Hyper-Man Posted January 16, 2009 Report Share Posted January 16, 2009 Re: Which is your least favorite archetype to play? ... supervillain support network. "Hi, thank you for calling the supervillain support network. How may I assist you today?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nexus Posted January 16, 2009 Report Share Posted January 16, 2009 Re: Which is your least favorite archetype to play? If I applied that criteria to all abilities on a Champions character sheet' date=' my games would be very different. Would any published characters pass that test?[/quote'] You know, I just assumed Crosshaircollie meant had anyone ever seen anyone justify a gunslinger in CAKverse by saying they always aimed for "non vital" areas when they used their weapons not if anyone had seen that happen in real life. But now that you bring it up, he might have meant that but I'll leave it to him to clarify. It does seem like an odd restriction to put on powers in a comic book game. I haven't seen anyone lift and throw a tank or shoot lasers out of their eyes either. And I've at least heard of "shooting to wound". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest steamteck Posted January 16, 2009 Report Share Posted January 16, 2009 Re: Which is your least favorite archetype to play? On Ankylosaur ,I just changed the character so he designed the suit. another option is having him being whoever the evil organization who designed the suit puts in it. I really like the Warlord. I did a lot of expanding on him in my game and captured tech from him has revolutionized many sciences. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logan D. Hurricanes Posted January 16, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2009 Re: Which is your least favorite archetype to play? "Hi' date=' thank you for calling the supervillain support network. How may I assist you today?"[/quote'] You laugh, but that's exactly what I'm writing about now. Then we'll see who laughs, muahahahaha! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spence Posted January 16, 2009 Report Share Posted January 16, 2009 Re: Which is your least favorite archetype to play? You laugh, but that's exactly what I'm writing about now. Then we'll see who laughs, muahahahaha! Remember the phone center must be in a different country and the person you are talking to must not speak the language. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logan D. Hurricanes Posted January 16, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2009 Re: Which is your least favorite archetype to play? Remember the phone center must be in a different country and the person you are talking to must not speak the language.My story is fiction, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spence Posted January 16, 2009 Report Share Posted January 16, 2009 Re: Which is your least favorite archetype to play? My story is fiction' date=' though.[/quote'] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vulcan Posted January 16, 2009 Report Share Posted January 16, 2009 Re: Which is your least favorite archetype to play? Everything else you named is exotic or martial artsy. If they've got conventional firearms they're just a guy with some guns. Pretty mundane. If he's a big deal' date=' why do we need superheroes?. IMO he Should head back to his own genre where his brand of action and heroism excels if he wants to be one of the leads. Supers just doesn't mean John Woo to em.. Now I've got characters in my supers game like that. They just don't pretend to be superheroes. The interaction between them and the supers can be very interesting in fact.[/quote'] In total agreement. My Coastie with the LW-15/M-203 would be the first to say he wasn't a superhero; he never even laid claim to being particularly heroic even when he was saving lives. "It's just my job!" was his quote. It was only the rules on KA made him competitive with the other characters who were superheroes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vulcan Posted January 16, 2009 Report Share Posted January 16, 2009 Re: Which is your least favorite archetype to play? You can do that, yes. Has anybody ever actually seen anybody do it? Well, yeah, I did once. Played a coast guard petty officer (assigned as a liason for reasons I forget) with a light .50 cal. assault rifle and M-203. And since he knew he was highly squishy in comparison to the supers he was up against, he had to be pretty doggone tactical just to survive. And as I said earlier, when he was praised for saving lives, his standard response was "It's just my job." He certainly wasn't a rehash of Rambo, or the Punisher, or whatever. Another point, for me, is that my definition of a superhero actually requires, well, super-ness. I don't call Batman a superhero because he doesn't have superpowers and doesn't use supertech (that, and he's a total jerk, but that's tangential). Someone with a regular sword doesn't qualify for me, either ... now, a sword with a built-in blaster, or a magic sword works. A super-tech blaster or trick-bullet kind of gun works for my supers game; a 'go down to Wal-Mart and buy a shotgun' character doesn't. Okay. That's your opinion and you are entitled to it. In my opinion a charcter who spent 100+ points on superhuman tricks with his 'Wal-Mart shotgun' then he might well be superhuman! And Batman not a super? You probably don't think much of the original Captain America either, whose super-soldier serum only took him to 'maximum human potential.' