Xena....'Nuff said.


Xena, Warrior Princesss

Xena

F: In (40)
A: In (40)
S: Gd (10)
E: In (40)
R: Ty (6)
I: Rm (30)
P: Rm (30)
Health: 130
Karma: 66
Popularity: 15/-15 (Due in part to her prior actions as a warlord)
Resources: Typ (6)

Talents:
From the Series, Xena’s talents are too numerous and extensive to properly
list, so here is a quick overview:
Weapons Mistress*
Weapon Specialist* (Chakram)
Oriental Weapons*
Occult Lore*
Ancient Medicine*
Martial Arts A, B, C, D, E,
Acrobatics
Tumbling
Multi-Lingual: Latin, Hellenic, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Egyptian, and Minoan
Leadership*
Horseback
Knowledge: Other Cultures
Seafaring
Astrology
Resist: Domination
Escape Artist*
Crime

Poweres:
Xena possesses several “Pseudo-Powers”. Outside of her normal skills, which are quite impressive.
- Hyper Leaping: Pr (4)
- Martial Supremacy: D: Rm (30):
- Martial Supremacy: A: Rm (30)
- Iron Will: IN (40): She’s had her back broken, both legs, and put to death twice......You tell me she doesn’t have Iron Will
- Recovery: Ex (20)
- Incarnation Awareness: UN (100): Xena seems to have the uncanny ability to remember her life as Xena, despite what time she resides in.

Equipment:
Body Armor: Xena’s leather “Armor” provides Gd (10) Protection against Physical, Typ (6) vs. Energy, and it makes her look good.
Sword: Xena’s Sword is made of Rm (30) Material, and can cause Ex (20) Slashing damage
Chakram: Xena’s signature weapon, the Chakram is made of Un (100) Mat, can be thrown for Rm (30) damage, and be utilized intrick shots up to three areas away. The Chakram can be thrown to return to Xena’s hand, and outside of Callisto, Xena seems to be the only person to have mastered it. The Chakram is unique and has been stated within the canon of the series as being made of a mysterious metal, and took great effort to reforge.
Whip: Though Gabrielle traded the original whip away for a frying pan (I am not kidding), Xena probably replaced the whip. The whip is made of Gd (10) mat, and can strike for Pr (4) damage. On a Green Agility FEAT, Xena can entangle or trip opponents.

Contacts:
Xena knows so many people, I thought I would take a moment to
just go over the big ones:
Gabrielle
Joxer
Eve: Warrior and Daughter:
Autoclys: King of Thieves
Argo (I+II): Loyal Horses

Limitations:
Bloodthirsty Past: Xena's past continues to plague her attempts to redeem herself, as she was responsible for great evil. People are initially very distrustful of her, with good reason.
Enemies: Too numerous to mention, they include the gods, the dead, devils, demons, former lovers, and former associates. Xena's enemies rarely give her a moment's peace.

Looks pretty good, though I'm certainly not an expert on the overall series as some of it was just way too weird.

One quick question, though. You're not listing Hercules or Ioalus (his buddy / sidekick) as Contacts for Xena?

You know, I completely forgot to list them....and you are right, they should be listed.

She should also have 'chick thrilla' at Amazing. j/k. I actually never got in to Xena, but I had a friend who was. From the few episodes she forced me to watch this seems accurate.

I liked your writeup so much I dropped her into my tournament bracket.

Xena was victorious in her first showing in my tournament. She defeated X-men's the Beast in open battle. The two met upon a dirt road typical of the Xena and Hercules show. Round 1 saw the Beast get the upper hand with a strong charge attack after a Chakram strike.

Round 2 saw Xena swipe Hank with a sword strike and use her leaping ability to scale a nearby tree. Beast easily out classed her and hit her with a double kick before taking the tree for himself.

Round three and four saw Xena unleash swordsmanship hell on Beast and take his life down to below 0. Beast had used all his karma and had brought Xena down to 50 hp.

