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@Hellion- Paradigm would have most certainly taken a lot of the credit, but then went about his agenda, as GM knows. I'm sure his version had him ousting the V'sori on his own, despite the constant and near crippling interference of Meros and his cronies. A good megalomaniac never catches a break, does he?
Oh I was looking back we get 3 extra skill points due to modern setting? I didn't account for that, are they locked to certain skills? Yes, modern type skills, but that is relatively flexible; Common Knowledge, Driving, Science, Repair, Shooting, Academics, Electronics, Hacking, Piloting, Healing,and Research are probably all fair game, and you might be able to make a case for others, with GM approval. Athletics due to modern physical education and sports, Healing due to workplace CPR requirements, etc.
Sorry for answering for you, but I can see issue; Super Parry is a device granted ability from her sword, so if disarmed or fighting with a different weapon it drops to 8. Lexicon is also the focus of the Favoured Weapon edge, which grants another +1 to parry. I believe that should mean her parry is 13 with Lexicon, 8 without, I don't think it would ever be 12, except I suppose in the very specific situation where she is holding Lexicon, but unable to parry with it (I guess where a monster has grabbed her sword by the blade with one hand and is trying to claw her with the other, but that is pretty specific.).
Other than some fine tuning, Rashomon is ready too. The more the merrier! Welcome back Hellion!
The power is skill bonus, not super skill. His shooting stat would be d8+4. Basicly, it is a different power to the one you are thinking of.
Yes, that's right. 12 points standard, 3 points from modern campaign, and 5 points from the Elderly Hindrance, for 20 altogether. He's definitely skills heavy, but it should be helpful overall.
Another alternative: Deadeye [2]Skill Bonus +4 [4] Super Skill: Shooting 4 [4] With a blaster pistol would give you Shooting d12+6 for 5d6 damage. Probably excessively good targeting unless you see a point to giving people blaster assisted haircuts or drive-by vasectomies. Some of the points in said skills, with a few diverted to defense could also work.
I agree with Zen on this point. Also, while range attack powers could be pretty powerful in SPCII, in SWADE they are significantly nerfed, and potentially not a great return on investment. For instance, Rashomon is using a standard Pulse Pistol for $500, which also does 4d6 damage (on overcharge setting - acceptable is you don't mind the risk of it blowing up on occasion). Half your starting money vs. a quarter of your Power Points is a big difference in return on investment for something functionally equivalent. Perhaps you could switch the power to a Melee damage attack and take the Thrown Weapon modifier. It would apply to improvised projectiles too, I would imagine, like desks, cars, and dumpsters.
Melee Attack Str+3d6 (AP2, Charge, Thrown Weapons) [10] Later on, once the habit becomes ingrained, a small handbag full of lead or tungsten shot bean-bags, would make wonderful non-lethal ammunition, and an easily transported accessory. A few solid tungsten ball bearings in the bag would serve for when lethal force was needed. Of course, with your throwing arm, grenades would be pretty deadly blunt objects too, and that's before they go off... The other option is to redirect the points into other areas like defense, and just use a blaster.
It's in SWADE p. 140, about three quarters of the way down. I forgot about that. I'd vote in favour. There's never enough skill points to do everything I want to do. I'm a big fan of the Larger than Life rule as well. Not only does it help you out with a non-super-powers related boost, it also gives more opportunities for Role-Playing. I've just about got my space/time themed character stated out; I'll post the build shortly.
Sorry for the absence. I've been busy and distracted with a few things lately. I am about though, and I'll try to make a post shortly.
I've unfortunately been pretty busy and haven't had much time to work on my submission. Add to that, I'm going to be travelling the next two days, and may not have time to work on it then either. Sorry for the delays.
That's right.
