Sociotard

Re: Villian for critique It really comes down to how you introduce him into the story. If he starts off gunning for the heros first, they'll be surprised, and one of them will most likely be dead. If you gun down a civilian first, they'll know they're dealing with a sniper, and will act accordingly. Maybe it's just me, but I think the latter would be more fun. It also seems to be the most common way to use snipers in adventure fiction. Somebody snipes a less important character and the others dive for cover, or they snipe a character and the heroes drive over to investigate. they normally don't shoot at the heros first because then either an important character is dead or the sniper looks unskilled.

Re: Astronaut Package Deal I might tack on a small "reputation". Astronauts don't have a whole lot of name recognition, but it still garners a whole lot of respect. A cop might let you off a speeding ticket if he saw that you were doing what a 6-year-old version of himself hoped to do. You might get extra service in restaurants, etc.

Re: Favorite Superhero Lines In The Ultimates, Nick Fury introduces Peter Parker, still a high-schooler to the main team NICK FURY: Everyone, I'd like you to meet SpiderMan IRON MAN: Did you go back in time to get him?

Re: Foot chase rules? As Dustraven said, there are no official rules on the matter, but I do have a set of fun houserules for the occasion. I can't claim I thought of them myself, but here they are. http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21597 Except, I let the characters take their segment 12 recoveries unless they push.

Re: Best Hero book for... I enjoyed Mystic hero, and if your campaign sounds like it could benefit from its input. It has lots of ideas for how to build cults and so on. It's not without flaws. Namely, it doesn't have any character writeups. The only other book I would recomend higher than that would be the Grimoire books. Lots of cool spell ideas and way less work for you.

Re: Some thoughts on River Tam (Firefly) Go to Jackalopes firefly website. he has a writeup of River that isn't too bad. I think I'll hold off doing any writeups of my own until after the movie comes out, since apparently we'll learn a lot more about her then. "It's worse than you know" "It usually is."

Re: Weapon Element: Hover Cycle As a matter of fact, Yes. http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14818&highlight=penalty My Search Fu is strong.

Two questions: 1) Hypnosis is pretty popular in many actiony TV shows and movies, and while not as powerful as its made out to be (because the target has to be willing), it has real world effects. Do you think Hypnosis should be permited in the average DC game? 2) Fifth edition writes it up with Mind Control, but does that handel all the applications? Or should it really be a multipower of some kind? Issues that raise this point: a) One of the most popular uses is "Go back to the night of April 3rd, at 9:00 PM. Where are you?", which seems like some kind of clairsentience build. Most real world hypnotists make their bread and butter with habit breaking commands like "Stop Smoking", which seems more like a mental transform c) A lot of the effects sound like they have some sort of advantage on them, like Hypnotizing the whole crowd (did it at my high school. Area of effect?) or "Whenever I say the word 'Astronomy' you will go into a deep sleep" (trigger)

Re: Animate Shadow, how would you build? I would build this as a slavishly loyal summon. I might allow a minor "Side Effect Limitation" based on aquiring distinctive features (person with no shadow), but probably not, unless the player made a good case for how it could be limiting.

So, lets say a character buys a nice happy 60pt multipower, and sets up the powers in it. He notices that the LEAST limited power in the set has -1 in limitations (due to creation concept). Now, each power has different limitations, but each has at least -1. Could the character declare a -1/2 variable limitation on the reserve? *edit* I should explain my question. The rules say that if you apply a lim to the pool, each power that draws off the pool must have the same limitation. Each power in this pool wouldn't have the -1/2 variable limitation, they would each have the -1 in limitations associated with variable limitation.

Re: Collimating/Reflex Sight

Re: Character for Review: Pinky All that pink and she still finds use for the Stealth Skill? Now that IS talented!

Re: What are his powers...? The color scheme tells me this is Tinsel-Boy, who left the north pole to show the bad girls and boys the error of their ways. Okay, I actually have no idea.

Re: Challenge: "Pope" as a Package Deal Most popes have known several languages (comes with being a Jesuit), so "linguist" might be part of it.

Re: How to Read the Firearms Table That laser can only be used for targeting, right? *thinks* The character could probably settle for that. He currently has a multipower one that can switch from "laser sight" to "blinding laser". Its a fun toy.

