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Actually, after turning over a number of points and comments in my head... the easiest and simplest way would be to respectfully withdraw myself. You have a game that's working with a number of your players... no point in trying to adjust that or moderate it, so I'll remove myself from the equation so as not to upset the applecart. A short thanks for the time PWO, and I'll see you around the boards.
What exactly are you adjusting? - the requirement for 'concentration'? - the definition of what 'concentration' entails? What does it entail at present by the way? Based on her last action concentration doesn't forestall her using other powers? - she was telekinetically throwing things around the room while flying and invisible, so you're ruling she can use other powers while maintaining the links. The way the power is defined in the book is very restrictive - and it's technically very 'cheap' because of it (only 2PP). The way you seem to be intending to let it work is far more flexible and powerful... ie. much more powerful than 2pp worth. It also changes her from a player that needs to make a conscious decision to remain with the team (because she'd get isolated when the telepathy dropped) or risk going solo... into one that has very very little penalty to breaking formation. Why wouldn't she leave us to flit around completely solo when there's so little penalty for her to do so?
This also assumes that we, as a party, will -rarely- not want the rest of the party to hear what we're saying. Look, I'm a cynical ornery Engineer who doesn't really deal too much in subtletly and pretense in direct communication. Hence expressing things as simply as possible... and I do strongly and vigorously dislike the degree of looseness that had been applied thus far with how Imagine was treating Telepathy. Our opinions were sought on the matter by both other players and the DM - so I responded on the topic. If being direct is not something other people are comfortable with, then I'll happily back out of the game without recrimination or regret to save people from dealing with me... but I'm not engaging in brinkmanship here - if I was, I'd state it openly and directly. It's simply question asked -> question answered; and you're partially on the case already by clarifying that Telepathy isn't capable of working how Imagine has been applying it.
Being blunt is about not dancing around what you're trying to say... so rather than spend a paragraph circling the point I just stated it outright... I hate it. I use a paucity of words when stating points of view on issues like that to minimize what could / could not be read into it. Take them on face value as they're meant to be. The alternative is I pretty up what I'm trying to say and prevaricate by hiding the actual thrust of the narrative that I'm trying to imply that it would be nice to actually... my god I've lost my train of thought...
Looking from his fist to Fiddler's oversized nutcracker Sapele shrugs "Ain't much use for anything we can't carry with us eh?"
To be brutally blunt - I hate the idea of Imagine being able to assume that every single thing that our characters say is able to be heard by her. We should be able to choose what we decide to deliver via Telepathy, and she should respect that choice by not assuming that everything is fair game. The telepathy power is also fairly distinct about what can and can't be done without line of sight - with penalties and the requirement for 'concentration' to maintain a link as well. If Sapele is speaking with his head - he'll explicitly say so... apart from that - he's using his oversized mouth, and unless you're in earshot it's not something you can hear.
For clarity - My understanding is that the telepathy is just from us -> Imagine, and cannot be directly done say between Sapele -> Fiddler?
Shrugging "Can try and break the bracelet eh... but not sure if your arm's up to it..." suggesting that the force he'd need to use to rend the bracelet would likely be unsustainable by the infrastructure it's enclosing "Your choice bro... but maybe the claw snip be a bit safer eh?" Speaking to those nearby "What the hell we still here for anyways? Weren't we just meant to get that bloke?" gesturing to MindJack and looking around. "Looks like just me, you, this new guy and the bugger we came for left... let's go eh?"
Raising his voice to reply verbally to the voice in his head "O.k. me smashy head" looking around to find the drone and summarily squishing it's head. He rolls his eyes and confides in Fiddler "Dunno what's up with that lass that keeps talking in my head... might be a couple cans short of a six-pack eh? Keeps talking to me like I'm some sort of idiot" in a completely non-ironic manner.
Sapele frowns at the pale woman before correcting her "No no, Sapele has broken houses before."
proceeds to start at one end tearing them asunder and apart.
