Kdansky

Re: Avoiding The Blow/Artful Dodging Combat Luck is not very "luck"-based in the sense of GM-works: It always works, except if the character deliberately took the blow (to shield someone else) or if he couldn't see it coming (it's not persistent). If a player cannot manage to decide that himself, he fails

Re: How Much Experience? Hugh, you are quoting me for something I did not write at all

Re: Ditching PS12 Interesting idea. My character would probably have REC 1

Re: combat luck 5th is mainly easier to the eye. You will find stuff a lot faster (except ablative) and it has a lot of small tweaks here and there. The core is identical though. Aid is now 10 points, and there is broken Healing. It's not a bad buy by all means, and my group owns multiple copies (one digital and two real books). I would recommend the pdf, as you can search it better and if you have a notebook, that's lighter than the book

Re: How Much Experience? Oh and something else: XP for showing up: Horrible Idea! That punishes players who can't come (if they enjoy the game, that's punishment alone) and if it happens a lot, they will feel useless, making the game when they come even worse. We had that happen in a group where I wasn't GM. It's not fun to play a level 8 fighter along level 11 wizards. He felt basically useless, and that for a reason. XP for good RP: As much as I would like to do it, my group frouns upon it. It's always the same players who create the good scenes, and therefore we would end up unbalanced again, which is bad, see above. Best thing: Everyone gets the same amount, showing up does not matter.

Re: Not feeling well Yeah, I know. I said so in the first place. What are you quoting there? I certainly did not write that!

Re: Not feeling well Yeah, traveling through exotic countries and chases through stagnant swamps is a lot of fun.

Re: A limitation that does not limit 1. I would actually tell the player that he should not have a Darkness field in that case. 2. 14/14 Armour, +14/14 PD/ED. No need for weird constructs there. If you want to make that OIF, be my guest, nothing preventing you there. 3. Yes, it's still an OAF. NPCs may very well have 70 STR (not all of them all the time), Campaign maxima are for players.

Re: Avoiding The Blow/Artful Dodging Recently in my skype: Friend: - You told me I should put RSR on my spells, right? Me (GM): - Yes - Well, I tried that, but it makes all my spells have a roll, and not really any cheaper, but the skill costs points, so in the end, I end up paying points if I want my spells to be better than (9-) - Errrrrrr Activation Roll works. RSR not so much.

Re: Not feeling well Is it fun? Then it's in my game. Diseases very, very rarely are.

Re: How Much Experience? I give out XP in irregular intervals for irregular amounts. The characters are pretty finished to begin with and don't develop much in HS if you ask me. It's for customizing, not for power-up.

Re: House rules for Comliness - critique, please Well, it's more a "This will only have an effect on half the population", which is mainly the opposite sex (or the same in case of homosexuals, but that is obvious, isn't it), sometimes it won't be, for example if you look pretty and try to bribe someone, chances are, it won't help much, but if you try to get some information, it might even work on the same sex. In the end, I think it's about useful half the time, therefore half the cost I go so far as to assume that a pretty woman will have a bigger effect on men than a pretty man will have on a women, based on the general oppinion that men react more strongly to looks. Yes, it's handwaved a lot, for practicality. And very rarely, it might even backfire due to jealousy.

Re: A limitation that does not limit I would say the problem is not the limitation, but the power: DR does more than one thing, and you can't buy only the part you want from it. It's like DEX: If you want to be a good figther, but a little clumsy, basically, the system won't take it well, as you will spend more points on your CV than the agile guy, and you won't be agile on top of that in the end. I would like HS to have fewer package deals, as they are not very balanced anyway and lead to quite a mess sometimes.

Re: Avoiding The Blow/Artful Dodging Actually, if you use Activation Roll based on a primary stat, you just assume that Drain vs Aid evens out, therefore you get the standard value for whatever that AR is at your basic stat level. This is not explicitly stated in the rules, but the "limitation value is equal to whatever roll your stat gives you"-part is there. In case the character himself has an Aid or Transfer to that stat, the GM might want to take a closer look. You can do a lot of nice things with Activation Roll, this is one of them

Re: Pyrokinesis So, what Effect is that? "Move Fire" does not do much by itself. Either you burn stuff (EB/KA), or you make light/warmth (Illusion, LS), cook food (err, levels in cooking?) and then we've quickly seen it all. I'd go for a 5 point VPP

Re: Vertigo Immunity Oh, that is neat, sean, totally neat! Go post that in 6th! And tell Steve I think it's great! Actually, that is so cool that I will write this down right now and allow it in any game from now on. Utterly genious! That's why we keep you around.

Re: House rules for Comliness - critique, please Looks cool, though I have now resorted to "you may use a COM roll as a Complementary Roll". Very simple, very clean. Or I just give +1 per 5 COM when it works (basically COM becomes "+1 to social rolls (5cp), Only Vs Opposite Sex (-1)") Simple, clean, easy and fair pointwise.

