The Force of Justice - OOC Thread

Sherwood said:
Just to clarify, that is not a bad thing to me; but it makes me really dig deep into my head to make up the details of the world that I had not considered before. Good stuff all around, so keep those questions coming!
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Oh, you earned benefit of the doubt long ago; I feel I know where you are coming from. Asking these questions comes naturally to me. It's one thing, I think, Dreamy and I have in common - we don't ask questions for the sake of asking questions (I mean, why do some people do that? It seems so fake!), but instead to discover, understand, and grow. For those here who have not gamed with me before, that's how I operate - I attempt to cultivate a real interest and follow that interest with wonder (the whole purpose of art). Put another way, if you can take the time to teach me (about your Character, these rules, your world, etc.), then I come away with a greater understanding that I can't get anywhere else.

Not long ago, a longtime Player and buddy of mine remarked that I have an almost-supernatural ability to grasp what the Players in my campaigns are feeling. Well, that only comes from taking the time to ask and ask until the answer is true and understood. But I can't do this on my own; I need you (the creator of what you have created or the interpreter of rules I don't yet have a grasp on) to share that with me. It's one of the big reasons I love Game Mastering and being a Player Character.
During an interview, Harrison Ford remarked that one of the big reasons he chose to be an actor was because he "wanted to live many lives." George R. R. Martin has a saying that also captures this idea. Here in RP Nation, where our words stay, I can look back on these chats whenever I want and enjoy them again and again and again - just like a good old book. Sherwood Sherwood How I wish we had RP Nation when you, Killfire, and I were first gaming together! Wouldn't looking back on all that word-for-word be so grand and thrilling? 8D
 
Yes, I love being able to refer back a dozen pages (or more) to be able to pull out a plot thread that the players left dangling! It is sooo much fun to be able to have the text right there and ready to look at.

I miss those days back in high school where the three of us were making the rules up as we went along with our Battletech/Robotech/Star Frontiers hybrid. Having RpN would have made gaming even more fun, us typing away for hours at a time to make whole new worlds!
 
Sherwood said:
LoL I was about to add to that PM to ask what you'd prefer to do with a couple of extra points I have for you.
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Extra points, you say? Awesome! Trust me, I'll find a way to spend them. Even if it's just another bunch of languages that noone else speaks... I'll take a look in a bit.

Purr Purr Thanks for the feedback - always good to get your input!
1. Do you mean "scraggly?" I don't know what "scraggy" means and I can't find a definition for it.

Curious - I checked the online dictionary for it, and it shows up on my end. Which might still mean that it's actually a word noone says, or that someone did a typo. What I meant is a person who has eaten too little in far too long of a time. Nothing but skin and bone? Something in that direction? There has to be a good word for that...

Dannigan said:
4. Here is where I lose my grip on the story. Is one boy bullying another? How did the shadows "kill him just a little"? It is one thing to be mysterious, but I find myself wanting a few details so I can follow the rest. As written, this feels like a deep pothole along an otherwise smooth road through a delightfully-murky forest. =)
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Yes, that part is a little vague, right now. I probably should say more about that =)
A man's bullying a boy. In one of the subdistricts where you don't really want to be at night. 'Killing him just a little' - not actually killing him, but taking him out.
Dannigan said:
5. And now I am more lost. Are Dawn and Nisha the same person? Did Nisha summon Dawn? Has Nisha become a spellcaster? What is going on?
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Nisha (still work in progress, but the name translates to 'night') is the character's real name. Dawn (also work in progress) serves as the Secret Id. Both are the same person. She does indeed become become a spellcaster with the help of the book. The magic is primarily based on shadowy spells.
 
Silanon said:
Extra points, you say? Awesome! Trust me, I'll find a way to spend them. Even if it's just another bunch of languages that noone else speaks... I'll take a look in a bit.

Purr Purr Thanks for the feedback - always good to get your input!
1. Do you mean "scraggly?" I don't know what "scraggy" means and I can't find a definition for it.

Curious - I checked the online dictionary for it, and it shows up on my end. Which might still mean that it's actually a word noone says, or that someone did a typo. What I meant is a person who has eaten too little in far too long of a time. Nothing but skin and bone? Something in that direction? There has to be a good word for that...


Yes, that part is a little vague, right now. I probably should say more about that =)
A man's bullying a boy. In one of the subdistricts where you don't really want to be at night. 'Killing him just a little' - not actually killing him, but taking him out.

Nisha (still work in progress, but the name translates to 'night') is the character's real name. Dawn (also work in progress) serves as the Secret Id. Both are the same person. She does indeed become become a spellcaster with the help of the book. The magic is primarily based on shadowy spells.
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Cool deal. I have made the edits to your sheet that we talked about, so other than those two points that need to be allocated, Nisha is all set.
 
