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A friend who supported the Kickstarter let me look over the PDF version of the game. And honestly? It is causing me to buy the physical version as soon as it becomes available. I want more time with it. I want to kick its tires and play it in the wild. It's something that definitely interests me.

Make the elves do it!

Oh no, they really want to play. They love playing. I can assure you of it, I've seen all the do-nothing-outside-game-time players get together and cheerfully organize a session before. Setting, system, characters, the works. But only during game time. They just really don't want to spend non-play time on play-things. They want to play TTRPGs, but only in one or two 4-8 hour chunks a week and not at all outside that.

I would say this is Steyer's best debate so far, not that that that's saying much. Warren didn't get the licks in as much as last time, but she stood her ground and yes, did well. LOTS of folks went after Sanders, but while he gained no ground, he weathered them well. I think a few times the booing crowds surprised him, but then I have theories about that crowd (I AM Worried SC will not go as well for Bernie as I Hoped, but we'll see) Biden actually had a few moments were I felt for him. He's clearly getting TICKED... and given the cruddy job the moderators did, I can't blame him. (One of his gun death stats had me going wth? ) I said last time Pete came across as a petty to Amy. Well, he's coming across as kind of petty to everyone... for all his talk of not alienating folks it seems almost as if he's doing that to everyone else. Klobachur was.. uhm unremarkable? Bloomberg was better prepared, and many in the audience clearly favored him. That said, his elitism shines through. The idea that NYC solutions will work anywhere... oh but wait, someo f those solutions sucked but nevermind that... and the "I have the resources" Line maybe i'm too sensitive to a megabillionaire trying to buy the election but it sure seemed like a declaration of "my money will handle EVERYTHING" Maybe it's the contrariness in me, but the more Bloomberg talked, the more I wanted to vote for Bernie and Liz. THe moderators did a terrible job IMO

One of the biggest drivers in medical costs in our country is an unfriendly regulatory environment that causes doctors and hospitals to spend way to much time, energy, and money jumping through bureaucratic hoops. I have worked in the hospital environment before, and I am currently trying to get back in. Most of the actual effects of our regulations is turning the medical profession into a fear based environment where a lot of resources go into self-protective choices. Reforming the bureaucracy associated with the medical profession to the minimum necessary would go a long ways toward improving services and reducing costs. Another driver in medical costs is the availability of insurance, Medicaid, and Medicare. All of these options increase costs to medical providers by increasing the amount of paper work that is needed to do medicine. In addition, they also function as invisible moneys that have a real affect on the supply and demand curves even though they are effectively fake money. This pushes the value of medical services to the point that they cannot be obtained without outside resources like insurance, Medicaid, and Medicare. You want to decrease the cost of medical services you have to decrease the effects of invisible money.

So in your ideal game, either as GM or player, what would your two statements be? I'll hold off on my own, but the term "beer and pretzels" is likely to appear.

This, to me, is another "RP" vs "G". I can see, especially in a game that does not follow the typical D&D "zero to hero" progression, players being quite happy with the character they have designed, without needing an extra power, bonuses to hit or damage, etc. etc. etc. every few gaming sessions. If we look to the source material, we see many examples of characters who don't continually manifest new and more powerful abilities. Now, we could simulate these materials with xp. They don't gain new powers and abilities, but they gain Contacts, Reputation, Favours, etc. Of course, they also LOSE things, something that RPGs as a whole never simulate. That "gains that evolve through gameplay" model can be simulated with xp, or simulated without xp. So to me, not wanting to keep rebuilding and adding on to the character is not: If you don't want to role play, you fall into a purely mechanical style of gaming based on power and abilities, focused on making your character consistently "better" and you roll play. But someone who simply wants to role play that eccentric scientist may well realize his vision of the character right out of the gate with his base points and complications. Or his character may grow over a few story arcs, but eventually reach a point like: That does not mean they don't want to play. It means that they want to play this character, fully realized, without becoming more powerful, or more versatile. They want to PLAY THIS CHARACTER, not grow it into a different character. Because: Guess what? None of these approaches are badwrongfun. Or, if one is, so are all of the others, if we view them from another perspective.

