Thevshi

Velocity (9) One Month Mission (5) Favored Son (2) Race to the Death (1) Brave Enough to Burn (1) Tsunami (5) Shark Week: Terror Beneath (1) What the Kraken Released (1) Selfie Shtick (1) Thicker Than Water (2) Synapse (3) The Secret Garden (3) Paradigm (7) Praetorians: The Deadly Dozen (3) A Multitude of Problems (1) The Red Planet (2) Thicker Than Water (1) GM (40) Praetorians: The Deadly Dozen (8) Praetorians: Sovereign Right (4) An Easy Mark (3) The Red Planet (2) Favored Son (6) Praetorians: Zealots (2) The Family Business (6) Pest Control (2) Climate Justice (3) Revanche: Prologue (4) (As noted last month, I am trying to "bank" enough PP for Tsunami to buy off the PL 7 to PL 10 bump I bought with a veteran award when I first made her. Thus I need to keep track of PP earned for her for a little bit longer, without the normal rollover that would happen. So provide enough GM/Velocity rollover posts to Tsunami to put her at 50 posts, give her my Ref Point as well. The remaining GM/rollover posts will be split between Synapse and Paradigm to give each 25 posts)

APPROVED

"Well, the things we sometimes sacrifice in the line of duty." Giang stated in reply to Blode's comment about missing some of the great desserts as she stood up and started toward the door. The Asian young woman thought a brief moment as the two made their way outside about whether to take the rental car or not. "I suppose we can." She finally said. "But traffic can be a mess, so we should be ready to pull off somewhere and get there another way if needed." She then added as she climbed into the passenger seat.

Ouch, so two bruises. Moon-Moth is up Ex!

With Temperance managing to knock Captain Kraken off balance, Giang kept her attention focused on the Dakuwanga. The creature was certainly proving to be very resilient, but the Asian teen had managed to stagger it with her last attack. Taking another step forward, she thrust her hands forward once more, sending another blast of twisting jets of water flying toward the bioweapon. Through sheer force of will, Giang guided the attack to strike the Dakuwanga dead center once more, knocking it back into the wall one more time as it then dropped to the ground unconscious. The teen then turned slightly, swinging one hand around to send another blast of water at Captain Kraken, catching the alien pirate off guard. The blast knocked him off his feet as well and into a crumpled, unconscious heap on the opposite side of the chamber. Taking a brief moment to catch her breath, Giang then looked upward toward where Kraken's vessel had been attacking the area they were in with its weapons. "Now we just have to silence those guns." She stated to her two friends.

"Seen it all? No, I would not quite say that I have seen everything there possibly is to see yet." Velocity replied with a smile. "Certainly I have seen my share of unusual things, but nothing like this." "As for whether you are wasting your time...I don't think you are. The mission here is to learn what we can about the Infraverse and the Lifeglow. The only way to do that is by examining what we come across. While some of it may not teach us anything new, ignoring possible areas if inquiry could miss something that could. So, better to try and fail than not try at all."

So, Tsunami's is trying to bring in enough water that she can form a barrier between the two crew and the sharkman (with create object). Let me know what you want me to roll.

Tsunami kept her gaze focused on the sharkman as she listened to him, holding her arms down to her side, her hands open and palms away from the creature. But while she was focused on the Samebito, she was also reaching out with her powers to the ocean surrounding them, pulling water up the sides of the ship and down the passage to where they were, running along the ground in a thin layer. <"Making an example out of those aboard this vessel will hardly be the deterrent you wish to achieve."> She replied in Japanese, hoping to keep the sharkman's attention on her. <"It will only serve to increase hostility with those of us from the surface. There are other ways to achieve your goals which will not result in open conflict.">

GM Even as Queenie repaired the earlier damage done to her force construct, the creature inside seemed to hunker down a moment before throwing itself at the glowing walls. This time it brought to bear all of its considerable strength, and the glowing pot shattered under the impact, freeing the creature. But the Praetorians present were already moving into action, as Seresk moved forward, his long club tipped tail swinging around to slam into the side of the creatures head with tremendous force. However, despite the powerful blow, the creature withstood the attack with seemingly little ill effect. Paradigm flew up toward it, swinging a fist at it, but the creature ducked its head under at the last minute as she flew past. Magentar flew up alongside, sending a powerful magnetic blast into the creature's side, but once again it simply withstood the attack, letting out an annoyed roar as it faced the gathered heroes.

Okay, the creature will use the full round action to break out of the force construct. With its added superstrength, that is over a DC 30 toughness save, which the construct is assumed to roll a 5 on (for a 15), so it shatters. Seresk will then step up to attack, 18, which just hits. But the creature just makes its toughness save with a 27. Paradigm will then fly up to attack, missing with a 12. Then Magnetar will attack, hitting with a 20. The creature easily shakes it off with a 32 on its toughness save. Round Three 21 Queenie (unharmed, 1 HP) 17 Creature (unharmed) 13 Seresk (unharmed) 9 Paradigm (unharmed, 3 HP) 6 Magnetar (unharmed) Back to Queenie.

