transmetahuman

Re: Mute Characters

 

Interesting. Given the limitation that the player can only verbalize character actions, and has to use his own pantomime/body language to communicate with the other PCs (and NPCs! What if the GM isn't good at charades?), I would expect the player to sooner or later get frustrated when trying and failing to express subtle nuance himself, and try something like "I put an expression of cautious agreement on my face".

 

On the one hand, a mute character should be better at expressing himself than the player who runs him; he's had more practice. And the human face is capable of communicating a lot of nuance; it's just more open to interpretation. On the other hand, where do you draw the line? Use something like a Pantomime/Gestures skill, and if the player makes the roll he can phrase his actions so as to communicate his intent?

 

Hopefully, the player will enjoy the challenge of using his own body, and limit verbalizations to straightforward actions - but I could see it getting frustrating, especially if the GM isn't good at picking up on what the player is trying to express. And if the disad came about from events in play, or for some other reason wasn't the player's choice, I'd be a lot more lenient.

Re: why u all sux

 

But you’re missing out on the fun of using it in everyday normal life. When I shout “I R TEH W1N!†around people who don’t even have computers' date=' they look at me in awe.[/quote']Uhm, that's not "awe"...

Re: Superhero Football

 

What would be the best real-life team sport for a charity superteams exhibition match? Something people could expect to survive, where the widest variety of powers can be shown off without ruining the game?

Re: Dear G-D, NOOOOOOOOO!!! I hate Hollywood!

 

oh that? Damn. Oh well.

Does wolverine die?

Please?

 

Pretty please?

 

 

Eh, forget it. Galactus teamed up with the Bad*ss Jesus Himself couldn't kill that annoying little money fountain. He's the best there is at what he does, and what he does is make Marvel money. Bub.

Re: Spider-Man: Elementalist?

 

My group is notoriously unreliable, so our current GM and I have decided to run a light pick-up game when some players are absent. We're thinking of doing a "dream team" sort of comic book/video game thing, where the players who show up get to play their favorite characters in an absurd ensemble cast--basically wish-fulfilling junk food, but it should be fun!

 

Of course, it's also an excuse to run lots of silly combat so we can learn the system. We're all new to HERO, but we're using 5ER for a Star Wars game. My GM and I are pre-generating a bunch of characters so we can just pick up and run with it. I was working on Spider-Man just now, and while most of his powers are pretty obvious, I couldn't figure out a completely satisfactory way to handle his webslinging. Then I thought, "What about making it an Elemental Control with webbing as the element?"

 

The immediate objection in my mind is that since Elemental Control powers are supposed to always cost END, that wouldn't accurately reflect the nature of his webshooters as devices (Focuses)...but the Spider-Man of the recent movies produces the webs from his own body! Perfect way to explain the END cost (takes a lot of energy to replenish the web supply). So what other objections might there be? Spidey seems pretty comfortable using his webs to do all sorts of crazy shit in the comics, and the more I think about this pet idea of mine, the more I like it. What do you think?

I'd just use two identical multipowers. He can only do one thing with each shooter (or wrist spinneret, ack I hate that in the movie) at a time, anyway. That way you can fit more cool web schticks in for fewer points, and use both MPs together for, say, swinging with one arm while creating a net with the other.

 

If you really like the idea of using an EC, though, I don't think any GM would object to "web useages" as a tight enough special effect; most would let you put at least his Clinging in there too, as a "Spider Powers" EC.

Re: Mystical Hero Team Archetypes

 

Detective Chimp- (no... I'm not kidding) a super intelligent (and nearly immortal) simian detective.

Oh' date=' jeez. Don't get me wrong, I love monkeys... I'm [b']all about[/b] monkeys... but what were they thinking?

Re: Superskradaptomimic

 

I must admit that I have a Silver Age setting on the drawing boards at the moment, and a Super-Skrull homage is definitely on the list. Then again, I could always use an Amazo homage instead, associated with my recurring Mad Scientist... Hmm...

 

I'm also considering an "evil counterparts of the PCs" team. And a mind controller... I have a nasty feeling the PCs might end up fighting "themselves" a whole lot.

 

Then again, that would be a good lazy way of designing a campaign, wouldn't it? You wouldn't really have to write up many characters of your own.

 

Mix it up with lots of soap opera, and nobody would notice...

Hehehe... I have this movie in my mind about some uber-munchkin player of yours, to whom you hint or let slip that your campaign is going to be mostly the characters fighting themselves... whereupon he presents his character writeup, coming in at ten points...

Re: Mystical Hero Team Archetypes

 

Great stuff! I can really picture János from the writeup. Looking forward to the rest of the group, particularly Sympath & Epitaph. A few thoughts about János:

 

If his XDM is regular vanilla No Concious Control, why would his team ever use it? Logically it would only lead to a Sliders campaign. If János has some reason to believe he "goes where he's needed", but doesn't have a clue where that might be, I'm thinking the limitation should be less. Also, why the Continuous? I'm guessing you're going for a Princes of Amber kind of deal, where as he walks, he shuffles through realities 'til he finds one that looks good. But you can do that anyway without Continuous, and he can spend more than one phase checking the places out.

