(2) - Dawn of the Metahumans

Game Master mdt

This was relatively easy, I already had a magnetic character, just had to tweak it. You need 40 more points of disads, and have a few points to spend. I couldn't do a good job on skills and perks and such without an actual background (hint hint!). Character would be a support character at best, with the lack of offensive abilities, so I gave it a small NND (No Normal Defense) with a built in flash. So, if he targets a person or animal or piece of electronics with the attack, it takes some stun (and electronics take actual damage). NND means the attack either bypasses defenses entirely, or it doesn't work at all. For example, attacking a flying character is useless for the NND, as the electromagnetic burst can't go through them). To hurt someone with it, you need them to make a circuit, but not be shielded or insulated. They still get flashed no matter what. Optionally, you can cut down on disads and not spend more points.

@Conversation - I'd added that in because she'd have spent a lot of time talking to her fellow actors during rehearsals. You have to communicate back and forth when reading lines with each other and such. Plus, theater people gossip... constantly and non stop. I'd imagine she's pretty able to do conversation with 'theatre people' but not normal people. Doesn't mean she wouldn't have the skill, just lack the confidence to use it with normal people. I've actually seen this in RL (I'm sure you have too, if you think about it, the person who can talk, reason, crack jokes, etc with his 'in crowd' but mumbles and is a wall flower out of his/her comfort zone). And yeah, if we have some points, we can boost it. Where do you want to take points from? Just to note, that PS is cheap to raise over time...

@Spin Silk - To create something out of nothing is a 'Transform' power. Transform nothing into something. All transform powers have to have a way to turn the transformed thing back into it's original thing. In this case, turning silk back into air takes 'time', as in, it ages and disintegrates into dust. It lasts the same as any regular silk cloth.

@Disads - Caffeine drunkeness would be a physical limitation, not a susceptibility (it doesn't damage her, she just metabolizes it differently). Not a ton of worth, but something. Probably 5 pts. Aversion to strong scents would be a psych lim, but you're already maxed out on those.

Several questions: What would brash translate into? Just likely to take risks, or? It seems fitting for 'need to help people'.

No-kill was totally a disadvantage I was going to take.

I'm not really sure on the numbers for rolling, so I'm mostly just going to trust that my powers that I do have for defense and such will work reliably. :)

I could see my character investing a bit more in paramedics, comparatively; discovering I was a walking flashbang means helping people out of bad situations, finding people too late means learning first aid.

Strong aversion to guns fits as well; she very likely wouldn't like people using them (a missed shot means danger to civilians)

It also looks like my primary defense is staying out of dodge, yes?

Looking at the linked book, would I need any of the perks for speed reading, universal translator, or lightning calculator to actually understand the signals, is that built in, or would that improve my capability?

The character should also be conversational in Japanese. She comes from a biracial family.

Is there something that can simulate a dependence on her radio signals? Large storms interfere, hearing staticky music in your head drives you crazy, etc. Likewise, Katrina kind of wrecked her life, so fear or aversion fits well. Looking into drawbacks l... that seems like 'common/easy to get' dependence that causes skill trouble, and after a short time. (Very irritable)

I saw int as being one of her better stats as well (perceptive, well learned when interested, that sort of stuff)

Is there a way to get access to cctv signals, or is that completely unrealistic?

How exactly is the huge chunk of em skills working? Is it one at a time?

What exactly is my force field doing?

With her blast, is she precise enough to take out (if she knows what she's targeting) a jet's targeting computers and -not- get its navigation systems, or is it just 'sorry about your computer'

Is my electromagnetic field disadvantage something my powers cannot hide? (Just saw not concealable)

With my stats, would I be able to keep any of my powers passively on? If so, which?

Why Spork? :)

Things not listed that I need to add to my background: EM flash. Forcefield

Brash = Impulse Control Issues. Someone who is brash tends to act or speak first and think second or third.

Defense - Your primary defense is a force field. You will have some problems with shorting out electronics when you turn it on.

