House rules from a long-lived campaign

[Tech]

Being an 'old-timer' who's played Champions since 1st edition 1981, the campaign has changed considerably. I've been privileged to be part of such a great group of gamers, who are also my closest friends. We came up with a version of Hardened Defenses before there was such a thing, I'm proud to say. From the 1st edition of "The Island of Dr. Destroyer" to the Adventurers Club magazines, a lot has been added since sitting down on day 1 of Champions 1st edition and trying to figure out the rules from a mere 56 page book. Along the way, we've looked at many things we liked and added a few houserules. Sometimes, the houserules came about just to be simple for everyone, not to make it the best logical way. Hey, when you've seen the rules change ending up eventually with 6th edition, you just stick with some of them. Our house rules work for us, and that's good enough for us.

 

Before mentioning some of them, I'll retell the silliest thing that happened while learning the 1st edition of Champions:

My brother and I read the book through (so we thought) and decided to try to each create a character. With the 100 point base, we found our characters costing horrible more than Crusader or Starburst but weren't sure why. My brother backtracked on the points for each stat and eventually found out there were 10 pts free in Str, Dex, Con, Body, Int, Ego, etc. so he did a little checking in the rules. Gasp! You get base points to start! (Moral of the story: read what's in front of you.)

 

On to the House Rules:

 

Perfect 3:  When you roll a 3 on your to-hit dice, you have some options:

1. add +1 Stun/per die, up to your maximum damage. If you want, you may also do 1.5x Body rolled up to max. (i.e. a 10d6 punch would add 10 Stun to the Stun total, so a roll of 35 Stun would be increased to 45 Stun.)
2. Do zero BODY. This is particularly useful if you're not wanting to hurt someone.
3. Do your normal damage and allows maximum knockback automatically.
4. Do normal damage and go first on your next Phase automatically.

 

Rolling an 18:  When you roll an 18 on your to-hit dice, you have some options:

1. Your DCV is halved during that Phase
2. PD and ED are halved during your next Phase for the first attack that hits
3. Your attack at half OCV during your next phase
4. Roll for/pick a random character friend and roll the attack on them, at their DCV -1

Luck: Luck gives additional options besides the way Luck is usually handled. During the beginning of the game, anyone with Luck gets 1 pt. for each die of Luck that they possess, i.e. 2d6 Luck gives 2 pts. You lose these pts as you use them. Points reset at the beginning of any episode.

 

For each point you gain from Luck, you may pick from one of the following options:

1. Use 1 pt to add +1 OCV to one attack roll
2. Use 1 pt to add +1 DCV for one attack roll on you
3. Use 1 pt to reroll one low die of damage
4. Add a bonus to any skill or characteristic roll = to the number of points used. Announce how many pts you intend to use before the roll. Using 3 pts gives +3 to your roll. Useful to bring that skill of 11 or less up to 14 or less.

 

Comeliness: We use Comeliness, still. Someone help me on this but someone a long time ago suggested using Comeliness broken down into categories - we adopted that. The categories were: Approachability, Body, Face, Hair, Voice, Attitude, Magnetism, Style, Highlight.

 

Base Points at Character Creation: Variable from 100 - 200 pts. We primarily stick with 4th and 5th edition rules, with a small amt of 6th edition. When a character is created, work on the statistics, powers and skills. Pick the disadvantages that the player feels the character should have. The rest is the base. As we have multiple GM's, we come to a group consensus of the base, with much leniency.

 

Knockback: Even if an attack normally does knockback, the player can choose to do 'no knockback'. This is particularly used when two very strong opponents fight each other so they're not spending half the combat running back to each other due to the distance knocked back.

 

Rules used apply to villains as well as heroes.

 

[Rebar]

Before mentioning some of them, I'll retell the silliest thing that happened while learning the 1st edition of Champions:

My brother and I read the book through (so we thought) and decided to try to each create a character. With the 100 point base, we found our characters costing horrible more than Crusader or Starburst but weren't sure why. My brother backtracked on the points for each stat and eventually found out there were 10 pts free in Str, Dex, Con, Body, Int, Ego, etc. so he did a little checking in the rules. Gasp! You get base points to start! (Moral of the story: read what's in front of you.)

Heh. In our first game, we didn't understand REC. The hero had to take out the villain in 4 punches or he ran out of END.

 

 

Luck: Luck gives additional options besides the way Luck is usually handled. During the beginning of the game, anyone with Luck gets 1 pt. for each die of Luck that they possess, i.e. 2d6 Luck gives 2 pts. You lose these pts as you use them. Points reset at the beginning of any episode.

Never really bothered with Luck. Only comes into play one in every six games.

 

 

Base Points at Character Creation: Variable from 100 - 200 pts. We primarily stick with 4th and 5th edition rules, with a small amt of 6th edition. When a character is created, work on the statistics, powers and skills. Pick the disadvantages that the player feels the character should have. The rest is the base. As we have multiple GM's, we come to a group consensus of the base, with much leniency.

