ProfessorM@ss

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... I finally have a quote worthy of mentioning. My superhero gaming group was facing off with a magician who had these magical orbs hovering around his head, each one having a different set of powers. The team's most agile character, a sword-bearing she-devil (can you say 'Red Sonja?'), decided to try to relieve him of the orbs. Now, when I described these orbs, I said they were "like tiny little balls of crackling energy, floating around his head. You can, however, see the metal underneath the energy, so they're solid." She leaps. Makes her Acrobatics roll. Makes her Strength roll to pull two of them from his telekinetic field. I say, "Okay, you succeeded. Now what?" She exclaims: "I take his balls and run!" Her boyfriend, who also games with us, sighs and says, "Why is this starting to feel familiar?" Hilarity ensued. --->M@ss

Re: Advice needed: Multi->One Character.

Re: Advice needed: Multi->One Character. This is almost exactly the effect I'd like. I used Voltron as the most geek-obvious example. The way I've tended to do this is to buy it like so: The Megacharacter is the primary form. He buys Duplication for the minor characters, and then I just slap on a +0 Advantage to the Duplication (Fusion Character). The Advantage simply indicates that it's a Duplication in reverse. Another way I thought of doing it was as buying Desolidification linked to a Summon. Without getting into the acrobatic slew of Modifiers needed to accomplish this, I'll explain. Each character desolidifies for the duration of the Summoning. The Summoning calls forth the Megacharacter, each Summon having been bought as Cumulative to the other characters' Summons. Both these solutions seem clumsy, though. Could it be time for a *gasp!* new Power? The opposite of Duplication? -->M@ss

Okay, so here's a question. I'm just looking for input. How would y'all build a character like, say, Voltron, here you have five characters that become one significantly more powerful character? Any advice or thoughts would be appreciated. --->M@ss

Action (with an exclamation point) I'd like to see something like Action!, in the same sense that we think of science versus Science! To elaborate: everyone seems to be focusing on the realistic elements of DC. I'd like to see a discussion of the cinematic elements, i.e. how to simulate action movies. We've seen an excellent discussion of cinematic martial arts in those genre books. Something equivalent for the gun-toting genre would be nice. In my own DC campaigns, I added a Talent called "Style." It works like a very limited VPP; the characters purchase a number of Style levels, and they may expend them throughout the session to do extraordinary, cinematic things (dodge automatic gunfire, leap off buildings and catch flagpoles, etc.) Do feel free to use the idea, if you like. --->M@ss

I'm trying to simulate a character who can change his mental 'class', as it references psionic abilities. Actually, what I'm really trying to simulate is someone who can take a power that causes him to be a different mental 'class' than the rest of his species, effectively rendering him immune to psionics, both positive and negative. I'm thinking of doing this as follows: Shape Shift (Mental) - 0 END +1/2, Persistent +1/2, Always On (-1/2) Does this seem viable? Or is there a 'Hero-approved' way of doing this?

Okay, so take the following example: I've got a character with the Age Disadvantage at 40+. However, I've bought up his Strength and Constitution to 20 each. His figured PD and ED would normally be 8. However, the maximum for his age is 6. Do his PD and ED start at 8, and cost double thereafter? Or do they start at 7, reflecting the double point cost to raise them beyond 6? I'm guessing the latter. --->M@ss

If a character hits twice his Body characteristic, he's dead. Is that the cap? Can he take more Body? The reason I ask is for purposes of adjudicating Healing with the Resurrection option. Some characters, knowing about an antagonist's Resurrection ability, might try to delay by hacking him into smaller bits. Gruesome, but it happens. Here's a scenario: EvilGuy has 10 Body, and Regeneration with Resurrection. He gets hacked down to 1 Body. And then he 12 Body damage. Is he now at -11 Body, or does the Body damage cap at death? Thanks! --->M@ss

This is almost hideously cool. http://www.mts.net/~arphaxad/history.html It's a collection of timelines for histories that never existed! Comic books...novels...anything fictional. It's utterly amazing, and can truly be a source of inspiration for anybody writing a campaign. --->M@ss

