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 You guys don't live in any fancy-pants gleaming metropolis like "Century City" or "Pinnacle Point" or whatever. This is Detroit. You guys aren't the first-stringers, you're no Revengers, or Justice Team. You're the other guys, the ones everyone hopes they don't ever need to count on. Well, too bad for them, because all those big names just bit it fighting some space freak over some kinda Power Glove doodad. Well, you'll show 'em you're just as good as the big leaguers! You don't need a billion dollars to be an arrogant, alcoholic womanizer, and you don't need to be from some alien planet to be a moralizing, self-righteous stick in the mud! Who says you need a fancy college degree to be an irradiated monster? Nobody, that's who! Now, there's a lot of innocent people that need help, and you're the only guys capable of providing it. You're not the A-team, you ain't even the B-team. You're the Backup Squad, and you're all they've got. What is Villains and Vigilantes? V&V is another oldschool superhero RPG, in the vein of Mutants & Masterminds and Champions, except this one encourages a surprisingly modern and storygamey mode of play, despite having distinctly old-fashioned, crunchy mechanics (it's a bit like Palladium, except actually playable). Basically, you say what you're trying to do first, then you work out what to roll based on that, with a pretty large degree of freedom on the players' part. There's not really many "skills" in a formal sense, though each character has certain fields of knowledge they specialize in, and there are a few dedicated stats for working with technology, but otherwise things like stealth or conversation are done directly through attributes, modified by your powers. It's surprisingly light for a game made in 1982. One thing to note is that your Charisma stat, when high, gives a bonus only with good, law-abiding people, and a penalty with bad guys, and vice-versa, so there's actually benefits to be had from low Charisma, which is interesting. Isn't there some kind of legal battle going on with this game? Yes, the original creators are fighting Fantasy Games Unlimited for the rights to the game, and it's this whole big thing, and I'd prefer it if we could not talk about it in the thread. Will you be modifying the system at all? I might change more as I go along, but for now, I'm changing the initiative system to work better for pbp. Initiative in V&V is normally broken up into little phases, and each character acts on the phase equal to their roll, but for every fifteen in their total, they get to act on that phase, and the phase that's fifteen phases below it, repeating until you take a turn that's on phase fifteen or less. I'm having each side take all your actions at once, highest roll overall determines which side (PCs or enemies) goes first. I'm also slightly changing how Inventing works. Each character gets Invention Points based on their intelligence, that lets them create new gadgets, make scientific breakthroughs, etc. Normally all uses of invention points are permanent expenditures, including minor MacGyver kitbashes that only work for a single scene. I'm changing it so the points used for temporary things like that are returned at the end of the current adventure, to encourage tech genius characters to make use of their inventing skills on the fly. Enough mechanical stuff, how do we make characters? Okay, cool. So, here's how this is gonna work. Rather than lay out the whole process for you, I'll just do it for you based on what you want to play (if you own the game, feel free to make the whole character yourself instead). Give me a general description of your character, their strengths and weaknesses, and such, and I'll do up the skills and attributes based on that. As for powers, you have three options: 1. You can describe the sort of powers that are core to your character concept, and you'll get them. This is kind of a boring option but if you have a really well-defined idea for a character, you should take it. Note that V&V has rules for making custom powers, so don't think there's anything too specific or weird for me to make for you. 2. Let me randomly roll on V&V's extensive powers table for you. If there's one specific kind of power you really need (like, if you want to play a genius inventor, you'll want Super Intelligence), let me know and I'll make sure it's included in your otherwise random set. If you really don't think the current combination works for you, like, you can't think of how to roleplay it, you can take a mulligan, it's no biggie. Note that if a power leaves some aspect of it up to the user's discretion (such as energy blast powers not being specific about the kind of energy), I'll pick something that meshes with the other powers that were rolled. 3. The Nuclear Option. I have in my possession a copy of Palladium's Heroes Unlimited, along with all three Powers Unlimited books. If you request it, I will roll upon the grand table of powers to generate your abilities, which can, in fact, be converted back down to V&V's simpler system. Be warned, however, that your results may vary, so don't complain if you end up with just Enhanced Taste and Clock Manipulation. This is for people who want to get really unusual with their powers. (I'll allow a mulligan if you suddenly regret your decision, but if you took this option to begin with, it's likely you don't feel such emotions as regret) I'm looking for 4-6 players to apply, and I'll keep recruitment open until October 14, 2015. You can contact me via PM, or maybe #Acolyte for IRC (in the latter case, I can roll powers for you in real time). So, here's what I want from you, in formal terms: Name: Name the character, both real name and hero name, though you can hold off on the latter until you have powers generated Description: Describe the character in terms of day job, background, personality, appearance, skills, and so on. Powers: Tell me how you want your powers generated, and then fill this section in with the powers you get. Stats: When I finish making all your boring numbers stuff, this is where it will go. Adding an image or other things for your character is optional, but it'll help. Since this is going to be pretty comic book-y, if anyone drops out or doesn't post for like two weeks, I'll just grab anyone who applied who's still interested in playing at the time, or even just call for new players to app, and we'll keep on rolling, no need to rely on the initial players to keep the game afloat. EDIT: Whoops, forgot to explain how I was changing the initiative system to better fit pbp. Fixed that. EclecticTastes fucked around with this message at 02:59 on Oct 8, 2015 |
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Oct 8, 2015 02:14
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I am Interested. Can we get you to make Random Powers Rolls and then build the character outward from that, or do you require concept first, powers later? Either works for me, but if we can ask for random rolls first I'd like some.
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Oct 8, 2015 03:45
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DivineCoffeeBinge posted:I am Interested. Can we get you to make Random Powers Rolls and then build the character outward from that, or do you require concept first, powers later? Either works for me, but if we can ask for random rolls first I'd like some. I don't see why not, I'd just figured you'd want to get a concept underway first, but, let's see what you get, it'll work well as a sort of tutorial for how the process goes. To begin with, you get six powers (it's 1d6+2, for those playing along at home). They are (the list they're pulled from listed first, then the specific power): 1. Magic/Psionic Items: Ice Powers (can be used as an attack that deals decent damage and covers target in ice, eventually immobilizing them; can generate ice armor that defends against many kinds of attacks; can use ice to build structures/bridges; Decide whether this magic item has its own built-in power source like a gadget, or if it uses your own power and stats for activation like a more standard power) 2. Skills: Pet (decide what kind you want and I'll stat it up, it's generally more intelligent than a normal critter, and is under your control, not mine) 3. Skills: Heightened Intelligence A (A-type skills represent human-level training, B-type heightened attributes are superhuman, this is +2d10, you get +10 intelligence) 4. Powers: Power Blast (the Powers list is the list for inborn powers that don't have any magic/technological/psionic dependence, like mutant/science accident/alien powers, Power Blast is raw damage, though it can be used as an active defense to block certain attacks, particularly hand-to-hand attacks and opposing Power Blasts) 5. Magic/Psionics (built-in, not items): Heightened Intelligence B (+3d10, +19 intelligence, also by the way having a higher Intelligence than an opponent makes it harder for them to hit you with mind control powers, there's this whole chart of how each possible defense interacts with each possible attack) 6. Magic/Psionic Items: Special Weapon (You and I get to talk out the specific attributes and abilities of this weapon, such as its forms, what you can do with it, how many times per day it can be used, and so on, and ironically it doesn't necessarily have to look like a weapon, or even have purely offensive abilities) Weakness (oh yeah you get one of these, surprise!): Low Self Control (three options: Trouble keeping powers from going off at random, difficulty holding back from dealing lethal damage, or difficulty controlling emotions) Now, what you do next is you choose one of those powers to drop, it's outta here. You may also drop your Weakness, but you must drop a second power as well in order to do so.
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Oct 8, 2015 04:16
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Can I go for the second option for power/skill gen?
