PoorWandering 1

Re: New VA campaign throws up need for 'unusual' weapon rules

Isn't there something about entangling weapons in Ninja Hero?

If memory serves it was something that allowed ranged grabs. Really nasty with some penalty skill levels.

Re: Total lack of ideas, clock is ticking down

Great idea.

Nothing like throwing cars around to releive that job stress.

Re: Total lack of ideas, clock is ticking down

Idea: Grab the big book. Open to powers fing the lamest power you can think of. Something you have never played or even seen done well. Base a hero on it. I did that with force wall and stretching and ended up with "Stonewall" a force field based brick shaping his forcefield into walls and tenticles.

Re: Hallowe'en Hero

Rats, I’m no good at zombies. For me fear is generated in the slow revelation of the threat. With zombies the reveal is too quick. The game changes from horror to tactical survival. It can still be a blast but a known enemy generates less fear. However given the above caveat I’ll do my best.

My first question upon reading the outline concerns the alignment of the players. Good players will have a moral quandary about rescuing someone who would kill off their own workers in the name of higher profits. Shades of Union Carbide here. Heck even neutrals might just leave him to his just deserts. So seeing as you want this to be a fast paced game. I say have the young lord be clearly a zombie when they find him. My idea is this. YL developed a psi-based drug that focuses the will absolutely on the task at hand. Problem is it worked too well. Once exposed the only thing that matters to the subject in increasing crop yields. Friends, family, eating all are forgotten even life is left behind in the quest for greater crop yields. This is why the priests balk ability will not work. There is no negative plane connection for the priest to sever. From this point of view the arrival of the party will be a great boon. The party represents more workers and the ship a way to expand cultivation away from this small rock. The town is empty as all the workers are living in the fields to make 24hr plant care easier. Perhaps several buildings have been dismantled to free up more arable land. The PC’s esp. any nature priests or druids will notice the complete absence of any animal life on the planetoid. Also there are no plants living on the asteroid other than the crop plants. The farm animals were worked to death and then became fertilizer along with ever last rat, bird,tree, weed and bug around. The now zombied YL is still in his lab refining and perfecting fertilizers and the zombie formula. The zombies are not immediately hostile and in fact do not look dead, dirty yes, very ill yes, dead no. The lack of insects and the formula retard decay. The goals of the z’s will be 1.to capture and infect the party and 2. To take control of the ship strip it of anything useable to increase crop yields and then use it to colonize other arable areas.

Problems for the PC’s

No water. The zombies don’t drink and have all the available water tied up in a complex underground irrigation system. Any water left on the ship will be looted as soon as the PC’s are out of sight.

No Food. Or rather no non-infected food. Any food on the ship will be looted for use as fertilizer. The food produced here is abundant, looks wonderful, and either kills or zombifies anyone who eats it. Crop yield, not food value is the only goal. The fertilizers have by now fully infected the plants.

Problems with the scenario.

1. Very linear. Arrive on rock - leave rock.

2. very lethal. the zombies are smart, fanatic,will use grappling and restraining attacks and the pc's are outnumbered about 100 to one. Logically they will be mobbed and infected or killed as soon as they are understood to be a threat to the crop.

3. This post is too -ing long.

Good luck, maybe there is something in this you can steal.

~PWO

Re: Hallowe'en Hero

Those are really good ideas. I especially like the idea of door hinges for knees and breast plates for carapaces. If/when I run this again, I'm going to have to use some of them. Thanks, man!

 

Bill.

So you've run this already? How did it go? I thought you were going to run this for halloween this year?

Having the monsters incorporate recognized objects creates a connection with thw players. It makes the monster more real somehow. And real = frightning. It also helps to bring out the very scary idea that these things do not see you as a threat, they see you as a resource. Seeing the door-hinge-knee might be enought to spark a connection in a players head between the large number of spiders and the bodies with their brains missing. And that is where the real terror comes into this little romp. The player is not simply faced with death but they are faced with the loss of individuality and identity. And those are nice big buttons for the GM to play with.

Anyway i hope this went well when you ran it.

~PWO

PS. Oh i see this was Last Year's adventure. What is in store for them this year?

Re: Hallowe'en Hero

Hey, PWO, thanks for the questions. They're very insightful. I wish you were in my gaming group!

 

Still, hope it makes more sense to you now. If you can come up with some ideas that I didn't, let me know!

 

Bill.

And i wish i could join. But you are not exactly near Seattle.

