The Weapon

<transcript of conversation recorded from a bug in the earphones of a Galactic Arms Inc. spy in Combined Defences Inc. we do not believe he managed to pass on the information to his paymasters, nor that CD is aware we have this tape> S: "So they're going to do it. They're going to attack Planet 616 with their new suits. After they conquer it the Emporer will pretend that the attack was his idea, just to add territory and pretend he's in control." M: "But that's treason! Surely Galactic Arms can't just start wars to sell it's buggy, overpriced powersuits?" S: "They've staked so much on this contract, and the Nine Gods know that the more tests are done the more the new Demigod suits will be shown to be slower, harder to maintain and have less endurance than our Streetfighters. Combat against a low-tech world like, what was it called 'terra'? is the only test it might pass with flying colours." X: "What if they faced stiffer opposition? If they got a bloody nose they'd have to admit their suits are rubbish, and the Empire would finally select the better option." M: "If you mean these 'superheroes' I doubt there are enough of them to make a difference. Besides if they did lose to them, they'd just claim the superheroes weren't a fair test, that they were too powerful." X: "But what if they lost to our Streetfighters, particularly in the hands of untrained natives? Our suits are intuitive enough that even without training they are effective. These creatures have a natural talent for extreme violence. They will be facing, Guard units, famous for selecting only the most politically connected incompetents. Even outnumbered, our suits would still have a chance." M: "While the Streetfighters aren't judged good enough for the army, we'll never be allowed to sell them to others, particularly not a world that hasn't even achieved starflight. Besides they couldn't even use the automanual." X: "There are several 616ers in mercenary or bandity units amoung the starlanes. The automanual can use over 6 million forms of communication 'English' the most common language on 616 is one of them. Presumably that's why the raiders who broke in here took them, because they could sell them to people on their homeworld." M: "Are you insane? Nobody will believe that raiders broke into a facility like this, took 3 prototypes and didn't even kill a single guard." S: "That reminds me, I have to go now. Those birds I was telling you about, the ones that cost me sleep ever night? I've found their nests and I'm going to shooting." M: and X: together "Good hunting then.". <footsteps, then sounds of high energy weapons fire and several screams. One of the screams is from the wearer of the earphones, transmission is then cut off> In September 20__ a group of soldiers from the ____ Empire landed on Earth with the intention of causing an incident to justify war and demonstrate the usefuless of the new Demigod powersuits. Their officers were bribed by the Galactic Arms corportation. They attacked a small township and military base and were achieving easy victory. Several of the townsfolk resisted with hunting weapons, naturally these were ineffective. However three prototype powersuits emerged from a nearby cave, walking under automatic mode. Each approached one of the resisting townsfolk and offered a "Free Trial" of the new technology. With these suits the Demigod suits were defeated, although it was a close run thing. Military officials then demanded that the suits be turned over. The suits however only recognised their users as legitimate owners. The townsfolk argued that the powersuits counted as "weapons for efficiency or preservation of a well-regulated militia". Since one of the things that militias are supposed to do is repel invasions and since the suits in the hands of a local militiamen* did this, clearly the qualify. The local military commander decided he didn't want a firefight, which the townsfolk were clearly edging towards. He pretended he had no idea who had the suits or where they went. This despite one of them clearly being his cousin. Thus was born "The Iron Militia", consisting of "Hardhead", "Fastshot" and "Sniper" or Ed, Harry and Cletus as they're know around town. The suits have limited self-direction abilities. They can follow simple commands like "Hide", "Come here", "Suit up", "Shoot the guy in red" etc. They can run about 200 kph, are relatively stealthy, firepower and armor are about twice as good as a modern Earth tank and they have good jumping capability (500m+). They do require some maintaince but are capable of synthesising their own spares from base metals and plastics. Full instructions on how to maintain them are in the automanual. The IM has so far not done too much crimefighting, but have fought with several villains that came to the area to steal from the army base or lie low. * Technically all ablebodied males between 18 and 45 are part of the militia in the USA.

And the average Ars Magica PC is going .

So just let the fighters use frameworks. There's lots of things they want to do that should be OK in frameworks. I'll have a think about it and get back with some details.

One thing you should bear in mind, weapons where you can use leverage are faster than those that can't. That's why people used swords two handed, because you can pull with one hand, push with the other. That way the sharp bits move faster. The longer the lever, the faster the end of it goes. So with pikes you can strike at one guy, then switch to attacking the guy 3 to his left in a flash.

Subeditors, editors in charge of various areas (Financial, Sports, Politics, Arts, etc.

I find that very unlikely, not least because the Luddites weren't being replaced by machines. There was no new technology coming in. They were just being replaced by women and children who could be paid less. They got angry and smashed stuff until the factory owners agreed to give them money again in exchange for work that wasn't worth what was being paid for it.

Signet ring of XXXXXX Many years ago the character's ancestor did a big favor for some reclusive and mysterious people. In return the made promises to help out the heir to the family who wears this ring. Note that someone with no claim to be heir to the family gains no benefit from the ring. However if there are multiple characters who might be considered the true heir any can use it. Note that the character cannot voluntarily contact the "special folk" who honor this deal. Due their eccentric nature they show up when they want to. Contact: 14- (5), Very useful skills and resources (2), Slavishly loyal to character (3) = 10 pts. base IIF (signet ring) (-1/4), No conscious control (-2) Real cost: 3 +10 Pre, Only involving friends and allies of the XXXXXX family (-3/4), IIF (-1/4) Base cost: 10 Real cost: 5 +5 Mental defense.IIF cost 5/4 +5 Power defense IIF cost 5/4 Total cost 15 points real.

