Max Callahan

Re: Well, we haven't talked about Killing Attacks in a while... I like that the old stun lotto is gone, but i really don't like the new stun multiplier, I hit that point in the pdf and had to stop and do all sorts of OCDish math. I did come up with a sort of statement of principle, killing attacks and normal attacks are both 5 points per dc, so they should be similar in effectiveness. Old killing attacks blew that since a 5x stun mult pretty much clobbered the target, but I think the new 1d3 stun mult goes way to far in the other direction. 62% of the time a killing attack with a 1d3 multiplier will put 0 stun past defenses of 2.5 X the dcs of the attack. After much poking at numbers I've come to believe that a flat multiplier of 2.5 hits the stun results I'd like to see (less stun than a normal attack, enough stun to do some past the defenses I expect, and no "whoops they just oneshot the bad guy"), but as a play mechanism I'm hesitant to go with 2.5x, as it feels kind of bland, and multiplying by x and a half is slightly annoying. My other though is a stun mult of 1d{1,2,2,3,3,4} which also has a nice curve (ok a nice scatter graph), but calls for some custom dice.

Re: Open Followup to Steve Long's answer about being sleep deprived My wife and I just got finished an about 96 hour long push to get a sewing commission done for it's deadline. In that 96 hours we got one 3 hour nap and 5-6ish 20 minute naps. I'll second what everyone has said about the effects on Int Ego and End, and i'll add in that the point you simply can't stay awake is an important factor. I'm the second string sewer, so I had points where I was waiting on instructions, those times were deadly, if there was nothing to do staying awake would become almost impossible and I'd have to walk around the house to keep awake until the next thing to do came up. Having something to do would keep us awake for another few hours past that point, eventually though, we'd find ourselves nodding off at the sewing machine, and it would be time for a 20 minute nap, 20 minute naps would stop the nodding off for another 8-10 hours, but did nothing to help any of the other effects, the one 3 hour nap we got mid way through did feel almost like a full nights sleep though.

Re: What were the best Superhero comics of the 90's? My Father must have liked you, he didn't even set his head on fire.

Re: Some thoughts on River Tam (Firefly) I have been working with the impression that she has Detect Minds, sense, targeting, and her closing her eyes is her conscious mind trying to ignore the horrible things her body had been programed to do reflexively.

Re: Horror Hero rant I loved tremors because it had the best bit of advice ever. "Running isn't a plan. Running is what you do when a plan fails."

Re: Champs Worldwide: Whaddya want? Gah, how did this thread get to 11 pages before i noticed it, darn holidays. There's only one thing I want. El Hijo del Espectro! Thank you very much.

Re: Barrett announces 25mm man-portable assault cannon in testing The gun is listed as being able to penetrate 50mm of armor plate. According to Fred 64mm of Medium armor is Def 13 and 9 Body, so it needs to do 22 Body, so assuming average results it's a 6d6 RKA, or more likely 4d6 AP. It's going to need increased range to be able to shoot out to 2000 meters. And then 2 clips of 5 charges. So: 4d6 APRKA, Increased Maximum range (105 points Active), 2 clips of 5 Charges, OAF, Real Weapon, Beam. Total cost 35 points (the real cost will drop if i can figure what STR min this beast should have) and then for fun add BORS +14 penalty levels with range (42 points active), OAF, Real weapon. Total Cost 19 points

I'm wondering if is should start pestering my local game store yet?

Re: Turakian Age: Drakine Population Dynamics I had a bunch of questions along this line. How did the Drakine ever get to be numerous enough to have empires? Did the gods of the drakine create them in large numbers in the beginning, or is childbirth fatalities more recent? How common is it for Drakine females to decide not to have a child? How does Drakine society treat females who don't have their child. What is the life span of a drakine female who doesn't die from childbirth (from an evolutionary stand point I would expect it to be low as most would die soon after becoming fertile, but having been created by their gods all bets are off). What's the ratio of female children to male children (more girls means a slower die off). Does Drakine society discourage/prevent females from doing dangerous things so they don't die before having their child? Do Drakine males love their mate, and if they do how do they approach reproduction knowing it will most likely kill their partner.

Re: DARK CHAMPIONS: What Do *You* Want To See? I'll second RDU Neils request and expand it to a request for a discussion of overall combat psychology to cover not only can character keep their cool in combat, but also things like do they have the ability to kill other humans at close distances (the old saw from WW2 was that 10% of the soldiers were doing 90% of the killing).

I'm clear on The END for STR usage part of the equation, I'm looking for confirmation that a character who Martial dodges or blocks still pays 1 END for performing a non STR based action.

