Kevin Schultz

Re: need help for alchemist character I've seen a couple of Full Metal Alchemist episodes. From what I recall, they actually use the following issues from "real" alchemy. 1. Laws of Sympathy and Contagion - general hermetic laws: affecting part of something affects the whole. Also, the "you must give something up to gain something" rule, and a lot of the ritual work they do with seals and wards, is quasi-hermetic. 2. Limits of the Divine - mideval alchemy was originally concieved of as a mortal's attempt to uncover divine truths; however, the limit of that is that you are not actually Divine yourself; such abilities were the province of God and the Church. Thus, you can't do certian things with Alchemy that is the realm of God - specifically, ressurrection. 3. Amulet making - basically anything with magical power that is physical could be considered a variation of an amulet of some sort.

Re: need help for alchemist character Amulet making, 101 - Hermetic ritual and alchemy in particular was all about the mistic gadgets. Effects: these can most easily be described as Aids and Succors to skills with a foci limitation, with a sufficiently long duration. EDIT - however, they'd be for areas of effect based on Alchemical symbolism: all skills that fall under Mar's domain, for example.

Re: need help for alchemist character Other effects: Hermaphrodism - symbolic of the unity of masculine and feminine spirituatlity. A high-level alchemist may start to display such characteristics. Effects: High COM (androgynous). Also may have Physical Limitation: Hermaphrodite Purified Body - The body becomes more purified through spiritual enlightenment. Effects: high BODY and CON, as well as the associated LS: Immunities. Could have high STR, but not brick-level high.

Re: need help for alchemist character 1. Alchemy was as much a religous/spiritual metaphor as it was proto-chemistry. Effects should reflect that. 2. Alchemy, at least in the west, was not really a separate discipline from fortune-telling, prophecy, and other forms of magic. Thus, an alchemist probably studied those as well. 3. Go read up on some web sites for alchemy; here's the wiki article. Here's the one I've gone to before for alchemical symbolism. I've no idea if it's right or not, but it sounds interesting... 4. If possible, read up on game versions of hermeticism and alchemy. There's a GURPS supplement that's basically "GURPS Hermetic Magic" (No, it's not Authentic Thaumaturgy. The other one. EDIT: GURPS Cabal.) There's lots of lists of alchemical elements and rules for a HERO-similar system. Of course, Ars Magica is the other system which more-or-less defines hermetic thought to the gaming industry. SPECIFIC EFFECTS Spiritual Transformations - alchemy was about that, at least according to Yung. That's also where we get a lot of the modern interpretations of the Tarot, I beleive; Campbell and the Hero's Journey would be a decent source here. Mechanics: Aids and Heals for Mental characteristics, or even Transform (spirit). Immortality - one of the reputed effects of the Philosopher's stone, which makes sense if you think of it as the ultimate in spiritual transformations: turning dross into something refiend and pure. mechanics: Life support. Also can be Regeneration, as well as various Mental and Power defenses, to represent a lack of weaknesses to spiritual or mental corruption. homoculi - basically a spiritual clone that acts as a decoy against malevolent spells and effects. Created as one of the advances of alchemy. Mechanics: DECV, with a foci base.

Re: Your occupation, please. There's a reason all three of my characters have LS: Reduced sleep (1 point): in terms of maintaining a dual identity, it makes things MUCH easier... Shinji Miromoto - n/a. He's a professional hero. However, if I can convince the current team he's on that he's not particularly competent in hand-to-hand, I'm planning on him having a secret identity as ANOTHER hero... Jake the Troll - student, if I'm playing him in an undercover role. Otherwise, he's just Jake. Icon - also a student, either high school or college.

Re: hitting that moving hex. Another game mechanic for that is to have the super-speedster purchase DCV for flying dodge (proportional to velocity -1/2, only when normal DCV doesn't apply -1 1/2). Which probably isn't what you're looking for, but it gets close.

Re: SG-1 style campaign

Re: Your Character's Room at the Base Rise from the Grave!

