TheTemplar

Re: Compensating for PC Abilities Fascinating. See, to me, in my crazy little ideal world, it should be just the opposite. The Hero should be even MORE concerned about the rights and protection of the NORMAL man than about those with the meta-powers capable of defending themselves. I probably wouldn't bawk so much at a mentalist wanting to gently mind-probe a meta - particularly one with mental defenses or powers - as opposed to an ordinary thug or normal hireling. But then, X-Men does tend to have a VERY "Us Vs. Them" approach to relations between Mutants and normies.

Re: Compensating for PC Abilities Yeah. I can definitely see where you're coming from there. I don't know that I completely agree, but I certainly can understand - and Lord knows we Herophiles aren't known for agreeing most of the time.

Re: Compensating for PC Abilities Well, it's not so much that they're "inherently" un-heroic in our opinion - I happen to think Martian Manhunter and Professor Xavier are both pretty heroic cats and they've got mental powers for days. It comes down to how the power is used. We (and by we, I refer to not only myself, but the majority of our 6 PCs) would be pretty adverse (IC'ly) to anyone who used their powers in an unheroic manner, mental or otherwise. IE: If a brick really did beat someone to near death (as in, using their full STR on an obviously smaller, fragile target and continuing to beat them to a bloody pulp) and not seem at all distraught by it afterward or that they were acting intentionally, we'd have issues. ANY power can be misused in this regard - which I gather is the crux of the debate here. I suppose I could simply state that some sort of "Code of the Hero" be enforced, and define what that would entail for each archetype so as not to give the appearance that mentalists are unfairly being singled out (because, in all honesty, they're not. At least, not intentionally.) But, for my group anyway, we all pretty much understand that already, and have a pretty good understanding about what would fly and what wouldn't. The only reason why mentalists are spelled out in more detail is because they're kinda like unexplored territory for us, as up until a few months ago, mental powers WERE "Villains only." There have definitely been some good points raised here, though, that I will take into consideration as my campaign progresses. Thanks!

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. Hehe! Thanks, Vanguard. It's awfully reassuring to know I'm not the only one.

Re: Compensating for PC Abilities

Re: Compensating for PC Abilities I'm inclined to agree w/ alot of what you're saying here, CC, but - and I could be WAY out in deep left here - wouldn't it be frustrating for the PC mentalist if, after a while, it seemed like EVERY captured thug was either able to resist their mental probings, not told what was going on, or fed misinformation? I mean, if this has worked for you, which apparently it has, that's great. It just seems to me that this could become straining on the Player/ GM trust if PC mentalist guy was constantly getting duped by normal thug types.

Re: Compensating for PC Abilities Well, each campaign is different. Inherently, there's nothing wrong w/ MC'ing the enemy brick and making him/her attack their colleagues. However, it strikes me (and our prior GM) as devious and a bit underhanded to do so. Not that all fighting has to be direct "me punch you, you fall down," it just wouldn't really be an action that fits the tone of my campaign. It's nothing arbitrary or a personal vendetta against mentalists in any way, shape or form. That just doesn't meet up to the expectations of what has been defined as "heroic" behavior in my campaign. If it works for you, hey, great! More power to ya.

Re: PRIMUS or UNTIL The Defenders and PRIMUS have a very close working relationship. Fantastic-Man, the group's leader, used to be on the payroll of a government agency called META, which was attacked and all but destroyed a couple of years ago. PRIMUS absorbed META's remaining assets (including Fantastic-Man) and now the two groups work very closely when fighting supercrime on US soil. The Defenders typically take the point positions while combating supervillains and then get support (IE: Pickup, detention, etc.) after the fact in addition to intelligence and other services PRIMUS provides. They've not had any direct contact w/ UNTIL as of yet, though their PRIMUS liason did manage to secure International Police Powers in any UN member nation for the team through his UNTIL contacts. As their missions become more international, they will undoubtedly run into UNTIL more and more often.

Re: Wedding Bells for Dr. Anomaly Congrats to the happy couple! Any unusual events happen during the ceremony? Ring accidentally get shunted into a parallel dimension? Any Bridesmaids suddenly manifest new mutant powers due to all the heightend emotional activity? Morningstar, Gargantua, Stormfront, Fenris, Mirage & Ankylosaur show up to scout for desperate singles of the opposite sex?

