casualplayer

Re: How to convince a hero group that they should be registered and work for governme This does not sound like the kind of people that a government would want to formally and openly sponsor. If you want to force the issue, put them up against an adversary that only the government can protect them from. The next time they cross foreign airspace in pursuit of Eurostar without permission, drop the hammer on them and then have the government take the blow. Dry up their intel or send it the way of an NPC team who is looking like they might be the new first choice to be New Knights. Each of the characters should have a way to be asked a question where they will reliably answer "Yes." It may have to be a different question phrased a different way by a different person for each of the players but governments are known for that kind of pressure and resources.

Re: Mental Powers: Roll for Effect First The uncertainty of Mental Powers is why I usually set a sizeable portion of the dice to Standard Effect when I make a mentalist, or I make different slots of a Mentalmultipower with different ratios of random to Standard. One slot with 14d6 straight up, one with 10d6 Standard (+30 effect) and 4d6 random (to cover the EGO) lets me go for broke or be sure to get the job done when need be.

Re: Thrown weapons that return Focus is just shorthand for Power Embodied In Object Not Intrinsic To The Character That Can Be Seperated from My Possession And Thus Incapacitated. If "the weapon" appears to leave the wielder's possession but is always or nearly always back in their possession by the next opportunity of use, it may look like a focus but it ain't a Focus. You've got a sword-shaped special effect for Blast or some other Hurt at Distance power. Having the sword always return to hand is mechanically no different than pulling an endless succession of swords out of an ever-full sheath, although the sfx allow for some different, cool stunts. Charges is Uses Per Scene, but the "Scene" aspect can be bought up or down to Uses Per Millenium or to Easily Recoverable, in which case it becomes Uses Per However Often I Satisfy The Recovery Condition. This power could have both, neither or either one of these Limitations. It depends on what happens when the power isn't used in a vacuum and has to interact with others. If the sword is thrown at a rust monster and corrodes to dust, what happens? If it's thrown at a bad guy, impales him and the bad guy falls off a cliff, what happens? If a mage has Missile Deflection sfx-defined as sending the projectile into another dimension and succeeds against this attack, what happens?

Re: What have you Summoned? It wasn't specifically directed at you, Lucius, or I would have quoted you or referred to you directly. I wasn't referring to anyone who has posted here. I was referring to the RAW power itself being something that I feel is abusive even when used as designed. Can't fault people for using something straight from the book but I don't care for it, and I definitely don't feel it equates point for point with Multiform, Duplication or Follower.

Re: Teleportation NND RKA and Focus damage Martin2, you say this is for a 60 pt Multipower? If the power he is using is a 2d6 NND RKA (60 AP) there's no room there for the Does BODY advantage. Is he only doing STUN with this power? If so, he isn't going to be hurting any foci with it. Maybe a 1d6+1 NND RKA Does BODY? (60 AP) And if the power just does STUN by teleporting objects into the same space as other objects, it doesn't sound like they merge permanently instead just temporarily disrupt and discomfort each other. That would justify a power that would short circuit a device but not one that would necessarily break it for good. That could be a special effect for tons of stuff from Missile Deflection (causes the gun to jam, missile to misfire, arrow to not fly true) or Suppress or improved DCV, etc, etc. Also foci are usually tiny and have hefty DCVs. Unless your teleporter is also a marksman he's asking for frustration trying to target the device of an elusive adversary.

Re: Thrown weapons that return Is it the paladin's ability or the blessed longsword's ability or a partnership of the two? There are a scad of ways to do it. All those suggested plus you could just add the May Be Thrown advantage onto the HKA. Take away the Focus limitation and then it means the weapon mystically returns to the wielder's hand after being flung because you aren't operating under the limitations of Focus. "When is a blade not a blade?" You could establish some TK Only Usable with Sword and then use that TK to retrieve the blade after chucking it at a badguy, a fun twist which also gives you the ability to make the blade "dance." You could make it One Easily Recoverable Charge, and occasionally circumstances are going to make it a wee bit more difficult to easily recover the charge like when the shadowmonk snatches the longsword out of the air right before it strikes and decides to keep it as a souvenir.