Don't let him bother you, just Shake It Off, Shake It Off

Actually, I like "by default", followed by "options to vary from that default". That way, the GM knows what setting the dials moves him away from. I could see deletion of the Speed system paragraph entirely. It is one very specific element of the system, where the preceding paragraphs are about the system overall. Calling in "the crowning feature" is, I think, over the top marketing hyperbole - there are numerous system elements of equal, even greater, importance. I would also note that our pitch clearly targets experienced gamers familiar with D&D (1st level wizards; defences are real). Let's play with it a bit. OK, exactly 300 words. It cost me the Speed chart (and a "The" to squeeze in those last three words), but this is my elevator pitch.

Come on, Badger, why you gotta be so mean? 😛

I agree. I tend to run "gritty" fantasy games for the most part, with the notable exception of a Planescape game set in Sigil where the characters hopped through gates to various worlds and magic was epic level. In all of my FH games, I've required players to avoid creating new characters as "stat monsters" and encouraged them to try to balance skills and stat costs. I also rarely allow players to spend points to increase physical stats after their initial build. It would require some in-game explanation as to why the stat would be changing. I also set limits to maximum OCV and DCV values of 10. I encourage everyone to use skills like martial arts maneuvers to increase damage. Likewise, I limit maximum killing damage attacks, maximum resistant armor values, etc. Together, these things have worked very well in my games to keep a good balance, despite giving out plenty of experience that primarily goes to increasing skills, and or developing new spells for casters.

I did it this morning for my entry, took me longer to italicise than anything else! 🙂

Taylor Swift has a couple of good songs. Bloomberg does not.

I am a fair editor, though : yeah I k kw; it makes no sense. First sentence: lose the phase "by default." it's not necessary, and is precisely the sort of thing you add as filler to your school papers when no need to fluff up the word count. I'd do more, but I'm at work and can't really play.

I figured it out, they should have Taylor Swift background music for Bloomberg ads. Because if there are 2 things I am forced to endure, I might as well get them done in one shot.

New one up! http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1193.html

Phil I looked at Ranged Martial Arts and they give OCV for Range Penalties only 1 pt per OCV. So I went with that configuration.

I tend to agree with this, which is why I play the version with 72 pages of rules instead of approximately one-thousand, seven-hundred and ninety-five pages of rules (vol 1&2, Martial Arts, Skills, APG 1&2. Other blue books not counted). I rather like the one with 130 pages of rules (6e Basic), but even that has "no" and "must" a lot more than I care for in my games. And apparently it left powers out-- I can't remember off the top of my head, but I think it was Negation. That could have been summed up handily enough to take up another page or less. Not sure why it was left out. :-/ We currently have a system that, to paraphrase, 'preserves the full flexibility of being able to build and do whatever you want,' so long as you want to do it _this_ way. But I won't quibble about this: for one, Tywill summed up the crux of the problem better than I could have, and for two, I am truly positive that you had no actual intent to slight people who simply don't have the time to eighteen-hundred pages of text only to find out that they didn't actually get a _game_, and now have to sit down and make the universe. At the end of the day, that's a damned hard sell. Well let's us step back just a minute, a little further back so we can look at this from more of an "outside" point of view than we usually do, what with all of us here being pretty well-entrenched HEROphiles and all that: Going back to the hectic world we live in-- Hell, I'll be sixty next month, I work two jobs totaling just over eighty hours a week, and I hustle side work on Sunday afternoons when I can get it. I'm not too terribly unique, really: most of my players work in the 60-hours-a-week range. A lot of people don't _want_ that kind of investment. They want someone to prepare them a game in which they can enjoy a little escapist fun. Villain-of-the-week type stuff; simple scenarios; maybe even >gasp, I say< a little murder-hoboing. They want to get together with friends, shoot guns, blow stuff up, and otherwise let off some steam. They want to be devil-may-care, live for some fun right now kind of people. They just aren't interested in looking at "where do I see this character in a year? Two? Even if we're talking game time, there are a lot of people that just don't _want_ to invest in a second life because the one they are already living just sucks the joy from them. Escapism, as simple as possible. I can live with that. It's not my bag, but I totally _get_ where it comes from. There's notthing wrong with them-- Hell, Im the exact opposite. To this _day_ I prefer to start out with 250 point supers and _grow_ the character, but I have to level with you: that growth occurs a crapload slower than it used to! Just food for thought.

This is now a poop thread: A thread for and about poop. Another use for poop could be as an alchemical reagent. Dragon dung is a terrific source of sulfur for gunpowder, but the smell is so bad that only Dwarves are capable of collecting the substance.

IIRC, it also prevents you from doing Multiple Power Attacks with it. That is, you can't cast multiple spells at the same time.

