薔薇語

Well, it is nice to be backed up by another Missourian about Mizzou. Thanks! Soar.

Having a decent IQ and/or maybe some relevant KS should be enough to deduce "burny man is weak to water" or "The Quantum Silhouette gives off a slight but noticable electromagnetic charge. Perhaps this reflects that while matter doesn't strongly interact with his being while shifted, electrical attacks might" or "Pointy Arrow Man (PAM), always repeats the exact same motion while reaching for his next arrow and it takes exactly .8 seconds for him to complete a shot-to-notch motion in which he is hyper vulnerable to any kind of timed attack." The first one needing no more than a normal INT role at worst, the second maybe needing a SS:Physics (etc), KS: Quantum Mechanics, PER role, etc.; the last one being mimiced with a very good PER roll. I think as a GM I would generally give bonuses to players who want to make these kinds of attempts, especially the ones using any assortment of skills they happen to have as backstory for their characters. I would probably not give them as powerful an advantage as A.P. for success but perhaps an extra one or two Combat Skill Level(s) for the attack (or one DC). If my players wanted to constantly use these kinds of tactics, I would again err on the side of allowing it. But if the players wanted to have greater effects arise from the success, then I would require them to purchase naked advantages for damage or skill levels with RSR and have the relevant skill float around and be situationally determined. Soar.

I think this is where you are going to run into some odd problems. To give you an example of why this "Generic Manipulation" causes problems in Hero, think about X-men's NightCrawler and Wolverine. In NightCrawler's case, he has a generic teleportation power that lets him travel from one location to another. He can also use this power to teleport others with him, teleport objects so that they land on others, and potentially teleport away single body parts from individuals he is touching. To mimic all of these in a single "generic teleportation" power is way too difficult. We simply need to think of each instance where distinct effects occur as being separate powers. Thus the long range teleportation of himself (and maybe a single ally) and his ability to teleport large groups of people are different. Likewise, when we look at the way we could build TELEPORTATION (the power, not special effect) as an attack capable of dropping cars on a target, removing limbs, etc. we find that we start to run afoul of two HERO system issues: never use one power to mimic the role of another, The forced awkwardness of odd house rule calculations. By teleporting a car to drop on a foe it looks like we would be using the TELEPORTATION power but mechanically we are just performing an AoE attack with OIA (Car, etc). Same for the teleporting of limbs, we are not using TELEPORTATION the power but a HKA with Teleportation as the special effect of a very successful attack. The 'forced awkwardness of odd house rule calculations' comes in when we must determine the damage of a falling car on a target - if we are commonly needing to refer to odd mass/momentum charts and scaling those against damage charts in HERO, then we are setting ourselves up for failure. For NO commonly used* power should we need to reference anything off of the character's power description blurb. *commonly used meaning things that the player / character are likely to do in most every combat encounter - one off events that are very rare can just be hand-waved as a 'power-stunt'. This is also the case for Wolverine. I can recall when I first started to use HERO, my friend was building a wolverine-esc character and wanted help on the build. Because Wolverine is famous for his regeneration being able to make ineffective most simple attacks, I got wrapped up in the idea of having an insanely high REGEN power build for the character. As time progressed it became stupidly obvious that for that POWER to operate the MECHANICAL way needed, the player would dump all of her points into that build alone and it would be extremely broken. But taking a step back I started to think about the MECHANICAL effect of Wolverine's regeneration factor: The Ability to take a hit and keep operating at or near max capacity. What POWER mimics that MECHANICAL effect? Simple: rPD and rED. No need to build fancy REGEN POWER builds when I could just use rPD and rED with the special effect of "heals so fast as to hardly be noticed as damage." The above is why people are concerned about what you want to do MECHANICALLY with your blood manipulation. Simply giving you the ability to move blood around is actually rather straight forward, if that is your MECHANICAL goal. Telekinesis: affects porous & only vs blood. But that build doesn't let you actually hit someone with blood nor create walls of blood to guard you, or ride a stream of blood through the water / air. All it lets you do is slightly move blood (and only blood) around a bit. To get the MECHANICAL ability to do damage you need a BLAST or RKA, etc, with the 'blood magic' SPF/X. Same for defense, you need BARRIER or such with the 'blood magic' SPF/X. To sum up: ignore the special effect of blood magic. Only think about the mechanical effects you want (damage, defense, flight, etc) and the level you want them at (how much damage, how long, how far), and build THAT, then tack on the 'blood magic' special effect at the very end. Soar.

