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Robyn

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Posts posted by Robyn

  1. If they get better, is it actually murder?

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: If they get better, is it actually murder?

     

    My character does not have a complete (-20) CvK. Instead' date=' she has the lesser "Prefers not to kill" (-15).[/quote']

     

    Is your character a lawyer, though?

     

    My guess is' date=' legally speaking,[/quote']

     

    Irrelevant, unless your character's CvK is derived from the law; does she regularly consult the law so as to stay within its exact letter while following the spirit of her own desires?

     

    This is uncomfortably close to a meta-awareness of her own Disadvantage, combined with deliberately seeking loopholes by which she can avoid it.

  2. If they get better, is it actually murder?

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: If they get better, is it actually murder?

     

    Unless an official coroner or someone similar pronounces him dead at the scene, he's not dead.

     

    Furthermore, if he's alive, most courts do not accept ressurrection as a viable social option available to anyone, the masses or otherwise. So if Dreadlok shows up in court after Partacel hurls him off the world trade center and he gets impaled on a flagpole at the bottom, chances are, the court will rule that the presence of the fiendish mastermind in the courtroom will render his murder impossible. A judge has license, when presented with the obvious, to dismiss a case immediately, and in such a case, he likely would.

     

    What if Dreadlok shows up with the flagpole still sticking through him, and testifies to waking up on the operating table, sitting up, and wondering why the coroner was doing an autopsy?

  3. Speedsters:

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Speedsters:

     

    It's easy enough to build them as regular "three power" characters:

    (1) offensive power

    (2) defensive power

    (3) movement power

     

    So . . . build these three with Multiform?

  4. Gargoyles HERO

    in Other Genres

    Posted

    Re: Gargoyles HERO

     

    Re the OP, there are some problems with GargHero:

     

    The Hero System warns against taking Phy Limits that make a character powerful in certain situations, helpless in others (They specifically used the example "Powerful at night helpless by day". I think they were thinking of Vampires, but it applies to Gargoyles as well.) Elisa would be pretty helpless by herself in the clock tower if say, Xanatos in his evil incarnation, were to drop by the clock tower With a dozen robots. That is, if she wasn't home asleep in the first place.

     

    I considered posting this in the Fantasy HERO forum because I had difficulty envisioning a playable campaign outside the medieval "protection pact with humans" setting.

     

    I don't think this poses as much of a problem as "helpless", though; if all (or even just most) of the PC's are gargoyles, the GM can simply run games that only take place at night. If one (or more) of them was captured/relocated overnight, this will become apparent when they awaken. If one (or more) of them gets smashed, they may never wake up at all :eek:

     

    This strikes me as more of a "plot device" than game mechanic; a Secret might cover it, but sometimes friends can learn the Secret without sharing it freely, and even enemies might keep it to themselves for a rainy day.

     

    A modern campaign is feasible if the PC's realize and accept that secrecy is paramount - if they fail to maintain it, they may very well die!

     

    The problem is that there are two secrets. One of them is the nature of the gargoyles (that they turn to stone during the day, and are helpless to defend themselves during that time). Another is the exact location they hide in. The latter can change, especially if they realize that they have become Hunted by their enemies (which may include the general public :nonp:).

     

    For the first, a Social Limitation modelled after Secret Identity seems appropriate; there may or may not be an extreme risk of death or injury (that could reflect the number of people who want the gargoyles dead, but also by how easily such death or injury might be inflicted upon the gargoyles, and the latter seems more appropriate for that second aspect, namely location), but if exposed it would, in turn, expose the character to attack. But, as noted in the third paragraph, the Secret can be exposed to one without, necessarily, exposure to all. The description of Secret Identity given in the book offers a Severe version only if the character has a large number of enemies who would wish to kill/maim him; this seems to require that the Secret be compromised for everyone.

     

    The second aspect suffers from similar problems; location can be changed overnight, leaving any previously compromised Secret Locations no longer "revealed", in the sense that the gargoyles' current (for that night, and possibly any future nights as well) location is still unknown to others.

