AngryBug

Re: Answers & Questions

Q: Are you a member of Spinal Tap?

 

A: the chalice with the palace hold the pellet with the poison.

Q. Where the pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle, the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true?

A. No, it came with wings, the belt was extra.

Re: Open or hidden dice

Yeah, I'd have to agree that whether the GM rolls in secret or in the open is a matter of style , and is not important as long as everyone has fun. The Killer GM will get you whether you see the roll or not, and players know the Softhearted GM won't hurt them too badly no matter what the dice say. If the GM is really on his game, the players should be so involved in what's going on that they stop thinking about the dice and get wrapped up in the story and the action. The roles should always be more important than the rolls.

Back in the day, I always liked to hide my (GM) rolls from players just to keep the number crunchers (a little) more focussed on the story than the dice. Description was my way, too, of letting them know if the rolls were good, bad, or average, without telling them exactly how good or bad. Plus, it was nice to have the fudge factor available if I needed it, which was rare, but did happen. I always let the dice rule, except when a bad (or good!) roll would have ruined a beautifully cinematic moment, or killed a PC in an undramatic fashion. I'd leave them wounded, maybe even out of the fight, but not dead. Of course, every fudged roll in the good guys favour had to be balanced later by "cheating" for the bad guys, so (I don't think) anybody ever felt too complacent or uninvested in their character's health.

Rolling dice for no particular reason and saying "Hmmmm...." always got players to really pay attention to what was going on, too.

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

Wow man' date=' that's like... deep and stuff... [/quote']

"Yeah, it goes right up to the point of being... confusing." - Invisible Boy

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

Because if we don't' date=' another pound puppy will be put to sleep. [/quote']

You should change the thread's name to "Post here or we shoot this dog".

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

This is an experiment. What we have is an attempt by me to create the longest running' date=' NON game thread.[/quote']

Begging the question, why?

Anyway, here's my bit for your wacky cause.

Re: A Thread for Random Musings

In the time it took to ride through the desert, could he not have thought of a name for the damn horse?

Re: High Tech Crimes

 

Like Starman or The Hulk, they could wander around and help people with smaller problems, more on a social level, and try not to attract attention to themselves.

 

Yeah, that's the approach I'd take with these guys for sure. Getting involved in people's troubles will be a piece of cake if the empathic one has a certain amount of NCC in his powers. Mr. Empathy will sense people with problems and won't be able to stop himself from helping out, while his gruff-but-honourable buddy will be "forced" to go along, perhaps complaining all the while...

Between that, "MIB"-or-what-have-you, and the alien Hunters themselves you should have enough material to go on for a while at least.

As far as what "cover" they'll adopt, the most obvious would be electronics repair"men", but I'm not certain how to work adventures into a repair shop. Plus, if the aliens keep tracking them down they'll need to be constantly on the move...

If anything comes to me, I'll pass it along. Your players should probably work out for themselves how they plan to blend in with the natives, anyway, so I'd be pestering them for some advance notice on their plans, as that will make figuring out what happens in between alien attacks a lot easier.

Let us know how it goes...

Re: Agent combat....

Always remember, what individual agents lack in raw power can be made up for in numbers, teamwork and tactics. The more the agents know in advance about the supers' powers and tactics, the better prepared they will be. Allowing Viper (or whoever) to learn from each encounter and devise strategies and weapons for specific heroes makes them more dangerous each time the heroes face them. AE Entangles followed by coordinated attacks for the Speedster, Drains that target the Energy Projector's special effects, and of course the (prototype) "Big Gun" for the otherwise unstoppable Brick (Bulky focus, one or two Charges only, perhaps with Burnout, can make a very nasty cannon surprisingly affordable). Allowing Viper to learn from past encounters is only fair, after all, since the heroes do the same, so it is really not unlikely that they would develop weapons specifically for individual heroes. Just allow the agency to customize a team to deal with the supergroup that has given them so much trouble. With a few well-chosen special weapons, good Teamwork skills and the element of surprise, those "speedbump" agents can be more deadly than supervillains with 3X their point cost.

If you can find a copy of "Super Agents" anywhere, it has great resources for building and handling agents. It's geared toward agents as PCs, but still has a lot of useful ideas for dealing with NPC agencies and tactics.

