Tech

Hey, SF, so I get a feeling of what you think, what Dex roll (if any) would you give for the example I gave?

Ordinarily, a Dex roll is made when attempting a feat of agility. I'm curious if you assign any penalties or not to characters when they have to make a Dex roll due to a surprise situation. Example: your character is walking along a stone bridge when a piece under you suddenly falls out.

If I recall the benchmarks correctly, the average was CV 7-9, 11d6 attacks, 20-25 in defense and speed was 5.5.

Duke, I'm just now getting to this thread and after reading your reply, I laughed (not at you). You were so animated there. Please don't hold back your feelings. I agree in large with you and am (and have been) giving consideration to Shape Shift myself. Never liked that way it's built with it's PER-based version - it's a power, not a skill-vs-skill roll! I have to ask: how long did that take to write out? Must've been awhile.

Things have gotten crazy over in the city so I'm declaring the winner today: Quackie, you win.

We as human beings constantly and subconsciously rely on our senses moment by moment. Being in darkness where an opponent cannot see doesn't give the opponent an automatic "This is a Darkness attack, not a Flash attack" awareness. They cannot see. Ever play a game where you're blindfolded and you have to tag someone? It's not easy. A suggestion: I'd say have them make an INT roll to see if they can remember which direction they are facing and/or the area. If not made, a random roll could be made by the GM as to which direction they're actually going as to opposed to which direction they actually are going. I usually just go with the flow and make a judgment call on an individual basis. Really, the special effects of the darkness are so varied that what I just suggested may not apply.

Next up, this guy:

Thanks for finding that.

Unless I missed something, 6e does away with inches, not hexes. Hexes are rooted in old boardgames and used hexes for whatever distances required. Agreed, use whatever scale you wish. Howabout 1"=1million miles? Wow, those range modifiers are going to be harsh.

1) We use battlemaps on occasion so we use the 1 hex = 2". Our battlemap sessions have become quite the hit with the players. Seeing the warehouse they're in with all the crates around gives them tactical knowledge; the amusement park with it's buildings, the rocky area with a beach nearby, the underground viper base and on & on. With the battlemap (with water erasable markers) and the terrain out where everyone can see it gives a very different feel to the game. We don't really use 6th ed so we're at 1"=2 meters. 2) For years now, I've written out my Champions episodes: a) First, the adventure title and the hero group/heroes. Next a quick GM summary of the episode plot. Next, the specific heroes, villains, agents, npcs, whatever to appear. After that, for fun, I write out things that have happened to the heroes in their secret id/private lives during the week that may, or may not, have a bearing on the game - leave the players guessing. I often put little hints of things to come in the episode in one of the heroes weekly events. b) I write out the flow of the episode. Things that must happen, things that could happen, and things that are optional, making GM notes for unexpected Player changes. It's okay for Players to throw a monkey wrench in; I generally anticipate that. If the players come up with something totally unanticipated, I run with it and give them praise at the end. I'm glad to say I know my players and can usually write out a story with little to no problem. c) the episode will highlight a supervillain/team goal, reveal things about a supervillain background history (which can give the villains some sympathy points) or a danger that will come about if the heroes don't defeat the goal. d) If the episode can go any number of ways where I know things could become totally chaotic, I write out brief summaries at those points, as well as what possibly to do as GM. e) Print it out (double-sided). f) Write out a quick stat sheet for the baddies: Stun/Body/End Total PD/ED, Dex & Speed, CV, and a quick + for any lvls. This is for me a necessity if making the heroes actually fight some super-agents, instead of 'you hit, they're out'. I know some of you do things differently but this is how I do it and it works for me. Writing out the episode really gives you time to think of story options that winging it simply cannot do as well. Perhaps the NPC the character knows stops to talk to them, giving the NPC more personality. The ice cream shop the character went to last episode went out of business; the little old lady who brings her car into the car repair shop and annoys the character's secret id, etc. Adding these little things adds the background flavor needed to differentiate it from last weeks.

Below is the link for the Haymaker! website, which appears to have long since been discontinued. http://www.livelyland.com:4080/haymaker/index.html On the main page is an email address which you might try. No idea if it's still valid. If you check the authors, you might find someone who might be able to help.

I used to do something somewhat similar many years ago. I'm just surprised to hear something like that from someone on the boards.

Are they really that easy to draw over or use? It appears that the 3D model will show easily, unless they are really light.

