Wolfgar

Re: Mind link to a vehicle What Shaft said. It shouldn't really be any different than being able to voice command the mecha in question.

Re: We've Got the Missiles peace to determine... "England says no, but, they all are soreheads..."

Re: What does "Overall" not cover? They are better for some Heroes than for others. Overall Levels have a decidely pulp-ish feel to me; I'm questioning whether they should be allowed in more "realistic" games. Am I just being paranoid?

Re: Opinion Fluff: Game Philosophies Run your own game, although in practice it works to be about the same. In either case, in introduces way too much of an element of chaos into the whole thing. That information is not available at this time.

Re: Warning Sign/Magnifying Glass vs Stop Sign Yeah, but SITOTP just wouldn't be as memorable. "Stupid Trick Overcomplicates Plotlines" I say "Stupid Trick" because, honestly, that's where it causes the most problems. Several Stop sign powers are genre appropriate and needed to accomadate certain powers. A Space Opera game without FTL Travel would be a hurtin' puppy, for example. Is usually when the powers are just signed off on completely unchecked because the PC thought it would be nifty that it's most likely to be a hassle. Say a player wants to be able to shrink down to microscopic size and enter some sort of "microverse", defined as Extra-Dimensional Movement. Now not only is this potentaially abusive, but it's completely derailing, as the GM has to figure out what's going on in this dumb microverse and essentially run an entirely seperate adventure for this player if the rest of the party has no way to follow along.

Re: What does "Overall" not cover? Well, by strictest rules definitions, it only applies to things you can do in overalls.

Re: Warning Sign/Magnifying Glass vs Stop Sign Let's also remember that "abuse" means regularly getting more utility for the power than they paid for. You've got to be careful linking "abuse" with damage/killing capacity alone; it's easy to think of it as the most important game balance factor, but it's far from the only one.

Re: Opinion Fluff: Game Philosophies Stop Robyn, please. As "Authority" in this case seems to be rules-authority, then I believe in the GM being the final word on all rules disputes and interpretations. I believe in those decisions not being subject to debate until an approriate grievance period, and even then, the GM is under no obligation to rule otherwise. Don't like it, you run. As far as any unspecified ruling, that's decided on a case by case basis. Each sistuation deserves to be judged according to precedent, logic, play balance, and coolness factor. Membership really is best way to go, period. A come one come all attitude typically results in a game of 15 bored people that rapidly splits into smaller games. Don't let this happen to you. Vague rules situations should not be brought up unless they come up in play naturally, and the GM should quickly and decisively be done with them. The GM should be aware of those potential situations, but in general I don't believe in bogging players down with any more information than is strictly needed.

Re: I may be overthinking this, but You need to factor into the build how overthinking gives other people headaches as well.

Re: Stupid Animal Questions I believe Income would be represented by the value of the products the goats produced each year, as opposed to the value of actual goats themselves. I'd also assume that if someone had a herd large enough to be considered "Well-off", a good bit of the actual herding would be done by family and hired hands. They aren't going to be doing all the work any more than an industrialist would run a whole textile plant by himself, even if he knows how all the machines run.

Re: On the Use and Abuse of Character Weaknesses.... I frequently wonder if osmosis is avoidable at all, short of playing a character who is a complete idiot.

Re: On the Use and Abuse of Character Weaknesses.... Part of Hunted is that the organization or individual in question Hunting the character likely has a significant amount of information on the character. Thus they should be able to make plans that don't play to the character's (or the party's) strengths. That's really only fair, logical, and part of the disadvantage. Now if it's just Joe Deathray villain, I reccomend only exploiting the most obvious, well-known weakness, and applying a random strategy afterwards. Maybe he hits, maybe he misses. If you manage to establish a rivalry, then eventually he'll figure out what works and what doesn't, and adjust accordingly. Some organizations might not be able to mount the most effective tactics, due to red tape or possibly arrogance. If that's the case, it might be a good idea to lower the value of the Disadvantage.

Re: EC and MP? Nothing wrong with it as a base concept, really.

Re: Picking up and using weapons I never said it couldn't be looted. I said whether it worked or not. Everything can theoretically be looted, not everything will work. This is one player's choice in the above example. Now yes, you could decide to make his life a living Hell over a handgun, drag him to court, pull up some CSI stuff, whatever, because of what one completely non-unbalancing action of one guy, or you can actually get on with the game in progress. My point is not to derail your own game overreacting to a non-issue.