     

    Another problem is that in Gargverse' date=' the Timeline is unchangeable. You can go back in time, but only to start a sequence of events that has already happened.[/quote']

     

    Playing in a strictly canon universe, this is true. But how many GM's run their campaigns to be that strictly by canon? Also, time travel is highly restricted; the Phoenix Gate was a unique item, and - if you're going by canon - accounted for throughout the Timeline (though, yes, I know; time travel is perfect for borrowing something for an entire campaign and returning it later, seamlessly, to the exact moment it was borrowed from), so it's unlikely the GM will face that sort of situation unless they are already violating canon!

     

    For example' date=' how much do Gargs weigh? Their wings ("We don't fly, we [i']glide[/i]") aren't much bigger than their bodies, implying they weigh almost nothing, else they would fall like... stone. Do they weigh the same during their day phase? If so, they should have been able to be carried around like balsa models. If they gain weight to become stone, where does that extra mass come from?

     

    What kind of PD do those wings have, anyway? In Hero terms, they have "Deflect, All" but watching bullets bounce off them...

     

    I think the two questions go together: for that size, they would need to have hollow bones and be quite fragile inside to "realistically" fly at all, much less glide, and I still think that's pushing "realism" quite a bit ;)

     

    But they are, obviously, quite durable; and, so, I think it appropriate to refer all questioners to the same SFX that justifies nonhuman creatures who turn to stone during the day and revert each night (usually) - magic :P

    For the PD question, I think that's simply "tough as stone" regular (resistant?) PD (or Armor) with the SFX "attacks that deal no damage, bounce".

  6. Ability Checks

    in HERO System Discussion

    Posted

    Re: Ability Checks

     

    My genius Super Scientist with an INT of 20 is going to have a base -14 on his skill roll; and an 'average' person with an 8 is going to have an -11' date=' which is a big gap in this system. Sure, there's a chance that slower guy will pick out something smarter guy missed, but it's unlikely. One's a doctor, and one's a lab assistant.[/quote']

     

    Your genius Super Scientist only has a lab assistant with average intelligence working for him?

     

    Good help is so hard to find these days :nonp:

  7. Charges is a limitation?

    in HERO System Discussion

    Posted

    Re: Charges is a limitation?

     

    But I can't make that adjustment in a vacuum. If I throw more foes at a group just because one character has lots of charges' date=' that penalizes ALL the characters.[/quote']

     

    This makes several assumptions; that all the characters are going to be combat-oriented, that combat is where their players want the PC's to have their moment of glory, that the PC's will always enter combat in a group and stay with each other throughout it ;)

  8. Mental Illusions and Memory

    in HERO System Discussion

    Posted

    Re: Mental Illusions and Memory

     

    problem' date=' as I saw it, was that if you suddenly found yourself re-living events from six months ago, you would have good reason to think that you were experiencing an illusion.[/quote']

     

    Block the long-term memory? Penalty to INT rolls for purposes of accessing memories within the last 6 months? There's a lack of guidelines for how badly you need to fail your INT roll to not even realize that there's relevant information which you could (try to) remember. If the effect is going to be built with Mind Control, some sort of precedent (for similar effects) would be preferable.

  11. The Munchkin Build Contest

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: The Munchkin Build Contest

     

    The Special FX of this is that you open a teleportation gate way below the enemy and above the enemy. Causing the enemy to fall though the gate and then fall out of it essentially where he was but now with velocity' date=' and continues to fall and be teleported though the gate until he hits terminal speed.[/quote']

     

    This idea has been discussed before, if you want to search the forums for it ;)

  14. Speedsters:

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Speedsters:

     

    Thanx' date=' and sorry, but that would violate Hero Games IP -- the Speed Zone is one of the main draws of the Ultimate Speedster.[/quote']

     

    I don't have The Ultimate Mentalist, but I have managed to acquire a rough idea of how the Speed Zone works - by reading the threads complaining about it :sneaky:

  15. Accesable ot Inaccesable focus?

    in HERO System Discussion

    Posted

    Re: Accesable ot Inaccesable focus?

