KA.

Hey MadMacabre, I have some specific plot ideas for your campaign, but it would probably be better if I emailed them directly to you. Some of them would be a lot less effective if your players knew about them in advance. Just send me an email if you are interested, since your address is not in your profile. K.A.

Nice One, ChaosDrgn. KA

I am thinking of creating a group of heroes whose powers are all based on computers. Binary - A multiform character with two distinct sets of powers, one light-based and the other dark-based. Octal - Part-human, part-synthsizer. Computerized music and sound-based powers. Hex-A-Decimal - Uses computer technology to translate ancient spells, and cast them. RAM - Team Leader. Has amazing strategic skills, due to being able to hold vast amounts of information in his mind at the exact same time. I am going to call them - The Assemblers! I can't wait for them to voice their mighty battle cry: Assemblers, Avenge! Sorry! Just kidding! KA.

Well, for the mystic it could be based on what her main goals are. She could be trying to find answers about how her abilities work, and the ultimate nature of the universe. She could devote herself to a lifelong quest to discover the Ultimate Truth. In which case you could call her Seeker! Actually, when you said Mystic, I started thinking of more of a Moondragon-type character. You know, a mixture of Mental Discipline based abilites and Martial Arts. I will try to think of some actual names, now that I have got the Seeker joke out of my system. KA

I had a brilliant solution to this problem, up until I realized I didn't know what the heck I was talking about. I was going to say: "Instead of trying to actually change the phase of the moon, why don't you temporarily remove the werewolves' vulnerability to silver, and make the changing of the moon's phase the "special effect", since that is all that it is going to really do anyway." The only problem is, unless I have missed something, short of a mass Transform into "werewolves without the vulnerability to silver", how the heck can you do something like this in Hero? It does happen in comics from time to time, like when Superman wears his "lead suit" around Kryptonite, but what the heck would the mechanics of it be? I mean you could buy the Kryptonite as an NND, with lead as the defense, but that is not really the case, it is a vulnerability. So, how would something like this work? I know that you wouldn't want to make it too easy, otherwise people would be getting "free" vulnerabilities all the time by having some cheesy "protection", but how would you build a protection for "once in a great while" use, like the lead suit? KA

Re: Re: It's not too heroic, but... I must disagree. 1) Straight woman - according to the highly realistic anthropological data presented in porno movies, all straight women are actually bisexual. Even a minor tiff with a boyfriend, and an attractive female friend with a sympathetic ear, can send them cruising to the Isle of Lesbos. 2) A Gay Man - Confronted with a roomful of hookers would spend at least 5 hours either: a) making them over, or discussing fashion trends. 3) Based on all the Sci-Fi movies I have seen, all aliens, and robots, dig earth women. KA

I hope I am not beating a horse that is, if not dead, sorely wounded, but to me the constuct you describe is Entangle BOECV, or "Mental Paralysis". It prevents the target from acting, without doing any "damage" to him, and in a retro, "mystery man" setting, it makes perfect stylistic sense. It will work on "normals" but those with "mysterious mental powers" will be mostly immune. KA

