TheTemplar

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. That'll work! Just tell DT that your inner muse felt like making the hunter Qliphothic.

Re: Concepts you wish your players would play

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. I really like her boots. Yes, I said boots. No, that's not a typo.

Re: Concepts you wish your players would play

Re: Concepts you wish your players would play Hehe... sorry. I had hoped that by sharing my success that others might find hope and dig deep to find the drive to... ...okay. I was rubbing it in. And, after careful consideration, a super-intelligent talking ape makes a much better supervillain than a superhero (no offense to D-Watts or Dr. Silverback) so I don't think I'd want one as a PC. (Although, as my companions will attest, I like the monkeys so much that I'd probably just go ahead and allow both.)

Re: Concepts you wish your players would play Wow... reading all this sure makes me thank my lucky stars as a GM. I have a group of players who luckily understand the 4-color side of the genre. I don't have to worry about them not being heroically motivated. They're heroes. All I have to do is throw the Earth-Shattering Freak of the Week at them and they snap to action. They're even proactive half the time. All I have to do is say "It's X:00 on Xday. What are you doing?" Half the time if they're not doing secret ID stuff, they're following up on unresolved leads from prior adventures. This is an eye-opener for sure. I knew they were a great bunch of players, I just had no idea how rare they were. As far as what I'd like to see, I'd LOVE to see someone in my campaign play a Plastic-Man/ Mr. Fantastic style Metamorph. The shapechanger we do have is more in the Mystique vein with Growing/Shrinking powers as well, but not the Stretching, the HA made from turning her hands into giant Mallets, Gliding by turning into a parachute, etc. She's great for espionage, but personally, I'd love to see a metamorph with the more Silver Age body alteration powers. I'd also entertain any character applications for a super-intelligent talking ape.

Re: Character Concept help.. Herophiles unite! Now, when you say he wants to mimic it's defensive properties, do you mean that if he touches, say, a mailbox, his skin replicates mailbox material (possibly a PD/ED increase) or if he touches a character with desolidification he can take on that defensive power? What's the AP limit in your setting? I created a power mime NPC along the lines of Rogue - I'm not too familiar w/ Gen 13, so I'm not exactly sure what Grunge is capable of. But, this might help: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37855 You could add Limited Class Of Powers Available (Defensive Powers) for an additional -1/4 to -1/2 depending on how limited you rule that category is (personally, I'd think -1/2.) If you're worried about giving a VPP to a player new to the system (which I don't think anyone would disagree is a valid concern) then it depends on whether or not his power actually takes the defensive power away from the target. If it does, go with a Transfer (with variable from and variable to - you'll have to GM rule as to whether this ability would allow him to acquire a new power that he didn't already have by transferring it.) If it doesn't actually take the power from the target, I think you're looking at an Aid. Good luck!

Re: Enforcer's new Campaign! Yeah, my company has some IT guys that work virtually as well. They typically handle only software related issues (password resets, error messages, etc.) Anything hardware related (like networking) would almost certainly require an on-site technician. So, it's a conceivable concept, he might just need to re-evaluate his character's role within the IT dept.

Re: Completed Villain for review/playtest: Platoon Solid. I like that he gets weaker as he "spreads himself out" - so to speak - to make the dupes. Your aid will give you a boost up to ((5x3.5)/3) 26 DEX on average, which will in turn bump your base CV's from 7 to 9, which I think is considered moderate in most Champions games, so no real issues there. I dig the character creation story too. Project: Sunburst characters are all sorts of fun to have around. They're like the CU versions of Smallville Meteor freaks. Very nice. Plus, it utilzes alot of ideas you don't typically see on many villains - specifically Duplication as a primary power.

