Dr Archeville

The full description of the Side Effect Flaw is: So Side Effect 1, you are affected by some problematic side effect if you fail to use the power properly -- you miss the attack roll, or the target successfully saves against it. Side Effect 2, the side effect occurs every time you use the power, whether or not it affects the target.

It does still exist in the FC PbP Universe. It would be in the Bayview Heights area of South Freedom. I'll try and edit the sub-forum description today to reflect this EDIT: So it was written, so it is done!

Welcome back! So, do you want both Badb and High Note un-archived now?

"Ah, good, you found de zungenwurst! When I went by earlier no one had touched it; guess it's too hearty for these New England stomachs!" he said with a laugh and wink. He again gestured towards an empty chair, "please, sit und join! So, you are a student here? Or... from one of de high schools?"

Archeville stays behind White Knight, waiting to see if either he'll move in first or if he'll send some of his men in first. He says nothing, makes no move.

Fair enough. Okay, a follow-up: from what Doc would (reasonably) know of the prison's layout and such, might he think that a control panel for the power dampers would be present in the armory?

"Hrmph, apparently I'm the only one who did come here to spar..." the demon grumbles. "Wait- Icarus? As in, the son of Daedalus, killed when he flew too close to the sun?" He took a few steps closer to the armored man (seemingly forgetting all about the fox-boy), looking him up and down. "Oh, wait, wait, let me guess -- you were burned and horribly disfigured in some industrial accident, blame rampant technology for your condition, and seek to tear it all down, taking the name of one of the first people killed by the reckless mis-use of technology as your moniker and as a jab at Daedalus, one of the most technologically proficient guys around?"

Looks good. My one suggestion might be to get some Enhanced Attack and Enhanced Defense (that is, Attack and Defense bonus which are the result of his luck/powers, not training). As he stands now, he's PL 3 offensively and PL 5 defensively; the defensive bit isn't too bad, but the low offensive PL will probably hurt ya. (Easy way to calculate combat-centric PL: add Attack and damage/effect, divide by two to get "offensive PL"; add Defense and Toughness, then divide by two to get "defensive PL".) Also (and this is the English major/borderline-OCD part of me), his Luck Control should be listed as: Luck Control 2 (negate GM fiat, force someone to re-roll and take worse result)

Okay, but then the cost is off. Probability Control is a 4pp/rank power, so Probability Control 5 costs 20pp, not 16. You would be wrong. About being mistaken. Which is to say, you're quite right ;)

