indy523

You know it is funny, I have met several gun enthusiasts from the south and have never met anyone that matches your stereotype. I remember some people buying ammo and weapons because there were promises to outlaw them but that was not an assumption by the people making the purchases, it was the rhetoric of the campaign which was pretty damn clear. They tried to implement what they were saying as well if I remember but were stopped by the courts. I decided I have absolutely no use for arrogant leftists that go around lecturing people on how ist and phobe all the right wingers were when I saw on twitter the video a young black kid made in a Seattle or Portland hospital, I forget which exactly. Kid was maybe 20 and he was talking about the young white BLM Antifa member who, because the young black kid had a red MAGA hat on, approached him called him the N-Word to his face and then stabbed him in the stomach with a kitchen knife. Luckily this kid survived. He was pretty calm and reasonable considering what he went through but still did not have complementary things to say about the person that stabbed him. Of course the cops never made an arrest because you know protesters were making a stand for Die versity. See leftists can talk this kind of talk all they want but all the most terrible racial slurs and complete stupidity seems to come from their side. For myself I would have no issue handing out at a bar with some rednecks who believe in Open Carry. They tend not to ever pull their weapons or do stupid things with them. It might be the training they got in all those concealed carry firearms classes. You know the ones that Alec Baldwin should have taken. That incident suggests to me it is the leftists that have guns I should worry about. But whadda I know ....

So someone mentioned the issues with monetary systems for Space Opera campaigns but I would like to discuss what would be the most likely system in a world that survives nuclear Armageddon! James Axler's Deathlands books to my mind have the best idea. Bullets! Ammunition! In a world where everyone is scavenging the dead husks of nuked out cities with a population less than 10% the world was before the catastrophe the main source of power would be guns. Guns are useless without ammo so it stands to reason the one commodity everyone would want to barter for would be ammunition. Finding guns might be easy given the number of gun stores and the guns that would be stored in the homes of people that have been forced out of their homes or who died off but ammunition by default would be a rare and dwindling commodity giving a local baron controlling a town both power and wealth but as that ammo is used up to retain power so to is their wealth. Black Powder weapons then may become more common place as people can much easier make gunpowder than they can the High Explosive propellant that fuels modern smokeless powder. A black powder charge may be worth a penny while a 9mm round for a modern pistol might be the equivalent of an ounce of gold circa the 1880's Certainly Barter would be a huge mainstay in this land but I would rate the items most likely to have a stable trading value because everyone wants them as 1) Bullets and ammo (all kinds including bows and arrows, black powder as well as modern ammunition. 2) Fuel especially petroleum 3) Livestock / Poultry any animal that can either be used for food or can assist in hunting food. 4) Wood / Clay 5) Any modern device that can be made to work. i.e. Junk 6) Glass either intact material from pre war days or current glass made by hand 7) Ore Copper, steel, etc. 😎 Chips, electrical cables, supplies etc. that can be used to make electricity with anything that is a permanent magnet as being a premium. Let me know what list you guys think might be better.

Thanks guys there are very good suggestions. I feel a lot better about inspiration for her power set.

Because I want to give her useful attack powers in combat other than just here is a martial arts and four extra EC's with it because that is how we make good fighters without giving them 50 STR. I guess an EGO drain does not have to be delayed if it is enough to move the person to zero. Let me look up what a zero EGO does! "At EGO 0, a character must succeed with an EGO Roll to act each Phase. The character follows all orders given to him from any source unless he succeeds with an EGO Roll. A character who fails the EGO Roll may initiate no Actions of his own. But if he makes his EGO Roll, not only can he reject an order given to him, he’s free to do something of his own choice that Phase without making a second EGO Roll. In the absence of instructions, characters with EGO 0 tend to follow the dictates of any applicable Psychological Complications they have. Treat such Psychological Complications as if they were an order from someone. In the event the character receives multiple orders in the same Phase, if he fails an EGO Roll he attempts to carry out all orders. If the orders contradict in some fashion, he does nothing" - HS6E Yep thank you that does the trick. So I need an EGO drain that reduces a person's EGO to zero. So Drain is 10 points per die 3.5 x 3 is 10.5 so the average normie with a 10 EGO and no Mental Defense is taken down with a 3d6 drain EGO attack 30 points. If a normal drain it will last for 5 pts per turn and if a suppress she can maintain it with END but it goes away after immediately. I can make it cumulative at x2 30 x1.75 = 52.5 AP now and she can drain a total of 18 x2 or 36 EGO from Someone meaning she should be able to reduce anyone to a quivering mass. This would be effective in combat especially if she has a high PRE then that can always be used to persuade which is what resists that type of attack. However I could buy the PRE with an advantage works on EGO instead which I would give as a +1/4A since many people buy some PRE. So maybe Drain EGO 3d6 Cumulative x2 effect +3/4A defended by MenD not PowD +1/4A for a total 52 point power. with a Naked advantage for her PRE let us say it is a 30 defended by EGO not PRE +1/4A or 30/4 = 7.5 which is 7 AP. Probably not buying it as a suppress although that might work, It would be defined as having to expend more effort and strain to take down characters with more powerful egos. I could then employ certain powers requiring EGO rolls as well. Might work - I will have to think about it.