Thinking of an idea that works with the duplication power, with a custom modifier. I'm thinking of a guy who has discovered some sort of secret of space-time, allowing him to teleport/open portals, but has also allowed him to figure out how to be in multiple places at once. In essence, he is not duplicating himself, because he is physically translocated, and independently interacting with several locations at once. This would be like duplication, with something like (but not) the Equipped and No-Tell mods, but with the disadvantage that all the versions are actually him, in real time. This would mean that all of them have the same gear, the same bennies, etc. If one gains a condition (Shaken, Stunned, etc.) they all get it, and if one is wounded, all the versions also get wounded. If any of them gets killed, they all die. They are all the real him, at the same time. Since he is also a teleporter, the trick of handing something to one of him, just for another of him to hand it to someone else near another of his locations would be thematically appropriate, and a fun trick to pull if given the opportunity. It would probably make him an amazing shoplifter... Seems like an interesting mix of advantages and disadvantages, but has some really fun flavour. Anyway, I'm thinking of something like this for the modifier:
To determine the cost of the modifier, I've thought of the following: No-Tell is that opponents have difficulty determining which is the original hero, making harder to take out the Main. Since all of the bodies are the real hero in this case, enemies can target any of them and manage to take out all; Promotion definitely doesn't apply, as that allows you to lose your original and just switch to another. This is the opposite, loose any and you loose all. Since Promotion is +2, -2 would seem appropriate, though I think a case could be made for -3 since being disposable is usually the main draw of Duplication, and all being viable targets is the opposite of No-Tell. Equipped probably applies, though it is slightly limited by the fact all their inventories get used up simultaneously (including weapon payloads). I added in the blurb about not all using powered items to make sure it wasn't an unintended exploit, and my character will probably deal with it by simply not using any Device based powers. The all versions possessing an item is probably an advantage, though an item being able to be taken from any of them is an equal disadvantage, so I think this is mostly a quirk that balances out. Total modifier ends up around -1. This is another idea I've had kicking around for a while. The main issue I've had with it is coming up with a good story, background, and character concept that makes it interesting to play. The most obvious is probably having him be a nerdy, hard science guy with no prior combat experience, but seeing a need for heroes and doing his best with the discoveries he's made. A little on the nose, but I'd be interested to hear other ideas of concepts that could use this idea, if anyone has any.
Super Edge. Any non-legendary edge, presuming you meet the other qualifications. You already have Brawler, so if you can afford the 2pp... Alternatively, 2pp would get you Melee Attack at a 1d6, which might also apply to your staff... Make it force amplifying wristbands (Device -1), and you could get it for 1pp.
No, it was entirely different, though the example was still the same. Here's a screenshot. Basically, you spend 2pp, and you can design two full 38pp power profiles, with as many different powers as you wish. For example: This set includes combat powers and skills, and then I transform non-combat form with all my communication and investigative powers. The classic example is Iron Man: This is my stealth suit for infiltration jobs, this is my underwater suit, this is my outer space suit, here's one for melee, here's one for fighting hulks, etc. Each is slightly diminished because of the divided attention, but manageable because of the ability to specialize. Sure, each suit only has 32 PP instead of 40, but I can afford to concentrate on making it really good at its specialized role, and have 5 to choose from (in this example). Switchable is different, but still useful, as it is basically just a different expression of the same power. If I have Ranged Attack 5d6 as a power, and say that is my fireblast, I can use 1pp for switchable, and design an exploding fireball for the same PP as the fireblast. Spend one more pp and I can had a third version I can fire in a cone for a flame thrower. 1pp more and I can use an ultra concentrated heat beam with Armour Piercing, etc. This version of Power Sets is... ill conceived. I cannot imagine any circumstance where a character would benefit from using it. Spoilered due to rant: Power sets are supposed to allow you to build in variation to be able to adapt to different situations. With the new set of rules, that kind of Iron Man is impossible. He gets one suit period. Two suits, and both have only 32 pp instead of 38, and, to add insult to injury, the power limit is dropped to 12 vs. 15, guaranteeing that neither suit can do even one thing well. The entire point of having different power sets is to be able to specialize. Either change makes the mechanic a victim of diminishing returns, and unusable. Both is calling in a nuclear strike on someone you've already run through a woodchipper. As I said, they've taken an interesting and useful mechanic, and made it completely unusable. I think it was well balanced, in that the more Power Sets you had, the more specialized each had to be due to the reduced pp total. I'm noticing the irony of being the one that was advocating for just following the rules, as it's been playtested, only to get betrayed by an obvious mangling of rules, probably instituted by some committee that doesn't understand the mechanics of the game. Anyway, rant over. I won't be using this version of Power Sets.
Bought the full version of the Super Heroes companion. They nerfed a ton of stuff. The version of power sets is completely unusable, I can't imagine why anyone would ever take it as it is now. An option that is utterly useless shouldn't even take up space in the book. They also removed the option for minions to have full power points, so that option is gone as well. Guess I'll have to come up with a new concept, or stick with the single Requires Activation version. I'll read through the book and see if anything speaks to me.
