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Hi, hopefully I can explain my questions clearly. Both are about Continuing Charges: 1) In the description of Continuing Charges (6E1 369) it states: Can you please clarify what this means? Does it mean that there should be a common way for the player to turn it off? Or for someone else to turn it off? Example 1: A character has 8 charges of a lightning-based Damage Shield with a Duration of 1 Turn. The player defines the way to turn it off as "mentally dismissing it" so that he doesn't have to leave it up for the full turn if he doesn't want to. Example 2: A character has 8 charges of a lightning-based Damage Shield with a Duration of 1 Turn. The player defines the way to turn it off as "blasting it with a significant amount of water to short it out" which allows a savvy enemy to take out his shield. Which would it be? 2) Does a Continuing Charge in a Multipower allow the character to switch slots but leave the power "running"? Example: A SPD 5 character has 8 Continuing Charges applied to a 60-point Multipower. The MP has two fixed slots that each use 60 points: A Damage Shield and Flight. What happens in the following scenario: Phase 3: Character puts MP points into the Damage Shield and activates the DS. Phase 5: Character puts MP points into Flight and activates the Flight. Does the Damage Shield continue for the full turn due to the Continuing Charge? Or does it turn off as soon as the MP points are shifted to Flight? Thanks in advance for answering my questions. I've been playing (and loving) your game since 1st Edition but I still need some help understanding specific rules from time to time.

Wow...I can't believe real life has kept me away from this thread for two weeks. I've kind of been monitoring it via the updates in my email but haven't had a chance to respond until now. First, I want to say thanks for all the great ideas suggested here. Just a lot of creativity. Now that I would expect any less from a Champions community. Second, I think we have a "winner" so to speak: This just absolutely clicked with me. It's basically Colossus plus magic! Perfect. So thank you Mr. R!! So now here's what's percolating in my head: Standard tank strength and toughness plus a multipower with fixed slots that allows him to apply a single magical effect to himself. Some ideas for this based on versions of his some of his current spells: Extra KB with HTH - based on a spell he has called Word of Rebuke that is basically just a ton of KB Electrical attack added to HTH - based on his Lightning Bolt AE spell...maybe it could even be a chaining effect where the main target takes the HTH and electrical attack and then the electrical attack continues to other targets. Flight - Magnetic effect that allows him to ride the Earth's magnetic field Protection - Basically his shield spell which he could use when he needs extra defenses Illusion - Create duplicate images of himself (he currently has a spell called Mirror Men that can make duplicate images of anyone so this would be a self-only version). Of course not all of his spells would transfer. His main Eldritch Bolt is basically replaced by his high STR HTH. His sleep spell is too external and wasn't effective anyway. He loses his Gateway teleport ability...not a big deal as it was pretty limited. Some other new ideas not based on current spells: Damage shield - He can heat or electrify his metal skin or add spikes or blades to it creating a damage shield Stretching, Shape Shifting and/or Growth - he can make his metal body malleable Reflection vs light attacks - makes his metalic skin reflective Not sure if I like all these ideas yet but I've got a basic framework to work from now. When I get some more time I'm going to go back through this thread to see if any of the suggestions would fit or could be adapted to this whole "enchanting my Mithril body" idea. And, of course, I am open to any other suggestions that would fit this idea...

This is interesting. In fact, if I went this route, I could do the 5 Chinese classical elements of Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, and Wood (Plants) instead of the Greek ones. And then another thought is he could switch between 5 forms where Earth and Metal would be two different kinds of bricks, but the other 3 wouldn't even have to be bricks. (Plus, as a huge Colossus fan a metal form tank would really appeal to me). Unfortunately not. When I was building him I was just having fun creating different spells from the various power/advantage/limitation mechanics. The result was a very eclectic set of spells that didn't really lends itself to a specific theme. Yeah, this is pretty much what I am thinking. He won't continue to "cast spells" but instead have magical abilities due to being imbued with the magic that he previously had to work with as spells. It's those additional abilities that I'm trying to figure out. I definitely like this idea, too. An energy body (magical or otherwise) does suggest a certain amount of flexibility. Oh...these are really good. I could see including one or more of these if I go with one of the classic element ideas. I like this but there are no other magical characters in the group. There's some really good ideas in this thread and my mind is definitely percolating. Please keep them coming if anyone has any more ideas (either building on these or completely different ones). Thanks!

