DataPacRat

Re: Building grenades for a grenade launcher

Yes, I'm still fiddling around with this thing off-and-on. Maybe going to end up building a 'tangler' Entangle round, or an EMP one (if I can figure out how exactly an EMP should be built).

Decided to make it a Personal Focus, since that's technically feasible even now.

Noticed some oddities with the various grenades' various ranges... the KO gas grenade can be fired up to 200" away, but the flashbang only 100". And, even odder, the two halves of the stink bomb have different ranges... any idea which one should apply?

I'm also thinking of turning all the grenades into 'smart grenades', which can be put into place to be detonated on a radio trigger, or when tampered with (though I haven't quite decided whether to use the +1/4 or +1/2 version of Trigger)... or, even more fun, after a certain time (I'm guessing just +1/4 Time Delay), to give them speakers to recite that classic line, "I am a thirty second bomb! 29, 28..." Can't add them to the KO gas or smoke grenades without increasing the multipower size, unfortunately, but they can be added to all the others without even increasing any of their slot-costs...

40mm Force-pushed Grenade Launcher: [29]

[20] Multipower (40 active pts), OAF (-1), Personal Focus (Magnetic lock: magnetic ring required to fire), Can Only Carry 28 Defined Charges From All The Slots At A Time (-0)

[2u] KO Gas: Energy Blast 2d6 (base 10), No Normal Defense (LS: Self Contained Breathing, holding breath; +1), AoE Radius (+1), Continuous (+1) (active 40, range 200"), 8 continuing charges lasting 1 turn (-0), STUN Only (-0), OAF (-1) (real 20)

[1u] CS Tear Gas (spells like apple blossoms): Flash 3d6 Smell/Taste Group (base 9), AoE Radius (+1), Continuous (+1), Time Delay (+1/4), Trigger (variable, +1/2) (active 29, range 150"), 8 continuing charges lasting 1 turn (-0), OAF (-1) (real 15)

[1u] Paint: Transform, Cosmetic (target into brightly colored target, healed back by cleaning), 3d6 (base 15), Partial Transform (+1/2), Time Delay (+1/4), Trigger (variable, +1/2) (active 34, range 170"), 8 charges (-1/2), OAF (-1) (real 14)

[1u] Smoke Grenades: Darkness to sight group 3" (base/active 30, range 150"), 8 continuing charges lasting 1 turn (-0), OAF (-1) (real 15)

[1u] Flashbang: Flash, Sight and Hearing Groups, 3d6 (base 20), Time Delay (+1/4), Trigger (variable, +1/2) (active 35, range 175"), 8 charges (-1/2), OAF (-1) (real 14)

[1u] Parachute Flare: Images, Sight Group (10), PER Roll +/- 1 (3) (base 13) Increased Size (4" radius; +1/2), 8 Continuing Charges lasting 1 Minute each (+1/2), Time Delay (+1/4), Trigger (variable, +1/2) (active 36, range 180"), Only to Create Light (-1), OAF (-1), Only Outdoors/High Ceiling (-1/4) (real 11)

[1u] Stink Bomb part 1, Disability: Change Environment, 2" radius (10), -1 DCV, -1 OCV (10) (base 20), Trigger (variable, +1/2) (active 30, range 150"), 8 continuing charges lasting 1 turn (-0), OAF (-1) (real 15)

[1u] Stink Bomb part 2, Smell: Darkness, Smell/Taste Group, 2" radius (base 10), Trigger (variable, +1/2) (active 15, range 75"), 8 continuing charges lasting 1 turn (-0), OAF (-1), Linked (Change Environment; -1/2) (real 6)

Re: Fourth-tier super-teams

Perfect!

 

My wife and I toured the tunnels behind the falls about 12 years ago, and at the time I was imagining a villain base there (as well as plotting out battles over the falls and atop the Minolta tower). Great game setting.

Ruminations on other local hero-type possibilities:

Buffalo Wing: a flying brick (named after the food-thing invented locally)

Hydro Guy: An electric-themed super rather than a water one. (Locals call their electric bill the 'hydro' bill, after 'hydro-electricity.)

