angrydurf

This is truth. though he has expanded his tastes somewhat since then it is still one of his faves. Also for the adults it actually has surprising rewatchablity without becoming too irritating. The short spin off secrets of the furious five is also a good one. Very clasic kung-fu flick homage still.

Quick edit to fix really bad math on my skills

Yea it's a neat feat, I can totally just go "Look the good year blimp." *points* and it works The Shadow is deffinately one of the inspirations, especialy for the powers. I like the stun usable in combat with the aplication of his will he is able to command his foes into a deep sleep (well kinda ) with but a word. Really its alot more brute force than most of his techniques just kinda throwing his mental weight around rather than the more subtle use of illusions and concealment. Plus he's designed to kinda be a controller in combat keeping the enemies distracted etc for the brawlers to take out, well for group combatat least, solo he tries to minimize how many guys can focus on him at a time and mostly tries to take on one at a time from hiding if he can't just avoid the fight entirely.

I think keeping it to the PL caps makes as much sense as ony other cap. You won't be stopped in buying wealth you'll just have to shuffle points so your at not over cap. You can have 7 ranks of diplomacy plus your attractive and wealth bonus an sit at the PL10 cap. if you have more than that in diplomacy you can switch those to another skill or even move the PP to get a feat, maybe pick up skill mastery for your interaction skills, or whatever else could usea boost. I always assumed that any interaction skill bonus would be affected by the PL caps almost nothing lets you break caps.

Yea in combat would be pretty limited anyway withthe mind trick I suppose. Plus being able to combine it with the illusions brings a smile to my face. (droped the mind control AP for skill mastery) For distract I mean the distract feat from the M&M2E core book Distract Skill, Ranked You can make a Bluff or Intimidate check (choose one when you acquire the feat) to cause an opponent to hesitate in combat. Take a standard action and make a skill check against your target’s opposing check (the same skill, Sense Motive, or Will save, whichever has the highest bonus). If you succeed, your target is dazed for one round (defending normally, but taking no action). Targets gain a +1 bonus on checks to resist Distract per attempt against them in the same encounter. You can take this feat twice (gaining the ability to use it with either Bluff or Intimidate).

Well I think its more a matter of matching the benefit to the cost. If it doesn't actually get us "stuff" which I think is part of the point of the change than just being rich isn't useful mechanicswise. If you look at comics wealth is more like a descriptor than an actual benefit, The wayne fortune is the explanation for all the bat gadgets but you can certainly have them without the personal fortune as well just look at the various batclones that are not multi gazzilionares. If all we get for the levels is to say "I'm supa rich" 5-6 pp is steep. I think the natural skill would be gather info, you get access to more people and can grease the wheels where needed. Diplomacy for bribies makes sense but would that stack with attractive? What about craft? to represent higher quality tools and ease of gathering quality materials. Also if its structured like attractive to give 2 bonuses at +4 your getting really high bonuses at the high levels of wealth if its ranked as it currently is going to 6+

Ok adjusted his Base attack and dodge up and his feats for those down a bit so theres not so much of a gap. tweaked a few feats (mostly the combat ones but dropped well traveled and added power attack) I dropped the strike to 2 and gave it the non-lethal only drawback, and added the equipment list Added that he still looks 24 to physical description and a brief explanation of his HQ under powers and abilities. Considering dropping the mind control power for skill mastery with some interaction skills how would that work for in combat type commands? Would it just be the penalty for hostile target or woudl some stuff just not work since there isn't a Power backing it up?

