Dunno how this works (and I'm sure it's not Aegis's MO) but could you scout while incorporeal? Having only your head above ground should give a bonus on your 8- stealth. If your seen and attacked with something that can effect you, hopefully you could duck underground to escape.
If that's too risky, recovering seems like a good idea, or getting away from Rocket, and perhaps by a wall we might want to punch through.
Mdt, regarding that, does Whip remember the layout inside enough to recommend a place to punch through, if we go that route?
It depends on the desolid and other powers. Goo's desolid worked by turning him puddle-y. I think Aegis's lets her walk through walls (unlike Aegis's other option, which let's her Kool-Aid Man through walls).
The DM is suggested to give a common drawback or major limitation when giving out desolid to keep characters from just doing whatever, whenever.
I'm not really sure how Aegis or Mud's work, though, whether Clayface, Inque, Tracy Strauss or Shadow cat (or something entirely different!)
Good question on the Aegis side of things. Iunno, but there are a ton of ways to set it up. :)
Yea scouting doesn't quite seem like how she'd handle things, she's not a stealthy person
I guess I'll stick with recover for now
Tonight is RP night. Unless something major changes, assume that Pulse will ready to try to suppress the woman. I'll put my rolls and the fluff over in gameplay.
Mud's desolidification is much like Goo's was.
He can be affected by earth (all but non-existent as a special effect short of an earth elemental), Water (all but non-existent short of a water cannon or water elemental), and Temperature changing attacks (heat and cold).
So—I'll be at a ballroom competition until tomorrow at 3 am or so. This is my only game fast-paced enough for it to be an issue.
If it comes up, Snapdragon's Phase 12 action will be jumping back down onto the roof in the same spot, pushing +5 STR to try and break through as her move through. It might not be the best plan, but it also puts a full several phases between her attacks, enough to hopefully confuse those down below.
You cannot maintain any effect that costs Endurance and take a Recovery Action at the same time. You have to turn off all of the things that cost END.
Do you still get your post-12 recovery?
Mud's desolidification is much like Goo's was.
He can be affected by earth (all but non-existent as a special effect short of an earth elemental), Water (all but non-existent short of a water cannon or water elemental), and Temperature changing attacks (heat and cold).
Like ice attacks...
Yup. Post 12 is always there unless something specifically prevents it. Two examples are: Holding your breath (where End is usually used to simulate running out), and being effectively comatose.
I wouldn't be surprised if we met someone who denied it at some point, though. (Like, by specifically taking your breath away!)
Otherwise, the post-12 is always there and always free. :)
Question! I was just reading about Endurance Reserves... and I know Vi has Endurance Reserves. What I don't know, is which abilities utilize teh Endurance Reserves. It's an adder to be able to use either the Reserve or the usual End pool.
The reason why this is important (at least to me), is because on page 158, it says that END reserves function independently of the character (first paragraph under 'using'), and instead the reserve just keeps on ticking away, regardless of stun, KO, sleep, or what have you.
This is particularly important given how many actions Vi spends simply trying to maintain her forcefield. If the force field were tied to that reserve... :)
On the other hand, I may just be entirely confused as to how to apply it properly. :)
Everything in Violet's Multipower draws on her reserves.
As a point of interest, if a power is distinctly tied to a character's state of consciousness (as in, has that disadvantage, which some of Violet's powers do), it shuts off when the character is knocked out.
You raise a very good point, though - As Violet's mental multipower is charged off of her End Reserve, when she's knocked out, her Mental Illusions and whatnot should still be working - though I can't feasibly argue that a Mind Scan would keep working when she's stunned.
I built her this way specifically because she's supposed to have highly scary levels of Telepathic power - her illusions keep going (reserve), her control keeps going (reserve) - but her telekinetic powers (flight, force field) are fledgling. She doesn't know how to tap her internal reserves for their sustenance, yet.
Eventually, that will change, but for now, it is how it is.
Although actually, now that I think about it - I'd need to have "Continuous" or "Persistent" on many of those powers to actually make that work.
I'll have to dig in on that - I don't have my book in front of me right now.
So I got home, grabbed my book, and reviewed.
The END and REC in the Endurance Reserve continue to function if the PC is conscious or unconscious, yes.
However, and this is the sticky point:
The powers that they are fueling must still be bought with Continuous and Persistent in order for them to keep functioning. So while a Constant power, such as a Force Field or Flight, could be energized with the Reserve, the moment Violet lost the fight against being knocked out, it would go down.
For her Mental Illusions, etc, to continue on after her descent into sleepy-town, I'd need to slap a +1 1/2 Advantage on to them: +1 for Constant (changing up from Instant) and another +1/2 for Persistent (enabling them to keep running, Creature From The Id style, after her brain shut down for maintenance).