Understanding signals - You can understand analog data (AM/FM) without any issues. You'd need 'Rapid' on your senses to pick up digital detail or high speed data. You'd need 'Analyze' to be able to 'decode' unecrypted but digital signals. If you want to be able to decrypt encrypted signals, you'd need universal translator.

Language - Will add language.

Disads - Dependency on the radio signals, which are omnipresent, wouldn't be worth any points.

Int - Can improve.

CCTV - You'd need telepathy vs electronics... not something that would fit off the bat.

'huge chunk of em skills' - I don't understand that reference.

'What exactly is my force field doing?' - Keeping your ass from being shot off...

Blast - Ooops, sorry about your computer (she might be able to target an engine).

Passive - Radio reception is passive. Detect location is passive. Beyond that, everything is active (especially radar!).

Why Spork? - You couldn't make up your mind on a name, and I had this mental image of you thinking hard about it and the sound 'spork!?' coming out of your ear from the effort.

I knew force fields could target specific energies, I was making sure it wasn't just me shielding what I touch from electricty/magnetism.

Brash fits my characters pretty well :)

'Em skills' was referring to the stuff under the fifty point header, simply labeled magnetic. Specifically, is that a 'one at a time' thing?

I'd love to pick up rapid and or decode, likewise the translator thing... though that may more fit for later.

I'd also like telepathy with electronics to be a further mutation down the line. :)

Is paramedics actually worth investing points in? Or is it like heal in pathfinder?

I'm trying to come up with further disadvantages, but you already hit on stuff I'd never have considered. :)

Paramedics - It is about the same as heal in PF, but that's not a bad thing. It lets you stabilize someone who's dying.

Storms - That's more of a limitation on the powers, not a disad. However, you could have a physical limitation 'can't control powers in storms' but then you'd be randomly blasting people any time it stormed.

If you're cool with how we are shaping up now, I'll leave her as is. She can get punchy-smashy later if things roll out that way.

Here's what I was talking about. You see the VPP, and then 4-5 'forms' under it, like Healing Plant or More Than Meets the Eye. The way it works is, you can take a half-phase to shift the VPP, no roll required. But only between the pre-defined power loadouts. This cuts down slightly on your flexibility in combat (since you can't slide individual MP slots on the fly), but it simplifies things, and it also let's you not spend points on situational powers (like the healing) since you can switch to that form when you need it. Then, as you find new forms you can morph into, you add another form to the list of forms. For example, healing plant is setup so you literally take root in earth and heal, in a trance. But it heals both body/stun and lost attribute points.

Growing into WiFi and stuff seems like a good growth.

Is there any space for a bit of 'Decker' style side stuff in this game? Mostly, I'm asking because I could see my character gaining mind-machine interface way later, possibly using duplicate or the like to simulate it (with the obvious techs limitations), or just slowly moving from tech telepathy requiring less concentration. (I could see a concentration form of telepathy coming in sooner)

As I gain more control, will I be able to buy down my electromagnetic signature to something I can disguise/hide?

Is my character able to speak through radios/comms? (Without having one :p)

I don't think being 19 is really a limiting factor physically/socially. If it were, it'd probably come up rarely, depending on the campaign.

It looks like you already have all of my psychological filled, so I'd need to focus on the other types of debilities, right?

I do prefer the idea of a regeneration that's a bit slower than 1d6/round, that can function when the character's unconscious (I could potentially leave a "healing mode" and then add a second self-resurrection power that only functions when in sunlight and contact with the ground). I was going for wolverine-level regeneration, but on a slightly slower timescale; if that's too powerful, let me know, but I like the idea of playing a character who's willing to take a bullet for anyone else because she knows it won't matter a few hours later.

In the meanwhile, I'll start retooling powers based on your example (might decrease a few less important characteristics to make regeneration work; and I noticed you left off a few skills such that that character sheet is 318, but the powers are the only part that's changed so I'm assuming that's not important)

@Signature - You'd need to buy off the disadvantage.

@Speak via radio/comm - Yes.

@being an adult - No, being an adult is not a disad.

@Psych Maxed Out - Yes, no more psychs

But yeah, the 'load out' is a lot easier way to handle the things you want, than the MP is.