Re: Compensating for PC Abilities Oh, it's certainly limiting. No argument there. But, I think I could probably come up with scenarios where a mentalist PC who did want to buy Telepathy would be able to successfully use it. Plus, in certain life or death situations, even a Common/ Total Psych Lim can be overcome with a successful EGO roll minuses a few applicable penalties (at least in our campaign. Others may vary - feeling that Common/ Total is just that. Common and Total.) Creates a nice, highly dramatic moment, actually. On the Mind Control, using MC to take over an opponent's mind and force them attack their colleague wouldn't really fit in with the overall tone of our campaign, and would probably be frowned upon by the other PC's, who would most likely address that with the Mental guy. Now... Mind Controlling someone and telling them to "Stop Fighting" or the like, that's different (to me, anyway.) It's still a useable power, but maybe not in the traditional "offensive" sense. Thanks! That's the idea! Precisely! And a good time will be had all... Well... maybe except for whoever's harming the Innocent. Yeesh. I'd hate to be the guy that made a super-mentalist override one of his own psych lims. That's like being the guy who makes Batman shoot somebody.

Re: Compensating for PC Abilities I've done some serious Mentalist work lately, as I've just taken over our Champions campaign. Our old GM had a flat no-mentalists guideline, for all the reasons you've mentioned above. Personally, I like mentalists and wouldn't mind seeing a mentalist PC. But, I've worked up some guidelines for it. I think these might be pretty helpful to you IF your player is willing to accept a few rewrites in the interest of keeping the game fun for everyone - including you - which I think most players would be understanding of. 1. All Mentalists must take some Common, Total Psych Lim referring to the "Sanctity Of The Mind" - IE: They won't use Telepathy or Mind Control to force their will into someone else's mind in order to compel the target to divulge his/her secrets. The use of Telepathy must be consentual. It's still a useful power, as the mentalist would be able to help someone recover lost memories. Basically makes Telepathy more of a "helpful" power than an "invasive" power. (The Xavier Clause.) 2. Any BOECV Entangle ("Mindlock") Also requires Continuous (to make it a Constant Power for...), Eye Contact Throughout, and Concentration (Throughout, Character Totally Unaware,) & Lockout (Character Can Perform No Other Actions.) Basically, the Mentalist can "Mindfreeze" an opponent, but he has to constantly exert his will in order to keep the target's mind frozen. This way, there's at least a chance the 10 EGO brick will be able to break out of the 3d6 BOECV Entangle when one of his buddies comes over and clobbers the Mentalist (breaking the Concentration) OR one of the Mentalists buddies knocks the villain on his back (breaking Eye Contact.) It's still a useful power, but not so much so that it becomes unbalanced. 3. As for Detect Truth, Skill VS. Skill is the way to go. Someone may be really good at being able to tell if someone is lying to them, but the world is full of skilled liars, after all. I think it would be impossible for someone to NEVER be fooled.... unless they have like a Golden Lasso or something...

Re: HERO experts.. help a NUB build his mentalist? Really good advice so far. Something else you might want to consider (given the sfx you've described) is adding Based On EGO Combat Value (BOECV) to your Telekinesis to make it "Psychokinesis." It'll make it significantly more expensive so you'd probably have to remove some d6 from it to fit within your campaign's AP guidelines, but if it fits your character more for his TK to be EGO based rather than DEX based, it's a way to go. Also (and, again, this is totally up to you) 26 EGO is really high in the MC setting (assuming, based on your indications of Ravenswood and Millennium City that your GM is running a Champions Universe campaign using mostly published materials.) You'd be very very close to the EGO score of Menton, the most powerful mentalist in the world (per his CKC write-up.) Since you're a young hero who's new to the whole supering biz, you might want to consider lowering your EGO score to free up some points, then buying it back up as you gain XP. Considering EGO costs 2 CP for every 1 pt of EGO, you can free up some extra points pretty quickly.

Re: How to get ideas across (GM's) I think it's a fairly common issue, really - particularly with players who either are: a) New to HERO or Not familiar w/ the supers genre. (Not to say it can't happen with seasoned vets too, of course.) My advice would be to start by asking the player if there is any particular hero/heroine she is wanting to imitate and to what degree. At least this puts things in terms understood by both sides. If she says "I want to make someone like Elasti-Girl from the Incredibles," then you'll have an easier time narrowing down what specific abilities of Elasti-Girl she wants her character to have, and can more easily aid her with translating the idea into a HERO Power. Now, if she's going COMPLETELY off the cuff and not making a hero remotely similar to anyone else ever created.. well.. that's a different banana.

