Character limitaions: Another CSL vs MA Inspired thread

[JmOz]

What limits do you put on characters based on either origin or Special effect of there powers?

[Shike019]

Re: Character limitaions: Another CSL vs MA Inspired thread

 

As I said in the other threads, my current GM has explained anyone that is defined as 'human' has the NCM disad (and gets points for it). If you don't take the disad, you have to define yourself as something other than human. (such as my character who, through elightenment and training has surpassed normal human boundries, and is, as such, no longer "human" but something slightly beyond human.)

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: Character limitaions: Another CSL vs MA Inspired thread

 

As long as they stay within the standard campaign limits, I don't. Any limitation is generally applicable to anyone, with any background / SFX.

 

My first GM was really bad about things like that - to the point of telling one player that his 3d6 RKA with Electrical SFX was the max he could get with that SFX, and if he wanted higher it had to be a plasma beam. I hated that, so I don't do it.

[Haerandir]

Re: Character limitaions: Another CSL vs MA Inspired thread

 

I'm pretty much with Lord Mhoram. Of course, I prefer that mechanics and SFX have SOME nodding acquaintance with one another... But such things are usually easier to adjudicate on a case-by-case basis.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Character limitaions: Another CSL vs MA Inspired thread

 

My first GM was really bad about things like that - to the point of telling one player that his 3d6 RKA with Electrical SFX was the max he could get with that SFX' date=' and if he wanted higher it had to be a plasma beam. I hated that, so I don't do it. [/quote']

 

Well, realism does demand a limit to how many electrons you can squeeze into a single lightning bolt, I suppose

[Zed-F]

Re: Character limitaions: Another CSL vs MA Inspired thread

 

I don't have a specific rule about it. I'll look at the character overall and see if something doesn't make sense given the concept... but that's always relative to (a) the other PCs and ( the tone/feel I'm aiming for in the game.

 

That said, I'd be open to the possibility of a game where certain archetypes are in some fashion enforced to the point of becoming classes of a sort... but I generally don't run games like that.

[Checkmate]

Re: Character limitaions: Another CSL vs MA Inspired thread

 

Everyone adds limits I think. As I've said before, I don't think anyone would allow someone who had "Highly Trained Normal" as a concept to have a 60 STR or shoot lasers out of their eyes.

[OddHat]

Re: Character limitaions: Another CSL vs MA Inspired thread

 

As I've said before' date=' I don't think anyone would allow someone who had "Highly Trained Normal" as a concept to have a 60 STR or shoot lasers out of their eyes.[/quote']

 

Hong Kong Wild Martial Arts films are full of highly trained normals who learn how to lift impossible weights, fly, and shoot energy beams. Anyone with the stats in D&D 3.5 can take a level as a Wizard. If chi powers or similar (magic, psi, whatever) are not something a "normal" could learn in a given setting, then fair enough. Still, I'd say that some GMs would allow "normals" in a setting to learn almost any power without losing their Normal status.

[Checkmate]

Re: Character limitaions: Another CSL vs MA Inspired thread

 

Hong Kong Wild Martial Arts films are full of highly trained normals who learn how to lift impossible weights' date=' fly, and shoot energy beams. Anyone with the stats in D&D 3.5 can take a level as a Wizard. If chi powers or similar (magic, psi, whatever) are not something a "normal" could learn in a given setting, then fair enough. Still, I'd say that some GMs would allow "normals" in a setting to learn almost any power without losing their Normal status.[/quote']

Okay depending on the setting, but I would still bet they implement limits on what a normal can do. In all the Wild Martial Arts films I've seen, yes their STR is well beyond what we would consider Normal Human Max, but none of them were lifting anything 100+ tons. Granted I'm not a HUGE Wild Martial Arts fan, so I may be mistaken about this.

[OddHat]

Re: Character limitaions: Another CSL vs MA Inspired thread

 

Okay depending on the setting' date=' but I would still bet they implement limits on what a normal can do. In all the Wild Martial Arts films I've seen, yes their STR is well beyond what we would consider Normal Human Max, but none of them were lifting anything 100+ tons. Granted I'm not a HUGE Wild Martial Arts fan, so I may be mistaken about this.[/quote']

 

The only Kung Fu film I can remember 100+ ton lifts in is A Chinese Odyssey, and then the characters doing that lifting were effectively gods, not trained normals. Kung Fu Cult Master features at least one segment with repeated lifts in the 10+ ton range by a trained human. Remo Williams (in the novels) sometimes manages something like a 40+ STR in terms of lifting, much more when wrestling or controlling is involved.

 

I agree that everyone sets limits; they just tend to vary quite a bit from person to person and setting to setting.

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: Character limitaions: Another CSL vs MA Inspired thread

 

I don't let my players buy anything. Too much potential for abuse that way. It's a 0+0 campaign, go fight crime with those Everyman skills and like it!

[OddHat]

Re: Character limitaions: Another CSL vs MA Inspired thread

 

I don't let my players buy anything. Too much potential for abuse that way. It's a 0+0 campaign' date=' go fight crime with those Everyman skills and like it! [/quote']

 

When me players leave the table alive, they count themselves lucky, and I worry that I'm going too easy on them. Arr.

[OzMike]

Re: Character limitaions: Another CSL vs MA Inspired thread

 

The only limitation I place on the character is that they at least define their Everyperson skills and have a clear concept.

 

Origin-wise I did have to limit a player who continually made what were effectively D&D characters for each game I ran (e.g. Made a wizard with the bulky spellbook, made a fighter with Autofire attacks, each one was from 'a different dimension' that sounded suspiciously like the D&D game world). I said try not to make a fantasy character... he made a Star Wars character.

