OOC: Legacy of Justice

[Bethyaga]

I'm a little left of center as the system was not terribly designed for the lack of super powers or pretty close to it I know I'm way general, but that's also part of the character, a little bit of everything involved in being sneaky and hard to catch.

Hight basic abilities are a must then, obviously, but you may also want to consider a little Super-Intelligence, Super-Wisdom, and/or Super-Dexterity. These three abilities cover most of the skills I see Nighthawk using. Feel free to have them without them technically being superpowers. For example, Mr. Fantastic would technically have Super-Intelligence even though it's not considered one of his super powers in the comics. Similarly, Bruce Wayne would seem to have Super-Dexterity (low-grade) and Super-Wisdom (high), even though he has no real powers.

[Bethyaga]

Alphabetically then:

Aries - God of War
Dakota Lang - Adventurer Hero
Dr. Cosmos - Phenomenal Cosmic Power! mostly
Kain - uh... post-apocalyptic man of mystery
Nighthawk - Silent Defender of the Night

[kyle]

I need a GM ruling on being able to share my immunities with anybody inside a created bubble - the way GL would create space or undersea bubbles.[/edit]

Heh heh-- you're invisible girl.

[Cazmonster]

Keep talking muscle-head. Nobody's all powerful once they wind up in a Slick patch with their weapon squirting out of their grasp like a greased pig.

[Bethyaga]

This is good. I'm finally grasping the grand vision, and my villains are coming together quite nicely.

Yea, and there was much ass whupping and minion bashing. And it was good.

[Cazmonster]

Okay got another hairbrained question for you.

I can buy Create Object as a stunt off of Cosmic Power. As an extra to Create Object, I can buy Create Attack, which would get me Energy Blast, Snare or Suffocate.

Do I need to pay an Extra to Cosmic Power to get the Create Object Extras, or pay for them as an extra stunt? Or can I not buy extras to Create Object at all?

[Bethyaga]

Buying the Create Objects stunt means you essentially have the Create Objects power at your Cosmic Power rank. Therefore, if you want Snare or Suffocate as an extra to your Create Objects power, it would become an extra to your Cosmic Power.

[Cazmonster]

Everything in Bold should add up to 148. Depending on how I have to pay for Create Attacks under Create Object inside Cosmic Power, I may change a few points around.

Doctor Cosmos has some decent skill totals with the +10 Intelligence bonus, but he's pretty limited on the social interaction. His main power puts him in decent shape defenses wise, and a little weak on the offense. He can use his Universal Tool to get a +10 weapon if he really needs one.

The Universal tool is basically a source of cosmic/flux particles Doctor Cosmos can summon and command to be whatever he needs. He has to concentrate on it to keep it functioning. The comprehend function is for dimension hopping - he's got to be able to understand whatever language he stumbles across.

The original plan had been to give him lots of adventuring-type skills, but with Wild and Thorn both playing skill-bases that didn't make much sense.


Str: 10
Dex: 16 6
Con: 10
Int: 20 10
Wis: 16 6
Cha: 10

Attack Bonus: 4 12
Defense Bonus: 5 10

Feats 12
Aerial Combat, Attack Focus (Cosmic Power), Dodge, Evasion, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot

Immunities - Free
Critical Hits, Energy (Cosmic, Flux, Radiation), Pressure, Suffocation

Skills
Concentration: 5 5
Disable Device: 2 2
Medicine: 5 5
Repair: 3 3

Powers
42 6 - Cosmic Power (Energy Blast, Force Field, Flight, Immunities & Cosmic Sense) Extra - can share immunities with anyone protected inside a Created Object Flaw - Obvious 7pp
4 Stunts - Create Object, Dimensional Travel
3 3 - Flight Flaw - Obvious 1pp
3 3 - Force Field - Obvious 1pp
15 5 - Super Intelligence - 3pp
10 10 - Universal Tool - Comprehend, Gadgets Flaws - Device, Duration 1pp

[Cazmonster]

Okay - I think I'm going to rework Cosmic Power like you said and just hand build it. It'll change the good doctor some, but not much.

[Bethyaga]

Also, Obvious as a Flaw cannot apply to Flight, as Flight is by nature obvious (Cosmic Power and Force Field are fine).

[Cazmonster]

Well, shit. It's just going to take more effort to do what I want.

