TheEmerged

Re: WWYCD: The Basics My character is a supervillain, you don't want to know how this goes down

Re: Worst Fear! Stefan "The Grey" Sashkey (from The Emergence campaign, that world's equivalent of the Spectre): Stefan can see the future to the extent that such a thing is possible, and realized the two most likely futures were both dystopias. In one the Earth is enslaved by an alien empire. In the other, Earth is the empire enslaving the aliens. Which one happens depends on whether "Everett" succeeds in conquering the Earth. Stefan therefore committed himself to the difficult path: killing Everett, and then spending the rest of his nigh-immortal existance saving the universe from the scum of the Earth. SythRyss (D&D "Skull Empire" campaign). SythRyss's fear is simple: he fears that when he confronts the elf that charmed him into killing his friends, he won't be powerful enough to exact his revenge. The Disruptor. Again, his fear is simple: he fears being captured by the "authorities", because he knows he'll never survive imprisonment. He actually has this as a Total disadvantage.

Re: More on Block and STR Another classic example of a "block" against an opponent of a much higher strength is the common trick of using an object to jar a large monster's mouth open. RE: "Unblockable" attacks. As mentioned, AE:1H and Indirect are good ways to simulate this. However, you can often achieve something very close to this simply with 3-6 skill levels, depending on how wide the CV range is in your campaign. My 600-ish point rewrite of Ironclad, for example, has 4 of these levels. Personally I've begun adopting the same cost structure as PSL's for limited CSL's...

Re: Who is the greatest Marksman (or Woman) Well, for NeoChampions it would be The Gunner -- base 10 OCV. Add +10 skill levels with guns to this. Add +10 OCV, only to counteract size bonuses to DCV or OCV penalties based on size. Add +10 OCV, only to counteract DCV bonuses for Dodge & OCV bonuses for Block/Deflect. Add +10 PSL's vs shot placement (includes Hit Location penalties) Add +10 PSL's to counteract penalties based on not being able to see the target (obstruction, darkness, etc). Now add "No Range" as a naked advantage on 100 active points, give her 2 identical 50-pt multipowers (in a campaign in which 75 active MP is the norm), and a boatload of applicable talents & skills. Top it off with Guns Know Their Mistress, +10 DCV, only vs guns

Re: Detect Vulnerability Hey, I've got an NPC with all three (Find Weakness, VSE EB, and Detect Vulnerability)... I've defined "detect vulnerabilities" as a subset of the Hound Senses (AKA "nova detects"), as such it doesn't get any bonuses from Simulated Sense and the character has to pay for everything. There are a few pertinent campaign rules that affect how this works though... #1> Detect Vulnerability works at the Meta-SFX level, just like everything else of this nature. So if it's defined as being a nova power it won't detect magical vulnerabilities, psionic vulnerabilities, or technological vulnerabilities. #2> It would require the Analyze adder -- and hence automatically be dependent upon the Analyze skill and everything that using it entails (such as the time involved). #3> Because I'm from the school of thought that says skills should matter, I penalize or give bonuses to the roll based on how 'obvious' within campaign logic the disadvantage is. Discovering that Captain Freon is vulnerable to heat gets a +2 bonus. Discovering the Amazing Babe gets her powers from her belt is a +/- 0. Discovering that Killer Frost is vulnerable to cold gets a -4 penalty, unless the character has an appropriate KS (KS: Supervillains would be -3 penalty, KS: American Supervillains would be -2, KS: Firestorm's Rogues would be -1, KS: Killer Frost would mean no penalty). RE: Find Weakness, only vs opponents with Vulnerability. I'd consider allowing this, but -1 seems high. I'd probably peg that around -1/2

Re: WWYCD: Attraction Loop The Disruptor (my GM-PC) has a COM of Zero, an Extreme Reputation 14- as one of the most hated novas in the continuity (the campaign equivalent of Superman/Captain Marvel named him as one of three figures in history he could justify the death penalty for), a PRE of 30, and an INT of 45. As such he'd immediately be suspicious of the motives and/or sanity of any woman that showed an interest in him.

