Chat about the game...

Will take a look - playing catchup as usual

In the best interests of all concerned, and to prevent further distractions, I will be stepping away. Thank you all for your time and patience.

I've sent you a pm, but will repeat the message here. Good players are hard to find, and though we had our differences with rules interpretations, I harbour absolutely no ill will whatsoever towards you Dee. Quite the opposite actually, and I'm sad to see you go. If you ever wish to come back you'll be welcomed.

Thanks, and best wishes, Paul

By the way, since Alex would be able to tell essentially right off the bat.. are any of Haunts powers supernatural in origin? I'm trying to think of how to play the eventual meet up.

By the way, since Alex would be able to tell essentially right off the bat.. are any of Haunts powers supernatural in origin? I'm trying to think of how to play the eventual meet up.

Not a single one of them. Or at least I don't believe so since I didn't write his origin that way. The Aura of Fear and Fog come from his costume, though they don't quite follow the gadget rules just a misc power limitation of needing the costume to make the powers work. The rest of his powers are his own with and without costume that he got from being tortured nearly to death and having an experimental acid poured all over his body as well as other drugs pumped into him. But our GM COULD decide that Rush King actually did die during that torture and came back with supernatural powers and is totally unaware of this fact.

Putty existed in the present day Nazis won the war universe. Anyman existed in the WW2 universe. This new universe didn't have a Putty/Anyman since he didn't exist prior to the Nazis won the war universe split off from the original universe so he was totally lost from existence when he stepped through the portal to our present day and time. However, nature abhors a vacuum and someone with Putty/Anyman's powers needed to exist, which is why the Haunt got his powers. Is that a supernatural reason or a super-science reason that the whole Universe declares you shall exist?

I guess we will find out when the Haunt meets your character and the GM tells us what's what. hehehe!

But there are diffidently no memories of Putty or Anyman inside the Haunt or any other past lives.

In a 'version 2' of your character David I can make the Haunt costume a 'true' gadget if you like. At the moment all his powers are inbuilt, but some require the costume as a focus - think Captain Britain type thing, whereby the power is innate but without the costume he has little or no control over it.

We can also change the character so that he is a true 'spirit' who inhabits the forms of ordinary people who become the Haunt for a while, then wake up 'haunt free' with the spook wandering off to possess another unfortunate body. The Haunt could be man, woman, child, animal even... Don't know what would freak the bad guys out worse - a ghostly horse who kicks their ass or the horse talking, Mr Ed style...

Thanks but not thanks. Gadget rules make my head hurt.

While I like the idea of him being a true spirit, it seems to be shades of Quantum Leap, a TV series I liked way back when but I think I will stick with him pretending to be supernatural instead of actually being one.

Heh, well the gadget rules in DC Heroes are notorious. An armoured suit or huge gun? No problem. A fork? Ah, not so good. Gadget rules in the game should have some kind of subtitle called 'Prototype creation' as under the rules a fork would cost a fortune to make and be a nuisance to put together in a lab.

So some of the powers are inbuilt at the moment, and the focus is the suit. No suit no powers (in Fog and the other ones case). No probs.

Be updating everyone tomorrow - had intended to tonight but I'm up at 4am for work and really need to hit the sack for my 5 hours of broken sleep, sorry. Hope everyone had a nice weekend (I saw Iron man 3 last night - was pretty good and went to the seaside today. Was expecting sun and warmth, so my t-shirt didn't offer much protection against overcast and bracing cool sea breezes. Brrrrrr.)

Cheers, Paul

Wouldn't a fork just be a gadget with 1 body that can be taken away in combat? .. meaning it would cost about 1 HP and a wealth check at 1 wealth would be enough to make it..

That's to bad about the weather, still, have a good night Paul. Hope you get more rest then you're expecting!

Theoretically Alex could take a nap as well. His regeneration power kicks in whenever he's unconscious after all, not just when hes been knocked out.

OOOHHHHH!!!!!! Take insomnia as a disad!!!!!!!

Just thought of something for when you update all our characters to be more in line with the DC rules, in all that copious time of yours, Haunt apparently needs a few points so he can change his power Fog so he can see through it himself? How about some minor pysch lim like "Must play at being a supernatural creature"? Should give him the points needed, I'm guessing.

By the way Paul, Stormbreaker has 14 flight.. his 'pouring on the speed' would be close to Mach 30 or so..

I think there's something in his write up needs clearing up: Power Reserve – Set Power Layout 1 (Str to 3 Dex) -1, Power Always on -1. I assumed his Dex up to 13 (with 3 points to Str, 4 to Dex) as he has 7 Power Reserve. If his Dex goes up by 5 points his Str rises by 2 points then?

On another note, will be getting some updating done today but pushed as usual - have a union meeting today (actually need to find out what time it starts) and then have a few hours before back in bed for work at midnight tonight... ah, the glamour of being a train driver. So, as usual, thanks for your patience guys

His power reserve works as 1 str to 3 dex, or as close to as possible. so point 1 is str, then 2-4 is dex, then 5 is str and 6-8 is Dex 9 Str, 10-12 Dex, and so on. As it only has 7 APs.. 2 Str and 5 Dex. Make more Sense now?

