Laundry Knight

Re: Regulators Maybe, I should have been more specific. By when I said Xbox player, I should have indicated he was a couch potato, and well digger was a missionary in Africa digging wells. There are many more steps to take to dig a well in Africa than there is to play Xbox. To dig a well in Africa, it is necessary to go to Africa which means dealing with bureaucratic issues and cultural differences. One does not merely teleport to Africa with a shovel in his hand. Digging a well is much more complicated than merely pushing a shovel into the ground and hoping water comes up. If he does not know what to do right away, he would need someone around telling him how and where to dig so he can learn. There is a necessity of learning basic survival needs if one were to go Africa. So on and so forth. If he merely gardened in his back yard, he shouldn't get more XP than his Xbox playing brother, but due to the adventure factor, he should get more for digging wells in Africa. It is not necessary to become a computer expert in order to play Xbox nor is it necessary to join computer clubs or learn computer repair and networking though some may be inspired to do so because of Xbox. It is not a survival skill to know how to walk to the nearest convenience store to buy a package of Ho-Ho's. Essentially, there is no sense of logical progression in your argument. If you think in your own life, you have probably learned more during periods of challenge than during periods of ease. The well-digger would be facing more challenges than the Xbox player and therefore, should receive more experience for his deeds.

Re: Regulators It doesn't follow that digging wells in Africa would deteriorate a mind, especially when you consider that he would be picking up language and cultural knowledge from the Africans as well as social contacts. He would also be developing the engineering prowess in well building and learning how to survive in a harsh environment. Besides, regular exercise helps to maintain good brain health. Therefore, experience growth coming from well-building in Africa would both broader and deeper than playing Xbox. I'm not saying that the Xbox gamer wouldn't gain some experience but not as much as the well digger. They would have a better virtual understanding of tactics, technical knowledge and social networking but virtual knowledge is inferior to real knowledge. The well digger should have gained more XP for his five years.

Re: GM vs Player narrative authority Hugh, you are assuming that any digression from the rules is necessarily arbitrary and if that arbitrariness was a GM's primary motive, then I would be looking for a different GM. Now, let's take the Grab issue in hand and let's say in the previous round the villain was knocked into slippery mud. This round one of the characters decides to do a bear hug on the villain. I would think that it would be totally appropriate for the GM to apply additional penalties due to the villain's current unintended state of slipperiness. Likewise, I would not have a problem with a GM delcaring different penalties on different states of drunkenness. Getting drunk on beer is not as bad as getting drunk on whiskey while getting drunk on everclear is. I've been buzzed, I've been drunk, and I've been smashed. They are very different and have different real world penalties, and a GM should have the prerogative to reflect that in his games.

Re: Regulators Maybe, I posed the question badly. I shouldn't have used the abbreviation of experience since the abbreviation assumes I meant experience in the mechanical sense when I mean experience in reference to the characters' seasoning, as in in what the character has done and what he has learned from it. For instance, Let's say your start out with a pair twins each starting out with the exact same build. The one has spent the last five years digging water wells in Africa would have a great deal more seasoning than the one that spent the last five years on his couch playing Xbox. So, the question is how many more points should the ditch digger should the ditch digger get to in order to reflect his greater seasoning?

Re: Background Story Rewards All of these philosophical arguments are interesting, but my question pertained to hard science. Who has given out extra points for character backgrounds, and what were the results?

