Most Aggravating Character Builds?

[NMI]

Well, if he's trying to bulk up his P.S. score, remind him that the power description for SHPS specifically says that physical skill bonuses don't increase the P.S. score.

That is supernatural PS that physical skills dont apply to, not superhuman PS.

[LostOne]

Invulnerability
Superhuman PS (With all the stat buffing physical skills, of course.)
Extraordinary Speed
Extraordinary Physical Prowess

I tend to limit Invulnerability just to avoid the "every badguy is a mage/psychic/mind-controller or has supernatural strength" problem. However, anyone that can fly and damage this guy with a ranged attack shouldn't have much issue with him. Shoot at him from max range, he can throw things but they'll take long enough to get to you that they should be cake to dodge.

Or APS water could engulf him and try to drown him.

Nice little combo I've enjoyed in the past is stretching + hyperdensity. Wrap around their face and neck like you're trying to strangle them with a plastic bag and then turn hyperdense. They can't take you off without decapitating themselves.

Mind control them out of the fight, such as running off the mountainside where it'll take a few minutes for them to get back (by then the fight is over and villain fled), etc.

[The Beast]

Invulnerability
Superhuman PS (With all the stat buffing physical skills, of course.)
Extraordinary Speed
Extraordinary Physical Prowess
...so what do you do to challenge this monster?...

Magic, psychic, or superpower that renders him immobile (or Negate Superpowers), followed immediately by magic, psychic, or chi-based attacks that cause damage to him.

[The Beast]

COA stops for a round or two? Thought it was for several minutes and if you save, you are only stuck for half (several minutes still). Way long enough to litteraly bury the guy in a building collaspe.

Heck, the villian is a villian so he may not care about the collatorale damage and the Hero will probably be blamed for the destruction of the building as he emerges 10 minutes later.

Also on COA, you can not dodge. At least that is how my GM does it.

Correct, you can't dodge, but the save results in 2d6 melees of being stuck in it IIRC.

[Stattick]

You can hit him with a bigger brick... or a tentacle monster.


I don't have the character in front of me copy/paste, but I created a nasty character I called Goliath. Monsterous Form (sn ps, advanced bio-regen, aggressive combat style, and something else I can't remember on the options - maybe jumping) + Prodigious Multiple Limbs (6 tentacles) + Nightvision. He was an Experiment w/ the Must Transform to Another Form to Use Powers trait.

So... he was kinda like Danny Bonnoducci - short, buff, red hair, bad attitude, kind of a jerk. Then when you ticked him off, he turned into this 15' demonic looking thing with 22' long tentacles. He had SNPS at around 36 (only 32 for tentacles), 10 attacks per round, something like a +12 to strike and parry, regens at 2d6/round, something like 9d6 per punch, and a couple hundred SDC...

I wrote him up for a Wormwood game: after I compared him to our PC dragon and discovered that Goliath was all around better at combat then the dragon, I opted to write up a weaker character. I didn't want to be the new guy with the character that made all the other PC's look like wimps. Granted, I rolled well a few times, but I just was not expecting that combo to be so... nasty. I've since used Goliath as a villian, a role he's well suited for... Of course one could make him nastier by dumping Nightvision and giving him another Major.

[csyphrett]

No one specific power build has been aggravating but I did have one player who wanted a half demon half angel with the physical characteristics split like two face.

I laughed in his face.
CES

[znbrtn]

there's really no specific build that always annoys me. selecting an inappropriate build for the game at hand, or selecting the same build over and over are what grate on my nerves.

a while back, i was going to start a campaign for some friends based in the resident evil universe(won't post specifics, i know it's bad), wherein the pc's would be escaped highly experimental new B.O.W.s. one of my players simply refused to go along with the theme. rather than something appropriate, he wanted to be some sort of mighty mite, with shrinking, aps electricity and rocket fists. i asked if there was some sort of theme to the character, to which he replied something along the lines of "nah, i just don't really care. i flat out told him that it wouldn't work, so he threw a fit and decided he didn't want to play.

amusingly enough, this is also the same player that constantly schemes to make the same character in every game. a fellow by the name of Id that simply must be the biggest, baddest guy around, or else the game isn't fun.

