Concepts you wish your players would play

[Hermit]

Okay, we've had more than one thread about concepts that we, as GMs, would want vengeance for But , assuming the player would enjoy it anyway, what concepts would you not only welcome, but look forward to in your Champions games either because it fits your style of play, gives you many plot hooks, or you just think it would be neat...whatever

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: Concepts you wish your players would play

 

The Legacy character. I've never had anyone do one.

 

Alternate-Earth guy. (Maybe just b/c I've wanted to do as a player) - instead of being from the future, past, or an alien world, character is from an alternate now. I'm a sucker for alternative history scenarios and alt universe stories.

[Karmakaze]

Re: Concepts you wish your players would play

 

Last time I proposed an alternate earth character, the GM shot me down.

 

She was the daughter of a villain who was going to use her as the lynchpin in a world-domination plot. Her super-team went back in time and (among other things) prevented her from being conceived. She had a dimensional stabilizer that kepts her from popping out of existence, but everyone else removed theirs when they returned to the "repaired future" and no longer remembered her...

[austenandrews]

Re: Concepts you wish your players would play

 

I'd like to have a blind PC in one of my games. The challenge would be fun.

[Black Omega]

Re: Concepts you wish your players would play

 

Heros.

[Enforcer84]

Re: Concepts you wish your players would play

 

Heros.

That's just crazy talk!

[Armitage]

Re: Concepts you wish your players would play

 

Alternate-Earth guy. (Maybe just b/c I've wanted to do as a player) - instead of being from the future' date=' past, or an alien world, character is from an alternate now. I'm a sucker for alternative history scenarios and alt universe stories.[/quote']

 

I once played a time and dimension-traveling gadgeteer/thief named Wanderer.

He was the otherdimensional son of two German WWII heroes who fought against the Third Reich. His mother was Die Kriegerin, a human transformed into a Valkyrie (from the Flare and League of Champions comics). His father was a wizard called the Crimson Shroud because of the mask he wore to conceal some facial scars from a fight with a fire elemental.

Wanderer's real name was Friedrich Zerstoiten. His father's name...Albert.

[Mike W]

Re: Concepts you wish your players would play

 

I would love to see more "experienced heroes". People who have been around the block and are connected. My group had a ton of "reluctant hero" types in the last campaign and it drove me nuts at times because they generally had only one plot hook in their history(if that) and I always had to figure out "Why would character X care about this crime going on?" It got ridiculous for a while with only one character ever knowing anything about the bad guys and half the time he was the only one who really cared about things that weren't happening in their neighborhood.

[Kevin Schultz]

Re: Concepts you wish your players would play

 

I would love to see more "experienced heroes". People who have been around the block and are connected. My group had a ton of "reluctant hero" types in the last campaign and it drove me nuts at times because they generally had only one plot hook in their history(if that) and I always had to figure out "Why would character X care about this crime going on?" It got ridiculous for a while with only one character ever knowing anything about the bad guys and half the time he was the only one who really cared about things that weren't happening in their neighborhood.

 

I found I fall into this trap when I design characters. For me, it boils down to the following:

1. it's more cost-effective to put points into powers than it is to put them into skills. you can fudge not having a PS or high levels of Investigation or a Contact - GM's are experienced in working plots around that. The game is less forgiving if you don't have maxed attack/defense/travel powers.
   
2. Also, you can see more 'character improvement' by having low skills and putting earned xp into them ("hey, my Attack power just went up 1!"), than you can by having low powers to start with ("Hey! my energy blast just...went up by nothing."
   
3. Finally, it's an ego thing to have a 'powerful yet young' character than it is to have a 'mediocre yet old' character. I mean, sure - in point balance, they're functionally identical. But then again, you just designed a 30-year old who is "functionally identical" to a 16-year old. In common use, that actually means the 16-year old is 'better', as they can stand up to people that have been doing the same thing for years.

[Alverant]

Re: Concepts you wish your players would play

 

I'd like to have a blind PC in one of my games. The challenge would be fun.