Re: Micro Heroes Very cool! If I'm wrong, someone please correct me, but I think the double-chested Grond was the old 4th-ed. version (also had the webbed ears and looked more "Creature from the Black Lagoon"-ish than the 5th ed. "Dinosaur"-ish Grond. So, I wouldn't think you'd necessarily need to make any modifications to what you've got there. I may have to check that out. I'd love to see a mini-Eurostar (especially teeny Durak,) or a mini-Tak for that matter. Cute little undead.

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! Change of plans. Original next issue titled "Something Wicked This Way Comes..." has been bumped. We're on the verge of wrapping up a Star Hero Meets CoC game and I think if the first session back to Champions was something primarily mystic-based the gang would completely run out of sanity points. So, next issue won't be 'Something Wicked..." That'll get bumped to 2 issues from now. NEXT issue will be... err.. well.. I'd TELL you the name of it but that'd make the Freak of the Week too obvious, so you'll just have to wait until (tentatively) late April to find out!

Re: Who are the top 5 most powerful characters in your Campaign. Interesting thread! I'm assuming we're talking about "Power" as more than just Character Point Totals, and that Power also includes things like Position, influence, and resources available to the character (which in the case of villains, may or may not be represented on the character sheet.) There are many MANY more powerful beings in the campaign that The Defenders haven't run into yet, and I don't want to spoil anything, so limiting it to KNOWN (either by the PCs or the Players) beings in The Defenders Universe: 1.) Analogous - Master of Reality. Analogous is a chaotic alien entity of as-of-yet unknown origins. He has the ability to seemingly effortlessly reshape the very fabric of reality to whatever suits him. In their only encounter with this mysterious being so far, The Defenders were barely able to avert a Pan-Dimensional Cataclysm he had masterminded. 2.) Time Master - Arguably the most powerful Metahuman in existence. Time Master was once Dr. Timothy Telemachus, a highly reknowned temporal research scientist who made the greatest scientific breakthrough of the twenty-first century when he created the "Telemachus Tunnel," a portal through the space-time continuoum allowing a person to freely walk to one point in time and back again. This breakthrough was followed by the "Telemachus Cube," a more portable version of his technology that allowed the user to create a time-space portal wherever he or she was, allowing for "jumping" from one time to another. After a horrible accident (for which Telemachus blamed The Defenders) took the life of his beloved wife, Telemachus lost his desire to use science to help mankind and used his abilities for revenge. In their last encounter with the Time Master, as Telemachus christened himself after his villainous rebirth, The Defenders stopped him and his alliance of other hired supervillains from bringing a devastating power from the future back into our time. As Time Master was "Cubing" away, he was hit by one of Nighthawk's EMP Pulse Grenades. The Cube distorted around him, horribly misshaping Time Master as it collapsed upon itself and then he had disappeared. The Defenders have not seen Time Master since. 3.)Dr. Destroyer - Same as in CKC. His superior technology and nearly limitless resources make him easily Earth's (in our time and dimension) most powerful single permanent resident. In their ONLY encounter with one of Dr. Destroyer's plots so far, The Defenders managed to escape a series of Deathtraps he had designed to kill them, only to come face to face with the Dr. himself - or so they thought, until the Destroyer-Bot self-destructed, critically injuring two team members and nearly killing their government liason who had been taken hostage by Destroyer. 4.)Fantastic-Man - Finally! Score one for the good guys!! As the leader of the planet's most powerful, respected, and famous superteam, The Defenders, Fantastic-Man towers above all other superheroes in terms of influence and stature. He also has good relationships with many other powerful high-profile organizations like PRIMUS and UNTIL, and could easily pool their resources together with those of The Defenders if the situation was dire enough to warrant it. Nigh-indestructibility and a really mean punch don't hurt either. 5.) The Supreme Serpent - Leader of the VIPER organization, (whose existence, while not known to the PCs IS known to the players, so I put him on the list.) His resources seem to know no limits, as there never seems to be any shortage of agents or weaponry for VIPER. Though they have yet to come face to face with the Supreme Serpent to date, in their encounters with VIPER so far, the PCs uncovered and stopped a VIPER plot to establish a new nest in Paragon City, aided a prominent VIPER research scientist in his defection from the organzation, shut down a VIPER nest disguised as a tourist resort, averted a horrible plague unleashed during VIPER's thankfully short-lived war with COIL, and most recently unsuccessfully attempted to thwart the theft of a next-generation ultra-high yield electromagnet prototype.

