Tom

Re: Confessions of an Online GM Obviously, having everyone handy is the fastest way to get a fight done -- especially if you're all in chat too, and can deal 'realtime' with all those annoying little side questions ("how far away is 'x'?", "does my char recognize 'y'?") that you sometimes forget to put into the initial post -- or that you just didn't think of... Since that doesn't happen anywhere near often enough, your next best bet is having a group that posts predictably and giving a clear indication of who goes when. This works best when players don't get in a big hurry to post their next action while you're still trying to resolve the previous action (and god help you if the speedster is the slowest poster in your game). You already seem to be doing a good job of this, k_b... If you think details are going to be important, use a map of some kind to cut down on confusion. There's a jpg of a hex grid over in the free stuff, iirc, which with only minimum effort in whatever generic paint program is on your computer can at least handle battle mapping as well as most of us can with a battlemap and markers. Winterhawk uses that over in 'A Game of Chance' to good effect. When I feel the need for a map, I use AutoREALM (which is free), but it has a lot more of a learning curve for those of us who aren't necessarily that familiar with similar programs (I could make it do basic stuff easy enough, but I managed to get a lot more out of it once a friend who regularly makes presentations with stuff like PowerPoint and what-not showed me a few tricks). I also know a few games where the GMs use Photo Shop to make maps, so you've got a lot of potential options depending on what resources you have available, and the time you have to use them... If you're not going to use a map, make sure you have a common set of assumptions with your PCs. Unless you state otherwise as GM, PCs are assumed to be within a half move of all villains. If a PC posts an action that makes use of something you hadn't considered might be available, go with it unless you've got a good reason not to... All of the tricks suggested for speeding up combat in the book are a really good idea online. Don't waste time giving agents and low level minions recoveries -- once they're down, they stay down. I usually don't even bother tracking stun with agents; a good hit will stun them, two hits will drop them, a really good hit and they're out. I don't usually worry about giving villains recoveries either, if they're further down than one Recovery will suffice to give them positive numbers (and not even then unless I think it's going to make a difference in the fight) they're out of the fight...

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... From winterhawk's 'A Game of Chance' campaign on Hero Central... Gaze (team mentalist/MA) 'questioning' the cowardly villain who'd been controlling a lethal robot from a 'safe' location... The responses in chat are almost as good: winterhawk (friendly neighborhood GM)... Selyna (plays Lady Eldrich, our newly acquired mystic)...

Re: Confessions of an Online GM I pretty much always fly things by the seat of my pants -- the one thing I like most about GMing on line, I have the TIME to do that. Your list of notes is more extensive than mine... Some things I've learned over my time GMing: Chat (or PM) with your players from time to time. They can give you some good ideas about where the stories are going, and where they could go... The Timeline is your friend. Especially if you have solo threads and as you develop a game history. It makes it easier for you to keep a sense of 'when' things happened (especially in reference to everything else)... As a GM, use email notification and get the edits. Yeah, it'll let you catch people trying to fudge the die rolls, but the main thing I use it for is keeping track of where I owe posts. My game tends to have multiple active threads and sub-threads at any point. I have a mail rule set up in OE that automatically sorts my game related emails to the appropriate campaigns (I'm in a total of 6, iirc). This makes it easy for me to keep a rough track of where the various stories I'm involved with are going, and I keep unanswered posts marked as unread -- this lets me see at a glance where I need to post when I have the time to do so. Actually, this helps whether you're the player or GM (and I get email for all my games). I've seen too many cases of a game stalling, and it turns out one or more players hadn't seen they were up...

Re: Confessions of an Online GM As another 'just let me play' HCer who somehow ended up as a GM let me say you've got a heck of group going with A:TNG k_b. You've got some very impressive writers, and more importantly, you've got a group of players that seems to mesh very well together -- something you seem to realize already. That's probably the hardest thing of all to find with an online game... I don't normally do much lurking outside of the games I'm in (or the one I GM), and I've only recently started lurking the current story arc (I'm certainly looking forward to see what happens in Cinnabar's thread) but from what I've read so far you certainly seem to have a decent handle on the mechanics of running a game on Hero Central...

