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Campaign:Into the Void
Adventure:Discussion
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Turn Start Date (ex. 12/31/6565)
Turn Number:1.2
Combat Turn:No
Subject:Character Discussion
GM: For character types, it would be a good idea to have one brick, at least one or two beamers (ranged attackers) and one mentalist as primary types. It wouldn't be a bad idea if you had a teleporter who could (eventually) teleport to other settlements in the solar system. Perhaps this could be the mentalist or one of the beamers. Someone who could survive in space would also be a good character type, perhaps the brick or a beamer.

GM: The following are the development rules that I used for the Wings of Justice campaign with some minor tweaks for this one. I think we can use them to start with.

Starting characters may be built on 150 points, plus up to 115 points in disadvantages. Max for one category of disadvantages is 40 points.

House Rules
  • Everyone must have at least 25 points in skills (excluding skill levels/bonuses).
  • Most of your characteristics, except those that are an integral part of your concept, should be 23 or less.
  • In general, no more than about 10 to 15 percent of your points should be in foci.
  • Each character may have an Elemental Control or a Multipower, but not both.
  • Skill bonuses cannot go into a Power Framework. This includes bonuses for powers such as Mind Scan and Missile Deflection. The skill bonuses must be purchased separately as skill levels.
  • Variable Power Pools are discouraged but not forbidden. However, if you take a VPP, it can only be changed between adventures.
  • Limitations must be limiting. If I don't think a particular limitation is limiting, you won't get any points for it.

Powers
  • Force Wall - Force wall automatically blocks one sense group. Depending on the nature of the wall, I may allow it to block other sense groups for no additional cost.
  • Invisibility - You cannot buy invisibility to more than 3 sense groups (at least to start with).
  • Regeneration - Regeneration is a 10 point, persistent, special power that affects self only. It is not a variant of Healing. Define it as a Custom Power. It is self only and for each 10 points, allows the character to recover 1 point of BODY during post-phase 12 recoveries. For slower regeneration (1 point per hour) take the Rapid Healing talent.
  • Shape Shift - You cannot buy shape shift vs more than 3 sense groups (at least to start with).

If you want to buy any of the following powers, talk to me first as I am inclined to disallow them, but may be talked into them with a good concept.
  • Clairsentience
  • Desolidification
  • Extra-dimensional Movement
  • N-ray Vision

Build Guidelines
  • The five main defenses are PD, ED, Mental Defense, Power Defense and Flash Defense. Everyone should be good in two of these, moderate in one and poor in the other two.
  • Good PD/ED: 20-25
  • Moderate PD/ED: 15
  • Poor PD/ED: 10
  • Good Mental/Power/Flash Defense: 15
  • Moderate Mental/Power/Flash Defense: 8
  • Poor Mental/Power/Flash Defense: 0
  • Melee attacks should be 60 active points or less. Ranged attacks should be 50 active points or less.

Disadvantages
  • Everyone can have up to 115 points in disads.
  • The following disads are recommended for everyone:
  • Hunted: VIPER on 8 or less (More Powerful, NCI, Harshly Punish) - 20 points. I will be rolling this every adventure so if multiple people take it at greater than 8-, then the combats could get really tough.
  • Hunted: Government on 11 or less (More Powerful, NCI, Watching) - 15 points.
  • Secret Identity - 15 points
  • Everyone should have some sort of code that makes them a good guy. It should be a 20 point code, such as a Code Against Killing, Code of Honor, Code of Chivalry, etc.

Everyman Skills
Free Everyman skills include:
  • A (2 point) Professional Skill (see Champions rules for examples or ask me)
  • Language: English (4 pts)
  • Transport Familiarity: Small Ground Vehicles

For a good list of psychological, physical and social disads, see the Master List of Limitations.

Notes on the game
A very small percentage of the population has been "infected" with mutant powers. In most cases, such powers are a very corrupting influence and most powerful mutants become bad guys of varying degrees.


STEVE: I am tentatively planning a space traveller type character. I haven't decided on gender or background skills. They will have Flight, FTL Travel, and sufficient Life Support to exist in space without a spacesuit. I will probably go with a beamer type (energy blast) but may consider changing to brick if no one else takes that.

