Tasha

Re: Star Wars Jedi (and light sabers) One of the issues with writing up Jedi is that beyond basic force powers, Jedi vary as to what they were trained with. ie Mace Windu is an expert with many forms of Saber fighting. While others might be weak in Light Saber fighting but strong with certain force powers. Also the writeups do depend a bit on what power limits are on the campaign. A Jedi Written up for a Galactic Champions game (ie over 500pts) will be far different from one written up for a 150pt Star Hero Game. For Champions Writeups see : 350pt Jedi for other kinds of writeups Google Hero Star Wars. or I am sure that someone will post a bunch of links for more info tasha

Re: Cowboy Bebop/ Firefly inspired game I was kind of sidestepping the "Fast as Plot Requires" FTL drive which all Ships in SciFi use. StarWars is notorious for this as is Star Trek. Players really like to have a consistant idea about how quickly they can get from point to point. I came to my Theory as I was trying to conceptualize the feel that various star drives gave the setting. Tasha

Re: Cowboy Bebop/ Firefly inspired game The funny thing is that the Xenomorphs didn't give a damn about the Cylons till they took nice implantable human bodys... Tasha

Re: Regenerating Touch Considering that Steve screwed it up in the first place and then choose to do nothing about it in 5er doesn't leave me very hopeful tasha

Re: Urban/Modern Fantasy Questions I ran a Modern Day game. No power abuse, but I did have the characters write up "normals" at 100+100, then after the first game I had the Players increase their power level to 150+100. When I run it again I will just have them at super hero power levels. I don't game with any real power gamers so I didn't have any issues with unbalanced characters. Though the pixie's acid pixie dust was VERY effective, but also quite fun.

Re: Regenerating Touch Aid does not heal, it only gives temporary stats (that go away at the fade rate). Healing is the right power for this. Tasha

Re: Developing Life Try one of the many editions of Traveller for their World Generation. Heck you can find spreadsheets and programs that will do all of the rolling and other math for you.

Re: Cowboy Bebop/ Firefly inspired game One itty bitty issue with making the Ships susceptible to small arms fire, that being Micrometeorite hits on the hull. Esp if the ships in your 'Verse hit the insane speeds that the ones in Firefly did. You either need good armor or deflector shields to move those particles out of your way. Small holes in the ship will not cause explosive decompression like we see in hollywood. (See the Mythbusters episode where they pressurized a 747 and shot a hole though a window with a Pistol). BTW in Bebop the starship Highway system was a FTL Gate system. It translated the ships into this other space, when the ships reached their Destination the gate there brought the ship back into our space. Kind of Like the Babylon 5 Hyperspace gates, but somewhat cooler. Building a SciFi game I have been wrestling with the question of FTL and how fast do I want to make travel. As I see it I can make either make Travel Equal to: Air Travel (Fast trips every where can be reached in less than a Day). This is like Star Wars, where most planets in the universe can be reached quickly. Starships have a lounge but no sleeping spaces. Ground Travel (Takes a day or two to get most anywhere, lots of stop overs possible) Ships have small sleeping areas, but aren't made for extended stays in space. Firefly feels like this.(though it could be argued that Firefly is on the slower end of this) Water Travel (Slow trips take weeks to get anywhere) Ships have good facilites for staying aboard for extended Periods of time. Traveller is a good representive of this kind of FTL. Once you decide feel then you can make starships that fit that feel. Hell you could even start with a Starship design and extrapolate what kind of hyperdrive it has from it's facilities. Of course some people will make ships that don't fit the exact mold of the Hyperdrive. ie I have seen many fan created StarWars Deck plans with sleeping areas, even though most other ships don't have them. Jen

Re: Rolling High One thing I like about roll high is that it makes the system feel more open ended. When making skill rolls we all roll 12-, 13- it makes it seem like there is an 18- limit when there is no such thing. With roll high you have your skill listed as +3, +4 or +10,. It makes skills seem like they can be bought up to what ever limit you set. Also it's so much easier to teach Newbies who have played any other system how to play. IMHO Roll high was one of the Best parts of Fuzion. It is something that should be part of the main system. Tasha

