Starting a new game

[Alibear]

Re: Starting a new game

 

I'd rep you if I could' date=' but you'll have to make do with respect for now, not only because I agree with what you are saying, but because you resisted the temptation add another word to Keep It Simple [/quote']

 

I'm on my best behavior, he's a new member of our community after all.

[gojira]

Re: Starting a new game

 

Design characters for your players. Let them customize after a few play sessions.

 

Hero Designer is good, but you can get by with a freebie spreadsheet like Open Office. You can get by with just pencil and paper and a four function calculator, but it's a bit of work once you start making tweaks.

 

Decide what the campaign caps are (how much OCV and DCV, and what's the limits on Damage and Defense, for example).

 

Make a cheat sheet with all players and NPCs, listed with their DEX and Combat Phases, sorted so you can just read down the list for any phase to determine who goes next.

 

Start small. Even just run a couple of demo games for players so you can get all get a feel for it. Pit each player with their character against one mook each, straight out of the rule book. Don't use any optional rules (no bleeding, and no hit locations, for example) and don't use Endurance.

 

Once you get that down, you can expand a bit until everyone feels comfortable with the options in combat.

 

Then open the campaign with a simple scenario, for you and the players. Case a drug operation then bust in shooting. Stop a bank robbery, and get a clue as to what the bad guys are really up to. etc.

 

Also, do not be afraid to post here and ask for more help. We are a friendly bunch. We will even make characters for you, just ask. And there's lots of rule questions that often come up, you can get an explanation here and also good advice on how to GM various options.

[The Monster]

Re: Starting a new game

 

Well, I'll put in over-repeated plug for HD. I can do the math, and I've been doing it long enough I can almost do it in my head (though scratchpad is better!); as already mentioned, HD allows me to run through builds quickly and store various versions. Also, there's enough checks built in that save a fair amount of flipping through rulebooks on the stuff I don't use much.

 

That said, it sounds like you're actually starting with a good setting, in the sense that people will be able to have some cool powers, but not at the level of full-blown Champions. The jump of complexity between my usual normal-hero pulp games and four-color Champs can be staggering.

 

For many of my players, I've designed the characters myself, based on discussion about what they want the character to do, personality, etc. This allows them to play without working through all the rules (about half my group are only casually interested in hardcore nuts-and-bolts), and gives you as GM a handle on just what's showing up in the campaign.

 

One of the biggest differences is SPD. In my pulps, the PCs are all 3 (except for martial artist types who I allow to go SPD 4), NPC pros are also 3, everyone else is 2. Simplifies combat greatly. For DC (which I admit I've never run, but some of the high-powered pulps I've done are pretty much the same), the range will be wider, but if I were to point to a single factor adding to combat complexity, it would be SPD.

 

Someone already mentioned avoiding optional rules. For starters, this is a good idea. Depending on what you want the campaign to feel like, hit locations add a lot of color and player control to the action (it's the only option I typically use). If your players get into that kind of thing, it allows them to build sectional armor, make called shots, and so forth. Not having read DC, I don't know what they recommend, but for normals it adds enough flavor to be worth adding, in my opinion.

 

Anyway, that's a few points I thuoght worth bringing up. Use or discard as you wish, of course.

[Doc Democracy]

Re: Starting a new game

 

Then open the campaign with a simple scenario' date=' for you and the players. Case a drug operation then bust in shooting. Stop a bank robbery, and get a clue as to what the bad guys are really up to. etc.[/quote']

 

This is also one of the best suggestions you can get. Alibear said keep it simple and AmadanNaBriona provided the idea of the teaser scenarios where the players play what will ultimately potentially become core NPCs and this finishes it off.

 

My first scenario was a bank robbery - the characters were rubbish, my knowledge of the system inadequate but the scenario was so simple none of that mattered.

 

One of my friends was kicked through three walls during the combat and when he looked at me expecting to be told his character was dead he got:

 

"Your sitting in a pile of rubble against the fourth wall that you did not completely go through - you can see Titan's foot through the hole you've made in the other three walls - what do you want to do?"

 

He was amazed that not only was he not dead but that he could actually do something - that spoke superheroes to him and Champions became our game of choice after that.

