GMs, which character concepts did not make the cut in your game?

[Blue]

Re: GMs, which character concepts did not make the cut in your game?

 

Well, for me, sometimes being the "least" powerful is appealing. You get back on skills and talent not raw power. And Wolvie isn't the "weakest" he's the most skills and his powers are on a more "personal" level than most of the X men. He's an up close and personal guy. Most of us can understand clawing someone. It appeals to something on our feral nature. The animal part of us. While most of us can't really understand godlike powers such as Storm ability to control the weather. We've all gotten angry, felt alienated and such. Its easy to related to the loner badass for alot of folks.

 

sorry for the thread derail.

Absolutely. My favorite character in Champions is Anthem, who is 50pts behind everyone else. She's really more of a sidekick level, but it's fun to play her because she has that much more to overcome.

 

But back to the topic... Rejected character concepts...

 

Well, I'll be damned. I can't recall ever outright killing a concept.

 

Over the years (Keep in mind I was probably 13 when I started and so were my players) I've allowed a featureless ball of glowing energy, a brick nymphomaniac, a man with a turret for a head (Perhaps my favorite ever reason for 360' vision), a boy with lobster powers, a drug addict assassin named Anarchy-X (a la Queensryche's Operation: Mindcrime, and about a hundred ripoffs of existing characters. If the player's having fun with it, and it isn't hurting the game for anyone else, go for it, I say.

[TheQuestionMan]

Re: GMs, which character concepts did not make the cut in your game?

 

SlowPoke - Brick w/ Time Flow Powers .

Slow Down Field -3d6 Drain, cumulative vs SPD; Area Effect Radius , Non-Selective .

Slow Down Effect Field - 50% Damage Reduction vs Physical and Energy , Resistant .

 

Also a Lone Wolf/Non HERO

[lemming]

Re: GMs, which character concepts did not make the cut in your game?

 

"C'mon, a Dwarf in chainmail with a battleaxe could blend in Hollywood."

Battleaxe's don't do a good for blending. Too many chunks. A Waring Blender still works best.

[lemming]

Re: GMs, which character concepts did not make the cut in your game?

 

Among my teammates were a four-armed four foot tall alien with a baseball bat.

I kind a like that one.

[AngryBug]

Re: GMs, which character concepts did not make the cut in your game?

 

i dont dislike DnD cos i dont play it, ( actually i still dislike it ) but if some one submited a 350pt palidin or mage id tell them its a great character and to come back on thursday, thats when Dnd is played and im in the pub.

 

I doubt my super character is legal in DnD so i see no reason to allow a DnD character in a supers game, besides DnD characters gain XP by killing things, not a good mindset for champions.

It can work, and superhero comics are full of "D&D" characters (the Black Knight, Dr. Strange and countless other wizards and sorcerors). It's not the character concept, it's (as you said) the mindset. The "stranger in a strange land" doesn't always have to be an alien, does it?

I once had an NPC who was a savage barbarian, complete with broadsword, pulled out of his own world by an evil wizard... After his first encounter with the PCs, and the chaos caused by his culture shock and lack of any modern language, he settled in and began to make a new life for himself in the strange world he found himself in, falling in with an NPC team of vigilantes... When one of the PCs (in his Secret ID!) later encountered him, he was so surprised at the changes in the former barbarian he pretty much blew his Secret ID by blurting out, "Hey! You can speak English!".

My point, if I have one, is that a "D&D" concept can work, if the character is allowed to adapt to his modern surroundings.

[Hawksmoor]

Re: GMs, which character concepts did not make the cut in your game?

 

Ive always wondered at the appeal of Wolverine, hes easily the least powerful of the X-men, must be his charming personality.

 

Also i dislike Alien with "alien powers" which are totally unrelated collection of powers with no SFX, usually submitted with EC "Alien Powers", a bit like most superman builds.

 

Actually as far as Daxamite/Kryptonian MP+EC builds however much people *disliike* them they are as well grounded in the Genre and steeped in the History as any "Tight SFX" EC and thus can easily be seen as much a viable EC as Fire Powers or Storm Powers.

 

Plus just because you have Flight, Heat Vision, Inulnerability, and Superstrength does not make you a less "iconic" character and unworthy of the EC bonus.

