Tech

Hmm, on the personally-created villains side, I'd have to go with either Black Hole or Hurricane.

Black Hole is enormously strong, dense and able to absorb virtually any energy in the area. This includes attacks by one super at another super, even those not aimed at him. This never fails to amaze heroes and villains alike.

Ex. Lazer fires an intense laserbeam at you, Skyguy. However, the beam warps and gets sucked into Black Hole's dark corona of energy.

Hurricane is superbly strong on the normal side but not superstrong. He can whip up a small hurricane and dash multiple heroes (or other opponents) to unconsciousness as fast as he wants to. He's somewhat tied into nature and can feel the pollution damage depending on his proximity to it.

Interestingly enough (and not planned for), both of them greatly have the player & characters respect. Black Hole has an amiable personality and isn't a vicious criminal, just selfish. He's even helped out the heroes a couple times. Hurricane, on the other hand, hates cities due to the blatant damage to the environment from pollution. When Hurricane shows up, the heroes rush to try to find out what he's rampaging against and try to fix it and/or investigate. Hurricane is willing to let them since he won't have anyone opposing his ambition, the heroes find out a lot of corruption while saving the environment and both are mostly satisfied. However, should the heroes fail to act swiftly...

Since you asked...

My brother wrote up the 5 Knight Saber ladies. I have no idea about how he did it but when our hero group suddenly ran up against Boomers, the Knight Sabers came right in to help. They seemed flawlessly put together powerwise.

Originally posted by Michael Hopcroft

Purt that on the list of about 20 anime DVD series i want (including the brand-new Sailor Moon uncut Japanese boxset from ADV, the rest of card captor Sakura, the two Magic Knight rayearth boxes, and all the Gundam I can eat, er, watch....)

Me, too, though I haven't seen Rayearth and I'm tired of rehashed Gundam ('SD Gundam' coming up).

Originally posted by Michael Hopcroft

I was joking. In actuality, it was Sakujra wearing the pajamaas when she captured the card (the very first card she captured,"The Fly").

 

Later on, though, quite frequently "The Mirror" (one it was on her side) disguised itself as Sakura in her pajamas when it was neccesary to conceal a late-night outing.The poitn of this exercise was always lost a little, howverem, since Skaura's big brother could always tell the difference. (it didn't help that Mirror had a crush on him).

 

And get your minds out of the gutter -- Syaoran wouldn't be fooled either.

Ah, I was wondering if you saw a partial episode and was simply clarifying. The Mirror card has quite a personality for showing up so little. I agree with you - Syaoran is quite the principled guy. Then again, Sakura is quite principled, also.

Re: PC Stat Min/Maxing vs. Rest of World

I've already stated this in a couple other forums but I'm glad to see this idea given thought. I've been using unusual number endings for years, as have my friends and brothers. It's actually invigorating to not use the stereotypical 23 Dex, 25 Con, 13 Int, etc. Mind you, I'm not against these kind of stats. I've seen entire teams built using unusual numbers and it doesn't endear me to using them - something unnatural with entire teams like this. However, my character originally built with a 22 Dex (and 400+ experience with the same Dex) has become something of a trendsetter in the campaign. I don't know why, but it has.

I wouldn't say having Stats like this makes them inefficient. That sounds too much like a powergamer. I will say that it makes them a thought-out character. I've heard some say that it's useless or ridiculous to give a character a 14 Int but I disagree. It adds flavor and does contribute: you're 1 pt. higher away from having your mind read than the 13 Int guy, Dex 27 goes faster than Dex 25 on Phase 2, Con 26 is 2 pts away from getting Stunned than Con 25 and so on.

It depends on your players and your GM'ing style. The players will appreciate your paying attention to little details like the differences in the Stats.

ex. Heroes Swimmer and Goldfish have a swimming contest. Swimmer has a Dex of 25 and Goldfish a Dex of 27 and both have a Dex roll of 14 or less. Both have +8" Swimming. Both rush to the other end of the swimming pool and back. GM has them roll their Dex rolls and both roll an 11. Goldfish wins due to that last second move (higher Dex) and both heroes are congradulated by their teammates.

BTW, if you've never tried anything like the above, you're missing out on some real fun rping.

Re: Change

Originally posted by Michael Hopcroft

On the other hand, the heroine of Card Captor Sakura has the same abilities no matter what clothes she wears. She does not have a single costume and transforms the same way everyone else does -- by going somewhere and changing clothes, which given the complexity of her battle costumes usually takes a while. Many of her most important battles were fought in street clothes, and she's even captured a card in her pajamas.

 

How the card got into her pajamas I'll never know...

