Ruby City OOC Chat

I just got a Reddit notice that the fan run City of Heroes now has size control for character creation.  Looks like you can be anything from 12' to an inch or two.  Guess I will have to make a couple of versions of Lightning Bullet at various sizes for visual reference.   

I updated my avatar to be a more 1950s version of Captain Conduit.

Looks nice.


BTW, can you post a bit faster or what is your best posting rate would be a better question. We usually post every day or two. If yours is once a weak, that's fine, it lets us know how to pace the adventure.

I should be able to get 2 to 3 posts in a week, but not daily right now. Sorry.

My pacing is 'off' right now but should speed up. Got loads to do but thankfully work isn't one of them over the next five days (wooohooo!!!) Regardless of pace, I'm a permanent fixture of this place so don't ever get worried if I'm awol for a day or two!!!

Cheers, Paul

David (M) new player IndigoRose is still with us and hopeful to start in Ruby City once a character has been cooked up. A couple of ideas pitched for characters...

a smoke controlling detective

a super stretchy teen

Any thoughts? Any other suggestions? Open to possible write ups, new character types, powers, skills, background etc. I started on a write up for a 'smoke controlling detective' (you know that sounds familiar) and cost of skills ran me into a dead end on the initial write up as I was short on HP and need a little more background to start whacking on drawbacks/disadvantages...

Smoke controlling sounds like the guy from One Piece anime and manga. I got time at work tomorrow, so I will see what I can do then.

Here is Rubber Boy, teenage stretchy hero.  The way I wrote him, he still has 13 HP left to spend on stuff, assuming I did my math right.


Rubber Boy
 
DEX        6 [42]    STR         6 [36]    BODY     6 [36]
INT         4 [21]    WILL      4 [18]    MIND    4 [18]
INFL       4 [21]    AURA    4 [18]    SPIRIT   4 [18]
WEALTH               0              [0]                                                          = 228
INITIATIVE                          HERO POINTS
 
POWERS:  STRETCHING 9 [BC 10, FC6 = 94], OMNI-ARM 6 [BC10, FC5= 40], SYSTEMIC ANTIDOTE 4 [BC5, FC4= 17]
= 151
SKILLS:  ACROBATICS 3 [BC15, FC7= 29], DETECTIVE 3 [BC10, FC8= 26], MARTIAL ARTS 2 [BC25, FC7= 32], THIEF 2 [BC10, FC9= 19], VEHICLES 1 [BC5, FC5= 8], WEAPONRY 2 [BC5, FC6]: MELEE ONLY [-4 FC]= 4
= 118
POWER BONUSES & LIMITATIONS:  ENHANCED GRAPPLING [+1 FC/STRETCHING]
 
ADVANTAGES:  AMBIDEXTROUS [15], GENIUS [25]
=40
DISADVANTAGES:  AGE: 16 YEARS OLD [15]], INNOCENT [10], SECRET ID [10], UNCERTAINTY [15]
= 50
MOTIVATION:
 
= 537 [13 HP LEFT TO SPEND]
 
16-YEAR-OLD SCHOOLBOY JUST STARTING DRIVER’S TRAINING [HENCE HIS VEHICLES OF 1].  HIS DAD IS A POLICE DETECTIVE AND TAUGHT HIM SOME STUFF OVER THE YEARS [THINK HARDY BOYS AND THEIR POLICE DETECTIVE DAD.  Mickey Mouse Club doesn't first air until 1955 but the Hardy Boys was one of their big serials that they produced for the show.  That's why I came up with the idea of teen detective with superpowers.]



Could remove Space from vehicles for a -1 fc to the skill for 1 more point. Or even water and air so just cars for 6 points for the skill instead of 8.


Took ambidextrous for the bonus +1 to his AV.  If that doesn't really work with his omni-arms and melee weaponry then substitute any other advantage for the same amount or spend them however.

Ok, here's my shot at a smoke detective.  I made him have a public ID instead of secret.  I linked everything and it seemed to work.  He has 2 enemies of equal power to him.  He has 3 irrational attractions/fears/ hatreds to come up with but they are common, minor [Booze, broads and ???].  Gave him a secretary who is his Dependent.  He has 2 HP left to spend if I did my math right.

Knockout gas is his big attack but it is a 3 AP AOE [80'] which can be bad if he is in the same room as his teammates but I figure he can later get an Energy Blast - Knockout Gas for a directed attack with XP.  Outside of that attack, his martial arts means he will be trading blows with normal thugs and may take awhile to take them down.  He is both bulletproof under our house rules and can become dispersed.

Sort of Combined Sam Spade with Smoker from One Piece anime/manga.  Dex is linked to many of his powers and skills so raising that will become a priority as he adventures and its going to be expensive.