Laura Secord: Some sort of cow/milk/chocolate theme. (after local War of 1812 heroine and chocolatier)

Mr. Grape: Local annual Grape & Wine Festival mascot, looks like a never-dried California Raisin.

Re: Fourth-tier super-teams

Well, gearing toward your "Niagara" location:

 

The NDs stopped a plot by Captain Canuck to destroy the *New York* side of the waterfall, leaving the Falls belonging only to Canada!!!

Not bad, though I'd add one word to the end of that: "... again." (Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Dryniagara.jpg .)

"Yeah, we know that our big fight with Turbocharge a few years back took place at the exact same time as that big blackout that took out power throughout the northeast US for several days. The two aren't connected in any way. Honest."

Promptly stolen, along with the note "I should have thought of that first..."

"This is like when my teammate's battle armor was shorted out by Mist Maid's vapor cloud." (If you don't get where Mist Maid gets her name, the boat that takes tourists to the bottom of the falls is named Maid of the Mist.) "Those helmet eye holes will get you every time."

This fits in well with my idea for the powered-armor fellow of the team... who, obviously, could only be named one thing: The Barrel.

No less than four supervillain groups (granted, that included the sentient beavers) had bases hidden in tunnels behind the falls. The US Army Corps of Engineers estimates that one more base could cause the falls to collapse.

I'd already planned on the Daredevils to have a base back there, nicknamed 'Heno's Cave' (or, depending on the reporter, 'Hero's Cave'), based on the real-world tunnels shown at http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=5921 , http://www.vanishingpoint.ca/tailrace.html , http://www.worksongs.com/archives/2006/11/dear_mom_i_fina.php , http://www.worksongs.com/archives/2006/11/open_up.php , http://www.worksongs.com/archives/2006/11/tourist_trap.php , http://www.vanishingpoint.ca/daily/index.php?id=40 , http://www.vanishingpoint.ca/temp/sight-of-the-falls.jpg , http://www.vanishingpoint.ca/daily/index.php?id=41 (found via http://www.metafilter.com/57757/Daredevils ).

Re: VPP: Number crunching, Complementary Skill, or bonus Skill Level?

That would be a problem. Special Powers (including ALL Enhanced Sences' date=' and Extra Limbs) can never be put in a framework (5ER page 311).[/quote']

My Unrevised 5e book suggests that 'never' may be circumvented: p203: "Characters cannot purchase Special Powers and Talents in Power Frameworks, except with the GM's permission (for example, a GM should allow a character to build sunglasses [Flash Defense] or a telescope [Enhanced Senses] with his Gadget VPP)." (Emphasis added.)

 

I'm planning on scribbling out a list of suggested powers for this PC's Gadget VPP to give to the GM, and to generally stick within that list during play.

Has there ever been any mention of how the real-world skepticism movement has been altered in the Champions universe (or any other superhero one)?

For example, here, The Amazing Randi has a standing million-dollar prize to anyone who can demonstrate the supernatural. In Champions, he'd probably never /have/ made that challenge: "Show me something supernatural and I'll believe in it." "Here you go: " "Okay."

I suppose one approach might be for them to debunk /false/ claims of the paranormal... another might be for CSICOP's focus to be, not debunking as in our world, but actual, active scientific /investigation/ (that 'SI' in their acronym) of the paranormal. (Insert various adventure seeds with that as a premise here.)

What do you think?

Re: VPP: Number crunching, Complementary Skill, or bonus Skill Level?

It's an idea from The Ultimate Skill. A gadget based VPP can be used to grant skills the character doesn't normally have as well as give bonuses to ones that they do have. However a skill based VPP doesn't necessarily have to take the Focus Limitation. It's like the Cramming Talent on steroids.

Well, since I'd also like to use this pool for binoculars and other Enhanced Senses, flashlight, waldoes (Extra Limbs), a small fire extinguisher, and similar handy items, I don't think a skill-only VPP would be the best way to build it.

Re: VPP: Number crunching, Complementary Skill, or bonus Skill Level?

It sounds like you're trying to mix a Skill Pool with a Gadget Pool. It might be less confusing to build them separately.

