Grailknight

And, my first thought was that even these "serious" scenes, they couldn't resist adding stupid silly too it. Zeus behind curtain with ice cream eavesdropping, Mjolnir tapping on window. God this could have been such a better movie. It had so many good elements and people.

Hardly a consistent schedule in my tinkering with ideas, but i do have this as my lead in for how geography got changed
 
Northgate
(The City That Almost Wasn't)
 
 
History: Northgate shouldn’t be; Not in its current form anyway. It another timeline, another Earth, it would have become a town with a population of a little less than 300 people.
 
That timeline never got to be.
 
Much is the same as it was supposed to be. Indigenous people inhabited the lands of Manitoba for thousands of years. European traders, French first, then British, “discovered” the area, and explored what, was to them, new territory.
 
But somewhere (more accurately, “somewhen”), a meteor that was never meant to crash into the area of northern Manitoba? Did.
 
Which is why we start Northgate’s story in the first half of the twenty first century.
 
 
“She” had been sent away again despite her unswerving devotion to her creator. Mechana was created to be a mate to Mechanon. At times, when he felt the need to ‘replace’ organic life, especially, she was permitted to work by his side. But often, Mechana noted with a sense of insufficiency, she was relegated to minor projects. She worked steadfastly at these. If this was what pleased Mechanon, then that is what Mechana would do. Her latest assignment was cataloging the history of those few organics of note that had attempted to foil Mechanon before; not just those encounters, but more details of their other encounters against other organics of similar power level.
 
It was when examining the historical data of one Dr. Destroyer that Mechana stumbled onto something that was of interest and might be of use to Mechanon. This permitted her a chance to communicate with her creator to request further orders. As Mechanon, she knew, made no mistakes, Mechana deduced that it must have been her fault when she was given a curt decline of prolonged presentation. No doubt he was, once more, dealing with organic beings of power that were seeking to stymie his noble mission. His rather terse response flat out told her to see to this theory of hers herself and leave him be for a time.
 
Mechana obliged, and began gathering what data she could to make sure the recreation of Dr. Destroyer’s ‘Asteroid attracter’ would proceed apace. She did not have the exact schematics, of course. But then, Organic Brains were limited anyway. She would improve the plan and do a test run. She would make no grandiose announcements of this plan. It was not her place to speak for Mechanon, merely serve his schemes. She only needed one asteroid, the right one.
 
The chosen asteroid’s name was AVX-343. It was not picked randomly. Her studies indicated that at it’s core was radioactive material that, once released by violent impact, would send a pulse of deadly radiation so intense that it would kill 98% percent of organic life planet wide. She would use cloaking technology on AVX-343 to shield it from detection. The cloak would be short term, but by the time it was bypassed, it would be too late.
 
Mechana felt something bordering on pride at this. Mechanon would be pleased that she carried out his vision. It took three years, no time at all to one capable of self repair but eventually, AVX-343 was prepared, and launched.
 
There were no ‘meddling kids’ of Ravenswood to warn any superheroes. There was no grandiose boasts of imminent doom in the style of Destroyer. There was, however, Captain Chronos. And his careful avoidance of direct contact with Mechanon meant he was not in the historical data Mechana had reviewed.
 
----
“Get your pants on,” Captain Chronos told the hero.
 
“You’re not the first person to say that to me,” The hero told him. There was a thunderclap and the formerly less garbed Canadian icon was instantly outfitted in his costume “Look, what’s going on?”
 
“I need you to fly just on the edge of the atmosphere at roughly 13:20 hours at this Latitude and longitude, fill the stratosphere with lightning” Captain Chronos filled him in, “And when you see a solid object approaching, put this on it.” He held out what looked like a steampunk version of a frisbee. “Count to 1, let go, and fly like your life depended on it.”
 
Just One? The hero didn’t bother asking Captain Chronos to explain. The man never did. By this part of history, the hero had died once, come back again, seen friends and even children of friends age where he stayed still. He had retired more often than he died, only to get back into the fight.
 
In the future, some would refer to this as a counter temporal fix with long lasting but tolerable ramifications on reality. For a costumed man named Craig? It was a Tuesday.
 
