Ockham's Spoon

Re: Destroy Your Geek Cred!! What establishes geek cred anyway? There is so much out there: comics, movies, books, TV shows, video games, etc. that no one could possibly keep up with all of it, so if you have never seen Dr. Who or read The Hobbit that just says to me that you were busy with other stuff. And is hating Jar Jar Binks make you a pure geek because you think Lucas screwed up his own vision, or does liking Jar Jar make you even more completely geeky because if it is Lucas it has to be good? To my mind, watching Star Trek doesn't make you a geek. Learning Klingon does. It is a matter of how absorbed you become in fantasy worlds that determines your geek-level. I have never been in the hip crowd to be sure, but I think I officially stopped being a geek when I had kids and didn't have time for it anymore.

Re: Order of the Stick Only if Redcloak thinks to cast the spell. Depending on how he finds out, he might just chalk the whole thing up to another random attack by the Resistance and not investigate fully. So the secret might be safe, but the Resistance can't really bank on it.

Re: The Cage Opens Nonviolent doesn't necessarily mean defenseless. Sure the aliens will be taken off-guard at first, but then they would finds ways to de-fang humanity. I see a couple possibilities. First, they could offer economic/diplomatic perks to humans that agreed to join their peaceful society. Lots of people would likely jump at the chance, not just for prosperity but because peace is an ideal much of humanity strives for even today. Second, they could make humans peaceful. This might be through some sort of mind control (mental, technological, or medical) or done by unleashing a wildly contagious retrovirus that would literally change humanity into another peaceful society.

Re: Psychic Flashes The info the hero gets from the flashes is useful, plot point or not, so I think he should pay a little something for it. In my campaigns where I have a psychic that has visions for the sake of advancing the plot or building tension, I usually build it as KS: Random Events for 3 points. That is much cheaper than a Clairsentience build and accomplishes the goal of giving the heroes the info they need when the GM wants to give it to them.

Re: The Treasure Thread Repped for you. And me. A crown that is a double-edged sword too. Nice

Re: Multiple reduced penetrations I think that Reduced Penetration is really what you want here. Dividing the attack into two parts does not mean it actually consists of two smaller attacks, it just reflects the fact it doesn't penetrate armor very well. A tiger's claws would reasonablly be built with RP, not because a tiger has only two claws but because the damage comes from multiple relatively shallow cuts instead of a single, deeper slash like you would get from a sword. Similarly, buckshot can't go through armor easily so RP is very appropriate, not because there are only two pellets but because the effects of RP fit the sfx well.

Re: Adult Entertainment I am thinking that it would be difficult to have a magazine that focused on naked metahumans because your source material would be limited. In the real world there aren't magazines dedicated to only naked actors (that I know of), and although I am sure it is a sales boost to Playboy when they get a celebrity to bare all, that is hardly their bread and butter. So really you could come up with any plausible porn mag name and just let them feature supers when they can rather than being wholly dedicated to it. Or have a magazine dedicated to supers that has fantasy spreads with naked models playing the parts of the supers for most issues but with an occasional photo shoot with an actual metahuman; I won't try to top the names that have already been posted for that case.

Re: Only Breathe's Through Skin Well that is an interesting point. I wrote "choke hold" but really meant any attack intended to cut off the air supply by restricting the windpipe. I don't know if strangle holds are mechanically different enough to warrant an exception. Sure they might impede the blood flow, but in the short term that is primarily important because the brain needs oxygen which they might be able to absorb through the skin on their heads (although I guess brains tend to be pretty oxygen-hungry organs so that might not be enough).

Re: Only Breathe's Through Skin I would buy them the Automaton power No Hit Locations, Only for choke holds (-2) for 3pts and give them a Physical Complication: Skin must be uncovered to breathe (Infrequent, Affects Greatly, 15pts).

Re: Immunity to Psychic Powers For what it is worth, I asked Mr. Long a while ago about using Damage Negation for Mental Invulnerability, and although it doesn't cover mental Entangles, it does affect powers like Telepathy and Mind Control (subject to GM decision though, so a chemical like sodium pentathol might still work on a psychic null even if regular Mind Control didn't). The problem with Mental Invulnerability is that there are so many effects that could have mental sfx that no single defense would cover all of them unless the GM allows a pass with a custom Desolid or Automaton rule. The best thing to do might be for the GM to rule that all mental powers must be bought so that they are affected by Mental Defense. That way your psychic null can just have a high EGO and high Mental Defense (Resistant, Hardened, Impenetrable, etc.) to cover all the bases.