I'm using the SWADE version that is available for free online. There have been changes since, but I downloaded the errata and thought that would show any differences. I've been wanting to buy the real book, but didn't have an excuse, since I wasn't using it in any games. That change wasn't listed in the errata, but I'll review it once I get the real thing. I'm sure there are other subtle changes here and there as well, though that one is pretty dramatic. It makes power sets pretty much useless, unless there is some fine print somewhere explaining exceptions and workarounds. Like I said, I'll review when I have the real thing. If the concept becomes unworkable, I have other ideas.
The idea of this character is a guy who is the most unlikely hero possible. Overweight, shy, physically infirm (I'm picturing a cane or wheelchair), smart and probably successful on paper, but insecure and probably still living with his mother. He has always wanted to be something great, and it has bothered him that there are no heroes left. At some point, his psychic powers emerged and he discovers the power to wish things into reality. He'd be a tragic idealist, envisioning heroes the way he thinks they should be. Since there aren't many heroes around, he creates them in his mind; a few, to fill all the different roles. Of course, he can only be one of them at a time, but he does his best. I like the idea of taking stereotypes and turning them around. So the idea for this character was what if a mother's basement, fedora wearing, obese neck beard was actually the bravest and most pure hearted guy on earth, and had only lacked the chance to try to make things better. The way the character worked in M&M was that he basically had the power to affect reality, and imagine things into existence - like if a character had the Force Control and Illusion powers combined; create an illusion, and make it solid with force fields. In SWADE it would have to be slightly different given the mechanics, but would work in a similar way, by wishing or imagining them into reality. There are a few different ways it can be done mechanically. The simplest is to use Power Sets, where each different set costs 2pp, so 4 personas, if I went with that many, would leave 34pp per. Each would be more specialized than a typical character, and therefore able to get by on a smaller budget, because if faced with a situation they could not handle, he could switch to an alternate. Only one would be good in a melee, one good at range, one good at sneaking, etc. My preferred idea is to use a Summonable Minion, taking over the body with the Possession power. Minion, with the Summonable add on, allows him to imagine his hero body into existence. The default stats of a minion can be tweaked, and his would have no independent mind, as he is only imagining them. He then uses Possession to inhabit the minion body, which can have a specific set of powers. His real body would be left uninhabited back at home base. Switchable allows him to imagine a different minion, with a different power set, though only one at a time, for 1pp per persona. The third option would be to use the minions, give them Resilience to make them tougher (as without Possession, they wouldn't be Wildcards), and then use the Telepathy power Mind-Rider to follow along with the minion, helping them out with long distance telepathy powers as much as possible. This is the weakest option of course, because it leaves the Wild Card character as the guy in the chair for his own heroes, though he could potentially field all his persona's at once via this method, so the power level might balance out. With Common-Bond, or something similar, he'd be able to spend Bennies on their behalf. Possessing the bodies would be my favourite option, since it keeps the wildcard in the field, doing the work. Possession or the minion option also allow him to maintain the fiction that the minions are real heroes, presumably with secret identities and the whole deal. The Power Set option is probably my least favourite, as while it fills the same function, the ability to switch from one hero to another on the spot ruins the fiction, as this character would want all the heroes to be seen as real, in order to give people hope. Batman going to the bathroom just long enough for Superman to come out of nowhere to lift the bus, just to fly off and have Batman reenter to continue tracking the villain would not fool anyone for long. That kind of build would actually work fine for another concept though, the extradimensional being that thinks our reality is a video game, and can just respawn in as a different character type. He'd always be the same guy, just wearing different suits. Last idea I guess would be to just have a single hero persona, probably the Paladin type, and have it be a Requires Transformation Hindrance, or a single alternative power set so he could keep both at 38pp. That way he could be the mental, psychic investigator type at HQ, but the warrior in the field.
Over the weekend, I viewed an exhibit at our local art museum that had many examples of Samurai armor. Makes me curious what kind of Super Samurai I might be able to develop. The idea I'm working with is a physically infirm guy who projects an idealized form of himself as a psychic manifestation. The main form I was working on so far was a winged paladin in plate armour. Given I was thinking of having multiple personas, one idea I had for differentiating them was using different styles of armour; a greek hoplite, a viking berserker, and a samurai, for instance. In practice, I think all would basically come out as melee fighters, so the variations would probably be mostly flavour. Maybe he should do D&D classes instead? His other personas could be a Wizard, a Rogue, and a Ranger? The idea with the different manifestations is to be adaptable, and reinforce the group's main need, so variations like a Tank, a Melee fighter, a blaster, and an infiltrator would probably make the most sense.
