Sidume

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Radioio.com

Re: Ape Name Needed Banana Cream Pi Jungle Jim Mr. Simian Software Cybermonkey Punk(s) (or these could be his flunkies) Cyberape (and he gets really mad when it gets mispronounced) DO you already have art? I found this that you might find interesting: http://www.zazzle.com/romeo_designs/product/228923449093500146

Re: Beastboy Changeling/BeastBoy is one of those characters that don't work well in Champions. Shape change can be extremely powerful and/or versatile. The easiest way to do it is to cheat. Create the base character (stats, skills, etc). Give the character a powerpool (say 300 pts, ignoring the normal restriction that multiform & senses shouldn't be in a pool). You are the GM, you can do that. Just slap on alternative advantages & limitations (must be real animals ("real" in the comic sense anyway)), creatures must be green, creatures can be bought with powers - but they must be powers the creature has (bats can have sonar & flight, a hippo can't), etc. With Champions, shapeshifters who aren't limited to a few forms get very expensive.

Re: Lame Superhero Rollcall Anyone in Hero Hotline: Stretch - Tom Longacre, like the Elongated Man he drinks Gingold to gain stretching powers, but prolonged use of Gingold meant that his body's bones and muscles even at rest have so much more elasticity and give, that Stretch has trouble maintaining human form. Microwavebelle - Belle Jackson, amateur scientist who made a device that confers microwave powers and flight. Private Eyes - Lester Lee, private detective with goggles that give telescopic, x-ray, microscopic, and infra-red vision. Diamondette - Diana Theotocopoulos, can make her hands as hard as diamond. Voice-Over - Andy Greenwald, power of super ventriloquism, accomplished vocal mimic. Fred - Invisible and intangible crewmember (possibly a creation of Voice-Over) Mister Muscle - Sturgis Butterfield, is an obsessive bodybuilder, weightlifter and narcissist. Hotshot - Billy Lefferts, meta-human able to shoot fireballs. Zeep the Living Sponge - A living bath sponge, campaigner for super-hero rights and fair pay. Marie the Psychic Turtle - A sentient psychic turtle. Or the Inferior Five. Individuals: Harlequin (aka "Joker's Daughter"), Mal, Bluejay, Jester . . .

Re: Silver bullets, garlic grenades, and all that stuff Many a superhero world has vampires, werewolves, and similar monsters of legend featured therein. Obviously, in such a world, it's advantageous to have garlic, silver, and other substances on hand that can repulse or harm them. So how would you write these things up in game terms? Buy the standard power(s). Buy variable effects advantage. Define it as "Monster Huntin' Gear." In This bag of tricks (with a focus limitation) you would have silver, wooden stakes, garlic, moly, matches, hemlock, okra, kryptonite, etc. Of course, you would need a skill role to know that Monster X doesn't react well to Compound Y. And another one to get the right substance from your bag of tricks, and charges (with burnout) , because you can't be carrying everything, and you might only be able to change what's in the bag after you get back to the Batcave, etc. You are taking advantage of their disads. You don't buy extra damage to justify what you're doing.

Re: Would you allow this Can you describe a situation where an END Reserve is "spending points to limit a power"? Sure. Power X can only draw from the end reserve. If the end reserve is a focus, appropriate limitations apply. If I paid points to have a flashlight, the end reserve would be the battery. If the end reserve is exhausted, I stil have a +1d6 HA, but the Change Environment (light) doesn't function. If paid points for the flashlight & didn't take the focus limitation, it's not fair for GM to take away the flashlight (permanently anyway), but it's perfectly reasonable that the end reserve limits the effectiveness of the power. Dead batteries = no light. As to the original question, I would recommend using the charges modifer. You call it "Shared Charges" as the SFX, but pay as appropriate for charges (limitation or advantage, depending on the number of charges). If -1/4 fits the limitation, fine. Calling it "Shared Charges" and claiming a 1/4 limitation shouldn't apply if you have enough charges that you would be paying as an advantage if you used the book modifier.

Re: Break Concentration Is there a good way to force an opponent to break concentration? I've found that loud noises and waterballoons are great at breaking concentration.

Re: mind scan modifiers What Starlight said is on the money. Mindscan will let you find FlunkyBoy, but will give you no bonus to find Bossman. However, that doesn't mean that being able to find FlunkyBoy is useless. Find FlunkyBoy, and start meaking stealth & shadowing rolls . . .