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Oct 8, 2015 04:55
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Okay! I am going to drop the Power Blast. Why? Because it's the only one that isn't Magic and/or Smarts. gently caress YOU I AM A WIZARD Given that sudden burst of yelling, let's apply the Weakness to difficulty keeping my emotions under control. So I'm looking at a character with... let's make them two gloves/gauntlets. The left-hand gauntlet has Ice Mojo, while the right-hand gauntlet (the Special Weapon) creates a flaming sword and/or a shield of fire. The Pet can be a Familiar... let's say it's a dog. Let's say it's a dog similar to Mouse, if you're familiar with the Dresden Files. Okay, now I'm gonna create a character concept on the fly. If it seems a little disjointed it's because I'm typing poo poo out as it occurs to me. None of it is set in stone or anything, so we can adjust as needed. Stella St. Clair was kind of a nerdy kid whose parents were New Age-y flakes; she grew up in an environment where putting crystals on your chakras and playing the Pan flute were everyday activities. She tried to assimilate once she got to school, but it was kind of a tough sell, you know? As she grew up she rebelled against her parents' idea of how things ought to be, as every kid does, but instead of turning to 'science' or 'organized religion' or 'learning to play the drums' like one might expect she decided that her parents had some decent ideas but maybe they just weren't studying the correct esoteric texts. Which, of course, is how she started digging into the occult. The night before her high school graduation she tried putting her research into practice by summoning a demon - which, naturally, turned out to be a lovely Idea (tm). She was saved by being eaten by Professor Esoteric, one of the most accomplished wizards on Earth, who decided he saw talent in the girl and took her on as an apprentice; the part where, during the fight, she chopped the demon's hands off with her ritual dagger, distracting the thing so that the good Professor could finish his exorcism ritual, well, that certainly helped. (if you're thinking 'the demon hands were eventually turned into a pair of scale gauntlets that have ice and fire powers' you win a prize*) Stella's apprenticeship lasted all of a couple of months - just enough time for her to learn some rudimentary spells - before Professor Esoteric told her "I have to go to the Ebon Dimension to fight the Cult of the Anti-Flame. I'll be back shortly. Make sure you have dinner waiting for me when I get back." The Professor was kind of a dick like that. Also, he never came back. After spending some time waiting for Esoteric to return - and getting used to the Ritual of Intelligence Enhancement that he had placed on her so she would stop forgetting important lessons - Stella decided that if he wasn't around, someone was going to have to fight off the evils what live in the shadows and all that stuff. With the assistance of Dirgel (it's Welsh for 'secret!'), the Professor's dog who may also have been his familiar or possibly a previous apprentice who wasn't very good at his job, she was never entirely clear on that - Stella became The Nightwitch, Protector of Detroit from All The Forces Of Hell Itself. She is so mad, you guys. She still lives with her parents. They are supportive and understanding and although she hasn't told them she's a magic-wielding superheroine now, if she did they would approve of her life choices and offer her herbal tea. She never did get a date to her senior prom. Her mentor treated her more like a maid than an apprentice and then he vanished and now she has to fight supernatural evil even though she has no idea what supernatural evil really even looks like or anything and she's had her intelligence, which was pretty high already, artificially boosted and now she can't stop seeing everyone around her as mouthbreathing idiots. She was supposed to be learning the hidden secrets of the cosmos and instead she's got magic demonskin gloves and a dog. She doesn't even like dogs all that much. She is mad all the time. *prize may not actually exist
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Oct 8, 2015 05:18
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IPlayVideoGames posted:Can I go for the second option for power/skill gen? You also get six powers (lucky you), they are: 1. Skills: Heightened Endurance A (+2d10, +10 Endurance) 2. Magic/Psionics: Pet (naturally, this one can be a little more fanciful, if you go with magic, like an imp or griffin or whatever) 3. Magic/Psionic Items: Sonic Powers (sound, not hedgehogs, can generate and manipulate sound waves both to fool enemies and attack people, can shatter/crumble objects with sufficient application) 4. Magic/Psionics: Weakness Detection (on use, you learn one Weakness the target has, and get a bonus to hit them equal to a third of your intelligence, rounded up, the combat bonus is permanent for a given person for as long as they still have any of the Weaknesses you've learned of) 5. Devices: Transformation (working this out in IRC, it's one of the few complicated powers due to having several possible options, IPVG chose the first option, and so gains new powers and a Weakness, and all powers are tied to this device) -Skills: Heightened Charisma A (+2d10, +11) -Powers: Weather Control (you can alter the weather, the difficulty and cost go up the more drastically you want to change it) 6. Devices: Revivication (you can revive the recently dead, works 100% of the time -10% for each day they've been dead, or only -2% per day if they've been carefully preserved, reviving PCs resets them to first level, but it's really hard to die in V&V, so it's more likely going to see use on NPCs) Weaknesses: Diminished Senses (drop one of the non-Transformation powers to lose this one, this is another power we work out the specifics of behind-the-scenes, but represents a sensory problem of some kind), Mute (originally Reduced Endurance, rerolled due to being contradictory, drop one of the two sub-powers from Transformation to lose it)
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Oct 8, 2015 05:32
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Powers Took option #3, got Gonna do like DCB, and create a character on the fly. Dropping Item reduction, cause being a mute, bulletproof, matter repelling, flamethrower is much cooler than reducing things down. Alexander 'Viking' Verus was never exactly the brightest or the best of anything. But hell, he was big. 6'9", 280 pounds, and with broad shoulders, he played football, and when he graduated, he went up north to Alberta to work in the oilsands- good money for big guys like him. He did that for about a year or so before headed back to St. Johns, Newfoundland. Of course, when your plane home gets bombarded with negative energy because somebody just had to get into a fight in controlled airspace, bad things happen. Apparently a fight over turf broke out between Voidbringer and Dark Sentry broke out, and it so happened that their abilites reacted catastrophically right at seat 23C. Naturally, the plane blew up, but somehow Alex didn't die. Some weirdness between the two villains powers caused him to absorb their powers, and about 90% of fire from the explosion as well. They found him a couple of days later, after some searching and making sure that the villains weren't still duking it out. By that time though, his throat had been irreparably damaged by the incident, rendering him unable to speak. Soon enough, they discovered his powers as well, and suddenly the city of St. Johns got him set up to be a superhero, and then were left stunned when he left for some place more exciting, as there really isn't exactly all that many supervillains on the Atlantic coast of Canada. Most teams didn't want him, mostly because of the fact because they couldn't deal with a mute individual whose powers were basically built to destroy. Eventually, he landed himself a gig in Detroit as a freelancing hero. Not exactly glamourous, but if he could make a name for himself, then he'd land himself in a decent team eventually. In Detroit, he got himself a suit made up for him, and went to stop some crime. Eventually the city of Detroit coined him 'Firewall'- it wasn't like he was coming up with something of his own. Of course, the sheer destructive nature of his powers doesn't exactly endear him to the general public, so he shows up when all the other hero's are taken. It's fine, it's not like he can go work at a call center. berenzen fucked around with this message at 07:13 on Oct 8, 2015 |
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Oct 8, 2015 06:47
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Okay, time for me to work my magic. By the way, the rulebook says to base the core attributes on the GM's opinion of the players' strength, agility, etc. but naturally I'm not doing that, I'll instead go off your descriptions of the characters. Attributes go from 3 to 18, for reference. Stella St. Claire Strength: 10 (likely not very strong, but probably not too scrawny, what with all the yoga and healthy vegan eats) Endurance: 12 (doing busywork for a mean wizard takes at least a modicum of stamina) Agility: 13 (the benefits of being forced to do yoga, raised to 15 due to low weight) Intelligence: 16 (45 from powers) Charisma: 6 (she's, like, SOOOOO in touch with the darkness) Weight (actually important, sorry): 120 (I'm assuming she's not especially tall) Basic Hits (weight/50, round up): 3 Hit Points (Basic Hits times a number derived from all non-Charisma stats): 12 Healing Rate (how much you get per night of sleep, it's a factor derived from Endurance times Basic Hits): 1 Damage Modifier: 7 (+1 from Agility, +6 from Intelligence) Accuracy: +2 (from Agility) Chance to detect hidden objects (Intelligence-based): 32% (this stat is used passively when first entering an area where something is hidden, and can be attempted actively a number of times equal to Intelligence until the hidden stuff is found or you run out of tries) Chance to detect danger (same): 36% (used passively when danger is about to happen) Reaction modifier: -2 with Good characters, +2 with Evil (note: The reaction modifiers are actually reversed for Evil characters, so basically low Charisma means you give off vibes of being the opposite alignment) Carrying capacity (strength, endurance, and weight contribute): 132 lbs. Basic Hand-to-Hand Damage (derived from, I poo poo you not, carrying capacity): 1d4 Movement rate (sum of your strength, agility, and endurance equals number of five-foot squares you can move, I'm just converting it to feet): 37 points or 185 ft/round (note: If you get multiple actions in an initiative round, your movement is divided by number of actions, and that's how much you move for each action, that number is the total you can move in the time a round takes to complete, though if you're spending Movement to use powers, you can use all of it at once) Power (consumed by using Powers and also where damage goes when you run out of HP, hit zero Power while at zero HP and you die, it's the sum of your non-Charisma attributes): 82 (ice