Vulcan

Re: dealing with unconscious villains

Re: dealing with unconscious villains You'll want to think long and hard about this, and how you want the tone of your campaign to develop. The genre trope is for the Brick to wake up sometime later and either a) sneak up behind the heroes at the worst possible moment; sound the alarm (it it hasn't been already) - or worse, call the cops! or c) simply sneak away and escape. However, if you use a) or , then you set the stage for the players to want to beat the villian into the far negatives next time this happens. And the next villian this happens to might not be so durable, and the players kill him accidentally. (If they kill him on purpose, that's a different situation.) If you decide to allow the wizard-type to have a 'mystic rope,' make him go negative on XP until it's paid off. Or perhaps treat it as a 'team item' and have everyone go negative XP to pay it off. That's the fair way to handle that. Because if you think they're just going to use a 'mystic rope' to tie up captured villians, do you have a suprise coming!

Re: Order of the Stick Just saw the new one. I take it back. Elan's as clueless as ever.

Re: did i do this right

Re: How do you guys deal with WoTC drones?

Re: How do you guys deal with WoTC drones? In my first Boffer group, we would 'feed' newbies to Lady Diana on their first day, to teach them that size does not equal skill level. They'd swagger on up and she'd take 'em apart, with whatever weapon she happened to have at the time. (Lady Diana was all of 5'2" and 95 lbs soaking wet. And pretty hawt to boot...)

Re: did i do this right Exactly. If the character's base STR is Drained to -30, then the tail would be STR -25. Always twice as strong. And on a build like this (a croc tail), I (as a GM) would probably waive the '0 END Persistent' on STR. It still takes effort, but no matter how weak you make the croc overall, the tail is STILL far stronger than the legs. Opinions vary, of course.

Re: Jedi Ghosts and fade-to-deaths? Pretty much. Some (not all, by any means) of the authors writing Star Wars novels came up with much better stuff than the BS Lucas has done. Especially Michael Stackpole and Timothy Zahn!

Re: did i do this right Depends on the concept whether the extra STR should be Inherent or not. If the tail is like that of a crocodile (which is the strongest part of the animal by far) then Inherent on STR is a good idea. Otherwise... maybe not. But the tail probably should be Inherent.

Re: How do you guys deal with WoTC drones? I think the general idea behind 'everyone has WP: Club and Rock' is that these are two very common items that can be used as weapons. A club is nothing more than a length of wood, metal, or whatever (a table leg, tall lamp, branch, crowbar, etc.) that can be grabbed at one end and swung. Likewise, a rock is nothing more than a hard, heavy object that one can hold and use to strike with as a fist-load - albiet sometimes a pretty big one. So a cobblestone, brick, or even computer monitor (the CRT variety, not a LCD/Plasma one) can be used as a 'rock'. A knife, on the other hand, requires a bit of practice and training to use effectively. Sure, the 'icepick' method show in Psycho works against someone who has no combat experience. Try it against a skilled fighter and you're going to get your head handed back to you.

Re: "Neat" Pictures "The cape! The hat! The ridiculous posturing! It all adds up to one thing. AN EGO THE SIZE OF A SMALL PLANET!" [/Taurus Bullba]

Re: Order of the Stick Heck, Elan's development of a brain continues. Remember how clueless he was at the start of the series?

Re: Eurostar delayed! Dealing with Eurostar at all reminds me of the Kobiyashi Maru. Either you go in and risk loosing half the team (our usual choice - and end result) or you wait for massive reinforcements and watch them get away.

Re: Fairness question: PS: X-Man/Avenger/whatever The only problem that comes up is when someone uses a PS to duplicate a bunch of other 'reasonably related' skills on the cheap. This came up in our group once. A character that had been a spy before he got superpowers had the PS: Field Agent at 20<. He then used it as a complementary skill for his Familiarities in Stealth, Sleigh of Hand, Shadowing, Security Systems, Combat Driving, ad infinitum, ad infinitum, ad nauseum. The GM put his foot down about three sessions later.

