Lucius

An observation, and a suggestion: It seems to me that everything worth saying (and more) has been said on the issue, and that no one's opinions are budging. Would it be too much to ask that we agree to disagree, refrain from throwing around accusations of "munchkin" and the like, and let the matter rest? Lucius Alexander Or, you know, you can keep beating a dead palindromedary if you really want to, but what's the fun in that?

The name of the webcomic is "Questionable Content" but in this one, a young woman is UNquestionably DIScontent with the sexist assumptions of a salesclerk in a computer store. http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3132 Lucius Alexander The palindromedary questions whether the salesclerk was making assumptions based on the customer's gender, or her youth.

Sir I want to make sure I have understood the rule on how a Desolid character and a character who has Affects Desolid on PD interact, and clarify an aspect still murky to me. If a character is or becomes Desolidified, absolutely every other character in the game is, by default, immune to that characters attacks, unless they are also Desolid and with a similar Special Effect, or unless the Desolid character has an expensive Advantage on one or more of their attacks. A character who has become impassible to the Desolidified character by putting the Affects Desolid Advantage on their PD is another exception, in that you've made it clear that the Desolid character can attack the Impassible character with a Move Through or Move By. Without that Advantage on PD, the Impassible Character could totally ignore the Desolid character's attacks; by buying (or by using?) the Advantage, the Impassible character becomes exposed to an attack by a character who could otherwise not affect them. I think I got that. Two more questions occur to me. The first is, can the Desolid character make any other attacks, or is making a Move Through or Move By the only way the Desolid one can attack the Impassible one? And, is this state of Impassibility with attendant threat of attack something the Impassible one can "turn on" and "turn off" (presumably only changing state once a Turn) by default? Oh, and a third: How obvious is the state of Impassibility to the Desolid one? Should a Desolid character know to run around an Impassible one, or will they have to find out the hard way? Lucius Alexander The palindromeday wonders what happens if it has BOTH Desolidification and Affects Desolid on PD

Personally I would probably allow the Mental Dodge - you're blowing a Phase for it after all - but I'm reluctant to allow a Mental Block. Lucius Alexander The palindromedary says I just have a mental block against it

You would think a villain who always leave riddling clues would be easy to catch. But the Riddling Skull always leaves riddles with several possible answers, some of which will be clues leading to booby traps. No one is sure yet if the current Riddling Skull is the same who bedeviled the Allies in WWII, but he has the same habit of leaving a recording that says "Riddle me, riddle me, riddle me this: what's the last sound you hear before -" right before the bomb goes off. Lucius Alexander What has four legs and two heads and appears in a Lucius Alexander tagline?

Sir In a recent post you said that making one's BOD "Affects Desolid" would prevent a Desolidified character from passing through the character whose BODy was so Advantaged. Would this make the impassible character vulnerable to attack by the Desolid one? What happens for instance if the Desolid character attempts a Move Through? Does the impassible character get full benefit of PD and other defenses in that case? What if only part of the BOD is Advantaged? If Captain Impassible only has 2 BOD that Effect Desolid, can the Living Gascloud kill them by reducing to -2 BOD? What happens if I put Affects Desolid on STUN? Or on PD or ED? Can I ghostproof my castle by putting Affects Desolid on the BOD of a Base? Lucius Alexander The palindromedary goes around posting signs saying "No Walking Through the Walls."

I think you mean "should no longer be relevant." It still is obviously. And I think you may be right. Hero has too many Characteristics, in my opinion. Yes, similar to the reasons every other Characteristics doesn't default to 1 or 0. If the default is 3 and your concept includes being below average at it, you have someplace to go so to speak. Also, your DCV is 0 while asleep. The average person is significantly harder to hit I think if they're aware you're trying to hit them and trying to prevent that, than if they were asleep, and if their DCV is 1 in combat they're not moving much better than if they were still in bed. I think 3 is a good number for a basic Combat Value. Lucius Alexander Too many Characteristics, feed some to the palindromedary!

Or the Scorpion King, so called because a scorpion was his personal seal. Scorpion King is such an evocative name it's been used in at least two movies I know of one of which made him a human-scorpion centaur type creature. Lucius Alexander The palindromedary just hopes to avoide the routi

In Hofstadter's brilliant Godel, Escher, Bach: The Eternal Golden Braid there is a story of a wish -granting Djinn who introduces the concept of GOD - "GOD" being an acronym for "GOD Over Djinn." The GOD in GOD Over Djinn also stands for GOD Over Djinn. The full meaning can never be unpacked - you have GOD Over Djinn Over Djinn Over Djinn endlessly; whatever exalted Being you evoke there is always some still more exalted Being yet to be evoked. Lucius Alexander GOD Over Djinn Over Djinn Over Djinn Over Djinn Over a Palindromedary