That is interesting. As I recall, the University Police at my university were basically lowgrade state cops. They had jurisdiction for all crimes committed on campus and could carry guns. But it has been a few years so maybe I am misremembering them being armed. Soar.

So there is one guy who has a normal life but also has two Super-IDs: one good and one bad. If either was discovered it would cause him major hiccups. If both were discovered, it would cause extreme hiccups as people would know he was playing both sides. For me this would be a case of having two secret IDs. But I think I might build this as being one Social Complication - Very Frequent & Extreme. That is a 25 point complication. The Very Frequent part reflects that he is constantly on the hide from lots of people on all sides - not just baddies, not just goody-two-shoes. The Extreme part of it reflects the confluence of both IDs being revealed. If any singular one is revealed it would be terrible but perhaps manageable. But both would mean the character's way of life is irrevocably destroyed. I think 25 points is good enough but you could slap on a 5 point adder to that to reflect your own personal tastes. I personally wouldn't ever let it go past a 30 point complication, though. Soar.

The case that was the impetus for this post was the Tamir Rice murder. I think that discussion about the merits of that case would be best left to a different, non-Dark Champions thread. The take away is that I was envisioning a setting in which communities were highly skeptical and distrusting of the police. As a result they formed local guards with the aid of some local politicians that would operate as defacto police in areas. This, however, has lead to even greater issues which sets the setting for a ShadowRun-esc game. Soar.

I'm going to have to echo the last two comments about figuring out if this is a feature or a limitation. If this is something that any Joe Schmoe can recognize and is beneficial to the character because it means people react to her more honestly and benevolently, then this should probably be positive reputation. If this is something that people would use against her such as using her as food or sacrifice or otherwise manipulate her, then I could see it being a disadvantage. Lastly, your original build has in it an essential statement that those who could see her aura exist and will be in the campaign at some point. If the individuals that could witness her aura are extremely rare and not likely to show up in the campaign, then I would think of this as being a zero point disadvantage. Soar.

What if mankind was able to build vast underground / under ice domes to live in? They could draw their power from the geothermal energy from the earth to heat an area. Water was not a big issue since they had vast supplies of ice all around them / above them but because it is so cold, venturing out of an area could easily spell doom. A few decades or generations pass and people are still meeking out a life with almost no knowledge of outsiders and the corruption of those in charge has begun to spell doom for what little life still exists. Of course there are stories, stories of vast interlaced structures beyond the walls of one's home. Cities and civilizations where the food is abundant, the rulers just, and hope abounds. If only... If only you could get there. What would you risk? The things that survived the Freeze are not things to be trifled with. To leave the sanctum is to welcome the cold agonizing hand of death - or worse. -- For me I am thinking of a world that has suffered two major cataclysms. The first more gradual than the second: wide scale global warming followed by The Freeze. All of the polar ice melted and that combined with several seismic disturbances had crippled the world's population. Nations fled into sea-domes. These structures acted akin to imagines of Atlantis - vast inhabited structures that are either fully or largely submerged in water. Most of them using boats and a wide array of underground tunnels to stay connected. But that is when the second tragedy struck, literally. A planet killing asteroid / comet struct land. This set off a chain reaction where the Earth's spin became more erratic and the ensuing dust clouds that swallowed the Earth plunged it into a new ice age. In a way the Earthlings were lucky that the waterworld disaster came first because they were already stationed in largely self sustaining structures that could keep out the cold. But with quakes destroying their connecting tunnels and The Freeze cutting off their sea travels, people are left alone in isolated structures that can not grow and expand with them. Suffocating under the slow stagnation of confinement. While there was no nuclear winter in my scenario, the damaged incurred by the atmosphere left the surface more prone to solar and galactic radiation. Generations of animals have survived all of this but have been left changed. Some horribly so. Existence on the frozen surface is not a joyous one. Just a starting idea when I heard about a Winter Post-Apoc. Soar.

