Ura-Maru

Re: Rules For Picking A Superhero Name For the record, that’s from How To Be A Super Hero, but I can’t find the authors. Not the recent Barry Neville/Dr. Metropolis one, it had a subtitle like: Save the Universe in 30 days, or your money back! I liked the section that advises you which supervillains you want to take on your first time out. --- It advises against messing with Sun-Up the Solar Sodomizer, for example . . .

Re: New Justice Squad Member: The Black Knight Hey, who am I to argue with your GM. I won’t even bring up the ‘multiple powers in the same EC slot’ that I didn’t notice before. You still have the ‘Eggshell with a hammer’ thing going, though. You’re going to have to be very, very careful. 5 12d6 attacks in the same turn will kill you, unless your GM is handwaving the ‘Automoton dies at 0 body’ thing, as well. I understand that, but you’re saving what, 37 points with it, for something you’ve already taken as a 15 point limitation on. So that’s more than 50 points for a single Distinctive Feature. And I’m not sure what the ‘major reaction’ the DF is supposed to cause . . . --- “I’m the one to go back, because I can’t be killed!â€

Re: Where did the idea that Bricks are usually slow come from? ‘Jump’ or ‘Throw Something Big’ are the traditional choices. (and if you have an average Dex, as most actual bricks do, even throwing something small is hardly hopeless) Assuming he can’t fly an has no ranged attacks at all, which isn’t necessarily a safe assumption. And assuming he went with the cheapo skill levels, which is his own fault. If the brick is in an open space with nothing to throw fighting a flying Energy Projector with enough levels to hit him consistently while staying far enough away that he can’t jump high enough, then he’s in trouble . . . But every character should be in trouble when they’re fighting someone designed to take them down, in a battlefield that favors their opponent. I mean, what does a Martial Artist do when fighting someone with high defenses, AOE attacks and Entangles in a confined area? Mostly, you die. --- Though if we're going to argue source material, Energy Projectors should probably do more damage than bricks do . . .

Re: CHAR: Scion Heh. I thought I was the only one who used that ‘Variable Advantage on Flight’ trick. Usually 1/4 is enough, though . . . --- “Continue your practice of flying clumsily with your rear-end in the air!â€

Re: New Justice Squad Member: The Black Knight Good character concept, but there are a few problems with the build. For the record, I think it’s this exact EC that started the whole ‘no 0-End powers in EC’ thing going. And most GM’s heads explode when characteristics are put in an Elemental Control. (And even if you put them in a Multipower, they automatically get ‘No Figured’ as a -0 disad) Generally, Automoton can’t be taken by players, and it certainly can’t be put in an EC. Even if this is allowed, I wouldn’t recommend it. You’ll loose Str, Spd, or EC slots every time you get hit by an attack of more than 6d6. (Actually, twice for each hit. Once by the hit, once by the Knockback) The first group of agents you fight will cripple you in a phase or two, then kill you while you're helpless. I’m fairly certain that you can’t take ‘side effect: My disad takes affect’ Even if you can, you’re getting a lot more points back than it would be worth if you’d just bought the disad ‘visible to everyone,’ so I’d say no. Especially since, in this case, the disad seems to be ‘my powers aren’t completely undetectable.’ Wait. Does he have a 64 Str TOTAL, with the EC STR, or 100 total? That’s what it looked like at first. Even so, with the sword, that’s 18d6. A 64 Str is in the above average brick range. (200 tons!) It’s hard to justify that much with the special effect you’re using. You’re OCV is pretty low too. (though if you’re swinging around an 18d6 attack . . .) A few skill levels? (5 or 8 pts . . . he’s supposed to be an experienced fighter) A super athlete should probably have some movement. And skills are pretty light for an old guy, or an experienced solder. End’s going to be an issue, too. If he has ‘inexaustable energy’ suffusing him, he should probably be able to fight for more than a turn without running into End problems . . . And why’s the sword unbreakable? Constructive criticism, I hope . . . --- “When bonded to a host, that host gains control of his limitless demonic power!!â€

