rjcurrie

Re: Best Section Header *Ever*

I work in the newspaper industry (hell, I edit them), and it's always a source of pleasure when people come up with great headlines.

 

We thrive on them. A newspaper office without the deskmen laughing themselves silly is no office I ever want to work in.

 

I hold two - possibly three - true greats among headlines.

 

The first two are legend. Way back when the great explorer Sir Vivien Fuchs (it's pronounced 'Fooks') set off on his expedition to the south pole, the Sun headlined the tale, "Sir Vivien Fuchs Off to Antarctic".

 

Another one is from the Times. Years ago, when Gloria Swanson made a rare visit to England via the Queen Mary steamship, she arrived at Southampton Dock on a Monday morning and complained about the rough crossing. The name of the deskman who wrote this is long forgotten, but his words will live forever: "Sick transit, Gloria, Monday". True class.

 

The third I was privileged to be involved with. I was struggling to find a half-way decent headline for a boring story about vets' advice on caring for hibernating pet rabbits. A colleague looked up from his desk and muttered: "Avoid iced buns". Absolute genius.

 

But if I can find a way to add yaks into my next edition, I will. It won't be my first homage to the great SJohn...

A favorite headline off mine is one that a friend of mine who did some freelance work as a local sports writer told me about. It was from the Larry Bird era of the Celtics when they lost a game and Larry's nose got broken in the process:

Bird's Beak Busted As Boston Bested

Re: The Catholic Church's Super Team-The Virtues

I used the seven deadly sins for the basis of SinSquad International, a supervillain team that made an appearance in my SuperSquad America convention game two years ago.

Incidentally, I always remember the names of the seven deadly sins from a song parody we used in FASS (an annual musical-comedy at the University of Waterloo) 15 years or so ago when Hell was chosen as the theme of the show which was subsequently titled Another Damned FASS Show.

The premise of the song actually came from the piano scene in Big -- except with a much bigger piano that contained a tortured soul in each key who when the key was leapt upon by a demon would sing the note. The song itself is the experienced demon Brutus explaining the concept to new demon Severian.

Note: I wish I could take credit for this song -- but I can't. It was written by one of the other writers.

Re: X Men Colossus and his Osmium Form

Shapeshift... Yes, that would work.

 

If you're going the OIHID way, I'd used Shapeshift.

Why use anything? The osmium form is just the special effect of him turning on his power.

Oh, and I agree with Kieth on handling the Rogue thing.

Re: Premonition?

Hah! Good point. Besides' date=' maybe it isn't the PC that has the Power at all, but a benevolent (or not, depending on how you look at it) NPC sitting on a rock somewhere with a huge Mind Scan and Telepathy or Mental Illusions. [/quote']

 

Well, of course, then it's not the character's power and probably should not be part of his concept. If it is a part of his character's concept, then it sounds like it should be a follower or a contact.

 

Of course, in my mind, actually buying the ability more or less forces the GM to actually use it from time to time, as opposed to simply writing it off as something that doesn't happen anymore. But, as it was discussed earlier, it's a lousy 10 points -- about 4 or 5 sessions worth of XP. And, in general, I just feel more comfortable with it being purchased. It's also not a power that I see as being just a sideline for a character -- usually, it seems to be a major part of the schtick for fictional characters who have it.

Re: Should END be more? Was 2nd Edition essentially right?

People keep complaining about how difficult Hero is to learn for new players and then go and complicate their games with differing END costs for Powers, or want the return of more complex END reduction rules that meant that virtually everybody would be buying at least 1/2 END on almost all their powers. The latter, incidentally, is the reason why 4th edition changed the END rules, at least according to Rob Bell who helped put together the 4th edition.

Re: Superhero Pope: Ridiculous or Sublime?

More seriously, in a super world, if the pope is a super, who would take religion on faith? It's a huge leap to move into a world where well known religious figures have super powers. I think the whole social fabric of the world would have to be redone for it to make any sense at all. Unless super powers are very common, but even that could be troublesome.

