Speedball

Re: Brick v. Powered Armor Hypothetical Utlimately the GM decided that Apex wasn't able to rip off the tail, but cinched the nozzle of the grenade launcher closed, making it ineffective. Not as satisfying (or wholly effective) as ripping the tail *off*, but not completely unsatisfying, either. On a side note, I was trying to find a Hero retailer from which to purchase The Ultimate Brick in New York City. Alas, none in the boroughs of Manhattan or Brooklyn. It seems incomprehensible. Are there any NYC Hero-philes out there who can give advice? I'll just buy it online if I have to, but I'd rather not.

Re: Brick v. Powered Armor Hypothetical

In a PBeM I'm currently playing, we're coming to the end of a fight in which the new team of superheroes are facing off (successfully, so far) against Pulsar, Lodestone, Fenris, and Anklyosaur. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that the team of heroes has subdued the villains and Anklyosaur in particular is unconscious. If the team's brick (str 60) wants to disable Anklyosaur's armor by basically tearing it apart, how would you handle this? Does it fall under the realm of GM fiat? would you make the brick roll for it, and if so, how? Thanks for indulging my fate-tempting curiousity.

Re: Character for review: Apex MB--in many, many ways I agree with you, but I have never been able to find a group locally with which to play, so I'm reduced to PBeM. On the other hand, I've had some amazing online PBeM experiences. I was lucky enough to join RDUNeil's online game, the account of which can be found here. I think that between the writing skill of the other players and the GMand the overall mastery of the game on RDUNeil's part made it one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had. The good thing about PBeM is that it allows for a depth of character exploration that you don't often find in a more action-oriented FtF game. I agree that you lose some of the interpersonality and certainly it moves at a snail's pace in comparison, but hey--you make do with what you've got and, as our beloved leader Don Rumsfeld would say, you play with the game you've got, not with the game you wish you had.

Re: Character for review: Apex Originally I had one hunted and the GM suggested I add another in lieu of a DF: Costume that he preferred I didn't use. You're right though--if Viper (which could be bad enough if Viperia shows up) were to work with a 10-point mystery hunted, Apex could be toast. Thanks for the review.

