Martin2

Re: Attractiveness - Comeliness Vs. Striking Appearance

So how is the above questions different from striking appearence? Do you not define what the striking appearence is when bought' date=' such as beauty or fear? So it doesn't work all the time either, only in a predefined situation. So to answer your question, if the COM is based on beauty, thenit only applies to those situations and if its based on cool personality, then it only applies to those situations.[/quote']

 

Very little in definition.

 

But in RAW COM in 5th had no game effect (I am told as I do not have 5th) beyond possibly just apposed COM to see who looked the best at that specific time (which for some supers may get boosted every experience spend so that a certain super is better looking then another ). Other game effects seem to be house rules extrapolated from rules comments.

 

In RAW Striking appearance has a definate game effect which is defined when bought so you have it defined with a specific game effect on various skills depending on who it effects.

 

So Striking appearance in terms of game effect appears to be better than COM for game effects in RAW and not house rules etc.

Re: Attractiveness - Comeliness Vs. Striking Appearance

So with COM you only got advantages if you were good looking (but not defined in the rules to any great extent)?

So all the good looking supers with no interaction skills got bonuses on their interaction skills but the plain looking ones did not?

Or did a smart talking but plain looking one also have a high COM? But if they were not talking did they still have a high COM?

So you would have to define your COM to interacting skills or just looks?

I think I prefare Striking Appearance at least it has clear definitions on the game effect .

(Ducks down and runs for cover )

Re: Side effect: aging

Echoing psyber624' date=' the big question is the in-game impact it will have. Some years back, a character was noted as "Aging at twice the normal rate". This was a Psychological Complication. Why? Because, like in the source material, time wasn't passing such that the heroes aged materially, but it drove the character to seek out ways to halt this accelerated aging. The only impact it had was on character behaviour and decisionmaking, so psychological.[/quote']

 

Agree for aging at twice the normal rate. What games last multiple years and this power effect have any effect?

 

In this case the player wants to see a big effect for using his powers in a short time frame.

 

In this case an "aging effect" for each use of his powers.

 

To be honest I am not sure how I would do it for a campaign.

 

For a short few session game? Obviously you could keep it as a psychological and have no actual effect on the character but this does not sound like what the player wants.

 

Or how about a -1/4 power limitation on all powers with half the proportional amount lost in relevant physical charactertistics when the power is used (or some reasonable amount so that they can seriously effect the character after a few uses of a power).

 

Or the power loses active points so after a few uses it becomes useless?

 

The character will be more powerful and have more points to spend but loses this advantage as the game progresses.

 

Good luck with what you decide with anyway

Re: Usable By Others with a VPP to simulate a wish spell

3. If you DO megascale it, you are also making the base area larger, spreading the effect over a bigger space, reuiring more body.

 

If you AOE blast does the damage get divided by the area?

I should think an AOE transform would be similar.

Smaller buildings would be transformed more easily than bigger buildings but that is the advantage if AOE and megascale and if the GM allows it.

Re: Dragonlance moon magic

Sounds like a campaign limit and not a specific player limit.

Spell powers are bought at a specific active level with a modification to active level with the phases of the moon. + active level when the right moons are active - active power when the moons are not.

Sounds like you are mostly at your standard active power level most of the time with equal levels of + and - and all wizards have this effect.

Re: If accused of terrorism and emprisonned into Stronghold

Well if I was playing MoonSilver I would really whinge and whine at my coplayers (in player mode and character mode) into how badly they have treated her and what they are going to do to prove her inocence and get her out of prison! What are they doing to track down the real person who did this! A team is a team and team mates support team mates.

Lots of speaches to herself about the lack of support from team members and who is letting her down. With you locked up and with them outside fighting crime and you not being there to help them. Volenteer to be their conscience and sit just behind them and make these little comments in their ear until they are all planning how to get you out of prison by legal methods first and if after three gaming sessions that does not work (insist on the number of gaming sessions) that they then spend time breaking into Stronghold to get her out as the trial was mind controlled or something and everything was stacked against her.

Re: Why Your Heroes Shouldn't Kill

Oh bugger, I didn't actually know all that about Black Paladin. And we had such a good plan for permanant disposal too. Burn the body to ash, have our speedster spread it around the world (some in to a volcano, some in to a building site etc.etc.) While the armour and weapons would get ground in to powder and spead about too.

 

Recorporate that!

It all depends on which version on the Black Paladin I am using and what modifications I have in effect. All this information you may be getting may be from good or bad knowledge super villains rolls so do not believe all you read on the internet about him (it is a well known fact that super villains Wiki entries get filled full of useless information).

