devlin1

Re: Silver Age Superteam Archetypes? Oddly enough, KS (and not for the first time...), we're thinking along the same lines. Prior to seeing your post, I was debating between what kind of brick I wanted, and finally settled on a "metal man" concept (with a suitably retro name), an invention/experiment of the team's scientist.

Re: Silver Age Superteam Archetypes? Just want to go down this list for my own benefit.... Got. Got. Don't got. Got. Don't got. Got. Hmm... don't got. Got. Kinda. Don't got. But then again, this isn't set in an established universe, so it's hard to have recognizable imitations. Got. Got. Don't got. Still, not a bad ratio considering I only have 6 PCs. Yeah, I was thinking this re: gorillas as well. I couldn't really think of a "heroic" gorrilla to use as a guide, but then again, my own comics knowledge falls far short of many others here.

Re: New Writeup Game! Fix the "Weaklings" Bah. Give him a spiked club, some sort of animal skin toga, and install him in a cave complex to await bands of adventurers.

Re: Swaaaarm!!! Well... there are simple ways, and there are complicated ways. Me, I like the complicated ways! So I'll try to avoid those. Why would the RKA need to be Linked? If the modified Desolid is the thing's natural state, then the Linked is unnecessary, but, depending on the GM, you may have to buy it with Usable While Desolid (+2). In addition, I don't see why the Desolid can't protect against damage. If you fire a gun at a swarm of bees, it's the "desolid" nature of the swarm that makes the bullet ineffective. I mean, you may hit one bee, but that's not going to matter much. What does take down a swarm? Inhaled gasses, contact poisons, and fire, I'd think, so make them vulnerable to those kinds of attacks as part of the Desolid (no Limitation for them, either-- the Desolid, IIRC, requires some form of vulnerability). Maybe a better way to show this damage prevention would be with massive amounts of DCV. It could be argued that it could also be simulated with lots of PD/ED, but that doesn't take into account the fact that area attacks should probably be effective as well (e.g., a swarm caught in a large explosion will be harmed by that explosion). Also, why RKA? Does the swarm actually fire things out of itself, or is the RKA supposed to be the actual act of "swarming" someone? I'm guessing it's the latter, in which case you probably want something like HKA, STR Doesn't Add Damage, and NND to reflect the venomous nature of the attack. Maybe even Continuous: once the swarm is on you, it's on you. Anyway, I'm sure others have replied by now....

Re: Silver Age Superteam Archetypes? That's two sentences. In any case, I'm certainly not looking to re-invent the wheel. I just didn't want to have a brick who's an exact (or near-exact) duplicate of a well-known character. E.g., if I make a big guy with a stony exterior, that's immediately recognizable as the Thing. What I'd like is that same effect, but different enough so the player feels like it's a new character. Anyway, after reading some more stuff on the Silver Age, and thanks to the input of you fine HERO-playin' people, I think I have it sorted out. P.S.: The sidekick thing occurred to me too, and I went through pretty much the same thought processes as the posts in this thread on that topic, and came to the same conclusion: no.

Re: Silver Age Superteam Archetypes? Nope (but I'm going all four days-- taking time off work, even ). I'm doing it at San Diego GameFest, a smaller (and probably infinitely lamer) event. Did I say that out loud? Anyway. Agreed, which is why The Brick-- the classic Brick, with a capital B-- has been at the top of my list, but I'm having trouble coming up with a familiar-yet-interesting take on things. Still working at it. And there's something nice and prosaic about the leader of the team being a super-skilled normal instead of an superpowered being, y'know?

Re: Recombining Schizophrenia

Re: Silver Age Superteam Archetypes? Damn you, Derek Hiemforth. Damn you.

