Vestnik

Re: Lewis Carrol Hero

It could work in a Ravenloft-esque sort of way. The characters are drawn to a world that is bizarre and dangerous. Their goal is to leave with their heads still attached. Alice could certainly be an NPC whose role it is to advise the characters whenever possible.

 

In order for it to work, you would have to expand on the number and purpose of the animals.

I had the idea of the characters actually being denizens of Wonderland, for instance knights of the King of Hearts sent off on a quest.

Re: Lewis Carrol Hero

Goo-goo-gatchoo

While on my way to work this morning I had the odd idea pop into my head of adopting the Alice in Wonderland universe into a full-fledged fantasy setting, I suppose vaguely like the old D&D Wonderland-based dungeon modules, but with less instant Gygax death and with the characters actually integral to the setting, native to Wonderland. (Wonderland would have to be considerably more fleshed out and made more coherent than as Carrol presents it of course.)

Is this a crazy idea? Does anybody think it could work?

Re: PRE Drains

Sweetness. Is this a rules change? I could have sworn it was capped in Fred.

Re: Officially, is Teleios Canadian?

I strongly suspect that Celine Dion is really Howler's secret identity.

Re: Officially, is Teleios Canadian?

Don't let their pleasant, easy-going demeanor fool you -- it is all a Canadian plot to lull the world into a false sense of overconfidence. One day they shall unleash their fiendish plot, their sleeper agents (Celine Dion, Brian Adams) will be activated, and the world will tremble at the fearsome might of Dark Canada.

Re: metamorphs to my right, metamorph's to my left

Were-rats are cool.

 

 

 

 

Just sayin'.

This is truth. I wrote up one such character about a year ago. Another in a long line of characters I will probably never play.

Re: PRE Drains

*snaps gauntleted fingers*

 

That's right. Drain doesn't cap, does it? Ew. So you can just keep on Draining and Draining right until they fall over. I may have to go back and review Chris' build for his Dimensional Expulsion power (which has RSR, and the target gets an EGO roll to resist; but Chris also has an EGO Drain on it). Crap.

I believe it does cap at the maximum rollable on the dice. So a 4d6 PRE Drain will drain a maximum of 24 points. You can buy the maximum up though.

Re: PRE Drains

That certainly would be one very evil PRE/EGO attack; at four dice with little or no PowD' date=' though, the PRE will drop like a stone (12 points) but the EGO will hold a bit better (6 points). It's, what +1/4 to affect two stats simultaneously?[/quote']

 

+1/2 I think. Do it repeatedly to the same guy with your 4d6 PRE/EGO Drain. He's down 24 PRE and 12 EGO. For a 20-PRE 10-EGO super, that's gibbering madness.

 

Add in an INT Drain on top of that and he's a blithering idiot too.

 

This is by the way how I would do Call of Cthulhu Sanity loss, I think (not the INT Drain though).

Re: PRE Drains

I'm telling you. XDM. It's the only way you'll get to a dimension where I'm wrong and you're right. (j/k, of course)

 

You have a good point though; a big enough Drain would certainly get the job done. I hadn't considered that before (being, as I said, offensive-based in most of my thinking, this was an alternate tack that hadn't occurred to me). Repp'd if I can for enlightenment.

 

Curses! I must spread some reputation around before giving it to Vestnik again. But your day of reckoning will come!

And if you buy the recovery rate date enough, the target will stay a gibbering, psyche-blasted mass for a LONG time.

Re: PRE Drains

No' date=' moron. It's obviously a cut & dried case of [i']Extra Dimensional Movement[/i], where we move from a world where you're not impressed to one where you ARE. Duh. Do I have to explain everything around here?!

 

And in answer to the question: My line of thinking generally puts the onus of the attack on the aggressor (logically). So if you want to "impress people" more easily, you would use an Aid PRE on yourself to make the attack more potent (thus turning the problem upside down, and still requiring the roll on the part of the instigator).

 

My Fear based spells are built as Mind Control, Set Effect: Only to Cause Fear. So it also depends on the actual end result you want. In the ancient Wild Cards books, the... Puppet Master, IIRC? Could manipulate emotions, so he would in fact "Suppress PRE" as an AOE on anyone in the room whom he'd touched, but the effect ended when he 'released the strings' attached to their emotional matrices. So it's a valid way of doing it, just not how I've done it.

Ok, loser of losers. I use the PRE/EGO Drain combo as a means to represent turning somebody's psyche into silly-putty through some kind of overload, whether it be through fear, overwhelmingly guilt, Cthulhoid SAN-blasting, or what have you. The result of the double whammy Drain is that the poor fellow, once drained to negatives in both stats, is sitting in the corner screaming "oh god! oh god! the humanity!" He can't make any aggressive action, and he will obey anything you tell him.