On a related note to my last question: If a character uses a power that has a Continuing Charge, and switches to another slot in his Multipower, is the former slot's Charge deactivated, or does it last until the end of the Continuing Charge? e.g. Power Armor Man activates his temporary Force Field, with a Continuing Charge that lasts one turn. He then switches to his MegaBlaster, a different slot. Does the Force Field deactivate? --->M@ss

If a character uses Aid in one slot, and then switches to another slot, will the former slot's Aid effect disappear immediately, or will they fade normally? For example, Dr.Chemical has four slots, each one being an Aid. He drinks down potion #1, an Aid to Strength, and then switches to slot #2, an Aid to Dexterity. Does the Aid to Strength disappear automatically, or does it fade? --->M@ss

Acroyear has a point -- the further you get from our reality in your setting, the less the players will be able to suspend disbelief. That said, my setting is quite similar to yours, insofar as it rapidly deviated from real world continuity around 1940. In my campaign, the Soviet Union still exists, China has annexed most of Southeast Asia, and there's a huge new country in northern South America. Technology at 2003 is borderline cyberpunk, etc. How I've kept versimilitude is simple: I've kept a detailed, user-friendly timeline of this world, with explanations of deviations. e.g.: 1946: A group of Soviet metahumans assassinates Stalin. The Soviet Union is pushed more to a more socialist, rather than communist, leaning. I've also used touchstones with well-known fantastic genres. My world has superheroes (we all know them), cyberpunk (we all know that), and early space technology (we all can relate). Keeping those touchstones is key; if I had introduced a subterranean kingdom of dwarves who joined the United Nations, it would have been a lot harder to relate to. This continuity of genre expectations is why a lot of really way out fantasy doesn't sell -- people can't identify with it. Shadowrun, for example, worked because it had all the familiar elements of a D&D game, as well as familiar cyberpunk elements. The "reality touchstone" was only two hops away from reality: reality->cyberpunk->fantasy/cyberpunk. We see this as an ongoing theme in modern fantasy; stories about elves in Los Angeles (Mercedes Lackey), stories about fictional characters meeting each other (the Wold Newton settings), etc. Anyhow, that's my two cents. --->M@ss

Re: Ethnic stereotyping in heroes and villains I actually consciously think of ways to play with the stereotypes. Our world's main superteam, Ares Watch, is a prime example of this: 1) Warcry - Leader of my game universe's premier superteam. She's an Ojibwe (what some of you Yanks call Chippewa) by birth, who is a fast, tough, smart brick. She dresses in cheesed out 'Indian' clothing. She carries a spear. She is alternately loved and hated by Amerindians in our game world. What they don't know is that she's a robot, a person who's mind was transferred into a machine. It's been kept very quiet, but she is, in fact, an android. 2) Ego - Mentalist from the same team. A black guy who's powers didn't manifest due to the mutant equivalent of a birth defect. He lived his life, knowing he was a mutant but having no idea what his powers were, until cybernetic technology allowed him to access them. In the meantime, he became a tough street-cop. So, if you can imagine, Shaft meets Professor X. 3) Daedalus - Our gameworld's version of Superman. Early on, he was a hero with his partner, the high-flying Icarus. What people didn't know is that they were lovers. Gay lovers, that is...Daedalus faced a massive public backlash when he came out of the closet, including the vicious gay-bashing of the then-retired Icarus. 4) Channel - An East Indian superhero, who can absorb and redirect energy. Now, there are other East Indian superheroes these days, but back when I came up with him (circa 1988)? Not many. 5) Scrapyard - A woman with the power to telekinetically control metal. Aside from whipping cars at people, deflecting bullets, and pulling down power wires to zap villains, she also walks around in a giant metal body. A very male-looking metal body; people often assume she's a robot. And she's butt ugly. She has a Comeliness of 7. So much for the gorgeous superheroine! Heh. Anyhow, those are some examples of how I've played with things in our setting. --->M@ss