Re: What have you Summoned? I find the power to be more trouble than it is worth, both from a bookkeeping aspect and that it always provides more bang per character point spent than is fair and comparable. I get that it is a commonly occuring special effect in all the genres we play in but I prefer to keep it just that, a special effect, and not a Variable Perk Pool.

Re: The Morality of Sending In The Clones! Every time a culture first meets another, they have to decide if The Other counts as people. In most cases the answer is initially "No." When homo sapiens meets homo synthetic there is going to be friction. Until the law is negotiated and written it may not be a crime to kill or harm The Other, or it may be a lesser crime like Destruction of Property instead of Murder or Manslaughter.

Re: Replacing You Oh, thank you. It sounds like a great way to evacuate someone from danger but it also sounds like a great way to take someone hostage.

Re: Replacing You So the character has a Spectator form, an Advisor and a Substitute? Neat. There are ways to get around the insane expense of making a character with Desolid who has abilities that Affect the Material World. I'm partial to Fully Invisible DCV myself, where it appears things hit you but they don't actually "hit" you. Then everything else doesn't cost a fortune. Something to evade the Area Effects and you're pretty good to go. It seems like the Spectator and the Advisor are virtually the same entity, but that there are a lot of No Range UBO abilities that come into play when the character is riding someone. For the third form it seems like you are Space Phantom-ing someone, taking their shape and abilities while retaining your mindset. Here's the costly form because the amount of points requires to emulate a doorman and emulate Thor are vastly different.

Re: overmentalizing

Re: Driving Under The Radar Cops are probably using Deduction or just a straight PER Roll to id the car and put two and two together. Concealment beats both those, even when things are "hiding" in plain sight.

Re: overmentalizing Having NPCs that can reasonably expect to encounter this hero take steps to counteract his known abilities is not a nerf. It's tactics and strategy and it's what seperates the criminal masterminds from the hobgoblin hordes. I'm stunned that every one of The Kingpin's men doesn't carry a dog whistle, for example. Telepathy is not open license to peek at the GM's notes. People are dumb, misinformed or misremember. It's not a nuclear power in a game of rock-paper-scissors. Taking steps to maintain the drama of uncertainty can only improve the game. But I would say the biggest concern is that the Telepath is grinding the game to a halt while he goes cerebellum surfing. The other PCs are left sitting around with their thumbs up their butts. It's the Hacker dilemma of CyberPunk gaming, where the Decker dives into the virtual world and the rest of the players can go on a munchy run. For hours.

Re: Enraged Pricing No, the trick is to have +2-4d6 of your most often used offensive power at the xEND multiple, kind of a Push you don't have to make an EGO Roll for or a Haymaker with no delay. Then when the PC goes nuts he uses his favorite power turned up to 11 and runs himself out of energy before he can usually do more than just impact the enemy. It's an old chestnut of a character build. But it's also why Grond doesn't get membership offers to villain teams and no one wants to share the back seat with Wyvern. Berserk people don't play well with others.

Re: The Morality of Sending In The Clones! Tough call what to do with them. Nations and organizations are going to both want the clones and also not want others to have them. Physical appearance doesn't necessarily translate to adulthood in the eyes of society also. They could get divvied up amongst all the people with a claim. I would treat the clones like other abused children, placing them with responsible foster families until adopted or the age of maturity is reached. In your game, GoldenAge, I would say someone or the whole team just got a handful of a sidekick! The old Goodwin/Simonsen Manhunter series touched on this a bit, and one of Paul Kirk's clones ended up resurfacing in The Power Company by Busiek and Grummett. Strike Force also had their Shadowwalker storyline where he was cloned but his clones were kicking butt and taking names when not trying to kick his butt and take his name so he practiced Live and Let Live with them.

Re: overmentalizing I think the main complaint is that the extent the Psi is delving is bogging down the game. I had this problem once with a fearmonger Psi who wanted to know the greatest fear of Every Single Person They Encountered. I eventually had to take the player aside and tell them to chill out because they were hogging the limelight and jamming up the game.

