Haerandir

Re: Supernatural Martial Artists My first instinct was to model them on Rain, Thunder & Lightning from Big Trouble in Little China.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... From Thursday's Amber Diceless RPG session: You'll notice that these quotes tend to be Conrad-centric. This is because I'm playing Conrad and tend to remember the conversations that involve me most clearly. ------------------------ Conrad: I've got the perfect place [to conduct the ritual]. It's got a tower with only one staircase, in a castle full of armed guards who follow my orders. Alaric [sarcastically]: Oh, that sounds GREAT! ------------------------ Conrad: All I'm saying is: I'm the best of a bad lot. Alaric: You're really giving me the hard sell, aren't you? Conrad: If I gave you the hard sell, you'd be really suspicious. ------------------------ Leandro's player attempts to use his conclusions to prove his postulates: My response [i'm summarizing a much longer 5-way debate here]: "I'll stipulate that plummeting from a treetop to pounce on a target and crack their skull constitutes 'fighting', and that by that definition A) coconuts fight all the time and the purpose of a coconut is to flip out and kill people. You cannot, however, go on to declare that coconuts are ninjas, and therefore mammals. You have to be a mammal BEFORE you can be a ninja. Thus, despite the name, coconut milk is not actually milk, and is still technically a form of fruit juice." ------------------------ Conrad: "We're on a quest. You know how it is." ------------------------ (I can't find my notes, so I've gone and forgotten the name of an NPC I created as part of my character background. Very embarrasing.) Conrad's mother: "How long will you be staying?" Conrad: "I"m not sure. We have a dark ritual to perform, powerful mystic entities to summon, a war to stop, reality to save. The usual." Ma Conrad: "I'll tell the kitchen staff to expect guests for dinner, then." ------------------------ I know I'm forgetting some good ones. I'll try to remember to write things down next time.

Re: Do I need the 6th Martial Arts book? Oddly enough, a year or two ago, I started to work on a set of rules for Football HERO. Not sure what happened to those notes... I know I was planning to replace OCV & DCV with OFV and DFV (offensive and defensive Football value, of course). OFV would be used for cases where a player actively attempted to make a play on the ball or another player (passing, receiving/intercepting, tackling, etc.) and DFV would be used for more 'passive' techniques (eluding tackles, shedding blocks, pass defense and so forth). I had a list of maneuvers (Block, Tackle, Cover, Speed Rush, Bull Rush, various Passes and Catches) though I hadn't worked out the details for all of them, yet. I believe the plan was to model them as Martial Maneuvers, with maybe a few house rules. Naturally, players would be able to buy Football Skill Levels (FSLs), with single maneuvers, groups of related maneuvers or with All Offense/All Defense... It would have been glorious. Probably totally unworkable as an actual football simulation, but glorious.

Re: The best Superpet? I'm generally a cat person, but my first instinct was 'Yorkshire Terrier in Power Armor'. Someone mentioned Ein from Cowboy Bebop, a Welsh Corgi would also be a strong contender.

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? "Not Fade Away" - The Rolling Stones cover version.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... From Wednesday's Amber Diceless RPG session: Alaric: "I see you led with the truth. Interesting choice." Conrad: "Well, I like to change it up. Every once in a while."

Re: Difference between games? The real limitation on the customizability of the character creation system isn't really hardware or software driven. It's end-user driven. I would LOVE to play an MMO with truly flexible character creation which allowed you to define the SFX of your powers freely and design your own power constructs. I'm sure the vast majority of people who play the Hero System would enjoy that game, too. Would I expect it to be a commercial success? Never in a million years. Sadly, while the "MM" in "MMO" technically means "Massively Multiplayer", it could work just as well if you substituted the words "Mass Market". And Sturgeon's Law applies to online RPG customers as well as it does to anything else. Every layer of complexity that you add to a system drives a percentage of the potential fan base to throw their hands up in the air and quit because they just don't get it. It's a delicate balancing act. Make a game too simple, and it's boring. Make a game too complex, and it's confusing. 'Boring' can be spackled over with snazzy bells and whistles (and/or content updates). 'Confusing' kills games. So, as much as I'd like to play the game we all wish Champions Online could be, I'd much rather play a game that will still be available six months from now. I went into this game with that proviso firmly in mind, and as a result most of my surprises have been pleasant.

