pawsplay

Re: The book I want more then any other.... It's a fun way to spend three hours. If you have three hours, that is.

Re: Is it fun to play RPGs online? I've played via chat programs. The disadvantages are obvious, but there are some hidden advantages. Since people play at home, they are less likely to be late (managing to be home at, say, 7:00 is a snap compared to meeting somewhere). When players play characters with widely different physical appearances and voices from their own, you're not looking right at them, which makes the characters somewhat more believable. You can also more easily maintain the game when if people move.

Re: Repeated Attempts

Re: The book I want more then any other.... Yeah, I generally only do that with new players.

Re: Talk of a base... Like for making microships and such. They are "clean" because they are free of things such as dust, smoke, moisture from people's breath, etc.

Re: The book I want more then any other.... Really? Because it sounds like a menu for players, to me. The GM may exercise authority over what is allowed, but essentially we are talking about prebuilt Limitations for a good part of the book. The GMing Disads section is not going to be very long. Currently, genre books can and do introduce specific Disadvantages appropriate for a setting. I can see some utility in collecting them, but honestly, I think most people get more utility from genre specific discussions of Disadvantages.

Re: Line of Sight, Alright? Unless I am mistaken, The Lord of Darkness might take a penalty for using a nontargeting sense for his Darkness, but it seems unlikely he would miss. He does not literally need to see to use a Constant power. He needs to see to continue targeting a character or object.

Re: Talk of a base... I would imagine it would be a specialized team working for companies that build clean rooms, nuclear power plants, and the like.

Re: How do others deal with Multiform? Just make each form 350 points total or less, and there should be no problems. Because the forms are so simple, Shapeshifting with powers "Only in Bear Form" (-1, basically the same as Linked plus Lockout) might be the way to go; this also avoids the "recursive point fiddling" problem that comes when you price the Multiform, then determine what the original form's skills, characteristics, etc are. If you do Multiform and you want SPD, INT, and the like to match (BODY is another good one), you'll have to build the base form last. You could also take Shapeshifting, then build a Multipower Linked to Shapeshifting, with each slot be a summary of powers and characteristic changes. Finally, you could build the whole thing as an Elemental Control, Animal Shape Powers, buy each form as one slot with several linked powers, then apply Lockout to each slot along with Side Effects (Minor, always occurs, transforms into animal form). I would probably use the EC method myself. Elemental Controls "I have the powers of spirit animals" works well conceptually, has less problems with differences in AP totals than Multiform, and is simpler than Multiform.

Re: Absorbtion and Duplication? The rulebook says not to use Summon to mimic Duplication. Clearly, this is Duplication. Cannot Recombine, Inherent, Trigger ... and note that the goblins don't have to get weaker and weaker, the points of Absorbtion can take care of the deficit as well as fuel a duplicate. Buy enough Absorption for the Duplication and use the standard effect rule. Here's the exciting part. The creature needs a massive amount of Hardened Armor with Invisible Power Effects (Effects on Target). The Trigger for the Duplication is "when the Armor has absorbed an amount of BODY equal to the BODY of the creature." Which should be at least as high as the threshold for duplication. It automatically resets, of course. This should also be bought as Inherent since it is not a dismissible quality, but an abstraction of the physical punishment done to the creature. For a heroic game, I would set the Armor arbitrarily at around 30 rED/rPD. For a superheroic game, I would set it to the maximum BODY you can roll on an attack at the campaign cap. Add also 75% Damage Reduction with the same modifiers (since, heck, I don't figure we're working under a budget, right?). This will help with any corner cases where the PCs contrive to do a lot of damage.

Re: Disads for Dana Scully I'd call it Roman Catholic Believer. Simply being a Catholic is not itself a Disadvantage, per se. Having a viewpoint that restricts her observations and actions is. "Devout" might be too strong a term for her adherence.

Re: The book I want more then any other.... The problem with The Ultimate Disadvantage that I see is genre balkanization. Just as an example: Vulnerability: Puns, x 1 1/2 In most realistic games, this would be nonsensical, illegal, perhaps even abusive. Puns are harmless. But in a four color superheroic campaign, I could see this as a legitamate Disadvantage; a pun-based PRE attack, while hardly the norm, is something you might run into. Further, if you ever meet a villain called The Punster or something, he might have Drains or Ego Blasts defined as puns. So the Disadvantage might be (Uncommon), 5 points gained for a unique and interesting Disadvantage that will affect play. You have a character who is simply boggled by puns. The same character would be unwelcome in an only slightly more "straight" campaign. A character in a JLI or Avengers inspired game, for instance, might despise puns, but they probably aren't going to be visibly shaken by particularly nasty ones. In a comedic superhero game, however, you might have to increase it to (A variety of uncommon effects linked by a theme) for -10 points. Villains like the Punster might be far more common, and pun-based PRE attacks might be a regular hazard. Some entity might even Summon creatures based on puns. In a particularly silly game, a character might be named Pun. Or Pun-Pun, Kobold Destroyer of Worlds.

Re: What gives the "rightful" king the right? Okay, I was a wrong. He had a pretext. He was still a Norman and brought his own army.