Re: Elemental Control Vs. Multipower But I use figured characteristics as a guide to how much - well, how much figured characteristics I should have. Granted, I usually raise some of them. But others - especially STUN - I tend to leave alone. Changing them from figured to secondary steals that tool from new players. Sure, I can go back and do the math, but a new player will be clueless. So when his first character EPIC FAILS in his first combat because he forgot to buy up STUN, will he keep trying? Or will he throw up his hands in frustration and go back to whatever he was playing before? Even one player doing so is a tragic loss to the HEROS community. So is it worth it? To 'simplify' a bit of basic math at the beginning of character creation that, ultimately, is nothing compared to the math of calcualting powers? Sure, STR needs to be balanced. So take the figureds off STR! That brings STR back into line in a hurry! (Got to remember to cross-post this into the 6E Discussion, this one was pretty good!)

Re: How do you guys deal with WoTC drones? Drawing on my boffer experince again (and a little bit of experience fooling around with actual weapons), they are not identical in all but size. Heck, the difference between handling a hand-and-a-half (bastard) sword one-handed or two-handed is pretty dramatic. Comparing a broadsword (single-handed, single-edged, basket-hilted) to a greatsword (two-handed, double-edged for what it's worth, and at best a double ring guard and parrying hooks) is... questionable. The only similarity between the two is that both deliver chopping/shearing blows. YES! The greatsword was a very rare weapon, for exactly the reasons you have stated. The hand-and-a-half sword was developed in part because of advancing armor technology made longswords increasingly less reliable, and in part because advancing armor technology made shields a lot less useful, freeing the left arm up to help strike a stronger blow. And about this time, gunpowder weapons started becoming battlefield weapons, followed by the 20'+ pike. So, the only real battlefield use for a greatsword was for the biggest couple guys in your unit to chop the heads off the opposing unit's pikes. Of course, if the other guys had a couple greatswords of their own, well, some greatsword duels might come out of it, but it would be more efficient just to shoot them... But this is a historical note, not necessarily suited for gaming!

Re: How do you guys deal with WoTC drones?

Re: Elemental Control Vs. Multipower I posted in the 6E discussion that all figureds should be switched from STR to BODY. So all STR should do is provide, well, STR. Much like the points from EB only provide EB. That way the 2/1 price of BODY is justified, and we don't need 2/1 STR (difficult to balance in AP cap games) or the removal of figured characteristics entirelty. Besides, there is the number one reason not to play Mega Strong Energy Lad: THAT'S NOT MY CONCEPT! Sorry about the yelling, I just get a bit worked up about this kinda thing...

Re: How do you guys deal with WoTC drones? It seems I have been fortunate in my gaming groups. Most of us play both d20 and HEROS. Those of us who have played both think that HEROS is, indeed, the better system. But d20 is easier to learn in small doses, for new players. So when we are bringing a new player into this glorious hobby we share, we start off with d20 for one campaign. Then we start a new campaign with HEROS...

Re: Order of the Stick YES!!! V's the man! Woman? Anyone know for sure yet?

Re: Elemental Control Vs. Multipower But what if I don't want to play a Energy Projector with a 60 STR? Does your dislike of EC's mean that I am forced to use your builds just to stay competative? I don't think so.

Re: How do you guys deal with WoTC drones? When I run D&D (3.5, btw), anyone who takes their first level in the Aristocrat NPC class can be a noble at 1st level. Since the Aristocrat NPC class offers little else (no spells, bonus feats, or special abilities; average saves, hit bonus, and hit points; and a little extra money - which is quickly siphoned away by expenses ) only one person has taken me up on it. And that was because being a 'runaway princess' was the core of her character concept.

Re: Starwars Vehicles: Any ideas? Of course, the kewl starfighter and starship battles were some of the best parts of the movies... second only to the Jedi duels. I would not be at all surprised if Shadowcat has some of the Star Wars vehicles already statted up. You might also poke around the threads and see what turns up...

Re: two (sigh) PRE questions Some players, anyway. Our group gets a kick out of roleplaying being scared that bad by a PRE attack.

Re: Order of the Stick I kinda hoped Elan's response would have been, "Sorry, I'm officially chaotic good so I don't have to accept your surrender..."