Re: Stopping time Entangle with: NND +1, transparent to attacks +½, cannot be escaped with teleportation +¼, affects desolidified +½, cannot form barriers –¼, entangle has 1 Body –½. Just add Area of Effect and Personal Immunity for stopping more than one opponent. Freeze time, and walk through the area...note that this version would also stop anything coming into the Entangle's radius. And, of course, with the Personal Immunity, the attacker can walk right through the affected area. A way to limit this obviously powerful ability is to make it reliant on Endurance for its duration. --->M@ss PS: Below are sample time powers I made for a villain in my campaign. And, yes, he's supposed to be ungodly tough. Multipower: Time Mastery (side FX: random time portal opens if powers are dispelled -1) Active: 180, Real: 90 1) Decay Field (force field, 45 PD/ED, protects carried items) Active: 110, Real: 11 - any attack that reaches him is slowed in time to have no effect. 2) Decay Damage Field (damage shield +½, 4d6 energy blast, NND +1, does Body +1, linked to Decay Field –½) Active: 60, Real: 6 - anything that touches the decay field ages rapidly 3) Decay Blast (12d6 energy blast, NND +1, does Body +1) Active: 180, Real: 18 - aging blast 4) Freeze Time (5d6 entangle, NND +1, transparent to attacks +½, cannot be escaped with teleportation +¼, affects desolidified +½, cannot form barriers –¼, entangle has 1 Body –½) Active: 50, Real: 5 5) Freeze Time In Area (4d6 entangle, area of effect radius selective +1¼, NND +1, transparent to attacks +½, cannot be escaped with teleportation +¼, affects desolidified +½, cannot form barriers –¼, entangle has 1 Body –½) Active: 150, Real: 15 6) De-Age Target (6d6 major transform, usable on self +¼, improved target group (any younger age) +¼, targets heal back at Body rate unless he doesn’t want to +¼) Active: 157.5, Real: 16 7) Age Target (6d6 major transform, usable on self +¼, improved target group (any older age) +¼, targets heal back at Body rate unless he doesn’t want to +¼) Active: 157.5, Real: 16 8) Accelerate Healing (18d6 healing, injuries must be healable without medical intervention or with some first aid done –¼) Active: 140, Real:14 9) Cleanse the Body (life support, full) Active: 45, Real: 4.5 10) Speed Time, Personal (+6 Speed, +40 Dexterity, costs END +½) Real: 120, Active: 12 11) Speed Time, Other (+3 Speed, +14 Dexterity, usable by 4 others simultaneously +1½, ranged +½) Active: 180, Real: 18 12) Slow Time Field (drain 6d6 [split between Speed and Dexterity], area of effect radius selective +1¼) 13) Decay Missiles (missile deflection, at range +1, all ranged attacks) Active: 40, Real: 4 14) Suppress (12d6, all time powers +2) Active: 180, Real: 18 15) Dispel (46d6, any time power one at a time +¼) Active: 175, Real: 17.5 16) Time Jump (extradimensional travel through time, only twelve seconds forward or backward in time for up to twelve seconds, 226x weight [67,000,000 lbs]) Active: 50, Real: 5 17) Time Scan (mind scan, cannot attack through link –1, 36d6) Active: 90, Real: 9 18) Chronocognition (clairsentience: sight, hearing, smell, past, future, vague and unclear –½, 222 x range, range: 330,000 miles) Active: 120, Real: 12 19) Superchronocognition (clairsentience: sight, hearing, smell, past, future, vague and unclear –½, megascale +1½ [350,000,000 miles]) Active: 140, Real: 14 20) Superranged Chronocognition (clairsentience: sight, hearing, smell, past, future, vague and unclear – ½, megascale +2½ [35 billion kms], x4 END –1) Active: 140, Real: 14 Other powers include: Invisible to Time (invisibility to clairsentience and any time-based sense +¼, no fringe, 0 END +½, persistent +½, Multipower must be active –½) 45 Sense Chronal Currents (detect eddies in the time stream, as a sense, n-ray, 360 degree perception, discriminatory, analyze, +20 Perception, +10 vs. range, Multipower must be active –½) 40