Re: Superskradaptomimic

 

Chimera-Man attacks the Champions...

Oh' date=' oh, OH... I can't believe no writer has used that name for one of these guys before! That's [i']perfect[/i]!

Don't allow emulating of Skills at all; only Powers and Characteristics. (That might actually be an interesting way to force the PCs to use their Skills to beat the android).

That's exactly what I was thinking. Depends on team composition, though. Too many Martial Artists, Magic Skill VPPs, etc. and you lose the whole "facing the combined team" concept since too many characters' whole schticks are left out of the mix.

Make certain the android also absorbs all the team's weaknesses (Susceptibilities and Vulnerabilities). Most characters are well aware of their weaknesses.

Absorption of weaknesses is an important issue for these types of characters - and there's no reason the opponent even needs to be aware of these weaknesses - would the PC have known if he had just obtained his powers?

Great points. Possibly not psych disads' date=' and definitely not social ones, but "with great power comes great weirdness"!

As for PCs who aren't there, that's easy: Make the android only have the Powers of the characters that actually show up and he gets time to scan. In the first Amazo episode of Justice League, Amazo gained the powers of each hero only as he encountered that hero. (The JL even tried to keep Superman away, figuring Amazo would become unbeatable if he absorbed Supes' powers too.)

Interesting dynamics for teams with very disparate point totals, or if there are powerhouse non-team NPCs that need to be persuaded to stay out of range. The disparate point total PC is particularly important if the Chimera (oooh I love that name!) has more of an agenda than just beating on the PC team - "Stay away! If he gets your powers, no civilian in the city will be safe!" That'd apply even without the disparity, come to think of it... any PC whose powers would be particularly useful to the Chimera's goal might feel pressure to keep out of the fight.

I was thinking the other day about how each of Marvel's Big Three teams have had their own verson of a nemesis who combines everyone's powers - The FF had the Super-Skrull to deal with; the X-Men fought (and enlisted, briefly) the Mimic; The Avengers had the robotic Super-Adaptoid. I can't think of an equivalent for the Defenders, JLA, LSH, Teen Titans, etc... but given the frequency (and presumed popularity) of appearances of these guys, I wouldn't be suprised if other teams had their own versions.

 

Have any of your teams faced someone like this? Or would that be too many points to throw at them? Not a Rogue character who emulates a power or two at a time, but someone who can do everything any member of the team can do, at least in terms of powers.

Re: Can any comic fans fill me in on current Marvel continuity?

 

I've been surfing around the last couple of days trying to do the same thing. Here are a couple more links that have helpful synopses and/or character histories:

 

http://users.rcn.com/kateshort/faqs/racmxFAQ/

 

http://www.mutanthigh.com/

Re: Superpowers that haven't been thought out...

 

I was quite entertained when Grant Morrison introduced the idea of Cyclops using ruby quartz contact lenses. Small! Compact! Harder for a foe to seize!

 

The problem came when I realised that just about everyone I know with contacts needs to open their eyes real wide when inserting them...

roflmao... oh, that's a good one

Re: Villainy Amok

 

Apparently you've never seen the Mike Mignola/Frank Cho assessment that "everything goes better with monkeys" (shared by many others -- including Darren Watts [iIRC]' date=' I may add).[/quote']Add me to that list.

Re: grrrr

 

I thought it was

Db- ouble

P- ost

Me, too.

 

edit: Hahahaha... I didn't read ahead, I swear! And yeah, "Deleted By Poster" made so much more sense that I was sure I was mistaken.

Re: Laughing gas

 

I am not sure if I will use the Mind Control or the Entangle for the one that just makes you laugh. They both sound like real good ideas.

 

Since it is legal now I think will use the NND for the one that makes you laugh to death.

 

Thankyou everyone.

FYI: Doing BODY requires an additional +1 Advantage on top of the NND

Re: Ugh... must... become... tangible...!!!

 

the End drain is already covered in the rules for ALWAYS ON according to the rules (page 182 of FREd)

gm discretion allows a always on power to be temporarly switched off if you pay 5X end for every phase that you keep it switched off.

In 5th Revised, it's on page 284. It also briefly mentions the use of foci in that kind of situation.

Re: Designing a Post human society

 

When I sat the thread title, I assumed you meant post-human in the Transhumanist sense (cybernetically augmented intelligence, AI, nanotech). Reading the post it seems more likely you meant post-human as in "everyone has powers", but that doesn't give us enough to go on. Some kind of Marvel mutant genetic factor spread through the whole population? Or does everyone have the same powers, or similar powers? How big a potential power disparity might there be between people? Do people get more powerful over time? Are there "secondary mutations" (shudder)? Are powers- or power levels- passed from parents to offspring? Are powers skewed towards combat-effectiveness, like in the comics? Or is it more scattershot (like Xanth, if you read that series), where someone's powers and effectiveness are completely random? All of these factors would affect the society that results from them.

