Edsel

Re: Sixth Edition Showcase #1: ACV And AVAD ACV sounds like the BOECV advantage, only with a different name. Steve’s examples only deal with changing from OCV to OECV and there is no mention of changing to a CV based on some other characteristic. Of course, in my opinion, it would be a bad precedent to allow characters to buy a CV based on a wide assortment of characteristics. Pretty soon there would be so many different alternate characteristic CVs that everyone would be an easy target far too often. ACV, as I currently understand it, doesn’t sound so much like an improvement as a simple name change. AVAD, as I understand it, is essentially AVLD but you can further modify it make it work like an NND. Varying the cost of the advantage based upon the commonness of the defense is already an optional rule in Hero System and one I have used. Currently you either buy an AVLD or you buy an NND. Now, if you want an NND, you’ll have to buy an AVAD and modify it further with a limitation to make it an NND. Just sounds like more steps to me with a result that doesn’t really change what was going on with NND in the first place. To me this seems to be unneeded additional complication. Perhaps (hopefully) I am simply misunderstanding some things.

Re: A Thread for Random Videos Who really likes the taste of A-holes? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmpisOn4FmE&feature=player_embedded

Re: Shadows Angelus III Campaign Logs I finished the session 4 recap a few minutes ago. Now it is off to be proof read by a few of my players. Hopefully I will be able to post it in the next couple of days.

Re: Any more Ultimate Series books on the horizon When is Ultimate Base due for release anyway? In the most recent news the upcoming 6E is getting all of the coverage.

Re: New Life form in North Carolina sewers? Flying Polyp hatchlings. But the cover story that they have concocted is pretty clever.

Re: A Thread for Random Videos There is a whole series of these interviews

Re: Jokes Source

Re: Book Of The Machine Available I picked up LL and Book of the Machine at my FLGS on Wednesday (6/24). This evening I was finally able to start reading Book of the Machine. The history of Mechanon is a really good read and I'm only just about 1/3 of the way through it.

Re: Jokes When Jane initially met Tarzan in the jungle, she was attracted to him, and during her questions about his life, she asked him how he had sex? 'Tarzan not know sex' he replied. Jane explained to him what sex was. Tarzan said 'Oh,....Tarzan use knot hole in trunk of tree.' Horrified Jane said, ' Tarzan you have it all wrong, but I will show you how to do it properly.' She took off her clothing and lay down on the ground. 'Here' she said, pointing to her privates, 'you must put it in here.' Tarzan removed his loin cloth, showing Jane his considerable manhood, stepped closer to her and kicked her in the crotch ! Jane rolled around in agony for what seemed like an eternity. Eventually she managed to gasp for air and screamed 'What did you do that for?' Tarzan replied, 'Check for squirrel..'

Re: Jokes As a young piper, I was asked by a funeral director to play at a grave-side service for a homeless man, with no family or friends. The funeral was to be held at a cemetery way back in the country, and this man would be the first to be laid to rest there. As I was not familiar with the backwoods area, I became lost; and being a typical man did not stop for directions. I finally arrived an hour late. I saw the backhoe and the crew, who were eating lunch, but the hearse was nowhere in sight. I apologized to the workers for my tardiness, and stepped to the side of the open grave, where I saw the vault lid already in place. I assured the workers I would not hold them up for long, but this was the proper thing to do. The workers gathered around, still eating their lunch. I played out my heart and soul. As I played the workers began to weep. I played, and I played, like I'd never played before: From My Home & The Lord is my Shepherd to Flowers of the Forest. I closed the lengthy session with amazing Grace and walked to my car. As I was opening the door and taking off my coat, I overheard one of the workers saying to another, 'Lard Jeezuz b'y, I never seen nothin' like that before and I've been putting in septic tanks for twenty years.'

