psyber624

Re: Help with a power You need to give us more information. If he uses TK and Telepathy to see and that has no other effect on the character then you simply have an odd SFX for your normal sight and you don't need to "build" a power at all. If this is not the case then what do you want the effects of his "altered sight" to be in game? Can he see in total darkness (because he doesn't use "light" to see)? Can he see things through walls or other materials? Is he only "blinded" by an odd type of flash (ie Flashes to the Mental group)? Answers to these (and other) questions will probably point you in the right direction. On a GM note, being "blind" is worth 35 points. If whatever power you use to build your replacement sight costs less it should be a disadvantage in some way. If it costs more then it can be a benefit (but the benefit should be somewhat related to the differences in costs.) Minor differences are fine, but being blind just to gain bonus points for your character is generally a bad idea. The main ramification of buying spatial awareness is that you can perceive through walls and such (it is penetrative). You can detect general shapes but you cant see fine details, coloring, etc. You can't read with it. If you saw the Dark Knight movie the x-ray image of the building that Bats uses to find the Jokers goons is an example of Spatial Awareness. Also, if you watched the original Avatar:TLAB series Tauf's ability to "see" through the ground is an example of Spatial Awareness (although it might change from passive to active, and possibly drop the sense modifier). What you are basically talking about building here is a Detect. At the base level I would build it something like this: Detect: Physical Objects (10 pts), Sense (2 pts), Targeting (10 pts), Mental Sense Group, Active. 22 AP Unified Power (-1/4) (Unified with TK) 18 RC The effects of this are that you can see Physical Objects in your immediate area, and their general shape. You have no idea what color they are and can't read (even embossed lettering or Braile) with this sense. This version does not let you "see through" objects (as that would imply an indirect advantage on your TK). Also, whenever you are using your TK to see you are basically alerting anyone with Mental Awareness to your position (as they can "see" your TK). Using Telepathy as sight would only allow you to do that if there were other minds present. That is a function of Clairsentience. Here is a basic writeup: Clairsentience (Sight) (20 pts), Mobile Perception Point (5 pts), 25 AP. Only through the Senses of Others (-1/2), *One Sense Only (-1/4), Only while maintaining Greater than EGO Telepathy effect on target (-1/2), Affected as Sight and Mental Sense Groups (-1/4) 10 RC PLUS Normal Sight 35 points, Only useable with Clairsentience (-1/2) 23 RC This will allow you to see through the eyes of anyone within 200m of you whom you have established a Telepathic link with (could change that to mind link if you want at no change in cost). This also allows you full use of their normal sight (which does however require you to "buy back" a limited form of your sight to have it useable through Clair.) It does mean that you will be affected if the target is hit with a Mental or Sight flash (and note that a Mental flash on the target would also affect your TK Sight effectively completely blinding you). All told this power suite costs you 16 points (51 points - 35 from selling back normal sight.) On your own you are somewhat handicapped, but if you have a willing mind you can see just find (and unwilling minds work as well, but require some effort) You could reduce the cost further with other limitations of course. Based on what little info you gave us to go on this was the best I could come up with. *Not sure if that limitation should apply since there is only one sense that could be effective, but I would probably allow it so I included it.

Re: [New Product] Champions Complete Not knowing CC Rules would make it difficult to play any supplement unless you were planning on using them with another system (and just wanted plot ideas). Champions Complete is basically the new format for 6ed, and reprinting all of that information in EVERY new supplement you want to classify as "beginner" would be cost prohibitive (both to the company and the consumer). Any new supplements should really operate under the assumption that you already own/have a copy of CC (or similar). Also there are different types of supplements. You seem to be talking about adventure supplements exclusively. If that is the case then honestly every supplement should stand alone (outside of the need of CC). If you are buying an adventure supplement enough info about any hero/villain/locale should be available in that supplement to run the game as is, without needing to buy another supplement just to use the one you just bought. Nothing wrong with "further information" listings, but if you basically said "You are fighting Dr. Destroyer. Here is his character sheet for this adventure. If you want any info on him please go spend more money and buy this supplement...." you are quickly going to loose customers. There should be at least enough info so that someone who is new to the character can get a decent handle on him.

Re: Public vs. Secret Identity ...... get a new GM. Seriously that is what someone is going to pick to have a hangup over in this system???

Re: Types of Superheroes/Villains Ugh, I would momentarily suspend my CvK to kill of theme villains if I could. Most of them are far more annoyance than villain.