So, while this is a laudable goal for her to have, it doesn't work this way (yet). I'm actually really ashamed of myself for forgetting that this was my goal, and not my starting point. (I blame the few years since my last HERO game, honestly) She'd be a LOT scarier if she already had this ability. And MDT would be absolutely right to target her first and foremost in any altercation.
Currently, however, the END reserve does serve a very valuable purpose:
It doesn't reset to 0 END if she's knocked out. The moment she regains consciousness, she has access to her mental powers. She'll be at 0 END for everything else, but she will have access to her normal powers.
The Endurance Reserve continues to recover, and maintains its END total, regardless of Violet's state of wakefulness. It's really her biggest advantage, when it comes to recovering from all those KO's she gets in Round 1. (This is detailed in Hero 5th Edition, Page 110, Endurance Reserve, Paragraph 4)
So... Janice still has, I believe, 6" of swinging movement left after her impact. Can she use her vines sort of like bungee cords, fall a few more inches, then pull herself straight up so that she ends the phase flying through the air but a few inches above the hole?
If so, feel free to roll the Acrobatics check for me if I'm not around atm to keep things moving. If not, she'll just hang out in the hole, but prepare to abort for a dodge half-action on her next phase.
Umm, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, the plan was not to go in yet!!!
We can barely deal with one meta, I don't know if we'll survive all of them at once. It looks to me like Janice just severely hurt herself busting through the roof, and now we're exposed to the rest of our enemies and we haven't touched the first one.
I'm very, very sorry if I was unclear relaying the plan.
I thought the plan was "wait one phase so that they're not expecting you."
In retrospect, Janice probably made a big tactical blunder. Also, though, you're shouting at her from around 300 feet away, which makes it hard to actually hear the plan.
Remember also. "Wait one phase so they aren't expecting you" for Janice is an average person's reaction time, probably. Remember, phases aren't 6 second each. They're one second.
So you essentially waited a pathfinder turn and expected them to stop expecting you. :P
Yeah... Janice probably forgot that not everyone else has amazing super-human spider(plant)-reflexes.
Ugh, was really hoping Celerity couldn't actually fly. This is going to complicate things (and her NND probably means that Janice is toast for the fight—which is a shame, because if I was on my feet or in a more defensive form I could probably take another salvo like this one from the gun guys).
EDIT: Hmm, can I Dive for Cover off of the catwalk? It looks like the vat labeled 8 might provide cover (or swinging over the edge and landing underneath it), though there might be something dangerous in the vat—since Janice would be swinging or rolling 1" over the edge, she might still be able to do that while prone, though it could be inadvisable.
SECOND EDIT: Oh man! Too bad everyone is too far away, Janice just learned some things.
On the bright side, we can be pretty well certain that everyone knows guns were just fired inside after you busted loudly through the roof, yeah?
I'm sorry everyone, I need to put this game on pause for a day or two. I have done everything I can to make this a relatively easy fight as was requested by one of the players.
I have now been told I have given you all a 'horrible defeat' on a fight that's barely started, and that everyone spent the entire turn avoiding. I can't really make a fight easier than putting out 2 normals and 3 people who can't do physical damage to the group (other than the 1 body that Aegis took from her own disadvantage), and the one who can possibly hurt you is the one you want to capture and question.
After all that work, I'm 'horrible' at this. *sigh* I need a bit of time.
Oh no! Tensions run high, I guess (I know I've gotten emotional about characters' safety before). I'm actually really enjoying this fight so far, and the fallout of my (hopefully not ruining everything for everyone) tactical mistakes. I've also sort of assumed that, since we're not fighting the government (we don't even know who we're fighting), the worst case scenario is unlikely to be a TPK (people don't die easily in HERO) and more likely a "party is beaten, and either flees or is tortured a while, robbed blind, and then maybe let go."
Like, 0 stun does not equal dead, at all.
Also, when we went over our powers, Snapdragon specifically said to the rest of the party, "don't worry about me getting beaten/stabbed/horribly killed, just pick up the pieces later and plant them in a flowerbed," so... maybe don't worry about me too much?
:( Sorry Kittiface.
Umm. MDT, you're doing great. It's most players first combat in and out of character. So, people's expectations may not be properly calibrated.
FWIW, Mud is still waiting for the signal. He'll recover all of his stun and end on post-12. He can't hurt Blur outside, and she can't hurt him anymore.
IC, Mud is young and has no fighting experience. He felt like he already took too much initiative by opening the door, because he thought screaming was the signal.
If this was a comic book, it would be a comedy.
Please remember, stun is not hit points, due to the post-12 recovery. Most people can rest a minute or less and fully recover their Stun total. It's Body that's really painful.
cheers
Side note... are Black Skull's weapons a reference to Eros and Anteros..? :)
MDT for what it's worth, this game has made me brush up on so much of my previously forgotten (or house-ruled) HERO knowledge, to the point that it's made my bi-weekly Champions game better, as I've been able to take the little reminders and corrections to my assumptions about the game to my GM. It's helped us make our game better, and I'm grateful for it.
