Doc Democracy

Re: How would you simulate this? Am I wrong or are we getting caught up in trying to describe the special effects rather than the mechanics? Could a homing round not simply provide a lot of OCV and take a couple of segments to reach its target? My reasoning is that if I make a to hit roll but the target does not take damage immediately and indeed may have even a slight chance of getting something in the way, then that is a limitation on my attack (I should get to do the damage immediately). If the limitation is something like (missile travels 10" per segment, follows target unerringly once 'locked on' -1/4) then someone could get themselves behind a closed door that would take the hit (if they could travel faster than the 10"/segment to the door), otherwise they'd get hit a few segments after I fired the round. My 'to hit' roll would simulate the lock on. If I failed the attack roll then I wouldn't have managed to lock on to the target at all and the missile would miss. My suggestion is to buy an EB with the limitation as above - the round you are talking about isn't better than a regular shot it is worse. Doc

Re: Possession - Desolid + Mental Powers The construct I've been toying with for possession is a combo of transform and duplication... Essentially what I'm thinking is that the possessing character buys duplication. When he wants to possess someone then he uses the transform to transform the target into the merged character of which he is part. The merged character would have the INT and EGO of the possesser and everything else from the possessed character. My thoughts are that there a limit on how big (points wise) a character could possibly be possessed through the point limits in the duplication construction. It seems a bit twisted at first but it does use an existing construction to combine two characters into one. I haven't done any number crunching or anything but I think it would be a reasonable way to make Jericho for example... Doc

Re: How to...take all powers away. I think that transform was created for this kind of thing. The original argument in Champions III (if I remember correctly) was that if you could do enough damage to kill someone then you should be able to do other things to them instead - such as strip them of all their powers...

Re: Weapons as Perks When I first saw the title I thought that you were going to require characters to buy perks to be allowed to use particular weapons - such as only a knight could carry a sword and only a yeoman would be allowed access to a long bow. Obviously not. I was interested in the idea of people looting dead bodies for weapons though. If you wanted to charge for points and avoid the looting problem then maybe you want to make the campaign work against looting. My friend and I came up with an anti-cliche campaign where we tried to put in ground rules that would reverse any of the standard fantasy genre stuff. We wanted to stop the looting of bodies etc and so came up with the idea that the possessions of someone who died, unless they were replaced with something of equal value would carry a geas. The person who stole an item would be bound to complete an unfinished task of the dead person. This geas would be more powerful with the value or power of the item. Obviously this would not stop looting but it would make people think more than twice and would potentially lead to interesting campaign twists as well. Doc

Re: The DEATH of the HERO System!!!

Re: The DEATH of the HERO System!!! It depends where in the country you are. In the north then dinner will be lunch and in the south it is more likely to mean supper... It can casue confusion.

Re: The DEATH of the HERO System!!! I'd just like to add that I was impressed at the supply of damaged books to the UK, when shipping is taken into account DOJ were almost paying me to take books. When you're next over here Steve (or any of the other DOJ staffers) then dinner is on me. Doc

Re: Lethality in Star Wars It does seem to be a genre issue. The mechanics thing to do is, like people have suggested, make blaster damage against NPCs killing and against PCs normal. That simple change does increase the longevity of PCs compared to everyone else - it also avoids many other changes. If you also standardise damage from the stormtroopers weapons (3 STUN/1 BODY per dice) it also means that only you have to be aware of the differences on a minute by minute basis (I'd tell the players of their special advantage so that they feel more free to swashbuckle while others are falling around them). The CV differences are also important. I wouldn't make stormtrooper armour valueless - they did simply seem to walk through the rebels when it came to close combat. I would discourage the wearing of stormtrooper armour by players (except for camouflage purposes) by telling them that when they are wearing it they will take killing damage like everyone else... These help enforce genre conventions and would all be a good thing as far as I'm concerned. Doc

Re: Building Political Intrege I think that the advice has been good so far. Keep it simple and keep the PCs involved. I would have some broad relationships on a grid (for a few major factions e.g. four noble houses, Mayor, thieves guild, adventurers guild etc). These would inform specific relationships for particular NPCs (who would only have to be detailed if the PCs were to meet them and find this out). PCs might be expected to know the broad outlines but only you would have to know the detailed ones. In fact, intrigue becomes real when the relationship depends on who is telling you about it (it takes a lot of work to find out who is really on who's side). Doc

Re: The Force--Need Help! I would have some distinction between light and dark side stuff. We all know that the dark side is quicker, easier, more seductive... I would allow players to buy powers whenever they want them with the proviso that they know that powers bought when xp aren't immediately available are likely to come through the dark side - I'd give physical and psychological disads to the cost of the power used. I'd also allow players to push powers beyond their normal strengths - again at the cost of accumulating Phys and Psych disads (always something bad). That would give the feel that the Dark Side is easier to use but leads to the inevitable decline of the person. I might even allow the amount that a power can be pushed to increase based on the points of dark side related disads already present on the character sheet.... Doc

Re: Demo Game Well, there's always the old Wolfman standby - weres are rife through mythology and there were always stories of nobles and others that could change into animals....

