Comic

Re: Kill the Dude with the Thing So.. does the Prince have the thing?

Re: Transform: Class of mind I'd have to disagree on some of the premises: Chiefly, 1) that you can change the class of mind -- eliminating exposure to the original mind's class attacks -- and retain the 'person'; 2) that you're picking the right power, when 'Mental Defense' UAO or UBO may be more appropriate; 3) that you're not seeking a game-bending effect based on mechanics instead of sense. If you have a transformation that happens to alter a person's class of mind totally (clearly a standard comic book superpower of good standing and long tradition, which can make dramatic and convention sense within genre), it will as a side effect prevent mental contacts restricted to those original classes of mind (if the GM chooses), but it will also transform the target in other profound ways. Machine minds lose emotion, non-linear thinking, instinct, intuition, free will outside of programming, adaptability and so on to greater or lesser degrees depending on genre and setting. Animal minds lose logic, linear thinking, focus, attention span, literacy, free will outside of impulses and drives, and so on, to a greater or lesser degree, likewise. If you're now a toaster or a trout, mentally, then your behavior ought profoundly change in a way that is pretty major, I believe. If it doesn't change in a major way, how does that reflect that you're in a new class? I played a fellow who turned into elemental air not long ago. In elemental form, he was by all measures insane to human ways of thinking, consistent with his cyclonic, unstable gaseous composition. In human form, he was relatively sane, though he pined for the 'higher' mental abilities of his elemental identity, much as a man who could turn into a dog might want to regain the ability to read and do math as a human.

Re: Who was WWII's most important leader? Intrepid?

Re: Unreal Darwin Awards I wish we had some sailor girls...

Re: anti-Hummingbird gadget Earplugs set to the frequency of Hummingbird's power would be a pretty high-ranking effect, for point efficiency. Forgot how much Darkness screws up mentalists.

Re: anti-Hummingbird gadget The general anti-mentalist powers, in approximate descending order of effect and efficiency: Follower with Mind Link and Mental Powers only usable over Mind Link (a pet with a mystic origin is popular), who steps in from afar and breaks the Mind Control for you. Danger Sense enough to know the source of the attack beforehand Invisibility Your own Mental Powers with extreme limitations (used to break out of Mind Control) Mental Defense Teleport ECV Levels EGO CON Somewhere way down below just about everything else is a power with a mental damage shield.

Re: anti-Hummingbird gadget Though if you were going to go the power route, telekinesis as a mental damage shield is the best point-per-point expenditure against a shrinking character... since a) more damage per point spent and none of this 'might' knock her into a wall. She'll go where the tK aims her.

Re: Mount Rushmore golem Needs skills. And a vehicle.

Re: Moving Entangle Telekinesis.

Re: The Everquest Taunt Speaking of, anyone recall any particularly good taunts from roleplay? "You can't hurt me, Ogre. I'm the strongest one there is." (Said while desolid.) And, to his (can't believe he made his Int roll) question, "Why Red Man all blurry?" The only answer I could come up with on the spot, "Because I have a headache. Please don't yell."

Re: The Everquest Taunt I'd recommend "Tactics" to determine when best to draw fire, "Deduction" to guess at the sort of taunt most likely to change the behavior of an opponent, and "Persuasion" or "Oratory" depending on single or multiple targets, for the general case. For the particular case of someone who can employ these skills extremely well in the area of a combat, I might advise Change Environment to enhance those skill rolls or reduce the resistance to this combination in the area.

Re: Making a character too efficient? I've run into the creative death of concept, of roleplaying opportunity, and of fun, from over-efficiency on more than one occasion. It's a terrible temptation, not just from powergaminess but also sheer laziness (I'll just take the pieces that I know work mechanically and run with them). It's reinforced by my tastes in characters to play, who tend to be encouraged by the design of the game... which is not entirely a bad thing; I believe the design of the game encourages the build and play of good concepts overall. What do I do to trim this tendency? I look to the other characters, and try to focus on having a story, background, and in play persona with a similar level of quality to the other players' characters. If you keep the important aspects of roleplay in mind, then however flawed a character sheet -- in terms of efficiency, game knowledge, or even *gasp* spelling -- the play and the fun are likely to be good.