Yeah, the financing of such groups would probably add in a lot of flavor from LG to LG. Some in the industrial districts would probably have well financed forces since they can rely on the businesses there to keep them well armed and staffed. The wealthier business and financial districts would likely have lots of well equipped LG but who have a stronger motive to keep things discrete. And while there may be public funding from general cash pools, I can easily see that being siphoned off and the LG that would really need are left out in the wild fending for themselves. Drug gangs and such would pose a serious problem for such LG and might even find themselves taking over for some LG as the defacto guards. Given that Cyberpunk settings are normally not too happy go lucky, I am okay with the idea that this system would likely not produce great results. But I think it would be a system that could come about in reasonable terms as an outcry against police violence and corruption. As to the sheriff thing we have in the US, it is a bit varied from state to state but in general they are elected positions. When it comes to law enforcement in the US there are four levels of administrations: Federal, FBI; State, Highway Patrol normally; County, sheriff; municipal, City police. In my home, the only group there that is elected is the County Sheriff who operates akin to a president in their commander and chief role. They are allowed to operate a police force (the sheriff and his deputies) that is more expansive than a city but still limited to a single county or so. Unlike a presidential cabinet, the deputies tend to stay the same from one sheriff to the next but it is up to the sheriffs discretion, I believe. But while they do act as law enforcement, there is still a county government that is actually in charge. I think the system I am proposing is akin to more expansive and powerful neighborhood watch program. The police still have final authority and the prosecution of criminals is still a function of the state, but the day to day business of patrolling and responding to crimes would be left to the LG. They would likely be invested with minor police authority like issuing tickets and collecting fines, arresting people in the act or of those with a warrant / bounty. The minor police powers would probably make for an appealing goal for a local crime boss to have. Why force shop owners into paying illicit protection money when you can demand they pay legally enforceable taxes or be shut down. And since the larger police forces would get a small cut of the revenue, they can turn a blind eye to the cries for justice from the local shop owner. Soar.

No, I think you missed Fry's point by a mile. It isn't about giving license to poets and the like but to everyone. Language is ever evolving. It doesn't need approval in order to evolve and snotty arrogance in the face of its evolution is no more enlightened or centered than creationist denials of biological evolution. I would hope that speakers of the ever interesting English language - even more so US speakers - would have an inherent appreciation for that fact but alas we are just as prone to biased and misplaced angst towards our fellows. It is the wonders of language change that brought us this language we call English from its Germatic roots and its Prot-Indo-European roots before that. It is language change that has allowed us to have a language that is lush with foreign snippets that we hold so dear. Be it the elegance in the tongue curling flow of the world 'ballet', the emotionally evocation of such words as scar, the clicking clutter that is the word tatami, and many more. Thank goodness for the Saxons and their disdain of the irritating enormity of English irregular plurals in opt for the mass adoption of the noun final s. Sure, the elitist of the day probably clamored against the ludicrous masses that thought going from Book to Books made more sense than book to beek*. But while their victories numerous grammarians of the worst kind - the prescriptive kind, have manage to martial up a moot defense of mice to mouses, and octopi to octopuses despite the erroneous flaw inherent in that defense. Language is a construct of man like no other by being simultaneously hyper personal and yet wholly social. The feelings and thoughts that spring from our inner core and are tied together with the bodily and animalistic grunts, howls and hisses we let slip our lips are truly unique to us. Their full impact can only really be know by the one who uttered them yet seemingly convey coherent communication to those who would give it an ear. For them we hope they grasp our feelings and thoughts but know that ultimately we know they only grasp the feelings and thoughts they already had associate with those rhythmic vibrations spewing from our mouths. While we have touched our listeners in the most personal of ways we still do not know the nature of that intercourse. The interplay of speaker and listener is the crucial component of human civilization. Few things contribute so much to the culture, nay, the survival of us as a species as our ability to converse. Thus the need to assign meaning to the arbitrary utterance we let loose. Yet to deny the person nature of language is to deny ourselves. We grow and change with every breathe and with every generation. To lock our language in an unchanging box is to enslave ourselves to the mantras and dogma of the past - but not just ourselves, our children and their children. No loving parent has ever looked down upon the fruit of their loins and desired anything less than the freedoms and joys they've enjoyed being passed on to that ever growing beautiful bundle of joy. So why here, why now, why for language do we seek to shackle them? Some argue that they are protecting language, but as Stepher Fry uttered in his reading of so-in-so, they are not guardians and there is no degradation occurring. It is merely moralistic nonsense that should be discarded like a used Kleenex. To explain why once more but in the terms of the modern world: because language, biatch. ^^ All that said, if anyone ever texts me "cu l8r" I will defreind your ignorant ass in a New York minute. ^^ *it has been a long time since I needed to know any of the irregular conjugations that were standardized following the Saxon incorporation into the English speaking world so I just reach for one that I hoped would make sense even if not actually accurate. Soar.

