New guy with questions

[thelazyblank]

Hello!

I'm new here, and I'm kinda curious as to a few things:

1) How many of the NPCs from the Freedom City book are being used? Are they only used as needed, if they are?

2) How do the villains work, generally speaking? Do the PC villains work together at times, or are they generally solo acts?

3) In the rules, it says something about not posting too often for PP benefits, but conversations seem to need that type of posting. Is this just me reading the rules too literally, or is there some other way?

4) Where's the best place to meet the other players OOCly, and make plans for the IC characters?

Sorry if this isn't the right place to post all these questions, but I'm curious. Hope to think of a character soon.

[Nyrath]

First off all allow me to welcome you to the forum.

Now on to the questions.

1: In general I do believe it can be said that any NPC listed can be used as needed, it's just that mostly we encourage using PCs for both Heroes and Villains if possible since it lets as many as possible play.

Of course, it tends to be harder for Villains to pop into story lines than for Heroes. The later are as a rule a reactionary force responding to whatever calls for their attention while Villains are are more proactive and are likely to initiate the kind of situations which Heroes react to. That said many Villains (and one or two Heroes) have been found playing both sides of the field; Villains getting pulled into actions against rivals alongside traditional Heroes (go see Death's Door for an example of this), while at least one Hero (Imposter) associates with Villains part time.

2: Villains around here tend to be most often at least somewhat group oriented by necesity if not design. Most are more of the "Henchman" type rather than "Master Mind" (though a recent undergoing influx of the later is at least ensuring there's some around), and given the sheer number of powered individuals group operations are common both to try and cope with the number of Heroes likely to respond and to increase the possibly actions available during a heist/coup/operation/whatever. There's a couple of infiltration experts, a bunch of combat specialist, some who have the gift of the gab, and recently a master of the arcane arts.

3: This is mostly concerned with IC posts (as opposed to OOC ones or things like this) which govern the actual story progression. If you look around you'll notice most threads in the Game World are labelled either IC or OOC in addition to their names.

4: Heroes, tend to respond to whatever threats surface so IC there's few other ways to make contact with new than through showing up more or less at the same time at a crime/disaster/miscellaneuous-threat scene. Most plans for future hero stuff are made either in threads likes Archeville's one here which came with its own revelant News Thread post. Chat is also common whether on site or off as are, I suppose, Private Messages.

Villains have it mostly the same, but there's a location which grants a common neutral ground which can be used for IC contact with wholy new possible parterners. The Arena is useful for an IC drink, trawling for contracts or contacts, and settling the occastional dispute in an old fashioned duel, all of it safely out of the reach of Heroes. [And if any Heroes did try anything untoward they'd have to face the combined front of every single Villains present, as well as the Guardian and whoever else might take offence]

As for the character part, I do hope for at least one new Villain seeing how there's a major discrepancy in balance between the two sides. And the Heroes have even managed to snag our only PL 12 Villain for their side... Can't really blame Nanowire though, Grimalkin ain't a bad "bait".

All in all, I hope this helps somewhat even though I haven't even been here a month yet.

[Barnum]

What Nyrath said plus . . .

1. There are occasionally NPCs in the Character Bank that are marked "restricted." These aren't for general use. Also, if you plan something drastic for a NPC (e.g. death), check with the Refs first.

3. Don't read it too strictly, but the sentiment is sound. What we don't want is a thread full of a long list of one-liners, and we don't want post-inflating spam (at least not in IC threads; post-inflating spam other places is fine ). And knowing what I know about our players, they wouldn't like it much either. To date, there hasn't even been a hint of this. If you really do need a long "back and forth" conversation, I suggest using the PM system or the chat and then splicing the conversation together into a single post. It will make for much easier reading for the membership.

4. If you want to try to "meet up" with other players to plan a heist, story, etc. posting your request in this forum is the best place. Look down through this forum and you will see many examples of this. You could also PM a potential story partner.

[thelazyblank]

Alright, due to the current hero to villain ratio, I'm thinking I might want to make one of each, but going to start with just my PL 10 villain. Are there any powers that don't really work so well? I mean, outside of the ones listed, are Mind Control/Emotional Control characters generally not used, because the powers turn out weird in PvP type games? Or, is there really no worries? Have people figured out enough ways around them, etc?

Just curious, usually I talk out my concepts, so I might be chatty here. :)

[Veiled Malice]

Well, we do have a definite shortage of mentalists, primarily because of the potiental for abuse inheirent when some extras - especially Continious - are applied. The vanilla powers are fine, however. I'll direct you to our character guidelines, which is here. Most of the questions you'll have can be answered there.

As for ways around them, I did outline one of the things we don't allow here. We are pretty strict about character submissions, so there are very few "workarounds" we don't catch. I don't think that's what you're asking, though.

Anyway, don't be afraid to ask questions!

[Dr Archeville]

But do be afraid of our answers :harley:

[thelazyblank]

I meant did you find a way for Continuous Mind Control, for example, not to be a completely butt-kicking power? I assume you didn't, because it can be pretty crazy.

I've been trying to make a high-level Emotional Control character that I've been working on, and was wondering if it would work here. Mainly, she's supposed to have a Continuous Contagious Emotional Control power, that she can't fully control. But, obviously that's going to be overpowered unless heavily limited in some way.

Hmm.. Would there be a good way to simulate something like this? And should I be posting this in the Character Help forum? :)

[Heritage]

Hmm.. Would there be a good way to simulate something like this? And should I be posting this in the Character Help forum?

That might be a good idea. And welcome!

[Veiled Malice]

That might be a good idea. And welcome!

And so it was that Veiled Malice did transfer the page over to the character building section. :D

[thelazyblank]

Nice. So, can you use the Limited feat to allow the contagious area-effect Emotion Control to be used on minions and/or civilians, while having an AP version for actual combat, possibly single target and non-contageous??

[Veiled Malice]

I don't see why not, but remember, we don't allow Continuous mental effects here. It's a "save or die" situation, and we like to remove as many of those as possible from a potiental PvP board.

[thelazyblank]

Hmm.. Well, I'll think about this. Hopefully, I might have a character up by tomorrow, assuming all goes well. I'm going to focus on making something that's sorta not like any other villain, just to give me some early standing room as Someone Different. Which isn't just to be, um, different, just to give me something unique that only my character can do. ;)

[thelazyblank]

Alright, so I've got a basic character, but was curious if there was anything I did that might've been a bit too inefficient with my character as posted. Thanks for any non-referee help.

http://www.endlessflight.net/freedom/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=824

[Dr Archeville]

Aside from the Character Approval Judge-y things I've said in the thread, I'd recommend lowering Base Attack Bonus and getting some ranks in Attack Focus (Ranged), since so much of her stuff is ranged.

[thelazyblank]

Aside from the Character Approval Judge-y things I've said in the thread, I'd recommend lowering Base Attack Bonus and getting some ranks in Attack Focus (Ranged), since so much of her stuff is ranged.

I was going to do that, but then I was confused. Her Area Attack, is that considered Ranged, even though it's technically Touch Range?

[Dr Archeville]

I was going to do that, but then I was confused. Her Area Attack, is that considered Ranged, even though it's technically Touch Range?

Non-Ranged Ara effects are tricky that way. You can use it against a target even if the target's not within melee range, but since it's touch range the target has to be someone in melee range.

You could almost say that you shouldn't make an attack roll, it's just a Reflex save (followed by a Damage save) for the folks in the area when you activate the power... but I'm almost certain there's some unbalancing factor in doing it that way that I'm not seeing.