[Bethyaga]

Boy, you wanna talk about a system built for rules lawyers... I mean, it's all about squeezing out that every last drop.

For example, I was looking over Protonik from the book, and I see that Immunities can count as an Extra off of something like super-strength. Well, crap, then... Aries can bump his Growth power up to 5 ranks, and then count five of his Immunities as Extra off of that, and his cost remains unchanged. The only drawback is that if someone attacks or drains his primary power (Growth/Strength), then all of the extras are drained or reduced at the same time.

And for everyone: don't forget that odd numbers on ability scores are useless--just like D&D. A Wisdom of 16 is identical in function to Wisdom 17. Don't spend the extra point.

And Kyle: You really really want to get the Takedown Attack feat. You'll need to get the Power Attack feat first and bump up your Base Attack Bonus by one (I know, it's getting expensive), but by spending the 7 points total you get:

If one of your melee attacks leaves an opponent stunned, disabled, or worse, you get an immediate additional melee attack against another opponent within reach...
...You can use this ability once per round, unless you're fighting minions, in which case you can use it over and over again until you miss an attack.

Basically, as long as you don't miss, you get to drop every minion within reach... every round. Picture Aragon and Gimli on the bridge at the gate in Two Towers, dropping orcs by the handfuls.

[Bethyaga]

And the Rapid Takedown feat is even cooler (by a long shot) but to get it, you'd need to buy Power Attack, Takedown Attack, and Rapid Takedown, plus bump your BAB to +5, for a total cost of 18 pts.

[Cazmonster]

Okay, as I'm desperately twinking away at Doctor Cosmos, I ran across Telekinesis, which would allow me to move stuff I've bubbled with Create Object. The power itself says that you can make objects fly with the power, but not how fast.

Is it safe to say that if you can lift an object with Telekinesis, you can make it fly at up to your Rank x 5 speed?

[Bethyaga]

That's a pretty safe assumption. However, there's no extra multiplier for taking a full action, etc. But yeah, 5 ft x Rank is good.

[Cazmonster]

A few changes, dropped powers he won't actually be using in favor of those he will. He's now a great deal like Green Lantern, which I think is all to the good.

Str: 10
Dex: 16 6
Con: 12 2
Int: 20 10
Wis: 16 6
Cha: 10

Attack Bonus: 4 12
Defense Bonus: 5 10

Feats 12
Aerial Combat, Attack Focus (Energy Blast), Dodge, Evasion, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot

Super Feat 2
Flux Sense - Like Psychic Awareness, only with Flux Powers

Immunities - Free
Critical Hits, Energy (Electricity, Flux, Light, Radiation), Exhaustion, Poison, Pressure, Suffocation

Skills
Concentration: 4 4
Disable Device: 2 2
Medicine: 6 6
Repair: 2 2

Powers
9 9 - Create Objects - 1pp
Extra: Create Attacks - Energy Blast (Stunning Kinetic Energy)
Flaw: Duration (Concentration), Obvious
2 Power Stunt: Snare Power
45 9 - Flux Mastery (Energy Blast (Lethal Flux Energy), Force Field, Flight, Immunities) - 5pp
Extra - can share immunities with anyone protected inside a Created Object
Flaw - Obvious
2 Power Stunt: Dimension Travel
9 3 - Super Intelligence - 3pp
9 9 - Telekinesis - 1pp
Flaw - Only works on Created Objects

[Cazmonster]

That's a pretty safe assumption. However, there's no extra multiplier for taking a full action, etc. But yeah, 5 ft x Rank is good.

Kickass - I wanted to have a way to do all of the following

A - Fly the rest of the team along
B - Create a hovering platform for rescue work
and
C - Suspend a target in mid-air with a force bubble

And the only good rules-way to do it was to use Telekinesis

[Bethyaga]

Cosmos kicks ass, Caz. He's looking really good.

[Cazmonster]

Thanks Bethy - I was hoping that this time around I'd get the suite of powers right.

Now to see what everybody else gets up to...

[kyle]

And the Rapid Takedown feat is even cooler (by a long shot) but to get it, you'd need to buy Power Attack, Takedown Attack, and Rapid Takedown, plus bump your BAB to +5, for a total cost of 18 pts.

We're not playing for a couple of weeks, right? My book is supposed to get here next week (damn super saver shipping) and I'm going to wait until then to study all the rules and tweak it, instead of reading a "draft" print copy of a pdf.