 

We have one in the campaign I'm in and the GM keeps forgetting he's blind. Several times we've heard phrases like "you see on TV" or "in your book of magic you read" (there are no braile versions of ancient magic grimores) or "look over there" or "you get in your car and drive". Personally I think it's a bit of a pain, but it's not my character. The player wanted something different and this is what he wanted.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Concepts you wish your players would play

 

I'd like to have a blind PC in one of my games. The challenge would be fun.

I'm hoping to try a blind PC in a game soon. I have a mute character and that one is interesting to play and not as difficult as I'd first feared. But I did discover the character can only be played with a certain group, and even then it has to be small. So they don't get pulled out to often.

[GoldenAge]

Re: Concepts you wish your players would play

 

I've always wanted a player to make a character with super intelligence.... and utilize super intelligence!

 

Just never seems to work out that way.

[Mike W]

Re: Concepts you wish your players would play

 

I found I fall into this trap when I design characters. For me, it boils down to the following:

1. it's more cost-effective to put points into powers than it is to put them into skills. you can fudge not having a PS or high levels of Investigation or a Contact - GM's are experienced in working plots around that. The game is less forgiving if you don't have maxed attack/defense/travel powers.
   
2. Also, you can see more 'character improvement' by having low skills and putting earned xp into them ("hey, my Attack power just went up 1!"), than you can by having low powers to start with ("Hey! my energy blast just...went up by nothing."
   
3. Finally, it's an ego thing to have a 'powerful yet young' character than it is to have a 'mediocre yet old' character. I mean, sure - in point balance, they're functionally identical. But then again, you just designed a 30-year old who is "functionally identical" to a 16-year old. In common use, that actually means the 16-year old is 'better', as they can stand up to people that have been doing the same thing for years.

 

Not really. The old pro often can justify a lot more combat levels and things like that which will help him keep the young lions at bay. "Who cares how strong you are kid? If ya can't hit me, it don't mean squat."

[Kevin Schultz]

Re: Concepts you wish your players would play

 

Not really. The old pro often can justify a lot more combat levels and things like that which will help him keep the young lions at bay. "Who cares how strong you are kid? If ya can't hit me' date=' it don't mean squat."[/quote']

 

Sure. At this point, age is an SFX that you can use to justify puchasing certian powers and skills and whatnot. But you can use other SFX (Raw Talent, Photographic Physical Memory, Trained by Genma Saotome, cybernetically-implanted Skillchips, etc.) to achieve similar results.

 

The issue (with point #3 that I made) is that age, like any other SFX, doesn't really bring any game mechanics in and of itself (aside from the extremes). So you're left with a character that is just as competent as a nearly identically-designed character that is 10 years younger. [the younger character is less skilled, but more talented, so their end-result is the same.] Which, in turn, implies that this character is weaker, because he needs 10 years of training and experience to catch up with his younger alternative.

 

And then there's the implication that the older character is nearer the downhill slope that gets everyone, which implies that he doesn't have many years left in his crimefighting career. Which is silly, of course - age isn't a resoure in comic-book land. But it is out here in the real world, and there's still an unstated implication that the character is one year closer to death, and his younger clone would simply be a better alternitive because he'll last longer.

 

Personally, I pass it off to the result of a culture that worships youth. If we lived in a culture that placed a greater emphasis on tradition and wisdom passed down from the adults to the younger generations, it'd probably be reversed. As it is, "getting older" is usually portrayed as a bad thing, not a good thing, once you're past your mid 20's.

[Lightray]

I actually have two "alternate Earth guy" PCs in my game. One is a guest-player character who's a legacy hero from a years-defunct campaign.

 

The other one was intended to be an NPC; she'd been featured in a cross-time adventure, and when I had her pop up in regular continuity, one of the players called dibs and snagged her as a backup PC. She actually multiforms between various alternate selves (Roman Earth self, Nazi Earth self, Soviet Earth self, etc.).

 

What I'd like to see is either the Proactive Hero, or the Heroic Hero. I'm tired of mopey layabouts who wait for something interesting to be dropped into their laps -- and are then only interested in nothing more than the fight.