Re: Pyrokinesis EB 10d6, OAF Focus of opportunity (fire). Or MP or VPP if you need more than that

Re: The Witcher/Alchemy Toxicity: Minor Side Effect: -1 on all rolls, lasts one minute (or more or less depending on limitation value and potion). Overall Level, Only to counteract toxicity (-1), 5 pts a piece. Depending on how much you can take, you take more than one of these. If you drink few potions, it's negligible. If you drink many, well, that sucks. I'm not sure if you actually get points out of it in the end Or a susceptibility on the character with a limitation on the potion (again, minor side effect: can trigger susceptiblity)

Re: Getting to two Standard effect should be 3.5 anyway. Why punishing someone for gimping themselves? 10d6 with 1d6=3 will NEVER EVER do stun vs 30 defenses, but 10d6 rolled will sometimes go above even 40. You can only lose. Did I mention that I managed to stun one of my players with 7d6 today and then haymaker him for 11d6 for less?

Re: Blasting Mental Blast Oh, I like that: Break down the multitude of things which are included into EGO Attack and make them different modifiers. That might of might not end up with the same cost, but it certainly would be more fitting to the system. Also, it would to away with EGO attack in the rules. Abstraction is good. Did you ever explain to someone: "Well, if you want damage in any way, say, a fireball, or a club, or what have you, then you buy an EB and tack advantages and limitations onto it so it fits what you want." - "I want to have a mental blast." - "well, in THAT case, you don't use EB." - "Why? I thought these rules are about effects?" - "Errr.... Because... errr... well...." Happened to me... To sum up: We do not have EGO Attack because the system could not do the effect without it. We have it because we had it in earlier versions (like Armor vs Force Field). Does that validate it? Certainly not. Just because you did something 20 years ago does not mean it is the best way for doing it. Or are you still using a Modem with 33k and a black/white television?

Re: Blasting Mental Blast Then you do it exactly like now.

Re: Multiple Power Attacks: How much is too much? +5 per doubling is outright stupid and we know it! I don't see a problem if a character spends 350 points on 7 EBs so he can roll half a thousand dice. He's never going to hit anyway. Also, it really sounds ridiculous to say: "That guy with the EB has spent less points on his attack than I have with strength!" Since you get strength for roughly free at 1:1.

Re: Blasting Mental Blast Assume the character can fly or the fighting field is not horribly crowded: I think I could spot someone a 100 meters away, that's not even a stadium-length. That's 50", or -8 to your attack roll. You won't hit with a normal EB at that distance, ever. But you will do so easily with a mental attack. That's what I meant. Telescopic or similar only make things worse. If you don't think it's a problem, why did UMM even mention page 279 - "The Mentalist Sniper Problem"? And EB (NND) compared to Ego Attack does not seem fair at all: Mentalists are not "hard to play" by default. But they are poweful by default. Mind Scan, Mental Illusion, Telepathy, Mind Control and EGO Attack are all some of the most powerful things the book offers, because they can have incredibly powerful effects in one turn (against weak enemies with not so much EGO), and just copy something else like entangle or flash easily against strong enemies. We certainly don't need a debate on "is Mind Control powerful enough?" I would not say so. There are enough "mental" attacks which have pink flashes and whatdoIknow. Also, SFX should not be mixed with mechanics. I'm not sure what you mean? Forbid them MPs? And I can certainly houserule things, but that's not the point now, is it? True, but that's quite easy at "medium range", a couple hundred meters, and normal Attacks plain fail at that distance. Advantage: EGO Attack. you also cannot blow down doors or walls: NND can't either. And usually I'd rather shoot at enemies than at doors. Advantage: EGO Attack. robots are immune: Same goes for NND, except everyone can buy it. Robots are also immune to stun, usually. Advantage: EGO Attack. a special adder is needed to attack different classes of minds: That's a band-aid for a SFX problem and we know it. I'd rather have that worded out correctly. ("Power cannot be used against robots: -1/4") Let's see how we could build it, roughly: EB, 1d6 per 5 points. AVLD/NND vs Mental Defense (+1, might be +1.25), No Range Modifier (+1/2), Based on ECV vs ECV (+0 as proposed above, or +1/2), Psionic (means: only vs stuff with minds, no robots or walls) (-1/2), IPE (+1), Visible vs Mental Awareness (-1/4) So total about +2.5 to +3.75 and -0.75, AP from 17.5 to 23.75, real cost from 10.0 (chance?) to 13.57 per d6. And it's very visible now that Active Point caps are broken, which is exactly what we feel. When it works, it works too well. Typical "high ap, some limitation". I'd like to calculate it differently: +2.75 -0.75 = +2, 15 points per d6. That would seem fair anyway.

Re: Blasting Mental Blast Totally agreed. Free Invisibility always bothered me. If you really want an Attack which can be launched from miles away, cannot be detected and goes through all defenses while hitting 95% of the time (30 EGO vs 15 EGO?), then you should just damn well pay for it. Also, that gets rid of the chapter on "how to discourage players from mental sniping" (in UMM) because you just can't do it anymore for free. I would like the variant on CVs: You may choose which CV (DCV and OCV or ECV) is used, fitting for SFX. You may also choose whether to be 1hex accurate or standard, nothing of these costs points. Sidetrack: "We've always done it this way" is not an argument, that's an excuse. Or didn't you stop using diapers at some point? But you have done it before! Therefore it cannot be bad now, can it?