Age?

[BlackStar]

Oh!, excuse me if I had give you the impression that I gmed. Runequest, Jager, no, I only had play it a few times but many years ago, and frankly I didn't like the system very much.

BTW: now you have a PM from me.

[Matryoshka]

I think jager has lost his mind some more.He said that I was blackstar!

[Jager]

No, I asked if you were BlackStar.

[Longboard]

Yeah Dude, I am 26. I grew up in Los Angeles, so I really do talk this way. Ive been playing RPGs since D&D 1st edition. loved D&D 2nd edition. got into BAttletech for awhile, and then a few years ago, I found white wolf, and my ABerrant(favorite game) Im 26. Aspiring novelist/screenwriter, so RPGs help me cook up ideas for stories/scrpits. Its sometime hard to write for longboard, because he is a really naive, and obnoxious , and unintelligent character. I have to dumb myslef down to play him sometimes. So I just take a few shots before we play.

[BlackStar]

Yes, I think that is the most difficult part of playing a character different from yourself. Sometimes, I use this trick, (in TT), I read some book at the same time and because could only take half notice of the game, it's like a less intelligent person.

[Vitalis]

I'm 35 (today, in fact ). I started roleplaying about 25 years ago back with the original basic D&D, pre-AD&D, and have played a horrific number of games because I could never settle down with anything, kept searching for a better system.

Systems I've spent significant time with are all the D&D incarnations, GURPS, White Wolf (I was probably one of WW's first customers, though I didn't stick around too long and never bothered to buy any WOD books after the first few Vampire releases), RuneQuest (though that was largely against my will), Palladium, Torg/Masterbook, both Star Wars, Marvel Super Heroes, DC Heroes (one of them), Bard Games' Arcanum, Immortal (not the Highland type, the mythology-based one), Star Frontiers, etc, etc.

Personally, I like character creation in White-Wolf, but don't typically like playing in it (although Aberrant has some neat system concepts). I love the Aberrant and Exalted settings, and Aberrant is by far my favorite supers setting. I'm currently running a very, very AU Aberrant PBEM game using a modified MSHAG as the system, just because I find the ultra-simple SAGA rules work well for email games.

[Ashnod]

Quote:

Originally posted by BlackStar:
Yes, I think that is the most difficult part of playing a character different from yourself. Sometimes, I use this trick, (in TT), I read some book at the same time and because could only take half notice of the game, it's like a less intelligent person.

As a Storyteller, though, this can be really really annoying when you have to re-explain things to the player cause they weren't paying attention. Not all the time, I know, and sometimes it creates really interesting character interaction, but it can break the group "synergy" to have someone distracted like that.

[Matt]

As a storyteller, I can say that I don't like it when players do stuff like that. In my Trinity game, one of my players wanted to play a less than intelligent character. The player is a smart guy, so in order to play the character he didn't pay attention to a lot of what was going on, and during long conversations he would do something else. After the game I asked what people thought of it and he told me that he didn't particularly care for it becuase he didn't know what was going on and really couldn't appreciate the story.

Doing things to get into character is a great thing, but there comes a point where I think you should consider how it will affect everyone's enjoyment of the game, not just your playing of the character.

[Longboard]

Definitley. people need to be paying attention the whole time. The thing that gets me in trouble with the group is when I play Longboard in character and make wrong decisions purposely in order to establish he is a very jaded tenager(how do you tell a sixteen year old he needs to go to school when e dishes out 20-30 points of agg damage on a daily basis?)they get mad because they have to deal with bad decsions, or clean up after my mess. Knowing me, Josh, KNOWS its a bad decision. I stand by my character. I know how Longboard will act. He's not too smart, but how come Im the first one they call when we need to blow something up, quick fast and in a hurry.How you going to treat me like a punk out of combat, then treat me like a cornerstone when you need a big gun.

[Bastian]

How do you dish out 20 to 30 points of aggravated damage?

[Hugin]

I think he meant 'daily' not 'at a time'. So, you have Q4 Agg QBolt and you are tossing 4+ at a time, not difficult to get up to 20 in a day.