the Idea is that he's not really a fighter though the realist in me realizes that combat is inevitable so I gave him martial arts training but he really hasn't maintained any other skills. What is average proficiency for a police officer? If the points can do it I can try to pull that up a bit. It was actually tough for me to figure out exactly what the non dodge portion of defense is supposed to represent. That led to focusing on dodge as his real defense mechanism, he knows how to get out of hte way of a blow kinda deal. On both this and the base attack issue I am trying to keep him relevant in combat if lower overall scores in those areas could still allow that then I woudl happily drop them somewhat. Yea I'm monitoring how wealth is gonna settle out. Well as a child he was basically johnny quest he's been to dakana, the wildlands 5 or 6 false shamballa vales (that he knows to be false) and other "mysterious places TM" I was looking for a knowledge skill that would cover that kinda knowledge none of the ones int he book really fit being more "book learning" in scope so I made up this. If the background is sufficient for him to go "hey I saw something like this when we were being chased by the beastmen of Arr in the depths of the amazon." I would drop it. I guess the jack of all trades does give him knowledege checks on any subject though so its probably unneccisary. DOH i forgot to paste that part over. Should I edit it into the post above? He doesn't have mystic damaging powers so the strike is supposed to be along the lines of "he has a wicked left cross." which is why its innate its not super powered, can't be boosted/nullified. I can drop it down to whatever max you say is possible for that though. I mean for the same points I could get more bang by dumping it into raw strength with the same basic effect but He's not that strong just hits hard. The mind control is my attempt at the "jedi mind trick" he says like one sentance(a few words in combat) that they obey/believe like "Drop the gun!" or "Our identifacation is sufficient." The stun is basically the same deal only he just says "Sleep" and they do. Thematically its "ancient vocal techniques and meditive focus fromt eh mysterious east" but mechanically I think psionic is the best catagory for a descriptor though I'm open to a better suggestion. Let me know what numbers are satisfactory to you on the Combat stats and I'll adjust them I really just have them there to participate in the inevatable combats. With bruisers like Hellbound or knieval I figured I should really try aand reach for the caps so I don't go down too easy to the stuff designed to chalenge them. But he's a Face/infiltrator not a bruiser so I'm not attatched to the combat stats.

I like this

Personally I think the wealth option really only works in tabeltop. I was in a LARP for awhile that used a varient wealth rule for VtM and it made resources way to powerful since there wasn't enough GM "NO" going on due to the playerbase being huge. The character I apped has wealth, I woudl be happiest if it was just a status like benifit maybe a social bonus to certain situations and switch the points to Equipment but He's still awaiting approval so changes are easy. I would keep the wealth at 5 even if it was one of the other systems Shaen suggested but it woudl be for character reasons only and woudl kinda feel like a waste of points honestly.

My main concern is that it is balanced against the other benefits/feats like status or equipment. Equipment "just for the scene" can be better done witht he array of alternate powers as described under the utility belt section of equipment or even as a HP expenditure for an aditional alternate power (equipment in this case). It could work to get Equipment for one mission/adventure/caper I guess but it also doesn't really make sense that your vast wealth allows you to "lease" Items but not buy them permanently. Though for balance being able to just buy permanent equipment is too powerfull. Honestly I think I'd rather it be a form of status and if you want stuff you buy that stuff as equipment with equipment points. I think though that that would also require a look at EP costs of some items (I'm looking at you flashlight) that are really not worth even 1 EP. Maybe a list of "starter gear" that anyone without the struggling complication or impoverished drawback has access to. If we want to say that everyone starts with a certain available "stuff"

Really guns and pepper spray should be equipment only. They require permiting etc and for the purposes of the game have a greater value than thier cash value would indicate. the EP cost of Items is (rightfully) more in line with thier use than thier cash value. I think if your gonna use wealth to get stuff it should be divorced from EP cost entirely and moved to an actual cash system of course that rachets up the complexity again.