Not done any work on that but I have some ideas. I think you really do not have to abandon much of Star Hero to match it to Traveler at least as I remember it the system was very simple in mechanics and relied more on the roleplaying aspect of the players to fill in the blanks. Not a lot of fiddly rules for 100 different versions of a laser rifle but then it was an old school game so it worked. To my mind conversion to Star Hero would simply be having to add a bunch of fiddly rules for things but that is OK because in Hero the players c an just define that for themselves so you don't need three splat books just to list out all the weapons unless you want to and even then the weapons in the splat books that exist are just suggestions for players and tools for the GM to not have to create lots of stuff in advance. Just supply the XL-7 Hand laser from the book, that is good enough for the Star Cops that pulled the party over, etc. The real fun I think is to develop a character creation system similar to the Traveler system with choices to muster out or continue careers or just start as a 16 year old kid. This could be accomplished with base templates for characters based on the race human or alien they desire, another for the planet type they come from hi grav world, spacer on strations, water worlds, single city hive worlds or colonies etc. and one more template for the career choices. They have very few points on which to tweak their initial character starting out. Instead the get say 25 points to spend after they muster out and they get specific bonuses for each career rank they make it through, specific points for powers or abilities or skills based on the results of the muster roll for every term of service, possible points for perks as well such as the ship perk as a set number of vehicle points. Plus depending on the career 5 points per term or something of free points to add to the 25. The charts and dice rolls for character creation making it a combination of character choice for specifically focused random results and hey maybe even the possibility to die in combat or get an injury etc. being a result. I think seeing that well done in the Hero system while allowing limited customization pointwise would be cool.

Yeah that should be a given but I never thought about utilizing presence. Maybe a drain SPD that is RAR Charm Skill possibly only on individuals attracted to women to signify an inability to think in combat against her. Hmm...... There is Change Environment Stun from APD2 I think but honestly I have already used that in another character in this villain group but maybe. Is there another way in the hero system to deprive someone of an action? This has to be a power useful in combat, which is what is flummoxing me.

Dude it was a joke! It is not sacrilege. God has a sense of humor! If you doubt God's sense of humor I would just point to Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars but I will leave it alone other than that!

Good! Bad! has no meaning if they are just labels. Why is someone Bad and if they are Bad why can't they decide to become Good? Christian thinking believes in forgiveness and eastern traditions believe you can work off karmic debt but ideology, especially in a fantasy setting does not have to follow our traditional paradigm. T.S Lewis yes I know but that was the author's choice. Perhaps when one breaks bad they lose the ability to be good! Goodness, peace, mercy, kindness, forgiveness etc. might be a quality that we are born with kind of the opposite of original sin maybe and it is something that we have to protect. Demons and evil may attempt to attack our character by making us destroy what is good inside of us because they know that once good is broken in a mortal it cannot be repaired. It is just gone. Such a world might have the kind of idyllic Andy Griffith Mayberry feel of a television show where everyone helps everyone out, no one steals anything, the sheriff does not carry a bow and the deputy has one bolt in a quiver in his front pocket because nothing goes wrong in the kingdom. The goblins and demons and evil races are the way they are because goodness was broken in the entire race. Maybe at one point all the goblins were kind nice little creatures like hobbits but so many became corrupt they killed off all the good ones and there was no more good left in the race to be pushed to the next generation. In this scenario the good kingdom is always under threat because Evil is always trying to corrupt people in order to turn the entire race evil. Maybe some races are immune and goodness and evil are not absolutes so they are always neutral, able to decide or change their minds. I would suggest this way of thinking about it makes for better roleplaying because the alignment has a purpose in the world. It is explained and has rules and thus it is more than just OK I am good so I get to cast healing spells. You don't have to use this particular paradigm but if you think out one of your own and answer these questions to create a philosophy of alignment I would suggest it would be easier for you to answer these questions and make for a better game. Cheers!

