Ockham's Spoon

Re: How to understand the SuperHero Genre I find the biggest difference between most fantasy games and most superhero games boils down to the moral authority to kill. In fantasy literature, it is okay to kill the bad guys, and usually necessary. This makes the solution to many problems much cleaner and less ambiguous, and having the world laid out in black and white like that can be very appealing. Not that there can't be shades of grey, but heroes administering capital punishment isn't part of that. For social and psychological reasons, most superheroes can't kill indiscriminately, even when that is the most direct "solution" to the problem at hand. This can be great for roleplaying, but it often lacks a sense of final justice and frequently takes on the air of a soap opera where the good guys can never win once and for all (is it any mystery why movie villains so frequently die at the end?). So if you want to play superheroes but love the moral code of fantasy, my suggestion would be to play a game where the hero is expected to kill the bad guys. This would probably be a war-zone scenario where aliens, undead, demons, or nazis make for evil villians that always deserve the death penalty.

Re: What support DNPCs do GMs make for their games? I think that some of the best DNPCs are family, parents in particular, which is ironic since many hero backgrounds leave them as orphans. The reason is that blood is thicker than water, so while you might switch love interests, there is always reason for a family member to be in your life, and while they might irritate the bejeezus out of the hero, they are still family and there is still some love there. Family interactions are great for plumbing character depths because there are emotional ties there that you just don't find in most other relationships - the responsibilities are more profound (and betrayals are too).

Re: EDM as 'Total Invulnerability' Good point Naanomi; you could add Life Support to cover a lot of that, but with EDM you aren't there at all to be affected by anything, unless someone has a Transdimensional attack, which are certainly less common than Affects Desolid. Of course you have to add Transdimensional Clairsentience if you want to know what is going on with your indestructible body, but that is easier than buying extraneous defenses for everything under the sun.

Re: EDM as 'Total Invulnerability' For the limited invulnerability you describe I would allow it, but if I had thought to build a similar "invulnerability" power I think I would have gone with Desolid with limitations on it to reflect lack of mobility and then just handwave the sfx to say the form is indestructible instead of intangible.

Re: Commentary on a magic system I like the concept of Memorization and Battle Focus; I am not quite clear on how the characters are spending points there though, but let me offer a couple suggestions. All wizards have a standard (Formulaic) Magic roll for starters. You could then buy extra levels with this skill roll with the limitations "Only for memorized spells" or "Requires Battle Focus roll". You could also just let wizards buy PS: Memorization and PS: Battle Focus and let them work like complimentary skills to the Forumulaic Magic skill. Memorization would clearly be an INT skill, but Battle Focus might be based on EGO. Or, you could buy all spells with Variable Limitation. Typically that limitation would be Extra Time: 1 Turn. But it could also be "Requires Memorization roll with Side Effects" or "Requires Battle Focus roll". One last thing I would throw out. If I were a player in this campaign, my first question would be "Can I buy Eidetic Memory so my wizard can flawlessly memorize spells?" Just something to consider.

Re: I have the idea you have the know how I would build it as Absorption to an END Reserve. Then the Blast is powered from the END Reserve, so the more hits he takes the bigger the Blast he can power (or the more often he can use it). Because END is cheap (even when you have to pay double for it through Absorbtion since it is a "defensive" power), you could fill the Reserve quickly, so you can save some points by buying the Blast at x3 END or x5 END or whatever suits your fancy. You would also want to buy the Absorbtion with the Advantage "Defensive" to represent he doesn't get hurt by the energy he absorbs, or buy (extra) defenses with the limitation "Only to the amount Absorbed". The former is more straightforward, but the latter can protect him from STUN damage better.

Re: NND vs Barrier Since I haven't actually read the example power in question, let me ask this: does it say the defense is a "PD Barrier" or a "PD barrier"? Is it specifically referring to the power Barrier? Also, what is the sfx? For instance if it is an AoE NND with a gas sfx, I would expect it to flow around objects so you would get hit even if crouching behind cover. But if the sfx is a flash-bang grenade, cover might very well protect you. So not to be snarky* but is this really an issue or am I just not seeing the full picture here? *(Forgive me but I talk to too many customers in my line of work where the first question is often something like "Did you plug it in?")

