I think my character will have received his abilities after an airplane crash in the Himalayas, where he'll spend years in some hidden valley learning the native's secrets before returning to civilization. Although there's nothing about it
in the powers I rolled, I think I'll have him carry a pair of .45 automatic pistols with which to fight crime. Perhaps I could say something about the evil lurking in the hearts of men before I blow away the bad guys... or maybe not.
I chose a male, he weighs 160 lbs, I'll make him 5'8"..

Strength 10
Agility 21
Intelligence 16
Endurance 17
Charisma 22

Powers
• Innate Power

  Emotion Control
  Put the Fear of Me in Them
  16" radius attack (doesn't affect targets to the rear
  evokes fear in those that fail to save.
  PR = 8 per attempt

• Skills
  

  Heightened Charisma
  type A, add 2d10 to Charisma
  14:48, Today: Supplicant 6 rolled 11 using 2d10. Ht C.

  
  

  Heightened Agility
  type A, add 2d10 to Agility
  14:48, Today: Supplicant 6 rolled 11 using 2d10. Ht A.

  
  

  Heightened Attack
  +1 point per experience level to damage scored

  
  

  Weakness Detection
  spend one action within 1" of a target and learn
  one of the subject's weaknesses, plus get a bonus
  of +6 on all attacks to the subject, continued use of
  the skill may learn additional weaknesses but adds no
  further combat bonuses. A subject's weaknesses are
  never forgotten, but the combat bonus can not be passed
  to others.

• Magic/Psionics
  

  Magical Spells:
  Mystic Techniques
  Cloud the Minds - to utilize this technique requires an action
  and the expenditure of one point of power per mind affected
  the technique has a range that matches the user's intelligence
  and attacks all targets in range as Paralysis Ray, those that
  are hit with this ability can not sense, through any means, the
  user of the technique without a successful detect hidden roll

In reply to Supplicant 6 (msg #67):

That looks fine overall. My only concern is how the Cloud the Minds power works. It makes more sense that it would attack as Mind Control as the same defenses that work against Mind Control seem logical to work against this power since it works on the mind. I know the base attack is 3 points lower but it is adjusted by your Charisma and your Intelligence. Also, as a mental power your Intelligence would be used for your accuracy (so it would be +2). So for example if you used it against a target you had a higher Cha and Int than you would need a 14 or less to be successful (9 base + 2 mental accuracy + 1 from higher Cha + 2 from higher Int). We can also hammer out the stats on the pistols as well. Kinda sounds like The Shadow in a way. So if this is acceptable to you I can unlock a character sheet and we can work out the final details.

I based it on Paralysis Ray because I was thinking more of a physiological than a mental affect, but that's pretty much GM fiat. Actually, as it stands it seems a little weak. All it really does is force those affected by it to 'detect hidden' to notice the user. It's weaker than invisibility in that it has no combat adds. It's really not The Shadow's power as the subjects can't hear the user.
I was really trying to come up with something similar enough that you would think 'The Shadow' while making it different enough that you would append 'sorta'. I'm wide open to suggestions.
I'm certainly amenable to whatever tweaks work out, and was really thinking the pistols would just be pistols. I can happily populate the character sheet and run with what pans out. I've always been fond of The Shadow, despite the horrendous treatment the character received in '90s movies and comics, but think I'll push this character more towards an homage to than a recreation of.

Hey 6,
I love your choice of inspiration.

So far, something like:

Powers
• Innate Power

  Emotion Control
  Put the Fear of Me in Them
  16" radius attack (doesn't affect targets to the rear
  evokes fear in those that fail to save.
  PR = 8 per attempt
  Heightened Charisma
  type A, add 2d10 to Charisma
  14:48, Today: Supplicant 6 rolled 11 using 2d10. Ht C.

  
  

  Heightened Agility
  type A, add 2d10 to Agility
  14:48, Today: Supplicant 6 rolled 11 using 2d10. Ht A.