Session 3 Recap At long last here is the session three recap: Campaign Log – Shadows Angelus, Session Three Real date: 13 June 2009 Game date: 19-23 March 2112 In the aftermath of the battle at the ruined brownstone belonging to Marcus Bentley, Officer David Silverton is suffering adverse after effects from the entity sickness, suffering a migraine headache. One of the arriving APD officers takes David back to XSWAT Headquarters for medical evaluation. They use one of the group’s two spinners leaving the 9th squad with a single spinner and six personnel. However with the arrival of the armored truck, which they intend to escort they will have rides for everyone. The Armored truck arrives shortly after Officer Silverton’s departure. The bright eyed APD recruit who is driving the truck takes a look at the assembled XSWAT squad and immediately moves to report to the two good-looking female members of the team. He is quickly intercepted by Sergeant Thomas and plans for the transport of the Animus Mortis are made. The first problem is how to move the Animus Mortis into the back of the truck. Based on the Shilo’s account of the odd happenings and feelings that she observed when she handled the painting nobody thinks that touching it is a good idea. Rachel and Mirko inscribe duplicates of their protective wards into the bed of the truck and then Mirko uses a simple levitation spell to move the painting into the newly prepared transport. Sergeant Thomas contacts Corporal Green, the squad’s dispatch officer, to have the roads cleared for the transport of hazardous materials. They are still using the cover story about the contaminated chemicals and the contaminated corpse of the mutant elephant. In addition Sergeant Thomas manages to arrange for a pair of APD squad cars to escort the truck back to XSWAT Headquarters. Mirko and Rachel elect to ride in the back of the truck to maintain their wards. JT will ride shotgun in the armored truck’s cab while Tiberius, Rhonin and Shilo will fly cover in the remaining spinner. At first things go smoothly but they soon pass through the eastern edge of Epsilon Sector. They manage to follow an elevated roadway which has been cleared of traffic by the APD but in the streets below them a Clade Rights protest march of some sort seems to be taking place. As they are passing over the disturbance below a pair of Powered Armors leap onto the roadway from cover to block their path. Apparently they had taken advantage of the disturbance here in order to surprise the convoy. The two powered armors are large each carry an enormous two handed sword over two meters in length. Both power armors are white/silver in color and have crosses emblazoned upon them. As they announce that the convoy cannot pass one makes his point by stepping on the hood of the lead APD vehicle, crushing its engine but leaving the officers inside unharmed. The two armors demand that the Animus Mortis be turned over to them. Rachel who steps out of the armored truck and recognizes them as belonging to The Order of Enoch. Rachel steps forward and starts to reason with them and for the time being they listen as they keep their weapons trained on the rest of the convoy. While this discussion is taking place Tiberius attempts to hack into the control systems of the armor. The rest of the squad scrambles to take up what defensive positions they can though they realize that they are woefully outgunned. Rhonin, realizing that he can’t employ his melee abilities from a hovering spinner decides to take a nap in the back seat. He asks to be awakened if they land. Rachel, over the course of a few minutes, manages to convince the two power armor pilots that a confrontation here with XSWAT will do far more harm than good (Persuasion roll made by nine). Grudgingly the two power armors make their escape before any XSWAT power armor can respond. Officer Tiberius watches them go secure in the knowledge that he had hacked their armor and could have shut down things any time he wanted. Back on course for XSWAT Headquarters the squad encounters no further obstacles. As soon as they are moving again Rachel contacts Ian Carnegay to see if he knows of any means to destroy the Animus Mortis permanently. Ian agrees to meet her at XSWAT Headquarters and to bring a couple of rare books that deal with the subject. She also informs him of the aborted ambush by the two Order of Enoch power armors which surprises and alarms Ian. Soon the team is safe at XSWAT Headquarters and the Animus Mortis is transferred to a secure, and thoroughly warded, vault. Officer O’Shea confides with the rest of the squad that the actions by the Order of Enoch were, according to her contact, very out of character for the organization. However there have been rumors of some turmoil within the Order and perhaps that has something to do with their uncharacteristically heavy handed intervention. She is worried about what this portents for future relations between XSWAT and The Order of Enoch. Upon their arrival at headquarters the squad hits the showers; they are all covered with goo and the dust and debris from their last battle. In two days they have already managed to rack up a good deal of laundry for XSWAT support services. By that afternoon Tiberius