Spidey88

Re: [Character] The Arctic Spirit (HELP!) Well, it's good to know that he's otherwise okay - I hope I didn't sound a little too accusatory there. Still, that's got to be frustrating "flying blind". Sounds like he's very stubborn in respect to giving away his "secrets" - hopefully you can wear him down and convince him to give you a vague idea of his own personal standards. It sounds like you've already tried convincing him in various ways to give you some guidance - perhaps, if all else fails, you can direct your GM here so we can "convince" him? (cracks knuckles) Seriously, though - if he's new at running HERO, send him our way! There's always plenty of people here who are happy to help out and answer questions, and maybe we can get you some campaign guidelines in the process.

Re: [Character] The Arctic Spirit (HELP!) Whoops! Sorry if I sounded a little preachy earlier - it seems there's good reason he was so crazy powerful before! You seem to have things well in hand on your end, at least. Is your GM like this all the time? Have you played with him in other campaigns before? He honestly doesn't sound (from your brief description) like he's very fun to play with - but that's for you to decide, I guess. If I was you, I think I'd want to grab him by the ears, look directly in the guy's eyes, and very loudly proclaim: "WEEE NEEEEEED SOOOMME CAAAMMMPAAAIGNNN GUIIIDELLIIIINNES." Seriously - what's to stop you (or him) from throwing 300 points into an energy blast, and 60 points into combat skill levels with it? There's not even a vague idea what's appropriate - in a point-buy sytsem like HERO (esp. with 600 points to work with), you've gotta be able to get feedback from the GM during character creation. Otherwise? Disaster of biblical proportions waiting to happen. (Human sacrifice. Dogs and cats living together. Mass hysteria.) My two cents, anyway.

Re: "Well, last time I saw that, we did...." "And we used to wear an onion on our belts - which was the style at the time. We couldn't get any of the regular ones, because of the war - so we had to use those big yellow ones. You could get a whole bag of them for a nickel. Back in those days, nickels had a bee on 'em. 'Gimme five bees for a quater, we'd say'".

Re: [Character] The Arctic Spirit (HELP!) Okay, then. Even for a cosmic-level campaign, he was perhaps a little too powerful with attacks before - but knowing that, he seems more reasonable now. Be sure to get some idea from your GM what the benchmarks are (ie. if there's DC caps and such for the campaign) - trust me, a 7d6 killing attack should be really bad news for nearly anybody you face - if he says it's wimpy, then make sure he's taking a really close look at how PC's are created, relative to villains (and you too)! It'd suck to find out that everyone thinks 15rPD is plenty of resistant defense, when all the villains are sporting 7d6 killing attacks too. In other words, make sure everyone involved is working off the same kind of standard. For example: Really nasty attack = up to 110 active points/22 DCs. Standard attack = around 80 active points/16 DCs. Wimpy attack, sort of the bare minimum = 60 active points/12 DCs. Maximum allowed STR: 100, maybe a little higher if your OCV stinks and there's no compensating factors. Maximum OCV: around 12. This can go a little higher if your damage classes with attacks are on the low side. DCV: about 12 as well. This is more flexible if you've got low defenses, and plan to be more of an "artful dodger" to stay alive. Defenses: up to 45 PD/ED for a really tough brick, bringing it down a bit if he's got damage reduction of any kind. Those aren't intended as any kind of hard numbers, just an example of the sorts of things you, the other players, and your GM should be talking about. This sort of stuff is just intended to make sure everyone's on the same page. When you've got that many points to play with, it's very easy to sink enough points into one sort of things that you'll walk over any opposition without breaking a sweat, or be out of tune with the other players/NPCs. Think of it like this: If you were planning on creating a super-strong guy, you might say: "70 sounds about right. With a 70 STR, I can lift a BATTLESHIP!" Your GM might be thinking: "STR is cheap. The strongest guy in the villains book is at 90 STR, and we've got way more points to play with - 150 STR sounds about right." As soon as you pit your strong guy against his strong guy, you realize you didn't have the same benchmarks in mind, and feel gypped. In a nutshell: sit down with everybody and discuss, to at least some degree, roughly where the range of characteristics and powers should be, so you don't feel hosed when play starts. MY idea of powerful doesn't need to match up with yours - but it should match up roughly with the guys you play with! One last thing - don't forget about skills! It's entirely to your taste, of course - but be sure your guy can contribute to situations outside the frozen wastes! For example, the one guy on the team without stealth tends to irritate the rest if they all have it - trust me! Some good choices might be Stealth, Tracking, Survival (for others in his realm, even if he doesn't need it), and Oratory (You dare poison the land I am sworn to protect? Kneel before my awesome might, evildoers!) to name a few. Oh - and those AOE powers will affect anyone in the radius without "selective" - so your pals might get a little annoyed by the "Storm" power if you aren't careful! I think the "useable with up to 4 people" thing will work on you as well (making the total 5 people), but I'm not sure offhand.