'Skill Pool'? I'm afraid that I'm not familiar with what you're referring to.

Re: VPP: Number crunching, Complementary Skill, or bonus Skill Level?

Note that you will be running afoul of two different rules' date=' one of which has been mentioned (a 6 point VPP can contain Powers with a maximum of 6 Active Points each) and the other being that Limitations can only be placed on Skill Levels of at least 5 points.[/quote']

 

Are you sure? I'm looking at my book (Fifth Edition Unrevised), under Skills, at Skill Levels, which reads, "The smallest Skill Level on which a character can place a Limitation is a 3-point Level." Has that been changed?

Re: VPP: Number crunching, Complementary Skill, or bonus Skill Level?

Well' date=' to start off with, you can't put a 9 Active Point ability into a 6 point VPP. [/quote']

 

Whoops; I saw under Distributing Power Pool Points mention of the combined /Real/ Cost not exceeding the Pool, and forgot about that little detail about each power's /Active/ cost being so limited, too.

Let's say that Our Hero is a gadgeteer with a bit of superheroing experience under her belt, and likes to be prepared for everything.

According to the comics, at least every few years, the Villain of the Month will be some sort of supernatural menace, surprisingly often vampires.

So, then, with access to Father O'Malley's blessings, how would you go about building a Holy Water Gun, Garlic Salt & Pepper Spray, Silver Nitrate Dispenser, and similar harmless-to-normal-folk equipment? I haven't found any examples in any of my HERO books yet...

My newest gadgeteer currently has a small VPP, a 6-point pool with OAF.

One of the examples for Skills as a Power lists "Lockgun: Lockpicking 12- (9 Active Points); OAF (-1). Total cost: 4 points", which seems a sane enough writeup.

However... what if the PC already has Paramedics 13-, and I want her to pull out a medkit? Would it be better to describe it as Paramedics 14- (13 Active, OAF, total cost 6) and used as a complementary skill roll... or would the odds be better if it was built as a /bonus/ to her current Paramedics skill with "Skill Level: +4 to three related skills including Paramedics (12 Active Points); OAF. Total cost: 6 points"?

Admit it - you like "Mystery Men", the Substitute Legion, and the "Great Lakes Avengers", and other fourth-string teams. Not the first-tier team that takes care of world-spanning problems, or the second-tier team that takes care of the whole East Coast, or the third-tier team that takes care of a single megacity... but the team the next layer down, who have their own little city.

I've recently proposed to my PBeM GM that my PC had been a member of such a team for a few years, and am trying to come up with suitable background events... things that the higher-class heroes deal with, but scaled down to fourth-tier levels. For example, the classic cliche of Our Heroes meeting some new nonhumans: the first-tier folk deal with all sorts of aliens, the second-tier get to meet Atlanteans, the third tier, well, maybe Bigfoot and Yeti (at least they have some media exposure)... and my fourth-tier fella met a local hidden tribe of... sentient beavers. (I even have a reason for that particular species: a real-world historical document, visible at http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:Moll_-_Inset_Beaver_Map.png .)

When the Big, World-Shaking Event of the Millenium crops up... they have trouble chartering some transport to get there before it's over.

In the top-quality local newspaper (published in the nearest third-tier team's city rather than their own), they don't get either "World Saved!" or "Heroes: Threat or Menace?" headlines, just a few column-inches on page six.

What other cliches can you think of to tweak fun at?

(In case you're wondering: they're the "Niagara Daredevils", who were legally enjoined to always use 'Niagara' in their name to avoid confusion with someone else's trademark. Sure, with the big power plants as a target, /any/ villain may have shown up, of any power... but more usually it's because they're on their honeymoon. (And yes, they have their own backup group of fifth-tier heroes with powers not quite good enough... and a backup-backup group of sixth-tier people with powers that are almost anti-powers...))

