Ura-Maru

Re: GM Assistance And if a guy with a Groo avatar dosen't know how to make a sword-thing, who would, I ask you? --- "Did I err?"

Re: GM Assistance Keep in mind this is also a @#$!!ing huge active point cost. Can everyone do that, or does that only apply to people borrowing from 70's SF movies? If so, does the energy projector get to make a 200 active point Death Blossom Mode? (Wait. That was early 80's, wasn't it?) Why does everyone insist on huge NND/AVLD (AVLD is a +1 1/2 advantage, by the way, not +1) KA for lightsaber type weapons? What's wrong with just an AP HKA? I had a jedi ripoff character once, and that worked fine. 46 (80) 2.5 d6 HKA, AP (+1/2), Penetrating (+1/2), Reduced Stun Multiplier (-1/4), OAF(-1/2) You could probably tack on an extra phase to activate it if you wanted to trim off a few points. (Since he's actually making the saber himself, there's no need for it not to cost END, though you might want to halve end for ) Assuming a 20 STR, that'll give you a 3d6+1 RKA that'll get either AP or Penetrating* against hardened defenses. That's enough to do body to Grond or Destroyer. 80 active points is probably over the campaing limits too, especially once you add in STR, and I presume, Martial Arts, but it's not NEARLY as bad as 200. If you want to be actually, you know, fair, you could just use the one level of AP. "Being blocked by another energy weapon" as a NND defense? Since when can you not block NND attacks? * I don't APPROVE of the new way AP and Penetrating work on hardened defenses, but that dosn't mean I won't take advantage of it . . . --- "What? It's a rusted piece of junk!"

Re: Relative Strength of Armor Ah, it depends. Get used to this answer. It comes up a lot here. The first variable is how much damage guns do in the campain. Now, generally, most hero games have Small pistols: ~1d6 K Medium Pistols: ~1d6+1 K Heavy Pistols: ~1d6+1K - 2d6 K, +1 Stun Mult Long guns start around 1.5d6 K and run to 3d6 or so. 3d6+1 with an improved stun multiple is about as big as anything not mounted on a vehicle gets. Yeah, a bit compressed. But compressing rifle ammo makes sense in most 'heroic' style generes, where big handguns are scarier than small handguns, but rifles really arn't that much more dangerous than pistols. So, 6 points of resistant PD, (6/6 armor, assuming you want energy defense as well) will stop all the Body damage from a small pistol, 7 for a medum, 12 will protect you from the bigest handguns and light rifles, and 19 from the heavy machine guns. Unless there's AP ammo. Or they have Find Weakness. Or you use hit locations. Or the GM allows extra, 'Deadly Blow' Killing Attack to be added to base gun damage. Armor Piercing halves armor's effectiveness. In a point based game, that will usually also come with reducing the overall power of the attack by 1/3rd, so it roughly balances out. For a Dark Champions Heroic game, that usually comes with a trivial penalty to the base dice, so it's a safe assumption that everyone will always be using it. Find Weakness halves armor. And you can use it multiple times. So let's just leave it out for now, as it's too open-ended. The other factor is Stun. (the other damage type that Hero uses) Now, a normal damage attack in Hero does (on average) about 3.5 times the body in stun per attack. Killing Attacks, which do Killing damage, do a little less stun on average (2.5 times body without the extra stun multiple, or 3.5 with) but the damage is much more variable than a normal attack. Normal attacks almost never do more than, say 4.5 times the average body, but Killing Attacks do. (Killing attacks are just as likely to do no stun at all, but that's not relavant here.) So, you're going to need more defense to avoid being knocked out. How much, exactly, is open to debate. To avoid the posiblity of ANY stun will take five or six times the amouts listed above. (the regular PD that characters get adds to Armor for this purpose, so you'll be starting with double or triple the listed amounts already) In a very short period of time, someone will show up to complain about the evils of the 'Stun Lotto.' I'll leave the argument of how much Stun coresponds to actual damage, as someone's sure to pick it up soon. --- "They absorb gunfire reasonably well, as you can see . . ."

