Alverant

Re: New JLU Tonight Whew! Thanks for the info. I didn't know it was that complicated.

Re: Force Field powers help? If you went with FF Usable against others, would that mean the target has to break out of the FF in order to attack? Also Force Lifting can be worked in other ways. Put it over an object and move the FF down to squish it. Put it against a floor or wall to make your own opening (like the power drill). Buy and EB with Indirect and you can put the FF anywhere and have it expand in any direction.

Re: Needed: Quirks from TV/Movies/Comics I think that verbal tic is just the translators trying to fill up space. Because of the language difference, a sentence in English can be shorter than the original Japanese. So these nonsense sounds at the end of sentences is just so there's not silence while the mouth is still moving. Another reason is anime has more segments where no one says anything (usually during the stock footage) and we're more used to seeing the characters talk almost all the time. So they fill in the silent time with one-liners.

Re: a PC OOPSED First, I'm glad to know there's a GM who can admit they were wrong. It's a real sign of maturity. Second, there's one aspect to the situation that hasn't been addressed yet. Unless the father has criminal contacts up the yin yang, there is no way he could hire Blood Orchid before the police told him the hero wasn't responsible. And if he did have those sorts of contacts, then he was probably a crime figure and should have had a bodyguard for his son. The phonebook doesn't exactly have listings for Assassians or Hit Men It's still possible for it to happen as you said, but not as likely. Maybe the father made a hollow threat or there's some punk with a knife impersonating BO. (I just read his write up in Predators and it would be easy, but very stupid, for someone to claim to be BO.) When a GM makes a mistake, there are 2 ways to handle it. Admit it or change things so it's not much of a mistake. In this case I would make the father a minor figure in organized crime and why they MAY know BO, the higher ups don't want to waste the resources for someone as expensive as BO for such a minor thing. Someone trying to make money out of the situation will contact the father and claim to be BO but is little more than a trained normal who is no threat and will tell the team who hired her. Once word of the failed hit gets out, the father will be in trouble from his organization so the PCs will have to PROTECT him from his former co-workers. As for an OOPS moment, in one session our resident alien knocked a cultist into a sacrifce circle. None of us knew it was exactly the WRONG thing to do (even our mage, my character didn't know how bad that was until it was too late). The GM fixed it with a little time travel, sacrifice of an NPC's powers, and mind controlled PCs to prevent the worst of the effects from happening.

Re: Force Field powers help? How about going with making the character stand out and not the powers? The archtypes for powers have been to the point that you really need something "out there" to be unique. If I made a hero that shoots fire or an inhuman brick, people would think of them as Human Torch or Thing unless I did something special to set them apart. For the FX, how about not making the powers invisible (it costs points and is less dramatic). For example make them neon green or an unusual color. Then shape it. Your force field isn't just an outline around your body, it's hawk-shaped with wings coming out of the shoulders and force bolts coming from its eyes. (If you can get flight, all the better.) Or you could play with the name force field and have it absorb force instead of deflecting it. Force = mass x acceleration. Bullets run out of speed so they don't do damage. The energy from an energy blast is absorbed by the field. This would give a plausable reason for an overload disadvantage. Unusual powers, how about growth? The force field around you expands, filling up with energy until the character is the heart of a titan. You could probably go with a hero with force field power but can't use them at range. He has growth, HA and HKA (represented by growing FF spines or blades along his fists), stretching, clinging/KB resistance, etc all different ways to use a malable personal force field. The character may be from a different reality with different physical laws with the FF being the barrier that seperates the universe he occupies from himself. You could take vulurnability or low stats to represent how things work differently from the character's home-universe. You'd have to at least make the FF inherant and give him some life support. Think of how a deep-sea diver has to take certain precautions and equipment to survive down there. For the team player, have FF useable by others, a Change Environment that reduces running by creating a frictionless field just above the ground. For extra fun add Selective to create swiss cheese holes where your teemmates feet go in. Then if you're mean, have it grow little spikes. Throw in a technology dispell (jam a FF bubble up the gun barrel) if you expect to be fighting agents. Don't harm the bad guys, make it easier for your teammates to harm them.