Cool i thought it was something like this. I do have a question though, why does the guard in the closet in the first guard room still have his brain? I suggest having the things CWH's simply remove his head before stuffing the body in the closet. Since they didn't take the body they were clearly pressed for time when they killed him but if the body was still of value they would have come back for it. However if they had the head then the body had no further value so they just left it. The missing head would foreshadow the whole brain thing without lessening the shock of finding the folks with their brains neatly scooped out later. Another bit of forshadowing would be for there to be no metal in the place. Let the party find weapon hafts with the decoration clearly removed. None of the bodies are wearing rings or have pocket change. Their boots are falling apart because the cobblers nails have been removed. Furnature is reduced to lumber as the nails have been delicately pulled. If you do this then the central starway needs to be made of stone. I would have wooden posts with holes carved in the tops sticking out of the stone for every step. Bright players will realize that there was a chain guardrail there. You could play with their heads by having bits of the fort turn up in the CWH bodies. Maybe a fork is being used as a support strut. Maybe the commanders decroative shield/coat of arms has been bent into a partial carapace. Maybe a 'knee' is clearly a door hinge

Re: Hallowe'en Hero

Hey. There is no explanation of what happened!! Where did the clockwork horrors come from? Why are they removing folks brains? Someone/thing went to a great deal of trouble to make the 'hundreds' of horrors. Who? Why? It couldn't have been to get the crown cause the cabinet would not have stopped them for long. Also why mention the asteroid avoidence machine if you are not going to do anything with it? Fair warning if i were to play in this i would be looking for a way to shut that machine off. The party may not be strong enought to take care of all the things but a few large inpacts should clean the rock nicely.

I suppose it all boils down to not feeling like there is enough depth. Mainly though i am wondering where the things came from? If they came from outside the fort then how didi they get there? They cannot move thtough space on their own so they were either brought to the fort or made there. As it stands there is no evidence of either. Also why no evidence of the residents of the fort fighting the things? If an adventuring can take out two or three then there should be at least a couple of onse killed by the soldiers. Speaking of soldiers why is there no evidence of a fight? The fort isn't that big there is no way for hundreds of the things to go unnoticed for long. Sure the first attacks would be unnoticed but as they moved into the main areas the fort would have had time to mount an organized if untimately futile resistance.

All in all this is very good and spooky but it needs a bit more flesh and where did they come from logic hole patched. Might i suggest making the things run by human brains so they were taking them to make more things. This also explains why there are hundreds of things by now. They have been using the residents of the fort as parts. I would however give them a bit more than two days to have done this though.

As i said this is very good and will run well as is. But a bit more chrome and backstory will make the suspension of disbelief easier.

My two cents anyway. ~PWO

Re: UNTIL SuperPowers Database Usefulness

You may know how to grow wheat, mill the grain, mix it with other ingredients, and bake it into a loaf of bread. But that doesn't mean you never buy a loaf of bread from the store. You may not always have the time for or interest in taking it all the way from grain seed to table.

Great now i'm hungry.

Maybe a Hero sandwich

Re: Dodgy area

For example.

 

Climbing, NO CONSCIOUS CONTROL

 

does that make any sense?

I once knew a cat with climing NCC only for going up. We were thinking of changing the cats name to "How the blazes did you get up there."

Area dcv levels. I would think that w/o the useable by others they would only effect you and your hex. Of course I could be higher than a cat on this.

Re: Name for a fictional city

Yeh' date=' besides, Wombatman City or Dr. Manipulatorville doesn't quite have that ring to it.[/quote']

 

Wombat Hollow?

Re: Spiffiest Power Name?

'McGuffin bombs' single command area effect continuous mind control grenades that telepathically convinced those nearby that it, the bomb, was the most important thing in the world.

They didn't take out major baddies but they spread chaos among the flunkies.

Re: Wedding Bells Are Ringing!

I could see Jim Dugan covering the wedding (with a nod to Marvels )

Jimmy Dugan HAS to be there. He could even be theone who tipped off Foxbat knowing that the bat would create the distraction he will need to sneak in.

Re: Name for a fictional city

Well' date=' I'm probably going with Cape Haven, so coastal seems most likely. I am however open on suggestions. I'm leaning towards the East Coast, but it's hardly set in stone.[/quote']

 

 

For some reson I see rust belt or New England. Plenty of cheap land/ small towns needing revitalization and it's close enough to NY and DC. The retired supers may not be in the game any more but they might have wanted good seats to watch it from.

 

Or if they wanted to get away from pressures then maybe Oregon/Northern California. Actually Cape Haven Texas might even have a ring to it. If you put the city on the south or east coasts the name could refer to Pirates or ship-breakers and predate the arrival of the heroes.

Re: Name for a fictional city

Okay, actually, a variation on this sounds ideal to me

 

"Cape Haven"

 

Dual meanings. Thanks.

