Doc Democracy

I am feeling slightly better - the first element to my existential crisis (the PM telling his party that they might not be welcome to vote for the party) was a spoof news story that sucked me in. Is a sign of how extraordinary times are that I was willing to believe such an outrageous statement...I only found out because I was determined to get primary sources for it (good habits). Doc

I have always pooh-pooh-ed the idea that we might be living in a simulation but the way politics have been going inthe UK have made me reconsider. It feels like I am in a political soap opera where the writers have run out of ideas and we have jumped the shark. Two events this morning to add to that feeling. One, Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, tells Conservative party members that if they do not support the party in a No Deal Brexit and the expulsion of 21 of their most senior and distinguished MPs from the party then they "are not welcome in the party" and "not welcome to vote for us". It is an unbelievable story that the Prime Minister might do such a thing. That is then followed by the Prime Minister's brother (also a Conservative MP and a Minister in the Government) deciding to resign as a Minister, step down immediately as an MP and to formally quit the party. (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-49594793) I would not have believed it in West Wing or House of Cards as believable story lines, why should I believe it just because I am told it is "real life"!!!! Doc

Here is a character we played recently in a 4th edition game. It worked really well, much better than I anticipated. Doc 4thEd Cyphon.pdf

For a new player, when you intend to use the books as a manual, I think 6th Edition is a great resource. There really is a lot of background and explanation of how powers are supposed to work. It is for grognards such as us that so much of the text feels superfluous.

Hmm. My question with things like the images, is how the images "know" who should get to see them. I like the mental illusions solution, it provides for the targeting, I am also good with the limited invisible power effects giving the "detect kind of person" for free. The real benefit in the free detect is enhanced as the detect is redefinable. If you are looking for pod people you create an image of a rock that only pod people can see. Anyone who ducks when it is thrown is a pod person. There would be a real need to define how specific the images can be.

I too, would be interested in any equivalence between Trump and Clinton. Trump sees no boundaries and seems to equate being president with owning a company. There appears to be no point where he accepted the responsibilities of office. Doc

I think the difficulty in achieving effect from mental powers reflects the hatred players have when used against them. Players really want those achievable breakout rolls.

I like the idea, if you have an area effect, usable by others, ED defence against electrical attacks, then it means any attacks within the area have less effect against the person targeted while powering up the character. Doc

So why does that not play out in the UK for example. We have vanishingly small numbers of mass shootings and we do not get the poorly defended women and elderly being killed in sufficient numbers to get to US levels. Also, I do not consider access to high powered weaponry a fundamental right, not like the right to life, a real fundamental right that the US does not respect (am talking death penalty rather than abortion in the event that was not clear). Constitutional right, I may concede, not so fundamental. Doc

I suppose I should look up the stats but British women do not seem to suffer due to a lack of access to guns...

Yup, “guns don’t kill people, people kill people”. That has been the refrain for decades. It is true but it does not solve the problem. I would not argue that there are sociological issues to deal with but these presumably exist in other comparable countries that do not suffer the same mass shootings. These folk also have access to the same improvised weaponry. Guns make it easy, ready access to guns make it easier. What would happen if there were no guns? Even if it only prevented school shootings, would it not be worth it? Doc

What about Spinnerette?

I think this is the wrong way to look at the statistics. You do not compare causes of deaths in the US, you compare the same thing in comparable countries. You look at gun deaths in the US compared to gun deaths elsewhere. You do not look at deaths due to breast cancer in the US compared to suicides to decide whether you want to tackle breast cancer. You see if deaths due to breast cancer in the US are significantly higher than breast cancer death rates in comparable countries. The comparisons of gun deaths in the US against comparable countries are stark. There is something that needs to be done and Gun ownership is possibly the most obvious lever to pull. Doc

Welcome to the forums. You will find folk here quite helpful. you are a long way in as far as design goes but your points spread is pretty broad. Try going for 450 points, that is a lot for a beginner to play with and may provide constraints that you need to think about. I tend to ignore point limits to begin with, just buy the things you want and note the points you are spending. I think your your biggest problem here is that you are building a character outside of a campaign. The campaign would give you guides on what is a decent combat value, what is a decent defence, attack and everything else. If we go with the book standards, going with high powered superhero gives us characteristics up to 60, combat values upto 14, active points up to 90, skills up to 16- and defences upto 35, possibly 30 of that resistant. These begin to give you something to measure Ares against. You mentioned STR of 80. That looks good compared to the stat limit of 60 but if this is his primary attack then it is only equivalent to 80 active points, so you might look for other ways of boosting the attack. Start with the basic characteristics and a few powers to see how many points you have spent. When you are stuck on a specific power, come to the forums and we will help you design it - would make a very long post to deal with everything you brought up in one post. 🙂 Get some paper and start writing stuff down. Does that that make sense? Doc

