Alverant

Re: Vari Lim with Limited Use question I admit that technically using a dispell would work better from a game mechanics perspective, but it's too expensive to make it effective. Assuming using the standard effect, to dispell 60 point guns would need a 150 active points. The concept of the power is to break (or disable) a specific kind of mechanical or electronic device in a specific way. It's a way that would work for one kind of item, but not another. A Dispell for technological RKAs would affect pistols, rifles, blasters, and so on. This concept power would narrow the focus more to pistols and rifles OR blasters and each time the damage would be different. I can see adding vari FX or an NND (defense is not having the component affected). (Actually I don't like the Selective option because you have to reattack each hex when not having Selective means you affect everyone with one roll.) The "only vs" limitation can be an advantage too. I had a distingeration attack (NND Does Body) which my GM made me take "only vs inorganics". I used it to cut a car accident victim out of the wreak. His shirt was in shreads but otherwise unharmed.

I have a Technomage character and I'm considering a new spell. Being a mage means you have a reason to use unusual powers, advantages, and limitations to achieve the desired special effect (sometimes to the point of bending the rules) and an urban/techno mage is more so. The idea is to create a field which causes a particular malfunction to occur in machines or electronics. The nature of this malfunction must be narrowly focused resulting in only a particular type of technology to be effected. I was going to buy a Penetrating RKA with Radius and a -1 Vari Lim (for -1/2). The trick is that the available limitations would be "Only Against _____". You fill in the blank with a type of technology that would be worth a -1 or more under normal circumstances. For example Guns, Blasters, Gernades, Boot Jets, Computers, Radios, Nonpowered Armor, Engines, and so on. The player (me) would have to describe what the malfunction would be and the GM would decide what is effected and how. If I said "the gun barrels get squeezed so the bullet can't come out" then the GM would decide if the Viper agents blasters would qualify. The Sonic Screamer and other weapons that don't have a barrel per se would be immune until I cast it again with the FX of the power packs overloading (in which case the normal guns would be immune). As an option if its too powerful, I was also thinking of the spell causing a fixable problem. Computer would need rebooting, guns ungammed, power packs put back in, armor restrapped, that sort of thing. I figure that would be a -1/2. Would this power be acceptable with or without the option?

Re: Tacky, tacky, tacky !!!! I remember in a Ninja High School comic there was a villain who was an Elvis impersonator who got magic powers and called himself Spelvis. I wanted to do a write up of him, but I don't know enough about Elvis songs to make it believable. For that I'd need an Elvis fan and how many fans would make an evil version of him?

Re: Super-Strength Smash-Through Question I thought that was the "mental command" trigger was for. I don't use that advantage very often so I might have been confused. It's the same cost either way.

Could I buy another inch of Tunneling with this power to make a 2 hex wide hole (FX is smashing each fist into adjcent hexes, knocking down the walls)? Also if I bought Trigger (mental command) could I use the second inch on a second wall? For example if the character was running from one room, across the hall, to a second room, could he use one inch on the first door and the second inch on the other door? (Likewise since the power would not be bought for walls/doors only, it could be used to smash through floors multiple floors while falling, assuming it was an intentional fall.) Tunneling 2" 10 DEF Trigger (mental command) 1/4, 0END (61 Active Points) No Non-combat -1/4, only vs barriers 1/2" or less -1/2 35 Character Points

Re: Money in Superheroic campaigns In the old How To Be A Superhero book, they have a very practical use for wealth that a superhero can use. (I'll pharaphrase to make it Champions compatable.) Nest Leader: Get him my cronies! Hero: Wait! How much are you guys getting paid? Agent 1: $500 a week but we have to buy our own blasters. Agent 2: Plus we have to pay for medical and go dutch on gas. Hero: Work for me and I'll pay you $1500 a week, medical and dental included. Nest Leader: Get him! Get him! Hero: What do you say? Agents: Yeah! Hero: Get him MY cronies! Nest Leader: $750 arugh! $800 Oww my spleen! $1000, no I give up, I give up!

Re: Is anyone running Galactic Champions? Is there still room in that game for another player? I do have the books except for Worlds of Empire.

Re: Is anyone running Galactic Champions?

Re: Mystical Hero Team Archetypes This talk got me wondering, what happens if a robotist creates an advanced robot body and is able to give it life through the kaballist method of creating golems. Would it be a magical or technological being? (keep in mind the only thing magical about the now-sentient robot is its soul)

Re: Mystical Hero Team Archetypes

Re: Mystical Hero Team Archetypes One archtype I think you left out is Magical Creation that includes PC elementals, golems, and mudane people who have been changed by magic. This does overlap the others you listed. Elemantal creatures or their life source could come from another dimension. Frankenstien's monster is a flesh golem. Werewolves and mummies were once ordinary people until magic touched them. But I think it's still worth mentioning because it covers more. A mortal's soul transfered to a suit of armor, a person half-fused to a demon, etc. I am assuming dimensional wanderers include angels and devils.