23 April 2008 (Wednesday) After the debacle at Blackstone back in early March with Dryad and the White Knight, I need to do something to engender a more positive image of myself, to reassure both the public and myself. And, as is often the case, education is the answer. My alma mater, the Hanover Institute of Technology, has a Science & Engineering Lecture Series, designed "to showcase outstanding innovation among HIT alumni and partners." As luck would have it, Dr. Michael Voldman, one of my computer and electrical engineering professors, is the one who started it, and I'm sure I can persuade him to let me speak. He'd always seemed an easygoing fellow, and he did seem to enjoy my near-endless questions in class. And, if it comes to it, I can just offer to throw money at the Institute. 25 April 2008 (Friday) Still haven't heard back from HIT. One of the people I spoke to said Voldman was on vacation, but wasn't sure when he'd be back. In the meantime, I've started work on a new side-project, in part to "commemorate" finally unpacking my Dartboard of Designs for Devices. I stood the World Darts Federation standard of 2.37m from the board and tossed my five darts. One had the misfortune of ricocheting off the edge of the board and striking one of my window-washing spider-bots which was sprawled out on a workbench, but the other four struck true. The words struck, arranged alphabetically, were "Atem" (Breath), "Ermitteln" (Determine/Detect), "Krebs" (Cancer), and "Laser" (Laser). The first three were easy to string together -- detect cancer via breath. This would be nothing new: studies have shown that dogs can detect cancer by sniffing the exhaled breath of cancer patients, with a recorded 88% accuracy for breast cancer and 97% accuracy for lung cancer. This would be evidence of the existence of gas phase molecules which are uniquely associated with cancer. Adding the fourth, laser, would also be relatively simple: spectroscopy, the study of how matter and electromagnetic energies interact, has been used for quite a while, though the tools used for that can get quite cumbersome. So, my new task is clear: design a portable laser-like device which can detect the presence of cancer in a person by the concentrations of cancer-associated gas phase molecules. 27 April 2008 (Sunday) I woke up this morning to find that my My Other has been hard at work, too. Appended to my notes on the Cancer Detecting Ray were notes on how to make a Cancer Causing Beam (which used various forms of radiation to catastrophically mutate a target's self-repair mechanisms) and a Cancer Causing Gun (which would fire bullets laced with carcinogenic chemical compounds into a person). I've deleted the notes, but I know they're all still filed away in my mind. 1 May 2008 (Thursday) I've finally heard back from HIT! Voldman just got back from seeing relatives in Chicago, and we'll be meeting for lunch today at Tia Marta's. --- Lunch was grand! Voldman and I talked and talked, caught up on what each other had been doing, he told me about some of the changes at campus. The one downside was the food. It was good, certainly -- it wouldn't be such a consistently high-rated place if it wasn't -- but I suppose my tastes have been 'spoiled' by my time in Europe. (And there is my own preference for all things German over all things Italian.) Voldman was quite pleased with it, said he'd see about getting them to cater the reception after the lecture. 5 May 2008 (Monday) Success! Voldman told me that the Institute has agreed to let me present at the Lecture Series! But what am I going to present?!?!?! 7 May 2008 (Wednesday) The announcement of my presentation at the HIT Lecture has been released on the school's website and to the media. I still don't know what I'm going to present. 9 May 2008 (Friday) Still not sure. It's not that I have a lack of things to talk about, it's that I have so much! But what to choose?! I did get a bit more info on the after-lecture reception, apparently they are getting Tia Marta's to cater, though it will mainly be small appetizers. Which is all well and good, but it could be so much better! Especially since, come the reception, it would be the time most folks have supper, so why not give them supper?! I'll have to make a few calls.... 12 May 2008 (Monday) Still not settled on anything. I have narrowed it down to a few dozen things, but that's still too much. This isn't the venue for going into a lengthy discussion about the workings of some of my devices, and I don't want to go over something they probably already know or could easily know by doing a few internet searches, so I wo--- I've got it!!! Something they may know, but if they do they probably don't know all of it. Something that would serve them well to hear, which could prepare them for their post-college lives with technology. The Story of Rachael and Mutt! But how to go about it? What do I know about it? I've heard so many versions of the tale! But maybe that's how I should go about it... not as a "factual presentation," but tell it as I've heard it, like a campfire story. I've got a lot to prepare. 15 May 2008 (Thursday) I have come to a sad realization: I am a very mediocre speaker. I've done a few test runs of what I'll be doing, the holograms all look great, and the story itself contains every non-contradictory bit I could recall, but as for myself... well, that needs work. So that's what I'll do. Phase 1 will be to study many of the great public speakers over the new couple of days. Churchill, Kennedy, MLK Jr., and, yes, even der Fuehrer. Study their inflections, their tone, even how they held themselves. Phase 2 will be considerably trickier. Simply mimicking their magnetism won't be enough -- I have to be able to draw on my own. Thus, in a furtherance of my "letting the steam out slowly lest it explode" experiments in psychic apparatus maintenance, I will allow my Id a bit more free reign so my Ego can tap into its primal energies, focused through the rationality of my Super-Ego. I must be exceedingly careful: the slightest misstep could turn me into some Hyde-ian beast. But if I am to master myself, experiments like these must be done. 19 May 2008 (Monday) Well, here I go!

A bit of educated guessing and misdirection on the Mentalist's part, actually (like when on Babylon 5, a temporarily power-less Psi-Cop tricked someone into confessing, because the guy thought the Psi-Cop still had his powers and was reading his mind). While the Mentalist doesn't really know for certain that Ghost is the one causing the "accidents" (which seem to be oddly targeted), he's guessing that he is: he doesn't see anyone else, and hasn't sensed anyone else in the area (since Whisper/Grim ran away), and he assumes anyone who'd rob the place must be more than 'normal'. Plus, there actually is a character in Freedom City that has powers similar to Ghost: Carl "Dice" Desanto (from the Iron Age Vigilantes and Villains .pdf), a solider for the Oliverti family, who is known for being uncommonly lucky and that folks who cross him tend to get hurt or die in unfortunate & untraceable accidents (Blast 8, Range/Perception; Secondary Save/Reflex save; Subtle 2, Trigger [some time later when he isn't around]). I probably should have had some sort of skill check (Knowledge [history]? Sense Motive? Bluff?), but I wasn't sure. As for your understanding of how Subtle works, you are right on: Subtle 1 means the effect can be noticed with a DC 20 Notice check by anyone, or automatically by anyone with an appropriate exotic sense (like Mystic Awareness). Subtle 2 makes it completely undetectable. And, yes, even with Subtle, if your mind is read he'd know you were consciously using a power, and that would call for a Will save against a Mind Reading effect. "Tim Burton" Mentalist: Largely the same as the PL 6 Psionic from Instant Superheroes. Attack +3, Defense 14, Toughness +8 (+0 w/out subtle Force Field), Fort +3, Ref +4, Will +7; Concentration +12, Notice +8; Damage Mental Blast 6 (Perception, DC 21 Will), Mind Control 6 (Perception, DC 16 Will), Telepathy 6 (DC 16 Will to resist Mind Reading). No Trance, no Telekinesis; Radius Ranged Detect Minds instead of Mental Awareness. Kickboxer: Largely the same as the PL 6 Martial Artist from Instant Superheroes. Attack +4 (+8 melee), Defense 18; Toughness +4, Fort +5, Ref +8, Will +4; Concentration +7, Notice +7; Damage unarmed strike (DC 18 Toughness), Power Attack, Stunning Attack.

Fine by me :)

Sept 8th, 1966: Star Trek makes its network television debut.