STEVE: For background skills, I'm considering an asteroid miner but am not totally sold on the idea.

GM: I haven't worked out the way the adventure will start yet. I am tentatively planning to have the group start on a spaceship that gets hit with SOMETHING that kills many of the people onboard but gives special powers to some (such as your group). Thus, you should plan to play someone who is not yet a superhero but gets their powers on the first turn of the game. For that reason, you may not start with your foci. Plan on going through the first battle without foci.

GM: It's up to you to decide if you know one another before the battle. If someone starts with spaceship type skills, they could be a crew-member. This could include electronics, mechanics, computer programming, etc. Otherwise, you might be a passenger. If you have a DNPC or two, they may or may not be on the ship as well depending on the DNPC roll (i.e., if you have your DNPC on a 14 or less, they will probably be on the ship with you and will need protecting).

MARTY: I'm leaning towards a brick character. I've played both a mentalist and energy blaster in our previous games. Sounds like we're going the mutation due to accident origin for powers, which is cool. I'll need to ponder what my character (haven't decided gender yet) did before the change. One thought is martial artist/brawler type. I also like the idea of mixing in some speedster into the brick. Not a Flash level of speedster but closer to a 5-6 Speed. For movement I'm thinking Leaping with Clinging.

MARTY: An idea for the basis of the power would be a fusion with some material (maybe metal, rock?) that would grant armor, strength, toughness, etc. I'm guessing it could be activated so the character could be normal but instantly change into the brick form when necessary. I could see a element of shapechanging (into other metal/rock) type shapes. Also very limited tunneling through the material of his/her origin. Anyway, these are just loose ideas and I'll need to hone the concept.

STEVE G: I’m currently working on a fast martial artist (spd 5) who’s also a computer/electronics expert. I’m currently finalizing his skills and I still need to come up with disadvantages and a backstory. He’s got leaping and clinging for movement, but currently no space survival (i.e. Life Support).

GM: Life Support is definitely NOT a must for this game. I'm taking it because I think it is a cool concept but once the first adventure is over, I expect more ground-based adventures than space-based.


GM: Looks like we have a martial artist (Steve G) and brick (Marty) and a beamer (Steve L) so far. It wouldn't be a bad idea to have a mentalist if Keith or Jason are interested. But don't be constrained if you are not interested.

GM: Also, your disadvantages are things that you expect to have once you are established as a superhero. Since you will be getting your powers at the start of this game you obviously would not already have a Secret ID but, if you plan to have a Secret ID once your superhero identity becomes public, then feel free to take the disad now. This is also true for some other disads (like a government Watched or even a Susceptibility or a a Vulnerability).

MARTY: I'll shift my concept away from the fast martial artist aspect since Steve G wants to go that direction and fall more into traditional brick territory.

JASON: I would actually be interested in playing a version of my curt rustle character. I don't know what type of character that is.

GM: That sounds good. My latest copy of Curt has him built at 421 points so you will need to drop quite a bit but I don't think that will be too difficult. Since this will really be a new character using the Curt Rustle basic design, there is quite a bit you can scale back or drop entirely. At his core, he is a martial artist but his powers are built around shape shifting. If you want, I can look for a copy to load into HD and tweak him to the level needed.

KEITH: He was a very versatile shapeshifter with martial arts to take advantage of his shapeshifting skills. I think he was based on the character Odo from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and had to spend some time in his natural form to rest once every few days or something like that, but didn't have to sleep normally.

GM: Keith, are you interested in playing a mentalist? If not, that is fine and the group will simply not include a mentalist.

KEITH: I don't recall ever playing a pure mentalist for more than a single session or two, maybe I should give that a shot.

GM: Don't feel like you have to play one if you prefer a different concept. The group doesn't absolutely need a mentalist.

MARTY: I haven't thought any more about this so I should do that. Steve, I don't mind if you take a stab at a first build of the character. I haven't shifted my concept from what I posted with the exception of not having martial arts or a higher speed.



