llao

Re: Character Critique II: Catwoman Selina is a master thief first and above all else so should have a greater ability in security systems, lock picking and the like than is currently listed. Maybe the Dark champions "security ghost" skill or something is in order for her? In her most recent comic she gets some true dark vision goggles in order to take on Killer Crock along with a gal named Onyx (IIRC). Assuming this isn't just one of those things the writers do she should normally have night vision that requires some light to use - like a starlight scope - as opposed to "dark" vision allowing her to see in complete darkness. Nit picking! Good job overall I think.

Re: Ghost Rider The Johny Blaze GR was the one that tossed around hellfire IIRC. The Dan Ketch (thanks for reminding me) one did the penance stare and used a chain which he could control mentally to some extent to do shuriken like area attacks or entangles and such. The change - at least from the Blaze/Ketch point of view would be a NCC disadvantage bought off at least a bit so that on occasion it could be "coaxed" if needed. The "detect innocent blood spilled" and such costs character points and I don't really see it as an advantage in some ways. The GR side "smells it" then triggers the transformation. From the Blaze/Ketch point of view this isn't exactly good! When in doubt toss it in the GM's lap and let him decide, I guess! I think if I do something with my character like the penance stare it will have a disadvantage - only works vs living minds with a concience. Amoral people will have to be taken apart the old fashioned way

I did a search and found no attempted 5ER versions of this Marvel character. Can anyone either direct me to a version online already done OR attempt to do a GR write up and share it please? Either the Johny blaze version (hellfire spouting) or Dan (omg, forgot his last name!) penence staring chain weilding version works. I'm curious how the the multiform and change may be done as the characters can sometimes change at will, other times not. Alsio the penence stare is interesting - works only on the guilty maybe? Would it work on the Joker or someone totally amoral?

Re: Who is your campaigns "Bad Guy they love to hate" "Nobody" is mine. He constantly comes up with things and such that nobody can do or learn. Between super mind reading, reality warping, magic/gadget pool powers he dove the team crackers for a while. Once they realized that each time they hit him they had to find a new way to attack they got it a bit better but he was a fun bad guy to GM. "Nobody knows where our secret base is" heh heh heh...yep, he certainly does.

Re: Design a ME Team Don't forget that though we hear mostly about Islam in the region there are also Jews and Christians as well as various what I suppose would be called pagan beliefs. Add to that ancient religeons such as the worship of the sun, etc. Granted it doesn't make the news, but in many places people of various religeons DO get along, even in the middle east, North Africa. Oh, and don't forget Isis....zephyr winds that blow on high, lift me now so I can fly! I am SO dating myself...luckily most of you probably wont' have a clue...

Re: Blackout - help with powers pls Funny how characters start to develop themselves... Originally the character would only cause electric lights to go out. Later the thougth is that lighters, glow sticks, candles, etc would work fine, just not really cast any light - when close to the character. You'd see the light, but it would just sort of dissipate into the gloom.

Alrightythen! First off I want the character to have a completely uncontrolled effect - lights near him spontaneously flicker off. The area in which this happens - maybe 40 meters (20 hexes) all around him. IN other words he's walking down the street and street lights are going out, front door lights go out, maybe even homes loose lighting as he passes. I plan to adjust this one up or down once I get an idea of how it's built and think more what range I want. Second - I want the character to be able to black out a large area - say a whole good sized building (small 10 story office building). This would be from the outside - more as an attack power. I don't want it to do anything to the electricity, just the lights ( they are on - they should be working, they are not giving out any light!). Inside the building people may use flashlights and what not - he'd have to "attack" them one at a time or get close to them and they'd go out due to the first effect. My thinking is maybe some sort of electrical cyberkenesis - only to shut down lights. There are so many ways to build things though - good to get ideas from others! Llao