I am creating a number of NPC heroes for my campaign with the initial build being based on standard point costs with the intention of adding more to model the fact they gained some experience since the were "initially" created. Does anyone have a rule of thumb regarding how much extra cp to reward based on the character's XP? I would assume things like length of service, continuity of service, and scope of service would be considered but to what degree? As examples, Regulars, Old Guard (400) Cardinal-strategic leader/mentor. He's in his mid to late fifties and started out as a teen hero and has been very active throughout. He would have a slight reduction of physical characteristics due to age but would more than make up for it with skill levels and mental characteristics. He has been the inspiration for many younger heroes. Black Bowman-grizzled sergeant. Also late to mid fifties but started in early to mid twenties and has been less and is more deteriorated but still respectfully skilled. Came out of retirement to help the Cardinal train younger heroes. Maintain teams physical training activities but not active in hero work. Swashbuckler-bored immortal. Was a silent action hero in the twenties. Received experimental treatment that left him with incredible recuperative powers, including immunity to aging. He has come in and out of retirement multiple times when he starts getting bored. Recently recruited by the Cardinal. Atalanta-reformed bad girl. She was exiled from her home dimension after unsuccessfully trying to usurp the throne during the thirties. Experience caused a change of heart and she has been very active in trying to undo her evil past. Becoming more reflective and retiring as she nears the end of her exile and is contemplating returning back to her dimension. Aiding Cardinal in training project. Blue Blitzer-pilot and super engineer. Similar to Black Bowman accept that he came out of retirement to deal with teams technical and vehicular needs. Not active in adventuring. Regulators, New Guard Purple Martin-tactical leader/team founder/martial artist. Martial arts expert who idealized the Cardinal. Took up adventuring in his honor and founded the team. Happily reduced his role when the Cardinal expressed an interest in training the team. Has been around for some time. Is mainly active in seeing to the growth and safety of his team. Anaximander-detective/scientist/martial artist. Became a hero as a publicity stunt for the company he works for. Utilizes most of his time giving lectures about staying off drugs and away from crime. Does drive alongs with local police juvenile crimes squad. A fully qualified hero but mainly uses his celebrity status to promote good behavior. Brother Oculus-armored engineer. Followed Anaximander into heroing but had taken a more active role in adventuring having work alongside many other heroes. Team tech guru and outfitter. Nike-super athlete. Former teen protege of Atalanta now grown up and a respectable hero in her own right. Encourages Anaximander into being more active. Captain Spectacular-flying brick/hero of the city. Is one of the most active and loved heroes by the populace. He is not an official member of the team but happily helps out when he can. Mister Invisible-martial artist/spy. Came into prominence while helping protect the South Pacific from an alien invasion. Now, primarily, deals with street crime but likes being part of a bigger group. Crimson Aura-force wielder. Was part of the alien invasion that attacked Japan. Received powers while manning the force field controls when energy using super blasted ship causing backlash. Has been since becoming a protect of humanity as she adapts to Earth life. Tawodi Osdi-winged wonder. Received powers in same incident that gave Captain Spectacular his powers but only recently came out as an adventurer. Red Dragon II-kung fu warrior. Recently started following in the foot steps of his father, Red Dragon I, as a costumed adventure. Lightning Man-speedster/lightning caster. Has had powers for awhile but has been using them more for fun and only recently started heroing seriously. Irregulators-various members built with between 100-300 points of various experience and activity levels.

Re: Idunn, Goddess of Youth...Trolling for powers. Since she is a Nordic diety, above average characteristics would be appropriate. As a fertility goddess, some appropriate emotion controlling powers would be appropriate. For the youth thing, being a little vigorous and appropriate Aids and Healing powers. For the apple thing, a heightened Presence for scaring medical personnel a day? "An apple a day..."

Re: Western Hero - Stagecoach My bad! I was thinking back to my elementary physical science classes and had not worked them into game mechanics (which I am still trying to learn.)

Re: Hand-to-Hand Limitation Question I decided to go back and do re-writes of my characters with the lower DEX cost. It seems to work out alright with me, but I am not a min-maxer. I seldom use extra points to build more combat capacity unless that is part of the character conception. I am sure min-maxers and munchkins can find ways of abusing the system, but that is what min-maxers and munchkins are good at anyway.

Re: Western Hero - Stagecoach A stagecoach goes no faster than the slowest horse can pull it, but you have to consider the effect of the total encumbrance divided by the number of horse to determine if the horses are capable of going their full speed.

Re: Background Story Rewards My main concern with starting this topic was that sometimes when I am making a character I find myself either needing a few more points to actualize the character I have visualized, and it seems to me that viewing the starting points as a suggested average rather than as a hard and fast rule would help players who need to round out a well-conceived character. As an alternative, I have considered allowing players start out at a point deficit that would have to paid off in play; so, what is the view on my second option?

Re: [silly/trivia] Look for Steve's fully-stat'd "tuna sandwich" Maybe, a tuna fish sandwich would be an OIF: Sandwich of Opportunity Minor Transform limited to changing a hungry status to a non-hungry status.

Re: Hand-to-Hand Limitation Question I may have to re-write some of my NPC's with the cheaper DEX to see how I like it.

Re: Hand-to-Hand Limitation Question Actually, I was just playing Devil's advocate. I was questioning the value of DEX a week or two ago. I may have to institute a change for the game I am planning, but I wonder how changing the cost would affect the balance of the game.

Re: Hand-to-Hand Limitation Question Maybe, because DEX provides across the deck bonus but skills still have to be bought specifically.

