Rubric

Re: Help with Character Acroynym

Bio-Robotic Universal Turing Entity

Or, if it's not "Bio"logical at all, then maybe just a Basic or Benign Robotic Universal Turing Entity.

If it is partly biological, you could also substitute "unified" in place of universal. Other suggestions for "u": Unmanned, Unique, or Utility / Utilitarian.

Re: Luck Options

I'd be inclined to make the pool's duration based on something other than "game session".

 

Secondly, altering the rolls after the fact seems a bit too useful. I would try having alterations before the roll cost 1:1, and after the roll cost more (2:1, maybe).

Both are great suggestions.

There also need to be some limits on how much a given roll can be changed by. You don't want the player adding all 35 points to a Killing Attack damage roll. "Wow, I didn't think that .22 caliber pistol would kill Superman..."

If the player is willing to use significant self-restraint, it won't be a problem. Otherwise, the GM is going to have to really clamp down, and possibly disallow it altogether.

Re: Luck Options

As written, the rules aren't clear as to whether the Lucky player can affect only his own rolls, or ALL rolls. In my unrevised book, one sentence says he can change "his" rolls, and another sentence just says he can change "rolls". It's also not clear how "range" affects it. Presumeably, you can only affect things that are within the standard points/inches range, but what does that mean? What is the location of a "roll"?

However, I think a major use for this variant of luck is to reduce attack rolls or damage rolls of enemies. So, that capability should be included in the power at its base level (no advantages).

I might do it like this:

Base level: the player can alter any dice that he personally rolls, and he can alter dice of any roll that directly affects him (an attack roll or damge roll against his character).

Some advantage: the player can alter any roll, even if it doesn't directly affect him.

Some limitation: the player can only change his own dice, not those rolled by enemies, even if the enemy is targetting the player.

I'm not sure how much the advantage should be. A literal reading of the "Useable on Others" rule makes it sound like you need +1 Useable as Attack AND +1/2 ranged. That seems excessive to me, but any lower advantage seems to imply that the person you're using it on gets to control it, and that's not the effect we're looking for. Obviously the villian is not going to voluntarily reduce his attack roll. Also it's not the way the base power works.

I would probably just go with a net +1, instead of 1.5. That includes "ranged", and I would rule that the target OR the attacker (but not both) needs to be in range. I also noticed that the Useable as Attack description says that you must define a common set of circumstances that negates the attack -- so that could be the "defense" you were looking for.

As for whether I would use the optional rule -- I would certainly try it. But, I would probably tell the player ahead of time that we may have to nerf his character if it doesn't work out. The problem with it is that it limits the GM, because everything has to be a dice roll or else the player will feel cheated. Sometimes the GM just wants to say "Okay, that attack missed" (or whatever), but the Lucky player is going to want to know how much it missed by, etc. I'd still try it though, especially if the overall character concept is interesting.

Re: Answers & Questions

A: 30 runs in the last 9 games

What happens if you play baseball wearing panty hose? (Not that I know -- it's just what I heard.)

A: The easy way

Re: 10 Most Amazing Temples in the World

Awesome! The one on the side of a mountain is amazing -- hard to believe it's real. It almost looks computer-generated....

Also, I can't get the link to load. Are there really ten, or are there only seven amazing temples?

Re: My First Game of Champions!

Oh, and then what's this about "inches"?

Once I finally figured out that Energy Blast is actually your Fireballs and Lightning Bolts, I couldn't quite understand why you have to stand so close....

Let's see, my 60 point energy blast has a range of... 60 inches? That's like 5 feet....

Re: My First Game of Champions!

HA! Yes. Priceless. Old habits died hard. But now I reckon I'd search in vain for the OCV of a first level fighter ... whatever that means anymore.

Ha ha, yes.

I remember when I first got the book, I flipped through the powers looking for "Fireball". When I didn't find it, I thought "Okay, this game is stupid."

Then I figured they have to have Lightning Bolt, because Storm sometimes shoots lightning bolts. *Flip* *Flip* *Flip* Let's see.... No lightning bolt??! Dumbest game ever....

Re: My First Game of Champions!