Tossing aside what's left of the pruned drone, Sapele trundles into the area of the cells... and proceeds to start at one end tearing them asunder and apart. Strength: or
Sapele plods with thudding footsteps towards the hallway where he has been bade to wait, picking up a broken drone body as he goes. Dispassionately he starts picking at the various bits of metal, armor, limbs and weaponry... almost like he's playing he loves me, he loves me not except instead of flower petals he's slowly dismembering the corpse. The idle distraction is accompanied by an out of tune whistled ditty.
PWO:
After a few long moment in the restroom performing acts likely of no interest to the remainder of the party... Sapele emerges with a wide gap-toothed grin on his face and some kind of token loincloth covering up his family valuables. The bizarre pair of pants seems to consist of a bath towel laid from front to crack like a nappy and a pair of socks used to tie it off around each hip. The genial look on his face betrays the fact that the 8ft monster of muscles looks patently ludicrous... but he looks and hears to see where the others are headed...
Not having seen Imagine move, nor having any concept of cardinal directions as his mind hears rather than his ears, Sapele looks around confused and yells "Which way you gone?" before his spinning eyes notice the restroom sign and he is struck with twin ideas. Bellowing "Wait a second... need to have a piss eh?" thumping on oversized feet towards the restroom. PWO: Once within he stands relatively near to the urinal and releases the pent up accumulation from his time aboard the m'buna in a chaotic and haphazard spray. Once the refuse gauge reads empty he looks for a locker where he might find a towel or two of some kind... intending to fashion a makeshift loincloth.
By suggestion of PWO I'm just adding a bit of explanation behind the short posts above. The reason I posted short sharp and what I thought were emotively neutral statments was to avoid getting them cluttered with any kind of emotion or subtext. They may have come off passive aggressive, but weren't meant in that manner. The reason why I don't want that moniker is more an irrational dislike and feeling that the real world correlation doesn't fit. It's a non-issue and I'm not upset, perturbed, disturbed or otherwise.
I repeat, politely and firmly - please don't use that name. Call him idiot with muscles, strong moron or whatever else you like... just not that.
Just going to say it once... please don't call my character Andre.
Seeing the drone running and shooting aimlessly back towards them Sapele furrows his brow and looks around for something to throw at it. If he was outside he'd consider a lightpost, SUV or bus stop... but as he's inside there isn't much that's weighty and worth the trouble... unless. Not asking or waiting for an invitation Sapele bellows "Crab man, get the running one." before picking Fiddler up by one leg and spinning to pitch him hammer-throw style towards the fleeing drone...
Missile discharged he looks up and raises an eyebrow Where the others go? and follows by yelling "Little man and woman, where have you gone?" clearly forgetting the whole concept of telepathy and having paid no attention to where the others had gone while there was blood to be spilt.
My read on the leap ability is that to use it is a single action - so at power level 2 it carries Sapele 8". So I'd think he could both Leap and Run in the same round (with MAP obviously) or Leap and Move (without MAP). Was that answering or confusing the question?
The shock at being attacked fades swiftly as rage engenders further pugilistic intent in the islander. An unbooted foot retracts before rocketing forth like a wrecking ball cum pendulum towards the crotch of one of the ever dwindling number of drones remaining as he spins to drive his right elbow towards a relatively squishy head...
Just realised I missed the wound penalty to rolls during Sapele's last round...
Vigor Save Wild Dice:
Finally in the midst of a pack of enemies and with no reason to hold back, the naked and muscled islander takes the safety off. A fusillade of fists, feet, limbs and other dangling extremities are all put to fine use to attempt to batter, beat and generally destroy the opposition before him...
Looking to the larger clutch of bastards left, Sapele's legs pound the floor to pick up speed... leaving dents and puffs of dust in his wake. He crouches deep on his right leg part way through his charge and uses his momentum to launch himself through the air. Coming down hard on his targeted drone by attempting to impact the bugger's neck with his groin and use his superhuman momentum and weight to ride the drone to the ground and crush it's torso with his bare arse...