     

    As a quasi house rule' date=' I've added an additional category to Accessible Foci. It deals with how it's used. If you don't have to actually hold it and manipulate it,[/quote']

     

    I've been wondering how to build one of those, by the way. I have in mind one of those ancient underground temples, where the team is confronting the evil priest who guards the relics they want to steal (yes, very Indiana Jones), and the priest summons up phantom warriors from the past to defend his temple. The power comes from a gemstone which is embedded in the forehead of one of the statues, though, and it can easily be destroyed if the PC's figure out the priest isn't the source of the effect (IPE on the Summon, the Focus is Fragile), so the priest is using it without actually touching it.

  18. HERO lost builds repository

    in HERO System Discussion

    Posted

    Re: HERO lost builds repository

     

    One of the issues is you're forcing a color by using the COLOR tag.

     

    On the earlier posts, yes; I forced red and blue. But the link I posted using Firefox wasn't changed that way, so it should have been completely default. I tested red, blue, and normal links (some of them from other threads) to be thorough.

     

    I'm still trying to reproduce the blue/green colors I saw last time :stupid:

  22. Speedsters:

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Speedsters:

     

    He also frequently drives the GM a little crazy with one of his 'flavor' powers: Nothing but a Blur -- Bright Fringe Invisibility linked to his running. (I was trying for that 'you see nothing but a blur of color and then he's gone' effect you sometimes see on the cartoons).

     

    I have an old power idea that was meant to trick enemies into thinking they could stop the speedster:

     

    Teleport, not with "must pass through intervening space", Linked to Images (that exact blur).

  23. WWYCD: A Christmas Carol, Champions Style!

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: WWYCD: A Christmas Carol, Champions Style!

     

    Who benefits? My guess is "any infernal or mystical power that favors the degradation of humanity."

     

    IOW, start looking for Mephisto or the campaign equivalent.

    That was Dolphin's thought, but Powerhouse has repetedly said that's not happening.

     

    If you look for Mephisto or an equivalent in the history you remember, of course you won't find the true culprit here:

     

    Scrooge.

     

    In the old timeline, Ebenezzer chose redemption - but in the new timeline, he became an infernal being that favored the degradation of humanity and wielded mystical power toward that goal. Hence the amazing influence his book has exerted throughout history.

     

    Like the Archmage in Gargoyles, his future self has travelled back in time to interfere with the 3 spirits who would otherwise have diverted him from his destiny.

     

    But just as surely as Scrooge has bent the law, still he cannot break it; 3 spirits visited his younger self that night, and - in disguise - he approached various heroes from alternate timelines seeking substitutes to take the place of those spirits who originally "saved" him.

  25. A variant of standard effect damage

    in HERO System Discussion

    Posted

    Re: A variant of standard effect damage

     

    If you hit' date=' flip your dice over and add them to your damage dice, minus three in body and three times that in stun.[/quote']

     

    Do you subtract the STUN and BODY before or after you flip them? And the STUN is three times what, the three from BODY or some other number?

     

    I'm so confused . . . :weep:

     

    In other words' date=' your attack (we're assuming the attack does more than 3d6 normal)[/quote']

     

    Does your method fall apart if it doesn't? Are we going to have to memorize another confusing method? :fear:

     

    does (N-3) x 3 + (a random number between 4 and 18) (it's between 4 and 18 because if you rolled an 18 to hit' date=' you probably missed.[/quote']

     

    I am surprised to say that I understand this even less than HERO's existing rules, and I haven't even read the Combat chapter.

     

    What this accomplishes: It makes an attack that just barely hit less dangerous than an attack that hit squarely. It rewards good rolls.

     

    I'll have to take your word on it ;)

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