Steve Long

See 6E2 139, "Adjustment Powers Bought In Power Frameworks."

It's in the Advanced Player's Guide. It's a 5-point Adder.

Oh, that won't go away, have no fear. But I'll wait and explain it if and when I write up the TotD again.

I decided against that. Since we already have "The Dragon Incarnate" written up in The Mystic World, in the PDF I suggest just using it for the Death Dragon. No sense in what would largely be a duplicate character sheet; might as well use the resources already available. If I ever get around to writing up a new Tournament of the Dragon, I'll make sure the winner gets a powers package sufficient to let him take T.D.I. on and have a decent chance of winning.

I'm definitely not doing an updated version of Seeker. As for what I have been doing: working on Volume 2, all about the Cult of the Red Banner. So far I've written up four or five villains and a 2,000 word description of the Cult itself. Another three villains to go and it'll be ready for editing, and after that it goes to layout. Ordinarily I'd say, "Hopefully I can get it all done by the end of the weekend," but unfortunately I have a colonoscopy Thursday to follow up on the whole "colon cancer" thing from earlier this year, so that's going to knock my work routine into a cocked hat. But almost certainly I should be able to send it to Jason by the end of next weekend.

1. Wow, I got it right! ::preen:: Seriously, I do try. I don't make as much effort with the tones these days, though, because they often seem to screw things up in InDesign; it's just too much hassle. 2. I am aware that HK primarily speaks Cantonese. The problem is that I have a good English-Mandarin dictionary that uses Latin characters, and I don't have such a book for Cantonese. CWW came before Google Translate (or at least 'fore I knew of Google Translate), and I couldn't find any other online source. So I went with Mandarin, which was sufficiently authentic for 99.99% of the audience. I have no plans to update them at this time.

Fair enough. Red is an auspicious color in Chinese thought, though, and has been since long before Mao Tse-Tung got all uppity. (Google "Chinese wedding dress," for example.) That's why I chose the name twenty years ago. Wow, twenty years. Tempus fugit an' all that.

Not using the standard rules -- but this is why we have ( a ) GMs, and ( b ) the Absolute Effect Rule. This seems like a perfect instance where you can just say "X amount of Teleportation is defined as always returning the character to where he was six seconds ago, regardless of how far away that is." Alternately, you could use the Trigger Advantage to creating a Floating Fixed Location that didn't take a Turn to change, if your GM prefers that everything be done "by the book."

Per 6E1 296, characters cannot buy AVAD for Telekinesis unless the GM permits it — in which case it’s up to him to define the rules for it. As for how I’d do it, I don’t normally like to answer how-to questions, but for once I guess I can make an exception. I’d use Change Environment and the table on SH 218 — define 1 G as a combat effect. Given that causing 1 point of damage costs 5 points as a combat effect, and you’re looking at a 1d6 AVAD per 1 G of force, I’d probably charge 25 Character Points per 1 G, maybe more.

No need to speculate, I can tell you if you want to know. I gots the inside scoop! Volume 2: Cult of the Red Banner. Volume 3: probably 5 more independent villains. I always seem to enjoy writing up the "indies" the most. Volume 4: an organization. Probably the Yellow Flame, but possibly the other one I have in mind (Bao Yi, the Jade Dagger -- a Chinatown crime boss type, suitable for lower-level supers games, Dark Champions, and so on). Volume 5: probably 5 more independent villains Volume 6: the other organization Volumes 7 et seq: probably 5 more independent villains each, until I run out of independent villains. Volume ?, if I feel like it: NPC heroes, including the Watchers of the Dragon and Tournament of the Dragon. I really don't much care for writing up NPC heroes, though, so I may never get to this. I don't have any intention of writing up any new martial arts styles beyond what appears with various villains (both the Cult and the Yellow Flame have their own styles of Kung Fu -- and of course their Kung Fu is superior! ). And there will definitely be no evil luchadors. But as always, never say never. You can't tell what I might get inspired to do. Or when I might get tired of doing this and do something else. Right now I'm tentatively trying to write up one character a day, but the key word there is "tentatively" -- especially now that I'm planning out a new campaign, Route 666, for my gaming group. But maybe that campaign will inspire a few PDFs of its own.

That depends on how the Trigger is defined, but you could certainly construct a Trigger that would negate the "Full Phase" restriction of MegaMovement. For example, the character Sai in Teen Champions has a Triggered Teleportation to get her away from opponents after she attacks them -- that doesn't involve MegaMovement, but the principle's the same.