I guess you have not read about Abraham then!

The Answer to that question is not where in relation to the lake the city is, either downriver or at the mouth of the lake flowing out but rather what is the elevation of the land both in the inland lake and downriver. If your lake is a lake and not a sea i.e. it is fresh water than the basin of the lake must be elevated fairly high above sea level, like at least 200 feet or so otherwise the water near sea level would flow out like it does in New Orleans and much of it would be brackish. If that is the case you have an enormous amount of water sitting at an elevated height, even if it is only 200 ft 67m this is still a great quantity of water sitting on a lot of potential energy. If there are massive amounts of rains that affect the land around the lake or feed into the lake over an extended time and the elevated levels start to rise rapidly you only have one natural artery by which that excess water can flow out. So this means in that case you either have flooding along a huge plain that would be devastating or a river that becomes a raging torrent of water overflowing along its banks. Any city on a low lying flood plain would eventually be destroyed. So how high is the topography of the lake is this an elevated height with many waterfalls miles downstream that breach the heights or is it one continuous slow moving river. This will affect trade and safety. Any city would be best built where there are very high banks and elevated mesa on one side.

I might in a way be trying to do that but need ideas. I am making a supervillian character that is a femme fatale who is an avatar of the Greek Goddess Eos, the goddess of the dawn, She is extremely beautiful and had an affair with Ares the God of War which POed Aphrodite the goddess of Love, so Eos was cursed to have an insatiable lust for men but unable to ever form any real relationship. The idea is she is a beautiful femme fatale that manipulates and uses men and leaves then destroyed. Not sure how to define that as a super power useful in combat so but it'll come to me I guess.

Reversing the polarity on something always works but the team technologist will never think of nor reverse the polarity on something until someone suggest to him or her that they do it and someone else says "Hey that is just crazy enough to work!"

Ok so I have a female supervillain for a four color super comics campaign who is based on the Greek Goddess EOS, the goddess of the Dawn. She had an affair with Ares the God of War which angered Aphrodite the Goddess of Love so she was cursed by Aphrodite. Eos was made to have an insatiable lust for new dalliances with men but could never have any relationship beyond a short time. So the idea is that this goddess character has a supervillain power that is a metaphor for an evil woman that is hot and sexy and can charm men who the uses them and leaves them destitute or miserable because she can never find true love which of course is Aphrodite's fault. So what kind of power would you suggest that is combat usable in a Supers campaign that would be a good metaphor for this. Anything goes whether on the nose literal type of mind control or something that is a subtle nod to the metaphor?

If the clones were specifically made to never gain sentience then I could see a society not having moral qualms with it. They would be organic robots in a that sense.

The reason I took it from a -0L to a -1/4L at eight charges is that since it is a multipower bought as Expend END only to activate which is a +1/4 A instead of +1/2A for no end and since activating the clip is a full phase the character has to activate the clip at least once every two turns and if they want to change the type of arrow they fire they have to activate it again. To my mind that is enough combined to push it to -1/4L I am not worrying about characters using it because if a character has options they will certainly want to use them. This just makes them have to calculate when best to update. Without that I would leave 8 at -0L and 4 at -1/4L. I would never really move it to -1/2L because that is no end and thus would not be needed. For arrows though eight in a clip seems reasonable. A clip of four would be impractical so just would not be made. That is not game mechanics just the reasonableness of how it would work. I think with this added the limitation is fair.

