Black Rose

Just something I came up with based on a couple comments on the "Your Hero Might Be Underpowered If..." thread. Here goes.... Your "super"-team is a group of kids who, when not doing anything else, hang around the 7-11 a lot. I mean a lot. For reasons not fully explained -- and don't necessarily have anything to do with eating way too much 7-11 cra- I mean food (though those "eggrolls" on the hotdog cooker look mutagenic to me) -- all of you have abilities not found in normal humans. You have 50+50 to work with, no characteristic higher than 15 (except as a power), no power can have more than 25 AP or cost more than 10 RP. I'd recommend all the PCs be teenagers, possibly with a kid sibling tagging along. And everyone has "Hunted: Blue Vest Gang 8- (As Pow, PC has a Public ID or is otherwise very easy to find, Mildly Punish)" at -0 points. Any takers? I'll be working on a PC myself, and maybe something more on the Blue Vest Gang, also known as the stockers/unloaders/cart pushers from Wal-Mart. Have fun with it.

Re: Your PC's might be underpowered if... I'd play in it. Question, though: would you really run it as the point deficit it should be, or something more like "superpowers are available, but all powers have a 25 AP limit, and no power can cost more than 10 pts. You have 40+40; go for it." Hmmm.... new thread time, methinks.

Re: Superman Returns Score I love the Superman theme. There's something about it that makes me smile, y'know? As schmaltzy as this might sound, it's good and pure, or at least it makes me think of good and pure things.

Re: The Professions of Arms Off the top of my head: Assess potential choke-points and ambush sites. Maintain near-constant knowledge of all exits. Threat assessment of all potential targets near principal. Assess job difficulty (for determining fees). Planning travel routes for minimum tracing potential.

Re: How do I build: Foci enhanced powers

Re: How do I build: Foci enhanced powers Paraphrasing (because I don't want to get in trouble for quoting too much) the only bit on p. 310 that mentions anything about this is the first "example" under the No Combining Of Frameworks subsection of General Rules, which says (roughly): You can't have a slot in a Framework that adds to another slot in the same or another Framework. Technically, we don't want that. We want a Partially Limited Power, with which Hero Designer has issues, but is doable if you're willing to visualize creatively. Simply build the power in question as a Compound Power, with the extra focus-requiring-power as next power in the build. When it comes time to print out your sheet, bring it up as an alterable file, and go through adding "+" signs. It's even easier if you're doing this by pencil. Just build the focusless power as normal, then say plus and put the focused power; maybe point out the full effect on the next line for ease of use.

Re: What fundamental thing would you change about the Hero system?

Re: What fundamental thing would you change about the Hero system

Re: How do I build: Foci enhanced powers As far as HD 3.0 goes, I have no clue (still haven't gotten it yet). But as for building it in HERO, it's easy. Blinding Lights : 6d6 Sight Group Flash, blah blah Ads; blah blah Lims. Glitter Makes It Worse: +3d6 Sight Group Flash, blah blah Ads; blah blah Lims, OIF - jar of glitter (-1/2). Total effect: 9d6 Sight Group Flash. Back in 4th, there was a lot of fun to be had with partially Limited Powers - powers with Disads on only some of the effect. This was very common with Lims like Increased END and Extra Time. FREd makes it a little easier by telling you to build the base of the power, and the differently-limited icing is built seperately and simply called the rest of the power. Take a look in the back of USPD I for Energy Conversion for a great - simple - build in this vein.

Re: WWYCD: Hi! We're your Sidekicks!

Re: Power Design My first thought was to make them skinnier and weaker: lower BODY and STUN, slightly lower DEF.

Re: A Challenge The obvious one that comes to my mind is: Methods: An assassin knows all sorts of ways to kill people. Many of them are rather... obvious... but there are quite a number that look perfectly reasonable and natural, for a given value of natural. Poisons, slipping off a balcony, breaking your neck falling off a spooked horse, et cetera et cetera et cetera. Assessing the price of the "hit": Any assassin worthy of the name needs to be able to look at a target and determine just how tough a job killing them is going to be. Included in that assessment is the cost of materials, lead-in time, and just how expensive - both in currency and intangibles - the hit is going to be for the assassin. Also, you've got to be able to tell how much the client is willing to pay.