Hey all. I'm working on a write up of a supervillain for a Champions campaign who has the ability to steal powers from other characters temporarily, in the vein of such greats as Absorbing Man, Parasite, or Rogue. When he gains a power from a character, the target loses the power for a short amount of time. Now, obviously, since this is for an NPC, it doesn't need to be exactly right, but I think it's only fair that if I expect players to present legal characters then I should try to too. So, with that in mind, does this look like it fits the bill? 72 The Torque Effect I Variable Power Pool (Mimicry Pool), 60 base +12 control cost (90 Active Points); VPP Powers Can Be Changed Only Following Successful HTH Attack Roll (-1/2), VPP Mimics Target's Powers (-1/2), Powers May Only Be As Powerful As Target's Powers (-1/2) 135 The Torque Effect II Drain 6d6, any power or characteristic one at a time (+1/2), Trigger (Activating the Trigger requires a Zero Phase Action, Trigger resets automatically, immediately after it activates; Drain occurs anytime VPP power is changed; +3/4) (135 Active Points) If there are any appropriate limitations you can think of to stick on that Drain, I'll take them. Again, as it's an NPC, points aren't an issue... but seeing that 135 on a character sheet for anything less than a master villain makes me pale a bit. I GM ruled that if Variable Advantage: Any [special effect] power one at a time on the Drain was worth +1/4, then Any power one at a time was the next logical step up the scale, and therefore worth +1/2. If I've done this right, changing powers should take a 1/2 phase action, require a Power: Torque Effect roll, a successful HTH attack, and then the Drain should occur right away - no seperate attack roll for the Drain required. So, if I'm not right, or you've got some suggested changes, I'd gladly entertain them.

Ex. Sucko-Man has a Transfer Power called Mighty Suck! the sfx of which define that the power he transfers from dictates the power he transfers to (bought w/ both appropriate variable effect +1/4 advantages so that he can transfer Target's SPD to his own SPD, or STR to STR, etc.) Suppose Sucko-Man attempts to Mighty Suck! the active points from Blaster Girl's EB - however he has no EB of his own to transfer these points into. Would the transfer essentially become a Drain in that regard, in that she loses the points, but he gains nothing for not having his own EB? Would he gain an EB similar to hers (same SFX) and as powerful as the amount transfered for as long as it takes for the power to fade? Would there be no effect at all since he technically doesn't have anything to transfer the points to, and can't simulate the effects of one power with another (IE, a Drain as a Transfer) Or, would this fall under the GM Discretion tent? I did double check the adjustment powers and transfer sections of both 5ER and the FAQ here and couldn't find anything to specifically address this. If I did overlook something, feel free to point me in the right direction and throw the obligatory tarp over me. Thanks!

Re: Which villain needs an overhaul?

Re: What villains do you think know about Arcadia? On a side note, I did intentionally omit Dr. Destroyer from my list. I don't like to define limits on what D does or does not know. I think D should always be full of surprises.

Re: What villains do you think know about Arcadia? I don't have HL, but I do have the VIPER sourcebook and CKC, so I'm fairly familiar with the general concepts of Arcadia and The Empyreans (and their war with the Lemurians.) I think The Crowns of Krim probably know. They just haven't taken any action against the Empyreans yet because they do not think they are powerful enough to defeat them all... which is probably true. The Crowns are mighty and all - far mightier than any other villain team shown in CKC. But, against a whole nation of Empyreans... I'm pretty sure they'd lose. Takofanes may know of the existence of Arcadia, but may not know exactly where it is. If he did know, I'm sure he'd see them as a major threat - probably a greater threat than any other country of the world or any superteam for that matter. If Tak knows how to reach Arcadia, I'm sure he's planning something. (IE Undead Empyreans *shudder*) I think Mechanon knows... I just don't think he'd care. The Empyreans are lowly organics, even if they are not as lowly as the ordinary human scourge that cover this planet. Unless Arcadia somehow became directly involved in resisting his destruction of all organic life, he would probably ignore them until he had destroyed the rest of humanity and/or had amassed a mechanical army powerful enough to crush the Empyreans in one fell swoop. Other "Master Villains" like Gravitar, Warlord, Eurostar, and to lesser extent, the likes of Holocaust and Firewing are probably clueless. For a fun change of pace in your campaign, let The Slug find out about it and figure out what he'd try to do.

