esampson

Re: HKA's and STR in Champions Complete

Re: HKA's and STR in Champions Complete Only if they are super-special daggers. As Lord Liaden stated a regular dagger with the 'real weapon' limitation is limited to twice the base damage (or at GMs option it can do more than that but then takes full damage itself and probably breaks). This is why the Hulk actually used weapons on and off during the Planet Hulk story arc but there's no point in him using mundane Earth weapons.

Re: Australian Supervillains Angeroo, Mr. Furious' Australian cousin.

Re: VPP Active Points Well, really that's a whole other issue and one of the big reasons I'm not in favor of an AP hard cap. As an example, two characters with exactly the same levels, OCV, and DCV I would let the guy with lower defenses probably throw a few more dice of damage. If he's willing to make his character a little weaker in one area I have no problem with him being a little stronger in another.

Re: How do you feel about House Rules? Yes, I know you are Knocked Out when you are at negative stun, even when your stun total is greater than or equal to -10. However there's the condition of being 'barely knocked out' or 'deeply stunned' mentioned in 6E2, pg. 106. Yes, you are still Knocked Out when you are in that state, I'm not arguing that. I'm simply suggesting that the term 'Con Stunned' may have been created by some people who wanted to avoid confusion between Stunned and Knocked Out (but not really knocked out). I never really use the term 'Con Stunned' myself unless I'm dealing with a group where that really is the standard. Then I'll adopt the term simply to avoid confusion of me using a (to them) non-standard term (odds are pretty good that the group is using 'Con Stunned' because they are using 'Stunned' to mean something else, like the aforementioned Knocked Out (but not really knocked out), though there's plenty of times when that's not true).

Re: First time Champions GM - advice needed

Re: How do you feel about House Rules?

Re: VPP Active Points Version of the rules the question is for might be good. As I think about it though, RAW he can probably have whatever he pleases. Typically an active point limit applies to a power or characteristic. A VPP is a framework. Now none of the effects of his VPP can exceed 50AP (which means there's no point in him buying base control cost higher than 25 points) but he could have a 275 point VPP that lets him run 4 powers at 50 AP all at the same time. Of course that's RAW. The real answer is that the GM needs to make a call about what he's going to allow.

Re: Australian Supervillains I'm thinking that the problem with a name like 'Kangaroo Man' is that it just doesn't have enough 'zip' to it. You need a name that embodies that icon of Australia while having more of an 'edge'. Something that says that this is no mere man with the powers of a kangaroo. This is a man who is tenacious and skilled. A man who will never back down. A leader among men who all people can look up to and admire. I'm thinking 'Captain Kangaroo'. How's that sound?

Re: Recommendations and Reviews of Superhero products both old and new I think one of my all time favorites was Organization Book 3: The Blood and Doctor McQuark. I didn't always like the way a lot of the character's powers were defined but there was just something interesting about the idea of this loosely knit extended family of super-people with common yet distinctively different abilities with their highly in-depth history. (I have long suspected they were inspired but Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber but Bradley did a great job of capturing that feel without making it feel ripped off and updating it to the superhero genre).

Re: Rehabilitating 'evil' Super powers You have to heat a diamond quite a lot to get it to burn. If his melting ability is 'heatless' then its possible he could melt the diamonds together (although it is also possible he would reduce the diamonds to lower energy alleotropes like graphene). However, even excluding diamonds there are other gemstones like sapphires that could be joined together. Of course this assumes that whatever he's touching re-solidifies after he's done touching it. If that isn't the case he could quite possibly find a career producing unique materials such as lead which is liquid at room temperature and which might have some interesting uses.

Re: Future Guns: Projectile Obsolete? Ah. I misunderstood.

Re: Future Guns: Projectile Obsolete? Most rifle bullets travel faster than the speed of sound. The M40A1 for instance has a muzzle velocity of about 1750 mile per hour or 2.4x the speed of sound. Railguns do, however, seem to offer higher speeds. In the case of your average man-portable weapon though I'm not that sure its that big a deal. Yes, ultimately it is more desirable to have the higher muzzle velocity but the final effect winds up being only a marginal improvement. If a conventional firearm has a 90% chance of rendering an opponent incapable of continuing combat (which I admit is just a number I'm pulling out of the air) then even under the best case scenario a railgun would only offer a little over 10% advantage for incapacitating an opponent. The other advantages of a higher speed are probably only marginal in general combat conditions. While the railgun might have a better range in a general firefight the weak point would be the ability of the soldier to aim effectively. Of course there are going to be edge cases such as snipers where that better range might make a real difference but edge cases aren't what will generally propel development.