Re: A Thread for Random Musings

What the @#**# is wrong with the drivers in Edmonton? They zoom along in their SUVs at a minimum 20 klicks over the legal limit, talking on their cellphones, zipping in and out of lanes without signalling or shoulder-checking after tailgating me for the last 3 blocks because I have the temerity to actually drive the posted limit... and I still catch up to them at the next red.

The better the weather, the worse the driver... unless he's in a pickup. Then it's the other way around. On a clear, dry summer day I see a minimum 1 accident per day. In the winter, it drops down to 2-3 per week... except for the pickups. They sprout up in the ditches in winter like daisies on a grave.

Re: Nemesis

I would certainly hope so. I enjoy writing for the character. I seem best suited for dark campaigns. I know they appeal to me more.

Yeah, it can be very liberating to explore the "Dark Side" . It will be fun for you to see just where the character will "draw the line", especially down the road, if and when she meets up with her own personal "Joe Chill". Justice, vengeance, revenge... it's a blurry line. Nemesis has a lot of anger to work out- that must be why I like her!

Re: Nemesis

That's not creativity. I shamelessly plagiarized and stole ideas all over the place. lol

That just means that you're a great Hollywood writer.

(Tinseltown, where creativity means stealing something no one else is stealing...)

(P.S. Now that I see the whole write-up my confusion is cleared up. The whole posing-as-handicapped ("differently-abled", sorry) thing is sure to cause some interesting problems when she encounters baddies in her Secret ID...)

Re: High Tech Crimes

2 cents more...

What to do in between appearances of the alien Hunted depends a lot on the question "What do these guys DO in between Hunted appearances?"...

What I mean is, can they pass for human? Create fake IDs/credentials? If they can get jobs, you can make it easy to create adventures by giving them interesting ones. I'm sure a couple of superpowered aliens could find gainful employment as private investigators, security guards, bounty hunters, etc., etc.... This not only provides them with "cover", it gives you an easy "in" for story ideas. (Comic relief opportunities abound, too- a detective who can see through walls and read minds, but doesn't know how to work the telephone...)

Conversely, if they CAN'T pass themselves off as human, they're still going to need a place to sleep (assuming they sleep). Assuming they don't just hike off into whatever unpopulated wilderness is nearby, this means alleyways, shanty towns and the like, which means the city's homeless population (assuming (gee I'm assuming a lot ) the city is not so Utopian that there are no homeless) will become aware of them. If so, they will no doubt find themselves becoming the unofficial, even unwilling, defenders of the downtrodden (yes, unfortunately, like $pawn...).

Finding their place in this muddy backwater they find themselves hiding out in should yield a rich vein of story material, as they come to understand, then love(?), these primitive, backwards, unsophisticated ape-descended bipeds amidst whom they are forced to conceal themselves. How they go about finding that place (or series of places, as each new Hunted appearance forces them to leave their newfound friends and move on) should yield a lot of material, if these players are serious roleplayers.

Once again, I hope this is of some use...

Re: High Tech Crimes

I'm sure there are a lot of individuals and/or groups that would be very interested in getting a hold of a couple of aliens.

Have humans on this world made First Contact? If so, there may be an "MIB"-type agency monitoring all extra-terrestrials. Failure to register could result in deportation! Registering could alert the alien overlords to their location! What's a fugitive to do?

On the other hand, if mankind is not generally aware of the existence of ETs, any agency discovering their existence is most likely to react to their presence with suspicion, if not outright paranoia! Once the govt. gets wind of them, they're likely to have Scully and Mulder and/or Project Blue Book on their trail, not to mention the military.

Alternating between the alien hunters and the human ones could keep either from becoming stale, and is also likely to yield some rich storylines (not to mention PC paranoia) as they close in from both sides.

Of course, with all these Hunteds, they're going to need some allies... A team of paranormal investigators? Independant UFOlogists? Star Trek fans? A group of low-powered NPC friends with a knack for stirring up more trouble than they can handle is a time-honoured way to keep the stories flowing. The human Hunted could itself become an ally once they finally capture the two "illegal aliens", only to discover that the real threat is the sinister alien government (surely capturing Our Heroes is not their only purpose for being on Earth?)!!

Well, that's my 2 cents for now, hope it helps. Sounds like a great campaign !

Re: Nemesis

 

She was another month in the hospital with daily therapy before being released. The Olympic hopeful walked out of the hospital on crutches, with both legs in braces. What the public didn’t know, and would never find out, is that her doctor sympathized with her dilemma and had lost someone to mob violence when he was younger, so he’d made sure her records showed that she didn’t respond to the physical therapy as had been hoped. The fact of the matter was that she’d shown remarkable progress, exhibiting a determination that wouldn’t be denied.