Re: How to build a Gene Mutator? Sounds pretty good. Out of curiosity, why IIF as opposed to OAF? Presumably, given that it's immobile, etc., this is a fairly large machine (as in, can be easily perceived and targeted by an attacking character - suppose Dr. Genome's lab gets raided or something.) Being an NPC, it's not a huge deal, as point cost isn't really a factor. Also, though not a huge deal as, again, this is an NPC and the power can function more or less in whatever way you wish, but you might want the Expanded Results Advantage, to simulate the machine's ability to give targets varied new powers (the Variable Effect advantage might accomplish this as well, as if I understand what you're building correctly, it can give one person superspeed, another fire-based powers, and yet another telekenesis.) The only other suggestions I can think of to make this more like a machine as opposed to a "power" would be to either give it the 0 END advantage, or create an END reserve for the machine itself, so that the machine isn't powered off of your characters personal END (unless the SFX are that it IS powered off your characters personal END! ) None of these are make-or-break for the power. Just nit-picky tweak stuff. Looks good! I think VIPER's genetic research dept. just got a new project in my universe!

Re: WWYCD: Foxbat The Mighty! The Tornado! Well... first and foremost, before engaging FB in hand to hand combat, T! would try to get him to put down the bank somehow (preferably NOT by throwing it) since there might be innocents inside... plus, when there's too much property damage, no one wins... (and given that T! has been known to clean up a 4 city-block radius in under 1 minute, he doesn't really want to get stuck on sweeping duty.) He'd probably try telling FB a joke or try to taunt him into dropping the bank somehow. Once FB had dropped the bank, T! would move in, dodging blows and using extra actions to hit FB w/ his Hyperspin (DEX drain) and get him good and dizzy before laying in w/ the Hyperpunches (HTH 12d6, 3-shot AF). If that didn't bring him down, he'd just keep him busy until Fantastic-Man or Warforge or one of the other Defenders capable of dropping a bigger boom on UberFB showed up.

This may be something you cover in the upcoming Ultimate Metamorph, and I THINK I've more or less got the gist of it from reading the Rules FAQ, but I just want to clarify. Suppose a PC Metamorph... we'll call him Kid Spandex.. decides he wants the ability to alter his physical form to resemble other people, or animals, or potted ferns, whatever. So, Kid Spandex buys Shape Shift for Sight, Hearing, and Touch groups, so that he looks, feels, and sounds like the object or creature he's imitating. He decides he wants to use his ability to change into a rat. Given that the mass difference is greater than +/- 10% between Kid Spandex and a Rat found in most places (with the possible exception of NYC sewers,) would the PC also need to buy shrinking to become appropriately rat-sized, or is that also covered under the Sight Group portion of the shape shift (that is, he appears to be a normal sized rat. I'm not inquiring about any size-related bonuses to DCV or penalities to KB or the like.)

Re: Advice for new HeroClix Modders Thanks, BBlackmoor. Oh, and Blue - if you haven't checked already, I'd HIGHLY recommend scoping EBay for Heroclix (just use Heroclix as your search keyword... you'll get about 4500 hits. ) I've increased my collection exponentially for a fraction of the cost of buying booster packs in the store. I'm pretty sure I saw quite a few CT Logans floating around the other day, too. If you don't want to just order 1 non-unique clix, you might be able to find him there in a REV set (which is nice, in case you need extra hats) or as part of a larger lot. The average going price per fig if you make a medium-large lot purchase usually ends up hovering right around $.50 per fig.. as opposed to $2.00 per fig in store.