 

You need to decide the key 'bits' that make the genre - why you want to play it and then make sure those things happen in the scenario. If it is the ability of the characters to do the things that the regular cops cannot - then show, dont tell. Let them see they succeed where the cops did not.

 

That sets the tone for the rest of your campaign.

 

The characters will get better and more efficiently designed, your knowledge of the system will improve and the plots will get more complex but if the tone is wrong in the first game you face an uphill struggle in getting the players to want to do more sessions.

 

 

Doc

[Ilari]

Re: Starting a new game

 

First of all, thanks to everyone who's responded so far. I purchased HDv3, and it's a wonderful program (although it keeps running out of memory when I try to load advanced characters like the Harbinger of Justice from the Dark Champions pack.)

 

Still.. how many points are we talking and how many disadvantages are you aiming at?

 

I'm looking at 75 points, plus up to 75 more from Disadvantages. Normal characteristic maxima. For reference, the "feel" I am going for is very similar to Alan Moore's "Watchmen" or Frank Miller's "Sin City".

 

What I've actually done is told my players "Don't worry about points, advantages, disadvantages, all game mechanic stuff. Just describe the character you want to me, and that'll give me a starting point for character design." So far 2 of the four players responded.

 

One wants to play a character similar to Marv from "Sin City": I told him that'd fit very well. I'd be happier if he toned down the 'casual killer' aspect, but I can work it either way.

 

The second one came up with a psychiatrist who was herself diagnosed as schitzophrenic because she could see things and hear voices; she was put away into a mental asylum, from which she promptly escaped. I'm kicking around a couple of ideas for how best to represent that, but first I need to figure out exactly what it was she can see/hear. (The character idea came about in the course of a discussion about Neil Gaiman's 'Neverwhere'. I've always been fascinated by the idea of a second, invisible world laying right alongside the visible one. I'd love to work it into the campaign, but I don't want to make it the primary focus.)

 

Third player will probably want to play something sniperish and ex-military. (Note to self: suggest to him Lee Child's Jack Reacher as a possible starting point for a character.)

 

Fourth player is a completely unknown quantity at this point.

 

Design characters for your players. Let them customize after a few play sessions.

 

Our gaming group runs on what we call the "Three-Session Rule". Any time we're starting a new game, or starting an old game with a different GM, there's a three session period where players can freely adjust their characters. After three sessions, you can talk to the GM: I'm usually nice about things like that.

 

Decide what the campaign caps are (how much OCV and DCV' date=' and what's the limits on Damage and Defense, for example).[/quote']

 

That's actually one of the things I was going to ask you guys about. Sure, I can pull a number out of my hat and go "You can't have an OCV greater than *blah*", but I don't have a 'feel' for what's a good OCV, what's a bad one, what are good numbers for Damages/Defenses, etcetera.

[Doc Democracy]

Re: Starting a new game

 

First of all' date=' thanks to everyone who's responded so far. I purchased HDv3, and it's a wonderful program (although it keeps running out of memory when I try to load advanced characters like the Harbinger of Justice from the Dark Champions pack.)[/quote']

 

Go to the support forum for HD on the boards - Dan Simon should be able to sort you out there - I'm sure I remember him dealing with a similar issue quite recently - check out the threads there.

 

That's actually one of the things I was going to ask you guys about. Sure' date=' I can pull a number out of my hat and go "You can't have an OCV greater than *blah*", but I don't have a 'feel' for what's a good OCV, what's a bad one, what are good numbers for Damages/Defenses, etcetera.[/quote']

 

This is where the work as a Hero GM really comes to the fore. You set the tone of the game by what you do here.

 

for a 75+75 game you really aren't going to have too much to worry about - that number of points runs out pretty quickly!

 

If you look at normal human limitation then DEX 20 is what you get to without paying double DEX costs. That is CV 7. In my agent games I tended to allow up to CV 9 - the player with that would have to pay through the nose and have very little else to spend points on.

 

Damage, I expect is going to be mostly weapons based - so look at the weapons you want to make available and the damage that they do. Then decide what you want your players to be scared of. If you want all guns to be scary then do not allow more than one or two points of resistant defence (works for Cthulhu) or possibly none at all. Then all hits will translate to BODY damage. If you want handguns not to be a deadly threat then allow resistant defences of 6-8. That leaves handguns as a stun only threat.