Re: Too versatile! As someone who loves versatile characters myself, I would make a couple suggestions. First, pick a limited concept and run with it, like Ice9 suggests. Consider that the more limited the concept, the more creative you will have to be to make your character effective. This will require a little balance so that you don't cripple him but at the same time you don't get ridiculous with the power concept. Put the powers in a Multipower, not a VPP, to keep his abilities well defined. Some of the best limited concept characters involved TK and illusion-type powers - these allow a lot of flexibility depending on the situtation and environment even though it is just a single line on the character sheet. Second, when you play, focus on the character, not the character sheet. Consider this an opportunity to shift the focus so you can plumb the depths of the character in a group story-telling environment rather than using the character as a Swiss-army knife to solve every problem. I love effective characters, but I also like psychologically compelling characters; if you are giving up some of the former, make up for it with the latter.

Re: Infrared Perception (Hearing Group) I could certainly see someone building Detect Temperature as a Hearing sense, so they wouldn't need a thermometer. But I already have that power, albeit with Touch, which allows me to determine I need a jacket on a cold day or if one of my kids has a fever (okay, not super refined, but you get my drift, which is not in this case Brownian). Personally I think it is cool that humans could perceive Brownian motion with hearing, but I confess I little practical application for it. If I have a hero with such acute hearing that he can tell that a warm body is approaching, I think it will be because of the rustle of air as the body disrupts the atmosphere more than the heat of the body that will be heard, Passive Sonar as it were.

Re: Cause vomit power... You are right that a nausea power can't be targeted; that is why you have to apply the +1 Advantage Takes No Damage From Attacks (one of the nice additions to 6e). Now the Entangle can only be escaped with CON (or application of anti-nausea medicine or some similar antidote), which is exactly what you want. The Mind Control vs. CON is another good option, but Mind Control is a bit more subjective so I prefer the CON Entangle myself.

Re: Armour Piercing in Champions 6e The basic problem in costing advantages like AP is that you can make it balanced for any one power level. But the further you get from that power level, the more skewed the cost becomes so AP becomes either useless or a fantastic deal. I think the +¼ level for AP is actually pretty good for most games; IME at +½ the AP advantage was rarely worthwhile. Although I can see some logical rationale for making Impenatrable separate from Hardened, I think that distinction is too subtle to justify the additional cost. I also think that Penetrating should have been dropped to +¼ too to make it competative with AP, (except it should apply to the STUN of Killing Attacks unless an additional +¼ is applied), but maybe that is just me.

Re: Cause vomit power... If you just want the victim to be helplessly retching for a PHA or two, Roy's idea of the Entangle based on CON instead of STR is excellent. You would have to add Takes no damage from Attacks (+1), Cannot be escaped with Teleportation (+¼), and vs. CON not STR (+0 or +¼ depending on whether you see this as an advantage or not). Note that for the +1 level of Takes no damage from Attacks you are supposed to define a reasonable way to remove the Entangle, which would probably depend on the sfx of the power.

Re: The Future of Food Technology Food technology will depend a lot on the tone and tech level of the campaign. Practically speaking the nutrient-loaded yeast vats might be a good solution, so in a gritty low-sci-fi campaign you might see soldiers squeezing flavored tubes of protein paste into their mouths. But that would not be desirable aethetically, so people with money or rank might have real food. In a space opera kind of campaign, the technology is advanced enough that you might have all sorts of food and kitchen space because practical issues are less of a concern (that said, even Luke Skywalker was eating freeze-dried rations on Dagoba). Personally I think this topic warrants some consideration in any campaign, because everyone has to eat and the type of food and its preparation can add a lot of "flavor" to the game.

Re: More Blockages While I tend to agree with Utech and Kraven Kor on the way blocks work (just my perception), my real reluctance to use such a mechanic is more pragmatic. Namely, if a block is only going to knock off a couple of DC from an attack, I don't think anyone will use it. Maybe your games are different, but in my experience, players don't block very often as is because it is usually more effective to put the other guy down quickly instead. If I made the block even weaker by only negating some of the damage instead of all of it, I don't think it would get used at all, at which point one has no need for the mechanic.

