Insaniac99

Re: Characteristic power NCM ok, I can agree with the genre/setting as I tend to think of it that way anyway, but many disadvantages are only apropriate for certain settings anyway. but making the cost consistent doesn't work well, look at Density increase and Growth, both boost STR but do other stuf as well, how do you apply the extra charge for NCM to that? and I don't think it should be removed, otherwise players new to the system won't know about it unless they talk to the vets. Edit: also, how would you aply NCM to telekinesis?

Re: Characteristic power NCM I don't think anyone in this thread has said that NCM was apropriate for a Champs level game. what it IS useful for is the indiana jones and macgyver level of characters, or any other setting where most people don't go above 20 in any stat, and those that do, really stand out; where you don't get any points for NCM and every power requires GM permission. then it comes to a GM balance issue, if the GM thinks the character needs to pay double to boost soemthing over 20 then it is his decision.

Re: Cyberpunk resources? oh, my mistake, I guess I just assumed the giant robots pdf in the store was written by you when I couldn't see who the autor was.

Re: Cyberpunk resources? Cool Beans! I also look forward to a 5th ed version of your giant robots. though, I may buy the 4th ed anyway because I don't want to wait... with the exception of your books it seems that very little of the 5th books have much about actually roleplaying the genre and everything. most of it is very rules heavy and role-play light in terms of official resources.

Re: Just For Fun: Cartoon Network All Star Team Ups Ben tenison and Juniper lee. Lee ccan fight the aliens all the while believing it is just another one of the magical creatures, may even mistake Ben for a teshwanze (sp?) at first because he can see them too, would probably get her hopes up about someone knowing how to break the spell that traps her in orchid bay.

Re: Traveller for Hero... ok, that sounds like the same book I've told my FLGS to be keeping an eye out for to set aside a copy for me. I look forward to it.

Re: The things you pick up from Cartoon Network what about Ben 10? I'm loving that show and AFAIK, CN made it themselves....

Re: Cyberpunk resources? Thank you! I'm now planning to buy Kazei 5 just because of of the sample with the skill-based netrunning, it sparked a whole plan for me and made me interested enough to get it to see if it has more spark inducing material. I thought that I'd use a few different skills to represent repairs to systems and so forth. like mechanics to repair, I still need to form it all in my mind but I'm bubbling with ideas now. Edit: bought it, printing it out, LOVING the cyberworld section, I'm gonna use/modify the alterdimension rules for it as it is close to what I was already working towards plus its a lot cheap than the books at my FLGS, Thanks again!

Re: Characteristic power NCM as many have said, the biggest balancing force to the game is the GM. and I agree with your break-down: Named heroes, those who do increadible things not because they are any better than normal people, but because they stand up when others don't. they won't have any odd powers or abilities, heck 25+25 should be plenty to build one depending on your style. NCM Applies, no points for it. Heroic characters are those who may have that one talent or ability that others don't, but it still isn't a substitute to sheer willpower and determination to not backdown. their powers/abilities (whether it be ocaisiosnallu amazing str or expert gunslinger) are helpful yes, but rarely are things just only because of their ability, it's a good mix of ability and grit that saves the day or they just happen to be in the area when thigns go bad and have the courage to use their abilities to help. 75+75 is pretty good. NCM is apropriate for some campaigns, and not for others, the GM needs to approve every power to make sure schticks aren't being stepped on and players aren't abusing the system in order to keep the correct feel of the genre. then its the suprheroic realm, those far far above normal men. you get 200+150 to work with and if you want to can easily create an abusive build with less that will kill anyone else I mean look at this: Cost Power 267 Killing Attack - Ranged 2d6-1, Personal Immunity (+1/4), Affects Desolidified Any form of Desolidification (+1/2), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1), Transdimensional (Any Dimension; +1), Penetrating (x4; +2), Armor Piercing (x4; +2), Autofire (160 shots; +4), Area Of Effect (221184" Radius; +4 1/4) (400 Active Points); No Range (-1/2) 83 Lightning Reflexes: +83 DEX to act first with Single Action total cost: 350 points. what's to stop that from being used in teh campaign? the GM. the fact is that no amount of rule tweaking is going to stop abusive builds, and it's the GM's job to make sure things are balanced, whether we're talking about NCM or somethign else.

Re: Cyberpunk resources? I guess that's true in many ways. for instance I see there realy being two parts of the cyberworld. one is the one that everyone sees, they run around with their online friends and play games, goto the main hubs to post on mesage boards (litterally bilboards in a building that people leave posts at) and play in the battle dome or destroy the ocaisional mal-ware that creeps in. but there is also the otherside, the side that computer experts and hackers see, they know how to get secure information, break through firewalls, disable security routines, delete change programs, and insert nasty viri. The Avatars can be any apearance as long as it is humanoid, whether a dragon-esque guy with scaly skin and leathery wings, c3po, or a fantasy knight. and any of them could know about the hidden side, the apearance isn't neccisarily an indication of the users abilities other than their style of fighting. yeah, cybertech isn't common, but it's available, many amputees opt to get them, almost everyone who is anyone has a nueral Jack, but there is also the ocasional weirdo who decides to get his perfect body mangled to make it "better" by ading a cybernetic eye or grafting thier arms or legs for extreme sports so I guess mainly what I'm looking for is indeed a way of implementing the hacking while in cyberspace, how the Avatar's can do stuff, for deleting or reprogramming programs, and getting past various types of security obstacles.

