Dr. Anomaly

Re: Legion Flight Ring?

I do have write-ups for the Legion equipment... let me see if I can dig them up. I will note at the moment that I ended up (for a variety of reasons) building the flight rings as tiny vehicles.

Re: Bizzare character build, please help!

If you DO go with something like OddHat's suggestion of +8 DCV to represent the fact of it being hard to hit the 'vital spot' (and use the special effect of a 'near miss' as something like "...the blast goes completely through his leg, leaving a smoking hole... which promptly seals over as though the damage had never been...") and DO keep the defenses fairly low, so that when he gets hit it counts, I offer a warning: Beware of Area Effect attacks!

If you do go that route, and keep defenses low, increase the little bugger's Body, so he isn't accidentally killed by a medium-strength AoE blast of some kind!

Re: Telepathy

If we assume that normal people are capable of 'hearing' a mental voice, and your character is capable of detecting their mental conversation:

 

Detect A Class Of Things: mental chatter 11- (Mental Group), Discriminatory, Increased Arc Of Perception (360 Degrees), Sense, Transmit 19 points

The problem with this build is that only other telepaths could hear him, though; the 'transmit' won't do a thing to get his 'voice' to those who don't have a way to 'hear' him (don't have some kind of mental sense).

Re: Invisibility, No Fringe, Requires Squid

Miniature Giant Space Hamsters!

Re: WWYCD: "I" in Team

Turns out there were a number of reasons for him getting sent to Earth' date=' all of which involved him otherwise being enslaved to a dominating race (think [i']War of the Worlds[/i] Martians) and being his peoples' "last best hope" and like that. The allergy, while deadly, could be shaken off by his monumental constitution except in large concentrated amounts. Algal spores were not a problem, salads were right out. We had a biologist in the gaming group who passed on the concept.

 

The main idea, of course, was for him to have a "green" weakness.

Thanks for the extra info.

Re: Q on a 'New' Disad.

Agreed. I'd guess that probably a solid third of unusual "What Disad should I use for this?" questions are best simulated with creative use of Accidental Change.

Accidental Change is the Transform of the Disad world?

Edit: [facepalm] D'oh! I was trying to be funny, but only after I posted it, it hit me... change = transform... so of COURSE it is...

Re: WWYCD: "I" in Team

Redman - Red (really red)-skinned alien who was sent as a child to this planet and was raised by Apache Indians in the late 1800s. Adventured with a mixed group of adventurers in 1900 and 1901. Strong' date=' tough, leaped medium-sized buildings with a running jump. Had a deadly allergy to chlorophyll.[/quote']

Sent to this planet as a child? Did his parents hate him or something? They sent him to a place where the stuff to which he has a deadly allergy pretty much covers the planet...!

Re: Pulling Authority & Other Genres

Face the facts' date=' in other genres th Authority would be considered heroic.[/quote']

You know, I've tried a half-dozen times now to respond to this post, but always went back and erased it because my examples would have Godwinized the thread immediately (even without using Nazis or Hitler). I've come to the conclusion that there's no way I can think of to state a polite rebuttal without touching off a firestorm. At least no way that occurs to me that I have the time and inclination to try and write without igniting that powderkeg.

Re: Alucard vs. Superman or Lobo

Lobo swallowed Wolvie whole' date=' and choked on him?[/quote']

Nah... it was the fans who choked when they tried to swallow the storyline...

Re: Alucard vs. Superman or Lobo

No... it is pretty much a given that Alucard is Dracula' date=' risen as a vampire after his death as Vlad the Impaler. One reason he's so powerful is he absorbs the souls of those he kills, and he has killed [u']thousands[/u].

Me, I'd just go with the obvious... spell 'Dracula' backwards... what do you get...?

Re: What rule don't people know?

My wife and another player in our group has been playing since first' date=' and they occasionally have transeditional problems like that.[/quote']

That's it... for my next character, I'm buying Transeditional as an Advantage on all the powers, so they can be used under the rules of whichever edition I like the best for that particular power...

 

Re: When success is a failure

'Nobody understands temporal physics.' I like this. I think it should be rephrased, though: 'Nobody can explain temporal physics.'

 

If the character rolls that 3 or gets 10+ over the target number, they understand it -- but they can't explain it. Any explanation they try to give would only befuddle those listening (unless, of course, they made a 3, 10+, whatever). It isn't that they don't understand it; they just can't explain it. Like you said, it's a Zen thing.

 

"Master, in the winter it is too cold, and in the summer it is too hot. What is one to do?"

"From here, stop that boat from moving across the water."

 

If you understand, you can try to explain the multiple layers of meanings to someone who does not, but there's a very good chance they'll start saying, 'Huh? Wait a second...' So it is with temporal physics. If they try to explain their comprehension to those around them, let everyone else be utterly baffled. But don't penalize them for getting a primo success; just let it do little more than the regular success does.

