the fox

Re: Sense to use the power: limitation or campaign rule? ME based? Is my name Mass Effect?

Re: New advantage idea: Permanent Your right, Bigbywolffe, wrong choice of word. Replace cold-blooded with 'cool', whose meanings are dispassionate and easy-going, since GM's being generous, not mean.

Re: New advantage idea: Permanent Lucius, who said adjustment powers are aid to oneself? Of course if your able to buff/ debuff others only, that makes you more powerful. Powerful is not nec. CHAR, I would hope we all know this. Megaplayboy, according to the rules, a +2 advantage only makes an adjustment fairly long-term, to make it 'virtually permanent'. Tell us how long-term +2 is, and allow us to decide if this is 'virtually permanent'. Then I'll call it 'permanent', since this value makes it vritually so. If your gonna fix the rules, at least tell us where your getting your numbers! Follower die? Be the cold-blooded GM and treat this, point-wise, like vehicles and other equipment. If the character isn't going to be resurrected or replaced, re-spend the points. Extra Lives, at 4 pts. apiece, was a 2nd edition power that stated how the points are 'lost', or 'permanently spent', everything else can presumably be re-spent, subject to GM's approval, of course.

Re: Teleport redirection How about a UAA Teleport Linked to draining/supressing Teleportation or t-port effects? There's your defense, plus some other interesting effects, especially if the other 'port isn't fully supressed or 'redirected'. Remember, if your a hero, it might be a bad thing to mess up and allow someone to teleport into a wall, so I'd eliminate automatically safe teleportation. Champions II has 'teleporting into solid objects', how about 6th edition?

Re: Fastball and Flaw Anonymity, for not being an obvious combatant; pay the points and there's no way for villains to 'blow her cover', with mind-link they don't need to blab about detect weakness, ever! Her healing/resurrection can be kept under wraps, only used out of combat, or made Invisible, and it would never occur to someone to take her dolly away! Even the way she comes to his aid, the psionic area effect attack; you can 'stack advantages' w/ invis. effect, 0 END on that slot and use it continuously and make the other one full END, Damage and visibility, rarely used, but then all her END will be there to use multiple one-shots. Then give Fastball Mental Defense to protect him from her psionic area effect attack- standard effect, so it never effects Fastball, simplifies record-keeping and one less die roll for invisibly deducting stun; now she doesn't have time to 'detect weakness', unless you want to make this another slot, Transform, Suppress or whatever. Flaw's mental shields might give her away, and her code-name!, but prevent most mental attacks and easy discovery mentally. How about a regular name for Flaw?

Re: Balancing the numbers Sure, anyone who can slow down to 2/3rds or less of Max. SPD (SPD 4 if max. SPD 6) can claim maximum allowed defenses, AD equal to the def cap, usually DC x 2.5. Each point of speed greater than that should show a reduction in defenses, -1/6th AD for SPD 5, -2/6 or -1/3 AD for SPD 6. AD=PD+ED/2.

Re: Math larger image BASH! Basic Action Super Heroes Ultimate Edition $15.00 This book has everything you need to create characters and run super-heroic adventures within minutes. The rules are light and easy all you need are two ordinary dice, a piece of paper, and this book. Character generation is so simple, you could fit all the info you need on a 3x5 card, but we included a sheet anyway. Do not assume that by simple, we mean incomplete, either. BASH! UE has over 50 versatile super powers, numerous skills, and even rules for collateral damage. The action is fast and furious, paced over a series of panels, pages, and issues, just like a comic book. BASH! has undergone some changes over the years, with updates in Megapolis and BAM! and we have incorporated many of these into a single rules set. In addition to an expanded, revised version of the game, you will also find: Less record-keeping, more Awesome. Energy is no longer the "default" rule for handling powers-- so you have less to keep track of during play. Hero dice, Hero points, and team-work maneuvers are now a part of the core system, so you can really bring it to the bad-guys! Easier to read layout, better explained rules, including many examples. Character Archetypes: Writeups of various iconic superhero & villain archetypes such as the Brick, Martial Artist, and Blaster. These templates can be easily tweaked to quickly have a custom character! Hordes of Minions! Fleets of Vehicles! Random Encounters! Eras & Subgenres: One of the things BASH! Fantasy & Sci-Fi editions did was extensive work on the subgenres of Fantasy and Sci-Fi, such as Steam-Punk or Space Pulp. BASH! Ultimate Edition will do the same thing for Superheroes, enabling you to run a game with the theme & tone of the Gold, Silver, Bronze, or Iron Ages. There are also sections on Super Teens, Science Fiction, Fantasy, as well as Cosmic Superheroes. http://www.bashrpg.com/BASH%20Ultimate%20Edition%20Preview.pdf