Restrainable: Turn it off by turning him off.... "Having a Hard Time" would be a good name for the power build. What about its counterpart? Maybe "Calling the Stork?" Nah, that's for the birds. "The Parent Trap?" No that was the name of a movie wasn't it? How about "'Inconceivable!' 'You wish!'?" Lucius Alexander I think the palindromedary gave up and decided to join the madness: Hunted: Those nice young men in their clean white coats Infrequently (As Pow; PC has a Public ID or is otherwise very easy to find; They're coming to take me away) 10 pts

I guess I need to explain the joke. No, the write up is not supposed to represent something "better" than average, it is supposed to represent exactly average. I CAN see where the confusion arises in context, though, when I think about the drift of the thread and exactly when, where, and how I presented it. It, and the other write up, are jokes. They would only be appropriate purchases in a very unusual sort of game, if anyone were ever to run the sort of game in which it might actually be something worth representing with a 1 pt Power to be a potent male or to be a fertile female. I originally built the first in a thread started by someone who was building an android character and wanted it to be "anatomically correct." Someone said "there is a Stretching joke to be made" and I said "I'm just the guy to make it" and I did. Now can we please get back to figuring out what Kulenoko is actually trying to do (Which I'm sure this is NOT it) assuming he's still willing to talk to us? Lucius Alexander The palindromedary says this is what I get for being too ready to whip it out and put it on display.

Lucius Alexander The palindromedary says vampires suck and, apparently, live in Hel holes

I think that's six. Does Lixivious have an idea for the next group? Lucius Alexander Does anyone have an idea for this palindromedary tagline?

Who's Who: My character, Titania Melungeon, a Trollop (female Troll) of assorted talents who usually goes by Fiona (she liked the Shrek movie) or Faerie Princess. Kylie, from Australia, dubbed "Crocodile" by Fiona John Lee Pettimore III, yes based on the character from Copperhead Road, dubbed "Copperhead" or "The Redneck" by Fiona. Dom (not DON!) Gunn owner of Dom's Guns ("we don't want to make money....we just LOOOVE to sell guns") the GMNPC who issues us equipment and missions and supervises us as well as such a group can be supervised, "Big Boomstick" to Fiona. A new player showed up for Monster Hunter and I had to whip up a new character. (I'm not the one running this game but as the resident Hero expert I draw up player characters.) I did up THREE actually. The one that got picked I meant to name "Captain Stonebreaker" but I was in a hurry and typed "Capt Stonbraker." I let it ride but called it "Stonebreaker" when showing it to the new player, so she corrected the Game Operations Director when (in character as an NPC) he said "stonn-brakker." My character, who has tagged everyone including herself with nicknames that we also use as radio callsigns, is probably going to go through several for our new addition from the Pentagon: I'm planning to use Gemcutter, StonedBaker, Rockbuster, and probably a few more, before settling on "I'll just call you GI Joe!" But all that's for future sessions. In a past session we found out that our night vision goggles allow us to see in utter dark but also allow us to be SEEN (apparently they do emit visible light.) My character concept originally included "hacker" but has expanded to include "gadgeteer/inventor" (I did start with the Inventor Skill - at 1 pt) as I've been allowed to design a device using ultrasound echolocation Fiona: Yeah, bats will go crazy if they're around when we use this to image the surrounding area and then translate that image into a visual projection onto the inside of a worn pair of (actually opaque) goggles. I was tinkering with this when Capt. Stonbraker was introduced. Fiona: If I could just get someone in from the Pentagon to see these, I could get all the funding I need...(looks up as an officer in uniform walks in) Hey, that was fast! (jumps up and hands the headset to Capt. Stonbraker) Here put this on! The Game Operations Director has the player make a KS: Monsters roll and identifies me as a Troll. Stonbraker:(looks around at the other characters present) Would that be...advisable? Copperhead: It should be safe, captain, we've all done it. She's kind of an inventor. Stonbraker: Pettimore isn't it? I remember you from Afghanistan. (previously discussed by the players, they hadn't been in the same unit but had met in service.) Copperhead: Yes sir, captain, that was me. Stonbraker: The best guy we had with explosives, someone I could count on. Okay, if you say this isn't going to explode.... He puts on the set, Fiona hits the lightswitch and proclaims it's dark, and the G.O.D. has me make an Inventor roll to see how well it's working. Stonbraker: I see people and objects in outline but not details. Fiona: I can improve the resolution if you get them to fund my work! Just think what something like this would mean to the special forces! Big Boomstick: Fiona. He's NOT in Procurement. Fiona: He's not? Stonbraker: I'm not. Big Boomstick: He is from the Pentagon, but he's going to be hunting monsters with us. Fiona: Do you know someone in procurement you can get to look into this? Stonbraker (noncommittaly): I'll see what I can do. I can't wait to tell the captain about the fight with the smurfs. Lucius Alexander PUFF exempt palindromedary

Celebratory Fireworks!!: (Total: 47 Active Cost, 8 Real Cost) Sight and Hearing Groups Images, +/-4 to PER Rolls, Autofire (3 shots; +1/4), Area Of Effect (32m Radius Explosion; +1/2) (47 Active Points); Extra Time (20 Minutes, Only to Activate, -1 1/4), OAF (-1), Set Effect (-1), 2 clips of 3 Continuing Charges lasting 1 Hour each (Recovers Under Limited Circumstances (something to celebrate); Increased Reloading Time: 1 Minute; -3/4), Inaccurate (0 OCV; -1/2), Side Effects (Always occurs whenever the character does someting dumb like set them off indoors; -1/4), Restrainable (Only by means such as dousing them with water before they're lit; -1/4) (Real Cost: 8) Lucius Alexander The palindromedary thinks I should get someone with PS: Pyrotechnician to set those off.