costs 5 per ranged attack for 1d12 damage+cumulative icing*, armor** can be generated at 1 point of armor per movement spent up to a maximum of 100 and costs 1 Power Point per round to keep from melting at a rate of 2 points per round, and masses of ice work like the armor, except you make two cubic feet per movement point spent) Items/Devices (I'll have both be independently-powered, for symmetry, as that's how all Devices work): Ice Gauntlet has 46 Power Points that may be used for Ice Powers (ice blast has a range of 19) and provides Ice Power as a defense while any power is active, Fire Gauntlet produces a sword of flame with +2 to-hit that deals Basic Hand-to-Hand damage +1d12 (costs 5 Power to generate, and 1 point/round to maintain) or a fire shield with 50 Armor Rating (5 points to create, lasts until depleted), counts as having Flame Power for defending against enemy attacks while either ability is active, and the sword counts as both Hand-to-Hand and Flame Power, whichever is better for penetrating enemy defenses. Fire gauntlet has 45 Power Points. Doge: He'll be statted up later and basically he's a top-quality dog, well-trained and very helpful. He can do everything a dog can do, including having inherent bonuses to Detect percentages (though, Stella's Intelligence means she won't be outclassed by very much in that regard). Costume/Secret Identity: You get one free costume, free of charge. You can manifest/don it in a manner you find logical, and it's immune to damage from your own powers (Unstable Molecules or something). You don't need to have a secret identity, but you probably want one so you don't need to always be ready for supervillain attacks. Inventing Points (Used to invent gizmos, in your case minor magical items, or for immediate bonuses to puzzle-solving or creating one-use items to solve a specific villain's powers or whatever, recall that you get back any points spent for transient bonuses at the end of a given adventure): 4.5/level (fractions are saved until they add up to whole points), currently 4 Chance to invent successfully: 135% (this stat is also used for any attempt to mess around with technology or high magic within your fields of knowledge, and can be affected by modifiers from a variety of sources, unsuccessful inventions do not cost Invention Points, but they do still cost the other resources needed to build them) Knowledge Areas (these represent what your character knows the most about, meaning bonuses to Intelligence rolls to know stuff about them, and they're what you'll be drawing on when Inventing, this part is a bit of ad hoc houseruling I picked up playing the game at a con): Religion/Mysticism (Occult, too), Scholar (History/Philosophy/etc.), Performing Art, Fine Art Hopefully all that is legible and understandable, feel free to ask any questions you have. *Ice is one cubic foot per point of damage dealt, each cubic foot weighs 100 pounds, if it exceeds the target's carrying capacity, they can't move, but aside from that they can attack the ice as normal to break it. **For each point of Armor you have, that's a 1% chance that attacks will be absorbed by the armor instead of your face. Each point of damage absorbed reduces the Armor rating by 1. So, each round you can make 37 points of Armor Defense Rating. EDIT: hosed up carrying capacity, fixed. EclecticTastes fucked around with this message at 07:18 on Oct 8, 2015 |
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Oct 8, 2015 06:58
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Alexander 'Viking' Verus (See DCB's character above for in-depth words about how things work) Strength: 16 (If he's playing varsity ball, he's gonna be pretty strong) Endurance: 18 (Same, though he seems pretty goddamn tough in general, and since his powers would give him more SDC in Heroes Unlimited, let's say they bump him up to 20) Agility: 15 (gotta have some quickness if you want to do well at any sport, though his high weight drops it to 13) Intelligence: 7 (not the brightest bulb, however) Charisma: 9 (He tries, but he's just not very well trusted) Basic Hits: 6 (aka Swole as gently caress) Hit Points: 22 Healing Rate: 3 Damage Mod: 0 (agility bonus and intelligence penalty cancel out) Accuracy: +1 Chance to detect hidden objects: 6% Chance to detect danger: 11% Reaction Modifier: +/- 0 to all Carrying Capacity: 853 lbs Base HTH damage: 1d8 Movement Rate: 51 points/260 ft. per round Power: 58 Inventing Points: .7 per level Chance to invent: 21% Knowledge Areas: Sports (if you think you might have one or two more, feel free to say so) Powers: Flame Power can be used as both an attack and an active defense (active defenses require you to spend an action to activate them for the turn). Attacks cost 2 Power, range is 36 (strength+endurance), and deals 1d12 damage. Bulletproof allows the absorption of all projectiles launched from firearms (including all guns and most grenade launchers), the projectiles may then be fired back. Costs 1 power for each projectile absorbed, and 2 power to launch it back. Damage and range are equal to the weapon the projectile was fired from. Negative matter can repel all objects as though exerting inverse gravity away from itself, for various non-combat effects, with a cost of 2 Power per use. Negative Matter can also be used to accelerate handheld objects as an attack (2 Power per attack), to-hit is -2 if the object is not designed as a ranged weapon or projectile, damage is equal to the base damage of the weapon or 1d6 if no such damage is listed. By spending additional actions, a previously absorbed projectile can be hyperaccelerated before being released, increasing its damage by 1d6 per action spent increasing the force applied (2 Power per round). Items held in hand can't be held onto for longer than the one round, but absorbed items can be kept inside indefinitely while the force of negative gravity builds up. Negative Matter acts as Gravity Control when determining defenses (costs 1 Power per turn to keep active, this cost doesn't apply if one of the other functions of the power was used this turn).
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Oct 8, 2015 07:33
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Count me in for option 2!
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Oct 8, 2015 10:01
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NovaLion posted:Count me in for option 2! You rolled five powers, perfectly average! 1. Magic/Psionic Items: Poison/Venom (You can produce a number of doses of a toxin each day equal to your Endurance. Select now whether it's distributed as an injection, spray, gas cloud, or some other method of transmission. Additionally, select the general effects of the toxin, such as paralysis, fatigue, sleep, etc. I'm disallowing the "death" option since you're a superhero.) 2. Magic/Psionic Items: Astral Projection (You may travel around in spirit form, leaving your body comatose. This lasts one hour, after which you automatically return as long as there are no barriers preventing you from doing so. You can also voluntarily return, or be forced back by having your spirit form's HP dropped to zero. Costs 12 power for the hour. Magic and Psionic powers, though not items, obviously, can be accessed while astral. Being astral makes you more vulnerable to mental powers, but less vulnerable to pretty much everything else. EDIT: Oh right if you're prevented from getting back to your body when you would normally be forced back, you, uh, die.) 3. Magic/Psionics: Pet (a different one than the other two) 4. Powers: Heightened Agility B (3d10, +15) 5. Skills: Heightened Expertise (Rolls another d100 to see if you're a master of one weapon 01-60, one broad group of weapons 61-90, or ALL weapons 91-00. Congratulations, you rolled the third of those. You have +4 to-hit when using any weapon. Your bare hands and super powers count as weapons for the purposes of this power.) Weakness: Reduced Strength (-2d6, -4, that's pretty rough considering that you rolled some pretty sweet melee combat powers.) EclecticTastes fucked around with this message at 11:50 on Oct 8, 2015 |
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Oct 8, 2015 11:31
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I feel like living dangerously. Gimme the nuclear option.
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Oct 9, 2015 03:36
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It turned out halfway alright for me. Vv Welp, nevermind. Of course, pixie dust pairs up well with my negative matter skill. berenzen fucked around with this message at 04:22 on Oct 9, 2015 |
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Oct 9, 2015 04:10
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Izzy posted:I feel like living dangerously. Gimme the nuclear option.  You rolled... three powers.  They are two defensive major abilities and one offensive minor ability. You receive: Reconstruction, Matter Expulsion: Metal/Steel, and Pixie Dust Here's how they'll work in V&V: Reconstruction: You can almost instantly repair or rebuild any piece of machinery without the slightest clue of how it works, but you must remain within the same general vicinity as the item or it will eventually break down again within a few hours, as it's your superpower keeping it together (5 Power to use, 1 per hour to maintain). You may also double your Invention Chance while crafting a Gizmo, but if you do, the Gizmo will only function for you, as it depends upon your power. Matter Expulsion: Metal/Steel: You can generate Armor at a rate of one point per Movement spent, up to a maximum of 100 (see: Ice Powers). You gain the Robotic Body defense against non-mental attacks while this armor is active (while it has increased defense against many powers, it's easier to hit for chemical, electrical, and magnetic attacks). You may launch metal blades at opponents (2 Power per attack) for 1d10 damage. You may create any handheld weapon from metal (2 Power to generate, lasts until dismissed, stats for each possible weapon are listed in the rulebook). You may also encase targets in metal (requires touch) at a rate of one cubic foot per action (1 Power per cubic foot). Each cubic foot weighs 200 pounds, and when the target's carrying capacity is exceeded, they can no longer move, but may otherwise attack the metal as normal to free themselves. Encasing metal lasts twenty minutes or until dismissed. Also, metal structures may be generated as Ice Powers (but last twenty minutes or until dismissed). Pixie Dust: You generate dust that can be sprinkled on people or objects to make them weightless for several minutes, or until the dust is removed (via vacuuming, a gust of wind, etc.). You generate a number of uses of dust per day equal to your Endurance. And now, your Weakness is: Lowered Intelligence (2d6, -7) Ouch. At least you pulled a fairly powerful Major Ability. EclecticTastes fucked around with this message at 04:17 on Oct 9, 2015 |
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Oct 9, 2015 04:13
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Oof. So it turns out I do feel such emotions as regret. Mind if I take a mulligan? That reduced Int is a killer. 
