OOC/Rants and Raves, questions and suggestions too

[Rukellian]

Keep it clean, that's all I ask.

[Zhym]

How do "travel powers" affect the attack and dodge penalties in combat? If a hero has the super leap power, for instance, and can jump up to 5 sectors at a time, does he still take -5 if he jumps all five sectors?

[Rukellian]

How do "travel powers" affect the attack and dodge penalties in combat? If a hero has the super leap power, for instance, and can jump up to 5 sectors at a time, does he still take -5 if he jumps all five sectors?

Initiative would play heavily into this, as I just got done explaining briefly in the everything else 4c thread. If the enemy manages to throw in a hit first, it doesn't matter if you are about ready to bolt away with super speed or a super jump, the attack catches you by surprise and you will suffer the associated damage. Now because you are specifying in this scenario that you want to use a travel power over dodging that will take priority, so you won't be able to focus on dodging. If your initiative roll won, then you can safely use a travel power and escape any potential harm, negating the need to dodge.

If your character does indeed get hit by an attack, before being able to use your travel power, we will use the result of the master table to determine how successful the attack was, and how all of that would affect your attempt to use a travel power. As I further develop the combat systems in the everything else thread, this will start to make more sense.

[tooleychris]

To determine the primary trait scores/ Rank Values, roll your percentile die and use this table to figure out your scores. Warning, some of the rolls, if fate would have it, will be crappy! No rerolls

100 or 1-4 = 1
5-9 = 3
10-19 = 6
20-39 = 10
40-59 = 20
60-79 = 30
80-95 = 40
96-99 = 50

This rank system and the modifiers associated with the Races/Origins will make much more sense when we start talking about the percentile table system more in depth.

Can we roll all the dice and assign numbers where we want in traits?

[Rukellian]

To determine the primary trait scores/ Rank Values, roll your percentile die and use this table to figure out your scores. Warning, some of the rolls, if fate would have it, will be crappy! No rerolls

100 or 1-4 = 1
5-9 = 3
10-19 = 6
20-39 = 10
40-59 = 20
60-79 = 30
80-95 = 40
96-99 = 50

This rank system and the modifiers associated with the Races/Origins will make much more sense when we start talking about the percentile table system more in depth.

Can we roll all the dice and assign numbers where we want in traits?

I will allow this, yes, but if your stuck with 1's 3's and 6's, have fun deciding what your character sucks at it

[tooleychris]

Already so many tough choices! Thanks for this!
Some powers seem to stack well with one another in the book, but I've a combination that isn't specified specifically.
One power is physical metamorphosis and a second power is body armor. I haven't decided WHAT the metamorphosis form will be yet, and you may decide to do synergies on a case-by-case basis, but any idea If these would have synergy?

[Rukellian]

Already so many tough choices! Thanks for this!
Some powers seem to stack well with one another in the book, but I've a combination that isn't specified specifically.
One power is physical metamorphosis and a second power is body armor. I haven't decided WHAT the metamorphosis form will be yet, and you may decide to do synergies on a case-by-case basis, but any idea If these would have synergy?

There are some power synergies, yes. Because you have body armor, any form you take in physical metamorphosis that allows a defensive state, you receive bonuses in your armor, the amount of damage you can take before you start losing hit points. This is further explained in the actual power explanation thread, and is pretty straight forward when you think about it.

[tooleychris]

OMG YOU CURSED ME!!!!!
Ive got 5 traits out of 7 that come out to 6's!

[tooleychris]

Already so many tough choices! Thanks for this!
Some powers seem to stack well with one another in the book, but I've a combination that isn't specified specifically.
One power is physical metamorphosis and a second power is body armor. I haven't decided WHAT the metamorphosis form will be yet, and you may decide to do synergies on a case-by-case basis, but any idea If these would have synergy?

There are some power synergies, yes. Because you have body armor, any form you take in physical metamorphosis that allows a defensive state, you receive bonuses in your armor, the amount of damage you can take before you start losing hit points. This is further explained in the actual power explanation thread, and is pretty straight forward when you think about it.

I guess my question is, If I take an Energy Metamorphosis that allows no armor (I think) ,will the character still have body armor from the other power when... metamorphed or only in normal form?

[Rukellian]

OMG YOU CURSED ME!!!!!
Ive got 5 traits out of 7 that come out to 6's!

Fear not my fellow RPGer, not all is lost. A character can still be played well with craptacular stats. Maybe the person is very skills oriented, perhaps the character even has some friends in very high places.

----

In regards to your Energy Metamorphosis, I will not allow body armor in that form. As far as i'm concerned, turning into a being of pure energy means you have stripped away your physical shell, if only temporarily and thus will lose the benefits of body armor which was on the shell you just discarded. Now if there are any solid states of energy that I am unaware of, I would be open to using such things, and permit body armor in that case, but nothing really comes to mind right now.

