cbullard

Thank you, it's good to be back!

And I agree, Megascale movement is definitely the way to go -- and yet they didn't do that in the example I mentioned.  On that part, I guess I was just firing Frustration Energy Bolts from my mouth (or fingers, in this case) ;-) about them including things that are supposed to be examples of how to do things where those examples are basically unworkable.
 
 

Yeah, I'm still doing some juggling to see if we want to use straight FTL, mega-scaled Teleport, or even Dimensional Travel.  (He's already told me we don't have stargates or wormholes.) 
 
I'm personally inclined to the greater flexibility of FTL, but I need to pin down the GM to see how far away the Shiar Empire is so I can know how many levels of FTL to buy in order to make the trip duration somewhere between "We'll be there in time for supper" and "We'll be there for Christmas... of 2025." ;-)

Yeah, the only other example that comes to mind would be more of a "Heroic" genre: Stargate/Stargate SG-1, where Daniel Jackson spent a good portion of his early screentime sneezing his head off.  They even made it into a plot point for a later episode, where the antihistamines he'd taken protected him from a disease ("The Broca Divide").
 
 
An excellent question.  The rulebook occasionally mentions things like inflicting or curing a disease, but I don't see anything on how to judge the effects of a disease on a PC.

The rationale gets a little muddy when you have "mutates" as well as "mutants." If someone's DNA is reconfigured to give them powers, how do you justify distinguishing between those who inherited and were born with them, versus those who acquired them later? Your detectors would almost need to be able to distinguish things in mutates that aren't in mutants, like the Hulk's gamma rays, or Captain America's super-soldier serum.
 
IMO the detector convention is easiest to justify in a single-source-powers campaign, in which all super powers derive from one factor which can be remotely identified.

This directly depends on the game. In my game, the Mutant Gene, is actually an ability of the person to somewhat alter reality in a specific way. That brick that can toss a car doesn't actually have the muscles to pick up and throw a car. His muscles are enhanced to a certain degree but not to something as crazy as that. What actually is happening is that his mutant gene is actually altering reality so that the car can be easily thrown by him. The same thing is happening to give him the ability to take high damaging hits without going down. Once again while his personal cellular defenses may be enhanced, his mutant gene is altering reality to reduce the amount of damage the attack is capable of doing to him, and him alone. Mutant detectors normally can only determine that the reality alternating energy is coming off him or her is there, not what it actually can do, but more complicated detectors are available that will give details of what manipulations the energy is causing but these are rarer, cost a lot more, etc. Think of them like something that can detect radiation. normal one will only state if it is there, but others can also detect many of the details of that radiation as well.

I have always disliked those "magic wand" detectors, like I described in the original post.  Instead,  I used a method similar to what Dean described where someone needs to obtain a DNA sample for a lab test. The suspect can refuse to give the sample,  there is no way to generally scan a room, along with more problems. The rationale used was that mutants possess a marker in their genes,  but to detect it one needed to obtain that sample and pull it out to find. No remote detection system can locate them. 

Hey, there.  Back after a plague-induced hiatus from TTRPGs!

Superhero group is going to be doing some interplanetary stuff (think X-Men and the Shiar Empire, etc.) and yours truly has been tasked with designing the vehicle for Our Heroes to travel back and forth, etc.  
 
Looking at some of the stuff in "The Ultimate Vehicle," I'm hoping some of you have house rules that you've had a chance to work out and playtest, that you'd be willing to share so that we don't have to reinvent the wheel.
 
For example, for space travel, how do you guys handle movement?  Do you use the "constant acceleration"/Cumulative Advantage option they mention on p.87, or have you found something better?
 
I don't think the authors took the time to consider just how freaking BIG space is.  Either that, or they never bothered to actually look at what their own numbers mean.

Take the "Space Merchantman" on pp. 95-96.  For "In-System Maneuvering Thrusters" they've given this ship Flight 20 x4 non-combat.  The Merchantman has a Speed of 2, so a standard interpretation of Flight movement would mean it travels 80" on each of its 2 phases, or 160m every 12 seconds.  At that speed, it would take them 2.9 years to complete a single orbit around the Earth at the lofty altitude of 200km above the surface.

Using the "constant acceleration" option, a trip of that same distance would take about 3 hours if you wanted to stop at the end of the trip, or about 1.5 hours if you just wanted to keep going.  The acceleration wouldn't even be too bad: just 1.3Gs.  For three years, the passengers might get tired of that.  For 3 hours?  Not a big deal!

