boomer

Re: Watchmen: A GM's tale...or why we set campaign limits

I actually played in a Con game where one of the players brought his own character; his version of Night Owl...his tagline was "I am the Night Owl, I never sleep" and he bought "Life Support: Doesn't need to sleep"....... other than that, he was a gadgeteer just like in the GN. We find inspiration from source materials, but don't make it "just like" the source material. In our Fantasy Hero campaign, we used a magic system similar to Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time where our magic users were called "Channelers"...but, unlike Jordan's, Males weren't nuts from channeling the male side of things, there was no female/male side of the Source...there was just the Source. You randomly rolled up what flows you were proficient at, then designed your "weaves" based on that.

Re: Help me get into Bricks.

Miranda looked out at the crowd as she listened to her coach tell her about a threat upon the American Olympic team.

 

“I'm going out there.” She stated flatly as she got up from the bench and began walking out to the field.

 

“You fool, they specifically stated the hit would start during the discus throw! You're America's current sweetheart they hurt you and it'll be a big blow to the team's morale, not to mention your family's loss!” her coach roared at her.

 

“These people didn't come to see the terrorists push us around. In case you don't remember, these colors don't run.” With that she motioned to her red, white, and blue costume as she walked out to the field.

 

As she walked out towards the throw area, she scanned the crowd again. Any of these people could be the one that planned to take her life, but also any of these people could be the ones that deserved to see her go for the gold. If the later group's experience would be ruined, she was determined it wouldn't be by her.

 

She grabbed the discus and swiveled. As she released the projectile, she became dimly aware of two things, a cracking sound from the stands and a bee's sting in her side. Her vision faded to black as the sounds of millions of people screaming filled her ears. She was unconscious by the time her body hit the dirt. Her throw would win her the gold.

 

****

 

Miranda awoke to several I.V. Tubes sticking in several areas of her body.

 

“Miri honey, there's news.” her mother said patting the bed in as comforting manner.

 

Miranda turned her head, talking seemed too difficult at the moment, and looked softly at the woman who had given birth to her.

 

“The damage was too severe, honey... the doctors can't help you.” the woman said fighting back the tears that desperately wanted to flow.

 

Just then, the door opened, and a Man in Black type strode in, “That may not actually be the case ma'am and ma'am.” With that, he lifted one arm backwards pushing against the door, closing it.

 

“In fact, that's why you have a private room Miss Strode. You see, Uncle Sam has developed a serum that could be used to help save soldiers in the battlefield. The problem is, it needs to be tested before it can be widely used. We'd like to make that offer to you, and before you ask, accepting will in no way tie you to the government.” the man continued as he took off his glasses, looked at them once, and then put them into his suit jacket, “Of course, we need your answer as soon as possible, or we'll need to find another potential volunteer.” Punctuating this, the man stepped back to the door and went into a military at ease stance effectively blocking the door from opening.

 

“Miri?” the mother asked nervously looking between Miranda and the man and back again, “Honey, it could be your only chance.”

 

Miranda nodded and motioned for something to write on. The man responded instantly handing her stationary and a pen both stamped with the president's seal. She looked at it nervously for a few moments and shrugged as best she could despite the pain. “Mother, don't you think I know that? There has to be some reason that they're so anxious to get me to do this. I'll do it, but I want you to do what you need to ensure my safety. Take pictures of me so they can't make me disappear.” She then handed her mother the paper and several beneath it to try to make it so they couldn't do something to find out what it said. She then looked at the man and weakly nodded her acceptance.

 

Miranda was instantly moved from a public to a military hospital along with the barring of guest visitations until after a unspecified time all under the guise of being best for all concerned. Of course, upon arriving at the hospital, Miranda had been buried under a mountain of paperwork that all basically said that she wouldn't sue the government for any complications brought about by anything that she was exposed to or denied during her stay.

 

None of her doctors or nurses were told anything related to her identity and her only contact with the outside was the perpetually unnamed agent that had addressed her within her old room. She was instructed to always wear gloves so that her fingerprints would be left no where, she was told that no one was to take any form of dental samples or skin samples save for the agent, and was told that this was for her protection as well.

 

Her days were filled for several months with tests, dietary restrictions, medications, and extreme amounts of exercise. For instance, her daily caffeine rich helping of coffee was replaced with simple water, and the flavors she was exposed to could be summed as air and cardboard. The reasoning being that the chemicals in uncontrolled food and drink could interfere with her treatments.

