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.

Re: 'Registration' as training card So what would that be, Paramedics 11-, KS: Heroic Procedure 11-? That seems like it might get hazy in some cases, considering that it covers a cross section of several skills.

In the campaign i'm running, all supers who plan on dooing any heroing need to be registered. This isn't the scary 'mutant control' sort of registration, though. It's more akin to a CPR card. To get one, you have to attend a week-long class. There is a fee, but there are scholarships available to cover it. In the class, attendees learn: Police Procedure: How to make legally binding arrests, protocol and legality of appropriate use of force and collateral. (Yes, you can throw a car to keep Doctor Bleak from killing people. No, you can't throw the car at him when he's flying away from the scene after being foiled, because it's not defense anymore, etc.) How to gather the information needed by law enforcement. What sort of evidence is permissible or not permissible. How to preserve the crime scene and not destroy evidence. First Aid: How to stabilize the injured until ambulances can arrive. How NOT to help the injured. (His back might have been broken! Pick him up and fly him to the hospital? Bad idea!) Search and Rescue: How to locate the injured in collapsed buildings. How to extricate people from things like collapsed buildings without making things worse and without needing to be able to lift semi trucks. How people respond in disasters. Where is Little Timmy probably going to go when he gets lost in a strange place? Disaster Psychology: Affects of adrenaline on people. How to recognize and avoid psychological overstress in disasters. Things not to say to the people affected by disasters. Fire safety: How to recognize stable and unstable buildings. How do fires spread in buildings and the wild, what happens, engineeringwise, when a building is damaged, or when a car is smashed? Once students check out on all these skills, they get a certificate and a laminated card that they can show to emergency personnel on a scene which protects them from some liability (because they're trained). The training classes are actually quite popular with non-supers as well, and most of the attendees are normals who want to be better prepared for disasters; schools, for instance, encourage their staff to take the classes. Any suggestions on exactly what skills and perk level would be needed for this?

Re: New group of characters. If they do, it'll be fun. You have an egyptian deific (Usual associations: Sun, death) and a nature deific. That's like asking if a fire hero and a plant controller are going to conflict too much. not too much, no. I'm going to tag the characters I see any concern with (mine or yours) with what the most likely directions I see them going look like. * Alien guy from Planet Jendell (tech stuff, minor abilities) "Gadgeteer". What's his team role? The phrase "Minor abilities" concerns me. It either means they're the guy with the gadget pool (good) or that they're unfocused and might only be randomly useful. (not so good) * Egyptian Warrior (khopesh sword, martial+divine abilities) "Paladin". It's a priesty holy guy with a sword. * Lennabhair (nature/divine abilities) "Druid". Celtic name, Nature abilities. Expect something reminiscent of a DnD druid. The paladin type and the nature type usually don't get in each other's way that i've seen. * Powersurge (electrical manipulation) "Blaster". Sounds like you have artillery. only the one who really stands out as an artillery, mind you. Is the team unusually melee heavy or is it just me not seeing the character designs? * Catscratch (self explanatory) * Secret Asian Man (martial arts/covert ops) I'd be careful. Cat themed scrappers are often covert. Which means that suddenly, you have two 'Fast melee fighters with sneaky skills'. They need to get together and make sure their schticks diverge in major ways, or else they need to work together a lot more closely than usual in play so that they can duo all the sneaky bits. Team composition concerns: Do you have transportation/logistics? You likely have healing, but I didn't see any sort of transport. In the last game I was in, I ended up doing it, in Origami's case by summoning a vehicle. Ended up that that universally turned out to be a big deal. You don't notice it till you have to compare the two situations. You seem melee heavy. Just saying.

