Banakles

Question: Should the different levels of degrees, i.e. Diploma, Bachelors, Masters, Doctorate etc., be represented by differing levels of skill?

 

Using the Australian Qualifications Framework as an example, yields a 10 level scheme as follows:

 

Qualification           Skill level        Time To Acquire          Qualification Title

Level 1                         0                    weeks                       Certificate I

Level 2                         1                    weeks                       Certificate II

Level 3                         2                    6 mths                      Certificate III

Level 4                         3                   1 year                        Certificate IV

Level 5                         4                1 to 2 years                  Diploma

Level 6                         5                1.5 to 2 years               Associate Diploma or Advanced Diploma

Level 7                         6                 3 to 4 years                 Bachelor's Degree

Level 8                         7                 1 to 2 years                 Graduate Diploma

                                                        6 mths to 1 yr              Graduate Certificate

                                                        1 year                          Bachelor's Honours Degree

Level 9                         8                 3 to 4 years                  Master's Degree (Extended)

                                                       1 to 2 years                  Master's Degree (Course work)

                                                       1 to 2 years                  Master's Degree (Research)

Level 10                       9                 3 to 4 years                 Doctoral Degree

Bachelor of Government and Public Policy

 

Government,

Public Management,

Management,

Public Policy

 

and as skills in game:

 

Bachelor of Justice Studies

3  1) KS: Politics and Government 12-

3  2) KS: Business 12-

3  3) KS: Public Policy 12-

3  4) SS: Accounting 12-

3  5) SS: Economics 12-

3  6) PS: Choose one from: Assistant Policy Analyst, Assistant Policy Officer (Graduate), Campaign and Administration/Helpdesk Assistant, Client Service Representative, Communications & Campaigns Assistant, Communications Officer, Community Development Officer, Corporate Support Officer, Economist, Electorate Assistant/Officer, Event Manager, Government House Officer, Graduate Administrative Assistant, Graduate Policy Officer, Higher Education Officer, Hospital Administrator, Human Resources Consultant,  Journalist, Ministerial Advisor, Planning Support Officer, Policy Advisor, Policy and Media Officer, Policy Project Officer, Policy Research Officer, Political Risk Analyst, Political Scientist, Program Administration Officer, Project Officer, Research Assistant/Officer, Social Policy Researcher, Trade Union Official, Urban Analyst, Youth Policy Officer 12-

 

 

18 Total Points

Bachelor of Justice Studies

 

Justice Studies,

Criminology,

government,

law,

management and communication,

psychology,

sociology

 

and as skills in game:

 

Bachelor of Justice Studies

3  1) KS: Politics and the Legal World 12-

3  2) KS: Law Enforcement World 12-

3  3) KS: Management and Communication 12-

3  4) SS: Criminology 12-

3  5) SS: Psychology 12-

3  6) SS: Sociology 12-

3  7) PS: Choose one from: Court Officer, Law Enforcer (Police, Federal Police, ASIO, etc.), Security Officer, Corrective Services (Prison Guard), Criminologist, 12-

 

 

21 Total Points

 

Updated prefab attached

Tertiary Education 1.0.hdp

The Focus is not Expendable, shouldn't have the Arrangement Limitation, and why is it Inaccessible? What stops someone from grabbing his wheel chair and tipping him out?

Cool, Thanks, is this a better build?

 

2 Wheelchair:  Running +12m (0m/12m total), x4 Noncombat, Rapid Noncombat Movement (+1/4) (21 Active Points); OAF Durable (-1), Gestures, Requires Gestures throughout (Requires both hands; -1), Only On Appropriate Terrain (-1/2) 6

One of the challenges the system poses to GMs and Players is how granular you should make the system. Highly granulular purchases have been encouraged since at least 4th edition. I am starting to back away from making players do stuff like spend a ton of points on a bajillion environments for Survival or all of the different specific things that System Operations have. I guess there are potentially genres that high granularity should have (ie Emergency Room Hero where everyone is a doctor with specific specialities, or a game with a highly specialized team of scientists) Usually though it's better to go as general as possible.