I noticed that Object Read was at range ability (within 6" {12 yards}) in the rules that thought that was a bit unusual. Object Reading and Psychometry show up in all sorts of systems, and it is always a Touch based ability. It actually stuck in my memory as odd that in this system you only need to be close. Requires Touch (-2) is actually listed with the power as a option. Even weirder is that it is a yes/no type of power with no additional levels you can add. It is possible they fixed that in later printings. Nope, checked the Errata, and it is not listed. Curious.
Playing a villain could still work. I would imagine that a pardon would be issued for every villain that fought with the resistance. Your character could simply be a member of a different cell. The pardon would only be for past actions of course, meaning every villain out there would have to decide whether to go straight, return to villainy, or pretend to have gone straight as long as possible, as a cover for a return to villainy.
What would the android's power set be (if any)? Just a Data type (Stronger, faster, more durable, with a photographic memory, and processing ability), or something else? Just wondering about covering the classic group roles... The Paragon, the blaster, the speedster, the stealthy one, the investigator, etc.
I can see taking those maximums for my Paragon, as he is meant to be tough and then spend the rest on Super Strength and other minor abilities. I will play around with the numbers later, but my question is, are you meaning that total for Armor, Toughness and Force Field can’t be more than 13 or is that for each one? I’ll probably just use Toughness, but we’ll see. The rule is in the RAW for SWADE Super Power Companion. You may only spend a maximum of 13 pp on Armour and Toughness combined. It does not limit your actual end stats, just how many power points you can spend. You could still bump it up by also increasing your Vigor, your size (or by taking Growth), as well as by taking edges that increase your Toughness directly, such as Brawler and Bruiser. You could also put all the points into Toughness, and then wear conventional armour.
I am Pro-recruitment.
I would say stick with the default rules. The problem with limiting the maxes or enforcing an average is that you force everyone into similar builds. Everyone is Captain America, but no one is Spiderman or the Hulk. The points are supposed to be the limits. The default rules allow for an Agility based, low toughness character; or high toughness, low agility character. I would caution strongly against enforcing everyone to be: Medium | Medium | Medium Sometimes its fun to do: Medium | Low | High Sure you can shoot me, but make it good or I'll shake it off. Or, hit me and you'll put me down, but just try to hit me. The point restrictions mean that you have to choose where to put them, but the choice is the point. Limiting the maxes and mins just means we all end up with very similar characters without much uniqueness. If I want to make the ultimate unkillable guy, max out armour, toughness, parry, and dodge, I could, but I'd have nothing left I could do against the enemy, and the only role I could play would be to draw fire. That might actually be a worthwhile role, but that character is almost never going to take anyone down, because he is pure defense. I think the point of the power limits is that you could never afford to have max armour/toughness, max defense, max force field and regeneration, and max attack power. You have to ration them, pick an approach and stick to it. Speaking of Force Fields, it sucks that they got rid of Force Control. Green Lantern would need about 5 different powers now to do what one did in the old system.
As for Paradigm, he has a lot of work to do and would probably help Enkidu with his research, possibly taking him on as an apprentice scientist once he is healed as well. He would also want to recruit Doxy too. Becoming the ultimate BBEG, I could see that, once his powers have increased, but it would be ala Mr. Freeze, where all of his evil schemes have to do with increasing his knowledge and power for research purposes. To save Enkidu and then whoever he deemed worthy of his time. Given the way things played out on that battlemoon when Paradigm tried to kill Midos, I think Enkidu is convinced that Paradigm is a megalomaniac and a psychopath. He'd be very unlikely to trust him, even for medical help, as he would suspect Paradigm would be the type to try ensure loyalty, by installing a control device during surgery, encoding an essential syrum only paradigm can provide into the gene therapy, etc. Midos also presents a much better opportunity. He has access to far greater resources, Atlantean technology is cutting edge, not to mention they also have magic. Enkidu will almost certainly attempt to get closer with the Atlanteans, and given the opportunity for pardon, will probably go straight.