 

.

Ummm... I'm missing something here. Why does her doctor fake her records ? It sounds like an insurance scam to me ! Is she supposed to be thought to be crippled by the world at large? Does she use a wheelchair in her Secret ID or something? It just seems like odd behaviour for the doc- I really don't get his motives for this!

AngryBug confused , Rachel explain ...

Other than that, I really like female Batman/Punisher archetypes . Wasn't there a vigilante character in Alpha Flight called Nemesis? I think she had a sword that was supposed to be "one molecule thick"...

Re: Campaign levels

What power levels are your most comfortable with or enjoy the most? I find most of my games fall into the 350' date=' 10-12 Dmg class range with Dex topping at 30 and spd 6.[/quote']

I agree that this is a good level to start a campaign from, as long as the GM is flexible when the character concept calls for a little "extra" somewhere. If the GM enforces game balance, this lets PCs have lots of power and abilities, and prevents a lot of the "but why can't I have every type of special defense, I have enough points" problems a lot of players in higher-starting-point campaigns seem to have.

Re: Opinion poll

Well' date=' I'm not arguing for a huge increase in damage personally. just some increase. I mean otherwise there is no incentive to use a big weapon. Two bricks don't typically have trouble connecting with each other with their bare hands. And why would a "hero" cause so much property damage just to look impressive?[/quote']

Because it's all about looking cool...

 

 

Or maybe Thing's STR is bought to less END cost than his movement? If I hit Hulk with the bus then I don't have to make that half move to close for hand-to-hand... Like others have said here, using an object confers more advantages than just damage!

Re: Every good four color supers games needs:

Catchphrases ("Great Scott!", "Suffering Sappho!!", "It's Clobberin' Time!!!")

Giant Robots

Time Travel (Without all that worry about causality or paradox!)

When someone shouts, "Nobody could possibly have survived that!!", they are always wrong

Unless you see the body, the Supervillain is NOT dead

If you see the body, they are probably still not dead

Re: It's 5/1 - May Day - which is also GROND DAY!

Yes today is offiically Grond Day!

 

Who will you smash?

 

I shall smash my hated foe, everybody!!!

Re: It's 5/1 - May Day - which is also GROND DAY!

And here I thought Grond Day was Feb. 2.....

No, that's Grond Hog Day.

Re: Silliest Disadvantage Ever

Hello everyone! Just delurked...

Back when I HAD a campaign (sigh) I remember a player try "Takes X2 STUN & BODY from falling into Black Holes". This, in a campaign with NO space travel (which still wouldn't make it reasonable...)!!!

Re: My House Rules. Comments Welcome

Distinctive Feature:

[*]Unless the character's eyes are on fire, glowing brightly, are unusually large, on stalks, or otherwise unusually promininent enough to be seen from a distance, a character's eyes are never distinctive enough to gain this disadvantage.

Hi! I really like most of your house rules, but this one confused me so much I had to de-lurk to ask about it...

Is your campaign world filled with otherwise "normal" people with bizarre eyes? Otherwise, IMO, any character whose eyes are obviously inhuman should have a 5 pt. DF (Noticed, Easily Concealed). Just because Gambit's eyes (for example) might go unnoticed during a typical super-powered melee doesn't mean they don't limit him during his "off-hours".

In other words, my question is, "Would you allow a character whose eyes set him apart from normal humans to have a Secret Identity?".

If the answer is "No", then IMO the character is clearly limited by having unusual eyes, and should get should get some Disad. pts. as compensation.

If the answer is "Yes, IF he disguises his eyes somehow", then this sounds to me like the very definition of a DF which is Noticed and Recognizable and must be Concealed (Easily, with shades or contact lenses).

If the answer is "Yes, absolutely, no one will even notice", then your house rule is all well and good. (Although, IMO, that is one strange world where there are either a lot of freaky-eyed people, or else the NPCs are even less observant than Lois Lane ("Say, have you ever noticed that Buzz Stickyfoot is never around when FlyBoy shows up?" "Stickyfoot? You mean the guy in accounting with the Compound Eyes?")...)

Well, that's my 2 cents, anyway. I'm interested in hearing your reasoning for this rule. Perhaps I've overlooked something obvious about your campaign world that explains it? Like I said, most of your other rules seem to me like good common sense.