Hello! I am currently playing in a home-brew 6th Edition Champions campaign. My character Star Mage is, as the name suggests, a spell-casting hero in the vein of Dr. Fate and Dr. Strange (though less powerful) with some sci-fi aspects thrown in to his background story. Unfortunately, he plays a lot like the 5th Edition D&D Half-Elf Sorcerer I am playing in my D&D campaign and the duplication has left me dissatisfied with him. With that in mind, I asked my GM if he would allow a "Radiation Accident" event to completely transform him into a different type of character and he said yes. Our group has been time travelling a lot lately and I've decided the event will be caused by residual temporal energies interfering with his casting of a complicated and powerful ritual spell. He'll still be magic-based in terms of flavor, origin, and special effects but his characteristics, powers, disadvantages, etc... are all open to be changed. Also, I have already decided that I want his new basic type to be a brick since 1) our group doesn't have one any more (player had to drop out) and 2) I've always had fun playing them. However, I want him to be more than just STR and Defenses. This is where (if you're willing) you all come in. I need ideas! I'm open to any and all magic-based brick-related suggestions. A couple of ideas I have spit-balled but not been able to flesh-out (and am not at all committed to) are: His body is made of magical energy - Kind of like Wonder Man (cohesive ionic energy) or Captain Atom (nuclear energy in a containment suit). I like this idea a lot but other than flight and energy blasts (nothing wrong with either), I'm blocked on what else a magical energy body would give him. He manifests the 4 classical elements: Stone strength, fire energy blast/damage shield, air flight, water...uh...err... Anyway, I like systems and symmetries so the 4 elements always appeal to me, but it's kind of a been there/done that kind of thing, right? Plus while I think the element stuff can be flavored as magic, his current magical powers have nothing to do with them specifically. Becomes some kind of magical brick-like creature: demon, golem, yeti, etc... But again, what does that give him beyond STR/DEF? I've been going back and forth on this idea for almost a week and am totally blocked. I've been playing this game since 1981 and have played dozens of different characters (and probably made tens times that number). Maybe I just don't have any good ideas left. Help!

Re: Powers w/ Adders in Multipowers? Thanks for the feedback guys. Since there doesn't seem to be an explicit rule to cover this, I do like the idea of allowing it within reason based on the special effects. The Entangle was an example off the top of my head and not an actual situation, but it does seem to illustrate the importance of the special effect when looking at this issue. If Arachnid-Man "spins his web", creating it on the fly and under a fair amount of control, then yeah he could probably manage to not block his target's sight. On the other hand, if he shoots out giant balls of webbing that expand and envelope his target, he probably doesn't have the level of control needed to avoid the target's eyes. Works for me. Thanks again.

If a character places a power that includes 1 or more Adders into a Multipower flex slot, can the player turn the adder(s) on/off by putting a different number of pool points into the slot or does the cost of the adder(s) become part of the minimum level for that slot? Example: Arachnid-Man buys a 40 point MP pool and puts the following slot into it: m - Entangle: 3d6, Stops 1 Sense Group (Sight, +10 Adder) Would the player be able to allocate just 10 points for 1d6 of Entangle without the blocked Sight Sense Group? Or would the minimum allocation be 20 points (1d6 plus the blocked Sight Sense Group) because the Adder always has to be included? I've looked through the 5th Edition but couldn't find any mention of this issue. Of course, that doesn't mean it's not there...just that I didn't find it so I'm mainly asking if this kind of thing is explicitly allowed or disallowed by the ruls. But if it there isn't an explicit rule covering this situation I'd also be curious to hear comments about the risks or benefits of allowing. As always, any feedback is appreciated.