GM: I am fleshing out the starting adventure at bit more. The group will be starting on a spaceship heading for the largest city in the asteroids, Razor City on the asteroid Vesta. Vesta is the largest asteroid in the field between Mars and Jupiter, measuring over 500 km in diameter. The name of the spaceship is Promise of Andromeda.

GM: It's up to you to decide why you are on the spaceship. Perhaps you are a tourist from Earth who wants to see something of the solar system. Or maybe you are a crew member on the ship.

GM: Also, if there are skills that your character likely would have now, but would no longer need after gaining superhero powers, I'm fine saying that he has them before the event that transforms the characters occurs. For example, Solar (my character) would have skill with a spacesuit. After he gets his superhero abilities, he no longer needs a spacesuit. At the start of the game, I am fine saying that he is highly skilled with spacesuit operations even though I don't have it as a skill on his character sheet.

SOLAR: Solar is an asteroid miner. He is onboard the Promise of Andromeda because he is returning from a visit to Earth and is on his way back to the asteroids to work.




> 1. For Systems Operations, you only need to take it as a 3 point
> skill. You don't need to buy each individual system.

Gotcha, will adjust. HD made me pick them so I didn't think to look through the campaign special rules about it :)

> 2. I like the idea of Mental Speed but it will only apply to mental
> powers as defined by 5th ed. rules (Ego Attack, Mental Illusions, Mind
> Control, Mind Scan, Telepathy, & any power bought with the "based on ECV" advantage).

Hmm. So not telekinetic gliding, force field, or teleportation? Or even telekinesis? They are definitely mental powers for me. I only took a -1/2 limitation to represent that while physical actions are quite common, I will still have a lot of choices of what to do with my extra actions. If it only applies to that few of powers it should be a bigger limitation. I guess if the force field lasts from physical phase to physical phase without requiring a new activation roll on the mental phases, it wouldn't be such a bad thing...

> 3. Your Force Field is a bit stronger than I like to see for a
> mentalist but it is heavily limited. How do you envision it working?
> Since it is a Force Field, and not Armor, It must be turned on. When
> you turn it on, you would need to make the activation rolls for each
> part of the field. And then, on each phase, you would need to make
> the activation rolls to see what parts stay on. Is this what you
> envisioned? With Armor, activation rolls indicate partial coverage but, with a Force Field, it indicates whether it is on or not and, if the roll is failed, it turns off and must be turned on again.

I intended for it to be glitchy and imperfect, which is why it is a little stronger than usual when it makes all the activation rolls (which is probably going to be extremely rare). I can see going either way on making 4 separate activation rolls for it, or just making a single activation roll and depending on the roll it is either weak, moderate, strong, or very strong. I'd obviously prefer to make the 4 rolls since that gives me more chances to not get super-unlucky, but I don't want to bog the game down. I could easily make a single line macro in maptool to make all 4 rolls though *shrug*

> 5. The activation rolls are definitely going to be a challenge.
> Depending on how much time passes between when the group gains their
> powers and when they get into their first battle, I was considering
> imposing some activation rolls. For example, if the group gets their powers and then immediately gets into a power, there were going to be some imposed activation rolls.
> However, if the group gets their powers but then bides their time
> before the first battle, they will have had time to settle into their
> powers and I was not going to impose the activation rolls. Obviously
> you have them built into your character so they will definitely be there.

This character is definitely still struggling to master all his powers. I gave him probably a few too many powers, but my concept is that this incident gave him all of them, and that he will be very unlikely to gain new ones, instead he gets the whole kit and kaboodle right up front and struggles to make them all work reliably. I didn't use the Jammed or Burnout on very many of them at all, to represent that he can usually get them to work EVENTUALLY, but not always the first attempt.

> 6. I don't see anything missing. You have the standard 3 (attack,
> defense and movement) powers covered plus a number of utility powers.



> 7. Also, just want to make sure that you know activation rolls are
> made every phase. So if you start a Mental Illusion and decide to
> maintain it, you will need to roll the activation roll every phase to
> keep it going. Some people think that the activation roll is only made when you first start the power so I want to make sure you are aware of how it works.

