Robyn

Re: Gargoyles HERO

This is an extended-duration Frequency; not measured by game session (which is, really, a meta-game consideration) but when the PC's find a new roost.

 

Since the enemy who knows their secret location may be different every time, make the Hunted a Floating Hunted.

 

I'm not sure this would really be necessary. So the hunter makes his connection and goes "Aha! The Clock Tower!" The clan finds out that their secret is known to an enemy, and makes a quick deal with MacBeth to flop at his place for a few days. So now the hunted needs to start over, it needn't be floating.

 

Then, the Frequency can be rolled every time someone new learns the secret, or every night, or whenever; and, if the Frequency indicates that their Hunted has not shown up yet, the people who learned their Secret turn out to be friendly, or perhaps are biding their time and gathering strength for an attack. If the Frequency indicates a Hunted, it can be taken as a successful skill roll for finding them if anyone was looking; or, the information leaked from an NPC ally/friend who already knew; or, an existing friend has become an enemy.

 

Not quite sure what you are talking about here. Could you expand?'

The two go together, so I've marked your text in red and restored my paragraph; I'll expand from there so you don't have to scroll back up (or switch to a different window) to compare with the original.

Xanatos - is he one of the gargoyles' Hunted?

Floating Hunted allows the GM to provide the character with an "enemy of the month," rather than having to bring the same enemy back again and again.

The rules already allow for dealing with a character's Hunted; the recommendation is, if XP are not paid for buying off the Disadvantage, to replace with an equivalently priced Disadvantage.

The rules also allow for gaining Disadvantages during game play, but not for gaining XP to balance this.

Characters earn XP for their Disadvantages by suffering drawbacks above and beyond what everyone else does - everyone who hasn't taken the same Disadvantage, that is.

The threat from having the gargoyles' nature - or home - exposed (publicly or not) is one that endangers the entire group, not just that single gargoyle who received points for it. Exceptions, such as a runaway who is not staying with the rest or a couple of warriors out on patrol who cannot return before dawn, test but do not disprove this rule.

One way of handling this is to build the Disadvantage as Everyman (part of the campaign baseline, no points received for it). But it's worth points, and by using Floating, further Hunted that develop (or are encountered) during game play will already have been defined as part of that Disadvantage; they are the flavor of the month, or at least another candidate for that position.

Re: Sentient Costumes, Armour, Weapons, etc...

Basically any external sentient device that grants people Superpowers and creates its own story.

External translates (to me) as Independent, and device generally means Focus, so you have two Limitations right there.

Re: The Powers of a Super-Butler

You mean Hellsing' date=' right?[/quote']

 

Yes. The title was derived from Abraham's name, though.

Re: The Seduction Skill as a "Lab"

If you can do Interrogation' date=' then why not Seduction? It doesn't have to be sexual in nature,[/quote']

 

True - the entry for Seduction in the rulebook makes a point of stating that Seduction has less to do with sexuality than making friends or getting on another character's good side.

 

Getting on the GM's good side, apparently, requires other skills . . .

 

my first notions when I think about such a "lab" would be a noblewoman's chambers or a lady spy's boudoir.

 

I'm reminded of the locale Gypsy Davey used:

 

The gypsy had his love nest all arranged. Since he shared his mother's wagon' date=' he found it convenient to prepare such trysting places whereever their band went. It made an interesting game, to find a suitable spot to woo, and, naturally, to win, his loves. The locations were varied enough to titillate his sense of adventure: a hay mow, an outbuilding, an open field, a deserted woodcutter's hut, or, as it was tonight, a comfortable bed of fragrant spruce boughs and soft moss, all ready for him to lay the lady down beneath the rustling willows.[/quote']

 

Though, considering the "success" he enjoyed there, perhaps something more modern would be appropriate. A bed of roses?

 

Of course, a true Seduction lab cannot be complete until it is prepared for inhuman subjects - no penalties for trying to seduce felines, here

Re: The Powers of a Super-Butler

They should probably also have a few combat skills' date=' for the inevitable "master has been kidnapped and I need to save him" bit.[/quote']

 

It seems appropriate at this time to mention that the butler from Van Helsing was seen to decapitate vampires - with his floss.