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Oct 9, 2015 05:03
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I may not wind up playing, but I want to see what I can salvage from the hell that is random tables: Nuke my rear end.
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Oct 9, 2015 05:49
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Could you roll some Option 2 powers for me, please? I'd not brave enough to take the nuclear option.
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Oct 9, 2015 06:18
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Izzy posted:Oof. So it turns out I do feel such emotions as regret. Mind if I take a mulligan? That reduced Int is a killer. No prob, it might be tough playing a Warhammer 40K Ork crossed with Metal Man in a superhero game. I'll even make the second roll from HU, too, since you rolled the minimum number of powers and that's hardly "Nuclear". This time you get five! Much better. Three defensive minor powers, one defensive major power, and one offensive major power. They are: Heightened Sense of Smell, Matter Expulsion: Wood, Hold Breath, Flight: Hover, and Super Power Punch Heightened Sense of Smell: You get a flat 10% bonus to detect hidden objects and 15% to detect danger, as long as whatever it is has an odor. Matter Expulsion: Wood: You can fire wooden arrows from your fingers that deal your basic HTH damage plus 1d3, with a range of quadruple your Agility (1 Power per shot, up to a volley of four simultaneous arrows, aimed at the same target, to-hit roll is all or nothing). You can launch a burst of splinters from your hands to hit all opponents standing in front of you within ten feet, dealing only 1d3 damage, but causing them to be at -1 on attack rolls until the splinters are removed (5 power per burst). You can create any handheld weapon you desire out of wood (obviously, bladed weapons aren't possible, everything else is the same as the Metal/Steel equivalent). Can create Armor (see the other two times I described it for those rules). Also said armor means I get to invent an entirely new row for the Defenses chart for when you're wearing wooden armor (basically, fire attacks are going to have a very easy time hitting you while it's up, but some other stuff will have a harder time damaging your wooden shell). Hold Breath: You can hold your breath for number of minutes equal to twice your Endurance. Flight: Hover: You can hover several feet off the ground, moving slowly through the air, roughly around jogging speed. Maximum height is about thirty feet. You leave no footprints and hovering doesn't make noise, which can be useful for sneaking around. Also, this kind of flight is absolutely free, no Power cost or time limits, so that's a plus. Super Power Punch: You can take all your actions for a round of combat, and trade them in for a single melee attack. If you do, multiply your basic HTH damage roll and Damage Modifer by the number of actions you would have taken, then add any additional damage for weapons. Weakness: Reduced Strength (-6)  You know, I'll just save some time and roll you up a power set from the V&V book, and you can pick which one works for ya. And right away you get EIGHT powers. 1. Powers: Heightened Speed: Your movement rate increases by 520. That's in squares of movement. Meaning 2600 feet per round. You also get +18 to Initiative, which means you're guaranteed an additional action every single round (since every fifteen on the initiative total is one action). 2. Powers: Invisibility: You dodged the 5% bullet of being permanently invisible, and instead must use an action to become invisible, at a cost of 1 Power per hour. While invisible, you are at +1 to hit and -1 to be hit, and these bonuses will continue to accrue at a rate of one point for both every turn until you give away your position (by attacking, talking, etc.) or an enemy makes a successful detect hidden roll to find you. The basic +1/-1 will remain, however. Additionally, to even have a chance of hitting you, the enemy needs to attack in the correct direction, or else it's an automatic miss. You are only invisible to visible light, however, not ultraviolet or infrared, and you still have a heat signature, and so on. You're still vulnerable to characters with the Light Control power, despite being transparent. Why? Same reason you can see despite being in a state where the light should be passing through your retinas without leaving an image behind i.e. it's a comic book don't overthink it. 3. Skills: Heightened Expertise: You rolled "pick one category of weapons" for your +4 bonus. To work with Natural Weaponry, you'll want "Unarmed". For Telekinesis, you'll want "Telekinesis". 4. Devices: Wings: Congratulations, you have a wing pack! It has a battery that allows for seventeen hours of flight without a battery. While active, you have +3 Agility, and your speed in the air is 57 squares (a measly 285 feet per round). You can pick whatever sort of "look" for your wings you want. 5. Magic/Psionics: Astral Projection: See earlier post. 6. Magic/Psionics: Telekinesis: You have a telekinetic capacity equal to your Strength times your level times ten (so, ten times your Strength right now). You can use Telekinesis defensively, using one action and 1 Power to set up a shield over an arbitrary area containing objects weighing a maximum of your telekinetic capacity (you could shield just yourself, or everyone in the party, once you get enough capacity), then costing 1 Power per attack repelled. You can use telekinesis directly on a target at a range equal to your Agility times your level, dealing damage based on how much capacity you use in the shot (for multiple actions, capacity refills at the start of a turn), with a cost of 1 Power per shot (the attack counts as Hand-to-Hand, which fyi is the hardest thing to hit with, that's why melee weapons have all kinds of to-hit bonuses). You can also move objects using movement points (and tying up capacity equal to the object's weight). They can be moved at a speed equal to your Endurance times level (in points, so multiply by five for feet/turn) at a maximum range of Agility times level. Such items can be thrown as an attack, at which point they deal damage based on their weight and velocity, taken from a table in the book for thrown items. 7. Powers: Natural Weaponry: This is another random table power. You got the middle result, +2 to-hit and +4 damage in unarmed melee combat. 8. Skills: Heightened Charisma A (2d10, +13) Weakness: Prejudice (Sorry, this doesn't mean you get to talk like Trump, it means everyone thinks you're a horrible mutant freak, and your Charisma always applies to the negative. That's right, Heightened Charisma actually makes this one worse. You want as close to ten as possible. However, NPCs have a chance to overcome their prejudice, a percent roll equal to their Intelligence, and the PCs can just choose to accept you what with being real people and all.)
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Oct 9, 2015 06:29
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EclecticTastes posted:Things This isn't so bad. I'm having a hard time thinking of anything but a not-Tibetan monk type character to fit along with it. Any chance of a mulligan? I'm drawing pretty low on inspiration from this.
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Oct 9, 2015 06:49
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RandallODim posted:I may not wind up playing, but I want to see what I can salvage from the hell that is random tables: Nuke my rear end. Another roll of five powers, here's hoping for some wacky bullshit. Oh boy I can already see you got an APS power, we're in deep already. You get: Borrow Power, Impervious to Sound and Vibrations, Copy Animal Attributes, Alter Physical Structure: Wax, and Immortality loving Palladium, man. Borrow Power: Grab an someone that has a superpower (must be from the Powers, Skills, or the Psionic side of Magic/Psionic categories, or from Heroes Unlimited) using a hand-to-hand attack, or just touch them for a moment if they're willing targets, and you get their power for five minutes. Requires 5 Power to use this ability, and for the duration, the original owner of the power can't use it. The power's abilities are recalculated to use your stats, where necessary, and you must pay all costs when you use it. Yes, you can take someone's extra-special training, but not some other guy's base capabilities. Why? Shut up, that's why. Impervious to Sound and Vibrations: When attacked with Sound, Vibrations, or Disintegration Ray, you count as having Sonic Powers and Vibratory Powers as active defenses (which mean there's almost no chance the former two attacks would hurt you, and a much lesser chance of the disintegration ray doing anything, either). However, unlike the powers it mimics, this one has no Power cost associated with it, and is always active. You also cannot be deafened permanently, and temporary deafness lasts half as long. Copy Animal Attributes: As it so happens, V&V has a Power called "Animal Plant Powers" that has a ton of charts listing possible powers you can get from all manner of animals. Use one action and 5 Power, and you can take on a temporary Power based on any animal within your line-of-sight within 600 feet. The power lasts for fifteen minutes, and you may only have one such power at a time. You choose what attribute of the creature you get, and you can mimic any quality of the animal the GM deems reasonable. APS: Wax: Oh man I love APS powers. You can become wax. First, your weight doubles (this is largely pointless in Heroes Unlimited but very powerful in V&V in terms of boosting raw HTH damage, though it'll completely tank your Agility). Hand-to-hand and projectiles are 0 to-hit on the defenses chart (meaning next to no chance of harming you, hitting is a roll-under system), Flame Power is 17 (+2 from its base target number). You can make wax impressions of footprints and stuff like that. You can alter your form to look like someone else (or just yourself without de-waxing), but you can't change your skin color or any hair, and you need to get clothes for the disguise separately (plus you'll look slightly waxy). You can also hide easily among wax dummies if you ever end up in a wax museum or similar setting (enemies would be at -25% to their detect hidden and -20% to detect danger towards you). You can also melt into a pool of wax that's all but immune to everything (all attacks are at 0 except for Chemical Powers, Ice Power, and Flame Power, the former two being unchanged and the latter having the aforementioned +2). Plus, if you get chopped up while in wax mode, you can just reform. You deal half damage if you try to attack while liquefied. You can shoot hot wax at people, too, at a range of Strength plus Endurance, dealing 1d10 damage (counts as Chemical Powers for defenses, costs 2 Power per shot). You can also make a watertight seal on things, but you need to stay by them to keep the wax on them (since it's all part of your body). In wax form, you have +5 Endurance. It costs 1 Power per hour to stay in wax form, rising to 1 per minute when liquefied. Immortality: You don't age, and are immune to radiation and disease. Poisons are only one-third as effective (usually affects duration, as V&V poisons don't usually deal direct damage, outright lethal poisons are automatically downgraded to knock-out poisons, though with full durations). Healing Rate is doubled, and scarring is dramatically reduced. Lost limbs and the like do not regenerate. Must not only be reduced to zero HP and zero Power Points before dying, but must be reduced to the negative of that total (or, alternatively, you can be decapitated or have your brain or heart completely destroyed to finish you off). Additionally, you receive +2 to Strength, Endurance, Agility, Intelligence, and Charisma. Weakness: Dimished Senses (Prejudice was rerolled as a boring duplicate, so you instead have something wrong with your senses that's not strictly, but could include, blindness/deafness/whatever. Maybe you're numb to pain, or sensitive to bright light. You could even be colorblind. Pick something that makes sense to you based on your perception of your character, and I'll determine the penalties.)
