Magmarock

Re: Superhero Images Actually, it was from Super Squirrel's request for art for the PC Null. From this thread, called "Artistic Talent Wanted": http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16927 Mags

Re: Open or hidden dice

Re: Superhero Images Yes! Courtesy of DR Rushing! Here is it again: As you can see, I altered mine a bit when I drew this pic of Null for Super Squirrel. The costume isn't even mine... I got it from this link: http://www.winds.org/~arren/backgrounds/chobits/chobits8.jpg

Re: Fantasy Art Thread Hey Wil, you lucky guy. Storn gave you some constructive comments, which can only mean he likes your stuff. Whoot! Mags PS: I love the facial expressions in your work. More please!

Re: Superhero Images

Re: Superhero Images From another thread. I did this over the new template. Helps if I actually post the pic. Heh.

Re: Is this a legitimate disadvantage? I agree with you, Ghost-Angel (and I thought we were talking about Limitations too, at first, for the same reason). My last post was just me wanting to be sure our original poster knew the difference. It was a little muddy, wordwise. I was hoping to get some clarification from Demonsong but I think that you answered his question more than adequately, so there is no need now. Cheers, Mags

Re: Open or hidden dice Bummer. This is what I was talking about before in my last post. It's not where the dice were rolled that ruined the game, it was the GM. I think you are misplacing the blame. Believe me, if this guy had rolled the dice where you all could see, it wouldn't have mattered... his game still would have sucked. From the way you described him, he is one of those GMs who like to beat down on the Players. That is no way to run a game. Bummer you all had to sit through it. You should have told him to take a hike and then found another GM. I would have. Mags

Re: End of an Era Yes. Please do! Mags

Re: Is this a legitimate disadvantage? I wonder if we are all on the same page here. I think the confusion is from the title of this thread: "Is this a legitimate disadvantage?" But the given example looks like a limitation to me. In fact, I thought the title was "Is this a legitimate limitation?" originally. (Did it change?) Regarding the title question, "Can these be legitimate disadvantages?" The answer is yes, if you change the wording to: DF: Affected as a Mutant and Technology against manipulation powers. Can the character be detected as both? Yes. Is it worth more points than just being affected by one or the other? Yes. But I think all the confusion and subsequent discussion was due to the fraction shown in the example. There aren't any fractions in the Disad section, so I think people are looking at the question as "Is this a legitimate limitation?" Anyway, enough rambling from me... Cheers, Mags

Re: Open or hidden dice Now, you see? Making bogus rolls, or making rolls bogus... both are made to enhance the game. The players shouldn't know everything that is happening in the game behind the scenes, because mystery is what drives the story. "Keep 'em guessing" is my motto. The Players' rolls are done out in the open to prevent cheating. Plain and simple. I'm not saying that all Players will cheat, or even most of them, but it is human nature to want to succeed. That includes winning the fight in an RPG. Besides, the players aren't running the game, so they shouldn't have the same level of control. It's not up to them to make that call. The GM is running the game, so techically GMs don't cheat... or rather, they can't. The GM's job is to present the event, make the plot work, keep it moving, and keep it entertaining. I've heard roleplaying described as a group of people who get together to play out a story like a movie, and the Players are like the actors in the movie. Well, if this is the case, then GM is the director (and most likely, the writer, too). Sometimes, direction is necessary to keep a game fresh. It is how the GM uses this level of 'power' that determines if he or she is good or not at the task- If a GM uses it to beat down on the PCs and never let them win, then that GM will only earn the distrust and disrespect of the Players. Conversely, a GM who never challenges the Players is just as bad. However, if the GM is entertaining and runs an exciting game, then the opposite occurs and fun is had by all. In my opinion, if the GM rolls in front of the players all the time, then the GM can't do what needs to be done, when the time comes, to make the story exciting. Also, when rolling dice in the open, the GM is reduced to being just another Player at the table. When you lose the mystery, then the game becomes "you vs. them" and vice versa. That's no way to play a roll playing game. A war-game, maybe, or a boardgame, but not an RPG. Hugh, you bring up a very good point that I hadn't considered. The PCs shouldn't know the power-level of their adversaries, not in metagaming terms (they can always gather information in-game on a villain and that's the way it should be). It's bad enough that a clever Player can figure out a villain's SPD in the first turn and plan their attacks around it, or that a Player can browse the CKC and memorize the capabilites of known villains... but there is no need to make it even easier to determine their opponents' strengths by rolling all the dice in plain view. This is probably the main reason why my brother creates his own villains: No source material to sneek peeks at. Complete surprise when we encounter the new villain. Mystery. Yeah, mystery that keeps the game exciting. Mags

