Ura-Maru

Re: Feuermacher Puzzler... Maybe he sucks water and liquid food through a metal pipe. It'd heat up, but not too much as long as he sucked quickly. I don't really like the 'turn it off for extra end' option. If you can do that, always on is just not worth -1/2. 90% of the problems likely to come up are solved instantly. Spendthrift seems pretty inapropriate, though. Assuming he has 10 hours of free time a day, and he spends, say, $100 on each movie, (shipping's a @#$!!) you're not even topping $25000 a year on entertainment. He really can't spend much more than that if he tries. And I'd assume that being a superpowered terrorist would pay at least seven figures. Now, if he constantly had to pay for replacing stuff he burned up, or if he had to pay for his own rent or asbestos sheets, or if he had a big extended family to support, that'd be one thing, but, as discribed, he dosn't. --- Unless he's paying supermodels to put on Mentalla and Scorpia costumes and put on shows for him, of course. I'd do it, but that dosn't mean he'd think of it.

Re: Juke Box Heroes And don't forget Bastard!! The spells and countries were named after heavy metal bands and songs. Most of the minor characters were named after musicans, and the comic relief guardsman was named Bon Jovina. The english version came out just when the big napster thing legal battle was going on, so they changed all the names just a bit. But if you can't figure out what 'Omega Death' or 'Mettal-Rikana' or 'Stryber' were originally, you probably wouldn't have gotten the joke to begin with. --- "Legends never die, @#$hole!!"

Re: Help: Mr. I Can Do Anything You Can But Better Man! I had a 4e martial arts guy who could copy other peoples special attacks. After screwing around with pools and the like, I eventually just used a moderate-sized multipower, and 'saved' a few xp at a time. Add a few levels of Costs End, and you should be able to fit something in a multipower for like three points a slot. If I was out of xp, I could just wait and say I had to 'perfect' it. Gave him a generic set of MA manuvers, some skill levels to swap around, and you're basically good to go. Or you can use a generic 'strength based' martial art, like Taltos has. There's really no way to do it for 'real skills' without allowing something so abusive it crashes the system. I mean he's basically saying 'I want to have every possible skill, with a 'Must see skill used (-1/4)' if that limitation, for a small number of points.' And -1/4 is being pretty generous for a limation that goes away forever. The xp bank and some cramming, is probably the way to go here, too. As for #2, you don't. He's basically asking to have a character who goes up by 3 points every time he sees a skill, and 4 points every time he sees a kick. I mean, if he said 'I want to be able to absorb any attack used against me to become stronger. With no upper limit. And the extra strength never goes away.' What would your response be? I'm guessing it would be something like 'And I'd like to @#$!! Michelle Yeoh on a giant pile of money.' --- "Like . . . THIS?!"

Re: Chickens? But, in any world goofy enough to have six foot talking chickens, the joke won't be “How dare you make a McNugget out of my brethren!†It'll be: “Thog? Where's Sir Clucksalot?†“Ahph, I don’pth ‘no.†(mouth stuffed voice) Kind of like the fish-men in Slayers. Irresistibly delicious once you fireball them. --- “They’re making the chicken-men of Krank-hor look super competent and dignified.â€

Re: Alternate Earth: Superman 2005 Well, it’d start out at a more moderate power level. People generally don’t swallow orders of magnitude level power-jumps. That’s why wire-fu seems so ridiculous to a good percentage of the US population. They missed the cultural ‘build up.’ Speaking of which, you probably have to assume action based manga/anime and higher powered HK action movies/wuxia comics/novels never developed, either, or you’d just get an Americanized version of one of them. Culture’s too globalized now to avoid cross-pollination. You wouldn’t get a sparkly, total CVK boy scout without the Comics Code, and you wouldn’t get a dark iorn age anti-hero without a silver age legacy to rebel against. You’d probably get a morality more or less in line with other action heroes in other genres. Someone who’ll kill if pressed, but would never murder. Who’d break the law when it’s important, but would respect it when possible. Like a movie PI or cowboy. My first instinct is to say ‘You’d never have such a simple origin story today’ but if you look at actual SF movies, it doesn’t seem unreasonable. It’d have more science words added in, but it probably wouldn’t make any actual sense. So the yellow sun’s chromospheres interact with his six extra chromosomes, hyper-activating his mitaclorians and boosting his beta waves to superstring levels! So, yeah, a Captian America-like super solder or a low level brick (like the original Superman) both sound likely. The skintight costume was probably a fluke. If he had a costume at all, it would probably look more like a police or military uniform. It’s just as likely he’d just have a ‘standard outfit’ that was fairly easy to recognize, but still relatively normal clothing, like anime characters from the 70’s and 80’s. Now, if he’d shown up in the 70’s, you’d have a ‘wandering badass’ type who went from place to place, beating up bad guys and helping people. In the 80’s, he would have been a self-obsessed loser who’s main goal was something fairly petty, involving Molly Ringwald. The 90’s, he’d be up against some vast, very vague conspiracy, that was kind of threatening, but wouldn’t have any actual goals. Now, I’m not sure. The dominant theme of 00’s pop culture seems to be remaking old stuff and foreign stuff. So, if it were going to happen at all, it probably wouldn’t happen now. Are we assuming that graphic media never developed? If so, it’s going to be fairly crude for quite a few years. Maybe more than that, if a Kirby or Tezuka doesn’t show up early. You’ll start out with simple, one shot stories, because extended ones will be badly paced and confusingly broken up. Actually, the format wouldn’t be a 28 page monthly comic at all. It’s just not economically feasible. Comic companies wouldn’t do it at all if they weren’t so traditional. You’d either get a graphic novel sized chunk, produced by an exceptionally brave publisher, or more likely ‘page a day’ type web-comic. Yeah, Web-comic is the only way I could see it starting up now. And with no editor to keep the content clean, and a need to keep daily hits high, it’d probably be fairly racy and violent. So what you might end up with is something very close to the old Heavy Metal magazine comics. In web-comic form, with a four or five page story, updated once a week or so. Supes would either be a wandering drifter in a signature bomber jacket, helping people with his amazing 35 STR and 5 points of rPD, or a military or SWAT agent, who’s broadband but minor ‘super-humanness’ was enhanced by the best gadgets and guns the government can provide. In either case there’d be a surprising number of girls tied up in their underwear. --- So, the TV Incredible Hulk or . . . who was that martial artist in the 70's book series, with Chuin?? The Destroyer?