Re: Disadvantage #1> I've always felt that the baseline point system has always given too many points for disadvantages. I use 100+50 for Heroic and 250+100 for Superheroic as starting points myself. #2> The balance between the value of combat vs non-combat disadvantages depends heavily on the GM. If you aren't putting enough emphasis on non-combat situations the combat disadvantages are going to seem undervalued (that is, the points you get is too low for what it costs). #3> However, I think the common mistake of having low STUN scores relative to DC/DEF values makes this problem more visible. If like most published 5th Ed characters you are in negative STUN after two average hits from your main attack, don't put all the blame at the feet of your vulnerability that makes it one average hit instead... #4> The timeline value of Disadvantage makes it impractical for many uses it otherwise seems intended for. I have never had a player take this disadvantage, ever, even in campaigns where I mandated 25 pts of Vulnerablity/Susceptibility/Dependence disadvantages, in the 15+ years we've played the system. Ever. At the very least, the "zero" value should be moved to the 5-8 hour mark, perhaps the 1 day mark...

Re: Building a Super-History... Some questions to ask yourself: >Do I wants with to go the Astro City route (people with powers have been running around for decades without affecting anything?) or more of an alternate history campaign? If you go option 2, try to avoid the "wishful thinking" trap. >Do I want females with superpowers running around far enough in the past to affect the Women's Rights movement? >Do I want people in masks allowed to testify in court? I have found that this issue tends to be a great starting points for other world points >How much do I want psionics (telepathy & mind control in particular) to affect things? >Pick a group of four or five "first supers". Chances are their character/natures have formed the stereotypes in people's minds.

Re: Golden Age Myth? Let's remember that in Action Comics #1 Superman threatens to beat up a woman if she doesn't tell him what he wants to know. Let's remember that Batman originally carried a gun. Let's remember that one of Plastic Man's earliest power tricks was reflecting bullets back at the people that shot them, usually fatally. Let's remember that Wonder Woman... wait, the WW comics of the Golden Age wouldn't pass the board rules Someone earlier mentioned that the pre-Code Golden Age books were a lot closer to the pulps -- this is a pretty strong argument that actually reading the books of that era tends to back up. This is especially true once WW2 was underway, when killing Nazi's and Japs was commonplace (sometimes offscreen but not always). There were some sillier stuff -- one classic Plastic Man story involves, I kid you not, butter smuggling (it was overly rationed early in the war). The whole square-jawed goody-goody nonkiller thing comes from the later, post-Code Golden Age and was reinforced during the horror that was the Silver Age. Okay, I'm being slightly editorial there (I got into comics during the later part of the Silver Age and fail to see the nostalgia for it) but the point remains.

Re: Thoughts on using 1d20 instead of 3d6? Speaking as someone who plays d20 and HERO, I *much* prefer the 3d6 curve. The d20 simply leads to too wide of a swing for my taste; such a wide swing of random chance minimizes the importance of skill. Of course, if that's what you want, it's a game and the purpose is to have fun.

Re: Silver Avenger Write-up? Exactly, I said in the earlier post that... So in a world where the PC's are ~450-500 characters and the Champions are 575-656 characters, the Silver Avengers are 400-600 characters and the Golden Avenger is a 2000-pt world-beater.

Re: Is Combat Driving Enough? Depends, do you *want* it to matter? The answer to your question depends heavily on how much you feel the skills should play a role in your genre. If you want 11- to represent a professional level of skill, then you probably shouldn't worry about anything beyond Combat Driving/Piloting. On the other hand, if performing these stunts is a major part of the campaign that occurs regularly, then requiring multiple skills is called for. Similarly, requiring finer gradients with the PS/KS/SS family of skills is similarly called for. To pick on Iron Chef as an example, it's completely within the genre to have seperate PS: skill for different forms of cooking, as well as PSL's to represent special skills with certain ingedients, a seperate PS for Plating (or even multiple schools of plating technique), KS to represent knowledge of recipes as oppossed to the techniques...

