casualplayer

Re: The best Superpet? Anyone know a good way to unlearn this?

Re: More Complications, Please This is where I explicitly said what is implicit in everyone's posts. Everything is IMO. There's only ever been one Champions Guru and he moved on to other things. I treat everything on a character sheet as a sign from the player that they want the game to go there, all ingredients for the dish. If a character has Detective Work (is it still called that or am I dating myself?) 11- they are telling me that their character wants to occasionally deduce their way out of a jam. If they have Detective Work 17- they are telling me that they want to often deduce their way out of jam. If they have Psych Lim: Uses Alexandrian Solution to Solve Puzzles (Common, Strong) they are telling me an entirely different thing. I write my scenes to the characters. The guy who buys Flight with all the bennies and DCV linked to it is going to get a chance to dogfight someone that I will set up to get schooled. Someone who buys Missile Deflection Usable at Range is going to get a chance to save the day by blocking the shot. Someone investing a chunk into Danger Sense is going to get to pull everyone's bacon out of the fire at some point. Similarly if someone puts Driven to Protect Innocents (Common, Total) on their sheet they are telling me that 1) they want innocents to be included 2) they want the innocents to be threatened and 3) they want to save them in an acknowledged heroic fashion. They would probably get a scene where an accident victim stops panicking, relaxes into the character's arms and says "Why would I be afraid? I'm with you." There has been a lot of language used in this thread to describe Complications that lead me to think that some people have had their nose rubbed in them, GMs using them to screw the player over or embarrass them cruelly. That's not a problem with the concept of Complications. There's also been some that have said they have played with those that use Complications as a crutch, that when they initially describe their character it is "brown hair, grey eyes, fair complexion, has a gambling habit, hates bards" and they repeat or assert themselves at opportune and inopportune times. "Are you a bard, because if you are I hate you!" That's not a problem with Complications. I happen to think that if a few experiences with incompetent Complications made you adverse to using them when making your characters (very common, strong) then you are missing out on a powerful tool in this game. YMMV.

Re: More Complications, Please If the GM is working those Complications then both options of 350 w/ none or 400 w/ 50, or any point inbetween or in excess, should be a potential and viable choice. Like in the brilliant Overconfidence example that character essentially had his DCV partially limited with Requires an EGO Roll or Only Usable Against Threats I Take Seriously, Complications are Limitations on your Powers, Characteristics, Talents and Skills that are personality driven.

Re: 4th-6th VPP Question I think the main reason for the "No MPs in VPPs" prohibition was to prevent the game grinding to a halt while somebody kitbashed up their latest gizmo or trick, similar to the wizard who has to check the Players Handbook everytime it's his turn for the optimal spell. A VPP is already essentially a MP with infinite flexible slots and having G&G handy means that you probably aren't going to be bogging down the game, so this GM says "Sure, why not?"

Re: Order of the Stick At a page a week, I'm gonna be a friggin' dancing wight by the time this storyline is done.

Re: The best Superpet? Yeah, sorry, I meant you want but don't really want to have to deal with. Tried to edit and my sig overlapped the sentence. She could get a naked mole rat. Or maybe a ferret. What about a fox? Veloci-fox!

Re: The best Superpet? Give her a genetic mixture, like a tigrhinophant or something? Cyborg chimps and monkeys tend to lead to those sad little photos of them with wires sticking out of their craniums and the animal just looking confused at how things went so terribly wrong. The comic, WE3, had some awesome cyberanimals including 2 dogs, a cat and a rabbit. I would avoid any animal that has a lifespan normally measured in months, like hamsters and such. Of course powers could make a methuselah varmint. I would be tempted to give her the (super)pet that she wants in reallife but you don't actually want to get.

Re: Yet Again: Please Help Name My Character Make your character a Transformers fan and call him Allspark. If he's a little headstrong you can call him Blitzkrieg. Could be a garage band hero from the heartland and call him Amplifier, or Amp for short.

Re: Legal Questions: Pink Defense According to current law, if the corporation is not able to corroborate the Pink result with some unimpeachable or really darn convincing evidence someone could wallop the corporation for Slander. Best be some proof that it was a righteous Pinking or the corp is going to pay in civil court.

Re: Legal Questions: Pink Defense Prima facie! Arrrgh! Oh wait, you used it correctly. Nevermind.

Re: More Complications, Please You probably mean me. Fair enough but, similar to how I feel art is only achieved by effort within self-imposed restraints and heroism isn't defined by how much power you can bring to bear but how you achieve despite your own limitations, role-playing is a melding of improvisational art and the heroic journey for me. Different people game differently. If everyone at your table is having a good time, then you're doing it right.

Re: Yet Again: Please Help Name My Character Signalman. 3G. Surge. Surge Protector. Fuse. Vulcan.

Re: More Complications, Please Just like GMs who offer additional base points for a detailed and evocative backstory, the points garnered from Complications are a "thank you for making GMing easier" offering. Someone who puts down Hunted: Foxbat 8- is telling me they want an occasional injection of wacky into the game. Someone who puts down DNPC: Mother 8- is telling me they want their character's mother to occasionally chime in and that that relationship is a defining aspect of the character. I, for one, appreciate the inspiration. As a GM, if I don't know which way you are likely to go then I have to design every path possible. If "Waste 'em with my crossbow" is a sporadically used solution by my players then I have to design my game to compensate for randomly dying NPCs, plot threads being cut down in their prime. The suspension of disbelief can't support the weight of groups of anarchists, loners and sociopaths. Some are able to stay true to their own concept without actually codifying that on a sheet. Absolutely. In most of my games my players don't even have a character sheet in front of them, although I have one on file along with a copy of their backstory, because it's more hinderance than aid. But there is a character sheet somewhere, with Complications on it, and before the game starts I have an idea of what the character won't, will and might do.