Re: New Guy likes SPD Chart Menton's Disad: “Only to use Mental/Telekinetic Powers.†As opposed to all his other powers, I guess. So he can’t take recoveries, or Simulate Death. For Cybermind, the other example, this is actually somewhat limiting. Because his powers are so focused, it IS probably worth the 1/2 he gets for it. For Menton, I just don’t see it coming up at all, unless the GM forces it. And even then, it’s barely limiting at all. A 5 pt ‘color’ Phys Lim sounds right to me. --- “So fast . . . at that size, it’s not possible . . .â€

Re: New Guy likes SPD Chart I think that’s still the way it works, as far as I know. The ‘overlapping phases’ is just a cute trick if you can pull it off, that’s all. (Because all the Speed 3 phases are also Speed 6 phases) Except Menton can use telekinesis to do any ‘physical action’ he wants to, or to fly. (and his TK based powers are specifically mentioned as allowed by the power) And as he has targeting ‘detect minds’ mental-group power, he dosen’t even need to use his physical senses. It’s a nice bit of color, and probably worth a 5 pt phys lim. Not a -1/2 advantage on a 40 pt. power, though. Half-actions only would probably be worth -1/2 on Speed. --- Does perception really work that way? Am I supposed to wait until my next phase to notice something that happened on a phase I don’t go on?

Re: New Guy likes SPD Chart Actually, having Speed one go on 7 makes sense After everyone else’s first action, but before the slow people’s second. The real question is ‘Why is it so damn hard to find the Speed Chart?†It’s not even listed under ‘Speed’ for Zarquon’s sake, nor is it at the beginning of the Combat section, where you’d expect to find it. Gummibear: If at all possible, I try to ‘overlap’ speeds for speed changing characters. Going from 2 or 3 to 6 is easy, because all the speed 2 and 3 phases are covered by 6. Pity 4 and 6 don’t match up, they’re usually the ones you want to use. You can do the same trick with 4 to 8 but that’s usually going higher than you want to go. In any case, I love the speed chart. It’s so much better than the ‘extra attacks for good warriors’ systems that most other games use for the same thing it’s hard to even compare the two without gibbering. “Multi-power attacks†and Rapid Fire mess this up considerably, thus, I hate them with the fire of a thousand suns. I also think it’s the ideal solution to the ‘two weapon style’ problems that come up in . . . well, every game that lets you use two weapons at all. Including the Hero ones. Though I do think most of the ‘limited speed’ characters give it too much of a limitation. “Only for fighting†isn’t worth anything at all. What else is it used for? Only to make attacks with my mental powers’ might qualify as 1/2 for some characters, like Cybermind, but not for Menton, for whom this means ‘can do everything but take a recovery’. A phys lim is probably a better way of handing that type of thing, though. One of the reasons I don’t really like ‘NCM hero’ is that the speed chart doesn’t work as well on the low end. Being Speed 4 in a Speed 5 average game with a couple of Speed 6 or 7 characters isn’t so bad. Being a Speed 2 character in a Speed 3 average game with a couple of Speed 4 characters . . . kind of sucks. As learned by Germ, the Speed 2 Dwarf. Speed gets much better the lower on the chart the average is . . . kicking up to 4 in a 3 average game is worth a lot more than 10 points. I suspect a good number of the ‘Drop the Speed Chart’ crowd mostly play lower point heroic games, where it’s true glory is lost. --- Germ’s ‘identifying quote’? “I’m . . . feeling . . . sluggish . . .†In a deep, slowed down tape recorder voice.

Re: "Teen Champion" to Regular The easiest way is to just skip the transition period completely. End the teen game as you normally would, with the dark guy defeated, heroic sacrifice killed in action, the big dance danced, and intercourse finally achieved. Then start up a new campaign with the same characters, five years later. New Dark Guy has broken the relative peace of the last few years, and everyone’s all grown up now, with rebuilt character sheets. Tack a greek letter or a cool sounding word (like ‘Try’) to the end of the campaign name, and you’re ready to go. --- Unless you REALLY want to run ‘college application hero’ . . .

