Truth, Justice and Brownies if you got 'em (Superheroes, MHR)

[Kunoichi]

Hmm, so there's something else to add to the list for comics to get around to reading...

[TheFourthShade]

Is it weird that I like superhero games but I don't really read comics that much?

[Kunoichi]

Nope, not at all. ^^ There are frequent complaints that the writing in comic books is terrible, so I'd say it's a fairly understandable turn of events.

[TheFourthShade]

Wrong thread.

[wander]

wrong thread?

[ShadowFox89]

Wrong thread.

[TheFourthShade]

Wrong thread.

I have a 'wrong side of the clock' schedule, so naturally sometimes I get upside down.

Either that or I've got a very serious brain problem that will end in my death.

Here's hoping I hit the lottery Wednesday.

[Guancyto]

I don't see any tone issue at all with a milestone centered around making amends with your old enemies. I mean, I know it's backstory but Batman Brave and the Bold introduces Plastic Man, a reformed supervillain, in its what, second episode?

I may have introduced the GM to Nextwave over the weekend. I'm not apologizing.

I may have to drop dropbears on you until you start apologizing.

Okay for finished sheets we have:
Kunoichi, playing Ace, a Paragon and fictional superheroine come to life
Premier, playing Doc Tabs, a Mad Scientist who will never pilot a Timber Wolf
ReijiTabibito, playing Darclight, a Powersuit looking to get the team back together
wander, playing Kitt, a Geek, and a dude in distress
TheFourthShade, playing Kanina, a bunnygirl bounty hunter

For works in progress we have:
shadowfox, playing Whitney, explosion girl

And then some people who have expressed interest but never made anything. Am I missing anyone?

[Premier]

Premier, playing Doc Tabs, a Mad Scientist who will never pilot a Timber Wolf

I see what you did there.

[wander]

Let's start already! ^^;;

[ReijiTabibito]

I see what you did there.

I did, too.

*not sure if he should boo the GM of the game that's about to start*

Okay.  I think I've all-set my character.  I'll post one last final version of him here, and that will be him at the start of the campaign.

Darclight V2.0

Darclight
Origin: Alien Battle Armor

Affiliations
Solo d8
Buddy d6
Team d10

Distinctions
Stormwatch - Original Generation, Red Team Leader
Kiss My Acid-Base Complex
Brought You All Together For A Purpose

ALIEN BATTLE ARMOR
Enhanced Reflexes d8, Superhuman Durability d10, Superhuman Strength d10, Cybernetic Senses d8, Jump-Jets d10

SFX: Beat the Heat - On a successful reaction against a heat-based energy attack, convert opponent's effect die into an ALIEN BATTLE ARMOR stunt or double a Power for your next roll.  Spend 1PP to gain the benefit on an unsuccessful reaction.

SFX: Internal Nanite Stock - Spend 1 PP to recover your Physical stress and step back your Physical trauma by -1.

SFX: Evasive Maneuvers - Spend 1 PP to add Jump-Jets (or step up by +1 if already in your pool) and reroll all dice on a reaction.

SFX: Built for War - Add d6 and step up effect die by +1 when using BATTLE ARMOR powers to inflict Physical stress.

Limit: Zero-Point Energy Divert - Shut down any BATTLE ARMOR power and gain 1 PP. Recover power by activating an opportunity or during a Transition Scene.

CRYO-CONTROL UNIT
Cold Weapons d8, Cold Mastery d10, Heat Resistance d10

SFX: Cone of Cold - Target multiple opponents.  For every additional target, add 1d6 to your pool and keep +1 effect die.

SFX: Frozen Constructs - When using CRYO-CONTROL UNIT to create cold-related assets, add 1d6 and step up your effect die by +1.

Limit: Cryo Containment Protocols - Shut down a CRYO-CONTROL UNIT power to gain 1 PP; recover by spending 1 PP or during a Transition Scene.

Limit: Ultracoolant Failure - Earn 1 PP and change any CRYO-CONTROL UNIT Power into a Complication or shutdown.  Activate an opportunity or remove the Complication to recover.

AUTONOMOUS ACTION MODE
Armored Battle Suit 2d10

SFX: Emergency Activation. If you have been stressed out in an Action scene, you may spend 1 PP to activate Autonomous Action Mode.

Limit: Mutually Exclusive. Shutdown Alien Battle Armor and Cryo-Control Unit to activate Autonomous Action Mode. Shutdown Autonomous Action Mode to recover Alien Battle Armor and Cryo-Control Unit.

Limit: Limited Autonomous Action. Armored Battle Suit may be targeted individually or by Area Attack SFX. D12 Physical Stress removes a die from Armored Battle Suit power. Recover Armored Battle Suit after a Transition Scene.

Specialties:
Combat Master
Cosmic Expert
Covert Expert
Medical Expert
Science Master

Milestones

RIDERS ON THE STORM
Stormwatch was once the name in heroic teams.  They're gone now...but nothing is truly gone as long as it is remembered.

