Arkham

Re: Adult Entertainment

XXX-Men

Super Jugs!

Up-Cape

Millionaire Playboy

XXXceptional!

Re: Do random power SFX games work?

I think it _could_ assuming the group came into the game expecting it to work like that.

And preferably, it would be the SFX that are random, semi-random, or simply unplanned by the player, but once the SFX is known, the player gets to write up the mechanics of that SFX as they wish.

Re: Quote of the Week From My Life.

After my nearly 7 year-old daughter expressed frustration at having an older brother and wishing she had a twin sister...

Me: "It's a little too late to have a twin."

Megan: "Unless we make a robot!"

She is developing her supervillainous mindset well...

Re: Need a name for batlike hero

Missed this thread the first time...

Given the personality and powers, I would be more inclined to something less animalistic...

Mr. Midnight

Re: Telephone conversations in combat

For an actual mobile phone, I would have it take one action to make the call, being at 1/2 DCV while dialing. Between 6 seconds and an entire turn before someone actually answers the phone. A typical phone rings once every three seconds, so answering on the third ring would be 9 seconds later. Then they can attempt to explain who they are and what information they want to exchange.

Most combats are between 12 and 24 seconds long.

It is probably best to wait until after the firefight to make the call.

Re: Billionaires: Supervillains earn, Superheroes inherit

5. Stephen Strange. Started middle class, and became rich by being the world's best neurosurgeon back in the day.

It's not certain how much money he has now, but have you seen his house?

One early story involved Dr. Strange having money problems in the "I've been saving the world instead of paying my bills!" sort of Spiderman-ish way. He does some dumb things for an issue or two until the writer goes, "This plotline is stupid" and he magically creates a giant pile of gold. Problem solved.

Re: Eccentric but plausible ways a character could be rich?

Start a blog where people post pictures of cats. It seems blogs with pictures of cats can get _VERY_ popular.

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game

Well... just thought I'd get this off my chest...

 

Not surprisingly (which is sad), a great many well-known, if not always universally loved or respected, players in CoH have had their "signature" names camped by other people on the new "VIP" server, Exalted. I don't really think I need to spell out exactly how disgraceful this behavior is.

This particular issue bugs me in an entirely different way.

I find it rather disgusting that anyone thinks that simply because their first character had a given name on one server, that no one should be able to play a character with that name on _any_ server. What is the objective of having more than one server if people are going to camp the same name on every server?

Re: What to do with Mars

In my campaign world, Mars is the base of operations for the remanants of the 3rd Reich led by the Council of Hitler, a 13-man council consisting of clones of Adolf, the oldest clone being just a head-in-a-jar.

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game

I play off-and-on on Virtue. I like the gameplay more than Champions online, and I like the graphics style a _lot_ better than CO. Which is kinda sad, as I got a lifetime subscription on Champions Online.

If you were a subscriber and go free-to-play, you lose access to most of your characters ( You get to choose which ones you keep, or just choose empty slots and start new characters. They don't go away, they are just greyed out until you unlock more character slots. ). Depending on how long you've been subscribed, you might lose access to some archetypes and any characters that have those archetypes. And if you had an Incarnate character, you lose access to their Incarnate powers. But beyond that, you keep everything.

Re: Energy Absorber/Blaster

The way you are writing it up, you are paying full price for a power that you cannot use, and then paying extra to use that power at reduced effectiveness.

I would recommend a more straightforward approach such as:

6d6 EB, only usable after being hit by an attack in the last turn, -1/4.

+2d6 EB, Only usable after being hit by two attacks in the last turn, -1/2.

+2d6 EB, Only usable after being hit by three attacks in the last turn, -3/4

+2d6 EB, Only usable after being hit by four attacks in the last turn, -1

+2d6 EB, Only usable after being hit by five attacks in the last turn, -1 1/4

That way you are always getting the exact effectiveness that you are paying for.

Re: Repercussions of mass-producing comic book technology

My reasoning behind the initial examples was to provide high-tech toys to the masses that are a century or two ahead of real-world technology but non-military. The NPC in question wants to get rich, but he wants to do it in such a way that doesn't involve selling weapons.

 

 

 

 

 

What might be some other supertech wonders that could be marketed to the masses that don't involve weaponry? A laptop with the power of a modern super-computer? Personal spacecraft as expensive as a personal yacht or high-end car?

A century or two? Try 20-30 years...

The development and construction of Spaceship One was $25M, which is less than many yachts. I'm sure if they were to mass-produce them, they would be vastly cheaper.

An iPhone has more processing power and speed than a super-computer of 20 years ago. And the iPads are even more powerful.

Re: You Make the Call

It would be a rather quick 'Awww, hell no' from me, and I consider myself very lenient.

I would recommend it be built three powers or pools.

All Martial Arts - Multipower, 15 point pool

3m +3 OCV

3m +3 DCV

1m +15 STR - Only to cause damage -1

22 Total Points.

Being Multi-slots, the player can use as much OCV, DCV, or STR to create the maneuver they want to perform adding on to the basic everyman maneuvers.

20 - Universal Scientist ( All science skills at INT- )

20 - Universal Scholar ( All KS at INT- )

20 - Universal Geographer ( All AK at INT- )

Or just 39 points for KS: Everything 50- ( Assuming a base Int roll 14- as mentioned above ) And a similar SS: Everything 50-

And THEN a VPP

26 VPP - 15 Base 11 Control Cost ( Cosmic +2, 'Realistic' talent-based powers only )

And require any of the talent-style powers to actually be written up within the 15 AP limit of the pool.

Perhaps allow a -1/2 Lockout limitation on all the skills and pools so they can only use one of them at a time.

Re: Super hero one liners

*Brick cracks knuckles*

"Will everyone with a survival instinct, please exit the building?"

