Jhereg Posted March 19, 2004 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2004 Now when I say we like low-powered FH, I mean we like to be the random thugs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legendsmiths Posted March 19, 2004 Report Share Posted March 19, 2004 Now THAT'S what I'm talkin' 'bout. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tasha Posted March 19, 2004 Report Share Posted March 19, 2004 I agree that point totals don't necessaraly equal power level. I can create a 500 pt character that balances pretty well with 350pt characters. It all depends on how much you munchkinize your character. I prefer not to have to come up with cheesy limitations (ie not in intense magnetic fields) just to make a power construction fit into 250pts. I also like my characters to have a decent amount of background skills. In 250pts I have a very difficult time doing that. Way back in the 3rd edition days, we played at 250 pts. Then Fantasy Hero and Danger International were released. We decided that having those cool skills were essential to our characters. The problem was that we couldn't take our characters as written and add the skills without increasing the power level. So we decided to play champions at 100+150 +50pts in non-combat lvl skills (150+150). That made our characters more rounded and we started have adventures where we didn't spend all session beating up villains. Now in 5th edition we have characters 200+150 and I find that I can write up characters with more complex power conceptions. I can also play competitive characters that don't have every power focused, and limited to death. I am sick of playing mystical focus girl, powered armor suit woman, removable cyber module lady etc. So I am running my Teen Champions game at 200+150. I prefer that level and besides it is much easier to use the published villains if I am at the assumed power level of the Champions Universe. Some of the players in my campaign have marveled that the feel of 200+150 wasn't much different than 100+150, just the amount of cheesing and the amount of affordable skills was different (ie less cheese, more skills). BTW when I am playing non-supers (ie Fantasy hero or Star Hero) I like playing at 75+75. I have also had fun with 50+75 as well. Tasha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost-angel Posted March 20, 2004 Report Share Posted March 20, 2004 Power level can also mean different things .. we restrict the Active Points on powers to around 60 normally, which means no matter how high you go in points you're not getting above that 60pt AP, which helps to even out playing fields a bit. It simply allows us to put in more powers allowing for more diverse courses of action. Of, what usually happens in our group is the number of skills explodes, at 350 pts you have better got a min. of 50pts just for skills, preferabbly closer to 100. By the time you reach 500 with experience most characters in our group are at, or excede, 100pts in non-combat related skills and skill levels. But.. there are always those games that spin wildly out of control..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tgaptte Posted March 20, 2004 Report Share Posted March 20, 2004 For supers, I definitely prefer higher points. Specifically I prefer the new "standard hero" at 350 pts. Previously on the 250 pt standard, I would have to severely limit and cram my character concept into a small pool of points...I'd have cool character ideas that I just couldn't make work. I find that with 350 points, I don't have to come up with cheesy limitations or short myself on skills to fit my character under the point limit. My 350 pt heroes are not any more powerful than my 250 pt heroes, but they are more rounded and much more fun to play. Tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kdansky Posted March 20, 2004 Report Share Posted March 20, 2004 We do feel though that some of our characters have too few background skills because they simply can't pay for them (as I said, we only have 150 cp). It concludes to this: The more broken a character is (Multiform/Multipower/VPP) the more background skills he usually has, because he has a lot of points spare compared to the rest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jhereg Posted March 21, 2004 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2004 Some may be happy to learn that partly thanks to some of the responses on this thread, I’ve decided to give a Standard Super campaign a shot (to date, I’ve never started a campaign higher than 250 pts). I’ve only talked to one of my players about it, but he seems eager. The biggest change however is the wide open Champions Universe scope we’ll be using for the first time in 10 years. Previously, our Superhero campaigns have been limited in scope in one way or another (only mutants, only mentalists, etc.). But I think everyone will enjoy an all out 4-Color campaign. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubba smith Posted May 17, 2008 Report Share Posted May 17, 2008 Re: Doesn't anyone like low-powered campaigns? it seems to me that not all super-heroes can be powerful demigods they can have powers butthey aren't omnipitent Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
algesan Posted September 16, 2008 Report Share Posted September 16, 2008 Re: Doesn't anyone like low-powered campaigns? I can’t help but notice that most of the Hero Players I meet online prefer High-powered campaigns. All the Champions campaigns seem to be 325 pts or more. And even the Fantasy/Sci-fi campaigns are 250 with superheroic house rules. I just want to know if there’s anybody else out there like me, who prefers low-powered, realistic campaigns. I run my fantasy and sci-fi campaigns on 50+50. At most, if I want an action movie feel, I’ll go 75+75. And my Champions campaigns start at 100+150, or sometimes 100+100. And it’s not just coming from me. My players love being underpowered, especially in any “real world†campaing. To me, nothing gets the blood pumping better than knowing the possibility of my character’s death is very real. Maybe it’s just a matter of taste. If I want underpowered and realistic, I have what keeps me from gaming more. It is called real life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kdansky Posted September 16, 2008 Report Share Posted September 16, 2008 Re: Doesn't anyone like low-powered campaigns? Oh! Thread necromancy! *starts to chant* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubba smith Posted September 16, 2008 Report Share Posted September 16, 2008 Re: Doesn't anyone like low-powered campaigns? don't blame me THIS time there is one advantage to playing a low powered hero,you cam pit them against higher power supers without the damage looking like godzilla battled king ghidorah or getting too outlandish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diamond Spear Posted September 16, 2008 Report Share Posted September 16, 2008 Re: Doesn't anyone like low-powered campaigns? it seems to me that not all super-heroes can be powerful demigods they can have powers butthey aren't omnipitent Excuse me sir, but do you have a license to practice thread necromancy? