I think this one speaks for itself... *smile*

OK I figured I would just open it up a little for discussion and such while I work on getting the game rolling. :)

Aww yeah!

What's the first topic?

In reply to Supplicant 1 (msg #3):

Chargen, of course! :)

In reply to Supplicant 1 (msg #3):

I moved your rolls over to Character Generation. :)

Looking forward to playing with you all again!

I'm finding this interesting reading... just to get me in the right mindset. :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1963

Uh, why the name choice "Supplicant"?

From dictionary:

Noun 1. supplicant - someone who prays to God
prayer
religious person - a person who manifests devotion to a deity
beadsman, bedesman - a person who is paid to pray for the soul of another

2. supplicant - one praying humbly for something; "a supplicant for her favors"
petitioner, requester, suppliant
applicant, applier - a person who requests or seeks something such as assistance or employment or admission
besieger - an energetic petitioner
postulant - one submitting a request or application especially one seeking admission into a religious order
canvasser, solicitor - a petitioner who solicits contributions or trade or votes

Adj. 1. supplicant - humbly entreating; "a suppliant sinner seeking forgiveness"
suppliant, supplicatory
beseeching, imploring, pleading - begging

In reply to Supplicant 2 (msg #8):

Basically just being a wiseass really.......supplicant and applicant sound similar but since someone grabbed onto the supplicant one I stuck with it for ha-ha's. :)

Quite appropriate, I think. Are we all not praying to The Sword? Are we all not looking to Damocles for succor and favour?
This message was last edited by the player at 15:41, Tue 28 Feb 2012.

I have thrown together a character concept and background; all based on real world facts and myth.
I invite you all to check out my character description.


Damocles; could you please log this character for me as 'Poco Tehuantl'.

It got rather quiet....lol. Still waiting to hear back from Supplicant 4 in which direction he is going with his character. Also interesting I haven't had any other nibbles about this game, but I can certainly give it a go with 4 once I have all in readiness.

Lets kick it off, Damocles.
I am ready.

In reply to Poco Tehuantl (msg #13):

LOL.....YOU may be ready but others are still finishing up and I have to flesh out at least a bit more background than what there is. It has been a hectic week and may be a hectic weekend for doing lots of prepwork......I also have to work on a cast of baddies. :p

I'll be unavailable from about 5 today until Sunday.  Jus FYI.

Stating everything (except *maybe* powers) now.

I think I'm ready too ...
but it ain't up to the players, is it?

Nice character description, Ozzy.   Short and sweet; says what is important without rambling (maybe I should take a leaf from your book  :-p  )

PT -- guessing 'Ozzy' is me?  Thanks.

However, don't take any pointers on being concise from me -- I'm a mega-rambler!  heh

Pretty psyched on my character.

Uh, so can we call you Liono?  :D

I think Panthra is more appropriate ... given that Poco is a jaguar/'black-panther'.

I always thought Liono was a bit of a weak dweeb, personally.  But IC, you guys feel free to give Poco whatever nickname you like.  I plan on playing him as a pretty easy going, jesterish type ... except when dealing with the scumbags.

Funny name 'Poco' for a giant slice-em up wildcat.

I think we'll likely call you whatever you like.

But you should shout "Ho!!!" when you need backup.

(my pref was Cheetarah, but for dif reasons.)

Tehuantl was the Mexican Jaguar God.  'Poco' is Mexican/Spanish for 'Little'.

Eddy, have inherited the spirit of Tehuantl is 'the little Jaguar God'.

I picked up one of those little "Remember When" booklets from Hallmark for 1963.  All kinds of fun facts.  Just thought it would be interesting and helpful. :)

My apologies to everyone for the extended silence. My DSL is all screwed up and I am trying to get it straightened out. I have not been able to work on anything over rpol.net because of that. I am posting this from my work computer. Hopefully things will be resolved soon so I can working on getting things rolling.

I do have to say I am kinda surprised only 4 people applied to play, but I can make it work. :)

Who needs more?
When you got the right four!

Bummer about the computer delays, but glad you're okay. ;)

We're patient types or we'd not still be sniffing around V&V games on here.

But maybe you should pop an ad in the Players Wanted?  Or remind folks on the V&V Heroes Unite?  Sometimes attention spans, they can be short... or things get missed...

Only 4?  I'm quite surprised.

I posted was looking for players in "Heroes Unite" & got 2 players between midnight and 2am!  I cut it off after that.

Maybe just post that you're looking for a few more players?

Errrr.... when your computer works?

I refuse to let the OOC thread languish for a full seven days.
Besides, I haven't yet expressed my greetings to those of you that would be acquaintances in the future.

In reply to Nightmare (msg #27):

Hi all!

Hello 'Nyx and 'Mare!

Seems like we are all def ready for an 'in character' thread, even if we are not ready to play?

At least, Osc is.
:)

OK I have more stuff listed in the Setting Information thread, giving everyone at least a little more of an idea of what is going on in the US at this time. I am still waiting for one player to finish up but hope to be getting something going towards the end of the week.

Great, thanks Swordy.   I am looking forward to this kicking off.

In reply to Poco Tehuantl (msg #31):

I have to admit I struggled a bit coming up with a good government agency name. I didn't want to use ones I have seen already (SHIELD, CHESS, etc) and I wanted it to be a cool word as well.

(BTW, the name I came up with for the game has a double meaning but I am sure everyone figured that one out a while back) :)
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:55, Tue 20 Mar 2012.

In reply to Poco Tehuantl (msg #31):

Plasma screen TV? Milli Vanilli? You do remember this is 1963 right? LOL (That being said there is MUCH better stuff in the HQ than even most rich people can get their hands on.

Heh.  Yeah, right.  I better go change that.

Time Travel: Poco's other power...

Yes, you're too fast for me. But I did make an appearance, and that's more than can usually be said for one of my scatterbrained nature.

Had too much time to think about it and went for a different concept.  Same powers though, same speedster... different attitude. :)

How are we faring, Lord Damocles? Any chance of some non-pingpong excitement in the near future?

In reply to Poco Tehuantl (msg #38):

I haven't heard back from Cold War since the beginning of the week so I will be looking to get something moving very soon. Definitely finding the group interaction in the HQ thread interesting. :)

I have to say, the IC "meet" thread makes it a lot easier for a GM as far as "making the group meld."

Kinda a cool idea (I might borrow as I bring a bunch of divergent threads together in another game of mine.

* Good news -- my g/f and I posted the ultrasound pic of our future child on Facebook -- it's official!  7 month countdown ...
:D

Congatz!!!!

I remember that feeling ... just about a year ago now, actually.

Congratulations, my friend.

Congrats! Welcome to the party!
Oh, and don't give 'em any peanut butter till they're older.
Believe it or not, that's the one thing I wish someone had told me.

Congratulations!!

You're in for the ride of your life.  It's all worth it. :)

Congrats to you as well, Oscillator! And as Vosper said, you are DEFINITELY in for the ride of your life.

In other news I apologize for the significant delays, but I am going to get things rolling now (finally!). I haven't heard anything from Cold War in over a week so if he is still playing he may have to drop in later. But for now, let us all sally forth! :)

Too bad -- 'Cold War' is a great hero name!   :)

Also, complements to everyone that's been posting!  Quite a high level of 'in-character' play going on here.

Psyched to see how the actual game plays out!
This message was last edited by the player at 06:10, Tue 03 Apr 2012.

I should be getting a bit of info/dialogue posted tonite or tomorrow. Between the Easter weekend and work being busy I have been a touch tired and unmotivated. Working on the next step...

In-character Oscillator is supposed to be super smart, but OOC I'm just a regular joe like y'all (or regular janes, too).

So I missed something & hope someone might recap -- WHAT is the mission?
Go & rescue scientists from somewhere and get out?  How do we get them out?

Any ideas?

Oscillator could fly ~ 1 person at a time, but that'd take forever.  Not sure how fast our speedster could deliver people, but carrying capacity tends to limit that...?

Anyway, I am somewhat stumped on the mission parameters IRL -- but I imagine we're about to face a superteam or possibly an evil genius type.  Or perhaps a massive heard of normal soldier baddies that we can stomp before we take on the super baddies?

The US military has a secret base in New Mexico*.
They lost communication with the base ... our job is to go in and find out why.   If there really is a problem (and what a boring story this will be if there is not) we are to, I am guessing, find out what the problem is, neutralize any threats, protect/save the good US folk there ... and ultimately SAVE THE DAY.


Well, that's my understanding.



* is New Mexico one of your US states? Or is it part of Mexico?
This message was last edited by the player at 08:02, Tue 17 Apr 2012.

In reply to Poco Tehuantl (msg #50):

NEW MEXICO IS IN THE USA.

It does border Mexico though.  As well as Texas and Arizona.  And Colorado.

I was there recently (2 months ago).  It is beautiful.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=...xico&t=m&z=6

I haven't gone in quite awhile, but it's an amazing state.  Very open skies, a few very famous cities (Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Taos, etc).
Also amazing is an 'earthship' community near Taos -- homes that produce their own power, water, and even food!

Also near Taos- a Native American community that lives the same way it has for thousands of years (obviously within reason).  I forget the name of the tribe, but its kinda incredible.

Just so people know, I figured that the group would have had some basic parachute training for just such an occasion. Not unrealistic considering the group is a government agency designed to deal with powered threats both in and out of the US. :)

Given her background, I'm sure Vosper's been trained on parachute ops.

As for the mission, here's how I see it: Trouble at double-secret research lab in New Mexico.  New Mexico is full of rocky desert vistas, mesas, canyons and valleys of stone.  Lots of open spaces, lots of isolation.  Good place to have isolated lab.

Los Alamos, New Mexico is where the Manhattan Project (atomic bomb) was worked on.  Because there was so much open space, they could detonate an A-bomb in relative secrecy.

Now we know there's trouble at the lab.  The way I imagine it, they've been invaded/infiltrated.  We'll have to go in, after flying/parachuting down, and infiltrate and liberate the complex.  Probably the best way to save the people inside is to defeat the invaders and liberate the whole complex, rather than evacuating the personnel a few at a time.  Vosper could evacuate them one at a time, but even at her speed, it would take a while if she were to get them any distance away.  She's fast, but she's not the Flash... 150 mph is her speed range, not light speed. ;)

So I'd say we go in, split the party, get ambushed, get captur... err, wait.  That is to say, we go in, scout the base, find the bad guys, kick their butts and save the day. :)

That is a pretty good guess, and yes that is one reason I chose New Mexico because our 1st A-Bomb was tested there and they did have many facilities devoted to weapons development.

I am trying to post an image in this thread and I have forgotten how to do it outside of the Game Map section......and also am too tired to look it up...grrrr

(img src="image link here" /)

Except >< instead of )(

EDIT:  now it's right. Space between img and src
This message was last edited by the player at 02:57, Wed 18 Apr 2012.

Edit above

So here is a basic idea of what the research/test town of Arrowhead looks like:

(Except considerably less green and more scrubby)

Nightmare thinks the best plan would be to knock on the gate and ask for a cup of sugar.

