Sociotard

In the steampunk I'm building, I said that Steampunk superscience devices ALL have an activation roll, even if it's a 17-, simply because they were so new. As for the magic, just make sure it's something that's hard enough to do that, were your magic system real, people wouldn't just stick with it instead of advancing technology. In my campaign, I said people born with the gift are rare, as in 1/1000 born, but those numbers have been constant throughout history. (they have to buy a perk on top of their power pool) I also made some vicious endurance rules.

Go for the 4 fundamental forces of nature: Gravity, Electricity/Magnatism, Strong Nuclear, Weak Nuclear

Gravity: Detect Mass and fluctuations in Space/Time. Important around any celestial body, and good for dealing with ships (provided it's sensitive enough)

Electricity/Magnatism: Detect full electromagnetic spectrum, detect electrical charges, and detect flow of electricity. Important if opponents have electromagnetic force fields (find weakness, anyone?) and energy based weapons.

Strong Nuclear: Detect radioactive substances and radioactive decay (captain, they claim they abandoned use of all thermonuclear weapons centuries ago, but sensors show that on deck four of their ship . . . )

Weak Nuclear: This is responsible for a different kind of radioactive decay, so ignore it.

Alternately, just build douglas Adams's infinite perspective machine. All you need is a big piece of cake, a gadgeteer, and a crewman you don't mind sacrificing for the greater good

Dangit! I know I saw a reference to how to aid things in multipowers in fred! why oh why don't I have that book with me. Sigh. Well, if you only want to boost the mindscan and nothing else, I'd just buy the aid for mindscan. until I can take a good look at fred. *thinks* well this made for a pretty pointless post.

Personally, I would rather use life support: immune to gravity. Doesn't a gliding object have to fall down eventually?

As for the lifting a battleship question, well yes, sort of. Remember weightless doesn't mean massless. You can move the object, but how fast it moves still depends on the amount of kinetic energy you can dump into it. so you can grab the ship and run with it, up to your normal running speed, but it's going to take awhile to get up to that speed. A long while. And good luck trying to stop.

OR

Its an Energy blast with the Indirect advantage (its listed as such in FREd) and a Focus limitation.

Okay, I haven't played around much with Change Environment myself, so take my thoughts with a few megatons of salt.

My understanding is that there is a difference between Variable Special Effects and Any Weather based change environment. Variable special effects lets you use the exact same power, but with with a different effect each time.

My steampunk robot, Mr. Boilerplate has an energy blast built in (his inventor feared other inventors stealing his ideas). He has a Fulminator (lightning bolt gun), High temperature steam blast, a straight up heat ray, and quite possibly some other guns that Janos Bartok doesn't talk about much. They all are built as a 10d6 energy blast. But, since they all do the same thing, just with a different special effect, I don't NEED to buy them seperately. The only advantage is that theres a chance he'll run into an opponent thats Vulnerable to one of them. That's really not much of an advantage, so its only +1/4.

The Amazing Nebulopter, also built by Janos Bartok, has a change weather similar to what you describe. Its special effects are changes in the weather. but it doesn't have to have the same thing over and over. It can create fog, reducing visibility. It can coat the ground with ice, reducing dexterity. It can make the city unbearably hot or cold, can generate hurricane force winds, and can even call down fist sized chunks of hail. Much more valuable than the variable special effects.

I must be uncultured. I don't know who Rose Red is.

The impression I get is that you want to make a house that's possesed. I would do that using the rules for bases, with the ghost as an AI. Give the house some levels in change environment, telekinesis, mental powers, and enough PRE to scare Don Kings hair flat.

Well that body and def would certainly make McCoys Death Star work. It almost seems like the planet should have a coulple of low levels of damage reduction (Think about the DC of the Megavolcano under yellowstone. Several hundred Atom bombs worth if I remember right. Anything that can survive that . . .)

I could see comedy hero being possible, but all must admit the time it takes to generate a hero character, and even with a steller gm, gameplay isn't the fastest. When I play comedy, things seem to work better with a unnaturally simple system. Namely B.E.E.R. System (by 9th level games), used to play the classic "Kobolds ate my Baby" and my personal favorite "NinjaBurger" (though in NinjaBurger they call the system S.A.K.I.) Ninja Burger has the characters play ninja who deliver fast food into highly secure areas. Great stuff.

Again, treat the planet as a base.

A planet is hanging in outer space.

A Planet must have a few levels of LS to keep everybody alive.

Drain LS.

again, Ta-Da!

Figure the surface area of the planet.

