dialNforNinja

Given that it's not legal (without GM permission) to put Naked Advantages on STR into a MP or VPP because Naked Power Advantages are Special Powers, but Hand-to-Hand Attacks (HAs) are Standard Powers...
 
What if you built a series of small HAs with the Advantage(s) you want in a MP or VPP, and then add the STR at a prorated amount based on the Advantage(s) on the HAs, as explained on 6E2:102?
 
So if you have 50 STR, Reduced END (0 END; +1/2) and then:
 
Multipower 22 points
f - HA +2d6, AP (+1/4), 0 END (+1/2) - 17 Active Points
f - HA +2d6, Autofire (3 shots; +1/4), 0 END (+1) - 22 Active Point (I'd consider the +1/2 worth of Reduced END on the base 50 STR to then become Half END)
f - HA +2d6, AoE (2m Radius; +1/4), 0 END (+1/2) - 17 Active Points
etc.
 
Then you could do 10d6 AP punch at 0 END, or 3x 10d6 punches at 2 END each, or 10d6 AoE 2m Radius at 0 END, etc.

Are you married to the VPP concept? Because I find it generally much easier and cheaper to talk to your GM and let him know you'd like to go that route eventually but start it with a MP instead to get everyone used to the swapping, etc. VPP are a lot of book keeping during the game and doing it with an MP will get you into the groove and ease the transition for later. 
 
I'd probably put -1/4 on the whole MP as "No ranged attacks except RBS on STR". Mostly because I tend to find bricks looking to throw things and not being able to do their signature stuff when they throw things is an "Awwww" moment.
 
If you start out assuming something like 50 STR and you want to be able to apply +1/2 in advantages. Simplest way is Variable Advantages, which would cost 50 points but not give you the versatility of being able to use drains, etc. So if we go with:
 
Brick Tricks, 37 Point Pool,  No ranged attacks except RBS on STR (-1/4), 30 RP
2 (f) "Triple Threat" Autofire [3 shots] on 50 STR at 0 End, 18 AP
4 (v) "Rattle 'Em" 3d6 CON Drain, 1/2 End, 37 AP, No range (-1/2) Linked to STR (-1/2) 18 RP [12 pool points per die]
2 (f) "Armor? What Armor?" Armor Piercing on 50 STR at 0 END, 18 AP
2 (v) "Negate This!" 6 levels of Reduced Physical Damage Negation on STR, 12 AP [2 pool points per die]
 
This is just a small set for a starting character. You could combine the negation with any of the other three or you could add a die of "Rattle 'Em"  and 3 dice of reduced negation to either of the other two slots. Adding another slot or two is trivial and can cost as little as 1 XP to do, giving you more options each time (AoE: Radius, AoE: Line, Penetrating, Affects Desolid, etc).
 
A similar VPP would cost twice as much, but allow you to stack a number of these together more easily.
 
38 Control (Change Between Scenes, Slightly limited power set, -1/2) 13 RP, 66 Pool Total: 79 RP
 
Now, there are ways to reduce the VPP real points needed with limitations, etc. But it makes the power creation much more complex at the start and until you are very familiar with how Naked Power Advantages and pools work, it's better to start simple, IMO.
 
- E

There was a character in one of my games who liked to indulge in a little, shall we say, recreational chemistry. During one event where he got the mixture wrong he completely jumbled his DNA, resulting in typical speedster superpowers. During this same event he had a 'vision' wherein he was visited by the Greco-Roman gods and commissioned to act as their champion and messenger. While under the influence, he sewed some wings onto an old pair of running shoes and spray-painted them gold; he told everyone (and genuinely believed) that these were a gift from the gods and the source of his powers.

