Ranxerox
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Posts posted by Ranxerox
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Re: Not "Secret", not "Public", just "Identity"
You missed. . .Just because they do not write "Secret ID" or "Public ID" written down on the Disadvantage Column of their character sheet does not mean they don't have one.
It just means it's not a Disadvantage to any significant degree.
I had a character once - Rebar. Wore a mask and everything to hide his face - that's a secret identity in that he doesn't want his face on the news when the film crews capture him rescuing people from the burning building. But - I never wrote down "Secret ID - Hank Wallace" on his Character Sheet. It never cause significant issues for him to switch from Hank to Rebar. It wasn't a Disadvantage =/= It Doesn't Exist.
So yes, if you think not putting it on the sheet means the Player doesn't have or maintain one then you are being a bad GM.
Not putting one down on the sheet as a Disadvantage means just that - it's not a Disadvantage.
As I said above, if you set a Campaign Parameter that one is required because part of the Campaigns Stories will focus on the duality of Superhero vs Normal Lives, that's a different issue.
My campaigns don't focus on on the duality of Superhero vs Normal lives per se. They focus (amongst other things) on superheroes in a world that with the exception of possessing superheroes is pretty much like the one that we live in. The notion of either a zero point Secret ID or zero point Public ID just doesn't work in my worlds. The rub of realism against superhero fantasy just has too much friction for the identity not to be an issue that players have to deal with ... unless there is something specific about that character that makes the point moot.
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Re: Not "Secret", not "Public", just "Identity"
Exactly - define what drawbacks or benefits you want from it.There don't HAVE to be any, it could be a wash - no Disadvantages and no Positive Reputations.
You can still have a Secret ID - not taking one doesn't mean you tell Aunt May you're Spider Man, it just means there's no disadvantage involved.
FORCING a player to take one because you the GM want can't fathom it not being a Disadvantage (versus just some background flavor of the character) is just bad GMing IMO.
Can't fathom? WTH? So anyone who doesn't agree with you on this just doesn't get it because of their intellectual inferiority?
Sorry, generally speaking in world's I GM when something get broken someone out there starts looking for someone to sue. PO Viper too many times and they will starting looking for revenge, and they won't hesitate about going after friends and family to get it.
Now, I mentioned Wolverine as someone who had neither the disadvantage Secret ID or Public ID, and I agree that Dr. Strange and some other characters fall into the same bag. So, I do see how this can reasonably work. However, both Wolverine and Dr. Strange have rather unique personal lives that facilitate them not having to worry about keeping their identity secret or experiencing the problems of a public ID. I don't think that I am being unreasonable in asking my players to explaining how their characters avoid the standard problems associated with secret and public IDs if they elect to have neither (or explaining anything else about their characters that I have questions about).
Now, if your mileage varies on this, that is fine. Just don't tell me that I am being a bad GM for seeing things differently.
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Re: Not "Secret", not "Public", just "Identity"
No, being 'instantly forgettable' is an advantage as well, and should be purchased with points, in addition to the deleterious effects mentioned.
Seriously, I'd add "Invisibilty, only to not be remembered (-1 at least)" to that guy. He's not actually invisible, but he tends to get overlooked and forgotten a lot. Which means the villians forget to attack him some of the time...
In the Mage the Ascension game it was a background called Arcane. It pretty much made you hard to locate and added some to general stealth. So yeah' date=' this is a perk or a power depending on how much omph you want your anonymity to have.[/quote']Yes, I agree and thought of this after I finished posting. Being "Instantly Forgettable" should cost points as well as give them. As to the power vr. perk question, I would say that depends on quickly people forget the character. If people chasing the character forget who they are chasing while they are still involved in the chase, I would call that a power. OTOH, if after the character successfully get away on his own they can't describe who they were chasing, that would be a perk.
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Re: Not "Secret", not "Public", just "Identity"
Framed as physical limitation, say "Instantly Forgettable" I would say it would be All The Time and Slightly impairing. So that would make it worth15 points, with other points possibly available for Poor (can't hold a job after all) and the Psych limitation: "Lonely and wishes he could form relationships".
Of course, if some other person or thing is actively preventing people and data bases from remembering the character then it would be a Hunted.
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Re: Not "Secret", not "Public", just "Identity"
IMO, back in the day, Wolverine was a good example of someone without either Secret or Public I.D. Pretty much everyone Logan knew was aware that he was Wolverine so he never had to go out of his way keep his I.D. secret. On the other hand, most villains did not know where he lived and the people in his life could generally take care of themselves so he didn't have deal with the consequences of a Public I.D.
When I GM a superhero campaign, I usually require my player to take either Secret or Public I.D. or explain to me why their character don't have the problems associated with either of those disadvantages.
