Sacerdos

Hmmm... Dates are a good idea. Any preferences, Electra? Oh, and have Erin make a Sense Motive roll v. a DC 25. It's no biggie, since Thunder's not trying to fool Erin's Uncanny Dodge ('cause she doesn't know about it), so Erin won't be surprised. But, it will affect how I describe Thunder's attack.

In re this post, in which Thunder challenges Wander to a fight... Thunder lucked out and rolled well for initiative: a 27!

Thunder walked past Wander and stood in the middle of a clear area of floor. "First, let's see what you've got. Step on out here and go a few rounds with me."

Thunder blinked, obviously a little surprised. Zombies?! Wow. Just... wow. The superhero gig sure was a weird way to live. After a beat, the tall heroine said, "Well then, I'll do my best to teach you how. In return, you'll be the best student you can be. Deal?" She extended her hand again, her face friendly but quite serious.

Coolio. Thankee kindly, masked stranger!

Thunder pursed her lips and nodded. "No lessons, huh? So you're a street fighter?"

This is related to this post. Dang, Erin and Thunder are really, really close, stats-wise. LOL For expediency's sake, since Erin's unskilled Bluff roll can't equal Thunder's take 10 on Sense Motive (due to Skill Mastery), I'm just going to assume Thunder succeeds reasonably well on her Assessment when the time comes. Let me know if you'd rather roll it out for some reason.

The building was the size of a small warehouse, and the vast majority of it was dedicated to a huge gymnasium. Parts of the floor were concrete, pockmarked with several dozen impact craters. Others were covered with mats or hard wood. Practice dummies and targets were scattered about the area, many of them dented steel. They hung from walls, dangled from chains attached to the distant ceiling, stood on poles in the middle of the floor, and so on. The walls were mostly bare concrete, though one small section was covered with dozens of pictures of fighters in action. A case filled with trophies stood next to the pictures. The end farthest from the door contained a wrought iron spiral staircase leading to a loft that overlooked the floor below. Long, leafy plants dangled from the loft's edge. Sunlight filtered in through a series of heavily barred skylights in the roof, along with some windows set high in the walls. The place smelled of sweat and incense. Padding lithely on bare feet towards Erin and Mr. Archer was a statuesque brown-skinned woman dressed in a black sports bra and baggy knee-length shorts. As she approached, she smiled and shook hands with Mr. Archer, then offered her hand to Erin. Her palm and knuckles were heavily calloused and her grip was quite firm. "Hello. I'm Thunderstanding. Welcome to my home. It's a pleasure to meet you." She looked at Mr. Archer and gestured to a couch near the door. "You can sit over there while we do our thing. There's a fridge behind that screen; feel free to raid it if you get thirsty. Any questions?" "No, no questions right now," replied the teacher. "I'll probably have some later, though." "Okay, then I suppose we'll get started." Thunder turned to Erin and adopted a more serious demeanor. "So, Wander was it? Before we get started, I've got some questions of my own. The first is, what is it that you want out of me?"

Okey-dokey. Slap that baby in the house rules post and I'll do sumpin' else.

Sounds like a good plan to me. Feel free to throw the ol' press release out there, then we can have Thunderstanding and Pompadour meet.

Alicia rubbed the back of her neck and watched Mandy drive away. When the business woman had disappeared from sight, Thunder turned and stepped back into the dojo. What the heck just happened? she asked herself. Hoping she hadn't just made a huge mistake, the heroine returned to abusing her gym's furniture. That, at least, didn't make her brain hurt.

Thunder snorted. "Humble. Yeah, right. But I can do interviews. Been through plenty." The tall heroine started to turn away, but caught herself. "What d'you mean by touching up? I'm not up for lying, or being lied about."

Note: the warehouse was in Greenbank. Thunder's parents live in Lincoln. I edited Mandy's bit in my post, but you'll need to get yours.

Alicia returned the handshake and politely smiled. What the heck have I just gotten myself into? "Sure thing." Thunder took the offered pen and scribbled her contact info in Mandy's book. "Works for me," Alicia replied with a lopsided smile. "I'll clear my calendar." The taller woman blinked in surprise, then stared at Mandy through narrowed eyes. Ms. Karlson certainly did her homework. After a second, Thunderstanding shrugged. "Go ahead. If they find something the cops missed, let me know."

"Okay. I'll train Pompadude and see how it goes. But I get final say over who I train. Period. I see some ghetto boy with mad talent, I'ma train him, prestige or no prestige. Long as you're cool with that, we got a deal." Thunder extended a long, heavily muscled arm toward Mandy to offer a handshake.