Silanon said:
Extra points, you say? Awesome! Trust me, I'll find a way to spend them. Even if it's just another bunch of languages that noone else speaks... I'll take a look in a bit.

Purr Purr Thanks for the feedback - always good to get your input!
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Silanon Silanon My pleasure, Sil! I appreciate you letting me try and help! I like this background so far and I want to see "moar" of it! =)

1. Curious - I checked the online dictionary for it, and it shows up on my end. Which might still mean that it's actually a word noone says, or that someone did a typo. What I meant is a person who has eaten too little in far too long of a time. Nothing but skin and bone? Something in that direction? There has to be a good word for that...

I think you mean "scraggly" (with an "l" there). Scraggly means to be thin and wasted-looking. Ill-fed perhaps and not in good health. Is that the word you're looking for?

2. Yes, that part is a little vague, right now. I probably should say more about that =)
A man's bullying a boy. In one of the subdistricts where you don't really want to be at night. 'Killing him just a little' - not actually killing him, but taking him out.

Ah! Now I see. Perhaps add a touch of atmosphere (especially the nighttime?) and give some kind of visual cue or clue on how he is just "taken out"? Taken out can mean a great many things. Taken out by a punch to the ribs? A bullet to the back of the head? A pair of shadowy hands that tremble as they reach around to grasp the man's neck before squeezing ecstatically? Taken out to dinner (okay, that's a joke!)?

3. Nisha (still work in progress, but the name translates to 'night') is the character's real name. Dawn (also work in progress) serves as the Secret Id. Both are the same person. She does indeed become become a spellcaster with the help of the book. The magic is primarily based on shadowy spells.

Ohh! Okay! In which language does Nisha mean "night?" Does she come from the background that uses that language or another that doesn't at all? Have you made a name for the book (grimoire, volume, text, opus, whatever one calls such a work) yet? Or do you want it to have one? Names are power after all. =)
 
Dannigan said:
I think you mean "scraggly" (with an "l" there). Scraggly means to be thin and wasted-looking. Ill-fed perhaps and not in good health. Is that the word you're looking for?
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Maybe it is - even though my dictionary translates that with something different. I'll stick with curious, and settle for scraggly since that's what actual people seem to use =)

Dannigan said:
Ah! Now I see. Perhaps add a touch of atmosphere (especially the nighttime?) and give some kind of visual cue or clue on how he is just "taken out"? Taken out can mean a great many things. Taken out by a punch to the ribs? A bullet to the back of the head? A pair of shadowy hands that tremble as they reach around to grasp the man's neck before squeezing ecstatically? Taken out to dinner (okay, that's a joke!)?
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Now I just want to turn this into an awesome plot-twist where they have lunch together... maybe not, though. I was thinking about adding a little bit about her magic either way, so there'll be some better description added.

Dannigan said:
Ohh! Okay! In which language does Nisha mean "night?" Does she come from the background that uses that language or another that doesn't at all? Have you made a name for the book (grimoire, volume, text, opus, whatever one calls such a work) yet? Or do you want it to have one? Names are power after all. =)
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Nisha is a name from India - or so the internet told me, at least. I'm not looking for a background there, I'm thinking more in the lines that the parents wanted to choose a fancy name, and that it served as part of the inspiration for her to look into different languages at all. Not all of it, of course, but it's a source of curiosity.

The book is called the book of Theben for now, but I'm happy about suggestions. Background: Theben is the city where, according to the tales, the creature Sphinx lived at some point. There, she was feared for her killing, but also inspired the people of Theben to meet and discuss her riddles, trying to solve them. That's partially where the character began - someone's who's not obviously good, but inspires people to trust knowledge and wisdom. Thus the shadow magic, and the focus on written knowledge. Now obviously the concept moved away from that here and there - expect good deeds, and don't expect corpses where it's possible to avoid killing, so probably at all times - but the name stayed thus far.
 
Alrighty, the first version of the character sheet is up (well, the second, really, but the first one that you get to see). It has a lot of holes in there for now, but it's too late to fill them in now - more to come tomorrow, likely.
 
Ok, we are getting closer to our start, so I want to take a quick moment to give everyone a rundown on the dice in Hero System. Hopefully I don't botch my roll.

All skill and to-hit rolls are done on 3d6, and you want to roll as low as possible. A natural 3 is a critical, and is automatically a successful action/attack. On an attack roll, it does max damage for the dice of the attack. Conversely, a 18 is a auto failure, no matter how many bonuses your character has.

On a to-hit roll, the base target is 11-, plus your OCV / OMCV minus the target's DCV / DMCV. Lets give an example using two of your own characters: Luminary and Lady Justice. If Luminary were to level off her Standard Blast at LJ, her OCV with levels comes out to 11 OCV, giving a 22 or less to hit. Lady Justice is not going to just stand there and take it, though. When keeping mobile and trying not to be hit, her DCV is a base of 8, giving Luminary a 16- to hit.

