boomer

Re: Bullet TIme!

Re: Bullet TIme! It is always on and yes.....even with gloves on he very rarely touches anyone....he gets that "you're being rude" look when he refuses to shake hands in his normal ID.....but he's a software engineer in a silicon valley company (Mamon......my friend made it up on the spot....) and considered one of those "eclectic geniuses" so his introverted behavior isn't really frowned upon. He lives with the constant trauma of the first manifestations of his power when he was 13. He was petting his favorite cat when all of a sudden it literally shrank to a bony husk and died a horrible death. Just because he touched it. I always try and balance what could be a powerful character with some kind of psych or phyisical trauma to keep him/her in check. Adds depth and keeps you from becomming Power Gamer.....

Re: Bullet TIme!

Re: Bullet TIme! Never really thought of the sfx of it......it's a part of his being born a mutant.....the STR drain is a side effect of his accelerated reaction times (ie his Speed Powers). It's only limited to the palms of his hands though. Never really delved into why that became a side effect, I guess you can say it was the curse to go with his gift.

Re: Bullet TIme! I decided to make a speedster that was a bane to bricks.....the huge drawback was he could never touch another human without his hands uncovered. The STR drain adds to his END for all his Speedster skills. The relation to bullet time is, like most speedsters, the character can get off multiple attacks (thus the autofire HA) and looks like a blur to the attacker, but from the speedsters point of view it looks like slo mo......I found the build interesting and wanted to see if it would over balance my speedster adding it to him. I think he's pretty balanced now though.

Re: Bullet TIme! Thank you all....that explains things nicely....although to add it to my speedster will make him way overpowered.....he already has a str drain via the palm of his hands and has an autofire punch/touch with multiple move-bys.......thus they name Siphon also known as Brick Bane.....

Re: Bullet TIme! Is he strong enough to break the gun barrels, or is he just going that fast that he interrupts the molecules of the metal......? Just curious how that would work unless he's super strong. (Has a speedster too......)

Re: The Guitar Hero But only if Peasants present.......

Re: The Guitar Hero Sounds like my Mutant Master of Sound, Heavy Metal.....he used a guitar as a focus for his Sonic blast......of course he didn't need it, but he used it for effect.

Re: OHID vs Shape Shift No constant powers......and if he's stunned he doesn't revert nor would he need to do gestures and incantations...that's only to transform into El Sol. The rest sounds good though. Thank you Sir.

Re: OHID vs Shape Shift Your last part answered my question. So I can do without the OIHID on the wristbands and just keep the Incantations and Gestures.......

Re: OHID vs Shape Shift Thanks KS...will do. It's been awhile since I created that character. I did make his wristbands as Foci and built his EC-Sun Powers based on them. Although I believe I added OIHID as a limitation on the EC....but not on the Foci. Was that a correct build? It seemed logical at the time. "A power cannot take both OIHID and a Focus Limitation. However, you can use OIHID to simulate characters who seem to have a Focus, but somehow never lose it." (5er, p302). Just noticed this item from Stevezilla's post. So then how should I have built my wristband foci then? The endow the wearer with Environmental Control-Sun Powers; these include: Flight, EB, FF and Transform (Instant change from normal person to avatar of the Aztec Sun God). But until the person says the incantation and uses the gesture (smashing the two bands together) then undergoes the transformation, the powers are inert. So they are OIHID..........help me correct this guy......

Re: kyle radnor the last legionary Depends on the campaign. He sounds a bit like Riddick. Is he the only one that opposes the DeathWing? (Never heard of the series so other than the background you supplied I don't know all his background). Most Star Hero campaigns I know of...at least the one I played in.....you were members of a Military Unit that kept the Order in the Galaxy against tyranical ex Military types (the Genius General gone mad..) or the strange Alien Race that you just can't come to terms with because they are insidious and EVIL.....Would he be able to focus on a mission and not run off at the first sign of Deathwings? Would he be able to work as part of a team? If the answer is no to either one, then he wouldn't make a good character because most RPG's are about Teamwork.

Re: OHID vs Shape Shift So he can become metal...ala Colossus? If so, then that's shapeshift or even a transform of some kind. OHID is usually reserved for characters with a focus that allows them to transform into their Hero ID. Take my Energy Projector El Sol. He found wristbands of a priest of Huichilobos (most likely spelled wrong sorry). When he utters the command "Yo Soy El Sol" and clashes those wristbands together he becomes an avatar of the Aztec God of the Sun. Complete with traditional dress, Mask, etc. They used to call that "Instant Change" but now that's considered a form of "transform". All his powers though are OIHId because they are just wristbands unless you perform the gesture and incantations.

Re: Campaign: Classic Champions Universe Sounds like it's going to be an awesome campaign.....glad to see PSI and Zodiac come into play......they are really cool teams. I based my old campaign out of SF and had CLOWN paint the Golden Gate Bridge Hot Pink once as a prank.

Re: Campaign: Classic Champions Universe Island of Dr. Destroyer is one of my favorite adventures......you might want to get ahold of the old PSI and Zodiac supplements. Those are great old school Villan teams with lot's of ideas for adventures.