Re: Balancing the numbers Keep it simple, you needn't go into average damage per turn to various defenses to show how your 5, 10 point altered DC's work. Defenses are also arbitrarily altered by -3 and -4. Do these changes follow a rule of x? probably not, since the value of change is different for 3 different values (max. CV, too; +1 or +0). Like Gestalt, Hero/CHAMPIONS too uses SPD as a benchmark for different power levels! From 4th edition's max. SPD of 7 at 250+ pts., the following can be deduced; a simple +1 max. SPD per 50 pts. 000+ are base 10 characters with some points switched around, eqivalent to 5th ed's base 8's with 25 additional points, like a pre-'min-maxed' base 10, '0 pt. person'. 000+ max. SPD 2 050+ max. SPD 3 100+ max. SPD 4 (reserve SPD 4 to Martial Artists only, along w/ top CV caps) 150+ max. SPD 5 (reserve SPD 5 to Martial Artists only, along w/ top CV caps) 200+ max. SPD 6 (reserve SPDs 5, 6 to Martial Artists, along w/ top two CV caps) 250+ max. SPD 7 (reserve SPDs 6, 7 to Martial Artists, along w/ top two CV caps)

Re: Balls of Steel It's up to the GM to determine ALL object's DEF and BODY, NOT the player. Some might consider such strong ball bearings, composed of the material specified (carbon migrated into the surface of low-carbon steel, forming a graduated coating), to weigh on the order of 6.4 kg. in order to obtain 3 BODY while retaining 9 BODY. It's close enough that you can hand-wave in another BOD, so the balls aren't very large, but their still the stretching of the rules to make "semi-Unobtanium" balls that are half the size and weight as they should be, so that they resemble more common ball bearings more easily found. Link for facts on balls, case hardening, or something essential for world domination, the humble ball screw. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_(bearing) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_hardening http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_screw

Re: Balls of Steel London, Paris, Tokyo! Those all could be part of the character description that have little effect in combat, "window-dressing", not a 12d6 Blast effect with reduced range penalties and lack of 'Object of Opportunity' limitations. Would you call that window-dressing, or part of the character to pay for? I'd allow them to be found after character creation as 'Objects of Opportunity', even let Senor Cajones seek balls of his specifications. However, when he starts to use such a fine set of balls in combat regularly, I'll ask the player when he wishes to pay for his upgrade. He can continue to use the 'Objects of Opportunity' rules, and find his replacement balls rarely present, or he can pay for replacement balls. Remember also, the player here is specifying the specifications of these items, that they need to be 'extra' hard, have extra BODY, be balanced and aerodynamic, be smaller than Sparky the Wonder-dog. These aren't rolling around wherever you go. Rarely would small objects with this much DEF and BODY be found. How do such small balls have extra body? Would that be from extra mass? Just how big are these balls?

Re: Fastball and Flaw Your not including the "Fastball Special"? Fastball, Slider, Curve could be differing attacks: AP, Accurate or limited Indirect Blast. If the only difference is OCV bonuses, why have 2 attacks with lower bonuses? How is that not useless? Kids aren't always difficult to hit and catch; kids aren't always anything, though I would say their generally smaller and thus would get a bonus vs. ranged attacks. Invisible little girl? Is this an actual power? If Find Weakness is usable at range, and a mind-link relays the data, how about the girl actually hiding? Unusual would be her continual observations of Fastball's battles...

