Derek Hiemforth

Speaking of GURPS books, I happen to have a copy of the uber-rare GURPS The Prisoner up on Ebay at the moment if anyone's interested. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2547&item=3122361138&rd=1

Yeah, I didn't think it was all that bad, either. (Especially considering that it came out during the heyday of Marv Wolfman and George Perez's work on The New Teen Titans, when young hero comics were the craze.) Heck, Aaron Allston credits it as an inspiration for his excellent GURPS Supers adventure, School of Hard Knocks, so it can't be all bad.

Sure!

Nato, how did you know?? Also, FYI, someone scooped on the Strike Force already via the Buy It Now option. Sorry, gang!

I know folks are often looking for this book, so I just thought I'd let ya' know there was one up for grabs... http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2548&item=3122372452&rd=1

Yep, looks like Steve just took the Joint Break maneuver, and added the 1-point Target Falls element in exchange for an extra -1 to OCV.

It's on page 46 of The Ultimate Martial Artist.

Did this campaign have a GM?

No one said Background Skills aren't useful. It was said that they're not perceived as being as useful as other Skills, or as useful in as wide a variety of situations.

Background Skills aren't perceived as being as generally useful as other Skills. Also, you can buy a Background Skill for 2 points for an 11- roll, and it would seem counter-intuitive for a +1 to the roll to cost as much as the Skill itself cost. I'm not sure what you mean by "grandfathered in," but if you mean, "Has this always been the cost of +1 to Background Skills?" then the answer is yes.

No. I should have elaborated more. I'd say that if you take 100% Damage Reduction, then you have to define a single, reasonably common, SFX that it works against. Examples might be Physical Damage Reduction that works against bludgeoning weapons or against slashing weapons, or Energy Damage Reduction that works against fire or electricity. If the SFX it works against is less common than this (for example, PD DR vs. one particular weapon, or against a Martial Arts style, or ED DR vs. Gamma Radiation or unholy magical fire), then it can apply a Limitation based on how much less common it is (in the judgement of the GM).

I wouldn't mind seeing the available options for Damage Reduction expanded a bit, although I'd probably go with something like this... [b]Fraction[/b] [b]Percentage[/b] [b]Normal[/b] [b]Resistant[/b] 1/4 25% 10 15 1/3 33% 15 20 1/2 50% 20 30 2/3 67% 35 50 3/4 75% 40 60 1 100%* 40* 60* Going strictly by the logical mathematical progression from the existing Damage Reduction values, the 1/3 and 2/3 Normal Damage Reductions would actually come out to 13 points and 34 points respectively, but I've rounded them up to the nearest 5-point-level to keep it clean. * For 100% Damage Reduction, I would allow it at the same cost as 75% Damage Reduction, but with the stipulation that it can only work vs. one SFX, and it gets no Limitation for that. So for 60 points, you could get 75% Damage Reduction against all Energy attacks, or you could get 100% Damage Reduction against, say, Fire Attacks.

Another, more philosophical, factor to consider is its relationship to Drain. At its core, Aid is the reverse of Drain. (And Succor is the reverse of Suppress.) Therefore, it's logical to expect it to cost the same as Drain (and Succor to cost the same as Suppress) unless there are other mitigating factors. Their mechanics are a little different, but the trade-offs seem about balanced: Aid doesn't cost END, but Drain doesn't have a ceiling on its effect. I don't see any pressing reason why Aid should have a different cost than Drain.

That particular modifier wouldn't work too well, I'm afraid. At a +1 Advantage, your 10 ED fire suit could be a 20 ED fire suit for the same cost, and it would work against all Energy attacks, not just fire. Mathematically, it would make more sense for 1.5x defense vs a special effect to be +1/4, and 2x to be +1/2. Here's why... If you bought 10 ED normally, then another 5 ED, Only Vs. Fire (-1), that would cost you 12 points (10 points for 10 ED, 2.5 points (rounded down to 2) for the extra ED only vs. fire). 10 ED at a +1/4 Advantage is also 12 points. Likewise, if you bought 10 ED normally, then another 10 ED Only vs. Fire (-1), that would cost you 15 points. 10 ED at a +1/2 Advantage is also 15 points. 'Course this points out the fact that you could just buy extra DEF with the Limitation...

RTF is Rich Text Format. It's a file format readable by most word processors. HDC is Hero Designer Character. It's the character file format created by Hero Designer.