[LostOne]

That is why my villians all carry particle beam weapons since the current super hero team has 2 invulnerable characters.

I don't remember Invulnerability being vulnerable to particle beam weapons. Those are energy weapons, which Invulnerability is immune to.

[The Beast]

That is why my villians all carry particle beam weapons since the current super hero team has 2 invulnerable characters.

I don't remember Invulnerability being vulnerable to particle beam weapons. Those are energy weapons, which Invulnerability is immune to.

It's under the weapon's description in the HUGMG.

[LostOne]

It's under the weapon's description in the HUGMG.

Ok, I see it. Rules like that I don't use, they seem like an afterthought. And they're trying to change it so all particle beams affect invulnerable characters, at least that is how I read it. Not in my games. They're energy weapons and Invulnerable strictly says immune.

[Stattick]

Vocalization (PU3), minor also has a similar "command" type ability.

[Stattick]

You could do worse to him.

Next big battle try to make sure that he engages this guy:
APS: Smoke or Mist + Life Leech. Worse yet, have the guy pop off a couple of smoke grenades before your munchkin tries to catch him - the player will be trying to figure out what the hell's doing direct HP damage to him, and no matter how hard or far he runs, he just can't seem to manage to get out of that smoke cloud (because the APS guy's clinging to Mr. Invulnerability as he runs randomly in circles, flailing his arms like a madman).


Hey, there's one great thing I love about having Invulnerable characters in my games. You as the GM can actually use snipers, explosions, and bombs without having to worry about killing a party member by accident. Mr Invulnerable in a tux, meet Biga Bada Boom. Mr Invulnerable, go sailing through the air from the explosion. Quick Mr Invulnerable - put some clothes on, people are staring; he shoulda taken Bio-Aura so his clothes don't get trashed when his mail explodes, huh?


EDIT: Just don't pick on him too much, eh? He's there to have fun too, so let him be awesome. Just let everyone else there be awesome too.

[runebeo]

Our GM banned Invulnerability like 12 years ago, it makes the game really boring for the rest of the players. Our first group had two Invulnerable characters and the transformation to Iron was way more fun to play. The GM almost banned Intangibility because it interfered with her plans too, but no other power has been banned in our campaign.

[The Beast]

Negative Matter & Rechannel and Direct Energy.

[Overlord Rikonius]

Not necessarily a build per se, but I got one more example of a player that irritates me. People who cheat during character creation.

I understand that the book states you have the option of picking sometimes instead of rolling the dice. But do all of your characters have to have an unmodified 18 for PS, PP, and PE? And is this possible on every character you create? And by the way: no, it isn't possible for you to get the same powers in every character you create, especially when one character is an ancient master and another one is a mutant.

Again, this is just me. I prefer total randomness to character creation - it makes things more interesting that way. It almost ensures that you have to be creative with your backstory, as well as power combos in the event you have them. And it will also give you characters that you never even thought to create.

I like a mix of random and planned. So I tend to roll the attributes then decide which goes where. And roll for one power, then see if any complementary powers leap to mind.

[Stattick]

I really like random heroes... But I do it in a specific way that drastically reduces the likelihood of useless characters. I'll illustrate in another thread and edit the link in.

Link Here

[LostOne]

I don't like random heroes. I much prefer heroes whose powers make up a cohesive character. Look at the Wolverine or Spiderman (with no conversions, please). Each of them has a grouping of powers that make up a well rounded hero.

It is far more likely to get powers that don't really go together if you roll randomly. Like Earth Empowerment + any Flight power. Yippee...

[AlanGunhouse]

I remember being told about a character with APS: Bone and Unbreakable Bones, sounds like a pretty rough combo to beat, depending on how the GM rules.

[Stattick]

I don't like random heroes. I much prefer heroes whose powers make up a cohesive character. Look at the Wolverine or Spiderman (with no conversions, please). Each of them has a grouping of powers that make up a well rounded hero.

It is far more likely to get powers that don't really go together if you roll randomly. Like Earth Empowerment + any Flight power. Yippee...