So I'll start right off with the elevator pitch:
 
Scorch is a ghost. Previously the fire-using heroine Firebomb (F-Bomb to certain close friends) she overloaded her powers to create an explosion big and hot enough to immolate a cloud of airborne bio-warfare nastiness when a certain villain's plot was not quite foiled in time, her only remnant a shadow etched into the sidewalk and up a wall. Some time later, however, that shadow peeled away... and Summer awakened to find herself in a strange twilight existence, less than paper-thin and able to stretch long distances like, well, a shadow on the wall. Despite this mostly immaterial nature she still interacts normally with the physical world, and can even be hurt by normal means. The only vestige of her former powers left is the ability to make herself burning hot, and sometimes burst into flame at moments of stress. Not that she lacks for stress, looking for her place in a world that knows her former costumed identity as a martyred hero, and no longer able to just take off the costume and be another civilian.

I think this is probably the weirdest character concept I have ever had, or perhaps tied with Ten-tickles Therapist, a stereotypical H-anime tentacle alien who's actually just a sports medicine and massage specialist who crashed on earth after a hyperspace accident. F-Bomb was the character I made to try out Champions Online's fire blaster F2P character class, a tall black woman in a typical skimpy flame-themed uniform with an orange domino mask, a big also-flame-colors afro, and an F-logo belt that's one of the Foxbat costume parts you can get during the annual week-of-April-1st special event. Naturally, the whole character design grew out of trying to come up with something to do with Foxbat's stupid belt
 
What are the oddest character ideas you (or your player group) have come up with?

A lot depends on what you want to achieve. For 20 points, you could buy a Multipower with a 10 point pool, and five variable slots.  Let's make those:
 
(a)  +2 OCV
(b)  +2 DCV
(c)  +10 STR
(d)  1/2d6 HKA
(e)  1d6 HTH Attack, NND
 
I can now match or beat each of the following MA maneuvers (core rules only):
 
 - Killing Strike (cost 4 points, and mine has no OCV penalty)
 - Martial Dodge (cost 4 points)
 
and I am pretty close to
 
 - Martial Disarm (no +1 DCV, but no -1 OCV either; 4 points)
 - Nerve Strike (no +1 DCV but no -1 OCV; 4 points)
 
That matches 16 of my 20 points spent.
 
And I have a lot of other options Martial Arts would not have given me, as well as (I suspect) being able to beat, match or come close to other Martial maneuvers in HSMA.
 
I don't get 0 END on my extra DCs, and I should limit the first three slots to only be for HTH combat effects, of course.
 
What if we spend 40 points (20 point pool and 4 point slots)?
 
(a)  +4 OCV
(b)  +4 DCV
(c)  +20 STR
(d)  1d6+1 HKA
(e)  2d6 HTH Attack, NND
 
I can duplicate a Defensive Strike (5 points), Martial Block (4 points), Martial Escape (with +20 STR, or +1 OCV or DCV; 4 points), Martial Grab (with an extra OCV, DCV or +5 STR, plus my STR also adds to Squeezing or Throwing; 3 points), Martial Strike (4 points) and I can almost match an Offensive Strike (+4d6 means no +4 DCV, but no -2 OCV penalty either; 5 points).  My Martial Disarm and Nerve Strike are now better than the originals, as are the Killing Strike and Martial Dodge. 
 
That's another 25 points of maneuvers, plus 16 earlier = 41 points.  I get more versatility (and likely a lot of those minor variations in HSMA; as I recall, many swap the OCV and DCV modifiers, which this construct does with no issues), more power to some maneuvers (my Dodge is +7 DCV, for example).
 
I do spend more END, though. 
 
I don't think this is vastly more efficient, but it is certainly not less efficient.  A lot depends on what you want to do.  I can't chose to fall prone in order to Trip a target, nor do I get that Velocity adder for a Throw, for example.  But my Trip can be better than a Sacrifice Throw by 1 CV or 5 STR, and I do not fall.  I can get +15 STR and the same +1 DCV for a Throw, or I can have a +2 OCV, +1 DC Throw, which is a Legsweep with no DCV penalty and an extra to add in (missed that 3 point maneuver above).
 
