Constantine

Re: Is Punisher the problem?

Jeez, the way some are carrying on, its like someone took away their favorite toy or something...

To point: I don't really have a problem with an experiment like this, and would be interested in hearing about the results. It IS tough to build an effective gun-guy/special ops guy in a superheroic game and give him all the skills he should have and still be an effective character. It is not for everyone, though, and will require careful GM attention to the weapons the characters want, and would reasonably have access to. Really unique things, like the blaster rifle from alpha centary, should be paid for though. But if you pay for a weapons with points, its automatically better than any weapons you don't pay points for, even if the effects are the same. For example, the example I remember where two weapons with the same effect, one an assault rifle, another, a unique blaster paid for with points. As a GM, I'm going to make sure that the person who paid points for there blaster gets there points worth. Maybe these two characters will be caught in an area of effect blast, and the assault rifle will be reduced to a pile of twisted metal, while the blaster rifle came through unscathed! The cops are going to have a hard time tracing a blaster rifle's effects, but have lots of experience with ballistics on assault rifles, etc. You'll get your points worth, believe it!!!

Re: GM Question: Mystery Reputation Disad

Sorry about that, it looks like I didn't explain it very well.

 

The Rep is already taking the 5 point penalty for being among a limited group. My question is, within that limited group (the Mystic World), how nasty would this reputation be?

I guess that would depend on how bad this family is in your world. Is everyone going to shun them in the mystical world for this, or will they just be wary of them? I think that would determine how extreme the reaction is...

Re: Herogames: The Sportscar Product

I can see the advantage of slipping some of the flexibility in threw the back door. Some gamers, maybe the majority are kind of mentally lazy in that respect. It worked for White Wolf and their mechanics aren't nearly as solid as Hero System (IMO).

 

But I think this product shouldn't sweep it completely under the rug if possible. Give hints and peeks behind the curtain. Make the audience curious enough to maybe pick up Sidekick and see what they can do. Maybe the genre and resource guides as well. Don't make the required. That's annoying, but make them interesting. Let the reader know this is more than another point allocation system that used d6s and there's a coherent system behind this great set of mechanics. The numbers aren't arbitrary.

 

If I had brought Champions when I first came into the system and been presented with Champions Universe and a list of premade powers taken the USPD I don't think I would have gotten as much into the system as I have. But of course, that's the problem with these types of discussions. We tend to get tied up in our own perspectives and opinions as reflecting the gamer market as a whole.

What, you mean I'm not the entire gaming market?

Seriously, though, I know what you mean. I think the way we would need to go would be to have a basic description of the general power (ie Forcefield), then have a genre specific examples (Force Field belt, provides +5 yadda, yadda, yadda).

Re: Got the Metal in the Meat

I'm speaking of a different approach. Here money is road to cyber ware, it's earned and spent in game- it cannot be brought with character points. Earn enough and you can buy bleeding edge gear, don't earn enough and you buy used ware with serious side-effects or no ware at all.

 

This approach has the advantage of making the fight to crawl out of the dregs real and in the character's face. It's a very street level type of play. Assuming the players equally split incoming money, it's also balanced if the ware cost is set correctly.

 

It does comes with the disadvantage that everyone is going to cyber up as best they can if there isn't anything preventing it. This may of course be the whole idea.

Repped!!!

Re: Harem question

I can agree with those modifiers if the collector wants them permanently. I'd probably halve (or more) those penalties for a one night stand or a very short term relationship.

 

As far as ego transforms go, I'm leary of them. A transform doesn't care how strongwilled the target is or what their psych lims are. It's just as easy to turn Wonder Woman into a Lust Bunny as ye olde neighborhood crack whore. That's why I'd probably have some sort of mind control or seduction roll first, and then either handwave away the breakout roll, or have the mental transform simply to remove it.

Except for the point that WW is bound to have more ego that ye old neighborhood crack whore, not to mention a little mental defense and power defense to boot!

Re: Odd 2x Stun rule

Yeah, this ruling is kinda nasty. Of course, I don't like the idea of down people taking x2 damage to begin with. Why wouldn't everyone, always hit someone who is down, just to make sure they don't get up? Icky. My group doesn't use this rule, so the ruling won't effect us...

