Vulcan

Re: Ten Best Superhero Martial Arts A player in one of our games wanted to play a character he called "Captain Moneybags." 15 points of wealth, 5-Star Service (transplanted from Spycraft) and a boatload of other perks, contacts, and skills. And his bodyguard (bought as a Duplicate to avoid NPC considerations) "Armante," a powerful but not very bright brick in an expensive suit. Sorry, that's well off subject, isn't it? For game efficiency (and from a strictly mechanical standpoint), "Flying Dodge" is hard to beat. Abort to get +4 DCV and move. Who needs Dive for Cover? (I think it's broken as heck, but if a GM is silly enough to allow it after I point that out, he's earned what he's about to get!) Stylewise? Unless your GM is heavy into realism (and assigns lots of modifiers to reflect it), there's really not a whole lot of difference between styles. Mechanically, a Headbutt is a Sinawali is a Punch is a Cross is a Bencao Kick. +0 OCV, +2 DCV, +2d6 damage, Martial Strike.

Re: "It really isn't that unusual" Power There is one a GM of mine used for Vampires. "Social Invisibility": Invsible to Sight, Invisible Power Effect. You're not really invisible, just not memorable. There might be a better way to build it with images, though.

Re: How flawed is your Super? In my opinion, the flaws are what makes the character interesting. Otherwise the character is, well, pretty two-dimensional. I tend to play characters on the darker side of the campaign setting (like Wolverine in Silver age - and in an Iron Age setting I can get very dark indeed), but there is always a core belief that what he is doing is right - and a definite set of limitations on how far into the darkness he is willing to go. As the Joker showed us in The Dark Knight, there are things you can do to someone that are far worse than just killing them... So in a Silver Age campaign, I played Living Target - a shapechanging Secret Service agent. He played by the police rules of engagement - if something poses a lethal threat, lethal force may be applied. Granted, he would do something else first if the option presented, but he was willing to kill the bad guys if that was the only way to stop them. And in the current Iron Age game, Vigil used to be an agent for an underground villian agency, until he discovered they'd been lying to him all along. The consequences of that was pretty intersting when it came out. So the conflict is always there. Does this person/situation merit killing? And what are the personal and emotional consequences of doing so? Questions like this are what makes characters come alive.

Re: Have you written a story? I tend to write a page or two background story on my characters when I can... Those are the characters I understand and play the best. For D&D I've done a number of these background stories for both me and my wife's characters. Vigil was my prime example of that for Champions (he was my WWYCD: Bearing Witness spokesperson), with Dante and Pride coming in second and third. Vigil's backstory went so well, I continued it throughout the campaign - at least to the point where he died. A second time. I'm hoping the GM will bring him back for a third!

Re: Vulnerability: You HIT me / You HURT me A parasol multipower for a character named Southern Belle? That is too cool! If you ever get a picture of this, I'd love to see it. I could use it to encourage my players to come up with concepts that hang together.

Re: Ten Best Superhero Martial Arts Bubbamancy strikes again! Late in the thread there was a question of 'master of one style or skilled in many.' The answer is likely another question: What do you intend to do? 10 years in a competion style will make you very good in the ring, but you might not fare so well in a street fight that comes at you from the style's weakness. And all styles have a weakness, have no doubt about that. (With the sole exception of Shinanju, but that's a fictional art anyway.) On the other hand, 1 year each in 10 self-defense arts will give you a good broad basis for handling street fights. But get into the ring and you're gonna get your head handed back to you by your more specialized opponent. 10 years in a self-defense art will leave you better prepared for the street fight than the equivalent 'competition' fighter. But then there's still that pesky weakness problem... There's no right or wrong answer to the question, just an endless debate. Because for every art (even 'untrained but experienced street fighter-fu') there is a fight that caters to the style - and a fight where that style will be nearly useless.

Re: Learning from the mistakes of others

Re: Adaptive Invisibility That's a bit more than hard to crack. Not even unlikely. More like impossible, for a realistic point level for your opponents. If they've put that many points into exotic targeting senses, they have no offensive or defensive capability worth speaking of. They are going to go down hard when your teammates come calling. You do have teammates, don't you? Well, this is what they are there for. Distractions. Trust me. Take Invisible to sight, sound, & mental and you've got 95%+ of the opposition covered just fine. And buy some FF/Armor to cover the lumps you'll take when Wolverine comes to call. It's more balanced, and a heck of a lot cheaper.

Re: No Horses For You Looking at some of the latest material (my aging textbooks are a bit dated), it seems that even Deinonychus would be a bit small, 11' long but only about 4' (ish) at the shoulder. Utah Raptor would indeed be a better fit at around 7' at the shoulder. Although they are significantly larger than the Jurrasic Park beasties at over 20' in length. But feeding these beasts would be a pain in the wallet. Note: In an earlier post, I mentioned that Velociraptor was about 6' long and 3' at the shoulder. These numbers are actually for the Troodon, a closely related species. Velociraptors were about half that size. Not a good choice for a movie villian.

Re: Handcuffs on a budget If it works for you and your GM, go for it.

Re: Handcuffs on a budget ...It could work. But why would handcuffs put on you by joe cop be harder to get out of than handcuffs put on you by the Thing? (Since Clinging STR is based off of the STR of the character.)

Re: No Horses For You They are prohibitively expensive to feed, among other things. Meat is not cheap, even in fantasy settings. There is some palentological evidence that the raptors were pack animals as well, so... Besides, a Velociraptor would make a terrible mount even for a halfling. They were about the same weight as a turkey, with a long tail. Sure, nose-to-tail length was about 6'. At the shoulder they were about 3' tall. Deinonycus would be a better choice, scale-wise. It stood about 6' at the shoulder, and roughly 10-12' overall length. There is that. Of course, this is in the Fantasy HERO forum, a bit of handwaving is expected.