begins to study the goo samples that he recovered from the brownstone battle and the energy readings that are given off by the Animus Mortis itself. Ian Carnegay arrives with an old, somehow rare-looking, tome of considerable size. From it he has gleaned that one possible method of permanently unmaking the evil artifact (the Animus Mortis) would be though the noble sacrifice of one of the rightful owners. In other words one of the owners, either Chris or Jay Patton, would have to be willing to voluntarily step into the painting alone and close the portal. Only a rightful owner will be able to make the passage. They would likely then be able to seal the portal thus destroying the Animus Mortis, but there is no guarantee what their fate would be. In all likelihood such an effort would be fatal to the volunteer, though it would be valiant enough to insure their salvation in the eyes of God. The squad is not pleased at this prospect and decided against making any such request to the Pattons until they are sure that no other course of action is available to them. They hope that perhaps Tiberius can determine some scientific method to undo the painting. That evening Shilo has a dream… This vision is more like a waking dream, it is different than most and she gets the distinct feeling that she is witnessing something current rather than a potential future. In her vision she sees a misty grey featureless vista. In three directions as far as the eye can see the featureless ground and sky blend into a limitless horizon. In one direction there is something else. A blank grey wall is pierced by a single portal. Beyond that opening is the darkest night an area of utter blackness. That inky void threatens to pour forth and indeed it seeps into the area like negative image of light shining in a window. Before the portal is a being of light. It appears to be a female clad in white from which a most wholesome light seems to radiate. The figure faces toward the portal arms outstretched, holding back the night. • l • After a couple of days of study Tiberius is able to offer the squad an alternative method which might be able to ultimately destroy the painting. He has plumbed the depths of modern science and even ventured into uncharted territory. He has realized that the goo from the entity he has studied is slightly out of phase with our reality thus giving it the unworldly and unnatural aura that even now causes his hackles to rise when he gazes upon it. He has managed to determine a method to quantify, or measure the strange energies which still resonate from his samples and has discovered that those same aberrant energies radiate from the Animus Mortis and in far greater magnitude. Though even he does not fully understand it he knows that the painting acts as a sort of conduit between our reality and somewhere beyond. Tiberius formulates a theory: The Animus Mortis cannot be destroyed because the painting that is here is only a shadow of the doorway which truly only exists within the space between dimensions. When the painting is damaged or destroyed in our reality it is only as if the conduit was briefly shut and like an unlatched door any wind is enough to open it again. If the true artifact can be destroyed within its own reality then the rupture that it causes can be truly sealed. The real problem is how to travel to that limbo reality in order to do the deed. Tiberius’ experiments allow him to contrive a device that could make such travel possible. The Dimensional Bore is designed to impart those same queer energies to those within a few feet of the unique machine. In theory those affected should slip between the barrier of our world and the malign dimension of the Animus Mortis. Again, in theory, those so transported should find themselves in close proximity to the dimensional node itself. Even Tiberius has no idea of what will await those transported to this parallel dimension; will the laws of physics apply there? Will technology work? What of magic? The queer energies of that mystery realm should not be directly harmful to the living but he cannot say what life, or mockery of life, may greet any who are bold enough to chance the trip. His theories further suppose that once the true Animus Mortis is destroyed its odd energies should perish with it. Any who inhabit that twisted dimension should be deposited back into their proper reality as long as they are conscious of their surroundings. As to those who are unconscious he cannot say for the energies of the unconscious mind are even now not fully understood. Clearly only those aware of the grave risks should be allowed to volunteer. Before the squad embarks upon what from which there might be no return, they feel compelled to get the approval of Director Cadbury. A meeting is arranged so that Tiberius can explain how he thinks things will work. The squad, Captain Richards and Director Cadbury all gather into a briefing room on the morning of March 23 rd. After Tiberius explains his findings it becomes clear that all the members of the 9th squad are willing to volunteer for the mission. Rhonin suggests that only he and Mirko undertake the mission since he feels that they’re mystical natures might allow them to better operate in the strange