Re: Heroes of the Turakian Age Heroes of the Turakian Age Session Journal: Session 6 (09/09/2005) MODERATE SPOILER WARNING - "Nolstann's Prison" - material adapted from FHB by Allen Thomas and Jason Walters, with additional creatures from The Hero System Bestiary and Monsters, Minions & Marauders. The five brave adventurers returned from the mines with a cart heavy laden with riches. Upon their return to Bellinburg, Sir Nil and Percival the squire went at once to Bellinburg Castle (having been instructed by the gate sentry that King Brandhaime was anxiously awaiting a FULL REPORT - that's important later, as you'll see) to make their report to King Brandhaime. Vyse, meanwhile, set about securing lodging for the group for the night, while Raz and Grangnar set about selling the silver, gems, and extinct animal furs they had brought back with them from the Pikt Mines. Sir Nil told the King all about all the events and horrors they encountered in the mines, and that Vyl Corruck, who had deceived the King, was dead. The King was satisfied with this report, though he was disappointed that no silver had been found. (GM note: You see.. the KNIGHT purposely did not inform the King about the 200 lbs. of unprocessed Silver Ore that they had pulled up from out of the Pikt Ruins. He only told the King that no silver vein had been found... which was true, but as Sir Nil the Greedy would soon discover, a sin of omission is still a sin. Now, I'm not a GM who delights in the punishment and suffering of players. That's not my job. I'm a storyteller, first and foremost. However, I DO believe that actions should have reasonably logical consequences. But, I'll stop notating now and let you see what happened for yourself.) The King rewarded Sir Nil and his companions the Kingly sum of 500 gold pieces (which is, purposefully, the amount that I had told the players that the Silver would be approximately valued at after Sir Nil, who is a Dwarf with mining and mineral knowledge skills, had examined the silver back when they found it. I thought it'd be nice of me to give him one last chance to act like a knight.) Sir Nil took the gold, and he and Percival left. Meanwhile, Raz and Grangnar had found several shops willing to buy the items they had to sell off. A local exotic furrier paid very well for the bizarre animal furs (from animals long extinct) that they had recovered from the Pikt lair. And they managed to find 3 buyers interested in the 200 lbs. of silver ore. A shady alleyway vendor offered them a little under 400 gold pieces, but, the two reasoned that he wasn't likely to ask any questions about where the silver came from. A blacksmith offered them about 450 gold pieces, and he seemed like a decent sort. Finally, the proprietor of a fine statuary shop offered them 490 gold pieces. Afraid that the owner of the expensive shop might have connections to local nobility, Raz and Grangnar decided to go the middle of the road route and sell the silver to the blacksmith. After they had approached the smith and begun the transaction, while the smith's apprentices were hauling the silver into the shop, Raz looked around the smithy and saw many flags of the city hanging, as well as used weapons and armors on display that weren't for sale that seemed to be the right size for the older but stout Blacksmith himself and had obviously seen their share of wartime use. But, more suspicion would be raised if he stopped the sale then and there and he decided there was nothing to be done at this point and continued with the sale. He and Grangnar took their gold and went to meet up with Vyse at the Ruby Dragon. Upon entering the Inn, they were surprised to find familiar faces there. Exter and Detmore Shury, the halflings whom they had met at the Wickshine's Last Inn, were in town and were leading those in the large Ruby Dragon common room in several rousing and increasingly slurred drinking songs. After a long night of drinking and reveling, the five retired to their rooms for the night. They awoke the next morning and went down for breakfast. They joined the Shury brothers and were eating happily when 4 armed guards entered the inn, followed by a man who appeared to be their commander and the blacksmith to whom Raz and Grangnar had sold the silver (you see, the Blacksmith was obviously a proud and noble patriot of the kingdom of Bellinburg, and knowing that the militia was in dire need of the silver he had purchased, he gladly went that night and offered the silver to King Brandhaime. Now... truth be told, the PCs really only had 2 plays to avoid being arrested. 