Re: New Everyman skill The reason for something like that is that there is a lot of information that most people know (at a certain intelligence level) that is just general knowledge. For instance, even tho I am in the US, i know that England has a Royal Family. Now I shouldn't have to take a KS to know that sort of info, most people here across the pond are aware of that much. I can't remember the Queen's name, although I know Princess Di and Prince Charles figure in there somewhere. Yet in game that would require a KS: England to know if you want to be technical about it. Smart people (especially when you start talking about people with INT over 15-20) just KNOW a lot of stuff about a plethora of different subjects (like knowing what words like plethora mean, do i need KS: Vocabulary for that?) That is what general knowledge, or common knowledge rolls are about. In the game there will be some information that the Character might know, but the Player doesn't (as the character lives in a fictitious world and not the real one.) Or the character might be FAR smarter than the player and would have a larger pool of general knowledge to pull from. (I know a good bit about biology from my high school days, but not enough to take a KS to represent that. I would rate my personal, real world INT at around 15 (i have a relatively high IQ and am known for my intellect). There will be things that i can remember from science class, but that someone else may not. And a character with INT around 25-30 would probably remember every detail from every textbook they read (at least the key points.) That is what common knowledge rolls represent.

Re: Superhero Costume Party The original Psyber would have gone as whoever was the "most powerful" superhero of the time (he always felt slightly underpowered as a hero and had a mild case of "power envy"). The latest incarnation of his back story (After he went villain for COV and was later reformed) he would wear a nanite sheath that he could mentally control that would allow him to change his "costume" at will and he would use this to try and find ways to humiliate other party-goers by their costume choices (Death of his wife has left him somewhat of an ass, even tho he is back on the side of good.)

Re: Types of Superheroes/Villains Okay yeah, Distinctive Feature for "being detectable as a mutant" is different from Distinctive Feature "freakish appearance that indicates your a mutant". And the whole FF/Hulk being mutants from birth thing has always REALLY bugged me (much like the "Superman's invulnerability is really a skin tight forcefield powered by yellow sunlight" shenanigans). At some point in the history of comics it seems that authors felt they had to justify where powers came from or why so and so didn't just die from their "radiation accident" type phenomenon. Never cared for that particular trend, especially as it still makes about as much realistic sense as it did before.

Re: It Beats the Alternative Awesome story dude. You should seriously take this to the next level

Re: Public vs. Secret Identity "AND I'll form the ... WAAAAHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhnnnn............" "Guys? where is Keith?"

Re: Types of Superheroes/Villains Quite possible. It was in my college days (so 1990) when I played in the dorms with some friends. I know we tried out FASERIP and eventually moved to Champions (We always hated the insanely random nature of FASERIP char gen and I am a math geek so Champions just SPOKE to me) Its quite possible that we toyed with other systems before finding Champions but I just can't remember. (Psyber was created in one of those earliest games, and has stayed with me as an online ID for over 20 years now, fond memories)

Re: [New Product] Champions Complete HOW did I know that DOJ was somehow going to be responsible for it after all. Those Mayans were onto something, I knew they were (I think maybe they are upset they never got their own supplement.....)

Re: Flight while sleeping? Without light sleeper talent (at the very least, Danger Sense bought persistent is a much better option as already pointed out) any of the "move" options of this could result in a painful wake-up (or no wake-up at all depending on velocity at the time of impact). Could you buy a limited form of a sense that could be used while asleep? (Spatial awareness seems appropriate) And then possibly a custom advantage to flight that allows you to control it like this "subconciously"? I see how the computer option would work (computer as the subconscious) but it seems rather awkward to me, just brainstorming other ideas.

Re: New Everyman skill Nothing wrong with that, but I would usually just use a base INT roll for "common knowledge" types of questions (in the event it is something the CHARACTER might know even if the player doesn't). Allowing it as an everyman skill (especially if its everyman INT roll and not the standard everyman 8-) is basically the same thing. The only difference is the cost of becoming really good at Common Knowledge (i.e. Trivia Man). In the INT roll system you have to buy a KS at standard prices (either calling it Trivia, Common Knowledge, or whatever) then buying your +1's, with yours you simply buy the +1's. Of course that is a difference of a whopping 2 CP so yeah, either way is about equal

Re: Attractiveness - Comeliness Vs. Striking Appearance After reading several of the previous posts, a thought occurred to me that is really essential to this debate, but has not been brought up yet. We play these games for fun. That is (or at least should be) the goal of WHATEVER system we choose to use to adjudicate ANY interactions in the game. And while I personally don't find PC's being immune to social skills fun (even when I am the PC) that in and of itself is more than enough reason for a group that DOES find it fun to allow PC's to be immune. We adjudicate combat by dice rolls because it is fun for us to play that way. If it wasn't we would use diceless roleplaying systems. However, for some people, I can see that having your character's actions controlled by social skills might not be fun. You are there to play your character and I can understand how anything that prevents you from "playing" it as you see fit might not be fun for some people. It reminds me of one of the first lessons I learned as a GM. While having players captured, kidnapped, tricked into doing wrong, secretly working for the badguys, etc. may make for great STORIES and be common threads in literature used to inspire ideas for a campaign, for most players this situation is not a "fun" one and should be avoided. Sometimes fun has to trump the story or the rules. Not that this means I at all agree with you heathens that don't like being affected by social skills. L2RP NOOB!