Xena's weapon skills allowed her to deal out damage quickly! The player who ran Beast was playing as if Beast had not wanted to hurt Xena, so he went for a lot of disarm and grapple attacks. It may have been the downfall of Hank, but regardless, Xena moves on to meet Katana in round 2.

A great write-up and entertaining to see in action in game!

I never really watched the show, but Lucy looks pretty hot in that pose!

Here are the stats for Hercules

HERCULES (Kevin Sorbo)

F) INCREDIBLE 40
A) REMARKABLE 30
S) INCREDIBLE 40
E) INCREDIBLE 40
R) GOOD 10
I) EXCELLENT 20
P) AMAZING 50

Health: 150
Karma: 80
Resources: Good
Pop: 50 (100 in Greece)
Appearance: Excellent

POWERS:
Body Resistance: Excellent versus blunted attacks & Typical versus cutting and impaling attacks.
Hyper-Leaping: Good
Truesight: Incredible (can see through illusions and those who are invisible).
Regeneration: Excellent
Psi-Screen: Amazing

TALENTS:
Dodging, Climbing, Artist: Dancer, Persuasion, Martial Arts: A, B, C, Boxing, Wrestling, Military, Weapon Master: Common Melee and Missile Weapons, Weapon Specialist: Gauntlets of Hephaestus, Area Knowledge: Greece, Iron Nerves, Leadership, First Aid.

EQUIPMENT: Gauntlets of Hephaestus: Class 1000 material.

CONTACTS: Zeus, Xena, Iolaus, Gabrielle, King Jason, and others.

Quote
Screaming Dean
Here are the stats for Hercules

HERCULES (Kevin Sorbo)

F) INCREDIBLE 40
A) REMARKABLE 30
S) INCREDIBLE 40
E) INCREDIBLE 40

POWERS:
Hyper-Leaping: Good

Maybe read the rules for leaping without the power, then re-read the power description. This power is either useless at this rank or actually a limitation that he can't use his actual Strength rank to leap.

Quote
Thrudjelmer
Maybe read the rules for leaping without the power, then re-read the power description. This power is either useless at this rank or actually a limitation that he can't use his actual Strength rank to leap.

According to this [classicmarvelforever.com] Good leaping would give him 20 feet up and 30 feet across. Now it's possible this version of Hercules could leap higher, but that's how far up I've seen him leap on the television show.

This version of Hercules is very down to earth. He even talks like a normal person. And he's nowhere near as big and as powerful as Hercules and other heavy hitters of Marvel Comics. He goes around walking not leaping all over the place like the Hulk. Even guys like Captain America, Wolverine, and Spider-Man would have a good chance against him. Xena fought him to a standstill, and you can see her stats if you scroll upward. Notice that she has Poor leaping which means 6 feet up and 9 feet across. That sounds about right from what I've seen of her on her show, even if her strength would technically allow her to leap higher and farther.

These are Television characters, not comic book characters. Their stats have been written with that in mind.

By the way, can the Thing leap as far as his listed strength would technically allow him to do? If he's leaped that high and far on the earth, then I've missed it. Nor have I seen Batman with his Excellent strength leap 30 feet up and 45 feet across. However, maybe I've missed that issue as well.

Redman II wanted to see the stats for this version of Hercules so I was trying to oblige him. Thank you for sharing and have a nice day.

Quote
Screaming Dean

Quote
Thrudjelmer
Maybe read the rules for leaping without the power, then re-read the power description. This power is either useless at this rank or actually a limitation that he can't use his actual Strength rank to leap.

According to this [classicmarvelforever.com] Good leaping would give him 20 feet up and 30 feet across. Now it's possible this version of Hercules could leap higher, but that's how far up I've seen him leap on the television show.

My point is that you don't need super leaping to leap. When someone doesn't have the power, they make their leaping checks based on Strength... and rolling the Hyper-Leaping power randomly grants you the power at a minimum rank of Strength +1CS.

