paul_runstedler

Sean Waters...wow! Very cool indeed. That has given me some things to think about. The last time I played Change Environment didn't have combat modifiers...Think it was just 5thE. I like a little bit of what Pteryx was saying...hold something in place in some way...then I got thinking about moving away from gravity manipulation altogether as (Sean and many of you have indicated) it is pretty complicated and fraught with a lot of issues. So, I'm starting to refine my concept a bit...Thinking maybe gravity is just too hard to deal with. Slight adjustment to increasing/decreasing the mass of objects. I envision a small area that he can effect where he increases the mass by say...32x (so 100 kg person suddenly weighs 3,200 kg. Does this make sense for the power? Increase mass by 32x (100 kg -> 3200kg) Telekinesis - 35 strength Affects whole object (-1/4) (cannot punch or squeeze) Must immediately move target down at max distance (20") (hits ground does 35 str damage) (-1/2) Active cost: 53. Final cost 30 That is the power if I had it so it only affected on person. If I wanted an area of effect...well that would be more. I'm using telekinesis (though it is *similar* to entangle) to get around the ability for someone to try to break through it with some type of energy blast etc, cause that doesn't make sense. What do you think of this? Does it seemed priced correctly?

psyber624 - Awesome list...me likey! I built up the flight UAA last night...gotta say I agree - pretty powerful! So on the fence about it...On one hand I'd like to buy it as telekinetic, but there's that weird issue about being able to break out via strength... Built up an entangle as well, and ran into an issue last night. Bought it with "takes no damage" limitation (as you mention above), but still a little bit weird as a character can direct attacks directly at the entangle...Imagine if you will my new character pulling my enemy "Firestorm" to the ground by increasing their mass (or increasing the force of gravity on them). Firestorm languishes against the ground teeth gritted, unable to move....Suddenly, in the next phase Firestorm uses his 12d6 EB (flameshoot), destroys the entangle, and jumps to his feet....Something just doesn't make sense

Hmmm...Christopher, thanks for the info. Hyper-Man, great suggestion. I also wondered how someone who is strong could possibly break out of a reversal of gravity. I will have to propose the power to my GM and see what happens. I'm thinking of some flight, a gravity based entangle, and density increase as possible powers for this character...anyone else have any suggestions for cool gravity controlling types? Thanks!

Howdy...its been a while! Just getting back into the game again after a few years hiatus... I'm creating a character who can manipulate gravity, and want to purchase a telekinetic power over an area...Basically want to be able to life a few people off the ground etc. Thought about posting this in the rules forum, but I suspect the answers are pretty easy for those of you who've been playing for a while... Question 1. If I buy area of effect on telekinesis, when I attempt to use it to say...grab 3 people, do I roll against the hex DCV and/or each character's DCV in the hex? Question 2. Purchasing the power with "affects whole object" so...can't punch or squeeze...which is cool. With this power limitation, does it mean that two of the characters limbs are not pinned? Thanks all!

Does anyone know how a grab escape is affected if two characters have successfully grabbed an opponent? In the game I'm playing, a duplicator character had two of his duplicates grab a brick. We were trying to figure out what the grabbed character had to roll in order to get out of the grab.... Do you treat each grab separate? Do you add strength together? Any help would be appreciated.

Re: Need some help with an "heat-energy" character So even in building the powers for the VPP, I need some help Question: Can a RKA be targetted against a focus? If so, then the "melt the gun to slag" could actually be done via a RKA correct? (def/body of the object is something like active pts/10 or active pts/5 or something?) If he just wanted to heat all guns in a radius, we could do some type of AOA attack that only effected people touching objects of the target material (in this instance gun-metal). Maybe buy something so that even after he stops paying end on it, it lasts for a turn (gun has to cool down). Some other cool applications of this anyone?

Re: Need some help with an "heat-energy" character

Re: Help with a Computer Detect (and analyse?) energy source (used to determine where in the walls the power runs to and fromt) Detect radar? (able to detect if anyone is 'pinging' him) Detect life? (either through ultra sensitive sound detection of heart-beat, or some type of heat detection)

So a player in a new game I'm starting wants to have a concept similar to the following: Character X can, at range and invisibly, cause certain types of materials to charge with heat energy. He causes the molecules to vibrate rapidly in homogeneous materials. The primary effect of the power to would be to heat up guns, or melt holes in the side of steal bulk-heads, that sort of thing. There has got to be a host of other uses for this power though. Some kind of EC that allows him to do all kinds of fancy things. Any ideas out there would be greatly appreciated... Also, I'm having a little trouble determining if I should have him buy an extra power that heats up a focus to the point where a character will drop it, or if this just automatically gets built into the special effect of the power (i.e. 3d6 RKA - HEAT OBJECT, only on inanimate objects constructed of homogeneous material used on a machine gun say (at a minus for hitting a focus) would by default cause damage to any character holding such a focus. Not sure what that damage would be....ideas? Thanks in advance!

