Messages

31

RPGs / Re: Wild Talents question

« on: January 20, 2012, 07:25:43 PM »

How are you getting 3/die?  I'm counting 8 in extras and 9 in flaws.  Useful is 2, right?

32

RPGs / Re: Wild Talents question

« on: January 20, 2012, 07:01:41 PM »

If it does to different places and not the same Plane each time than your probably going to need Variable Effect or some lesser variation there of.

You could also add "Slow" and "Depeleted" in order to recop some of those lost points.

Good point.  Thanks, Tad.

Revised:

Useful, Mass
Variable Effect +4
Duration +2 to keep the access working until we find the appropriate exit from the nexus
Booster +2 to take a group
Slow -2
Willpower Cost -2
If/Then -1 punch in the code
Go Last -1
Environment Bound -1
Loopy -1
Obvious -1

33

RPGs / Re: Wild Talents question

« on: January 20, 2012, 06:26:54 PM »

It will need range too if you don't want to just pop into whatever space is parallel in the other dimension (deep space, middle of a rock, etc) and some sort of useful quality to see where you are landing before you get there. I'd add on a shit ton of boosters as well, in the tune to to the sun. It sounds like an expensive power to me.

I don't mind the random appearance on another plane even though that would probably require uncontrollable as a flaw. I do have Scrying as a power which allows me to see across distances. I could add the environment bound flaw to make sure there's breathable air. The only problem I'm having is with range. If all planes/dimensions overlap and the nexus can be accessed from anywhere as it exists outside of time and space, then presumably the range would be zero or at least not applicable. Plane shift in DnD allows you to cross over but never to an exact location as planar relativity is always in flux. Therefore, an environmentally bound plane shift would force the shift to the relatively closest breathable air exit. Teleportation presumes your power protects you from inflicting damage upon yourself by occupying the same space as other matter unless you take flaws. Theoretically the same would have to apply.

So far I have:
Useful, Mass
Duration +2 to keep the access working until we find the appropriate exit from the nexus
Booster +2 to take a group
Willpower Cost -2
If/Then -1 punch in the code
Go Last -1
Environment Bound -1

I could add on Power Capacity Range if necessary and Loopy and Obvious to counteract the point cost. Or maybe I need to add in No Physics to explain away some of the leaps in scientific reasoning.

34

RPGs / Re: Wild Talents question

« on: January 20, 2012, 04:38:58 PM »

Hey guys we are about to start back up with WT on Monday with 500 pt. characters, and I need a little help with designing a new power. I'm calling it The Planar Access Code. Basically I wave my hand in the air and a magical access panel appears. I punch in a code that will open a gateway and allow myself and others to venture into the nexus hub between realms, so we can travel to other planes/dimensions. It will be a 2hd miracle but I'm having trouble with the extras. So far I think it will need radius and probably mass. It will cost willpower and have a delayed effect with an if/then to punch in the code, but it will probably be riddled with flaws as I try to cut it down to 1/die. Any suggestions?

35

Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: The Heroes of New Arcadia - RPPR Superheroes campaign - Wild Talents

« on: December 19, 2011, 02:40:58 AM »

We are going to use the quickest and most effective means to thwart an enemy.  If that means killing a villain in self-defense, then yeah we'll do it. 

I would disagree with this.

There was some death in the first session, but after that we reeled it in pretty hard.

Norm's just plain out of his element.
Shift's a stupid idealistic pretender who thinks he's a lot more powerful than he is, and can afford to just take people alive.
The Martyr's a kid, and still forming his morals, but even you never really bring out the fire demon all that often/ or at all.
Chirop's the ex-con trying to reform and coming to grips with his awesome power.

I can't speak for the Robot Assassin or Ghost Robot because I didn't meet up with them till the first climatic battle.

We were not doing what we could to thwart the enemy, we were a mickey mouse operation and we messed up a great deal. For me that's the fun part. Far better than this... http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/09/05

Yeah, I love the fact that we are such amateurs and in way over our heads, especially since when I try to act all confident like a hardened hero. I never meant to imply that we just go around killing anyone who gets in our way like the Squadron Supreme, but we certainly don't pull our punches when our lives are threatened. We may not have the experience to plan things out as effectively as seasoned heroes, but we do treat life and death struggles more realistically. It's about survival and stopping our enemies however we can while trying to keep ourselves safe in the process. There are several villains who are killed because we don't let up and our backs are against the wall. The sorcerer Chirop killed is only one circumstance. We don't really tie up the bad guys and let the police take care of the paperwork. In fact, I think there's only a couple of times we turned a villain over to the authorities, and those were very unique situations.

