Cinniuint

Am trying to build a character with duplication, and no base character. (or all the duplicates are base characters) What I mean is that any duplicate can recombine with any other, not just with the base character. Naturally, all the duplicates are identical. The logical way to handle this, IMHO, is to make all the duplicates pay for the duplication. Unfortunately, the rulebook suggests they do that anyway. I am currently just ignoring that particular problem. I have also purchased, easy, ranged, invisible fx recombination, based on EGO and mind link for all the duplicates. So a duplicate can choose to recombine at a distance, leaving a dead body behind. Creating a duplicate is much more time consuming. Takes six hours to make a duplicate, and the process requires conservation of mass, so the character needs to eat a LOT, or make a very small duplicate. I have set Conservation of Mass at -1/2 for shrinking and -2 for Growth and Density Increase. I would be interested in any feedback people might want to give on these points. The character is a shapeshifter.

Re: Best Complication / Disadvantage? Have built a character for use by tag along friends roleplaying for the first time. Generally, it has invis. and desolid. both always on, full life support, and 30 STR usable against Physical World. The key element that makes the character work is Prankster. I had one player decided to haunt one of the party members, not revealing his existence to the rest of the party. Leaving notes on steamy windows and wiping them out before anyone else can see, etc. One particularly funny moment came when the character was about to take a bite out of a grapefruit sized grape and got his elbow shoved, smashing the fruit into his face. The "ghost" was also invisible to the sense of touch, so the poor character didn't even feel his elbow getting slammed.

Re: Year One I think multiform is a must for the Marvels. Billy Batson and Captain Marvel are two separate people. But perhaps they weren't yet in year one…

Re: Oddest (yet maybe the simplest) question of the day... Speaking of odd questions, (and I bet this has been asked before) does it strike anyone else as humorous that SIXTH edition is where they chose to abandon HEXES?

Re: How would you build... So, NND. The defense could be force field, I suppose. Common enough defense for characters. Not so common for objects. I don't think he actually needed to chew. As large a bite as he could bite off, and he was ready for the next bite. He once felled a flagpole by chewing through it in the middle of a combat. Brought the thing down on his opponent. I'd say that was at least four or five bites, probably eight or ten, in the space of one or maybe two phases.

Re: How would you build... What size RKA do you need to consume an object Superboy couldn't dent?

Matter Eater Lad? I asked this in another thread, but I think it is an interesting question. Seriously, this guy ate a machine that Superboy and Ultraboy together couldn't even dent. OK, so indigestion was the least of his troubles afterwards, but still...WOW!

Re: A powerful cosmetic transform For a character with Telekinesis and the ability to sense the tumblers in a lock, a very high lockpicking, bought as a power, seems appropriate. For a character who just makes a lock be not locked, transform seems to me the way to go. Thanks for all the responses. It seems the concensus is IF transform is used, it should be more than a cosmetic transform. And I agree generally, but probably not for my group. Game balance is just less important.

Re: A powerful cosmetic transform Oops! I didn't select that icon. Perhaps I am subconciously trying to censor my self.

Re: Alternate form of sustenance Played in a home grown game that used levels of monovore to define complications of this sort. Herbivore of carnivore was one level of monovore. Milkweed caterpillar, Koala Bear and vampire were four levels of monovore. In Hero, I would go with a physical limitation 0-5 for herbivore, 5-10 for carnivore, 20-30 for vampire. A vaguely related question: How would you build Matter Eater Lad?

I played in a campaign many years ago where a couple of the GMs defined transforming a locked lock to an unlocked lock as a cosmetic transformation. I agree with them from the standpoint of feel/sfx/definition, but I disagree from the position of game balance. I am ultimately inclined to hang game balance and just accept that this is a really cool bit of power gaming, well reasoned, and worth rewarding the creativity of the idea. I should also note that my groups tend to be about story and roleplaying. Game balance of little import, and vastly different characters play side by side with no problems. Well, sometimes. My question is this: What do you think? Generally, and for your campaigns specifically?

Re: Need a name for batlike hero I would suggest Umbra, or perhaps Umbra Bat. As for light hearted opera, ever heard of Gilbert and Sullivan?

Re: How do you build: Multiple personality disorder? Just an update, for anyone who cared about this thread. I got the character built, and played it quite a bit. I was concerned that the character might be too much of a focus, drawing attention away from the other characters. This did happen, but was much more due to the Head of State perq than to the MPD of the character. The GM was also good at rotating through the PCs, giving each a chance to be central to the story. The other players very much liked the character, but found the character to be too weak. Everyone liked the character, though, and encouraged me to bring it back after I retired the character due to story difficulties. Built the character with 32 personalities. A multiform in which all the forms looked the same, except the one female personality, which did have a female version of the characters usual body. I may soon start posting the individual characters. Some of the personalities were quite developed, others, shyer, more retiring, rarely came out and had rather undeveloped personalities as a result. Each character was built on either a "fight" concept of some sort, or a "flight" concept. Some of the flight characters had eventually developed fighting personalities, but were stuck with their "flight" power suites.