Re: [Character] The Arctic Spirit (HELP!) Oh, yeah - you will need selective effect to avoid your enemies in that radius. Otherwise, you roll simply to hit the target hex, and everyone in the radius (that doesn't dive for cover) takes the effects. You might not NEED it, if it's the kind of thing you'll use before a fight - but it'll be a lot harder to help your buddies with during one.

Re: [Character] The Arctic Spirit (HELP!) Is this guy intended to be a PC? If he is (and isn't intended to be an uber-powerful enity lurking in the background), you could really stand to trim some points off that multipower. 187 points, by pretty much anyone's definition, is a lot. A LOT. Seriously - that's an insane amount of points going into attack powers that eclipses any master villain I can think of, even Dr. Destroyer and Takofanes (who are built on over 2000 pts)! A 10d6 RKA will kill nearly any published hero or villain in short order (and is complete overkill, IMHO) - and the 1/2 END on it will let you keep it up for a while. An 11d6 NND (AOE, affects desolid) is even worse! Even if this guy is supposed to be an NPC force of nature, you could really stand to trim down some of that power anyway. Even a 100-point multipower is nothing to sneeze at (and allows for some pretty epic powers), and would put the point total about where it should be (about 600 points).

Re: Interesting page for animal powers Odontomachus-Man's superleaps would look mighty hilarious, that's for sure. Looks like he's going to bite the sidewalk, then POW! Explodes off in a fairly random direction, tumbling end over end (probably yelling at the top of his lungs at the same time). Breakfall and Acrobatics rolls in the 20's (or lots of rPD vs. falling damage) would be necessary to keep him alive, methinks... Nematode Man? Maybe a duplicating shrinker who could eat away at your tissues from the inside (not even remotely silly), a being composed entirely of nematodes (like Swarm) making him rather disturbing to look at and almost entirely indestructible, or maybe he could mentally control vast armies of nematodes (they are everywhere, after all). Still, it'd likely be a very slow, ineffective army without some serious buffs: "Oh no! Over the course of the last few minutes, thousands and thousands of teeny, tiny worms have collected on the surface of the soil!" "Are they doing anything?" "Not really. It's kind of slippery, though - and a little gross close-up."

Re: Wild Card's Hero I've got all the Wild Cards novels kicking around my place somewhere, as well as GURPS Wild Cards - though I imagine you won't need help, I'll happily do what I can if you end up with questions about the characters.

Re: Interesting page for animal powers Hah! You mean I'm not the only one who thought about that? Cool! + 6d6 HA, linked with + 15" leaping, gestures (must touch jaws to ground), uncontrolled sounds about right. link to entomological fun: http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2006/08/21_ant.shtml

Re: Are we Ready to Rock? I dunno...are we? What better powerset for a lead guitarist than superspeed? Her solos could be insane - with fingers moving over the frets so fast, that the friction causes the guitar to actually light on fire! I did a WWYCD a while ago that you might be able to mine a little for ideas (I'm unsure how to add the link, but search for WWYCD: Let's Rock!)

Re: Interesting page for animal powers I hope the show got the facts better than that wikipedia page - man, there were a lot of little errors! Don't even get me started. Still, some neat factoids accumulated there for ease of reference, but if you do plan on using them: be sure you do a little research to back up what is posted there. For example: baby octopuses do not eat their mothers (and though they're very smart, they don't need to learn how to generally survive - they've got plenty of instincts), male black widow spiders are not always eaten by the females, many biologists are pretty sure mako sharks can swim a lot faster than 30 mph (probably more like 50), etc. Anyway, I'm sorry to sound so critical, DocSamson: it's a good post and a good find - just take the facts with a grain of salt!

