Fur Face

Re: The Hanzo sword Another way of making it an exceptional blade is simply to make it sharper: 2d6 HKA instead of the usual 1.5 d6 for a katanna. Or, if you want to be really nasty, make it "indirect" to armor/other blades.

Re: DC inspired by TV I think any good crime tv/video can provide plot seeds. Not too long ago on CSI:Miami a corrupt video game maker created a robbery-bang-bang-shoot'em-up game, staring the PC's as gangsters and using local locations. The only way the CSI's found out what was going to happen next was to have someone play the game. A secret "GM" kept score on how many points were given for finishing the crime & murdering innocent people. That could be a perfect DC scenario. :-)

Re: A couple of Canine questions. Yes, but when I was in we quit doing that because of the high injury rate for the animals. :-)

Re: A couple of Canine questions. Sociotard, It depends on your level of realism. If you want your dog to be cinematic, then allow him to lock his jaw. They are trained to bite & hold, which can produce holes that won't bleed for hours. Its when a suspect struggles they get a lot of other damage. Most people are too frightened to do much of anything else. They are also trained to protect the handler by immediatly attacking if the suspect attacks you. The dog would have a held action or covering, and would then be able to attack. Enjoy.

Re: A couple of Canine questions. I was a K9 cop for 12 years in the AF, I can tell you a couple of things: 1) normal police dogs are trained to attack limbs, tackle (possibly), bite and hold (not thrash). They also are trained to attack first a limb with a visible weapon, especially a firing gun. You should definitely go for hit locations & martial maneuvers. 2) dogs are also usually taught aggression and to look for narcotics or explosives, not both. 3) Sense of sight was up to 5 times better than a human, though it doesn't see for reading & such, it was for seeing silhoutes & movement. If you've ever seen a dog bob his up, down or sideways, he was trying to get a better "movement/shilhoute lock" 4) Sense of hearing was up to 10 times better than ours, sense of smell was up to 400 times better than ours. They can track/locate people because they can pick up odor concentrations, like walking towards food that's being cooked and getting a stronger smell the closer you get to it. They also pick up the special hormanes your sweat out when afraid (fear scent). They know you're afraid, they presume its them making you afraid, and they act accordingly. 5) Just for giggles, we used to have a big, 108 lbs German rottweiler named Bill. The Germans will beat police dogs with rubber hoses to make them tough, & able to fight with humans. One of our favorite tricks was to put a suspect on his belly spread eagle on the ground, then put Bill between their legs. Nothing like the hot breath of a 108 lbs monster breathing on your family jewels. FWIW, YMMV.

Re: solo play??? I realize this would depend on your concept & campaign style, but you might want to consider what I would classify as "solo survival" powers. These powers could allow you to have a minimum of toning down of the bad guys and not have to worry about doing a lot of GM fudging just to make sure the campaign isn't stopped by one unlucky die roll. Powers such as: 1) Regeneration. Could be very limited, or not. There was a comic years ago in a dark champions kind of setting called "Painkiller Jane", where her primary ability was regeneration and her relentless personality. This doen't mean your character will always succeed, since it could take a lot of time to heal, but you don't have to worry about normal combat always derailing your campaign. 2) Damage Reduction. "Nuff said. 3) Slightly higher resistant defenses: If you want to make your character fearfull of gunfire, allow them of have about 7 pt.s resistant defense. This would stop a 9MM, but not a .44 Magnum 4) Ablility to engage multiple opponents: this could be as simple as an autofire attack, or even skill levels for the sweep or rapid fire maneuvers. If I could summarize, I would say its like same concept of protecting major NPC"s: you give them enough to stuff to survive what the PC's can toss out. Now, you have to give the PC enough to survive what the bad guys can toss out. As always, FWIW & YMMV. :-)

Re: DCTAS: Hit Locations? Thanks for the perspective yall. :-)

As in all things, I suppose this is a matter of personal preference, but would you use hit locations in DC:TAS? Dark Champions almost requires them, but DC:TAS is the "bridge" between Dark Champions & Champions. Has anyone played in a DC:TAS game? What were the results? Did it affect the flair? Sorry for all the questions, I haven't gotten to play in a long time. :-)

Re: New campaign starting, help requested Hey Kirby, If you end up doing just the duo, then I highly suggest that you consider raising the point totals beyond 350, with a caveat: Nothing that will make them invulnerable or their attacks nye unsurvivable, but something that will round them out so they can be effective, plus being able to survive the worst of the bad guys can throw at them. For example: 1) No extra armor, but damage reduction. Maybe even regeneration. 2) Ranged and HtH attacks. 3) Some super skills, such as listed in DC. 4) Skill levels for coordinating attacks 5) More points for skills, so they can be effective investigators & such (see Black Mask in Vibora Bay). Just some suggestions. :-)

Re: Comeliness? I believe that COM works, if it is used as intended. If your game recognizes attractivenes, then fine. If it doesn't, then fine as well. It's also game specific and player specific: 14 COM to you is 32 COM to me. If you think physical attractiveness doesn't matter, then perhaps you have grown up in a cave. ;-) Although beauty can be great for first impressions, it is only skin deep. I equate COM to an old saying in the Air Force: You can walk into a room as a certain rank, and have instant credibility because of that rank. Then you can open mouth, and ruin it. :-) Some time ago someone posted a 'Comliness Stat Structure", where they had defined Comliness and broken out catagories, such as sexual energy, pretty face, etc.