Re: Building grenades for a grenade launcher

I think you're better off building a 60 pt multipower' date=' with each slot representing the different grenades you want. You can put charges on each slot as well. Your grenades will be more effective with 60 pts too, instead of just 20 pts.[/quote']

 

After a quick chat with my GM, he also suggests MultiPower. And http://www.herogames.com/SupportFAQs/revisedrules/POWER%20FRAMEWORKS.htm happens to suggest a limit on the MultiPower cost, "Can Only Carry X Defined Charges From All The Slots At A Time (-0)", where X is around half the total slots' charges.

 

The current build is like so. I've already trimmed away a couple of points elsewhere, and there are about 10 points of skills that aren't /completely/ essential to the character concept that I could trim if I really needed to pay for something else, such as increasing some of the grenades' slot-costs from 1u to 2u.

 

 

40mm Force-pushed Grenade Launcher: [29]

[20] Multipower (40 active pts), OAF (-1), Can Only Carry 28 Defined Charges From All The Slots At A Time (-0)

[2u] KO Gas: Energy Blast 2d6 (base 10), No Normal Defense (LS: Self Contained Breathing, holding breath; +1), AoE Radius (+1), Continuous (+1) (active 40), 8 continuing charges lasting 1 turn (-0), STUN Only (-0), OAF (-1) (real 20)

[1u] Tear Gas: Flash 3d6 Smell/Taste Group (base 9), AoE Radius (+1), Continuous (+1) (active 27), 8 continuing charges lasting 1 turn (-0), OAF (-1) (real 14)

[1u] Paint: Transform, Cosmetic (target into brightly colored target, healed back by cleaning), 3d6 (base 15), Partial Transform (+1/2) (active 23), 8 charges (-1/2), OAF (-1) (real 9)

[1u] Smoke Grenades: Darkness to sight group 3" (base/active 30), 8 continuing charges lasting 1 turn (-0), OAF (-1) (real 15)

[1u] Flashbang: Flash, Sight and Hearing Groups, 3d6 (base/active 20), 8 charges (-1/2), OAF (-1) (real 8)

[1u] Images, Sight Group (10), PER Roll +/- 1 (3) (base 13) Increased Size (4" radius; +1/2), 8 Continuing Charges lasting 1 Minute each (+1/2) (active 26), Only to Create Light (-1), OAF (-1), Only Outdoors/High Ceiling (-1/4) (real 8)

[1u] Stink Bomb part 1, Disability: Change Environment, 2" radius (10), -1 DCV, -1 OCV (10) (base/active 20), 8 continuing charges lasting 1 turn (-0), OAF (-1) (real 10)

[1u] Stink Bomb part 2, Smell: Darkness, Smell/Taste Group, 2" radius (base/active 10), 8 continuing charges lasting 1 turn (-0), OAF (-1), Linked (Change Environment; -1/2) (real 4]

 

Backpack-O-Stuff [8]

[8] VPP, 6-point pool (6). Control cost (3), OAF (-1) (2)

Re: Building grenades for a grenade launcher

There's not much you can do with 20 points' date=' especially with the types of things you're requested. Here's a mild attempt:[/quote']

 

It may be mild, but it's more than enough for me to start discussing with my GM how to actually start using them. Thank you kindly.

 

 

Most of these items are not Explosion or AoE. Doing so would make then worthless in a campaign where most attacks have at least twice as many active points.

 

I happen to be fond of seemingly worthless powers, but that's a whole other thread's discussion.

 

 

Yeah, 24 points isn't really enough to do a very useful AoE- and weird effects- oriented VPP. You might want to start out with a highly limited multipower array to keep costs down, and upgrade to a full VPP with experience.

 

40mm Grenade Launcher: multipower (40 active pts), OAF (-1), 8 charges (-1/2), 16 real cost

-Smoke Grenades: Darkness to sight group 3", 8 continuing charges lasting 1 turn (30 active, 1 real cost)

-KO Gas: 2d6 NND AoE Radius Continuous, 8 continuing charges lasting 1 turn (40 active, 2 real cost)

 

and so forth. I'm not gonna do the whole thing, but it's a lot easier with more active points to play with.

 

Hm... I'll keep that in mind, but it seems trickier to rearrange a multipower to have a 'one of each type' loadout for a given night's patrol instead of 'all of one type'. (If it makes any difference, this gadgeteer happens to have Weaponsmith for both chemical and incendiary weapons...)