Re: New JLU Tonight I liked how they didn't use the term "Legion of Doom" and how its existance wasn't reveiled to the JLU at the end. They aren't rushing things with grandiose, over the top, plans to conquer the world. It looks like at first the only clue to their existance will be heroes saying, "You know, those two never worked together before." As they slowly figure out the JLU has an evil counterpart.

Re: Needed: Quirks from TV/Movies/Comics Data and T'lek: Formal (refers to people by rank, title, and last name, even longtime friends.) Dr.Jackson: Believes in the best of people (not blindly trusting, but more likely to consider an attack by a new people is a misunderstanding than an act of aggression) Data and Carter: Spouts off technobabble at the drop of a hat Tom Paris: Enjoys simple pleasures, takes hobbies seriously (who else would spend hours getting every detail right of an old theater to show an episode of MST3K?) Captian Janeway: Coffee addict Captian Sisko: Migrating hair (on the top of his head in the first epsiode, down on his chin in the last) 7 of 9: Unaware of how her appearance can effect others General George Hammon: Uses "red phone" as a threat Plain Simple Garak: Courteous even to people he hates

Re: What Champions Books Would You Like Published in the Future? Agreed on both counts. A GM's guide for Champions would be great all around. Something like Villany Amok mixed with small-squad tactics. Even have elements from the other books for general tips. Pair it with a player's guide with advice for players and how to RP skills and personalities they don't have. (Like how to act like you have a 30 INT when you're closer to a 12 INT.)

Re: What Champions Books Would You Like Published in the Future? Unfortunately a book done without passion is a book that's not all it could be. If You don't like a genre, you shouldn't write a book about it. For Anime Champions I'd use Kanzi 5 as a guide. It's a 4th edition ebook that may or may not still be available. One of the changes to 5ed they'd need to make is that in this book you buy the anime-style backlash powers seem to have. You know that special effect of streets cracking and glass shattering as the ball of power rockets by. Now you just change it to a side effect like the helicpotor blades or jet exhaust like in the Ultimate Vehcile.

Re: Magic ammo suggestions?

Re: Multipower OK I'm a bit confused here. If you have two slots of 30 pts each, you can use both at once in a 60 pt multipower. (see previous examples). Or is it because this is an attack the rules are a little different? In any case, it seems to be more bookkeeping than anything since the point cost is the same. Breaking it down into its component parts would most likely be done for readability.

Re: Is there any originality left in comics? I think with the big companies, it's safer to go with a story that has a success record than try something new and original and take a risk. Consider Hollywood movies as an example. We see so many sequels and remakes not just because we enjoy them (most of the time) but because most of the time a new idea tanks at the box office. Being original means taking a risk that it won't be accepted by the market. It's even worse for comics because they're already a niche market. If you create a niche in a niche market, you won't sell enough copies to continue printing. How many new ideas by Marvel or DC broke the two-year barrier? Even the one-year barrier? It's because they didn't sell enough. And what sells the best, the comics that have been around a long time and have familiar characters (Justice League, Fantastic Four, Spider-man). I remember Marvel had an original title called Clan Destine that lasted a year. They gave Thanos his own title as he explores a new, more heroic, purpose in life. It got cut down mid-story after a year. DC had Power Company which was very original but fell apart before the 2 year mark. New comics that show originality don't last long most of the time so they're not coming out as often. If you want originality in comics, support it! Buy a new title next time you visit the comics shop. Donate a few bucks to a cool web-comic site. Write to the people making it and give them your honest opinions.

Re: Multipower Two questions, why is the stun only EB given the No Range limitation and why can't the Entangle be linked to the EB? Also, tecnhically there's nothing to stop a player from buying it as 2 slots of 30 active points each and drawing a circle around them to clairfy they are effectively one power. In this case buying them seperatly is just for clairification. But I can see putting them together so when you improve the power with XP you don't go over the multipower limit. As for not linking them, in this example you could vollentarly "turn off" the electricity to the net if the target reacts badly to electricity (badly for the one doing the shooting, not the target like a man carrying an explosive that is sensitive to electricity or a supervillain that turns electic power to raw strength).