 

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Character limitaions: Another CSL vs MA Inspired thread

 

When me players leave the table alive' date=' they count themselves lucky, and I worry that I'm going too easy on them. Arr.[/quote']

 

The PLAYERS, huh? No wonder I never see any long-term posters discussing playing in Oddhat's campaign...

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Character limitaions: Another CSL vs MA Inspired thread

 

Okay depending on the setting' date=' but I would still bet they implement limits on what a normal can do. In all the Wild Martial Arts films I've seen, yes their STR is well beyond what we would consider Normal Human Max, but none of them were lifting anything 100+ tons. Granted I'm not a HUGE Wild Martial Arts fan, so I may be mistaken about this.[/quote']

 

The only Kung Fu film I can remember 100+ ton lifts in is A Chinese Odyssey' date=' and then the characters doing that lifting were effectively gods, not trained normals. Kung Fu Cult Master features at least one segment with repeated lifts in the 10+ ton range by a trained human. Remo Williams (in the novels) sometimes manages something like a 40+ STR in terms of lifting, much more when wrestling or controlling is involved. [/quote']

 

Seems to me that these limitations are campaign limits overall, and not limits to certain types of characters in the campaign. The Wild Martial Artists lift only 10 tons/get in the 40 STR range because that's the cap for all characters in the game, rather than the cap for certain types of characters in the game.

 

Although I guess we all impose pretty heavy restrictions on those poor normal human backdrop NPC's

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Character limitaions: Another CSL vs MA Inspired thread

 

I don't let my players buy anything. Too much potential for abuse that way. It's a 0+0 campaign' date=' go fight crime with those Everyman skills and like it! [/quote']

 

[Yorkshireman]:LUXURY! In my games, characters have a -150 base and up to 100 points of disadvantages. And those are my Galactic Power Level games![/Yorkshireman]

[Trebuchet]

Re: Character limitaions: Another CSL vs MA Inspired thread

 

I don't let my players buy anything. Too much potential for abuse that way. It's a 0+0 campaign' date=' go fight crime with those Everyman skills and like it! [/quote']Weenie! You're leaving way too much room for abuse there if you don't prohibit them from selling back Characteristics! One of them might actually end up with a purchased Skill or even *shudder* a Characteristic above 10!

 

Can't have that, can we?

[OddHat]

Re: Character limitaions: Another CSL vs MA Inspired thread

 

Seems to me that these limitations are campaign limits overall' date=' and not limits to certain types of characters in the campaign. The Wild Martial Artists lift only 10 tons/get in the 40 STR range because that's the cap for all characters in the game, rather than the cap for certain types of characters in the game.[/quote']

 

Pretty much. The schtick in wild martial arts is generally that you need a Great Master or Secret Book to reach each new level of achievement and/or add a new unusual power. Reincarnated gods and those who receive gifts of power get to take the fast route, but any given character in such a campaign can potentially learn almost any power the campaign permits.

 

Although I guess we all impose pretty heavy restrictions on those poor normal human backdrop NPC's

 

Of course. Not much point in being "Super" if the check-out guy at the Circle K can smack you around.

[Trebuchet]

Re: Character limitaions: Another CSL vs MA Inspired thread

 

Of course. Not much point in being "Super" if the check-out guy at the Circle K can smack you around.

Hey, Circle K was founded here in El Paso. Some of those clerks have a lot of XP!

[ParagonAlpha]

Re: Character limitaions: Another CSL vs MA Inspired thread

 

I guess I've never really enforced guildlines. But they are there acting all subliminal on my players.

 

Characters with stats above Normal CHA Max and who haven't paid points for the limitation are generally more than human. Oh hey may still act and look and feel human, but they've are either an Altered Human, a Mystical Human, or a Mutant. If these stats are because of equipment then it might not apply.

 

Basically I let the player define the character based on SFX and concept. Because I play with some abusive, point munching, power-gaming rules-exploiting SOB's (god love em) I've taken to saying "NO!" alot more when they bring me characters like "ancient chinese dragon martial artist with the ability to screw a dead person back to life (refered to as Horking)". But I expect them to try and get one or two broken characters past me...

 

I love a challenge.

[wylodmayer]

Re: Character limitaions: Another CSL vs MA Inspired thread

 

I gotta go with the "depends on the setting" answer. Thing is, even in the various superhero campaigns I've run under HERO, that answer would vary. In my strictly-non-powered Dark Champions games, I've been very careful about even how gadgets get built, so that the PCs have stuff that is advanced but not completely far fetched. In my high flying four color games, who cares? Somewhere in between was the Marvel-setting game, where I actually had to limit people based not necessarily on an insufficient concept, but on the setting's preestablished parameters - for instance, characters could only buy STR up to a certain level without a really good explanation, because it's actually not too hard for standard power HERO supers to be as strong or stronger than Marvel's heaviest hitters. Not to say that I wouldn't let someone play a character that strong - one guy did - but I just wanted them to be aware of just what they were buying.

 

But, you know, we're all trying to have fun, and I tried to work with the players. If necessary, I helped them find a concept to *justify* their particular build. One guy in the Marvel thing wanted to build a Desolid, but didn't want to buy the Kitty Pryde patented disruption of electonics power, so we came up with an "alternate explanation" that got him where he needed to be.

 

I'm pretty easy.

[bwdemon]

Re: Character limitaions: Another CSL vs MA Inspired thread

 

Campaign limits and concept limits based off those those, as appropriate. What is and is not superhuman depends on the campaign in question. If you want a superhuman characteristic, then it will require an other-than-normal-human concept.