Cinniuint

As well as keeping a list of current gadgets available.

Just after writing it up, I thought of a gadget pool w/ some alien tech. A VPP might make more sense. But I would write up a strict list outside of the gadgets.

I’m trying to build a character with a “Bag of Holding”. I think I have a build for it, but the full character idea makes it awkward. The character is an alien with a kangaroo like build. Prehensile tail, stretching, shrinking & the pouch (reaches into a mini-dimension). He doesn’t truly shrink, just transfers mass to the other dimension, but for game purposes it is shrinking. So rather than crossing into a microverse, he just crosses a balance threshold and drops into the other dimension. While he can be in two places, two dimensions, at once, since one of them is a small place with very little interaction with anywhere else, I don’t think that it is much of a power. Being able to leave the world behind, however, certainly has some value. Supplies, (and conceivably guests, but it is not intended for that purpose), could be sent ahead through the pouch, Otherwise, nothing is there but a small space.

Thematically different invisibilities will have weaknesses to different types of heightened senses. Does light pass through or around? Or is it created in the mind of the viewer? Or is it just really well applied camouflage, or skillful to outrageous degree ninja sneakiness? Magic, tech, psychic. Invisisible, inaudible, unscentable, unscanable. Et. al. Solutions rely on senses at hand and goals. Combat can just boil down to AoE. If VPP is available build as appropriate. One time problems warrant a simple throw away solution. A gadget or even a hero borrowed from another team. A frequent hunter makes developing a new power advisable if that makes sense. At least get a gadget, preferably not OAF.

Regarding entangles: players can easily be taught the foolishness of all having the same weakness. And I have seen characters in fiction helped out of mental entangles on many occasions through the use of shouting, face slaps and even kisses. If the villain has compatriots, they,too, might risk damaging the entangle by attacking the character. Other spice: skill levels, usable by others. This can be very powerful, but it gets expensive fast since it has to be bought with at least 5 point levels. In a similar vein: Int boost, usable on others And something completely different: a variable psychological limitation acquired from recent telepathy subjects. Please note that the subject may have long since come to terms with the problem, that doesn't mean the mentalist won't be hit by it.

Responding to the original post: just because you have a pool doesn't mean you have to buy everything through it. Just because a power can't be bought with limitations doesn't mean they can't have them. So: a pool built into the costume, taking all the various appropriate limitations, plus CSLs with the limitation OIHID -0 Just saying. These aren't the best solutions, but the post seemed to imply that they weren't options at all.

Very well done thread. Lot of comments about templates, and yes,of course they lead to some inaccuracies. But look at all the great stuff here and how quickly it has been accomplishe . I am very impressed.

Seems like limitations are well covered now. I shudder at the notion of playing an herbalist in a spell jammer campaign. Notion of herbalist as largely a healer with lots of other abilities mostly more difficult is what I was going for. So JK's Gilly Weed would be moderately difficult. It doesn't heal,but it is consumed and enhances the body. Herbs that are mixed to create an effect out of the body should be less common yet. Something like epoxy might still be not to difficult to make, but smoke or a bang should be very difficult and an actual boom is probably impossible. Let's look at specific herbs now. Anybody have an idea on how to write up King's Foil from LOTR?

Hmm, really, this is the same problem as with every character. All that power could easily be used to make a powerful and/or wealthy character. But not by adventure. I have mostly played in superheroic campaigns. There, this kind of thing is a justification for buying wealth if the player chooses. And there is usually a player who wants to know the boring details. If only so they can be abused. Cinn

Topic sidestep, now looking for ideas for herbal recipes. Well, more Hero System write ups of herbs and potions. Original post: Am looking at a character class that works mostly with herbs. A bit like a more specifically focused druid. This "Herbalist" will probably work with primarily herbs that must be prepared extensively before they can be used. Occasionally, he might find herbs that need to be used while they are fresh. The herbs that keep might also be available in shops. So, for this discussion, I would like to address the problem of dealing with consumable foci that are a major portion of a characters' powers, and also available on the market to characters with lots of money. Had been considering a multipower, with increasing recipes, increasing potency with more experience, and SLOW recovery of charges. Am seeing problems down this path. Issue: what's to prevent a major build up of herbs? Issue: what's to prevent a major build up of money? Issue: how can I keep this character viable? Had wanted to address herbs in a separate discussion, but that may not be feasible. Issues here include assortment and rarity of herbs in recipes, difficulty of recipes, some herbs may be cultivated, others may be common only along leylines, some may lose potency quickly after harvest or even after brewing, etc,etc. After all this, am beginning to suspect I am being picky, narrow and generally ridiculous. Still, herbs are a fun subject, I hope, so here we go...

Couple of general thoughts on the subject. RoleMaster Companion had a system of nodes, mostly without leylines. Major, meaning they could be detected at range, and minor meaning they could not. Recently discovered, (not in the core rules) it was anybody's guess which were actually major or minor. Second, and more important here, spots that provide lots of power will be noticed, and become well known. Powerful enough, and they will become protected and controlled. Spots that provide unusual benefits, or strong benefits to unusual magics will also become known,and might quite possibly draw pilgrims and/or protectors. Cinn

Teamwork doesn't seem specific enough. Jackie Chan is a spectacular source for ideas, and perhaps for arguments with the gamemaster, but not for rules write-ups. I had considered KB, but that doesn't let me target the hex,much less the path of the attack through the hex. So activation roll Teamwork, requires KB that at least reaches a hex the attack passes through. So the base attack can be hth, but the Deflection really needs to be ranged. If it is an MA attack, it should probably have increased knock back. Still seems like I should spend some time on this when I'm not headed to sleep. Cinn