Note: I submitted this character for a PBeM game based in Las Vegas; the setting of the game gave me the idea for a partially luck-based character (I'm sure I wasn't the only one). I don't yet know if the character's been accepted for the campaign, but since I'm still relatively inexperienced at building characters (especially bricks), I thought I'd get advice from the experts on the boards regardless. Keep in mind, please, that I'm more concerned with being true to the character than I am with him being the most effective (read: munchkin) he can be. That said, if there's something inherently flawed about the design, I'd love to hear about it. Thanks! Hero Name: Apex Height: 5’ 10†Weight: 185 Civilian ID: Charles “Chance†Chambers Age: 29 Hair: Brown Eyes: Brown Val Char Cost Roll 60 STR 50 21- 20 DEX 30 13- 30 CON 40 15- 20 BODY 20 13- 13 INT 3 12- 12 EGO 4 12- 20 PRE 10 13- 12 COM 1 12- 25 PD 13 28 ED 22 5 SPD 20 20 REC 4 60 END 0 65 STUN 0 POWERS Cost Powers END/Roll 20 Tough Skin: Damage Resistance (20PD/20ED) 0 9 It’ll Just Be Me and the Roaches: Life Support: Safe Environment: Vacuum, High Pressure, Radiation, Cold, Heat 0 5 Even My Eyes’re Tough: Flash Defense 0 18 Strong Legs: Leaping +8†(20†forward, 10†upward) 80†NCM forward, 40†upward 1 6 Dug In: Knockback Resistance –3†0 26 The Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me: Luck 7d6, IIF (ring) 0 SKILLS, TALENTS, PERKS Cost Skill/Talent/Perk Name Roll 20 +4 Hand to Hand Combat 3 Climbing 13- 2 CK: Las Vegas 11- 3 KS: Superhuman world 12- 3 Language: Spanish (fluent conversation); English is native 3 Gambling (Card Games) 12- 3 Acrobatics 13- 2 Money (lottery winnings) 200K/year 3 Deduction 12- 3 Criminology 12- 3 PS: Private Investigator 12- 2 Perk: Private Investigator’s License DISADVANTAGES 150 Disadvantage Name 25 Hunted: VIPER 8- (MoPow, NCI, Capture) 20 Psych Lim: Code vs. Killing (Com, Tot) 20 Psych Lim: Overconfident 10 Psych Lim: Fearlessly Heroic: risks life for innocents 15 Soc Lim: Secret Identity 15 Reputation: Do-gooder superhero 15 DNPC: Girlfriend of the moment (normal) 11- 20 Enraged when innocents are threatened (common) Go: 11-; Recover: 11- 10 Mystery Hunted (as assigned by GM) Background: Born Charles Chambers, the man who would become Apex grew up in pre-family-friendly Los Vegas in the mid-1980s, the son of middle class parents who were some of the few people in Vegas not connected in some way to the casinos. In the midst of the city of sin, Charles grew up knowing less about the casinos than just about anyone he knew; fed up with the teasing of his classmates, Chambers taught himself how to play cards and soon became good enough to earn the nickname “Chance.†Chambers did well in high school and earned a spot at UNLV where he studied liberal arts long enough to know he didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life. Dropping out midway through his sophomore year, Charles began work at a repossession business and from there moved into Private investigation. By his late 20s Chambers had his PI’s license and opened his own small storefront business, “Chance Investigations.†As Vegas continued to clean up its image, PI work became less likely to involve chasing down guys who he’d wind up finding half-buried in the desert and more likely to involve catching cheating spouses. It was on an infrequent missing person job that brought Chance out to the rocky mesa about 50 miles outside of town when he looked down and saw the ring. He’d have missed it except he’d needed to bend down to tie up his boot laces that he’d forgotten to double-knot that morning before leaving his jeep. The ring was half buried and underneath a small rock, looking like a beetle hiding from the sun that was going to bring the temperature well over 100 by mid-afternoon. The ring was gorgeous, with ornate scrollwork on the outside and some kind of vibrant blue stone inlaid throughout. He admired it, slipped it on his right ring finger, and thought he liked the way it felt on his hand immediately, like it belonged there. Things changed for Chambers quickly after that. He found his missing person who turned out to be another run-of-the-mill cheating husband with a not so run-of-the-mill chemical disposal business. The man had no intention of listening to Chance’s explanation that he didn’t care about the chemicals—and was only there to tell him to call his wife—and the husband wound up pushing Chance into a vat of chemicals. The chemicals might have killed him if the vat hadn’t in turn spilled over, the victim of a design flaw in one of the tripod legs. As Chance staggered to his Jeep in near delirium, the husband scuttled off, sure that he’d taken care of what he’d assumed to be an overly nosy EPA inspector. Chance got sick and then he got sicker. For a week he left his apartment only to cross the street to get water and his lottery ticket. He began feeling better the same day he found out he’d won big—two hundred grand a year for life. That wasn’t all of it, though. As Chance’s nausea began to fade, he felt better than he ever had. Over the next few weeks, Chambers not only felt better, but felt fantastic. And he got stronger—much stronger. He couldn’t believe his good fortune and was puzzled about what to do with it. It finally occurred to him to simply continue living the life he’d set for himself—but just do more of it. He had an opportunity to take more chances, to do more good and help more people. He began by heading into the desert on the weekends to test himself and get a feel for just what the chemicals had done to him. He was amazed by his strength and on the occasions when he lifted something unwieldy that he couldn’t grip—and it fell on him—he found out how tough his body had become too. There was no denying it: he was a superhero; or at least he could be. He clearly wasn’t at the top of the heap power-wise, but he would look for others with whom he could work, be part of a team; they could pool resources, help each other—and help everyone else, too. Las Vegas was overdue for its own superteam. Apex’s first few forays into superhero-dom were almost from a text book: he foiled (a word the press began to use after his name with regularity) bank robberies and casino heists. He rescued stranded climbers and in his most celebrated case, broke up an arms delivery deal arranged by VIPER to supply Central American narco-traficantes with enough hardware to seize control of the Columbian government once and for all. Personality/motivation: Something of a wallflower in high school, Chance Chambers slowly grew out of his shell as he became more comfortable with himself in his 20s. With his massive strength, invulnerability, and his ridiculous good luck he is positively brimming with confidence and this usually manifests itself in his gregariousness. People who have witnessed demonstrations of his strength and his friendliness tend to think of him as somewhat simple, but in reality Apex is more thoughtful than the “average†(if there is such a thing) brick—he would prefer to think things out before wading into a fight, though once he does join it, he does so with relatively little thought for his own safety. He is slow to anger in most circumstances, the one notable exception being threats to innocent life. Seeing this will short-circuit his rationality and bring a grim look to his face, a lowered brow and clenched fists. Once they are safe, Chambers will return quickly to his old self and the rapidity of the transformation may surprise those around him. If they express concern, he will dismiss it with a shrug saying “hey—I’ve got no complaints if a guy’s gotta take a shot at me—it’s part of the game. But nobody gets to throw down with the average joes for free. They wanna do that and it’s gonna cost ‘em†Powers/Tactics: When in a fight, Apex makes a quick calculation about potential harm to innocents and wades in to make sure none of them get hurt. He is a relatively unsophisticated fighter, though he is not without some skill. His main weakness is that he’s yet to develop any kind of ranged attack, so he will usually attempt to lure flying opponents low enough to jump up to them or throw something big enough to knock them out of the sky. Out of battle, Apex shows more versatility, both as an investigator and as a good luck charm. The ring that saved his life and was indirectly responsible for granting him his powers has pulled Apex’s bacon out of the fire more than a few times. He has no right to be as lucky as he is, but he rarely questions his good fortune as long as it keeps up. Appearance: Out of costume, Chambers is unremarkable looking except in that he is exceptionally fit. During “off†hours Chambers tends to wear loose-fitting, comfortable clothes designed to make him blend into a crowd, which helps him with his work as a private investigator. His costume is a black bodysuit with a half mask that covers his hair and upper part of his face, leaving his mouth and chin exposed. On his chest there is a slate gray “A,†though Chambers feels ambivalent both about his costume and his heroic code-name. Amidst all the glitz of Vegas, he stands out in that he doesn’t want to stand out—at least with his looks. Quotation: “My God—what’re the odds?!? I must be the luckiest SOB on earth…â€

Re: PBEM - RDU: The Mavericks - Example & Discussion I love re-reading this stuff. Thanks for posting, Neil. I'd be psyched to get out your way for a FtF game some time this summer if folks can gather. It's time to pull Speedy out of the mothballs.

