Steve Long

Re: A Valid VPP (Limitation on Control Cost) My answer to the previous question applies. I definitely appreciate the context (a fleshed-out example is always helpful for potentially complex questions), but the example doesn't change my previous answer. Again, I can think of situations where I might allow this... but personally I'd say it's unlikely. I'd require the character to just buy his Utility Belt as a Multipower (or if he prefers, as a VPP with the lots bought the usual way for a VPP).

Re: A Valid VPP? Obviously any GM can allow whatever he wants to allow, but that's fundamentally illegal. You can't use one Power Framework to create another; 6E1 398 specifically says you can't use a VPP to create a Multipower. But beyond that there's plain common and dramatic sense: if you want a Multipower, create one; if you want a VPP, create one. Don't try to mix the two. I can certainly see situations where as GM I would allow a character to build a Multipower-based gadget in a VPP -- for example, an energy pistol with multiple settings -- despite the general rule cited above, if I felt the player weren't intentionally trying to undermine game balance (and that the gadget wasn't unbalancing regardless of his intentions, of course). But what you've described here strikes me as deliberate flouting of the rules, not a legitimate request for an exception to them.

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff? OK, fair enough. To a large extent that definitely describes my Tuala Morn/Northlands setting -- I draw ideas and "flavor" from both real-world cultures and inspirational fiction*, then "game-ify it up a bit," to create something that I think is both playable and fun. (And for that matter, a valid setting for fiction; I've written a bunch of Tuala Morn short stories.) YMMV, of course -- you may want more history, or a different "flavor," or what have you -- but I'm willing to bet there are at least some tidbits you could make use of. *: The Bibliography in TM itself includes the inspirational fiction for it, ranging from actual Irish myths/legends to Vance's sublime Lyonesse Trilogy, Keith Taylor's "Bard" books, and plenty of others. For Acquitaine, Clark Ashton Smith's "Averoigne" stories definitely get top inspirational billing, but there are probably bits of C.L. Moore's Jirel of Joiry tales, a touch of Cabell's "Poictesme," and other more French-ified Fantasy stories.

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff? Welp, I finally got to the "Lands and Lords of Acquitaine" part of the manuscript -- probably the biggest single section (aside perhaps from Magic, we'll see how that goes), and certainly one of the most important for many campaigns. Just finished writing up the Duchy of Armagnac. Only seventeen more duchies to go... and Ronceval Forest... and likely some things I haven't thought of yet.

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff? I approve of this course of action.

Re: 6ed 5 Chareter Points For An Extra Set Of The Same Power Rule. Your information isn't correct at all, for any edition. There's no rule that says +5 points gets you an "extra set" of the same power. There is a rule on 6E2 181 about paying 5 points to double how many a character has of a specific piece of equipment (listed in the index under "5-point doubling rule"), but that rule doesn't apply to abilities in general, just gear.

Re: Gender Changing and "Instant Change" Cosmetic Transformation. Whoever told you that is, in fact, correct; a character can't Transform himself. Shape Shift definitely sounds like the way to go. If that's all it's used for, talk to your GM about letting you make it Inherent... though personally I don't recall ever encountering a situation where an Adjustment Power would've affected that sort of ability.

Re: Another clarification on draining STUN As specifically stated on 6E1 195, Power Defense is applied, then the effect of the Drain applies to reduce the target Characteristic. In your hypothetical, a Drain STUN results in the loss of 5 Character Points' worth of STUN. The target's 3 Power Defense reduces that to a loss of 2 Character Points' worth of STUN. Since STUN costs 2 points per 1 Character Point, 2 Character Points' worth equals 4 STUN. However, since STUN is a "defensive Characteristic," that result is halved, resulting in a final loss to the target of 2 STUN.

Re: Martial Arts and Desolidification You buy the Advantage as described in the rules for buying Advantages for Martial Maneuvers on HSMA 106-08. If you want the Advantage to apply to the use of a weapon that has its damage enhanced by the Maneuver, you have to include the extra damage from the weapon when you calculate the Advantage’s value.