Re: The Seduction Skill as a "Lab"

This one' date=' I just can't see. Interrogation...maybe. But I think this is just stretching it too far.[/quote']

 

So . . . all the people who think that dating is more "romantic" over candlelight dinners, or with privacy, are just arbitrarily and artificially restricting themselves? If they really wanted to feel that way, it would be just as easy to seduce one another under any other circumstances?

 

Re: (worst ever)...reasons to be a supervillain

"Gor blimey, one day I am a famous superhero -- I saved the world six times -- and the next some alien blighter on steroids starts calling himself 'The Absolute Defender,' and I'm bloody well forgotten. That over-muscled bastard will pay! You'll all pay!!!" - The Absolute Defender U.K.

[the now-defunct VillainySupply.com]

Re: Evil Inc: we have your WMDS! And they are ON SALE!!!

Makes me miss Villainysupply.com.

That was the URL!

I remembered the site, and looked for it a bit - no wonder I couldn't find anything, it's gone off the web.

Well, not entirely off the web

Re: The Powers of a Super-Butler

What else have the Super-Butlers of the world been able to pull off that should go into this?

The confidence of knowing that they work for someone more important than you'll ever be - Presence, defensively to be unruffled no matter what happens and offensively by managing to look down their noses at you no matter how much taller you are.

Re: Advantage: "no roll required"

"I'm making a note to ask her about her late husbands drinking habits later." Says the player of Detective Sam Spade.

What annoys me is how many times I've read, in a book, of a character planning to do (or think about) something later, and then it's never mentioned again, leaving us (poor readers) to wonder if it was just left out after being hinted at or the author forgot about it.

Re: Advantage: "no roll required"

What exactly is the Trigger condition?

I was thinking to let it be set by whoever took the power; to use as my example a passage similar to that I drew inspiration from, "I made a mental note to ask her about it after all this was over."

Re: Advantage: "no roll required"

That sounds more like Fast Draw which requires no roll to just ready a weapon.

ghost-angel is correct, the sleight-of-hand glove was just an example. What he (and I) meant by "instant recall", however, is not "put the gun back in its holster faster than the eye can see", but "forget about something only to have it infallibly return to you on Trigger".

Re: Advantage: "no roll required"

you might consider building the ability completely via

the appropriate powers (Images or Invisibility in this case).

Invisibility isn't a power I'd considered for building this - how do you see it being used here?

Re: Advantage: "no roll required"

For most minor things Eidetic Memory allows one to recall things without the roll.

This is built as +5 skill levels for remembering things, which is at least some guideline for "no roll required".

Another option is Retrocognition: Personal Memories only.

Or mental Images (as other, appropriate, sense groups), et cetera; Trigger struck me as the most elegant way to build the effect.

Re: Advantage: "no roll required"

Tell us what you want to achieve. Someone will have the perfect build.

I was reading (recently acquired a few hundred dollars worth of books; they've been occupying all/most of my time lately) and came across the phrase "made a mental note".

Thinking to oneself "I'd better remember this later on." and hoping that it would spring back into conscious awareness unbidden at an appropriate future time?

I thought that Trigger might be a good way to build these (if the mind has room for 5 such mental notes, the power could be bought 5 times), so the question became how to build just one of them. Since an INT roll is used to remember things, I needed to replicate the "remembering things" effect without the roll requirement.

I could do it as "INT roll required", of course, but that wouldn't suit the peculiar nature of the larger construct I'm working on. Death doesn't result from INT being lowered below 0.

Re: Advantage: "no roll required"

It just occured to me.... do you mean buy the Skill itself as a Power?

Yes, that's it.

If the first - no' date=' the whole point of Skills is the roll.[/quote']

 

Oh well . . . back to the drawing board, then

Re: Advantage: "no roll required"

Ah' date=' Powers don't have a Roll (other than the Effect Roll) by default. So a skill bought as a Power doesn't have a Roll.[/quote']

 

Are you sure? From the example given on page 220 (of 5ER), of an enchanted glove with the Sleight of Hand skill, I thought it would be rolled for normally by default?

Re: Advantage: "no roll required"

I regards to what situation?

 

No Attack Roll?

No Effect Roll?

No Skill Roll?

Oh Sorry for not clarifying: if I wanted to build a skill as a power and not roll for it?

Does an Advantage like this exist already? If so, where can I find it?