Wow, Bloomberg really a lot of the audience on his side... *Looks at $1750 dollar price tag on each ticket* Oh

Reading it literally? It doesn't cost END, so, no, it's not eligible. And I think that's the intent. You get a price break to mix/match what you've got up... you can't use it to get a big break on a wide variety of powers...especially, say, Strikes. I'm pretty sure the intent is to interpret NARROWLY. It's much closer to "that which is not explicitly permitted, is denied" than the converse. It makes up for it with saying the SFX are entirely up to you and your GM...and that the SFX *matter*.

I'm sorry...are we trying to get banned?

Her birthday is Oct 1, and she had an ongoing gag of asking for presents for her half-birthday, which is April 1. When I gave her a (cheap) pair of silver & sapphire earrings on April 1, she was thoroughly unprepared.

Yesterday my brother was taken to hospital emergency by ambulance with severe abdominal pain. He was put through an MRI which found stones in his pancreas, which need to be removed. Because his pancreas was so inflamed, he needed a more specialized treatment. Today he was transferred across the city to another hospital where a team with more experience and more advanced equipment sucked the stones out of him. He'll need a couple more days in hospital to recuperate before discharge. My brother is being charged $45 for his initial ambulance trip. Everything else is covered by his provincial government health insurance, which all citizens contribute to. The Canadian government-funded health care system most definitely has flaws. But no Canadian citizen hesitates to see a doctor when they're sick.

"Breaking Bad" could only have been set in the United States.

Yes and no. While I would not design the game around revealing or maintaining their secrets, building their backgrounds into scenarios makes the game more focused on the characters. If a character has KS's of Japanese history, geography and culture, and speaks Japanese, it would be a shame to have the whole campaign proceed with no link to Japan, ever.

Yeah, I think I'd have let that one play out. A barbarian thinking a god is a false God doesn't really hurt anything in the game, and gives a character a motivation. Let it ride.

No, that's not right at all. These are people who have roleplayed numerous systems for years. But they are also adults who with limited time, jobs, and other constraints. Being dismissive of player realities won't help sell the game. As many have said in this thread, throwing a tool kit out for people doesn't really work (or else we wouldn't be having this conversation and HERO would be the RPG leader). Creativity thrives on limitations, check any creative writing course or book on the subject. Analysis Paralysis is a real thing, and it limits the acceptance of this and any other open source systems. We have to take that into account if we are going to attempt to broaden the game's appeal.

Well great. Now I've got to track down nine more of KA's posts, because I canly rep this one once.

I feel that it depends on how the GM is "guiding" the game. I think the key is to give plenty of incentives for following the plot so that players will naturally choose to do so, of their own accord. It won't feel like (or even be) railroading if the players are always choosing what to do next on their own. If you're doing your job as GM, they won't notice or realize that you've simply constructed events such that the thing they'll want to do most is also exactly what you want them to do (in terms of "staying on track"). Of course, this requires you know your players well, what motivates them (and their characters), and what they like to do in the game, and that you construct your adventures for them accordingly.

I think I have only ever once come close to something that was 'immersion breaking' to the point of taking me out of the game. We were playing in my GM's world, where he had designed a few different religions. One was modelled after the medieval Catholic Church while another was basically a powerful sorcerer-god and ruled his nation of worshippers as king. I played a D&D barbarian and had decided to play into a kind of zealot with a long term goal of uniting the religious leaders of the former religion to bring order to the world - and perhaps eventually invade the neigbooring heathen nations. At least, so was my thought. But the premise of it was quickly snuffed out, when my barbarian (IC) expressed his view that this sorcerer-god was not really a god, but simply a pretender. A reasonable conclusion for a religious zealot. But at that point our GM just basically said (OOC to me as a player) "No. He really is a god." We never got far enough in the campaign for me to really discuss it with our GM. I'm sure he would have accepted my reasoning (he's a reasonable guy), if we had had the time, so this is not just about being told no. Where the immersion breaks is where the concept of 'a theology' is simply removed from the world building and replaced with metaphysical realities that are identifiable with their dogmas. Working with historical theology is a big part of what I do, and seeing how dogma and theology evolve and develop over time, it has become impossible (or at least very difficult) for me to accept the idea that the dogma(s) of a religion should be identified with the metaphysical reality of 'the god(s)'. This is also why I'd rather build my own world before playing in a D&D-based world again, such as Forgotten Realms; which I had previously LOVED. I suppose another part of it is also the interaction itself, where an IC-development is met with an OOC response of "No, you can't do that." That in itself can really take you out of a game. Sometimes it's probably needed, if there is disagreement on the premises of the game, but I think it works better if those are solved either IC or after the game - unless they are of major importance.