Re: Guarding an area I assume you’re referring to the rules on 6E2 128; if you’re referring to something else, feel free to post a follow-up if necessary. The rules there state, “If a character has a longer Reach due to a weapon, Stretching, or the like, the GM can choose to increase the size of the “guarded” area to match the character’s Reach.” This means you add the extra Reach to increase the standard 2m “area” a character can guard for free; you don’t double the extra Reach. So if a character has +2m Reach from some source, he could cover a 4m radius area — the 2m area he gets “for free,” +2m more.

Re: Drawing fire/goading/"gaining aggro" -- Presence Attacks and skill use 1-5. This is all up to the GM. Different campaigns may want to handle this issue different ways, after all. 6. Generally speaking there's no way to determine a character's Psychological Complications, aside from the use of Telepathy, or perhaps an Enhanced Sense defined as some sort of psionic power. If the GM wants to allow a character to define a Skill that works that way, for example Analyze Psychology or SS: Psychology, he's free to do so... but I'll also leave it to him to deal with the implications and game balance impact of that sort of thing.

Re: Building Skills Into Devices... Look at the "Skills" entry in the Powers chapter. If you have any more questions after reviewing that, just lemme know.

Re: Aborting against a held action In the situation you describe, the GM can permit a character can Abort to a defensive action, but in that case he loses his remaining Half Phase Action in addition to losing his next Full Phase as per usual for Aborting.

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff? Well, that's getting onto a whole 'nother continent. For the time being I'm limiting myself to the Northlands (the Fantasy Europe of this particular world). All I have for other bits of the setting are a few names marked on a map.

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff? Well, I can't say for sure on the ones that are just conceptual at this point, but the Acquitaine one is significantly longer than that. I'm nowhere near finished with it and am already over 10,000 words. Even without art that's likely to be 10-12 pages right there (hard to say for certain on that, but that's a good guesstimate). Depending on how much detail I put into the section on Acquitainian Magic in particular, this thing could get pretty dang long. I'd expect a writeup of Logres to be pretty long as well, since I have lots of ideas there. For the others it's more difficult for me to say, since it would all depend on how inspired I got, what clever ideas I had, and so forth.

Re: Usable Only with Weapons vs OAF Typically the way such abilities are built in published materials is with the Limitation OIF (weapons [or X type of weapons] of opportunity; -1/2). This signifies that the character's dependent on having a weapon to use the ability, but not any one particular weapon, thus making it harder to "disarm" him than if he had one OAF. But of course that's not necessarily the only way to do this. If you prefer to use the method you describe, that's your prerogative as GM.

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff? Unfortunately I don't think the sales I'd make to you and the two or three other people who might be interested would justify the time, labor, and research costs involved.

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff? Just to make sure there's no misunderstanding: 1. What I am talking about is a fictional setting, not historical information. 2. I'm not writing a historical sourcebook on the pre-Christian peoples of Europe (or anywhere else, come to think of it ) There are certainly plenty of tidbits I think you could borrow from Tuala Morn and material expanding on the setting to suit a game set in Dark Ages Europe, but that's definitely not the main thrust of what I'm creating.