Well being bored and a rules nut I was workingo n a few variations on wealth that might work in this format but I relized that simpler really is better so I willonly write up the simple stuff ATM. One: Drop the wealth benefit, its a descriptor of your lifestyle with no in game value if you want stuff by the equipment feat if you want access to the upper echolons of society buy status or contacts. Pros: simple and not even really a house rule just strait book. Cons: Any character with wealth would have to be refunded the points and then respend them so alot of work approving the re-works (not sure how common wealth is but woudl be the main downside) Two: Better define the current system. Wealth option as explained in the house rules basicaly. What can be bought/owned is anything not restricted, restricted Items would be any Item that requires licensing to own/carry. These Items are mundane versions of said Items not supped up super versions with oil slicks etc and must be used in legal ways (no flying the private jet/heliocopter without a registered flight plan or in protected airspace). This allows rich characters to have nice appartments/mansions (without supercomputers or special equipment) or fancy cars (but not the batmobile) or even a private jet (that they can fly from an airport to an airport but not use to airdrop into the city) anything that has enhancements beyond the "normal" needs to be bought in full with Equiment points (no upgrading your mansion or penthouse into the batcave/baxter building pay for the full deal). Pros: No rewrites needed as characters have been built under the basic system already this just clarifyies what you can have (some small rewrites for people who bought cell phones and flashlights with eps) Cons: Some may assume that they can get stuff that they cant (armored limo, lock release gun) so Refs have to keep an eye on that. I think the second is a bit better but there seemed to be some hesitancy to give stuff to the wealthy characters for "free".

I will say that most editions of champions (especially after the full intergration with HERO) are pretty convoluted and have multiple ways of doing the same effect some of them at sharp discount. The wealth system in the book doesn't (that I can see) say it can't cover equipment, thats been added when they did the odd version for the house rule. In fact it is desighned to allow you to buy Equipment without spending power points on it. One assumes this is balanced buy the GM saying no to some stuff and some stuff just not being available for purchase. This is really a table top rule where it doesn't matter much if one character can buy a ton of stuff with wealth. the GM can keep an eye on the situation and say no when it woudl damage the plot. thats much harder to do in a game of this size with already taxed refs. Also the book system of wealth is ablative so that buying stuff will temporarily lower your wealth rating but that is tied into the wealth check which is not used but given as an auto success for numbers under your check. The wealth check and shopping time requires more GM monitoring that is really feasible in a game of this format. I think thats why the limitations that were placed on wealth under tho old GM were put there the idea being he woudl be able to say no that woudl need to be equpment if you want a to purchase the x-mens blackbird but allow people with fabulous fortunes to have a cell phone and nice car to drive to club and impress their friends. But I think the original line of what can be purchased and what requires the eqipment feat was lost when they gave up the reins. It seems like the idea the current powers that be have of Wealth is more as an equivalent of Benefit: Status (I'm rich b**ch). While the actual Stuff of wealth is covered with equipment. The only real issue I personally have with that is that equipment costs for really basic Items are way over costed (scuba gear, a laptop, a PDA, a desktop, a cellphone, and a flashlight all worth the same amount) But thats an issue with Equipment not wealth specifically.

If memory serves the equipment catagory for Champions is more like Devices from M&M than equipment but its been awhile and I've lost all my champ books now.

Well I was thinking it seemed kinda limiting without giving any bonus but the trade off of needing selective and being abel to use extra effort I think balances it now that I look at it more closely. Thematically it makes sense as not being able to attack throught the FF is a clasic comic drawback though most comic FF are more like a create object force dome.

It might be best just to drop the wealth optional rule and convert wealth into equipment for folks. The wealth option in the book is pretty open ended for a wealthy character to just buy any and all equipment he might want that isn't restricted. It wouldn't take long to do so with a +25-35 check bonus. Just having it as a descriptor without cost seems fine as long as you don't get "but I'm filthy rich" freebies that effect the game. On equipment though it seems that there is some stuff that should be worth less than a full EP like a flashlight or cell phone etc. maybe a list of common Items that you can pick 5 or ten of them for a single EP? This of course if we don't let your lifstyle as described by your background or benefits give you basics like that.

So do you need the selective PF to fire out of your force field? Normal protection doesn't require you to buy selective to attack and forcefield is a 0 point trade off from normal protection so basically a descriptor. Secondarily does force field prevent touch based powers that can't penetrate (defeat the toughness save) the forcefield? Would selective allow beneficial powers (healing) to go through then?