1) Give the Silver to the King when they brought it back or 2) Hang on to it until they were in a different city and sell it there. Any of the vendors they had sold it to in Bellinburg would've resulted in trouble for them.. but I digress.) Confused as to what all the hubbub was about, the Blacksmith identified Raz and Grangnar to the commander, and then was free to go. The five (actually, seven, as the Shury brothers were wanted for questioning as well) were taken to Bellinburg Castle, had all their weapons and other gear confiscated, and were taken before the King, who laid out the case against them. They had been sent to the Thurisian Mountains on behalf of the throne at Bellinburg to investigate what had happened to a Silver mining expedition headed by Vyl Corruck and consisting of many hired mercenaries from Bellinburg. The King had been told that all the miners were dead, Corruck was killed, and a fanciful tale about frozen barbaric warriors and other-worldly looking beings and technology, and that there was no silver. Meanwhile, the "heroes" return with 200 lbs of silver, which they sell to a local smith. The appearance is that at the very least, they are deceitful, greedy goldmongers who tried to get one past the King. At worst, they murdered the miners and made up this ludicrous story about the Pikt and the Rock Serpents as their cover. The King informed them that he had dispatched a squadron of soldiers to the dig site to verify Sir Nil's story. In the meantime, the group was sentenced to Nolstann's Prison. If what Nil had told him, aside from the omission of the 200 lbs. of silver, was accurate, then they would be released. If, however, evidence suggested that they were behind the miners' deaths, then they would be hanged. Accomdations at Nolstann's were less than gracious. However, convinced of their innocence (for the most part) the group made the best of what they thought would be a short stay. The first night, Raz managed to fiddle with his own lock enough to pick it open (Note: These are excellent locks, mind you. The penalty to Lockpicking on them is -6. Raz has a 12- lockpicking roll... he rolled a 5.) Free to move about the tower, Raz observed the patrols of the night guards, and he made his way up to strategize with Grangnar over their next move, should things not go as planned. He also met Lady Avelyne, a mysterious, reclusive woman imprisoned on the highest floor of the tower. Later that night, the guards, obviously not the most morally stout of men, came and took Grangnar from his cell and threw him in the Pits, where Grangnar discovered wall scratchings in the language used by the cult. He committed the strange prophecy to memory and in the morning was pulled out of the pits by the day guard. The following night, Raz, having memorized the timing of the guards patrols, sat in his cell waiting for the guard to come by. After some time had passed, however, he realized something was wrong. He let himself out of his cell and then released the others from their cells as well, as well as Lady Avelyne. They crept downstairs and found the bodies of many dead guards. As they were searching for weapons among the dead, they heard a noise from the next room, as another guard came into view. "What are you doing here!?" the guard hissed as he took aim with his Crossbow. More guards came in behind him and the fight ensued. It became evident shortly into the fight that these guards were not guards at all, but Masquers, evil shapechanging humanoids. "Where is the prophecy?" the Masquers hissed. "Give us the Book of Secrets!" However, in the end, though badly injured for not having their armor, the heroes managed to defeat the Masquers. The following morning, the Lord Warden of the prison came, accompanied by his daytime guards. Upon hearing of the Masquer attack, he was greatly troubled. Their troubles were compounded when a runner from Bellinburg Castle informed them that a similar attack had occurred at the castle overnight, and King Brandhaime wanted to see them all at once. They arrived at the castle to find that several fires had been set, and many guards, along with at least 2 Masquers, had died in the fight. The armory where the party's confiscated gear had been stowed had been raided, and all of their packs and equipment taken. And, the library, where the King's Scholar's were examining the curious book of the cult that the group had brought out of the Pikt Mines, had also been sacked. However, thanks to the quick thinking of one young scribe, the Book itself had not been taken. The King made arrangements for all of the party's stolen gold to be reimbursed them (aside from the 500 he had at first rewarded them for going to the Pikt Mines, as they had seen fit to reward themselves in silver instead) and advised that even though his men had not yet returned from the Thurisian Mountains, in light of these Masquer attacks, clearly at least the portion of their story about the cult was true enough, and since clearly the party had drawn the cults ire, they were now the kingdoms best chance of drawing out and stopping the evil cultists. But what IS in that book? (GM note: Hopefully... we find out tonight! )