[Kipling]

We'll try...

Origin roll: Origin: [1d100] = 20 (a skilled human: 3 bonus skills)

4 Traits: [1d100] = 21, [1d100] = 42, [1d100] = 29, [1d100] = 55 (10, 20, 10, 20)
3 more traits: [1d100] = 98, [1d100] = 34, [1d100] = 13 (50, 20, 6)
Number of skills: [1d100] = 52 that's 2 skills, plus 3 for the origin
Number of powers: [1d100] = 61 (3 powers)

I'll roll the powers (devices) in power;rank pairs:
Power [1d100] = 32 Rank [1d100] = 93 extra body parts; rank 40
Power [1d100] = 41 Rank [1d100] = 54 growth/shrinking; rank 20
Power [1d100] = 86 Rank [1d100] = 77 teleportation; rank 30

Wow. Have to think about that, but a Yellowjacket style character seems possible.

Forgot to roll for Lifestyle and Repute; will do that, though I'm not sure which table is used to calculate Lifestyle...I'll try the first one, but correct me if I'm wrong.

Lifestyle: [1d100] = 81; Repute: [1d100] = 27

Lifestyle: 40 (so he's wealthy...somehow. Clearly I need to add something in the character story)
Repute: 9

Flicker
Melee 10
Coordination 20
Brawn 50 (in the suit, obviously)
Fortitude 20
Intellect 10
Awareness 10
Wisdom 6
Damage: 100
Fortune: 26
Lifestyle: 40
Repute: 9

The extra body parts will be a shell, a suit: the Rescue Armor, with a damage protection rating of rank 40 and a brawn of 50 (sensible; it's meant to lift fallen rubble and so forth). The drawing I found has a gun, but he doesn't, so let's say that it fires "teleportation target discs" -- he can teleport line of sight, but his "known locations" are places with discs: he can teleport to any disc, and he uses the gun to shoot discs to places he can't see (very useful in the dark). (He also frequently teleports to the dump or the sewers by accident: some of the discs have been swept up as street garbage and sent there. He retrieves them, but there always seem to be some.)

[Rukellian]

We'll try...

Origin roll: Origin: [1d100] = 20 (a skilled human)

4 Traits: [1d100] = 21, [1d100] = 42, [1d100] = 29, [1d100] = 55
3 more traits: [1d100] = 98, [1d100] = 34, [1d100] = 13
Number of skills: [1d100] = 52
Number of powers: [1d100] = 61

If we go off of these rolls, you will have 2 skills to work with and an additional 3 more for being a skilled human, bring your total skills to 5. Remember, skills can be switched over to contacts if you wish. See the character creation thread for more info on these things. You can roll up to 4 powers from either table, the long or short one. Don't forget to roll and add up for the secondary traits. When you have an idea of what those skills or contacts are going to be, any combination of both even, just shoot them my way and I will judge them accordingly.

[tooleychris]

In regards to your Energy Metamorphosis, I will not allow body armor in that form. As far as i'm concerned, turning into a being of pure energy means you have stripped away your physical shell, if only temporarily and thus will lose the benefits of body armor which was on the shell you just discarded. Now if there are any solid states of energy that I am unaware of, I would be open to using such things, and permit body armor in that case, but nothing really comes to mind right now.

Okay. The reason I asked is that when I played Marvel (20+ years ago) I had a game master rule that If you had an intangible shape like gas or light, your "form" would allow RANK points to pass harmlessly thru you before you took damage, instead of blocking the damage.

[Rukellian]

In regards to your Energy Metamorphosis, I will not allow body armor in that form. As far as i'm concerned, turning into a being of pure energy means you have stripped away your physical shell, if only temporarily and thus will lose the benefits of body armor which was on the shell you just discarded. Now if there are any solid states of energy that I am unaware of, I would be open to using such things, and permit body armor in that case, but nothing really comes to mind right now.

Okay. The reason I asked is that when I played Marvel (20+ years ago) I had a game master rule that If you had an intangible shape like gas or light, your "form" would allow RANK points to pass harmlessly thru you before you took damage, instead of blocking the damage.

Most of the rulings on this will be on a situational basis. Depending on what attacks you with what, and what form you are in, I could rule or could not rule such damage taking place. (Water drenching a fire form will hurt, electricity shocking a water form will hurt, and if your facing a vacuum cleaner in a gas form.... why are you facing a vacuum cleaner while in a gas form?! I'll mostly be using common sense here.