 

Ok heres the list of study areas for the Diploma of Health Sciences

 

Food Science and Technology,

Health Promotion,

Health Sciences,

Human Biology Preclinical,

Laboratory Medicine,

Molecular Genetics and Biotechnology,

Nursing,

Nutrition,

Psychology

 

and as skills in game, less granular than the first effort and probably costing a bit less as well

 

Diploma of Health Sciences

2  1) SS: Food Science and Technology 11-

2  2) SS: Human Biology 11-

2  3) SS: Laboratory Medicine 11-

2  4) SS: Molecular Genetics and Biotechnology 11-

2  5) SS: Psychology 11-

2  6) PS: Choose one Health Administration Officer, Research Officer, Health Promotion Officer, Project Officer, Insurance Officer 11-

2  8) KS: Health Sciences and Nutrition 11-

 

14 Total Points

 

 

 

I'm not sure yet if this degree is offered as a higher degree, but if it was I'd probably have each higher degree increase the skill level by 1.

I'm not advocating that players must stick by this, however it gives them a framework to use when creating characters that have some sort of tertiary education.

I'm not sure which should be KS, PS and/or SS this is my best guess.

Also updated the prefab to match this, will continue to work on it in my limited spare time.

 

 

Comments please

Tertiary Education.hdp

Unless its some special rocket wheelchair with guns and stuff, its not really a build so much as a Physical Complication and some stat lowering, such as reduced running.  You can build running, OAF, only over smooth, hard surfaces or something like that to represent an ordinary wheelchair as well if you want.

We reduced his run, swim and leap to zero, (but I think this is a bit much, any advice on actual values to keep?). As for the wheelchair we built as best we could figure it, and would appreciate suggestions and improvements.

 

2 Wheelchair:  Running +12m (12m total), x4 Noncombat, Rapid Noncombat Movement (+1/4) (21 Active Points); OIF Arrangement Durable Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -1), Gestures, Requires Gestures throughout (Requires both hands; -1), Only On Appropriate Terrain (-1/2), Restrainable (-1/2) 5

 

It could be a flying wheelchair. Didn't Prof. X have something like that?

We went with this image from one of the grand theft auto games, so it#s unpowered.

Session Write Up

Ok, the team was joined by a new member this fortnight, ex-cop Gregory Giles. Recently evicted from his apartment for continuously complaining about the lack of wheelchair access, the lease running out made for a convenient excuse. His friend Chet Manly invited him to stay at the warehouse with him and the others. He took a maxi taxi to the warehouse but before the cabbie could lower the ramp. Chet jumped in and told the cabbie to follow those vans. Four vans with the Herodome logo on the side had just left a warehouse 100m down the road. Chet had seen a bunch of men getting into the vans with boxes, but one of them had an AK assault rifle. Gregory spotted and recognised a known Al Qaeda terrorist in the front seat of the lead van as it drove past.

Chet quickly phoned Natsu and told him to get after them as well, so Natsu grabbed Lance and his sword and the two jumped on his Bike and took off in pursuit, Lance clinging to Natsu like a baby monkey to his mother, (these iron horses moved a lot faster than the real thing). Greg called one of his contacts on the force, Faith and filled her in, she told him that he had to stop the vans before they reached the Herodome, she was sending police backup, but they were several minutes away. Chet got the cabbie to overtake the vans then yanked the wheel, slewing the taxi around in front of the vans and bringing them to a halt. The cabbie broke Olympic records as he made his escape on foot. As terrorists began to pile out of the vans, Chet launched himself at the nearest, who was getting out of the passenger side of the lead van, he slammed into the door trying to pin the terrorist between it and the van, however the terrorist skipped backwards out of the way and leveled his AK at Chet, Chet struck with his palm, hitting the barrel of the rifle and driving it upwards until it connected with the terrorists face, knocking him out instantly. Natsu and Lance on the Bike were halfway past the vans when they pulled up and the terrorists began piling out. Natsu tried to swerve in between the second and third vans but ended up sliding the bike down the side of the second van. Lance tried to simply step off the back of the bike but lost his balance and skidded along the pavement good thing he was wearing a lot of old style and rather thick sturdy clothing. Natsu reacted by launching himself off the bikes foot pegs and clearing the van door just as the bike ploughed into it narrowly, missing the terrorist getting out, who had thrown himself towards the curb to avoid it. Natsu's leap and relative speed carried him to the roof of the first van which he promptly slid off of, managing to land on his feet in front of it. Greg activated the lift/ramp combo to get his wheelchair out of the back of the maxi-cab, and tried to keep an eye on what was happening. Bystanders, mostly Herodome patrons, on their way to the game, fled at the sight of armed men, especially armed men yelling in arabic.