Re: Grond, underpowered pansy? So far, in every encounter I've had with Grond, he's lasted less than a Turn -- and if the team included a mentalist or fire SFX he usually doesn't make it past the initial phase. Though to be honest, there are two factors involved. One is the dice seem to have been in tune with the heroes these days (I can recall only 3 fights with Grond off hand, and someone gets some seriously good dice in each of them). The other is the players hear 'Grond' and the gloves come all the way off and everyone busts out their best attacks (usually)... Two of the fights were in Hero Central games. In 'Zodiac', Aires (Fire SFX) managed to CON Stun Grond with his opening shot, iirc. In 'A Game of Chance' (the only fight I've had with Grond that didn't include a mentalist or fire SFX in the mix), my char managed to hold onto Grond for two whole phases while the rest of team unloaded on him (I pulled pretty much every trick on my char sheet and was pushing to boot, even with the post-12 REC I'd have been burning STUN for END if I tried to do that for another phase) and the TK-based blaster managed a crit -- winning the Stun Lotto with an RKA. I'll mention I also got some very good rolls in the STR vs STR contest while Grond was rolling below average... Now why the TK player was playing the Stun Lotto escapes me, but I started out as a war gamer rather than with RPGs and I'm a firm believer in alpha strikes against reduced DCV targets that can't fight back...

Re: Speedsters: One thing I do is differentiate between 'speedster' and 'hyper-reflex' characters which are probably more accurately described as belonging to other archtypes. My wife's char in my FtF game is what I'd consider a hyper-reflex Brick/EBer. Yeah, she's 33 DEX/8 SPD -- but it's her energy projection abilities which really define the char... I consider a char a speedster if 'moving fast' is the defining shtick. I currently have two I'm playing in games at Hero Central. One is a 'Flash'-type called Speedzone (I don't have Ultimate Speedster btw, and I think I started the char before it came out) in 'Of Masks and Metahumans'. He's 30 DEX/8 SPD, and specializes in high speed move-bys. He also frequently drives the GM a little crazy with one of his 'flavor' powers: Nothing but a Blur -- Bright Fringe Invisibility linked to his running. (I was trying for that 'you see nothing but a blur of color and then he's gone' effect you sometimes see on the cartoons). The other is more of a movement based speedster named Vector in 'Children of the Sun'. He's 26 DEX/6 SPD -- but can go from 0 to Mach 1+ in one hex non-combat and can do a very convincing imitation of an insane pinball in combat (20" Flight, No Turn Mode, Combat Accel/Decel).

This is more of a clarification to make sure I'm reading this right... In order for a character to Haymaker an attack with Telekinesis, the player must have first purchased a 3pt adder allowing him to do so? Relevant sections in 5er TK: pg 230, 3rd paragraph of 'Grabs And Other Telekinetic Attacks' Haymaker: pg 389, 2nd paragraph of 'Haymaker'

Re: Possibly Dumb Question about Characters with multiple IDS Yes, and White Rhino isn't the only one in case you're curious... The idea is there isn't any practical way to prevent WR from changing into his powered form, so there is no reason for him to take a disadvantage. Mind, I don't always agree with this rationale, but in some cases it can certainly make sense.

Re: Working on New Constantinople Well, Speedzone certainly tends to run into enough stuff -- want to share the wealth after all...

Re: Working on New Constantinople Hmmmm, Sylph tends to get all the mythological stuff -- but he could give Issac competition for Katya's attention... And Tandem could use an inscrutable (sober) mentoring influence... (Ron and Selyna don't lurk the HG boards much, so those suggestions shouldn't get me into too much trouble...)

Re: The Ultimate WWYCD: Ninja or Pirate! After further reflection, I changed my mind -- Aquatic gets lucky and Meghan tends to piratical after all, but I fear the Gaze will find Jazz far too flamboyant to be anything but a pirate (you'd have to take that up with winterhawk though)... My own chars: Kodiak: would be that hulking, contemplative, ninja who'd rather spend his time alone in the mountains -- but who is incredibly effective at breaking things when the need arises... Speedzone: Hmmm. He'd be an anime inspired ninja -- vanishing and reappearing at will and striking with lightning swiftness... Facet: A pirate, of course. He's not a sneaker by nature, and swinging by a crystalline thread with his fist shaped into a semi-bladed weapon is just too swashbucklerish for words... Pity he isn't more human, he could keep Jazz from getting lonely while Gaze played shadow ninja... ;D Not really sure about Vector or Virgo. Just haven't played them enough yet to get a handle on their personalities...

