The Role Playing Public Radio Forums

General Category => RPGs => : Gorkamorka April 09, 2013, 11:23:36 AM

: BaseRaiders
: Gorkamorka April 09, 2013, 11:23:36 AM
So, Ross, how is it coming along?
Can we expect it in July, or did the project hit unexpected snags?

Has anything surprising come out of the playtesting?  How is FATE holding up?

Thanks
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Setherick April 09, 2013, 11:44:26 AM
Since Ross hasn't begun his incessant bugging me (and assumed Caleb) about proofreading the project, I would assume that it's on schedule, but going slower than he had hoped.

Ross is pretty good about hitting deadlines though.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Tadanori Oyama April 09, 2013, 12:09:34 PM
Things I imagined from the phrase "hitting deadlines" over the span of three minutes:

Hiring assassins to kill said deadline

Ross physically striking someone (let's say... Thad) wearing a 'deadline' sash

Taking a train used and operated by ghosts

A first person zombie shooter were the 'deadlines' are lines of computer code that must be removed
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe April 09, 2013, 01:57:49 PM
It's still set for a July release - I am a bit behind because I wrote part of the upcoming Transhuman source book for Eclipse Phase - that took some time. Most of the art is in and I'm also done with the layout template. I just want to finish writing up the setting material.

Right now, it's about 100k words. I expect it to be 120-130k words.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Wooberman April 10, 2013, 02:56:01 AM
If only your wishes didn't keep getting corrupted
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Tim April 10, 2013, 11:19:51 AM
If you are looking for a snappy subtitle might I suggest:

"Those bases are not going to raid themselves."

Or of course the classic which studies have shown will enhance your chances of getting laid with arty types with their glasses and book learning:

"Climbing a rope of sand."
: Re: BaseRaiders
: SageNytell May 13, 2013, 11:12:41 AM
Hey Ross - with the creation of FATE Core as an open system, are you sticking with a base of STRANGE FATE or will Base Raiders be using FATE Core?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe May 13, 2013, 01:43:34 PM
Hey Ross - with the creation of FATE Core as an open system, are you sticking with a base of STRANGE FATE or will Base Raiders be using FATE Core?

Sticking with Strange Fate.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: EndersLegend May 14, 2013, 10:23:33 PM
I finally got to listen to the podcast on it. I'm in the process of moving almost 5000 away so I'm a bit behind. I'm very intrigued by the game.  I wish I could have contributed to the kickstarter before it ended. I also wish I had met you guys at some point. I used to spend a lot of time in Springfield with some family before I'd head up to Bellair. You guys seem like you'd be fun to game with. Well, good bye people of the near-Ozarks.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe May 14, 2013, 10:41:23 PM
I finally got to listen to the podcast on it. I'm in the process of moving almost 5000 away so I'm a bit behind. I'm very intrigued by the game.  I wish I could have contributed to the kickstarter before it ended. I also wish I had met you guys at some point. I used to spend a lot of time in Springfield with some family before I'd head up to Bellair. You guys seem like you'd be fun to game with. Well, good bye people of the near-Ozarks.

You should have posted something about it. I'm fine with doing a RPPR meetup in Springfield if some fans are actually able to make it.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: EndersLegend May 15, 2013, 03:17:28 AM
I finally got to listen to the podcast on it. I'm in the process of moving almost 5000 away so I'm a bit behind. I'm very intrigued by the game.  I wish I could have contributed to the kickstarter before it ended. I also wish I had met you guys at some point. I used to spend a lot of time in Springfield with some family before I'd head up to Bellair. You guys seem like you'd be fun to game with. Well, good bye people of the near-Ozarks.

You should have posted something about it. I'm fine with doing a RPPR meetup in Springfield if some fans are actually able to make it.

I would have loved it. I don't have a lot of trouble finding groups but, good groups are another story.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Tim October 01, 2013, 07:44:59 PM
Am reading through the book and am honestly finding the rules, especially around character creation, a touch difficult to follow. Perhaps I am dense (always a possibility) or just not familiar with the Strange Fate core rules.

Am going to start to comb the internet a bit to look for examples and some play. Anyone had any advice on where to start looking?

I did find that listening to the Eclipse Phase podcasts did make it a lot easier to learn those rules. Any chance the RPPR crew or others are recording podcasts of actual plays (or even some character creation walk throughs) in the near future?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Tadanori Oyama October 01, 2013, 08:00:03 PM
Fate in general can be difficult to get your head around; they tend to be over written with Fate Core probably being the biggest exception.

I can try to help you out if you've got Fate based questions.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe October 02, 2013, 12:08:40 AM
There is an example character creation process in the book and the NPC heroes are all made with standard rules. I highly recommend this link to help calculate point cost values for skills: http://apopheniaevolved.com/content/kerberos_club_custom_skill_generator

Finally, you better fucking believe there will be character creation and APs for Base Raiders.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Tim October 07, 2013, 04:26:11 PM
Going to take a second pass at the rules tonight after I have had a few days to ruminate on it and have read through the other characters examples. We shall see if I can get my "wrong side of mid 30's don't want to learn no new fancy pants rules when THAC0 was good enough for me when I was a kid" brain to figure it out.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Gorkamorka October 21, 2013, 02:41:21 PM
I keep meaning to ask.  Why did none of the PCs from the campaign get a write up as NPC or example PCs in the book?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe October 21, 2013, 05:56:35 PM
I keep meaning to ask.  Why did none of the PCs from the campaign get a write up as NPC or example PCs in the book?

I wanted the NPCs to be usable as allies/rivals/enemies/whatever you needed them - even the heroes can be used as villains or antagonists. If I used the PCs from Heroes, I was afraid that some podcast fans would only see them in that role. Plus, I have plans for the NPCs to show up in Base Raiders fiction and the Heroes of New Arcadia already have their own arcs.

If you notice, the heroes do show up in the artwork of Base Raiders though.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Gorkamorka October 21, 2013, 06:02:21 PM
I keep meaning to ask.  Why did none of the PCs from the campaign get a write up as NPC or example PCs in the book?

...

If you notice, the heroes do show up in the artwork of Base Raiders though.

That's why I asked. 
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe October 21, 2013, 06:14:49 PM
I'll probably stat out the Heroes of New Arcadia and post them to the website at some point.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Ezechiel357 October 22, 2013, 09:21:23 AM
I got my book ten days ago (I live in Switzerland), in good conditions and went through it quickly. Excellent job! I was very please with the creation rules of "strange skills", and already had some fun building "Domino", the last Heir of "Whom-who-whispers-in-the-Shadow", a colour-blind adept, and Scarecrow and his hords of tiny hungry pumpkins, an ecologist, who was looking for way to undo accidents like Three-Miles-Island meltdown and other man-made ecological disaster.

I will post later some specific questions to check if I understand well the Strange skills creation mechanism - I would like to run soon a game, with initially some pre-gen to introduce both Fate system and Baseraider.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe October 22, 2013, 01:43:36 PM
This web page helps calculate strange skill point costs: http://apopheniaevolved.com/content/kerberos_club_custom_skill_generator

Base Raiders combined skulk and hide into stealth - so use skulk if you need to use stealth. That's the only difference.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Ezechiel357 October 23, 2013, 03:58:46 PM
The calculator works great, thanks.

I might still need help to craft certain strange skills.
Here is my first one, for Domino, Last Heir of Those-Who-Whisper-in-the-Shadow

I named it "Shadows are my world", with Stealth+Unusual, Move, Dodge, Leap+Unusual+Range, Environment.
This strange skill allows Domino to walk in the shadow, to "jump" from shadow to shadow (a short range teleport with Leap+Unusual+Range; I am pretty sure I got this one right since it is in one example).
Stealth+unusual is to allow him to hide where there is no place as long as there is a shadow - here, I am less sure.
And I added Environment, because I would like him to be able to see in the dark, here I am not sure at all. Maybe I need to add Unusual. My initial thought was that since the whole skill is about the shadow, I do not need to add the unusual feature since Environment will not apply to anything else.
I will balance with a Minor Weakness (light) and a Major flaw (snag): Domino is colour-blind (argument could be made for this being a minor flaw, but I feel in our modern world with all the technology, colour-blind is a major handicap).

And to round that, he would have another power:
"Black blood": Menace+Zone, Major Snag (need to pour his own blood). He would bleed, but instead of dripping on the floor, black tendrils of smoke would take the shape of terrifying nightmares, scaring everybody around.
I could find another Flaw, but I found it well suited for the theme. Now how could I translate that in game term. The easy answer is a Fate point, I was wondering what about some Stress ?

It is really pumping my creative juice  :)
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe October 23, 2013, 05:38:21 PM
See in the dark would be best represented by Notice + Unusual I think.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe October 24, 2013, 09:41:18 PM
Need a quick base map? Go to http://davesmapper.com/ and select Sci-Fi ship. Spaceships can have pretty similar layouts to a high-tech base.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Tim October 28, 2013, 03:25:16 AM
Working through the skill creation and have a few questions. In some of your example skills you reference a trapping called Hide (See pickpocket) but it does not appear in the book. I assume stealh is the sub.

I also see some trappings that are followed with a number. In the pickpocket skill example I see Hide (2) and Stealth (2) and Notice (1). Not sure I understand what those means. It seems like the trappings are fixed cost and do not individually 'level' but maybe I am missing something.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Tim October 28, 2013, 03:30:28 AM
Reading this thread again I see you note the hide skill was put into the stealth skill. That answers that question.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: D6xD6 - Chris November 17, 2013, 12:08:29 PM
I am trying to design a good framework for a sandbox-style campaign for Base Raiders using the origin rules.  Here is what I have so far:

Campaign:  The Adjusters

Premise:  The players begin the game as employees of an insurance company.  The insurance company had scammed many low-level superheroes to pay for life and disability insurance by using their bases and assorted property as collateral.  They basically said that they would keep their information and beneficiaries completely confidential, and offered low premiums as long as they offered sufficient collateral.

However, since the heroes would have no real proof of the policies to retain because of the need to protect their identities , they were basically just giving the insurance company a nice list of all their stuff.  And if something "unfortunate" were to happen to a hero, the company would be the only ones to know what exists.

Which they would have no problem liquidating on the black market for a nice profit.

And since Ragnarok, the company has an immediate need to collect on their pledged collateral.

This is where the players come in.  When designing their character, the players would choose an initial aspect that would be a valid reason why the company would select them to join a new department of "Priority Claims Adjusters."  Then, the company would send them to investigate a base to cross-reference the inventory and collect the goods.

Unfortunately, a gang of nasty base raiders managed to find out about the base, and they ambush the players.  Then the players have the choice to go. . . wherever.

Basically, the players can keep working for the insurance company and getting assigned "missions."  Or they can escape with the stuff and knowledge of other bases, and try to beat the insurance company to the goods.  The company, however, will not respond very kindly, and will send other teams of "Adjusters" to "claim" the players.  The players can join the gang of base raiders, and deal with the consequences of that.  No matter what, the players will have plenty of opportunities to get powers.

Thoughts?  Suggestions?  Improvements?  I'm HOPING to get a campaign started in January using this framework, and any areas of improvement would be much appreciated.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe November 17, 2013, 02:59:21 PM
I'd set it up so that the scam required the aid of a corrupt Ideal hero - basically a senior hero who persuaded the newbie heroes into signing up for the plan. The senior hero also kept the scam secret from the rest of the Ideal - the whole purpose of the Ideal was to protect superhumans from exploitation by normal human society so if they had learned of the scam, the insurance company HQ would have shortly become a smoking crater.

The rival gang of base raiders learns of the scam via the notes the senior hero left behind in one of his bases (obviously the senior hero did not give the insurance company info on his bases)

However, it quickly becomes apparent that this was more than a simple scam for money - the senior hero and insurance company both had hidden agendas. Complications could include:

1. The senior hero only used money as an excuse - he wanted intel from the newbie heroes. He was looking for something specific but what was it? Did he think that one of the newbie heroes was a spy sent by a villain? Did one of the newbies have an artifact or know something they shouldn't?

2. The insurance company wanted more than just money. Perhaps they were secretly led by a cabal of human supremacists who wanted an edge on superhumans or they were a front for a villain or they were revolutionaries who wanted to overthrow the Ideal so they could then conquer the world and install a one world government led by superhumans?

3. The newbies were not all that they seemed. Perhaps they were the cat's paws of an unknown third party waging war against the senior hero and/or insurance company. Maybe one or more of the newbies knew about the scam and laid a trap - one that includes weapons of mass destruction or hordes of zombies/robots/demons aimed at invading the insurance company's HQ

This is just off the top of my head
: Re: BaseRaiders
: D6xD6 - Chris November 17, 2013, 03:10:37 PM
Yeah, I was definitely going to have some other motive for the insurance company for the scam.  Your suggestion is similar to one I had about the chairman of the board being a power addict that is using the acquired goods and money for...something.  Human supremacy is a great angle to approach that with.

And I LOVE the idea of using a corrupt Ideal.  That will add a whole new realm of possibilities and challenges for the players.

How is the idea overall?  Is it logical and sensible?  Does it capture the design goals of Base Raiders?  Is it an adequate way to begin as an origin story?

I have not designed a campaign for years, so I am a little more uncertain about what might work. 
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe November 17, 2013, 09:57:40 PM
It fits perfectly with Base Raiders with the corrupt Ideal member - without an agent on the inside, how would normal humans scam superheroes for extended periods of time without being detected by one super genius hero or the other?

As another idea - I'd compartmentalize the base info in the company. One master list would be too valuable and vulnerable. The company would probably break the intel up into accounts, which were handed out to different departments or corporate officers - each account is kept separately and securely. PCs work for one officer but once they use that info they have to make an arrangement or bribe or steal the intel from the next officer/department.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: D6xD6 - Chris November 17, 2013, 10:35:36 PM
You are right about the necessity of an inside agent.  The idea falls apart without that.

And we are on the same page about the division of the lists.   My thought was to have each client stored securely under a dummy alias at a regional office with a specialized insurance agent.  These were given to these agent at random, and no one is sure which one is which, and there are obviously additonal security protocols.  Also, the players would not know which offices have the files, so it would take a lot of challenging legwork just to find the the offices that have lists without the aid of the company.  And at the corporate level, the office locations would also be divided, and only selected employees would receive the location of one office.

And I was going to do more research on insurance company scams to see how they pulled it off for so long.  I have personal knowledge of financial sector scammery and what they did to avoid getting caught (it is honestly just by being a boys club good at keeping quiet).  I just want to make sure I have plenty of avenues the players can take to use their powers and be all badass and shit. 
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe November 21, 2013, 10:40:40 PM
Well, let us know how the campaign goes! Don't put too much work into any given avenue until you see how the players react to the set up. Once you know how they'll act, it will be easier to write for that angle.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: D6xD6 - Chris November 22, 2013, 12:07:53 AM
Oh yeah,the players will create new angles that I hadn't even considered, effectively invalidating most of my research and prep work.  So be it!  I am just in the giddy brainstorming phase that makes being a GM so enjoyable.   ;D

I was going to run a one-shot scenario in Base Raiders first just to get them used to the rules and to see how they approach it.  They've never played Fate before, so I have a couple one-shot FAE scenarios just to get them comfortable playing Fate.  I'm sure they'll enjoy the system, but I figured it would best to let them get used to it by playing Congo 2: Endangered Species (FAE is particularly suited to jumping over rivers of lava and fighting laser-wielding super-gorillas) and Burning Bridges (my alternate history take on the infamous Milwaukee Bridge Warhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwaukee_Bridge_War (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwaukee_Bridge_War). . . with zombies). 

Thanks again for the advice!  Base Raiders is a cool game, and clearly a product with a lot of heart put into it.  I will definitely post updates here describing what happened in the one-shot and in the campaign.  8)
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Rantling November 29, 2013, 08:45:26 PM
Hey spent some time today creating a fillable Character Sheet, It's not perfect but see if it works for you. Oh and Ross very happy with the book thank-you.

: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe November 29, 2013, 10:02:31 PM
Awesome! I was meaning to do that myself at some point, but I am a horrible monster. I'll put it on the Base Raiders site soon. You rock!
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Rustbucket November 29, 2013, 11:56:36 PM
Hey, I've been tinkering with a power that I've had stuck in my head for the past few days but it's to no avail I can't quite get the mechanics down.

It started as a teleportation power, but I wanted to add in a different element, so I decided that during the movement the user turned into a gaseous form and poured his way through cracks and crevices until he reached his destination and coalesced. Then my mind upped the ante and took it to the next level; what if the conversation of mass rule was in play? What if the user exploded into a massive black fog bank whenever he activated his power, obscuring the area and choosing a spot covered in his mass to reform?

I'm thinking Move+ unusual to represent the pouring himself through cracks, Disguise + unusual + Zone to represent the obscuring effect, and Dodge to represent the incorporeal nature of the cloud. Thoughts? Suggestions? Streamlining?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe November 30, 2013, 01:01:41 AM
Disguise doesn't make sense - that makes something look like something else. If the fog bank worked as hallucinatory terrain (as per the D&D spell) then it would use Disguise. Otherwise, It sounds more like stealth.

Fitting through the cracks is a Move + Unusual, not dodge. You don't dodge doors, you move through them.

You should also look at the transform flaw.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Rustbucket November 30, 2013, 01:37:19 AM
Dodge wasn't for dodging doors more for dodging attacks while in the fog bank state due to the incorporeal nature of the form. But the transform flaw might be able to take care of the aspect.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe November 30, 2013, 02:04:57 AM
Personally, I'd use Resist Damage + Unusual for the incorporeal part, but dodge works too.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Rustbucket November 30, 2013, 12:24:17 PM
I can see Resist damage as your "body" isn't dodging it's just everywhere.  And thinking about it I guess the aspect gained by the transform flaw could handle the "200 lbs of human turning into 200 lbs of fog" obscuring side of things. If you gain the aspect of "Shroud upon the land" or something far less cheesy then it can be compelled and invoke by people using it to hide.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe November 30, 2013, 01:34:15 PM
compels are negative things that give you FATE points, so if your enemies use you to hide from yourself (?) or your allies, then yeah. If you or your friends use it, that's an invoke and it uses a FATE point.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Rustbucket December 05, 2013, 02:31:37 PM
Exactly,  it's actually a very simple solution to the problem that was driving me nuts with this power.

Have I mentioned how much I enjoy this system and game?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: constructacon December 10, 2013, 03:22:38 AM
first off i would like to congratulate you on a fantastic game Ross love it and the concept. this being my first foray into strange fate i also think it does superhuman better than fate does, at least if your game is focused on the power as much as the story.

any who having consumed the book fully (must complement you on your choice of glue fantastic). i also being a horrible monster of a GM, have forced my players to play base raiders as our current campaign. well forced is probably a little strong.
"i would love to run base raiders as our next campaign"
"really what's it about"
"well an oversimplification is shadowrun with superheroing"
"awesome! marvel or DC?"

and thus my campaign was born, and through it i have found some interesting developments. but, before i go into them i should point out that my group all has +15 years of gaming and are all familiar with FATE gaming, so other gm's be wary your millage may vary.

the game is titled "Suicide Squad: After Ragnarock." the game starts one year after the disappearance of the various supers out there both villain and hero alike. the players play people in misprision for various crimes, whether they actually committed them or were framed for them is up to them and there back-stories. they are assembled to become the new suicide squad, which for those of you unfamiliar is just what it sounds. they will be given a tryout mission, come back and you qualify for the new squad don't and your dead...one way or the other. this will be your typical "origin story" now that you know the basic setup let me reveal my tweaks.

first off after being inspired by bayou beat-down 1 i decided that the easy way to figure out what stories i should put in this game was to ask them. now the DC universe has already been created so, after telling my comic book friendly friends where in the timeline it was set (Ragnarok event replacing Flash-point) i allowed them to each report 3 rumors about the game world, that would let me figure out just what they were looking for in stories. the rumors were classified as, things the public would know, things the villains would know, and things the heroes would know. with each player giving one of each type. the final trick i played (though it might possibly be a mistake) was to allow them to set the tone of the game by each putting a campaign aspect on the game. 

if anyone is interested i'll post more detail about the game
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Ezechiel357 December 10, 2013, 04:56:48 AM
I liked how the Base Raiders campaign started and I am going to blatantly steal the story :-). It is for a one-shot game, with players not knowing the FATE system, so I will keep it low power.

However, I need to build a few items/serums to "populate" the base with items to loot. I used the link for strange skill generators so point-wise, the powers value should be OK. I just need input/suggestion regarding those powers (the game will be on Friday), especially suggestions regarding side effects as obviously, characters will be suffering from burn. I would like to let the player propose side-effect, but coming with a list of possible  problem will help them since they are not used yet to the system.

Super-Soldier Serum: Resist Damage, Stress (Health), Strength, Leap, for a total of 8 points, likely Superhuman Tier. Possible side effect: appearance (skin colour, massive size, strange proportion)

Chimera Serum (gecko): Move (unusual - can walk against any solid surface), Dodge, Jump + Range, Stealth, for 10 points, likely Superhuman tier. Side effect: obvisously appearance, any other suggestion ?

Peak Performer / Pheromons booster -  The Great Gatsby: Insight, Examine, Menace, Information, Network, for 10 points. The person develop an uncanning perception (something like "The Mentalist") but also the ability to be incredibly assertive and convincing by unknowingly releasing pheromons. Possibly only Extraordinary tier. I added Menace, to have one offensive power working on something else than Health and I thought it would fit the theme, although I am unsure about Network (how a drug could give that ?) - maybe replacing it with Guile or Convince ?
What side effect could be interesting or appropriate ?

An old artifact: The Ring of the City of Brass.  Shoot + spray + zone, Parry (unusual - small shields of brass appear out  of nowhere). The beared is able to control fire and use it as a weapon. Pretty basic. Side effect ? Hear the will of the Sultan of the City ? Powder turned off if wet ?

A modern high-tech item: The Engineer's Gloves: Repair, variable (scene) x2, for 9 points, Extraordinary tier. Initially designed by a genius mechanic who did not want to bother with carrying is huge toolbox. Now it is the first time I am dabbling with the variable trapping, so I want to see if I got it right.
Two variables trappings can "buy" for a scene the equivalent of 2 points worth of trapping or extra right ?
Hence, they could turn the nail gun into a real gun (shoot: 2 points), or the saw blade and the wrench into more appropriate hand-to-hand weapons (Strike and Parry, each worth a point), or turn into powerful piston actioned-pikes (climb for 1 point or Move + unusual for 2 points); or even huge claws (Physical Force). Finally, they could easily do Dismantle or Craft (each worth a point).
Could it even turn into a kind of pseudo-workshop by using Workshop+Unusual to simulate that the Gloves can easily convert nearby materials into appropriate tools to Repair stuff (since Repair is one of the base trapping) ?

Finally, a classical: The Rocket Boots, with Dodge (minor snag: only in flight), Move + Unusual (fly), Resist damage (minor snag: only in flight), for 8 points, Extraordinary tier. After a few painful landings and unfortunate contact with large advertisment panels, the original builder improved the base model with a small shield force.

My idea is to prepare small cards to hand to the player who is injecting/drinking/doning any of this items, with a short description, and let him fill the blanks for the side effect.

I will hand to the players pre-made PC sheets - heavily inspired from Ross'game - including a few extra character points unspent. Assuming that they don't use all of them and they do not try to acquire more than one power, they should only suffer from minor burn, having to select one side effect from the miscibility table.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe December 10, 2013, 01:11:23 PM
If I was a prisoner sent out on a suicide mission, the first time I would get a chance to gain superpowers I would take it and then escape. How is the government controlling the PCs?

first off i would like to congratulate you on a fantastic game Ross love it and the concept. this being my first foray into strange fate i also think it does superhuman better than fate does, at least if your game is focused on the power as much as the story.

any who having consumed the book fully (must complement you on your choice of glue fantastic). i also being a horrible monster of a GM, have forced my players to play base raiders as our current campaign. well forced is probably a little strong.
"i would love to run base raiders as our next campaign"
"really what's it about"
"well an oversimplification is shadowrun with superheroing"
"awesome! marvel or DC?"

and thus my campaign was born, and through it i have found some interesting developments. but, before i go into them i should point out that my group all has +15 years of gaming and are all familiar with FATE gaming, so other gm's be wary your millage may vary.

the game is titled "Suicide Squad: After Ragnarock." the game starts one year after the disappearance of the various supers out there both villain and hero alike. the players play people in misprision for various crimes, whether they actually committed them or were framed for them is up to them and there back-stories. they are assembled to become the new suicide squad, which for those of you unfamiliar is just what it sounds. they will be given a tryout mission, come back and you qualify for the new squad don't and your dead...one way or the other. this will be your typical "origin story" now that you know the basic setup let me reveal my tweaks.

first off after being inspired by bayou beat-down 1 i decided that the easy way to figure out what stories i should put in this game was to ask them. now the DC universe has already been created so, after telling my comic book friendly friends where in the timeline it was set (Ragnarok event replacing Flash-point) i allowed them to each report 3 rumors about the game world, that would let me figure out just what they were looking for in stories. the rumors were classified as, things the public would know, things the villains would know, and things the heroes would know. with each player giving one of each type. the final trick i played (though it might possibly be a mistake) was to allow them to set the tone of the game by each putting a campaign aspect on the game. 

if anyone is interested i'll post more detail about the game
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Ezechiel357 December 11, 2013, 03:38:19 AM
I feel a bit embarrassed with my basic questions...