If that's a Multipower, I don't see anything that jumps out as wrong about the mechanical build. As has already been pointed out, it means that the ninja can't be invisible and teleport at the same time. I do have a question about the "special effects." I understand Invisibility as "super-stealth." I get that the Teleport is really the sort of trick that has a witness asking "How did that devil get THERE?" (real (in universe) answer: an acrobatic leap, or superior climbing, or moving swiftly and silently when no one was looking.) But I don't understand what the Darkness Power is supposed to be simulating. Smoke pellets? what? Lucius Alexander The palindromedary and I are in the dark about the meaning of that Power

Uh....it IS a normal body function. For adult males. Lucius Alexander It is not a normal function for a palindromedary obviously

"The truth always has a use." Oh, if only it were so. Lucius Alexander The palindromedary is pretty sure the truth in question WILL have a use, for someone.

Insidious Call of the Necromancer: (Total: 49 Active Cost, 10 Real Cost) Severe Transform 1d6-1, Reduced Negation (2), Alternate Combat Value (uses OCV against DMCV; +1/4), Attack Versus Alternate Defense (Resistant Power Defense; +1/2), Sticky (+1/2), Invisible Power Effects (Invisible to [two Sense Groups], effects of Power are Inobvious to target; +1 1/4) (49 Active Points); Damage Over Time, Lock out (cannot be applied multiple times) (17-32 damage increments, damage occurs every 1 Day, can be negated by 3 days of fasting and ritual purification; -3), Conditional Power Target must be wounded by the Necromancer or an undead minion ((That is, at the time the curse is cast, the target must be down STUN or BOD due to an attack); -1/4), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4) (Real Cost: 10) The necromancer knowing this curse may use it on someone that has been harmed by the necromancer or their minions (if the damage has been healed or recovered, the curse has no effect.) Over the course of a month it will gradually, invisibly, turn the victim into a Human-seeming ghoul compelled to seek out and serve the cursing necromancer, or any necromancer or powerful undead if the necromancer is no more. Anyone with at least 5 pts of Resistant Power Defense is totally immune, lesser amounts of Resistant Power Defense slow the working of the curse. Lucius Alexander The palindromedary runs out and gets Resistant Power Defense

Q: Why don't you see many Half-Troll Ulronai? A: Where do you think Ogres come from? Lucius Alexander Why can an Ulronai not ride a palindromedary?

I failed my perception roll. Lucius Alexander The palindromedary says, Achmed heard defective

Lucius Alexander A pubic service announcement from Palindromedary Enterprises

It's not your fault at all. Your question was in fact an excellent opportunity to begin a discussion on the principles of building Hero powers, the idea of "Reasoning from Effect" tm and the importance of asking what a given ability actually DOES for the character possessing it. It's all THIS GUY'S fault! Lucius Alexander The palindromedary says I share some blame for perpetuating the derail, but blame games aside can we get back to trying to find out Kuleneko really needs and trying to actually help?

Yes, I left the most horrifying of Side Effects out, although I wrote them into what we may call the counterpart power.... Summon 8 1-point creatures, Inherent (+1/4), Persistent (+1/4) (24 Active Points); Extra Time (9 Months, -6), No Conscious Control (-2), 32 Charges which Never Recover (-1 3/4), Requires A Roll in the Hay (6- roll; -1 3/4), Side Effects (Side Effect affects both character and potentially at least one other person; Frequent, Incompetent DNPC if successful; -1 1/4), Side Effects (9 Months of gradually increasing sickness and debility as the host of the Summoned being's most parasitic phase; -1), Side Effects (Roll 2d6, apply that many dice of attack to Summoner (Gradually, sadistically, over a matter of hours); -1), Antagonistic Violent (-3/4), Restrainable (Only by means other than Grabs and Entangles; -1/4), Required Multiple Users (Summoner and at least one appropriately equipped person) (2 people; -1/4) we started the thread out with kid's cartoons like Popeye and seem to have wandered far from that....yet come full circle to talking about kids.... Lucius Alexander The palindromedary wonders if today's date is relevant

Looks workable. Simpler than I expected infection rules to be. But you did not define what the 'infection roll' is. I'd assume a modified CON roll. Lucius Alexander Disinfecting a palindromedary