I think its taken from the lines I bolded above It seems to indicate that we have the stuff someone of our wealth level would have. Of course if its gonna need game stats and be equipment it is stated that that needs to be bought as such. So you can have a private jet to vacation in but if you want to use it to chase down or attack a villian in his airship armmada it needs to be equipment. Of course with wealth you can get a jet short term for that but if you want ot always hav access you'll need the equipment feat.

OK that makes more sense So you can "buy" a jet with wealth but if you want to use it every adventure you'll need to put the PP into equipment for it.

So what does wealth get you? the description seems to indicate it gives you everything from that lifestyle (in the book it goes into how to buy stuff with it but you don't use that here) So if you just want a mansion (not an HQ with a super computer and defense systems etc) you still need to buy it with equipment points? The Limo and or sports car you take to the clubs, or the private helecopter that flies you to board meetings all need to be bought with equipment points? It seems like wealth doesn't really do anything then. I always interpreted the equipment feat as stuff you have either bought or stolen or made and the wealth benefit to be your bank account but since you can't use the bank account to buy new stuff it seems kinda worthless if it doesn't at least give you the basics for your lifestyle.

Ace Danger Power Level: 13/15 (200/223PP) Trade-Offs: None Unspent PP: 23 Alternate Identity: None Height: 6' Weight: 185 Hair: Blonde Eyes: Blue Description: Ace has a sturdy six foot frame not overly muscled but certainly well defined in an almost careless way that suggests given effort he could develop quite the physique. His head is topped by thick blonde locks that are maintained in a perfect semblance of disarray. He retains much of his fathers classic lines but softened slightly, a strong jaw and chin, but not quite chiseled, his bright blue eyes always have a slight twinkle of mischief dancing in them. Despite his advanced age he appears an attractive man of 24. He dresses well socially though favors a somewhat beaten down Fedora and bomber jacket while "on duty", and favors a kind of retro chic look without looking like he can't keep up with the times. History: The first of the Danger children was born on July 4th 1925, named Ace after Ace Adams his godfather also his fathers pilot and close campanion through many an adventure. His early childhood was fairly normal despite his fathers extended absences with two more sibblings following A brother and a sister (the youngest) over the next five years. The family relocated to Africa where his famed father made his fortune in diamonds of dubious origins by todays standards. Once Ace reached the age of eight his father decided to make up for lost time and Ace joined him on his various adventures throughout the 30's and into the early 40's despite the dangers Ace enjoyed this time though he was always felt he had fallen short of his fathers larger than life expectations of his first born. As Ace came of age his brother was included in more and more of his fathers travels and Ace found himself at loose ends. While he could certainly claim a unique education it was perhaps even worse suited than he was to acedemia. Eventually, out of boredom as much as anythign else, he joined the military. By the time he was out of basic of course the war had drawn to a close and his family name was considered more of an asset than any of his skills. It wasn't long before his mavrick stylings and controversial activities had him discharged (honorably thanks to family connections) to his fathers deep disapointment. After his socialy disasterous military career Ace fell to the baser accusations of his father and became the exact layabout his father claimed him to be and dear old dad seemed to just give up and instead focused on his second born Rex. By 1950 Ace had earned quite the reputation as a libertine and despite the efforts of Little sister Donna to control the rumors he was steadily erroding the familys reputation. Her answer was simple and with some manuevering of family money and contacts she neatly made him some one elses problem as he was inducted into service with the CIA where he was the very picture of the dashing spy later immortalized in print and film. He roamed the world much as he had with his father only now it was a deadly game of cat and mouse with the Soviets rather than twarting Nazi schemes. He was well suited to the work and relished the risk. Due to his unique contacts and knowledge from his days traveling with his father he was assighned to the more esoteric missions no simple spying on abasadors for Johnny Dagers son when there were communist backed voodoo cults in Havana or Soviet reaserchers developing doomsday devices in the himalayas. His fast and loose interpretation of regulations kept him fairly stationary in the organization despite his successes but at least he wasn't bored. It was during this time that his training with Shambala monks and blessings from witch doctors and voodoo queens led to some of his more extrodinary abilities though he carefully hid these from his antsy employers given the political climate. It was only natural that whent he fledgling AEGIS organization cropped up he was optioned off to it though that barely lasted a year before he was drummed out for disrespecting a superior officer. The family stepped in once more to keep the specifics quiet but he was still blacklisted form government work. By this time his sister and her children were fully running Danger Industries and hsi father was retired having passed the torch to Rex who continued to live up to all of the Danger elders expectations. Ace for his part