Rene

Re: Stretching/Multi-Grab, Area Grab Question Thanks for the answers, guys. Buying Area Effect just to be able to affect someone big seems a tad too unfair (even though some kind of variant of the Area of Effect: Line seems to mirror the stretchy guy tangling several persons nicely, while Area of Effect: Radius would represent the smothering bit).

It's a common maneuver of stretchy heroes in comics to grab many opponents at once or grab huge monsters. But in HERO you can only sweep-grab as many enemies as you have limbs, and a normal-sized human can't grab huge critters. So, how to build this ability? Keep it in mind that I just don't like the Entangle solution for stretchy-guy grabs that appears in UNTIL Superpowers Database, I much prefer to simply buy extra STR with "Only to Grab" Limitation. Should I just add Area Effect to the Extra STR? Or to the character's full STR? Shoud I buy the Area Effect as a Naked Advantage? Is there other ways? Thanks in advance. EDIT: I realize that Extra Limbs can deal with the multiple grabs thing (though you'd be forced to use the Sweep Maneuver and make lots of rolls), but not the grabbing giants part.

Re: Avemgers + Politics Okay, I'll try to give you some tips that hopefully you could use, no matter what your political views. They're kinda obvious and perhaps you have thought about all this before, but... Option 1: Manicheist campaign. Find where your players are in the political/social spectrum and create villains that are their opposites. This isn't sophisticated, but can be very cathartic. Option 2: Moral ambiguity campaign. As 1, but create villains that support the same ideals that players are sympathetic to, only taken to extremes, ie using villanous methods to defend causes the players deem "noble". Option 1.5: This can be the most rewarding, and is a mix of 1 and 2. Opponents with a cause your players are against, but depicted with some sympathy. All this not mentioning what someone already talked about above. Maybe the players don't like what THEIR side is doing, but the other side seems even worse.

Re: Schmucks? Are you always this rude? I think Dr. Destroyer is BOTH, he is vastly more powerful than Doom and has vastly inferior opposition. Doom isn't that powerful in a personal, physical, sense.

Re: Schmucks? I like your analogy, but it's a little worse than that. It's more like Darkseid and Mordru in a world where the Teen Titans are the most powerful heroes. Despite the similarities in concept, Dr. Doom isn't a powerhouse like Destroyer or the other CU megavillains. Doom, Kang, and co. are primarily masterminds. They have a lot of resources to draw upon, but they don't usually fight hero groups directly, not only because it isn't their style, but because they would LOSE. Doom can't even surely defeat any single member of the Fantastic Four in a fair fight, much less the whole team. He is more likely to have another villain like Super-Skrull or Terrax to take the punches. So, maybe the design failure in the Champions Universe runs deeper. They could've made the mega-villains in the Doom mold. They would still present a threat to high-end PC heroes, on account of their smarts, but they wouldn't clobber low-end PCs.

Re: Schmucks? Lots of misconceptions at work. I could never understand the argument that once you cross some arbitrary point-total line, games devolve into brainless slugfests, and only low-point games encourage "thinking". I think any Superman story dealing with Mr. Mxyzptlk (or even Lex Luthor) involves much more thinking on the part of the protagonist than any time Daredevil battled Gladiator (that is the name of the guy with buzzsaws on his wrists?). Despite the fact that Superman is 1500 pts, while Daredevil is 400. People will say playing Daredevil requires more thinking than the Avengers because Daredevil would have a harder time battling some bank robbers. Man, if your GM is planning Avengers adventures around bank heists, then he isn't doing his job right. Likewise the realism thing. The low-point snobs will say it's more "realistic". At least IMO, realism has a lot more to do with mood and in-world rationale, than point totals. I think Alan Moore's Miracleman is more realistic than the Amazing Spider-Man, even though Miraclaman can punch through tanks, and Spidey can't. The 350-pts thing is very relative too. If you're playing in the Wild Cards universe, 350 pts will give you a first-class superhero, because the foes usually are normal guys, and the world-shaking villains are 600 pts. Now, in the Marvel Universe, 350-pts isn't quite a "schmuck", but it's a guy in the low-end of the superhuman community. Think Angel, Beast, or Black Knight. In MU, the respectable superheroes are the ones with 600 pts (Cap. America, Spider-Man, Mr. Fantastic, the Thing).