Re: Unususal premises for Superteams

Re: I've got you

Re: Unususal premises for Superteams I had a group called the Death Throws, which were a bunch of criminal jugglers with various mutant powers: Ringmaster, Bombshell, Mesmer, Fire Eater, and Ricchocet). They were mostly comic relief, but surprisingly crafty at times. I also had a group called the Icthoids, where were murderous amphibious aliens that pooled their life-force. Every time a member of their pod was killed, the remaining Icthoids got stronger. Initially only one appeared at a time, leading the heroes to think that it was a single villain that was nearly indestructible as it kept on reappearing. Once they figured out there was a whole group of them, they had already killed a number of them which made the rest of the pod incredibly tough. It was a nice way to scale the villains up during the course of the campaign.

Re: I've got you Running is "restrainable" by default. Flight isn't. Flight has a turn mode, Running doesn't. They are different movement powers, so you can't equate them without a little jiggering. Derek makes a good point that "restrainable" Flight is really just Flight with Gestures. In my own mind the value of the limitation comes from the fact that the character will drop like a rock if his wings are restrained. That could potentially hurt a lot. Also, as GM I typically require a fair amount of unrestricted space for wings to flap, so unless the hallway is particularly wide, winged characters don't fly around inside much, but maybe that is just me.

Re: Superheroes to Keep, Superheroes to Lose Characters in the comics are often not consistent enough to really write up so that they exactly reflect their 4-color selves. As mentioned above however, it is hard to make a totally original character either. I have never made a pure homage character, but I have certainly borrowed ideas, parts of backgrounds, and power constructs. The comics can be great inspiration, but I think most gamers like to put their own creative elements into the mix too.

Re: How much change to a character do you consider it a new character. I would have to consider the workover of Frizbee and King Cobra to be new characters; Reality makes a good point there. I revamp characters all the time. Sometimes it is to upgrade them to keep up with the power level of the campaign (same character). Sometimes it is just a few tweaks and a change of sfx to give me a quick adversary for the heroes, especially one-shot monsters, demon-hordes, or rounding out a supervillain team quickly (new character). And sometimes I take the basic concept for character from an old campaign and import it into a new campaign. Depending on circumstances, that could be essentially the same character or a new one altogether.

Re: Summon specific being?

Re: Summon specific being? The reason Summon Specific Being has a Stop Sign next to it and is so expensive is that you could potentially unbalance the game. Hostage situation? Summon specific hostage. Want to lure your nemesis into a trap? No need, just summon him and BAM! Want your slippery ex-husband to pay child support? Summon the loser to court. Granted the rules suggest Summon Specific Being should only be used for ghosts, but if you want the solution to Fermat's last theorem it won't help to summon any random ghost.

Re: Analyze Structure vs KS Architecture I have a BS and MS from a University (Virginia Tech). I can see where college would be different from vocational school though, but I don't know by how much or what percentage of people learn in either type of institution.

Re: Analyze Structure vs KS Architecture Yes, you could build the anti-electronics character, but it wouldn't be book-legal. 6e1 page 62 specifically states the GM should not allow Background Skills to replace named skills. You can use them as complimentary skills, but PS: Paramedic does not grant you the Paramedic skill. The way to keep Background skills from being fluff is to be generous with the complimentary skill rolls. If a 3 point background skill gives an automatic +1 to a related roll, then it is nearly as good as just putting points into the skill itself, plus you round the character out. You could have a doctor character with just a high Paramedic roll, but how much better if he has Scholar with KS: Medicine, KS: Anatomy, and KS: Pathogens?

Re: Analyze Structure vs KS Architecture Okay, well in your experience that may be the case, but the engineering courses I have taken have mixed the theoretical and practical, with just a smattering of historical. Our educational experiences were obviously different; I would be curious to know what the predominate teaching/learning style is. But I don't have KS: History of Teaching Paradigms.

Re: Analyze Structure vs KS Architecture I am pretty sure that the rules state you can't use a background skill in place of a named skill that has the same effect. PS: Locksmith lets you work on locks, but you can't pick them without Lockpicking. Background skills can be complimentary to named skills, but they can't replace them.

Re: The future is here, again. One source of energy that could become more plentiful with an increase in the world population. Cool!

Re: Analyze Structure vs KS Architecture That delineates the differences between KS, PS, and SS well, but in the real world people rarely learn subjects like that. There tends to be a blend of practical and theoretical for most subjects that fall into the gray area between skills catagories (certainly Plumber is pretty solidly a PS, while Victorian Poetry is certainly a KS, but most technological skills are a bit slippery). You could fix that by saying that your hacker should buy the KS, PS, and SS to cover all the bases, but that seems like a ridiculous number of points spent on a simple background skill. That is why I would advocate GM flexibility on what exactly a KS, PS, or SS can let you do.

Re: Analyze Structure vs KS Architecture An excellent point. Meanwhile SS allow you the benefits of both at the same cost. In my games I am pretty liberal about what you can do with a skill, mostly to encourage players to buy skills and not get hung up on what kind of skill it is. I might assign a greater or lesser penalty/bonus to a skill roll depending on what flavor of skill it is, but from a gaming standpoint things work better if you encourage players to use those little background skills.