dimension. This suggestion is overruled by the rest of the squad who refuse to let their teammates face the danger alone. Shilo recounts her dream of the endless grey, the doorway to midnight and the angelic being that seemed to be baring the passage to whatever lay beyond in the darkness. Most do not know what to make of it. Director Cadbury simply notes that it is intriguing. The meeting concludes with Director Cadbury giving her approval to the endeavor, she seems to feel that it is the best solution to the problem. The participants break up into individual discussions and the Director makes her way around the room and quietly gives a few words of encouragement to each member of the squad. Tiberius makes the preparations to activate the Dimensional Bore. The gateway is to be opened in the same chamber that holds the Animus Mortis. There is no way to be certain how accurate the dimensional transference will be. It is hoped that by being in close proximity to the painting the travelers will arrive close to the portal. Everyone within a few meters of the Dimensional Bore will be phased into the space between dimensions. Rachel offers a prayer seeking God’s blessings and for them to be granted strength for the coming ordeal. The chamber is evacuated by all but the 9th squad and the switch is thrown. The squad finds themselves scattered over a ten meter radius and facing in random directions. The trip is disorienting and it takes a second for everyone to get their bearings. They are in a light grey area. The ground, if that is what it is, and the sky are all a uniform grey, the horizon is impossible to make out and all is quite disorienting. The featureless realm is broken up only by the glowing gash which is obviously the portal of the Animus Mortis and by the forms of the amorphous nightmares of the entities. Off in one direction Rachel is able to sense a great source of evil, but also singular benevolent force. She remembers the dream that Shilo related and supposes that in that direction lays the entry into the shadow world, hell is how Rachel thinks of it. There is no doubt that the benevolence is the angel that Shilo spoke of. Rachel feels compelled to go that way to aid if she in some way could, but then a thought seemingly comes to her that her fate does not lie there, her place is here in this battle. In mere seconds the squad is in a dire situation. Half of them are knocked out or driven to their knees. Shilo and Rachel’s unconscious forms are being carried off in the grey mists by unspeakable horrors and the large entity guarding the portal seems impervious to attacks. Mystical attacks and even Maser fire seems to be strangely warped and dissipated by this dimension. Rhonin finds that his powers seem to be augmented here as he cleaves a Class I entity in half with a single blow of his sword. Somehow Mirko and JT manage to get into a position to attack the portal directly and their attacks begin to damage it. Toward the end Mirko delivers a telling blow to the portal only to be smashed senseless by a massive clawed appendage of the large entity. JT who is now prone from an earlier attack delivers a final blast from his giant Maser and the portal shatters into a million glowing black particles, before being absorbed into the miasma of the surroundings. With the destruction of the portal everyone is grasped by a profound sense of vertigo as they are snapped back to the reality of the chamber at XSWAT headquarters. Those who are conscious appear first followed in a few seconds by the ones who were unconscious. Where the Animus Mortis once lay is naught but a pile of fine ash that is rapidly atomizing and filling the vault with a rapidly fading whiff of brimstone. Several of the squad members were wounded in the battle but Shilo and Mirko are the worst off. Fortunately medical teams were on standby so the two officers are immediately tended to and then shuttled off to medical facilities. The rest of the squad look pretty spent but are generally in good shape, the same can’t be said for yet another set of uniforms. Once they hit the showers Rhonin notices that his tribal markings have expanded from his right arm and now cover the upper right quarter of his torso. After their baptism by fire, things are relatively quiet for the 9th Squad for the next two weeks. The hospital stays of Shilo and Mirko are mercifully short. As always Rachel offers prayers for them and the speed of their recovery is, coincidentally, remarkable. The number of Entity incursions throughout the city hits an all time weekly low just after completion of the destruction of the Animus Mortis, but in the following week there are signs that the number of incidents are again starting to climb. In only a week of operation the new 9th squad has achieved something that no other XSWAT squad has done. They have traveled beyond our dimension and interdicted the passage of entities into our reality. Though the public will never know of this accomplishment, its significance is not lost on their superiors and Directory Cadbury. Three days after the completion of their mission (March 26th) Shilo and Mirko are released from the hospital. The members of the 9th Squad are honored and decorated with the Silver Star of Bravery.