 

 

(Say, is there an official HERO power writeup for the use of holy water versus various evil supernatural creatures?)

 

 

Hmm. I kinda want to make a character for whom specialized grenade munitions is a schtick.

I once did that for a GURPS Ultra-Tech PC; 40mm grenades with all the various high-tech options available are just /fun/.

 

For some visual inspiration, you might want to consider either the XM320 grenade launcher...

http://www.sargs.lv/pix/jan04-milit-ieroci-6.jpg

http://www.norincogroup.com.cn/newsview.aspx?id=4607

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:XM320_stock_extended.jpg

... or the AG36 grenade launcher.

http://world.guns.ru/grenade/gl17-e.htm

http://www.airsoftclub.ru/upload/AG36.jpg

http://www.safarasoftair.com/images/smokey%20g36%20lauch..jpg

http://www.wizards.com/d20modern/images/wl_gallery/79274.jpg

Interestingly, the AG36, with "stuff" on top, happens to look just right for a "gas gun":

http://www.tokyo-model.com.hk/ezimagecatalogue/catalogue/variations/3239-400x400.jpg

http://www.airsoftclan.com/images/STAR-AG36%5B1%5D.jpg

http://www.airsoftextreme.com/store/images/GLL-G3605.jpg

 

 

Of course, it's hard to go wrong with the classics: "Suck gas, evildoer!"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darkwing_Duck

My HERO-fu isn't quite up to what I'd like to build, so I'm asking the collective here for a few suggestions.

My new gadgeteer superhero has something similar to a pistol-grip 40mm grenade launcher (though using a superscience force-push gimmick to propel them), and a bandoleer of various sorts of ammo. Since she can swap out the ammo loads in her lab, maybe load up on one sort, a VPP seems a better approach than a multipower. But I'm not quite up to writing up eight or nine different sorts of grenades, and figuring out how to work the charges for various load-outs.

The game has a limit of 60 AP on powers, but the grenade-launcher is the secondary power rather than the primary ability; plus, after writing up the rest of the sheet, I had 2 dozen points left, so this is what I have so far:

Force-pushed Grenade Launcher:

[24] VPP, 20-point pool (20). Control cost (10), OAF (-1), Can only change powers in home base (-1/2), Slightly Limited Class of powers: grenades (-1/4). (4)

(eg: Vision-obscuring smoke, KO gas, tear/riot gas, stinkbombs, paint-splash grenades, parachute flares, flashbangs, explosives, holy water.)

I could probably get away with a fire-extinguishing CO2 grenade, or maybe a sticky-tangler-glop type one, too. Not that I know how to build /them/, either.

Anybody care to help me out putting something useful together? Thanks.

Re: WWYCD: The Breakup

Bunny already funds a line of 'Pink Bunny' branded soup kitchens and - more relevantly - battered womens' shelters. Upon meeting this 'battered guy', she'd whip out her all-purpose superpower: her Centurion credit card, to add a "battered men's shelter" to her growing charitible empire.

And, given the nature of the current game she's in, when the super ex-girlfriend came sniffing around, Bunny would probably have an opportunity to show off some of her cybernetic attachments that the reporters prefer not to advertise in the nightly news...

A handsome young Cyborg named Ace,

Wooed women at every base,

But once ladies glanced at

His special enhancement

They vanished with nary a trace.

 

-- Barracks Graffiti,

Sparta Command

Re: Your Character: The Series (Not exactly WWYCD...)

Bunny would be, I'm afraid to say, an unrated Japanese import. She hasn't met up with any tentacles in-game yet, but it's only a matter of time...

Re: WWYCD for a klondike bar? (humorous please)

Bunny, the long-eared furry woman who arrived on Earth after having modelled her body to the dimensions of the most popular women on the planet, would, very probably, start whispering what she'd do for, with, and using the Klondike Bar in the questioner's ear... who, before very long, would thrust it into her hands, screaming "Take it! Just /take it/!" before fleeing to preserve his life (or at least sanity, and a few other abstract principles)...