Re: Star Wars - Balancing Jedi with everyone else and heroic vs. superheroic Heh. I personally think ALL games should be ‘superheroic.’ Free equipment messes the whole system up. Besides, characters in 90% of genere fiction DON’T swap their equipment kit out every three episodes. Just let them ‘radiation accident’ their equipment points as needed. And RPGs in general are far, far too ‘stuff’ based. So, short version, I agree with your plan. --- The problem is partially source material, though. Jedi ARE just plain more powerful than the non-jedi equivalent . . . and the equipment thing only sorta solves it. It doesn’t matter to the rest of the party that the ship ‘belongs’ to the Smuggler if they can all use it, so the Smuggler is effectively about 30 points weaker than everyone else.

Re: Retcon the CU Well, calling it ‘magic’ doesn’t help. But no, it that isn’t the problem. It’s not just ‘having the powers they think they do,’ it’s ‘Not being profoundly ignorant of their own nature.’ Lets say I was playing Lone Wolf And Cub Hero. In one session I massacre 30 or 40 kurakawa ninja and an army of drug-addicted prostitutes, with my nigh-invincible Suio style, my dotanuki sword, and two switchblade naganata. The guy playing Daigoro, (the kid) irritated that all he did was get kidnapped, points out how over the top that is, that no swordsman, no matter how skilled, could possibly take that many opponents at once. It’s just impossible. The GM replies “Ah, right. But, Ogami’s actually a psychic. He actually killed most of those people with his mind. But he doesn’t know it, he just THINKS he’s using the swords.†Makes the whole thing a lot less cool, no? That kind of thing CAN be done well, if you base the game around it. Or it can be a good Twilight Zone-esqe ‘gotcha’ bit. “What do you mean every villain I kill with my magic sword is making the Lords of Hell stronger?!†but in this case, it’s neither. Nobody ever figures it out, it never affects anyone, it just undercuts them and makes them look stupid. If Dr D and Defender KNOW they're using 'Kaos Flux' energy, and it dosen't end with the equivelent of 'it's was all a dream', it isn't a problem. (I still don’t think the ‘meta-genre history’ adds much, though) --- Like those Ishtarians in The Mole People, except the flashlight actually DOES contain the Burning Fire of Ishtar, and it’s the heroes who are the primitives who think it’s a flashlight.

THEY BLEW IT UP! DAMN THEM!! DAMN THEM TO HELL!! Ah, sorry. Anyway, as I’m sure any CRPG players know by now, Interplay went belly up a couple of months ago, and with it went all immediate hope of that computer gaming grail, Fallout 3. Now, if they hadn’t delayed it for six or seven years while they screwed around with crummier games, this wouldn’t be an issue, but that’s not germane. Point being, some kind soul on the former Fallout 3 team released a handful of the setting design documents. In other words, six tasty post-apoc towns (or at least adventure nodes) complete with NPCs, basic maps, subquests, rewards, and story hooks. They’re available for download on http://www.nma-fallout.com, among other places. They’re on the download tab on the left. Tibbet's Prison, Boulder, Mesa Verde, The Nursery, Hoover Dam, Bloomfield, and BOMB-001. (the first, Tibbets Prison, is more of a ‘how to write a design document’ file than a setting, unfortunately) They’re pretty damn good, and most should be convertible to most post-apoc game worlds. --- “War. War never changes . . .â€