I'm not saying you can't see Dr. Yin Wu as a yellow peril villain, and I'm glad he's got enough depth to him to make some of y'all think about him a bit. I'm just saying that to me he's not quite 100% in that mold, whereas the Yellow Flame will be. Though I suppose that also depends on how one defines "yellow peril villain," too. Ahh, the joys of creativity....

I will definitely update a few that I like and think fit into the current conception of the CU, but most of them will be left on the shelf. It's usually more fun to create new villains anyways. I have enough heroes to make one PDF, and may consider doing so. But if I do it'll probably be at the end of the project, since writing up heroes isn't as much fun as creating villains and I think they're of less use/interest to the average gamer. Oh, absolutely. I doubt it's giving much away to say that the Yellow Flame is my take on the unapologetic, insidious "yellow peril" villain. (Or I suppose you could say second take, if you view Dr. Yin Wu that way, but I do not.) A bit of Fu Manchu, a bit of the Yellow Claw, and some of my own secret sauce all mixed together.

Oh, the Cult is plenty different (if for no reason than it's not "based on" the Hand). If nothing else, ( a ) it's Chinese in origin and nature rather than Japanese, ( b ) it has no ninjas, and ( c ) it has no Greeks in its employ. Furthermore, the Cult has defeated the Hand three years running in the annual Evil Oriental Organizations Chili Cook-Off. Seriously though, while the Cult certainly has superpowered operatives, in general I see it as a more insidious, sinister, world-spanning, literal cult than the Hand (though I'll be the first to admit I'm no expert on the Hand, so maybe it's all of those things too). Basically it's trying to "rev up" humanity's innate evil tendencies to empower the Death Dragon. That's kind of a crude way of putting it, though -- assuming it's worth doing another PDF, I'll delve into proper detail there. Plus, villains!

Howdy Herophiles! My latest PDF has gone on sale. Since I never got to write The Martial World, I had the idea to at least write up some martial arts villains. (OK, I admit that reading some of my old Iron Fist comics may've inspired me. ) This PDF includes five villains, all yours for a mere $2.50 American! Kazeronin, a modern-day samurai who wields the mystical Sword of the Four Winds Otokoyama, the super-strong man-mountain who cannot be moved against his will Talon, a lethal warrior who grows bone claws and spurs from her hands, feet, and joints Xiu Kwan, the last of the lin kuei, the legendary “forest demons” of ancient China Zhua Teng, who uses martial arts powers learned in dark Agharti to enrich himself at the expense of others Hopefully this will attract enough attention that I can write up more martial arts madness! My current plan for Volume 2 is to cover the Cult of the Red Banner and its supervillainous minions, so be sure to let me know if you'd like to see more! Martial Enemies, Vol. 1

Passing Disarm does not; it Disarms the target. Passing Strike does; it's sometimes jokingly referred to as "Martial Move By." Passing Throw may or may not; it Throws the target, so whether he takes damage depends on what he lands on. But usually Throws do damage.

Not specifically, but unless the GM forbids it you could apply that as a separate Limitation to the power (with a value based on how restrictive it is given your average END usage, that sort of thing). Good thinking!

I don't have any reliable way to estimate that yet. On the one hand, I think I'm at best half done with my research, so that might mean it ends up at 800,000-1,000,000 words. OTOH, except for Celtic I've finished all the chapters I expect to be exceptionally long. So even though the remaining chapters may each require a lot of research, they may average a much smaller word count, leading to, say, a 600,000 word book. I don't expect to be able to make a reasonable estimate until I'm much closer to the finish line.

Absolutely not. The GM of course is free to rule otherwise. And of course you could build a power to do that (an Aid, Self Only, Triggered when given Aid-based drugs, can only double effect of drug at most). But in rulebook terms, things don't work that way. Nice try, though.

No, you're absolutely correct; you're not misunderstanding anything. Admittedly that could be seen as a "loophole," but I think it's about the best balance of "realism" and "game-ism" that we can get in this situation.

1. Re: the Range of Senses, see 6E2 7. 2. Per 6E1 179, Characters can purchase "appropriate" Sense Modifiers for Clairsentience. If your GM considers Analyze an "appropriate" Sense Modifier, then yes, Analyze will work with your Clairsentience-based Sense. That's an interesting idea; I don't recall ever seeing that before.

There are rules for sleep and sleep deprivation on APG2 112.