Re: OKay here's a toughie... You could add TK, No Range, Uncontrolled (-1).

Re: Sell me on HERO 5th ed. I assume by GURPS you mean "two editions of GURPS ago?" It's true... in GURPS 3rd edition, the Green Lantern was pretty hard to do, but it was no picnic in HERO 4th, either. Provided you like paprika. I mean, this is just not a helpful analogy. HERO has its own baggage... highly point-efficient Disadvantages, lots of breakpoints in the pricing of abilities, some unintended consequences of the Active Points concept, and so forth. They are different games. I am very relucant to make sweeping generalizations. The most I would say is that GURPS 4e and HERO 5e are both more powerful than their predecessors, and support more of the same genres and more of the same player needs (especially prebuilts). They are less dissimilar than they used to be. In broad strokes, they are virtually identical. Both are 3d6 roll under games with an attribute scale cribbed from AD&D, flat hit points, and independent skill advancement. If you want to compare them, it really takes a point by point comparison. In broad strokes, HERO does superheroes and variant magic systems better, GURPS does gritrealistic combat and lowkey psionic powers better. They are both problematic for games in which both high skill and great power are important and often define roles, such as Star Wars, Rifts conversions, and mecha action adventure. They are both really good at most action genres, most thriller genres, most realistic genres, and most comedy genres. HERO is slightly more abstract and allows you to more easily build things like "Nazi smashing punch." GURPS is slightly more concrete and allows you to more easily buy things like Nightvision or Musical Talent. Both can easily handle a fiery blast (2d6 RKA versus 2d6 Innate Attack, burning). If you want to make sharper contrasts, you would compare the games to Tri-Stat, Basic Role-Playing, and so forth. Even with older editions, what is striking is not how dissimilar they are, but how much more work you have to do than in more recent editions to do unusual things. With no more than modest tinkering, you can get virtually any game of GURPS to run the same in HERO and vice versa. Powers, lethality levels, PC competence can all be dialed up or down and compared to virtually any norm you want.

Re: Star Wars arms and armor

Re: Help with a name Tropos Black Narcissus Tendrilite Doctor Symbiosis Lichen Thrope Mister Unlucky Chitinous Stranglevine Darkling

Re: Star Wars arms and armor Thanks! And to lead further credence to the idea of wounding weapons, we see several clones tending their wounded comrades in the assualt on Utapau. I'll be massagging the stats and adding some more soon. I'd like to include Scout Armor, flight suits, light repeating blasters, heavy repeating blasters, E-webs, electrostaves, thermal detonators, and grappling gun extensions. Any other suggestions?

Re: Sell me on HERO 5th ed. The main difference is that GURPS is essentially a list-based system. You build your character by spending points to buy from a list of abilities - stats, skills, and whatever special abilities are apropriate to the genre. You want to play a fantasy game in GURPS you need GURPS fantasy for the spells. GURPS Supers has long lists of various superpowers. Less true than it used to be. Since 5th edition, HERO lets you buy more abilities from a list if you want and standardized a lot of skill categories. Since 4th edition, GURPS Advantages are constructed such that they can be modified to just about anything. GURPS Powers, for instance, adds about three new Advantages to what's in the basic book. GURPS Magic does add more spells, but you only need that if you use the generic magic system, which many game worlds do not use, and need lots of spells, which most people do not need. GURPS Supers does not in fact have a long list of superpowers. That was the last revision of the game. The new GURPS Supers is a genre book for supers, with GURPS Powers being a sort of "how to" book for constructing more special abilities. Neither is required to run a supers game. GURPS Supers is approximately equivalent to Champions, GURPS Powers is equivalent to parts of Fantasy Hero, The UNTIL Database, and the Ultimate Brick/Mentalist/etc books. There is no GURPS book currently in print I am aware of that simply has long lists of prebuilt powers. GURPS Supers has more pe built templates, some genre-specific powers, and rules for super lifting and such.

Re: Problem with force field

Re: Sell me on HERO 5th ed. GURPS and HERO do some different things, but honestly, in their latest incarnations, they are more alike than ever. Compared to GURPS: - HERO is more action oriented, and character creation is built around sturdier characters - HERO has more of the gears and cogs of the game showing, even such things as characters moving skill levels around on their turn and custom built powers - HERO is a little more abstract in what exactly a given number or power means - HERO assumes less about the game worlds you play in. - HERO by default does not spend as much energy on simulating reality, not that GURPS does except when it'se useful Really, I can't imagine being a GURPS fan and not having a copy of HERO 5th edition (revised). It's a very small investment for a very versatile game, not to mention a lot of food for thought for your GURPS game.

Re: package deal question Maybe Steve could address this particular issue.

Re: Dispel, not a single power but a single Adv. I don't think we disagree on the legality. I think the consensus was just that this is not how you would want to build the desired power.

Re: Mental Defense for the Dead Depends. If you define it as Telepathy, "But also works on the dead," then to be balanced it should take their Mental Defense etc into account. Anything Persistent, and depending on cosmology, potentially anything that costs 0 END. In Necroscope, for instance, dead people are still aware.

Re: Dispel, not a single power but a single Adv.