The method that I use that I linked to above usually does allow a couple of different possibilities for themed powers... Sometimes I'll let someone change a power to better fit a theme if they have one in mind though, if what they rolled almost fits a cohesive theme if they could just make a couple of tweaks to it. I like randomly rolling (with my method), in that it results in fun and interesting characters that the player would not have considered and helps break them out of the stereotypical type of characters they normally play. It's also refreshing to have a group that is not super-optimally designed.

For instance, a character that I'm currently running was randomly rolled up via my method. He's an alien, but didn't really gain much noteworthy from environmental factors other then a very limited form of nightvision, and being dark blue. He ended up with 1 major power, 2 minor powers, and an APS power that he can only tap into when he's very mad, frustrated, etc.

He ended up with Energy Wings (I decided on electrical) + Conduct Electricity + Personal Forcefield (which I decided is an aura of crackling electricity) + APS: Electricity. That was a result of my random method, with the exception of the Conduct Electricity power - I changed that one power from Increased Durability. I simply did not have a power that I rolled that would fit well with the theme, although Increased Durability was the closest match.

He's a fun character, but probably the least stealthy member of the party. He lights up the sky, crackles with power, and creates ozone whenever he uses any major aspect of his powers - that's not like a normal character that I'd run. I like stealthy characters, but like I said, I've been having fun running him.

[The Artist Formerly]

Twinks, boy I hate twinks. Now, I usually like to choose my superpowers to mesh well and try real hard to build a strong synergy between them for my character, but I think some people take things too far. For example, when I GM I usually give my players the 1 major and 3 minors options to work with. In my current game, I recieved this:

Invulnerability
Superhuman PS (With all the stat buffing physical skills, of course.)
Extraordinary Speed
Extraordinary Physical Prowess


Now, this is a pretty aggravating character to have around. Villain encounters should be a challenging affair (even if only a slight challenge, it should still be a challenge. If the players destroy every villain the meet, game doesnt feel very exciting.) so what do you do to challenge this monster? He hits WAY too hard (And with amazing strike bonuses) for most villains to deal with unless every major villain has an epic SDC pool that doesnt always make any sense. He takes hits like a champ, even the hits that COULD hurt him wont usually connect as his dodge and parry bonuses are very stout (And he has a pretty solid auto-dodge also.)

So everything the team fights has to either hit so hard and have so much SDC that teh rest of the group is almost pointless or they have to employ poisons or some kind of powerful snare to keep the big guy under control (Hard to snare a guy with a near 70 PS also.) he wins my aggravation award.

What builds just absolutely annoy you to see?

Alright, so here we go. One of the helpful things I've found to keep firm grasp on the power level of the game is to set the tone of power during character generation. Say to your players, "I want thug minions with guns to be threatening" if you want a low to mid powered game, or "I want you to be able to swat away bullets like they are flies." if you want a higher powered game. That kind of communication is important. It will help evolve your players from people who want to 'win' to people who want to play by giving them an idea of a base line to build for in their game. That way you don't have one player draw up a spider-man power level character while another is busting out a Dr. Manhattan. This is probably the most important thing. The speed brick player was thinking about 'winning' combat, not role playing. Lots of players suffer from that, it's not really a fault or flaw, it's just something you need to deal with by talking it out with the players during creation phase. Keeps everyone on the same page.

First as the GM, remember you can nix a build like this. Invulnerability is just one short of being at the top of my list of powers I don't allow in general when I run. The #1 power being APS Plasma. These powers have their place in a hero game, but they should be restricted because they are imbalancing. The use of them forces your hand to as you have noticed, bulk up the encounters, limiting the fun for the rest of the PCs. Make up a list of powers you will and will not allow. There will be times when you'll be all about letting those powers out of the bag and letting the players go wild, but there are times where they are just not appropreate for the story you want to tell.

