CrosshairCollie

Re: Steam punk genre Depends also on whether or not you make them spend points for gear or not. They'll need more points if you do.

Re: Psychokinetic Controls You've never had a buddy who needed to borrow your car? Or gone on a long road trip with friends where you swapped drivers every few hours? The other option, of course, is that if it is a Phys Lim, then at some point the GM WILL make it an issue. The owner's been knocked out, or his powers have been drained ... we need to drive him to the hospital, quick give me the keys! Wait, there are no keys ... then how do we ... FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Re: Basic/Expert Spellcasting Requiring the spells to have Side Effects works, but effects that severe would again put them in the 'things no player would ever choose' category regardless of their benefits. Besides that, they'd be too dangerous to teach ... students would die of old age before they even got close to competency (the setting has no crazy-longlived-races, so that buffer is out), and Arcanomancy and Chaos would be banned for simply being too dangerous. As the setting sits, only Black Magic and the Assassin's Arts are illegal , and that's based more on superstition and reputation than fact (Black Magic is not inherently more dangerous or evil than any other Arcana, but most of the time you're a bad apple in the first place if you pick it up ... and, well, Assassin's Arts, do the math ).

Re: Psychokinetic Controls I'd probably go with a zero point Phys Lim on the vehicle. Presumably, whoever paid points for it is psychokinetic, therefore he can use it. It can't be easily stolen, but on the other hand if he's unconscious or disabled, nobody else can use it to drive him to safety. It's kind of like a Personal Focus in that way, and Personal vs Universal doesn't get you a point break either.

Re: What If? Fertility Control I would assume so, if you're even going to broach the subject in a game ...

Re: Alternate Form: Car Definitely Multiform. I've designed a Transformer or two that way; Multiform is needed because abilities and Disadvantages change significantly if you go from being humanoid to a car (no hands, issues with certain types of terrain, turn mode on your running, etc). Protecting passengers would be Armor Useable By Others, carrying passengers is just a function of strength (you're literally carrying them).

Re: The cranky thread What the f*** is wrong with Photobucket? Okay, yeah, nice, way to upload pics from my mobile phone. Could you have left me a way to upload pics NOT from my mobile phone?! Edit: Apparently, the site thinks that I am contacting it from my mobile phone, which is a neat trick considering that I don't have a smartphone and can't Internet on it.

Re: Basic/Expert Spellcasting True, at which point it gets to the 'too cumbersome for any player to ever consider taking'. Perhaps just the requirement to have the skill, but not roll it with every spell as a 'meta-rule' rather than a limitation.

Re: The "Nice Happy" Thread So, my wife and I took a road trip last Friday, and we wound up getting these Energy Armor 'positive ion flow' bracelets. Now, I'd say I'm naturally skeptical, except I actually think I'm unnaturally skeptical ... there's a whole lot of crap I don't buy into. Generally, this is one of them. My mother-in-law has a similar bracelet, though, and she swears by it. My wife wanted to get one, and there was a deal if you get two, so she talked me into getting one as well. I figured, even if it's just psychosomatic, it might help me with treatments and help me trick myself into doing more stuff around the house and whatever. If I'm tricking myself, I'm a better liar than I thought, 'cause damn. I've felt better now than I have in a long, long time. I even managed to mow some lawn earlier this afternoon and got a lot more done before I got tired than I would have expected. I'm sleeping better and longer as well, not waking up every 1.5-2 hours ... it's downright freaky, but in a good way.

Re: The cranky thread Good news - the heat seems to be breaking somewhat in my general vicinity Bad news - that means nothing is preventing me from mowing the lawn

Re: Alternate Sexualities in Champions and Supers settings Blue Streak is a pretty common name for a speedy character, really. I think I've seen at least 3 over the years.

Re: Basic/Expert Spellcasting Is that strictly legal, though? I prefer to stick to the rules when at all feasible (or at the very least, be aware that I am breaking the rules).

Re: OIF "Weapon of Opportunity" I've generally been shying away from the 'Focus of Opportunity' idea, myself. To use a superhero example, if someone has a blast defined as picking up an object, charging it, and throwing it at a target (a la Gambit), you can't disarm him if there is anything nearby he can throw. I think the 4e book that introduced the concept said that, instead of disarming him, per se, you take 12 seconds to make sure there's nothing appropriate around. But suppose you're at, say, a gravel quarry? You just *can't* clear out all the rocks in 12 seconds, sorry. I'd just rephrase it to something like 'requires (whatever)' with a limitation based on how hard it is to appropriate the necessary materials. This also lets it be combined with a 'regular' Focus that grants the character powers. For another superhero example, if you have a ring that grants you magnetic powers (IIF Ring), then you can't take an additional Focus (OIF cables and chains of opportunity) for your 'wrap the guy up' Entangle.

Re: Bigger on the inside than on the out Perhaps buying additional Size for the base or vehicle with Invisible Power Effects?

Re: Basic/Expert Spellcasting Hadn't considered that, that's a good idea. Since every Arcana/Sphere/whatever is going to be its own Power skill, multiple-school casters are likely to be rare. Would it be out of order to require the casters do have an appropriate Science skill for the Arcana in question (Chronal Theory, Chaos Theory, Metamagic Theory) as well?

Something I'm pondering for an FH game; I've accumulated all my spell schools from various sources and all that. I want some of them to be 'advanced studies', for lack of a better term; the kind of stuff that would boggle the mind of even most wizards. Stuff like Chronomancy, Chaos Magic, and Arcanomancy ('the magic of magic'). The sort of thing some people would simply never be able to wrap their heads around, no matter how hard they try. The question, of course, is how to represent this in the game (or even if it really needs to be mechanically represented). 4e spell colleges had an 'Expertise' limitation, akin to the way you have to buy 10 points of martial arts if you want to buy any, but somehow that feels flaky as a limitation to me. It does seem to represent a degree of required dedication, though, since you can't just 'dabble' in it with two or three spells. Other options?

Re: The cranky thread Never mind, I found my cell phone.

Re: Ghouls that are not undead creatures Paralyzation is typically done with the power Entangle. Shapeshift or Multiform. I personally do not like Summon, so my answer would be 'zero'. I wouldn't; I'd say make them whatever you want them to be.

Re: Hearing through walls Out of curiosity, does 6e still have the rule that, if the modifiers to perceiving something are a net positive, you don't have to roll?

Re: Alternate Sexualities in Champions and Supers settings

Re: Alternate Sexualities in Champions and Supers settings A character in the 5e Champions of the North supplement.

Re: Gargoyle What do you want a gargoyle to look like? It looks like that.

Re: Hearing through walls "Don't forget to see those modifiers with the bell curve in mind." If it doesn't mean 'increase the penalty if PCs have high PER rolls', what does it mean?

Re: Hearing through walls In any event, the modifier should be applied universally. If it's -2 for one character, it's -2 for all characters. If you increase the penalty based on one character having a higher PER roll, you're punishing him for being good at something, which means he's wasted his points. Punishing people for being good at things is not a sign of good GMing.

Re: Alternate Sexualities in Champions and Supers settings