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Durzan Malakim

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Everything posted by Durzan Malakim

  1. Using a UV flashlight solves one problem but creates another. While the flashlight provides an explanation why "there's no such thing as magic," it doesn't explain why a person bursts into flames and dies from a UV light, which is definitely not normal. It takes some creative persuasion to explain away vampires as just a severe form of albinism. I'm sure we're up for that challenge. I look forward to hearing our creative explanations next game. "They doused themselves in gasoline, and the UV light caused a freak spark. It's sad really. They had so much to live for."
  2. This looks good to me. Depending on how our vampire hunt goes, I may want the ability to do UV special effects and Invisible Power Effects at the same time, which would require raising the variable advantage to +1/2. For the moment, having to choose one or the other seems reasonable and prevents the power from becoming an easy-mode button.
  3. I know what our problem is: we weren’t getting paid to take a vampire alive. Although I doubt that would have mattered. Our gunners are too good at what they do. They have a particular skill set.
  4. I think each one of us got a vampire kill this session. Murgatroyd got a finishing blow on the vampire in the car, Drew technically killed the vampire whose leg he shot off, Joey definitely killed the vampire Drew technically killed, Killroy and Beretta both got head shot kills. We're officially vampire hunters. And millionaires. Why do I think we'll end up forfeiting some of our millions? It's just a bad feeling I have.
  5. Now, now my snark is worse than my bite, which is why I need capable warriors to do my biting for me, but since I'm playing a wizard, the good news is I can teach you all defense against the snark arts. Once you've mastered it, I'm sure each of you will leave your snark on the game. In fact, I fully expect us all to be Raiders of the Lost Snark by next session.
  6. I think we're doing quite well and so far we're resisting, or mostly resisting, degenerating into power-gaming murder hobos. I admit to bringing some power-gaming cheese, but most of the iconic characters came pre-cheesed.
  7. Repurposing the Cost field makes it much easier to verify that you're staying within the Resource Pool budget. Thank for the heads up about the Campaign Setting. Cognitive dissonance, I banish thee!
  8. I think retconning the Supernatural Resistance back down to 5 and explaining the UV light attack as the first use of the Naked Advantages is fitting. I may as well spend the points on the effects I've already benefitted from.
  9. I thought I had enough unspent XP to purchase both. See the attached HDC file above for the accounting. If the HDC numbers are wrong and I only have enough XP for one or the other, then I want the Variable SFX and will pick up the IPE naked power advantage later.
  10. Would this be acceptable? A Perfectly Rational Explanation: Invisible Power Effects (Magical SFX to Mundane SFX; +1/4) for up to 45 Active Points of Blast (11 Active Points); Increased Endurance Cost (x3 END; -1), OIF (Ring; -1/2), Linked (Ring of Arcane Blasting; -1/2), Incantations (Appropriate FBI Deadly Force Warning; -1/4), Concentration (1/2 DCV; -1/4); Real Cost: 3 I believe I have the XP to purchase it and take me to 159 points total. Murgatroyd_159_ks.hdc
  11. I'll read up on Variable SFX, but perhaps I should consider a spell to create Images around the blasting ring. The intent would be an illusion/glamor on the ring so that people mistake the type of Blast as something actually possible in the real world like a gun. Until I have enough XP for Images all the time, I can add Images (gun in hand) to any spell I want to mask. Adding Images as a Naked Advantage could then be Murgatroyd's next XP expenditure.
  12. Thank you. I got carried away in the moment, but yes, I agree that characters have to pay points for the game effects they use. It's a good thing we gathered up the recorded evidence after the fact, since it would clearly show a beam of light striking someone and then that person taking damage and dying. At best, it might have been misidentified as high tech laser weaponry or a weird new taser rather than magic. At worst, I'd have created another mess needing clean up. Perhaps there is a mess to clean up? We'll find out next time on... Here There Be Monsters [cue theme music].
  13. Consider it bought. I like spending XP based on actual character experiences. If I understand the Extra Time requirement correctly, Murgatroyd would have to use the Variable SFX first as a Full Phase, and then on another phase actually cast the spell it applies to. Is that the intended mechanism?
  14. Clarifying question: How do skill levels apply to the skill level cap of 14 or less? If I bought a +1 with all Knowledge Skills level would it apply to skills at the cap or would it essentially convert into a penalty skill level?
  15. EXCERPT FROM CLASSIFIED INTERVIEW OF HUNTER MURGATROYD Murgatroyd: "Surviving the supernatural requires finding and exploiting just the right amount of stupid." Interviewer: "Not all supernatural foes are stupid." Murgatroyd: "Not all survival strategies are aimed at foes." Interviewer. "Oh. [long pause] I see."
