Psylint

Re: Munchkin Build Contest? There's always Kali or Spiral Extra Limbs, 3" Stretching, no non-combat stretching 30 STR 2d6 HKA, OAF sword, real weapon 2d6 HKA, OAF sword, real weapon 2d6 HKA, OAF sword, real weapon 2d6 HKA, OAF sword, real weapon Multiple power attack? 4 x 4d6 HKA, or a Sweep 3 x 4 x 4d6 HKA?

Re: Is this Munchkinism? Sean, I think that's an interpretive problem. Take your example of the long range sniper with the funky indirect missile. Does that missile pose any danger to anyone or anything other than the target? If not, then the danger is located at the target, and not the shooter. As I recall, even a successful danger sense roll doesn't tell you where the origin of the danger is, such that you could attack it a full OCV. You need a superior roll for that. Particularly for Danger Sense that's intuitive, which never lets you act offensively on it, the range thing just doesn't come up, in my humble opinion. Peace

Re: Missile Deflection for Hand to Hand? Thanks Hyper, forest for the trees, it's so elegant, I could cry (repped)

Haven't seen one of these in a while, so what's your favorite munchkin build power that might possibly have slipped past you or your GM on first glance. "Army of ankle biting Jack Frosts" Winter summons a small army of little ice demons who then try to gang tackle her enemies. 2 Def 1 Body Entangle, Autofire x10 +1, 0 End +1 Non Res. Def =1/4, vuln. fire -1, no barriers -1/4, feet only -1, doesn't restrict foci -1, 1 body -1/2. [60 Active cost, Real Cost after 30 pt. EC bonus 6] Cheers

Hey folks, I've been working on an odd character build, and one of the things I'd like to do is be able to reflect anything coming in. So the character obviously has missile reflection, but how would you build it's hand to hand equivalent? I was thinking something like: Telekinesis, no range, trigger "block", trigger resets automatically. But I couldn't wrap my head around it. Thanks

Re: [Character] Winter QM, It's a fair revisionment. The original munchkin build had 1 EC and 2 multipowers, 1 for her attacks, and 1 for "secondary effects" primarily drains, so things tended to stack in a hurry. Personally, I'm not sure I would go this far to make Winter "fair." In particular the one hex entangle seems odd, why not bump it up to the full reserve? By cutting down her admittedly brickish forcefield, her lack of DCV becomes more telling. The original version, which was admittedly munchkin as I could possibly make it, was a "monster" level villain. She'd drop an 8" ice patch over the battle space, double stack the entangles and then haymaker the energy blast into her captured prey. She was a high intensity encounter, stop everyone in their tracks, hit one of them really hard, head for the hills to catch your breath kind of character. Though it occurs to me, that a certain refinement is indeed in order. I'll take some of your ideas and see if I can make something that's passably fair. Cheers [[Repped]]

Re: Calling all lawyers--Supers and unique legal issues Metaphysician, We all ready see that effect in civil cases all the time. In many instances, jurors have found defendants guilty or liable on the extremely spurious reasoning of "Well, if it'd've been me, I'd've taken the stand in my own defense, but that thar yella' bellied feller, well he just sat there, and that's enough for me to convict/find liable, etc." Under the law, of course, the jury isn't entitled to take notice of whether or not the defendant takes the stand, but they do. Sometimes to the extreme prejudice of what would otherwise legally be determined to be an innocent person. "Realistically" however, even a telepathic interrogation wouldn't be a "guaranteed acquittal." The subject might not remember that the committed the crime (particularly, as is so often the case, they were under the influence of drugs, alcohol, extreme emotion disturbance, have "reality" issues such as hallucinations, and other various forms of psychosis). One of the things that unfortunately happens in child molestation cases is the cops bring Dad into the station and interrogate him, and he says, "I'm guilty." And this gets used at trial, when what he meant was "It's my fault, I was supposed to protect my child from all things and I failed, even though there wasn't any possible way for me to know and even if I did I couldn't have stopped it." Testimony/evidence, all that is not Truth. Folks hold completely incorrect beliefs all the time, and they are quite prepared to swear under oath that it's the truth and the whole truth. It's a GIGO problem. Even if you know the content of another's mind, if it's in error, it doesn't help much. Peace

Re: [Power Build] Blur Houston, Good point! I included it for "realism" reasons rather than cost savings, but thanks for the catch.

