Last Heroes

Game Master Matt Adams 259

Hey everyone. I’m very excited to play with you.

For future reference, what do your characters want to do for a living besides be a superhero? What are your civilian goals?

I am very excited to get going as well. It will be fun when the party members somehow manage to collide in game.

As for my character, John is currently enrolled in a graduate program in Biochemistry but his interests are varied. He spent a summer picking up some advanced CPR training and worked as an emergency medical technician. He does some free-lance computer programming work and tutors students at the university as a matter of course. He also works very erratically as a private investigator. His cases so far have been not criminal in nature being mostly domestic squabbles and investigations looking into business executive backgrounds for a head hunter firm. He has more recently become fascinated with the study of alchemy and magic in general.

Samuel is finishing high school and planning on going to community college to figure out what to do with himself.

Looking forward to this as well!

Valerie hasn't had much time to reflect on her future. She'd been an up-and-comer in villainous circles for the last few years -- which has been most of her young adult life. She hasn't had a normal life -- sickly and constantly in and out of hospitals for her childhood and a mercenary ever since the experimental procedure.

In the days since Doomsday, she's finally had a chance to take stock of her life. Her villainous actions have been hollow, and the financial rewards fleeting (thanks, Mom and Dad). The emptiness of her life up till now is starting to catch up to her.

So she's very much at a crossroads.

Hey gang!

Baxter's already a business owner so I think he's all good there. As long as he doesn't burn down the garage or something.

Tyler got into W&M Law, but he's still finishing his senior year of undergrad. Not sure if his plans will change.

also, i've been sick so it may take me a little bit to get a profile together and jump in. sorry.

Sorry for taking so long to get here! Been a bit busy by other stuff.

Always, Gwen is doing double-duty juggling both mundane university and her own magical studies at the scholomance right now but her post-graduate ambition is being a teacher or even a professor if academia doesn't manage to scare her off. The subject is still in the works but anything that will help her bring knowledge of magic to the wider world interests her.

And do the characters have any hobbies that they would like to pursue?

Gwen loves learning about early American history, going to extreme haunts, trying out vintage fashion and retro music, and studying magic and its various traditions and histories from across the world.

Baxter owns a business that keeps him pretty busy, but besides that he likes action movies and whatever's on TV. Of course he also spends a lot of time doing mad science in the garage.

It'd be fun to bring the team along on a bug hunt. Or to the movies!

Samuel was a gamer doing various MMO's or first person shooters. But with his Quickness games have lost a lot of their challenge and he has become more interested in pushing his speed and checking out new sights.

Siphon likes to go clubbing. She's used to high-fashion, expensive clothes and cars, and living like a girl-boss gangsta.

She'll... need to find new hobbies, most likely.

John considers his free-lance detective work and programming work as fun and modestly lucrative hobbies. Besides from alchemy and science he has taken a recent interest in the art world especially the old masters and is planning on picking up oil painting as well in the traditional Italian style.

I forgot I said he was a junior, so he hasn't gotten into Law school yet, but that's the plan. And he has the typical college junior interests: sports, beer, etc.

Sorry for the late post. It’s been a tough week. Is everyone still here? I’m working up to the big first team up

Still here!

I was afraid I'd confused you with the, "how's Ashiko?" question. I didn't have any expectations about who she is. Up to you. His daughter, his niece, an employee, just a neighborhood girl who frequents his shop, whatever.

Just makin' conversation.

:)

I am here, but I will be going on vacation from Saturday through Wednesday. I will try and check the boards in the evenings but I may be slow to post over the next few days. Feel free to bot me as needed.

Doctor Night checking in. :)

@Matt Adams 259 - Are we using a map or simply theatre of the mind for now? It is not really clear if the students that my character was teaching are safe or if two of the followers are heading in that direction?

Yeah I'm still scuttling around. Let's do some stuff.

I’m going for theatre of the mind right now. There are two intruders heading for the room with your students.

I am sorry... Real life has become a bit overwhelming and I just can't seem to find the energy to concentrate on this right now. :(

I'm sorry to hear that doctor. If things settle down for you, just shoot me a PM.

It seems like area of effect or multi-attacks are the easiest way to take down these minions. :)

I hope I’m not putting you guys on a trajectory to fight Siphon. I may need to switch plans up just a bit.

Side note: Money is really weird in Mutants and Masterminds.

Well, money that doesn't impact mechanics is pretty much irrelevant. You can use a trust fund or something to make funds inaccessible for game-changing purchases, or have bank accounts frozen under investigation, etc to keep things in the fluff. Or you can let someone have a removable point of wealth benefit that probably won't break anything.

Just some thoughts.

As for fighting Siphon, I mean, I'm not sure what her plan for her character is but I'd be fine with some PvP if it comes to that. Really I think it's however she plays it. Nobody's going to die either way I'm sure.