It's more than one hex. People do it from meters away.

You have a limit on Thaumaturgy and Sorcery skill, what about PSLs? If i have a sorcery skill of 17- and 2 PSL to do with range or whatever, does that count as skill 19-? Can you have specialised skill levels, say in fire magic, healing or something like that?

I hope your supergroup didn't splinter over this incident. Because with some people puns go against the grain.

For when they start being trigger happy, detractors call them: Usually Lethal to Everyone Totatally Ruins Anything

My character would say "Great, glad to hear that you're more at peace with yourself. However whatever your reason, you were a complete dick. Next time you have a problem accepting yourself try not to deal with it by committing felonies." That may seem immature, but he's 12.

From the OP "and every scrap of evidence that shows she exists just blanks". Of course that means she has to buy a lot of fake IDs and pay people a lot of money to make "legends" (spy speak for backstory of a cover identity).

"Remember what happened the last time we trusted a time-traveler? Of course not because he altered history to cover up how badly he did us over."

She's only forgotten when she uses her healing powers or "sometimes when it happens for no reason". Depending on how long "sometimes" is she could go decades without anyone forgetting her. So as long as she can go for years without using healing (at the cost of how many lives?) she could have a normal social life. Until of course someone realizes, "Hey you've got to be over 60 years old, why don't you have wrinkles?" and then it's heal someone, turn up in town again with gold (or later cash), and start a new business. If necessary introduce yourself as someone's relative who lives far away/is thought to be dead. After all if she wasn't who she said she was, how would she know so much about you? So where does she get the gold? Well obviously the rise of banking has been a great boon to her, she's been skipping out on loans for years, maybe centuries. She's also a great spy/police informant. She only has to get the information, not conceal the fact that she's the one that got it. Just deliver the proof, let her employer us it, then after a few months heal someone. The guys who know she betrayed them forget all about it. She starts again, knowing even more about the organisation she's trying to penetrate. Consider how much money was in the average weekly payment to Al Capone. Grab those a few times, get forgotten and you're set for life. A sort of social life would be possible, particularly as it would be easy to reestablish relationships (since you know how they react and what sort of person they like). Oh and they don't remember how she screwed them over last time they knew her.

Absolutely.

If I've learned anything, it's that non sequiturs are not the answer.

Add "Limited power: Doesn't work if confined to a small base in the arctic for months". Remember what they wanted to do to him?

Or other information. Consider what would happen if you find out that aliens are taking control of the local city council, and the Secret Service has over 2000 undercover agents in your area just to contain the threat. Let alone when you find out about the mass teleporter being built and the plans to nuke the place if it's ever completed. Note that if the above all sounds a bit paranoid, maybe it is. Maybe you read a paranoid's mind. Of course there's no way to know the difference between someone's paranoia and their awareness.

eunuch = unix (a programming language) that uses "shells". Disappointed they didn't include a daemon (= a program called by name in unix) reference.

Ars Magica does both quite well. There are "arts" divided into "Techniques" and "Forms" (basically "verbs" and "nouns"). Magicians research spells (or learn them from "Lab Texts", basically cheat sheets/spell books). To learn the spell they need a "lab total" based on the their rating in the two "arts", the Technique" and the "Form" (plus intelligence, magical knowledge, and how magical the place there). If they don't know an appropriate spell they can cast spontaneous magic, but it's much harder. The "casting total" (the number that determines if your spell succeeded) is halved if you take a fatigue level and there's a chance it will botch (crit. fail). Casting known spells only fatigues you and if you fail the roll (and it still works if you fail by >11). You can cast spontaneous spells without fatigue, but they are pathetically weak, 1/5 the casting "score" of known spells and you don't get to add a dice to get the total. They can't botch though. Quick example: Artemis the maga* has Stamina +2, Creo (create) 7, Ignem (light/fire/heat) 6 = 15 Creo Ignem casting score. She gets handed a letter late at night and wants light to read it by. If she can effortless cast the spell "Moonbeam" (level 3)which casts light as strong as moonlight, but it only lasts as long as she concentrates and it's the lowest level of light. Or she can try a fatiguing spont and roll a d10 add it to the 15 and halve it, to find out how good a spell she can cast. She would have to roll a 5 or better to be able to cast a "magnitude 2" or level 10 spell. However she could easily cast a level 5 spell, which could be bright than the level 3 one AND last until dawn, if she wanted. However is had learned a light spell of magnitude 3 or 4 (level 15 or 20) then she could easily cast it. There is a chance with the level 20 spell that she might be fatigued, but with the level 15 spell she gets it automatically, unless it's a "stress roll"**. * Female mage. ** A stress roll is a special roll that happens when the character is stressed. Basically there's a chance to botch and a chance to do really well. Spontaneous magic is always stressful. All of this is quite hard to duplicate in Hero System.

If you're only going to use it one-shot, you can afford to up the powder load for extra damage. Doing this continually means it eventually blows up, but you're probably OK for one shot.

So you melt it above the container and it drips in. Provided you can construct a bullet mold that can stand the temperature silver melts at, you're fine.

I see what you did there.

I know when I see a .50 caliber weapon I immediately think "How can I get the explosion closer to my ear.".