Doc Samson

Hello all and thanks in advance for any guidance you can provide. Is anyone familiar with any rules (main book, FAQ, Rules Thread) that descibe how to handle a single target being grabbed by multiple attackers? I seem to be stumped and my search-fu has falied me (rolled an 18 I think). If not, how would you officiate a single character that has been grabbed by two or more characters and is attempting to escape from multiple holds?

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine Very cool! What program was used to create it? It looks like one of the Hero machines but I don't recognize the pose and some of the parts. Thanks in advance.

Re: Whoops! Did I really allow that power? I once accidentally allowed every character in my group to have some form of invisibility (invisibility for 2 characters, change environment for 1 character, darkness for 1 character, and high stealth for the last). Me - Phase 12, the enemy team approaches. What do you guys do? Player 1 - I activate my "mental invisibility" power Player 2 - I cast a spell to turn invisible too Player 3 - I take a half-move to fly upwards, and then I summon a fog to conceal myself Player 4 - I shroud myself in darkness player 5 - I hide in the nearby shadows Me - *facepalm*

Re: Effective builds The Damage Shield in question was used to simulate a poison dart frog's skin poison. It was originally bought as a SPD Suppress but the GM hated it so we changed it to a STUN Suppress, then eventually an END Suppress. As it was bought to 0 END, the defined condition (per the rules on 5er 228 under Suppress) that allowed the victim to recover his characteristic was a simple Recovery. The effects were powerful but fleeting. [edit] As an aside, this character was part of a group where we had a strict AP cap on everything but were encouraged to build powerful (but not broken) characters. Our definition of broken is combos that make a character difficult or nearly impossible to challenge with pre-built villains, such as EDM plus Transdimensional attacks or Precognition plus unrestricted Time Travel. Believe it or not, my character was one of the weakest in the group despite his list of efficient builds. One character (based on reality altering powers) had every power on his sheet bought as a UAA. Healing UAA is hilarious btw, he could make a villain heal for more than they harmed. Another character was a detective (a Question and Rorschach homage) who built all of detective "skills" using powers with appropriate limitations (Telepathy for Interrogation, Postcognition for Deduction, Precognition for Criminology, ect.). He was a monster outside of combats.

Re: Effective builds Heh, the character I referenced above had #1 and #3 on this list. Good stuff. If we are talking Skills too, my favorite combo is: Extra Limbs, Two-Weapon Fighting, WF: Off Hand, Rapid Attack, and either more END or 1/2 END for STR The result is two attacks per phase with no penalties for a whopping 21 pts. + END costs.

Re: Effective builds I agree. I don't see the need for an exception here when UAA still makes the build possible, and in a Supers game 15 pts. is a bit cheap for the effect.

Re: Effective builds

Re: Effective builds Together these two powers make you a fearsome grappler. - Buying your Casual STR equal to your STR (only for casual STR is a -1.5 limitation in the UB) gives you two full strength Breakout Rolls per phase. - A Clinging Damage Shield on a Brick (15 pts.) means a Grabbed character can break a hold in one phase, but not escape. Post Segment 12 Recoveries are often a waste unless you dump a ton of END on segment 12. Buying some REC with Gradual Effect [1 Turn] (-1/4) allows you to spread out your segment 12 recovery into the following turn, which can offset some damage. Suppress is a Constant power and as such is one of the few Attack powers that can be taken with Damage Shield without the need for Continuous. Add to that it's cheap cost and even in AP capped campaigns a 0 END Suppress Damage Shield will make your enemies unhappy. Even though Flight can do the same things, simple Leaping can be used to reduce falling damage (435), to escape from holds (364-365, 387), and add to damage (Move By/ Move Through) at half the cost (plus everyone starts off with some leaping). As you already pointed out, Invisibility can be extremely effective for the cost (effectively halving an enemy's CVs). These are all from my last character (a giant anthropomorphic frog). I'll add more if I think of any.

Re: Partial Growth This, perhaps with makeover to add some COM.

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine Got him for ya.

