Wyrm Ouroboros

Re: Favorite 60-point Power Construction I'm in a campaign now (Until the Worlds Collide on HC) where I'm seriously considering taking something similar to this. Don't think it'd be 'no fringe' -- might actually be 'bright fringe' -- but it's mainly so that I wouldn't get assassinated by the BOECV RKA Mentalist (sorry, Kyper) before I could ... well, you know. Kill the President, if it came down to it. (Hey, Kièrshia -- based off Riddick -- is a very not-nice guy...)

Re: Mental awareness for inactive powers "If it isn't there, you can't see it." I can't tell the differences between intelligence and experience if I'm looking at five people dressed identically; this guy might be a hot computer geek, that woman might know six different martial arts, that guy might be the next Mario Andretti. I won't know until I start to talk with them, or see them 'in action'; I can't analyze without having something to analyze. Working off their name or costume can be useful, but sometimes the GM is going to dump complete ringers on you. Of course, detecting powers helps to mess with Secret IDs....

Re: Favorite 60-point Power Construction Yeah; just take Personal Immunity, and put 'Does No Body' on the bees. Though, being an NND, it should already do stun only....

Re: Fun Character concepts Nutshell, a superrich hypergenius technophile megalomaniacal hero. Determined to conquer the world through heroism, sharp dealing, and sheer cuteness. Members of his fanclub get on his List Of People Not To Destroy. Join today!!

Re: Perks and negative cost No, wait -- I suddenly see where tesuji is coming from, and the problem comes from a he's got a basic error in conceptualization. 'Selling back' stuff you get automatically is one thing; going negative on something you DON'T automatically get is another. All characters in a campaign Automatically Receive certain things at campaign start -- all basic stats at 10, for example, Running 6", Swimming 2". These are the Core Character Abilities. If you want to reduce your character's core abilities -- make him a 6 STR weakling, for example -- then you 'sell back' 4 points of STR, and get 4 Character Points which you can spend elsewhere. So now, in a 200/150 game, they have 204 points which to spend without HAVING to take disadvantages to balance out the additional points. This is legal, because you are reducing your Core Character Abilities. If you want more than those Base+4 points, you have to take Disads, up to the campaign limit. The Core Character Abilities do not -- and let me emphasize this, do NOT -- include 'I own a base'. Because in a 'points for wealth' campaign you start out at a rough $75,000/year salary, it may/probably will include 'I own a middle-class home/rent a decent apartment' -- said home/apartment being nothing in particular except for basic living space. You cannot therefore 'get points to spend elsewhere' by getting a base and making it crappy, because you don't have the base to start out with. The home isn't the base; the home/apartment is a reflection of your purchased MONEY situation. You want to get points back because you have a suckier home? Take Money (Poor): -5 or Money (Destitute): -10 as a Disadvantage. So if you spend 1 point to get a base, then sure, take a DNPC: Sucky Base disad, if your GM lets you. But that disadvantage is the only way you'll legally 'get points back' for having a bad base. Figuring the cost for a base, however, is just like figuring the cost for a character: X points to start, and Y bonus points from disadvantages. As a GM, I might allow X to equal up to the character's starting points, and Y to equal up to the character's max points from Disadvantages. So, to summarize: you can sell back Characteristics and Running because you start out with some. You cannot 'sell back' a base, because you do not start out with one.

Re: Perks and negative cost Online, you are as you write. Email and other online text communication is now as formal communication as a registered letter. If you don't give a hoot, then why should we? You are babbling -- which statement means 'you are illegible and unclear.' As legibility and clarity are the two things you need to have in order to make your point, you should strive for them. Proper formatting enables the first, and helps with the second. In any case. Apparently I'm not understanding what point you're trying to make. Is it that you should get points back on a base that has a 'negative cost', points that you can spend somewhere else? Not allowed. Is it that you do have to spend points for such bases, but that they're permissible? GM's call. Is it that such bases should be disallowed completely? Again, GM's call. What it's going to boil down to is whether or not a specific GM is going to allow such a base in a specific game. It'll vary from GM to GM and even from game to game; the GM simply needs to be aware of the difficulties involved, whether between players or in the game world. So what's the issue? Clarity and legibility are requested.

