JackValhalla

Re: Could Destroyer Win? One campaign, years ago, Dr. Zerstoiten took over the United States by the simple method of being elected, wearing a clever disguise. Then he commanded his private army to attack the American borders. This gave him the means to declare martial law as the legitimately-elected commander-in-chief.. It got pretty ugly before the PCs managed the big unveiling. Current campaign, all of the old Soviet bloc is run by a supervillain named Nochemorte, pulling strings from the shadows. South Africa is run openly by another supervillain, the Matriarch. Techornet has laid claim to all of the Sahara desert, and so far has been able to defend that claim. Helix is the self-proclaimed Czar of Cyberspace, and has even demanded "tribute" on occasion. There are over a hundred supertypes that are warring back and forth for control of different parts of Israel. I do love me the global conspiracy angle, and I do enjoy foreign adventures. But I have never done anything on that scale. Dr. D wiping all life from Eurasia and then replacing it with his robots and factories and loyal troops?... Damn, that's impressive.

Re: The Champion Protocols (ie how to take down your character) The team in the game I'm running, the Superiors, would be taken down in one of two ways. 1: Seperate them. 2: Send Dr. Destroyer. When they're working as a unit, they are hella effective. They were part of an experiment on my part, one that worked only too well. So, if they decided to go rogue, and I had to have them taken down, the first thing to do is seperate them from one another, and then take them down individually. Saurin - Find him and electrocute him. Standard high-voltage line should do the trick. He's pretty distinctive, and none too maneuverable, so you don't need a complex plan if he's alone. Silk - Arrange a robbery, lure him into confined spaces. Ordinary agents with IR goggles and standard weaponry for the takedown, but make sure that they are carrying something to get out of webbing. Aerosol acid spray, fire, something. Slipstream - Make some overtures of force, something to make him feel threatened. When he pops a wormhole to escape, lob a gas grenade and a GPS transmitter after him. Trace the GPS signal to his new location, and get him before he wakes up. There's almost no way to contain or restrain him, you may have to keep him drugged or mind-controlled. Sparrow - Catch him indoors where the birds can't warn him, and then shoot him in the head. Twice. Then tie him up and fasten him to something heavy before he returns to life. He can be lured into nearly any trap if he thinks necromancy is involved. Steelwasp - Don't try electricity or magnets, just tap into her radio linked computer and insert a computer virus. You can find her frequency using a police scanner, just hook a modem up and let a fifteen-year-old script kiddie take her down. It shouldn't take more than a few minutes to pull her out of the suit and handcuff her. Synapse - Even a small EMP will knock him unconscious, for at least a couple minutes. Cover his head with a good insulator tightly fitted, and his powers are useless.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Some selections from the last couple of sessions. Sparrow - "Oh, come on, it's not like there's a law against it." Synapse - "Sure there is." Sparrow - "Really? Dammit." Slipstream outlines his plan. The reaction?- Saurin - "There is no way that's a good idea." Silk - "Well, you consider the source..." Steelwasp - "Would you please go villainous so that I can feel good about kicking your a$$?" Villainous robot impersonating a cop, confronting the team brick. "Put the armored car down and place your hands above your head! No! Not on the puppy! I repeat, do not put the armored car down on the puppy!" "There's a lot of puppies over here!" "Fine, hold it up then!" "Arms are getting tired!" "Can't you put it down somewhere there aren't any puppies?" "Over there by you there's some clear space." "Fine!" *crunch* OOC comment from player: "Never had a robocop insist that I drop an armored car on him before. One for the books." Slipstream - "Steel! Turn on your defensive field!" Steelwasp - "Got it!" Silk - (impersonating car alarm voice) "Viper armed!" Saurin - "So, Silk, your father is a supervillain, yes?" Silk - "Yup." Saurin - "Is that how you got your powers?" Silk - "Naw. Bitten by a radioactive marmet." Saurin - "But you have spider powers." Silk - "Funny old world we live in, isn't it?" Synapse OOC - "We're fighting Choo-Choo Bear? What the f*** is wrong with you?" Slipstream - "So, Silk, any other villains in your family you'd like to tell us about?" Silk - "I need a cup of hot chocolate and a non-metahuman family member to tuck me in." Slipstream - "Good luck with that." Synapse is scanning the mayor's mind. Saurin - "So, do you have contact?" Synapse - "I think so." Saurin - "Find anything?" Synapse - "It's like reading e e cummings. I guess I've got the right mind." Sparrow - "Wait, they're robots? Whoot! Nobody cares if I kill robots!" Synapse - "I care." Sparrow - "You can go sit in the hall. I'm killin' me some robot."