Rigor - the android you statted out - was that in SWD or SWADE Supers? Either way, I'd caution WhtKnt about creating an OP android PC if you could do it. It was in SWD. I think when SWADE Supers came out I checked to see if the build would work in SWADE should a game ever some along and saw that it wouldn't. One thing in SWADE is that direct damage abilities seem to be much more limited. In SWD you could increase your d6 damage abilities to d8s or d10s with add ons, but that doesn't exist in SWADE except as a power stunt. I could see right off it would have been even more disruptive than Enkidu, so I abandoned the build. I still like the concept and backstory I had for him, and the same OP exploits don't exist in SWADE, but it would be hard to tweak to a heroic style of game. He was more of a combat robot than an android as well. The only two things in SWADE Supers I'd like to say are not available are the Mind Control Power and The Best There Is Edge. Everyone should use some of their SPP to boost their Parry and Toughness up to *about* 10 and 20, respectively. It would also be a good idea to increase your RATN up to about 10 as well. But, please don't go too high above these values, either (you could get +26 Armor with the 13 SPP limit). Offhand, I don't know how many SPP that would take from your 40, but I'll look at that soon. I think Toughness is 1pp/level and Armour is 1pp/2 levels. The combined expenditure can't be beyond the power limit (13 in this case). I think if somebody wants to be the Hulk or the Thing type of tank, maxing it out is fine, but it should be thematically appropriate. Agreed with Mind Control; hard to excuse for a hero anyway. The Best There Is I have never seen in action. Given that it requires an edge, and still uses up all the points you put into the power, I'm not sure it is the issue some think it might be, but never having seen it used, I can't be sure. I prefer generalists to one trick ponies, so I'm not sure I would use it anyway.
I've always liked Android characters. A while back I stated one up as a potential replacement for Enkidu. I dropped the idea after discovering I had made him capable of inflicting twice as much damage per round as Enkidu, and with a ranged weapon at that. It didn't really help reduce the OP problem. I think I had a character similar to the second idea way back in my teens. I called him Snowfire, and similarly shot blasts of either freezing cold or flames. I like the image, but the origin doesn't have the usual logical outgrowth of super hero origins... what is her power? To produce and expel fluids? That might be interesting, especially if she has to wear igniters on her wrists to turn the jets of bio-deisel into flame throwers (which could lead to a quirk when captured, and desperately needing to generate a spark). Or perhaps temperature control, where she expels H20, but can do it as shards of ice, liquid water, boiling jets of steam, or perhaps even ionized plasma. Steam jets have the advantage of rarely starting secondary fires or causing property damage. She can go full on plasma when needed to damage robots and vehicles. I could also see possibilities for area effect powers, like remotely boiling off the water in someone's coffee thermos, or even throwing an iceball, and then converting it to steam from the inside, creating an ice-shard grenade. The simpler version of a power, but maintaining a single theme would be temperature control. Freeze blasts or flames, but no physical matter involved. That's my take anyway.
Sounds good. 40pp is in between the Level II (Streetlevel/New Heroes) and the Level III (Four Colour/Established Heroes) level. It would give us a Power Level max of 13 (which is a little bit of an awkward number, but manageable). Should there be a time skip involved here to allow for some backstory elements, or do we want to pick up in real time? Did the V'sori withdraw a year ago, or did their leadership disappear yesterday, leaving Chaos? Following on that question is the other of should we continue in this forum, or start a fresh one. And, should we try to recruit new players? I like most of the changes in SWADE, though there are some that I dislike as well. Super Tech and Super Sorcery now require a Power Stunt any time they want to use them, so Variable powers are harder to come by. However, they've added a Power Stunt mechanic which was sorely needed, so anyone can now improvise a new effect with a power they already have. Shape Change is tweaked a little, but functionally unchanged. I can wholeheartedly say I am very bored of that power and wont be touching it. I like some adaptability/variability in my characters, but the variable powers have been nerfed in SWADE, so my first thought for a character is some sort of Power-Suit character, with different suits intended for different roles (a heavy suit, a stealth suit, a battlefield control suit, etc.). Those can be built as a Power Set in the SWADE Rules. I'm trying to think of interesting variations on the theme he could use instead of being a typical Iron Man rip off. Maybe a mystic that makes different golems, or a psychic that creates astral projections. I'll sit on it and see if I can't come up with an interesting concept. The Psychic idea has potential; I had a character like that in Mutants and Masterminds once; an disabled morbidly obese man, but with a heart of gold, who truly wanted to be a hero. His concept was that if he imagined it strongly enough, he could project super-powered Avatars that appeared real and could interact with the world. I remember I also had an idea for a character that was an extra dimensional being that discovered a device that allowed himself to project himself into the game world. He would start out convinced that our world was a video game simulation. The device would allow him to chose a role each time he logged on, so he could choose to play as The Tank, The Blaster, The Ghost, etc each time he "logged on."