 

Hawksmoor

[nexus]

Re: GMs, which character concepts did not make the cut in your game?

 

Actually as far as Daxamite/Kryptonian MP+EC builds however much people *disliike* them they are as well grounded in the Genre and steeped in the History as any "Tight SFX" EC and thus can easily be seen as much a viable EC as Fire Powers or Storm Powers.

 

Plus just because you have Flight, Heat Vision, Inulnerability, and Superstrength does not make you a less "iconic" character and unworthy of the EC bonus.

 

Hawksmoor

 

But they aren't "tight" sfx. Just because there's a character with them doesn't particularly make them worth an EC. If so "Mutant Powers" would be just a viable. Personally, I might allow an EC for Kryptonian style powers but you would have pretty much tell me -what- powers could be in it. Period. Not just "These are my racial powers" and proceed to cram anything in there you want a cost break on.

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: GMs, which character concepts did not make the cut in your game?

 

But they aren't "tight" sfx. Just because there's a character with them doesn't particularly make them worth an EC. If so "Mutant Powers" would be just a viable.

I think the difference here is that not every mutant has the same powers (not by far!) but all Kryptonians and Daxamites have the same super powers at base, when under a non-red sun. (Some of them have other powers gained through other means, like magic, and those powers wouldn't qualify.)

 

If a particular character is expected to be the only example of their race in a campaign (or maybe one of two) then I'd have a hard time justifying an EC for their racial abilities. On the other hand, if it was expected there'd be semi-regular occurances of others of their race coming through the storyline (the way Kryptonians and Daxamites did pre-Crisis) then I wouldn't have much trouble justifying it.

 

Besides...at tleast in the case of Kryptonians and Daxamites..."lose powers under a red sun or on exposure to kryptonite/lead" sounds like the way all the powers in an EC are affected/reduced by a single "attack".

[Lightray]

Re: GMs, which character concepts did not make the cut in your game?

 

The acceptability of EC: Kryptonian Powers (or Daxamite Powers, for that matter) is really dependant upon the context of your campaign.

 

If someone in my campaign were to hand me such a construct, I'd snicker at them and hand it back. But if I was running a DC Universe game, all I'd do is check to make sure they stayed within the limits of damage classes, active points, and point totals.

[TheEmerged]

Re: GMs, which character concepts did not make the cut in your game?

 

RE: Dislike of one-offs and rip-offs. You'd absolutely HATE my campaign world then. Almost all of the NPC's that aren't published HERO characters are either a one-off, a parody, or a reimagination of a character from DC, Marvel, etc etc.

 

RE: Rejected character concepts. I had to reject one in my current campaign. One of the players came to me with a character called "Biohaz" -- which was actually a thinly vieled "fetish character".

 

I have a standing rule in fantasy genre games that anything even *resembling* Dritz gets rejected. If you're dual-wiedling you'd better not be an elf

[Christougher]

Re: GMs, which character concepts did not make the cut in your game?

 

RE: Dislike of one-offs and rip-offs.

I have a standing rule in fantasy genre games that anything even *resembling* Dritz gets rejected. If you're dual-wiedling you'd better not be an elf

 

Reminds me, I need to finsih up and send in such a ripoff to the Global Guardians for use as a villain, so people like you can beat the snot outta him.

[Magmarock]

Re: GMs, which character concepts did not make the cut in your game?

 

Well, for me, sometimes being the "least" powerful is appealing. You get back on skills and talent not raw power. And Wolvie isn't the "weakest" he's the most skills and his powers are on a more "personal" level than most of the X men. He's an up close and personal guy. Most of us can understand clawing someone. It appeals to something on our feral nature. The animal part of us. While most of us can't really understand godlike powers such as Storm ability to control the weather. We've all gotten angry, felt alienated and such. Its easy to related to the loner badass for alot of folks.

 

sorry for the thread derail.

 

And the derailment continues as I am compelled to mention that Wolverine is supposed to know damn near every style of martial arts there is (he's had a long time to learn them).

 

Back on track:

I dislike blatant comicbook rip-offs, too. If I see one, I ask the Player to throw in something original to make this PC their own, or to present a different character.

 

 

Mags

[travellerne]

Re: GMs, which character concepts did not make the cut in your game?

