tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18829500.post114834431417546487..comments2023-10-11T10:40:48.712-04:00Comments on The Miserable Annals of the Earth: There ain't no rules in a knife fightDoc Nebulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13052810933464744998noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18829500.post-1148402126959597502006-05-23T12:35:00.000-04:002006-05-23T12:35:00.000-04:00Just to proved that I don't need no stinkin' comme...Just to proved that I don't need no stinkin' commenters, I can fill up my comment threads all on my own... <BR/><BR/>I sometimes forget my own rules. Right there in my Stealth rules, I allow the following:<BR/><BR/><I>Characters without Super Senses may make either a normal Ranged or Close Combat attack for zero damage if they choose on a Stealthed character hiding in hindering terrain. Whether successful or unsuccessful, they take an action token. If successful, they have ‘spotted’ the hidden character and may then engage them in Close Combat, but not with Ranged Attacks. </I><BR/><BR/>This could certainly include things like a giant flailing around inside a square of darkness trying to find an opponent to beat up, or a fellow with a gigantic gun firing rounds at random into the darkness in hopes of getting lucky. So I had a built in mechanism in my own rules that would keep the Shadow Lass/Batman TA from getting too out of hand; I just forgot about it.<BR/><BR/>Which means my Stealth rules really don't need any work. However, I did go ahead and make the following change to another power: <BR/><BR/><I>ENERGY EXPLOSION: This character's ranged combat attack can do damage to all figures adjacent to the target, and does not require a clear line of sight to be employed. (Optional) Give this character a ranged combat action and reduce his damage value to 1. A successful ranged combat attack does damage to the target figure and every figure in a square adjacent to the target. Energy Explosion does not require a clear line of sight; an Energy Explosion attack can be made on any opposing character within the attacker's range, whether the attacker can see the target character clearly or not.</I><BR/><BR/>This will allow Energy Explosion to work the way it should -- like someone throwing a grenade. You don't need to see your target to lob a grenade at it, you just need to have a vague idea where it might be. This won't let EE be used on terrain features or squares, but it will allow the power to target Stealthed opponents, so I'll settle for that.Doc Nebulahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13052810933464744998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18829500.post-1148379779757387672006-05-23T06:22:00.000-04:002006-05-23T06:22:00.000-04:00Oh, and I did give the IL the Society TA, and it l...Oh, and I did give the IL the Society TA, and it let Prometheus actually KO Brainiac 5. Brainiac had tried twice to Outwit Prometheus' Super Senses, but that damn Society roll prevented it both times. <BR/><BR/>I think on Stealth, to keep it comparatively simple, I'm going to make it a straight "you can't make a ranged strike on a Stealthed character, and Stealthed characters gain an additional +2 to Defense Value when on Hindering Terrain." That, in addition to the +1 that Hindering Terrain gives anyone, should be enough of a plus to adequately simulate the effect, whether it's invisibility or just ultra-sneakiness. <BR/><BR/>I think I'm also going to rewrite Batman and Kabuki TAs, so they simply say something like "Characters with this TA are considered to have the Stealth power on every slot of their dial that is not a KO slot." That way I can just move away from the whole 'line of fire' thing entirely. <BR/><BR/>Not sure how to write up the terrain-targeting effect for Energy Explosion. Probably best to say you can only do it against terrain inhabited by a Stealthed fig -- which isn't as unreasonable as it sounds. A Stealthed fig, whether they are sneaky or just invisible, can be assumed to be moving more slowly than a non-Stealthed fig. Thus, lobbing a grenade into their general area would be more effective on, say, the Black Panther, when he's hiding, or Sue Storm, when she's lurking, than it would be against the Flash, who is only fleetingly blurring through that square anyway.<BR/><BR/>Something like "Energy Explosion may be directed against terrain squares in which opponents are actively employing the Stealth power. Such squares are considered to be opponent figures with a Defense Value of 12 for this purpose. A successful Energy Explosion attack against such a target will do Energy Explosion damage to any figure in the square, as well as to any figure in any adjacent square."<BR/><BR/>Yeah, that should work.Doc Nebulahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13052810933464744998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18829500.post-1148376141797983422006-05-23T05:22:00.000-04:002006-05-23T05:22:00.000-04:00Hmmm. Having read WK's definitions of the various...Hmmm. Having read WK's definitions of the various wild cards, I see 'on the battle map' is a prominent phrase now... a change that I have little doubt was prompted by the ICWO card. I hadn't realized that, and in my House Rules I'm using an older bit of text from some previous power cards, that simply specifies 'any friendly figure in play', which I certainly thought Oracle counted as.