Re: Team of second rate Villains Re: Zaran Sorry, I’m going to have to stick to my guns on this one. Even in a book whose rogue’s gallery included guys like Razor Fist, and a developmentally challenged sumo wrestler, Zaran managed to come off as a total loser. Talks a good fight, but for a guy who’s ‘mastered’ every killing weapon he seems to have serious problems dealing with people who just pick up whatever’s lying nearby. Didn’t Nomad take him down with a golf club? Shen Keui was cool, though. It’s just his tattoo that was silly. If I remember right, he was winning the first fight with Chi, then they were interrupted. He stalked him a bit, in martial-artist fasion, and they had another fight a few issues later. That was interrupted too. Keui said something like, ‘This time, you would have won,†and walked into the sunset in the traditional badass style. Good to hear he’s gotten some work since. I totally ripped him off for a martial artists rival for a dark champs-esque game I ran back in college. Re: the All-Losers Squad Well, Bulldozer and Pulsar, of course. Hypnos, Hornet, and maybe Anklyosaur? Though the last is more of a jerk than a loser . . . Brainchild? Could use a martial artist. Or a mystic. Who was that golden age mystic guy from CU? I got it. Brainchild sets up the whole thing. He can patch up physical weaknesses with gadgets, (an extra end battery and a force field persistant-ator for Pulsar, some armor and a big hammer for Bulldozer, and such) and act as a sort of ‘behind the scenes’ leader. He can also use psychic surgery to smooth out their personality problems, which does a lot more to improve their effectiveness than the gadgets do. Without telling them, of course. So, how will they react when they find out? Even winning Morgan Fairchild at last is a hollow triumph once you realize that it was Brainchild’s Advanced-Seduction-Heuristics 3.4 she fell in love with, not you. Of course, the Ultimates are already kind of a ‘who are you calling a loser!’ team . . . -- “Jillis! I can’t belive we lost to FREAKING JILLIS!!â€

Re: Entangle Abuse That's what I get for quoting a book I just skimmed through. I guess I was wrong. About the official status, I mean. I was correct that it _shouldn't_ do that. Maybe Flying dodge really DOES let you have a free max range dive for cover now . . . Looks like I can leave the new UMA off my 'to buy' list . . . On the other hand, if I don't read it, how will I be able to explain when I'm using house rules or not? -- Why would you want to use a pass-by attack for any reason BUT not to be withing smashing range by the target after you do it?

Re: Entangle Abuse I double checked Passing Strike at my FLGS this morning. (Don't look at me like that. I've bought two suplements a month, minimum, for the last four months. Which is a lot for a game I never get to play) There's no indication anywhere that Passing Strike is any different from the 4th edition version. Thus I put forth, again, that Passing strike simply dosn't let you do a run-by attack AKA Move By. MA and balance: Admitadly, MA manuvers have a couple of issues. Killing Strike is dosn't work like any other killing damage, which is super-efficent for high strength MAs, and 'target falls' is a messy, D&D-esque effect, and I'm not even going to get into Desolid. And maybe NND needs some work, too, actually. On the other hand, 15 str no figured characteristics, 3 points of dex*, and 2 3 point combat skill levels cost 22 points, give you a equivelent/better version of every manuver except the two above. So allowing a version with fewer options for half the price dosn't seem so terrible to me. No matter how clever you are with it, there's no way to save more than 12 points. (Unless you allow the super versions of Flying Block and Passing Strike, of course) If it really bothers you, you could always kick the minimum manuver cost up to 15 points, and maybe forbid the advanced manuvers (killing, nnd, is the flash one still in there?) until they've mastered the basics. (Two strikes and a block for hard styles, a block, a grab, and a strike or throw for soft ones) *Assuming you bought your dex up. Which you did. -- "No, I have a nose bleed because she _kicked me in the face_!!"

Re: I need help with this Character Concept. Suggestions and Opinions. If you REALLY want the telepathy, it should be NND, with the defense of not having a human biochemestry or having sealed armor. It's still going to be partially based on Ego, which dosn't make any sense, given the special effect, but the effect of ego will be less dramatic. Reduced by range is -1/4, not -1/2, by the way. RDU Neil is correct, as well. Two points over average is going to stun this guy on a 12d6 attack, and then he's in very big trouble. He dosn't have the speed to do the 'block/dive for cover, then attack when I have a free phase' thing. (Unless the average speed in the campagin is 4) Unless he gets some kind of 'hide in plain sight' ability, and is doing the 'leap out, slash, and fade back into night' thing. That might work too, but GM's are traditionally reluctant to allow that kind of thing all the time. -- "Farewell, Thepumaymn! Contiune your tradition of flying clumsily with your rear-end in the air!"

Re: Superpowers that haven't been thought out... At some point about 15 years ago, some villain with electrical powers shouted out 'Of course! No stickum! He's using an advanced form of STATIC ELECTRICITY!!' (You know, just like real spiders do) and then suppressed Spidey's wall crawing. Then Spidey beat the crap out of him. Oh, no. No wallcrawling. Now he only has super strength and super speed. And webs. -- Good powers: The proportionate strength of a spider. Bad powers: The non-proportionate strength of a spider.