In this case, you literally gave him a power that's useless at it's rank because part of the power should be at Amazing to go along with his Incredible Strength. If you don't want him to have Incredible leaping, then you should leave the power out and assign a limitation instead of the power, indicating that his Leaping checks suffer a -3CS penalty to reduce him to Good. Although I think his lack of leaping prowess was more about the physical limitations of the actor and special effects budget being put into other areas. At the very least, I think he should be able to jump as well as someone with peak human strength (Excellent). But while I can't cite anything specific at the moment because it's been well over a decade since I saw the show on a regular basis, I do recall him having leaped with greater than normal human strength at least once or twice.

Quote
Screaming Dean
By the way, can the Thing leap as far as his listed strength would technically allow him to do? If he's leaped that high and far on the earth, then I've missed it. Nor have I seen Batman with his Excellent strength leap 30 feet up and 45 feet across. However, maybe I've missed that issue as well.

The Thing doesn't really make the effort to jump, but I suspect he has on occasion and would go exceptional distances. Because his legs muscles have the strength to propel him... not ridiculous heights like Hulk can, but yes, he can.

As for Batman, if he has Excellent Strength. He would only be able to make a leap of 30 feet up or across on a Red FEAT. That's a 6% chance... and while Batman could probably spend the Karma to do it, he's the type who works smarter not harder and would just use his grapple gun. He'd save the Karma on a Red FEAT jump check for those instances where he's denied the grapple gun and really needs to clear that extra 10 feet up or across or 15 feet down.

Quote
Thrudjelmer
If you don't want him to have Incredible leaping, then you should leave the power out and assign a limitation instead of the power, indicating that his Leaping checks suffer a -3CS penalty to reduce him to Good.

Or I could have just given him Good Hyper-Leaping which shows how high he can leap which I did.

Quote
Thrudjelmer
As for Batman, if he has Excellent Strength. He would only be able to make a leap of 30 feet up or across on a Red FEAT. That's a 6% chance... and while Batman could probably spend the Karma to do it, he's the type who works smarter not harder and would just use his grapple gun. He'd save the Karma on a Red FEAT jump check for those instances where he's denied the grapple gun and really needs to clear that extra 10 feet up or across or 15 feet down.

All right, am I understanding correctly that Batman can normally jump 20 feet straight up in the air? You know the highest straight up jump in recorded history is Five feet five inches, right? Here's the link for that.

[www.guinnessworldrecords.com]

Now I know Batman has exhibited some impressive feats, but Batman out-jumping the best-recorded jump by over 3 times is like him running over 3 times faster Usain Bolt. Oh, here's another one, Like Batman lifting over 3 times more than some of the strongest men in the world like Nick Best, Eddie Hall, Robert Oberst, Brian Shaw, and Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson AKA the Mountain who deadlifted over a thousand pounds! I find all this so funny just like I find Batman leaping upwards of twenty feet in the air to be funny.

And as strong as Kingpin is (with at least Excellent strength if not more) I can't imagine him leaping upwards of twenty feet high either. That would be really hilarious to see Kingpin with all that bulk jumping twenty feet in the air after Spider-Man and smashing into him. Here's how it would look like:

Kingpin took a swipe at the fast-moving Spider-Man missing the web-slinger as he leaped fifteen feet high clinging to the side of the wall.

"You can't reach me up here, Baldy."

"You're wrong, Spider-Man! Let me show you!"

To Spider-Man's surprise, the 450-pound man leaped into him, slamming him with all his bulk, sending the wall-crawler crashing to the ground where the crime boss followed after him, jumping on Spider-Man with both feet.

"Ungh! You can't leap that high! It's impossible!" Spider-Man said as he barely kept consciousness.

"Wrong, Spider-Man! Since I have at least Excellent strength I can leap up to twenty feet, more if really necessary. Maybe you should have read the rules for leaping without the power, then have re-read the power description."

"Ooh!" Spider-Man moaned as he slipped into unconsciousness.