I don't follow. Can you elaborate, say with an example?

 

 

Knockback: Even if an attack normally does knockback, the player can choose to do 'no knockback'. This is particularly used when two very strong opponents fight each other so they're not spending half the combat running back to each other due to the distance knocked back.

True, though you don't need a house rule for this. Just have your characters pound each other on the top of the head. No knockback.

[massey]

We play a combination of 4th and 5th edition. Our house rules:

 

If you roll a 3 to hit, it's maximum damage, both stun and body.

 

We use a flat x3 stun multiplier on killing attacks.

 

Damage shield does not need the continuous advantage.

 

If you do 50 or more stun past defenses in one attack (including a coordinated attack), the target takes a body. This lets characters with big attacks and high defenses gradually beat each other to death (Superman / Doomsday type battles).

[Ternaugh]

We play a combination of 4th and 5th edition. Our house rules:

 

If you roll a 3 to hit, it's maximum damage, both stun and body.

 

We use a flat x3 stun multiplier on killing attacks.

 

Damage shield does not need the continuous advantage.

 

If you do 50 or more stun past defenses in one attack (including a coordinated attack), the target takes a body. This lets characters with big attacks and high defenses gradually beat each other to death (Superman / Doomsday type battles).

 

I used to use the maximum damage on a natural 3, but finally decided that it actually hurts the PCs more in the long run (As GM, I'm going to roll a lot more attacks against them, thus more chances for a "crit" against the PCs).

 

That said, I'm thinking of trying Tech's take on this.

[Christougher]

I used to use the maximum damage on a natural 3, but finally decided that it actually hurts the PCs more in the long run (As GM, I'm going to roll a lot more attacks against them, thus more chances for a "crit" against the PCs).

 

That said, I'm thinking of trying Tech's take on this.

 

Our group found double damage on a 3 excessively punishing to characters relying on high DCV - If it already takes a 3 to hit you, you always suffer double damage, and you probaby don't have high defenses to begin with.  Accepted solution: When you roll a 3, roll again.  If the second attack hits, you get the double damage, otherwise normal.

 

Chris.

[Tech]

I used to use the maximum damage on a natural 3, but finally decided that it actually hurts the PCs more in the long run (As GM, I'm going to roll a lot more attacks against them, thus more chances for a "crit" against the PCs).

 

That said, I'm thinking of trying Tech's take on this.

As we like to say in our campaign "what's good for the good guys is good for the bad guys". The rules are uniform across the board. Whatever rules are used for a perfect 3 works both ways. Sometimes, players come up with suggestions for new rules but I reply 'Don't forget the bad guys will use these rules, too'  and that usually nixes the idea.

[Christopher R Taylor]

Yeah I used to use critical hits, where you could either choose the location you hit or do max damage, but we dropped it after a while.  It didn't really add much fun to the game and didn't feel quite right.

 

The main house rule I use is to change block maneuvers.

Instead of blocking against the target's OCV, you block against the DCV they rolled to hit.  So if they hit a very high DCV, they are much harder to block.  If they barely hit you, they're easier to block.

[Christougher]

The main house rule I use is to change block maneuvers.

Instead of blocking against the target's OCV, you block against the DCV they rolled to hit.  So if they hit a very high DCV, they are much harder to block.  If they barely hit you, they're easier to block.

 

This I may steal.  It's always bugged me that a high block OCV made the attacker's roll irrelevant.

 

Chris.

[Ninja-Bear]

This I may steal. It's always bugged me that a high block OCV made the attacker's roll irrelevant.

 

Chris.

I can see though if I was the martial artist and I paid to have a high OCV this rule could be unfair.

[Christopher R Taylor]

It does bring up some concerns about the cost of block in martial arts, though, since its harder to pull off.

 

And if you have a high OCV, chances are you're going to hit a high DCV and hence be tougher to block.

[BlueCloud2k2]

Yeah I used to use critical hits, where you could either choose the location you hit or do max damage, but we dropped it after a while.  It didn't really add much fun to the game and didn't feel quite right.

 

The main house rule I use is to change block maneuvers.

Instead of blocking against the target's OCV, you block against the DCV they rolled to hit.  So if they hit a very high DCV, they are much harder to block.  If they barely hit you, they're easier to block.

 

One way I've seen Block handled was a skill vs skill roll of OCV vs DCV.

 

If the attacker would have hit on his Attack Roll (roll under 11+OCV-DCV) then the Target (if he declared a block) would attempt to roll under 11+DCV-OCV. If the defender succeeded, then the attack was blocked. If the attacker has a damage shield, it automatically does damage depending upon SFX (typically Energy-based ones)

 

One player we had in our group got so fed up with enemy Martial Artists engaged in Melee only using a half-phase to attack and holding the remaining half of the phase to block or dodge, bought a STR Damage Shield with the SFX "I hit you so hard that even blocking it hurts."

