Trebuchet

Yep, looks like it's time for a call to my FLGS.

My quasi-speedster/martial artist Zl'f ( DEX 38, SPD 9) recently added a "I can run faster than the eye can see" short-range Teleportation to her MP, along with the Position Shift Adder (I also considered the No Relative Velocity Adder, but opted not to use it to save points). The distance (11') is just over 1/3 of how far she can normally move in a Phase (30"). The Limitations I used are Must Cross Intervening Space: -1/4, Restrainable: -1/2 (Since she can't use it to escape Grabs or other restraints such as handcuffs), and No Non-Combat Multiplier: -1/2 Active Points: 27 Total cost: 1 point in an ultra-slot. (3/2.25 = 1) It came in quite handy in our last adventure, when she used it to move across a room and Leg Sweep an incipient god before he could complete a human sacrifice. Actually, given his incredibly high defenses (30 PD/ED and 50% Damage Reduction) and her 10d6 max attack, she spent most of the fight Leg Sweeping him so the lower-DEX /higher damage heroes could blast him while he was prone. His 11 DCV made him hard to hit for most of our team. He managed to hit her once even with her 15 DCV, but she managed to successfully Roll with the Punch and actually remain conscious with a whole 4 Stun remaining. Fortunately she has a 12 REC. That was a fight we won only with good teamwork. When we departed, one of our martial artists was unconscious and our mentalist had taken 12 BODY when he used his own body as a shield to protect the human sacrifice from a Killing Attack.

In The Savage Time Superman and Wonder Woman killed German soldiers and pilots without a doubt. (Superman flew lengthwise through an Me-109 and came out covered in flames; he probably passed through the pilot too. In any case the plane exploded without a parachute being seen.) So apparently did GL when his ring ran out of juice and he was issued an M1 Garand rifle. I wouldn't put this down to no CvK; I'd say it is more a matter of war meaning different rules apply. Millions of soldiers during WWII had never killed anyone before entering the service, but did so regularly in combat. Then after the war they never killed again.

In my experience as a GM Frameworks add flexibility, not necessarily more power. As long as you don't allow indiscriminate ramping up of the Pool it shouldn't unbalance your game. And I suggest you keep tight control of the character concept before you permit new slots in an MPP. LavaMan shouldn't be able to automatically buy Teleportation in his MPP just because he has 3 points available. Take the XP purchases on a case-by-case basis, don't permit the players to buy anything without GM approval. In my campaign all expenditures of XP must be approved by one or more of the GMs; even the GMs must have approval by another GM. We sit down and discuss the proposed power, it's rationale, special effect, and game balance. If it fits the character concept, doesn't step on another character's "schtick" and is not unbalancing, then it's generally approved. If not, it gets vetoed. We seldom have to actually veto anything, because our players all have a good handle on their character concepts and don't often propose new abilities that don't fit the concept. But it has happened.

I concur. A CvK in no way necessarily indicates your character is unwilling to cause serious injuries as long as those injuries are not life threatening or permanantly maiming. A broken arm or jaw is par for the course for thugs and agents fighting supers, although I think most superheroes would hesitate before permanently blinding someone. In a short story I'm currently working on, my heroine Zl'f (who has a strong Code vs Killing) deliberately provokes a group of white slavers into attacking her with fists, knivers and automatic weapons, then decimates the entire gang with her bare hands in mere seconds. While no one actually died, one thug's pelvis was shattered, and the gang leader's spine was broken leaving him permanently paralyzed. My character then undergoes a severe crisis of conscience for her actions as judge, jury and executioner. Eventually she works through it, but I don't think such events should ever be easy for a hero with CvK.

That's a cool story, Zoot. You and your gaming group are to be commended for some excellent role-playing.

Re: A few points "Jury of peers" doesn't mean only people who can do the same kind of things as a defendant, or murderous plumbers could only be tried by other plumbers. "Supervillain" is an occupation; not a social class. The term peer refers to fellow citizens; it has nothing to do with abilities or social standing. Do you think Leona Helmley was only tried by a jury of other hotel tycoons? Was OJ Simpson tried by a jury of retired professional quarterbacks? Whether killing is valid is largely a factor of the type of campaign. In four-color campaigns such as I run, killing is extremely rare (although it does happen). I have entire villain teams with Code vs Killing. In a grittier game or in some circumstances I just can't see why superheroes (and villains) wouldn't kill. Even in the Justice League cartoon, when transported to 1943 and forced to fight Nazis, Superman killed German soldiers. Time of War = Different Rules Apply.

I think 1/2 DCV penalty may be a bit excessive. All the necessary penalty is built into the -1/1" Dived. If the character fails his Dive for Cover roll, he'll be in midair within the area of the attack and will suffer increased knockback because he's airborne. That seems like a sufficient penalty to me. As a house rule a slight penalty such as -2 might be OK, especially if you allow characters with Breakfall to instantly regain their feet if they make their Breakfall roll.

