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Great Beyond

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Everything posted by Great Beyond

  1. Re: Halloween Themed Session...ideas? While I was trying to come up with a Halloween game for this year, my ipod shuffled up Dream Warriors by Dokken and I went "Brilliant!" I will shamelessly steal the concept of Nightmare on Elm Street with a twist. In the 2010 remake, it looked like they were setting up Freddy as a wrongfully accused child molester who was killed by The Mob of Angry Parents and is now a spirit of vengeance. The movie pissed away that potential awesome concept and I was always disappointed by this interesting take on Freddy's character. Ah well. But what if our Freddy Expy really was wrongfully murdered? Consider this set up: Years ago there was a groundskeeper at a grade school, Randall Parker, who abused Amy and the rest of the kids. Amy's mother explains that Amy was his favorite, and that she came home one day telling her mother about a hidden space in the basement of Parker's home and the things he did to her there. The police investigated thoroughly, but turned up no evidence that Parker had ever committed any crime. He was released and the charges dropped. Then the mob mentality took over. Angry parents cornered him and murdered him, burning his home to the ground with him in it. The kicker? Amy was lying. She was playing doctor with a classmate and made up the story to avoid getting in trouble with no concept of the oncoming storm she had just created for Parker. Several decades later, the wrongfully murdered spirit of Parker has been quietly gathering energy to exact his vengeance on the parents - by murdering their offsping in the most bloody, savage ways possible via damage inflicted through their dreams. I havent plotted out what would happen beyond the setup. There's probably going to be a couple of utterly savage murders in town, and I might steal a page from The Real Ghostbusters episode The Boogieman Cometh ( http://ghostbusters.wikia.com/wiki/The_Boogieman_Cometh ) and have a pair of terrorized children hire the heroes to defeat the Monster Under The Bed (one of Parker's nightmare constructs) - but beyond that, I'm not sure where I'm going with this. It has potential, tho.
  2. Re: Why Your Heroes Shouldn't Kill Ah, coming in late to the party! (: Okay, let me run this past you for a reason you should let your player(s) kill: character development. My recently retired character was - she had a complicated backstory. Chill Out Woman was a Celtic winter goddess who had been split into two: Negative grumpy Chill and happy, hippie-ish Chill (I was playing Hippy Chill). The game opened with her arriving in The City naked and no memory whatsoever, basically a blank slate who didn't know how modern society worked. So the first real knock-down, drag out Big Fight comes along - the mastermind (a psychic, super intelligent dog) had unleashed his psychicly controled Killbot on The City - and after the team beat the bad dog into submission and unconcisiousness, Chill figured that it was esier to kill the mastermind and save a bunch of lives instead of having a long, dragged out battle with the Killbot. It was simple logic to her (the needs of the many and all that). Everyone was pretty damn shocked when I casually walked over and popped his head off. She wasnt a bad person - she was always working at the soup kitchens, helping old ladies who needed handyman work around their houses, and that sort of thing. She was cheerful about cleaning toilets at her janitor's job as she was saving the world - it was just that death was a natural part of life, everyone lives, everyone dies and death was no big deal to her. Eventually she did come around, that life was important and killing people was wrong - but sometimes she would let people have it. Much later in her career, there was this time where a army of gang members with amped up superweapon (and a couple of superpowered hired guns) became fed up with the local superheroes and started shooting up Chill's house. Outgunned, outnumbered and having just blatantly crossed the line of "starting something in my home", she was more than happy to show these punks how to make war Old School style. It was not a pretty battle . . . . So yes - sometimes a character that kills can work out.
  3. Here's a quickie question for you guys - what kind of disad would it be for a power (or in this case, a power pool) that you can only use during one season? My current character is the personification of winter - a winter godess, if you will - and while she is functional year round, I was thinking of giving her a little extra mojo three months out of the year. Poking through the Hero Designer, I found Window of Opportunity, once per year, window remains open for one season. That sounds perfect for my needs - but then one of the other players said "Oh, but that means you get to use the power once for that whole season". Of course I dont have the Fantasy Hero book to check the writeup against, only the Hero Designer. So I'll ask you guys - does the Window of Opportunity only let a character use that power once? Or does it stick around for that whole three months?
