MikeyMitchell

Re: Making Money redux

Re: I smell something fishyJ knew the little girl with the physics textbook was dangerous based on observing the facts: She was in the wrong part of town, with books way to advanced for her. Hence, I would tend to treat this as a Deduction skill rather than an enhanced sense.But that's just me.

Re: WWYCD: The Gentleman Bandit Vs Doctor Sleazoid (LONG)Clayman would concentrate on rescuing the girlfriend, regardless of outcome of the fight between DS and GB. He's heavy into the "protects innocents" thing, and probably wouldn't care if the two baddies beat each other bloody.

Re: Call Me "Sandy" And I'll Crush You

Re: Question on character "value" (point totals)

Re: Shapeshifter character name needed

Re: Shapeshifter character name needed

Re: Shapeshifter character name needed

Re: Limits on Killing attacks?

Re: Shapeshifter character name needed Hmn...that's pretty good. There was a "Clayface" villain in Batman at one point. Going with the name of a malleable material is something I hadn't considered. Let's see, what other possibilities are there?Dough (well, he's not rich, so...)Plastique (malleable, and hits hard)Keep 'em coming, guys. Appreciate the help.

Re: Starting points for rookies in established campaign

Re: Shapeshifter character name needed Sounds great, but the "mystery" angle isn't what I'm going for. I need someone who has a family-friendly public image. He spends time talking to kids in inner-city schools, trying to get them to stay in school, off drugs, out of gangs, so forth. So I really need something more four-color.

Re: Shapeshifter character name needed Nah, won't work. He has a family (wife and two kids), and doesn't want to put them at risk."Doctor! My brain hurts!""What do you want me to do about it?""Fix it!"

Re: Takes Time Yeah, the normal Extra Time Limitation doesn't work, because you want the power to be available without a long startup.My first instinct would be to say to build this as an END Reserve. The power feeds off the reserve, which has just enough END in it to fire once, then a relatively slow recovery time. Someone else probably has a good idea.

Re: Shapeshifter character name needed Well' date=' he's a tall, stocky black man wearing trunks and a mask. Except they aren't really trunks and a mask; they're his body material shaped into those forms (that way, he can go desolid and not worry about his clothes). :)But he only has extra limbs when he wants to, and only goes into a liquid form when he wants to. The rest of the time, he looks like any other large stocky fellow. Superooze? Just kidding. He does a lot of local charity-type work; he's heavily into the local community. So, he'd want a name the local folks would easily recognize that wouldn't be hard to pronounce.I've never had a character who was so hard to name. This is weird.

I have a character who is a shapeshifter, but not in the traditional sense (i.e. mimicking other people). He's similar to Odo or the T-1000; he can 'go liquid' (Desolidification), Stretch, and grow Extra Limbs.Here's my problem: I don't like any of the more traditional shapeshifter names. "Chameleon" doesn't work because he doesn't actually change colors; "Morph" sounds like a dog with a cleft palate. I've currently selected the least offensive name I could come up with, Shyft, but I really don't like that either.And, there's another catch: He's not a well-educated individual, so he wouldn't be likely to select a name from some obscure source (like, say, Norse or Greek mythology).In short, I'm at a loss. Suggestions?

Re: Contagious Infections/Diseases?Another vote for Transform. See Champions in 3D for an example of just such a power (look under Horror World for Iron Maiden). It's done as a Transform, Continuous, Uncontrolled.

Re: Suppress on Characteristics

Re: Need Stats For A Llama But if he's still posting, do we need to sack those responsible for having him sacked?