Re: On the Use and Abuse of Character Weaknesses.... As Treb noted, Tactics Skill is a good idea for PCs who are supposed to already know what they're doing -- but there is nothing wrong with asking the player why they did or didn't do something either after or before a given action, especially if they should have learned better by now... Players don't always think like the GM (which can be a good thing), and sometimes they aren't as familiar with the rules and don't realize (or remember) they have additional options other than hope you can take the hit.

Re: Pheramonal communication

Re: Kewlest things about Vibora Bay? Dr Ka is tough, but he's no powerhouse though -- he certainly won't dominate the field in a big fight. He's most useful in the setting for his wealth of information and his ability to find stuff out... Redsnake is probably the toughest fighter among the NPCs, but he won't leave your PCs wondering why they forgot to bring popcorn to the big fight when it happens. His KSs and Contacts, on the other hand, make him worth knowing even if the PCs never see him lift a finger in combat, but he does have the ability to give the players some extra stiffening if the situation calls for it. The 'Lost' seed is one of the major threads in my current attempt to run FtF, so obviously it's one of my favorites too...

Re: Kewlest things about Vibora Bay? I tend to agree on a couple of points -- specifically with the assertion that this would really work as a DC-TAS setting, and the fact VB is brimming with all sorts of potential plot hooks just waiting in the shadows for an unwary team to discover. There isn't a lot that will draw the fellow on pg 108 out early -- so I don't see that as an issue, unless you have one of those few exceptions. I do have one PC/GMPC/NPC char in my game that would probably cause half the major NPCs in VB to have a coronary if he ever came to town -- but for a very specific reason that is not at all common... The coolest thing about Vibora Bay, to my mind and from a GM's perspective, is the supporting cast is designed to be a supporting cast. With MC, you have to either figure out how to shoehorn your PCs in around the Champions, or use them to replace the Champions. With Vibora Bay, the NPC heroes are already set up to be 'go to' people to fill gaps -- not the guys you're competing with to make a name for yourself (unless you've got a competing schtick, and then you can just let that particular NPC fade into the b/g unless you want to have fun with the rivalry)... Assuming the PCs in the group aren't heavy into the mystic side of things -- the 'coolest' potential plot hook (imo) is the swamp. Something my players are going to be discovering in my FtF game...

Re: PCs are not the most important in the world Time is usually the easiest answer. Unless the 'more prominent' NPC team has major movement capability, they can't be everywhere at once -- even within the city. And NPCs have lives too. The entire team isn't sitting next to the 'mass transporter' waiting to leap into action at all times... For many adventures, you just need to make the PCs the one who stumble onto the necessary plot hooks. Unless you make it clear that something 'REALLY BAD!!!' is about to happen if they don't call for backup, the PCs should be trying to deal with things on their own. Maybe giving the other team a friendly heads up just in case and letting them know that things are being dealt with (and the reciprocal action can be a plot hook in itself in the future). If you've got battles resulting in major property damage going on, the NPC team can show up if you need a backdoor, otherwise they (or at least some of them) show up as the dust is settling to help with the clean up and to apologize for not being there sooner (or to chew the PCs out if they were exceptionally stupid or that's the 'vibe' the NPC team has)... The only time you really need to worry about shuffling the other team out of the picture is when you want the PCs to deal with a 'big bad' and their most intelligent response is to call in all the help they can find.

Re: Help with Slick from the Ultimates As a quick note, Slick has a Change Environment in his powerset defined as adding penalties to DEX based rolls and skills in addition to his Entangles (and the wording of the SFX on the entangles would seem to indicate reduction of friction.) I've always hated the write-up of his power as an entangle, and a 'proper' write-up of his powers has been on my 'do-list' -- I just never seem to get around to it. The current write-up isn't that bad, though at the very least I'd probably add the lim 'must be in contact with a surface' for the entangles because as the initial poster noted: How would creating a frictionless area affect a flyer? (hmmm, poses some interesting physics questions though... A winged flyer might fall because his wings were unable to generate 'lift'... A jet-propelled flyer might end up going faster and would probably have 'bad things' happen to their turn mode depending on specific SFX... A psionic or 'force of will' flyer (any flight where the SFX shouldn't be affected by a lack of friction) should probably be wondering why Slick is looking so confused as they continue to act unimpared, and they may have an increase in their manueverability...)

Re: Villainous Matchmaking! Hence Mentalla and Zephyr....