The driver of the lead van foolishly reached through the window of the open van door to aim his SMG at Gregory and Natsu promptly chopped it off with his sword. Lance rolled towards a parked SUV to avoid a burst of fire from one terrorist and was forced to roll under the SUV to avoid another from a different direction. Natsu charged down one side of the lead van, while Chet advanced down the other. Two terrorists barrelled around the back of the van to face Natsu, and whether it was the blood drenched sword wielding maniac in front of them that threw their aim off or just sheer ineptitude, their bursts missed him and riddled the maxi-cab scaring the daylights out of Gregory (still waiting for the ramp to drop). Chet had another come around his side of the van and he tried to trip him, but the guy backpedalled as fast avoiding the attempt. Natsu brought his sword up into the first terrorists arm, slashing it to the bone and brought it back around neatly beheading the second terrorist. While Chet reached back palms flat on the ground and pushed himself upwards with all his strength (slightly more than human) leading with both feet into the terrorists belly, he did it with such force that the guy pretty much folded in half around Chet's feet and flew backwards a few metres to land on the other side of the vans almost at Natsu's feet.

At this point Lance shot one of the legs he could see from under the SUV, the lst three vans began to back up and Gregory rolled himself out of the maxi-cab, seeing the vans begin to move, he froze time, and hurriedly wheeled himself over to each van, he had to haul himself up at each window but was able to pull the keys from all three vans and additionally take an SMG from one of the guys in the last van, he then sat calmly in his wheelchair facing the four terrorist in the back of the van as he started time again, (yes, I forgot about the momentum of the reversing vans).

As time restarted Natsu skewered the driver of the second van, Chet raced to it's back door, Lance rolled back out from under the SUV and Gregory hosed the interior of the last van with lead, killing or wounding everyone inside, much to their surprise. The terrorists in the third van realised they were losing, and their vehicle somehow been disabled, so they hunkered down around it spraying fire randomly into the street, while one of their number activated the bomb inside. Their fanatical screaming of Allahu Akbar alerted the team to their impending doom, Chet said "Oh $&@%" and ran and dived behind a parked car further down the street, as did Natsu. Lance didn't know what it meant but he saw the others diving for cover and dived behind the SUV. Gregory however used the last of his endurance to stop time and propel himself away, the slight incline in the street assisted him in reaching a safe distance before time restarted. The terrorists triggered the bomb, the explosion was big enough to start a chain reaction as each vans bomb exploded one after the other. The police and emergency services arrived a few minutes later as the team was limping down the street heading home. They were taken into custody, questioned and held for 24 hours until Gregory's Contact Faith, got them released, citing the fact that they had undoubtedly saved a great many lives and despite the property damage caused, no one but the terrorists had been killed, although some civilians were injured they had only sustained minor injuries. There were some questions regarding Lance's lack of identification and their possession of a sword, antique revolver, knife and SMG, all were confiscated, at least for a short time. Also the four of them were processed, and therefore now have their fingerprints and photographs in the system, this could prove bad for those who are being hunted.

I have a new player, he wanted to have Time Stop powers, I agreed but mentioned the warning about unbalancing the game, so he decided the character would also be a paraplegic, which would limit what he can do while time is stopped. Now I have to build a Wheelchair.

The one book I would highly recommend trying to find is "Underworld Enemies" by Chris Avellone. You might get lucky and find it in a used bin somewhere. It is set in Fell's Point.

