Opal

Re: Everything's a Power The effects of 0 STN and 0 Body are already established. A 0 BOD character isn't actualy dead, and is easy to stabilize, a 0 STN character is aware but unable to act. So that could be the default state for characters who don't buy STN or BOD. Alternately, you could assume that everyone is normally awake & aware, but is nocked out or to negative body by any attack that penetrates thier defenses. STN and BOD, then, could either be, effectively, additional 'ablative' (not the limitation) defense that gets used up or restored. Or, they could be a limitted form of some sort of "Cannot be KO'd" or "Cannot be Killed" power.

Re: That's Easy?? Show me how _you_ did it. Part deux! For a Bewitched style character, you'd have to set out a lot of psych and social limitations. While the 'witches' had rediculous powers, they were very concerned with how they used them, and with keeping them secret. One would never be a superhero, for instance. I wonder how much of a control cost limitation you'd get for "Only powers that can be simulated with simple camera tricks?"

Re: Discussion on costs of Characteristics Sure it is. You start out paying 300 points for a set of powers. You spend 30 points on the EC control cost, and you save 120. That's a negative 'cost.' If you want a concrete power for a negative cost, consider a character that buys 3 powers, one at 60 Apts, and two at 50. He buys up two of those powers to 60 so he can put them in an EC with the first. He's bought 20 active points of power for a cost of -40. Similarly, STR is only 'netagive cost' if you've bought the figured characteristics up high enough that buying STR saves you points. If your figured characteristics are already where you want them, STR has a positive cost. For instance, if you're a very-high DCV energy projector with 0 END on your powers, END and STN and even PD don't matter much to you, since you spend little END, rarely get hit - even breaking out of grabs is rarely an issue - and you're not going to sell back the force-field that fits neatly in your power framework, either, just because your PD goes up. STR is very much a positive cost for you, and one that gets you very little utility in return.

Re: Most Obscure Reference You've Ever Worked Into a Game My Champions campaign has a few obscure references. I pulled some names of special materials more obscure than the usual adamantium: Radium-X, trimagnesite. I also used an obscure book for a bunch of wierd stuff -shiriwayak, uan-irek, ezraq, vellaqqa - including a whole campaing "Tales from the Dark Wheel." The rule of the Dark Wheele was, as one player put it, 'steal shamelessly.' But most of the references were not that obscure. Every one of my campaigns has an evil organization called The Red Death, too. They don't always come up as major antagonists, but they're out there somewhere. It's not a direct Poe reference, and not obscure if you've been gaming a long time.

Re: Discussion on costs of Characteristics I think they would consider the EC negative point cost, too. If you have several powers you want to buy, and 'buying' and EC (the control cost) saves you points, that was a negative cost. STR could be legitimately called 'negative cost' up to the point of the figured characteristics it gives you equallying the figured characteristics you wanted - including 'selling back' one of them. I ran into this in 1st Ed. I had a character concept that called for a very high REC, PD, and STN. I built it, then realized that buying more STR would save him points. It's odd to want REC as high as that character had, but STR was 'negative cost' for him. Most of the time, though, I build STR to concept, and let STN and REC fall where it may, so STR is 'positive cost' for me.

Re: Discussion on costs of Characteristics Have Elemental Controls been changed in some major way I wasn't aware of? You buy a 60 Apt attack, defense, and movement power in an EC, and you've spent 120 pts and gotten 180 points. The more slots you add, the higher the yield. You can put almost anything in an EC, if your special effect calls for it. Think of Stats as a very restrictive form of EC. You get a good deal, in terms of point savings, but you get a very structured return (less flexibility). It's probably not as vital to have figured characteristics in 5th as it used to be. You have more points to throw around, so you can often build an adequately-powered character without resorting to power frameworks or extensive limitations. In earlier versions of the game, building a starting character with competative power generally required you take a power framework, or take a lot of limitations (or a single overall limitation) - or build a simple high CON/STR brick who got his point savings from being characteristic-heavy. You can still take limitations, you can still take power frameworks, you should still be able to build a fairly cheap & simple brick. But, if you don't like it, you could do away with frameworks, perhaps be more restrictive or give smaller breaks for limitations, and do away with the figured characteristics you get from primary characteristics, and the game would still be playable, and simpler. I still wouldn't say go ahead and change the cost of STR. STR is a normal-damage attack power, it should be 5pts/die. But, if you take away the figured characteristics, you've effectively doubled the cost (10 pts of STR gets you 2 REC, 2 PD, and 5 STN - that's 11 points).

Re: Multiform, OIHID or just sfx? If a character has a sepparate hero ID, then almost any power that couldn't be used without revealing that ID is a candidate for OIHID. In this case, to use /any/ power, the character has to assume this unique, humaniod silver apearance. That seems to me to amount to assuming hero ID. Of course, if the character has no particular secret ID - and would never hesitate to assume the form for any reason, then it's not really an issue, and not really OIHID (maybe 'visible' on certain not-normally-visible powers, like the armor). However, another consideration is whether disadvantages and attributes change. If the silvery form can do anything the normal form can, and the normal form can't do anything the sivler form can't, then you're looking at OIHID. If the silvery form faces some limitations that the normal form doesn't, if the normal form has some stats higher, as well as lower, than the the silvery form, then Multiform starts to make more sense.