Re: Nomad Memorial Write-up (long) So Why should I care? Cause Nomad was cool, that’s why. Despite the preachieness, both his limited series and his monthly comic were quite good. Kind of like those occasional good one-shot issues of Punisher War Journal, without quite as much killing. He did mostly episodic, day-in-the-life type stories, floating in the vague area between the superheroic world and the normal one. Mostly, he still dealt with human problems, like the LA riots, (Where the %#$@!! were the West Coast Avengers, by the way? Andromeda?) but supers showed up often enough to remind him why he switched to Dark Champions in the first place. I’ve haven’t seen a hero lose so often in his own comic since Master of Kung Fu, and even Chi always managed to win the second round if he lost the first. USAgent, Gambit’s Infinity Doppelganger, even Bushwhacker, all beat the crap out of him. (He did beat Zaran the Weapon Master. Like THAT’s hard) He was also outwitted or outmaneuvered fairly often, without making him look stupid, which is hard to do. In short, a younger, lower class, less baggage-ed Green Arrow, or a Marvels/Alias kind of thing 10 years earlier. Or Marvel’s take on Lone Wolf and Cub. Why they chose to market it pretty much exclusively to Punisher fans, I’m not sure. X-books fans, who like endless soap-opera and human-super relations, and Green Arrow fans, who otherwise didn’t read marvel, probably would have liked it. Even Cap fans, who might have been vaguely interested for historical reasons, wouldn’t have known his book existed. Looking at the adds and covers, you’d assume he was just a Punisher clone. And if you bought it looking for a Punisher clone, and discovered the whole thing was based around not killing people, you’d probably be a little disappointed. Besides that, the Cap mythos needs someone like Jack around. He’s the other failed Cap, the flipside of USAgent. USAgent could never be Cap, because he can’t imagine the US ever making a mistake, now or in the past. Anything it or its government does is right, because they’re the ones doing it. Anyone who can’t see this is a villain or, at best, a fool. Jack’s the other extreme. He could look at the dark, scary places, (Well, the plot-hammer kind of forced him too, but either way) but couldn’t get past them. He could never forgive the country, or himself, for anything, and so was always dragged back down by it. Cap has both the courage to face up to America’s flaws and mistakes, and enough faith in it to not let that taint the good parts. He can still love it and work for a better future despite everything. Cap would never say ‘we’re the bad guy,’ but he’d never say ‘we can’t do better’ or ‘other people do worse, so that makes it ok’ either. So, he can be Cap. Not that his writers ever took advantage of this, but it was there anyway. --- Poor Jack. The third Bucky, the third Nomad. The second Scourge. In his own way, though, he was also the third Lone Wolf, and the first Alias. And that’s gotta be worth something.