I'll look for it, thanks

 

Usually if someone has more than one kind of a umbrella science (i.e. your list of 5 Biological Sciences), I recommend they buy the umbrella by itself, but on a higher roll. i.e. instead of 

2            5) Biomedical Science : SS: Microbiology 11- 

2            6) Biomedical Science : SS: Immunology 11- 

2            7) Biomedical Science : SS: Histopathology 11- 

2            8) Biomedical Science : SS: Haemotology 11- 

2            9) Biomedical Science : SS: Biochemistry 11- 

2           10) Biomedical Science : SS: Molecular Genetics 11- 

 

I recommend that a PC just buy Biomedicine 14-  It's cleaner on the character sheet, also the average GM isn't going to ask for an "immunology" roll. Summing the whole thing up as Biomed Science is just easier (and cheaper). This is a style thing. I used to break out backgrounds skills that way. As I have gotten older, I realize it's not worth the points or the pain of doing it that way. Keep It Simple!

 

 

 

I hadn't thought of that, thanks.

 

I know this runs counter to the increasingly granular point-buy bean-counterism that has taken hold as Hero has aged, but I usually assume characters have "Stuff My Background Implies 10-" and restrict actual skill purchases to things that 1) have a direct impact on structured play, 2) are potentially opposed rolls, or 3) areas of expertise beyond "flavor text."

I've read something in the rules along these lines, I might work try and work with both .

It's important to understand that this sentence is logically inconsistent, depending on whether that piece of equipment is paid for with points. If it was paid for with points (I had assumed it was) then it is a part of the character. Batman's utility belt is just equipment, but it is also a part of what makes up Batman- and the same could be true for a cowboy lost through time toting a magic revolver.

 

Hence my question.

I stand corrected, he did buy it with points, and he does get to keep it. I allow equipment bought as powers and/or with resource points.

Ok thanks, I have Widows and Orphans and New Bedlam, just haven't read them yet.

The Harbinger of Justice has CK: Fell's Point 11-, does anyone know where this is located?

I can't find it on the city or suburban map.

Is it an off map location from the original campaign?

Ok that didn't print the way I wanted it. Here's the prefab.
 
Fixed the first post and also looked at career options for after the diploma (PS's) 

2           PS: Health Administration Officer 11-
2           PS: Research Officer 11-
2           PS: Health Promotion Officer 11-
2           PS: Project Officer 11-
2           PS: Insurance Officer 11-

 What these occupations actually do I have no idea

 

Tertiary Education.hdp

I was looking at Tertiary Education and have come up with the beginnings of a prefab for HD, I picked the first one in the list Diploma of Health Sciences and then went to the weblink for the course details. Using the course details I came up with this: Stage 1 is for a year 11 school leaver and is meant to bring them up to speed for Stage 2 which is aimed at someone who has completed secondary school (each stage takes 1 year of study time).

In theory someone who has completed secondary school and had planned to do this type of diploma course would already have the stage 1 skills. Which gets me to thinking: what skills does secondary school give a character.

Secondary school should provide the everyman skill set correct?

 

SKILLS

Cost      Name                                                                              
              Diploma of Health Sciences (Stage 1)

3            1) KS: The Academic World 11-

3            2) Academic Communication Skills : Oratory 11-

2            3) PS: Academic Research and Writing 11-

3            4) Information Media Technologies : Systems Operation 11-

3            5) Business Studies : Bureaucratics 11-

2            6) SS: Chemistry 11-

2            7) Human Body : SS: Anatomy and Physiology 11-

2            8) Mathematics 1 : SS: Mathematics 11-      

20 Skills Cost

 

              Diploma of Health Sciences (Stage 2)

5            1) Academic Communication Skills : Oratory 12-

3            2) PS: Academic Research and Writing 12-

2            3) KS: Health Practice and Behaviour 11-

2            4) Indigenous Culture and Health : CuK: Aboriginal Culture 11-

2            5) Biomedical Science : SS: Microbiology 11-

2            6) Biomedical Science : SS: Immunology 11-

2            7) Biomedical Science : SS: Histopathology 11-

2            8) Biomedical Science : SS: Haemotology 11-

2            9) Biomedical Science : SS: Biochemistry 11-

2           10) Biomedical Science : SS: Molecular Genetics 11-

2           11) Integrated Systems : SS: Anatomy and Physiology 11-

2           12) SS: Biological Chemistry 11-

3           13) SS: Chemistry 12-

31 Skills Cost

 

51 Total Skills Cost

 

 

What do you guys think?

