Zeropoint

I was trying to write up a character with "wired reflexes" the other day, which granted, among other things, +3 SPD when active. My first instinct was to use the "Succor" option for the Aid power, since it's specifically designed for such things. I was a little surprised to find out that I was paying MORE points for SPD that I couldn't always use, and that cost END, than if I had just purchased the SPD straight.

I wound up writing it as +3 SPD, non-persistant, costs END.

Does that sound reasonable? or was I doing something wrong with the Succor?

Zeropoint

I've read about recoilless rifles that work by turning the back end of the chamber into a rocket nozzle, creating a high-speed jet of gas which balances the recoil of the projectile. I don't know if they achieve an exact balance, though, and you'd need to have the jet move past you, so it wouldn't work for a pistol. The real ones are over-the-shoulder models.

Zeropoint

This is true to a certain extent. I am an accomplished marksman having earned Expert medals in both pistol and rifle from the US Navy. I am also a closet gunsmith having completed a correspondence course in gunsmithing. When I spoke of muscle control, I was perhaps not very clear. There is very little of brute strength to weapons control. In my experience teaching firearms use, the worst marksmen are those that attempt to use pure brute strength to control the weapons recoil.

 

The thing to remember is that our arms and wrists are flexible. When I mentioned muscle control, I was referring to the technique of using muscle control as a sort of built in spring or flexing action to counter act recoil. This is a very real method used by expert marksmen to control recoil of large caliber weapons. If you add this technique to advanced porting of gases, a high tech blowback action mechanism, and counter weights on the weapon itself to add mass, it should be more than sufficient to counter act the reverse motion effect in zero-g.

No.

Conservation of momentum dictates that if the shooter/gun/bullet system has zero momentum before the shot is fired, the the system will have zero momentum after the shot is fired. That means that however much momentum the bullet has, the shooter and gun will have the same amount in the opposite direction.

Looking at it another way: That bullet started out stationary, and ended up moving at a high speed. That means it experienced acceleration, and that means that it experienced a net non-zero force for some non-zero length of time. Sir Isaac Newton (do they still teach people about him these days?) observed that "All forces in the universe occur in equal but oppositely directed pairs." This means that if a force existed acting on the bullet to move it forward, then somewhere, something was acted on by a force to move it backward (i.e. in the opposite direction that the bullet was fired.) That thing is the person doing the shooting.*

It doesn't matter if you stiff-arm the gun or let your arm flex; an unbalanced force was applied to you. You are now moving and will continue to move unless and until you experience another force which delivers a total impulse (force times duration; pushing half as hard for twice as long yields the same change in velocity) equal to the recoil.

Zeropoint

* Well, it's actually the gasses in the barrel. Which exert a force on the slide (assuming a blow-back action for simplicity's sake) which exerts a force on the recoil spring, which exerts a force on the frame, which exerts a force on the shooter's hand, which exerts a force on the shooter's wrist, which etc, etc.

It's a lot easier just to look at the steady-state conditions which exist before and after the whole firing-and-absorbing-recoil event.

EDIT: check out http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hph.html for a well-orgaized discussion of pretty much the entire field of physics.

Ooh, another Undocumented Features fan? I don't meet many of those. At least, not many who bring it up.

I thought a little bit about a UF campaign. All I've got so far is that it would have a fairly high point level, and that all PC's would be required to know how to play the electric guitar (or some other rock instrument).

Zeropoint

With Grim, Billy, and Mandy already making an appearance, I suggest "Hector" (Con Carne!) for Conquerors, Killers, and Crooks.

Zeropoint

Actually, the bit about bumblebees is a distorted rumor that has life because it's more dramatic than the truth. The truth is that an aerodynamics student ran some numbers and determined that a bumblebee, given its wing area and weight, would have a stall speed higher than its actual top speed--if it were a fixed-wing aircraft. Which, of course, it isn't. Adding powered wings to the mix really changes things. A helicopter doesn't have enough wing area to hold itself up at zero airspeed, but nobody ever claims that it shouldn't fly.