[Kynet]

Sorry, pals if I give you a false impression about the "technic" I use to play a less intelligent character in my last post. I use to read a lot, even at the same time I'm watching T.V. and I had developed something like a double perception. It's not so good as when I put all my attention with only a subject, put suffice to play a TT game.

[Longboard]

Right. 20-30 in one bolt no. But two or three if I was lucky

[Speed]

ok, here goes...I am 31 years old, and I started with D&D (of course) 1st ed. in the 4th grade or so...a couple of years later, I discovered Villians & Vigilantes (surprised you old coots didn't mention that one), which led me to Champions (or that one), which led me to good ol' Marvel SHRPG...which led me back to Champions (hardcover, ooh la la)...I've played a number of games over the years, including: Boot Hill, James Bond 007, Top Secret, Gamma World, Star Frontiers, Mage(yawn), and Vampire(big YAWN)...but Aberrant is (I swear) my absolute all time favorite.

[rant]My only real pet peeve (not that you asked) is when the fact that I role-play comes up in conversation, people tell me about their Magic deck. What exactly leads people to believe that Magic has anything to do with role-playing? Aberrant(and the like) is about group socialization and experiencing modes of expression outside your own, while Magic is about...math. I hate that (so-called) game. [/rant]

BTW: Ahem, watch closely...Str=5, M-Str=5, Claws=5(aggravated extra)....you are looking at MINIMUM 30 agg levels per hit....unless I am wrong, but that's how I read it

[Vitalis]

I never went for V&V, but I did play... hmmm... Superworld? Something like that. Did some Champions but it was sooooo sloooooowwwwww. Now Boot Hill is blast from the past, I'd completely forgotten that one.

And aggravated claws does either Quantum + successes or just your claws dice as aggravated (depending on whether you have the errata in the APG). Your strength is not made aggravated "for free" (and if it was, it would still be Quantum + successes, not 25 auto-successes.

[Speed]

Vitalis, thanks for your input, and I would love to go along with that, but that is not how I read it...follow me:

MSTR 5 (p.156)...and gain[25]automatic successes to Strength/Might rolls and close combat damage dice pools.

Claws (p.186)...When used in close combat, Claws convert the bashing damage caused by the characters normal punches and strikes into lethal damage.

Aggravated Extra(p.231)...when applied to a power that causes ...lethal damage, makes that damage aggravated. The character inflicts a base amount of aggravated damage equal to Quantum, then adds attack successes from her skill roll to determine the total aggravated damage inflicted.

as far as I can tell, there is not errata in the PG on Claws, and the Aggravated errata deals with the range of ranged attacks.

So, I can see where you get the Q+success formula, however, if M-STR adds successes 'automatically' and Claws does not disallow those successes as lethal, and the Agg Extra doesn't even mention them yea or nay, then I must assume that the 'automatic' successes must be applied to the close combat damage dice pool

Trust me, I hate it too...but if I can't point to something to disallow it, then how can I argue with a player who wants it? For all I know that was within the creators intent, because to have the STR and CLAWS(agg) at that level would cost 30np already. Besides, doing it your way would mean that M-STR was completely irrelevant in determining agg. Claws damage...and that I do not buy.

[Cryostorm]

Agg. damage isn't about brute strength. First read the extra on page #231 of the core book.

,,

Quote:

The character inflicts a base amount of aggravated damage equal to Quantum, The adds attack successes from the skill roll to determine the total aggravated damage inflicted.

That part alone seems pretty clear on how it works rules-wise. However there is more information on page #253,,

Quote:

Aggravated damage represents disintegration, flesh-eating viruses, molecular disruption or some other form of complete tissue distruction.

Nothing about those types of injuries indicated brute force as a method of infliction for Agg. damage. Furthermore it can't be soaked unless a Nova has hardbody and, when it comes to healing the damage, Novas don't get their healing multiplier and baselines can't even heal the damage!

Agg. Claws are nasty, but brute force has nothing to do with it. Even Wolverine's claws don't do Agg. damage. Sometimes you have to look at the spirit of the rules and not just the letter of the the law.

[Speed]

But, your honor!

lol@myself...I get it, I get it...I've just been playing with my rules-lawyer players for so long, that I guess I've become a bit of one myself. I hate that the rules are so ambiguous, though, because it seems to me that even if you have nuclear isotope claws, you should do more damage with M-Str than without it (instead of the same whether you have it or not).