Re: Retcon the CU My problem with the whole ‘magic’ thing can be summed up in two words. “Delusional Idiot.†“I want to play a brilliant scientist, who built a suit of powered armor, and hangs around with two hot babes!†“No. But you can play a delusional idiot who’s too stupid to realize he’s altering reality to make a magic suit of powered armor.†“I want to play a super-strong brick!†“No. But you can play a delusional idiot whose magic powers let him THINK he’s a super-strong brick.†“I want to play a super-hot energy projector, who shoots ‘sapphire energy’ bolts. And sings.†“No. But you can play a delusional idiot who can shoot blue magic bolts, and just THINKS it’s ‘sapphire energy.’†“I want to play a super-skilled detective and martial artist.†“No. But you can play a delusional idiot who magically simulates having super martial arts and detective skills. But you have to wear this old Gatchaman costume.†“@#&!! it. I want to play a super-mage with three power frameworks, with at least one illegal ‘example slot.’†“Ok. But you’re too stupid to realize that everyone ELSE is using magic, too.†To me it seems a step above having an entire campaign turn out to be a dream, or to have never existed except in a comic book or computer game in the real world. A very small step. Or, to put it bluntly, it’s a cheat. I don’t want to be told at the end of a campaign “Oh, by the way, nothing ever really happened.†(I mean, I KNOW nothing REALLY happened. I’m not insane. But I expect something to have actually happened in the non-existent game world . . . dammit. You know what I mean) I’m not a big fan of the entire ‘meta-genre timeline,’ either. While I understand what it’s going for (you have all this other game material just lying around) I don’t think the end result is good. If there’s going to be a ‘mythic past’ in a superhero world, it should be the real world's mythic past, with King Arthur and Son Goku, not a D&D or Conan-esque ‘game world’ version. I mean, how is that any different than insisting on playing a half-drow Magic User/Thief or an actual Jedi Knight in a supers game? Anyway, in terms of actual things I’d retcon out . . . I don’t like the ‘Axis Cursed the Allied Supers’ bit. Didn’t like it in DC, don’t like it in CU. Since all the existing GA supers are pretty dang weak anyway, I don’t see how they’d mess up history too much. Marvel’s ‘Cap and Bucky’ version is much more fun. All the mega-villains earlier appearances, except perhaps Dr. D. Taco-bell and the Queen of the Multiverse are ‘Secret Wars’ type mega-crossovers that haven’t happened yet. When they do, they break a lot of stuff, but oddly enough, are almost never mentioned again. Actually, I’m pretty much fine if the L never happens . . . Blessed ?genocide ‘L’ should do the trick . . . The Warlord, Tellieos (dammit, I can’t spell in greek, and my CU is at work) and Menton can stay. And probably Gravitar, too. They’re all low-enough profile that they don’t mess up the day to day world too much. Actually, the Warlord and Vaan probably shouldn’t exist in the same game world. One’s dead center Iron Age, one’s on the other edge of the Silver Age. Easier than balancing three or four separate game universes, I guess, and easy enough do drop whichever one doesn’t fit. I don’t like the ‘Real Supers never go to Hudson City, by unspoken agreement’ idea, unless you WANT all ‘real’ supers to think that petty things like human crime are beneath them. What’s wrong with having two separate ‘universes?’ You could even have the Harbinger exist in both. Marvel did it with the Punisher for what, two and a half decades now, with no real problems. From what I’ve heard of it, I don’t really like the Vibora Bay ‘Constantine with a Gun, and the good parts taken out’ plotline at all. I don’t like Nebula’s mindset. Either she’s genetically programmed to send all criminals to Duress, in which case she should freely send heroes there, OR she’s flexible enough to understand that all the rules of her old galaxy don’t apply, and thus it should be possible to convince her not to send anyone there. Currently she’s both at once. That may not be big enough to count as a universal retcon, though. --- We’re all missing the important thing in the ‘magic’ debate, though. If all superpowers go away in 20 years, shouldn’t everyone get their ‘extended life’ points back?

Re: Help with a power for character Ah, that’s ok. My response was kind of snarky too. Working too many nights. I should finish that character, though. Wait, I should finish _any_ characters . . . --- Not going to apologize to Megascale, though. @#$!! had it coming.

