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Sand Disads?

Re: Player-Built Characters... I have actually recently come to this realization myself. The character I'm playing in our current campaign has most of his combat abilities locked up in Foci (Phase pistol with various settings: EB, NND, RKA, and a happy little SPD drain , and a Phase Displacement harness: Teleportation, Desol, and FF). Normally, aside from the foci, he's Hypersense man with latent psychic abilities, and an uncanny knack for figuring out gadgets (like alien guns and belts, for instance ) and jury-rigging. So where I have normally been EBing the baddies in other games, I have to take on a slightly different tack with him. Usually he's hostage-guy (his teleport can take another person with, and he's got a bonus to grab-by with it!), or a good distraction, or else he goes after the hard-to-sense people. But instead of dodging, he can abort to Desolid, and not be losing as many actions, and he's great for snagging the item the bad guys want while the rest of the party keeps the combatants busy, cos he can phase through walls and barriers unnoticed and slow down pursuers. So he's the guy with the options in combat. It's really been fun, because it forces me to think about new tactics entirely, which livens up combat a bit.

Re: Some holding phases questions...

Re: Multiple-Foci Power Construction Question Okay, total novice here (well, not really, but I might be missing something). Why couldn't you just build your individual multipowers and put the same set of Lims on each? Each individual MP would have OAF, Activation Roll/Extra Time/Side-effects, etc... The SE would be defined as "Randomly determined MP" (random roll out of all MPs with the same set of Lims... after all, one could get lucky and pick the right one by sheer accident!) There has to be something I'm not seeing here... or would this work?

Re: Warning silly question, serious players beware I was thinking that in order to keep this feature from being overused, maybe have a seemingly effect-less power, "Mark Savepoint", as a Transform "moment" to "mutable moment" (or maybe another power) with lots of END or maybe Side-effects (drains to STUN, DEX, etc.) to discourage frivolous use of this feature. (I've known a LOT of computer gamers before, and they save after every successful minute!) Also, Dust Raven and I were talking this over, and he suggested Charges... like the number of times you can use the power is kind of like Save Game slots... once one is used up, you have to save over some. Although, in hindsight, Locations as described above really does this better. I'd basically do this (pardon the lack of mechanic terms, I'm learning): Mark Savepoint: Transform (Moment to Mutable Moment), (choice of Lims, like Extra Time, Concentration, Extra END, Drain STUN, Side Effects, etc.) Revert to Saved: EDM (with whatever mods are conventional for time-travel based EDM to a different physical location), X number Floating Locations, Locations only definable as perviously marked "Savepoints" I have no idea if I'm being clear on what I mean, but I'm hoping it's enough for the educated gamer to get the idea and make corrections. Of course, if Raven wants to help me nail down what we had been discussing...

Re: Encumbrance An opinion from your fellow gamer reagrding our campaign... I would add an extra flipside (25/75 and 75/25), and go with what KA. suggested. It it easier as far as mechanics and math, and more fair than an absolute. Besides, being able to move at all when another character can't as per Raven's first example is a bit more than buying extra movement... it smacks of having more STR as well (feeling a lot like the stagger-and-drop rule applying when it's not yet reached). Captain Mosey should have a significantly lower STR, or should be able to move at least a little. Otherwise it's almost double-dipping. Hope I'm making sense.

Re: Sand Powers

Re: Sand Powers Here's a nasty thought. Combine the flash attack with a damage shield, possibly area effect, not vs. any armor SFX or hardened defenses for your sandstorm... sand is nasty, abrasive, and a very real mortal threat of desert climes. You could alternately throw in a suffocation factor (choking on the sand like smoke)instead of the damage shield, or all three if you're particularly evil and want to blow a lot of points! Now, I just have to hope that Raven doesn't get any ideas for Pharaoh in this thread.

Re: Superheroic Heroic games

Re: Some holding phases questions... I agree with Raven on the reactionary status of somebody holding. The old term, "Well, what are you waiting for?" implies a "what" needs to occur. There's just no realtime equivalent for holding until just before somebody else's phase do you can avoid the DEX-off... you are psychic enough to win the DEX roll, you delare you hold until they do something and then react, or you're stalling. If a real person wants to win a gunfight draw, they can't just magically anticipate when the other guy is gonna move. That's skills, or something else buyable. Regarding this one... Raven, what do you rule on this? I can't recall how the games we do run. I find this a fair call, personally, but I'd like to know what we've been going on. (I've never thought to hold a 12 before... hmmmm)

Re: Extra Fast Thought Oh, Raven... I can think of somebody who could make use of this stuff. By the way... how did you do this particular mechanic for me again? Or did I just buy a skill and a perk? I honestly can't remember...

