cbullard

Unfortunately, I can't answer that question, for the simple reason that I don't know yet. There hasn't been a lot of space stuff yet, but I can see where it might become more prevalent in the near future. I'm not the GM, so I don't get to make those kinds of rulings. We have multiple GMs who have a distinct tendency anytime they don't agree on something, to say, "Go see what the HeroGames list group says." And so here I am.

That is also an option that I've been considering, but it seems a less-effective one. Yes, it can creates minuses to the PER roll, but statistically speaking, but the "always succeed on a Crit roll" option would mean that 4% of the people/ships nearby would still see you, no matter what your minuses were.

Fair enough lol. And yes, I agree that the result I'm looking for is to make the ship not be visible. I'm just running into a lot of hair-splitting and rules-lawyering on some of the aspects of the RAW for the Invisibility power, and Darkness seems to be a way to accomplish the same end result with fewer inconsistencies in the relevant RAW.

Trust me, the one who's overthinking it is not me. ;-) I could see cases where Sight Group might be relevant as a targeting sense in space, although I agree they should definitely be in the minority. On the other hand, how many space ships have we seen that have windows in the control center, especially the smaller craft? I'm thinking Millenium Falcon, X-wing, Serenity, Milano, Viper, etc. So someone looking out the window would still be able to tell she was there, and at least in cases like X-Wings or Vipers, seem to be able to target anything they can see. And yes, that was the main gist of that thread. But it still has relevance to this example because I've got people in our group claiming that even with Invisibility to Hearing Group, when the ship made planetfall or was taking off, people nearby could still hear the sound of her passage, due to secondary noise of her passage through the air. I'm not sure what you mean about the impact of the fringe effect. Could you please expound on this? Thanks!

I personally agree with you. To me, if you're invisible to a particular sense, then you can't be detected by that sense. RAW is particularly inconsistent on this topic, though, implying that if I buy Invisibility then the ship is invisible only so long as she doesn't move (which sounds a lot more like Chameleon to me). As soon as she kicks in her Flight power, she becomes visible (or at least detectable) unless I also bought Invisible Power Effects for her Flight power.

I have a 5th Ed Superheroic character who wants to make a vehicle, a small personal spaceship, with a cloaking device. Based on some of the conversations among our group of players, as well as the discussion on this list last year about Invisibility to Hearing Group (http://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/94148-invisibility-to-hearing-group/) made me think there are some significant “issues” with the Invisibility power, and that there might be better and/or more clearly-defined ways to approach this. I was thinking of something like Darkness to Sight Group and Radio Group. Unless I am mistaken, this would prevent anyone from seeing the ship or detecting it with radar, etc. (You could add other Darkness levels to cover other sorts of detection if desired, such as Darkness to Hearing Group to foil Sonar for a submarine.) Unfortunately, this would mean the ship also couldn’t see or use radar or similar radio-based sensors, so I would add “Personal Immunity” to the Darkness power. However, this would mean she could still be spotted as a large black blob-o-darkness. Would something like “invisible power effects – sfx only” get rid of that, and basically give you an area that you couldn’t see into, but didn’t KNOW that you couldn’t see into? I suppose the special effect would be something like a distortion field that bends the light/radio waves around the ship, so you still see what’s on the other side. The "personal immunity" could then be because the ship's sensors are attuned to the distortion field, so can operate through it. Does that sound like it would work within RAW? Can anyone suggest a more effective, or less costly, means of setting up a cloaking device? I welcome your thoughts, and thank you in advance.

Long-ago AD&D campaign, we had a high-level female monk in the party. Big Hulking Brute guarding/blocking the way we need to go, refusing to let us by. Monk: "So what you're saying is, none may pass?" Guard: "That's right. None may pass." Monk: "That's okay, then. I'm a nun." and quickly stepped around him. His face had the expression of someone who just KNEW he was going to get into trouble, but he couldn't quite figure out why...

Hm. Yes, Summon would open up some interesting possibilities. I think you'd have to do that as creating a new planet / planetoid, though. I don't want to open up the can of worms that would come with replacing an existing physical thing with something else that you've Summoned. Thanks for the input!

To be honest, I've got a couple of motivations. I'm trying to familiarize myself with the game as it stands now. I've started gaming with a group who used 5th Ed... and the last version I used was Version 1, back in the early 1980's -- Quite a difference, as I'm sure you can imagine! And, well, the best way I've ever found to familiarize muself with something is to try out as many different things as I can. Ergo, trying to write it up. :-) I'm also looking at the mechanics of terraforming from a campaign perspective, so that I can figure out timelines, point costs, etc. Ergo, writing it up. I'm sure there will be other questions that will arise pertaining to terraforming, and having written it up will allow me to answer them more easily. And last, but certainly not least? Because I'm an uber-geek and I just like doing stuff like that! :-)

Hm, okay. I'd been looking at it as a Change Environment, but I can certainly see where a Transform would be appropriate, too. Thanks! Anyone else have ideas?

I'm hoping someone can help me figure out how to do something in 5th Ed Champions. One of the common things in sci-fi is the terraforming of planets, and I'm trying to figure out how this can be accomplished within the game. I've seen one other method listed elsewhere on this board (using Summon) but it seems more like that would create a new planet where none existed rather than changing one that was already there. Suppose we were starting with a Mars-like planet: 6800 km diameter, average surface temperature of -80F, gravity approximately 1/3 that of Earth. We'd like to terraform it into an Earth-like planet, which means the average surface temperature needs to increase by 140F, and we need to triple the gravity. Change Environment can handle both of those, if we treat gravity as Telekinetic Strength. According to The Ultimate Vehicle book, TK Strength of 5 is the equivalent of 1 G, so we'd add a TK strength of 3 to the Change Environment. Megascaling the area of effect out to 1" = 10,000km will more than cover the planet, so that aspect is taken care of. We can set the whole thing to Long-lasting: permanent. So we've got temperature and gravity set to where we want them, but how do we take care of atmosphere? Or do we just assume that it is taken care of by the rest? Any thoughts?