Re: More Complications, Please The image that springs to mind is the Spectacular Spider-Man episode where he's tussling with Electro. The fact is that without the self imposed restraints (Complications) that Pete's player put on himself, his pile of points beats most everybody else's pile of points. If he didn't care about other people and use his powers judiciously, he would slap on a rubber glove and beat Max Dillon bloody. If he wasn't a teenaged kid (Soc Lim) and fielding a call from his Aunt May during the fight (DNPC) it would be not nearly as involving.

Re: More Complications, Please Sure, except why would this character stop their best friend rather than run for the hills from a murdering half-demon, does "stop" mean for this character incarcerate, rehabilitate or two to the head and what drives this regular high school girl to use her soon-to-be-acquired demon powers to fight for justice rather than get rich? Sounds like more than 50 pts of Complications just answering those questions, then you have demon-based drawbacks in addition. I couldn't write and run a fun game for a character that didn't answer these questions. I wouldn't know or even have a hint at what way they would turn when confronted with a plot twist. Complications aren't penalties or handcuffs or some kind of quid pro quo to wring more cps out of the GM; they are how you tell the GM this is the kind of angst and drama I want the character to experience in the game.

Re: More Complications, Please 50 pts of Complications barely counts as a hint of a character. Not even a character sketch. I can't think of a single lead character in any halfway decent piece of fiction that has such minimal personality hooks. I can think of lots of characters that jot down "Not Rules, Guidelines, PTSD and Violet Eyes" and think that counts as fleshed out. How can you even get such a cypher involved? Or anticipate their actions? How do you plan your game? If your players weren't seriously considering getting less than the potential amount of Disadvantages before, IMO, you weren't getting your points worth out of them. My initial group back in the BBB day were 270, 295 and 320.

Re: Bring in the clones It's a push as far of benefits and disadvantages to respawn where you dropped as opposed to back at the lab. Clearly resurrection Regen.

Re: Help me get a Campaign established Lots of the classic comics teams just happened to show up at the same time to fight something that they couldn't defeat separately. Coincidence is your friend.

Re: naming a city for a supers campaign New Amsterdam? I normally use real cities because of the gobs of reference maps and photos available. San Angelo was a fun read and I like what HERO did with Millenium City but I'm a big fan of the GM principle of "Why create what you can swipe?"

Re: Why Watched? Character is how you act when no one is Watching. Hunted means someone means you physical harm and is taking steps to do so. Watched means someone thinks something that you might do is going to prove valuable or interesting and is passively gathering that info. If it was called Stalking would it seem like more of a Complication?

Re: Unsure how, why, where... or _whether_ to start! There is even a section here on the forums, HERO Games Rules Questions, where you can ask for a clarification on a rule or an interaction of rules and the Big Guy himself, Mr. Long, will get back to you faster than you imagined possible. Then you can take his ruling, cut-paste it over to HERO Games Discussions and we'll argue it for 20 pages!

Re: Heroic v. superheroic genres and the use of powers No one, and I repeat no one, has said "Don't use Powers." I mentioned that most Powers are only effectively defended against by other Powers, so if you allow in the offense you also need to strongly consider allowing in the defense. If your game doesn't use Adjustment Powers, no one needs Power Defense but if you do use them you have to weigh what being defenseless against them might entail. There's a GM decision to be made at the onset of the game so that a player doesn't spend (or neglect to spend) points in a way that's going to diminish their enjoyment of the game or that of the other players. All Powers in a Heroic game, IMO, should be treated as Magnifying Glass abilities. Not Stopsign. Lots of innocuous little abilities are as devastating to certain scenes as Danger Sense to an ambush. Vondy mentioned that Skills counteract and interact with Skills best. Similarly CVs interact with CVs. Hero is made up of several parallel rules structures that can mingle but work best within their own domain.

Re: Heroic v. superheroic genres and the use of powers Think about how many scenes in, say, any given Indiana Jones movie would have been ruined by him having the ability under discussion and you will understand what I'm warning about. If your games don't have those type of scenes, then no problem. Good heroic-level gaming, IMO, is all about pacing, and easy access to Powers surrenders too much pacing control to the players. It lets them knock the pins down faster than you can set them up as a GM. Not saying prohibit it, just monitor it. Some Powers make some obstacles and challenges not even a threat.

Re: Heroic v. superheroic genres and the use of powers A knife that can't ever be Disarmed or broken and is completely concealable robs the GM of many a plotline. The player can't be restrained by anything shy of chains. A person known to have this power wouldn't be getting on any planes these days.

Re: Heroic v. superheroic genres and the use of powers The problem with using Powers is that they are mostly meant to be opposed by other Powers. A very small point expenditure in Mental Powers can be devastating in a Mental Defense-less environment. A small Killing Attack, even 1/2d6, can be game breaking in a world without the persistently, pervasively bulletproof. Unless you slow Power usage down with Extra Time and Concentration, hamper it with Requires Skill Roll and Restrainable and make players limit the heck out of it, you'll find a 10 Active Point power ruining plotline after plotline.