Re: Silver Avenger Write-up? Little things like... 150 STR, +1 1/2 Variable Advantage (with +1/2 generally going to No END) 60 CON 60 DEF Hardened 120 VPP "Brick Tricks" "Uber Boss Effect" == 75% Reduction for PD & ED; 50% Reduction for MD and PowD She's built to be a world-beater, one of the ten most powerful people *in the campaign universe*. Not the Earth, not America, but still just a notch below the three truly cosmic powers...

Re: How much attention do you give to powers' Senses visibility rules? RE: Requiring players to define the groups. Actually, I bypass a lot of this with a few standards 1> Every non-mental power is visible to normal sight. 2> Except in VERY special cases, sense number two is normal sound 3> When in doubt, sense number three is mental 3a> If the defense is ED, sense number three should probably be Radio (as static if nothing else). 3b> If the defense is PD, sense number three could well be olfactory (sensing the sweat the physical exertion causes, for example)

Re: Wanting to make a character, need advice. Concept: Yeah, the A->B->C thing needs work. As to the multiple concepts? It can work, when done right. I'd recommend working toward being able to do specific things than a broad concept -- with multiple power sources like this, if you go the VPP route you end up with Duex Ex Machina Woman, and that's only good for a solo campaign (one player, one GM).

Re: How much attention do you give to powers' Senses visibility rules? I'm from the "borderline fascist" school when it comes to the 3-sense rule; I enforce it even for movement powers, density increase, armor and force fields (which isn't the canon rules). However, in many cases I allow them to be bought to "effectively invisible" for +1/4 whenever I feel it's appropriate. Of course, the reason for this is that the PC's are quite careful on sense issues -- one has a perpetual darkness field, and the other three all have alternate targetting senses. So I *have* to pay a little bit more attention than most Why would 3-senses matter for movement powers? Because someone using a power should be easier to detect than someone that isn't, in my opinion. If Sapphire and Nightduck are both in a darkness field, and Sapphire is hovering while Nightduck is standing still, Sapphire's active flight (even just the portion needed to hover) should make her easier to hear.

Re: Silver Avenger Write-up? For my own campaign world, the Silver Avengers clock in anywhere from 400 to 600 points. Of course the Golden Avenger clocks in just shy of 2000 points in my campaign world -- the PC's are ~450-500 point supervillains, and the Champions range from 575 (IronClad) to 656 (Solitaire and KnightSeeker). BTW, I don't have Champions Universe handy but I thought that 1 in 1,000,000 ratio was global -- that the US is better than this. Here's a link for the ratios I use in my own campaign world.

Re: Your Character's Comic Book Well, my 'GM-PC' is one of the most hated villains in the campaign universe... /sarcasm on ...so he'd want Rob Liefiled to do the artwork, so he'd have an excuse to do something not-nice to that alleged 'artist'

Re: Old Villians Made New I'm not sure if they're considered ICE-age or not, but in a perfect world I'd have long ago been able to post my CLOWN-5th Edition remix (not conversion, remix).

Re: Thinking about stats below 10 There are times I've wanted to run an experiment with making *all* skills start at 6+(stat/5), under the theory that it would make an 11- roll genuinely "career worthy".

