Psylint

Re: Justifying Playable SPD

Re: Superpowers in the Courthouse My political commentary was in reference to Gitmo, where there were no courts, or even filed charges. Most specifically the case of Jose Padilla. I am no apologist for the Obama administration, but to my knowledge, the current White House has not yet been accused of taking a United States citizen from United States territory, removed that citizen from the United States to territory nominally part of a foreign country, held such citizen without charge or access to counsel for indefinite periods of time. As to your point, it is true that a defendant that proves disruptive may be removed from the courthouse, but the defendant in question always has the right to be present and confront witnesses directly, until they prove disruptive. No judge may order a defendant from the courtroom under the rationale that such defendant is likely or even certain to become disruptive. The law still requires that before any person is forcibly deprived of life, liberty or property that such person commit an act. The original poster's point was, "How do you get super powered individuals into the courtroom" not as your post suggests, what to do with them after they've entered and proven disruptive.

Re: Superpowers in the Courthouse Actually, the solution is fairly easy, and there is a lot of precedent for similar cases. It first started with abused and molested minors. The minor called as a witness testified at a remote and secure location via closed circuit television. Several appellate courts ruled that such testimony did not infringe upon the defendant's right to "confront witnesses called against him." Similarly, in cases where the witness has a highly dangerous and communicable conditions, such as T.B., they may also be required to give testimony using modern "tele-presence" technology. If one wanted to be a stickler for the rules, there's no reason why the super powered individual could not similarly testify. A more difficult question occurs if the super powered individual is the defendant. Unless one goes back to the relatively lawless days of Bush the Younger's administration, the Constitution clearly and explicitly protects the right of the accused to be present at trial, to confront each and every witness arrayed against him/her/it. In the end, a super powered defendant would simply be a "special case" where the court deputies would most likely deputize one or more super powered individuals to act as guards for the super powered defendant. Cheers

Re: Justifying Playable SPD Ice9, The problem you are describing seems to be "Speed creep." If the average individual who's not just a placeholder is Speed 5, then a normal person at Speed 2 is pathetically slow. Recently, I've been working on campaign guidelines where characters that you describe, individuals with one or at most few truly supernatural characteristics or qualities. (Particularly in light of the 6e supposedly getting rid of figured characteristics). Suppose instead of an average speed of 5, which has been common in many superhero campaigns, I proposed a new descriptive system: 1. Speed 2: Normal folks without special training. 2. Speed 3: Trained individuals accustomed to making important decisions very quickly, e.g. police officers, fire fighters, amateur boxers, ER surgeons, etc. 3. Speed 4: Highly trained and naturally gifted individuals, martial artists, professional basketball players/boxers/Formula 1 racers, demonstration shootists, etc. 4. Speed 5: Superhuman or preternatural entities e.g. super speedsters, super computers. 5. Speed 6: Absolute cap. Under this system, the average speed tends to be closer to 3 than 4 which makes playing a lower speed character more tolerable. In addition, it makes Recovery, time delays on drains/aids/etc more relevant (as things tend to last longer than 1 Turn). It also, in my opinion, protects schtick fairly well. The Speedster at 6 is 3x faster than normal humans, 2x fast as almost anyone else, and still has a 50% advantage over the highest trained people on the planet. In order to "make up" the combat potential to address BNakagawa's idea that "Most trained combatants can throw 5 or more attacks, shoot 5 or more targets in 12 seconds or less" I say rapid fire/sweep + skill levels + Rapid Attack (melee and/or ranged as appropriate). Peace