Re: List Your CO Heroes! Currently, I have 4 characters: Dudette (Magical Cowgirl - Munitions/MA/Sorcery) Red Menace (Ex-Soviet superspy - Gadgeteer) Mekaera (AWOL extraterrestrial supersoldier - Power Armor) Djeserit (Mystic Egyptian warrior-priestess - Single Blade) Oddly, they're all female. At some point, I'll have to roll up a token male hero, if only so I don't start questioning my own gender identity...

Re: Any plans for a HERO Players Superteam once game is released? Count me in!

Re: Changing into a costume Well, I generally build my speedster characters with Instant Change, for that exact reason.

Re: Changing into a costume To the best of my knowledge, it's not explicitly spelled out anywhere (there's no 'Costumes, chaniging in to' entry in the index to my copies of FRED or Champions, anyway). However, my group usually uses a Full Phase as the bare minimum (based on the rules for Only in Hero ID). Of course, it depends on the costume/circumstances, too. If you go out for your morning walk in your spandex, with a trenchcoat & fedora to cover it, you can probably 'change into costume' as a 0-phase action.

Re: Kryptonian knockoffs in CU? You could also make a case for the Malvans. Firewing isn't exactly a 'typical' member of his race, but they certainly have the potential to generate Superman-level individuals more-or-less at will, between their modern super-tech and whatever Ancient Mystic Gadgetry they might have lying around. And they weren't always decadent, either. Time-travelling Malvans from the distant past would be a good source of Super-themed characters.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Because violence, fire, destruction of property, and similar means are simple, reliable and usually effective? That's been my experience, anyhow.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Doom always has been a bit of a mama's boy, hasn't he?

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. See? You didn't pick Abe Lincoln, now did you?

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. Probably *because* they're shapechangers. I mean, if you could say to yourself, "How do I want to look, today?", what would your choice be?

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... I think he meant they don't have to get to Antarctica secretly. Lots of people go to Antarctica. My Aunt Jeannie's been there.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... I suspect that the Specter fought for the South in the Civil War. Naturally, he has a different view of it than most folks.

Re: Concepts Killed by 350 The character concept that I've had the most trouble with is Renaissance Man. The conceit is that he's a guy who's been around since the 14th century, and has done a little bit of everything since then. So, your basic Jack-of-All-Trades/Pro From Dover concept. I'm convinced that it's doable on 350 points, but every time I've actually sat down and tried to write him up, I blow right past the cap and lose interest after the third or fourth round of trimming things down. The funny thing is, I've built and played other 'immortal'-type characters, and never had a problem. But that's because they weren't necessarily about immortality. That was just a special effect, a cool bit of fluff that allowed me to run the, "I'm a snooty wizard and you should listen to me because I'm much, much older than you." routine. Recently, it's occurred to me that the real issue is that he doesn't work as a superhero, but he might be feasible as a 250-pt. Dark Champions character. Trying to make him combat-capable at the power levels of a typical 350-pt. Champions campaign, on top of all the skills, equipment and perks he should have accumulated over the course of ~700 years of near-constant adventuring just gets ruinous. But with Resource Points and lower attribute benchmarks, it actually starts to look like a plan. In any case, the only completed writeup I have for the character is an 800-point version for a no-point-limit campaign that I played in. He worked out fairly well at that power level... But whenever I try to write him up at the 350-point level, I come up with a list of 'indispensibles' that adds up to 330 points, even before I get to minor details like 'skill levels', 'movement' or 'defenses'. Some concepts that I've tinkered with: 1: Buying a bunch of 'generic' skills and just taking the penalties... AK: Earth (25-), KS: History (25-), SS: Science! (25-), PS: Man-of-All-Work (25-), Universal Translator, an Organizational Contact: Renaissance Man's Friends & Acquaintances, and so on. It winds up being pricey, even so... But it should do the job, more or less. You still wind up having to invest a lot in things like Climbing, Persuasion, Lockpicking and so forth, though. Unless you think your GM won't laugh in your face when he sees Power Skill: Omnicompetence (25-) on your character sheet. 2: A Gadget Pool or Utility Belt Multipower. Representing things he's acquired and/or learned to make over the centuries, and the like. Again, not really central to the character concept, but it's generally the best way to make him able to hang with other 350-pt. supers, and there's something inherently satisfying about being able to say, "So, our foe is a wizard, is he? Well, let's see... I have this holy relic that was given to me by a Franciscan Monk in... Was it 1670? Or 1770? It must have been 1770, because I didn't have it during that business in Poland..." 3: A super-skills VPP. Frankly, it winds up being cheaper than buying a lot of skills. In some builds, I've folded this into the same VPP as the Gadget Pool, but that can lead to some very wonky conceptual conflicts... "Where did your sword go?" "Er, remember when I tried to fast-talk us past those guards? It just disappeared for a bit because I wanted to be persuasive... Don't worry, I'm sure it'll turn up again when I need it." On the other hand, this is the best excuse you'll ever have to write Power Skill: Omnicompetence on your character sheet... So, as I say, I expect I could pull it off... If I ever got the urge to try again, that is. So, any thoughts on what I could try next time?

