Chat about the game...

Possibly but it is the whole murders rooms, specially designed that make him unique. Of course, he didn't actually have any of that and most of his murders occurred elsewhere but that's what the news decided was their narrative was, facts just weren't important.

Did our other two gamers strike down the idea of a beginning level team up story?

Gah, not asked yet. Catching up (will hopefully be up to date tomorrow) and have the next week off so finally get some chance to get things moving!

Looks like a no go to get a multi player game going with Lightning Bullet, at least for the time being. I can try on the facebook page and see if anyone is interested but they need to be on board with the house rules we use as they are so much faster and easier to use for me. That can be a tough sell with some of them. With others play by post is the stumbling block. I'll ask anyway.

Not a big hurry to get a new game going so please do ask around.  Ya just got to let them know it is house rules, modified DC heroes and we are in the mid-1950s for the setting - the fallow years between the end of the Golden Age and the start of the Silver Age.


COMMIES!  ROCK 'N ROLL!  ALIEN SCOUTS!  RADIOACTIVE MONSTERS!   

Just a quick heads up. Aside from having been at work all day I have my youngest son with me a couple of days so posting will be spotty/non existent until Sunday probably when he gets dropped off. Apologies but I'm going to try my best to drag him out for some fresh air!

Buying a new baseball bat for him too. That's two I've broken (aluminium and wood) and have just ordered another one which is supposed to be 'indestructible'. Heh right. Hold my beer...

Just a quick question. I was toying with the idea of Lightning Bullet having a signature attack that was Multi-Attack with his touch Lightning attack. Basically flying around or through, depending on dispersal, foes and attacking them with his touch Lightning attack - Blitzing all the foes in the room kind of thing. Would an advantage of something like "Can Multi-Attack x number of foes without usual penalty" be allowed? Looking at the Multi-attack chart, would it be a FC of +1 for two foes without OV/RV shift? +2 FC for 3-4 foes without OV/RV shift? Or something else?

Like I said, I'm trying to think of it as his Signature Move! Since I'm looking at him being a street level hero at the beginning, looking to use this move on 3-6 normal thugs at once would be something I'm thinking of. Though in game terms it might be cheaper in the long run to either keep raising his Dex or spending HP to make the attack. This wouldn't be an attack usually used on superpowered foes of the same level he is. Though if said foes showed up with minions ... I could use it against his minions and then face him alone.

And of course, Multi-Attack limits the number of foes you can get to to your movement value. Without special movement, that is 4 APs of running so you could, in theory, attack a max of 4 foes.

Normal thugs might have a 2-3 Dex and Body. Trying to hit 5-8 of them is a +3 shift, so if I had a Dex of 6, I guess it would equal out to a normal chance of hitting someone who also had a 6 Dex. Maybe I just answered my own question.

It would be nice if the game had some kind of Signature Attack skill or ability that made it cheaper to use that one kind of attack than normal but it might get abused if it was implemented. Maybe a rule of Can Only Use It Once/Twice in Combat or something?

Just me nattering on. Nevermind, thinking outloud. Move along. Nothing to see here.

Also trying to visualize his power set. Once he gets his shrinking down between 6 and 10, which is small bird to insect size. Small insect is 11. And get his flight up to 8 or more.

I see him as a small streak of lightning flashing around the room, striking multiple foes, minion foes, not super foes. But even a single superfoe, seeing him as a streak of lightning hitting and then moving to somewhere else in the room. That's the image in my head anyway. Thought about superspeed but don't really want all the extras superspeed gives you and you can't fly with it.

One of the most productive days we've had on here. Got some posts rattled through!



David M you have too much time on your hands mate!!!

Admin wrote:One of the most productive days we've had on here. Got some posts rattled through!



David M you have too much time on your hands mate!!!

DAMN RIGHT I DO!! We are still in phase 2 of 3 phases and will be until 9/11 if not later. Which means I can only see clients if it is an emergency. So I sit in my office, read books, dive into the internet and get really bored and try to find stuff to put up here to keep me entertained.

Even if we get out of phase 2, we still can't see clients in phase 3. So it may be January before I finally get to get off my ass and DO SOMETHING!!!







So yeah, this group is keeping me sane and driving you guys nuts seeing all the stuff I am uploading to here.