I agree for the most part with Bug Hunter. I do think that if a character spends character points for wealth then it should always be accessible. That being said money is more relevant in our secret identities than our hero identities. So you can live it up with around the world vacations, a yacht, servants etc in your private life. Most of the time you will not be able to bring the advantages of this wealth into your hero life directly but it can still be useful to your character.

Example: I think it would be fine for a Billionaire to fly to a foreign country in his private plane but it would not be alright to take this plane on a mission without spending the character points (or maybe expend a hero point on occasion as an alternative effect of his wealth) on the appropriate vehicle.

As for transitory money earned consider it like her job and her family has bills to pay (or creditors) so that worry is easily removed. :)

As for fighting Siphon that is entirely up to you. Our paths do not need to cross but they can. You can weave her into the plot as a recurring villain, a villain turned hero or we can meet her after her beginning story ends.

PM sent to you, GM, with some more specific thoughts.

I'm not angling for a PVP scene (though I love tense stand-offs and the classic hero misunderstanding scuffles before the real villain is identified). I'm looking forward to the inevitable meeting between characters.

How to get there... we'll see. I'm flexible.

As for money, the idea is even if Siphon is making money hand over fist as a villain, she's only seeing a fraction of it after her parents have gotten their hands on it. (Hence, no points spent toward wealth).

I am not real fond of PVP personally and so I am not looking forward to that. But it will be what it will be.

Money is weird in a bunch of games. I kind of feel like in hero games though Money is often a fun back ground thing used to explain the powers or resources of a character in very general terms. I think it has to be kind of grey because if you actually calculated the amount needed to do things, just throwing marbles as an example, the cost would quickly get to unreasonable levels of money. So I suggest keeping it vague where possible.

Money is clearly kept in the grey zone in a hero game vs. a more traditional fantasy oriented game where you need to buy your gear and often your magical items as well. So no need for inventory tracking sheets for encumbrance and gold spent. So I agree with you Brisk.

So how wealthy you are will typically dictate the way in which you do certain activities. So you can arrive to work on your bicycle, in a typically nice car or dropped off by helicopter or private jet.

Of course a Benefit is a Benefit so you should be getting a tangible advantage for spending points on wealth. Of course no one has purchased Wealth so far at any level so it is really an academic argument. :)

I'm sorry for being away guys. I had a weird issue with my account where I couldn't log in. I had to work with customer service to get it fixed and it took a little longer to find time to be on the phone with them than I wanted. I'll have a new post up later today.

You are not alone. The boards have been rocky for a lot of people over the last week.

Glad to hear I'm not alone here, then.

I am glad that you are back. :)

I must've had the same issue. I just got back in. Catching up.

I love the flip phone and the need for the sticky note for Bug Hunter but perhaps I am just showing my age. ;)

Haha thanks. Really trying to play up a character here. It seems everyone else is struggling with the complexities of youth while Baxter is just a weird old guy (with corresponding challenges).

Siphon: For clarification, you are waiting until you get to the warehouse before you start draining the power right?

Correct, or as close as I can convince her to get.

Cumulative is a +1/rank modifier that would make sense for Siphon's power. GM permitting, you could add it with the Distracting flaw (-1/rank), which I think would also make sense.

Cumulative lets you stack failures (3 first-degree failures = 1 third-degree failure) while Distracting halves your active defenses while you use the power as you're not focused on defense (so Dodge 3, Parry 2 for Siphon).

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I wouldn't be moving around a whole lot while I'm holding on and inflicting my drain on them.

Well if you have to grab them first, you could add "grab-based" instead for the same -1/rank. With that you have to succeed at a grab check instead of the normal attack check, which gives the target a chance to shake you off. But if it's more of a touch than a grab, "distracting" might be better.

Or, put another way, "distracting" would make you easier to hit, while "grab-based" would make your attack easier to dodge.

Definitely not grab-based. I remember seeing that as an option, and I was too afraid I'd never manage to pull off a drain. Besides, she doesn't have to grapple, just maintain contact. I also envision Siphon managing to drain someone through a series of light touches in a fight rather than one long, continuous grapple.

Bug Hunter, I saw your PM and the change from secondary effect to affects objects is fine by me.

Siphon, if you want to put distracting and cumulative into your attack profile, I'm fine with that. It's early enough that I think everyone is just trying to work out the kinks.

If anyone else wants to look at small changes, feel free to let me know.

Hopefully we will start earning some Power Points after a while. I have a lot of ideas for expansion but I can be patient. :)

Will do! Thanks!

You guys definitely earned one for the school save. Sahara got one for taking down a hero. More will be coming shortly.

Brisk picked up Move By Action. Something he should have had before. So now I can hit and get out of dodge instead of standing and fighting.

Hey guys. I've had a long couple of weeks, but it's calmed down and my posting will be picking back up.

I had a feeling that you would be back. :)

Hopefully we are all in it for long haul.

I ran out of time to edit. More post coming.