I'm actually thinking of using the Ability boost powers we're making for Mr. Liberty over in the DC vs Marvel Game. Dex Boost 5 and Str Boost 2 would work well as I wrote them out. It would also free the points to get rid of the more hoaky drawbacks I've been using to make it work

Still alive, still here. Ryan's update is next, then the team thread and Lore Knights. I just have one *nnnngh* shift to grind through before a weekend off and I will put in some solid hours on the game. I have so much to catch up on all I can do is hold up my hands and apologise. That real life thing. Stay the course please chaps, I will.

The updates in terms of how life is going and time you have are appreciated, but you know that I personally don't mind waiting. I am sure the others realise real life has to be done with first, as well. I don't think you need to apologise mate, we're grateful for all you do and thankful for such a engaging and challenging DM to game with.

Thanks

Sj

your schedule is so brutal that I'm surprised you can even post a quick note more than once a week.

Not worried about your posting rate, I know you will get to it when you can.

So, I was just reading up on the thread for everyone else, and the side discussion about Lionheart not being able to avoid things as easily as he used to. I'm not sure there's a way around that within the exsisting house rules. He was using OV (thats your passive dodge power) 13. That puts it in the same column as 15, our houserule maximum. To make him really that much more agile then everybody else you might need to let Lionheart have 16 for his OV only. That way he would REALLY be better at avoiding things. This does make me a little sad as I've always thought Stormbreaker would be the teams big agility character, but theres lots of history with Lionheart having that role so I'll just adjust my focus a little

Edit: as another thought, you could add something to let him give up his next dice action to opt for a dodge. That would add his Acrobatics to his OV. You can always do that if you haven't acted yet in a turn, but if you have then your stuck. If he had a bonus of some kind (say on danger sense) that let him trade his dice action in the next turn for a dodge action? It would stay inside the 15 AP limit while still letting him be extra hard to hit.

Flight could be used for his OV but you can perform no dice action if you do that and it's still limited to 15 APs.

Maybe getting a force field with the following advantage and disad?
This Power may be purchased with a special -2 Factor Cost
Limitation: Field Protects Power User Only.
This Power may be purchased with a special Bonus: Can
Attack Through Field. This Bonus allows Physical Attacks with
exterior targets to be made by Characters within the Field. This
Bonus doubles the Base Cost of the Power (to 60) and adds +I
to the Factor Cost.
Troia of the New Titans had this Power.

Maybe with another disad of Only in Use when moving at Speed.

Or Skin Armor, in use only when moving at Speed.

Or Partial Dispersal, in use only when moving at Speed.

I toyed with the idea of a certain amount of Dispersal - same as Frostbite, in that he can become partially solid (requiring a trickshot to hit) and it acts in the same way Flash used to (still does?) avoid blows sometimes - by vibrating through solid objects.

Or just have exactly the same effect and call it something appropriate - 'Darned Hard to hit: 5APs' or some such

Just an update on schedule. Despite my employers continued attempts to kill me, I have another 11hr shift to grind through tomorrow (just got in from todays) and wed/thurs off plus reasonable (well, 10hr+ but no stupid starts in the morning) shifts for the rest of the week.

Also a heads up -

FROM 1st JUNE I WILL BE AWAY FROM KEYBOARD TILL WEDNESDAY 5th!

I'm away in the Isle Of Man watching the bike racing (and having a go round the island myself hopefully, always assuming you can get round on a motorbike as opposed to needing a boat like last years monsoon proved)

I should be getting a post up tonight Paul, sorry for the delay in that.

Also, for the rest of you.. the bomborgs seem to move in formation, Frostbite and Sentinel both have ranged attacks up around 15 APs, something to think of would be to do some focused fire (a team attack) on the middle bomborg and let him blow his companions up. When Lionheart wakes up he could try a run by attack using his superspeed. Run in, hit the same one as hard as he can and then keep running past, using his speed to simply out distance the radius of the explosion. For the more strength types such as Yeoman and Haunt, take a page out of the Hulks playbook and throw stuff, there's lots of trees.

And be thankful that Stormbreaker isn't there. He'd just go brawl with them up close even if they blow up. He heals while they (probably) dont.

dunecat wrote:I should be getting a post up tonight Paul, sorry for the delay in that.

Also, for the rest of you.. the bomborgs seem to move in formation, Frostbite and Sentinel both have ranged attacks up around 15 APs, something to think of would be to do some focused fire (a team attack) on the middle bomborg and let him blow his companions up. When Lionheart wakes up he could try a run by attack using his superspeed. Run in, hit the same one as hard as he can and then keep running past, using his speed to simply out distance the radius of the explosion. For the more strength types such as Yeoman and Haunt, take a page out of the Hulks playbook and throw stuff, there's lots of trees.