From this analysis, I would say that MA is not more efficient, but it also doesn't feel less efficient.   That suggests reasonable balance to me.

It was generally not allowed to put Skills (including Skill Levels) in a Multipower.  Is this something that changed in 6e?
 
Skill Levels - especially those above 2 points, are their own sort of "multipower".  They already have their flexibility built in.
 
That's a way to think about it - Martial Arts are sort of like a power framework unto themselves.

Well your Chokeslam sounds like it has three basic elements:
Follows Grab (-2 points) Target Falls (+1 point) NND damage (+1 point per +½d6 NND up to +1d6, +2 points per additional +½d6 NND)  
So instead of buying normal strength damage with a throw, you use NND.  2d6 NND would cost you a total of 5 points (6 for the NND, 1 for the fall, and -2 for follows grab).  You can't combine both normal damage and the NND, and NND caps at 2d6, but you could add a modifier to OCV or DCV to it as well (each is +1 point per +1 CV up to +2, +2 points for additional +1 CV up to +3 max and -1 point per -1 CV up to -2 CV).

I know I love it! No thanks needed, it's what we're here for after all. I'm happy to help. On the subject of making stand-ups out of soda bottle plastic, I have a vague memory that is in fact the same kind of stuff Shrinky-Dinks used to be made out of, so while it would definitely need testing before you set your heart on it, you might be able to do that good old trick with it if you find the right oven temperature. I know that soda bottles actually start out as a thick little blobby thing attached to the molded neck and threads, then get heated and blown into a bottle-shape mold, so it is at least plausible.
 
Hm, yup, this video does a lot of it, though using the flat top/bottom of the kind of plastic bin fresh sandwiches and salad greens get sold in rather than a bottle for the literal copy-the-Shrinky-Dinks-commercial segment. It's way too hot for me to try it at the moment, but I have like three of those sitting in my trash right now

All right folks, and thank you in particular for the idea, DialN, I present UltraViolent (sic), invisible assassin and death-dealing berserker:
 
 
Thanks again, DialN;  the youth group kids are going to love it! 
 
 
Duke

I've used it to let a player know a given plan might not work, or give a clue what the opposition might try.
 
Lucius Alexander
 
Remember, a palindromedary can reverse direction instantly....

Never actually had a PC with Luck.  Closest was the one with Unluck, which of course never got rolled.  That said, I've got ideas.  Hot, spicy, dangerous ideas. 
 
Old ideas:
 
New ideas:
My experience is that mechanic/concept dissonance occurs when a "lucky" character is equally subject to the whims of the dice.  To avoid this, Luck should entail some form of dice manipulation. 
 
Two Luck dice is equivalent in cost to three 1pt Overall Skill Levels with a 1 Charge (-2) Limitation.  So if a die of luck means that once per [session/in-game day] you can shift a 3d6 roll by a point and a half or so, you're good!  And it turns out that rolling 4d6 and dropping the highest improves the average by just about a point and a half! 
So method one is to have the player roll their luck dice at the start of every [session/in-game day], count the NDB, and write that down as their Luck Points.  Anytime before they roll 3d6, they can spend a Luck Point to roll another die and ignore one of the dice after rolling. Or more than one point if the GM's on-board with it, which I would be since it works out to be less efficient. 
That works great for 3d6 rolls, but sorta sucks for damage rolls since the pools are so much larger.  So scale it to 1LP = 1/3rd of the base dice pool in added dice. 
This is quick, easy, and fun (in my experience with the system I'm cribbing from).  It also has the benefit of working well for Unluck, even if the character has both Luck and Unluck applied to the same roll. 
 
Another option I've toyed with is that at the start of each [session/in-game day] the player rolls their Luck pool and leaves the dice there.  At any time before they make a roll, they can move dice out of their Luck pool and replace dice they're about to roll with the Luck result they already rolled.  Need a success on that skill check?  Put a 1 in!  Need damage now?  Put that 6 in! 
Haven't tested this or seen it in a game, so can't speak to how well it'd work or how well it's balanced. 

