casualplayer

Re: Trying to run a game for my old GM -- Don't try to reinvent the wheel. You don't need to do full character sheets for every NPC. Lots of my NPCs look like this: Name-Prince of Darkness Black Paladin stats, +25 STR No Figured Char (so I don't have to recalc the PD, REC & STUN) + Dark Seraph's Indirect Lightning Bolt. Google or reuse an appropriate map for the settings, come up with a reason for all the participants to be at the scene and presto! Bam, done, let's run! Hacks copy, artists steal.

Re: How would you have handled this (GMs)? If an in-character dressing down didn't get the point across (when the Secretary General of the UN reams Avatar a new one,) then I would run the tissue gambit. Nimble, evasive, clever villain kidnaps some high muckety-muck, switches clothes and broadcasts the bloody assault that ensues when the loose cannon goes off on Archduke Ferdinand. Then the character goes to Stronghold, which is great role-playing fun. Eventually, if the player gets wise, the character gets to do the mission-for-pardon or if the player stays dumb they can rot in solitary.

Re: 2 for 1 pt STR - Question Strictly speaking I didn't double the cost of STR in my games, but I always use Normal Characteristic Maxima with the STR threshold set at 15. All genres. Yes, even supers. If you want to be an unenhanced, unmodified human you have to take NCM in my games. Otherwise you are non-human and have to have some Phys Lim to represent the specific weaknesses and detectabilities entailed.

Re: Simulating decreasing damage due to exhaustion: Maybe once you are out of END it should require an EGO Roll to use anything more than Casual STR? Of course, then we would have to figure out what Casual EB is.

Re: brainstorming Maybe you should start WWII in 1939. I would think that you would have to game awfully often to keep the concept humming along. Too much intervening time between returning to an era would be unpleasant. Concurrent stories, a la Eisner, would be a lot of fun though. You could have some fun stuff like the trans-generational shenanigans of Watchmen also.

Re: Teleporting Oxygen into and out of a hex Don't want to seem snarky or petty, but I think the player wants to deprive an area of atmosphere, not just the small percentage that is Oxygen. Just Oxygen won't get a good decompression zap. The reason I mention this is because if the player voids the whole atmosphere they could link a sound/hearing Darkness to the powers, which could be cool. No medium, no sound. If they have self-contained breathing, the player could keep the field up around themselves for stealthy suffocation of any foe who dares to get close.

Re: Comics you loved...but apparently no one else did

Re: Adamant (Global Guardians PBEM) All right, I'll be kind. Pretty. Frickin'. Cool.

Re: The Funny Villains The Danger Men's battle cry is "Lovey, lovey, lovey, lovey-dovey all the time!"

Re: 6th Edition thoughts I'm just shooting from the hip mostly, now that I had my MPA rant. I've been doing the REC-across-the-board thing for years and, aside from the slightly increased bookkeeping, it works great. I've also often let players define which stat their skill is enhanced by, so some character's Climbing was often based off DEX in my games. Should a 6 STR, 16 DEX Hobbit be poor at climbing? Or have to dump 9 pts into climbing to match the Barbarian's 3 pts?

Re: Opinion Fluff: Hero Versions It was prettier than 2nd, but didn't seem to have much else going on. If I remember right it was perfect-bound, no box. Real RPGs should come in a box.

Re: [interest in an online game?] Avengers: Generation 3 What kind of utilities are involved in running a PBEM? HeroCentral looks easy enough, but I have seen map generators that help to post and track the battle sequences. Where would I find such things? I'm asking because a West Coast team could be cool.

Re: 6th Edition thoughts Because weightlifters are great climbers? I mean, besides Conan.

Re: 6th Edition thoughts

Re: Opinion Fluff: Hero Versions I would have to say that Champions III was probably the book that most blew my mind. Mental Paralysis, School of Cost Effectiveness, Allston's GM notes, etc. That was money well spent, cheap at twice the price. 4th Ed, the BBB, was the King James Version. It was so packed with goodness that the bindings blew apart. 5th Ed, Fred, was the carrier and sustainer of the flame. There are some things that I adored, some things I abhored, but bless Long and Watts for making it. 2nd was a thing of beauty, but production qualities were bleak. I enjoy Mark Williams art as much as the next guy but the text looked like it was done with a manual typewriter. 1st Ed I only had as a photocopy (Hey, I'm sorry, I bought 2nd ASAP.) 3rd I never owned as a core rulebook.

