Dino

Re: All Standard Effect HERO?

Add Heroic Action Points from Pulp Hero. You can give them out like Drama Point in BtVS, or Plot Points in Serenity (in addition to XP).

Players would then have a "budget" of points they could use to affect critical rolls (and so would important NPCs). Plus, by giving them out for roleplaying and doing cool stuff in character, you encourage players to be dramatic with thier actions instead of munchkiny.

Re: How do I introduce HERO to a potential new player?

I'd like to jump on the "write it up for him" bandwagon, with one addition: make the character generation interactive. Sit down with your player and ask him to describe what he wants for his character within the context of genre, then just go down the list, describing characteristics and skills and asking him whether he thinks his character should have a given item and at what level.

"Is your character good with computers?"

"Sure."

"Ok, how good is he?

This process allows the player to feel an investment in his character that a pre-gen sheet can't duplicate, and exposes him to the hero mechanics from the start. Even more importantly, it allows you as the GM to impose (impart?) your own sense of scale, something that can't be over emphasized.

A little while back, my roommate was going to run a Battlestar Galactica game in hero and asked my to do the writeups for him. One thing led to another, and the game was not to be, but I thought I would post the two ships I finnished here for the bennefit of others.

The stats are based on what I could remember seeing in the mini-series and about half the first season. I had to extrapolate alot of data based on things like "a 55 ton Raptor" and the ship dimensions listed on the website. The rest is my own opinion, use at your own risk.

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Re: What concepts have you used for a 'Superman'?

The Superman/girl archetype from my last game got her powers by being at ground zero of the reality altering event that gave everyone else thier powers. (Gotta love those temporal/dimensional drive malfunctions.)

Re: WWYCD: The Basics

ATHENA (Billionaire powered armor inventor) - Uses her built in suit cell phone to call a local taxi company and have them deliver a box of Friskies to her location. Then shakes box 'til the cat comes down.

Re: Advice requested: Daughter of Thor

A quick addition: Marvel Thor has one of the highest EGOs in the Marvel universe.

Re: Big Props to The Ultimate Mystic

What he said...

Re: Ideas for a Black Canary Homage

I did a writeup for this kind of character in my last game. She got her powers when she was infused with the archetypical spirit of the Black Canary character concept, then underwent surgery to repair damage to her vocal chords from a childhood injury. She has different powers based on what kind of "voice" she uses as well as agility and fighting skills from her archetypical spirit. Feel free to steal what you like.

Re: "I've only got one shot . . ."

So' date=' anyone have and good advice for running one-shots? [/quote']

 

A good self-contained story arc. You need to give the players a defineable goal from the outset, one that can be easily identified and resoved in a single session. Then come up with a handful of modular encounters/obstacles that you can put them up against but don't have to use if you are running behind schedule. These should all have a connection to the main plot hook, but not nesessarily to each other (a rival group is also a classic idea).

 

Finnaly you need to explain in character why the goal is important. Flavor text narration is good but it's even better is you can show a pressing need by example (such as a plague creating the need for medicine, or famine requireing a raid on neighbors food supplies).

Re: Big Question: How did superpowers come about in your campaign?

In my current game, we used the Trinity Blast as the catalyst for superhuman powers. The harnessing of the atom created a paradigm shift that changed the laws of nature to "super physics".

Re: New Global Guardians PBEM Campaign Looking For Players

Does 350 starting points mean 350 base points? (i.e. 500 total)

Re: LASD Superheros (ideas needed)

Something cop movies/TV almost never show is the demands of juggling more than one case. This could be a fairly radical departure from most RPG campaigns' date=' and only you can say if it would work with your players. But try giving your players multiple cases that overlap, so they have to decide which case to prioritize. (OTOH, that's starting to sound too much like RL!) [/quote']

 

A worthy idea, but sounds like a lot of work for me!

 

Speaking of which, in big departments there's normally not a lot of overlap between patrol offers who do the responding and detectives who do the investigating. But you can probably fudge that because the PCs are a special case.

 

They are a special squad led by a Detective, and outside the normal departmental structure.

 

Don't forget that the Sherriff is an elected official who may have little or no actual law enforcement experience and may have his/her own political agenda.

 

I'm basing the sheriff on the real sheriff of Los Angeles county, so he's actually very experienced.

 

Are your PCs' real identities known? Presumably at least the department knows? Then there's a very real risk that villains will seek to retaliate against the PCs DNPCs, something every cop dreads.

 

The players already anticipated this in character and have asked the NPC detective in charge to adopt a costumed ID for dealing with the public (my players are clever monkeys).

 

That's all off the top of my head. If you're interested, I used to have a short summary of the rules of evidence, probable cause, warrants, and so forth written in non-legaleese. I'll see if I can dig it up if you want?

 

That would rock!

Re: LASD Superheros (ideas needed)

To play up the cop angle - and something seen before on Law & Order - is where the crook gets off on a technicality due to how evidence was seized or how the arrest was made. What if the PC's know the villain is a stone-cold killer but is released on a technicality? Particularly if the mistake was made by an overexurberant PC during the arrest. Will he/she feel guilty? Angry? An excellent chance to roleplay and maybe even an opportunity to teach a lesson to a PC or two that does break the rules, if that's ends up being the case.

