StGrimblefig

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game

Re: Lewis Carrol Hero If you are including other Carrol works in the mix, I think the PCs would have to, at some point, go on a snark hunt.

Re: Super tech effects on the world at large. There are two concepts that have been presented before that I think are pertinent here: First, in the 4th Ed suppliment "High-Tech Enemies," there is a quick discussion at the end of the book about what is called the "Sci-Tech War" -- a kind of supers-centric cold war/arms race. It is always in the supers' (heroes and villains) best interest to not share their super-tech inventions with the world. It would be bad for them if every police officer had access to the same equipment that they had. It could also be used to generate scenarios for tech-based hereos -- attempts by corporations and/or supervillains to steal the plans/technology/etc. of techaman's armor. Second, in an old issue of the Adventurers Club magazine (sorry, I do not remember which one, and they are not readily available atm) there was an article about the "Papa Schimmelhorn Effect." This was, in essence, saying that perhaps one reason why several high-tech inventions are not for sale at Wal-Mart is that the inventor causes them to work, and without his/her/its direct influence, they would cease to function. This means that the gadgeteer's superpower is the ability to "bend the laws of science" in their immediate vicinity and allow their inventions to work.

Re: Game Design: Champions Online Emphasis mine I wonder whatever happened to Herosphere? The last update on their site appears to be from August 2004.

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game Just in case anybody here missed it, here are a couple of highlights from the devs posting: The 2008 State of the Game . Are they just copying a popular feature from WoW, or is this different? (I do not play WoW, so I know not.) I could see this being somewhat difficult to get right, and could require several iterations of tweaking (followed by a wailing and gnashing of teeth from the players). I for one have been waiting for this for a long time. I know that not everyone wants to see these numbers, and I do not believe it should be forced on anyone, but I never understood why they kept them hidden from those that wanted to see them. It could make a big difference in how I decide to slot my enhancements, or when I use that inspiration.

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game Trust the computer. LOL!

Re: Game Design: Champions Online It look quite interesting. I like the SPD Cooldown idea. I must say that I dislike the "auto-block" decision, though. Isn't your normal DCV supposed to account for some amount of automatic (i.e. non-exclusive) dodging? I see a block as an active defense -- using your weapon to prevent an incoming attack from scoring -- that would preclude taking an immediate attack with that weapon. Come to think of it, if this is Champions, how does one block an attack when your attack is an EB that comes from your hands? If you say you can attack the incoming attack with your EB, that starts getting too close to Missile Deflection, and may be dependent upon special effects. Perhaps if you could choose a characters "combat stance" -- ranging from total defense, through normal, all the way to aggressive offense -- then maybe that could be used to decide the automatic defensive value. It could even be scaled (downward) based upon the time left in the SPD Cooldown. For example, a character set to total defense, with no cooldown time remaining, will get a better defensive value than either one set to total defense with 50% cooldown remaining or one set to normal stance with no cooldown remaining. Of course, in a completely turn-based environment, this kind of thing should be unnecessary. I seem to remember reading something a long time ago about City of Heroes combat being turn-based "under the hood." I will have to see if I can find a reference. Just a thought. Or two or three.

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game

Re: Social versus Physical/Mental Conflicts

Re: Heroes I just thought of something. Since Nathan was given Adam's blood earlier in the season to heal his burns, how much of that might still be active in his system?

Re: Heroes I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I realize that the season was cut short because of the writer's strike, and the quick tie-up of the plot threads might have been done by a less-than-pro-quality writer. On the other hand, Tim Kring acknowledged that the season was not going as well as it could, and that they made some mistakes in presenting the stories of this season (too slow revealing/developing the "main" storyline, Hiro spent too long in the past, the "teen love story" was too prominent, etc.), so the short season could be seen as a "mercy killing," so they can do it better next season. On the gripping hand, I was really disappointed in the resolution of Hiro and Adam's showdown -- that should have been an much more epic confrontation. I wouldn't have been upset if it ended with Adam escaping somehow. He seems like a good recurring enemy, and a great foil for the overbalancing power of Hiro's ability (e.g. Hiro keeps running into Adam as he jumps forward and back in time, making his tasks more difficult). Agreed.

Re: Social versus Physical/Mental Conflicts Well, technically, you can ignore any form of combat, but there may be consequences. If you ignore the ganger with a knife coming at you, the consequences may include physical damage, blood loss, and maybe even death. If you ignore the pleas of the beggar on the corner, the consequences are much less dire (for you). If you ignore your boss's demand to finish the paperwork today, the consequences may include lower status within the work environment, lowered or no raises, up to maybe even loss of inclusion in the work environment (i.e. firing).

