Re: [BNW] Questions

[MKirk2112@aol.com]

In a message dated 8/21/2000 9:11:37 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
Jason.Olivier@LibertyMutual.com writes:

<< I have some questions that came up from the session this past weekend.
 
 I have a player who plays a Telekinetic.
 
 It states in the book that the powers are invisible and hard to detect the
 delta using them.
 
 Question: When he uses martial arts in an all out combat does the character
 have to just stand there like nothing is happening while fighting in his
 mind or does the character actually have to go through the motions of
 throwing a punch in order to have it hit 200 yards away? 
 
 With this type of combat does he get the targets H2H added to his target
 number? If it is invisible how would they ever know it was coming to defend
 against it?
 
 Now about the adventure 
 <SPOILER SPACE>
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I put them through the Ripper adventure. I must say the final combat was
 horrible. It took so long and seemed tedious.
 We have a Telekinetic, Tough and Goliath.
 
 Nobody in the party had AP ammo and they could not touch the Ripper in the
 suit. This combat dragged on and on.
 
 The only thing I know I did wrong was doing the AP ammo that the Ripper was
 using. 
 
 To even do damage the Goliath had to roll an 11 (with his strength of +5)
 just to do a wound which would be absorbed due to the armor
 (armor was 10/3 size 6). The Tough and Telekinetic could not even come close
 as they had to roll a straight 16 on 5 to 7 d6 (both have the extra damage
 trick)
 
 Was I doing something wrong? If combat was meant to be this way, my players
 will not play this game again :-( 
 I have run many games in the past and I could have fudged things to make
 them go quicker but this being our first major combat I wanted to see the
 system in action.
 
 Thanks in advance! 
 
 
 
 Jason Olivier
 "The first person to send a note to the BNW List except for AB" >>

Hi Jason, good questions!

I don't think there is any reason to assume that the character has to "act 
out" the martial arts attacks.  I think Matt used the term "martial arts" to 
describe the telekinetic's skill with her power just so it would be familiar 
to us all, not that the character actuall engages in martial arts "moves" per 
se, even ones in her mind.  

I posed the "range of sight" question a while ago but no one touched it.  I 
personally think "sight" as a range is a bit silly.  Sticking with your 
example, I wouldn't have allowed a telekinetic attack at 200 yards.  I allow 
about 50 yards at the very, very most.  200 yards is a long way to "see."  I 
interprete the "see" description in the rules as being able to really see the 
target ... being able to identify him or her, being able to see identifying 
marks, etc., not just being able to tell there is a "figure" out there but 
not being able to tell whether it's a human or a horse.  But, on the other 
hand, I'm pretty tough on my players when it comes to this rule.  Taken to 
extremes, the "sight = range" rule would allow you will have characters 
sitting off 1/2 a mile away totally concealed behind something except for one 
eye looking at a little tiny speck of a person and attacking them with a 
telekinetic attack.  I say "no way."  Or worse, telekinetic heroes flying in 
airplanes or helicopters looking down at enemies on the ground through a 
magnification sight and attacking them with telekinesis. Because the power is 
more or less invisible, having range = sight makes the power extremely easy 
to abuse.  Oh those players are a crafty lot! <laugh>

I allow the defender to add their HtH bonus onto the TN for the telekinetic 
if the target is aware the character is attacking him with TK.  If not, no 
bonus.  But I don't think that's in the book, that's just my opinion.

The only thing I would have done differently in the Ripper adventure was to 
make sure that the Ripper took the odd wounds.  I don't know if you did this 
or not because I can't tell from the description.  If one wound was 
inflicted, he takes it.  If two are inflicted, he takes one and the suit 
takes one.  Once the suit takes 3 in one location, there is no more armor 
benefit at all in that area ... that means no -10 modifier either, which 
means your Goliath now does, on a not-so-great roll, 2 wounds a shot.

Also, there are many ways to subdue him that don't involve inflicting damage 
per se.  The Entangle trick is a nearly priceless one for characters to take 
for this reason, and some powers are quite helpful against the Ripper.  I'm 
surprised the TK didn't have a field day.

I had the opposite thing happen with this adventure.  One turn and the Ripper 
was dead!  I even beefed him up a bit.  My characters had AP ammo, and there 
were 7 of them.  He didn't stand a chance!  What sucks about having him be 
beaten so quickly is that the characters do all this leg work to finally get 
to him, and then he's no fun to beat.  Oh well.

I think in general one of the most difficult things with supers games is to 
learn what the appropriate power levels are for your villians and opponents 
for the characters.  Try to not let your players give up on the game ... with 
time you will be able to tell what will be easy, tough, and challenging for 
them.

Guide Matt