Zeropoint

Well, this isn't a super, but here's a character I wrote up for a space opera game that never materialized:

Kei Yamada

13 STR 3

18 DEX 24

15 CON 10

13 BODY 6

13 INT 3

15 EGO 10

15 PRE 5

14 COM 2

3 PD 0

3 ED 0

4 SPD 12

6 REC 0

30 END 0

27 STUN 0

75 Characteristic cost

Martial Arts:

4 Martial Strike

4 Martial Dodge

3 Legsweep

Skills:

13 Acrobatics 3

13 Breakfall 3

13 Combat Driving 3

12 Concealment 3

12 Criminology 3

13 Fast Draw 3

Language: Galstandard 3

13 Lockpicking 3

12 Paramedics 3

11 PS: Bounty Hunter (free everyman skill)

12 Security Systems 3

12 Shadowing 3

13 Stealth 3

12 Streetwise 3

12 Survival: Urban 3

12 System Operations 3

Comm Systems

Sensor Jamming

12 Weaponsmith: Small Arms 3

WF: Common Melee 2

WF: Small Arms 2

WF: Energy Weapons 2

WF: Beam Weapons 2

Perks:

Licensed Bounty Hunter 5

Hypernet Access 1

Contact: Ghomvak Security 3

Disadvantages:

Overconfidence 15 (very common, moderate)

Soft Spot for Kids 5 (uncommon, moderate)

Distrusts Authority 10 (common, moderate)

Hunted: Pirates 10 (more powerful, limited area, 8- roll)

Hyperspace Sickness 10

Base points: 100

Disad points: 50

Equipment: body armor and guns as appropriate.

Notes:

"Galstandard" is the interstellar language for the campaign; Kei's native tongue is Japanese.

System Operation and Weapon Familiarity have been broken up as suggested on Star Hero 47-48.

The point total was shifted from 75 + 75 to 100 + 50 as suggested by the sidebar on Star Hero 61.

Background & History

Born in poverty in the slums of the resort planet Taowajan, Kei spent her early years in a gang of kids, just trying to get by. Her big break came when she got caught up in a battle between a young bounty hunter and a vicious space monster. By the time the dust had settled, she was on Myce, working as the bounty hunter’s de facto sidekick. At age 18, she became an apprentice, and at 21, a full-fledged hunter of her own. Although she feels nothing but respect and friendship for her “big sisterâ€, she was determined to make her own name, and set out to see what she could accomplish on her own. So far, she’s captured a few local pirates, which has earned her a little recognition, and the enmity of the pirate gangs.

Personality & Motivations

Kei is thoroughly convinced that she can handle whatever the universe throws at her, and based on her performance so far, she might be right. She is forceful, outspoken, and quite the tomboy, but has a strong sense of justice and loyalty to her friends. She remembers what it was like to be a kid on the streets, and has a great deal of sympathy for children in general and poor kids in particular. She also remembers how the Taowajan government was content to let the monster perform some “urban renewalâ€, and how the Tedan Tippedai corporation grossly mishandled its responsibility. This has left her with the belief that governments and large corporations are incompetent at best and actively dangerous at worst.

Quote:

“Bounty target Dren, it’s time to give up!â€

Powers & Tactics

An athletic young woman, Kei relies on speed and agility to get the job done, although she is also aware of the importance of having the right weapon. She can use her street smarts and investigative training to track down her prey, but by the time she gets there, she usually runs out of patience and goes in with guns blazing for the capture. When she knows that she’s in for a fight, she wears full body armor and packs multiple weapons, and almost always has at least a pistol and a knife with her.

As a licensed bounty hunter, Kei is allowed to carry weapons, arrest bounty targets, and deal with criminals who pose an immediate public danger in most jurisdictions.

Appearance

Kei is a (mostly) Japanese woman with red hair that might reach her shoulders if it wasn’t an unruly mass of spikes. Behind her left ear she has a cluster of hair beads, which are common on Myce…for men. When hunting, she wears a blue multi-layered cloak over a gray armor/black bodysuit ensemble. Otherwise, she usually wears the same cloak over loose-fitting casual clothes, some of which may be men’s clothing.

Kei, of course, is the character Kei from

Iria: Zeiram the Animation. I've tried to imagine what she would be like as an adult. I borrowed liberally from Iria herself, which seemed appropirate, given that Fujikoro observed that they were exactly alike, and Iria also noticed a resemblance. Her appearance is basically a palette-swapped Iria; I wasn't too creative at this point.

Zeropoint

I was thinking more like, you look and fail your PER roll, so you don't see the character at all. You look away, look back and make the roll this time, so you see the character standing there with NO indication that he is supposed to be invisible. As far as you can tell, either he silently moved in while you weren't looking, or you somehow failed to notice him even though he was standing right next to you.