But LJ has two Overall Skill Levels she hasn't used, and many of her martial arts maneuvers add to her DCV on the phase that she uses them. Putting her levels into DCV, that drops Luminary's chance to hit to just a 14-. We're not done yet, folks! Lets say that LJ used her Martial Strike on this phase. That maneuver grants her another +2 to her DCV, making the final roll a 12-. Just over a 50% chance to hit.

The final DCV modifier is to Abort your next Action and Dodge. A normal Dodge gives you +3 DCV vs. all attacks until your next Action. But Lady Justice has Martial Dodge! That gives a +5 to her DCV! So long as you have not acted on that phase you can dodge. An example of that would be Lady Justice has a six Speed, so she goes on Phases 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12. If she is attacked by a mook on Phase 5 and she really doesn't want to be hit for some reason, she can Abort her action on 6 to Dodge and get that +5 to her DCV, which will last for her until her action on Phase 8.

Now, Area of Effect attacks don't have to hit the person, just the spot that they are standing/flying. Using old 5th edition jargon, you would aim for the hex that they are in, and the DCV of the hex is 3. But for those with AoE attacks, you can see that they don't do as much damage as the raw, single target strike, and there may be times that you don't want to risk hitting either your team mates or innocent civilians.

But lets say that Luminary does tag Lady Justice with her Standard Blast. She then rolls 15d6 for damage. On a Normal attack (that means not a Killing Attack) you count Stun and Body like this: the Grand Total of the die roll is your Stun. For shits and giggles, lets say it comes out to 53. That is the total Stun of the attack, and since it is an Energy Attack, that is applied to LJ's ED of 35, doing 18 Stun past her defenses. Body Damage is calculated this way: For every '1' on the die, you take zero Body. A 2 through 5 on the die does one Body, and finally, a 6 does 2 Body. On an average roll for Luminary's Standard Blast, she will do 15 Body, one per die. Looking at LJ's ED of 35, none of the Body gets through.

The next step is to check this damage against Lady Justice's Constitution score. If the Stun damage past her defense is more than her Con, she is Stunned and is at 1/2 DCV until her next action and has to use her Action to clear her head to regain her composure. Lucky for our heroine, she has a Con of 25 so Luminary's 18 Stun does not Stun her.


Now we have Killing Attacks. They are the more lethal damage, doing more Body than the Normal Blast. Looking at Luminary once more, her Energy Spike does 5d6 Killing. Lets assume that she hit, and needs to roll damage. Roll the five dice, and the total is the Body done. Lets assume that the total on the 5d6 is 20. We now need to roll 1d3 for the Stun multiplier. Obviously, on this attack that will be either a 1, 2, or 3. This is the number that you multiply the Body of the Killing Attack to get your total Stun damage, giving a potential of 20, 40 or 60 Stun applied to LJ's Defenses.


For Mental Attacks like Mind Blast, the to hit uses OMCV to hit the DMCV of your target. If you hit, the Mind Blast rolls the dice and the total is applied to the Mental Defense (if any). What is left over is straight Stun damage. Considering that many heroes and NPCs do not buy up their Mental Defense at all shows you just how nasty this can be, which is why the Mind Blast is twice the Character Points per die as the regular ol' Blast attack.


If the person taking the damage has a power called Damage Reduction, whatever damage that gets past the Defenses is then reduced by the percentage of the Damage Reduction. Looking at Luminary, she has 25% DR vs Energy and Physical Attacks, and Teranaut has 50% DR vs PD and ED attacks. If Luminary takes 18 Stun, her Damage Reduction drops that down to only 14. Teranaut with his 50% reduction drops the total to just 9.


There is also Damage Negation. This power is currently only used by Nisha, and it works like this: it reduces the number of Damage Classes (a DC is 1d6 of Normal damage and 1/3 of a Killing strike) by one per 5 CP spent. Nisha has 20 points of DN going on, so she drops a Normal Attack by 2d6 before it hits her PD or ED.
 
Sherwood said:
Ok, we are getting closer to our start, so I want to take a quick moment to give everyone a rundown on the dice in Hero System. Hopefully I don't botch my roll.

All skill and to-hit rolls are done on 3d6, and you want to roll as low as possible. A natural 3 is a critical, and is automatically a successful action/attack. On an attack roll, it does max damage for the dice of the attack. Conversely, a 18 is a auto failure, no matter how many bonuses your character has.

On a to-hit roll, the base target is 11-, plus your OCV / OMCV minus the target's DCV / DMCV. Lets give an example using two of your own characters: Luminary and Lady Justice. If Luminary were to level off her Standard Blast at LJ, her OCV with levels comes out to 11 OCV, giving a 22 or less to hit. Lady Justice is not going to just stand there and take it, though. When keeping mobile and trying not to be hit, her DCV is a base of 8, giving Luminary a 16- to hit.

