Utech

Re: Running for a Villain Team

Consider a "Brotherhood of Evil Mutants" scenario. The PCs are mutants (or whatever) and think that anyone who isn't a mutant (or whatever) is worth less than the PCs. The PCs have no problem taking things from normals (squibs, sheep, vermin, whatever) and may not even have a problem with killing or enslaving them. The PCs work together because they see the value in each other and by working together they should be able to take their rightful places among the ruling class. Super"heroes" are misguided bleeding hearts who really ought to know better.

The PCs fight superheroes only because superheroes try to do crazy things -- like put the PCs at the mercy of the normals! The PCs probably try not to harm superheroes at first. Instead, the PCs try to convince superheroes to join them. Eventually the PCs may decide they need to kill some superheroes. A shame, really, but if the superheroes insist on acting crazy, they'll have to be put down.

Re: Evolving powers?

The numbers on your character sheet just describe what your character can do. If it turns out that the numbers don't reflect what you wanted your character to do -- or what you want your character to do has changed -- the numbers on your sheet should change. This should definitely be a collaborative effort between Player and GM. You might even want to invite other players into the process for their thoughts and reactions.

It is not at all unusual for people to change a bit as they go about living their lives. There's no reason why your character shouldn't as well.

Re: 6e: Defense Misunderstanding

Yeah' date=' these new defenses look a bit low. We generally use 20 - 30 as our range for defenses, in a 12 DC game; even then, bricks need a good amount of Con and Stun to live up to their name. With 25 DEF, against 12 DC attacks, a Brick needs in the neighborhood of 100 STUN to keep standing even a single turn.[/quote']

 

I rather like games with these "low" defenses. They encourage people to get out of the way of attacks, use their surroundings, spend points on special defenses that go a long way toward flavoring your character, and all that good stuff.

 

Other people prefer games where the heroes and villains stand toe to toe slugging it out. That's cool, too. Just not my cup of tea.

Re: Presti's Weapon Rebuilds

for every weapon on a weapons table' date=' there should be [i']some[/i] reason why someone would use it - even if the reason is that it's cheap or easy to make. I think you're already more or less explicitly embracing this idea anyway, but I think it bears repeating.

I'm not sure how much detail you're going into for general background information, but I agree that it's a good idea to differentiate weapons with some brief notes on the economic and/or social reasons why a PC or NPC might pick one weapon over another. Some examples:

• Material costs and/or the difficulty of construction may make swords difficult to afford while wooden staffs are plentiful.
  
• Certain weapons might become associated with women and thus shunned by men.
  
• Certain weapons might only be legally owned by people of a particular social status (nobleman, knight, priest, etc.)
  
• Certain weapons might be associated with the "wrong sort of people" (bandit, ninja, dark goddess worshipper, etc.) and get you arrested or attacked.
  

The fact that different weapons are . . . well . . . different, can be a running thread through a whole campaign. A PC might be generated with a great sword, have it destroyed, be unable to afford a new one, fall back on using a club, be mistaken for a robber, prove his goodness, be rewarded with a flail, use that to take out an evil soldier, take the soldier's bastard sword...

Re: Automaton Vehicles

You're missing nothing -- so long as that's what you want in your game.

Now, if you were a player in a game I was GMing, I'd have to tell you "Sorry, but you're clearly breaking the spirit, if not the letter, of the rules here. No, your zombies cannot be built as vehicles."

Re: Hero (and other generic systems), too flexible?

Some ideas:

1. rule that things be bought in blocks of X number of points
   
2. ask players to write up characters in some other system, you do the conversion and don't give the HERO sheets to your players
   
3. ask players to write up their characters in text descriptions, you do the HERO write up and don't give the sheets to your players
   
4. write up generic architypical characters missing X number of points and let players add those X points any way they wish
   
5. write up generic "ordinary townsfolk" (or whatever benchmark you choose) and ask players to describe how their characters compare: Are you faster than a boxer? Are you smarter than a professor? Are you as good at kung fu as Bruce Lee?
   

Re: One person versus a starship?