I'm also wondering if I'm misunderstanding something (probably!) or if there's an error in the text.
 
Ultimate Vehicle, p. 23 says: "Vehicles may buy the Rapid Noncombat Movement (+1/4) (Hero System 5th Edition, Revised, page 124) Advantage for their Movement Powers.  However, they may not buy the Combat Acceleration/Deceleration or Noncombat Acceleration/Deceleration Advantages to improve the number of inches they can accelerate/decelerate per hex"
 
But one of the examples, the Nuclear Space Missile on p. 132 includes this in the list of powers:
Engine: Flight 40", x1000 Noncombat, Non-Combat Acceleration/Deceleration (+1)

Doesn't that say, "Hey, you can't do this, but we're going to give you an example of doing it anyway"?  Or am I missing/misinterpreting something?

I hope this finds all of you well, and thank you in advance for any input you may have!

Be polite to everyone. The next person you meet might be a world-class supervillain in their secret ID.
 
Even in a world with superpowers, knowledge is power.
 
Everyone has their kryptonite. Mine is cupcakes.
 
Spandex is a privilege, not a right.
 
Superscience has built powered armor suits that can fly and fire lasers without needing to be recharged ... but our smartphones still crap out before we get the chance to recharge them.
 
The worst part of being a superhero is the slash fanfic.

Never bring a gun to a swordfight.  
 
Don't fly higher than you can fall.
 
Terminal velocity is your friend.
 
Growth is the amazing power to make yourself an easy target.
 
Never call someone "dead" until you finish the autopsy.
 
Being dead doesn't necessarily stop people from making trouble
 
There is no idea so stupid that it can't be used to hurt people.
 
You can't mass produce awesome.  
 
Always make your capes detachable.
 
Always know which walls are load-bearing.
 
 
 

For those who want to create "realistic" alien worlds, there is an excellent computer program called "World Builder," originally written by Stephen Kimmel and published in Creative Computing back in June 1983.  It was updated and translated from BASIC into Perl in 2008 by a gentleman named David Myers.

 

A long time ago, in theaters far, far away... hordes of sci-fi geeks gathered to watch the "final" *cough, cough* chapter of the galactic war that had been raging for years as Darth Vader and his Emperor tried to eliminate the Rebel Alliance once and for all.

"Return of the Jedi" is celebrating its own 40th birthday by returning to Terrestrial cinemas.  It will be re-released on April 28 and run through Star Wars Day, May 4.

https://www.starwars.com/news/swce-2023-return-of-the-jedi-40th-anniversary

May the Fourth be with you!

Thank you, and I agree that it seems wrong (thus the reason for this post asking how others handle it).

I could even see it being allowed to purchase munitions-as-vehicles, such as missiles for a vehicle's launchers, especially when you have to replenish those after a fight.  Otherwise, munitions are too expensive to fire.  ("Wow, I got 5 experience points for that scenario!  Now I only need 25 more before I can replace ONE of the AIM-7 Sparrow missiles I fired!")

AIM-7 Sparrow missile (UV pp. 131-132).  Base cost: 150
Purchased as a vehicle: 150 / 5 = 30
Purchased as a vehicle-for-a-vehicle: 30 / 5 = 6

I could see justification for them being automatically replaced in between scenarios, like bullets for a gun, arrows for a quiver, or just about any sort of charges.  Maybe you pay full price for them at vehicle creation/upgrade, but not every time you have to reload one.

A long time ago, in theaters far, far away... hordes of sci-fi geeks gathered to watch the "final" *cough, cough* chapter of the galactic war that had been raging for years as Darth Vader and his Emperor tried to eliminate the Rebel Alliance once and for all.

"Return of the Jedi" is celebrating its own 40th birthday by returning to Terrestrial cinemas.  It will be re-released on April 28 and run through Star Wars Day, May 4.

https://www.starwars.com/news/swce-2023-return-of-the-jedi-40th-anniversary

May the Fourth be with you!

Short version: no double discount.
 
The smaller vehicles would either get the 1/5 for being components of the larger one or be built as separate vehicles depending mainly on readability.
 
No double dipping.
 
I have no idea if that is strictly RAW, but it is compatible with the general approach used in the rules.

Yep. Guilty as charged.

