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Grailknight

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  1. Like
    Grailknight reacted to LoneWolf in Anti-Clinging   
    Technically you would need to affects real world.  Doing it this way will be complicated, confusing and expensive.  There are a lot of ways that are easier and cheaper to do.
     
    It also depends on what you want to stop.  Since Clinging uses ground movement to move up the wall you could target that with Change Environment.    -1m or movement is only 1 point.  30 points would get you a -30 to ground movement which is probably enough to stop anyone from climbing.  This would not stop someone from clinging in place, but would prevent the target from moving on the wall.  If I were GM and the character bought enough movement to stop any upward movement I would probably allow it to stop someone from clinging in place.  This also works well if you just want to make the wall difficult to climb.   
     
    Instead of a suppress clinging you could use dispel clinging.  Put it in a damage shield and it affects anyone touching the wall.  Dispel is fairly cheap and 10d6 would only cost 30 points before the damage shield.  
     
  2. Like
    Grailknight reacted to Starlord in Marvel Cinematic Universe, Phase Three and BEYOOOOONND   
    Found this awesome post on Facebook, dunno the author to give credit.  Bold emphasis mine
     
    Who is the best Marvel movie or TV Marvel villain? Hands down, David Tennant's Kilgrave from Jessica Jones' first season, the perfect embodiment of sexual and domestic violence. He's one of those rare villains who leaves you with unease long after you turn off the TV, and it's because he was there before you turned it on. He's not the best villain because of his personality, though his glee and charm is a large part of it. He's not the best villain because of the scope of his villainy. He's not out to destroy any cities or conquer any galaxies. He's not even out to take down a hero, although that's what he's going to do along the way. You see, Kilgrave's power is this: You have to do anything he wants you to do. Anything at all. Maybe he wants your jacket. Maybe he wants you to have sex with him. Maybe he wants you to become his lover and live with him happily, forever and ever, in a lovely little house for the two of you. Maybe he wants you to murder your mom. You know those intrusive thoughts, the ones you would never in a million years do, the ones that make you wonder if you're a monster? The ones that say, jump over the railing. Hold the match to your sleeve. The dog sure looks happy; why don't you kick its brains in? Kilgrave whispers the very worst things to you, and you do them. Kilgrave makes it your fault when he does what he does to you. Makes it your idea. Does it with your hands. Makes your body something bad. And he makes the people you depend upon blame you for it. So when Kilgrave uses his powers on you, you aren't a victim. You are a villain. And you're utterly, eternally alone in your hurt and your horror. And it doesn't end when it ends. He's got no master plan or secret agenda. He's just following his whims. If he decides he really likes you, he'll bring the trauma back over. And over. And over. He can leave an idea in your head that never goes away, an idea that sits there where you can't see it until it suddenly shows up at the worst possible moment. Creating a villain who generates such revulsion and horror in the audience is like capturing lightning in a bottle. As Dorothy Sayers told us, it’s almost impossible to write the Devil without making the audience root for him, because those attributes that make a villain an opponent worthy of writing about are virtues, or are at least the personality traits that make a character fascinating. If your villain isn’t powerful, you’ve got no story. If your villain isn’t talented, you’ve got no story. If your villain isn’t persistent, isn’t charismatic, doesn’t have a good reason to do what they do . . . no story. There is a sense in which it's very hard for us to tell honest stories about evil, because real evil isn't extremely watchable. So instead of making legitimately evil villains, we make villains who are heroes on the wrong side, or villains who are heroes with a streak of malice, or we just take the hero, run through a list of their strengths, and come up with a foil for each bullet point. Those methods make engaging villains. Those are the villains you love to see, because they thrill you at the same time that they horrify you: the Darth Vaders and the Hannibal Lectors, the Moriartys and the Lex Luthors. Those bad guys may not have our allegiance, but they have our attention, our fascination, the stamp of the viewer's approval. But to write a villain who elicits horror in the audience, who’s a perfect counterpoint to all the hero’s strengths, and to have the audience feel sick when he’s on the screen—that’s extraordinary. And in this case, it’s achieved by tapping into a kind of violence that has only rarely been addressed on the screen, and even more rarely shown from the victim’s point of view. It’s not the “violent rape” that politicians discuss, the kind that grabs you in an alleyway with a stranger’s hands. It’s the kind that gets up close and personal in all the other ways, in ways that nobody can see from the outside. And its perpetrator is an emotional toddler, raging for anything and everything they want, right now, as if their whims were as essential as oxygen. There is absolutely nothing appealing about Kilgrave. Zilch. Even his charm isn't directed toward us; it's directed toward the other characters, the ones Jessica needs to believe her and help her, and so we hate his charm. He convinces the audience that he’s powerful, maybe too powerful to be defeated, and we’re right there in Jessica’s misery with her, feeling isolated and despairing. Kilgrave's comic-book villain in Jessica Jones does what speculative fiction does best: turns a mirror on reality. You can make a villain who is stronger than other villains, who rules a bigger empire or has a bigger weapon or is out to kill more people than any other villain ever written. But all you're doing is playing the game of "Oh, yeah? My bad guy is bad times a hundred. No; times a million. Times infinity plus one." Kilgrave tells us what bad really is, and it rings true. Anybody who's had to take out an order of protection knows Kilgrave already. Anybody who's undergone a rape kit knows Kilgrave already. He's the rarest sort of screen villain: the one we were afraid of before he was written.
  3. Like
    Grailknight reacted to Rich McGee in Healing with Knockback   
    No, we don't.  That's the individual GM's job, and it's specific to the campaign he plans to run.  If he wants kaiju to be a terrifying unstoppable menace they probably aren't controllable at all.  If he wants the PCs and villains to be elite psychics who use kaiju as proxies to fight each other, they certainly are.  If he wants to do a Pokemon arc where some cheating psychic is manipulating tournament betting by mind-controlling the actual Pokemon in the arena that's a very different story than one where psychics (including psychic Pokemon) can mind-slave human beings and make them do whatever they desire - which is going be lot more awful than just throwing Pokemon matches unless the censors get involved.
     