 

The GM just chuckled and said he'd wondered how long it was gonna take someone to find a workaround (we were playing a Anime Martial Arts campaign inspired by the original Dragon Ball and Yu-Yu-Hakusho.)

[Christougher]

 

One player we had in our group got so fed up with enemy Martial Artists engaged in Melee only using a half-phase to attack and holding the remaining half of the phase to block or dodge, bought a STR Damage Shield with the SFX "I hit you so hard that even blocking it hurts."

 

 

Was this an accidental overlooking or deliberate suspension of the rule that attacking ends your phase?

 

 For that genre and game, it seems appropriate to do it that way.  In a sci-fi campaign where PCs all had radios and military training, I suspended rule that it took a half-phase to communicate information.  Worked just fine.

 

Chris.

[Hugh Neilson]

Perfect 3:  When you roll a 3 on your to-hit dice, you have some options:

• add +1 Stun/per die, up to your maximum damage. If you want, you may also do 1.5x Body rolled up to max. (i.e. a 10d6 punch would add 10 Stun to the Stun total, so a roll of 35 Stun would be increased to 45 Stun.)
• Do zero BODY. This is particularly useful if you're not wanting to hurt someone.
• Do your normal damage and allows maximum knockback automatically.
• Do normal damage and go first on your next Phase automatically.

Seems reasonable - you get what's best for your situation which is the logical flow for a critical success.

 

Rolling an 18:  When you roll an 18 on your to-hit dice, you have some options:

• Your DCV is halved during that Phase
• PD and ED are halved during your next Phase for the first attack that hits
• Your attack at half OCV during your next phase
• Roll for/pick a random character friend and roll the attack on them, at their DCV -1

 

I get to pick? Then my Brick who has a low DCV already, and halved it for what he did last phase (perhaps he is Braced to avoid Knockback) will choose halving his DCV, while my Speedster who will be KO'd on the very lucky shot that might connect will have his already tiny defenses halved. Unless I don't plan on attacking next phase anyway, in which case I will take the half OCV. Seems like picking my own result makes a catastrophic failure much less catastrophic.

 

Knockback: Even if an attack normally does knockback, the player can choose to do 'no knockback'. This is particularly used when two very strong opponents fight each other so they're not spending half the combat running back to each other due to the distance knocked back.

 

 Why would I not want to do Knockback? Now he has to get up and close in again. I'll wait, no hurry. I'll even hold my phase to slug him again once he gets within range. Meanwhile, my Ranged teammates will probably take advantage of his halved DCV while he is prone (since he didn't suck up half DCV to Brace against my knockback).

 

We play a combination of 4th and 5th edition. Our house rules:

 

If you roll a 3 to hit, it's maximum damage, both stun and body.

Like others, I find that too extreme.

 

We use a flat x3 stun multiplier on killing attacks.

So KA gets the same average STUN as a normal attack, a bit more BOD (nice for automatons and entangles) and a bit less knockback (the big win is knocking prone, so maybe not a big deal), and is still more volatile than a normal attack (less BOD dice - rolling 24 on 4d6 for 72 STUN is way more likely than rolling 72 on 12d6). I'd be as, if not more, inclined to buy a killing attack.

 

If you do 50 or more stun past defenses in one attack (including a coordinated attack), the target takes a body. This lets characters with big attacks and high defenses gradually beat each other to death (Superman / Doomsday type battles).

I find it's way easier to simulate this style by using Damage Negation in preference to Defenses. If Supes and Doomsday each have, say, 10 DC Negation and 5 PD/ED, then a typical 12 DC attack gets a tiny bit of STUN through. A 15 DC attack (we'll give them each 75 STR) passes 12.5 STUN through, and does BOD on an above average roll.

 

In most games I see, 50 STUN past defenses won't happen anyway - Supes has 35 PD/ED, and a roll of 85 STUN is an average of 5 2/3 on those same 15d6. Plus, a couple of those hits KO's the target, and just one will STUN them. Unless we've rocketed STUN and CON into the stratosphere, I can't see that gradual attrition in a knock-down, extended battle actually happening.

[BlueCloud2k2]

Was this an accidental overlooking or deliberate suspension of the rule that attacking ends your phase?

 

 For that genre and game, it seems appropriate to do it that way.  In a sci-fi campaign where PCs all had radios and military training, I suspended rule that it took a half-phase to communicate information.  Worked just fine.

 

Chris.

 

Deliberate house rule.

[Christopher R Taylor]

I can think of plenty of situations I wouldn't want to do knockback; if I'm a strictly HTH guy I don't want to go running after the energy blaster because I slapped him through a building, and if I am trying to stop someone from running away, I don't want to knock them away from me.  If I'm worried about someone going over the edge of a cliff I don't want knockback, if there are innocent bystanders they'll crash into, etc, etc.