OddHat

Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

I don't think he ever ran a marathon' date=' but Sammo Hung is someone who looks big but is very athletic.

Yup. The NFL is full of guys who look fat and are paid to run up and down a field. Baseball has a few as well. They wouldn't be fast marathon runners, but you could condition one to get through it.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

Anyway' date=' if they had cast Kevin James or the pre-svelte Seth Rogan, the tite would have made more literal sense, but the ending would have been ridiculous.[/quote']

 

I don't agree there.

 

There are a fair number of fat (looking) marathon runners and other endurance athletes. A fat guy probably couldn't have won the marathon, but many could have completed it.

Re: Batman! Collect them all for 350 Points!

My ideal character writeup: one that "feels like" the character being modelled while being built on as few points as possible.

 

Having multiple writeups is one way of achieving this, by tailoring the writeup to the particular context. "Narrow" writeups, eg "Batman in the early issues of the JLA", are just particular examples of this.

 

MultiBatMan is really just a particular presentation of multiple character sheets, although one that could notionally be played as a single character. (But No Sensible Champions GM Would Allow It!)

I agree with all but the No Sensible bit.

I can imagine a campaign where I might allow it, if I were intentionally looking for a build challenge and had good control over the builds of all characters (so as to prevent anyone from ending up feeling useless). Even then, I probably would go another way, as having the player flipping through sheets all the time would drive me nuts.

Re: Batman! Collect them all for 350 Points!

I kind of like MultiBatMan as an exercise, even though I'd be unlikely to allow him to be played in one of my campaigns. I've always said that characters need at least two write ups; one for their solo adventures and one for group books. Really they need one for every writer, and for every title they show up in. Even that may not be enough for the ones with absurdly wildly varying power levels.

Re: Batman! Collect them all for 350 Points!

I just use tranq darts on players as soon as they come through the door. Then, after they pass out, I dope them up and condition them to believe they've just had the Best Game Ever. All those endless arguments over rules and builds are avoided. It's bliss.

Re: Foods for those that just don't care anymore

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That doesn't look good or even bad; just kind of messy and awkward.

Re: "Normals" gaining superpowers: how would they change in terms of mentality?

Barring invisibility' date=' flight, luck alteration, teleportation, and precognition, you're going to get caught by the authorities pretty fast if you flaunt your powers in public...and that's [i']with[/i] a costume!

"In public" is key, there. One of the things I liked about some of the very early Superman radio shows was that they were mostly the Adventures of Clark Kent, Crusading Reporter! The powers were there to be used sneakily, or in costume. It fell apart later when he started chatting to people as both Superman and Kent.

Real criminals sometimes follow their careers for years or decades (or a lifetime) without needing Superpowers.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

Run Fatboy' date=' Run[/i'] -- I found it very funny and Simon Pegg is a great comedic actor.

Yup, good cast. I was hoping for another Hot Fuzz or Shawn of the Dead, which it wasn't, but as a romantic comedy I liked it a lot.

(Anyone who could ever call Simon Pegg fat has no idea what the heck Fat means)

Re: The Atlantis city-ship from Stargate:Atlantis -> vehicle or base?

I kind of lost interest in the Stargateverse after Season Seven of SG:SG1, which is a shame, as I think Ben Browder & Claudia Black are great fun to watch. Tried watching Atlantis for three seasons, but it never held me as well as SG1. As to the story telling, there was some very good (the in-story build up of Earth's technological base; very EE Doc Smith) and some mediocre (the minimal character development, though at least there was a bit). I disliked the power inflation of the enemy. It was one step shy of "Guards from the next town" syndrome, with the Goa'uld trumped by the Replicators trumped by the Ori. The Wraith - Asuran Replicator thing was similar, but not quite as jaring, maybe because I wasn't as invested in the series.

Re: Campaign tools need editorial review by interested parties.

I loved Virginia Bruce in The Invisible Woman. Nice catch on Kitty Carroll

Thanks.

Much of the timeline is the work of the Wold Newton community, Jess Nevins, David Powers, Al Schroeder, and many others. There are (or were) citations for most novel ideas in the timeline that are the ip of the Wold Newton gang. I re-worked a lot of the material, and liked the idea that most invisible characters are in some way connected back to Griffin.

