JackValhalla

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team! If I was picking, I'd go with a Halloween / classic movie monsters theme. Frankenstein, mummy, witches, jack-o-lanterns, you get it. Madhouse brings together six (6) villains who inspire fear, and perhaps nostalgia, in the populace. While the theme might be whimsical, they have achieved higher bodycounts than most of the monsters they resemble. No Code Vs Killing. Brought together by the desire to see terror and blood and panic, they pool their abilities to the detriment of all others.

Re: Create a Villain Theme Team! People, like their genes, can be recessive. And then, there is Dominant. Eight feet tall, built like a linebacker with a jaw like a steam shovel, with a condescending sneer permanently etched into his face, Dominant often triggers primordial memories of high school bullies. And, while he is a perfectly serviceable brick with super-strength and bullet-proof skin, Dominant actually gets his name from his power of mind control, which is the equal of Psimon or Hypnos. With this variety of powers, he is a valued member of the team. As a personality... not so much. He is just as pushy, manipulative, headstrong and intolerant as his name would suggest. He believes utterly that he should be leading this team, and occasoinally exhibits symptoms of Starscream Syndrome. He has made serious plays to take over the group in the past, but he has been utterly stymied by DNA's ability to shut his powers off at a whim, as he has a Vulnerability to Adjustment Powers. He has tried to rally the others to help him overthrow her, but it is doomed to failure by his own distasteful personality. Few team leaders would allow one of their own to act like this, but he has proven himself easy for her to control, and entirely too useful to cast aside.

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team! In the annals of crime-fighting, there is a special place for the millionaire industrialist inventor. However, none of them are quite like The Reverse Engineer. In every hidden lair, in every doomsday device, in every mad science lab, there are hundreds of thousands of inventions that could change the world. And nearly all of them are exploded, or tipped into a volcano, or shot into space, or left to decompose in the frozen Siberian tundra. But the Reverse Engineer always takes a few minutes out to swipe some valuable tech before he goes, for study and mass production. In his public identity as Reginald Efraim, he runs RETeck, the innovative technology firm. After all, villains can't register patents or start FDA hearings, but legitimate businessmen-slash-heroes can. He got his start as a tech geek tagging along with a local hero team to shut down the doomsday device or hack the mainframe, but with his first suit of "borrowed" power armor, he started a new life. Seven years of adventuring later, he is now a fabulously wealthy man. Still, his competition is fierce, and he needs to keep "finding" new advances in science; so rather than retiring to a life of luxury, he is still a full-time hero, and a Playboy.

Re: A new system of disadvantages I might allow that the current Disadvantage system is bent, but it's not broken. I don't see a need for alternative systems. Some parts of it look good, and I may even adapt part of it as house rules in a future campaign, if my players don't mind. In particular, I like the Personality Traits that can influence a character for better or for worse without representing full-blown Psychological Limitations, and give a quantifiable basis for roleplaying XP. But, as a whole I find it overly limiting and simplistic. I think that it excludes more concepts and builds than it includes. I think that it will take many playtests before the math is balanced for fun and fair play with minimal opportunity for munchkinism. And, after that playtesting, I don't think you'll find a significant improvement over the current Disadvantage mechanics. So, I don't mind melding the Personality traits with Tetsuji's recommendation, or instead using the Burning Wheel method mentioned earlier. But the History and Weakness sections look like they penalize player characters excessively, and both lack flexibility for character design. If the XP penalty for History is removed, and the buyback costs are readjusted to 1-to-1, that'd be a step in the right direction. If point caps were raised, so that I could take 75 points or so in a category (still capped at 150 overall), I'd be more amenable to using it. If the History and Weaknesses were expanded and clarified, that would help. Right now you have a lot of very relative values, and that means lots of room for miscommunication and difference of opinion. There's a reason that Hunteds and DNPCs have die rolls and stat totals attached to them, for example. Weakness as written may simulate Susceptibility and Dependence well enough, but it lacks a mechanism to convert Vulnerabilities or Distinctive Features that are recognizable and potentially problematical without being vile enough to cause social penalties. And, I contest your statement that NCM and accidental change are build considerations. Certainly, one could use limitations to simulate accidental change, but that works against the spirit of Limitations and Disadvantages. Changing accidentally does not make a Multiform less powerful or useful, and it does not affect shapeshifting powers detrimentally, but it is a handicap to the character as a whole, causing a slew of problems. Those problems are normally solved after the change has reversed, and cause difficulty in interactions and relationships, among other things. Normal Characteristic Maxima is a disadvantage that I particularly enjoy. Any player that wants to take it is welcome. A player should get special dispensations for being willing to handicap their character in that way. Plus, it is often very genre-driven, and it is often focal to a character's design and concept. All of this provided in a spirit of constructive criticism. I apologize if my tone was a bit strong at times.

