garou

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game It's not lag related. There is some combination of range, angle and target texture which is screwing things up. I can TP normal range in mid-air, close range when I target the ground, but not middle range at the ground. Very odd. I do a lot of "TP up at 70 degree angle, then turn off hover, fall towards target, turn hover on so I don't go splat, turn off hover again" when it should be "TP to target directly".

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game Hanve't tried my villain yet - but my VG is all but dead, and I am tired of trying to bring it back. I've been trying to finally get a toon to 50, and my Fire/Emp troller is up to 46, so it'll happen "soon". TP got really buggy under I7 though - makes getting around a pain. I almost took a free respec to remove TP and take flight instead.

Re: Precognition build question No - the precog has the visions, but has no recollection of them. If there is no one else present to hear them, then they are lost to all time. The precog is not even aware that they have had the vision - one minute, they are in the middle of a conversation, and the next, everyone is looking at them funny and the coffee has gotten cold.

Re: Precognition build question The player with the power will not get the note - other players who are in the vicinity get the note. Presumably, at least one will choose to share the information, but with my group, you never know.

Re: Precognition build question That works too. I think it will only be a 5 pt, since, while it could have devastating effects, it also might only have slight ones, and won't happen every game session. Thanks! Dangit - can't rep either of you for it, either.

I am working on an ACME Plot Device , and I hit a snag. I need to build a prophet, though with a slight twist. Right now, I have the following: Precognitive Clairsentience (Sight And Hearing Groups) (50 Active Points); No Conscious Control (-2), Precognition Only (-1), Blackout (-1/2), Vague and Unclear (-1/2), Time Modifiers (-1/2) Which gives me someone who can see the future, but not always, nor on command, nor typically very far. And, when they are seeing the future, they are also unable to use their senses. But, it's not quite what I want. I want the prophet to be unaware that they have had a vision. People around them know, but to the prophet, it never happened. (I hate it as an example, but Trelawney from the Harry Potter stuff would be an example.) I'm tempted to call it a -1, and remove the "Blackout" (since the Blackout becomes rather redundant). For various and sundry reasons, I can't just handwave this - much as I would like to do so. Thoughts?

Re: Good-by Speedster Dangit! That was reflexive clothsline is just wrong. . . I love it.

Re: Good-by Speedster Damage shield, Only vs. Move-throughs/move-bys. Toss in some extra knockback resistence.

Re: PS: Farmer in a Fantasy Campaign Oh sure. One oddity (but not a huge one) in many fantasy systems is that, although your movement rate might be reduced when wearing heavy armor, your maneuverability remains the same. I can get to a decent sprint while wearing chain mail, but there is no way that I can start, stop or turn quickly; whereas in most fantasy games, I should just be slowed up 3" (or whatever).

Re: PS: Farmer in a Fantasy Campaign I don't think it would be much of an issue. All you have to do is presume that a typical Knight has a Spd of 3, vs a peasant 2 (even if the Knight has the extra Spd with the lim "Only for attacks"), and it's not a contest. You could stack an extra -1 OCV penalty on all peasant weapons - they're not balanced, etc, or consider them to be "inferior quality" (or both). If Knights also know "Follow-through attack" (from Fantasy Hero, basically, a 4d6 HKA with the trigger of "kills opponent in battle"), then our Knight swings at, hits and probably kills our poor unarmored peasant in a single hit. Knight then gets a free hack at the peasant's nearest friend, kills them, and makes a PRE attack, with big bonuses for violent action. Results should slow down the other peasants, if not cause them to bolt in panic. Oddly enough, the military fork and the trident are considered Reduced Pen in Fantasy hero, and I must confess that I do not see the logic there. I've used a pitchfork, and practiced with a sword, and it was much, much easier to drive the pitchfork through a straw target. (I wouldn't give them AP, just remove the RP on them.)

Re: PS: Farmer in a Fantasy Campaign Actually, there are some records - churches kept a passably fair accounting of births, marriages and deaths. The dates are a little spotty, but you can trace lineage. (My dad's hobby is genealogy - he's managed to get some parts traced back to the 11th century or so, but he's constrained by the fact that most of the records he needs are in Europe, and no readily available.) Well, a peasant farmer is going to know (under normal circumstances) whatever skills are necessary to provide a livelihood for him and his family. Animal husbandry, farming, shearing, carding, spinning, carving, cooking, animal handler, local heraldry, local history, local politics, etc, plus WF: knife/dagger, and possibly WF:Axe or even WF: Spear/polearm (since many pole weapons were derived from agricultural implements). Most of it, however, could be covered by PS: Peasant. As Frenchman points out, however - there is a lot of free time in being a peasant (or even a modern farmer). For example - my family owns a Christmas tree farm, so, from Dec 25 until April or so, there is no work which needs to be done, or even can be done. Once the ground warms up, the stumps need to be pulled, new trees planted, then pruning and mowing - but really, from mid-June or so until October, mowing and weeding is about it, neither of which can be done after dark, and there is a tendency not to work during the hottest part of the day during the summer. So, learning other skills is certainly a possibility, as long as there is someone around who knows them and is willing to teach. It is worth noting that many peasant weapons probably would not have reduced penetration or normal damage - chain mail is no defence against a sharp pitchfork*. What really worked to the peasant's distadvantage in a revolt was (1) lack of training (peasants are at base OCV of, say 3, vs the trained warriors base DCV of 4 + 3 levels of DCV - so fewer real hits); (2) support from other local nobles (to prevent a possible rebellion from spreading); (3) lack of armor of any sort (since even boiled leather can provide some defence); and (4) the general unsuitability of farm impliments for warfare. A lone combatant, wielding a scythe, is a potentially dangerous opponent. Several dozen of them, in close order, are more a danger to themselves than anyone else - those things take room to swing. * Full plate armor (or even plate mail) was a pretty good defence against most agricultural impliments. A sledgehammer, while it may not penetrate plate, certainly can do a number on the soft and squidgy person inside. I recall (but cannot recall the source) that hatchets, mallets and the like were used successfully against unhorsed French knights at Agincourt by English archers.