It is not doing STUN or BODY, it is not actually breaking anything. I am presuming here this is for use on kit not bought with points (you could disallow it versus such vehicles as the systems are better protected, more robust or so non-standard that the harpoon does not reach them. I suggested Mechanics as, while the system does not provide for damaging vehicles in this way, the skill does actually involve doing stuff to mechanical systems. This is brute force Mechanics and has one job, to disable the electronics. I would not think that shorting the electrics was a long job, so much less of a time penalty. The attack would be the grab action on the vehicle, the mechanics roll simply to see if the harpoon struck a vulnerable spot... The more I think about it, the better it might work. The success value of the Mechanics roll would provide a penalty to anyone trying to fix it.... Doc

I have a potentially cheaper alternative that may not fly. What about using Stretching and the Mechanics skill, based on a focus? The mechanics is used simply to disable the car's electrics... Doc

I think it is simply a “Be nice to me” Mind Control with bonuses based on how scary the opponent is (+1d6 for every 5 PRE above 10 of the opponent).

You mean someone with decent income and enough time not just to read but to review...I cannot commit the time right now...

I am SURE someone here would be happy/delighted/desperate to write a review of the product and submit that to several ROG platforms for publication if they were offered the product for that purpose? Doc

Here is the UK “Protect and Survive” infomercial from the 70s. and here is the mocking song about it....

I think you have something here. I quite like the idea of changing the way the damage system works. In westerns shots are often deadly, debilitating or flesh wounds. If we took BODY out of the game then we would decide whether we were looking to wound or kill. In in my head I am turning Spence’s System in its head. We first seek to hit and depending on the intent the roll will determine the kind of damage done. (Am busking, so details are likely to be wonky). I would say a player would indicate he was shooting to wound or shooting to kill. Shooting to kill halves OCV. Shooting to kill. Succeed by 4 - kill. Succeed by 2 - flesh wound. Otherwise miss. shooting to wound. Succeed by 4 - debilitate. Succeed - wound. Miss by 1 - flesh wound. What does this mean? If you shoot to kill and succeed by 4, the opponent is at 0 BODY, 0 STUN and bleeding. If it becomes relevant (someone saves them, you roll on the kill hit location table (head, chest, guts) to see what kind of debilitation the character will suffer until he is healed. If you shoot to wound and succeed by 4, the opponent takes a debilitating wound (5 BODY) (arms or legs depending on statement of intent) and takes STUN damage. Succeeding by less delivers a wound (5 BODY) and STUN damage. Missing by 1 delivers STUN damage. I would be inclined to get rid of BODY and rate characters by Wounds. Peons would have 1 wound, Cowboys would have 2 and I Protagonisti would have 4. If you lose all your wounds then you are on the ground whether conscious or not. If conscious you can crawl or shout but not shoot. is this the basis of a Cowboy Damage System? You can see how it would make duels dangerous. If you stand there at DCV 0, shooting to kill becomes a real risk. I think the stare down therefore has to improve DCV for someone, or DCV slowly improves round by round until someone goes for his gun.... Doc

I had forgotten it was one of yours. 🙂 I can live with it... :-)

Hmm. I am thinking what I would have done namewise for these characters because some of them sound slightly “off”. I don’t think we would call a character British Bulldog, it is a kids game here and using British in Britain sounds odd, like saying American Superman. I would go with Bulldog or The Bulldog (I prefer the former even if it is a character out of Frasier...). I am surprised you have a time based character that does not mention either Big Ben or Greenwich, I might be tempted to call him Meridien. If you need a Scottish representation the I think you could make Sea Nymph half Scottish and call her Selkie.

I don’t think you can “remove” American superheroes because they are indeed the staple of the genre here (and in the rest of the world). Superheroes are American. what you are asking is whether we identify with superheroes published as British. Judge Dredd is American (though written by Brits...in a British style). Our comics were more focussed on war stories than superheroes. However, I think Alan Moore’s Captain Britain was more British than any of those four. Warren Ellis’ Planetary series has a very British feel. I really struggle beyond that...unless you go into the whole League of Extraordinary Gentleman route.

Well, one of my players plays Colonel Mustard, a dashing aristocratic speedster with an array of grenades and explosives. He is not the leader of his "home" group and he is loosely associated with several groups and seems to turn up when something looks fun. He is primarily associated with ‘The Convocation’ a group based around the estate of rich and eccentric Lord Lyon. The Gryphon (HtH Damage Dealer) – Daughter to Lord Lyon. Leader of the group. Flying, Speed defence. High damage. Lord Lyon (Mad Scientist) – Not wholly with it, but creates an array of fantastical devices. Father to the Gryphon. Occultish visions that help guide the team. Doesn’t really have an alter-ego. Very reclusive though so not really needed. Rarely leaves his grounds. The Missionary (Tank) – Clergyman tough nut. Defensive tank with some mystical powers. If you wanted I would build these for you? Doc