Re: Balancing the numbers Columns don't work because the forum interface only allows 1 space! To get proper columns I used a word processing program, then cut and paste. Base Pts., Active Pts. difference; you might also consider a +1/4 difference; I've seen this before, and this was the value of the 'original' recommendation... Determining average damage and all... Why should lower speeds do more damage?!? Set the top speed, and if you go lower than that, well, that's your problem, simple. This way, you have a single set of guidelines for characters of a single power level. Actual damage per turn is not a simple way to handicap high speed,; have you considered -3 AD (AD=PD+ED/2) or 'Max. Defense' per Speed point, since we're limiting defenses?

Re: bonus to damage for great skill roll Limited by Skill Roll: -1, -2, -3 etc. DC or 5pts. per -1 to the skill roll, such that the power is at minimum power, 1DC if you roll your Skill Roll. Rolling lower skill rolls add their increment to the minimum power, up to maximum effect, which requires a 'lower' skill roll. :dyn15- Skill Roll, 12 DC Power, -1 DC per reduction equals 11 'other' segments, 15- to 4- for max. effect. -2 per equals 6 segments, 5 'other' segments =-5 to roll for max. effect, 10-. Even larger increments are possible, and you can set the increment to begin on the other side, such that, by 'barely' making the skill roll results in a smaller, 'remainder' increment, and not the whole increment. :dyn15-, 12 DC's, -4 DC per segment (1/3 power, two other 'rolls') equals 13-, -5 per equals 13- also, either 2 or 5 DC, 14-=7 or 10 DC, 15-= 12 DC. As a custom limitation, you can set it by how much it limits the power, and pay accordingly.

Re: bonus to damage for great skill roll Err, unless there's 'modified' RSR limitation values, you might need to approximate this with Activation Rolls; then you can convert it back to RSR. This can also be, the lower the skill roll, the less damage you do. Because you need to define the top-end of the power, then limit it's portions. Perhaps when your done with an example, we can create new rules for RSR, if this isn't in 6th edition. Also, Variable Power Pool might use a similar mechanic. Simply give yourself a limitation for 'unusable points can't be spent'. This is usually no points, but your VPP would be set to where this occurs frequently, and points are frequently lost.

Re: "Tightening the Curve" on damage average dice (2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5) (In some war games, units are identified as regulars or irregulars. Because regulars are more predictable, the strength of a regular unit is multiplied by an average die. For this reason, average dice are jocularly called regular dice.) If you can't find any, just say "one is three, six is four", roll the dice and they'll catch up. 'Regular dice' produce a 'more standard' effect without paying any penalty, therefore some GM's might 'outlaw' them for damage or effect purposes, given there's easier, 'official' rules for this effect. While some won't see the difference, some will, a nearly 'standard' attack without the slightest penalty, much less 14%. These same GM's would simply agree to applying this to the Stun Multiplier Die, however. Why? because there's no simpler way to 'moderate' the Stun Multiplier Die except 2,2,2,3,3,3 and this produces a more 'realistic' range: x1,2,2,3,3,4 that has good 'variance' and clearly shares the top-end penalty of 'more standard' dice.

Re: Needs multiple foci to function at all? An Accessible focus is 'one' that is easily taken away. A focus with 3 parts all required would be more 'accessible', certainly note it but I wouldn't give it an additional focus limitation unless this is in the rules you are using, under 'Focus'. If not, you could use a custom limitation, the old 'limited power- you decide the value. Offhand or 'IMO', I'd say it's not worth additional points, unless your more likely to drop or lose a gem somehow, then that would happen, for a 'properly played limitation' put whatever limitations you'd like on a power. Then it becomes the GM's responsibility to make sure the limit limits the power with actual mechanics.

Re: bonus to damage for great skill roll Sure, it's possible, just partially limit each portion of the power with it's 'own' skill roll, make it all 'one roll/roll together' and figure out it's cost.