Just to throw in some advice about gaming with family, especially when they are newbies. 1) Let them read some comics and pick a "tone". Make sure they understand what the tone will mean as far as their interaction with the game world. ex. Four Color vs. Dark. They need to have a clear understanding about what level of violence is expected from them, and is likely to happen to them. You don't want someone breaking the neck of a guard when they were supposed to just thump them on the back of the head. You also don't want them fighting to the death when the plot calls for them being captured. Make sure they know if things are supposed to be lethal, or non-lethal. Let them know that if you are playing four color, that the proper response to a death trap is to figure a way out, or wait for their DNPC to blunder in to save them, not to detonate the pocket nuke that they built into their VPP. That way you won't have to fudge things too much. 2) Fudge things. This is a game. It is supposed to be fun. It is supposed to be a pleasant pass-time that requires a certain amount of creativity and thought. Even though a GM is supposed to be a "referee", it is not the same as being the one who makes the deciding call in the Super Bowl. It is more like being the referee in a kids' pick-up game. You want to enforce the majority of the rules, but not destroy everyone's fun with nitpicking. That does not mean that you have to make things too easy, or let the players get away with anything, but if they come up with something creative, let it work. If the "thief" character wants to hotwire a car, even if they don't have the appropriate skill, let them do it, and then tell them later that they need to spend an experience point for Familiarity. Also explain that if they want to be able to hotwire a tank someday, that they will need to buy the appropriate skills. 3) Down, Boy, Down! Yes, I know that some people have been spoiling to GM for a while since their group moved away, but now is not the time to launch the "Deep, Rich, Finely Crafted, Uber-Plot of all time!" You learn to cook by chopping things and cooking eggs, you do not do three layer souffles with twelve different dipping sauces! Give the new player time to get used to game mechanics, and their character, before you start springing Clones of their DNPC, Altered Reality, and Dimension Hopping, all in the same session. You may be a very experienced GM, but your players are new. If they think that things are always this complicated, they will feel stupid and just give up. Give them a chance to settle in. 4) Choking Hazard. Now is not the time to "cut the heroes down to size" now is the time to build them up. That means that you do NOT want them to "choke" on their first adventure. Give them something EASY and CLEAR to do. Not "easy" compared to the usual machiavellian plots that you used to torture an entire group of seasoned veterans with, actually EASY. Some people have the kind of insane competitiveness that slapping them down makes them come back stronger, but most people just go back to doing something they actually like. Give the new player the chance to like playing Champions, "test their mettle" later on. 5) Don't Give Them Sharp Things to Play With. DO NOT put a new player in a scenario with any villains with "Casual Killer", "Homicidal Maniac", "Berzerk when Attacked" etc. New players make tactical mistakes! Do not set up a situation where the newbie is faced with a known killer, because they are one CON stun away from being dead, or from you having to do a major backpedal. I see posts on here, from time to time, where GM's are "frustrated" with their players because they didn't react "correctly" to a situation. A situation like . . . VengeBot 3000 is a cyber assassin with an urge to destroy all life. During a robbery at a high-tech warehouse, it takes a guard hostage, clamping its razor sharp claw around the guard's neck. If you try to stop it, it will kill the guard now. If you don't try to stop it, it will kill the guard the nanosecond it escapes. It is powerful enough to KO you with one shot, and has very high defenses and no known weaknesses. When the "stupid" player tries to take VengeBot down, they are stunned, and they and the helpless guard are in VengeBot's power. You have now created a situation where the only thing that makes sense is for the player character and guard to both die instantly. Yes, the GM had it all figured out that the players would realize that VengeBot has a built in shutdown command that could be accessed by rewiring the guard's walkie talkie to transmit at exactly 302.1 MhZ, and using binary to represent the name of the ancient Norse god of Mushroom Farmers. But that didn't happen. So now everybody is dead! Woo Hoo, way to kill your campaign! Even in a darker campaign, don't set up new players in situations where the slightest mistake logically leads either them, or innocent bystanders, to certain death. That is like trying to get someone to start drinking wine by giving them vinegar. 6) Explain Genre Conventions! Especially with spouses and children! Let them know that it is the hero's lot to be wounded, beaten up, left for dead, blindsided and ambushed. Let them read a few more comics with this concept in mind. There is nothing worse than facing an offended spouse or crying child because: "You beat up my character! I don't ever want to play this again!" While this may sound rather childish, imagine that you have never heard of boxing before. Your friend takes you into the ring, helps you put on the gloves, tells you where to stand, and then PUNCHES YOU IN THE FACE. Even if he spends the entire trip to the emergency room explaining how boxing works, wouldn't it have been better to tell you BEFORE he punched you! New players, or those from other systems, often equate defeat with dishonor or death, but in the Super Hero genre, it is just par for the course. Part of the genre is beating up the hero, that is just how it works. They should not take offense, and you should not take vicious joy in doing it, it is just genre. 7) Make sure that you are having fun! Don't over do your preparation. Have an open ended plot that can go where the player wants. Take it easy and save the heavy stuff for later. If the player has fun you will have plenty of time later, if they don't you will get little satisfaction out of playing one session of your 12 session masterwork with someone who doesn't have any idea of what is going on. KA

