Champions Speed Chart Question. Need help.

[Ragdoll]

I know that elimination of the speed chart is not a 'popular' subject around the boards, but I decided to post this anyway, because I need ideas. I have a GM, a good GM that ran a champion's game for years in Hudson City. It was an amazingly good campaign. But, as it goes, all good things come to an end, and the campaign slowly drew to a close.

 

Now, I'm trying to get him interested in running another Champions game. But his 'major' problem with the game was the speed chart. Combat took 'forever' was his main complaint. Now, I don't want to raise the ire of anyone here on the boards, but I need help.

 

Right now, he's settled on the 'old' Marvel Super Heroes system to play the next game. It's not that I hate it, it's got some definitely bright gems of interest. It's just that, I'm not crazy about the combat. All one has is health, and if you get low, it becomes a chore as to how to continue or heal. Plus. I just really like HERO more.

 

I've already removed the speed chart and tested a few thing, but my 'main' concern is Endurance expenditure and post segment 12 recoveries.

 

With it's removal, each combat functions like a GURPS 'Turn'.

 

At first I thought.. just let the players get a post 12 recovery after 12 turns of combat.

 

But that seems excessively long to me. Then I thought, maybe just get rid of the post 12 segment recovery, and just let a player take a recovery for their action when they wished like in the rules. Until I read up on the rule in HERO. 1/2 DCV, etc.. it was kind of scary.

 

I even toyed with allowing a free recovery after 10 turns, or after 5, but I'm not sure what's overpowered or what's fair, so I decided to ask for help.

 

If anyone can help me with this last 'detail', I'd be really appreciative. =)

[Certified]

Re: Champions Speed Chart Question. Need help.

 

The way you've described it essentially eliminates the Speed Figured Characteristic what if you still used that for a basis for free recoveries. The character may get a Free Recover after (12-Speed) Actions so a Speed 2 character would get a recover every 10 actions a speed 8 character, every 4.

[Ragdoll]

Re: Champions Speed Chart Question. Need help.

 

The way you've described it essentially eliminates the Speed Figured Characteristic what if you still used that for a basis for free recoveries. The character may get a Free Recover after (12-Speed) Actions so a Speed 2 character would get a recover every 10 actions a speed 8 character' date=' every 4.[/quote']

 

I have been considering that. I've been thinking of a way to 'use' SPD rather then just dropping it from the characteristics, but I'm concerned about players getting confused as to what turn they recover on. *thinks*

 

Of course, one could argue that it's no more difficult then keeping track of a character's DEX, so. Hm. I think I will consider this idea a 'strong' front runner for a solution, though I'd like to hear some other ideas from the community before I commit to it. =)

[Vondy]

Re: Champions Speed Chart Question. Need help.

 

One option for replacing the speed chart has been discussed in the Combat thread of the 6th Edition forum. Its not likely to be adopted, but it does work. Its not my idea. You can find it here:

 

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1568530&postcount=371

[Guest steamteck]

Re: Champions Speed Chart Question. Need help.

 

Steve himself suggested an alternate method right in the 5th edition book. make every "turn" consist of 3 "combat rounds" where everyone where everyone gets an action then everyone gets their recoveries after the three combat rounds.

[Tungsten Shephard]

Re: Champions Speed Chart Question. Need help.

 

With my group we have a designated individual who calls and controls combat SPD who is not the G.M. This has eliminated the G.M. requirement to run EVERYTHING (less stress on me) and has made the game combat go very quickly. Trust is a big issue here and as a G.M. I just inform the record keeper to mark in adversaries DEX and SPD, he does the rest then calls out when it's someones turn. As the G.M. I still have the control and can interject at any time as needed. I just don't agree that G.M.s must run EVERYTHING. Players are more than capable of doing things that might not need GM control.

 

I've even had players run villains when their characters are not present just to speed things up. Although I would strongly advise you know your players before you do this as it can lead to problems.

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Champions Speed Chart Question. Need help.

 

In my experience, it's not so much the system that slows down combat as people not being experienced with the system.

 

1. Pay attention, know when your turns are coming up, have your move planned so you can execute it swiftly when you're called upon (but, of course, be flexible because your target might not be there).

 

2. Know the combat rules and look up anything you might need to know BEFORE your turn. Make a cheat-sheet of combat modifiers if you must; if you have a speedster, make a note of move-by/move-through, etc.

 

3. Use teamwork! Fights drag on because everything breaks up into a series of one-on-one fights, instead of the PCs using teamwork and eliminating foes decisively. This also opens up big damage/high effectiveness maneuvers like Move-Throughs, Rapid Fire, Sweep or Haymaker that would normally be impractical and can end a battle more quickly.

 

4. Help the GM out. Count the hexes to your opponent so you can tell him what the Range Mod is, that sort of thing. Anything you can do to ease his workload will speed things up a lot.

 

5. GM Preparation. How did this GM run the speed chart, actually? If he had to do it clumsily, calling out DEXs or whatnot, that's going to take a while. A pre-arranged sheet of character names, DEX's and SPDs helps a LOT.

 

6. The fewer dice, the better. You might switch to, say, making all powers half Standard Effect and adding the rest atop it, only having to add 6d6+18 instead of 12d6.