No questions right this moment. I got busy this week and wasn't able to make much progress on a character concept. I bought the books way back, but haven't actually played. Forgot how underwelming the mechanics are. I've been used to playing Rifts and Supers with Savage Worlds, and characters have so many features and elements that make them so individualized. The Pathfinder version reduces each class down to about the level of a single edge, which is very lackluster. That said, I am trying not to judge based on just that impression, and come at it with an open mind. I have an idea or two and will see if I can put one together shortly.
Ya, it allowed you to turn the projectile, like an arrow, musket ball, sling stone, or whatever, into a bomb, so it not only gave you the range of the weapon, it would hit, do regular damage for the weapon, and then explode, doing bomb damage. It is a pretty awesome move with a lot of flavour. But as I said, it is no big deal, and I don't mind coming up with something inside the current rules. In early days with a new setting/system, it is generally best to keep things simple as possible and get comfortable before you start messing with things. I will probably go Oracle or Cleric with a focus on healing/buffing, but I'm looking at other options too. Some mechanics are odd in the SW conversion; Monks get no bonus to Parry or Toughness to make up for their lack of armour? The way Arcane Background works is pretty OP as well. Multiclassing isn't really a thing, but you can essentially become a full caster for the price of an Edge. Would it be ok to ask for input from the group on the Discussion forum?
No trouble, if you want to stick with published material that is no problem. I'll keep looking through the material till I find another concept that works. What I liked about guns and Alchemists was the Exploding Missile feat, that let you shoot your bombs. Doesn't look like there are options for that in this system, so best to look at another option anyway.
Sounds good. Reading through the options, as while I've played a lot of Savage Worlds, I haven't actually had a chance to try out Pathfinder for Savage Worlds yet. Looks like the group could use a Cleric/Oracle, as most groups can, though I'm tempted to see if my favourite Pathfinder concept might be possible, an Android Alchemist. Since it is mostly just core material listed so far, I'll probably have to go with something more vanilla, but I'll take a look all the same. I don't see gunslinger in any of the options, so I'm presuming it hasn't been converted over the Savage Worlds yet? Are guns a part of your setting? My favourite Archtype was always the Grenadier Alchemist. If they are available, I'll look at building a concept around it, if they are not, no problem, I'll come up with something else. Doesn't look like Androids are converted either, but that could be an easy fix, if allowed.
I'd be up to join. I've been lurking this board, but I can't remember if I've posted or not. Let me know if you'd like me to pitch a character, what the group is currently comprised of, and how many advances they're at.
I'll get my alias together shortly.
They can be pretty cool, though as I said a while back, they can be hard to make unique. Their abilities are pretty established. You can pick a direction and specialize though, which is probably what I would do; I've thought of a dragon for the Slave campaign if my construct doesn't come together. If you try to advance things evenly, you end up pretty generic, so I'd probably specialize on something, like fire, magic, psionics, melee, or maybe even focus on Metamorphosis and live like an insanely tough humanoid in armour with hand held weapons. Go all in on an option and be really good at one thing, rather.
Psi-Stalker-Slinger: Framework: MARS: Psi-Slinger
Race: Psi Stalker Agility d8
Toughness 5
Abilities: Psychic Sense
Edges:
Hindrances:
Powers:
Skills:
Academics
15pp Honor and Glory
Heroic Journey
Advances:
TW Starfire Pistol 2d12 AP 4 15/30/60
Fortune and Glory: Reach out And Touch Someone
Way to get around Hero's Journey: Juicer Uprising Automatic Raise Effect Choose Any result Switch out armour for another set Vengeful Money:
I don't think I'd want an actual Shemmenarian, and I think it would be unlikely Archie would send one. He wouldn't want anyone getting a close enough look to determine they're all synthetics, or even have anyone wondering why this Shemmenarian was a gynoid. Better to send a one-off, that if discovered, wouldn't spill the beans on an entire project. Besides which, most of the fun in the Intelligent Construct is that you can make them exactly how you want them.