How about a solid steel cell lined with thick sheets of Foam Rubber? He would wake up in a featureless, foam rubber cube. He could try to burn his way out, but it makes for some nasty fumes. (See link for details: http://pennfoam.com/products/products05.html ) If he knew exactly where the door was, he could probably burn his way through before the fumes got him. But how to tell . . . Needless to say, the cell is underground and surrounded by concrete several feet thick. The only possible escape is through the door, anything else would take too long. But is the "door" a hatch in the ceiling? A hatch in the floor? A door somewhere in one of the four walls? Everything looks like solid foam from inside, and once it starts burning, there won't be a lot of time to look around. Wait! What's that smell? Did someone soak the foam in gasoline? And, even though I'm not using my flame powers, it feels like it is getting hotter in here! Better think fast . . . KA

You know, a lot of the "anti four-color" sentiment seems to come from people who have played in "off-color" campaigns. The ones where the GM expects the players to live up to four-color standards, and then places them in situations like: "One hundred orphans have small nuclear devices implanted in their chests. If they suffer so much as a paper cut, the device will detonate and destroy a twelve block radius. The only way to prevent detonation is to vaporize the orphan in one shot. They are spread throughout the city, and the devices will begin to detonate in two hours." How the heck you are supposed to deal with that in a "four color" way, I don't know. The only way that four color can work is if the rules apply to the villains as well as the players. That means that you don't have "super powered serial killers", "demonic possesion", and certain other issues in a four-color campaign. You can have a challenging, puzzling, hard fought, campaign, there just doesn't have to be blood and bodies everywhere. Actually, maintaining a campaign that is exciting without blowing people's heads off every five minutes is a rewarding challenge. KA

Re: The best defense is to take your lumps Hi there Mtinaro, Welcome to Hero! There are plenty of ways to "put people down", and after a little more reading, it will all make sense to you. Briefly, Hero evolved from Champions, which was intended to simulate Super Hero Comics. If you read those, especially some of the older ones, (The "Marvel Essentials" paperbacks, [around $15 for a bunch of consecutive issues all in one book] are a great way to start) this sort of thing happens all the time. Since heroes are almost all reluctant to kill, they don't do massive amounts of damage when they fight other supers. Goons and henchmen get taken out with one shot, but super villains get knocked down and pop back up like a jack-in-the-box a few seconds later. It usually takes a couple of "knockdowns" to put someone out of the fight. (And often they do play possum, as do the heroes.) It is just a completely different set of concepts from the more lethal, hack and slash, type games. Think of it like a boxing match. The object of boxing is to knock out your opponent. But, you can't do a lot of things that would make this easier like: 1) Replace padded gloves with brass knuckles. 2) Stomp opponents when down. 3) Aim for kidneys, groin, etc. Why? Because then it wouldn't be boxing. Superheroic combat is it's own, stylized, "sport". Hero does have rules to allow for more "realistic" combat, but they are not recommended for Supers campaigns unless you want things really "dark". Just remember that, if you are playing "four color" Supers, that things aren't as lethal as they are in other genres. Player Characters get ambushed, knocked out, mind controlled, etc. all the time. But you aren't going to get killed, it is just part of the genre. Unless you are playing one of the very dark genres, Supervillains aren't going to kill you, they are going to place you: "in an easily escapable situation involving an overly elaborate and exotic death. Scott Evil: Wait, aren't you even going to watch them? They could get away! Dr. Evil: No, no, no. I'm going to leave them alone and not actually witness them dying. I'm just gonna assume it all went to plan. . . .What?" It is just a different mind set. KA

