Galactic Champions

[Metaphysician]

Re: Galactic Champions

 

I know what you mean' date=' but who was going to take him out? Witchcraft sacrificed herself to beat Tyrranon and no way can Takofanes fit into a non-magical cyberpunk or sf setting. Still, with magic back, some nutcase could find a way to revive him! [/quote']

 

Well, obviously he'd be inactive for those years, but the text says, in a way that doesn't inherently have leeway, that he's permanently dead.

 

What they should have had him do was decay to dust. . . and then come back as a disembodied demilich when the mana returns. . .

[Metaphysician]

Re: Galactic Champions

 

Okay, update review. Read through the hero section.

 

I like the Champions 3K team, moreso than the 2K team. Not just the higher power level; I think it has more to do with the fact that the group is lighter on "required archetypes," allowing more freedom for interesting characters. Favorite things about each one:

 

Defender: the way he's essentially recreating the idea of the superhero. He's trying very hard, perhaps overly so, but what he does will define superheroism in the 30th century.

 

Bulletproof: a sort of parallel to Defender, as he's actually *from* the origin of superheroes. Also, I love the basic idea of a medium brawler who's indestructible.

 

Thalya: the whole "active through the low times" bit, as well as the Cateran connection ( nice finding out she eventually became a heroine ).

 

Firedancer: umm. . . *shrug* Not a bad character, just doesn't strike a chord.

 

Gavis Gan: full of "culture shock" plot potential, and with a cool and unusual powerset.

 

Sage: he attempts to be both an ideal Varanyi and a moral individual. Succeed or fail, it would be interesting to watch.

 

Rampart: the other "everyman" of the group, but distinct. Don't know why, but I just like him.

 

Charm: the good hearted rogue incarnate. She must have bought "Transdimensional" on her PRE. . .

 

In addition, I must say, I really liked the material on the Star*Guard. Its *almost* perfect for my own vision of how to do a GL corp analogue. Star-Shield is a straightforward character, but perfect for his intended role as the founding point of the new Star*Guard.

[zakueins]

Re: Galactic Champions

 

And, whatever happened to Foxbat....

[Jhamin]

Re: Galactic Champions

 

And' date=' whatever happened to Foxbat....[/quote']

 

The way I see it there is, and can only ever be, ONE Foxbat.

 

That said, you just know that eventually Captain Chronos will take his eyes off the keys to the Chronosphere for just an instant.....

[Dr. MID-Nite]

Re: Galactic Champions

 

My take on the characters in Galactic Champions(possible spoilers):

 

Defender: I thought STR buff to 105 was a bit much. No point to having the Brick around if Defender is that strong.

 

Bulletpoof: My favorite of the new Champions. Tough and balanced at the same time.

 

Thayla: She uses up boatloads of END. She's pooped in no time flat is she uses her energy blasts.

 

Firedancer: Does everyone of here attacks have to be a Killing Attack?

 

Gavis Gan: Definitely different.

 

Sage: Typical mentalist, but good potential for roleplaying.

 

Rampart: He'd be better if Defender weren't already stronger than him.

 

Charm: A character with a DEX above 30. I think this is the first 5th edition example of it.

 

Mechanon 3000: Grossly overpowered, but what did you expect?

 

The Recruiter and gang: good for a strong roleplaying group.

 

Slug 3000: Another DEX 30+ character. In this case....unjustified....but that's only my opinion.

 

Sovereign: This guy is tough.....REALLY tough.

 

Arcane: A lot of whining about this guy. Sovereign is tougher.

 

Fracas: 120 STR!!!! Wow.....what a pity Mechanon 3000 laughs at this wimp. LOL

 

Tempo: SPD Drain has always been a clunky mechanic.

 

Sword of Ackal: Decent group. Not the character with the combination of Shadowcat's and Vision's powers.

 

Echo: Reasonable power mimic and easily adaptable to a regular Champions campaign.

