Champion Confessions

[Christopher R Taylor]

When I first started making characters (by hand, this was even before Heromaker) I thought that you added up all the advantages on a power, then subtracted the limitations and the result was what applied.

 

So if I had +2¾ and -1¼ of limitations, then the end result was a +1½ advantage.  If it was +½ advantage and -1½ limitations, then it ended up a -1 limitation!

 

I had a weird understanding of Multipower too, but I cannot remember how I did the math on that one.

 

Anyone else have any stories of misunderstandings or confusion from their early days?

[BoloOfEarth]

My first Champions character GI Jones (don't judge me) carried an M-16.  Nothing superpowered, just a normal assault rifle.  However, the GM and all of us players were completely new to Champions, so the GM saw in the rulebook that an M-16 was "2d6/6d6" and thought the 2d6 was the damage and the 6d6 was the knockback.  And he also thought that you added up all the knockback for multiple hits.  During our first battle, I fired autofire at Brick, hitting with most if not all of the bullets.  (Hey, it's been like 40 years, I can't remember everything.)  Due to the combined misunderstanding about the rules, my shots did enough knockback to send Brick back into - and through - a building, then across an open space behind that building into a second building.  The bullets themselves did little damage to Brick, but slamming through multiple walls ended up knocking Brick out cold.

[Lord Liaden]

My first campaign, we were all operating on the misconception that the cost of Multipower slots was based on the Real Cost of a Power in the slot, rather than the Active Cost. I spent a number of games playing a character with a 120 AP attack in a 60 point Multipower, and wondering if the system was broken because he seemed so unbalanced. 😌

[Christopher R Taylor]

Quote

My first campaign, we were all operating on the misconception that the cost of Multipower slots was based on the Real Cost of a Power in the slot, rather than the Active Cost.

 

I think... I think that's what I was doing as well, its been decades.  But I was doing something really wrong with Multipower costs like that.

[Steve]

Back when figured characteristics were still part of the rules, I thought that lost BODY capped maximum STUN by however many points of BODY were lost since STUN was derived partly from BODY. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I learned that wasn’t a rule.

[Duke Bushido]

To this day, I have a group- the group that has evolved from my original group, though I am the only "original" member left-

 

That doesnt give a rat's root red rump about Active Points.  We sont count them; we don't figure END from them-- they just arent a thing.  If my other groups were better at math and customizing via modifiers, we wouldn't use them in those groups, either.

 

 

[Doc Democracy]

5 hours ago, Duke Bushido said:

We sont count them; we don't figure END from them

 

Do you not use END, or use something else?  I have a number-friendly mind (moreso than my friends) and I find the distinction between active and real very useful.

[Duke Bushido]

We use END.  It is calculated from real cost, which had a radical affecr on the amount of END purchased and even some effect on the amount of REC purchased.

 

I don't know _why_ we do it that way, it is simply that this group- the evolution of the group I joined in 1980 or so, and in which I learned to play, has always played that way.  My suspicion is that my first GM didnt really have a head (or perhaps the patience) for math and this was the end result.

 

After he left and I got pressured to take over GM duties, everyone else was very resistant to doing it "the other way," and eventually I stopped trying.  As I said, none of the original players other than me remain, but with that one group, I still do it that way.

 

Honestly, the only measurable impact I see is, as I explained, in END-related builds.  I run two other groups who "play it right," but I must honestly say that I have found no significant advantage to one over the other (save the Reduced END is more popular when calculating from AP.

Knowing the AP of a power doesnt really tell me anywhere near as much as telling the dice that are in it, and any unusual modifiers; I get that from either build style.

 

 

 

[Christopher R Taylor]

In many cases the END Cost for powers will be the same based on Active or Real, since many powers have no advantages at all.

[Sketchpad]

When making my second character, a "Batman with darkness powers" hero, I tossed caution to the wind and took as many hunteds that I could. Name the organization, he was hunted by them at 14-, both criminal and law enforcement! He had all the perks... a nice HQ, some cool powers, martial arts... and a secret identity. Then the GM decided that ALL of his hunteds showed up at once. Outside the HQ. Oof!

[Opal]

I initially assumed that the stun multiplier was applied to the BOD damage of a KA after defenses.

 

 

[Doc Democracy]

I have not read all the rules of any edition beyond the first.

[Scott Ruggels]

I have terrible math anxiety to the point of being math-tarded, so  I would put  wish list of powers and abilities and hand them off the the GM to finish. Only when heromakr.exe came out didi a Build my own characters. I stll make firly simplistic builds.

[starblaze]

I almost always end up coming back to Champions.  I have run other games, Castles and Crusades, Amazing Adventures, BASH and many others but I eventually end up going back to my first love. 

 

It wasn't my first RPG, Holmes D&D was that, or my first Superhero RPG, Villains and Vigilantes was that but I still end up getting Champions because it is the only crunchy game that I comfortable with.  Running the game just feels like putting on a pair of comfortable shoes.