As noted on 6E1 196, Suppress is considered a Constant Power (even though it’s “built” from an Instant Power). Despite that, 6E1 197 discusses the application of the Constant Advantage to Suppress. But this is only for a specific purpose: to let the attacker use it again and again on the target, Phase after Phase, without having to make more Attack Rolls as he normally would have to. (This is discussed on page 196.) Thus, in this case Constant simply removes/negates one drawback to using Suppress repeatedly; the fact that it can be applied to Suppress doesn’t change the fact that Suppress is already considered a Constant Power. 6E1 197 also discusses what happens when characters apply Continuing Charges to Suppress. Those rules don’t require a character to do anything special to Suppress to be allowed to apply Continuing Charges to it — since Suppress is a Constant Power, characters can automatically apply Continuing Charges to it. However, I may have inadvertantly cause some confusion with one of the sentences in that section. The second paragraph begins, “If a character buys a Suppress that’s Constant...”. That refers only to buying Constant to avoid repeated Attack Rolls; it isn’t intended to mean that Suppress isn’t a Constant Power already. If anyone’s reading it that way, my apologies for the confusion.* Now, all that being said, over 14 years and two editions of the rules, Dan and I have had a lot of (fascinating and enjoyable) conversations about a lot of rules in a lot of varying circumstances. Naturally I don’t remember them all; for obvious reasons he tends to keep closer track of them than I do. It’s entirely possible that somewhere along the line during one of our discussions a rules issue came up that caused me to tell him something that might have created confusion on this issue of applying Continuing Charges to Suppress. If so the fault is mine, not his. Lastly, I should point out a Rules FAQ ruling from some time ago that I don’t believe has been posted in the official FAQ: “If an Instant Power has the Limitation Costs Endurance (to maintain; -½), a character may buy Continuing Charges for it as if it were a Constant Power, but in this case the value of Costs Endurance is reduced to -0.” *: Lies! I apoligize for nothing! Nothing! MWAH hah hah hah ha.. ::hack cough wheeze choke::

For purposes of this discussion, a character who’s used a continuing-effect Mental Power is the “mentalist”; the character he’s used it on is the “target.” 1. The target of a Cumulative Mental Power only knows that he’s being mentally attacked. He does not know what effect the mentalist is trying to achieve until the mentalist succeeds. The GM may, of course, rule otherwise based on how Mental Powers work in his campaign, Limitations on the Mental Power, and so forth. 2. A mentalist using a Cumulative Mental Power on a target can continue to make Mental Attack Rolls against the target until he reaches the maximum he can achieve on his Effect Rolls, even if he’s already succeeded at establishing his desired effect. This would allow him to, for example, “strengthen” his mental “hold” on the target by imposing Breakout Roll penalties. 3. Continuing to apply a Cumulative Mental Power after the mentalist has succeeded in achieving his desired effect does not constitute paying END to prevent deterioration. That’s a distinct thing the character must do separately, and pay a separate END cost for. 4. It is not against the rules for a mentalist to voluntarily reduce his SPD so that he has to pay END less frequently to prevent a continuing-effect Mental Power from deteriorating. Whether the GM will allow it — or let it pass without consequence — is another matter entirely.

For purposes of this discussion, a character who’s used a continuing-effect Mental Power is the “mentalist”; the character he’s used it on is the “target.” A sleeping or Knocked Out character generally cannot make Breakout Rolls to avoid the effects of Mental Powers. However, when the target awakens, he immediately gets to make a Breakout Roll (with any positive modifiers for the passage of time since the mentalist used the power on him, if applicable). The GM may, of course, rule otherwise based on how Mental Powers work in his campaign. For example, in a “Psi Hero” campaign, characters’ minds may be strong enough and aware enough that they get Breakout Rolls while still asleep. Or in the case of using Mental Illusions to affect a sleeping character’s dreams, perhaps the character gets to make a Breakout Roll as soon as something happens in the dream that makes him suspicious (or otherwise seems unusual). If a mentalist uses a continuing-effect Mental Power on a sleeping/unconscious target (who by definition is at DMCV 0), and has somehow “maintained” the power (for example, to keep “talking” to him using Telepathy, or to pay END so the power doesn’t deteriorate), the mentalist does not have to make a new Mental Attack Roll if the target wakes up and now has his normal DMCV. However, if the mentalist has not maintained contact and wants to re-establish contact for some reason, he of course has to succeed with a Mental Attack Roll against the target’s normal/awak DMCV to do so. “Sleeping” and “Knocked Out” are the same for the purposes of these rules, but as you point out, some differences between the two in regards to Telepathy are listed on 6E1 298. I think that covers all of your questions, but if not please post a follow-up.