  
  

  Heightened Attack
  +1 point per experience level to damage scored

  
  

  Weakness Detection
  spend one action within 1" of a target and learn
  one of the subject's weaknesses, plus get a bonus
  of +6 on all attacks to the subject, continued use of
  the skill may learn additional weaknesses but adds no
  further combat bonuses. A subject's weaknesses are
  never forgotten, but the combat bonus can not be passed
  to others.

• Magic/Psionics
  

  Magical Spells:
  Mystic Techniques
  Cloud the Minds - to utilize this technique requires an action
  and the expenditure of one point of power per mind affected
  the technique has a range that matches the user's intelligence
  and attacks all targets in range as Paralysis Ray, those that
  are hit with this ability can not sense, through any means, the
  user of the technique without a successful detect hidden roll

'Sup 6, love the character.  The sheet looks wild, too.

If you're gonna stick with guns, how about you get a spell that lets you do some cool bank shots & stuff?

"Nightmare on the Draw" -- shoot around corners, shoot a triple bank, etc?  heh  I guess it could just be a +6 bonus to hit on a single shot for PR=3 or something?

Or similar?  Just seemed like a fit.

Also the spell "cloud the minds" seems unlike a 'nightmare' per se.

For some reason, I'm imagining a Ghost Rider type.
:D

In reply to Supplicant 6 (msg #71):

I have had nearly the identical character but he had Psionics: Precognition, he was also named Nightmare. I am so jealous.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:10, Sat 10 Mar 2012.

Maybe you two should discuss a partnership.  You know, the 'weird-assed Grimm twins' or something ... or maybe both trained by the strange little Tibetan monks.

Ah I didn't grok where you were going with that. Yeah it could be a physiological effect but then we would have to figure out what defends against it. In some ways it is weaker than invisibility but in other ways stronger. With invisibility things in the area can clue in opponents to there being an invisible person whereas I thought your intention with the spell was to make it as if he wasn't even there (at least until he does something to someone that has an obvious physical effect). It could be possible to throw in some kind of bonus to strike.....it seems workable if you want to work on it with me.

I think I have half a handle on this:
Lamar Cragson was the son of a devout Baptist minister and his wife. He grew up
in the church, married, chose to go into missionary work and crashed in the Himalaya's while attempting to smuggle bibles into Communist Russia. When he came to, Lamar was alone in a cave. His injuries had been attended to, and there was food and water nearby. Dragging himself across the floor, he attempted to leave the cave and find his wife and the other members of the expedition. He passed out before he had traveled a dozen feet.
When he woke again, he was able to stand. He had been cleaned, and clothed, and was swiftly healing. His beard suggested he had been unconscious for months, but he was still alone. Wrapping a blanket around him, he staggered out of the cave
and straight into a blizzard. It was difficult to breath, and he could feel the ice forming around his nostrils and eyes. He had not gone far, when he was lifted and carried back to the cave. Even then he could not see or hear the one assisting him.
Back in the cave, Lamar returned to the bed. He felt defeated, worthless, unable to go on. Finally, he went to sleep.
When he woke, again, he knew he was not alone. He could see no one, yet he felt they were there. He attempted to speak to the people around him. First he thanked them, then he asked where he was. Finally, he asked if anyone else had been saved from the airplane. When he asked that, he heard, not with his head but in his heart, that he, alone, had come forth breathing. That was all Lamar could take. His body had been broken, now his mind, and even his soul, seemed to join it.
The yeti took great pains in putting Lamar back together. Although they told him who they were, he could never claim to have seen them. When he was healed, they led him to paths down the mountain, and Lamar reached a village where they had seen the plane go down. He made his way through the valleys to the sea, and worked his passage back to the states on a freighter.
Abandoning his life, Lamar took odd jobs and saved money. When he was able, he purchased a few black suits, hats, and trenchcoats from a resale shop. He bought a shotgun and a pistol from a pawn shop, and made a few sets of bolas. Somewhere, Lamar had developed a compulsion to "stop the evil" and he knew of no other way. The nightstick he acquired when a grateful police officer gave it to him.
One evening, after dispatching four subjects that appeared to have robbed a bank, the remaining conscious perpetrator asked him who he thought he was. Without missing a beat, Lamar responded "Your worst nightmare." The name stuck, and the press has called him that ever since.