I sucked majorly, but that's what the GM wanted to run and at the time there were no other GMs. But even that didn't stop most of us from quitting his game and deciding it was better not to play at all then play in his games.

You want to leave whether they reveal their secrets or not up to them. You can, however, help them along based on your scenarios and environment. Start subtly and watch the player reaction. If they feel comfortable with this, you can expand otherwise back off. Examples: In the former Red Sparrow: They encounter another Red Sparrow whose skills appear to be very similar to the player. That player can make Int rolls to determine what the other Red Sparrow will do. The team encounters a spy and tracks them back to their base of operations. Again, the PC can make Int rolls based on what spies generally do. A security incident at the League of Nations has them tracking the player down. Some suspicious items in her background sent up red flags. If they don't respond to this threat, the player will be arrested by the League of Nations task force and possibly scapegoated. Maybe the program hasn't had a spy as good as her and want to take her back in. Several current Red Sparrow trainees come after her to take her back. Of course, the trainees are conditioned not to talk about the program, but other players maybe curious why this trained assassin group are after the player. This scenario is a hit the players on the head with a brick scenario. In the former actress: A millionaire obsessive fanboy has canisters of film, publicity photos and posters, of the character. They may even have gone so far as to send a detective to take pictures of her in stalker-ish fashion. Family is big with the Romani in a Clan-Mafia sort of way. If she is a practicing Romani, this might be included to her being sold as a bride since as she's no longer an actress her worth is declining. Her extended family sold her to take advantage of what worth she has now and the bridegroom has come to collect. The players come across a circus they need to infiltrate and guess what, the circus has an opening which the player has done before.