The next thing as a GM you need to concider is that not every villian need use a gun or super power to hammer the PCs. One of the best tools for that kind of villian is politics. Not every elected offical is in it for truth, justice and the American way. Shocking, I know, but it's true in real life and that truth can be reflected in your game world. To this end, concider how the balance of geo-political power works in your game, and how it can be exploited by the villians. This will benefit your skill monkey PCs, and leave the physically powerful character with nothing to swing his mighty fists of justice at. Things get even more interesting if you can place regular, law abiding, hard working not particularly courpt in any significant way police at odds with your PCs through the plot of the villian. The invuln character, sounds like he has a hell of a dodge roll, how good is his 'pull punch' roll? Lex Luthor is stuper man's greatest villian. Yet, other then a few forrays into galacticly bad writing, he doesn't have super powers, and certainly not any thing that would let him stand up to Chunky 'S'.

[AlanGunhouse]

When I am doing a "random" character, I roll the number of powers at random, and then I roll ONE random power (usually a major one, if the character has any) to set the character "Theme". I then select other powers to fit the theme. Let's face it, most characters in comic books are not just a random assortment of abilities. Most of them are fairly coherent in what they can do, that is what I seek to emulate.

And hey, good job Stattick. I think Cobalt is well designed.

[Cybermancer]

I haven't come across a character build in any of my games that has aggravated me.

I even allowed a character with Invulnerability, Teleport, Flight: Wingless, Energy Expulsion: Electricity and Extraordinary P.P.

A very powerful build set over a very good set of rolled stats. If the character had a weakness it was the 'street' level of education they had. They other players didn't object and the character was often overshadowed by the group's psychic when it came to "Most Valuable Character".

Nor did I have much difficulty in challenging the character while leaving out the other characters or overpowering the other characters. Most encounters were with groups of villians with 'tiers' suitable for my players. Or situational challenges.

One thing that can amuse me is when players start with the, "My character could totally spank your character" arguments. It usually ends up as a "What if Batman fought Wolverine?" type of conversation. Thing is, situation and tactics are just as important as any build, no matter how impressive it may seem.

As for players... I had this one guy who played the same character, with the same build and name and everything in every Heroe's game we ran. Then one day, he tried to do something different. He still made up a brick character but it was a different build. But he changed the name, appearance and background! It really was a huge step for him.

Thing is, all the other players kept referring to his new character by his old characters name. The funny thing was, that they didn't even mean to do it! He eventually got fed up and eventually just changed the characters name.

One thing that does aggravate me, in any game is when I set down parameters and a player either tries to ignore them or try to be smart and find a way around them. Such players either make new characters that are within my set parameters or they don't play in my game. It's still frustrating. Had a problem with such a player on an online RP recently. After spending several weeks of back and forth and rejecting reworded ways of doing the same, forbidden things, he was finally rejected.

By the same token, I've walked away from games as a player because I didn't agree with how the GM was doing things. I know some guys in those same games who stuck around just to "mess with him" but that seems unnecessarily aggravating too. Sometimes you just have to accept that playing styles aren't always compatible. That doesn't make them wrong, it just means that it would be wrong to try and play together (unless a compromise can be reached).

For example, there are many GM's who love randomly generated characters. I hate them. I want to carefully craft my character from the ground up. I recognize the long running fascination of rolling attributes as a necessary evil in RPG's (which is why I like how stats are handled in the Shadow Chronicles) but after that, I want to choose my power category. I want to choose my powers. I want to choose everything about my character. Even education level and starting money. And while I'm crafting my build, I'm coming up with an indepth character background as well. When I don't get that level of say in my characters creation, I become frustrated. It's not that I think random character builds are wrong, they're just wrong for me.

I think ultimately that's where a lot of frustration in gaming comes from. When one or more people are in a game that's wrong for them.

Just my two cents on the subject.

[Damian Magecraft]

Invulnerability
Superhuman PS (With all the stat buffing physical skills, of course.)
Extraordinary Speed
Extraordinary Physical Prowess

Create Force Field...
one force bubble over characters head...
equals one uber brick down...

[Cybermancer]

all this just says to me :" Don't let Cybermancer play, he doesn't know how to follow Gm's Directions. "

Where, prey tell, do I say anything about me not following a GM's instructions? I don't think you actually read what was written, Razorjack.

What I said was that players that don't follow my instructions when I GM frustrate me and that when there's a game where I don't agree with the GM's policies, I don't play in that GM's game. Nothing about me not following directions at all.

