Mr. R

Re: The Avengers Legacy

You mentioned Wolverine ( he's dead and there was much rejoicing. Hurray) Kitty and Colossus. What about the rest of the X team. Also have you downplayed anti mutant feeling or expanded them to include most supers?

PS speaking as a Canadian, bring back Alpha Flight.

Re: Project XIII: images from my campaign

WOW.

1) She's BEAUTIFUL!!! Lucky guy.

2) CONGRATULATIONS.

Re: Making up a current Day Germany for Champions.....

If I were talking with Anja's player this is what I would suggest:

EC becomes a Multipower

Ranged levels reduced to mental powers only (pistol is mostly a holdout, a JIC)

Used points saved to buy a TK slot in MP (this is to justify) and a TK force field outside the MP.

This will also later allow flight.

If this is unacceptable the MP, Ranged level reduction and get Combat Luck representing those tingle she may get before someone/thing shoots her.

Re: Help with faith based VPP

I remember an Old AC issue which had something similar. one feature which he had was an End Res. This simulated how far the god was willing to go to help you. Small reserve meant he was keeping tabs on you but not to much. Large reserve meant he was an active part of you life. The costs of a "spell" would vary based on whether you were serving the god's plans. All cost end, but some more endurance if it wasn't directly in the gods interest. Recovery was likewise limited getting recovery based on what you did to advance the god's cause.

Re: Your "Oh #@$%!" Moment

I'll add one to the list. I was the GM and the players were involved in a battle with Ogre (This was back in 4th ed). One player had a graduated EB. The more powerful the EB the more end exponentially. So 8d6 cost 4 end as base then went up sharply.

8d6/4 + 2d6/2 + 2d6/4 + 2d6/8 = 14d6/ 22 end

Since 10d6 was my norm this was fairly powerful.

Now I had beefed up Ogre for them and he was about 50-60 point more powerful than in the book mostly in defenses. So they'd been battling for a whole turn when Eclipse (the Blaster in question) Fires a pushed full power blast and rolls real well. Knockback sends Ogre flying across the battle field. There's this exclamation mark on the ground to mark his passage. He's lying against a pile of rubble that he pushed behind him in his passage. He gets up, looks at the exhausted blaster (who just burned 32 end) and says

"You hurt me. I don't like that."

The players just dropped their jaws and said in unison "Holy shit what does it take to stop this guy?" while the blaster went white and actually gulped.

Ohh, the fun of it.

Re: Magical Engineer Commandos

Mine is First Aid/Paramedic.

I don't know how many times in a game I wanted to stop bleeding and was asked if I had any of the above. Nope, then he bleeds and bleeds and... Grrr.

Re: Make Your Own Motivational Poster

One of the most underrated characters in the series, I think:

 

I totally agree. I loved her in the books and the person playing her has her spot on. Of all the characters hers was the one I wanted to find out what happened to.

Re: EPIC CITY! (Campaign Art & Collateral Material)

All this is making me feel....inadequate as a GM. The immersion factor of your campaign must be incredible with all this material you have access to.

Major rep (I would give more but it limits me to one at a time)

Re: Magical Engineer Commandos

Ahh. OK, that explains it better.

Re: Your favorite character type

Ranged attacker, ie the blaster. Seems most of the time I was in groups that loved bricks and HTH types so I fell into this role. Keep it simple with fly, ff, eb.

With experience I would expand upon the powers to diversify. In CoH terms a defender.

Re: Your "Oh #@$%!" Moment

My namesake, Pariah, was a Brick with a small elemental magic VPP. In the midst of a fight against Thor (Odinson, God of Thunder, etc.), Pariah activated one of his most useful combat spells: Stature of the Mountain. It supplemented his strength and defenses, primarily with a few levels of Growth.

 

Thor took one look at me and roared, "GIANT!!"

 

Oh #@$%!

repped

Re: Magical Engineer Commandos

Sure, you can't beat the GM - and it's pointless to even try The mindset behind Magical Engineer Commandos is to do the mostest with the leastest, to be quick on your feet, to swing more than your CR should be able to - and to defeat the evil GM's minions, but do so in a way to leave her goggling and saying "How did you just ..."

