Questions about proposed changes

[Sigfried Hunin]

There was no differentiation between "Abilities" and "Techniques" in the old Chubbs. You couldn't buy anything. At any point.

The reason for the differentiation is to create characters that rely on specific Abilities (maybe not "rely," but that's their thing). Which, btw the way, is very Dragonball. Hell, in the original series, Roshi's thing was that he could use the Kamehameha. Characters having a "hook" was what DB and the early parts of DBZ was about.

Yeah, I know it was. I think that's better than what we currently have going on. I also think the current system can be changed or expanded upon to make it WORK, but right now it's really not as operational as it can be.

Shapeshift is a Technique as a straight rip from Dragonball. The character literally went to school to learn how to do it. You have taken a Technique and made it part of your character. That's cool. That, however, does not seem like "proof" that we should marginalize Abilities.

I am, by the way, quite curious which Techniques you say are "way more powerful than abilities." With the very, very arguable case of Shapeshift, I don't see that as being the case anywhere.

Marginalization isn't what I'm talking about. Integration and expansion of previously existing ideas and the current system is what I'm talking about. To make BETTER.

List of stupid abilities that should either be techniques or changed to be more powerful/less powerful:

Dark Ki: everyone of the Z fighters had the ability to like, REPRESS their power level or however the fuck you feel like explaining it so they didn't appear or at the very least seemed much less powerful than they were. In comparison to being able to TURN INVISIBLE, this seems liek an underpowered ability if you're only allowed to have TWO of them.

Elemental Ki: Ok, yes, this is cool. It's something that's often chosen. If you're creative, you can do a lot more with it, make it into something that other people don't have. Can you manifest water or earth to use? If not, it sounds like telekinesis. People usually manifest fire electricity and light easily enough. Not an example of something that is underpowered, just like, "lolwut?" in some cases.

Foresight: I can now win EVERYTHING EVER BECAUSE I SEE THE FUTURE. Most people don't write it like that, but they CAN.

Inner Strength: We all know why this is stupid in a system where we don't really even pay attention to the stats that this increases.

Ki Spec: So, it's just basically a free Ki Control (5 xp) and the character is now automatically assumed to have a high focus score. Many times people have quoted this ability to me as something I don't have and it's restrictive, so it has a bit of exclusive power to make cool techs. Not really convinced that it's worthy of being an ability however.

Ki Sense: Ignoring the ability to sense Dragonballs, everyone on the show had this. Fuckin EVERYBODY. Like dark ki, this is another case of, "wtf mate?" because now what seems like a very basic skill is excluded to everyone, and also the people who do have it, I feel, are left swaying in the breeze. Kaden has turned this into a core part of his char, which is COOL, but on it's own without any of the fixerating that he has done with techs and storyline, it's like, WHY is this an ability?

Martial Arts Spec: This one is like Ki Spec's retarded younger brother. It doesn't give you a free tech, and really there isn't a whole lot of ways to build off of it. I was considering doing like, certain techniques with Orsalis like PARALYZING STRIKE or something, but more than likely it doesn't amount to more than people writing your character as being good with his fists and shit.

Psychokinesis: Ok, so the difference where telekinesis and psychokinesis is that you can charge things with energy. Couldn't this just be a tech? The ability to use a power that's another tech and then like, a lil addon of being able to charge shit with energy? Mehrehfdb

Regeneration: I can now not be hurt by anything. Thank you.

Time Stop: If I stop time for long enough, I can do pretty much anything. I may not directly attack you, but I can set up explosives all over you, disable your ship and fuck your mother. Also, I can pretty much teleport because to everyone else I've just gone from one place to another in no time flat.

Ok, and I have a FEW of the basic techniques, so not the literally LIMITLESS CUSTOMS WHICH CAN DO ALMOST ANYTHING:

Body Size Control: Ok, so this seems like something that isn't learned. Did it show up in the show that way? I mean, it would be kind of a shitty ability, but you can already do this with shapeshift unless you buy it just to try and be considerate like I did. It's also something that would seem to be something exclusive to people who wanted this ability (like saiyans or whatever). Just seems WEIRD. It also doesn't provide a stat bonus for oozaru. It also only lets you grow twice your size? That's not as big as an oozaru. Like, at all.