Love this idea! So now I want to tack something on to it! If the "gate" is aware, and you can manage to get them to defend it once, it could "lock on" to the members of the "team". After that, if it felt threatened, it could just Teleport them to it. No asking, no signaling, just "boom" you're there. Since it is not really sentient, there would be no way to "reason" with it. Like a baby duck, it would just imprint on whoever protected it first. You would not want to use this for every adventure, since it would become obnoxious, but it would be a good thing to have in the background for those times when you needed to get the team together without a lot of fuss. You could also have the gate "help" the PC's once in a while. Not anything they had any control over, but sort of like a Luck roll. If someone was about to actually get killed, the gate might bring them to itself, or send them somewhere it considered safe. (A hospital, The middle of the Sahara, Another Dimension?) KA

I can't tell you how disturbing I find that image. I think I am beginning to understand exactly what he was "seeking". As in, "GWM seeks same." Shudder! KA

All Right! Sounds like it is time to finally finish the "Hornet Hero" supplement that I was getting ready to pitch to you guys. At first I thought that it might be considered "silly" by the uninformed masses. But now that I see this kind of "buy in" from Steve Long himself . . . Oh! You were kidding . . . Drat! KA

Hey there Dust Raven! I couldn't agree more on the Autofire aspect. I can see the kind of "static shock" effect the original poster was asking about, but if you fire off a bunch of something, then you lose the charges if they miss. KA

Sooooo, I guess this would be a bad time to start up one of those, "DOJ does not respond to their customers' needs." threads. KA

Okay, I am going to chime back in here, for a couple of reasons. 1) Patriot, I think I owe you an apology. I must admit that when I read your first post I suspected that you might have been having a "GM tantrum" and blowing up your campaign to spite one player. I think part of that feeling was caused by your lack of responses after your initial post, but you already explained that you were working, so no problem there. I am sure that you didn't expect this to turn into such a conflagration when you posted. 2) tesuji, when I started posting to this thread, I was more or less on your "side", even though I had reservations, since we did not have enough background. Since then, your posts have gotten more and more defensive, even somewhat insulting. There is nothing wrong with trying to bend over backwards to make sure that a fellow Hero gamer is not being misrepresented when he is not here to "defend himself". I am sure that if someone came on this board to slam either me, or any of the posters you have been arguing with, that the victim would be glad to have such an enthusiastic advocate defending their position in their absence. But, I think that you have gone from defending a fellow player, that only two people on the board seem to know, to defending your position, even in the face of more information that seems to contradict what both you and I were saying (that the GM blew up and was punishing the player). It is hardly my place to tell you what your position should be, but I must, regretfully, resign from supporting it. I think that Patriot has given enough background to support his decisions. 3) Patriot, It still appears that you have a problem on your hands. You have a player that you like, with a character that you do not. And you have an overpowered character in your campaign that is throwing off the balance, as well as seeming to go a bit rogue. My solution: Talk to the player, in private, about starting a new character. But have the current one go out in a tragic blaze of glory. You could easily have a story arc where Eurostar has developed some type of nuclear super weapon, capable of spreading some toxic substance over all of the earth (except Europe, of course). Stellar made his earlier bad choice based on an "intuition" that something really dangerous was about to happen and that he had to get his team out of there. You can have a trial, put Stellar on probation, etc. Then, have a session where Stellar finds clues as to what Eurostar is trying to do, but is unable to convince anyone, due to his probationary status. Finally, he takes the team, against their will if necessary, to the base where Eurostar's device (some type of large bomb) is housed, but the countdown has already begun. The device is so large and massive that only Stellar has the power to move it a safe distance into the upper atmosphere. Pushing himself to the limits, he teleports the device, and himself, as the timer reaches zero, sacrificing himself for the team, and the world, that refused to believe in him. There won't be a dry eye in the house. Stellar will be gone. His name will be cleared. The campaign world will know what Eurostar was up to. (You can even have a "government liason officer" monitoring the group after the probation, so that there will be a witness to Stellar's final act.) The nice player that you like can create a character that is more in line with your campaign. KA

