Doc Democracy

Re: Someone Please Explain This to Me? I think it is pretty much a genre thing. If you are talking modern day, action and pulp then killing attacks are far more likely to kill than normal attacks. MUCH more likely. In superheroes, killing attacks have a better chance of one-shotting the villain. MUCH better chance. I'm with Sean, who in another thread, tried to present a way to make killing attacks more likely to kill and so ensure that anyone who chose a killing attack knew, in their heart of hearts, that they were taking that risk. Gamers make eyeball risk assessments all the time and the chance of one-shotting is good enough and the chance of outright killing someone, in superheroes, is so low, that killing attacks are a good choice enough of the time for enough of the people. I would like to see killing attacks designed such that they are likely to kill if they are used. I would cost them appropriately but that should be their main use in-game. I would even make the default build less effective against inanimate objects so that you would have to pay more to get through vaults etc - thus making the default choice for that kind of thing extra dice on a standard attack. Like, Sean, I'm afraid this is more of an 'I agree' post but it might help with seeing where the problems lie... Doc

Re: Classic Flash Power I'm wondering whether it might be worth looking at speedster martial arts style - this could quite easily be a combination manouevre of grab and choke hold... If the speedster is not strong enough then a brick can put out an arm and stop the circling. It also imposes the fact that the power user has to be within combat distance.... Doc

Re: Indirect and Mental Powers yeah but I had stipulated it as a Mental Defence Force Wall - all it would deflect would be attacks based on ECV - transparent to everything else. I presume that WOULD need indirect? Despite being LOS and so where mental powers would need indirect?

Re: Indirect and Mental Powers Hmm. So if I am Mr MindZappo with a huge Ego Blast power and there are several Viper agents standing behind a mental defence force wall with transparent advantage for energy based attacks shooting at me, then the force wall is useless? Just because I can see them? Or do I need indirect to get round that force wall? Doc

Re: Indirect and IPE Indirect has a couple of layers - one of the things it can do is dictate point of origin - where the power appear from before striking the target. We can both be right here!

Re: Indirect and IPE

Re: I need help with a Magic System

Re: Indirect and IPE You do cast about for problems dont you. I think this one is scraping the barrel though! There is not a lot of mechanical overlap. IPE is essentially a mechanic for hiding the fact that a power is in use. Indirect is essentially a mechanic for allowing a power to originate somewhere away from the character. I would say that there should always be a clue that a character is using a power even if there is no direct link between the character and the power. Doc

Re: Immunity to Electric Attacks I think that this could go uncommented....

Re: Immunity to Electric Attacks So how do you account for the second part? I was thinking that there should be some accounting for it - so 75% resistant (only vs electricity -2; does not work against attacks greater than 20DC -1/4). I realise that this doesn't actually save that much more points but it does put a limit on the protection such that once the resistance is broken you get a pretty complete meltdown.... Doc

Re: Find Weakness, again My first contribution is not directly about the OP but... ...did you notice your limitations have lost the power four thirds and one fourth of its effectiveness? That is 19 twelvths. On plain reading your 10D6 EB has become 5D6 healing!! Doc

Re: Speeding Up Combat

Re: END Reserve that starts at Zero I'm thinking that you should have a minor power with a huge END cost that runs at a low level keeping the END reserve constantly drained - the increased END limitation should itself be limited that it only has the added cost when not engaged in mayhem... Doc

Re: Help .. I need help writing up this power Hmmm. Was trying to think of how we get away from meta-game XP spending. I think I am limited by the jargon though. The description indicates "its damage rating is only dependant on the Shinigami's spiritual strength." Your mechanics indicate that "Each time you gain an additional attack from your Weapon attack skill ranks, your Zanpakutō damage increases by +1d6." I'm not sure how you are moving from description to mechanics. I would be more inclined to work on a martial manoeuvre based on EGO. The damage would be a killing attack of 1D6, requirement to have EGO of 15. You would get an additional 1D6 for each 5 EGO. It would be defended against by ED+Mental Defence. Something like that seems to better describe the description, no? Doc