In reply to Nightmare (msg #61):

LOL

"Excuse me, my friendly Ruskie neighbors, do you have any vodka?"

heh

Did we hit a pause, peeps?

In reply to Oscillator (msg #64):

Nope, I had been waiting for everyone to post, especially those who can fly under their own power. :p

Awww, you waited for me.  I can do more...?
:)

In reply to Oscillator (msg #66):

I suppose it depends on what happens next. Everyone who is using a parachute please make an Agility save on 1d20 to avoid any complications parachuting.

Parachute!  Oscillator jumped out without a parachute!

"Gaaaaaah!!"

Oh wait a second, Oscillator can FLY

Whew.

Well, that means I'm liable to miss everything else for the next 19 rolls.

Preparing for the bad dice karma for getting such a high success on your Agility save? :)

Hey, with AGI of 21, wouldn't you make it on anything but a 20?

In reply to Oscillator (msg #71):

Yup, pretty much unless there were some penalties....which there aren't in this case.

I'm figuring it'll be an easy descent.

Descending is generally easy, it's going against gravity that's a challenge!
:D

Still waiting on an Agility save from Vosper to move on. (basically parachuting is never 100%, even for experts, thus the save to avoid mishap)

If someone doesn't post or roll within a few days, any reason why you might not just make the roll for them?

I'm fine with that, as long as I have a reasonalbe opportunity to go.  I don't want to completely stall the game if it can be skipped -- and the dice roller is just clicking a button, not even a real dice caress.

Caresses the dice, kisses it, says "c'mon baby, who's your daddy?"
the rolls a critical failure.  "GAaaaaAAH!  I won't be using THAT die again!"

Isn't all that kinda silly anyway?  heh

Sorry guys, I missed that I was supposed to make a roll and was waiting on things to move on.  I'll try to be more vigilant in the future. ;)

In reply to Oscillator (msg #75):

Sir Oscillator, dost thou have anything to add to what thine other allies hath posted in yonder thread? :)

Dude, you're killing me.

My character wouldn't make the joke there, but I gotta.

Who's wind are you sniffin'?  HA HA HA

Somebody is in a solo thread...

;)

Actually I am putting some statistics in a GM-only thread for reference. Should be getting up a post within the next day though...

In reply to Sword of Damocles (msg #80):

Ahhh...

Ehhh?

So as the group approaches it brings to mind an interesting question about detect danger/hidden checks. What exactly are the ranges that people can do this? Most of the characters are pretty average but Poco and Oscillator have heightened senses, Poco from Animal Powers and Oscillator from his HART device. I was thinking for the device perhaps a radius equal to his INT, so he would have the increased detections in a 31" (155 foot) radius around him. For Poco it is trickier because it could be dependent upon sight/hearing/smell although felines don't have the level of olfactory ability as canines do.

Even taking all that into account it still leaves a question as to WHEN to roll to detect danger. Say someone fires a rocket at a PC from 5 miles away, with the rocket travelling faster than the speed of sound when might the PC have the chance to detect it incoming? It is definitely left open to interpretation regarding dangers at a significant distance as opposed to an ambush from 100-200 feet away.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:46, Thu 10 May 2012.

I would say apply the detections at the distance to make the most dramatic impact.

example
• You crest the hill about a mile away from the town, where the sheriff awaits your assistance.
• detect hidden rolls are made, those that succeed smell smoke

or

example
• detect danger rolls are made
• those succeeding note a rapidly approaching object about one-quarter of a mile away, you have one phase before whatever it is reaches you

Detect Danger
I don't think it should be a game-mechanic or actual distance ... or best narrative effect, the PC should get the roll in time (so long as the roll succeeds) to react, at least defensively.

That means, unless the GM wants to give the PC prior warning of a threat, they sense it in enough time to run, take cover, whatever.   That could mean, as the rocket is fired 5 miles away, or just before the mugger jumps from their ambush position.

that said, the GM might decide that it's fun if the PC spots the ambush some distance away.  Although, I'd suggest that ...

Detect Hidden would be a roll used to spot ambushes and the like from a distance.


That way:
- Ambush: PC might spot it prior, but if not, gets a chance to preemptively reactive just in time (two separate rolls).
- rocket: PC might spot it, or the GM might only give them a DD roll to react due to the speed of the attack.

Gonna be real busy for a couple days.  Work has me slammed.

I'm not gonna be doing a lot of detecting of anything. :)

Well, the HART is primarily a VIBRATION DETECTOR, so INT radius (or INT x2 - not sure what specific range here -- probably same as regular detects) makes sense, but I'd add 2 caveats:

1. something that makes no vibrations (ie non-corporal) might not get a bonus to detect
   
2. something that makes a *BIG* vibration, like a large spaceship, a shockwave/earthquake, or similar -- probably would have a much larger detect range.

I can't speak for Poco.

There is an example or two in the rule book, FYI.

Basically, when I GM, I don't make any hard & fast rules, I just say there are times when it's good to roll these and times when the GM can roll for the players.

Yeah I was thinking very similarly to the above myself in regards to detections using the HART, so it is obvious warped minds think alike. I figured outside INT the detects would drop back to "normal" levels (taking into account a 31 INT not exactly being normal).

Happily abnormal, been trying to use a lot of 3 syllable + words as unnecessarily often as possible.
:)

Just so I'm clear:  Onyx will set up a magnetic defense before entering (not a light one because- I assume- that would involve light...and that's not what we want.)

I will roll now :)

In reply to Onyx (msg #91):

Nice roll :p......don't forget to mark off a point of power for turning on your magnetic defense. That brings up an interesting point which I don't believe is covered in the V&V rules. If you have an active power going (Flight, Magnetic Defense, etc) are you able to regain power while that power is active? I personally would think no because you are not really "resting". It just makes sense, even if a power has no cost in power to maintain, that having something active puts a stress on you. It would be like jogging slowly, even though it may not feel like exertion it is still dipping into your energy.

So my thoughts here are that for recovery of power you have to be truly resting, not expending any energy other than the base required to keep you alive. So powers, defenses, and suchlike need to be "off" for one to be able to regain power. Hopefully I won't be chased by an angry mob with torches and pitchforks for this, but as I said it just makes sense to me.

In reply to Sword of Damocles (msg #92):

Agree.

The only adjustment I would make might be: GM caveat.  A player has no more power, there is a baddie about to kill him.  He gets the baddie talking, recovers a little bit of Power, then gets off the shot.

Comic book stuff :)

In reply to Onyx (msg #93):

If you can get the baddie monologuing then you deserve the time to get back a little power. Of course usually when a player has no more power he *can* fuel his powers with hit points.....not recommended obviously, but doable.

My personal take on it is that to regain power you have to come close to napping. Where I GM, power returns when the characters are doing absolutely nothing more than talking. Even walking down the road keeps it from returning.
On the other hand, where I run things the code of villainy is something like:

• Never kill when you can simply maim.
• Never maim when you can simply capture for later execution.
• Never simply execute when you can build an elaborate deathtrap.

Needless to say, all villains tend to monologue.

And PR adjusted in the bio line.

Ready to rip!

Recoup power requires downtime, I believe.

See 3.8 pg 27 "Regaining Lost Power Potential" -- "For each minute of rest, a character regains 1 pt of Power.  No strenuous activity may be undertaken."

In my view, anything cost PR is strenuous & not restful.  :)

Ack.....I just figured out I screwed up the pair of sniper shots. Onyx made his roll so he wasn't surprised but Oscillator should not have been able to roll with the damage (the book specifically states that you can't roll with damage if surprised). I would have allowed rolling with the normal amount of damage (as opposed to x2 damage) because of the wearing of the bulletproof vest, so Oscillator should have taken 6 damage and 7 to power.

Ah well, Oscillator gets a freebie because I messed up (I don't want to penalize him for my error but I will remember better next time). :-P

Can Onyx's previous evasion apply to this round?  It's a difference between 7 and 5. :(

Also:  Onyx is gonna want to pull ANY metal to use as a shield/cover- so fences, man holes- anything would be crunched into a wall of metal moved forward as he resumes his approach.   Not sure how you want that to work mechanics wise.

In reply to Onyx (msg #99):

No, it doesn't although if you look in my Rules section if you are attacked you can forfeit a coming action to Evade. Also remember to manipulate an object (such as pulling something to you to act as a shield) takes one action initially and just movement afterwards.

Actually (not to argue rules with the GM), Evasions apply from the point started to the character's first action on the next turn.

So, if you evade on 1.20, and are attacked on 2.40, your Evasion is still in effect.  When your action comes up on 2.21 (or so), you may evade again, or not, but your old evasion stops.

But the evasion is stated to be based on your current power score, so I think as you spend PR and roll for damage, you get easier to hit, even in the same turn.

In reply to Vosper (msg #101):

Hmmmmm......just looked in the book and you are right. I am wondering if the other GMs are doing it like that and I just didn't notice the mechanic in action. Doing well so far; 1 error on the surprise rules and 1 error on the Evasion mechanic. I can't wait to see where my next oops takes place... ;)

You are right though, as power is spent your Evasion ability drops. Doubly so for the bulletproof vests since they double the amount of damage rolled from bullets. It makes sense, even though the bullets aren't damaging you physically you are still being bruised and battered because it still hurts to be shot even with a vest.

Oh, I also want to make sure that each player has their current/total hit points and power on their Bio so I can reference things easily and so you can track them easily as well. (I think only Poco needs to fix this)

I updated Oscillator's Bio to reflect the 13 damage rolled into power last turn.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:35, Fri 18 May 2012.

It's a pretty common house-rule to allow a character to Evade before their action comes up... think it comes from CHAMPIONS and the "abort your next action to perform a defensive maneuver" thing.

Anyway no worries, sorry to be a rules lawyer, I just had the book handy. You're doing fine!

BTW, I think Vosper turned down the BP vest... anybody remember, so I don't have to dig?

In reply to Vosper (msg #104):

I didn't remember but I quick-checked in the appropriate thread. Vosper did in fact decline the bulletproof vest, hoping to rely on her speediness.

Great!  I thought so, just wanted to make sure.

Well, the fact she has Regeneration also factored into her decision. ;)

In reply to Sword of Damocles (msg #102):

I do it that way (Evade until next turn) otherwise characters with lots of turns (already a huge advantage) can pick off helpless characters with no defense to TONS of attacks.

The reason I asked was because the two of us were attacked outside of Strike Ranks, so I was curious if the Evasion would be kind of a "first free defensive action in which you got shot" kind of thing. Since its not like I actually got to do anything else during that turn (like use an action to pull a bunch of metal towards me).

Just seems a little punative...which may be the point, or appropriate, or part of the challenge- which is fine!  Just wanted to ask. :)

I've always wondered about that. According to the write-up for magnetic powers it requires a 'roll to hit' to gain control of a metal object, which then moves at one-tenth of the remaining magnetic capacity in inches per turn.
Without a fairly high capacity, most characters will outrun the very objects they are controlling!

One thing I was thinking is that it would be good to know how people are allocating their movement, especially those with more than 2 actions. Are people using it all up on their 1st action or spreading it out? Even splitting up their movement Vosper on the ground and Oscillator in the air can be at the town in one action of movement.