 

Examiner: I thought the build was a bit too excessive. Seeing how he's inspired by Marvel's "Elders of the universe". None of them..with the possible exception of the Grandmaster come anywhere close to this guy.

 

Maraud: 9 SPD? Impressive. Character number three with a DEX above 30.

 

Overrider: Cybermind to the Nth degree. Not much more to say.

 

Supernova: Marvel's Overmind came to me upon reading his background. I wouldn't want to mess with him.

 

Rob

[zornwil]

Re: Galactic Champions

 

My take on the characters in Galactic Champions(possible spoilers):

 

Defender: I thought STR buff to 105 was a bit much. No point to having the Brick around if Defender is that strong.

 

Bulletpoof: My favorite of the new Champions. Tough and balanced at the same time.

 

Thayla: She uses up boatloads of END. She's pooped in no time flat is she uses her energy blasts.

 

Firedancer: Does everyone of here attacks have to be a Killing Attack?

 

Gavis Gan: Definitely different.

 

Sage: Typical mentalist, but good potential for roleplaying.

 

Rampart: He'd be better if Defender weren't already stronger than him.

 

Charm: A character with a DEX above 30. I think this is the first 5th edition example of it.

 

Mechanon 3000: Grossly overpowered, but what did you expect?

 

The Recruiter and gang: good for a strong roleplaying group.

 

Slug 3000: Another DEX 30+ character. In this case....unjustified....but that's only my opinion.

 

Sovereign: This guy is tough.....REALLY tough.

 

Arcane: A lot of whining about this guy. Sovereign is tougher.

 

Fracas: 120 STR!!!! Wow.....what a pity Mechanon 3000 laughs at this wimp. LOL

 

Tempo: SPD Drain has always been a clunky mechanic.

 

Sword of Ackal: Decent group. Not the character with the combination of Shadowcat's and Vision's powers.

 

Echo: Reasonable power mimic and easily adaptable to a regular Champions campaign.

 

Examiner: I thought the build was a bit too excessive. Seeing how he's inspired by Marvel's "Elders of the universe". None of them..with the possible exception of the Grandmaster come anywhere close to this guy.

 

Maraud: 9 SPD? Impressive. Character number three with a DEX above 30.

 

Overrider: Cybermind to the Nth degree. Not much more to say.

 

Supernova: Marvel's Overmind came to me upon reading his background. I wouldn't want to mess with him.

 

Rob

But what about Zornwil?! He's TOTALLY COOL!

 

Oh I crack myself up... (hey, it's good I crack SOMEONE up...)

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Galactic Champions

 

Sovereign has the potential to be the great villain of the CU 3000 setting. He has power, versatility, genius and a twisted nobility. The "laudable motive but reprehensible method" villains are IMO usually among the most interesting.

[Enforcer84]

Re: Galactic Champions

 

Can't wait to get my hands on this. I love the cover, how is the rest of the art?

[humantorch101]

Re: Galactic Champions

 

Can't wait to get this book, I am starting to fall behind panic! I still need to pick up TA and UB! panic

 

Rgds

Torch

[Metaphysician]

Re: Galactic Champions

 

Have you read Rampart's writeup?? If Defender tried to do the brick melee thing against him, he'd get killed. While Defender's brawler mode puts his strength a little higher ( 110 vs 100 ), when you factor in Rampart's martial arts, they do equal damage. And Rampart has far higher defense ( 50/50 vs 30/30 ).

 

Besides, Rampart's reason to exist isn't to be the Ultimate Strong Guy. Its to be the ultimate skill brick.

[lemming]

Re: Galactic Champions

 

Slug 3000: Another DEX 30+ character. In this case....unjustified....but that's only my opinion.

 

Sovereign: This guy is tough.....REALLY tough.

 

Arcane: A lot of whining about this guy. Sovereign is tougher.

 

Tempo: SPD Drain has always been a clunky mechanic.

I agree that Slugs just don't say "High Dex" to me.

 

Sovereign: Read his writeup last night, fairly tough.

