ned-kogar

Re: No more Figured Characteristics?!

I need to add to Chris Goodwin's rep so badly.... but alas the system says I need to spread it around first!

I plopped some onto him on your behalf. I've not spotted this whole rep thing previously. I'm slow. Which is one reason why decoupling characteristics has allowed me to build myself more accurately.

Re: Leaping

I'm away from my books this week, but there are rules for this under Leaping in the APG - Acrobatics roll at +1 for first 'bounce' (I think), -1 for each successive, total distance may not exceed m in Leaping... that sort of thing.

I love the APG.

Ned

Re: Simulating Mental Illness...?

Personally, I think Psych Lims are more appropriate than Physical. Just because the Limitation/Complication could be fought with appropriate medication doesn't remove the influence of Ego.

For many schizophrenics, during the arrival of a psychotic 'episode' of their illness, they're able to sense the disparity between their 'normal' thoughts, ideas and behaviour and the newly recurring compulsions. They can, to some extent, resist those compulsions. For some time.

The difficulty, of course, is that the episodic nature of many mental illnesses doesn't quite work in the Stimulus/Reaction basis of Psych Lims (which works well for phobias and personality traits). It tends to be on a longer cycle, with longer onset times and recovery times. Perhaps it's a question of building the effect over a couple of gaming sessions - eg. buy the illness as Uncommon (after a betrayal/when alone for an extended period/after extensive intoxication); Total (thinks his friends are plotting to kill him/thinks he's in a fake world that doesn't matter/receives instructions from dead muderers) - but, when the stimulus occurs to set off their particular set of delusions, they resist as Moderate for the current gaming session, Strong for the next, before slipping into total conviction in the next.

That said, it sounds like the OP wants the character to be mad all the time. How you build it depends on what effect you want it to have on the game - and whether the character is to be entertainingly unhinged or more realistically cursed with a specific illness.

Re: Special Effects Interactions: Burden on the defender or the attacker?

In my mind when things like this come up it's never about defender vs attacker' date=' but PC vs NPC.[/quote']

 

I think that's a healthy starting point, but PC failings are such an important part of our campaign that we like everyone on an even footing. Heh.

 

Overall, there's quite a range of opinions offered, thanks. I think, given the mildly more realistic nature of our supes campaign, I'm going to mark up some rough interaction rules for powers.. as much as a guide to constructing powers. And I may buy a PDF of The Ultimate Energy Projector as a starting point.

 

Cheers,

 

Ned

Re: Wind Protection

Thanks for your thoughts, folk.

I've passed on the ideas to the player to have a think about. I particularly like the Dbl Kb Damage Shield, perhaps done as a small Area Of Effect, Uncontrolled for tornadoes...

I've started a new thread about Special Effects, to broaden the discussion into to other fx. I've enough time before I get to play again to have a good think about how well defined I want these things to be...

Cheers,

Ned

When it comes to the interaction of Special Effects, there's always the 'problem' over how far SFX make a difference to play before limitations or advantages become appropriate.

But I'm also interested in whether people have neatly delineated where the burden of effect lies with the 'attacker' or the 'defender' within their campaigns.

eg. Does fire have an innate vulnerabilty and susceptibility to water? Or does water have an innate drain vs. fire? Or can both options happily co-exist in a campaign?

eg 2. Does Dr Smoke's Smokey Darkness Power work in high winds (he's not put a limitation on the power), but not against Blowhard's superbreath Drain vs. Gas / Smoke powers?

Obviously, any decisions will depend on your own campaign's degree of realism.

I feel sure this has been tackled elsewhere, but I didn't find any recent yak about it. I've even an inkling that this was tackled in a supplement at some point, but I've put most of my prior edition books in storage.

Thanks for your thinks,

Ned

Nope, not charcoal underpant linings.

Hello.

As my pcs adapt their characters to 6th (which is very enjoyable, so far) our Air/Wind-themed hero has been thinking about an alternative to his old whirling vortex of wind Force Wall - not least because it always seemed wrongish that it seemed like a 'shell' of air which fell apart if breached. Plus Barrier's defined even solidly wall-ish.