[Zenvis]

I read it too and thought that there is a personal taste that was not met by the GM. The game is a personal thing. GM's should consult with their players to see what they want in the game. I have had to do it as a GM multiple times. I want to make sure that people had a good time. That's how I have stayed the GM for 20 years.

[Cybermancer]

I read it too and thought that there is a personal taste that was not met by the GM. The game is a personal thing. GM's should consult with their players to see what they want in the game. I have had to do it as a GM multiple times. I want to make sure that people had a good time. That's how I have stayed the GM for 20 years.

Yes, this is what I've was trying to say. The games we play and the preferences for how we play them is a personal thing. Frustration arises when in compatible preferences clash. Communication between GM and players will defuse things 90% of the time. The other 10% of the time the differences are insurmountable and someone has to find a new game to be in. It's not that one set of preferences is superior over the other, only that they can't always co-exist.

It's not always easy to see things this way, especially when one is involved in the situation directly. Nor is it always easy to tell a friend that their style of play isn't suitable for the game being run or even that you don't enjoy how they run their game. There's a lot of emotion wrapped up in our various styles of play and of course in our hearts, we all beleive that how we play is the 'RIGHT' way.

However, it doesn't hurt to come onto a forum like this one and rant about what bothers us.

[Dog_O_War]

Invunerability and APS: Plasma, with extrodinary mental endurance and a "natrually" rolled high I.Q.

Extrodinary PS, Super-Human PS, Supernatural PS, Extrodinary Healing, and a "naturally" rolled high P.P.

Sonic Speed, APS: Sand.

These ones aggrivate me because I need to do two things; I need to come up with a really broken combo myself - just to challenge this one player. I need to find a retardedly hard-to-achieve balance between situations where these types of builds can't just throw down an "I win" button, or simply out-shine the rest of the group. There are other power-combos like these, but these ones sprang to mind.

Also, Magnetism in general is pretty broken; this one power alone is often enough to end most fights without any action.

[NMI]

If I recall, "by the book" (not that it matters to us GM's), but I dont think you are suppose to combine EO PS, SH PS and SN PS.

[Dog_O_War]

If I recall, "by the book" (not that it matters to us GM's), but I dont think you are suppose to combine EO PS, SH PS and SN PS.

Please give me a page-number for that; it would greatly aleaviate my aggrivation with these powers.

[Al Blotto]

Heroes Unlimited G.M.'s Guide, Page 9, first column, last paragraph.

Spoiler:

Note: Only one type of Super-Strength can be possessed by any character. One can not select two or all three and add their bonuses together. Re-roll if more than one Super-Strength turns up when randomly determining super abilities; the G.M. may allow the player to keep the P.S. he prefers and discard/ignore the other.

[Shorty Lickens]

Psionics and Magic.
Even Superman was vulnerable to them. Pretty much all his powers relied on the fact his opponent was following the rules of physics.
You break those and he's no where near as "Super".

[Shorty Lickens]

Not a character build, but a definite type of role-player:

People who seem to be trying to get themselves killed. You know the type. He comes to the gaming session, ready to create his character. "I have a great idea for this one." He rolls all the dice, creates the character, and then gets down to playing. But by the second gaming session (yes, I've even seen it happen by the end of the first gaming session), the player gets a brilliant idea for another character that they HAVE to play. And soon. But they cannot play two characters at once. So what do they do? They go out of their way to put themselves in situations that get them killed (most of the time at the expense of the rest of the party - and thanks for making me have to create a new character when I was just fine with the guy I've been playing for 2 STRAIGHT FREAKING YEARS!) just so they can create a new character. And then the cycle starts again. In 2 weeks you know that the simple altercation that takes place in the laundromat with the petty thief is going to turn into WWIII with the national guard being called in so this guy can die properly.

Makes me ill.

Theres a good way to deal with those kinds of guys and it fits in perfectly with the game system.

Let him.

No really, let him. Set up a deal where he gets to try out a new character on each game night. In the Heroes game world it could be done easily. One superhero runs off to take care of some personal business or maybe just disappear (because thats his way) and the team taps an old resource to get some additional help. Doesnt really matter if the new character is being run by the same player each week.
In fact that may even cure him. He may just get tired of having to swap out after every gaming session and not being able to bond with his PC.