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hyper-Man Posted January 16, 2009 Report Share Posted January 16, 2009 Re: Which is your least favorite archetype to play? My story is fiction' date=' though.[/quote'] So, is your supervillain helpdesk is based out of an invisible flying cocoon? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vulcan Posted January 16, 2009 Report Share Posted January 16, 2009 Re: Which is your least favorite archetype to play? I have to continue the hate for Mentalists. Well, Mentalists in the hands of one particular player. This player is a math superfreak, who takes weeks to fine tune a character, and even with hard caps in place, still manages to bend the rules system over a table and have his way with it. We wound up with a mentalist so damned powerful that he could sit in his apartment, Mind Scan this entire corner of the Milky Way galaxy, find a villain, and mind-**** him or her so badly that they became a drooling idiot and unfit for further use. Villains eventually began wearing psionic dampeners, but he just made his powers Armor Piercing to get around it. He also had no problems with Mind Controlling the villains to kill each other, and then commit suicide (25d6 Mind Control ((pushed and Haymakered)), plus 5 CSLs for ECV only can screw over most anything out there) I pleaded with him, please, I have no way of even touching you, and you're obliterating the plot. You're five seconds away from being NPCed. We eventually agreed on a radiation accident involving nano-machines that turned him into a human shaped blob of sentient nanites. He was still insanely difficult to hurt, but at least he had to be at the actual fights. There's this thing in the rules called "active point caps"... They are usually set around 60-70 points to avoid things like 25d6 Mind Controls - or anything else, for that matter! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Mhoram Posted January 21, 2009 Report Share Posted January 21, 2009 Re: Which is your least favorite archetype to play? I tend to dislike Energy Projectors. I find them somewhat staid and boring. "I blast it" "I blast it with a different slot" "I blast it with a third slot in my MP" When you are up close you have movement, attacks, choosing dcv over ocv... when you are range, you just sit and shoot. I had one rather fun time with an energy projector recently, but that was partial because the GM (who tends to favor them) helped me get into versatility (A big MP and ranged martial maneuvers so I could do tricky things like disarm or trip at range). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DusterBoy Posted January 21, 2009 Report Share Posted January 21, 2009 Re: Which is your least favorite archetype to play? I actually wrote up a Teen Champs character who has an energy lasso and the "energy cage" from the Champions source book. I wote it up as an entangle and stuck the "cannot be escaped with teleportation" adder on it. I figured it makes her different from all the other blasters out there, even if the rest of her multipower is pretty much standard issue. My least favourite archetype is probably "weapons master", since all it seems to be is another fella with a bow and trick arrows. And I shudder at the concept of an assault rifle in .50 BMG. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legatus Posted January 21, 2009 Report Share Posted January 21, 2009 Re: Which is your least favorite archetype to play? "Hi' date=' thank you for calling the supervillain support network. How may I assist you today?"[/quote'] Reminds me of the webcomic Evil Inc., they do just that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vulcan Posted January 21, 2009 Report Share Posted January 21, 2009 Re: Which is your least favorite archetype to play? And I shudder at the concept of an assault rifle in .50 BMG. I know in real life they've been developing (and deploying for evaluation) a series of 'Light .50' assault rifles - usually around 12.5x44, under half the length of the .50 BMG (12.7x99)... Used one on a character a year or so back. Under the current RKA rules, it works pretty well against supers -certainly far better than the 8d6 Plasma Rifles PRIMUS is issued. A .50 BMG assault rifle would probably need a brick to be able to hold it up and handle the recoil! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloodstone Posted January 22, 2009 Report Share Posted January 22, 2009 Re: Which is your least favorite archetype to play? I tend to dislike Energy Projectors. I find them somewhat staid and boring. "I blast it" "I blast it with a different slot" "I blast it with a third slot in my MP" When you are up close you have movement, attacks, choosing dcv over ocv... when you are range, you just sit and shoot. While this does sound a bit dull, it's also really contrary to my experiences playing characters that focus on ranged combat. Mind you, I've seen my own players do the same sort of thing, so it's not an uncommon playstyle. It just strikes me as kind of lazy and tactically unsound. Switching around CSL's happens in ranged combat, though possibly much less so if you can afford to just Hover out of range or stay hidden. Personally, when I've got an easy shot, I tend to put my levels into damage. When I'm worried about return fire, I keep the DCV pumped up (especially Ranged DCV). I find I move around a lot with ranged characters so as to take advantage of cover, line up better shots based on the changing landscape of the battlefield, manipulate range penalties and, in some cases, to keep out of melee. My blasters typically have several slots in their MP that aren't damaging blasts, so they frequently have the ability to set up opponents. TK, Entangle, Darkness, Flash, Adjustment powers, CE and that sort of thing. I had one rather fun time with an energy projector recently, but that was partial because the GM (who tends to favor them) helped me get into versatility (A big MP and ranged martial maneuvers so I could do tricky things like disarm or trip at range). Ranged Martial arts are a lot of fun and are practically required for some concepts. I'm a big fan of Moving Shot personally Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZootSoot Posted January 22, 2009 Report Share Posted January 22, 2009 Re: Which is your least favorite archetype to play? I'll start by saying I've never been a fan of mentalists. While there is a broad range of powers' date=' they usually feel very one dimensional to me. If you don't use TK (which some don't) then you can be very powerful, but on a plane of existence by yourself. Even then it's often an all or nothing kind of effect. Telepathy won't punch through that wall, or put out a fire, or stop a bullet. Plus they feel, to use an mmo term, squishy.[/quote'] Mentalist is very difficult for me to play. It just lends itself so much more to villainy and evil; I always feel that good guy mentalists are playing a longer game and are really bad guys . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrosshairCollie Posted January 23, 2009 Report Share Posted January 23, 2009 Re: Which is your least favorite archetype to play? You know' date=' I just assumed Crosshaircollie meant had anyone ever seen anyone justify a gunslinger in CAKverse by saying they always aimed for "non vital" areas when they used their weapons not if anyone had seen that happen in real life. But now that you bring it up, he might have meant that but I'll leave it to him to clarify. It does seem like an odd restriction to put on powers in a comic book game. I haven't seen anyone lift and throw a tank or shoot lasers out of their eyes either. And I've at least heard of "shooting to wound".[/quote'] You are correct; one certainly could 'shoot to wound' with a regular firearm in a Champions game, but I've never seen it. Invariably, anybody who has a regular gun only has a Killing Attack with it, and attempts to use it to kill people. If they turn out to be bulletproof, they wait until he goes down and tries to shove it in their ear or mouth and kill him that way. In short, I've never seen a character wielding a conventional firearm who wasn't a 90's anti-hero murdering lowlife. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vulcan Posted January 23, 2009 Report Share Posted January 23, 2009 Re: Which is your least favorite archetype to play? You are correct; one certainly could 'shoot to wound' with a regular firearm in a Champions game, but I've never seen it. Invariably, anybody who has a regular gun only has a Killing Attack with it, and attempts to use it to kill people. If they turn out to be bulletproof, they wait until he goes down and tries to shove it in their ear or mouth and kill him that way. In short, I've never seen a character wielding a conventional firearm who wasn't a 90's anti-hero murdering lowlife. You do remember these posts, don't you? In total agreement. My Coastie with the LW-15/M-203 would be the first to say he wasn't a superhero; he never even laid claim to being particularly heroic even when he was saving lives. "It's just my job!" was his quote. It was only the rules on KA made him competitive with the other characters who were superheroes. Well' date=' yeah, I did once. Played a coast guard petty officer (assigned as a liason for reasons I forget) with a light .50 cal. assault rifle and M-203. And