...though his aim is cruelled as his foot slips on takeoff and he instead lands flat on his arse on the ground in the midst of the four drones. Though one might have thought him perturbed at the turn of events... instead you hear a rising and growing laughter, and the everpresent wild look of bloodlust in the islander's eyes.
Sapele shakes off the induced reflection caused by the burning lozenge of energy that sank into his gut and roars.
I suppose for completeness I should also add a smattering of 'Bah, humbug', references to 'Kids these days' and start on a long winded explanation of how things were different 'In my day...'
Atlas - the use of bennies is a double edged sword, as they are a limited resource. If we need to spend them all just to try and survive, then we can't use them for 'cool stuff'. eg. Sapele has just spent one to soak, but he's still shaken and unable to do anything next round without spending another bennie to try and remove that condition (which is not a given). Even if that works, he'd have still spent two of three bennies to react to one round of combat.
The 40K analogy doesn't really work - because in reality while they might be the guard, a Supervillain built solely for combat should be like a Carnifex and tear them completely to shreds without thinking twice. The catchcry of a IG army is generally "We have reserves" and they expect massive casualties without recourse. For your analogy to function it's more like the drones are Space Marines and K'tharen must be Terminators or better... and by extension our characters are not so much Supervillains, as much as just Villains (maybe like the Eldar - effective but very very fragile). Regardless of the statement of 'they were just lucky' fact remains that six of them just dealt 4+ wounds in a single round, combined with making all of us shaken (even with the multi-action penalty in play). We will have to expend bennies and hope to get lucky with rolls to not be completely open to another round of fire.
And this is just the rapid response that arrived within three rounds of us crashing into the roof... we still need to storm the actual castle afterwards...
Sapele grunts in pain as he doubles over his wound, but despite the uncanny accuracy he doesn't seem to have been harmed as much as he might have been.
Just a bit surprised when the brick, with three separate superpowers contributing to a high Toughness is 2/3 dead from a single blaster shot from whats meant to be an entry level enemy? (as in one of the bad guy footsoldiers, not even a 2nd or 3rd level bad guy) I'd agree that it seems to be far too easy to hit in ranged combat, as they just need a 4. If they were in melee with the big guy they'd need to beat 12 just to get a hit.
Three of the new Drones target Sapele. Do they see him as the largest threat, or do they just not want to miss. One shot goes low peppering you with burning wood the other two find their marks on your shoulder and stomach. Just wanting to understand the breakdown of the attacks on Sapele: First shot missedSecond shot hit - but did or did not beat toughness of 12? Third shot hit - and did two wounds of damage. Was he 'shaken' by the first hit? - if not then the second shot got two raises over his Toughness of 12? - doing 20 damage?
Round 3: With the number of drones dwindling, Sapele curbs the wild nature of his swinging to focus solely upon a single beastie. Setting it up with a couple of left jabs the islander follows with a wild rising haymaker on the right...
Sapele is right handed, and I don't have any issues with you making whatever rolls you think necessary. I like making the rolls for active choice based scenarios (ie. smashing face, trying to figure stuff out), but have no issues if you make reactive ones (ie. does Sapele fall over, etc).
Round 2: First blood tasted, Sapele is having far too much fun already to stop at one. Lashing out with gay abandon, he seeks to crush the chest cavity of the nearest drone, then grab another by the arm...
If every combat die roll I make involves three explosions... it's going to be a good trip :)
Seeing the weird crab-thing descend before him Sapele shrugs and crouches with latent energy. With a grunt his legs extend like released springs and the violent discharge of energy rocks the shuttle where it lies residing in the gym's roof. The leap carries Sapele like a bullet, crashing rugby tackle style towards a drone's upper body...
Exclaiming "Hah! Up or down bros?..." the meaty toaster sized fists at the islander's side clearly twitching and ready for smashing.
A slight flinch away from the exploding collar is followed by a wide grin as his various talents are unleashed in all their glory. With a strain and grunt he attempts to rip the last of the restraints free...
