Balabanto

Re: Looking for playability criticisms Of course they aren't. But the problem comes in where the only way to stop the character is to constantly generate fire, because of the massive amount of punishment he can withstand when fire is not on the table. Now, granted, fire is fairly common, and a PC dies in my game about once every two or three years of play. But, no one really comes back from the dead in my game either. Death is meant to be a major story point, and it detracts from the game as a whole when death is a free reboot eighteen months or so down the line. To you it may be a cool thing that this one character can do. But I'm looking at it from the metaperspective of what the rest of the players see, and what they see is "Bob can't be killed, and the rest of us can be." You have to look at the mindset of the average gamer. The average gamer wants his character to be cool. But he doesn't want to constantly feel inferior to the same PC, over and over again.

Re: Looking for playability criticisms Bolo, that being said, thank you for the compliment. However, I would remind you that not everyone is us. In some games, it will be that easy.

Re: Looking for playability criticisms All dependence/susceptibility things follow the same rules. Sorry about the typo. The problem is that the enemy has to A) Know the PC can't die, Have enough intelligence to figure out a way of stopping it, and C) It can't look like metagaming when it happens. Trust me, any power like this is bound to make the player cry foul as soon as you set this up seriously. As for the ashes in a jar on a shelf, that takes fifteen seconds to stop. I mind scan for Sulfuria until I find her. I read her mind to find out where she is and where she put the jar. I go there. He's alive. I really think these complications aren't really too complicated to deal with. There has to be a way that the character can be permanently killed, or there's no risk, Bolo. I'm sorry to disagree with you, but the primary heroic value isn't justice. It's sacrifice. It takes the poignancy out of every roleplaying situation when one of the PC's can just walk into any deadly situation, fix the problem in a way that would kill any other character in the game, with absolutely no risk to himself, and be back in a few weeks. Eventually, the other PC's will start to ask questions like "Fire? Again? Really?" and "Why am I here?"

Re: Looking for playability criticisms Characteristics: His DEX is too low and his EGO is too high. He doesn't have the traditional mental weakness, but most agents act between 13-17. Unless he can stop every attack that comes at him from minions cold, this is a bad idea. Raise his CON to 30, so that he can actually withstand punishment from his equals. Having a DMCV of 8 is wasted on this character. Those points are better spent on his PD and ED, or a special defense, which should probably be Power Defense because it fits. OCV and DCV are too high, drop them by 1 each and put those points into his PRE or his REC. His STUN total is way too low for a brick, you also might want to consider raising that. 30 isn't unheard of for a brick as far as PD is concerned, maybe even 32 to stop cold most basic agent attacks. Powers: What exactly is the special effect of his desolidification? Now, I'm a pretty strict guy and everyone knows that, but if your powers are more or less wood and vine oriented, desolidification doesn't really fit. If this were my game, I probably wouldn't allow your "Wood Character" to have that ability. Those points may, in fact, be better spent on some of the skills the character has picked up. Stretching should be bought outside the MP, this is a much better construction for both battlefield control and survivability. Some GM's hate this, because stretching is now more effective with high STR than Blast ever was, so clear it with them first. Why exactly three extra limbs? By special effect, this guy should be able to grow or remove as many vegetative appendages as he wants. The Damage Negation is meaningless at this power level, and may be too effective pound for pound. I would recommend re-spending those points on skills to justify your character's profession, life, and tactical sense. Resurrection: Disallowed. It makes the Hunted disadvantage meaningless. "I'm going to kill you." "Too bad, Sulfuria, I live forever." The regeneration is fine, but there's no reason EVER to make a PC unkillable. Seemingly unkillable is fine, but I have big problems when I run when people create characters for whom there is no risk of death unless EVERYONE can't be killed. This has the additional possibility of ticking off your fellow players. You should watch your step with this one. Skills A non-military character with tactics? This needs to be justified. Does he have a KS of military history? Does he love the Civil War? Was he raised by a clone of Irwin Rommel? More importantly, because your character grows to massive size, who cares about your DCV? Just buy +2 with Punch, Grab, and Haymaker instead of spending a ton of points on OCV. Your massive strength allows you to crush people with the scenery at will. This guy's a quality control consultant for a biotechnology company? How about SC: Biotechnology, 11-(Minimum), Systems Operation, PS: Engineer, and a host of other skills he'd need to actually do his job. You can get those points out of Resurrection. Complications: Your susceptibility is meaningless if you have resurrection, as you can't actually die from it. See above. This is not a disadvantage if you have ressurrection, and is worth no points. Your Distinctive Feature is also illegal, as you cannot have an easily concealed distinctive feature that is simultaneously detectable by common senses. Unless he smells like a rotting pile of muck all the time, then he's not getting any points for it. Kudos to you, however, for being vulnerable to fire and taking a fire using hunted. That takes spine, that is, if you don't have resurrection. Again, the public ID is kind of a wash. Everyone can find you, but in the end, so what, as you have no dependents and can't be killed. Without people you care about to maim, torture, and kidnap, the GM has no purchase to tell good stories about your character. These opinions are solely the opinion of Balabanto and do not reflect your personal GM. However, as written, I would not allow this character in a game I ran.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Well, you all had it easy. In the days before dice, we had nothing to game with but dirt, spit, and rocks, and our GM would beat us with a shovel until he told us that our characters were dead. And as if that wasn't bad enough, we would have to wake up at five in the morning, get six hours of gaming in before eight, and be at work at eight fifteen! By the time we were done with our day job, we would come back to the table, and our GM would beat us with a baseball bat. And there wouldn't be any pizza, just some leftover mold and rat turds from his other group, who he liked better than us!