Re: Measuring Cunning Well, both of these guys are extremely experienced heroes with reflexes out the wazoo - it's hard to say where their success comes from. Is it their speed, agility, and experience? Is it their high INT scores? Undoubtedly both - but for our purposes, it's hard to pick out "cunning" from that example. My two cents? INT score, overall levels, skills, and a silver tongue all contribute to "cunning", but different aspects are used in different situations.

Re: "Neat" Pictures My thoughts exactly! "You've been a ver-y naugh-ty rab-bit, George. Rab-bits aren't sup-posed to have shells, George."

Re: "Neat" Pictures Whoops! looks like tkdguy beat me to some of that. Oh, another thing - they are actually capable of opening coconuts under their own power. Never shake hands with a Birgus latro!

Re: "Neat" Pictures As far as I'm concerned, the reports of coconut crabs that have a body length of 1 m are hooey, and in the same boat as claims of 50' anacondas. That being said, Sociotard is right - they do exist, are native to much of the Indopacific, and can have a legspan of about 3 feet (for a really BIG one). The tricky thing about that photo is that it's apparently not a normal-sized garbage can - it's really about the size of a large wastebasket, maybe as big as a 5-gallon pail at most. Still a big crab, but not "eat your german shepherd" big. One of the neat things about them is that they are essentially giant hermit crabs (belonging to the same family, Coenobitidae). They lay eggs in the ocean, and the babies go through a typical crustacean regimen of bizarre larval stages. After 4 weeks, they move from the ocean to live the life of an average hermit crab. Another four weeks or so, and they start using coconut husks (and lose the ability to breathe underwater properly). After they get big enough, their shells are tough enough that they need no extra protection. They aren't actually considered endangered, IIRC - though human development and the introduction of non-native predators (rats, pigs, and ants - yes, ants) have drastically reduced their populations in some areas, and human predation has completely eliminated them from some chunks of their natural range, they seem to be doing just fine in other areas - and as such, are listed as "data deficient". In other words, they might be endangered, but we need to learn more to be sure either way. Anything else I can answer for y'all? Fire away!

Re: WWYCD: Collected Phidippus' response: Okay, obviously trapped here. If initial attempts to escape via simply busting out fail, then the priority is ascertaining a) what sedated me, how do I neutralize it without comprimizing whatever suffices for life support in here, and c) how do I do this without tripping some sort of internal security system that will bring my captor running? Hopefully his keen mind and considerable mechanical, electronics, and biology skill will come in really handy - at the very least, he might be able to plug some sedative gas valves with some extra-gluey webbing. Assuming the tech skills aren't up to par, it's on to plan B (B for brute force). What Phidippus has going for him: - STR 45 (only demi-brick strong, but not to be taken lightly) - crazy flexibility (no Plastic Man, but double jointed and with a Contortionist skill that would make a yoga master green with envy) - six arms (which might justify throwing a few points at "+X STR, only for grabs, escapes, etc.) and the ability to use pretty much all of them at once for things like, oh, I don't know... punching, or pushing? - an almost total lack of need to sleep - he is pretty much absolutely tireless (0 END on STR), but he's got the ability to push his STR just like anyone else (+10 STR, x10 END, only for pushing). - Clinging, for better grips and pulling at the inside of the otherwise featureless container. With any luck, Mr. collector may not have taken all of these factors into account. Phidippus will be able to contort himself into unlikely and unexpected positions, hopefully use his Clinging to grip the barrier and strain against it in the most efficient way possible, and ideally be able to exert more force with six arms than the Collector would expect from a being with his general STR levels. If he can make than thing budge at all without pushing, he can keep it up all day and night without stopping, if need be. The whole while, his danger sense should help keep him appraised of the situation (oh, crap! He's coming! Time for my sleepy mannequin impression...). In addition, his eyes (all eight) are like a spider's in his Hero ID (pretty featureless glossy black lenses), so he should be able to play dead and still get a look at Mr. Collector if he decides to make a close inspection of his new acquisition (and carefully remove the cardboard sleeve). Assuming that's not enough, Phidippus has a couple final aces up his sleeves. One is his ability to change back to an (outwardly) entirely human form - he might be able to bluff his way out with some quick jibberish about "some bug-guy grabbing me and tossing me in here, he said something about 'the sensors needed life signs to not set off alarms, I'll be back to save you when I can get some help'" or some other such nonsense. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, is his experience with this type of individual. See, Phidippus' secret ID is Warren Webster, comic book artist extraordinaire - his PS: comic book artist 19-, not to mention his current job as artist for the official Justice Squadron AND Sentinels comics makes him pretty well known in the comic community. He's been to a fair number of cons in his secret ID, signing autographs for the kiddies and such. As a result, he is MORE than familiar with obsessive fanboys - if all else fails, he might be able to figure out what makes Mr. Collector tick and manipulate his escape that way! (probably the most dramatically appropriate escape, too.) Maybe something like: "Tell you what, Collector - you promise to put me at the top of the heap in your collection (thus ensuring my legacy of greatness throughout history, for you are obviously a visionary genius), and I'll help you collect the whole set!" Then: a) lead him on a wild goose chase, all the while trying to figure out how to surreptitiously warn his teammates and take him down in an ambush, or simply pound the living daylights out of him. Perhaps less chance of success, but more satisfying. Then, naturally, set to rescuing the other heroes trapped within. (With any luck, Lady Enchanter will be really happy to be set free...) In all seriousness, Phidippus (being the comic book geek he is), will share some level of understading with the collector; but, at the same time, take the plight of the heroes already in his clutches very personally, and do everything in his power to help them regain their place in the world after being set free.

