JusticeZero

OK, so we're at a school for supers in training. Heavy on theory, and leaning toward the heroic, though some bad apples slip in. Last session was paintball; if you get hit, you're out until the colorchanger girl in the side hall can fix the paint, then you need to make your way through a long hallway to the starting base. Can anyone think of other training activities that might be done?

Re: Something fishy about this It's because when you say "Don't Do X", they have to start thinking of an idea and they already have "X" in the forefront of their minds. Then it's just a matter of their ruminating sounding like "No X. No X. No X. X, X, X, X. No X... X... X... X... X... X... X... Hmmm. I know! I'll make X!" Give them guidelines for what you DO want instead. Instead of "No non-combatants", say "I expect your characters will have some combat abilities." Instead of "No time travelers and aliens", try "Make modern day people. The power origins give powers to the sort of people you might meet on the street."

The campaign is a teen supers school in Anchorage, no 'standard' names dropped from canon. All supers share an origin; they mostly wake up one morning finding that they are losing weight, building muscle, getting smarter, and have one root superpower with flexibility worked in. The distribution is not by population, so it's probably not genetics. I only worked up a few characters, briefly, to inhabit the place, and if there are any other ideas, they would be welcome. Principal Jack Dove: Gentle, calming african american male with hair beginning to grey. Dove's powers turned out to be uniquely suited for dealing with riots and other military situations; in a nutshell, he makes combat in the area a miserable, exhausting, fruitless endeavor until the combatants give up. Recently, he decided that teaching would prevent chaos after he was gone, and founded the Ophiuchus School. Powers: All No range AOE 1 megascale hex (1 km^3) Usable By Others 6/6 Resistant PD/ED, Only To Prevent Body, IPE, No End Suppress REC 4d6, not to impair healing BODY, personal immunity Drain END 8d6, only to simulate increased END cost, personal immunity Vice-Principal Claire Hawke: Stern, perceptive, wary administrator, moves like a fighter. A competent physical combatant from a police background, Hawke's powers manifest as a powerful scan of the strengths and weaknesses of possible opponents. This makes her an excellent 'sniffer', as well as a capable fighter with hand to hand, having a variety of martial art skills bought to use No End due to their extreme efficiency and use of tools such as kubotan, leverage, aikido-like blending, and the like. This is combined with fearsome amounts of Find Weakness to deal with targets in spite of Dove's protective effects. ... Students: "Lightweight" - ("Worst. Rager. EVER.") Rachel Clarke was a mild-mannered, quiet girl, before her powers manifested. Unfortunately for her, her powers triggered a form of Banner Syndrome, and cause rage when triggered. This would only be classically problematic, save for the fact that she has no combat skill whatsoever, and her powers are to reduce her own density. This currently tends to result in her being knocked about with little trouble while being considered a bit of a joke. Her powers do have potential, as they make her something of a speedster, but she hasn't worked this out yet. Sister to "Heavy". "Heavy" - (Prissy!) Lisa Clarke gained her powers at the same time as her sister, being alarmed at some apparent sudden weight gain. Her abilities involve personal density increase, giving her a stocky shape which annoys her to no end; she also has the ability to boost or negate gravity on targets. "Paint" - Stacy, the stereotypical fat nerd girl, developed the amazing cosmic power to.. change what color things are. In spite of the general uninspiring nature of this power, she has started to experiment with the idea of using it for Darkness and Flash effects, being inspired by plenty of comics and the like. "Stunt" - Logan Wilder has gained the power to operate vehicles with disturbingly uncanny skill, getting performance out of them that shouldn't be theoretically possible, being able to do feats that make professional stunt drivers blush in awe, and having intuitive understanding of how to repair and improve them. As he is twelve years old, and cannot legally drive even a mini motorcycle, this is a less than completely useful ability at this time. The party, by the way, consists of three highschool boys, one a jock with top end dangersense (who isn't reckless enough to get full advantage of it yet), one computer geek with electric wires (cling, swing, and zap, but no longer safe to use computers without exceptional antistatic precautions), one a ROTC type with a dark to Sound field (no range, personal immunity) powering a sound-TK power pool that hasn't yet been defined.

Re: Villainous Motivations "If you want to make an omelette, you've got to break a few eggs. Maybe a whole lot of eggs." "Once I succeed in my plot to assemble the Time Inverter, all of the things I have done will be reverted as if I never was. Why worry about a few deaths when they will be alive and well once I am finished?" "The Dread Devourer of Bone And Breath will destroy this entire state if it gets free. A few blood sacrifices to prevent that seems like such a small price to pay." "bUt iSn'T iT pOlItE tO mOvE tHe PiNk StArFiSh SoUlS iNtO nEw BeTtEr CrYsTaL bOdIeS? yOuR oRgAnIc SlUdGe GrOwThS lOoK lIkE sUcH aN uNpLeAsAnT dIsEaSe AnD i-Us aRe OnLy BeInG kInD..."