Smoke detective
 

Dex 5     [28]        Str 4       [18]        Body 9[72]
Int 5       [28]        Will 4     [18]        Mind 4[18]
Infl 4      [24]        Aura 4   [18]        Spirit 4[18]
Wealth 5 [8]
= 250
Powers:
Fog 4*  [Str, bc5, fc3]: doesn’t hinder character’s vision +1FC= 11, Dispersal 4* [will, bc10, fc6]: partial +2 FC= 28, knockout Gas 9* [Body, bc 20, fc4] = 44, Flight 5* [dex, bc10, fc 3]= 15
= 98
Skills:
Acrobatics 5* [bc15, fc7, dex] = 35, detective 5* [bc10, fc8, int] = 34, martial arts 5* [bc25, fc7, dex] = 45, Military Science: Cryptography, Danger Recognition, Tracking only 5* [int, bc 10, fc9, -4fc] = 22, thief 5*[bc10, fc9, dex] = 38, vehicles: land, water only 5* [bc5, fc5, -2 FC, dex] = 10, weaponry: Firearms, Melee only 5* [bc5, fc6, -3, dex] = 10
= 194
Advantage:
Area Know: city [20], Omni-connection [25]
=45
Linked * = -2 FC
=587
 
Disads:
Dependent: Secretary [25], public id [5], limelight [20], Enemy 2x [2 1x foes, every other adventure = 15], Irrational attraction/hatred/fear [3 minor common 8 pts each]
= 89
 
2 HP left over.  Could add 10 more points to Disads with Debt and it could be his 3rd Irrational Attraction -  Booze, Broads and Gambling [gambling on horses is legal in California] and he is in debt to his bookie.  He could then get a HQ for 10 points, it would be his detective agency office.

Just some ideas of combining a 50s hard boiled detective with superpowers.

We could probably come up with some kind of questionnaire when it comes to new players who aren't familiar with character creation of DC Heroes/Blood of Heroes. Something like...

Rate these from 1 to 10...(use one number for each where 10=Highest Priority, 1=don't really care about this)

How is your character at...

1) Hand to Hand combat
2) Tough/Resisting physical injury
3) Smart/figuring stuff out
4) Moving about - running, jumping, flying, swimming, teleporting etc
5) Attack from a distance (with a gun, energy blast etc)
6) Mind powers? Reading Minds, talking mind to mind, mind controlling etc
7) Magic/mystical abilities like spells etc
8) Stuff out of combat like super senses, non combat abilities
9) Skills (like Martial Artist, Acrobatics - both vital in physical combat) and stuff the character knows
10) weaknesses - these give you more points to buy a better character with but obviously make them vulnerable in certain situations

I'll alter these questions when/as required and we can use the answers as a guide. For instance in Hand to hand combat is 10 then Dexterity (which is attack and defence in physical combat) is of high or the highest priority. If 10) Weaknesses are the lowest priority you may end up with few or no weaknesses but the character will be of narrow focus and not much good at everything else. For instance we could cook up a character who has one or two powers at reasonable levels (say, 6-9 points) but everything else is 3-5 if you have no weaknesses to give extra points.

An extra 15 points for History, Description and Personality (each) can be earned with a short description of each. In addition another 5 points are awarded for the following information (as found in a 'who's who' style comic book entry):



I'll never require anyone who plays this game to know the rules. Literally all you need to do is describe what your character is doing (words and deeds) and any rules stuff I'll sort out. When it comes to character creation myself or David M can help out (and anyone else who wants to pitch in, to be fair). In addition I am always open to a player rejigging their character to change or ditch stuff they don't use as there is nothing worse than spending points on something that doesn't really ever crop up in play. I do try to look through a character's abilities and make a situation in every adventure where some or all of the characters' abilities are used in some way but sometimes it's not always possible.

Throw in:
a.  How many different attacks do you want?  All range, all close combat, some mix?
b.  How many different defenses do you want?  Physical attacks [High Body, force field/shield, High Dex or Skin Armor]?  Energy type attacks [Absorption, Hig Dex or Systemic Antidote]?  Defense against mental attacks?  Defense against magical attacks?
c.  Any particular superhero or villain you want to pattern yourself after, realizing you are a starting character and it will take many adventures and HP to get anywhere close to that hero or villain?