Re: Alien Wars campaign help/talk It's turning out to be kind of a balancing act, on the one hand I want to develop a kind of Aliens atmosphere with just a few guys really knowing, and relying on each other, This you can do by limiting your squad sizes....say 10 to a squad. Like Rico's Roughnecks...small squad but real close, almost a family.

Re: Alien Wars campaign help/talk It looks good Man. I don't think you are forgetting anything. It's a good sized force (I remember our Space Marines had a battlecruiser cloaked in orbit around Earth) and I like your breakdown of troops. So are the squads going to have Specialists? My namesake Boomer is a Confed Marine but his specialty is hacking security systems, hacking computers, comlinks, re-programming scanners to pinpoint what the team is looking for, and Demolitions. Real Life Marines are all considered Riflemen even if they are Medics, etc. Looks good though. I like the potential for an ongoing campaign you've set up. Heck you can even do a BlackHawk Down scenario where the regular grunts have to go in and rescue the SF guys.

Re: Opinion Fluff: Game Mastering Styles You just described the fate of my poor Ogier in our FH game. He ran to get the City Watch (he was that kind of "good" aligned type of character) and they followed him in the Tavern, then jumped him. He blocked all attackes except for some big half-giant who got a lucky hit.....the GM looked around the table and asked "anyone got any Luck they want to give to the Ogier?" I had about 6 die of Luck donated to me, but it didn't matter....the dice weren't on my side that night. The GM really did try to not kill that character.

Re: You, or your PC? Some of my characters have traits of me (funny thing you ask this, we did a game once where we wrote ourselves up in Hero terms and the GM actually ran a game with us as us in a "what if you were attacked by werewolves right now" situation. Good thing we were at the Fumbler's house as he had a rack of swords and a .357 in a case.....weapons were handy in game terms) but most of my characters are designed by what I'm creating them to be. I usually go with a concept when creating a new character. For example: My Namesake Boomer.....he's no where near me. He's 6' 4", solidily built, very Aryan looking (Nordic background..Erik "Boomer" Johanssen) and he's a Confederation Marine as well as a Noviatiate Clansmen (our version of Jedi) in Clan Nogano. He's also a Programmer and Hacker Extraordanaire as well as being very intelligent. Me, I'm 5 5, Sicillian, a bit overweight, in my 40's, and don't have much hair left....I have a college education, but I'm no where as brillant as Boomer is. Why a Hacker Marine??? The Squad needed a guy that could bypass security systems and update scanner programs to better help the team. Granite is a Body Builder and a roid head......see description of the real me for comparison. T'Lac my Ranger character in our Fantasy Hero game has aspects of Aragorn and Faramir (actually a screen shot of Faramir from the movies is his character pic as he resembles that actor in appearance) but I've also made him the deeply tragic hero (he was head of Ducal Security and Skaven under the command of a Demoness overran the Dukes dining hall, knocking the character unconcious and killing everyone). Me, I'm no tragic hero.....I work in a billing department......to me the whole fun of character creation is to create another person/being (I love playing Felines in our Fantasy Hero world and I've played a Drill Seargent Dwarf and a Draconian....no Elves though as I've played plenty of those in D&D...oh and I played an Ogier once (similar to Jordan's; actually the Fantasy Hero world we play in takes alot from Jordan) that our GM truly hated killing, but it was the situation I put him in....). I know most of us read Fantasy and Sci Fi, and I find it a challenge to create similar characters but not exact copies. Okay I did write up Clancy's John Clark once, but the conditions of character creation for that game screamed Rainbow Six Himself.

Re: Rest in Peace: Bob Bledsaw Don't know the name, but from the background you've posted it is indeed a dark time for Fantasy Gaming. RIP

Re: I need help with a Talent? Perk? Skill? Can't speak for him, but I gather there may be Political machinations going on as part of the session. Or the character may be a Televangelist or something......

Re: Opinion Fluff: Game Mastering Styles That's what we did. We ran with the rule for the session to see if we liked it. If it was obvious it sucked...I mean blatantly obvious....the GM nixed it. If it worked but was flawed, during dinner break or smoke break we discussed it. Because like Steve says..."it's a toolkit....".

Re: Opinion Fluff: Game Mastering Styles We used to adjust rules between sessions if we felt they unbalanced things....ended up with lots of house rules that way. Sometimes the character history of a certain character was sooo cool that the GM would work it into the ongoing story line...with real cool results. Firken the womanizing, Gambler who is actually the long lost heir to the throne of Gimroon.........yeah I know...been there done that before, but it added pizazz to our campaign because this supposed "lout" was being bowed to and given preferential treatment by some powerful NPC's we had run into in the past.......Of course once we fought the good fight and planted his ass on the throne, he became an NPC...but that helped the storyline along as well because now we had a Royal Patron who would hire our band of miscreants. It also launched a long running campaign that claimed two of my characters before it was resolved.

Re: wizard powers (spells, etc) What Sbarron said. I did a Mage and built him a spell book. Basically built "spells" that he could use in his VPP whenever he needed them. You can do the same...build his "books" so that way in combat you have the spell already built and ready to go.