Re: Nomad Memorial Write-up (long) But that was ten years ago! What’s up NOW? Ah, spoiler warnings if you still haven’t read the new Captain America series. It’s pretty good, despite offing my favorite Marvel character for no as-of-yet explained reason, and the first six issues just came out in hardback. About 10 years later, real time, he showed up again, this time as Scourge, the Killer of Lame Villains. He bothered the Thunderbolts for a little while, killed a few, then disappeared again. This time, he was being controlled by nanites, which are harder to shoot than Dr. Faustus, but not significantly better at controlling people over the long term. (I didn’t read this, so I don’t know much more than that) Finally, in issue 3 of the new Cap series, the ‘Winter Soldier’ shot him, and stuffed him in the trunk of his car, then blew his body up a few issues later. As of yet, there has been no motivation for WS to have done this whatsoever. Not even for sales, Jack didn’t even make the cover. Presumably, eventually, someone will bother to tell Cap, and he may, perhaps, deign to feel a little angst. Not as much as when the Red Skull was killed, (again) of course, but maybe a little. The latest issue was a ‘flashback’ over Jacks final months. Turns out he was dying from the generic Canadian Super-Soldier formula he’d been injected with all those years ago. (Don’t you love these long, drawn out, clearly planned-in-advance plots that they don’t bother to tell you about until they’re over?) Not just killing him, but driving him insane, so he was beating up regular people, who he imagined were drug dealers, who he imagined were operating near the home of a little girl, who may (or may not) have been a slightly grown-up Bucky. Kind of like Ikiru would have been, if at the end, the park turned out to have been made entirely out of children’s skin. Wouldn’t that have made it a better movie? It was sort of implied that it was just a random little girl who he’d fixated on. Insane, remember? The hair color was wrong, but a lot of little details about his own series was a bit off, so it’s hard to tell if that was intended or not. For instance, he never actually rode a motorcycle, except in a flashback. So maybe it was actually Lorenzo Lamas who died. Apparently the whole ‘blowing up the capital building’ bit has been retconned out, too, or Fury wouldn’t have to explain to Shield agents who he was. In any case, He should have known he’d gone over the edge when he put on his old blue and yellow costume again. Oh, and it’s been implied that he might have been a clone of the original Bucky all this time. Either they have the same fingerprints, or WS is particularly clumsy at framing people. A much cooler option, though it would be harder to justify, would be to have JACK be the original Bucky, and have the other one be the clone. Hell, since we’re retconning the entire thing anyway, why not? More angsty for Cap that way. Or maybe Jack and WS (and, for all we know, the original Bucky) were all disposable cloned ‘problem solvers’ that The Government used to take care of little problems. Maybe every time Jack was thrown ‘in suspended animation’ he actually died, and was replaced with a new Jack every time they needed one. In either case, his head and left arm were still intact last we saw, so perhaps he’ll come back one day as the third Deathlok. Sounds like something he’d do. ---- So, basically, Fanboy => Red Baiter => Nazi Terrorist => Sidekick => Vigilante => Liberal Vigilante => Vigilante Again => Anti-Nazi-Vigilante Terrorist => Scourge?! => Insane Drunk Vigilante => Bag of Kitty Litter.

Re: Nomad Memorial Write-up (long) So, who’s this Nomad guy? Basically, a third string marvel character in the Captain America ‘sub universe.’ He has an absurdly complicated backstory, which involves a lot of suspended animation. Short version: Jack Monroe was a kid in the 50’s, a total Captain America fanboy, dispite having been raised by Nazi sympathizers. One of his teachers, oddly enough, was also the 4th Cap. Being a responsible adult, he gave the kid some black-market Super Soldier Formula he’d bought online from Canada, and taught him the ways of beating up on blacklisted actors. And, when they couldn’t find any actors, they just beat up blacks. Now, just like in real life, the government wouldn’t put up with that kind of thing for more than, say, six or seven years. Eventually, they were arrested and thrown into suspended animation. Periodically, they were taken out of suspended animation to beat up on more people suspected of being commies and/or black. Eventually, the real Cap (and the Falcon, who was black, but not a commie) defeated Cap 4, Jack, and a bunch of neo-nazis they were hanging around with. (Cap 4 died, but no great loss there) Shield took custody of Jack, got him some therapy, and presumably had him beat up a few people for them. (This was pretty much all retconned in, except for the Cap/Cap4 fight. But I’m pretty sure Jack was retconned into that) Eventually, he got some real sidekick work with the real Cap. His Bucky costume looked ridiculous on a grown man, and kind of freaked Steve out, so Cap let him use the ‘Nomad: Man Without a Country’ identity he’d briefly used a few years earlier. Though the costume was still pretty bad. (He couldn’t give him his ‘The Captain’ costume, because USAgent was wearing it) Over the course of maybe 10 issues, Steve caught Jack up on the social and political changes of the 60s and 70s, and yelled at him a lot. Eventually they broke up, and Jack went to his own ‘Dark Champions’ mini-series. He ripped off his sleeves, lost the swashbuckler boots, got some guns, and started killing people. Mostly pimps and drug dealers. He also adopted/kidnapped a baby from a crack-addicted prostitute, who wasn’t taking proper care of her. He proved himself a far better parent by dragging her through one firefight after another. He also got her a mask and started calling her ‘Bucky,’ just in case she hadn’t been sufficiently traumatized by everything else. There was, eventually, an actual plot and a really cool super-cyber gun thing, and finally he came to the conclusion that just because he could kill people, didn’t mean he should. Cap was still disappointed in him, though. But all this mayhem had it’s benefits. Marvel was starting a ‘Big Guns!’ line of vigilante types, and Jack’s rampage through Alaska qualified him. So, he got his own monthly series. Now, THIS was really cool. Despite periodic bouts of preachiness, (Ok, very frequent bouts of preachiness) and very in the comic was actually quite good. He even developed some supporting characters of his very own, including Giscard Epurer, (AKA Hey-poo-poo), who was sort of a kung-fu using Vito Corlione-type favor-broker, and a collection of hookers, small time scam artists, and . . . more hookers who called themselves the Undergrounders. He managed not to kill anyone for almost eight whole issues. All which slowly built up to a plot involving the evil Yagyu clan, who pursuied him because he’d taken the post of . . . wait. Sorry. Eventually, it all came to a head. His government Hunters stopped screwing around, Bucky’s no-longer-crack-addicted mom showed up and demanded her back, and he had Doctor Faustus, who had originally programmed him to fight commies for the government, remove his ‘mental blocks.’ This let him know about his early nazi-sympathizer upbringing (What could be more 90’s than repressed childhood memories, I ask you?) In exchange for this favor, Jack murdered him. (Anyone know if he ever came back?) A camp of Turner-Dairies-reading-neo-nazis had found the plans for the super gun, and so of course he had to go in there and get it. Bucky’s mom, who’d become sort of a ninja, had already snuck in, but she was killed, which provided sufficient angst to justify killing everyone in the camp. (Did I mention the super-gun was really cool?) The head neo-nazi wasn’t there, though. He was actually a senator, who’d become a neo-nazi because Jack used to beat him up in grade school. (Really!) They ended up blowing each other up on live TV and taking most of the Capital Building with them. Jack had left Bucky with his arch annoyance, Epurer, presumably because he’d been watching too many samurai movies. But Jack Wasn’t Really Dead! The CIA agent who’d killed Gambit’s doppeganger after Jack screwed it up saved him and put him in suspended animation. Again. All in all, a pretty eventful 25 issues. Long version: See Raul Grau’s Nomad is an Island at http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?t=34610 Much funnier than my version. --- Though not, really, that much longer. Mine was SUPPOSED to be shorter. Dang.

