Dr Archeville

I are an college graduate! After twelve long years (mostly taking one course a semester), I've finally earned my BA in English (focus on language, writing and rhetoric)! :)

Welcome! And congrats on the impending wedding; I just got married a lil' over a month ago.

He's in Conquerors, Killers and Crooks, a big book o' enemies for the Champions setting of the HERO System 5E RPG. A Visual Dazzle need not be "throwing blood at someone's face", it can be "increase blood pressure around the eyes 'till they hemorrhage". Same goes for an Auditory Dazzle, increasing blood pressure around the ears so all they can hear is the sound of their own bloodlfow. I'm not sure the "oozing blood from pores" thing would be allowed, as I'm not sure if the board allows Sustained or Continuous Damage effects. And for a more direct "Control Blood" power, that could just be Move Objects/Telekinesis, Limited to only affecting things with blood in them (though that may instead be just a Drawback).

"How do you write such imaginative stories?" "Oh, I've always kept the heart of a little boy. In a jar on my desk." -- Originally attributed to Stephen King.

Keep in mind you'll need to buy range up twice, once for each effect. So it'd be Disintegration (some number) (Extras: Range 2/Perception for both; Flaw: Drain Toughness part only affects objects; PF: Precise). Cost: 6pp/rank, +1pp. Bah! Again with the questions! In my day we played what the GM gave us, and we were glad for it! Bank Armored Cars have Toughness 11 (Impervious 3). And battleships and aircraft carriers (and tanks) have some Impervious, too. As does anything else the GM decides I'd have no problem with that. Unfortunately, I cannot say, since the specific things I've been addressing are the only things I've gotten a chance to look over so far! There is one other AP I'd suggest though, for the "precise targeting of parts of a big device" thing you were mentioning: Nullify. Specifically, Nullify (any one technological-based power at a time). This may even work better (certainly cheaper) than the Disintegrate build above, as I vaguely recall reading somewhere the Nullify used on objects requires the object to be repaired before it can be used again (or maybe that just applied to equipment), though cannot recall where I read this.

Blood Control is actually a power listed for a character in Time of Vengeance! The base effect is.... unlisted :oops: (The author, when asked on the ATT, says it's a typo, should be listed as Life Control.) So the base effect of blood control could be Nauseate. Alternate powers listed on it are: Drain All Ability Scores (induce stroke), Fatigue (slow blood flow), Stun (spike blood pressure), Suffocate (stop blood flow), and Transform (water to blood, which is really more an "EW!" thing than a combat thing, unless you're facing Aquaman or something). There's also a character in the Champions RPG (revised/5E), Bloodstone, who is a "haemokinetic" (blood controller). He can make it ooze out a person's pores (a Continuous Alt Save/Fort Damage effect), increase the temperature of blood to make it boil a person from the inside out (an Alt Save/Fort Damage effect), "corrupt" blood (causing a target so much pain they cannot move -- Paralyze), and animate his own blood as a horrible "whip" (statted as a very short range Blast [or Strike with Extended Reach], with a Side Effect of damaging the user whenever the power is first activated in a given scene). A "plot seed" idea for Bloodstone involves him learning to use his powers to control the minds of vampires (Mind Control, Limited to Vampires only) and assembling a lil' gang of bloodsuckers. He also has a Smell Blood power, essentially Super-Senses 6 (Accurate Radius Tracking Detect Blood [olfactory]). The "blood whip" reminds me of a spell from some D&D 3.5 book that makes the leaking blood & damaged flesh of an injured character animate and batter the character. A Damage effect with a Limit to only affecting targets who're suffering from bleeding wounds (I'd say Limit due to the rarity of actual bleeding that is seen here, as Barnum says).

Heritage, if you'd like a second set of eyes, I'd be more than willing to lend 'em. *reaches into the jar on his desk*

Turning it into glass and then shattering it is fine, since the "shattering" part is a separate action. Turning it into air or water... is something that's technically fine, but I'm personally against, as it falls into the realm of "it's fine for a character in a comic book to do, but can easily make for very unbalanced gameplay in an RPG." The guideline I try go by for Transform is the same as used in the D&D spell Polymorph Any Object. It cannot be used to directly cause damage, nor can it be used to turn a target into something for which the immediate environment is instantly fatal (like turning a person into a deep-sea fish or an anaerobic microbe), but it can change a target into something that can be more easily damaged. Turning someone to stone doesn't harm them (though does make them immobile), but if you break off an arm the target will be very badly damaged, and if you grind the statue to dust the target is dead. However, if you start off by turning the target into a pile of dust, the target is fine, unless something else (like a gust of wind scattering the dust) occurs. I still suggest just going with Blast (PF: Precise, and maybe Penetrating so you can have a chance at damaging things that have a few ranks of Impervious, and maybe even a Linked Affects Objects Drain Toughness [i.e., the Disintegration power]), since that seems closest to the effect of the ability/power you're describing.

Hrrmmm... there doesn't seem to be a labcoat, but a trenchcoat's close enough (especially after a bit of editing).

Actually, it does. Print Screen to copy the pic from the site. (well, copy the entire page) Paste to a new/blank image in some image editing software (like MS Paint or Photoshop). Save. Edit as needed. Unless what you're really asking is "how do I save a pic so it can be re-edited using the same software." In that case, that answer would seem to be "you can't."

Say, whatever happened to this contest?

