Doc Democracy

Re: The Power of Presence

Re: The Power of Presence It's a long time since I played with a character who had excessive PRE. One of the things that I used to limit the effectiveness (the PC had perfected ways of making massed ranks of agents turn and run) was to allow leaders of the opposite side to have a casual PRE defence. If the leader of the opposition has 20 PRE then he would have a 4D6 PRE attack. Half of that (casual) would be 10 PRE which would counter 2D6 of the attacking PRE attack. This seemed a pretty fair way of counting in the effect of charasmatic or impressive leaders without requiring any rolls or anything else. Of course the same rule meant that the PCs were pretty much immune from PRE attacks while Mr PRE was around. Doc

Re: How far have you gone? There's a whole other can of worms! I think there was a thread on something like that in the past six months or so. Possibly not surprisingly there was no such thing as a consensus on that! What is sacrosanct to some (like the speed chart) is valueless to others. GIR was supposed to address some of that issue. Doc

Re: Painful Entangle Now this was what I thought of immediately, though I thought "Must make EGO roll to attempt break-out". Wasn't sure how to cost this into the Entangle though. Sean's Mind Control could be a way though that would require an CON roll? My thought was to link two entangles, one would be a continuous uncontrollable entangle based on PRE, no BODY and limited DEF which would have to be broken for the normal entangle to be attacked. Each time the PRE entangle was broken then the normal entangle would potentially take damage and then the PRE entangle would reset due to its continuous uncontrollable nature. The PRE entangle would stop resetting when the normal entangle was broken. Expensive I think but it would be a powerful prison for many people. Doc

Re: How far have you gone?

Re: How far have you gone?

Re: How far have you gone?

Re: partial entangle What DR said. You could also, if you were masochistic, construct an intricate complex of drains with delayed return where the effects could also be removed by causing damage to the SFX of the drains. If you wanted to... Doc

Re: How far have you gone? Actually I think it is using the toolkit. The whole game leans on the HERO system quite substantially. I don't think that he'd have devised the whole system on his own and the toolkit provides all of the mechanics that are used in the game - nothing has been brought in from outside. Skills still work like skills but there is the potential for more defined use of stats in them. Combat still works the same as does damage. All the mechanisms are Hero mechanics so I would say its toolkitting, an extreme case perhaps. Doc

Re: Golden Age speedster advice needed Well, when you're in town drop me a line. I'll sort something out. Thanks for the rep! I knew if I kept thinking something should turn up!

Re: How far have you gone?

Re: Golden Age speedster advice needed Probably far too late now Hooligan X but I did have a thought of a name: Hotspur It is probably most famously used now (outside of historical circles) as the name of a football team (Tottenham Hotspur, aka Spurs) but the word actually means: [n] a rash or impetuous person [n] English soldier killed in a rebellion against Henry IV (1364-1403) Cool name for a British speedster. Spurs have a long standing connection with jewishness - I believe as their support was drawn from a part of London where a lot of Jews lived - which might also be another interesting aspect to a character in a WWII situation... Doc

Re: Activate

Re: 2nd Thoughts About the Hit Location Chart Sorry I didn't shed any light... Doc

Re: 2nd Thoughts About the Hit Location Chart I think you need more sophisticated ratios. Vitals is 2 the same as the thighs and feet. A 5 BODY attack on each location however results in the vitals does 10 BODY, 20 STUN, while the same attack on the thighs does 5 BODY, 10 STUN and on the feet does 3 BODY, 5 STUN. A huge range for the same ratio. That is because you aren't taking the absolute values into consideration. The same hit to the leg causes 3 BODY, 10 STUN. A worse outcome than the vitals hit but better than the feet. I don't think that you can draw any absolute conclusions from relative ratios.