Re: limitation (no non-combat multiplier) Doh! Thanks...Looked through and found it in that section of FRED as well...(pg 85)

Been looking for this in the 5th ed, and in the FAQs. Am I blind or is it not listed anywhere? Any help appreciated.

Re: Spider Man Clone How about some type of highly advanced computer that was directly connected to his spinal cord. the computer uses super-sensitive sensors to analyse his surroundings and determine if danger is present (i.e. a car being thrown at him from behind etc). If it detects something and analyses it as being a threat, it overrides muscle control and causes the character to leap out of the way, etc. Of course the character could over-ride this, but it would take an ego roll. Its kinda like how a cockroach's back legs start moving even before its simple brain receives information that a light has been turned on...That sort of thing.

Re: grrrr wtf?

Re: New Champs Campaign. Advise/Suggestions appreciated Good point. Referenced above as well. Thats perhaps my best reason for having to yank back the curtain on this super group. 1) other countries are not far behind, so the US gov wants to be the first. 2) They need to use the supers in order to halt development of these other super-groups in other countries. Any takers for countries that might be close to inventing the same thing? North Korea? China? Japan?

Re: New Champs Campaign. Advise/Suggestions appreciated Homeland security. Yes. Wondering if the plan might partially be to increase morale in a time where people live in fear daily of terrorist attacks. Perhaps this group takes the fight to the offending countries, etc etc. I guess what I'm asking is how would they react if this news became public in the US say...tomorrow. Thanks for the reference. Will be trying to get a copy of NextMen and do some research. Great ideas. am starting to flesh this whole thing out in my mind...

Re: New Champs Campaign. Advise/Suggestions appreciated Yeah. I think for their family's own protection, they'd have to limit contact with them. You know, in order to protect them against your enemies that sort of bs. Perhaps phone conversations over secure lines (with people who are simply pretending to be ma and pa). Sooner or later something has to slip though. It always does in the movies Good point, hadn't thought down those lines yet. Perhaps another country was beta-testing their creation, and the US wanted to be the first to have supers (akin to walking on the moon). Perhaps one of the first missions might be to seek out and destroy the other country's supers. 3. Yes, this could get hairy, but the supers will be kept at arms reach from this sort of thing. Though I think they'll hear about it in the paper a lot. 4. Yeah, now the trick is to come up with a specific idea that makes sense... 5. Paranormal arms race. I like it. I love it. I think I'll start every gaming session by handing the characters two or three front page newspaper stories that have surface since their introduction.

Re: New Champs Campaign. Advise/Suggestions appreciated Great idea! I'm thinking perhaps only hours after the world discovers the super-group, Russia, China, North Korea, etc are phoning the president asking for some type of anti-super treaty. Something that would protect them against attacks made by this super-group. How would the UN react? Touchy subject I know, but man I'm thinking there'd by some very fierce reactions here. What could the UN do though? Not much I suppose, but any ideas on how this might play out?

Re: New Champs Campaign. Advise/Suggestions appreciated 2) Hmmm, so if we're talking Iraq, the Gov'd send them in to wipe out a well protected group of enemies. Wondering is there something that particular supers would really excel at that a group of highly trained navy seals just couldn't do very well. Guess it depends on the powers of the supers though doesn't it. Mentalists could have some *very* useful purposes, whereas Bricks not so much... 3) Yeah. Conspiracy theorists. People might claim lots of stuff about how the super beings are from out space, to they lived under the earth and just recently emerged, to they were grown from a test-tube by the government . 4) Keep 'em busy I like that one. Also, I'm trying to figure out how to protect the fact that they're memories are implanted. Joe-Mighty-Fist might remember being brought up in Wilsonville, Nebraska, there would be no-one there who remembered him. If the media ever found out he was from there, people'd be digging all over trying to find out who knew him, his family, etc etc. Perhaps one rule of the membership is that they cannot tell anyone outside their companions where they are from. 6) I like the fact that they may have had one before the group. Their beta project. One person, who didn't take to the mental manipulations too well. He's too unpredictable, and crazy, so they canned the project. I think this would be a second contingency plan though. First, and easiest would be to have this Neural Bomb someone mentioned. Of course when the party finally figures out they've been controlled, and attempts to break free, they'll have to figure out a way around the neural bomb. But when they do, out comes "Plan B" ('B' for Beta. HA!) Keep those ideas coming. Great stuff!