Powers
• Innate Power

  Emotion Control
  It's Just Not Worth It
  16" radius attack (doesn't affect targets to the rear
  evokes ennui in those that fail to save.
  PR = 8 per attempt

• Skills
  

  Heightened Charisma
  type A, add 2d10 to Charisma
  14:48, Today: Supplicant 6 rolled 11 using 2d10. Ht C.

  
  

  Heightened Agility
  type A, add 2d10 to Agility
  14:48, Today: Supplicant 6 rolled 11 using 2d10. Ht A.

  
  

  Heightened Attack
  +1 point per experience level to damage scored

  
  

  Weakness Detection
  spend one action within 1" of a target and learn
  one of the subject's weaknesses, plus get a bonus
  of +6 on all attacks to the subject, continued use of
  the skill may learn additional weaknesses but adds no
  further combat bonuses. A subject's weaknesses are
  never forgotten, but the combat bonus can not be passed
  to others.

• Magic/Psionics
  

  Magical Spells:
  Mystic Techniques
  Cloud the Minds - to utilize this technique requires an action
  and the expenditure of one point of power per mind affected,
  all affected target's can not sense the user of this technique with
  any senses as long as they remain in range and the user of the
  technique does not directly affect the target (including, but not
  limited to, attacking the target), the technique has a range that
  matches the user's intelligence and attacks all targets in range
  as Paralysis Ray

Nightmare's equipment
Nightmare is normally equipped with a police officer's nightstick, a set of bolas, an automatic pistol (.45 caliber, one extra clip, seven shots per clip, requires an action to change clips), and a sawed off shotgun (over and under, holds two shells, requires an action to reload, carries eight shells total)

Weapon Characteristics
• Hand to Hand
  

  Weapon:	To Hit Modifier:	Damage Caused:
  Bare Hands	+4	1d4 + 4
  nightstick	+6	2d4 + 4

  
  
• muscle-powered ranged
  

  Weapon:	To Hit Modifier:	Damage Caused:	Range:
  Bolas1	+7	1d4 + 1d3 + 4	21" range

  ¹also causes entanglement (GM fiat)
  
• technological ranged
  

  Weapon:	To Hit Modifier:	Damage:	Range:
  Pistol	+7	1d8 + 4	126" range
  Shotgun	+6	three seperate 1d4	21" range

This message was last edited by the player at 03:34, Mon 12 Mar 2012.

I just had a nightmare!
I mean, a bad dream
-- no, I didn't sleep with Nightmare!
What kind of heroes are you?!?!?
Perverted deviant heroes?
Grow up!

