Dr Archeville

And the Mutant thing?

Round 2 Recap [*:u4sagzz7]Fox tried to Mind Control Scarab II, and failed utterly. [*:u4sagzz7]Avenger slams Vulture into the ground. Save fails by 12. GM Fiat (Avenger gains an HP); re-roll only fails by 2. 'Tis but a flesh wound! [*:u4sagzz7]Scarab telekinetically squeezes Fox's ball (using Extra Effort for a new stunt, and burning an HP to nix th fatigue). It is "injured," and is at -1 Toughness. [*:u4sagzz7]Slamdance runs back out of the fray. [*:u4sagzz7]The Hellwasp swarm descends upon Scarab. I need a DC 16 Fort save. Also, while they're around her, she's in a Partial Obscure Visual & Auditory effect (I did not mention this for Avenger since it wouldn't affect what he does with his grappled foe, and I was fairly certain he'd be sticking with his grappled foe.) [*:u4sagzz7]Shark has two Shark-Mooks attack Avenger. Upside, Avenger gets an HP (b/c I had to 'cheat' to have him surge). Bad news, he needs to make two DC 23 Will saves. (I'd told Slamdance the wrong DC when I had him make a Wil save earlier. :? ) [*:u4sagzz7]Vulture tries again to wriggle out of Avenger's grasp. (Assuming he's not stunned or worse by Shark Attacks.) Again, it looks bleak for the lil' psycho. Begin Round 3 Initiatives - Character - Condition - HPs 23+ - Fox - Undamaged 23- - Avenger - Undamaged (need two DC 23 Will saves) - 3 HP 18 - Scarab - Bruise x1 (need a DC 16 Fort save) - 1 HP 17 - Slamdance - Scampering Away - 1 HP 16 - Hellwasps - Undamaged 15 - Shark (and 10 Sub-Sharks) - Bruise x1 7 - Vulture - Bruise x1, still grappled Fox, unimpressed by Scarab's attempt to destroy his (surprisingly well-made) device, but apparently satisfied with her being in a swarm of hellwasps, turns his attention to Avenger. He got a 16 on the Mind Control roll, but I'm fiating (so Avenger gets one more HP, bringing him to 3 now) to re-roll, for a 20. Move action to issue command (as he's assuming it works on him).

"Ooof!," Vulture gasps as Vulture slams him to the ground... but then he starts to laugh, and it's very apparent he's not that badly hurt. Scarab concentrates her telekinetic might on Fox's ball... and it becomes slightly dented. She also shouts something about illusions. Slamdance bolts; the three Shark-Men around him appear not to have expected that maneuver. The great swarm of hell-wasps descend upon Scarab. Initially confident that her force field would hold them off, Scarab is more than a bit dismayed to see them -- and there are a lot of them, and they are quite loud -- chew through her force field with their tiny glowing maws, then plunge their stingers into her! While it is noticeably discomforting, she doesn't feel any real effect from whatever it is they're umping into her. At least, not yet. Shark looks to Avenger and Scarab (Slamdance being temporarily too far out of sight). "Illusions? Ha! Reality itself is mine to shape and mold!" he shouts. As he does, two of the three Shark-Men surrounding Avenger dive upon him and begin to bite and claw. "Feed, my pretties, feed!" (Scarab's senses are still telling her that the sharks are a mental effect. The hellwasps aren't.) "Let... me... go!" Vulture squawks, still trying to wriggle out of Avenger's grasp (and still failing utterly). Fox looks down at his dented device, then up to Scarab, "hey, sweetness, if you wanted to grab my ball, all you had to do was... hey, you!!" He turned to Avenger, and another double-pulse of energy came off the device and struck Avenger. "Let him go, and tell me who and what you people are!"

Yes, you can ready an action to either A) attack anyone who comes in fist-to-face range (and still be able to leap) ~or~ attack anyone who gets in range of his cannon, but then the cannon switches back to shootin' mode, so you'll need to use extra effort to gain the leaping trick again. Which will it be?

Victoria Archeville had Geckolass take her in the Pitchoo to her home in Hanover. Along the way she asked many questions about the airship: what sort of propulsion system and fuel it used, what it was made of, about all its features, and several other questions a super-gadgeteer would be expected to ask about a piece of tech she was just now getting a close look at. Very soon they were in Hanover, in amongst a block of plain and unassuming (though very modern) housing units, the type which had sprung up all over Hanover over the past few years. Archeville pointed Gecko towards one house in particular, which looked much like any other perfectly normal house. "Here ve are," she said as she took out her Eletromagnetic Lipstick, "just give me a moment to open von of de skylights for you."