^^ Soar.

That was an awesome trailer. I am looking forward to the show quite a bit. I especially loved the Bubba Fett line. Soar.

I was listening to the news as is normal and heard what is tragically super normal in the US: a young black boy's cop murderer was protected by a biased prosecutor and set free as a bit of a holiday gift. Why I think this is salient to the topic of the thread is it got me thinking about the unreasonableness of private-corporate police in the old Shadow Run series (Although it applies to most cyberpunk genre games, I would imagine). One thing that got me about it was that it was so clearly woven into the fabric of society that no one really seemed to question the idea that a police department would be privately owned and funded and thus not under some general obligation to protect the whole of the citizenry. It struck me as an odd proposition to swallow but one that was doable for the genre of course. But what if we switch things around and have the private police not evolve from corporate militia but from civil rights groups? A system where because of some major travesties, private groups were allowed to take up the mantle of law enforcement for their communities in the ever fracturing US. Thus we didn't just have the City and County Police of LA but all the various burbs and business communities also came together to form or support local groups that would do the bulk of the work. This new system, per the fiction I have in mind, would then be seen largely has champions and pillars of the community and more responsive and caring when it comes to particular community needs. Alas, while the programs had general support there was little funding for the programs - one of the reasons why the principalities allowed it was because they would be independently funded - and so corporations were able to sway the leadership of certain districts and thus effect the whole eco-sphere of what is thought of as acceptable. This is what lead to branding of police as "Dole-Inc Local Guard." Poorer communities were left to fend for themselves as the general police department maintained a stand-off approach to the various communities, even when their Local Guards were starting to show problems. The Police would now be more akin to Internal Affairs or the FBI for locales who do interjurisdictional work or review work of local guards. But of course the Local Guards have money on the line so they do well to keep the police higherups happy. While rarely exercised the police can disincorporate a Local Guard and return a district to police exclusive protections. This can either be done with the police deem a LG no longer fit to serve or when the community petitions for redress. But cops, not wanting to deal with the hassle of actual police work will often make it 'clear' that being under their direct gaze is not a particularly good situation. Even more so given the history of police abuse in the real world that lead to communities opting for this L.G. situation. The last bit is that while some groups are really good and well intentioned, the Police Forces that what over all LG are used to being paid off: be it in money, access, goods, or illicit services. So when some goody-two-shoes groups even just minds its own business but doesn't provide for the police, they will put pressure on them to change. This of course leads to tensions but much like our current climate there is little political will to change this. What do you all think of this? Does this seem like a better explanation for the semi-privatization of police forces in a cyberpunk setting? What have you all done in your games to explain this genre trope? Soar.

Soar.

Soar.