 

Supers are a better analogy for war, both cold and hot, and political and social movements. They work as symbols of ideaologies and beliefs. The pope is already such a symbol, he doesn't need super powers.

Well, if only leaders (or followers for that matter) of a particular religion had superpowers then I could certainly see people having less doubt about that religion's beliefs and teachings. Of course, it would also depend upon whether or not those people got their powers before or after joining the religion.

If there were other superpowered people outside of that religion then I see it as having a slight effect, but probably not too much.

Rod

Re: Superhero Pope: Ridiculous or Sublime?

So, as a GM, how do you react when a player presents you with a character whose origin is basically "I was Pope. I died. I was reborn with superpowers"?

Re: Superhero Pope: Ridiculous or Sublime?

For them' date=' this may be seen as a sign of respect; I doubt highly Popeman will be sharing the limelight in his own title with, say, the X-man, or even Captain Middle America...[/quote']

 

Well, the article does mention him meeting him up with Batman and Superman to learn how to use his superpowers.

Re: Hero Mods

In proposal 2, would the cost of improving a 3 point non-background skill change to 1 point like for the 11- option? If the cost of improving those skills stay at +2, then I could see little reason (on a long-term basis) for buying the stat-based version.

For example, with DEX 20, the two options for buying Stealth would be:

2 points for a 11- roll -- 7 points for a 15- -- 8 points for a 16-

3 points for a 13- roll -- 7 points for a 15- -- 9 points for a 16-

So, for any skill you're looking at improving, you're probably always further ahead buying the 2 point version.

Re: Premonition?

Given that the only real point to premonitions would be to give the character information that the group would not normally get in any other way, I would say it should be bought as a Power unless you're going to make sure that every other player in the group also gets some kind of free ability to make things balance things out. I say this because I certainly know players who would complain about the imbalance of giving one player a free ability.

I'd use the Clairsentience method, incidentally.

Re: How Much Of A Tinkerer Are You?

As a GM, I'm probably about a 2. This is mainly because I primarily run convention games and thus like to stick to the rules as published.

As a player, I don't really have an opinion. In most of the games I've played in, the ruels are up to the GM so whatever he decides, goes.

Re: Fiddling With 6th - Skills (first of ??)

To be honest, there is a part of me that would like to eliminate al freebies in Hero. To me, this would mean:

• No figured characteristics and an appropriate adjustment to the cost of the primary characteristics.
  
• Possibly making Combat Value (OCV/DCV) and Ego Combat Value (ECV) into separate characteristics -- still not sure about this.
  
• Skills would be a flat cost per roll. For example, in the current system, familiarities (8-) would cost 1 point, an 11- Roll would cost 3 points (or 2 points for a background skill) and you would buy +1 as normal.
  
• The language chart would be eliminated.
  
• Skills like Combat Driving would not give a free TF.
  

In my mind, this would be keeping with the basic Hero philosophy of only getting what you pay for.

Rod

Re: Should CV be a base characteristic?

In a lot of ways CV makes more sense as a stat than the current system. Mary Lou Retton might have DEX out the yin-yang but should her CV really be high? Plus it would map better to Hero's effect-based design philosophy. Hugh's point is valid, that it's practically a stat already. The main advantage I can see for tying it to DEX are "barriers to entry" - it's expensive to buy up DEX, and CSLs require some modicum of background justification.

 

I didn't read the Aiding OCV thread, but isn't it currently possible to Drain a Skill?

Given the way DEX is defined in Hero with its effects on Combat, I'd argue that Mary Lou Retton doesn't have a high DEX, she just has a high PS:Gymnastics roll -- and possibly high Acrobatics and Breakfall skills as well.

Re: multipower question

Really, Multipowers with multi slots were the Framework of choice back in the Champions I-II-III days. It's beautifully flexible to be able to fly, have a force field going, and still pepper the bad guy with shots. You could do it with an Elemental Control but it was much more expensive.