Re: Social versus Physical/Mental Conflicts I think this is a question of definition. Remember the Hero mantra: Reason from effects. The way I see it, anything that changes/controls a person's thoughts is a mental conflict/ability. It can be helped by using complimentary social skill rolls, but the end effect is still mental. Of your examples, I think that Peer Pressure is the only one that I would classify as a social action, as it involves getting a person to "go along" with an activity regardless of what they actually believe about it.

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game

Re: Social versus Physical/Mental Conflicts Social combat is inherently limited -- as you say, you can influence someone's public behavior, but you cannot control their thoughts. You may be able to bluff & bluster your way past the party's bouncer, but that does not in any way prevent him from checking your identity later and having you ejected in an embarrassing (for you) display of bouncer diligence. You may be able to keep someone from going public with some bit of information by emphasizing the secondary effects to the person and/or their DNPCs, but they can "anonymously" leak the information later (unless you take other steps to prevent it). There is a fuzzy line between a social and a mental conflict -- it is up to the GM to decide where your desired effect lies. Psych Lims should be useful, but I would think that Soc Lims would be at least as powerful in this kind of conflict. If only people used more of them. The other thing that I think must be taken into account is that any social conflict is greatly influenced by the social environment in which it occurs. You will get vastly different results if you try to threaten violence at a black-tie party, than on a street corner. The social environment skills (Streetwise, High Society, etc.) should be very important complimentary skills for social conflicts, as they allow you to know what is appropriate and what is not in their respective domains. I agree. I wonder; How long did it take to evolve the current set of physical combat maneuvers? I can see this going in that kind of direction. I remember a book I read in junior high school, called something like, "games people play," in which the different kinds of social games that people used to try to control the situation in a therapist's office. That might be an interesting starting point for social combat maneuvers -- I will have to see if I still have it.

Re: Social versus Physical/Mental Conflicts The "Simple Skill" approach is especially valid for things that are not really important to the plot, or that do not break down into subtasks. Moving stealthily is usually a single event that either works or not -- nothing to subdivide there.

Re: Social versus Physical/Mental Conflicts Nicely done. My take on it is similar, and goes like this: Physical Characteristics (for reference, as they are unchanged) Strength (STR) - Physical Power Dexterity (DEX) - Physical Agility Body (BODY) - Physical Structure Physical Combat Value (PCV) unchanged Physical Defense (PD) unchanged Energy Defense (ED) unchanged Mental Characteristics Ego (EGO) - Mental Power Intelligence (INT) - Mental Agility Stun (STUN) - Mental Structure Mental Combat Value (MCV) = INT/3 (based on the mental agility value, just as PCV is based on the physical agility value) Mental Defense (MD) = EGO/5 (based on the mental power value, just as PD is based on the physical power value) Social Characteristics Presence (PRE) - Social Power unchanged Manipulation (MAN) - Social Agility Manipulation represents a character's ability to react to changing social situations, read people/crowds and "fast talk." Composure (COM) - Social Structure Composure represents how much social damage (embarassment, bad vibes, etc) a character can take before losing control and making an a$$ of yourself (probably allow an EGO roll to avoid saying something stupid). Social Combat Value (SCV) = MAN/3 Social Defense (SD) = PRE/5 END and REC is used for all conflicts. Note that Composure is only your own personal grace and cool, not your social standing. That is something outside the character, and is better modeled with one or more Perks and associated social environment skills (High Society, Streetwise, etc.) With this setup, you can run mental and social conflicts exactly the same way as physical ones. Of course, I have not yet come up with mental or social maneuver tables yet, and those are needed to make this work.

