CrosshairCollie

Re: Dealing with Invisible Heroes Quoted with some snippage. I agree with this wholeheartedly. Anybody remember Invisible Kid from the Legion of Superheroes? That was pretty much his whole schtick; he didn't have any offensive powers at all beyond the basic Legion martial arts training (probably Comic Book Martial Arts, no DCs). He led the Espionage team and was possibly tied with Chameleon Boy for best information gatherer in the LSH (Inviso's nice, but nothin' beats Shapeshifting). He could hold his own against lesser foes, but against any of the Legion's powerhouse opponents, about all he could do was throw a foot out and let 'em trip over it.

Re: Dealing with Invisible Heroes You don't have to worry about making him visible after the first attack (a al D&D Invisibility spell). He's made an attack with a visible effect (well, audible and tactile in this case). If the person he attacked is still conscious, he then has a very good idea where the invisible guy is, and can make an attack roll (with penalties, but it's a start). The target knows he's there ... still can't see him, but he's there. This is going to be a PHENOMENALLY EXPENSIVE power; it's going to eat up a lot of points he might otherwise need for defenses or movement. People with Area Effect attacks will probably work him over bad. And make sure he remembers the Endurance cost on it!

Re: Not-so-Instant Change It's just a special effect at that point, I think. The OIHID limitation requires that there be something that can interrupt the activation of the powers; in this case, the character loses his 'doohickey' and he can't change forms, though he wouldn't drop out of HID if he lost it after changing (I don't think). I usually build Instant Change into such devices just so I can activate powers and change costumes simultaneously, though.

Re: Group Kelvarite Origin Please and thank you on the 20 Questions link! And yes, there is at least one player whom I would like to convince to avoid combat on occassion.

Re: Pokémon HERO I'd recommend taking a bit from the Saturday Morning Supers article in an old Digital Hero; the attacks are all Stun Only unless used used against an inanimate object.

After one of the other threads, with inspiration by Hermit, I'm pondering a new campaign where all the PCs have kelvarite-derived powers though a shared origin (a la the Fantastic Four; all gained their different powers in the same way at the same time). Two aspects of the game I'm working on: 1. Why the Origin happened. Considering Kelvarite's potential power, I could easily see some scientist or other capturing random people and exposing them to Kelvarite Radiation (K-Rad from here), so they could try to determine what human genetic structures breed what powers so they could custom-create their own super-team. So the PCs would all be random people of normal background who get their powers in the first game. This provides some unity (the PCs have a reason to stick together; a shared enemy), spares me coming up with some cockamamie reason for the PCs to stick together, and gives me a recurring villain to work with, along with the possibility for a recurring enemy superteam (another set of random captures who were coerced/brainwashed/etc into serving). 2. Character Creation rules. This is where I get worried about being too retentive. The following things leap out at me for creation rules: A. No abnormal foci. Normal firearms, communications gear, that sort of thing is legal, but no super-armor, blasters or that sort of thing. The powers would be internal/natural. B. No levels in Powers to begin with. If you haven't had powers yet, you can't have any skill with 'em. C. Some Disadvantages would be essentially pre-assigned: A Hunted (by the scientist/organization), and a mixture of the typical Kelvarite-induced Disads (Vulnerable: Drains, Vulnerable: Electricity, Susceptible to Kelvarite), in addition to anything else that seemed obvious/appropriate (Secret IDs, etc). Should make it pretty easy to hit 150 points of Disads. What I was thinking of doing was basically having the characters created at the Normal level first, with the skills and some Disadvantages, then using that to determine how much 'room' there is for powers and stats afterwards, hoping this will create more 'rounded' characters since the skills, perks, contacts, talents will, hopefully, be a forethought rather than an afterthought. The downside is that the characters may be too similar, especially with the shared disadvantages, not to mention that I'll have to be very careful to play off those disads without making it a total party screw-over ("A machinegun loaded with Kelvarite bullets ... you suck, Dave."). Of course, that similarity is primarily in 'combat disads' ... the characters will (hopefully) be different in powers, noncombat disads, and personality. A wise man once said that having to work within rules breeds creativity moreso than having no rules whatsoever. Does anybody think a game like this could work? Secondly, to help with the character background/normal life stuff, I'm looking for a good character questionnaire. Anybody know where I can find one?

Re: The Zoo Crew Returns! You mean the HAREbinger of Justice!

Re: Take the 5e Solo villains, and make a team out of them ... 5th Edition Oculon? WHERE??!!

Re: Questions about Energy Blast Basically, this is a 'me too' post. Odds are, if it were a Teen Titans Champions game (shudder), Starfire's player used her Power Skill to weld the door shut (although, from what little I know, I didn't think Starfire's attacks were heat-based, so I probably wouldn't have let it work ... but I don't claim to know this for a fact). If she thinks that trick will be useful in the future, she could purchase a Multipower slot to do so regularly, and at full power (since Power Skill stunts are usually at a fraction of the usual active points).

Re: Gentlemen Start Your Engines Ooh ... and isn't it the 'official' stance that everybody with Kelvarite-induced powers has roughly the same disadvantages? Wow ... that's just shaft-job central. It's bad enough when the Justice League runs into one guy who's carrying around a lump of Kryptonite; imagine what happens when this team runs into a guy carrying around a lump of Kelvarite!