 

Conversely, if that happens to be a problem that they actually have to paradoctor ("A paradox can be paradoctored." R.A. Heinlein) and someone manages to get that level of success, figure out something utterly off the wall for them to do. They UNDERSTAND how to fix it, and when, and where, but they can't explain how they understand -- or how what they'll do will fix the problem. Write a note to explain what they should do, fold it over and note that this is the 'Temp. Physics 10+ roll' note, then wait for an appropriate time. At that point, turn it over to the player. 'Your character understands that s/he has to go to Room 2B-144 and flip the second switch to the left between eighteen and twenty minutes from now.'

 

Hilarity ensues.

Some EXCELLENT suggestions there! Repped!

Re: People with Powers

True that' date=' but unless you're a PC you don't get to design your 25 points (and that's 0-25 points), it's more like you tell the GM what's most important to your character and the GM spends the points for you. And the GM is VERY busy.[/quote']

Oh, of course... but I did say what I would be thinking...

Re: How To Build A GRASER

Given that positronium is just an electron and an anti-electron in a mutual (decaying) "orbit" around each other, I think I'd quibble with calling such an arrangement an 'atom'...

Re: People with Powers

How would your average Champions player feel about getting a makeover and mad computer skills when some hoser who barely ever cracked a comic book gets to be Force Man? Worse' date=' some other gamer got the power to summon loyal gynoids? What were you thinking?[/quote']

I'd be thinking there are LOTS of ways to very creatively stretch 25 points to cover a LOT of bases...

 

(As someone who runs a techno-mage that has a relatively small [35 point] Magic VPP, I'm sort of used to thinking along those lines...)

Re: WWYCD: We hope you're feeling better now

Didn't see this the first time around, so...

When Dr. Solomon Kinkaid wakes up and is told by Dr. Kincaid (funny name coincidence there) the story, the first thing he's going to feel is an absolute gut-watering shock of fear, as it will in some ways be very similar to a... shall we say highly unpleasant sojourn in an alternate world he experienced at one point.

The second thought will be... "Maybe this is true." After all, the person that he's cultivated as Dr. Kinkaid is that of a wealthy but rather New Age flaky genius who bankrolls the Millennium Knights because Dr. Anomaly is the techno-mage that he (Dr. Kinkaid) would really WANT to be, if he could, had he any powers... so this means that it would cross his mind that perhaps that's the way things ARE, and that he had just crossed the line in his 'hero worship' into the delusion of thinking he WAS Dr. Anomaly. And trying a small spell of some kind and finding his magic not responding would tend to strengthen that worry.

But after he'd had a bit of time to think about it (and talk his way out of the hospital... something I'm quite confident he could do, given that his intellect was very high even before The Event [and I'm not sure from Hermit's description if he'd still have his boosted intellect or not, as it's not up in the official 'superhuman' range of 50+, believe it or not... it's in the 40s]) he'd come to the conclusion that SOMETHING was up. Step one would be to contact the Millennium Knights... not difficult, considering that Dr. Kinkaid's offices are in the same indestructible building that houses the Knights.

Given his knowledge of things... a LOT of things, including the secret society of supposedly good-guy mages that Dr. Anomaly is sometimes overseen by, and the problems they had a while back, as well as details of some distant-past and sideways-dimensional jaunts the team has been on, as well as certain very... ah... PERSONAL details from inside his wife's mind, he should be able to make a very good job of convincing THEM that something is up. From there, it's a question of figuring out the situation or solving the problem, whatever it is. If it's some kind of mental trap, he'll probably figure his way out eventually, most likely by noticing and then capitalizing on small inconsistencies and such. Otherwise... we'll just have to see. But I'm confident that he'd find a solution, sooner or later, one way or another.

(And one other thing that would help prove his case... his sister Rebecca is a telepath operating as a super-hero with a group in Scotland, and could certainly verify that he is who he thinks he is.)

On the other hand... one thing that has haunted him for years, even before The Event that gave him actual powers, was his parents' disappearance in the Bermuda Triangle. I think it's the lack of closure as much as anything that has caused the problems, he he's made periodic trips down there for years, trying (and failing) to find any evidence of what really happened to them, even if it's finally finding a sunken boat with some human remains on board. If THEY were 'alive' again... that could well prevent him from TRYING to solve the 'problem' about believing he's a de-powered Dr. Anomaly. At least for a while. And if it did turn out to be some kind of trap or other such figment, finding out they weren't really alive again could seriously screw him up.

...

You know, an odd thought just occurred to me...

On more than one occasion, Dr. Anomaly has created a simulacrum of himself that is basically him with all his memories and skills, but no powers, so that Dr. Anomaly and the team's sponsor, Dr. Kinkaid, could appear at the same function in public at the same time. (This 'powerless' version of himself is done with a very carefully constructed Summon, and part of the reason that version of himself is powerless is that he can't make a Summon large enough via his Magic Pool to be able to create/summon an actual, full, powered duplicate of himself.)

