gm looking to set caps for for character creation, to keep combat fun

[starbeet]

story and combat is what make a table top

 

the story is something I got but being new to champions I need a little help with the combat part

 

-like creation cap for characteristic and powers (like dice pool, flash attack and mental attacks); there characters will be between 300-400 point superheroes 6 edition

 

this is an example of the average boss I plan for them to face that I got from the villains volume one p. 107 (not a solo boss, but one with minions at play point level)

 

avar-7 (will mod hit a bit to fit the story) 820 points paired with 2 400 point allies for a four man or 3 for five man

20 str/ 22 dex/ 30 con/ 20 int/ 20 ego/ 20 pre/ 8 ocv/ 8 dcv/ 3 omcv/ 7 dmcv/ 6 spd/ 20 pd/ 20 ed/ 10rec/ 60 end/ 20 body/ 50 stun (20 rPD/ 20 rED) md 10

 powers and skills of note (at least the ones I caught)

-density increase (+60 str, +12 pd/ed, -24 kb (not sure what kb is)

-desolidification

-blasts 12d6, 10d6 aoe 8m radius, 10d6 armor pierce, 8d6 hits desoildfied

-+3 to all combat

 

a thanks to all readers and special thanks to all repliers (also thank you Halloween for the extra time it build)

[TheQuestionMan]

Campaign Description: This is a Standard Superhero campaign. The Player Character's are superheroes in a modern day world populated by superhumans. They will fight against supervillains, villainous agencies, criminals, terrorists, etc… All the Characters should be "Good Guys" who can work as part of a superhero team.

Importance of the Player Characters: The Player Character's are Superheroes and the only Superhero Team in the Pacific Northwest. They are independents, but should be able to work with UNTIL and the local Law Enforcement Agencies (RCMP SERT).

The Campaign World is identical to our own except for the presence of superpowers. It is both a brighter and darker world than the one you know. Advanced technologies have made old power sources obsolete and the environment is recovering from decades of abuse, but super powered megalomaniacs, terrorists, and armies have made the world a more dangerous place.

The PCs are the most important heroes in the campaign. Supers are people with powers, not the other way around. Normals are just as interesting as supers. There are more heroes and villains around than just the ones with superpowers. Every PC, NPC, and Agency should stand out as a unique entity. Diverse ethnic, natural, and religious backgrounds make for memorable realistic NPCs. In any conflict between realism and fun, Fun wins. The best campaigns tell a story.

World Description: The Champions Universe is a four-color comic book world, full of larger than life characters. Technology is more advanced than the real world, and magic is real. Aliens and creatures of legend roam the earth.

The Story So Far: Ascension Inferno (Part 1), Jaws of Hell (Part 2), Shake & Snake, VIPER Ascendant (Part 1), Steel Legion (Part 2), Case Closed (Part 3) Mechanical Menace, Enter DEMON, Investigation Goes Awry, Juicer’s Uprising, Case Closed 2 & Super Terminators, Life Lessons, and How to Building A Super HQ. 

Local Relations: ???



CAMPAIGN TONE

Morality: The Champions of Vancouver is mostly a four-color campaign, and for the most part the morality of the campaign will be four-color as well. However, there will be some crossover between good and evil, and thing will not always be black and white. Characters will find themselves making difficult decisions, but should always try to be good guys.

On the other hand "bad guys" will vary between being good guys working at cross goals to being extremely evil. Some times the character will be faced with scenes of extreme violence. 

Realism: Strong, but the heroes will be expected to make ridiculous efforts and take huge risks to accomplish their goals Character death is a reality. If that is not enough to keep a player character alive, then they had best hope the rest of the team likes them.

Outlook: While the outlook will be mostly positive, there will be many dark moments and many challenges outside of combat. 

Seriousness: While the overall tone of the campaign will be very serious, there will be time for a certain amount of light hearted banter, or comic relief. The heroes will be Canada's best defense against the direst of situations. This does not mean that there is no room for humor. Witty repartee, creative use of powers, and the way you play should provide plenty of humor in the midst of even the direst situation.

Continuity: The game will be entirely serial. Player actions in one scenario will have effects on later scenarios and continuity will be enforced. Adventures will move linearly through time. Bad guys will remember who you are and what you did to them, and the press will print your exploits for the world to see.