[kyle]

Keep talking muscle-head. Nobody's all powerful once they wind up in a Slick patch with their weapon squirting out of their grasp like a greased pig.

Are you hitting on me?

[Cazmonster]

Keep talking muscle-head. Nobody's all powerful once they wind up in a Slick patch with their weapon squirting out of their grasp like a greased pig.

Are you hitting on me?

Just making you aware of certain eventualities.

[kyle]

Just making you aware of certain eventualities.

Christ, I MIGHT have a problem with my greased, slick weapon squirting out prematurely. But we can work on it.

[Bethyaga]

And the Rapid Takedown feat is even cooler (by a long shot) but to get it, you'd need to buy Power Attack, Takedown Attack, and Rapid Takedown, plus bump your BAB to +5, for a total cost of 18 pts.

We're not playing for a couple of weeks, right? My book is supposed to get here next week (damn super saver shipping) and I'm going to wait until then to study all the rules and tweak it, instead of reading a "draft" print copy of a pdf.

Cool. No hurry.

[Thorn]

Just making you aware of certain eventualities.

Christ, I MIGHT have a problem with my greased, slick weapon squirting out prematurely. But we can work on it.

I hear thinking about baseball helps.....

[Bethyaga]

I have an Excel spreadsheet (in Excel 97) that lets you plug in the basic values and it will do much of the math for you. You still need to know what you're doing, but this cuts out much of the tedium of adding and re-adding every time you make a change.

If anyone wants it, I can share.

[DV8]

Baby, hit me one more time.</britney>

[kyle]

I have an Excel spreadsheet (in Excel 97) that lets you plug in the basic values and it will do much of the math for you. You still need to know what you're doing, but this cuts out much of the tedium of adding and re-adding every time you make a change.

If anyone wants it, I can share.

Please email it to me.

[Bethyaga]

Kyle and Deev: spreadsheet sent. Let me know if there are issues with it.

[DV8]

Kyle and Deev: spreadsheet sent. Let me know if there are issues with it.

I haven't received anything yet. Are you sure you sent it to the wiredreflexes-email address and not my old dv8.nl address?

[Bethyaga]

Oops. There ya go. Been a long time since I've had to email you.

[kyle]

My book is here! My book is here!

Casa Bonita is sooo awesome!

[Bethyaga]

How are the characters coming? I know I've gotten all quiet and whatnot, but I'm putting my efforts into plots and twists and villains and minions and bases and crises and innocent bystanders, etc... as far as you know.

In addition to stats, I'd be interested to hear character histories and even descriptions of your costumes if you're that ambitious.

[Cypherpunk]

In addition to stats, I'd be interested to hear character histories and even descriptions of your costumes if you're that ambitious.

I have all of the latter, in my head, and none of the former. This weekend will be busy for me, but I'll try to pencil some time in next weekend. Does that work?

[Bethyaga]

That's fine. You and I will need to work together a little at some point. Everyone else just wakes up when and where is convenient for me, but your history will be relevant to how the whole scenario ties together.

[Cazmonster]

History will be winging its way to you over this weekend. I may even use that cool hero builder over at UGO.com to do a character sketch.

[kyle]

History will be winging its way to you over this weekend. I may even use that cool hero builder over at UGO.com to do a character sketch.

ugo.com kicks ass!

[kyle]

Aries- Bringing the Pain

When are we looking at playing? In a couple weeks, months? What time of week?

Here's the ugo.com picture of Aries:

http://www.geocities.com/wandmlaw/aries.html

[Bethyaga]

Dude... a kilt maybe?

[kyle]

Dude... a kilt maybe?

Dude, Aries is truly the post-apocolyptic metrosexual: a speedo with open-toed sandals. You can't deny the attraction. This shit kills on Mount Olympus.

[Bethyaga]

But back to Kyle's question: when do we play. I imagine this game will run about 3 sessions (maybe 2, maybe 5, but 3 is a really good guess). Each session will have to take place on a Friday or Saturday evening, starting at about 8 or 9 pm US Central Standard time. I envision each session lasting until we find a good breaking point or until we just can't take it anymore--likely 5 to 7 hours--with a couple of substantial breaks in there (like 15 minutes each). The three gaming sessions will be spaced approximately 3 to 6 weeks apart.

I know holidays will be difficult, and to make them worse, I'm looking to have surgery on around Dec 19, and then be laid up for 2 weeks.