Re: Types of Superheroes/Villains Ugh, or like the movie he was "genetically modified" prior to birth to be able to survive it.......

Re: Why Don't The Villains Kill? Personally I think it is a truly potent cocktail of jealousy, anger, respect, contempt, and a dash of fear. Luthor is just a man. Superman is only just shy of being a GOD in most people's eye. Supes could squash Luthor like a bug and not even notice he did it if he wasn't careful. Luthor wants that kind of power, and is constantly frustrated by Superman's ability to overcome any obstacle in his path. However, Luthor respects power and determination and focus on ones goals, all of which can definitely be applied to Supes. He has spent considerable amount of time trying to convert Superman to his side as well as kill him. So yeah, while he hates Superman for constantly thwarting his lofty plans and schemes, and for keeping him (Luthor) from achieving the level of power and glory Luthor feels he deserves, he also wants to BE Superman quite badly (especially since he wouldn't have Supes "hang-ups" and could do MUCH more with his powers than Supes does.)

Re: Why Don't The Villains Kill? Joker I will agree with you on. Several authors have even depicted him as being severely depressed on occasions where he THOUGHT he killed Batman. Lex Luthor on the other hand actively and obsessively tries to kill Superman. He has devoted exorbitant amounts of time and resources to that very goal. While I have not read every Superman comic out there in the situations where I have seen Lex kill (or at least think he kills) Superman he has, at most, a moment of reflection to mourn the passing of a worthy adversary, then he sets out on the full fledged "Power Trip Party" where he celebrates all he can do now that Supes is dead. Luthor might miss Superman when he is gone, but would never hesitate to kill him because of that (he is way to driven to achieve his goals.)

Re: Why Don't The Villains Kill? Not necessarily. Psychological Complications represent facets of your personality you have trouble controlling (which is why you need EGO rolls to overcome them). Someone with Murderous therefore would have to make the required roll NOT to kill someone he was attacking (or at least try to). Not having a Psych Comp however in NO WAY limits your actions. Someone who likes to kill but can easily control it wouldn't have to take the Murderous Complication, but could easily have a higher body count than someone who does. He enjoys killing, but if he doesn't want to kill someone (for any reason) he simply doesn't do it, no EGO roll required.

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team! Besides, Fingerwoman sounds way to sexual

Re: Public vs. Secret Identity Secret ID that I was referencing is different than False ID. Wearing a domino mask or a pair of glasses or (in some cases) full facial masks definitely could make you somewhat harder to identify, but unless you go to GREAT lengths you will leave some trace of yourself behind. Modern Forensics is pretty much based upon this concept. And it would be even worse for you if you were actually in a COMBAT situation. And photos of you "in costume" or recordings of your voice (if your not using some sort of voice modification technology) can also be used to match you to your normal ID. Of course not having a Public ID makes most of this relatively moot. I can remember several times in various cartoons where the villain unmasks the hero then goes "Who is this guy?" Few people, for instance, would know who Peter Parker was, even if he went swinging around town without the costume. (JJJ of course would quickly rectify that, but I hope you see the point I'm trying to make) Like you said earlier, having your fingerprints (or photo, or voice recording or whatever) is of limited use until you have something to match it to.

Re: Attractiveness - Comeliness Vs. Striking Appearance What I don't get about this is if PC's don't trust their GM to use interactive skills in an interesting, non-abusive way, how do they trust him not to just cheat and have any character he WANTS to seduce/interrogate/etc buy the relevant Power and do it anyway. Player: "My pc is immune to conversation attempts, so you can't trick him into giving away any secrets" GM: "Meh, my guy has telepathy, didn't you know? He read your mind easily. The whole conversation thing was just a distraction to keep you occupied while I sifted through your brain." I mean lets face it, a bad GM is a bad GM after all. If you can't trust your GM not to railroad, how exactly do you think your going to stop him by saying your immune to social skills?