Figure out how much a base with said surface area would cost.

Dispel Base.

Ta-Da!

(Okay, that wouldn't work. I never could figure out dispel.)

hmmmm. since "costs no END" is, what, a +1/2 advantage? slap on a -1/2 limitation runs of equal parts stun and body (i.e. a power normaly using 4 END points will cost 2 stun and 2 body.) Have stun pick up the extra point on odd numbered END. Seems reasonable to me.

Why RPGs are better than women

1) If you decide to change systems after years of commitment, the old system won't get mad at you.

2) If you decide to go back to your old system because the "new flame" burnt out, you can.

3) you can run two campaigns with two different systems at the same time, and neither will get mad at you.

4) you never get sentenced to an appearance on the Jerry Springer show because you frequently engage in any of the above.

1. Unless you buy it RAPID you are going to get overwhelmed. If you can detect any detection then you are currently being detected by 1 Billon paramecium that are living on your skin and 1 Billion eColi that have made a habit of having fun with your stool. Not to mention the casual glances you get from flys, people, cameras and Pan Galactic Evil Creatures who inhabit just about any Hero game. Clearly you need some filters.

Good point about rapid. Not a bad idea. Still, wtih respect to bacteria, do they really have a detect? I suppose they can react to certain chemicals and so forth, but many bacterial species lack a definite nucleus, and none have a brain. I would, if anything, treat them the same way normal vision treats the pixels on your telvision: all so tiny, all so close together, what they detect is related . . .

As for the bazillion eyes encountered in everyday life . . . well, our eyes are built with "sense", so how do we deal with the bazillion things we can see in a single glance? most of it just blends together. Same thing with HRRP. There are many radio signals on earth, not to mention cosmic background, but HRRP users figure it out.

2. Also you won't detect someone determining your location via deduction. Batman could be around the corner and knowing the layout of the back alley you are in deduce in short order that you must be standing on the dumpster to the right of the window and then bounce an attack after you!

Good catch.

3. What advantage does it really give you? Once someone has detected you during their phase they usually are going to blast you, unless I guess if you have a saved action. Still - even so once someone has started their phase its too late to interupt it. Am I not correct on this?

I think the main advantage will be in:

*catching everything from eavesdroppers to peeping toms to electronic bugs

*Beating invisible characters and characters with Darkness (personal immunity), yadda yadda.

*its a thiefs fantasy power (I know for certain nobody can see me.)

Mrs. Breen was the Principle when I was in 1st grade and she definitely had this power. She claimed it was called "I have eyes in the back of my head."

Grade School Hero !

Team Leader: Encyclopedia Brown

Brick: Brother Bear (Berinstein Bears (sp?))

Summoner: Max (King of Where the Wild Things Are) summons wild things.

Team Vehicle: Majic School Bus

Sponsor: Miss Swampy (Teacher from the black lagoon)

Villian Gallery: Everything invented by R.L. Stine

*Laughing slowly dies down*

Okay back on subject.

The really sad part is, I can come up with at least two or three completely reasonable Special Effects for this ability. I think you should submit it for the Online USPD (Hypersenses and/or Mental Powers).

Hmmmmm. Okay, but first I need some "Variations" to send along with it. It's just proper. *thinks* okay here's a couple

I know what you're looking at Detect Being Detected (10) Ranged (5) Sense (2) 360 (5) Discriminatory (5) Analyze (5) Targeting (10)

Total: 37 points

Not only is the character aware that he's being watched, from where, with what sense, but has knowledge as to what the observer is looking at (he's put his sights on my left kneecap), and possibly what his watchers motivation is.

Does She know I laid that one? Detect Being Detected Using Smell Sense Group (5) Ranged (5) 360 (5)

Total: 15 points

If the character makes his perception roll, he will know if anyone can smell him. (ultimate satisfaction for the "elevator trick")

Advanced Anatidaephobia Detect Being Detected by Ducks (3) Ranged (5) Sense (2) 360 (5)

Total: 15 points

The characters constant fear, that he is being watched by malevolent ducks, has caused him to develop an uncanny ability to know when it actually happens. Unfortunatly, this only adds to the characters terror, as he doesn't know where Daffy is or how he's watching the character.

Okay that should do it for now. However, I think I have a few questions I need to answer before I try submiting this. For example:

What happens if the character is percieved using Clairsentience? Would he target the POV of the clairsentience or the character using it?

Does it work against Mind Scan?

Does it work against characters using telescopic? the POV should be well out of range, but the character has been detected . . .