Had a long week at work (just finished 6 days on bounce) hence it's been reasonably slow updating, now I have my youngest son staying over tonight back home tomorrow so it will probably be tomorrow evening before I get fully up to speed. Miss V/Lionheart will find out their fate and everyone else will get updates.

had a minor heart attack when a flying daddy long legs thing (you know the ones) started flying about in the TV room and my son chased it around with his new baseball bat. That could have been expensive...

What a way to try to relax.

Anyways, this is the email I just sent out of all the old Yahoo gaming groups I was in. I'm not sure if the messages will go through since they made all the changes but who knows?




Hey everyone,


We are a small but dedicated bunch of superhero fans playing in our own little world. The link is here:

https://darkeningshadows.darkbb.com/forum

The group has been running for over ten years now.


We use the Blood of Heroes version 2 rules, modified by house rules. The GM does the dice rolling. Blood of Heroes came out of the old DC Heroes RPG with some additional rules and the subtraction of mention of any DC material. PDF version of the rules can be found online.


You can either solo adventure or do team-up adventures.


We currently have characters adventuring in the modern age.


We have characters who are currently back in time in the Victorian Age where they have met Sherlock Holmes, Captain Nemo and a few other literary greats. Met Dracula at a party held in honor of Queen Victoria. They originally adventured in the Wild West where they met some real and somewhat well-known fictional people. They are slowly making their way forward in time.


We have a hero tossed back in time, not of his own doing, in England in 1940 just a week or so short of when Dunkirk is about to go down and the Battle of Britain begins. He is trying to stop time traveling aliens from helping the Nazis win the war so that they can more easily takeover our world in the present.


We have a character [one of mine called Lightning Bullet] getting ready to adventure in the mid-50s, that wonderful time between the Golden Age's end and most heroes retired or retiring and before the start of the Silver Age. I'm hoping at least one or two other fine folks would like to adventure with him and form their own team.


And if not, I hope a few of you will at least stop by and give us a look. Check the OOC {Out of Character Chat} section for interesting covers and other fun stuff.


If you want to join in but prefer to solo rather than game with someone else because you can't post very often, that's fine. That way you can post at your own pace.


Pass this message on to any other folks that you think might be interested. Go to the OOC section and click on "Chat About The Game" forum if you have any questions or comments and we will be happy to answer them.


David McMahon

player of Miss Victory, The Haunt, Prof. Wynde and hopefully soon, the 1950s hero, Lightning Bullet.

Last night I read the part where Blood of Heroes Special [or 2] gives 5 extra points to create a starting character so that it is 500 pts to start before Disads instead of 495 like it is in DC Heroes 3rd. Nice five points, which I put to use too!

Just got an email from someone trying to join the group but is waiting for administrator's ok.

Here's his message


Hi, saw your message about wanting players from the DC Heroes Yahoo group and thought it sounded keen so I signed up for the forums. Got the-email saying I was registered but it would need to be activated. A few days have gone by and nada. Sent a message to the admin and nada. So I was wondering if you might be able to give 'em a nudge or see what's up. I signed up with the username Foxy DeVille. Thanks and hopefully we can game soon...

Charly
vixenofvelocity@yahoo.com

Seen it, had to dig through the Admin panel to activate and it's done. I'll email 'em now, thanks for the heads up!

Welcome

It was buried in my emails (gmail) and this forum doesn't really give you any clue that someone is knocking on the door, so just to say sorry for the delay!

Cheers (and welcome!), Paul

Hola! Glad to be here! I'm a biiiiig MEGS fan and a sucker for vintage pop culture so the talk of 1950s setting lured in me in. Even got a character in mind, inspired by the short-lived Julie Newmar show My Living Doll and Robotman from the Doom Patrol... an actress given an android body chock full o' retro-futuristic gizmos.

Hiya, nice to meet you!

In a nutshell we use the MEGs game... but there are differences!

Over time I found that referring to charts and tables slowed me down and took much longer to get things done so House Rules came into play. The main ones are:

1) Use 2D12 instead of 2D10. Fail on a roll of 3 or less and things like Burnout are +1 on the indicated rules

2) We use the Blood of Heroes Rules which have a few extra bells and whistles over DC Heroes 3E but are more or less the same

3) See that table thingy at the bottom of my signature? The multicoloured one is the 'one chart to replace them all' that we use. The Red columns replace both charts in the DC Heroes game. How we work things out is as follows...

Acting Value + 2D12 (this is the Acting Value Total or AVT) vs
Opposing Value + 2D12 (Opposing Value Total)

If the AVT is equal to or greater than the OVT, we look on the table.



In the red columns we see...

