Lemur866

I really think it would only cost 4 or 5 dollars to add a CGI flame over a character's whole body rather than his hands. The idea that they made this change (if they did) to save money doesn't hold up. Flaming people are old hat in Hollywood, even the cheapest of 1950s B movies could afford a stuntman in an asbestos suit doused with gasoline. And using CGI flames instead would be even cheaper. Saving money isn't the issue.

Right...when you have an evil twin, the twin is proportionally as evil as you are good. So someone very good has a very evil twin, someone who is on the fence has an on the fence twin. So if your average vigilante hero has a evil twin, the evil twin might even be less evil than the hero.

Again, think of the way the item works dramatically. If Thor wields a hammer that can't be grabbed, that returns instantly when thrown or lost, that can't be stolen or used by someone else, is invulnerable to damage, and teleports to his hand on command, then just build the hammer's powers straight, don't take a focus limitation. The fact that his powers come from the hammer is just a special effect, since he never finds himself in a situation where he can't use his hammer. If Thor has the above hammer, but he sometimes is a normal human, and has to change into superhero form to use his super hammer, he could take a (-1/4) "Only in Hero ID" limit on the hammer's powers. This limit would also be appropriate if the super hammer is just like the above hammer, but Thor sometimes can't use it without revealing to his fragile aunt that he is a superhero. Thor can only take this disadvantage if there are circumstances where he is going to be in his normal ID, and sometimes can't use his superpowers without causing a problem. If he never encounters situations where he can't use his powers, then he can't take the limitation. If Thor has a hammer that can't be grabbed or dropped or taken away, but he sometimes might lose it, or if he is captured Loki can take his hammer and put it in the safe and Thor can't use the powers until he gets the hammer back, then Thor can take a (-1/2) Obvious Inaccesable Focus limitation. The hammer can't be taken away easily in combat, but it can be stolen or lost sometimes, or perhaps damaged. If Thor has a hammer that is more like a regular hammer, and you could grab it away from him if you were strong enough, then he has a (-1) Obvious Accesssable Focus. He might drop it if knocked unconscious, a brick might wrestle it away from him, someone could hit the hammer with an energy blast and knock it out of his hand. The choice of what limitation to take depends entirely on your character conception, not on what a "real world" item would be like. Focii are NOT real world items. They are superhero powers that are sometimes limited in some ways, and the choice is up to the person designing the character. Think about the way comic books handle the fantastic array of objects that superheroes carry with them. Some superheroes are constantly dropping or losing or breaking their items. Others might seem to have exactly the same item, but they never lose the item, the villains never are able to take away the item, the item is available all the time. It depends on the kind of character you want to play.