Re: Is this Munchkinism? I really don't think it's all that munchkin on first blush. 1. How really useful is invisibility to Danger Sense anyway? Seems to be an awfully rare kind of event. How many times do you allow fire/ice projectors to take huge amounts of resistance or damage reduction limited to those elements? 2. If the character can explain why they think it'll work, even if it involves "comic book physics" it's all good. I had a character that manipulated tiny choatic microfactors that create the "equal opposite reaction" in Newtonian physics to all go the same way. Now I have no clue how chaos theory and Newtonian physics actually interact, but it was a solid enough explanation for my GM to let me do some really neat stuff e.g. leap tall buildings in a single bound, hit like Thor's hammer, even though I couldn't lift 200 lbs. etc. In a heroic campaign such an invisibility isn't that likely to come up. I mean, how often do heroes set up ambushes for villains? Peace

Re: [Power Build] Blur Derek, Personally I agree with you, but for some reason high resistance raises fewer red flags than high DCV. Comic, Lack of Weakness is a good choice too, hadn't thought of that. I have Images to build holograms, and thought it would be neat to create holographic duplicates of the character in different places and encourage enemies to expend their efforts against those that cannot bleed. But here's a question, if the character has images and is currently invisible should the character be readily identified as the source of the images? What if the images were bought with the Indirect advantage? BNakagawa, Probably not. To me area of effect attacks are attacks that cover a hex or more, regardless of how they come to do so. I might argue on sfx grounds for certain types of energy blasts (something that spreads by being "spray and pray" kind of autofire perhaps, but not the solid jet of flame etc.)

Hey folks, Thinking I need to get my E.C. light control character some extra defense. It's a low powered campaign, but I was thinking of: 1. Blur. +8rpd +8red Forcefield, hardened x2, Reduced endurance; Lim. Power. only works against those using visual sight for targeting. Lim. Power does not protect against area of effect attacks. Lim. Power Lockout cannot be used with invisibility. The sfx of the power being that the character creates a series of holograms that resemble the character but "vapor trail" her, tending to make folks hit her "off center" Alternatively, you could have this construction 2. Blur. +5 DCV, Lim. Power. only works against those using visual sight for targeting. Lim. Power does not protect against area of effect attacks. Lim. Power Lockout cannot be used with invisibility. Costs Endurance. Same sfx as above. Nutty? Munchkin? Character currently has well below average resistant defense and a middling DCV and martial dodge. Peace

Re: Measuring Cunning Depends on the cunning. "Low cunning" probably best represented by "Street Fighting Martial Arts" eye gouging, kidney punches, and all that stuff banned by the Earl of Queensbury. "Cunning Vixen" seduction? persuasion "Cunning like the Desert Fox (i.e. Rommel)" Tactics "We have a cunning lawyer" PS: Attorney, KS Law, Securities, Accounting "Cunning Socialite" High Society "Cunning use of available materials (e.g. MacGuyver)" VPP Gadget foci of opportunity; inventor subscale "Jury rig" "Cunning tactics, (e.g. Captain Nationalism uses 2 skill levels to bounce his shield to strike the target from an unexpected direction)" There are lots of different kinds of cunning, but they all tend to put a very high value on both perception and quickly processing information, so INT and SPD come to mind. They also tend to have a tactical or knowledge component. Then again, it could be an instinctive cunning; perhaps one's hardwired reflexes are just very well adapted to the particular environment. Cheers

Re: Help get the heroes to the kidnapped Scifi, Good show! Just because a player might assume that all of these events are interconnected doesn't mean that they are. I love it that you've added in a completely bizarre coincidences that don't make sense. It's awesome! So, let's see.... Somebody, potentially a cat's paw of ARGENT, hired Ninja Clan X to kidnap Dr. Dad, because this somebody isn't proficient at kidnapping or wanted to have a cut out. So why did they kidnap Dr. Dad? Did Dad steal something of theirs? or learn some damaging secret? Does the sombody know that Dr. Dad is the PC's father and wanted to use him as leverage against our stalwart hero? ARGENT hired the mooks to nab something from the warehouse, 'cause they're always after technological gizmos what can make them more powerful, but what exactly? The portable fusion reactor? the freeze ray? spray on hair? Werewolves... hmmm. I suppose that there could be some diabolical plot by Evil Doers Ltd. Putting lycanthropy in the olives (who cares if those snotty lawyers become werewolves, serves them right for being poseurs.) You could just have the press show up and say, "Detective Porter, Samantha Baskins, BTN news, so tell me who's tall, dark, and powered armored?" Peace

