Victim

Re: M&M: this is a Nightmare? Well, Mimic is really expensive in practice (since you need to buy up the ability to affect high pp powers) and is resisted with a save. Cosmic Power is essentially just a prebuilt power - you can generate the exact same effect with the power construction system.

Re: Killing stroke Aren't targeting penalties cut in half for certain conditions - like KO'd opponents? Then you'd only be at -4 when going for a head shot. While not so good against opponents with innate rPD, you could also just remove sections of armor (like helms that cover the neck) from the enemy, then attack them there.

Re: M&M: this is a Nightmare? Not really a dark age when MM is a pretty damn good game. There are other d20 Supers RPGs, but MM is a good one. (Actually, it's not technically d20, but it's compatible enough to make learning easy for d20 players) It seems both better and worse than HERO in some ways. MM is faster for making characters and (maybe) for play. Not too sure about play speed since I know d20 very well, but had to look up tons of stuff when doing HERO. Hero Points and Extra Effort are both good mechanics - extra effort blows pushing or a power skill away. On the other hand, HERO's speed and abort based combat system is sweet. A game like WUSHU let's you describe your character cinematic martial arts - HERO lets your (properly built) character do it. Also, HERO does a good job with special last ditch powers, tiered power sets, and other complicated ideas.

Re: Starter Characters (Critique/Steal) Aren't hexes 2m?

Re: DEX vs. CSLs So the only possible special possible special effect for high dex is super human speed or reaction time? If I wanted to make super-skilled combatant, I could buy him tons of levels, lightning reflexes, skill levels with skills like breakfall and Dive for Cover levels. Of I could switch most of those points to Dex and then buy a few extra levels for flexibility, probably creating a simpler and more cost effective character. Because his powers are intrisically easy to use and control, or hard to dodge, or they're simulating some type of mental aim. Someone with Laser Eyes would be able to shoot a fast, accurate, easy to aim beam while providing few clues to their target. The TK might buy many levels because he aims with his much higher mental stats, but the target uses normal DCV.

Re: What superhero character concepts are you tired of seeing? In my opinion, many anime characters would make good super heroes. Weapon masters with Codes versus Killing (Kenshin, Trigun) seem like they come straight from the Champions section of the genre by genre document, except for their atypical settings. What is Goku but a character adding martial arts to the Flying Alien Brick, Blaster Speedster of Superman?

Re: Powers that damage the environment... And OAF gun essentially gets useable by others as part of it's nature.

Re: Help: Sniper Syndrome I don't see how people get "plays too much DnD" from "avoids damage like the plague." I'd almost think it'd be the opposite case. Taking damage in DnD isnt't that bad. Healing is probably available, and extremely effective - none of this only be healed 1/day crap. There's no real penalty for fighting with lots of damage, unlike systems with wound penalties. And if you take too much hurting and then die, you can be brought back. I think people would be more damage adverse if coming from WW, GURPS, or Shadowrun, since characters in those games are subject to death spiral, and can take fewer hits. Of course, I also have a problem with requiring people to act stupidly in the name of genre. Every time a villain is hiding under cover or diverting a bunch of teammates to set a trap for the sniper, is a time when they're not attacking civilians too. Batman always doesn't try to get captured and put in a death trap every other episode and Spiderman doesn't usually try to let the Green Goblin escape so he hear the master plan later. Not to mention that we're talking about a game, which is determined by luck, players and the GM instead of a comic book (complete control by creators). Like any predictable tactic, clever enemies can exploit it. Long range sniping isn't univerally applicable, or always the most effective. I'd just include more varied tactical situations and objective so that sniping isn't always an option or the best move, just like running up and bashing people isn't always the best move.

Re: Autofire as Accuracy Booster That's not how autofire works. Autofire causes additional hits if the character hits by 2 or more. Only one attack is rolled. Rapid fire is the mechanic that allows the character to make multiple attack rolls, but it doesn't improve chances of hitting since the first attack that misses causes the rest to miss as well.

Block also works better if you like to unload Sweep or Rapid Fire attacks into your enemies. The 1/2 DCV cuts the impact of dodge, while the attack penalty for the manuevers wouldn't affect blocking. Then if the block succeeds, you can sweep them again.

