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CaptainCoulson

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Everything posted by CaptainCoulson

  1. Honestly, nothing interesting has sprung to mind. The annoying enemies I've faced tended to be those that somebody is using to push players along a very narrow route through a plot that we can barely affect. At which point, it is not very relevant what the stats suggest, or what the name is, or anything like that, since they all end up being the same generic filler between scenes of plot I'm having functionally narrated at me.
  2. Oh, right. Need a prompt for the next super-villain team, right? "Sweethearts" - three couples and one polycule (at least three people in the polycule) whose powers and super-villain themes were all derived from, and centred on, the fact that they are dating/having sex/whatever their relationships are. The team formed because these super-villains all found a common ground in the fact that they prized their love (and probably, in some cases, the power it granted them) *far* more than the super-heroes "Justice" and an incredibly powerful team of super-villainous spouses/lovers would be a perfect way to demonstrate how right they are and how wrong the heroes are.
  3. Mx Pentercosla Vonderfaless (But you can call them [Insert new supervillain name of the week]) Born sometime in the future... or possibly on an alien world... or maybe it was a different dimension... Well, they don't rightly know. They do know that the childhood they grew up in was full of way more advanced magic and technology and all sorts of superheroes, compared with what is all around them in this dismal past... backwater planet... crappy universe... Whatever. Anyway, they were in and out of prison back home, whatever back home means, when they got seriously bored of the same old locals and the petty super-squabbles, and decided to steal a whole sack of whatever they could find in the lairs of the last five super-villains they teamed up with, and ran off carrying the lot, paying their mate's cousin's boss a shedload of cash to help them hide out till the heat died down... Walked through that portal, wound up falling from the sky over this crummy backwater, with their sackfull of arcane doohickeys and techno-whatsits and a whole random assortment of mutant genome applicators and cures, meta-human templates and treatments, and every other weird new power they could get. This holiday was gonna be the time of their life! Course, these local heroes are just as much a bunch of stuck in the mud twerps as the last lot... Well, except for their big robot wizard dude. Electron or somethin' like that, right? Electron gets it. There's no harm no foul, right? Ain't like anything matters, anyway. It hasn't yet really dawned on them that there may be truly no way home. Wherever they come from, they almost certainly ain't going back, if there even *is* a place or time to go back to. That is, unless they *have* realised that, and the tragedy of that situation has hit them so hard that they've just retreated even further into clowning around as a new "themed" super-villain every week to keep their mind busy and bury the sorrow of losing everything they've ever known as the result of their own choices on a foolish whim...
  4. I don't think Secret ID and Public ID are complications. I think that they are things that *can* be complications. If I'm playing a hero with a secret ID and I don't take any social complications or anything to make my secret ID into a complication, then my identity stays absolutely secure. Even if I go about joking around as "Joey", claiming to be the famous, well-known superhero "Captain Power", even if neither of those wears glasses, or a mask, or has any kind of disguise, my friends and coworkers all just kind of laugh it off and lightly mock me for pretending to be a superhero. Villains just assume that I'm a full-time superhero and never try to uncover my secret, even if I let slip that I actually have a day job at a specific local business. It just all happens to work out. Or, if I have a public ID but not as a complication, the same thing happens but everyone already knows that Captain Power is Joey from downtown. In which case, I would probably still go with a job as a freelancer, preferably one that has some way of utilising your powers or skills as a super-hero on your day-job. Having said that, obviously a secret ID or a Public ID, or even some halfway point between the two, could be a good and interesting complication. Lots of reasons for those to come up, with villain looking into your personal life or tracking you, and plenty of role-playing opportunities. In which case, maybe take a job that does make your personal life harder or more tied to the super-hero persona, like a position with the Justice League's museum, so you have to let people see you stood right next to photographs of your super-hero ID a lot.
  5. The Presence attack is flavoured with whatever style you want to give it (scary mobster, impressive robot, seductive snake-person). That means that the Striking Appearance rarely affects it (only when the style of flavour includes "being attractive" and the target can percieve the style of flavour that your Striking Appearance takes) but when it does affect the roll, then your Striking Appearance adds +X/XD6 to the roll. +X to the difficulty you must roll under to affect the target, and XD6 added to the 'Damage' effect dice if the attack 'hits home'. The number for X is the number of levels of the Striking Appearance that you have that are applicable.