Re: I need help with this Character Concept. Suggestions and Opinions. For the record, cougars don’t roar. They sort of shriek. They’re not so much fearsome predators of the night as giant pusses. And I’m not saying this just cause my favorite old PC is named Cougar, and I’m trying to stay unique. How about, The Pyumaymn instead? Telepathy: I would never, ever allow ‘Does not provide mental awareness’ as a limitation. I don’t care that the book specifically allows it. Mental awareness costs 5 points. At the very most, I’d allow ‘No Mental Awareness’ as a 5 point disadvantage. Limited Range is a –1/4 disad. I’d use Reduced By Range instead, as that seems to match the special effect better. Telepathy is already Instant, so you can’t take that, either. Empathy doesn’t let you read deep thoughts anyway, so you probably can’t take that as well. Officially, it looks like Empathy includes ‘read only,’ too. I’d allow both ‘read only’ and ‘empathy,’ though, as there’s plenty of precedent for ‘I’ll project my goodness as proof I mean no harm’ type stuff. A –3/4 for both seems about right. AND you probably want to buy an extra mind class adder for both human and animal minds This thing is going to be a bitch. It’s going to end up costing well over 30 points, it’s just not going to work very often, and when it does; it’s not going to be very useful. How about: 17 I Can Smell Your Fear: Detect “physical†emotions* (Smell/Taste group)(5 pts), Ranged (+5), Discriminatory (+5), Sense (+2) Seems to fit the concept much better. I mean, you weren’t planning on “I sensed a moment of fear when you said ‘NND Body Drain,’ Captain!†Or at least I hope not. Also means it’ll work on mentalists, not well on armored guys, and not at all on aliens with different biochemistries. *There’s a word for the type of emotions that are centered around biological changes, like fear, anger, lust, and such. Anyone know what it is? And on the subject, buying Ranged, Discriminatory, and Tracking for your smell costs 15 points, not 10. (It’s already 360 degrees, though) Why are the claws Restrainable? Can they be easily cut off, but grow back fairly quickly? What does his “honorable†entail? Is it part of his former personality, or is he trying to prove he’s more than a savage beast? Oh, and don’t forget to buy an Aztec follower who’s built on 100 more points than you are. It’s traditional. --- “There’s power in your hands! Your hands are claws!!â€

Re: For the latest in superhero fashion... Lyrca is a harsh mistress.

Re: Must Touch Target Limitation. Ah . . . I'm not sure what your response to my post is saying. To clarify: I would only allow this when dealing with a mental power that required an _extra_ OCV attack to hit before you could even try the ECV attack. For a regular, (Non AOE) OCV based attack, having to touch the target, or come so close to it there's no difference that matters, is part of the limitation. I don't think there's any need to mess with RSR at all. A flat Limited Power: Must Hit Target With An OCV Attack Roll Before Making ECV Attack Roll (-3/4), seems reasonable for a mental power, considering Skin Contact is -1. Far better to describe what the limitation actually does than to try to cram it into another limitation that works in a different way. Now, I'd let a no range mental power be used with ECV instead of OCV, of course, at just the standard No Range limitation. In fact, I'd consider that the default. In that _specific case_, I'd assume that just being close enough to touch is enough, without actually doing it. (and without setting off damage shields) -- How about zombies? They don't have skin. Or Grond. He's got scales. What about that stone guy from the Crowns of Crym?

Re: Must Touch Target Limitation. Hmm. Skin contact required might actually not be enough of a limitation. It combines No Range (-1/2), Must make an extra (dex based) attack roll (probably -1/2, contains the sublimit Not On Desolid, at least a -1/4), AND Stopped Completly by Any Kind Of Covering (-1/2?) On the other hand, Telepathy and Mind Control are arguably not really 'combat' powers. Both have a LOT of noncombat uses, and a 'not usuable in combat' limitation for them would probably not rate more than a -1, all told, so a 'Using It In Combat Is A Total Pain In The Ass' limitation shouldn't, either. Ego Attack and to a lesser extent Mental Illusions are more combat oriented, though and should probably get -1 1/2 for skin contact required. Most of MI's noncombat uses are going to be a pain to arrange if you have to actually touch the targets skin. (though the old 'I give the cashier a single and make him think it's a $50 still works) -3/4 is a reasonable compromise under the circumstances. Though you should probably phrase it 'Must Make Successful Standard Attack Roll,' which sounds more Hero-ee. Now, if you wanted to use OCV _INSTEAD OF_ ECV that would be a pretty mild disad/advantage, depending on how high your dex and ego are. -- What about people without skin?