Re: WWYCD: "Dear Superhero" (Warning: Ugly situation) Scarlet Raven: Given a couple of hours of prep, Raven's one of the strongest mentalists on the planet. And though she works for the government, she has no qualms about defying them for a cause. So, a little psychometry, a lot of mind scan, some telepathy.. she'll get to the bottom of this. And if she doesn't like what she finds, it's "Scanners" time! Snow Leopard: Would probably spend at least a day waffling about what to do, but in the end would steal some money, travel to Africa, set up camp, and wait to catch the marauders in action. Then, he would make a huge mess out of them and all their accomplices. Then, he'd steal everything valuable and move in on the capitol city!

Re: A new system of disadvantages The principle seems good. But unless I am missing something, the math is a bit broken. Or, perhaps we just need some time and effort put into fixing the math. Allow me some examples. I can take a personality trait, for 5 character points. This will cause me to take a -1 penalty in certain social situations that apply. I may gain XP, or fractions thereof, for roleplaying this. If it is too disadvantageous, I can neglect this disadvantage, if I am willing to accept a penalty of an XP, that is then used to buy off the disadvantage in question. Or, I can take a weakness for 5 character points. This will cause me to take a -2 penalty in all social situations. I never gain anything for this beyond the initial character points, and I may never neglect it, no matter the circumstance, save by paying 10 experience points. Hmm, or I could take three Weaknesses, (call 'em "Shrimp", "Wuss", and "Pansy") and take a -5 to STR, a -5 to CON, and a -5 to BODY, and get 50 character points that cost me 25 points of characteristics. It would cost me 100 xp to buy off these weaknesses... so it looks like my wussy little pansy shrimp is never going to grow up. Unless, of course, the GM lets me buy those stats up without buying off the disadvantage.. but I don't see that happening easily. I think I need clarification or an expansion of these proposed rules. As written, they break easily under stress.

Re: Section 8 & the Ward You must spread rep yadda yadda yadda... Someone catch this for me, would you? Thanks!

Re: Super Fantasy- The Land of Mar'Veldc Peter Parker as a herald, a paid messenger who travels from town to town delivering small packages and collecting tales of events to sell his gossip to the nobility. Yet, under cover of night, he masks himself as the Spider, the famed burglar who battles corruption, protects the populace and defends the weak! With his unique skills gathered in the Far East, and his unique system of grapples, nets and bolas, he swings from the high towers and trounces those who would do wrong, leaving them tied and dazed on the doorstep of the sheriff. Yeah, I can see that. Maybe a magic ring that gives him that famous Spidey-Sense?

Re: Altered Duplicates Actually, I'm staring at a build right now with Duplication, and I have a related question. I need a ruling, but I found the language in the book was a bit vague for me, and I could use feedback. Presuming that Doc Samson's interpretation was correct, and that the dupe can spend less points without requiring the advantage. (60 STR vs 55 STR, per his example #2) If the original character (350) has a 6d6 EB with +1 advantage, and has a duplicate built at half value (175), would you allow that dupe to have a 6d6 EB without the +1 advantage? My gut feeling is yes, but every time that I read the book and check the math, it does not give a definitive answer. The +1 advantage in question is "usable by others, simultaneously", if you're interested. So, creating duplicates that have the same power is, somewhat, within special effect. He can use the EB and give it to his teammates, and he can create duplicates with the same EB. The player would like to buy the duplication without the advantage, if possible. This has been puzzling me for a week. The math is not straightforward, but I'd be inclined to allow it, given the special effect.

