Short Shot

Another thread prompted this one. (Now, how often have you read THOSE words?) How often has your character taken a life of his own and started doing stuff you didn't plan on him/her doing, and you couldn't get him to behave? What happened with it?

Re: A more feminine martial art Okay, I'm going to have to challenge this simply because that isn't quite the way I was taught. And, yes, I've actually had training, abet several years ago, by people who taught the police shooting courses. 20 ft comes up a lot because of a study the FBI did years ago (early 70s, I believe) that said most shootings occur at 20 ft or less and are over in 5 shots or less. 5 shot snub nosed revolvers were standard issue for a number of departments. Another factor is that 20 ft can be covered in about one second by an average person. What that means is that if you have your gun in your holster and a guy is standing 20 ft away with a knife in his hand, he is most likely able to get to you before you can pull and aim your gun. I don't think anyone would challenge that being able to block an incoming fist thrown by someone within arms reach is something most people can do fairly consistently against an equal opponent. Saying a gunman, which to me implies that the gun is out and aimed, is more likely to lose at less than 20 ft vs someone who is charging in to disarm them implies that it takes more time and skill to simply squeeze the trigger of an aimed weapon than to block an incoming punch of someone at arms reach. Hmm... Maybe I need to qualify that a little bit. I guess I am making the assumption that the shooter has taken the time to actually go out and shoot enough to be reasonably competent with his weapon. Nothing major, just a 6" group consistently at 20 ft, which is nothing I would consider unreasonable for the average person.

Re: A more feminine martial art I'm hardly an expert here, either, but yes, there are hundreds of styles, and even styles within styles. For example, "Long Fist" is actually made up of five different styles. Speaking very generally, which means basically exceptions to every thing, Kung Fu is considered split as Northern styles and Southern styles. Northern stuff is lots of kicking and southern is hands. Something to do with mountain terrian vis flat lands changing the footing. You also have hard styles and soft styles. Something else to consider: most martial arts overlap at some point. Judo starts training on body throws and eventually does joint locks/throws because they consider joint locks too dangerous for beginners. Aikido starts with the joints because they consider body throws too dangerous. Tae Kwon Do starts mainly with striking but eventually incorperates throws into the art. Aikido starts with throws but later incoperates strikes to brake the balance and make throws easier. Tai Chi starts training with the feet planted and works with turning the body evade with flowing hand movements to redirect energy while Aikido starts with moving the feet and a pretty ridged arms to redirect the body but both with swap over later on depending on the technique. (Can you tell I'm most familiar with aikido than the other stuff?)

Re: A more feminine martial art Initially I was going to have a bone to pick with you rather than just a nit, but then I reread what you had written. From what I've read and seen (currently taking Tai Chi Chuan and White Crane Kung Fu, have taken karate and aikido in the past) Tai Chi Chuan is one of the dirtiest infighting schools there is when you actually get the martial applications involved. The places that just teach the form always irritate me because awareness of the matial application changes how you move in the form. I had done the form for 6 months at the YMCA before going to another place, and only there did I learn that join locks, elbow strikes, hip throws were in there to play around with. Repulse the Monkey just doesn't make any sense at all without the martial application to guild the movements.

Re: The Rodney Dangerfield Effect

Re: The Rodney Dangerfield Effect Already sold back presence. He is sitting at -1d6

Re: The Rodney Dangerfield Effect The actual disad is easy; I just have to discribe the effects. The game mechanics part was what I was concerned about. One thought was that after the GM announced the findings of the Tactics roll would be to have everyone ELSE roll an ego check to be able to follow the advice. Thoughts? Oh, and this is a new group forming from 3rd stringers so they might very well have problems initially accepting directions from this guy. After all, that's one of the reasons he didn't get picked up the previous two times.

We've all met them. Heck, some of us ARE them. Smart people who have good ideas who are frequently proven correct, but for whatever reason just aren't listened to in a group. The group may eventually do exactly what this person said in the first place, but never until it is voiced by someone else. At which time you will here "That's what I said in the first place." I am currently building a character with this disadvantage by the name of Punky ("Call me Punky," he says morosely. "Since everyone calls me punk eventually, might as well answer to it up front.") Tactics 15- "Sure, I can tell you how we can beat them, but what's the point? You won't listen to me anyway until we've been pounded into mush first." My question is how to work this between the me in and the GM so it can be properly played out. I'd hate crit a tactics roll, have the GM explain exactly how to beat the bad guys with the other players listening and leave them sitting there unable to act on the information?! And please, please don't say pass notes.