Interesting subject. Here are a few things I remember from early games. This would be late 1981, or early 1982. I was young teenager at the time. I remember fishing loose change out of my pocket at a convention, in order to come up with the full 13 dollars it was going to cost. One of the guys at the booth said "Now that's a dedicated gamer", as I literally started counting pennies.

Anyway:

1. My younger brother made a character called "The Acrobat", who was blind. He was basically a Daredevil knock off. At one point, he wanted to jump off a building and land on a bad guy that was walking past. Obviously that's a move-through, but at the time I was completely stumped as to how to handle it. I couldn't even figure out the Endurance cost. My brother wanted it to be zero endurance, since he was basically just "falling off a building", but I insisted on charging him 1 endurance. He was so upset by that 1 endurance that he nearly quit playing.

2. One of my friends made a character called "Power Fist", who was a knock-off of Colossus, except that he got his powers from special gloves that he wore. We played a short scenario where he had to stop a bank robbery. He picked up one of the robbers, and wanted to throw him at the other bank robber. Again, I was completely baffled as to how to handle that. I don't remember what happened, but I think I had him roll the damage one time, and then I divided it among the two robbers.

3. The first big game I ran was the Viper's Nest scenario that came with the original game. This was the first time I had more than one player. The game ran pretty smoothly until one of the heroes tried to grab Brick and teleport with him. The player said he wanted to leave Brick in the non-dimensional space between the teleport locations. I was like, "Ummm, yeah, that should work. Okay Brick is gone."

I also recently took a look at some of the early characters I made. Oh My Gawd!!! Captain Gravity, indeed. I won't go into it, since that's basically a different subject. But let's just say most of the characters I made were just X-men with different names.

Re: TV: Kid Nation

Watched the pilot.

 

Lot more adult structure than the promos suggested.

Yeah, true. I liked it, though, and plan on watching it.

The only thing that really bugged me -- when the girl won the gold star, they just happened to have a camera crew at her mom's house....

Re: Change Environment: Personal Immunity or Envirnomental Movement

I'd be surprised that a GM would allow all of these stacked effects from 1 application of a large aoe continuous power' date=' but moving on...[/quote']

 

It's pretty much straight out of the book, though. Plus, it's a 60-70 active point power, so it should have a significant effect.

 

If the GM is concerned about it, there's also a "Long Lasting" adder, which is only 5 points. Ice should last as long as environmental conditions would dictate, so I maybe I should take that adder.

 

 

Against any non-super this attack is devastating (your average cop or agent is reduced to a less than 30% to hit, assuming he's not scrambling up from the ice, and slowed to half his movement). Against ground based supers it's still quite powerful.

 

I don't really see it as a problem. Any 60 point power can deal with agents, whether it's a 6d6 area effect blast to stun them, or just a 30 point force field so they can't hurt you. To me, this CE doesn't seem all that powerful vs. supers.

 

While the sum of the limitations may indeed be greater than 1/4, I'm not convinced that it's worth 1/2.

 

Well, I agree that EM:Ice and great mass are rare, and I can't really use the Desolid angle. It's clearly more than 1/4 though. I need to add something else to get it up to 1/2. For clarity, let me just break it out as two separate limitations:

-1/4: (Only affects targets standing on the ground) -- from the book

-1/4: (Doesn't affect targets with EM:Ice, great mass, or _____ ).

 

Note: I also have an additional -1/4 applied to the whole power framework based on increasing the endurance cost (sometimes massively increasing it) when it's too dry and there is no nearby water source.

 

Other possible limitations to fill in the above blank:

1. No range? I can't remember if CE has range by default, but I assume it does. Still, a 16" radius makes this a relatively insignificant limitation, so it wouldn't get a whole -1/4 to itself. Doesn't really fit my concept however, although the concept is still subject to change.

2. OCV penalty only applies to HtH attacks

3. Doesn't affect characters with ice sliding/running powers (even if they don't have EM:Ice, which they probably should have). In fact, I could see a GM actually increasing the movement rate of an ice slider, or at least reducing his endurance cost.

4. Destroyed by heat-based attacks?

5. what else?

 

Or am I just trying to get free points back by "defining" natural properties of ice?