 

What puzzles me is that our D20 group (that which I just described) is evolving into a lean, mean fightin' machine. The Hero group, in contrast - which is over half of the same people - nearly got munched to death by a bunch of 25 point bijoux monsterettes a few sessions back and last night got scattered and somewhat beaten up by 2 125 point harpies ... They panic, have no clear roles, tend to scatter all over the map, don't work well together - and have been playing together longer. Clearly, mindset is everything!

 

cheers, Mark

Yeah but your describing two systems that have different approaches to PCs. In d20 there are classes, ie you know what you can do and plan accordingly. You know your strengths and try to cover your weaknesses.

In Hero this is more wide open so you are what you think you are. This can result in warriors that are very cautious,casue they don't know where their weakness is.

Like you said, mindset is everything.

Re: House!

[quote=Xotl;1851814

And in my new game that's about to start up (again) we've decided eliminate kill attacks as a separate power and go with a unified damage mechanic.

How does this work?

Re: Costumed Crimefighters Collective

I'm not even sure what a BBEG is.

Big Bad Evil Guy.

And you answered the question most satisfactorally, thank you.

We now return you to your regular thread, now in progress.

Re: Costumed Crimefighters Collective

Though rather less structured, I did something similar with my campaign when we converted over to 5e five or six years ago. By allowing different base points and having a wider range of abilities we've actually got the characters all closer to concept. And it feels more like the comics. The nigh-cosmic types feel nigh-cosmic. The gadget laden normals feel like gadget laden normals. Within these general types, being a veteran or a rookie can still be discerned, of course. But it's worked well for our group.

 

I hope it works as well for you.

I am curious as well because in my experience everyone wants to play Thor and few want to play the Falcon. What happened when the group faced off against the villains, esp BBEG who can take on the whole group? I keep thinking of Gravitar (from Marvel) who held off Thor and Iron Man while keeping the rest of the team pinned to a wall. Great for Thor/IM, BORING for the rest of them (if we look at them as PCs).

Re: City of Heroes/Villains Mission ARCs

I just posted my first Arc.

Arc name: Elder Tsoo by @Lord Cumulus

ID number 166150

Very long with a custom boss at the end.

If you up the slider he becomes an EB and yes he is supposed to be nasty.

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread.

Repped for Doc Rocket. I just love the concept and can see a PC I could make with that picture in my head.

Re: Help with duplication

JBe REALLY CAREFUL. I know for a fact' date=' from experience, that a Multiform with Duplication is an extremely powerful, and potentially unbalancing construct. I used to for a character whose alternate form was an Unkindness Of Ravens - worked beautifully for the effect.[/quote']

 

Just out of curiosity how is it unbalancing? To me the point cost for both would make it hard to make a powerful PC.

Re: Harassing the GM, your stories!

 

They are all paranoid of thier Secret IDs being discovered, even the character that doesnt have the Secret ID disadvantage.

 

To be fair I have been in games with the Sadistic GM. NPC will betray you, contacts will feed you false info, clues are actually part of a puzzle that will lead you to commit a horrible crime that will brand your PC's as the vilest of villains. In fact it was my last Champions game as a player. We had just such a GM. And he kept complaining why we wouldn't trust each other?

Re: Harassing the GM, your stories!

I have to say, Yes, I have bothered the GM a couple times when I played... don't know why, I just felt like it. Fortunately, the GM rolled with the blow. Nice GM.

 

One of my conversations went something like this:

GM: Where is your character at the moment?

Me: Mmm, I don't know.

GM: Are you with the group?

Me: No.

GM: Then where are you?

Me: You decide.

GM: Ok, you're with the group.

Me: Nah, I decided my character's walking down the street a few blocks away looking cool.

GM: Whatever!

 

I had a player like that in one campaign. Pulled the same lines. So I let him wander the street all day looking cool while GMing the rest of that party through the session. About halfway through he questioned when I would try to hook him to the scenario. I said next session (ie next week). Wow he was pissed.