Re: help! how do I build the super sniper? um... nm....

Re: The chain is the natural weapon of the sword LOL. First person that caught that I misquoted the book. It should have been "Natural ENEMY of the sword"

Or so the book "Spike and Chain" says. part of the reason for it is that when the swordsman tries to block the chain, the chain entangles the sword. The question is, how do you build it? The statement might be something like: xd6 hth attack. If blocked, chain entangles/grabs blocking limb/weapon. Point values? Mechanics? No clue there. Any thoughts?

Re: Sunspot clone - OIHID - Instant Change Finally broke down and read the right page in the book. Ended up taking one full phase to change and a vocal command.

Re: Sunspot clone - OIHID - Instant Change Well, I hate to say it (because it means I need to completely revamp the guy) but as I have him built the only point where he wouldn't have his OIHID powers is if he got taken by suprise. I'm going to have to play with the Solar Battery thing. Thanks for the input.

I'm stuck on something that should be really basic. I'm building a character similar to Sunspot. Until he activates his powers he is just an above average joe. Activate the powers, he's much stronger, can fly, and do energy blasts. The site I got the initial build on was set for 4th edition and had the 5 pt Instant Change option. In this case, is it just a side effect of his powers and call it good? And since it is instant, and he does NOT have a secret ID, is OIHID really worth anything?

Re: Cannonball Any chance you can post how the EB linked to speed is acually built? I'm getting better at building characters, but still not sure how to do something like that.

Re: Cannonball Bringing this up from the past, for the force field to be good only for the Move Through or Move By, what would be the modifier? I've actually been thinking of a character called Bantam, a short, cocky guy with an attitude with similar powers to Cannonball.

Re: I smell something fishy I'm actually kind of supprised that this is something that isn't more common. I wouldn't expect the GM to plan something in that detail any more than I think the CIA or whoever it was deleberately planted clues for Xander to find. (Now, I admit that I'm mainly basing it off the look on face of the the "waitress", which seemed a to convey a bit of self disgust when such an obvious flaw in her disguise was pointed out to her.) In game terms, Xander saw through the Disguise/Acting Skill of the other 3 in the diner. Lets bring it back to the basic concept. This guy (who now actually has a name, Jack Tramaine/Blacksword) was brainwashed, mindcontrolled, tricked, bamboozled, etc. After he was freed, to regain confidence and sanity, he has tried to become a master in seperating the actual from the illusion people try to convey, to spot the decoy and follow the real deal. It is now 2 to 3 years down the line with him being obsessed with this. Bottom line, he is just very, very hard to fake out. Question is, how do you build it?

Re: I smell something fishy I don't think Danger Sense is really what I'm after. I don't expect him to know about the sniper at 800 yards in a dark room standing back from the window, the bomb taped to the bottom of a manhole cover, or the villian about to come through a brick wall to get to him. I do expect him to have a really good chance of spotting the fake sewer workers who are there to place the bomb, the pick pocket and his accomplice, the illusional bookcase, the trip wire. More and more I'm thinking it will likely be several different skills/powers to combine into the effect I want. Right now it stands at: Concealment 15 Sleight Of Hand 15 Detect: Things out of place -14 Think that will get me close to what I'm shooting for?

Jay does it in MIB when he is going through the selection process and shoots the little girl with the physics book but leaves everything else alone. Zander Cage does it in the diner scene when he spots it for a setup in seconds. It doesn't seem like it should be straight deduction, more of some sort of specific Perception roll, but tied to what? The character I'm trying to build is kidnapped by the bad guys and subject to a combination of drugs, brainwashing and mind control as the evil corperation tries to gain control of him and his powers. He is rescued by almost by accident by a group of supers who recognise him for a victim, and send him off to specialist to help him try to recover. Since he has been subject to so many illusions and deceptions he doesn't trust the new people either since he is still a virtual prisoner. To help him regain his sanity and stability they focus on teaching him critical reasoning, to notice the slight of hand, the things that are there that shouldn't be, and the things that should be but aren't. He should have a good chance of spotting the gardener who is really an assassin, the street musician who is really an agent waiting for a drop, an illusion designed to distract, but still have problems doing his taxes, fixing his car without a manual, etc. In other worlds, brilliant at spotting anomolies, no great shakes otherwise in the intellegent department. Thoughts?