OK Poco has amended his post, Vosper you can post your 2nd action.

Works best for grabbing a gun, spin & shoot, etc.
Good luck w/melee weapons!

Actually, it's one of the level-blaster powers, like telekinesis.
Magnetic Powers with 15 strength using a single one pound ball bearing at level 1 does 1d8 + 1 damage at maximum velocity. This is actually the best the character can do. The same character at level 7 uses a one ton wrecking ball and does 3d10 damage.

Oh yeah, it gets way better if you level up.

I haven't leveled up in an rpol V&V game yet, but I'm still hopeful!
:)

Truth.  I just had a character sacrifice himself for the team, after a year of play, just a couple hundred XP shy of 2nd level.

That's the joy of slow play-by-post gaming...

Sarcasm noted.   :D

Was playing a d20 game where the IRL time was ~ 18 months, but 'in-game' was only ~ 3 days.  Level up?  HA!!  Yeah, right.
:D

Which is a reason why I prefer less detailed conflict resolution rules -- my fav 'face-to-face' game, Prime Time Adventures, literally resolves conflicts that would take hours of dice rolling in ONE conflict check.
http://www.dog-eared-designs.com/pta.html

Game play can move so fast that it surprises players AND GM (ie producer) & you can cover so much ground in a gaming session.

(But that game has no exp, no level ups, etc.)

So I am not sure how you want to handle Onxys attempt and pulling a bunch of metal to him for cover.

What do I need to roll?  Is the metal even there?  Etc.

In reply to Onyx (msg #116):

Where you are right now there really isn't any significant metal to use as cover, maybe a scrap tin can here or there. Once you get to the town things will be different. Since you had brought up using metal as a shield I looked up the Shield rules from V&V 2.1, and as an example I came up with this:

Parry value of Manhole Cover: 3
Weight of Manhole Cover: 150 lbs.
Damage Absorbtion: 13 (10 for iron SR, +2 for your Damage Mod, +1 for your Accuracy)

That should give you some idea of how that kind of stuff works. I hope that answers your questions. That being said your flying movement rate of 225" will allow you to get to the outside edge of town easily.

Onyx will not use his extra action this turn.

He doesn't really know what to target.

He will be looking for cover once in the town.

Despite agreeing previously to new 'detection limitations based on a range' b/c of the 'mysterious unknown event' initially, I don't think Detections in V&V rules are specifically limited to these ranges.

Despite agreeing earlier that range on senses could apply, I was not explicitly agreeing that this is a good way of doing Detects going forwards NOR did I mean to agree to this as a power limitation.
I'm willing to go w/whatever the GM wants, but want a chance to articulate why I feel this may be an arbitrary/unnecessary limitation.

I'm also not thrilled that Osc's Enhanced Detection now has a range of 31" on my char sheet -- it's both counter intuitive and arbitrary, but also I didn't agree to that.

What makes sense for me for 'sense limitations' is more 'common sense', like:

Poco's smell would be limited by if something can be smelled or not.  Maybe he can track someone days later, or smell where something died weeks later, but something with no odor would be hard to detect, as well as anything downwind, in a kitchen with lots of smells, or in smoke or underwater would also be hard to sniff, etc.

Oscillator's 'vibration detection' sense limitations would be similar -- if it's a bumblebee flying around miles away, it'd be unlikely to detect.  If it's an ethereal creature, an Astral Projecting, or light energy, not very likely.

But gunshots from snipers?  Unless these are really special/unique bullets, I'd think a "vibration detection" ability would be great at finding both the sources (even w/silencers) AND the impact locations -- or at least *have a chance* to detect those?

These shooters would be shining like FLASHING YELLOW lights for a vibration detector, IMO.

Having a bit of frustration that my char can't use any enhanced Detections to find a shooter (or multiple) NOR do we get to use Det Danger rolls before getting shot.

Just looked up my original statement:

Based on my previous statement, I'm still opposed to having a set ruled range limit on Oscillator's Enhanced Detection, but further I think my 2nd point would definitely apply -- unless these are very special guns/bullets/snipers or something?
This message was last edited by the player at 13:09, Tue 29 May 2012.

In reply to Oscillator (msg #119):

Maybe I am envisioning it wrong but I see Vibration Sense as some sort of radar/sonar type mechanic. It is not the same as your regular senses IMO. I am agreeable to discussion about ranges, but I do feel that there should be some kind of range to it. As I mentioned in our PM I am wondering what you feel is an acceptable range? Something that came to mind is perhaps a base range that is free and for each additional multiple of Int there would be a power cost per turn to "boost" the range.

As far as detecting the snipers you are easily following the trail of the bullets as they come within your range. It sounds like you are looking to triangulate where the shots came from based upon the report and where they are hitting. That is certainly something you could try to do, you just didn't state it directly. The snipers are not easy to immediately find because they are somewhere in the town, most likely under some kind of cover, and it is twilight. Also those shots came from over 200" (1000 feet) away at the time. If you want to make an Int save using the Save rules I just posted that would be fine. You would even get a +2 because triangulation would be fairly routine to someone with your Int.

As far as the Detect Danger rolls for being shot their really is no need since everyone is aware there are snipers, thus everyone pretty much turning on Evasion. Everyone is pretty aware of the danger, just not where exactly it is. Also, you and Onyx DID get Detect Danger rolls before being shot. He made his and went Evasion except the sniper rolled well enough to hit him anyhow.

I will probably have more thoughts later but right now my head hurts...

OK this is going to sound out of the blue but where are people posting from, if I may ask? It just seems like there are considerable disparities between when people post so it makes me wonder where folks are located in the world that are in this game. I am myself in Massachusetts in the US, Eastern Standard Time Zone.

Anyhow, back to our previous discussion, in which I invite opinions from the group.

California, but I work nights & post @2am-ish.

As for sense limitations, I'd have rathered we set those terms before starting...
I'm interested to hear other folks' POV before I respond...?

Australia: specifically, Brisbane.

No need to wait for other opinions to share your own, ultimately it comes down between us anyhow.

If you think there should not be a specified range what parameters are we looking at? Let's look at the 3 senses most used: sight, hearing, and smell.

Sight Limitations: Cover/Concealment (fog, rain, buildings, etc), Light, Distance (usually because of other things but even on perfectly flat ground it is pretty hard to spot a person 5 miles away unaided)
Hearing Limitations: Ambient Sounds (thunder, rain, loud noises/crowds, etc), Hard Cover (can create confusion due to echoes and such), Distance
Smell Limitations: Distance, Ambient Smells, Nasal Congestion, Weather (rain and wind most specifically), Hard Cover

What are the limitations for Vibration Sense if not range in general? Walls? Loud ambient sounds? High Winds? Rain? It is already understood that darkness is not something that affects it. I ask because with all the above senses even if someone has enhanced senses there are situations that would make it harder or easier to use them.

I'm in California too.  :)

Not sure what to say on the senses thing.  Obviously the GM needs to be comfortable, but it is a super-power and should be useful... maybe you guys are disagreeing on the meaning of the word is, is. :)

I'm in the midwestern state east of the geographic center of the contiguous 48 states and west of the Mississippi river (Central Time Zone) but my life is like a f-, wait, I mean my life is somewhat chaotic so I post at all times of the day and night.

IMHO, the detection %-ages are based on the mentality of the characters and need not be specific to physical senses.
"Holy bathrobe, Batman! How did you see through the Riddler's disguise?"
"Sometimes, Boy Wonder, a crime-fighter has to allow his intuition to guide him."
or
"Your eyes may deceive you, trust your feelings!"

The GM rolls detections, if desired or necessary, and moderates the information given to the players with appropriate descriptive terms to indicate how the detection occurred.

PST. California

You gotta have a range. That's just common sense. How that is figured out is debatable, but you gotta have it.

I would base the range on whatever the Vibratory norm would be for the power. Area range if the power describes something as such.

OK.


Right -- I'd say limits would be something like:

• doesn't make vibration (ie ethereal, light, astral, etc),
• makes very small vibrations or is really far away (ie a fly at 100 yards or gunshots miles away)
• lots of vibrations all at once, ie 'noise', such as finding a pistol shooter while bombs drop,
• thick obstacle that blocks vibration, ie a 10" thick brick wall, or liquids, or a void/vacuum, or ...?
• other limitations might apply (I might've missed some)

I don't think there needs to be distance rules, just an understanding of how the sense works.  Sight/sound is much easier since we all have 'em, obv.

Anyway, perhaps a misunderstanding was GM thought I was saying Ozzy could see in the dark or see thru some illusions & not specifcally it was a 'primary' sense using vibration?  Not sure.


There's no range for senses in V&V rules that I've got.  Maybe in updated rules?  But I doubt it.

In reply to Oscillator (msg #128):

Yeah, but super senses- they gotta have a range.

Spidey sense is super close range (last second).

Daredevil- who's power makes up for a HUGE weakness (one of the few instance I, as a GM would allow a huge range to the skill), still can not sonar see "forever."

Wolverine can't sniff a change in personal scent from 50 feet away.

And those are META heroes.

I'm saying, everyone has their limits. They should be set. If a missile fires off in Russia, your character shouldn't be able to sense it.  With that in mind back track to what's acceptable.  But it should be based on some logical formula.  Int x3 or x5 or some such.

In reply to Oscillator (msg #128):

OK now we are getting somewhere. A little more fine-tuning of understanding on my end, going to present a few scenarios to get even more of an understanding of the power. It sounds less like radar and more like detection of movement (with wind and sounds being movement of the air).

A person hiding behind a wall; vibration sense helps with detection only when they move?

A person standing still in the darkness; same deal?

You are in a dark room and need to move through the room; vibration sense makes it so you can find your way through easily?

I know these are a lot of questions but I just want to have a grip on what the power does. For example if there are people sitting in a room quietly with the door closed and you are out in the hall I don't feel you should be able to know that anymore than someone with regular hearing. Certainly not something like "OK there are 8 people in the room; 2 are children, 1 has a pacemaker, etc". Yeah Daredevil could do something like that but he is blind so he has one less normal sense. This is in essence an additional sense on top of the 5 you have at normal levels. I guess I am just making sure it is not an insta-win button where you can detect things so easily that no one can hide from you and the rest of the group sits back while you do your thing. Just taking into account this is a power on an item which has several significant powers already.

I was also wondering a couple things about the Absorbtion of kinetic energy. What happens if you reach your maximum power potential? Do you start taking the rest as overload damage to hit points? Also from reading the description of Power Blast it really does not seem to be a kinetic energy attack. I was thinking it makes more sense to replace it with TK blasts (obviously TK launched objects are already covered).

That's good!  I'm getting worn out!
heh
Can we keep the game going while we work this out?

1. Probably YES if the wall is thin, ie wallboard, and they make some noise/vibration (ie cocking a pistol, dropping something, clatter, tap tap tap walking, etc).
   Probably NO if the wall is thick (thick steel, brick) or separated by vaccuum (ie 'airtight')  Also NO if there's no vibration being made.
   Moving OR making noises OR operating a noisy machine does makes a vibration. Probably NO if nothing's moving -- unless they make an unusual amount of vibration for some reason.
   