Re: Least Abused Powers It really looks more evil than it is, isn't it?

Re: Picking up and using weapons I'm of the opinion bad guys should be looting downed supers anyway, unless they have a very pressing reason why not. That's one of the reasons you get points for an OIF and IIF. For the gun, and similar dinky real world items? No real bother. Unless we are talking about a serious firepower weapon, it shouldn't be an issue. He can keep it so long as he keeps up with it. If he wants it after the session though, it's time to pay points. If he decides to ditch it rather than go into XP debt, then you can just say it broke, it jammed, he sold it, he threw it away, he turned it in, or whatever. For more unbalancing items, you can say: A) It doesn't work until you pay points for it. It works just fine. C) It works, but with some additional drawbacks or disadvantages, like Activation Roll and the like. Just pick what feels appropriate to your dramatic sense at the time. As for superpowered robbery...super thugs will attract the attention of law enforcement, and other vigilantes. Keep in mind this will shift the focus of the game, so you may want to decide to let some stuff go.

Re: INT question INT shows that a character knows how to react properly to a given set of information, Skills gives the ability to react. For example: Say you have a complex math problem in word problem format. A character with low INT and no SS: Mathematics would be totally lost. A character with high INT and high SS: Mathematics would solve the problem easily. A character with low INT and high SS: Mathematics may not be sure what to do, or they may be able to solve the problem based on the fact they have solved dozens of similar problems in the past. A high INT character with no SS: Mathematics would be able to figure out what the problem was asking for, but may not know how to solve it on there own. They would usually know who could though.

From anyone's personal experience, are there any powers that have a really bad reputation for being abused that rarely ever are? Something that the GM is expected to just comb over, even when it'll be perfectly safe 99% of the time?

Re: Is it a distinctive feature, side effect or...? You could also go the route of Limited Power: Power does not work unless character has eaten excessively (-1/4).

Re: Is it a distinctive feature, side effect or...? It's not really a Distinctive Feature, unless you want to freak people out with how much you eat. Options: Physical Disad: Increased Eating, 5 points. This is the simplest way. It models a character that needs to eat a lot constantly, but it doesn't tie it to powers. Dependence: Extra Food Every Hour, Loss of Powers -14 Activation Roll, 5 points. You could make this more severe if you like if you need to say, constantly wolf down cheeseburgers or something. Here it's tied to the powers. A lot depends on how you model the powers.

Re: INT question I believe the stat is your ability to take in the information, understand it, and then react appropriately. Animals are great at taking in information, but rotten at reacting properly unless carefully walked through by someone else first.

Re: INT question For MENSA? Somewhere between 14-20 INT should do it.

Re: conceptual help - adjustment powers and power defense My understanding is that "All Attack Powers" or "All Mental Powers" are valid adjustment targets. SFX are tricky things. I understand that you might have the Strength of the Gods that can’t be drained by any undead touch, but why does that protect against Dr. Skunk’s weakness gas? It can be assumed that Strength of the Gods, which is divinely given, would protect against anything fairly easily. Divine special effects are nice that way; they can accomplish anything that a god could theoretically accomplish, which is to say anything. Why does the power defense on your powered armor (presumably your extra-insulated electronics) protect against a spell of weakness? It can be assumed that the spell in question targets the same systems that would be used on a technological Drain against it, so the protection extends. The more confusing question is how does it protect from Transforms? I think a lot depends on how much genre mixing there is. In some games, magic is the only really Powered force, in others it's technology and in others it's psychic abilites. The real question comes down to how much mixing there is between these SFX.

Re: Only one power at a time limitation for VPPs? I'd call it -1/2 and be done with it. One power at a time: -1/2 Two powers or less at a time: -1/4 Three or more powers at a time: No effective limitation. Keeping in mind of course that not all possible combinations of Power Modifiers are a good idea.

Re: Genre Conventions 2: What is Cool? I find heroism and romance to be cool. A game that gives me ample oppurtunity to feel Heroic will provide better outlets for me than one that leaves me feeling like a jerk. By romance I suppose I mean melodrama; characters love, they hate, they emote, they have passion. A sterile, emotionless game where the players are all completely removed from the enviroment will render the coolest tech, power or fight scene utterly boring for me.