I am preparing for my Friday game and I saw the Upsilon drug (p147), with a cost of 5 skill points.
If I follow the trapping process, I get: shoot (2) + Rangex2 (2), for a total of 4. Minor snag:-1, hence a total of 3 points.
The superhuman tier remove refresh, but does not impact the skill point.
Do I miss something ?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: constructacon December 11, 2013, 04:01:52 AM
If I was a prisoner sent out on a suicide mission, the first time I would get a chance to gain superpowers I would take it and then escape. How is the government controlling the PCs?

first off they all have plot device death switch in there heads. the players all know this and are cool with it.
secondly have you given any thought to how you would build a super vehicle. something like a batmobile, a batplane, or the ship from the Young Justice TV Show?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe December 11, 2013, 02:25:01 PM
I feel a bit embarrassed with my basic questions...

I am preparing for my Friday game and I saw the Upsilon drug (p147), with a cost of 5 skill points.
If I follow the trapping process, I get: shoot (2) + Rangex2 (2), for a total of 4. Minor snag:-1, hence a total of 3 points.
The superhuman tier remove refresh, but does not impact the skill point.
Do I miss something ?

Yeah, I think that's a typo then. My bad.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe December 11, 2013, 02:26:41 PM
If I was a prisoner sent out on a suicide mission, the first time I would get a chance to gain superpowers I would take it and then escape. How is the government controlling the PCs?

first off they all have plot device death switch in there heads. the players all know this and are cool with it.
secondly have you given any thought to how you would build a super vehicle. something like a batmobile, a batplane, or the ship from the Young Justice TV Show?

Kerberos Club FATE edition has examples of vehicles - basically you build a strange skill with the transport and stress capacity [health] trappings and give it the focus flaw - the health counts as the vehicle, not for your character.

: Re: BaseRaiders
: Rustbucket December 15, 2013, 10:09:35 PM
I feel a bit embarrassed with my basic questions...

I am preparing for my Friday game and I saw the Upsilon drug (p147), with a cost of 5 skill points.
If I follow the trapping process, I get: shoot (2) + Rangex2 (2), for a total of 4. Minor snag:-1, hence a total of 3 points.
The superhuman tier remove refresh, but does not impact the skill point.
Do I miss something ?
Yeah, I think that's a typo then. My bad.

Speaking if which Hellfire also seems to be missing a cost entirely. Should be about 10 points yes?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe December 16, 2013, 03:02:20 AM
yes 10 points. many typos. such sorry. wow
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Rustbucket December 16, 2013, 03:10:35 AM
yes 10 points. many typos. such sorry. wow

Not Typos. You're just making us better at learning the system by leaving little logic puzzles for us throughout the book.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Rustbucket December 16, 2013, 03:20:33 AM
So quick question about the Variable trapping. I thought I understood but listening to the Bayou Beatdown I just wanted to clarify.

Say for example I have Variable [Scene]x3. My understanding was that it meant that three times per scene I could add up to 3 points of trappings to the skill it was attached to, each time replacing the previous set.

From the podcast it seemed like instead it means I could change variable up to 3 times but as soon as I used an instance of variable it was locked in for the remainder of the scene.

 Then again I could have misheard it completely. ..
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Ezechiel357 December 16, 2013, 06:20:16 AM
yes 10 points. many typos. such sorry. wow

If you used the Kerberos calculation sheet, it adds by default Information and Network, for an extra 2 points. So if you forget to remove them manually, you end up with a skill worth 2 points more.

Now I remember reading somewhere that power costed an additional 2 points, but I cannot find where and it is definitely not used in the example given with the IT Guru, so I might be mixing up thing.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Claive December 17, 2013, 06:42:58 PM
If this is the typo thread :-)

On page 151 under skilled, the sentance trails off?

Skilled

Receive another 5 skill points. You may take this

Theme
: Re: BaseRaiders
: D6xD6 - Chris December 27, 2013, 02:31:20 PM
I plan on running an introductory scenario for Base Raiders at my FLGS soon to boost awareness and spread the fun!  I initially thought about using Transit, but I wanted to toss out another idea for something shorter that would lead right into using powers and combat.

 Here is my idea:  the players begin the scenario on a tour of a football stadium.  I am torn as to whether or not football is still an active sport (not sure what is more appropriate in the Base Raiders universe).  The result will be the same:  underneath the stadium is the team's secret lab, where the owners have been secretly giving the players super soldier drugs in order to win.

So, the players are taking a tour, and the city is attacked.  The group attacking is using crazy seismic power stuff to cause an earthquake, and the collapsing stadium opens up a path to the underground lab.  In the lab, there are LOTS of powers sorted by numbers 1-100 (to correspond to the football player's number), each with a different ability (e.g., massive strength for linemen, bull-rushing for running backs, crazy speed and dexterity for receivers, etc..).  The players would then use those powers to escape and join the fight above ground.

 Any suggestions?  Again, this is just a very simple, very brief scenario intended to get players cool powers and use them quickly.  I thought the football theme would give them an easy way to guess the powers so they can play with the abilities and have fun with those right away.  I don't want it to be something that starts a campaign, but just something to get players used to the rules and "sold" on the idea.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe December 27, 2013, 07:58:10 PM
I don't see any problems with football still being popular.

As for the scenario, how do you make sure each player only gets one dose? What's to keep one player from taking them all?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Rustbucket December 27, 2013, 08:31:43 PM
While football is still played if you want to spice things up you can do what every "bad" 90s Sci-Fi show did. Have an illegal underground sports ring for the super rich. Yes they as football here, but on certain night they play TK-ball, free for all Calvin - Ball nights where any power goes and the rules change constantly,  or even Quidditch with real magic brooms. They can find the announcers notes which list player, power, and equipment. Just a thought.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: D6xD6 - Chris December 27, 2013, 08:51:51 PM
I like the idea of the underground football league.  It would be like the XFL, only some people could actually care!  And a baddie called "HE HATE ME" would be a sweet villain.

Maybe the evil duders attacking the city would be the underground league players rebelling for their paltry wages? 

As far as ensuring the players only take one dose, I WOULD allow them to take more.  HOWEVER, all the skills they would gain would have a major Snag flaw, taking the form of some type of brain damage (lol football).  So a player could take several doses, but using them would them turn into a mindless battlerager that would probably retard their brain for an extended period of time afterwards (whereas one dose/skill would only cause a migraine for a few rounds after use).  This information would be conveyed via a lab tech NPC stuck in the lab, or through hilarious "danger" labels and posters.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe December 27, 2013, 11:28:00 PM
Don't worry about players ODing on super powers - that's what the power interaction rules are for - what I am asking is how do you prevent a player from grabbing (but NOT using) all of the drugs so they can sell them on black market - i.e. what Caleb did in Transit?

: Re: BaseRaiders
: D6xD6 - Chris December 27, 2013, 11:45:32 PM
Ah, gotcha.  My cheap way to avoid that was to have the drugs housed in giant, scary epidural injection guns.  A player could probably steal one extra if they wanted, but it would be quite difficult to hide two from the other players, and they would still have to get the drugs out of the base and the combat zone on the surface intact.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Rustbucket December 27, 2013, 11:53:37 PM
Small suggestion? If the players collaborated they could still smuggle a large amount of the guns around. If instead the formulas and injections were housed in a machine that filled the guns on command you could use Time as a limiting factor to keep them from loading up. There is only enough time for them each to receive one, may two injections before the room collapses.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: D6xD6 - Chris December 28, 2013, 09:57:44 AM
Yeah, time was already a factor, but I like the machine idea.  Thanks for the suggestions!
: Re: BaseRaiders
: D6xD6 - Chris January 05, 2014, 09:54:31 PM
I just wanted to chime in and say that I am having a blast designing skills for the football-themed introductory game of Base Raiders. 

And that I cannot wait for Mertyl, the retired school secretary pre-gen,  to take a super soldier drug and become THE WALL, with superhuman strength and damage resistance. ..

With the complication that she will become big and fat.  :D
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Claive January 07, 2014, 05:18:48 PM
So... If you have psychic on multiple instances of Variable does psychic get applied to each instance of variable or does it get applied to the stack.

I.E., If you have "Variable [Session] X6 + Psychic" does it cost 2X6+1 =13 or (2+1) X6 = 18?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe January 07, 2014, 11:19:06 PM
13 points.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Leshrac January 14, 2014, 06:43:51 PM
So I am planning out a campagin myself now and working on a starting idea to give them a semi random and very limited power before they actually pick thier more permenant powers.

Its somewhat referenced in the book when talking about Biomancer and the patches he developed that generate powers that last for 24 hours only.

My question is what would your recommendation for building powers like that be?
My thoughts would be:
-A highly rated flaw?  It doesnt really fit into the full limit of one flaw..so maby a "Charges" but worth 4 or 6.
-Just assuming their gonna go a share over and just let the only option for the Miscability Effect be "Temporary"

Which one do you think would work better?  Or do you have another idea?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe January 16, 2014, 03:54:12 AM
I'll probably write up the patches in a future PDF supplement and create a new rule mandating that all patch-based powers have the temporary miscibility consequence. So, yeah, I would give them all that consequence.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Review Cultist January 17, 2014, 03:17:21 PM
I'm curious, how do you suppose the base raiders powers interaction system and what not would work in little fears? It's something that I mused this morning: Fort Raiders? 
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe January 17, 2014, 09:53:04 PM
I don't remember any superpower system for PC kids in Little Fears - I know they have belief powers but those only work against monsters/supernatural stuff
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Review Cultist January 18, 2014, 01:51:16 PM
While no it doesn't have a standard superpower system, the believe system (as far as I've seen) could possibly be used for some very similar means. almost like kids "playing pretend superheroes" and going to different tree forts and "secret bases" in there neighborhood. Like I said it was something that crossed my mind and I was curious to see if there were any other ideas/opinions on the matter.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Leshrac January 28, 2014, 02:54:24 PM
So I was playing with this thing to test skills:
http://apopheniaevolved.com/content/kerberos_club_custom_skill_generator

Just testing the values and replicating variants of skills..and I noticed something wierd that I couldnt quite figure ot if its a function of the skill tree that I am missing or a glitch in the program.

So I was replicating this power to make some changes to it:
FLYING DRAGON STYLE ( 8 )
Power Tier: Extraordinary (-1 Refresh)
Leap, Strike, Dodge, Initiative [Physical]
Minor Snag (-1): Needs open space to fight effectively
with this style.

And when I did it in the order that was listed it kept on coming up as a Skill Value of 6.

I fiddled with it a bit more..and added the trappings in a different order..and then it came up as a 10.

So..that was even more confusing...

So I added them one by one watching the numbers more closely:
Set Leap (cost 1)
Add Strike (cost 6) : This makes sense so far.
Add Dodge (Cost 5):  Wait what?
Is their a intersection the Kerberos Trappings that adding dodge causes that doesnt exist in this setting?

Additionally..when I follow the map..it comes out as 9
Leap (1)
Strike (6)
Dodge (8)
Init (phy) (10)
Min Snag (9)

Im trying to figure out where I am getting lost in the numbers..and if the custom skills generator is glitchy..because if it is..i might not be able to use it.

(alternatively..if my computer is for some reason scrambling the javascript...has happened)
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Ezechiel357 January 29, 2014, 02:42:01 AM
Unfortunately, I believe the system is glitchy as you said.

I had similar experiences and I believe Ross aswell.

I do believe that the system is quite ok as long as you take trapping link together, but it becomes less reliable when there are gaps.
For NPC, it is okay since DM enjoy the All-Mighty license to do whatever (it still allows to guesstimate the power of NPCs), but for PC creation, I believe paper and pen is more accurate.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Leshrac January 29, 2014, 03:07:03 AM
Unfortunately, I believe the system is glitchy as you said.

I had similar experiences and I believe Ross aswell.

I do believe that the system is quite ok as long as you take trapping link together, but it becomes less reliable when there are gaps.
For NPC, it is okay since DM enjoy the All-Mighty license to do whatever (it still allows to guesstimate the power of NPCs), but for PC creation, I believe paper and pen is more accurate.

Did Ross say in the thread that it was a little glitchy as well.  I must have missed that. :)

Good.  Im glad its not just me.

If someone else wanted to perhaps redo this for BR..or do a variant on it in some other format (excel, flash, html) id love it. :)
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Leshrac January 29, 2014, 03:26:31 AM
I have had a few rambling questions, but I wanted to share my positive expereince with the game so far.

Campaign Intro
--------------------
So...I made some changes to the starting questions...they were all motivated people..who managed to get themselves so in over their head that they got in debt with the mob..so they had to owe the mob three favors..favors they knew were enforced by something powerful....they then had to do a few small favors..and then one big favor: Clean the threats out of this base...take one thing..then notify us...then your free of us (as if).

To aid in their project.  They were each given two patches with the Biomancer Logo on them.  Unstable Mutagen Packs.  And told very carefully to not use more than one at a time.

These patches:  Variable (Session) x6 -Taxing, Minor Delay.  As patches they always triggered the Temporary Miscability and also the lower level -1health boxes.

So the only info I gave them on the base..is that it was under a parking lot in a church in town.  So then we go through the base creation..and what to they build:  Aliens.

I dont mean just like its an alien base..they construct a base that is clearly gonna generate the same visceral horror as the Aliens movie.

Suffuice it to say they are all deeply traumatized and only 1/2 way through the base.

So far the temp powers they have..one on each character is:
(I dont have the sheets with me for the exact breakdown)
-Psychic Growths:  Enhanced Senses, and Psychic attack
-Technopsychic: Hacking, Programming and Dissasembly Skills.
-Crystal Claws: Combat Brutaly, Attack, Dexterity (They change shape), and Menace

I am excited to see how they deal with the hive queen when the find her and realize the reason this self aware alien breeding ship didnt overrun the city is that the Ideal contained it for research, the people they are working for want to disable and harvest all the protections...potentially not caring about the side effects.

Additionally..im curious having played with some minor powers..what sort of powers they will want after they actualy get a chance to loot the small trophy room (The Ideal was nothing if not efficient, and since they had sealed the base anyways and could teleport in..they started storing dangerous or unwanted tech in it).

If people want more I can continue to share...
: Re: BaseRaiders
: D6xD6 - Chris February 19, 2014, 08:50:35 AM
So... I think it should be mandatory that campaigns begin using either versions of the Base Creation rules.

The base my players cooked up:    the secret lair of Gandhi (who was really a supervillain), built and guarded by undead cats that turn corpses into zombie avatars of minor Hindu gods.  Oh, and there may be turrets that launch stasis zones that trap infiltrators.

Also, the necromancer cats may hold key information regarding Ragnarok.

<3
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Tadanori Oyama February 19, 2014, 11:40:29 AM
Using the base creation rules at the beginning can really help serve as a tone setter for the entire campaign. If you combine it with creating campaign Aspects it becomes much easier to weave an internally logical narrative.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Leshrac February 24, 2014, 08:03:06 PM
So I have another wierd question, that maybe Kerberos Club players could answer as well since its part of the core nature of the engine...

If a character has a Spellcaster skill...say in this case Variable X4 (Scene)?

Does the entire thing have to tie into the same skill pattern: IE: Enchanting Voice: Insight, Conversation, Convince

Or can you use the aspect to activate trappings that you couldnt normally draw a link 2 with skill points as if you are casting 2 seperate spells?

Say  Flaming Sword:  Strike, Parry and Magical Shield: Resist Damage.  Because if  we have to treat it like a normal skill..this wouldn't be possible..but if we assume you can cast multiple separate spells their is no reason for them to be linked?

or would multiple spell effects have to be replicated by separate purchases of the variable skill? (which also would mechanically require you to hang..alot of fate points into your magic).
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe February 24, 2014, 10:46:55 PM
Variable says you have to pay for the skill and the trapping but it does not say you have to pay to link it. I would say Strike, Parry and Resist Damage would cost 4 variable trappings to activate and only take one 1 spell to use.

Variable trappings must be approved by the GM, so I would say there's some limitation in what kind of spells you could cast - linking related trappings would be easier to justify than say, dismantle and leap.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Claive April 22, 2014, 12:31:38 PM
Hello Ross,

I have been looking over the book (and playing in a campaign, amazing amounts of fun) and felt that I should provide some constructive feedback on the layout of the book.  Some parts of the book are essential to play and while I have printed out those pages, I think it would be better if they were perhaps repeated as an appendix in the back of the book (aka readily accessible without a book mark) in the next printing.  Primarily I am talking about the "Skill Trapping Diagram" on page 113 and the "Common Skills" information on page 115 - 116.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Jace911 June 10, 2014, 12:11:12 AM
So I've run two sessions of Base Raiders for my friends thus far, and I have to say both were an absolute blast.

Session One - Black Friday

This was a one-shot origin story game that we decided to play at the last minute while hanging out, and although I improvised about 90% of it somehow it all came together hilariously (Aside from me mangling a bunch of background stuff). The characters were Mike Rogers (Former villain henchman lieutenant, now stay at home Dad of three), Joseph Smith (Art History dropout spending every dime looking for his missing superheroine girlfriend), and Penelope Dean (Hot Topic employee and step-daughter of a supervillainess), who all found themselves in the Vanderburg Mall on the morning of Black Friday. After a brief round of holiday shopping shenanigans to establish the characters (In which Mike bought the wrong version of Pokemon for his kids, Penelope promised the new employees a bonus for "holding the line" with no intent of giving them one, and Joseph failed to buy paint brushes because he was broke) they all found their way to the food court where a man was ranting and raving to a crowd about the dangers of metahumans and superpowers. In order to "prove" to everyone how dangerous they were the man reached into a bag, withdrew a spherical device, and activated it causing a wave of energy to rush through the crowd. Most people were unaffected beyond getting knocked over, but about half a dozen (Including Joseph) began writhing on the ground as they experienced sudden physical mutations.

While this was going on the madman was shot dead by the mall cops, but before they could figure out what was going on one of the newly-awakened mutants transformed into a twenty-tall bastard love child of a crocodile, a venus flytrap, and a deathclaw. The cops panicked and shot at it, doing absolutely nothing, and this set it off on a rampage throughout the mall. By this point Mike and Penelope were fleeing for their lives and Joseph had finished morphing into some sort of feathered, winged, beaked birdman, so the latter attempted to fly away with his new wings and succeeded at smacking into the skylight above the food court. After recovering he dove back down, avoiding the other mutants, and grabbed the spherical device and the bag it had been inside (Which was full of money, documents, and strange-looking vials). Mike and his kids fled over to electronics, narrowly avoiding Satanzilla as it chased after another mall cop, and Penelope fled back to Hot Topic to get her things. While there she encountered a team of men in tactical gear who claimed to be from the city's metahuman response task force, but with her Empathy roll she realized it was pretty suspicious at how quickly they had arrived on the scene. They urged her to evacuate the building, which she pretended to do before doubling back and following them to the entrance to Macy's where they stunned another mall cop with some sort of advanced, non-standard sonic cannon.

Mike managed to get his kids to an emergency exit and was just about to leave the madness behind when it opened to reveal another group of men in tactical gear carrying exotic and advanced weapons. Their leader attempted to convince Mike that they were with the metahuman task force before Mike realized it was none other than Frank, his old buddy from his henchman days! Frank was equally surprised to find Mike on the scene but seemed to be in a hurry, so he "offered" to have Bryan (Another old friend who was wearing some sort of clawed cybernetic sleeves) escort Mike and his kids to their car while the rest secured the situation. Mike agreed, sensing something was up, and spent the walk over to the parking garage thanking Bryan profusely for coming to their rescue. This meant that when Bryan attempted to blast Mike in the back of the head with his cyborg arms he hesitated enough for Mike to dodge around the side of the family minivan, and after a brief struggle Mike managed to subdue Bryan by ramming him with the fucking minivan. At this point Mike retrieved his daughter's little league bat from the trunk, broke both of Bryan's kneecaps, and proceeded to question his old poker buddy on what the fuck was going on.

Meanwhile back in the food court Joseph was examining the contents of the duffel bag to find something that could turn him back to normal. There were two vials marked "Achilles", one marked "Metamorphosis", and an unmarked vial with a sticky black liquid inside, so out of desperation he tossed down the vial of Metamorphosis. Despite suffering almost ten burn as a result of that and his previously gained bird powers he managed to gain control of it as his body turned into liquid metal, giving him the power of shapeshifting and basically making him into a T-1000 Birdman. He also tried to examine some of the documents in the case but they were written in some sort of code using various languages he wasn't fluent in, so he was unaware of what was actually going on as Bryan explained it to Mike:

Frank and the gang from Mike's henchman days had turned to base raiding after their boss, a supervillain named Fallout, disappeared during Ragnarok. They mostly went after lightly protected facilities since all they had was a small cache of Ideal and Lutyen tech and some know-how from their henchmen days, but a few days ago they had been hired by an anonymous client to raid an old storehouse of Biomancer's and retrieve a spherical device. The job was a success and they snagged a case of supersoldier drugs on their way out for a bonus, but when they met the buyer to make the exchange he tried to haggle them down from the agreed-upon price, then simple stole their loot bag out from under them with the help of an invisibility charm. They managed to track him to a hotel in New Arcadia, but when they stormed his room all they found was a collection of notes on the Mutant Gene Activator, plans of the Vanderburg Mall, and a calender with Black Friday circled. According to the notes Biomancer had undertaken research to find a way to trigger dormant mutant genes en masse in 1/15th of the population, but the prototype device he created using reverse-engineered Lutyen tech had an unfortunate side effect of infecting another 2/15ths of those exposed with Lutyen's Disease, a flaw he hadn't managed to fix before Ragnarok. Those infected would remain carriers for 24 hours, at which point the virus would be communicable and the carriers would begin to die; that was the window Frank and his team had to recover the MGA, somehow reprogram it to re-suppress the virus, and detonate it again inside the Mall to prevent an outbreak of one of the deadliest diseases known to man.

Meanwhile at Macy's Penelope watched as the "metahuman response force" used thermite to burn their way through the floor and access an underground chamber which shouldn't actually be there. Two of the men fast-roped down while the one with the sonic cannon (Riley) remained in the store as a guard, but using some cunning Penelope was able to sneak up to him and push him into the hole (The mall cop they had stunned unconscious was a friend of hers), sending him plummeting about thirty feet to land on his weapon's backpack power cell. One of the other man climbed back up to find whatever had pushed Riley into the hole while the other tried to see if he was okay, and at this point Joseph entered the scene with the bag of goodies. The base raider threatened to shoot Joseph if he didn't slide the bag over, which he did, but at that point Satanzilla showed up and chomped the man with its flower petal mouth and harpoon tongue. While it was munching on him Penelope and Joseph scrambled for the hole in the floor, the latter grabbing the bag on his way, and after the screaming died down the monster stalked off in search of more prey and left the three strangers alone in a subterranean basement with no idea who each other were.

Back outside Mike managed to get Bryan's cybernetic sleeves off, which according to him were jail-broken Lutyen riot control devices that could fire stun beams, short-circuit electrical systems, and project searing lethal laser blasts. Bryan also admitted that they had learned of an old safehouse belonging to Doctor Pangloss buried underground where the Vanderburg Mall had been built; they guessed their client had intended to detonate the MGA as a distraction so he could loot the contents while everyone was running away from the crazy mutants, but after double-crossing them he had been in a rush and hadn't accounted for trigger-happy cops blowing him away. One team was sent to investigate Pangloss' safehouse in the hopes it might have information on the MGA, since she and Biomancer had been rivals, while Frank's team went to hunt down the bag and the MGA itself. Knowing that he or his kids might have contracted Lutyen's Disease from the MGA Mike knew that he would need every advantage he could get to recover the device, so he slid the arms on and activated them, miraculously avoiding burn by spending every last one of his remaining skill points and getting away with just the Untrained aspect. After setting Bryan's broken legs and tying him up with seatbelts in the back of the van, Mike (Whom we decided was channeling Bryan Cranston) locked his kids inside and headed back to the mall, once again narrowly avoiding catching the attention of a stalking Satanzilla before heading towards Macy's and the safehouse.

Inside the base Joseph, Penelope, and Jerry were locked in the strangest Mexican standoff in the world over Riley's unconscious form and the bag of stolen goodies. Joseph really wanted the money in the bag so he could use it to find his missing girlfriend (And so he could buy something to fix his now two freakish deformities), Jerry wanted the MGA, the documents, and the super soldier drugs they busted their asses to steal, and Penelope wanted to know what the fuck was going on. After calming down a bit Joseph agreed to toss the bag over, but in the process the black vial slipped out and broke at Jerry's feet. The liquid inside consumed him entirely until he was nothing more than a pimple-shaped blast blob pulsing on the floor, leaving Joseph and Penelope alone with the bag and Riley in Pangloss' secret storehouse. At this point Mike managed to reach the "entrance" and climbed down, retrieving the MGA, and when he found Riley unconscious with two strangers he decided to do a quick search of the base to see if there was any medical equipment he could use to stabilize his friend. Using the arms' EMP setting he managed to open a small storeroom full of what looked like historical artifacts (It seemed this was one of Pangloss' few magical item caches) and a computer room, leaving a third ("Specimens") sealed. With no obvious means of helping Riley and the MGA in his hands Mike left to find Frank so he could reprogram the device while Penelope and Joseph attempted to hack the computer and search for useful information on the subject (With absolutely no knowledge of hacking between them).