Re: Hit Locations Augh. Post overlap. Hate it when that happens. Ok, to clear up any genuine misconceptions. I was assuming that most campaigns that use hit locations also used sectional armor. Is that not accurate anymore? Because every campaign I’ve played in or been near that used one, used the other. THAT is what I meant by ‘ignoring armor.’ If that assumption was incorrect, then that point isn’t valid. The rest is, though. I’m not particularly angry at OCV, skill levels or anything else, except perhaps the cancellation of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Fallout 3 And while I may be grumpy . . . well, I’m always grumpy, but I don’t think I expressed my grumpiness level here. Ah, maybe this is the problem. No, using a PSL’s to boost your effective OCV to 16 is no ‘worse’ than using inexpensive skill levels to boost your OCV to 16, or buying massive Dex. Well, it’s a bit worse, because it makes it cheaper to do so, and encourages people to do so. But I fully acknowledge that a targeting PSL has some limitations that normal, more expensive skill levels don’t. In fact, you’ll notice the first examples I gave involved 2 pt OCV levels, 3 pt OCV levels, and only then mentioned targeting levels. My complaint is about targeted shots in general. (In fact, the only PSLs I have problems with are targeting ones. Range ones are fine.) Nor do I have a problem with skill levels. I LIKE skill levels, I think they give more character than just piling on Dex. However, I don’t think OCV in general needs the kind of power upgrade that called shots give it. Adding hit locations changes the function of OCV, and by extension, Dex and skill levels. Without hit locations, OCV lets you hit things. That’s important, but it’s not everything. OCV is less effective against slow or hard targets, who you’re likely to hit anyway. Now, most of the ways of increasing OCV (Dex, good skill levels) have other benefits, so you’re discouraged from buying a ton of 2 point levels, in favor of more interesting options. And playing lower-OCV but higher-damage characters is less frustrating. When you add in targeted shots, OCV not only lets you hit things, it lets you increase stun damage, a lot, provided it’s something you can hurt at all. So a super-high OCV character can not only hit everything, if he doesn’t need to use his full OCV to hit, he can use it to increase damage. Not increase it a bit, ala using skill levels to kick up the DC, but dramatically. Not only does this encourage stratosphere-high OCVs, it encourages buying them in the least interesting ways, because you need so many of them to compete. Which is where the 2 pt OCV levels and PSLs come in. Correct. I should have said ‘Doubles the amount of damage you actually do.’ But that’s kind of clunky. With one exception. Unless I’m mistaken, you apply the STUNx multiple for KAs before you apply defenses. So, it effectively (almost) doubles your stun damage for KAs. (Body x 2.67 for regular KA, Body x5 for headshots) Close enough for government work. But then, no one’s ever had a problem with disproportionately high stun effects from Killing Attacks. You’re making it sound insignificant, though, and it isn’t. And finally, because it’s completely independent from the cost of the power, headshots get horrifying when power levels go up. Spending 16 points to double the Stun and increase the Body of a 1d6+1 HKA may not seem bad. But that same 16 points can double the actual damage inflicted by your 8d6 Backfist, or your 12d6 Spin Kick. Or your 3 1/2 d6 AP HKA. And the 24 point version doubles the stun and increases the body of all four. Find weakness has some similar issues, but it has severe limitations, as gone over above, costs more, and even then rates a ! --- Or, to put it another way. (I’m not repeating myself to be pedantic, I’m doing it because I don’t think I’m explaining myself well) Lets ignore the Find Weakness thing for the moment. Lets say I want to make a new perk that lets me always do the max stun multiple for killing attacks, and doubles any stun or body that I actually manage to inflict otherwise. Now, what should it be worth? I’m thinking, considerably more than 16 points for a single attack, or 24 for all attacks. And the 16 point version has some extra benefits, on top of that. I’m not using skill level prices as an example because I hate them, I’m using them because they avoid arguments about costs. That’s what 2 point skill levels and targeting PSLs are for. --- Well, I am angry at Black Diamond’s HTH Levels. But that’s just them, and it has nothing to do with the rest.