"'Cute and... furry'?," the demon repeats. He stares for a moment at the fox-man... ... and then laughs, but this was a knee-slapping laugh of true entertainment. "You are a funny one!" "That being said," he stops laughing and suddenly his entire body is ablaze in dark fire, "you've still not answered any of my questions, and that just annoys m-- what the?" His focus changes to the shifting rubble, and the armored man behind it. "Another one to the party?"

Archived due to player departure.

NOOOOOOOooooo! I'm also quite saddened to see ya go, Captain Wonder was (is!) an awesome character. But, schoolin' them youngsters is important, to! Hope to see you back on the breaks :)

*rolls over in bed, hits snooze button on alarm, resumes his cthonian slumber*

The demon smirked when the fox's paws ignited, "cute, but things with fur really shouldn't play with lighters. So, you're not a thug, you're not a werefox -- what are ya? Why did Mister Know-It-All Legend call you out here?" A few more steps closer, "if what he said is true, then I know exactly why he called me -- I'm a Bad Guy. I've murdered, I've destroyed, I've stolen, I've deceived, and I'll continue doing so." Sirius suddenly had a flash of memory, of all the bullies who'd taunted and picked on him in school, and how this demon seemed not very unlike them. "But what about you? What have you done that would make others label you a villain?"

The demon let out a roaring laugh, "ha! Oh, this is rich -- I'm called out to the middle of nowhere, the first being I see is some annoyingly informed steward, the second some pup who doesn't know what he is!" The demon looked at the fox, as if sizing him up. He then spoke again, this time not as loud, "hunh, maybe you're not kitsune, just a run-of-the-mill werefox." He took a few steps closer, still flexing his claws, "so, what are ya, boy? Thief? Spy? Or maybe just some thug who got himself cursed when robbing the wrong person?"

So it's down to Doc, Emissary and Velocity? I'd like to continue on a bit, at least have the players describe which parts of the charity event their character does (have Thevshi describe the part Velocity does, you describe the part Emissary does, etc.).

This one looks perfectly fine to me, if you wanna go with it. (I so, I do ask that you replace the stuff in the first post with the stuff from your revised character.) APPROVED

Welcome to Freedom City play-by-post! I would ask you to introduce yourself in the "Secret Identities" thread, but I see you've already done so! Background and story seem fine, though a touch grimmer and anti-hero-ier than we're used to. Stats overall look good, too, very Wonder Man-y. I do see a few things wrong with her stats, though: * Having a Wealth of +0 (homeless, owns nothing) is actually a 2-point Drawback, not just a Complication. * Please edit her Combat block so it says "Attack: +3, +5 w/ Electrical Control, +6 melee". Yes, I do see that hose are in the DC Block, but we prefer to keep al the attack modifiers in the same place. * If she can only switch between her Insubstantial Energy Form and her Solid Energy Form (and nothing else), her Str should be brought down to --- (-10pp). Which may mean increasing the amount of Enhanced Strength her Solid Energy Form grants. * I'm not sure about the Permanent on her Insubstantial. It sounds like she should have the"can revert to solid as a free action and sustained duration" extra; this would match the Sustained duration of her Solid Energy form. * Also, the Innate on her Insubstantial. For one, it should probably be on the Alternate Form Array itself. More importantly, though, is whether or not any of her powers should be Innate: is there absolutely no way her powers can be boosted or drained or nullified or removed (even temporarily)?

Looking much better, but there's still a few things off: * What does his Second Chance feat apply to? * The "+1 to hit" on his gun: is that from the gun itself (well-crafted, etc.), or from the character (well-trained in ranged attack)? * "Probability control 5 (luck)[16]" -- By "(luck)", do you mean "Flaw: Limited to Fortune"? * Which power is the Full Power drawback apply to? And how would it be a drawback? I'm not seeing how the drawback would apply to either of his powers.

I only count 59pp in powers. Unless the Morph is supposed to be the 2pp/level "any humanoid" (which should be listed). Due to PL limits, her Attractive can't help her Bluff or Diplomacy. Since PL caps are 'hard' caps, technically she can't have it, unless you remove 4 ranks each from Bluff and Diplomacy (freeing up 2 pp). Could you please list out the frequency and intensity for her Drawbacks? It looks like it should be: Weakness (dependence on blood, must drink 1 Con point worth every night [24 hours] or suffer a -1 cumulative drain on Con; common, moderate, -1) [Which means she should have Drain Con 1, so she can drain blood/Constitution] Vulnerable (silver weapons, x2 DC modifier; very common, major; -5) [Though I'm not sure it should be so frequent -- "Very Common" means almost every person she attacks is going to have a silver weapon. Common would be better, reducing the total value of the drawback by 1pp.] My main concern is that she's a one-trick pony: she'll either totally dominate someone with her mind control, or not, and if not, she's got nothing more to use against them (unless she's prepared something well in advance with Ritualist). I'm also not sure about that Side-Effect, given how high her Will save is.

What are we saying has happened to Dryad? And does Doc see a control panel for the power dampers in the guard's armory?