Re: Superbeing Rights Debate

Re: Superbeing Rights Debate Actually I was talking about laws that had injustice written into them. Like Women's right to vote, minority Rights to vote, things like this. I won't get into more as I don't want to cause this thread to get worse. Yes I will concede that the Rich and Powerful will sometimes not pay for their crimes, or will not face as stiff as sentence as a poor person. I don't run a four color game, and I don't know anyone who as run a four color game since the first game we played. Basically noone I play with likes the feel of Golden Age and Silver age Games. As for Villains getting away with their crimes, I usually hand wave the whole thing and say that the Villain was convicted. Unless I want to run a plot that upsets the campaign. Because people don't like the Villain to escape every time. Villains who always escape will sometimes find themselves turned into corpses if the Players get frustrated enough. More later, Tasha

Re: 350 point jedi? Whaaa? that sounds like something that a hack writer would come up with... j/k Tasha

Re: Black Ops Mutants: Help! What DCs are the Attacks? what Def? that sort of thing. If it's a standard 10d6-12d6 supers game you may find that the PC's won't have many points to spend on those Spiffy skills... If it's a Super Agents kind of game or one where folk have only one Superpower it will work wonderfully. or even a low powered Supers game. Though it could be me projecting. I really can't make a 250pt character and have skills esp in a Mutants game where I can't have Powered armor and other Foci to give me more pts to spend on skills. Tasha

Re: 350 point jedi? The prescience is VERY easy. It's called Overall Levels. If you like you can place "Requires a Force Skill Roll" on them to simulate their nature of being a force ability. There are jedi abilities that are Completely Clairsentience, but not all Jedi are that well trained in those abilities. I highly recommend looking at one of the StarWars rule books to get an idea of what abilities Jedi can have. Reading the Description of the abilities can give you a good idea of how to write up the ability in Hero. As for 350 being a bit high for a Jedi... The OP wanted to play a Jedi Character in Champions in a 350 Pt limit campaign. I played decent Advanced Padawan level Jedi in a 175 pt "normals" game. Though we didn't have to pay for our Glow Sticks out of Character points. The characters played very well, and would have been even more awesome with more EXP. Tasha

Re: 350 point jedi? But really is the Force that much different than Eastern belief about Chi? If you can bring youself to think that The Force = Chi, then you have a good basis for the character working in a Champions universe. I am not sure that I agree that the Force determines the morality of everyone in the Setting. Current Jedi beliefs do determine how Jedi act. I don't think that Jedi beliefs made Han Solo do anything he didn't want to do to begin with. IMHO that makes Jedi no different than many Martial Artist Monks. The main difference is that Jedi have the "glow stick" (Light Saber), and exist in a SciFi setting. Honestly I would allow it. Characters that are brought over from other Genres can be quite fun. They tend to eventually lose their "difference" over the longrun and will blend in with the other Heroes. Tasha

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game you might want to double check your missions (there's a dropdown for that). The Tutorial sets a mission to talk to your first contact. So you should have a contact to talk to. Tasha

