whraven

Re: "Neat" Pictures I'm not certain, but I believe the term rocket technically refers to the drive and drive systems, at least when you are talking to someone in the industry. I once knew of a blond lady who worked on the shuttle boosters for Martin-Marietta. At social gatherings she wore a button that said "as a matter of fact, I *am* a Rocket Scientist.":nya:

Re: Quote of the Week From My Life. So, I had a number of related dreams last night, all about attempting to escape a nuclear blast. First dream, I was where it happened so I saw the cause and knew the timeline. Later dreams I started in different parts of the city and tried to escape in different ways. Didn't succeed...5 times. So, I'm at breakfast and my wife notices I'm not eating much. My reply: "Nuclear conflagration makes me queasy.":sick:

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... "I find I get better results with a kind word and a two-by-four than with just a kind word." -- Marcus Cole, "Ceremonies of Light and Dark", Babylon Five

Re: A Thread for Random Musings Who's in charge of sound, me or George? If it's him, then let him take the blame when we sound like @#$%.

Re: "Neat" Pictures So now the dolphins got frickin' lasers ...

Re: Musings on Random Musings In fact, service animal users are supposed to have a special ID, issued by the school that provided the animal. My wife had one for every leader dog she's had, in case anyone asked. No one ever did, since her blindness is obvious, but she did have it.

Re: Simulating Drowning with Images I'd probably go with something that reduces OCV, DCV, and PER, as well as causing some STUN damage (he's trying to hold his breath for a long time, or his brain, believing he's drowning, actually causes him to lose STUN). You can work out some sort of defense for the smart guy, perhaps a PER roll of some sort. That said, I'd probably go with a DRAIN, possibly with AVLD or NND, and maybe BOECV.

Re: Musings on Random Musings Now why did that make me think of using pantyhose to hold an Ipod and ... Never mind. Better not to go there ...

Re: A Thread for Random Musings Robinson Crusoe on Mars is out on DVD!!! Stayed up too late watching it, but it was worth it.

Re: A Thread for Random Musings

Re: Musings on Random Musings My dad was terribly afraid of spiders; he always called my mother to take care of them. On the other hand, his mother would pick spiders up and carry them outside rather than kill them. Unfortunately, I have both characteristics.

Re: "Neat" Pictures My Bubbles!!!

Re: Request for Comments I've thought about it. Since I wrote these powers up primarily for historical reasons, I'm probably not going to flesh them out as much. However, I am working on an artifact that will have some, er, interesting effects. It not only enhances PSI powers, but has some of its own. Not really AI, but it will preserve itself and it's "attuned host"; it will definitely have side effects:sneaky:. After that, I've got to flesh out some of the NPC's in the enclave she'll be in, as well as the monastary itself, the nearby village, and surrounding countryside. I plan on challenging her ethics, as she often argues that "killing is never and option". At some point, she'll have to decide whether to kill to save the planet. It will be interesting to see if she finds a way.

Re: Request for Comments The song is actually what gave me the idea for the campaign (and is, in fact, the name of the campaign in my writeups). The basic mechanic (at the point in history being modelled) is for a psi adept on the alien planet to use "Find Power Source" to target a power plant, then transfer the power to a local grid.

Re: Piercing Questions, or Making Tech Levels Distinctive I would assign each item a tech level, and handle it as a roll modifier based on tech differences. This requires more GM discretion, so you'd probably need to develop some guidelines.

Okay, I'm working on the historic background for a Post-Apocolyptic Star Hero sort of scenario involving a Psionic War. Basically, the war started when one planet used mental powers to steal power from another. Although I could make the powers work by fiat, since it is historic background, I wanted to flesh them out to get some practice in designing powers and equipment after a long hiatus from Hero. So, I'm inviting comments on how I've constructed the powers and equipment for the initial attack event. The guidelines for the psionic powers were that the active points should fit at the high end of the campaign limits (not set yet, so this is somewhat flexible), and the equipment subject to attack is limited by this as its active points influence the active points required in the psi powers. With that in mind, here are the powers and the equipment they work on, with notes (constructed in HDv3): Power Plant: (Total: 198 Active Cost, 197 Real Cost) Endurance Reserve (10 END, 10 REC) Reserve: , Usable By Other (+1/4) (11 Active Points); OIF Immobile Expendable (Difficult to obtain new Focus; -1 3/4) (Real Cost: 10) plus Power multiplier (187 Active Points) (Real Cost: 187) The power multiplier is intended to reduce the cost to something manageable. Instead of 5 points for x2, I basically used +real cost for x2 power to get a geometric increase in power, rationalizing that this represents "economy of scale" and that the 5 points represents multiple objects. Power Grid: Transfer 3d6 (standard effect: 9 points) (END to END), MegaScale (1" = 1 km; +1/4), Area Of Effect Nonselective (26" Radius; +3/4), Two-Dimensional (-1/4), Usable Simultaneously (up to 131,072 people at once; +4 1/2) (281 Active Points); OIF Immobile (-1 1/2), Requires Multiple Foci or functions at reduced effectiveness (+1/4) This represents the grid the power plant is attached to. It is a separate entity since the psionic power will need a naked power grid on his own planet to send the stolen power to. Target Power Source: Detect A Class Of Things 11- (Unusual Group), Increased Arc Of Perception (360 Degrees), Range, Targeting, MegaScale (1" = 1 trillion km; +3 1/4) (106 Active Points); Concentration (0 DCV; Character is totally unaware of nearby events; -3/4), Costs Endurance (-1/2) Power Conduit: (Total: 196 Active Cost, 144 Real Cost) Transfer 1d6 (standard effect: 3 points) (END to END), Costs END Only To Activate (+1/4), Ranged (+1/2), Line Of Sight (+1/2), Cumulative (12 points; +3/4), Continuous (+1) (60 Active Points); Extra Time (6 Hours, Only to Activate, -1 3/4), OIF Immobile (Requires Power Grid to receive END; -1 1/2), Concentration, Must Concentrate throughout use of Constant Power (0 DCV; -1), Linked (???; -1/2), Others Only (-1/2), Lockout (-1/2), Increased Endurance Cost (x2 END; -1/4) (Real Cost: 8) plus Power Multiplier (136 Active Points) (Real Cost: 136) I used line-of-sight rather than megascale to keep the cost down. The Power Conduit is hard for the psionic adept to construct, and it is built incrementally. I'm still tweaking the game effects, but I think this is basically what I'll go with.

Re: Lockout

Re: NGD Scenes from a Hat My back ain't broke, and don't call me Shirley! NT: Things you don't want to hear a superhero say as he's rescuing you.