Re: The Most Annoying Thing in the World I found this to be rather therapeutic: http://crazyfrog.yourebustingmyballs.com/shoot_the_crazy_frog_mini_game/ Die, Frog, Die! (My personal best is 86, btw.)

Re: Help Requested: Name my Canadian team and it's members Still working on a few, but so far: #3) Yukon... Klondike... Frontier... Wild Man... The Frontiersman (not sure if you're keen on "Man" Men or not.) #4) Aurora.. Borealis.. Aurora Borealis (a bit long, but I'm not sure "Borealis" is a word by itself.) #5) Iditarod #7) Not sure if they're indigenous to Canada or not, but when I see that guy, I think "Antlion." - he kinda looks buggish, has the whole "exoskeleton" thing going for him, tunnels, etc. I know they're (relatively) common to the Pac NW, but I'm not sure about Canada.

Re: Name That Band Hero! Great thread idea, man.

Re: Name That Band Hero! ACK! Yes! Joan Jett. That's it. Thanks. Now I can sleep tonight.

Re: Name That Band Hero! After digging through ALL my classic Grunge CD's (never thought I'd see the day when Grunge would be considered "classic"...) STP. ("Meatplow" was what tipped me off. "Purple" was a regular in my CD player my freshman year of college.) Enforcer: I got nothin there. "Cherry Bomb" rings a bell... early 80's something? Can't put a finger on it yet though. Here are some oldies for a Teen Champs villain team: Poison: Knockout Hottie whose "lips are venomous" Cold Ethyl: Frigidly cool Ice EP'er Teenage Frankenstein: Adolescent Undead Brick Public Animal #9: Lycanthropic Shapeshifter created as part of a series of genetic experiments

Re: Name That Band Hero! Soundgarden CCR Great idea!!! Spirit (of Radio) - HRRP and other special senses related to radio group Jacob ('s Ladder) - Expert climber Red Barchetta - Russian Speedster Freewill - Mentalist And their secret base in the Italian Alps known as La Villa Strangiato.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... :rofl:

Re: Teleporting Oxygen into and out of a hex Umm... wow. Interesting power. I guess it depends on what the player is trying to do by teleporting oxygen in/out of a hex. If he wants to be able to teleport oxygen to himself or a teammate so that they can breathe (perhaps underwater, in a vacuum, or a really high altitude) I'd build it as: Life Support: Self-Contained Breathing (Useable By Other; +1) with whatever limitations are appropriate to the character concept. If he wants to "blast" somebody with a sudden burst of pure Oxygen to make them dizzy, I'd say it's an Xd6 EB (NND [defense is self-contained breathing]; +1; AoE (1"; +1/2)). (Or, to simulate dizziness w/out doing STUN damage, try a Drain to DEX w/ the Ranged (+1/2) advantage.) Overpressurization, to me, would just be a straight EB (w/ the No Knockback lim if the Pressure is equal on all sides.) If he wants to deprive someone of Oxygen and suffocate them, I'd rule that a killing attack. Xd6 RKA (NND [defense is self-contained breathing]; Does Body (+1); +1; AoE (1"; +1/2)) If he wants to feed a fire (or a person with a fire-based powerset) I'd go with Aid (or Succor) Xd6 Aid/ Succor; Expanded Effect [All Fire Based Powers Simultaneously]); AoE (1"). Likewise to quelch a fire or drop the hammer on Feuermacher, I'd build it as a Suppress (same advantages as above) Really, the best way to figure how to build something is to determine what you want the end result to be, and then find whatever power most closely matches that (IE: EB's and RKA's for damage, Drains for Characteristics Loss, etc.) Hope that's helpful.

Re: [Campaign] DEFENDERS CONGREGATE!! Hey, you planted this whole thing, man. Way I see it, I'm just a groundskeeper. Anytime you're gonna be back in town let us know. We'll keep a seat warm for ya.