C. might cover a lot of what a player is trying to do and the rest of the questionnaire might not be needed.

Might want to throw in some beginning game mechanics to help the player like:

1 Beginning/low level characters will have attack and defenses in the 5-9 range.
2 A speed of 9 breaks the Sound Barrier.  A sports car has a running of 7.  A F-15 has a flight of 11.
3 Mid-range Heroes will have attack and defenses in the 10-15 range.
4 A Body of 9 is mostly bulletproof except for armor piercing high caliber rounds.
5 Max human physical stats are:  10 Dex, 6 Str, 6 Body.  Normal is 2-3 in those stats.
Stats double each time they go up by one.  example, you could lift Str 3 400lbs, then Str 4 800 lbs, then Str 5 1600 lbs, etc.
6 Body in the 22-24 range can survive a multi-kiloton nuclear bomb. 28-30 to survive a 100-megaton nuclear bomb.
7 Gadgets are extremely difficult to make well in this game and expensive and time consuming to replace when they break, and they will break.  You will need a number of skills and advantages, lots of money and a dedicated lab and still may wind up out of the game for weeks on end while your powered armor is repaired.

I think that would help a new player who might not know the game system understand better what his character can and can't do.

Indigorose wanted to see what this looked like with a regular character sheet as my version wasn't clear to him.  can you run one up please?

Sort of Combined Sam Spade with Smoker from One Piece anime/manga.  Dex is linked to many of his powers and skills so raising that will become a priority as he adventures and it’s going to be expensive.  Pretty much everything is linked giving a low cost to start but going to be slow raising up powers and skills later on.



Smoke detective
 
Dex 5     [28]        Str 4       [18]        Body 9[72]
Int 5       [28]        Will 5     [24]        Mind 4[18]
Infl 4      [24]        Aura 4   [18]        Spirit 4[18]
Wealth 5 [8]
= 256

Powers:
Fog 4*  [Str, bc5, fc3]: doesn’t hinder character’s vision +1FC= 11, Dispersal 5* [will, bc10, fc6]: partial +2 FC= 34, Energy Blast 9* (hands=Smoke Bullets) [body, bc15, FC3] = 27,  Flight 5* [dex, bc10, fc 3]= 15
= 87

Skills:
Acrobatics 5* [bc15, fc7, dex] = 35, detective 5* [bc10, fc8, int] = 34, martial arts 5* [bc25, fc7, dex] = 45, Military Science: Cryptography, Danger Recognition, Tracking only 5* [int, bc 10, fc9, -4fc] = 22, thief 5*[bc10, fc9, dex] = 38, vehicles: land, water only 5* [bc5, fc5, -2 FC, dex] = 10, weaponry: Firearms, Melee only 5* [bc5, fc6, -3, dex] = 10
= 194

Advantage:
Area Know: city [20], Omni-connection [25], HQ -detective office [10]
= 55

Linked * = -2 FC

= 592
 
Disads:
Dependent: Secretary [25], public id [5], limelight [20], Enemy 2x [2 1x foes, every other adventure = 15], Irrational attraction/hatred/fear [3 minor common 8 pts each – Booze, Broads, Gambling = 24], Debt [Bookie]=10
= 99

Just some ideas of combining a 50s hard-boiled detective with superpowers.
 
Do 450 starting points plus 50 points for background and 99 points for Disads, it comes to 599 points – assuming my math is right.  Leaving 7 points left over to start the game with or to use somehow in finishing the character.
 
Gambling on horses is legal in California.  So our hero is in debt to his bookie for some bad bets on horses.


Wealth of 5 is about $40,000 a year, which is pretty darn good for 1950s, in 2000 money.

What’s a dollar worth?

Find out here. Use the consumer price index (CPI), which measures the average change in prices over time using a market basket of goods and services, to see how far your dollar goes today, compared with previous years.
$40,000 a year in 2000 is worth $6218.71 in 1953.

That is a cliffhanger ending for the first issue. Fred is going to need some persuasion skills to convince the Ruskies that he is still the scientist they want... can they blame him for wanting to experiment on himself as well?

I don't think Andy was around when you came up with the Accuracy skill. Might want to explain that one to him.

DavidMcMahon wrote:I don't think Andy was around when you came up with the Accuracy skill.  Might want to explain that one to him.  

No thank you. I don't see a reason why Fred would be extra accurate with his attacks. I see him as a guy who recently came into his powers. He's not super adept at fighting with them.

Accuracy (in our house rules) is a catch all skill which gives extra dice with whatever power you buy it for, even for things like Perception checks. If you do feel like you could with a few extra dice for certain actions at one of the in between adventure points you can use your points for buying the Accuracy skill (and assign it a power/action) at the starting cost level rather than the expensive later on improvement costs. That's a one off (after that it costs a lot of HP to buy new stuff or improve).

