TheEmerged

Re: Supers & Media: Fatal Attraction. The media and the PC's in the campaign I'm currently running have a love-hate relationship with each other. The party is on the verge of becoming media "darlings" (remember, they're villains so this would be a Jesse James or Bonnie & Clyde comparison), especially if the next session goes their way (they're appearing on "Sidekick", a super-powered "Apprentice"). The hate part? One of the PC's has "Reputation 14-, Extreme Reaction: one of the most hated novas in existance" on his character sheet. It's established that the campaign equivalent of Superman/Captain Marvel stated in an interview that this character was one of "less than a dozen people in history, and the only one alive today, I could justify killing." Dr. Destroyer was believed to be dead at the time that statement was made, of course... And the other PC's have since learned the hatred is at least partially personal.

Re: Comliness Perk Here's a rough standard I use. It's mostly based on female standards, because I'm not very good at judging male attractiveness -20: You're as ugly as a human being can comprehend. -10: You *are* the ugly stick. The Elephant Man before he got some help. -5: You definitely got beat by the ugly stick. 0: You're as ugly as a person can be without actually be deformed. 5: You are below average -- not enough that someone would actually *call* you ugly, but they'll act that way. 8: Average. The is the score Joe & Jane Public has. 10: Above Average. You're pleasant enough but not so much so that most people would remark on it. 12: Noticably above average. 14: Standard high school cheerleader -- pretty, but not stunning. 16: Homecoming Queen/Office Babe. Everybody knows one or two of these. 18: Beauty pagent contestant. 20: Handsome/Beautiful. You're probably seen a few 20 COM people in your life. 22: "Movie Star" -- someone with this score can make a career out of their appearance alone. 24: "Stunner". If you've met someone with this score, chances are you brag about it. The hottest of supermodels comes in here, as do 'second tier' comic book women like The Wasp or Huntress. 26: "Comic Book Babe". You have the seemingly-impossible build of an attractive woman in a comic book, such as Psylocke or Wonder Woman. 28: Just this side of humanity. 30: You're as handsome/beautiful as someone can be and be considered human.

Re: Tell me about you're JLA The Justice Battalion officially has 12 members, although one of them is 'semi-retired' and there are a number of Level 1 "associate" members (250pts in a campaign where the PC's started with 375). Most are either direct one-offs, parodies, or "mix-n-mingles" of either JLA members or others I felt were appropriate. They are based in Cincinnati, sharing the Union Terminal with the local PRIMUS base. For those of you not from the area, the Union Terminal *is* the "Hall of Justice" HYPERION: Campaign version of Superman/Captain Marvel, semi-retired founder of the group who currently runs Neutral Ground/Sanctuary. Was around 1500pts in his heyday (remainder of sentence deleted for campaign subplot reasons) MEGA: One-off of Supergirl, originally designed to be the woman pictured on Champions Universe cover since named "Megera" I believe. At 900pts she's a mid-range Level 3 (the PC's are Level 2 even now at 425-450 pts). Equal parts brick (STR 80, DEF 35) and speedster (33 DEX, 8 SPD), she's actually more tricked out than powered up. A considerable number of her powers/characteristics however are bought -1/2 "Not vs Magic". VICTORY: One-off/parody of Wonder Woman, no relation whatsoever to the official Victory. The Nova Cheerleader clocks in around 850pts, and is most frightening for her terrifying combination of 48 DEX, 8 SPD -- and 11d6 NND. Unlike Mega she's more raw power than useful abilities (she's powered up instead of tricked out). Like Mega she has some key weaknesses (well over 75% of her points are locked in powers/characteristics with either IAF, OIF, or OAF). KHAN: Krypto one-off, the Dachshund Defender & spokes-sentient for Khan's Meats. He can talk and his Telekinesis means he doesn't have many of the form limitations for a Dachshund, but is still subject to all canine laws of the area (such as the one that says he must be indoors, behind a fence, or on a leesh). He clocks in a little over 300 pts. HYDROMAN: For all practical purposes, Man O' War (from the Freedom Force game) standing in as Aquaman, without the electric effects and clocking in around 500pts. POWER TWINS: Gamid and Gavin, of Crux (Crossgen Comics) standing in for Zahn and Jahna. Level 1 energy manipulators (275 pts) -- one sub-visible, one super-visible -- that can team up to fire off 150-pt active blasts when they can get their act together. GARGANTUJUAN: Lifted from "The Crossovers" (Crossgen), adjusted to be a straight brick with a slight growth schtick (ala Apache Chief). SHAYARA: Zatana one-off clocking off around 400pts. FLYING SQUIRREL: Batman half-parody/half one-off, written up to be just smart enough to be really stupid (around 400pts). BAETHAN ELECTRUM: Booster Gold, as a female, with the original power set (including Desolidification & Missile Reflection) and personality. Comes in around 400 pts. GOSHAWK: Name comes from a villain from VOICE of Doom, but built to be a Hawkman one-off with a futuristic bent instead of ancient. DJINN: (Details deleted for campaign subsplot reasons). STRAND: Actually inspired by a picture in Classic Enemies, she's a 'true build' (that is, from scratch) ALEXANDRIA, THE LIBRARIAN: The other 'true build' in the group, she's a support character based on around 900 points. She's almost a complete noncombatant, but it isn't her DC and DEF that you should be scared off -- it's her x1000000 Rapid Sight, Rapid Hearing, and internet connection There are others but that's the main roster.