Re: Hand-to-Hand Limitation Question DEX supports a number of skills that have combat potential or would otherwise be more universally handy while INT and PER support skills that are not likely to become useful in combat and tend to be more useful under specific situations. Breakfall is lot more likely save your bacon more than Mechanics or Charm, after all.

Re: Street level versions of the classics Actually, I have considered doing something like that for my own campaign. Most of the NPC heroes in my world are being built on low-powered super or less with the PCs being near the top of the food chain with standard supers. I may have to steal these from you to save myself a lot of work. I hope to see more.

Re: DMing Tips. I don't know anything about Savage Worlds, but the Hero System is flexible enough that maybe you can incorporate what you like about SW but do it using HS mechanics.

Re: GM vs Player narrative authority Having been epically drunk more times than I care to admit, I think the GM is being more than generous. The player is looking that the GM doesn't require a Dex roll just to stand up and walk across the room.

Re: Ideal: Basic Villiancy The only question I can actually answer is 3) I think notes should include both generic and Champions incorporation ideas. That way both GMs who run Champions and GMs who run homebrew campaigns or campaigns in other super-heroic worlds (e.g., Marvel or DC) or amalgamations would find the book useful.

Re: Faerie Fire I finally got around to reading about Spatial Awareness, and this does seem to fit what I have in mind as I would imagine the power my characters has would also be useful in ferreting out sight based illusions, and based on my perception of Spatial Awareness, it should do that as well. I think I will go with that build. Thank you, and thanks to all that replied.

Re: Background Story Rewards Since I started this, perhaps, I should participate more. As far as rewarding an occasional skill or favor or whatever based on a story background, I would mainly be measure for cohesiveness. I don't expect everyone to be an English major, and on my part, I have appreciated games where I have received extra contacts and such that I could not afford even if the contact was never used. I had know idea how much or how little was given to the other players, but I didn't mind because I enjoyed my character the way he was. As far as balance (especially within a supers campaign), that is up to how the story is written. As an example, let say you have two players. One wants to play the Silver Age Superman and the other wanted to play the Silver Age Atom. Superman would be built with a far greater number of points than the Atom and would have an advantage (I won't say unfairly disadvantaged because they freely choose their characters) in most scenarios, but let's say that the GM had a bias for the Atom or his player or against Superman or his player and was of the sort to let his biases be felt in his game. If so, he could write every adventure where the villain always had kryptonite and all of his schemes had flaws that could be exploited by micro-sized character. Based on GM bias, it is Superman who is being unfairly disadvantaged by the GM and not by differences in points. Based on the example, granting extra rewards to one player or another does not in of itself create unfair disparity, and based on my personal example, as long as everyone is having fun with the character he is playing, there is no disparity. As for the player who is unable or unwilling to come with a good story background, he is being reward by not having to create one and instead may jump into the game with little problem, and based on my experience, such a player would not get much kick out of the types of extra rewards I would offer anyway due to the fact that the main areas I would reward would be more useful for the roleplaying and detectiving parts of the adventure and my experience tells me that such players are more likely to set back and watch during such activities instead of participating.

Re: Faerie Fire It took some searching, but I managed to find it. http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php/89076-Mister-Invisible?highlight=mister+invisible

Re: Faerie Fire Naked Guy is Mister Invisible. I have already built his stats and posted them. In the story, he was coming home from a case and wanted his only uniform cleaned for a team try-out the next day.

Ayano and Blake continue to talk back and forth, sometimes charmingly, sometimes lamely, for a little longer and then, “Atchoo!” “Bless you,” the both say simultaneously, “you didn't sneeze?” again in unison. They stand up. They look around the laundromat and see no one, and then, they hear a clang like someone running into a washing machine. They see one of the machines lurch. “Over there,”Blake yells out. Ayano stretches out her hand releasing a crimson light that illuminates the laundromat in a holographic display. Brilliant crimson washers are seen, brilliant crimson dryers are seen, a brilliant crimson soap dispenser is seen, and a brilliant crimson and naked African American man is seen. He looks around surprised. He looks down and realizes his predicament. He covers himself with his hands, jumps behind the washers for cover, and yells, “Hey, cut that out. I'm one of the good guys.” Blake and Ayano look at each other convinced that the stranger is telling the truth. Ayano drops her power, and everything goes back to their normal colors except for the African American who goes back to being invisible. This is an excerpt from a short story that I have been expanding on for a while now. Anyway, I am trying to model the power that Ayano, Crimson Aura, uses to reveal the invisible Byron, Mister Invisible. I am assuming that it would be dispel invisibility in conjunction with an Images that creates light, but I am unsure of the numbers.