Censors?  No Way!  I DEMAND Freedom Of Artistic Expression!  Why, the very thought of.  .  .
 
Wait, what are we talking about?

Second RPG I ever played was a game of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay set in the 40k universe (the fantasy roleplay and 40k Rogue Trader stats were compatible enough you could basically just do that).
 
I didn't have a PC, and the group wanted to get to know me a bit before offering me a place. That was fair enough; I was 14 and the rest of the group were in their 30s-40s and it wasn't clear that we were going to be a good match. And it would have been awkward to bring in a new character anyway, as the party were in the process of trying to reclaim their ship from space pirates and they'd left off half way through the pitched boarding battle (having used their extensive knowledge of their own ship to get back on board).
 
So the GM gave me an NPC crew member to play - and not just any old mook, but the heavy weapons specialist. So we clear out a few rooms, plant sapping charges on the bridge door, blow it off its hinges, and we all burst in! The GM loving describes the senior pirates, including the pirate captain in his shiney chaos marine power armour. Who promptly shoots and nearly kills my character, who's rolled the highest initiative in the party.
 
"That sounds bad," says I, "and very tough. I'm going to switch to full auto on the plasma cannon and empty the clip."
 
The DM considers. Rolls some dice. Looks up some armour ratings.
 
"Well, there's good news and bad news. Good news is, there's nothing left of the pirate captain except a smoking pair of boots magnetically held to the floor.
 
The bad news is, you and the rest of the party are being sucked out of the gaping hole in the front of the bridge out you just opened into deep space.
 
Worst news is, your character just got several holes blown in his space suit and it's no longer air tight."
 
Long story short: they should have given me a power sword...

Swords/blades can't breach the hull and cause explosive decompression.

Most of Murphy's Laws of Combat and 70 Maxims of Maximumly Effective Mercenaries can be adapted in some form or another.
 
http://schlockmercenary.wikia.com/wiki/The_Seventy_Maxims_of_Maximally_Effective_Mercenaries
 
http://www.murphys-laws.com/murphy/murphy-war.html
 
Especially if the Press is your Enemy (funny how those two words can easily be interchanged).

Use something where they use the first part of a longer phrase to identify themselves.  So, you could use something like The Foundation for Social Justice as the full name.  But when they Say “The Foundation” with an emphasis on the “The” it takes on additional meaning to those who understand it.  It also gives them some cover when overheard or recorded.  

I think you missed a step or two there.
 
First you have to buy your butler as a Follower.
 
Then the butler buys the Galactica, then the Galactica buys its Vipers, then the Vipers buy their pilots as followers.

There's also this  YouTube channel, if you need advice:
 
https://www.youtube.com/@WorldbuildingCorner

For those who want to create "realistic" alien worlds, there is an excellent computer program called "World Builder," originally written by Stephen Kimmel and published in Creative Computing back in June 1983.  It was updated and translated from BASIC into Perl in 2008 by a gentleman named David Myers.

 

I disagree.  In "Charlie X" Roddenberry himself played the voice of a chef who reported to Kirk that there were real turkeys in the ovens.

All of that is true, but to some extent (just how much, I can't say) the need for an increased proportion of structural mass will be offset by the reduced surface area, and also by mass savings through economy of scale on various ship's systems.
 
The real problem that large ships face isn't linear acceleration, but rotational acceleration, i.e. turning. Winchell Chung, our very own Nyrath, describes the problems here.

Just wanted to say that whilst the model of a big ship being many smaller ships wielded together is correct in simple terms, there's a practical difficulty with it. Force and mass may be increased proportionately to produce the same acceleration, but increased Force brings its own difficulty. Namely, stress on the ship itself. A thousand fighter engines on a thousand fighters, means each fighter gets its little bit of force on its structure. But a thousand fighter engines on a large ship that merely has the mass of a thousand fighters... Well unless it's built like a line of fighters glued together and it only flies in a straight line, parts of it are going to be subjected to drastically more absolute force than would ever be the case in one of those fighters alone. Which requires greater structural strength, which requires more mass. And that increases significantly the more you expect it to be able to pull off the same manoeuvres. Zeropoint makes a good point, but there's more to it. Try to turn a star destroyer like you turn a tie fighter and it doesn't matter if the engine power and mass are in exactly the same proportions as the tie-fighter: It's going to snap in half.
 
An ant can lift 50 times its body weight. Make a 2m tall ant and it will snap its own legs trying to walk.