Re: DEMON cover previews out! Just a question, did you *realize* your new look is so close to Solitaire's?

Re: Bringing up Everyman Skills I use to allow this. I have since decided otherwise but this is not something I'm evangelistic about (that is, I won't try to convince anyone my opinion is right). It just... feels wrong to me.

Re: Comliness Perk It would be doable -- I use COM somewhat similarly myself (5 pts of COM above 10 or below 0 = +1 or +1d6 to appropriate skill rolls or PRE attacks), and it works well enough.

Re: Desolidification Trick ... De-Armoring? Not if the armor has the Focus limitation

Re: The horror, the horror. European Enemies "debugged." Mark me down as eagerly awaiting your take on Sir Gawain -- I used Multiform for my rewrite, you going that way or partially limited? And I agree that Carpathia is one of the "diamonds in the rough" of EE.

Re: DEMON cover previews out! RE: Steve Trevor. Interesting note: Lyle Wagnor (spelling?) is very conspicuous by his absence from the WW Season 1 DVD collection's special features.

Re: Champions Minus, 5E Version! I believe this was reprinted in HERO Almanac 2. My personal favorites were "Marshall Dodge" and "Martial Law".

Re: DEMON cover previews out! Is it just me, or is Witchcraft's costume starting to look more and more like Solitaire's? And that's clearly Defender doing the Steve Trevor "Bunny Eyes" impersonation

Re: How do you deal with difficult powers Prevention is always worth more than Correction. Always. Period, end of sentence, and almost end of discussion Before the players began making characters I emailed them a file detailing several important aspects of the world. That Mental Defense is a figured attribute and therefore *everybody* has at least a couple points of it, for example, was not news to them (I've used this for almost ten years now). That there was a campaign-world backlash against psionic powers because a mentalist almost conquerored the world in the 70's was something of news but not unexpected (we all agreed that having telepathic characters in the past almost ruined mysteries). The players responded with some rather creative character concepts that have been a blast to play with (even the one less-than-creative "bouncy boy, as an insect" concept). Don't feel that just because it exists in the system or in the genre you have to allow it. Don't feel that just because the players want it means you should allow something that's going to ruin the game for the rest of the playerbase. And while you're at it, don't be a jerk just because you can make rules either. This is a game and it's meant to be fun -- if your rules don't make it fun or at least preserve fun, it shouldn't be a rule.

Re: Has anyone Done this?: Sidekick Now that my finances are starting to stabilize, I should be able to actually take a look at it before too long. Then I could post a comparison similar to the one I did between 4th & 5th on my website...

Re: Tactical Challenge: Eurostar

Re: GM Query: House Rules Imbalance? Consider this, bblackmoor: it's practically a figured attribute already. Everyone that pays one point for more MD already gets the "figured" points from EGO. All it ends up doing is keeping Cumulative from becoming too easily overpowered. And I say that from having tried Cumulative back when "Ultimate Mentalist" came out.

Re: GM Query: House Rules Main reason I disagree, zornwil, is that EGO & INT go up through the "age" categories -- so therefore I say MD should as well.

Basic concept: after the success of "Survivor: Destruga" (otherwise known as Sanctuary/Neutral Ground), Pooka and Mark Burneet (the guy behind "Survivor" and "The Apprentice" have decided to run a Apprentice-like show centering on novas (campaign term for people with superpowers). Basic premise: the contestants are low-powered novas (250 pts). They are going to be paired up with established, higher-powered novas -- including the PC's. The established novas are to mentor the lower-powered novas through a series of challenges. There will be four teams -- two black hat, two white hat. The team that wins each challenge gets a reward, the team that comes in last has one of its pairs (established and newbie) eliminated by a "captain". I've already established that Merry Andrews is going to come out of retirement to play Captain for the two teams of black hat novas. Issue The First. Who should be the Captain (taking Don Trump's role) for the two white hat teams: Warbird (an almost direct translation of the Marvel character)? Or Foxbat (who made it to the round of 4 in Survivor: Destruga)? Issue The Second: Challenges! I'll need 15 of them. The final round will have the two remaining sidekicks leading a team of their fellow sidekicks in a direct confrontation. The first round is similarly pre-decided: a series of "moneybags" are being hid throughout a fake town, in places representing "targets". The challenge is timed. The black hat teams get a point for each moneybag they successfully bring out of the town; the white hat teams get individual credit for each "moneybag" they intercept and split credit for those not found (for every 2 unfound "moneybags", each white hat team gets 1 point). Another idea I have for a late-round challenge (when it's down to one team on each side) is for a "bombing". The black hats have one hour to build and place a 'bomb' somewhere in the fake city. The white hats then have one hour to find and disarm the bomb. The black hats cannot confront the white hats (with intention to delay) until two minutes after they've found the bomb. If the bomb goes off the black hats win, otherwise the white hats win. Any other ideas? Issue the Third: Obviously at some point the teams with the same hat color are probably going to have to merge, or perhaps one team will simply be eliminated leaving the other. Any other plot twists sound good?

