Jump to content

Kenn

HERO Member
  • Posts

    1,011
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Kenn

  1. Re: Hero Philosophy - SPEED

     

    I generally resolve the lack of matchup by deciding in advance what the actual phases will be and how they will be divided. For example, if you have 4 SPD + 2 SPD only for X, then your 4 SPD would normally move in 3, 6, 9 and 12, and 6 would be 2,4,6,8,10,12.

     

    I'd probably compromise this to Ph 2 (Limited), Ph 4, Ph 6, Ph 8 (Limited), Ph 10, Ph 12. This uses the higher SPD to set the phases, but limits the ones that come up before the base SPD would get to act, and delaying regular action phases.

     

    The one and only character I've ever had to worry about this with this ALMOST what I did. Since the character in question has a fairly low DEX (by campaign standards) anyway, I let him keep his 3 and 9 instead of bumping him to those to 4 and 10. But the limited phases are still 2 and 8.

  2. Re: Someone Please Explain This to Me?

     

    To my surprise' date=' so far no one is defending the status quo. However, ghost angel comes closest to doing so.[/quote']

     

     

    It's not worth the time. Legacy of the 6e boards. Once people around these parts decide something is "bad", there's no changing their minds.

     

    Stun Multiplier of 1d6-1 means the multiplier will be 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. You're more likely to get a really low stun mod. then you are to get a really high stun mod. For the body itself, at small numbers of dice, rolls are more erratic. At higher numbers, the bell curve starts to assert itself.

     

    In 22 years I have never had any player buy a killing attack because of the theoretical higher potential to get a really large amount of stun. It's not reliable enough to be useful.

  3. Re: The Distinctive, The Special, The Cool

     

    Designing a character instead of randomly rolling up a character. This was a big selling point for me.

     

    Primary and figured characteristics. The inter-connectivity led to a natural consistency to the mathematical model of people regardless of their level of ability, power or skill.

     

    STUN and BODY - two different types of damage to represent different aspects of how people get hurt.

  4. Re: Power Build: Super Archery

     

    A friend of mine built an archer where the bow and arrows were separate from the trick arrowheads.

     

    I liked the build because it meant he could use the arrowheads at close range without the bow and because it keeps him from relying to heavily on them and instead he relies on his devastating skill. Since his shtick is hitting things accurately, we actually use hit locations. A 7d6 normal attack to the head (x2 stun natch) hits roughly like the 14d6 attacks his compatriots use.

     

    http://www.rcuhero.net/hsheets/longbow.htm

  5. Re: Transdimensional PREsence

     

    See Wesley's "To the Pain" speech from the end of "The Princess Bride" for a non-Hero example of a Presence Attack.

     

    A presence attack is essentially brute force social interaction. Where conversation, persuasion or seduction are all based on skill, a presence attack is just exerting one's will to generate a gut level emotion. I think they exist, and, in my experience, I think they get used more often than people think about.

     

    And I think that they are inherently indirect.

  6. Re: Partially limited Multipower

     

    Maybe something like "Only 40 active points may be used with out the OAF ___________" (-1/2) or "Only 40 active points may be used with out the OIF ___________" (-1/4) would work?

     

    Or, if one wants to get complex, build the 40 pt. Multipower as it exists without the focus.

     

    Then build an Aid or Succor, with a maximum number of points it can add being 40 points, with a +2 advantage to affect several powers at once, and put the Focus limitation on this power.

     

    http://www.rcuhero.net/hsheets/brainwave.htm

  7. Re: The Unbalancer

     

    sounds like he wanted a batman type of hero

     

    As a matter of fact... Actually it's more of "they" wanted. I was drawing from specific experience. It's happened more than once. There were some players who could do it (Savinien, I'm looking at you) and some who couldn't.

     

    I've seen it with other types of characters to. Someone who wants to play a Superman type (flight, strength, invulnerable) because he wants to be the biggest and the baddest and the one everyone looks to is going to be a problem because players will resent him. Someone who wants to play the Superman type (same powers) who is humble and tries to make others feel worthwhile and is reliable and can be looked up to will have have a much better time.