In a superhero setting, there have got to be a huge number of possibilities. Right now,I am looking at how to kick an enemy into the path of another enemies attack,thus causing your enemy to suffer a second attack,and at the same time protecting an ally or yourself. I think deflection, usable at range, linked to attack,only if a KB greater than zero. Need to post when I am awake. There are to many mystical tricks in Martial Arts. I would like to see the focus here on combat and gymnastic tricks. Cinn

Regarding the mages bag: Sean O'Lachlan, the forensic sorcerer in the Lord Darcy novels, got arrested once and his bag was left behind. Once he was left alone in his cell, he cast a spell to summon it. People headed his way picked it up and carried it closer, setting it down when their path began to move away again. All without noticing. As for outfits with pockets available on the market, I own two fishing vests, and have never gone fishing. For that matter, I carried a camera bag for 5 years before putting a camera in it.

Herbal skills and herbs & potions. Magic items for users of magic & non-users.

Wulingyuan park in Hunan, China. The House of Winchester. Periglacial freeze thaw honeycomb formation . The Science Fiction Museum / Experience Music Project building in Seattle. Awesome thread! Reviewed the whole thing before posting. Some of the links are dead, but lots of great stuff still to be found. Some of the links lead me down interesting side path . 90 years after the flood in Boston, it is still possible to smell molasses. THAT lead to some odd story ideas.

I liked the "alternative revenue stream" used in Leverage. Have considered building a team around that concept. Should be enough revenue to take some cases pro bono.

If it is a combat power I would be happy to grant the 16 charge even if the character has LS: does not sleep. Usually there are only going to be 2-3 combats per day. So with a max of 4 charges, a character is typically never going to have an opportunity to use more than 8-12 charges a day while paying for 64 charges. I would be concerned if the power was "put everyone in stasis for 15 minutes" or if anyone in the party had a power along those lines. So I would go with the 16 charge level (+1/2 over the 4 charge level) or move two steps down the time chart @+1/4 per step = +1/2. If I ran the kind of campaign where combat occurs every few minutes for hous at a time, I would need to rethink this.

So: (sense spell effect, ranged, discriminatory, targeting)UOO, AOE, (big AOE) with linked Images (magical illumination) usable against invisible, dimensional. Will have to look up the points, but seems like a lot. Since in concept I am not giving any senses to anyone, I have decided this build has to be defined as giving the sense of the Image effect. If some powerful magic Frying Pan of Doom is laying around, don't want people to suddenly recognize the nature of the pan because of my spell. Am thinking that there might be a possible build for this using Change Environment. TV is on & I can't focus on the idea right now.

For me: Greyhawk Kulthea/Shadow World SpaceMaster Honorverse Amber Space Opera Paranoia Maybe B5 a PSICorps campaign could be fun. Wasn't there a Lensman RPG setting? Someone mentioned Dragaera. Is that a published campaign setting? 'Cause that would be so cool. Mostly really prefer homegrown or home plagiarized, pardon home *researched* campaigns. Just a few settings mentioned as reminders: Darkover Pern Witch World Andre Norton's future history Telzey Amberdon Narnia The Dark is Rising A Wrinkle in Time Marvel's New Universe Riddle of Stars Liavek Humanx Commonwealth Luckily, it is getting to be my bedtime, or this post would have gotten much longer. Haven't gamed in any of the lower list, but several have contributed bits to campaigns here and there. Have had AD&D (1st ed) characters face off against Cylons, a Star Trek villain and the Well World all in one campaign. 'Night.

What I am imagining, I think, is that everyone has an undeveloped, unnoticed sense of magic. This is an unusual, targeting sense. Sorcerers develop this sense to the point where they are aware of it in much the same way that some martial artists develop their sense of Chi. The illumination, then, is simply so much magical energy that anyone can notice it so much that they can discriminate fine details. If, IF, I can sell this idea to the GM, then there are a couple of fairly simple solutions to describing the power. However, if the GM doesn't buy that idea, then this power suddenly becomes very difficult to build and probably very exorbitant to pay for. I had originally conceived this as like a light source. Constant illumination that, when turned off is gone. A couple of posts above seem to perceive this as an instant power providing a lingering illumination from the objects struck by it. Am interested in exploring that idea, too, but for now: Power is constant, AOE (perhaps explosion, but that doesn't make much rules sense), does not cast secondary light, if effect partially inter penetrates a darkness field, then only objects in the illuminated section of the Darkness will be visible, but it will be possible to see those objects through the untouched portion of darkness. Also, if the source of illumination is turned off, the objects in the darkness are immediately obscured again. For that matter, the Darkness field is never banished, and objects within it are never actually seen, just magically perceived. The sense is more like radar, sonar or X-Ray. So, if it were built as a new power, what ought it to cost? And if you were to build it using existing powers, is it possible to do so without exceeding what it ought to cost by more than 25% or 25 points?

I would MUCH rather have 96 charges per day than 4 charges per hour. Assigning the same value to these two different builds seems unreasonable. Then there is the even better option of 96 charges with one charge recovering every 15 minutes.

Hmm. N-ray images vs variable sense? Perhaps Mental Illusions with a detect invisible thrown in? That's more on the right track. Define it as allowing those with mental defense to recognize the illusion but still perceive it, Fewer points, too.

They wouldn't attack each other because if they all showed up at the same time, they probably got together in advance and planned it that way

The idea is that the energy illuminates with such a powerful magic that anyone can perceive it. Well, maybe not robots, but a blind man should be able to perceive it. Not sure about golems. And yet it would not function as a flash against those who can sense magic.