Re: Rarity of Magic? I like that idea a lot. That would let you continue to make magic "wide" and easily accesible but still determine whether or not magic is going to require a fundamental departure from accepted historical fantasy settings. If magic can only do things that can be done by other methods, then you can have a setting almost identical to medieval Earth in all practical ways. Maybe magic is the best way to accomplish a goal, maybe not. But, if the magic can do things that are totally outside of the scope of normal means, such as controlling weather, killing at extreme range, stealing knowledge from your enemies' minds.. then you have a fantastical setting with lots of possibilities that are foreign to the players.

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines) Hmmm... Many many worthy ideas here.. lurrve lurrve 'em all. Hard decision. But, I'll have to take unusual and unexpected as my favorite, so I'll credit Nexus the win. Something about the "psychological warfare vigilante" really tickles me, not to denigrate the other entries.

Re: Alternate System: Killing Attacks/Resistant Defenses Well, I'll grant that it does simplify the dice rolls of killing attacks. And if you want to simplify the mechanics, it's as good as anything else I've seen or come up with myself. But, I always rather liked the unpredictable nature of killing attacks, multiplying one die roll by another.. It seemed more realistic. As my daddy taught me when I was learning RPGs at his knee, "Unless the system is fundamentally flawed, more dice means more realism". The more randomized elements you inject, the more true it will be to actual events. But, for a lot of players, simplicity of use is better. Some say that it's more dramatic, I disagree. Also, I'm not sure about the "diminishing returns" policy you have built into it. The first level of the advantage makes it bypass non-resistant defenses, and it multiplies the BODY damage. Maybe the first level is to bypass the defenses, and every successive level multiplies damage? Ditto the resistant defenses.. first level to affect killing damage, successive levels to multiply its efficacy. I can see that you have attempted to downplay killing attacks by making the resistant defenses cheaper than the killing attacks (1/4 opposed to 1/2), but I think that you will find all of your characters to be totally impermeable to killing attacks. You have kept the cost of killing attacks the same (1 1/2 regular attacks) but you have made the defenses half as expensive. And your additional +1/2 advantage to double BODY damage is roughly equivalent to armor piercing.. doubling the damage vs. halving defenses is nearly the same thing under normal active point barriers, only a few points from one another. But, to continue the analogy of 'armor piercing', your equivalent of the hardened advantage is 1/4 rather than 1/2.. you have slanted things far in the balance of defenses. If that is your intention, this is the correct method to use. Also, how does this work in conjunction with Damage Reduction?

I strongly suspect that I should just kill the player who put this idea to me. It might be easier to hide his body than to balance this. The idea is to create a character who starts out low-power, but then progresses, rather quickly, more quickly than is standard in superhero genre. Tentative write-up follows. Rapid Advancement - This power can only be taken at character creation, and cannot be purchased or expanded with experience points. For every 1 character point of value, this power will "bank" two experience points. Whenever the character defeats a significant foe or completes a major objective, one of these banked experience points will be added to the character. These banked XP are in addition to the usual XP rewards assigned by the GM. A significant foe would be a non-PC opponent of equal or greater power than the PC. A major objective would not be the goals of an adventure, but of a serial campaign, or perhaps a multi-session goal of the character resolved through roleplay. If the PC is part of a group that mutually completes a goal or defeats opponents, the GM should arbitrate the PCs contribution to the effort. This power is obviously only recommended for characters who will be participating in a long-running campaign or chronicle. This power is inappropriate for Charges, Extra Time, Foci, Independent, No Conscious Control, Requires Skill Roll, or any of a number of other limitations and advantages. Examples: Personal Evolution - 20 Active points of Rapid Advancement, 8- Activation, (10 Real Points) I Level Fast - 15 Active Points of Rapid Advancement, Limited Power (only to gain skills), Real Cost 10 points. <30 XP banked away> I think this almost feels more like a power framework than a power itself, but I'll leave it to the consensus. I used the 2XP for 1AP as an arbitrary figure, it felt about right. The PC is giving up power at the outset of the game, and counting on staying alive and active in the game long enough for the Rapid Advancement to start paying off. If that doesn't happen, the points are wasted, so I wanted the payoff high enough that it wasn't a total handicap. But I believe that if I set the ratio too high, then it'll be abused by min-maxers and powergamers. I need input, feedback, suggestions, even heckling and derision. Somebody please help me make this thing make sense. Gawd, the things that come up when you let someone talk you into considering a "Teen Champions" game....