Re: DNPC twists My character, Professor Mass, had a wife and daughter. Well, the wife was wealthy socialite, which is why Mass had money to fuel his experiments. She eventually left him, but by that time, he was making enough money off his inventions to survive. What was amusing was our true-blue hero's reaction to finding his wife in bed with another man. His civilian response was calm and considered. Then he went out in his superheroic ID and berated the guy -- all on the pretext that Mass (a Golden Age character) was involved in top secret work, and didn't need this stress. Mass' daughter was another story; she got Mom's good looks and Dad's brains. We had more than one incident of her playing in the lab and causing...problems. Believe me, build a kid DNPC with normal points. Drop their physical stats, and pump their brains and skills through the roof, and you can have a lot of fun. Twenty years later, of course, Mass' daughter became a superheroine in her own right. --->M@ss

Hrm. How will the German-named villains go over with his Yankee mobster accomplices, me wonders? By the by...a one-liner I've worked into any Golden Age campaign I've ever been in... "I vas just followink orders!" Yeah, baby, the famous last words of the cowering Nazi villain! --->M@ss

Re: Villain ideas. [Related to Golden Age thread.] I've only got one issue with the good Professor...much of the criminal underground during WWII actively helped the government against fifth columnists and other such nastiness. If the Professor is ever found out...yikes. It could get very nasty for him, very quickly. You can find more information on the criminal underground in WWII here: http://www.drugtext.org/library/books/McCoy/book/08.htm http://history.acusd.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/luciano.html I'm sure there's more out there... --->M@ss

Re: must keep topic alive! He wouldn't have been much different: polite, well-educated, liberal, caring of his fellow man, and a bit of a stickler for following the rules. Oh, and he would probably be doing a lot less promotion of "the American way" and a lot more "is it me, or is Dubya a nutcase?" --->M@ss

Re: An Alternate Superman I've always thought that it'd be interesting if Supes had arrived black, in Alabama, in the 50s. --->M@ss

If a power that has the Limitation Linked has a predefined level where the power activates, does it activate at the lower levels of the power? Let me give a specific example: Our giant-size hero, Titan, can 60 pts. of Growth. He buys a Damage Reduction linked to his Growth. Does he get 25% nonresistant damage reduction when he's grown 10 points worth? Does it turn resistant at 15 points, and so forth, until he manifests his full 75% resistant damage reduction at his full size? --->M@ss

I disagree, for three main reasons: 1) Your argument presupposes that said villain is not of Superman-esque power, himself. 2) You're not taking into account the villain (like Doctor Doom, for example) who is a dictator, but still better than what preceded him. Popular support is a strong theme in villain-dominated nations as we see them in comic books. 3) The villain will likely have an infrastructure to support his rule, if he's smart. An army, political lobbyists, other villains. An example from my campaign setting: Carlos Iago is a metahuman with a single, potent power: he can control natural phenomena like weather, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tidal waves, etc. He is supported by several metahumans, including a few who are quite powerful, but easily swayed by his massive charisma. Marshalling rebels in his native Peru, he slowly builds an army by uniting various rebel factions from various South American nations, including superhuman rebels who are not happy at the ill-treatment they've received in countries like Brazil, Chile, etc. With this massive support, he launches an all-out attack on the area covered by the Amazon rainforest. A short three years later, he has established a new nation: Amazonia, which eats up a massive chunk of South America. It's a military-run dictatorship, with two very special characteristics: 1) It supports superhumans from any country, acting as a haven for them. 2) The populace is reasonably well-treated, and their standard of living is very high. Yes, if the citizens step out of line, they get brutally punished. Yes, it was a hostile invasion. But Iago made something perfectly clear to the world: any interference from foreign heroes would lead to massive natural disasters. A few sniper operations were tried and failed, due to Iago's cadre of superhumans. That's an example of how a villain conquered a country in my setting. --->M@ss