Re: Golden Girl Some observations: 1. As a GM, I wouldn't allow the -1/4 Visible limitation. It seems that every where it appears is all ready visible, except the energy trail on the flight. 2. I'd want a little more detail on the whole Public ID, Streetwise thing. While there are teenagers that have contacts in the darker underworld of crime in our cities, cheerleaders aren't the first to come to mind. Additionally, it seems a bit odd that she in particular would have such contacts as she is known to be a (presumably) crime fighting superhero. 3. Minor/Young. I see these as more social limitations, and more valuable (20 pts or more). Speaking on social lims, she's still in school so she would have the same social limitations as someone with a desperately needed 9 to 5. (After all, it's a crime for a minor not to attend school, unless she's dropped out; plus, there are all those other commitments implied by her backstory, homework, midterms, sporting events, cheerleading practice, etc.) 4. Golden Energy Cage: probably needs "hole in the middle" for the effect you describe. As a GM, I'm leery of continuing effects at 0 end. You might consider some way to extinguish or otherwise dispel the effect. 5. Endurance management: You have a lot of attacks that consume a ton of endurance with a relatively very small pool of End and Recovery. 6. Potentially underpowered. 6d6, even with autofire, is simply going to bounce a lot. It may be quite difficult for this character to "punch their way out of a paper wad death trap." 7. Potentially quite fragile. Depending on the lethality level of the campaign, of course. If others are tossing around 75 AP attacks, particularly killing attacks, 12rpd is just not going to keep you alive. With only 18 Con, you're likely to be stunned on almost any significant hit, and with only 6 DCV, you're hard to miss. 8. You should qualify for a normal characteristic maxima disadvantage. Peace

Re: Mercenary Supervillains "So, you got bitten by a radioactive wombat and you wanna see the world eh? Get paid to pound people into the jelly with those oversized mandibles? Well I suppose you could just mug random people what you meet, but that's high risk low reward stuff, even if you know how to clone credit cards, and let's face it, if you had the smarts to do that, you wouldn't need to pound people to jelly in the first place." "No my mutated friend, what you need is an economic niche wherein your unique talents are not only tolerated, least as far as the yelling, screaming, pitchfork thing, and renumerated. Well, what you need is a mercenary contract. There are dozens of governments, criminal organizations, corporations (though to be honest who can tell the difference?) For reasons that shall escape all understanding, there are people in the world who are eager to pay folks, what're like us, to "acquire" certain articles or person, or destroy certain articles or persons. Heck there's folks what paid just to raise Hell. Hey, I don't understand it, but when the Good Lord puts a fool in your path what wants to pay you obscene amounts of money to do that which by nature you're bound to do anyways... Why it's not nice to look divine providence in the mouth, know what I mean?" Thought experiment: Bob has been bitten by a radioactive Wombat. He now has super strength, the ability to tunnel through the earth at great speed, and is extremely resistant to injury. How does Bob profit from these gifts? Become a longshoreman? Naw, he'd be fired under pressure from the union in no time. Become a substitute crane/bulldozer/etc.? Nope, violates OSHA regs here to Sunday. Honestly, what I think Bob is left with is either some kind of unregulated sports, like Tough Man Fighting, crime, or mercenary/military service. So short answer, supervillains become mercenaries because it is one of the few areas where their abilities give them an economic advantage.

Re: Genre Conventions & Values 1. What kind of character springs to mind? A highly observant, weirdness magnet, private detective. 2. Morality? grey, anything involving terrorists ultimate leads to hard choices. 3. Realism? I would expect a realistic style, "people with guns kill people" 4. Lethality? Death is a real and present risk to player characters, similarly killing can and likely will happen, but is not condoned.

Re: Mottos for use in games Civil War motto "Be Prepared" meaning be prepared to die, seems we nasty, sneaky insurrections slipped that into the Boy Scouts without you needling carpet baggers even noticing. "Follow me" Army Rangers, as I recall. "We provide the enemy with the utmost opportunity to die for his country." "Don't tread on me" former state motto of Virginia I think.