Also in my game the Black Paladin has not been put in prison so all this about we have to kill him because he always escapes is not a very good excuse to kill him.

Infact there has been no escapes from Stronghold.

Black Paladin sprung Talisman from a police van 30 seconds after being decked by the Champions and they were not expecting a Teleporter.

In previous scenarios Black Diamond was sprung before she got to Stronghold by the rest of Grab (they were not encountered and they have teleport and shrinking etc).

And the group dropped Cybermind in a normal prison and told no one you had dropped him off and just forgot about him. So he manged to talk his way out of prison as no one knew who he was (since all information is kept in electronic format and he is the master of altering that).

Every other villain is still in prison. So this he will escape so we must kill him sounds more like an excuse to kill everyone.

Maybe we should start a poll of which super villain is not covered versus a code versus killing and the local government would not lock up a hero for killing them in cold blood?

Re: Why Your Heroes Shouldn't Kill

It ended in 68, and was rerun a LOT through the 70's, so I think we could cut people a little slack on that one.

 

 

(Or we could knock them out and cut their throats instead!)

Sorry my fault I saw it in the 70's when very young so assumed it was from the 70's and did not Wikki it.

Re: Why Your Heroes Shouldn't Kill

I'll play the Punisher any day over Batman, given the choice. Batman is just too wishy-washy on the subject of crime and punishment. At this time, I think I would turn down the opportunity to play in a bog standard silver age campaign. Between the goofy plotlines and villains, nobody ever gets hurt rules, and morals best suited for kids' educational programs, I just couldn't take it seriously.

 

I find I just don't give a flip what the genre conventions are, and refuse to follow the rules as established by someone else's favorite comic book. I find I also don't care whether or not the characters are described as heroic or not. Some are. Some are not. If they want to shoot the Viper agents, they can. If they want to defeat them in a game of tiddlywinks and them haul them to jail, they can do that as well.

 

Just because they have a cape and a power does not mean the play style has to be a certain way, and those who insist it does really bugs me. Play with whatever you enjoy, and encourage others to try it your way, of course. But if someone doesn't play your way, don't say that they must, as has been done numerous times earlier in the thread.

Well it does matter if the GM wants a Batman game and you want to play a Punisher game.

If you just play your game it sorts of makes it difficult for the GM.

Thats why the GM has to explain the game he wants to play in the first place.

Also there are some gradients between the two game examples. Infact I would consider Batman not the extream as he does have a thing with not pulling his punches and does break a few bones to make a point.

You can have a more dangerous game and not it have it like the 70's TV program Batman but closer to the new film Batman.

For my game I consider killing a villain just because he pissed you off and gave you a hard time and the player thinks that he will escape justice and be out in a few weeks because it is a super hero game story line not a good thing and really do not want it to happen.

I want to run a Super Hero game and not a Super Villain / vigilante game.

Others obviously have different ideas and this is why we have problems when players disagree with GM's and want to kill in cold blood and do not think it is a problem for them so should not be a problem for the GM.

As long as players and GM's know the game style there is no problem.

Re: Wealth and Super Heroes

I think wealth should be mostly background for the non heroic identity. Or background for the heroic idenity to explain his powers.

It should also be made clear that wealth is background and not a cheap way of getting free powers and contacts etc.

As mentioned you can have heroes with no money and they still can have high tech super powers and have a very limited theory on how they mantain the high tech powers (they have a friend that keeps it going / it repairs itself / it need minimal maintanance etc). It is true for the reverse when a hero has lots of money but has no money based powers and it is only background.

I think once you get beyond 5 points in wealth you have to start investing in followers and bases and other character point based perks / powers to simulate the money advantage as I think having only 10+ CP's in wealth is wasted as it should be only used on the secret id and should have no effect on the hero id.

Once a player wants to spend more I would say a player would have to buy other perks / followers / contacts etc to flesh out the wealth so it can have an effect on the heroic side of the character.

But that is my opinion.

Re: Why Your Heroes Shouldn't Kill

I had my heroes face up against the Ultimates in my last gaming session. One of the heroes is essentially a robot with no emotion, and more importantly, no code vs killing. The fight drug out a while and all the players were KO'd except the robot. He manages to KO the last Ultimate. He's really sick of these guys and decides to just finish them all off right there. Now I could say "no I won't let you" but I really don't mind letting my players have some freedom. It's within his character after all, maybe not very heroic, but whatever.

 

Then I remember a blurb about Radium, a member of the Ultimates that's basically a nuclear bomb. When he dies, he explodes like a mini-nuke! The team comes out of their KO just in time to run to their vehicle and escape before getting disintegrated!

 

It was just funny to me that the only character they've ever killed was a ticking time bomb.