Re: Help get the heroes to the kidnapped Scifi_Toughguy, It's a fine scenario, in fact it's one of the classics, which is why I suggested the response I did. It happens all the time in the "cop shows" where folks from dueling jurisdictions ultimately decide to "quit the urinating contest" and share information/cooperate. You could role play it as a tit for tat exchange, "I'll tell you about the mooks that hit the warehouse, if you'll tell me what you found at the scene of the kidnapping." If you're going for the cell-structure, terrorist organization, manipulation behind the scenes, lies within lies, games within games kind of thing, you could "follow the money." Get on Lexis Nexis and trace ownership records, political contributions, hack into IRS or SEC filings for tax records, material disclosures... tons of stuff. Think of where you want the players to go, and then think of a way to get them there. Is the next episode a conflict with a particular antagonist? Or do they have to solve a particular mystery? (e.g. what was Dad working on, and why would someone go to all this trouble to steal him away?) Why did the bad guys go to all this trouble? Building a super weapon to blackmail the planet? Just to raise funds? Hadn't kidnapped anyone in a while? Maybe it's just a training exercise for new bad guy recruits, or a field test of new equipment. Figure out why the bad guys have gone to all this trouble, and you'll know where to go next. Peace

Re: Help get the heroes to the kidnapped OK. So lemme get this straight: Random bad guys are snooping around Dad's warehouses, so Super Team knocks skulls and otherwise takes care of business. Calls the paddy wagon to cart the corpses, unconscious forms away. As the heroes leave, PC gets a call on her cell phone from Mom, "Dad's been kidnapped by guys in pajamas!" Super Team runs to Dad's house (we assume PC comforts Mom when she gets a chance, assuming Mom knows about her power armor hobby). The cops are being snotty, so the Super Team decides to back track to Dad's office to see if they can figure out what the mooks going after the warehouse were looking for. When suddenly, from La Vida Loca the nightclub across from Dad's office, screaming and inhuman roars are heard as dozens of patrons practically stampede out the exits screaming "Werewolf!" Super Team springs into action, rounds up and disposes of the varmits, tends to the injured, and then continue to Dad's office. But lo there, before me the cops and the FBI are all ready there. PC to agent no-name "What's the probability that mooks try to break into this company's warehouses, freaks in pajamas kidnap one of its tops scientists, and werewolves attack a nightclub just across the street on the same night as that scientist's office is ransacked? Perhaps we should pool information?"

Re: Help get the heroes to the kidnapped Alternatively: Shapeshift or images to mimic one of the law enforcement officers, there are probably more than enough that someone in the appropriate uniform will be admitted so long as they act like they belong. Telepathy, mind control, hacking computer databases, massive presence attack. Decent conversation, threatening the bring the press in, using contacts or favors for "back channel" information. For example, if my entirely offenseless Flicker were in this situation, she might pull a Batman Begins. Isolate one of those who should be in the know, restrain them, stick them with a local anesthetic, and then.. "You remember me? Good. I've learned new tricks. Do you know what a carbon monoxide laser does to human flesh? It's really interesting, cauterizes it instantly, no blood. You know what else is interesting, I heard Attorney General Comic say that so long as there's no pain, there's no torture. How does your hand feel? Pretty numb? Well, I'm in no rush. What's that? Oh nothing personal, it's just you are in possession of information I need, and knowing you were an upstanding member of law enforcement, I wasn't going to insult you just by asking. I know you can thank me later at the board of inquiry. You should make quite an impression with all of your fingers cut off at different digits. So, where should we start? How about the middle finger, it's a vulgar thing anyway....." Flicker of course wouldn't stoop to actually using her short ranged RKA to slice off folks fingers, but she's more than willing to use her images to convince others that she has to get what she needs. Or they could do their own police work and "follow the money"... Gee Dad's a scientist working on ____ who would want that? Check out his bank records, phone logs etc. Peace

