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Modern Champions


Christopher R Taylor

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With everyone walking around with smartphones that not only connect to the internet, but play music, are telephones, and have cameras, flashlights, and can pick up any radio station around the world which broadcasts on the internet... are the radio senses in Enhanced Senses even a power any longer?  I mean, I know they run out of batteries, cannot always get connection, and are a fragile OAF but still...

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I suppose as more and more of the RF band is devoted to digital, a superhero with innate (presumably analog) Radio Hearing will just being listening to something akin to old modem noises.  Unless they're actual cyberpaths I guess.

 

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It's a power, just not a very useful one anymore.

 

Most writeups for team "radios" are Mind Links so they don't have to worry about eavesdropping. 

 

Most heroes on patrol no longer bother to specify that they're listening to the police scanner but seem to find the action regardless.

 

If I were doing a new campaign world, I'd either do retro before smart phones or have some company create Super-Phones which could stand up to the pounding of a superhero battle. Having to buy a new phone after literally every battle is far too punishing for low wealth heroes and not limiting at all to high wealth heroes.

 

And I'd expect in a superhero/supervillain world that there'd be a lot of legal and illegal smartphone apps that you don't see on real world phones:

 

Police Scanner: so the good guys and bad guys know what the police are responding to. The app not only let's you listen to the scanner but also puts it in text so you can read what's been happening.

 

Pokemon Go: an app which shows where all the police cars are in real time. Also alerts you when a police car is near.

 

HeroWatch: collates local social media sightings of superheroes and their team vehicles in real time. Gives autograph hunters and villains a fair idea of where most heroes are at any point in time. And shows patterns of behavior if people are obsessive enough to dig into the available data. (Could be countered by spoof accounts uploading fake sightings.)

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1 hour ago, archer said:

Pokemon Go: an app which shows where all the police cars are in real time. Also alerts you when a police car is near.

Funny that the Pokemon Go app can do that. I figured it would be easier to track Mew Two on it than to track police cars. Prehaps you mean Policecar Go!?

 

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3 hours ago, steriaca said:

 

Funny that the Pokemon Go app can do that. I figured it would be easier to track Mew Two on it than to track police cars. Prehaps you mean Policecar Go!?

 

 

You hide the illicit app on your phone as Pokemon Go. 

 

The original versions of Pokemon Go allowed hack apps which would show you all the available Pokemon in an area without having to actually walk across and accidentally discover each individual one. So you could go directly to the ones you wanted...or avoid the ones you didn't.

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OK. This thread reminded me of the old Replaceable Limitation from the original Star Hero.  (As opposed to the indiependent limitation f/Fantasy Hero)

 

It'd be a way of recognizing a 'power' that wasn't that super anymore, because of commonplace technology making it somewhat redundant.  

 

Anything like that make it into 6th?

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Not that I am aware of.  It reminds me of the lack of distinction between having all your powers in one OAF, and having a different OAF for each power.  Same cost, same structure, just... special effect, I guess?  But it seems like the more powers you put into one focus, the more of a limitation it becomes.  Although there is some advantage (convenience, for one thing).

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I don't see the analogy, but on that topic, yes, an all-in-one focus can be taken all at once.  OTOH, it will also, if it's not indestructible/irreplaceable. have DEF based on the highest-BOD power (IIRC, I have versionitits pretty bad, but as some points that was the case), it'll likewise be easier to recover than multiple foci scattered among multiple foes, say.  And, you can only hold onto two OAFs at a time, right?  So any others will be more vulnerable to being snatched.

 

Similarly, multiple different limitations of the same value give the same savings as having one of those limitations on everything.  The latter would seem worse, since one condition can shut you down, but the former is also a problem because any one of multiple conditions can weaken you.  

 

 

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3 hours ago, Derek Hiemforth said:

Remember, kids: in Superheroic campaigns, you have to pay CP for anything you want to have routinely!  Make sure to work out the CP cost of that iPhone!  (Maybe the innate Senses would be cheaper...). ;) 

 

I decided to take a crack at it:

 

Cell Phone Multipower: 30 Active Points, Common limitations: OAF -1, Cost End -1/2, 1 easily recoverable charge, lasts 6 hours (+0, because otherwise it is cheaper to get rid of "Costs End" but the phone's use should be limited by battery capacity)

real cost: 12

 

Mind Link 5cp, No Line of Sight +10, up to 16 participants (Conference Call) + 15 = 30 Active Points, Only to others with a cell phone & requires knowledge of their phone number -1,

real cost: 1

 

Radio Perception and Transmission, Active Points 10, 

real cost: 1

 

Navigation App: Navigation skill at 14-,  9 Active Points 

real cost: 1

 

Translation App: Universal Translator Active Points 20 (OAF -1)

real cost: 1

 

Video Recording App Eidetic Memory Active Points 5 (OAF -1)

real cost: 1

 

Images Sight and Sound to replay video recording,  Active Points: 5 -The images are too small to fool anyone and they do not fill a hex. (OAF -1)

real cost: 1

 

Change Environment, +1 to light level, one hex only, Active Points: 3, OAF -1, No range -0.5

real cost: 1

 

So, I am already at a real cost of 19 and I did not include any games!  If your character is regularly somewhere with sketchy cell phone service then that could also be a limitation...  