Re: Musings on Random Musings

"The other side was also selfish and evil" isn't an excuse you'd take from your kid. Amazing how often we'll accept it from ourselves.

Re: Revisit: Doc savage vs Batman. I changed my mind.

I have noticed that Doc Savage pulls a lot more of the traditional "strongman" feats than Batman does: snapping chains' date=' smashing doors, lifting heavy weights effortlessly. Bats typically bypasses such impediments through skill rather than force. In that respect Doc's closer to a proto-Superman.[/quote']

 

Sure, there are plenty of strongman tricks in Doc Savage, and his massive size and incredible physique are core character traits. Superman got some of that from Doc. Batman is meant to be freakishly strong (through training) in most versions, but does run into "normal" men who are stronger. OTOH, I'm not sure that's an advantage for Doc; Batman runs into men who are stronger for the story purpose of being shown to overcome them through skill and trickery.

 

I can't recall a Doc Savage story where he met someone who was out and out stronger (though I haven't read all of them).

Re: A Thread for Random Musings

There is no answer for contempt in a personal relationship other than breaking off contact. Well, no legal answer.

Re: Revisit: Doc savage vs Batman. I changed my mind.

Thematically, Bruce inherited a lot from Doc, as did Clark Kent. The obsessive self improvement (though that has usually just been back story for Bruce), the gadgets, much of the code, the wealth used to pursue crime fighting, the charity work (done out of costume in Bruce's case, and again more in the background).

I'd probably write the story with the Bruce loses Round One, wins Round Two, realizes he has been tricked into fighting Doc and teams up with him in Round Three format. It follows the tropes well enough, even if it short changes Doc a bit.

Re: Looking for playability criticisms

I agree' date=' his defenses should be beefed up a bit. I will make some adjustments.[/quote']

 

I've been playing around more lately with Bricks who have much higher PD than ED. It doesn't quite fit the classic Champions build style, but it often makes sense in context, and it can be handy when points are hard to come by.

 

I was actually hoping to use the Shape Shift to ooze through spaces the character could normally not fit into per Touch Group Shape Shift without having to resort to Desolidification ("alter his actual physical shape or mass distribution (though his total mass would not change), thus allowing him to, for example, slip out of bonds, radically alter his form, or within reason to fit through openings a human-shaped being cannot fit through (the classic meaning of “shifting shape”)").

 

Ah, hadn't thought about that. Still might be worth folding into his MP, though.

 

On a side note, boy do I regret not being able to grab a spot in your group (my daughter had just been born). I haven't been able to get anything going since.

I regret that as well, and you're always welcome.

Re: Looking for playability criticisms

Nice Swamp Thing tribute. As a GM, I'd want him to be a bit physically tougher. He's a big target at full size, and will be getting hit a lot. As his defences stand now, he is pretty safe against normals with guns, which I'm sure was part of your design consideration. But even with the damage negation, he's at serious risk against another Super built on similar points. If you want him to engage in battle against other Supers at full size, I'd consider either upping his defenses or giving him extra DCV when grown.

Also, I don't personally think you need "Shape Shift: Muck"; it's not going to have a practical effect beyond anyone else's costume or skin texture, so no need to pay points for it.

Re: A Thread for Random Musings

Most people who want to "discuss" philosophy with me are trying to sell me on their politics, or trying to justify their mental illness. I don't care that you have an iron philosophical justification for not paying your taxes or hating those you hate. I don't think you really care about the right or wrong of what you're saying either; if you did, you'd actually think about it, rather than just repeat whatever you heard last from your latest boycrush or favorite pundit.

Re: "Normals" gaining superpowers: how would they change in terms of mentality?

A telepath exposing political lies would make no progress at all. Real world politicians get caught smoking crack with prostitutes and still get re-elected. We vote based on identity; on which group we think we belong to. We don't give a damn what our leaders actually think or do, at least not when our only other choice is someone not in our group.

Re: Campaign tools need editorial review by interested parties.

Jane was born Jane Porter; she's American. Who her father was is up to you, as I don't recall it ever being a big issue in the novels. In Wold Newton tradition, you might want to pick a significant literary character with the sirname "Porter"; I often looked for someone with amazing powers if I wanted to justify them in the grandchildren.

Re: The Atlantis city-ship from Stargate:Atlantis -> vehicle or base?