Re: Calling all lawyers--Supers and unique legal issues Comic, Whatever. I could deconstruct your response, but it would merely generate a similar one including "But if the Supreme Court is the ultimate interpreter of the Constitution and they haven't ruled then how can you make these conclusions about the 4th and 5th." Viewed in a certain light the only certain law is that which applied after a case was disposed and before it was appealed, reviewed, legislated over etc. Has the Supreme Court reversed itself? Yes. Has the Supreme Court argued by analogy from preceding cases, All the frickin' time. Due Process is complicated and requires a lot more depth than I can provide here. If you would like to discuss it further, send me a PM and I'll direct you to some basic materials, including for example the Federal Rules of Evidence, the Constitution, and about 2,000 pages of Supreme Court precedent, and then we can talk intelligently. Peace

Re: Help get the heroes to the kidnapped Johnny drops by dear ole Dad's house sees eighty bazillion cops, yellow tape, gets stopped by bully boys in black suits with ear wigs and told "Matter of National Security, move along." Johnny, understandably upset, decks Mr. National Security and starts yelling, "Where's my Dad!" promptly gets tackled by boys in blue. One of the FBI pukes comes over squats down and says, "You wanna keep breathin? 'Cause that's gotta be heavy. Tell you what, you agree to shut the Hell up, I'll get these guys off you, and we can go get coffee. Otherwise, we put the cuffs on, put a black bag over your head, and you're on the first plane to Gitmo." FBI puke of course suspects Johnny of being involved in something criminal and is using this "tough love" to build credibility so that he can get Johnny to open up and make incriminating statements against himself. _________________ That's one way to do it, but to answer fully I'd need to know 1. How do the players know that Daddy was kidnapped? 2. What is the relationship between Daddy and the players? 3. Where are the players? 4. What were the players doing immediately before they found out that Daddy was kidnapped? If it was a phone call, then let Sonny call Mom, Brother Joe and Sister Sue (and a lawyer if he's smart). Then kick it to Sonny. Seriously, put yourself in that moment, and you'll know what you'd do, even if it's dithering around dazed and confused not knowing what to do. Peace

Re: Calling all lawyers--Supers and unique legal issues Comic, I believe you are conflating telepathy and torture. My position is, to be clear, only that telepathy, as it is commonly described as some sort of psychic ability to overhear thoughts, read minds, etc. is an unlawful search. The Supreme Court has established that there are certain zones of privacy where the government just cannot go. One of these is "the marital bedroom" and whether you use the various contraception cases or go to Romer and various others, it is established law that there are matters into which the government cannot delve without extreme justification. I also mentioned that telepathy in its common accepted sfx would cause issues versus the right against self-incrimination. While a person can choose not to speak, and indeed has an established and well known right to remain silent, it is not possible to choose not to think. Not sure why you're hung up on torture, because I'm not. The issue with telepathy is that it runs afoul of both the 4th and 5th Amendments. I cannot now conceive of any circumstances under which it would be lawful to use telepathy on a person who did not consent. The court has all ready established that convicted and incarcerated prisoners who have about the least rights of persons in this country still may refuse "medical treatment" that the State wants for the purposes of gathering evidence if such treatment involves either significant risk or harm. So for example, the State cannot compel a convict to undergo an operation to remove a bullet from his body, because the risks associated with surgery are too grave and it is a basic right guaranteed under the Constitution that one be secure in one's own body. Given the added difficulty about the prohibition of compelled self-incrimination, I cannot see how any court could be at all faithful to the Constitution and admit telepathic evidence gained without the express consent of the subject of such telepathy. As far as the specific example of waterboarding. Under certain international treaties to which the United States is a signatory waterboarding is a prohibited form of interrogation. You may recall that the Attorney General of the United States which authored that opinion also was of the opinion that the President was empowered to detain United States citizens without charge, outside the country, without access to an attorney; and he was wrong. The United States lost all of its cases on the issue all the way up to the Supreme Court. Similarly, this same Attorney General has resigned in disgrace, in no small due to his tendency to issue legal opinions that the majority of those in the legal profession find "aggressive" at best, and "completely insane" at worst. And the federal courts have consistently ruled against these opinions. I would be careful when citing Alberto Gonzales as an authority under such circumstances. And as far as the Vice President is concerned, he cannot decide whether or not he is part of the executive branch, the legislative branch or an entirely and heretofore unknown 4th branch of government subject to the laws or executive orders of either. So no you didn't misunderstand the statements by the former Attorney General or the Vice President, it is just that according to the Supreme Court, the ultimate arbiter of all things Constitutional, the former Attorney General and the Vice President were wrong. Peace