Starting a new champs campaign, and I have a basic premise, but want to hear from some of you guys out there. The world is present day, and there was no such things as super-heros. That is until last week. A group of mysterious super-heros emerged seemingly out of no-where as the governments latest anti-terrorist unit. The characters are lead to believe that they "just came into" their super-powers recently, and were almost immediately approached by a wing of the government and made an offer they couldn't refuse to join up and help protect their country from external threats. The reality is that the government have secretly been growing this group of supers over the last 15 years as part of a secret military project. Ala "Total Recall" they've had all their past memories written into their brains in order to make them believe they joined this program willingly. The first game will start with an orchestrated publicity stunt to introduce the heros to the public. the players/characters will think they're saving people's lives by countering some type of threat. In reality the government will have cooked up the entire thing to introduce the world to super-heros, and to create good PR in order to continue with their project (with full support of the Senate) Things I'm looking for ideas on. 1. Growing humans, especially super-humans is tricky business. I need some plausable explanations as to how this occured and exactly the phases that would have to be gone through to take a test-tube human and make them into a real-live person with history, personality, quirks, relationships etc. 2. Details on functions the government might want to use this group for that normals might be incapable of performing. 3. How would the public *really* react to such a thing. I'm not talking about how they do in 3 color comic books. I'm talking about what might really happen if this really and truly happened tomorrow. 4. How would the government protect its secret? How would they prevent (or at least prolong) the characters from finding out about the fact that they're pawns. 5. Other cool ideas, and interesting things that relate to this type of campaign. 6. What type of contingency plan will the goverment have in order to control this group? Or what plan do they have in case anyone goes "rogue"? I've read a lot of posts around here, and I'm really looking forward to all your input! Thanks guys! Paul

Hey guys. Anyone have an opinion on how much of a limitation it would be if you bought teleport that only worked where there was a volume of water equal to or greater to the volume required by your body in the destination area? I.e. 'water man' a character that I have obviously not named yet can cause his body to turn to regular water, and then reappear by shaping a volume of nearby water into his body. He kind of 'possesses' water. I was thinking of about a -1 since it limits where he can teleport quite drastically. Opinions? Thanks in advance,

I know that the mind control levels of affect is quite subjective and depends on GM judging, but does anyone know if there is any published rules w.r.t how much effect is required to force an enemy to perform the following actions? "Grab X and hold him there" directed towards character A who is on a team with X "Attack X and knock him out" directed towards character A who is on a team with X "Flee the scene and go get help" All the commands are given by someone on the opposite team during a battle situation. I realize that a lot of other factors come into play when determining the solution for this, just wondering if anyone had any rules of thumb... Also, assume the commands are not in direct conflict with any psych limitations, etc.. Thanks!

Ok. I still don't understand then. What is being mentioned under paragraph 2 on page 136 of FRED under the "Based on Ego Combat Value" heading? It can't be a physical attack (say a dart that has some type of mind affecting serum on it as that would use your DCV to see if the dart hit you). I understand it states "at the DM's option" but I'm wondering if the GM allowed it what the points would look like? Thanks. Paul

Re: missile deflection for ego attacks Actually it *does* say on page 136 that (at the DMs option) you can use Missile Deflection against mental powers (under the "Based on Ego Combat Value" heading paragraph 2). It doesn't say anything about a dart with some mental serum on it (which would use regular OCV/DCV to hit and would normally be covered under typical missile deflection). I'm talking about actually deflecting some sort of ego attack. Paul

Does anyone know how much it costs for missile deflection for mental attacks? The rules are clear for non-ego attacks (5 pts thrown objects, 10 pts bullets etc, 20 pts all ranged attacks), but it doesn't really say what the costs are for deflecting mental attacks except to say that you can buy it for mental attacks (based on ECV) Paul

How much does it cost to missile deflect ego attacks? Is it considered just 5 points for thrown objects? 10 points for arrows? 20 points all ranged attacks? Paul