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vondy Posted September 16, 2008 Report Share Posted September 16, 2008 Re: Doesn't anyone like low-powered campaigns? What's done is done. I've moved exclusively to heroic games that focus on competent characters with a cinematic level niche. This doesn't mean they are low points - the games are generally skill intensive - but they aren't full-on cinematic uber-characters, either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legendsmiths Posted September 16, 2008 Report Share Posted September 16, 2008 Re: Doesn't anyone like low-powered campaigns? I'm a huge fan of low-powered games. Our core setting is designed to start at 75 points, and the current playtest campaign started at 50. My Stalker games are also 100pts total. I'm there with you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubba smith Posted September 16, 2008 Report Share Posted September 16, 2008 Re: Doesn't anyone like low-powered campaigns? Excuse me sir' date=' but do you have a license to practice thread necromancy? [/quote'] ever since i joined this board:eg: and i must say i love being on this board Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hyper-Man Posted September 16, 2008 Report Share Posted September 16, 2008 Re: Doesn't anyone like low-powered campaigns? ever since i joined this board:eg: and i must say i love being on this board Were you previously on the Election Board? I heard they love having recounts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubba smith Posted September 16, 2008 Report Share Posted September 16, 2008 Re: Doesn't anyone like low-powered campaigns? no way Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bcaplan Posted September 19, 2008 Report Share Posted September 19, 2008 Re: Doesn't anyone like low-powered campaigns? Both the games I just ran at GenCon were low-powered. The first, Juche, was a high school horror game. The PCs (a cheerleader, a drug dealer, a math teacher, and the principal) had 75 CPs, and were built to mimic the main characters in horror movies - normal folks who somehow managed to survive through most of the story. The other, Punctuated Equilibrium, was a Post-Apoc story about ordinary DC residents trying to survive the end of the world. The PCs (a dentist, a street punk, a Secret Service agent, and a Senator's daughter) had 150 CPs, but a lot of the points were spent on powers and skills the players didn't realize they had until they had a chance to use them. I've run both stories several times, and they're a lot of fun. When I have a little time, I'll probably write some more... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted September 19, 2008 Report Share Posted September 19, 2008 Re: Doesn't anyone like low-powered campaigns? High-powered gaming for me. My real life is sufficiently low powered; in my fantasy life I want to kick butt and take names, with style! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CTaylor Posted September 19, 2008 Report Share Posted September 19, 2008 Re: Doesn't anyone like low-powered campaigns? I prefer low end games of all sorts. I started the fantasy hero game I'm running now at 75+25, and the characters have earned around 50 experience by this point, slowly. I ran a 75+75 point superheroic campaign once that had some very creative, interesting characters - if I run another champions game, it will be at that power level. In my opinion low powered campaigns are more interesting and more fun, but some can't stand them because they are unable to start with the exact character they desire with every single skill that their concept possibly could include. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrosshairCollie Posted September 20, 2008 Report Share Posted September 20, 2008 Re: Doesn't anyone like low-powered campaigns? The lowest game I can really think about playing would be a 200 point Teen Champions or 'street-level supers' game. The only two genres I do are Fantasy and Supers. HERO's for supers, D&D's for fantasy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubba smith Posted September 20, 2008 Report Share Posted September 20, 2008 Re: Doesn't anyone like low-powered campaigns? street level supers sounds about right powers around spider-mans level Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mayapuppies Posted September 20, 2008 Report Share Posted September 20, 2008 Re: Doesn't anyone like low-powered campaigns? I consider myself a low-power guy. My fantasy worlds are based on 75+75 but very skill intensive focusing on broad spectrum skillsets. It keeps the relative power-level of the characters down. My Post Apoc supers campaign (coming soon) will feature 100+50 point supe's. Should be interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CTaylor Posted September 20, 2008 Report Share Posted September 20, 2008 Re: Doesn't anyone like low-powered campaigns? Its always been interesting to me that almost every game starts you at level 1, yet Hero the players and GMs seem to believe you should start at the main peak of your powers. Start with it all, don't be Superman from Action Comics 1, be Superman from Action Comics 500. Don't start out like Cyclops in the early X-Men, be the badass, martial arts knowing, never miss Cyclops from modern X-Men. Don't be a beginning hero, be Conan right away. Low powered campaigns give you all that room for growth, and in my experience at least when you start low and build slowly over time you have a better built character than if you started out with the equivalent of all those xps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hugh Neilson Posted September 20, 2008 Report Share Posted September 20, 2008 Re: Doesn't anyone like low-powered campaigns? Its always been interesting to me that almost every game starts you at level 1, yet Hero the players and GMs seem to believe you should start at the main peak of your powers. Start with it all, don't be Superman from Action Comics 1, be Superman from Action Comics 500. Don't start out like Cyclops in the early X-Men, be the badass, martial arts knowing, never miss Cyclops from modern X-Men. Don't be a beginning hero, be Conan right away. Low powered campaigns give you all that room for growth, and in my experience at least when you start low and build slowly over time you have a better built character than if you started out with the equivalent of all those xps. Some might say that other games start you off as Bob the Farmer with his hoe or Jimmy Olsen and require you to work your way through 50 years of games to achieve status as Conan in his first appearance or Action #1 Superman. The reality probably lies somewhere in the middle. Games and players seem to require characters continually grow in power and abilities, where fiction tends to include a lot of characters who start out fairly powerful and stay there. How much did Conan's combat skills increase over his history? Elric's certainly didn't. SpiderMan still has the same power suite, more or less, that he had over 40 years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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