Challanges for PC's

[GrooveD70]

Does anyone have any advice for scaling challanges for my game? Im having a hard time finding the right balance of power for adventures in Champions.... how do you judge what villians will be at the right power level for say 150 point heroes?

 

thanks

Lonnie

[TheEmerged]

DEFENSES: Here's a system I've used myself to great effect.

 

MAXIMUM: Build an Energy Blast with no advantages using your campaign's active point cap (12d6 for a 60 active point cap for example) -- or the DC maximum if that's more appropriate. Multiply that number by 3, and that's the maximum DEF score a villain should have without a Darn Good Reason. Continuing the 60 active point cap example, this results in 36 (12*3).

 

MINIMUM: Do the same, but this time build that Energy Blast with a +1 Advantage (6d6 with a 60 active point cap). Multiply that number by 2, and you have the minimum DEF score a villain should have without a Darn Good Reason. In a 60 active point cap campaign, this would result in 12 (6*2).

 

AVERAGE: This time, build that Energy Blast with a +1/2 Advantage (8d6 with a 60 active point cap) and multiply that number by 2.5. This should give you a good idea of the "expected" DEF score (20 in a 60 active cap campaign).

 

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You need to plan your NPC opponents with your players stregnths & weaknesses in mind. For example, in my current campaign one of the PC's is surrounded by a 4 hex Darkness to Sight -- as a result, I make sure any group-vs-group encounters have at least one person with an alternate targetting sense, Combat Sense, or somesuch. Don't go overboard with this, though, or your players will resent it.

 

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Numbers of Henchman (opponents with a much lower power)

 

As a rule, assume each PC can eliminate at least one henchman each of the PC's phases. Start with the number of PC's you have and multiply it by the number of PC phases you want combat to last -- then add one NPC for each PC again. Multiply this number of the proportional difference in SPD between the PC's and NPC's (if the PC's have 6 and the NPC's have 4, multiply the number of henchman by 1.5. If the NPC's have a SPD of 3, multiply the number of henchman by 2).

 

For example, in a recent encounter I was putting VIPER thugs (SPD 4, 200 points) against my 4 PC's (SPD 6, 375 points). So we start out with 4 VIPER thugs. I wanted the combat to last a full turn (6 PC phases), that brings us to 24 thugs. Add 4 to this total and I end up with 28 thugs. Sounds like a lot, doesn't it? PC's finished in 5 phases with no BODY damage done to them, and there were only 2 thugs standing on that 5th phase.

 

You may need to revise these figures downward if you're in a campaign in which the average attack value is much higher than the average DEF (most martial art campaigns, for example). You may also need to revise them upward if your PC's have little difficulty attacking muliple opponents every phase (why my example above ends early)

[Tetsuyama]

Wow. That was a hella good post, Emerged. Do you have any other tips for GMs?

[GrooveD70]

Thanks!

 

Exactly what I was lookin for I'll give it a try!

 

Lonnie:D

[FTJoshua]

I wrote up a list, from 2d6 to 25 or more d6 listing the average roll, and pick the one that I want for the villain, depending on the defense I will be fighting against. I may only need a 2 or 3d6 Drain, since none of the PC's have Power Defence; but I might need a 15 or 20d6 Energy Blast because of high ED's. Having that simple list handy when generating villains has helped a lot.

 

On the other hand, I also tend to create whatever I bloody well want to create, and let the PC's worry about it. If my villain is a puss, I've learned a lesson. If my villain is TOO strong, I can get him out of the fight any time I want. Motivation and characterization will rule the day over power levels for me.

[Rune]

With regard to designing villains, it helps to consider how long you want the fights to go. For example, if average defenses are 20 PD/ED and players are throwing 12d6 normal dice, that means 22 Stun is getting through per hit on average. In many campaigns, that is a lot of stun and can lead to comparatively quick fights. If the characters have a 20 CON, that means they will on average get Stunned by the attack and getting Stunned is usually the beginning of the end of the fight for a character. However, if the characters' DCVs are much higher than their opponents OCVs, they won't get hit very often and so fights will go longer.

 

In short, the relative OCVs and DCVs of the characters also need to be taken into account.

[BarryB]

Great post, Emerged. Even after over a decade, I still have trouble at times challenging my players' characters in combat. You gave some good guidelines.

 

On a related note, the 3rd edition Danger Room rules were also quite nice. I need to pull those out again.