So... I wonder... what if the 'Dr. Kinkaid' that woke up in the hospital is a simulacrum that, for whatever reason, didn't just go 'poof' when the power of the spell and alchemical solutions used to create it ran out...?

Now THAT would be an interesting quandary for Dr. Anomaly, his team, his wife, AND 'Dr. Kinkaid'...!

Eeesh. I think I just scared myself with that thought...

Re: Invisibility, No Fringe, Requires Squid

I seem to recall a space squid did latch onto the TNG Enterprise once. Naturally being the wusses they are' date=' they tooled around to find its mommy.[/quote']

 

More of a slug than a squid...

 

And its mother was dead, so they went looking for a relative (more or less).

Re: I have created a Regulation Act

Hmmm. Given the existence of superhumans with superhuman computer skills, a database like this cannot be kept secure, and that means that anyone in it will (I see this as a certainty) have their identity exposed or sold to some "interested party" at some point... and if it's a sufficiently-motivated supervillain who gets ahold of the info in that database, what follows is mass blackmail/enslavement or mass slaughter.

Not exactly incentive to comply with the law.

Re: Talking to the duplicates

Hmmm. Since this is a PC we're talking about, my inclination to answer about whether or not the PC is convinced is "Whatever the player decides." In other words, this is skating into that area where dice rolls can replace role-playing, and I've never liked that.

Re: Appearance Shifting For Items

y'all are making this WAY too complex. At it's simplest, what he wants to do is change what the focus for a power looks like. The appearance of a focus is a function of the power's sfx ....

 

So, a simple variable sfx advantage at the +1/4 level should do what you want. You could probably get away with limiting the advantage only to the fociis' appearance. Probably end up being cheaper than the other ideas. Also, since this functionality is built into the focus, you don't have to mess around with any UBO to be able to lend it to a friend.

Well, Black Rose hasn't said the cloak and boots can do anything (point-costed) other than change their shape/appearance. If that's the case, trying to tack on the +1/4 Variable SFX advantage may be impossible. On the other hand, if they were costed to even 1 point each, THEN you could quite reasonably tack that Advantage on...

Re: Rules to ignore, or replace

Afraid I have to agree with Archermoo on this one, CTaylor. It does make a difference as to how it's applied.

Re: The cranky thread

The Magic cards project is on "hold", even though I have more done, because of circumstances beyond my control.

I my website is set to debit from PayPal, but that hasn't happened, I just discovered. So it's temporarily off-line.

Why did it not debit?

Simple.

A couple of places that I'd signed up for the "free trial offer" using PayPal, AND CANCELED IN THE SPECIFIED TIME, have billed anyway... to the tune of right at $100, which I didn't have in my PayPal account, naturally.

But my PayPal is hooked to my checking account.

But I didn't have that much margin in my checking account, either.

So now some checks, like the rent check I wrote just before the weekend, are going to bounce. And I'm going to have all kinds of fees on my bank account for that, too.

So I'm currently in the red to around $100 more or less (more when the checks bounce and bank fees hit) AND I'm unable to cover the website fees.

So until I can manage to get this mess straightened out, website off-line, no more cards, my mood shot, depression skyrocketing, and even if I can get those charges from those "free trials" canceled/reversed, it won't undo the fees for the bounced checks with the bank account. So those fees will, at least, eat up the money I would have used to pay for my website.

I'm in a lousy mood, about to curl up in a corner, and have no way to upload the new cards I have written, even if I felt like taking my write-ups and making them into cards, which I don't right now.

I have been in major financial difficulties, had JUST gotten to the point (via a new job) where I WOULD be able to cover my bills, BUT that won't be until the paychecks start coming at the end of this month. So I am up all kinds of creeks without any kinds of paddles and...

Life totally sucks, I don't see a way of straightening this out any time soon (or at least soon enough to avoid my bank account getting flagged), and the depression is pulling me down fast.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

Do not, repeat, do not get this thread closed!

Re: Bag of Holding...How Would You Do It?

And the weight limit is what the GM says it is. And completely independent of the character (a +5 STR can mean going from 100kg -> 200kg or from 400kg -> 800kg. It's not a constant variable of lifting capacity).

And that little issue is why when I made my suggestion, I specifically stated:

Bag may only contain items whose total weight is less than or equal to the maximum lift capacity of the Strength bonus bestowed by the bag (-0)

Re: Bag of Holding...How Would You Do It?

Well, one simple (possibly over-simple) way of doing it would be something like:

+10 STR, only for carrying contents of Bag of Holding, 0 END (+1/2), IAF Bag (-1/2), Bag may only contain items whose total weight is less than or equal to the maximum lift capacity of the Strength bonus bestowed by the bag (-0)

...and the fact the things stored in the bag are larger than would normally fit is just the special effect of the power...