 

"Dead Baby" - flushed down the toilet at birth and raised by albino alligators in the sewers of New York. Basically a lot of slime and toxic effects.

 

Pretty high "eeew" factor.

[travellerne]

Re: GMs, which character concepts did not make the cut in your game?

 

I had a player submit a Brick with great grappling skills' date=' huge strength an Extral Limb I will not detail and a Psych Limitation which got the character dubbed "Captain Sodom."[/quote']

 

I'm sorry, I can't stop laughing at this one (it's starting to hurt). I really have to say, "I thought I had the weirdest players."

 

Thanks for sharing, but I hope I can get this image out of my head...

[Enforcer84]

Re: GMs, which character concepts did not make the cut in your game?

 

And the derailment continues as I am compelled to mention that Wolverine is supposed to know damn near every style of martial arts there is (he's had a long time to learn them).

 

Back on track:

I dislike blatant comicbook rip-offs, too. If I see one, I ask the Player to throw in something original to make this PC their own, or to present a different character.

 

 

Mags

A little more derailment as I comment on how incredibly stupid a character I think Logan is.

[Hawksmoor]

Re: GMs, which character concepts did not make the cut in your game?

 

But they aren't "tight" sfx. Just because there's a character with them doesn't particularly make them worth an EC. If so "Mutant Powers" would be just a viable. Personally' date=' I might allow an EC for Kryptonian style powers but you would have pretty much tell me -what- powers could be in it. Period. Not just "These are my racial powers" and proceed to cram anything in there you want a cost break on.[/quote']

 

Nexus...what powers do you think that Superman has? He only has Super Strength, Invulnerability, Super Speed, Flight, Heat Vision, and Enhanced Senses. He does have a lot of "Tricks" off of these abilities but he is an experienced character.

 

Kryptonian/Daxamite powers are very set in stone, very iconic and not ill defined. They are a classic EC+MP combo. You could straight EC them but that is expensive once you develop the STR and Heat Vision tricks so EC + MP is the best way to go.

 

Hawksmoor

[death tribble]

Re: GMs, which character concepts did not make the cut in your game?

 

I think the Wolverine clone is one to ban.

 

Having had the experience of someone running one and then saying with Martial arts that they could push it to a 10 D6 HKA. And they thought that was reasonable. And this was one of the GMs.

It was 5 D6 from the start.

 

And boy did I get hell when they hit someone with the HKA and kill them.

What was the response when I said the crowd (in a shopping centre/mall) gasp at the fact that he'd just killed someone ?

'Yes I am a mutie !'

 

The normal player cannot play Wolverine as portrayed on film or in the comics.

[Citizen Keen]

Re: GMs, which character concepts did not make the cut in your game?

 

i dont dislike DnD cos i dont play it, ( actually i still dislike it ) but if some one submited a 350pt palidin or mage id tell them its a great character and to come back on thursday, thats when Dnd is played and im in the pub.

 

I doubt my super character is legal in DnD so i see no reason to allow a DnD character in a supers game, besides DnD characters gain XP by killing things, not a good mindset for champions.

 

One of the most enjoyable characters I have ever seen in my games was a hero named "Dungeon Dragon". He was a geek, went into a coma, spent so much time thinking bout D&D that when he had an out of body experience and passed through the astral plane, he was instilled with the power to shift into four fantasy heroes.

 

Donald Norman: Way underpowered character, no characteristics and little skills.

 

Kromag the Barbarian

Emilio the Minstril

Vinzitheus the Archmage

and

Periapt the Cleric.

 

He could multiform into these guys depending on the situation. None of them had modern skills, but were useful in all other situations.

 

F***ing brilliant.

[Magmarock]

Re: GMs, which character concepts did not make the cut in your game?

 

One of the most enjoyable characters I have ever seen in my games was a hero named "Dungeon Dragon".

 

SNIP

 

He could multiform into these guys depending on the situation. None of them had modern skills, but were useful in all other situations.

 

F***ing brilliant.

 

Yeah, but this thread is not about brilliant PCs, but about those that were turned down by the GM(probably in less than a 5 second glance, I might add).

 

 

Mags

[Hawksmoor]

Re: GMs, which character concepts did not make the cut in your game?