Re: Social versus Physical/Mental Conflicts

Re: Social versus Physical/Mental Conflicts First, I think we need to clearly delineate what constitutes a social conflict and what can and cannot be accomplished with it. For example: Physical conflict can: move physical objects/characters through space (lifting, pushing, throwing) damage physical objects/characters Mental conflict can: change a character's perceptions (images, mental illusions, mind link) control a character's actions to a limited degree (mind control) damage a character's psyche (ego attack) (I am sure I am missing some effects in the above -- feel free to add/correct as needed) So, what can social conflict do? Modify a character's behavior in public (without actually changing their thinking)? Damage a character's social standing? The problem that I see is that a lot of what are perceived as social conflicts are, when boiled down to actual effects, actually mental conflicts with social special effects. Seduction -- trying to manipulate someone's emotions and make them think it is their idea. Interrogation -- trying to "read someone's mind" using brute force psychological tactics. Conversation -- trying to "read someone's mind" using subtle psychological tactics. Persuasion -- trying to control someone's actions and make them think it is a good idea. Bribery -- trying to control someone's actions by appealing to more selfish desires. If you want to stick with the skills currently in Hero, I would think that the extended opposed skill contest that was discussed in TUSk would be a good choice. That would allow for some roleplaying to influence a series of skill rolls. That way, it is not all controlled by a single roll, you keep (and maybe expand on) the good roleplaying, and still give the GM some input into the process (adjudicating the bonuses for the roleplaying in between skill rolls). I like the way SpyCraft (2.0) does this. They actually have a set of offensive/defensive tactics that each give bonuses and/or penalties to the character that uses it. That seems a lot like Hero's combat maneuvers translated to a social environment. I have considered translating this into a Hero context, but I haven't done anything with it yet.

Re: Heroes for HERO? But Peter (and Sylar, if he gets his powers back) has the option of creating new ones. It becomes increasingly unlikely that Isaac painted yet another series of prophetic paintings that nobody previously knew about.

Re: Heroes for HERO? Well, in the Case of DL, he is still having an effect on the show -- even though he is dead. It remains to be seen whether Nikki has super speed and strength on her own, or if she draws on the power of the dead to achieve these feats (at the cost of them haunting her). (yeah, I know. It was just a passing thought. I am better now.)

Re: The Incredibles and Registration The big question is when the law that requires registration was enacted. If supers have been around for a long time, and the government suddenly decides that they need to know who they really are, most will probably balk at the prospect. If the laws have been in place for a longer time, and if they are equitable for the heroes (liability tradeoffs, etc.), more "heroes" will probably be registered. In my pet project the registration laws were put in place during the McCarthy era, and the agency charged with administering it is the same one that helped supers work with the government in WWII (the OSI -- and yes, they actually helped). Then whatever it was that caused super powers faded from the world, and the metahuman registration laws were forgotten (but never repealed). Jump to today, and a new generation of supers is emerging into a world that thinks that the comic books are just kid stories. There is only one OSI agent in the entire state that the PCs live in, and he has no idea what he is doing. Will the new supers register? Does anyone even know that they must? Can the suddenly overworked OSI agent find the right forms to register them if they do? Ultimately, for me it is just a subplot that can be used to create a scenario for a night when all the players cannot be there, or if the players need something different. It will only become important if the players indicate that they want it to be.

Re: Traveller Hero: 1249 Timeline in the Verge Subsector First question: how did the biological plagues get off-planet? Since they both seem to reduce victims to low-functioning animals or zombies, how could an infected human operate a starship to get to other systems and allow it to spread across the sector? I have not seen the movies in question, so please forgive me if it is supposed to be obvious. I could see there being a "germination" period after a person is infected and before they start to show symptoms (especially if it were several days in length). That would possibly allow an infected person to get offworld and start the cycle on another planet. I could see a "cut-scene" (perhaps a recording the PCs find) in which a ship comes out of jump only to crash into a moon or something. The rescue squad finds the crew dead, except for one with very faint life signs, but he is nearly dried up. As the paramedics try to save him, he attacks. Before he is destroyed, he gets good bites in several of the rescue squad...

Re: Deconstructing skill levels That is an interesting idea, and to me, it is quite attractive for use in Background skills, which do not have a characteristic to base their initial value on. As opposed to Characteristic-based skills, which are learned and improved by actually doing them, Background skills are learned and improved by being immersed in them over time -- i.e. by experiencing them. I am not sure that I want to give a player a 25+% chance to do something that he only has a passing familiarity with for 1/2 point (8- = 25.926%). Of course, I tend to see familiarities as "information only," without granting any ability to do anything (you can try, but you suffer an "untrained" penalty).

Re: Deconstructing skill levels Excellent discussion. Here are a couple of odd side thoughts I thought were relevant: Point Recursion and Skills - As has been mentioned, sometimes point recursion makes skill levels a difficult decision. Has anyone tried removing point recursion on skills? Specifically, using the appropriate characteristic to set the initial ability, but then all further improvements coming only from purchased skill levels. Does that make skill improvement too difficult? Skills and END - If we are defining skill levels in the same way that powers are defined, should the AP of the skill/levels be added to the AP of the attack for purposes of figuring END use?