Intrope

Re: Build Champions Elite Superteam Don't have too much to add to this discussion, 'cause I'm not in favor of having NPC to handle all the real problems. Besides, Doc D & Taco-fan move at the speed of plot: if your players aren't ready to take them on, they're still busy plotting and scheming. But I do have to point out that the Champions can defeat Mechanon (better than 50% by playtest). Admittedly, it's no sure thing--but that's why they're heroes!

Re: How would you do this? How about: An HKA, variable special effects (limited group: edged, stabbing, blunt), and maybe variable advantages? Then, add a small multipower for additional effects (like 1" stretching, lockpicking skill, 1" tunneling, etc.) That ought to cover most everything, and for small additional effects you could either allow a power skill roll, or allow the player to spend 1 xp to add another MP slot as needed.

Re: What If . . . Superman Launching sattelites. That'll be $50 million, Payable in bearer bonds, please. Talk about 'money for nothing'!

Re: Probability? I'd chip in myself (math minor! OK, I'm a geek), but Tom and Just have already given the correct answer (they both gave the same answer).

Re: Has anyone ever: 1" hex = 2m = 3.464m^2 = 37.286 sq ft. If google hasn't led me wrong...

Re: Early "What do you want to see?" for Teen Champions That's probably scarier than you know: if they'd known how to wire a working detonators they'd probably have killed 100s in the real world. Including a lot of the rescue workers [one of their bombs was on a timer in a car in the parking lot]. On less distrubing topics: I agree that a quick run-down of how different global school systems would be a good idea--but I'd note that for most people it's likely that they'd play in the school system of the country they live in, and so it should probably be more of a starting point (perhaps a sidebar linking to appropriate web pages for different country's school systems? just a thought). Along that lines, alternate educational setups should probably be mentioned at least. I'd think that if my child were seriously *different* from other people, I might want to homeschool them (or find a private school, or some such). Noting whether such things are possible in different countries might be useful information, too.

Re: Anyone know where I can get a good atlas? I don't know about good, but I saw a US road atlas (coffe-table sized) at Wal-mart for $5 (on the magazine rack). Might be a good place to start, until you're sure you need a better one... BTW, that's a nifty idea for a setting! I'm not sure it would actually cause a wholesale collapse in government, though: the US was pretty large even before fast travel/communication became possible after all. It would cause massive upheaval, though!

Re: "Bag of Holding" While I like the whole reasoning from effects idea, I personally think that EDM for Bags of Holding does nothing of the sort: the effect of a Bag is that you can carry a vast amount of stuff! What I'd do is something more like: 10 STR, only to carry goods (-1 1/2), doesn't add to base strength (-1/4), only goods that can fit through the bag's opening (-1/4), ruptures if sharp objects inserted (-1/4), bad things happen if it's placed into another extradimensional container (-1/4), takes a full phase to access an item (-1/4), OIF bag (-1/2), no end (+1/2), persistent (+1/2), invible power effects (+1). [real cost: 7] All limitation values are IMO only.

Re: Tenchi HERO Heh! Very nice Michael! Pretty Sammy should never be left out I'd probably write up Sasami as a multiform; it seemed pretty clear to me that she shifts into Tsunami to access those powers. Mihoshi might have a ridiculous amount of luck, with side effect: Unluck, Explosion (+1/2). She tends to accidentally suceed with lots of collatoral damage...

Re: All stats are 2/+1 Going against the board's wisdom here: I think SPD at 10/1 is too cheap for Standard Supers, but too expensive for Heroic characters. I might actually go for 15/1 or 20/1 for supers and 5/1 or 7.5/1 for Heroics. After all, in Heroic cases you usually end up with a lot of 3-4 SPD characters, which isn't terribly useful--if everyone skips 2/3 of the phases, why not half the SPD for a bit more action/turn? Besides, with a lower Heroic cost, you'd see a bigger spread in speeds, too. But I do think 25/1 is too high (well, perhaps it'd be good for cosmic supers--I've never tried that level of power at all).

Re: Tactical Challenge: Eurostar Well, it may be that the Villain Eurostar wants to free is being kept in an undisclosed location (or kept in a moving vehicle, etc.) such that they can't find him. All the power in the world does you no good if you can't find a target! But I agree that this seems a little low-brow for Fiacho.

Re: Universal Framework Proposition [LONG] Hmmm, I like this very much. So, let me take a stab at an example: I'll take Witchcraft, and write up her framework this way. To avoid pasting her character sheet in, I'll note that she has a multipower, an EC, and a VPP, and has spent a total of 178 points on them. First, all her powers are mystic in origin so it makes sense to put them all in the same Framework Power. To try to preserve the existing character as much as possible, I'll make the reserve 60 (the MP) + 2x30 (the EC) + 30 (the VPP) for 150 points. So: 150 Reserve: 150 points 8 Slots: 4 defined, 1 fundamental, 1 Universal w/ Limited class of powers (only magic, -1/4) and Can only change with access to spellbook (-1/2) 6 1-Witchfire, 60ap, (Defined, Static) (-9) 6 2-Man into Frog Spell, 60ap, (Defined, Static) (-9), Limited Target: Humans (-1/2) 12 3-Soulcrusher's Lore, 60ap, Any spell of mental domination/damage/destruction/confusion, (Fundamental, Static) -4 3 4-Shield of Sorcery, 30ap, (Defined, Static) (-9) 3 5-Wings of the Wind, 30ap, (Defined, Static) (-9) 10 6-Lesser Witcheries, 30ap (Universal, Static) (-2) Total Cost: 198 points (20 more than before). This makes her rather more flexible: she could toss out a Multi-Power Attack with her attack powers while still having her Shield of Sorcery active! On the other hand, it now takes her longer to switch between her purely mental powers, since they've been compressed into a single slot. For that matter, I'd probably reduce her reserve by 30 points, reducing the total cost to 168 (and then spend 10 points on CON, probably). She'd then have to make a trade off to use her Lesser Witcheries slot (since she can no longer attack, fly, sheild, and use lesser witcheries at the same time). But, she could alternate between flying and attacking for the most part. Notes on the Framework itself: I'd suggest Flexible rather than Fundamental for the middle slot type. Small limitations on Defined, Static slots tend to have no effect on the cost. That might be a good thing, actually; you're already getting a huge point break! BTW, I assumed that the VPP control-like limitations and advantages would apply to the cost of the slot, rather than the cost of the power. Is that what you intend? If so, that does leave one problem area: Cosmic VPPs go from 2.5x base point down to 1.33x base points + 12. Applying the advantage to the slot cost probably won't work either; it would make it far more expensive than before: 4x base points + 4 (because the reserve has to be base points, cosmic (+2) in size). Maybe all control cost advantages should be halved? at +1 for Cosmic, and applied to the slot cost you get 2.66 x base points + 4 for a cosmic slot, which is just about right. Anyway, their's an example for you to chew on.