Re: Entangle Abuse I'm nost sure I see the part where it lets you end a phase in a different hex from where you attack the target, either . . . Anything about plotting your movement path beforehand? +3 OCV and +2 DCV are a bit high for a martial maneuver, but not without precedent. Does the new version use half your STR as the base damage, as Move By does? Though maybe I should read the new UMA before commenting on it . . . Flying Dodge isn't a problem at all . . . as long as it's not interperted as a four point "dodge + free dive for cover to the limit of my movement with no roll." -- "Hai-kiba!"

Re: Entangle Abuse Ah . . . Ninja Hero lists it as: 5pts, 1/2 phase, +1, +0, Str+v/5, FMove, with the FMove component meaning 'can be used at the end of a full move', must make at least a half move. Seems pretty clear, though the name's deceptive. The original UMA uses the same languange. Should I just skip 5th edition UMA? I didn't like any of the new(ish) MA-like combat 'skills' . . . What's the point of having autofire if a few skill levels and a five point 'skill perk' do the same thing? I could see it not being abusive, but 'shooting by' is a pretty good perk for a five point manuver. If its an upgrade of Move By, that's one thing. If it's an upgrade of Move By that removes the 'damage self' AND the -2 OCV/-2 DCV, AND adds OCV or DCV on top of that . . . well, that's a pretty damn good deal for five points. -- "Looks like a fish. Moves like a fish. Steers like a cow."

Re: Entangle Abuse Am I the only one who wonders why Entangle (only to build walls) builds considerably better walls than Force Wall does, for the same price, but without the constant END cost? If Entangle was a single power, as opposed to two completely different powers with a (theoretically) linked special effect, we probably could avoid this argument. Ah, well. PI is always a bit of a judgment call. Could someone with a PI Force Wall walk through their own walls without breaking them? That doesn’t seem like an unreasonable effect to want, but it’s probably more expensive than a PI’s +1/4. Maybe PI should be more expensive for continuous or non-damage based powers. Even the traditional example of Darkness with PI is considerably more badass than a +1/4 advantage would seem to imply. Now, in this specific case, a guy hiding in a ONE HEX space should not be hard to find. The entangle will absorb some damage, but probably not enough to make a difference. If the player is rebuilding his jungle every phase, he’s not doing anything useful. And, as several people have mentioned, people can pop him when he jumps out. This really isn’t any worse than making cover and hiding behind it. I can’t read the character sheet. He DID buy ‘Entangle Stops a Given Sense’ right? Otherwise any barrier he makes will be more or less translucent. Be wary of Passing Strike. (Note that, dispite the name, the 4th edition version didn’t let you keep moving _after_ you strike. It was just a fmove strike. Did this change with the new UMA?) And his brother, Flying Dodge. (Again, just because it’s a full move maneuver, and you can abort to it, does NOT mean you can abort to the full move part of it . . .) -- “To be LEFT ALONE! The goal of every true hero!â€

