Posts made by Runescryer

Another thought in the 'Impervious/Penetrating' debate...

So, the scanrio is: mook with a Damage 3 pistol loaded with Penetrating 3 rounds vs. Paragon with Impervious 12 Toughness 12...

When the Paragon is hit, Penetrating acts and requires a Resistance test vs 18 (15 standard + rank), The paragon succeeds on a roll of 6 (equal or greater is a success). That means that it's a roll of 1-5 that will cause a Bruise, leading to -1 Toughness on future Toughness rolls. That's a 25% chance of failure.

There are 10 turns in a minute. Regeneration 2 heals 2 levels of damage per minute, or 1 level of damage every 5 rounds. Assuming a 20% miss rate on the part of the mook (unlikely), this means that every 5 rounds, the Paragon will be hit 4 times, and 1 of those hit will cause a bruise. That's 2 buises per minute that will be soaked up by the Regeneration 2 power. So, for 2 points, the Paragon can overcome the advantage that is given by the 3 point investment in Penetrating.

@JDCorley said:

The only people complaining about the Marvel Heroic chargen never made a character with it and played it. Yeah, you can't min-max it; because the balancing is all in the initiative/action order mechanic, not on a character sheet.

Now, I suspect it might not be too useful for a MU* because the role of a dice system on a MU* is extremely variable and might not hit the sweet spot MHR is looking for (also where do you put the index cards and who keeps track of the Doom Pool?)

Mutants and Masterminds is easier than HERO and GURPS but that really isn't the end of the question. My question is: what's the purpose of the dice system going to be on this MU*? Plenty of superhero games exist and have existed without one. What does this bring to the table?

Speaking only for myself, I prefer a dice system for a couple reasons.

1. Consistancy due to stated values. I know that comics have a history of 'flexible' powers (aka the Superman Strength Rule), but for me, it doesn;t make sense that someone struggling to lift a takner ship in one comic/episode, has the same struggle to push an incoming asteroid out of orbit the next comic/episode. Oh, I understand the idea of 'narrative drama' there, but the lack of consistancy still bugs me. And this inconsistancy runs over into superhero MU's quite easily where the power values are mostly narriative in their description rather than quantitative.

2. Randomization and Limits. Let's face it: in many super games, there are certain characters who can overpower and run roughshod over everything when it comes to narriative combat. Superman, Supergirl, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter...the upper tier characters have to hold back in order to give other players the chance for some time in the spotlight. Having randomness gives a chance, however small, of something failing or going wrong, which adds drama and tension in pickup scenes instead of LOLSUPERMANWINS! Without the chance for failure, it's my experience that there are many players of the powerhouse characters who won't add such drama in a pickup scene unless forced to.

So, one of the many ideas that is 'in development' due to my ADD is a game that would be a continuation of the 'Young Justice' animated series. I'very got the storyline for a full year 'Season 3' frameworked out. Any interest?

It's an easy enough fix. House Rule that Penetrating damage is resisted at DC 10+Rank. Then, the Toughness 12 character only suffers a bruised result on the roll of a 1, making the armor piercing bullets far less useful against Superman, but still pretty deadly to Batman.

@Lithium

I tried to turn it into a point buy system too, but gave up. It's a serious nightmare unless you assume that 1 pt= 1 pt regardless of power or attribute.

Oh, there was also a D20 version of Guardians of Orders Silver Age Sentinels. But it was a straight leveling progression using OGL, unlike what M&M 2E did.

@Lithium

I agree that Aberrant needs a lot of TLC to fix up. We'll see how 2.0 goes.

Back in the day, I was looking at ways of making the TSR Marvel RPG less random in char gen. One solution that I had was the old 'Roll and Distribute' method from D&D: roll 10 d100 results, distribute one result for each ability, number of powers, number of talents, resources. Then allow players to choose individual powers & talents. Roll and distribute the power levels. You get a character that is more customized and makes more sense than the usual MSH character.

@Lithium
There's a couple of other supers game systems out there.

DC Universe: the last game from West End before they completely folded, it's the modified D6 system adapted for supeheroes. Not really sucessfully...

Marvel Heroic Roleplaying: Margaret Weiss Production's recent entry. Has some interesting dice and narrative mechanics, but no chargen, as far as I remember.

