unclevlad

The system says you can't join powers from 2 frameworks. Period. What would work is something like this: VPP: Pool size 75, Control Cost 100 VPP only modifier: Must use OAF Staff, or pool is restricted to 50/50. I'd call this -1/2, but it might depend on the campaign, and how often you're exceeding 50 points. It might only be -1/4. It'd never be more than -1/2 because it's only applying to half the pool. So you buy the whole pool and take a *lesser* limitation on the whole thing, describing that part that's the staff only. The spells with the staff gain OAF on *that* part, so, yes, everything has to be defined technically as a compound power. There's an implicit -0 Limitation that the staff's component has to match the core pool's component, with the exception of END. I think the staff should have an END Bat, and when you use the staff, it's drawing from that. So you can do 1/2 END from personal END and full END from the staff. Also: when you build a true compound attack like, say, a 8d6 Blast and 8d6 Flash, nominally they have to be split, but I don't have a big problem with saying...ok, it's 80 active; I want 40 from me @ 1/2 END, for 50 total, and 40 from the staff at full END. Note that, unless you're buying No Skill Roll (and doing so would have to cover the entire 100 point control cost)...the skill roll's at -9. Oh, and if you try to buy skill levels with OAF Staff? The VPP limitation is almost certainly going down to -1/4.

I agree with that. I'd prefer in some ways that the costs are different for the continuous movement powers (primarily running and flight) as for the discrete powers (leap and teleport) but...ehh, that's probably less important. With MegaRange, not only do you need a major senses investment...you probably have to buy No Range Mods, which will still be a fairly sizable investment. Normal max ranges already run seriously afoul of range mods well before you hit max ranges. You're at -8 at 100 meters; even my fancy, moderately abusive Your Nightmare Made Real (3d6 NND vs Mental Def, Damage over Time, per segment for 6 segments, Lockout) has a range of 150 meters (which is -10). The overwhelming majority of the time, on Blast, Flash, and RKA, there's little reason NOT to take Limited Range and shave off points...even on an MP, if the MP can be 'restricted' to only such powers. (I don't typically find that to be a big problem.) OR, conversely, you're using some other methods, like terminal targeting. Cuz a fair number of real-world weapons have MegaRange.

But with Flight or Running, Megascale is excessive. If your combat movement is 20, and let's say with a 5 SPD...by no means out of line in a 12 DC campaign...then with Megascale you're doing 100 km per turn, 500 km per minute. LA to San Francisco i(airport to airport) is 540...so going LA to the Bay Area in a minute? That's the province of VERY few comic characters. OK, well, maybe defining a movement multipower works mechanically...but it's an artificial, contrived solution, IMO. Using 2 MP slots for different Blasts, one of which is fire-based and the other force-based and vs PD, but otherwise they're identical, is probably best defined with 2 MP slots rather than some advantage. There are numerous ripple effects to that approach. But it shouldn't be necessary for a movement power to capture both combat and non-combat moves. Not that I don't use it, but it shows that the system is flawed. One of the flaws is purely in the scaling. There's nothing between NC adders and massively supersonic? That's a fairly major gap. To me, mobility-oriented supers should typically range between race car (call it 200 mph) and commercial/civilian jets (call it 600). You can get there; 5 SPD, 20 base move, x32 NC --> 600 mph. But it's 40 points and 4 END per phase, so that'd be a LOT of recovery. And, the cost for any advantages (you'll probably need 1/2 END) is 40. NC adders get REAL expensive REAL fast, It also, IMO, shows the structural problem with NC multipliers as fairly expensive adders, when you consider slapping on advantages, versus multiple expensive advantages.

BTW, there IS a way to have "advantages I can turn on and off." Naked Advantage is itself a separate power. The issue is, Naked Advantage is a Special Power, so RAW says it can't be placed into any kind of framework. And as a power it can have advantages and limitations on its own. So Flight 20m, Position Shift, x8 NC, 1/2 END: 44 points, 1 END. Naked Advantage: Combat Accel, applied to 35 points of Flight (you don't have to count the cost of Reduced END, it's not part of the base cost): 9 points. Naked Advantage: No Gravity Penalty, applied to 35 points of Flight. 17 points. 2 END. Note that in most cases, you'll only activate either one for a very short period. The downside is, the naked advantages can't be used in the MP...but again, this may not be as great a problem as it might appear, if the size of the MP can be reduced.