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Oct 9, 2015 07:20
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Ripley posted:Could you roll some Option 2 powers for me, please? I'd not brave enough to take the nuclear option. Turning to Heroes Unlimited is like playing the lottery, except instead of money, you get Holographic Memory Projection and Radar. You rolled a respectable six powers! And at first blush, it looks like you're a bit of an item collector. 1. Magic/Psionic Items: Power Blast: Described earlier, but in more mechanical detail, range is 12 (60 feet, remember, pretty much all range numbers should be multiplied by five, since they're in squares, not feet), cost is 1 Power, damage is 1d20. Can be used as an active defense rather than an attack, still costs the action to shoot the incoming attack. Decide whether it uses your own Power, or pulls from a built-in pool of 16 points, which recharged daily. 2. Magic/Psionic Items: Water Breathing: I'm gonna give you the second of the two versions of this power, which means this artifact makes you loving Namor. If you're not in water when it's active, you can't heal or recover Power Points and after a few hours you end up fatigued (so don't turn it on while you're out of water), but in water, not only can you breathe, but you do not spend Power for anything, and all your Power is replenished every turn. Also you can breathe. 3. Powers: Heightened Defense: As long as you're conscious, all attacks are at -4 to their target numbers. 4. Powers: Speed Bonus: Had to reroll a couple dupes, but, you get 360 squares added to any one movement type's speed (for you, either ground speed or swim speed). This is a different power than Heightened Speed, which also adds to Initiative. 5. Magic/Psionic Items: Willpower: Another one with two options, pick one (also, if you select the first option, choose whether the item runs off your Power or a built-in store of 20 points, which recharges daily): -Willpower A: You have total control over your body and mind. You can shrug off pain, hold your breath, remember minute details, concentrate like crazy, etc. This is a type of Defense, if you're actively using it during a given turn. Costs 1 Power per turn of use. -Willpower B: Gain one passive, permanent bonus to represent your willpower. Design it yourself (use the Heightened X powers as examples, the A-types, not the B-types, where relevant.), and run it by me. This can be used to gain a mix of smaller bonuses, rather than the normal Heightened X powers' single big bonuses. You can select "Has Willpower as an active Defense for no Power cost" as your bonus. 6. Devices: Vibratory Powers: You are now The Shocker. The range of your vibrations is 14, and they deal 2d8 damage. There's also a 20% chance that certain items will vibrate themselves apart or crumble. You have thirteen uses available before you need to recharge. You can also use vibrations as a defense, which just costs an action to set up and is otherwise free. You can also use this power to pass through solid matter by vibrating at the right frequency. You have sixteen uses of this latter ability, and it costs movement points for each inch of solid matter you move through equal to the structural rating of the material (luckily you have a Speed Bonus to raise your available pool of movement points). Weakness: Reduced Charisma (2d6, -5) Just a mechanical note, devices and some (at player/GM discretion) magic/psionic items use their own randomly-generated stats for things like range, if anyone noticed the pattern and was curious. EclecticTastes fucked around with this message at 08:58 on Oct 9, 2015 |
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Oct 9, 2015 08:15
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NovaLion posted:This isn't so bad. I'm having a hard time thinking of anything but a not-Tibetan monk type character to fit along with it. Any chance of a mulligan? I'm drawing pretty low on inspiration from this. Yeah, given you'd definitely want to drop the Weakness, it probably would have been the agility, expertise, and poison stick, pretty kung-fu. And absolutely, mulligans are just as much for if you can't think of a fitting concept as if you just end up super weak. You rolled three powers.  I just rolled them and I'm not even gonna bother with the full description. Heightened Charisma A, Poison/Venom, and Light Control (at least in the latter's case, you can use some lasers and make a blinding flash, among other stupid light tricks). Weakness was Lowered Intelligence, to top it off. Mulligan #2! Three... powers. Well, at least you got some better options! 1. Magic/Psionics: Psionics: Make up any psychic ability you want! Well, within reason. This is the wildcard psychic power, rather than telekinesis or telepathy or whatever. 2. Magic/Psionics: Pet: Okay this is obviously the one getting dropped. 3. Powers: Magnetic Powers: Welcome to die! You have a magnetic capacity of Strength times level times fifty (so, Strength times fifty). Spend an action and a Power Point to set up a magnetic field as a defense, costs one additional Power for each attack blocked, but doesn't tie up any magnetic capacity. You can fire a magnetic blast, range is equal to Strength, and damage is based on how much capacity you employ (it's not actually spent, but it can be less than your maximum if you're tying up capacity doing something else Important: This actually also applies for Telekinesis, I hosed up in the initial description, mea culpa). Power cost for the magnetic blast is 5 per shot. To move metal objects around, you need to make an attack roll at the item (Power cost is 5), and then you just spend movement to move it. Naturally, the item uses up magnetic capacity until you drop it. The maximum speed is equal to one tenth your remaining magnetic capacity (in squares, mind you). You can maintain control over an item for a number of turns equal to your Endurance, then you must spend 5 more Power to maintain control. Throwing items deals damage on the weight/velocity chart, and counts as a hand-to-hand attack rather than magnetics (all physical attacks are HTH) Weakness: Low Self-Control (thought about rerolling the dupe, but it wound up being Lowered Intelligence so I'll leave you with the choice of whether you have trouble keeping your powers from going off, or if you have trouble pulling your punches, since DCB's got the low emotional control) Since that set's a little bit iffy, I'll give you a third to save time. Five powers, so, here's hoping. 1. Magic/Psionics: Magical Spells: Design one magical spell, roughly equivalent to one of the mid-range powers. From there, you may create new spells through Inventing, which will also be of similar power. 2. Magic/Psionics: Willpower: Seen before. 3. Powers: Adaption: At a cost of one Power/hour, you resist all hostile environments, from the icy cold of the tundra, to the heat of the desert, to the vacuum of space, the surface of Venus, I poo poo you not, the book even says you can survive inside a star. You can also passively (no actions or movement needed) activate the power for 1 Power per attack to use this power defensively, and Adaption reduces like half the attack types straight to 0, and that's before Heightened Defense (there are ways to hit someone when the target number is zero, so the stacking defenses is a good thing). 4. Skills: Heightened Defense: Seen before. 5. Skills: Heightened Attack: +1 damage per level on all attacks. Weakness: Prejudice (Never trust a wizard) Or (because that's a duplicate, we already got someone getting pre-judged)
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Oct 9, 2015 08:48
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We talked a bit in IRC, time to put it down here "on paper". I'm going to go with the final roll you made for me. I'm going to ahead and drop Heightened Attack, it doesn't have a place here for me (as good as it has the potential to be). For the first spell, I'm sticking with that open-target teleport we talked about, for 5 Power. If need be I'll open it up later on to a universe-wide distance so we can have the Hero Hut on Treasure Planet. I'm choosing Option A for Willpower because who doesn't want to live inside a star? The weakness is going to be Diminished Senses: Light Sensitivity Edition. --  "Checks are in, we're looking good" the familiar voice came across the com sounding even and jovial as ever. This assembly mission is such an easy task, gives me plenty of opportunity to enjoy it up here. A flash. Next, the rumble. The station was shaking, and Michael had no idea why. He started looking around in a panic, hitting his O2 thrust to get back to the hatch. Another flash, another rumble, this time sending him to slam against the shell of the construction module. Don't freak out. Get inside, get it together. Turning and taking full view of the station, realization finally set in. The station was going up in flames. How did this happen? Why is nobody talking? "Cassidy? Fischer? Anyone read? What the hell is happening in there?!" Silence. Or static, he couldn't tell which. Michael reached for the hatch when it split open. The brief flame and concussive force snapped his lifeline and sent him hurdling into the reaches of nothing. He was left with no option but to watch the rest of his only hope of salvation go up in flames and be snuffed out just as quickly. Minutes passed. Hours. How long have I been floating here? It didn't matter. I'm going to die here. Michael closed his eyes. His oxygen had run out, no telling how long ago. It's time to accept what has happened, make peace with your circumstance. All those memories, graduating Exeter, the Air Force Academy, MIT, all the people, all gone the instant the flame of life flickers out when he suffocates and freezes. New images set into his mind, images too unfamiliar to be memories. His mind began to ache, his body shuddering, as though something was expanding inside his very soul. If there were such a thing. Michael opened his eyes to the sound of street traffic. What the hell? The sun was blinding, he could hardly keep his eyes open. Detroit? How did I get here? Can someone launch be back into space?