Re: Characteristic power NCM well the thing is that at least for my gaming group, the campaigns where we use NCM are in the 75+75 heroic range. it is in genre for a hero to have +5-10 str x2 end. as a push at will or another similiar genre trope its reasonable and not unbalanced because it is usualy only used in times of Dire Need (x2 end on STR is a big deal in heroic games in my experience) with NCM aplying to the power a simple genre ability starts taking up a large portion of the character's already very limited points

Re: Cyberpunk resources? before I begin, my players in the tuesday-night game should NOT read any further, you'll get some spoilers if you do. well, lets see. the PCs and many other people choose to connect to the cyberworld through a nueral jack. I imagine it as a modified USB or firewire cable that is normally lodged in part of the character's body that they pull out and plug into any device that has one, which is pretty much anything electronic, and most things are also connected to the internet if they are in a long-term position. a new technology has been developed where the entire body in transported into cyberspace and a few people have upgraded to that. once in cyberspace they have what I can only describe as an Avatar, which represents and embodies their psyche, the Avatar can be physicaly a lot different than the real world versions and everyone has their own schtick or super ability, but they buy their combat gear with money. At the start it is just a way to surf the net and get things on electronics done, there are sometimes fights but there are built in safety protocals that means instead of a character dieing or suffereing body damage because their avatar does, they get only suffer stun damage and may be KOed, terminating the connection to the net. shortly after the campaign starts however; things go wrong, my two plans are that the safety protocals start failing one by one, and reports of people dying from the fights, things steadily decline until eventually somehow the things spill over into the real world, first by people sabotaging critical and well-guarded computers and machines causing things in the real world to go haywire, assasinations of people in "highly-secure" areas with no trace left, eventually an avatar (which may be an AI, somehting that hasn't been created in this world yet, but I haven't decided) comes into the real world and reaks more havoc. of course this entire time the PCs will be doing their best to stop people from being hurt and to save the world, seems like a losing battle with only relatively small victories untill they finnally Save The Day. (I've always Liked the old way of starting light and getting steadily darker and more serious until things come to a climatic resolution) the real-world is a slightly modified form of the future in back to the future part two. some cool tech, nothing ultra big, not space travel, but there are cybernetics (not common) and of course flying cars and Star-hero's version of the hoverboard. The world isn't utopian or dystopian but there are some really good guys and some realy bad guys and some out for themselves and some who just want to be left alone. for character Generation what we're trying is 75+75 for the real-world character while the avatars are a 200 point (100+100 or maybe 125+75, I haven't decided and I'm open to suggestions) multiform that the PC buys with limitations (totals to either 13 or 20 points depending what form of it the character takes). equipment is bought with money, not points, but each Avatar has their own schtick or ability. but equipment is customized to the Avatar, for example the same damage "upgrade" may apear as either a rifle or a fireball spell I really came up with a lot of this just now so it is still kind of a gelatinous blob in my mind, I keep forming and changing more ideas each time I think about it. this is the way I prepare actally, I stay in this phase for a week or two and eventually get it nice and finallized with atleast the first few sessions already made up.

Re: Characteristic power NCM I disagree, NCM is a good rule for certain campaigns not right for everything, but very nice to have as an option.

Re: "Perk inflation" in Hero with internet connection. this begs the question, is he using Dial-up or one of the Hi-speeds?

Hey herodom, I'm looking for some free or extremely cheap resources for a campaign that would essentially mix the futuristic world from Back to the future part two, with a jacking in kinda cyberword like in many other cyberpunk or Tron or like megaman NTwarrior (cept no AIs, there are a couple programs, but most people there are either transported in or have the old-school plugged in by thier cerebral cortex) I've written up one character, where there is the real-world character subject to standard 75+75 heroic rules but everyone pays for a 200 point multi-form with the limitations "only in cyberspace -1" and as an option "physical body left behind when jacked in -1" to be either 20 or 13 points and the multiform is a mix between heroic and superheroc, the powers and abilities can be however the user interprets them so you cnould have a fantasy Knight or wizard running around with a low powered human torch or a far future space marine. so, I'm looking for anything you guys can provide that you think might be useful...

Re: Making colonization attractive? without reading everyone elses posts what about this: if you give up your life at home to colonize another planet, then you are provided with I nice huge plot of land, a decent house i a bio-dome, and the basic equipment and transportation to get there.

Re: Traveller for Hero...

Re: A general question? What about Shields?

Re: pictures of ships please? those are indeed cool, I bookmarked the page for my star hero reference stuff and I figure I might steal some of those when I need a new ship design, Thanks!

Re: pictures of ships please? yeah, those are the ships, thanks. so, the pic on the same page of the CE is actually of the CE? I wasn't sure, it never seemed to fit the description, I'll have to go back and re-read it, but I think I'll be going with the CE then, I was kinda leaning towards it anyway, it was starting to seem to be a better starting place for modifications.

Re: Traveller Motivational Posters that's cool.

I was wondering if anyone had drawn a picture of either the centurian eagle (think that is the name, it's a terran civ ship in spacers toolkit, don't have the book with me though) or the nimitz class ship (also a civ ship in spacers toolkit) I plan on choosing one of those ships and giving it a couple modifications but for me it is coming down to which looks I like better.

Re: Plot seeds?

Re: New guy, new concept... just because an item has the focus limitation, doesn't mean any gestures are required to use it, for example a magic pendant could boost someone's luck without them every knowing about it (IAF in this case). so an Item can have both gestures and a focus limitation, which seam apropriate in these circumstances.

Re: Help! I'm stuck in a disad rut! what I enjoy, is to have a ability or perk or something else that would be really useful, except for some reason the character will almost never use it. for example he is a good swimmer (a few extra inches of swimming for example and perhaps even aquatic movement if they were an excelent swimmer) but then put a strong phobia of deep water, perhaps he had a tramautic experience where his friend drowned. I like the weirdness magnet or fan/girl magnet for some campaigns. I'll post more later, gotto go help my Sensei teach a Women's self-defense course.