In fact the character I'm finishing up building has just this power, defined as overwhelming the target with guilty memories of bad things he's done.

Re: metamorphs to my right, metamorph's to my left

How about the Living Weapon guy, who can refashion parts of his body into various instruments of nastiness? Or has a suit that can do the same.

Re: PRE Drains

Well, "easier to impress" can be "afraid", "naive", "meek", whatever gets specified when the power's built.

 

Also, I forgot to explicitly mention... draining PRE also lowers their ability to impress others, which might not only be undesired, but unwarranted. Let's say I want to build a power that makes you naive and gullible. That shouldn't make you easier to hit with mental powers, or shouldn't make you worse at attacking mentally (so there shouldn't be an EGO/ECV hit), and it shouldn't hamper your ability to scare, intimidate, or convince others... PRE+EGO Drain would do both of these, which we don't want. PRE Drain would only do the latter, but wouldn't really make you more suceptible to PRE attacks if your EGO is higher than your PRE.

 

Has anybody played around with a "PRE Defense" score, or something similar? Alternatively, has anybody played around with a sort of limited Drain (like Drain PRE, Only To Resist PRE Attacks)?

Some sort of Mind Control?

Aha. Change Environment?

Transform?

Re: metamorphs to my right, metamorph's to my left

The bestiary write ups of supernatural creatures have to be seriously trimmed if writing up PCs in a point limited Superhero campaign. Most of them have a long list of powers of questionable utility for a PC' date=' and those powers are usually outside of a framework.[/quote']

 

Plus, the PC is probably going to want more/different skills.

 

I love the Bestiaries though.

Re: PRE Drains

What do you mean by "easier to impress"? It makes them naive? It makes them afraid? It makes them stupid?

I build fear attacks, guilt attacks, etc. as Drain PRE and EGO simultaneously.

Re: Invisibility

It's limited with "Must Follow Grab" and "Delayed Phase," so she has to actually do some work to get into position to use it. With the Invisibility, though... (Laughs maniacally.)

Re: Invisibility

While we're at it, the character also has the following power:

4d6 EGO and PRE Drain, Two Characteristics Simultaneously (+1/2), Points Return at the Rate of 5 Per Minute (+1/4) (70 Active Points) (and then a whole bunch of limitations I'm not going to get into)

Do you think this is too effective? I've never used a character with such a power construction before.

Re: metamorphs to my right, metamorph's to my left

I actually think werewolves may be too expensive for 275 points. I don't have the Bestiary with me, but I think most of the examples are in the 300-point range.

However, a lot of that is the Spread Lycanthropy transform, with which one could dispense.

I always wanted to play a werewolf or a vampire, but they are sooo cliched...

Re: Invisibility

It's Desolidification that doesn't protect against attacks, if that helps... (it's a "pass through walls" power.) It also takes a full phase to activate (as does the Inviso), slightly limiting its versatility in combat.

Re: Invisibility

Well' date=' the cost also goes to how many points do you have available? Is it cheap? Yep. Do you still need to be able to do "other stuff" to really make it pay off? Yep. Do I allow it in my games? Within reason, as both a spell (Invis, Group Invis) and a super skill (Hide in Shadows). I think as with all things there's a level of GM control, but you know. Give it a shot and see what happens. If he kicks too much ass, he'll find himself in a bakery when a giant bag of flour explodes on him. [/quote']

 

She's also got Desolidification. The flour will go right through.

Re: Invisibility

Right. It's the advantages you get in combat, PLUS the noncombat advantages, which are probably even better.

I just built a Martial Artist with Invisibility. I am almost afraid he (she actually) is going to whup just _too much ass_ unless fighting somebody with a non-sight-based targeting sense. For a mere 20 points.

Does anybody else think Invisibility may be underpriced? 20 points and you're Mr. Slink Around, Attack from Surprise, Escape Unnoticed, Spy in the Girls' Gym Man. +3 points and they can't hear you while you're doing it. Doesn't this seem a bit low as costs go?

Re: Officially, is Teleios Canadian?

Teleios is evil. Canada is widely -- and rightly -- known as a hotbed of evil, a sort of snow-bedecked Gehenna if you will. Thus it is only fitting that he be Canadian.

Re: Would you allow this mental power?

I thought additional classes of mind were +5 adders? PLUS TEN?!?!?

Re: Airlocks are for losers

Except you still have to contain enough actual air to support an intelligent organism. A hollow human sized organism would sacrifice too much function for that to be possible.

I assume it would be possible for an organism to manufacture oxygen. From something.

I think the ultimate problem is that to maintain any sophisticated organism you're going to need "food," some source of energy and raw materials, of which there is not a lot in space.