Re: Change Environment: Personal Immunity or Envirnomental Movement

So then, the question becomes what is the appropriate limitation. Let's factor the following things into the limitation:

a. Penalties apply only to characters touching the ground (5E provides an example where this limitation is -1/4 by itself).

b. Penalties do not apply to anyone with EM: Ice

c. Penalties do not apply to characters/vehicles with extraordinary mass

d. Not mentioned earlier, but penalties probably shouldn't apply to Desolid either (unless that's already build into the Desolid power?)

 

...

 

So, what's the value of the limitation? I'm thinking -1/2.

On further reflection, I think the Desolid power probably includes innate immunity to this type of Change Environment. Does anyone disagree? I've never seen a ghost slip on ice, and I've never seen a cloud of vapor get stuck in mud, for example.

If you were the GM, would you make a Desolid character pay extra points (like some variant of Flight) in order to ignore penalties for ground-based CE's and/or similar natural effects? Conversely, would you allow the player with the CE to take a limitation that it doesn't work on Desolids?

Also, is the above set of limitations still worth -1/2 even without the Desolid part?

Re: Change Environment: Personal Immunity or Envirnomental Movement

OTOH' date=' if you /want/ EM to stop the power completely, I would give a Limitation for that (probably -1/4); use those points to buy EM and you are all set![/quote']

 

You can build the power with a limitation (-1/4' date=' or possibly even -1/2, depending on the campaign) that EM (Ice) negates all penalties.[/quote']

 

 

Okay, I'm liking this idea. The method for avoiding the penalty is built in to the power, and is obvious to anyone who wants to pay a few points for the "defense". I imagine three tiers of Change Environment:

 

1. Base power with no modifiers: Nobody is immune, neither me nor anybody else. Even if you have a relevant Environmental Move ability, you still have penalties (possibly reduced penalties if your GM is friendly, but penalties should not be completely negated).

 

2. EC w/ Personal Immunity: I ignore the penalties, but everyone else suffers them, regardless of their other abilities. However, I have no automatic defense against natural conditions that mimic my CE.

 

3. EC w/ limitation "Not vs. appropriate Environmental Movement": Now anybody with the appropriate "defense" is completely immune. The GM understands that I will definitely buy EM:Ice, and will encourage teammates to do the same. Likewise, I understand that the GM will sometimes throw villains at me who have EM.

 

So then, the question becomes what is the appropriate limitation. Let's factor the following things into the limitation:

a. Penalties apply only to characters touching the ground (5E provides an example where this limitation is -1/4 by itself).

b. Penalties do not apply to anyone with EM: Ice

c. Penalties do not apply to characters/vehicles with extraordinary mass

d. Not mentioned earlier, but penalties probably shouldn't apply to Desolid either (unless that's already build into the Desolid power?)

 

Regarding ( above, I would like to see it as Max EM (4 points) negates the penalties completely, while lesser levels of EM provide pro rata reduction. Likewise, regarding ©, I would probably define 60 active points of Density Increase as the amount of mass needed to completely negate penalties, with lower levels of DI allowing pro rata reduction (the requirement might be too high, though). Also, I mentioned "experience working on ice" and "cleats/spikes" earlier -- I think these are special effects of EM:Ice and are included in that ability. They are not separate powers in their own right.

 

Of course, all of the above notes are GM discretion, but naturally I would provide "helpful suggestions" to the GM. So, what's the value of the limitation? I'm thinking -1/2.

 

 

 

For a marginally more realistic feel to it, you could go with a -1/4 EM offsets penalties, clinging negates them (technically a power that creates ice, even with the CE power, is not subject to EM (Ice) even though it is logical that it should eb so), and then buy yourself clinging (only on ice, natural or created by powers) so that you can actually adhere to ice (perhaps you melt and freeze the ice as you put a foot down).

 

Then there are two levels of 'defence' - EM (partial) or clinging (total).

 

Interesting. It's funny you mention clinging, because I'm also thinking about how to throw the "sheet of ice" onto a vertical surface to affect clinging and climbing. CE can reduce climbing skill, but not Clinging. It's an ability that would be so rarely useful, that I wouldn't want to pay many points for it. Maybe it should be a power trick with the CE.