1xp - Identify a Watcher character as either an ally, member, or enemy of Stormwatch
3xp - when one or more characters agree to help you rebuild Stormwatch
10xp - Announce to the world (after convincing enough heroes to join you) that Stormwatch has returned - or give up any hope of putting Stormwatch back together.



IGNORANCE CANNOT DICTATE THE COURSE OF MEN
Science.  It is the future.

1xp - when you explain something scientific to an ally.
3xp - whenever you use your Science Specialty to create an Asset or a Resource.
10xp - whenever your Science Specialty saves the day...or causes it to blow up in everyone's face.

[wander]

Just saying, that Autonomous Action Mode seems OP to me...

[ReijiTabibito]

It's mainly meant as something similar to Shadowcat's To the Rescue SFX for Lockheed - a way to remove Darclight from the Scene if he's stressed out.

[wander]

So, what power is it supposed to replicate? Teleport, Flight or Endurance? Most datafiles in MHR don't replace the Power name with a descriptor, for ease of knowing what die to use in what situation...

[ReijiTabibito]

The idea is that the Autonomous mode gains limited control over the suit itself, with the directive to get out of danger.  I basically described an 'emergency escape action' to Kunoichi (who was nice enough to help me out with the character), and this is what she came up with...you'll have to ask her for more.

[Premier]

How is AUTONOMOUS ACTION MODE a 2d10 power?  I didn't even know that was possible.

[ReijiTabibito]

How is AUTONOMOUS ACTION MODE a 2d10 power?  I didn't even know that was possible.

*Flails*

I tell you, I don't know!  I was just going to make it an SFX for Alien Battle Armor, just like the one I mentioned for Shadowcat, but when I described what I wanted out of it to someone else, this is what they came up with, and I just went with it!  You'll have to ask them!

I might not have gone along with it, if I wasn't so worried about having 5 SFX associated with one powerset but only one limit to go with it.

EDIT: from what I can garner out of the book, it's similar to powers like Scarecrow's (no, not THAT ONE) Murder of Crows.  Check his datafile in the Breakout book, page 45.

[wander]

They have a pack of crows, which can be targetted. As it stands, your character is one target and it doesn't make sense to have the two dice like that. Usually it isn't possible to have two die like that together for a Power (also, you need to say exactly what the Power is).

About the sfxs... Evasive Manouvres on the first set seems OP as does the Built for War one... You effectively can drop a d12 stress on an enemy fairly easily with it, given your d10 strength and the sheer amount of d10s you can use in a pool. Many mooks and enemies tend to get knocked out at d12 stress. I'd look over these sfx, consolidate to one that's more inline with the others.

Limits; Why have the option to shutdown a Power or make it a Complication? Making a Power into a Complication makes it pretty much a dice that others use against you, it's unusable to you anyway, same as if shutdown. You basically have the same Limit, but have two strengths of it and I wonder why you'd ever choose to make a Power into a complication when you can just shut it down.

I honestly think you need to relook over the character and ask yourself; do you really need half of what they have here?

I'd like to see how Kunoichi explains that Powerset tbh, as it doesn't make any sense, looking at it.

[ReijiTabibito]

They have a pack of crows, which can be targetted. As it stands, your character is one target and it doesn't make sense to have the two dice like that. Usually it isn't possible to have two die like that together for a Power (also, you need to say exactly what the Power is).

You'll have to ask Kunoichi.  I was surprised, too, at the 2d10.  At best, I figured it would be a d10.  If I reworked the power, personally, I would use it as a TELEPORT d8 - let them get away, but not TOO far away.

About the sfxs... Evasive Manouvres on the first set seems OP as does the Built for War one... You effectively can drop a d12 stress on an enemy fairly easily with it, given your d10 strength and the sheer amount of d10s you can use in a pool. Many mooks and enemies tend to get knocked out at d12 stress. I'd look over these sfx, consolidate to one that's more inline with the others.

Evasive Maneuvers is basically Spider-Sense from Spidey's datafile sheet, just with Jump-Jets instead of his Enhanced Senses.  I could easily reclassify the SFX to use his Cybernetic Senses (a d8) and simply reflavor it as an active alert system or the like.

Built for War was made when I originally had the character, and his Strength was only a d8 as opposed to a d10.  And yes, he can pretty easily drop an enemy with it.  He's a war machine, beating things up is what he does.

Limits; Why have the option to shutdown a Power or make it a Complication? Making a Power into a Complication makes it pretty much a dice that others use against you, it's unusable to you anyway, same as if shutdown. You basically have the same Limit, but have two strengths of it and I wonder why you'd ever choose to make a Power into a complication when you can just shut it down.