Feel free to work up up to say, 6 load outs to start the game with.

Note this idea is an excellent way to do Ben 10. :)

On a different note, your skills are slightly different because you duplicated some. :) Specifically, you have Disguise twice. :)

Also, I use a different pack of everyman skills than you do, I think, so you might want to check the public ones posted. I may have forgotten to add hte everyman package to yours (since I was trying ot get it done up as an example).

You would also need to buy a trigger on your VPP, to auto-switch it to healing when you are unconscious/dying, otherwise you have to spend an action doing it, which you can't do while unconscious...

OK, here we go...

Faye believes all her powers come from the locket, but the powers don't have that limitation. Instead, they are all 'in hero ID only'. When she transforms, they all work, when she doesn't, they don't. She picked up a nice disad though for it. Because she really believes that, she'll pick up some issues. Can't lie while a pixie, can only eat sugar & sweets while a pixie. She has picked up a hyper metabolism though.

She's 0.5 meter's tall (about a foot and a half) when she's in hero id. It boosts her DCV by 4 and gives a -4 to be noticed (effectively increasing stealth by 4).

Her wings don't cost endurance to use.

Her 'pixie powder' is actually a a bio-energy that sparkles in normal light. It only affects living creatures, but it has to enter into the body through the lungs, so anything that doesn't breath or has masks or filters is immune. Because it enters through the lungs, there's no other defense against it. She can hit anything she can see (no penalty for distance).

She's had some training in self defense (a few abilities to not get hit and disarm people).

She's much faster in her pixie form.

She can blend in with the background if she concentrates (although she has a fringe, like Predator).

She's resistant to being knocked around, even though she's small.

She has a resistance to be drained or suppressed.

She can instant change into Pixie as a half action.

She has luck (as long as she doesn't lose her locket! If she loses it, she gains unluck instead!).

She also doesn't age quickly.

If she's startled or scared, she might accidently change into Pixie.

The goo remembers a time before it lived in beakers, flasks, test tubes and graduated cylinders, a time before it was a puddle on the ground even, a time when it was a person.

It wonders, are these its memories, at times the memories are cloudy like watching something through a fog or at other times like watching it through long tunnel. Still, at other times things are clearer and it knows with a certainty it use to be this person in the memories. Today it seems like the memories are more like watching a movie then really remembering them. The movie currently playing is of the person he was and the life he lived. “I wish I had some popcorn,” the goo laments. The movie/memory shows the person he was growing up as an only child in an affluent family with a typical childhood. Then the movie fast forwards and shows the person graduating valedictorian of his high school and cuts to his awkward groping of the girl he lost his virginity to on his prom night. “It seemed so important at the time,” it remembers. The movie is like a highlight reel now jumping to and from the other accomplishments and accolades of the person’s life. The goo is impressed as it thinks, “this guy had it all.” The highlight reel shows the person graduating Magna Cum Laude from MIT, with advanced degrees from other prestigious universities. And finally, the pay off, the dream research job, with the big house, and fancy car. It shows the woman and the two small ones. “STOP!” It screams to itself, “They were important, they had names, I had a name, I was a person!"

The movie/memory jumps to another scene: Two months earlier;

“Another late night,” Dr. Ty Bender thinks to himself as he enters the Organic Polymer Lab of the research installation he works at. He stops at a workstation and downloads the latest results from the international space station on the collaborative zero gee research in polymerase chain reactions. As he reviews the data he smiles as the results are encouraging. He continues to make his way around the lab taking stock of the various tests and experiments. He stops and makes a couple of entries into a ledger noting that the thermoplastics experiment hypothesis appears to have greater probability density then originally asserted.

Dr. Bender moves on and adjusts the settings on the particle accelerator for tomorrows run and checks the integrity of the vacuum chamber. His late evening in the labs continues in this fashion until he reaches the metal silylamides operant conditioning chamber. “Hmm, that’s odd,” he concludes as he examines the latest data. Trying to isolate the problem he monitors the spectrophotometry effecting the experiment and decreases the wavelength of the laser. A warning light starts blinking on the monitor, ”Why is it losing pressure, he wonders as he begins to flood the OC chamber with liquid nitrogen to slow down the reaction. He changes his monitors to the inferred spectrum and notices the crack in the glass of the OC chamber, “Crud,” he thinks right before the explosion.