Interesting observation, but certainly wrong in the case of the groups I played in where the Elemental Control - Multipower combination was the popular favorite. The EC would contain the movement and defense powers (and other things that you might want to have access to at the same time as your attacks) while the MP would contain the attacks.

Re: Trying to evade con-stun

First of all, there is no such game term as "con-stun"; it is simply "being stunned". Sorry, just a pet peeve of mine.

Possibly some form of Damage Reduction with appropriate Limitations.

I would call "only against being STUNNED" at least a -3/4 Limitation on CON as it would automatically include the "No Figured Characteristics" at -1/2 and would not defend against being hit by Mental Attacks Based On CON or be used in CON Rolls (which I have seen some GMs use for thinks like how drunk a character is or how well a character can stay awake after longs periods without sleep).

Re: Willing Targets of Mental Powers

I'd allow it. I'd even allow them to shut off any Mental Defense they have, provided it made sense based on its special effect.

Re: Stuff I didn't know (the world's longest post)

Actually, page 425 seems to say that you only pay 1 END for maneuvers that don't have a STR component. So you would not need to pay extra for things like Basic Strike which have a STR component.

Re: Name This Hero

Allow me to add another vote for Longarm.

Re: RSR: OCV... what does it mean?

Well, first of all, the books says "Attack Roll" not "OCV Roll" so I would assume that it would be an appropriate Attack Roll based on the power it is applied to. THat is, it would be OCV vs. DCV or OECV vs. DECV. I can't think of an appropriate Power Construct right now that this would be appropriate for, but since Steve added it, I suspect he may have had something in mind.

Re: Help me make a choice...

UNTIL: Defenders of Freedom has my favorite NPC in the Champions Universe. Those who've read the book can probably figure out it who it is.

Rod

Re: RSR: OCV... what does it mean?

In Requires Skill Roll, they list the option of using your OCV with no skill levels. The cost is "No Change". What does this mean?

 

Does the character make a to hit roll against the target to activate the power? Do they suffer the negative penalty from ACtive Points as in the 3/2 skills? What value is used? -1/2? -1/4? -0?

 

Any help would be appreciated.

Since that option is listed in the Modifiers part of the table, the "No Change" means that there is no change to the basic Limitation value (either -1/2 for one RSR or -3/4 for two RSRs). And yes, you would take the negative penalty from Active Points unless you purchased the RSR Modifier that removes the penalty.

Re: The Unusual Suspects

I have a couple of mixed types among the SuperSquad America team:

Fast Track (formerly Whiz Kid) -- speedster/genius

Nightingale -- sonic powers/healer with a reasonable knowledge of mysticism

My favorite mixed archetype character of all time is DC Comics' Kilowog. He is a brick/gadgeteer with a Green Lantern ring.

Re: What are you working on?

1. Updating my SuperSquad America web site (still a bit to go before it will be posted).

2. Deciding on the basic storyline for this year's SuperSquad America convention event.

3. Refining this year's Friends of Justice event before Origins and Gencon.

4. Working on a possible Fantasy Hero convention event.

5. Working on a possible SuperSquad America spin-off team for a possible future convention event.

Re: Stray "critical hit" thought

Don't kid yourself' date=' man. Skill helps a lot, but in real life situations (especially combat, and especially combat between many opponents), luck accounts for a lot more that skill! Of course, I do understand that we are playing a game which is in great part about the abilities of our characters, but let's not completely discount the effects of luck. We could just compare OCV vs. DCV to determine whether someone hits, and compare DCs to defense levels to determine damage, after all. Boooorring![/quote']

 

Well, of course, the luck comes in when the player makes an above average damage roll.

 

Rod

Re: Flipped Die Rolls

Shouldn't any decent game have a mix of high-low requirements (that is, sometimes you want to roll high and sometimes you want to roll low)? Otherwise, why wouldn't the players invest in loaded dice that always roll high or always roll low?