I usually prefer to have luck (and unluck) affect something other than actual rolls.  Dice rolls are luck already.  Luck makes something entirely different happen, not just a better or worse roll of something that you're doing.
 
Lucky (Very Lucky):
The guy chasing you trips or stumbles.  (He trips and sprains his ankle.)
The guy chasing you in a vehicle is cut off by a truck coming in from a side street.  (The truck hits his vehicle.)
You fall in water instead of on concrete.  (You land on a stack of mattresses.)
Normal in the crowd distracts the enemy you're fighting.  (Normal throws something, throwing off the enemy's aim of his BFG.)
 
Unlucky: Well, pretty much the same as the above, except flipped.
 
And yes, combat re-rolls are also a legitimate use of Luck/Unluck.  But there should be a narrative reason for it.
 
"I was fighting Professor Evil, and I rolled a 16, but then my Luck kicked in and I re-rolled a 4!"
 
vs.
 
"I was fighting Professor Evil, and my shot would have missed, but he was distracted by a bug flying around his face.  So he swatted at it, rather than keeping he eye on me and avoiding my blaster!"
 
It suddenly occurs to me that it might be useful to have a handy table of lucky/unlucky things that might happen to justify rerolls and their results.  Each GM can write one up in advance based on the genre and campaign circumstances.  Then they can easily refer to it and pick an appropriate one, rather than having to make them up on the fly, risking always coming up with the same thing.
 

Tactics is like Deduction for Combat. 

The Champions Character Creator Cards were the general inspiration for what I suggested, only made even simpler for mass-market appeal - you want to be able to play by buying a starter deck and reading the cards you draw with occasional reference to the HI2P mat, and let the "collectible textbook game" (I love that phrase! But I'm a nerd and a bibliophile, so...) be the mermaid you can see out on a rock from that mass-market beach, making bedroom eyes and promising any character you want, any power you want, it's all right here big boy if you move up from $10 decks and $1 booster packs to $20-$40 rulebooks
 
Like, literally make a CCG that is a gateway drug to the full on game. Superheroes are big again thanks to the Marvel (and I guess DC... well, Wonder Woman was good...) movies, why are superhero RPGs still a niche within a niche within the niche of gaming as a whole?

The problem with anything involving Time Limit is that it artificially bloats the Active Point value of the power without providing an advantage over the base power (since it's there to make the disadvantage work as desired). 
I really would just set it as "Usable for up to five consecutive minutes, then needs hour to recharge (-1)" and be done with it. 

Well, be persistent. Reschedule. Show up a little earlier. Maybe talk to some of those cool helpful Pathfinder guys and see if they might be interested in trying a supers game. Tell 'em there's no commitment, the first game is free
 
I seriously hope it all works out for you. GMing can be very rewarding. And some times your players are asshats. You don't always get to choose.

In this case, the PCs should sail to China and back to Europe with a hull full of tea.
 
That should set up tea shoppe guy for life.

So...much.... disagreement.
 
 The first rule of tabletop is never inviting assholes in the first place.  So one of the GM's first diktats is to not allow anyone to play the "asshole loner" type.  You have to integrate in the rest of the group.  Set expectations first, in terms of character types, and tone, so that expectations walling in are managed.  As to Role play, "living inside someone else's head" for an evening is a very major attraction for Role Playing Games for me. Framing something else. "This is what My character would do", is a valid reasons IMO. I don't think that  another character's reasons would need to be evident to the group, unless in game, and in character reasons were discovered. I find that the less OOC information is transmitted to the player, the easier it is to manage assumptions and expectations. For me it is the Role play and the character involvement that gives context to the dice rolling fights that arise from the situation. If I eschewed role play, I'd go back to straight war gaming, because I am not here to arive at the dinner table to participate in an unscripted radio drama about such and such characters. I am here for the role play, and for the tactical problems to puzzle through with my friends.