We're still waiting on you! (No, we're not!) Yes, we are!

Which sorta backs up my point: SoE's and VA's don't go where Verbena and Choirsters go, and vice versa. I mean, yeah, strictly by the rules, they probably could do so, but all the fluff says they don't/won't/can't. "He's a kid" doesn't really work since he's also a super-genius and has done more adventures than most regular kids ever dream of doing. First one wouldn't seem to work, since he's never shown a hint of Empowerment before. He's done Artificing/Inventing, yes, but this is a big step up.

That... still doesn't answer the question. Especially in light of the "magical style" discussions we've been having in the Ref Forum (where we're trying to not have Magic go by Joe Quesada's "Magic = Anything, with No Explanation" rule). And just because that's how his people see it doesn't mean that's how it actually is. Book of Magic says that in the default FCU, Science and Magic are two different ways of viewing/understanding the same thing, Reality. Like how a cake can be enjoyed visually or olfactorily -- sight can tell you some things about a cake, and taste can tell you others, but they don't tell you the exact same things, and one can tell you things the other cannot. Quark's people may have some sort of synesthesia going on, and may be able to see some things that a pure-tech guy can't and some things a pure-magic guy can't, but there should also be some things a pure-magic guy can see/do that Quark's Kin can't, and some things a pure-tech guy can do that Quark's Kin can't. And that's the main place where descriptors come in. (Plus, I really don't like the idea of a Secret Race that's The Best at All Forms of Science and The Best at All Forms of Magic, And Has Done Nothing With Their Skills To Influence History or Humanity. It smacks way to much of "Star Trek-style God-Like Alien" for my comfort.) That aside, another issue: why does he have absolutely no base Attack or Defense bonus? If he's been out adventuring, he can't not have picked up some basics of combat. Stripped of his gear, a basic thug with a gun is a severe challenge for him. Why is he that abysmally unskilled in self-defense? Also, how are you going to transition from Current Quark to PL 10 Quark?

You still haven't answered (or even acknowledged) some of my questions: [*:20umebau]So just to be clear, Hephaestus is an Earth-like world with human-ish inhabitants, who have Mutants like on Earth. But there, the Mutants grouped together and started a war against the non-Mutant Hephaestans? Why did they rise up and start this war? Had they been treated poorly (like Marvel's Mutants)? If so, what will the Lieutenant do when he sees that Mutants aren't treated with any special disdain on FC Earth? [*:20umebau]That's a fairly high Dex and a really high Int for an Air Force graduate, even for one who graduated with flying colors. Are all Hephaestans naturally agile super-geniuses? [*:20umebau]You have no ranks in the language skill, yet you describe him as having picked up English. If he still remembers his native Hephaestan tongue, you need a rank in the language skill. [*:20umebau]If his Hide in Plain Sight feat is from something in his suit, then why isn't that part of the Device? [*:20umebau]The Inventor feat isn't needed if all he's using his Knowledge & Craft checks for is to maintain his gear. Inventor would be needed if, say, he wanted to use his gear (and perhaps parts from Terran gear) to create something entirely different. Also, a minor formatting thing, this: Should look more like this:

I PMed Maze to see if s/he'd be coming back. Several folks seem to recently gone quiet, which I attribute to the time of year (end of semester for some, final exams and whatnot). Hurm... I PMed several absentees, but Maze somehow got skipped. That's been fixed, and s/he's now been PMed. So, yeah, I say we give it a few more days. Say, until Sunday (May 3rd).

The one other thing that makes my Ref-Sense tingle is his Super-Movement (Dimensional 3). Should Quark be able to make Escalators to Heaven or a Subway Train to Hell or a Longboat to Valhalla or a Chariot to Heliopolis (much less put those in his handheld device)? Or should he be limited to a handful of technomage-y dimensions (a Limbo/Phantom Zone for storing stuff, some energy-filled or elemental dimensions, and a 'transitive' plane that can lead to others which he cannot directly get to)?

Can you go into some more detail on this?

Are you ready to start this?

Well, the Timeline inflicts some limits: you can't have wacky adventures in Place A at Time X while simultaneously having wacky adventures in Place B at Time X. Did you have anything in particular in mind?

Dude... you've got 65 posts in this thread so far for April. I'm pretty sure you're going to get into the Top 5 Posters of the Month ;)

What are you trying to model here? And are you aware that without Ranged, your Radius sense extends out as far as your sense of touch? Also, what sense type is it? For consistency, that should be written as Accurate Radius Detect Homo Sapiens Sapiens [4]

Ecal's up next, but I think he got eated up by the beginning of a new school year. (Scottish freak, starting a new school year when decent Americans are wrapping theirs up.... ) Since this is fairly important, though, I'll ask: how do you want it to go? Do you want Captain K captured, or to (barely) escape? Each has its own pros and cons.

