Laundry Knight
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Posts posted by Laundry Knight
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Re: Mother Box, Legion Flight Ring...DCU Writeups
With Allans Ring, the wood weakness is explained very differntly between interpretations:- the power source is different (the star heart, a magical rock). Thus you compare apple and oranges.
- it is only a psychological block (because he was hit over the head). It could still have been a Standart GL-Ring, just that he either had overcome the yellow impurity (and thus the yellow weakness) or he just never had to affect anything "completely yellow" (that wasn't also wood) - so the yellow weakness could have been there as well and just never kicked in.
- it is a normal Lantern ring, that was remotely modified by the guardians to be weak against wood instead of yellow (the times when the yellow weakness was still considered a deliberate limitation), because yellow was rare but wood was abundant.
That must have come about after I stopped reading comics. I don't know anything about magical rocks or klunks on the head having anything to do with either GL. Perhaps, Enforcer what to clarify to which era of the Legion and the GLs he is referring.
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Re: Mother Box, Legion Flight Ring...DCU Writeups
The flight rings for the 70s did provide life support as I recall, and I believe so did the flight belts from the 60s. Mind you, I haven't read either versions in over a decade, and I don't tend to care for the newer stuff.
For Alan's ring, I think the main difference it's weakness made a lot more sense. It couldn't effect wood, but for the most part, both his ring and the GLC rings were effected by the wills of the users.
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Re: Telescoping Bo Staff
Thanks, guys! That helps a lot.
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I am trying to make a telecoping bo staff that when in use it is about 6' long but can retract to about fist size to make it easy to fit on an utility belt. I am guessing I need to put some kind of Shrinking (self only) power on the staff. The staff is made up of an alien metal that makes it extra durable and leaves me open to adding more tricks later in the form of a multi-power. What is the best way to present that?
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Re: The Laundry Knights
My biggest issues are those that occur from switching entertainment media causes. Most of my characters have been created in various short stories and many of their powers, abilities, and complications were defined to plug story holes without any consideration of how those plugs would be written up in game mechanical form.
Take Crimson Aura as an example. She is a Green Lantern-type with limited telepathy. Some of the specific powers and usages I came up for her was to solve story problems. When I first introduced her to one of my other main characters named Captain Spectacular, they were both in their secret ID at an all night laundromat. Cap notices Aura stuffing her heroic uniform into a washer, but he was too much of a boyscout to reveal that he noticed which left me with the problem of how to get them talking in a way that they would reveal their IDs to one another; so, I gave her the ability to read surface thoughts, I had her drop her roll of quarters on the rolling spilling them on the ground, Cap helps her gather her quarters, and out embarrassment and infatuation, she accidentally reveal information that could only have gotten from reading his mind; therefore, letting the cat out of the bad and becoming a vehicle for further conversation.
I wrote that long before I bought into Champions, and I had to figure out how to model that using the Hero System. Fortunately, that proved easy enough once I read about telepathy and the appropriate limitations and advantages to make it work.
What I would like to do is present excerpts from my stories and see how experienced hero players would interpret them.
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Introduction
The campaign I am creating is based upon a series of short stories that I have written and am writing. If I ever get a revision, I would even like to get them published someday. The first story written was called "A Night at the Laundry." The name of short story series, my campaign, and my username are really just a play on words of my first short story.
Anyway, once I started getting interested in Champions, I decided I wanted make my stories the main focus of my campaign along with amalgamations from the Champion, DC, and Marvel universes as well as throw in some things that I think would be interesting in a RPG that would not be interesting, or legal, is a series of short stories I would like to have published.
Up 'til now, I have been spreading my campaign building questions in various thread, but now, I would like to start incorporating them in a singular thread. I will also use this thread to share other campaign based decisions with any that may be interested.
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Re: Create a Villain Theme Team!
