Stormraven

Checkmate - not possible. Public ID. Guardian. Would help him rescue Heather, let her know about the tracking device - though she wouldn't necessarily say who put it in - and find a doctor to remove it. Then she would hold it about 2" from the guy's forehead and flick it at him (60 Strength).

If I were to run one, it would depend entirely on the era. Some version of the TE are actually fairly liberal (in the true sense of the meaning, i.e., closer to personal freedom and sovereignty) while others are fairly blatant autocracies. In the latter case, it would definitely be the Empire itself.

Checkmate would look at the error message, shake his head, and give the gadgeteer the name of one of the mystics he knows. "Try this one. Robots I do. Souls are another's business."

Checkmate would do as Thomas Temple. Assume enemy action, as he would never attempt (in the normal course of things) to communicate with himself in dreams. If the voice managed to give enough information to prove to Checkmate that it was, indeed, him, it would not be 'stay out of the Winter building', but would, instead, indicate a small bit of data that he would not have previously taken into account. He cares not a fig for paradox. From his point of view, the future is not fixed, and therefore can become whatever he desires to make it.

Checkmate, having seen this coming, would push the button that removes the holographic disguise from the 'DNPC', revealing one of his nastier allies, close in and able to strike at both with equal effect. While they are trying to make sense of what just happened, every hero who's hunting them, having received messages about where they'd be, shows up to fight the two and take them both into custody.

The Internet pop-up ad that can get past Gilgamesh (Checkmate's AI) deserves his attention. Since that's not likely, it's not an issue for him.

Checkmate has no powers, aside from an awesome intellect and the skills that go with it. Even if he lost the full intellect (unlikely in the extreme) he'd still have the skills. He would fairly quickly figure out when he was, and work on some sort of temporal signaling device. (communication being far easier than actual travel.)

Never saw the first but I loved the second. I'll grant immediately that it's not for everyone, but it's a really good movie that explores Zen in an interesting way. Granted, I'd have preferred better actors in it, but they did a decent enough job.

I can't properly respond to this, as it couldn't happen with my characters. They either tend to be solo heroes, and thus would not attack the force wall unless they were absolutely sure they could breach it, or they tend to surround themselves with people who actually listen, and would stand down if told to.

Checkmate would be incredibly surprised as his wife and son are both superbeings themselves, and the werewolf who could infect either would have to be unbelievably powerful. Nonetheless, as it seems to have happened, he would bind them for their own safety, then proceed back to his lab to study genetics so he could cure them. It shouldn't take more than a few months, with his intellect. Guardian would ensure that they were bound, hire a lawyer to point out diminished capacity, and locate one of her more mystical friends to find out how to cure them.

While, granted, the character is in a really high-powered campaign, Control would simply blanket the entire city in a neutron-damping field (given that a bomb that powerful could only be atomic) so that the bomb could not achieve a chain reaction. That taking most of his power, he would be forced to let his teammates try to figure out where the bomb is. Checkmate, on the other hand, would ask the Henchbeing a series of innocuous sounding questions - "Can you tell me how to get to the Coral Building", "What's your favourite part of the city?" - look over the henchbeing's belongings, sit for a few moments, then give the team the address of the bomb. (City Knowledge to tell him where the Henchbeing has spent most of its time in the last few days, 'Telepathy' defined as super-conversation, basically, and Precognition based on following logic chains and deductive leaps.)

Never. Never, never, never. I detest no-win scenarios. I hate them as a player, so I will never inflict them upon my players as a GM. Note, however, that a lot of what other people say they've created aren't exactly 'no-win' scenarios. Setting up a situation where the characters have to run isn't 'no-win'. They can survive and return to fight another day. The whole point of the Kobayashi Maru scenario was that the Enterprise couldn't run and couldn't win. I'll set up situations where the characters have to run. I'll set up situations where the only options are unpalatable. I will not set up situations where the characters have no options.

Checkmate Chalis. So-named because he has a PS: Chess of 32-. He routinely plays multiple opponents, always takes black, and always wins. Of course, playing him, I've heard the 'I don't believe in 'the best' argument before. Usually, it's framed as 'there's always someone better'. But someone is going to be the ultimate. Someone is going to be able to defeat all comers in that skill - so why not a PC, as long as the skill isn't abusive?

I don't use Viper, but I swear, my players fear my agents more than any super I've ever sent after them.

Guardian - Hell no. She's already got Genocide after her, and now the government wants her to register? Let them take a flying leap. Ice Rose - No. Anyone who attempts to enforce it will learn the truth of my name in a most painful fashion. Checkmate - Would hack their system in a heartbeat, show them that it's hackable, and tell them 'no' before wiping the entire system completely.

Re: Re: Re: Hey Underling! There's the point I make to all my players. You are not rolling Perception to see or hear or smell - your senses (or the animal's senses) work, and if the stimulus can be sensed, it is. You roll Perception to see if you recognise the significance of what you sensed. A great example is Neo in The Matrix -- the training program. He noticed the woman in red, no doubt. But he missed the significance.