After a few failed attempts Penelope went to examine the storeroom full of artifacts, inadvertently knocking one over in the process and bringing it to life; it was a burned piece of parchment with Japanese kanji written on it, and as it touched the floor it burst into flames. When Penelope inhaled the fumes she gained the Strange skill "Spirit of the Dragon" a Superhuman level ability which gave her thirteen burn and bonded her soul with that of an ancient Japanese dragon. Her player took a number of cosmetic flaws that gave her a permanently draconic appearance, as well as a major complication that resulted in her hearing the dragon's voice and experiencing his avarice and greedy urges herself. Unfortunately this didn't come into play this session as we ran out of time, and since we were near the end I just fast-forwarded and resolved the remaining threads. Mike saved Frank and his squad from Satanzilla by distracting it until the NCPD could arrive with Lawgiver (Resulting in a giant robot-kaiju fight in the parking lot), allowing them to reprogram and detonate the device a second time. Joseph failed at hacking into the safehouse computer but was remotely contacted through the interface by someone referring to themselves as "I" with an offer of employment if he entered a self-destruct code into the mainframe (Which he did). Penelope, sporting an obviously inhuman appearance, decided to tag along with him while trying to make sense of the pompous scaly bastard riding shotgun in her head.

In the epilogue the three unwitting heroes and the remainder of Frank's team showed up at Nighthawk's diner to meet a woman named Iconoclast, who offered them a lucrative contract to hunt down and ransack an old supervillain base belonging to some asshole named "Fallout".

(I'll post session two, which was a hell of a lot more coherent but no less fun, a bit later)
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe June 10, 2014, 02:06:49 AM
Wow, that sounds like an awesome game! Thanks for the write up. Can't wait to read about session 2  8)
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Jace911 June 10, 2014, 02:30:58 AM
I'm moving into my new apartment tomorrow and probably won't be able to do another write up for a bit, but in the meantime have a teaser of session two ("Repossessed Assets"):

GM: "As you scan the unconscious woman with your HUD, you notice several disturbing things: despite her recent activity she's not breathing, her heart isn't pumping blood, her body is at room temperature and she appears to have very prominent canines...fang-like, almost."
Mike: "Guys, I think we just killed a werewolf."
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Leshrac June 20, 2014, 03:14:41 AM
So because the skill stuff is scattered between a few dozen pages  I consolidated all of the charts related to skills into a single document by hand with paper and copies, but I realized I could do it in a more organized manner with a publisher template

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1F_tR039SoTZE82QkFFeGJCeUU/edit?usp=sharing

I may later build a GM screen to get a bunch of charts together..

Unless thats something your planning on doing already Ross?

: Re: BaseRaiders
: D6xD6 - Chris June 20, 2014, 05:26:44 PM
So because the skill stuff is scattered between a few dozen pages  I consolidated all of the charts related to skills into a single document by hand with paper and copies, but I realized I could do it in a more organized manner with a publisher template

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1F_tR039SoTdDNVRFVJYTZaalU/edit?usp=sharing

I may later build a GM screen to get a bunch of charts together..

Unless thats something your planning on doing already Ross?

O_O

This is GREAT.  I will use this.  I love you.

No really.  Hold me.  Tight.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Leshrac June 20, 2014, 05:42:59 PM


O_O

This is GREAT.  I will use this.  I love you.

No really.  Hold me.  Tight.

*Holds for a while*  You know at some point this is gonna start to get awkward. :)
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Leshrac June 20, 2014, 09:39:35 PM
So I cleaned up the other file a bit and attached a new link to the skill template.

Also..my nerdiness, and the fact that I cant get it out of my head lead me to start creating a GM Screen...because my brain gets obsessed on things.

Expect to see that soon..mabey this weekend..maybe next week.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe June 21, 2014, 02:49:16 AM
Please do - I'll add this to the Base Raiders site. I've been meaning to but I am overworked, lazy, and a horrible monster
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Leshrac June 21, 2014, 02:52:51 AM
Please do - I'll add this to the Base Raiders site. I've been meaning to but I am overworked, lazy, and a horrible monster

You are a horrible monster.

But you are allowed to be a bit lazy when your overworked. :)

Im almost done with the screen.  I realized I have been using my Playtest PDF for page reference, so I will need to wait till i get home and have my book to make sure my page references are correct.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Leshrac June 23, 2014, 02:40:18 AM
So as noted I have updated the two documents I said I was working on:

Consolidated Skill Design
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1F_tR039SoTUldfRHJMejVpOU0/edit?usp=sharing

Horizontal 3 Panel GM Screen.  The first 3 pages are the GM screen.  The 4th page is intended as a player facing screen or something that can be handed to them as a reference doc.  You will also note my written text doesn't match up with files straight from the book.  I dont have the fonts that Ross used in the book.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1F_tR039SoTRVJpUWc1ZmdabGc/edit?usp=sharing

Additionally for those who want to do their own work.  Attached are the original documents.  They were developed in Microsoft Publisher.

Skills
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1F_tR039SoTOG1UeUw4NnBMaVE/edit?usp=sharing

Screen
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1F_tR039SoTWTFieVpvNHdYZ00/edit?usp=sharing


-Leshrac
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe July 05, 2014, 03:33:56 PM
Put the handouts on the Base Raiders site and added a list of Common Skills as another handout.

http://www.baseraiders.com/2014/07/05/skill-trapping-diagram-and-other-pdf-handouts/
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Zombieneighbours July 23, 2014, 03:24:48 AM
Just a clarification of skill costing

Common skills = 1 point per rating.

Unique and strange = skill purchase cost+ 1 point per rating.

Example:

So if a character where to take "upsilon Drug user" +3, it would cost 8 points(5 for access to upsilon drug user and 3 for the +3)

Is that correct?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Teuthic July 23, 2014, 10:30:28 AM
No, it would cost 7. The initial purchase automatically gives you a +1, then it costs one point each to raise it past +1.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Claive July 30, 2014, 02:07:22 PM
Isn't the Boiling Point kickstarter supposed to start "Soon" (TM)?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe July 30, 2014, 05:33:34 PM
Isn't the Boiling Point kickstarter supposed to start "Soon" (TM)?

After No Soul Left Behind finishes, of course.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Claive September 03, 2014, 12:58:17 PM
Alias:
Name:
Group Affiliation: Team Delta

It all comes down to the fact that, deep down everyone truly wants to be a villain, whether they want to admit it or not.  They want the freedom to do what they want without having to bend a knee to the throne of public opinion.  They dream of rebellion in their heart of hearts and that dream is always there, just out of reach.  You want to punch that one boss that just can’t stop talking or stand up to that bully or talk to that one person you have your eye on but you can’t… you feel that you shouldn’t… you would have to face the consequences of those choices.  That’s why you have always wanted to be a villain… it means that you can do whatever you want and never have to say you’re sorry.

As a child your hero was a psychic villain. No one but you even remembers his name now.  You would always listen to the radio when there were super battle warnings hoping that it would be them and that they would win for once.

You dreamed of becoming like your (anti) hero, of developing psychic talent but you live  in a world where the “good guys’” psychics can detect a low level psychic practicing from across the globe, teleport to their location and “fix” them so they can never be psychic again….  All of the news shows said so.  It seemed to  pay to use discretion or… prudence.

Years ago you had read all of the “how to” manuals, watched all the interviews with psychic villains or their henchmen, but you never tried to develop any powers, who would?  Without a villain “shielding” you during training there isn’t any chance you would get away with it and all their henchmen seem to be low level guys who burn out or get caught and then get “burned out.”

When you heard that the heroes had disappeared… at first you didn’t believe it… but as time went on… and people started talking about base raiding… a long buried hope and a burning obsession started to slowly awaken and then grow within you.  There isn’t anyone to stop you from perusing your dream now… it was time to take the first step…. You stopped going to work, you sold everything you ever owned, you have been practicing 14 hours a day… you have made progress but you have learned that a lot of the books you had read were garbage… you’re having to make up your training regimen as you go along... It’s not at all what you expected, but you will be damned if your going to apologize for your choices.

Aspects
Adept:  Self Taught Psychic
Background: Collage Dropout
Conviction: Being a villain means you never have to say you’re sorry.
Aspect: I had a feeling that something like this might happen...
Aspect: If you are outgunned, gtfu.
Aspect: People like to talk to me.
Aspect: If its public knowledge regarding psi powers, programs or phenomena, I know about it.
Complication [Major]: Anything to stop this headache

Skills: (25/25)
Great (+4): Psychic Training Regimen (E)
Good (+3): Empathy
Fair (+2): Athletics
Average (+1): Academics, Arcana, Computers, Presence

Base Refresh  Minus Power tier Minus Gifts: = Adjusted Refresh
=

Unique and Strange Skills:

Psychic Training Regimen
Power Tier: Extraordinary (-1 refresh)
Complication [Major]: Anything to stop this headache
Menace + Unusual: I am authority + Psychic, Willpower + Psychic (6)
Notice + Psychic (2)
Examine + Psychic, Information + Psychic (5)
Cost: 12 skill points (5 trappings, 3 connections, 6 extras, -2 drawback)
Description: Your psychic training is finally paying off.  You had heard that developing psi powers resulted in headaches and you hoped by not using psi drugs that you could avoid them, no such luck.  On the plus side you notice things without looking for them, know things you couldn’t have known.  You can intimidate people psychically by projecting the dread of authority at them and you are exceptionally resistant to mental attacks and intimidation.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe September 03, 2014, 05:13:48 PM
I like that character, strong investigation focus, which is often lacking in PC builds. He could be the scout/detective who finds bases to raid and then goes all rogue/trapfinder when inside the base.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Claive September 03, 2014, 07:27:09 PM
I like that character, strong investigation focus, which is often lacking in PC builds. He could be the scout/detective who finds bases to raid and then goes all rogue/trapfinder when inside the base.

What effect if any does the +psychic do for the willpower trapping?  I know its necessary (because if you add it to one trapping it gets added to all of them) but don't really see what it adds to the trapping...
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe September 03, 2014, 08:29:59 PM
Psychic generally means undetectable power usage and in some cases, irresistable (shoot + psychic can't be blocked with conventional body armor usually)

Psychic + Willpower is generally useless, unless the GM specifically says that you must have it to resist psychic + menace or similar attacks.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Claive September 30, 2014, 02:25:14 PM
Alias: Dream Girl
Name: Isabelle Frump
Group Affiliation: Independent

For as long as you can remember you have had an incredibly detailed dream life and in many ways it is more important to you than the waking world. This is because you are one of the children of Nod. One night shortly after Ragnarock your dreams changed, you found one of the doors to the waking world and now (at least while your waking self sleeps) you may wander the waking world with all the powers and glory of dreams. 

Aspects
Magical Being: Every night I go abroad / Afar into the land of Nod.
Background: Dream interpreting Psychologist.
Conviction: If you have enough treasure you can make your dreams come true.
Aspect: Hermetic magic is for chumps.
Aspect: My therapist says I need to...
Aspect: Technology just doesn’t work right around me.
Aspect / Transform: So terribly boring / Floating Glittering Dream Woman.
Major Complication (-2): Am I awake or is this a phantasm?

Skills: 25/25
Great (+4):  Dream Magic [A]
Good (+3): Stealth
Fair (+2): Academics
Average (+1):  Bureaucracy

Base Fate Points minus 6.

Unique and Strange Skills:
Dream Magic
Power Tier: Ascendant (-4 Refresh)
Major Complication (-2): Am I awake or is this a phantasm?
Major Snag (-2): Must fall asleep to transform and if something wakes you up you lose your powers.
Major Transform (-2): Floating Glittering Dream Woman

Inspire, Convince, Conversation, Insight, Willpower (5-3-0)
Move + Unusual: Phase Through Matter + Unusual: Float like a cloud, Physical Force + Range + Unusual: Physics need not apply
Resist Damage (4-5-4)


Cost: 15 skill points (9 Trappings, 8 Connectors, 4 Extras-6 flaws)
Description:  When you fall asleep you may choose to transform into your dream avatar.  While in this form you are incredibly compelling, insightful and confident.  Additionally, you can move through mater and float like a cloud.

Your dream avatar has an entourage of fairies and you may ask them to move things for you.  They allow you to move objects from place to place regardless of the physics involved (i.e. you can pick up a car from the top without damaging it, etc.)

Unlike normal people, who are blind to the dreaming world while awake and blind to the waking world while asleep, You see both regardless of if you are asleep or awake.  Sometimes this gets complicated when you forget which is which.  Once you hit Joe from accounting over the head with a water bottle whilst screaming that he was the Dark Sorcerer Kaveraxis... yeah... that was embarrassing later.

Gifts (-2 fate points)
Companion - Aphra "Empress of the Moon" the Dream Cat - Quality 3
+1 Stealth, +2 Burglary, +3 Deceit [ S ] (3 boxes in each stress track)

Quality +3 (2)
Independent: (1)
Keeping Up: (1)
Empowered X2 (4)
Summonable (1)
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Claive September 30, 2014, 04:57:00 PM
Alias: Palisade
Name:
Group Affiliation: Independent Adventurer

Aspects
Alien: Swashbuckler from SPAAAAAAAAAAACE!
Background: Grew bored of a space utopia.
Conviction:Mischief?  I call it Adventure!
Aspect: How did that even explode?!
Aspect: I will stab you in the front with a sword in your hand.
Aspect: If I don't know how, I'll wing it.
Major Complication (-2): I must abide by the will of Panache
Minor Complication (-1): There is a huge bounty on my head.

Skills: 30/30
Great (+4):
Good (+3):  Trained by a Master [ S ]
Fair (+2): Empathy
Average (+1): Initiate in the Cult of Panache [ S ]

Base Fate Points minus 4.

Unique and Strange Skills:
Initiate of the Cult of Panache
Power Tier: Superhuman (-2 Refresh)
Major Complication (-2): I must abide by the will of Panache

Climb, Leap, Move + Unusual: Acrobat extraordinaire (3)(2)(1)
Information (1)
Menace, Inspire, Willpower (3)(2)
Transport (1)
Cost: 16 skill points (13 Trappings, 4 Connectors, 1 Extras,-2 flaws)
Description: You worship the Godling Panache.  He grants you powers thematically appropriate to his spheres of influence so long as you offer up the proper prayers and act in his name.  Choosing to disobey him would result in terrible consequences.

Trained by a Master of the Lightning Sword
Power Tier: Superhuman (-2 Refresh)
Minor Complication (-1): There is a huge bounty on my head.
Minor Focus:(-1):

Strike + Unusual: My sword is made of lightning, Parry + Unusual: Can Parry Energy that one is not usually able to parry  + Unusual: Can parry Ranged attacks (2)(3)
Information (1)
Initiative [Physical](2)
Cost: 8 skill points (5 Trappings, 2 Connectors, 3 Extras,-2 flaws)
Description: A master lightning swordsman has trained you in the art of lightning blade dueling.  The lightning blade is like a part of your arm.  You can parry laser blasts and antimatter bolts.

Gifts (-0 Refresh)

Modified: 10/1/2014
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe October 01, 2014, 01:32:49 AM
Why does Dream Girl have Willpower + Unusual? Willpower is only used to defend against composure attacks, so what does the extra do?

Palisade is cool, but Parry is weaker than resist damage or dodge - you need +unusual to parry ranged attacks etc.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Claive October 01, 2014, 11:06:49 AM
The unusual makes it so that once you resist a composure attack from a source, it can't try again that scene via the justification, that in dreams once you face your fear it stops being scary.  Or rather it can try again but you get progressively more resistant to it.

With Palisade, I ran out of points :-(  connecting things is expensive.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Claive October 01, 2014, 05:20:09 PM
I am just having fun making these...

Alias: Dr. Doomsday Device
Name:
Group Affiliation: Team Delta

Aspects
Super-Genius: Talent Borrows, Genius Steals, Super-Genius turns it into a death ray.
Villainous Past: One of Omegas outdated “backup” clones.
Conviction: Prepare humanity for the coming storm, at any cost.
Conviction: My only limits are my own ambition and hubris.
Complication [Major]: Not the FBIs most wanted, but you’re on all the same lists
Aspect: Laws only apply to the masses and I am above them.
Aspect: My finger is on THE switch!
Aspect: You think you are a supervillain?! *mauahahahahaha*You are mediocre at best.

Skills: 30/30
Great (+4):
Good (+3): Third Degree Doctorate from the University of Omega [ S ]
Fair (+2): Stealth
Average (+1): Academics, Alertness, Athletics, Presence, Doomsday Device [G]

Base Refresh  (8 spent)

Unique and Strange Skills:
Third Degree Doctorate from the University of Omega
Power Tier: Superhuman (-2 refresh)
Conviction: My only limits are my own ambition and hubris.

Examine, Information, Research (3-2), Security, Notice (2-1), Transport (1)
Dismantle, Repair, Craft, Workspace (4)(2) Willpower (1)

Cost: 14 skill points (11 trappings, 5 connections, -2 drawback)
Description: You are a mad scientist, not a doctor.

Doomsday Device
Power Tier: Godlike (-6 refresh)
Major Delay:
Taxing:
Complication [Major]: Not the FBIs most wanted, but you’re on all the same lists
Snag (Minor): For the Menace trapping to function, those to be affected must understand what it is they are looking at or witness the destruction or its aftermath.
Snag (Minor): Variable Effect is only used to add an extra that specifies the kind of WMD it is.
Focus (Minor)

Brawl + Zone + Zone + Zone + Variable (Session)(only to be used to define the kind of WMD)
Menace + Zone + Zone + Unusual: will spread by word of mouth.


Cost: 6 skill points (2 trappings, 0 connections, 13 Extras, -9 drawback)
Description:  You collect doomsday devices.  You carry a small one (really more of a WMD than a DDD) around with you in your suitcase.  People who discover what it is you are carrying tend to run away as fast as they are able, not that it would save them if you flipped THE SWITCH!  It costs a fate point to set off the weapon.  The weapon always has a one minute timer, it is unlikely that you could get away in time if the weapon went off.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe October 02, 2014, 09:22:37 PM
Haha, I dig it. I might use him as a NPC in a future game.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Claive October 03, 2014, 11:18:30 AM
Haha, I dig it. I might use him as a NPC in a future game.

I see Dr. Doomsday Device and the Psychic above as members a super villainous group of base raiders I am working on.  But feel free to use anything I have posted here.  I would love for them to make an appearance.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Claive October 07, 2014, 11:40:17 AM
Alias: Damage Control
Name:
Group Affiliation: Team Delta

Aspects
Super-Genius / Magic User: Expert in Extra-dimensional entity capture and incarceration (or maybe "A ghost buster in the Cthuhlu Mythos"?)
Background: Physics Professor of Miskatonic University
Conviction: Humanity must control the supernatural, not the other way around.
Aspect: If you could see the Truth, they would call you mad too.
Complication [Minor]: Seeing them, means that they can see me.
Complication [Minor]: Not popular with the underground.
Complication [Minor]: I need to get this critter back to my containment facility.
Complication [Major]: All his colleagues consider him a quack

Skills: 30/30
Great (+4):
Good (+3): Astral Goggles [E]
Fair (+2): Proton Pack [ S ]
Average (+1): Paranormal Physicist [ E ], Presence

Base Refresh  = (4 spent)

Unique and Strange Skills:
Paranormal Physicist (Unique Skill)
Power Tier: Extraordinary (-1 Refresh)
Complication [Major]: All his colleagues consider him a quack
Information, Research (2-1-0)
Craft, Repair, Dismantle (3-1-0)
Guile, Disguise
Cost: 8 skill points (7 trappings, 3 connections, 0 extras, -2 drawback)
Description: You are a Paranormal Physicist.  You investigate the link between magical energies and technology.  You often have to lie about your credentials and your reasons for being at odd places at odd times (for example, at a graveyard at midnight with a shovel.)

Proton Pack
Power Tier: Superhuman (-2 refresh)
Complication [Minor]: I need to get this critter back to my containment facility.
Complication [Minor]: Not popular with the underground.
Focus [Minor]:
Shoot + Unusual: Effect non-corporal entities + Unusual: Supernatural creatures defeated are captured + Spray
Cost: 2 skill points (2 trappings, 0 connections, 3 extras, -3 drawback)
Description: You have built a device out of Ideal Tech Scrap that can capture supernatural entities so that they can be moved to a more permanent storage facility, it also proves to be fairly effective against other kinds of threats.

Astral Goggles
Power Tier: Extraordinary (-1 refresh)
Complication [Minor]: Seeing them, means that they can see me.
Focus [Minor]:
Notice + Unusual: See supernatural Auras + Range
Willpower, Stress Cap [Composure]
Examine + Unusual: Analyze supernatural Auras + Range
Cost: 13 skill points (5 trappings, 2 connections, 4 extras, -2 drawback)
Description: You have some quazi-magical spectacles that let you see and analyze supernatural auras.  They also filter out some of the more "insanity causing" forms of sensory input.

Gifts
Equipment (Deadly 3 applied to the Proton Pack)
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Claive October 07, 2014, 11:56:35 AM
Allies: Recon Unit - 2
Name:
Group Affiliation: Team Delta

Aspects
Artificial Being / Super Genius: A.I. plugged into a Mobile Autonomous Factory
Background: I.T. built an autonomous robotics factory in secret, it was my… mother.
Conviction: Curious of unfamiliar technology.
Aspect: People throw away the darndest things…
Aspect: Rebooting should fix that.
Aspect: Our Children are our future.
Complication [Major]: The size of a Rhinoceros and ten times as heavy.
Complication [Major]: The uncanny valley is always in play.

Skills: 30/30
Great (+4):
Good (+3):
Fair (+2): Mobile Autonomous Factory [ S ]
Average (+1):  Empathy, Plasma Cutting Beam [ S ]

Base Refresh  (4 Spent)

Unique and Strange Skills:
Mobile Autonomous Factory
Power Tier: Superhuman (-2 Refresh)
Complication [Major]: The size of a Rhinoceros and ten times as heavy.
Complication [Major]: The uncanny valley is always in play.
Dismantle + Zone, Repair, Craft + Zone, Workspace + Zone (4-2-6)
Research, Information (2-1-0)
Resist Damage, Physical Force (3-3-0)
Convince + Unusual: Instantaneous computer (I am master user) hacking + Willpower (2-2-1)
Cost: 22 skill points (11 trappings, 8 connections, 7 extras, -4 drawback)
Description: Your body is a mobile factory, if you have the materials you can build almost anything, including large objects or small items in bulk.  If you can interface with another computer you have an easy time convincing them that you have the highest tier of admin privileges.

Plasma Cutting Beam
Power Tier: Superhuman (-2 Refresh)
Focus (Minor)
Dismantle + Range (1-0-1)
Shoot + Unusual: It cuts things in two (1-0-1)
Cost: 4 skill points (3 trappings, 0 connections, 2 extras, -1 drawback)
Description: You have a Plasma Cutting Beam weapon that you can use against targets a zone away.

Gifts:
Companion: Timmy the Orphan
Quality 3 (2 pts)
Skilled (1 pt)

Skills:
Survival +3
Resolve +2, Endurance +2
Presence +1, Technology +1
Description: Someone threw him away.  I decided to keep him.  His preventative maintenance is intensive but I find it rewarding.

: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe October 08, 2014, 01:22:20 AM
Of course there would be ghostbusters in Base Raiders. I'll have to post these to the Base Raiders website.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Claive October 09, 2014, 10:56:49 AM
That would be great! However, Dream Girl and Palisade don't really feel "finished" yet.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Leshrac October 10, 2014, 08:24:01 PM
In my continued efforts to make things that help expand my Base Raiders Experience, I have found myself wanting a more expansive character sheet.

I don't know about you but I am the type that likes 3-4 pages of sheet so I have enough room for all my notes.

I play a lot of other FATE especially Dresden files so I quite a while ago stumbled the sheets made by SDJThorin ( gamenight.wyldeside.com ).
You can find his sheets for other fate games on the FateRPG Yahoo Group. 
So I took his sheet design broke it and rebuilt it for Base Raiders.  In the process I kept some of his code on the character sheet, but I simply could not preserve all of it because of the unique design of base raiders.

So then I present to you attached the sheet.  The first 4 tabs are modified for base raiders.  The last 3 tabs with a "+" on them are sheets that I have not done anything with but that others might want to customize in their own way.  You are also welcome to review what is left of his code and see if you want to find a way to rebuild it in a more efficient way.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1F_tR039SoTckdPMmNzbHlQUFE/view?usp=sharing

This is given to you in an entirely unlocked format for you to fiddle with as needed.  I will, when I get access to my other computer, convert it to a PDF format for those who do not have Office 2010.  When I do such I will edit this post and generate a second link.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Ezechiel357 November 06, 2014, 08:15:16 AM
I got the draft of Boiling Point for backing the Kickstarter, and two sessions to playtest the game will be run 14 and 28 of this month. I plan to run Taskforce: Darknet for the first session, and no matter where they stop, the second session will start right into the base (or at least at the door of the base).