This is slightly off topic, and not addressed at anyone involved in this thread, but reading some of the comments has brought something to mind that I have been thinking about for some time. Also, if the tone seems a bit heated, I apologize in advance, but this is a topic that has been bothering me for a while, again, none of this is addressed to those posting in this thread. Over the many years of my sporadic RPG career, I have done a roughly equal amount of time as a GM and as a Player. I enjoyed both. I enjoyed playing because all I had to do was show up with a well-prepared character, or some good ideas if we were creating characters from scratch, and enjoy playing the game. I enjoyed GM'ing, because it gave me the chance to try my hand at creating an adventure that the players would enjoy, find challenging, and want to continue into a campaign. That is not the only difference. GM'ing is a metric buttload of work. I started out DM'ing AD&D. You had to create a plot, maps, monsters, treasures, traps, NPC's, atmosphere, background information, interesting things for each character to potentially do (traps and locks for the thief, appropriate stuff for the fighters to fight, people for the cleric to convert or heal, interesting magic stuff for the magic user to find, etc.). It might take a day of work for each hour the players were going to spend at the table. Champions is a little different, not as much "treasure" but way more NPC's and combat and plot. And I admit that I did enjoy the work I put into creating an adventure, mostly, but it was still work and took up a lot of time, which all of us seem to have less of as the years go by. I also enjoy cooking, and from time to time I invite people over for dinner. If I invite someone who does not like spicy food, I have no problem accomodating that. If I invite someone who loves baked beans, I will do my best to work them into the menu. However, since I am the one buying the ingredients, playing the host, and doing all the work preparing the food, I expect to get a certain amount of apprectiation for going to all the trouble. After all, there are plenty of restaurants that will cook the food you want, pretty much the way you want it, you just have to pay for it, and the more demanding you are, the more you usually have to pay. There are times when players, and I hope it is mainly players who have never GM'ed, give off a vibe like: "I want you to go out and buy every possible ingredient for every possible dish. Clean them, prep them, and have them waiting for my arrival. When I get there, I expect you to produce exactly the dish I am in the mood for, even though I may not know myself what I want. You think that you have to right to have some input into what you cook? How dare you! You can't bully me into accepting something that you enjoy too, this is all about me!" That example may be a little extreme, but I find the concept that the GM is just another player, with no more right to have the game suit him than anyone else, to be ridiculous. Maybe everyone else lives in a world that is crowded with GM's begging players to enter their games, but that has never been my experience. I always felt lucky that someone else was willing to put in all that effort so I didn't have to. That doesn't mean I would put up with a GM that was rude or abusive, but other than that, I was happy enough to be in a game to cut the GM some slack. I am not saying that the players are just there to act out the GM's play so he can sit back and watch it. But as much as the word "railroad" has been maligned in the RPG world, it is a great way to get a group of people to the same place at the same time! Perhaps the concept of "carpool" is more appropriate. Everyone is trying to get to the same basic place, at around the same time. If one of the group wants to stop off to pick up some drycleaning, or drop something in the mailbox, that is fine too, as long as everyone gets where they are going in time. But, if people are saying that if the guy who owns the car, buys the gas, and does all the driving, likes to stop off for a doughnut every morning, he doesn't have that right unless all the passengers want one too, that sounds like B.S. to me. After all, if someone just wants to come up with a story where their character, and all the faceless drones that follow it around, does exactly what he wants in a world made to accomodate him, they can do that. They call it writing a story. But to expect someone else to spend their time writing one for you, that exactly matches your desires, with little to no input from them, seems a little selfish. For one thing, if the GM is not the guiding the plot, who is? I always see comments about "the players", but if you think about it, would all the players want exactly the same thing? I mean obviously, if you start out with a bank being robbed, and one player wants to kill off the robbers by beheading them with her power sword, and one player wants to use his negotiation skills to talk the robbers out of a life of crime, and one player wants to go to the library across the street and research the history of the Federal Reserve, and the final player wants to have their character strike up a romance with one of the "rough-edged but dangerously attractive" bank robbers, you can't pursue all of those threads at the same moment, especially since the bank robbery is only being staged as a distraction while Viper is stealing the McGuffin across town and the players probably need to figure that out, if not now, at least soon. So, do you stop for a vote after each turn so see which direction the players want to jump? I believe that the problem is often not "The Players are not able to have Their characters do the things They want to." but instead, "I am not able to have My character do exactly what I want to, (and have all the other players and the rest of the game world go along with me)!" I have never seen someone suggest that the players should take some sort of vote, or express their opinions on which direction the game should go, it always seems to be assumed that if that power-mad GM would just get out of the way of the person who is talking, everyone else could follow them to the promised land. After all, if you are going to only please one person at the table, it might as well be the person who does all the work, not the person who does nothing but complain about the work that has been done, without actually contributing anything that would also make the other players happy. For some reason, many players seem to think that if the game was just run they way they want it to be, every thing would be great. And that's fine, if someone thinks they can do a better job than the GM, they should give it a try. Do the work. Spend the time. Come up with the kind of plot you like. Guide the game in the direction you see fit . . . Oh, but wait, isn't that railroading? 😁 ka.

Not for all of us; no.