[CandidGamera]

Re: Concepts you wish your players would play

 

More proactive characters would be nice in all my games.

[AdamLeisemann]

Re: Concepts you wish your players would play

 

I've always wanted a player to make a character with super intelligence.... and utilize super intelligence!

 

Just never seems to work out that way.

 

Well, we mere mortals don't have super-intelligence, so it's hard to imagine super intelligence in any way other than Wile E. Coyote, who also has 100,000d6 Unluck.

[Lightray]

Nah, I've played super-intelligent characters (it's my "thing", apparently). All you have to do is be smarter than the GM.

 

It's not easy, but it's doable if you can think on your toes. I once so thoroughly foiled a GM's pet villain (fire-character; I had the fire department turn their hoses on her and hose her out of the sky) that after I left the campaign he made my PC an NPC foil to his other PCs.

 

"You are going to do this. Don't bother resisting; I've already anticipated every action you might take, and prepared an appropriate counter for it."

 

In Champions, a combination of having lots and lots of high Skills, many Skill Levels, and "out-of-the-box" thinking should get you by. If you take any action other than "I charge up and punch him", you're already looking like a genius hero, really. If you take some time to do some research before engaging in battle, plan your attack, and keep an eye out for resources you might not realize you have (e.g., firetrucks with high-pressure hoses), it should be doable.

 

Now, if your GM is the type who'll retroactively change a scenario so that your clever plans fail, well then, not much can help you there.

[austenandrews]

Re: Concepts you wish your players would play

 

We have one in the campaign I'm in and the GM keeps forgetting he's blind. Several times we've heard phrases like "you see on TV" or "in your book of magic you read" (there are no braile versions of ancient magic grimores) or "look over there" or "you get in your car and drive".

I had that same experience playing a (nearly) blind PC in a fantasy game. That's what got me thinking about how fun it would be to run a game with a blind PC. As a GM (and writer) I always challenge myself to engage all the senses. A blind PC would raise the stakes in a good way.

[Lucius]

Re: Concepts you wish your players would play

 

I would love to see more "experienced heroes". People who have been around the block and are connected. My group had a ton of "reluctant hero" types in the last campaign and it drove me nuts at times because they generally had only one plot hook in their history(if that) and I always had to figure out "Why would character X care about this crime going on?" It got ridiculous for a while with only one character ever knowing anything about the bad guys and half the time he was the only one who really cared about things that weren't happening in their neighborhood.

 

You'd like Quetzelcoatl Dragon's Kin then - age about 60 (he won't say, exactly) a Vietnam vet, has been a combat officer, a secret agent, a police officer, a private detective, bodyguard, English teacher in Japan...besides his personal history, his father was one of the famous Nisei who fought the Germans in WWII....last session, when we were wondering if a certain phenomenon was only local or what, he placed a couple of phone calls to the far and middle east to "just catch up" on things with some friends and relatives, and by the way, you wouldn't believe what's happening around here....what, there too?

 

I'll have to give some thought to what I'd like players to play. Offhand, characters who have obvious motivations to get involved in adventures.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

And the ubiquitous palindromedary

[dbsousa]

Re: Concepts you wish your players would play

 

The Legacy character. I've never had anyone do one.

 

Alternate-Earth guy. (Maybe just b/c I've wanted to do as a player) - instead of being from the future, past, or an alien world, character is from an alternate now. I'm a sucker for alternative history scenarios and alt universe stories.

 

I played in a 50's teen hero game where every character was a WWII Legacy hero somehow. They included:

 

Johnny Angel: The son of Johnny "Rebel" Walker, a precog member of Sargent Steele's Suicide Squadron (KIA 1945), and protege of the Homefront Hero Doctor Daedulus. Combat Precog with an antigrav wing harness.

 

Barracuda: The illegitimate daughter of the Princess of Atlantis and a surface dweller. Multipower of various aquatic attacks

 

MasterMind: the nephew of Robert Oppenheimer, built the worlds first fusion reactor. He hid it from those who would turn it into a bomb, in the safest place he could think of, his very own battlesuit.