Re: Homebrew Villain Teams Oh, heck, there are a bunch...just to give you a highlight of my bad old characters vs. my neat new characters, here's a taste: Synergy A team of villains, all brothers and sisters, who possessed the power to merge into one mega-villain!! And, yes, I did love Transformers. Ooh...Constructicons become...Devastator! Whee! Brainwave - The team leader and psionic. The only one who could initiate the change into Synergy. Brickbat - Team brick. Agile - Super agile martial artist. Blaster - Shoots energy beams. Port - Team teleporter. They were basically built from the main Synergy character. He had Duplication and Multiform. He'd Multiform into Brainwave, and Duplicate out the rest of the team. Los Conquistadors The premiere bad guy team of Spain! I love these guys! El Generalissimo - The leader of the team, a former Spanish general who possessed super-charisma! A combination of high Presence and an 0 END, persistent, continuous, cumulative, area of effect radius Mind Control. Oh, yeah, it was low, but hang around with him for a while, and you can't imagine anyone else leading you. His military background and high stats complement this single power. Scimitar - Descended from Muslim conquerors of Spain, she possesses a magical scimitar. And she knows how to use it. El Toro Negro - The Black Bull! Imagine a superstrong, ten foot tall minotaur. El Encogimientor - The Shrinker! He has one power -- a massive Transform that allows him to shrink you to one inch in height...with all your powers and stats proportionately shrunk! Demolición - Demolition possesses the power to make anything explode -- immediately, or timed. An ex-spy, he's good for sneaking up to teams, touching them 10 or 15 times, then triggering the 10 or 15 explosion powers he's landed at will. Yeah, each individual explosion isn't that big of a deal...but 10 or 15? Yowch! Adminículo - Gadget! The team supergenius, he makes devices that the less powerful members use -- like the body armor that Demolition, himself, and the Shrinker wear. He also has a VPP -- a gun that analyzes a foe, and then changes it's attack to whatever is most damaging. I got yer Find Weakness right here, jack! Muahaha! The best thing about Los Conquistadors is that they work as a team...they've trained together extensively. They're a great group for demonstrating to a superteam why teamwork is a Good Thing. Imagine...you get shrunk. You get hemmed in by explosives. Then some huge frickin' minotaur steps on you. Ouchie. --->M@ss

Re: EEEK, it's an ALIEN! In my current campaign world, aliens are kept to a minimum, for a Very Good Reason. Our part of the Milky Way Galaxy has what amounts to a seethrough mirror; we can see out, but aliens can't see in. Nor can they breach what is called the Black Nebula. The reason for this is simple: all it'd take is one superhuman genius to examine a downed alien spacecraft, and the entire campaign would be changed. One of our campaign's serious themes is: "What would the world be like if all these fantastic things really existed?" Since I rather like my campaign not jumping to the Star Hero level in a few short years, aliens are kept out. --->M@ss

Re: Speaking as a biologist... It's pretty common for people to assume this about new science. There were a rash of articles about the polio vaccine that claimed the long-term risks were unknown. IMO, this is utter hogwash. The safety measures for scientific tests are incredibly stringent, especially in regards to genetic research. For example, nobody serious is considering human cloning at this point. Even though Dolly the Sheep seemed like a great success, 5 years later, she's dead. All the talk in that Philly article about "genetic engineering at the 2004 Olympics" is just your typically hysterical media nonsense. I doubt we'll see serious gene therapy of the kind discussed in that article for 20 years, by the time they work their way from mice to dogs to monkeys to us. --->M@ss

Okay... Some things about purchasing the Reputation Perk confuse me. Let me give you an example: let's say Officer O'Malley is somewhat known in his neighborhood as a tough cop, but since he's new, he's only slightly known as yet. This is a small to medium sized area. So, we start with a 0. He's only known on an -8 roll. This gives us a -1. Does this mean that each level of positive Reputation he buys thusly will give him back a point? If he had been known on an -11 or less, would all the levels have been free? --->M@ss