2. Probably NO if the person is not specifically making vibrations/chatter, BUT probably YES if they move & do stuff that creates vibration.
   
3. Oscillator's HART (spec weapon) vibrates, so that vibration pattern would allow him some sense of a space.   *This sense would NOT indicate color, or what is alive or moving, or composition of stuff, or light sources, etc.*

Ah, well that's trickier, but basically a GM call again.  If they are not making noises, chatter, or tapping around, I'd say unlikely (ie no bonus).
But as soon as they clatter about, search for gear, etc -- he should get bonus.

Having Heightened Sense is not an 'insta-win', b/c you still have to make the % rolls, but we are just talking about when the bonus detect applies, no?

We didn't exactly figure out that part -- but it'd make sense to absorb the Damage and release it as a Damage Bonus added on to his Vib Attack?  (That's in the Absorption Power def under 'Damage'.)

If he reaches his max power potential, I guess he couldn't absorb anymore -- or?  Rules have a variety of options at that point -- but nothing about taking damage from over-absorbing.  Normally that'd be a weakness of some sort.

You already capped the max Absorb at 2xPR.

Other limits: Absorb requires an action to setup Absorb for the turn (Ijust re-read rules, says requires "saving an action" to Absorb rather than using an action to 'turn on' Absorption), so that's another limitation bc he doesn't have a lot of actions per turn.  Absorbed attacks must also be 'kinetic', ie an impact or melee, not fire or ice or energy per se.

I agree that Osc's 'enhanced sense' would not likely apply to a missile launched far away, but I disagree that there's a requirement for a formula defining a hard limit.

The power 'Heightened Senses' has no range limit in the rules either, but it does have an 'enhancement factor' for Det Hidden or Det Danger, which Osc does have already.

It isn't that you would be taking damage from over-absorbing, it is that since you have absorbed the maximum amount you are no longer able to absorb so the damage would "get through". Of course you could still roll with the damage putting some into your power which would bleed the power down so you could absorb again.

As far as releasing damage through your Vibratory Attack I believe it is either or, not both. According to the book:

Power: The character receives points of Power from opponents or
incoming attacks: 2 points of Power per point of damage caused/
absorbed. Victims can replace lost Power by resting.

Damage: Incoming attacks only may be absorbed, and each
damage point stored for later use as a Damage bonus or as a blast
attack as per Power Blast (range and damage equal the number of
points of stored damage the character chooses to expend).

Those are 2 separate types of Absorbtion under the rules, so I a person would have to choose one of the options. Now, if they had more than one dose of Absorbtion that would be different.

From reading over Absorbtion it does sound like you have to forego attacking to hold your actions to Absorb other attacks.

I would still like to swap out Power Blast with Telekinetic Blasts as a type of damage you could absorb. I could also see adding in Sonic Attacks as sound is basically a pressure wave.

That makes sense.


Right, I saw that -- thought you were saying he should take damage and store it, then deliver damage back.  (Which I am fine with, btw.)  I think orig you had suggested he store damage as PR, which makes less sense to me in a way.


OK, sure.  Well, are you asking me to choose?  I'd choose the 'store damage pts & return as damage', if we're changing how Osc's power works.  Or just leave it as is, either way.

I think it's "hold an action", but presumably if no one attacks then Osc could use the action?


Aha -- there are no TK blasts in this game, are there?  It's throwing TK objects around & such.  I had suggested 'kinetic', meaning anything with physical impact(s) such as melee, thrown TK objects, a club/sword, etc.  This would not include energy or mental stuff, likely not magic blasts too.  I didn't think this power was gonna absorb Power Blast... although I see it IS written that way on the char sheet.  That seems like a mistake.
Forcefield attacks might make sense b/c they are impact...?

In reply to Oscillator (msg #133):

I figured we would keep it as written since it does work fine.

As far as held actions, yes if no one attacked you you could use the held actions as long as it was before the end of the turn.

If you look at Telekinesis in the book the character can project telekinetic blasts doing HTH damage based upon the telekinetic capacity. He can also control objects and use them to cause damage. So really there are a couple ways to cause kinetic damage with Telekinesis.

Ossi-

My feeling is that leaving the parameters hazy makes for two big problems.

1) Players being unaware of their own limitations.

2) GMs having a difficult time designing challenging scenarios for the players.

3) A huge window for abuse of the powers parameters and a continued, unnecessary, running argument about what does and doesn't apply to a power.

Just my opinion though, and I'm not GM, so it's really up to you guys.

Also, just to be clear, I'm not attacking or hating on your power, I'm just trying to help make things clear and smooth. Ultimately if you and the GM are clear, that's all that really matters.

Onyx, stop hating!
:D

Sword, not sure what you are thinking about for TK attack, so I'm open to discussing it.  I'm also fine with Osc just absorbing attacks as PR & holding it, but obv a 'damage release' could be more powerful.

In reply to Oscillator (msg #136):

Don't hate the player, hate the game...and I love the game!  :)

No worries.

I never hate a power, unless the power is 'super hate' or something.  heh

From the V&V book about Telekinesis:

The character can project waves of telekinesis at a target with a
range of A x Level, doing damage based on the number of pounds
of telekinetic capacity employed in the attack (see the table in 2.6
E; telekinetic capacity is not expanded in the shot, but the amount
used may be less than the character’s maximum if some is already
being used, see below). PR = 1 per shot, attacking as Hand-to-Hand
on the combat table.

And:

Using a telekinetically controlled object as a weapon costs no extra
Power and does damage based on the weight and velocity of the
object as per thrown projectiles.

So Telekinesis can be used to attack with a thrust of telekinetic force or with a controlled object. That is what I meant by exchanging Telekinesis for Power Blast.

As far as the Absorbtion I feel more comfortable with it being a way to replenish and boost one's power. Between your regular Vibratory powers and the ability to Carrier attack it through your HART at Base HTH+1d10++2d8+4 I think Oscillator has sufficient offensive capabilities (8-36 damage if the HTH then the carrier attack hit), even before adding in his Power Blast ability. :)

Ah, you're trying to change the 'absorb kinetic attack' power to ONLY absorb TK attacks?  Well, that's almost a non-power, isn't it?  I mean, TK attacks are pretty rare...

How about, 'absorb TK, sonic, or vibration' attacks?  They're all sorta in the same realm, plus the latter are much closer to Oscillator's powers than TK powers...?  Not sure if you find that too broad.

In reply to Oscillator (msg #140):

No no no, you are misunderstanding me. As it was originally written the Absorbtion worked on Forcefield, HTH, Ice Blast, Power Blast. I just want to swap out Telekinetic blasts with Power Blast since by the description I don't feel Power Blast is a kinetic type attack. So it would read Forcefield, HTH, Ice Blast, and Telekinetic Blast.

Is that a bit more clear? (I apologize if you were misunderstanding my intent)

Not around my books until a little later, so I'll have to post then.

If I have any movement left, onyx will fly up (if it is even necessar) and attempt to pull away the guns from the snipers- Magneto in X-men first class style!  :)

According to the rules you can only affect one item at a time, so you could roll to try and snag one of the rifles. Your next action you could try and snag the other. You will have to pop up to be able to see them, but you have enough movement left. It isn't stated but I figure you can manipulate metal objects at the same distance as you can fire your magnetic blasts (S in inches, 21" in your case).

@ Sword of Damocles
AHA!  I totally misunderstood, sounds fine.  Power is still fairly useful.

Forcefield, HTH, Ice Blast, Power Blast Telekinetic Attack ...

Do you need to add the words gunshots or bullets??

In reply to Oscillator (msg #144):

LOL......nah, HTH covers that pretty well (guns, knives, fists, explosions). :)

Ooooh!  I go on INIT 1!

That's exciting ... almost!
:D

I forgot about that chance for bad things to happen on a miss from attacks until I read over it. I will cut and paste it later into the Rules section. Definitely makes it interesting tossing around Power Blasts willy-nilly (16% chance for something to go awry on a miss). :)

Strongly not a fan.  Throwing HTH attacks are already the most inaccurate attack in the game.  These are supposed to be heroes; they're going to end up fumbling more than they hit, with these rules.

In reply to Vosper (msg #148):

I hear what you are saying, but recall that HTH is only going to have something undesired happen on a 1-5 out of 100. It is the more dangerous/accurate powers which have a higher chance of collateral damage. I want to at least try it as written for a bit. If it ends up being ridiculous and/or too much bookkeeping I will drop it. I think the rule was designed to simulate collateral damage from high energy being thrown around.

I shall of course go along with our wise and powerful GM.  I just hope we don't end up looking more like the Keystone Cops than the Avengers.  ;)

The same rule applies to the baddies of course but like I said if it gets ridiculous I will drop it. I guess I see it something like this though: A group of supers are battling in a lab. One tries to blast another but the other dodges out of the way. The blast follows its trajectory to destroy an expensive piece of lab equipment.

So less Keystone Cops and more the consequences of a violent conflict in an otherwise neutral area. :)

Are you sure we can't have an occasional keystone moment? Personally, I tend to play that like Roger Rabbit.
Player: "You mean my power blast could have gone wild and hit the little old lady any time I used it?!?!"
GM: "Not any time, only when it's funny."

So long as this 'chance to go awry' rule is used to add to the narrative, with the occasional comedic moment, I am inclined to think its a good thing.


Oh, and Eddy speaks his native Spanish, and very fluent English.

That is one area I do try as best I can to do over PbP, is have a decent narrative. I don't know if anyone checked out the other PbP game I run on here using the Talislanta system but you can get a reasonable idea of my narrative style from that game. I definitely tried to set a mood of dawning horror there.

How about some "Critical" love to go with the fumbles?

I'm rolling like sh*t on damage. :)

In reply to Onyx (msg #155):

Well it isn't an auto-fumble/complication and since a 1 always hits and a 20 always misses I don't want to get into crits. I figure on just keeping things as in the previous sentence. I know it sucks to roll lousy damage (been there, done that, have the t-shirt) but eventually it averages out.

I'd say Latin & German, probably?  Maybe something 'else' which is also scientific...?
:)

Sidenote -- vibrating thru guns does NOT count as machinery, right?
Guns are generally pretty low-tech...

Latin and German are acceptable, the German to work closely with our now-friends. Perhaps another language of our now-friends to help work scientifically (Japanese maybe?).

Vibrating through normal guns is not normally applicable to your power since it is basic machinery. Something higher-tech with electronics and circuits is another story (like a laser blaster or something).

As far as simultaneous initiatives go I was going with higher Agility goes 1st but I have no problem with both people going at the same time to resolve posting timeliness. So if you want to go, go ahead. :)

So it has been shown that I am not having the best of luck describing certain aspects of combat. I am not sure how to describe the effects of someone being hit but taking no hit point damage because everything got rolled into power. I described it as having the wind knocked out of the opponent which led to some confusion that the opponent was easier to hit. How have people described in their games when a villain gets hit but takes no damage because of rolling all damage into power? I want to get this right so there is no confusion from here onward...