 

Maybe some of the Ultimates survived, I especially liked Binder and his glue gun... He'll certainly have a vendetta now.

Robot and no CvK does not mean you can kill people in cold blood.

I would simply tell the player that killing villains in cold blood is not a heroic thing and has consequences for the player and the group.

Do they have any government backing or trying to keep a heroic idea going?

If they have it is not good having a machine that goes around killing when ever it wants and the government and his own group will want to stop him in the end if the game is to be a heroic game and not a villain based game.

If he wants to continue with no CvK = I can murder when ever I feel like it because I am a robot his character will become a NPC and he can play another character with less of a cold blooded killer outlook or leave the game.

But then I have explained this to my players that I can put up with accidental death but killing people in cold blood is a direction I do not want to go in.

If the players are not aware of your game ideals they will continue killing and ruin your game for you and therefore for them.

This is not D&D where you kill everything and it does not matter. You have different game rules and as a GM you have to make it clear early on.

Re: Killing Damage to Normal Damage

Oh, and one massive and ongoing bugbear of mine: I don't care how hard and sharp Wolverine's claws are, he is not strong enough to cut through metal bars. Go and get your best kitchen knife and try and cut a tree down with it: the metal is really sharp and really hard compared to wood, but you rapidly discover that is irrelevant. Yeah, yeah, rubber physics, people can't teleport either, but I'm just saying...

It is possible to cut through metal bars. You do not cut through them but provide enough force to snap them. I think a I read on one of the crusades King Richard the Lion Heart demonstrated the feat of a knights sword by breaking a metal bar in half with one blow. But then Saladin demonstrated the sharpness of his blade by cutting through a silk pillow without moving it. But that could be a legend and not proven.

Wolverine is mutant strong and he is using a mythical metal blade that is really sharp.

I think we should petition Mythbusters to cover the possibilities of Wolverines claws in the various films and what you need to achieve it in real life

Re: British Heroes

Could Hero arrange for it be printed under license in the UK (and still profit)? Would that even create a savings somehow?

Probably not as I expect there are more non British who would buy it just to import them into their setting then there will be Brits to buy it for their campaigns as I expect a good proportion of British run games are based in America using the standard game universe just to save on time converting everything.

Re: British Heroes

DT' date=' here's a question for you and other Brits on the board. What's changed in the United Kingdom culturally, economically, and other wise that would shape the feel of a Champions game based there? The recent riots, the upcoming Olympics, and so on. I always pictured the CU as just a bit shinier and happier overall (Until some villain tears through a town or even a country; Takofanes tearing through the US was probably not a happy moment) but I wonder how otherwise the UK would respond to costumed masked individuals flying around. Would they have more or less support than in the US, etc?[/quote']

 

Not much different from a USA based one but you have to think on a much smaller scale. Out little country is a lot smaller and not as high rise as the US cities.

 

My campaign is based on Oxfordshire (where we live) which is not very big and does not have most of the things mentioned in Millenium City so you have to improvise. London you could possibly get away with more. Also we can travel around the country very quickly not like the USA.

 

There were no riots in Oxfordshire and at the time I was not running a game to have the heroes go in and stop the riots in our game world.

 

One of my players wanted to try for the olympics but he was a mutant and mutants are not allowed in my olympics (even though he said his Teleport powers had no effect on his archery ability which he wanted to go for (he had no super power linked to archery just a very high OCV). Mutants are detectable and they are screened for in a super powered world based olympics).

 

And like in the US, heroes have been around for a while.

 

So a lot of the US villains get converted to British ones and I use the time line from the Champions Universe with some of it being based in Europe.

 

It is like other people comment about things like heroes of racial minorities or different sexual orientation. It would be nice to have a recent book based on the British Isles with British heroes and villains with British backgrounds. Yes it is quite easy to convert Americans ones to British ones by playing with the back stories and you can make your own. But it is a lot better to have your own Brit Heroes and Villains with their own background and a connection to the place you live.

 

So the Brits would be very interested in a book, but we are probably not going to get you your kickstarter (especially as in some cases you seem to relate to postage to Europe as being the same as the cost of the book, so Europeans pay twice as much for the lower end kickstarter contribution. Which I do not think is fair as $25 to $50 postage for a book to Europe is a bit high and may get more of us contributing more if it was lower).

Re: Killing Damage to Normal Damage

Supers do need killing attacks.

As I found out when I limited the number of killing attacks and then threw a couple of VIPER robots at the group and only about one attack could do anything and that would have been party wipe out if they did not get creative. After that I allowed a rewrite to have killing attack for that sort of reason of destroying robots and things that a 12DC standard attack can not do damage with body (they all seemed to not get the idea that AP attacks can also be for Blast attacks!).