Re: Team Base... Who pays? I consider bases to fall under the same rules as foci: you don't have to spend points on it, but if you don't, they can be easily damaged, stolen, or otherwise taken away from you. For this same reason, I allow all my superheroic PC's to wear body armor and carry firearms; it's just that most of my villians have Indirect (only through real armor) and Insubstantial (Real Damage only) or DCV +10 (real attacks only). The PC's are allowed to take such powers as well, even if it violated campaign caps. In doing so, it allows me to design "bulletproof" villians, while at the same time having Weaponmaster PC's who don't feel sidelined; as long as they paid points for thier guns and armor (and as long as they didn't take the "Real Weapon" limitation), the rules for "real equipment" don't affect them. It also implies that you can determine, in game, if something is a foci or not. To those who are aware of it, it's considered to be a boarderline meta power, on par with samurai "becoming one with their swords". Back to bases - with those rules in mind, I let PC's purchase things with wealth with no limitation; with the implied understanding that if you purchase it with ONLY wealth, it's going to be trashed by metahuman activity on a regular basis, and you really won't get a lot of heavy use out of it. If they're fine with that, then I have no problems giving it to them.

Re: Modern day Angels? Ah, Nobilis. The scandinavian supermodel/nobel prize laureate/10th Dan kung fu expert of RPG's. Yeah, she looks nice. You'll fantasize about her, read all about her, and if you're lucky you'll even touch her once. But you'll never actually PLAY her. (And anyone who claims to have is lying.) [back in the day when I hung out on RPG.NET, there was a thread in which we described our respective roleplaying histories as a series of relationships with needy girlfriends. This was one of the descripitons of Nobilis; it had just come out, at the time.]

Re: House Rules for low-level VPP magic use - critique, please Heh - basically, the core game mechanic is as follows: Roll a mystic skill, such as Astrology or Alchemy. A success It gives you a complementary bonus to any other skill the PC can convince the GM it applies to, and is supposed to be a pretty broad bonus. The maximum level of the bonus is the character's (Magic VPP)/10. Because it's a skill roll, the various bonuses and penalties that go into skill rolls apply. You can also get bonuses/penalties due to traditional mystic influcences, sympathies, arcane connections, and so on. Similarly, you can defend against such rolls using your own materials, sympathies, connections, and so on. Actual Mystic VPP magic still exists; this is to give a low-level, in-game way to describe what happens when a mage performs (say) Alchemy or Astrology. It's basically a way to describe using Aids and Succors in a suitibly genre-approprate manner.

Re: Potentially Stupid MA Query: Regarding Use Of Kiai Yeah - the way I describe acutally isn't very common; the more common (ie, it's done every time I go in to train) boxing/kickboxing exercise is to use a medicine ball with a partner. one person lays on the ground in a situp position, and the other stands over them, straddling their legs, holding a medicine ball. The top person drops the medicine ball on the other's gut, from a height of a foot or so. The person on the bottom exhales quickly, with a "hut!" sound, tensing the stomach muscles. After letting the medicine ball hit their stomach, they quickly pass/push/hand the ball up to the partner, who repeats the drop. As the person on the bottom, you can increase the height the ball is dropped; most peple do it at 2 feet or so. This goes on for a minute or so, then you switch. Variations include the person on the bottom doing a half-crunch situp, and getting the ball dropped on them at the height of the situp.