Quote
Thrudjelmer
The Thing doesn't really make the effort to jump, but I suspect he has on occasion and would go exceptional distances. Because his legs muscles have the strength to propel him... not ridiculous heights like Hulk can, but yes, he can.

I don't believe the Thing could leap anywhere near his strength would allow him to do according to the rules. There was a time when he was stranded in the desert in America where he had to walk all the way back to New York. If he could have leaped his way back home. he would have done so.

Quote
Screaming Dean

Quote
Thrudjelmer
If you don't want him to have Incredible leaping, then you should leave the power out and assign a limitation instead of the power, indicating that his Leaping checks suffer a -3CS penalty to reduce him to Good.

Or I could have just given him Good Hyper-Leaping which shows how high he can leap which I did.

Yes... so now he can hyper-leap with Good ability, or regular leap with Incredible Strength which is better. Because giving him a power does not limit his standard ability. It's a power, not a limitation. My original point is that your presentation is confusing to anyone that understands the rules of the game.

Quote
Screaming Dean
All right, am I understanding correctly that Batman can normally jump 20 feet straight up in the air? You know the highest straight up jump in recorded history is Five feet five inches, right? Here's the link for that.

[www.guinnessworldrecords.com]

Now I know Batman has exhibited some impressive feats, but Batman out-jumping the best-recorded jump by over 3 times is like him running over 3 times faster Usain Bolt. Oh, here's another one, Like Batman lifting over 3 times more than some of the strongest men in the world like Nick Best, Eddie Hall, Robert Oberst, Brian Shaw, and Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson AKA the Mountain who deadlifted over a thousand pounds! I find all this so funny just like I find Batman leaping upwards of twenty feet in the air to be funny.

Batman, despite being non-powered, is a superhero in a comic book world of superheroic feats. It's not at all uncommon for even low-power or no-power action hero story settings for the main hero to pull off exceptional feats that defy normal human norms. That said, if the highest straight up jump in recorded history is below five and a half feet, then it has been established that Batman has beaten that.

Quote
Screaming Dean
And as strong as Kingpin is (with at least Excellent strength if not more) I can't imagine him leaping upwards of twenty feet high either. That would be really hilarious to see Kingpin with all that bulk jumping twenty feet in the air after Spider-Man and smashing into him. Here's how it would look like:

Kingpin took a swipe at the fast-moving Spider-Man missing the web-slinger as he leaped fifteen feet high clinging to the side of the wall.

"You can't reach me up here, Baldy."

"You're wrong, Spider-Man! Let me show you!"

To Spider-Man's surprise, the 450-pound man leaped into him, slamming him with all his bulk, sending the wall-crawler crashing to the ground where the crime boss followed after him, jumping on Spider-Man with both feet.

"Ungh! You can't leap that high! It's impossible!" Spider-Man said as he barely kept consciousness.

"Wrong, Spider-Man! Since I have at least Excellent strength I can leap up to twenty feet, more if really necessary. Maybe you should have read the rules for leaping without the power, then have re-read the power description."

"Ooh!" Spider-Man moaned as he slipped into unconsciousness.

I don't believe the Thing could leap anywhere near his strength would allow him to do according to the rules. There was a time when he was stranded in the desert in America where he had to walk all the way back to New York. If he could have leaped his way back home. he would have done so.

And let's wrap this discussion up with the standard: MSH rules are not about realism. Real people without superhuman agility or powers that let them sense danger can dodge bullets and even lasers. Characters with anywhere from Poor to Excellent Endurance can run 2 areas per round (or 30 MPH) despite the fastest human running speed record being held by Usain Bolt at just under 28 MPH... and a successful Yellow Strength FEAT will allow the runner to boost their speed by 1 area for a round (and more if they make consecutive Yellow FEATs on following rounds), meaning that a normal, non-powered runner with Typical Strength and Endurance could feasibly run 45 MPH for a short duration.

If you're going to be a stickler for realism, maybe this isn't the game system to do it in.