When playing online, I've found it best to keep it clear by saying something like:

"The power blast grazes the sniper, but he rolls with the force of the blast and manages to keep on his feet and hang on to his radio."

Or something.  Use the term in the description, "roll", just so we slow-learners don't get confuzzled. :D

Oscillator, hopefully you will get an opportunity to post so we can end the turn and move onto the next one. :)

BTW, Vosper thanks for the input, that seems like a decent way to do it.

Sorry for delay, was waiting to hear when to go & missed Poco going.
I just posted.
ONWARDS!
Thanks GM for saying "Go Osc" in OOC thread.

In reply to Oscillator (msg #162):

One important thing to note is that vibrating through objects is based on ground movement not flight (similar to Non-corporealness). It isn't specifically stated but it makes sense. Combining phasing with flight speed is just too much, even with a movement penalty for the SR of what is passed through (For example, at your Flight speed of 800" you could pass through 200" of earth per turn <SR of 4>). That being said I will allow flight momentum to carry you through 1" of material before you start using ground movement (so you can fly through a 5 foot wall and if there is nothing on the other side keep flying). The ability to phase through objects is pretty powerful in its own right, I wouldn't even allow someone who has Heightened Speed on the ground to add that in.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 16:01, Tue 12 June 2012.

Ouch!!  What a ruling!  Glad to hear it before Osc flies thru a mountain!

Well, again this would've been nice to know previously.

So to be clear, Osc can fly, then 'move thru' using walking speed for max 'move thru' amount, then (possibly) fly if he still has move left?
In other words, my current move is totally fine, no?

I'm ok w/this ruling, I suppose, but would've preferred hearing about it during char creation rather than now.

Also, Osc has Vib Powers 2x which gave him a mutated 'move thru devices' ability -- does the 2x Vib Powers improve the move thru distance?  Many GM's enhance powers when it's 2x?

Sorry to quibble -- We keep on 'changing' my powers!!!
Doesn't anyone else have powers that need tweaking?!
:)

In reply to Oscillator (msg #164):

It isn't so much a change as one of those tweaks to combos that can get out of hand, like Heightened Speed and Ice Powers where as written the person can always use 100" of movement to stay at 100 ADR or Size Change (Larger) with Heightened Agility where the person has a boatload of hit points but is still accurate in combat. It doesn't specifically mention what movement is used whereas Non-corporealness does specifically mention moving at ground speed. You do have to admit that being able to fly through the earth at 50 mph is a bit much when for example Onyx can barely fly 50 mph through the air.

The reason I am bringing it up now is honestly I didn't think about how it would work until I saw it in action. Remember this is my 1st time attempting to run V&V in over 20 years.

You are right about the movement cost, I halved the PR to activate the move-through but forgot to halve the movement cost so it would be 0.5" of movement per point of SR of the substance moved through. So if you used your full ground move you could pass through 21" of earth (or 105 feet in one turn, which works out to almost 5 mph). I changed the movement cost on your sheet.

Oh yeah, your current move is fine.

(And with the adjusted movement cost if flying through the earth was kosher you would actually have been around 90 mph)
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:01, Wed 13 June 2012.

So with this guy being aware of you all (except for Oscillator's position at this point) he can change his facing once per phase at a cost of 2 power as per the V&V book. People can change facing more often during their own actions. One way to negate this is to have 2 people coordinate their attacks on phases outside his actions, that way if he turns to face one he turns his back or at least flank on another.

I recommend against using facing rules since we aren't using a map
Personally I like not using a map -- if people can be descriptive -- and let the GM make the calls.  IMO it's easier to use maps in F2F games.
"I try to sneak up" or "they sneak up on you", or "you face 3 villains encircling you -- whom do you face?" all works for me.

Re: tweaks to combos --
I never Vib thru Walls w/Flight as a 'game-breaker' like the ones you mentioned, but zipping around thru walls can be annoying for GM's.  For me the worst is either Size Change + Height Agi, Height Speed + Height Agi, 2x Anim/Plant Powers (ie a ton of powers), or & various other combos.

As for movement, to confirm, Osc can walk AND fly in same round?

Personally, I figure a quick ration between all movement modes to ground movement, then use that ratio to limit a character's movement (per turn) to the ground movement rate. Otherwise, non-ground movement rates with large numbers of inches per turn add abilities to the characters that don't make sense. A speedster should be capable of using movement only to open all the windows in the office building in seconds, the guy with the jetpack should not.
So a character that has a ground movement rate of 60" and 990" of flight (approximate ratio of 16 to 1) vibrating through a half-foot thick aluminum (SR 8) wall uses 4/5 of an inch of ground movement, or 13" of flight.

So if the guy spends 2 PR per facing change... and Vosper can run at 150 mph, but he can change facing to wherever she goes... can she run in circles around him and exhaust his entire PR supply?

Or at least make him dizzy so he's easier to hit? :)

LOL, well you can certainly use your actions to position yourself so he has to spend power to change facing if you run behind him. So for example if you use 3 actions to do that he would have to burn 6 power to change facing since it is not his action.



Yes because you are still just using movement. So a person could use some ground movement to get to the edge of a lake, jump in, then using swimming as an example.

One way to handle it would be to use the ratios like Nightmare suggested (and I think would work and be pretty easy). Another way would be a little more complicated but would work out roughly the same, which would be a ratio of remaining movement. For example, you have a ground move of 42" and flight move of 800". Let's say in your turn you fly 100" then pass through a aluminum wall 5 feet thick. You would use 100" flying then 4" of ground movement to get through the wall. That amount of ground movement is about 10% of your total movement so you would decrease the movement you have remaining in your turn by 10% of your maximum movement; so if you continued flying on the other side you would have been considered to have used 180" of movement flying (100" then 10% of your max to pass through the wall).

Using the ratio would be easier though I think, with you having a 19-1 flight to ground ratio. So flying 100" then passing through a 1" aluminum wall would cost 176" of flight movement (100" base + <4" for the aluminum x 19 ratio>).

Yeah it works out just about the same and is much easier to figure out, so we can go with that rather than jumping back and forth between ground and flight movement.

restatement:
176" of flight movement or 4" of ground movement to get thru a 1" wall

Whoa.  Hard to see that 176" flight = 4" of ground move, have to re-examine that math.

But we'll figure out something good, no doubt!
:)

Remember, that would be for a 5 foot thick aluminum wall (SR 8), just for the example's sake. :)

When people attack (and I will be remembering this for when I attack as well), please roll a d100 along with the d20 attack roll. That way if the attack misses the roll for potential mishap/unintended occurrence will already be done.

(This way I don't have to remember to ask people to roll the d100, such as for Vosper and Oscillator's misses this turn.)

Nightmare, were you just going to go on 22 or were you coordinating with Onyx and Vosper to go on 18? With the roll you are going to miss but if the three of you go at once he will have to choose who to face so one of you will get rear bonus, another a flanking bonus, and the third no bonus because he/she will be attacking from the front. It is a nice choice of tactics though by Mr. Onyx, especially facing a single opponent. :)

As I've envisioned him, Nightmare wouldn't recognize the coordination thing at this point, and I figured he would just go ahead and try to hit the guy on his phase.

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 175):

That's cool, Onyx and Vosper can still maneuver enough so that they can each get the +2 flanking bonus to hit.

And...another hit from the mosquito man. :)

1 point of damage rolled. SMH.

In reply to Onyx (msg # 177):

Man the characters are rolling like it is a d20 system game, we have to remind the dice roller that LOWER is better to hit, and HIGHER is better for damage.

That being said the spread for 1d20 is pretty harsh and I would be open to changing the damage to 2d10, giving a better bell curve. Of course that would apply to power blast all around, affecting the players when the baddies use it. I will leave it up to the group, if people want to make 1d20 damage powers into 2d10 I am agreeable.

Damn it! I keep forgetting little important details. In looking at Poco's damage I realized I forgot to roll 1.5 damage into power since the snipers are wearing body armor, so the 1st sniper would have still been standing after Poco's attack. Barely standing, but still standing.

I prefer the 1d20. The spread is terrible for the unaltered power, but it makes a double dose into a devestating ability.

Do you mean for 'attack' rolls?
I am happy to just leave it as d20?

In reply to Poco Tehuantl (msg # 181):

Heh.....no, I was talking about the 1d20 damage roll for power blast. Twice Onyx has rolled lousy damage so I introduced the possibility of changing the damage to 2d10.

Ahhhh.   Then, with all respects, I don't care how you do it    :-p

So it appears you are all dialoguing and weighing your options, I am not sure if you are awaiting anything from me before moving forward.

Eddy's ready, oh so ready, to get moving ... once the others have finished stripping the AJs, and catching their breath.

And trying to recover some PR.  Don't forget that part! :D

And Osi is moving the naked soldiers to the top of another building.

So yeah, we are awaiting you.

In reply to Poco Tehuantl (msg # 188):

How long are people wanting to rest for? One point of power recovered per minute of complete rest, so 25 minutes of rest for Poco to recover all his used power. Searching/stripping/transporting the unconscious soldiers I would say would prevent those individuals from recovering power for that period of time. According to the individual power tallies the group is looking at 2 minutes rest needed for Nightmare, 8 minutes for Vosper, 13 minutes for Oscillator, 21 minutes for Onyx, and 25 minutes for Poco to recover all spent power.

As I've said in ooc and ic, Eddy is ready to go ... he is just waiting for everyone else.

In reply to Poco Tehuantl (msg # 190):

Yep, I got that....I guess I am posing that question more to those who have 1/4 the hit points and 2/3 the power points of Poco. Even down 1/4 his power he has more power than anyone else in the group. :)

Yeah, that's why I'm willing to wait.


Ok guys, please specify how much time you want.   We'll rest the longest requested time, then move.
But the GM and I need to hear a figure from each of you.

Gah, it seems lame to even wait at all.  Metagaming concerns vs. roleplay, ugh.

How 'bout five minutes?  Give everyone +5 PR.

Well, we can set lookouts, take 30 & watch.
There's no harm in waiting -- doesn't make the 'in-game' world slow down.
But we should all rest from cover.

Well, the issue is, what are the bad guys doing while we rest?

They know we're here.  The longer we give them, the more traps they can set, the more objectives they can achieve.

I figured Nightmare has been leisurely tagging along, and is now trying to earn his keep by playing lookout with the sniper scope while everyone else rested a bit.

Yes, that's true.  Well, here's an alternative -- why don't the heroes who don't need to recharge go zipping around & check things out?

Just an idea...

BTW, I'm all for catching a breather OR continuing.

But Osc didn't spend much PR.

In reply to Oscillator (msg # 197):

Actually, Nightmare is about to do just that.

So we've had votes for 5 minutes and 30 minutes.
But no decision made.
So if nobody minds, I'll make the decision:

Those who wish to take5 on the roof.  Those who don't feel the need can go investigating the direct locale ...

In reply to Poco Tehuantl (msg # 200):

I vote for 10. Easy peasy.

But I'm not mad at 5.

Someone may have to scrape Onyx off the wall, but, sure, 5.  :)

Ok 10.         I'll go edit my last post


I just want to get this game moving again

The doors to the store were actually locked, but in the interest of not having to have 2 people edit their posts I will just handwave that away. So just waiting on what other folks are doing...

