dsatow

Re: What support DNPCs do GMs make for their games?

I used to add a little obnoxious kid with a stuffed tiger to my games. I stopped because it was just too obvious. I wonder how many people will get the reference today...

Re: Ideas needed for a 600 year old hero

Hrmmm, why does every immortal want to use a sword for a weapon. Give him a S&W 500 for a weapon with fast draw and multiple clips (speed loader).

Immortal 1: "Draw your sword and we shall duel like gentlemen."

Immortal 2: "Nah, I rather just blow your head off." Takes out gun.

Immortal 1: "Hah, a gun won't kill me."

Immortal 2: "Maybe not, but then again" "it only" "has to" "stop you" "long enough" "for me to come closer."

Immortal 1: "Hah! I still" "yet live"

Immortal 2: "Not for long."

Re: Ideas needed for a 600 year old hero

Watch Highlander the TV series...

I would suggest in skills, acting, disguise, forgery, history, navigation, geography.

Under perks, cover ids, contacts, wealth

Under powers, regen with resurrection and restore limbs, LS: anti aging.

Re: What support DNPCs do GMs make for their games?

Younger siblings always work' date=' even if the hero has an orphan backstory. Other relatives can show up as well (clones, half-siblings, etc.) After all, Superman's backstory destroyed his entire planet/race, and the writers still found him a cousin.[/quote']

 

You also forget, a cat, dog, monkey, horse(I think), and at least 3 kryptonian criminals.

Just wondering what DNPC/NPCs GMs usually have for their games. Note that I am not talking super powered NPCs, just minor side characters the players would see in the game.

Some of the more common ones I can see are

1. The police detective(s)
   
2. Gumshoe Detective
   
3. The intrepid reporter(s)
   
4. The local mad scientist
   
5. Obnoxious business exec who might need saving despite being not so good
   
6. Girlfriend/Boyfriend potentials
   
7. Weak old Aunt Mary who always seems to be shopping at the place the villains strike
   
8. Doctor or Nurse who helps heal the PCs
   

Re: CHAMPIONS BEYOND -- What Do *You* Want To See?

Just my $0.02

I wouldn't mind seeing also

1) The riff raff for the heroes. In comics like LSH, the heroes are always fighting some riff raff in every other issue. People with heavy duty blasters robbing a bank or causing other problems.

2) Some basic weapons and equipment you usually see.

2a) A few star ships like luxury liner, police vessel, pirate ship/smuggler ship, and private space ship.

2b) Standard blasters (pistols and rifles). Not a lot but enough to provide a little diversity.

2c) A space station (base) description as a location for heroes to use or save

2d) A standard colony (base) description as a location for heroes to use or save

3) Some info involving life in the future. Things like favorite Holovid programs("I'll buy that for a dollar","ISN news","Real Life:Mars"), recreational drugs(Soma), places to relax (is there a planet Rysa?), etc. Are there some shady megacorps (Brande corp)or major institutions (Time Institute)?

Re: Getting started in Champions with two young boys

Given the boys age, I'd use the Basic Rulebook first and run a Teen Champions game. Once they get the hang of things, I'd move them up to standard champions and buy the Big Blue Books.

As supplemental stuff, you might want to buy the Ult. Martial Arts book if they seem to tend more towards the Batman like stuff and the Champions Powers Book if they are having problems coming up with unique powers.

Re: NND vs Barrier

Fair point. But in 5E didn't it also say that Force Walls were not air tight' date=' so things like gas attacks built AoE and NND were not stopped unless you had Life Support linked to the FW? Then again, maybe that's partly the combination of AoE and NND...[/quote']

 

This is still present in 6E1 pg 170 bottom of first column.

Re: NND vs Barrier

I do not see that your conclusion follows from the premise.

 

Assuming that an Entangle isn't transparent to physical, then even a 1PD/1BODY entangle should serve to stop any (non-BODY inflicting) NNDs that are doing physical damage, in exactly the same way that a wall would.

 

Likewise, an energy only barrier (by which I presume you mean it has 0 PD) would still stop such an NND. Consider if it was, say, 0 PD/10 ED/10 BODY. According to 6e1pp171, if you punch such a barrier with 40 STR and do, say, 8 BODY and 28 STUN, you do not penetrate the barrier. You reduce it to only 2 BODY, but you don't get through - that 28 STUN goes nowhere. Now consider if that had been an NND it would have done 0 BODY, and could therefore never penetrate it. Of course if by "energy only Barrier" you mean that it has the limitation "Only works versus energy (-1)" on it, then yes, such a barrier is similar to a Transparent Entangle.

It would depend on the description of power itself as to why the PD barrier is considered a defense. If the NND is supposed to describe a remote barrier not in physical contact with the target, then an entangle on the target would not provide sufficient defense. An example might be a Kinetic Energy attack which vibrates solid objects but actually has no physical form. Having no PD and just body, the barrier could vibrate transmitting the attack to the other side. Again, the GM would make the call based on the special effect its trying to create.