One of my players wants to make a character who is a 20 foot long lizard (or more accurately, can turn into one via Multiform). In the past (i.e. an edition or two ago), I would have just had him buy Growth, Always On, 0 END, etc... However, he pointed out to me that the 5th Edition says NOT to do this and instead buy various powers, disads, etc... to represent this. I'm not concerned about his characteristics (greater STR, BODY, etc...) because he can just buy those normally for that form. But I'm not sure how to model the other aspects greater size gives him. I'm thinking he's... ...heavier than normal and takes less knockback, but I can't use Density Increase, Always On, 0 END for the same reason. Knockback Resistance and maybe a small physical limitation (to represent that he may be too heavy for some situations?) ...easier to hit. Is this a Disadvantage? A "negative skill level" that only applies to DCV? A Limitation on some of his DEX ("Does not increase DCV")? ...easier to see. Not sure here. A disadvantage maybe? ...has a longer reach. Stretching maybe? ...takes up more space. No idea on this one. Any thoughts on these? Also, did I miss any other qualities the larger size might give him? As always, thanks in advance for any help.

Re: Help with Armor-wearing character Thanks again for everyone's contributions. The fact that this spawned something of a debate makes me feel better about the fact that I wasn't able to figure it out on my own (I've only been playing this game since first edition, after all). Early in the thread, I was starting to lean towards the MP angle, but your last post has sold me on the VPP, Hugh. My ultimate goal here is to have him pay for the cost of the characteristics/powers for any one of the suits plus a little bit more to reflect the flexibility being able to go back to the base and change suits gives him. I think if I crunch the numbers right once we figure out exactly what each suit can do, the VPP should accomplish this. And I can always "tweak" the values of the limitations if need be. Thanks again, guys

Re: Help with Armor-wearing character First off, thanks for the replies. This board is such a great source of help. Second, some kind of VPP was the only idea I had really come up with before posting, but I wasn't sure what type of limitations to put on it and what the values of the limitations should be. That said, I'm open to the idea of purchasing the "baseline" characteristics and powers normally and using a MP for the rest as mentioned in the previous two posts, but I wonder: How would you limit which "combinations" are available? For instance, I look at the MP you mocked up, freakboy, and it looks to me like the hero could configure his armor to have any level of extra STR from 0 to 40. This isn't really what the player is looking for as he only wants to have 3 or so configurations available (or more accurately, he only wants to pay for that many). Am I misreading it or would another limiation be need and if so, what would it be? Thanks.

One of the players in my campaign is creating a new character in the spirit of Iron Man. He wants to have several different sets of armor, each with different set of characteristics and powers. As an example: Main suit: Adds 25 STR, 15 PD/ED, 18 DEX, and has a variety of offensive and sensory powers. Heavy-duty suit: Adds 50 STR, 20 PD/ED but only 10 DEX, and has only a few, primarily defensive powers. Stealth suit: Only Adds 10 STR and 5 PD/ED, but 23 DEX and 1 SPD, and has several stealth- and movement-based powers. What would be the correct way to model this this? The player has tried to convince me that it's a Multi-form, but that doesn't seem right to me since the character will have the same mental capacity and personality regardless of which suit he's wearing. At the same time, trying to fit each the various suit configurations into a Multipower seems too...I don't know...bulky for this. Thoughts? Thanks.

I've been doing the same thing in my campaign and found this site very helpful: http://www.marveldirectory.com/ Chris

Cool! I played in your campaign briefly about 2 years ago, Barry, and I've been wondering how that particular mystery turned out. - Chris (Shadowstar)

Perfect! Thanks much. =) Chris

Does anyone know a good place online to order plastic stands for paper miniatures? Thanks. Chris

Thanks guys...your suggestions are exactly what I was hoping for. I really just needed a starting point and you've given me that. Thanks again. Chris

