Most Ridiculous Rules Interpretation Ever?

[Klytus]

One time we had a couple in our game, long time gamers, playing Champions since 1st edition, so I had no problems letting them into my 4th Ed game.

 

Problem is, they were both Class A-1 rules rapists. First, for all of their multi-point characteristics (DEX, BODY, CON and EGO) they spent an odd number of character points into the stats, using the logic that since fractions always round up in favor of the character, it gave them full values for the stats (Ex: spend only 1 real point on EGO and insist that because of "Champions math" your EGO of 10.5 rounds up to 11). They said this was a time honored method of point-tweaking in their group and they couldn't understand my objections to it.

 

Then there were the characters themselves. I forget the names, but let's call the husband "Time Dude" and the lady "Flight-Chick". Time Dude had NCM, SPD 3, and gadgets from the future, as he was a displaced time traveler. One of his gizmos was a belt that gave him +3 SPD, another one was a 10d6 EB gun. Flight Chick was a DEX 30 SPD 6 speedster with +6 SPD linked to her flight. I knew she would spend most of her time in the air, but with martial arts, her strongest attack was only 6d6 and not enough OCV to hit anything with a fast move-through, so I let it slide.

 

What made these two dangerous was how they teamed-up. Time Dude would crank it up to SPD 6, and Flight Chick to SPD 12.

 

So, on Segment 12, Time Dude would crank up to SPD 6 and hold his action, Flight Chick goes to SPD 12 and grabs Time Dude. On Phase 1, Flight Chick does a half-move up and waits, Time Dude shoots with his held action, then Flight Chick takes another half move to land someplace under cover. On Phase 2, Flight Chick forces a recovery while Time Dude holds his action again. On Phase 3, Flight Chick does another half move up with Time Dude in hand, who shoots, and then they land again. They simply kept using this pattern over and over again while the rest of the party gaped in disbelief at how cheesy it all was. Perfectly legal and within the rules... but that was the last time they ever gamed with us.

 

[Law Dog]

Originally posted by Doug McCrae

With everything on a -5, how did they manage it? Golden Paladin must've been a monster of points efficiency.

 

Well, a monster something anyway..

 

With his one charge armor and one charge sword, I'd say he way definitely a one shot wonder. Man, somebody taps your armor for a 1pip stun attack and it poofs. I let their attacks past right through his armor and no damage after the first attack with the sword.

 

 

[gewing]

In a sort of robot warriors/supergaladiator game I took in kind of a small transforming mech, because it was a vehicle it was more cost efficient... Well, actually no one really minded because the conventionally designed character kicked ass. Never underestimate the +12d6 ha claw(a la aliens cargo loader) on a suit of powered armor!

 

My friends have often said I need a +25 point "greg's character" lim. I'm kind of an anti-munchkin.

[Killer Shrike]

LS: Intense Heat

 

I once had a player in 4th Ed who thought his LS vs Intense Heat completely protected him from a fireball attack.

 

 

Went something like

 

Me: '[Wizard NPC] launches a flaming burst of magical force at you; it hits; you take [lots of damage].'

 

Player: 'No worries dude; Ive got Life Support vs that $#!%. I dont take any damage.'

 

 

The player totally could not understand how game balance could never allow an ability that cost a few points to counter any attack of a broad special effect bought in 5 to 15 point increments per d6; or if he were correct why EVERYONE wouldnt buy that power, or why subsequently no one would buy any such attack.

 

Logic was not his strong suit.....

[Burnout]

Originally posted by gewing

My friends have often said I need a +25 point "greg's character" lim. I'm kind of an anti-munchkin.

 

LOL, I think I could learn something from you then. My group used to have characters with just one, maybe two limitations on powers. I showed up and showed them how a 250pt monster could be built. Our games were never the same after that.

 

Frankly, I like characters that are intellegently built, not just figuring out how to skim as many points as possible. Kudo's to you!

[winterhawk]

Originally posted by Burnout

Sometimes personalities don't click, sometimes they're 12 (no offense to you mature 12 year olds on the board), sometimes they're mildly (or not so mildly) retarded.

 

And sometimes they're 35 going on 12, like a few of my players..."He said sex *giggle* *giggle*"

 

Originally posted by Burnout

Besides, its fun to pretend that you don't see the guy who is wearing the "I Loved European Enemies All Night Long" T-Shirt.