But LJ has two Overall Skill Levels she hasn't used, and many of her martial arts maneuvers add to her DCV on the phase that she uses them. Putting her levels into DCV, that drops Luminary's chance to hit to just a 14-. We're not done yet, folks! Lets say that LJ used her Martial Strike on this phase. That maneuver grants her another +2 to her DCV, making the final roll a 12-. Just over a 50% chance to hit.

The final DCV modifier is to Abort your next Action and Dodge. A normal Dodge gives you +3 DCV vs. all attacks until your next Action. But Lady Justice has Martial Dodge! That gives a +5 to her DCV! So long as you have not acted on that phase you can dodge. An example of that would be Lady Justice has a six Speed, so she goes on Phases 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12. If she is attacked by a mook on Phase 5 and she really doesn't want to be hit for some reason, she can Abort her action on 6 to Dodge and get that +5 to her DCV, which will last for her until her action on Phase 8.

Now, Area of Effect attacks don't have to hit the person, just the spot that they are standing/flying. Using old 5th edition jargon, you would aim for the hex that they are in, and the DCV of the hex is 3. But for those with AoE attacks, you can see that they don't do as much damage as the raw, single target strike, and there may be times that you don't want to risk hitting either your team mates or innocent civilians.

But lets say that Luminary does tag Lady Justice with her Standard Blast. She then rolls 15d6 for damage. On a Normal attack (that means not a Killing Attack) you count Stun and Body like this: the Grand Total of the die roll is your Stun. For shits and giggles, lets say it comes out to 53. That is the total Stun of the attack, and since it is an Energy Attack, that is applied to LJ's ED of 35, doing 18 Stun past her defenses. Body Damage is calculated this way: For every '1' on the die, you take zero Body. A 2 through 5 on the die does one Body, and finally, a 6 does 2 Body. On an average roll for Luminary's Standard Blast, she will do 15 Body, one per die. Looking at LJ's ED of 35, none of the Body gets through.

The next step is to check this damage against Lady Justice's Constitution score. If the Stun damage past her defense is more than her Con, she is Stunned and is at 1/2 DCV until her next action and has to use her Action to clear her head to regain her composure. Lucky for our heroine, she has a Con of 25 so Luminary's 18 Stun does not Stun her.


Now we have Killing Attacks. They are the more lethal damage, doing more Body than the Normal Blast. Looking at Luminary once more, her Energy Spike does 5d6 Killing. Lets assume that she hit, and needs to roll damage. Roll the five dice, and the total is the Body done. Lets assume that the total on the 5d6 is 20. We now need to roll 1d3 for the Stun multiplier. Obviously, on this attack that will be either a 1, 2, or 3. This is the number that you multiply the Body of the Killing Attack to get your total Stun damage, giving a potential of 20, 40 or 60 Stun applied to LJ's Defenses.


For Mental Attacks like Mind Blast, the to hit uses OMCV to hit the DMCV of your target. If you hit, the Mind Blast rolls the dice and the total is applied to the Mental Defense (if any). What is left over is straight Stun damage. Considering that many heroes and NPCs do not buy up their Mental Defense at all shows you just how nasty this can be, which is why the Mind Blast is twice the Character Points per die as the regular ol' Blast attack.


If the person taking the damage has a power called Damage Reduction, whatever damage that gets past the Defenses is then reduced by the percentage of the Damage Reduction. Looking at Luminary, she has 25% DR vs Energy and Physical Attacks, and Teranaut has 50% DR vs PD and ED attacks. If Luminary takes 18 Stun, her Damage Reduction drops that down to only 14. Teranaut with his 50% reduction drops the total to just 9.


There is also Damage Negation. This power is currently only used by Nisha, and it works like this: it reduces the number of Damage Classes (a DC is 1d6 of Normal damage and 1/3 of a Killing strike) by one per 5 CP spent. Nisha has 20 points of DN going on, so she drops a Normal Attack by 2d6 before it hits her PD or ED.
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QuickSmasherEXE said:
Working on a sheet. Probably getting too hung up on formatting.
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lol If you want, feel free to copy one of the other characters and then go in and plug in your numbers in place of the one you are copying. That is what I've done.
 
If possible, I would like to get the intro post up for the group this weekend.
 
Sherwood said:
lol If you want, feel free to copy one of the other characters and then go in and plug in your numbers in place of the one you are copying. That is what I've done.
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I could, but I want it to look a certain way, so if I can do so without pulling out too many hairs I will.

I'm also trying to get the advantages and limitations rightly ordered in my variable power pool. I would like to be able to use a 75 CP power in addition to something else, which if I understand correctly will require my limitations to be greater than my advantages.
 
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