The Force of Justice - OOC Thread

[D. Rex]

Just a short note: I'm kinda revisiting my plans thus from scratch right now, since the character feels quite linear from what I have right now - and I like characters that have different options available to them. Feels like I'm missing another ingredient to not just be sneak and stab, might drop that in favor of more flexibility... might go with a darkness/fog-related theme, I'll see if that feels better...

I was actually thinking about abilities that let me do status effects, though I only had so many points to go around.

We already have a blaster in Luminary, so I wanted to focus more on Entagle and Transform. And on the latter I made it so the more transform "damage" I do, they are effected by it as they get closer to the final state.

So I can bind people up with ice, or freeze them and make them slower.

Basically making creating vulnerabilities for bricks and blasters to exploit. I figure this would do well for incentivizing teamwork.

Darkness/fog could open up some good opportunities to weakening opponents too. Not the least of which being they can't hurt what they can't see.

And sneak and stab is good. But what if that stab is crippling? Using powers like Flash to destroy their senses or sapping their Defense traits with Drain. Duplication for making dark clomes of yourself to confuse the enemy. Or Aid to use darkness or fog to increase comrades or innocents DCV.


Lol just batting ideas around, though it sounds like I'm describing a ninja.

 

[Silanon]

I could see some magic that separates light and darkness and uses both parts - in one moment, it's a walking smoke grenade for the team, in the next it's some brightly white shining angelic creature that flashes the opponents. Would fit quite well with the whole "two-edged knowledge"-theme I was going for. Maybe add a bit of weakening fog to that, a heroic version of knock-out gas... maybe there's then still enough points left over for a bit of stabbing action for when I come out of the fog... hmm... it goes a bit in the "not quite so heroic"-direction, but I think I like that concept-wise. Let others take the spotlight, stay in the background, do some sneaky and battlefield-controlling stuff.

 

[Silanon]

Scratch the light-part, Psychie has that covered. Didn't think that far earlier - whoops.

 

[Sherwood]

In looking at examples in the book, most only have one rating for Strength unless they are in a suit. Is that a point saving means, based on having her be that strong when her power is activated? If this is a 'only super strong when its turned on', what would I have to give up to get 'always on' instead?

The / for your Strength means that the first 15 point of Str does not have the Limitation of Perceivable. That Limitation means that when you are not using that much strength for small stuff (opening a jar of pickles, lifting a box, stuff like that), you don't glow. When you kick it up a notch and use more power, then you have a glowing effect around your body that shows people that you are using your enhanced strength. Same for your PD/ED with that. A minor effect on you will not make you glow. But if you take some sizable damage, you'll light up.

I notice her Constitution is a flat 25; is that good? Does that mean she's always equally durable?

That is very good. That means you have to take 26 Stun past your defenses before you are Phased (knocked silly for a moment) and lose one of your actions as you Recover. Most average people have only a 10.

She also has more intelligence and less Presence than every Brick in the book. Any particular reason going that route is the smarter mechanical approach? I also notice the two sheets posted so far have a Presence of 10/20 and 15/25 split whereas her sheet just says 15 (I think, not sure what the /5 / 12- is for). I'm not angling for party leader, nor am I angling for Mind Control but ideally a nominally charismatic, heroic figure with PR coaching shouldn't have the (sometimes) lowest Presence on the team, no? Or is this a case of me just not having the points to go around?

I went with the higher Int to give you the added +1 to your skill rolls that involve that stat. I was thinking that you didn't necessarily want it, but I can shift some numbers around to get you a higher Pre. The 10/20 on some stats mean that there is a change in status between being in your Civilian Id and their Hero Id. You only have the one, so your Pre is just the one stat.

On the stats, the 12- / 22- on your Str is your Str Roll for when you are performing a Strength check.

Strength Tricks Power Skill? I notice a lot of Brick writeups have this, should I?

That can be tricky sometimes. If you want to be able to do a shockwave or a thunderclap effect all the time as a standard thing, it would be best to buy it as a full-on power. That can be arranged with a Strength Multipower. You could get that starting out, but I'd have to trim something, like the Regeneration.

For Skills, I'd love to pick up Teamwork and at least one Language (definitely Spanish, probably Arabic).

Ok!

For Skills, why does she have Computer Programming, Criminology, Cryptography, Deduction, etc.? Electronics, Security Systems and Streetwise may be a bit borderline too, depending on their actual descriptions (which I haven't had time to look up and read). She's not stupid but she's a high-school grad with an Infantry MOS, I would assume she can operate a radio, use a charge to blow a door and spot a suspicious character but I doubt she can repair a circuit, pick a lock or get herself a snitch off the street to work as a contact.

