Blue

I let a player have a power when i first started the campaign and now years later it's a bit of a headache. I'm not going to ask the player to get rid of it (not without a decent replacement anyway) so let's skip that suggestion. What I need are suggestions on how to deal with it. The power is an Entangle based on ECV. It's meant to simulate freezing the individual in time. Now ECV really isn't much better than versus plain ol' STR for this effect, but we needed something and this was pre-USPDB I and II. Since an entangle isn't blocked by a defense (Like PD, ED, Mental Defense, etc.) then it's always arriving at it's full size. Since the effect is mental and enough dice to give a decent DEF listing, that means only Egoists are ever going to defeat it. In some cases I've put an Egoist into the team to deal with this effect (as they could ego-attack it and remove it from anyone who is bundled up this way) but they've been taken out by other player who see what's going on and want their timestop guy to run rampant. One thought I had was a missile-deflection type of effect (bouncing the attack at other players) but this isn't a missile. Are there any other good ways to deal with the mental entangle that you've come across, other than having a mentalist on hand to crush it?

Re: Confessions of an Online GM I've never done the online GM thing, but I conducted a great many one-on-one games by phone in my youth. Now I'd have no problem running a one-on-one online, but a big group of people might be a mess. As a component of my current face-to-face campaign, I originally let people do things "off camera" (via e-mail). Turned out to be a bad idea. Only one person wanted to take the time AND actually had the time to take, and this meant that at each face-to-face game we had to recap what he'd found. It felt like everyone else was being cheated so I canceled that part of the game.

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Down - 311

Re: The Godzilla Scenario Don't think these players have strength right now to take down the big boy. But come the right day, I think I'll throw a single monser at them as a precursor to running an entire monster island adventure (where they realize that was the "baby" not the Mom.)

Re: Speedster Martial Arts Ha! I knew Steve Long would have thought of it somewhere. Found the package in The Ultimate Speedster. So...uh... Nevermind!

I have a player who wants to make his Speedster's attacks be Martial Arts of a sort. They would be an extension of his high running speed. Things like knocking people over, disarming, tackling, etc. I could just purchase Passing Disarm, Martial Throw, Flying Tackle and Legsweep, but then the running would not really figure into them, and he'd only be able to use half his movement most of the time. Any suggestions on how I resolve this? Thanks.

Re: The Godzilla Scenario Nothing personal DT. I can't even think of the last time I saw Zorn around. I'm liking one of the beasties from DH#32. Problem is my players are trying to kill me. First we were running the last session of another game this week then i'd take over in two weeks. Then that player said, "No, last week was the last session. We're doing yours this week", which was a shock to everyone except that GM. Now another player has backed out. I'm not certain I can run a monster scenario against 4 heroes, one of whom has never played and has yet to submit his character or an IDEA for one, with 3 days left until the game. I'm guessing my game is canceled, but we'll see.

Re: The Godzilla Scenario Excellent. See how painlessly I looked that up?

Re: The Godzilla Scenario No one on the team has mind control v. animal class of minds, so I'm not worried about M/C. It's just that one power (I don't think the "Based on Ego" advantage mentions having to select a class of minds, so we never did).

Re: The Godzilla Scenario RE: DH, I'll have to see if I can narrow down the issue. Thanks.

Re: The Godzilla Scenario I considered that, but I didn't build in something like that when we made the character which makes it a retcon that only hurts that one charcter. And comic stories and retcons don't mix On that point, I think there may be a field of some sort protecting the beast, set up by whatever scientist called if forth from the sea.

Since I've been tapped to run my Champions game (in lieu of a proposed Call of Cthulhu game), I've been mulling over a few things I'd like to do. One is probably the comedic "Let's go to the Maul" from Champions Battlegrounds (Since I ran Scenario #1 when I first started the campaign years ago). Another is Shades of Black (I've even made all the villain minis for this). But the One I've always wanted to do is the classic "Monster on the beach front" scenario. A Godzilla like reptile rising from the waves and targeting the busy coastline and harbor. I've never run a creature of this size. It will likely be based on the one form the Hero System Bestiary, with some probably modifications. Does anyone have any suggestions for running such a scenario? I'm probably going to have to give him a certain amount of mental defense because of one character's mental entangle, else the scenario ends immediately. I just want to make sure that everyone has fun, and that it all resembles the classic monster-bashes of lore. Thanks for suggestions.

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? November Rain - Guns 'n' Roses

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Half-Life - Glen Phillips

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? T.B.D. - Live According to the playlist in I-Tunes, it's the one I have that comes up the most in random rotation.

Re: Cthulhu-esque suggestions? Seems I've got a split vote: 3 Champions, 3 Cthulhu, 1 guy for "anything new" which for him is either one. Means it's likely up to me. I'll decide in the next week probably.

