AwesomusPrime

Re: Your opinions please? Hmmm. I put an edit in that aperantly didn't take either. The text was spaced, but the spaces dissapeared and now I can't seem to edit it in anyway at all. I'll try to fix this when I get home and sorry about the mess.

I'm running a game now set in Paragon City (for those familiar with the City of Heroes MMO). Basically the only aspect of the game I'm adapting is the world and it's inhabitants, so that is to say I haven't set my players into limited archetypes or anything.Anyway beside the point, in this world is an organisation called Crey Biotech, which to the public appears as benevolent as Wayne Industries or Stark Enterprises but in actual fact is quite dark and sinister. All my players have chosen to be hunted by this organisation, and so as a prelude to the eventual Alien invasion story I have planned, I'm having a little fun hunting them.The Crey employ a number of genetic creations made from the DNA stolen from the graves of fallen heroes, and other underhanded sources. They call them Paragon Protectors. I introduced the group to them earlier, and last session dropped the name Project Ministry and had them seperately pursued by Crey "Security Personell" into the subway system. This session I intend to have Project Ministry, four Paragon Protectors, enter into a climactic underground battle with the PCs, that will hopefully end with them (the PCs)finding an underground city.TL;DR - that's ok, I haven't asked the question yet ;)The question: I am going to, for trivia's sake, base The Ministry on the divisions of government from Wells' book 1984. I'm fairly certain most of my players would have read it. I want to know your opinions of the powers I've chosen to identify the members of Project Ministry, and if you've read 1984 could you suggest better ones?For Love (the Ministry of Love was responsible for punishing criminals)I've given him a 6d6 absorption with variable effect (into rpd, red or strength; he has no resistand defense normally and 20 base str) and a 1d6 HKA.For Truth ( The Ministry of Truth was responsible for propaganda)I've given him 50 AP of Mental Illusion.For Plenty (The Ministry of Plenty was responsible for keeping supply rations low)I've given an END suppression field.And finally for Big Brother, which is where the wondering on my part comes in, I've given 50 AP of Density Increase, but I wonder if I should go more in line with the book on this one and give him some kind of Clairsentience with mind link to the other three?I'm really stumped on this. Going on the play on words and giving him DI makes for more physically interesting combat; but an npc who knows what the PCs plan to do before they do it and where they are can be interesting as well.

Re: Power Concept: Along for the Ride What about a physical disadvantage: no corporeal body. Assign it whatever value you (or if your not the GM, him/her) feel it's worth, I'd say high. Essentially, like a character with no legs, he needs to be carried by another character, however since he does not have any weight of his own in the physical realm it would require no strength on behalf of the lifting character. So that this advantage does not outweigh the disadvantage, I'd make it necessary that some form of limited clinging, or perhaps a limited set of extra limbs (for grappling onto his host) be bought. As a matter of fact as a GM I'd probably value the Disad. as equal to the power, since the benefits of the character's situation balance the negatives. The other benefits granted to the wearing character could be granted as Aids, with persistant (or constant) and Limited Power: Must Touch Target. Several of these all built the same, one for say PD/ED, one for Strength etc.

Re: Missile design question Well, not remembering Spawn much, do you want it to strike the same target multiple times, a large area, or both? IF number 1, go with autofire, if number 2 go with AoE, and if number 3 go with both, imo.

Re: Willpower I'll have to think about the balance between ease of play and interest "for me as GM anyway". IMO it's a little more edge of the seat if the player nor myself know if the power will work or not. I've sent it off to her in an email so ultimately it's up to whether or not this fits her concept. Plan two will be something along your idea Sean.

Re: Willpower I came up with this: Willpower Damage Reduction - 25% not resistant (10) Costs Endurance (-1/4) Increased Endurance x10 (-4) Activation Roll: EGO check [EGO:20 Roll= 13-](-3/4) Active Point Cost: 10 END: 10 Real Point Cost: 2 I wanted to give a disincentive to using it (or at least relying on it) because though her physical stats are lower, this would give her an advantage over the other PCs, and with another character already in the tank role, I wouldn't want her indestructible.

Re: Willpower The Ego activation roll looks like just enough to make the cake on this one. NEver thought of that, guess that's what makes me a noob lol.