I can easily drop them in favor of your wanted language and weapon skills. Deduction is almost a required skill on all my characters because it gives you a chance to figure out a fact or detail that has the player stumped.

Are Guns a separate skill? Even if she's not going to use it, it would totally make sense to have Guns as a skill given her background.

Easily added. That falls under the Weapon Familiarity skill.

I see a lot of Bricks have +2-+5 in Hth for 16 to 32 points. Is that something she has and I don't see it? And she has a lot of Marital Art Maneuvers other Bricks don't seem to have. Is that a deliberate design decision? Or am I accidentally in the wrong edition or something?

A big reason why I didn't go with that for you is that you have a base 13d6 HtH attack before adding in your Martial Arts skills, which then bring your numbers up to the 15-17d6 range. If you were to get more HtH levels, that would put you over the top of my damage cap.

Positive Reputation Perk? Would be nice to pick up, fitting the Captain America-style propaganda/money-making tool she's on the hook for doing.

I can do that.

What about Well Connected? Would that make sense or just be a point drain?

Well Connected lowers the cost of your Contacts by 1 point each. Great if you have many Contacts purchased, otherwise it is not needed.

"The most common Fringe Benefit in many superhero campaigns is Police Powers (typically Local, Federal, or International, but ranging up to Interstellar in Galactic Champions campaigns). This represents a hero (or superteam) who’s “sanctioned” with law enforcement powers by the appropriate authorities. A hero with sanction can function much like a police officer — he can make arrests, testify in court while maintaining his Secret Identity, easily arrange for villains he captures to be detained in jails and prisons, and so on."

Just a bit of a spoiler, you will be getting Federal Police Powers once you are in your new team.

Dependent NPCs seem to be a thing, from Frail Relative to Significant Other. What about a tight-knit household (aka. her parents, half a dozen siblings, a few who've moved out but come over for dinner every week, one married sibling at home for the free child care, etc.)?

I can swap out some of your current Complications for that.

Also: Physical Complication: Doesn’t Know Own Strength (Frequently, Slightly Impairing; 15 points). When the Brick interacts with delicate or fragile items — or people — the GM occasionally calls on him to make a DEX Roll. (The GM may choose to make the roll for the player without informing him of the fact, the better to surprise him with possible consequences.) If the roll fails, the character accidentally exerts his Casual STR on whatever he’s holding, possibly damaging it.
Didn't realize that was a complication in the book but it's exactly the kind of thing I had in mind. Is there a good reason not to take it?

If you want it, that is easily accomplished. It is up to you. How much control over your Strength do you have?

Dependence: Speedster Metabolism (Very Common/Easy To Obtain; Weakness, 1 Hour; 5 points): The character must sustain his hyperaccelerated metabolism by feeding a tremendous appetite. He’s always stopping off in mid-patrol for a snack.
I hadn't thought of her as a Speedster but the notion of needing to eat a lot to fuel superhuman feats of strength had crossed my mind, wondering if there was a reason not to go this route.

No reason; but you can get it if you want.

Under the Patriot writeup it had:
Psychological Complication: Overprotective Of (Class of People) (Uncommon, Strong; 10 points): A Patriot with this Psychological Complication feels a special kinship with or responsibility for one specific category of people — women, children, computer nerds, teachers and childcare personnel, and so on, particularly if they’re a subset of the nation he represents. The presence of this Complication means the character will be extra-diligent about protecting this type of person and unusually outraged when this type of person is harmed, endangered, or even insulted.
Kids would be right up her alley for extra protection.

Done! I can go with that.

It also mentions:
Social Complication: Subject To Orders if he’s a part of his nation’s military.
I'd thought about her being more or less discharged but still having a relationship as advertisement for the military (embarrassingly like Captain America), plus the agency running her image (who also provide her paycheck and help her take care of her extended family, giving them a leash to pull on if they need to). Thoughts?

I got a part of that in the Watched by US Government. They may not have you totally under their thumbs, but they do want to keep track of you.

EXPANDED SUSCEPTIBILITY EFFECTS
Loss Of Power: all of the character’s powers are reduced to 75% effectiveness
I notice you put Vulnerabilities instead of Susceptibility. Is there a setting or rules/tactical reason to go Vulnerabilities over Susceptibility?

Six of one, half dozen of the other. Which would you prefer?

Is there a limit on Complications? Beyond "Don't box yourself in" or "Don't shamelessly accrue a huge list for the sake of excessive point accumulation"?

You only need 100 points of Complications, but you can add some more as flavor if you so choose.

 

[Sherwood]

Ok, Epiphany Check out the revised copy of your character and let me know what you think.