The Wild Hotdogger is athletically gifted and has a super-extraordinary capacity to resistant pain and injury. Not particularly evil nor particularly greedy, he employs his powers and skills more an anarchic, thrill-seeking prankster than an arch super-villain. He is very friendly and doesn't hold grudges against heroes and law enforcement agents who feel it is in their duty catch him. Consequently, he is surprisingly well liked by even those that face off against him and has a fan club made up of the same kind of people who watch Jackass and Punked.
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Re: Weapon Familiarity and Futuristic Weapons in a Modern Setting
It's a supers game. Don't buy weapon familiarity' date=' buy the weapons as a power.[/quote']Even supers sometimes either get disarmed or have a sudden need to access a weapon of opportunity.
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Re: Weapon Familiarity and Futuristic Weapons in a Modern Setting
One option is to have an "enrgy weapon-small arms" WF' date=' but if the are shaped pretty much like normal guns let the alien apply that for shooting guns and humans apply "small arms" for shooting alien guns. However, don't give them all the benifits of the weapons familiarity. For example, they may not know how to reload/recharge the alien/human weapon. They may not know how to propperly clean and care for the weapon, so with extended use the weapon would aquire a "require an activation roll" and may jam or otherwise break down. That way anyone (with a firearms WF) can pick up a "gun" with a trigger and use it without the full -3 penalty (maybe still have a -1) but the 1930s pulp adventurer doesn't get the full value of the "alien heat ray Weapons Familiarity" for free.[/quote']I like that idea. It makes logical sense. I'm going with that one.
Thanks, and thanks to all that apply!
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Re: GM vs Player narrative authority
There used to be GURPS supplement that worked out mechanically what the affects of drinking. I wish I still had my GURPS books. It would be interesting to convert that to Hero.
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Re: Weapon Familiarity and Futuristic Weapons in a Modern Setting
6e
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Re: Weapon Familiarity and Futuristic Weapons in a Modern Setting
Actually, I am the GM, and I am trying to iron out the wrinkles before I present anything to real players; so, maybe, I should change the question to "what would you do?"
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I was wondering. I have an alien character who came to Earth as part of an invasion in a supers campaign. Since she was a junior military officer, I thought it would be appropriate for her to have the ability to use blasters and the ship's blaster cannons. Neither are important to running the character, she doesn't do either, but I wanted them for background info, but I have a some questions.
Would blasters work using firearm weapon familiarity or would they have their own weapon familiarity? And, if blasters fall under firearms, are blaster pistols their own category under firearms? It's the mixing of technology levels that confuses me.
And how would you handle being able heavy weapons, like ship mounted and vehicle mounted weapons?
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Re: Idunn, Goddess of Youth...Trolling for powers.
Something you might look into is that early scientists believe in what was called the vegetable force, an energy field that made life possible. It has since been disproven, but it might be worth looking up for a supers or mystical campaign.
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Re: New 6E GM. Several 'How-To-Build' plus rule questions
For the Vampire bite, I'm still learning the ropes, but as I understand it and based on what you said, I would replace the second heal with a bonus to Concealment to be applied only the wound to make it harder to notice. I'm not sure of the best way to write than up, however.
For the Buff Auras, I am not that well read up on Aid yet and do not, but I think you are on the right track.
On buying of limitations and complications, that would depend on story sense. Some can be bought off without a hitch. Maybe, Uberman woke up one day a realized how silly a fear of cats was, but others may require some kind of quest or roleplaying to resolve while somethings are stuck for life. Maybe, you're campaign does have sufficient cybernetics to replace a characters lost arm but finding someone to do the work may be no small task, and there is no way to shake off being half-black and half-Indian to buy off the social prejudices such a character may face.
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Re: GM vs Player narrative authority
I admit in my drinking days I was better at somethings when at least sporting a buzz than when I was dead sober. Approaching attractive women come in mind, but I am not sure how anyone could channel this into a game mechanics since everyone's reaction to inebriation is different, and from my own, "field research" neither advantages nor disadvantages had any kind of consistency, as in coming off like James Bond one time and like Jerry Lewis the next. A GM may be justified in being arbitrary when a character is self-portrayed as being drunk.