Re: How do you build: Multiple personality disorder? Just an update, for anyone who cared about this thread. I got the character built, and played it quite a bit. I was concerned that the character might be too much of a focus, drawing attention away from the other characters. This did happen, but was much more due to the Head of State perq than to the MPD of the character. The GM was also good at rotating through the PCs, giving each a chance to be central to the story. The other players very much liked the character, but found the character to be too weak. Everyone liked the character, though, and encouraged me to bring it back after I retired the character due to story difficulties. Built the character with 32 personalities. A multiform in which all the forms looked the same, except the one female personality, which did have a female version of the characters usual body. I may soon start posting the individual characters. Some of the personalities were quite developed, others, shyer, more retiring, rarely came out and had rather undeveloped personalities as a result. Each character was built on either a "fight" concept of some sort, or a "flight" concept. Some of the flight characters had eventually developed fighting personalities, but were stuck with their "flight" power suites.

Re: Leadership Powers Other leadership powers, probably not applicable to this character: Mindlink. Being able to communicate privately with the whole team at once can be very useful. Overall skill lvls, usable against others. The not applicable in this case is the special effect: telepathy. The notion is to stimulate someones brain to recall and create with a skill the target has, even though the one giving the boost doesn't have that skill. Teamwork usable by others. As above, but as above I think that this power could be adapted to fit the concept of Major Victory.

Re: realistic space flight Slight shift. The GM has pushed the tech up, and the game 10's of 1000's of years into the future. Terran Empire alone is 4 galaxies, with alone in the Milky Way. I don't think the GM has a clue as to the scale he is building on, but he is young, and doesn't read a lot. He has been watching Babylon 5, so that and some video game are his primary inspirations. (earlier plan had the Protoss as the primary villains. I don't know about spelling, but the name should mean something to some of you out there) Anyway, he thinks that beam weapons are the way to go, and views my torpedo systems as primitive and clunky. I told him a beam can't reach any real kind of range if it is fired from a platform that has disturbances such a a creature with a beating heart to throw off its aim, where as a torpedo can maneuver at the end of its run to increase its chance of hitting its target, even at extreme ranges of several light minutes. ( Of course if the enemy has stabilizers, such as we have to day on cameras, to reduce vibrational interference, then I may be in trouble. In fact, I may be dead long before my missiles arrive on target) C'est le mort. And yes, the science is rubbery. But I hope it is reasonably self consistent. The idea of realistic in science fiction is to either a) follow physics, or make up physics that makes sense and allows for the suspension of disbelief and follow that physics.

Re: What does a "20 Comeliness" look like to YOU? WOW! 229 posts and 105,000 + views! Looks to me like this is an extremely important characteristic. Saw a player make a character (female character of course) with an 80 comeliness. Back in 3rd or 4th edition, with 100 points plus disads. No female players in that group. Player didn't last long, so I don't really remember how the character worked in play. Just one other comment: we have the habit of respecting beauty, as though beauty were an indicator of competence. There is certainly something behind that habit, but we also have the stereotype of the beautiful blonde idiot, so we are clearly not, as a culture, clear in our thinking on the subject.

I just thought of a way to simulate concentration while acting. A character who needs to concentrate (on a power with the disad, or on some other thing deemed by the GM to require intense focus) could maintain that concentration and still act by sacrificing some speed. This could be done in a number of ways. 1/2 SPD round up or down, -X SPD where X is a number chosen by the GM, or -(X-Y) Where Y is INT/10 or 5 and if (X-Y) is greater than -1 then (X-Y) equals -1. This last allows smarter characters to act while concentrating with greater ease. Perhaps some variant of this already exists on the boards. I felt it was an interesting and workable idea, so I decided to post it here. Let me know what you think. As I just thought of this, I haven't play tested it at all. Just sayin'.

Re: Gravity power Additionally, if you want a little realism, the effect would be extremely disorienting to anyone unaccustomed to it. I once spent an hour in a ship that had been beached about 20 degrees off of level. People inside would lean to the side in order to stand parallel to the walls... and fall over or stagger. The effect on the deck was less strong, but still disorienting. I think that a 90 degree shift would be easier to deal with, but from my observation, I acclimated quicker than most, and I took around a half hour to reach the point where I had a small rather than large tendency to unbalance. This effect could be done with change environment, personal immunity or if the GM allows a +1/4 or +0 advantage of reduced by acclimatization. I think that INT speeds the process, but it requires focussed attention for quite a while, which I think could be represented by a reduced effect based on INT that requires reduced SPD to obtain.