Re: Party design trouble with small group After discussion, the whole party has agreed to let me toss them some powers. I'm thinking right now, Football player: Either electrical absorb+end pool based Force Wall, or a rather tricked out danger sense. ROTC Runner: Maybe some sort of no range fire powers, or some other quirkiness.. they seem to like a hard and fast hitting scrapper role, and the football player likes the idea of being the tough support guy as opposed to the tough heavy hitter. Computer nerd: Temperature drain powered telekinesis? Looked on TVtropes for what it had on three person groups. Came up with these: "Beauty, Brains, and Brawn" - Social, gadgeteer/mage, fighter. "Power Trio" - breaks it down by Freud. Rager, Logical guy, Middleman. None of the characters has seemed very emotion-driven. "Comic Trio" - Leader (in comedy, gives bad orders), Yes-man (follows said orders blindly), straight-man (Sits around being shocked by the disaster being created, but doesn't actually prevent it) "The Three Faces of Adam" - Pro-active guy, Status Quo Leader guy, Prophet "Fire Ice Lightning" - elemental trio It'd be nice if there were a setup where we didn't need a single full time GM; then I could play too. I know we managed with Ars Magica, but that's set up very differently.

Re: How to deal with a "remote control" Superhero (or Villain)? Duplication, build the robot as the main character. Give some disadvantages like the ability to be hacked or cut off from communication. Might have limitations on dex too (Network latency is a pain if you have to dodge gunfire!) I really do not see what the problem with this is; it sounds like a more reasonably built and limited hero than many others. It sounds like the robot body is difficult if not impossible to replace, so the toon is still vulnerable in that sense. Blow up their robotic body, and they're going to be a whole lot of out of action unless they can come up with a way to get a new shell built/repurposed. Arguably many heroes have been less disabled by being actively killed, since a lot of them manage to cheat death in one way or another that involve rather large adventures. Furthermore, there are many ways to be in dramatic tension that do not involve being in mortal peril from violence. I've seen players much more terrified about being cut off from research grants or a characters' favorite hobby than they ever got when they were being pummeled within an inch of their life. Seriously. I'm not all THAT worried about dying in battle. If I go down fighting, it's actually pretty cool, as long as it wasn't something really stupid and humiliating (getting soloed by a mook's DNPC or something like that). But things like 'Your roommate's stalker ex-boyfriend is harassing her' can really kinda get under your skin in it's own way.

Re: Lucking Into The Plot My personal thought on it would be to make it a Disadvantage (DNPC 'Lucky Innocent Victim Of The Week', 14-, less powerful than PC), personally, but that depends on what you wanted to do with it.

Re: Party design trouble with small group He should! I don't know really what on earth he's thinking, though. The 'fat geek' part isn't a problem, since metas have enhanced stats as a side effect of manifesting come into play a bit after. (Stronger, prettier, faster, smarter.. which i'll be springing on them later, though it was glossed over before)

Re: Party design trouble with small group The technopath describes himself as basically more like a telePATH that can hack computers and electronics with his mind.. indicated that he couldn't animate them, just make phones ring, make ATM's talk to people, stuff like that. Absolutely no need for a unified theme, in fact, it would make no sense for them to have one since they are not family or anything like that.

Re: Party design trouble with small group Yeah.. Technopath is already getting on my nerves. He worries that he won't have a combat role (Well, why make a support character and lament your role?? Isn't that like announcing at the outset 'I'm gonna be a brick!', building a brick, then whining about how much you hate melee?) No idea how exactly he would turn into a tank or blaster offhand with what isn't available? If you have any ideas (and he does not have any GADGETEER skills, at least not YET..) toss them at me. If I can get him going on something that would give him a combat role, I can swing the other way. regarding unified themes, it's pretty much an X-men style unified origin world, so no luck there. Ideas for powers i've had so far: END vampire Telekinetic via heat conversion (TK, weaker on cold objects, side effect: makes target cold, not on living targets... main problem being we're in alaska! it's winter!) Portal user Mirror image user (makes illusions of self, with some tactile component - like a duplicator, but the dupes are TK backed Images) Still trying to think of ideas..

Re: Party design trouble with small group Not too terribly combat heavy; nothing they can't handle in any case. What sort of things can a technopath and a speedster synergize toward that might give other ideas?