On 2/1/2020 at 1:14 PM, zslane said:

I like Affleck's look and physicality, but I prefer Kevin Conroy's voice, especially since he never did that stupid thing where he speaks normally as Bruce Wayne and then adopts a whispery, death metal cookie monster voice as Batman. The only other Batman portrayal that I think is something special is Adam West's. All the others range from utterly forgettable to merely passable.

Funny enough Conroy, while he didn't do the stupid Bale growling thing, is the one who made having Batman and Bruce have separate voices be the standard.

"Pay no attention, Fritz! We still have plenty of ham left?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Good! [lividly angry] Sandwiches for us, for the guests in the front room... [screaming] but not for the police! The police shall receive no sandwiches!"

20 hours ago, Pariah said:

This seems the appropriate place to remind everyone that you can sing the words to the Gilligan's Island song to the melody for Amazing Grace and vice versa.

House of the Rising Sun is also interchangeable with both (and switching Amazing Grace with HotRS and vice versa both work surprisingly well). Much of Emily Dickinson's poetry is the right meter that it can be sung to Gilligans Island as well.

On 12/5/2019 at 5:25 PM, SteelCold said:

 

Lilly: "Finally I'll feast well today."

I'm at the park often enough she knows me by sight and voice. Somedays we play tag, she'll chase me to one end, then I'll spin around she rears back and runs away. Other days she doesn't like eye contact because she wants to stalk. I use selfie mode on my phone to watch her try to be sneaky. 

I haven't been able to get a full pounce on video yet.

Lilly sneaking up on me...

The majestic tiger...

Apparently even big cats make the "stink face".

On 11/20/2019 at 7:35 PM, Cygnia said:

Chippewa Falls police arrest man with fake license plates made from beer case

WOOHOO!! Hometown pride!

13 hours ago, tkdguy said:

 

I'd try that if I could just learn to fly a drone without crashing it.

Adding dangling bits, extra weight, and heading over water seems like the worst possible way to learn to fly a drone.. 

I thought I had an easy pick with one of my faves, Josie and the Pussycats, but it turns out it's at 52/53% on Rotten Tomatoes. 

So I'll throw out a movie that got so little notice it hasn't even achieved a rating on RT. 2003's Scorched. John Cleese, Woody Harrelson, Alicia Silverstone, and Rachel Leigh Cook combined couldn't save this flick from going straight to video and into obscurity, and I love the stupid thing.

Fable is a great inspiration for this sort of thing. The first 2 story arcs are very solid and are both included in the premium hard cover graphic novel.

The video game mentioned above is a Telltale Game called The Wolf Among Us and is a prequel to the comic series focused on Bigby (the Big Bad) Wolf, Fabletown's current sheriff.

Gone for a couple years now.

EDIT: There is a small Hero community that does play-by-post over on RPOL.

31 minutes ago, PamelaIsley said:

But if the PCs are silly enough to challenge Voldemort and their name isn't Harry Potter, then they would almost certainly die.

Why? By your reasoning Voldemort should be just as likely to take a random Killing Curse as Ron or Hermione during the big battle. 

And what does Ron and Hermione not facing Voldemort have to do with anything? They both face Death Eaters trying to kill them repeatedly and fight in the big end battle.

If the Killing Curse works the same for everyone else, who did or did not face Voldemort is entirely immaterial. 

Just a note on Sean's PRE Attack example. Even if the GM allows a PRE Attack to use Haymaker (questionable in my opinion) that would negate several of your complaints about PRE Attacks. The Haymaker Maneuver takes a Half Phase Action (one might even argue it would be considered an Attack Action ending your turn) and the PRE Attack wouldn't effect anyone until the end of the next Segment. If a villain really wants to pose and posture at -5 DCV potentially leaving himself open to multiple attacks that could disrupt the PRE Attack from even happening, well, okay? My point is mentioning Haymaker in your analysis seems not well reasoned.

Applying Push is also highly questionable in my opinion. 

You point out that PRE Attacks can take place out of turn sequence, but then give examples that require them to be taken during your turn to get bonuses from your actions. You complain they are instantaneous but then apply Haymaker which would make it not so.

You complain there is "no reason" for every character to not "pop off" a PRE Attack the first round of combat even though repeated PRE Attacks suffer penalties.

None of these points in themselves negate your concern of 60 points worth of PRE being superior to 60 points of Blast, but your comparison would look more intellectually honest without inflating your numbers in those ways and acknowledging the penalties involved as openly as you acknowledge all the bonuses you award yourself.

Invisibility to the hearing sense group would still cover the ring. No one has argued invisibility to sight would stop a sound, you using that as an example in the first place is a complete non sequitur from the topic.

You state:

"Invisibility doesn't make the SFX of your powers stop being obvious so the SFX of "ring is obvious because it shoots tinymagical shields" remains obvious.  Again, Darkness construct."

Well, per the rules the SFX of a mundane weapon like a sword  is that it is an Obvious Focus of a Power. You are arbitrarily granting some SFX a bonus over others, regardless of your attempts to justify it.

Also, nowhere in the rules does it state that the Images Power produces light (unless you are specifically building a light power). Claiming the "light escapes Invisibility" is a nonsense arguement based on your idea of certain SFX and had nothing to do with the rules of the game or how Powers are actually described as working.