Re: WWYCD if their reflection suddenly winked at them? Penumbra would wonder which of two (or more) individuals it might be: the annoying "cousin", who looks just like him, and thinks Pen's life is "bright, man, like shining!" the dangerous "cousin", who looks just like him, and simply sees most normal people as amusing toys to play with and then break possibly some other, as-yet unknown "cousin", who lo... well, you get the idea, and is simply popping up to make his life even more disturbing. He'd take a "cautious wait and see" approach, since friendly and paranoid have both been unsuccessful. And as for being surprised by mirrors doing odd things, well, that's just a day in the life, man.

Re: Spells for the Goddess of Love and Lust Um, I think you'd really only get once, unless you think that running your brain through an experience of which you literally can't store a solid memory. Go ahead, try to remember one, I dare you; the best you'll get is "oooh, nice..." Frankly, I think you'd burn out your pleasure center; my fiancee told me about a study where they wired a woman's brain so she could set off an orgasm by pressing a button (yeah, yeah, I know ). Except it didn't quite work that way - it gave her the "almost there" feeling, but never sent her over the edge. It reached the point where she was constantly pressing the button even though it gave her no release, just for the tormenting sensation of "almost there". Evil.

Re: The Beverly Hillbillies While admittedly a pile of dreck, the Beverly Hillbillies movie had Ellie Mae rasslin' quite effectively... though she does seem a bit taken with "illegal" moves*. I'm looking forward to her writeup. *"And I call this one [grabs opponent's leg in each hand, then kicks forward forcefully] the Hickory Nutcracker!"

Re: Have you used anything from the Asian Bestiaries? I've only managed to get AB II so far, and I've really enjoyed both the Japanese and Filipino sections. My fiancee pointed out to me that most of the Filo monsters were "indiginous" to the middle of the Phils, and that they weren't as well known in the north or south. Then again, she wasn't able to recall any that weren't listed, just that she "knew there were some". I'm looking forward to getting AB I, since the three main cultures I wanted were China, Japan, and the Phils. I was hoping for/expecting some more boogah-boogah monsters from the Japan side, but they seem to have been folded into the Gaki, Oni, Yasha, and Yurei. I had also been looking forwad to the Yuki-Onna write-up (thanks!). I didn't know much about Filo monsters, so the look was great; it was also interesting to see the borrowing from nearby nations (my SO knew the penanggalana, but thought it was a local thing). Since I'm working on a Magic & Martial Arts setting, the Japanese and Chinese monsters are going to be fairly important. Again Susano, thank you for writing this.

Re: "You're not a REAL Hero!" Oh, I didn't think you did. I was simply pointing out that, IMO, someone who honestly espouses that opinion is into it more for getting to beat people up in a "socially accepted" manner.

Re: Art for Asian Fantasy Games This is one of the sites that makes me so happy I have DLthemAll on my Mozilla. Gotta love "Eastern Art". Must find more....

Re: Special Effects While the last thing we want (or need, for that matter) is Steve to come down from the Mount with the Ten SFX carved into stone, I really have no problem with people coming up with "Normal SFX" builds. For example, let us say that, for purposes of our campaign, we call the following: Double KB; Must Have Air Available To Use, Side Effect (environment only) the default SFX for "Air Attack Powers". Now you know what "normal" Air SFX attacks should have; if yours are different, it means the attack isn't "normal". Doesn't mean you can't have it, but it does mean you have to explain why what you're calling an Wind Cutter doesn't do Double KB. Maybe the air is so pressurized and focused it doesn't push against the target so much? For me, I rather like the idea of having a list of the more common SFX and how the GM thinks they look in HERO terms. This way I know where I am in relation to his world.

In the vein of "Self-Defeating Powers" and "Seemingly Silly Things To Model", I'd like to offer up the option of... interesting, but ultimately "useless" powers. Now, by "useless", I don't mean the power is completely useless, like the ones in "Self-Defeating Powers", I mean powers that actually do something, and if you yourself had it, you'd probably get use out of it, but don't actually matter in the grand scheme of things. I'll give you my idea, which was inspired by the "see through your own eyelids" power in the "SDP" thread: See Yourself: combo of No-Range Clairvoyance, Microscopic Vision and N-Ray Vision all Discriminatory, only usable on yourself. Now you can see any part of your body, inside or out, no matter how small. You can follow the process of digestion, from chewing to excreting (presuming you want to). You can see blood flow through your veins. Presuming your mind allows you to interpret the information, you could watch yourself thinking about what you're seeing. I literally can't imagine anything more riveting than being able to observe your own thought processes. I'm not kidding. Consider how engrossing stupid screensavers can be. Now realise you could be looking at your own mind's screensaver. I think anyone with this ability would instantly stop as a going concern. Thoughts?