Re: photographic reflexes Another option (other than the ones listed in the previous thread) is to buy it like this: Eidetic Memory (-x, only applies to physical skills observed, linked to skill levels) 8 Overall Skill Levels (-x, physical skills only; +x, Custom Advantage - can be used for base cost of skill) 2d6 Luck (-x, only to prevent botches on physical skill rolls) GM to determine the costs of "x." For a basic Dex Skill, this give the character a base-dex roll, + 5. Ordinarily, this should be sufficient. If this is a High powered Supers game, you could increase the # of skill levels.

Re: Disads for Dana Scully A low level CvK could be justified. A small Watched: FBI could also fit.

Re: Need a little help with this one I want a darkness attack where when the character hits another with it. It creates a darkness field that follows the target. So far I got 1" darkness...usable as an attack. My question is this: With darkness you usually only have to attack a hex. Does usable as an attack take care of this or would the character get a discount because he actually has to hit the opponent for it to work? __________________ Use darkness like a regular attack power, where you have to target the defender, not the hex. Buy it as sticky. If I were GM'g I'd give you a choice. If this is the only way your darnkess power works, I'd give it to you for free. If you have the option to use darkness either way, you pay for the second one. I wouldn't give you a discount.

Re: Not Quite Arm-Fall-Off Lad I like the very limited duplication idea. But you would need the following on the character: Mindlink (Pieces-of-self only) Teleport (only to Pieces-of-self) Life Support - To allow the character to function w/o whatever part was left somewhere else. This way you don't need clairsentience, stretching, etc. The character is there. You don't need more powers becuse you haven't done anything special with the leftover bits. You can just reassemble. The duplication is expensive, but I think you could slap on a lot more than a -2 power limitation per duplicate.

Re: Instant Unluck UAA I assume that every character has Unluck. They may not have any dice in it, but that's the assumption I make. Some supernatural entities make bad things happen. Buy it as aid to unluck. Luck serves as a defense. Heck, you could even say that symbols of luck act as a defense. Your rabbit's foot may not have helped the rabbit, but it might be enough to foil a poltergeist.

Re: Not Dead Yet On the other hand, you could just buy 8 more Body, and put limitations on it: Trigger +1/4 (Death) Only one charge (-X (Don't have my book at work)) This way you could justify the thing having a little bit of stun, to be able to function. Give it the number of BODY that you want it to have actions, plus whatever defense to prevent it from from being outright destroyed. I tend to go with neg BODY = Dieing, not dead, until the character is negative whatever BODY s/he started with. If you take this approach, you need to give enough BODY that your critters aren't destroyed outright, or this whole discussion is moot. It's sort of like Aquaman's instant recovery when he gets hit with water.

Re: Mental Deflection With Reflection this could be devastating. But it depends on how often mental powers actually pop up. This could easily be a bunch of points that never get used.

Re: Another VPP Question Rogue? Similar idea, as a power mimic, but not the concept. I'm picturing him as a very versatile character with a lot of mind-over-matter potential, but something that might take years to develop. I doubt he'll be played long enough to realize that potential, but that's the idea anyway. In addition to the VPP he has a couple small schticks, but they're very specialized, and don't come into play very often (Like DR 25% Mental-Resistant, Another (much smaller) VPP that only duplicates personal immunity abilities). The big VPP is the biggest thing in his arsenal (and the only offensive thing). He's on a team with a very varied group of other kid supers. We've got a mystic-powersuitist (can't copy), a shaman-lite (can't copy), a martial artist with 12d6 of luck (can't copy), a teleporting ninja with a little mind control (can copy - thank heavens!), and a 10 year old that summons monsters (can copy, but nowhere near what she can, too many points!). Amazingly enough, my character does have one Danger Room win, though he did win on a technicality. Mimicing the instructor saying "it's over" is much more effective when in a darkness field.

Re: C.l.o.w.n. If you lose to Dr. Destroyer, people tend to die. But if you lose to C.L.O.W.N. . . . So what? People laugh at the guys running around in capes and long underwear anyway. And some people just need to be poked fun at.