Re: Doc Savage Adventures that never were I can change a historical date, you know.

Re: Doc Savage Adventures that never were Here's my idea for The Last Doc Savage Story Cold Messiah It is November 21st, 1963. The assassination of President Kennedy has set off a firestorm in America! Desperate to discover who has committed the crime of the century, the United States Government turns to the Man of Bronze and his elderly cohorts! Battered and old, Doc Savage and his Men battle against sinister forces without and within the United States Government, only to find that a deadly enemy has risen from a watery grave to bring the world to it's knees! Can Doc Savage and his men save the world one last time with all the weapons of his old enemies turned against him?

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... The heroes of Millennium Guard are stymied by how Toby, one of the villains of Imaginary Friends, talks to Mr. Wumbles, his imaginary serial killer rabbit friend. Finally, spotting one of those old toy plastic phones in the corner, heroes with mental defense see the plastic phone ring. Magus answers it. Mr. Wumbles: Hello. Magus: Toby's Pizza. Mr. Wumbles: Who is this? Magus: I wish I could put this on speaker. Chameleon: It's an imaginary phone! Just IMAGINE it. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Hyperdrive: Our Minds Might Be in Danger Gibraltar: I don’t have a mind. I’m safe. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Toby: Mr. Wumbles will kill you before he kills me. He’ll hack through all of you to get to me. Chameleon: Who says we’ll stand in his way? ----------------------------------------------------------------- Hyperdrive: Partacel, why didn't you arrest him? Partacel: I'm sure you're wondering why I didn't arrest him after he telepathically assaulted me. First off, he didn't succeed. He didn't even get in. Second, the problems with arresting a five year old are numerous. Third, we don't want someone in the government who might be less scrupulous than us getting their hands on him. Hyperdrive: He's not a child, Partacel. He's a monster! A monster! (Storms out of the room, slamming the door.)

Re: Genre-crossover nightmares When Children's Restaurants meet Horror Movies: Chucky Cheese.