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Re: Background Story Rewards
These examples lead nowhere. Chalk it up to a difference in play style and stop acting like there is something objectively wrong or right with the practice. EDIT: Or better yet' date=' bring the thread back on topic. The OP wants to know if you'vedone it and how it worked, not if you're morally opposed to it and why it is hypothetically a game/group breaking problem when it clearly isn't. How about if you don't like it (and I am in that camp) you (we) leave it alone unless you (we) have an [b']actual example of it causing a problem[/b]I agree with your assessment even though I am guilty of being sucked into the philosophical arguments, also.
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Re: Background Story Rewards
Let's look at this another way. You know your own shop. You would like some of your employees to stay 15 minutes over due to business being good. You ask for volunteers. Two guys agree and work over and get paid for 15 minutes they worked. Three other guys decide they don't want to work late; so, you don't pay them the extra 15 minutes. How is paying 15 minutes of overtime to the employees who worked overtime unfair to the employees who did not work overtime?
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Re: Regulators
In my world, supers have been around and active for a long time. Even many of the gods of myth were merely the supers of the their time. Supers built on 400+ points would be the elites with most supers being gadgeteers, martial artists, and other non-powered heroes though genuinely super powered heroes aren't uncommon. With so many heroes on the scene, even the elites can come to question their significance; therefore, super careers tend to be short anyway. Only the truly dedicated stick at year after year, like the Cardinal and Atalanta, and even they have lulls in their careers.
The Black Bowman was a Green Arrow/Hawkeye type that retired due to stomach related issues received in combat. The Blue Blitzer is a tinkerer, engineer, and pilot that invented an armed and armored hover car to to fight crime. Being kind of lame when compared to Ironman and Superman types, he retired to employ his engineering skills in invention rather than crime fighting and provides advanced vehicles to various super and governmental organizations.
Cardinal goaded many of the retired and semi-retired former acquaintances to deal with issues in my campaign city that he feels will lead to an impending catastrophe. In my campaign, city there are two main super teams, the Justice Squadron and the Regulators. The Justice Squadron is a long time team who in their heyday would have been on the scale of the Avengers or the JLA, but the latest incarnation is rife with internal politics and inter-personality issues, and though they are still a team to be reckoned with and though still respected, they are not as well liked as the used to be. The Regulators were founded by a local circus troupe similar to the Cirque du Ley(sp?) who into to action when some thugs were hassling the circus. They remained a team and their open-minded nature attracted anyone who had a desire to wear a costume and do good whether they had abilities or not and they acted primarily as a neighborhood watch in tights. They were liked but not respected. And, between the two teams and a number of individual operators like Captain Spectacular, Mister Invisible, and Crimson Aura, the city was relatively peaceful, until recently.
There were more super menaces and strange monsters appearing seemingly out of nowhere. Villains that were once mere nuisances became threats. Petty gangs were getting armed with futuristic weapons, and for some reason, the Regulators were specifically targeted. The Cardinal suspected there something diabolical afoot (he's right) and wanted to recruit local talent to deal with it. He also suspects that the powerful Justice Squadron was infiltrated by a mole and is compromised (right again), and the only team available was the fairly weak but numerous Regulators. He approached the Purple Martin and other Regulator leadership and offered to secretly train and equip the Regulators, and he also recruited the old guard to help in the training and equipping, and the team has been trying to recruit more elite heroes to add to their roster (this is where the PC's will come in).
Red Dragon, Tawodi Osdi, and Lightning Man are newly minted elites fresh out of the package, and they should work easily as 400~ pt characters.
Anaximander, Brother Oculus, and Purple Martin would have been pushed into the 400 pt range because of the Cardinal's influence, and Nike came in with Atalanta and started as a teen hero who graduated to 400 under Atalanta, but I want them to have a slight advantage over the new mints due to various degrees of actual field experience, but not much.