Kevlar isn't too hard to cut with a sharp edge' date=' but the ceramic plates inside modern armor would stop a knife cold. You could probably fracture it with a heavy sword, but the kevlar would pad the ceramic somewhat. It would be an interesting experiment to try out. I would expect that even with an axe, it would take some pretty heavy punishment before failing. The main drawback being that the plates don't cover the whole area that the kevlar covers.[/quote']

 

I believe battle axes, broadswords, halberds, etc. were expected to go up against armor. The attacker was trained to go for the least-well armored spots. I expect that with modern body armor you'd see a lot of slashed arms and legs as well as attacks to the armpit. A sword didn't do much good (aside from impact, which was sometimes plenty) against plate armor if you attacked the most solid spots.

Re: Supergenius from Fringe **SPOLIERS**

Sounds like the sfx of a number of Powers (something to cause damage, some sort of movement, some sort of defense, etc.) with a number of Advantages and Limitations (RSR, Indirect, Trigger, Delayed Effect, etc.)

It's probably going to be a pain in the butt to describe each of the Powers in action -- a lot of ret-conning -- but if you've got the right group, you'll be good to go.

Re: One person versus a starship?

The plate armor vs modern gun tangent has me wondering the other way. How effective is modern armor at stopping, say, a war hammer or flail or broadsword or crossbow? That's a real question. I don't know the answer and I'm curious.

Re: One person versus a starship?

Give some serious thought as to what sort of damage you want your future weapons doing. The longsword dates to about 1350 and does 1D6+1 Killing damage. The Browning pistol dates to around 1908 and does 1D6+1 Killing damage. That's 550+ years of technological development resulting in exactly zero more damage.

There are clearly advantages to the pistol, of course! It does damage at range. It's small and light. It doesn't require as much metal to be made. And so on and so forth.

There are clearly advantages to the sword, too. No ammo required. You can add STR to damage. Yadda yadda.

What I'm getting at: The weapons in your Star Hero campaign should be different from today's weapons, but that doesn't mean they have to do a lot of damage. They might have advantages (and Advantages) today's weapons lack.

Re: Fused Powers

I'd consider this just good gaming. No need to buy anything or do anything special. GMs should be encouraging this sort of thing from their players instead of making it more difficult/complicated. Keep in mind that instead of two attacks, the PCs are down to one. So -- in a sense -- they're already paying a price to combine their powers.

Re: How to give Players their "Great Responsabilities"?

Don't forget the power of positive reinforcement. It may help a great deal to have NPCs thank the PCs profusely for even the smallest amount of help. It feels good to be thanked, have people want your autograph, have newspaper reporters snap a flattering picture and write up a glowing piece about what a good person you are. So give your players those things. Then raise NPC expectations a little. If the players want their PCs to continue to be considered wonderful people, they'll have to act more and more as though they are. And eventually . . . they will be.

Re: Vampire: the masquerade style blood pool

Out of curiosity, is it important to stat out this pool? Could you not set up the blood pool as ground rules for the campaign?

An alternative to the End Reserve and/or Charges would be to give all vampires a Complication such as "Can only use powers X times before feeding."

Re: My character building technique (How to build Hero System Characters)

All good and many thanks for the post!

A note on number 7: I think these guidelines are good for most games -- a default "we all have fun and get to play" level. It might be worth pointing out, though, that some games will need different guidelines because you're going for a different feel (especially lethal, everybody has an Achilles heel that must be found, long combats, short combats, especially mobile, especially immobile, etc.)

Re: KAs vs CvK

You are certainly within your rights to rule that in your game Killing Attacks and CvK are incompatible. I find this works especially well if you buff the power of Killing Attacks (or nerf defenses against it) and simultaneously make them rare in your game.

I'm partial to giving a 2 x BODY Vulnerability to Killing Attacks (for no points) to nearly all living things and doubling the defenses of non-living things against Killing Attacks. This makes Killing Attacks much more "killy" and less "breaky".