Re: 6th Edition thoughts I still think any debate about Linked is suspect, trying to get something for nothing. If a power is Linked to another, they are essentially one power, conjoined. For the benefit and restriction of being able to and having to use them together, you get a -1/2 disadvantage on the lesser point cost power. If you want to be able to use the component powers separately, put them in a Power Framework like a Multipower, which is ideal. In the oftmentioned EB/Flash have a Linked slot, a pure EB slot and a pure Flash slot. Pay the points, get the benefits, don't start parsing the rules to shreds to make your 350 pt super effectively a 360 pt super. MPA turns the game into a rousing bout of Rochambeau, where characters take turns kicking each other in the nuts. In a hobby where character restraint is not exactly common, do we need this encouragement? MPA may have a place as a genre convention in a Battletech/Robotech-type game, but not as a prevaling rule. If you want to be able to punch everyone within arm's reach, buy your STR with 1 hex AE: Selective No Range and whale away. AE: Selective is a wonderful way to define being able to attack multiple targets in a phase with a point cost to reflect the utility. Never in the history of RPGs has the power genie been put back in the bottle, so I am tilting windmills here.

Re: Comics you loved...but apparently no one else did People have been showing much love for John Ostrander; did anyone else read Wasteland? Co-written with Del Close with a rotating quartet of artists, and Vertigo before Vertigo. It was mental, but so good. Many of the comics I adored are being resurrected. I've had new Jon Sable, Grimjack and Maze Agency recently and I am well pleased. First Comics is virtually resurrected, now if someone would resurrect Eclipse Comics life would be great. I would love to see new Justice Machine and Hero Alliance also. Might as well wish for some Willingham Elementals while I'm at it.

Re: Leaping Limitations! Ah, but then you blow your Unluck roll and faceplant right into an Emergency Exit sign or light fixture hanging from the ceiling. Earn that -1 disad, munchkin monkey!

Re: Superheroes and Religion OK, I have all the Dan Slott She-Hulk, and I can't for the life of me figure out where this guy got the info that makes Mallory Book a LDS.

Re: Superheroes and Religion Well, it's good to know God believes in himself.

Re: Foxbat: A place in your campaign? Foxbat actually joined one of my campaign's teams out of pity and sympathy. He had previously followed one of the players around, renamed himself Foxbat Ronin and said that they were partners "but not in that way." He had also previously assembled a villain team that he named Foxbat's Menagerie that consisted of himself, Bull(dozer,) Wyvern, Leech, Griffin and a safecracking savant named Raccoon who happened to be the kid brother of one of the players. Good times.

Re: The Funny Villains Once you decide to use Foxbat, any other funny villain is gratuitous. Foxbat actually joined one of my campaign's teams out of pity and sympathy. He had previously followed one of the players around, renamed himself Foxbat Ronin and said that they were partners "but not in that way." He had also previously assembled a villain team that he named Foxbat's Menagerie that consisted of himself, Bull(dozer,) Wyvern, Leech, Griffin and a safecracking savant named Raccoon who happened to be the kid brother of one of the players. Good times.

Re: END to activate It's painfully obvious that Costs END only to Activate breaks down horribly on the fixed cost powers like Desolid and Damage Resistance. It's awfully popular with the other Constant powers. It's a Combat Luck-ish advantage; if everyone wants it, it's too good for the cost. There is a big glaring warning against making Continuous powers 0 END so that they can be set to go on forever, but they toss out this advantage that completely invalidates that warning. Bad form, two beer penalty!

Re: Leaping Limitations! The only solution to this is for Hero Games to release The Ultimate Leaper. Something we haven't discussed is that whatever character bought this goofy construct (which should be Flight No Turn Mode 1 Recoverable Charge) is going to have versatile Superleap figured off of his/her STR unless they sold back their Leap to make it all mono-directional. But all Leaping is mono-directional unless another vector is applied, something like oh say gravity or forward momentum. Giving someone a -1 limitation for something that they are constantly going to be reasoning-from-effect to overwhelm is pure cheese. Or maybe Superleap needs to go the way of the dodo. Perhaps we should start opting to modify Flight to follow parabolic arcs instead. Perhaps we should change or jettison a rule that lets weightlifters jump 10 meters. It's just as broken and breakable as any other figured characteristic.

Re: 6th Edition thoughts Sweet. Rep for you. That book hasn't been out of storage for ten years, may have to go find it. Anyone who thought that Linked was pure advantage wasn't enforcing the END rules. You get tired awfully quickly feeding a nice, Linked structure. Plus Linked removed a level of subtlety that could really hamper a player. My core group had a powerhouse who had a No Range EB Explosion Linked to a Hearing Flash Ex, and had to use them proportionally (actually had to make a Skill Roll to not use both at full.) He often took out the hearing of the whole team tacking a little ooomph onto his punches. Another character had EDM/Teleport UBO Linked to a No Range Ex TK: Only for Pulling Towards Center. That character really did not like teleporting from his library anymore after he "flushed" several irreplacable tomes into the netherverse.