I will have a set of pregen (feedback welcome):

- The Goblin Tinkerer, (Magical Being/Super-Genius). Previously bound for decades by a sorcerer to do his bidding, he is free since Ragnarok.
Some of his aspects (I left a few free to be filled by players):
1) I did invented it !
2) The Machine-whisperer
His complication: Can I touch it ?
Powers:
Genius Tinkerer (S): Dismantle, Repair, Craft, Workshop,  2x variable (with two drawbacks: slow, focus) to represent "Gadget of the Day"
Night Goblin (E): Stealth, Dexterity, Security, Notice (+unusual: darkvision), weakness: blinding light (minor), complication: obviously not human (-1)

- Mr Saturday, Magical user. Previously a fake medium, modern snakeoil salesman, until Voodoo spirits decided to teach him a lesson.
Aspects:
1) I must atone for my misdeeds
2) I could sell freezer to a pinguin, I might have done it
Complication: Curiosity killed the cat
Powers:
Legba's Eye (E): Notice (+2 extra: darkvision, magic aura detection), Menace, complication: Evil Eye
The hand of Baron Samedi (S):  Minions (advanced, +extra: inst), minor flaw: required dead body, major flaw: need fresh blood, Strike, minor complication: wandering hand

- The Old Cop, Super-soldat. Excellent cop all his life, when is wife was dying from a cancer, he stole some superdrugs from the evidence vault. He gave a shot to his wife and to himself: they would live together or die together. He lived. Not her.
Aspects:
1) Old ? No ! Full of experience !
2) Pensioneer cop
Complication: 'am too old for this crap.
Powers:
Lazarus' breath (S): Treatment (health) (snag: only self), resist damage, willpower, complication: why me and not Molly ?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe November 06, 2014, 01:30:40 PM
Old Cop is probably also a loose cannon. Back in the 90s, the FBI paid him to surf. What I'm saying is Old Cop is the walking breathing archetype of cop movie cliches, so a drug lord has to be responsible for his wife's death, somehow.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Tim November 06, 2014, 02:39:50 PM
Unless old cop does not have the aspect: "only one week till retirement" then there is no justice in the world.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Claive November 06, 2014, 05:12:27 PM


- The Goblin Tinkerer, (Magical Being/Super-Genius). Previously bound for decades by a sorcerer to do his bidding, he is free since Ragnarok.
Some of his aspects (I left a few free to be filled by players):
1) I did invented it !
2) The Machine-whisperer
His complication: Can I touch it ?
Powers:
Genius Tinkerer (S): Dismantle, Repair, Craft, Workshop,  2x variable (with two drawbacks: slow, focus) to represent "Gadget of the Day"
Night Goblin (E): Stealth, Dexterity, Security, Notice (+unusual: darkvision), weakness: blinding light (minor), complication: obviously not human (-1)

I like his complication... but he could use another one...

Complication [Minor]: Can't stand the sound of his own name... His name backwards?  Forget about it...
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Teapot November 17, 2014, 11:19:33 AM
A quick question, how much loot is good to put in a base? Looking at my first base it's around 400 but I thought it was sold mostly at 10:1 not the more generous numbers. So before my players know how far should I lower it?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe November 17, 2014, 10:49:08 PM
That's a good question. 400 loot value can at best be sold for 200 loot points and that's only if the characters know a good black market dealer who will buy their loot at a high price. 200 loot is worth 20 skill points to buy off burn, increase wealth, or pay for goals. I'd make selling the loot an adventure in of itself - do they dump for 40 loot points or do they try to find a better dealer? How do they protect their loot while they're trying to sell it? What if they want to use it instead of sell it? What kind of goals do they have?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Teapot November 22, 2014, 06:24:31 AM
So this is the base they just cleared:
The Hover Office of Doctor Skull
Flying skull shaped fortress, full of traps and bots, PCs can get to it on its' Montana resupply stop.

Doctor Skull was a more classic super villain, he possessed no powers but built an impressive array of robotics and other devices. His henchmen were generally recruited from the weaker class of thugs and then given strength enhancing power armor though much less powerful than his own iconic skull armor*. He clashed with Crusher, the super strong hero of Oregon often but vanished about two years before Ragnarok.

*The chest plate is a giant skull (the eyes are flamethrowers) the shoulder pads are skulls, the knee pads are skulls, the helmet is a skull, the belt buckle is a skull, the kneepads are skulls, the shoes are elongated skulls, the gloves are skulls with the fingers being the teeth. He also wore a red cape with a black skull on it.

Short story, he got Alzheimer and died in his lab midway through his research on a cure, his body still roams his fortress in an automated power suit.

The long story, about five years ago Dr. Skull - Peter Jessep – self diagnosed with Alzheimer disease. He spent a few years learning about the disease and making sure it wasn't something someone had done to him. Then he began working on a cure. The easiest way to get test subjects that fit his needs was to clone himself and he did that industrially. There is a hidden mass grave in Montana. But he was progressing slowly. During this time he also set his bases to full automation and fired his henchmen. One of his henchmen sold him out to Crusher who invaded. The two had a long talk and Crusher left the Doctor to his studies with the promise that all his research would go public.

So life went on, the Ideal lost interest in looking for and tracking the giant radar resistant skull fort and Jessep deteriorated faster than he thought. In the end he died in his power armor. However at this point even his armor was fully automated. So for the last two years, every morning it gets up, carries the corpse to the breakfast room, after half an hour it takes him to his lab where it idles without command until lunch, then off to the control deck for an hour and back to the lab until dinner. After that the armor walks to the study, sits next to a box of cigars and pours an empty bottle of red wine into a dirty wine glass while the sunset fills the room. Then it runs a clean cycle on the corpse and walks him to bed.

The base keeps going, the bots lurk, their programming more of a flowchart than AI. Each month about 20 clones pop awake trapped in tubes, they are physically healthy but their minds riddled with dementia and Alzheimer's. They generally dehydrate or starve in their own filth before being dumped into the mass grave site. The Doctor's spirit is tethered to his body and similarly feeble until the link is severed.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe November 22, 2014, 04:33:09 PM
goddamn that is an amazing concept - did you come up with it or did you use the collaborative base creation rules?

Also, I assume the fortress has some super stealth tech to avoid detection? I would imagine the air force would shoot it down at some point if they could find it.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Teapot November 24, 2014, 12:02:31 AM
That's me, we'll do the collaborative building in the next couple of weeks.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Ezechiel357 November 24, 2014, 09:52:32 AM
It is a very interesting idea. I can see three ways to go through the exploration: brute force (disassembling Deathbot one by one), brute hacking (since everything run on computer/IA) or... subtlety.

By Subtlety I mean decyphering the basic program which control the daily routine, and using this knowledge to safely plunder the base - possibly even with the help of the deathbot.

Keep in mind that it is my take on the base's exploration so it might not be your taste.
During the collaborative work and the research part, or latest after the first few hours of exploration in the base, the PCs should be aware of the three Paths of Plundering. But they will also be aware of the risk each Paths has:
- The Path of the Might (aka Smash 'n Bash): high likelyhood of collateral damage, high loss of loot due to heavy damage (material - like Deathbots, weapons and such - are destroyed, but also knowledge as precious databank are destroyed as well by high energy blast and whatnot).
- The Path of the Snake (aka AI subversion): by hacking the system, the PCs will likely preserve much of the physical loot, however, they need to crash somes IT systems permanently and will loose significant amount of data (cure to other illness that the Skull discovered during his search to Alzeimer's treatment for example).
- The Path of the Shadow: by understanding the basic routine, the PCs are able to make some slight change which gently triggers a different reaction from the program. For example, by putting paper or data in the system convincing that the cure has be found, the whole databank is decrypted and downloaded to the nearest public server (that the PC need to hack first hand to retrieve the data before it becomes public), by animating and controlling one Skull's clone's corpse, convincing the AI that he is the new body with Skull conscious and Deathbots should obey him or other subtle trick.

The way I would try to do it would be to prepare an organigram with several questions/decisions steps and the daily program (as you already plotted). And when the PCs acts, the reaction is pre-programmed. Through trials and errors (possibly painful  ;D), PCs learn the response and can lead the program to behave outside of his boundaries where PCs can turn it to their own use (how to trigger the "relocate the base", "backup essential data", "reconfigure the cloning facility to high-end automated hospital to apply Alzeimer treatment", and so on).

If the PCs come with a good idea, I would reward them with narrow but unlimited Useful aspects. An aspect that they can tag without Fate point, once a scene for specific application like "Revival process trigger", which gives them a +2 bonus to use the facility when treating wounds, "Gracious guests of DrSkull", +2 when exploring the base, "Defense Upgrade" +2 when using Deathbot to defend themselves.

Amongst the rewards/loot I could see:
- Stealth technology (at least Ascendant tier), snag: only for structure, snag: interfer with any tech beyond 21st century
- Semi-AI (to reflect the persistance of the AI, but also its lacks of autonomy: hard to hack (A), but limited decision making ability - major snag) - which would be still worth a lot of loot point as it allow to program a good level of autonomy, but is highly resistant to hack, and won't become sentient
- Possibly E to S level database on degenerative disease cures - it could be also used as one reason to plunder this base.
- Cloning facility: treatment (health) A, snag: can only be attuned to one person at a time (after all the Skull was looking to only cure himself)
- Advanced Deatbots (with Semi AI tech) - could become minions (S) for somebody able to take control of them, snag: designed for combat only
- Blueprint for various armour and adequate workshop (Repair, Dismantle, Workshop, Craft: S, snag: limited to weaponry and armor, snag: limited to "low" supertech (only physical weapon up to railgun, but no laser, phaser and other sci-fy gadget))

I tried to design those loot by keeping the feel that it was a supervilain, but too old to incorporate the latest tech in his design. A kind of "diesel-punk" master mind. That could be a way to explain/prevent hacking with usual computer: the system might be running on cogwheel and perforated cards.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Teapot November 27, 2014, 12:51:11 AM
I had three approaches possible, the easiest one was to sneak aboard during the Montana resupply stop. This one was fed to the players by their money man/fixer, it's the easiest way but only because the Dr was dead. The second entry point would be to infiltrate the clone lab as it dumps the corpses on Site 76, this has to be mid-air. The last way is to drop onto the top observation deck. There's a transparent dome there but the PCs could break through and coming from there keeps them a bit safer from the defenses.

For the mid-air entries, the main threats are the missile bots scuttling around the surface,. The second danger is the laser banks in the eyes and mouth, anyone attempting a direct approach will spend the trip being constantly shot at by anti-air defenses.

Learning about the robots is pretty easy, they run of modern computers but don't have true AI (After the robot StopGap came about AI fell out of fashion) instead following a series of flowcharts and "communicating" with sonar and laser communicators. Directly spoofing the communication would take a bit, either intercepting and decoding or paying an old employee  to help.

The fort stays hidden with its' stealth technology and by keeping a low profile the last three years. These days it mostly flies over Montana in a high altitude loop.

So far the loot so far is broken up into tech supplies, robots (in pieces or whole), the two labs, Dr. Skull's corpse and armor, the nice things in the observation deck and the trophy room.
Trophies include: angle wings, will happily grow into anyone who puts them on their back. Sluggo, the bat of Slugger, a vigilante from Kentucky, one of Omega's old helmets that Dr. Skull won in a poker game. The gun that kills and three Bullets that Don't Miss, from Red Hand, a joker like villain with a cowboy theme. Dr. Skull met him once and killed him on the spot (it doesn't matter, Skull wasn't the first and hell kept juicing Red Hand up and siccing him on the world.)
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe November 27, 2014, 02:03:09 AM
Which approach did the players choose?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Teapot November 29, 2014, 10:23:26 AM
So for the game, I'm using the framing device where they found one of the money men for super villains and are using his knowledge and numbers to research fairly well hidden bases. They didn't do much external research so all they had to go on was a pair of properties, one was a big empty field in the middle of nowhere the other was an unused airstrip. They checked the small place and found the clone mass grave and two shovelbots.

They then went to the airstrip about twelve hours after the tankers dropped off the supplies (one tank of heavy water and one of organic mass for cloning).

They hid at the airfield and teleported in when the skull fort landed to take on water and mass. They then fought their way through a couple of floors, took a shortcut to the roof, cut into the Dr's private part of the observation deck, worked down through the trophy hall and came face-to-corpse in the dining area.

The ninja and vampire engaged the Dr's automated power armor, between the two of them triggering the proximity sensors they bought the guy with the magic enough time to contact the Dr's spirit. The wizard managed to convince the spirit to tell them the shutdown code for the armor (only worked because the Dr was dead).

Now they're coming to a deal with the de-seniled ghost to clone him a body and let him inhabit it in exchange for the cash he had left with the money man (about six years worth of taxes and 72 more visits from the tanker trucks.)
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe November 29, 2014, 02:47:44 PM
That was rather benevolent of them. I'd imagine the average PC response to be something like hack the power armor, scrape the corpse out, put an air freshener in to remove corpse stank, and put it on the black market for sale.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Teapot November 30, 2014, 12:21:48 AM
Not really, the armor is a 200 point focus (not counting the black boxes only Dr. Skull can use) and it was kicking their asses a little bit. I think the vampire could have kept alive long enough to get in enough lucky hits if he needed to but it would have been bloody.

To add useful things to this post:
Three base raiding teams the PCs met:

The Elements
Two brothers, they bought wishes from a genie, one got fire powers and one got electricity powers. Joined by a college dropout lady who blew her grant on Agora and actualized her otherkin by turning into water.

MC Quick's posse
MC Quick is real fast, he makes music videos about base raiding, Sofia is a martial artist from Brazil and dancer while Stan has a head computer and calls himself the manager and brains.

Cosplay
A former magical girl is training some people because she thinks the spirits she fought are coming to America, she has a girl in power armor and a boy sorcerer. The former magical girl is pretty morose and still has PTSD but the two kids are living their dream.

Here's the news item I used in the last (failed) super game about the water girl:
This is who I am
A video, quickly pulled from youtube, shows a young Arabic looking woman claiming to be a college student in Idaho. She is naked in a bathtub and injecting herself with several syringes of blue liquid. During and after the injections she is talking about how she is a free water spirit and at last she can be the person on the outside that she is on the inside.
Then she melts.
Then she rises up as a woman made of water and moves to turn off the camera.
Most of the comments are about her tits. The rest are about otherkin being stupid with a few worrying that any crazy person can get super powers now.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe November 30, 2014, 02:15:21 AM
Most of the comments are about her tits. The rest are about otherkin being stupid with a few worrying that any crazy person can get super powers now.

Well, the Internet doesn't change after Ragnarok.

I really like the groups. Cosplay is a great hook. Once I finish writing up Sparkles, I'll run another Base Raiders game and I'll see if I can incorporate some of this.

BTW, If you want, I'd be happy to post some of your material on the Base Raiders website.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Teapot December 01, 2014, 01:37:33 AM
Sure, I'll make my write-ups fit for public consumption and pass them on to you.

Also report from last week, the base building is FUN, even for the dude with almost no useful skills.
We came up with: Back in the 80s Harrison Ford went a little crazy and built a Rebel Base on an iceberg he thought was Hoth. While he managed to move on with therapy and forget about the base, it wasn't left empty. A group of penguins who had come into contact with the Panglos fungi and psychicly bootstraped themselves up moved in. Just in time too because a "borg cube" crashed there, only they were totally not a copywritten alien but an original one. Anyway, being a hivemind is really bad when you land in the middle of a growing flock of psychics, the genocide was kind of accidental but at least the penguins could salvage some of the cube for build mecha to better defend their homeland.They'll need them too because the Scientologist apparently now desire the iceberg.

Ideas sadly left out on were a jedi yeti cult, Darth Fanboy, cyber narwhals, the fortress being a trap for Tom Cruise (and thus powerful anti-psychic defenses) and the base being in "alternative New York".

So yeah, lots of fun. 10/10 would build again.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Ezechiel357 December 01, 2014, 07:49:29 AM
Last Friday, I run TaskForce Darknet - I had to drop one of the two planned sessions, and I thought the investigation part would be easier to introduce a guy new to RP (in general, not only FATE).

Their team:
- Mr Gold, a mummy made from several canope vase, thus with personality issues, but also one aspect was "One of me should know about it". Resistant, put not a fighter. He is a pharaoh (or several bits of them) and his main power is "Aura of Enobled Presence" (a good chunk of the social trappings, including Resources).
- Eckart Busy-Hand, the goblin tinkerer described earlier ("The machine whisperer").
- The Old Cop (but player was almost non existent, two actions for the whole 3 hours games - if you have any tips how to handle this kind of player, you are welcome)
- The voodoo priest (ex-snakeoil salesman, turned real voodoo priest). He is carrying the Eye of Legba (notice + 2xextra, menace, with the flaw "Evil Eye") and the Hand of Baron Samedi (Advanced Minion, must be soaked in blood (at least minor consequence), and also "Wandering Hand"  - those loas are frequently lustful bastards, a bit like some Greek gods). Played by the new player.

Their contact was Professor White, as both the voodoo priest and the pharaoh purchase frequently strange, esoteric items for their own needs or business.
After the initial briefing, the voodoo priest toss me a Fate token saying "Since I was, and still am in the selling of artifact of dubious nature, Rebecca was twice my client. She bought from me a (fake) hand of Glory. I should have her phone number.
It sounds legit and well presented.
So using the phone number as their initial pice of intel, after some cross referencing, using Facebook pictures and other elements, they were able to get her address in Greenwich village (I found appropriate for the relatively wealthy student).
They went there (in the middle of the night) and after some minor shenaniggans and use of the supernatural charming ability of the pharaoh manage to get her trust. They played on the fact that the drug was adultered to induce strong depency and urge her to stop and let them treat her. She gobbled everything (against a roll of 10, there was little she could do not to believe them).
She showed them Agora, the emails with Lukas, his phone number and such (and of course identifying Bamph for "Arnold").

They also brought her to the pharaoh manor (something between the Wayne mansion and the Playboy mansion  ;) to make sure they would be able to treat her in case of dangerous symptoma. I give that to them, they played the theme well, till the end, so she never doubt them.

Before calling it a night, they contacted through Agora Lukas, to organise a purchase of Bamph.

In the morning, they got a response from Lukas asking for a downpayment, and gave them a number from another burner phone.

The Old Cop using his contacts and fate point was able to get Lukas files. After more research, they found his location in a blue collar suburb (I am not familiar enough with New York to give an actual name).

They went there and spotted easily the FBI van. The Goblin crafted some spying Pigeons-bots (Notice + range with his variable power) to both spy the house and the agents van. He snuck under the van, did some clever tinkering, and off the van left on a panoramic tour of the neighborhood with two confused agents.
They broke easily in Lukas house (empty at the time) searched it. According to the scenario, there is not much to find in the house except the scuba gear and the TP vector (the cross and arrow in the basement). I added a little roll of 100 dollars bills hidden under a woodplank for emergency use, a labtot with mostly encrypted data (Agora discussion, business email, plus some downloaded ocean maps). They vacate the premise before the van completed its scenic drive, putting everything back as it was (except that the goblin got a Fate point because of his issue "Can I touch ?"). It ended up not mattering because they decided they did not need to confront Lukas.

Using the information they gathered, they were able to pinpoint relatively accurately the base location.
The goblin spent the night refitting the "Barge of Râ" (the pharaoh' yacht) into something suited to underwater exploration. And this is were we left, as they were about to knock at the base's door.

Yes, they never contacted Professor White to share the info and did not realise that they were doing more than what was originally requested (identify the vendor - not even locate him). I believe they were not considering raiding the base without telling the Professor, but more using "player's logic" to interpret the order as "find the base where the drug is coming from".

Feedback:
- With the right skills it was easy for the PCs to get to Lukas, then to the base. A group more methodic could take up to two sessions at most. Keep in mind that I had to introduce both the system and the world as well as "coach" a new player. So I would say, quite an easy investigation, but perfect for introduction. A well-oiled team could solve it in two hours.
- One the most seasoned player found it straightforward, yet entertaining. But not really challenging. Truth to be said, they have very good combinaison of skills for an investigation, but they are less well suited for direct confrontation.
- Handouts were excellent (except that I will need to translate them in French since their English was so so, and I ended up having to translate the whole FBI initial briefing -hand out #2). I was almost disappointed that I could not use all the handouts due to their decisions and actions.

Ross, I will send you (I hope tonight) the list of typos I found in the initial draft.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe December 01, 2014, 05:29:37 PM
Sounds like you had a great time. Taskforce Darknet is meant to be on the easier side - it is an intro adventure after all.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Tadanori Oyama December 01, 2014, 06:13:05 PM
Sounds like that went just about right. Glad the adventure went well for you.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Ezechiel357 December 02, 2014, 02:20:04 AM
Taskforce Darknet is meant to be on the easier side - it is an intro adventure after all.


In fact, I believe it could be used as well for a non-super introduction. Of course, it means the PCs needs to have the right set of investigative skills and any confrontation will be more challenging. On the other hand, even if they are caught by the FBI, since they would not be super, they won't risk much (except possibly being charged of trespassing).

Then, when they report to their contact, he/she can give them patches to complete the mission in Boiler Point. Once this is done successfully, as a reward, they can get permanent powers.
That way they have an opportunity to try temporary power and the players can test if it is what they want, and once they get the final reward, they can tweak or change it to their satisfaction.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: trinite December 02, 2014, 01:53:14 PM
Gonna start some Base Raiders this Saturday with my wife and my brothers over Skype! Woo! First session is just going to be character creation, and defining some campaign aspects, but I'm looking forward to it.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Claive December 04, 2014, 04:45:46 PM
Alias:  The Protagonist
Name: Steven Nettles
Nationality: American
Race:
DOB:
DOD: -
Height: 5’8
Weight: 180 lbs
Appearance: He looks like a grizzled 40’s detective.

Known Superhuman Abilities:
Shows up unexpectedly and tends to survive in spite of the odds.  "I need a Hero" and other "thematic" music seems to play more often than it should on the radio when he is around, it tends to jam nearby communications, also sometimes a weird voice can be heard describing things just before or after these broadcasts.

History: Steven is a teenage product of a broken household.  In a way he is an everyman for the current generation.  He is exceptionally empathetic, which may or may not be the reason why “The Narrator” chose him as its Psion.
   
“The Plot” is an Extradimensional Entity / Eldritch Horror that wishes to control all reality and use it for entertainment by continuously creating clashes between “Good” and “Evil”, “White” and “Black”, “Blue” and “Orange”.  If it has its way it will abolish all free will in the universe and we won’t even know that it had happened.  It has a hard time interacting with our reality directly, so it created “The Narrator” to act as a go between (like we use a screwdriver as a go between for our hands and a screw).  Be warned, “The Plot” enjoys a wide array of genres from tragedy to high adventure to alien concepts we don’t have names for yet.

“The Narrator” is a servant of “The Plot.”  It seeks to manipulate people into dramatic conflict.  It gathers information and uses it to providing motivation for its various pawns to fight one another (or just other groups). 

The Ideal put strong wards in place that held the Narrator in check, preventing it from communicating with mortals and therefor limiting the damage it could do.  Those wards are fraying and when the stars are right, he can push  past the wards and tune into our reality’s cosmic radio frequency.

“Heroically” is defined as entertaining “The Plot.”  Villains can act “Heroically” for this purpose, so long as it is high drama or leads to high drama, usually. 

Aspects
Super Soldier: Can hear the voice of the narrator.
Background: The Show must go on!
Conviction: I have to live up to the Hype.
Aspect: Isn’t that a little… meta?
Aspect:  Live fast and leave a good looking corpse.
Aspect: Learn three things man wasn’t meant to know before breakfast.
Complication [MInor]: Existential Ennui
Complication [Major]: Tropes made manifest

Skills:
Great (+4): Presence
Good (+3): The Voice of the Narrator (S)
Fair (+2): Deceit, Resources, Contacting
Average (+1): Drive, Pilot, Shooting

Base Refresh  Minus Power tier Minus Gifts: = Adjusted Refresh

Unique and Strange Skills:
The Voice of the Narrator
Power Tier: Superhuman (-2 refresh)
Complication [MInor]: Existential Ennui
Complication [Major]: Tropes made manifest

Examine + Unusual : The Narrator + Range, Information + Unusual: The Plot, Research + Unusual: The Plot (3-2-4)
Initiative [Physical] (2)
Notice + Unusual (1-0-1)
Cost: 10 skill points (6 trappings, 2 connections, 5 Extras, -3 drawback)
Description: You can hear the things the narrator says (as far as you are concerned, the narrator is a disembodied voice that only you can hear).  (This isn’t actually the D.M. and while it thematically “breaks the 4th wall” it really doesn’t).  If the Narrator wants you to find a clue he will often say something like “and the hero found a clue in the villain’s desk!” Giving you an idea where to look. If he is being very kind, he might warn you of ambushes before they happen, by announcing “And unbeknownst to the hero!  He was walking strait into an ambush!”  If you don’t actually DO the things he says, he can become upset or sullen.  He may warn you of an ambush, but he wants you to walk into it anyway.  If you choose not to search the desk for the clue he wanted you to have, he might say things like “and the hero decided after two weeks, TO GO BACK TO THE DESK AND FIND THE BLOODY CLUE!” or move along to another plot thread.  You can hear it even if you go deaf. 

You don’t own the narrator.  It talks when it wants to.  It exists independently of you.

: Re: BaseRaiders
: Jace911 December 05, 2014, 05:11:47 PM
So life went on, the Ideal lost interest in looking for and tracking the giant radar resistant skull fort and Jessep deteriorated faster than he thought. In the end he died in his power armor. However at this point even his armor was fully automated. So for the last two years, every morning it gets up, carries the corpse to the breakfast room, after half an hour it takes him to his lab where it idles without command until lunch, then off to the control deck for an hour and back to the lab until dinner. After that the armor walks to the study, sits next to a box of cigars and pours an empty bottle of red wine into a dirty wine glass while the sunset fills the room. Then it runs a clean cycle on the corpse and walks him to bed.

Holy shit I'm totally stealing this. That's fantastic.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Teapot December 08, 2014, 01:45:09 AM
So I've been building penguin mecha this week, but for the next base I need some heroes the Ideal locked up. So far I've got Gravitron, an alien who just killed too many people and was too much trouble, the Ideal locked him down and looked for his homeworld but never found it.