I know I get a little tongue-in-cheek with the grousing, from time to time, but I swear, it's all in good fun when it comes from me.
I'm really sad to read that you're hitting a frustration point with this combat. :(
Take the time you need, boss. We'll be here.
We'll be here like always.
Sorry mdt. I know there are growing pains all around (since many of us are either new to the system, or haven't played it recently) but I'm very happy with the game so far, and hope to continue.
Okay, well, sorry about this guys.
Please, let me be clear, that I do not think that mdt is horrible at this. Please don't think that's the issue.
After some pm's with him, it's plain to me that I just don't get the HERO system and I'm not having fun with it. When I joined I had never heard of it, but figured I could muddle through during the learning curve and eventually learn what I need to know.
Instead, the curve has turned into a wall, and I keep ramming my head against it.
I've played a lot of systems over my lifetime, but this one... I'm just not getting it.
I had initially thought this would be a benefit -- both me and Whippoorwill were in a new world, unsure of ourselves and what we could do when matched up against enemies. But that's backfired big time. I don't have a clue what's tough and what's weak. I have no frame of reference.
It's telling that someone mentioned that based on this current fight they thought this was a comedy. What I'm gathering is that you're hearing yakkety sax in the background as this fight's progressing. Meanwhile, I'm having flashbacks of the opening scene to Saving Private Ryan.
So, everyone, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. But I'm not having fun. This game is actually stressing me out.
I've been on these boards a long time. I've played lots of different campaigns, and I have never dropped out of a game. I feel really awful even writing this. I should have made more of an effort to figure out the system, back when I was still enjoying it, but I really think that I've missed that window.
Again, I'm very, very sorry.
Hey Whip, I'm sorry to hear it but (given that the game/system has been stressful for you) I totally understand you bowing out. No worries. (And the hero system is quite different from most I've played, in a handful of ways.)
I thought Whip was an interesting character and liked the way you played her, but you're making the right choice for you.
See you around the boards!
Whip, I'm gonna post something long-winded here in a minute.
Short form: Stick around.
Long form:
Let me start by saying that if you really feel you need to bow out, then do what you need to do. Your stress and your ability to enjoy things are paramount. I will be extremely sad to see you go, but if you gotta, you gotta. It's just a game, and it's supposed to be fun.
Secondly, though, I for one think you should stick around. Let me tell you why.
I think you should stick around because sometimes, the good guys lose. In character, our characters are neophytes at the whole "Hero" thing. Briana and Violet have training, yes, but know next to nothing about the world of Super Powered Hijinkery.
The plan is falling apart. Yes, it is. The bad guys are probably going to get away. We are probably going to come out of this with a lot of bruises and a lot of things to think about. As well - we're probably going to get ourselves our fair share of newfound enemies out of this, too.
I know you understand the dynamics of super hero comics and the win-some/lose-some angle of the fights. I don't need to explain that to you.
I like the dynamic that Violet and Briana are developing, and I like the way you play your character. I think that maybe the fact that Whip has become our de-facto team leader has added some stress to both you, and to your character, which is causing issues with your ability to enjoy the game. All of the stress, coupled with the lack of system knowledge, plus the bad start to the fight, is clearly making a gigantic sandwich of bad for you.
With all of those things piling up and making things bad for you, I can completely understand wanting to bow out. And like I said, if you've gotta, you've gotta. I won't hold it against you. I don't think anyone here will. (and if they do, I will smite them)
But, I for one would like to see you stay. I'm conflicted, because I don't want to ask you to stay if you're this stressed out. I think you should do what you need to do.
This is a long way of saying I'll be very sad to see you go, but I if you do, there won't be any bad vibes from me. :)
Hey Whip. I'm going to miss your RPing.
Cheers
Dang!
I've just sort of been playing HERO as "GURPs, but less murdery"
Dang!
I've just sort of been playing HERO as "GURPs, but less murdery"
Don't you mean "less broken and rules-bound"? ;)
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More like "combats last more than a single round, and there's a lot less permadeath"
Honestly, don't worry about leaving games. You should -never- worry about that. Just be up front and honest, and no one will fault you on here for leaving their table (or rather, shouldn't. Sticking it out and getting frustrated is the worst possible way to go about it. Talk about it if you can, when you can. :)). Life happens. You lose enjoyment. You want to stab your DM to death because you've put more words into a single post than they've put into their last month of posts...
:)
Either way. If you aren't having fun, there's no reason to stay. At least in my opinion. That doesn't mean I've left all the games I don't feel there's a point in being in... ahem.