Re: What powers frustrate u & disrupt your campaigns? Hands-down most disruptive power to me: Extradimensional travel. One of the first games I ran, I overlooked one entry in a character's multipower, and the next thing I know, this campaign is sailing into the wild blue yonder. The first adventure started, I introduced a challenge for the players, they started thinking about how to solve it, and then this guy pipes up and says, "Screw this. I'm going back to ancient Troy to go score with this Helen chick. Anyone wanna come with me?" And they did. From that point on, it was all I could do to try to keep up with them. I'd try to devise some kind of scenario for the timeline they were in, but if they got bored, disappointed, frustrated, or worried, they'd just find a different point in history to violate. Finally I had to give them a time-travelling antagonist, a kind of "time-cop" who had to fix their messes, and wanted to stop them before they could do any more damage. And they blipped away from him. Now, older and wiser, I know how to deal with this situation, and how to re-engage the players in a cohesive plotline, even if it's not the one I originally intended. At the time, it drove me up a wall. To this day, that power sends up great big flags and warning bells for me.

Re: Why hasn't magic changed the world? Hmm... Law of Conservatation of Angst and Misery? Nice thought, that... Mind if I borrow that idea for something I'm working on?

Re: Why hasn't magic changed the world? It would seem then that the best answer is somewhere in the middle, eh?

Re: Why hasn't magic changed the world? I rather think that that you are looking at this the wrong way, in matter of principle. Enforcer stated that for every magical cure there is a magical curse, and I would like to expand on that. Simply put: It is easier to destroy than create. Disease-causing spells would be easier, more prevalent, and more powerful than disease-curing spells. Spells to wound or kill would far outweigh spells to heal. Destroying magic items would be simpler than creating them. Communication spells would be easily negated by jamming spells. The more magic there is in your setting, the less enlightened and prosperous your populations will be. It could very well be that magic is the main reason that the people live in squalor, ignorance and fear. Perhaps, the magic that you could assume would bring them into a utopia is the one thing that is keeping them from advancing past the medieval stage.

Re: Dumbest thing... House of M. May it die of burning cancer. And the Magnus Robot Fighter reprints of the nineties after the first year. That was a pretty sharp decline.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Player 1: No, we're not going to do that. Weren't you paying attention? That'd shut down all the ANCHOR lines. Player 2: Really? Player 3: And that'd release all the villains in MAX9. Player 2: How many? GM: Uhm, over four hundred. Player 2: How much is that in experience points? Sometimes it pays to write these things down right away.. I still giggle.