Most of the canon heroic datafiles I've run into have only one or two limits - and a number of those profiles have way more SFX than the Limit + 1 rule of thumb that I keep hearing about.  The Fantastic 4 are the worst offenders in that respect - each of them has only 1 limit, but all of them have 4 SFX, save Sue Storm who has 5!

I mainly came up with Ultracoolant Failure because it was an additional limit I could see with Darclight.  If I wasn't trying to come up with extra Limits, then I wouldn't really worry about it.

I honestly think you need to relook over the character and ask yourself; do you really need half of what they have here?

The Heroic system lets you create the character you want to have.  If you want to make someone like the Sentry, with the power of a million exploding suns, you can do that.  If you want to make someone mostly mundane like Black Widow or Captain America, you can do that.  If you want to create someone who has only one power, like Cyclops, you can make them as easily as someone like Storm, who has 7 powers, all in the same set.

EDIT: Does Darclight need half of what he's got?  I haven't the foggiest.  But I've made him as I want him, which is the point.  If the GM wants to tell me to knock off this power or this SFX because it unbalances the character, then as the guy running the game, that's his prerogative.

[Kunoichi]

When it comes to the Autonomous Action Mode power set, I imagined it as a 'Darclight steps out of the suit and it starts operating independently of him' sort of power when first suggesting it to Reiji, which is why I gave it the mutually exclusive limit to make it so that it can't be used alongside his other two power sets.  If 2d10 is a bit too much for that sort of power set, then would lowering it to only a single d10 and having it otherwise function unchanged work?  Multiple Man from the X-Men pdf gets 3d8 for his power, so I honestly didn't think that 2d10 would be a problem when I was first designing the power.

As for the Emergency Activation SFX, that was mostly just intended to be a 'the armor starts acting on its own to preserve its wearer if he gets taken out' sort of ability.  If that's also too powerful, perhaps it could just be changed to a 'spend 1 plot point to immediately exit the scene if you've been taken out' effect, instead?

[wander]

Just adding in Shadowcat's sfx works just fine. Teleport d8 seems most suitable if you had to make a Power-set from what's basically a pay 1PP sfx. I still think you should just replace one of your current sfx with the Shadowcat one if you wanted it tbh. Note that the sfx basically works by removing your character when KOd from the field so noone can place further trauma and potentially kill them. It's an unusual circumstance as usually when a player has been KOd, there's no more reason for a Watcher character to target them anymore, your character has basically been knocked out of the scene anyway. I kinda find it a waste of a PP to do that, unless the Watcher is being particularly 'rocks fall' on the players.

Lastly, there is zero point to renaming Powers, so many datafiles don't do that so their abilities remain clear... It's the narrative that shows off how the Power functions in a roll, not giving it a descriptor. Those 2d10 could be used for multiple Powers, which is kinda unfair.
Flavouring basically comes in a Power-Set by what you call the set and the sfx and Limits you give it, of which you can name those. The Powers are still named the same as what they are listed as in the Powers section of the base corebook. There are very few cases with canon datafiles that they name their Powers based on descriptive titles of what they actually are. Thats what the sfx and limits get, not the Power dice themselves.

And I'm dropping this subject now, you play whatever... Though I'm getting kinda sick of seeing characters that can take on Thanos and Galactus in team-based stories and Power-sets that twist the rules of the game to get advancements no other heros have... It just makes the GM's job harder to keep up and it's a pain for everyone else to fight things we can't beat to keep the challenge up for one or two players.

[Guancyto]

Hmm, I'd rather leave off a 2d10 power like that to start with and then add it later as the stakes ramp up, rather than have it at the very start and then remove it. Remember that y'all do get XP! (Edit: adding it if/when your personal bad guys show up seems like a reasonable way to go, I think? A Chitauri invasion is a good time to experiment with bigger powers.) I deputized wander on mechanics-duty for a reason, so please do show some courtesy.

Okay, gonna make food and then make the intro thread.

Edit: Working with your last member on milestones. In the meantime, OOC thread is here, please repost ye sheets and then away we'll go:
https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=242691.0

[Guancyto]

Okay! IC thread is here:
https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=242700.msg11983269#msg11983269
And an opening for you all. Hope it isn't too rough.

Event 1, Act 1: The Moonstone Robbery! Shake off the Cobwebs!
1xp: Meet another hero and team up!
3xp: Get tied up in webbing. Again.
10xp: Discover the purpose of the Moonstone Robbery, and either put a stop to it or find another solution

Hook: Time to stop being retired.
Doom Pool: 2d6

[Kunoichi]

Ah, this is definitely looking like it's going to be a fun game. ^^ Especially since that Milestone almost looks like it was tailor-made for me. :P

[ReijiTabibito]

Quick question for the GM: does that Event Milestone stack on top of the two personal ones we've got?  (IE, we have 3 Milestones to gain XP from)

I ask because the GM of my last game basically said "You can only have 2 Milestones during any 1 event, and you have to pick them before you post in the Event for the first time."