Gideon

Re: Another Brick in the Wall (Tell me about your Brick!) I have only played two Bricks. What was your favorite Brick? My character Mesa (who is actually my longest played PC in any game. I have been playing him for about 9 years now) is my favorite. Mesa started out as a guy-who-turns-into-an-elemental character, (back in 4th ed). After being buried alive by poachers Jim (thats his real name) was contacted by spirits of the earth. The spirits told him that they would save him if he agreed to be a guardian of the earth. He agreed and became a super-hero. About two years later (in game) he fell in love with a native Japanese ninja and married her. Then in June of 2000 his daughter Lilly was born. It was then that Jim decided to retire from superheroing. In college he had double majored in Literature and Linguistics and minored in Cultural Anthropology, he figured getting a real job wouldn't be too hard. Jim and his wife also decided that they wanted to be closer to their family, and since Jim's parent's traveled the world on a fairly consistent basis (scientists) they decided to move to Japan. It was there that Jim discovered that the spirits that gave him his powers were not willing to allow him to retire. The spirits were furious with him and came very close to killing him, but instead decided that because of the good he had done they would only strip him of his powers. No longer being Mesa almost relived Jim. He and his family could lead a more normal life. Shortly after that Jim took job in Australia with a cultural Anthropology team studying traditional aborigine life.. While in the outback Jim started having strange spasms and inexplicable growth spurts. Apparently the magic that granted him his original powers left some sort of residual effect. Jim was forced to quit the anthropology job. The growth spurts and spasms didn't stop for 2 years (after his second child was born). The results being that Jim had grown to be 7'4" tall and close to 1,200 pounds. It was at this point that Jim rescinded himself to the fact that he (and his family) would never be able to have a truly normal life. They moved back to the states and he rejoined his old team. He is effectively a Power Man type. He has no "brick tricks", instead he is build on straight stats and combat skill levels. In fact he has very little in the way of powers: His defenses are bought as Resistant, Hardened PD and ED. He has Life Support, Regeneration, Power Defense, Knockback Resistance, and some extra inches of Running, Leaping and Swimming. Everything else he has is stats, skills, and talents. What was your most fun brick and why? What was your most powerful Brick? Mesa again. What is the most unusual Brick you have played or seen played? The other brick I play is a relatively new character called Freefall. He is a character who could actually be categorized as either a brick or an energy manipulator. His powers are gravity based, but his SFX is a bit different from the usual. The GM I play with uses a variation of the Marvel/DC Graviton particle idea. So Freefall's only power (IG) is the ability to change the direction of attraction caused by graviton particles effecting an object his is in contact with. I know that sounds like a mouthful. Basically, instead of negating or increasing gravity (like most gravity projector/ manipulators) he changes the direction that some or all of the gravity pulls an object. For example: The special effect of his flight (yes he has flight) is him falling at terminal velocity in given direction, like up. He actually requires a skill roll to turn. He can lift incredibly heavy objects simply by touching them and causing enough of the gravity to pull upwards so the object becomes effectively weightless while he is in contact with it. (TK, no range). He can also cause said objects to have all their gravity point oh, lets say left, at a 90 degree angle to the ground. The reason I categorize him as a brick is that he also has a density increase (described as causing gravity particles to gather around his body). Also his powers are all Zero range, so even if he is using TK instead of STR, Density Increase, or Growth, he can perform all the standard Brick maneuvers (including hurling cars and grabbing and squeezing people).

Re: (Rant) Reasoning from effect

Re: Teleport as a defensive move I agree that it is a good stunt. The thing here is that IMO, it shouldn't work every time you atempt it without paying points for a power. Taunting a character is RP. Any character can do that. However, as I mentioned before a hex is 6.5 feet across. Unless you have some sort of super-range/distance/balistic angle sense, even if you are standing in a hex directly between two people there CANNOT be a guarantee that if you suddenly disapear as Mr. Left shoots you that the bullet that comes out of his gun will hit Mr. Right. In order to guarantee that effect IMO you should have a power. Otherwise it is the GM's choice as to who (if anyone) Mr. Left's bullet hits. Technically if you want to be 100% realistic with this, if there is someone behind Mr. Right, and the bullet missed Mr. Right then there should be a chance of it hitting that person, and so on and so forth until the bullet hits something or looses all of its momentum. This is why I said I think that that move would be a cool power stunt, but after a couple of times I would have to require the character to buy it as a power.