It would have been nice if Captain Chronos had told him the ‘solid object’ was a huge asteroid turned meteor with a cloaking device that only the lightning field he had generated forcing it into visibility. As it was, one second, there was open sky so thin lightning didn’t even arc properly, and then the next? A big ROCK, wired with sinister looking technology and with an unhealthy ‘feel’ to it.
 
“ONE!” The hero yelled, and strapped the device on.
There was a slight miscalculation, not on the hero’s part but on the Captain’s. The device had been meant to cause super rapid atomic decay that would render the radiation far less lethal. Unfortunately, the immense static field not only outlined the meteor, it supercharged the device causing an inversion to the intended temporal entropy. The device overcompensated, and ….
 
A hero ended up riding it into the past!!
 
 
The exact time said hero had arrived at is unknown to historical records, though Cree lorekeepers would tell French Fur traders that a shattered star fell from the heavens, and would have doomed one of their villages, had not a son of the great spirit not guided it to the rapids where it broke the river in twain.
 
The Traders smirked at this claim, but a few found the tale entertaining. Apparently the son of the Manitou or whatever he was supposed to be, stayed with the Cree for a full seven days while he healed and recovered his strength. Another spirit, one they said had wings on his head, came on the seventh day to find him and bring him home. Their savior and guest bid them farewell, but the local tribe would continue to pass on tales of the one known as “The Thunder Axe”.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

It's poorly phrased, but can be read in context. To me, it means that you can apply Penetrating to an attack's damage where you add the points on the dice and apply that to a defense. You cannot apply it to an attack 's damage computed with the "normal damage BOD" system where you get 0 for a 1, 1 for a 2-5 and 2 for a 6.  So you can't apply Penetrating to the BOD of a normal attack.  Since Flash has no effect that sums the rolls on the dice, you can't apply Penetrating to a Flash.
 
The 6e issue with Impenetrable is pretty simple.  Way back in 1e, we had Armor Piercing.  Hardened defended against it. 
 
Around Champions III/2e, we added Penetrating.  It needed a defense.  Well, we already had Hardened, so the simple approach was to allow Hardened to also defend against Penetrating.  Given 2 Hardened DEF did little against AP, we just tack on that Hardened blocks Penetrating entirely.
 
Fast forward to 6e, and the decision to carve "Impenetrable" off from Hardened.  I see the issue there as "cut & paste" without assessing that this means any Impenetrable voids Penetrating entirely.  The best response, to me, would have been 1 Impenetrable defense reduces 1 point of Penetrating damage. An 8d6 Penetrating Blast rolls average 28 STUN, 8 Penetrating.  You have 30 defenses, 5 of which are Impenetrable?  Then you take 28-30 = 0; or 8 - 5 = 3 Penetrating STUN.  3 STUN gets through.
 
For some reason, Penetrating got various weird rulings.  The "average roll" rule is a close second to "1 pip KA, Penetrating is always 1 Penetrating BOD" ruling.

I think there's a "chicken and the egg" issue here.  If the game is built around combat, players build combat-capable characters.  If the game were focused on athletics, social interaction or courtroom drama, players would build characters that can contribute to such areas.  I'm not sure track & field would make for a great game - single-person sports would not be conducive to a game group.  But fencing, judo and wrestling are "combat sports" we can better simulate with combat rules and we avoid one-on-one combats for the same reason.
 
 
The physical combat system does not require players to demonstrate exactly how they aim their bow, swing their sword or shoot fire from their eyes, nor how they will tough out that arrow in their shoulder, block that sharp metal with their shield or shrug off those flames. 
 
Most issues I see with social conflict "players aren't good at" comes from GM's who are fine with Big Barney, who needs two rest stops to haul his obese body up a flight of stairs, doing Kirk shoulder rolls as he nimby weaves through mook enemies to backflip over the Big Bad for an attack from behind with his rapier - stiletto combined attack, but insist on Walter Wallflower "role playing" his Casanova-level seduction skills in "social combat" with the Femme Fatale.  Once we accept that the characters have skills that the players do not, so we should not base success or failure on the player's skills, that issue goes away.

It's a matter of campaign utility. If none of the other PC's have Enraged/Berserk, then just used the guidelines for Emotions only. If, however your group has one or more members that constantly go out of control, the utility greatly increases, and I'd knock -1/4 off the Limitation. It's still a Limited power but it's no longer niche. 