You can either edit your last post (i.e., this round's actions), or wait until your next turn.

I'm awaiting a response from a PM I sent Shaen.

Shaen's been swamped, I've had a death in the family.

Re: the Season 3/Chapter 4 Finale. .... hunh.

Dead Head (PL 14/240pp) Trade-Offs: +2 Attack for -2 Damage Abilities: [12+10-10+4+6+8 = 30pp] Str 22/+6 Dex 20/+5 Con --- Int 14/+2 Wis 16/+3 Cha 18/+4 Combat: [16 on Attack, 24 on Defense = 40pp] Attack +8 (ranged), +12 (melee), +16 (shovel) Grapple +18 Damage +6 (unarmed), +8 (shovel); +4 more w/ sneak attack Defense +14 (+6 flat-footed) Knockback -12 (-7 vs. blessed, magical or silver attacks) Initiative +5 Saves: [0+4+6 = 10pp] Toughness +14 (Impervious 10 [not vs. blessed, magic or silver]) Fort --- Ref +9 (+5 Dex, +4) Will +9 (+3 Wis, +6) Skills: [68 ranks = 17pp] Bluff 12 (+16) Intimidate 12 (+16) Knowledge (arcane lore) 2 (+4) Knowledge (life sciences) 4 (+6) Knowledge (popular culture) 8 (+10) Knowledge (theology & philosophy) 2 (+4) Perform (dance) 4 (+8) Perform (oratory) 12 (+16) Sense Motive 4 (+7) Stealth 8 (+13) Feats: [16 feats] Attack Focus (melee) 4 Attack Specialization (Shovel) 2 Dodge Focus 2 Equipment Fearless Jack of All Trades Sneak Attack x3 Startle Taunt Powers: [9+9+3+2+31+5+3+12+14+35+3+3 = 129pp] Anatomic Separation 3 (Extra: Variable Split) [3x3 = 9pp] Animate Objects 1 (Extras: Horde, Range 2/Perception; Flaws: Action/Full, Limited to corpses [creates basic skeletons or zombies]; PFs: Progression 5/up to 50 zombies) [1x3 +5 = 8pp] Comprehend 1 (spirits; PF: 1 Alternate Power) [1x2 +1 = 3pp] AP: Super-Senses 8 (postcognition, precognition; Flaws: Distracting, Requires corpse) Enhanced Feats 2 (Affects Insubstantial 2) [2pp] Immunity 32 (critical hits, Fortitude effects; Flaw: immunity to critical hits ineffective vs. blessed, magical, or silver attacks) [30x1 + 2x0.5 = 31pp] Impervious Toughness 10 (Flaw: Not vs. blessed, magical, or silver attacks) [10x0.5 = 5pp] Insubstantial 1 (disturbingly limber; Flaw: Action 2/Standard) [1x3 = 3pp] Necromantic Powers 4 (8 pp powers; PFs: 4 alternate Powers) [4x2 +4 = 12pp] BE: Healing 10 (Extra: Resurrection [10 hours]; Flaws: Distracting, Resurrection only, Unreliable [sometimes they come back wrong]; PFs: Progression 3/hours) [10x0.5 +3 = 8pp] AP: Comprehend 5 (animals 2 [speak & understand], languages 3 [speak any one at a time, understand all, read any]; Flaw: animal communication only works w/ carrion-eating animals) AP: Enhanced Anatomic Separation 2 (Extra: Variable; brings total Anatomic Separation up to 5) plus Elongation 1 (5 feet) plus ? AP: Enhanced Feats 8 (Frightful Presence 8 [40 feet, DC 18]) AP: Teleport 8 (800 feet/2,000 miles; Flaw: Medium/shadows) Protection 14 [14x1 = 14pp] Regeneration 28 (recovery +14 [+9 total], bruised 1/round, injured 2/5 minutes, staggered 2/5 minutes, disabled 4/5 minutes, resurrection 5/20 minutes; Extra: True Resurrection; Power Feats: Persistent, Regrowth) [28x1 +5 +2 = 35pp] Regeneration 6 (injured 2 [to 4/1 round], staggered 2 [to 4/1 round], disabled 2 [to 6/1 round]; Flaw: Source/raw meat) [6x0.5 = 3pp] Super-Senses 3 (darkvision, mental awareness) [3x1 = 3pp] Drawbacks: [1+3 = 4pp] Disability (Destitute [Wealth +0]; -1pp) Vulnerable (to Mental Blast, x2 DC modifier; uncommon, major, -3pp) DC Block Unarmed -- DC 31/Toughness (35 sneak) -- Damage Shovel -- DC 33/Toughness (37 sneak) -- Damage Abilities 30 + Combat 40 + Saves 10 + Skills 17 (68 ranks) + Feats 16 + Powers 129 - Drawbacks 4 = 238/240pp (2 left!) :arrow: Dead Head was the first character I made for a PbP RPG. The campaign never actually started (the GM was suddenly recalled for military duty), but I have used variants of the character in a few other games (including a far-future semi-Space Opera game). :arrow: Higher Dexterity: he's more loosey-goosey. Higher mental scores: he's been learning a lot. :arrow: Perform (Dance), because no one should be able to do the Thriller dance better than him. Perform (Oratory) and more Knowledge (Popular