Re: Ways to manage a huge team with a lot of characters?

The way I would run it would be to allow the PCs and NPCs to take shifts. The PCs ( including whichever character the guy who switches characters is currently playing ) are on shift together. Things happen when they are on shift. The other members of the team are either saving another part of the world, another part of the universe ( JLA level, Yes? ), or are attending to their Secret IDs as appropriate. Things happen during other shifts too, but unless you want to involve the PCs, it isn't the focus of the story.

Want them to be able to consult the expert on situation X? She's available. Want them to figure it out by themselves? She's currently in another dimension aiding the walking-challenged people of planet Qwop.

It also allows you to have NPCs call in the PCs for _their_ expertise without having to use some other super team, police force, or other outside agency for that kind of plot hook.

Re: Steam punk genre

Steampunk is a style, not a genre. Figure out what kind of game you want it to be, and apply a layer of clockwork, brass, and steam engines to it. It can be anything from heroic through high powered superheroic, depending on what, exactly, you want the world to be like and the characters to be capable of.

Re: Cheshire Cat question

I'm not sure of the specific power build. Assuming activating the trigger is an action that takes no time, CC would be able to move up, attack, then Trigger a move away. That's a pretty steep advantage - how far can he actually move with the Triggered power? Does it reset automatically?

 

With a similar construct, a character could half move in, attack normally, then trigger a similarly advantaged Attack power, getting two attacks plus a half move - would that be less of a concern somehow?

Given that a character can multiple-power-attack anyway, then yes, it is less of a concern.

Re: Final Destination

Mr. Blackwings would stand back up after a few hours, dust himself off and get back to work. He's already died three times in game so far, so as long as the gods aren't done with him, they'll put him back to work. ( Regenerate with Resurrection adder )

Arc Angel is mourned by his team mates, his bros, and the local populace. He was a fairly popular hero in a local team. His 'Arc Angel Reborn!' story would involve his research assistant finding his notes and spare equipment and taking up the mantle as "Lady Angel".

Mother Superior is mourned by her husband and five children. The world doesn't know about supers at all, and the team works for a shadowey government organization. In the 'Reborn!' arc, it will turn out she was actually shunted into another universe, finds a way to send a message to the team and they get her free.

Re: What defines a Superhuman?

By Arkham's definition, (almost) every human is a superhuman.

 

Every character starts with some free Running, Swimming, and Leaping, which are all Powers.

 

For that matter, Senses are Powers and all characters start with five of them. I guess one could sell them all back, but that would make no sense.

 

That was kind of my point in posting Sue Perhugh-Mann. She has an array of 20 different Powers, making her definitely superhuman by Arkham's definition but I would not consider her so (despite the name.)

 

 

 

 

Actually, Running, swimming and leaping are listed under characteristics on my character sheets. And your basic senses aren't listed at all.

So if you are attempting to define superhuman, you should be stricter in how things are purchased. Talents are talents and should be purchased as such. And you certainly should not have a Multipower of Talents. ( Make sure you check Hero System Martial Arts and Dark Champions for a more expansive list of non-superhuman talents. )

But if you have something that can only be written up as a Power, not a Talent, then you might be superhuman.

Re: What defines a Superhuman?

I wouldn't say getting Powers (in the Hero System mechanics sense) automatically makes a character superhuman. Like allot of things its boils down to special effects. Power can represent everything from perfectly mundane equipment to exceptional (but mundane in the sense any human could theoretically learn them) talents.

But talents should be written up as Talents, not Powers. And Equipment is also its own seperate list. Just because you _can_ write up someone's spoon, doesn't make having a spoon a superpower. ( Except for when it does. )

Re: What defines a Superhuman?

If you are buying Powers, you are superhuman. If you have breaking, not just NCM, but Maximum Characteristics for Normals, then you are superhuman. Some obvious Talents also count as Superhuman, while some don't, and some are in the grey area.

Point totals don't matter. Point totals and APs only determine if it is a good idea for you to fight crime or not.

Re: How does your hero celbrate the 4th of July?

Arc Angel - Schmoozing at a BBQ with friends and watching things blow up in secret ID. Normal stuff.

Mr. Blackwings - He's homeless, blind, and fireworks scares the crows away, so he'll be busking in the parks and watching the city in places where the fireworks aren't going off.

Senor Mysterio - He'll tilt one back for his friends to the north, but otherwise its just another day in Mexico.

Bingo the Clowno - Typical BBQ and set off fireworks with the wife and kids. He's a family clown.

Re: Eccentric but plausible ways a character could be rich?

Unknown to everyone, character's grandfather was a bankrobber. When the character inherits the house, finds WWII Ammo boxes full of money and jewels from safe deposit boxes in the attic, now worth many millions of dollars. Everyone thinks grandfather was just a depression-era hoarder.

Character ( or their father ) invented a popular RPG that got turned into movies and numerous popular console and computer games before selling the whole property to a major game company ( who proceeded to run it into the ground ).

Character invented and patented the 'industry standard' of some low level software networking architecture and now collects royalties from Apple, MS, Google, EBay and Amazon.

Re: Physical Strength that affects the whole object...

Tactile TK: Telekinesis, No Range, Affects Porous. If it can hold water in its given shape, it certainly should be able to hold a whole building, bus or train together.

Re: Detect Power (improved)

 

 

 

 

 

btw are you sure i can't use simulated sense???

in Conquerors, Killers and Crooks everyone who got special sense by use of technology (nightvisor, infrared visor, ultraviolet visor, ultrasonic hearing, radar, sonar, whatever-you-whant-me-to-see-through-goggles, etc) use

a) simulated sense rule

OIF

Technically, you _can_. But does the device use reflected or projected light to detect the bio-energectic field? Would a bright flash of visible light or cloud of smoke stop it from working?