EDIT: Also, claiming someone with a Distinctive Feature can't be turned Invisible is just crazy to me. I don't even know how to approach that. By your own standard someone with the Distinctive Feature:  "12 foot Lizardman", Not Concealable (no Ninja Turtles trench coat is going to hide this guy) could not be turned Invisible.

33 minutes ago, Gnome BODY (important!) said:

The verisimilitude argument depends on why the focus is obvious. 

A sword or suit of plate are obvious because their function is evident from their form.  Invisibility should, clearly, conceal this. 

Unless magic item identification is trivial for even the most uneducated, an OIF Ring of Protection must be obvious by some other means, such as glowing or humming or shooting tiny magical shield-bullets.  I see no reason why invisibility would conceal any of these. 

I see no reason why Invisibility WOULDN'T conceal any of those. If my character has the Distinctive Feature "softly glows" due to magic or irradiation does that mean  he can never benifit from being turned invisible? Why does one SFX get punished? Why does magic Invisibility not trump magical visibility?

On 2/4/2019 at 11:02 AM, PamelaIsley said:

That makes sense I guess.  The Brick template doesn't list PD and ED that high, but I see that you can add another template from the bottom to get it there.  That is what was confusing me.

 

Thanks!

It's not that you CAN add another template from the bottom, choosing one of those templates is part of using the character builder. The powers aren't designed to be used separately from the quick build and assume you will have the appropriate defenses to apply the Advantage to.

9 hours ago, Trencher said:

Its an old edition true but stat bonuses still count against normal characteristic maxima correct? So if you play an orc you will be better at fighting?

What edition are you playing? You can still use the package deal as a Template for characters of a certain race and just not give them things for free...

The idea that Martial Artists "aren't strong" only exists in the superhero genre where super strength is a common power.  Most martial artists in comics are in peak physical condition and many are very strong by human standards. I think your definition of "Archetypal Martial Artist" is not as archetypal as you think it is, your definition is only somewhat true in one specific genre. Even in trying to give examples you used things from other genres  like the Enter the Dragon clip  that basically disprove your point.

On 12/25/2018 at 6:47 PM, Trencher said:

 

Even though the races within were mostly unused in my Dnd campaign the Mythic races book were both informative and interesting to read. 

Fantasy race package deals are something I dont use because I think people should pay for their races powers and abilities without getting any bonuses for it. Much more important is the information about the race. Rules are something I think everybody change around anyway. 

 

Package Deals (Templates in 6E) aren't free, you pay points for them so there is no "bonus" that isn't being paid for.

Unless this product is for a REALLY old edition.

I scrapper vs martial artist distinction is not nearly as clear as some like to make out. For example, both characters in that video (and in fact most all fighters in Enter the Dragon) are considered martial artists withing the kung fu/martial arts genre.

On top of that, in game terms martial artists and scrappers will often be hitting for similar damage, so the biggest distinction is often only DCV vs PD/ED, not how hard they hit.

Even comics blur the line. Wolverine used to be one of the iconic examples of a "scrapper" but he's also basically a ninja who gave black belt level martial arts training to several younger X-Men. Meanwhile, Spiderman who is the ultimate Dex/Dodge character has demi-brick strength and no actual martial arts training (originally).

Differentiating the two can have its uses in conversation, but it's not nearly as clear cut or obvious as brick or blaster or speedster.

6 hours ago, Ninja-Bear said:

Aaron Allston mentioned doing this for that reason in Robot Warriors.

I'm sure I got the idea from this very forum when I was new, but good to know I am in such good company, lol.

9 hours ago, dsatow said:

I  just don't use d6-1 rolls in Champions.  

Likewise. I usually use d6-1 to differentiate between weapons or ammo type as it adds a little more granularity in low power games and the equipment isn't bought with points.

Deleted because this argument is not worth the headache and because the OP already said what they desired.

26 minutes ago, Christopher said:

Perfect Pitch is a human definition.

Range is a human defition. Or several ones, as we can not even agree on one measurement approach (Imperial/Metric) to use.

So both are as subjective as "Detect Lie".

That's ridiculous. The distance something is from you is not subjective regardless of what system of measurement you use. You can convert measurements between systems because they are physically defined things observable and measurable in the world. To say they are just as "subjective" as the concept of a lie is crazy. You can not physically measure a lie or observe it.

You also seem to be missing the point that the person had clearly stated they want this ability to be a skill contest, presumably a skill anyone could learn, not a special power, so insisting that "detect lie" is the only/best way to do this and justifying that argument by pointing existing Talents isn't really helpful.

On 12/17/2018 at 2:41 PM, archer said:

 

I usually get my ideas from the rules as well which is why I cut-and-pasted from the chart.

 

In any case, we are still comparing the slightly increased cost of an OAF smoke grenade plus OAF vision goggles (which are good for other things such as seeing what is happening at a distance in poor lighting) against 17 points spent on Combat Sense.

And those goggles will do nothing for you when you are Blinded by a Flash or Transform or an eye injury in a gritty game or an Entangle that blocks Vision or against the Ninja bad guys that bought their smoke bombs vs the Sight Group as is common. (Plus any dope with a $100 night vision scope can shoot you through your smoke cloud. How long will it take the villains to figure out there is a cheap, mundane solution to your knock-off smoke bombs?)