Edsel

Re: Building an Encrypted Radio Seeing as I am designing a radio for a large agency that may have scores of people on the air at once. I will drop the UwO Advantage.

There are numerous examples of radios in the Hero System Equipment Guide (starting on page 157). I have noticed that when a radio is built without “enhancements” it is a simple matter of buying Radio Perception/Transmission. However once the Concealed Sense Modifier adder is applied to a radio the example is also bought with the Usable with Others Advantage. Why is this necessary? If everyone has their own radio why would the Usable with Others Advantage be necessary? Is there a rule that I don’t understand?

Re: Police Powers & Weapon Permit

Re: Police Powers & Weapon Permit The source of the original thread is my preparing to run a campaign that borrows heavily from the Shadow Angelus stuff on Mike Surbrook's website. The XSWAT Package Deal has the two perks; XSWAT Police Powers (3 points) essentially this is Federal Police Powers since we are dealing with a large city-state. The package also includes the Perk Concealed Weapon Permit (2-points). Our group got to wondering about this. Looking through the various Law Enforcement Package Deals in the Dark Champions book I see that every one of them includes both the police powers and the weapon carrying perks. I wish I could ask Steve Long about the reasoning of the two perks but since that's a design philosophy question I guess I will just have to make a judgment call on my own. Besides in a 100+100 point game a difference of one or two points in a Package Deal isn't going to cause too much of a problem.

The last question I posted started such a wonderful discussion I thought I'd give this one a try as well. One of my players posed this question during character design so I thought I'd see how some of you would answer it. As part of the character's package deal they gain Federal Police Powers (3-point Fringe Benefit) and Concealed Weapon Permit (2-point Fringe Benefit). Question From The Player: I have not read the rules on this, but wouldn't the ability to have a concealed weapon be covered under "local police powers"? I mean, that is what membership in that organization provides, as well as access to information and detainment/arrest authority. How would you answer this? I am searching through my books right now.

Re: Weekend Warriors -- Campaign Log We are still weeks away from me being ready to run the game. And then we have to decide if we will continue the current Champions game, move back to Eosin's Fantasy Hero game, or start this one. When we do start I will certainly maintain a campaign log.

Re: Weekend Warriors -- Campaign Log Not likely for the foreseeable future. Our group has actually grown to the point that we would be too overloaded with players. We have a solid group of eight now and have had to turn away potential players. The Weekend Warriors campaign is geared for a group of 3 to 5 players, any more than that and the campaign loses the "feel" that I want for it. I am keeping my campaign data and one day it may return when, and if, our numbers dwindle again. Right now our group is concentrating on campaigns that are geared for a group of 7 to 8 players. This means that we are currently playing Champions and when Eosin's work schedule relents we will shift back to his Forgotten Realms Fantasy Hero campaign. I am currently working on a Urban Fantasy / Sci-fi / Horror campaign which will borrow heavily from the Shadows Angelus worldbook on Mike's website. This campaign is weeks away from being ready for play and since we may move on to Fantasy Hero next, It may be months before I get to run a game again.

Perhaps a few opinions will help me to come up with a better ruling on this... As I understand it a VPP generally is supposed to be defined in some way, for instance a magic pool, a gadget pool, etc. If the character is further limited in his selection of powers then they can take the "Limited Class of Powers" limitation. How do you define just what a limited class of powers is and how limiting should it be? In a case for an upcomming campaign I have a player character who is thinking about having a set of "Demonic Powers" bought through a VPP. However this VPP is limited to a set of 7 or 8 powers (powers that are written down and will not be changing anytime soon). How would you judge this to be, (-1/4), (-1/2), or (-1)?

It's pretty much official. I will be borrowing heavily from this data on Mike's site to run an Urban Fantasy / Sci-Fi / Horror game. Thanks for the inspiration.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Just finished watching the anime Tokko. Interesting story but it doesn't really have a conclusion, it just ends. Now I am re-watching Silent Mobius (the TV series), its been a few years and I am getting ready to set-up an Urban Fantasy game in a similar vein. I'll probably steal a lot from Shawdow Angelus as well (Thanks Susano).

Re: 'Magic Missile' style spell in a VPP with modifiers Here is a version of the spell that my Champions Mage has used: Magic Missile: RKA 2d6, Reduced END (½ END; +¼), AOE Accurate (One Hex; +½), Penetrating (x2; +1); OAF (Staff; -1), No KB (-¼), Incantations (-¼), Limited Range (16"; -¼) (82 Active Points) (30 Real Points). Of course you can change out the RKA 2d6 for an EB 6d6 and get the same basic effect. The double Penetrating pretty much guarantees that it will do some real damage vs. just about any foe.