Re: Big Question: How did superpowers come about in your campaign? How you answer the question affects what kind of heroes you can have. In 4th Ed, Obsidian was an alien prince. His background implied half the population had similar powers. That wouldn't really fly in 5th edition since it made Earth the center of the magical event which made superpowers possible. If you reverse the positions, it's like superpowers suddenly became possible without reason. (Then according to the future history of 5th edition, vanishing for no reason.) So you don't really have to have a reason because the real cause happened on another planet. I was working on an idea that a scientist on the other side of the universe accidently created a second big bang with a second set of physical laws which overlapped our own. This expansion wave encompassed the universe in a few centuries (there was a new maximum speed limit) and after it passed, superpowers became possible. The only origin this forbids is the "ancient hero" unless there is something about the original physical laws allowed for it.

Re: Theme Super Hero Teams One thing you have to watch out for when you have a theme team are vilians who are particularlyeffective against that theme. An all gadget/powered armor/robot team wouldn't do well against the Anti-tech League (from 4th ed) who had EMP and other powers that were extra-effective against technology. Likewise what would an all-brick team do against a desolid or flying target? When making a theme, you have to be sure you keep your bases covered. Granted you couldn't have gadgets which affected minds or a magical robot, it's just a little harder to justify. I had an idea for a sciences based team. "Physics" was a martial artist, "Biology" was a Beast Boy style metamorph, "E-M" (electromangatism) was your energy protector, "Astromony" had travel, enhanced perceptions, and strength abilities, "Q-M" (quantum mechanics) had the unusual powers like teleport and desolid, "Chemistry" had unusual attacks like knockout gas, acids, flash. "Psychology" was the team mentalist.

Re: Alternative Religions in Champions Campaigns One idea an old GM tried is that the gods are manifisataions of mortal belief in them. Their personalities, abilities, and appearance is a reflection on how their worshipers picture them. They derive power from worship, not just prayer but using their symbols or domains. For example Hermes, god of healers, is worshiped in every hospital or doctor's office that uses his symbol (careus?? the twin snakes around a staff). One of the mystic books in 5th ed has Bachuus receiving worship when anyone listens to his CDs. On the other hand Thor, Heracules, and Gilgamesh were influenced by their Marvel Comics reincarnations. Posiden adopted automobiles in additions to horses since they are a means of transportation. New gods have to pick new domains or share the worship from existing ones. We once met the newly appointed the god of fiber optics. I didn't realize it at first, but it fell apart when it came to the Abarmaic religions since their God is infinitely powerful. By defination it means that no matter how much worship and belief you pump into it, it will never be enough. Worse because the images and beliefs of said God were so diverse among the faithful, the result was a perpetually incomplete god with multiple personality disorder. Fortunately the campaign ended before this came up. But I think all of us figured it out.

Re: Theme Super Hero Teams

Re: Alternative Religions in Champions Campaigns

I recently heard "Rocket Ride" by Tom Smith at a convention and it got me thinking. As I understand it Pulp hero is the world of pre-Golden age. Good and evil were clear cut. Plots were straightforward and resolved quickly and completely. There was also a space "version" where you had rockets with tail fins, villians with style and knew how to wear a cape, bubble helmets, space pirates, real heroes who are not all muscles and guns. Ignore little details like light speed, gravity, and steam in a vacuum. I mean ignore it, not explain it with technobabble. Will this be in the Pulp Hero book? And if there is a Star Pulp hero, why not a Fantasy Pulp hero? I guess it raises the question of what is pulp hero and is it restricted to private detectives wearing cool trenchcoats?