    I reiterate my previous point:    Generic point costs are never going to cover all the options when your game engine is trying to be universally useful.  You need to adjust for your campaign. 
  4. Like
    Grailknight got a reaction from Rich McGee in Space Cops   
    I loved the Adam Warren runs on Dirty Pair especially Start the Violence!. Oh, both series are available on Crunchyroll with commercials, or without if you have a premium account.
  5. Like
    Grailknight got a reaction from Khymeria in Could Rules for Hero Gaming System Be Getting To Complicated?   
    Because with Figured Characteristics, you got a baseline to work with. Without that being the intention of the writer's, the rules still hinted that a Brick with STR 65 CON 33 BODY 15 should have REC 20 END 66 STUN 65 at a minimum. Character creation had some built-in paradigms, flawed though they were.
     
    6th Edition took those away and gave minimal guidance on what values were common to certain character types. No Characteristic could be assumed adequate at its staring value. I agree that you should have been doing so in the earlier editions also, but it was possible to leave characters like my example with the minimums derived. You can't do that now and have a viable character. It's a small extra step but it is extra.
     
    Many of us older players who've been doing this since First Edition do this as second nature. I've got 40+ years of Hero to draw on and I think you have similar experience. I can do Hero without a book. But it doesn't come naturally to newer players, it has to be learned.
  6. Like
    Grailknight got a reaction from Black Rose in Could Rules for Hero Gaming System Be Getting To Complicated?   
    Hero is not overly complicated. It is overly frontloaded. 
  7. Like
    Grailknight reacted to Rich McGee in Space Cops   
    Didn't hurt that they were probably a creation of Alex Toth (who definitely made Birdman, who they shared a half-hour slot with) - I can see some slight similarities between the trio and Space Angel, another of his works that revolved around a MMF crew, even if they were powerless.  Also unusual for the amount of continuity over the twenty episodes - there are two villains that recur twice, and each the trio run into other members of their respective alien species at one point or another.  That's pretty good for early HB supers, honestly.
    Hey now, surely you mean the Lovely Angels there.  The gals would be very disappointed to hear you calling them by that name.  
     