Re: WWYCD #90: Brainwave This would knock The Disruptor up to a 60 INT -- and he's already got "Difficulty relating to normal people" as a 15pt Social Disadvantage

Re: The 3 sense groups rule Here's my standard for the 3SR. Sense one should be Mental for mental powers, sight otherwise. Exceptions here require extremely good reasons. Sense two should be Sound, except for a Darn Good Reason. Note this is a weaker standard than the above. Sense Three: when in doubt, it's Mental. Some powers with an "energy" special effect are going to be visible to the Radar group; just about anything else is going to be Olfactory (smelling the sweat of physical labor, the smell of gunpowder, the residual smoke from a fire attack, the ozone from a lightning attack, and so forth). Touch: Touch is in my opinion covered under the Hide Effects of Power advantage, not a "mere" sense group. That is not a canon ruling but has the effect of such when I'm GM. The "Fourth Sense" -- all powers are visible to Detect Active Use of Power, unless a> specifically bought IPE against that sense (targetting, unusual) or b> bought Hide Effects of Power. This is also true of Detect Magic (a 10-pt Detect if ever there was) in a Fantasy setting.

Re: Who have you updated? The Protectors (as circa 800pt experienced team) -- including Victrix and Jo-Tan of the Freedom Squad. Most of CLOWN, including a few new members (like Master Mime and the Pun-isher). I've tried tracking down Stan West to see if I can get permission to post them... Solitaire, Seeker, and Jaguar of 4th Ed Champions -- done to around 650 pts. I also revamped Defender, Ironclad, and Sapphire from 5th Edition into the same area. Mammoth, of European Enemies, pumped up to a 1000+ pt mastermind-style villain and renamed Mastodon. I kept Sanctuary as a concept, but I dropped most of the 4th Edition cast (except Hyperion) in favor of my own NPC's. My next project will probably be Deathstroke, which is likely to find its roster expanded.

Re: What's the difference... To me, the standard is that Multiform represents a change while OIHID represents an addition. For example, one of the PC's in my current campaign is a 16-form Multiform. The forms differ quite a bit; some of them share as little as 10% with the main form (mostly DEX and SPD points). Another has OIHID defined as "only when powered up", pretty similar to Collosus in that respect. He has the same disadvantages, the same skills -- except that one of them is basically an ordinary guy and the other is an ordinary guy with super powers

Re: Sell me on Hero! You've played other RPG systems, right? Ever had a problem with them? For example, did you feel that GURPS magic system was too redundant, or that D&D Psionics had some obvious holes? Ever try to correct those problems? HERO isn't so much an RPG system as an RPG creation system. If you're willing to do the work -- and I won't lie to you about the fact there's a lot of front-end work here -- you can balance the system exactly the way you want to with the help of consist mechanics. Yes, there's front end work: work that allows you to operate more smoothly once the actual session starts. I find with HERO that I almost never have to open the books during play once I have the combat charts (via the GM Screen in my case).

Re: [iron] Why do you dislike the Four Color/Silver age (No Flames please) /humor on Because I started buying comics during the Silver Age, and therefore remember it as oppossed to idealizing it /humor off

Re: Object Creation No, personally I use Summoning as the default "How Do I..." for object creation. Master Mime*, for example, uses these for his Invisible Dogs, Invisible Roc's, and other "fire and forget" powers. Many other of the 'invisible objects' he can create are handled via "reason from special effect". His invisible fireman's pole is handled via Gliding (verticle only), his invisible ladder is usually handled via Superleap (limited horizontal movement), his invisible wall is handled by a combination of Force Wall and Missile Deflection. Many are handled by a weak (45pt) VPP, others are bought outright. *One of several new members for CLOWN I've developed, in his particular case inspired by USPDB pg 4). Now if I can just find Stan West to get permission to post/publish them...

Re: What's the Big Difference? I actually plan on using the following as a plot in the future of my campaign, so I'm "spoiler texting" it. To read, "quote" this post and read the text between the greater & lesser than signs.