 

Stray Cat: Her parents, the Black Cat and Mad Dog, were always at each others throats. After her mother died, she took her costume and lived on the streets...

 

Kid Leviathan: Mentallist who was rescued from a secret camp in the heart of the Black Forest. Could he be the son of infamous Nazi Dr. Destroyer?

[assault]

Re: Concepts you wish your players would play

 

it's more cost-effective to put points into powers than it is to put them into skills.

 

I had a problem with this kind of thing when I was designing my character for the This Mutant Life game. Basically, to get the powers I wanted, I had to skimp on skills. But, unfortunately, my character was supposed to be a veteran...

 

Ultimately, I've decided to build the character with the powers I want him to have, and patch the deficiencies in his Skills and Perks with experience. If anyone asks, "he always had this stuff, but it never came up".

 

Patching his powers would have been a lot more difficult.

 

Although, of course, he really could use an attack that doesn't do quite so much BODY to normals...

 

Finally, it's an ego thing to have a 'powerful yet young' character than it is to have a 'mediocre yet old' character. I mean, sure - in point balance, they're functionally identical. But then again, you just designed a 30-year old who is "functionally identical" to a 16-year old. In common use, that actually means the 16-year old is 'better', as they can stand up to people that have been doing the same thing for years.

 

Personally, I prefer the older character to the snot-nosed punk.

 

The biggest difficulty with actually building such characters, as I noted above, is that they have to have "complete" powersets as well as all their skills and stuff. That is, while the youngster can be defined as still exploring aspects of their powers, the older character is likely to be closer to being as powerful as they are going to get.

 

That's a further limitation on how powerful they can be. If they are flexible in how they can use their powers, they lose raw power. If they maintain raw power, they lose flexibility.

 

They can, of course, partly offset things by having fairly narrow powersets to begin with. If they don't have much more than attack, defence and movement powers they can spend the points other characters might put into "non-essential" powers on buying more skills.

 

Or they can play someone like Hourman or Starman.

[Peregrine]

Re: Concepts you wish your players would play

 

The Legacy character. I've never had anyone do one.

 

Alternate-Earth guy. (Maybe just b/c I've wanted to do as a player) - instead of being from the future, past, or an alien world, character is from an alternate now. I'm a sucker for alternative history scenarios and alt universe stories.

 

As a player, I'd love to do either of those concepts. The thing is, I need enough campaign history to realistically do the former, and GM cooperation to do either.

[TheTemplar]

Re: Concepts you wish your players would play

 

Wow... reading all this sure makes me thank my lucky stars as a GM. I have a group of players who luckily understand the 4-color side of the genre. I don't have to worry about them not being heroically motivated. They're heroes. All I have to do is throw the Earth-Shattering Freak of the Week at them and they snap to action. They're even proactive half the time. All I have to do is say "It's X:00 on Xday. What are you doing?" Half the time if they're not doing secret ID stuff, they're following up on unresolved leads from prior adventures. This is an eye-opener for sure. I knew they were a great bunch of players, I just had no idea how rare they were.

 

As far as what I'd like to see, I'd LOVE to see someone in my campaign play a Plastic-Man/ Mr. Fantastic style Metamorph. The shapechanger we do have is more in the Mystique vein with Growing/Shrinking powers as well, but not the Stretching, the HA made from turning her hands into giant Mallets, Gliding by turning into a parachute, etc. She's great for espionage, but personally, I'd love to see a metamorph with the more Silver Age body alteration powers.

 

I'd also entertain any character applications for a super-intelligent talking ape.

[Black Omega]

Re: Concepts you wish your players would play

 

As far as what I'd like to see' date=' I'd LOVE to see someone in my campaign play a Plastic-Man/ Mr. Fantastic style Metamorph. The shapechanger we do have is more in the Mystique vein with Growing/Shrinking powers as well, but not the Stretching, the HA made from turning her hands into giant Mallets, Gliding by turning into a parachute, etc. She's great for espionage, but personally, I'd love to see a metamorph with the more Silver Age body alteration powers.[/quote']

*edit* NM, overlooked the Mr. Fantastic/Plastic Man reference.