Re: Hit Locations A ‘variant’ of find weakness. As in, different from normal find weakness. So there’s no contradiction. I was trying to make a point. Specifically, “There is already a similar power to this, that is far less effective for increasing damage, and has several drawbacks (extra time, activation roll) that buying hit location only skill levels do not have. It’s also noticeably more expensive than the skill levels.†Actual find weakness DOES “waste half a phase†“reduce an enemies resistant defenses by a point or two†uses an activation roll, only affects one defense at a time, AND is more expensive. --- To be fair, it can also be used multiple times.

Re: Help with a power for character It seems I was incorrect. In my defense, I was looking at the first fifth edition, which is less specific. The inherent ‘limitation’ which I thought was there to partially balance out megascale’s power is far more trivial than I thought it was. It appears MegaTeleportation does in fact, allow infinite noncombat teleportation for almost no cost at all. It looks like gates also have a lot more flexibility than I remembered. Looks like you really don’t need UAA. Odd that they specifically don’t allow that trick with fully indirect stretching, but I guess the two-way thing somewhat makes up for it. Indirect and Ranged on the entire teams attacks, for what, 25 points? Not bad at all. --- What can I say. I was in a hurry. And I shouldn’t have left my 5er at work.

Re: Hit Locations I understand that, but it doesn’t change anything. You’re still pretty much doubling the effectiveness of any attack, for a very small number of points. And adding more combat effectiveness to OCV, which didn’t really need it. In a non-hit location game, just kicking up your OCV hits a point of diminishing returns. Once you’re two or three points over the campaign’s DCV average, adding more helps you less and less. With hit locations, once you can be sure of hitting things, you start multiplying your damage and avoiding armor. Would you allow a Find Weakness variant that doubled all damage after armor and allowed you to completely bypass any armor with an activation roll? Oh, and it doesn’t have a roll to work, and it doesn’t take an action to use? Oh, and the single attack version costs 16 points, one point more than a 12- Find Weakness on a single attack. The All Attacks version is a bargain, though, at 24 points, it’s six points cheaper than an 11- Find Weakness. --- “The Deathclaw takes 64 points of damage to the groin. The Deathclaw shakes and growls.â€

Re: Hit Locations Well, ignore the special effect for the moment. Head shots double damage and give a max stun multiplier. And they often ignore all armor as well. An OCV level costs two points. Even less if your GM is mad enough to use some of the options from DC. So, how many points should you pay for the ability to double the damage you with an attack? More than 16, I would think. More than the 24 you’d pay for 8 3pt skill levels, or 8 targeting skill levels, as well. In short, it’s a game balance thing. Even then, balance is swung pretty far in the ‘head shots are too EASY’ direction, to my mind. Of course, you could always just not use hit locations, and call any high damage hit, especially one that used skill levels to boost damage, a ‘head shot’ . . . --- Shouldn’t those giant floating goblin head monsters take double damage from everything? And what if the zombies were miltary vets in their pre-zombie days?

Re: Bypassing Armor that has Activation rolls In a somewhat Dark Champions game I ran back in . . . oh, must have been around ‘94 or so, I let characters knock a point off of a targets armor activation (that is, 14- to 13-) by using two 5 pt (or better) skill levels to aim for the soft spots. We weren’t using hit locations. Didn’t cause any problems then. And it’s a heck of a lot cooler than using 10 points worth of skill levels to add +1 Body to damage. I’m not sure I’d make it quite that easy now, though. This kind of thing tends to make Dex and cheap skill levels REALLY good, and they’re already really good. You can easily run into the old ‘Head Shot Standard’ problem that made Cyberpunk 2020 combats all the same. Still, I’d still go back to it long before I started using hit locations again . . . Since it uses fairly expensive skill levels, instead of just a big OCV penalty, you don’t get the problem of everyone wanting 26 Dex and 10 3 point skill levels, and pure OCV being the be-all and end-all of combat. (Well, you’ll probably still get it, but not because of this bit) If it’s a ‘campaign standard,’ though, you might want to increase the limitation that armor activation gives. Adding +1/4 or +1/2 to the activation limitations. Or just including 13- . . . Just out of curiosity, is it legal to buy Change Environment to penalize activation rolls? Not that I’d do such a horrid thing, of course. At least, not very often . . . --- I mean, would you allow a 16 point power that let a character bypass all resistant defenses for 90% of the bad guys, and double his damage against all targets at the same time? Well, if you use hit locations, you are.