Re: 350 point jedi? This is a slightly up powered Character that I ran for a Star Wars game that translated the characters from the StarWars d20 Rule set. I did make some adjustments to make the character more "Champions Playable" In the Campaign she is a "Jedi Consular" which is a Jedi that is more into introspective Force abilities and not so much about combat. She was our Ship's engineer. She believed that the Force flowed through all things, including Mechanical items. Her Species is "Miraluka" which is a species that is so in tune to the force that they stopped using their eyes, eventually evolving in such a way that they didn't even have eyes anymore. Tasha Enjoy! PS she isn't totally balanced, as she isn't really for play . Also I toned down the light saber to make it Champions friendly, also I added a second mode (training mode) that allows the Jedi to use an attack that isn't a KA. Though I should have made it Armor Piercing as well. Also the Saber is Restrainable, because most Jedi don't lose their saber (or not for long). If you character is unlucky as Aniken then Remove Restrainable and replace it with OAF LightSaber. ---- Seramia Popuah Player: Tasha Val Char Cost 13 STR 3 20 DEX 30 15 CON 10 15 BODY 10 18 INT 8 18 EGO 16 13 PRE 3 14 COM 2 5/21 PD 2 4/20 ED 1 4 SPD 10 6 REC 0 34 END 2 30 STUN 0 6" RUN 0 2" SWIM 0 5 1/2" LEAP 0 Characteristics Cost: 97 Cost Power 13 Force Abilties: Elemental Control, 40-point powers, (20 Active Points); all slots Requires A Force Skill Roll (-1/2) 9 1) Telepathy 8d6 (Organic Life and Machine Minds classes of minds) (50 Active Points); Language Barrier (-1/2), Stops Working If Mentalist Is Stunned (-1/2), Requires A Skill Roll (-1/2), Does Not Provide Mental Awareness (-1/4), Concentration (1/2 DCV; -1/4), Extra Time (Delayed Phase, -1/4) 11 2) Jedi Mind Tricks: Mind Control 8d6 (40 Active Points); Requires A Skill Roll (-1/2), Does Not Provide Mental Awareness (-1/4) 10 3) Active Lightsaber Defense: Force Field (16 PD/16 ED), Reduced Endurance (1/2 END; +1/4) (40 Active Points); Restrainable (Requires an activated Light Saber; -1/2), Requires A Force Skill Roll (-1/2) 11 4) Force Inspiration: +4 Overall (40 Active Points); Requires A Force Skill Roll (-1/2), Costs Endurance (Only Costs END to Activate; -1/4) 8 5) Force Heal: Healing BODY 4d6 (40 Active Points); Extra Time (Extra Phase, -3/4), Requires A Skill Roll (-1/2), Concentration (1/2 DCV; -1/4) 11 6) Move Object: Telekinesis (20 STR), Fine Manipulation (40 Active Points); Requires A Skill Roll (-1/2), Extra Time (Delayed Phase, Only to Activate, -1/4) 15 7) Danger Sense (general area, any danger, Discriminatory, Function as a Sense) (42 Active Points); Requires A Force Skill Roll (-1/2) 15-/13- 30 See Force (Miraluka Sight): Detect A Class Of Things (The Force) 16-/14- (Mystic Group), Discriminatory, Increased Arc Of Perception (240 Degrees), Range, Sense, Targeting 4 Light Saber Defense: +2 with DCV (10 Active Points); OAF (Activated LightSaber; -1), Requires A Skill Roll (Must be rolled vs every attack deflected; -1/2) 5 Force Leap: Leaping +3" (5 1/2" forward, 2 1/2" upward) (Accurate) (8 Active Points); Requires A Skill Roll (-1/2) 6 Alertness: +2 PER with all Sense Groups 47 LightSaber: Multipower, 70-point reserve, (70 Active Points); all slots Restrainable (-1/2) 3u 1) Killing Attack - Ranged 3d6-1, Reduced Endurance (1/2 END; +1/4), Armor Piercing (+1/2) (70 Active Points); No Range (-1/2), Restrainable (-1/2) 3u 2) (Training Mode): Energy Blast 12d6 (vs. ED) (60 Active Points); No Range (-1/2), Restrainable (-1/2) 2u 3) Active LightSaber Defense: Missile Deflection (Any Ranged Attack), Missile Reflection (40 Active Points); Requires A Skill Roll (-1/2), Restrainable (-1/2) Powers Cost: 188 Cost Skill 3 Persuasion 12- 6 Computer Programming (Computer Networks, Personal Computers, Droids) 13- 1 Systems Operation 8- 4 Weaponsmith (Energy Weapons, Firearms, LightSabers) 13- 3 Mechanics 13- 1 Inventor 8- 3 Electronics 13- 3 Conversation 12- 5 TF: Common Motorized Ground Vehicles, Science Fiction & Space Vehicles, SCUBA 3 Linguist 3 1) Language: Basic (idiomatic) (4 Active Points) 2 2) Language: Binary (completely fluent; literate) (4 Active Points); Limited Power Power loses about a third of its effectiveness (Cannot speak Language; -1/2) 2 3) Language: Cerean (completely fluent) (3 Active Points) 0 4) Language: Miralukan (idiomatic; literate) (5 Active Points) 2 5) Language: Rodese (completely fluent) (3 Active Points) 3 Scholar 2 1) KS: Jedi Lore/History (INT-based) (3 Active Points) 13- 2 2) KS: Starship Systems (INT-based) (3 Active Points) 13- 2 3) KS: The Force (INT-based) (3 Active Points) 13- 3 Jack of All Trades 2 1) PS: Electronic Devices (INT-based) (3 Active Points) 13- 2 2) PS: Light Saber Crafting (INT-based) (3 Active Points) 13- 2 3) PS: Spacehand (INT-based) (3 Active Points) 13- 2 4) PS: Sublight Drives and Hyperdrives (INT-based) (3 Active Points) 13- 3 SS: Physics (INT-based) 13- 5 SS: Starship Engineering (Repair) (INT-based) 15- 7 Power: The Force (EGO-based) 15- 1 Analyze: Force abilties 8- 4 WF: Energy Weapons, Blades, Clubs, Fist-Loads, LightSaber, Unarmed Combat Skills Cost: 81 Total Character Cost: 366 Pts. Disadvantage 5 Physical Limitation: Blind with Normal Sight (Infrequently; Slightly Impairing) 5 Distinctive Features: Miraluka (no Eyes) (Easily Concealed; Always Noticed and Causes Major Reaction; Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses; Not Distinctive In Some Cultures) 10 Distinctive Features: Force Sensitive (Not Concealable; Always Noticed and Causes Major Reaction; Detectable By Uncommonly-Used Senses; Not Distinctive In Some Cultures) 15 Psychological Limitation: Jedi Code of Honor (Common; Strong) 5 Psychological Limitation: Likes to Tinker with Technology (Uncommon; Moderate) 15 Psychological Limitation: Must help those in need (Innocents) (Common; Strong) Disadvantage Points: 55 Base Points: 200 Experience Required: 111 Total Experience Available: 0 Experience Unspent: 0

