CrosshairCollie

I'm with Lord Liaden as far as common environmental effects like fire and electricity; I'd probably go to -1 on fire in my games, because I don't generally set things on fire randomly unless Blowtorch is the villain. That said ... I'm still kind of iffy on the non-END powers not being ECable. I can simultaneously see why, and it simultaneously doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I can easily see why I wouldn't want someone to make an EC: Enhanced Sensory powers to get a squidload of cheap senses, for example, but Damage Reduction-with-limitation I'd probably allow (free-range Damage Reduction, less likely).

I would consider 'across a mine field' as 'somewhere he couldn't run to normally'. Though part of me could see THAT ridiculous amount of speed as being so fast that he hits the mine and is gone before it goes off. He'd have to deal with the consequences of the laser field or glass wall, though, you're quite correct.

I haven't seen the Gravity Cancel power, but what's it got for range/area? Gravity would reassert itself as soon as the target was out of range of the power (unless it's some uncontrolled thing).

Yes, I've seen Vegeta's writeup. I've determined that the only way the Heroes would stand a chance would be to either not get noticed, or tick him off enough to go Super Saiyan 2 so his Dexterity starts taking hits. Or, of course, play on his ego and have him get in a royal fracas with the Klingons and the Duke ...

If you go by the voices for Robin, it's the Animated Series' Tim Drake. I just wish they'd've done it as a serious show, with Justice League quality artwork. I'm not a big fan of the Japanese animation, and WB already had its own 'goofy superhero' style (see: Freakazoid) that they should have used for a show aimed at a younger audience, instead of trying to market to the anime fans by using all the cliches (big-head-screaming-takes and the like). But I'm off topic. I'm ordering Hero Designer soon, so I might take a crack at Starfire, Cyborg, and Robin sometime soon.

And here I thought this was going to be about buying Invisibility with the Visible Limitation. Yeah, Flight-along-surfaces sounds kind of funky (I usually use clinging for running up walls), but it really *is* the proper way to do the running on the surface tension of the water thing. Same with the 'moving too fast to be seen or interrupted' Teleport Dash. Lots of the effects in HERO are done in a somewhat roundabout fashion; with the way the powers are built, it's just one of those things. One of my favorite odd power builds in the USPD was the 'Legion of Puppets', I think it was called, where you use an Indirect Variable SFX Blast to simulate taking control of another character's mind JUST long enough for him to squeeze off a shot at someone.

Re: These are great! That's pretty much what I was thinking ... and the other suggestion someone had of bringing anything found on video or DVD to life (fear ... VIDEOMAN!). "Well, your opposition now consists of a comic book geek, six Klingons, John Wayne, and Vegeta."

You could also, maybe, get Environmental Movement: Not affected by Intoxication. Drunk, but who cares?

A friend of mine is stumped for a name for his character, and frankly so am I, so I thought I'd ask around here. The basic premise is that he's a knight from Arthurian times, though he fought on the side of Mordred and Morgana Le Fae (Fay? Fey? Whatever.), though he was decieved into thinking they were the good guys. His background got a little fuzzy here, so I'm not sure how (I'm guessing he died in an act of self-sacrifice to protect someone from the E.V.I.L. family), he wound up in Avalon. Later, in the 'here and now', he's let out into the world to truly redeem himself (the self-sacrifice was impressive and nice, but utterly didn't count for much). He has magical armor and shield, his starts are damn-good-for-a-human, and his skills are largely Interactions (Persuasion, Oratory, etc.) From his time in Avalon, he has various 'nature/elemental powers', right now consisting of an Invisible air blast, an Explosion fire blast, Growth (Essence Of The Mountain from USPDB), a double-Knockback Water blast, and a vine-trap Entangle. He also has his sword (not a Focus, since he can just summon it), that has a regular KA attack and a 'slice through anything' Body NND Kill (can't affect iron). Any ideas for a name for this guy? We're trying to avoid any references to 'faeries' or 'fae', to stave off obvious jokes.

I had something like this figured out once ... the lands feed an END Reserve, maybe? That simulates the 'mana pool' fairly well (and it could have a Side Effect that you take damage if it isn't empty between 'turns').

I never have, but I might as well, since I almost never have a PC that's human.

I, personally, never had any problem with it. Weapon damage still tops out at double the base DC, and I didn't allow extra 'martial arts damage classes', so things stayed pretty sane. Of course, nobody tried this with a greatsword or greataxe (we had a fencer-style 'swashbuckler' and a whip-wielding duelist), so I'm not sure if it gets obnoxious with heavier weapons. It was a must for unarmed fighters, of course. Of course, I'm generally of the opinion that the PCs will, inevitably, start to creep up in power as they gain XP ... that's just the way things go. As they start to creep up, your opposition must become more dangerous to keep them challenged.

Which may well make Captain Marvel Jr. the only superhero in the world who can't introduce himself. "So ... what's your name, sir?" "Me? I'm Captain Marvel, Ju *KRAKOW!* ... oh crap."