Re: Where can I get resources for the original Champions RPG game? Going back to original CHAMPIONS... MY 5th edition Resource Kit includes three double-sided maps and 36 paper miniatures on three cards; Fantasy, Modern, Science Fiction. These 'cardboard heroes' are black and white, not colored like Cardboard Heroes, but some of the same figures. These'll never get cut up and be 'used, loose, lost' as is probably the case for many 4th edition GM's Screen figures, 60 Superhero and Supervillian 'playing pieces in full color'. #401 is available "complete" on E-bay often, but both of mine however are without these figures, as they were part of a lot, 5 4th edition books and two screens. When I inquired about exchanging 'my' duplicate screen for it's duplicate booklet in another, unsold lot, 'Maps and charts', the lady threw in this other lot, the Resource Kit, including the 5th Ed. GM's screen! I would have bought more books, but the lots must have all been sold, given away or given back. That's alright; I still find occasional deals on E-bay. Would you believe I got "The Ultimate Martial Artist"/UMA for 99 cents, with free shipping? Ki-yaw! As for the original game, I never did get a boxed set, some co-worker simply gave me both supplements and the rules! Somehow I got the old map, or saw it, but I would run combat on a high school map I took out of a Space Gamer magazine, with small hexes overlaid.

Re: Expanding the 6E Character Abilities Guidelines and Characteristics Comparison Ta If your just using these as guidelines for characteristics, of course their fine. If you want caps or limits for each power level, you might need your own tables, to reflect a more specific campaign, one where you can say where you can say where 90% of the characteristics would be at because that is the limit and characters specializing in that characteristic would be at that limit, great for generating 'balanced' characters too, if that is possible. Word or OpenOffice make good tables; text, numbers w/w/o borders or the spreadsheet program.

Re: "Tightening the Curve" on damage Average damage is an easy way to show 'more Standard damage' w/o always paying the penalty, but it does when you round down the damage about 50% of the time. ex. RKA 2 1/2 d6 (5d6+1/2) average stun, moderating the stun lotto and the attack a bit: RKA 2d6 +2 (stun x 2d6-2/2*). * minimum x1 stun, round down.

Re: "Tightening the Curve" on damage And you can do so, simply and easily, in any amount for a mere 14% penalty. Why this is a good deal is when it frequently 'works well with others', a long list of the usual suspects; consider each separately and together with Standard damage/ effects; vs. mooks or other low defenses or vs. vulnerabilities *wounding w/o killing, intentionally not killing your opponent for both PC's and their opponents, who, for whatever strange reason are perfectly happy wounding and stunning you, but are reluctant to possibly kill you with a 1d6! to 4d6! RKA.* Affects Desolid- their other defenses may be low. Area of Effect- multiple low defenses are effected by a 'set' amount. Explosions- does 5th edition dispense with the 'lose lowest die first' mechanics from earlier editions? Regardless, much like AoE and main attack combined. Damage Shield- not too lethal, now... Lack of Personal Immunity- your defenses can be set to reliably defend against your own attacks, since you can more reliably determine the damage. Side Effects- could you apply this and lower the effect? IMO most GM's would allow it, since it'll effect 'em anyway, just a set amount. Mental Powers, BOECV, NVLD, NND- attacks vs. little or no defenses. Mega-Scale and Magical Effects-not just Ritual Magic but wherever you need a set effect w/o another die roll. Conditional Powers- set effect. Gradual Effects- a more 'gradual yet inevitable' effect; works well with all of the above, too. Linked- with a 'proportional' stipulation, you could ask for and receive 1 'pt.', rather than 1/2 DC-Nd=3 or 1 DC-Kd=5, in proportion to the other power. Reduced Penetration- magnifies effects of limitation- less BODY damage and a more average amount.

Re: Need Help Building a Dog Follower If animals are ten times stronger than humans, isn't that a +15 (x8 mass) or +18 (x12 mass, by how I figure it)? Simply subtract 5 pts. for his 1/2 weight and 'boom', you've got Boomer's STR 20 or 23! But -5 or 0 STR sounds rather low; besides totally ignoring animals' super-strength, it's may be presuming a 'guard' dog only weighs up to 25 kg./55 lbs. and a 'large' dog only weighs up to 12.5 kg./27.5 lbs., or loses 5 STR points, some other way !!! Boomer weighs over 55#, putting him in the next weight category, a whole 5 STR; unless of course you want to put him in the same weight category as humans and make him at least 50 kg./ 110 lbs., that would be a very large or very fat dog! Now, as for 'super-strength for animals', don't forget the Pushing of STR! Up to +10 STR. This may be based on the real-life adrenaline surge that triples a man's strength; here it can quadruple the load, and is under conscious control. Animals would use this as soon as they fall into a tussle, every time at least once (and surprisingly judiciously , giving them the appearance of super-strength. But can't humans gain +10 STR from fitness and training? Can a dog gain that much from fitness and training? And aren't most animals getting plenty of exercise, working out constantly? Some dogs are very big or muscular, like Olympic weightlifters or bodybuilders! +10 STR; grand total: 15 STR, plus 10 Pushing = 25! STR. i. e. 'no 'free' adrenaline power for animals, just fitness comparable to athletic, 880 lb. lifting humans. So am I saying +10 STR is a fair, standard amount for all these 'athletic' animals? No, but it might be a good amount for Boomer, and all he really needs for a 1d6+1d6 KA and other Maneuvers which add STR or damage and use Pushing more often.