Is it a magical effect - yes one of alchemy but this is for a Super Powered Comic Book Heroes but yes described as magic. PS: For technical effects I still think one can do this depending on how it is described. So a super advanced laser gun that can run on solar energy or has a mini fusion reactor that gives endles supply of energy and reloading the clip is just activated the energy chamber that fires the ammo which counts as reloading the weapon or a weapon with nanite self replicating ammo that the user has to continuously formulate to fill a clip etc. Maybe the power side of of it is to separate from the gun and you cannot use the gun and recharge it at the same time but it only takes a phase to do so, etc. Sorry just had to throw that out there because you got me thinking about it. As to this particular character I went with eight charges before reloading at a 0L. She has a 5 speed and this is a bow so it is one shot per half phase so no autofire shenanigans. I assume based on Grailknight's evaluation this is a -1/4L One reload per 1 & 1/2 turns so maybe it should be a -1/4L I have added an extra rinkle in that the bow is a multipower. So there are arrows of light that are RKA vs ED, there are Arrows of Wrath that are Blast vs PD with AEF Thin Cone, nonselective fire out to 64m with the added limitation no more than three targets per blast. This represents the arrow either breaking into three or three arrows loaded on the bow at once. IT is magic and four color superhero campaign so not an issue roleplaying wise. and arrows of Captivation that is a modified mental paralysis using normal OCV vs DCV, the affects that damage the entangle are those that are resisted by Power Defense or that are Afffects Desolid or Affects Desolid Supernatural spirits only this would of course include drains as well as AVAD. I bought the Multipower with the +1/4A End Cost only to activate or change multipower. So I am assuming that in this case I can turn the 8 shot reload into a -1/4L with the acknowledgement that to change the type of arrow in the Multipower the character has to reload the clip so this would justify the limitation. I think I will go ahead and add that as it seems to make sense and it describes the power as I envision it which is the first thing I go for even before game balance all though that being said game balance is important but for me understanding what the power is and how it works is first. Thanks for your feedback guys. I had not even thought to consider character speed and reload times.

Yes this is just adding the clip mechanic so one would still have to expend endurance or buy the power down to no endurance. I am not trying to get anything out of this but the value the limitations should be which I admit I am not sure.

You need to think about the future of cloning and how this would affect this. You could have clones that are made with devices that allow one to enter into the clone to operate it as if it were a computer avatar only better. You could have real life Doom games where death and pain are experienced first hand complete with respawning points after one "Dies!"

Argument for a God of War being a God of Order "Know thyself, know your enemy and know the terrain on which the battle will be fought and in 100 battles you will never lose" - Sun Tzu The Art of War Argument for a God of War being a God of Chaos "No Plan of Battle ever survives the first shot" - Clausewitz - widely regarded as the preeminent scholar on all things War related in the West PS: Clausewitz did not look at war are about wrath but rather felt war needed to be fought the most efficiently and tactful in order to end the war as quickly as possible. So both arguments here would follow under Logistics

I am not sure but in Tolkein each of the races were created. First the elves, then the dwarves, then men. I am not sure when the hobbits come forward but I am told by people that there were not in the Silmirion but that is the one book I have not yet read.

So my concept is a magic quiver for a set of crossbow bolts or arrows that never runs out of arrows. While the quiver will recreate arrows as needed this is in sense reloading the clip and takes extra time once the quiver is out. So for instance I say the quiver has eight arrows. Each round as part of your half phase you can pull an arrow from the quiver and fire an arrow just fine. Once you fire the last arrow however the quiver does not automatically reload and instead of the arrows just magically appearing the character has to engage the quiver to reload the it taking a full phase just like reloading a clip. I guess I could look at it as a part of extra time full phase a -1/2 limitation and since it only takes effect when the clip is emptied i.e. eight shots or whatever it is set to this is at best a -1/4L. The issue becomes that one still gets eight shots which is not as limiting as say four shots and more limiting than say 16. At some point the clip is so large to begin with that this is not a limitation so that is definitely 16 but maybe 8 is a -0L as well so the -1/4L for infinite clips maybe starts at 6 or maybe 4 is the minimum. I am not so sure where to call that line. Maybe 4 if it is a single shot weapon and maybe 6 or 8 if it is autofire but I am not sure which it should be. Anyone have any ideas.