  4. Re: It's Groundhog Day Being a winter godess with a sense of humor, Chill Out Woman would laugh at whatever predictions these silly mortals came up with and made sure the reverse happened. They say 6 more weeks of winter? Clear skies and sunny. They say winter is over, it'll be a snowstorm in a week.
  5. Re: Happy Halloween Well, lets see . . . . I shamelessly stole a Real Ghostbusters episode and had Samhain try to bring about eternal Halloween. I unleashed a zombie Apocalypse on them - or would have done, if the players hadn't literally shut the plot down in 30 seconds. Once I set off a magic spell that took whatever costumes they were wearing at the time and turned them into that. That was fun seeing them run around as swashbuckling pirates and brazen action heroes trying to undo the villain's plot. Then there was the time in my Star Wars game where I took my Republic era Jedi and did a "it was all a bad dream" game where they turned to the Dark Side and let them run amuck for a bit. That was twisted fun. Oh, and for this year, I just landed an Orson Wells-ish War of the Worlds invasion on the Earth.
  6. Re: The Annual Hallwoeen Game: War of the Worlds! Three, a tank-ish SuperGirl analog, a fire Blaster and a Magical Girl drain/suppress support type.
  7. Re: The Annual Hallwoeen Game: War of the Worlds! Well, I unleashed the game upon the players tonight. Everything went well, it was a tough fight but they won in the end. I wound up ditching the 50% damage reduction and dropping the PD/ED by 5 on the fly, allowing them to nickle and dime the tripods down (there were two of them). In the end, it was a couple of impressive move through and move by attacks that won the day, along with a persistent penetrating attack that landed one body a turn. Plus some good strategy on their parts - leading the tripods out into the river to avoid collateral damage and that sort of thing. It was a tough but rewarding fight. All in all, I was pleased with the end results.
  8. Re: The Annual Hallwoeen Game: War of the Worlds! *Slaps forehead* Thats what I get for building the monster at 1 in the morning. The NND was suppose to have a couple of adders on it - area effect, lingering and that sort of thing (being a cloud of gas and all). I just forgot to include all that stuff and dial the damage back accordingly. I meant to go with 5D of NND. And yeah, the sealed systems is total life support (save for the immortality). As for the problem of not inflicting damage, we tend to be a higher damage sort of crowd, so I don't foresee any problems of getting at least SOME body through once in a while. Yeah, I'm going to have to see if I can work in some kind of exhaust port or something if they start having too much trouble. (That or secretly dial the numbers back behind the scenes. )
  9. Re: The Annual Hallwoeen Game: War of the Worlds! Here is, assuming I exported the file correctly, the first draft of the tripods. Take a peek and tell me what you think: [b]Martian War Machine - [/b] [b][u]VAL[/u] [u]CHA[/u] [u]Cost[/u] [u]Total[/u] [u]Roll[/u] [u]Notes[/u][/b] 100 STR 90 100 29- HTH Damage 20d6 END [10] 12 DEX 6 12 11- OCV 4 DCV 4 15 CON 10 15 12- 50 BODY 80 50 19- 10 INT 0 10 11- PER Roll 11- 10 EGO 0 10 11- ECV: 3 40 PRE 30 40 17- PRE Attack: 8d6 10 COM 0 10 11- 25 PD 5 25 25 PD (25 rPD) 25 ED 22 25 25 ED (25 rED) 4 SPD 18 4 Phases: 3, 6, 9, 12 23 REC 0 23 100 END 35 100 108 STUN 0 108 26 RUN 0 26" END [5] 2 SWIM 0 2" END [1] 20 LEAP 0 20" 20" forward, 10" upward [b]CHA Cost: 296[/b] [b][u]Cost[/u] [u]POWERS[/u][/b] 168 [b][i]Martian Weaponry[/i][/b]: Variable Power Pool, 112 base + 56 control cost, (168 Active Points) - END= 0 1) [b][i]Heat Ray[/i][/b]: Killing Attack - Ranged 5d6, Area Of Effect (One Hex; +1/2) (112 Active Points) Real Cost: 112 - END=11 0 2) [b][i]Black Smoke[/i][/b]: Energy Blast 11d6, No Normal Defense (Sealed Systems; +1) (110 Active Points) Real Cost: 110 - END=11 0 3) [b][i]Red Weed[/i][/b]: Entangle 11d6, 11 DEF (110 Active Points); Cannot Form Barriers (-1/4) Real Cost: 88 - END=11 30 [b][i]Your weapons are useless![/i][/b]: Energy Damage Reduction, Resistant, 50% - END=0 30 [b][i]Your weapons are useless![/i][/b]: Physical Damage Reduction, Resistant, 50% - END=0 37 [b][i]Bullets won't stop it![/i][/b]: Damage Resistance (25 PD/25 ED), Hardened (x2; +1/2) (37 Active Points) - END=0 45 [b][i]Tripod Legs[/i][/b]: Running +20" (26" total), x4 Noncombat - END=4 12 [b][i]Communication Link[/i][/b]: High Range Radio Perception (Radio Group) - END=0 10 Knockback Resistance -5" - END=0 46 [b][i]Sealed Systems[/i][/b]: Life Support (Eating: Character does not eat; Immunity All terrestrial diseases