Baphomet Jones

Re: Critique my Villain, KingTone

Re: Critique my Villain, KingTone I could see this guy in some sort of tunnelling APC or something, maybe using a sonoluminesent beam to cut its way thru rock, and an ultrasound periscope of sorts to navigate, and scan topside....maybe N-ray perception for active sonar. You could make it truly all-terrain by buying some Swimming for it, with or without the surface-only restriction. Depending on your game setting, that could open up a lot more escape routes for him and his henchmen.

Re: Critique my Villain, KingTone I guess that depends on the campaign's level of "super-ness". I tend to use NCM as a yardstick when making my PC's and NPC's, so for most of my characters, he could still be a credible threat, especially if he had some tricky occulttech from his VPP ready.

Re: Critique my Villain, KingTone I, personally, like the OAF staff, even though it is something of a weakness being accessable. It makes for a cool image of the character, and gives the heroes a chance to exploit it. Hanging back and dodging will help him hang onto it longer, and his forcefield will protect it in case anyone tries to just shoot, and damage it. I probably wouldnt make it an EC though. Instead, i would go for a single 12d6 EB with variable sfx (light,heat,sound & subsonics/vibration). The ablative forcefield is cool as well, letting him start off well protected, but slowly becoming more vulnerable to other heroes who may not have been able to hurt him at the beginning of a fight. I've been trying to do this myself with my master villains, so they don't get pasted with a big opening shot, but their extra defense is at a level where heroes who do less damage still have a chance of whittling it down to where they can be effective, and eventually take him out. His speed is probably higher than i would go for, but i like that he has powers other than the armor and staff from his Wyrm genetics. I think power armor guys should be able to do something without their suit, and anyone expecting King Tone to be a milquetoast without it is in for a surprise.

Re: Favorite Sci-Fi Weapon My favorite has to be the Skrill from Earth:Final Conflict. It's an Energy blasting symbiote that grows into the users arm, and is controlled by a viral brain implant. It was alluded to that they were sentient, but too alien to really understand.

Re: Supernatural Special Forces Hmmm...let's see... --Spiked collars, to discourage neck bites. --Skin cream infused with wolfsbane and garlic, you'll smell terrible, or delicious, depending on who you ask.

Re: Tactics Skill I've allowed my players to use Tactics for Surprise Maneuvers in combat, the same way you can use Acrobatics (+1OCV for every 3 pts they succeed by). If they were facing an opponent with Tactics, I made it an opposed roll.

Re: I need a trained parrot writeup Generally in stress situations a real parrot will fly straight to its favorite person and bite them to warn them its time to run away (they're not brave at all). Of course a fictional one could launch itself into the fray, ignoring danger. They also tend to nip their human friends when they see someone they hate (being afraid to go bite them, but really wanting to anyway), rather than launching into insults, as seen in movies.

Re: I need a trained parrot writeup Heh...no I'm not (thank all that is good). The 5 year old thing is something I hear a lot when people try to quantify a parrot's ability to understand us and our world. They are a lot smarter than they get credit for, and i doubt we'll ever really be able to understand how smart they are. 'Cos theyre not like us. They have no nipples. Not one.

Re: I need a trained parrot writeup Thinking some more about it...a hearing group flash attack could also be a possible ability for them. My birds are considered to be one of the quiter species of parrot, physically unable to attain the decibel levels of some breeds, and it still causes physical pain and ear-ringing when they do a full-on scream near me. Parrots also have mischief-prone personalities, so Sleight of Hand, limited to pilfering things would be appropriate. Their hearing is pretty sharp, and some researchers think it may extend into sub/ultra-sonic ranges. Their visual spectrum is also higher than humans, though their night vision is pretty poor, as is their sense of smell and taste. Hopefully that helps with some power and Disad. ideas.

Re: I need a trained parrot writeup You could do the combat irritant ability with negative skill levels. If they would be based on it buzzing the target, they could be linked to flight, or if it's based on taunting, with incantations. It's bite damage would probably depend on the species, with macaws having higher levels, down to a 1 pip hka for smaller breeds like conures or Senegal parrots. Intelligence-wise, many are about as smart as a 5-year old child, with a few exceptional examples, like Alex, an african grey parrot, who can differentiate objects by color and shape. He's featured in a PBS program called Look Who's Talking Now, or something similar. The stuff that he can do is pretty amazing, and well suited for a crimefighting companion bird. There are also a bunch of pretty cool documentaries that show the problem solving and tool-making/using abilites of crows, but I'm not sure of the names of them.

Re: Just a Low-Rent Superhero I second that. He's very cool.

Re: 1 Speed No, but our group fought a villain with a 1 speed, he had absorb physical & energy and a spd drain damage shield (he was sort of like a living temporal anomaly), and was the nemesis of our speedster with a 12 spd. Everyone was terrified of him. I've never played a guy with a 1 speed mainly because I never really came up with a good character concept for a really slow guy.

Re: A question to the physics-minded... The development of this sort of high velocity frictionless projectile could make for a cool story seed, as a local speedster hero gets kidnapped for study by the R&D guys wondering why he or his costume don't seem to be harmed by the friction of his high speeds. They may even just steal his costume or shoes to see what they're made of and how they stand up to the stress.

Re: Working Stiffs -- Champions Style! I had a guy who's secret ID was a Yakuza lieutennant in the clan that was hunting his Hero ID, so he had lots of info on his enemies. I got to play an entire session with him busting heads in his secret ID, since that adventures villains also happened to be enemies of his clan.