Re: DEX: and the Marvel Universe There’s no need to get unpleasant . . . you’re both right. If 20 really is supposed to be the equivalent of an Olympic class gymnast, only characters who are actually as agile as Olympic class gymnasts should have it. Which means pretty much everyone who’s not a pure martial artist or speedster should be below 18. Which is obviously not the way most superheroic games go. In a quick check of Champions and CK&C, there are 13 characters with Dex under 20. Icicle(18), Warmonger(18), Psimon(18), Hypnos(18), Medusa(16), Mindslayer(19), Torment(18), Blackstar(18), Armadillo(18), Brainchild(18), Cybermind(15!!!), Grond(18), Mechassassin (18) Five of them are members of Psi. Two characters, total, below Dex 18. (WITCHCRAFT has a Dex of 20. Admittedly, this is pretty low on the ‘problems with Witchcraft's build’ list, but it’s hard to claim that 18-20’s the level of an Olympic gymnast when the bookworm types are above it. On the other hand, Agent X is right as well. Enforced NCM isn’t fair in superhero games, it’s punishing people for not including ‘body enhancement’ somewhere in their origin. Stats are just plain cheaper than buying most abilities through skill levels. It also pretty much insures that the characters who should have the highest dexs (martial artists, who usually have no official ‘powers’) are the least likely to actually have them. Maybe NCM should be renamed. Or maybe heroic and superheroic games need different stat scales. I don’t really like that idea, but in practice that’s the way it seems to work out. Fixing the lifting table might help too. Also, keep in mind, in comics, actual superhuman agility is a pretty rare power. “Trained to the peak of human development,†sure. Every ninja has that. But superhuman agility, as a POWER? Spiderman, of course, and . . . well, that’s pretty much it. Longshot? Beast? Deathstroke, maybe? (I never read much DC) Martial artists are hard to rank. Everyone seems to be the quickest of the quick when they’re the good guys . . . and everyone seemed to attain grand mastery of the martial arts simultaneously near the end of the bronze age. So, anyway, with all the hedging out of the way. High Superhuman: Spiderman (~35) Superhuman: Longshot? Beast? (~32) High end, ‘quick,’ martial artist: Shang Chi, Daredevil, Electra? (~29) High end martial artist: Captain America*, Wolverine**, maybe Sabertooth (~26) Martial artist: Nightcrawler, Iron Fist, Post-Ninja Psylocke, maybe Black Cat (~23) High end Athletic: Nick Fury, Nomad, USAgent, Silver Sable (~20) (Ninjas) ‘Professional’ Athletic: Punisher, Hawkeye, Thor (~17) Athletic: Colossus, Cyclops. Most brick or energy projector types. (~14) High Average: Pre-Ninja Psylocke, Doctor Strange. Most mentalists without other powers. (~11) (average young adult in good shape) Average: The Leader, JJ Jameson, Blob, Professor X (~8) (average adult) Clumsy: Aunt May, Mojo (~5) How Does He Dress Himself: Kree Supreme Intelligence? (~2) Crap. Now I’m going to have to write out a scale for EVERY stat . . . *Yeah, I know Cap’s supposed to be ‘the peak of human ability,’ but he’s a pretty beefy guy. And you just don’t see him kicking two bad guys and punching a third while balancing on one hand that often) ** Wolverine’s dex goes up in direct proportion to how kewl the writers think he is. This is true for everyone, but Wolvie seems particularly vulnerable to it. Gambits not on the list because his skills and powers make no sense. Put him anywhere above 17 and you’re right. Now, the problem is that using this kind of table makes your 150 point Ninja or Fantasy Hero rogue characters look pretty slow by comparison. If you assume 30 is ‘peak human development’ than talented Heroic characters suddenly can’t fit under 200 points anymore. I suppose we could cut out the High End Athletic and maybe the ‘quick’ martial artist slots and knock the ‘superhuman’ barrier to 25 or 26, but that’d require rewriting pretty much all the existing champs material. Casualplayer: But if people admit Dex is too cheap, then they’d HAVE to admit that Strength is even more too cheap. And the lines are too clearly drawn in THAT argument for anyone to back down now. I’ve cut the prices of skill levels in some games I’ve run in the past, that seemed to help a lot in keeping the variance of Dex scores up. --- “Faster than me. Why are ALL the spandexers faster than me?â€