He wakens and feels a tingling throughout his entire body. As he looks up he can tell that the explosion caused a lot of damage to the lab. From his vantage point on the floor he can see many of the staff standing around, “Why is no one helping me up.” he wonders. “Give me a hand here,” he tries to say but no words come out. As one of the technicians approach him he grows excited as he feels help is on the way. His excitement quickly grows to fear when he realizes that the technician has just sucked him up into a large pipette and moved him into a beaker. He watched the proceedings from his new vantage point and listened.

As it watched and listened from its beaker, it learned that the explosion had caused some kind of chemical reaction with his body, fusing together with it, and leaving behind this goo, well sentient living goo to be more precise. It wasn’t clear to the goo if the scientists realized the person was part of the goo. Eventually, the goo discovered that Dr. Bender was declared dead, and that scientist decided to study the compound that was left behind.

A sensation and a sound draws it out of its reminiscence. It hears Dr. Chen say to someone in the lab, ”Have you seen these readings.” Chen leans over a workstation showing someone some papers, “See here, this data stream shows that it definitely responding to stimuli.” Getting more excited he continues, “Further, see how it tries to maintain homeostasis in temperature, pH, and water concentration. Also look at the ATP production levels, they’re rising,” he concludes triumphantly.

Replying to something the goo cannot hear Chen says, “Yes, of course. Lest hold everything constant except for temperature lets raise it 2 degrees Celsius and we’ll see what the data shows tomorrow."

Anyway, if you have any suggestions let me know.

I think this list summarizes the changes to last version of Jedi Jack:
1. Increase to 20 Dex: +6 points and -2 points in Speed for net +4 points
2. Delete Extendable Baton for net -6 points
3. Adjust damage levels to account for the increased Dex and no baton
4. Change Jedi Mind Trick to +1 Persuasion to 14- (2 pts) and +5 Persuasion (-1/2 only to offset penalties due to suspicion) (7 pts) for net 0 points
5. Remove Double-Jointed for net -4 points
6. Remove Extended Breathing for net -1 point
7. Remove Oratory for net -3 points
8. Add third slot in Multipower – 25” Gliding (only to stop falling velocity) for net +1 point
9. Add Vulnerability to electrical damage (Common, x2 Stun, 20 points)

Look forward to a great team building.

Cheers

Anyway, I'll stop occupying your bandwidth and hope the character gets selected to play.

Cheers

You've got 3 power frameworks. I've been trying to limit it to 2 at most, otherwise powers get too cheap. And especially with enhanced senses spread out over multiple slots in an EC.

Skills are sparse, and show no background or non-combat skills. Also, teamwork skill must be earned in game (notice nobody I worked up has it).

I'd like to keep the speedsters to 6 to start off.

No disads yet (I'm assuming you need the background).

The tricks make me nervous, especially the 5d6 HA. HA's shouldn't exceed base strength. And, if you combine the 5d6 with a move through, you're doing 16d6 damage. With a move-by 13D6 damage, with the potential to hit the same person multiple times or multiple people.

Beyond that, I see no issues with the running MP.

I'd need the background to work up a speedster, but I have quite a few in the back of my head if you'd like an interesting one.

I realized that Snapdragon's biggest weakness (aside from the whole fire thing) is probably her low END and STUN, which is fine; she doesn't have a ton of fighting experience, and probably still gets winded/burns out her powers somewhat quickly, though more experience might help with this.

Healing's been split; healing form heals limbs, ability scores, etc., and regenerates much faster, but she's got a low passive regeneration in every form. I want her to be the sort of hero willing to jump in front of a bullet for teammates (I think there's a maneuver for this?) because bullets are just a temporary setback.