and biowarfare agents; Immunity: All terrestrial poisons and chemical warfare agents; Safe Environment: Zero Gravity; Safe in High Pressure; Safe in High Radiation; Safe in Intense Cold; Safe in Intense Heat; Safe in Low Pressure/Vacuum; Self-Contained Breathing; Sleeping: Character does not sleep) - END=0 60 [b][i]Giant Mecha[/i][/b]: Takes no Stun (60 Active Points) - END=6 15 [b][i]Giant Mecha[/i][/b]: Does not bleed (15 Active Points) - END=1 [b]POWERS Cost: 453[/b] [b][u]Cost[/u] [u]SKILLS[/u][/b] 40 +5 with All Combat [b]SKILLS Cost: 40[/b] [b][u]Cost[/u] [u]TALENTS[/u][/b] 3 Absolute Range Sense 3 Absolute Time Sense 3 Bump Of Direction [b]TALENTS Cost: 9[/b] [b][u]Value[/u] [u]DISADVANTAGES[/u][/b] 25 Distinctive Features: Giant Alien War Machine (Not Concealable; Extreme Reaction; Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses) 10 Physical Limitation: Huge Size (Frequently, Slightly Impairing) 15 Physical Limitation: Limited Manupuation (Frequently, Greatly Impairing) [b]DISADVANTAGES Points: 50[/b] Base Pts: 200 Exp Required: 548 Total Exp Available: 549 Exp Unspent: 1 Total Character Cost: 798
  10. An easy one: October 31st rolls around in game. Does your character get dressed up for Halloween? What's their costume? Or do they blow it off as a silly holiday?
  11. Re: The Annual Hallwoeen Game: War of the Worlds! Yeah, I like that - the totally alien language translated well after the fighting has begun. Of course, par for the course, the military is probably going to be the hardest ones to convince to stop shooting. There's no way they'll allow "hostile" aliens into a population center. The heroes might have to do some "crowd control" on the earthlings to get things back under control.
  12. So I'm in the middle of planning out my annual Halloween game - and this year instead of zombies running a-muck or Samhain making All Hallows Eve last forever and the like, this year I thought I'd dig up an old favorite: the Orson Wells broadcast of War of the Worlds! The game, as it stands now, is thusly: October 30th, 1938 and the Mercury Playhouse delivers it's panic-inducing adaption of the HG Wells work. Meanwhile, some 61 light-years away, an alien warship picks up the transmission - or at least bits and pieces of it (what with the signal degradation and all). The commander assumes that it's a real broadcast and that this little primitive planet has been savagely attacked by another force. So he dispatches HIS tripod war machines (with heat rays) to Earth. They strike a couple of likely military targets on Mars (giving the astronomers on earth the chance to observe several explosions of incandescent gas on mars) before dropping their landing pods on Earth. The crash site is surround by military, Scientists, and well armed rednecks. Then, after there's been an appropreat amount of time to investigate, talk to the locals, etc, etc - there's a scraping grinding sound as the hatch on top slides open and an alien sticks it's head out. When it brings out the translator (which snaps open in a vaguely threatening manner) one of the rednecks panics and blows the aliens head off. Well, there goes the neighborhood! The aliens take the attack in the worst possible way imaginable, atomizing the redneck (and the surrounding crowd) with it's heat ray and sets the tripod War Machines (I'm thinking three of them) in motion, heading for downtown of Campaign City. The Military does what it can to try and stop the aliens - with the expected largely ineffectual results. The aliens arent looking to scrap with the humans - it's a rescue mission to liberate the planet from the other invading force, after all - but they will defend themselves. And they're a pretty rowdy lot - not too discriminating on their attacks. So what I'm looking for is some brainstorming - "oh no, the evil genius Doctor Sinistero shows up and takes control of one of the war machines" or "that school full of orphans is now on fire from a near miss of the heat ray" and that sort of thing. What would you guys do to punch up the game so it's more than just "Round 3, you punch the war machine", "round 6, you punch the war machine", "Round 8, you punch. . . ." As far as the end of the game goes, I dont think I'll do the "Aliens catch a cold and keel over" Deus ex Machina ending. While it may have worked in the original, it's not very satisfying for an ending. I might go with a beat it up until it falls over ending, perhaps with a mix of two meter exhaust port somewhere in there. That or perhaps finding some kind of self destruct or shut down command back at the crash site - I haven't thought the game that far through yet. Anyway, thoughts?