As an aside, one of DC's newer offerings, comics-wise, is 'Formerly Known as the Justice League'. Most of the characters from when Maxwell Lord was 'in charge' have returned. One such is Ralph Dibny, Elongated Man. His wife is rating the moving men with Fire, and Fire rates Ralph a 4. His wife disagrees, explaining that he's sweet, kind, loving... Has flexible body parts Yeah. Shapeshifters blow the curve, I guess. :-)

I caught one of the episodes - the one with Thunder and Lightning - and quickly changed the channel. The dialog was badly written and horribly performed, sounding like the worst dubbing I've ever heard for Anime. But when it showed up again, I decided to give it another go. The Puppet King episode. Better. The dialog still isn't very good, and the performances need lots of work, but it shows a small bit of promise. Not enough to make me want to seek it out, but I'll at least give the episodes a chance - not like the Justice League show, which I either mute (if I'm waiting for another show) or change the channel on the moment I see it.

I have to say that I tend to agree. I liked the Starships, but I wanted to see a lot more weapons - like high-tech version of Alien melee weapons - and generic equipment. I think I would have preferred a Starships book, and a specific Equipment book, so we could get more of the good stuff... :-)

I had a problem with the Spacer's toolkit, but it was just the same problem I've had with almost every Sci-Fi supplement from every game I've ever played. I have seen more high-tech versions of human melee weapons than I can count. Power swords galore, Vibro-Daggers, even high-tech clubs. But when talking about alien melee weapons, suddenly it's as if high-tech disappeared entirely. Granted, in many cases, you can simply modify a power sword or whatever, but I, for one, would like to see alien races actually have their own specific weapons updated for High Tech, just like all the human melee weapons we see. We certainly got to see plenty of alien 'Tech' weapons, like lasers, Ion weapons, etc. And I liked the examples of just about everything else in the book, but I just had to mention that little pet peeve.

Back to the topic... :-) The poster is concerned that characters with high stats are always good at any stat-based skill they go to the effort of learning - but are not much good at those they don't. At least, that's how I see the original post. A number of good ideas have been presented, and I have one myself, to indicate poor performance in skills that the player has, but not to the default level, but I'll start with a caveat. I don't think Spider-man is poor at Stealth at all. It's not his bread and butter, so he doesn't use it all the time, but when he needs to use it, normals don't hear him. And that's the important benchmark. He may not seem very stealthy, when you realise that most of his opponents can find him even if he's trying to be quiet, but his opponents aren't normals. Doc Ock has a remarkable intelligence, and very good perception. Kraven is a big-game hunter. Some of his opponents have semi-mystical senses. And those who aren't in the 'special' category perception-wise have fairly often been surprised by Spidey coming in stealthily. He's no Daredevil, true. But Daredevil has skill levels, preternaturally heightened senses, and a darker costume than Spidey. Still, the basic point is valid - what if you have a character who isn't very good at something his stats say he should be? An example is the super-genius who isn't very perceptive. Well, Physical limitations work to curb innate rolls like that, but what about skills that the character has bought? Here's my take on that. It's a house rule, of course, but I think it's viable. Given: A familiarity of a basic skill is 8- for 1 point. A basic skill is 11-. Therefore, for stat-based skills, a familiarity gives a skill roll equal to the stat-based skill roll -3. Thus, a super-genius with a 38 Int (17- Int roll), who purchases a 1 point Familiarity with Analyze would have a 14- Familiarity. It works the other way, too. If your stat-based skill roll is 10-, a Familiarity based on that stat would be 7-. Possibilities for munchkinism? Sure. But Combat skills aren't Stat-based, so they're not going to be affected, nor are general skills, and it shows fairly well just how innately impressive a high-stat character can be.

Saberhagen's Fred Saberhagen did an interesting bit on Vampires with his Dracula series. It was based on Bram Stoker's, but with much better writing. :-) Nothing major in the way of changes, but it made for a better story, IMO. Dracula was, indeed, stronger and faster than breathing humans, could change shape to a wolf - I don't recall the bat in Saberhagen's stories - and turn to mist. Holy Symbols didn't bother him, aside from the sacrilege that would be implied by harming them. (He was a devout Catholic) Metal meant nothing to him except a little pain, while wood affected him normally. He didn't need more than a pint or two of blood each week, if that. Sunlight was painful and could kill, if the vampire was young or unprepared, but an older vampire could - with precautions - walk during the day, though only in human form. An interesting change on that is that Dracula, as old as he was, as powerful as he was, could still be killed if the rays of the dawning sun touched him. Still, as others have pointed out, there are a LOT of vampires you can play with. You'll have to be more specific about what your vampires can do before any work can be done.

Does anyone know of any resources existing that put Darkover into Hero? Specifically, I'm looking for write-ups of Laran, Age of Chaos tech, and the Starstones

Size of the miniature isn't even in the equation. Doesn't have to be, any more than the size of the hex you use. And if you're not using maps and/or miniatures, then using meters works fine. If you are using maps and/or miniatures, inches works better as a shorthand for 'hex'. Why? Because you're not trying to calculate meters from the scale of the map every single action. You just count hexes. Personally, I don't care. I tend to use meters anyway, since I don't use maps much - running PBEM and Chat-based games limits your mapping usage a bit.

"Nuke the entire city from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."