Re: WWYCD: Quantum Leap Snow Leopard is here for precisely that purpose. He's trying to find a way to keep the younger version of himself from accidentally destroying the world. He's pretty sure that if he assassinates his past self then it will destroy the whole universe. So now he's running all over the world trying to find a way to shut down the chain of events without dying or shattering all causality.

Re: Shoot First, Ask later One of my PCs carries a tape recorder in character to record stuff, and so when he's taping stuff while I'm reciting or reading aloud, he just gives me a hand signal (holds his hand up and makes a 'clickie' motion with his thumb) and that is not at all disruptive. We use lots of hand signals whenever we can, it works well.

Re: Plot Seed: Six Places to Nuke When You’re Serious I read somewhere that if you dropped a decent size explosive charge into the six major continental shelves, you'd disrupt the pressure-crystallized methane plates under the water. The best deposits would off the Eastern seaboard of the USA, off the southern coast of Mexico, the Dead Sea, the Sea of Japan, Millions of years worth of built-up methane deposits stored and compressed that have not been released and broken down in the atmosphere. If you released them all at once, it would covere the surface of the earth to a distance of 124 feet or so. That's sufficient to choke out a large amount of animal life. And then, it catches fire. The whole world burning, with over 120 feet of methane over every square foot of the planet. That'll affect the climate some. Previous poster mentioned disrupting enough to increase global warming by a thousand percent, but if you go far enough with it, you can just end all human life.

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines) Thanks, bwdemon. I didn't think I'd get this one, the competition was pretty tough and there were some entries that really threw me for a loop. I give da respect to everyone in that round. But, now I have to choose the next round's character to be re-imagined... Eh, I'll go with my favorite third-string Spidey villain.. Tombstone Can't wait to see what everyone does with this...

Re: Commonality of Energy Types? The only reason I've ever tried to calculate the different energy forms is for applying Vulnerabilities and Susceptibilities, or certain Limited defenses. As a rule, if I can think of three or four published characters that have a particular special effect off the top of my head, I rule it to be common. For example, for fire I think of Firewing, Burnout, Feuermacher, Dark Seraph, and Talisman. It sounds like that could come up a lot, common. Sonics, I can think of Howler, Ultrasonique, Warcry... and that's it. I might think uncommon for sonics, unless the player takes a hunted from one of those characters. Then I'll give them credit for common. For ice-type powers, I have to say uncommon, it just doesn't come up that often. There's Icicle, and I think Stormfront has a couple of cold powers.

Re: Elves Ahem- *topic* On an elf-related note, there were some distinctly fae creatures in my fantasy setting. They were extremely elf-like in appearance, uncannily so. Only elves themselves could distinguish them. They were fond of the forests, especially the thick parts eternally shrouded in mist, where not even elves would go. They could disappear into mist invisibly, and could teleport if nobody was watching. They also habitually shrank themselves to about knee-high to spy on folks. They were not a playable race, and communicating with them at all was nigh impossible, they just giggled and vanished. They were mischevious, but they were very shy. Here's the catch: Everyone thought that elves had to be descended from these fae folk, maybe bred with humans in time long past. The elves would deny that hotly. Not the human part... they were more willing to be considered half-human than half-fae. Some cultural thing, elves and fae folk hated each other on sight. As far as everyone else was concerned, that made it more likely that they were related. But you could really start a fight with an elf if you push that subject for more than a few seconds. So, in addition to playable elves, you could say that I also had a elf-like race, inherently magical, that was all full of whim and wonder and all that stuff. And they were a huge pain in the a$$ for everyone.

Re: Cha: Bobby/Bobbie (Need Help) ...Aaaand- anything that turns a PC into a total emotional wreck is A-OK. There is nothing in the world easier to roleplay than the downward spiral, and there is nothing more compelling than well-roleplayed tragedy. I say go for the basket case angle. I like the invisibility, not so much the spatial awareness.. the "poltergeist" thing I'd leave out altogether, but life support sounds right. For her? I'll second the vote for CON and BODY, but I think that Regeneration is kind of reaching.