Thanks for the quick reponses. I had the same thought, myself, but then I realized ... if the computer is confined to the base, isn't that another divide-by-five as it becomes subsumed (is that a word?) into the base points? So having it be portable should be more expensive than being part of the base. This is the first time I've really had to mess with trying to stat a base or computer (usually, the base is just kind of 'there', like a warehouse where we all just get together, but we want a 'real' base for this game), and the computer is part of the character's concept.

I have two questions on computers ... one in game, one in real life. 1. I'm trying to build a laptop computer for a PC. I can do the stats/skills/talents/programs, but here's my question. Do I do the math like this: (Add up cost for stats/skills/talents/programs), (divide by five), then (apply OAF modifier for OAF laptop)? I have the Champions Universe book, but for some reason, I can't wrap my skull around this. 2. Are the nifty, well-organized character-layouts people put up here (like in the Character Posting Game) from Hero Designer? If so, do they look that slick in Real Life? I'm trying to decide if I should get it.

My wife and I had a conversation about this this morning, before she went to work. Yes we're both gamers, so there's some serious full frontal nerdity going on in this house. Anyways ... we postulated that the trick would work once. The second time, Mechanon would change the frequency/code ... and, as a point to the insignificant organics who would dare to match wits with him, have the old code/frequency be the trigger to a bomb attached to a nearby dam. So, now, do they save the city from a flood, or stop Mechanon? Evil SOB.

Well ... actually, I'm not sure any costs need to be monkeyed with ... while most wizards aren't physical combatants, they'll probably be able to move far enough away from the Darkness in a half-move to still be able to use Incantations (unless it's a small room, or something). Anything they've already cast with Incantations at 1/4 will stay up. As a least common denominator solution, the party fighter can wade up and deck the enemy spellcaster so it drops. Admittedly, how useful any of this is depends a LOT on the situation. In a wide open field, it's not that useful (unless it's Useable As Attack and lingers on the target), but in tight quarters, it's useful. On the other hand, in quarters that tight, you risk tagging yourself with it.

Kingdom of Champions (the United Kingdom supplement) has them in it.

I would think that it would be more of a disad if it were expected behavior, because the villains would (and should!) make their plans around it. Take that 'protects the innocent'. With Iron Age heroes, you can't always expect them to drop the chase on you if you collapse a wall on a small child; they just may not care (stupid modern-era anti-heroes). The villain in a 4-color/Golden Age/Silver Age style game knows DARN well that that trick will work 9 times out of 10 (the other time being when another hero is teaming up with the first, so one can stop the wall while another gives chase). So, it would be feasible to take the Code Of The Four Color Hero psych lim, with a Reputation of Four Color Hero ... it's like, everybody knows Superman is the ultimate boy scout.

I'd like to see some non-Western monsters, too, myself, especially Oriental stuff like kitsune, tanuki, tengu, oni (demons) and the like. I don't have the HSB, so I don't know if those have been done or not.

Longshot tends to use his blades indirectly, anyways ... for disarming, wedging them in the barrels of guns, and the like. I don't recall him ever actually attacking anybody with them directly ... well, once, in the Mojo Mayhem graphic novel, where he stuck it in the foot of a 30'+ tiger-guy, who merely hopped around clutching his foot and shouting 'ow ow ow oh ANDROCLES ow', but that's about it.

A kitsune. VPP for magic (in-combat changing) and disguising my really cool lookin' real form.

Thanks to the virtue of an old friend's critical hit charts ... Kicking Dr. Destroyer square in the crotch and, in the process, stunning him. Sure, once he recovered my character was a bloody smear on the wall, but dang it, how many people's tombstones get to read: "Here lies the man who kicked Dr. Destroyer in the jimmy"?

Hmm ... oh, where oh where to start ... hmm, absolute worst. Well, on a personal level, there was a fairly recent D'n'D game, where one of the players said, and I quote 'call me when the fight starts' and left the room to go dink on the host's computer. Then he complains about why he has fewer XP than everybody else ... (side note, there was no fight that game) More annoyingly is his 'UberNPC' habit, wherein the party is accompanied by a high-level NPC with ridiculous amounts of ph4t l3wt (forgive the leet), as an excuse for him to throw a ridiculous fight in front of us. For example, in a World of Darkness game, our fledgling group of 3 werecritters and 1 mage encountered about 24 Black Spiral Dancers. But never fear, our GM is playing King Albrecht (the lord of the werewolf nation), so he takes on 23 of them by himself 'off-panel'. Playing D'n'D and a PC gets ready to do something remotely dangerous? Here comes NPC-boy! He's done this so many times that they've all blended into a combined Worst Gaming Experience.

Personally speaking, I don't want combat to be too lethal. In my experience, games where PC lethality is commonplace means that people don't put a lot of effort into making their characters special or memorable, or just don't put a lot of effort into it at all. If the character's going to die 20 minutes into the game, why go through the trouble?