Without IPE, if you managed to spot the character, you'd know that he was using invisiblity. That's what I had in mind when I thought of this.

Zeropoint

Special Agent Trent, AKA "Agent Orange" (my most recent PC) wears a standard government-issue black suit and sunglasses, more as a uniform than a costume, because as far as he's concerned, he's not a superhero. But, the outfit does project some attitude: "I am all business. I do not have a sense of humor." In that outfit, he's not flashy or colorful, he's just out to get the job done, the innocents protected, and the villain apprehended as efficiently as possible.

Also, it acts as a barrier between him and other people--"I am a faceless government agent." Since the incident which inflicted his powers on him, he has been unsure of his own mind, and is uncomfortable interacting on a personal level.

I suppose its also a psychological crutch: "I am calm and in control", which he desperately needs, since the changes to his brain have left him a little unstable, and he's afraid of hurting someone again.

Hmm. I guess even a non-costume can have some significant meaning.

In real life, the only difference my Navy uniform makes for me is that I salute officers when I'm wearing it. It's just clothes.

Zeropoint

I had been thinking about using San Angelo as the basis for a campaign, but setting it in the Champions universe. However, the more I look at the two settings, the more I feel that they just wouldn't work together. It would be easy enough to adjust the point levels in San Angelo to the new 350 point standard, but the real difference is the feel of the universes--SA presents a much more "realistic" and low powered world, whereas the CU is a very four-color place with near-cosmic powers at work.

As far as I can tell, simply stating that the city of San Angelo exists within the Champions universe will remove most of the differences that make it unique and attractive as a setting, leaving me with nothing but a place where super/normal relations are a little closer than elsewhere.

Now, that could be interesting in its own right--a city where supers mingle with normal society regularly, where you might find yourself standing behind a super in line at the coffe shop, or a super stops at a little Mom & Pop grocery for the best home-home made burritos in town.

But it wouldn't be San Angelo, as described in the book.

Anyone out there have experience integrating the two? Or better thought-out reasons why it shouldn't be done?

Zeropoint

If I were to give a character the power Invisibility with the advantage Invisible Power Effects, what would happen? The way I see it, all the game mechanical effects of Invisibility would still apply (other characters can't see the character from a distance at all, and need a PER roll up close), but for anyone who DID manage to see the character, there would be no indication that he was invisible.

Sort of a, "GAHH! Where'd YOU come from?" effect. Perfect for ninja or other characters who are "very, very sneaky."

Just wondering.

Zeropoint

Thanks! That looks just about perfect.

Zeropoint

Does anyone know of a site where I could get some kind of three-dimensional coordinates for nearby stars? I've found lists sorted by distance and brightness, and I've found a cool 3D map, but what I really want is just a list of where the stars are, so I can make sure my game universe matches reality.

Zeropoint

Regarding the K'dathkhonev language and its myriad variants of "rain": you also need to consider the number of phonemes available for the language, and the rules for constructing syllables from them. Unless the language has a very large number of sounds (possibly including sounds that a human can neither produce nor distinguish) and/or a very liberal set of syllable construction rules (compare English vs. Japanese), it may turn out that there aren't enough syllables to make a thousand unique three syllable words for every basic concept.

Of course, there are many different ways to alter the sound of a phoneme. A vowel could be shorter or longer, higher or lower pitched, rising, steady, or falling in pitch, in addition to simply having the tongue, lips, and cheeks (and any other applicable mouthparts) in various positions. A language that regards all of these as meaningful distinctions would probably be very hard for humans to learn.

Oh, one more thing: you might want to look into "artificial languages" or "constructed languages" (AKA 'conlangs') for more information on just what goes into making up a language.

Zeropoint

Special Agent Trent works for the FBI, so if HE knows what this villain's secret ID is, then it's public knowledge. Also, Trent doesn't have a secret ID of his own, so there's nothing to give away.

If it's a villain whose powers come from foci, he gets arrested on the spot. If it's someone with innate powers, he's not going to start a super-brawl with his sister present, so he will instead take her aside and make sure that she knows what she's dealing with and that he does NOT approve.

Wait a minute, if Trent (and by extension the FBI and PRIMUS and any other concerned organizations, groups, and individuals) knows this villain's secret ID, why are they still running around free in the first place?

Zeropoint

The character sheet is in the next state, with my old GM, but here's the basic info on this "Special Agent Trent" guy I've mentioned on occasion.