Nope. (Although Gator Games is a good store, and does carry some older and used stuff, I don't recall seeing Robot Warriors there recently.) The store I'm thinking of is Recycle Books in San Jose. It's actually a used bookstore, not a game store. But they have a fair amount of used RPG books among their voluminous stock, and I think I recall seeing Robot Warriors the last time I was there a couple of months ago.

Re: Champs campaign hoover vacuum is at it again. I have these GURPS Supers books... GURPS Supers: I.S.T. - International Super Teams by Robert M. Schroeck. This is their default world setting (their equivalent of Champions Universe, in a way. It's got some worthwhile ideas in it. Essentially, most superhero teams are UN-affiliated, and there are IST bases all around the world. (Imagine U.N.T.I.L. with superteams instead of just agents.) GURPS Supers: IST Kingston by Scott D. Pinkham and Robert M. Schroeck (published by Modern Myth Publishing, not SJG). This is a relatively short book detailing the IST base and superteam in Jamaica. I only picked it up because I got it for $.50 at a store close-out sale. Its focus is much narrower than I would normally buy. It's okay. If you just happen to need a superhero team and base in an island paradise, I guess it's worth a look. GURPS Supers: Mixed Doubles by Spike Y. Jones. I like this one. It's a book of characters -- some heroes, some villains, some neutrals. Its "hook" is that the characters are presented in pairs that are linked in some way. It may be a hero and his arch-enemy, a character and the mad scientist who created him, two rival characters with similar powers, etc. Definitely worth a buy. GURPS Supers: School Of Hard Knocks by Aaron Allston. This is an adventure module focusing on groups of teenage supers. One of the best supers adventures I've seen in print. Good stuff. GURPS Supers; Super Scum by Mark Johnson. A book of villains. About the same quality as most of Hero's Enemies books. Some hits and some misses. Worth picking up on the cheap somewhere, but I wouldn't lose sleep chasing it down.

But it doesn't put you to sleep. There's nothing about being caught in an Ego Entangle that causes you to lose consciousness. You can't really just chalk it up to special effect, because unconsciousness has specific effects, and an Ego Entangle doesn't cause them.

Actually, you could get a similar effect and still stay "book legal" by just buying Energy Blast, defining it as Stun Only, and applying a -1 Limitation, "All Or Nothing." If you reduce their STUN to 0 or less, it works. If you don't, it does nothing. It would be slightly cheaper than Dispel (2.5 points per 1d6 instead of 3), but you'd have to buy a couple of extra dice to overcome their ED. So it probably works out to about the same cost in the end.

Chart 1 (25% less damage for x2 points) Red% Frac Cost Res 25% 3/4 10 15 33% 2/3 15 22 50% 1/2 20 30 66% 1/3 30 54 75% 1/4 40 60 83% 1/6 50 75 90% 1/10 60 90 95% 1/20 70 105 100% 0 80 120 Chart 2 (Halves damage for +20 points) Red% Frac Cost Res 25% 3/4 10 15 33% 2/3 15 22 50% 1/2 20 30 66% 1/3 30 54 75% 1/4 40 60 87% 1/8 60 90 91% 1/12 70 105 94% 1/16 80 120 96% 1/24 90 135 97% 1/32 100 150 etc.

Good find, Lord Liaden! That's probably the way for you to go if you want it right away, Ozz*. I won't be able to check the bookstore for a week or so, because it's about 120 miles from where I am now. I won't be able to check it until the next time I'm down there for work.

Also, if you're interested in Robot Gladiators (the only followup book to Robot Warriors) I see that Noble Knight Games has a copy of that. Check out this page, about 3/4's of the way down. http://www.nobleknight.com/BrowseAndSearch/Browse_Process.Asp?Line=160

Is this the book you're looking for? If so, I don't personally have an extra copy, but I know of a used bookstore that I think has one. Send me your contact info in an email (my address is in my profile), and I'll see if they still have it. If they do, I'll let you know how much they want for it. If you want it at their price, I'll buy it for you, you can send me the money to cover the book and shipping, and I'll ship it to you.

He does not automatically control it. He can try to persuade it to help him, Mind Control it, etc. Or he can buy an Advantage on Summon that makes it friendly. There's a lot of information in the Summon power description about this... too much to go into in detail here. Read the whole Summon write up on pages 142-144 of H5E.

In the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, there's a very spoiled little bratty girl named Veruca Salt (from whence the band gets its name). In one scene, there are geese that lay golden eggs, and a device that analyzes each egg to see if it's good or not. Veruca gets up on the device, it judges her to be a "bad egg," and she goes down the garbage chute.