Re: Plot device or by the rules I'd like to think that if my players considered me a whackjob, then they wouldn't ask me to run the game. Or they'd at least protest a little when I offer... Mags

Re: Plot device or by the rules Heh. I wish my players trusted me that much. Actually, I don't really have too many problems with my players, other than the occasional push for munchkinism. Then I have to slap 'em around like orphaned smurfs and they eventually come to their senses. But really, when I used to roll my dice in front of them, the game turned more into a them vs. me situation. I really dislike the game when it comes to that. So I always try to roll behind a screen. I very rarely have to fudge my dice rolls, but the attitude of my players are a marked improvement when I use a screen. Mags

Re: Is this a legitimate disadvantage? That is exactly what I was trying to say. Thank you, Ghost Angel, for putting it so clearly. Mags

Re: Agent combat.... Especially the kind that aren't damaged by attacks... Mags

Re: Character: The Artist (Newport's City resident villain) From what I read in his background, he never had a chance at being a professional artis yet... no one bought his work. Is there a "drawing" skill? Heh... he took Fast Draw! (I don't think that means what he thinks it means...) I think he needs to have Lightning Reflexes, too. Assuming you are going to use him in a low-powered game, most everyone will be around the same DEX and SPD. This will give him a chance to survive... Heh. Mags

Re: Agent combat.... Let the heroes wipe out a bunch of decoy agents, then have a number of expert, sniper-agents with silenced weapons fire on the heroes while they are busy... Or detonate a big bomb, ground zero, even if the agents will be surely killed in the blast (the villain who hired them wouldn't care, right?). Make sure the heroes come to the agents' home turf, where all kinds of nasty traps lie around in abundance.... traps that the agents know of, of course. The agents would be very familiar with the area and use it to their advantage. Ambushed, the heroes are surprised long enough for the agents to coordinate their attacks... all STUN that get's past a hero's defenses get added togather. This should be the agents' #1 tactic at all times. Have one or two teams gang up on one unlucky hero, don't spread them around. With agents, the mob rules! Agent aren't thugs... they should be well trained and combat smart. They should have tactics, knowledge of their adversary, as well as numerous dry runs/ practice scenarios on any given situation. Don't be afraid to individualize your agents. Name them, for goodness sake! I do! (Try not to use the name Smith, though, unless you want the heroes to gang up on him.) No one cares if Agent #3 gets pasted, but if Agent McCarthy is taken out by a hero, and his brother, also Agent McCarthy, in the next squad see this, he may turn his big gun on that hero... not to mention that the heroes might go lighter on the agents if they realize these are people too. Mags

Re: Is this a legitimate disadvantage? I guess it would also help if we knew what you wanted to apply the limitation to. And what type of lim, hey wait, were you talking about applying this to a gadget? Mags

Re: Is this a legitimate disadvantage? Yes, The Nullfier's effect only works on mutant powers, but those are points spent on the villain's write up. The mutant hero (your character) wouldn't get any extra points on his write-up based on someone else's, well, at least not on the powers side. On the Disad side, yes. In fact, it is the Disads which define what a character is usually, assuming the Disads were bought that way. However, if you say your PC is a mutant and your Disads don't reflect it, then I guess the GM will still treat him as a mutant, even if you didn't take any points for it. Personally, I'd rather get the points for it. Cheers, Mags

Re: Is this a legitimate disadvantage? I think that Ghost Angel is right. The fact is, all manipulation powers will affect your PC anyway. Stating this isn't worth any Limitation points. Saying it is a 0 point Limitation, is just another way of saying it isn't worth any points. I mean, not counting Disads, I don't see any way to make you PC more vulnerable to an attack, unless you are reducing a defense. You can always take Disads, like Vulnerabilites and Susceptabilies vs mutant & cybernetic affecting technologies, which will then give you points to buy the PC's powers in the first place. You mentioned that you weren't buying Power Def for this PC. If you were buying Power Defense, you could then buy a Limitation of 'Does Not Work vs. mutant & cybernetic affecting technologies' and that would be worth points. Cheers, Mags

Re: End of an Era Gah! I can't believe you'd be such a tease! You told us everything about the game except, uh... well, the game itself! Now, with a build up like that, the least you could do is tell us what's going on. What is happening in this endgame? What led up to it? What is the hero roster and who are the adversaries? Details, man, details! Mags -waiting to hear...