 

The other thing that an ice patch should probably do is increase KB. You can do that (kinda) with a KBR supress or drain but that doesn't affect people who do not have KBR. I'd let you buy it as part of CE: for 5 points you get +1" KB for every 5 damage classes in an attack that hits anyone standing on the ice: someone standing on your ice patch hot by a 12d6 EB would take (BODY+2)-2d6 KB.

 

Ahh, nice idea. That might be worth reducing the radius by a notch in order to squeeze in the extra five points. The only problem is that my newly-purchased HeroDesigner is going to have conniptions if I try to do that.

Re: Change Environment: Personal Immunity or Envirnomental Movement

I'd allow you to buy PI or environmental movement (ice)' date=' but then ANYONE with environmental movement (ice) would be able to circumvent your power. The extra points you spend on PI would therefore have real utility.[/quote']

 

That's fine with me. I don't have a problem with others being able to avoid the penalty. As mentioned, it's supposed to be regular ice.

 

Also I'd consider allowing a limtiation on this power as it only affects surfaces people stand on, possibly like the '2D' limtiation for AoE.

 

Yes, that's included already. I just didn't mention it. I believe the CE example in the book includes a -1/4 limitation for "Only affects targets standing on the ground."

 

As for making sure your team mates are not affected, either EM (ice) if that is what you go for, or the GM might allow you to buy a 'selective' advantage or you need to make your PI Useable By Others.

 

Selective and/or Useable by others is exactly what I'm trying to avoid. My character can create a sheet of ice on the ground -- that's it. There's no reason I should have the ability to control who can walk on it and who can't. It's up to others (teammates or villians) to provide their own capability to walk on it.

Re: Change Environment: Personal Immunity or Envirnomental Movement

the character is required to make at least one roll when entering the field of effect

Thanks for the reply. That solves the falling down problem. Is this a rule, or is it your interpretation as GM? I don't have my book at the moment, although I don't recall reading anything about an automatic Dex roll upon entering.

(or some other power; if you have Running based on creating an ice slide, for example, I would probably just give you Environmental Movement for free in most supers games).

No, I don't have the running/sliding ability, as I'm trying not to be TOO much of a Marvel Iceman ripoff.

However, if you would give me free EM for a Running power, why not for a Personal Immunity to my CE?

12 points seems like a lot...except that in every fight you might be doing this, and ignoring the penalties that everyone else incurs is a big deal.

Hmmm, yes that seems to be the main issue. It's essentially an area-effect power, and the general rule is that you need PI to avoid those. The problem is that the special effects of the PI are identical to the special effects of the Environmental Movement.

To make other characters immune to the effect would involve some sort of Power setup...and I'd be more curious about the concept justification for it.

Well, the justification is that it is regular ice, not special mutant ice or alien ice or something. Possible reasons why others could walk on it: (1) experience with working on ice, (2) cleats or spikes on your feet, (3) extraordinary mass that breaks the ice with each step, etc.

Context: I'm working on an ice-based character who uses Change Environment [CE] to create a sheet of ice. The book (5E unrevised) is inconsistent about the effects of ice -- under the CE power description, it provides an example of ice that causes a movement penalty and requires a dex roll or breakfall roll whenever a character moves. In the rules section on the environment, it says ice may cause an OCV penalty. Both examples seem reasonable.

My CE will basically combine those effects. I'll use -3" movement, -4 to Dex skills, and -1 or -2 to OCV. (I don't see any non-hackish way to create a "fall down" effect -- I guess that will be GM discretion.) If this seems like a stiffer penalty than regular ice, then think of it as "rough ice" or "uneven ice". That is, it appears with slopes and crests that make it extremely treacherous to walk on it, let alone perform any sort of kung fu kick.

So now, it would be pretty silly for me to be falling down all the time due to my own power. The first question is: do I need to pay for Personal Immunity (+1/4), or do I need Environmental Movement (1 to 4 points)? The CE is about 60 active points, because it has a large radius and several penalties. That means PI will cost about 12 points, and will have the unfortunate side-effect of increasing the END cost by 1.

12 points + extra END seems like a lot to me, especially for an ability that grants me NO BENEFIT on regular (natural) ice. Environmental Movement, on the other hand, will let me walk on regular ice with no penalty, so why not this ice? Would you say I need both of these abilities if I want to walk on ALL ice?