Re: Leaping indoors My question is, why does the character not have enough Running to match his Leaping distance? If he can make the Leap, and uses human-like movement, what in his concept determines that he can't run at least that fast in the same amount of time? Was it something left out at character creation? In this situation, I'd ask the GM if it's okay to drop 10 STR and get 5" more Running, or to increase the END Cost of both STR and Running and use the extra points to pay for enough Running to make sense. If there were good reasons - like the Atom having STR way out of proportion to his mass, or Spidey's radioactive arachnid mutations - to be able to leap farther in comparison to running than a normal human, then yes, I'd still allow multiple hops so long as the player were willing to accept that there are downsides to leaping. Assuming 10" of 1" hops (not the way I'd do it), that's -20 to hit each target Hex, a virtual guarantee to end up in a random location no closer to combat and possibly prone on a fumble. It makes no logical sense to do it this way for most characters, and I'd agree with others who don't like it. Assuming 10" of 3" hops (rounds to 1" arc), that's a 1" step and 3 leaps, -6 to hit each target Hex, and makes dramatic sense enough to handwave the rolls unless there were difficult circumstances (like obstacles, distractions, etc.) In the above case, if the character is hit by an attack, they take an extra dice of knockback, and in either case they must only move in a straight line. With Acrobatics, I'd more or less just say, "make your acrobatics roll, if you succeed you may get surprise against your opponent, unless you miss your roll by 3 or more, you end up in your target hex, up to your Leap distance." They'd still be susceptible to the extra dice of knockback, but they would be able to change directions every time they land.

Re: Leaping indoors The point of leaping is that you aren't on the ground between the start and stop of the leap. If I had a room that had traps in some hexes triggered by stepping in the hex, then I'd pretty much not accept Running as equivalent to Leaping for the purposes of avoiding the trap. Even if the player claimed their character had a wide stance. Does a character with Acrobatics have an advantage over one without when making multiple hops as part of a single movement? Absolutely. They can change facing (allowing turning of corners, zig zag motion, and surprising opponents, among other things) where the non-acrobat cannot. Would I forbid a non-acrobat from making multiple hops in one movement using their Leaping power? No. There's flat out no support in the rules or in common sense for such a prohibition imho, and it would unfairly penalize characters who paid the points for their power and should get the benefit while producing no in-game advantage.

Re: Leaping indoors I'm dubious about 'against the rules' unless the action being tried is also against common or dramatic sense. Multiple hops in one phase up to one's total leaping is hardly the same as running: it exposes the character to increased knockback, has poorer maneuverability, and may require targeting the hex for the purposes of landing. Multiple hops certainly makes comic book sense: the Atom, Daredevil, Spider Man, Hulk, Beast, Batman and Robin all are portrayed using this mode from time to time. While it'd be amply unrealistic to use this method overall, I would put this down to poor character design: if you can leap it in a phase, you ought be able to run it also, if your leaping is based on human-like ambulation. (Though you maybe comparing NCM Running to Leaping.) I do agree on cumulative penalties for multiple leaps, and could see a hero with leaping ending up in the wrong hex, and/or prone, on a bad roll.

Re: Leaping indoors I'd allow Acrobatics. Or a series of hops of shorter distance that add up to the full leap distance. Since that was at one point explicitly allowed.. don't see any reason not to carry on with it.

Re: Vacuum Expossure Training And here's where I admit I was wrong (again). Ten days in space. TEN! _days_ in space. Way to go little guys. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2008/09/08/tiny-invertebrates-survive-a-trip-through-the-vacuum-of-space/

Re: Unconscious fighting Drunken Fist is often depicted as working best while so completely intoxicated that one is entirely unaware of one's surroundings and actions.

Re: Unconscious fighting The Spiderman villain "Foreigner" had the ability to hypnotize opponents for an instant, so they weren't aware of the passage of time (usually until he hit them).

Re: Marginally Powered Sit-Com Heroes Being fair, the thread is over two years old. Most of the people I know who've been dead for two years don't work either.

Re: Unconscious fighting What need to model? A fight goes more than three turns, it could take so many gaming sessions that you'd need to read your notes to remember what happened back when it started.

Re: How to do a huge range power for Clairsentience Since weather is pretty huge, and kind of obvious, especially as the point is to watch for extreme weather, I'd certainly knock the levels needed for ordinary perception down quite a bit -- either with Sean Waters' telescopic detect at 10 fewer perception (5 less levels of telescopic), or Megascale on the sense, which would cost considerably less (since it's only looking for megascale environmental effects). Or.. Danger Sense, weather only (-2), with the appropriate modifiers for Out of Combat, Affects Others, and range.

Re: Anti-electrical power, a thread for munchkins, rules lawyers, and rules abusers Of course, I'd have absolutely zero problem just calling it a special effect, if it happened only once ever, at no point cost. That's the point of special effects, just like a fire power being doused by a sudden gout of water (once) or a water power being absorbed by a random silo of cornstarch bursting open, or a vampire discovering that yes, holy water does burn like the dickens even if you specifically left it off your character sheet.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Don't you know, you can't sell daughters at a garage sale. You have to use Craigslist.

Re: Need some wierd alien illos for your next campaign? Reminds me of my highschool yearbook.