Though neither of these options may be appropriate to JoT's original questions -- "how do I shoot through walls to targets I see with my Penetrates Concealment vision" -- since "shooting through walls" (to me) implies actually shooting through the walls (and leaving bullet-sized holes in them), not bypassing them entirely. Which could be done with a Linked Drain Toughness (Affects Objects; Objects Only, Only objects that provide cover) effect, and making both it and the Blast have a Line area of effect. The Drain Toughness lowers the walls toughness so the Blast can more easily go through, and the Line area means it can blow through multiple walls to reach a target.

Seems you have to do Print Screen (for Windows) or Screen Capture (for Mac) to save the image. (edited so as not to seem so snarky/pedantic.)

The first part can be done as Force Field (Extra: Affects Others [+1 to get both others & yourself]; Power Feat: Progression [for up to eight people around you, all touching you]), or the Affects Others [+1] and Area/Radius extras to get a bigger group (who don't need to touch you). The second part (if only protecting a group of folks some distance away, and not yourself) can be done with the Affects Others (+0 to change from "Personal" to "Touch"), Range/Ranged, and Area/Radius extras. To do both simultaneously, you'd need... I'm not entirely certain. Incorrect. A non-Selective force field does not stop the protected person from firing out, it just means he cannot set it to ignore some things from coming in to him (like the healing touch of a comrade). Force Field does not work both ways; Create Object and Snare do. The only effect of Force Field, like Protection, is to protect a character from damage (by raising their Toughness save). Nothing more, nothing less. Force fields can be used for more effects (as Susan Storm shows us), but that's via Alternate/Associated Powers. The "can't eat" thing is something additional added to make Permanent a true flaw on a Force Field (otherwise, a Permanent Force Field is just Protection).

No, it just means they're tying these two movies together. (Though I hear there's an Easter Egg/deleted scene in X-Men where Spidey appears, asking for directions on Ellis Island, and in Fantastic Four where Reed morphs his face into Wolverine's.)

Portuguese? Bah! My Spanish lessons are of little help there! :P

The dripping sound that Nightshyft (and now Catherine) hears seems to be getting closer. The tree branches above them rustle softly, but it is impossible to tell whether that's from something moving among them, or simply from the light breeze that's blowing through the area. Similarly, a soft moan can now be heard, though again it is impossible to tell if it's from something up in the trees or simply from the wind.

I actually enjoyed AvP and AvP:R. But I went in to both movies fully expecting them to be what they were -- mindless action fests with only tenuous connections to the original films -- and that's exactly what I got, so I was fine with them. Eragon was painful, though. Haven't read the books, though I remember seeing a short interview with the author -- who at the time of writing them was around 15 years old -- and he'd said he basically wanted to do a Star Wars/Lord of the Rings-style epic for modern times (and he was bored, since he lived in the middle of nowhere). From what I've heard, the books read pretty much exactly how you'd expect an average 15 year old re-telling SW/LotR to read (i.e., terribly). I'm hoping to see Iron Man either Thursday (with a group of gaming buddies) or Friday (with a group of co-workers).

Wouldn't that be the same Defense you'd need to aim for with a Transform, though? (Though said Average Criminal will be hard-pressed to make the DC 18 Fort save to keep his gun in one piece.) Yes, since Transform cannot be used to cause direct damage (which is effectively what you're doing to the gun or whatever; repairing it would require the same amount of time and tools and skills and etc. as repairing an object damaged by a blast or crushing strength, yes?). This, too, as that would require the Precise feat to affect just a specific part of a target (IMO). I'm still thinking on this one. Though I'm mainly leaning towards "this part's okay."

Which is why I started my phrase with "I'm also not sure..." Also, the section on Constructs says "Constructs are immune to effects requiring Fortitude saving throws unless the effect works on inanimate objects," so (depending on how exactly one interprets that) they can be affected by effects with the Affects Objects extra. Though the Affects Objects Only Flaw you put on does put the kibosh on this line of thought. According to all the source materials -- i.e., the comics -- they don't Kitty Pryde's able to harm guys in power armor as easily as she does guys not wearing armor. That would be because not all things that occur in a comic make for fair & balanced gameplay. And the Penetrating aspect can be seen as a sort of "bypasses armor" effect, since it allows the attacker to have a chance of harming a character with Impervious Toughness (who might not normally be affected by an attack of equal intensity). And I'd just stick with the Indirect power feat, as that's exactly the effect you're looking for (i.e., to bypass cover). Which wouldn't require an in-game explanation for "I can shoot through five concrete walls effortlessly but not a cow that happens to be in the way providing cover," and it'd work just as well against something whether it's held or not.

I missed that thread, but from what you're describing, it still sounds like you should have Blast, possibly Limited or with a Drawback to not affecting things of more than a certain mass/weight. I'm almost certain you can't use Transform for what you're describing, any more than you could use Transform (living beings) to heal someone (changing from injured person to uninjured person), but this is just my opinion.

Test went... alright. Some parts were fairly easy. A few were very difficult. And on many I kept second-guessing myself. No idea when the final grades will be in, so now I've got the stress of that unknown looming over me. But, there's nothing I can really do about it at this point.

IIRC, the American version ("The Professional") had a few scenes cut out & rearranged so it was less "edgy" than the original version ("The Cleaner").

Guys (and gals)? Anyone still here?

Or you could run it as a solo game, be both Player and GM. Sorta like a solo fanfic.