 

RFLMAO!

 

Another bad omen is when you ask them about their gaming style and they recount a 'war story' about how they defeated an Orc Army with Tenser's Floating Disk.

[Gary]

Silly power

 

Silly power.

 

Here’s a semi-realistic power I originally developed for 4th Ed. This is a 5th edition upgrade. I don’t have the rulebook with me, so there might be some minor errors.

 

Summon 64 or 130 point suicide bomber with nuclear bomb (Screwed up 15 year old kid). Weak willed –4 to ego rolls (+0.5) 19 or 39 active points.

 

The special effect of the summons is that instead of appearing out of nowhere, the mad scientist must actively recruit the suicide bomber and actually build the bomb in a lab for the bomber.

 

Limitations: OAF expendable (Needs plutonium and a willing suicide bomber) (-1.5) Immobile (-1) (secret science lab) One week to prepare (-4.5) 1charge (-2) recover per month (-1) requires science skill roll and persuasion skill roll (-0.75) side effect (-1) (acquires 60 points of hunteds and bad reputations after use of this power!)

 

Real cost 1 or 3.

 

Suicide bomber:

 

6 Str –4

8 Dex –6

6 Con –8

6 Body –8

10 Int 0

8 Ego –4

5 Pre –5

10 Com 0

1 PD 0

1 ED 0

2 Spd 2

2 Rec 0

12 End 0

12 Stun 0

 

-1†running –2

-2†swimming -2

 

Char cost –37

 

Powers:

 

Nuclear bomb

15d6 RKA area effect radius (+1) affects desolids (+0.5) megascale (+0.25) Active points 619

OAF bulky (bomb needs a van to move around) (-1.5) 1 charge (-2) No range (-0.5) 5 minute activation (-2) side effect (-2) (death to user) concentrate 0 DCV oblivious throughout activation time(-1.5) gestures oblivious throughout activation time (-0.75) Real cost 55

 

If megascale is too cheesy, replace with X256 area (+2) for a 16 kilometer radius, 1012 active points and 90 real points.

 

12d6 major transformation is linked to blast. This transform simulates fallout, radiation sickness, blinding flash, etc. area effect radius (+1) affects desolids (+0.5) megascale 2 levels(+0.5) Active points 540 same limitations as above except linked (-0.5) as well. Real cost 46.

 

If no megascale, replace with X1024 area (+2.5) for a 55 kilometer radius, 900 active points, and 77 real points.

 

Powers cost 101 or 167 depending on whether megascale was kosher.

 

Total cost is 64 or 130.

 

The reason there is a 5 minute activation, concentration, and gestures (aside from the point savings) is that the mad scientist had a failsafe process installed so that the bomber won’t accidentally set off the bomb. The 5 minutes allows the scientist to cancel if he really doesn’t want to blow up Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, and the concentration and gestures represent that the bomber has to go through a precise series of steps to set off the bomb.

 

I guess I have to technically buy the van for the kid, but I didn’t bother. Vans are something common enough that points shouldn’t have to be paid.

 

For 2 real points and megascale, I could probably generate an antimatter bomb that would destroy the entire solar system, but I wanted something at least semi realistic.

 

Not bad for 1 real point.

 

Enjoy!

[Burnout]

Originally posted by winterhawk

And sometimes they're 35 going on 12, like a few of my players..."He said sex *giggle* *giggle*"

 

OMG! You said s-e-x!!!

 

Oh yeah. I'm mature.

[keithcurtis]

Re: Silly power

 

Originally posted by Gary

Summon suicide bomber with nuclear bomb

...snipped...

Not bad for 1 real point.

 

Enjoy!

 

You sir are forbidden from my games! You may go and play with Champsguy's martial artist.

 

Very funny.

 

Keith "What do you want to do with YOUR experience?" Curtis

[Ndreare]

I have a player that argues with me to this day that a symbiot living in her body, that cannot be removed without killing her and cannot be seen is a perfectly valid IIF -1/4 and Indipindent -2.

 

My argument is that this is a special effect and is actualy no more limitting than a character whos FX is hyper thiroid. He gets mad whenever it comes up including the fact that I denied the character as a valid character in front of the other players.

[Dr. Rune]

O.k, I thought of another one.........

 

When we first started playing 4th ed., some of our group thought that "Find Weakness" told if you had a 'weakness', such as x2 vs. sonics, etc....)