  13. I thought of something, as I was hammering out ideas for a game - one of the characters has an entangle, basicly putting someone in a block of solid ice. What would happen if they were left there, in the ice? In the real world, you'd eventually get frostibite and hypothermia before (after a while) snuffing it. I dont have my book here with me, so I cant consult the Tome of Knowledge, but is there an easy way to do damage to someone if theyre entangled for a long while?
  14. Re: Not "Secret", not "Public", just "Identity"
  15. Re: WWYCD: "Dear Superhero" (Warning: Ugly situation) Ironically, Scarlet Arrow was just thinking about shipping costco sized bags of rice and gallons of water to Africa. She's got a teleport that can pretty much get anywhere on the globe (with a few minutes of run-up time) and the ability to move about 4 peoples worth of mass - so she'd be likely to be in that neck of the woods anyway. With a problem this big, might require some long term attention - so she might stay on station for a couple of weeks with the village under her protection, until the bad guys get the hint that coming there wont work (should be interesting how she gets that point across, since Scarlet doesnt kill and most of her bag of tricks are non-lethal debuff arrows). Then she'd arrange a way to get ahold of her (short wave radio or somesuch) incase they decided to come back later. My super-genius tank Natasha is not a very subtle person. She'd probably show up, start busting heads (and tanks and jeeps and whatever was in arms reach, in true tanker fashion), and then set the village up with some kind of super-science maguffinry - power armor for their best fighter, deflector shields, or whatever - so they can fight back themselves. The sad truth is that Great Beyond has way too many civilian responsibilities at home to just up and run off to another continent for two or three weeks (or however long it would take to sort that mess out), so she might not be able to drop everything and race to the rescue. She does have extensive contacts (both heroside and civilian) that she might be able to send that way to help - call in old favors and whatnot. If she was able to somehow shake loose of her duties (and she'd try, no doubt about that), she might try and take the kid on as her padawan, teaching him all manner of magical skills, enough to defend himself and his village. That might be a little too long-term for the immediate problem tho - so it'd probably be a combonation of both. Get the kid out of immediate danger and train him while old friends go deal with beating the bad guys down. I'm not sure how Chill Out Woman would react - she's my latest character, and still in the personality formation stage - and don't even thing she could get down there. She doesn't have the money, the passport or even a rich friend with a jet to get her from near Seattle half way around the world.
  16. Re: Powerless Natasha my brick would be extremely depressed. She loves having being nigh invulnerable, she loves being a super genius putting together infindibulators and capacitors and time machines out of toasters. So the answer to "are you happy" is hell yes. Scarlet, strangely enough wouldn't change all that much. She has one super power - 1 inch of flight with like times 10 endurance costs and like 30 levels of difficult to dispel - so unless you are god, that power isn't going anywhere. The rest of her shtick - trick arrows and investigation skills - are all within the realm of normal humanity. She's effective because she's SO damn diverse. So she'll just go right back to being a hero, thwarting street level crime and busting up terrorist groups. All it does is change the focus of the game from one city to a global setting. My new character, Chill Out Woman would be tough - I'm not sure how she would change. You cant remove her powers without completely rewriting her nature. She's a 4,000 year old deity (currently with amnesia) and the personification of winter. Take that away (and assuming that the seasons don't grind to a halt next fall), there's nothing left to the character. Great Beyond wouldn’t have her sister (an ancient and powerful MacGuffin given human form), and that right there would be cause for her to move heaven and earth to get things back the way they were, warts and all. She herself isn't super powered, but she knows all manner of arcane history, mystic lore and secret magic stuff (basically, she's a magically charged blaster). Assuming her occult lore remains, and given enough time, she could probably undo this. If THAT is gone, then it's another total re-write of the character, and she'd just be a very skilled stage magician doing two shows a night in Vegas.