Hey, I remember earthworm Jim. The funny thing to do would be to make a PC that was a suit of sentient power armour, and have the worm occupy a space inside. One could handle locomotion and conventional weapons, while the other cast buffs and battlefield control powers... could be a tough combo... Probably better handled as a single player with the Sidekick edge though.
EltonJ, any interest in running both campaigns, Mercenary and slave? Thinking I will go ahead with my Psi-Slinger for the Merc campaign, and my idea for the slave campaign is presently an Intelligent Construct (Empires of Humanity), sent as a spy to gather information about Atlantis and Sluggorth. Archie and Titan has been known to use such synthroid spies, but I think I'd go with another builder, such as the Neruni. He'd function a bit like a light borg, but with Power Armour Jock, and the intention to capture a suit of some sort eventually.
Gadgeteer is pretty sweet, but with the max cost of 3 isp, it is a lot more limited than the TW ability. That one comes with 10 ppe for every device, instead of costing any. You do lose out on the MARS advances and the Fame and Glory table, but I still think I might weight that trade in favour of the Techno-Wizard.
I'll look it up. Psi-Slingers main advantages are having Psi-Powers built in (and therefore enough edges to get Master Psionics via Born a Hero), and can get some amazing damage output due to their improved Smite power. Also took a closer look at Psi-Slinger, and saw their power works with TW weapons as well, not just slug throwers, and TW weapons are pretty much standard issue to everyone in Atlantis. Edit: Question with regard to gear; if we were slaves, would we have gear, or should we assume we'd be starting out in rags? If we were gladiator slaves, we might have gear, or slave soldiers, or depending on the tropes involved in our start, might find all our gear stowed neatly in the locker outside our cells. This makes a big difference for the tables we choose to roll on for Hero's Journey in particular.
I had been thinking of Nega as an idea as well, but purely for the utility, I hadn't come up with a character concept for it yet. Thinking that in a completely magic based society, a Nega would be extremely impactful. If you have a concept for a Nega, I think it could be made extremely effective. They are not powerful in terms of what they can do, but man are they powerful in terms of what they allow you to prevent others from doing. I mean, Dispel as a at will ability that doesn't use an action and can be used as a Reaction? Boom. Illusion/Invisibility? Dispelled. Shield? Dispelled. Area affect attack? Dispelled. Magic based security? Dispelled. You're still pretty fragile, but having access to Boost Stat could make you pretty mean in a fight when you need to be. Perhaps get a big damage single shot gun, boost shooting, and make your shots count when you need to. For me, I like the Psi-Slinger, but if we're escaped slaves, most of his powers are pretty limited until he finds some slug-throwers. I had thought about a dragon hatchling, but what I dislike there is the lack of customization options: hatchlings are usually like every other hatchling. I tend not to think of Hatchlings as particularly powerful; they can't even touch the damage output of a Glitterboy or even a Power Armour Jock or Heavy Borg. They are tough and hard to kill though, which is nice.
Heh - Storm Dragon, there isn't any balancing in RIFTS! Pick a race based on its perks, then pick a Framework (class) that sounds like it would be cool to run, and do the best you can with it. I don't know about SWADE RIFTS, but in SWD RIFTS the Frameworks were all over the place in terms of their raw power. Hopefully in SWADE RIFTS the Frameworks are more equally matched.They are more equally matched in Savage Worlds Adventure Edition. More balanced, or perhaps less easily unbalanced. It can still be done though, and characters built for combat will still tend to massively outshine generalist characters when combat comes around. There are tweaks that almost any character can use to give them a boost though. One I always suggest is Mega-Powers. If you have any class that can use Powers, Master Psionics or Master of Magic are essential!
I had a character made from a game that never kicked off as well; he was a Psi-Slinger, and seemed likes he'd be a lot of fun, but I'm not sure yet how we'll he'd fit into Atlantis. Any idea what kind of tasks/roles and such you are thinking about in Atlantis? Are we going to be a SpecOps team, spies, thieves, diplomatic envoys, mercs, etc? That might flavour what kind of character I want to pitch.
I love Savage Rifts, I'd definitely be in.
So Atlas, I'm presuming there must be a story to the name 'Whiteangel.' At first I thought you must be recycling, but no, I checked, it's new, and you have eight aliases all named Whiteangel?