Heh.  Eh.  Take a look at Eddy's Str, then tell me he doesn't 'just walk right on in'   :-p

In reply to Poco Tehuantl (msg # 204):

Oh I am aware of Eddy's strength, as I am sure he is aware this is government property and as little collateral damage as possible is ideal. One does not necessarily need to open a locked door by tearing it off the hinges. ;)

* looks forlorn *


            Ok.

I'm out of town for the next 4 days.

Feel free to NPC me till then. :)

Just wanted to refer people to the Rules section where I am using Jeff Dee's modified saving throw system. Vosper and Poco you both made your INT saves, but your base target number is not your INT score, it is from the table in the Rules section. So for example Poco's INT of 11 gives him a base target number of 10, Vosper's INT of 12 gives her a base t6arget number of 11. Oscillator's INT of 31 gives him a base target number of 14.

INT 10 gives you save 10, INT 31 gives you save 14?

That's a pretty sharp skew downwards...

In reply to Oscillator (msg # 209):

Looking at it more and more it is a pretty significant skewing. It is going from 3 point increments of stats (6-8, 9-11) to 6 point increments (12-17, 18-23) where the radical jump comes in. I am looking at that behind-the-scenes to possibly tweak it a bit. Perhaps 3 point increments through 20, 4 point increments through 30, and 5 point increments beyond that...so stay tuned. (I understand what Jeff Dee was going for but it does seem he wielded the Nerf bat a bit on the hard side)

Somewhere around here I've got his Living Legends game, I think he handled it differently there.  I'm fine with however the GM wants to handle it.  Dice servers usually hate on me anyways, so unless the number is "20", I can always bollux it up.  And sometimes even then... :D

OK so I decided upon a change, and have edited the section in the House Rules section. Basically everyone's base target save number went up by at least one or possibly 2 based on where they sit in the spread of numbers.

Also in the House Rules section is a slight tweak to the base attack number for HTH.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:23, Mon 02 July 2012.

While I understand every GM may want 'house rules', I think players could have the opportunity to argue with these rules if there is some reason they find them objectionable.

FYI, your 'house rules' thread does not include your change to Detects (which I still disagree with).

In reply to Oscillator (msg # 213):

Which change to Detects?

I thought you had put ranges on all detects, but re-read thread & see it was only Osc's Vib Sense.  Guess I misunderstood -- but I understand why I was so determinedly resistant.

In reply to Oscillator (msg # 215):

Yeah I was confused because I thought we had hashed that out.

OK, in the in-character thread was that Poco singing a song or reciting a poem?

Seemed like in-char dialogue/song...?

That was a poetic way of describing Eddy's action; which is in answer to Ossy's question.

@ Poco Tehuantl -- it was cool, but vague/confusing.
(I liked it.)

My apologies for the delay, I wasn't sure if anyone else was going to chime in with anything. After seeing things remaining quiet IC I figured I would nudge things ahead a touch...

Indeed, and thanks. I am looking forward to us getting into the meat of the story.

Ok.

Easing back into games. I'll catch up tomorrow and the next day.

Why wouldn't you push all of those buttons?!?!  Very cat-like.   :)

I LOL'd on that.

Just seems postmodern-y.

"Hey!  Check the mice!!"
:D

I'm going to be traveling tomorrow on business for almost 16 hours out of the country, so I will not be posting for a moment.

My feeling is once I arrive there I will be able to post, but I'd there are connectivity problems, maybe not.

Just wanted to give everyone the heads up.

I am still here and alive and want people to know I have not forgotten about the game. I assuredly want to see this adventure through and move onto more, it is just that I have had a lot of stuff going on in my personal life which has left me drained and struggling to be creative. So please be patient with me, I am not abandoning you all...

No worries mate!  hang in there!

Nightmare, you get another saving throw. You were using the old way. With an Endurance of 17 you have a base target number of 12, -4 for the difficulty brings you to an 8 or less on a d20. So go ahead and roll again.

So everyone has a base target number based on the applicable attribute score that you need to roll less than or equal to on a d20, before any bonuses or penalties are added of course...

Damn, I rolled saves wrong too.  Will re-roll.  Thought it was d100.

Second topic -- I'm looking for a few people willing to GM a V&V game on RPOL.  The game *is not looking for players* yet.  We are going to have multiple GM's and no one will be solely responsible for the game, the action, etc etc.

If anyone wants to GM, has done it before, & knows V&V, drop me a PM?

- Oscillator

Re-rolled save, target number hit dead on. Post doesn't need to change.

@ Poco
Oscillator didn't even know there WAS a GM.
And none of us do.
:D

@Poco
Hey! No fair! I wanted to do the Deadpool thing!

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 233):

My apologies to the group, I have been on vacation since last Friday. Internet has been very spotty up there which is one reason I haven't posted. I have also been struggling with a back injury so it is touchy to sit upright for too long. My goal is to get something posted this weekend to get things rolling again.

Hopefully we will hear something from Onyx, he hasn't posted in 2 weeks and has not been in on in 10 days. I hope he is still with us...

Could just be the time of year, this is right before school for a lotta folks.

Even though Osc isn't there, if whatever happens makes any vibe noise, does Osc get a chance to check on it?  Det Hidden (using Vibe sense)?

Hey all!  Sorry for the extended absence.  A move, work, and an increasingly busy schedule has sidelined me for a bit.

Hopefully I can get back on the horse next week (after the Labor Day weekend).

In reply to Oscillator (msg # 237):

Being that Oscillator is inside a concrete and dirt shaft, I would say no. In this case what is possibly happening is not something that would cause enough vibration for you to notice it where you are.

In reply to Onyx (msg # 238):

That's cool man, it is good to see you again! (I did do your roll for you as I wasn't sure what was up though)

In reply to Sword of Damocles (msg # 240):

I'm always cool with NPCing me if I'm not around. No problem.

Especially the way YOU roll. :)

Most likely you guys heard Osc's message -- or you're damned stupid.
:D

Hope Osc gave you some helpful data -- and that the baddies don't have super-hearing!!
(ie to shoot Osc with.)

I edited my most recent post to indicate Nightmare's true direction, but thought it best to re-iterate here that he is climbing up the ladder while the elevator goes down.

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 243):

That is what I thought, but I figured I would ask since the original text was a bit unclear...

In reply to Sword of Damocles (msg # 244):

"a bit unclear"?
Actually it was deplorable, I have an extreme prejudice against such vague communications, so now I hate myself. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to eat greasy potato chips and swill carbonated soft drinks with a high caffeine content until I fell better.

Or until you have to strap yourself down on the toilet seat to be able to deal with the inevitable consequences of eating too much greasy food.....whichever comes first....lol.

Isn't your name Nightmare for a reason?

I didn't think it was b/c of a self-hatred complex, tho.
That's an interesting spin on it!!
HA HA HA

Ugh....apologies yet again for the long delay. My personal life has been kicking my ass lately between work and home so my energy has been pretty low as has been my motivation. I finally posted something to move things along and also added a section on movement in the Rules thread (covering walking and climbing speeds). I think we may have lost Onyx because his last login was about 1.5 weeks before Vosper's last login.

It definitely looks like we lost Onyx, has been quite a while since he logged in. Things seem to be a little stuck too in-game and am not sure what to do about that....splitting the party is always risky, probably moreso in a PbP game...

Yeah -- and RPOL has a significant 'player vanishes never to return' stat which is hard to replicate in F2F games.  (You're lucky when that player who vanishes is not the GM.)

My method of dealing with that is to randomly sacrifice that character to the first shot(s), but others have different methods (some ideas: NPC the character, give the char to another active player (I got one of those), recruit a replacement player to run that char, and a fun 'superhero' thing to do is recruit a new player & have an in-game event which "transforms" the hero from old hero to the new hero).

I apologize for splitting the team.  Oftentimes, 1-2 heroes will 'scout'.  I think Oscillator could take someone along with him, not sure who would be willing to fly thru concrete tho (would be frightening!).

Yeah, I admit the pacing and the splitting got me pretty lost.  Just been waiting for a clear sign on what to do.  But posting's been way down.

Not just in this game.  Seems like 90% of the games I'm in are on life support.

Combination of good weather + big elections + work craziness?

Whatever the case, we can make this game good - just by regular posting!

I'm happy to have Osc re-unite with the group just to make things easier...  With Vosper and Osc, seems like we have pretty awesome scouts -- but we could also just carry everyone around with us...?

I am just waiting.

My thoughts: if you want to speed things up, narrate Oscy's fight, and keep moving. It's fine to split the group, so long as the posting rate holds well.   How long has it taken the two of you to make the few rolls of the Oscy-baddies fight?

In reply to Poco Tehuantl (msg # 253):

The problem is that it isn't just Oscy's fight; this new turn starts with him looking to move out of the ceiling, the elevator reaches the 2nd level and the doors open, and the unknown amount of soldiers that may be in the hallway or somewhere else. So unless no one is planning on exiting the elevator when the doors open (or even being in it) it is a fight for anyone who is on that level. That is the problem, the whole sequence has been less than 30 seconds for the elevator finally reaching the 2nd level while Oscy scouted then attacked the soldiers and went into the ceiling.

I'm confused by the confusion...?  Why don't we all roll INIT & get busy?
Perhaps if Onyx (or anyone else) holds up for too long (3 days - 1 week) then just NPC them for now?

When I GM, I say I'll 'ragdoll' the player if they don't post within 1-2 days.
Why wait?  Is that char really going to do much??
:)

Lets 'roll 'em'!!

In reply to Oscillator (msg # 255):

Well, I am waiting to know what Poco and Vosper are doing. Are they getting into the elevator car? Staying on the roof? Nightmare is still climbing, will reach the 1st level during this turn. Onyx I will probably have staying hovering, illuminating the 1st level elevator door and providing support for Nightmare. I have initiative done for the soldiers, just need it from Poco and Vosper if they are planning on joining the festivities on the 2nd level. Once that is done I will be able to get things rolling.

I missed that we were even supposed to roll for inish. I'll have mine up shortly.

Yeah, we might as well take on some soldiers. ;)

Last I understood, in IC (msg's 259 + 261)  Eddy and Vos (and orphaned Onyx presumably) had decided to hold position on top of the elevator car; let it open at 2, then close again.  While Nightmare covers the 1st floor.

And we have waited patiently.  For an entire month (13 Sept to 13 Oct).  while the GM and Os post through their one combat round.


But is it now suggested that the game has slowed because WE are not posting?

And, it seems Vos is as frustrated as I, so is ditching the plan to go with the good old 'just attack anything you see'.

In reply to Poco Tehuantl (msg # 258):

OK I totally spaced those posts (259+260), having looked back. I *did* acknowledge having ongoing personal issues and apologized for that. (And they are ongoing, without getting into too much detail imagine having a job working with people with significant psychiatric issues then going home to deal with a close family member with significant psychiatric issues, not to mention other more normal stressors) I am trying to get the game going again and I was not suggesting either of you were responsible for slowing the game, merely stating that I was waiting for an initiative roll. I still feel like I am being a total botch as a GM, made even worse by IRL issues. I have thought about closing the game because I would rather not have a game then run a bad game but I know people have put time and effort into their characters and I want to at least try to rectify the situation.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:01, Thu 18 Oct 2012.