Difference between AVT and OVT. To the right of that we see the adjustment to Effect value. Add that to Effect value then...

Effect Value - (minus) Resistance Value = Result APs (RAPs)

Example:

Steeplejack (one of the PCs) with Dex 13 smacks a bad guy (Dex 9).

AV13 + Roll(2d12)+0: 7,4,+0 Total:11 (24) AVT vs
OV9 + Roll(2d12)+0: 8,4,+0 Total:12 (21)

That's three points difference (24 - 21=3) so on the table we see that gives... +2 Effect Value.

Steeplejack has Str of 11 +2=13 EV vs
Bad Guy has a Body (RV) of 10

13-10=3 RAPs

And that's it. Almost.

4) Hero Point bidding is gone. You can buy extra dice (more D12s) to roll. Skills also give you more dice to roll, because I always thought Skills, especially linked Skills, were useless. See the Green column for Skill dice and Yellow column for Hero Point Dice. The FIRST TWO dice that are rolled can fail if you roll 3 or less or trigger a power burnout. If those two first dice don't fail, pick which dice you want to use and ditch the rest. Follow up rolls (from doubles) only ever roll two dice.

5) The various combat moves in the books list adjustments to columns. We work in individual APs. Double the column shifts and apply those as APs.

For example Critical Blow as written is +2 OV/-3RV. Now it's +4 APs OV/-6 APs RV. Devastating attack is +8 APs OV/-12 APs RV. All the maneuvers are the same, from Going for Broke, Team Attack and so on. Double the columns to get the modifiers in APs.

This means every single AP in the game counts. No more grouping of Stats together. 4APs vs 3APs has an advantage now. 50 Str vs 46 Body makes a bigger difference and so on but in the game as written has them grouped in the same column. No more column shift threshold, no counting, no Hero Point bidding.

These rules work with 1e characters through 3e and Blood of Heroes and I've run a couple fights between DC Characters. Superman mops the floor (in game terms) with Captain Marvel. Now? It's not so clear cut but Superman would probably still win but with bruises.

6) When you roll a pile of dice for attacking and defending, however many extra dice you roll for attack reduces the number you can use for defence. If you defend first however many dice you roll for defence reduces the number you can roll for attack.

Example: Steeplejack has 5 Dice extra from Martial Artist and 4 Dice from Acrobatics for defence. If Steeplejack uses 3 dice on attack he can use 1 die for defence. If he uses 2 Dice extra for attack that leaves 2 dice for defence. If he uses 4 or 5 dice extra for attack there are no dice left for defence.

=========

The 50s game is a low powered street level (450HP + background + description + character picture for a total of 500HP then add Drabacks/Limitations etc).

I'm not an expert on 50s era roleplaying but I'll converse with an expert (David M) on that matter and make sure the game is fun. Feel free to knock a character out, aim for 6-9 AP range for the various combat stats/powers etc. The challenge of the bad guys/adventures will be based on the most powerful character, NOT the least, so bear that in mind when you consider a 20AP Magic Blast with a serious Burnout to buy FC1...

Questions?

I'll sort out the mechanics and if there is ANY doubt AT ALL, the player gets the benefit of it...

Cheers, Paul

The other thing to note is that a couple of us (me and Dave E) are on GMT and as far as I know, everyone else works on US time so you're in bed when we're up and so on. There may be a delay in posting but I generally find time to update every day and sometimes more than once a day. Occasionally even I have a day off (when I have my kids or work is kicking my ass) and go on the occasional holiday. We have, however, been knocking about on this forum for 10 years and a year and a half on another (which kept messing us around hence the need to set this one up). About 8 years ago (I think) we switched from the Golden Heroes RPG (old Games Workshop game, which I really like but it's mired in Street Level for the most part) and about five years ago (or so) I started house ruling stuff. I do have a PDF with the House rules on and it's not the clearest thing because I'm not an RPG designer but I'll post it up...



I don't know if posting links for PDFs will work, but here goes...

EDIT: No it doesn't I'll try something else.

Try this...

https://gofile.io/d/q3LiFY

You can easily find the PDF of Blood of Heroes 2 aka Blood of Heroes Special online. Took me all of 30 seconds to find a couple of places where I could download it for free. Nice thing with BOH over DC RPG, is you get 5 more points to create your character, so you can start at 500 HP instead of 495 HP.

