What If #14...There Can Be Only One...

[Lord Mhoram]

Blackcat would go. She has never lost a one on one battle (other than to a supersuit that got lucky, once very early in her career) and has beaten the death dragon as citizen of Earth (rather than a country). She figures some blowhard from another planet couldn't be that bad.

 

Ballistic would go to see who else was showing up for the guys and if he saw someone he knew was tougher and more versitile, he would bow out. But that would be tough to do. (Mechanically he is a supersuit supermage with defences in the 40-50 range and half reduction and a 75 point magic cosmic pool as well - he is amoung the three or four toughest characters in the gameworld he plays in).

[zornwil]

I think Blazing Arrow would go and try to talk peace while being the candidate. He would want to because of his exposure to aliens recently.

[Hermit]

Originally posted by Agent X

I could swear I've seen foci loaned here and there. I would argue it is in genre, when the stakes call for it.

 

Cap's shield has been borrowed a few times.

 

I know in one "West Coast Avengers" comic, when the Whackos had been adbucted for 'Evaluation' by being forced to engage one at a time with an alien robot, Hawkeye went "Opps.. clumsy me" and left an electric arrow behind for Iron Man to use as a charge up when it was shellhead's turn.

 

But it DOES seem to be an exception to the general rule.

[Vondy]

Originally posted by Hermit

I know in one "West Coast Avengers" comic, when the Whackos had been adbucted for 'Evaluation' by being forced to engage one at a time with an alien robot, Hawkeye went "Opps.. clumsy me" and left an electric arrow behind for Iron Man to use as a charge up when it was shellhead's turn.

 

But it DOES seem to be an exception to the general rule.

 

I tend to concur. I would allow it on a once in a blue moon scenario. The rules for FOCI do allow for someone to pick up and use a focus they didn't pay for (or even come up with a power trick without paying for it) as a one off situation, and recommends someone who wants to use a focus repeatedly, or have it available regularly, should be required to pay points.

 

If it suits the scene and doesn't become an in-game fixture its perfectly within the rules.

[zornwil]

My favorite focus reuse is how in our current game the scientist-turned-mage's pack of chemical aids was "borrowed" by the smarter-than-Batman detective, figuring "Hey, he doesn't use it anymore," and yes he paid the points.

[phydaux]

Originally posted by Agent X

I could swear I've seen foci loaned here and there.

 

Yup. I've seen that too. I've ALSO seen Iron Man one-punch The Hulk.

 

Does that mean Iron Man is more powerful than the Hulk? No way! What it means is that the writer bent the rules a little for the sake of the plot, and some idiot line editor OK'ed it.

 

My problem with allowing that in Champions is this:

 

You have 4 PCs. One has an Obvious Accessable Focus with 200 Active Points covering every defense in the book. The second has an Obvious Accessable Focus with 200 Active Point of Flight, 45" per turn, +1/2 Variable Advantage. The third has an Obvious Accessable Focus with 200 Active Points of 18D6 EB, +1/2 Variable Advantage. The last character has all his points in Skills, Perks and Talents. But they're all only 250 point characters each...

 

Every session, the first three characters loan their foci to the last character "because we're a team" and the last character kicks Dr. Destroyer in the nuts, has a light snack, then pimp-slaps Mechanon and makes him his bitch. After lunch he single handedly defeats the entire Kree space armada. Later he, Galactus and the Beyonder catch a late afternoon matinee at the milti-plex, then invade Io and kill all the Green Lanterns.

 

And he's still only a 250 point character.

 

Seen it happen, didn't like it, and stoped playing Champions for a few years because of it.

 

Nope. If you ask me, and you didn't but I'll tell you anyway, the GM has to enforce the genera or else idiot players will exploit the game and ruin it for everyone.

[phydaux]

Originally posted by zornwil

My favorite focus reuse is how in our current game the scientist-turned-mage's pack of chemical aids was "borrowed" by the smarter-than-Batman detective, figuring "Hey, he doesn't use it anymore," and yes he paid the points.

 

No problems there, mate. If the character paid the points for it, it's his.

 

Most of my long time players characters have 8-12 "Hey, look what I just learned how to do!" points.

[Mayday]

I have 2 or 3 characters with Usable By Others on this or that. Guess I'm the only one.

 

For one group the plan was to be 4 siblings, and each of us had 1 stat usable by the other 3 at range, and yes we were a bit whacked, until one of us went down and we lost that stat boost. But the GM asked us to make them that way.

 

The other is Mental Def at touch range, because Mayday's energy field skews incoming and if they are close to her they too can take advantage of that energy side effect. The GM built the original powers for her and it was his design. Has come in useful a few times.

[zornwil]

Nothing wrong with Usable by Others, that's by the book.

 

I almost forgot about the PC in my game who IS a focus. He turns to stone and can be used, adding STR, to bash things with. He also gained the ability to turn into all sorts of other forms, some of which are almost like uncontrollable continuous attacks (one form is a ball that bounces all over uncontrollably, imparting energy as it does), others of which are mobile.