Re: 13 Things learned about supers gaming Welcome to the forums! Interesting Blog. One of the things I would say about your "fights being boring" is try to design your opposition so that whatever the players "standard" tactics are simply will not work. Force them to look outside of the box. Now, this should only be done with major villains, not your average mook (and I don't know the M&M system at all so if any of this does not apply sorry about that.) If they tend to just punch or blast, give him really high defenses (so they have to find ways to combine attacks, or increase damage, or find a weakness or some sort). Or make him REALLY hard to hit (DCV in Hero system, not sure what M&M uses) forcing the hero's to work together to actually hit him (In Hero one possibility is one player distracts him while another sneaks behind him getting a surprise attack bonus which enables him to get off a grab, holding him still while the rest of his teammates hit the guy) etc. No offense to you but making things like combat interesting is all up to the GM. Most players will take the easiest path to success, and if you allow this path to work for all of their opponents there is no reason for them to vary their tactics which would definitely lead to boring combat. Of course, after doing this once be ready to adjust again the next fight. Keeping things interesting means that the same tactic should not become a standard solution. This does go back to your rule #6 of course. If the players are not trusting of the GM, they may get frustrated or upset, or accuse you of trying to kill them because they cannot find the path that works. You can be sneaky and have lesser villains use tactics that you think would be good against your Big Bad against the players themselves earlier in a campaign, thus exposing them to the benefits of a particular tactic and hoping that they will pick up on it. It all comes back to trust. And I think one of the main trust issue differences between Supers and other genre's comes down to the amount of variance you can have in your opponents. In D&D (as an example) you have a certain number of classes, and pretty much every member of that class looks VERY similar (Note i havent played the latest version, so that may have changed). While you can tweak things around somewhat, for the most part a warrior is a warrior, a cleric is a cleric, and a mage is a mage. And most of the opponents in such a system come from long standing, well defined concepts that the players are familiar with. No one is likely to cry foul when a troll regenerates, a dragon breathes fire, or a wight drains strength when it touches you. These things are known by the players (even if the characters shouldn't necessarily know them) and as long as the GM is remaining true to the general concepts of an adversary, players will be less likely to suspect him of targeting them specifically (the GM doesn't give Trolls the power to regenerate, that's just part of what fighting trolls entails). In a supers game however, there are really no set concepts that define what your adversary is. The players can't look at villain X and go "hey, we need to use fire on him" or "hey, watch out for his breath attack" especially on their first encounter. And especially if a GM has designed his own villains (much more likely in Supers IMO than in fantasy) then he is held more responsible for what they can do. Anyway, I feel like I am starting to ramble, so going to stop here.

Re: Public vs. Secret Identity Neither does a domino mask. And frankly in this day and age maintaining ANY sort of secret id would be technically impossible simply due to the technology we have available today. It is merely one of the conventions of comic books. Any attempt to hide your identity is automatically successful until the needs of the author dictate it fails.

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team! Sophia Delann Crow is known as The Grifter to those few who actually know her. She has the mutant ability to alter her body language, voice, and mannerisms to fit into any situation without notice. Some suspect that she also lets off a pheromone that causes all who are near her to find her subtlety acceptable and agreeable. They don't fall in love with her, or anything other extreme reaction, but whatever she says or does just seems honest and right. She uses this power to acquire anything she desires, from priceless works of art to information to good old fashioned cash. No one has ever been able to catch her, as most of her "marks" will refuse to believe she had anything to do with the theft of their possessions and will refuse to press charges against her, even if evidence starts piling up. (OOC: Okay, so not really original, but I couldn't let this one pass without a shoutout to my fav show.)

Re: Types of Superheroes/Villains Technically I believe Hulk and She-Hulk (and several Flashes, all of the Fantastic Four, etc) are called Mutates. I.E. they start life as relatively normal human beings then some circumstance comes along and Mutates them into beings with super powers. Mutants are born with their powers (or with the potential for them, this usually doesn't immediately manifest at birth) and in Marvel anyway all share the X-gene so that they are a distinct species from humanity. It is sort of a grey area at times. Many people over the years have blamed the x-gene's very existence on the amount of radiation humanity is exposed to on a constant basis, among other reasons (if it was ever defined clearer than that I am not aware of it, but while I am a fan of the X-Men I have not been able to collect their comics for years.) I remember an old Supes RPG (I believe it was Marvel FASERIP) that presented classifications for origins of super powers. Note that this list is from memory from 20 years ago so I am NOT saying it is an accurate representation of the information made available in whatever product it was originally from: Mutants: Born with innate powers (X-men) Mutates: Born normal for their species, but later changed in some way to gain their powers (Flash, Hulk, etc) Granted: Powers are given to the person by some external intelligent force (Captain Marvel) NOTE: This generally does not apply when the powers are granted through an item. Tech: Powers are based upon some form of "item" that grants the ability to the user, everything from weapons to power rings to limited Duration drugs that grant super powers (Iron Man) Mystic: Powers are based upon training and knowledge, everything from martial artists to most Magic Users fit here (If the use of magic requires an essential spark then it also shares origin with either Alien or Mutant, depending upon the campaign. (Dr. Strange, White Tiger) Alien: Super is a member of a race of beings that all possess similar powers (Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Hawk-Woman) Those are the ones I can remember, however I feel like I am missing a couple. Of course many supers dip into multiple "origins" to explain all their powers. Batman is Tech/Mystic, Wonder Woman is Alien/Tech.. Modern Era Wonder Woman is Granted/Tech, etc.