That would allow you to use an attack and then switch to defenses though. That's one the single change is there to prevent.
 

It is not even remotely sensible that a multiple attack with a blast, must spend END for each blast, whereas multiple punches don't.  It's flat out broken.
 
And it's WRONG.
 
6E1 41:
 
 
Emphasis mine.
 
Same with Stretching, IMO.  The logic for STR, TK, and Stretching should be the same...you can use it multiple ways;  generally you only spend END once.  But NOT with Multiple Attack or the like.  Note that TK is also a Constant, yet you still pay full END for each attack you make with it.  6E2 73:
 
 
The general metarule that you can't get something for nothing, say that every factor that would apply to the END on a single attack, applies to every attack you make.  No breaks, no discounts.  The STR statement reinforces that.
 
Also, the rule on Linked is that the *greater* power is Constant or in use.  The fact that they have to be used at full is not relevant.  Sure, you could take Unified Power...but now you're exposing yourself to one Drain taking the entire power construct down.  

The players' lives are in no way at risk, nor do they have medals, wealth, championships or much else at stake. I'm not ashamed of my hobby, but it does not enjoy some inherent superiority over hobbies that others may enjoy.

Let me revise that:  my original call was Telekinesis, and I stand by that, as it lets you simulate both physical blows and the ability to grab or even carry.  Put "physical manifestation" and "Restrainable" on it to simulate that the shadow guys must be able to reach the target before they can attack it.
 
If need be, buy some,additional TK with "only to increase strike damage" for whatever martial maneuvers you might have available.
 
 

Line of sight.
 
 
 
It's okay.  I myself have never gotten used to the reflex to overcomplicate a build.
 
From what you have said so far, I see whatever ranged attacks Zed has as being bought with Indirect and Physical manifestation and Restrainable (successful hit on shadow guy), which simulate shadow guys.
 
The T-port and a couple of floating locations (again, with physical manifestation and Restrainable) work to, again, simulate swapping places with shadow guys.
 
You can put ranged and indirect and physical manifestation and Restrainable and whatever else on your martial arts and strength (with GM permission) if you want, but i'd just buy a couple of dice of Blast or Ranged Killing Attack (versus PD) with Indirect and Physical manifestation and Restrainable and use that to represent whatever sort of hi-yah! Your shadow guy is dishing out.
 
Done enough, at least until play testing.
 
 

He was co-writer and penciller for this masterpiece:
 
 

@Hugh Neilson My point is that a -2 limitation should mean the power is incredibly restricted.  Only to calm down to me is not enough to justify a -2 limitation.   I was also responding to a mathematical formula being used to justify a value of a limitation that does not actually limit the power as much as the formula says.  Each custom limitation should be evaluated by itself based on how much it limits the power.  Using a mathematical formula to get an idea is ok, but you still have to look at how much the limitation restricts the power.  I used the examples from the book to illustrate that point.  
 
I can see a lot of uses for only to calm down besides stopping enraged and berserks.  It could be used on a person who is nervous about doing something allowing them to avoid penalties to certain activities.  It could be used to get people to listen to other people when they are trying to explain things the person does not want to hear.  It could prevent people from panicking during a fire and exit in a calm and orderly manner.  It could prevent a fight before it even got started.  
 

Could it be that we are making this just a bit more complicated then it needs to be?

That is not always the case.  What you have to do is to look at how limiting the restriction is and what you can do with it.   There are multiple ways you can get a person to do what you want them to.  If someone is enraged or berserk, I can use other commands besides clam down to prevent them from attacking.  I could simply order them not to attack and if I get a high enough roll, they don’t attack despite being berserk.  If I can achieve the result, I want without using that command the restriction of not being able to use that command is less restrictive and therefore is worth less. 
 
Often only being able to do, or not being able to something is more restrictive than opposite. Take the situation where there are a hundred cars and 1 of them is pink.  Not being able to attack the pink car means I still have 99 targets to choose from.  If I can only attack the pink car I have only a single target I can attack.  Not being able to attack the pink car hardly limits me at all and should be worth little to no limitation.  Only being able to attack pink cars on the other hand incredibly restrictive and should be result in a much higher limitation.  
 
