Silbeg

Re: "I am so cute, you don't want to attack me" field

Howabout +60 Presence' date=' only for defensive moves (such as "I am sooo cute...")[/quote']

 

We've thought about something like that... that would probably work, but not in the EC...

Re: "I am so cute, you don't want to attack me" field

Just to be contrary to my own discussion above, I created this as a possibility...

20 Too Cute To Attack: Invisibility to Sight and Hearing Groups , Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Persistent (+1/2); Always On (-1/2), Only To Prevent Targeting (-1/2), Voided By Successful EGO Roll (-1/2)

Are the modifiers appropriate? Does this power do what I want it to do?

Ok, a little background. This power will be for Meri, a mutated beagle with telepathic and telekinetic powers. We have built this character to be a base beagle (using the build for small dog in the HSB), and then added psionic powers.

While the concept is interesting (though often annoying), Meri has had some problems taking damage. We really don't want to just add defenses (currently, with her psychokinetic force field, she has 25PD/20ED, but only 30 STUN). Her player's idea was that Meri is so cute that people just won't attack her.

We have had several ideas for such a power, such as additional DCV levels, or invisibility, but the most interesting so far would be to do a "Change Environment" to add a penalty to targetting senses.

How would you build this power (use any construct you like)? One note... it is planned to put this into her telepathy EC, which has a base of 19 points (should give you plenty of points to work with!). She currently only has 36 END, but we are considering giving her an Endurance Reserve to power her abilities, rather than from innate END (fits the concept better than a high CON stat).

Thanks!

Re: Poison's Champions Art Thread

Sorry I haven't posted anything for a little while. Real life reared it's ugly head...

 

I have a couple of drawing slated to do, and hope to do one this week.

Damn that real life...

I've been drooling over the possibility of seeing Soundwave in 4-color splendor... and you are teaching me patience.

Re: Poison's Champions Art Thread

Here is the colored version. Experimented with a new coloring technique, I hope it looks alright.

 

OMG!!! Sweet!

That looks GREAT Poison!

Guess Soundwave needs to watch it when he is "competing" with flame boy!

Re: Lightning powers...with a BOOM!

* Living Lightning Arc: Energy Blast 3d6, Trigger (Activating the Trigger requires a Zero Phase Action, Trigger requires a Zero Phase Action to reset; +1/2), No Normal Defense ((10+ resistant ED or being fully insulated); +1), Area Of Effect (8" Any Area; +1 1/4) (56 Active Points); Only Along Teleport Path (-1/2)

I would do this with the "Trail" version of AE from the Ultimate Speedster. Although it is an optional rule, I like it better than some of the jinky ways of getting around the issue (like using a trigger, or linking to movement, or whatever).

Re: Poison's Champions Art Thread

Here is the colored finished piece of Knockout. Colors are by Shinobi from the Atomic Think Tank Forums.

 

Very nice. Wasn't sure how it would look with just the inking, but it turned out GREAT!

Makes me drool about how Soundwave is going to turn out!

Re: Poison's Champions Art Thread

Thanks guys, I appreciate it.

 

Yeah I tried with cape and without and he seemed to look better without. Too cheesy looking with a cape, heh heh.

Funny... but cheesy was part of the look... he took this classic look to overcome the errors of his past. So, if you wanted him to be cheesy looking, that'd probably be ok. It would have been a conscious decision on his part.

Of course, I am not asking you to change anything, since he looks cool right now!

Re: Poison's Champions Art Thread

I think it's more of a megaphone' date=' but I haven't read the character description in a while.[/quote']

That would definitely be more accurate.

Re: Poison's Champions Art Thread

rival team has a sound based hero also

Legend will need to see how well he sings

 

Legend is a sidhe muse/limited range sound based attacks and a demi brick

Sings? He doesn't... at least not so anyone could hear him. His powers absorb sounds around him, including his own voice. No one, including himself, has heard his actual voice since he was 13. When he "speaks", he either uses ASL, or projects the sounds he has stored as his "voice".

Re: Poison's Champions Art Thread

Soundwave Pencils...

 

Nice!

I love how you have his mask and hair, exactly what I was trying to get to...

And the bullhorn emblem rocks.

I see you decided to go sans cape, which is no big deal, at all!