  6. Justin Hammer-time Now out of prison after his short stay for minor charges related to breaking Whiplash out of jail (which he successfully argued was essentially just intended to be minor corporate espionage at worst, since he expressly condemned any actual assault against Tony Stark), Justin takes some time out to find himself. Still being a billionaire, he obviously has plenty of spare cash to travel the world, seeking out 'spiritual' sites and- well, okay, he's not really getting it at all, but it sure seems cool, and all the locals seem to get it, which is good enough for him. Eventually, he finds Kamar-Taj...
  7. The difference between Gestures and Complex Gestures is just that a part of the Special Effects of the power becomes more complex, and therefore potentially more likely to fail or be stopped, and less likely to be replicable. For you to cast a spell that takes Complex Gestures, for instance, might mean that you have to be able to move your fingers in certain positions which you couldn't achieve if, for example, you were in a car accident that damaged the nerves in your hands. On the other hand, simple Gestures might allow you to do the same spell without even having that hand, because you just need to point your wrist in the right direction, since you have the special effects saying that your will to make magic happen is focussed enough that missing a hand is not an impediment. In this instance, "Gestures" is something like pointing roughly in the direction you want the spell to go, while "Complex Gestures" is a precise way of holding your fingers, while pointing exactly at the target. Basically, if you want more of a limitation from the Gestures limitation, you take it as a Complex Limitation to let the GM know that this is your power's weakpoint, more so than ever.
  8. Whilst a part of the family were at the Salem trials, Gomez and Mama (Grandma Addams) moved directly to the US from their home in Spain when Gomez was a child, presumably sometime after the death of Gomez' father. Actually, it caused problems for Gomez a little later, when it turned out that his father had signed an arranged marriage contract with a friend to wed Gomez to his friend's daughter. Gomez isn't Spanish by ancestry (or rather, not just by ancestry,) he's literally Spanish by birth. Mama is Gomez' mother, and Fester is Morticia's Uncle. The films changed these facts, along with making the family even more explicitly supernatural and a lot more evil. Then the subsequent cartoons, tv reboot, musical, and animated film, all changed a variety of things a lot. I mightn't know the Clampetts too well, but the 60s Addams family, I know pretty well.
  9. The version my GM ultimately okayed was: Mutant Dormancy Inducer Makes unwelcome mutant genetics turn dormant. Transform XD6 (Severe) Inaccurate (0DCV) (-1/2) No Range (-1/2) OAF: MDI (-1) Real Cost = 5Xrp Transforms anything with an active X-Gene into the same exact thing but with their X-Gene rendered dormant, and any changes made by their X-Gene revoked. Healed by either medical treatment (such as an inverse use of this device, or similar) or by a fresh activation of the X-Gene. (Obviously, if most mutants in your games have lots of Power Defence, then you might need a lot of dice. If a lot of your mutant patients have a high Body score, then they will need a lot of uses of the device before their large/dense body is thoroughly scrubbed of active X-Gene, but that just makes sense.) For my PC, it was 30rp, doing 6d6 Body of effect each time, to be fairly sure of overcoming the Power Defence of our local Rogue-like npc. She is now a non-powered trainee under our PC team.
  10. I am actually a player. Handwavium was not useful. However, the note about how Transform always, by default at least, works on a cumulative basis, was handy. The fact it works *only* on curing mutants or inhumans (or some similar but copyright free version of a person whose otherwise dormant powers have to be 'activated' in order to appear) was simply a part of the special effect of this as a device for treating mutants or inhumans who don't want their activated powers. It would not work on Superman, for instance, nor would a version of this power that was designed for use on mutants (say, one built for Rogue in the comics) work on an inhuman exposed to the terrigen mists unwillingly, nor vice versa. Having said that, it turned out that making the device limited in ways that made sense for the noncombat role I intend it to have, since my pc designed it for use only on willing targets, made it quite cheap, points-wise, and such a low cost device would probably be quite easy to acquire in multiple forms, reconfigured to affect different forms of unwilling recipients with different sources of super-powers.
  11. A susceptibility to magic, at least to the same degree as a normal human. For example, her super-strength wouldn't work for breaking out of enchanted bindings, and her mental defense is lower against mystics than against telepaths.