Alicia considered Mandy's words for a while. The woman certainly could sell an idea--the whole "superhuman warrior" angle was bad-ass--but something didn't sit right about it all. Eventually, Thunder put her finger on it. What Mandy was describing sounded so very professional. "I don't mind the idea of training folks, and I'd love to be recognized for it. Recognition is definitely gangsta. But my time has to be my own. I refuse to be trapped into some kind of, I dunno, tour schedule or whatever." She rubbed her head. "Ugh. Life was so easy back in the ring. All I had to do was leave my opponent lying on the mat at the end of the fight and let the good times roll. Now, there's detective work and cops and the press and everything else thrown in the mix. Don't expect me to put up with things getting any more complicated than they are now."

What happens if I apply the Secondary Effect extra to a sustained(lasting) power like Emotion Control? Scenario 1: Victim saves in round one. I assume this works normally; i.e. the victim must save against the power again in round two. Scenario 2: Victim fails the save in round one. What does the Secondary Effect do, considering that the victim is already suffering the effects of the power? UP is silent on this matter as far as I can tell, as the paragraph starting "Secondary Effects don't stack,..." (p. 102) concerns the attacker continuing to attack, rather than the continuing effects of Lasting powers.

Okey-dokey. End of May it is. I like the Wildcat idea for Thunder a lot. I loves me some Ted Grant.

D'oh!

Two rolls in the latest post. The first is actually a pair of rolls: an Acrobatics roll to do the necessary flipping about, and an attack roll to put the chair in the right place. The second is a pitiful attempt to have Thunder know anything at all about Pompadour and his past. She's clueless.

"Fair enough," the heroine admitted. Thunder raised an eyebrow skeptically, but she let the other woman continue. Nodding slightly, Thunder took the card. She had to admit, Mandy Karlson was a smooth operator. Immediately, the old Sade song came to mind, and she gave a mental groan. Who knew how long she'd have it stuck in her head? The muscular heroine studied Mandy's card for a while, muttering, "coast to coast, LA to Chicago...". Finally, she raised her head abruptly to look the business woman directly in the eye. "Come on in. Take a load off." She gestured to a chair placed against the nearest load-bearing post. As Mandy smiled and made for the seat, a rushing noise caused her to look back at Thunder. The heroine had already crossed the dojo, and was literally kicking another chair through the air. Impossibly, she was also using the chair to keep herself aloft as her feet struck it. With a heavy clunk, Thunderstanding landed sitting in the chair, giving her guest a lopsided smile. "Okay, tell me about... Pompadour, was it? And talk to me about this training gig."

Thunderstanding sauntered across the practice floor, her bare feet softly padding against its battered concrete surface. An occasional impact crater dotted that surfce, which was part of a room populated with a heavily dented steel version of a wooden dummy, stacks of tumbling mats, punching bags in all sizes, and other well-used martial arts equipment. Targets were placed all about its two stories, including the ceiling. At the far end, a staircase led up to what appeared to be a loft that served as Thunder's living space. Some kind of long-leafed dangling plant hung from the nearest edge. Dabbing at her face with a towel, Alicia asked, "Who's this client of yours, and why exactly can't he, you know, pick up a phone?"

He's also said that they're not meant as "Hard" limits. Kenson, as you no doubt know, tends to be inconsistent on most points. The primary exception is his unfailing support for "do what works for your game".

Ah, okay. You're interpreting the core book's prose differently than I do for Attractive. In the section on PL, it says that a character can't have more than PL+5 ranks in a skill. And, under Attractive, it says that the bonus from Attractive can't increase the character's effective skill rank over the PL limit. You take that to mean that one cannot purchase Attractive to the point that its bonus would break the PL limit. I take that to mean that ranks of Attractive that provide a bonus over the PL limit are wasted (but not verboten). Nota bene: It does seem that Kenson leans more toward your interpretation than mine. I haven't found any posts/whatnot in which he explicitly states a position on this subject, though. Instead, he takes his usual, "Oh, I'd probably do this, but you should do what works for you," approach to the question. On this, I agree, though I will note that I'd allow someone to choose not to use their ranks in Sneak Attack. It just makes sense that way, and it's consistent with PFs being optional when using a power. In any case, I'm not arguing with you on this. I was simply trying to figure out the interpretation of this "house" on the subject, as it runs in what is, to me, a counter-intuitive direction. Now I know, and will tailor my future character submissions accordingly.

Oops. Thunder's gym/apartment is a two-story building, but the entrance is on the ground floor. Other than that, the opening's good. I'll write my response as though the opening had Mandy entering the proper door.