Gauntlet

6 hours ago, Doc Democracy said:

As you might note from my post in the other forum - I think I am reacing towards an Ars magica style solution here.  Ars magica however, for me, had all the trappings of Magic with the underlying philosophy of science.  I have always wanted to play a decent length campaign of Ars Magica but never had the time or the group (or the GM willing to run it for me!).

It is a good game, a hell of a lot better than Vampire the Masquerade. 

6 hours ago, Steve said:

Another consideration is how high to buy CON. I’ve seen a number of brick types built with a 40 CON. I get that it’s supposed to represent super-health and tough to stun.

 

But if the defenses are constructed right, a high CON seems more of a point sink than might be necessary. A 30 CON on a brick with high enough defenses might be reasonable.

 

Although it’s not RAW legal, I’ve played around with concepts that use the Automaton ability Cannot Be Stunned in various limited fashions instead of buying really high CON.

I definitely have overbought CON. I have one character with a CON of 68. He is not a brick, but one who has an extremely fast regeneration ability making it where he doesn't feel pain and never tires. His regeneration speed made Wolverine's look like he was a normal in his 90s with cellular decay issues.🤪

When running a Fantasy Hero game I always state that all spells must have at least -2 in limitations. I also require that they have the following limitations at all times:

Requires a Magic Roll

Side Effects

Incantations and/or Gestures

Unified Power (though I do allow this to maybe only effect the type of magic that is being suppressed or expelled if the character has multiple types of magic that require different Magic Rolls)

Other common limitations:

Focus (many times expendable)

Cost MANA (should the power type be one that does not cost END and 0 END Advantage is not allowed)

I also do not have Magi use their END for their spells. I give them two additional characteristics: MANA and MANA Recovery. These cost the same as END and REC. In addition, should the Magi be using more MANA than they have, when rolling for STUN Damage, they take BODY as well (like BODY damage for a normal attack).

9 minutes ago, unclevlad said:

Yeah, this is another angle.  More generally, when you don't get hit as often...could be the energy projector at range 6, not just the martial artist with DCV 11.  Here, getting knocked out is much less of a concern;  the defenses want to be tailored to avoid being stunned, mostly.

And if you have a higher speed then the opponent who hit you means that in the case they get lucky and stun you probably can recover before they get to attack again.

One thing I normally do in my games is reduce the SPEED for characters or villains. I just can't see that person, no matter how trained, have a SPEED higher than 5. I will make villains who are not speedsters or martial artists have a SPEED of 3 or 4 (and even 2 occasionally). I find it rather crazy in those games where the incredibly slow Brick has a SPEED of 6.

Not sure if anyone here is aware of the game but I have found Ars Magica's magic system to be rather good. It has types of magic that you have power in and in order to cast a spell you have to work based on your level of the magic types it is part of. This could also be done for hero, have it setup as multiple power pools and the spell uses a combined point level of the two magic types used. Another idea is a VPP but have multiple magic rolls, one for each type of magic. So if they are casting a spell they have to use the roll based on what type of magic they are using.

One thing I have noticed was that many players consider the only type of defense being PD, ED, or Power but there is another type of defense that is rather major. This being DCV. Many characters may rely on not getting hit rather than just being able to take the attack. High DCV, along with high DEX rolls for Dive for Cover, can make the character rather tough to beat. Sometime even tougher than that high Brick with High Defenses.

37 minutes ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

Yeah Tarzan could use Van Helsing for a shot put, even the awful recent movie he's not remotely as physically gifted as Tarzan.

I was referring to the one where Van Helsing was a Werewolf, forgot the name of the movie though as it was rather Blah.

10 minutes ago, C.R.Ryan said:

Noticed something Van Helsing and Tarzan share stats. I'm supposing that's a mistake. 

Guess it would depend on which version of Van Heising is being used.

12 minutes ago, unclevlad said:

The ONLY time I've considered DR is when I've got points to waste.  It's that bad, mechanically.  And ok, it's more options, but at the cost of system bloat.  I don't think they'll eliminate DR either...but that's because there's extreme inertia to completely remove anything from prior editions.  Tweak?  Sure.  Remove?  Rare...unless it's just too messed up, like Transfer.  DR isn't broken, it's just too rigid and inefficient to be anything but narrow, niche power.

Just can't agree with you. I have used in on several heroes and villains. It automatically takes the load off of the attacks and truly can allow a character to stay in the fight for a long time. Hell, Another nice thing about it is that it is a defense that has no direct attack type to boycott it. Even Damage Negation can be taken away with Reduced Negation. Plus, Damage Negation reduces based on the attack value, should the attack have +1 in advantages then it will take twice as much to reduce each dice. In fact for most heroes I have created I have found DR much more valuable than DN as it is simply straight up defense. And as it does allow some damage to get through always, it does make it so that the character isn't completely unstoppable, but cannot be single shot most of the time.

I really don't think they are trying to get rid of Damage Reduction and replace it with Damage Negation. That goes against one of the greater strengths of Hero. Having both gives you more options that do work in different ways.

On 3/29/2024 at 7:05 PM, Khymeria said:

If you don’t include a Resurrection power with a Gesture of putting thumb in mouth and blowing themselves back up i will be sad. 

It has to be there. That's just a giveme! 

I am in the process of creating a funny campaign type book it is called STUPID...

Super

Twirps

Undertaking

Personally 

Injurious

Duties

It would be similar to The Tick. Characters do not have a BODY characteristic as you can only knock them out. "NO KILL YOU!"