So after helping several of my players (who are all new to Champions) write up their characters with no problems, one of them finally stumped me. Basically, he wants a few minor gadgets that I am not sure how to write up. They are: - A remote control camera he can attach to a wall or something and be able to see what it sees - A tracking device he can attach to villains, vehicles, etc... - A device to trick key card readers (remember that scene in Terminator 2 when young John Connors gets money from the ATM machine?) Thoughts? Any and all help is, as usual, appreciated. Chris

Ah, she would be perfect...if she was in a comic book. I'm trying to keep a "comic book feel" the whole universe so am hoping to use only comic-style drawings. But yeah, if I can't find a suitable drawing, she's a good suggestion. Thanks. Chris

I'm in the process of creating a Who's Who of important people in my new campaign's main city (Pacific City) for the players. It's basically a "Handbook of the Marvel Universe"-style document with vital statistics, a brief bio and known abilities for each of the significant people the PCs might run into (the Mayor, the head of the special anti-supervillain police division, the important business icons, famous scientists, etc...). I'm also including a picture of each. Now, since I have ZERO artistic ability, I've basically been using pictures from random comic books that I either scan in myself or find on the web. A scan of Lois Lane made a great "female power executive", a picture I found of Obidiah Stane worked well for the head of a corporation with questionable business practices, etc... However, I am having trouble finding a suitable image for the mayor and I am hoping some one could help. She's an older woman, anything from vaguely middle-aged to senior citizen would probably work, provided she is wearing a business suit or something similar. I can work with pretty much any picture as long as it is comic book style art and the character is in the fore front of the image (i.e. I can crop stuff out and don't mind what the background is for the most part). If anyone has such an image or knows where one is, that would be most appreciated. Failing that, if anyone has ideas about a comic character who is generally drawn as a middle-age or older, well dressed woman I'm open to suggestions and willing to go searching on the net for them. So far I have tried Aunt May, Ma Kent and Irene Adler (Destiny) but couldn't find anything that worked. Odly enough, matronly women are not really a mainstay in comic books. Go figure. Thanks for the help. Chris

I think the best way to avoid it is (with apologies to any Texans here) to have some kind of horrible tragedy destroy all but one of the cities in Texas. I'm just KEEDING! Chris

I think the President even sent in the Army to fight the fires. Certainly a national emergency-level disaster could be created and, yeah, in a world with supers you have to think they'd get involved. Related question: What are the game mechanics (if any) for fighting fires? Chris

Wow, Hermit...those Silo's are great. Reminds me of the hours and hours and hours my brother and I used to spend tracing the silouettes out of the original Champions book and then drawing in costumes for a thousand heros and villains using colored pencils. As for the Hero HTML mentioned above, I did a search for it in Google and found it at: http://dougmacd.net/htmlhero/ However, I think the original poster was looking for an art program, not a write-up program, which is what it looks like Hero HTML is. Chris

LOL! You probably wouldn't care for what we called Paris then. As for New York...now that you mention it, I don't think I've ever set a campaign or scenario in New York. Instead, I tend to make my cities the "New York of their world". For instance, when I lived outside Philly, we played in Liberty City, which in that world was the largest U.S. city instead of New York. Maybe, being from Boston originally, I am biased against NYC. Or maybe because Gotham City is already a great name. If I had to, I guess I could call it Apple City or something. Chris

I like Fast Track, too. And I especially like the idea of a kind of "coming of age" name change...a la Robin to Nightwing. For variety's sake, I'll also offer up my own favorite speedster names: Blur Bolt Quick Stream Expedian Good luck! Chris

OK, it may not be the most original thing, but I like a good "DC-esque" city name and so usually go with the format of "[Descriptor] City" such as Central City and Coast City. My current campaign is set in Pacific City, which is basically an LA-sized city located where Seattle is in real life. I've also used places like... - Silicon City (a huge city of the future spanning from San Francisco to San Jose) - Liberty City (Philly) - Patriot City (Boston) - Iron City (Pittsburgh) - Confederate City (Atlanta) - Monarch City (London) - Imperial City (Beijing) - Commerce City (Hong Kong) For Detroit, I'd do something like Motor City, Border City or Lakes City. Chris