Re: Enraged Pricing If the player is crafty he has an offensive power with some crazy xEND multiple that empties his tank within a phase or two so that he doesn't get too out of control. Otherwise once word gets out about this guy's hair trigger every henchmans' instructions are going to be "Shoot Mad Dog first and escape during the chaos." I had a player character, appropriately named Rage, in my first long-lasting group of players. He was an exceptionally gifted martial artist, except for when he lost his temper, dumped all his levels into OCV and got his clock cleaned by the level-headed. He spent XP to buy down his Enraged/Berserk to a much more manageable Psych Comp Tempermental and now goes by the name of Ronin. Enraged/Berserk is supposed to be a Complication and if it doesn't complicate the player character's life then it's a gift. If this PC has lethal attacks then he's going to be on the wrong side of Justifiable Homicide in short order.

Re: overmentalizing The main reason your player has time to read your criminals' minds like a book is that you are giving him uninterrupted reading time. Interrupt him! Knock the book out of his hands and make him have to find his place again. Set the book on fire. Have the book written by Joyce or Burroughs, or even Bunyon where everything is allegory. Don't give him a table of contents or the ability to bookmark or the ability to factcheck. Our heads are filled with nonsense and tedium, days and days that were distinctive because nothing happened. Were I the mastermind behind these mind-stripped mooks each would be equipped with viral memes that would accumulate until the mentalist would be unable to focus at all. Probably just a miniscule INT and EGO Drain, with the recovery measured in months, Cumulative. Earworms of the hamster dance or Gaga or Henry VIII or commercial jingles.

Re: Enraged Pricing First I would look at the player and say "Do you really want to play a mad dog that will have to be put down?" This character is going to throw super temper tantrums every game, in the enviroment you describe, until someone takes him over their knee and paddles his backside. But as it sits the character design is suspicious. He's trying to get points for a circumstance that will happen virtually never (rolling 8- after rolling 8- after taking BODY but before Recovering on 14-) and also redundant ways to Recover (14- to no longer be Berserk and 14- to no longer be Enraged, no longer qualifying to be Berserk.) I'm going to go out on a limb here and say there is a whole suite of abilities for this character bought Only when Enraged. Enraged is redundant unless your players have tendencies towards restraint, and this character concept doesn't scream restraint. If it's Phasers On Full every shot against every adversary then they already have every day Everyman Enraged. No points for you. I would probably ditch the Enraged in favor of a Psych Comp Hostile or Cranky or Aggressive, set to no more than Common and Strong. Any higher and every game is going to be dealing with this guy's issues. Maybe let the character top it off with an extremely rarely occuring Berserk that can be foreseen and prevented.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. I like the depiction of an Eowyn who is unwilling to back down in the face of the Witch King's hyperbole about "no man" rather than one that is exploiting an ovaries loophole. There's a woman to catch Aragorn's eye.

Re: Counters to problems? (Such as AoE spam and magic overuse)

Re: The Beautiful People If the baseline COM was now 20, we would exhalt the 21+ and despise the 19-. Just saying. I think most people would choose being a dim, healthy slave over being a dim, unhealthy slave. Less cynical, I think this would spread like wildfire in the areas of the world where pestilence is a real concern to an extent that it would scour the earth clean of the non-infected. If it is as communicable as you state, I welcome our new evil Overlord because Telieos wins. Even Dr. Destroyer would be tempted, thinking in his arrogance he would acquire the youth and resilience and retain his intelligence. He might even create an Algernon Device, take the treatment and then reconfigure his brain to pre-treatment status.

Re: Strange events...what do YOU (not your character) do? I would be more concerned/curious about what happened to my dusted wife and kids. Can't have my five year old flying off somewhere. Can't have my seven year old ripping off someone's arm in flag football. Depending how and how much thrust my flight provides I would get a vehicle with a speedometer, put it in neutral and see how fast I can go. Flying with no light to see by or running lights to be seen by is a good way to get kilt, and I would want to know what kind of turns I can make and how fast I can stop. I can use my newly freed up gasoline budget on buying a GPS. If my wife and I got superhuman, peak condition bodies, I probably wouldn't be posting for several days. You test your new stamina your way and I'll test it mine.

Re: More Complications, Please

Re: More Complications, Please What's the Aquaset's Susceptability to being out of water for more than an hour worth? Like 5pts? I'm sure they would all rather have a Competent DNPC instead, but then would they be the same character? And there is nothing so common and damaging that it could be a 0pt Vulnerablility, but I get your point, Hugh. Maybe static electricity or atmospheric pressure.... Nah.