 

[Epiphany]

The / for your Strength means that the first 15 point of Str does not have the Limitation of Perceivable. That Limitation means that when you are not using that much strength for small stuff (opening a jar of pickles, lifting a box, stuff like that), you don't glow. When you kick it up a notch and use more power, then you have a glowing effect around your body that shows people that you are using your enhanced strength. Same for your PD/ED with that. A minor effect on you will not make you glow. But if you take some sizable damage, you'll light up.

Excellent, I can roll with that. On the topic of going bonfire, how (or if) does this system handle stunting? If I describe an exchange of "he shoots me, I run and punch him" with "I rip a section out of the street to take the fireball he threw before I throw it at him, leaping after it and using it as a visual shield so when he blasts it apart, I come out of the spray of debris, hurling a punch squarely against his chest", is that okay to resolve as a block/punch or am I setting myself up for a string or sequence of actions that are (a) more work for you to administer, (b) adding a bunch of rolls and/or adding penalities that will make me less successful and (c) likely to slow the game down?

That is very good. That means you have to take 26 Stun past your defenses before you are Phased (knocked silly for a moment) and lose one of your actions as you Recover. Most average people have only a 10.

I hadn't realized until now that Constitution and PD/ED do different things. Thanks!

Iwent with the higher Int to give you the added +1 to your skill rolls that involve that stat. I was thinking that you didn't necessarily want it, but I can shift some numbers around to get you a higher Pre. The 10/20 on some stats mean that there is a change in status between being in your Civilian Id and their Hero Id. You only have the one, so your Pre is just the one stat.

Ahhhh, interesting. They have higher Presence because their superhero role means people are more likely to listen to them? Or do they have a power that raises their Presence that they only use in costume? Or are they deliberately just less forceful personalities Clark Kent style?

I like the idea of bonuses to Intelligence rolls, if it's possible to keep that, that would be nice.

That said, for Presence, Ogre (pg. 211) has a rating of 25, and he's practically Hulk-like in dialogue.
Ironclad (pg. 190) has 20.
I see the bump to 20 edited in the sheet. What would it take to get a 25 or 30?

On the stats, the 12- / 22- on your Str is your Str Roll for when you are performing a Strength check.

I clearly have a lot of reading to do...

That can be tricky sometimes. If you want to be able to do a shockwave or a thunderclap effect all the time as a standard thing, it would be best to buy it as a full-on power. That can be arranged with a Strength Multipower. You could get that starting out, but I'd have to trim something, like the Regeneration.

I haven't seen a Brick writeup with an extra power that is more than a nice to have, but it would be nice to grow into options. How easy is it to expand powers or buy new ones with earned points? Just need to justify as in theme?

I see you added Shockwave and Thunderclap. I'm not wholly sure how to use them or if they may work better if acquired later. I'm good with tossing them for now, if the points recycled can instead go to making her good at taking a hit (she's evidently more than good at hitting already) and (if points can be used cross category) bumping up Presence.

I can easily drop them in favor of your wanted language and weapon skills. Deduction is almost a required skill on all my characters because it gives you a chance to figure out a fact or detail that has the player stumped.

Sounds like Deduction would be good to keep, then. Otherwise, great.

A big reason why I didn't go with that for you is that you have a base 13d6 HtH attack before adding in your Martial Arts skills, which then bring your numbers up to the 15-17d6 range. If you were to get more HtH levels, that would put you over the top of my damage cap.

I don't really understand how all that works yet. But good to know that there's good mechanical reasoning.

Well Connected lowers the cost of your Contacts by 1 point each. Great if you have many Contacts purchased, otherwise it is not needed.

Nah, I'll pass.

Just a bit of a spoiler, you will be getting Federal Police Powers once you are in your new team.

Groovy.

I can swap out some of your current Complications for that.

If you want it, that is easily accomplished. It is up to you. How much control over your Strength do you have?

No reason; but you can get it if you want.

Done! I can go with that.

I got a part of that in the Watched by US Government. They may not have you totally under their thumbs, but they do want to keep track of you.

Six of one, half dozen of the other. Which would you prefer?

You only need 100 points of Complications, but you can add some more as flavor if you so choose.

I rechecked the sheet to think about what to do and it looks like you already incorporated edits. I think what you have up for Complications works for me.

Thanks for your graciousness and flexibility!

 

[Sherwood]

Awesome! Go ahead and copy/paste Lady Justice over to the Character thread, and then you can add in your Background story and the pic that you have for her (pretty cool, BTW) and we can see what we can do to get you that boosted Presence.

 

[Sherwood]

I see you added Shockwave and Thunderclap. I'm not wholly sure how to use them or if they may work better if acquired later. I'm good with tossing them for now, if the points recycled can instead go to making her good at taking a hit (she's evidently more than good at hitting already) and (if points can be used cross category) bumping up Presence.