He's come up with the idea of Damage Negation, Costs End, Usable By Nearby - with Side Effects (minuses to Hearing Per and ranged OCV). So he, and those near him, are buffeted by semi-sentient winds which compromise the effectiveness of attackers (slowing/deflecting missiles, wrestling/confronting incoming punches, etc). I like it, but wondered if the Assembled Wisdom Of The Boards could see any problems with it.

Of course, this doesn't allow him his old englobing schtick, but opens up other possibilities.. like he can protect himself during move-throughs.

Also, I'm revising all my special effects interaction thoughts for the campaign, so now need to decide whether Air/Wind's lack of effect on light, radiation, etc is balanced with being able to be effective vs. gas/smoke, regardless of how they're defined as powers. It's that old effects trumping power/power trumping fx thing.

Any thoughts (and thoughts about handling special effects, or other wind-related powers) much appreciated.

Cheers,

Ned

Re: SuperHEROing for humor

Most of the comedy was driven by the characters and their foibles. Which is one way to keep any comedy campaign funny -- make the humor organic to the characters' personalities and decisions as opposed to their powers. Let the choices of the players drive the humor as opposed to simply setting up comedic situations.

Very very true - this is the reason that we used to be able to maintain Paranoia campaigns: the deadly absurdity of the setting maintained a steady level, while the resentments, betrayals and sheer dodgy humanity of the characters became the centre of the bigger laughs. I think it also depends on the type of funny that's aimed for - to sustain itself you need the funnies to bounce off a straight backdrop. If I may quote genius Ken Campbell: Silly + silly = stupid. Silly + serious = funny.

Re: Hero Dice ...collector's item, but still in demand.

One of the players in our game gave us all Hero Dice as a Christmas present one year.

Heck, you play with nice people. I'm lucky if my lot remember to thank me for pizza...

Ned

Re: Amalgamated Champions

Storm + Big Barda = Thunderstorm.

Like Storm, but with bigger thighs.

Re: SuperHEROing for humor

I called the campaign the Second Stringers.

It sounds great. Were The Gamer's d4s his only Killing attack? If it's not too straight a question - what did you set as a points total? Or did you just let the concepts lead the way?

I ask cos I'm thinking of running a back-up strand for a campaign: minor villains trying to eke out a living.. it'll be played pretty po-faced, but with the meagre powers as the underlying gag.

Ned

Re: Impact of Multiple Attacks

Thanks for the responses - that all sounds sensible. I guess situations where there's a large disparity between OCV and DCV will be where it turns up most, as suggested. Hmm. I might still try a couple of test combats. Any excuse...

Thanks again,

Ned

Re: Black Hole power

I may be misreading this, but is his implosion into a massive black hole more of a threat to himself and everything around him, rather than something he'd ever really want to use?

If so, it might be better to define this in terms of a Disadvantage / Complication that the GM can use, rather than something under the player's control. Though the actual transformation may be very infrequent, the concern attached to it, the possible machinations of bad guys to use him in some world-destroying plot, etc. would make it more present story-wise.

Ned

Hello.

I'm about to re-birth an old 4th/5th Edition supers campaign into 6th, and am deeply excited by the many excellent changes.

Something that looks like it will have a substantial impact on combat is Multiple Attack.

I'd be very interested to know how much difference Multiple Attacks make to your combats (eg. Swifter outcomes? More variety? Inventive combos?) and whether I'm likely to need to take them into account when overseeing the adaptation of characters to 6th.

Any thoughts much appreciated.

Cheers,

Ned

Re: Waking up with not-so-super powers

Super-grip: no stronger than my actual grip, but 0 End, Persistent and slip-resistant. Mainly for opening jars, dangling from roofs, roughhousing, and dozing while holding onto handrails on public transport.

Re: Combat Tracker program?

This will do some of that...

http://www.trimira.com/store/hero_helper_info.html