To be honest I don't have a specific reason, it just popped into my head and it seemed somewhat limiting, but I've been reading the rules a bit more and realise that it isn't limiting at all. While Gunsmoke may not be able to improve the gun itself without mystical means, he can definitely improve his abilities with it, CSL's, superskills, and other powers. Basically I see your point and will not be removing his "John Wayne gun".

 

I was not actually going to change the character, I was going to change a piece of equipment he possessed.

 

As it turns out he may need it anyway. We needed something to pursue him through the dreamtime, and given the mystical nature of his powers, I searched for a mystical pursuer. The Vampyri from Urban Fantasy seemed appropriate and oddly enough I discovered an Aboriginal Vampire the "Talamaur" not an exact match but close enough that the Talamaur could be an interpretation of the Vampyri. Gunsmoke's background has him pursued by one of his own gang members who was a Vampyri ("Six Finger Larry" had six fingers on one hand). Gunsmoke's powers and ritual scarring were the result of a ceremony he underwent, while sheltering with an Aboriginal Clan in the dreamtime, the purpose of which was to prepare him to face the Talamaur.

 

I'll be honest, I have largely written or re-written the character's backgrounds and complications. Each change is submitted to the players for their approval. I know the players should do this with minimal input from the GM, but these players usually do not focus much on background and motivation. (Less Role-playing and more Roll-playing).

They are not used to thinking of a character concept first, then designing that character to fit the concept. They are used to picking a class and then trying to come up with a rough concept. (They really struggled with this)

Of the group Maverick's player usually role plays, Shinigami's player usually meta-games, the rest usually roll play.

My input into their characters is geared towards encouraging them to roleplay more and also serve as examples of how to come up with their character concept.

I hope to reduce my input as they become more familiar with character conceptualisation and character design.

LOL,

 

Yep.  I use Hudson City as the location for all my games that are 'modern', Hero or other.

 

As for universe it is always my own with me shamelessly borrowing anything that fits....

 

I'm with Spence, I'm using Hudson city renamed New Brisbane, set in a Wold Newton Universe so, I've Dark Champions, DC:TAS, Champions, DC and Marvel and will shamelessly borrow anything.

I also plan to remove the apparent enchantment on Gunsmokes Colt Navy Revolver, something along the lines of the enchantment gradually wears off outside of the dreamtime, this will probably cause the player and character some anguish, wondering whether or not his regeneration and resistance powers will fade as well. I'm thinking along the lines of technological objects not being able to permanently hold a dreamtime enchantment, but biological objects/creatures can.

I don't intend just to take it off him without replacing it with something, If the player doesn't think of it, I have talked to Knifepoint's player, to have Knifepoint suggest that Gunsmoke might be able to sell the gun as a valuable antique. If he sold it to Eddie Collins, Collins would probably give him a fair amount in trade. (I intend to give the player a number of resource points as a replacement, and a few hours in Collins' Guns and Surplus, any suggestions on a reasonable amount of resource points for an antique in fairly new condition?)

Doctor Who?

What about Captain Jack Harkness and Torchwood.

• How did you come up with your 'handle' (forum name)

It's a character name from David Gemmell's Troy Trilogy

• What was the first tabletop RPG you played?

Basic D&D

• What was the first tabletop RPG you GMed?

Traveller (LBB version)

• What are you currently playing/GMing?

Currently playing in a Chivalry & Sorcery Campaign (30+ years so far) GMing a slightly confused and haphazardly assembled Street Level Champions Campaign (with Dark Champions outlook) I have titled it "Something Wicked This Way Will Come" although I haven't decided what that something wicked will be yet.

 

I was asked recently to run a Heroes Unlimited Campaign for my Sister-in-Law and her family, but I didn't want to use the palladium rules, so I looked around and found Hero System. I'd heard of it before but never used it, had a quick read of the rules and thought I'd give it a go. So I established a setting using the Wold Newton Timeline as background and history. The city I chose to set it in was my home city Brisbane, Australia. Decided to run the game every second Friday night, unfortunately the first night no one showed up because of family issues.