As to the 50s game, this is the very basic write up for why we are teaming up in a time when the old heroes are retiring or are already retired and very few new heroes are appearing:


When he was in college, he made a number of close friends there. They shared a mutual love of superheroes who had started appearing when they were still kids. They made a pledge that they would all someday become superheroes on their own and then they would join together to become their own super-team. Many names for the team were thrown back and forth with no one name winning a majority. Max is the first of the group to actually become a superhero and he waits for the others to become superheroes and join him in Ruby City.


Ruby City is just a place name for the city, going with the DC vibe of fictitious cities.

And here is his last Character Sheet attempt. When Paul gets time he will look it over and let me know if it works out right.

Starting Level Hero 450 pts, in August 1953.
Character: Lightning Bullet
Type: Hero
Alter Ego: DR. ADAM MAXIMILIAN "MAX" DANE
Occupation: Scientist/inventor
Marital Status: Single
Known Relatives: Parents [deceased], Aunt Jean & Uncle Ted Walters - live in Florida - raised him after his parents died. cousins unnamed
Group Affiliation: None at present
Base of Operations: Secret Hideout - The Think Tank in Ruby City
Height: 6'6"
Weight: 214 lbs
Eye Color: Green
Hair Color: Sandy Blonde/Light Brown
Age: 25
Born: July 28, 1928
Wealth: 9 = $500,000
+5 pts

HISTORY:

Shortly after Max turned 11, he and his parents went on a summer vacation trip. There was a crash and they went off into a gully filled with water. The slightly injured 6' tall Max, who was in the backseat at the time, could not reach his parents to help them get free and get out of the car, due to the way the car was crushed in the crash. So they died primarily by drowning though Max was told much later that they might have died of their injuries anyway. Max, recovering in the hospital from his mostly minor injuries, kept thinking that only if he had been smaller, he could have reached them and saved them. This belief if he could be smaller he could have helped his parents drove him through adolescence. This belief that smaller was better, drove tall Max to study many branches of science in order to understand miniaturization better as well as various forms of meditation. He later became somewhat well-known in the field of miniaturization, creating a number of patents that he leased out to companies, making him a wealthy man.

Using his newfound wealth and the time it allowed him, he studied the problem and with the aid of a biofeedback device of his own design, inhaling certain gases and transcendental meditation was able to alter his body, shrinking in size and gaining powers undreamt of through the force of his Will. After mastering this ability, he discovered increased vision powers remained with him all the time and the rest only activated when he shrunk his body to whatever size he choose. Creating a costume that only appears when he shrinks, he became the hero known as the Lightning Bullet.

When he was in college, he made a number of close friends there. They shared a mutual love of superheroes who had started appearing when they were still kids. They made a pledge that they would all someday become superheroes on their own and then they would join together to become their own super-team. Many names for the team were thrown back and forth with no one name winning a majority. Max is the first of the group to actually become a superhero and he waits for the others to become superheroes and join him in Ruby City.
+15 pts

DESCRIPTION:
Max always slumps when standing or walking, trying to de-emphasize his 6'6" height. He kind of shuffles as he walks. He is actually in very good condition but the way he unconsciously holds himself, as Max, tends to hide that. He dresses in a moderate style, nothing too flashy. To his friends and family, he is Max. To colleagues and work folks, he is Adam or Dr. Dane.

As Lightning Bullet, he stand erects but is always shrunk down to one degree or the other. His costume is mostly white with gold lightning bolts running from his shoulders down the sleeves of the costume and down the legs of it as well. He has a bullet insignia on his chest and on his gold belt. He wears a cone-shaped gold helmet. He can generate electricity and have it run up and down his body when he wished.

Lightning Bullet, a new hero - Page 2 Screen41
Lightning Bullet, a new hero - Page 2 Screen43
Lightning Bullet, a new hero - Page 2 Screen42


PERSONALITY:
Motivation - Upholding the Good
As Lightning Bullet, Max comes across as a very friendly but serious guy with a lot of patience. He is popular with kids, women and men for various reasons. Kids like him because he is their size or smaller and he doesn't talk down to them. Women think he is adorable. Men find him interesting and a great help when they need a jump start on the battery of their cars. He is one of the newest yet also one of the last heroes in Ruby City as most other superheroes, most of whom have been active since WW2, have retired over the last six years.
+15 pts

500 pts start 450+50 background pts

DEX: 7 STR: 4 BODY: 6
INT: 5 WILL: 3 MIND: 4
INFLU: 3 AURA: 3 SPIRIT: 3
wealth 9
cost 230 pts