Re: Getting Rid of Killing Attacks I tried it once when I was first thinking of running a game for my kids and it worked ok, though you may want to tweak starting char points downwards. If there are no KAs, the only rational way to buy defenses are as straight PD/ED rather than bothering with Force Field or Armor (both can be simulated by normal defenses with lims such as focus, visible, or costs END). The question is whether or not you want to keep relative levels of effectiveness the 'same' as in a similar game played without doing away with kills. If so, you'll either want to reduce the points your players have to spend, or limit them on what they can buy (insist on the points using to give the chars more depth rather than more raw brute force). The plus to doing this is you can use published material with less tweaking since you don't need to compensate for the cost savings the PCs had in not needing resistant defenses.

Re: Old School, Yesterday's Heroes Hey! Winterhawk is a cool player! (Slyfox didn't even try to take advantage of Speedzone's future daughter who hasn't been born yet -- even if he did sneak a peek in the mirror...)

Re: Old School, Yesterday's Heroes Slyfox and Speedzone: A meeting

Re: The Legacy Champions Lives On! Good luck with the teaching. Both of my kids have taken a liking to the game -- mostly for the chance to roll the dice and bash my poor cardboard baddies I got back in the 80s, but I'm slowly introducing them to the idea that there might be a story involved too... Don't be afraid to use any elements from shows that have anything even remotely translateable into the appropriate genre. Fortunately there's a lot of superhero-type stuff on the idiot box these days... The game I run for my kids (very infrequently since my normal GMing style is NOT kid friendly) borrows mostly from Teen Titans (yeah, my kids liked it -- and I even didn't mind a few of the episodes) and my son was hooked on Power Rangers for the longest time (anybody else looked at Istvatha V'Han and said "It's morphing time!"). Best advice I can throw regardless of how you go about it, be sure to make the most out of anything your young player does that is fun... Last time we gamed was the first time all four players got together, and only the second time my daugher's character was played. Scenario had the alien invaders setting up some strange device in a small canyon and the baddies consisted of Ogre, Nebula (ignoring the duress guantlets), 6x D-Soldiers, and a V'Hanian Hovertank. Main point of the scenario was to try and get across the idea of basic tactics (having two adults in the group, one of whom is an experienced player really helps)... Our heroes come up with a decent 'lightning strike' type plan, and the dice are good to them, giving them complete surprise (note to GM's: 20d6 Move-Through on Ogre is a really effective way to take out Ogre if he's surprised)... The villain portion of the scenario never got a chance to even say 'eep' before they were taken out making the most dangerous thing on the mat the Hovertank... My daughter (aka: my littlest monster) has her char jump on top of the tank (effectively taking herself out of the tank's firing arcs -- something I doubt she considered, being all of 8) and try to start pounding through the top... A couple moments later I'm glancing down at my CKC and notice a Hovertank only has a STR of 30 -- and I recall my littlest monster is playing a density based flying brick (all chars were randomly rolled using Champions)... "Uhm, hand me Rocky's sheet a moment would you?" as I suddenly start to wonder just how much the brick weighs... Needless to say there was much hilarity (and my daughter was quite pleased with herself) as I proceeded to describe the Hovertank's forcible grounding...

Re: What combination would it take to score 40 on the pop-up M16 range? I haven't qualified on a military range in over a decade, but it occurs to me that rather than using called shot penalties, it might be more accurate to use the cover modifiers. You're not trying to hit specific parts of a target so much as hit a target which is represented as being partially behind cover. DCV bonus for cover is +2/+4 iirc (and as was pointed out earlier, treating the target as being 'surprised' for DCV purposes makes that +1/+2)

Re: What Marvel/DC storyline have you ripped off...err been inspired by? Oh, and wizard of oz -- I know Hermit is looking forward to meeting 'the cast'...

Re: What Marvel/DC storyline have you ripped off...err been inspired by? Yeah -- just about any alternate dimension scenario can borrow heavily from X-Men or New Mutants... I suppose I have to admit that the alternate world my younger group of heroes is currently in the finishing stages of dealing with was influenced by Days of Future Past, and the alternate dimension in the short run of A-Next. However I can also place some of the blame on Star Trek (various episodes and incarnations -- though the ep where Worf kept bouncing between various alternate realities comes stongly to mind), and my limited exposure to anime (the opening scenes of MD Geist II provide a lot of the backbone)...