Cypher System: new universal game system from Monte Cook using the system from Numeria and The Strange. Simple dice mechanics,deceptively simple char gen (in a good way).

Abberant: White Wolf's superhero game. Storyteller system and easy enough. My only real problem with it was the narrow 1-5 trait range.

In the end, I agree with you that M&M is the best overall mixture of ease of play and complexity.

@Lithium
As i said, when you're ready for staff, let me know. I do like your world idea; sounds like a solid plan.

@Lithium
Sure thing. I'll keep plugging along with the world idea I have. Even if you decide not to use it, I can use it for another project. Keep me posted on the progress and let me know what you need when you're ready.

@Lithium
I'd be interested in that. If you need some world building help, I've got the makings of a pair of cities in a Metropolis/Gotham fashion. One for four color heroics, the other for gritty vigilantism.

Another option: there's a dice app for Android & Apple for $5. You can roll as many dice as you need with it and it also does normal dice rolling. You buy it once and put it in any number of linked devices.

@ThatGuyThere

pg. 12 of the Edge of the Empire rulebook has a chart listing dice types and conversion from numbers to results

Also, each Basic Set comes with a set of dice in addition to the quick start rules, sample characters, maps, and scenario.

So, having been thoroughly energized by The Force Awakens, I'm wondering if anyone has, or knows where I could find, game code for Fantasy Flight Games' current Star Wars RPG System?

@Arkandel

Margret Weis Production's Marvel game had an interesting concept. You got an extra die, the type of which depending on whether you were fighting solo, in a team up, or as part of a larger team. So, Wolverine got a bigger bonus die for fighting solo, where the Thing got a bigger bonus die for fighting as part of his team.

I'd check out mudstats.com. Use their Browse function and look up Superhero games. It'll show how man people are actively connected at the time, so you can get an idea of what the plaerbase size is when you'r active.

Keep in mind, also, that it's the holidays, and most games have taken a hit in activity.

The only real quibble I have is that sometimes, Paradox doesn't know where to stop. The most recent Conan film was co-produced by Paradox, and they essentially turned what was a fresh opportunity to restart a film franchise with a star that had a surge of popularity into a 90+ minute advertisement for their Age of Conan MMO, which had already gone Free To Play by that point. Everything was designed to look like locations and characters from the game. They brought in Acheronia, which had never been more than a passing mention in the Conan mythos, but had a central role in the game. Rose McGowan's character was a Necromancer straight out of the game. And the results were obvious: people, even Conan fans, didn't really connect with the film, despite the early excitement for Jason Momoa in the lead role.

Also, I'd like to hear more on what's going to happen with Trinity and Scion

Is the game going to be active? I've logged on a couple of times and it looks like everyone is just idling.

@Bobotron
There's ways of dealing with power disparity; usually through tactics and good writing. For example, there's plenty of times that lower powered opponents have been able to fight more powerful ones, like Hawkeye and Black Widow tag teaming Hulk in the Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes animated series.And with advanced planning and some Kryptonite, Green Arrow can take on Superman.

Mechanically, there's ways to deal with it too. Using Mutants & Masterminds as an example, Her Points can be used to alter the events and the situation. So, Green Arrow, say, could spend Hero Points to have that Kryptonite arrow on hand to shoo at Superman. or Hawkeye could have a more potent knockout gas arrow in his quiver to use on Hulk. Further, you could state that the lower Power Level character gets a number of bonus Hero Points when the fight starts equal to the difference in Power Level, (Superman's PL 15 compared to GA's PL 12 would give GA an extra 3 Hero Points to start off with, for example.) That would help level the playing field, so to speak.

Glad to help. Just don't rush the process and don't be afraid to get multiple opinions.

One last thing: check the publishing info prineed on the title page (the page that has the title of the story). There should be a block of small-font text at the bottom listing the book title, volume #, issue #, publisher's address, etc. If it's a reprint or a printing other than the first printing, it will say so down there.

A starting point online would be an initial evaluation online.
http://comicbookrealm.com

If it turns out to be valuable, the best thing to do is to get it professionally graded. This does cost, so it's better to see if it really is worth your time and money, first.
http://www.cgccomics.com/grading/

You can mail the book to them or you can take it to them at most major comics conventions.

If you haven't done it yet, purchase a mylar bag and an acid-free board backer to store the comic. You can get these at a local comic book store, although they come in large quantities instead of individuals.