Re: How Have You Used King Cobra/COIL Our old GM ran the STAST adventure and it was pretty fun. My personal favorite members of COIL were Gorgon and Boomslang. That's been our only exposure to them so far, but now that I'm getting ready to take over the GM spot, they may be making a return.

Re: WWYCD: An Alien among them The Tornado! Oh boy... well.. let's see.. the LAST planet he visited during an interdimensional escapade ended up being just like Earth except inhabited entirely by sentient apes, including the sinister Dr. Simian, who had escaped to that world from the original campaign Earth dimension. He (and the rest of the team) helped to foil Dr. Simian's plans to rule that world through his mental powers and high technology. So, I suppose if the same thing happened to him again, he'd still find some way to help against oppression or villainy any way he could, though.. he WOULD prefer the monkeys. They make him laugh. If he could somehow parlay helping the inhabitants of this world into some way of getting back home, though, he would. The Templar He'd keep fighting evil, no matter what dimension he was in... I guess unless he got sent into some sort of Evil Hell Dimension.. in which case he probably wouldn't last very long because subtlety was more or less lost on him and demonic hordes tend to be on the overpowering side of things.

Re: Base with Disguise, but not Concealment Yeah, I think you're on the right track. Think of a VIPER nest or some other sort of covert base, particularly in an urban setting. You might be able to determine somehow (monitoring broadcast signals, trailing bank transactions, etc.) that the enemy base is located down in the West Bottoms, but since on the exterior, the base looks like any other run-down building in the area, you have a hard time discerning which is the enemy's secret base, and which are just really run down buildings.

Re: Turakian Age: IS it just me, or is clerical magic overpowered? Another option that's occurred to me is that you could make the PC Cleric purchase Faith for each deity they revere (Faith: Ophel, Faith: Kilbern, Faith: Hornbrek, etc..) This brings it directly in line w/ the Arcane spellcaster who must purchase a Magic skill for each school of arcanum he casts from. Additionally, it allows the PC to revere several deities (and draw on powers from them) at once, but can also reflect a closer relationship (IE: higher roll) with some over others. This way you encompass the idea of the High Church reflecting the polytheism of The Turakian Age, and its priesthood being followers of more than one of the Blue Gods, without unbalancing the scales and letting a whole host of powers fall under one Faith skill roll, if that's something you're concerned about being a balance issue.

Re: Odd Power or Sx? Looks like Regeneration (w/ Resurrection) w/ a handful of "Must Do X First" lims to me.

Re: Critique My Metamorph Wow! How refreshing is it to see a player who's worried about his DEF being too high?! I think this character looks great. To answer your KB question, yes, there is a 2X Knockback advantage that costs +3/4 (I think it's a Yield sign advantage, so you might need GM approval on it) so if you want to lower the damage dice in your Big Fist attack, but increase it's effectiveness w/ 2X KB, that's definitely a good way to go. You'll want to get an idea what the average starting offensive power DC's are in the particular campaign you're joining, as 10d6 (your 15 STR + 7d6 HA) would actually be just a little below starting average in the campaigns I've played in - most started w/ 12d6 being the standard entry-level EB. Now, personally, I think 10d6 w/out any advantages should be fine, and from a balance perspective, it's always nice to have one area that your character needs to rely on his/her teammates on. With all the cool, unique powers you've got, you should be able to hold your own defensively - unless you get mobbed, as stated earlier. Out of combat, you've got some highly useful skills and the ability to pour yourself through a crack in the wall is never to be overrated. So, if you aren't able to dish out as much pain as the brick or the energy projector, I wouldn't sweat it. You've built a great concept, not just an effective character, and I think he'll be a lot of fun to play. Man... now I want to make a metamorph!!