<BR/><BR/>Oddly, I have the newer terminology under Calculators, so I must have just copied it blindly without noticing. <BR/><BR/>I suppose I should make them consistent. Given that Oracle is the only character that can be part of a force while off the battlefield, well, I'm torn. ICWO is an unbalanced card and anything that reigns it in should be strongly considered. On the other hand, given that the team with Oracle's help can use other powers on her dial, I can't see why they shouldn't be able to wild card her TA... if WK wanted to disallow that, they shouldn't have given her one. I'll have to think about that.<BR/><BR/>However, if I do change the wild cards so that they can't use her TA, well, I'd have just stuck Robin or Spoiler into the Legion squad. Various time travelers have teamed up with the Legion in the past, including Tim Drake, in a recent crossover, so that doesn't bother me greatly.<BR/><BR/>I think I do want to give Energy Explosion the ability to target terrain. I just haven't figured out how to do it. Offering the ability to attack a Stealthed fig in Hindering Terrain at a modifier to AV is a brilliant idea, though... one I hadn't considered. Perhaps range strikes are always negated, and close combat strikes are prevented until the Stealthed fig interacts in some way with an opponent... after which the opponent may attempt to attack the Stealthed fig from an adjacent square, at, say, a -2 or -3 to AV. Yeah, that would work well. <BR/><BR/>Thanks for the feedback! I appreciate it.Doc Nebulahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13052810933464744998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18829500.post-1148355295658921932006-05-22T23:34:00.000-04:002006-05-22T23:34:00.000-04:00With three cats roaming around the place I haven't...With three cats roaming around the place I haven't set up games like this in a while, though they're appealing enough that maybe it's the incentive I need to do that long overdue clean-up in the comics room downstairs, so I can set up a card table in there, etc.<BR/><BR/> So, you didn't use the The Society card for the IJ members? Getting a 50% protection from Outwit's a nice benefit, and despite the way the card's worded wildcards <I>can</I> copy it.<BR/><BR/> It won't matter to you, operating under house rules, but if Oracle's off the map her TA isn't in the equation, so in an official game she wouldn't be able to share it. It's neither here nor there, just a tidbit I thought I'd toss out.<BR/><BR/> I've admired the lengths you've gone to since you first started to revise the rules to make Stealth more comics-accurate, though it's generally been more work involving imperfectly-represented figures (no fault of yours, just the limitations of the powers and dials) than I was willing to go into. <BR/><BR/> In the name of comics accuracy, though, I'd go with allowing Energy Explosion to be used against a Stealthed zone. Perhaps limit it so that the attack has to be aimed as closely as possible to the front, center of the area as seen from the perspective of the attacker. If there's a smoke cloud, after all, Deathstroke or whoever is going to lob a grenade into the thick of it, hoping to catch someone. Even if this is just a special rule when confronting <B>smoke cloud</B> -- a wall of smoke or blackness, etc. is going to be suspicious and a generally obvious target, after all. It gets trickier with Stealth, of course, because generally speaking a villain's not going to just start lobbing explosive blasts at seemingly nothing -- much less will a hero do it. <BR/><BR/> Since you're going for comics accurate and not keeping the rules just as simple as can be, maybe once anyone who's stealthed takes any sort of action against an opposing piece - included a Perplex or an attempted Outwit - that opposing piece can now target some object or bit of terrain -- again, in the center of the hindering terrain if that's all that's there, or at an object (which, as we both know, is also hindering terrain) if that's there since it would be an obvious target.<BR/><BR/> I'd also take that same approach and apply it to any of the others, even the close combatants. If someone from inside stealth attempts something against him he should be able to charge into the thick of it and take a swing. If you want to do a -1 or -2 to their AV during such an attack to handicap them a little, that's certainly at least worth playtesting.<BR/><BR/> As for allowing Smoke Cloud to be a free action via Flashbang, yeah, you may want to reevaluate that, as there should be <I>some</I> effort involved.<BR/><BR/> Well... I have to be up and moving at 5am, as I've volunteered to be a chaperone for Nick's class trip to Ellis & Liberty Islands.Mike Nortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13025995292338904959noreply@blogger.com