Re: Someone's gotta know the answer to this: Oh, you could get a raft going 10 mph. Downriver, with a really strong current, and only for a minute or two before the whole thing flips over or breaks apart, but it could do it. My guess is that, even with 4 adults, a raft is only going to be moving at 2-3 mph at best - a log raft is heavy, and has the aquadynamic properties of a brick. A canoe, kayak or rowboat would all go faster, but a raft is not designed for speed or maneuverability.

Re: x3 I thought about that, but, given the relationship as portrayed between him and his father, I figured that Warren was persona non grata and, as such, would no longer have access to such things. I could be wrong - but, given the fact that Angel serves an even smaller role than he did when he was first with the X-men (when he served as bait for ambushes), we'll never really know.

Re: x3 One thing which really bothered me was this (potential SPOILER alert) Okay, so Angel is at the mansion, and he hears the others talking about going to Alcatraz Island. He's in New York, it's in California. The X-Jet gets there in good time - and so does he. Apparently, Angel flies as fast as any commercial airliner. I don't recall ever seeing a hint of that in the comic books.

Re: Size template question That's actually pretty close to what I had. It's a Teen campaign, so the Buyoff also has an activation roll, and some other limitation (can't recall which, and don't have designer open right now). Thanks for the Phys Lim though - hadn't thought about that.

Re: Size template question

Re: Size template question The Size templates are in the back of FrED. I could go through, take all the advantages of the template, slap on a "Only when shrunk" limitation, then figure out some way of reducing the disadvantages (again, because they only apply when shrunk). It's clumsy, at best, and prone to all sorts of potential error. I'm wondering if I might not just do a Multiform for this. It's a bad way of doing it, however - there needs to be a better way, but, as far as I know, I'm stuck with either the clumsy (yet correct) use of the size template, or the much more elegant use of Shrinking, with various bells and whistles to make it work properly.

OKay, my campaign has a character who is, under normal circumstances, small, like 1" (2.54 cm) high. He has growth that will bring him back to normal size - originally, I had built this as Shrinking (with various bells and whistles), even though the normal method is to use the size templates. This build led to some oddities (to say the least), so I am rebuilding the character via the size template. This created another issue. Let's take two characters, A and B. A has Shrinking, Always On, etc; while B has Insectile size template. Ignoring for a second that character A, with Shrinking still has 6" of running (vs. 1" for Character , or that Character A has a higher strength when shrunk, there is another oddity. Characters A and B get hit by an attack, and they take equal damage. Character A takes an extra 18" of knockback due to shrinking, whereas B takes no extra knockback, despite being the same size and weight. I like the character concept, but the build for this PC is becomming a real pain.

Re: What I learn playing a GM. I'm trying to keep in mind, always, that my NPCs are essentially extras in the storyline - that, ultimately, the whole thing is always about the PCs. And, extras are basically props that eat. (With that in mind, my NPCs are still dynamic; that is, they have their own hopes and dreams and attempt to change the game world in their own way. Sometimes, in theory, they will react to the PCs, and sometimes the PCs will have to react to them. This works as long as the PCs are relatively proactive in their character's lives.)

Re: As a GM, do you charge for...knick-knacks (Caveat: Novice Hero GM) I am running a Teen Champions game, and my current rule/guideline is along the lines of "If your PC wants to have a cell phone for use in secret ID, and you are willing to accept all the limitations of having said cell phone operate under real world conditions", it's a freebie. If you want it to use as a hero, or you never want to worry about batteries, signal strength, remembering numbers, etc - you pay. Likewise, your character needs to be able to reasonably afford said technology - if you are dead broke, no cell phone for you, unless you pay in points. I'm basically of the mind that if something is only tangentially useful as a hero, and as much an asset as a liability when in secret ID, then it's free. When something becomes useful all the time (or even most of the time), then it needs to be bought with points.

Re: Shrinking/Growth question Wow. I was just asking for advice as a GM who is still fairly new to the Hero system. I didn't realise I was going to open such a can of worms. BTW, thanks for the help everyone.

Re: Shrinking/Growth question DefMan? Isn't he the guy who promotes awareness of Def?

Okay, I have a character in a Teen Champions game who wants to have, as a default state, a permanent height of 1" (real inches, ie 2.54 cm, not hexes), who can then grow back up to normal size. Persumably, this is accomplished by taking Shrinking to the appropriate level, then adding Persistent, 0 End, and Always On*. How many levels of Growth, therefore, would be needed to get back to normal size? * (Ignoring, for a moment, that 4 levels of Shrinking is beyond the campaign's initial limits of 60 AP, or that a Phys Lim and stat changes are another way to handle a default reduced state.)

Re: Now Taking Preorders For the Champions 25th-Anniversary Special Edition! I asked for (and received) #25. 13 was my first choice - and if I had not gotten 25, I probably would have gone for either 42, or 169 (13^2).

Re: Now Taking Preorders For the Champions 25th-Anniversary Special Edition! Pre-ordered mine as well. Missed out on my first choice of numbers though - who would have known that so many people were triskaidekaphiles?