Re: Got the Metal in the Meat

I definitely think money is the way to go here. The cyberpunk genre is supposed to be one where any joe can go and lay down the money to get the upgrades, if he is willing to sacrifice his humanity to do it. If you try to make it require points, how do you tell a character that he can't get the upgrade if he has the money for it? This has to be a money thing. Sure, cyber characters are better fighters than non-cybered ones, but non-cybered characters tend to handle human interaction much better. Everyone should have their moments to shine. The resource points idea from Dark champions isn't bad. I don't have that supplement, but I read lots about it, and like the idea.

Re: This week on "Champions"...

from last game:

Sentinels - Sunday - 1pm: The team sends their representatives to the party thrown by the "New Gods", meanwhile, Ballistic schemes to interrogate the prisoner who might hold clues to her past.

Re: What is YOUR favorite Champions character?

I think my favorite personal character has to be Battery. I was young, and a lot of cliches went into him, but I really enjoyed playing him. He was a parapelegic (sp?) with both legs amputated just above the knee. His wheelchair actually transformed into his power armor. He was called Battery cause he had absorbtion, and would get stronger & tougher with each shot he took. I played this character over several years, and really annoyed my GM with Battery's tendency to keep rebuilding his armor, and fixing all the flaws exploited by the enemy...

Re: A Modern League of Extroardinary Gentlemen

If you are looking for a lighter character' date=' might I recommend Hudson Hawk. He has B&E skills up the ying yang and is prone to breaking into song. What more can you ask for from a team member.[/quote']

 

Love HH, but too bright and cheery for this...

Re: A Modern League of Extroardinary Gentlemen

Alright, my list

Dr. Glass - the techguy of the group

John Constantine - a little occult knowledge, a lot of contacts, some vague, undefined powers

Hawk (from the Spenser novels) - Thug extraordinare

Beatrix Kiddo - Martial artist, with contacts to the international criminal underworld

Hannibal Lecter - Evil genius, brilliant mind, true monster

All financed by the aged, mysterious and physically infirm "Mr. Wayne", a former playboy with lots of money

What I thought a lot of most of the previous lists is that most of the characters were missing that sense of moral dubiousness that you got from the comic characters. Quartermaine was a recovering opium addict, Mina a former bride of Dracula, the Invisible man was a thief, Hyde a monster, and nemo a terrorist. All of my League members have that villian edge to them that people like MacGyver, Harry Potter, and Ralph Hinkley (as much as I love them all) are never gonna have...

Re: IHA Help

Humans for Humanity, or HFH for short...

Re: Ring Ring go away....

Most OIF don't get removed unless taken after KO. When's the last time someone yanked PoweredArmorMan's armor off while in battle? The rings coud be taken after KO, or stolen while the character sleeps. They can't be grabbed off in combat or they would be OIF's.

 

Whether they're breakable is a separate decision. To me, the tradeoff is "breakable means readily replaceable; unbreakable means much tougher/longer to replace" but, unless the focus is Independent, then I as a GM have to lket the characetr recover his focus (and his CP) somehow.

Ok, I'm at work, and don't have a book with me, but I though focus worked like this:

OAF - can be taken away in combat

OIF - can be taken from downed opponent, can't be targetted in combat (hence, inaccessable)

OIHID (not a focus, I know) - can only be taken by gm fiat

Is this incorrect?

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

I haven't finished one...but...

 

I head over to London, UK on the 22nd, bought two books to read. 1) Knight by Wolf, don't know anything about it but it's big, 2) The Warlock's Last Ride by Christopher Stasheff; I've read the entire series, plus all the books about his children and this is the last one. It makes me sad. Sure, somewhere along the road he became a romance novelist with trappings of science fiction, complete with heaving busoms and rippling sweaty chests.

Same with the Anita Blake books by Laurell K. Hamilton. Started off as an excellent horror/mystery series, and seems to have devolved into sex, sex, and more sex. The stories have become secondary to the descriptions of sex. But read 'em up to Obsidian Butterfly, and then read the others at your peril...

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it...

Well, not recently, but I found Kushiel's Dart, Chosen, and Avatar to be awesome books. Jacquelin Carrey is the author, I think. Excellent books, but mature themes...