Re: Brick tricksOne more thing to think about - remember that the brick takes an OCV penalty for throwing an unbalanced, unaerodynamic object (-4) when he tosses that Chevy. If you apply the target size modifiers instead of AoE, plus RMods, he's less likely to hit than he would be with a typical Strike maneuver. Should solve the problem.As for Batman, Spidey, etc. never getting swatted with a car - these characters can use Dive for Cover or (gasp!) Flying Dodge. Not to start another war over these maneuvers, but it should be relatively easy for a high-DEX character with extra SPD to avoid getting tagged with that tossed transportation. Especially by a SPD 4 brick with DEX of 20 (which is fairly typical).Aside: My favorite characters in the comics were typically the quick ones - Spidey, Nightcrawler, and so forth. (The opening sequence of X-Men 2 warmed my heart.) I've found that, game mechanics-wise, if you want such a character to have any chance of functioning, a high SPD is essential, for exactly this reason. The high DEX won't stop an AE attack; you have to have extra actions available to get out of the way. And, yes, I know it's somewhat off-topic; bear with me.

Re: Brick tricks Any of this works. Other options: Restrict the available objects. Have the scenario take place late at night, with few or no cars on the street. In a grassy meadow. Inside a building, with nothing but fragile furniture to use. Or, on a Chinese or Thai street - lots of bicycles, not so many cars.If you insist on making the brick types pay for the privilege of using objects as missiles, don't forget the "OIF - large / heavy objects of opportunity" Limitation. If they have to pay points, it's only fair to acknowledge that suitable missiles won't always be available.

Re: Brick tricksOne possible solution for the "free AE attack" using a thrown Chevrolet is to use the Target Size modifiers as a bonus to the brick's OCV and use the regular DCV of the target (rather than the DCV 3 hex). This solution is suggested as an alternative on p. 382 of 5ER. I would consider doing this if the players got carried away with throwing large objects rather than closing to HTH range.On the other hand, if you're a brick without ranged attacks, a thrown object might be the only way to deal with a flying opponent. I think it boils down to play balance and player actions. If they're overusing the "free AE" effect, then use the size modifiers instead. Otherwise, it's completely in genre to do this.Just my $0.02.

Re: The Truly Evil GM Color coding for resistors:Black Brown Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Violet Green WhiteIndicates the value of the resistor with three stripes, first two for the value, last for the order of magnitude (kOhm, MOhm, etc.)

Re: Megaman and the Mouse

Re: FYI: why more people aren't playing HERO (rpg.net)Not being smart enough to keep my mouth shut, I just had to weigh in on this thread... :)My experience with HERO was the same as some others: CHAMPIONS! The SUPER Role-Playing Game! (That was 1983 or 1984, but I digress.) I was never really interested in the other genres for a long time - in fact, even after it became the HERO System with 4th Ed., I was still skeptical. A gaming buddy of mine suggested we do fantasy HERO (he wasn't into supers), and I said, "I don't know; I just don't see the HERO system as being particularly good for fantasy settings." Yeah, I know; ignorance is bliss. So, I can see both sides of this argument. On the one hand, the flexibility and customization potential of HERO is, IME, second to none. I would never want the developers to give that up. Also, I think it's important to maintain as much cross-genre compatibility as possible. It's an awful lot of fun to send your supers into a Lord of the Rings setting, or the Old West, or whatever. Not having to worry about ugly rules translations is a big help.On the other hand, though, the core rulebook is daunting. An introductory product, such as Sidekick, is a big help, but it doesn't solve the whole problem. You still have no preconstructed "stuff" to work with, and that's intimidating to new players, or to players who don't have oodles of time to come up with stuff. Preconstructed stuff is helpful from another angle too - crosstalk with other players and groups. When one group can say, "We trashed Dark Seraph in last night's game," everyone else knows what they're talking about.Therefore, provided the cross-genre capabilities aren't lost, I wouldn't object to a beginner line of combination rules / genre / preconstruct information. But, there is a significant problem associated with doing it that way - keeping everything current. Right now, Steve only has to worry about making sure Sidekick and 5ER align with one another. If you add a bunch of rulebook releases for each genre, his consistency problem goes way up.Ultimately, it's a business decision. If the company can sell enough copies to pay for the cost of producing the genre-specific books (and keeping up with the errata), it's not a bad idea. The concern about new players being intimidated is valid, and that might address it. We old timers who have been familiar with the system for many years would probably never buy one of the introductory books (except maybe for curiousity), so that has to factor into the decision - can you bring in enough new players to justify the expense? Not a question I can answer, and, fortunately, I don't have to!