  17. Re: Painted into a plot corner and the muse has fled! Actually, I think you guys are right, as I brainstorm more and more it does seem that I'm starting off with the final act. Now that I've been thinking about the mastermind and his motives (I'm thinking some kind of 3,000 year old Fu Manchu kind of guy, perhaps). But yeah, a more slow, steady hand is in order here. But thanks for all the ideas - there should be more than enough to milk several games now.
  18. So I was coming up with keen game idea, but it seems that I've painted myself into a corner over a plot point. Cobra (or Specter, or KAOS - your vast underground World Crime League) needs to get their hands on some scientists for their Nefarious Plot. First, they have to distract the superheroes and local authorities with a series of incidents all around town. First, they arrange a multiple car accident with injuries and fire at a vital highway interchange, tangling up traffic all over the city. Meanwhile a team of agents kill the head of the local disaster coordinator (and the next couple assisstants in line), to make sure nobody knows what to do. Then they take a tanker truck and blow it up right over the telecommunications network hub, knocking out all local land line and cellular communication. After the local heroes, police, fire and rescue are swamped beyond belief, agents strike at the university. The university had locked the campus down (normally they'd send people home, but with the gridlock gripping the city they've decided to keep people on campus. So the science department gets hit, with select professors being snatched and taken back to Cobra's secret base to start their work. And that's where I run into the wall. They've done their jobs too well - in theory, the heroes will be miles away when the kidnapping goes down and I'm not sure how Oh sure, I could have them jump a straggler, but that's so overdone - I was trying to come up with a subtle clue of somesort (and something that might take a couple of days to suss out, since Cobra needs time to get their scientist slaves to create the needed technology for stage two.) Something that'll make the players go "Yeah, we're brilliant for figuring that out!" I've got a couple of ideas, but nothing I'm really enamored with. So I'll turn to the peanut gallery for your ideas! Thoughts, gentlemen (and others)
  19. Re: Not enraged, just loves a good fight? Cool - thanks. Sounds like the Psych Limitation is the way to go. I'll bounce this off the rest of the group and see if this jibes with what they think.
  20. So in reading the description for enraged and berserk, it's all about something honking you off and making you start swinging blindly at whatever poor sunvabitch that happens to be nearby. That's not what I'm after at all. I was thinking of someone who just loves a good rumble and gets caught up in the moment. Think of it like potato chips - you're not angry at the chips, but you go "I'll eat just one" and next thing you know you're at the crumbs in the bottom of the bag and you've eaten the whole thing. Whoops. So - how would you do that?
  21. Re: My players have become villians Heh - I read the entire first page before I realized that I was gazing into the past. John's last post was around 03 also, so it doesnt look like he's hanging about - pity, I'd like to know how this all turned out, too.
  22. Re: Physcial menifestations of mental attacks - did I build this right? Well, the original thinking was that Tankers generally (tho not as a universal rule) tend to have high PDs and EDs and low egos and ECVs. This would be the attack of last resort if Scarlet's normal attacks and drains and flashes dont work. A "Oh well, nothing else is working - I wonder if I can make their brain sizzle?" attack.
  23. Re: Physcial menifestations of mental attacks - did I build this right? Ok, lets try this again, since I think I didnt make myself clear. Ingore all the other mis-steps in the power like area effect and whatnot. Is the best way for a non-mentalist type to hit someone in their mental weakspot to use Based On EGO Combat Value? Am I reading that correctly, or am I barking up the wrong tree?
  24. Re: Physcial menifestations of mental attacks - did I build this right? Yeah, the area effect was just brainstorming* that I'll probably pull. Lets assume a single target attack instead. *Actually it was more of me adding it by accident. Everything else I was working on was Area Effect, so I added it by rote.
  25. Re: Physcial menifestations of mental attacks - did I build this right? Well, I've already got an NND and Hearing flash in a couple of other powers, so I'm covered there. Really as far as the concept goes, the whistle/sonic thing is just for color, so dont get too hung up on it. Sonic arrow, pyschotropic arrow - doesnt really matter much.
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