Jack Monroe. A failed super soldier. A fallen super hero. A reluctant “father.” Wandering the highways and byways of this vast land, Monroe tries to discover himself, by discovering America. Stan Lee presents (An Ura-Maru writeup of) NOMAD Character Name: Nomad Alternate Identities: Jack Monroe, Bucky CHARACTERISTICS Characteristics Notes Val Char Base Cost Pts. Roll 25 STR 10 1 15 14- HTH damage: 5d6 Lift:800 kg End: 3 23 DEX 10 3 39 14- Total OCV:8 Total DCV: 8 23 CON 10 2 26 14- 23 BODY 10 2 26 14- 13 INT 10 1 3 12- Perception Roll 12 10 EGO 10 2 0 11- Base ECV: 3 20 PRE 10 1 10 13- Base Presence Attack: 4d6 16 COM 10 1/2 3 12- 15 PD 5 1 10 10 ED 5 1 5 5 SPD 3.3 10 17 Phases: 3 5 8 10 12 10 REC 10 2 0 46 END 46 1/2 0 48 STUN 48 0 0 Characteristics Cost: 154 SKILLS, PERKS, AND TALENTS Cost Name Roll 16 +2 with All Combat 6 +2 w' Shadowing, Sec.Systems, & W'Smith 3 Acrobatics 14- 3 Breakfall 14- 3 Climbing 14- 3 Combat Driving 14- 3 Lockpicking 14- 3 Slight Of Hand 14- 3 Stealth 14- 3 Teamwork 14- 3 Computer Programming 12- 3 Deduction 12- 3 Security Systems 14- 3 Shadowing 14- 3 Navigation 12- 3 W'Smith: Super Guns 14- 3 Streetwise 12- 7 PS: Hitchiker 14- 3 KS: 50's Cap fanboy 12- 3 KS: Superhuman World 12- 3 Travler 12- 2 AK: US & Canada 12- 2 CK: Washington 12- 2 CK: Los Angeles 12- 2 CK: New York 12- 2 AK: Interstates 12- 5 TF: Lrg & Sml ground vehicles, Motorcycles 4 WF: Small Arms, Shoulder Arms, Super Guns 6 Contact: Capt. Americaextremely useful 8- skills/ablities, Access, Signifigant Contacts of His Own 12 Contact: Undergrounders very useful 8- skills, signifigant Contacts, Organization 120 Total Skill, Perks, & Talents Cost POWERS AND EQUIPMENT Cost Name Power/ Equipment End Martial Arts Combat Training 4 Block 10 OCV, 10 DCV, Block, Abort 4 Dodge -- OCV, 13 DCV, Dodge all attacks, Abort 4 Punch 10 OCV, 10 DCV, 8d6 5 Kick 6 OCV, 9 DCV, 10d6 2 3 Throw 8 OCV, 9 DCV, 5d6+v5, Target Falls 2 4 Disarm 7 OCV, 9 DCV, 40 STR to Disarm 2 4 Escape 8 OCV, 8 DCV, 45 STR to Escape 2 4 Extra DC 8 Athletic +4" Running 3 2 Athletic +2" Leap 3 6 Super Soldier 1/2 End on STR 5 Super Soldier Half End on Running 16 Super Soldier 50% Physical Damage Reduction, Non-Persistant (-1/4) 10 Experienced Defensive Manuver IV 30 Stun Disks 10" Streching, Does Not Cross Intervening Space (+1/2), 3 No Velocity Damage (-1/4), OIF: Stun Disks (-1/2), 4 Recoverable Charges (-1/2),Range Penalties Apply (-1/4) 4 Stun Disk Blades 1 pip Killing HKA (1/2 D6 w' STR) Armor Piercing (+1/2) 35 (88) Shotgun w'Blanks 7d6 EB, AVLD: Flash Defense (+1 1/2), 8 Charges (-1/2), No Range (-1/2), OAF:Shotgun (-1), Defended by both visual and Hearing Flash Defense (-1/2) 7 Armored Coat 4/4 Armor, IIF (-1/4) Activation 14- (-1/2) 6 Bulletproof Vest 4/4 Armor, IIF (-1/4) Activation 12- (-3/4) 171 Total Power/Equipment Cost DISADVANTAGES Cost Disadvantage 25 DNPC: 'Bucky', Incompetent, 14- 15 DNPC:Angst Story of the Month, Normal, 11- 10 Wealth: Destitute 5 DF: Super Solder (Consealable, Noticed, Unusal Senses to detect) 5 DF: Uses dated slang and expressions (easily cons, noticed) 5 Reputation: Unstable Failed Superhero 8- (by supers), Super Wanna-Be 8- (by normals) 5 Phys Lim: Artifically Induced Mental Blocks He's Not Aware Of (Occasionaly, Slightly) 10 Psych Lim: Code vs Killing (Common, Moderate) 10 Psych Lim: Lost Soul, needs a cause to sacrifice himself for or someone to take care of, because he thinks his life is worthless (Uncom., Strong) 15 Guilt Complex, Self-loathing, and Insecurity (Common, Strong) 10 Rivalry: Captain America, Professional, Signifigantly More Powerful, One Sided 5 Vulnerablity: Non-fear based presence attacks Uncommon, 1 1/2 20 Hunted:Vauge Government Agency (8-, MoPow, NCI, Harsh) 10 Born to lose: 2d6 Unluck 150 Total Disadvantages Cost Characteristics Cost: 154 Skills & Talents Cost: 120 Powers & Equipment Cost:171 Total Cost 445 This is the Nomad from the monthly series. The Stun Disks (Did he have two or four? I don’t remember) are bought as stretching because he frequently disarmed or tripped people with them, as well as smacking them. Seemed easier than using TK or ranged martial arts. Plus, it saves buying swinging just to use the grappling hook attachment. The shotgun-blanks-in-the-face thing might be too big, but it did stun USAgent, and he’s a pretty beefy guy. One recovering charge might be better, though. It only worked as a surprise move, he never used it more than once in a combat that I remember. Usually he just threatened people with them. He actually seemed to have several guns, but that seemed basically a special effect, like the jacket changes. He had a collapsible staff, too, but I don’t think he ever used it for anything but a vaulting pole. I’d put most of Cap’s physical stats at 25, so 23 seems about right. Str should probably be 23 as well, but I hate dealing with half dice. The fairly low speed and dex means he’ll be stuck playing ‘madly block and dodge!’ against almost any ‘real’ super, which is basically how he was portrayed. Yes, the Ego really should be that low. Combined with the vulnerability, he can be pressured into almost everything, as long as he’s not bullied directly. Nomad’s art was . . . amusingly inconsistent. He could look pretty badass, or he could be a bishonen with full, pouty lips (he was a sidekick, after all . . .) or he could be a barely humanoid scribble. Adjust Pre and Com appropriately. Bucky doesn’t get ‘unaware of secret identity’ because she was relatively well behaved when things got serious. She didn’t cry on stakeouts or while sneaking around. I’m a bit disappointed Psych Lims aren’t maxed out, but then both the one-sided rivalry and the vulnerability are sorta-psychlims, and that gives an even 50. The CVK isn’t strong enough to be worth anything in pure 4 color games. But then a CVK shouldn’t be worth 20 points in those kind of games either. Continued! --- Still, 445 points? That’s pretty high for a guy who couldn’t even take USAgent. I always buy too many skills . . .