Re: Deathstroke Hmm. Interesting stuff. I made a Deathstroke clone for my 4th edition game that was essentially some pretty average stats beefed up with SPD 12 and a stack of combat levels. The 12 SPD meant that he had plenty of opportunity to either pour on the pain or recover himself. The reasoning worked well - for the first time the group worked like a team (after they got their butts handed to them in the first fight) delaying so that someone was attacking on every single segment - thus reducing his chance to recover or switch to attack mode, ignoring DCV in a segment where no hero could attack to maximise damage etc. They won the second encounter with relative ease (at least they made him run away). Doc

Re: Finally figured out what I hate about Star Wars in RPGs All of the examples where none of these three took place were against Jedi. I'd say that Jedi 'magic' is in play here. It could be power defence of some kind and it could be some other instant heal or equivalent that means there is a lesser effect. I'm not saying that I completely agree with the original proposal but I don't think that showing effects on Jedi are a ggod way to go about disproving it. Personally I'm inclined to give light sabres damage for non-jedi using them but they would essentially be just a focus for jedi powers for any Jedi user - they wouldn't utilise the damage that the weapon provides but focus their force use through it... Doc

Re: Help on character requested. Personally, I'd build the duplicates with one power each. You can build your main character with a multipower but build each duplicate to have only one power. Limit each slot in the multipower with not when being used by a duplicate (-1/2). At any one time you'll have the main character with an increasingly limited multipower as the duplicates come out until you have four duplicates with one power each and the main character who would only be able to use one power in the multipower. Doc

Re: Multiple-Power Attacks--Untenable Rule I haven't played under 5th yet - lack of opportunity and too many other games to play in the time we have. However, I see MPA as a good addition to a toolkit, I think you have to remember that there are not really 'standard' rules anymore if you buy into the toolkit approach. I might consider making MPA a perk - possibly 5 points or so and that allows two combinations (as agreed with the GM) and an extra combination for every point spent (all with GM agreement). I'd argue that it isn't just for supers - I can think immediately of several sci-fi scenes where a starship goes into a situation full on - firing from all directions (in Star Trek alone I can think of several scenes from TNG and DS9 where a ship uses MPA style attacks). I'm sure given time I could think of examples from fantasy and other genres as well. Perhaps your qualms about it could be soothed simply by making a ruling in your game that MPAs have to be agreed before a session begins. That allows you to discuss the combinations (and their reasonableness) out of the context of a tense combat situation. Doc

Re: First Superhero Campaign, please advise My only advice would be to make sure that the superhero style you are using is one that the players want to play in. If they don't like or don't 'get' the genre then every adventure you run will be fighting against the players and feel like much harder work than it should. Same as any game but other games tend to be more obvious as to the genre 'bits' and conventions that the GM and players agree to abide by. Frex, in the Silver Age a player _knows_ that if he gets beaten up he will not be killed and his mask will not be removed but he may be moved to a death trap.... That would not hold true in an Iron Age game - the players might quite justifiably be upset to get moved to a death trap but not if a villain killed them. Doc

Re: Power Cells

Re: Clarifying Core Defense Mechanic Don't know about anyone else but this whole argument says to me that we do need a simpler more coherent structure for defence costs. Sean is right the logical extreme is that we have six basic mechanical effects with shed loads of advantages and limitations but I think there is a happy place somewhere between here and there. Having basic defence costs based on 1pt per point of defence and other things added to that seems sensible to me. It doesn't seem sensible that differnent pre-costed packages cost more or less than each other. In fact, I curse the man who informed me of the disparities - I was happy in my ignorance! Doc

Re: Power Cells The reason for using END Reserve is that END Reserves are a power in themselves while charges are a limtation/advantage. The END reserve works like charges if you standardise the END costs of weapons in your campaign. So hand blasters use 1 END, rifles cost 2 END, carbiones cost 3 END. Your END reserve with 20 END therefore has 20 charges and hand blaster use 1 charge, rifles cost 2 etc. I would buy the END Reserve as an OIF with the independent limitation on the power as well. Obviously you have to decide how you will allow the power cell to recharge. I'm not sure that the overload should be bought as part of the weapon as you would have to decide whether you limit the size of the explosion or buy it for every weapon as the maximum possible explosion for the biggest available power cell. The alternative would be to buy the explosion as part of the power cell - thus you'd know how big an explosion any particular weapon would be able to cause by looking at the power cell it uses rather than the weapon wielded. I am of the black box side of things - Even if I did work it out the equipment list would only be 'DeVille Power Cell 40' etc. That helps to create atmosphere and keep the players in the setting. END Reserve, 40 END, 5 REC (only when connected to recharging device) take them right back to Champs... Doc

Re: Pulp archtypes. My favourite pulp character was one played by my friend (who in other genres was a confirmed mad slasher). The character was a society gal who was looking for thrills (an archetype I don't think has been mentioned yet). Catherine DuPont was a stunner and highly intelligent (so made a great investigative type, specially when there was high society stuff going on) armed with only a derringer in the stocking top and who had a physical limitation that the first action in any combat situation was to stand and scream... Class character. Doc

Re: I got the snot beat out of me in my first HERO combat......... As I know you don't know what a 4th edition haymaker is Shem, I'll tell you. Rather than adding a few dice damage you get 1.5 times your str damage. So if Darkstar had haymakered you, you'd have taken 24D6, not just 16... Doc

Re: Tales Of The Gold Monkey I have only vague recollections of content but I know that I enjoyed it - for what that is worth. I don't think it would be essential viewing but it would probably be good core stuff.

Re: Pulp Reading It's the same principle I think. If there is a rumour of a lost tribe sitting in a city of gold - you can bet your bottom dollar that it is true (in enough aspects as make any difference) but if the local ghost is suddenly being seen by everyone and his dog then the 'fact' of the ghost is almost certainly false!

Re: Pulp Reading

Re: New FH GM looking for advice That's good advice - when we only have three people available we'll boardgame - it allows the group to bond and socialise and like greymankle says gets people in the habit of turning up.