That is sad. I've played in similar campaigns myself; where the players treat it almost as a wargame or character-design competition rather than as role-playing. I think one of the reasons our group works so well is because we are all friends above and beyond Champions. We go to movies and backyard barbeques with each other even if we're not role-playing. And because we like each other, we want to make sure we're not stepping on anyone's toes. It also doesn't hurt that we all like each other's characters. There is not a single character in our group that I can't say "That's a cool character" and mean it. I would happily play any other hero on our team.

This is exactly how our group does it. Concept and schtick are more important than CVs, defenses or damage dice. The players communicate amongst themselves to avoid stepping on another player's toes. In our campaign, CVs vary from 8 to 15, defenses spread from 12 PD to 34, and SPDs go from 4 to 9. Trust me, nobody feels unimportant or useless if it's being done right. We also look for ways to make each other look good in combat, rather than trying to outshine the other characters. When 5 or 6 players are all trying to help each other do cool things, everybody has fun. And it leads to a powerful sense of camaraderie and teamwork that has to be experienced to be believed.

Concept sets power level; if the GM has to enforce power levels then the players are doing something wrong. In my 12-year-old campaign when we jumped from 4th Edition 250-point characters to the same characters at 350 point 5th Edition levels, not a single character increased their DEX, SPD, defenses, or combat levels. Only one character, the team brick, increased her damage dice by 2d6, and that was at the behest of the GMs. If you have a solid character concept, then you can say "Yep, she could do that" or "Nope, she can't do that." In general terms, points do provide levels of power. Given a well balanced character design, a 350 point character will almost always beat a 250 point character, just as a 500 point character will usually stomp a 350 point character. Of course it is possible to build characters that break this general principle, but few of those characters will be well balanced.

I totally agree with this statement. DEX 20 4 SPD (or higher) is where many bricks are at in a 350+ point game. (Our team brick has a 23 DEX 4 SPD.) A martial artist with only 4 SPD would be in big trouble fighting a high-damage/high defense opponent who moves as often, irregardless of DEX or CSLs. One of the reasons I believe martial artists have high SPD in the first place is so they can burn Phases dodging or otherwise avoiding damage and still get in their own attacks. It's not so they can clobber their opponent and then go out for a latte before the team brick has taken his first swing. Players and GMs must recognize that all characteristics are relative within each individual campaign, not on a Cosmic Scale of Characteristicsâ„¢. If the average team brick is a DEX 11 3 SPD ,then perhaps the martial artists can get by with a 20 DEX 4 SPD. But if the bricks are at DEX 18 SPD 4 then the martial artist needs to be faster. In general, I think a martial artist should be at least 50% faster than a typical brick in the campaign. Considering that "normal" humans have a SPD 2 and well trained agents or soldiers would likely have a SPD 3, SPD 4 is hardly slow. Once again, the proper benchmark for comparisons is normal humans with DEX 8 SPD 2. Compared to that standard, a brick with a DEX 18 SPD 4 is a world-class athlete. That's as it should be; CHAMPIONSâ„¢ is a superhero role-playing game. Superheroes should be amazing athletes, it's part of the genre.

There's some question whether Chiun is actually more powerful than Remo (at least all the time, since Remo is also the reincarnation of Shiva), but I was thinking more of the social aspects. Remo is constantly having to prevent Chiun from killing or maining essentially innocent people simply because they irritate him. At this point they are essentially co-equal Masters of Sinanju. A superhero team of two, so to speak. And the hero of the series is Remo, not Chiun. So I think Chiun is the DNPC, or possibly a Follower. He is not the central character, but functions more as a comic sidekick/deus ex machina. And just think how much fun it would be to control a DNPC at least as powerful as the title superhero.

I recently ran a scenario in Vienna where Neo-Nazis attempted an armed coup using several hundred shock troops and a dozen giant mech-like vehicles (The light ones were 40 tonnes, the single heavy one was 500 tonnes.). Flying shocktroopers like in The Rocketeer were also on the agenda if our main flying character had been there; but since he didn't make it I left them out. Everybody loves to clobber Nazis. Vienna is full of broad avenues and historic landmarks, so it's a cool place for an adventure. Get a tour guide or map of the city and I'm sure you'll get lots of ideas.

I have always assumed that the Everyman Skills all characters have will allow one to hold a job. On our current team, we have quite a mix of professions: Cyberknight: Non-Profit Organization CEO Eagle Eye: Bodyguard (to above CEO) Zl'f: Executive Assistant (to above CEO) Catseye: Physician Thunderbird: Physician Silhouette: Nuclear Physicist le Máge: Police Detective (Sureté) Prodigy: Speculative Fiction Writer Lt. Kilroy: Technician Of course, the members of our team all receive a $100,000+ per year salary as superheroes also. The jobs are more for cover.