GM On the surface of Dreeda III Rux once again leapt from a rift in space near Seresk, her plasma sword once again slashing through the air. As with the first time, the attack slashed across the large Praetorian's torso, but once again, his armored hide withstood the attack as he gave a slight grunt. Before Seresk could react, Rux was once again gone through a second rift, taking her back to the nearby rooftop. Sersek took a few moments to study the battle around him, before focusing his gaze back on where Rux had ended up. As Kharag rolled back up to his feet, Sullek rushed toward him, swinging his sword at the Praetorian. But Kharag had been ready for just such a follow up attack and was already leaping a bit further from the cyborg criminal so the blade passed harmless between the two. The Praetorian then moved back in to try to launch a counter attack, but Sullek was able to sidestep past. "Are you too afraid to face me alone!" Kharag called out tauntingly as the two turned to face one another once more. Sai'x sent another sonic blast at Dragonid, this one hitting the Praetorian. However Dragonid's natural durability was able to withstand the powerful blast, as the Praetorian continued to hover in the air. Nearby, Amikai lifted up into the air and moved back near Sai'x. As he went, the criminal sent a blast of electricity down toward Paradigm, but it missed the paragon and blasted a chunk out of the ground near her.

Okay, as space and things on the ground are still somewhat separate, I will move forward with stuff on the ground. (note: I failed to look at Huhunu, he has enough speed he was able to get all the way into the spaceship in a round). Rux is going to port over to attack Seresk again, then port back to where she started from, getting a 21, which is a hit. Seresk easily makes the toughness save with a 34. Sullek will attack Kharag, missing again with a 14. Seresk is going to take the turn to refocus, boosting his Initiative up to 21. Sai'x will blast at Dragonid once more, hitting with a 25. Dragonid gets a 29 on his toughness save, so is fine. Amikai will fly back up into the air, attacking Paradigm with a lighting blast as he goes, missing with a 9. Kharag attacks Sullek, just missing with a 19. Corona is up Rav!

Okay, Tsunami will surge to attack Kraken, getting a 23 on the attack roll. Spending a second hero point to take care of the fatigue.

I will say you can catch eight of the droids in the attack, they all miss the Reflex save, so take full damage. They all also miss their toughness saves, so are taken out!

I do a lot of what duft mentions to one degree or another, it is certainly good advice. One initial thing I would suggest is that for your first thread or two, perhaps limit it to no more than 2 PCs, that way you can get the hang of running combat and those rules and see how your planning of encounters worked (or did not work). As durf said about not being afraid to give out Hero Points, remember that includes GM fiat, such as you rerolling for the villains. I do not think I have ever given a villain a reroll on an attack roll, but I have rather often on toughness saves, particularly really, really bad ones very early in a fight. I also regularly use GM fiat to shake off a daze result on a villain if I let them take a bruised and dazed result from a toughness save. One thing I tend to do in regard to my villains (and sometimes henchmen) is shift them more toward toughness than defense, which often allows them be able to take some hits and keep going a bit longer in a fight than if they were balanced (or shifted more towards defense). As duft stated, if you can figure out ways to handicap the heroes, it can make a thread more interesting or allow even lower powered henchmen provide more of a challenge than they might otherwise be. One particular example of a thread I ran, I had some mercenary henchmen (PL 5 minons) attacking the Freedom City aquarium while to PL 10 heroes (Claremont students) were there. Normally, those two heroes could have plowed through the bad guys with ease and caught up with the main villain quickly. But, because of the situation, one of them (a teleporter) had to open a portal out of the building for some bystanders (school kids) to escape through, while the other (a water controller) had to use her Create Object power in her array to stop the giant water tank in the center of the building from rupturing and flooding everything. This prevented them both from using their main power arrays for several rounds, which slowed them down and slowed down (slightly) how quickly they dealt with the minions. I often use minion henchmen (when appropriate) to provide small speed bumps for the PCs. As durf said, how you use them will depend on who/what they are. For street gang members (or just general thugs), they might be low PL and not use much teamwork. Other minions can easily have feats/abilities that allow them to use teamwork more effectively. (One thread I once ran had the PCs fighting a mob of martial arts minions and two main bad guys that were about their PL, the minions attacked in pairs, one using aid other (with the Teamwork feat) to give the second a bonus to hit, they had move-by action so they could attack and then move a little distance away, so they could stay spaced out so Takedown Attack was ineffective against them). One thing I have done (and am doing a bit more in space based threads) is to create a mix of minion/lower PL opponents in fights. For example, if I have some mobsters, most will be PL 3-4 minions and I will include a enhanced bruiser (say PL 7-8 heroic thug that is a Power-House enhanced thug). For a lot of the space pirates I have had in some space threads, I use a group of PL 5 minions, a PL 7 heroic team leader and a PL 8 (tough/damage shifted) bruiser alien.

TT, for the benefit of keeping things moving, I will say that you can smash through the plexiglass. Vahn, as Mater is off in the engine room, you can go ahead with your action.