There is also the option of -possibly- changing characters or changing your current character. Both you and Goo went with characters that were highly restrictive, socially. That can create a lot of stress all on its own. Just being more than a 'contact and combat specialist' will add a lot for you. I'm sort of numb to the 'how bad is the fight going' aspect. Hotaru is conscious. And she's doing stuff with questionable value... so that's a win from my perspective. :)
My opinion is that I will be sad to see Whip go, and I think she should stay, but I will understand if it's the choice that's made.
It's a big ol' multi-flavor dish of brain pasta. ;)
Though your idea of changing characters might not be so bad.
Or we find a way to jigger Whip's points so she can go out and about - an Instant Change perk, as it were.
Speaking of life happens...
As a heads-up: Today is my last day at mthe first job I ever had. I've worked here for just shy of nine years... But I've decided I need to move on to a job that pays better... As a result, I'm going to be picking up a lot more hours at work, changing my schedule in the process, and ultimately having a lot less time for those things and people that I love. That being said... I'll become less of a post hog in the majority of my games. Things might change in the future, but at the moment, I'm hoping to continue playing in my games.
Let me start off by saying I'm really grateful for your words, both supporting my decision, as well as your kind words about the character of Whippoorwill. She's one of my favorite characters I've created, and she's been a part of me for a long time. That's one of the things that's making this so hard. And you all have been fantastic roleplayers.
I'm also very flattered that several of you are asking me to stay. And while it's extremely tempting, I don't think that it's a wise idea. Maybe mdt will let me stick around to work up an actual send-off, or even a death scene, but otherwise it'd be prolonging the inevitable. Might as well make as clean a break as possible.
Best of luck to all of you in continuing this game.
Hotaru: I feel you on the job thing. I was laid off from my job at Yahoo in February (my last official day, thanks to the Warren Act, was Friday the 15th, but I haven't been in the office for two months). I've been there for twelve and a half years, never had a bad review, busted my butt every day. Made a lot of friends and was very, very close to my teammates. Lots of memories and emotions wrapped up in that place. I have a lot of thoughts to process about where I'm heading next and what my next step is.
Good luck on your next move. I know I don't know you very well, but you seem like a decent person, I hope you get a good step up on your next position. :)
Whip: Do what you gotta do. You'll be missed. :)
Hey Vi/jemstone, very sorry to hear. I'm an eng mgr at Google in Sunnyvale. If you're local too (as it sounds like) and want to talk sometime, let me know. Happy to listen and share thoughts if useful. PM me.
Whip, I like the idea of you playing through a cinematic wrapup (assuming that works for you and mdt) but believe that you've made the right choice for you. I'm glad you tried this out and sorry it wasn't a good match, but it happens.
Hmm. I have a lot of friends at various googles, and it sounds like a lot of it is about connections.
Don't honestly know what people do when they leave the tech industry... all my friends from other industries keep moving there, but not the other way around.
Ok, so, I've been really busy this week (Between Sunday and Thursday I had 20 hours of travel time, and 36 hours of work).
I really don't want to try to write out Whip mid combat. That is going to be a major pain and won't work out right.
So, I have two options...
Option 1 : We stop the combat and I 'monologue' the results and Whip can write up an exit for her character, or I can write up one.
Option 2 : Whip goes in the roof and vanishes and nobody knows what happened to her. She can write up an exit or I can, at a later date.
I like Whip getting to RP her departure, since she sounds interested in that.
And I like the idea of finishing this combat. I'm not 100% sure if we can accomplish those two things, but that's my preference if it can be.
Could one of us run Whip for the remainder of combat? Or could you DMPC her? Or maybe Whip is happy to keep running her through the end of combat? I know she asked above if "Maybe mdt will let me stick around to work up an actual send-off".
In the end, I'm happy to support whatever works best for you as DM...but since you asked for opinions, those are mine.
I'm not leaving these boards, so I'll be around for the combat if the consensus is to play it out. Whatever mdt wants for the sake of the story and the continuation of the game, I'll do it.
I'm enjoying the battle. If Whip doesn't want to continue, we could try to DMPC or PC-PC the character just through the end of the battle. Or not. Again, whatever's easiest.
If Whip wants to continue the combat, or let someone else PC her character, that's fine. I do not want to DMPC her character if I can help it. I have enough to do controlling the NCPs.
Too tired to care... ask again later... <3
Let's finish the combat. More game mechanic experience is better.
Storywise, let the chips fall where they may.
The extra real life time will give whip and mdt to develop a cool exit strategy.
Cheers
Any of the above is good at the moment. Sorry that I'm not super helpful on this. :(
Still waiting on everyone else to comment.
Finish Combat (PC controlling Whip or Whip controlling Whip) : 1
Too tired to give a flying fig : 1
Uncommitted : Everyone else