Noncombat defines the response range, if it's actually being respected. In your example, yeah, how long do you have before the thieves (especially super thieves) are gone? High-speed transport's almost implicit...OR, in some cases, hand-waved. (I'm thinking Batman, mostly. Spidey would be kinda similar but Spidey's not called upon as much as he comes across a situation.) In either case: you have a similar question. Why spend points when those points are in service to the plot, not the character? OR, if you prefer...honestly, 60 mph is nothing for me. If that's a character's limit, look for workarounds...like the team buying a vehicle. Yeah, I've got no problem with defining some cost, but non-combat velocity can and probably *should* be made a WHOLE lot cheaper.

This is giving Flight some quite significant advantages over Running, because there's no plausible way to do something similar to Running. If Flight is going to get this much of an edge, the costing probably should be higher. At lower power levels, the fact that you get a 12 point price break on Running is big, but as you move up the power scale, that becomes much less meaningful. Some of the problems here are: --the power OP posted has QUITE a bit of baggage...Position Shift, No Grav Penalty, Combat Accel. How much of this baggage really belongs, versus should just be ignored and considered part of the power for no cost? At least for the superhero genre. --Combat and noncombat are significantly different issues. Range, movement, and endurance are significant elements of combat, so movement power details *matter*. Noncombat is far more narrative. This extends beyond the movement powers. A power (or skill) that has little encounter value (where an encounter is defined as any interaction where failure has a consequence to the characters) shouldn't have to cost points, or should be pretty cheap...because they're only used when it doesn't matter to the campaign. Now, ok...a big problem here is, as written, the rules mostly have very good decidability in play. Trying to separate combat and non-combat notions would make a mess of that, and tend to make the rules even MORE complex. That'd be true even if an extensive reconsideration and streamlining effort was undertaken. And the #1 complaint about the system is that it's already MUCH too complicated...in large part because the goal is to be able to define almost any power or power set. The system DOES let us define a very broad range of characters reasonably...until we get into the unreasonable, like Rogue's power stealing...fairly well. And trying to have the system work the way any particular group desires, can't happen; each group will have different goals and areas of interest. As we say from the get-go...it's YOUR game. Don't consider ANY rule sacred. How about: --some advantages CAN be turned off. --"purchase 2x for +5 points" isn't an adder. It doesn't cost END, the cost isn't impacted by advantages or limitations. It's an adjustment to the real cost. Fine: can some adders be treated as such? I'm particularly thinking movement NC multipliers; Clairvoyance also has some related elements.

Be my guest. Me, I'm staying far, far away from that thing......

There are going to be fringe cases, but the starting point is that you don't have instantaneous acceleration/deceleration. Normal combat acceleration is 5 meters per meter. Normal noncombat acceleration is limited to your combat move per phase, so x32 NC takes, yes, 32 phases to reach full speed and 32 phases to stop from full speed. This is a tradeoff for buying non-combat movement over combat movement. So here: let's start with saying the flyer's scaled down to combat movement. In the phase he's going to go into the water, he starts his decel before entering the water, nominally hitting 0 before/as entering the water, at which point the swimming kicks in. If both Flight and Swimming are up...no problem. Swimming kicks in. I'd probably say that the character's used a half move with his Flight, and can make another half move with his Swimming. If the Swimming can't be active...the player loses the rest of his phase and has 0 velocity in the water. If the character has non-cpmbat movement going and doesn't want to take the time to shed it first? I'd probably be mean. Depending on SFX: --perhaps he just skips across the surface like a flat rock. Most appropriate for low angle of entry, of course. --more than likely, he'd enter the water but be completely out of control. If this is a controlled entry...I'd lean to v/10 damage. (So trying to do this at 300m per phase would be Really Bad.) The deceleration here is RADICAL, and you are gonna feel it.