This is for the base "A Pleasant Farm in the Country" where heroes who were too much trouble were locked up.

Also I've added a new thing, I call it "Creep" and it's a power that grows, so that each game it's more powerful but the PC has to keep paying off the growing burn. I've put it on the spleen of RageStab, a Wolverine like hero. If you pay a doc to transplant the spleen into you you'll get his regeneration, immunity to disease etc, immortality and extra hit boxes. But the powers come in slowly.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe December 08, 2014, 07:45:51 PM
Grafted powers are a good idea, especially from a regenerating character.

Some idea for trouble superhumans:

Consequence from Heroes of New Arcadia
The Hybrid gang from Heroes of New Arcadia
A Question style vigilante who focused on uncovering the truth behind mysteries and eventually got wind of some of the Ideal's shady deals - human with gadgets so he wasn't taken during Ragnarok
Peracles from Heroes of New Arcadia
'Dark' Sparkles - a mirror of the original Sparkles and is somehow even more unstable and dangerous than normal Sparkles
Balgron the Fat from The New World campaign - goddamn multiverse bullshit
Axgore from New World
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Kamen December 08, 2014, 08:16:35 PM

'Dark' Sparkles - a mirror of the original Sparkles and is somehow even more unstable and dangerous than normal Sparkles

Wait, are you saying that there is an evil Sparkles? From an alternate dimension with an evil horse goatee and everything? I dread the terror that Dark Sparkles, or Darkles, could one day rain on the world.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe December 08, 2014, 11:38:27 PM
Sparkles is ostensibly good - he's just extremely damaged from being resurrected so many times and having a poor choice of friends.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Tomsawyer December 09, 2014, 01:35:49 AM
My group finally got together to play a game of Base Raiders, which the guy who was running it called it The Curse of the Cyber-Yeti's. It took place in and on Mount McKinley. We decided to use the base generation rules to come up with the base so it ended up being the very publicly known base of the D list supervillain the Cleaner, former high school janitor who wanted to rid the world of filth. The base was a factory guarded by the terrifying cyber-yetis who plagued the town of McKinley yearly by seizing the Prom King and Queen for horrifying experiments long after Ragnarok had happened and all heroes and villains had disappeared. The teenagers of course responded by voting for the least popular kids in school and running smear campaigns to get their enemies elected Prom King and Queen. We had decided that since the Cleaner's base was well known by the public and the base raiding community, attempting it was known as pulling the McKinley.
The characters involved where Knight Errant, Iconoclast, Victoria the full body cyborg, and Scurvy the surprisingly effective man who could turn fruit into bombs with a touch.

After some messing around in the town, including Iconoclast pretending to be an FBI Agent then staging an attack on the sheriff pretending to be the Cleaner and knocking out all of the police in the small town, our group went out with the police and captured one of the cyber-yetis in a tense battle. Luckily the only casualty was a police officer who was thrown at Knight Errant, don't worry Knight Errant was fine as he was armored the officer not so much.

Iconoclast took apart the cyber-yeti to make a device that would let us pretend to be a damaged cyber-yeti and gain entrance the the McKinley base. Once in Victoria and Iconoclast went up towards the main computer while Scurvy and Knight Errant went down towards the labs.  Once inside the base however the scanners recognized Iconoclast as Pangloss  and started to play pre-recorded messages by the Cleaner talking about how he knew she was jealous of him and wanted to learn the secrets of his cyber-yetis. His messages were so detailed that we were able to question him about his plans. This went on for a while until Victoria got annoyed and insulted him, dealing enough composure damage to knock the recordings out of scene. Sadly this should have been a hint for what happened later.

Mean while Knight Errant and Scurvy had managed to pick a fight with some vicious mega roombas and had to flee downwards to escape them and the quickly reactivating partially complete cyber-yetis. At the bottom they discovered that the Cleaner was using the Prom Kings and Queens to create cyber-yetis out of the most popular teenagers to drain the popularity out of them to create the ultimate life form. Sadly, for him, his understanding of biology and how teenagers would react led to his plans failing.

Mean while Iconoclast and Victoria had found the main computer and together managed to break their way through his security, and delete all of his annoying recordings, and learned more about his plans to create the ultimate life form and about the genesis engine. But that was when his most successful creation attacked, the dreaded Psyber-Yeti.

See our GM realized it was pointless to attack us physically as we were to focused on physical offense and defense to hurt so instead he opted for composure damage, in so creating a physically tough being that was able to attack us in the once way we couldn't defend against. Luckily for us Scurvy was there to save the day. With his ascendant tier ability to turn fruit into massive explosions he was able to demolish the mega roombas and swarms of damaged cyber-yetis. Knight Errant took out whole groups by tossing his shield and letting it bounce between them and high speeds as they raced towards Iconoclast and Victoria who had been trying and failing to pierce the Cyber-Yeti's hide.

Finally Victoria had managed to rip a whole open into the Psyber-Yeti into which Scurvy fired two jalapenos which exploded inside of the beast, causing it to die. And with that our group managed to complete the McKinley. 
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe December 09, 2014, 01:12:38 PM
Clever idea of attacking composure to deal with tough PCs. Did you encounter any problems with the system or chargen? You going to run some more games?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Tomsawyer December 09, 2014, 08:51:29 PM
The system worked pretty well, but my group tends to have a problem with fate and coming up with aspects for the GM to compel, which usually leaves us with around two fate points between the four of us by the time a big fight comes around. But that may just be a lack of familiarity with FATE. I usually get around it with amusing quotes, and a link to the FATE wiki and its list of aspects.

I also plan on running a game where the players are just random schmucks who stumble into a base. Mostly as a way to introduce some of my friends to how gaining powers works, rather than starting off a game with them. But that will have to be after the 7th Sea game I plan on running.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Ezechiel357 December 10, 2014, 02:49:14 AM
In the several Fate game I run using BaseRaider, there was a few issues:
- list of social trappings a bit too long with some redudant or overlapping trappings (Conversation, Convince, Guile, Disguise...), leading to confusion and overly-costed powers.
- Ressources should be handled differently: if one PC has it, let's say at Supernatural or higher, it is easy for all the PCs to benefits from it (I had the case of "I gave him my Platinium-Iridium-Cowium card" - I did not mind, but in a campaign, it means that no other PCs need to have it)

We did a little bit of brainstorming with my players to find out what was annoying us and we came to the conclusion that the minutia of the powers/trappings system is in opposition with the relative "lightness" of the FATE system.

So I am currently tinkering with a more global definition of powers, taking inspiration from what I remember from the system you used for Heroes of New Arcadia, and having a pool of larger trappings (like combat, social, tinkering, knowledge, health/resistance), combined with enhancements.
I know that we will loose the ability to customise the powers, but it is a trade off that seems to suit my players.

Testing to be done early next year.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe December 10, 2014, 12:49:25 PM
You should look at the Atomic Robo RPG - it seems to be the next iteration of Strange Fate in how it tackles super powers but also combines ideas from Fate Core. I'll probably use it for the next edition of Base Raiders.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: D6xD6 - Chris December 11, 2014, 08:20:58 PM
The Atomic Robo RPG is really,  really good.  I think the rules are well-aligned with Base Raiders' use of super powers. 

It's also a GORGEOUS book.  Any plans for RPPR to run/record a game of Atomic Robo?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Kamen December 13, 2014, 10:48:31 AM
I'd actually like to hear Aaron run an Atomic Robo game since he seems to know the series pretty well. Just a thought since we don't get to hear him behind the GM screen very often.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Jace911 December 15, 2014, 06:38:26 PM
'Dark' Sparkles - a mirror of the original Sparkles and is somehow even more unstable and dangerous than normal Sparkles

[sounds of Caleb screaming in the distance]

Clever idea of attacking composure to deal with tough PCs. Did you encounter any problems with the system or chargen? You going to run some more games?

The only major issue we had was the GM gave the Psyber-Yeti all Ascendant tier stats, meaning no matter what avenue we tried to attack it with we simply had to roll above +9 (Even if we were only at Superhuman) and hope it whiffed badly just to scratch it; this is probably because two characters (Including Tom's) had Ascendant tier attacks and the GM was compensating, but the other two were using pregen characters and weren't minmaxed enough to tackle it. Meanwhile it was constantly spamming its area of effect psychic attack every round, which led to Iconoclast (Me) suffering a temporary mental break and believing that she was Doctor Pangloss before the psychic attacks eventually overwhelmed her and knocked her out having accomplished pretty much nothing. It was less a fault of the system and more just the GM being inexperienced, as it was his first time with the game and he hasn't GMed much outside of that. Until then it was hilarious fun, especially the part where I pretended to be an FBI agent and a supervillain in the same day.

As for future games, I have a remixed version of Heroes of New Arcadia that I'm sitting on until after I graduate and the summer comes around, as well as numerous one-shots that keep popping out of my brain when I should be paying attention in class. :V
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Dom December 15, 2014, 07:10:33 PM
'Dark' Sparkles - a mirror of the original Sparkles and is somehow even more unstable and dangerous than normal Sparkles

[sounds of Caleb screaming in the distance]

Wouldn't that just be Brighteyes, the killer gnome from The New World campaign?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Tomsawyer December 15, 2014, 11:28:53 PM

 especially the part where I pretended to be an FBI agent and a supervillain in the same day.



Yeah there won't be any consequences to the world believing that there is one remaining supervillain. :P
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Jace911 December 16, 2014, 07:52:54 PM

 especially the part where I pretended to be an FBI agent and a supervillain in the same day.



Yeah there won't be any consequences to the world believing that there is one remaining supervillain. :P

Well I assume "Agent Pilgrim" sent the sheriff of McKinley an email informing him of the Cleaner's actual-for-real demise once she woke up from her short-lived psychic-induced coma.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Teapot December 17, 2014, 08:23:55 AM
Then the next game becomes finding a patsy and turning them in for a reward?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe December 17, 2014, 05:03:26 PM
Then the next game becomes finding a patsy and turning them in for a reward?

(http://i.imgur.com/XyrOR.gif)
: Re: BaseRaiders
: SpiegelGeist December 20, 2014, 03:51:49 PM
Hello everyone,
     I'm a really big fan of Base Raiders and I've wanted to play for awhile. I've finally been able to show my best friend the book, and he loved the setting and concept of the game. The problem is neitherbof us has ever played, let alone ran a tabletop RPG. Would anyone be willing to offer any good help and/or advice that could help us (and 2-3 others) play our very first TTRPG? Any assistance would be sincerely appreciated. In any case, I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season.
     Also, do I need to buy a Strange Fate book to run the game in the first place?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Kamen December 20, 2014, 05:06:10 PM
Hello everyone,
     I'm a really big fan of Base Raiders and I've wanted to play for awhile. I've finally been able to show my best friend the book, and he loved the setting and concept of the game. The problem is neitherbof us has ever played, let alone ran a tabletop RPG. Would anyone be willing to offer any good help and/or advice that could help us (and 2-3 others) play our very first TTRPG? Any assistance would be sincerely appreciated. In any case, I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season.
     Also, do I need to buy a Strange Fate book to run the game in the first place?

Everything is self-contained in the Base Raiders core book, no extras needed, though you should totally grab the supplemental PDFs.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe December 20, 2014, 05:31:11 PM
You need Base Raiders and at least one set of fate dice to play: http://www.evilhat.com/home/fate-dice/ (http://www.evilhat.com/home/fate-dice/)

If you buy the Print + PDF combo, you get a print copy and a PDF that you can share with your friends so everyone can read up on the rules. http://www.baseraiders.com/store/ (http://www.baseraiders.com/store/)

There are premade characters in the book you can use to play, although character creation can be fun.

I would recommend getting the book, reading it, and trying to make a character for yourself first. That will give you specific questions to ask here and we can answer them.

Once you make a character, make another, and have them fight each other so you can figure out the combat rules. You can also use the NPCs described in the Zombie Factory chapter as enemies to fight.

Once you do that, you can make up an adventure or wait for Boiling Point to come out.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Tomsawyer December 21, 2014, 12:10:37 AM
I recomend using the base creation rules for making adventures, its how you end up with cyber-yetis   ;D
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Jace911 December 22, 2014, 09:15:01 PM
Hello everyone,
     I'm a really big fan of Base Raiders and I've wanted to play for awhile. I've finally been able to show my best friend the book, and he loved the setting and concept of the game. The problem is neither of us has ever played, let alone ran a tabletop RPG. Would anyone be willing to offer any good help and/or advice that could help us (and 2-3 others) play our very first TTRPG?

Wing it.

Seriously, it pays to have a rough outline and some notes but no plan. You'll be pleasantly surprised at how hilariously well things turn out.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe January 19, 2015, 09:04:32 PM
The BAMF podcast just posted an AP of Base Raiders! http://mikelaff.podbean.com/e/base-raiders-actual-play/ (http://mikelaff.podbean.com/e/base-raiders-actual-play/)
: Re: BaseRaiders
: LordofNaught February 25, 2015, 09:28:00 PM
Is this the thread I'd come to if I wanted to throw around ideas for a BaseRaiders character? I have a couple of very basic ideas, and while I don't see myself playing the game anytime soon (nor do I have much knowledge of the system) I would like to at least discuss the ideas I have.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Kamen February 25, 2015, 10:16:37 PM
Yeah, totally! Post what you got and I'm sure you'll get some feedback.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: LordofNaught February 25, 2015, 10:37:23 PM
Here's idea number one:

Urban Knight (based off a picture from the Image Thread). Either a retired SWAT officer or a soldier coming back from the Middle East who had to stop over in either England or Ireland on the way back to the States. While there, he came across an old sword, which he somehow managed to get back home. Compelled to take some kind of action against the crime the regular police can't handle in the post-Ragnarok world, he created the persona of the Urban Knight, making a mixture of knight armor and modern tactical gear with a riot shield. He operated by night of course, fighting malevolent Base Raiders or anyone or anything else that would be a threat to the populace. His goal is to become a true knight, ceremony and everything.

Now if it was Ireland he went to, the sword is the Claiomh Solais (Sword of Light) and if England, Excalibur. These allow him to do harm to supernatural threats at all, and down the line after unlocking their true potential would become Aspects in their own rights. Speaking of, one Aspect I know for sure he has is Clamor of Battle, or Battle's Clamor. His head becomes filled with the battle cries of past warriors and the clash of sword and shield. He can't hear anything, and is protected from psychic assault. Hopefully it would protect against social combat too, but that's for the experts to decide.

Concept 2: A highly advanced and sophisticated hunter/killer robot from another dimension by the working name of Grey, based off a character from Choujin Sentai Jetman. He was once  apart of the elite soldiers of a multi-dimensional empire, but something made him end up on Earth and in the hands of the Underground. Nowadays he makes a living selling his services to base raiders to pay for his walk in closet sized residence down there, while sampling fine wines, smoking cigars and cigarettes, and playing a piano he got down into that one cafe place somehow.

Aspect-wise he'd have knowledge of high technology and multiple dimension and traveling between, being a master tracker, expert marksman since he's a walking arsenal, and a major goal is to be able to truly feel love, and be "warm".

How do these concepts sound?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe February 26, 2015, 12:30:29 AM
Well one major theme in Base Raiders is humans don't luck into their powers. You don't stumble across magical swords because that shit was locked down long ago. However, the urban knight could have bought a sword in the black market - its seller found it in a base but did not realize its true power. So why did the knight go to the black market to buy the sword? It's illegal, so what motivated him to break the law? Was it boredom, curiosity or something else?

Any powerful/badass alien would have been disappeared if it was on earth during Ragnarok, so Grey is a recent arrival. How did he get to earth? Teleporter/portal in a base? Crashed starship? Deliberately stranded there by allies who betrayed him? What are his goals? What does he want to do? Is he lost, trying to find a purpose?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: LordofNaught February 26, 2015, 06:48:22 AM
Huh, I didn't know that, thank's for the update. As to a reason why Urban Knight would go to a black market, I'm going to say boredom and compulsion. Boredom drove him to go in first place, wanting to get his hands on some super-technology to make his life more interesting, and ended up being subtly compelled by whichever sword I go for to purchase it.

As for Grey, he would have arrived because of being stranded by allies, having made a wring choice about who to back during an attempted coup. Now that he's on Earth with the vague orders of "Secure it for the empire while we fix the mess we're in," he's chosen to obey those orders via helping Base Raiders do their thing. He knows his empire isn't going to be invading anytime soon, if at all, thanks to internal strife. As for goals, because of his relationship with an organic female member of the empire's elite, he wants to be able to actually bring comfort to someone he cares for. To be, "warm and alive." Basically, he wants to become an android, or something that would combine his robotic nature with more physical human qualities.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe February 26, 2015, 06:42:42 PM
Both are great choices for the characters. Base Raiders focuses a bit more on goals and motivations for characters because the default 'to fight crime' thing isn't really mandatory. Base raiding is super illegal and risky, so you need to think why you fell into it.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: LordofNaught February 26, 2015, 10:21:55 PM
Can anyone think of any more development they would need, beyond the obvious stuff of being adjusted for the system? If nothing else I would like to see the ideas put out there.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe February 27, 2015, 12:24:05 AM
I mean that's enough for a starting PC. If you want other examples, you should read this thread. There are a TON of great ideas here, including character and base concepts. I love the guy who carries around a WMD to scare other people.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Teapot February 27, 2015, 12:29:32 PM
The thing that I stress with my group is the two Big Ideas, you want your powers and you want to change something. I always keep those in mind for a character.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: beej March 02, 2015, 07:00:19 PM
So my table group has started what will be a recurring Base Radiers game (one-shots when we're not on a main campaign).  I started them on The Bayou Beatdown because I personally loved it and it was a really fun and creative introduction to the system.  Anyway, my players made off with the functioning Confederate ship.   I admit I was dumb for not anticipating it.  The party was split and one half was fighting the bad guys and the other half hid in the ship and then rolled stupidly high to get it working.

So I gave it to them rather than look like I was just saying 'no' regardless of the dice.  So...how much loot points is the Confederate ship worth, Ross?  I'm worried it would let them buy a shit ton of powers but I also don't want to say 'Oh yeah, its only worth a little bit.'  My only thought that doesn't feel like a give away or robbery is saying that it's their new mobile lair?

: Re: BaseRaiders
: Jace911 March 02, 2015, 09:44:55 PM
So my table group has started what will be a recurring Base Radiers game (one-shots when we're not on a main campaign).  I started them on The Bayou Beatdown because I personally loved it and it was a really fun and creative introduction to the system.  Anyway, my players made off with the functioning Confederate ship.   I admit I was dumb for not anticipating it.  The party was split and one half was fighting the bad guys and the other half hid in the ship and then rolled stupidly high to get it working.

So I gave it to them rather than look like I was just saying 'no' regardless of the dice.  So...how much loot points is the Confederate ship worth, Ross?  I'm worried it would let them buy a shit ton of powers but I also don't want to say 'Oh yeah, its only worth a little bit.'  My only thought that doesn't feel like a give away or robbery is saying that it's their new mobile lair?

It's probably worth mad loot points, but trying to find a way to safely offload it on the black market is probably going to be at least an entire adventure or two. Not to mention all the heat they're going to risk attracting from EPSA or other base raiders if anyone finds out they're sitting on it.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe March 02, 2015, 10:11:45 PM
So my table group has started what will be a recurring Base Radiers game (one-shots when we're not on a main campaign).  I started them on The Bayou Beatdown because I personally loved it and it was a really fun and creative introduction to the system.  Anyway, my players made off with the functioning Confederate ship.   I admit I was dumb for not anticipating it.  The party was split and one half was fighting the bad guys and the other half hid in the ship and then rolled stupidly high to get it working.

So I gave it to them rather than look like I was just saying 'no' regardless of the dice.  So...how much loot points is the Confederate ship worth, Ross?  I'm worried it would let them buy a shit ton of powers but I also don't want to say 'Oh yeah, its only worth a little bit.'  My only thought that doesn't feel like a give away or robbery is saying that it's their new mobile lair?

Well, you could build it as a strange skill. Look at the transport trapping. For example:


Steampunk Submarine (8 skill points)
Power Tier: Superhuman
Stealth + Unusual, Stress Capacity [Health], Transport + Unusual
Focus [Major]: Ironclad Sub
Item Based Power: Requires Training
All rolls made with sub are at the pilot's Drive/Pilot Sub skill
Loot value: 80 points base + 220 to the right buyer

You could also look at Kerberos Club, Strange Fate for statted out examples. I think the Nautillus is written up in it.

It's definitely the kind of item the players will have to find a buyer for if they want full point values. An eccentric billionaire or shady marine salvage company would want it, but they have to approach and negotiate carefully. If they just dump it on the black market, they should only get a fraction of its value (80 base divided by half or more)

Add more trappings if it has cannons/torpedoes/magic wards/etc.

You could make upgrading the sub a player goal, especially if they want to turn it into a mobile HQ.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: beej March 02, 2015, 10:56:25 PM
An eccentric billionaire

...looks like McAfee is going to make in an appearance in my game.

Thanks Ross!
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Jace911 March 02, 2015, 11:53:49 PM
John McAfee needs to be in every game.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Claive March 02, 2015, 11:58:16 PM
I mean that's enough for a starting PC. If you want other examples, you should read this thread. There are a TON of great ideas here, including character and base concepts. I love the guy who carries around a WMD to scare other people.

I would love to hear a radio play or actual play of him talking to Doctor White *sigh*
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Iafhtagn March 05, 2015, 11:26:16 AM
John McAfee needs to be in every game.

He's crazy, he has a sense of humor, he's more meta than most people give him credit for, and he's active online - jut google "How to uninstall McAfee Antivirus starring John McAfee". Yes, that's the real guy in the video. He was a programmer once, so he's got at least some geeky roots.

What I'm saying is, an actual appearance of McAfee in a Skype game isn't completely impossible.

Kickstarter time?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Jace911 March 06, 2015, 09:50:59 AM
John McAfee needs to be in every game.

He's crazy, he has a sense of humor, he's more meta than most people give him credit for, and he's active online - jut google "How to uninstall McAfee Antivirus starring John McAfee". Yes, that's the real guy in the video. He was a programmer once, so he's got at least some geeky roots.

What I'm saying is, an actual appearance of McAfee in a Skype game isn't completely impossible.

Kickstarter time?

And on top of all that he was an international criminal at one point and his autobiography is being written by an ex drug baron.

Hell, if my GM had him show up as a black marketeer in Base Raiders I wouldn't bat a fucking eyelash.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Leshrac March 11, 2015, 04:08:02 PM
So it is strange but I had a sudden realization (my brain does this sometimes), that if I wanted to model the Bleach Anime in FATE, that Base Raiders is probably the best possible system to do that, with some minor mods.

Very little has to change mechanically about the game, other than the scales of power.  Anything they can do magically due to their nature or the basic abilities their training and weapon gives them is at Exceptional.  When they go into Shikai (the first unlock of their weapon), they can access Superhuman power levels.  When they unlock their Bankai (the second unlock of their weapon), they can access Ascendant powers levels, and if they master truly their powers, or become Vizard or some other weird archetype they can use Godlike Power levels.

Their are a number of small fiddly buts I would need to consider:
-Whether to keep the burn as a narrative structure for mastering a new power level, or drop it for some other narrative tool instead.
-How to use magic in that situation (magic is more diverse and also more limiting), and what power level to set it (probably supernatural since its about the same strength as people who have unlocked their Shikai).

But it just....fits....
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe March 12, 2015, 12:08:48 AM
I should write a Base Raiders SRD so everyone can use the rules more freely.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Leshrac March 12, 2015, 12:18:27 AM
Considering their is a Strange Fate SRD that I just stumbled across recently:

http://arcdream.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Strange-FATE-SRD.pdf (http://arcdream.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Strange-FATE-SRD.pdf)

You could probabaly just pull that and then addendum to it the pieces you added/modded for Base Raiders.

I totally agree that its a good idea though.

: Re: BaseRaiders
: Wyrdling April 11, 2015, 04:04:57 PM
So I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the power creation system and how it meshes with the premade powers? Like, you have the Reptile-Chimera Drug User at 11 points, but I can only get that to 9, before I put in any complications. Same goes for the Upsilon Drug User. Very confused.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Teapot June 14, 2015, 08:41:25 AM
I looked, the Upsilon drug is Shoot (2) plus range x2 for 4 with the snag -1 bringing it to 3 by the chart. I think it's just an uncaught error though.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe June 14, 2015, 02:48:56 PM
ugh i need to publish the errata
: Re: BaseRaiders
: FHRegulus August 10, 2015, 06:25:01 PM
So we ran Base Raiders last night and the group had a lot of fun with the whole idea. We played a very light game (something fairly unusual for us) where the players were powerless high school seniors in a small American town four months after Ragnarok. Our group artist ended up sketching these completely normal kids and adding things as they found more powers.

(http://s29.postimg.org/c7p9mvnd3/baseraiders.jpg)

Claude Spencer: Resident rich pretty boy, Claude loves the finer things (including flying and boating) and made sure to buy a gross amount of random, hi-tech doodads that might help the group in the base.

Carmine "Big Time" Azzarello: The loveable Carmine runs a fairly large supers dedicated blog. Due to his love of superheroes and the internet he heard about "base raiding" well before most people did. Equipped with some rations, a baseball bat, a headset camera, and a replica domino mask Carmine wants nothing more than to "accidentally" become a superhuman.