  12. Actually, based on the size and strength of them, maybe more of a branch of the extended family of Herman Munster. In fact, the Clampett family do seem like they'd go along with the Munster running gag of considering Herman to be extremely handsome and Marylin to be so unattractive that she'd scare off anyone who she tried to date.
  13. I wouldn't even give orangutan the Secret ID complication. The whole point, from what you've said, seems to be that nobody will ever see through his disguise, even though it is paper thin. So there shouldn't be any complication. The fact that he actually is secretly an orangutan is simply an interesting special effect.
  14. To be fair, my belief in the death of the author, and my disappointment at finding out awful things about a lot of authors whose books had been fun up until I heard about the author's behaviour, means that whenever I do get into a discussion with somebody about an aspect of a book (or film, or whatever), and I find out that they wrote it (or directed it, or whatever), I still won't feel any more inclined to agree with their opinion about the "canon" is supposed to be. Just because George Lucas thinks that Greedo shot at Han, doesn't mean I have to agree, even if there is a special edition.
  15. Thanks guys. I think I know what I'm doing now.
  16. *Always* treat the villains like a friendly foe that you find amusing. It will often become true. *Never* assume that the villains *are* a friendly foe, happy to amuse you. It is not always true. (Because, lets be honest, the stakes are always suddenly lower for "comedic" storylines, despite how powerful and serious the same villain and same macguffin are in a "serious" storyline.)
  17. Well, would a mutant/inhuman/etc typically have some level of Power Defence, from being a mutant? Or would an individual PC need to have taken that specifically, either separately or as part of their own specific mutant power? Because, if the nature of the mutant "gene" includes some kind of biological defence against being made dormant again, then multiple dice would definitely be advisable. But without such an issue, just the one dice, with cumulative, will eventually work. Would a willing subject with Power Defence potentially be able to voluntarily "lower" their Power Defence? Like a person with armour plating in their skin staying still and allowing a medic to inject them in a less heavily armoured part of their body, but for Power Defence, rather than Physical Defence? (I assume that would work for Physical Defence if those were the special effects? Would it also depend on the special effects of the Power Defence, then?)
  18. Watching the Agents Of Shield and the X-Men films again, I was wondering if anyone had any ideas how to stat a serum that could be carried around in an device to cure mutants or inhumans if one was encountered in the middle of a field mission? Not against their will, even. For instance, Rogue could be treated so she could actually touch people again. Or if Magneto's initial plan had worked completely the way he'd intended, making world leaders into mutants, they could be treated, if they so desired.
  19. Possibly require an Area Knowledge check each time he jumps somewhere that he can't see. Although, he might be allowed to take Area Knowledge: Places that I have memorised.
  20. That's entirely fair. I was thinking more about the examples listed by OP, of the Hulkbuster armour (which seems to me like it is a standard suit of power armour with extra support and power systems) or the Jaegers (which require their pilots to move in exactly the way that they want their mech to move) rather than following the thread to the later Battletech dominant discussion.
  21. I wouldn't have said that a mech is a vehicle. The point of the mech suit is that it simulates the human form in a battle but on a literal giant's scale. I'd think of it as more of a set of powers from a suit of power armour, Iron Man style, but with part of that power set being an always-on giant-size.
  22. Okay, that was surprisingly fair and thought out. I think I agree. Extremely close-fought battle but Lolth takes the win.
  23. Please do, I look forward to reading it. Couple of things, though. First, if these are "returning" nongamers, are you sure they still aren't gamers now? They have returned for another game. Maybe not typically gamers, or very avid gamers but you so seem to have made them gamers. Wouldn't staying alive *be* the motivation? Like, it is nice to have other drives and thinking about what motivates each character *other* than survival is probably a good thing, but I feel like the main motivations for not wanting to die are fear of dying, which is painful, and fear of death, which is permanent (probably, but maybe not, cause zombies).
  24. Heck, not even the clearly extra-normal abilities. There are some things that pulp western heroes with officially perfectly normal but incredible prowess, like Brisco County Jr. up there, could do with a "trick-shot", or the lasso equivalent, or whatever, that I would still build in the powers section of the usual corebook, with my special effects being "I just get a lot of practise, thanks."
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