Re: High Tech Crimes Before I share my ideas, I will say that these two players sure made the GM job hard for you, unless... Do they have any DNPC's? If not, then they should. They should have something, anything, to tie them to this world so that they'll actually give a crap about what happens to the humans around them. You didn't give a lot of information about these aliens, like are they of the same race, so I'll do what I can. That being said: 1) A secret society, or group of cultists, who don't believe in aliens, believe that the two PCs are the gods (or emissaries or messiahs or signs) they've been waiting for down through the centuries. They try to lure, or capture the aliens and take them back for whatever religious purposes they have which could be anything from worship to sacrifice. 2) Like Starman or The Hulk, they could wander around and help people with smaller problems, more on a social level, and try not to attract attention to themselves. 3) One of the two aliens is a carrier of a benign strain/bacteria that, when met with two other random, benign strains carried by two humans, creates a plague-like virus that sweeps quickly across the population. This is a deadly strain and the two aliens must race find a way to stop it without revealing themselves to their Hunteds. Time Travel makes for a handy enabler to the solution. (This one I blatantly stole from 'The Outer Limits') 4) One or both aliens come down with a fatal illness and they need medical attention or a cure from their own technological world(s) to heal. This can be a long illness that initially debilitates them only a little. Sub-plot material. 5) Likewise, it could be extremely lethal and you could pull a D.O.A scenario on them so they must find out who killed them with poison/biological weapon and gain the cure from their attaker before a set timeframe. 6) Archeologists find the useless remains of a crashed spaceship from long ago, with two mummified bodies inside. These two resemble the PCs. Should there be any medical comparison, the DNA of the mummies matches the PCs. So the mystery is, who did they end up this way and in the past? 7) A small group of alien colonists came to Earth from the same planet that the aliens are from. They are in danger, either recently beeing discovered by the PC's Hunteds or are slowly dying some environmental agent they've soaked up over the years. They need help or rescue. Sub-plot: One of them is female and falls in love with one of the PCs. Eh, so theres a few ideas to toy with. Twist and pull as needed. Enjoy. Mags

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... In last Sunday's D&D game, the group traveled to distant town to find a particular sage who was also a hermit. They didn't know where exactly the sage was, though, so Reef the monk, decided to ask for directions. Nearby was an older man sweeping dirt off his doorstep, so Reef goes up to him and strikes up a conversation. The old man was rather rude to Reef, and ended up telling the monk to go away! After the door slammed in Reef's face, the monk's player looked at me (the DM), paused, and then said, "I kick dirt onto his doorstep!" Now that was funny! Mags

Re: Exerience Wish List/Character Creation Question I have had people in my group who build PCs as the "finished product". We once ran an entire campaign where there were very little XPs handed out for this very reason. But the reality is when playing any RPG, most players want to improve their PC's abilities. So, my question is why play that type of game? Maybe because it is the closest representation to the comic books of the earlier superheroes we've read about and grown to love. So it is not about constantly upping the power level, it's all about roleplaying the game with what you already have. I'm not sure when it started, but at some point the comic books heroes began to evolve and their powers grew and/or changed in the storylines, and this is my preferred method of playing. Anyway, playing a campaign where the heroes never change is a challange for me. I'm with the old-school, roleplaying bunch who require XPs and the abillity to change and grow. Sometimes, and I'll freely admit this, the few points we gain are never really enough. I always push for more. And as GM, I tend to award more, but that's just me. Heh, we have other GMs in our group who compensate my generosity by awarding too little XPs. Or am I compensating? Hmmm. Aw well. As for the wishlist... I don't ask what the players intend for thier PCs. And noone asks me about mine. I expect them to be adult and reasonable in spending there XPs. If someone presents a power that I think is overpowering or will unbalance the game, I tell them. And I expect they'll fix it with minimal bitching. Right now, we have a situation where all the players are GMs (we take turns) so all PCs have to pass inspection by everyone. How's that for pressure? Mags

Re: Help me with a limitation for twins I would buy their powers at a lower level, so they can function apart, and then give them additional, linked damage dice to represent the power boost when close to each other. You could scale this additional boost so that the weakest addition is when they are 12" apart and the closer they get, the stronger the boost. That should give you some extra points. Mags