Re: What Fantasy/Sci-Fi book have you just finished? Please rate it... The Wheel Of Time: If Dune and Neo Genesis Evangelon had an illegitimate child, you’d get something very close to The Wheel of Time. Except with every fantasy theme ever written crammed in, instead of the giant robot ones. The Quesach Haderach is a sort of samurai/Akira/Jesus guy. And the Fremen know kung fu. And there’s spanking. Actually, it’s not nearly as bad as some people are saying. He’s needed tighter editing from day one (having your wife as your editor is probably not a good idea) but the first few, (maybe even the first several) were actually quite good. Sure, the female characters were annoying, but if you avoid fantasy and SF with annoying or badly written female characters, that leaves you with a very small number to choose from. The whole idea is a bit pompous, but most of the earlier ‘fantasy bits’ were actually pretty well done. (The Mat/Dagger thing was much better than the Ring/Frodo inspiration, as was that shinaren traitor guy/Boromir thing. And the whole sword in the stone bit was pretty clever) It’s only around book seven, where he started blatantly spinning his wheels, did so many fantasy fans decide he was irredeemably evil. The books on CD (I drive a LOT, unfortunately) are VERY well done, though. I’ve been going through them the last few months, and they reminded me why I liked the series. To begin with, anyway. Now if only they’d come out with a CD version of A Game Of Thrones . . . Now as for what I’ve been reading . . . actually, I’m stuck in the middle of the Sand Wars series, a crap ‘military’ SF series from the 80's. I refuse to stop in the middle of a book I actually paid for, though, so I’m going to have to schlogg through it eventually. The last SF I actually finished was Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars series. Started off very good, but slowed down a lot once the ‘cynical bastard’ character was killed off. This kind of political/worldbuilding story NEEDS a cynical bastard to keep it grounded in the real world, or it turns into Star Trek. Which is pretty much what it did, about halfway through book 2. Well, not that bad. But if you’re going to reel me in with hard SF, don’t go boosting the tech level and political lecture level to Roddenberyesqe proportions. We need a term for the point at which a good SF story turns into an eye-gougingly preachy sociopolitical lecture. The ‘Heinlen Barrier’ perhaps? And has anyone, on any space mission, ever, actually obeyed the ‘no sex with the rest of the crew!’ part of the rulebook? ‘We realize that your trapped on a small spacecraft in close proximity for years, in constant risk of imminent death, and that you’re almost certainly never coming home, even if you succeed. But you’ll all keep your hands to yourselves, right?’ On the good side, Robinson manage to squeeze in at least one good slap at pretty much every major political or religious philosophy out there. It’s good to see non-partisan sniping once in a while. And it does have a runner up for the ‘character going from a bland cipher to incredibly cool in one chapter’ award. Fantasy: Banewreaker, by Jacqueline Carrey. A nifty concept, (typical fantasy from the Dark Lord’s lieutenant’s point of view) but she tries a bit too hard to cram in extra fantasy tropes. The big problem, though is virtually none of the characters are either interesting or likable. (The one exception, a very minor ‘bad guy’ who ends up hanging around with the ‘party of heroes’ for a little while, gets almost no screen time, and then a dragon falls on him) Which is very odd, because, apart from being erotic, likeable, interesting, and well written characters was the big strength of the ‘Kushil’ books. Though I guess technically, the last Fantasy I read was the latest Berserk collection (up to #7) That series is incredible. Made a very weird sandwich with the Samurai Assassin and Here Is Greenwood collections, though, which came out on the same day . . . -- If you thought WOT was whiny, I’d suggest avoiding anything by Robin Hobb . . . The Fitz books were great, (except for the utter cheat at the end of the sixth one) but people do whine. Hard to believe the same person wrote those awful Liveship books, though . . . When you’re actually rooting for the rapist pirate guy to kill all the heroes and take their ship, something’s gone horribly, horribly wrong.

Re: Sightings of the Elder Worm He had a couple of pretty popular SNES games in the early 90s. And a superbly quotable cartoon a few years after that. -- "WHIP ME!! WHIP ME!!" "ah . . . excuse me?" "I MEAN, use me like a whip!"

Re: Recharging Power Armor As his outer flesh was shot away, it was revealed he was a HIDIOUS CYBORG!!!! (dah dah dah!!!) As opposed to normal people taking damage, that leaves them exactly as good looking as they were before their nose was broken and they were vomiting blood. Hey, it only saved a point. And it amused the GM. -- Player 1: “Is there anyone suspicious looking?†GM: “Ah, there’s a one-eyed ronin in the back coughing up blood.†(Player 2)

Re: Too much tweaking? Too powerful? Oh, and I missed this before. A multipower’s the wrong way to do the ‘blessings of the grail’ bit. If he’s knocked out or killed, it won’t switch over to the fast healing or the resurrection slot for him. Which might make sense for some special effects, but not this one, I think. Also, even if you can legally put Life Support in a framework, (and I don’t think you can) I wouldn’t allow it here. (Also, you have to buy something continuous before you can make it persistent, unless it already is, like a force field) Still, five power frameworks, all of which are illegal, may be a record of some kind . . . A little general advice. There’s a few traditional ‘limitations’ that aren’t really very limiting. Keep an eye on Visible, Gestures, Restrainable, Incantations, OIHID, Always On (there must be a real problem for the character for this to be used. And no way does it go on only one slot in a multipower) Real Weapon, and (for a martial artist types) x2 or x3 end. One or two on the outside is usually fine, but as they stack, they get add up to big price breaks for practically nothing. Most of the ‘visible’ limitations on the various powers are for powers that are visible anyway. Transforms, aids, arguably life support (I mean, if the guy isn’t dying, it’s obvious that SOMETHING special is going on) Another thing to watch for is Hunteds. Players love them because they’re usually GMed as an ADVANTAGE. They cause no problems the player wouldn’t have to deal with anyway (I mean, if you’re a superhero, you KNOW you’re going to have to fight supervillains . . .) they just insure that the player with them will be in the spotlight more of the time. And most of the time his buddies will help him take care of them. Hunteds are EXTRA crap the player has to deal with, on top of everything else. Usually aimed at the PLAYER, not the team. (“Grailman doesn’t have any DNPCs, but Stigmata Man does. Lets kidnap them and force HIM to bring us the Grailâ€) When they affect the party, everyone should know damn well just whose extra power points they’re being made to suffer for. (“Grailman . . . we just got a letter from the Vatacan . . . We’ve all been excommunicated. I elect you to go break the news to Stigmata Man.â€) And they show up a LOT. An 8- hunted should cause a player noteworthy headaches every fourth game, on average . . . Or REALLY BIG headaches somewhat less often. -- Does killing someone count as ‘Harshly Punish’ if they’re just going to get back up again in a week? And PLEASE don’t tell me Cataran wants to marry him . . .