Re: How to Read the Firearms Table I didn't know silencers were illegal. I'll have to go check what their status is in New Jersey, since thats where hudson city is. I think everybody has a good point with regard to a silencer making the pistol more visible (the book says it adds +1 to the PER roll, for a total of +2). Maybe he can just conceal the silencer somewhere else, unattached to the gun, and only attach it when he feels the need to.

I was scathed second-hand on the boards the other day. A guy was expressing displeasure at gamers who just give their characters the most powerful weapons they can carry with their given strength, regardless of how well the gun fits the character. I looked at my character sheet. A softspoken analyst character who dabbles in mystical arts . . . and carries a Glock 21 (2d6 RKA) with a Silencer/Flash Supressor and lazer sights. Okay, I've clearly done something out of character. The Silencer works (quiet man that doesnt draw attention to himself, quiet gun that doesn't draw attention to itself), but I still needed something less . . . austere. Now, I really don't know much about guns. I look some of them up on google, but it's just faster if I can tell what a gun is like, and who it's appropriate for, by looking at it. My first thought was "Per roll, bigger scarier guns have a higher per roll, right?", So omiting the derringers (he isn't that much of a sissy, I hope), I get all the guns with a +1 roll, and that leads me to . . . The Glock 21! Doh! Well I'm stumped. without resorting to image searches, whats the best way to know what a gun is like? Str min? Cal? Dam?

One of the dire warnings in the big book is to look out for abuses of RSR, where the player buys up his skill high, and gets a bunch of powere with RSR. Why not just do activation rolls and avoid the whole mess? After all, the point at which a skill is too high is awfully hard to define. If a mage has a skill roll for all his spells, and he buys an 18- with that skill, then his spells with low active point totals will activate on an 17- and his high active point totals will activate on an 8-. So for one power it was limiting (in fact, worth far more than a mere -1/2), and for the other it wasn't. Whats the advantage to using RSR over just activation roll?

One of the gimmicks I've seen in more "realistic" scifi is using mathematics to communicate (or at least establish a basis for communication). Have you ever used anything like that? Would it be SS: Mathematics, Cryptography, or language: Math, basic conversation? I guess universal translator would work, but somehow I don't like the idea.

Re: Challenge Build: Unshredder

Description: It's just a scanner and a lot of computing power. The character lays strips of paper taken from a paper shredder on the scanner. The computer examines all the little strips and, after a few hours of brutish work, it presents its best estimates as to what the original papers looked like before they were destroyed. (as seen on a fictional spy show a while back) naturally, some shredders do a better job than others, and that gets reflected in the results. Now, reasoning from effect, this looks like it could be Precognition (look back in time to see what the paper looked like), but I could see it built as healing or transform as well. What do you think.

A character buys a Multiform with a Side Effect that always occurs. When True form "A" multiforms into "B", does "A" get hit with the side effect or "B"?

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See? I am curious about one thing. Steve say's this will include a timeline to give everyone a historical feel. Is this a "real world" timeline or a "champions universe" timeline? Oh, remember, not all of the Pulp action takes place in the savage wilds of the earth. Looking over the source material, a lot of it takes place in nightclubs and ballrooms. Is there a chance on going into detail on the "High Society" skill? I know "The Ultimate Skill" will do this as well, but some consideration is due here. On a related note, mention PS: Dancing. It's a good way to both stand out in a crowd or to blend into one, depending on how you do it. Mention the popular styles of the time, like ballroom, east coast swing, charleston, lindy hop, etc.

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See? Oh! Under the Subtitle "White mans graveyard", include descriptions and writeups for malaria, dengue (sp?) and other crazy tropical diseases.

Re: PULP HERO -- What Do *You* Want To See? Since there may be a lot of globetrotting, I might like a currency conversions sidebar. Or would that be a waste of time? An essential for globe trotting is a basic transportation map. Show the main shipping lanes, air routes, railroads, and so forth. or some way for GM's to figure out how long it takes to get from New York to Timbuktu (Lets see, thats a plane ride to London, followed by a smaller plane to the Ivory Coast, take a railroad inland for a while, and then you have to find a guide and start walking . . . ) Expanded Language table. Include all those rare african languages and so forth. Oh yeah . . .