Second question: how do other characters avoid my sheet of ice? Can teammates spend a couple experience points on Environmental Movement so the ice doesn't affect them? (And I guess the follow up question is, if they can do it, why can't I?)

Re: Metahuman Tactical Response...

Metahuman Tactical Assault Legion, or "MeTAL"

 

Officially called "Legionnaires", unofficially referred to as "metalheads".

 

Your heavy assault armor then could be "Heavy MeTAL" and so on...

Awesome! This is my favorite of the suggestions so far.

I wonder if you could make something for MATTER? Metahuman Active Threat Tactical Evaluation (and) Response. Or something....

Re: Say somthing clever... PLEASE!

What about under 5er? With TK... can I have unlimited number of things "grabbed" if I make a successful roll on each one' date=' one action after another... or is there still a limit on how much base TK can hold?[/quote']

 

My impression, after posting two questions to Steve, is that you can hold as many people as you want, and use your full TK strength on each one. But, you are limited to a single "arm span" for each individual grab.

 

You can see the questions and answers here:

 

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28516

 

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28570

 

To LL's point... would an adder of "extra limbs" but on TK allow you to grab and hold multiple objects... as long as you made multiple attacks.

I think that would be interesting, but apparently unnecessary in light of the broad interpretation Steve gave me. Instead, you could probably take a limitation of -1/2 or so for TK limited to one "arm".

Re: [Newbie] problem figuring out this power

Telekinesis, with the limitation "Target must be near a tree or other plant."

The special effect is that the tree branches reach down and grab somebody. You might also apply a few other limitations, like physical manifestation, to reflect that other bad guys can try to destroy the tree.

Re: Is monster hunting horror?

Just because it has supernatura "monsters" doesn't make it horror. Look at something like the movie "Love at First Bite". It has vampires in it, but it is clearly a comedy and NOT horror. Also, as somebody else mentioned, Steven King has been writing horror for years, much of which has NO supernatural elements at all (psychological horror, etc.)

Personally, I think a Van Helsing-type game would be perfect for Pulp Hero, but it would work in Dark Champs also. Actually, I feel the same way about most stories involving the classic movie monsters -- Frankenstein, Dracula, the Mummy, werewolves -- these are great material for adventure stories, but they don't really qualify as "horror" any more (if they ever did) because the stories are so common place now. The two areas where Hollywood is still good at making scary (horror) monster movies is with ghosts, and with "creepy crawlies" like spiders, etc.

Re: Multiple Grabs

Interesting. This issue has been on my mind lately as well, except that in my case, I'm working on a character that can telekinetically grab multiple targets.

I've posted two questions to Steve Long, which you can see here:

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28516

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28570

They deal with using the Rapid Fire maneuver to grab multiple targets at range, and/or using TK with the "area effect" advantage. (By the way, in response to the 2nd poster -- as I understand Steve's response, there is no need for an "extra limbs" equivalent for TK. It seems that the base power allows you to grab and hold multiple targets, as long as you pay appropriate endurance costs, as explained in Steve's answers. I probably should follow up with Steve one more time to confirm this.)

Since you are dealing with physical grabbing instead of telekinetic, I assume your character might be able to use the Sweep maneuver for a similar effect, instead of Rapid Fire. This should be possible with no special powers or advantages, but all the targets have to be adjacent. I agree you might want extra limbs in order to really "hold" more than a few people. Growth might be interesting as well, along with the Stretching. I don't see why you would need Invisible Effects on the extra limbs -- it seems to me they could just be a special effect of the morph/stretching powers. In other words, it isn't technically an "extra limb", just an ability to loop your arm around someone, and then continue on with that arm to grab someone else.

In the alternative, maybe you could use Telekinesis with a "no range" limitation and an additional limitation to reflect the special effect of grabbing with your arms, though I'm not sure exactly what that limitation would be (maybe physical manifestation). In fact, this might be the way to go, since TK apparently allows you to grab multiple targets, without the need for special advantages.

At any rate, the character concept is definitely doable, probably in several different ways. I'll be interested to see how you work it out.

Re: Looking for Spidery names ... sort of.