Learned this from Facebook this morning.  Thirty Eight Years ago today, George McDonald, Steve Petersen, and Ray Greer birthed the system we all know and love.  Cheers!

Sadly, no. Kung Fu Chef, who emailed to say he probably wouldn't make it, did indeed not make it. Goo Girl also did not show up. Speedster and Bug Guy were there before me (the game tables supposedly get set up at 7 though the shop officially closes at 8, and Game Night runs up to 11, I arrived at a minute or two before 7) but were already playing Magic, and "just wanted to finish this game" -- No problem, I set up my stuff on the open table, and the Pathfinder guys even helped since they were setting up at the other non-Magic table at the time. But no, "just finish this game" turned into a few games, and then someone showed up about 8:30 with a big box of booster packs and everyone sat around opening them and taking turns picking cards, and I'd had enough of that so I packed up again and left.
 
And I thought it was annoying just listening to my nephews going on and on about their damn cards... Gah, just thinking about it is pissing me off again.

If you really want a Champions answer to CCGs, make pregen cards with their stat blocks and non-Multipower slot stuff on one side and a character portrait on the other like the ones that came with the Marvel Super Heroes box sets back in the day, then lots and lots of powers cards with a purty picher of it in use and the rules for it in a text box, to put in your MP slots as they fit. Take a Hero In Two Pages in smaller type so it's one landscape side with counter tracks for END/BODY/STUN and other product ads or something on the back to fold up and slip into each starter deck box, and make the box long enough to fit three RGB glass blob counters, a map pawn with some kind of spinner or clix thing to differentiate between players who get one in the same color, and three dice inside on one side of the deck of cards. Include a poster-size play mat/map and a second deck in "deluxe" starter sets. Rarer heroes have more EXP and/or bigger MP Reserves... I dunno about rare Powers. Game design is hard!

Time Limit allows an Instant Power to be available for a the specified Time Period, ready to be activated as a Zero-Phase Action (Attack Actions still apply to use them offensively) during the entire period. It's generally used when the Power can't already be activated as a Zero-Phase Action, which means it really isn't applicable to a vanilla Blast Power (or almost any base Power, as just about every Power in the book defaults to only needing a Zero Phase Action to Activate).
 
This does mean Continuing Charges with Clips & Reload time can be added to Powers with Time Limit.
 
But I don't see them interacting the way Lucius describes based on what each Modifier actually does. There's nothing that prevents Blast from being activated without prep at any point, aside from the 1 Hour Cool Down, which isn't perpetration so much as a waiting period.
 
Now; if you had Extra Time: 1 Hour plus Time Limit: 5 Minutes - THAT does what Lucius is trying to accomplish: there's a 1 Hour period the Power is not available and then a 5 Minute Period you can use it without the Extra Time aspect being required.
 
Of course, Extra Time runs into the same problem as the 1 Hour To Reload aspect - it assumes nothing else is being done except that Action. Which also isn't what is being asked for.
 
Breaking down why each of these builds isn't achieving the goal as desired based on what the Modifiers are actually doing:
Extra Time: can do nothing else during the initial activation period - not a waiting period
 
Time Limit: can activate a Power as a Zero-Phase Action for powers that already can't be activated as a Zero-Phase Action, during the Period specified - this almost does what you want, but doesn't include the cool down period; still it might be a viable option (assuming you want to take an Advantage for something that can already be done inherently)
 
Charges, Continuing + Reload;
--The Power lasts the duration, assumes it's basically a continuous power (which Time Limit is a pseudo-continuous Power in that it's available for specified length, but not always active); Continuous assumes the Power is actually Active for the entire period (addendum: using Fuel aspect means it turns on/off at will, and the Continuous Charge lasts the total time In Use, but not consecutively);
-- Reload runs into the same problem Extra Time does, assuming that's the only action being taken.
-- Also, the number of Charges limits how often the power can be used Period. 16 Charges means you only get 80 Minutes of Continuous Use per Day/Session. Which is actually less than you can fit into a 24 Day assuming basically 22 hours of waiting and 110 Minutes of use... (plus 10 minutes left over to maintain the weapon and complete a 24 hour cycle...)
-- Charges means the Power isn't using Endurance, not sure that's a feature or a bug in the desired end result. [I hate that Charges mess with Endurance]
 
None of these really interact as described/desired in my opinion.
 