Re: Tesseract Storage Device: Cheesy? I've an archer with flatspace bracers (from Ultraviolet) out of which come his arrows, bows, etc. I put the power together as OIF on the MPow pool (bracers can't be taken away in combat), but OAF on the slots, because any particular slot can be disarmed during combat. The current combat is a good example -- he's wearing his bracers, but the combat staff just got knocked out of his hands. (Well, okay, he got knocked clear across the room and reduced to 0 STUN, hence the staff is no longer in his grip, but that's beside the point.) He can, when his turn comes around, 'call out' a new weapon, even a new staff (because he's got several stored in there), but he's going to have to get the weapon extracted first.

Re: Perks and negative cost Tetsuji, I can't follow your babble most of the time, and from what I'm able to read you're misrepresenting things anyhow, so let me put it this way: If your base is at a 'positive' cost, pay the 1:5 CP/XP for it. If it's at a 0-point or 'negative' cost, pay 1 point for it, then take the base as a DNPC as appropriate to its ability to assist you. Remember that the GM will enforce your base's disads just as stringently (or more so) as your character's disads. Go to your base, find that it's been blown up, occupied by VIPER, your staff has quit and filed an injunction against you for public endangerment and gross negligence, and that your base computer has become intelligent and gone rogue. To put it a bit more plain, so that you can understand: You Don't Get Points Back. You can't get a vehicle, base, computer, automaton, contact, or ANYTHING else and RECEIVE points for getting it. "I had 350 points, but I took this crappy base and now I have 351!!" is NEVER going to happen. Instead, 5 of your 150 points of Disads from the 200/150 starter group is going to go to 'DNPC: Crappy Base', along with 1 of your character points because you do have a base. No points back. Never. Here's the other thing -- a base that has disads equal or greater than its base cost (thus bringing its point cost to or below 0) is going to be seriously crappy. The character is going to have ten times the headache for a tenth the usefulness. Yes, I understand what you're saying, but think of HOW MUCH CRAP he has to wade through on a daily basis just to get to use those 150, 100, or whatever points worth of base. If he is not, then the GM is not doing his job. If he isn't doing his job, the players have a right to bitch. "He's got a zillion extra disads, and you're not screwing him over. Why aren't you screwing him over??" Build the crappy base, pay a point for it, take the crappy base as a useful DNPC, get screwed over ALL THE TIME. If the GM doesn't chortle with delight at the player trying to get away with that shit, then the rest of the players need to get a new GM. If he does, then the rest of the players should sit back and kibbitz -- or better yet, be allowed to play the base's enemies against the hoser player trying to get away with this crap. So. Never XP back. Disads == Bad Times. Do you get it now?

Re: How Would You Build: Sequenced Effects

Re: Angel, the worst original character concept ever?