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Oct 9, 2015 14:03
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NovaLion posted:2001: A Space Oddity oh wait that was the pun in the song's title to begin with oh well whatever. Michael Bowie (surname filled in over IRC) Strength: 12 Endurance: 16 (if you're not a pretty tough customer, you do not get to go to space) Agility: 14 Intelligence: 15 (you also need to be drat smart if you're going anywhere science-y) Charisma: 13 (when was the last time you met an astronaut who didn't give off "American Hero" vibes?) Basic Hits: 4 Hit Points: 14 Healing Rate: 2 Damage Modifier: +2 Accuracy: +1 Detect Hidden: 12% Detect Danger: 16% Reaction Modifier: +1 Good, -1 Evil Carrying Capacity: 316 Basic HTH damage: 1d6 Movement Rate: 42 (210 feet) Power: 57 Inventing Points: 1.5/level Inventing Chance: 45% Knowledge Areas: Scientist (Physics, Astronomy, etc.), Transportation (Space Travel), Mysticism/Religion (well, enough for basic magic stuff, anyway)
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Oct 9, 2015 14:25
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I'm having a hard time pulling something cohesive together for my character, hmm. I'm going away for the weekend so I'll keep thinking it over and maybe get on IRC when I'm back, but could I possibly get a mulligan for a second option, assuming you're not completely tired of random numbers already? Edit: "The one that's really good underwater" isn't usually a very helpful niche to fill in a superhero game, when everyone else would rather be dealing with villains who aren't lurking at the bottom of Lake Erie. Ripley fucked around with this message at 17:42 on Oct 9, 2015 |
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Oct 9, 2015 17:04
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Ripley posted:I'm having a hard time pulling something cohesive together for my character, hmm. To be fair, water breathing was only one of several powers, but it's true that there's not a lot of cohesion. I think I'll allow players to exclude certain lists of powers from the random choices, now that they're all known. That way, if someone doesn't feel like playing someone with Magic, they can just pull from Powers, Devices, and Skills. As an example, I'm gonna do precisely that for your mulligan, and roll you up someone non-magical. (and fyi I never tire of random numbers, ask for all the mulligans you feel you need) To start, you get five powers. 1. Powers: Absorption: You have a ton of options here. You choose what and how your absorption works. Mainly you're choosing what you absorb (powers, memories, HP, stats, Power points, whatever), but you also have a say in how it affects the enemy, and how long the absorption lasts in the case of things like power theft (you can have power theft be permanent, but only if you take just one power at a time, releasing the currently stolen power when you want to absorb a different one). 2. Devices: Power Blast: Already seen before. As a Device, this one comes with fifteen uses, range 14. 3. Devices: Psionics: As said earlier, make up your own custom psychic power. 4. Devices: Life Support (had to reroll two extraneous copies of Power Blast): You have an environment suit that provides all your essential needs indefinitely, along with providing defenses, all passively and at no cost. However, the suit can be damaged by certain attacks, the percent chance is equal to the damage dealt. Note that when you have a suit as a Device, your other Devices can be built into it. 5. Skills: Natural Weaponry: You got the best roll of +3 to-hit and +6 to damage with hand-to-hand attacks. As a skill, Natural Weaponry just means your hands are especially lethal. Weakness: Reduced Endurance (2d6, -8) Now, that set isn't especially cohesive, either, it wound up with a couple powers that clash, I think, so I'll give you another (and also I just love rolling on random tables). Well, this one gets another eight powers, I'll still be excluding magic (because there's already a bunch of people who rolled magic stuff). 1. Devices: Disintegration Ray: Disintegrates inanimate objects and liquids. Ignores a material's hardness and simply removes points of structure 1:1 from whatever it hits. Living things, however, don't disintegrate, they instead just take damage, until they die (likely not a situation you'll want to see), then they can be disintegrated. Deals 1d20 damage, the device has 17 uses, and range is 15. 2. Devices: Bionics: You have cyborg parts! Choose three body parts to replace with cold, unfeeling steel, and give them associated bonuses (for example, robot arms mean more Strength, cyborg brain implants boost Intelligence, subdermal armor could add a passive defense bonus, a cyberheart might boost Endurance, and so on). Also, all of your other powers can be explained as being installed inside your bionic implants. Plus just having Bionics changes your defenses a little (you're harder to hit with hand-to-hand, gravity, paralysis rays, and transmutation, but easier to hit with magnetics, lightning, chemicals, and ice). 3. Powers: Heightened Senses: Make up your own enhanced sense, like having radar sense, or night vision, or a sixth sense that boosts your detect hidden and detect danger, stuff like that. 4. Powers: Weather Control: Rolled this one earlier. 5. Devices: Vibratory Powers: Seen already. Device has 11 uses for blasts and 16% chance of shattering/crumbling with 16 range, 12 uses for moving through stuff. 6. Powers: Absorption: Just rolled it up above. 7. Powers: Dimensional Travel: Choose between one of these three options: -You can travel freely between Earth and one specific other dimension (can be like the alternate dimensions from Doctor Strange, or alternate Earths, including those that simulate the past or future, but that aren't actually time travel), costs 4 Power for a one-way jump. -You can "time travel" to any point in the current Earth's past or future, but it's actually just dimensions simulating those times, so you can't alter the past or learn the future this way. Requires a successful percentile roll equal to thrice your Intelligence. Failure means you're off your intended time by minutes, days, or even years, and the worst degree of failure dumps you in an entirely different dimension, and you'd need to find some other way home because your powers don't handle that kind of travel normally (if you have 15 or higher Intelligence, that last result never comes up). Requires 10 Power to make a jump, and you must know your current time and place. -You can freely travel between any non-Earthlike dimension. Describe the dimension you want to go to in as much or as little detail as you want, then you roll a percentile check, success is equal to your Intelligence plus how much Power you spend. If you've ever been to the described dimension before, the base chance increases to quadruple your Intelligence. You must know where you presently are in order to get your Intelligence included in the roll at all, though. If you fail the roll, you end up lost somewhere else interesting (you won't ever pop up anywhere that could immediately kill you), and you have a percent chance of figuring out your location each day equal to your Intelligence. Naturally, you'll always get quadruple your Intelligence when trying to return to Earth, as long as you know where you are. The cost is however much you want to spend on the roll. 8. Skills: Speed Bonus: Movement points go up by 160. Weakness: Vulnerability: Choose whether you want to be vulnerable to a specific attack type, or would rather have a specific, Kryptonite-like weakness. I'll determine the exact details for you based on your backstory and powers, but suffice it to say that the less common the vulnerability is, the more vulnerable you'll be to it. Also, keep in mind you're gonna drop one power, possibly two if you don't like your Weakness. EclecticTastes fucked around with this message at 21:43 on Oct 9, 2015 |
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Oct 9, 2015 21:23
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I do not need a mulligan, EclecticTastes, but I promise if I get killed or my character becomes Evil I'll ask you to roll at least three power sets for my replacement. I wish I could find the Scarlet Spider panels where he saves a little old lady from getting hit by a car and proceeds to shout at her for not looking where she's going. That should give you a pretty good idea of where I'm at.