The trouble is, you are thinking of the brain in the box as the character, and the robot suit as a tool he uses to get around. But Champions doesn't really work that way. The robot suit+brain is the character, the fact that the robot is controlled by a brain in a box is just a special effect, in itself worth no points. You are a 8 foot tall robot, and you get no points for that--in itself. But if being a giant robot controlled by a brain in a box causes you some problems in your life as a super hero, then you can take disadvantage points. Suppose the brain is always in the robot suit, it never has to leave. Well, you could get disadvantage points because you have distinctive features. You could also get disadvantage points for a physical limitation...you are 8 feet tall and weigh a ton, so you can't climb up in your son's treehouse. People point and stare when you go to the office christmas party. You might have a public ID. In this character conception, you get essentially the same disadvantages as any other robot character, or any other 8 foot tall monstrous brick. The fact that your brain is in a nutrient vat in your chest instead of in your head is irrelevant. Or you can add another physical limitation...every so often you have to remove the brain and wash it off, or change the filters, or whatever. How much of a limitation this is depends on how often you have to do it, and how long it takes. This might be handled as a dependency...unless you take out your brain and wash it off every week, day, or whatever, you take a specified amount of damage. But what if you can't wear the robot suit all the time? If you can only wear the suit for 12 hours a day, and have to rest in your nutrient vat the other 12 hours, that is a major problem. In this case, I might recomend a multiform...some of the time you are an 8 foot robot, other times a brain in a box. Or you could give yourself a physical limitation instead, if the brain is essentially completely useless as a character. Depends on how often you have to recharge your brain, and can't function as a super hero. But you don't get the full points for being a quadrepeligic in this conception, since most of the time you are an 8 foot robot, not a brain in a box. It might be only 15 points or so...you are essentially completely helpless during your equivalent of sleep. Or suppose your brain pops out at embarassing times...say if you get hit by a particular type of attack, or take a specified amount of damage. Then you could give yourself an accidental change, worth whatever the die roll of change is at whatever you judge the rarity of the circumstances are. Or you could just treat it like being knocked unconscious by the attack, the fact that your brain popped out is just a special effect, the reality is that you aren't really any more helpless than any other unconscious character. In that case, take a susceptability rather than accidental change...accidental change implies that you can still do something usefull in your brain form, even if it just talk, answer questions, shout advice, or perform mental skills. Or you could write up a character as a brain in a box and get full points for being a quadrepeligic, and build the robot suit as a vehicle. Some people like this, but it seems a bit complicated to me...my personal bias would be to build the suit as the character. But the bottom line is that the fact that you are a disembodied brain in a box is just a special effect. Remember that it is worth NO points intrisicly. You only get disadvantage points being a brain in a box disadvantages you in some way DURING GAME PLAY. If you are a cyborg, you don't get points for that. If you are a cyborg character, and you sometimes get caught between visits to the bionics clinic and your legs are in the shop, and you have to fight off the VIPER agents from your wheelchair while throwing potted plants and frantically pressing the "Close Door" button on the elevator before they catch you, THEN you get disadvantage points. If Billy Batson is a normal kid that turns into a super hero when he says a magic word, he might get a -1/4 limit on his super powers for "Only in Hero ID". If Billy is crippled in normal form, but not in super form, how many points is that worth? It is entirely dependent on the way the character is conceived. If Billy essentially never changes back to human form, and can change in an instant even if he does, then he really doesn't deserve any points, he lives his whole life in super form, so the fact that he can change into a crippled kid if he wants to is not a disadvantage at all. But if Billy feels he must spend most of his life in normal form for whatever reason--family, a limit on his powers, or whatever--then he can get points...but only as much as he is going to face in-game situations where he isn't going to have access to his superpowers. If he can't change to super form when VIPER attacks the high school science fair because then his fragile aunt would discover his secret, then he gets points. If he just smiles, says his magic word and kicks the agent's butts while his aunt and schoolmates applaud, then he gets no points. See the idea?

Well heck, even "disdain for normal human emotional limitations" is a good psych lim. If the character has any sort of moral philosophy, that can be given as a pysch lim. If he is consistently amoral, that can be a pysch lim. If he is honorable, that is a psych lim. If he only pretends to be honorable, that is a psych lim. If he is logical and unemotional, that is a psych lim. In other words, write a short paragraph describing the character's personality. Why does he put on a costume and fight crime? Pick 50 points worth of psych disads out of that. Hey, free points! If you can't think of a reason for your character to be running around fighting crime, or saving Capitol City from supervillains, or rescuing kittens stuck in trees, then you're going to have a pretty boring character that is just a pile of points and powers, who is just a vehicle for the player to accomplish in-game tasks. Think about Superman, Spiderman, Batman, or whoever your favorite characters from comic books are. You could make a giant list of all their psychological limititations. The more the character is defined by WHY, the more fun the character is to play. Read "The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Clay". Every hero has to have a reason to be a hero, otherwise they are just a cardboard cutout.

Well, for robots the classic psych lim is something like "doesn't understand human emotion" or "wishes to experience human emotion". Others might be "must obey creator" or "must protect creator" or "wants to find creator". Give the poor little robot a goal in life! Sure, he's PROGRAMMED to fight crime and protect people. But what else? It is a classic genre bit for a robot to wish to transcend its programming, to want to experience humanity. Just think Data from Star Trek. Or imagine the conflict when the robot wants to fight crime, but its creator keeps making it do questionable things.

I always think characters should take their max points in Psychological Disadvantages. If you are role playing the character, these points are essentially free...you use the Psych Lims simply to define the character. He is always honorable, doesn't kill, never lies, and is extremely gullible. Or he is devoted to his country, will never betray a buddy, cracks jokes, and hates Nazis. Or he doesn't understand human emotion, always protects innocents, doesn't feel fear, and yearns to find his creator. Or he is a prankster, loves to show off, is overconfident, and hates to be called short. Or whatever. The psych lims define the character a bit, and are essentially bonus points for playing in character.

Well, what I'd do to keep things simple in that case is just give everyone the same speed, so everyone acts on the same phase, no need to keep track of the SPD chart, etc. If you do that it doesn't really matter WHAT speed everyone is. If everyone has SPD 3, they all act on the same phase, and it's just like standard game systems where everyone gets one action every turn.