Once again, insomnia and starting up a new campaign has lead me to creating house rules. This time, it was an attempt to make a magical VPP, which seems to be pretty good at simulating "comic book" magic, into something resembling a more 'realistic' magic system. For this, I'm calling on my experiences with White Wolf's Mage: the Ascension, as well as the very excellent GURPS: Cabal, GURPS: Voodo, and (of course) Atlas Game's Ars Magica. I was also inspired by an article I read on-line by one of the GURPS authors into making folk magic. I'm guessing such a system as I describe has already been invented for the more heroic (as opposed to Superheroic) side of HERO. Ah, well. If so, no biggie. Magical Skills the purpose of the following rules is to allow low-level uses of mystical skills by individuals who actually have magical power to have greater-than normal effect on the world at large. To the average person, creating a horoscope acts no better than an ink-blot test: it shows you only what you put into it. But to a true wizard, such actions are meaningful insights into the human mind and nature itself. These rules are to formally describe the benefits that sorcerers and wizards gain from their mystic skills. They also represent the work-a-day benefits that knowing a wizard entails, and their influence on the community at large. Sure, The Amazing Antonio can throw around fireballs; but on a regular basis, it's his ability to predict the weather and bless cattle that gain him the gratitude of his fellow townspeople. Such an ability can be modeled using a VPP and Aid - (1d6 Standard Effect, any one skill at a time involving the target, increased Effect +7, extended duration [weeks]. Active cost 40: +5 to any relevent skill, one at a time.) I couldn't figure out if you could Aid skills; if not, then Aid: Single Attribute, 1 at a time, would also work, albiet be a bit more pricey. To get the cost down, you could have it be 1 pip (3 points) or a 1/2d6 (5 points) instead of a full d6 (10 points) as the base. However, that's a somewhat clunky way to do so. To abstract this system, and to take advantage of interesting bonuses and penalties, I recommend that for such effects, you use mystic skills: Alchemy, Thaumaturgy, Gemomacy, Astrology, and the like. These are paid for as normal skills, and use normal skill penalties and bonuses as regular skills. However, they differ from "regular" skills in the following fashion: 1. They grant real insight, above and beyond what they normally would to a non-magical user. Such skills are backed by actual magical power, so they have a greater impact. For every success and 3 points of success on a mystic skill roll, the sorcerer gains a +1 on any relevent skill roll. For example, Shinji has an Astrology skill of 12-. He rolls a 9 to create a horoscope for Jake Mathers, the criminal he is investigating. Shinji now has a +2 on all social and investigative skill rolls against Jake, as Shinji can accurately predict his behavior. Another example: Shinji wishes to create a minor talisman of blessing for a friend. He rolls his Alchemy skill, and succeeds by 1. Thus, the eye of Horus grants his friend a +1 on all perception rolls. Note this is similar to a complimentary roll, but instead of every 2, it's every 3. The reason is.... 2. Such skills are more general than normal and easier to use than normal. A single mystic skill can cover a LOT of territory for example: Alchemy: any sort of minor talisman of protection or potion Astrology: any interpersonal interaction with an individual, or predictions of the future. Herbalism: any sort of plant-based effect. Numerology: anything dealing heavily with numbers (any science skill) Geomancy: anything dealing with geography or the physical placement of things. Necromancy: dealings with death and the dead. Thaumaturgy: the summoning of geotic spirits for formal bargins. Rune Lore: anything to do with fortune telling or minor enchanted (engraved) objects. 3. Further, they are relatively easy to gain bonuses on. Extra time, good equipment, having the appropriate sympathetic connections, performing the rituals at the right time of day, etc. are all relatively easy to do, espeically in the modern day. Thus, it's fairly easy for a skill that starts at 11- to be brought up (using bonuses) to 18- or 20-. 4. Such bonuses are limited by the actual magical power of the sorcerer, and limits they have on their magical power. The maximum bonus is +1 per 10 points of VPP power. While different skill bonuses may stack, the total bonus will be limited by the above rule. While they may achieve greater abilities using their magic, to do so they must use 'normal' VPP construction rules. This is merely the "low level" abilities. So, Shinji, who has a 40-point magic VPP, can gain at best a +4 on a roll. In addiiton, he is limited to Dark Sorcery, so he can only gain bonuses on rolls dealing with corruption or destruction. (which includes crime, so it's not all THAT much of a penalty for a vigilante.) Further, even if he has multiple mystical skills granting him bonuses, he still can't achieve a greater bonus than a +4. 5. Such bonuses are inherently limited by time and space. Ultimately these bonuses are approximately equal to a week-long Succor or Aid effect, and as such should have a similar duration. They should be tied to phases of the moon, day/night, completion of a moderatly complex task, or the like. 6. Bonuses like these are relatively easy to counter. Other sorcerers can build such systems as well, and know that they are easy to counter. Any attempt to gain information or a skill bonus against a target must succeed against a contested roll vs. the higher of the target's Magical Theory or identical mystic skill. The target does NOT need to have any innate power themselves; just the skill and enough time to take the approprate precautions. (laying out salt on the window ledges, performing general 'cleansing' rituals on their houses, etc.) Note however, that things like Power defense or Mental defense do NOT affect these rolls: they're effectively passive scans about information that is already available, not active attempts to penetrate defenses. However, chameleon or invisibilty effects do make it more difficult to sense the target: most sorcerers know this, and have warded themselves (or their sanctums) appropriately. Simiarly, wards are purchased as levels of Magcal Theory (defense only, -1), with perhaps OIF and Immobile for inscribed barriers. Defensive rolls are also affected by skill bonuses: having the right materials, being in a good defensive spot (magically-speaking), tattooing yourself with a pentagram, etc. 7. Some powers can outright nullify these skill bonuses. Specifically, Insubstantial (to Magic) makes these skills completely useless. However, this would mean that the target is immune to magic, which makes sense. 8. EDIT - yes, you can use these powers to buff your allies. This is basically an alternate rules set for performing low-level Aids and Succors to skills, so it's kind of the point. What's the balance? Well, fortune telling takes time, and you have to do it on a regular basis. But that's really just flavor: if your PC's want to spend every day having the sorcerer of the party do a Tarot reading for them, that's acutually a flavor thing, IMO. The issue starts coming in minor enchanted items, which may grant long-term (monthly) bonuses. What's the limitation on these? Well, in one sense, there are none. A wizard can crank out as many as they like, as long as they have the resources and time to make them. HOWEVER - such a talisman will act as a direct, magical link, right back to the sorcerer that made it. You know those bonuses I talked about up in #3? Such a talisman is on par with a blood or hair sample, and acts as a +10 to any roll to try to affect YOU. So sure. Feel free to make as many talismans as you want; try not to loose them...