Re: Hero System 3rd Party Products King of the Mountain (Blackwyrm Games): In Development Imaginary Friends (Blackwyrm Games): In Development

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... More Kasif silliness. As the PC's enact their plan to deal with Kasif's shop, Luthius, the fighter, waits outside the back door, pretending to relieve himself. At this time, two of Kasif's bodyguards come strolling down the alley. Bodyguard 1: You there! Who are you that dares to relieve yourself on the shop of my good friend, Kasif! Luthius: I apologize, my good friend. I was not trying to relieve myself on the shop of your good friend, Kasif. I was going to relieve myself on the pavement nearby. Bodyguard 2: You should leave. We have no time for such foolishness. Luthius: Very well, I shall relieve myself on the shop next door, which is not the shop of your good friend Kasif.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... From my Forgotten Realms game, now in Pathfinder (Yippee) The heroes are in Mulholrand, and most of them are from the area. They are trying to convince the Paladin, Lihosifet, a knightly sort, to use her feminine wiles on a shopkeeper in order to determine the location of a jug of artistic value. The other PC's are a Wu Jen (Don't ask me how we converted this, we're still working on it), a Fighter from Waterdeep, a Tiefling Rogue, and a Cleric of Horus-Re. Lihosifet: This is an outrage. I don't see how trying to seduce this Kasif would make a bit of difference. My feminine wiles are hardly sufficent to ply this man, anyway. Besides, what if it doesn't work? Wu Jen: If it doesn't work, he would have to be a (Insert the Shou word for Eunuch here) Luthius, the Fighter: (Thinking he means gay, turning to the Wu Jen, who looks like a fairly effeminate and exotic looking asian with flaming red hair) Then we'll send YOU in.

Re: King of the Mountain Fan Request Fan Requests end Tuesday, September 7

Re: King of the Mountain Fan Request We have moved to last call. I'll make one more round of requests and then the so-called balloting will be closed.

Re: What Do I Throw At Them? Buy Unkindness. Run that. Amp the villain to make him capable of fighting the characters. (Instructions semi-provided) What will they do when the villain is defeated? Characters like this are great for "For all of their massive power, when they encounter a villain they can't beat just by fighting him, what will they do?" stories. (Plus, I wrote it and the print copy is only 6.95 and the PDF is under four bucks.) In all honesty, I'd ask Rod Currie for help and go to the Super-Squad America website to see how to handle characters of this power level. Rod's a master of this technique. The bodyjacker idea is always a good one. Check out Foxbat for President for the gruesome means of doing this. Undead Skull is terrific for this, because he's a bodyjacker and he's holding the head of the victim hostage separately at the same time. (Yeah, I wrote that, too.) The issue here is technique, so these scenarios in particular may help you with that aspect. If you want a little more realism, have them live in a dangerous world. (See 6e2, the Living in a Dangerous World sections.) If you want to really have them live in a dangerous world, have them fight in locations that are exceptionally dangerous. The problem with being ridiculously powerful is that you can't afford to miss anything in these locations, ever. See Pretty Hate Machines for an example. Let them have a fight in that oil refinery (I spent a month working on it). The more powerful the characters are, the more dangerous that area becomes. God forbid they should have to fight some sort of massive Gojira-style lizard inside this place. (Yes, I wrote Pretty Hate Machines, too, but in this case, with such powerful characters, the rules on bad misses and the knocked back into traffic chart are probably worth the price of the adventure alone. 9.95 PDF and 19.95 in print) While all of these products are available from Blackwyrm games, with the exception of Rod's site, you do have a couple other options. Build "Team of Weaknesses." Pretty much, this is a group of slightly less powerful villains who attack the vulnerabilities of the heroes. This always hurts a lot. If the heroes don't have big vulnerabilities in a game at this power level, I question the wisdom of running for these characters in the first place. "Welcome to Neopolis": A group of aliens kidnap the heroes to be superheroes on THEIR world, because Earth just doesn't have the capability to give them a real challenge. Neopolitan criminals are very competitive, ruthless, and smart, and would like nothing better than to humiliate the heroes and take them down a few notches. The Twist: The Neopolitans want to conquer Earth. While the heroes are here, their army is on Earth, conquering and taking over all they see. By the time the players get back to Earth, they'll have to kick the Neopolitans out, fight mind controlled superheroes, and save their DNPCs.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... So today in the San Diego Knights, they learned to question their surroundings more often. The heroes have decided to return the Spear of Destiny to Asgard, and Odin, it's rightful weilder. Unfortunately, since they don't have the capability to easily cross dimensions, not being norsefolk or deities, they contact Norgard, the superheroes of Norway, to aid them. Valkyria agrees to accompany the heroes into Asgard proper, in order to make sure that they don't get killed. So they wind up in Muspelheim. and avoid the beneficial black basalt castle swarming with Fire Giants. (Hooray for assuming the NPC is right! Oops.) After crossing the mountains and being exhausted, they find a roadside inn, where they sneak in and get rooms. Sadly, the roadside inn is Loki's trap. So after bathing and cleaning up, an argument erupts over who's going to carry the Spear of Destiny. Keep in mind, it's the Spear of Destiny. None of the PC's are asking me any questions about the inn, the horses tethered outside of it, any of it. But you'll have to wait for the surprise at the end of this like everyone else. Mesa: Baroness, I'll hold the spear while you sleep. Gauntlet: It might be a good idea, Baroness, it's the right call. Red Baroness: No, I don't think so. Whoever is going to take the spear probably isn't going to use physical force, he's going to use subterfuge. (OOC: At this point, I made an EGO roll for Loki, who can, of course, see everything that's going on, and is doing his darnedest to control the illusion without cracking up and losing it. He made it by six. And he had penalties.) So the PC's go to sleep, and are awakened suddenly by Valkyria, who shouts... "OH MY GOD! IT'S FAFNIR! WE'RE IN HIS MOUTH! WE'RE IN HIS MOUTH!" The illusion ends, at this point, of course, to reveal Loki, flanked by Modi on one side and Magni on the other, with a dragon's mouth eye-view of the world. Auron: I knew this was a bad idea. I'm never sleeping in an inn again. Loki: I think I'd like my spear back now.