I had forgotten I had that many HP. Tsunami will blast at the Dakuwanga again, missing with a 15, so she will spend a HP to reroll: 29! So a hit, DC 26 toughness save. Want to wait to see what happens next, as she will surge for another attack, who on depends....

Velocity relaxed slightly as Tristan agreed to not roam off on his own and instead turned to considering the changes that had taken place in the clearing since last the Atoms had visited the planet. The speedster glanced around the area herself (a gesture she did not actually have to make to see the area around them, but something that was still a habit). "Well, I am afraid the answers to those questions are probably a bit beyond my expertise." She commented. "But I would expect that you and the others should be able to gather some data that would at least let you come up with some likely reasons."

The alien flinched slightly as Bliss yanked its discarded weapon away, but otherwise remained still with its arms raised up. There were a few moments hesitation when Bliss asked her question, but whatever thoughts it had of refusing to answer appeared settled by Ruby's comment. "Standard procedure during an invasion, all inbound or outbound space traffic is to be contained." The creature stated in accented GalStandard. "You may have dealt with or otherwise eluded our flight, but there will be others coming to investigate, including ground troops to look for survivors."

Surface of Galor III, Yollon City Despite being hit hard by one of the pirate interceptors, Shell quickly recovered, swinging her suit's weapon arm around to try to track the interceptor that had attacked her. However, the plasma blast shot well behind the fast moving vehicle, as the interceptor made a wide turn to come back around for another run. Once again a flurry of energy blasts ripped up parts of the ground, with Shell caught once again in the middle of the barrage. The Zultasian took a few steps back as she grunted in pain from attack, but otherwise remained on her feet and in the fight. The other interceptor again tried to target Moon-moth, but the Praetorian was able to avoid the barrage of blaster fire, as the spacecraft streaked by him. In orbit above Galor III The two interceptors that had emerged from the larger pirate vessel headed directly toward Cavalier, both opening fire on the Star Knight. Both pilots found their mark, as a barrage of blaster fire struck Cavalier...

Round Six 28 Shell (bruised) 20 Pirate Pilots (2 interceptors down on planet, 2 in space) 20 Moon-Moth (unharmed, 3 HP) 12 Pirate gunners 7 Mater Vyrdna (unharmed, 1 HP) 5 Cavalier (unharmed, 3 HP) Shell will continue trying to blast one of the interceptors, missing with an 11. So, the pirate interceptors will attack again, one after Shell, one after Moon-Moth: 22 and 14, so Shell is hit again. Toughness save is: 24, so another bruise. The two interceptors in space will attack Cav: 21 and 26, so 2 hits! DC 25 toughness saves for Cav. Moon-Moth is up Ex!

For those on the ground, here is the current map. (numbers are: 2: Varlis; 4: Sullek; 5: Amikai; 6: Sai'x; 7: Rux)

GM Aboard the Sar-lan "Be safe Mater Vyrdna." Magnetar managed to say before the other Praetorian teleported away. The magnetic controlling Praetorian then flew deeper into the prison ship, passing several of the sentry robots that were trying to blast their way out of the Sar-lan. After a few moments, he reached the mess hall where Cavalier and Moon-Moth were currently trying to get to the trapped Lor. "Mater has headed down to the engine room to try to keep the sentries from overloading the core. But there are still dozens of them scattered around trying to breech the hull." On the surface of Dreeda III Varlis raced back around the edge of the landing area, passing by Amikai and Paradigm as he closed with here Kharag was fighting Sullek. As the reptilian criminal approached the pair, he slowed down ever so slowly, aiming his blaster at Kharag and unleashing a barrage of energy blasts at the Praetorian. But once again Kharag's reflexes were more than up to the challenge, as he dove to one side, rolling under the hail of blasts as Varlis streaked away. The criminal looped around the edge of the landing area toward the opposite corner, well away from any of the Praetorians he could see. At Paradigm's shouted order, Huhunu, lowered his/her rifle and stood back up as he/she started toward the ramp to the Devotion.

Magnetar moves through the ship to join Cav and Moon-Moth. Dragonid will attack Sai'x once more, missing with an 11. Round Six 33 Varlis (unharmed) 27 Huhunu (Unharmed) 22 Cavalier (Unharmed, 3 HP) 21 Mater Vyrdna (Unharmed, 1HP) 21 Moon-Moth (Unharmed, 1 HP) 20 Rux (unharmed) 19 Sullek (bruised) 19 Seresk (unharmed) 18 Sai'x (unharmed) 18 Amikai (bruised) 15 Kharag (unharmed) 15 Adiri (unharmed) (1,000' in air, 3 more rnds up, 2 rnds falling) 15 Sentry Robots 14 Corona (Unharmed, 2 HP) 13 Paradigm (bruised, 2 HP) 8 Traveller (Unharmed, 1 HP) 7 Magnetar (Unharmed) 4 Dragonid (Unharmed) Varlis moves to attack Kharag, but misses with a 14, then moves away again. Huhunu will start to move toward the ramp to the Devotion. Cav is up TT!

Well, no rolls are needed, so you can go ahead with a post.