Re: Poison's Champions Art Thread

Well, I am currently sketching Soundwave from the Rainbow's End Campaign... Pencils will be done today most likely (barring wife aggro). I am doing a special effects background for this one. I think it will look pretty cool. What I have drawn so far looks pretty good. I like the pose I roughed out.

I can't wait to see Soundwave... if he is even half as good as the rest of your work, he should look amazing! Can't wait to see him, and his background.

:drewl

Re: Hand to Hand Reflection

Another way would be an HA with a trigger (no time to reset) - triggering on successful block, limited to the DC of the attack - call it counter-punching, riposte, whatever.

Conceptually, I don't necessarily buy reflecting an HtH attack, since the attack is typically still "attached" to the attacker... but to each his own...

50 Counter-Punch: Hand-To-Hand Attack +5d6, Trigger (Activating the Trigger is an Action that takes no time, Trigger resets automatically, immediately after it activates; On Successful Block Maneuver; +1); Hand-To-Hand Attack (-1/2)

Re: Down the street from Rosie's

I've always liked using the Rosie's map... is sort of a campaign joke now that this is the busiest (and most dangerous) street in River City!

I use it, because it is easy. I should probably spend some time creating a bunch of new maps, just to have an assortment. I'd bet my players would thank me for it.

Funny how once you get the erasable "mondomat" (or whatever size), you tend to use less detail in mapping... a good library of maps would be a good thing to have around.

Plus, I could do them in 1.5" now, to be more compatible with the HeroClix we tend to now use.

Re: GMing for a new group

Bad news - the campaign ended up foundering close to a year ago, and died with a whimper as people never had room in their schedule to pick the game back up. I think player issues were the primary reason...two players in particular just never seemed that into the game, and they were married to two of the other players.

 

Good news - I plan to do a reboot of the campaign, with new players (save for my wife, who plans to play Miracle again) as a play-by-post game. Still working on the details, but I hope to have something put together in a few weeks.

 

Now, I have to figure out a common link for the group. The high school idea is out...it didn't work so well last time, as only half of the group had strong ties to the school.

Huh... hadn't noticed the thread necro...oops!

Re: GMing for a new group

So' date=' when you say 'big guns', how big should I go? Submachine guns? Assault rifles? Grenades?[/quote']

 

Depending on the tech level you are looking at for your game, I would go more "4-color" and arm the thugs with blasters. Perhaps even make it VIPER attacking the bank (or some other robbery). If not VIPER, introduce some other villainous organization into your campaign (though the players may not know that is an organization they'll be dealing with).

 

Use the "pulson blasters" from Gadgets and Gear, or standard VIPER equipment. So, 7-8d6 blaster pistols, 10-12d6 blaster rifles.

 

I prefer to stay away from mundane tech (bullet firing guns) for a couple of reasons.

 

1. Unless you are trying to point how superior the characters are to the typical "normal", a 9mm pistol or SMG has little or no chance to harm a super (assuming they have at least a modicum of rPD). This is even without dealing with the STUN lottery.
   
2. Genre-trope. Blasters, while still lethal, are more likely to KO than kill, so the legal system may deal with them differently than RKA guns. This is also why most villains don't use killing attacks (and why most are at least reluctant to kill).
   

Re: War of the Worlds tripods

There is a write up of something that might fit your needs in Villainy Amok!, I believe. The alien invasion section.

Re: How to present combat to new players

I don't see how the math for hero system is any more difficult than the math for any other system. Maybe when it comes to character creation when you have to multiply fraction I can see how it might get a little more complicated but it's still only grade school level math.

Which 99% of people are using software, or at least a calculator, to add up.

I remember sitting in class (back 15+ years ago), creating characters on the fly... got really good at adding up columns of numbers. But, this isn't even math... it is arithmetic. Just ask a mathematician the difference.

Re: Behemoth

2) Remember that NND HAs don't get to add STR under 5thER unless they are purchased with the Does Body advantage (once asked Steve); that's a plain 3d6 NND. Of course, you can MPA it with your NND STR, which doesn't do body, if Phil approves. NND STR and HtH rules are really odd. Anyway, a 6d6 NND in a 450 point campaign isn't excessive.

Do you have a page reference for that? Or if it was in a FAQ, a link?