And be thankful that Stormbreaker isn't there. He'd just go brawl with them up close even if they blow up. He heals while they (probably) dont.

Help these are some great suggestions, not sure why I didn't think of this myself, I guess its just the competing priorities, within the story line. But also not knowing of options like Run by attack? I've tended to assume that you run and attack. Not you run, attack and keep on running as an option, until you mentioned it. This is why having Lionheart be better at dodging would help. Previously we could relying on his 'borrowing' future actions as a reaction to attacks. While it prevented him from doing stuff, it also tied up enemies actions, as they tried and often failed to connect with him.

So out of interest, the other thing you mentioned was team attack? Can we specify that despite being on different initiatives we attack together or co-ordinate our attacks? Again didn't know about that.

When it comes to the rules, I really struggle to read them. I am a get in and learn as you go sort of player so whilst I knew our previous system backwards, this new one keeps me from trying things as I don't know what there is to try. And seeing how in the OOC discussion leads into quiet forensic discussion about the rules minutiae I find myself once again very lost. So any pointers from an experienced player would be very welcome.

Sj

Ryan's quite right about the attack from distance. These things are booby trapped (as you now know), the ultimate in 'shock troops' in that they can hit you from range, have a measure of strength to hit you up close and deliver a nasty surprise when they go down - thus destroying any evidence of their existence and maybe wiping out an enemy or two. Hitting one or two in the middle of the group would attack those in the surrounding pack, and if they split up to avoid this you guys have shown you can take them one on one without much bother.

The team attack tactic is good but only when several/many are ganging up on a single foe. That said, as the above suggestion went, taking out one or two in the middle of the oncoming pack may cause explosions that will disable the others (and trigger their bombs) or at least weaken them to make them easier to pick off. The tricky part would be assigning the target - all the Zomborgs look the same, and it'd be a case of "take the one in the middle, to the left of that one that's to my right!" "Wait, so your left or my left, and do you mean that one that looks like the other one next to it?" and so on

I'll cook up a map if the fight continues. At least then you guys can play 'battleships' and state attacking L7 or G4 or whatever

Some handy combat things to know about. The game refers to these as Maneuvers I believe.

Team Attack:
Two or more people attack the same target(s). You get a bonus to hit and damage based on the number of people attacking. People with a higher initiative have to wait for team members with a lower initiative to do this.

Multi Attack:
Attacking multiple targets. You take a penalty based on the number of targets you attack, also if you use a hand to hand attack you need to have enough speed to travel between all of them (this is sort of the basis I use to justify an attack in the middle of a move).

Critical Strike (or blow or something like that..):
Taking a penalty to accuracy to get a larger penalty to power. -2CS to hit and +3 to damage. Theres a more powerful version of this that is -4 to hit and +6 to damage as well.

Flailing Attack
Taking a penalty to power to get a bonus to accuracy, kind of the inversion of the previous option. I dont think theres a more 'powerful' version of this one.

Initiative Maneuvers:
Whoever takes first place in initiative can choose one or none of these options.

Pressing the Attack:
You, and all your targets take a -1 CS penalty to OV (thats the dodging value). This lets you hit more easily, but you get hit more easily as well.

Laying Back:
You, and all your targets take a -1 CS penalty to AV (Thats the hitting value). This makes you hard to hit, but your focus is mostly on defending so you aren't as accurate either. (This could be a good way for Lionheart to be better at dodging, He'll typically take the first action after all)

Some things to keep in mind is that all the bad guys have the ability to use these maneuvers as well. Haunt got beat down to 1 Body by a team attack. Also, most of these can combine freely with each other so long as you're not using opposing types like flailing attack and critical strike.

All Bonuses and Penalties are represented in Column Shifts (CS). I went over these a while ago, but in short all the stats are grouped like this
1-2
3-4
5-6
7-8
9-10
11-12
13-15*
16-18

Each of those is on CS group. Since each AP is double the previous AP, one CS is at least a x4 or a /4 difference, and they add up fast. Our current actual AP ceiling is at 15.

Bringing this all together in an example, lets say in the future Silver Sentinel, Stormbreaker, Frostbite and Lionheart are confronting a group of 6 Zomborgs and all of them win on initiative. The entier group could Press the Attack, conduct a Team Attack along with a Multi Attack. I believe 6 targets is a -3 to AV/EV (hit and damage) and that 4 people in a Team attack is +2 AV/EV, combined with a Press the Attack Initative action the group would take no penalty to AV (to hit) and a -1 CS to EV (power/damage). Given the apparent power level the Zomborgs have, they would probably all go down in one turn, as even a single one of them going down would blow up and possibly take out the rest, and so on..

In a less complicated example, Lionheart could, on his own simply use the 'Laying back' Initiative maneuver to up his OV (dodging). If he has his points laid out to even just 13 APs of speed that would put him up in the 16-18 grouping, making him VERY hard to hit.