Re: Cthulhu-esque suggestions? The old goodnews/badnews. Seems my players are now on a fence. Coming off of a somewhat dark Exalted Dragonblooded campaign they are eager to do something lighter. Oh, there are some who want to play Cthulhu, but a few have now said they'd favor Champions (That last part is the good news). So I may end up tabling this idea. In fact I'm betting what will hapen is the same thing that happened last time I offered to run a horror game; I ran something else instead and then our usual GM co-opted the idea I'd laid out for the horror game and incorporated it into his own. It was innocent enough, but it does feel a little like being robbed

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Shut your F***** Face, Uncle F**** - Terrence & Phillip

Re: Cthulhu-esque suggestions? Elaborating on the concept that Ithaqua was a bi-product, I think instead he, like Von Dman suggests, may have been the target of the hurricane. My new thought is that our heroes find and dispatch Ithaqua back to his location only to find on the premesis afterward newspaper clippings that show the usual Ithaqua hyjinx (dropping people from on high) taking place before the Hurricane. Further investigation will yield that the "Eater of winds" was summoned by heroes to stop the problems, only to cause more.

Re: Cthulhu-esque suggestions? Another good choice (Dagon). The problem with making my own god is that it would have to be at least as horrific as the stuff my usual GM comes up with. And you don't EVEN want to know about those.

Re: Cthulhu-esque suggestions? Oh there will certainly be Deep Ones, as mentioned. Ithaqua is a good suggestion but I'm not sure he's powerful enough for a cat 5 hurricane. Heck, I think Ithaqua would make a nice side-plot diversion, with the players thinking he's what this is all about when it was just some opportunist using the Hurricane to summon him. Thinking out loud now, try these on... A group of good-guy zealots attempt to expose the evil that is within New Orleans by summoning Nodens, the Elder God. But they were mislead. The tomes they used did cause the hurricane, but Nodens did not show. Instead, the Deep Ones now have greater ability to move inland and explore. Disease conditions allow for certain disease spirits and perhaps even fungi (from yuggoth?) to flourish. The hurricane itself acted as a perfect focus for summoning Ithaqua, the Wind Walker. One of the cultists is a Tattooed man covered in Runes who is thougth to be a looter. When he is either captured or killed, he escapes from the morgue/police station to go for further evil. A home with a large rune burned into the roof seems to be safe, if wet and dilapidated, but the guy inside shoots at anyone who comes to check on him. He is the last of the Nodens cultists. Before he dies he'll explain that they were ill-advised, that this was about cleansing evil from (names a few locations). Attempts to dive and retrieve helpful items will be met with Deep One resistance, with a nice underwater battle. If tomes are retrieved, they must go to the point of the summoning, which I will have to make particularly interesting. I mean, mansions and cliffsides seem to generic. The Tattooed man I think will be the key to dispatching the evil, his skin actually having been scrawled with wards and spells for summoning/dispatching

Hi, After gauging the interest level of my group of players, I'm considering running something in a Call-of-Cthulhu vein. My initial concept is that the player characters are residents, vollunteers, emergency workers, coast guard, and national guard in New Orleans, less than a month following Hurricane Katrina. I liked the idea of an area of disorder with "stuff" going on in the midst of it, plus it gives a wide range of character types. I anticipate fights with deep ones, cultists, run of the mill looters, and a daring underwater fight as the team dives to retrieve something form a building that is forty feet underwater. The things I'd like suggestions on are: The cause of the hurricane (I have "side effect of a summoning", "a summoned creature was at its core", and possibly that it was "an attempt to destroy a hidden evil" by some good guys). If anyone has a good suggestion for the creature at the center of a hurricane or another good reason why Katrina happened, I'd appreciate it. Also, some good swamp-based cthulhu mythos creatures would be great. I don't have every cthulhu book, but I can refer to stories and some of the Chaosium stuff for reference. Thanks.

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Call of the West - Wall of Voodoo

Re: City of Heroes (Champions of Champion) Yeh, I felt kind of ripped off with my Dark Scrapper, Truth, when I found out anyone could get a power like my favorite one of his (Shadow Maul = Sands of Mu). Then I realized that with that and the generic punching power where your hands move fast (under the speed set) he's got 3 flurry powers. Fastest Hands on earth! Ask any heroine in a short skirt.

Re: Age and Sanction? All of the New Sentinels had to go through a vetting process to be hired. One of those on the panel was Uncle Slam, while the others were the city commissioners, working in cooperation with PRIMUS (whom Uncle Slam represented). One of the reasons for Orland (the youth) being accepted was so that he could develop his powers in cooperation with experienced folk. There are those out there responsible for his powers who would like him back, and they aren't so virtuous. I think Anthem's age will become an issue the first time she's arrested, assuming that's while she's still under age. The Sentry act (the result of a legal case involving a hero who was unmasked by police without legal standing to do so, thus ruining his secret ID) was enacted to prevent police from unmasking a captive before they are convicted. Police hate it, naturally. So if Anthem ever gets arrested, in order to maintain legal rights she can't tell them she's underage, which means she'll be in an adult prison, likely in solitary, with her mask in tact. If she cops to being under age, she'll likely be unmasked as the act doesn't protect underage vigilantes.