Simplifying a few details for discussion purposes...

Taking a bit of inspiration from the "Transhuman Space" setting, I've recently proposed to my HERO GM a PC who's actually a bit of software, which can run on any one of the (rare/obsolete) computers that his OS has been written for. In other words, he can keep a backup of himself on hyper-floppy, update it whenever he has a few spare minutes, and, when his easily squished body gets squished, somebody back at the Lab/HQ can dig out the backup chip, load him up into it, and he'll be as good as new (or, at least, as good as when the backup was made).

Now... how would you recommend this actually be /built/ in the HERO system? (Let me guess; it's all spelled out in one of the books I don't yet own.) Some form of Duplication seems the obvious route, but... with what Limits/Advantages?

Re: Practical Costuming (not quite a WWYCD)

Bunny sometimes wears what's apparantly a unique costume... her sidekick, the polymorphous Shifter (who is also her lover), who's been her living "catsuit" more than once. And yes, they do - but I'll leave the details and possibilities to your own imagination. (But feel free to post them, as long as they're within the forum's rules... if any are)

Re: WWYCD - The Night of the Dead

Bunny doesn't really have any late close acquaintances that wouldn't be visiting somebody else... the most likely candidate would be a friendly black lab; if animals don't count, then, hm, perhaps somebody from much further back - Nikola Tesla, John Dee, or, more likely, an egyptian priest who once wrote a papyrus Bunny read who simply hasn't got anyone else to visit.

(I'm avoiding the time-travelling version of Bunny deliberately; once you start mixing temporal phenomena with the afterlife, the possibility quickly arises that /everybody/ is a reincarnation of everybody else...)

Re: Boogiemen that are actually /scary/...

A PC proposal I just made to a GM; anybody care to comment on it?

One family of spider-boogiemen have gotten into a fairly regular pattern; in the dark, they frighten a child as much as they can, until the day finally comes when they're exposed to the Light, or the Parents' eyes, when they're permanently turned into ordinary house-spiders.

However, one spider-ling was a little different. Somewhere along the way, his education had been neglected in one important aspect: he was only supposed to /frighten/ his assigned Boy with threats of eating him, not /actually/ eat him. And on his first night Out of the Closet... he ate his Boy whole. And then discovered he couldn't get back home, to the Other Side of the Closet... and when the Boy's Parents came and turned on the Light... he didn't turn into a tiny little house-spider... he turned into the Boy he'd eaten.

Now, he has to deal with his own terrors: being cut off from the Boogie-realm, brushing his mandibles each night, fitting in at school, and the fact that no grown-up can see him as a Spider but other children can... his only guide to human behaviour being the ghost of the Boy (who's now even /more/ scared of the dark than before).

Re: Character Curveballs

Nearly /all/ my characters would fit into here... to pick just one that's appropriate for a HERO game, there's always DataPacRat from IOU (Illuminati University; you're not cleared to know what the O stands for), a fairly ordinary battlesuit wearer... except, inside his robotic shell, his body was an ordinary rat.

(Eventually, he became the Rat-Mother, goddess to a parallel Earth populated by a few hundred different species of sentient rodents...)

Re: Boogiemen that are actually /scary/...

And surprisingly on-topic for this thread is today's Bizarro: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/fun/Bizarro.asp?date=20060512 .

Re: Boogiemen that are actually /scary/...

Be careful what you come up with. Last time someone did that I wrote up Child of the Wasps.

An idea I've squirreled away in the back of my brain to use elsewhere, right beside the rats geneered to be used for human organ transplants (not the rats' organs, the whole rat - just slip it inside someone one way or another, and they'll hook themselves up; how'd you like a heart that has fur, a tail, and occasionally squeaks? Or, in a game with magic... how'd you like to be /transformed/ into a rat, and then stuck inside somebody else's torso as their liver or lung or the like? If you're lucky, maybe you'll get to be a brain transplant...), and the Game where each time another player gets you to lose a point they can give you one command, to do /anything/, which must be obeyed (from 'kiss me' to 'love me' to 'turn into a German Shephard'; smarter players usually try meta-commands, with varying degrees of success).