    Have to credit them with my lasting fondness for Adam Warren's work over the years.
  8. Thanks
    Grailknight got a reaction from Lord Liaden in Space Cops   
    And for the anime style take...
     

    And for the anime style take...
     

    Or this ...
     

     
     
    Both are shows about a team of agents backed by  a galaxy-wide police force. Dirty Pair is high tech James Bond while Kiddy Grade's operatives are super powered espers.
  9. Haha
    Grailknight reacted to Cygnia in Funny Pics II: The Revenge   
  10. Like
    Grailknight got a reaction from Rich McGee in What Have You Watched Recently?   
    Watch the four Rebuild movies on Amazon to get the complete experience. The creator went back into depression over the course of the first three and recovered during the planning and making of the fourth. The animation is spectacular, and it actually tells you what the plan was at the end while giving closure to the characters.
  11. Like
    Grailknight reacted to Hugh Neilson in Healing with Knockback   
    I forgot about Unified Power - good call!
     
     
    There's a bit of comfort building an unusual ability multiple ways and getting similar costs.  Whichever choice is made is at least in the ballpark.
     
     
    I have always allowed a form of "standard effect" that two combined/linked/connected powers use the same rolls. That speeds up gameplay nicely.
     
    Actually, another easy simplifier for this power would be putting the Knockback element on Standard Effect.  If it's a Linked Blast (say 4d6, double knockback), Standard Effect is 8 on the Knockback Dice, so just subtract 2d6 from that 8 (or even apply a standard 7 or 8 and the Undead are always pushed back 2 meters or just knocked down).  The Knockback now becomes very easy to present as just an add-on to the Healing.
     
    I think that "player's standpoint" element is key.  Some players don't care to mine the build intricacies - they don't need to see two powers to run the character. If they are happy with someone else digging through the build complexities, and the player and GM share a common view of how the construct works in gameplay, then only put the necessities on the character sheet.  The chain of advantages and limitations (including limitations on an advantage) will also look complex. In d20, we would just write "Healing Blast" and maybe a bit of how it works.  A Hero "for play" character sheet would go a long way to reducing perceived complexity at the gaming table.
     
  12. Like
    Grailknight reacted to LoneWolf in Healing with Knockback   
    When I build this power as two separate powers, I am usually finding it cost less points because I don’t need some of the advantages on the healing and can put more limitations on the blast.  Also, as two separate powers I can also use the unified power limitation on both of them.   
     
    The end result works the same pretty much the same.  Technically it does require two separate rolls, but a GM can easily hand wave that and allow it to use the same roll.   From the players standpoint they roll 4d6 and heal their allies and then roll to knock back any undead in the area.   How is it any less cool for the player when built as two powers.   
     
    To me powers should avoid bending the rules as much as possible.  I understand that sometimes the GM may need to allow some flexibility to the rules, but that should be a last resort.  The reason for this is once you start doing that too often the players start to expect it, and this can cause problems.  Also doing this makes it easier when you come back to a character years later and wonder how the hell this power work.  
     
    I have to agree with Doc on not getting upset, I for one am enjoying the discussion. 
     
  13. Like
    Grailknight reacted to Doc Democracy in Healing with Knockback   
    The reason we ask whether HERO is too complicated is because we have more detail to argue about.  I would bet @Duke Bushido would be more than happy delivering this power in his 2ns Edition game. 
     
    As players we have pushed the game designers to give us more and more "official" rule options.  Those options already existed but we think, if they are written in a rule book, we can use them without too much thought or discussion, just punch the numbers in. We then wanted more guidance on those options, it is no wonder the core rulebook got so big.
     
    I don't think HERO is any more complicated, I worry we make it too complicated.  We begin to obsess over the detail and fret more about getting the numbers right than getting the feel right and delivering a decent game.
     
    There is something about us that loves the detail and makes us question the minds of other folk that bounce off this beautifully detailed system that "can do anything" but in the process we insist on showing all the detail, ensuring that every micro-point is audited and processed.
     
