GMumford

Re: 4 Rules questions 6E. I believe the benefits of Dive For Cover apply until the next segment you're capable of acting so there is no need to dive a second time before then. Opponent A lobs a grenade at you. You Dive For Cover. Opponent B fires his AOE laser at you. Since you already dove you are currently a moving target and your previous Dive For Cover roll applies to Opponent B's attack.

Re: How Would You Model This? Um, no. What you are trying to do is reduce the effect of Gestures and Incantations with the Continuing Charge Limitation. Improving the utility while further decreasing the cost is a no-no. What's needed here is the Lingering Advantage from Fantasy Hero. You don't need to repeat Gestures, Incantations, or prerequisites for other simular limitations for 1 Phase for +1/4, 1 Turn for +1/2, 1 Minute for +3/4, 5 Minutes for +1, and so on along the Time Chart.

Re: The Kid with limitless Energy A 0 END Naked Advantage could be turned off, so if you wanted to push you just pay END normally plus however much for pushing.

Re: Cost Endurance and Reduced Endurance Linked changes a partially limited power into two seperate powers causing the effect of Reduced Penetration. Though I would like to use some of the modifiers for the Linked limitation on partially limited powers. ie. -1/4 Lesser limited power part can only be used when character uses greater power part at full value, ect. Of course this should only be allowed if there are advantages/limitations other than the Linked modifier limitations.

Re: Limited powers in a focus I understand the argument for Universal/Personal being +/-0. If it's Universal, your enemy can use it against you. If it's Personal, your teammates can't borrow it. But if Universal/Personal is conditional it may throw that argument out the window. If only someone who wears a size three can use the battlesuit that's one thing. But if only the good guys can wield the magic hammer, or only someone who has a specific skill which all your teammates have, that should be worth something.

Re: Cost of Levels I don't have 6E yet, but what about OMCV or DMCV. 5E CSLs could also be used to bounce an attack (5ER 377). I seem to remember 5E CSLs doing other things too, but I can't recall what. You may be missing a few MP slots which would make CSLs a better deal.

Re: chaos Transfer UAA. Drain the AP and then return them to the target with the desired limitation.

Re: Power "Cooldown": how to write up

Re: Power "Cooldown": how to write up I'm looking at the rules for Increased Recovery Time on Charges. If I'm following the time chart correctly, going up instead of down, 1 Charge that recovers the same phase it's used is +1/2, which is the same as 0 END. 1 Charge with the desired Decreased Recovery Time plus Cost END.

First off, I know the correct answer is whatever the GM decides, but I would like to hear your interpretation of the rules in the book. I was rereading Teen Champions, specifically the character guidelines on the bottom of page 37, and was wondering how the various limits listed interacted. Do AP limits count against characteristic base values? If not, then bricks get 10 more AP to work with then blasters. Of course, the brick still has to fit within the DC limit. If RP counted against base values, the maximum un-Limited DEX would be 6. If I have a characteristic higher than 18 and a skill based on that charcteristic, do I get 13- or more on the skill even though the limit is 12-? I suppose I could partially limit the characteristic with Does Not Apply To Skills. How much is that worth? Probably more for INT than DEX. CV limits limit the grand total CV including DEX, CSLs, Martial Arts, ect., right? If anyone can get +3 DCV with the Dodge Combat Maneuver, does that mean everything else added up has a limit of 5 DCV when the CV limit is 8? Any other insights would be appreciated.

Searching the FAQ I came across a ruling for buying off limitations. The example bought off a No Range limitation on an 60 AP EB with OIF (MegaBands). In the response the buy off is a 20 AP power in itself, 80 AP total if the EB and MegaBands were to be put in a MP slot. Does this mean using the EB with the MegaBands would have a higher END cost and everything else a higher AP total would imply?