Are you looking to remove the Shockwave and Thunderclap to put those points into Presence? I just want to make sure.

 

[D. Rex]

I could see some magic that separates light and darkness and uses both parts - in one moment, it's a walking smoke grenade for the team, in the next it's some brightly white shining angelic creature that flashes the opponents. Would fit quite well with the whole "two-edged knowledge"-theme I was going for. Maybe add a bit of weakening fog to that, a heroic version of knock-out gas... maybe there's then still enough points left over for a bit of stabbing action for when I come out of the fog... hmm... it goes a bit in the "not quite so heroic"-direction, but I think I like that concept-wise. Let others take the spotlight, stay in the background, do some sneaky and battlefield-controlling stuff.

Maybe we can make the Black Ice Special the next Fast Ball Special.

 

[Sherwood]

That is where the Teamwork skill comes into play.

 

[D. Rex]

That is where the Teamwork skill comes into play.

Hmm. I dont have the teamwork skill. So I guess that means Colt is not well at playing with others.

Would there be a good skill to switch it with?

 

[Sherwood]

If you don't have the skill, it could reflect that you have been a solo hero for a while, and need to learn how to work with a team.

Or you can dump three points of stuff and get the skill. Up to you.

 

[Psychie]

You could drop your Body by 3 and get the skill that way. It would leave you with a 13, which is above average.

 

[D. Rex]

What about switching a skill for teamwork?

 

[Psychie]

Bugging would be good, in my opinion.

 

[Epiphany]

Awesome! Go ahead and copy/paste Lady Justice over to the Character thread, and then you can add in your Background story and the pic that you have for her (pretty cool, BTW) and we can see what we can do to get you that boosted Presence.

I will do so when I am back in front of my PC. Thank you for how helpful you've been!

Are you looking to remove the Shockwave and Thunderclap to put those points into Presence? I just want to make sure.

Bingo. I'm happy to grow into those powers in the future, if that's something I can do.

Maybe we can make the Black Ice Special the next Fast Ball Special.

Lady Justice is all for being thrown at problems.

Hmm. I dont have the teamwork skill. So I guess that means Colt is not well at playing with others.

Would there be a good skill to switch it with?

Most of us are new to the system, as we are to each other ICly. If you want to start with the skill, that's cool, but I'm totally fine with us working things out (awkwardly) in character.

 

[Sherwood]

I dropped the Brick Tricks MP and raised your Presence for you. You should be all set now.

 

[D. Rex]

I will do so when I am back in front of my PC. Thank you for how helpful you've been!



Bingo. I'm happy to grow into those powers in the future, if that's something I can do.


Lady Justice is all for being thrown at problems.



Most of us are new to the system, as we are to each other ICly. If you want to start with the skill, that's cool, but I'm totally fine with us working things out (awkwardly) in character.

As strong as Lady Justice is. Wouldn't she be the one doing the throwing?

Though the Terranaut does have a strength of 75, so i bet he could do some throwing.


And that was something I was considering! After all he lives alone in the arctic, and has only worked with other heroes a few times.

 

[D. Rex]

Bugging would be good, in my opinion.

Yeah, I'm not quite sure I would do with bugging. Though I suppose it could be a weaker replacement for the Clairsentience power. Like, given his gimmick is tech. I could fire a tracking beacon or plant listening devices. But I'm not sure if i need the power to make that happen.

 

[Sherwood]

The Bugging skill is not only to plant a bug, but to be able to locate them. But Teamwork can be very effective for a group. Up to you.

 

[D. Rex]

The Bugging skill is not only to plant a bug, but to be able to locate them. But Teamwork can be very effective for a group. Up to you.

Does Bugging come with the equipment? Or would that require a power or perk of some kind?

 

[Sherwood]

For a standard bug, I'll let you buy it with your money.

 

[D. Rex]

For a standard bug, I'll let you buy it with your money.

I got wealth: 6. Whats that mean?

 

[Sherwood]

This is from the book:
Wealthy (6-10 points): Income of $5,000,000
or less per year. The character, a typical millionaire,
has the capacity to do, or buy, pretty much
whatever he pleases in the financial realm. The
cost for this Perk is:
Points - Money
6 - $1,000,000 or less per year

 

[D. Rex]

This is from the book:
Wealthy (6-10 points): Income of $5,000,000
or less per year. The character, a typical millionaire,
has the capacity to do, or buy, pretty much
whatever he pleases in the financial realm. The
cost for this Perk is:
Points - Money
6 - $1,000,000 or less per year

So, should I then assume I have whatever bugs I need? Or do I need to make individual purchases? Or whenever I use a buh, you deduct an appropriate amount?




And if I make that much a year... how much do I got in my pocket, or have saved up?