Re: Developing wizard Well, thank you all for the input. I think I got what I was shooting for as a starting campaign character. Take a look, and comments are welcome. Mordecai (call me Marty) Hamilton Player: Roger (Short Shot) Val** Char*** Cost 10** STR 0 20** DEX 30 13** CON 6 13** BODY 6 18** INT 8 14** EGO 8 15** PRE 5 18** COM 4 * 2/22** PD 0 3/23** ED 0 4** SPD 10 10** REC 10 40** END 7 26** STUN 1 *23"**RUN42"**SWIM04"**LEAP2Characteristics Cost: 101 Cost** Power END 32** Protective Amulet - Physical, Energy, Magical: Armor (10 PD/10 ED) (Custom Adder) (40 Active Points); IIF (-1/4)* 0 7** Tai Chi Meditation: Mental Defense (10 points total)* 0 5** Detect A Single Thing 13- (Mystic Group), Sense* 0 10** Clinging (normal STR)* 0 ** * 30** Magic powers.: Multipower, 60-point reserve, (60 Active Points); all slots Limited Power Power loses about half of its effectiveness (Obvious Accesible focus - Wizard's Staff; -1)* 2u** 1) Hand-To-Hand Attack +8d6, Affects Desolidified Any form of Desolidification (+1/2) (60 Active Points); Limited Power Power loses about half of its effectiveness (Obvious Accesible focus - Wizard's Staff; -1), Hand-To-Hand Attack (-1/2)* 6 3u** 1) Energy Blast 8d6, Area Of Effect (One Hex; +1/2) (60 Active Points); Limited Power Power loses about half of its effectiveness (Obvious Accesible focus - Wizard's Staff; -1)* 6 3u** 2) Desolid attack: Energy Blast 8d6, Affects Desolidified Any form of Desolidification (+1/2) (60 Active Points); Limited Power Power loses about half of its effectiveness (Obvious Accesible focus - Wizard's Staff; -1)* 6 3u** 3) Physical attack: Energy Blast 12d6 (60 Active Points); Limited Power Power loses about half of its effectiveness (Obvious Accesible focus - Wizard's Staff; -1)* 6 3u** 4) Energy attack: Energy Blast 12d6 (60 Active Points); Limited Power Power loses about half of its effectiveness (Obvious Accesible focus - Wizard's Staff; -1)* 6 ** * 12** Force Powers.: Elemental Control, 24-point powers* 40** 1) Running +15" (23" total), x8 Noncombat, combat acceleration/deceleration (+1/4) (50 Active Points)* 5 10** 2) Force Field (10 PD/10 ED) (20 Active Points)* 2 15** 3) Force Wall (10 PD) (25 Active Points)* 2 Powers Cost: 175 Cost** Martial Arts Maneuver ** Tai Chi* 5** Defensive Block: 1/2 Phase, +1 OCV, +3 DCV, Block, Abort* 4** Counterstrike: 1/2 Phase, +2 OCV, +2 DCV, 4d6 / 2d6 Strike, Must Follow Block* 5** Defensive Strike: 1/2 Phase, +1 OCV, +3 DCV, 2d6 / 0d6 Strike* 2** Weapon Element: Blades, Staffs* Martial Arts Cost: 16 Cost** Skill 3** +3 with any single attack with one specific weapon* 5** Conversation 13-* ** * ** Languages* 1** Language: Cantonese (basic conversation)* 1** Language: German (basic conversation)* 1** Language: Hindustani (basic conversation)* 1** Language: Portugese (basic conversation)* 1** Language: Spanish (basic conversation)* ** * 5** PS: Carpenter 14-* 5** KS Home Restoration 14-* 4** KS: World Geography 13-* 3** KS: World history 12-* 8** Survival (Temperate/Subtropical, Tropical, Desert, Mountain) 13-* 3** Trading 12-* 3** KS Tai Chi 12-* ** * ** Everyman Skills* 0** 1) Acting 8-* 0** 2) Climbing 8-* 0** 3) Concealment 8-* 0** 4) Deduction 8-* 0** 5) Paramedics 8-* 0** 6) Persuasion 8-* 0** 7) Shadowing 8-* 0** 8) Stealth 8-* 0** 9) TF: Custom Adder, Small Motorized Ground Vehicles [Notes: Custom Mod is Everyman Skill]* Skills Cost: 44 Cost** Perk 2** Contact: Shifu Bob 11-* 10** Contact: Kirsten McMasters (Contact has significant Contacts of his own, Contact has useful Skills or resources, Good relationship with Contact), Spirit