Re: how to attack end Drain or Transfer would be the normal method, the problem being the recovery rate at 5 pts per turn. You're wanting it to recovery at REC rate, as normal. You've got a couple of different routes. #1> Attach a limit to the Drain/Transfer that it recovers at the REC rate -- which will normally be faster than the return rate (effectively 10 END a Turn). How much of a limit this is depends on how big the REC rate is expected to be in your campaign world . If that's only 10 REC, that's no limit at all. If that's around 20 REC, -1/2 would be appropriate. #2> 1 STUN = 1 character points, 2 END = 1 character point. If you don't mind rule-twisting, you could simply build an Energy Blast and define the damage as affecting character points in END instead. The problem would be what defense it works against -- this is really only appropriate if the power is defending against by ED or PD; powers of this nature generally work against Power Defense. Based on the SFX, I'd say ED could be very appropriate. Be warned this is outside the canon rules and not something I've tried, so I'd recommend watching it very closely.

Re: Headlines in your campaign Here's a few I'm prepping for the next campaign handout The Constitutional Reform Party is dead. Long live the United Reformers League Citing the 'inconvenient' acronym of their previous name, (insert NPC name) announced the party's new name at a press conference today. "This is just another step in renovating our party away from the earlier extremists of Kenneth Keith Kyles and toward the desire of the American public for a real and viable third party." He reaffirmed the party's decision not to run a Presidential candidate for 2004, to better concentrate on the 174 House and 23 Senate races they already have candidates running for and adding to that list. "We need to learn from the examples of Teddy Roosevelt and Jesse Ventura -- you have to lay a foundation first, or you'll waste all your time dealmaking." Continued UN Fallout Another longtime UN official has resigned as part of the investigation into the Aberrant Agenda. Several sources close to the investigation, speaking anonymously, report that Georgio Tremblay of Canada has agreed to turn state's evidence in exchange for amnesty. President Bush has been very vocal in his insistence that anyone who knew about the project will not be allowed to plead diplomatic immunity. "Anyone who knew of these barbaric experiments and kept this secret barely deserves to be considered a human being," he said in very blunt terms in a televised address three nights ago. Kofi Annan initially suggested it was a frame job, given that it was the mercenary nova group The Ravagers that exposed the research facility at which experiments on live humans was being performed. However a member of Team Tomorrow -- the Weather Witch -- has vouched for the authenticity of the claims and was part of the expose. ...more to come...

Re: Uncontrollable and Casual Strenght I've done it as a Physical Limit -- "Minimum STR: Cannot use less than 1/3 of STR score" Why 1/3? Because 1/2 was already taken and 1/4 wasn't limiting enough

Re: Sky High Gamer's Eye Micro-Review My opinion, no more, and no less. This one accepted the genre conventions -- it didn't mock them, and it didn't flaunt them. So yeah, we got the yellow spandex... and 90% of the audience didn't blink. We have a pair of glasses making Commander unrecognizable -- but we also have the villain that figured out their secret identities with amazing ease. Because the characters being superpowered wasn't the point of the movie. The whole movie was about being a high schooler, giving them superpowers just made it easier to laugh by distancing what you were seeing on the screen from, say, your own real-life sadistic gym teacher who would put a freshman in a contact sport against seniors. I can't make this point strong enough -- because the actors were capable actors that were enjoying themselves. I happen to believe Lynda Carter and Bruce Campbell would have fought tooth-and-nail for those roles, they seemed to enjoy themselves so much. Compare this to the 'actress' who played Storm in the X-Movies, who seemed to be bored half the time and frustrated at her role the other half. And for the kid actors? Don't be surprised several of them end up having great careers (they were all capable, which is saying something). This next one might catch fire, but it deserves mention -- these characters had no baggage. Even if they were obvious one-offs, you didn't have arguments about whose vision of that character was being portrayed. I think this contributed to the success of The Incredibles as well. The Disney "Feel Good" factor. Mock it all you want, because it deserves about 75% of the mocking it gets. But when it's attached to a good movie, it makes it that much better (see "Angels in the Outfield" for another time it worked). I'd like to say it was well written -- but that wouldn't be correct. I will however say it wasn't poorly written, which is a compliment relative to some silver-screen members of this genre...

Re: Sky High The Movie First movie I've seen this year with a legitimate chance of making my DVD shelf, fluff or not