Re: Effective builds Assuming you're just talking about powers and/or advantages and not munchkin builds which stack limitations to make absurdly powerful effects for micro points. 1. Smell as a targeting and tracking sense, almost never flashed, darkened out, etc. 2. 2 Overall skill levels. 3. Rapid Attack, Two Weapon Fighting. 4. Find Weakness 5. Mental Illusions: favorite example making enemies appear as friends and vice versa. tons of fun. 6. Images 7. Aid, in a team context even a little Aid gets broken quickly. 8. Martial Arts generally, ranged martial arts in particular. 9. Flight, movement, can mitigate kb, provides "long range" combat punch with additional damage. 10. Teamwork, Coordinated attacks hit very hard.

Re: Hero Philosophy - SPEED I'm a low speed advocate. In fact, I prefer all characteristics above "fit normal" to be justified by concept in some way. It's a concept protection measure. The numbers are meaningless without context. A 20rpd Brick is an invulnerable tank in a campaign that maxes out at 6 DC's. Whereas a 40 rpd Brick in a campaign where everyone throws at least 25 DC's is soon broken. Lower speeds allow speedster types to have their rightful "I get to act more often and change strategy more quickly than you" without it being impossible for lower speed characters to gain the advantage of things like going first after a successful block. It also ensures that taking a recovery mid Turn is an at least somewhat risky proposition. It also allows effects with continuing duration, drains, et. al to have a more tactical impact. When most are operating at speed 6 or higher, I find few combats last much more than a Turn.

Re: Close Your Nose Try this. Hold your Nose. Darkness, self only, Normal Scent only. (get a GM hand wave or a FRED limitation for "No Radius") Alternatively, (Any Area, Selective should work for the most RAW sticklers) That should render you unable to perceive any smell.

Re: What to do about Hydras This was originally my thought as well, but I have to admit the ability to make a move through attack, then several individual attacks, and still have a couple of phases of held actions is quite powerful. My thanks and rep, to all that I can for the great insight.

Been thinking for a while how to build a character that can reflect back all attacks made against him, whether hand to hand or ranged. To handle the hand to hand part I've thought of this and thought I'd throw it up to Herodom for criticism and comment Li Quan's Army of Me: 1. Duplication (creates 4 duplicates) Limited Power One body +0, Feedback all duplicates take damage when struck -1, Non persistent -1/4, Restrainable -1/2 (Duplicates automatically recombine if base character is entangled or grabbed). 2. Missile Deflection and Reflection 3. Martial Throw. The idea being that the character will have the duplicates hold phase for the purposes of Martial Throwing any opponent that attempts a hand to hand attack or deflecting and reflecting a ranged attack. I may have the rules totally futzed, but I think this might work.

Re: What to do about Hydras So then, 1. The Hydra could make a full move with one head, and then the other 7 would have their full phase. 2. One head has a half phase, the other 7 have a full phase. 3. Yes. 4. Yes, presumably with the -2 OCV penalty for blocking for another. 5. No. Excellent. Thanks bunches.

Been trying to wrap my head around the implications of -0 Cannot Recombine Duplication construct for multiple hydra heads, and was hoping for some insight. Assume that there are 8 Hydra heads and all are identical: 1. If the hydra makes a full move, can any of the heads take an action? 2. If the hydra makes a half move, does 1 head get a half phase action, and the rest a full phase, or are all limited to a half phase? 3. If 1 head makes an attack action, can the other heads hold their action? 4. Can 1 head use Block to intercept a strike aimed at another head? or the hydra in general. 5. If 1 head aborts to a defensive action does that prevent the Hydra from moving until that head's next action? I'm trying to figure out what the advantages of Cannot Recombine are that cancel out the disadvantages of not being able to be in multiple places at once. Thanks!

Re: Area of Effect Defense An easier, Rules as written way: Everyone in the team takes Armor. The Protector takes "Super Duper Area of Effect Defensiveness" xd6 Aid Armor, Area of Effect Radius, Selective Target. or for the constantly maintained and instantly dropped shield of defensiveness xd6 Succor Armor, Area of Effect Radius, Selective Target. Peace

Re: How to open a door? Just so you know, huge tanks of liquid nitrogen have been lying around the streets in downtown New York for quite a while (about the size of an old enclosed phone booth; if anybody remembers those). They should have more than enough capacity, and are only anchored by 3/4 inch chains and a padlock. Not that I was thinking of nicking them or anything.