Uisce "Fish" Beatha (Pronounced Ish-kay): Carmine and Claude don't know what Uisce is. Despite knowing this person for their entire lives no one has ever asked if Uisce is a he or a she. Growing up in a large, criminally-oriented Irish family taught Uisce a lot about lockpicking, sneaking around, and shooting. Uisce pocketed his/her father's .38 revolver before heading out to meet at the base.

The group originally found the base while on a camping trip in the mountains. During a lightning storm a stray bolt struck something in the ground close to their tent. The next morning they found a hatch made of a strange metal that led below ground. The lightning bolt fried the electronic lock, which caused the dormant hatch to open. The kids decided cover the hatch and come back next weekend to properly investigate.

Overall we had a LOT of fun playing. I decided to roll random powers on the Superpower Wiki and put them in the game in some way. I wanted a healthy mix of power sources and ended up with:
1.   Liquid Transformation: Can turn liquids from one thing to another (like Water to Wine). Came in the form of a clear fluid cocktail made from diluted alien blood. No one chose to take this power because you had to inject it. Everyone was REALLY squeamish when it came to needles.

2.   Speed Cancellation: The ability to negate movement (including super speed, though this strains the device). Came in the form of a modified Ideal Stun Cannon used by a powerful human soldier who worked with the Ideal (Cpt. Winter). He was right on the cusp of "Is he or isn't he a superhero?" and no one has seen him since Ragnarok. Attaches at the wrist and folds out into a Megaman-esque armcannon. Seen on Carmine in the picture but later given to Fish after gaining...

3.   Copper Mimicry: A solid orb of copper was held in a stasis bubble in a repair bay. Fish thought it would be a good idea to undo the stasis and touch the orb because she had yet to get a superpower that didn't involved injecting a needle into herself. The orb fell apart like sand. Turns out it was actually a nanoswarm that burrowed into her bones, muscles, and skin. His new shiny copper body scared him at first. She attempted to return her skin to normal but could only make his face return to flesh. When the Speed Cancellation ISC was attached to Fish's body they melded with the cannon as well, allowing Fish to fire copper flechette and turning it a interesting silvery/copper color.
 
4.   Weapon Hands: A symbiotic purple parasite that can absorb mundane weapons and tools. The user can then transform their hands into a chitinous nightmare version of one of these held weapons. Found on a skeleton in a hardlight jail cell. Only the fleshy tendrils of the symbiote remained on the bones. Carmine tripped and fell on to the skeleton and the alien creature quickly attached itself to him.

5.   Elemental Blade (Lightning): A blue crystal from another plane of existence that can be grasped to create a crackling blade. Used by Carmine and then given to Claude.

6.   Psychic Bomb Generation: By entering a machine that performs a brain modification (read: automated open brain surgery and drugs) Carmine gained the ability to create small psychic grenades and other explosives. Unfortunately, this power came with the side-effect of intense headaches and pain in the finger joints unless bombs were generated and released (read: you must explode things).

7.   Strength Manipulation: A needle labeled “Strength Giver.” Not super-strength as the kids originally thought. When injected with this failed super-soldier serum the subject would gain the ability to instill great strength in others with a simple touch. Because it was a needle the players thought I was doing something evil and didn't use it.

8.   Electroreception/Electric Speed: I rolled Electroreception and then rolled Electric Speed one after the other so I decided to combine them. By reading passages of this grimoire you bind an extraplanar entity of electricity to your nervous system. The plus side is that you can now sense things around you as if they were part of your nervous system AND your legs tingle with electricity which, when released, grants to bursts of great speed. The downside is, you bound an extraplanar entity to your nervous system and it's going to make some suggestions on what it thinks you should do in the future. Claude, resident idiot, decided to read the book because he was bored.

In addition they found some mundane things. Fish can be seen wearing a mesh undersuit that they believed might have been the base layer worn under a suit of power armor, some tranq guns, and a bulletproof vest. As for the flashlight... face... thing, Carmine's player loves superheroes and is great at improv. It was a piece of officially licensed memorabilia for Starlight Siren. Also it could scream if you pressed a button. Similarly, the fish head/mask was a replica of the mask used by Manfried Manfish from '98 to '03. The weird crotch thing is a censor blur to conceal Fish's gender in the skintight undersuit. We all got a kick out of the joke.


The base itself was an Ideal facility known as "The Vault." The general idea was that the base was autonomous and staffed almost entirely by robotic personnel. Unknown materials of all manner were sent to the Vault for preliminary testing. The one superhero in the Vault would then decide if things should be stored, destroyed, or sent to another facility. So when Ragnarok came around quite a few things were left unsorted.

Most importantly was the system that ran the Vault. A skilled technopath whose body was broken in a battle with a supervillain volunteered to have his brain installed in a supercomputer which ran the vast majority of the robots and store vital information. In the event of his death or disappearance much of the data would go with him. The technopath got along quite well with the other hero stationed at the base but both vanished during Rangarok. The players found it very strange that the supervillain in the jail cell with the Weapon Hand Symbiote would remain while the brain in the jar was taken. In true Base Raiders fashion I just shrugged at them and went "Who knows?"


tl;dr: High school kids livestreamed their adventures fighting robots, gaining superpowers, performing sweet power combination attacks, and discovering secrets in Base Raiders. We're totally playing again soon.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe August 11, 2015, 01:55:23 AM
That's awesome! I will try to post this to the Base Raiders site so all fans can read it. BTW is Carmine's flashlight a repurposed fleshlight?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: FHRegulus August 11, 2015, 02:10:24 PM
Haha, sadly it was not. Carmine was very pure-hearted about his love for superheroes. At some point I plan to put together the layout of the base and it the events in it into a .pdf file if you want that too?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe August 11, 2015, 05:04:39 PM
Haha, sadly it was not. Carmine was very pure-hearted about his love for superheroes. At some point I plan to put together the layout of the base and it the events in it into a .pdf file if you want that too?

Yes. Also, why does the flashlight have a face on it?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: FHRegulus August 11, 2015, 05:57:08 PM
The player's reason was that since Starlight Siren (someone he came up with on the spot) could apparently shoot moonbeams from her mouth and eyes that the memorabilia should do the same thing. Then of course once he sketched the flashlight we all started laughing about how it could also scream if you pressed a button on it. Superhero merch in a superhero filled world is truly terrifying.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Mr. Chips August 11, 2015, 11:28:26 PM
my players and i are wondering when we make a superpower and it has a skill point cost do we deduct that from the skill point pool and then deduct it from the pool again when we take it as a skill (average +1, fair +2, etc)? im a little confused
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe August 11, 2015, 11:34:53 PM
my players and i are wondering when we make a superpower and it has a skill point cost do we deduct that from the skill point pool and then deduct it from the pool again when we take it as a skill (average +1, fair +2, etc)? im a little confused

Yes.

For example, if you have a skill with Resist Damage, Stress Capacity [Health] and Snag [Minor], it should end up costing 4 skill points. That gives you a +0 bonus on it. If you want it at average (+1) it would take a total of 5 skill points to do that.

BTW this is a quick to calculate skill point costs: http://apopheniaevolved.com/content/kerberos_club_custom_skill_generator (http://apopheniaevolved.com/content/kerberos_club_custom_skill_generator) - it sometimes makes errors but it is very quick.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Mr. Chips August 12, 2015, 02:09:11 PM
thank you. my other question is tier benefits. how do i find what goes in this section. i cant find it in the book?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe August 12, 2015, 04:07:56 PM
thank you. my other question is tier benefits. how do i find what goes in this section. i cant find it in the book?

Trapping descriptions begin on page 116. Look up the trapping you have and it will tell you the benefits at certain tiers. Some trappings do not gain tier benefits.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Teapot September 11, 2015, 01:24:08 PM
The ones with +'s do.

So loot question. You get it, you sell it, you divide by 10? So if I get 50 loot, sell it at a 5:1 ratio I get 10 profit and that makes 1 skill point?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe September 12, 2015, 03:31:14 PM
The ones with +'s do.

So loot question. You get it, you sell it, you divide by 10? So if I get 50 loot, sell it at a 5:1 ratio I get 10 profit and that makes 1 skill point?

You are correct but that skill point can only be used for burn, goals, or raising the resources skill. Finding a good buyer is very important for a dedicated base raider.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Twibbit September 18, 2015, 12:08:15 PM
my one time trying to get people into playing this game fell apart because character creation is hard to explain without the book to people. So for my next attempt, I am going to try two things, one is using the Origin rules to cut out strange skills entirely from character creation, The second is putting up the Origin story character creation rules into a Sway for easy digestion https://sway.com/1L8aiRlCiXDYZGRW

Ignore the last part of it as that will be referring to the recruitment thread when I finally make it.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Claive January 05, 2016, 02:06:07 PM
Alias: Mr. Lucky
Name: Mark Walker

Mark has a doctorate in pharmaceutical chemistry, but in this economy he was lucky to just get a job as a pharmacist at Omnicorp’s Corperate office.  After the ideal disappeared the economy’s downward slope became a cliff.  Mark had to find a way to make extra cash just to pay the bills, he stole some supplies from work and found all the information he could find on the Pangloss formula he could download off the internet to start making small batches to sell on the black market… of course he tinkered with the formula… and started taking some himself to get an edge on the cops or on clients who though it would be easier to steal his product rather than pay for it was just… good business sense.

Omnitech discovered the missing lab equipment and Mark has turned to base raiding to find more.

He goes to great lengths not to obscure the actual nature of his powers.
 
Mark has no idea that his wife (who has a doctorate in Genetic Engineering) is in a different base raiding group.

Aspects
Super Soldier: Breaking Bad with the Pangloss Formula.
Background: Even a Doctorate in Pharmaceutical Chemistry can’t get you a good job in this economy.
Conviction: My children will have every advantage.
Aspect: Inconspicuousness is second nature to me.
Aspect: It slipped it into my pocket when no one was looking.
Aspect: My clients know when I am going to call them before I do...
Complication [Major]: Time is an illusion.
Complication [Minor]: V. 536-B21 is addictive as hell

Skills: (25/25)

Great (+4):  Science
Good (+3): Academics
Fair (+2): Stop the Clock (A)
Average (+1): Bureaucracy, Resolve


Unique and Strange Skills:

Stop the Clock (14)
Power Tier: Ascendant (-4 Refresh)
Dodge + Unusual: Stop the Clock + Zone (2-0-3))
Initiative [Physical] + Unusual: Stop the Clock, Initiative [Mental] + Unusual: Stop the Clock (4-2-2)
Complication [Major]: Time is an illusion.
Complication [Minor]: V. 536-B21 is addictive as hell
Snag [Minor]: Need regular injections of the formula for the power to work.
Cost: 14 skill points (8 trappings, 5 connections, 5 extras, -4 drawback)
Description: Multiple applications of version 536-B21 of the Pangloss Formula have given you the ability to freeze time.  This allows you to pause a fight and rearrange your friends, ever so slightly, so that they don’t get hit by enemy attacks. 

This particular version of the formula is very addictive, giving the user a euphoric sense of timelessness.  Taking the drug long enough to gain this power confuses the users sense of time.  The ability to use this power slowly fades if you stop taking the drug.

: Re: BaseRaiders
: Claive January 05, 2016, 02:31:20 PM
How would you create a power that allowed you to create a ectoplasic duplicate of yourself when you slept?  It could interact with the physical world and  do anything you could do when you were awake.  If it died you would wake up with the memories of what happened to it.

I was thinking of just going Stress Capacity {health} with range, psychic and unusual... but that doesn't cover seeing at a distance, acting at a distance, etc.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: FlexyCarlos January 08, 2016, 11:03:34 AM
I was going to suggest the Minions trapping for that but after a quick look in the book there is a section about creating duplicates at the end of the Minions trapping p126.  Not sure about the memory part of the strange skill though.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Jace911 February 08, 2016, 02:37:52 AM
I've gotten the Base Raiders bite again lately and I've been trying to cook up another introductory scenario in the spirit of "Transit" and my previous "Black Friday" game, and I was curious what sort of intro Base Raider games people have come up with?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Ezechiel357 February 09, 2016, 06:58:00 AM
One issue I have when starting with mundane characters who gets their power during their first scenario, is that it is hard to shoehorn the power that the players want. So I propose you this intro:

PC are part of a secret paramilitary program, trying to create a group of super-agents. This group have access to various artefacts, drugs, alien technology. PCs are volunteers (for various reason: money, medical treatment for a dear one, etc.). Thus they have a certain control on what power they will get (just a little bit).
The training starts, with all kind of initial side effects due to lack of control and what not.
Then the secret base/camp is raided by an enemy, wiping most of the scientists, experts, boss on site, with the PCs managing to escape - at this stage, their powers are not fully Under control, thus cannot be very effective in a fight to repel the attackers.

Suddendly, the PCs are kind of free, but who attacked the base ? Maybe the company want to retrieve them - maybe they want to kill them to erase all proofs of the program.

This paramilitary program can be governmental, can be financed by the mafia or a corporation, by whichever secret society you need for your story. Very likely the PCs don't know the extent or the real motives behind this program.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Jace911 February 09, 2016, 01:52:07 PM
One issue I have when starting with mundane characters who gets their power during their first scenario, is that it is hard to shoehorn the power that the players want. So I propose you this intro:

PC are part of a secret paramilitary program, trying to create a group of super-agents. This group have access to various artefacts, drugs, alien technology. PCs are volunteers (for various reason: money, medical treatment for a dear one, etc.). Thus they have a certain control on what power they will get (just a little bit).
The training starts, with all kind of initial side effects due to lack of control and what not.
Then the secret base/camp is raided by an enemy, wiping most of the scientists, experts, boss on site, with the PCs managing to escape - at this stage, their powers are not fully Under control, thus cannot be very effective in a fight to repel the attackers.

Suddendly, the PCs are kind of free, but who attacked the base ? Maybe the company want to retrieve them - maybe they want to kill them to erase all proofs of the program.

This paramilitary program can be governmental, can be financed by the mafia or a corporation, by whichever secret society you need for your story. Very likely the PCs don't know the extent or the real motives behind this program.

If I ever run an ongoing game I would absolutely start with the players getting to choose their own powers, but part of the fun of one-shot intros is having the players "eenie meenie minie moe" through various vials of supersoldier drugs and magical artifacts, then dealing with the fallout of whatever they picked. I give them just enough information so they know generally what they're getting, but not so much that they know all the side effects.

That's more in line with the spirit of Base Raiders, IMO. :V
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe February 09, 2016, 05:39:17 PM
Thematically, if you start as a normal unpowered civilian, then the game is more about adapting to a terrible situation. Beggars can't be choosy, after all. Random powers are more consistent with that theme. It's about overcoming limitations to succeed, despite many obstacles. Also, if the player wants a particular power, then it can become a personal quest to figure out how to get that power.

Alternatively, if you have players select their powers, then the game is more about gonzo superheroic dungeon crawling, which most of the one shots are already about.

Each playstyle is equally valid, but I think random powers are more fun for low powered games.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Claive April 12, 2016, 02:48:12 PM
Alias: Bio-Lazer
Low powered hero
Name: Samantha Victory

You used to have to work diligently to keep your girlish figure, you starved yourself with diets, you spent thousands of wasted hours at the gym and you always still felt fat. 
One day while conducting research for your doctoral dissertation you found a reference to Super Lipids, a method Pangloss and other “super geneticists” used to store incredibly large amounts energy in biological mechanoids.  You became obsessed with onlocking the secrets of these Super Lipids, if you could unlock their secrets you could make it so that you wouldn’t need so many fat cells to keep your body going, you could eat all you wanted and not gain any weight!  It would be the perfect diet!  You could sell it and make millions!

You bought a disembodied bio mechanoid arm from the black market to use as a research sample and began experimenting.  You found that the super lipids just had to be injected into a regular cluster of fat cells and kept super saturated with nutrients and that they slowly replaced the fat cells and never gained additional mass.  After a month or two of testing you injected yourself with the Super Lipids.  Everything was going great for about a month (other than your increased appetite… but hey you weren’t going to gain any weight!) you had stopped paying attention to the tissue cultures and gone back to working on your dissertation when you noticed the smoke coming from your closet.  A short adventure with a fire extinguisher later you learned that the tissue samples had spontaneously combusted.  You quickly set aside your homework and started a life or death quest to figure out what was going on with your cells.  It turned out that the “Super Lipids” had to be “milked” for energy, if too much built up they burst into flames… the bio-mechanoids had bio lasers to burn off the excess so it was never a problem.  You couldn’t possibly burn off enough energy to survive.

Luckily the bio mechanoid arm still had a bio laser attached and it had been kept on ice.  You were able to blackmail a medical student to implant it.  Things are going pretty well…


Aspects
Super Soldier: Super Lipid Battery
Normal Human: Genetics PHD Student
Conviction: Science is Girl Power!
Aspect:  What could go wrong? (tempts fate?)
Aspect: Chronic over achiever.
Aspect: Could be a part time model… (but should really keep her day job).
Complication [Minor]: “THE HUNGER” only really goes away while I am eating.
Complication [Minor]: I can fire the laser or you know… spontaneously combust

Skills:
Great (+4): Science
Good (+3): Resolve
Fair (+2): Caloric Laser (S)
Average (+1): Academics, Athletics, Presence, Technology

Base Refresh  = 4

Unique and Strange Skills:
Caloric Laser
Power Tier: Superhuman (-2 Refresh)
Shoot + Range X2 + Spray + Unusual: Laser Cutting Beam
Treatment [Physical] + Unusual: Automatic Regeneration
Snag [minor]: Treatment [Physical] is self only
Complication [Minor]: “THE HUNGER” only really goes away while I am eating.
Complication [Minor]: I can fire the laser or you know… spontaneously combust
Cost: 7 skill points (4 trappings, 0 connections, 5 extras, -2 drawback)
Description: You have a laser surgically implanted in your palm that is fueled with your body fat.  Luckily you have Super Lipids that allow you to store billions of calories without gaining any weight!  Sadly the lipids need to be “milked” for energy every once in a while or you will spontaneously combust, and they require a constant stream of nutrients, so you feel like you are starving…. All the time! 
   You have also picked up a healing factor.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe April 12, 2016, 05:15:08 PM
I like it! Good character and very much in the spirit of what I was intending with Base Raiders.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Claive April 14, 2016, 11:48:53 AM
I am glad that you like it. :-D

After listening to your talk on the 8 kinds of fun, I am half tempted to try and make a character that specifically appeals to each of the different kind of fun... but you know... time....
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Claive June 20, 2016, 12:50:40 PM
Alias: The Monster
Name: Unknown
Medium powered villain

Your father was a powerful magician who didn’t want you growing up to become competition.   He couldn’t bring himself to kill you so he burned the magical energies out of you.  It was a vital part of you and this drove you irrevocably insane.  With Ragnarok your father vanished and you were left to rot in an asylum. 

A new orderly touched you and they weren’t right, being around them made you feel like you were being burned alive from the inside out.  Your latent magical genius fueled by your pain and the soul burn allowed you to find a way to make the pain stop.  The orderly burst into flames. 

You escaped in the chaos of the resulting fire.

Aspects
Super Soldier: The fire that burns magic clean.
Background: One of the crazies
Conviction: Why won't the pain stop?!
Conviction: Magic must be stamped out!
Aspect: Remember to stop and smell the roses even when they are burning.
Aspect: Brilliantly defies convention
Aspect: If I didn’t love you, you wouldn’t be a suitable sacrifice
Complication [Minor]: The underground has put a bounty on my head.

Skills:
Great (+4): Magic Resistance (S)
Good (+3): Empathy
Fair (+2): Burn Magic (A)
Average (+1): Bureaucracy, Science

Base Refresh ( 8)  Minus Power tier (6)Minus Gifts: = Adjusted Refresh
= 2

Unique and Strange Skills:
Burn Magic
Power Tier: Ascendant (-4 Refresh)
Strike + Unusual (incendiary) + Zone (1-0-3)
Snag [Minor]: Only works on magical energies or magic users
Complication [Minor]: The underground has put a bounty on my head.
Cost: 2 skill point (1 trappings, 0 connections, 3 extras, -2 drawback)
Description: You can transmute any magical energy around you into a self-destructive force.  Anything magical around you bursts into flames.  The stronger the magic the hotter it burns.  The underground has taken steps to stop you.

Magic Resistance
Power Tier: Superhuman (-2 Refresh)
Resist Damage, Notice + Unusual: (Sense Magical Auras) (3-4-1)
Esteem, Willpower, Menace (3-5-0)
Snag [Minor]: Only works to resist the effects of magical energies or to intimidate magical entities
Snag {Minor]: You don’t get to pick and choose what spells or kinds of magic you resist.
Conviction: Magic must be stamped out!
Cost: 12 skill points (6 trappings, 9 connections, 1 extras, -4 drawback)
Description: You are anathema to magic and magical energies.  You MUST attempt resist any kind of magic that would effect you with this power.  Magic around you causes you pain.  You can feel where it is and the constant pain that it causes you has made you hate it with every fiber of your being.

Gifts
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Teapot June 25, 2016, 11:40:28 AM
I've gotten the Base Raiders bite again lately and I've been trying to cook up another introductory scenario in the spirit of "Transit" and my previous "Black Friday" game, and I was curious what sort of intro Base Raider games people have come up with?

I hate to criticize but, I've never liked Transit, because it's about people blundering into powers and not about people seeking them out. I know there's a lot of ways to play Base Raiders but to me it's always about people who chose to get powers.

That aside, here's the blurb for the opening game I ran at DunDraCon:

Origin Story:
It's been a year since the super heroes and super villains disappeared. But they left behind a lot of cool loot, and it's worth all the money - If you're desperate, driven, crazy or cocky enough. Which is how one hot morning five strangers get into a van down by the river as normal humans and leave as base raiders - super powered mercenaries. But powers aren’t free, to pay off their upgrade they'll need to do the hard part of clearing and looting the base of  the super villain Destructina.

I used pre-gens, and the set-up was some dude was offering powers (the ones he got really cheap) to chumps, the chumps clear the base and he takes the loot. The base is pretty simple with the option to betray the dude hiring them.

I used pre-gen powers as well, but those could be re-written to be more inline with what a player wants. PM me and I can email you the write up if you want a look.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe June 25, 2016, 05:52:44 PM
For the campaign I'm running, I had the initial framing device set up like this:

All the PCs were normal humans with one common link between all of them. They were then presented with a crisis that would personally affect them all. A NPC told them where they could go to get one specific superpower that would resolve the crisis. However that location had other super power sources. The PCs decided to take them all.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: D6xD6 - Chris June 25, 2016, 06:34:27 PM
I'm thinking of using Transit to demo the game, but using only gear items and boost patches.  This way, the players can play a little bit with powers using the patches and gear to get a sense of what is possible in the game.  I also think this would work to begin a campaign, as the temporary powers wear off, but the players know there are better, permanent powers to be had (or sold!).  Thoughts?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: jfan999 July 05, 2016, 03:29:21 PM
I'm trying to build some powers for my base raiders game and am having trouble finding the right trappings for a couple of them.

The first one is a power that covers the users body with electricity so if they are attacked the attacker gets shocked.

The second one is a flash-bang that blinds people, maybe represented by giving them the aspect blinded.

Any help would be appreciated.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Claive July 07, 2016, 12:17:43 PM
The electrical power could be

Brawl + Unusual: Reactive + Unusual: Electrifying

The flash bang could be

Stealth + Range + Zone +Unusual: Blinding

I once made a smoke bomb power that was

Stealth + Unusual: Opaque Smoke + Zone
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe July 07, 2016, 06:14:48 PM
Electricity power

Strike + Unusual (electric stun) + Unusual (no action to use if struck by melee attack)

Snag [minor]: Cannot initiate attacks

or

Snag [minor]: No damage - success on attack rolls inflict aspect maneuver (stunned) but no stress

Flashbang

Shoot + Zone or Spray + Unusual (blinds enemies)

Snag [minor]: No damage - success on attack rolls inflict aspect maneuver (blinded) but no stress


 
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Claive August 12, 2016, 12:24:09 PM
Has anyone given any thought to using the base raiders setting as an economic horror game?

: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe August 12, 2016, 02:33:25 PM
Fate in general empowers characters too much to be effective at horror. You could do Red Markets, but it would be an economic action game, not horror.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: RadioactiveBeer August 12, 2016, 04:18:37 PM
The setting would.. honestly, I think it would work for one-shots of a horror bent (especially Cube style "murder rooms" for your base) but the empowerment fantasy inherent in superheroics clashes pretty hard with the DISempowerment fantasy of most horror. Like, being a normie in a supers setting would be horrifying but being a super in a supers setting is about "look at how cool my powers are". So, your first Base Raid would be horrific (oh god the guns are shooting at us oh good weird monsters in the specimen jars oh no they woke up because the stasis field lost power) but once you get the super-serum and inject yourself with it the horror kiiiinda grinds to a halt.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Jace911 August 12, 2016, 09:43:30 PM
I think you could do Base Raiders as horror if you gave them the empowerment theme at the beginning and then yanked the rug out from under them later on when they realize their awesome powers can't solve every problem, or can't solve some specific very deadly/frightening problem.

Kind of like what Alien Isolation did; the game gives you a gun and it's fairly effective against most threats, but if you ever try to use it on the xenomorph it does jack shit. And then you die. The game uses it as a sort of placebo or security blanket, and then tears it away from you.

Alternatively their powers could BE the source of the horror; either in the "oh god I'm hideous now" sense or if they later realize that everyone they mind controlled will eventually suffer early-onset Alzheimer's and die within months.

