Jump to content

Doc Democracy

HERO Member
  • Posts

    6,831
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    13

Everything posted by Doc Democracy

  1. Then change the words. "Does not heal undead'.
  2. Sometimes it looks like you guys are looking for ways to spoil cool concepts but I appreciate the dive into rule wrinkles. I think, like CRT, if you are looking at bare mechanics, then nothing is implied. Just because you are adding an area effect heal with an area effect Blast does not mean those areas are the same. You might have a mortar that fires energy at an enemy while the backlash heals those close to the mortar. 🙂 As such, you limit the Blast to ensure its effects overlay the heal. Anything that limits the use of a power limits the power, IMO. If I am going to stop the Blast being used at range, it is limited. Also, I would not rule that "does no damage" is not a limitation just because the attack is low dice, in the same way I would not increase the limitation because it was 20 dice. I most often invoke this rule when the limitation is not limiting either because another limitation effectively covers it or the context of the xampaign means it will never come up. The corollary of this is rarely invoked in the forums that if an advantage is not advantageous it costs no points. I often see advantages suggested that increase the costs of niche powers and might make it seem, to a newcomer, that the system is actively hostile to cool concepts. I like the idea of this power, it would be cool in play and quite evocative. There are obviously issues and wrinkles to iron out and, like many such discussions, it comes down to a finger in the air, testing on what a reasonable amount if points might be. As a GM, I would be looking for reasons to allow it, working through, with the player, how they expect it to work in game. As such, I would waive the need for a compound power. I would allow the does KB on Healing versus undead. It would do the undead no damage, I would lean on the dice rolled on the healing roll to determine the knockback delivered. If anyone was concerned that the healing would heal the undead, I would apply a +0 limitation/advantage on the healing power "not versus undead". I think both the player and I would be on the same page as to what would happen in game, I would be content that the player was playing a reasonable amount of points and END for the additional applicability when there were undead involved. Doc
  3. My question is whether you see healing spells having this effect on all undead, or perhaps only healing spells granted by a particular god? If so, you could probably buy a physical limitation for undead that they take knockback from healing spells cast by [healing god]. That way you don't need to be thinking about the attack and inflicting strange effects. If not, I might think about a trigger on the EB, only happening when the healing is cast on undead. That would save on the END expenditure. That is not necessarily true. You can work out how many points you are spending on the knockback advantage. Say the power was 25 points, and the does knockback was 12 points. You can put the limitation of "only versus undead" on the knockback. Now that is not hugely limiting, but I might give you +1/4 because it doesn't affect other enemies in the area. So the cost of the knockback would be 12 divided by 1.25, or 10 points.
  4. N.K. Jemisin - Broken Earth trilogy I have kind of avoided these books because of the hype - each book won the Hugo for best novel that year. The first book was a 99p deal and so I bought it, then did not read it for about a year. It has an interesting conceit, human communities living on a world so geologically active that there are regular cataclysms that put humanity on the brink of extinction. You get three perspectives on the society and how the people with the ability to psychically touch the earth (for good and bad purposes) are feared and, unless taken into servitude by the state and forced to work for its benefit under the careful watch of the Guardians who can negate their powers and kill them, hunted down and killed. The story examines the current cataclysm, how it affects the various communities and begins to dive back into previous civilisations and some of the strange artefacts that have survived from those previous ages. Personally, it is a decent read but not something so fantastic that I think it stands out, certainly not when Children of Time was published in the same year (and that did not even make the shortlist). Anyone else read the whole series, does it improve each book? The central "twists" of the novel certainly were not twists to me, all pretty much in plain sight from the start. Not saying it was not well-written or even not enjoyable - it passed two days travelling very well, just not what I think about when I think "amazing SF". Doc
  5. I think the working assumption here is that it means a strong EM field. I caught a player with that limitation who blithely walked into a fight scene with a minor villain close to three mobile phone masts. Each had an agent who was focussing the beam onto the combat scene. He could not fly and his force field failed to come on. He was forced to rely on powers he rarely deployed and was suddenly grateful I had not allowed the limitation on his multi power. Never again did he sail into combat without first assessing the risks, and his force field was soon "hardened" against EM interference. Doc