I'm sort of with massey in this. However, the GM & campaign determines whether this is acceptable or not. Sure, we can compare it to our various campaigns but that's not needs to be done. It really needs to be built dependent on what kind of game and what kind of character is allowed in the game. Without knowing that, it's really hard to make a judgment call on how to build this: is everyone built on 100 base, 200, 500? We don't know. If this is a game where arch mages roam the street, that's a different color of character and game vs one where the total character cost is, say, 150 pts or 250 pts.

For many years, in our campaign, we've used the old Turtle Armor stats for occasional hi-tech agents to fight. In our game, the company that made them - DanCo - went out of business and the suits were taken by many supervillains for their own purposes. Free upgraded agents is the thought of the villains. Considering the rifles can do a 12d6 Energy Blast (Blast - 6th ed), that's a considerable upgrade.

Hugh, I don't know if the cows are a good market, they're pretty much easy going, eating grass, not doing much. Took me awhile to figure out he meant "crowd funded"

Since no hi-tech agents, had to decide between Mob & Ninjas. Hmmm, guess I'll go with Mob.

I didn't see hi-tech agents, similar to what LL said.

Amy Schutzer, once a female wrestler known as Wondra, ended up in the hospital with severe fractures over her body due to illegal moves by her opponent. She was told she'd heal, but would be severely limited in her movements; she'd never be what she was again. Doctor Helena Amory of England heard of her plight and contacted Amy. She knew of a respectable geneticist who was working on an experimental serum that would regenerate her body and was looking for someone who was willing to test it. Amy agreed and met with the geneticist, Dr Robert Harvard. Harvard informed her of the risks, which she would have to agree to before proceeding. The risks were that it would regenerate her body, but that it would also likely give her superpowers. Should it fail, Amy would be no better off and millions of dollars of research would be fruitless. What Harvard was trying to achieve was a serum that would heal broken bodies but not give superpowers. As part of the test, Amy was forbidden to speak of the research to protect Harvard from agencies greedy for it or even supervillains. Amy agreed to everything. It was merely a few hours after the serum was given and Amy's fractured body was healed, even better than better. As expected by Dr. Harvard, she also gained superpowers, superpowers that would prevent her from ever being a wrestler again. She was enormously strong, easily able to push a train engine with one hand and although she wasn't invulnerable, she healed superhumanly fast. Despite not being to return to wrestling, Amy considered being given a new life more than worth the cost. Still, Amy thought, Wondra would not be forgotten. No, if anything, Wondra would be in the news, on the lips of everyone. Wondra was now the newest superhero around and the media loved her! Wondra is in the league of the superstrong heroes in strength, combined with incredible regeneration and her wrestling skills, she is a formidable match for many villains stronger than her.

Longevity has value mechanically in our campaign, especially when you have people with time powers.

Our GMs look for skills to use for our games. They're not useless points sitting around and greatly help with roleplaying. As dsatow mentioned above, the singer can affect the game. That poor singer rolled a 17 on his roll to try to get into the crime boss night club; better get ready for a beating. The point of the game is to have fun, period. How a group chooses to do that is up to them. Having skills, even oddball ones, gives a flavor to the game and the players don't mind spending the points (although I'm sure I wouldn't charge anything for a KS: bee-keeping 11 or less). Someone says "don't charge points for skills", go for it - whereas someone else says "skills cost points", which is good as well. Campaigns differ and it's up to the GM and players to decide about what costs points and what doesn't.

This can't be stressed enough. People disengage when they're not being engaged with. A great way to keep your players in the game is by keeping their characters in the game and doing things. I'm completely certain this is the cause of because if the player is twiddling their thumbs with no ability to interact with the game until their next Phase comes up, why would they pay attention? They're not playing a role-playing game at that point, they're watching one when they came to play. People disengage when too much time goes by before their character can do something. This is, in part, the GMs fault. I've had a player who was more interested in his cell phone than playing - that was on him, not because of any character or game mechanic. If someone is getting pizza because combat is too slow, something's wrong. When in combat or not, keeping a PC involved is necessary, I agree. It takes some time and experience to make that happen, though. Players have to be patient when a beginning GM gives things a try. There needs to be player and GM interaction of what's working, what's not and what can be done. The GM is the play director, the actors still have to say something if the play isn't going well to get things moving smoothly (or vice versa).

I like Trechriron10's the most. I was going to comment on 6th ed's two volume encyclopedia but we're not here to discuss that; we're here to see about 300 words or less.

"You know, at one time I had, uh, quite a decision to make: whether to write the nation's songs or go my way."

"The shell; the shell's not here! I've been robbed!"