Re: 2nd Thoughts About the Hit Location Chart

Re: 2nd Thoughts About the Hit Location Chart Then I thnk you need more sophisticated ratios, simple ones don't do the job that you want - they do not indicate the gameplay result of doing BODY damage to various hit locations. If I had a more instinctive grasp of math then I might be able to come up with something - I think I know what you are reaching for but I can't put it within your grasp. Do you know what you want the ratios to indicate? What message you want them to send? Doc

Re: 2nd Thoughts About the Hit Location Chart

Re: 2nd Thoughts About the Hit Location Chart I quoted it - "..taking your average Joe (STUN 20, BODY 10) then hitting him in the arm by your ratios you could do 6 BODY (and therefore 24 STUN) and have him laid out cold (-4 STUN). You would have to do 9 BODY to the head to get a similar result (-5 STUN)." The ratios imply that result but they are wrong. In play 6 BODY to the Arm will do 12 STUN and 9 BODY to the head will do 45 STUN. The ratios don't take the absolute figures into consideration.

Re: 2nd Thoughts About the Hit Location Chart Yep. No. But the ratios you quote are wrong. Those things don't happen in play and thus the ratios are flawed... Again the problem with the ratios is that they ignore the absolutes. In the stomach versus thigh contest the opponent is more likely to KO and kill the character by aiming at the stomach, 5 BODY to the stomach KOs Joe Average and 7 BODY leaves him dying. It needs 10 BODY to kill or KO hitting the thigh. Chest hits need 10 BODY to kill and 7 BODY to KO, foot hits require 20 BODY to kill or to KO. Obviously your ratios don't even do what I thought very well, but they don't. to me, indicatea problem with the chart. The results are very much as I might expect, it takes less damage to the Stomach than to the Chest or thigh, than to the foot to KO or kill an opponent... Doc

Re: 2nd Thoughts About the Hit Location Chart

Re: Starting from the beginning...help me! I think frustration only occurs if you set their expectation too high. Don't have them involved in things they can't change or affect. If there is a big storyline then have them involved with the parts they can change and influence. For the want of a nail type stuff - they can find that nail. When I ran a group of beginning players - all teenagers though - I had them affiliate with the NPC groups that I wanted to promote, thereby tying them to particular mores and in return provided them with some magic. Rather than a priest of Apollo then they would have amulets that provide so many cure light wounds/cure disease etc per day/per week or whatever. This allowed me not to worry about NPCs, allowed me to whip them in when they wanted to do teenage boy stuff like burn down the house of the guy who dissed them and to tie them into ongoing plots with said organisations. With adult you could have much more political fun with stuff like this and the various groups would likely have distinct prestige classes they may want to try and qualify for - thus tying the characters more closely into the background. You have the opportunity to lay the groundwork when they start from scratch. Beware however - 3rd edition characters gain levels and power very quickly...if the campaign continues expect them to be growing fast - it is good to have options in place for when they have to make such decisions. Doc

Re: Golden Age speedster advice needed You could, in homage to an old Beano character, call her Jilly Whizz. very British.

Re: Starting from the beginning...help me! Are you going to use any of the 'standard' worlds? It can make a difference if you can start with some kind of background already in place. For example, if you have any Greyhawk stuff then the party can be a representation sent from a village to the Free City to adjudicate in a dispute with a merchant. The players would then have to negotiate the biggest metropolis that they would ever have encountered - gain entry to the Merchant's Guild and then persuade someone to take on their case against a merchant. Base plot right there that should bring them into contact with several 'players' in Greyhawk and complications can ensue as required - thieves, beggars, night-time horrors (a couple of skeletons or a zombie could be all that first level characters need). You have a small party for D&D so make sure that if all the bases aren't covered in terms of abilities that you fill in with magic or NPCs. I have found in my games that few people want to take clerics and D&D works best if there is healing about - so my games tend to have a plethora of cheap healing magic (which, I suppose, reinforces the original deficit but it works for me - the supply can dry up whenever I need it to - like stuff players haven't paid the points for in Hero!) Doc

Re: Golden Age speedster advice needed