Re: Help with a power for character Except that, with Megascale teleportation, all you can guarantee is that you’ll open your gate up to within 1 km of your floating point. Otherwise it’s just giving infinte noncombat teleportation for almost no cost at all. You’d also need ‘Usable As Attack’ if you want to be able to teleport something without going there yourself to pick it up. And it’ll knock you to half your DCV. (or is it 0? I forget) Possibility 1 Considerably simplified from an ‘Eat-Man’ esque character I was working on. 8 (38) Personal Limbo: 4” Radius Base (~50”, 8 pts) Transdimensional (+30 pts) 17 (17) Pocket Limbo EC 22 (60) Stash! Extra Dimensional Movement: Center of Personal Limbo (20 pts), x4 human mass (+10 pts), UAA (+1), not against living targets (-1) 9 (35) I Got It 4” Streching, Transdimensional: to Pocket Limbo (+1/4) No End (+1/2), Pocket Limbo Only (-1) 11 (38) There It Is Clairsentience: Sight (20 pts), Dimensional: Pocket Limbo (+5 pts), No End (+1/2) Pocket Limbo Only (-1) Total: 75 pts, 6 End. If you’re going to use it as a core power and build some tricks around it, that’s great, but it might be a bit too much for a side power. You can stash anything you can lift, assuming a 20 Str. You can save a few points by adding the –1/4 version of Restranable, but it’s already full phase. --- Possiblity 2 Alternatively, and this requires GM permission, what you want is the storage space of a dimensional base, without any of the normal drawbacks of a base. It’s not unreasonable to ask to buy the base directly, without the normal 5/1 price break. So: 30 (30) Inventory ‘Base’: Area 8” Base (0 pts), In Another Dimension (+30 pts) --- Possiblity 3 And this is a bit weird, what are you doing with this power? You’re using it to carry extra stuff, without any weight problems. So: 3 (5) Extra Limbs, Linked To Drawer Forwarding EC (-1/2), Only To Carry Stuff (-1/2) 30 (30) Elemental Control: Drawer Forwarding 15 (60) Max Capacity: 6400 lbs 40 Strength, No End (+1/2), Only To Carry Stuff (-1) 30 (90)Tucked Away Safe Desolidification, UAA (+1), Costs End Only To Activate/Deactivate (+1/4) only on carried objects that are not being used (-1 1/2), Full Phase (-1/2) 30 (75) He’s Unarmed, Sir Invisibility: Sight, Hearing, Radar, Smell (30 pts), UAA (+1), No End (+1/2) only on carried objects that are not being used (-1 1/2), linked to Desolidification (-0) Nifty, huh? Pity it’s more expensive than either other way of doing it . . . I know, a characteristic in an EC and all. And it doesn’t scale down well. Still nifty, though. --- Zed-F is right, though. The character’s basically going to use this to buy off the ‘Focus’ limitations on all his stuff. (also from that Eat-Man like character. Really should finish her) This is gonna be vague, because I have to get to Boston. Tons of Guns! Either a weapon pool, a RKA with Variable Special Effect and Variable Advantages, or a multipower of weapons, bought without Foci or charges (you’ve got a lot of bullets in your storage closet) Might be able to justify ‘restrainable,’ though) 19 (38) The Right Tool For The Right Job: +4 with All Non-Combat Skills, Only To Remove Penalties For Lack of Proper Tools (-1) Other Stuff: A smallish cosmic gadget pool Separate from the guns, because you don’t want to have to put away your gun to use a rope. And probably a limited version of the Personal Limbo option above, for stashing miscellaneous stuff. --- Hey! A UAA XDM, and STR in an EC, in the same post! How munchkin can you get. Edit: Stupid [/b] . . .