Re: Your Character/Game Equation Flicker = Dazzler + Bruce Banner Psilint = Professor Xavier + the Incredible Hulk + Green Arrow Jeremy = Bedrock + (Jean Grey - Phoenix) + Kinetic/Mirage

Re: Calling all lawyers--Supers and unique legal issues The legally undead: Folks can be declared dead even when a body isn't produced, but it is a court judgment, and can be set aside in the interest of justice if new evidence arises, like when someone is missing for 10 years or more and suddenly shows up back at home with wild stories about being Shanghai'ed by gorgeous Neo-Nazis with rainbow colored mohawks and a penchant for quoting Scripture. The undead create some serious issues, particularly the "intelligent undead." I mean should a person really be able to discharge their criminal and civil liabilities through death, if as in the case of vampires they come back with, generally, full awareness of their previous actions and such measure of will power as they possessed in life (admittedly often compromised slightly by a new addiction, but that can happen to anybody). The "stupid undead" like zombies, given their, traditional, limited free will would generally not be considered legal adults, would evade most criminal prosecution for failure of the mens rea or "intent" or "malice" requirements. But would they be considered legal persons? I'm not sure, I could readily see how a jury would refuse to convict someone accused of murdering a zombie of the moaning "Brianzzzzz" type. To the best of my knowledge, though, you are either a human being, a piece of property, a fictive or legal "person", or an entity who's legal identity is yet to be determined (chiefly these are those entities which in the normal course of evidents given time, resources and barring accident or other outside influence would be born and thus accounted as a human being everywhere within the United States). Gods, extraterrestrials, elves etc. that appear human would likely be presumed to be human under proven otherwise. Though afterwards, I'm not sure, but they'll likely be accorded "human" status. (Especially if the extraterrestrial arrived by technological process). Robots and androids and other created beings will be presumed to be property, and I can't think of a way that they'd shake that in practice. Even proof of independence and sentience isn't sufficient, in my expectation. Various apes have been demonstrated to have abstract reasoning skills, but they're still considered property. Peace

Re: Calling all lawyers--Supers and unique legal issues Highwayman, Yes police can use observations to establish probable cause, after all what else can they use? But what Comic I think Comic was talking about was Super Detective asserting as FACT that x is lying because Super Detective can through the use of observation infallibly tell whether someone is lying. It's just not likely to happen. In the American system, the jury resolves all questions of credibility (for the most part, there are almost always exceptions in law). Counsel could, however, establish Super Detective as an expert and then Super Detective can assert, I am an expert, and in my expert opinion x is lying, but he could not assert that x was lying as a fact. Similarly, the opposing counsel could establish a counter expert, who could testify that their expert opinion was x is telling the truth. And in any event, the "battle of dueling experts" is resolved by the jury as almost all credibility issues are. What constitutes direct evidence as opposed to expert opinion gets a little fuzzy, and honestly evidence isn't my strong suit, but "lying" or "truth-telling" aren't facts in the way that liver temperature being 14 degrees Celsius is a fact. Even "death" is often a matter of expert opinion rather than fact. peace

Re: writers block Investigate new powers or effects: 1. Build a brick that uses high DCV or Desolid or Damage Reduction instead of resistant defense. 2. Use the "random" powers that you hardly use, Dispel, Suppress, Darkness, Clinging, Images. 3. Pick a "force of nature" and build an elemental control for it. Did that for Sonic/Vibration a while back ended up with a laundry list of almost every power in the book and it even made sense. 4. Start with disadvantages you hardly ever use, Normal Characteristic Maxima, Accidental Change, Rivalry, 5. Build a character around the premise that they have one totally awe-inspiring ability, that has absolutely no use in combat. 6. Go for Comedy, "Echo Locating Flying Mammal Man" 7. Take an emotion, a memory, a victory or a defeat and vivify it. "V", the Revenant, Superman, Captain America, Nobody, Leach, Ghost Rider 8. Start out with the following, "Asphalt really doesn't taste too terribly different from the way a week old ash tray smells, though admittedly ash trays do not have blood to liven the palate. Odd the recollections that go through your mind when Grond is charging up the street." What does your character do? Why is the character on the ground? What if anything are they going to do about Grond? Is Grond charging the character? Write these out and you'll have a fair idea of who your character is, what their attitudes are and at least some of what they can do.