 

GM: O.k, the Eradicator is using Find Weakness on Bearcat....(rolls 3d6)......he got an 8, so he knows you have a x2 vs electrical attacks....

 

Bearcat's Player: Say what?

 

Doc

[CrosshairCollie]

Powers that make you go '$*@(?'

 

Two of my favorites were things people did on speedsters: Taking Personal Immunity on Running, so that they didn't suffer backlash damage from Move-Throughs/Move-Bys, and putting Invisibility to Sound on it, so they wouldn't hear you running or whooshing.

 

"No, that's Extra PD, or armor, or Force Field with a limitation, and Invisibility or Images to sound." "But this is cheaper." "What's your point? That just makes it more *wrong*."

 

My other is Accidental Change when you don't have another form allocated via Multiform, Shapeshift or the like. One guy had an Accidental Change into a falcon 14- when he was captured or tied up or the like. (He had no other even *remotely* related powers, so it was obviously twinking). I was feeling vindictive, so I let it go. He promptly got entangled, and it triggered.

"Okay, roll your accidental change."

"A 12, I changed. Now I'm free, and I'll ..."

"Actually, since you didn't pay any points to actually have a form with stats, you turned into an ordinary bird, which means you're scared silly, and after leaving a pile of (censored) on the pavement, you start flying away as fast as your wings can carry you."

"That's not fair!"

"Neither is taking a disadvantage that doesn't fit your concept, and is illegal because you don't have another form to change into. Now, you're away from the stimulus for your change, so we roll *clatter* and you change back. I think falcons can reach altitudes of a mile or better ..."

"But I can't fly!"

"Pity you don't actually have a falcon form, isn't it?"

 

Quite mean of me, but he had it coming. His whole character was like that ... not a character, just a pile of points.

[Catacomb]

We had a guy(uber-munchkin) that tried to get seperate disadvantage points for distinctive features from two different colored eyes.

[Law Dog]

Originally posted by Catacomb

We had a guy(uber-munchkin) that tried to get seperate disadvantage points for distinctive features from two different colored eyes.

 

OMG. Whatta dork. The couple of people I've seen with two different colored eyes, I'd call it a few extra points of comliness, maybe because it's exotic. This guy wants DF for it, then he gets like one normal eye and one hideously glowing eye or the second eye id the size of a pool ball.

[kidsavior]

NCM

 

Mine was a player that was convinced that taking Normal Characteristic Maximum automaticly gave you all your stats at NCM. Basicly a 20 point disad gave you 160 some odd points of stats for free. Took almost an hour to convince him that wasn't the case.

[BNakagawa]

I scanned a bag of Cheetos Twisted that has this symbol of a cheese wedge in front of a swirl with the words dangerously cheesy written around it.

 

Printed that out and made a button out of it. Bring it to chumps games to hand to the GM to award to whoever most deserves it.

 

Did this mostly in response to a player who spread a PKA defined as a gun for OCV while hitting a target on which he had found weakness. Technically legal, as it wasn't bought with the beam limitation, but...

 

then again a good cheeze monkey never lets little things like character concept or realism get in the way of combat effectiveness or cost efficiency.

 

$0.02

[JmOz]

Originally posted by Law Dog

OMG. Whatta dork. The couple of people I've seen with two different colored eyes, I'd call it a few extra points of comliness, maybe because it's exotic. This guy wants DF for it, then he gets like one normal eye and one hideously glowing eye or the second eye id the size of a pool ball.

 

I would allow this as a DF (A single, easily concealable, 5 points) as it makes the character easier to identify (IE who commited this crime, Mr Officer all I remember is that he had one green and one blue eye, thank you ma'am that is a big help)

[BoloOfEarth]

Hmmm... Ridiculous Rules Interpretation? Here's one from my old days...

 

A newbie GM (and former player in our group) ran a group of us against a villain group who was trying to steal something. We actually worked together well that day and were stopping them rather handily. The GM wanted them to get away with the target of the theft, so he has the bad guys' speedster grab it and take off. One of the player characters, Slash, could stretch for much faster running, so he takes off in pursuit.

 

The GM decided that Slash tripped over a fence, and slammed face-first into the ground. And since Slash was moving at 40" (noncombat), the GM ruled that he took 40d6 damage. He argued the physics of the situation, until the player said, "You ran a character with a wooden staff that shot blasts of air. What are the physics behind *that*?!"