Re: Hypnosis in Dark Champions I'd say why not allow hypnosis? First off the GM can do some research and make sure the effects are "real" - keeping the limitations such that it doesn't go over the top. I would not call a retrogression hypnosis a clairsentience as the person being hypnotised is still only able to give his/her view of what happened and what he/she saw. Clairsentience (to me) implies that the person using the power gets to look for themselves. Hypnosis may help tell if a crook was wearing a red hat or not - but it still wont' let you know what the crook did that was not observed. As for the transform - hypnosis does't always work or stick. If it did there would be a lot fewer smokers and overweight people around! It does HELP though. I wonder if it couldn't be a sort of aid power to memory or willpower of the subject? Now as for what the military or some other organization could do wtih hypnosis - I don't know (the Manchurian candidate comes to mind). Again it's up to the GM in my view to allow or not - and allow to what extent. Were I GMing DC I think I'd give it a go.

Re: Why Kill At All? I always try not to use lethal force if at all possible. The key, if a madman is killing people, is what is the fastest way I can stop him. Police use lethal force mainly due to effectiveness. Their non-lethal means are still not nearly as effective. We supers however have many other means with which to remove the immediate threat of a villain - usually. Here I am speaking of an immediate threat to innocent lives - a super or non super threat. Use whatever force you have that is the fastest at removing that threat. If that is an attack that may well kill the creep then so be it. If you have options however...use them IF it does not endanger lives! Now if it's a villain that keeps escaping killing, getting caught escaping and killing again then more moral thinking has to be done. Put the creep down like a rabid dog? I must admit in cases where I have met beings like this I am more inclined to use lethal force. I will not murder them in cold blood or hunt them down with intent to kill, but if I should accidently kill them in battle? The worst ones are the smart ones that surrender at once. Oh the temptation to burn them to a cinder... Llao

Re: Partial conscious control? I will do that. Clear as mud sometimes though and it's not that it's simply confusing! This one along with some of the power frameworks needs a bunch of examples. When a power stumps me I like to go to a character built "officially" by HERO and then reverse engineer the points to see how it's done. For many if not most powers there are plenty of opportunities to do that. For Multiform there is Managerie in the crook book but that's just about it! Thanks for your help (and lord knows, I need help!

Re: Partial conscious control? thanks for the reply Lord Liaden! I think the partial conscious control idea works. The change won't be immediate so "johny" will have time to run for the bathroom or whatever, knowing it's coming. I may drop in a willpower roll for Johny to keep him in vs Ghosties willpower roll to come out - something like that. of course Ghosties roll will get a bonus each phase, turn, segment, whatever so next roll he's more likelyt to make it, and so on. I could use concentration too. Sooner or later someone will break "johnys" concentration... dunno. We'll see. I need to get an answer on if I've done the multiform right too. I have "Johny" with 50 pts spent multiform for a 400 point "ghost rider". I think this is right... but. It's surprising how few multiform heroes or villians there are in champions to use for sanity checks to see if I'm doing the costs right! I figured Grond (built in the Hulk) would work - but no - he stays Grond all the time. Fun game, but dern frustrating to take things from imagination to paper sometimes!

Why can't I just come up with a "normal" super character? Sigh. Anyway I'm trying to figure out the best way to do the disadvantages, etc for a Ghost rider/ Johny blaze sort of character. Here is what I am after, and I'll use the Ghost rider/Blaze format for ease in understanding. I want Blaze to have some say in when ghost rider comes out. In other words he can call and request him (Hulk is about to pound me, now would be a good time to come out? Please?). On the other side I want the Ghost rider side to somehow "know" when innocent lives are in danger (and johny not know) in which case he may come out un- announced. Johny may have some ability to hold him off for a bit with effort. So accidental change comes to mind as does no conscious control. Neither quite work right. I could do a skll or activation roll of sorts. Ideally I want the GM to have some say in whether Ghosty is likely to come out as the GM will be the one to best know if innocent lives are in danger. As usual, there is probably some easy way to do this I have completely missed. Anyhelpful ideas are appreciated!