Special Agent Michael Trent, code name "Agent Orange" is an FBI agent who was competent but fairly unremarkable until he managed to get himself captured by VIPER. They used him as a test subject in a machine designed to grant mental powers, but it worked a lot better than they expected, and he wound up with psychokinesis.

Unfortunately for him, his brain was never meant to handle that kind of ability, and the process left him with two problems. First, he has an increased tendancy toward anger and aggression. Second, any exposure to mental powers causes him excruciating pain, and further stimulates his aggressive tendancies.

As a result of a minor rampage during his debriefing/testing, he's been getting bad assignments lately, such as government liason/damage control for a new superteam (the other PC's from the campaign).

His powers all relate to psychokinesis; he can fly and protect himself with a force field. He also has a multipower with three different versions of telekinesis, each trading control for power to some degree, a psychokinetic energy blast, teleportation (7" with safe blind teleport and a x2048 non-combat multiplier--at 18 miles a hop, it's perfect for long-distance travel), regeneration, and spatial awareness justified as "psychokinetic tactile feedback". He also carries a gun, wears a radio, and has the legal powers of an FBI agent.

On the downside, he's got both a vulnerability AND a susceptibility to mental powers, so even things that arent' attacks can hurt him. Yep, I've got a hero that can be taken down by mind scan.

He's also got Enraged in combat at a low level, and by mental powers at a higher level. He's also quite, quite certain that his powers make him more or less invincible, despite the fact that he doesn't have any persistent defenses, and has the stat line of a normal, not a superhero. He was very nearly killed (deep negative body) by a flung table and subsequent trampling by the team brick, because he didn't have his force field on.

He was loosely inspired by Tetsuo Shima, although his powers were nowhere near that level. He didn't have quite so many problems, either.

I only got to use this character for a few sessions, and I kind of miss him.

Zeropoint

Thanks for the clarification regarding the erattum.

Not using the "mass" limitation, at least not on all the armor, looks like the way to go. Actually, since this is for a heroic campaign and the players will be spending cash, rather than points, for the armor, I can just define the weight however I want, I guess.

Thanks for the help!

Zeropoint

Well, you answered the first question: DEF x armor provides x rPD *and* x rED. That's good to know.

I'm going to walk through my math now. Please, correct me if I'm going wrong.

The writeup for the armor in question is:

Armor (12 PD/12 ED) (36 Active Points); OIF (-1/2), Mass (half mass; -1/2), Reall Armor (-1/4). Real Cost: 16 points.

According to the Weight Table in Fred, DEF 10 full coverage armor masses 80 kg. That's as high as the table goes, but the first complete sentence in the right-had column states that mass "doubles for every +2 DEF." This would yield a base mass of 160 kg for a suit of full coverage DEF 12 armor. Applying the "half mass" limitation, we arrive at a final mass of 80 kg for the suit.

HOWEVER! That same sentence reads in whole, "The base mass is equal to 2.5 kg. at DEF 2, and doubles for every + 2 DEF." This disagrees with the table, which gives a mass of 5.0 in the Full Coverage column for DEF 2. Using this more favorable number, the base mass for a full-coverage 12 DEF suit would be only 80 kg, yielding just 40 kg after the "half mass" is applied.

It's quite possible that I'm missing something, and the text and the table don't actually disagree.

Also, when I compare DEF 12 to the weapons that the characters will likely be packing, it looks like that armor would make them effectively invulnerable, at least to handguns, so it is perhaps reasonable that it would slow its wearer down, in terms of game balance.

Here's a followup question while I'm at it: if I want to represent armor composed of a bodystocking of some high-tech fabric with rigid plates covering the more vital areas, do I write that up as

A) one full coverage suit for the bodystocking, and a partial-coverage suit for the plates, adding the DEF where they are both present,

or

a partial-coverage suit representing the areas covered by the plates and bodystocking, with another partial-coverage suit for the areas covered by just the bodystocking.

It seems like approach B would be heavier and thus the "more expensive" and therefore correct method. I suppose I'd still need to write up the bodystocking on its own, though, if it can be worn without the plates.

Well, I hope that's easier to follow than my first post.

