Tech

3 hours ago, IndianaJoe3 said:

 

Any characteristic roll should get bonuses or penalties based on its difficulty. However, it is unfair (as a GM) to surprise the characters with a roll made at an arbitrary penalty.

By arbitary, I'm assuming you mean a roll penalty with no reason for it, to which I agree. However, it is not unfair as GM to make a character make a roll at a penalty based on the circumstances and situation. I'm quite fair in my GM'ing: I have characters make rolls with a bonus or a minus, as the game situation comes up. I deem a normal characteristic roll without + or - to be ordinary situations, modified by creative responses by the player(s). As the books show, easier situations should give a bonus, harder situations a negative to the roll, and I use that as my guide. An arbitrary negative roll with no reason behind it is indeed unfair but this is not the case.

Hero Games created some time ago a book on Gadgets. Can't find the book at the moment but it went something like this: repulsor cannon was a blast, does no body, x2 knockback (in 6th ed rules). That's what I go with.

The video doesn't give fair comparisons. They're using Frozone from The Incredibles 2, why not use Elsa from Frozen 2? Frozone (an adult) sliding on his snow on a snowboard in combat situation vs Elsa (a young girl without something to slide on) gently pushing her little sister around: this is a fair comparison?

Have tried Superhero2044, Villians & Vigilantes, Battletech (not really a rpg per se), Mighty Protectors (helped fund it), Gamma World (1st edition), Champions (ALL versions), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Big Eyes-Small Mouth, Robotech RPG (1st editions).

Gamma World could be manipulated to creating honking powerful heroes. Roll the dice, you hit, they're dead - doesn't matter what your stats or powers were. Was fun to have someone like that on your side.   Tactics was king in that game; if they couldn't hit you, you survived, if they could, well, you didn't survive long. Had an entire team killed off in the first fight. Ouch.

Superhero 2044 (1st ed) was a pathetic DnD version of superheroes, and very math intensive (see White Dwarf Magazine #9, October/Nov 1978).

V&V was too random. TMNT could end up with a powerful hero... or not: battles could take a long time.... looooong.

BESM, even the most powerful heroes ended up gasping for energy after a few attacks. On the other hand, you could easily make someone invulnerable.

Robotech was fun. Had a campaign lasting, wow, over 20 years I think. Stopped because people moved, couldn't get everyone together.

Been playing Champions since 1981 so that makes it 39 years - and the same campaign is still going and expanding. If it was a good campaign before, it's become even more excellent. Some of the first characters created are still being used, and have reputations like Superman.

Gnome, your scenario appears to be one where the character has a chance to see that the bridge is unsafe and that they can tell it's unsafe. I was specific that it was a surprise. I didn't go into specifics because I wanted a quick reply.

Hugh, I've had lots of adventures where characters stand in areas they expected to fall apart, fall, etc, etc. It keeps players on their feet and makes for exciting adventures.   Thus, yes, they were, in fact, standing on areas they were expecting to drop away.

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.

8 hours ago, C-Note said:

 

6E does away with the concept of hexes and inches and just uses meters for movement, distances, weapon range, area of effect etc.  Feel free to use whatever scale you wish for hex maps.

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.

4 hours ago, Doc Democracy said:

I used a light box* to draw on paper laid over the templates.  Works well.

 

Doc

 

* A large tupperware box with an LED light underneath it!

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.

On 3/8/2020 at 11:05 AM, Scott Ruggels said:

...once again I will mention a 40th anniversary re-issue of Champions Second Edition, with Vipers Nest, a new adventure, dice, in a box, cows funded, in time for the summer of 2021. 

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.

On 2/26/2020 at 5:28 PM, death tribble said:

So tell me who is this

 

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.

10 hours ago, unclevlad said:

 

That wouldn't bother me...or, if anything, I'd make it a royal PITA to make...if it fit the game.  Longevity is a capability that's got basically zero value mechanically...how many games, regardless of genre or system, run all that long in terms of the game-world calendar?  Conversely, it's a *highly* desirable feature for those with wealth and/or power.  So, ok, fine, maybe you can make it.  Trying to get a favor out of it...THAT might cost, for the Contact.

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