Re: Calling all lawyers--Supers and unique legal issues Comic: The first part of your post was about passive telepathy, at the very end you had "super deduction" or "extreme observation of body language. As far as the super-deductive reasoning is concerned, it's a credibility issue. It like a mechanical lie detector would, in general, be treated as a technology or scientific method which would have to gain generally recognized consensus within the applicable scientific field. Not sure what the applicable field would be, but if it's just one person or a limited number of persons, it's simply not likely. It's just too easy to explain anything away in social or psycho-social terms as a statistical outlier when you are dealing with small numbers. Furthermore, you would have difficulty establishing "truth indicators" in any kind of competitive setting. Super Detective says, "I know he was lying because I observed x,y, and z" Defense counsel, "To your knowledge is it possible to observe x,y, and z in someone and have them not be lying?" "Is it possible that a person might be attempting to be deceptive and exhibit x,y, and z and yet be factually incorrect, that is to say if I honestly believe that the Red Sox have never won the world series, and I attempt to lie and say "The Red Sox have won a world series" might I exhibit x,y and z even though the utterance itself is true?" Telepathy, in the sense of directly overhearing one's thought, or actively pushing one's consciousness into another's and looking about, is torture. It is a violation of the basic human dignity. Torture need not cause lasting physical injury to be torture, e.g. water boarding. If you take away the terror, the humiliation, the injury, the extremis of torture, you're left with incarceration and asking questions. But then again, if you take away the gun and the bullets from Mr. Creely, you just have asking questions "Why won't you die?" As to the likely effect of an awareness of actual telepathy even amongst world leaders, well that is entirely speculation. I do not think it is much of a stretch, that if say the government knew I was an actual telepath that they would, for example, allow me to emmigrate to Russia, or tour the White House or the Pentagon. And once you accept that, the rest tends to follow. Megaplayboy: 1. A person has a Constitutional right to attend their own trail and "confront the witnesses against them." The most analogous cases are those involving child molestation and abuse, where the witness actual testifies via closed circuit T.V., that is to say that the witness is not present in the court room but the defendant is. There is some minor grumbling that a Constitutional violation occurs because the witness in such cases is often unable to view the defendant. There are circumstances where a defendant can be removed from a courtroom, generally related to violence or continued disruption of the process by the defendant, but I believe the more frequent response is to chain and gag the defendant and leave them in the court. In the case of super=pheromone boy/girl/thing a muzzle of some sort might be used, or alternatively the other occupants of the courtroom inoculated (though that presents its own issues, you can be compelled to serve jury duty, but compelled "health care" or "medical treatment" is rather dicey). There are provisions for trying persons in absentia. I believe that Osama bin Laden has been tried and convicted in absentia, but I confess I do not know the procedures for that process. Peace

Re: Calling all lawyers--Supers and unique legal issues Actually, I would advise Captain Amazing to just sell his publicity rights to a marketing firm for a lump sum payment. He or she wouldn't get as much in the long term potentially (you'd prefer a cut off the top for the big bucks, like Jack Nicholson's percentage of the original Batman movie) but it would be a lot easier. The hero is also then shielded from a lot of liability issues. The problem with assigning publicity rights to a business organization, like a corporation or LLC, that you have a continuing (if not controlling) interest in is that the court might "pierce the corporate veil" and hold you liable personally for misdeeds or defaults by the business organization (which rather roundly defeats the whole purpose of organizing the entity in the first place). Alternatively, it might be a way to "go public" with your celebrity. Organize a corporation, list its equity securities on the exchange, disclose its assets consisting primarily of the publicity rights to Captain Amazing, along with whatever endorsement deals you've signed etc. It just might work. Peace