Mandible -- strength/crushing character, possibly with stretching. Or call him Mr. Mandible, or Dr. Mandible, etc. Maybe he is a TK?

Chitin -- armored character

Re: Looking for the product

You might want to think about buying a cheap calculator, also. You can get one for under $5, and it's just as quick as a look-up table. Plus, you can use a calculator to add up your different powers and characteristics, etc., which the table can't do.

Re: Caps on Characteristics for Standard Supers

I've often done this; but it does pigeonhole the characters to an archetype. You won't see as many Spiderman Clones as you'll see Batman and Hulk clones.

But slight pigeonholing is worth it to prevent that particular problem. One of the reasons my last campaign ended (well over 10 years ago.... ) is because one of the players stumbled into a character concept that was both unhittable and unhurtable. The character was called "Bullet", and had loads of shrinking for an astronimical DCV, and had maxed out our campaign limits on defense. The character also exploited the loophole where massive strength + massive flight speed = a move-through that blows the lid off the DC cap.

The player was not trying to exploit the system, and neither of us realized how powerful it would be until he was already an established character. Sure, there are ways to hit him and ways to deal with him, but it was a real pain trying to come up with a new challenge every game.

That particular campaign was falling apart anyway because most of the players were getting into jobs/marriages, etc. and our gaming time was rapidly disappearing. But if we had kept playing, that character would have had to go. He was just too much trouble to deal with, even with a very good and cooperative player.

Re: Pulp Hero Cometh

Edgar Rice Burroughs was the king of pulp writers in the early part of the last century. He created:

Tarzan

Pellucidar (sort of a Land of the Lost setting)

John Carter, Warlord of Mars (blend of sci-fi and fantasy, but no magic)

as well as countless other stuff.

Also, there is a lot of material in other genres that owes a lot to the pulp era. Most people think of Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon as sci-fi, but those are both clear pulp heroes if you ask me.

Likewise, a lot of stories that look superficially like they belong in the horror genre are actually pulp: The Mummy, Frankenstein, even Dracula. The recent Van Helsing movie was a good example of pulp horror. It didn't do well at the box office, but I liked it. Same with Sky Captain -- if you go into it expecting a totally serious movie, you might be disappointed, but if you alter your perspective they're both very entertaining.

I love this genre, but have never tried it as an RPG (although I did enjoy reading the old Justice Inc. stuff.) If I ran a pulp campaign, I would probably go with a "monster hunting" theme, as in Van Helsing or in that early '70s TV series about the reporter named Kolchak who killed vampires, zombies, etc. Can't think of the name right now, Night Stalkers I think.

Steve, thanks for that detailed and helpful reply.

One thing I don't understand is the END cost in the example you posted.

For reference:

Example: A character has Telekinesis (40 STR — 60 Active Points) and uses it to Rapid Fire Grab six people. That costs him 6 END. In his next Phase, he decides he wants to keep holding on to them. Again, he pays 6 END to do this — he only pays for his Telekinesis once, since he’s doing the same thing to every victim.

 

In his next Phase, the character decides to Squeeze four victims and Throw two of them. He can do so, but must meet two requirements: first, he has to succeed with an Attack Roll against each one (not hard, since they’re at reduced DCV due to being Grabbed); second, he has to pay 36 END — one payment of END for each victim affected.

As I understand you, I can maintain my hold on all 6 guys for only 6 END per phase, as long as I am treating them all the same, or 36 END if I want to do something different to one or more targets.

Where I see (or imagine) a contradiction is in the 2nd sentence of the example. I thought Rapid Fire attacks required you to pay full END for each "shot" (or in this case, each grab). So, if I use Rapid Fire TK to grab 6 people, shouldn't I pay 36 END, regardless of whether I hit or miss them? Then after that, my END cost would be 6 or 36 depending on what I do after I grab them.

2. First, re: Area Of Effect Telekinesis, see 5ER 231 generally. That covers 2a, I think; if not, you’re welcome to post a follow-up.

Oh, you mean the book that I ... ummm.... errrr..... don't have yet.

I'm guessing that it's the "group strength" rule mentioned in the FAQ. That is, that you add lifting capacity, but not STR, to determine if the group as a whole can escape.