Re: Multipower OK time to complicate things. What happens when it takes two powers to create the desired effect. For example you have a gun bought as a multipower which has an electified net as a slot. The net is made up of two powers, an standard entangle and an energy blast (continuous, uncontrolled, 0END which ends when the entangle is broken). Would you put both powers in one slot or different slots that by default work together? (I'm assuming you can't use the LINK disadvantage.) Now for an extra complication. Say one of the two powers has a limitation the other does not. How does that work into the slot? In the Mystery Men movie they have a gag gun which shrinks the target's clothing so they can't move. I would buy it as an Entangle with the limitation: not vs rigid clothing (powered armor for example), only as strong as their clothing, and only entangles parts covered by clothing. Then I would add a 1d6 NND (rigid clothing negates) Continuous Uncontrolled 0END like the above example to represent the clothing shrinking around sensitive areas. Here the limitation of rigid clothing that can't shrink is an actual limitation for one part of the effect, but part of the NND for the other. Also the part about "only affects the parts of the body covered" won't do much good if the target is wearing very skimpy clothing. In that case there would be no effective entangle but the NND would still happen. Could this be done in a multipower? PS destroying the entangle and ending the NND involves destroying the clothing and the target would have to fight naked. Should that involve an extra power or advantage or just getting another vengence-minded hunted?

Re: Magic ammo suggestions? Since Urban Magic tends to involve pop culture references, how about bullets that literally adopt the phrase "lead poisoning". (You buy a poison from an example and add range.) Homing bullets ("this bullet has your name on it"). Bullets that do more damage than normal like how Hollywood bullets can make cars explode by hitting the gas tank or do double knockback. Bullets that vanish once being used (leaves no evidence). Freeze bullets (entangle). Hey why not make all the powers with 0END because in the movies the Hero never runs out of ammo. I'd also take some of the things magical arrows can do from FRPGs and apply them to bullets. I think I've seen this in some characters, but since the gun is part of his equipment, you can buy a second one for 5 points, then 4 for another 5 points (extra limbs anyone).

Re: YOUR Favourite/Funniest/Silliest Presence Attack Moment? We were stopping a back robbery as a prelude to a bigger plot. They come out as we come upon the scene. My character shouts out, "Stand back! My sidekick will handle this!" After the laughter died down he said, "Go get them,___" and say the name of another PC with low presence. The "presence attack" worked and our teammate actually charged out to attack.

Re: What Champions Books Would You Like Published in the Future? I'd like to see an expansion of Galactic Champions. If one isn't in the works, how about an insert in a "Worlds of the Terran Empire"? Star Hero or Terran Empire mentioned a psionic Champions team which sounds pretty fertile for expansion. I'd also vote for more CLOWNs! The token adventure would be CLOWN vs Black Harliquin with CLOWN showing BH and the heroes that it's not nice to kill.

In the thread http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35528 I asked how, by the rules, can I have Cost Half Endurance with Charges that Cost Endurance. Apparently the rules don't allow that. Would a "Charges Cost Half Endurance" at -1/4 limitation be appropiate in this case?