A one shot game, that is. Le’me explain. I’m heading back down to Philly (one of the places I went to college), then to Baltimore for a few days at the end of the month. Now, as I’ll finally be seeing my old ‘Philly gang’ gamer buddies again, and I promised to run them through a Hero game, so they can finally see what I was complaining about during all those D&D and Gurps games. Now, I was originally going to spend a few days hanging around in Philly before we all head down to Otakon in Baltimore. Unfortunately, emergency family crap has once again obstructed gaming, and I’ll only be there for maybe a day. So the three or four session Fallout-esque post-apoc game I was going to run isn’t going to work. A pity as it was really cool. Anyway, as I can only make it down there maybe once a year, I really don’t want to leave something halfway done. So, I need a good one shot. To make things more complicated, I’m not sure how many people are going to be there, and I may get to run a follow up on Sunday evening, after the con is done. But the same people may not be there for that as were for the first, so it can’t be too closely related. I was hoping to stick with post-apoc, as everyone seemed to like that idea, but with time restraints, I’m not going to have time to give it enough atmosphere to matter. Even if I can get everyone detailed backstory write-ups, there’s just no time to give characters ‘plot time.’ I might be able to squeeze in a ‘Sanjuro’ type of plotline. But as they’re all out of practice gaming, and there are a few new people who don’t normally game, so I’m worried they’ll just wander around. I haven’t run anything in almost five years, and I’m not sure I could force something that open ended to a reasonable settlement in one night. (I was always great at improvising, but never very good at getting the plot moving, even at my best) The other option is a BOS style military mission, but I’m not sure how well that would go over. It would basically be, ‘kill these people who you don’t care about, for the benefit of some other people you don’t care about." And it seems kind of a waste of the setting. Now, the other obvious option is supers. This has many good points, among them the fact its Hero’s best ‘face.’ Also, this involves the least work on my end, which is always good. One of the new people joining in is a huge comic fan, so that might help balance out the lukewarm response that the whole ‘superhero’ idea originally got. Now, I’ve got a home universe that I’m sort of half working on, and I was thinking a ‘historical’ battle with pregens, so, if I ever get a chance to really run something down there, they’d be familiar with the worlds big guns already. (pregens are going to be a must, like I said, I probably won’t know who’s actually going to be there until I show up and put the mat down) So, anyone have and good advice for running one-shots? --- So I get to drive from western MA to Long Island, then back to western MA, then to Boston, then back, then to Philly, then to Baltimore, then back to Philly, then back to western MA, all in five days. Man, this is going to suck.