@ Sword of Damocles - please don't harsh the GM!  They're doing their best!

Sorry for rough IRL situation!  I have had many since joining rpol, and have been pleasantly surprised at the wonderful supportive community here.
Your situation sure sounds challenging!

While some players have been frustrated bc our game focus was meandering or they felt left out -- & I hogged too much limelight scouting *APOLOGIES* -- I'm cutting the GM slack!

Often it's good in OOC or in-game to say "so & so, we are waiting on you to do X".

Lastly, if GM is willing, I'm open to having any/all rolls made for me -- by GM OR anyone else that feels so inclined -- my passion has always been for roleplay over roll play.  (But I love my dice!!!)
 :)

Actually, the posting/vanishing/confusion rate here about matches the one I GM on RPOL, so I felt right at home. There seemed to be someone on the first floor, so Nightmare is climbing up to check, and that takes some time while others act. I've never had a problem with such things. It works well, for me, to be able to work my minor fringe stuff while others do combat.
Besides, between Oscillator flying into the ceiling and now, the family has had three birthdays, our 20th wedding anniversary, two ear infections, three soar throats, a new dog dropped on our doorstep (anybody want a pooch?) and at work we've had several large orders that had to be processed and produced 'right now'. So I'm pretty swamped, as well.

That got me to thinking, there is not sufficient oxygen trapped in solid material to diffuse and provide air for a non-corporeal or vibrating person. I recall that Kitty Pryde actually had to hold her breath when passing through matter. That being said anyone phasing through solid material needs to hold their breath. Normally characters can hold their breath for a number of turns equal to their Endurance, I would say half that (or more depending, like fighting off a choke) when exerting themselves. Once that limit is reached I would say a Save vs. Endurance (using the table in the Rules section) is needed every turn after that with a cumulative -1 penalty. Failing the save means the character falls unconscious, with death following in a number of turns equal to the character's Endurance if air is not restored/provided. So Oscy, you definitely want to be aware of time passing when you are phasing, you can hold your breath for 7 turns while doing so (using your powers is exertion), which as an example would allow you to move through 98" (490 feet) of concrete/granite before you would need air.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:15, Fri 19 Oct 2012.

Thanks!  I've been aware that there's no air in there... But glad to have some rules on how that works.

If he's still in concrete by Turn 6 (*NOT the plan*), he'll be Disintegrating a lot of concrete!!

In-game, would be fun to fly people into solids.
"It won't be the most comfortable, and you'll have to hold your breath, and we won't be able to see anything, but it will be over fast."

Oscillator is over most of the discomfort of vibrating thru solids -- it took awhile tho.

In reply to Vosper (msg # 257):

You wanted gunfire? You all gonna get some gunfire now. Been a long day but I will make rolls, post, and update tomorrow. Got a bunch of actions going off in a quick clump right about the time Poco reaches the trio of soldiers.

In reply to Poco Tehuantl (msg # 258):

Ouch, the dice are being ugly for you right now. Once you hit though, that will put a big damper on their day. At least everyone is in some action right now!

Things hopping and a bit more exciting for people now? :)

Friends, we just had our first child.  If the GM could play me, or anyone,  l will be off for awhile!
Busy!
Pics & info:
http://rekzkarz.blogspot.com/2...y-baby-baby.html?m=1

Congrats!!

In reply to Oscillator (msg # 267):

Yes congratulations! Enjoy your time and get back to us when you can. In the meantime I am already NPCing Onyx (who may be gone for good, his last logon was almost 2 months ago) so maybe someone else would like to run Oscillator? I will post an init so we can get the next turn going but everyone discuss among themselves.

So with Onyx being gone almost 2 months I have recruited a new player, Supplicant 7. Please give her a warm welcome (she played Sleepy Jean in BurningBones's New Dawn V&V game alongside my character Bonespike). I am hoping to get her character done with her and into the game as soon as I am able.

Welcome, no longer Sleepy Jean.

Yawn

What?

Um...I have children.  "Sleepy no longer Jean" might be more accurate. grin  Thanks!

Yeah, I know what you mean.  These days, my response to "are you tired?" or "you look tired", is "I have children".


Welcome, Sleepy One.  May we provide you with some small measure of entertainment.

Funny, I usually give the same reply when asked if I imbibe alcohol. ;)

Welcome aboard Sleepy Jean!  I played Blacksun and Shimakaze in the other game, and look forward to writing with you here!

Poco is starting to really tear into the soldiers now but on the other hand he has taken a beating to his power from the gunfire (that is the rub from the bulletproof vest, you can roll more into power but you also end up blowing through power in a big hurry).

That being said I am taking a look at how I have been doing burst fire for weapons. I have been using a version used by a number of long-time V&V GMs from the V&V forum where each bullet has its own roll to hit. RAW appears to have one single roll and if it hits you roll damage for all 3 bullets (although I believe you can still roll with each individually). I am not sure which makes more sense, an attack roll for each bullet or 1 roll for all 3. The damage penalty for the bullets seemed built-in to the one roll approach, with 0 damage meaning that bullet actually was just off-target. Rolling 3 attack rolls it doesn't seem right to apply damage penalties since the attack roll itself can miss (of course the damage bonus only applies to the 1st bullet in the burst). Ultimately I have to come to a decision myself but I am curious to hear what other people think...

I don't remember where I got this, but it's another method. ns it gives to characters using automatic weapons.
When using an automatic weapon, declare the number of rounds to use before firing.

Character's can choose to roll once for the burst, or roll to hit for each round.
• If they choose to roll once for the entire burst
  1. Character bonuses do not apply, they get +1 to hit per round fired.
  2. Character bonuses for damage (i.e. damage modifier, heightened attack, etc.) apply to the first round only.
  3. If a hit is indicated, an additional round hits for each two pips they make the to hit roll by.
• If they choose to roll for each round
  1. To hit bonuses apply to the first round only.
  2. No character bonuses apply to the damage.
• In either case, the number of rounds used is subtracted from the damage roll, results of 0 or less indicate the round missed and may have went past the target to strike another target.

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 276):

That is one of my (and a number of other V&V GMs) issues with auto-fire, the negative modifier to the damage roll based on how many rounds were fired. As an example take someone firing a minigun (completely logical in the 60's, they existed and were used) at 20 rounds per action (which is still unbelievably slow, I believe they had a cyclical rate of somewhere around 2-3000 rounds per minute which would be like 50 rounds per phase). They would receive a +20 to hit to the base of 6 for HTH, pretty much an auto-hit in many cases. However, even granting 20mm ammunition doing 1d12 damage per round the person would hit with 20 rounds doing 0 damage. A bit on the wonky side, no? I am looking at one variant proposed by someone on one of the V&V message boards, to see if it makes more sense. I will post more once I have had some time to think on all the different options....

Also, be patient, I am finishing up at work so should have the last actions of this turn posted later tonite...

I think, back in "the day" when I ran a regular tabletop V&V game, we treated it as multiple shots, with +1 to hit and -1 damage PER SHOT.  So for example, if you corked off a 3 round burst, each shot would be at +2 to hit / -2 damage, but all rolled separately.

That was probably us misreading the rules.  But then I *am* talkin' about 1989 here. :D

BTW, thanks to our fearless GM for keeping this going.  Games on RPOL don't always last long, and it's appreciated! :D

Man I am either rolling poop attack rolls or damage for Onyx and Oscillator isn't having any luck either (though maybe switch to Power Blast, a higher chance to hit and better damage) in the hands of someone else....it's like the dice roller knows they are being ghost-pc'ed.

There still seems to be some confusion around saving throws, so I am referring people again here: link to a message in this game and specifically message number 4 which details the saving throw system I am using.

Sorry for my extended absence!

I am recently getting back into the swing of things.  Give me a few days to catch up, then I can start posting again for Onyx.

He's a bad mamma jamma.

:)

In reply to Onyx (msg # 282):

I thought we had lost you since it had been almost 2 months. Have been NPCing him but not particularly well. I brought it a new recruit to bring the team back up to 5 but looks like it will be 6, which is fine. Good to see you back!

(BTW you can notice he is a little battered at the moment)

Welcome back, mate! :D

OK I finally decided how I am going to handle auto/burst fire with firearms and have posted the rules in the House Rules section (I borrowed it from a V&V message board member). Cuts down on the rolling and also avoids strange results from scattered rolls.

My personal life has been a little hectic this week so I haven't had much creative energy and also admit to being a little stuck at the moment in-game. I am trying to break-through and figure out where to go next but am feeling a little discouraged. I had an idea a little while back but it would end up extending the combat which I have gotten the feel is boring people (especially with so many bad rolls for the group). GMing a supers game is definitely not as intuitive for me as a fantasy game...

Hang in there man.  GMing any game can be challenging and when RL is kicking you, it's even harder.

Not throwing in the towel here - happy to keep going with whatever you're doing. :D

I'm tired, I'm changing a lot of diapers, and I'm still on paternity leave -- but I'd like to reclaim Oscillator.

If I don't post w/in a reasonable time, tho, please continue playing me...?

Thanks.

"This proposition is purely logical." (In-character comment.)

I am in Vosper's game and I have to say I like a couple things he is doing. One is allowing flexible initiative, in that people don't have to act in order as long as they all go before the opponents. The second is the idea of the GM rolling initiative for the group and organizing it before the turn starts (although I don't think it has been an issue here yet). I am interested in adopting those rules so long as people are on-board with it.....and yes, I will be getting the turn wrapped up soon. I am just trying to figure out where to go next...

All fine with me, Swordy.

I'm touched you like some of the twists I'm putting on things.  Obviously I have no issues with you adopting them if you like!

Keeping up game pace is good, so I'm all for it.

Ennui.  That is an awesome choice for Emotion Control.  I'd say I love it, but I suddenly just don't care...yawn

I am super-curious to see how this new twist is going to play out. :)

Some updates coming tonite, busy week at work.

So I guess I will bring the conversation from Dale's game back in here, in fairness to his game.

I did want to clarify that these are not "normal" soldiers. Not only have they had extensive US military training but they also have had intensive agent training. So not only are they higher level (based upon their being covert operatives) they also have the training. Also SMGs and sniper rifles are great equalizers, especially sniper rifles with their accuracy when used with appropriate attachments. The addition of bullet-proof vests and the fact that they allow one to roll more damage into power has drawn out the combat as well. The fact that the group has had particularly bad dice luck in general has not helped either.

I did want to comment on the jumping rules, I borrowed them from a long-time V&V GM who is very active on several V&V forums and has been running games for a long time. The jumping rules as written in the rulebook are really quite overpowered (not to mention a PITA to figure out). As an example my character Bonespike in a now-defunct game had a standing vertical jump of 25" (125 feet) and he only had a STR of 21. That was the particular reason for adopting those rules.