Re: Looking for Floor Plans. Glad to be of help. Of course to be fair this is located on a university campus and so I am sure that it is used for training. It could differ from a typical power plant in some ways. The cool thing is that you can get maps of all most all the buildings on campus. This is sort of surprising. I figured that the paranoia about terrorism and such would prevent these sorts of maps from being posted online.

Re: "Neat" Pictures It's lovely, repped! This just might show up in a future session of my Shadows Angelus III campaign.

Re: Looking for Floor Plans. Try having a look at this one. It has PDF maps of all sorts for the referenced power plant.

Re: End: Should he go the way of Com? I have always used END in my games and in all of of the years I have have been playing I have never been involved in a game that didn't use END. It has always been a part of the game. There have been a lot of dramatic moments when characters have had to stuggle with exhausting their END to keep up the fight. A character being forced to burn STUN when they run out of END can make for very heroic action. Besides END is easy to track and has almost no impact on the speed of play.

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far

Re: Shadows Angelus artwork Here is the tenative artwork that one of our players has done for their character in the Shadows Angelus III campaign. This is a quick sketch that is still being worked on. I need to get a better scan of this the actual picture is on an 8.5"x11" sheet of paper. Officer Rachel O'Shea.

Re: A Thread for Random Musings Just finished watching season 7 of "24" on DVD. Why do they have to leave this thing in such a god-awful cliff-hanger.

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far OK I'll amend that to say that to me it is a much more appealing solution. Others may prefer the 6E approach.

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far Those individuals who have a high DEX and yet are poor at hitting their target and poor at avoiding attacks are simply saddled with a Physical Limitation. The Frequency depends on how often they are likely to be in combat and the severity is a factor of just how inept a combatant (how much minus they take to OCV and DCV) that they are. In a game, but not necessarily in real life, those individuals are rare. Instead of decoupling it is easier to simply give them a Physical Limitation (or Complication, if you prefer) and be done with it.

Re: Shadows Angelus III Campaign Logs My recap may be delayed a little while, I feel miserable today. I think it's just allergies but I really don't feel like trying to type when I am having trouble seeing straight. EDIT: I had a major computer failure on Thursday. The motherboard gave up the ghost in my old machine. I now have a new computer but it will take me days to get the new system into some sort of order. I will get back on to the campaign log as soon as I can.

Re: Shadows Angelus III Campaign Logs I see Eosin has already managed to update Mirko's journal even though we gamed just last night. I have an outline for the session 3 entry done but it'll take me a few days (probably) to get it to the point I can post it. None of the squad was killed thought two went to the hospital and Rhonin has had some odd side-effects from their most recent adventure.

Re: Shadow Angelus Our next session is on track for this evening. It'll be a hot one since the OKC forecast calls for 90+ degrees. The game room A/C will struggle to keep it in the low 80s.