Re: STUN and stunning attack Three is probably too much for a standard effect. Rolling gives you an average of 2.5, or 3.5 with increased stun multiplier. At 3, Killing and Normal attacks do the exact same stun on average, so what's the use of Normal? 2 and 3 are probably better if you want a game to be fairly deadly. Ah, you are letting players use their normal PD against killing stun, as long as it had to pass through some rPD, right? Though it sounds like the player is actually complaining that Hero and Interlock work differently. Have little kids throw rocks at him, and ask him if he'd prefer to have to pass 20 con checks to avoid getting knocked out, or just take 10 stun. Actually, Interlocks damage system was very good. Not as flexable as Hero's, but as long as only guns were involved, very good. The stun system really shines in longer combats where people get to take recoveries. Don't forget recoveries? In CP gunfights, after you dive for cover, you can take recoveries anytime you want. Just keep your head down while you do it. --- "I agree. By which I mean, there are more of you than me, and you're threatening me into following your moral code."

Re: Questions (Question board giving me errors) He's the current Head Developer, or whatever RPG companies call it. (Cat Herder? Tyranical Overlord?) There's a mini-history of the game in the back of the big core book if you're interested in that type of thing. And don't hesitate at all about asking 'newbie' questions here. Everyone's always happy to see new Hero players and GMs appear. You'll get more frendly advice than you'll know what to do with. Just don't bring up tanks. Trust me on this one. --- "I'll make it move WITH MY MIND!!"

Re: Questions (Question board giving me errors) That 'one person', by the way, is Steve Long. His name's also on the bottom of most of the game suplements, for some reason. You think WotC is going to give you that kind of service? Which is not to say that the rest of us feel any hesitation about arguing with him . . . Anyway, for #5, you get back your REC in Stun and End. So if your Rec is 12, you get back 12 Stun and 12 End every time you take a recovery. --- "Run! Run, my pretty little chunks of XP!"

Re: Questions (Question board giving me errors) The Questions board? Why get a single answer when you can get half a dozen slightly conflicting answers, AND start arguments on how the system works, at the same time! 2) Yes. (mostly) Barring appropriate disadvantages, or massive violations of common sense, all forms of defense stack. Base PD, the PD from Armor, and the PD from Force Field all add together for a total PD number. The same with ED. You'll want to note how much of each is resistant, as well. 3) Yes. (Assuming the attack was physical) 4) Assuming you ment 'all 4's' and thus, 6 Body, that's correct. You'd subtract 5, leaving one body left the target would take. 5) Every time you 'take a recovery,' you get your Rec score back to your Stun and End. You get one free after every segment 12, and can take another in any phase you can act, as long as you don't do ANYTHING else that phase. This includs defensive actions Block or Dodge. (You don't have to shut off any powers you might have on, like force field, but you can't use them actively) --- "I think I just had an evilgasm."

Re: Damage Reduction hit by Armor Piercing They have no effect on each other at all. AP affects how attacks deal with defenses. DR effects what happens to the part of the attack that got though defenses. A 15 Stun AP will have, say, the 10 PD and the 8 PD FF (to a total of 9 damage taken off) and then the remaining six stun will be reduced to 3 by the 50% damage reduction. --- "The less I wear . . . the harder I am to see."

Re: Question about shotguns and different ammo loads I never knew there were so many ways to add one DC to ammo and make it AP. The shotguns in the equipment table on 485 give base stats for shots (red shells) and slugs (purple shells). DC adds flechettes (green shells). You're going to have to make yellow EMP shells on your own, I'm afraid. But there are about 20 other kinds, so you're going to be well into the pastel shades if you use them all. Heh. Shotguns were so overpowered in F:Tactics. They were better than any of the heavy weapons. --- "I _could_ teach you to fight. _If_ you had any potential."

Re: First Time Mastering HERO (and new player) This doesn’t sound good, I’m afraid. -#2 and -#5 sound particularly bad. A pure martial artist is pretty close to being a genre-breaker right there, let alone a pro-wrestler. Both sound unfortunately like people who don’t like the genre going out of their way to kill it. This is, unfortunately, a consistent problem with setting up champions-type games. It’s hard enough to get the silver-agers and the iorn-agers to play in the same game world, without some @&*% having to show how funny they are and stupid the genre is by playing a Superfriends reject. Unfortunately, there’s no real cure, beyond exposing people to the cooler aspects of the genre and hoping they start to like it. Ultimately, everyone at the should be able to tolerate the genre being played in, even if that means playing AD&D style fantasy over and over. The big problem with #3 can be avoided by making characters pay for cyberware with points. Not the whole cost, but at least part. If they go over what they can pay for, (and nothing’s going to stop them) then they either can’t use it effectively, or start picking up extra disadvantages. Starting with ‘Obsession With Abstracts’ and ending with ‘Wants To Kill All Humans.’ How much money are you starting them with, anyway? You didn’t let anyone buy the Wealth perk, did you? #4 isn’t too bad a problem, as long as you make clear they’re buying your version of the toys, not the 2020 version. Make sure they know what everything they actually bought will actually do in the game, especially where it’s different from what the old version did. The problem is that this might be interpreted as ‘Dr. D’s fancy new system can’t even make this stuff right!’ That’s a problem with all game conversions, though. Generally I’d advise trying to copy over the look-and-feel, without worrying too much about keeping everything working exactly the same. #5, Well, there’s a couple of things that can be done here. Make up a combat cheatsheet for everyone, with the basic combat process and all their standard attacks and maneuvers written up, so when you ask ‘What DCV do you hit?’ they don’t think you’re talking in tongues. Don’t just put the numbers, though; include how Block works and such. A second cheatsheet, with basic game concepts, (like what the stats mean) wouldn’t be bad, either. Aside from character creation, Hero really isn’t that complicated, so you should be able to squeeze everything important for each character onto an extra page or two. Ultimately, though, if they don’t like the system, then they don’t like it. You can, and should, put the best face on it you can, but they might not like it, no matter what you do. --- “So Vermont was the center of the dystopia?!†“Yes. Ben & Jerry’s was the key to the apocalypse.â€

