Cheeze Alarm

[nexus]

There's point efficency and there's cheeze. Everyone's line is different. Mine is "Does it take me 10 minutes and a graphing calculator to figure out your character sheet"?

 

What's yours?

[OddHat]

Re: Cheeze Alarm

 

"Does it allow the character to pass the limits I've set for this campaign?"

 

"Would it be almost impossible to use if I actually enforced the limitations?"

 

More than +1.5 in advantages, more than -1.5 in limits. These last two actually cover many legitimate character concepts (Supermage with an AVLD 0 End or a spell that has an activation roll, Side Effects, and a focus), but get looked at very closely; it's absurd how effective +3 or more in advantages can make the most minor powers.

[Fireg0lem]

Re: Cheeze Alarm

 

My guideline is simple: I consider how I would make a character like this if everything were up to me, then consider if such a character would be totally outmatched by the character I am reviewing. I also look to see if the converse is true.

[AlHazred]

Re: Cheeze Alarm

 

There's a certain player in my group. If he made the character, whether for himself or for someone else, then the alarm starts to ring...

[Dust Raven]

Re: Cheeze Alarm

 

I'm blessed with players who haven't cracked the rules efficiency aspect of the game, nor have any plans to try. They still come up with ideas that make my head spin though...

 

In this particular group, my absolute limit is "If I can write-up the Power you describe without too much thinking, you can probably have it, so long as it doesn't completely overbalance your character."

 

Sometimes things slip past me, but only when the characters start using out of combat powers in combat. Such as when the ninja decided to start using his mystic you-don't-see-me trick while fighting. It was thrown in there to help him sneak around, get in and out of places unobserved and such. Then he realized that it didn't have any Limitations on it restricting it's use in combat. After he went through an entire adventure using it, I decided he could either change the spell to be useful only out of combat (or just stop using it in combat) or I start throwing villains with more unusual senses, which will ruin everyone's day.

 

He chose to down play the Invisibility.

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Cheeze Alarm

 

I'm the only person who really knows how to do Champions character creation around here, and I'm the only person who really runs it, so ... any cheeze I suffer is self-inflicted.

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: Cheeze Alarm

 

"Would it be almost impossible to use if I actually enforced the limitations?"

 

That's a big one for me.

 

Also limits that don't seem to make sense - either the concept or the limits need to change, or the limits need to go.

 

"What could the secondary/unintened consequences of this be?" Of course you can't catch everything, but sometimes things may come to light.

 

The player involved is a big factor too. Call it discrimination or favoritism if you want, I call it experience and hard lessons learned in the past. If player A, whom I know I can trust to use odd construction/framework responsibly and will respond reasonably if I ask them to tone it down/change how they use it, wants to bring it in, I'm more likely to allow it than if player B, who has a history of abusive constructs and trying to "override" GMs, wants to bring it in.

[Blue]

Re: Cheeze Alarm

 

"Real Armor" and "Real Weapon". Several players tack those onto their unique, specialized devices. I'm always caught between disallowing it and allowing it just to screw with them.

 

"I'll hold my nose and jump into the sewage. Then I pull out my laser pistol."

"You notice that the red LED light has gone out on it. It seems to be clogged with sewage."

[Barton]

Re: Cheeze Alarm

 

In my game I will allow almost anything if it has the one charge limitation. My viewpoint if you want something awesome that's fine, but it will be a one shot power. It allows the player to have the "cool" power but it is a one shot so it is not too unbalancing.

[Tom McCarthy]

Re: Cheeze Alarm

 

I try to figure out how long the character can stand being hit for 42 STUN every third segment against PD or ED, or 21 STUN against MD. If the answer is more than 2 turns, this is one very tough PC.

 

I try to figure out how often one or more Hunteds will show or how often a total psych lim will occur. More than 50% seems too high for most campaigns.

 

I check if the character has a movement power, attack power, or defence power far greater or far lower than anyone else. It's a warning sign.

 

Too many advantages or limitations on a power is also a warning sign.

 

If the character concept can't be conveyed in a single sentence, it's a bad sign.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Cheeze Alarm

 

In my game I will allow almost anything if it has the one charge limitation. My viewpoint if you want something awesome that's fine' date=' but it will be a one shot power. It allows the player to have the "cool" power but it is a one shot so it is not too unbalancing.[/quote']

 

Funny...huge attacks with 1 charge always set off my cheeze alarm. "It's 25d6 - I only need to hit once anyway."

[Barton]

Re: Cheeze Alarm

 

Funny...huge attacks with 1 charge always set off my cheeze alarm. "It's 25d6 - I only need to hit once anyway."

My view point is let them have a SINGLE gross attack, of course 25d6 is overboard, but I would allow current point level attack plus two dice [NO AREA of effect]. This somewhat "breaks" the rules [two extra dice than normally allowed] but overall it does NOT effect the balance of my game.

What I will allow and other GM's allow vary, also some of us are not "allergic to chesse".

[zornwil]

Re: Cheeze Alarm

 

Nothing cast in stone, and I tend to allow a good bit of lattitude (lemming - not the so-called "real" one - has called my game the most balanced unbalanced game he's seen, or something to that effect). However, I draw the line at clear plot-busters, in which case I ask the player to create an offsetting disad or similar that will ensure he has some reason not to just bust the plot each time. I also draw the line at powers I feel too challenged to effectively factor into the game; here usually a good bit more definition of SFX manages to get it to an okay point.