Re: Teleport as a defensive move That is what the power skill is for. And I for one (can't vouch for anyone else though) would let you do it once or twice but if you want to keep using the tactic buy the power. Either that or people will start missing the person you are lined up with more and more often. I do (and advocate doing) things like that because of game balance. If your teleporter uses that tactic once in a great while thats fine, but if you start using it all the time, then it's as if I decided to give you a power for free. And I'm sorry but I dont see that as being fair to the other players.

Re: (Rant) Reasoning from effect Sometimes working effect first works. When I build a character I always make sure it works RAW. But, considering that there are custome limitations in the game, RAW gives alot of leway. For example, I just build a sonic projector/ manipulator character for a game I am supposed to start playing in soon. When I built the character I broke down the powers in the character's multipower into two catagories: "manipulation powers" and "attack powers". Maniipulation powers include powers like Sound Images and a CE, while the attack powers include an EB and a Hearing Flash. I made the catagories because I decided that the character needs to screem to use the EB and Flash, but not the Images or CE. I looked around to find an apropriate limitation to represent "I can't use my sonic screem EB if my mouth is held shut". The first limitation that stood out to me was Incantations. Incantations seems like it should be the exact limitation I want to represent the effect, but it isn't. Incantation says that the character must start incanting at the begining of the phase regardles of the character's DEX. That doesn't work for the effect I am rying to achieve, and since Incantations starts at -1/4 I couldn't take a less powerful version of the limitation. So I looked again. And I found the limitation I wanted: Restrainable. It grants the effect I want: mouth held shut = can't use EB, but it doesn't have the added drawback Incantations has. The thing is it seemed like an unconventional use of the limitation, but I asked the GM and he said no problem.

Re: Teleport as a defensive move

Re: Should I keep going with this article? I have only skimmed the article quickly because the games I play in realy only use original or CU (in some version or another) characters. I want to read more. Alot more. keep it going Repped

Re: Unproportionate Proportionately linked powers Unfortunately I don't have access to hero designer (and i don't believe it will run on my computer anyway). But building the powers and figureing the point cost and End cost isn't the problem I am having. I want to know if I have either of the following powers: 65 Energy Blast 13d6 - END=6 23 Sight Group Flash 7d6 (35 Active Points); Linked (Energy Blast; Lesser Power is Linked to greater power; character can use greater power without using lesser power, but can only use lesser power if he als uses greater power; character must use lesser power in proportion to greater power) -1/2 - END=3 OR 45 Growth 9 levels - END=9 11 Leaping +11 inches (11 Active Points); Linked (Growth; Lesser Power is Linked to greater power; character can use greater power without using lesser power, but can only use lesser power if he als uses greater power; character must use lesser power in proportion to greater power) -1/2 - 1 END regardless of the value the GM determins the Linked limitation is worth (-1/2, -1/4, or -0) How much Leaping can I use per level of growth that is active. I know I could build the power differently. I could simply build it so the flash or leaping is improportionate to the energy blast or growth, but if I don't need to do so I don't want to.

Re: Unproportionate Proportionately linked powers You missread what I posted: Perhapse I should have worded it as such, and if so I am sorry for the confusion... 11 inches of leaping lined to 9 levels of growth thats 11 points of leaping linked to 45 points of growth. 1 point per inch of leaping, and 5 points per level (or inch) of growth.