 

I just find it unlikely that a typical normal person would all walk around with a 19 point device that superheroes would have to pay for. 

 

That said, in some places it might be "normal" for people to carry a gun but that does not mean I would allow heroes to use a gun except as a prop unless they paid for it. 

 

Edited by foolishvictor
Sometimes I forget that Multipowers make sense
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Probably the best way to handle a Cell Phone is to treat it as normal equipment for non-combat use (like a telephone) but a character has to spend points if they are going to use those abilities in odd situations, in combat, or in places where something like that would not ordinarily work or be available.

 

Quote

So, I am already at a real cost of 19 and I did not include any games!  

 

Maybe you should build it as a Variable Power Pool instead!

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6 hours ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

 having all your powers in one OAF, and having a different OAF for each power.  Same cost, same structure, just... special effect, I guess?  

 

 

Unless this changed in the last,couple of editions, arent the BODY or DEF scores of Foci dependent on the number of AP within the individual focus?  Sort of a temptation to have a tougher, more durable focus in exchange for losing all your powers at once?

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1 hour ago, Duke Bushido said:

Unless this changed in the last,couple of editions, arent the BODY or DEF scores of Foci dependent on the number of AP within the individual focus?  Sort of a temptation to have a tougher, more durable focus in exchange for losing all your powers at once?

 

It's equal the AP of the largest power divided by 5.  So having a bunch of powers in the Focus doesn't matter.  Well, except that for each BODY damage a Focus takes, it loses a Power.  So if it only has one, one BODY will break it, while multiple will let it lose Powers while other Powers still work. 'Course, a Power Framework counts as one Power for this purpose, so it doesn't help much...

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Mind Link 5cp, No Line of Sight +10, up to 16 participants (Conference Call) + 15 = 30 Active Points, Only to others with a cell phone & requires knowledge of their phone number -1, OAF fragile -1 1/4, 1 easily recoverable fuel Charge, lasts 6 hours -0, Counts as Radio Sense -0, Counts as more than one sense (must be able to hear or see the call) (-1/4), Limited Requires a cell phone carrier -1/2, Real Weapon (-1/4), Variable Limitations (-1/2 of Gestures, Incantations, and Extra Time) -1/4

real cost: 7

 

I would probably buy it as a Unified Power rather than a Multipower, much cheaper. I'm sure most of its functions work out to be about 1 real point each.

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1 hour ago, Derek Hiemforth said:

 

It's equal the AP of the largest power divided by 5.  So having a bunch of powers in the Focus doesn't matter.  Well, except that for each BODY damage a Focus takes, it loses a Power.  So if it only has one, one BODY will break it, while multiple will let it lose Powers while other Powers still work. 'Course, a Power Framework counts as one Power for this purpose, so it doesn't help much...

 

That was it!

 

 

Thanks, Derek!

:)

 

(I think we have all just witnessed me admitting that I flat don't use this rule   :lol: )

 

 

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4 hours ago, Greywind said:

That depends on the point of the car. If Bob just uses it to go to work, shopping, and the like, it's free.

If it is the Batmobile, it's going to cost.

 

I agree with you Greywind but I would add two little details.  First, the character should have the 1cp perk for a driver's license.  Second, in my opinion any character with the "destitute" limitation should not own a car unless they also are hunted by repo men (and women...)  Other than that as long as the car is ordinary and generic I do not see a problem with the character using the car to do things that are mundane.

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1 hour ago, foolishvictor said:

Second, in my opinion any character with the "destitute" limitation should not own a car unless they also are hunted by repo men (and women...)

 

I dunno... having been in that position myself before, I sort of think you might have a car, but if you do, the awful car you'll have will add at least as much financial burden to your Destitute state (car insurance, vehicle registration, constant repairs, terrible gas mileage, etc.) as it provides any kind of help. Without enough money to maintain it, having a car is almost more of a curse than a blessing...

 

Totally agreed, though, that you shouldn't have a good car...  ;) 

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Quote

That depends on the point of the car. If Bob just uses it to go to work, shopping, and the like, it's free.

 

Quote

Other than that as long as the car is ordinary and generic I do not see a problem with the character using the car to do things that are mundane.

 

Yeah and that's the idea I had that led to posting this thread: what was once amazing and super powered stuff is now mundane and ordinary.  I wrote both The Island of Dr Destroyer and the upcoming Champions Begins with the assumption that every superhero is also carrying around a smart phone of some sort (probably a cheap disposable so they can't be tracked in their secret identity, but still)

 

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