Body Split: Holy shit, ability much? I'm not two/four/eight/sixteen fuckin people. Ohaithar. I think that anyone should be able to learn it, but I also think anyone should be able to learn any ability.

Ki Absorbption: Another abiltiy power. The power to DRAIN THE LIFE FORCE FROM OTHER PEOPLE. Way more potent than half the shit that's abilities.

Shapechange: I am now anything I want to be. It is awesome and allows me to do really cool creative stuff.

Telekinesis: Who learned this? Cell is one of the few people I can think of... maybe a few other. I remember people lifting stuff a lot with their mind. Maybe, I can't really remember.

Telepathy: Who learned telepathy in DBZ? There was like one or two characters who had it.

Venomous Ki: Another damn thing that's just like, WOAH HOW COOL IS THAT, MAN I'M GLAD I DIDN'T PICK DARK KI, WHAT FUCKING RETARD I WOULD HAVE FELT LIKE. Nobody learned it, and it blows half the previous list out of the fucking water.


And guess what, those are the BASIC TECHS FROM THE LIST.

Abilities are there to define your character. Techniques and Custom Techs are there to help them fight. That's the baseline of the system. That's why there's a limitation to the number of Abilities someone has. I've been a character who has the option to do everything. It really is not that great.

I'm not saying it's fucking fantastic, like some kinda great joy ride of fantastic adventure or anything, I'm saying that it would allow peopel to create the characters they envision much more easily, and allow people to make cool combos, be creative and make the shit that they see their character being able to do.

EDIT: Also, if one of the creators of something says its not a copy. It's not a copy. You can't tell him what his intent was. "Copy" implies that they were trying to strip ideas from Chubbs and integrate them into something else and we've already been told that that's the case.

If you have, or can link us to, a description of the AD system you're thinking of, that would be helpful.

I'm not telling him what his intent was, I'm telling him what it came out as. I'm also not telling him what the system was used for. I'm not talking about the characters or the writing or anything else. I'm talking about the basic way that the system worked and how the pieces fit together.

I'm not sure how involved Rose was with the most recent incarnation of AD was either. I just have no idea. Maybe he was there the whole time, maybe he didn't even know something changed.

The system I'm talking about is the one that (I'm pretty sure) came out before the site went down down recently. The one where Alex RPed as Protoman, I was Warboss and Victoria was that one chick from FF. Unfortunately, I didn't save the rules chapters or else I would post em. I'm sure Piper has em somewhere, but getting him to even get into it with that conversation probably won't happen.


This is the application post I made:


Name of Character: Warboss DeffCrusha

Place of Origin: Planet Angelis (tha’s Orkamorka to ye’s, git!)

Starting Place: Atra

Stats:

ATK: 45
DEF: 45
SPD: 5
TEC: 5

Starting Powers: Basic Regeneration, Master Bodily Survival

Trademarks:

Items:Custom Weapon: Power Klaw

RP Sample:

Powers are like techniques. Exactly like them, but far more numerous and far better organized. Trademarks are like Custom techniques that players make. That was pretty much the system. Also, you buy items with XP.

It's the SAME. SHIT. But far more streamlined, clean and delicious to accommodate for literally ANY character being put into the system.

It's a lot like the M&M for play by post: you can make ANYBODY you can imagine, make it balanced and fun to play with. But, you can also apply any flavor you want to it because it goes with ANYTHING. If you want to make a DBZ character with it, you CAN and it'll be PERFECT to write with. There's no reason that it's AD specific, or ANYTHING specific for that matter because it's a system that goes with the flow and allows you to create freely.

There is a DIRECT CONVERSION for EVERY SINGLE WRITER on this site and it wouldn't even be HARD. I bet that I could go through, take all the active writers and convert them over in a matter of about two hours, if not less.

Once again, not saying we need to direct copy and paste but you should look at it, if Piper would grace us with it's presence.