Body Sheath

[Pulsar]

I have a question. In the old Marvel RPG there was a power called Body Sheath, it was kind of a cross between force field, Energy body, and an elemental control. I have recently found champions again after many years and I am attempting to translate my character from Marvel to Champions. I cannot find a good match under the rules for a body sheath as in the old game. can anyone point me in the correct direction.

[Steve Long]

Since this is a how-to and not a rules question per se, I've moved this to "Discussion" so the fans, esp. those familiar with the Marvel rpg, can offer their opinions.

 

I'll offer this opinion -- if you're just getting back into the game, pick up our book, The UNTIL Superpowers Database. It has thousands of pre-generated superpowers organized into over 40 different categories by special effect, and I'll bet you could find in it one or more powers that do what you're describing -- as well as plenty of other cool super-abilities.

[CrosshairCollie]

Generally, this is a Force Field with a linked Damage Shield; the super in question usually has Flight to go along with it (the Human Torch is probably the most famous example here), at least if it's an Energy Sheath.

 

A Matter Sheath would likely be Visible Armor (see: Iceman).

[Killer Shrike]

An Elemental Control w/ Flight, Force Field, and a HKA Damage Shield should do the trick.

 

Many Powers in Marvel, particularly the Ultimate Powers Book, take several Powers Constructs and often a Power Framework like an EC or MPP to model in the HERO System due to the "Power Stunt" concept in Marvel. In the HERO System pretty much each stunt is either a seperate Power Construct or in some cases specific Adders.

[AnotherSkip]

However the intial use of Power stunts could be covered now by the Power Skill Skill.

[Killer Shrike]

Originally posted by AnotherSkip

However the intial use of Power stunts could be covered now by the Power Skill Skill.

In some limited cases. However, a lot of Power Stunts were either entirely new functions of Powers or juiced up versions of the base Power.

[Bengal]

When thinking about translations from Marvel, you have to remember the system grew from a larval 1st edition where you couldonly play pregenerated characters. Powers presented neatly covered their abilities, but no effort was made to allow for unique creations.

 

When the 2nd edition rolled out, there was an effort (I think mainly due to the popularity of HERO) to allow people to create their own heroes. However, the idea of paying points-for-powers, or whatever, was still sort of foreign to the game creator, I think Jeff Grubb. He was from the D&D school, where every decision came from a pregenerated table. In Marvel's case (this time influenced by Mayfair's original, good and great DC HEROES game I think), everything was on a percentile roll table. This had the added advantage of only needing two dice to play- a pair of d10s. Something tells me these were surplus from the original order for DC's game, since the dice were identical.

 

So you had all these powers, basically ripped right from the Marvel heroes they originally emulated, and laid out in neat tables, ready for you to random roll for them.

 

Later, as the system matured, there were more powers added, but again, they were based conceptually on what superheroes in the comics were already doing. Things like "Claws" were a seperate power; Force Field had set PD and ED breakdowns and could also be used as telekinesis and EB and flight and force wall (costs end to maintain)... it was a jumbled mess.

 

If you wanted to gain total immunity from a type of attack, such a fire, you had to use two power slots (out of your 2-5 total) to get it, whereas you could spend one to get an arbitrarily powerful (those dice again) resistance to fire.

 

Even characteristics were slotted on a random roll table. You could not be sure you could get a playable character at all unless you, ahem, fudged it. And as long as you're doing that, why would anyone want to play Random Man if they could play Iron Man instead?

 

Although the flavor was just right, and it felt good to be playing with the superheroes you liked to read about, it was like amateur hour compared to Champs. Once you get the feel for this system, you'll remember fondly your MSH days, but never again will you crack the rules books.

[Killer Shrike]

Yeah, I played and ran in an extended "Advanced" MSH campaign using the Ultimate Powers Book for about 6 months off and on. To make it playable we had to use a point buy system, IIRC 1000 points, to buy all your FASERIP and powers with, and you couldnt go above Unearthly.

 

About a month in, I liked the Supers genre in RPing enough and was irritated enough by MSH flaws to buy the shiny new BBB, but it took me 5 months or so to talk the other players into playing Champions. I persevered and we finally did; we never went back to MSH because it was obvious that it was a toy compared to the HERO System, but the other players werent crazy about the heavy mechanics of the HERO System either.

 

We played Champs for about 6 months, and then a year went by of other games like RIFTS and Shadowrun IIRC, I talked em into Champs again and we played for about 4 months over the summer with real sporadic attendence due to vacations. Then we started a year long AD&D campaign which I also ran, and then White Wolf came out and thats all we played until graduation. I left for the military and joined & formed other groups, and played Champs with many of them, but had the most success bringing people into the fold of the HERO System with other genres than supers, mostly Fantasy.

 

However, for all its faults, Ive always had fond memories of A-MSH. It basically lead me to the HERO System, since if I hadnt been playing a supers RPG at the time I probably wouldnt have picked up the BBB bcs it was definitely marketed at the supers genre.

[Bengal]

However, for all its faults, Ive always had fond memories of A-MSH. It basically lead me to the HERO System, since if I hadnt been playing a supers RPG at the time I probably wouldnt have picked up the BBB bcs it was definitely marketed at the supers genre.

 

Word up.