Re: Mind Scan vs. The Detective While we are on the subject of mental powers smashing detective skills, Telepathy is also often more effective at finding out "who" or "what" than skills are. If we expand the problem to other types of powers, then pre- and post- cognition are the Cadillac of detective skill killers. IMHO, the "issue" (though in my mind this is working as intended) is that powers are more effective than skills, as they should be. This is true for much more than detectives. Super-norms (like Batman and Captain America) often perform better in the comics than they do in game. To make skill-based characters comparable with supers in our game, we encourage our skill-based heroes to buy their "primary" skills with powers so their schtick is not easily overshadowed by another character's secondary powers. For example, our last detective character (a Question and Rorschach homage) bought some of his detective skills as Telepathy (interrogation), Mind Scan (streetwise), Post-cognition (deduction), and pre-cognition (criminology) with appropriate advantages (mostly invisible) and limitations (to make them seem skill-based). He also seemed to always know just where to hit even tough badguys (and even an occasional hero!) to hurt them (Find Weakness) and had the uncanny ability to pop-up just about anywhere unseen (Teleportation with limitations). A combination of Danger Sense and Combat Luck kept him from being one-shotted in combat without feeling like he was superhumanly durable. The player said he had alot fun and he was definately not overshadowed by our mentalist out of combat. Sorry for the tangent, this is just my 2 cents. I hope the above gives someone else some inspiration.

Re: terminator where thepeople scrapes with damage I would also just houserule that Ablative can be taken on Shapeshift. It seems to fit well.

Re: Typical abilities of the Common Pig? In addition to a decent sense of smell, their skin is a bit thicker and tougher than ours (+1 or 2 PD, maybe even resistant) and they are a little more resistant to drugs like anesthetics (maybe +5 CON or a Life Support vs. Drugs). They seem to have pretty good hearing also but I don't think their vision is any better than ours. Despite wallowing in mud, I also don't think they are much more resistant to diseases than we are. Some types of pigs can grow to impressive sizes and weights.

Re: Interest in a Zodiac game Just to get the juices flowing: Greek Zodiac (Symbol) - Associated Element Aries (The Ram) - Fire Taurus (The Bull) - Earth Gemini (The Twins) - Air Cancer (The Crab) - Water Leo (The Lion) - Fire Virgo (The Virgin) - Earth Libra (The Scales) - Air Scorpio (The Scorpion) - Water Sagittarius (The Archer) - Fire Capricornus (The Sea-goat) - Earth Aquarius (The Water Carrier) - Air Pisces (The Two Fish) - Water The Chinese Zodiac - Associated Element Rat - Water Ox - Water Tiger - Wood Rabbit - Wood Dragon - Wood Snake - Fire Horse - Fire Sheep - Fire Monkey - Metal Rooster - Metal Dog - Metal Pig - Water Random Stuff Cancer is called Moonchild by some Astrologers. There is a 13th Zodiacal Constellation called Ophiucus (The Snake-holder) that is not part of the Greek Zodiac. Though not part of Astrology, there is a 5th Classical Element in Greek philosophy called Aether.

Re: Adding Power Defence to Entangle Depending upon the SFX of the Entangle, you may want to consider an Englobing Force Wall (which can be bought with exotic defenses) as an alternative.

Re: Regenerating Touch IMHO, Trigger would be acceptable here as Damage Shield can only be taken on Attack Powers. Decreased Re-use Duration is necessary because Healing can only be used on a Character once every 24 hours, however see the Tracking Injuries option.

Re: Dr. Silverback is up. I'm happier than a **** flinging zoo monkey!

Re: System Requiremnts? This was posted by Katalyst (a Dev) on the official forums. I think this may be close to the recommended specs upon release.

Re: Character Markers for 1in Hexes Marvel battle dice figures are a perfect fit in size and shape. I picked up a bunch on ebay awhile back. I would check them out.

Re: Advice on how to gm 9 to 10 players in a Superhero campaign. I've GMed that many players before. It's tougher but doable. My house rules: - Keeps speeds at 4 or below, maybe 5 max for the speedster. - players must know what they are doing before their phase comes up and have all dice pre-rolled otherwise they forfeit their phase. Exceptions: If the scene changed dramatically the segment before, flexibility should be allowed. Note: The penalty for having a "dice malfunction" (i.e. cheating) in my house is a trip home. - "poker table etiquette", if you are not active in the immediate scene, please don't talk unless there is an OOC conversation goin on. An ongoing problem in my games used to be players talking over eachother so for the sake of fun I simply don't allow it anymore.

Re: June 2nd

Re: Split's Serpent Society Thread Mini-pics: http://jerome.galica.free.fr/marvel/Avengers/serpent/serpent.htm

Re: closed beta applications By email (I'm still waiting but someone I know got in).

Re: Black Superheroes

I can't remember if I ever shared this site with you guys: http://www.blacksuperhero.com/ . It has brief bios for many characters divided into several sections: http://www.blacksuperhero.com/exhibits2.cfm . This is my favorite pic from the art gallery: http://www.blacksuperhero.com/gallery3/gal3-Ptemple3.html . It's by an artist named Peter Temple and it was the inspiration for a game I ran years ago that I called Avengers Extreme (heh, everything was "extreme" back then).