Re: Great Inspiration for a FH Summoner-Based Game Ooohh, very nice! thanks for pointing this out! (Go bittorrent go!)

Re: Turakian Age: Drakine Population Dynamics That's pretty much what it say in the book. I chalked it up as some kind of editing error, mental blunder, or possibly as something that's only recently begun (but that part was omitted too). They obviously couldn't maintain anything over any time period if that was true; given 30 year generations, 1000 years would require a starting population of 10 billion drakine, which is silly (and they've been around for thousands!). My recommendation: ignore that line completely. (And ignore the one about them having breasts as well--nonsensical for reptiliods).

Re: Thoughts on Shields I'd say that's not unreasonable; a shield isn't really well-suited as a weapon. After all, it's not going to travel through the air as easily as any other weapon.

Re: PD To ED STR Conversion You could also buy variable special effects (+1/4) as a naked adavantage on the 10 STR. Which is actually what it is, in effect (special effect: fist v. special effect: energy fist)

Re: SF Novels for Star Hero? Not exactly a novel[1], but: the anime Crest of the Stars/Banner of the Stars I & II form a very good Sci-Fi story. It has rather less rubber than many SF tales, too: while it has an FTL system, it's relatively well-defined; ships typically move with attitude thrusters (rather than like planes in air); no intelligent non-humans; very few elements aren't reasonable extrapolations of known-possible things. That said, it sometimes feels somewhat slow-moving and the main focus isn't on the interstellar war that drives the story, but on the main characters Lafiel and Jinto. It has a somewhat heavy militaristic focus through much of it, but it looks like the next volume was headed away from that[2]. You could probably build a very good campaign in this setting, but very few places are all that well described; on the other hand, the story itself justifies filling in all sorts of different worlds. The biggest downside to the show (as far as gaming goes) is that only the Abh Empire (the focus of the show in many ways) is shown in any detail. The Abh's main enemy (the United Mankind) has very few details revealed in the show [we end up knowing more about their dietary laws than their system of government]. The other 3 interstellar governments are total ciphers. [1] The anime was based of a japanese novel, but AFAIK no transalation exists into english. [2] You can find a synopsis of Banner III on the internet, but AFAIK it hasn't been animated as yet (I haven't read any of these)

Re: Precogs and the SEC He'd probably make a killing as a day-trader, though. (They make continuous real-time trades, rather than maintaining a long-term portfolio). And to be honest, with such a limited power he could probably stay undetected forever (some people *do* make money at day trading, although it's usually more like gambling than investing). Now, big-time psychics could make the SEC's short list; but you could probably conceal it forever if you were careful to do your trading through proxies, not make out too much like a bandit, etc. Your best bet (if you had strong precog powers) would be to make one big, lucky score rather than a sustained run of incredible picks. In other words, precog for the next netscape, and bet big. (or, just pick the next huge PowerBall jackpot). It's really hard to say what realistically people would do with known-good precog powers--and it would also depend on how those powers work (is the future immutable? are you choosing or seeing it? etc.) Frankly, known-good precog powers would probably have a far more dramatic effect on the world; the SEC probably would be the least of anyone's concerns!

Re: Redefining Power Frameworks That sounds like Aria, which was probably the greatest unplayable game system ever. Which was unfortunate, since the actual idea (play your culture through the ages, more or less) was pretty cool. And I agree: having a really low-level HERO to build the actual game out of would be quite cool.

Re: Lack of Power coverage

Re: Paging Dany St-Pierre I'm seeing it as Deactivated also, and I was seeing Subrook's Stuff when you weren't. Maybe Geocities is slow to reactivate?

Re: Lack of Power coverage And another lack of power: Bags of Holding. (although buying this as a vehicle with no movement modes and IPE on size amuses me greatly).

Re: Lack of Power coverage I would just buy a multiform (more powerful form), Only with the assistance of Some Other Guy (-1/2), and then split the cost between them. The limitation should be more for more people, naturally.

Re: PSI-BLADE for review That's a rather nice, atypical mentalist. I'd worry that the attack powers are a little on the low side for a typical super, though. Perhaps the two Multipowers could be combined, and strengthened somewhat? After all, as they are currently set up you can only do a multipower attack of the Psionics multipower with the throwing stars; it'd be pretty easy to ensure that you could still do this after a merge. On the other hand, clever use of the psionics multipower could be enough to make up for the relatively weak attack powers.

Re: Need help with names!