 

Now you have to think about PD/ED. As stated above a handgun might do upto 7 BODY which can translate to 35 STUN. In a heroic game that can be a lot of STUN. If PD is 5 and CON is 18 then any damage score over 23 STUN will stun the player.

 

If larger weapons, doing 2D6 etc are regular in the campaign then they will often do 24 Stun or more and you might want to allow larger PDs to avoid that happenstance.

 

The CVs are important because very small (apparent) differences can make a huge difference in how often things get hit.

 

When everything is equal the chance to hit is 11 or less (62.5%). That is a high hit ratio. If CVs differ by 2 then one side needs 13 or less to hit (84%) while the other needs 9 or less (37.5%). Variation of 4 shifts that to 15 or less (95%) and 7 or less (16%). It gets one sided pretty quickly.

 

Same thing with SPD. Dont allow too large variations in this or people feel others are getting all the limelight.

 

Someone with high CV and decent defences could be nigh on unstoppable...it is combinations that you need to keep an eye on - being the best at one thing is no real concern, best in several (at the expense of skills and breadth can take the game in a very different way - to that character they are looking for one way to solve problems...)

 

Just some initial considerations for you. No good, no bad just decisions on how you want the game to play - the game's biggest strength and drawback!

 

 

Doc

[Ilari]

Re: Starting a new game

 

If you want handguns not to be a deadly threat then allow resistant defences of 6-8. That leaves handguns as a stun only threat.

 

Well, aside from "super-skills" like "Can Take a Punch" and "Looks Worse than it is" (and things of that nature) the only armor available would be body armor, which by Dark Champions rules is bought with Resource points. That's Resistant Defence, right?

 

Also, another complete newbie question: I wonder if I am reading the DCV modifiers right (table on page 373).

 

Let's say someone has a DCV of 12. If he is attacked from behind (DCV 1/2) his DCV drops to 6: 12*1/2 = 6. If he is Intoxicated (DCV -2) his DCV drops to 10: 12 - 2 = 10. By that logic, if he is Knocked Out (DCV -0) his DCV should remain at 12: 12 - 0 = 12.... which is clearly not right.

 

So if DCV -0 should read as "Defender's DCV becomes 0"... what should DCV -1 read as?

[Spence]

Re: Starting a new game

 

First of all, thanks to everyone who's responded so far. I purchased HDv3, and it's a wonderful program (although it keeps running out of memory when I try to load advanced characters like the Harbinger of Justice from the Dark Champions pack.)

 

Go to the support forum for HD on the boards - Dan Simon should be able to sort you out there - I'm sure I remember him dealing with a similar issue quite recently - check out the threads there.

 

 

Good idea. My HD did the same thing when I started using a while back. The support forum told me what to do the same day. I don't remember what it was beyond it was something simple I should have known. A case of not seeing the obvious.

[Doc Democracy]

Re: Starting a new game

 

Well' date=' aside from "super-skills" like "Can Take a Punch" and "Looks Worse than it is" (and things of that nature) the only armor available would be body armor, which by Dark Champions rules is bought with Resource points. That's Resistant Defence, right?[/quote']

 

Doesn't really matter whether the resistant defence is bought with points or resources, if they have access to it on a regular or constant basis it will have an effect on the style of combat.

 

Also, another complete newbie question: I wonder if I am reading the DCV modifiers right (table on page 373).

 

Let's say someone has a DCV of 12. If he is attacked from behind (DCV 1/2) his DCV drops to 6: 12*1/2 = 6. If he is Intoxicated (DCV -2) his DCV drops to 10: 12 - 2 = 10. By that logic, if he is Knocked Out (DCV -0) his DCV should remain at 12: 12 - 0 = 12.... which is clearly not right.

 

So if DCV -0 should read as "Defender's DCV becomes 0"... what should DCV -1 read as?

 

In my book, Knocked Out has a 0 next to it, not -0. As such your DCV, as you suspected drops to 0. -1 would mean your DCV would be one less. DCV 1/2, as you surmise would half your DCV.

 

Doc