Yep. His powers are going to be difficult to get working right, or in a timely fashion, several of them have long Extra Time needed, etc. I see the Mental Illusions and Mind Control and Clairsentience as being more advanced mental powers, and something he would only use with a really good reason, or with plenty of time to make it work. I considered my other option was to make them all based on a skill roll which would be just as difficult since I would need to have some skill levels bought separately to only affect the 'easy' powers, some penalty skill levels to affect the 'easy to moderate' powers, and then the 'hard' powers would be based on the naked roll including all penalties, or something. All the powers would also get less of a limitation for it, in probably half the cases. Just not as simple as varying activation rolls. As I get experience I will be buying them down to represent the practice I am getting with the powers. If I almost never have the occasion to use the Clairsentience, I probably won't be buying down the activation roll very quickly :)

I also see the Mind Control and Mental Illusions as being inherently very quirky and unreliable in that they are difficult to get a target locked into a (useful) effect and keep them there with only 10d6 of effect. Even a normal human would only be affected around 50% of the time.

> As always, if you find that my statements above are not in line with
> 5th ed. Rules, let me know and I will adjust. :)

I haven't noticed anything :) Just the one about the limitation on the mental speed, and that's more of a discussion with you about the value of the limitation. If things stand as you stated, my character will have zero mobility of any kind on his mental phases, which will be a pain, but survivable. He will still have his Mental Paralysis (Stop!) and Ego Attack as relatively reliable attacks, though maybe I should choose one and make it more reliable.

My other option is to simply 'grey out' some of the more advanced powers as 'someday' improvements, and save the points spent on them, to allow my starter powers to be more reliable. I just wanted the option to use them if it was really really needed to make progress in an unusual situation.

Keith



GM: Here is a version with her DI and Growth outside the EC and built as a compound power. Everything in the EC is linked as are the stat boosts. Just remember that no linked power can be higher cost than the Steel Form compound power (currently 25 with 3 levels of DI and 2 of Growth).

GM: I recall seeing an email from you regarding Steel Belle with some questions but can’t seem to find it. Not sure if you included my work email. If you have it handy, please send. Otherwise, I’ll check my home email account when I get home.

GM: One question I recall is whether you should save the 50 odd points that you haven’t spent yet. My preference is that you spend them all but if you give me an idea of how you want her to develop then I can be flexible.

GM: One thing that I noticed about the build that I sent was she doesn’t have much resistant DEF. I don’t really want to see more than 25 points of DEF for most starting characters (though, as a brick, she can go a little higher, especially if you don’t plan to start her with mental or power defense), but for Steel Belle, she should probably start with at least 12 points of rDEF. Maybe buy up the powers in the EC, including Steel Skin.

MARTY: Alright, I was able to open it up and played with her build some. I'll attach the updated file. Here's the summary

MARTY: I added hunted:paparazzi for 10pts seems perfect for her character. That now brings her disads to 115 total and they look like a nice set of disads.

GM: Sounds good.

MARTY: I did notice that her linked STR was going to primary value so I switched it. It means she has a 20 STR in normal form and 50 in steel form. It might make more sense for her to have a 15 STR at base but I don't have a strong feeling on this. Perhaps her non steel form is tougher which I'm fine with.

GM: I thought about that at the time but decided that the change affected her normal form as well, making her stronger, faster and more hardy without being obvious. Obviously you can change this but that was my thinking.

MARTY: I did buy persuasion as a skill which brings me to 23 pts in skills.

MARTY: I do plan to buy more skills as we go along but I can buy a few more RPing skills if you'd rather. One thing that might be useful is taking another language that maybe she needs as an actress. Not sure what other languages would be useful and desirable in this setting. I also raised her PRE to 23 since it'll be pretty central to her character.

GM: Another language would probably not be wasted points. The game is set 50 years in the future. Expect that Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Arabic and Spanish are all major languages.

MARTY: I did up her PD to 5 at base so now she's got 25 PD/ED. With only 8 resistant PD/ED that feels a bit low for a brick. One option is to buy armor outside of steel form (inner steel) that is hardened. This would make her even tougher. I'm not sure but do you want me to keep under 25 PD/ED?