I'm absolutely grimed up to the eyeballs at the moment (been installing a drain in the driveway last two days) so if I don't get chance to update tonight it will be tomorrow for sure. House is getting there. Slowly. Next week I get to start on the garage floor levelling. I can't wait

Don't worry about the delay. I started a new job on Monday, so I now have less free time too.

-andyman

Question for about the Actor Skill. On the sheet in the Who's Who it says Captain Conduit has "Artist (Actor, Writer)" instead of the Actor Skill that has the Disguise and Impersonation subskills. Or is this included? I'm referencing to the Actor Skill in the "Batman Role-Playing Game" book only because it is a simpler way for me to keep the rules with me near my computer. Fred has been doing a lot of disguising himself and impersonating, which the Actor Skill in this book fits with very well. Can I convert that "Artist" skill to "Actor"?

Thank you,

Andrew

Admin wrote:OOC The Batman role playing game is kind of it's own thing. Based on 1e (I think? I'll have to look at it again) so things have changed somewhat. We run using the latest variant of the rules (Blood of Heroes 2e) then house rule them. However... if there is any element of doubt or clash where the players hopes/expects things to work in a certain way, I'll do my utmost to make sure it goes the player's way if it doesn't break other stuff. So with that in mind this is the latest variant of the Actor subskill of Artist from BoH 2e:



I'd say that covers dressing up and impersonating someone else. With the way we use skills you'd use Infl/Aura to fool the target who are generally not the brightest sparks so far. You'll then get three extra Dice to roll (for 5D12 total, pick the best two and discard the rest) to help ensure your check is as high an OV/Rv against the target's Perception check as possible. Most of these goons (so far) are Int 2/will 2 so not the most sharp eyed...

I think that pretty much covers what you want from the Artist/Actor subskill and though the description has been tweaked/changed from 1e/Batman through 2e/3e and Blood of Heroes they all pretty much do the same thing - fool those who aren't the sharpest tools in the box.

Thank you. I agree this matches what I asked for. I think it is time for me to get Blood of Heroes 2nd Edition for $64 unless you know a less expensive way to get a copy in good condition.

Is there an Absorption option that would let Captain Conduit heal himself if he absorbs electricity? I like the idea of him getting hurt, but then if he can get to an electrical source he could heal himself. Alternatively, he has Lightning blasts, but not control over electricity. If he can control electricity that'd be cool too. Since I don't have the Blood of Heroes book, but only DC Heroes 2nd Edition and the Batman Rules, I'll some help here.

Thank you!

andyman

andyman wrote:Is there an Absorption option that would let Captain Conduit heal himself if he absorbs electricity? I like the idea of him getting hurt, but then if he can get to an electrical source he could heal himself. Alternatively, he has Lightning blasts, but not control over electricity.  If he can control electricity that'd be cool too. Since I don't have the Blood of Heroes book, but only DC Heroes 2nd Edition and the Batman Rules, I'll some help here.

Thank you!

andyman

FYI: I purchased Blood of Heroes 2 via Ebay and it should arrive by Sept. 27.

Been up to my eyeballs so only just seen last few messages!

It depends on how you view 'less expensive options' as there is a PDF of the 2e Blood of Heroes floating about. Illegal/unsanctioned but it keeps the game alive as Pulsar is long gone and the legality of their cloned game was in some doubt anyway. The DC heroes game is - as far as I know - owned entirely by DC Comics so Pulsar never (seemingly) had the rights to the system anyway. I've had the odd chat with Josh Marquart (one of the authors who is active on social media) and seen what Ray Winninger (author of 3e DC heroes) wrote on the same Facebook pages to clarify the situation. Pulsar came out with the game in good faith but it seems that they were never legally able to buy the rights to the game from Mayfair in the first place as DC own the rights. I think. It's a mess and the game is in limbo, probably forever.

Anyway. I'm not justifying downloading or using the PDF, just stating it's 'out there' and that's it.

I would have tried to suggest a cheaper option on buying the book but it seems all cheap options have dried up in the UK. The last copy I bought (I think I have 2 or maybe 3 but one will be the 1st edition I guess - off the top of my head - and one of them is well thumbed indeed) didn't cost a lot but that was a few years ago. Now you can't buy them for love nor money it seems. I haven't decided yet on what/if I will sell any of the stuff I have on the shelves now as I've not even gotten rid of the fusty 'been in storage for years' smell which I know fades over time. Once I've sorted it into keep/sell piles I'll have a better idea.

Here is what I payed for mine which should arrive by Friday. I purchased it on eBay from a gamer and prefer the paper version to the PDF, because the less time I spend looking at screens the better. (I work as a Software Engineer.)

1 item
$41.00
Shipping
$15.00
Tax
$3.92
Order total
$59.92