I am also a somewhat tactically-oriented person in that I try to give NPCs tactics appropriate to their INT and/or training; utilizing terrain and resources, trying to logically anticipate and counter opposing tactics, etc. That can drag things out as well.

I do apologize for dragging things out, some of it is due to on & off personal stuff but some is also just feeling a bit lost as well. I thought the twist (using villains I had honestly intended to use anyhow) might allow me to wrap up the combat to move forward because if the villains bug out the group will have achieved the stated goals; secure the technology from being stolen and rescue any hostages. I guess the plot of the mission seemed cooler in my mind (and appropriately James Bond-ish) than it worked out to be in reality. It is also tough to determine an appropriate challenge level for a group of characters with a disparity in power levels, movement, and combat ability. So yeah, basically I am struggling....(and to be honest have been wrestling with whether I want to continue the game but at the same time I don't just want to quit either)
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:24, Tue 04 Dec 2012.

My main frustration has been with the dice roller.  Nothing you can do about that.  Still, when I need a 6 or less to hit, it's tough to get much done.  :)

I recently saw "X-Men: First Class" and it's set during this period.  It's kind of been where I take my head to get into this game.

Actually, I've been enjoying it immensely. Having a character that is somewhat weaker has forced me to attempt a greater depth of characterization than usual.
Besides, one of the things I dislike in several superhero games is the 'minion notion'. "If it's not a supervillain, it's just a minion and we walk all over them without breaking a sweat" does nothing for me, at any time. Some of the best comic books I've ever read involved the hero fighting nothing but minions.

I've actually never minded the original jumping rules, as both a player and a GM full length jumps were avoided. It's true that weighing 220 lbs with 18 STR & END allows you to jump 160 feet. It's also true that you're in the air (unable to evade) for three phases while you jump 160 feet. It's also true that you can jump no more than 80 feet (which takes two phases) without first running 80 feet along the ground. A quick, one phase leap by this character is 40 feet. That's about the same as adding STR & END together, anyway, so I often went with that as a quick figure.

@ GM Sword of Damocles

I guess the main thing is you finding out what makes you enjoy running the game & going with that.

I have no issue with the jumping rules as is.  It's a superhero game, and it's quite imbalanced throughout, so I never worried about it.

Hadn't realized these were 'special forces' of any kind until you mentioned it, but they are definitely a strong match vs our super-team.  You said "hard to know how things will match up b/c of power levels, etc" -- yes!  Esp for V&V.  I had 2 villains vs a team in a previous game, and the villains stomped the heroes (brutally).
I had to have the villains retreat after pounding the heroes badly -- but the villains were thwarted since they didn't capture an item b/c one hero could become invisible/insubstantial & they couldn't affect that hero.  So yes, it's quite hard to guess what will be a good match up.

I think the main issue is maintaining game pace -- if we're in combat, let's resolve it in ~ 1-2 weeks.  If it goes for months, even if it's fun & we enjoy ourselves, the players will forget WHAT THE GAME OBJECTIVE WAS...

(In another game, we all split into separate teams.  Then the GM had some personal stuff happen, and the player my character was teamed up with quit.  It's been ~ 6 months so far, and now it looks like we may resume -- but no one remembers what we were doing or why.)

Anyway, if you enjoy then continue.  If you hate it, then it's a good time to shut off (or turn over to someone else to GM).

The characters in this game are excellent, and our startup was good fun.  This mission seems like quite a challenge -- and I'd like to finish the adventure!

well, when you deal with those muggers, we should talk, eh!

What, are we in all the same games?  HA

Actually in THAT game I'm on the docks with 'Eagle-something' looking for squidling humanoid thingies.

Wow, it's been so long, I forgot their name!

Oh, THAT game.  Yeah, Thunder Eagle.

I remember: the two of you were going hunting squid heads ... and wondering how the hell you we're going to do so, and survive if they started electrocuting you in the water.
Good luck with that one.

You reckon that ThatGuy'll manage to get the game running again?  I hope so, but he seems busy.

THAT game.  Right, Thunder Eagle dropped out during our lull.

He said he'd like to & asked if people were interested.  As I don't know him IRL, can't really read too much into that one way or the other...

But I'm up for playing it!

In reply to Oscillator (msg # 298):

So it sounds like folks are interested in continuing so I will endeavor to wrap this mission up. Of course now the group has given me a twist to my twist so I have to see how this all plays out. Once that is done I can hopefully craft another scenario that is a bit more open, may ask for some help with that perhaps.

I am glad people understand more that this was not a group of mooks. They definitely had the advantage of knowing the area, expecting some type of opposition, and being well-equipped. Certainly a group of muggers would not be even close to the same level of threat.

Also I guess I tend to like running games that are a bit on the grittier side. I am also an inveterate tinkerer with rules that don't make sense to me (or are overpowered), but I will strive to do it outside of an active mission scenario instead of in medias res. I am also a fan of at least a reasonable level of balance (thus my altered Size Change, Larger rules among other things) and this group definitely has a bit of a power-gap. Poco is arguably the toughest character and Oscillator the most versatile with the rest of the group moving downward from there. Something that is a threat to most of the group probably wouldn't be much of one to Poco or Oscillator so you can see my dilemma, especially with my inexperience. So I guess I will do the best I can to try to learn and adapt. :)

Eddy might be tough. But not every threat needs to be a physical, 'poundable' one.   For more subtle and cerebral threats, Eddy will need his team mates to identify the problems, and point him at something to pound.
Like Size Change, there are always circumstances that will limit even a 'big' hitter.    {pun intended}

Other than obvious, physical threat, Eddy is a limited sort of guy ... very much a 'specialist'.

In reply to Poco Tehuantl (msg # 304):

Oh I do understand that, but in this particular scenario the environment significantly favored his style of fighting (close-in spaces). Larger outdoor environments with fliers would definitely be more of a challenge as would "more subtle threats" as you put it.

Well now the group knows there is someone unseen behind them at least. Have at it! ;)

Uh, were you trying to tell me something with this?

V&V CAN be gritty, but it's meant to be more 'golden-age' comic book styled.  However, The Elementals comic (an old fav of mine) was made using heroes the artist rolled up in V&V -- kind of a random factoid.

re: challenges -- if you NEED to make things challenging for Poco or myself, you could consider:
- Match our strengths, ie Poco vs a brick or myself vs a flyer/phasing type.
- Bring someone in that is completely opposite, ie Poco vs incorporeal type, or myself vs psychic / mind controller type
- someone that 'thrives' from our power types (ie a villain that feeds on rage for Poco or a villain that uses vibration to power his attacks/weaponry) or an 'absorber' (ie they suck up whatever we dish out, then turn it into something else)

But, sometimes the GM just puts cannon-fodder between the heroes & the bosses or supervillains.  When the cannon-fodder whoops the heroes butts, the boss villains are maybe less of a 'build up'.

Vosper got shot in the head?
Oooh, that IS gritty.

Not sure what's the pause here...?

Are we all celebrating Hanukah, or is that just me?
:D

Happy Holidays & ... let's finish the combat, eh?

'Nuf said.

I posted an attack that I'm sure missed... am I up again, or where are we?

In reply to Vosper (msg # 310):

Sorry, work has been kicking my ass this week. I will wrap things up either tonite or tomorrow.

Just wanted to say I'm still here, but with nothing to post ICly. This is one Nightmare you can't escape quite that easily.

So anyone who wants to roll initiative to go help out up on the 1st level please do so and I will get the turn rolling. Not much longer now...

But doesn't that mean you hit them right in the eyes?

I'm sure there's something karmic in here somewhere. :D

C'mon Oscy and Poco, layeth some smacketh down. I know people are clamoring for this to be over and it is soooooooooooooooooo close. ;)

I laid the miss down.

(Zing!  Miss.  'Oh well, then, pardon me.')

Have another action on 2, which looks like last,
so I'll wait a little on that action.

Was going to pick up Vosper & take her to safety, then remembered she regenerates...
So we can just leave her there bleeding out w/no worries.

Ah, the downside of the team knowing you regenerate!  heh

In reply to Oscillator (msg # 317):

Verily the dice roller hates the group.....we need blood and souls for our Lord Dice Roller!

I forgot the damn soldier was using his pistol as Onyx snatched the SMG from him, so I edited the post. The 6 damage still alone was enough to drop Vosper however.

She'll be baaaAAAAaaaack...!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!

The combat is done, people can post some IC banter when they get the chance then we can get around to finding out what happened and wrapping the adventure. At that time XPs will be forthcoming and I can figure out where to go next.

Merry Christmas, you lot! :)

So would the group prefer that I put together a post summarizing the after-encounter events leading back to the base and end of the mission? I could give out XP then and there will be a period of down-time while some of the group heals from damage taken and IC banter could take place in the SMITE Base and HQ thread.

I would also be open to thoughts from people about missions they might like to see that would fit in with the period. May help give me some ideas to get to the next bunch of action (and to try and keep it moving).

Sounds good to me.

Maybe open a new HQ chat thread -- or just a post saying MISSION 1 COMPLETED.

EXP?!?!   Oooooh!    :)

Aha
Well...
This message was last edited by the player at 00:11, Fri 28 Dec 2012.

Works for me.  Vosper is going to be in a foul mood in any case.

As for what to do next, hey.  I'm flexible! :)

Just to add clarification, trying to capture the Cold War feel of the 60's but with the world truly sitting on the brink of nuclear annihilation as noted in the Setting Information thread. The difference of course is the addition of supers to the mix and I am definitely leaning in the grittier direction. I do want to keep the game going and I want it to be fun both for you all and for myself.

OK so that officially wraps the 1st mission of the group, with xp amounts posted in the last post of the thread.

It again appears that Onyx has left us but I have one player ready to go and another one working on a character to bring the group up to 6. I will pull Onyx out of the group into NPC status once that happens.

Thank you sir!  XP added to my sheet. :)

I'll post in the appropriate thread shortly.

Looking forward to more Cold War era fun!

Ok, that was a most ... interesting ... silly season.

Including my daughters first birthday (4 parties), Christmas (3 family groups to attend ... with a 1 years old experiencing it all for the first time) and last night ::  I gotta say, 'bring on some quiet time, already'.


Sorry for my lack of attention here.



Thanks all for the seasonal wishes, and thanks for all the fish the experience points.  I'll update soon.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:36, Mon 31 Dec 2012.

So there will be about 10 days of downtime while people heal up (via medical team at the base) which will be mostly handwaved but if people have things they'd like to maybe do let me know.

Also, the team would notice a new arrival at the base so Amaranth do feel free to introduce/describe yourself.

OK!  I am a little bit busy today, but I'll try to get a post in later!

Hey guys,

Looks like I will be joining you. Finishing some things up now.

Yei!  Did I say "Today", way back on the third?  I meant I was busy, um, all week.  I'll see if I can get at least a quick post in - I didn't mean to hang everything up!

You didn't hang anything up. I know I'm supposed to be the darkly quiet, mysterious guy but that doesn't excuse Nightmare's failure to speak during the first one-fifty-secondth of the year.

I've been waiting for more dialogue.  Yay.

Uh, just keep posting.  Don't let something like work get in the way...
HAH

(Written while at work.)

Shh! ;)