Re: running combat with the speed chart I used to do something similar, I would decide who went first in a clump, by Speed then PC before NPC. Then I switched to just deciding who went when, totally arbitrary. Now I think I will just do PC before NPCs and not worry too much about it. I also make a Dex/Speed chart and use either a ruler or a die to keep track of where I am on the chart. I also include Con, Def (rDef/Def), Stun, and Body. I keep track of Stun and Body on the Dex/Speed chart so I don't have to keep shuffling Character Sheets. Tasha

Re: Balancing Mental Powers If the MI target thought that Torchie was Abomination. When Torchie first flew up he would see Abomination making a standard Superleap. The Fireballs would be seen as rocks being thrown. The incongrous part would be if Torchie were to hover (something that Abomination couldn't do) then the MI target would get a Breakout roll. BTW If it were me I would have your Mentalist bring the Ego attack down to 6d6. Seeing as that is an NND (no Normal Defense) attack for like 80% of folk out there it is a big attack. Also the ECV is a bit high IMHO, I would recommend that he drop it to 20 (ECV 7) that way he has some chance to fail against folk with 11ego (ecv 4) For other ideas. Remember that some villainous agencies will eventually pull out their elite agent with the PsyHelms (Mental Def OIF), and conditioned to work together as a team (ie Completely loyal to Viper Common/Strong). Also Villains that are hard cases (ie Wolverine) could have mental defenses based on being stubborn, or having training for resisting mentalists. Also, Mental feedback for those who are insane or psychotic (does damage to mentalist due to shocking images at the highest levels of the mind, (ie Damage shield vs Ego, does Ego Damage NND (defense being a murderous sack of stuff or having 25 Pre) Flashes work well. Basically anything that breaks LOS. Opaque Entangles are good. The thing is to have enough if this kind of stuff where the character isn't walking over the opposition constantly, but you don't want to be constantly beating the character down or keeping him from doing his thing. Tasha