Re: Supervillains and the death penalty

Re: Supervillains and the death penalty I just read this thread so I'm going to be covering a lot of subjects. First I disagree with the notion of treating supers just like normal people or real world people. In the real world we can put dogs and dangerous animals to death for biting (not killing) people. So what happens when the supervillain IS a mad dog with animal intelligence or even human intelligence (for example Black Fang in Arcane Adverseries)? You can take a gun away from a psycho killer, but it's a lot harder to take away Genoside's eyebeams. Normally it's much easier to render a normal human harmless than a supervillain. It can be argued that some supervillains need to be "put down" because they are basically dangerous animals. Some of the opposition to the death penalty is based on the notion of rehabilitation. However the Champions Universe deals with villains who are inherently or irredeamable evil (the Monster, demons, Dr.Destroyer, Mechanon) making rehabilitation impossible. How would the law deal with someone who has killed casually and is powerful enough to break out of prison and continue to kill casually? This brings up the notion of permenent possession. One of the servants of the Kings of Edom is a conjoined twin who has a second brain which is twisted, evil, and violent while the other is more passive. If this person was captured, the only way to execute the evil twin was to kill the not-so-evil twin as well. In my compaign we had to shoot an ally in the head because he was infected with a brain parisite and tried to kill us. If he was captured and there was no way to heal the damage, what happens? As for how the law deals with heroes who kill, I would have to say it depends on who the heroes kill. Killing Viper agents is pretty different than killing a member of Eurostar. The killing of a supervillain is probably more tollerated than a normal guy with a ray gun, even if it is someone like Lazer. Now for a twist, and I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned yet, is in a world with telepaths why wouldn't the courts appoint mind readers to see if the defendant is telling the truth or regrets their actions? Due to numbers it would be used in special cases and would be held to the same neutrality standards as judges and juries. I'm picturing a tribunal of telepaths voting on the decision. (One telepath can make a mistake, an even number can result in a tie and the limited number of telepaths make 5 or more impractical.) Of course this leads to new problems like finding out the defendant is innocent of the murder he is accused of, but is guilty of a dozen others he hasn't been charged with. Would allowing a mind probe mean giving up your right to self-incrimination? I should also bring up HOW some supervillains would be executed. If you don't need to breath and immune to poison then gas chamber and lethel injections and hanging are out. Make your skin supertough and firing squad and electrotion become impractical. I can almost see the Department of Corrections having an execution chamber on a live volcano or having a liason with the military R&D for testing nukes.

Re: DarkHawk: Body Swapping. Except the android body can be rapidly healed. I've never seen him change into Darkhawk and have Darkhawk be wounded. That kind of total healing (and presumably having any drains or transforms countered) is way too expensive. That part would have to be scaled back for the sake of game balance. But you're right, if he doesn't benefit from having 2 bodies why should he pay for it? Here's my new idea, build two seperate characters; one human one Darkhawk. Give each one ExtraD movement and make sure Darkhawk has the human's skills. Let the GM him have a base or vehicle to represent where the unused bodies are stored and give THAT the healing power. Actually that's how it worked in the comic too.

Re: DarkHawk: Body Swapping.

Re: DarkHawk: Body Swapping. Yes, he was one of my favorite heroes. I tried writing the power in 4th edition. Since the unused body was kept on a spaceship in another universe and for all practical purposes out of reach. Also the cybernetic body was quickly repairable when it wasn't being used, even to the point of reforming when it was totally destroyed. (It happened leading up to the issue 50 climax, the cybernetic was destroyed and the mind was instantly returned to the human body. Shortly thereafter (an hour or less) the cybernetic one was rebuilt.) I don't know how Duplication would cover that. The duplicate would need regeneration when not being used. I asked for ideas on the appropiate limitation for a similar concept and got a wide range of suggestions from a -1.5 to 0. Actually the story behind the Darkhawk project was very pragmatic. An interstellar villian was tired of having his best agents die (training them was expensive) so he had scientists develop several android bodies his agents can change in and out of more easily than they can change their socks. If an android body was damaged or destroyed, the agent didn't die. He simply waited for the android to be rebuilt or used another amulet that linked him to another android. In the story, the scientists rebeled. The villian took one the most powerful amulet but his real body was destroyed, trapping him in the android. Two of the scientists escaped to Earth with one amulet where the main character found it. In the end what we have is a disposable hero. Blow his hand off? No problem, change back to human form, wait a second, return to Darkhawk and the hand is back. So if we went with Duplication, we'd need to set aside 50 points for Regeneration with the Ressurection adder. Maybe even two duplicates to simulate the rapid healing process. Change between Darkhawk A and B to let each one recover independently. How about including "cannot recombine" and Extradimensional Movement (useable by other) to go from the outerdimensional ship to where the amulet holder is?

Re: Anthropomorphic/Furry HERO Resources Yes, that's what got me into Robotech in the first place. The dream of stomping on those turtles with a giant robot.

Re: Anthropomorphic races Well to get back to the original subject, I'd let the players decide for themselves. Allow them say 30 points for skills and powers (tunneling, enhanced senses, etc) and 10 disad points to simulate their animal traits. Animals have enough variety to account for differences if two characters pick the same animal but buy different abilities. I'd also make a mandatory 5 point DF if you have many different species in your campaign. (If no one species is usual, then everyone is unusual.)