Re: Least Abused Powers No, VPP isn't as bad as people say... it's really much much worse. Even if you insist that the player write up the slots in advance. In my experience, though, players never bother to abuse extra-dimensional travel. The potential is there.. XDT is one of those powers that has nearly infinite potential for game-wrecking or balance-trashing. But unlike transform or summon, nobody bothers to abuse ex-dee-travel. I'm not sure why. I've never had a problem with the Inventor skill either, nobody's ever tried anything weird with it.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Kind of a slow session, not too much to report. Here's what I've got.. Synapse: Is that a magic sword? Sparrow: Absolutely not. There's no such things as magic swords. You should know, you're psychic. Saurin: So many things about your culture, your language, continue to confuse me. Slipstream: Like what? Saurin: Well, for one you drive on a parkway, but- Slipstream: Oh shut up. Steelwasp: I think we need to rough up these thugs a little bit, show 'em we mean business. Sparrow: Or Synapse could get the info from their minds, forcing it from their thoughts against their will. Steelwasp: I thought roughing thugs up was your favorite part of this job. Sparrow: It was until I found out how much Synapse squirms in moral quandaries. He either rapes their brains or tells you and me to put knuckle-marks on them. There's no right answer. Synapse: There are no words for how much I hate you right now. Sparrow: Make some up then, this should be good for a laugh. Sparrow: Crap. Slipstream: What is it? Sparrow: I recognize those. Slipstream: Oh really? Sparrow: They're from my home dimension. Silk: Dude, I thought you were from Long Beach. Silk: Fear my crimefighting nudity, evildoer! Sparrow: Did you just say that, for real? Did I hear that? Synapse: I think that counts as a friendly-fire presence attack. Steelwasp: I didn't have to design power armor. I could have been an architect, or a plumber. Plumbers don't have to listen to this. Strangely, I feel it is my duty to dart the naked guy. Silk: NO! NOT MY JIMMY! Saurin: You fellows should watch where you drive. Rednecks: Yes sir. Saurin: These battles are very dangerous, and no place for sightseers. Rednecks: Yes sir. Saurin: In addition, you are all too intoxicated to be driving, and that is dangerous too. Rednecks: Yes sir. Saurin: Now, it was just bad luck that your vehicle stalled there, and there is no harm done, but I hope you fellows have learned a valuable lesson from this. Rednecks: Yes sir. Saurin: Are there any questions? Rednecks: No sir. Saurin: Okay, now I put their truck down. Slipstream: Oh no. Oh great God no. Not a were-emo.

Re: Super Prisons A small point in addition. Perhaps the supervillains were all secluded away from human prisoners for the protection of the human prisoners. You lock one radioactive superhuman in a normal supermax facility, and even if he's contained every prisoner there is going to file a lawsuit against the state, hazardous living conditions and whatnot. Or you put a superstrong berserker in, and every guard working that section is going to need hazard pay. Or perhaps the retrofitting required would be so extensive, so pervasive, that it is actually cheaper to build a new facility. You'll need new walls to hold up to immense pressure, energy dampening fields, remodeled plumbing to contain stretchers and shapeshifters, constant human and mechanical supervision, alarms that contact the SWAT and the nearest group of sanctioned superheroes, medical and dining facilities for a wide variety of physiologies... it may be far cheaper to arrange all of these conditions in one location, rather than trying to modify existing prisons. Also, the renovation of any prison is going to require that prisoners be moved around while changes are underway, and that causes a suite of problems by itself.

Re: The Perpetual Motion Machine - Does It Work? Well, let me contribute, if I may, a much much simpler model. Start with a VPP. Say, 30 pts Cosmic. Now we've invested 75 pts into this. Second, an Aid to the VPP. Make it 0 END, and ideally it should have its return time extended.. say, to a month. IIRC, that's a +2 Advantage, but it would be a lot of trouble for me to verify that right now. If I'm wrong, fiddle it a little. Self only, natch, add other limitations such as gestures and incantations to taste. Make sure it can affect the pool and it's control cost, you decide between concurrent or consecutive. Make it around 1d6 with +2 effect, and you should come in well under 20 points. Aid the VPP. Turn the VPP into an Aid on the original Aid's adder. Since there is already an adder present, we won't need an advantage to represent that. Keep increasing the original Aid's adder, and you may well want the "virtual" Aid to have an increased-effect adder as well. Put this through twenty or thirty revolutions and then go spank Grond. It may be wise, once your VPP is really big, to go ahead and create an Aid with extended return time, so that your original Aid comes up to 15d6 or so. That way, your recycler doesn't have to start from scratch when it's time to reboost his VPP. Work it on paper, if you like, assuming the standard effect rule. Show your work and carry the one. Then whip up a hero built on a hundred points that can CON-stun Dr. Destroyer, once he's had a few hours to prepare himself.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Alright, for Bloodstone and Kirby, I'll post that the name of the team is the Superiors. "What are you, nuts?!" And to piss Kirby off, I will give backstory! It just worked out that way. I read the !mpact comics line back in the day, and so did the player for Sparrow. After characters were created, and after everyone carefully arranged the alliterative names, it was time to come up with a team name. In the !mpact comics, the Black Hood tries to set up a team. Dialogue is as follows. Black Hood: .. We'll call ourselves, the Superiors. Comet: What are you, nuts?! And then it came up again in the letter section of a later issue. It was a short-run gag. But then Sparrow gets this look in his eye while we're choosing a team name. "We'll call ourselves.. the Superiors!" "What are you, nuts?!" I just blurted it right out. The rest of the group didn't get it. I don't think we've explained it to them yet. But they rolled with it, they picked it up. Now, every time someone mentions the team name, there is one inevitable response. When Synapse strikes up a heroic pose and declares, "Omega! You will be brought to justice by the Superiors!", that is when the rest of the team looks at Synapse and asks him if he's nuts. Every single time. It really is a very goofy group that I have there.