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Oct 9, 2015 21:56
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 Stormcrow Working as a Paramdedic, Luke McGillicutty had seen some real poo poo. Every night was an endless cascade of stabilizing people with various injuries, overdoses, and everything else thrown in. It's no wonder that in his time off, he tended to spend more time than not at various bars, drinking himself stupid to help forget. It was one of those nights that found him stumbling out into an alley after last call. There, amidt a crumpled, smoldering dumpster, lay a being that looked formed of pure light. Despite the alien anatomy, it was clear it was pretty messed up and not going to survive, so Luke drunkenly put his skills to work to try to save him. He kept it alive long enough for several other creatures to materialize and collect their friend. Luke attributed the whole affair the next morning to being drunk - until he found the being in his kitchen, making coffee. It explained that it was named Baal, God of Storms, and that in thanks for saving its life, he was blessing Luke with an ever refilling cup of magical hqt to give him a fraction of his power, provided Luke swear to never misuse it and always uphold what's right. Not one to turn down beer anyway, Luke found that the God was true to his word, and not only was he infused with the power of the storm, it also gave a pretty good buzz. And maybe this way he can stop some of those stabbings and shootings before they even happen. If he can avoid getting plugged himself. Stuff kept: 1. Skills: Heightened Endurance A (+2d10, +10 Endurance) 3. Magic/Psionic Items: Sonic Powers (sound, not hedgehogs, can generate and manipulate sound waves both to fool enemies and attack people, can shatter/crumble objects with sufficient application) 4. Magic/Psionics: Weakness Detection (on use, you learn one Weakness the target has, and get a bonus to hit them equal to a third of your intelligence, rounded up, the combat bonus is permanent for a given person for as long as they still have any of the Weaknesses you've learned of) 5. Devices: Transformation (working this out in IRC, it's one of the few complicated powers due to having several possible options, IPVG chose the first option, and so gains new powers and a Weakness, and all powers are tied to this device) -Powers: Weather Control (you can alter the weather, the difficulty and cost go up the more drastically you want to change it) 6. Devices: Revivication (you can revive the recently dead, works 100% of the time -10% for each day they've been dead, or only -2% per day if they've been carefully preserved, reviving PCs resets them to first level, but it's really hard to die in V&V, so it's more likely going to see use on NPCs)
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Oct 9, 2015 21:59
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EclecticTastes posted:To be fair, water breathing was only one of several powers, but it's true that there's not a lot of cohesion. Right, yeah, I was mostly thinking out loud about the water breathing. Thanks for the alternative rolls, I'll see what I can come up with.
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Oct 9, 2015 22:02
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DivineCoffeeBinge posted:I do not need a mulligan, EclecticTastes, but I promise if I get killed or my character becomes Evil I'll ask you to roll at least three power sets for my replacement. I'll roll as many as you want, man. By the way, just so everyone has an idea of how Gizmos (and their magical equivalent, in Stella's case) work, pretty much everything on Batman's utility belt is a Gizmo-level ability. Not all that powerful on their own, with only so many uses in a given adventure (I think I'll break the game up into "issues" because that's thematic), but formidable when taken together.
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Oct 9, 2015 22:02
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Luke McGillicutty Strength: 12 Endurance: 14 (24 from powers) Agility: 16 (he's been determined to be pretty agile, via IRC) Intelligence: 14 (a paramedic needs to be fairly bright to accomplish anything, but with all the booze, probably not too bright) Charisma: 10 (guy probably comes across as pretty normal) Basic Hits (determined he's 180 lbs. over IRC): 4 Hit Points: 25 Healing Rate: 3 Damage Modifier: +1 Accuracy: +2 Detect Hidden: 10% Detect Danger: 14% Reaction Modifier: All neutral Carrying Capacity: 372 Basic HTH damage: 1d6 Movement Rate: 52 Power: 66 Invention Points: 1.4/level Invention Chance: 42% Fields of Knowledge: Medical, Transportation (Automotive, helps to know about traffic when your job involves being in an ambulance), Sports (he's a baseball fan, stated on IRC) Specifics about powers (since I was kinda vague about them earlier): Sonic Abilities: Range is twice your Strength (so, 24 squares or 120 feet), objects vulnerable to sound (mostly glass and crystal) shatter Strength% of the time (so, 12%), and damage on an attack is 1d12, costing 1 Power per shot (other uses would also cost 1 Power). Sonic Abilities can be used as a defense, requiring just one action to set up, no Power cost (basically it's the same as the defense option from Vibratory Powers). Weakness Detection: The to-hit bonus you get on a target whose weakness you've detected is equal to a third of your Intelligence, rounded up (so, five), and you need to be within five feet to use the power. EclecticTastes fucked around with this message at 22:34 on Oct 9, 2015 |
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Oct 9, 2015 22:27
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Can we get some more info on the Gizmo system? I expect that with Stella's Intelligence boosts she'll be using it to create a bunch of spells, so it'd be nice to know how I can
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Oct 9, 2015 23:35
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DivineCoffeeBinge posted:Can we get some more info on the Gizmo system? I expect that with Stella's Intelligence boosts she'll be using it to create a bunch of spells, so it'd be nice to know how I can Well, for starters, if you make spells, they'll be lower in power than a guy with the Magical Spells superpower (it's the Magical Spells power itself that allows for spells to be as good as regular superpowers*), and rather than running off of your Power, you'll have a limited amount of them per "issue" (IRL it would be per game session), or else it will have somewhat less overall power. Like many other things, Gizmos are pretty freeform, so you should try to come up with the general effect before trying to work out the specific mechanics. Let's work with an example: Say you want to make some acid pellets. First, consider if there's a power that can do that already. There is, it's Chemical Power. Chemical Power attacks deal 2d8 damage, but that's a little much for a Gizmo, so maybe 1d10 is more appropriate. As a thrown weapon, it's got a range equal to Agility, and let's say you get a +1 bonus to accuracy, as most thrown weapons have at least that much. It would count as a Chemical Power attack for determining difficulty to hit (so, base target roll-under number of 11, before modifications from stats and the enemy's defenses), which is about in the middle of values. Lastly, how many uses do you get per day? An appropriate number would be between three and five, for something like that. Since it's mimicking a superpower, it's toned down, and somewhat limited in use. For another example, let's go with the classic, the Batarang. Well, there's already a weapon that fits the general purpose, the boomerang, so let's use that. Well, boomerangs have a range of Agility (times two, if you count the return distance) and return to your hand, have a +2 accuracy bonus, and deal HTH+1 damage. Well, a Batarang's gonna be stronger than that. Let's boost the accuracy to +3, and increase damage to HTH+1d6 (the same as a hatchet). Now, because they return, and thus aren't really used up, you'd only get one, and if you somehow lose it, you'd need to wait until you get home to grab/make another (you never permanently lose Gizmos). This is just a mild upgrade to something any character can use, so you can use it more often, though it's not just "always there" the way your powers are (like, if you drop or lose a Device or Magic/Psionic Item, it'll be back in your hands within a scene or two, unless one of the big hooks for the current issue is that said item was lost/stolen). Naturally, if you tell me what you're trying to make, I can stat it up for you. To break down the actual in-game inventing process, first, you identify what you'll need to build the Gizmo. By which I mean I'll tell you what you need. This stuff, of course, costs money (the simpler the invention, the lower the cost), assuming you don't have/choose to go get it yourself. Then, you'll need to set aside time to actually work on the Gizmo. Using only your free time, it will take two months (just one if you sit out adventures until it's ready) to attempt to invent something. When you've spent the necessary time and money (or earned the ingredients some other way), then you roll your Inventing Chance (a simple roll-under percentile check). If successful, the Inventing point is spent, and you have a new thing. Your inventions should remain vaguely within your character's general motif (so, science guys make science Gizmos, magic guys make magic Gizmos, tech guys make tech Gizmos, and so on), and if you don't have a relevant area of knowledge in your background, you'll need to do research as part of the inventing process, adding another month to the inventing time (regardless of whether your character sits out or not). There's a certain amount of wiggle room available (like, you could use Sports if you wanted to make a piece of custom gear based on some sort of sporting equipment), but the invention should at least be vaguely related to one's knowledge. Also, some things are just plain impossible, and I'll tell you if you come up against any of those. Now, for more transient uses of the inventing system, you can temporarily spend points to solve problems. Points spent this way are replenished at the end of the issue. Basically, you can spend a point to suddenly see right through a puzzle, or figure out the solution to a mystery, without any rolls or checks, you just Batman right to the answer. Or, you can use your brilliant inventing skill to create just the right doohickey necessary to deal with an unusual threat using the same process as making a normal Gizmo (so, like, a weapons-grade fire extinguisher if you're having trouble with a villain who has flame powers, or a special heat tracker to keep up with their movements), except the time required is only a few hours. These will usually be as potent as a full superpower, but their use will usually be limited to doing something that the current threat is particularly vulnerable to, and they'll only last until the end of the session (either they break down, or get confiscated, or simply get recycled due to no longer being useful). *EDIT note: Just a by-the-way, Magical Spells always do just one thing, lacking the broader versatility of, say, Ice Powers or Magnetism. EclecticTastes fucked around with this message at 01:24 on Oct 10, 2015 |
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Oct 10, 2015 01:01
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So if I were to want a couple of "Gizmos" (read: magic spells) that, say... one of them imparted a small amount of bad luck to a target as a curse, and the other used minor illusory powers to cause fear (dimming lights, spooooky noises, et cetera), each of which could be used maybe two, three times a day because they draw on Stella's internal reserve of magical energy and, as a neophyte, she doesn't have much mana to spare, those would cost me two Gizmo Points and leave two more points free for deus ex machina-ing my way through plot? Can I begin play with 'em, or would I have to be tinkering with them in my spare time?