Re: Flashing Paralyzing attack 22.5 (60) Velvet Rope: 3 DEF Entangle, Based on COM CV (+1), Works Against COM, not STR (+1/4), Takes No Damage From Physical Attacks (+1/4), Backlash (+1/2), Only To Form Barriers (-1), Only at entrances to nightclubs (-1), No Range(-1/2), One Body (-1/2) Susceptable to Wealth, maybe? --- "this makes me want to go clubbing . . . the director of this film!!"

Re: [Rules-fu] Resistant Power Defense D’oh! My fault. I somehow failed to process the last page. An F for reading comprehension for tonight, I guess. Sorry, Black Lotus. --- Too much Mike’s Hard Berry, and not enough sleep, looks like.

Re: Cybersnake Well, in Hardwired, Sarah couldn’t breathe while the cybersnake was active, so you might want it to cost the user some end every phase it’s active. A Side Effect (no recoveries) would be more accurate, but would take a bit more math. I don’t think you need the ‘Extra Limb.’ I don’t think it can do anything except kill people. I’d give it the 1/4 Indirect advantage instead. That way you can use it with no problems when grabbing someone or when grabbed. Still takes an extra phase after grabbing, but that’s to the good, I think. . (I don’t think you can take ‘non-persistent’ on extra limbs, anyway. What’s the disadvantage?) The csnake was most useful as a surprise attack. A fairly dangerous one when fighting. And a VERY dangerous one if you can get the target to go to bed with you. It didn’t seem independent enough to require a duplicate or summon, though. Maybe a +1 or 2 skill level bonus to reflect it weaving around. So, 8 (25) Cybersnake Rake 1d6+1 HKA, Indirect:No Striker (+1/4), STR doesn’t add (-1/2), Side Effect: Can’t talk, No recoveries on phases it’s used or the phase after (Always, Minor, -1/2) AND 7 (20) Say Hello To My Little Friend!: +4 OCV w’ Cybersnake, One Recoverable, restricted Charge (-1 1/2) Only vs. targets that don’t know about csnake (-1/2) So, 15 points. Less, once you add your customized cyberware limits. You’ve got a reasonable chance of taking out an eye as long as they don’t know it’s coming. Even if they do, it’s a nice backup attack, especially after that big guy grabs you. The Kiss of Death’s a bit harder. I don’t like either of the obvious ways. Continuous (+1) on Csnake Rake, ‘only as long as grab is maintained’ (-1/2) and use the fact that the target’s usually willing to let you hit the unarmored ‘inside of the mouth’ location. (same stats as the ‘eye’ from Dark Champions?) Does a continuous attack stick on the same hit location every phase? I have no idea if there’s an official ruling on that, but this type of shenanigans seems like an excellent reason to say it doesn’t. NND, Does Body, and Continuous on the CS rake isn’t much better, because the ‘defenses’ mostly come down to not being hit in the first place. It’s hugely more expensive, though, so that kind of makes up for it. The best way is probably: 15 (45) Roto-Rooter of Death: 3d6 HKA, Delayed effect: Full Turn, No Stacking (-1/2), STR Doesn’t Add (-1/2), Side Effect: Can’t talk, No recoveries on phases it’s used or the phase after (Always, Minor, -1/2) Must Maintain Grab (-1/2) THEN use the fact that the target is usually willing to let you hit an unarmored, x2 Body hit location, and start digging, 2d6 K on phases 3, 6, 9, and finally 12. 21 average body should be enough to rip out anyone’s heart, as long as you don’t have to gouge through the armor first, and don’t pass out from End starvation. You can also grab someone and have it slowly rip through their armor in a normal fight, which would be less effective, but still pretty good. So, all together now: 26 (45) Cybersnake: Multipower, Restrainable (-1/4), Side Effect: Can’t talk, No recoveries on phases it’s used or the phase after (Always, Minor, -1/2) 2u (25) Rake 1d6+1 HKA, STR doesn’t add (-1/2) 1u (20) Say Hello To My Little Friend!: +4 OCV w’ Cybersnake, One Recoverable, restricted Charge (-1 1/2) Only vs. targets that don’t know about csnake (-1/2) 2 (45)Roto-Rooter of Death: 3d6 HKA, Delayed effect: Full Turn, No Stacking (-1/2), STR Doesn’t Add (-1/2), Must Maintain Grab (-1/2) Of course, you actually lose one point buying it as a multipower, but you could probably stack another advantage or two on the pool total. Or you could buy it separately, which would let you use the bonus OCV with the RotoRooter attack. Which would be moderately hideous. --- “Watch out for snakes!â€