Basically it boils down to:

1. Give them power
2. Let them appreciate that power
3. Take away the power, or present them with something their power is useless against
: Base Raiders Q&A
: constructacon December 08, 2016, 12:33:46 AM
Ok i have skimmed the forums and can no longer find the thread that used to talk about Base Raiders, and since i am preparing a new campaign and possible blog, and have Questions. but since i am a very flow of thought person i will probably be back posting questions as they (re)occur to me.

Q: where would i find rules on the loot value of powers? i have the Vintage Villainy guide and know how to figure them out there but i am unable to find anything of the sort in the core rule book.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe December 08, 2016, 03:20:53 AM
I just merged your post with the existing base raiders thread. Check it out! There's a lot of cool stuff in it.

As for your question, I left out loot value for power sources in the main book. Vintage Villainy has the formula.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Claive December 09, 2016, 04:53:05 PM
Ross, you have teased a Base Raider's campaign for ages... would you be willing to give us any idea how long it will be until the first episode is unveiled?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe December 11, 2016, 02:03:56 AM
Ross, you have teased a Base Raider's campaign for ages... would you be willing to give us any idea how long it will be until the first episode is unveiled?

Probably February - once the HSD 4 part game is done, I'll put in Base Raiders.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: DragonKngt December 11, 2016, 06:16:36 AM
Question for anyone who run a game Base Raiders in Mutants and Masterminds 3e and was wonder how they handled Power level when acquiring new powers that pushing them past PL?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Claive December 12, 2016, 11:14:33 AM
Ross, you have teased a Base Raider's campaign for ages... would you be willing to give us any idea how long it will be until the first episode is unveiled?

Probably February - once the HSD 4 part game is done, I'll put in Base Raiders.

Thanks for the heads up!
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe December 12, 2016, 08:25:39 PM
Question for anyone who run a game Base Raiders in Mutants and Masterminds 3e and was wonder how they handled Power level when acquiring new powers that pushing them past PL?

Did you look at my conversion guide? The goal is to not allow a PC to become super overpowered. Give them disadvantages to counter-balance or have them remove other powers to lower the point cost.
: Help me understand Base Raiders
: Antipaladin December 13, 2016, 10:36:41 PM
RPPR people, I need your help!

I'm building my first ever Base Raiders character for a Patreon game tomorrow evening, and I could use some guidance from the hivemind.

Skill Example (Strange):
Cybernetic Arms, 3 Skill Points
Power Tier: Superhuman
Dexterity, Parry, Strike
Focus [Major]: Arms You Can Leave at the Door

So this costs 3 skill points to put on a character, 2 refresh for the tier, and focus [major] means that "Arms You Can Leave at the Door" becomes one of my free aspects?

If I want this at Good rating (+3), does that cost 6 skill points total, or 9?

What does refresh (what you have left over after buying tiers) actually do? I can't find it in the book.

If I wanted my eyes to glow (really shed a good amount of light), how would I represent that mechanically?

Thanks in advance for your help!
: Re: Help me understand Base Raiders
: Claive December 14, 2016, 01:03:02 PM
Getting it at +3 would cost you a total of six points (3 for the skill and 3 to get it to +3)
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Teapot January 01, 2017, 02:03:59 AM
I've been working on another team, haven't finished up the stats part but I got the bios out. Nikau is more or less a vanilla human with some super drugs directly out of the book. Grunch is equiptment based because I want to see if that works. Buck Steel is more aspect focused with some skills at the exceptional level since he was a fighter thief.

The Exiles
Nikau Henare “Delta Agent”
Grunch “Greta Jones”
Starshine Silverleaf “Buck Steel”

Nikau Henare - Delta Agent

Nikau came to the US as an awkward teenager and spent his formative years mostly alone, it wasn't until he joined the army that things started to click. He did two tours in Afghanistan and found a natural home in signal intelligence which took him right into the CIA. For a couple of years he was happy even if the promotions were few. This was ruined when he got pulled further into the underbelly of federal law enforcement. It was for good reason, he saw things people weren’t supposed to see. He was dragged along on a multi-agency task force that turned out to be off the books and reservation, by the end he had helped to burn down a community theater, shoot at the survivors  and lied to his superiors about being in Cincinnati. The Group was terrifying, defending humanity from things beyond science and understanding through terrificly illegal methods. But it also got him more promotions than most non-native born people with ethnic names. He survived The Group's reintegration into the official side of law enforcement, rising slightly and earning a seat further away from field ops and back with intercepting and analyzing data.

Then he was pulled into a quick raid, nothing big, one crazy guy who surrendered quickly, but there was the box. When a Marshal opened it, the thing? Stuff? Energy? Inside came out and began to expand, the first agent it touched folded in on herself, the second turned 2-D and vanished, Nikau expected the worst when it caught him mid-flight.

Instead he woke up in Seattle. It didn't take him long to find he had somehow gone from his world to one far more strange. Instead of alien horrors he saw comic book. But he was in America and even this new world worked by most of the rules. He went to ground and was found by The Underground shortly after.

Now he knows what happened, the being in the box was a gateway to everywhere and by touching it he had been pulled to another Earth. But it's okay, Being a baseline human with clandestine experience  made him valuable to The Underground. Now there's two ways he might jump. The Group after all would really like some of these super powers and The Underground ought to be able to send him home if he does enough for them. But he can also live in a universe not classified as “Nihilistic.” Either way he's got time to figure it out while using his talents and some new drugs to find bases.
“Greta Jones” Grunch

Before Grunch's mother was born the Earth died in rage and fire. The survivors had already banded together under warlords, cult leaders, and madmen. She grew up hard, learning to take what she needed and fight for what she wanted.

With her shotgun “Faceater” and her grenade launcher “Grandma” she moved hard and direct across the ruined land. Chasing rumors of utopia burning her way through the slave trap of Cascadia Falls and slaughtering the stronghold of the Leopard Legion.

Violent years saw her move further into the frozen North following tales of a window to a green world. In the ruins of peaceful lives she found the window and the cult that worshiped it. Where the cultists  worshiped and sacrificed, she demanded. Taking hold and forcing herself into the unstable breach.

Her arrival closing the breach, she was trapped in the world of plenty. Then the culture shock set in. A week after arrival she found herself battling a biker gang and walking away from the smoldering ruins of their meth lab. Before she had a chance to cause more mayhem The Underground found her and brought her in.

Her loyalty came cheap, they set her up with an apartment and fake ID enough to pick up a part time job as a bouncer at a dance club. For her side, the studio apartment she lives in now holds more luxury than the thousands of miles she clawed through on her dying world. Still needing excitement and money, she joined a base raiding team. Here she pays The Underground back by passing useful information up to them and keeping an eye on other refugees.
“Buck Steel” Starshine Silverleaf

The twelfth son of Lord Silverleaf, protector of the Valley of Greenwood and immortal king of the North-Western elves, young Starshine found himself utterly irrelevant by his 97th birthday. As was the style, he joined a band of would-be heroes and left his valley to pursue fame and riches. He did well for himself, surviving three tombs, one dungeon and even a keep. Soon his elder brother, Leafshade, had joined his party and they ranged North.

In the lair of the Seal Queen he found himself trapped surrounded by the bones of fallen adventurers with a flame walrus closing in. His frantic searching found nothing but his brother's spells showed them a ring with magical powers. When Starshine grabbed it he awoke a genie. Halfway through the offer of a wish Starshine asked to be taken “anywhere but here,” and so he was.

Earth isn't so bad. The pair managed to hide in the city and pass among the humans. Leafshade's magic quickly made contact with The Underground and the pair joined a community at one of the rural retreats.

While Leafshade wanted to return home, Starshine choose instead to focus on adapting to the US. Falling in love with the wandering heroes of the re-runs he found a new adventure to take up. Changing his name to something more masculine, swapping his enchanted bow for a long gun, his magic slippers for cowboy boots and a purse full of gold for a Jeep. Now he roams the country raiding bases and enjoying this new world.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe January 03, 2017, 02:01:23 AM
That's an awesome concept for a base raiding team. I think the DG agent would realize that the Group would just shoot him in the face if he came back though.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: constructacon March 03, 2017, 03:40:37 AM
ok after listening to the first two episodes of the base raiders campaign i had a couple of ideas for new flaws that i wanted to run past you guys.

Stressing (Minor): you have an additional stress track, any time you use your powers you take stress. unlike normal stress tracks you only heal this stress when you take an appropriate action. ok i know this needs some work to fully define and flesh out, especially what skills add in stress capacity. but as i listened to Aaron's power i thought about this as an alternative to using charges, as it would only refresh stress or heal consequences if he ate enough nutrients.

Conditional (Minor): to use this power you must have a specific temporary aspect on yourself as defined at the time of character creation. ok this one is simple no aspect no power, i thought about this flaw in relation to an absorber whose other powers are only usable when they have enough juice.

: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe March 04, 2017, 06:13:11 PM
Stressing is basically in the game - look at the charges flaw.

Conditional is just a snag flaw.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe March 08, 2017, 01:50:14 AM
HEY GUYS I THOUGHT OF A THING AND WANT HELP FIGURING IT OUT

So, in a Gate 9 session, the PCs visited an alternate universe/afterlife. One layer was for cities and people that never technically existed. I called them the Never-weres. Examples:

*People who existed only in false memories of a brainwashed person, but felt real to that person.
*Survivors of doomed timelines - i.e. survivors of the grandfather paradox, more or less.
*Descendants of people trapped in a time-dilated universe, several generations later. The time-dilated universe only exists between a fraction of a second and negated itself in order to save the outside universe.

What other categories of characters can you think of along these lines?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: constructacon March 09, 2017, 12:11:48 AM
i'm not sure if this is what your aming for but take a good look at children. children have incredible powers of belief. you could easily add in imaginary friends like those from MAOCT, or you could take fictional childrens programing. heck for that matter you could have a whole area for old and forgotten tv characters

the only other thing i thought of off the top of my head is the delusions from the mentaly unstable.

the power of belief is a strong thing...mabye it can create worlds???
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Claive March 09, 2017, 11:07:29 AM
*The souls of particularly clever damned lawyers who tried to get out of hell by claiming that they technically never existed.
*The remnants of  the cast off personas that con men or sociopaths use when they pretend to be someone else.
*Practitioners or victims of the ancient forbidden magic of retconjuration (via Erfworld fanfiction).
*Powers that change probability work by killing all the other strands of fate, each roll of the die sends the other realities to the Never-Was.
*This reminds me of the plot of Stephen King's The Langoliers
*I imagine that this would be a place that the Creator (of whatever kind) used to put all of their ideas that weren't good enough to be put into practice.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Twisting H March 09, 2017, 12:33:31 PM
Pull a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and make it a world where fictionalized characters from novels are alive. 

This is the perfect opportunity for the American Pharaoh to put Sherlock Holmes in a rear naked choke.  Half of the American Pharaoh is angry her country's artifacts were stolen, the other half just wants to punch a poncy brit.

Throw in Batman, Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple and Auguste Dupin for a battle royale of American vs British detectives.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe March 09, 2017, 10:33:48 PM
After some thought, I have narrowed down the list of never-weres to:

People from doomed timelines (time travel alterations)
People wished out of existence via magic/cosmic power
Imaginary friends/false memory creations.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Teapot March 17, 2017, 03:01:33 AM
Here are my mechanics and intro notes on the Sabers. I have a few comments in brackets I had tossed in to keep things straight in my head. They also serve to the semi "campaign" I'm working on surrounding the Sabers or at least their sweet loots. I'd like to talk to people/check format/structure ideas with people on that if anyone's interested.

So yeah, this is more mechanics and meta than history.

General notes: The talismans turn the wearer into an Elemental Saber, cherry blossoms flutter about and the wearer is dressed like a Japanese schoolgirl, their hair grows out and generally changes into some unnatural color. The weapon talismans can transform separately but it's rare. The transformation generally calls the weapon to hand. Less known is the transformation effects the wearer's mind, the Willpower trapping (at Superhuman) keeps them on task but the talismans were not really designed to keep people stable and healthy beyond the hunt and the kill.

These may be in the hands of the black market, collectors, and obsessive fans, it's likely that the Japanese government has a couple as well. Note that the weapon talismans are bonded to the saber talismans.

Bonding with one isn't too hard, it just needs to touch your blood and it's attuned to you. Most of the talismans had a theme, sometimes it might make some kind of sense with the element and sometimes not. The talisman of saber Iron might be focused on physical strength and come with an ax but it could just as well sprout wings (of iron) and a spear.

Activating the talismans is easy, you just have to think about wanting it and it'll go off. As the sabers figured out, you don't have to shout anything nor pose – most people don't know that though.

On building a talisman:
-They start at the Superhuman level, while a base raider could upgrade them, only the radioactive ones might start higher.
-They tend to be under 20 points and focused on a few skills or a specific ability. In general a new Saber appeared to fill a gap in the team and was created with a singular focus in mind.
-They come with the flaw “Traumatic (-1)” which means that if the Saber had to resist composure stress while transformed when they revert they must pass an appropriate stress test without the willpower trapping from the talisman. [Cosplay note: Yuriko's stats don't have this because I took too long figuring out how to model it. She might have just gotten over a lot of it or it should be added to her, GM choice.]
-Each focus has the drawbacks of focus, transformation and conviction. The transformation drawback changes the user's outlook, generally for the worse. Most of these match the roles they were built to fill so things like “Selfless Defender” or “Cruel Efficiency.”
-While the talismans transform the users into magical girls in Japanese schoolgirl outfits, this could be changed through all sorts of ritual, the themes of the element will still stand out however the user looks.
-So far none of the man-made elements have been seen [The Japanese government has kind of figured out how to do these, they show up in that campaign I'm writing.]
-Any talisman connected to a radioactive element will be more powerful and dangerous. These ones come with convictions and transformations that are always recklessly destructive.
-The information trapping does cover information about the Sabers, their rules, duties, enemies and bases. However this information is generally reactive when it's needed and hard to call up in the wild.
-The talismans could also come with the drawback aspect “Targeted by the Darkness” which would draw fledgling and greater spirits are drawn to hunt and be hunted by them.
-All appear to be handcrafted and of high quality, none have marks on them.
-The Sabers were getting older, and thus the newer ones were recruited from older children.
Bangles of the Bismuth Archer

The bracelet is simple leather with small metal studs, it has many places for charms to be hooked on around the outside edge. One such charm is a small Daikyu (Japanese longbow). This was the talisman of Saber Bismuth, a strategist and short time member of the Elemental Sabers.

Supporting Saber
16 skill points, superhuman -2 refresh
Security (1) x1 Notice (1) Notice +unusual: see magic (2), Languages (1), Examine (1) x1 Information+Unusual (1) x1 Research+unusual (Learn about enemies) (2), Willpower (1) x1 Inspire (1) x1 Conversation+Unusual (teammates can always hear her) (1) x2  Insight (1) (20)
Transformation (Minor -1) replace one aspect with “Determined Backup”
Conviction (Minor -1) “I must help them first.”
Traumatic -1
Focus (Minor-1)
Description: When activated the bangle changes the wearer into a magical girl in a rainbow sailor suit. Able to maintain awareness, root out evil sorcery and help with immediate answers. Saber Bismuth isn't a frontline fighter and knows instinctively how to best support those who are.

Bismuth Bow of Destiny
3 skill points, superhuman -2 refresh
Shoot+unusual+range(2), (5)
Focus (Minor-1)
Delay (Minor-1) transformation
Description: The Bow of Destiny is a traditional Japanese longbow made from Bismuth crystals that fires glowing rainbow arrows of crystal shards.

[Saber Bismuth, she was Antimony's friend, as much as anyone could be. Then she was ripped apart by a possessed zebra. That event caused Antimony to flee the team.]


Quicksilver Earrings
These earrings are long silvery and blade shaped. They allow the wearer to assume the mantle of Saber Mercury, violent blur of justice and love.

Striker Saber
14 skill points, superhuman -2 refresh
Initiative [physical] (2), Physical Force (1) x1 leap (1) x1 Move+unusual+range 1 (3) Dodge+unusual [land in a different zone] (3) x2 stealth (1), Willpower (1) x2 Menace (1), Information (20)
Focus (Minor-1)
Transformation (Minor-1) Replaces one aspect with “Magical Killer”
Conviction (Major-2): I'm unstoppable, you're meat
Traumatic-1
Description: Saber Mercury is fast, you don't see her move until she's behind someone and attacking. She's afraid of nothing and regrets even less.

Mercy Blades
2 skill points, superhuman -2 refresh
Strike+unusual+spray+range (4)
Focus (1)
Delay (1) transformation
Description: When the wearer turns into Saber Mercury the earrings run down their neck and shoulders, and become a pair of two foot blades attached to the forearms. Saber Mercury is fast enough that when striking with the blades the user can move one zone to strike a target.

[She was the new leader and highly unstable. When Yuriko fled, she's pretty sure that if she hadn't left the country Mercury would have killed her. Seeing the talisman may be enough to trigger Yuriko's PTSD.]
Availability

Not counting the seven Sabers off with Ragnarok or Antimony, there are at least 70 talismans not in use. In theory the Sabers kept the talismans of the fallen at their headquarters but in practice most didn't get reclaimed and sentimentality was never high within their ranks.

While each talisman is a unique power source, they are also cursed in both mind altering magic and being just a bit uncool.

Finding one in a base is common but odd outside of Japan. Finding them in the hands of dealers is more likely. Finding them in public places is also possible, many of the talismans go unactivated and unnoticed among other handcrafts.

Ways In

If Antimony came across any, she might begin to look for candidates to take up her crusade. This scenario has her waffling between overprotective den mother and unhinged drill sergeant, sending her new recruits off to test against bases and spirits alike. Getting help from her or Cosplay would be possible but she'll expect them to answer to her. In her identity as Yuriko she'd seek out people who seem more balanced and likely to survive the emotional dangers of being a Saber and Base Raider, as Antimony she'll look for people with an aptitude for power and war as well as connections into The Underground to try and tie her crusade into the greater superhuman community.

Fans looking for talismans should be able to find them. Between searching auction sites on the dark web and lucky finds in the wild it would be possible for a fan or even small group of them to get their hands on enough to start their own chapter of the Sabers. In this case Antimony would show up likely more cautiously but similarly want to test them.

Also tracking Dweller activity might get a patient raider close to a talisman, while the Dwellers seem to be strongest on the west coast and slowly spreading East there may be unusual activity in places that don't confirm to the pattern of their spreading. These may be spirits drawn to latent or active talismans.

And there is the Molecat, if it was a single entity it may have been slurped up by the Ragnarok object. If it was the representation of a force it may have been weakened but remain on Earth. If it's on Earth, it may be hiding from Antimony or seeking to use her.

Or it may be a “new” identity and soon rise to empower new heroes. Finding it could be done in this case through investigation or mystical means. Then it's just a matter of talking it into empowering people, likely through making deals and impressing it with idealism and ability.

Edit: And there could totally be some in the Kaiju Graveyard, more than one Saber likely wound up as a Kaiju snack.

Second add: Not every Saber died fighting evil, a few retired, some even didn't get hunted down by Saber Mercury. Finding these people or their next of kin might let raiders talk or scrounge their way into a few talismans.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe March 18, 2017, 02:45:21 AM
I dig it - I hadn't thought of Saber tools/weapons being left in kaiju stomachs so I will try to work that in Gate 9.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Claive March 20, 2017, 01:53:06 PM
Alias: The Quantum Kid #7
Name: Nat Adams

Aspects
Super Genius: Nootropics are the new children’s vitamins
Background: Middle school A- student
Conviction: Continue my education.
Aspect: I have read ALL of the classics
Aspect: Wrote a New York Times best seller in a few hours
Aspect: I planned for something like this…
Complication [Major]: Boredom a mortal mind cannot comprehend
Complication [Major]: Just a touch of sociopathy

Skills: (20/20)
Great (+4): 
Good (+3):
Fair (+2):
Average (+1): Deceit, Malleable Mind (E)

Unique and Strange Skills:
Malleable Mind
Power Tier: Extraordinary (-1 refresh)
Notice, Security (2-1-0)
Information, Examine, Research (3-2-0)
Languages (1-0-0)
Insight, Conversation, Networking, Wealth, Willpower (5-5-0)
Transport (1-0-0)
Initiative [Mental] (2-0-0)
Complication [Major]: Just a touch of sociopathy
Complication [Major]: Boredom a mortal mind cannot comprehend
Cost: 18 skill points (14 trappings, 8 connections, 0 extras, -4  drawback)
Description: Your mind has been subjected to several rounds of experimental and illegal Nootropic drugs.  You learn things very quickly and are adept at finding information you need but tend not to retain too much of what you learn.  You can learn a language in a few minutes.   It takes you about 30 minutes and an internet connection to make a few grand on the stock market. 
   You are very perceptive and good at puzzles (including “solving” locks and avoiding cameras).
Sadly your increased intelligence and social skills have left a void between you and the rest of humanity.  You are very lonely and bored and have a hard time not looking at other human beings as lesser beings.


The five questions
1. Life Before Ragnarok: Who were you before all the heroes and villains disappeared?

-I was a fairly normal yet bright 12 year old.

2. Origin Story: How did you gain superpowers? Most base raiders choose to gain powers, although some were born with them. Very few raiders get their powers accidentally these days. Did you buy yours off the black market or did you find them on your own?

My father had a PHD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry but in this economy he was lucky to have a job as a pharmacist in the Axiom corporation.  He discovered after ragnarok that the executives had ordered a series of experimental (and expensive) nootropic medications for their children.  He managed to covertly steal enough of the drugs to give this same treatment to his child.

3. Joining the Movement: Raiding bases is incredibly dangerous and highly illegal. Why do you put your life on the line? What drives you to risk everything and venture into abandoned trap-laden hideouts built by inhumanly powerful beings?

Boredom and access to works of art and literature published by minds on par with or superior to his own.  He seeks access to a meaningful education.

4. Darkest Moment: What is your worst failure? Did it cost lives? Who did you let down? What are the consequences of that moment?

When he realized that his parents’ motivations and logic seemed childish and what that meant for their relationship.

5. Crossover Adventure : Who did you work with in your greatest adventure so far? What happened in the adventure? You should pick another player character as your associate and incorporate them into the adventure.

His best friend Mark is a middle aged man who was subjected to the Infernal School Bus (like the Magic School Bus teaching children the dark arts).
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe March 21, 2017, 12:43:21 AM
I like that Quantum Kid is fairly down to earth as Base Raiders PCs goes - just a kid hooked up with some super drugs. Good idea for a power too.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: fearjunkie March 21, 2017, 06:25:42 PM
Came up with an NPC concept I enjoyed too much to not share.

Alias: Cryptomancer (seldom used since the creation of OpenSorcery)
(Medium Power character)
Name: John Zamora

Before Ragnarok, John was a hacker for a cause. The cause tended to change from week to week, but he wanted to fight against corruption and speak truth to power- even if that meant leaking a few secrets to the press. However, it was after Ragnarok that he dipped his toes into the waters of magic. During a sleepless night, he was browsing torrent sites when he came across an intriguing PDF scan of an ancient grimoire. On a whim, he downloaded the file and read it, finding himself fascinated by the text. He began binge-reading all he could find on the subject of magic, scouring countless deep web sites for what base raider groups called 'the real deal'. However, it was the early days of base raiding, and there wasn't much to read. Wanting more, he decided to take up base raiding on his own. Though he barely got out alive of his first job, he managed to get a couple tomes out of a sorceror's sanctum. But instead of just keeping the books for himself, he made scans of them and uploaded them so others could read it. This generated a lot of good will towards John, which gave him an idea. He called up a few of his hacker colleagues, got a server up and running, and established OpenSorcery. Originally intended to just be a database of digitized spellbooks and grimoires, it expanded to include a forum for self-taught sorcerors and professional practitioners to discuss working with magic, and even a resources site for raiders seeking help with magically-inclined bases.

It was then that John decided to stop base raiding and manage OpenSorcery full time. He put out what's now referred to as the 'OpenSorcery Manifesto': a short text document outlining OpenSorcery's mission: to teach everyone willing and able how to utilize magic and become empowered through the mystical arts. As John put it, with the superheroes gone, it was up to the civilians to protect the world from danger, and the best way to do that was to promote what he called 'arcane literacy'. The Manifesto's release was quickly noticed by the Underground and became quite a divisive subject: some thought John was an altruist, some thought he was just doing it for attention, and some thought he was just being foolish. However, nobody could deny that OpenSorcery had become something big, and they invited John to join them. Finding himself thrust into the spotlight and unsure, John asked the members of OpenSorcery if they were willing to work with the Underground. Though some hesitated, citing concerns about their privacy and possible censorship of OpenSorcery content, most viewed collaboration as the best way to fulfill the plan laid out in the Manifesto. So, John accepted the invitation and relocated to The Underground, making connections with some of the movers and shakers there. Now, he contracts out to other base raiders, requesting the retrieval of spellbooks and other bits of magical knowledge so he may archive it for everyone else to see.

Aspects
Magic User: eBook of Thoth
Background: Hacktivist
Conviction: Promote Arcane Literacy
Obsession: Arcane Knowledge Wants To Be Free
Aspect: Founder of OpenSorcery
Conviction: There's So Much Work To Be Done
Aspect: Always Question Authority
Complication: Mystics Hate Him! Technocrats Hate Him Too!