Re: Seemingly Silly Things to Model Ain't that convenient? Character has the ability to change traffic signals with a thought, and there will always be a vacant elevator waiting on the floor that the character is on.

Re: The Professions of Arms I got nothing, if we're thinking INT based. I can kinda sorta see a PRE based PS: Gladiator, and that's basically just fighting with style. You know, enough theatrics to entertain the crowd without actually giving an advantage to your opponent.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... I have a couple. I have to tell this story because Remjin told that one... Steelwasp: WTF?! No, I'm not a lesbian. Why did you think that? Sparrow: Well, you are good with your hands... Synapse: And you wear an awful lot of flannel. Slipstream: And then there's the way your armor looks. Hell, nobody but us even knows you're female. Silk: Plus, every single time to go hand to hand with the bad guys you kick 'em in the jimmies. Steelwasp: ... I don't wear that much flannel. Silk: But, you do kick 'em in their jimmies. Steelwasp: I do not! Silk: You kicked Labrador in the jimmy. Steelwasp: (picks up three dice and turns to GM) Called shot. Silk: NO! NOT MY JIMMY! Several weeks ago.... Synapse: Okay, let me recap. You took Saurin's army buddies out drinking, and their alien metabolisms couldn't handle the alcohol. Sparrow: Yeah. Now they're singing, stumbling, and rampaging through downtown. Slipstream: Wait, they're rampaging through downtown? Sparrow: Yeah. I've just barely stopped them from destroying three buildings, but they're heading for the mall now. I don't think I can contain them much longer. Slipstream: Wait, let's come back to this. They're rampaging? Sparrow: Uh huh. Slipstream: And singing? Sparrow: That's right. Slipstream: And stumbling? Sparrow: You got it. Slipstream: I believe this is a first for us. Silk: What, stopping someone else's drunken rampages? Saurin: Honestly, guys, it was one time. Can't I live that down? Synapse: I thought he was talking about Sparrow's drunken rampages. New Year's? Sparrow: Hey, you couldn't really call that a rampage, per se.... Synapse: Quick! Saurin! Use your healing powers to sober them up! Sparrow: Syn, you got weird ideas about what "healthy" is, if you think that sobriety is part of that equation. Synapse: No, seriously, Saurin, try to sober them up. Saurin: Synapse, you know that they are the same species as I? Synapse: Of course. Saurin: They have the same powers that I do. If that would work, they would have sobered themselves up half an hour ago. Synapse: Oh. Silk: And it comforts me to no end that he's the smart one. Synapse: So, Saurin, you unhappy that they're going and leaving you behind alone? Saurin: Not particularly. I wouldn't want to be back home right now anyway. Synapse: Why not? Too many friends here? Saurin: No. They were loading a still onto the ship. Slipstream: Great. Sparrow is now responsible for that entire civilization falling apart thanks to distilled spirits. Sparrow: At least I didn't give them malaria, too. Slipstream: And that was the most tasteless thing I've ever heard you say. Silk: You don't pay much attention, do you? Slipstream: Synapse, where you at? Synapse: Charity function. What's up? Slipstream: What charity? Synapse: The AI Recognition League. The campaign for equal rights for mechanical sentients. Why'd you call? Slipstream: Never mind. Synapse: Something important? Slipstream: Oh, this is awkward. Synapse: If I need to, I can read your mind, you know. Slipstream: Giant robot tearing up the docks. Synapse: Oh. Slipstream: Yeah. Awkward. You just chill there, we'll handle this. Synapse: I hate you sometimes. OOC discussion recently. GM: No, if I wanted to give you guys complicated morality stories, I'd send you all on vacation. Steelwasp: What the hell? GM: Send you all on vacation. Someplace nice, tropical. Relaxing. Secret IDs, no need to save anybody or smite evildoers. Slipstream: That'd be a nice change of pace. GM: Yeah, nothing for you all to do, except lounge in the sun, and start noticing all the little ways that your powers could help you out in little things... Silk: Yeah. Like never waiting in line at the movies when you can go invisible. GM: All the little annoyances that you can deal with, because you have those powers, all those small things that you have the advantage in. Silk: Like, why doesn't Syn over there have a girlfriend? He has frikkin' mind control. GM: Yes, with enough leisure time and an open environment, you guys would all be supervillains within a week. Saurin: Oh, that's preposterous. But let's just not test the theory, okay? Fighting a villain-type! Saurin: I'm going to start charging, I should hit him next phase. Synapse: Good thinking. Silk, web his feet down. Silk: But won't that keep him from charging? Synapse: The villain, Silk. Web the villain's feet down so that Saurin can hit him. Silk: Oh. Right. I knew that. Sparrow: You ate a lot of paint as a kid, didn't you? Silk: You mean wall candy?

