Kevin Schultz

Re: When the good cosmic being motiffs are taken For a slightly more serious look at this type of game, consider Nobilis. Kevin Schultz, who once played the incarnation of children's literature, ages 3-5.

Re: Help me make a Casino based Super Villain group

Re: Secret Identities and Teammates I'll go with the general concensus - while having players know each other's SID's tends to make for an easier game, it shouldn't be forced: either have it set up as part of the backstory, or else let it flow organically from actions in the game. And yes, the player who is trying to force it is having IC/OOC issues.

Re: My yang needs a little help Sounds like an interesting plot - from a game mechanic/design standpoint though, I'd say that you shouldn't have the PC spend points on stuff you're going to immediately take away from him or use in a way that he didn't intend: that sounds like the GM interfering with what he wanted to do with the character. (extreme example) PC: "I'd like to have a contact and a sidekick. Here's the points." GM: "OK...oh, look, they get killed in the next session and/or go evil. Sucks to be you!" PC: "But I just spent points on them! They're supposed to be advantageous, not DIS-advantageous!" GM: "Yeah, but I"m the GM, and what I say goes. And they go." Even if you give the player the points back, you just had him waste the effort he put into making them up to begin with (or the emotional inventsment he had in THINKING that he'd be able to do cool stuff with them.) What you're describing above doesn't sound like a sidekick (which, by definition, is an advantage): it sounds more like a DNPC with useful skills (which is, by definition, a disadvantage).

Re: WWYCD: "I Am Doctor Destryoer!" Jake the Troll - not applicable - Jake's the personification of a concept, and as such his body, mind, and soul are the same thing. Icon - Aaaaarrghh! gender-bending, especially with someone THAT old, is not on Emma's "list of things to even think about". After she started freaking, she'd immediately turn herself in, as Doc Destroyer is WAY beyond her capabilities to do anything about. In contrast, the Doc now is flying around in a Cosmic Energy version of a Kryptonian (scaling for power). Shinji Miromoto - Shinji's has nothing more than his magic and an athletic build; essentially, everything would come with him. In contrast, the doc is stuck in a teenage (realistic) martial artists's body and an insanity-causing link to the Dark Dimension. The Doc probably wants back more than Shinji does.

Re: [Twisted Game Concept] VG Supers I think there's some fun to be had in that - kind of a reverse "self-insertion", whereby instead of a writer creating a story about a real person going to a fictional world, it's a story about a fictional character coming to the real world. I got dibs on Black vs. White. Kevin "I drop my divine cow on you!" Schultz

Re: 5th Edition Champions Art you liked! I really like the "Powerpuff girls as Champions" picture. Although the one that I tend to remember most is the "motorcycle goes around a corner and blows up the skirt of the well-endowed woman" picture, in the back of the core rulebook, for some reason...

Re: "Crumbling Carrots, we've been animal-morphitized!" Take the Troll - would be...well, a Troll. His 'normal' form is pretty must an anthropormorphic gila monster or alligator of some sort, so nothing would really change, other than people wouldn't stare QUITE as much. Icon - a mink, in a serious Minerva Mink sort of way. Shinji Miromoto - Fox. They're quite the magical beasties of Japan, so he'd probably have an extra tail or two.

Re: Need help with a team idea The Unbeliever - militant athiest metahuman with the power to "unbelieve" anything out of existence. The more fantastical the power, the easier it is for her to disbelieve in it. But it's an active form of disbelief, and thus has to conciously maintain it. Her power does require a form of denial, though, which is why it doesn't work long-term: it's too obvious to her that whatever it is she's not believing does exist, and so it wears off after a while.

Re: Need help with a team idea Psychic phenomena and magical powers are functionally the same; the main difference tends to be that psychic powers tend to have the trappings of quasi-science, whereas magic is expressly mystical. (Of course, folks like the Hermetics end up with a quasi-scientific approach to the whole thing, so the lines really do blur fairly quickly.) But that might be enough: the 'scientific' understanding of focusing one's own Will through a genetic or gift or training, as opposed to bargining for power with extra-dimensional forces. Or maybe they have a very specific understanding of what makes magic: "if it fails the Milesburg test, then it's magic. If it passes, then it's psionics."

Re: All Of Them Damn Martial Bricks Whenever I design any character with a couple of years of experience as a superhero under their belt, I usually give 'em 2-3 MA maneuvers and 1-2 CSL's. This is mainly me answering my own question of "If they're going to go out and fight crime, wouldn't they get some training on how to do it?" I also tend to give such characters 10-15 points in some sort of gadget pool. EDIT - thus, yeah - my current 250-point Brick (Icon) has 2 MA maneuvers: Flying Dodge and Flying Throw. She'll probably pick up Flying Grapple, plus maybe a Strike. However, she's got a CV of 5, and a SPD of 4. That's more in the "I went down to the dojo and I'm almost a black-belt", rather than "I've studied in the Mountains of Tibet".

Re: WWYD: Those Who Cannot Remember The Past Self - Probably would get Icon's powers, as she's the one I'm currently playing. Assuming this was the case? I'd likely offer my services to the FBI or state police, actually. Like others have said - this was a request only to not be a hero, rather than a promise that all supervillian activity had been eliminated. IF it could be shown that supervilians exist solely because superheroes do, then yes: I'd actually put down my powers. But that's going to be REALLY hard to prove in-game.

Re: The Mystic Academy Heh - and some of the best Stratovarious violins were actually forgeries made afterwards.