CHARACTER BUILDING GUIDELINES
• Starting Points: 200
• Maximum Disadvantages: 150
• Maximum Points From One Category of Disadvantage: 50
• Normal Characteristic Maxima: Not Required
• Combat Hit Location Rules: Not Required
• Knockdown Rules: Not Required
• Long-Term Endurance Rules: NO
• Limited Push: YES


CHARACTER ABILITY BUILDING GUIDELINES

Power Levels Beginning Range Maximum Minimum
Characteristics: 10 – 40 60 10
Speed: 3 – 6 8 4
Combat Values: 6 – 9 12 6
Damage Classes: 6 – 12 16 8
Active Points: 30 – 60 80 --
Skill Points: 20 – 60 80 --
Skill Roll: 11- /15- 18- 8-
DEF/rDEF: 20/10 30 6/6


HOUSE RULES: (Special Restrictions, Requirements and Exceptions)
• It is advised that the player make use of all 150 points of Disadvantages.
• All player characters should have a Psychological Limitation concerning Killing.
• The character must have some special mode of transportation.
• The character must have Social Limitation: Secret Identity.

[Heroic Halfwit]

For campaign caps, I generally work from a narrative perspective, then make an arbitrary decision and reason it out from there. So first I would ask myself things like:

 

1.  How bloody is the campaign?  Should the characters virtually never take Body damage?  Should they constantly be in fear of guns/knives?  Should they be able to essentially ignore normal guns and knives, but fear Superhuman attacks?  Should it essentially be a wet noddle contest where a lot of stuff around them gets trashed but they are hardly hurt at all?

 

2.  How much faster is the Speediest Character from the slowest?  from a normal human?  In general, I cap Speed so that the character with the highest Speed has no more than 2x as many actions as the character with the lowest Speed. 

 

3.  What can the most durable character effectively ignore?  What can the least durable character ignore?  How does the least durable character stay alive?

 

4.  How effective should the most agile dodger be at ignoring damage without modifiers?  How effective with modifiers?  And how does DCV relate to Speed?  Here I want to make sure that the combination of DCV Speed and other defenses means that the artful dodger types still get to use at least some of their phases for something other than dodging.

 

5.  How common are "exotic" defenses like Power Defense, Mental Defenses, Flash Defense, etc.

 

6.  I also try to make sure that every character trope has a role or spotlight.  In general, I find that Speedsters, Bricks, and Mentalist characters deserve particular attention. 

 

I like to start with these sorts of qualitative questions and then get to the numbers, because the numbers themselves don't really mean anything. 

 

You should also take into account whether you are using maneuvers like Sweeps, Multiple Move Bys, Rapid Attack etc.  when considering Speed.  Given that it is your first campaign, you're probably going to wait until later to introduce such maneuvers, but if you do decide to include them recognize that they can have a profound effect on the amount of damage a player can dish out in one Phase.

 

Everyone should have a way to move around the campaign area.  It kinda sucks having to flag down a cab or steal a car to chase the bad guys. 

[bigdamnhero]

Good guidelines/advice from QM & HH. As for the Boss you posted, I'd say you're generally in the right ballpark. (Assuming the PCs in your game are comparable to the PCs in my game, which is a big assumption...) Only thing I'd add:

- Generally I like my master villains to pack a bit more of a punch than the PC heroes. So if the PCs typically have 12d6 attacks, Mr Big might get 14d6 or 16d6. After all, he's not going to get nearly as many shots in as the PCs are, so he needs to make them count.

- Area Effect attacks are great here, assumign 10d6 is enough to hurt your PCs at least a little.

- Balancing defenses for a boss villain is tricky, but as a rule of thumb, give them a little more Def than you think they'll need because they're going to get ganged up on. 20 PD/ED means an average 12d6 hit will get 15 STUN through, which means the PCs have to hit him 5 times in 1 Turn to put him down. Is that too short? OTOH, adding in his Density Increase puts him up to 32 PD/ED, which means he'll only take ~3 STUN per shot and it'll take forever to put him down, barring special attacks or tricks. Depends on what you want.

- Consider Damage Reduction for Big Bads: lets the players do at least some damage each shot, but makes them last longer.

 

-density increase (+60 str, +12 pd/ed, -24 kb (not sure what kb is)

kb is Knockback. See 6e1 p242, or CC p73