POWERS:
2 DIRECTIONAL HEARING %
3 DISPERSAL * %
5 FLASH %
8 FLIGHT %
9 LIGHTNING % ()
2 MICROSCOPIC VISION
3 REGENERATION *%
6 SEALED SYSTEMS *%
3 SHRINKING #
6 SYSTEMIC ANTIDOTE *%
3 TELESCOPIC VISION
3 ULTRA VISION

* = LINKED -2 fc
% = ONLY WHEN SHRUNK/IN HERO ID -1 fc
# = MUST AUTOMATICALLY SHRINK WHEN IN HERO ID TO 3 APs MINIMUM -1 fc
() = 0 RANGE/TOUCH -1 fc
! = FUTURE STAT INCREASES - ONLY WHILE IN HERO ID -1 fc [FOR ANY STAT THAT GOES ABOVE 6, 7 FOR DEX]
cost 226 pts

ADVANTAGES:
HQ: EXPANSIVE
INSTA-CHANGE
POPULARITY
MISC Advantage SHARP EYE - %#
cost 45 pts

SKILLS:
2 ACROBATICS
2 DETECTIVE
2 MARTIAL ARTS
2 MEDICINE
2 SCIENTIST
2 THIEF
cost 114 pts

615 total cost

DISADVANTAGES
ENEMIES 3x, every other adventure, 3 foes same pts level as hero 30 pts
MISC DISAD - DISLIKE BEING TALL - 6'6" 5 pts
IRRATIONAL ATTRACTION TO THINGS SMALLER THAN THEY NORMALLY ARE [SERIOUS, UNC] 25 PTS
IRRATIONAL ATTRACTION MUST SAVE PHYSICALLY TRAPPED PEOPLE [SERIOUS, UNC] 25 PTS
LIMELIGHT 20 PTS
SECRET ID - DR. ADAM DANE 10 PTS
-115 PTS FOR DISADS

615 PTS TOTAL
DavidMcMahon
DavidMcMahon
Cosmic Level

Posts : 7158
Join date : 2010-05-10
Age : 60
Location : Raleigh, NC, USA

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We are in that dead space between the End of the Golden Age, depending on who you ask either 1950 or 1954 when the Comics Code Authority came out, and the Beginning of the Silver Age, late 1956. The Korean War just ended in July, 1953. We are starting in early August 1953.

The 3 Villains he faces the most are these unless the GM nixes them:

First off, we have Pack Rat - Our American supervillain, detailed earlier in this chat including why he fights Lightning Bullet.

Second, our villain from Red China - Big Tien, the Collective Man. As LB has 3 levels of Shrinking, this foe has 3 levels of growth, which is why he called Big Tien. In that sense, they are opposites. He also, somehow, can use a small fraction of the collective [Hence the Collective Man nickname] abilities of the people of Red China, which is shown by the Power Reserve he has.

Third, we have the Soviet version of the standard jetpack hero like Buck Rogers, Adam Strange, Rocketman and Rocketgirl, Zip-Jet and Jetgirl, Commander Cody, Sky Marshall and others. He has a rocket/jetpack and a raygun which fires an Energy Blast, later with more HP, it could fire a variety of blasts like Vibration, Fire, Lightning and Sonic. He also has a sidekick. A lovely femme fatale/girlfriend/sister/political officer [pick what works] who fights with him and has her own jet/rocketpack and raygun. They use the Teamwork attack regularly. Together they are Red Ace and Natasha. He was a top Korean War Jet Fighter Ace before being selected to become Red Ace.

As to motivations for our two Commie villains, they mainly have two. First, they want to capture Lightning Bullet and determine how he got his powers so that their respective countries can duplicate them and/or be able to use them as weapons against the Imperialist Running Dogs of the non-Communist world.

Second, they want to prove the superiority of Communism by beating the stuffing regularly of that Imperialist Running Dog Lackey of a Degenerate, Weak American, Capitalist Pig Hero.

Third motivation that they have to be in America that's not directly connected to Lightning Bullet, he just gets involved, is the stealing of military and technological secrets.

As mentioned elsewhere, after running into Lightning Bullet a few times, they may decide to team-up but while their countries aren't enemies they are rival allies, so they wouldn't think twice about double-crossing the other when the time comes since they wouldn't want to share what they learn about Lightning Bullet with each other's countries.

So these would be the Big 3 of Lightning Bullet's list of enemies.

Hope that helps.