 

At first everything went well, her health improved dramatically, the chemicals she was filled with helped her body be able to rally itself against the extreme damage the ricocheting bullet had done to her. Within a weeks time she was hobbling around with a walker, during which time the military worked her upper body getting it back into the shape it had once been. A few weeks later, she no longer needed the walker and stamina training began. By the end of the second month, she was able to walk a mile before tiring. It wasn't what she was at her peak, but it was a ton better than if she hadn't come to the military hospital she rationalized.

 

Her fourth month though, things got strange. The first week in, the attending physician complained having difficulty getting the needle past her skin, by the second week, that had been upgraded to impossible. Her strength went past the monitoring computers ability to measure by standard means and upon further testing, small cars were easy with pickup trucks being slightly more difficult. Her self-imposed gymnastics training become easier and easier until she was way better than her friends who had been in the gymnastics team at the same Olympics.

 

The military then tried to draft her into service, but was deterred only because of Miranda's not to her mother who in turn contacted the president and asked him for reasons her daughter would be forced into service when explicitly told otherwise. The government settled with a independent contracting relationship wherein she'd have a contact she reported to monthly but wouldn't be forced into any specific mission she was not comfortable with.

 

****

 

Miranda was soon released from the hospital and went home where she continued to train. On top of strength and agility training, she started working with smaller discus approximately half the size of a manhole. Eventually, she became nearly pin point accurate with their targeting.

 

This all culminated in a momentous decision. She'd seen violence at its worst, her assailant had wanted her dead, and she determined to make sure that happened to no one else around her. To that end, she took a few classes in costume design and the designed a patriotic suit from spandex with metallic accents to her gloves, boots, and shoulders.

 

Appearance in costume:

(Note the wig designed to not be easy to remove)

 

 

Appearance out of costume:

 

 

 

 

 

Powers: Miranda is extremely strong able to lift anything up to dump trucks, an Olympic level gymnast, extremely durable able to bounce normal caliber bullets though they still tend to sting and heavy caliber bullets can still penetrate but to a lesser degree.

 

Equipment: As Discus, Miranda carries four small discus each approximately the half the size of the standard manhole cover.

 

Hobbies: Most of her hobbies focus around Olympic events primarily because that used to be her occupation. She's since become an avid reader of sports fiction and has began trying her hand at local theater. She's also an avid Eastwood fan and knows most of his movies by heart.

 

Does this look like a good basis for a decent brick background wise?

Nice.....I like it alot. Nice way to tie her to the Gov so she can be part of a Team later on, or doesn't get sued for collateral damage in the course of her duties. One of our GM's has us buy the Perk :Government Licensed Hero to avoid being sued for damage. Trust me Granite needs all the liability he can manage.

Re: Help me get into Bricks.

Or a foot-stomp or ground-punch AoE/explosion on up to X STR' date=' Personal Immunity, is also nice. "Nyah nyah, ya missed... uh, you weren't aiming at me, were you..."[/quote']

 

I've used a similar attack. It's this

 

Entangle: 5d6 5 Def AE:Cone 6"

Only when ground struck, no range, does knockback

Transform 5d6 Limited target(ground), Linked to Ent.,

When ground struck, no range

"Tremor Attack"

Basically it's a shockwave that leaves the punched area in a cone shape causing solid ground to become rubble, trapping all within the AOE (thus the 5d6 Entangle). It's a great attack. Bricks are more than punching....superleap can be used as an attack or defensively. The bad guys go to run away, superleap over them and land in front of them blocking their exit.

Re: Am I crazy (Cyber Hero)

I used to own said Cyber Hero book, and it was for 4th ed.

Re: inventor skill - what's the point?

Like has been mentioned...think Mr. Fantastic or Forge from the X-Men. I had a player who had a power armor character who had a high INT and used a stun ray......but he had inventor skill and invented our underwater Base and other things we needed.

Re: Intutitive Aptitude

High INT which will lead to a high PER roll. Skill levels for INT based skills. My namesake, Boomer, has a high INT and he's the Demo guy/Hacker for the Confederation Marine Unit he's attached to. My skill rolls with complimentary skill added in plus skill modifiers are in the 19- 20- range. He rarely screws up.

Re: Kill the Dude with the Thing

Look don't take the Dude's Thing...I mean it really ties the whole room together.....