Since the Japanese like to leave the viewer stumped in so many different anime series, the card got into her bed (not pajamas) some mystical way. I'd presume that the card transformation & getting into her bed where she woke up & found it, occured simultaneously in the real world while she was dreaming it happening.

Originally posted by UltraRob

Tech,

 

Well, I think it's a matter of what you plan to throw them up against. While I could see raising their "personal power" to 45 or 60 active points if you wanted to give them a little more bang, I still think this is appropriate power level since 13 year old girls just should not have massive stats or skills. I was actually thinking as I made the package that making them 100pt normals was seriously off itself...A 100pt normal is a 1st class nonpowered adventurer, which Sailor Moon is most definitely not to start with. :-/

 

Watching the original SM series myself, I found they tend to function more like magical howitzers rather than front line superhero fighters. A few distract the enemy while the rest chuck energy bolts at them. Most other series are pretty much the same, with varying degrees of fighting skill.

 

Rob

Yeah, it does depend on what your plant to throw at them. No disagreements there. I would however, give Magical Girls some sort of Damage Reduction. Very often, they take a bashing, perhaps getting injured, and keep getting back up. Even Pretty Sammy did that.

As stated already, there are no 'mental' phases. I think what is looking to be stated is that the extra SPD 'is usuable only for Mental Powers'. This clarifies the problem. If you don't use a Mental Power on the extra SPD phase, you can't do anything else, including recover, block, dodge, etc. A mind can very often think faster than you can react and this seems to be the case, if I understand the character concept.

First, slightly off the topic:

After reading these posts, I wonder if me & my friends are perhaps the only, or one of the rare, gamers who have no problem with regularly giving Statistics other than the 10, 15, 20 and so on or 13, 18, 23, etc. I posted this before in a different post but I can immediately think of characters I designed with a 22 Dex to start and 400+ experience later, hasn't changed it. 14 INT, 17 EGO, 11 or 12 INT, etc etc., are a few examples and aren't uncommon. We all saw the cheesing from the previous Enemies and CKC with 18 STR, 23 CON, etc., and like the oddball numbers. It's building character, not a bunch of stats, that rules the campaign.

Now, on to the debate, I prefer the simple 3d6 rolling, rather than redesigning the system. However, a roll vs roll is at least interesting to read about. Has anyone done this in their games?

Re: Re: Haste Spell

Originally posted by Hugh Neilson

The more I think about this, the more reasonable this latter approach seems to me. You don't pay END because you have a power, you pay END when you use it. Why should Speed be any different?

I heartily agree with this suggestion. It makes more sense this way.

Re: Re: Re: Champions Battlegrounds

Originally posted by assault

I've been playing since 1e. My conventions are:

 

Hero System = the whole generic system.

Champions = Superhero roleplaying using the Hero System.

 

It just happens that I am using the Hero System for superhero ropeplaying at the moment. Therefore I am playing ***Champions***.

Alan

Well, all right! Another Champions old timer. BTW, I am not old. I have got to check this book out. Now if only my gaming store would do better than getting it 2 or 3 months (sometimes more) after it's out. Anyways, the book sounds cool!

Originally posted by archer

Independent?

 

You're joking, right?

 

Your phone breaks and you're permanently out 7 points?

 

Dude, my phone broke a couple of months ago and I paid $50 and got a new one.

 

No, it's not Independent, not by any stretch of the imagination. I know you needed something to not make it cost 25 points, but Independent is not that something.

Hero: "Excuse me, I need a new cellphone."

Service Rep: "I'm sorry. You can't have one."

Hero: "What?"

S.R: "Yes, when you purchased it, you signed this contract."

Hero: "So what? I'll pay cash."

S.R: "I'm sorry. According to this contract, you cannot buy another cellphone for the rest of your life."

Hero: "That's ridiculous! Give me one!"

S.R.: "If you threaten me, I'll have to call Security."

Ogre stands behind the S.R. in a security uniform and grins.

Hero: "Fine, then! I need a new toaster."

S.R.: "You bought your last one at the same time as your cellphone, didn't you...?"

Re: Cumulative and Suppress

Originally posted by Prometheus

My players and I are a bit confused on the use of the Power Advantage Cumulative with the Suppress Power.

 

The description for Suppress describes it as open ended and cumulative (page 145), which would leave no reason to add Cumulative to the power. The Adjustment Powers text, however, cites Suppress as a power that might use Cumulative (page 75). Similarly, Drain is used in a sidebar example for Cumulative in the Power Advantages section (page 163), despite the fact that the FAQ disallows the pairing (Drain is already open ended).

 

Is this all a big mix up, or are open ended Adjustment Powers usable with the Cumulative Advantage? And if so, what is the effect?

If no one else replies, you might want to pose this question to Steve Long in his forum. As for me, my answer is "Ya got me stumped."