Re: Obfuscation and Unbreakable Vows... I think the sfx you describe still call for Invisibility, AoE, IPE, Not vs. those who already know where the school is. I would include Invisibility to Touch to simulate the fact even if you walk through the valley you somehow walk around it, and Invisibility to Mental along with the IPE to make people forget it is there. That might be a little handwaving, but I think mechanically it is a pretty good fit for the sfx you describe.

Re: Obfuscation and Unbreakable Vows... I would go with Invisibility vs. all appropriate senses with IPE and the limitation: Only to make the place difficult to find. The IPE represents the sfx that there is "nothing suspicious" about no one being able to find it, and explains why it isn't on maps and no one can remember where it is. If you really want to cover the memory aspect, make the Invisibility cover mental senses. The limitation allows the place to be hard to find, but still perfectly visible if you are standing in front of it - you may just not realize what the building is.

Re: Advantage i almost never use: IPE Since it is hard to block a power with IPE, I can see why it is purchased as an advantage rather than an adder, even though you have the prescedent of the stand alone Invisibility power. But if you want more granularity, you could link Images, -X PER to target sense(s), No Range, Only to conceal power effects (-1½). Now you can make the power as difficult to perceive as you want (6 points for a -3 PER to sight which isn't bad), although if you want it to be completely undetectable you should probably go with IPE.

Re: Suggestions: Giant Elvis Fight Wait, wouldn't they all be Elvis impersonators? Or is there some freaky time/dimension warp going on where the real Elvis Presley can simultaneously exist in multiple giant bodies? I might consider giving one or more of them the following: Dazzling Sequins! 4d6 Flash vs Sight, Trigger when Elvis is targeted, Act 11-, only with a bright light source nearby From a rock history standpoint, few if any were bigger than The King despite his ignoble demise, and since these are giant Elvis impersonators to boot, you almost have to have the line "The bigger they are, the harder they fall".

Re: Advantage i almost never use: IPE I used to have this problem all the time; the power isn't really invisible, but it isn't blatantly obvious either. This is one of the nice improvements of 6e over 5e, the introduction of "Inobvious" as opposed to "Imperceivable". Now for a +¼ advantage I can mask a power to a sense group without having to make it fully invisible. In a lot of cases I still wouldn't bother, partly because it just clutters up the power description. But my other rationale is that a regular handgun is never purchased with "Inobvious" to sight, but I can't tell you how many movies I've seen where everyone takes cover until they can figure out where the shots are coming from. Sure you can see the muzzle flash if you are looking the right direction, but no one can track a bullet the way you could with an arrow or flame thrower, or any number of other attacks. I have had mentalists with TK buy IPE just so they could pull sleight of hand manuvers while in secret ID without giving themselves away (which can be pretty handy). But mostly I wouldn't sweat it unless you are building something specifically stealthy, like a plastic pistol invisible to metal detectors or something.

Re: Dr. Terror's not so terrifying PRE You're right; trained soldiers would almost certainly be more resistant than your average mook, esp. if they are trained for battling supernatural threats. That could certainly be a mitigating factor. I particularly want to highlight your second point though, because I think this is the reason PRE was introduced to the game in the first place, and this is exactly the function it should have. Conceptually I am okay with the idea of Lovecraftian horrors that can make grown men pass out in terror, but in practice I find that it skews gameplay, possibly because the PRE scale is fairly narrow as written. Which is the whole reason for this post of course. Anyway, thanks for your input.

Re: Dr. Terror's not so terrifying PRE

Re: Dr. Terror's not so terrifying PRE I really like that idea, giving a bonus when singling a target out. Partly because it makes good gaming sense to me, but partly because it encourages the player to pick a target instead of hosing the whole group; PRE is kind of a blunt instrument that way. I can't rep you again yet though. The extra intermediate levels, although also nonstandard, could be a nice way to add a bit more granularity although the subjective part of the attack will require some work with more levels to deal with.