How much would DEF cost for a character? (mechanics like a Force Wall/Barrier, but as an Armor construct) I'm trying to figure out how to deal with relatively limited amounts of restricted damage types without blowing the *D out through the roof in an attempt to block the STUN damage. I'd rather have them impervious to a low level of damage, than invulnerable to the BODY portion of huge amounts of it and somewhat resistant to stunning from it. This is similar to the question of how to make a character in a high powered campaign impervious to small arms fire in a game where all the real threats are throwing much more meaningful attacks without giving them absurd PD/ED that makes the huge energy bolts and punches of the main enemies a threat only because of huge levels of STUN.

Re: Wire lines? How about Swinging swinglines for Stretching? Nah, that looks good.. I ended up just poking the powers individually as needed, and giving TK matching their str, not indirect -1/2 only to grab / pull -1 (I think it was -1)

Re: Wire lines? Right.. The main concern here is that i'm thinking the need to build a framework that defines the mechanics and limits of other powers. Base mechanic plus added effect. While that might be cumbersome in some ways, I hope it'll deal with some back-end complexity.

The power build I want to give someone goes like this: They use electrics to Cling, to sense electricity, or to discharge an electrical EB, but they have to touch the thing. They shoot wire lines, like Spider Man style webs, that allow them to use these powers at range, or to use Swinging. By the way, i'm stuck with 5E. I don't know that that changes anything. Not sure how to build that; I assume some form of Stretching is involved.. The best i've found for the base part is this: Stretching +1/4 Does not cross intervening space -1/4 Can be dispelled by cutting DEF 5/BODY 1 wire -1/4 Always Direct -1/4 Range Modifier Applies -??? Only to touch? (Cannot do damage, limited body parts (wire), no fine manipulation or knockback, etc.. but works to establish a Clinging attack, or to channel other touch-limited powers through)

Re: A Newbie's first power Maybe, but they cannot be spread, and they don't punch large holes...

With a power build, I was thinking I would use at the core a form of Telekinesis, with a highly limited range. (Basically No Range for starters - same hex) Obviously one combat application would be to make a TK attack at the same time as just hitting them, since neither of the STR involved would be impressive enough alone. How would I resolve that, or am I just confusing myself? A bit of background - it would be a Sonics control for a "Teen hero" type (not much nuance and versatility in powers yet) which would be TK, strength limited by availability of sound (among other 'unpracticed power' deficiencies), linked to Darkness to hearing, only useable within the area covered by the Darkness.

Re: A Newbie's first power I personally think the 'cannot be reduced' part of Beam should be severed from that; it seems like 'single burst that cannot be spread and only cuts small holes' is sufficient for the disadvantage, and adding an inability to be reduced does not necessarily fit many powers with that effect. The 'Beam' as I described works well for thrown or launched projectiles like an arrow say, and I can easily see an archer pulling the bow back only half as far to weaken the hit. In any case, if the attack is in a multipower as they usually will be, 'cannot be reduced' is going to be relatively meaningless in any case. "I cannot reduce the power of my laser - so I will only allocate 10 points to it and then fire it at full power (2d6)."

Re: How would your character rate on a villian's threat matrix? Origami: "She gets no respect because of all the trash talk she gets on YouTube, but those powers are actually pretty versatile, if you think about it. We don't know all of what she knows how to make, but the special effects are pretty straightforward. She's not all that effective directly though. She's probably more vulnerable to agents than she would be to higher powered threats. "Attacking her directly could be a pain; she looks like she's got some mental training, she has some concealed armor, and her powers let her throw obstacles and servants in the way and then run away. Call her a three. Everyone knows who she really is since she had her power origin documented in the news as an interest story; it's probably easiest to just keep her attention somewhere else."

Re: 'Registration' as training card Ah, but the ones with hero cards aren't state actors. They are not paid, or directed; they are just given a lot of information so that when they are running around doing vigilante stuff, they will do so in a less destructive manner. People with CPR cards are not state actors if they stop to give first aid.

Re: 'Registration' as training card Then they will have an adversarial relationship with the police, to a large part because criminals would love to be captured by an unlicensed hero because there will probably be so many legal mixups and problems that they can easily walk out of the courtroom free. Remember Lex Luthor in Superman returns? "Great at stopping crime, not so great at things like miranda rights or showing up to testify.." Such an ID can be used as a witness ID, but only regarding the events that they witnessed before and immediately following identifying themself and passing the scene to the emergency crews. Two weeks might be more appropriate, but I learned a little more than half of that in a 20 hour class.. Wiiilbur, you pain me..

Re: 'Registration' as training card No; there's no contact requirement in it; it does require a photo for ID purposes, but the photo can be in costume. (If you change your look, you'll need to update the card.) It's modeled after the real-life CERT program, that has a somewhat similar training program for citizens to be able to self-mobilize in case of disasters in the area, and is similar to (though significantly more in-depth than) keeping up to date on one's CPR-AED-First Aid certification; legal proof that one has been trained on how to keep things nice and tidy and legal.