Hey there. In a few weeks, I'm running a one-shot Silver Age supers game at a con, and I'm having a little trouble deciding on the last of the pregenerated characters I'm making for it. Currently, the Justice Academy consists of the following five characters (mostly amalgams or straight knock-offs): Flightless brick/MA, Captain America-style A caught-in-his-own-experiment genius scientist with some odd powers (Growth, Shrinking, Teleport, Duplication) An alien, in the vein of Martian Manhunter A Green Lantern-type force manipulator A lithe young woman who manipulates light But the sixth? I'm vacillating between a spellcasting mystic (a la Dr. Strange), a straight-up brick (and then tone down the Cap type, above), a skilled normal with a special bow, a power-armor guy, and a few others. What Silver Age character trope is a must-have? Suggestions? Keep in mind that this will likely be attended (if it's attended at all!) by players new to the HERO system, so for the sake of ease of explanation, I don't want to go for anything too complex. Thanking you in advance, Me

Re: Steve, you dirty boy! It's just not hentai unless tentacles are involved!

Re: Towel - Shout out?

Re: Ninja Hero:Pai Mei Doesn't he just have the same Vulnerability: Poison that the rest of us have? I mean, just because that's what happened to kill him, it doesn't mean he's especially "vulnerable" to it. Hmm... White Eyebrow style? I dunno. I'd just call that dramatic license.

Re: Ninja Hero:Pai Mei I'd build the Finger Finger Exploding Heart Technique as a BODY Drain, possibly with Standard Effect, more or less along the lines of the dim mak stuff outlined in UMA/Ninja Hero. When Uma used it, she needed to land five blows around the victim's heart for it to work, so making it necessary to hit a specific Hit Location might be good (I might suggest the "Only After Five Strikes" Limitation, but he shouldn't have to abide by that-- he's Pai Mei!). Also, it needs Trigger: After Target Takes Five Steps. I think he needs a lot more martial arts in his package, and/or a couple different styles. It looked like he was training Uma in some kind of crane or mantis style, so that might be a start. Also, he needs a KS on his own style(s), whatever that/they may be. May as well make his DEX 23 instead of 22; it'll raise his CV and up his DEX-based skill rolls. Likewise, he needs even more CSLs, IMO. He's just impossible to hit. Instead of Clinging, I'd go with Flight, Only On Surfaces, and say that he was "hovering" on Uma's sword. Might want to buy the "eye pluck" as a Transform, if you're into that sort of thing. I'd ditch the NCM, or just not sweat spending a lot more points. This is Pai Mei the Indisputable Badass. IMO, he doesn't follow the same restrictions as us mere mortals. However, he didn't actually "destroy" the Shao Lin; there are still Shao Lin around today (playing soccer, even!). The story Bill told, IIRC, was with regards to one Shao Lin monk who made the mistake of not notcing Pai Mei's courtesy. But what a kick-ass guy, huh?

Re: WuXia Hero Yeah, I love that. I'm making them a tad more villainous than that, but for the most part, it's just so in-genre for the main reason to hate the Manchu to just be that they're Manchu. I'm very fast and loose when it comes to ch'i powers. I don't mind them having some, as long as they make sense. I encourage everyone to have Flight, Only On Surfaces, and putting at least a few more inches into Leaping is practically mandatory (IIRC, everyone took RSR: Acrobatics with these as well, but it wasn't required). Our swordsman has four or five cool sword-based powers in his Invincible Heavenly Sword MP (an AP +1 STUN HKA, a AoE: Line "Sword Energy" attack, an AoE: Selective Radius HKA, and a PD FF, all bought OIF: Sword), but since each of them costs around 4 END and his Ch'i Reserve is only 30 END, he really has to keep track of things. In that last fight, he used up around 10 END, so it's no big deal, but the fact that he can't recover END without meditating is. Once they're in a situation where they'll have to deal with multiple combat encounters with no downtime, it'll be a serious consideration. Actually, now that I think about it, one of the characters-- Old Fox, with his Sleeping Fist style (and if you haven't seen "Sleeping Fist," see it)-- only recovers his ch'i reserve while sleeping, not meditating. 250. 150 Base + 100 Disads. Kind of a lot for a ostensibly heroic game, I know, but it gives them enough points to have MA, an MA-based MP, and all the skills they need. NCM is mandatory for Primary Characteristics, but one Primary can be as high as 25 with no penalty (the swordsman has a 23 DEX and Old Fox has a 25 INT; the monk managed to keep them all 20 or below). Starting SPD is limited to 5, with mook-level SPD being 3 or 4. Powers are limited to 60 AP, with my approval. The AP cap is that high only to allow for various advantages that some characters need on their powers to make them "work" properly. F'rinstance, Old Fox has the equivalent of a dim mak attack that only affects the target when the target falls asleep. There's no way it could've been built properly on 30 AP. I think the biggest attack anyone's dished out was 9d6, and that was by an NPC (Iron Arm Tang, who whacked the monk in the side of the head with the iron bracer on his forearm). Anyway, it's been fun so far.

