costs to shapechange your voice. Oh yeah - I think the new shapechange isn't much better than the old one, and I don't consider it an especially useful power to begin with. The ability to look like anyone you want costs as much as the ability to raise the USS Arizona and sink it again.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Snow for sale! Sounds about right to me. Any of the powers I mentioned earlier I would expect to generate about 220 pounds of snow on an average attack at the levels I'm considering (a 9d6 EB). Now - is it a limitation? How much? Is it just an expensive linked? I could make it a 30 active point side effect (snow doesn't last for weeks, more like hours, so I move the REC rate down a few levels per the FAQ) that always happens. I have a hard time imagining it as more than 1/2. The special effect helps me, but the leftovers are a real pain in the butt. A protracted fight, where I generate some darkness, entangle the speedster, and blast the big guy into a brickcicle will leave a few tons of snow in its wake. I am the mighty Captain Lake Effect (still not sure on a name) so it doesn't bother me, but the hostages I was rescuing need more rescuing at this point. When the Viper crew comes to try to find out who ambushed their ambush, the snow might just give me away (ya think?) When the team HQ keeps getting cleaing bills from places we've saved, it will be a more noticable limitation. It just isn't much of a combat limitation, aside from eliminating the possibility of stealth, and maybe risking filling in a close quarters. How much snow is that, volumetricly? 3 times as much as liquid water, according to our online friends at uchicago and Mrs. Kostocowe's 2d grade class. That's about 82 gallons of snow per blast on average, or .3 cubic meter. Too much?

Re: Re: Snow for sale! When you use transform to make something out of nothing, the rules provide some guidance -nothing too useful, only temporary stuff, nothing too valuable, which is where the $1000/ body guidline comes in. No gutting the local economy, etc.

All I would change is wording. Limitations and Disadvantages should have thier names switched.

Right - limitations. Powers have advantages and limitations, characters have powers and disadvantages. This belongs in that "One Thing" thread. Consistancy is the hobgoblin of small minds. I think I agree about the value. So what sort of limitation? Is it a side effect, and how much snow are we talking about here? I'll cheerfully accept naming suggestions, too, since "Snow Man" sounds almost half as heroic as "Captain Nor'easter", but twice as heroic as "Avalanche".

TK makes good mathematical sense, IMHO. I use an elemental control, but a multipower would work just as well. EB for a direct TK attack, and TK for an indirect EB. Remember, its an inherently indirect ranged attack. That's a serious advantage. The math works whether you consider it ranged strength or an indirect EB.

Here's the situation: Instead of an IceMan type character, I'm working on a snow based special effect. It covers a lot of different maneuvers - entangle, darkness, a variety of EBs, and a change environment. I'd like to also have the ability to create a lot of snow. I hear some of you thinking "well, duh." But this special effect is useful for more things than are covered by the EC and multipower I have in mind, and a VPP isn't what I'm after. Potential uses for a lot of snow: Putting out fires. Entertaining children. Preserving a severed limb. Snow Cones. A variety of truly impractical jokes (filling the heromobile with snow, or Obsidian's room, or an elevator). Creating a hasty crash pad. Potential drawbacks from creating a huge amount of snow: After you stop the bank robbery, the bank lobby is hip deep in snow. This is only marginally better than being robbed. Anyone can tell where you've been working by the slush you leave in your wake. Its at least as much of a curse as a blessing. So, 2 issues: 1. How much snow does a Transform - air into snow - create? $1000/body isn't really that helpful. What's snow worth? 10 pounds of ice is a dollar. That's 5 tons of snow /body rolled. That's too darn much snow. On the other hand, how much body does a given volume of snow have? Any help here is good help. 2. Is this a disadvantage? I was thinking of it as an automatic 30 point side effect (making ten tons of snow with every EB is a serious liability). Is it a linked power? It has great uses sometimes, but not most of the time. Most of the time, its just a special effect that makes a mess. I know the rules say that special effects are sometimes a boon and sometimes a curse, but I think a particularly disadvantagous special effect might be a disadvantage - whaddya think, folks?

I haven't dealt with too many agents (my hero experiences have been super v. super, mostly,) but I ran into a fair number of corp. sec. guys while playing Shadowrun. Superior tactics are always a problem. If your tactic is "come get some" they will hurt your brick real bad if they have any squad training at all. If you are willing to take cover, and take charge of the battlefield (for example - darkness grenades and area effect entangles? You've lost control of that battlefield) you can prevail against greater numbers, unless they are tailored to kill you. If the GM sets this sort of sure-fire ambush up, it should further the story in some manner. The only good reason for creating this lopsided scenario is to further the story in some meaningful way that can't be done otherwise. The bad reason is to show that the heros aren't invulnerable (duh!) or that the GM really is in control (double duh!). Bad GMing has its place. I just don't know where that is.

Why kill when you can capture, brainwash and release? Nothing quite so much fun as a Manchurian Candidate. "Raymond, how about a nice game of solitaire?" If I kill, things get so awfully dark. If that's appropriate, then so be it, but its head-on-a-pike time, or really-good-death-scene time. Nothing so so or ho-hum. We had a hero go missing and turn up days later in a dumpster - so disappointing. Takes all the fun out of a good revenge scenario.

Like Metaphysician, I too am tighter than the bark on a tree. Or, as the Mrs. like to say, a cheap bastard. I mean seriously thrifty. I wash and reuse sandwich bags. I drive a car that's 24 years old and has no AC, in Florida, because I'm just that cheap. I waited until this Christmas to get FREd for myself, because my BBB has finally fallen apart to the extent that its hard to carry around. Maybe in a few years I'll get UMA and UH. Sounds like the pricing's fair on this one, though. When I feel flush enough with cash, I'll definitely subscribe. Right after that trip to Mars I'm saving up for.

I imagine something like a speak-easy. Maybe a look-easy. Villans would have thier haunts, good guys would have theirs. Fellowship is all well and good, but if you're a villain, our common bond of being funny looking is insufficient to overcome our other differences. I'm running a mini with my wife - two (very funny looking) aliens stranded in New Orleans. I hadn't considered the funny looking people's underground. I'll have to add that. I have wanted to run a Night Breed campaign, starting just after the fall of Midian. Midian is a place where the monsters can be themselves.

I've been noodling with Barabas, a mino character from the New Testament. He didn't get crucified so Jesus could. He can never die. He's a highly skilled normal with immunity to aging, special detect (evil) and a LOT of luck. Also quite Christian, having met the Guy briefly. Not really a pacifist, but he has a CvKilling that won't quit, unless you happen to be evil

OK - I feel safe to post because I a) checked the FAQ and searched this board. I'm developing a hero (Jupiter) whose TK is manifested through three chrome spheres that he can send to do his bidding - they can work together to lift things, grab them, or just pummel them. No fine manipulation, but an EB, and the TK for an indirect strike when necessary. Could TK be used to move through? Its the same maneuver, only Jupiter wouldn't be there. On the one hand, it seems within the rules. On the other, it seems like a cheat since the drawback to the move through appears to be missing, and the difference between the TK move through and the EB part of the "moons of Jupiter" EC is hard to put a finger on. [must start working on moons of Jupiter jokes...]

I recently finished All Tomorrow's Parties, by William Gibson. Either you love him or hate him. I'm the only person I know that can stand his wrinting, and I can't seem to get enough of it. My friends and family think I'm a little strange, but I grok the way he thinks and writes. I recommend it, if you're a fan - it ties together Mona Lisa Overdrive and Virtual Light - a surprising and pleasant trilogy.