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Does that include the character who has the feat? I can see it now: "Sorry, you can't use that feat anymore. You whole family is dead." "What about me?" "Your undead, so you don't count." I got the impression that it was "As long as anyone in YOUR family still lives, I can take a free five foot step and attack again." Does it reset if the person I attack as a consequence of SAC has living family remaining? I could get into that cheezy goodness.

Re: Brainstorm: The Black Paladin Recruits! Not at all. Heck' date=' I've been working on a Wuxia/Video Game level NH game based off of Takahashi's [i']Ranma 1/2[/i], gently liberating from other anime as I go, but with a heavy supernatural flavor. I've already tapped the "Silver Millennium" as a sort of Japanese quasi-Fae realm, barely remembered (and most of that wrong) by the cats and Sailor Pluto. The senshi are already nicely elementalized: for water (and ice and speed in the manga) for metal (Venus Love Me Chain!) (I couldn't find a moon ) for, well... well, Usagi's powers are more from her European Sun Sign than anything else - she's a Cancer, so she's caring and prone towards healing, as in Moon Healing Exhalation! for fire (and if I have to explain this one...) for wood (Jupiter Oak Evolution! in the show, Flower Hurricane! and Jupiter Coconut Cyclone! - among others - in the manga) Using them straight would work fine, provided the campaign wasn't too gritty; Sailor Moon is more about the Drama than the grim reality that is Life. -le sigh- Check out Surbrook's site for some decent writeups of the senshi, though you might want to jazz them up a smidge; I like NPCs to be unpredictable.

Re: WWYCD: Lost in a world without Supers; 9/11/2001 Penumbra would find himself in the position, once again, of having to show people that a guy wearing SS duds and throwing around darkness can be a good guy. Only this time there's no Virtue to say he's a good guy (Virtue was the bearer of The Sword, and commonly believed to be the spiritual descendant of King Arthur and Jeanne d'Arc) and no other metas to compare to, favorably or not. How much he could do would depend on whether or not his T'port is actually a Transdimensional Sidestep, as he thinks, or if moving between shadows is doable. He'd prefer the hijackers were packing; he's got a lovely trick based on controlling the darkness inside a gun's inner workings. But since they only have boxcutters, he'd disarm and restrain them with tentacles called forth from the shadows; if they get nasty, he's got a Shadowshatter attack that will do nicely, provided he's out of the way of civilians (it's messy on norms*). He'd try to get to each plane, but his luck usually doesn't allow for such things; more than likely he'd be distracted long enough for one, if not both, of the Towers planes to hit. He could help a lot with the evac, though; the Towers would be full of smoke, making lots of shadows to T'port through. * In case I haven't mentioned, Penumbra lives in a world where virtually all of the big heroes (and most of the smaller ones) are Silvery Bronze, but some of the big bads are quite Iron; and a few of the heroes have adjusted to cope. Pen's "bad luck" means he deals with some really nasty crap, and his worldview has suffered; he still admires the noble big guys, but knows that he can't be like them and survive. Besides, when was the last time you saw Albion (Brit Supes/Cap mix) in an, ahem, adult entertainment club?

Re: WWYCD - a deal with the devil "So, essentially, I'd be your stalking horse for the unadulterated Wrath O' God [tm] that would come screaming down on my bee-hind for taking away Free Will? Um, no thanks, I have enough problems with the Side of Light as it is." Penumbra would not run away from this offer, but that's only because running attracts attention. Calm long strides, that's the ticket. Seriously, trying to do good while infused with the Glory of Darkness Incarnate gets enough notice by the "Good Guys", many of whom are all-too-willing to smite first and rarely ask questions at all.

Re: "Chinese Amazons" as a Fantasy Culture "Aiyah, volleyball too too popular in home village. Gaijin use Chinese Amazons for Dead or Alive game. Airen take Shampoo on date now, yes?" Ah, one of my most favorite shows. Vaguely on topic now; I think Shampoo was a little bit of a wunderkind in the strength department. Not implying she was the strongest person in her village, but when your great-grandmother is a matriarch (okay, theoretically everybody in that village probably had a great-grandmother on the council of matriarchs) you probably get some special training. Based on Shampoo's capabilities, I think some sort of toughening training, if not the full Blasting Point training regime: there is an argument to be made that Shampoo's "Door, Shampoo no need door!" technique is some variation of the Blasting Point technique.