Re: Feeling Charitable: Plot Hooks

It's hard to slip away when you are the chair speaker at a $1000 a plate dinner for Foxbat International.

It's also hard to confront the villainess when she's the chair speaker - and leader of the charity group.

Tough to simultaneously protect the DNPC while robbing them of their (most*) competent leader and causing a scandal.

* or even only

Re: Gargoyles HERO

I think I've made some progress on the Secrets part; they're mere SFX to the Hunted.

What happens when someone finds out the Gargoyles' secret? Backtrack a bit: how does someone find out their Secret?

This person learns the location of their lair, of course, but how does this happen? Is this revelation restricted to "someone in the know tipping them off", or can they track down the gargoyles' lair on their own? In any case, when it occurs due to anything but the PC's telling them, doesn't it require the GM's intervention?

GM intervention: roleplaying the NPC's who are "in the know", or rollplaying the Search dice of NPC's who don't know, but are trying to find out.

How do NPC's make trouble for the PC's? Sure, the GM decides (however this works) that they will be in this session's adventure, but do they just roll dice? Or does the GM arrange to have them involved in the plot?

Same thing happens with a Hunted: the GM rolls their Frequency, and, if their number comes up, works them into the plot. This isn't anything contrived; it's exactly how everything else in the game happens, anyway.

This is an extended-duration Frequency; not measured by game session (which is, really, a meta-game consideration) but when the PC's find a new roost.

Since the enemy who knows their secret location may be different every time, make the Hunted a Floating Hunted.

Then, the Frequency can be rolled every time someone new learns the secret, or every night, or whenever; and, if the Frequency indicates that their Hunted has not shown up yet, the people who learned their Secret turn out to be friendly, or perhaps are biding their time and gathering strength for an attack. If the Frequency indicates a Hunted, it can be taken as a successful skill roll for finding them if anyone was looking; or, the information leaked from an NPC ally/friend who already knew; or, an existing friend has become an enemy.

Re: Gargoyles HERO

Here's one for you' date=' who (what?) are the Children of Oberon?[/quote']

 

The best answer will probably wait until Greg Weisman publishes it in the Gargoyles comics - but I'm willing to share my interpretation of the material available so far.

 

Oberon is the strongest of all.

 

I'll reply to this alone as it seems, to me, to be the overlooked piece in these mysteries.

 

Is it possible for any being to give rise to progeny that will exceed it in power?

 

If so, many apparent contradictions are resolved; Oberon isn't more powerful than all his children, he's merely the forefather. He may have created them with special vulnerabilities to him alone, or they may obey out of respect, or fear him for his reputation, or fear the forces he commands.

 

If not, Oberon can be seen as a parallel to King Arthur; an ancient being who sired the known gods (and was therefore, necessarily, more powerful than any of them), he could have ruled for an eternity, but eventually even his empire would have fallen. So, instead, he chose to become less than he once was, and to hibernate on Avalon for a thousand years at a stretch, giving way for other Powers (his children) to make their own mark on the world. Every thousand years, he wakes up and calls them home to find out how they've been doing, so he can remind them who gave them their world and take pride in their accomplishments.

Re: New Limitation: Charges On Multipowers

First' date=' acknowledge that Multipower #2 costs 0 END and can be used a total of 64 times. What does that suggest to you? To me it's quite obvious that it needs a +1/2 Advantage (either 0 END or 64 Charges) on the *Reserve* cost.[/quote']

 

This gives the advantage of allowing any slot in the Multipower to be used 64 times. Do you give an additional Limitation (value) if, for example, the Multipower is a quiver of arrows? Can't fire all 16 flame arrows and then simply call some of your 16 ice arrows "flame" instead.

 

If each of the slots had a different recovery method (for their charges), would you handwave this or use another Limitation for it?

Re: Big Blue in control: WWYD

What do you do and at what point would you/team act?

It doesn't concern Kaja at any point during all this, unless he receives orders to the contrary. He'll probably go along with whatever the team wants.

Re: Nitro Injection System For Motorcycles

My initial thought, since I want the gadget to have a slight level

of "unreliability/variance", is as follows:

 

AID, recoverable charges, IIF

Can't rely on it to consistently deliver an exact level of speed? If not for that I'd think Boostable charges.