A lot of the issue is presentation. In Hero, we tend to see "Cone of Frost, 6d6 Blast, Cold, Area of Effect (Cone, 16 meters, +1/2), Constant (+1/2), 60 Active Points; No Range (-1/2), Concentrate (1/2 DCV Throughout; -1/2), Gestures (1 handed throughout; -1/2), Incantations (to activate; -1/4), Inobvious Inaccessible Focus (Ring of Frost Wizardry, -1/4), Requires a Magic Skill roll (to activate, -1 per 10 Active Points; -1/2) Real Points 17END Cost 6" "Minor Cone of Frost, 4d6 Blast, Cold, Area of Effect (Cone, 16 meters, +1/2), Constant (+1/2), 40 Active Points; No Range (-1/2), Concentrate (1/2 DCV Throughout; -1/2), Gestures (1 handed throughout; -1/2), Incantations (to activate; -1/4), Inobvious Inaccessible Focus (Ring of Frost Wizardry, -1/4), Requires a Magic Skill roll (to activate, -1 per 10 Active Points; -1/2); Real Points 11; END Cost 4" "Major Cone of Frost, 8d6 Blast, Cold, Area of Effect (Cone, 16 meters, +1/2), Constant (+1/2), 80 Active Points; No Range (-1/2), Concentrate (1/2 DCV Throughout; -1/2), Gestures (1 handed throughout; -1/2), Incantations (to activate; -1/4), Inobvious Inaccessible Focus (Ring of Frost Wizardry, -1/4), Requires a Magic Skill roll (to activate, -1 per 10 Active Points; -1/2) Real Points 23; END Cost 8" "Epic Cone of Frost, 10d6 Blast, Cold, Area of Effect (Cone, 16 meters, +1/2), Constant (+1/2), 100 Active Points; No Range (-1/2), Concentrate (1/2 DCV Throughout; -1/2), Gestures (1 handed throughout; -1/2), Incantations (to activate; -1/4), Inobvious Inaccessible Focus (Ring of Frost Wizardry, -1/4), Requires a Magic Skill roll (to activate, -1 per 10 Active Points; -1/2) Real Points 29; END Cost 10" But what if we presented these in a game Powered by Hero, where we keep the build mechanics behind the scenes. We have already explained our Magic System. It often uses Concentration, Gestures, Incantations, Skill Rolls and mystic foci. Like D&D, we have defined Gestures, Incantations and Material component (Foci or Components) as Components of spells. Our rules don't price out the various advantages or limitations - all the players need to know is whether they have to Gesture, Incant, Concentrate, make a skill roll, etc. So we change the presentation of our spells to the following: Cone of Frost Concentrate: 1/2 DCV throughout Components: Gestures 1 handed throughout; Incantations to activate; Arcane Focus Ring of Frost Wizardry Skill Roll: Magic skill, -1 per 1d6 Endurance: 1 per 1d6 every phase This spell, common among Frost Wizards, conjures a burst of icy frost emanating from the Frost Wizard in a cone 16 meters to a side. The Wizard can maintain this Cone of Frost by continuing to concentrate, and maintain the arcane somatic components of the spell. A Minor Cone of Frost, the least powerful version of this spell, inflicts 4d6 of Cold Damage. Most experienced Frost Wizards can cast a Cone of Frost inflicting 6d6 damage, while very powerful Frost Wizards can cast even more potent versions of this spell. Cost: Minor (4d6) 11 points; Standard (6d6) 17 points; Major (8d6) 23 points; Epic (10d6) 29 points You want a 9d6 Cone of Frost that only costs END when you activate it and does not require continued concentration? Buy Hero System and build your own spells. In this game, Frost Wizards can only cast the spell with concentration throughout, purchased in 2d6 increments. The mechanics are exactly the same, but they are presented in a more familiar format, focusing on how the spell will work in the Hero-Powered Game, not how it was constructed using the Hero System Build Rules.

Here is a challenge. Explain HERO in a post shorter than what Duke normally posts. Am gonna go and sit in front of my computer to see if I can explain HERO in 300 words or less. Actually, I will start a new thread on this...

I'm of the opinion that giving new players (any players really, but mainly new players) access to information out-of-character that they don't have in-character is a Bad Idea. They're learning to pretend to be their characters, don't make them multitask by also pretending to not know things. The human brain is not good at having-but-not-using information because it's very good at having-and-using information. That said, I feel that the sharing-of-secrets is a great way to bring a party together. I'd personally suggest running adventures early on in which revealing parts of the background will make things much easier, then follow that up with reveal-adventures wherein the secrets come to light.

What I was referring to was that the high mortality rate for PC’s that D&D is known for tends to make players more conscious of keeping a loved character alive. So points will tend to go into defense and attack slots before the more character rounding but ultimately useless types of skills. Superhero games generally aren’t that lethal, so putting points into more character rounding things is an easier call. When you have a house in a bad neighborhood you’ll tend to spend more money on insurance and alarms than on painting the garage. P.S. I never quoted myself before in a post, has anyone else done it?