Re: WWYCD: Hi! We're your Sidekicks! LOL! Funfunny. Well, for mine... Snow Leopard - One of the following sentences will come up: "Uh, which timeline are you guys from?" "No, no, no. Technically I'm a villain. Villains don't get sidekicks." "You're not... you know, posessed or anything, are you?" "Whatever. You hold the bag, I'll take out security."

Re: Build Me A Villain Team Off the top of my head... Holocaust as the field commander, not the overall leader. Not a popular choice, everyone seems to want him to be the Big Cheese. But I don't think that he could work with other villains for any period of time, unless you pick and choose the rest of the team to accomodate him. or, unless he's not in charge. Gargantua has the power and the smarts to be a useful member of the team, he's quite likely the toughest brick in the material outlined for this thread. With some good air support, he can flatten a city with his bare hands. Firewing is fully able to provide that air support in spades. Yes, he's hot-headed and flighty, very independent and conflicted. But that can be remedied. Vector is my choice for the speedster slot for all the reasons mentioned by other posters. Masquerade isn't much of a martial artist by most standards, but he does fit the bill. And he is an insanely dangerous addition to this team, broadening their scope considerably. Utility because he's got the power, the gadgets, the training, and the brains. His attitude is all wrong for this kind of operation, but we can work around that. He's got the right gadget for every occasion. Zorran the Artificer as a reservist. Frankly, I hate him, but I can't deny his usefulness to something like this. He's versatile, powerful, and he's got Shirak. What can you say to that? Mentalla as the team leader. She can do it, she's got the power to slap their brains around. She gets tired of listening to Fiacho's "conquer Europe" bit, and decides that he's been thinking too small. She rounds up a bunch of powerful villains, heavy hitters that she can brainjack, and turns them all towards one goal. Frankly, it would take Mind Control to make all of these cats work together. But, once you've MCed them into a cohesive team, they're gonna clean up anyone and everyone in their way. Mentalla is deceitful and ruthless, and her powers put her in a position to keep these crazy animals on task. Anyway, that's what I've got.