Re: "Neat" Pictures Yup - those little deelies on the tip of her butt are two of her spinnerets. The ends are covered in what are essentially little pores through which the webbing is exuded (then drawn out to cold-shear it into a solid state, in a fashion similar to the creation of nylon). They are articulated, and she can wiggle them around to get better coverage when she's webmaking or wrapping up prey. (as much as 2/3" long, you say? Then I'm pretty sure it's A. aperta.)

Re: "Neat" Pictures "Pant" "Pant" Sorry I'm late - I just got up. Anyway... Looks like an Agelenopsis of some kind - without a closer look, it's hard to say exactly what species it is, but I'd bet on Agelenopsis aperta. If it's longer than 14 mm (5/8"), then it's almost assuredly aperta. They're commonly known as "grass spiders" or "funnel-web spiders" (not to be confused with Australia's Sydney funnel web spider - a totally different critter), and belong to the same family as "house spiders", the gangly fellows that you'll find sometimes in the tub. Totally harmless, and quite common. Here's some pictures of a recluse, for those that are interested: note the arrangement of eyes - this is key to their identification. 6 in total, in three pairs: one pair is central, and one pair off to either side. Here's a couple of good pages about brown recluses and their bites that anyone who's worried about them should read: http://okaloosa.ifas.ufl.edu/Horticulture/brown_recluse_spider_challenge.htm http://spiders.ucr.edu/necrotic.html If you'd like to know more, lemme know!

Re: Looking for help with some Monkey Business. Banana-based gadgeteer? Lots of change enviros (penalty on DEX rolls): OAF banana peels...

Re: Alucard vs. Superman or Lobo I see what you're saying, but choose to respectfully disagree. To me, a good chunk of EGO is self-control and mental discipline - qualities that Supes has gobs of, and Lobo may have considerably less of (at least the former, anyway). My two cents.

Re: Alucard vs. Superman or Lobo EGO (the characteristic) is not a measure of one's sense of self-importance and superiority. If it was, then yes - Lobo would have a huge advantage in that regard. EGO is a measure of willpower, self-discipline, and "mental fortitude" - all of which Superman has in spades, I'm afraid. An interesting fight, though. Vampire versus an essentially solar-powered hero. I think the time of day would be a huge factor in this battle!

Re: Baseball-related characters in comics/games? Marvel's Boomerang was a former pitcher, if I remember correctly. I don't recall offhand what circumstances lead to him getting fired/leaving.

Re: Sharper than a Serpent's Tooth story options? Well, Horizon's not really an issue - it's right about the time that the drugs should be wearing off anyway, so he'll just have to be very careful for a round or four. Ashley's regen is mighty slow (just 1 or 2 BODY every phase 12), so if he takes a good hit, he's effectively down for the whole battle. I figure I'll just give him the chance to make some EGO rolls to fight off unconsciousness and keep going against all odds.

Re: Sharper than a Serpent's Tooth story options? Beuller... Beuller... Anyone... Anyone...

Re: Sharper than a Serpent's Tooth story options? "Hi-ho Gorgon, AWAAAAY!" (sorry - I get the giggles thinking of that scene done in that way...)