Hugh, First, thanks for the courteous reply in what has become a rather heated thread. I agree that the GM could just as easily have "asked" if they player was sure rather than "telling" him to make an Ego roll. I just think that it would have been much better to get some kind of clarification before letting something go down that was going to have such dire consequences for the campaign. If the player was told that his actions could quite possibly harm or kill innocent people that worked at the castle, and had no known connection to Eurostar, and then he proceeded anyway, I would have no problem with a response from the campaign world. But I still think that tone is crucial. If all the NPC villains in the campaign act like Ted Bundy, then I am going to start acting like The Punisher. I don't mean to assume that the GM wanted to "hose" the players, but on the other hand, I have seen plenty of posts on these boards that consisted of: "Here's what I did . . . I was right, wasn't I?" Often, once the facts eventually came out, the person was dead wrong, and was looking for someone to help them justify their error to themselves. (No slam on Patriot is intended by the above, I am just saying that it has happened before.) One crucial question that I would like to see answered is that of character mortality in Patriot's campaign. If villains snuff heroes every session or two, extreme measures may be justified. Even Captain America killed Nazi's in WWII. It all depends on the circumstances, and we don't seem to be getting any information on those. KA

Wow, first of all, let me say that this discussion is getting a little heated. I am not trying to pour fuel on the fire. One thing that everyone needs to remember is that we DO NOT KNOW very much about the background of this campaign. It is possible that the player in question has been warned repeatedly about "crossing the line" and that Patriot felt this was the only way to get his point across. It is also possible that the player short-circuited an elaborate GM set-up, and that Patriot overreacted. We just don't know. Based on what others have posted, I have a few comments. 1) Tesuji - I agree with you that, unless this was a repeated problem with this player, the GM should have asked for an Ego roll. I think the reason for the rule, is that players can sometimes get caught up in the moment and do things that their characters wouldn't. It is all very well for a player to do something like endangering their DNPC in the heat of a battle. Buffy : "I'll ask Giles to try to throw the switch and open the door." It would be quite different for a real breathing person to put their actual wife, husband, child, friend, in the line of fire. An Ego roll is a good way to keep players from making horrendous, campaign-changing, blunders, because they didn't stop to think. I don't think there should be a roll every time the player is about to do something stupid, but if they are about to directly violate a major Psych Lim, then it may be time to roll. If you think this is too "easy" on the players, I have a decent solution to the problem. Make Ego Rolls "public". What do I mean? I have been reading the Marvel "Essential Fantastic Four" reprints. In them, The Human Torch has made a pledge to never use his flame to directly harm someone. Soon, the entire underworld knows it, and sometimes they take advantage of it. If a player is about to do something, in front of adversaries, and they get "reined in" by an Ego roll, I would consider the following to have happened. Player: "I am going to use my RKA Fire Blast against Thug One." GM: "I told you that they don't appear to be armored, that would violate your Code vs. Killing. You can't do it unless you make an Ego Roll." Player: "Never Mind!" GM: "You start to unleash your Fire Blast against the thug, but at the last moment you say: "I can't to that! I've sworn to never take a life!" Thug: "Well, that's nice to know. I'm sure the boss will be interested, too!" If players play according to their Psych Lims, then there is no reason for them to become known so easily, other than through careful observation over the course of time. But, those who do not role-play can be "outed" against their will. Reward the innocent, punish the guilty. 2) Hugh - I too would much rather have my players roll-play their characters than have to "force" them with things like Ego rolls. I also understand that some GM's would rather do things in a more "cause and effect" than "mechanical" way. But, the rules are there for a reason, and rather than have a player blow an entire campaign with one bad decision, I think an Ego roll would have been the lesser of the evils. Again, I don't know the background. If this player has been warned repeatedly about taking this kind of action, and they had reason to believe that there was an alternative course that would have worked out with no harm to innocents, then the GM's actions were justified. But we just don't know. Some GM's delight in desiging "no win" scenarios for their players. If you do what the player did you are reckless and irresponsible. If you wait to see what is going to happen, then it turns out that the entire thing was a trap and now your teammate is dead because you "failed to act". The real question is: What is the problem? A rogue player who won't follow the genre, and his psych lims? Or a GM who expects him players to act like Charlie Brown and keep trying to kick the football, even though they know Lucy is going to snatch it away? Most players don't have Charlie Brown's patience. They will eventually come up with the obvious alternative of kicking Lucy. Or taking action that will "blow up" a campaign that they are frustrated with. It could easily be either one. We just don't know. KA