Re: Searching: Mechanon & The Zodiac

Zodiac... *shudders*

Re: "So, Thor hits Superman with Mjolnir..."

i believe the way my GM did it in our D-Marvel-c campaign was that Kryptonians didn't get their damage reduction vs. magic, and had a 1.5 vulnerability as well. Still, with all the stun they had, it was very hard to bring them down.

Re: Order of the white dragons

Sounds cool! Run with it!

Re: Say somthing clever... PLEASE!

I'd dazzle you with brilliance' date=' if I only had the knack.[/quote']

 

Well, you know what they say, if you can't dazzle 'em with dexterity, baffle 'em with bull****.

Re: HERO system observations and beefs

Hi Gents: First off...GREAT thread. I have only a couple of comments.

 

Re: Doc's Idea. I think the idea of having genre specific house rules available as small downloads is neat. Hec, couldn't these be DH articles? Is Dave lurking around here somewhere???

 

Re: Comments On Genre Books Vs Settings Books. I'm also an old time Hero gamer. I know how to tailor the system because I've been doing for a very long time. Saying that...I feel the genre books are still valuable to me but the setting books are less valuable. I'm running my first sci-fi space opera Star Hero game right now. I started writing it well before Star Hero came out. When the Star Hero book came out it really helped me figure out how to handle areas I had not considered. Medical tech, everyday tech, etc. I thought it was VERY well done. In fact I liked it so much that I started looking for James Cambias GURPS stuff...don't worry...I wanted to use the material for Hero. Anyway...I also bought TE and Alien Wars. I was much less impressed with these books. TE had some nice ideas for tailoring a timeline but not a lot more that I could use. Alien Wars was the same for me...not a lot I could use...just some small ideas.

 

Anyway...just my take...

Re: Your avatar. Good work. Get 'em involved early.

Re: HERO system observations and beefs

I am quite a bit over 28 but still care about the looks and presentation.....does that make me weird?

Rest assured, Eosin, that I, at 32, share your view.

You're weird for other reasons...

Re: Martial Arts/Film Noir Campaign

Personally, being a "gun" guy, I bemoan the fate of firearms, but it does sound cool.

Re: HERO system observations and beefs

*snip*It's a reference book not something that's necessarily meant to be read cover-to-cover in one sitting.

True, and, quite honestly, I haven't. But doesn't this make it more difficult to get someone new into the system? If they have no or little exposure, and just see the book sitting on the shelf, aren't they less likely to buy the book and cracking it and reading some of the text? I think most people are gonna say, "I already know how to play D&D, this is way too complicated." Don't get me wrong, I love Hero, and have been playing for a long time, using it for everything from fantasy to sci-fi. I'm just worried about it, especially after the announcement about declining sales of gaming products across the board.

Re: HERO system observations and beefs

I have to say that I wasn't very impressed with 5th edition revised. I bought it because we started a new champions game after a long time, and I didn't even have 5th edition, so I figured 5th edition revised might be the ticket. I have found the book difficult to use. There is a lot of information, too much in some cases, that you have to wade through to find the one thing that you are looking for. And yet, some little important bits of information aren't to be found with the powers/advantages/limitations themselves, but squirreled away in another corner of the book. The art comment made at the beginning of this thread seem right on to me. No, the art doesn't have to be great, but it does need to be better. Every single non-gaming friend and acquaintance has seen me walking around with game books, they have come to recognize some of them. Yet, when I'm walking around with 5e revised, they ask me why I'm walking around with a text book. It READS like a text book, and I don't think you are going to attract many new gamers to the system with that. Probably why they put out Sidekick, but that I think that makes my point. I would imagine that most stores are going to carry the basic book, then a "supplement" like sidekick...

Re: Fooling Detect

I was wondering how you might build a power that fools a Detect' date=' not Invisibility but the Detector actually "sees" something different. An example of this would be several of the more powerful demons in my game, some of which can appear Angelic/Holy to those who can Detect Demons/Unholy. I thought a limited Mind Control, Triggered by the Detect, only to make the Detector see something different, but this seems too complicated for such a simple effect. Anyone have any ideas?[/quote']

 

I agree that images is the way to go. This way, somebody with a really good detect, or a really lucky roll, has a chance of detecting the real aura.