Re: how do you like your fantasy games We play mid-fantasy with 75+75disads. Emphasis on having cool skills and neat spells. The current campaign is our 4th Edition DnD campaign converted to hero to save our collective sanity. So I guess the game is currently high fantasy. We are having fun with it. I like to run stuff that's even higher power than that. I like my fantasy games to be 100+75 disads. Of course my urban Fantasy is superheroic in pointage, but it's hard to write up a werewolf for 75+75 and have them feel right IMHO. Tasha

Re: Pointless Hero This is how I usually run Champions. Though I try to keep the players in the dc 12-14 range. Some players like unlimited points, and some like the security of having a point limit. So I make sure that there are good guidelines for purchasing everything, and I have a round Point limit in my head for those who need one. As a GM it is up to me to make sure that the 500pt character is as balanced to my scenarios as the 300point character. I like to emphasize non-combat skills so the PCs have stuff that doesn't focus on combat. Tasha

Re: The Distinctive, The Special, The Cool What I love about the Hero System Point Based Character generation. I can make anything! If I want my Swordswoman to cast spells, I can do it. If I want her to be a vampire, I can do it. Basically I can create any kind of character my twisted mind can come up with. Disadvantages: I love how they define a character for me. esp Psych Limits. With that I can get a good grasp on a character's personality 3D6! I love the bell curve and that characters start with more than a 50%chance to do things. Though I do wish that it was a roll high system Absolutes are rare: I love that there aren't things like "Invulnerability" that allow all damage to be ignored. No auto hits, no auto damage. All attacks have a defense. Presence: I love how presence works. I love making presence attacks. It works better than any other system that I have seen. Though I do wish Com were put to better use. KA, EB. I love how there is different damage types, based not only on special effect, but on how it damages the target. Hell, I even love the stun lottery. Skills; The skill list is a wonderful work of art. I love having skills and having any character be able to purchase them unhindered by "profession/class". I love it all. That's why I play and buy the books! Tasha

Re: Someone Please Explain This to Me? Actually I haven't had much of an issue with KA the way they are presented in the rules. In Champions (Which I have been playing since the early 80s), KA's were first only bought to destroy cars and such. We used Normal Attacks as this was fitting for the genre. When our first munchkins brought their Wolverine clones into our games, we found that the 33% chance to do no Stun equaled out their ability to do massive Stun. Also the KB rules used right(players using good tactics) also balanced things in the favor of Normal attacks somewhat. We had always taken to hitting villians in the direction of high def objects so that they would take full KB damage. KA's and Martial arts rarely did enough KB to bother. Also when the rare KA did roll a x5 multiplier it was a Player triumph that was celebrated. Also we tended to write characters up with a ton of rDef. Face it players like to bounce bullets from their chest. So most players will write characters with a high rDef. In Heroic games (Normals) we never had an issue with KA damage. Though the Hit location Chart hoses Normal attacks (more than half the locations are half stun locations for Normal attacks). Killing attacks did what they are supposed to do. Create dead and dying NPCs. We always had enough armor to mitigate most of the damage. So I don't mind the stun lotto and don't change it in my champions games. In normal games that use the hit location chart it has never been an issue (been playing normals since Justice Inc and FH 1.0). So perhaps your boring mods and stuff will be presented as optional rules, but leave the old rules as they stand. Tasha (Rules conservative)

Re: Universe Sandbox Wow, I remember playing with an early version of this software on my Mac SE way back in the day. Good to see that it is still around! Tasha

Re: Hypothetically and unofficially, what would you like to see in a Mecha Hero book? As for what I would like to see in an Ultimate Mecha book One is an easy way to writeup Mecha for the various Mecha Genres I would love to see a section on Steampunk and Fantasy Mecha. Also a Section on Galactic Champions and Mecha. (Superheroes out of mecha fighting beside and against Mecha). Also an update to the Robot Warriors Rules that did a better job of simulating the different Mecha Genre's I agree that it would be a good thing to put this off till 6th edition ships so that it can be compatable with the new ruleset. Tasha