Re: The Big Arguments I basically agree with Killer Shrike. I only wanted to add that, if you have a Power Skill for shapeshifting, the benefit derived is small and not repeatedly used, and it's under 30% of the point cost of your Shape Shift, then the system already provides a semi-official way for doing it.

Re: No progression in Champions

Re: Another "would you allow this in your campaign" question...

Re: The Big Arguments

Re: The Big Arguments

Re: The Big Arguments

Re: The Big Arguments

Re: The Big Arguments

Re: An Alternate Superman

Re: An Alternate Superman There is this decade-old kinda-silly-but-fun story written by Dan Jurgens as a Armageddon 2001 tie-in (yes, I know the ending sucked, but the individual stories were kinda cool), where Jurgens more or less reversed Dark Knight. After seeing a big piece of Metropolis levelled by an Intergang nuclear device, Superman becomes much more proactive and obsessed, and it's Batman that is contacted by the Establishment to bring him down. Or something. Anyone here reading "DC: The New Frontier"? At the risk of spoiling a minor point of the series, it was kinda cool how the writer used the cliche of Superman/Batman rivalry in other elseworlds as a red herring in this one.

Re: Captain America's Shield I usually prefer to go with Steve Long's suggestion and buy an unholy amount of Armor and some KB Resistance with the Limitation that he needs to "block" the attack (ie. roll OCV vs. OCV, and only vs. "Blockable" attacks), but still able to do it as a 0-Phase action. Alternately, you could do as ChuckG suggested and just represent it as huge bonus to Block and Deflection, but in this case make sure to give Cap a *very* high SPD so he won't spend all his phases on the defensive, especially against other martial artists. Actually I prefer to combine the two approaches and give the higher bonus for when Cap actually sacrifices his Phases to do "Real" blocks, and no bonus at all when he does "0-Phase faux blocking". I also like to give him Damage Reduction against Explosions. He just hides behind his shield, no need to make any rolls, and he takes less damage from the Explosion. This power should probably be Usable by Others Simultaneously. The shield throwing trick. I don't like to use Rapid Fire or Ricochet or whatever for it. I prefer to go all out and build it as a Selective Area Effect attack. So he won't have any penalties hitting a dozen guys, and won't be 1/2 DCV. With the Limitation that he can't make any further rolls if he fails any Attack Rolls. Cap's throwing also has the Limitation that the Shield only returns to his hand the Next Segment, probably, and only if he suceeded on all his attack rolls. Those are the hardest bits, the rest is pretty basic. HA, HKA... Oh yes, Except that if he does a Ranged Missile Deflection, he probably loses his shield (can Cap throw it to protect someone from a bullet AND have it bounce back to him too?)

Re: Why is Superman being called stupid? His smarts seem to come and go. In his own post-Crisis book he wasn't that smart until Waid, and in JLE, well... Okay, we should discount that. If there was someone who dumbed down characters it was Giffen. Only it was done in the name of sitcom comedy instead of drama.

Re: Why is Superman being called stupid? Wally must have a obscene Movement power, and lots of Lightning Reflexes, but a not-so-good DEX. He is always losing DEX x DEX Contests with villains who Hold their Actions to see who goes first.

Re: Why is Superman being called stupid?

Re: Why is Superman being called stupid?

Re: Favorite Pulp Character I'm fond of the genre, but I don't have any favorite character (I don't think Sherlock Holmes count?). Really, I usually like Philip José Farmer's reinventing of the characters more than the originals. I guess Farmer is for the pulps what the Ultimate Universe if for the regular Marvel Universe...

Re: Gold, Silver, Modern or post-Modern...era of choice.

Re: Conan vs. Elric

Re: [Optional]Luck Pool System Hey, Gestalt. That is a nice system. Unlike you, I'm a narrativist at heart, and I think a major flaw in the Champions genre book is that they didn't included expanded options for "Fate/Karma/Hero" Points, more flexible and powerful Pushing options, and more flexible Power Stunt rules (something better than the Power Skill, but still weaker than a real VPP would be ideal). It is incredibly in genre.