Patriot, I know that I am posting this without knowing all the background of your campaign, unless some of the other posters here are in your group, we all are. So, I would like to ask a few questions. What would you say the general tone of your campaign is? Four-color? Iron Age? Gritty? What have the players' past experiences been with this sort of situation? Do NPC villains, even when they are supposed to be vicious terrorists, sit down to parley? When they do, do they respect the "truce"? Or is that sort of thing usually a flimsy excuse to set the heroes up for the kill. I am not trying to defend Stellar's actions. What I would like to know is: "What did he think was about to happen?" Or, perhaps: "Based on past experience in the campaign, what would he reasonably expect was about to happen?" The reason I am asking is, I run a four-color campaign. And, while I expect my players to "toe the line", I have to make sure that I do the same. I do not expect the players to torture prisoners, harm innocents, steal money, etc. On the other hand, when villains take hostages, they release them unharmed if they get away. I don't put the players in situations that are not "four-color" and somehow expect them to resolve them. Example: Professor Evil has developed a new mind-control machine. It is connected to a wireless computer chip. Four Color - The chip is in the "Vote for Me" button that he always wears. He will use it to cause the city to vote him mayor. He will use it to get people to empty their bank accounts in order to make "campaign contributions" to him. He will use it to get normal people to picket the heroes headquarters. To disarm the chip, it must be removed and destroyed. Iron Age- The chip is planted in his brain. He will use it to get schoolchildren to make homemade bombs and take them to school. The bombs are scattered all over the city, if one bomb is diffused, all the others go off automatically. He will use it to cause the entire police force to hunt the heroes using deadly force. If the cops are somehow disarmed, they will pound their heads against the heroes headquarters until unconscious or dead. To disarm the chip you must kill Professor Evil. If the first shot does not do enough Body damage to kill him instantly, the chip enters "panic mode" and everyone under its control will immediately commit suicide. I admit that the above examples are quite skewed, but, if I put my players in the "Iron Age" situation, I am the one who has broken the "four-color" barrier, not them. If they come up with some solution to the problem that does not result in hundreds of dead kids and cops, I can hardly say. "Well, you never should have used an Area Effect KA in a populated area. So, the shockwave from your explosion caused a plane full of nuns to crash into a daycare center. And since everyone in town was mind-controlled, they think you did it just to kill an innocent man who was annoying you. Your murder trial starts tomorrow!" If your player had every reason to believe that he could sit down and have a nice chat with Eurostar, without being poisoned, stabbed by the cook, mind-controlled, blown up, etc., then he acted very badly. I know that it can be hard to get players to go along with the four color genre. But part of doing that is making the players able to trust in the genre conventions. They have to know that if they let a Viper agent go because he has a hostage (instead of blowing his head off with an RKA) that the hostage will be found, safe and sound, a short while later. One hostage found dead can quickly turn your campaign into a killing field. The reason four-color heroes acted the way they did in the comics, is that they knew what the rules were. Otherwise, Captain Marvel would have pinched Dr. Sivana's head off the first time he met him. KA

Just wanted to let everyone know that I have a Poll running on the Champions board. The topic is : What makes a module worth buying? Since the most recent modules have been for Champions, I put it on that board, but I would certainly appreciate input from Herophiles of all genders, err . . . Genres. Well, actually, both! KA