GM: As a brick, especially if you don't plan on mental or power DEF, I am fine with 25 DEF. I agree that I would probably give her a higher resistant DEF, maybe around 12 to 15.

MARTY: Her current points are at 211 so she's got over 50 to spend. I'm fine leaving them unspent for now and add that sort of stuff in as we go along. If you'd rather I could spend more now too.

GM: I would rather you spend them but can be flexible.

MARTY: Here are some things that I'd consider adding:

Some sort of sense through metal
Hardened internal armor (not linked) as mentioned above Power defense Mental defense? - I was thinking her biggest weakness would be flash and blindness. I could make her on the weaker side mentally unless you'd like her to have both flash and mental as weaknesses. The idea here would just give her some defense to soak mental damage. She'd still be low EGO wise for other types of mental effects.
Skill levels in fighting - I think it's best for her to not be skilled in the beginning but I think her to hit chances will be a bit low Classic AOE brick attack (one hex smash or spin move)

MARTY: Let me know your thoughts.

GM: I like the idea of a metal sense. It makes sense (pun intended) that she would be able to detect and analyze metal at range. This would allow her to sense enemies carrying or wearing metal items.

GM: I don't really like to see characters with both Power and Mental Defense at the start of a game. I'm fine if you pick one but, if you choose not to, then you can bump up your PD and ED to around 30 or so.

GM: I agree that she wouldn't have skill levels in fighting at the beginning but would pick them up as the game progresses.




I envision Curt coming from a family that once had a lot of money. As a youth he enjoyed the good life and had pretty much everything he ever wanted. When he was 17 there was an incident at his fathers company and his father was framed by his CFO and long time best friend. The end result was his father lost his company to his friend and he was sent to prison. Curt father was innocent but in the end it didn't matter and his family lost everything. His mother, unable to deal with the stress of the whole matter committed suicide and his father is in year 5 of a 26 year prison sentence.

The end result is curt has both a love/hate relationship with the wealthy. He desperately wants money again, but he feels that the wealthy are a bunch of corrupt people willing to put down anyone that may get in their way of their goals of becoming more wealthy.

His attitude has warped his morals a bit and he now had no remorse fleecing those with money to get what he wants. Using his good looks and charms, he has successfully conned many women over the past 5 years into giving him a comfortable lifestyle as well as many of the social perks that come with it. He is also not hesitant to steal from the wealthy when that option becomes available as well.

He has sworn an oath to himself that he will get even with the man that destroyed his life and taken his fathers company, but at least for now, that is out of the picture as he is a very wealthy and powerful man. He doesn't want to kill him, he wants to do to him what he did to curt and his family.

Curt has a younger sister, Mercedes, that he has taken on the role of raising since his mothers death. She is currently 16 and is at a local boarding school. She comes to visit quite frequently and spends her summer vacations with him. The two of them are very close.

I envision his Pre and Com to be very high (20 Com and 18 or so Pre). Some of his other stats can be lowered a bit if needed.

Curt spends a lot of time at his Dojo practicing his martial arts skills. Mainly to keep himself in good physical condition but also as a release from his troubles. While he does participate in tournaments on occasion, he has never actually been in a real fight.

As to skills, I was thinking of the following list:
I was trying to think of an appropiate profession set name, perhaps Confidence man or something to do with living off the wealth of others.

Acting - a Little
Bribery - a little
Concealment - a Little +
Conversation
High Society
Lock Picking
Persuasion
Riding (horse) - a little
Streetwise

I wasn't sure as to what the appropriate skill would be (security systems?), but I would also like some skill in perhaps bypassing security systems or some such. Curt is not someone interested in trading or stealing information, i.e. breaking into computer systems for data, more into breaking into a safe to steal some jewelry or cash.

He has currently bankrolled most of his spare cash into his latest mark. A rising star. He bribed the purser on this ship to give him a room next to her and hopes to seduce her into a relationship or if that fails, to steal some of her portable wealth she has brought along on this trip.


If you have any other questions, let me know
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