In the image above showing Bruce Wayne making a standing leap, I measured from the top of his head to his heels (since he's 6'2 normal not on his tippy toes) to get the green bar. I duplicated that bar and left it white and a little translucent to show his feet beneath. He leaped straight up from the railing to the bottom of the balcony above him a distance of 12 feet and 4 inches... maybe an inch or two less, but still over 12 feet, which is a superheroic increase over the world record standing leap.

Just sayin'.




My point about the game system being inaccurate is relevant. Because if you really drive home the specifics of characters to keep them grounded in realism in a game where every other character is going to out-perform them without any special advantages beyond using the rules as written, then you're make the characters you present weaker than they should be... unless your goal is to then re-stat everyone and everything to bring it into line with the characters you present in your realistic way.

Quote
Screaming Dean
I don't believe the Thing could leap anywhere near his strength would allow him to do according to the rules. There was a time when he was stranded in the desert in America where he had to walk all the way back to New York. If he could have leaped his way back home. he would have done so.

Was difficult finding images of The Thing jumping. He's not much for jumping, but apparently can do it when needed.

Quote
Thrudjelmer
Yes... so now he can hyper-leap with Good ability, or regular leap with Incredible Strength which is better. Because giving him a power does not limit his standard ability. It's a power, not a limitation. My original point is that your presentation is confusing to anyone that understands the rules of the game.

My presentation of Kevin Sorbo/Hercules' ability to jump was similar to thejackolantern's presentation of Xena's ability to jump. In fact, his presentation of Xena was more detailed. He gave Xena Good strength and Poor Hyperleaping at the same time. This was accurate as far as I'm concerned. And I don't think anybody was confused about that or what I did for Kevin Sorbo/Hercules.

Quote
Thrudjelmer
Batman, despite being non-powered, is a superhero in a comic book world of superheroic feats. It's not at all uncommon for even low-power or no-power action hero story settings for the main hero to pull off exceptional feats that defy normal human norms. That said, if the highest straight up jump in recorded history is below five and a half feet, then it has been established that Batman has beaten that.

I have no problem with Batman jumping over twelve feet the way he did. It even seemed to me as if he had made a red roll and spent karma to leap that high. That's a far cry from jumping as high as thirty feet under the same circumstances.

By the way, were those scans from the Batman cartoon made into a comic book? That's what Bruce Wayne in those scans looks like. If that's the case, it's not really canon even if I believe it's feasible.

Anyway, here is a scan of Batman defeating the Hulk by gassing him and kicking him in the stomach in order to force him to breathe the gas thus rendering the Hulk unconscious.



Real enough for you? Why do I get the feeling that if there was ever a time in the future where we talked about how tough Batman was and if I showed this scan you would dismiss it as you've dismissed my other scans or say this was unrealistic. I would go from Mister Too Real to Mister Not Real Enough.

Quote
Thrudjelmer
And let's wrap this discussion up with the standard: MSH rules are not about realism. Real people without superhuman agility or powers that let them sense danger can dodge bullets and even lasers. Characters with anywhere from Poor to Excellent Endurance can run 2 areas per round (or 30 MPH) despite the fastest human running speed record being held by Usain Bolt at just under 28 MPH... and a successful Yellow Strength FEAT will allow the runner to boost their speed by 1 area for a round (and more if they make consecutive Yellow FEATs on following rounds), meaning that a normal, non-powered runner with Typical Strength and Endurance could feasibly run 45 MPH for a short duration.


If you're going to be a stickler for realism, maybe this isn't the game system to do it in.

While your math is correct, I don't believe the makers of this game were too concerned about mathematical accuracy back in the '80s when the game was created. I can live with that.

If you remember how things started in the Marvel Universe, you'd know that Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and the other creators of Marvel went out of their way to make their comics more "real" than the other comic books of the time. They oversaw things so that there would be some kind of consistency, unlike DC at the time. I'm not out of pocket expecting a tiny bit of realism from a game that's based on Marvel Comics. And this whole diatribe started because you disagreed with how I stated up a character from a TV show that was more down to earth(more realistic) than what goes on in either Marvel or DC comics.