Re: Speeding Up Combat For big combats with LOTS of mooks I go beyond the one hit one mook - just like Utech's suggestion. I set a DCV and a damage threshold. Each Hero rolls an attack. For every two the roll is made by a mook is taken out, for every 2D6 the attack is greater than the threshold a mook is taken out and then there are some bonuses for good soliloquies, working to heroic disadvantages and to Schtick. That way superheroes wade through bunches of villainous mooks without too much in the way of time taken - all you need to do is keep track of how many mooks are out and when you want to begin feeding in the big guys. I only made one attack against the heroes each phase - better rolls did more STUN and/or END until the right number of mooks had been dealt with and the the heroes get into the fight proper. The mooks stand aside to watch or flee the scene as appropriate - they do not interfere... Doc

Re: "I can't bring myself to kill, but..." There was a character in one of my games who was an energy projector (an air elemental tied to the physical plane who had no idea of his past). The character believed that all of his powers were based around a mystical suit of armour and a wind sword. All of the powers were bought as foci (OIF and OAF) and when the items were removed from him he was unable to use the powers. Obviously, the powers were innate and it was a psychological blockage that caused the inability but we hard-coded it into the character sheet. Over time we shuffled disadvantages and limitations to reflect the voyage of the character from a focus based energy projector to a full fledged wind elemental. The best thing about this was that it didnt require a huge number of experience points to achieve - we shuffled many more points than we bought off and it allowed a lot of 'change' in the character as he discovered the bits and pieces of his past. The best thing about HERO is that you can do this physically or psychologically and the rule mechanics support both ways. What you have to do is discuss what the player wants to do with the character. If the player is keen to roleplay bits and pieces and work on the psychological side of things then it might be better to have the constant temptation of a power that works. If the player wants to work through the frustrations of not being able to use a tool that he believes would do the job better but, for one reason or another (and one of those could be subconscious unwillingness) then hard-coding activation etc could be a better way forward. What I would say is that both you and the player need to know where the character is intended to go. That way you can swithc things round as it seems appropriate. Stephen

Re: Advice on building a brick character Sean What about some kind of directional ability - you could go from simply knowing where you are to much more complex stuff from tapping into the magnetic field of the planet and its disruptions. You could also make him able to interfere with electricity if he charges himself up to become a great big capacitor - possibly even to the point of discharging it all at once for a one off painful attack form. Doc

Re: Rules: arrow build. What limitations would it have that a normal arrow does not? Real weapon & OAF probably cut it. Doc

Re: Looking for a name for my "fate points" What about Influence points? Really it should reflect some characteristic of your game world..you got some details?

Re: If I could put END in a bottle How about simply +30 END, restrainable, recovery triggered by use of drain power Doc

Re: A new approach to Killing Attacks To be fair, it provides the option of making superhero games deadlier. If the GM knows that a killing attack is likely to kill then he may equip fewer of his villains with such attacks or may not use them as often. This would provide a tool that isn't really there just now and would make people respect the name of the power (killing attack) as doing what is described on the tin... Doc

Re: A new system of disadvantages Sean's allergic to those forums...

Re: A new system of disadvantages What I'm wondering Sean is whether when you are roleplaying bits and pieces whether those should feed a contacts and favours pool that you can then use later - using your background material to bolster the connection between the character, the players roleplaying and the background cast? I suppose you could also fit hunteds etc into a similar system to contacts and favours - hunteds and paybacks.... I kinda like it but I want to see more work. Doc

Re: Brink Of War Even evil hordes can be constructs of some kind - think of the scenes under Isengard where the Uruk-Hai are ripped out of membranous sacs - an army created rather than bred. So you get a place for artificers who create hordes of evil minions as well. Its these ones that can cause real long lasting disruption to the local ecology! Doc

Re: Brink Of War Like most people (I reckon) I have wandered through the original dungeon idea of monsters through the careful ecology and balance and back to "I prefer it simple". My next fantasy campaign will have monsters which are essentially magical constructs. They have no ecology or deep background, they are brought into being by wizards to accomplish a task and any that are encountered have either escaped, gone awry from their programmed mission, are on said mission or have been allowed to cause havoc after accomplishing that mission. All monsters can be researched, if you know the right bards tales but, because of this many wizards seek to create monsters that do not have the same old weaknesses (if they can afford the research time and costs). This retains the ability to have random monsters appearing at semingly crazy intervals or inappropriate places without having to provide detailed ecologies and rationales. Doc