6 hours ago, LoneWolf said:

I also look carefully at characters using 2 point skill levels to boost a single attack.

I am pretty sure that it says somewhere that you need 3 point skill levels or above to make changes to damage or DCV which would mean that 1 and 2 point levels can only increase the OCV of an attack. 

Now while this might not be in the rules, I do have a tendency to only allow a maximum of 5 skill levels that are below the 5 point mark (my 545 rule). I have found that this keeps characters from trying to spend very little points to increase their OCV to overwhelming levels. Plus in the long run, it does make characters much more effective then just buying a lot of low point skill levels. 

Another house rule that I am thinking of using is to state that if the character is trying to do a call shot they cannot use 1 or 2 point levels. Would the rest of you think that is good.

29 minutes ago, dmjalund said:

I wonder if one could do a supplement to play in historic Japan?

Is something I definitely would love to see. If my knowledge of historic Japan (or history in general) wasn't so bad I would even think about creating such a thing.

15 hours ago, LoneWolf said:

You don’t need to take steroids to push yourself above the 20 point line, but it can help.

It definitely can help; it is how I was able to get my personal Intelligence above a 20...

Wait, is Red Bull a Steroid???

Oh Wait, is my Intelligence above 20???

43 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

The 20 cap is for purposes of Normal Characteristic Maxima, beyond which each Characteristic costs double its normal price. It was never intended to represent the maximum a human could achieve.

I was just stating that for new players in Champions games as I have seen a few think that unless their character is a mutant or something they should never go above 20.

Hmmm, I wonder what Captain America's stats would be. I doubt it would just be a series of 20s as I have frequently seen other completely normal human characters/villains that have characteristics greater than 20 (23 DEX being a common one). Another example may be someone like Tony Stark. With the extraordinary technology he comes up with, would his INT just be 20 or higher? So, if you are willing to allow a completely normal person go above the 20 Max, how far should they be able to go, and would it be the same for every characteristic or be dependent on which characteristic is being purchased above 20?

Much of the time with stuff like this it is just "Don't Worry About It & Have Fun". Heck, a lot of times when it is just lower enemies that are just cannon fodder, I don't even write them up and just make a simple list what they can do.

On 3/20/2024 at 8:01 AM, LoneWolf said:

Some of the life support is probably necessary.  The same necromancy that summons the skeleton has a spell that ages the target.  That type of spell is fairly common with necromancy.  Immunity to pressure also covers the effects of different environments like high altitude or deep underwater.  There are also spells that can duplicate those.  Radiation is probably not needed, but some underground settings do include strange radiation.  The radiation might be magic based instead of scientific but could still exist.  

One reason you may not need life support for an undead creature is what the Transform changes. If it is human to flower, then it would not affect a skeleton as, although it may be a "human" skeleton, it is not actually a human, it is an undead and they are not the same thing. The same would be true for a spell that transforms undead would not affect a human.

Now this does not state that life support is not something that would be a good idea for a skeleton, just a random point. Should an animated skeleton have an immunity to ageing? Definitely yes, as I can't see it having problems with age; but at the same time I can see people thinking "What's the point, it's not like they are going to be in the game for a long period of time". 

9 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

EDIT:  heck, we can go with something incredibly classic....NO ONE seems to connect that Clark Kent is Superman? 

I would definitely say that in the DC Universe all superheroes and most supervillains have a power that allows them to stop anyone from recognizing them when in their superpowered identity.

58 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

Sure. I fully appreciate the motivation behind the series. But I fully admit to liking rationality.

One thing about rationality that it will not be exactly the same in every universe. The mere fact that once such universe will have individuals with power makes the rationality in that world or dimension completely different than ours. Even a small difference in universes can change rationality.

4 hours ago, Asperion said:

I have always disliked those "magic wand" detectors, like I described in the original post.  Instead,  I used a method similar to what Dean described where someone needs to obtain a DNA sample for a lab test. The suspect can refuse to give the sample,  there is no way to generally scan a room, along with more problems. The rationale used was that mutants possess a marker in their genes,  but to detect it one needed to obtain that sample and pull it out to find. No remote detection system can locate them. 

This directly depends on the game. In my game, the Mutant Gene, is actually an ability of the person to somewhat alter reality in a specific way. That brick that can toss a car doesn't actually have the muscles to pick up and throw a car. His muscles are enhanced to a certain degree but not to something as crazy as that. What actually is happening is that his mutant gene is actually altering reality so that the car can be easily thrown by him. The same thing is happening to give him the ability to take high damaging hits without going down. Once again while his personal cellular defenses may be enhanced, his mutant gene is altering reality to reduce the amount of damage the attack is capable of doing to him, and him alone. Mutant detectors normally can only determine that the reality alternating energy is coming off him or her is there, not what it actually can do, but more complicated detectors are available that will give details of what manipulations the energy is causing but these are rarer, cost a lot more, etc. Think of them like something that can detect radiation. normal one will only state if it is there, but others can also detect many of the details of that radiation as well.

No Hit Locations would probably be better for opponents that are completely ethereal, like a ghost or something that is completely made of desolid materials, like perhaps a gas.

"Well just look at him, the guy's got a little gun that probably can't even break a window..."

POP... Character goes down...

Plus, undead are not only in Fantasy Hero games. I have used them in Champions, Space Games, and frequently run Modern Horror Games.