pawsplay

Re: What gives the "rightful" king the right?

Re: What gives the "rightful" king the right? They're frequently more useful. Look, whatever, I'm a medieval history buff. The basis of feudalism is armed struggle and the resources to support it. War is the flowering of chivarly. Might makes right. Etc. In almost any serious monarchial controversy, you'll find that the lawful heir (however you calculate it) is rarely the winner. There are always pretenders, next best heirs, marriage and religious controversies, and so forth. The history of the hundred years war is basically a grab for monarchial power... each side had their arguments, and ultimately, they were not important. What was needed was a pretext, not a motivation. Never forget, government is violence, nothing more, nothing less, as George Washingston said. I have one central argument: William the Conqueror. He won, the other guys lost. Therefore, he was the rightful king. He was a foreigner, he was not only the chief involved in the invasion, and he had no pretext for his conquest. He just did it. There are of course subleties to how these things play out, but there it is. The OP asked about an apparent paradox. I explained it. Nobles seek to acquire land and power. The rest is commentary. Before you go spout off about people reading books, you might want to verify a few things about the target of your invective. It is very arrogant to assume that because someone does not agree with you or share your position that they are ignorant. I could be a medieval history professor, for all you know.

Re: Dispel, not a single power but a single Adv. That just sounds like Dispel, any one magical effect one at a time, to me. Transform, Persistent Powers, Mind Control, and Drains with really slow recovery are just a few kinds of curses this proposed power won't work against.

Re: Are Heroic Characteristics Realistic?

Re: Dispel, not a single power but a single Adv. Sounds like a closely related group of powers, +1/4. But what's the SFX? What kind of power is this?

Re: Increasing Skills vs. Skill Levels They are the same thing. A 2 point Skill Level can be theoretically reassigned each Phase, but since it's always assigned to the same thing, it's completely academic.

Re: Are Heroic Characteristics Realistic? I was able to show him how he could get most of those Figured Characteristics by spending CPs directly on them rather than by pumping up his Characteristics to ridiculous levels. Really? Because usually it works the other way. Your PC must have an unusual spread of abilities. Each point of STR is worth: .2 PD (0.2 points) .2 REC (0.4 points) .5 STUN (0.5 points) so it's worth 1.1 just for figured characters, before you even consider encumbrance and damage. And STR already pays for itself just in terms of damage. Each point of DEX is worth: .1 SPD (1 point) .33 of one CSL with any combat (2.67 points) .33 of one CSL DCV only (1.67 points) one point of Lightning Reflexes (1 point) Each point of CON is worth: .2 ED (0.2 points) .2 REC (0.4 points) 2 END (1 point) 0.5 STUN (0.5) or 2.1 points, just in figured characteristics.

Re: One last hurdle with the Demon Armor I have trouble imagining pricing problems. As long as the vehicle observes the campaign limits on DCs and such it should not be a problem. I don't know that the Vehicles rules assume you won't be in it all the time... if you were running Rifts I know the Glitter Boy would be in his armor 90% of the time or more. And for most of the exciting parts of Robotech, the characters were in their vehicles, sometimes for days at a time. To build a Vehicle like this, you would have to give it Running equal to your Running, SPD equal to your SPD, DEX equal to your DEX, then buy the defenses (which would have to meet campaign limits). It would also need enough BODY to survive being assaulted. Then you have to buy an AI with the same SPD. I doubt it would be much of a points saver.

Re: One last hurdle with the Demon Armor I think I'v got it. The demon armor could be an AI-controlled Vehicle! Vehicles protect their passengers. Vehicles have a SPD score.

Re: Is this a legal build Negative skill levels have no Range. What you are looking for is Change Environment (Self Only).

Re: Star Wars arms and armor In short, they should be using SMGs. Well, in canon, they use blaster rifles with folding stocks. Heavy stormtroopers and sandtroopers use heavy blaster rifles. As to the armor... the New Essential guide says it is intended to protect against energy weapons and frag, not Ewok spears.

Re: One last hurdle with the Demon Armor Force Wall for the defenses. The armor and the dude would both be valid targets. Alternately, Armor, Usable By Others (Simultaneously). An idea: Damage Reduction (for the wearer), side effect: the armor takes the absorbed damage.