Re: Powers of Order If you have access to either The Mystic World or Arcane Adversaries, you could take a look at the writeup of Bromion (in AA), or the sections on Elysium and Ulro, Prime Avatar of Order (in MW), for inspiration, though they're pretty sparse in 'written up and usable powers' terms. I generally define the opposite of 'entropy' as 'growth', or possibly 'evolution'. Which ultimately, breaks down into Life vs. Death, but there you have it. Another possible opposition is 'Stasis', which usually leads me into something resembling the White Wolf Triat (Wyld vs. Wyrm vs. Weaver), or the Hindu Trimurti (Brahma the Creator/Shiva the Destroyer/Vishnu the Preserver). Biologically speaking, Order would represent any biological process that lead to growth or preserved health (eating, reproduction, DNA, antibodies, white blood cells, etc.) DNA seems particularly apropos, as it's the 'pattern' or 'plan' that underlies biological existence. Some random power writeups I came up with, working on the theme of 'Order Magic'. Might not be entirely appropriate to what you're thinking about, but they're what popped into my head: I Love You Just the Way You Are: Major Transform 5d6 (person into static 'statue', heals by appropriate Transmutation/Chaos Magic or target takes BODY damage) (Real Cost: 75 Points) Notes: This power represents putting the target into a state of perfect stasis. The target cannot move, speak or take any action whatsoever, neither does he age, sicken, or otherwise change (assume the target gains Total Life Support, including Immortality, balanced by Physical Limitation: Paralyzed and Psychological Limitation: Catatonic). The target will remain in this state until the transformation is reversed by another Power, or the stasis is interrupted by some force sufficient to alter the body's inner humors, such as a sharp blow or cut. A Place for Everything, and Everything in Its Place: Entangle 5d6, 5 DEF, Takes No Damage From Attacks, All Attacks (+1/2), Invisible Power Effects, SFX Only (Fully Invisible; +1/2) (100 Active Points); Only vs. targets that are in 'their proper place' (-1), Cannot Form Barriers (-1/4) (Real Cost: 44 points) Notes: This power draws on the metaphysical connections between an entity and the place where it 'belongs', and forces it to remain there. Thus, an animated skeleton could be bound at the site of its death (or at the site of its reanimation, if they are not the same place), while a human being could be pinned down in their bed, behind the wheel of their car, at their desk at work, or in some other place they 'should be'. GMs should be careful to allow this power to be useful, without allowing too free a hand... Beware of the player who tries to freeze a target to a park bench, merely 'because this park is in his home town, isn't it?'.

Re: Ist'vatha V'han I'm familiar with the Asprin character, and I've even remarked on the similarity in the names, but I don't think there's any actual correlation. He's a pretty obscure character even within the 'Myth' series. He's basically just an off-panel villain in the first story who shows up in one scene at the end of the book and is never seen again. Istvan is a fairly common Slavic name, after all. And it's a variant of 'Steven'. So maybe that's where Mr. Long got the idea...

Re: More books on Master Villains Oh, right, forgot titles... For the Warlord book, I'd stick to the classics... De Bellis Umbris: The Shadow Wars, perhaps. For Eurostar? I got nuthin'... A Whiter Shade of Pale?