  8. Re: The Unbalancer

     

    It's usually not going to be the characters or the concept for them that cause the problem. It's going to be the player.

     

    There are some concepts that aren't the best fit for a particular game, obviously. But usually even then most concepts leave some wiggle room. (Granted if the campaign is supposed to be about, say, a team of androids then any non-android concept is likely to be a problem.) But these situations still largely hinge on the player's attitude.

     

    The game is a "Global Champions" game - high powered heroes that deal with problems all over the world. Player wants to play a non-powered urban vigilante (NPUV). Potential problem situation as the NPUV tries to call in his buddies into situation that they are really overkill in. Bad situation. Good player with NPUV could play up the "I-don't-trust-parahumans" angle or the "I-shouldn't-be-here-I-need to-be-at-home-on-the-streets" angle, while all the while contributing to the missions in a positive way, and focussing on fighting cleverly rather than just fighting straight and feeling underpowered. I've seen both. The concept doesn't change. The player simply adjusts his attitudes and expectations.

  9. Re: Hero Philosophy - SPEED

     

    When I started my Champions campaign, I tried using the general guidelines the books provided. I did; however, allow a speedster to actually play SPD 12. He was essentially a really good agent buster.

     

    Over several years of SPD creeping upwards across the game, for no real good reason then player wanting their characters to go "first" I installed SPD limits. Basically there was an across the board SPD reduction for everyone with a SPD higher then 4. The 5s became 4s, the 6s became 5s and so on. The speedsters dropped more. Turbo went from 12 to 8 (and then to 6 at the players request), and other speedsters had similar jumps.

     

    It helped play dramatically. Having 85% of the characters be the same SPD (4). It lets a speedster play at 6 feel like a speedster still, but not be the GM attention hog.

     

    I highly recommend "low" SPD games.

  10. Re: Pointless Hero

     

    Not exactly "pointless" but my campaign reached a point where there were both veteran characters and rookies and had been running for nearly (now over) two decades that I had to develop a policy of multiple "tiers" of starting points and multiple "tiers" of ability. We still keep track of points but there's no attempt to balance things. There are characters who do 10-12d6 attacks and characters who can do 18-20d6 attacks. And a lot of characters in between. We've made playing to concept more important than point balance.

  11. Re: Using other characteristics for combat levels

     

    In the Marvel SAGA system, the targeting value for Hand to Hand combat came from Strength instead of Agility. If one can see value in that line of reasoning (a stronger arm is moving faster?) then I suppose it could be done. HtH OCV = STR / 7 or somesuch.

     

    I wouldn't actually recommend it though.

  12. Re: Patriotic Equipment

     

    I have this friend, a professional singer, who was to sing the American national anthem at the launching of a new ship for a major cruise line last year. She practiced it at another of her shows, which I was at. My equipment was patriotic enough to be standing at attention for it.

  13. Re: Picking a codename that, like, a million other characters haven't already used.

     

    And then there's the number of people who misunderstand what a Nimrod is, thanks to Bugs Bunny.

     

    (Nimrod was a mighty hunter from the Bible. In a cartoon, Bugs referred to Elmer Fudd as a nimrod in a disparaging tone. Many folks assumed that it was a straightforward insult rather than sarcasm..." This made Marvel's use of Nimrod as the name for the unstoppable Sentinel from the future come off rather oddly.)

     

    I had a player who wanted to name a character Nimrod, after the Babylonian King/hunter. He was either unaware or willfully blind of the insult.

     

    Part of the problem is that the insult portion became ingrained with children without them ever seeing the cartoon. I know I had heard the term as an insult BEFORE I ever saw the cartoon. And I've never been good at remembering names from the book of Genesis. It really wasn't until I was an adult that I put it all together.

     

    Growing up, I just thought "nimrod" was a slurring of "numb rod", i.e. like "limp d*ck", essentially referring to being sexually impotent. Which may have been a deliberate double entendre when Bugs calls Fudd a "poor little Nimrod".

     

    I told Tim to pick a different name for the character.

×
×
  • Create New...