Re: Mortal Wounds

Just a thought:

Rule that whenever characters enter combat, they focus their will on survival. As a result, they instantly gain X number of BODY for free. Should they pass out, fall asleep, or somehow be distracted or driven to despair, however, that X number of BODY disappears. This may well leave your character dying.

Characters who start a combat with any amount of BODY loss must make a BODY roll at -1/point of BODY lost or fail to psyche themselves up (and thus receive the X number of BODY for free).

Re: Floorplans

Diverse collection of plans here: http://www.realschluss.org/mapping_resources/index.html

Great! Many thanks!

Re: No Ordinary Quiz

Super Intelligence.

Re: Mind control question

I think it's obvious from many of the thoughtful posts so far that there is plenty of overlap between Mind Control and Mental Illusions. I think we should embrace that as much (or as little) as we embrace having both standard attacks and killing attacks in the system -- they can both accomplish the same goal but have different mechanics.

Other obvious areas of overlap have also been suggested: Transform, Telepathy, TK, etc.

I prefer to give a great deal of latitude in what players are allowed to do with their powers and skills. Having tried the more restrictive approach, I just seem to have more fun saying "yes" more than "no".

Re: Mind control question

That's great SFX for buying Mental Illusions linked to or usable with Mind Control -- but you don't get them for free with Mind Control.

Why in the world not?

If you've taken control of another character's mind via psionics, brainwashing, or hypnosis, you most certainly could make them feel all the things I listed.

Re: Mind control question

You could get real picky about sfx if you like, but basically I'd say that if you can control someone's mind, you can make them feel anything you like. You could make them feel as though they are hungry, have to use the bathroom, are having a horrible leg cramp, find someone (or even something) sexually attractive, are terribly sleepy etc. Some of these might take high die rolls or be easily broken out of (or both). Some might be better simulated with other Powers -- and give you more bang for your buck. But Mind Control is very open as written.

As to the OP, I'd say that counts as one command.

Re: How to Build: Flamethrower

In some games I'd be tempted just to write it up as a limited range Blast. AoE-like qualities can be achieved through spreading.

That's how I did it. Added some built-in OCV levels "Only to Spread" as well. Worked like a charm.

Re: The Millennium Bugs

Looks great! Thanks for all the work!

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team!

"Listen up!" the diminutive red-head barked from the front of the room. She stood stock still. Only her flashing green eyes moved -- sweeping the room and looking for eye contact from everyone in it. When she had more or less achieved that small victory, she went on. "Today's lecture is on situational awareness."

Shoulders drooped. Eyes glazed. Fingers inched toward iPhones. She nodded once. The lights went out.

THWOCK! THWOCK! SPLOOSH! SLAP! Shouts and screams.

The lights came back on. Two audience members were sprouting suction cup darts from their foreheads. A water balloon had exploded among a large group of the assembled. A guy in the front row rubbed his jaw.

"Do I have your attention now?"

Tactile is of the strong belief that the very best weapon does you no damn good whatsoever if you don't know where to point it. Which is why she's very proud of her super power. Brenna O'Sullivan can extend her sense of touch outward through any solid. Generally this starts from the soles of her feet, extends to her socks, her shoes, the floor under her, the floor of the room, the furniture in the room -- even the people in the room. It is difficult for her mind to process all that she might feel in a large area. She can get general sensations over several city blocks if she limits herself to streets, get a sense of all surfaces in a house, or have detailed knowledge about such things as a computer keyboard, a weapon, the tightening of one man's muscles, etc.

Brenna can tone down some of the sensations she feels while being more sensitive to others, but she always feels some measure of all aspects of the sense of touch in her target. Those aspects are: temperature, pain (potential damage), texture, pressure, vibrations, certain chemicals. She's always been a bit disappointed that she can't act through her senses -- causing pain at a distance, for example, but is well aware that a gun or grenade (or water balloon) can fix that little limitation...

Re: Limitation: Increased Endurance Cost, Good or Bad Idea?

A note on pushing: Not every GM allows Players to push their Powers or Strength very often. In many campaigns the pushing rules are only to be used in very dramatic moments. You can easily build a Power that simulates pushing (though you have to pay for it) if that's something you want your character doing all the time.