CrosshairCollie

Re: My Elves Are Different! We're tangenting, but we do that. My personal view is that any sapient creature can choose its own moral/ethical path, even if it was 'created' to serve a particular purpose. It may be a one in a billion occurance, but even a demon or devil can turn away from the path of evil. Nothing, absolutely nothing, is 'always Chaotic Evil' or 'always Lawful Good' or always anything. I suppose a running theme in my games would be things like personal choice, clinging to tradition is bad, and Screw Destiny. As far as the CvK issue you mention ... having a 20 point CvK doesn't make you a pacifist. having 'Pacifist' as a Psych Lim makes you a pacifist. Having a 20pt CvK means you won't kill, and will do your damnedest not to harm, but you still bring in the bad guys just fine, you just do it nonlethally. And were I a universal power for law, order, and justice, I would most certainly recruit people with Psych Lims like 'Will Not Murder' or 'Honorable' or the like ... otherwise, they're not really that good of a batch of good guys. You don't choose pacifists, no, but neither do you choose people of questionable moral fiber; power corrupts, and all that.

Re: My Elves Are Different! I can't find it now, but I saw a comic someone drew that was 'the FR gods in a bar', with Moradin and someone else at the bar talking. There are three doors visible, one marked 'Men', one marked 'Women', one marked '?'. Elven god Corellon Larethian is reaching for the third door. Moradin: "It is so weird when Corellon goes to the can ..."

Re: Best/Worst Characters? Thinking about it, I've one character concept that sounds absolutely horrible and juvenile, the more I roll it over in my head. I've never had the chance to play a stretchy-type character, but the whole mutant or exposed-to-chemicals source for the powers is kind of overdone, and I love playing artificial/created characters anyway. So I find myself thinking, 'Okay, so it's something like a rubber golem. Why would someone make such a thing?' Then it's 'Brain, meet Gutter. Gutter, say Hi to my brain.'

Re: My Elves Are Different! Now if only you could tell them apart from the elven guys ...

Re: My Elves Are Different!

Re: My Elves Are Different!

Re: Best/Worst Characters?

Re: My Elves Are Different! Well, firstly, 'playing the rules' and 'cooperative storytelling' are not mutually exclusive or inversely proportional. Just because you want a mechanically efficient and useful character doesn't mean you're bad at roleplay, and having a good roleplaying character doesn't mean it has to be weak. Let's get that fallacy out of the way first and foremost. I would never want to limit my PCs that heavily. I'm a big fan of extending as much freedom to my players as possible; if they want to play an offbeat character, that should be inspiring to a GM, not troublesome. I like diversity and individuality in PCs.

Re: Adjusting DCV Either the Extra DCV while aided, or additional Aid for the DCV. It may not make sense SFX wise, but it is a balance issue, which is more important.

Re: My Elves Are Different!

Re: 'Batman' identified, arraigned For some reason, I'm flashing back to JLU. Waller: "Please, Batman left his DNA all over Gotham City." (Pause.) Waller: "Not remotely what I meant."

Re: Best/Worst Characters? Hmm. I always let someone else build my characters until I got the hang of the system, so I never had any true clunkers that I can recall. I've seen a few, though. I recall ... ... someone with a No Range Killing Attack Explosion with neither Personal Immunity and very limited resistant defenses. I think he killed himself with it on an (un)luckily high damage roll. ... a vertically-challenged telepath who was continually dubbed 'The Mental Midget', much to his chagrin. ... a female speedster named 'Quickie' (the player had NO IDEA what that meant, which just made it funnier). ... a character who had spent every single point through the Focus limitation; stats, powers, skills, everything, most of them through different Foci. I think he had about twenty. ... a character with Accidental Change into a bird (falcon? Hawk? Can't rememeber) when restrained, but without having an alternate form purchased. In an act of GM douchebaggery, I ruled this meant he turned into a completely ordinary bird, both physically and mentally. So, he got restrained, turned into a bird, flew away in a panic ... then turned back while still flying. Did I mention his 'standard' form had no Flight or Gliding? ... a character who was a cop who gained stretching powers while doing a bust in a chemical warehouse. He had good skills, a great motivation to be a superhero, a decent costume, good personality ... and then wanted to name himself 'Captain Condom'. So near, and yet, so far (we eventually compromised on 'Longarm', which fit his powers and his occupation).