Contact (x2) (10 Active Points) 11-* Perks Cost: 12 Total Character Cost: 348 Val** Disadvantages 15** Psychological Limitation: can't walk away from someone in trouble (street beggers excepted) (Common, Strong)* 10** Unluck: 2d6* 5** Social Limitation: Unused to city socializing. (Occasionally, Minor)* 5** Reputation: Soft touch., 8-* 15** Social Limitation: Duty bound apprentice (Frequently, Major)* 20** Hunted: Master's Enemies 11- (Mo Pow, Harshly Punish)* 15** Hunted: Neighborhood street gang 8- (As Pow, PC has a Public ID or is otherwise very easy to find, Harshly Punish)* 10** Hunted: Magic user's oversite group (GM name) 11- (Mo Pow, Watching)* 20** Dependent NPC: Boarding house tenants. 11- (Normal; Group DNPC: x2 DNPCs)* 10** Psychological Limitation: code against killing sentient beings. (Common, Moderate) [Notes: If he gets attacked by a magical construct, he has no compulsion not to kill it.]* 15** Psychological Limitation: Honorable: Does the right thing, keeps his word, etc (Common, Strong)* 10** Psychological Limitation: Curious (Common, Moderate)* Disadvantage Points: 150 Base Points: 200 Experience Required: 0 Total Experience Available: 0 Experience Unspent: 0 Mordecai (call me Marty) Hamilton was a happy 24 year old doing what he considered the work part of his "Exploration Years". When he had money, he hiked everywhere he could get to, having walked both the length of the Appalachian Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail, as well as throughout Europe and parts of the Far East. Early on he had discovered that some of the governments of the countries he was traveling through would hire him as an English instructor to teach the idomatic language to the advance students. He was good at making friends, and he had seen some amazing things that the tipical tourist never saw simply because the locals didn't want to be put on the tourist maps. Marty had worked for his father durning his summers in high school. His father would be a old home or barn, restore it and then sell it off. After leaving home, Marty would use these skills to restore his depleted coffers to continue his travels. When the Event happened, he was actually doing some work for his Uncle Kyle, a somewhat odd duck who lived off the beaten track in Washington, back among the woods who tended to live off of TV Dinners and bulk microwave stuff he picked up Costco, whose house was starting to come down around his ears. What Marty didn't know is the Kyle was actually one of the top Mages in the country, and as such he had some significant enemies. These enemies attacked Kyle through Marty. After a significant battle, the enemies were defeated, and Marty's latant magical abilities were pulled painfully to the fore. How ironic that after all his world travels and all the oddball places he had been to strangest thing that had happened to him was right in the good ol' USA, two hours from a major metropolitan city. After the evidence was cleaned up, Kyle explain what had just happened, and explained a bit about the magic world. Examining Marty, Kyle turned pale and said "We need to get you some training, fast!" When asked why he couldn't do the training, Kyle explained that it would be the equivalent of asking a professor of theoretical mathmatics to teach basic arithmatic. He was terrified that he would skip some basic thing that he took for granted that would just get Marty killed. Kyle would teach him some things that were fairly intuitive, particularly with Marty's Tai Chi studies, that just relied on strengh of will and power.