Quote
Thrudjelmer
My point about the game system being inaccurate is relevant. Because if you really drive home the specifics of characters to keep them grounded in realism in a game where every other character is going to out-perform them without any special advantages beyond using the rules as written, then you're make the characters you present weaker than they should be... unless your goal is to then re-stat everyone and everything to bring it into line with the characters you present in your realistic way.

I stated Kevin Sorbo/Hercules in a way that was more grounded in realism than most comic book characters for a reason. He's not a comic book character! And yes, many of the superpowered characters of Marvel and DC comics would outperform him. So what? If I stated Rambo, the A-Team, James Bond, Dirty Harry, Sarah Conner, and some of the characters played by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Chuck Norris, they'd all be outperformed by most of the super-powered characters of Marvel and DC comics. (However, there's a good chance a whole lot of Chuck Norris fanboys would go berserk if I was too realistic with his stats)

Quote
Thrudjelmer
Was difficult finding images of The Thing jumping. He's not much for jumping, but apparently can do it when needed.

It's strange to see the Thing leap like this. However, didn't the force of the blast toss them up like a bunch of ping pong balls? Thus it's hard to quantify exactly how much the Thing was leaping and how much was the force of the blast propelling him upward. I suspect the writer did that deliberately since the Thing doesn't jump that much.

Even if you see me as being too realistic for this game, I most respectfully disagree. However, since I believe in keeping it real, you might not be too far wrong. Some of the subjects we've discussed seemed as ridiculous as when Hulk Hogan would supposedly get the daylights beat out of him in professional wrestling. Then the Hulkster would shake his head back and forth until his eyes would bug out, staring at his opponent who continued to beat on him with the blows "having no effect." After that, Hulk Hogan would get up, bodyslam his opponent, and win the match. If I were to stat Hulk Hogan(not Terry Bollea his real name) I wouldn't keep it real the way I've done earlier since wrestling is so fake.

There was a time long ago when some of us thought Spider-Man was a martial artist and you and some others said, "No!" It was supposedly impossible for a comic book character who already had the tools and the physical equipment and was getting trained by the best martial artist in the Marvel Universe who created a martial art specifically designed for him to become a martial artist. It seems to me in that day and time, you were the realist.

This discussion has been interesting. Maybe, next time you'll be the realist or we'll both be the realists or vice versa.

Quote
Screaming Dean
This discussion has been interesting. Maybe, next time you'll be the realist or we'll both be the realists or vice versa.

I will never be "the realist" in a discussion involving a superheroic RPG game where the rules don't support realism. Maybe next time you'll think about how the rules are written and set your write ups accordingly. Maybe not. I'm not trying to enforce a rule, nor was it my intent to suggest you take your realist attempts elsewhere when I suggested that there are other games that better reflect reality than the MSH game does.

Also, the original post above giving Xena a Poor rank Hyper Leaping is just outright ridiculous as it implies that no one can really jump unless they have the power and also because Xena has been shown making some absolutely ridiculous leaps during the tenure of her series. Using that as a basis for setting a low rank on Hercules jumping is just ridiculous. And I feel pretty certain that Kevin Sorbo's Hercules has made one or two super leaps over the course of his show but it's one of the things he doesn't do often because they preferred to keep the action more grounded... but keeping the action on the ground doesn't mean the character couldn't or hasn't gotten off it on occasion. I'd love to cite examples, but I really don't feel like going back and re-watching the series right now. I might have been more amenable to the idea a couple months ago, but now is a time of resting and relaxing for me.

Quote
Thrudjelmer
Maybe next time you'll think about how the rules are written and set your write ups accordingly.

Next time I will think more about it especially if what I've done is really as confusing to everybody as you've made it out to be. I was having fun, but the next time I'll do like Larry David and curb my enthusiasm.