I'm going to vibrate on out of here.

~~~~~~~oscillator~~~~~~~

                                                                                                                      HA HA HA

Hey, Nightmare, how good was that vibrator?

Careful Pokey!  Or I'll have Gumby give you a spanking.

*Clearly we need an in-character banter thread for those of us who've got our heroes made, eh?*

Everyone please make sure you have something selected on your character sheet that you are training for the next level. :)

Done, Mine Capitain.

Done!

OK...I've only got a couple minutes, but here are some dice rolls I'll start thinking about...

09:41, Today: Supplicant 7 rolled 98 using 1d100. Weakness. Vulnerability
09:39, Today: Supplicant 7 rolled 64 using 1d100. Mutant Power
09:39, Today: Supplicant 7 rolled 91 using 1d100. Magic.  Willpower
09:38, Today: Supplicant 7 rolled 75 using 1d100. Magic Items. Speed Bonus
09:37, Today: Supplicant 7 rolled 76 using 1d100. Power.  Regeneration
09:36, Today: Supplicant 7 rolled 4 using 1d6+2, rerolling ones. Powers.
09:35, Today: Supplicant 7 rolled 8 using 5d4, dropping the lowest dice only. Weight.
09:35, Today: Supplicant 7 rolled 13 using 4d6, dropping the lowest dice only. Attribute V.
09:35, Today: Supplicant 7 rolled 12 using 4d6, dropping the lowest dice only. Attribute IV.
09:35, Today: Supplicant 7 rolled 12 using 4d6, dropping the lowest dice only. Attribute III.
09:35, Today: Supplicant 7 rolled 12 using 4d6, dropping the lowest dice only. Attribute II.
09:34, Today: Supplicant 7 rolled 14 using 4d6, dropping the lowest dice only. Attribute I.


And...that's it for time!  Happy Hallowednesday!

In reply to Supplicant 7 (msg # 83):

You may want to reroll the 5d4 for weight without dropping the lowest die. :)

Also take a roll on the Skills table, that way you have 5 powers to decide among (I think that was the lowest amount of powers everyone else rolled, trying to keep some level of balance).
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:10, Wed 31 Oct 2012.

In reply to Supplicant 7 (msg # 83):

Mutant Power.....one of the catch-all powers. I have a number of documents written by long-time V&V GMs that have many possible mutant powers that I will be happy to share with you so you can find something suitable. (Or we can work something up too, maybe using some of those powers as a base of where to start)

That would be awesome!

Oh, hey, good point on the weight!  Thanks.  This time I got a 13.  My only real worry is that the Regeneration and Speed together are a bit redundant with Vosper - but Mutant Power being so totally open gives us a lot of room to change that.  (Plus, my speed comes from Speed Bonus, also known as the pointless speed power, so that's a very attractive candidate for dropping!)

I'll take you up on adding a Skills roll, though...and that's...

16:14, Today: Supplicant 7 rolled 74 using 1d100. Mad Skillz.

So Natural Weaponry.

And I need to go start getting things ready for tonight, so no time for secondary rolls now.

In reply to Supplicant 7 (msg # 86):

Well, Speed Bonus isn't necessarily useless. It can be applied to a particular form of movement such as jumping. Say a character has a 15 STR and 15 AGI. Using my jumping rules they would have a running jump of 21 feet (or 4"). If the person rolled a 5 on Speed Bonus and applied it to jumping their running jump would zoom to 54" or 220 feet, quite a difference. It isn't as impressive with straight ground movement I agree, but as noted above it can be worked with on other movement based on ground movement (swimming and climbing being other possibilities).

Is there a way I can get you those documents, cuz they are kinda big to cut-and-paste in here?

I am unsure how to achieve this, so I'm just going to put it out there for a GM/player response.


I'd like to use Eddy's 'Inventing Point' to invent a Power Feat for his Heightened Agility.
       {I understand that a Power Feat should not equal a Power; maybe being 1/2 to 2/3 the effect}

Cat-like Reflexes
Eddy's Heightened Agility makes him react spontaneously and reflexively to any perceived threat. Like a cat, he springs and twists about in a way that makes hitting him harder than one might first realize.
Effect: similar to Heightened Defence Power, all attacks against Eddy are calculated at minus 2 to their chance to hit.  This is automatic, with no PR cost, but only operates while Eddy is conscious and mobile.


I beleive this will, of approved by the GM, cost one Invention Point ... and requires a d% chance:
- 04:28, Today: Poco Tehuantl rolled 8 using 1d100 with rolls of 8.

In reply to Poco Tehuantl (msg # 88):

That could certainly be a possibility, but I am not comfortable with giving that out mid-adventure. That would be the kind of thing that would be achieved during the down-time via something like danger-room training. (that is how I have always experienced it in other games; done either via level training or an "invention" in the down-time)