<sigh> Stupid neighbor dogs going crazy (again) got me up way too early... Shadowrun

Salusa Secundus (Dune)

Pathfinder

It's not insane; it's really more a matter of KISS. You advocated turning off your Flight, but this starts you tumbling. This is just begging for arguments based on how the Flight's defined; shutting off a jet pack/thrusters versus someone with wings versus act-of-will versus anti-grav related versus........ No thanks. But, ok, so you start tumbling. Cross country flying, I'm probably at least 300 meters AGL, and probably *more*. Especially if I've bought significant flight speed...at SPD 6, 35 base points == 15" and x32 NC, let's say; that's a decent combat move with fairly good NC velocity (a bit over 500 mph.) It's just *safer* to have some altitude at that kind of speed. So I've got plenty of time to recover. Plus, how do I pull out of the tumble? What's the roll, what are the modifiers? And realistically, how often would this come up, and how much of a pain is it to work around? Given that it's trivial to work around and fairly cheap, adding this kind of complexity isn't sensible. Final point: this would be specific to Flight. It wouldn't work with Running or Swimming; you can't just "pause and glide" with those powers.

So here's the power: Blast 3d6, Reduced Endurance (1/2 END; +1/4), AVAD (Mental Defense; NND; +1/2), Damage Over Time, Lock out (cannot be applied multiple times) (5-6 damage increments, damage occurs every Segment, +2) (56 Active Points) Now, let's add Basic (or Quick) Shot as a ranged martial maneuver, and +1 Ranged DC. So the net is +3 DCs. Assuming the attack hits and is allowed to run its course: 1. What's the damage in the initial segment? 2. What's the damage in the following segments? I can't find anything on this. My feeling: The martial DCs apply only to the first segment; anything else feels grossly overpowered. If the martial DCs only apply once, the Damage Over Time feels like it should NOT be considered in determining the final bonus damage. So, I'd take only the NND aspect; +1/2 on 3 DCs means 2d6. So the initial damage here would be 5d6, with 3d6 each segment for the following 5 segments.

But Gliding would require 2 slots; it's a Limitation, it can't be toggled. That said...one combo I like is lots of Leap (with non-combat movement) plus gliding, if the GM allows you to switch from Leap to Glide in mid-leap. (Remember that non-combat Leaping requires an extra phase, so you could in principle Leap, then on your next phase switch the slot to Gliding.) Or, it's possible that you can keep both slots powered up; they're both inexpensive. And Gliding in 6E is Flight with a -1 Limitation, so the real cost will be much lower. Flight, 20m, x8 non-com, gliding...15 points. (No Red END needed, Gliding is 0 END by default.) A parallel Leap might be 20m, x8 non-com, Accurate...still only 25, and combat leap is just 1 END. You execute a non-combat Leap, then (if allowed, on your next phase) activate the gliding. 20m with x8 means 160m...so you're 80m above the ground when the glide starts, and moving 160m per phase, so each glide covers up to 12.8 km. That won't cross a large body of water but it's plenty to span most lakes and, I think, all rivers except in their delta regions. The Mississippi is only 7600 feet wide at its widest point in Louisiana. And from a velocity perspective, assuming a 5 SPD, it's about 140 mph. Not awesome, but not bad. Oh, and aren't there rules that you can't just 'turn off' your movement like that, when you're moving at non-combat speeds? So you can't just simply drop the movement power in midair to take the Recovery, any time you want.

By the rules, you can turn an adder off, but not an Advantage. So you could turn off the Position Shift because it's pointless for cross-country movement. Basically, I'd redesign the advantages you're applying. IMO all 3 look better than they play out. Of them, the one I'd drop first would be Combat Accel/Decel. "A character may accelerate or decelerate at a rate equal to his full meters of Combat Movement per meter (instead of the standard 5m/meter)." (Copied from HD's definition.) OK, well, your combat move is 20; you hit max speed in 4 meters. This *sometimes* matters if you're planning a move-by or move-through attack, but otherwise? You don't use it. Drop that...slap in Reduced END (1/2 END) for the same +1/4, and you're good to go. Note that with No Grav Penalty and No Turn Mod, with Position Shift OFF, you're down to 52 active in use, for END purposes...so Reduced END will knock that down to...2. Another option might be to split the Flight into 2 slots. 20m, Position Shift, Combat Accel, No Turn Mode, No Grav Penalty, 1/2 END. 56 points 20m, x8 non-combat, No Grav Penalty, 1/2 END. 52 points This might be cost-effective, if Flight is the most expensive component of the multipower. Out of combat you're trading off the high-maneuverability aspects (no turn mode, extreme accel/decel, position shift) for sheer speed. The No Grav Penalty is, for me, related to the style of flight so we keep that. Altho again, it's something to potentially drop...I like it, but it's MUCH more expensive than I think it's really worth. Note that if you're moving in combat, even if the advantages aren't really in play, you're still paying the END; you get a break because you don't have to pay for the non-combat movement, but 20m and +1 advantage...that's still 4 per phase, and we haven't even mentioned attacking. But I will admit that I prefer to use Reduced END judiciously and not pile on a massive END and REC. Notable adders + notable advantages gets to be a problem on powers you need to sustain or use a lot.