Re: Gentlemen Start Your Engines I've always wanted to have the characters all gain their powers through the same circumstances. Something on the order of the Fantastic Four's origin, or like the game Freedom Force where everybody got their powers from Energy X.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Context: New member of the party in my wife's D&D game. We're trying to find a polite, non-accusatory way of telling him that a member of our team who is naive, young, and pretty thick, has released a necromantic-warrior-demigod into the world ... we got that part out, at least. New Guy: "Well, great ... so who did THAT?!" Me (singing): "o/~ Who let the gods out?! o/~" *sound of dice impacting my glasses*

Re: Things a wise super hero should NEVER say Okay, I've done this one. I was playing a barbarian, but I've done this one.

Re: What superhero character concepts are you tired of seeing? I've had this conversation more than once: "Okay, so what's your origin." "I was exposed to radiation." (or similar one-sentence reply) "Okay, that's how you got your powers. Now, what's your origin? Any idiot can be in the wrong place at the right time and get super-powers." To me, Peter Parker getting bitten by the radioactive spider wasn't his origin. The death of his Uncle Ben was his origin. The Gamma Bomb wasn't the Hulk's origin; the Hulk's origin was the abuse of the young Bruce Banner. Like I said, any idiot can get powers ... the question is, why does your character go out and risk his life for no thanks, no money, and all the other complications that come with a dual identity?

Re: Teamwork Hey ... at least it's not 3E version where you had to buy it up from 8 or less. For the most part, I don't think Teamwork is worth it as-is, mostly because I think of coordination as the least effective teamwork technique in Hero. Far more effective is the setup power, like Flash or Entangle, followed by a heavy attack, in my experience.

Re: Is your voice a "sense"? I'd say no ... senses recieve information, your voice is a projector and not a reciever.

Re: April Fool's, Champions style Actually, the last game I ran on April 1, I had CLOWN moving all over town, acting suspicious, snickering to themselves, wringing their hands evilly ... and doing absolutely nothing. But you would not BELIEVE how paranoid everybody got.

Re: What superhero character concepts are you tired of seeing? You know, I could actually look at these concepts all day long, especially if we combined them ... To expound on my previous complaint, though, it's more a combination of the anime character ripoff PLUS expecting the character to be able to do everything precisely like the character ripped from. No matter how many times I try to tell them that these characters are NOT the cartoon characters, they are NOT as powerful as them, and the world does NOT conform to the laws of anime physics, it just DOES NOT SINK IN. Just because random DBZ guy can obliterate a continent in one blast doesn't mean I'm going to listen to you whine because yours didn't punch through a car. And no, you do not abruptly spray ten gallons of blood from your nose just because you saw a naked woman. Which just tempts me more and more to copy Mr. Surbrook's Perfect Cell write-up and throw it down. Have it your way ...

Re: Street Fighter II HERO Hmm. In the SF games, the Hissou Burai-Ken ('Certain Victory Trusting Nobody But Myself Fist') is where Dan unloads a brutal physical and verbal beatdown on the opponent (well, okay, the physical part isn't that brutal, but he does yell a lot!). Re: d20/OGL Capcom Fighting Games ... strikes me as a bit odd, since I don't think there's been a new Street Fighter game since Marvel vs Capcom 2 ... but hey, I'm not gonna complain!

Re: What superhero character concepts are you tired of seeing? Anime ripoffs. I used to say 'geez, please, no more Batman/Wolverine/Captain America/Superman/Punisher' ripoffs. I'd be positively $*@(gasmic to see those again if it meant I'd never see another Goku or Ruroni Kenshin or Hiei or Kiwi-Only-Knows-What-Else-Is-Out-There ...

Re: Things a wise super hero should NEVER say "Don't worry, I have a plan." "Don't worry, I'm sure (PC) knows what he's doing." "Hey, I own this supplement!" "(Any quoting of villain statistics.)" "You know ... I wonder what Foxbat (or CLOWN) has been up to lately."

Re: Street Fighter II HERO Nice write-up of Dan ... as a nitpick, however, I'd give his Gadouken 'No Range' and the Shinkuu Gadouken 'Max Range 4"' ... The Gadouken projects perhaps a foot from his hand (referring to distance 'in game', not real world measurements on the screen), and the Shinkuu just a little more. In reference to Sagat's sheet above: Dan first appeared in Street Fighter Alpha (a 'prequel' game, as it were) as a secret character, then in SFA 2 and 3 as a regular character (though he still sucked). Some of the fighter character sheets on Mr. Surbrook's site have a 'Rage Meter', referring to the meter that charges up for super-moves in the games, by dealing and recieving damage; it's built as Absorption into an Endurance Reserve. Dan, curiously, has the ability to build up his Super Meter by taunting his opponents (an Aid, probably). Hmm. Wish I'd written him up first.

Re: "Mobility" as an Adder I'm in the Entangle group for the most part (blocks sight group, only affects a single hit location), and in this case Takes No Damage From Attacks. I might be coerced into a Sight Flash with a limitation that it can be cancelled by taking a full-phase action to wipe off the eyes, though.

I might find an anime I enjoy if they wouldn't draw all the characters with those GIGANTIC FREAKY EYES. The poorly drawn art reallllly detracts from the experience for me.

It's the Great Smitin' Fist of Character Whuppin'! I do recommend putting the punch in the multipower as well, though I'd make it Zero Endurance on top of everything else, both to pull the dice of damage down and give you something to do if you wind up gasping for END. As a GM, I'd be a little wary of your almost total lack of noncombat skills. You have a perfect justification for it, but it does mean you may be spending all the non-fighting time sitting around twiddling your cosmic thumbs.