since he [i']knew[/i] he was highly squishy in comparison to the supers he was up against, he had to be pretty doggone tactical just to survive. And as I said earlier, when he was praised for saving lives, his standard response was "It's just my job." He certainly wasn't a rehash of Rambo, or the Punisher, or whatever. I'll grant you that you've never seen it in person. I've never personally seen a nuclear submarine or a russian tank myself. But I have it on good authority that they actually do exist. So do 'gun characters' who are not "a 90's anti-hero murdering lowlife." Watch where you use that super-broad paintbrush, CC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nexus Posted January 23, 2009 Report Share Posted January 23, 2009 Re: Which is your least favorite archetype to play? You are correct; one certainly could 'shoot to wound' with a regular firearm in a Champions game, but I've never seen it. Invariably, anybody who has a regular gun only has a Killing Attack with it, and attempts to use it to kill people. If they turn out to be bulletproof, they wait until he goes down and tries to shove it in their ear or mouth and kill him that way. Sounds like a player problem not an issue with archetype or concept to me, clearly they didn't want to play in a four color game or didn't grasp the idea. I've seen a number of "four color" gun slingers in games and characters with weapons that should be lethal that tried to avoid unessecary and wanton killing. Personally, I've rarely seen PCs set out to murder specifically (sticking guns in ears, etc) outside edgier and most definitely not four color games and even then mostly in cases were it was arguably warranted or understandable. The times I have seen it in four color games, well, those players were either confused about the themes and moral code of the game or, more frequently, jerks that didn't care or wanted to disrupt play for whatever reason. In the first case, things were cleared up and they either left the game to find one of their liking or got with the program. In the second, they were shown the door. At least by a GM with any spine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arkham Posted January 23, 2009 Report Share Posted January 23, 2009 Re: Which is your least favorite archetype to play? You are correct; one certainly could 'shoot to wound' with a regular firearm in a Champions game, but I've never seen it. Invariably, anybody who has a regular gun only has a Killing Attack with it, and attempts to use it to kill people. If they turn out to be bulletproof, they wait until he goes down and tries to shove it in their ear or mouth and kill him that way. In short, I've never seen a character wielding a conventional firearm who wasn't a 90's anti-hero murdering lowlife. Then you have been playing with the wrong people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted January 23, 2009 Report Share Posted January 23, 2009 Re: Which is your least favorite archetype to play? Characters designed by other people. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hyper-Man Posted January 23, 2009 Report Share Posted January 23, 2009 Re: Which is your least favorite archetype to play? re: PC's with Killing Attacks of any kind Why is the gunslinger being singled out more than say a bow & arrow type (like Green Arrow or Hawkeye)? Why no mention of Superman and his 'Heat Vision' (a classic RKA if there ever was one)? The original Vigilante was featured on a few episodes of the Justice League Unlimited animated series and like most if not all of the other heroes he appeared to have some form of Code Vs. Killing. The fact that his primary 'power' was his skill with his guns and motorcycle didn't automatically turn him into a killing machine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nexus Posted January 23, 2009 Report Share Posted January 23, 2009 Re: Which is your least favorite archetype to play? Or the various characters that use swords and other "realistically" lethal weapons... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arkham Posted January 23, 2009 Report Share Posted January 23, 2009 Re: Which is your least favorite archetype to play? re: PC's with Killing Attacks of any kind Why is the gunslinger being singled out more than say a bow & arrow type (like Green Arrow or Hawkeye)? Why no mention of Superman and his 'Heat Vision' (a classic RKA if there ever was one)? The original Vigilante was featured on a few episodes of the Justice League Unlimited animated series and like most if not all of the other heroes he appeared to have some form of Code Vs. Killing. The fact that his primary 'power' was his skill with his guns and motorcycle didn't automatically turn him into a killing machine. It is amazing how quickly people develop Codes vs. Killing when Superman, etc is standing right over there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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