36

Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: The Heroes of New Arcadia - RPPR Superheroes campaign - Wild Talents

« on: December 08, 2011, 05:24:12 PM »

To be fair Tom's character was a killer/thief in his past and he's trying to redeem himself.  He never claimed to be Superman, none of us have.  Our characters are more akin to Watchmen.  We are going to use the quickest and most effective means to thwart an enemy.  If that means killing a villain in self-defense, then yeah we'll do it.  Chirop does struggle with this later and realizes even in self-defense, he's still committing murder, so he begins to reel in his strength.  In game terms, he changes his hard dice to wiggle dice.  I don't think Tom as a player realized just how strong he was making his character when we first made our characters.  Heck, I had to continually change something with The Martyr just to iron out the kinks of learning a new system.

37

RPGs / Re: Eclipse Phase

« on: October 02, 2011, 04:30:14 AM »

Gerrad: Played by Jason. Fall evacuee, anarchist and reclaimer. Military background - worked for Direct Action on Earth during the Fall. Abandoned post to save as many lives as possible. Has edited memories so he isn't sure exactly what happened but he made an enemy during the Fall. An enemy that's highly placed in Direct Action now. Gerrad is highly suspicious of technology, especially AI technology. Skilled in hand to hand combat and beam weapons. Saved an important anarchist during the Fall. The anarchist is his patron now.

Close but not quite accurate. His name is Gerard Hume, and he served in a security corporation that was sucked into Direct Action after the Fall. He abandoned his post to save his parents, but arrived just moments after their egos had been uploaded by the TITANS, so he tried to save as many people as he could from a similar fate, starting with some of his mother's colleagues. Some of which later become affiliated with the reclaimer movement. Chesare was the last one he saved, who is one of the prominent voices on Titan.

38

Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: What do you want the next RPPR campaign to be?

« on: October 02, 2011, 03:57:00 AM »

I'm digging the idea of a post-apocalyptic GURPS game where we are the survivors having to pick up the pieces. Either the war torn wasteland of Mad Max or Fallout or the endless shanty town aspect would suit me just fine.

Of course I'm game for Iron Heroes. I love the Sword and Sorcery, might makes right, and survival of the fittest when I played my Weapons Master years ago.

As for other games we discussed, I'm always down for World of Darkness but I still haven't come up with a campaign-long story arc to pitch. Maybe our fans have some suggestions?

Also, I'd like to throw out the idea of us playing villains trying to become members of The Guild of Calamitous Content. Not only would it have the zany fun of The Venture Bros. universe and the appeal of a Dr. Horrible storyline, but I would love to see our wacky ideas for villains and how we would interact with each other, especially with Aaron having to play a bad guy!

-Jason

39

Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: The Heroes of New Arcadia - RPPR Superheroes campaign - Wild Talents

« on: September 08, 2011, 06:07:48 AM »

Peracles is a helpful NPC that has been hired to help keep crime down while the PCs deal with other stuff.

What?!  When did this happen?  I miss a week and Peracles is back...not to mention with more powers and a resume.  I'm so happy I brought him out of Lemuria!

40

Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: The Heroes of New Arcadia - RPPR Superheroes campaign - Wild Talents

« on: August 08, 2011, 09:39:39 PM »

right but superman doesn't do that. Spiderman is street level also because his enemies are usually professional criminals that just want to make a score or are crazy people obsessed with killing him not cosmic powered superbeings, alien warlords, etc

Only thing stopping him is the writers. Same thing as only thing stopping Spiderman from joining the Avengers going on galaxy-wide megaultimatepower universe saving quests.

I wouldn't just say it's the writers.  Spider-man is inherently at his core a street level character.  He patrols New York City, using his abilities to stop various villains because he believes its his responsibility.  He does not concern himself with the wider world due to his alter ego (photographer, teacher, student, family, romantic relationships, and friends) needing to develop.  He is the average person, dealing with the general ups and downs of life, compounded with extra anxiety and time allotted to his superhero life.  It would deviate too much from his character concept and personality to throw him out into the greater universe too often.  Doing so would lose the appeal of his accessibility as the everyman.

Superman, on the other hand, has the capability to be anywhere on the planet--or the universe--and still maintain his civilian life as Clark Kent due to his godlike abilities (Kryptonian technology, flight, and superspeed) and his larger view of responsibility, that of protecting his adopted world or see a similar fate befall it as in the case of his birth world, Krypton.  To concern himself solely with Metropolis would be irresponsible in his eyes because he would be ignoring the bigger picture.   