Invisible Man, Crimson Aura, and Captain Spectacular are the tested field veterans. These are the guys to beat. They've been a elite for a few years are at the top of their games though they would be less experienced than the average Avenger or Leaguer. Captain Spectacular is especially so. He is the champion of the city along the line of Superman and is the one the local authorities want to call when things go bad, and other heroes either look up to or are inspired to beat. Ironically, he is only active due to his sense of responsibility and not for the love of the game. If he were to lose his power and someone else of appropriate power and character were to stand up, he would gladly go back to being an average guy.
I don't know if I offered too much detail or too little, but that is what I am aiming for.
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Re: Regulators
That would make sense regarding power levels since I would want the PC's being the real heroes while the NPC's will be around mainly for support and an occasional rivalry, and the occasional bacon saving and spanking givings for foolish PC's.
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Re: Background Story Rewards
I admit. I'm an amateur writer before I am a gamer. Consequently, I write my characters without regards to how many points they cost. Consequently, when I put my characters into a game format, I frequently find myself either having to many or to few points for my concept. Now, I do understand that a game does need some rules for game balance especially if your first concern is the gaming, but if you are more interested in the story telling portion of the game, I find a slavish devotion to balance undermines the story telling portion of the game that I want.
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Re: Robin Hooding Superhero Crimefighters
Greetings Programs, I am have an interesting discussion with a HERO Central member and thought it interesting enough to ask HEROphiles.01. Question: Psychological Limitation: Devoted to Justice (Justice, Not Law)Does this prevent a Superhero/Vigilante from seizing a criminals assets and using them to fund a war on crime?
That can depends on how the character and the GM defines justice in their campaign. On one hand, it is not necessary that a hero can use criminal assets to fund his own crime fund his own crime fighting actions. On the other hand, the action could have a corrupting influence on the hero causing him to be one of the criminals he fights.
02. Question: Psychological Limitation: Robin Hooding (Needs a better name)Does Stealing Criminal Assets to fund Crimefighting and the excess given to Soup Kitchens, Victims Shelters, and Local Charities in violation of Devoted to Justice?
See above.
03. Question: As a GM would you allow a Robin Hooding Superhero in your Campaign?Y/N and Why?
That would depend on the campaign. In a traditional golden age or silver age campaign, no way. In a late bronze or iron age campaign, yes with reservations. In a dystopic campaign definitely yes. Has anyone ever run a dystopic supers campaign? If I am using the term correctly, a dystopic campaign would take place in a totally corrupt society like in most cyberpunk settings.
04. Question: Psychological Limitation: Reluctant to Kill or Kill Only to Protect Innocents or Only is Self Defense or Ectera...Is there a better Name to describe a Police level Code vs Killing.
Maybe, something similar to the Canadian mounties code to always get their man. Or perhaps a code to bring him in alive. I can't think of a better wording at this time.
05. Question: Why are there so few examples of level of Code vs Killing?God is a little fuzzy about knee caps.
The presence of such a code would probably be campaign specific.
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Re: GM vs Player narrative authority
How much do we know about the situation? Did the game get derailed. Was the fight "important"? If it was utterly unimportant why where they even rolling it out?There is a huge difference between questioning and complaining. As I recall from the original example, the player was complaining at the GM for his call and not questioning why the GM made the call.
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Re: Hand-to-Hand Limitation Question
Genre is important regarding what skills and attributes are important. With Hero, you could run anything Alien to The Love Boat to Alien Vs. The Love Boat.
On this week's episode of The Love Boat, can Gopher and Doc teach an alien menace about love and relationships before all the passengers and crew are eaten? Guest Starring: Sonny Bono
GM vs Player narrative authority
in HERO System Discussion
Posted
Re: GM vs Player narrative authority
I can't speak for everyone, but I would allow character choices to allow either a reduced penalty or even a bonus. If Epically Drunk Dude were Only Slightly Buzzed Dude, I would likely reduce the penalty reduce the penalty to -1. Also, if he was only pretending to be drunk when insulting the mean hombre, I would consider giving him a surprise bonus until the Mean Hombre wised up to the fact that Epically Drunk Dude was only playin' possum.