What the system really needs is a full fledged out Cooldown Limitation with a "how long a power can be ready for use" and "how long between ready states" aspects; 
Default being Ready For Use/Used for 1 Phase; Must Wait 1 Phase To Use Again (usable every other Phase for, I dunno, -1/4); and start stepping up and down the time charts. +1/4 for Use Time going up the chart (can be Activated any time for 1 Turn +1/4, 1 Minute +1/2, etc); and Must Wait 1 Turn -1/4, 1 Minute -1/2).
 
If a Power can be Activated and must wait 5 Minutes between uses that would math out to a -1 Power. (start at -1/4 Base, -3/4 for stepping down Cooldown from 1 Phase to 5 Minutes)
So, a Power can be used for 5 Minutes, and has a 1 Hour Cooldown: Base: -1/4; 5 Minutes Of Ready State (+3/4, total of +1/2 Advantage so far); Cooldown of 1 Hour (-1; total of -1/2 Limitation);
 
Eh, that's gonna be a weird Limitation, I'd have to sit down and play with it some to really determine what's a good way to build it out;
 
This post got long, so I'm going to end my thoughts here; only last point to make is that 5 Minutes of Use is effectively unlimited use for a single fight with no limitations; and this only becomes a limiting power for prolonged encounters and/or multiple encounters in a short period.
 

Magic.   I could never get into it, or other collectable cards games either.  I mean the game rules are easy and playing a hand can be fun.  But I cannot see playing a game that requires me to constantly have to buy blind pull cards to stay relevant.  And yes I know that there is a huge secondary market that allows you to buy what you want.  But that just makes it worse for me.  In order to play a game you have to essentially cheat?
 
And the term Cardboard Crack is not too far from the truth the way people buy boosters and such. 
 
But in the end it is a necessary evil for the FLGS.  They have to keep the lights on, and to be frank RPG sales do not provide enough income for a majority of the small shops.  Do you and your RPG friends constantly buy $60 of RPG books a week?  Each?  Probably not.  I buy a lot of RPG books (more for collecting than playing ) and I only find one or two books a month I want.
 
I won't be venturing to my FLGS this weekend because it is having Magic pre-release and the place will be packed with Magic players.  I think they are even doing an Ironman tourney so it will run 24hrs.  Great for the store, brutal for RPG'ers. 

Sadly, no. Kung Fu Chef, who emailed to say he probably wouldn't make it, did indeed not make it. Goo Girl also did not show up. Speedster and Bug Guy were there before me (the game tables supposedly get set up at 7 though the shop officially closes at 8, and Game Night runs up to 11, I arrived at a minute or two before 7) but were already playing Magic, and "just wanted to finish this game" -- No problem, I set up my stuff on the open table, and the Pathfinder guys even helped since they were setting up at the other non-Magic table at the time. But no, "just finish this game" turned into a few games, and then someone showed up about 8:30 with a big box of booster packs and everyone sat around opening them and taking turns picking cards, and I'd had enough of that so I packed up again and left.
 
And I thought it was annoying just listening to my nephews going on and on about their damn cards... Gah, just thinking about it is pissing me off again.

Even simpler: just don't put any Limitations on it that would prevent it from returning when thrown.
 
Any ordinary ranged attack is by default usable over and over. The question asked boils down to "How do I get a Power to act the way the Power acts by default?" and the answer is, "don't change that default by the Limitations you use."
 
Lucius Alexander
 
The palindromedary wants to know what "Spartan Style" means