Re: How to open a door? Just so you know, huge tanks of liquid nitrogen have been lying around the streets in downtown New York for quite a while (about the size of an old enclosed phone booth; if anybody remembers those). They should have more than enough capacity, and are only anchored by 3/4 inch chains and a padlock. Not that I was thinking of nicking them or anything.

Re: expert traveler Or use the Universal Translator Approach I've been everywhere, man; I've been everywhere Universal Travel, custom Talent, Int roll for Area Knowledge, all areas on planet. 20 pts.

Re: How to open a door? You can always go old school, as in the Roman Way. Heat the door a great deal, then hit it with a fire extinguisher, the rapid contraction of the heated metal will cause it to shatter. The Romans tunneled through mountains using a similar technique using bonfires and water barrels. A more subtle way is to use liquid nitrogen and a hammer. If you have the set up time, undermining the foundation underneath the vault can cause the vault floor to split allowing access. Tunnel underneath one side, brace with timbers, exit then burn the timbers. Set up a disturbingly power electromagnet in the center of the vault door to magnetically pull the rods from their sockets. Hostage taking is always a classic, or bribing an inside man. "Depositing" a co-conspirator in the vault a la Ocean's 11.

Re: Spear of Destiny +x Pre. OAF "Spear of Destiny, Independent. Where x is rather large 60+ The Spear of Destiny was supposed to provide its bearer with the ability to raise and lead armies to victory. In game terms, massive PRE attacks to recruit and inflame the troops.

Would you allow a power with trigger advantage in a multipower? I'm leaning against it, but honestly, despite Steve's usual clarity, I'm completely confused about how to resolve it. It seems to me that if you have a power with trigger in a multipower, you're essentially getting a whole power for 1/10 the cost for no limitation over taking the same power outside the multipower. Am I missing something?

Re: Help! Need a name! Male Plant Controller names: John Baleycorn Thamuz (if Persian) Woden (if Germanic) Viridios (if Celtic) Verdan But my personal favorite has to be "Lorax" As in Dr. Seus, "I am the Lorax, and I speak for the trees, that you are down as fast as you please."

Re: Mental Feint? You could try images: Images all ready has the Perception roll to spot the unreality of it and seems to replicate your effect almost completely except for it being personal to the target. But I think Sean has the best idea, a limited mind control "abort to defensive action" is probably the easiest and cleanest way to get what you want.

Re: Problem Player (?) For my two-bits: 1. Prevention and individual attention works wonders. Stomping on munchkinism before an audience can cause bad feelings both on the part of the player stomped on and his/her fellows. I always ask players to describe their powers, particularly in terms of limitations. If a character has Lim. Power only in intense magnetic fields, I'll ask "Under what circumstances would you encounter intense magnetic fields in your opinion?" Personally, I can't thing of anywhere intense magnetic fields operate, except maybe the inside of a power generator. 2. Unfair but Firm. It's important to establish "no nonsense" early or you'll be dealing with power creep all the time. If someone has a disagreement over your interpretation of the rules, campaign limits etc. and it's prior to the campaign, give them a shot to persuade you. If you're unpersuaded, "I appreciate your position, but I am unpersuaded. I may be wrong, but I've put a lot of work into creating a fun and balanced campaign based on my interpretation. So for the purposes of this campaign that's the way it's going to be." You can offer to help revise the character to fit within your rules. If it's an in-game issue, simply refuse, "You may have a point, but I'm not going to hold everybody up for it." 3. Generally prefer, "Sorry Bob, but your character just renders my campaign FUBAR and would need a lot of changes to fit in. So it's up to you." to kicking people. I try to reserve sitting people out for bad behavior. Probably because I'm well aware of my inner munchkin, and recognize sometimes it can be difficult to see the line between really effective but justified by concept, and min maxed power gaming munchkinism.