Re: WuXia Hero Early Qin Dynasty China, yeah. The PCs are Han, and the perennial enemies are the Manchu. In the absence of any real wuxia-specific stuff, I ended up doing about five pages of campaign guidelines myself, using Ninja Hero, UMA, and good wuxia/kung fu films for power construct ideas and general guidance. One thing I particularly like in my game is the Ch'i[/] Reserve. All "wacky powers" feed off of an END Reserve that can be no greater than the character's END; it has a REC of 5, with the Limitation "Only Recovers While Meditating." Thus, they may have some nifty little wuxia-style tricks they can do, but they can't do them constantly or they'll quickly run out of ch'i. It's working well so far. We had a suitably high-powered combat the other night, in which our resident swordsman sliced off an evil Shaolin monk's foot (12 BODY to Left Foot... ouch), and Old Fox, practitioner of Sleeping Fist style, plucked a rope dart from his shoulder and threw it at a mook for a disabling shot to the vitals. Good stuff!

Re: Help me with a limitation for twins What about buying all their powers as UBO, Others Only, Only Usable By Twin, Reduced Range: 12"? Alright, alright... overly complex, I know. But accurate!

Re: Nothing personal Ben, but I killed you last night.

Re: WuXia Hero Very cool. I just started a wuxia game myself, and have been lamenting the lack of campaign support material on the web for it. I'll be referencing your site frequently. Thanks!

Re: Where is the Physical Manifestation Limitation? Well, at least there wasn't any actual drama, huh? Anyway....

Re: Temporary Duplication Well' date=' if you think it works well that way, then that's the way I'll do it, since it's for your game, after all. If it [i']weren't[/i] your game, however, I'd point out that buying Duplication x4 with 1 Charge means that you can create up to four duplicates once, instead of being able to create up to four duplicates singly. That is, as written above, when he uses Duplication, he can make anywhere from one to four copies once. When the number he created vanish/recombine, he can make one to four again. I was thinking he'd be able to make one, then another, and then, a few minutes later, another. To me, 4 Recoverable Continuing Charges models this aspect better than 1 Recoverable Continuing Charge. However, what I had in mind wasn't that he teleports and leaves a temporary copy behind-- rather, the duplicate is what's teleported, upon creation. So I'm thinking this: buy Duplication with Altered Duplicates (25%), and buy each of them a highly-limited Teleportation with 1 Non-Recovering Charge that must be used upon creation. Or should it be one Recovering Charge, and the recovery happens upon recombination? Well, anyway... that seems like the build that'd work best, IMO.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... "God damn it! He sure knows his kung fu!"

Re: 'my Hero' Hero

Re: Temporary Duplication

Re: Temporary Duplication Okay, so-- He has the ability to have up to four duplicates, created one at a time, each of which lasts for five minutes before destabilizing and disappearing. This seems best represented by being able to make a single duplicate, bought with 4 Recoverable Charges Lasting 5 Minutes. He can't "recall" the duplicates before the five minutes are up, either; once he's made all four, he can't make any more until the first one blinks out of existence. I'd call this Ranged Recombination, as well as 0 Phase, Full DCV. Now, the Duplication is actually a special effect of Teleportation. That is, he can make copies of himself, one at a time, at range. Should each Duplicate have Teleportation, 1 Non-Recovering Charge, that can only be used upon creation? Or is there some kind of Ranged option for Teleportation?

Re: Temporary Duplication