[Pulpatoon]

A couple things:

1. There's a lot of wiggle room when it comes to skills. I tried to hit same level of broadness as the examples in the book, but am unsure. Would you mind looking at my skill list and see if they seem okay to you? Too broad? Too specific?

2. I think the 4C rules don't have any allowance for placing limitations on powers, like "Only works for one hour," or "Doesn't affect the color yellow." Is that right, or did I miss it? It seems like a glaring omission. Not that I need it for my character, or anything, just wondering.

[tooleychris]

It's best to use skills to enhance what your character can already do. Using a power, as example, requires a roll that produces a slot result. Tying a skill to that same power allows a slot shift in your favor.
The game mechanics call for trait rolls to do most skills.
Turning on a computer may not require a roll, searching or using same computer may require an Intellect roll. Having a power that allows access to interface personally(or mentally ) with that computer would replace or enhance the intellect roll. Having the skill Computer Programing would further enhance the outcome of those rolls.
You can also use skills to add flavor to your powers. My character is using the skill Ice Sculpting to allow her to Generate Ice into specific shapes, like handcuffs.
They leave the skills open ended like this on purpose to allow players creative uses. It can be alot of fun to figure such possibilities out, with Game Master deciding what's fair, of course.

[tooleychris]

Personally I think a skill adding a flaw to a power or limitations is a wonderful idea. Very colorful. I was thinking about doing this with weather control instead of ice control. Making Permafrost have power over weather but ONLY to the degree of lowering temperature and causing snow as a flaw, and then increasing the area effected or severity to balance the flaw.
Ruke has a great imagination and would probably love to help with such ideas.

[Rukellian]

Pulpatoon, your skill set is fine at a glance. Most of them seem specific enough in their use; however, can you elaborate on the two skills Occult and Scholarship? They could either be very broad subjects or something a bit more specific depending on how you look at them. When you mentioned Occult, I thought to myself, "okay, so this professor type fellow has knowledge in the supernatural, arcane and or various fields of magics." Or maybe Occult is indeed a far broader subject that covers not only knowledge of such things, but the practices as well, like potion making and making use of magic or magical items. If it were the latter, then we would need to specify whether your skill in occult is strictly knowledge based or of the practical application, making potions and such. How did you imagine this when first drawing up the skill list for this character?

Scholarship seemed pretty straightforward and just needs some clarification to make doubly sure it is alright. "The Scholarly method or scholarship is the body of principles and practices used by scholars to make their claims about the world as valid and trustworthy as possible, and to make them known to the scholarly public." Does this sound about right? If this is the case, then I can treat this as a case of worldly knowledge and being able to draw upon it correctly.

----

Everything seems to be turn based from what I understand. Unless the power specifically states that its effect(s) lasts for a certain amount of turns, then it is safe to say that it can be used only once per turn.
But mostly, as the DM, I have most of the free reign when it comes to determining how certain things work out. One of my policies when DMing is that if it isn't mentioned or specified in the ruleset/game system, then I can do whatever I want with it, making the necessary calls and setting up house rules when needed. Does this answer your 2nd question? If not, try and reword it and I will try to provide a more suitable answer.

-Rukellian

[Rukellian]

What tooley said on skill selection. Though your given plenty of wiggle room in customization, the skills will need to be specific enough to directly effect an action in-game. Your skill set as a whole reflects this idea greatly.

[Pulpatoon]

I was thinking about the skills pretty broadly, sort of the way some games, like fudge and FATE and FU use traits. I think I went down this road because of the example of "Science" as a skill. In comics, one assumes that Reed Richards is equally the master of physics, biology, chemistry, engineering, or whatever sort of techno-sciency-babble is needed to save the day.

So, I figured, this guy is like that, only with occult stuff. He can't practice magic, but if you run into some esoteric beastie derived from Dogon cosmology, he should have a chance at saying, "Oh, THOSE GUYS. They hate carrots, don't you know."

Scholarship, I figured would be a similarly sweeping skill, indicative of the broad way in which comics would handle the skills of a career academic. Knowing history and humanities stuff and researching stuff, primarily, but if the characters had to navigate some sort of cosmic tenure and promotion committee, I'd argue for the skill bump.

Burglary, I figured would be good both for sneaking into places and picking locks, because you have to do both of those things when you burgle?

Ancient Languages was the one I felt I had the least footing on. Does this mean he has a chance to speak any ancient Earth language the party might come across? This would be in keeping with the scope of the "Science" skill. Or, more realistically, does it just mean that he is likely to recognize ancient languages, can probably do okay with Latin and Greek, and will be able to work on the others of he has access to appropriate research materials?

I give these examples not to argue for this reading of the skills, but to show you where my head was at, and to gauge the flavor of the intended campaign. How four-color are we going?