During the next fortnight I changed some things in the setting, I decided it would be a heroci level game with characters having 175 character points and 50pts min. complications. I also decided to have the eastern seaboard of Australia struck by a meteor shower in the late 50's/early 60's devastating communities in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. The recovery was aided by an international effort to rebuild, corporations and other organisations from around the world cooperated in order to provide succor to the victims, restore services and rebuild infrastructure. The Australian Government also relaxed it's immigration laws and offered incentives to corporations, and individuals to remain in Australia and apply for citizenship after the rebuilding effort. Additionally the shock of such a catastrophe had a similar effect on society as World War II did, and population growth figures soared immediately after and have declined only marginally. This increased birth rate and higher immigration levels has eneabled the population to reach levels comparable with our earth's version of Australia.

Why did I do this to Australia? I wanted to use Hudson City: The Urban Abyss as a replacement for Brisbane with minimal changes. The meteor strikes and subsequent rebuilding and immigration allows for a massive influx of various ethnic groups, along with their respective criminal elements, and it sped up the americanisation of Australian culture. So New Brisbane City (Hudson City) is designed and layed out along the lines of american cities because the largest group of corporations involved were american. The culture has changed due in part to the racial backgrounds of the population, the white population is 40% American, 20% European and 40% Australian, while the black population is roiughly 50/50 between african american and aboriginal, and due in part to increased ties with the U.S. resulting from the American dominance of Australian industry.

I sold this setting to my son and his mates, we started the next fortnight. However because I was still learning the system and my son and his mates had never even heard of it, we spent the entire night creating characters (only three of the four were completed as one player got bored and gave up) and didn't actually play. As a result one player dropped out because he didn't want to learn a new system, another dropped out due to work commitments leaving me with two players, my son and one mate. Because I had told them they could make any character they could think up, we ended up with "Knifepoint", "Shinigami" and "Maverick".

 

Knifepoint - after some tweaking to fit the setting is an ex-terrorist, one of Gaea's Commandos, with two secret identities, Chet Manly (yes he is a fan of Archer) and Damien Kirwan. Enhanced STR, DEX, CON and PER with all Senses, and Acrobatics 19-. Damien Kirwan abandoned his team and taking his sister, they adopted new names and fled. He is Hunted by W.E.B. and should he be identified as Damien Kirwan he will have a host of law enforcement agencies from around the world hunting him. The character was built around the assassin package deal and martial arts: knifefighting.

 

Shinigami - The son of Japanese immigrants, he is a mutant with shadow melding and shadow stepping powers. Sent to Japan to study Kenjutsu under his grandfather as a way to develop the self-discipline to control his powers. Secret identity: Natsu Iko (yes he chose the name in order to be a descendent of the Kage Ryu founder). Returning to New Brisbane because his parents died in a house fire, he discovers that they were actually murdered, witness statements place the Blue Moon Killer at the scene. If he killed them, why? If he didn't what was he doing there? Has the Perk: accredited Instructor Kage Ryu Kenjutsu.

 

Maverick - was based very closely on Marvel's Gambit. But the player had to drop out because of work commitments.

 

Leon - A were-lion recently infected and just learning to control the transformation and bestial side. Player showed up on the third session and will probably play on rare occasions only.

 

Gunsmoke - A budding Bushranger who accidentally stumbled into the dreamtime while fleeing from his first coach holdup and stepped back out into New Brisbane in the year 2015. A very confused and scared individual. The time spent in that dimesion has had some strange effects on him, he is resistant PD/ED, and regenerates injury and after a year in the dreamtime has gained Distinctive Features: Ritual Scarring. Additionally he has a Colt Navy Revolver which has apparently been mystically endowed as well (no charges required). This player was the bored guy in the second session, lured back by the writeup of the third sessions game events.

 

Tweaking the characters and tying them further into the setting has increased their point totals to approximately 200 CP.