One of my PCs is interested in developing an ability that focuses her EGO score into damage prevention. Basically to say that her strength of mind prevents her from succumbing to damage (possibly only works for STUN?). I suggested something like simply using armor with the 'strength of will' being special effect, but my players are new to the concept of a fully costumizable system based on special effect and kind of prefer to feel unique by having different powers if you know what I mean.

Re: PRE Attacks I admit I'm new to the game, but my players and I are enjoying the PRE attacks and their almost exclusively being used by my NPCs. Actually the way I've been using the mechanic is to represent the emotional environment of the situation and have been using presence outwardly as the character's imposition on his environment, and inwardly as the character's ability to accept stressful stimulae. For example when the players encountered a horrbly mutated homeless man, they were subject to a PRE attack, and when one PC who has a body made of water handed a purse back to a woman who was robbed he made a PRE attack on her. Largely I've been rolling these attacks myself and simply stating the outcome to the players, but they do enjoy the mechanic by and large, and are aware that they can consciously attempt to affect someone's perception of the situation.

Re: Do you use minis? Good idea making the minis, I'd have to do up some generic placemarkers for villains so I'm not having to create an image of a villain every week. For my hexmap I got a sheet of poster board, printed out a hexmap I made with a downloadable font and laboriously taped it on with clear tape, in effect laminating it. Your way sounds easier lol.

In your campaigns do you use minis and maps? Considering the knockback and the number of combatants I intended to have in a given conflict in my campaign I made myself a hexmap. I was immediately plagued with two problems: 1) The rules for range mean that my TK player can pick up objects and effortlessly remove them from the combat area, when guiding her creation I was more concerned with what she could lift in terms of her concept. Also I don't believe she has an obscene number of active points in the power. On the same token, on a full move either of the flyers can enter or exit the map, however they are the only characters with 'travel' powers (this is less of an issue). 2) The other issue is what to use for minis, we've been using lego men because I can't find 1/72 scale minis anywhere. The lego men are somewhat offscale and I wonder if anyone knows where to find minis a the scale that can be used in this game, or do I need a bigger map and change the size of the hex scale to 2-3" = 2 meters?

Re: Fistcannon? Well we played a session and things went alright. To answer your concern Sean, the bosses I mentioned predate the character, so I'm not too worried about that. The Player/character in question when fleshing out his story decided he was a former cage fighter whose mutant ability to increase the density of a specific limb manifested during a match, killing his opponent. As a result he took Hunted: Wanted for Murder, Code vs Killing, and Berserk: Severe Wound. This way he never uses his super powers unless berserk, and I decide when he can fly off the handle. He also bought a bunch of Martial Arts, the result is that he tosses and disarms characters, while two other characters hold and/or blast them and the fourth character (who is made of water) delivers the knock out blow. We did find out he misspent points though, so now even more than before his other stats are looking low. I told the group that since we're all new to the game we can have a GM monitered respec of characters in a few weeks if players so desire.

Re: Fistcannon? Thanks for the replies, I thought this might be more of a discussion question but then I'd already posted and didn't want to double... Anyway, I do have some Melee bosses worked out with high TP abilities who I'd envisioned as a sort of hit and run. This guy is an experienced RPGer and may decide to change it on his own after a play session or two, but I might firmly suggest he change it in advance. I'm hesitant to impose a limit after telling the players there was no limit, but they'll understand if I do.

I started my first campaign last night, in the super heroic genre. One of my players had what I thought was a very good concept, a street fighter who could alter the density of his fists. After toying with the idea of several home-made limitations to increase density (reducing the mass added, limiting the body parts it was used on, limiting the number of effects gained) I decided it would be easier to simply buy it as a high strength (for lifting) and a hand-to-hand attack (for the added damage). He opted to do this, and decided this was the only power he wanted. Here's the problem, he bought a well rounded number of other characteristics, skills talents and perks, and bought very few disadvantages, but because he has 200 character points to work with and a single power essentially he can do 50d6 damage (factoring in knockback) with his attack. He bought 65 STR for 13d6, and an additional 14d6 HA, and added the advantage does 1.5X knockback. A total of 135 points. Should I consider him overpowered, or should I take into account that the other players can all do other things and he's lost at range? His defenses are average at best and he does need to be right up next to someone to do anything. I wouldn't let him buy stretching, for obvious reasons.