I thought about creating a Campaign City News 2.0 thread but decided to revive this one instead. I have gone about creating a few things for this idea. The most important bit being that I created a new full length (maybe?) episode that is just shy of 15 minutes long. It was surprising how hard it is to get that accomplished when one is as big a procrastinator as I. I have uploaded this episode to Youtube and Soundcloud for people to listen to and review. I have also created an NNJGnuGnews twitter handle that I hope to use to help post ideas and content. I set up a wordpress where I might post mocked up HNH new articles. Indeed, part of the reason it took so long to get this episode out was because I wanted to create two separate sources of info - a news article and a broadcast script. Now I just need to add in one more quick news story to the HNH piece and I will try to post that later tomorrow. Since this is something I would like to create and publish without getting in trouble, I decided to ditch the idea of having background music in it. I need to do more work to find some creative commons music that would be okay to run in the background. Also, to avoid any issues with DOJ games, I am making sure to not use any listed organizations or characters. This is why I will not be linking to those other videos that do indeed have references to things like PRIMUS and Millennium City. One thing I struggle with the most in this and I think needs to be in it is conspiracy angles and distraction stories like the toaster idea from Old Lady McGraw. I am hoping that I will have more inspiration as time goes on. There is at least one more bit I want to see if I can create to go with the story lines but I am unclear how to do it yet in an effective manner. Anyway, I welcome anyone and everyone to click below and listen. Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated!!! https://youtu.be/RP5_5m1rj3o https://soundcloud.com/gnu-gnews/gnu-gnews-ep-1 Twitter: @NNJGnuGnews Soar.

So, we have a fat and worthless POS come up upon a major accident with his gun drawn? That right there should mean he is on desk duty or suspended. He then fires upon a guy without even the slightest concern for what the heck he is doing. That should mean he is getting arrested. He then neglects to tell the operator that he just fired on someone and instead says that the man he just shot inside is just refusing to get out - Even discounting the fact that the guy probably couldn't move at that moment (Just shot in the neck!), he would have good reason to stay in the car - there is a crazy man with a gun outside of it! Then he completely neglects to mention / lies about the shooting despite it being an absolutely critical piece of information. Maybe we can all get some Christmas joy this year by learning of that man having a heart attack from eating too many bacon burgers and being put out of commission for police work. Normally I would simply hope that a bad guy gets arrested and sent to jail, but this is the United Police States of America. We'd be lucky if that POS doesn't shoot, rape, or rob other people before the end of the year! Soar.

Sorry. That was my confusion. Having not seen any of the online shows I just found myself confused. Soar.

Flash had a mind controlling rapist? Soar.

You are bot struggling with the content of my post but with a generic issue of hero and most any toolbox systems. If thr GM thinks your build is abusive, they need to exercise good judgement. Is there an issue with a highly cheap power killing (teleport to space)? Is there a power mechanic making things unreasonally cheap (Linking powers to an inherent power thus negating the risk of the link)? Is it attemping to gain a (more) powerful secondary advantage without spending point (a water blast that always changes displayed effect without also buying variable spf/x - or an OAF being hidden away in an unreachable spot yet still working)? These are all legit concerns but not of them challenge and seek to undermine a core hero concept: Mechanics can have any special effect desired because mechanics are divorced from special effects - That is a core concept that makes HERO different to say DnD where mechanic and special effect are always the same. And lots of Comicbook heroes have their RD look like nothing at all. Superman has his skin. Karate kid has his as his ability to dodge. Wolverine has his as his regeneration factor. The question is not that such builds are inappropriate always but are they genre and game specific okay. So, I again come to my point that purify atmosphere, create atmosphere, remove ann need to breathe can all be created with the same basic power because the the final mechanical effect is the same. Resorting to Transform or EDM to fix a build problem is a last resort (as it advices in the book!). Soar.

But the special effect of the transform mechanic and LS mechanic are the same here. We are creating the same effect while using different mechanical under pinnings for it. Soar.