 

What do they do then? Stalk the villain? Wait for him/her to slip up?

That's exactly the kind of stuff I'm looking for. Rep to you.

Re: LASD Superheros (ideas needed)

Thanks for the great ideas guys! I'm glad to hear that Villany Unbound is as useful a product as advertised, I'll have to pick up a copy when job situation stabilizes.

I'm mosty trying to figure out ways to spin the whole cop angle on traditional super crimes. I don't want the whole game to be a series of "you get a call to go here and arrest bad guys" stories (which I did in the first session). I like the prisoner transport idea. Guess I need to watch more Law and Order.

Re: A more feminine martial art

Nitpick: Tai Chi is next to useless in a fight. Tai Chi Chuan is a full fledged martial art from which Tai Chi was developed as a fad exercise/meditation.

It is arguably the most graceful martial art in the world, and would get my vote.

Capeoria relies on agility, flexibility, and rythmic movement and women are not at a significant disadvantage when practicing it.

Jujutsu, relying on leverage and knowledge of anatomy is widely taught to women as a self defence technique.

As has already been mentioned, Aikido and Wing Chun Kung Fu are also suitable female practitioners and look quite graceful

So I'm running a new campaign where the PC's are all Los Angeles county sheriff's deputies, and I need ideas. It's an original game world where superhumans have been around for sixty years. Vigilante (non-deputized) heroes are tolerated if they play nice, but there is no mechanism for "special sanction", and there is a metahuman registration act.

I have a large well organized team of villains (The Conclave) created who are trying to take over organized crime in the city, but I would also like to run unrelated plotlines featureing independant villians and street crime.

My games are roleplay heavy, and my players mature, so grity and dramatic story ideas are welcome.

PCs include:

ECLIPSE (mutant/mystic brick) strenght, toughness, and some magic projection powers and flight. Comes from a family of superheros and villains.

PRISM (mystic FEP) magical girl type all grown up. Has spirit advisor maquerading as a cat.

SINGULARITY (mutate density/gravitic manipulator) strong, tough, projects artifical singularities. Son of superspy, raised by now retired superhero.

CANTOR (altered human FEP) sonic manipulator. Classical singer/society person.

IRON HEART (martial artist) normal human. Master of mulitple arts. Married.

So, what kind of adventures would you run them through?

Re: your thoughts on size

For 60 points you can have half damage resistance to physical and energy attacks' date=' which effectively doubles your STUN and BODY against these attacks.Assuming you have (say) 50 STR, 20 CON and 15 BODY you get , in effect, +50 STUN and +15 BODY (80 cps worth). Quite an appropriate way to model a large creature's resistance to damage, is damage resistance, without making the damn thing invulnerable.[/quote']

 

I think you mean Damage Reduction Sean.

Re: Your character's theme song would be?

ATHENA (Billionaire inventor determined to make the world a better place with her technology despite the obstruction of a military/industrial cabal.) - "We Can Be Heroes" by David Bowie

Re: Comeliness: Yay, nay or indifferent

I would also like to see some official uses for COM' date=' such as complimentary Skill roll bonuses to interactive Skills such as Seduction and Bureaucratics.[/quote']

 

It already is.

 

Put me in the "It should work like a perk" column.

Re: Person of Steel, Significant Other of Tissue paper

One of my favorite characters developed superhuman strength mid-game. Her long term boyfriend was pretty cool with it, but was too macho to admit he couldn't handle her anymore (they were both into semi-rough sex). It wasn't until she noticed he had taken body that she realized she had to do something about it.

Her solution? She made a list of sexual positions that denied her leverage and put him in control. Ironically, it strengthend thier relationship, which had already been tested by a series of Manchurian Candidate style plot hooks.

Re: Character Critique II: Catwoman

Hmmm, I have a few nitpicks but first let me say nice job! It takes a lot of courage to post writeups of iconic characters for all the world to snipe at.

I have a real problem with Catwoman having a higher EGO than Black Widow. Not only does she have a lot more mental hangups than Natasha, but The Black Widow has all that superspy training working for her. At the very least, BW should have some Resistance talent. I also think she should not have less overall skill levels than Catwoman for the same reason.

I notice that you gave them both identical DEX, Spd, and COM scores (and they all seem a little high to me for normal humans, but that's a scale thing). I submit that while both women are supposed to be very beautiful, Catwoman is more consistantly portrayed as ravishing while Natsha is often viewed as cold and therefore less universally apealing (and I go for that type, so I'm not saying this lightly!)

Re: Help with a Name

What is the character's cultural background? Who game him his powers?

Re: What is a pip and how much damage does it do?

Old, I feel so ... Old...

Re: Deathstroke

In the DC universe, Deathstroke, Batman, and Superman form a vicious circle. When Deathstroke came to Gotham, He beat Bats largely because he's more vicious in combat (being an assasin). Later Superman brought him in because Slade couldn't hurt him and couldn't hide from his super-senses. It has been shown on multiple occasions that Batman can both outsmart Supes and has both the krypotonite and the contingency plans to take Superman down. Each one can take down one of the others and has a weakness to the third.

Re: PBEM Submissions: NorCal Heroes!

Oh yeah, are you using perks and everyman skills? (And if so, which everyman skills?)