 

Shinigami, Knifepoint and Leon knew each other as children, so all three were present at the funeral of Shingami's parents. After the funeral they went to a nearby bar and drank for a while, reminiscing and catching up. On the way back to the subway station they ran into some gang thugs who figured they'd be easy marks, the brawl that followed was short and brutal, but difficult enough for each of them to force them to use their powers in front of the others. Realising that they all had some special abilities, previously vague ideas began to coalesce into a purpose, Shinigami sought answers about his parents' murder, Knifepoint sought to atone for his terrorist past, and Leon needed to find the creature that cursed him. The three of them determined to work together to achieve their goals.

A week or two later Shinigami attended the reading of his parents' wills and discovered that his father owned a warehouse and there was a modest savings account as well. Later the group went to check out the warehouse at night, planning to start their new crimefighting career by patrolling the neighbourhood afterwards. They actually surprised three would be arsonists, Leon began to transform before they went in, (the player had to leave at this point so I continued his transformation and made it as bruatal and noisy as possible, bones snapping and rearranging themselves, flesh tearing, agonised screams which quickly changed to a growling roar), this quite naturally scared the bejesus out of the three would be arsonsits who made a break for the other door. Shinigami stepped through the shadows and quickly dealt with two of them, while Knifepoint disabled the third. Knifepoint was somewhat upset with Shinigami for killing his two, (5 point Code Against Killing), but he didn't say anything, he just got to work on the third arsonist's wound. After the bleeding was stopped they questioned him, and discovered that he had no idea who hired them, as one of the dead arsonists had brought them into help without telling them many details. Shinigami confiscated the arsonists wallets and phones, but Knifepoint let the survivor make his own way to the hospital. He did however decide to shadow him and see where he went, turned out he went to a small rundown building with a surgery sign outside (The Kyphotic Man). They disposed of the bodies in the river behind the warehouse and that is where we left our heroes.

 

Next session saw the return of bored guy and the arrival of his new character Gunsmoke (which had to created that night) so the warehouse is in the middle of being refitted as a Dojo/with upstairs accommodation for the group. Chet and Natsu are inspecting the work so far when a portal of somesort opens inside the warehouse, a figure in old fashioned clothing dives through it, followed by a rather large and angry snake. The workers scattered, Chet and Natsu leapt into action as the snake got a hold on Gunsmoke and began to entwine itself around him and slowly crush him to death. At first it seemed that thee snake was just too big, tough for them to handle then Chet put all his effort into one massive stab into the top of its head (haymaker), killing it instantly, still they got thrown around a bit during it's deaththrows. Again had to leave them there due to the time.

 

Next session is a week away. To tie the characters further into the setting I've increased the number of complication points to about 100, with each players agreement.

Shinigami now has his grandfather arriving in the near future to be his DNPC and will aslo gain a few students in Kenjutsu, one in particular will probably cause problems (The Shogun of Little Tokyo, who apparently would like to improve his martial skills). The group is also going to get a visit from a particular herpetologist who is interested to find out as much as he can about this new species of snake that animal control brought to him to identify. They may come into conflict with Speargun as the warehouse is in his territory on the south side of the river just east of the drawbridge.

To top that off, I let them design their base (the warehouse) they unwittingly chose a size that is far larger than the warehouse floorplan would suggest, something like 80mx40mx40m, it's only a two story warehouse, about 6 meters high, which leaves 34m of the third dimension unaccounted for. So I have decided that his parents (one or both) were involved in some sort of secret research and the remaining 34m is hidden below the warehouse as a secret lab. This also enabled me to explain Knifepoints powers (as a child he was terribly sick and the doctors couldn't cure him, Shinigami's parent's took him to the hidden lab and injected him with an experimental serum which cured him and gave him his powers). The group do not know this yet and I might need to wait until the base sustains some damage or someone decides to get snoopy before revealing it.

 

As you can tell, the campaign is a rather haphazard assembly of various elements, Wold Newton Timeline, Hudson City, Dark Champions Mentality, DC:TAS, Street Level Champions, Urban Fantasy and I forget the rest. But it is slowly coalescing.

 

 

 

In Martial Arts 6E, several of the Martial Art Abilities, include in their game information section, (e.g. Throwing Master p.128),references to common Limitations, such as:

 

"1f        1) Blunt Objects: Blast 6d6; common Limitations (-1 1⁄4)"

 

What are common Limitations?

 

Have I missed a rule or something?