Re: Is anyone running Galactic Champions? Agreed. Most of the members had one main power then the rest are generally power stunts they wound up paying for. Again I agree. To me, one of the biggest problems with a meta-campaign is that you have to find some way to link them all. How do you justify going from high fantasy to low fantasy to historical to pulp to superhero to cyberpunk to future war to space opera, to finally galactic superhero? The waxing and waning of magic is good but it puts the kabosh on a campaign that has long-term game time plans. In Fantasy Hero, before the characters get old, Takoclees (I can't spell his name, the evil lich with the crown) takes over the world. In Champions, you have until the year 2020 to do what you want to do because then the magic that makes supers possible is gone. Talk about a lousy retirement plan! On the other hand you have the appeal of linking every campaign together, it has the "cool" effect as well as an excuse for campaign crossovers (not that it's the only excuse). Your fighter in fantasy hero could bury his magic sword so his superhero could conveniently find it which in turn can be carried to a distant planet by a Terran Explorer then rediscovered by an alien swordsman. But the odds of anything like that happening appear to be less than the odds of someone feeling like they have to buy lots of books for a complete campaign picture. (I bought Valdorian Hero for that very reason.) On a side note, is it me or does every future superhero team have some poor guy from our time?

Re: Is anyone running Galactic Champions? Matter-Eater lad at 699 pts? Is there any way you can send me/post the character? I don't know much about that incarnation of LoS, but his main power in the next-to-current (I stopped when they reset everything ... AGAIN) his main power, eating anything, can be defined in less than 45 pts. Life support (does not eat with limitation of must eat something) and a 1 or 2 DC of HKA with 0END and NND Does Body (defense is energy force field). How far does their equipment go towards the point totals? From what I've read, a few of them are cosmic level, but the rest are standard heroes, if that. A few may violate established campaign limits by the concept of their power (Triplicate has 2 duplicates which may have more active points than allowed).

Re: Power Rangers Yep, "a dark redish brown color" (because I know people will want to know what it is). Crayola never made one for this. Except for red, this was the most muted group of colors I've seen.

Re: [Humour]SciFi TV Quotes I have to wonder, is it fair to use Red Dwarf. To get all of them, we'd have to put the complete scripts. Kryten: What do we do now? Rimmer: Follow the Rimmer-shaped blurr (runs away) Everyone else: (runs in another direction) Rimmer: There's one flaw in your plan. Kryten: No sir, I took your cowardess into account Rimmer: Can you imagine an entire society based on me? Cat: I did and it took me two weeks to dry out the matress. Rimmer (sans bitterness): The Cat had his cool sucked out of him. Now he looks so geeky he couldn't get in a science fiction convention. Lister: A fistfight with a T-rex? Killcrazy: Yeah! They have short arms, no reach! Rimmer: What about the Rimmer directive which states, "Never tangle with anything that's got more teeth than the entire Osmond family?" Rimmer: forgive me if I'm being thicker than the offspring of a village idiot and a TV weathergirl... Cat: Raise the defensive shields! Kryten: An excellent idea sir but with just two minor drawbacks. One, we don't have any defensive shields and two we don't have any defensive shields. I know that is technically one reason but it was so glaring that it is worth mentioning twice.

Re: Power Rangers Oh yes, can't forget the Shinesman with their fantastic colors (one color I had to look up the dictionary) and their awesome weapons. Too bad there were just two episodes. There's a thread in the Star Hero section about funny quotes from sci-fi. I wonder if anime counts....

Re: [Humour]SciFi TV Quotes I'm surprised Stargate SG-1 or Red Dwarf or Mystery Science Theater 3000 haven't seen much here. Well since RD MST3K are comedy series maybe I should leave them out here and stick with SG-1. Jack: Te'lek take point and look scary. Extra: But Anubis is a god! Te'lek: False god. Dead false god. Jack: Wait, isn't he on our list of powerful DEAD bad guys? Well how about two from the MST3K movie: Crow: Well look at that "breach hull, I'll die" even had it underlined. Crow: Believe me Mike I calculated the odds of this succeeding vs the odds I was doing something incredibly stupid; and I went ahead anyway. (I use this to explain the difference between INT and WIS in D&D)

Re: City of Heroes writeups What about the thrown rocks in Brickstown? A Colt 45 has nothing on a pepple tossed at you by an escaped prisoner.

Re: City of Heroes writeups The big problem I see is that some powers won't translate well into Hero. As early as lv6 (out of 50) you can get this power that teleports an enemy from 200 yards away to right next to you even without line of sight. (You have to see the enemy to target him, but the target sticks so you can run around the corner.) A quick Champions conversion would make it: Teleport 100" (200 yards), Useable Against Others, Ranged, Full Indirect, 0END, Only to pull foe to withing 5" of your location (-1), Full Phase 750 Active, 300 Real. (I made it 0END because in the game it does cost way less than 75% of your END) It's a cool power and one I love using, but it would exceed even Galactic Champions limits. On the other hand at a higher level you can get a defensive power that I'd put at 30 points or less. When converting the City of Heroes game to the Hero game system, there will be problems because of the nature of each game system. CoH is more action, Hero is more stradgic and detail oriented.