41

Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: The Heroes of New Arcadia - RPPR Superheroes campaign - Wild Talents

« on: August 08, 2011, 04:36:04 AM »

i am saddened beyond belief that none of the characters are basically The Question

Ya know I was actually considering it but I didn't want to rip off an awesome character concept completely. But it would've been fun to play a paranoid conspiracy nut, especially factoring in the Ideal and Ragnarok. Plus I don't think I'd have been able to keep up with all the theories I'd throw out there, let alone spontaneously connect the dots in game to develop some new wild conspiracy. It would've been very taxing, creatively speaking.

42

Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: The Heroes of New Arcadia - RPPR Superheroes campaign - Wild Talents

« on: August 08, 2011, 04:21:38 AM »

Ross is more or less right. Spider-man is street level because his focus is New York City. He usually stays local (although you could make the argument that he has done some adventures outside of Earth--Secret Wars and a short stint as Captain Universe--which could possibly elevate him to a cosmic hero). He usually deals with any number of minor villains from his rogue's gallery, who are just looking for a quick score but nothing world shattering. In that respect, the Flash and Superman might fall into the same category. However, unlike Spider-man those two heroes, especially Superman quite often find themselves pitted against major threats to the planet, galaxy, or all of reality, usually requiring the entire JLA or DCU to stop.

Now with that being said, Marvel has increased the number of major events over the last ten years and Spidey, more often than not, is swept up into the battle pulling him out of NYC and his civilian life. In fact, his recent full-fledged membership in the Avengers also takes away some of his street level cred as he finds himself in the big leagues. But the same applies to Batman, and while Batman may go on missions with the JLA, he remains heavily focused on Gotham City when fighting crime on his own. Spider-man stays within the confines of NYC when not with the Avengers. Superman often finds himself outside of Metropolis or even Earth when left to his own whims of thwarting any number of villains. Therefore, Superman is not street level.

Lastly, I'd like to say that I do believe powers do play a role, albeit to a lesser extent, in whether or not a hero is street level. Those with high-end powers tend to be global or cosmic level heroes as in the case of Superman, Thor, Silver Surfer, Wonder Woman, etc. Those with low-end powers or none at all typically have a localized impact on their ability to stop villains as in the case of the Punisher, Daredevil, Batman, Green Arrow, etc. But there are exceptions. Star-Lord, Adam Strange, Hawkman, and Rocket Raccoon are galaxy-trotting heroes who have no real powers or are on the relatively low-end of the power scale, but their exploits definitely differentiate them from street level heroes as they continually find themselves dealing with situations on other planets or dimensions.

43

Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: The Heroes of New Arcadia - RPPR Superheroes campaign - Wild Talents

« on: August 07, 2011, 08:11:18 PM »

Pretty much all the characters from Watchmen with the exception of Dr. Manhattan would be considered street level.  John Constantine easily falls into that category too.  While the majority of the characters in both the Avengers and Justice League are well outside that power range, Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Black Widow, Captain America, Green Arrow, Vixen, and Batman are street level.  I'd say all of the Heroes for Hire characters are low enough on the power scale also (in addition to Luke Cage and Iron Fist, Misty Knight and White Tiger).  Technically Spider-man and Wolverine are closer to street level than say Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, Ms. Marvel, the Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer, Nova, or the Sentry in terms of power.  In fact, Marvel has a plethora of characters on the low end of the power scale.  Many of the X-men would be considered street level in terms or raw power and capability, ruling out omega level mutants of course (i.e. Vulcan, Iceman, Phoenix, Nate Grey).  DC on the other hand seems to tip the balance in the opposite direction.  The Flash, while active on the street, has powers that far exceed many superheroes and easily allows him to be a global force.  Wonder Woman, Superman, Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Black Adam, Captain Atom, and Captain Marvel are big powerhouses...well Aquaman not so much but still on the high end.  The Question, Nightwing, Oracle, Robin, Birds of Prey, Hawk, Dove, Catman, and Deadshot are street level.

44

General Chaos / More RPPR Karaoke

« on: July 31, 2011, 12:52:54 AM »

I meant to post these last year but forgot. In any case, here they are for your viewing pleasure:

Aaron singing "It's All About the Pentiums"

<a href="" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win"></a>

Cody singing "Total Eclipse of the Heart"
PM me, or preferably Cody, if you wish to see this.  Cody asked that I change the settings to private.

45

General Chaos / Re: No Title

« on: July 08, 2011, 08:38:15 AM »

Was this the Eliminators game?

Yes, and I hope now that we've fed Ross's desires to run Rifts, we never have to do it again.