2 quick questions. The Faq and UMA pg 105 say that Martial Maneuvers cost no end Fred page 286 says that maneuvers that some maneuvers don't have a listed STR value; in such cases the character spends 1 END. This includes Block, Dodge or Firing a weapon. I'm taking this to mean that the martial maneuvers have no additional end cost, thus a STR 20 character would pay 2 end for any strike maneuver (for the STR use), and a martial dodge or block while costing no end on their own would still require the character to pay 1 END for a non STR based maneuver, is that correct? And secondly, the - to OCV is not eligible for a penalty skill level because it is a negative inherent to a combat maneuver, correct or incorrect (I'm betting on correct)

Re: Help, Zombies are eating my PCs! Another thing you might want to consider is giving the Zombies a OCV penalty with Bite given that a bite is a much harder attack to land than a punch/kick. Perhaps the -3 to OCV for non-proficiency is appropriate. I'll also suggest the 45 point level of "Takes no stun" where any hit that does body causes the automaton to lose one of {one Power, 10 STR, 1 SPD, 1 normal sense} for the blowing chunks off effect.

I would expect this is a special effect of the attack, not the main property of the attack. It's very genre for more "realistic" super-hero games to have characters outfits get destroyed during combat as a character might be indestructible, but their outfits aren't. Also consider that the rule for foci is "Any focus which provides defenses to a character is automatically by any attack which hits the character". So that Def 6 kevlar a character is wearing breaks the first time they get hit (now it does say the next sentence that to speed play and not always break armor you can ignore that rule, and I've never seen it used, but it is the default rule).

How about a Reduced Penetration Energy Blast?

You may want to consider having the masamune include an inch of stretching

I would like to use the optional velocity damage rules for knockback damage. I've gotten as far as the inches of kb times 12 for the inches per turn (as with throws), and damage equals VF times 2 if the target hits something (as with falls) or just VF if the subject does not. Is this correct, or is there something I'm missing?

14.5 mm AAR (Antiarmor Rifle a.k.a "Crunch Gun") Length 260cm, Weight 53.787 kg loaded Fires a 14.5 x 146.7 mm Discarding sabot round ATRI level 7 3d6 RKA increased range (600") (+ 1/4) 5 shots (-3/4) Active cost 56 Real cost 32 STR Min 20 Has a Bipod Notes: I really wanted this gun to end up doing more damage given the sheer terror it used to inspire in my players, but i converted the damage 2 ways at it kept coming out at 3d6. It penetrates 6 cm of steel (def 7 and 3 body) , or against a unarmored human it does 12d6 damage 42 avg, and the stock NPC has 40 hits (then they are dead / unconscious bleeding to death), so that comes out to 10 body also.

I think the damage for the main gun might be a bit low, it's rated to penetrate 1.28 meters of steel out to 12.5 km. Plate metal is DEF 7, and 1 meter of metal is 17 body, so a total of 24 body needs to be done, or 6 1/2 or 7d6 -1 ish dice of damage. Also it's only semi automatic 2 shots (per 5 second turn) so I wouldn't call it autofire. It's front armor is rated at the equivalent of 1.28 meters so it's defenses are good. With a cruising speed of 538 kph, it'd going to need a lot more inches of movement though (or NCM multiples or both).

I'll note that Firewing opened a Gateway to get to Earth from Malva. So, if his FTL is a hyperspace gateway power that would allow him to be FTL in space while not necessarily being fast when just flying.

That gives me a thought for the most EVIL build of the Quadellen Rau. Build the missles as vehicles, and then give them all the Teamwork skill so they can _coordinate_ their attacks.

And also let me say that for quick reference on military hardware I love the guys at the Federation of American Scientists http://fas.org/man/index.html

I'm thinking that the helfire would probably be better represented as a vehicle (at very least for the continuity of having all missiles be vehicles), and then having the 4d6 2xAP be single target with something like a 2d6 explosion linked, Because while it does explode, it's a shaped explosion.

Going strictly by the write ups he can't do any of thoes things. The Helfires on the Apache are just a straight RKA. not a vehicle with and RKA like the Sparrow (and all the missles it stands in for) so his force wall/damage shield doesn't help, and it's an explosion, so he'll have to dive for cover to get away, and he wouln't be able to dive again when the second helicopter shoots at him (presuming there is a second helicopter) . Now the Helfire is just a straight RKA, no increaded range mod, or no range mod or anyhing, so it's only good out to 750", and with the Apaches OCV it's only really good out to at most 128" And at those distances firewing is going to kill them very dead in return, but if there are enough of them (like 6 or so) he's going to be in trouble.

The 30mm on the Apache helicopter in TUV is 4 1/2d6 AP +1 stun mult. But it fires 30mm x 117 rounds and they are straight cartridges. The gun on the A-10 fires 30 x 173 mm rounds with necked cartridges, so they have about twice the charge of the rounds the Apache fires, which I read as +1 DC. For my own write up I've been calling it 5d6 -1 AP If there is anything Firewing really has to watch out for it's the Hellfire missiles on the Apache, they are 4d6 2xAP explosion. Being explosion they will probably hit, and being 2xAP they will do 4 body on the average hit.