[Killer Shrike]

Re: Powers that make you go '$*@(?'

 

Originally posted by CrosshairCollie

My other is Accidental Change when you don't have another form allocated via Multiform, Shapeshift or the like. One guy had an Accidental Change into a falcon 14- when he was captured or tied up or the like. (He had no other even *remotely* related powers, so it was obviously twinking). I was feeling vindictive, so I let it go. He promptly got entangled, and it triggered.

"Okay, roll your accidental change."

"A 12, I changed. Now I'm free, and I'll ..."

"Actually, since you didn't pay any points to actually have a form with stats, you turned into an ordinary bird, which means you're scared silly, and after leaving a pile of (censored) on the pavement, you start flying away as fast as your wings can carry you."

"That's not fair!"

"Neither is taking a disadvantage that doesn't fit your concept, and is illegal because you don't have another form to change into. Now, you're away from the stimulus for your change, so we roll *clatter* and you change back. I think falcons can reach altitudes of a mile or better ..."

"But I can't fly!"

"Pity you don't actually have a falcon form, isn't it?"

 

Quite mean of me, but he had it coming. His whole character was like that ... not a character, just a pile of points.

 

Hehe; this is just too funny. What were some of that player's other abuses, if you can recall?

 

(stumbled across this vintage thread on a search for something else)

[CrosshairCollie]

It's been so long (and I think I've tried to block it out of my memory) ... for a while, I kept his character sheet and another guy's as examples of How Not To Build Characters. I think his entire character, all the way down to the Background Skills, was bought with a Focus. Without his Foci (and he had about 8 of 'em), he was a 0 point normal. And, of course, he was a Brick/Speedster/Energy Projector/Mentalist/Martial Artist. Fortunately, he couldn't wrap his brain around VPPs.

 

And, of course, I had one big rule on Disadvantages ... I told EVERYBODY to be prepared to answer the question 'Why?' on every Disad on the sheet. They couldn't answer a single one. "Why do you only have one eye?" "He lost it." "How?" "Uh ...." "Why do you go Enraged when you hear a woman scream?" "Uh ..." You get the picture. As the phrase goes, they didn't create characters, they just created piles of points and abilities.

[Arthur]

This was from a guy who used to GM Champions (I was a player in his game):

 

He ruled that any damage based on 'v' (such as "+v/3" for a Move Through) was based on distance travelled in the phase so far, not velocity! So if Rhino were moving at full speed but happened to hit his target after moving only 1 hex in the current phase he would get no extra damage from velocity!

 

The really pathetic part was that this guy had an engineering degree.

 

He wasn't a bad GM most other ways (other than still having something of a D&D class-based mentality and refusing to allow characters who didn't fit into his predefined pigeonholes - for instance, he wouldn't let my high-STR character have low resistant defenses and Regen, but he did allow high resistant defenses - "because that's what a Brick is").

[Enforcer84]

My favorite rules interpretation that got us into trouble was my friends martial throw damage shield.

Anyone who attacked his character was thrown. It was nasty.

 

It took me about three very frustrating adventures to throw a really heavy character at her. Then a mentalist. We worked it out and the way he had built it was like 120 active points worth of attack. Things changed...

[lemming]

A newbie GM thought this:

DCV is a defense right?

Find Weakness cuts your defense in half.

 

you do the math...

[Lupus]

These ones, I'm sorry to say, were mine. I apologise profusely.

 

'Touch' sense, ranged, armor-piercing. Touch is, I reasoned, 360 degrees and targetting by its nature. so by buying it ranged, I had cheap spatial awareness. And armor-piercing meant it could see through walls in the same way that armor-piercing teleport could get through hardened walls! (4th ed)

 

'Accidental change' into martial posture.

 

'trigger' applied to 'defensive shot' ranged martial maneuver. Trigger defined as 'when I decide to shoot someone.' This was complete with 8 targetting skill levels. Naturally.

[Alibear]

Originally posted by Lupus

'Accidental change' into martial posture.

 

 

I love this part. If you get surprised out of combat you automatically go into "cat stance" or whatever. I have seen myself do that before but with my "gaurd up", not cat stance obviously..

 

Yep real nice way to greet long lost aunt May.