Re: Are starship deckplans with a 1 inch grid usable? Maybe it's changed because it's been so long since I've looked at Traveller but I thought that the scale for Traveller deck plans were two squares of floor space to a ton of liquid helium displacement. Since each floor square was assumed to be 2 meters high that meant that each square was 1.5 meters on a side. (The actual math would be 1.4m on a side but it was moved up to 1.5 for convenience)

Re: Future Guns: Projectile Obsolete? So here's the basic situation; for a new weapon to replace an old weapon it has to offer an advantage over the old weapon. Now this is a little tricky because a lot of times the new weapon when it first evolves may be overall inferior. Crossbows were in many ways inferior to longbows, cannons were in many ways inferior to trebuchets. However in each case the new weapon had some kind of advantage that was significant enough that they were worth the drawbacks they came with. In the case of the crossbow it was vastly easier to learn to use. In the case of the cannon it had massive psychological impact. If a new weapon doesn't offer some kind of advantage over, or is at least equal to, its predecessor there's no reason for people to switch over to it. You'll always have edge cases, of course, where people are using something because of personal interest but real implementation won't exist. To put it in other terms which weapon would your character arm themselves with, a 2d6+1 assault rifle or a 2d6 laser rifle with otherwise identical characteristics? Now here's the thing, chemically propelled firearms are relatively easy to use, fairly inexpensive, generally reliable, and are rather good at making people dead. Expense is largely a result of manufacturing processes. Until your production of future weapons (lasers, railguns, caseless ammo, etc.) is roughly on par with your production of common chemically propelled firearms it isn't likely that the costs will become equivalent. That means that at the beginning they are going to cost more than conventional firearms, probably by a good margin. So if the cost is initially higher then the weapon would need to be superior in one of the other categories just to get to the point where you start getting enough adoption for manufacturing to ramp up and drive the price down. That means it's going to have to be either easier to use, more reliable, or better at making people dead, and not by just a little bit but by a good margin because its got the cost hanging over it as a negative. However, currently guns are pretty good at all those categories, so its going to be unlikely that a new weapon will be developed that has a clear advantage in any of those categories anytime soon. You might see some special cases such as sniping weapons since a laser weapon has some clear advantages over a projectile weapon at extreme ranges (which falls under the 'easier to use' category to my thinking) but for the down and dirty fighting that most guns are meant for you're going to be hard pressed to demonstrate a clear advantage in any area.

Re: Herocentral What about trying Roll20? (http://roll20.net/) It's free, supports hex maps (as well as maps without a grid), doesn't require anything to be installed, and has the Looking For Group feature to help people find campaigns.

Re: Champions Complete Champions Complete basically is 6th edition champions with some very minor changes (advantages, limitations, and adders were all moved to one section, the absolute effect 'rule' seems to be gone, there's only 1 type of mind now, Naked Advantages were renamed to something else, etc.). The majority of the changes are organizational, which is how they fit all the rules into 240 pages. Details for powers are a lot shorter and things like that. The majority of remaining changes are either cosmetic (e.g. renaming Naked Advantage) or affected rules that were largely ignored (e.g. multiple types of minds for mental powers, Absolute Effect).

Re: Generic Super Agent Template The Evil Overlords have a strict 'no uglies' rule on hiring?

Re: "Can normally reach" Limitation The difference between 'must pass through intervening space' and 'must be able to reach' is this: Character A is on the rooftop of a high building. He wants to go to the rooftop of another high building across the street. With 'must pass through intervening space' there can be no barrier between the two buildings. This is useful for things like a character who can briefly turn into light or a lightning bolt or something else where they can instantly go from A to B. With 'must be able to reach' he's going to have to either have a jump large enough to clear the street or flight or enough movement to run down to the first floor, run across the street, and run up to the roof of the other building (assuming there's no locked doors in the way). This is useful for representing superfast forms of movement the character already has.

Re: Cool characters from goofy concepts Dazzler came out first by probably about a year. In theory they both came out in 1980 but since Dazzler was in the February 1980 issue of X-Men that was probably released a few months earlier than February. Xanadu was released in November of 1980. The story behind the creation of Dazzler is actually sort of interesting. It was originally suppose to be a cross-media product between Marvel and Casablanca Records with Marvel providing the comic books and Casablanca Records producing an 'Alison Blaire' who would perform in concert. Casablanca backed out at the last minute, however, leaving Marvel with the character. (edit: Log-Man beat me to it, and with the correct release date for Xanadu.)

Re: [New Product] Champions Complete HAP are part of 6e.

Re: [New Product] Champions Complete I think what he means is that life is pretty tough for a lot of brick and mortar game stores. Pre-ordered my hard copy and free PDF last night. I've got to say I am really happy with the PDF being included for free. When I'm gaming I prefer hard copy since it just seems easier to flip around and find pages but I really like having PDFs on my Nook so if I suddenly want to look something up in a given rules system I don't have to be lugging around 100 lbs of books. I'm also really happy that new players can see an easy path to getting into Champions that is only $40 and 240 pages. I've been worried that 6e has presented something of an obstacle for new players in terms of both the monetary cost and the sheer mass of the books.

Re: [New Product] Champions Complete

Re: Australian Supervillains A boomerang is also sometimes knows as a 'kiley' or 'kylie'. King Kiley?

Re: Australian Supervillains Megalania - A large scaled villain with a venomous bite. Uluru - Growth powers and a rocky hide Echidna - A female geneticist who has transformed herself into a monstrous half-woman/half-snake. Has lots of genetically created monsters which she uses as shock troops. Thylacine - Heightened strength and speed. Animal-like senses. Claws and fangs. Drop Bear - High levels of climbing and stealth. Drops on characters from above for a move-through attack, then uses martial arts grappling maneuvers.