Re: Classifying Supers Well, in the campaign I'm running, there is a non-compulsory registration system. It's volunteer only, so hardly anyone uses it, but it does have a system for organizing the registrees. First, by relative power level. From sub-human to planet-smashing. Anything beyond planet-smashing, they honestly don't care about. A '1' on this scale is actually at a disadvantage against normal humans, and has no power, or inadequate power, to counteract that handicap. A '10' can end the human race if it chose to. Second, by their origin. Normal abilities trained to supernormal levels, technology, radiation accident, other scientific accident, magic, spontaneous mutant, second-generation mutant, divine power, and alien. Alien isn't official yet, they still deny the existence of extraterrestrial life. Third, by their scope. One end of the spectrum only really affects him or herself, personals like bricks or shapeshifters or martial artists. Then direct-effecters, like energy projectors or gunbunnies. Indirect effecters, like the mentalists and superspy types. Independent effecters, like summoners, Transform types, even some trigger powers. And there is a level past that.. (eg: transform human to mind-controlling mentalist linked to transform human to loyal slave, or maybe a persistent summon that can call hordes of followers, over and over again, with no theoretical limits..) Fourth, by their relative handicap level. Can he or she hold down a normal job, interact with civilized humanity, and be a productive member of society? That's a 1. Have some special needs and difficulty in a populated setting? That's about a five. Is their very nature inherently and immutably inimical to human existence and incapable of co-existing? That's a 10. Fifth, what is their relationship to the government? Incarcerated? Shady past? Apathetic citizen with powers? Helpful citizen with powers? Consent to testing for government research? Working for the military, intelligence or law enforcement departments? Sixth, can their powers be reproduced by existing methods and technologies? 1 for no, 0 for yes. Seventh, how difficult would it be to capture, contain, and control them if the worst came to worst? Supers aren't officially aware of that seventh category, it's not part of the quesionnaire. It's filled out, case by case, by the administrator that interviews the registree. Recently, word of Category 7 was leaked to the papers. Scandal. Yes, it's a complex 7-digit registration number. But it has just about everything that they need to know about you, ever. Now, the PCs have a rumor about a Category Zero. They are VERY curious about that. The conspiracy angle factors into my campaign somewhat...

Re: Sure signs that your player doesn't want to be in your 350 pt champions game. Our battle cry was simpler. "GEEK THE MAGE!" Mentalist, magician, the guy with the big bundle of Adjustment powers, or some nut with a 35d6 EB that takes a full turn to activate its one charge... it didn't matter. When you look at your enemies, you can tell who's the fighters, who's the thieves, and who's the mage. Bringeth a righteous smiting. Geek the mage. That's why I like skinny bricks and scary mentalists. It totally throws off everyone's tactics.

Re: Speedster advice Is he capable of going desolid on his own? You said that the techstuff helps him "control" the speed, so he does have the desolid power available even when he's wearing the power-suppressors, right? In that case, just make sure that the Desolid power doesn't have too many limitations on it, and take Phys Lim: Automatically goes desolid when gauntlets removed. Or maybe "cannot interact with physical world without gauntlets", if that's easier for you. Or, make sure he's got his desolid power... then give him "works while desolid" on his strength... and then put an OIF focus on the "works while desolid" advantage. (2/3)x(2) means that you'd have a +1 1/3 advantage on the STR. Say, 15 STR, costs 35. I think the Phys Lim is much easier and workable. If his "controlled" powers don't let him go desolid at will, you've got more of an issue. Either buy him some desolidification with the limitation "Only when gauntlets are removed", "always when gauntlets are removed"... Or you'll actually have to go to a Multiform. That should be the option of last resort, because it really doesn't fit the spirit or mechanics of Multiform.

Re: I don't have the ultimate brick One of the kewlest bricks I've seen in a campaign, Ground-Zero, was an absorber who'd become a brick after throwing himself on top of a city-buster concussion bomb. His STR was part of a Multipower that included an explosion effect.. he was either 60 STR straight, or 40 STR explosion no range. Really dramatic effects when he picked up everything within twenty feet of his body and threw it all at once. Sectin the 8' tall alien ant man usually just beat things down with 65 STR, but he also had a distance attack... a really icky distance attack. Penangalan was kind of a telekinetic zombie. He had an EB, which was firing his finger bones at an opponent, and an RKA, which were ribs. Recoverable charges. But he was basically a flying regeneration brick. These are all in addition to various brick tricks and power stunts, throwing and blowing and clapping and tapping and whatever else you have in your bag. It is not hard to come up with a brick character concept that includes a distance attack or two. My recommendation? If a brick has a built-in distance attack, make it something that complements their hand-to-hand abilities. Sectin's distance weapon was a Drain res PD, his acids would eat away at armor or toughened skin, and then his punches are more effective. G-Man had suppress Flight, he didn't need to use Energy Blast if falling damage was enough to finish his opponent. If the opponent isn't KOed by falling damage, then at least they're on the ground where he can do some real damage. Area effect entangles don't need to be real big, they just need to hold the villain speedster or martial artist long enough for a haymaker, like Zak'r'ah the Golem's "rubble" attack. Well, those are my ideas. Hope they help.