  6. Are you familiar with Glorantha? The priests of the Lunar Empire suffer from their magical ability being cyclical in power until they manage to build a Temple of the Reaching Moon and extend the Glow line, within which their magic is constant. Feels a bit similar. Hmm. Coming to it from a spell focus is interesting. Every spell might come with a limitation of the level of Mana needed for it to be available. So the more powerful spells are either cast in urban areas or need a dedicated mana engine to facilitate it's casting. The mana is ambient power rather than the personal power of the caster and so the creation/ownership of such engines (relics etc, ark of the covenant) would be heavily contested. I guess the way this works means that Wats of conquest are reasonably rare as defensive combat drawing on native power gives an advantage over foreign magic users. It would also mean that civil wars are bigger and bloodier.
  7. In my teens and early 20s, I subscribed to White Dwarf. It was brilliant. I anticipated the envelope coming through the door and read it from cover to cover. I unsubscribed when it changed from being a doorway to the community to a doorway to the GW saleroom. I have nothing like that today. In my experience, gamers like racking gaming as much, if not more than actually gaming. I think the rise of actual play streaming and stuff comes from that place. I think therefore that game companies took a wrong turn in thinking more books drive more revenue. Instead they needed to be thinking that more community drives more revenue. I bought White Dwarf every month for years, absolutely there was content in there, I used a chunk of it and read the rest. It created personalities for me (Lew Pulsipher, Phil Masters and Marcus Rowland were my celebrities). There is some of this in the industry but the companies themselves are pretty poor at it. I think Wizards could make money by giving the community space and they would get the "rent" they need that way, while using that to drive consumption of good quality product (from which artists and writers got paid living wages). I think the patron model comes close to this but it still feels a little bit soulless. I would be happier with a patreon that fed my need to connect with my tribe than one that just feeds me product. Doc
  8. To be honest, I would not make you pay for that. The game is about paying for utility and getting colour for free. We often remove that colour in the interests of balance and fairness to the detriment of gameplay. "I want prehensile hair" "What can it do?" "Lower my glasses, comb itself and maybe point in a direction" "Cool, write it on the character sheet, no points. If you want to do more useful stuff in game, the first time is a power stunt, after that it costs" Strap in! Duke is gonna type a STORY!!! 😁
  9. I am interested in the general play mechanics of ley lines. So, if you are a wizard, you build your tower on strong, or a nexus of weak ley-lines that you tap for power. Or, do you avoid those because opponents have ready access to power sources if they attack you. Are all ley lines the same, like electric cables? Or do they have different "flavours" so that you might build on a stasis ley line with little evocation or illusion ley lines present? I presume major lines are reasonably stable and predictable, like old telephone lines but outside that you might have more mobile phone like "patchy reception". Can all wizards "see" all ley lines or might they be blind to certain flavours? During encounters, there may be some manoeuvring to get the best reception for your casters compared to the opposition. How do you represent that in play and how do you adjudicate in a random encounter where little pre-planning was possible? Are these the things you were thinking about?
  10. In original Traveller, IIRC,every stat was a damage. Wasn't a game I played much, so I might be wrong. In this case, however, my perspective is simply that Max END becomes variable in gameplay. If you use physical tokens (I like doing that for END and STUN), it is a matter of a separate cup, to put unavailable END tokens into.
  11. I liked Sean's suggestion. It is analogous to long term end loss. The more big hits you take, the less able you are to take damage and longer healing requirement. Not for supers but definitely in more heroic genres. Doc
  12. Set up a base i the bit that gives me pause. Beyond that, it is the old Instant Change power (now a cosmetic transform) with a focus (probably IIF). Doc
  13. In my job it would be entirely impossible. I also cosume my news online and I play games with my friends online (both console and boardgames). It means I still game with friends who are in Scotland while I am in London. I think the internet enhances my life, I read about games and gaming, I download books that I read offline when I am commuting, I check the availability of trains and buses online while on the commute and stay in touch with my team as we work hybridly.
  14. And I thought I was old. My phone cost £150 and I pay £10/month for unlimited minutes, texts and social media with 60GB data for everything else. I think modern life demands an internet connection and a mobile phone is the most convenient way to achieve that. I fully expect the next generation of ROGs to integrate a mobile device in accessing rules and being an interactive character sheet at the gaming table rather than a distraction.
  15. I have been in London for 25 years now, there has never been a wet year, not compared to the West of Scotland...
  16. Hmm. I hate to go against explicit rule descriptions. What about a "gate" teleport, with physical manifestation that passes through intervening space. The SFX are walking through a dry passage...