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Re: Idea/Suggestion: Offline Character Generator
I've had problems with MMORPG addiction in the past, and for the sake of my marriage and my life I won't be playing CO. I would however be willing to shell out bucks for the character generator as a stand alone product.
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Re: Adventures Into Darkness Arrives Jan. 12!
This sounds really, really cool. Hope you are able to print up some for Dundracon. I'm not a big fan of reading stuff straight off of Acrobat Reader.
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Re: Whoops, folks actually liked this: Nu Warriors!
That's a good thought, poindexter. Here's a better one. Beer bong!It's like no-one around here has seen a Revenge of the Nerds movie. Or, better yet, "Homer goes to College."
Being a Nu Warrior is all about not thinking things through, not preparing, and, above all, skipping class!
I didn't say there wouldn't be beer bongs.
It's a darn good thought.I actually had a concept similar to that once, kind of, where instead of powers that match personality (The hot head gets fire powers, etc) the characters having powers that are opposite their personality types. Your idea of using powers as a method of character growth sounds like a really nice twist. I may not use it today, I may not use it tomorrow, but rest assured, I will be using it.
Have some rep , and thanks
Glad you liked it.
The whole supers with powers that match their personalities thing has been done into the ground imho. This seemed to me to be a interesting alternative with some cool roleplaying potential.
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Re: Whoops, folks actually liked this: Nu Warriors!
Not sure how you would explain this with the Nazi headmaster origin, but in keeping with the whole college, higher-learning thing, instead of giving them just random powers or powers that reflect their personality, you could give them powers designed to make them grow as persons. So the shy kid could get something really flashy, "Mr. I-gotta-be-the-center-of-attention" could get abilities powers that force him into a support role, the narrow minded guy could get read-only telepathy, etc.
Just a thought.
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Re: Luke Cage
In his early solos in his own book ( just like spider-man actually) Big normal guys could give him a run for his money. Basically normal brute guys were close in his league and they made a very big deal "his secret" was he was heavier and thus stronger than he looked. He began powercreeping almost immediately when meeting other superheroes though, Often returning to his previous levels by himself until eventually the higher power levels started to stick. Before he was called Powerman he was much more normal level for his mass with "steel hard" skin and fists but lots of bruising when getting shot..He got a significant boast for Powerman/Iron fist while Danny interestingly got downpowered pretty quickly.
Well, that is a familiar enough story. Characters often power often depend on whose book they were in. Since I haven't read the early pre-Iron Fist issues of Powerman, I will bow to your expertise.
As for Danny Rand, I have read some Iron Fist stories from before he hooked up with Luke Cage. It seemed like he could do pretty much anything with his chi that the writer wanted him to from one issue to the next. So maybe the nerfing was for the best just to have a consistent character.
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Re: Luke Cage
In Cage's first meeting with Spider-man, he yanked the cherry picker off of a large fire truck and used it to knock down a burning apartment building. This was very early in Cage's career, and it looked to me like a lot more than a 3 ton lift.
I get the feeling that you are in love the with a low STR Luge Cage, and it is your homage so you can write him as you see fit. However, you asked what his STR was and I'm saying at least 10 tons from the very beginning.
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Re: Mundane Superhheroes (and Villains!)
Archibald "Harry" Tuttle
Humanity's Last, Best Hope
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Re: If I were to write 6th edition Terran Empire I'd...
The thing that I would like to most see in any future Terran Empire supplements 6th Ed. or not is more information on what life is like for common joes living in the Empire.
Do most of them work jobs, and if so what sort of jobs do they do that couldn't be done better and cheaper by robots and expert systems? Are most of them walking around connected 24/7 to the 27th century version of the internet? What is role of virtual goods in the economy? What is an "average day" like for an "average citizen"? Stuff like that.
I know Terran Empire is intended as a space opera setting, but personally before I build great empires and lofty spires, I need know what at the who populates those empires and what life looks like at the base of those spires.
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Re: We Loves Us Some Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs
Like Earth girls, Elves, Dwarfs and Orcs are are easy. We are all familiar with them so the GM can introduce them without having to explain much. If a GM wants to have different race, that is great but now the burden is on him (or her) to explain each race and hopefully do so in a way that does not put me to sleep. If the GM does this, everything is cool and it is likely to be richer and more interesting campaign for not going with the standard flavors.
That being said, personally, I don't care for it when the GM mixes and matches. If a GM is going to have Zorks and Netterbots, they shouldn't have elves and dwarfs also, IMHO. For that matter, they shouldn't use unicorns or dragons either. They should go with new stuff all the way, though some of the new stuff can share a passing resemblance with some old stuff.