Re: Magic, magic, do as you will. First off, thank you all for your replies. secretID: If that were the character's main/only power, I might nix it only because, strangely, it would put too much in my hands. To a great degree, the power is Summon GM. I can understand that. Would you also be nixing anything with the NCC limitation? Such powers could tax the GM similarly. secretID: For that reason, I would want to tie it as closely as possible to at least 1-2 die rolls. One roll could be the degree to which the effect is beneficial, another could be for geographical proximity, another for temporal proximity, maybe some other stuff...I would have that stuff charted up, so I wouldn't always be deciding on the fly. So, e.g., you roll a 15 on "beneficial," an 11 on geographical proximity, and a 13 on temporal proximity = something very good happens, but it's at the PCs base, instead of his current location, and it doesn't happen until next week. I like this, but I have no idea how to incorporate this into the power. Hugh Neilson: The GM is now left trying to find a balance between so ineffective the player feels ripped off and so effective the other players feel he has gotten too much benefit after the limitations. Meanwhile, the GM is forced to devote time, energy and creativity to managing the player's power, and that takes away from his time, energy and creativity to focus on other aspects of the game. Yes, but if that balance could be achieved, such a power could be a resource for the GM. Say the campaign gets derailed by a trip to Las Vegas. Security at a casino, suspicious of the characters, decides to rough them up just as the wizard rolls a beneficial result at the roulette table. *POOF* The team is teleported to wherever the campaign needs them to be, and it’s the wizard’s fault for trifling with forces he doesn’t understand. CourtFool: As much of a fan of VPP as I am, I find 90% of the time the same half dozen powers are used. You may want to rethink and go with a Multipower and Variable Special Effects. Generally you are going to want something bad to happen to someone else or some kind of defense against something bad happening to you. Energy Blast, Entangle, Force Field…you can accomplish quite a lot with just those three. Toss in some Luck for truly unusual stuff. You’re absolutely right, a VPP isn’t necessary for the effect I‘m looking for. The reasons I initially decided against a framework are first, NCC gives the GM absolute control of what the power does when I’d like the benefit/detriment to be determined by roll of the dice, and second, Teen Champions discourages frameworks. Now I’m leaning toward tweaking Sean’s MP and roll playing some of the lack of control as GamePhil suggests. Hugh Neilson: Just a thought, but what about using an Instant Summon? The "thing" you summon would be Invisible (probably to all but Mystical senses), and would wink into and out of existence, although in theory a powerful enough attack at just the right time could disrupt your Magic Summoning. The Summoned being, if you succeed in controlling it with the usual ego roll, uses an action immediately in more or less the manner you wanted. If not, it takes a random action. Either way, after that singular action, it vanishes. I like this, but the wizard would never control the creature directly, probably shouldn‘t even know the creature is there. How much of a limitation would that be worth, if the Summoned being only did something to the wizard’s benefit, of the Summoned being’s choice, if the wizard won the customary EGO contest? Of course I could just role play the lack of control. As for the Invisible creature being stunned when it first arrives, unless someone can detect it, the spell just appears to take a little while to take effect. Sean Waters: 20 Multipower, 60-point reserve, (60 Active Points); all slots No Conscious Control (Only Effects cannot be controlled; -1), Side Effects (-½), Activation Roll 14- (-½) I like Activation Roll determining the wizard’s luck, and I’m assuming the Side Effect is still Unluck, but you put NCC so it applies to all the slots, not the Multipower itself. Doesn’t this mean the character could chose EB but not the target of the EB. Originally I put NCC on the framework so the character could not choose EB, and then again to apply to all slots: 15 Multipower, 60-point reserve, (60 Active Points); No Conscious Control (Only Effects cannot be controlled, active slot chosen randomly; -1), all slots No Conscious Control (Only Effects cannot be controlled; -1), Side Effects (-½), Activation Roll 14- (-½) Is there a rule against this, or is there something I‘m missing? GamePhil: What I would suggest about any of the Powers that you're giving No Conscious Control (which effectively includes Luck) is: Don't take it. Role-play your character as not having control, but have your player control it. For example, your character shouts, "Magic do as you will!" and you role play him as pleasantly surprised when that whale that's falling on you turns into a potted plant that lands and breaks, mournfully, nearby. The players are, after all, helping to write the story: just because the character is a bit hapless doesn't mean you have to be. I like what you’re saying here, but the burden Hugh was talking about being placed on the GM is now being placed on the player. Nothing wrong with that if that’s what the player wants, but your telling the player to deliberately screw up most of the time, including harming his own character occasionally, because his character’s concept is supposed to be incompetent, with no point savings or any other benefit beyond the joy of playing such a character. I don’t see many players going for that.