Re: NND vs Barrier

just tossing in my $0.02.

First lets look at blast against a person with a barrier up. The blast hits the barrier does damage. If the damage exceeds the defense, the barrier goes down and whats left hits the target. Ex: a hammer against the Invisible Woman's Force Wall.

Next is a NND blast against a person with a barrier up. The blast hits the barrier and tries to do damage. Since the blast does no body, the barrier stays up even if it doesn't have the defense. Unless the GM rules otherwise, and personally I wouldn't, the NND doesn't pierce the barrier. Ex: a tranq dart against the Invisible Woman's Force Wall.

Next is a NND does Body blast against a person with a barrier up. The blast hits the barrier and tries to do damage. Since the blast does body, the barrier takes damage if it doesn't have the defense. If the barrier has no body, it barrier breaks and the rest of the blast goes against the target. Ex: a cosmic radiation beam against the Invisible Woman's Force Wall.

Next is a NND with indirect blast against a person with a barrier up. The blast bypasses the barrier and attacks the target. The barrier stays up to protect the target against other attacks but not against this particular attack.

Ex: Invisible Woman's Force Wall is up the mutant gates a tranq dart inside her force wall.

One of the issues that seems to be perplexing people is the assumption that NND (or as its known in 6e AVAD all or nothing) gives other benefits such as indirect, area of effect, etc. It does not. Simply changing the defense of the NND to make it indirect does not make it indirect. There is a common saying that a limitation which isn't limiting is not worth anything. Well, conversely, an advantage which does more than it should costs more.

Of course, your GM can ignore anything, its their game. If they want, say knockback to do knockback, the more bounce to them. But by rules definition, NND does not automatically give indirect.

As far as the Champions 6E write up, if the NND is blocked by PD force walls or force fields, then its block regardless of the level of defense of the wall. This means, entangles, energy only barriers, do not stop the NND.

Re: symbiote,how whould i make it?

I've never really been clear if SpiderMan+Symbiote was more powerful than Eddie Brock+Symbiote.

Its been quoted in the comic book, that the Symbiote actually amplified Spiderman's powers.

On the subject of the thread, I think most GMs would just call the symbiote a special effect of the powers rather than a character itself and leave any worries about the symbiote leaving as story arcs.

Given a special effect version of the symbiote, I would treat it as Only in Alternate Identity, with possibly Major Side Effects defined as sometimes the symbiote doesn't want to do what you want it to do.

Re: How to build: "Mental Block"

My suggestion, and it probably depends on the prevalence of mental powers in your campaign, is to just see if there is a problem in using martial arts with mental powers. If there are lots of mental powers being flung about, I don't think this will be a problem.

Re: Gestalt Space Cruiser

I'd create each ship independently and then give each ship clinging.

Re: Quantum Fuzzy: Mirror Universe version of the Tribble...to be or not to be

Carnivorous tribbles already exist in a different movie. Its called Critters.

http://www.nefariousfilms.com/TBDB/tbdb%20critters.html

Re: 6th Ed House Rules

I've been wondering about letting +1 Stun mod be allowed for Blasts and other attacks and not just killing attacks.

Ex: a 12d6 EB with +1 Stun would get an effective +12 Stun or just slightly better than an extra 3d6(10.5). A 8d6 EB with +1 Stun would get an effective +8 stun or just slightly better than getting +2d6(7). A 20d6 EB would get +20 Stun or just slightly better than +5d6(17.5)

Ex2: a 4d6 Mental Attack would get an effective +4 stun or slightly better than an extra 1d6(3.5). A 6d6 Mental attack would get an effective +6 stun or slightly better than +1.5d6(5.5)

If we try and nerf the advantage, say buying +8 stun on a blast, the advantage would look like the following.

Ex: a 4d6 EB with +8 stun would do on average 46 stun, slightly better than a 12d6 blast (42)and do only 4 body.

What do people think about the idea?

Re: Project WyrmStar Deadlines

Bummer, I finally have some relief from work's heavy schedule and I read this after Oct 31.

Do you guys take submissions on a general basis out of curiosity? I was looking at your website without registering and didn't see anything.

Re: Solar Hero timeline

Strange under technology I would have assumed the distinction between

The first fully learning capable AI.

The first emotionally aware AI.

The first man portable personal energy weapon that is not a flame thrower.

Re: The Future of Food Technology

Personally I am on a SciFi bender right now and just happen to be thinking about how food would be done and whether to buy life support need not eat in the ships. I am current against the life support idea. The tech level is fairly high but impractical for the most part. Its along the lines of Cowboy Bebop and Firefly. Energy weapons exist but are damn expensive when compared to guns.

So back to the thread...

I take a look at the last 2000 years of food preparation, storage, and tastes. I think for the most part, fruits and vegetables will be available to the masses but the taste will be diluted in favor of ease of growth and shelf life. The four basic meats(beef, pork, chicken, fish) will be farm grown the old fashion way but be genetically modified to be more resistant to disease, grow faster, etc. The genetic advances and how they are farmed will affect the flavor again to the detriment of the meat's flavor. Heirloom or enhanced flavor foods would be available to both the wealthy and poor, but will be consumed by mostly the wealthy on a day to day basis. High end restaurants will taste 10x better than comparable lower end food dives but will cost higher.