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Oct 10, 2015 03:27
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DivineCoffeeBinge posted:So if I were to want a couple of "Gizmos" (read: magic spells) that, say... one of them imparted a small amount of bad luck to a target as a curse, and the other used minor illusory powers to cause fear (dimming lights, spooooky noises, et cetera), each of which could be used maybe two, three times a day because they draw on Stella's internal reserve of magical energy and, as a neophyte, she doesn't have much mana to spare, those would cost me two Gizmo Points and leave two more points free for deus ex machina-ing my way through plot? Can I begin play with 'em, or would I have to be tinkering with them in my spare time? I'll say you gotta work on 'em during play, since you're already starting out with a couple solid powers (if, say, someone just had a bunch of Heightened X powers and/or Natural Weaponry, I'd probably let them spend their initial Invention points during the pregame, since they're pretty much Batman). As for your spells (cantrips maybe?), the first sounds like a -4 on a target's next attribute check or attack roll, three uses/issue (I'll say the range is equal to twice your Agility), and the second would be audio-visual Illusions (as the Illusions power, minus the ability to fool any of the other senses besides sight and hearing), also usable three times/issue (range is line-of-sight, anywhere in line-of-sight, as the Illusions power). Materials for each will run about a thousand bucks on the black market (pretty cheap, all things considered), or you could try to find the appropriate ingredients yourself (they include things like "Nightshade that first bloomed under a blood moon" and other such esoteric items, fortunately we had a blood moon fairly recently so you're in luck on that front). You can borrow money from the other players if they're willing to help out, naturally.
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Oct 10, 2015 04:24
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 Roll me up some powers.
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Oct 10, 2015 17:13
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Epicurius posted:
Alright, you get five powers. They are: Super-Consumption, Mechano-Link, Wave Rider, Evasion, and Growth. Super-Consumption: You're Matter Eater Lad. You chomp clean through all but the toughest inorganic materials, but for organics, you can just deal extra damage with bites (2d6 per bite, it's otherwise a normal HTH attack). You can also swallow and digest all the stuff you chew, including explosives, your stomach disarms them apparently. The stuff you eat is digested super fast, too, giving you extra energy that translates into +1 to hit, -1 to be hit, and +5 to initiative. However, you need twice your weight in food every day, luckily for you, food=everything. Mechano-Link: Regardless of your actual background, you count as having the Research/Technology and Transportation (All) skill areas, with no penalty for alien technology ever, because you can just link up with machines through skin contact. This also gives you +2 to-hit with all mechanical weapons, and +30% to your Invention Chance when doing anything with technology. Wave Rider: You can generate waves of water from any sufficiently large source, then ride them around somewhat faster than you can run. The wave can be maintained indefinitely so theoretically you can just make a wave down by Lake Michigan and then ride it through downtown Detroit. Costs 1 Power per hour the wave exists. Also once you hit level four you can use snow instead of water if you want. Growth: There's actually a power for this in V&V, which I'll use, but ignoring certain random elements since the HU version doesn't have those bits. So, based on a random die roll, you can freely grow between any of six different sizes, each of which will affect your movement rate, melee attack range, and weight (meaning Agility and base HTH damage). Costs 2 Power to grow, but shrinking is free. Weakness: Reduced Charisma (-7)
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Oct 10, 2015 17:57
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EclecticTastes posted:I'll say you gotta work on 'em during play, since you're already starting out with a couple solid powers (if, say, someone just had a bunch of Heightened X powers and/or Natural Weaponry, I'd probably let them spend their initial Invention points during the pregame, since they're pretty much Batman). As for your spells (cantrips maybe?), the first sounds like a -4 on a target's next attribute check or attack roll, three uses/issue (I'll say the range is equal to twice your Agility), and the second would be audio-visual Illusions (as the Illusions power, minus the ability to fool any of the other senses besides sight and hearing), also usable three times/issue (range is line-of-sight, anywhere in line-of-sight, as the Illusions power). Materials for each will run about a thousand bucks on the black market (pretty cheap, all things considered), or you could try to find the appropriate ingredients yourself (they include things like "Nightshade that first bloomed under a blood moon" and other such esoteric items, fortunately we had a blood moon fairly recently so you're in luck on that front). You can borrow money from the other players if they're willing to help out, naturally. That works!
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Oct 10, 2015 18:06
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Go ahead and hit me with that nuclear option. I've got a soft spot for giant randomization tables.
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Oct 11, 2015 05:44
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Dachshundofdoom posted:Go ahead and hit me with that nuclear option. I've got a soft spot for giant randomization tables. You and me both. That's three powers rolled, oof. They are: Flesh Works, Dimensional Pocket, and Multiple Lives. A small list, but chock full of Palladium weirdness! Flesh Works: You can mold the flesh of other living beings! Creepy! First, you can identify the general nature of a being (human, mutant, alien, etc.) by sensing their flesh, this also tells you of any diseases, injuries, or other ongoing negative effects they may have. You also get a rough idea of how many Hit Points they've got. Range for that is fifteen feet, scanning someone costs 1 Power. You can also take minor control of someone's body, for subtle effects (making them twitch a finger and "accidentally" fire their gun, or give them distracting itching that gives them -1 to hit), or major effects (make a limb stop responding, or cause a dude to swing around and stab one of his buddies with his knife). Range is 50 feet, costs 5 Power. You can make it look like someone's skin is literally crawling, causing other enemies to possibly become afraid, and the affected enemy is at -2 to everything. Range is 50 feet, cost is 5. You can fully paralyze someone's limb for a while, with various effects based on what you use. Requires touch, cost is 5. Also with touch, you can reshape the flesh of others as though working clay. You can do this to totally mess them up, or you can do it to help disguise someone. You can remove scars, blemishes, even tattoos. Horrible disfigurement causes the victim -2 on rolls and -10 Charisma, while helping disguise someone gives them +5 Charisma for the purpose of impersonating someone, and their Reaction Modifiers will always be positive when trying to sell a disguise (as you make them look heroic or villainous, as needed). Disfigurement lasts five minutes, disguises last twenty, range is touch, cost is 10. You can also heal people by touching their skin, you heal 1d20 Hit Point damage, costs 2 Power per heal. Lastly, you get +5 Endurance as your own flesh is especially tough. Dimensional Pocket: By reaching into a hole no larger than a small purse, you can access a pocket dimension where you can store and retrieve items. They must be small enough to fit, so, notepads, cell phones, and such are all valid, but weapons larger than a knife or small handgun are not. You can't put any living creature in the pocket dimension, either. Costs 1 Power to access the pocket dimension, but it will remain open until you've finished adding and removing items for the moment. Multiple Lives: When you die, your body turns to dust, and you regenerate somewhere safe about a day later, regenerating slowly over a period of several hours. You come back with one fewer level and two fewer Endurance (dying at first level means massive penalties for several weeks along with loss of all experience). You can only come back eleven times, though, after that, you're through. Also, if someone finds your body while it's being remade, they can attack it, and if it's destroyed, that'll also finish you off. Also you can regenerate lost limbs within 48 hours, have a doubled healing rate, and your Endurance goes up by another 5. Weakness: Prejudice (repeat, but one with a lot of options) or (since I don't like repeats on Weaknesses) Special Requirement (You need to do or have something to make your powers go. Given that there's some passive effects involved, let's say you need something on a regular basis to maintain your powers, or else lose them until you can get more.)
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Oct 11, 2015 07:11
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