I am having some trouble with linked. I understand that when you take linked on a power it is supposed to be used proportionatly to the power it is linked to. IE: 10d6 flash linked to 10d6 Energy Blast. For each 1d6 of EB used 1d6 of flash can also be used. But how does this work for powers who's cost or levels are not proportionate within themselves? IE #1: 7d6 of flash linked to 13d6 of EB how many dice of flash can he use per die of energy blast? IE#2: 11 inches of leaping linked to 9 inches of growth how many inches of leaping does he gain per inch of growth? The actual value of the limitation is not in question here (although the powers MUST be considered to be linked proportionately, and the lesser power is linked to the greater power; usually worth -1/2). Please help.

Re: Density Control Question true. Another similar suggestion (I don't have my book on me at the moment so I don't know how expensive it would be) would be a drain or suppress to STR and DEX or STR and movement powers. The thing is, depending on the SFX of the character's flight (say gravity or magnetic manipulation or magic) weighing 10,000,000,000 pounds may not actually have any effect on the power. Although it would prevent the character from moving in other ways. On second thought, why not make it a transform: person to 10,000,000,000 pound person?

Re: Density Control Question I know its an expensive power, but why not make it an entangle linked to a drain to all movement powers. That way you can use it to stop a character from flying.

Re: Increasing Target Visibility Question: What effect would a visible aura do to a desolid character? Desolid does not make a person invisible or less capable of being seen in any way. Also (as far as I understand desolid) you can still target the character with dispell, drain or suppress while desolid. So I would simply by it as a dispell or suppress to invisibility.

Re: Do you think these are legitimate Power Builds Something still makes me think that these attacks should be ineffective against people who can't percieve the attack (IE: blind, deaf, unconcious). When Mr. Z drops a piano on you are you actually getting hit by a piano or do you simply think you are getting hit? Is the trauma physical or mental? Do his images affect all 5 senses (IE if he shoots you with fire is there heat?), or are they simply visual? Or are the sounds and feelings associated with the images (wetness of water, boom of sound) only in your mind? If the power is an image that hurts you because you think it is supposed to hurt you (falling piano) but you are incapable of knowing that the attack is there how can you be effected by it?

Re: Flying Carpet and skills? For this one why not use: Gliding: 5", 0 End (+1/2), Trigger (One defined condition, Activating takes no time, Character does not control activation, Trigger resets automaticly) (+3/4)

Re: How would you do this? There are actually 2 MA mauevers. Ranged Disarm and Offensive Ranged Disarm. Ranged Disarm is 4pts for +0 OCV, +0 DCV, +0 Range, Disarm +15 STR Offensive Ranged Disarm is 5pts for +1 OCV, -1 DCV, +2 Range, Disarm +10 STR I would take the latter of the two. You could also take a CSL only for Disarms (2pts). And you could take the CSL that Dreadnought mentioned (although I'm not sure I would give it a -1).

Re: Regrettable Disads

Re: Regrettable Disads Now, back on topic... Mute. I had a character in a GURPS fantasy game who was mute. The GM approved it, and ALL the players new beforehand. I took all the skills needed to comunicate non-verbally to people including sighn-language and guesturing. The GM decided that the group needed a healer so he made a "PC". His PC knew sign-language and let everyone know it as soon as they met me. Well, the group decided that since someone knew how to sign, that they didn't need to pay any attention to me, and would simply make the healer double as my interpreter. After about 8 game sessions the GM got fed up with it and forcably had my character's voice "return" (mind you he had been mute since birth). When my character chose not to use his newly aquired voice, the GM "lost my character sheet" and told me that if I wanted to keep playing I would need to make a new character.

Re: Regrettable Disads

Re: Regrettable Disads You are right. It is the kind of thing that is best resolved in game. Normally that is how I prefer these things to work. (There is a LARP that runs near me where PK of any kind for any reason results in your character being docked XP for the first offense and you being kicked out of the game for the second offense. I refuse to play the game on principle and think the concept it both silly and distasteful.) The player/ characters in question all had what we thought of at the time as redeeming characteristics and at first we liked them. There was more to each of those characters than the problems I mentioned. The big problem (with the player) is he refused to play characters that were not problematic in some way. This wasn't discovered in earnist until the "evard's incident", but still.