Re: realistic space flight Yes, that was a bit helpful. I have used the drift token method before, and like it. I am afraid I have no sympathy for clueless gamers who can't figure out the drift system. If they don't get it right, then they miss the chance to attack, and their enemies get the choice of attacking them in the more favorable hex of the correct one and the one they placed themselves in. I think that there are two separate aspects to maneuvering in space. Thrust and attitude control. These can be represented by flight and flight skill levels. I like to use 12 facings rather than 6, so that the ship can face the side or the corner of the hex. I am thinking that a ship can turn 30° each phase, +30° for each skill level up to 180°. Rotation on axis of thrust for free, or as per turn. (Rotation on axis can be important to bring new weapons to bear, or to present partial coverage defenses and ablative defenses.) Realistic thrust requires some calculation, but it works out to your inches of flight is your acceleration. 5" of flight with a 12 SPD works out to just over 1G acceleration. Or 20" with a SPD of 3, whatever. The normal rules for flight acceleration have to be thrown out. They just don't work. Will have to see what we can do. I am looking to have ships capable of acceleration at 100 G's or more. A hit that takes out your drive is not as bad as a hit that takes out your artificial gravity.

Re: realistic space flight Posted by Cancer: Are you planning on your ship combat happening within a star system using Known Physics , with interstellar travel being a combat-free handwave zone, or is your interstellar travel sub-light as well? Yes, realistic physics, & FTL and EDM. Normal space only for combat, and no FTL or EDM from inside roughly the orbit of Jupiter so that any combat near anything of importance requires a commitment to see the combat through to the end. I am basing combat mostly on the Honor Harrington novels by David Weber. That means combat at extreme ranges, with several levels of mega-scale. (about +1 1/2 mega-scale range and up to +1/2 mega-scaled explosions). Each player is designing the tech for a different race, so this may have to change, depending on what everyone comes up with. I know one player is building around absorbtion feeding into his attack, but no other details. Cinn

Am building ships for a campaign that will be a combination of diplomatic battles and ship to ship battles. I am trying to figure out how to build a realistic sublight drive for use during combat. Obviously, (I hope) this needs to begin with changes to the rules for flight in space. Has anyone worked on this before? Any suggestions would be welcome. Cinn

Re: What should I add to my equipment list? What about gravity? Do you have artificial gravity, or have people all become 0-5 STR wimps? If you have artificial grav, there are a few impacts that tech will have on the society. If you don't there are a LOT of effects that lack may have on society. Other tech will also have its impact. How many languages were in space when Earth was destroyed? How many groups are isolated enough to maintain their own language? It may be that there is a universal language that everyone speaks, possibly as a first language for everyone. Historical languages will have been maintained for privacy purposes in some form, at least. Also; is literacy a lost art? Reading might very well become a specialists skill, used by people who have trained in speed reading for rapid data review. Larry Niven wrote a couple of pieces called "Theory and Practice of Time Travel" and "Theory and Practice of Teleportation" which, among other things, discuss the impact of these technologies on a culture. I try to think like that when looking at fictional tech. On a related note, tech or lack of tech often creates the need for more tech. For example, during the space race, the US had much lighter computers than the USSR. As a result, the USSR had much more powerful rockets. I am afraid this doesn't really answer your question, but I hope it will help you to answer the question for yourself. Cinn

Re: Herbs Herbs that have ongoing fx take continuing charges and consumable focus. There are many advantages & limitations that herbs can take: side fx: especially dependance, vulnerability, susceptibility and negative levels. Extra time Area effect (hex) for herbs that can be scattered as a dust in the air with either a blow tube or as a thrown missle. NND for almost any herb that can be used as a attack. Cumulative and invisible fx (w/fringe) for things like slow poisons administered through food, drink, bath water, etc. Trigger for two stage fx that need a second herb to cause their effect. An example of this is a poison that is only poisonous if both parts are ingested. So if your target has already been some how given the first half, they can be targeted by, say, spiking the punch at a party. Everyone drinks, but only target is affected. Activation roll for herbs that are inconsistent in efficacy. Burnout for herbs to which an immunity develops. Gestures for the process of applying topical ointments and possibly for unstoppering and drinking a potion, etc. Gradual effect. Independant. Requires a skill roll for some herbs that are finicky in application, and for many that require specialized brewing before use. Restrainable in that it might be possible to prevent the use of the herb or herbal preparation. The other build is to set up a multipower with slots for each herbal preparation the chacter has learned, some number of consumable charges and defined circumstances for replacing charges.

Re: Herbs Oops! Ignore the last line. I can't seem to edit from my phone.