Fair enough. I think this setting, where modern banking and investments are built in, is exactly the setting where you would expect an income, but I concede that the Edge would still be available in a post apocalyptic or dimension hopping game (without the income), but then, I think what I said applies, and a player would be foolish to take it. The edge you propose may make a decent compromise. Though I'd propose the name Flush instead of Nouveau Rich. You might be able to add something to it in terms of an ongoing mechanic, in that the character always seems to have enough to just live a little higher on the hog. Real fruits and veggies (for themselves), nicer clothes, a private room when they go to the hotel and so on. One point I'm confused on though is where the idea came from that body Armour is rare? Nobody oo's and ah's over Zoe's vest like it was Frodo's mithril coat, they just go, 'oh, she was wearing a vest,' and move on. Seems to me like they'd be as common in this world as they are in ours. Not a thing everyone has by any means, but something most people regularly attracted to violence might think of acquiring. I think this is again a context thing, like the dueling question. MOst of the folk they deal with are gangster and thugs. How many crooks wear bullet proof vests in our world? It happens, but it is pretty rare, and it isn't because they can't get them. When cops raid crack houses, they often find stacks of bullet proof vests. Who was wearing them though, no one, because hoods don't think of things that way. Zoe wears one because unlike most of the folk around, she is ex-military, and is used to thinking that way.
I don't see anything wrong with a group owned ship, and I would think things like that are common. A lot of real world business and start ups begin with all the founding members as full partners in the business, even if they have different positions in the company. The CEO, CFO, tech guys, etc all own the company equally, even if one is "in -charge." For maritime law, you would probably need an official Captain, for the registration, and to be responsible for making sure the ship and its maneuvers comply with maritime law. Day to day, we might function more as a democracy, with the captain winning in the case of a tie. The captain would also have in the moment authority to make decisions necessary for preserving the ship. Edit: Another idea could be to have a character that takes Your Nouveau Riche edge be the ticketed owner of the ship. Many enterprises have Financier on the team. One extra share of the profits could go to pay for the ship's rent/mortgage, or it could be a standard expense, such as deducting 15% off the top instead of 10%. I think I prefer the joint venture option, but I'm spit-balling.
Thanks for the weigh in Atlas. In a world where gunslinging is the norm, people with high fighting skills are just going to be very niche. The Agent from Serenity was the same. He kicked Mal's ass; it wasn't even a contest. The only reason Mal beat him eventually was the Deus ex Machina of Mal's relocated nerve cluster, and him feigning paralysis (a Dirty Trick, in game terms). In regards to Rich, I can see your point, but I still disagree. Starting with $1500 vs. $500 is not even close to being worth an edge, in my opinion. Particularly as it is a moot point since armour is not available, and my Doctor doesn't need more than one gun. As you said, IMHO YMMV, and mine does.
Swords:
The challenge with this is it doesn't make any real world sense, it's not really consistent with the show (more on this in a moment), and it inadvertently makes swords an Awesome weapon, since no one else can use it. I think the real issue here is that Mal is not a trained hand to hand fighter. Never in any of the episodes is he ever shown using any kind of specialized unarmed moves or training, and when he does get in unarmed fights, he just punches guys. He's a brawler. It is well established however that Atherton Wing is an Awesome duelist. It is implied he is probably the best on Persephone, and it is explicitly stated that he lives for dueling, loves it, and has killed quite a few people in duels. It is pretty much his thing. He's the kind of guy that loves looking for excuses to get into duels because he knows he's good at it, and the intimidation factor of people knowing he's so good is where he draws a lot of his social power and credibility from. Don't give Atherton Wing an excuse for a duel, because if you do, you're as good as dead. This is why Inara tries so hard to convince Mal to run; even if he was a good duelist, Atherton would still kill him, because he's that good. Mal being untrained just makes it that much more obvious. I think what is happening in the show is that Mal is a guy with a d4 or d6 at best in Fighting (and a d10 or d12 in shooting), and Atherton Wing has a d10 or better in Fighting and a specialization in Swords. I would venture it is the highest skill he has. With a d6 with a sword, Mal can only hit a parry of 7 (d10 skill, without even accounting for the Block or Improved Block edge Atherton probably has) if his d6 Aces, which already gives you a 16.666%, in the ballpark you were looking for. I don't think any modification is necessary in regards to swords, and making it an independent skill means no character that is not a dedicated duelist will ever stand even a chance in a duel. Instead of making duels an interesting plot and challenge area, it just means getting in one would be suicide, and so it will always be avoided at all costs.
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