Re: Developing wizard You're right about the fact I'm trying to go for an effect. The idea behind this character is that a not so average Joe gets accidentally involved in a fight between mages, one of whom is his uncle. During the fight, one of the sides grabs at him desperation as a source of power and his latent talent is ripped to the fore. The uncle teaches him a bit about blasting things, since it just takes raw force, but hitting Desolid is an advaced technique that the uncle can't get through Joe's head in a reasonable amount of time, so he enscrolls Joe's wizardly staff (actually Joe's high tech walking stick: Joe is an avid hiker) and tells Joe "just hit them with that, it will work whether you think it will or not". The question about the foci was me trying to get the other effect I want. I figure a wizard should be able to do a bunch of stuff without a focus, but if he HAS his focus his powers should be stronger/faster/better. He might be able to do a 6d6 blast without his focus, channel it through his staff he gets 12d6. I'm just having trouble building that effect. Seems like foci just give you powers, they don't augment a power you already have. Hmm... I need to qualify that: I don't see how to use the focus to augment powers in a versitile way. Sure, focus Brass Nuckles adds to your damage. Focus Rifle Scope adds to your accuracy at range. How do you build a Super Efficient Power Regulator to make each item in the power suit more efficient without saying "No SEPR, no power at all to the suit"?

Several questions I've got an attack multipower, some of which is redundant. I've got an EB against ED, an EB against PD, and an attack against Desolid. Is a way to make it so it may be worth while to cause the Desolid attack to require a focus at HtH range rather than just spend the extra points (2 or 3, I think) and make it work as part of the MP as normal? I mean, I like the special effect of only being able to hit Desolid with an enscrolled weapon, I just can't get myself to justify it for 2 or 3 points. "Requires Multiple Foci or functions at reduced effectiveness". What exactly does this mean? is it only valid if you have 2 or more foci to make something work? If you have only one focus and you lose it, how much would it reduce the effect? It's -3/4 for an OAF. Does that mean without the focus a 60 pt power pool giving you a 12d6 gets reduced to 34 pt power pool, so I would end up with a 6d6 blast? Next, I'm trying to figure out how to do a skill build up for ritual magic. The way I see my character's magic world working is level 1 being raw force (EBs, Flight, Force Fields), level 2) gestures and extra time for things like opening up a portal or other things he has done a bunch of times, level 3 being having to go look the spell up, do diagrams, wizardly paraphernalia for something really powerful. Levels 2 and 3 are obviously a VPP, but would they have to be 2 separate VPPs to justify the difference in effort required? Just was IS the best way to slowly build his abilities, given that he isn't going to have much besides raw blasting to start with. Thanks.

Re: DCV to Weapons Okay, got it. Dan Simon was kind enough to point out to me that Block is actually an attack action and runs off of OCV, not DCV.

Re: DCV to Weapons Problems I'm running into: pg 35 5e: "2) Characters can use one CSL costing 3 or more points as a +1 DCV against the same types of attacks for which the CSL could increase the OCV (for example, a CSL with swordfighting martial art could increase the DCV in HTH combat but not against Ranged Combat)." Pg 36 5e "Combat Skill Levels on Foci "The 5-point CSL is the smallest CSL which can be bought with Limitations: Thus, if a character wants to build a weapon which is more accurate than normal (i.e., which provides a bonus to the user's OCV, he would buy a 5-pt CLS with the Limitaion Focus. Combat Skill Levels bought with Limitations can only increase the user's OCV, except with special permission from the GM." So according to the rules I can buy 2 CSL with Martial Manouvers for 6 pts and use them how I want, or I can buy 2 levels at 5 pts each with a Focus resulting in it costing 7 pts and only have it be used for OCV instead of DCV. This does not compute. What about something like a "Magic Sword of the Defender" that makes you a master of defensive when you weild it?

I'm trying to build a character with a couple summoned weapons. One of the weapons is a staff. 1) Is it reasonable to put a something +2 DCV on the weapon only against hand to hand attacks? I figure if someone is coming after me with a sword I'm a lot more likely to block it uninjured with a staff than with my hands, but I'm not sure how to represent this. 2) If it's reasonable, how the heck do I put it in using Hero Designer 2? I've got it in a MultiPower, Summoned Magic weapons right now, but I don't know how to add in the DCV for it.