As you mentioned, pet NPCs. Vague, subjective description. Like when the guys that are too far away for you to charge and seem no faster suddenly rush you. Or the mob that's so tightly packed that only 3 guys are the radius of your attack.

The player that never learns simple rules. The one who always ask what to roll, when they've made millions of them. I found this most annoying in DnD, when someone would call for a X saving throw, and the player would ask every time. Players who suck tactically or who deliberately play crappy characters annoy me. But not that much. What does annoy is when other players suffer because of the other player's mistakes. If someone uses a phase/turn to set up another character, but the other character pisses away the opportunity, that upsets me. Similarly, if my character will to expend resources for healing people, don't needlessly expose your character to damage and waste my power.

Well, since CE affects a character's physical state without allowing normal resistances, I don't see the problem with a mental one doing the same. If someone imposes CV penalties with swirling winds, what's the difference if someone imposes the same penalties with a mental special effect?

Well, the main problem is going to be matching damage. Tank in M&M: +10 attack HERO Tank: 6d6K, AP (135 active, or 27d6 EB) Bricks: MM: +15 (+5 STR, +10 super STR) HERO: 12d6 (60 active) So a typical starting character has an attack half again as powerful as tank. I'm going count use of the Power Attack as HERO Haymaker. Even if we consider most MM attacks to be using the old Haymaker rule, we still have huge attacks on starting characters. Maybe HERO tanks are too badass. Same thing applies to guns and defenses. A MM character with protection 10 will bounce any non critical rifle shot. It's pretty easy to negate the critical hits too. With the stun lotto, it's pretty dang hard to ignore 2d6K from normal rifles and handguns. So a character with a level 10 defensive power would probably have 40-60 defenses. The main difference is that in MM, starting characters are handily superior to conventional weapons and attacks. In HERO, it takes a very powerful dude to shrug off tank shells exceed their firepower.

That's perfect. It's not likely to kill someone, it's almost guarenteed. A normal EB should work, actually.

His Leaping doesn't include the inches from STR. Also, I'm not sure if his hunteds were really more powerful.

I'd just think of the Orbo's unreliability as function of it being Suppress. Sometimes it isn't powerful to stop an attack. Evidently, their Orbo isn't too many points of Suppress.

Re: Re: Re: Re: a ? about SPD True, but it seems like buying tons of speed to take many actions in a phase for a Time Stop like effect is much simpler than full time stop effect Steve wrote up.

Hmm. How about proceeding as planned. However, when the heroes show up, see that the circle containing the demons is disrupted so it gets loose. Then you ally with the heroes to fight against the greater evil. Wail about the "horror that I've unleashed! Oh! What have I done?" to make sure you have their attention. Set up something to remove the gold from the area while the fight is in progress - port+TIme Delay or something. Arrange the whole thing with the demon - if it gets to run around and cause chaos for a bit, it might be more willing to work with you again for further chances. Then you move to cows or something. You've fooled the heroes, sacrificed a person, and let lose a demon, so you can take it easy for a while.

First of all, consider transmuting stuff into diamonds, not gold. If you have access to super rapid travel (mega scale port, super stealth jets, etc) either go someplace really far away with no notice, or set up multiple sacrifice zones and go to which ever one heroes don't visit. If temporary transforms are possible, and more convienent, then turn a bunch of people into werewolves. The outbreak on the full moon ought to keep them busy. Contact other villians who hate the heroes (hunteds) use them to help fight the heroes. After all, you know they'll be at such and such location (where ever your holding the sacrifice).

Then the mech should be built to utilize NERF ammo. Generic Blaster technology seems to be relatively non lethal too. Most mechs are probably too big for effective super hero action. Maybe something from Heavy Gear, I thought that Gears were small.

Variable special effect on COM?

I tend to think of rapid sensing as reflecting target tracking ability, like in radar systems. Normally, you can casually watch quite a few targets but can only really track one. On the other hand, an AWACs or AEGIS will track like all enemies, all friendlies, and all the missiles. I'd probably let Rapid counter multiple attackers and work to reduce noise penalties.

How about a Dispel vs. Knockback Resistance (or anything, really), Does Knockback, possibly with Double Knockback? In real point terms, it's probably more expensive. On the other hand, you'd get more knockback for the same active points, so it'd be more MP/VPP friendly. But -1 1/2 seems okay.

Well, that too.