This is another example of why I like the Hero Games rules. Where else are you going to have math discussed to prove or disprove rules? Still, I'd go with the book for falling, although I find the more realistic chart interesting. I'd like to see the more realistic chart fully written out to terminal velocity.

I don't know over what kind of a time-frame you want the person to get hit by this attack. I'm going to assume over several hours for my example. Howabout:

10d6 Con Drain, only takes 1d6/1 hour, only to zero Con +

10d6 End Drain, only takes 1d6/1 hour, only to zero End, linked to above +

(I'm assuming the target will eventually die so...)

10d6 Body Drain, only activates after Con & End are at zero, only takes 1d6/1hour =

10d6 Stun Drain, as above, linked to above

Add Area Effect, Invisible Powers Effect, 0 End or whatever as your taste deems. Mix & stir receipe as needed.

UltraRob, whereas I find your outline of suggested power levels interesting, I think it's a little too weak. I created the Sailor Senshi and they could not function as they do in the series unless they had a higher points. The Sailor Moon RPG book suggested three power levels, one for beginner, intermediate and powerful. Taking Sailor Moon as an example since I mentioned her, there's a definite progression of maturity, experience and power through the series.

It's interesting reading, I'll say. I have my own houserule version of EC that I use. It's not 5th ed EC but it works.

IIF, OIF, IAF or OAF depends a lot of the special effects.

One character got his powers through a neckchain of sorts, very easy to take away. Only thing is, he hid it under his costume and became IAF. A gun can be any of these, depending on where the gun is, is it easy to take away, is it ever seen or does it screen for it to be taken away?

More thoughts. A small gun hidden in the palm of his hand could easily be IAF. A mystic necklace that defies being taken away can be OIF. A bow that shoots arrows that's obvious and easily taken away, yet can be teleported instantly back to the wielder's hand is OIF. Special effects really does help define the limitation and should be given a lot of thought other than "I want it to be OIF."

Originally posted by GestaltBennie

VIPER now uses Four-Teams and Eight-Teams, depending on the job.

 

Scott Bennie

'Eight-Teams'.... I like that word.

Re: Electricity

Originally posted by CorpCommander

Ok, looks like they ARE going to try electricity on this beast... Heehehe. FReD, pg.88, Absorbtion...

 

How about 5D6 absorb Electricty, points go to SPD...

My suggestion is to make it still go to STUN, CorpCommander. If it absorbs to SPD, the characters will know right away something's up. If it goes to STUN, it'll take awhile before they find out, if at all.

Originally posted by TaxiMan

Seems like a -1/2 limitation "Linked to S.D." is way too low. This construct leaves a character with 0 movement, 0 DCV, and the inability to perform any action. All that's only worth -1/2?

I have no problem with it being -1/2 as Simulate Death leaves you at 0 moment, 0 DCV, etc. already.

SirViss, I'm assuming 1 END/Turn is correct, haven't looked it up yet. At 1/10 life functions then, it'd be 1 END/10 turns or 1 END/2 minutes, correct?

Sorry but I'm at work and only giving some thought to this.

Re: Five-Teams

Originally posted by Michael Hopcroft

I havent; seen the VIPER book yet. Does that organization still organize its agents into "five-teams" to more efficiently combat both supers and normals? And if so, how effective are they in real terms?

I don't know about any Five-teams in VIPER or not. However, using the older VIPER material, five-teams are well-respected or feared when I use them.

Originally posted by talisman

As a martial artist, I do allow the block/strike combo in my games. In real life, this is actually a very effective technique called trapping (Jet Li is an expert at this, you can also see a lot of it in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), in which you can block/strike, grab/strike, or throw and strike. Of course, if any of my players wants to use these techniques, I actually make him/her learn it so that they know I will control when and where they can use it.

A suggestion for the Block/Attack manuever is simply buy lots of DCV levels only with a particular attack. A miss is as good as a block. By missing, the attackers attack by special effect has been 'blocked'.

I didn't say it's a good suggestion, just that it's a suggestion. Still, it'll work for a campaign without house rules allowing for a dual manuever.

I think Farkling's got a good idea for what you're looking for. Regarding things like the ol' Block/Attack manuever hinted at, house rules work. Once in awhile, a player comes up with something that generally bucks the campaign in that no one is allowed it. However, if it's a really really cool idea and fits in with the character without being unwieldly to the campaign, it's given a rare exception and allowed. If a power or concept helps everyone enjoy the game and enhances it, it should be allowed IMO.

Originally posted by Rene

Second, I can see Aquaman tugging a huge load while he swims. Why to penalize him more than Superman flying while carrying a huge load?

Interesting. Never thought about that. Then again, I never bothered thinking much about Swimming.