Re: My Elves Are Different! True, but I'm one of the sorts who doesn't really think there's a wrong reason to play whatever race you want in a fantasy game. Whether it's just 'cause you think they look cool, you like the mechanics, you want to roleplay that kind of creature, you want to subvert the traditional roleplay of that kind of creature ... to me, it's the player's decision.

Re: "Immortality Syndrome" From Champions Powers.

Re: My Elves Are Different! Pure speculation: Elves are supposed to be 'perfect'. Depending on your mythological or fictional source, the typical elf immortal or nearly so, immune to disease, universally handsome ('all bishounen', if you wish), agile, tall, graceful, never forget anything, easily master any task put before them, master artisans, experts in wizardry, and swordplay, and archery, and in tune with nature spirts ... and that gives them the excuse to be utterly smug and obnoxiously condescending to everybody around them. So, you get what many people consider virtual physical perfection, potential mental perfection, AND nobody raises a fuss when you act like a complete douche to everybody around you. 'Elves just do that.' And people are, of course, envious of elves for their perfection, so the player gets (or thinks he'll get) everybody fawning all over him. So, elves are Mary Sues in a lot of ways.

Re: My Elves Are Different! I wouldn't consider an Islamic elf in ME fine, just because there's no Islamic religion. An angry and fundamentalist elven member of whatever religions may exist in that setting would be fine. A wild and carefree elf in that setting would be fine. A clean-shaven non-alcoholic dwarf would be fine. A brave, slender, non-lazy hobbit would be fine. A non-brutish orc would be fine. Would they be atypical? Yes. Would they be unusual? Yes. Should they be prohibited or discouraged? My opinion is 'no'. Yes, I probably shouldn't have spoken in absolutes, but I figured 'within reason' went without saying.

Re: Enhanced Attacks Why am I imagining some anime character screaming "PURGATORY BLAST!" at the top of his lungs? I'd be willing to define the 'standard' Enhancement attack as being just-off simultaneous, even though in game terms they take place on the same action.

Re: My Elves Are Different! Well, yes, but now you've shifted the goalposts to real-life cultural references. Obviously, if the religion of Islam doesn't exist in the setting, that's a no-no. However, an elf who is angry, violent, and genocidal in actions shouldn't be a problem (as a villain, of course), nor should a Harn human who is introspective and seeking philosophical enlightenment, nor should a Warforged who displays a remarkable lack of sophistication (to quote Mr. Foxworthy) an issue in Eberron. An elf screaming 'Allah abu Jihad!' is a significantly different issue from one who is simply more outgoing and extroverted than standardized kin.

Re: Enhanced Attacks I think the 'Enhancement' is viewed as a simultaneous event; a Coordinated attack, as Bloodstone says. It was that way in 5e's Ultimate Energy Projector, at least. It was concept more as 'combining your energies into a single blast', rather than a one-two punch, which is why fire/heat and ice/cold wouldn't qualify; they'd neutralize one another. As you say, however, I would probably allow it just because half of a target superheating while the other half supercools is not going to be pleasant in the slightest.

Re: My Elves Are Different! Aren't PCs by definition out of the ordinary, though? Yes, that character would be unusual, probably unliked, possibly even outcast or exiled. That's not the same thing as saying it shouldn't be allowed or is doing it 'wrong' or that the person playing it should be penalized* for making that character choice. *Outside of maybe, in HERO, taking a Negative Reputation or Social Limitation for being 'that weird elf'.

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Re: Character Complication Help Subject to Orders, Watched by the Guardians, and a Psych Lim regarding just how dedicated he is (or isn't) to the Corps, and a Secret ID will probably cover it. Hunted by Sinestro (as IIRC, he hunts the whole Corps) would definitely cover it.

Re: Simulate Claustrophobia/Cabin Fever Truthfully, I think this is something better left to RP than mechanics ... is it really so serious to warrant mechanical representation?

Re: My Elves Are Different! It's their character; so long as it's played consistently with its Psych Lims and whatnot, they can't 'do it wrong'.

Re: My Elves Are Different! I can't say too much about that. I'd be more than happy playing nothing but Warforged for the rest of my fantasy-gaming life.