One of my few requirements for members of our team MidGuard is that every character must buy Radio Hearing and Perception (or better). I designed an "earbug" version that costs just 2 points that most of the characters use, but a couple (such as our powered armor leader, Cyberknight), have Hi Range Radio. Radio communication is a tremendous asset to a team, and paying points for it (even at a massive discount) seems to remind people to use it. Best thing I ever did to build a team.

Yes, and Chiun makes a great DNPC (Always Involved 14-, Must Prevent Him From Killing Cabbies and Rude Hotel Personnel)

Our campaign used a combination of the patron and coincidence. The original team leader, Cyberknight, was also in his secret identity the head of a large international philanthropic organization, the Europa 2000 Foundation. At the time Cyberknight was a solo hero. Shortly after he had taken over as head of Europa 2000, my own character, Zl'f, appealed to Europa 2000 for help after she had fled Russia. With her arrival they had the nucleus of a team, which they named MidGuard. Catseye, our invisible Filipino martial artist, was working as a cat burglar when he broke into Europa 2000's Manila HQ shortly thereafter. By coincidence Cyberknight was visiting the site, and managed to capture Catseye since Catseye's invisibility doesn't work versus mechanical sensors (It's psionics-based). Our android from the future, G-Force, simply showed up at our headquarter's doorstep and announced he was to join our team. He was built, we later found out, by a decendant of Cyberknight's several centuries in the future. The other members all joined by being on location as we were in action.

I totally agree with BlackCobra. Buy 60 points of Martial Maneuvers, which will be more than adequate considering many of them essentially duplicate each other. That's give your character about 17-18 maneuvers. Slap on a few Damage Classes and 15 points worth of Weapon Elements and you're cookin' with gas. Put 'em in a VPP, and if I were GM I would find a way to Drain or Suppress it. It's munchkinism in the extreme IMHO.

OK, I'll buy that. It could even lead to a rather Tony Stark-like amphetimine dependency for our armored hero (My rule is "Never miss a God-given opportunity to mess with the characters' heads.") Or better yet, how about the police trying to bust Cyberguy for his meth lab?

OK, that's fine for physical attacks. But how do you rationalize extra CON provided by "inertial dampeners" protecting a character from a flame attack with no knockback or an Ego Attack which has no inertia to dampen? More DEF is the proper approach. Powered Armor can easily justify PD, ED, Mental DEF, Flash DEF, Power DEF, etc. It really doesn't quite make the grade for increasing how hard it is to Stun a character after defenses are penetrated by an attack.

Absolutely right. My character Zl'f, with our team's highest SPD (9) and highest CV (15) and our brick Silhouette (4 SPD, 8 CV) have both bought Teamwork 15- and together came up with several code works for combo attacks. My personal favorite is "Window," in which Silhouette Desolidifies and my character attacks through her (Usually with a Leg Sweep) to knock the opponent off his feet so Silhouette can then attack while the bad guy is prone (and at 1/2 DCV). Another of my favs is "Flyswatter," in which Silhouette swings a vehicle at a fast opponent and Zl'f hides on the undercarriage of said vehicle to attack the opponent by surprise.

Yes, actually I have it on my PC. But I never went past taking out Nuclear Winter and his cronies. Why do you ask? Is there a scenario with dinosaurs?

I think it is important to periodically remind the players of how good they are compared to normals, so I throw in agents and the like on a fairly regular basis. It's much easier to feel super when you remember how puny normals really are. My tiny little 4'10" (The size of a smallish 12-year-old girl) female gymnast/martial artist superheroine Zl'f with her "superhuman" 15 STR is as physically powerful as a pro football linebacker. In the last adventure I ran I threw the team (Along with a half square mile of the University of Montana at Butte campus) back into the Cretaceous Period so they could rub elbows with a T-Rex and velociraptors 65 million years ago. One character took out a hunting pack of 9 velociraptors in 2 Phases with a 6d6 NND Area Effect attack. He was shocked it was so easy. I told him, "Hey, they're just animals. Think of them as bipedal tigers with a big rear claw for raking." Velociraptors are dangerous to normals, not to superheroes. The T-Rex would have been a tougher fight, but the result would have been the same.

I agree. Several of the characters in my campaign have DEXs in the high teens to low 20s. We have a 29 DEX MA, a 33 DEX MA, and my own 38 DEX MA (And I don't ever expect to have her run into a higher DEX MA; by concept she is the most agile human on Earth.) A true Speedster might have a higher DEX to simulate his blinding speed and reflexes. Actually I think the DEXs in our campaign are just a little bit higher than they ought to be, but then our team isn't the new kids on the block either. We're the big leagues, the JLA/Avengers of our universe. So we should be a comfortable cut above normals and "average" characters.