Re: Money in Fantasy Setting

We had a cost list for items like that in our campaign world. Of course in our campaign world magic items were rare......a disguise ring was one of the more powerful items we found.....so to get a weapon that did more damage or gave you more OCV we used a quality scale....poor, normal, fine, exquisite, etc. The better the quality, the higher the bonus. Just say you found some mithril or other fine metal ore and wanted a sword made, you'd have to save up the cash...about 250-500 gp, and find someone that could manufacture it. We also used a system of extra xp called Brownie Points. Brownie Points could only be used to get Perks, etc in the game, not for upgrading your character. So if you had the Brownie, had the cash and could find someone to turn that Ore into an exquisite quality weapon you were in the money.

Re: Kill the Dude with the Thing

That is priceless....thanks for the laugh...

Re: Would you ever allow a Large character as a PC?

In our Fantasy Hero campaign we had Half-Giant characters, Minotaurs (we had a whole campaign hook based on a Minotaur Paladin being corrupted by a Demoness), Draconians (7' 7" tall at most) and Ogier (yes our Fantasy Hero campaign was heavily influenced by Robert Jordan).

Re: Help with a character build

Most "utility belts" examples I've seen are built as an MPP......or a VPP....I like the suggestion from Blue....that would work well.

Re: Newbie questions on Single Use Items

Yeah...what LL said....welcome to the Hero System. Some of these folks on here have mighty Hero-Fu.

Re: What source material informs your fantasy gaming?

Our Fantasy Hero campaign was inspired by Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series.

Re: Please Help: I need a name for my character

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidhe#The_s.C3.ADdhe:_abodes_of_the_aes_s.C3.ADdhe

The Sidhe are the Fey Folk of Celtic Mythos.....here's lots of info. Being a Dresden Files fan I'd say go with Maeb (Queen of the Fairies)....I believe that's the spelling....

Re: Less Educated

What they said.....Psych Lim: Fish out of water.....my Alien Power Suit hero Aurora is that way. She is intelligent but socially inept as she isn't Human and is still learning about Human Culture. One of the two Team Leaders of the Group shows great affection for her, has the hots for this Blue Alien chick basically, but she doesn't/can't reciprocate because she doesn't understand "Love". I'd say you have a similar situation here. The character is basically a toddler socially compared to the rest.

Re: Gadget Watch: VR Facemask

That's like the Sim chips in Shadowrun.....you'd plug in a chip and the real world would become whatever you wanted it to be.......

Re: GM's guide to XP

Loved the guide Dead guy...threw some rep your way. I like the goals idea. Some examples if you would...they sound interesting.

Re: WWYCD: You have 24 hours to release the innocent.

The Medic and Trooper would be on the next plane to Gitmo.....with or without their team. The Medic is still an active Captain in the Army and she wouldn't even blink at the what to do. Trooper's battle armor is Govt issue so he's duty bound to go......most of the other SF Bay Defenders would go though being loyal teammates and all.

Re: Villain tactics and GM dirty tricks

Someone like Dr. Destroyer is the great equalizer. He's got more points and more tricks up his sleeve. As mentioned above....a Legion of Doom acting in concert will be fairly tough. The Zodiac Conspiracy has a great villan team that is coordinated by code words.....the supplement details their tactics for each. If the good guys are winning and you need those villans for later......always have them manage to get away.....my players hated when I did that.....

Re: Disadvantage Point Limits.

Okay' date=' since the consensus appears to be that it makes for more interesting characters, but it's not actually [i']crippling[/i] if I abolished that point limit, I'll just accept it as GM Discretion.

 

Thanks for all the help, everyone.

You're welcome.....also like it was mentioned above, play your character the way you want to. Every little character quirk doesn't have to be written down. I had a Feline character that was one of the Primitive ones, but longed to live in a City with the Civilized Felines. He got his wish, but was ashamed of his wild upbringing and amongst his own kind tried very hard to hide the fact he was in reality a Fe'ral instead of a Domi......not worthy of being a psych lim or worth any points (it's really not a disadvantage) but it was a personality quirk that helped me RP the character.

Re: Masterful Ambush

It's great to build custom skills for your campaign. In the same FH world where we had the ambush skill we also had a skill called bodyguarding. It basically gave you a DCV bonus for taking one for someone else. Of course you had to justify why your character had any of these custom skills. We had one that was limited to a certain Archetype. The Throwmaster. Essentially your master knife/axe thrower. The skill was called multi-throw and was usable only by a Throwmaster. It's actually great to delve into the rules and say "hey if we combine this, with that and a pinch of that we get XYZ Skill...".