Cool i can even see the name becoming an insult in the para-human community. 'You belong in Cape Haven' meaning you are not tough or smart enough to function in a real city. 'Capies' or 'Cape boys/brats/children' could also rise as an insult.

Re: Name for a fictional city

Maybe "Fairchild". So long as it is no where near the air force bace of the same name. Any name with 'child' could work for a mutant/paranormal friendly city.

Maybe "Newhome" or 'Newhome Valley / Springs' The addition of the valley or springs gives a remote flavor even if we are talking about a suburb. Ex Palm Springs.

Any clue where in the US the City will be? Coastal or inland. East of the Miss or West Which side of the Mason-Dixon line? Blue or Red state? :7)

Re: Name for a fictional city

Springfield.

Seriously.

Remember the heroes were hoping for a normal quiet life. Also Springfield is one of the most common city names in the us.

Re: Your Favorite Useless Power

Perk: Liberal Arts Degree

 

kidding, kidding

I have a liberal arts degree. You are not kidding

Re: When I Am the Benevolent Ruler....

abdicate in favour of a neo-anarchist collective where we take in turn to be a kind of executive officer of the week. However all decisions of that officer must be ratified at a bi-weekly meeting .......

Re: Jet City Champions Campaign Log

Well this is going to be embarassing.

Re: Empowering items

Palladium's old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: After the bomb supplement 'Road Hogs' had an interesting take on something like this. (Now that's a sentence I thought I'd never see on a HERO board.) One of the backgrounds for characters was something like an automobile faith healer. The PC could fix cars without tools or spare parts but the repair would 'wear off' if that pc was away from the car for an extended length of time. Perhaps the balancing concerns surrounding 'power-man' (Captain Con-Ed?) could be dealt with in the same way. Say this pc has a team mate with power armour built on an end reserve. We'll call him the Tin man. It's been a long fight and Tin man is starting to sputter out suddenly lightning arcs out from Capt. Con-Ed and the Tin Man is back in the fight. Now say that instead of refilling the end reserve Capt. Con-ED is only able to assume the end cost. The Tim suit would have full power to servos but zero power in the batteries. That way when Con-ed shuts off the juice the Tin man freezes up again. This could be built as an aid to end limited so that all granted end vanishes when Capt con-ed turns off the power. A little tweaking could also ensure that Capt. Con-Ed expends at least the same amount of end that is granted.

This could be an interesting support power for a cyberpath as well.

If you just want to recharge end reserves 'change environment: provides house current' should allow the reserves recovery to activate and start filling the 'ol tanks. This small power will come in very handy when the gm tosses the tech based heroes into the Lost World.

Re: Multiple Power Attacks: Abused?

It's true you can't combine block and thrust or block and cover, but it's because block is not an attack. You can only combine attacks.

Though for some campaigns (spy vs spy) I think it would be a great house rule.

Hmmm i wonder if there is something in UMA that covers block-repost or block cover. Hmmm time to buy a new book.

Re: Multiple Power Attacks: Abused?

But my favorite use is the swashbuckling MPA of disarm and cover.

If you succeed they are disarmed and covered by your sword. Rather then just being able to run and get their weapon next phase.

Ooo nice...

I wonder if this would work as a block-cover or block-thrust mpa. I suspect it would fall afoul under some no aborting to attack rule but it is such a clean build for a repost. Heh imagine 2 folks fighting like this. Black spy slices at white spy. White spy aborts to block-thrust. Black spy aborts to block-cover. The phase ends with White spy's sword out of line and Black spy's sword millimeters from White spy's nose. Grey spy then uses a held action activate the pit trap dumping them both into the taffy pulling machine. But then hey it's a Spy's life.

Re: .... my trusty ten shooter.

Thanks guys. I'm moving this to the Chanpions thread. I think it belongs there.

Re: Super-Skills Megathread

I think will save that for Hansel and Gretel Hero!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nah Hansel and Gretel Used: "the way home" Detect, path home. OAF bread crumbs. 1 continuing charge lasting 1 night, expendable, fragile. Not useable in an area with small birds.

I was reading through some old indi comics and ran across something I'd like to see duped in HERO rules. It seems the lead in this comic had a gun that stunned people but went through doors/ walls/ robots rather effectively. It may be a personal failing but I can't seem to think of a way to do this in HERO. The problem is that the gun does NOT switch between types of shots. The same setting will cut through a door or stun the guard in front of it. I can see how this could be built as a VPP no time no skill limited to only 2 powers but that seems like overkill. Could am MP be shoehorned to do this? Perhaps variable advantage?

How would You build it?