My original plan is to run on straight IRC, and then if anyone (Kai, Deev *wink* *wink*) can provide a cool dicebot, especially one that works on Mac for poor Caz, that would be cool too. I would love to have an easy to use tool for an interactive map and/or whiteboard, since d20 combat can be so tactical, but most of the gaming tools I've seen in that vein are just too involved. We're probably better off freeforming it (but a shared whiteboard would still be handy for other stuff).

Thoughts? I'm thinking of putting the first session in the middle of January as per my initial post, but that all depends on everyone else.

[Cazmonster]

There's no reason I can think of that kicking things off in January won't work.

Don't worry about the dice bot, so long as it's running on a PC, my mac will just maek calls to it and it will function swimmingly.

An interactive whiteboard would indeed rock, but I bet we can function just fine without it. I know I've dealt with 12-15 combatant fights in d20 in my head and not forgotten anybody.

[Bethyaga]

But with a whiteboard handy, sometimes it's easier to just say, "The emblem on his chest looks like: this" rather than describing it. Or to give a quick layout of a room or something. I really don't enjoy the interactive maps in online combat, but I've never had an online whiteboard to see if it helps at all.

[Kai]

Winternight's always running on Dumpshock unless I do something stupid (like let that machine update files for 2 days), in case you care to play around with it, just /msg Winternight !help and it will throw usage info at you.

Don't know of any whiteboard programs offhand but I can take a look sometime

[Bethyaga]

Thanks.

[Bethyaga]

Wow. You're my new favorite person. Thank you again.

[Bethyaga]

Do you have more info on the various schema? What advantage do I get by setting the schema to d20?

[Cazmonster]

Cazmonster lamahumps Bethy's new sig.

[Kai]

Interactivly, no, but I can tell you what's programmed. Essentially the differences come in what's considered a success, I actually think d20 is broken in that a target rolls counts success as under the target value instead of over, but most times GMs just want a check roll where they can see the results. I'll fix that at some point, though.

Setting a channel schema kinda insures it doesn't do weird stuff essentially, its useable without one, but no guarentees its doing what it should be

[Cazmonster]

Doctor Robert Quimby unlocked the secrets of cosmic energy after long and painstaking research. His own studies in cosmic power were based largely on the work of Einstein and Oppenheimer. However, he discovered alternate dimensions and that phenomenal power, the sort that created the entire universe, waited to be tapped in the spaces between them. He had seen the effect of the atomic bombs, and swore to keep secret his discovery, lest far more dangerous weapons be created and used in future wars.

However, his home city of Chicago had become dangerous and unruly after World War Two. Many men came home to find their jobs had moved to the coasts. The gangsters who had run Chicago in his childhood were returning to power. Their sons were everywhere, buying up and controlling legitimate businesses and using them to fund crimes all over the States.

Quimby decided that he would use his discovery to make things right. Arming himself with the Infinity Engine and his Quantum Blaster, Doctor Cosmos took to the streets. His original costume was much like the rest of the cape and cowl brigade: long black trench coat, fedora and face-obscuring silver scarf. His powers were never subtle. The quantum blaster fired what looked and sounded like lightning bolts. The Infinity Engine always hummed and burbled to itself loudly enough that it masked normal conversation. When it was activated, it roared and squealed like a building-sized radio tuned to static.

In a career that spanned five years, he thwarted dozens of gangsters and put the O’Banyons, the Vlatosks, and Carmine Frattelli behind bars. Lucian Washington, the massive black gang-lord of the South Side was the first man Doctor Cosmos was forced to kill. The Presidents had taken most of City Hall hostage, along with his wife, Cynthia. In a cataclysmic battle against half a dozen techno-armored thugs, Doctor Cosmos detonated a quantum singularity against Washington’s Soviet-designed battlesuit, killing him instantly. The resulting vortex yanked Doctor Cosmos out of our reality and into dimensions unknown, but not before his wife and the leaders of Chicago saw Robert Quimby revealed as Doctor Cosmos.

For another three years, Doctor Cosmos attempted to find his way back to the Earth dimension. He had many adventures on strange worlds and honed his control over the Infinity Engine. In time, he returned to Earth to be restored to his grateful family and a joyous Chicago. He continued his career as a hero and dimensional traveler, becoming a long-standing member of Justice United.

As of the events leading to Legacy of Justice, Doctor Cosmos was 54.