Zeropoint

Butting in where I'm not invited:

In my own experience, that wasn't a problem. BUT: I lived in a berthing area populated by reactor department electronics technicians, several of which were first classes. Nuke ET's are (if you don't mind me bragging up my own rate) some of the neatest and best-behaved people on the ship (due to a number of factors including but not limited to greater education and age), and the presence of first class petty officers also adds a stabilizing influence. Basically, my particular berthing space didn't stink noticeably.

Having said that, I have met some people with less than adequate personal hygiene. Also, when a carrier is in equatorial waters, the air conditioning systems (at least in enlisted territory) just can't keep up, and people do a lot of sweating.

Imagine a 20' x 40' space with about a hundred guys living in it. Guys fresh out of high school, who spend all day sweating.

Zeropoint

The attack costing issue sounds vaguely as if all attacks are purchased through a Multipower.

Being familiar with both Hero and BESM, I would go for more of a "concept-level" conversion than trying for numerical equivalents. But, having said that:

BESM Body = DEX, STR, CON, BOD

BESM Mind = INT

BESM Soul = EGO, PRE

COM would be based on the "Appearance" attribute, and the Hero physical characteristics would, of course, have to account for Damn Healthy!, Super Strength, and Not So Fast/Strong/Tough.

As for damage classes of BESM attacks, the BESM "normal" has 40 Health Points compared to the Hero normal's 10 BODY. 15 BESM damage is 37.5% of the character's original health, which makes it pretty close to a 1d6 Killing Attack (3.5 BODY on average). From these numbers, I would say that every 5 points of BESM damage is a Hero damage class, roughly.

Some BESM Attributes are going to be Hero skills (Art of Distraction or Animal Friendship, for instance). Other attributes, such as Flight or Telekinesis are defined in real-world terms.

I'd convert Extra Attacks to SPD and maybe levels for Sweeping. Combat Mastery sounds like Combat Skill Levels, and Focused Damage would probably be Extra Damage Classes purchased through martial arts. Massive Damage, whereby a character does more damage with ANY attack, has no direct equivalent in Hero, although you could buy a Weapon Element for every WF the character has.

With a little thought, you should be able to make conversions that will keep everybody happy. I'd also suggest visiting Michael Surbrook's webpage to look at some of the anime/manga character writeups that he's done for Hero; those could give you some insight, especially if you had a BESM writeup of the same character.

I hope you found this helpful.

Zeropoint

Special Agent Trent, AKA "Agent Orange" is only one bad Enraged episode away from being a villian anyway, so I imagine his evil counterpart isn't very evil. He and his other self would probably sit back and wait for the fight to play itself out while complaining about what a huge hassle it was, then try to get people working together so everyone could go home.

Trent activley dislikes and distrusts the team brick, having been nearly killed (negative BODY) by him at one point (not the brick's fault, since he was hallucinating at the time). If the brick's evil twin won, Trent would finish him off with his telekinetic powers. Evil Trent would probably let him.

Trent would intervene to save the life of his teammates or any innocents, of course.

Zeropoint

Could you model it with Precognition? After all, the net result of using this power is that you now have a good idea what might happen in the next five seconds, if you act as you originally intended to.

Assuming, that is, that the power rewinds *everything* except the character's memory.

Zeropoint

Darien Fawkes, from the SciFi Channel's Invisible Man series.

I really liked that show.

Zeropoint

I've been trying to figure out the mass for the "Full Body Armor" listed on SH 155, and I'm coming up with some confusing results.

First, does the weight table on 5E 334 refer to the TOTAL defense of the armor (i.e. PD + ED) or to a general DEF value (so that "defense 4" gives both 4 PD and 4 ED)?

Second, the text indicates that full coverage armor weighs 2.5 kg at DEF 2, while the table lists it as 5.0 kg for the same defense--which is it?

Under a best-case interpretation the armor comes out at 40 kg, which still seems like a lot of weight--my 13 STR character is going to be at -2 DCV, - 1" of movement, and will burn 1 END per turn just standing around in the stuff. (Under a worst-case interpretation, it's 160 kg, and she can't even stand up in it.)

However, I guess that's not bad for armor that will stop a .44 magnum 100% of the time.

I'd appreciate clarification on this issue, and any comments you might have on how you've handled armor weight in your games, either from a GM's or player's perspective.

Zeropoint

Happy New Year!

I once played in a game where a PC had this ability, and it turned out to be far more powerful than it would seem at first glance. Remember that in most super-heroic fights, characters are taken down by Stun damage, not Body.

I'd suggest some heavy stun-only damage reduction instead.

Zeropoint