also prided himself on living up to every claim his father made. He with pride says that his actions alone supported the feldgling tabloid industry through the sixties and early seventies and its not far from the truth. He publicly partook of much of the worst the decades had to offer and was teh center of most major scandels of the era. Likely he much like the rest of the counrty would have continued on the self destructive course they were on if not for the Big One. The Terminus invasion was a rather brutal wake-up call for everyone but it was particularly so for Ace. His brother Rex had recently spirited him away from yet another party gone too far when the call came in. The city was under attack. Rex being Rex immediatly spun the car in the direction of the trouble and told Ace to stay out of the way if he could. They never even had a chance as the burning lance of energy sliced through the car. Ace's last memory was his brothers scream as they were both vaporized. Ace woke up still in the tangled wreckage of the car after it was all over. In the end Rex was yet another in a long list of Heroes who fell in the invasion, Ace was sure to embelish the story the press got, to everyone else Rex went out like a Hero should. His brothers death affected Ace strongly, he had experiance and more than a few tricks up his sleeve, he would do what Rex would have wanted. He became a Hero too, though granted still with his own specific idiom. In hero work a handsome smile and flare for the dramatic turned out to be as much a benefit as it had been a hindrance in his days at the agency. Of course he still had his fathers globe trotting tendancies and soon was swept up in events throughout the world. His niece Rachel is fairly supportive of such activities but has slowly convinced him to stick to freedom city for now on and with Ace Danger is back in town the funs sure to start soon. Personality & Motivation: Ace has really been training for the Hero gig almost since birth and despite some unorthodox methods he's good at it. He's a larger than life presonality from a larger than life family and lives it up as such. To most appearances he's a shallow attention grabbing playboy with too many toys, and thats not entirely inaccurate but he does have a strong sense of justice and feels a responsbility for the people of freedom. Rex's death puled him out of a pretty self destructive spiral but that hasn't kept him form havign fun while doing good in the here and now. Powers & Tactics: Every person who asks how Ace got his talents gets a different answer each more unbelievable than the last some of them are probably even true. He has been blessed by mystics of many traditions for long life and thats likely the actual core reason for his immortality, He most often will say however that he's to pretty to die. In his travels he has also picked up more than a few tricks. He has learned many martial arts forms from various groups through the years that has left him a capeable hand to hand fighter though no specific style really take preeminance and his fathers wicked left hook is still his most signature move. He has also trained with various yogi's and mystics throughout the world to hone his mind and has picked up on the tricks that he most liked granting him a suite of mind tricks harnessing the power of his mind. He has also made some upgrades to his home to better fit with his new "super" lifestyle, using daka crystals he has pulled it off the grid and aplified his own mind clouding abilities to hide the entire structure from prying eyes, hte instalation of a comunacations and computing suite made it in his mind the perfect luxurious base of operations. Also it helps with dodging the ever present paparrazi. Complications: Disarmed!: Aces gadget power is hard to lose as he has to be stripped of all of his devices to completely lose access. However many of the individual items are hand held and can be disarmed as normal. Fame Honor (Hero code: don't kill or main, no torture, protect innocents etc) Reputation (Wastrel playboy) Stats: 8+0+12+6+0+14=40pp Str: 18 (+4) Dex: 10 (+0) Con: 22 (+6) Int: 16 (+3) Wis: 10 (+0) Cha: 24 (+7) Combat: 28pp Attack: +8 (+12 melee, +16 Unarmed) Grapple: +16 Defense: +13 (+3 flat-footed) Knockback: -4 Initiative: +0 Saves: 19pp Toughness: +9 (+6 Con, +3 Hidden Vest) Fortitude: +9 (+6 Con, +3) Reflex: +8 (+0 Dex, +8) Will: +8 (+0 Wis, +8) Skills: 104r = 26pp Bluff 17 (+24) Diplomacy 7 (+14, +20 with Wealth) Disguise 9 (+16) Gather Information 7 (+14, +20 with wealth) Investigation 2 (+5) Language 4 (Cantonese, Dakanan, French, Tibetan; English is native) Notice 17 (+17) Search 7 (+10) Sense motive 17 (+17) Stealth 17 (+17) Feats: 53pp Attack Focus: Melee 4 Attack Specialization: Unarmed 2 Beginners Luck Benefit (Wealth 3/Filthy Rich) Challenge 2 (Fast Feint, Fast Taunt) Connected Contacts Distract (bluff) Dodge Focus 7 Equipment 6 Hide In Plain Sight Improvised Tools Inspire 5 Jack of all Trades Leadership Luck 4 Power Attack Quick Change 2 Redirect Set-Up Skill Mastery (Bluff, Disguise, Notice, Stealth) Sneak Attack Teamwork 3 Taunt Uncanny Dodge (mental) Well Informed Powers: 14 + 3 + 16 = 33pp. Gadgets 2 (Be Prepared; 10pp; Flaw: Hard to Lose) [14pp] Immunity 3 (aging, disease, poison) [3pp] Regeneration 14 (Disabled 6 [1/round], True Resurrection 8 [1/round]; PFs: Persistent, Regrowth) [12pp] Drawbacks: 0pp DC Block: ATTACKS: SAVE DC: DAMAGE TYPE: (Name of Attack) (Save DC/Type) (Type of Damage: Bruise/Injury, or other) Unarmed ------ 19/Toughness ----- Bruise/injury Sneak Attack Unarmed ------ 21/Toughness ------ Bruise Injury Shuriken ------ 16/Toughness ------ Bruise/Injury Sneak Attack Shuriken ------ 18/Toughness ------ Bruise/Injury Totals: Abilities 40 + Combat 28 + Saves 19 + Skills 26 (104r) + Feats 54 + Powers 33 - Drawbacks 0 = 200/223