Re: Learning from the mistakes of others I agree with you. I looked it over at my friendly neighborhood game store, and your assessment is spot-on. Bold artwork. Sweeping changes. Reads like a videogame. Not recognizable as D&D. Barely a RPG anymore. I assessed it as a tabletop MMO. Pretty cool if that's your thing. But it's not D&D. And like you, I would hate to see HEROs 6th go the same route.

Re: Handcuffs on a budget You'd be stuck with 2d6 Entangle, DEF 2, Takes No Damage for 30 points. Hardly worth the 3-4 points you'd spend.

Re: Handcuffs on a budget ... Dude, there's no need to shout. Besides, I don't see it. What's wrong with having an entangle go away? Sure, it's an instant power, and that means (in a theoretical sense) that the use of the power has ended. However, unlike a lot of other instant powers, this one has a continuing physical manifestation that exists independantly of the use of the power. Recovering the charge doesn't mean the power is undone. If I have a bow and 4 arrows bought as recoverable charges and I shoot one of them, recovering the arrow doesn't mean the damage goes away. So, in light of that, what's wrong with having the entangle go away based on the FX of 'I go over and unlock the cuffs' ? That is actually more limiting than what is usual for a continuing charge (not a lot more, possibly not even worth taking a limitation over, but still, it doesn't warrant your... enthusiasm). Now I need a separate power to recover my charges? So what, should I buy the handcuff key as a 23d6 Dispel Entangle, Standard Effect, Only works on Handcuffs? So how would that work if the entangled person had power defense? Or the person who slapped the handcuffs on - does the Handcuff Key need to be NND to cover that (defense would be not being handcuffs, I guess)? And incidentally, that whole mechanic wouldn't work anyway because, as you pointed out, the power is instant. So the Entangle power is no longer present to Dispel (or Drain, or Supress, for that matter). So I guess the Handcuff Key becomes a 2d6 Drain Body, Standard Effect, NND (Defense is not being handcuffs), 0 END (50 Active) Only vs. Handcuffs (Which really isn't a limitation because of the NND), OAF (Key, -1)... I can't think of any other limitations that would be appropriate. So it costs 25 points to be able to release someone from the handcuffs I put on them so I can recover my recoverable charge - for a power that only cost me 9 points in the first place. Does anyone else find this whole line of reasoning ludicrous? It's a freaking pair of handcuffs! We all know what they are, what they do, what they look like, how they're supposed to work... Yeesh. It's not that big a deal to make this much fuss over. Unsane, perhaps. After all, I play a lot of RPG's. And the Marines did turn me down back in '89, just after I took the psych evaluation. Hmmm....

Re: No Horses For You There's a short story somewhere that has the heroines riding giant rabbits... Saberhagans' Complete Book of Swords had the riding beasts being feline. Basically tiger-sized, but with the coloration of house cats. In a primitive world, cavemen might domesticate the larger raptor dinosaurs (Deinonycus would be about the right size), or perhaps some breed of cerotopsian (less maneuverability, more striking power). Or build a small fort/archery stand on top of an ankyliosaur. For that matter, consider a lancer on a rhinocerous. And the old D&D villians, the Drow, are sometimes described as having giant riding spiders. (Freaked one of my player out good when they showed up in my game. If I'd know he was that creeped out by spiders, I wouldn't have done it...)

Re: Ashes - campaign idea (my players stay out) Interesting, but my god is that dark. I think I'll be staying away from this one...

Re: Ultimate Martial Artist:Differences between 4 & 5 Edition The 5E UMA devotes more space to PC concepts, martial arts styles, and mechanics. A lot of the genre information was transfered over to the 5E Ninja Hero book, where it was expanded.

Re: We Loves Us Some Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs In other words, no sterotypical elves in your game. My favorite elven character was orphaned as an infant, and raised by humans. Gave him a very different outlook on life, having outlived his adoptive parents and two full generations of people in the orphanage afterwares while he was just growing to maturity...

Re: New Mechanic: Lightning Speed I would say that unless the 'sped-up' capability was invisible, then you can be seen to be doing it, and doing it faster. After all, how many comic book characters have to run for the restroom to change - even the ones with instant change - to prevent someone from seeing it? Perhaps 'Invisible' on Lighning Speed makes you look like you're not moving any faster. Which would be appropriate for luck-type searching applications - "I just happen to pick up the right book, and it opens to the right page" kinda things.

Re: Handcuffs on a budget Put a side effect on it. 'Entangle disappears when charge is recovered, always occurs.' Personally, I think of it as a minor point, especially since you loose the charge entirely (for a while) if the entangle gets broken. And the little detail that even another -1 limitation will only remove another point or two from the cost at most. Go with it as a minor point owing to SFX, in my opinion.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Sounds like Hetai Heros.

Re: Adaptive Invisibility The other problem with AE mental illusions is that once you use it, everyone in the area knows there's a mentalist around and they go gunning for him.

Re: If you act, as you think . . . I think what he is thinking about (?) is that this character notices little things like that (the leaf drops because there is no wind) without conscious thought. He observes the environment and little things like that give him subconscious bonuses in combat - and maybe out of combat too. Sorta like intuitional Danger Sense, but with an offensive aspect as well.

Re: Ashes - campaign idea (my players stay out) Interesting setup...not sure I'd want to come into this game completely blind, though. I'd want a little warning about the setup.