I’m creating a character for a Teen Champions game. More of a thought exercise as it’s unlikely I’ll play such a game soon, but one can hope. What I’m envisioning is a novice wizard who has the potential to do just about anything, but currently has almost no control. The closest I can get to an example of what I’m thinking is the magician Schmendrick from The Last Unicorn (1982). He would chant, “Magic, magic, do as you will,” and something would happen, but never what he expected and it wasn’t always a beneficial result. My first inclination was a VPP with two No Conscious Control -1 limitations. The first because he has no control of what the active slots are. The second because all the powers in the VPP slots would have NCC too. Then write up a few dozen example powers that would fit the AP and RP limits of the VPP for the GM to use whenever the wizard would cast the spell. The GM could declare that the wizard gets struck by lightning caused by his own spell on a whim, and I’d rather have the benefit/detriment of the spell be determined by a roll of the die. Besides, Teen Champions discourages the use of frameworks. Then it occurred to me what I was looking for was Luck; several dice of Luck with Nonpersistent or Costs Endurance, Instant, Side Effect: Unluck, and limitations to represent it as a spell such as Incantations. Here there is no need not worry about the AP of the GM’s desired effect, he would just declare what happens. I imagine this spell doing something each time it‘s cast, but how and how much that something effects the campaign depends on the number of 6’s (Luck) or 1’s (Unluck) rolled. My question to you, dear reader, is would you allow this? And if not, I would appreciate an explanation of why not. Perhaps my Search Fu is weak, but I haven’t found any examples of Luck being used in any way like this. Did I miss a rule? Do you see anything wrong with this? Am I stretching the concept of the Luck Power too far? One problem I see is Luck is normally sort of always on with the effect felt when the GM says so. Maybe a custom advantage, possibly +1, to buy off part of the implied NCC nature of Luck is called for.

Re: Buying the Aid Power Another difference is Succor changes PRE making it more powerful without restrictions, while the +20 PRE option changes the nature of the characteristic so it can only be used as a power.

Re: Multiform help and advice. Alternately the Flash could be paid for by the second form and triggered when the form becomes active.

Re: Adaptive Invisibility As TheChainTyrant points out, his build would only stop the first 2 unusual sense groups directed at his character. With a level of Invisibility mechanically working like Desolid he could define the sense that always detects him as all unusual sense groups after the first two currently directed in his character's direction. If I'm a ghost, I should be invisible to all sense groups except those specificly designed to detect ghosts. If I'm astrally projecting myself, my astral form should be invisible to anything except Mind Scan. If I can turn into water and am emersed in larger body of water, I should be invisible to anything except a sense specifically designed to tell the difference between me and the surrounding water.

Re: Adaptive Invisibility Clearly what's needed is a level of Invisibility that works like Desolid; invisible to all but a specific, player defined, sense group. Ghosts, elementals emersed in their element, and astral forms should be invisible to nearly all sense groups, except Detect Spirit, Mind Scan, ect...

Re: How do you put someone to sleep? With all these different ways of putting a person to sleep, how would you model sleep fighting like what Rock Lee of Naruto fame can do?

Re: Game Mechanics There was a character in LSH. Dream Girl had a dream of him which Braniac was able to record, but DG had no memory of him in her dream. Braniac was sitting in his lab trying to figure out who it was in this picture of DG's dream when he entered Braniac's lab. Braniac instantly remembered everything about him and he spelled his plot to destroy the universe and left. Braniac went back to trying to figure out who it was in the picture of DG's dream. And an episode of Star Trek: Voyager. Chakotay fell in love with a member of a forgettable race. It ended with Chakotay writing the adventure down with pencil and paper in hopes the forgettable race's technology wouldn't erase it.

Re: Is this a limitation or a power? If you don't want the powers to work at all when wearing the ring, how about the Lockout limitation? Define the condition of the Lockout as when you wear the ring. Though I don't think Lockout and Always On make sense together. Maybe you should do the buy out of Always On too.

While calculating the damage classes per die for a power, I was going through the list of advantages on the sidebar of page 404 and wondered what exactly is the criteria for determining what advantages apply. What exactly does "directly affect how the victim takes damage" mean? Why is Armor Piercing listed on the "likely" list and Penetrating on the "in some instances" list, but the first paragraph says Indirect does not apply? I can understand Indirect as defined as coming from a different orgin, but shouldn't Indirect defined as bypassing an opponents defenses apply as much as AVLD or NND? Would Range advantages apply? After all, if the victim isn't in range, he's not going to take damage. Perhaps the question, "Which advantages most definitely do not apply?" would be easier to answer. I certainly agree with that first paragraph about Reduced Endurance.

Re: Growth: Height Only? In the back of my head I've been considering Thanksgiving day Parade Man for quite a while. He could grow real big and has some flight, but didn't have the additional STR, BODY, STUN, or extra mass. Basically he would dress as one of the balloon characters and search the onlookers along the parade route for pickpockets, ect. Any ideas how to do this?

Re: Lets talk about Multiforms, true forms focus I vote for whoever shows up when the Mutiform power is drained or suppressed. If the most expensive form pays for multiform, then its advantageous for him to show up and he pays for that. Having a less expensive form pay for the multiform can be munchkiny, but it comes at a disadvantage.

Re: Yet Another Build Question: rubber-morph going splat

Re: Fromage? What about that one additional point of END for each Combat Manuever performed? If you get in a fight and don't have an appropriate Martial Manuever with 0 END it comes out of STUN. What would you advantage to get that to come from the END Reserve?