So if you want a campaign that has the rule that against living targets you do not kill convert it to a normal attack but keep it against robots and things you do want to kill.

That campaign will also have the rule that resistant defence is not required for living characters as it is not needed so players and villains get to spend the points on something else.

The Wolverine question is why has the US government not locked him up for mass murder with his head count he has killed?

Why does he get away it in comics both the slicing and dicing and the deaths? Because it sells comics and you can not dislike Wolverine as he does it for the right reason (most of the time anyway ).

He is the guy you love but don't approve of his tactics (most of the time anyway ).

Re: Superhero team Leader: PC or NPC?

In most games do you need a leader?

It would depend on the game being played and the players. If you were playing a military type game with a structured ranking system for characters and these players believed in these rankings it would work but few games are like that.

In a supers game it would realy depend on the players and if anyone wanted to be the "leader". Some players like to lead and want to play characters who boss people around. But looking back through my various gaming groups I have never had a player that has taken over the role of a character that took over and acted like a leader and ordered people around and got the rest of the player acting like a military unit.

I GM a now reduced player number Champions game and the group even when on full strength we never had a player that said they wanted the role of leader of the group (or was volenteered). We had and still do have strong willed players who have lots of opinions on what needs to be done but we have a similar ones who will have different opinions and will not be ordered about. We also have different leaders for different tasks depending on the problem.

I as a GM would like a leader I could have all my NPC's dealing directly with that person and they could then tell the rest of the players what to do but I find that does not happen in a bunch of people who want to roleplay super heroes and not a military unit.

I just have NPC's that are around to point them (or push them) in the right direction if they need to but currently they just do it at their own speed.

So currently the group is leaderless but going in the right direction, some how .

So I think most players will not want a NPC leader bossing them around but NPC's that are there to advise them on what they should do next but not actually order them to do things in a certain way. It is their game isn't it and the GM is there to entertain the players and not force them into everything the GM wants them to do.

Re: Has anyone built The Doctor from Doctor Who?

The "Regeneration" could be regen' date=' 12 non recoverable charges, trigger (1 body from death), linked to uncontrolled shapeshift. So when he gets to nearly dead, he recovers and looks different. Do any of the doctors really have characteristic? Or are those just quirks?[/quote']

 

Why 12 charges?

 

I think Dr Who has broken all the rules about limits to the number of regeneration times (he has broken every other rule, I think and when it all started was it once 7 regenerations?).

 

The BBC will not kill of Dr Who when all they have to do is once an actor is fed up with playing Dr Who they just bring in a new actor. They have to just retired him for a number of years if they have lack of funding before bringing him back. I am surprised a number of other TV shows have not thought of the same idea of actor recycling.

 

So if you are modeling a character on The Doctor why the number of charges?

Re: Silk Detective / The Dragon

that is because your player used growth

there are plenty of ways to simulate growth, with out using the power Growth

I just happen to use 1 that also simulates that the juicy bits are not as easy to damage

Villains can shoot at her, she gets hit a lot ,but only lucky or well aimed shot are doing any real damage

My Dragon does not do stealth ,anybody looking around would spot her

No perception roll needed

Also the character has a 5 DCV so size may be factored in

Check out the size templates on pg443 of 6th ed HS bk 1

 

My Dragon's complications are more that she looks different than what most are use to

And has some problems getting around inside and manipulating things

She can also turn back to her human form and they go away so they are only limiting to a point

Not growth but multiform and three separate character sheets and using a sort of modified size template from 6th to sort of simulate a very big dragon.

And these templates mention that with the complication of being large you also get the target size combat modifier of 6E2 51 which states that with the disadvantage you get +4 and above to hit with the complication so a dragon should be easier to hit.

So I have read it as that as you get the DCV you paid for but as you are saying you are as big as a dragon you also get the +4 / +6 so effectively your DCV drops by 4 / 6 as well.

Unless have DCV and then have a limitation only to counter being large?

Has anyone else thought about this for permanently large characters and DCV?

Re: Silk Detective / The Dragon

DRAGON

 

 

400+ Matching Complications

10 Distinctive Features: look like a 10m long dragon (Easily Concealed; Always Noticed and Causes Major Reaction; Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses)

10 Hunted: Those seeking a trophy to mount or have captive in a zoo(Kraven the hunter type) Infrequently (As Pow; Harshly Punish)

20 Hunted: DEMON Infrequently (Mo Pow; NCI; Harshly Punish)

10 Physical Complication: Built like a dragon ,not human (Infrequently; Slightly Impairing)

10 Psychological Complication: Loves to fly (Common; Moderate)

15 Psychological Complication: Curious (Common; Strong)

1 Experience Points

 

Being a 10m long dragon you have Distinctive Features and Complication Built like a dragon but you do not have any mention of size disadvantages to hit or for perception. This large a dragon should be about +4 to hit and perception.