Re: Potentially Stupid MA Query: Regarding Use Of Kiai I don't have that much experience, but I HAVE studied (3-4 years) of both voice and martial arts, and have experienced something very similar; the yelling is jus there to help you contract your diaphram. The most effective, practical form of fight/breathing I experienced was basically the boxing form, where the focus is on maintaining a steady breathing pattern while being beat up. No, really - to practice, you got your sparring partner to go all-out on you, and you stood there, let him hit you, concentrated on just breathing regurlarly. The other variation is to get one of those "balls on a bungee cord", hit it once, stick your face into it, and force yourself to breath regularly while repeatadly getting hit in the face with a leather-bound bag. It's not damaging: your forehead and eyebrows protect your eyes, but you'd be surprised how quickly your entire body freezes up and you STOP breathing. It's also good practice on how to not blink when you get hit, as closing your eyes when someone is punching you is a bad idea, generally. For punching, what I've found works is either a quick, low "huh", with an emphasis on the diaphram, a sharp, light "tsss"; the whole Kiai thing, to me, just seems a waste of breath. But again, that's coming from a boxing/kickboxing perspective, where it's as much of an endurance sport as it is fighting. (And the style assumes a single, equally-trained opponent standing right in front of you; more general martial arts don't assume either of those things.)

Re: [Review] The Algernon Files 2.0 (Hero Edition) The one I noticed was Stan Kirby, but that's a bit obvious, at least from a comic history perspective... I do agree about the powergaming aspect. I was reading through a couple of characters and thinking, "Oh, that's an interesting writeup...holy schnikes! 900 points?!?" My next thought was "Oh, so that's why the character sheet is so easy to read, and fits on one page..." Kevin "These characters all need at least 3 more limitations on each power" Schultz

Re: WWYCD: Merchandising Hell Shinji Miromoto - probably would get set up with this as part of a liscencing deal through the City of Denver, in order to 'defray the costs of maintaining a para-human support team". Which he would agree to, but something would probably happen in the politics, and the merchandising rights (for the entire team) would end up going horribly, horribly awry. Icon - Has already determined that such a thing will NOT happen. I'd prefer it if the GM do this with her, actually. (I don't mind the attempt, but would rather not have it succeed.) Jake the Troll - it'd have to be a knock-off, as his parents would never allow it. it would probably be based off of some defunct models of Killer Crock, but with the head of a T.Rex instead. Jake would think them to be the coolest things EVAR, and would buy multiple copies for his friends.