Re: Star Wars arms and armor A sporting blaster rifle, in my understanding, is a civilian weapon equivalent to a bolt-action hunting weapon, which in the real world does have less stopping power than an assault weapon. The sporting blaster pistol is an analog to a civilian pistol. It's been that way in Star Wars from the beginning, from WEG's Star Wars RPG, which took its notes from the official description of Luke and Leia's weapons in the first movie. The ammo thing... energy cells hold a lot of shots. Virtually all weapons. I don't think it's a practical necessity to have small numbers of charges, and I have a hard time imagining selling Luke a six-shot blaster rifle at the Tatooine Wal-Mart when the standard model holds dozens of shots. Full auto weapons like the light repeater have essentially unlimited shots when connected to larger power sources. Exceptions: the holdout blaster uses a nonstandard power cell, as it is designed to be inconspicuous and have a low energy signature for places like nightclubs, etc. I pulled its ammo out of my butt, as previous games have had little consistency there. The bowcaster is also an exception, as it uses a very different kind of technology; I pulled its charges from official sources (game sources that describe it as a single shot weapon seem to be inaccurate, the official Databanks says only hunting weapons are built that way).

Re: More than just Uncontrolled...help please

Re: Star Wars arms and armor They weigh about as much as a sword, yet the weight is all concentrated in the hilt. I think it's justifiable. I think a weak person would have trouble wielding one effectively, without even taking into account their reputed tendency to writhe and exert feedback during combat. Darth Vader's armor deflects a hit. It takes time for Qui Go to cut through a blaster door. Several wielders strike the floor and it produces sparks and scoring, not gouges. And we see a lightsaber impale a clone trooper in the toros and remain motionless until retrieved. A saber also cannot easily cut the phrik alloy electrostaffs. From what I can tell, a lightsaber does not cut effortlessly though just about any substance.

Re: Star Wars arms and armor No, just blasters, lightsabers, and vibroweapons. Blasters, because they are devastating weapons against persons, but don't seem to cause a lot of collateral damage, nor do they seem to cause massive structural damage to people when they hit. However, they seem to go mostly go right through armor. Vibroweapons and lightsabers for obvious reasons. The Stormtrooper armor figure I came up with by reverse engineering from the weight, and knowing it is generally a light armor. It's also strong enough to be credible, but weak enough that Stormtroopers can be taken out by blaster fire, or even worn down by primitive Ewok weapons. The blast helmet and vest I just assumed were similarly light. I assumed their base damage was similar to but slightly higher than modern firearms. At 2d6, a blaster will kill on a hit to the head or vitals, and probably knock out anyone on most hits, just like we see on film. With autofire, blasters are quite deadly. In comparison to movie firearms, the main advantage to a blaster seems to be the enormous ammo capacity. Modeling the lightsaber and blasters as AP allows them both to be foiled by Hardened defenses such as force shields, phrik alloy, magnetic seals, and so forth.

Re: Character: Particle man No, he should have a Duplication into Wave Man, with a restriction they cannot both use their abilities at the same time, and with some interesting rules for recombining.

Re: 1pt CSLs I don't know if they're a good idea, but it's HERO, so a cost has been calculated in case you should need them. In a campaign with fairly firm CV limits, they're probably balanced, since it means necessarily a character who does not have a high CV in general.

Re: 1 pt CSL's, can I do this? You could buy it for "Rapid Fire with submachine gun." Autofire, however, is not a maneuver and is ineligible.

Re: More than just Uncontrolled...help please I would built the demon armor as a Computer that can activate the armor. Unless it actually controls his armored body and makes him fight, in which case it's an Accidental Change into a demon-possessed suit of armor.

Re: WHen did The Hero system first That depends on what you mean. - Champions? - The first HERO-like game? - Fantasy HERO, probably the first modern HERO variant? - The first standalone HERO rulebook?

Re: Damage for lightsabers The blade is weightless, whereas the hilt is a heck of a counterweight. So that is dangerous. But the weapon itself is very energetic.

Re: Multiform, OIHID or just sfx? So... No extra time. Powers don't fade when knocked out. Nothing special needed to transform. I think this is a case where Visible is the way to go.

Re: Multiform, OIHID or just sfx? True. But while Armor, Lack of Weakness, and Life Support might be the Visible signs of having silver skin, Flight, for instance, wouldn't (and is already Visible in its own right). Likewise, Mental Defense; looking silver doesn't imply mental defenses.

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game I've let my account lapse. I'll probably re-up it for double XP, and hopefully I'll be able to play semi-regularly after that.