Food preparation will be easier and higher end dishes will have unique properties. People will still cook simple roasts. But the cutting edge dishes might be a roast which is stuffed and when the meat is cut, grave erupts from the meat. Mashed potatoes will still exist but there might be mashed potatoes which changes colors and flavors as it cools. Additionally, foods which might have been considered inedible, could be made edible. Tree bark might now be a delicacy. Gastrochemistry might be able to do very strange things to food in the future. Technological advances might make currently hard dishes easy. We have bread makers, could cake makers be that far off.

Finally, fast food and portable food will change. Some of it is not wide spread now but possible in the future. Self heating meal packs exist today but are not widely used. Could self cooling packs exist in the future?

I think the best depiction (most realistic) of the future of food in science fiction has probably got to be Babylon 5. People still cook though the more scifi styles of food exist, people still make their own meals. Just like people 200 years ago.

Re: 6th Ed House Rules

Personally, I like the new stun mod. The old stun mod, too many people were using killing attacks for the Stun Lottery or buying up the stun mod because it was efficient to do so. Characters were being formed around the chance of wiping out the villain in one shot.

Before 6th edition, the simple way to stop the stun lottery was simple to make the stun mod a static 3. Thus on the average 4d6K will still do 42 stun just like a normal attack.

So far the one house rule I have not wavered on is Diving for Cover/Flying Dodge when moving out of an area requires a -1 per 2m penalty to a Dex Roll.

Re: Magical Knick Knacks

Another knick Knick I remember was the King's ring.

It gave the wearer, knowledge skills and language for the King's Kingdom.

A recent post reminded me of little magical items I used to give out as "treasure" for a fantasy hero game. Unlike magic arrows or healing potions, these items were designed just to make life easier on the PCs. After a while though, the PCs found interesting uses for them...

I haven't run a fantasy hero game in a long while, but I am curious if other players did things similarly and what did they create.

For me, I had literally dozens, from the dice that always rolled what the owner shouted to the shaving and soap stones to the probably most common flashlight.

The shaving stone turned out to be the most funny as they used it to shave and ridicule an NPC while he was sleeping before a meeting with royalty.

Items I can remember:

1. A hobbit house: looks like a potporri house but if fitted with a candle heated or cooled if water was poured inside a 2" radius. (change environment 2"r hot or cold 1 recoverable charge lasts 6 hours).
   
2. Shaving stone - activated by spoken word and had an audible special effect hum (cosmetic transformation)
   
3. Sharpening stone - Actually useful for bladed objects. (Aid 1d6 lasts 1 Day)
   
4. Hobbit's Picnic basket - 6 charges of Major Transform to create food.
   
5. The miniature music box - sound images - a mechanical quartet plays what ever music you request. best of all it was pocketable and had no DRM.
   
6. Jobe's Magic Robes - 2 def leather armor which changed to whatever clothing style you asked (Instachange)
   
7. Goblet of Poison Detection - Goblet would change depictions on whether there was poison in the cup. (detect poison only in cup)
   
8. The travelling mug - really useful. Cosmetic Change only to heat or cool liquid in cup.
   

Re: Electro Magnetic Pulse

From your description of the character, I'd personally, skip the realistic approach (and its minor details) and go with the comic book/action movie approach. This way, there is less argument with the GM and continues the feel of most campaigns.

Whether the GM allows you to wipe hard disks or not, to me, is just a trivial side effect better suited for role playing than working as a power.

But then again, I've found that I have had fun making these little side effect things with points from a purely sadistic GM point of view.

Re: Convention Help

I've been finding with experience players, one average combat =~ 2 hours discounting role-playing build up and other stuff. In 4 hours, depending on the amount of role playing you can probably plan 1 -2 combats (2 if one of the combats is simpler).

Re: OCV/DCV Am I doing the math right?

Or 11 + OCV - 3D6 = DCV

The neat thing about this formula a friend showed me a long time ago for Fantasy Hero is how it works for Crits. Subtracting the 3d6 again from the formula gives you the DCV you critically hit (i.e. hit by 1/2 or more rounded down).

EX: If you have an OCV 8 and rolled a 7,

You hit a 11+8-7=12 DCV. You Crit a 11+8-7-7=5 DCV. The chance to critical a 5 DCV is (11+8-5)/2=7 or less.

Re: Who you gonna call?

There is a lot of anime/manga out there where people battle ghosts such as Bleach, XXXholic(not porn), and Kekkaishi.

As for tv shows, as mentioned, Supernatural, but there is also Dark Shadows, a cult favorite, deserves a mention.

In movies, I think you missed the obvious one, Ghost. Might not be about fight Ghosts, but it gives ideas. Wikipedia has a list of ghost movies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ghost_films