There are a couple of little caveats with this plan and one huge risk, which I will address.
The other players may become jealous or hostile. They may want to do the same thing or they might get irritated having to deal with a new ally each week.
You will have to figure out a way to deal with that in your group.

[KillWatch]

Twinks, boy I hate twinks. Now, I usually like to choose my superpowers to mesh well and try real hard to build a strong synergy between them for my character, but I think some people take things too far. For example, when I GM I usually give my players the 1 major and 3 minors options to work with. In my current game, I recieved this:

Invulnerability
Superhuman PS (With all the stat buffing physical skills, of course.)
Extraordinary Speed
Extraordinary Physical Prowess


Now, this is a pretty aggravating character to have around. Villain encounters should be a challenging affair (even if only a slight challenge, it should still be a challenge. If the players destroy every villain the meet, game doesnt feel very exciting.) so what do you do to challenge this monster? He hits WAY too hard (And with amazing strike bonuses) for most villains to deal with unless every major villain has an epic SDC pool that doesnt always make any sense. He takes hits like a champ, even the hits that COULD hurt him wont usually connect as his dodge and parry bonuses are very stout (And he has a pretty solid auto-dodge also.)

So everything the team fights has to either hit so hard and have so much SDC that teh rest of the group is almost pointless or they have to employ poisons or some kind of powerful snare to keep the big guy under control (Hard to snare a guy with a near 70 PS also.) he wins my aggravation award.

What builds just absolutely annoy you to see?

really? so your games consist of only heroes finding villains, and beating them up? really?
No vulnerable friends, family, loved ones?
No skill based problems?
No simple human but clever serial killers? Sure if they can catch them they are dead, but how many will die before then?
Does evrey villain want to fight?
Doesn't the word get around that when he shows up they are in for a beating? I mean how many villans commit crimes because they want to fight? Why aren't they running away, self preservation? Unless they are evil I don't see the point. Selfis, by definition, want to preserve themselves and would probably run away as soon as he appears or make plans to account for his appearance?

Spell: Carpet of Adhesion, Havoc, Fireball, etc
Psionics: Telekinesis; yes the hulk will tear you up, but as long as he can't reach you or anything that can be used as a weapon, he is nothing
Mutant Animal Psionics: I have recently fell in love again with Mind Trap, How about a sniper who is also a wizard who casts finger of lictalon on a bullet and puts one in his head

why is this hard?

That's why I think it is important to know WHO your villains are and not just WHAT they are. If they are Guts and Glory they might stand and fight. If they are Smart, clever, not combat oriented or eager to get beat up then they won't stick around to fight.

[KillWatch]

Invulnerability
Superhuman PS (With all the stat buffing physical skills, of course.)
Extraordinary Speed
Extraordinary Physical Prowess

Create Force Field...
one force bubble over characters head...
equals one uber brick down...

uh no it doesn't those things aren't air tight. You just give the guy a helmet

[Damian Magecraft]

Invulnerability
Superhuman PS (With all the stat buffing physical skills, of course.)
Extraordinary Speed
Extraordinary Physical Prowess

Create Force Field...
one force bubble over characters head...
equals one uber brick down...

uh no it doesn't those things aren't air tight. You just give the guy a helmet

not to pick nits but the description of the power neither says they are nor does it say they are not.
Additionally it also does not state that wielder can pick and choose one way or the other...this is one of those open to interpretation GM calls. personally I have always played it that the permeability of a FF is up to the character. (we see this all the time in the comics). GL creates a bubble to carry non-fliers into space (if its not air tight how do they breathe?) Sue Richards has stopped a rampaging Hulk in just the fashion I suggested. (again if its not air tight how did that happen?) and she too has done the air bubble thing for underwater travel. both chars have also used permeable versions as well. so the conventions of the genre supports my suggestion. and the lack of evidence for or against my suggestion makes it just as valid as your suggestion that it will not work.