That's why my 'real' entry in the list was the G. Just wanted to plug Bujold with the rest...

That was my B, too; and of course that made my C, Chalion. Same author (Bujold). Series of the same name; also the Penric stories. G, now...OK, back to Dune. Giedi Prime, the Harkonnen homeworld.

Well let's start easy. Arrakis If you don't know the work, shame on you.

My neighborhood app just proved its worth big time. One of the 2 local hospitals announced a fairly significant free vaccination event; news of it got posted onto the app. Next Wednesday for the first shot. Fortunately NOT Thursday; that seems like tempting fate just a bit too much....... Now I have to think of an appropriate celebratory dinner.

Spring training is winding up, and opening day is around the corner. Most places will allow limited attendance. Cool! Shohei Otani is *scheduled* to pitch and hit. If it works out, it'll be interesting to watch. He's only hitting 16 for 26 with 5 HRs this spring...and throwing 101 on the mound. Not so good news...Eloy Jimenez committed the not-uncommon sin of effort without thought. Like, trying to throw out a runner that's gonna make it by 10 feet regardless...and air-mailing the throw into the seats. Here...he tried to snatch back a homer by leaping over the wall. The ball landed 2-3 feet past, easily. And the outcome? He ruptured a pectoral tendon...out 5-6 *months*. Oh, and this was yesterday; I actually caught the game on MLB. Yesterday...aka...preseason. This is, admittedly, an extremely unlikely negative outcome, but the whole notion of going all-out, all the time, without thinking, is a real problem. I think it reduces to....well, NOT 'going all out to make the play' will get ripped, whereas crashing into a wall and giving yourself a concussoin is "oh man, he tries so hard, too bad this happened." I don't think this is going to be *as* strange a season as last year but still not even close to a normal one.

If we could just isolate all the anti-vaxxers and Covid hoax advocates to their own communities...in short order, just think of the resources we'd save.....

Grail's build...I don't believe the Linked does what's desired. Linked makes it a separate power and defenses should apply *separately* as I read things. Adding more dice to the base attack can't be done with Linked. Trigger's actually an interesting notion. The structure would be like Doug's: Tickle: 5d6; cannot be used in a Multiple Attack Slap: +3d6, trigger (Tickle), resets automatically, trigger expires in a phase Smack: +3d6, trigger (Slap), etc. Smackdown!: +3d6, trigger (Smack), etc. But the Trigger's costing you points, whereas this really should have an increasing Limitation...it's harder and harder to use each shot. Doug's limitation values fit with Limited Power (power loses 1/3, 1/2, 2/3 of its effectiveness, respectively) and that feels about right to me. I'd rephrase it into trigger-like language: Tickle: 5d6 Slap: +3d6, only in the phase immediately after Tickle Smack: +3d6, only in the phase immediately after Slap Smackdown: +3d6, only in the phase immediately after Smack Where those are Limited Power conditions. This is more in the Hero powers language, but it's the same notion.

X words...wow, most of em sound unreal. So let's pick another that would raise eyebrows.... Xenogamous ... no, it's not "I married an alien." It's a botany term for a type of cross-pollination in plants.

nephrectomize: to be the victim of the VERY early email urban legend/scams (someone stole my kidney for a black market transplant). That one goes back to at least the mid-80's....

I'll start on the assumption that this was completely on the crew; the shipping company had no involvement. That said: some people are *at least* going to get fired, and the captain will lose his license, even if (let's say) it was just the helmsman pulling a joke. Failure to oversee to that degree is not forgivable. And it's hard to see that it's NOT deliberate, so criminal charges have to be considered. On Beagle and the rights...if his agent was hosing him...I hope he can stick it right back to that agent, and every one of the agent's clients bails on the <bleep>.