Culture), because he's got a lot of stories to tell, and he'll gladly share them, Crypt Keeper-style. (Can use an HP to gain Fascinate feat if desired.) Much more Bluff (and Taunt), because he's just as likely to Spider-Taunt you as he is to tear the skin off his forearm and show you dem bones. :arrow: Yes, he still has his shovel. Yes, he can still use it without worry of breaking: metal weapons have a Toughness of 7 or 8, and as long as his Str bonus doesn't exceed that, he can use it just fine. :arrow: Gained Jack of All Trades: by now he's talked to such a diverse array of folks that he knows a little bit about pretty much everything. :arrow: His Skeleton/Zombie animation has noticeably improved: not only can he have more active at once, he can animate any corpse he can see, and can animate more than one at a time. They're still mostly just shells, though. :arrow: The Enhanced Feats/Affects Insubstantial 2 is to let him directly strike or grapple with insubstantial beings, like ghosts, or even non-supernatural insubstantial beings. He's not grabbing your body so much as he's grabbing your soul. (Not sure if that'd also extend to his shovel, much less any handheld weapon he picks up.) :arrow: His recuperative abilities have improved, not only in terms of more ranks in Regeneration, but also due to losing the Weak Spot drawback and gaining an Immunity to non-blessed/magic/silver critical strikes. As with his Impervious, he actually does appear to take the critical damage, but it heals so fast (and he’s so non-pained by it) it may as well not have happened in the first place. Yes, he can -- and will -- do all sorts of "don't try this at home, kids" stunts, particularly as part of an Intimidate check to demoralize or startle/feint in combat. :arrow: He's also expanded his repertoire of Necromantic Powers, though he's still a far cry from most true necromancers can do. He can understand any language ever spoken, usually by having a few translators pop up to help him; he can also communicate with carrion-eating animals, and he usually offers a bit of himself as a treat first. He can move through shadows, or channel energies into himself to enhance his own corpse-tricks (separating into more animate pieces and stretching as if on a rack, or doing something truly horrific like pulling his face back and revealing his skull to scare people). He's great fun at parties. His resurrection ability is also better, in terms of time; they still sometimes come back wrong, and thus he is still reluctant to use it. :arrow: Considering dropping Destitute (Wealth 0) drawback, and have him get a job... as host of WCZA Channel 7's new horror anthology series, Tales of Haunting Horror! ("'I vant to suck your blood!' Ehrm, that's not right. 'I vant to suck your blood!' No, that's not it. 'I want to suck-'! Oh, hello kiddies! You caught me in the middle of my homework. Your old pal Dead Head is a real believer in continuing dead-ucation. Myeh heh heh heh heh! Which bring us to tonight's murderous morsel. It's a juicy lil' tale about a real bloodsucker who never learned to go for the jugular. I call this plasma play The Reluctant Vampire.") 'Course, while he would put the needs of his "protectorate" first, such a position would make him a very easy target for Baron Samedi, Malador, and anyone else who wanted to nab him.... :arrow: I really like the idea of having him able to access some sort of "communal deadmind," able to access the mind (i.e., skills & feats) of anyone who'd ever died. That could be done with a VP (though I'd need to drop... something for the points), or possibly as an AP of his Necromantic Powers: Boost 2 (any skill, one at a time; Extra: Total Fade [up to 10 minutes total]; PF: Slow Fade 2/5 minutes), which could give him 8 ranks in any skill for up to 10 minutes.

Archived Shadow Man, as I had not realized the player has not been back since mid-January :o

Archived due to lengthy player absence.

I find The Sidekick's Lounge of the ATT to be a better source. ;)