Re: [Character] Makeshift I was looking over the character again and I realized something... If you keep him with the build he has he can make use of MPA. If you change him to having a VPP he cannot.

Re: [Character] Makeshift I don't see any reason why the character couldn't have the exact same powers frameworked differently. I think building the character with a VPP is the most appropriate way, but that doesn't mean you need to bend or break the rules about having a framework inside a framework. First: take off the 0 End, and give him an End Reserve. It will save tons of points (65 to be exact). 20 points buys a 100 End Reserve with a 10 Recovery, that leaves him with 40 points to do with as he pleases. Second, How about this: 90 point VPP, requires a skill roll to change (+0), half phase to change (+1/2), OIF (-1/2), Slightly Limited Class of Powers (stolen tech) (-1/4) {38 pt control cost, 128 total points} You could probably tack on more disads, and the limited class might be worth more than -1/4 (I was being conservative). The VPP would not include the Anklyosaurus armor. It would however allow him to use 3-4 powers (as they are currently built) at a time without changing the pool. And if the player is willing to make some minor changes to the powers (like increased end cost, or requires a skill roll) he could easily have even more active. On another note, I would also give him more skills. If he worked for the PRIMUS R&D department, I would think he would have skills like: physics, system operations, computer programing, or inventor. Plus, lastly... What weaponsmith skill does he have? You have it marked down as 3pts for a 13-, but the skill is bought in categories (2 for the first, 1 for each additional) just like survival and navigation. Hope this is of some help. I really like the character concept.

Re: Regrettable Disads 99% of the time I agree whole hartedly. And I think the decision you made was great. The thing is, sometimes people don't seem to get the message and keep making characters who will pull stunts like that. I have yet to see it in a Champions game, but I've seen it numberous times playing other things (especially D&D). The same person (over the course of 2 games) played: A fighter who "thought the paladin needed to grow a spine" and decided the best way to get that to happen was to goad him and try to make him fall. A cleric who refused to cast healing spells on anyone other than herself A wizard who wouldn't learn how the spells she was studying worked until she tryed them out in actuall combat. The wizard was the last staw for the group. The character gained Evard's Black Tenticles as a spell for leveling (3.0 D&D, not 3.5), but the player claimed he never read the description of the spell's effect prior to casting it for the first time. That would have been fine, had that "first casting" not been durring a huge fight. The character cast the spell, gigantic black tenticles appeared randomly in the room the rest of the characters were fighting in (not one arriving anywhere near an enemy), and the tenticles proceeded to grapple and kill two party memebers and zero enemies. The characters asked the wizard to leave upon returning to town. The players and the GM asked the Wizard's player to leave immediatly after the character was asked.

Re: Do you think these are legitimate Power Builds The problem with this (If I understand the character correctly) is that it changes what Mr. Z is able to do. The SFX of the power is: "I make it look like an object appears out of thin air and it lands on someone. If the person who was hit believes that the object is real he takes damage." Having OIF on the power means that he can't make anything appear, only make it look like something already there moved, and thats not the character's power. If he wanted to he could "summon" an Elephant to land on someone while on the moon. Now granted, while I believe I understand what the power is meant to do, that doesn't mean I like the build. IMO, "Must have a Brain" is not appropriate, and neither is Ego Defense adds to PD/ED. I believe the power should be an NND with the defense being: blind or otherwise unable to percieve the power. My rational is that if Mr. Z shoots a gout of flame at Generic-blind-martial-artis-who-sees-soully-through-spacial-awareness-man and the power takes up no space, makes no sound, and generates no actual heat then Generic-blind-martial-artis-who-sees-soully-through-spacial-awareness-man has no reason to believe anything happened. And since the OP already said that part of the SFX of the power is needing to believe that you can be hurt by the power, he should be immune.

Re: OIHID and/or Focus