Re: The Professions of Arms Also, proper care and maintenance of a horse in both battlefield and road conditions. Knowing where to check your animal for nicks and cuts before they become a problem. Knowing how to rearrange your saddlepacks and blanket for an armed charge rather than a simple ride. Knowing how to cut and whittle a wooden lance from a tree without buying the Weaponsmithing skill. Observing the weak points in an infantry formation. Knowing that it's a bad idea to ride on top of a ridgeline at dawn and dusk, and knowing that it's a bad idea to ride in a valley during mid-day. Figuring out which avenue of attack is least likely to stone or lame your horse. Deciphering trumpet signals and banners. Conserving the animal's strength (maybe the GM gives you regular updates on the horse's END?). PS: Cavalry could be good for much more than a DCV bonus.

Re: Elves

Re: Elves I keep saying that one of these days I'm going to run a FRP that's based on an amalgamation of the Grimm's fairy tales. Let's see 'em run a elf in that setting....

Re: Rarity of Magic? Nothing much... they just keep asking "Why?" "So, you see, the electrons move down the wire by displacing the next electron in line, sending it further down the wire, where it displaces the next one after it..." "Why do they only travel in one direction? Can't they go backwards?" "Oh, s***... I don't know." And this after almost an hour with diagrams. I hate dealing with kids who aren't afraid to ask dumb questions of grownups. Somewhere along the way, they get embarassed to admit what they don't know, and then I can handle them. Least it wasn't any kid of mine...

Re: Elves There were elves in my campaign world. I tried not to hold a grudge against elves. But I do hate "elf gamers" (I shapechange into an elf!) with an abiding passion, so I... 'disincentivized' them? Oh, alright, I nerfed the pointies. Elves had to take the following: Ultrasonic hearing, Ultraviolet vision, 3 points Longevity, 1 CSL: Bows, 1 CSL: Swords, starting language is Elvish (which non-elves can barely hear, let alone understand) so if they want to communicate with non-elves they'd best learn another language, KS: Elvish History, PS: Woodcrafting, PS: Dancing, PS: Musical Instrument, SS: Botany, SS: Magical Theory, Stealth, Survival, Tracking, WF: Bows, WF: Swords. About 30 points worth of stuff, required to play an elf. In a 150 pt campaign. Most of it will never come up for a character, but it's part of being an elf. Also, 1 1/2 BODY from Iron and Steel Weapons, 1d6 per phase in contact with iron, steel or bronze. Yeah. You can play an elf. Yeah, you will be all cool like elves are. And you will pay for every point of it. Watch your head, everyone uses steel weapons. If someone wants to play an elf "becuz elves r teh kewl!!!!!" then they can deal with it. If someone wants to roleplay an elf because they want to roleplay an elf, then everything on that list is stuff that they should take anyway.

Re: Rarity of Magic? My approach is to take a little from Column A, and a little from Column B. I broke magic into 2 schools for my fantasy game. One kind is low-power but easy and omnipresent, and there are authorities that understand it pretty fully, like modern humans know about the theoretical background of electrical conduction and the way that generators work. (sit down with a four-year-old if you ever want to learn how much you don't know about science.) I used this kind of magic to bring the population of the fantasy world into an environment not too dissimilar from our own. There are lights at night, people can communicate vast distances, and many nations have no fear of mass famine or plague. At the same time, this has not solved world hunger, nor has it eliminated disease and poverty. There are still criminal elements and public corruption. Most people know a spell or two. Large cities are possible, and there are individuals of fabulous wealth and influence. I did that because I'd gotten tired of dirty, barbarous "realistic" fantasy settings. I wanted the world to be more hygenic and more versatile. At the same time, there is another school of magic that most people frankly don't have the potential for. This second school is dangerous to learn, difficult to practice, and it gives the regular folk the willies. It is mostly used in the service of governments at the city or national level. So, I have a "lightbulb" magic, and a "nuclear" magic. The combination works well.

Re: Ultimate Scrapper? I can only think of one similar hybrid, the character who can take a pounding all day every day, but doesn't give back with raw strength. The only one that comes to mind is Lobo. Take that back, Ghost Rider is pretty near invulnerable too, isn't he?