Re: Perks and negative cost Always go back to the base and character Golden Rule: You Pay Points For It. If you have a 150-point base that has 200 points of disads, you're still going to pay at least 1 Character Point for it, because it's a base, and that's what you gotta do; you don't get 5 points 'back' because your base sucks wind; you have a base, and 1 CP is what you pay for the privilege of having one. Active (total) points spent on a base, vehicle, Multiform, all that stuff, should be similarly based on the character's maximum total cost. No purchasing a 1000 point base in a 400-point game, putting Character Points towards 200 of them and ladling on 800 points worth of Disads. If you want your 400-point base to have 300 points of disads, sure, as a GM I'd allow it, but I'd be having your base blow up, break down, get invaded, or have staffing issues every single game session -- sometimes multiple problems all at once. The base would, in short, become more trouble than it was worth. "I can figure anything out in my Super Library ... if I can figure out where the door to the damn thing is this week." I would expect SuperBase Player to very shortly ask if he can turn in the base and use his 5 points (or 1 point) for something else. Anything else is foolishness and asking for trouble. In a game, however, some people may buy into the base; some may not. One of my characters (Freedom) bought a base (huge sprawling X-Mansion 'School For The Gifted' sort of place) which had disads (students) right at game start. Other PCs eventually started buying into the base, because they were using it -- points went into improving facilities, defenses, lessening the DNPC kids (i.e. improving their abilities), even taking the kids as contacts of the base. (Not sure if that was legal, but the GM said it was, ergo...) If I have disads on the base, I'm not getting 'extra disads for free' or whatever; no matter what happens, I'm spending points on the base. I might get bonuses to rolls when I'm there, it may be a nice place to live/retreat to/whatever, but all of it is dependent, focused on, and centered around the base. If the GM isn't making a person spend points on the base, and in fact is giving the PC points back because they built a sucky base, then the GM's missing the point and doing it wrong. Having thought about this further for an entire two seconds, it occurs to me that a GM could give a character or team the base 'for free'. This feeds into the PCs disads, however -- DNPC, Sucktastic Base. How crappy the base is (i.e. disads greater than cost) helps decide how 'incompetent' the base is; it SHOULD start out at this point: Dependent NPC: Sucktastic Base 8- (As powerful as the PC; Useful Noncombat Position or Skills) For every, oh, -25 or -50 points in disadvantages, it moves down the 'power' level by a slot. And for every couple of Hunteds or Base DNPCs that are going to blow the place up (or get kidnapped, go on strike, etc.) on a semi-regular basis, increase the frequency by a level. Or the character DNPC frequency is one lower than the base's Hunted frequency, plus one for every two extra Hunteds at that level. (So to get a 14- Character's Base DNPC, the Base would need 2-3 14- Hunteds or DNPCs. NOT Watched; watched is just what you get for the money.) Please note that it's going to have to have a few nasty Hunteds and a fair amount of klunkishness to get to the 'I can take the Base as a DNPC.' And no double-dipping by taking one of the Base's DNPCs as your own DNPC too.

Re: Help me get into Bricks. Or a foot-stomp or ground-punch AoE/explosion on up to X STR, Personal Immunity, is also nice. "Nyah nyah, ya missed... uh, you weren't aiming at me, were you..."

Re: Why do the Champions waste so much time being "good citizens?" Thinking back, this is something my character Freedom did in a round-about way. So many supervillians were in it for two reasons -- get rich, and beat people up. In her Secret ID, she was developing an international mercenary team, composed significantly of (ex)supervillians, always with very specific tasks in mind, and very high pay. "You can work for me -- you know, 'Wreck that military base, then go to Kuala Lumpur and party.' Or else you can go into prison for three-to-six. Your choice." I don't think my GM knew how to handle it; I know my fellow players got a little annoyed at it. But hell, I paid 15 points for it, right??

Re: Help me get into Bricks.

Re: Three point CSLs

Re: Super Shield First, a little story: Three martial arts masters were walking across the street when an out-of-control bus careened around the corner and barreled down on them. Each master reacted as per his art: The karate master gave it his best punch-kick combination. The judo master tried to use its own momentum to throw it. And the aikido master got out of the way, finished crossing the street, and called an ambulance for the other two masters. The Hulk, however, is not exactly a bus; he's a bipedal humanoid. A bus can't be tripped; the Hulk can. Go running at full speed, then trip across something; better yet, have someone help lift you as you trip. Did you go straight into the ground? No, of course not; you tumbled forward. Forward momentum doesn't stop just because you're going down. The principles of these arts is not entirely that they magnify your strength; it's also that they pit your full strength against the other individual's weakness as well as using basic principles of physics in your favor. A moderately-trained four-year-old can, using these basic principles of physics, leverage, and anatomy, throw a massively-muscled bodybuilder. The Hulk is still a bipedal humanoid who can trip; she, essentially, tripped him. I do, on the other hand, agree that the general Block doesn't deal with radical differences in strength; which is why there are some things that the GM should influence.

Re: Aid as a weapon I still prefer mine -- and it has some amount of precedent, considering 'Unluck, UAA'.

Re: Think Tank The powers in the VPP are as reliable as any other; changing the VPP requires a skill roll when in combat, or else it takes between 1 Turn and 1 Minute. A so-called Cosmic pool can change as a 0-Phase Action and requires no skill roll to change; both of these are +1 Advantages. Think Tank has the Power skill (Psychic Powers: Power 18-, Real Cost 7), which is required to change the VPP in combat, and took a +1/2 Advantage on the Pool so that he can change the powers as a half-phase action. All in all, he's spent 185 points for these powers; that's a 93-point Cosmic VPP with the 'Limited Powers (Psychic, -1/2)'. While this is moderately powerful one-on-one, it isn't quite as full-strength flexible -- he couldn't have all of the EC powers up at once at the level (and lack of disad) that they're currently at, all at once. As for levelling a city block, well -- for 79 points you can get a 1 km hex Megascale 3d6 RKA vs. inanimate objects only ...