Re: King of the Mountain Fan Request So far: Karate is taken care of Flaming Star of Death is on Eidolon's Power List already. I won't tell you how it works, that would be cheating. In general, I rate on three categories. Here they are: 1) Coolness. The idea has to be cool. 2) In-Character: It has to be something that fits the NPC's in the adventure already or something they would likely do/already have 3) Reusability: It has to be something that is easily reskinned, re-applied, or re-used.

Re: King of the Mountain Fan Request Remember, there will only be one lucky winner, so be creative.

Re: King of the Mountain Fan Request Oh, make no mistake, he will have Karate.

Re: King of the Mountain Fan Request http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php/81175-2011-Early-Balabanto-Preview-Thread?highlight=Balabanto Elsewhere on these very boards.

Well, it's time for the fan request portion of King of the Mountain, and so I'm putting out a call to see what people want. It worked great in Pretty Hate Machines. Narf asked for a tank, and he got it, so anyone who wants something in this adventure should ask for it now.

Re: Hey, Balabanto has a Website! I should hope so!

Re: Hey, Balabanto has a Website! New posts are up. Sorry for the delay, everyone. michaelsatran.wordpress.com

Re: Which older modules are worth running? Voice of Doom is a broken module for 4 players. Those villains will chew up your PC's and spit them out if they're run with even a half-ounce of tactical sense. I loved that module, but the characters inside are quite simply too devastating for all but the most powerful hero groups. Le Maistre alone can turn an entire hero team into brain puppets. I love the module, but for the group size you're running for, I strongly advise you not to take that action. Zodiac Conspiracy needs a LOT of help, because many of the villains are incorrectly built in the first place. The numbers, even in the edition they are in, don't work. You have to just assume that the effect works as listed. I would rewrite them verbatim if Mr. Shuler would give the rights to me or Blackwyrm, but at this point, it's been so many years (22), and I'd rather just create my own replacement Zodiac for publication. I think you guys will like them.

Re: King of the Mountain Update Today I finished the Zombies for the Zombie Master. Tomorrow, I begin work on The Dark Path, the Cult of the Ebon Flame's very own mystic supervillain team. I hope you have as much fun with Mr. Nightfall, Darkblood, Moonslayer, Skinwalker, and Eidolon as I have over the years. Yes, there are only five of them. There only need to be.