Re: Order of the Stick We could use the Dragonlance D&D series to make a judgment about V's alignment. In that series "good" magic-users generally wore white, "neutral" generally wore red and "evil" generally wore black. V has, up until now, worn red (denoting neutral) but after the indwelling of the three evil magic users his robes have gone to black. There is also the case of the vampire-like fangs that V has grown, generally not a "goodness and light" characteristic.

A character Alpha is prone when an enemy choses to attack him. Alpha has not acted this segment. Can Alpha Abort to stand up thereby increasing his DCV?

Re: Order of the Stick A new one is up. Epic level Necromancy spell!

Re: THE ULTIMATE BASE -- What Do *You* Want To See? Since our group has been designing a base for a Champions campaign one thing that we have struggled with, a little bit, is staffing. I would like to see a discussion of what sorts of staff positions are necessary to run a base whether it be a superhero hang out or a fantasy castle. Let's see... you need a cook, a receptionist, a housekeeper, etc... That sort of thing. For a castle you need a steward, a stable master, scullery maids, etc.

Re: Input wanted on some limitations The conditions given effectively nullify the power, the user can now be seen but his identity is uncertain. Of course a friendly would not have a reason to hide from you so if you spot someone snooping around with the intent of not being being seen you can assume they are your enemy. This means it is simply a matter of how often those adverse conditions are going to be encountered. I will assume that anything that sufficiently disturbs the area (fog, mist, rain) also includes things like dust storms, smoke, etc. Essentially if it overloads the ability of the cloak to adapt you are going to be seen. Knowledgeable opponents might be aware that hitting the sprinkler system, or otherwise creating an adverse condition will show them cloaked foes. A power that doesn't work in darkness is a -1/2 Limitation. One that doesn't work in water is a -1/4 Limitation. To me it sounds like darkness would be more common than your specified "adverse conditions" and being "in" water is less common. Based on that I'd say it is either a -1/4 or -1/2 Limitation. I'd call the effective blinding of the wearer w/o goggles is a minor Side Effect.

Re: Jokes Political Correctness The following is the winning entry in an annual contest at Texas A&M University calling for the most appropriate definition of a contemporary term: This year's term was "Political Correctness". * The winner wrote: * "Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional,* illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end".

Re: Monster Hunting Sorry, it will be FTF. We have a large number of gamers. Our group is up to 8 players now and we are in the horrid position of having to turn away people.

Re: PRIMUS source book? Thread Necromancy: So whatever became of the PRIMUS book. Are there still plans for producing one in the forseeable future? For the time being I guess I'll just have to use the PRIMUS agent write-up from Digital Hero #2.

Re: Monster Hunting I am in the very preliminary planning stages of putting together an Urban Fantasy game. Most likely it will be Monster Hunters. I am thinking something along the line of the Bureau 13 idea that was floated on these forums a while ago. I haven't really progressed beyond the thinking about it stage yet.

Re: [Killershrike.com] Reorganized Domain Packages I unloaded on him. I sure am glad we managed to save that website.

Re: Music during sessions? Very rarely do we use any background music. I can't recall any used during a Fantasy Hero game. We used a lot of the Ghost in the Shell and Black Lagoon soundtracks during a short-lived Cyber Hero campaign. We also use the soundtrack CD that comes with the board game Last Night on Earth, when we play that game. Usually no one bothers with background music. We have a large group (eight) so the table talk is usually a problem and background music just causes people to talk louder. Personally I rarely am even aware of music on the rare occations we have any, I guess my mind just filters it out.

Re: The best questions you can ask! What assignments has the agent recently had? You might be able to see a pattern even if the agent is unaware of one, it could give you a shot at guessing the nests future activities. What radio frequencies and/or radio codes do you use? It might give you a shot at monitoring the nests activities until they realize that they have been compromised.

Re: Jokes Disclaimer: This is making the rounds here in Oklahoma. Remember this is a state where President Obama failed to carry a single county during the election. I would not be surprised if a variation of this used to exist for President Bush. Positive outlook..........if you don't have one, this WILL help. HOW TO START EACH DAY WITH A POSITIVE OUTLOOK 1. Open a new file in your computer. 2. Name it 'Barack Obama'. 3. Send it to the Recycle Bin. 4. Empty the Recycle Bin. 5. Your PC will ask you: 'Do you really want to get rid of 'Barack Obama?' 6. Firmly Click 'Yes.' 7. Feel better? GOOD! - Tomorrow we'll do Nancy Pelosi!

Re: Kazei 5 Second Edition Update Glad to hear that this is still in the works. I was begining to wonder.