One of the problems is adjudication of course. My character Bonespike in another game had a power stunt from his ability to grow bone weapons where he grew angled plates that gave him an additional -4 to be hit by certain types of attacks on top of his Heightened Defense, *but* it cost him 2 power per turn to maintain and I think the GM was more generous because he only had 3 powers (Heightened Defense, Willpower B, and his Body Power: Generate Blades).

(P.S. I know Poco is feeling picked on, but he *is* tearing through the soldiers compared to everyone else so he currently is the biggest threat.)
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:27, Thu 01 Nov 2012.

Strange, ennit, that we feel that in comic book world, development comes through 'training in the danger room' rather than through real [game]world experiences.

But if you'd like this development to wait for downtime, I am fine with that.


And I don't feel picked on.  I know Eddy is wailing.  I guess I just want him to wail better and longer.

I think the idea isn't so much that all of the advancement comes from the Danger Room, but just that it's more gradual... like, presumably Poco is trying to dodge these bullets like anybody, but it won't develop into a whole new ability that he can use all the time in one afternoon.  His adventuring time plus training time and all that all have to add up together and, in a game sense - big changes happen during downtime.  Like why D&D characters don't level up in the middle of a battle.  Usually.

Although with that said, I have always liked the idea of a Power Stunt as something you can do to stretch your powers for like, a single-use cool thing in the middle of a scene, which can then maybe be developed to a regular ability later.  I think there's a lot of, you know, "Comics precedent" for that, where they'll suddenly realize, "Hey, I can use my super-speed to make a tornado and keep all the air away from the fire!"  Or whatever.

For Cat-Like Reflexes as a downgraded Heightened Defense, I might also suggest that the bonus only applies to physical attacks.  It doesn't make sense to be able to twist out of the way of a Mind Control attempt, but a bullet or a blast of flame does.


OK!  So, um, on to, like, my own actual character that I'm supposed to be working on.  I have been thinking about what to do with the Mutant Power.  There are some really awesome ideas in the set you sent, several of which are definitely worth focusing a character around, and I can just pick one of those if you want.

But what I'm thinking is modeled on Transformation (Power Activation), but to say that instead of needing a round to `turn on' her Powers - she's constantly changing.  What I'm picturing is that every time she uses an active Power (eg., anything with a Power cost, or that you roll dice to use), there's maybe an accompanying d6 roll that, on a 1, means her Power scrambles - she rolls a new percentile on the Powers table, and it changes to that.  {Am still considering whether she should get `one last' activation of what she was trying to do, or if it should come out as the new one - eg., she tries to throw a Fire Bolt with Flame Powers, rolls a 1, re-rolls Invisibility - so she thrusts her hands out dramatically, and... vanishes.  Thematically, I think I like the second better, but the former gives, for instance, the GM, more time to think.}

More `passive' Powers (like Armor, Willpower, Natural Weaponry, etc) would have to change more gradually - when one of those comes up, it lasts through a `scene', or...until something happens that might change it.  Her Vulnerability should probably tie to that - if we go with Option B (Achilles' Heel), then a part of it could be that when exposed to whatever it is, everything scrambles.  Probably also stunning her for a full turn while her system recovers.  (Which would conveniently give me a little bit in real-time to sort out dice rolls and stuff...)

I do like the idea of keeping Transmutation's +2 Powers and +1 Weakness, with the secondary Weakness, too, shifting the same way, and the option to drop the Weakness for a scene if a Power goes with it.  Especially as I look at this and realize that what I'm really asking for her Mutant Power is kind of an advanced version of the Low Self Control Weakness.  I think the unreliability of it matches pretty well to the needing-a-round-to-get-started, balance wise, but I don't know.

Anyway - that is probably enough writing for this point.  I know it needs some more thought, especially in terms of how to handle the more open Powers - like, we probably don't want to spend a week figuring out what happens if she rolls Mutant Power again.  I figure we can either work some sub-charts out ahead of time, or just say those get re-rolled or drop down to the next one on the chart or, um, whatever.  But I'll stop now so that I can post this and let you know I really am still paying attention! grin  If the whole idea sounds like too much trouble, then, again, I definitely can just pick one out of the set you sent, because some of those were seriously cool.