Re: Need Help Building a Dog Follower Like the dog whistle, you can just add the 'training' to Tracking; this is just 'training' the dog to follow an individual scent present on clothing, followed by their obvious, instinctive behavior while tracking. Alerting you when an unusual scent is found isn't much of a trick, the dog's 'limited mentality' usually knows to alert others when something is found. As for detecting zombies, the dog doesn't need Tracking- this is presumed under "heightened sense of smell". 5th edition gives a +2 modifier for a 'smelly person', +4 modifier for a 'very smelly person' (check out the GM's screen in another current thread for additional sense modifiers, smell). These apply to both Tracking and heightened sense of smell, as applicable. The dog doesn't need the tracking skill necessarily to track zombies, but let's not muddle the issue with obvious tracks; if it's obvious, it's obvious. Tracking reflects all dog's natural ability and behavior when tracking their prey. Tracking covers the tracking behavior, and allows a trail to be followed by scent, where it isn't otherwise obvious. As a GM, I'm just assuming you'd want your dog to be an ad-hoc zombie detector, that it might perceive something not obvious to sight. As for combat, that depends on the stats for the dog, how many points it gets. Don't forget to add some resistance to the zombie plague, if you want him to have this ability. Don't be surprised when he attacks by surprise because he/you didn't buy this ability, because it'll be assumed he doesn't; this can be as simple as "zombie plague only affects humans" but this isn't the case in the Apocalypse universe, remember the zombie dogs? No reason for them to be all skinned or bloody, except to look fierce and wicked! (low BODY left? heighten PRE?) Also, HTH KA, Reduced Penetration; Grabbing with the mouth possibly only disabling one limb; Extra Running. Breakfall isn't needed, the dog's smaller size may presume some 'acrobatic ability', that is just to say it can fight in smaller quarters, and finds it easier to surprise, attack to the rear, etc. His rate of falling is slightly reduced due to his smaller size and the square-cube law; only cats might require Breakfall, in addition to or instead of this 4"/phase falling rate. On the other hand, I did see a lot of "breakfall rolls" on the GM's screen... Biting a zombie can be tricky. This is comparable to zombie blood backlash to the mouth or eyes. Usually such cases are ignored, because actual wounds and dying are much faster at transforming into a zombie, making this moot or 'unnecessary bookkeeping'. For story-telling purposes, the dogs behavior can become more feral, ignoring commands, attacking without command, etc. With an INT of 13, why yes, Boomer is smarter than your typical person, in combat. Tactically, this dog's got it going on, protecting and warning others, instead of just running off!

Re: Need Help Building a Dog Follower Boomer can detect unusual odors, and is trained to alert you. I would include early on-set zombies or 'the infected', who gradually lose their individual scents and smell more like zombies. Tracking zombies as a whole is pretty easy. As more people turn into zombies, 'fresh tracks' i.e. living individuals become easier to discern (fewer living people), except for the zombie's pervading odor. So Tracking should work normally, until Boomer turns into the undead. Then it becomes Stalk and Kill, starting with the weakest member of party, with speed and surprise!

Re: Need Help Building a Dog Follower Canine Senses: +3 PER with All Sense Groups Canine Nose: Tracking with Normal Smell certain discriminatory features can just be 'heightened sense of smell, w/Tracking ability'. Detecting 'individual odors/scent cues' makes up for Boomer's rather poor eyesight. these 'extra detects' are just things we can simply see, so it all balances out in the end. Canine Ears: Ultrasonic Perception (Hearing Group) (Hearing Group) Forgot about this one! Be sure to get your free dog whistle!