I have a player who has multiform into two dragons one a similar size as yours (3 tons 3m body length etc) and one the size of a cat.

The big dragon suffers from a +4 to hit so the DCV drops dramatically and she always gets hit (I did start at +6 but felt sorry for the player as with a +6 to hit you need to spend 30 points to stand still on the DCV).

So to me you should have a size penalty mentioned in the disadvantages or is this already factored into the build for a 5th edition one?

Re: GM vs Player narrative authority

I was going to suggest that we all get together' date=' have a drink and play darts, but that works too [/quote']

 

How about a 4x4 ride off road along a set tricky route and counting the number of dents received after 1, 5, 10 etc units of alcohol?

 

I don't own a 4x4 by the way (and would not try this in the first place ).

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

Tell me, my dear GM, are you slightly fixated on me being a lesbian?

 

I am forced to defend myself here! My dear GM said that as my name is Whiplash it would follow that my costume should be leather...and not much of it. Deny it! He also fails to mention that he broke the heel on my boot and a nail. Evil. Pure evil.

 

Hugs,

 

f x (also known as Whiplash)

Having thought about it (and after a cold shower later) is a relationship between the same person but from a different dimension incest?

Will UNTIL have to separate you until they can get your alternate you back to her own dimension?

Did I make your character picture and did I force you to change it (well apart from insisting on at least a mask to hide you secret i.d.)?

Is it you who is throwing too much into your character?

Re: Has anyone built The Doctor from Doctor Who?

Does your current game have time travel?

If it does not the GM may not want time travel.

A non time traveling TARDIS could be modelled on a vehicle with increased mass teleport. But the TARDIS has a lot more than just increased mass teleport as is infinite in size which can build things.

So possibly a base with increased mass teleport?

I think you may need lots of GM input in this character build.

Re: Has anyone built The Doctor from Doctor Who?

I have tried very hard to search for it but I am finding it very difficult with so many established "Doctors" from the superhero genre. I have taken a look at the books and we are using 5th edition. I will admit that I am not a very experienced Champions player. We mostly use Mutants and Masterminds. Anyway' date=' I am trying to build a character very similar to The Doctor without the whole code against violence really and basically an energy blast (gun), also the "sonic screwdriver" is not needed. Problem I am having is the fact that we have to have a 350 point character and I am not entirely certain how the whole power frame thing works. Anyone able to help?[/quote']

 

You are trying to build the Doctor without a code versus violence and the sonic screw driver?? Obviously a total rewrite to the Doctor so you need to define actually what you want to do.

 

Have you seen any of the recent Dr Who TV series? You will realise that the "sonic screw driver" is more than a screw driver that uses sound to remove screws. It is possibly more of a cosmic VPP with lots of options from scanners with multiple detects, dispels, drains etc (what ever is needed for that episode of Doctor Who).

 

Also the TARDIS is a combined mobile base and time travel device with a mind of its own which I would say was a GM built plot device and not in control of the player.

 

Do you also want regeneration but only to resurect but you have a random personality complications and fashion style thrown in whenever the regeneration is used?

 

If you remove all that you are looking at something that is nothing like the Doctor but is an imortal with lots of skills and running around with a MP energy blast.

Re: The Cost Seems to be off for my Normal Sight replacement power

OK you forgot to mention it was a bald dog with 3 legs.

OK I would give less of a touch perception bonus to notice the difference as the shape change visual only has 3 legs and is bald and with a skill roll the snake could pretend to move around a lot and you may not notice it is missing a further 3 legs.

What if it you are stroking it and it hisses in excitement would a hearing perception roll bonus be allowed?

Or if its a rattle snake?

Re: The Cost Seems to be off for my Normal Sight replacement power

Here is another important distinction though: you are only going to know that the snake is fake by touching it if you have some idea what a snake should actually feel like. I recall being surprised the first time I did touch a snake by how it felt.

Dogs tend to be furry and with four legs and do not tend to be long and spindly with no legs.

So with the touch sense you could find out it is not a dog and eventually with enough time probably find it was a snake even if you have never touched a snake before.

Unless it bit you and had poison, that may be a further clue (but some dogs do not brush their teeth that often)?

Or a constrictor when it wrapped its self around you and started squeezing you (but then some dogs like humping anything that moves)?

As a GM I would probably give bonus on perception on the touch roll if any of those happened .