However, I learned a long time ago not to allow Agg. Claws unless it was a case of an Attunement/Density Decrease nova who wanted to phase a coffee cup through people's heads and leave it there...otherwise, with MSTR, it just seemed too powerful, and your explanation, while I'm sure the correct one(and, incidentally, the one I tried to give my players), is a slender hook on which to hang an explanation to them of why they can't use their auto-successes.

Meaning, I buy it(sort of), but they won't(at all), so I won't re-open that particular can of worms. Besides, what the hell are you going to do with 30 levels of aggravated damage? Just kill everyone? Gee, that's fun. Claws by itself is bad enough(a level 1 power that lets your bashing be lethal? And, that does include auto-successes, no matter how you read it?)

[Jack 'MultiGate' Anderson]

{We are getting a little off topic, but...}

Claws does two things.

1) It does a die of lethal damage per dot in claws which stacks on Brawl/MA.

2) It converts your Strength Damage to Lethal.

Even without the erata (which we have), putting Aggravated on Claws would only affect #1, NOT #2.

Aggravated doesn't say "replace the word lethal with the word aggravated".

Aggravated says, "when applied to a power that causes ...lethal damage, makes that damage aggravated."

Thus your lethal damage FROM CLAWS is now Aggravated, but effect #2 would be unchanged. This is why using the "Ranged" extra (called something else) on claws only adds a die per dot of damage (the claws become ranged, the strength damage doesn't).

This in turn leads to the problem of combining damage types, but the easiest way to deal with that is to apply them (& soak them) seperately.

[Speed]

way, way off topic, and I'm sorry that's my fault...That makes the best sense that I've heard so far, and is something I've toyed with in the past, but like you say, I hate to mix damage types. BTW, where is the errata on this? Everytime you guys mention it, I look for it in the PG, but I haven't found it yet. Anyway, I get it, let's drop it, or start a new thread with it.

So, I'm 31, did I mention that?

[Hugin]

Look at the downloads section here. The Official Abberant Erata was released by WW. Unfortunately, it isn't the same version that was released the the PG. "What?" you say, "An editing error from WW?!?! Say it isn't so!!"

[Cryostorm]

Quote:

Originally posted by Speed:
But, your honor!

lol@myself...I get it, I get it...I've just been playing with my rules-lawyer players for so long, that I guess I've become a bit of one myself.

Your the GM right? Next time one of your rules lawyers gets all uppity about something look them right in the eye, a with a completely straight face, yell "OBAY THE RULES? I AM THE RULES!" at the top of your lungs at them. If that doesn't give them the hint nothing will.

[Bastian]

IMHO:

To me, the key phrase is "added attack successes from her skill roll to determine the total aggravated damage inflicted."

(pg. 156)"the character still rolls her base, unenhanced strength, Brawl, or might skill totals."

So, you would do [Q]+ (Str.+(manuever bonus dice)+Claws) successes in Aggravated damage.

A strike made by a Q4, Claws3, Str.3 person would do [4] plus successes on 8 dice aggravated.

Now, if you want to tack on M-Str. damage to that, be my guess, but its just lethal (the claws).

[Jack 'MultiGate' Anderson]

(You mean only for a brawl attack. MA would be different).

And this is still very broken for an attack that can be used multiple times during a round, or have Burning or Area put on it.

It is also grossly over powered compaired to the other maintenance power that does Aggravated, Immolate. Even without the errata I could make a case that Immolate's rules for AGG should be applied.

[Understudy]

Quote:

This extar, when applied to a power that causes bashing or leathal damage, makes that damage aggravated. The characters inflicts a base amount of aggravated damage equal to Quatum, then adds attack successes from her skill roll to determine the tolal aggravated damage inflicted.