 

Arcane: I hope my comments weren't taken as whining.

 

Tempo: I've never liked SPD manipulation because of that. I like Tempo's picture though.

[lemming]

Re: Galactic Champions

 

Can't wait to get my hands on this. I love the cover' date=' how is the rest of the art?[/quote']

I'm fairly impressed. There's some reusing, but I don't consider that a bad thing. A couple pieces I didn't like, but others I really did.

 

Side note: I had also gotten Fantasy Battlegrounds. Keith Curtis rocks, great maps.

[Metaphysician]

Re: Galactic Champions

 

I don't really notice a problem with the DEX/SPD. Charm, for instance, is *supposed* to be that fast/agile; she's basically a demi-speedster.

 

As for Mechanon 3K ( or Mechanon Prime as I call him ), I like it. Its what he could logically do with that much resources. Basically, he's the first true megavillain of the era. Several others have the potential to become just as big, but he's the first.

 

Scariest Mechanon possibility: it would be incredibly easy to drop Mechanon Prime into a 2K Champs setting. After all, there's no way to say for sure the Mechanon on Earth isn't just an avatar. . .

[Dr. MID-Nite]

Re: Galactic Champions

 

I agree that Slugs just don't say "High Dex" to me.

 

Sovereign: Read his writeup last night, fairly tough.

 

Arcane: I hope my comments weren't taken as whining.

 

Tempo: I've never liked SPD manipulation because of that. I like Tempo's picture though.

 

 

Whoops. Sorry, dude. I didn't mean to offend. I was just making the point that if any villain would make me quake in my boots, Sovereign would scare me a lot more than Arcane ever would.

 

Rob

[Dr. MID-Nite]

Re: Galactic Champions

 

I don't really notice a problem with the DEX/SPD. Charm, for instance, is *supposed* to be that fast/agile; she's basically a demi-speedster.

 

As for Mechanon 3K ( or Mechanon Prime as I call him ), I like it. Its what he could logically do with that much resources. Basically, he's the first true megavillain of the era. Several others have the potential to become just as big, but he's the first.

 

Scariest Mechanon possibility: it would be incredibly easy to drop Mechanon Prime into a 2K Champs setting. After all, there's no way to say for sure the Mechanon on Earth isn't just an avatar. . .

 

I didn't necessarily have a problem with Charm's DEX by any means. I was just making an observation regarding the general DEX level of characters in the Hero universe. She was the first I'd seen with a DEX above 30 among all the 5th edition supplements I've seen to this point. That's pretty telling as to the DEX level the writers of 5th edition think is "appropriate".

 

About Mechanon: I was thinking the same thing. Maybe Mechanon gets his hands on some alien technology and "jumpstarts" his evolution.

 

Rob

[Metaphysician]

Re: Galactic Champions

 

I'd prefer to fit it into his origin, rather than continuing events. Maybe take a page from Morrison's JLA, and make Mechanon an ancient weapon system that was ( relatively ) recently reactivated, with avatars going to various worlds to cleanse them, and Mechanon Prime following to deal with "troublesome" worlds. . .

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Galactic Champions

 

I'd prefer to fit it into his origin' date=' rather than continuing events. Maybe take a page from Morrison's JLA, and make Mechanon an ancient weapon system that was ( relatively ) recently reactivated, with avatars going to various worlds to cleanse them, and Mechanon Prime following to deal with "troublesome" worlds. . .[/quote']

 

I was thinking of using Mechanon in a similar way, as I'd mentioned on another thread. It's a big galaxy with lots of worlds infested with organic life, so why not "shotgun" a horde of avatars out to clean up as many planets as possible? Kind of makes Mech the ultimate Berserker.

 

You wouldn't even need to make his activation all that recent; he might have originated from another galaxy, and is only now getting around to this one. Of course, that could mean that one of our neighboring galaxies is completely populated by genocidal machines...

[zakueins]

Re: Galactic Champions

 

Not so! Foxbat could always do the Buck Rodgers thing and breath radioactive gas while in Antartica, in a Helium blimp....