On M.A.S.H., Hawkeye is frustrated by having to wait days for the results of cultures that are sent off to Tokyo. When he asks Henry Blake to request the Army to supply them with an incubator, they are informed by an officer named Sloan that it is not on their "basic equipment list", so it would be considered a "luxury". (from "The Incubator") Hawkeye: "We're not asking for a jukebox or...or a pizza oven." Sloan: "Oh, those I can let you have." Henry: "No kidding! Hey, those would be great on movie nights. Uh, you got any pizza requisition forms?" Sloan: "Oh just use the standard S-1798 and write in 'pizza' where it says 'machine gun'." KA

I just wanted to chime in and agree with those saying that the player can have whatever he wants, as long as he pays for it! With Character Points! So far, he sounds like he is expecting: Prince Narcissus Player: Val Char Cost 10 STR 0 10 DEX 0 10 CON 0 10 BODY 0 10 INT 0 10 EGO 0 20 PRE 10 10 COM 0 2 PD 0 2 ED 0 2 SPD 0 4 REC 0 20 END 0 20 STUN 0 6" RUN02" SWIM02" LEAP0Characteristics Cost: 10 Cost Skill 3 Bureaucratics 13- 3 Conversation 13- 3 High Society 13- 3 Oratory 13- 3 Persuasion 13- 3 PS - Diplomat (PRE-based) 13- 3 Riding 11- 3 Seduction 13- 3 Trading 13- Skills Cost: 27 Cost Perk 7 Contact (Contact has access to major institutions, Contact has significant Contacts of his own, Contact has: very useful Skills or resources, Good relationship with Contact) 11- 7 Contact (Contact has access to major institutions, Contact has significant Contacts of his own, Contact has: very useful Skills or resources, Good relationship with Contact) 11- 7 Contact (Contact has access to major institutions, Contact has significant Contacts of his own, Contact has: very useful Skills or resources, Good relationship with Contact) 11- 20 Follower (x10, 0 Base, 0 Disad) 22 Fringe Benefit: License to Kill, Local Police Powers, Low Justice: Character has the right to mete out justice., Member of the Aristocracy/Higher Nobility, Right to Marry: Can perform the marriage ceremony, Weapon Permit (where appropriate) Perks Cost: 63 Total Character Cost: 100 Val Disadvantages 0 Normal Characteristic Maxima Disadvantage Points: 0 Base Points: 75 Experience Required: 25 Total Experience Available: 0 Experience Unspent: 0 Hope he has the points, and doesn't want to buy much else. KA

Lupus, I don't mean to be offensive in any way, but I find the construct you are proposing to be annoyingly "Gamey". What I mean is, that it is a little too "rules aware" for comfort. Imagine if a player wanted to buy: 10 pts of Extra Strength "Only to pick up and carry my dependent NPC". It would seem reasonable to say that a character is either strong enough to carry another person, or they aren't. Not that they are able to carry their DNPC, and no one else. It might make sense for a GM to allow a character an automatic Push, when their DNPC is in mortal danger, but to actually build it into a character construct just seems cheesy. If you want your character to be able to make a 20" half-move, buy them 40" of flight. What would your character say: "I am only making a half-move, so I can fly twice as fast, but if I were making a full move, I couldn't." That just doesn't seem to make sense. If you are looking for someone who is capable of a great "burst of speed" but only for short distances . . . How about something like buying the additional 20" with a limitation like Extra End Cost? That way, when needed, the character could "push himself to the limit" and make the really fast half-move, but it would cost him (End), and it would be reflected in the construct. Also, in a major emergency, he could make a full move of 40" or even a non-combat move of 80", and "save the day" at "great personal cost". That sounds more like a hero to me. KA

Bartman, Lemming already suggested this, but please do not neglect Find Weakness! This character is a Doctor, and that, in combination with being small and agile, just seems to cry out for this construct. "Let's see, that nerve cluster should be just about here . . ." High speed dropkicks to the side of the patella, Move Through's on the Adam's Apple, This guy should be able to take some people down! From your description of his circumstances, this guy sounds like he might have a lot of repressed "feelings" that need to be "channeled". Which could make him pretty vicious if he actually had to get physical with someone. That, combined with a doctor's knowledge of anatomy, and his small size, add up to Find Weakness in my mind. KA