Re: Does Marital Disarm Help You Hold On? I like the idea of it working both ways. Although I had another really silly idea... Since a true MA would know what to watch for, and this is WHY the Disarm maneuver could help prevent disarming, give a PER or other Combat skill roll with appropriate + to it for any character with Disarm. You make the roll, you saw it coming, you keep your weapon. Kinda like Complimentary skill rolling, in a way. You roll your Conversation, you get Persuasion bonuses... that kind of thing. Sorry if I ramble or overcomplicate. Just another option in a system with many...

Re: Rage induced Growth Raven has a point, but it's not an absolute one. What other disads does the character have? Are there any specific things that would make a rage easier? Can he be calmed down by his own will or another teammate, or are there specific needs that must be met? If the character is normally out-of-control with his feelings, you might use ego. But if this truly is the brick-with-a-brain, and he can usually calm himself down or rile himself up with relative ease, maybe Raven's idea of just calling it SFX might be wiser and, in truth, more accurate. Maybe just put a player-and-GM decision Limitation on the power that it can only be used if there is something around that, according to personality, would reasonably make the character mad. Randomness takes a lot of the reason out of a character, so it depends on his temperament whether or not you really should consider using rolls to regulate it. One more thing... How easily can he control his actions while in his largest form? I have always seen an all-out rage as being out-of-control. So how beneficial would having more strength and size be in that case? If he's only at his max power while Enraged, would that not be more of a disad, since he could just as easily hit his own team or other innocents? Thinking of this especially since you imply he does think his actions through in most cases. Just some additional food for thought for you and your GM.

Re: Player-Built Characters... *Trying desperately to not be irritated beyond reason that I spent half an hour typing this once, previewed, and hit the back button to edit ONE typo to find my text vanished utterly with no way to reclaim and NO WARNING this would happen...* (End of rant) First off, Dr. Anomaly and Ghost Angel, I wish I knew more GM's like the ones running your campaigns at an earlier stage in my gaming career! Dust Raven's games are very much like you described, and, as I am a character- and story-based gamer with a taste for continuity, I very much enjoy playing in his campaigns. Reason: Instead of introducing characters into his campaign, he designs his campaign around the characters that the players want to run. Once, we took this to an extreme, and we decided to try and come up with an all-out concept game. All the characters worked toegther, knew each other, and players decided what their relationships to one onther would be before the game. This turned out to be a high-tech game (Knight City, listed on Raven's site TLO3T), where we all worked for the same company in research and development, security, and, later, began being hired-out as a city-sanctioned defense force. Unfortunately, this was very short-lived as we lost a player and then life intervened further, but we have plans to revive the campaign sometime when we can get everybody together again, possibly minus the one player. I liked how well the concept flowed in that one. Most of our games, however, have been meet-the-other-PCs-in-the-first-adventure-and-form-a-team games, and they, too, have worked well, especially since Raven has ingenious ways of involving most of our characters' disads in one initial run that ties us nicely together. Then again, not everybody is looking for stories that get that detailed out-of-combat, or complicated moral dilemmas or long character conversations... and that's okay, too. Ultimately, though, the best kind of GM is one who works to give the players the kind of game they want to play, so everybody enjoys the experience. As a side note, it finally happened! Our Brick came up against some real nasties from PSI, and got knocked out by a pair of egoists while tangling with Bodyjack (named for the power from the UNTIL book), who had, in the last fight, found her an incredibly useful target. A wild combination of her severe hatred for having somebody else running around with her body, quite a few incredibly lucky die rolls for defense, and a rather foul attitude toward mental attacks after this led me to suggest the compromise (inspired by "Iron Will" from the same tome as above): Aid EGO 3d6, Only to resist mental powers (-1/2), costs END (-1/2), Self only (-1/2). This is far more in-concept than a sudden development of mental defense, and will work pretty much the way the character's mind would. Of course, her mind would not work that way unless she had fought for her willpower against mentalists before. So NOW, it works. I, too, very much agree with disads and powers being to concept. I really should go out and buy some heavy Flash Defense for Touchstone, but then again, that would greatly devalue his Vulnerability to Flash attacks due to sensory overload. Concept wins, therefore, I'll deal!