  16. Yes, having Supernatural Resistance is quite valuable when you are facing supernatural threats.
  17. Murgatroyd's survival is mostly a matter of not being the highest priority target. His greatest threat comes from either creatures too dumb to prioritize targets or creatures too smart to ignore the seemingly harmless wizard in the back. His best strategy is usually "keep the meat shields happy" so that they use their meat as his shield.
  18. Since Baretta Colt was a final girl survivor, she might benefit from the Miraculous Survival talent for 5 points, but perhaps her backstory is that she's already spent her miraculous survival, and now her survival depends on skill and training.
  19. You can list the real point cost in the Cost field and Hero Designer will total up the cost for you. Yes, there is some cognitive dissonance seeing dollar signs in front of the numbers, but you can learn to ignore it or if you're really upset by it, build an export format to remove it.
  20. Ha ha, Baretta Colt's image really does match her distinctive features. The first thing I noticed was indeed her complication-granting features. Does the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series exist in this universe? Baretta will get a lot of comparisons to Buffy if so.
  21. Did anyone else notice our brand new Complication? Oh what fun it is to die by one hoarse OP slay!
  22. Apologies for the long silence, but I've been trying to decide if I want to continue playing Murgatroyd (FYI I learned the name comes from the phrase "Moor Gate Road"). On the plus side, I've got a VPP that can in theory handle anything as long as I have time to prepare and can build spells that fit the campaign. Also, Murgatroyd fills the support damage buffer and damage negation role, which was useful in our last adventure. Lastly, in theory at least our future adventures may require knowledge skills that the pure combat-monkeys don't have, but Murgatroyd does or can have. On the minus side, building a spell in-game is dull time-consuming work. I'd prefer to build a library of acceptable spells to speed up game play rather than make everyone wait for me to crunch the numbers and get approval. Perhaps if I have the group's help in creating my "spell book" we can focus on playing the game rather than having to take rules-breaks. The other down-side with Murgatroyd is his unreliability. He is essentially Shaggy from Scooby Doo. Good for a laugh, but potentially a TPK causer if he freezes up at the wrong moment and doesn't perform in a crunch. I'm worried that this combat paralysis makes him ill-suited to combat-heavy missions, which I suspect we will run quite often given how much of the party is DPS-focused. I'm tempted to spend XP to reduce the frequency of "Losing His Cool", which is currently at 11 or less to activate and 11 or less to recover. @Killer Shrike can I spend 5 XP to change the activation frequency to 8 or less? The other possibility I'm considering is playing Ezra the holy-sword-wielding disciple. He's a straight-forward DPS, which our party already has plenty of. I'd prefer to save Ezra as a backup character if/when Murgatroyd meets his end.
  23. Does all magic risk Breaches or just the magic of the Blooded? If some Breachers can cast magic, why wouldn't they use it to intentionally create more Breaches? I would suggest making Breaches a potential side-effect for all magic. The beings that come out of a Breach are hostile to the caster and the caster's realm. This explains why the Lost Legion doesn't intentionally go around creating Breaches and instead only focus on recruiting potential allies from other's Breaches. Here is my suggested explanation for why mortals aren't more aware of Breaches. The government runs and supports the Crimson Cabal and actively suppresses Breach events. The government knows magic is real and is desperately trying to close the magic gap in this arms race. Their solution to Breach incursions is to capture or kill the mythic beings that enter our world. Some beings they study trying to learn more about magic. Some beings they kill and convert into spell components. Perhaps Crimson Cabal magic exploits a loophole in magic. Since spell components are the flesh of other magic users, any Breach side effect gets redirected to that flesh. Crimson Cabal mages are essentially casting spells by proxy. This actually gives the Crimson Cabal an incentive to find and exploit Nameless. They can Capture a Nameless, force them to create a Breach, clean up the mess, and then gather more spell components. The Blooded don't care what happens to the Nameless, and The Nameless have an even bigger incentive to stay hidden and not draw attention to themselves. You can use the Crimson Cabal as both Men In Black and boogey men used to scare Blooded children into behaving themselves. This also helps explains why there is a First Law. When mortals learn of mythic magic, they exploit it with literal flesh and blood.
  24. Talk about character portraits giving me the wrong expectations. The big barrel-chested he-man has STR 13. The athletic-looking woman has STR 35 and can grow to STR 50. Red Giant never has to ask anyone to open jars for her, unless it's to do so without breaking the jar in the process.
  25. 6E-HTML-Complete View File This export template is intended to present everything you need to play in four pages as long as you keep the number of items to display within certain limits. Exceeding the limits adds a page, and usually doesn't look good doing it. The first page can support around 5 to 7 Perks, 5 to 7 Talents, and 10 to 12 Complications. The second page can support around 40 Skills and 20 to 25 Martial Maneuvers. The third page can support around 30 to 35 powers and equipment descriptions. The fourth page can support a page worth of Background and Personality description. Submitter Durzan Malakim Submitted 03/06/2019 Category Export Formats Output Format HTML (Browser) Rules Version HERO System 6th Edition
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