Re: WWYD: Taking it to the street yeah. That "Good Morning, Vietnam" thing was all just a cover.

Re: Just kanoodling; what would you do with 'Rewind'? Question: do psychic/psychological things come back with him? If they can, then someone could potentially use a mental power to "pass" messages to themselves, in the form of embedded psychic commands. ("The next time you go back in time, seek my past self out and tell him today's lottery numbers, then forget that you did it.")

Re: Just kanoodling; what would you do with 'Rewind'? Hm.. For combat sense: an attack that causes instant unconciousness/death is relatively rare; maybe 1 out of 16 will potentially do this, assuming your character is going up against 'nomal' campaign caps. So, call it -1/4. However, those attacks are the ones that are especially important for you to avoid, which IMO would take it up another -1/4 (or even another -1/2, as it effectively 'resets' all your other powers), for a total of -1/2 or -3/4. For the luck thing? I think there's an official ruling on this, calling it "Precognition only", for -1/2 or so. It's in one of the Powers Database books, under the Precog section (I think).

Re: WWYCD: Alternate Identities Shinji Miromoro - will probably do this in the current campaign he's in. He is currently well-known as a Dark Wizard; as such, he'd probalby wear a suit and call himself "Rat 7", and go around as a street-level vigilante martial artist. It gets him out of the lair, as it were, and gives him a chance to practice his martial arts (which, when posing as simply Shinji, he doesn't do. War is deception, after all.) Jake the Troll - can polymorph, so he does this as well. His "public" ID is that of Jake, the, um...Troll. His "secret" ID is Jay Richards, trollknor-at-large. Mainly this allows him to walk around in the sun, but he also occasionally would fight crime, just so long as his parents don't find out. Icon - Most of Emma's power comes from her energy Aura, which is fairly distinctive. She'd also have to go the "low-powered street vigilante" route, and loose a significant portion of her fighting ability. On the upside, it means she could practice her tactics and teamwork more...

Re: Best superhero titles of the 70's Well, I was born in 1975, so I really didn't start reading comics until 1981 or so, and then it was all Archie/Richie Rich from the Navy Commisary. I do recall reading some hardbound Golden Age anthologies, though, as for some reason I know the original Batman/Superman/Green Lantern stories (from the 30's and 40's).

Re: What would your Master Villain do? Professor M - "Pride is the ultimate weakness of all those who wear the cape and cowl. After all, is not the spandex merely an excuse to engage in juvenile power fantasies? So give them some two-bit hood with a nuclear device to defeat. Those are a dinari a dozen. We shall control the consequences of their success. To what end, you ask? Why, to give them what they want, of course. We shall drown them in a sea of golden fecal matter and cocaine dreams, of ten-thousand dollar night hookers and Vegas contracts. Give them the movie deals and the TV talk-show circuts. We shall burn them out before their time and make them despise what they have become, until they reject the society they swore to protect in a fit of pique and existential disgust. Yes: they shall beg us on their hands and knees for us to give them the keys to their own destruction. And if that doesn't work? Well, we will have made billions off of the endorsement contracts. Either way, we win. Professor M, who is defeating my current group of PC's by giving them everything they want.

Re: Heist Hero

Re: Philosophical question

Re: Best Mystic comic/character ever? Well, if we consider magic/mysticism to be the interaction of supernatural power through mortal will (or simply an awareness of supernatural power by motal perceptions), then neither Morpheus nor Hellboy would count; they would be considered the source of power through which a sorcerer/wizard/priest taps magic, rather than 'magic' themselves.