  17. Going to jump the shark.... I propose Summon. Create the most passive, non aggressive Water Elemental. It appears, goes to where you want it and stays there. All it has is size. Should be pretty cheap.... 🙂 Doc
  18. For the red sea style thing, I might be inclined to use tunnelling where the "tunnel" remains intact. If the radius of the tunnel is enough, you get to the surface, or you might give the headroom for free. Depends on what additional use you think the character might make of having a u-pipe rather than a pipe.
  19. I think there is less handwaving than in other things. At least barrier is fundamentally about creating volumes of some substance or another. The big handwave is allowing people to move through the barrier without causing it damage, everything else is about aplying the standard environmental effects of being inside a body of water. We would not create a pool with the suffocation element from APG, we would say - "you are under water, here are the rules for that". As I said, would need to apply the advantage of blocking gaseous transfer for barrier.... Doc
  20. I find myself with less sympathy for those pining for the days when "our thing" was special and pointed at and laughed at. I think I am happier with more people who are comfortable with superhero and gaming references, not least the appearance of NPC as a concept in random social media conversations. I think there is more stuff for me to cherry pick and live off than in the old days when everything was specialist, expensive or home-made. Obviously there are the issues like complete canon and I take great pleasure in educating newbies in the tyrrany of continuity. I have been there, pined for completeness and then come out the other side, looking for complete stories that can exist. I love asking those saying that batman should kill the Joker whether they would be happy knowing there would never be another joker story? Some are but the majority want more stuff to watch and read. Joker's continued existence is purely by commercial demand, not from any inherent flaw in Batman's priniciples or society as a whole. I want lots of stories, I want good complex series. I am content for those stories to be coherent within themselves and owe no continuity to previous stories or to limit future stories by what they reveal. I guess that is why I drifted into almost exclusively reading old stuff and Elseworlds stories. However, the more people there are involved and interested, the more people there are who are likely to create in this space and, even if 90% of that is dross, it is still likely to be more than I had growing up. Doc
  21. Barrier in 6th Edition is much more than erecting a wall. Indeed, the description says that "a barrier, once created, is a physical object that remains in existence until destroyed by attacks, the passage of time, or other factors". it is an incredible tool to do a lot of things. As such, my idea is to create a coherent body of water, you can enter that body of water as it has 0 PD, and swim thorugh it. While in it you would be subject to the SFX of being inside a body of water (I might need to add an advantage because barrier, by default, allows the passage of gases etc). You can configure the barrier to whatever shape you want - it also allows a certain amount of flexibility such as adpating to the surface (or fill a location). So, the barrier of water will stand free but once it takes enough damage, it will collapse into that much water and act just like a body of water that is no longer being held in place. I think it is ideal to be used for this purpose. It requires a slight handwave of SFX by allowing people to swi through it for no damage but the lack of utility as a barrier is more than made up for in other places. Barrier is worth a good read - it is one of the powers that contributed to the expansion of pages but it adds a bch of utility that makes the reading worthwhile. Doc
  22. I would be content with creating a barrier of water. I would be content with the SFX being "water" and applying the usual environmental effects. It would be DEF 0 with enough BODY to soak up damage, should people decide to try destroying it rather than swimming through. If the barrier was in a hole, then once the DEF of the barrier was overcome, the water would still exist and fill the hole. Doc
  23. I almost never use extra time so don't think I ever read that. I suppose it is up to you but most of the stuff I have looked at, like charges and (in 6th edition) requires a roll, things are added and subtracted. Choice is yours...
  24. Right, there were a lot of characters using this feature and it was formally written in in 6th Edition. It is not halving the limitation, it is subtracting 1/2 from the limitation, so +1 becomes +1/2 and +1/2 becomes 0. Concentration, in 5th edition, provides values where activation only is the default. I realise that you are confusing things by considering an instant power (killing attack) like a constant power (availability of killing attack). I think as GM I would allow you to take concentration at -1/4 the usual value. Doc
  25. You can take a lesser limitation on the activation roll, if it is only to switch on a constant power. Will go look at the details and edit this. Later... OK, the requires a roll limitation is +1/2 for 11 or less, you make no change to that if it is only a roll to switch on the power. If that was 11 or less every time you wanted to use the power it would be a +1 limitation. P389 of 6E1.
×
×
  • Create New...