 

The way I see it there is, and can only ever be, ONE Foxbat.

 

That said, you just know that eventually Captain Chronos will take his eyes off the keys to the Chronosphere for just an instant.....

[Metaphysician]

Re: Galactic Champions

 

Okay, as for the rest of the master villains:

 

The Recruiter is a nice low-tier master villain, in many ways more like the "master villains" of the previous, non-super sci-fi eras than the current one. Still, you always need "crime boss" types, and its *always* fun to beat up slavers.

 

The Slug, well, he's *relatively* low tier for now, but only because its been just a year since he woke up. Unless somebody kills him *yesterday*, he's gonna turn into a major league threat. Hell, all he really has to do is get to a small, remote colony world, take it over, and start turning humans into Elder Worm. . .

 

Sovereign. . . is nucking futs. He's also got a scary combo of powers. Give him a little time, and he could take Dr Destroyer's old position as "top tier conqueror villain of setting."

 

As for the teams, the Conquerors have issues. Charade is a good ( well, more like "evil" ) villain, and Fracas is a nice Hulk analogue. Tempo, however, has a really boring background. Wouldn't take much tweaking to work. Arcane has larger issues; as is, he's too powerful to be a direct enemy without being, well, stupid. He could be reworked into a decent villain ( mostly by shunting him into the background, as a lord figure ), but I have a better idea: Doc Manhattan-ish neutral NPC.

 

The Sword of Ackal are well designed, and in many ways are just as much a hero team as a "villain" one. While some of the members are borderline at best, most are merely Ackalian, and IMHO, the Ackalians are the least villainous of the "enemy races." Desert Dragon in particular has a lot of potential, as she's in many ways outright heroic. I like how the leader, Decay, is one of the lowest powered of the bunch. What makes her leader is that she's the most skilled and trained soldier of the bunch.

 

The Nibu Gemani live up to their build-up, threat-wise. OTOH, there really isn't much you can use them for aside from hoard or to-be-hoard, so they aren't as interesting as the villains with personalities.

 

As for VIPER 3K: lo, how the mighty have fallen. If it weren't for the fact that there is much better tech available in the 30th century on the open and normal black markets, they would barely be ahead of normal organized crime. Relative to the normal authorities and super heroes, they are *way* weaker than in the 20th century. OTOH, with Nama and his daughter Tuwishande taking a more active hand, the mechanic is different. For one thing, it implies that Viperia has matured, which is a *very* scary proposition. Then again, its entirely possible that the only reason Nama is keeping VIPER around is as a learning aid for Viperia.

 

As an aside, I suspect Nama may take on a different role in this era than in the previous one. Specifically, his old routine of providing cryptic insight and aid to heroes that prove their worthiness. After all, the main reason he formed VIPER was as a bulwark against mystic threats to himself, and in this era, almost all the old magic that threatened him is gone. Nama himself may act as a vehicle for reintroducing mystic lore to the galaxy. . . the lore that *he* chooses ( hint: no "Summon Lovecraftian Galaxy-Eating Horror" spells ).

[zornwil]

Re: Galactic Champions

 

Hooray, I finally picked up Galactic Champions!

 

And MnM made some money, too, I finally picked up Freedom City and Crooks. There are some great characters in Crooks, I'm definitely going to make use of some in Champions. I need to get away from the home-grown characters a bit, I'm getting a bit boring in that area and need to refocus my creative muscles.

[JohnOSpencer]

Re: Galactic Champions

 

I've been reading Galatic Champions and have come to one decision;. While I really like the source material and most of the villians, I HATE the hero write ups. They don't fit togeather power level wise. Defender is way too defense lite. He is a two hitter, unless he's firing, then he's a one hitter. Bulletproof is cool, but way too offense lite. One good entangle and he's out for good.