Re: Marvel Second Stringers. Help me out. How about Crystar, the Crystal warrior? He wandered into Dr. Strange's house once and almost wound up causing it to be burned to the ground. The guy wouldn't be worth much in a fight, but he's *definitely* second stringer material. Or maybe towel boy...

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. Storn, This is really tres cool. A couple of questions: was the cover concept dictated, or did you come up with it yourself? Plus, I don't see Ironclad--am I missing him, or do you know why he isn't in the scene? Excellent, once again.

Re: Seeds of Change PBEM I'm with whamme: if we're all committed to playing, I think the campaign would be great.

Over the years I've been involved in several PBeM games, for lack of a stable gaming community for FtF Champions. Several of these games have been among the best role-playing experiences of 20+ years of gaming, while others have been like a disfunctional relationship, filled with long periods of silence and other problems. So I'm tossing this out to the community here: what does it take to run a successful PBeM? What are the common pitfalls? Wouldn't it be great in Hero 6ed to see a special section on PBeM? (well, ok, *great* may be the caffeine talking, but you get what I mean) Anyway, I'm curious to hear stories from others' experience--there's got to be a way to make PBeMs work without driving everyone crazy with workload, right?

Re: Seeds of Change PBEM This has been the most frustrating experience of my 8-year relationship with Champions, I must say. I was enormously excited to get in on the ground floor of a functioning PBeM game that had several writers whom I'd seen post well written pieces on the board. I want to avoid slinging mud, since it isn't productive, but I think there are lessons to be learned from this experience. I'm not sure what they are yet, but with some reflection, I expect they'll come out. Without devolving to navel-gazing or flaming, I think we can all learn to be better gamers from this. In order to avoid hijaking Nexus' thread, I'll start my own on the PBeM subject, but if you read this and are interested in reading or contributing, please feel free.

Re: In Real World Terms...

Re: What was you most powerful Attack vs. Supervillian??? I honestly don't recall the dice damage done, but I recall my speedster running (desolid) through the door to an apartment; on the other side was a bad guy/Mercenary named Armor of Allah. My speedster hit the poor suprised bastard from behind, moving at around 30", with a +6HA. The impact of the move through carried us both through the re-enforced plate glass window (on the 30th floor). I believe he was unconscious before he even started falling. Luckily for my speedster, he had a gliding special effect tied to his desolid...Armor of Allah wasn't so lucky.

Re: In Real World Terms...

Re: This week on "Champions"... Sunday Night, 10pm: SERIES PREMIER--Champions: Seeds of Change The mysterious figure known only as Hurricane comes sweeping into view into New York City, overpowering street criminals while his alter ego tries another kind of heroism. How will the world to react to its first glimpse of humans with superpowers? (TV14: brief nudity, language, adult situations, violence.)

Re: In Real World Terms... Yeah, Lemming, a *few* of the posts--the ones, you know, I asked for? They were helpful. The character in question is actually my PC from a game in which there aren't any heroes yet--we're the first ones. So I was just curious what would happen if he just sort of started out stopping street crimes as a tangible way of making a name for himself and gaining some popularity. Anyway, thanks.

Re: In Real World Terms... uh...I guess I could be biased, but is this not the worst case of thread hijaking people have seen in a while? Someone posts a question about REAL WORLD things that cold hurt someone and a couple of guys carry on a debate about light sabres? sheesh!

Re: In Real World Terms... More to the point, lightsabres aren't REAL WORLD.

Re: In Real World Terms...

What could harm a character with 40PD/30rPD and 40ED/30rED? Throw in that his rPD/rED is Hardened x2. I'm thinking in terms of weapons, explosions, etc. I know small arms would just bounce off, but other stuff? I'm at work and nowhere near my books... thanks!

Re: Seeds of Change PBEM Nexus, Just checking in to make sure you received the new version of the post I'd written. After you didn't receive the first one I want to make sure I'm not holding up the game. thanks, hurricane/geoff

Re: Stuff From My Champions Game! Fire Angel better be careful--if a certain former Malvan gladiator finds out who stole his wings, he's going to be in trouble. (if memory serves, Storn drew the CKC illo of everyone's favorite Malvan, so it's interesting to see his concept carry over)

Re: Storn's Art & Characters thread. I don't know--if he's going to go commando, it'd be an interesting power: flash vs. sight 3d6 NND, No Conscious Control (only when jumping or in windy conditions), 0 END ...and you could somehow link it to a PRE atack or a Soc Lim: Watched by parents'/decency groups.

Re: Seeds of Change PBEM