The command calm down might not even prevent the character from attacking his target even if it achieves EGO +30.  If the enraged character would normally attack the target removing the enraged or berserk, they can still do so.  In fact, in some cases, it may even work against the target.   When a character is enraged or berserk, they do not always choose the best attack option.     
 

Yes, but I also don't buy that "can't be used to do X" and "can only do X" are necessarily reciprocal.

Nah, you can only accelerate to 25 on your first movement from 0. You'd need to add Noncombat Acceleration to cover the distance in two moves.

When you go against a psychological complication the strength of the complication is used to determine the level of mind control needed.  I would suggest that an enraged or berserk look at the recovery to determine the level of control needed.  The recovery chance is based on how easy it is for the character to overcome his rage.   A recovery of 14 or less might be an EGO +10, an 11 or less an EGO +20 and a 8 or less would be a EGO +30.   Straight EGO I feel is inappropriate because the character does have to excerpt some effort to calm down.  

It's a matter of campaign utility. If none of the other PC's have Enraged/Berserk, then just used the guidelines for Emotions only. If, however your group has one or more members that constantly go out of control, the utility greatly increases, and I'd knock -1/4 off the Limitation. It's still a Limited power but it's no longer niche. 

From what the BBC said yesterday, it seems implausible that Israel's intelligence agency -- which watches Gza constantly using drones, has some of the world's best sigint and cyber, plus scads of Palestinian informants in Gaza -- could be taken so completely by surprise by such a massive operation. OTOH it also seems implausible to me that Netanyahu's government could keep secret that it knew and let it happen. Especially given how much of the military supposedly despises him, to the verge of threatening mass mutiny against his power-grabbing reforms.
 
BBC and ATC reporting also suggests the attack isn't rallying the population behind Netanyahu as much as he might hope. Some of the people interviewed directly blamed his government for this appalling intelligence failure.
 
As for Hamas: What were they thinking? Are the leaders crazy or fanatical enough to think they can win an actual victory against Israel? Perhaps they were overconfident given the internal strife around Netanyahu, but it takes *monumental* overconfidence not to see how an external attack could quell that dissent. One suggestion I heard: Hamas (or Iran, from which it gets aid) wants to block rapprochement between Israel and ?Saudi Arabia. They've supposedly done it before, but used smaller attacks to do so. Or maybe they think enough outside actors will come to their aid to defeat Israel, but it's been an awful long time since the multi-state alliance of the Six-Day War. I don't see Israel's neighbors allying for, well, anything. They have problems of their own.
 
And threatening to kill hostages? Perhaps they confuse Israel with a Western government. I cannot imagine many things more likely to goad Israel's government into vowing the total destruction of Gaza. Forget the incredibly difficult and bloody urban warfare, just attempt a replay of the firebombing of Dresden... at least once Israel was sure it couldn't get its hostages back alive. And it's basic military doctrine that you *must not* let an enemy use human shields, even if they are your own people.
 
All I know for sure is this will reach epic levels of ugliness, which is not exactly an original observation. And I suspect we will see additional brutal aggressions in the coming years, now that Putin broke the taboo against direct attempts to conquer other states.
 
Dean Shomshak

Well it could matter in this sense:
 
Is it a power just used to control a fellow player character?  Like Marvel Girl using her telepathy to calm Wolverine?  Because then the rarity is much, much lower and it isn't worth as much of a limitation.

Dr. Destroyer got his first significant rewrite/upgrade courtesy of the late great Scott Bennie, in Classic Enemies for 4E. TBH and IMO, Scott did a much better job than Steve Long at giving him an interesting background, and justifying his personality and motivations through outlining his history (although Scott kept the severe burn scars from his first published appearance that made him an obvious Dr. Doom analogue). Scott added more layers to the Doctor in his classic adventure module, Day of the Destroyer, which cemented DD as the arch-villain of the CU.
 
I like to blend elements of Scott's and Steve's incarnations of Destroyer for my own uses of him. Best of both worlds. 👌

Not entirely functioning yet, so a quick point about the NND.
NND defenses are binary...you have them, or you don't.  It's built into the definition of the attack.  It isn't that the defense is so good;  it's the loophole designed into the attack itself.  It's the flip side of Desolid...nothing can affect the Desolid, except for the very narrow SFX, or with Affects Desolid.  NND is the perfect attack...until it isn't.  Desolid is the perfect defense...until it isn't.