As a fellow codgery old Gamer I can see where hellbound is coming from the fluidity of M&M when coming from the perspective of pre-D20 D&D or HERO games make it look like Amber. But really on the complexity and sheer wonk scale its no worse than any of the relitively universal systems like GURPS or Champions. I mean when I played Champions a sure sign of noobness was actually buying superspeed with wallrunning as we all knew that you just bought flight with "must be at ground level" limitation. The one thing Champions really did well with all of that though was tell the GM up from that thier players were gonna be a bunch of cheesy bastards and to feel free to say NO early and often to such behavior. M&M is a little more subdued than that. It takes some getting used to and its a delicate line to walk between power gamer/minmaxer and so un-optimized it can't compete. Its really what comes out of this more freeform playstyle off the table top. With 5 guys at your kitchen table itspretty easy to say shut up frank and don't be cheesy when there are 20+ players it gets tougher its why LARP usually has much firmer rules than Tabletop even for the same games/systems.

Hi I'm the angrydurf and I'm a gamer ... So that taken care of I'm a stay at home dad and part time student of the Culinary Arts, which is a fancy way to say i take comunity college cooking courses when they fit my schedual and my wife works too hard. Once the little one is off to school for most of the day I'm looking to be ready to work as a pastery chef. Outside my bubble of domesticity I mostly am, as I said above, a gamer, Computers to LARP to PbP/PbEM too many games to count over the years really. I started with M&M in the first edition when it crossed the shelves at the game store I was working at at the time. I ran a few games and even managed to get someone else to run one at least once and picked up 2E as I have been able despite not being a huge fan of the genre. Never been much of a comics guy but I love comic book movies and cartoons but the wife more than makes up for it and has succesfully retrained my brain to how the storylines actually go. I'll be putting up a character as soon as I get him succesfully polished and presentable and look forward to getting into the game.