I did not see this on 5ER184-5 (Hand-to-Hand Attack), nor on 5ER 265-6 (No Normal Defense), nor 5ER408-9.

Thanks!

Re: How to present combat to new players

I've heard a lot of people claim that rolling high is "easier". In 25+ years of playing Hero I've never actually played with anyone who had a problem grasping the concept of rolling low.

Gotta agree with that. This includes at least 7 different games run at Con of the North, and many other games.

The one thing that helped the most over the years was the 11 +OCV - 3d6 = DCV hit formula. That helps more people than anything.

If I were to simplify more, I would use teh bunneh's idea:

When I run convention and demo games, I start by doing the basic math for them behind the scenes (23 DEX means a CV of 8. 8 + 11 = 19). When the game starts, I tell my players "Your OCV is 19. Roll 3d6 and tell me how much you make it by."

Lately, I have added this to the character sheets in my game, and should probably add it to the convention sheets I am working on.

As for other learning curve details, I would say keep the characters simple, adding in extra powers/maneuvers as the players get more savvy.

Re: The Super drugs

In my "FPCA/North Force" game, the characters had run into a street drug by the name of "Loco", which was based on some of the drugs listed in Villainy Amok (not quite Metatron, but had a side-effect of berserker rage). This had been distributed to local street gangs by VIPER, though an agent known as "Jose Cuervo" (he is a friend of mine!).

Eventually, the North Force was able to follow the trail back to VIPER's secret nest on the river front. With the help of Grond (who had been held captive by VIPER there, there was some luck involved in freeing Grond), they defeated the VIPER villains, and agents. Grond escaped via the river, but became enamored with Flex (the team's strong man, who was also an action movie star), who was involved in freeing him.

This stated another set of adventures around Grond, who kept leaving Flex "presents".

A question has come up re: the END cost of an attack that has the Range Based on Strength Limitation (or Advantage). For the purposes of this question, assume that attack is based on Charges, so the attack itself would cost 0 END.

I would assume that since you need to expend STR to throw, you'll need to pay the STR END cost for the distance thrown. Alternatively, you'd only be using the character's STR characteristic to determine the range. I believe the former makes more logical sense, but await your reponse.

Re: What do you call "Four Color"?

I'm working on "six color"--4 color with shades of gray, and the occasional touch of the absurd(my opening run had sharks with laser beams attached to their heads).

 

Or "Justice League meets Adult Swim, as shown on HBO"

Sharks? With laser beams? Classic... um, wait... doesn't that remind me of a certain movie, where there were replaced by ill-tempered sea bass?

Re: The Fear Thing and the Child

5) unknown

 

Could be very very fun role-playing wise.

This, I assume, would be Soundwave, who is a little out of place with the dark heroes of the group , though he has a bit of a history.

It does sound like the team will be a bit more gritty than I would have expected, but should be interesting. Especially since the heroes are all required to take a Code vs Killing, which means their grittiness may be more appearance than reality.

That being said, The Fear Thing is an interesting character... I'd check out the section on Emotion Control from the Ultimate Mentalist... a Mind Control to cause fear would be appropriate!

Used well, the Presence attacks will be plenty effective as well. I look forward to being their teammate.

Re: Hero is TK projection of kid in coma

Very interesting character idea... one I feel compelled to add my 2 cents to...

I would go the duplication route, similar to the "Telekinetic Sidekicks" on 5ER152. The dupe would need the Altered Duplicate (100%, +1) advantage (for obvious reasons), and also Original Character Is Incapacitated And Helpless While Duplicate Exists (-1), like on the Astral Projection power (Ult. Mentalist 154).

To handle the invalid nature of the "host" body, I would give the appropriate Physical Limitations...

If the character was a latent telekinetic, and could manifest these abilities in ways other than just the duplication, I would have all the powers with the -1/4 limitation "Does Not Work While Duplicate Present"... and since the character never recombines (I would guess), these powers wouldn't very often be expressed.

There are a lot of other interesting things you could work with on this character... but all in all, I would build with Duplication. The problem may be that the cost of the duplication makes the character prohibitively expensive, unless the GM allows the altered duplicate to not have to buy Duplication, or is built on enough extra points to overcome the cost of the Duplication.