Thalya is a little offense light, but fairly well balanced. Firedancer is a little too KA orientated, way too variable wether she will hurt someone or not and she has Code vs Killing, so Agents will whup her up since she can't use most of her attacks for fear of really hurting them. Gavis Gan is kinda cool, but offense lite(he's more of the power level I had in mind for the genre). Sage is way too frail, 56 stun will knock him out. Rampart is easily the most powerful of the group, but any villian that has a good chance of hurting him will destroy most of the rest of the group. Charm needs every phase of that 8 SPD since she will be dodging every time she is shot at. 41 Damage will stun her and if the wrong killing attack hits her, she is toast.

 

Overall, while most of the characters are cool examples of what you could do, I don't think they are good examples of what you should do.

 

Just my opinion, and as I said I like the rest of the book, just not the heroes.

 

John

[Dr. MID-Nite]

Re: Galactic Champions

 

I've been reading Galatic Champions and have come to one decision;. While I really like the source material and most of the villians, I HATE the hero write ups. They don't fit togeather power level wise. Defender is way too defense lite. He is a two hitter, unless he's firing, then he's a one hitter. Bulletproof is cool, but way too offense lite. One good entangle and he's out for good.

Thalya is a little offense light, but fairly well balanced. Firedancer is a little too KA orientated, way too variable wether she will hurt someone or not and she has Code vs Killing, so Agents will whup her up since she can't use most of her attacks for fear of really hurting them. Gavis Gan is kinda cool, but offense lite(he's more of the power level I had in mind for the genre). Sage is way too frail, 56 stun will knock him out. Rampart is easily the most powerful of the group, but any villian that has a good chance of hurting him will destroy most of the rest of the group. Charm needs every phase of that 8 SPD since she will be dodging every time she is shot at. 41 Damage will stun her and if the wrong killing attack hits her, she is toast.

 

Overall, while most of the characters are cool examples of what you could do, I don't think they are good examples of what you should do.

 

Just my opinion, and as I said I like the rest of the book, just not the heroes.

 

John

 

Well, using the above logic, you'd want them all to have about the same amount of offense and defense. That's boring. The current power distribution is just fine. Who cares if the mentalist can't take much punishment? He's a mentalist! Same thing with Charm. She's not supposed to be able to take a lot of punishment. That's the whole point of the character. There is some justification for Defender being a bit tougher(and get rid of the ridiculously high STR boost while we're at it), but the rest are fine as is. As written, the Champions would be a perfect fit for the Legion of Superheroes.

 

Rob

[JohnOSpencer]

Re: Galactic Champions

 

Well Dr. Mid-nite, you bring up some valid points. They would fit in the legion of superheroes. But, what you want with example heroes in a book, IMHO, is what a group of heroes looks like. They are supposed to be, "Hey you wanna play Galatic Champions, use these." Any GM trying to run them through an adventure would go through heck to make sure the weaker ones don't feel useless and the tougher ones are challenged.

 

The mentalist doesn't have to be super tough, just balanced. He has 30END and his main attack takes 10! He can't take the campaign average hit without being stunned or knocked out. Even in the Legion the "less tough" members(whom are the majority) can take a hit or two from the average enemy without being Ko'd.

 

I just think the book would have been better(and probably close to perfect) if the example characters were more balanced and the same power level.

Again, just my opinion.

 

John Spencer

[JJR]

Re: Galactic Champions

 

The mentalist doesn't have to be super tough' date=' just balanced. He has 30END and his main attack takes 10![/quote']

His main attack uses 0 endurance. The 10d6 attack is more like a push. His background also says he is not combat oriented and is learning how to use his powers in that regard, which is why he has low endurance scores.

[Game Show Man]

Re: Galactic Champions

 

I really enjoyed my first taste of the Galactic Federation and of the Champions of the thirty-first century. But my main problem with it: NO STARSHIPS! There aren't any starships to play with. While the ships in Spacer's Toolkit and Terran Empire are cool, I just can't see the Fed Navy tooling around space in a centuries-old Goliath-class battleship. When are we going to see some GF-era ships, hunh?