Re: You. Make. The Call.

That's really not what I wanted to hear. I'm actually considering allowing players to play different power levels' date=' so that we have some Heroic normals interspersed with honest to goodness Supers. A bit more [i']Watchmen[/i] than X-Men if you follow.

How mature are your players. Mature players can go with it as long as niche protection is held to.

In the comics Thor and the Falcon can coexist because writer fiat.

Go up to a group and tell them one will be that uber powerhouse (18d6 attacks) and the other a Watchman level normal (8d6 max) and watch the green eyed monster rear its head. If given a choice most of us want to play Thor, very few the Falcon.

So in the interest of your sanity and happiness set some ground levels:

Dex

Spd

Defences

Damage classes

Let them move them around but keep to those levels.

Example in my last campaign we had the following

Dex 21-24

Spd 4-5

Defences 25-30 pd/25-30 ed

Damage 10-12 DC

These can be shifted but at the cost of others. So Damage 16 DC, sure. Now lower something else by similar amounts, so Dex 12-15 or Spd 2-3 or def at around 15/ed or a combination.

So your guy has a TK of 18d6 and 50pd/ed. OK Dex 10 Spd 2 and even then I would balk.

So Step 1

Set your caps and stick to them. Later as your group matures and get used to each other then you can broaden them.

Two good references are Gestalt by Mr. Bennie. Check out his power level section with dex, spd, def, and DC caps. Another is an article called Pointless Champions, which shows the author's experiment with wildly differing point levels like those found in comics. But to reiterate he has a Mature group.

Otherwise good luck.

Re: Tuala Morn

Nearing the end of his apprenticeship, Lloyd MacCallahan was one of the first to spot it, his instructor and Huntmaster.

 

Vulkring ships, red of sail and fairly loaded with raiders, bore down on his home. His warning came only moments ahead of the war-horns which bade the citizens to flee for safer lands, the soldiers to man the walls.

 

OOC Note: Our town druid just got KO'd (Either magical backlash, hostile mage, which would be -darn odd- considering it's the Vulkring coming at us) and took a nasty spill off the wall he was standing on. The ships, slowed by his magic, resumed their drive to our shores.

 

So yeah: Soundtrack just went from Celtic folk to Folk Metal. This will not be pretty. Here's Lloyd's character sheet:

 

Lloyd MacCallahan Player: Patrick O'Shea

Val Char Cost

13 STR 3

15 DEX 15

15 CON 10

12 BODY 4

13 INT 3

11 EGO 2

15 PRE 5

12 COM 1

 

5 PD 2

3 ED 0

3 SPD 5

6 REC 0

30 END 0

27 STUN 0

 

7" RUN 0

2" SWIM 0

2 1/2" LEAP 0

Characteristics Cost: 50

Cost Power END

5 Luck 1d6 0

3 +2 PER with Sight Group (4 Active Points); Concentration (1/2 DCV; -1/4) 0

2 Running +1" (7" total) 1

Powers Cost: 10

Cost Skill

6 +2 with any three maneuvers or a tight group of attacks

5 Climbing 13-

3 AK: Home region 12-

4 KS: My Tuath 13-

5 KS: Tualan Flora and fauna 14-

3 KS: Fae/Faerie Lore 12-

6 Navigation (Land) 14-

3 Riding 12-

1 Security Systems (Only for natural/wilderness traps -1) 12- (3 Active Points); Limited Power: only for natural/wilderness traps (TuMorn p.124) Power loses about half of its effectiveness (-1)

3 Stealth 12-

8 Survival (Temperate/Subtropical, Urban) 14-

7 Tracking 14-

7 WF: Common Melee Weapons, Common Missile Weapons, Homemade Weapons, Off Hand, Sling

10 Two-Weapon Fighting (HTH)

3 Shadowing 12-

5 Breakfall 13-

Everyman Skills (TuMorn p.132)

