New group of characters.

[Chuckem]

My group now has several members and we have decided to co-GM. Have any of you ever done this? I did it years ago with a D&D group with too many players. What we did was one person handle the story and one do the mechanics. It turned out quite well and was quite a relief for the DMs. I was wondering if the anyone has tried this with Champions.

 

Second question. This is the largest group I have had and we have two "divine" based characters. Was wondering if there would be any problem with them "stepping on each others' toes"?

 

Alien guy from Planet Jendell (tech stuff, minor abilities)

Egyptian Warrior (khopesh sword, martial+divine abilities)

Lennabhair (nature/divine abilities)

Powersurge (electrical manipulation)

Mystic Monk (mentalist+minor magic)

Big Dude (brick)

Catscratch (self explanatory)

Secret Asian Man (martial arts/covert ops)

 

I am letting them build their characters unsupervised to see how creative they can be, anything I should be aware of??

[JusticeZero]

Re: New group of characters.

 

we have two "divine" based characters. Was wondering if there would be any problem with them "stepping on each others' toes"?

If they do, it'll be fun. You have an egyptian deific (Usual associations: Sun, death) and a nature deific. That's like asking if a fire hero and a plant controller are going to conflict too much. not too much, no.

I'm going to tag the characters I see any concern with (mine or yours) with what the most likely directions I see them going look like.

 

* Alien guy from Planet Jendell (tech stuff, minor abilities)

"Gadgeteer". What's his team role? The phrase "Minor abilities" concerns me. It either means they're the guy with the gadget pool (good) or that they're unfocused and might only be randomly useful. (not so good)

 

* Egyptian Warrior (khopesh sword, martial+divine abilities)

"Paladin". It's a priesty holy guy with a sword.

* Lennabhair (nature/divine abilities)

"Druid". Celtic name, Nature abilities. Expect something reminiscent of a DnD druid.

 

The paladin type and the nature type usually don't get in each other's way that i've seen.

 

* Powersurge (electrical manipulation)

"Blaster". Sounds like you have artillery. only the one who really stands out as an artillery, mind you. Is the team unusually melee heavy or is it just me not seeing the character designs?

 

* Catscratch (self explanatory)

* Secret Asian Man (martial arts/covert ops)

I'd be careful. Cat themed scrappers are often covert. Which means that suddenly, you have two 'Fast melee fighters with sneaky skills'. They need to get together and make sure their schticks diverge in major ways, or else they need to work together a lot more closely than usual in play so that they can duo all the sneaky bits.

 

Team composition concerns:

Do you have transportation/logistics? You likely have healing, but I didn't see any sort of transport. In the last game I was in, I ended up doing it, in Origami's case by summoning a vehicle. Ended up that that universally turned out to be a big deal. You don't notice it till you have to compare the two situations.

You seem melee heavy. Just saying.

[csyphrett]

Re: New group of characters.

 

My group now has several members and we have decided to co-GM. Have any of you ever done this? I did it years ago with a D&D group with too many players. What we did was one person handle the story and one do the mechanics. It turned out quite well and was quite a relief for the DMs. I was wondering if the anyone has tried this with Champions.

 

Second question. This is the largest group I have had and we have two "divine" based characters. Was wondering if there would be any problem with them "stepping on each others' toes"?

 

Alien guy from Planet Jendell (tech stuff, minor abilities)

Egyptian Warrior (khopesh sword, martial+divine abilities)

Lennabhair (nature/divine abilities)

Powersurge (electrical manipulation)

Mystic Monk (mentalist+minor magic)

Big Dude (brick)

Catscratch (self explanatory)

Secret Asian Man (martial arts/covert ops)

 

I am letting them build their characters unsupervised to see how creative they can be, anything I should be aware of??

 

Be prepared to revise if you have to. I also agree with JZero. If they dont have a team jet, one of them will have to carry all of them. And if that hero isnt around, there coud be problems

CES

[Ockham's Spoon]

Re: New group of characters.