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff? Well, I can't promise you'll get all (or even most) of that stuff, since Dark Ages Europe isn't the sole influence on my vision for the Northlands, but there's darn sure some of it lurking in there. The kings of Acquitaine do have long hair, for example. Part of the trick here is to view things sort of along a continuum from Least Sophisticated/Most Magical to Most Sophisticated/Least Magical. Think of it sort of like a four-step continuum, 1-4. Tuala Morn and Vulkringland define 1 -- they're relatively unsophisticated in terms of art, culture, politics, etc. (note that I didn't say "unsophisticated," but relatively unsophisticated). However, magic remains strong, so there are lots of faerie folk, monsters, mystical traditions, and so on. The Golden Temple tends to be relatively weak here, though some related customs (like having duchies and knighthood in Tuala Morn) have been adopted with greater interest. Logres and Hrusland are both about a 2. The influence of "true civilization" has definitely crept in and made itself at home, but traditional customs and magic remain relatively strong. The Golden Temple is established in such places, though it struggles still against various local/native traditions and religions. Acquitaine and Essania are 3s. They're closer to the centers of civilization, and some of that has worn off on them. So here you begin to verge into a bit more of a High Medieval feel (just a bit!), magic is weaker, monsters are less common (though not necessarily uncommon ). The Golden Temple holds sway here, though local/native traditions and religions lurk in the shadows, villages, and hinterlands. Talianora and Bythainia are 4s. These are the centers of Northlands civilization (though to be fair, Bythainia really isn't in the Northlands, it's more in the world's equivalent of the Near East). Politics, art, culture, etc. are all very sophisticated, well-developed, elaborate. Magic, OTOH, has withered considerably, and in fact is generally outlawed by the Golden Temple (or at least frowned upon). Monsters are rare (though bandits sometimes less so). Et cetera. So the feel is more "Dark Ages" in the 1s and 2s, a bit more High Middle Ages in the 3s and 4s. But hopefully it all blends together to create a unique and delightful stew.

Re: TUALA MORN -- Interested In More Stuff? I don't blame you, but since that wasn't my creation (well, aside from the very basic level of coming up with some names and other bits of data), expanding on it doesn't really interest me, and I wouldn't feel right about doing it even if I were interested.

Re: Linked Powers and Side Effects To both.

Lately I've been fiddling around with some more material for my Tuala Morn setting (which is of course detailed in the book of the same name ). Specifically, I've been working on a detailed description of the kingdom of Acquitaine, which you can see a sliver of in the map on p. 275 of the book. As you can probably guess from the name, Acquitaine is a sort of "Fantasy France," the same way that Tuala Morn itself is "Fantasy Celtic/Arthurian Ireland." The primary literary inspiration would be Clark Ashton Smith's stories set in the fictional French province of Averoigne, but there are certainly others... and of course French history itself has plenty of fascinating tidbits that provide good ideas for gaming. So my question is: assuming I get all this finished up and laid out at some point, is this something you'd be interested in buying as a PDF for a few bucks? (I can't speak to a specific price yet because I'm not sure how big it will be, but at this point I can't imagine it would be more than $4.99 at the most.) It wouldn't include any art (other than a map of Acquitaine, of course), but would have information on the history of the kingdom, its various regions, the internal politics, about half a dozen character sheets for new monsters, a magic system adapted in some way from TM's, and other such stuff. Secondary question: regardless of your feelings about Acquitaine, would you be interested in similar PDFs about other regions of the Northlands, such as: Logres ("Fantasy Arthurian England") Kelmark and Vulkringland ("Fantasy Denmark and Scandinavia," i.e. Fantasy Vikings and suchlike) Karellia ("Fantasy Finland") Hrusland ("Fantasy Russia") Turonia ("Fantasy Tribal Germany," including some parts that are "Fantasy Hungary" and "Fantasy Bulgaria") Essania ("Fantasy Spain") Talianora ("Fantasy Italy/late Roman Empire," kinda-sorta) Bythainia ("Fantasy Byzantine Empire") Some of those interest me more than others, so I'm not making any promises, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask what y'all might like to see.

Re: What is a Powers Base value in relation to calculating Standard Range of a Power What may be confusing you is that not everything that "adds to" a Power is in fact an Adder. Adders are those things specifically defined as Adders; in the case of Clairsentience this includes Mobile Perception Point and Multiple Perception Points. "Bits and pieces" of a Power, such as extra Sense Groups for Clairsentience or Sense-Affecting Powers, or combat effects for Change Environment, are not Adders -- they're simply the way those particular Powers are structured.

Re: Aid - Faster Fade Rate That's a GM's judgment call. I'd suggest starting a topic about this on the Discussion board (if you haven't already); I'm sure plenty of GMs will be ready and willing to weigh in with their opinions.

Re: Autofire & Non-selective/Selective Area Effect See 6E1 319.