Re: More books on Master Villains Certainly, Istvatha V'Han is way up at the top of the list of 'Villains Who Require an Update'. I've suggested expanding Eurostar before, not by adding more villains, but by recruiting a support organization. Fiacho's never really had a 'plan' for how he intends to re-instate Europe as the predominant military and political force on Earth. With the resources currently available to him, there's really no way he can do it. So he just flails about uselessly, blowing up a bridge here, robbing a bank there, and so forth. He needs spies, funding sources, lobbyists, scientists and mooks more than he needs another 450-pt. superhuman. I've also considered expanding the Warlord's organization, some. At the very least, there's room for some of the kinds of agent packages, weapons and vehicles upgrades that UNTIL and Viper have gotten. I can also see him recruiting a team of metahuman covert operatives to supplement his metahuman bodyguards/lieutenants. Plus, it'd be nice to see what he actually *does* apart from sit around and believe he's a reincarnation of Alexander the Great.

Re: Is Flight Slow? The short answer is, "Flight is slow unless you pay for it to be fast."

Re: How do you handle campaign limits on defenses? Well, that's one of those things that *sounds* reasonable... But just doesn't work in an RPG the way it does in comic books. You, as GM, need to be able to generate meaningful conflict for all of your players. If the only attacks that can represent a threat to your brick are those of the Big Bad, then the Big Bad has to show up pretty frequently. And if something happens to the brick, the rest of the team is suddenly facing opposition geared towards his defenses. At that point they're probably SOL. Otherwise the brick simply strolls through the motions of clobbering the Villain of the Week and everyone else sits on the sidelines and watches. Maybe, if you plan ahead, they can 'help out' by rescuing bystanders and putting out fires and stuff. In a comic book, Green Arrow doesn't mind sitting out a fight between Superman and Darkseid, because he doesn't have a player who's sitting behind him hoping to get some spotlight time. And if Darkseid takes out Superman, then gives a little speech about how GA isn't worth the effort to squish, he's probably just happy to be alive. In a game with multiple players, each of whom has their own agenda when they sit down at the table, you need to be able to address each of their needs for a satisfying story/game/evening. You can 'balance' defenses that provide virtual immunity, of course. Some GMs might allow him to have 75/75 hardened resistant DEF, or whatever. But only with the proviso that he be slow, inaccurate and lack offensive punch. Which quickly translates into 'a character who stands around not doing much'. Nobody wants that. Alternatively, as I implied above, you can let him be super-tough and then go after him with NNDs and mental powers and the like. Again, this results in a character (and a player) who routinely feels helpless and put-upon. This is not a recipe for a successful game. Tell your player that if he wants to be 'a tough brick', he can do it without being 'immune to 90% of possible opponents'. Possible alternate routes to 'brickiness' include Damage Reduction ("Ha! That didn't hurt... much!"), Missile Deflection with Invisible Power Effects ("The bullets are just bouncing off of him!"), bonus defenses with Limitations that prevent them from being used all the time (I can see a build where the character has extra Armor with Concentration: 0 DCV to represent an ability to just brace himself and take the hits. Useful for tanking a tough opponent while the rest of the team pursues other goals.) I've generally found that having slightly-above-average defenses, and some clever 'brick tricks' often leads to a more enjoyable character than one who can simply shrug off anything short of Dr. Destroyer. A character who simply never gets hurt is boring. A character who, through perseverance and tactics, eventually overcomes every obstacle in his path is much more fun. Edit: In answer to your original question, I'd say that any cap you set should apply to each defense separately, rather than a flat 'no more than X active points in defenses'. Set your caps for PD/ED at a little below the average result for a campaign max attack (if you set your Damage Class cap at 12d6, then set your PD/ED cap somewhere in the 30-35 range). One rule of thumb is just to multiply the DC's in a campaign max attack by 2.5 or 3 and set that as your PD/ED cap. That way, most PCs will take noticeable damage from a hit, but you can still have a brick who isn't fazed by a few love-taps from his opponents. Don't worry too much about setting caps for other defenses, as they tend to balance themselves through a combination of point cost and opportunity costs. If they really insist on buying 25 points of Flash Defense, that's their problem. If they layer up Damage Reduction and other defensive powers on top of campaign-max defenses, they'll start running out of points pretty fast. And powers like Missile Deflection or Desolidification have other costs, such as the need to spend Phases using them, or pay 'Affects Real World' costs. Just, you know, make sure that a given character CAN be hurt by standard opponents. In the long run, everyone will be happier for it.