And then there were the Ancients who came back and decided to to run Atlantis THEIR way, blithely assuming that they could still handle the Replicators and everything else unassisted.

 

Between that bunch and most of those who Ascended (and then decided they were Too Evolved to help fight Anubis or the Ori), the Ancients don't make a good showing at all. And that is BEFORE one starts delving into all the shortcomings of their technological achivements.

 

I dunno. Seems. like in most TV/movie SF, the more "evolved" (read: psionically supreme and technologically YAAAHHHHH!) a group becomes, the more likely they will turn into total wankers in the process. We see this with the Jedi, the Q, the Ancients, the Vorlons, etc..

It's the old Silver Age Superheroes problem. You don't want Batman's only job to be kicking the kryptonite away. So, Superman gets dumber in crossover stories, and Batman gets tougher.

Re: Musings on Random Musings

You killed Tim! You bastards!

Re: Stacking Dodge

Emphasis mine. The disconnect is that you are not making another move prior to your next phase. When you Abort, that ends your current phase and begins your next phase.

 

 

 

They are changing horses in mid-stream. The character who is already dodging does not need to Abort - he is already dodging. There is no reason for him to Abort to this defensive maneuver, as he is already applying the defensive maneuver. If I accepted your logic, I would also have to rule that a character who used an offensive strike, imposing a DCV penalty, on his last phase cannot eliminate that DCV penalty by Aborting to dodge, only apply the Dodge bonus to his reduced DCV. I guess I'd also have to rule that a character knocked to the ground on his last phase who Aborts to regain his footing would still take the DCV penalty for being prone until his next phase.

 

Aborting does not add a second action, it accelerates a change to what the character is doing, so what he was doing before he aborted has no further impact, for good or ill, on the character.

 

BTW, your comments seem to reflect another disconnect, in that you refer to dodging a single attack. Dodge is herospeak for "general evasive maneuvers" and applies to all attacks. Focused avoidance of a single attack is the Block maneuver, which avoids each specific attack in succession rather than applying a blanket bonus for avoiding all attacks.

 

 

 

I can't see this bettering a character - if he can do it, so can everyone else.

Exactly. Can't rep you again yet.

Re: Stacking Dodge

His dodge bonus goes away at the start of his next phase. As soon as he aborts his next phase, the first dodge bonus goes away and the new dodge bonus takes over. If he wants to buy levels with dodge to reflect dodging "harder", that's legal. A very kind GM might bend the rules and let him Push his DCV, as a GM's call.

Re: The Atlantis city-ship from Stargate:Atlantis -> vehicle or base?

Then they should pay for a vehicle that has very hard to access movement, since they have moved it.

 

Again, what is the POINT of making it a base? It moves, and the rules say moving means vehicle. It doesn't matter if they spend most of the time parked.

The 6thEd rules say that a base can have movement. So did the 5th. As to the "point", a write up is there to help you as GM or Player to play the game. If a write up as a vehicle makes more sense to you and helps you more, write it that way; if a write up as a base makes more sense to you and helps you more, write it that way. It's Hero; lots of options, choose those that work best for your campaign.

Re: The Atlantis city-ship from Stargate:Atlantis -> vehicle or base?

The SG Atlantis team didn't move it often' date=' how about the people who built the vehicle? Back when they had pleanty of power? Do we only count the current owners who don't have enough fuel and knowledge to use it properly?[/quote']

 

If the players are paying points for the Atlantis City-Ship, they pay for what they're going to get; they don't have to pay for back story or color unless that back story or color will make a difference in the game.

 

So, it makes no difference to me if the Ancients used the City Ship mostly as a Ship or mostly as a City; the Ancients won't get stats and builds at all unless I need to use them in a session (at which point it will matter, and then less than it does with PCs). If the players want to use it regularly as a Vehicle, then that's how it will get built; if they plan to leave it in one place as a base but want a backstory that it was once a vehicle, and they want to include some space flight abilities that probably won't come up very often, I'm fine with building it as a base.

 

If I as GM am statting it out just for myself, and don't intend to charge the players any points for it, I might just write down the important stats and never bother with a full build. Or I might build it one way, another, or both, depending on what seems right. If only the GM ever sees the sheet, it doesn't matter.