Re: Pulp-style Anime Tezuka’s ‘medical pirate’ Black Jack is the first that comes to mind. A brilliant surgeon (unlicensed, of course) he charges astronomical fees and somehow always seems to get caught up in unlikely adventures involving thugs, horrible maimings, and strange ethical situations. The (movie) anime sucked, but the manga was pretty good. There’s also a TV series which I don’t know anything about. Actually, most of the SF and action shows from the 70’s and before had a very pulp feel Captian Harlock[/b] & Co. could have flown into any Doc Smith* story and felt right at home, and Golgo 13 and Lupan III could have shared panels with The Phantom without causing a blink. This lessened somewhat as it got geekier through the early 80’s, but a lot of the feel is still there, even in modern stuff. Even shows that aren’t trying for a pulp feel often have pulp-like settings. 3x3 Eyes, Master of Mosquiton, and Phantom Quest Corp are the most obvious off the top of my head, but there are many others. Manga, for all practical purposes, IS pulp, or what pulp might have grown into if it had managed to keep it’s broad readership and survive, and if Seduction of the Innocent hadn’t killed all the non-super comics. --- *There actually was an anime version of Lensmen. Not very good, but not terrible.

Re: Thoughts on Dr Yin Wu That can’t be right . . . I mean, that would be absurd . . . . . . Well, I’ll be damned, it is. I’m sure there must be a reason for this, right? It couldn’t possibly be as arbitrary as it looks . . . Could it? --- So I have to buy ‘Uses End’ on my Clinging and Missile Deflection, but can buy No End on my Force Field, Energy Blast, and Damage Shield?

Re: A thought on armour piercing That’s the way Gurps does it, right? Actually, what you’re describing is very close to a less clunky, but more ‘diecey’ version of DCs ‘Penetrating’ power. In my experience AP shows up pretty often in big multipowers, (where it’s occasional usefulness is justified by the five or 6 points you have to pay for the slot) and on KAs, which can be effective at considerably below ‘average’ DC values. And because a 2 1/ 2 d6 RKA won’t scare the GM as much as a 4d6 RKA. Generally, though, anyone who has enough actual Defenses that you would really want AP will have them hardened. Except a 2 1 /2 d6 AP Killing Attack, of course. (9 average body, vs 8) --- Penetrating . . . eh. If there’s an award for ‘the hardest special effect to justify, that somehow shows up in every third character’ penetrating is it: “My sword is really really sharp, so it’s Penetrating!” “Wouldn’t a really sharp sword be a bigger killing attack?” “No! It’s sharp enough to cut through armor, but not as good on people.’ “But isn’t that what AP is for?” “No, that actually has to deal with the armor. Mine’s so sharp it cuts right through armor.” “ . . .and then does a tiny bit of damage?” “Right. Exactly the special effect that I had in mind. Little anime-cheek scratches, right through the plate mail.” The only two special effects I can think of offhand that actually justify Penetrating are a big heavy mace or flail with enough impact to cause damage, or and a flame or cold attack that can slowly cook you or give you frostbite even if they never reach your skin. And really, both only makes sense in a heroic game where you want to distinguish swords from maces from guns from ice spells. “My mace hits hard enough to transmit impact through armor, but Grond’s fist doesn’t!” doesn’t make a lot of sense. Or maybe a taser punch like thing, where the ‘penetrated’ damage is actually the electrical damage, not physical! That would work . . . though you’d need GM permission to mix special effects like that.

Re: Desolid attack Assuming your GM is lenient enough to let you to have ‘Affects Physical World’ on all your attacks for free . . . --- But it doesn’t work on a subclass of bricks . . . so it all balances out, right? Right?