I've just completed my first Champions Now build. The character is named Morningstar. I've now built her for 5th, 6th, and 3rd Edition Champions, as well as Champions Now. Mary Marcus was at a party her parents had told her not to go to when they were murdered by Genocide. She discovered her own mutant abilities when she was attacked by a street gang one night after she'd broken curfew at the group foster home. She cleaned up her act, and after graduating from high school, began her career as the superheroine Morningstar. Morningstar Situations: 15 Identity: Secret (Mary Marcus) 30 Hunted: Genocide (Organization, superpowers, ruinous) 15 Hunted: Local street gang (Small group, ruinous) 5 Unusual Looks: Mutant (Roll 8-) 20 Psychological: Protects the innocent; punishes the guilty (Happens a lot, irrational) 5 Psychological: Hates drugs & alcohol (Happens sometimes, stated opinion) 10 Susceptibility: Flash attacks (Uncommon) Total Situations: 100 points Characteristics: 3d6 Strength 5 [3] 4d6 Presence 10 17 Defense 7 13 Body 30 · 13 Recovery · 13 Stunned · 26 Knockout · 39 Endurance 3 Speed 20 13 Dexterity 20 11 Intelligence 0 12 Ego 10 Total Characteristics: 102 Skills: 10 Martial Attacks 10 Martial Maneuvers 5 Detective Work 5 Luck: 1d6 Total Skills: 30 Powers: 10 Biokinetic Energy: Elemental Control, all Slots 20+ points 10 Biokinetic Shield: Force Field, +4 Resistant Defense, No Endurance cost (+1) [0] 10 Biokinetic Propulsion: Flight, 10 hexes [2] 7 Biokinetic Redirection: Missile Deflection, 13-, Costs Endurance (-½) [4] 16 Biokinetic Strike: Blast, 6d6, High Impact (+½), Focus (Mace, OF, -1), Tricky (First use, -¼) [9] 15 The Mace: +3d6 Strength, No Endurance cost (+1), Focus (Mace, OF, -1) Total Powers: 68 Total Characteristics, Skills, and Powers: 102+30+68=200 Ratio: 118.5

My character from the Legacy playtest. Adapted from beta rules to final. One of the artist contributed a picture of him on page 41. Power*Star v3.0 (Mike Mandella) 100 Situations 15 Secret ID, Mike Mandella. 10 Public ID, PowerStar, legendary protector of former era. 20 DNPC: Dr. DarkStar. 10 Public ID: imprisoned reformed(?) supervillain; 10 Psych (Rare, Irrational): black list, a list of people who “deserve consequences.” 5 DNPC: Aaron Mandella, Younger Brother. 10 Psych (Occasional, Functional): Wants Mike to use money for nonprofit. 5 DNPC: Michelle Mandella. Aaron's wife and Mike's former girlfriend. Psych (Occasional, Functional): Doubting her marriage, might still love Mike. 20 Hunted: The Dark Cohort (formerly led by DarkStar). Small Group (5) Superpowers (10), manipulative (5). 10 Hunted: Monica Stewart, journalist, ordinary (0), manipulative (5). 20 PsychLim (Frequent, Irrational): Everyone deserves a second chance. Characteristics and Powers Str 3d6, Pre 3d6, Dex 13, Int 12, Ego 11, Speed 4 [1,3,5,6] (70 pts) Def 12/2r* (* See Teslasuit below) Body 13**, Rec 13, Stun 13, KO 26, End 39 (** See Tesla Tap below) End 10 Shotokan Karate: Punch +0/+1 +3d6; Kick -2/+1 +6d6 3 10 3 known Transceiver Pads, Memorized locations, Immobile -1/2 Teslasuit 20 Tesla Tap. +3 Body (BC30). Inobvious Focus -1/2. Taps power from generator in Power*Cave. 0 10 Resistant Fabric. 2 resistant defense 10 Higgsfield Planing. Surfaces: Airwalk By move Tesla-Darkstar Field Mediator 50 50 pt Multiform 4 (20) Tesla Transition. 10” Teleport 2 4 (31) Enhanced Transition. Teleport, 2xMass, Regional scope +1/4, Only between established transceivers -1/2. 2 6 (28) Distortion Pulse. (17) +1d6 Flash, Adds to Martial Punch +3/4 (11) +1d6 Blast, High Impact +1/2, Adds to Martial Punch +3/4 3 6 (30) Higgsfield Vortex. 2 def, 2d6 Entangle. Area: 1 hex +1/2 4 130 Total Grand Total: 130 + 70 = 200 (+ 14XP unspent). Total AC = 215: Ratio 1.07

Having participated in the playtesting, I can tell you that the combats have been very satisfying. In comparison with 4th edition, which is the last version I played, they have fewer of the drawn out grind-downs that I found usually showed up in other versions. Combats are shorter in comparison to 4th ed., but not "super short" and events and actions feel more consequential.

This is the slippery slope that results in my cyclical occupation of the board.... More than anywhere else I've ever talked Champions, this board exudes the most pressure toward "if it can be built with points, it _must_ be built with points." It took a long time to realize that this probably isn't intentional: I expect it's the end result of years of either being asked _how_ to build something for points, or from the habit of recreationally building things for points. Either way, when it starts affecting how I play, I disappear for a couple of years. It helps.

I am officially contributing to this thread.

Re: The Non Sequitor Thread More and more, I'm getting sick of the Oppression Olympics.