Re: Too much tweaking? Too powerful? What’s a guy with the holy grail doing hanging around with gray market arms dealers? This guys wearing too many hats. Immortal skill monster, mystic healer, AND Punisher Jr? Everyone’s blowing up about the martial arts multipower, which, while correct, is over the top. ( Martial arts are already a semi-power framework, so they should never go inside one) The current MA build, while illegal, is also not THAT efficient. NO ONE needs 50-odd points of martial arts. Have him buy four or five basic maneuvers (Martial Strike, Block, Dodge, throw, Escape) and a few combat skill levels so he can mix up the specific effects. Actually, a ‘super generic’ martial arts set can also be bought as a mass of HTH skill levels, and a few points of extra strength that doesn’t effect figured characteristics. And by the way, martial arts don’t require ‘Gestures,’ any more than strength should. Punching or kicking someone isn’t a gesture, and it’s more complicated than ‘requires both hands.’ Actually, almost nothing should require gestures in a superhero game. Actually, it shouldn’t even exist, but that’s a different argument. As a general rule, it’s a good idea to pay attention to power frameworks. Despite the fact that half the published characters have three, in general most characters shouldn’t have more than 2, IF THAT. And I’d avoid pools completely until you really know what you’re doing. If he really wants the ‘gear’ pool, let him buy it as a multipower. Have him get the armor outside of it through a plain-old focus, and have everything in it be OAF, can only be switched back at base. ‘real weapon’ is another limitation I don’t really like, but again, this isn’t the place. The skill pool is a MUCH bigger problem, rules wise and play wise, and no one even mentioned it . . . Make him buy his own damn skills, (he can get most of them at a slight discount from skill enhancers) Maybe some 5 point int skill levels with a limit on them (Out of date (-1/2)) And maybe universal translator, as well. Most of the problems look like genuine mistakes, not blatant munchkinism, though. -- C’mon. Who did pools right the first time? Anyone? Didn’t think so.

Re: Recharging Power Armor Worse than that, actually. Charges on a defensive power only work for a segment, so he’d have to choose which four segments, during the whole day, he’d get the armor bonus. Probably not what you’re thinking of. Actually, I’m not sure what effect you were looking for. Did you WANT the character to have only four ‘suit-ups’ with the armor, period? Ablative means that it’ll start being chipped away every time it’s ‘penetrated,’ which makes a certain amount of sense for armor, but it’s going to make him very vulnerable, very quickly. At the second hit, it could fail him completely. Also, having all your resistant defenses with an activation roll can lead to tragic, hilarious, results. This might work a little better. (You forgot a ‘Focus’ limitation in the one you posted, as well) 10 (15) Mesh Undersuit 5 PD/5ED Armor, OIF (-1/2) 10 (30) External Armor Plates 5PD/15 ED Armor, Activation 14- (-1/2), Ablative (-1), OAF (-1/2) If you’re feeling generous, you might let him tack on an extra ‘can only be repaired at an armor shop at great expense’ disadvantage on top of the second layer, as well. Note that the top layer now STARTS at 14- and goes down from there, but trust me, it’s much better to have that with the ‘underwear’ than without. Now, you mentioned ‘powered armor.’ At the moment, there’s no batteries needed. If the power actually adds to the defense, you might want to use a force field with an end reserve or continuing charges instead of the ablative layer. If it does other things, like boost the wearer’s strength or jumping distance, you’ll have to add that as well. -- I had a character with Ablative Comliness once . . .