Re: Dr. Terror's not so terrifying PRE You're right about the base PRE adding, but even a 10d6 base PRE attack can be dangerous. IME the negative modifiers can be offset with appropriate actions and soliloquies (and without negative mods that 10d6 attack can hit 14d6 without too much trouble). The problem is not necessarily the loss of a PHA or DCV (although that is significant) but the compulsion to do what the attacker says. At PRE+30 everyone surrenders pretty much, but even at PRE+10 "he will consider deeply what attacker says" and the effects last for around 1 minute. I can reasonably say most people engaged in combat aren't going to chicken out at the +10 level unless things are going badly for them, but past that you would expect some people to run at least. So while PRE+20 might not automatically end combat like PRE+30, if the opposition loses half their number the battle becomes pretty trivial. The "secondary" effects of the PRE attack are somewhat subjective, so I could just tone them down, but in many ways they are the whole point of the PRE attack mechanic. The Mind Control route is reasonable, but Mind Control costs END and isn't AoE by default like PRE and so it begs the same question as Dr. Terror's Fear Aura: why not just buy PRE which is more effective for the same points?

In 6e1 on pg 176, there is an example power, Dr. Terror’s Fear Aura, purchased as Change Environment: -4 to PRE to resist Dr. Terror’s fear-based PRE attacks, AoE 16m R, 0 END for 45 Active points. Not to be a power-gamer here or anything, but the more obvious way to do this would have been to sink those 45 points into Dr. Terror’s PRE. This would not only be way more effective than CE (add 9d6 to the PRE attack instead of merely dropping the defenders PRE by 4), but he would get the defensive bonus from PRE as well. I don’t think the price for CE is necessarily unfair, but I think PRE could have used a bit of tweaking in 6e. As a GM, I really dislike high PRE because I have seen it throw too many combats. It has come to the forefront though, as I am about to start a campaign where all the heroes have supernatural or monstrous backgrounds (think X-Men meet Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and sure enough one of the players is looking at a supernatural fear power, which would most obviously be a high PRE. I would like to establish some ground rules before we get started though, and I am hoping for some thoughts and/or feedback on handling this. Here are some of ideas I had on how to limit the power of PRE (none of which I am wild about, but all of which I think are workable): 1. Just put a cap on it. Nobody has PRE over, say 40. There are no other caps in this game, although I have suggested what a reasonable power levels would be (around 50 active). But if someone puts 50 points into PRE, you can easily get a PRE+30 effect on a large number of people who would not reasonably have a high PRE (soldiers and other agent types - these guys aren't game-changers but should pose a credible threat that a high PRE attack would effectively neutralize). 2. Make extensive use of PRE Defense (PRE purchased with the limitation “only for defense”). While effective, this strikes me as a band-aid fix. 3. Make PRE subject to CHA Maxima, so any PRE over 20 costs double (including from Aid). No other CHA is subject in this campaign, but it would keep things in check. 4. Establish a new house rule. Normally the target of a PRE attack can use the higher of PRE or EGO to defend. The house rule states if the target makes an EGO roll he can add his EGO to his PRE for defensive purposes. I can see where this would have the desired effect, but that could be a lot of EGO rolls to make with each PRE attack unless I just apply a statistical rule and say 50% make it and 50% don’t or something. 5. Change the PRE scale. Make the increments for PRE attack larger; say +15, +30, and +45. This is pretty nonstandard, but it allows for low level effects while making the combat-ending upper range effects harder to achieve. Any comments on the above or other ideas for ways to keep PRE in check?

Re: The Third Wave By explaining superpowered historys in waves, you implicitly ask the question "Why?" You don't necessarily have to address it, but if I were a player I would want to find out. Besides which there are lots of options for an overall story arc that might relate to the waves. Does the governement shut the metahumans down because they are too dangerous? Did the government create them in the first place? Is it part of some experiment by a powerful alien race or primal force no one is aware of? Are metahuman powers triggered by magical spirits that possess people for 10 years and then need to rest for a while before doing it again (and why do they bother)? Things come in groups of 3; does this mean the 3rd wave is the last one? Does that mean the 4th wave will be substantially different or does it herald the end of the world (shouldn't there be a prophecy about this somewhere)? Maybe there have been previous waves earlier in history but they were weaker or more secretive and so most people are unaware of them, or maybe some of the metahumans from an earlier wave used their powers to cover it all up in an effort to prevent any more waves. There are too many good possibilities not to explore one.