Re: Another VPP Question Hey Thia, You're right around the corner from this game. It plays in Herndon. * Text untightened. But I still like purple. First, you purchase your VPP normally; I disagree with my brother here in that I feel that you ARE placing serious limitations on the pool itself. Mental Powers Only (-1 1/2), Must Maintain Proximity to Source (-1), Only Mental Powers With No Additional Components (-1). If it were just mental powers, I would agree on the -1 1/2, but it's just limited to things with a mental component, like concentration. It can't copy mystic abilities or foci. It can't copy a brick's tricks. It could copy flight if someone just wills themselves to fly. If target needs wings for flight, he couldn't copy that. I could copy Superman's heat vision, but not his invulnerability. I didn't require the proximity because of the charges. At first, the character was limited only to the charges, proximity was required to recharge. That's far to limiting, so I'm trying to expand it to charges or proximity. And the "No Additional Components" wouldn't really apply. Yes, copying telepathy wouldn't give me Mental Awareness, but I shouldn't take that as a limitation if the character has purchased it separately. Second, the power is... how to say it? Lame? I always use a simple litmus test; not "Would I do that?" but "Can I envision a character that can do that?" Sure, but it's like a very low-level cat, and I don't even know I'd give him a full 90pt VPP, but it's what works for you, not me. Lame? I agree. But that's okay. It fits the game (it's a teen supers game, with people growing into their abilities). And with 90 points I can copy and use several abilities at once, or copy large abilities. The game is fairly high level, so someone throwing a 5d6 RKA isn't that uncommon. Think Teen Titans. While we might not be throwing down with Supergirl, some of the group could give Changeling or Starfire a run. Obviously not my character, at least until I can get him fixed.

Re: Another VPP Question Are you saying he can only use "copied" powers while still in range of the person he copied them from? Mostly. I was thinking that, plus six recoverable charges. Charges are limited to powers he can copy, and he must be in range of a person for 20 minutes to create a charge from that person's power. No open slots, no new power.

Re: What Are Your Hero's Most Embarrassing Moments? After getting backing into a Champions group for the first time in several years, Kingfisher (a flying speedster powersuitist) joined a new hero group. We were investigating a possible Mechanon base. In a mine. Team leader, a brick, reminds the team he's a little claustrophobic, and he might hesitate in the mine, and might need a nudge. My character, having a glass jaw, was situated behind the brick. We got to the mine. Brick failed his EGO roll and froze. Kingfisher kindly gave him a little push. Brick fell. Brick cannot fly. Brick plummets down the mineshaft. Straight down the vertical mineshaft. Down, Down, Down! Our other brick, the one with flight, but not as high defenses, attempts a rescue. Then they discover the autofire laser turrets. Or rather, the turrets discover them. So, the two characters with the highest defenses are plummetting 1/2 a mile straight down a mineshaft, stunned into next week. And one of them has persistent flight - headed straight down! That'll teach me to follow instructions!

Re: Another VPP Question Thanks. I may tweak him to go that route, but making not quite so limited as the "ECV based powers." I want him to be able to copy stuff like teleportation & energy blasts - I want the restriction to apply to foci, mystic & strictly physical stuff. I'll probably take a -3/4 on that. And the sense was already on the character. But the sense wasn't limited to just what he could copy. Thus far, it's been his most useful ability. I reallized that it could be real powerful. That's why I was using the charges, but they were too limiting.

Re: Pet Powers My signature is always coming up with something completely different. That's what I love about the HERO system.

Re: Villains named after Santa's reindeer? Hmmm. Perhaps the leader of Chirstmasland named in Nightmare before Christmas: SANDY CLAWS I'd probably make Cupid the Seductive one, and spin Vixen to be more of a canine-predator/strategist.

Re: Max Human attributes in Street level vs full Superheroic scales I wouldn't call either Batman or Captain America "normals." And they definitely aren't limited by NCM. What I do is impose ABNORMAL Characteristics Max. I allow heroes who still want to be 'human' to buy stats up to 1.5x the NCM (Up to 30 STR, 6 SPD, etc.). This isn't a limitation, it's just what I do as a GM. If you have stats beyond that, you are playing a different archetype. You can have the stats, but you can't be mistaken for human. People with special abilities like "detect superpowers" will notice you if you have too high a stat.

Re: Another VPP Question Thanks GA, Anyone else?