Re: Masterful Ambush

You can also link it with KS's as well. Our GM wrote up an Ambush skill for our Fantasy Hero game (but it was only for that character with the skill). If that character had that skill plus a high KS in KS: Small Unit Tactics say and KS: Surprise Attacks then they could teach ambush to their group.

Re: Disadvantage Point Limits.

Which is mostly the problem: I can't find 50 points in three categories, not without drastically altering the character concept.

 

 

 

Like I said, I don't mind if I can do that, but I just don't want to have to do extra work to get the Disadvantages in other categories.

 

 

 

Illiteracy in a mostly-literate campaign world is not normal; being colourblind or having limited depth perception means that one's eyes are not fine. I never said that having a Physical Limitation meant that the character is a freak.

 

As for the "human" bit, that was in reference to the entries in the Master List which go something like "needs to go to a repair shop to heal Body damage", "cannot cross running water", so on and so forth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Again, I never said that I took only the big 25-pointers. Looking at one of my characters, not one of them has a Disadvantage of 25 points; the highest, on all of them, is Code vs Killing at 20 points. Most of the Disadvantages are 10 to 15 points, and that's because 5-pointers on the Master List are rare.

 

I could come up with my own 5-point Disadvantages, but since I just learned the HERO System two weeks ago, and I have no GM to ask, it's not like I can balance it all myself.

 

 

 

30 points, actually.

 

 

 

Actually, that character is irritated by incompetence (another Psychological Disadvantage, 10 points), and she has a Rivalry with another character already based on that Bad-Temperedness. She's already being Watched by one group, and Hunted (Capture) by another.

 

Having her be Watched by local law enforcement or having a history of assault would change her character concept tremendously.

 

Which ties into my basic problem: I stat a character in the HERO System only after I come up with their concept fully-formed in my head. Changing that is not something I'd do lightly; I could if I really had to, but "because of a point limit" is annoyingly arbitrary. How much damage she can do with an Energy Blast, what extra adders that Energy Blast has, or how fast she can move to the meter, those are all numbers, which don't take away from her ability to do an Energy Blast in the first place. But how she thinks, how she acts, what her beliefs are, those are part of who she is in the character concept; I'd rather not alter that with new Disadvantages out of the blue.

 

Now, I understand that, as mentioned countless times in the rulebook, everything is GM discretion. However, since it is far more likely that I'll be that GM after rigorously training myself on the rules, I have to ask questions like these.

 

Which, to restate: I'd like to know if there are any blatant, overpowering balance reasons why there is a Disadvantage Point limit. At a glance, it seems like having 150 points of Psychological Limitations is pretty much just as disadvantageous to the character as 150 points of Physical Limitations or 50-50-50 of Psych/Phys/Soc, but again, I just learned the HERO System a couple of weeks ago.

In a nutshell; Disads give you extra points to build all those nifty powers, etc above and beyond the initial points that you are alloted to do so. That's why a cap on points from disads is a good thing. I've seen characters that have a billion disads and none of them are played......the GM quickly told that person to do a re-write or the character was going to meet a horrible doom. As long as you aren't going for the extra points (and you've said that no you aren't) then fill up that sheet with disads...........if it helps you define that character concept down to the detail, then go for it. Just don't get the extra points from it. I'd put their point worth next to them in parens or with an asterix or something (hey you never know when you may lose a disad or want to buy one off.....) just because.

Re: GURPS and Hero: Characters

HERO is also more "granular" than GURPS - more stats' date=' more powers, and finally, more customization. A case in point: in Fantasy settings, GURPS has magic sourcebooks that you use with reams of predefined spells and a set way in which magic works. For HERO, you can literally define how magic works and tailor spells to match that. More work for the GM and players, but more satisfying (IMO) in the end.[/quote']

 

Exactly. Our Fanatasy Hero setting's magic system is similar to Jordan's "Channelers" in the Wheel of Time series. You determine what flows you are better at then you determine, with CP's of course, what "spells" you know. A bit more involved (like mentioned above) but highly customizable.

Re: Disadvantage Point Limits.

I was always told by GM's that Disadvantages that aren't are considered "character flaws". You don't always have to write things down as disads for your character to have them/be that way. Write down the major ones to satisfy the point totals you need, but then the minor ones can become "personality traits" of the character. We all now Code v. Killing.....that's a broad category.....you can further define it as "won't even kill a fly or step on a bug"......wow okay, now we may have some interesting Role Playing situations going on. It's still the psych lim: Code v. Killing but you've defined the personality/character trait of why/how extreme.