Making something inherent is only a plus 1/4 because it requires the power to already be Constant, Persistent, and Always On. The major benefit of it is that you can't typically Dispel it. That is a rather minor advantage. But if you want to make it more costly you could. Of course, unless you are running a setting where "create food" is a spell that is often the target of dispels, the players will likely not take that inflated advantage because it becomes a pointless expenditure. As to having the singular build for LS:Food&Drink be part of two or three different subgroups of schools of magic based on special effect and requiring the player to either buy it again for a new subgroup or purchase the expanded SpF/x advantage seems fair and reasonable. If I had elemental schools for Fire and Water, I would typically require a player either buy 2 Blasts or 1 Blast with Expanded SpF/x in order to have both a Water Blast and a Fire Blast. That said, unless something else was required of the build, I wouldn't mind doing that if I wanted a "well rounded mage/cleric/druid" since it would likely not even cost a single extra point. And at most cost only 1 extra point. But I could also see a player just saying "nah, having this as one school of magic alone is good enough!". As a side note "making you think you aren't hungry" and "making you not hungry" are two different effects. You can use a Mind Control to make something think they aren't hungry despite them currently starving near to death yet still exerting themselves immensely. That is an important distinction. I realize that your phrasing wasn't likely meant to mean what it does, but it is an important distinction; "LS:does not eat" makes it so you do not suffer from any starvation rules. Period. It doesn't necessarily affect your emotional / mental states. Soar. One more side note to the inherent issue that I didn't do well to cover: the inherent advantage is there to make the food "real". It was put in response to the concern that magically created food just wasn't real enough. So the suggestion to add "inherent" was as a solution to the "realness" issue of this food compared to normal food. By sticking on inherent, you are defining the magically created apple to be indistinguishable (mechanically) from a normal apple. Both are "real" and thus things interact with both in the exact same way. It is by no means a necessary adder nor a particularly relevant one other than as a way to assuage certain peculiar reservations.

Psy - DADDY Which is based on Will.I.AM's "I got it from my mommy". I prefer the PSY version but the Will.I.Am version is good and he is an artist I enjoy listening to. I think it is interesting that the Will.I.Am video is at a third of the views of the PSY version despite having come out six years ago. Soar.

I also believe that Killer.Shrike also had some relevant cyberpunk-ish setting stuff on one of his websites. And with a quick look, it would seem to be named "Meta Cyber". It has been a very long time since I read through all that material but it was some great stuff. He had a variety of characters and equipment built along with some character creation guides. The last time I was thinking of running a game (many a year ago now), I was thinking of using his MetaCyber or 'Here there be monsters' setting - a setting where I even manage to contribute one (or two?**) characters to. All very good stuff! Speaking of K.S, is he active under another handle these days or just not active on the forums at all anymore? I can't say I have seen him around for at least a couple years and probably more. Soar. **I stand corrected. I made 4 published contributions. That said, KS did a lot of touch up work to make then better. ^^

The only time I would say that an effect that transforms non-human-life sustaining atmosphere into human-life sustaining atmosphere should be built as anything other than a simple LS is if the effects of that LS also harm or otherwise adversely affect others. Mechanically there is no difference between "Does not breathe" and "is safely in an environment flush with breathable air". Likewise, there is no mechanical difference between "does not eat" and "is securely in an environment with abundant food sources". Let's look at Aquaman. One thing he can do that I can't do is 'breathe' under water. His body can transform unbreathable water into usable oxygen. So, since there is a physical transformation of water into oxygen, should we require that he buys "transform: Water to breathable O2" or simply by "LS: Expanded breathing - Water"? If we focus on the Special effects too much, we would have to go with the former. But if we recognize that SpF/x are the least important part of the power build equation and look at the mechanics of "water causes no direct harm to normal breathing", we can see that the LS is easily the better option. This directly relates to the food issue under discussion. Adding more to it, if your stance is that the builds provided do not adequately reflect the physical nature of food as we normally understand it and the builds seem to be implying a "and now you have no hunger without consumption of any food" effect, you can alter my build to make that more apparent. Taking the 1pt LS:Food@1/w and adding "UbO", you then add on a variety of lims to simulate food more directly: OAF / Restrainable (the physical food created), gestures thoughout (need at least one hand), Incantations throughout (requires a level of exclusivity of your mouth), Cost End (to activate) and is paid by all consumers of the food. Maybe one or two more that I didn't think of? But with those we still have a 1 real point power that allows the benefactor to not suffer ill effects from a lack of food. And unless there is some genre specific reason for LS: Food@1/w to cost more than a single point, a power build that lets you let other people get that at 1/d should also not cost more than 1 to 3 points. Soar.