Re: Super Shield Yes and no. While it is a lot about how you define it (Doc Samson power-blocks, while Daredevil deflect-blocks), some of your posits are essentially incorrect. You really do not need a lot of strength to have any effect on something as big and heavy as Hulk; you need the right technique and the right leverage. Aikido works better the smaller you are, because it's about balance and the way the body is put together; being offensive requires moving outside of your center of balance, while being defensive does not. Judo's throws are essentially the same, as are 'deflection-blocks', which are half dodge anyhow. Remember that most of the 'strength' of the punch is in directing it forward (and thus doing damage), not controlling its lateral movement; the targeting took place BEFORE the start of the strike. And the way I heard it, the Hulk was in Japan, trashing Sunfire and all the Avengers, and went bounding down full-steam towards some little old Japanese lady, who judo-threw him into a concrete block or something.

Re: The Alien Hall of Fame Meh. Andorians. "Sure, we have a logic system as strict, structured, complete, and universal as the Vulcans. But it includes emotions, too. Shove that up your ponn-far."

Re: Think Tank This is perfectly legal, and perfectly advised by almost anyone on the board. Just remind him that the powers in his VPP cannot ADD to the powers in his EC -- he can't have 10" Flight in his VPP and be going 22" (i.e. adding 10" to his 12" EC Flight). He might consider the possibility of balling all his stuff into one VPP, though, making the VPP 'Cosmic' (0 Phase Change, No Skill Roll) and dumping the Power skill. This is, however, a point consideration as well as a stylistic consideration. Right now, he's looking at an 11- roll to change 70 Actives in his VPP -- remember, -1 to the roll for every 10 Actives he's changing, and he has 'only' an 18- roll.

Re: Aid as a weapon That's a tricky thing, really. Adjustment powers can't add or subtract Advantages/Disadvantages, only adders. Hm. I know. I have neither books nor HD handy, so you'll have to do the math and refine it on your own, but here's the idea: Aid, Xd6, All Mutant Powers at Once (+2) Naked Modifier, Limited/No Conscious Control (+Y), Usable As An Attack (+1), to All Powers at Once (+2), Continuing Charges/0 END Uncontrolled, for up to Z Actives. Put X at whatever you want, and put Y at whatever the normal disadvantage for L/NCC is. Z, of course, should be something impressive, so that the character can only use a very low amount of their power at best. Link one to the other in order to reduce the cost and give the 'totally screwed' effect. Alternate to L/NCC, use 'Requires EGO Roll, -1/5 Actives' and 'Side F/X (Power goes NCC for full Phase)' instead -- or 'Always On' plus 'Beam/Must Be Used At Full' if you really want to be mean. Stick 'em into a MPow in order to use the best function on any particular target. If this is meant to be a permanent/seriously long-term alteration, however (such as what Loki did to Iceman in the long-ago), you're probably looking at a Transform to adjust the character's Powers completely.

Re: Super Shield I think that the idea of a 12d6 attack 'rolling high' and 'blowing through' the Force Wall version is juuuust fine by me. Even an elite decathelete combat master can't get hit by a Mack Truck doing 40 without some bloody side-effects and knockback. When contemplating this stuff, remember what is most appropriate for what sort of action. Shielding from a firebomb or dragonflame or a hail of bullets -- or even just one bullet? The Force Wall. Duking it out with the Hulk/Grond? CVs to Block or just increased DCV. Falling? Sorry, you ain't standing on the FW shield and soaking the damn thing that way. Me, I don't think I'd go with the missile deflection -- well, maybe, but definitely not the reflection.

Re: Three point CSLs Bah. Take your martial art, make sure you have both 'hand' and 'bamboo sword' as weapon elements, then get your 3-point levels in the MA.

Re: Ninja Spring Leap The way you have it is pretty good right there. I'd limit it to full moves only as well, but that's me.