The way I look at this is yes there are advantages that make it more expensive but there are significant limitations as well. I am not seeing the advantages however as overpowering the attack for game balance i.e. making it more powerful as much as they are just expanding how the power works. The reason for the AVAD Mental Defense is the dream is completely in the mind of the individual and the mind knows it is dreaming even if the dream seems real at the time. Therefore any PD or ED would have no effect. This is also why inconsistencies give no bonus to breakout roles as dreams by their nature are inconsistent. The concept is a character that controls one's dreams. The achilles heel to this power is the restrainable effect. The character breaks out when they wake up, period. The power has no ability to force the mind to continue to dream. This means not just drugs that stop REM sleep but people trying to force the person up and if the dream becomes violent or scary enough to do damage it is possible the character wakes from fright. This is for a character that is an NPC villain but despite the high RC of the power I am OK with it as in the end it is not that out of line. I guess the other thing is since Mental Defense always applies I could use the AVAD to change PD and ED to the Resistance Talent making it easier for characters to survive it. I tend to try to make powers that match how I envision them so even when I add significant limitations they are to my mind integral to the power and limiting the way I see them. For this particular power the limitation is the ability to end this the way one would normally wake someone up. The first version is more useful in that one can use it to make cosmetic changes as well as full fledged takeover of dreams. The character may very well have to have some form of telepathy for that element of the power though now that you mention it because in that case they may have to know what the current dream is which may mean the power is linked to a successful telepathy attempt. Not Sure.

Except of Course the Dip!

Ok so I am envisioning a power that allows a mentalist to insert his mind into a person while they are dreaming and essentially taking over the dream in the characters head and replacing it with their own mental illusion. I am thinking that this is a full mental illusions power whereby the mentalist can control elements of the dreams from cosmetic changes to completely reorientating the complete mental landscape and recreating every element of the dream so from +0 to +30 effects. I also envision that one can take damage in the dream and if you die in the dream you die for real . This power will of course have to have at least 10 dice to be effective at that level. Since this is a dream effect the target must be dreaming. I am assuming the -1L Target must be dreaming because it can only be used on a sleeping person and only when they begin dreaming Alternatively, I could envision the power as forcing the individual into a daydream thus they experience a waking dream. The power still affects a dreaming sleeper above however now the daydream requires at least a mandatory +30 effect or more as you have to take over the target's senses while they are awake which means you shut off their perception of the real world. So this is a -3/4L instead of the -1L above. I envision the breakout roll to mean the character wakes up from the dream. I am assuming that there must be some way to end the power by simply waking the target up in real life since they are no longer dreaming because they are asleep. I also assume that the power would not work if the target is under any drug or effect that eliminates the ability to go into REM sleep. Is this best handled with a limitation Restrainable at the -1/4L This is affecting the target not the character with the power but this most closely aligns with the restrainable power in that one can end the effect by waking the target i.e. restraining the sleep. Mental defense then would reflect the targets mind being able to control the dream. However as this involves a character disbelieving the dream or realizing that it is a dream then the power has to be bought AVAD Mental Defense +1/2A indicating that no PD or ED provides defense against the damage only mental defense. Because the power is a dream then inconsistencies cannot build up thus giving bonuses to the rolls so this is I assume a +1/4 or +1/2A I also assume that one could by the autofire advantage for the power indicating the number of minds that can be linked into the same dream setting so that characters could interact with each other. This would by necessity preclude using it to hit a target more than once and instead allow the character to target multiple lines. Of course, for this power 2-3 people at once would be an advantage of +1&1/4A making it much more costly. Is this the best way to create this power?.

Okay here is an example and you tell me how this works out. I have a character that is a nymph or avatar of Aphrodite in the game so she has a power I call if looks could kill. It is essentially a flash vs voice. In APG2 (I think if not it is APG1) you can treat a person's voice as a kind of nontargeting sense and thus it can be affected by darkness, flash etc. This woman's power is to give a look that is a flash vs voice that is bought as a Long Term flash (1 segment = 1 turn) for +2A. I want the power to be resisted by the Resistance Talent which adds to EGO to resist Interrogation or torture. So the normal defense for this is Flash vs Voice defense which is already rare.so by the rules changing it to the Resistance talent is also rare so this is a +0A or +0L. Under this scenario could one possibly justify the Resistance Talent as very rare and make it a -1/2L in effect? You tell me! What is reasonable?