 

If everyone is building unsupervised, make sure they know the DC range and CV range you expect and that they stick to it. You might want to give everyone a chance to edit after seeing the other characters, or make them all hold back 10 or 15 points until after the first adventure so they can cover any weaknesses they perceive their characters having.

[sinanju]

Re: New group of characters.

 

My group played a "round robin GM" style Champions game for months. We all made up characters, and then took turns as GM. Each player had to GM for at least one session, but not more than three, before turning the reins over to the next player in the rotation. House Rules for the game were decided by consensus, as were rulings on character design issues* as they came up. It was a really fast n' loose game, and collectively we allowed character concepts and designs that none of us would have allowed in a solo-GM game, but it worked pretty well.

 

*We started as low-level supers, but we got 25 XP per game session. By the end of the campaign, we were 7-800 point characters with insane power sets (and power levels).

[TheQuestionMan]

Re: New group of characters.

 

Our Friday Night GURPS Fantasy Campaign has run for 22yrs+ with one Primary GM and two Secondary GM's and the occasional Guest GM.

 

The Unexplored parts of the world became the domains of the Secondary GM's as well as the Abandoned parts. Also Storylines that left Loose Threads after some discussion became adopted by the Primary or Secondary GM's.

 

Guidelines and Discussions are really important in what became a Shared Campaign World.Especially for Game Mechanics Rulings.

 

 

Cheers

 

 

QM

[Nuclear Fridge]

Re: New group of characters.

 

Transportation - or the lack of it - seems to be the big issue here. You can't expect every villain to come to the city where the team is based (unless your setting is Peter Parker's New York, of course).

 

I'd be looking to establish at least 2 or 3 recurring foes, tied in to the backgrounds of some of the team. Alien Guy might be hunted by people from his home planet. Anubis (from CKC) could upset the Egyptian Warrior. Powersurge could be sought as a 'living energy source' for some super-weapon. Lennabhair may have an Evil Profit-Obsessed Company as a foe. Just a few thoughts... It makes some villains seem more 'personal'. Instead of 'ah, just some guy in battle armour', it's more 'MultiChem Enterprises is still dumping toxic waste - how can I stop them when they own the courts?'

[Greywind]

Re: New group of characters.

 

Transport can simply be a plot device as opposed to equipment.

[Badger]

Re: New group of characters.

 

I did it shortly a long time ago with a Star Wars one. Very briefly. It had possibilities.

 

One issue I always wondered about was how should the GM of the day's character be dealt with for that session. We were a small group, that were good friends to begin with (only 3 of us which was why we did the rotation thing), so we just let the GM play his own character without worrying about it. But, I kind of wonder what a large group and/or people who might be only acquaintances would handle it.

[Orion]

Re: New group of characters.

 

One issue I always wondered about was how should the GM of the day's character be dealt with for that session. We were a small group' date=' that were good friends to begin with (only 3 of us which was why we did the rotation thing), so we just let the GM play his own character without worrying about it. But, I kind of wonder what a large group and/or people who might be only acquaintances would handle it.[/quote']

 

In college having the GM run full player characters was standard procedure. Usually it was him and 3 of us players, on rare occasions we had a 4th player. We started out as random strangers at the comic shop, and grew to be good friends (and two became roommates) over the years. This GM liked to have large, diverse teams. He thought it important that no matter what was going on, every player should have a character that would want to be involved in the action or discussion. He was pretty good about not stealing the spotlight, and would use them to reveal plot points we somehow missed. I liked this enough that I prefer to run a character as well on the rare occasions I GM, although I tend to prefer 1 character per player, and not 3 per player, like he did.

[Ockham's Spoon]

Re: New group of characters.

 

GM characters are very convenient for the GM to help steer the group and stimulate conversation. And it makes things more fun for the GM.

 

But the GM character can't dominate play or it will ruin the game for the players. The GM's character also has to make mistakes or the rest of the group will start to think that the GM's character always knows the right decision to make which tends to kill creativity in the players.

 

I guess like most aspects of the game, if handled correctly it can be a real asset, but if bumbled it can torpedo the campaign.