Re: WWYCD: Fans and cons Jake the Troll - is a moderate sci/fi and Fantasy goob, and has his own fan club of middle-aged housewives he calls his Mercedes Lackeys. When his parents give permission, they take him to fantasy conventions in Vancouver, BC. Thus, he's fairly well known in the region at cons, although he tends to get annoyed a the quasi-religous fangirls. "Um, you realize I'm not wearing this crucifix out of a sense of irony, right?" Icon - is a complete and utter closet Superman fangirl, rather than comics or sci-fi or anything like that. She goes to cons in her secret ID for that reason, but does so in secret. (She's got a reputation as a goth to protect.) She actually goes in full Supergirl costume, which she can pull off OK if she dyes her hair. Shinji Miromoto - hates shojo anime with the burning passion of a thousand suns, and thinks that the entire magical girl genre should be thrown into the Burning Hell of a Thousand Hack Cliches. He doesn't even bother with the Western versions.

Re: Using Normal Weapons I'm one of the GM's that says "if you can buy it on e-bay, you don't have to pay points for it." However, I also have the following powers and advantages available to any PC that can justify them, even if they go over campaign limitations: Insubstantial: Real Damage Only (brick defenses) PD/ED +20, Real damage only (alternate to the Insubstantial powers) Indirect: Ignores Real Armor (any attack that can punch through armor) DCV: +10, Real attacks only (acrobatic types)

Re: My yang needs a little help Other thought: the enemy of (yang) imbalance is not (yin) imbalance, but rather balance itself. Thus, the enemy could be someone who is truly balanced with their yin and yang, and thus has achieved philosophical/alchemical perfection. The martial artist PC is, in this paradigm, an abomination, due to his massive over-abundance of yang chi. The goal of the enemy is to bring spiritual balance to the universe, starting with the PC. Doing so will regrettably rob the PC of his powers, but the road to enlightenment is never easy.

Re: Disadvantage: Hunted, Rogues' Gallery? I'd say that a group of individuals who are As Powerful, but cover a wide array of abilities, would still be considered only As Powerful if they come at you solo. The reason for this is that villains are pro-active: they're the ones doing the crimes, and the heroes go out and stop them. Thus, they're already optimizing their environements for their own powers and agendas. Flexability and breadth of power is an advantage only when you don't know what's going to happen in a situation, so you bring as much of a toolkit along as possible. But the villian already knows what's going to happen: they're going to rob a bank, or kidnap the mayor, or whatever. Further, in any given case, the villian isn't bringing the toolkit of multiple allies along - they're just brining their own powers. Thus, while the stories for different villians will be different, they'll still be at the same challenge level for the player: the fact that there are multiple villains doesn't let them stack their powers, as they don't cooperate.

Re: Forth wall perception? I have a villain like this that I plan on springing on my PC's at some point - his only power is that he can hear the gaming table. He considers the "voices" to be puppet masters that control the actions of the different heroes in his reality, which means the characters are enslaved to petty inter dimensional tyrants who put them through pain and hardship for their own amusement. Therefore, the NPC (called "the Puppeteer") goes around the country, listening for the "voices", which let him know that there's a 'puppet' nearby. Once he identifies a puppet, he'll try to "cut their strings", thereby freeing them from the tyrrany of the puppetmasters. The twist is that, by the time he gets to the PC's table, he starts hearing me, the GM - which means he realizes that he's being controlled by a puppet master as well. Thus, his interactions with the PC's are really an elaborate murder/suicide, whereby he cuts his own strings while 'freeing' as many 'puppets' as he can.

Re: WWYCD? Faerie Tale theatre Jake the Troll - deals with fairly-tale type wierdness on a weekly basis. Wouldn't notice any change from the usual. He's Myth Made Manifest, so it wouldn't really affect him. (he defines, rather than is defined by, the Troll Archtype.) Icon - A great deal of Emma's self-identity is bound up in being an Icon of justice as a means of dealing with her crappy past. She'd likely end up as a Paladin or Chevalier of some sort. She'd probably get a bit too deep into the role, and would have to be pulled out by her friends/allies. Shinji Miromoto - has officially been called a Jack by the Winter Court: a mortal who overcomes great odds by cleverness and luck, rather than power. If left to himself, he'd probably assume the archetype of the Mysterious Wizard. However, he knows enough about the detrimental effects of exposing oneself to dimensional energies, so he'd skedaddle as quickly as possible.

Re: Help Wanted: Neutralising Gadgets Energy blaster counters: 1. Point Defense System: (Parry Missile, Continuous - Or Insubstantial: Ranged attacks only) 2. Insulated Suit (Insubstantial [specific SFX only, -1/2]) 3. Point Defense II: (generic EB, with the Block maneuver.) Brick counters: 1. Evasion Suit (DCV +8, Area Effect) 2. Evasion Suit II (Insubstantial [single-target melee only, -1/2 only) 3. Levitation Ray (as described above: 1" Flight (Usable on Others, Usable as Attack, Continuous) Metamorph Psychic disruption device (26 Dispel [Multiform]) Martial Artist See Brick, above.

Re: Help Wanted: Neutralising Gadgets

Re: "Guard, begin the unnecessarily slow-moving dipping mechanism..." Yeah, but once they parted it out, did they have a decent fence to sell to?

Re: Transformation Another way to do "duration" powers is by using a Continuous Recoverable Charge, I believe: ie, Multiform, 350 point - restrainable (must kill self), 1 Continuous Recoverable charge (1 hour).

Re: Regeneration/Healing

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game I was having that issue two weeks or so ago. My account expired on the 10th, but I think I had cleared it up before that; mainly it was the standard "run the various scanners on your system, don't have anything else running while playing CoX, etc." that did it for me.