Re: [Rules-fu] Resistant Power Defense Seems I missed all the fun. Typical. I don’t think this analogy is valid. An AP AVLD will do significantly less damage than the non AP version, because you have to pay for the advantage. The Killing and Normal versions do almost exactly the same. Hardened power defense has actually purchased by some existing characters. Hardened is also useful against AP Drains and the like. Resistant Power Defense is useful for nothing at all except stopping AVLD KAs. And finally, Hardening the Power Defense costs half as much as making it resistant. Black Lotus, I’m not disagreeing with your logic, I’m disagreeing with your axioms. Short Version Black Lotus: a) Resistant Special Defenses Exist Killing Attacks are only stopped by Resistant Defenses Therefore, c) Resistant Special Defenses are there to stop Killing AVLDs As I already said, twice, yes, it does appear the rules work that way. And Steve is a valid authority to appeal to, as long as we’re arguing rules. So yes, you ‘win’ as long as you limit the argument to pure rules. Ura: a) AVLDs must be stopped by a special defense, such as Power Defense, Flash Defense, or Mental Defense, or a reasonably common ‘special effect’ defense. A Special Defense with a specific advantage is not an acceptable defense against an AVLD c) Making Special Defenses ‘resistant’ is equivalent to buying a +1/2 advantage on it. Therefore, d) Resistant Special Defense is not an acceptable Defense against an AVLD Which leads to e) Killing Attack KAs should be either stopped by a regular Special Defense, or not be allowed at all. And from there to f) Resistant Special Defenses should not exist e and f are inductive, not deductive, of course. I think they’re valid for the reasons I’ve already explained. When dealing with non-AVLD attacks, Normal and Killing attacks are roughly balanced, because almost everyone has at least a little rDefense, and because the dice amounts are high enough that the small amount of extra stun you get on average makes a difference. Since, because AVLD attacks are so small, the amount of stun difference between the two is trivial, but the KA blowing through regular PD is NOT trivial. (and, as the obvious use of this power is to chip away the body of heavily defended targets, the tiny amount of extra body the KA version does makes it better for that purpose. And I don’t think you can just say, ‘Well, the problem is only with ‘Does Body’ AVLDs.’ Because the Killing AVLDs do on average only a pip or two of stun less for the same cost, but have a vastly rarer defense. However, it seems we both agree that the build is unacceptable. You deal with it by not allowing it, me by altering it until it’s acceptable. Could we, perhaps, agree that the end result is roughly the same, and that we’re arguing over nothing, in the Piers Anthian tradition? --- Your opinion on the matter has been noted. Thank you for your input.

Re: [Rules-fu] Resistant Power Defense I’m afraid I disagree. When dealing with odd rules interactions, particularly when looking at powers that bypass standard defenses, it’s vital to keep in mind how other characters in the campaign are built. Now, if a campaign had very common attacks vs. rPowerDefense, sure it might be reasonable. A cyber campaign, designed a particular way, might need an extra ‘humanity’ stat. The standard game does not include the latter, because it has no meaning in ~98% of campaigns. Not in my game, it ain’t. And I need to know some other stuff, too. Like, ‘Why did they cancel Manimal?’ Incorrect, I’m afraid. You can only apply non-resistant defenses against stun done with a killing attack if it has to pass through some resistant defense first. I’m not denying that the faq says that. Nor did I when buzz pointed it out. I’m explaining why I think it’s silly. You’re free to disagree, of course. The Normal Damage version does, on average, 1.75 extra stun, but the Killing version does an extra .5 body. Seems pretty fair to me. Except the killing version works on every character ever published/posted, and the Normal doesn’t. So who’s getting screwed? Or put another way: Is it acceptable to claim ‘special defense with a specific advantage’ as the defense against an AVLD? --- This is why psionics in D&D are so asinine . . .

Re: [Rules-fu] Resistant Power Defense You don't even need 'does body'. Killing Attacks apply full Stun if you don't have resistant defenses . . . A 1d6+1 AVLD KA with an extra stun multiple costs 55 points and does 15.75 stun per round. Not bad. If you can talk your GM into allowing 68 active points, that's 19.25 stun. Wanna see me drop Destroyer in two turns? --- And that's IF his Damage Reduction applies to something that's vs. Power Defense . . .

Re: [Rules-fu] Resistant Power Defense I don't see where he says he bought it . . .

Re: [Rules-fu] Resistant Power Defense -shrug- I suppose, if you applied everything literally. If you ignore the fact that no one HAS resistant Power Defense. That's my point. AVLDs require you to take a defense for them, as you say. (and so did I, though not very well, it seems) I would consider 'a defense that no one in the history of the game has ever purchased' to be functionally equivalent to 'no defense.' It's not like AVLD Killing Attacks are getting screwed doing it my way. 3d6N AVLD Does Body costs 52.5 points, and does 3 body and 10.5 Stun on average. 1d6K AVLD Does Body costs 52.5 points, and does 3.5 body and 8.75 Stun on average. Roughly equivalent, no? --- So if I take an AVLD drain, bought with its defense as Flash Defense, does that mean I have to buy Flash Power Defense to protect against it?