Most importantly, is there a difference between being detected by Targeting and non-targeting senses? If he just has to be percieved by one of the characters senses, he may wind up running around battlefields yelling and never bathing, just to ensure he gets detected.

Yup, definitely things to think about.

That's what I think. I called it a low-powered superheroic campaign. It's partly what prompted me to try making a "fantasy steampunk" campaign (I'm not doing very well). The victorian era just looked like fun to play in.

Clarify your special effect. You mean he has the power telekinesis, but it uses physical appendages at range? And it wouldn't just be cheaper to buy streching? I guess I'd apply the ranged advantage to a martial arts package.

Detect Being Detected (10) Ranged (5) Sense (2) 360 (5) Discriminatory (5) Targeting (10)

Total: 37 points

I thought this one up in calculus and thought my fellow posters would get a kick out of it. The idea was to bring truth to that infamous fallacy of logic "If I can't see them, they can't see me!" The user of this sense automatically knows if he's been detected (invisible power effects senses excepted), What kind of sense he was targetted with, and where the POV of the sense is. A munchkin sense if ever there was one, but I would like to see any rivals that might exist out there.

I just want to ensure that I get this right. Lets say I play in a Standard Heroic game (75 base, 75 disadvantage). Now I make my character a Wood Elf, as described on page 17 on FREd. I now have 61 base points to spend, and 65 more from disadvantages possible. Is that about right? I've honestly never done "Racial Packages" before.

I've been trying to convert White Wolf's "Engel" game into hero, but I just had to change some of the darker elements. Gritty and dark can be fun, but they took it to the degree the PC's would eventually be hunted down and killed by the very church they served onced they'd pieced together the greater mysteries of the world.

Anyway, the game was post-apocalyptic, the "Angelitic Church" controls everything, and enforces its will using the Engel, (German for Angels). Where did they get angels? That's one of those mysteries that get you killed.

You could also look at giving the symbiote a good number of adjustment powers, such as healing and Aid. that would seem appropriate for an SG1 symbiote.

Okay, each character has a main power, an animalistic shape shift (will any of the harem members turn into a goat? because that would just be wrong), a set of unique wings with accesorizing tail, and an entangle. *thinks*

have you looked at the digital hero column about the totem animals? It was free, so I did. It would be a good way, I think, to lend an air of unity to your harem. Since it's a scifi campaign, you won't even have to stick with earth animals. The only problem with that is the "unique wings, tail, and entangle". Unique? with 8 women, that becomes a real pain. After all, how many kinds of wings are there? I can only think of birdlike, batlike and insectoid.

As to their descriptions, grab 8 different female musicians, from a variety of styles. Say they are genetically modified clones of those stars. nice and easy.

From "The most dangerous game" General Zaroff. A man as intelligent as he would make an excellent mastermind. I think the story was actually set in the '20s, but a little GM fiat takes care of that.

From Edgar Allan Poes "Cask of Amontillado": Montressor. Have any of your characters severly p!$$ed off any itallian gentelmen recently? This one thinks ahead.

From Charles Dickens "Great Expectations" : Estella. Any gentlemen in the group? This is a manipulative one. I say she just got more and more evil as she got older. Think lex luthor with catwomans motivations.

From "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson: The entire town. Not masterminds, but one great encounter.

*thinks* It would be fun if you threw in a few extremely famous vehicles, such as the spruce goose or the U.S.S. Constitution. Okay, revelutionary war superfrigates are not 20th century, but after "Pirates of the Carribean" I know a few people would be interested in a sloop writeup or two.

No Segways. Don't even think about it.

Were there many muscle powered vehicles in Ultimate Vehicle? Bicicles? Rowboats? Viking Longship (Doh! not 20th century)? How about that muscle powered aircraft that flew accross the English Channel? what was it's name, the Gossamer Albatross maybe?

Both KITT and Airwolf (see the poll I put on the star hero board), by other names, of course.

Mostly, I really do like the sail-powered vehicle writeup idea.

Originally posted by dugfromthearth

I don't like the concept

 

desol would prevent aoe's from affecting the character - even megascale AOE's that the character can't outrun.

 

and it wouldn't stop ego attacks from working - which shouldn't work if the character is running so fast they can't be seen.

 

I would buy it as dcv levels and perhaps ego dcv levels linked to run.

Well, he has to define some sort of attack that can punch through his desolidified, and area of effect attacks could fit the bill. As for ego attack protection . . . he never say's you can't see his character, just can't hit his character. I interpret it as a sort of infinite DCV. He could buy an additional invisible linked to running, which is a common speedster power.