 

Yeah, but this thread is not about brilliant PCs, but about those that were turned down by the GM(probably in less than a 5 second glance, I might add).

 

 

Mags

 

You are right Mags, so in spririt my "This will get you shut down faster than a Denny's with Hepetitus A" rules are:

 

Killer Characters...Characters with no redeeming qualities...Children that morph into heroes, but mostly spend their time playing PS2 and Xbox games at the HQ...Characters that the player has no idea what do with (read as Newbies playing Green Lantern-Clones with VPPs).

 

Hawksmoor

[animemun001]

Re: GMs, which character concepts did not make the cut in your game?

 

any PLAYER that can't answer the easy three questions.

1)- why did he/she become a hero?

2)- what is his/her negative points?

3)- what does the character hate about themselves?

EI/ i try (boy do I try) to get players to think about there concepts.

So far only one of my players hasn't caught on, last submitted a Temporal Manipulator for a golden age champanions game but created a character with the personality of a bowl of fruit(left very likely in the sun to long) and about as motivated as the same bowl of fruit to do anything heroic.

[nexus]

Re: GMs, which character concepts did not make the cut in your game?

 

Nexus...what powers do you think that Superman has? He only has Super Strength, Invulnerability, Super Speed, Flight, Heat Vision, and Enhanced Senses. He does have a lot of "Tricks" off of these abilities but he is an experienced character.

 

Kryptonian/Daxamite powers are very set in stone, very iconic and not ill defined. They are a classic EC+MP combo. You could straight EC them but that is expensive once you develop the STR and Heat Vision tricks so EC + MP is the best way to go.

 

Hawksmoor

 

I said I -might- allow it, depending on what you tried to slip into that EC. It would be a judgement call. I was banning it outright. And seriously, "Superman" has been shown (like many other comic book characters) with practically any power he needs to win, loosely tied to be being "Super".

 

That's the typical EC of "Alien Powers" I can presented with. My rule of thumb with EC is you should be able to sum them up in a simple sentence. Something like "I have the power to control Gravity". Usually "I am a Martian" doesn't qualify as you have define things a bit more, but it -might-

[AngryBug]

Re: GMs, which character concepts did not make the cut in your game?

 

A little more derailment as I comment on how incredibly stupid a character I think Logan is.

Explain, please!

Do you mean Logan himself is stupid? A bit headstrong, maybe...

Or, as I assume, do you mean the character concept? 'Cause I respectfully disagree... he's definitely an overused character, and has often been poorly written, but the concept itself seems reasonably sound to me, if you accept characters with more than one superpower... He has 2 powers, regeneration and enhanced senses ( and the Official Handbook does make the (somewhat dubious, but at least arguable) claim that the latter are partly the result of the former)... Personality-wise, the "angry loner" is an archetype well-established in comics and film...

I think "a guy built around regeneration, enhanced senses and skills acquired over a long lifetime, personality based on Dirty Harry and Yojimbo, with innate weapons given to him by a secret program that was experimenting on mutants" is not a brilliant concept that's going to set the world on fire, but stupid seems a little strong...

Now (to paraphrase Irwin Schwab), "he's buck naked on a surfboard", that's stupid...

[Vorsch]

Re: GMs, which character concepts did not make the cut in your game?

 

As regards the Superman EC i would not allow any character with alien race powers to get a cost break, unless those powers were conected somehow. Otherwise any player can claim any combination ofm powers for EC, just cos supermans famous does not give an EC based on him any legitamicy im my eyes, nor would Martian manhunters race ( which is even more varied , all supermans powers +telepathy shapeshift desolidification etc ).

 

as a sige note im unsure about characters based of racial powers such as werewolves, vampires and ghosts. Id probably allow the more obvious abilities, but not one off special powers.

 

Any one wishing to play superman has to buy the powers straight and hope the game is high points.

[drnuncheon]

Re: GMs, which character concepts did not make the cut in your game?

 

As regards the Superman EC i would not allow any character with alien race powers to get a cost break' date=' unless those powers were conected somehow. [/quote']

 

Right. I wouldn't give anything to a race that I wouldn't give to a regular character - so if the race has a silicon metabolism, I might give every member of that race EC: Stone Body, but if every member of the race has (say) telekinetic flight and poison fangs, they don't get a break.

 

J