[KillWatch]

which is just completely stupid Hulk has an Endurance of 75 Which means he should be able to kill the FF and then get a bit sleepy

I can definately see APS: Air or CEF: Air making air bubbles but Control Force Field? Please. If they are air tight then the user would go unconscious. And even if sue richards of the Fantastic Lamos does use to go underwater, usually to visit Namor, they would run out of air. It also doesn't provide propulsion so IF that air bubble really IS air tight (and I wouldn't argue against water tight) then they would just FLOAT ON THE SURFACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So PLEASE do NOT use comic book logic. In one issue Hulk can lift a mountain the next Aluminum Man is giving him a run for his money, huh???

[Damian Magecraft]

So PLEASE do NOT use comic book logic. In one issue Hulk can lift a mountain the next Aluminum Man is giving him a run for his money, huh???

do not use comic book logic? when discussing a fantasy game based upon the genre?
yeah after that statement I think I am through discussing anything with you in this forum...

[KillWatch]

comic books don't follow rules. The cahracter's powers vary from issue to issue and writer to writeter. Is Nick Fury a black guy or a white guy? Is superman dead or not? Why doesn't anyone in the marvel universe remember bumping into those from Malibu?

Gaming largely does try to follow rules of logic. For example, just because almost every action movie from the eighties doesn't require reload, the game books do still include number of rounds in a clip.

If you really really want completely vague rules for powers and abilities try MSH or DCU, Blood of Heroes, etc. I like palladium because it is pretty well defined.

[NMI]

So PLEASE do NOT use comic book logic. In one issue Hulk can lift a mountain the next Aluminum Man is giving him a run for his money, huh???

do not use comic book logic? when discussing a fantasy game based upon the genre?
yeah after that statement I think I am through discussing anything with you in this forum...

Play nice!

[Overlord Rikonius]

comic books don't follow rules. The cahracter's powers vary from issue to issue and writer to writeter. Is Nick Fury a black guy or a white guy?

Depends in which universe you're in, as White Nick Fury and black Nick Fury are two different dudes from different realities.

Is superman dead or not?

Not, because the solar energy Cadmus pumped into him supercharged his cells' healing factor. And he wasn't totally dead, just very near death. Just like any other poor sap who got buried alive.

Why doesn't anyone in the marvel universe remember bumping into those from Malibu?

That's one of my biggest pet peeves with comics continuity. A company has rights to a character, then loses them and suddenly it's like a bunch of stuff never happened. Or two companies have characters meet and it's just a "well, I drove to Metropolis and got into a fight with some of Superman's enemies" type thing.
What ticks me off more is when they still have the rights but just stop having them linked. Like Transformers #3, which had Spidey. And 1 or 2 had Nick Fury. Then these guys never show up again. You don't see Marvel's heroes in TF anymore. Really, if there are giant robots duking it out by a city, military base or industrial facility, don't you think they'd call in the Avengers? Or the FF? And wouldn't Dr. Doom be trying to steal them and rework them under his control? It doesn't make sense for them to be insulated like that if they exist on Marvel Earth.

Gaming largely does try to follow rules of logic. For example, just because almost every action movie from the eighties doesn't require reload, the game books do still include number of rounds in a clip.

If you really really want completely vague rules for powers and abilities try MSH or DCU, Blood of Heroes, etc. I like palladium because it is pretty well defined.

One of the problems with Palladium though is those defined rules are often the same for every person with that power. Which makes sense for simple powers, but not the complex ones with multiple facets. Why does every CEF: Air guy know the exact same tricks, at the exact same progression of effectiveness as every other CEF: Air guy? Surely, if superheroes were real, there could be one CEF Air guy who's better at directed wind rush attacks and another who is better at area effect sandstorm type stuff. Whether a force field is airtight or not fits into this area. IMNSHO, it should be something rolled for or chosen on character creation.

[KillWatch]

why obviouisly? Let me guess no one wanted to play a mage with carpet of adhesion?, someone with mental stun? Sleep?

Comics provide 0 reliable continuity for reality. They are fun to read, but I wouldn't base anything in game off of them other than the types of powers they would have.