So yes you do get if using brawl [Q] plus suxx on a Str + Brawl roll, or Dex + Mar Arts roll. You do not get the manever bouns (unless it is and accaratcy bouns) as that is not part of the skill roll, that is part of the damage which has been replaced by the above. So the novas strength has no bearing on the damage accept as part of the roll to hit.
The autos you get from do not acount as they count towards damage only and not the to hit roll (as I read it however I not sure it is that clear)

[ronin]

09.29.80. I only feel old.

And my addiction started with 'Shadowrun', which was probably the worst introduction possible. I moved on to 'AD&D' pretty quickly, and was subsequently introduced to 'Paranoia', 'Call of Cthulhu', 'Deadlands', 'Vampire' and progressively the rest of the WW set.

[Sakurako Hino]

I'll just say the birthdates of my characters don't reflect my own. I was born 01-08-1977.

[Williams]

21, and been roleplaying for more than a decade now. I began with Advanced Fighting Fantasy, before moving on to GURPS and WFRP. Then Shadowrun. Then a number of systems including Blue Planet, BESM, SLA Industries, Cyberpunk2020 and others. Oh yes, and Aberrant/Trinity. For some reason, I missed out D&D completely, a fact for which I am eternally grateful, and do not like the pseudo-gothisms of WoD.

[Singularity]

I'm currently 26 and I started playing 1st ed D&D with my brother when I was 8.

Yes, 8.

After that, I moved hardcore onto the original Star Wars RPG when it came out in the late 80's, 2nd Ed D&D, Shadowrun, the original three WoD games (Mage still reigns as my all time favorite), Battletech/Mechwarrior, Twilight:2000, Aliens (god, that was a horrible game), original Earthdawn, 3rd Ed D&D, Aeon games (duh), original DC Superheroes, original Marvel Superheroes, and I even was one of the narrators for the local Vampire LARP.

Man, I'm a total nerd with more gaming experience than work and education experience...

Edited to add some missing gmes: d20 Star Wars, Wheel of Time, Paranoia (LOVE that game), the entire Palladium series (yay for twink... er, no...)

[Jager]

It is so scary to think I have been RPing for longer than some of you have been alive.

A note on TW:2000 - Did most of your groups devolve to bandit gangs? It wasn't til I ran a game were the players started out being robbed, then helped by Polish partisans, that they acted like soldiers. Curious about your experiences.

[Singularity]

Quote:

Originally posted by Jager:
A note on TW:2000 - Did most of your groups devolve to bandit gangs? It wasn't til I ran a game were the players started out being robbed, then helped by Polish partisans, that they acted like soldiers. Curious about your experiences.

We often ended up selling our services to various towns and farms, like a roving merc unit. I think we tried the "get home" scenario but it really didn't work out. However, I'm not surprised about the bandit gangs: if two of the regular gamers in that group hadn't been so hard-core on being good guys, we would've been raising hell across eastern Europe.

[Ghostwriter]

I am twenty-three years old.

[Vincent Carver]

Happy Birthday to me! Happy Birthday to me! Happy Birthday to Vincent/Essex/Jordan/And-all-the-lame-ass-characters-I-made-that-faded-out-to-nothing........Happy Birthday to me!

I am 32 today, isn't that exciting?

[Mortriden]

I am 27 and like Franklin I started very young, also at the ripe old age of 8. I started playing with my friend and his older brother, using a dog-eared copy of original D&D. The characters were Pre-Gen's and I couldn't grasp the concepts well, but I had a blast. Got sucked into 2nd ed., Rifts (lord if that wasn't a power gamers love nest), Vampire (for all of one boring session), Feng Sheu (sp), BattleTech, Shadowrun 2nd ed., Cyberpunk 2020 (still love that game), Aberrant, 3rd ed. D&D, Call of the Chuthulu, Dark Conspiracy, original Earthdawn, Star Wars both versions, etc. etc. between my last group of gamers and this one we had/have a rather impressive collection of games.

[Neil Preston]

Happy birthday, Jordan (the name I most remember you by). 32, eh? Child.

Mortriden ... sounds like a good run. Of course, (cough, wheeze ...) your were only 1 when I started (trying to sound pompous, here) gaming.

(anyone seen gramps oxygen tank?)

[Ashnod]

Happy B-Day, Jordan!

[BlackStar]

Hey! I wish you a very Happy Birthday man.

[Vincent Carver]

Thanks folks! I had a nice relaxing day followed by an evening of getting trounced in Magic. Lots of fun.