His second action is to lower his arms and attack a spot on his left shoulder that had been irking him for some time. As his phalanges work industriously on the itch he groans with pleasure "Man that were itching for an age... Any other bastard need help getting out eh?" If anyone turns at the voice... their sanity would be well to keep their eyes above the waistline, as when Sapele was unleashed... so was the iti whānui. You do notice that the tattooed islander has swelled in size if not in proportion and is an absolute beast filled with muscle and mass.
Unable to muster movement due to restraints the scar man's question draws just a raised eyebrow "Ain't doing much bro... kind of tied up eh?" The curious behaviour of the pilot and co-pilot draw a similarly raised eyebrow... and Sapele has no idea what has been placed upon his nullifier. As Dr Destruction appears he waits as the apparition speaks, before speaking without any hesitation "Sure bro... what's he look like?"
The tattooed islander does not struggle, he knows that the bindings have him tightly restrained and keep him weak. Despite this he seems in reasonably fine spirits, half smiling and humming to himself unintelligibly. At the sound of the woman speaking Sapele briefly pauses his humming to regard her... before squirming slightly in what you might interpret as some kind of attempted shrug "Dunno cuz" before grinning widely and starting back up with his humming.
Huzzah - tis the alias.
Sapele is aware that being awesomely strong and supremely powerful and with defined abs has it's disadvantages - but he is the monster he is :P On Background: Your timeline pretty much works for me... the suckering by NZ security could have been a simple ruse like receiving a letter:
Please come to Auckland bro, we think you're cool. followed by gassing out his plane and taking him to the Supermax. He's not the sharpest pencil in the case. Escaping the Supermax also cool, and the 'havoc' he created could have been as simple as just attempting to replicate his pacific kingdom in the states. I know the background is very sparse, but I didn't want him to have a past to tie him down. He doesn't have ties back in Tonga, and would easily be bandied along by another villain with half a brain to whatever means and ends are required. Think of him as angry Groot...
Final Sapele:
Attributes: Strength: d10 (d12+5), Agility: d8, Smarts: d4, Spirit: d6, Vigor: d6 (d10)
Skills: Climbing (Str): d4
Derived Stats:
Hindrances: Bloodthirsty (Major); Clueless (Major); Illiterate (Minor); Distinctive Appearance (Minor - size and tattoos) Edges: Arcane Background (Super Powers), Power Points, 'Super Karma' Powers:
Gear: Med-Stims Anything you're still waiting on from me PWO? Sapele has not yet committed. Sapele, would you consider dropping Toughness so we have enough for the Hot Tub? I'm willing to lay good odds that the ability to heal up after a fight will make you feel better than any 2 pts of toughness can. I'd already committed in the negative as I personally see the lair question primarily as a post-game start issue. I'm not trying to be combative or selfish, just that I can't see past the fact that we don't know each other until after the game starts. Also, it doesn't make sense for Sapele's backstory. I don't mind committing in theory to putting aside two points from his next power boost to 'catch up', but I'd strongly prefer for him to start as is.
I have this great image of Sapele and Tommy having a Colossus/Wolverine "Fastball Special" attack given his rugby background. Any chance we can make that work some how? Sapele has the strength and the throwing ability ;)
Angry wall of pacific meat is still here - just hammered with familial catch ups in the lead in to Christmas and what not.
Hindrances: Bloodthirsty (Major); Clueless (Major); Illiterate (Minor); Distinctive Appearance (Minor) Gear: Med-Stims
The attribute overspend is indeed from using the extra points from hindrances, so balances out. Fighting should be 7 points? - 1 for d4, 1 for d6, 1 for d8, 2 for d10, 2 for d12 = 7 points. No swimming skill, as while he grew up on the islands he wasn't much of a boatman - instead tilling the taro fields until his powers kicked in. Sticking with human as it's easier for me to play and get my head round (plus adds 5 points of hammer time to the powers list ;) Will finalize everything later today.
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