Re: Martial Artist for Review It may be cheaper to buy some powers or superskills in a mulitpower at the initial level but it can also complicate things. Also, some of his powers/characteristics may not be far out: 1) If you are going to buy all of your HA's with the advantage of 0 End, then you are limiting the amount of STR he can use. You would either have to increase his STR or the size of his multipower. Otherwise he's only a heroic level martial artist. Once you increase his MP, then its not so cheap anymore. 2) He may not be "throwing polearms"; he could simply be so skilled that the things he does throw always hit something vital, hence the extra damage. That would be better that buying a bunch of PSL's to offset hit location penalties, and I believe is more elegant. 3) His characteristics aren't really that bad. It depends on the campaign in which he's going to play. As the old saying goes "what's 20 COM to you is 30 COM to me." Even the PRE is good, because now he can stand up to fearsome things, and be a little fearsome himself, without ever having to throw a punch. My 2 cents, for what its worth.

Re: Need help with some goofy villians Dude, you need to rent the movie "Mystery Men". That would cover just about anything you'd want, trust me.

Re: Naked Advantage Question You can do naked advantages on the power pools, its just not recommended. If I could fork up the cost of 0 End in a VPP, everything created by the pool is 0 End (which is the example they use). But if I had a 10 pt pool VPP for instant minor gadgets, would 0 End be so bad? You aren't supposed to put naked advantages as slots in a pool, such as a MP, but in TUB they rewrote some villian bricks from CKC and did use naked advantages as slots in an MP, because it better fit the concept. When it comes to naked advantages, I believe its all down to maturity, role playing, and concept. I wouldn't forbid them, I would just want to see how they are used. Jim

Re: Need an adventure STAT! undefined Gold Rush Games used to have an adventure concerning an old 4ed villian called "Yo-Yo". You can guess what his theme is. It would be perfect for your needs. Jim

Re: Character balancing option Hi i3ullseye, Your system seems well thought out, and by keeping things consistent it would make everything easier to run as a GM. The only observation I have is that it kind of sounds like "D&D prestige classes for champions". Players may either enjoy it or hate it, since many seem to enjoy Hero games because they wouldn't feel pigeonholed. Just an observation. Jim

HH Productions Here's one that has 4th Ed Character sheets, backgrounds, and fiction: http://www.hhproductions.footsiesbiz.com/

Thanks for the update guys!

Thanks Everyone! Thanks all, soon the Ultimate Mentalist shall be mine!

I was getting ready to pick up Shades of Black (between the 20% off sale being too good to resist and me actually having money), and I noticed the Ultimate Mentalist is on sale as well. I've been looking at creating characters with mental powers/storylines/etc, but I would reallylike to know is: What kind of feel does the book provide? I mean, is the Ultimate Mentalist on par with the likes of Ninja Hero? Can I find out where mentalists are coming from, what about their ideas, attitudes, philosophies? I already have the USPD, but what kind of "power flavors" does the Ultimate Mentalist have? Any info would be greatly appreciated!

Hey Mike, Somehow us diehard fans would really like to know how the Asian Beastary is coming along. Pretty please? Sugar, Spice, Everything Nice, and Indonesian Vampires?

Relentless? If he can keep changing and coming back for more, then he would be Relentless.

Not Sure What You Want If you are looking for idea's, then this is the place. If you are looking for very specific info to defeat your players, then in reality that only comes from you. A lot of good suggestions have been made, but they center on different/creative uses of powers & tactics. This is especially important in a Dark Champions campaign, because you just can't have Dr. Destroyer's minions showing up. Having villians your characters despise usually depends on two things: villians that have powers they PC's can't oppose, or GMing intelligent villians. Intelligent villians learn, get experience, and develop tactics that will work no matter which hero's they face. For example, if the PC's are protective of innocents, have villians that will endanger innocents in order to escape. Most smart villians have more than one way to escape if things go bad. Smart villians will try to have their crimes finished before the PC's can ever show up; that leads to long investigations which will really enahnce the enjoyment of any future battle. Smart villians will use retreating ambushes to ward off pursuit - "if we are stopped, meet at this killing zone. We will pre-postion heavey weapons/explosives/nerve gas, and either eliminate the pursuit or ensure escape" I'm not trying to be critical, but your responses seem to indicate that you are looking for very specific info, to fit a very specific agenda. You won't get that here, only ideas to help you make your game more of what you want it to be. Just my 2 cents.

Depends on Genre I Guess I'm mostly a Dark Champions - Wuxia - Ninja Hero kind of guy, so I almost always use Code of Vengeance, Floating Hunted, and Code of Honor/Confrontation. The Code of Honor is more of a "fairness for a true test a skill" thing, not a "I don't hit girls thing"; if someone pulls a knife on me, I won't shoot them, but in most cases I'll just try to take it away from them & smack them around a bit. I also never use a CVK, because I don't think its realistic. I care about stopping villians, but if the villian is heinous & evil I'll use whatever force I think will stop him/her. If they wake up from it, so be it. And, as Storn so eliquently said on another thread, I feel its a hold-over from the 1950's. KInd of funny since you consider that I'm a die-hard JLA fan. But then that pesky DC comic came out (in 1983, me thinks) called "The Vigilante", forever changing my perspective.

Scottsdale? Steve is right, Scottsdale is more affulent & trendy. My neighbor, who is one the few Phoenix natives, tells me that Scottsdale is the city you move to "after you've made it, financially". There are a lot financial companies there (I work at Prudential), so in that regard it would almost be the perfect place for a Viper nest to be located.

Plenty of Preparation! Hey Darren, One major difference with solo games is that they require a lot more preparation, because you are focusing on only one character. There is more time for angst if a teenager, romance if an adult, and mysteries for the inquisitive. So you'll be going through some things faster (whatever is least interesting to the player) while other interests will require more attention and thought. New players are sometimes are new computer users, they know what they want but aren't sure how to describe it, so be as detailed as you can about things like charater history & such. Good Luck and have fun!