Other than that, I got... pretty creative with my VPP stances. If this seems like too many stances/abilities (I went with six stances, but some of them are a bit layered), the first to go should probably be the Mighty Oak stance, which seems rather powerful. (While daylight is normally -1/4 and soil is -1/2, requiring the two isn't necessarily that big a deal, so this stance instead requires both bare ground and *bright* sunlight, i.e. no rain/overcast, in order to get to -3/4)

I also brought damage down a bit; you had her potentially dealing 12d6 damage with strikes, but I've tried to cap things at 8-10d6 since she's a high-OCV martial artist more than a heavy-hitting brick. (Depending on final balance, etc., this can be shifted, but I assume martial artists should hit with less force).

I'm also not sure how to do "stinging thorns stuck in someone to make it harder to move;" a limitation of "can be removed by character spending a phase pulling out thorns" could work, but right now I just have it as fading over a timescale of minutes.

A) Stance of Veils (out-of-combat) is a skills/morpher stance; it's the only one that lets Janice Li look like her normal human form without altered surface anatomy, and it should make for entertaining interactions via disguise. Pollen is modified to follow your version, which I like better, and mental defenses are boosted to stymy mind-readers.

B) Stance of Crawling Ivy (utility and non-lethal combat) is a martial artist stance with some morph tricks. By turning her hands into clinging vines, Snapdragon can pull herself and others up tall buildings; where she has surfaces to "vine-sling" from, she can travel fast and deliver some powerful judo slams. She can also swing her vines like a lasso, for a bonus to trip, disarm, or grab enemies, though she can't effectively throw, crush, or otherwise deal damage with them. The drawback, of course, is that she's relatively weak in this form, meaning that her vines can be easily grabbed or severed, leading to loss of a partial limb until she can regrow it.

Damage class: 10d6 grab/trip (via slam/grab by+clingy vines), 8d6 disarm (clingy vines), 7d6 inaccurate damage (via move through+vine-swinging), or 6d6 damage (via martial strike)

C) Leaf on the Wind (mobility and skirmishing) is a martial artist stance with some morph tricks. Sprouting leafy wing membranes and reconfiguring her body to be aerodynamic and streamlined, Snapdragon gains some flight ability, as well as the breath control to survive at high altitudes for a while without fainting (allowing her to, for instance, skydive without a parachute if necessary). She also gains the ability to run and jump faster, and strike with more agility, though her armor is lighter than in other forms.

Damage class: 9d6 inaccurate damage (via move through+running), 8d6 damage (via martial strike)

D) Stance of Thorns (full combat) is a martial artist stance with some brick capability. Without sacrificing any defense, Snapdragon hardens and reinforces her body as necessary, striking with great force. The thorns on her fists and feet break off to stick in whatever she punches, like a stinging nettle or a porcupine, slowing enemies down with pain every time they flex their muscles.

Damage class: 10d6+1d6 DEX (via martial strike)

E) Mighty Oak (heavy bruiser) is a brick stance that retains martial artist accuracy. It is also a silly thing that only works in bright sunlight and natural soil, and I'm perfectly fine never actually using it. By taking root in the earth and drawing energy from the sun, Snapdragon stretches and grows into a 10' tall, treant-like form, though only where the resources she needs are plentiful. By absorbing sunlight, she also regains energy faster (kind of useful when her growth/density raises the cost of all-out attacking from 4 END/phase to 10 END/phase). In this stance, she's easier to hit, but she's much tougher in her resistances, letting her act as a decent brick when weather and environment conditions allow.

Damage class: 11d6 (via martial strike; without martial arts is only 9d6)

F) Lotus Meditation (regeneration) is a healing stance that Snapdragon shifts into automatically when incapacitated, though it could be useful in combat if major recovery is necessary and time is allowed. Her regeneration increases substantially, restoring ability damage and limbs, though she is still decently able to dodge and resist attacks.

You can't put a power in that is more than 50 AP. That's why I didn't put resurrection in before. The VPP is only 50 pts, so no power in it can be more than 50 pts (AP).

The reason I hadn't had too much trouble earlier with a high to-hit and high damage was the builds I had that built into had fairly low armor (10 pts or less), so a glass cannon. :) Glass cannons usually get one good hit in and then go down as they become the priority target. :)

I'll look over the rest tomorrow.