    I love the availability of the derail, I appreciate others who know it far better than me, pointing out when I stumble and permit things that could be exploited in unanticipated ways.
     
    What I appreciate most however, is not a complex build but an elegant one, one that achieves a game effect that would awesome to see in play, that HERO can put together from its parts that would be a total black box everywhere else.
     
    The detail for me is about helping adjudicate the effect in game, being able to explain to the player how this would work and how it might be changed to deliver different game outcomes.
     
    It is not the system, it is us that gets too complicated.
     
    Doc
  14. Like
    Grailknight reacted to sevrick in Healing with Knockback   
    The question is a combind power or not combind. The reason I say not is because it is too expensive that way for what it does. KB is more of an addendum to the heal power. The KB you are already paying for, so what is the issue. Knockback only effects undead is on it's own a limitation.
    If you had a some other attack instead of heal and it had that same modifier it would be an obvious limitation. But now suddenly because you attach it to heal, it becomes an advatage, because the KB you paid for and expect to get benefit from now doesn't slap your friends in the face?
     
    To be sure there's a minimal difference in options here the thing to do is keep it +0 and if I think it is a problem through play testing I can up it to +1/4.
  15. Thanks
    Grailknight reacted to Christopher R Taylor in Healing with Knockback   
    None, unless its a campaign where you're all undead and demons.  If anything its an advantage to not positively affect your enemies with an area effect spell.
  16. Like
    Grailknight reacted to Doc Democracy in Healing with Knockback   
    The idea is a wave of positive energy which heals everyone and knocks back undead.  HERO does not gave a positive energy power.  We were looking to the best solution.
     
    I would allow it as a +0 advantage, you would ask for +1/4. We seem to agree on everything else...
     
    I reckon it is, therefore, a GM dependent call and @sevrick can take that into consideration.
     
    Doc
  17. Like
    Grailknight reacted to Cancer in College Football 2023-2024   
    ... and ideally get it recognized as a professional, non-academic enterprise, fully taxable as such, and with athletes as compensated and protected employees.
  18. Thanks
    Grailknight reacted to Old Man in Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)   
    The voters had their say in 2020 and Trump tried to overturn it.  He doesn't deserve another chance.
  19. Like
    Grailknight reacted to Lord Liaden in Political Discussion Thread (With Rules)   
    I found this meme on the Internet -- apparently it's been floating for a few years. No author attributed, but it's a pithy summation:
     
    “Trump is the poor man’s idea of a rich man, the weak man’s idea of a strong man, and the stupid man’s idea of a smart man.” ~ Anonymous
  20. Haha
    Grailknight reacted to Clonus in Funny Pics II: The Revenge   
  21. Haha
  22. Like
    Grailknight got a reaction from unclevlad in If you . . .   
    Nope. Not unless I can see the suit of plot armor that all the Doctor's companions wear to survive even one episode.
  23. Like
    Grailknight got a reaction from Lawnmower Boy in Marvel Cinematic Universe, Phase Three and BEYOOOOONND   
    There's a 10-mile-high petrified torso in the middle of the Indian Ocean that has not been mentioned in any movie other than the one it emerged in. Also, very little acknowledgement of that 30k mile tall being that addressed the entire planet and said he be back to pass judgement on humanity in a mental voice everyone on the planet heard. They are clearly ignoring some events.
  24. Like
    Grailknight reacted to LoneWolf in Healing with Knockback   
    Healing is not an attack power.  Does Knockback only works on attack powers.   If you don’t want the attack to do damage, put a limitation on the blast Knockback only.  
     
    If it did work, you would have to heal the undead to knock them back. With the blast being a separate power, you don't have to knock the people you heal back.  
  25. Like
    Grailknight got a reaction from Christopher R Taylor in Marvel Cinematic Universe, Phase Three and BEYOOOOONND   
    There's a 10-mile-high petrified torso in the middle of the Indian Ocean that has not been mentioned in any movie other than the one it emerged in. Also, very little acknowledgement of that 30k mile tall being that addressed the entire planet and said he be back to pass judgement on humanity in a mental voice everyone on the planet heard. They are clearly ignoring some events.
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