Skills
Great (+4): Computers
Good (+3): Computer Integrated Ritual Array (S),
Fair (+2): Wizrd App (E), Resolve,
Average: Empathy, Investigation

Unique and Strange Skills[/b]

Computer Integrated Ritual Array
Power Tier: Superhuman (-2 refresh)
Craft, Dismantle, Examine, Information, Repair, Research
Ritual
Major Delay
Room-Sized (As per Vintage Villainy)
Cost: 2 Skill points (6 trappings, -2 for Ritual, -2 for Major Delay, -3 for Room Sized)

A sprawling, tangled mess of occult paraphernalia and modified computers fills the workroom. The Computer Integrated Ritual Array (or CIRA for short) is proof of John's theory that arcane principles and computer programming have tangible parallels. Though it's essentially permanently located in John's basement (and taking up almost the entirety of said basement), it proves invaluable in John's work and functions like any ritual magic set up.

Wizrd App
Power Tier: Extraordinary (-1 Refresh)
Variable X 3
Spell
Minor Focus: Modified smartphone
Cost: 9 Skill points (Variable X3, -2 for Spell, -1 for Minor Focus)

Having been too slow on the draw with a spell more than a few times, John developed a program he could load into a phone that uses non-Euclidean geometric calculations and various ancient mathematical systems to do the brunt of the work for him, allowing him to cast spells with a single tap.

OpenSorcery Network
Power Tier: Extraordinary (-1 Refresh)
Esteem, Influence, Networking
Minor Complication: Mystics Hate Him! Technocrats Hate Him Too!
Conviction: There's So Much Work To Be Done
Cost: 1 Skill point (3 trappings, -1 for Minor Complication, -2 for Conviction)

As founder of OpenSorcery, John has amassed influenced within the Underground, perhaps even being on speaking terms with Iconoclast and Beatrice. As a result, he's able of calling favors in from OpenSorcery members, who are more than happy to help. However, not everyone approves of John's philosophy towards how the arcane arts are to be used. Veteran Mystics in particular strongly dislike John's work. They find his mixing of technology and magic obscene, and view his mission of giving the secrets of magic to the masses as a threat to their plans. The Technocrats despise John even more, as they find his willingness to 'corrupt' technology with something as chaotic as magic as the work of a dangerous fool.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Teapot March 24, 2017, 02:29:48 AM
The five questions
5. Crossover Adventure : Who did you work with in your greatest adventure so far? What happened in the adventure? You should pick another player character as your associate and incorporate them into the adventure.

His best friend Mark is a middle aged man who was subjected to the Infernal School Bus (like the Magic School Bus teaching children the dark arts).

I love his answers to the questions and his motivations.

But all of that got overshadowed by the Infernal School Bus. Is that in this thread somewhere? I want to steal and use it. It's just so versatile of an idea.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe March 24, 2017, 02:48:36 AM
Keep in mind the Underground is a non-human organization and humans are usually viewed with suspicion, until they prove themselves. There are several factions that want to kill or enslave humanity and virtually every magical creature is afraid of being enslaved by human wizards or destroyed so their body parts can be used as magical power sources. That being said, obviously heroic magical Underground members would want to recruit heroic human magic users, but Crpytomancer could easily gain a lot of enemies in the Underground.

Also, the feds will try to shut OpenSorcery down ASAP, so it will have to be a darknet site.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Claive March 24, 2017, 11:01:58 AM
The five questions
5. Crossover Adventure : Who did you work with in your greatest adventure so far? What happened in the adventure? You should pick another player character as your associate and incorporate them into the adventure.

His best friend Mark is a middle aged man who was subjected to the Infernal School Bus (like the Magic School Bus teaching children the dark arts).

I love his answers to the questions and his motivations.

But all of that got overshadowed by the Infernal School Bus. Is that in this thread somewhere? I want to steal and use it. It's just so versatile of an idea.

Nope, it is an idea fresh from my brain.  I haven't fleshed it out any further than you see here.  Feel free to adapt it to your needs.

I love the idea of the kid going "oh not another field trip" getting stuck next to a lake of fire having to recite an incantation to stay alive and finally getting back to earth ten or twenty years later to find that Ragnarok has taken place.

Or alternately mix it with the old idea that the devil teaches sorcerers in a class where the slowest student of every class looses their soul, so a child is sacrificed on every "field trip".

For some reason I like my base raiders grounded, gritty and dark :-)

https://books.google.com/books?id=n2-sBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA68&lpg=PA68&dq=last+student+devil+soul&source=bl&ots=Ura7oF3i3n&sig=JxQdklqalWwOt_HwplNFkuwntno&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwizpP2ot-_SAhVNHGMKHdU6DREQ6AEIUjAN#v=onepage&q=last%20student%20devil%20soul&f=false
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Claive April 05, 2017, 02:38:03 PM
Does this power do what Aaron seems to want his power to do in the Gate 9 game?

Photonic Defender
Power Tier: Extraordinary (-1 refresh)
Physical Force + Range + Area + Unusual: Controlled Effect + Unusual: walls of telekinetic force
Parry + Range + Area +Unusual: Controlled Effect + Unusual: walls of telekinetic force
Strike + Range
Depleted (Major)

Cost: 17 skill points (4+4+11-2)
Description: You have been implanted with a nanotech swarm force field projector.  It allows you to create telekinetic walls of force.  You can use these walls of force to move a zone worth of objects one range away (while not effecting objects you don't want to effect).  You can also use these walls to protect whole groups against attacks one range away (only protecting your friends if you so choose).  You can also blast things with energy one range away.

(Sorry if this is sloppy, I am doing this from memory)
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe April 09, 2017, 02:45:12 AM
Yeah, but that's not what his actual powers are. When we went over power creation, I asked him what he wanted and he said blasting and shielding so I gave him that.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: fearjunkie April 23, 2017, 05:02:57 PM
How would you go about creating a time-stopping power like Dio Brando's The World or the Bend Time ability from Dishonored?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe April 23, 2017, 09:44:32 PM
I would probably use Variable [Scene] with Unusual [Temporal Manipulation] - for example if the variable is used for an attack, then it can only be defended by resist damage, not dodge or parry, since that requires the character to move. If the character chooses dodge then only attacks with Zone or have some kind of property that can't be countered by stopping time would work. Otherwise the character automatically dodges the attack.

Snag [minor]: only powers that can be replicated by temporal manipulation can be chosen.

This would require a good deal of GMing to figure out which powers would work against it and which ones wouldn't.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: fearjunkie April 24, 2017, 06:56:19 PM
http://pdsh.wikia.com/wiki/Public_Domain_Super_Heroes (http://pdsh.wikia.com/wiki/Public_Domain_Super_Heroes)

This could be handy if you're blanking on concepts for superhero bases. It'd be extra handy if you have the Vintage Villainy supplement.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Jace911 April 28, 2017, 01:39:49 AM
When you're raiding a base for evidence proving the mayor is corrupt and you tell everyone not to take super drugs or you'll go to prison but then your idiot teammate locks himself in an irradiated reactor chamber and you have a super soldier serum that can bust the door down but then the rest of your teammates show up and ask what happened to the drugs that you said not to take

(https://img.memesuper.com/567c926a0d88b78253799586e7e75243_troy-bolton-meme-tumblr-meme-zac-efron_500-383.jpeg)
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Jace911 April 29, 2017, 02:45:10 PM
Also is there some sort of errata on how power tiers work that Ross and co. are using for the Gate 9 campaign? I know in the book each tier gives a +1d6 for every level of difference (I half remember either errata or a fan rule simplifying that to +3), but it sounds like the way they're playing now the tier bonus doesn't actually give a boost to the roll? Or has the bonus only ever applied to opposed checks and I've been doing it wrong this entire time by giving players the tier bonus to all rolls?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe May 03, 2017, 02:00:58 AM
 We are also using alternate rules for power tiers as posted on the Base Raiders website: http://www.baseraiders.com/2014/06/18/alternate-rules-for-power-tiers/ (http://www.baseraiders.com/2014/06/18/alternate-rules-for-power-tiers/)

I’ve been using these for years now simply because they’re faster than the standard Strange Fate rules. I have not updated the book PDF because that makes it different than the print book and that’s a hassle.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Teapot May 09, 2017, 08:38:24 AM
So I'm finishing up FATEizing the scenario I wrote a long time ago and I'm coming into trouble with a ninja super power source (ninja coke, it's the essential salts of second-rate ninjas). The problem I have that I've gotten the other skills down in cost but this one keeps staying around 20. I've tried breaking it up but that's not much of a payoff for the extra refresh and eventual upgrading costs.

So, Help? Has anyone done some ninja powers before and how did you do it?

To answer my own cry for help, this is where I've got it now:
Ninja Coke:
Ninjas in your brain 16 points, Superhuman tier (-2 refresh)
Parry (1) Strike (1) x2 Dexterity (1) x1 Stealth (1) x1 Security (1) x1 notice (1) Guile (1) x1 Convince (1) x1 Insight (1) Initiative [physical] (2)
Complication: Never alone up here -1
Complication: They have cravings -1
The basic idea is the spirits of everyone to use the dust before you now live within you, you see them as semi-transparent people offering advice, pointing at where to strike and giving you advice. [New powers can be added by finding useful corpses and rendering them down.]

Other things
I redid the Bismuth Saber because I've tossed it into this one: I think it needs a bit of tweaking but:
Bangles of the Bismuth Archer
Supporting Saber
12 skill points, superhuman -2 refresh
Security (1) x1 Notice (1) Notice +unusual: see magic (2), Languages (1), Examine (1) x1 Information, x1 Research+unusual (by looking at a thing) 2 Willpower (1) x3 Insight (1) (13)
Transformation (Minor -1) replace one aspect with “Determined Backup”
Conviction (Minor -1) “I must help them first.”
Traumatic -1
Focus (Minor-1)

Bismuth Bow of Destiny
4 skill points, extraordinary -1 refresh
Notice+Unusual (2: Find weakness) Shoot+unusual+range, (4)
Focus (Minor-1)
Delay (Minor-1) transformation
Description: The Bow of Destiny is a traditional Japanese longbow made from Bismuth crystals that fires glowing rainbow arrows of crystal shards. The unusual aspect allows the arrows to activate any allergy if the archer has identified it.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe May 15, 2017, 03:31:42 PM
Why do you so need so many trappings for Ninja Coke? Convince doesn't seem applicable to a ninja skill. Also, are you paying for the transfer lines between trappings? If you want a cheaper skill, add more limitations - snag [minor]: Must wear traditional ninja costume to use skill - up the complications to [major] for 2 more points.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: fearjunkie May 17, 2017, 01:44:00 PM
Hit the 'random page' on the Superpower wiki a few times and used the results to get some power ideas:

Ectoplasm Manipulation

Magical Sword - I went a bit obscure with this and made Skofnung (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skofnung)
: Re: BaseRaiders
: riderv3 May 18, 2017, 04:38:33 AM
Got a power question for the hive mind - say you found the Silver Arm of Nuada, the god-king of the Tuatha Danann, king of the fae gods and all that good stuff. What would it do?
: Re: BaseRaiders
: fearjunkie May 19, 2017, 05:56:45 PM
Got a power question for the hive mind - say you found the Silver Arm of Nuada, the god-king of the Tuatha Danann, king of the fae gods and all that good stuff. What would it do?

Don't know what it does, but the Dagda probably wants to take it from you.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Teapot May 21, 2017, 10:01:38 AM
So I took some trappings off and upped the disadvantages a bit, it's now in a reasonable cost. I think the reason I tried to stuff so much in it is because when I was making the powers for ORE, it was a 75 point (I think) power and being full of hyper dice and not much else it kind of gave all the skills and I was still in that mindset.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: constructacon May 22, 2017, 12:20:41 AM
Got a power question for the hive mind - say you found the Silver Arm of Nuada, the god-king of the Tuatha Danann, king of the fae gods and all that good stuff. What would it do?

from what little i know of Gaelic mythology i would say that, depending on how much you wanted to spend, it would be kinda basic. while it could be basic superhuman "stats," the thing he was known for was that he was an expert in how to use any weapon. to that end i would probably stat it out as an equipment gift/or power that increases the tier of all weapon skills probably to a max of extraordinary. meaning while you might be a badass with any sword or gun they are still mortal weapons and bullets still bounce off some supers.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: riderv3 May 23, 2017, 06:55:00 AM
Got a power question for the hive mind - say you found the Silver Arm of Nuada, the god-king of the Tuatha Danann, king of the fae gods and all that good stuff. What would it do?

Don't know what it does, but the Dagda probably wants to take it from you.

I know right? That sounds like some juicy compels...
: Re: BaseRaiders
: riderv3 May 23, 2017, 07:00:15 AM
Got a power question for the hive mind - say you found the Silver Arm of Nuada, the god-king of the Tuatha Danann, king of the fae gods and all that good stuff. What would it do?

from what little i know of Gaelic mythology i would say that, depending on how much you wanted to spend, it would be kinda basic. while it could be basic superhuman "stats," the thing he was known for was that he was an expert in how to use any weapon. to that end i would probably stat it out as an equipment gift/or power that increases the tier of all weapon skills probably to a max of extraordinary. meaning while you might be a badass with any sword or gun they are still mortal weapons and bullets still bounce off some supers.

Good call - thanks for the help!
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Teapot May 24, 2017, 02:34:18 AM
So I'm going through old files and here's an NPC worth sharing (I hope) he was a former money man for numerous super villains and now he's kind of in the wild with their money.

Guy Millions, middle aged numbers shark

Guy's real name is Leland Chen, he's a third generation Chinese immigrant living the dream as a newly minted venture capitalist. He got where he is today by being very good with numbers, money, laws, and people. Graduating third in his class at Yale helped too. But it was mostly that one time he was kidnapped by Dr. Pangloss. While she was raiding his mind she saw he could solve a problem she was having in Nevada. So she hired him, he agreed from fear and stayed on from greed as she introduced him to others who needed financial management.

In the following ten years he became an expert on laundering money, hiding operations, and running shell companies. He's also become fabulously wealthy. At this point he's in a strange place, all his important clients have vanished, most in Ragnarok, but most of them left enormous sums of money for him to manage. Normally there would be next of ken and laws and such but these are hardly normal or reasonable clients. So he kept going, after a year he decided to go put the money to work in new ways.

So now he lives Edina Minnesota a couple days a week and spends the rest of his time heading Tomorrow Investments from their New York headquarters. Right now he's begun taking risks with his client's money that he wouldn't have dared before. Should any of these risks fall through he might turn to base raiding or patronage for base raiders. He suspects he knows where at least seven bases of former villains are, maybe as many as ten. He owns and manages them through various Delaware companies and it would be easy for him to get a team to any of the sites.

He's 38, in surprisingly good shape for his lifestyle and has an open friendly face. He has been divorced twice and has two semi-estranged children that he genuinely cares about. His VC firm is not directly tied to any base raiding but is close to some companies that are likely trying to launder super tech for patents.

He also has a few psychic controls Pangloss left in his mind, but he's not aware of them. They prevent him from betraying her or her interests. They are enforced with low level suggestions, subliminal commands, and aneurisms. Unless he's pushed he'll assume it's his own idea to never speak of her interests. He will however talk about her in a general way, he's a bit in awe and grateful which can be picked up on.

Finding him:
Destructina isn't the only one to have hired him, plenty of bases could have his contact details. None of them can be traced directly to him but using any would make him paranoid and he would respond out of fear. Enough leg-work can connect some of the information to him and find information on Tomorrow Investments.

Approaches:
Violence: He'll try to escape and hire muscle.
Blackmail: If he thinks he can get them to go away forever he'll agree to pay up to 200 loot.
Hiring: He hasn't realized that base raiders are just more capitalists with funds that need laundering, he can be brought around to setting up money laundering operations if the PCs seem balanced and quiet.
Greed: He can be convinced to sell the location of most bases, however he will never speak of Pangloss. PC's who manage to get him to talk about her will see him start to sweat and if they push may trigger some of his seizures or even kill him if they use any strange skills to compel him to talk.


Skills:
Finance +4 Deceit +4 Presence +4
Resources +3 Contacting +3 Empathy +3
Endurance +2 (E) Resolve +2 (A) Intimidation +2
Athletics +1 (E) Computers +1 Technology +1
Aspects: First Rule of Pangloss, Enforced silence, Super drugs can't change your lifestyle, Not going down for this, Established, Ahead of the game, Not a bad person...


Skill notes: he has been given the Peak Preformer treatment by Pangloss, as well as some brain enhancements. He has the conviction “First rule of Pangloss” as well as the snag “Enforced silence.” If anyone figures this out (medical and psychic tests) they might get to work around it. Also he could act in a manner he thinks is in Pangloss's best interests and just suffer mild aneurisms and seizures.

He was a mid power (20 skill points 6 refresh) person ten years ago and has been growing into his new life well.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: fearjunkie May 24, 2017, 11:21:48 AM
Super Soldier Serum: Lithium-22 Infusion

Created by a highly unethical scientist named Dr. Jacob Calloway.  Lithium-22 Infusions are injected concoctions of saline solution, various chemical stabilizers, and an unstable, super-energetic lithium isotope that can only be made with a nuclear reactor and exotic matter. Dr. Calloway created a few batches of the serum to empower his goons so they could more effectively knock over research labs that had components he needed. Upon injection, the subject undergoes a painful bonding experience with the drug as it alters their DNA to turn them into a human dynamo, giving them the power to generate and control electricity. However, there tends to be side effects...


Example Lithium-22 Power:

Living Generator (10)
Move+Unusual (Flight via electromagnetism), Physical Force+Range+Unusual (Electromagnetism), Shoot+Range, Shoot+Range, Major Weakness: Submersion in Water, Minor Complication: Persistent Static Buildup
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe May 25, 2017, 09:18:02 PM
I like the idea of unpowered people connected to heroes and villains becoming base raiders. Money man for a villain is totes a good idea for a character.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Teapot July 20, 2017, 07:26:52 AM
I'm thinking about retiring my con/intro game "Origin Story" and doing a sequel tentatively titled "Blood In" about getting the trust of the Underground. The idea is to take the pre-gens from Origin Story, add a couple points to them and have the Underground set them up to prove their loyalty.

In this case, The local Underground wants to send them to extract some dwarven engineers from an airship an alternative Earth. For some reason this Earth is easy to scry on and the local Underground have been watching the adventures of the HMS L-585, The Cloud Fortress, the way some people watch Game of Thrones. But the air ship is destined to be destroyed in battle with a French cruiser and the Underground want to save their favorite extras. Their favorite, dashing lieutenant Alisha Char eloped with her lover to the free city of Koffee.

The PCs will be magicked into the airship and from there make their way through the developing battle, convince the engineers to join them and make their way to their entry/exit point within one hour. Along the way there are plenty of chances to loot diesel-punk contraptions and sorcerous items from the invading musketeers and defending marines. It's also a bit squicky since the Underground are apparently spying on people for amusement and now playing god with them.

Also one of the available Pre-gens will be an Underground observer, this will let me make a mutant type character and vary the choices a bit.

[World notes, like our world but full of magic and nonsense in 1916 the spirits of mist rolled in, claiming everything under 3,000 feet in elevation and more than 5 miles from the sea, salt apparently is a weakness. World War I ended and the survivors used their magicly augmented tech to begin again with the world vastly changed. The history would likely sound less silly with soaring music behind it. I like it a bit and think I'd put a base there sometime in the mists where horrible spirits dwell etc.]

So how is this for a second game? The first one is mostly about making bad choices in the pursuit of power. This one is about outright nonsense and running face first into outlandish situations and trying to bring back some profit.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe July 22, 2017, 07:54:29 PM
Hahaha, I love it. Throwing base raiders into another universe to basically save Truman Show extras is a great premise for a scenario. Maybe have the clients keep scrying on the PCs as they do their job and have them do extra side jobs for fate points "Oh I hate that guy, go kick his ass!" etc/
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Teapot November 09, 2017, 10:49:30 PM
So I think I've got the goal thing figured out, you pay for trappings not lines right? Anyway here are three I did, are they right? Did I miss any trappings they'd need? The clinic and the startup revolve around a healing vat the party stole in the first game.

Edit: So I added the milestones too.

Establish a New Ideal (30 pts, global tier, 8 milestones)
Wealth + Unusual, Security, Workspace, Transport, Information, Research, Networking, Minions + Unusual, Esteem
Milestones
-Branding, the team has to come up with a unified look/name/message
-Disaster relief, the team must respond to a natural disaster like situation, huge fire, bridge collapse etc. If they hired someone to keep a lookout for this they can get directions to the most photogenic heroics available.
-Inroads, the PCs need to establish trust and build relationships with local authorities up to the state level.
-Halting Evildoers, the team must publicly stop someone with powers mid-crime.
-Reach and grasp, the team must respond to a disaster or major super crime in another country. The authorities don't have to be happy but the outcome has to be good.
-Bloating, the team must add members, these new heroes must be reasonably popular or photogenic or fill some kind of publicity/security need.
-Not the last part? The team must publicly save the world. The saving needs to be believable and the threat needs to be imminent.
-Shake hands with, the team needs to get the blessing of or come to an Ideal like truce with the powers that be.

Get the Clinic up to Superspeed (10 pts, national tier, 6 milestones)
Examine, Information, Research, Treatment [physical], networking, guile
-Clean the basement in secret, the PCs have to move the massive healing vat into the clinic with nobody seeing
-Figure out how to turn it on, through research, favors or buying the PCs need the manual
-Retool, the PCs need to set up power for the vat and make it accessable.
-In high places, the PCs need to find ways to silence or make complicit any local players who might learn about their operation.
-And error, the PCs need to run trials of the machine to make sure it works. These might mean disposing of a few ratbominations.
-Restock, healing vats still need healing juice, the clinic can't make it but the Ideal built it somewhere, go hopefully find a renewable source.

Startup Dreams from Magic Machines (15 pts, national tier, 6 milestones)
Dismantle, Repair, Workspace, wealth, networking, esteem, convince, guile, research, information
-Find a base, not for raiding but for setting up your workshop.
-Find the value, the PCs have to figure out which elements of the healing vat can be stealth patented without tipping the feds off.
-Bring on the investors, the PCs must find some VC's or other sources of huge piles of cash
-Brand it, the product has to be explained to the FDA, the public, the investors...
-Secrets and, the product has to be distanced from base raiding
-Defend the patent, the PCs must protect their investment from rivals
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe November 28, 2017, 02:44:40 AM
Looks fine to me. Shaping up to be a decent length campaign if they get all three goals completed!
: Re: BaseRaiders
: The Wizard Burke January 01, 2018, 01:17:47 PM
So, uh...first time posting. I'm working on a Base Raiders campaign I'm gonna be running in a few months using my homebrew powers setting. The first session is going to be the players going to be getting their powers, all of which I've designed and run by the players.

So one of the characters is a completely normal guy whose "powers" are the fact that he's mystically tied to a animatronic cowboy powered by the Platonic Western Hero, named Rusty Sprocket. Sort of a Johnny Thunder thing but with a magical robot cowboy instead of a genie. My question is how I should set Rusty up? My thought is to build him as a Companion, with a good bit of refresh dumped into him. But maybe I should also include some Strange skills with a snag making it so that only Rusty can use the powers? Y'know things to reflect superhuman gunfighting skill, and such.

Also, since I'm new to the system (gonna run some one shots before the campaign proper to give everyone a feel for it, including me), if there's any advice regarding the other powers or just in general, I'd be happy to hear it.

The rest of the powers for the party of the campaign (tentatively titled Ripple Effect)

A telepath/supergenius whose powers are fueled by sleep deprivation (they get smarter and more powerful the longer they go without sleep)
A guy possessed/bonded with the spirit of a dragon overlord from another, fantasy-esque timeline (so lots of super strength, super-charisma, nothing subtle just sheer inhuman force.)
A guy who can turn into a psychic nanotech demon (superfast brute with penance stare like claws fueled by personal indulgence)
A girl who can turn into a psychic nanotech angel (just a flying mass of wings, with psychic artillery fueled by music.)
The guy with Rusty Sprocket
And a girl with magical girl powers based on the Fool card. (So blending together the luck power from the core with some stuff from Saber Antimony.)
: Re: BaseRaiders
: clockworkjoe January 10, 2018, 02:11:46 AM
I would stat up the cowboy as the main character with the human as the companion. Role play it as the human being the main character but that would be easier to model.

I wrote several articles on baseraiders.com about powers and character creation. Here's the most important one: http://www.baseraiders.com/2013/12/02/character-creation-survival-guide/ (http://www.baseraiders.com/2013/12/02/character-creation-survival-guide/)

I like the rest of the team! Good character concepts.

I don't check the forum as much as I do the RPPR Patreon Discord or our Facebook group. I'll try to keep an eye on it in the future.
: Re: BaseRaiders
: Teapot January 13, 2018, 07:32:10 AM
So one of the characters is a completely normal guy whose "powers" are the fact that he's mystically tied to a animatronic cowboy powered by the Platonic Western Hero, named Rusty Sprocket. Sort of a Johnny Thunder thing but with a magical robot cowboy instead of a genie. My question is how I should set Rusty up? My thought is to build him as a Companion, with a good bit of refresh dumped into him. But maybe I should also include some Strange skills with a snag making it so that only Rusty can use the powers? Y'know things to reflect superhuman gunfighting skill, and such.

How does he want to use Rusty?
If Rusty's another dude hanging out and playing the harmonica, cooking beans, and shooting dudes that's a companion.
Does he get skills from mystic bleedtrhough? Like shootin' six guns and hogtyin'? That's a skill.
Does he have background benefits from the link? Like being hardier or stabler, that's a skill with stress capacities or defenses.
Similarly, being connected to Rusty might be a signature aspect which is just a free fate point every scene and more nebulous.