Re: CHARACTER: the dirt

 

I'll have to read up how to build a "resurrection to a particular spot" in hero.

You might get some use out of calling the chalk drawing hill an Immobile, Inobvious, Accessible Focus (maybe at half value because, though they can be erased or destroyed to prevent the guy from resurrecting, he doesn't have to actually be at the focus to get use of it). Then tack on Charges that Don't Recover to represent how he uses up each drawing. That should give you some significant savings.

Re: What's the most ridiculous PC you've ever been subjected to?

 

Perhaps he is toying with the idea of joining the Skoptsi.

 

Personally, I'd encourage it.

"Think of it as evolution in action."

Re: Activation Roll vs. Required Skill Roll

 

...as someone else pointed out to me, activation rolls are buggers with continuous powers: you need to roll every phase, whereas RSR continuous powers keep going once started withut further rolls.

 

Whilst I don't necessarily disagree with your premise, I don't think you can just get rid of RSR: you'd need to add a bit to Activation Rolls that allowed you to maintain continuous powers without further rolls.

This has been bugging me. Anyone want to take a crack at ruling how the limitation value for Activation Roll ought to be modified, for use on continuous powers that continue to work reliably once Activated? Halve the regular value? -1/2 "off" the regular value? There ought to be some way to create this kind of power; it's a pretty common concept after all.

Re: Calling Marvel fanatics

 

I suppose Frost's being able to go all diamondy does sort of fit the character, and does serve to differentiate her from various other mutant telepaths. Overall though, I think the whole secondary mutation thing is pretty lame.

 

The only X title I can really stand reading these days is the Ultimates. I'd rather just wipe the characters' slates clean, and have some consistancy in the story, than try to grasp all the bizarre changes these characters have been through over the past three decades or so.

Agreed about the Ultimate lines, and why. No way am I ever going to figure out the lunatic twists and turns some of the writers have presented over the years I was on comics-buying hiatus. From what I'm hearing, it would just make me disgusted to try.

 

And the secondary mutation thing is pretty lame - as all Champions players know, you should have a unifying theme for characters, not just throw a grab bag of abilities in a pot. I never had a problem with Nightcrawler's obviously more-than-one mutation, because his metahuman traits all made sense together somehow. They fit. I could even see Angel gaining healing powers from some non-mutationary source- it would tie into an angelic theme (though I'd prefer that it did come from some other source of power, and that the "X-factor" only manifested once per person, myself). But telepathy + "diamondy alternate form"??? Ptui.

Re: If you could add one more...

 

I think that point caps actually is a meta-philosophy of the Hero System. Every Adjustment power that adds points has a cap. It's always the max the dice of the power could roll in a single roll (barring expenditures to raise this limit). The one exception is Healing-as-Regeneration in 5th Ed., which still has a cap of sorts -- it stops when fully healed).

 

I can't think of anything that grants or boosts an ability that is naturally open ended in Hero System.

I'm not weighing in as for or against this idea, but it occurs to me that there would be a cap: the power of the character stolen from. Can't go any higher than that. Just make it clear that if you steal Fishbike's Omni-Blast, then steal her twin brother Wheeeeeeble!'s identical Omni-Blast, the points don't add - each power is seperate even if it has the same SFX.

The best-selling expose, Living On The Mouth Of Hell, is written by a Sunnyvale High alumnus and former school newspaper editor. The Republican National Convention is attacked by a horde of zombies, while the world watches via live satellite feed. A woman quits her job with a psychic hotline company, drops her fake Jamaican accent, and wins 9 straight lottery jackpots in a row. President Bush claims he was psionically possessed for the last ten years and denies responsibility for his actions- says he never even wanted to be President.

 

Magic, psi, aliens, whatever... it's hard to suspend disbelief of the inhuman competence necessary to keep these kinds of things known only to a secret cabal or conspiracy. Sooner or later word will get out, the world will know, and everything will change.

 

What's your favorite fictional account of a period like this - the transition from "secret magic" to "everyone knows that"? Books, movies, comics, RPG backgrounds, whatever... who has written your favorite or most believable or most detailed take on it?

Re: Background Cliches

 

1. Atlantis existed, and some remnant of it or its people still does

 

[Edit: Beat me to it, Worldmaker!]

 

2. Top Nazis were occultists/mages.

 

3. Islamic countries, and/or China, tend to kill their mutants/metahumans/paranormals.

Re: If Champions didn't exist...

 

What Superhero RPG would be your fave?

 

Same as I use now: GURPS. Of course, if Champions didn't exist then GURPS probably wouldn't be recognizable. They do owe (and acknowledge) a big debt to HERO.