[CCollison]

Twinks, boy I hate twinks. Now, I usually like to choose my superpowers to mesh well and try real hard to build a strong synergy between them for my character, but I think some people take things too far. For example, when I GM I usually give my players the 1 major and 3 minors options to work with. In my current game, I recieved this:

Invulnerability
Superhuman PS (With all the stat buffing physical skills, of course.)
Extraordinary Speed
Extraordinary Physical Prowess


Now, this is a pretty aggravating character to have around. Villain encounters should be a challenging affair (even if only a slight challenge, it should still be a challenge. If the players destroy every villain the meet, game doesnt feel very exciting.) so what do you do to challenge this monster? He hits WAY too hard (And with amazing strike bonuses) for most villains to deal with unless every major villain has an epic SDC pool that doesnt always make any sense. He takes hits like a champ, even the hits that COULD hurt him wont usually connect as his dodge and parry bonuses are very stout (And he has a pretty solid auto-dodge also.)

So everything the team fights has to either hit so hard and have so much SDC that teh rest of the group is almost pointless or they have to employ poisons or some kind of powerful snare to keep the big guy under control (Hard to snare a guy with a near 70 PS also.) he wins my aggravation award.

What builds just absolutely annoy you to see?

I have him fight a villain that has Impact resistance, adhesion, and stretching. His punches are now doing about 1/4 of his damage; the guy adheres to himself and makes a nice little "air tight" hood for the upper torso of the Invulnerable, strong, dexterous suffocating hero.

[csyphrett]

In the few years I have been gming Heroes Unlimited games, the only thing I have seen and actually said no to was a character with a half demon/half angel appearance like two face.

Other characters I have had have technically broken rules but I allowed it after letting the player know what's up.

In fact, one game I had was nothing but flying bricks (3) and they used to have problems all the time.
CES

[csyphrett]

the half Angel Half Demon is an RCC in Palladium Fantasy and Reprinted in Rifts Conversion Book 1: one of those in Heroes unlimited Setting is not all that powerful and rather fustrating in a long campaign due to how often they Re-level up and down.

So they have an RCC where the right side is an angel and the left side is a devil? I missed that one.
CES

[csyphrett]

the half Angel Half Demon is an RCC in Palladium Fantasy and Reprinted in Rifts Conversion Book 1: one of those in Heroes unlimited Setting is not all that powerful and rather fustrating in a long campaign due to how often they Re-level up and down.

So they have an RCC where the right side is an angel and the left side is a devil? I missed that one.
CES

Yes the Angel Demon serpent, Pg 130 of CB revised, and it appears in Library of Bletherad or Hinterlands book.

It's basically a minor MDC creature with PE based PPE and All Fire water Magic lvl 1-5, and a weird thing where they go up in levels randomly

ANgel Demon Serpent. Never heard of it and it's not anything remotely like what he wanted to do.
CES

[The Dark Elf]

any annoying spec = a villian with mimic and negate super powers

[csyphrett]

any annoying spec = a villian with mimic and negate super powers

So they fight the heroes with their own powers, or negate them for henchmen to round up?
CES

[CCollison]

any annoying spec = a villian with mimic and negate super powers

If you use Negate Super Powers....pretty lame power in my mind to be range. Do something like touch required (Rogue style) were you are leeching the power from them and a durration for them to recover after you shock their system.

When GM's "need" a specific power to defeat a foe, they need to close the book and start playing to get creative again.

[KillWatch]

I have problems with powers because they are lame like 60-95% of the PUs+Elasticity, mainly because they are lame or double or even triple redundant. But Powers are just like skills. You have to use them right or have the right ones and not every one is going to be a cure all so I don't mind who has what

[Blight]

If I recall, "by the book" (not that it matters to us GM's), but I dont think you are suppose to combine EO PS, SH PS and SN PS.

Please give me a page-number for that; it would greatly aleaviate my aggrivation with these powers.

They break that rule in scrapers. A lot. I mean like 3 or 4 of the hero stack enhanced PS powers. So in our game if the writers get to do it so do the players. (By the way the writers have also stacked movment powers, The mutant Runaway with sonic speed twice. There is also a villain with APS fire and ice and uses both at the same time.) So quite a few rule don't really stick.