Re: Team of second rate Villains Zaran the weapon master. Even for the 70’s, his choice of costume was . . . odd. Black leather hood that covered his head and shoulders, some misc. straps around his torso, a leather posing pouch, and big, clunky boots. Oh, and he had a bright red topknot thing popping out of a little hole on the top of his head. In short, the sort of thing an iron age villainess with particularly low self esteem might come up with. Or maybe one of the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ raiders from The Road Warrior. Had a spear/halberdy thing with a blowgun hidden inside it. And a few other lame weapons. Was a lame Cap villain for a while, then a lame Shang Chi villain for a bit. Last I heard, he got his ass kicked by Nomad on a golf course, but that was a long time ago. It’s possible he’s gotten his ass kicked by any number of lower and lower powered heroes since then. Actually, Shang Chi had a load of moderately lame villains, (Though few as lame a Zaran) at least some of whom would be salvageable. What’s Shen Keui up to these days? He’d need to either keep his shirt on, or get a tattoo update, though. Hard to fear a guy who has an old ladies’ wallpaper tattooed on his chest. On a more potentially redeemable note, did the Silver Samurai ever get a ‘kewl’ update? He had an ok schick and a pretty cool power, but never seemed to gel together. (Any knowledge of the Marvel Universe I might have is at least ten years out of date, though) -- “And this time, you would have won . . .â€

Re: Help with a character concept Assuming we’re talking about a superheroic game, I’d do it this way. 40 (60) Four Gun Multipower, OIF (Four Guns) 3u (60) Blazing Away: 2d6 RKA, autofire (4 shots max +1/2), (Slightly less than) Half End (+1/2),OAF (all four guns, -1/2) 12 end* 3u (60) Double Shot : 4d6 RKA, Reduced Penetration (-1/4) 6 end 4u (60) Targeted shot 2.5d6 RKA, Armor Piercing (+1/2), Half End 3 end 3u (60) Close Multiple Targets 2d6 RKA AOE 1 hex, doubled, selective +1) Maximum one target for gun used (-1/4), Extra half end cost for each target beyond 2 (-1/4) 6+ end 3u (57) Widespread Multiple Targets 1.5d6 RKA, AOE Cone, selective, Maximum one Target per gun used, (-1/4), Extra half end cost for each target beyond 2 (-1/4) No Range (-1/2) 6+ end Plus, 40 (60) 600 point End Reserve, 200 bullets, OIF) 8 (20)20 Rec on End Reserve (only where appropriate bullets are available, -1.5) And, if you want to be sneaky, 6 60 point End Reserve, Almost Undetectable 20 round Holdout Clip 4 (10) 10 Rec on Holdout End Reserve, only where appropriate bullets are available, -1.5) So, 113 points total. (and 6 more for Inherent Extra Limbs) Not perhaps the most efficient character ever, but he’s got style, and you don’t have to mess with the autofire perks or the not-very-good ‘multiple weapon’ rules, which is always a plus. (Especially as they’re not really appropriate for superheroic games) That’s a lot of points to throw into a focus, though, even an OIF. Make sure he has some martial arts or something to fall back on when Slow Oxidation Girl turns his guns to rust. A reasonably efficent agent or Lightly Armored Man killer. Even with the AP, though, it’s going to take a while to chip away at the bricks. Using EB instead of RKA will help with the big attacks, but a 6d6 EB is going to bounce off even the most lightly armored villains. Maybe with experience, he can get set of energy guns, a second set of EB slots, and a second End Reserve. Or maybe that’s too complicated, but a four armed guy walking around with 8 pistol holsters strapped to various parts of him would be kind of cool. And make sure the player knows he’s going to have to spend several minutes stuffing bullets back into his ammo belts one by one when he breaks into Viper’s armory. It’ll come up, and it’ll save arguments. He’ll also want to reload every time he beats up a thug with a gun, which I’d probably allow, at least some of the time. The ‘Targeted Shot’ slot does the extra damage and the AP because he’s placing his shot carefully, of course. The player may want to buy ranged martial arts, but I’d advise against allowing it. Don’t worry about clips or anything, unless he’s using all four guns constantly, that’ll never come up, anyway. Not often enough to justify a bonus, anyway. Just assume his spare arms are always keeping whichever guns he’s not using loaded. Adding 2 (u) Blazing Away, Mark 2 4d6RKA, Double End (-1/2) , Requires 4 guns (-1/4) will help against the bricks If you like, you can use AOE Radius instead of Cone for the Widespread slot, and loose the No Range, but I like the idea of having to either pay attention to a tight area, or look in one direction. The Close Multiple Targets slot will still let him do the cool ‘Shoot the guy in front of me and the ninja sneaking up behind me at the same time’ effect, as long as they’re not more than 3†apart. *Yes, yes, it should be 8 end. Let them do a three-shot burst if they want, for 9 end. If they complain, make them use charges instead of a End Reserve, which will force them to buy the whole multipower with an advantage, which’ll mean everything’s weaker. -- ‘Conversely, even small wounds can have great effect, if you make enough of them . . .’