Re: Pain Backlash Hello. Amethyst here... resident auden empath and apparently future goddess??? I thought I should put in my two cents on exactly what the ability does and does not do. By the way, many kudos for all the thought put into this... very cool ideas! Does much for her ego! (And since she's a mentalist that's saying something! *lol*) Alright. Source of her powers requires that all of her attacks are, in fact, visible. They "look" like basic EBs... or the target or she or both glow with a violet light. So it would be visible. The backlash would ONLY do STUN, would ONLY do the STUN that penetrated her defenses, and regardless of source, would ALWAYS be a mental-class attack, due to SFX. (Psionic backlash causes the reflected pain, not a mirror attack power.) It would also not work on anything inanimate; traps, robots, or anything else not capable of taking STUN would not be affected. However, foci used by somebody sentient (guns) would result in the attacker feeling the backlash. Additionally, the power would be OIHID. (Think what would happen if it was uncontrolled and always on, and her cat scratched her!) Basically, if a living being who can feel pain deliberately attacked her (even mind-controlled, but not accidental), they would take only the STUN she actually felt through her FF as a ECV attack dealt reflexively, much like a damage shield. Mental defense would block it like any other, presumably, and the power is visible and OIHID. I don't require other spiffies like 0 END and such, but if automatic to the write-up, that'd be ok. Things like this can always be involuntarily draining. Also, this is only a conceptual thing, and I am always willing to work on it with GM or other interested parties. All rules are subject to change.

Re: Your Character's Greatest Fear? I kindly rescind part of my last post... Touchstone's greatest fear is what BigBrother (Ooops, I meant Boss) really *is* watching, and whether he has any privacy at all! This from a creature of secrets!!! Oh, well... Every game brings me a step or two closer to figuring him out! Muhhahahaha!!!!!

Re: Your Character's Greatest Fear? Wow, post number one under a name I can remember, and it's a good subject! *getting out the folder of Defenders Universe characters and other HEROes* Descant: Being leader of the Defenders of Seacouver doesn't quite erase the ghosts of her family, Code Black, or her past. I think Madison's greatest fear lies in the fact that her uncle Roland, aka Nightblade, still lives, and what he may be capable of doing to the rest of her family. Even now, the thought of him still makes her blood run cold. Touchstone: Mason fears most for the safety of his family, his sister Tanya in particular. In addition to that, his almost obnoxiously heightened senses have given him a very real case of claustrophobia. Being in a space so tight as to cut off or reflect too closely what his senses pick up scrambles his brain in a very bad way. (Needless to say, he doesn't frequent aluminum air duct systems very often! Then again, he can just use his phase harness to go desolid if he has to sneak in places...) Amethyst: Tracy has a DNPC situation as well... her occasional ward, a feisty 11-year-old boy who is absolutely convinced he's going to be a super-spy just like her (think the son from The Mummy, Jade from Jackie Chan, or the pigtailed girls in Inspector Gadget and Darkwing Duck) gives her endless things to worry about besides where the criminal mastermind will strike next. Her greatest fear is that he may never live to see twelve! TARA: As a computer backup system and lifesaving robot who recently lost the man she was first "built into" to Mechanon (in one universe, at least!), she has several concerns in her ever-developing emotional systems; losing another partner, for one, especially to Mechanon, would certainly scramble her more than just a bit! Also, her growing sentience is leading to a fear that she may not be accepted for her own individuality. Jadian: His worst fear, as a reformed Infernal, would be failing at his newfound quest for humanity, since one slip-up could be enough to get him recaptured and dragged back down into the Hells from whence he came. You might understand how this would be "bad"... in the Ghostbusters sense of the word! (Demon overlords are not known for their forgiving natures.) Aside from that, I'd say the thing he's most nervous about is... succeeding! He's never been human before, and although he's certain he'll be quite good at it, some aspects seem a bit daunting to him... like slowly losing his power! That should be everybody currently written up in FREd... off to find more things to post about. (Note to self: have Raven come and post on this thread, and get him to include Boss...)