0 Acting 8-

0 Concealment 8-

0 Conversation 8-

0 Deduction 8-

0 TF: Equines

0 PS:Tualan Hunter/pathfinder (Custom Adder) 11-

0 Persuasion 8-

0 KS: Tualan Heraldry (Custom Adder) 11-

0 KS: Tualan Legends and Lore 8-

Skills Cost: 79

Cost Talent

2 Environmental Movement (no penalties on fighting in hip-deep water)

3 Absolute Range Sense

3 Bump Of Direction

3 Lightsleep

Talents Cost: 11

Val Disadvantages

5 Geasa: Cannot use a blade longer than 1 foot

5 Rivalry: Other Hunters: Professional (; Rival is As Powerful; Seek to Outdo, Embarrass, or Humiliate Rival; Rival Aware of Rivalry)

5 Reputation: Father was expelled from clan: , 11- (Known Only To A Small Group)

15 Psychological Limitation: Must redeem family honour: (Common, Strong)

10 Psychological Limitation: Hunts pictoi when he has the chance: (Uncommon, Strong)

5 Watched: Clan: 8- (Mo Pow, NCI, Limited Geographical Area, Watching)

10 Hunted: local caterans: 8- (As Pow, Harshly Punish)

10 Psychological Limitation: Distrusts seers/prophets: (Uncommon, Strong)

5 Psychological Limitation: Overconfident: (Uncommon, Moderate)

5 Psychological Limitation: Dour, rarely accepts praise: (Uncommon, Moderate)

 

Disadvantage Points: 75

Base Points: 75 Experience Required: 0 Total Experience Available: 0 Experience Unspent: 0 Total Character Cost: 150

Height: 1.75 m Hair: Black

Weight: 64.00 kg Eyes: Red

 

Appearance: Slightly taller than average, slim, light coloured hair (dirty blond), some minor scrapes and healed-over injuries.

 

Personality: Though young, he was old enough to witness and remember his father's attempt to kill the druid, as well as the fallout from Colin's rather dramatic exile from the clan. He's taken it upon himself to try and redeem the family honor, to the point that he may take on quests that are beyond his abilities.

 

His distrust of prophecy comes from his memories of his father's exile, plus his fear that he might be told that he may die with his family name unredeemed. He won't go out of his way to be rude, but he may try to excuse himself quietly.

 

Quote:

 

Background: When Lloyd was 8 his father, a spearman named Colin MacCallahan, tried to kill a Druid, Galen O'Sainglen. All he knows now (no one will discuss the details with him) is that his father, who was known for being proud (a polite way of saying he was an arrogant S.O.B.) received some sort of prophecy from the Druid, got roaring drunk, and managed to kill the horse the Druid rode in on, and was on the way to following up on the druid when Colin was tackled by pretty much the rest of the village.

 

Enraged, Galen not only placed him under the Glam Dicin, but cursed him to never pick up a sword or spear again. Such was the power that the curse also carried onto Lloyd, who still bears it to this day.

 

Lloyd was subject to some shunning after this, to the extent that no other Spearman wished to train the boy. Garret ConBarra, a Hunter and a little more removed from the immediate family and clan, was able to, teaching the youth the craft of hunting. Deirdre, his mother, never really recovered from the shame; the only time she shows any life is when Lloyd completes some task, bringing the family name one step closer (she believes) to redemption.

Nice character.

Re: CotN Outtakes

"You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Lord Liaden again."

Got him for you.

Re: Peace - the Hippie Hero

If Tommy Chong had superpowers....

Ohh good one. Rep for both you and the OP.

As for use, in the 4th ed Viper book there was a hippy villain. Darned if I can remember the name. But if you can find it maybe that will give you some ideas.

Also he would be great for those ambiguous villains, you know want to change the world but but its going too slow. How does he view the changes? Any new causes? (Iraq for example)

Re: Origin in a Box

Sorry to throw a wrench in people's plans but Moonsilver (female light energy projector) asks one question most males seem to overlook, why no females?

Is it demographics or has no female user been empowered? Is this because of brain chemistry?