Just a note, if your heroes only have Speed of 2 or 3, that seems VERY low. In most campaigns even the slowest bricks will have SPD 4, your average energy blaster will be SPD 5, and the martial artists will be SPD 6 or 7. I've never seen even a beginning hero or villain with only SPD 3, only agents and normals are that slow. Think about it this way. To go from SPD 3 to SPD 6 is only 30 points...and you double the number of attacks you can do. Take a look at some of the sample characters, and see if your characteristic totals are in line with theirs.

Well, if the "move-by" isn't based on STR and velocity, then it isn't really a move-by. It is some sort of EB or RKA or other power, with a construct of Damage Shield, Area Effect, or some such added in. You want the character to do a certain amount of damage if he moves near another character. That isn't a move-by, it's an area effect attack that follows the character around. Imagine the character had flight...you'd be leaving behind a damage trail, pretty easy to simulate. The twist is that you're doing teleportation, which doesn't have a "trail", and doesn't cover any distance. Suppose the character conception is that he is converting himself to energy and beams himself somewhere else and everything in the path of that energy is going to be damaged. One solution is simply to buy flight with the damage trail and a few other advantages to make it work and just CALL it teleportation. If your energy beam is blocked by walls, or has to break through walls, then flight is better anyway. If you do it this way things get simpler and you don't have to buy line area effect powers. Just a one hex area, centered on character, personal immunity, only while moving, continuous attack. There are plenty of characters that have "damage auras" that cause some sort of damage to anyone who gets near them.

Re: Re: Forget the Points. And of course, this is a standard comics genre bit...the team speedster has to fight a villain speedster, martial artist vs vs martial artist, brick vs brick, EP vs EP (although often with reversed special effects, fire vs ice, light vs dark, etc). Another fun trick is to design the villain team to work against the player's weaknesses...so each villain has a designated target, and they can clean his clock every time. But give the villains weaknesses against the heroes too. The hero team has to mix it up and cover each other, and each team member has to figure out which villain is most vulnerble to his powers and save the guy who is getting beat up, all the while avoiding the guy who can beat him up. If the players fight on the villain team's terms, they'll lose every time. But if they figure out the villain teams weaknesses the bad guys can be defeated easily.

When designing a telekinetic it is often usefull to put it in a multipower rather than just raw TK. So you have max strength TK in one slot, fine work TK in another, probably EB for most efficient damage, and a few tricks like the one you describe. I think your power looks good, everyone will be pushed/punched back from the character. A useful power when mobbed by a pack of Agent Smiths....

Actually, I don't think you can buy skills with limitations. Or, you can, but you don't get any points back, except coolness points for putting character conception over power gaming. But since the character John seems to want doesn't have any personality changes, OIHID is what he wants. But make sure not to buy ALL your powers that way. You don't want to be completely useless when trapped in human form...you should at least have some skills that would let you support your teammates, or be able to beat up a single agent on your own. Remember, you should only get points back from a limitation if it somehow limits you. If you NEVER get surprised in human form, or trapped somehow, then you are getting points for free. It really is up to the GM to enforce this though.

Multiform is good when a character has a different personality, skills and INT when a normal human. If you can't drive a car, become a berserker, and don't speak english in your werewolf form, but are an experienced private detective in your human form, Multiform is the way to simulate this. But if being in your heroic identity only ADDS super powers to your normal human skills and personality, then Only in Hero ID works best. You just buy your STR, CON and armor with OIHID (-1/4), and when you change you put on muscles and armor. Your heroic ID is the same person as your secret ID. Of course, you can also buy skills and characteristics with an "Only in Secret ID" if you get stupid when you're changed, but usually Multiform gives you better value. Both ways are valid, but Colossus, Captain Marvel (Shazam!), Thor or the Human Torch are more suited to OIHID. Etrigan, the Incredible Hulk, The Lizard, or a classic werewolf are more suited to Multiform.

An interesting way to simulate a "fire elemental" is an Energy Blast with the Indirect advantage. A fire creature pops up, hits someone, and vanishes. If you want to be able to hit people around corners, you could purchase N-Ray Vision, with the limitation "Only to target EB", saaaaay about (-1/2). This way you don't have to worry about keeping track of continuous area affect EBs, or summoned creatures, or followers. Makes things simple, if that's what you want...you have a fire that can damage other people, nothing to keep track of, the "fire elemental" or animated fire is just a special effect.