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far Thanks Rod for the updated and summarized listing of known changes. You have made me more likely to spend some money on the new system though I am still full of trepidation. ------------------------ “Toolkitting” notes throughout the rule books will describe optional rules that can be use to customize the Hero System to fit the needs of players and GMs. Sounds good, I like having options. An updated selection of Powers, including some that are brand new, lets players build even more diverse characters. No problems here, It will be interesting to see what is added. Adjustment Powers have been reworked to improve their flexibility and playability. Can’t make a call until I see what the changes are. The STUN Multiplier for Killing Attacks has been modified to be a simple ½d6 to better position them as Attacks which deliver increased BODY but reduced STUN. In a related change, targets of a Killing Attack can apply their full PD or ED, as appropriate, against the STUN of that attack regardless of whether or not they have any resistant defenses. Still real opposed to this. I usually run heroic, gritty, realistic games. One of the house rules is that we bumped up the DC of most firearms and lethal weapons. Only the resistant portion of PD or ED can be applied to the STUM from KA unless the character is wearing rigid armor, then all PD and ED can be applied to the STUN. Many weapons do increased STUN as well. You can see how this change does exactly the opposite of what our games have featured. Our group has found that the damage of Killing weapons in the RAW is usually lacking in Killing damage and STUN potential. All movement and distance measurements are now in meters to improve mapless play while still allowing the use of maps and miniatures, if desired. I still want to see how facing is supposed to be handled on a non-hex grid regulated map. Overall I have no problem with this though. A new Talent Striking Appearance will replace the Comeliness Characteristic. This new Talent, which can purchased multiple times to represent varying degrees of physical appearance, is designed to increase the game effects of such appearances. Don’t like it since I don’t see the need to “clutter up” the character sheet with another Talent. The COM attribute takes up practically no space, just a single line with a number, COM and another number. A Talent is going to take up more space. Four new Characteristics make it easier to create characters with differing offensive and defensive capabilities in both physical and mental combat and to create powers that can directly affect a character’s Combat Values. This must be referring to making OCV, DCV, OECV and DECV individual characteristics. I am very against this. IMO it makes much more sense for CV to be based on DEX and ECV to be based on EGO. More often than not a character with a fantastic DEX is going to be coordinated enough to be a better missile and melee combatant than a normal person. In the case of an exceptional character who has good DEX and subpar CV it is easier to take a disadvantage/complication to represent the anomaly. Mandatory links between Characteristics have been eliminated. All Characteristics are now purchased independently and several Characteristics have been rebalanced and re-priced to reflect this change. The work Mandatory gives me hope. If there is an option allowing me to easily re-couple then I will be much less disappointed. If re-coupling is not easy to do then this is still a big strike (IMO) against the system. Leaping is now purchased independently from Strength. I am opposed to this for much the same reasons I have given earlier. To me it is simply logical that a strong character with strong legs ought to be able to leap higher and farther. Some Skills have been modified. Have to see which one and how so. Improved Advantage handling includes a new more granular approach that improves the flexibility of many Advantages. Again I’ll have to see what the changes are. The Damage Shield Advantage has been modified. In the current RAW Damage Shield is nearly too expensive to be affordable. I am curious to see what the changes are. A new Limitation named Unified Power replaces Elemental Controls. Unlike Elemental Controls, there will be no restrictions on what it can be applied to. Doesn’t sound too bad; EC is one of the most used power frameworks in our games. Often, based on the rational, our group has made exceptions for normally disallowed powers. If this is more flexible it could be an improvement. New names for several game elements make their roles clearer. The Seduction Skill has been renamed Charm; Package Deals have been renamed Templates; and Disadvantages have been Complications. In a similar vein, Psychological, Physical, and Social Limitations have been renamed Psychological, Physical, and Social Complications. A rose by any other name… This is fine and some of the name changes are probably a good idea. Increased reach for larger-than-normal beings and weapons has been simplified. Sounds OK The rules for adding damage from Strength and other sources have modified to make them easier to use during play. Probably OK, I need to see it though. Suggested starting points for all genres and sub-genres have been increased to let players take full advantage of all Hero System 6th Edition features. Disappointing, if all of the unnecessary (IMO) tinkering with de-coupling had not been done this probably would not have been necessary. Since it is related to that hot button issue of mine I have to be opposed to this. Since they are just “suggestions” it may not be so bad. Each of the two full color hardcover Hero System 6th Edition core rule books will feature a full index that covers the contents of both books. I hope the indexes are improvements over the current ones. It is high time that Hero started using color throughout their books. I just wish it had happened earlier. I foresee sticker shock as the biggest impediment to attracting new players.

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far