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Re: Kandor
Speaking of buildings' date=' the tallest skyscrapers in the bottle look to be at least 4 inches tall, making them at least 14 times as tall as the Empire State building. These buildings would have in excess of 1200 floors. An even more impressive feat considering they were built under Krypton-normal gravity.[/quote']The bottle is always drawn as being taller than it is wide and is usually shown as having buildings going up about half it's height. So I would estimate them as being 6 to 8 inches.
Since they are making good use of their vertical space, Kandorians are packed together really tight. You would expect them to have Japanese type social customs to deal with the crowding, though I haven't read enough Superman to know.
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Re: Kung Fu Animals
I have been thinking for months now that it would be fun to do a talking animals campaign in the spirit of the book Redwall or the movie The Rescuers. However, since I don't have any players ATM, I haven't had any incentive to write-up package deals.
Writing up package deals is, however, where I would recommend starting. In talking animals stories, the type of animal of a character is a shorthand for what sort of person they are. However, there is almost always one or more animals that wish to pursue dreams that don't seem appropriate to their species. So, while I would insist that people take the package deal of their character's animal, I would otherwise give them wide discretion in choosing the remainder of their skills and abilities.
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Re: Did the CCA create the Silver Age?
The simple answer to your question is "Yes, the CCA created the Silver Age." At the time the CCA was made comics had largely moved away from superheroes and were showing little signs of moving back. It was the CCA that squashed horror comic and crime comics and cleared the way for the eventual return to domination of superheroes.
The process hampered the growth of the medium, and without the CCA comics may have seen the growth of graphic novels and their rise to semi-respectability decades earlier ... but the beloved superheroes of my youth such as Spider-Man and the X-Men probably would never have come into existence.
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Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now?
The Odd Couple - Gnarls Barkley
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Re: VPPs for Dummies? (IE. Me!)
Yes and No.Cosmic allows you to change Slots as a 0-Phase Action with No Skill Roll.
If you're working with the idea you can only take, for example, fifteen items into the field with you then you're limiting yourself to 15 Slots, but you can change out those Slots at a moments notice. (15 Tools At Once -0; Can Only Change Out Tools At The Shop -1)
The two ideas are no mutually exclusive, though rarely put together.
OK, I could see that build for a utility belt. JMOz, however, was only giving himself a -1/4 limitation for Can Only Change at Shop which seemed to be toasting himself for points.
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Re: VPPs for Dummies? (IE. Me!)
VPP version30 Point VPP, All slots OIF: Belt (-1/2), Cosmic (+2), must predetermine 10 gadgets for pool, only changing at the base (-1/4),
Total cost 56 points
MP version
20 30 Point MP Reserve, OIF
1u Micro Recorder Eiditic Memory, 2 1 hour continuing fuel charges, x4 clips, OAF
1u Throwing discs 6d6 EB, 4 recoverable charges
1u smoke bombs 3" Change enviroment -4 PER
1u Skill Kits +2 All non combat skills
1u Flashbangs: 3d6 Flash (Sight & Hearing) Explosive, 6 charges
etc...
The whole point of the Cosmic advantage to allow you to change the pool powers to whatever and whenever. Adding a change only in base and only to certain preset items totally negates the advantage and waste a lot of points.
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Re: Low-Action Hero?
Do you want low-action as the title indicates or just low-combat? Because it is possible to make some very compelling man vs. environment scenarios that have a lot of action but no combat. Put the characters out in the wilderness or on a hostile without the survival gear they need, and you can focus all of the player's problem solving skills and ingenuity on the task at hand to the benefit of the game.
Not "Secret", not "Public", just "Identity"
in Champions
Posted
Re: Not "Secret", not "Public", just "Identity"
My spidey sense tells me that your tongue is in your cheek, but I am going to answer this as though it were a serious question. DNPCs are a totally separate disadvantage from public or secret ID. Whether the character has a public or secret ID, he or she going to have to jump through hoops to keep them safe whenever the disadvantage comes up. So they earn there points one way or another.
That being said, whether a character has a Secret ID or Public ID does effect how he or she interacts with his or her DNPCs and how the rest of the world does too. It is the difference between Lois Lane getting herself into trouble vs Lex Luthor taking her captive to bait a trap for Superman. The latter situation is generally much worse, and that is why those pesky hunted are worth more points when the character has a public ID.
The worst situation though is a secret ID that is blown and now public. The consequences for this have to be so bad that all the work and lies and embarrassment of maintaining that secret ID now seem like a bargain compared to the consequences of letting it slip. Essentially all DNPCs are now in play whether they rolled for that adventure or not, and non-DNPC acquaintances of the character can start acting like DNPCs. Also hunted that weren't rolled can also come up, and other nasty things arise such as scathing exposes, lawsuits, etc.
Fortunately, all my players have known me well enough not test me on the Secret ID thing, and none of them have outed themselves.