Angry Gumby

Re: Effective Concepts Your GM WON'T Allow. It's not so much an effectiveness issue as a fun issue. The only characters I would ever disallow are ones that would ruin the fun for all the other players, and the Voice would probably be one of them. What fun is it for the other players to never really get to use their powers against the bad guys, because Voice makes everyone surrender?

Re: Help me build a spell: Never-Ending Arrows I don't think this is true -- transform isn't a power that goes away when you are knocked out. It stays around until it "heals." If I transform a person into a frog, they don't become a person again if I am knocked out. They have to meet the conditions I specify under "healing" the transformation. Also, transform is no range by default.

Re: Help me build a spell: Never-Ending Arrows I think you would get "limited target" because it's not any air that you can transform -- only the air inside the quiver. You couldn't, for example, create an arrow in your bow-wielding buddy's hand. Also, I doubt "uncontrolled" is needed b/c transform always sticks around until it "heals" under conditions you specify (i.e., the one hour time span). At least, I think that's how I'd build it in my game.

Re: Help me build a spell: Never-Ending Arrows I have to say, I wonder if buying the RKA is the right way to go. The quiver is creating a physical object for one hour. During that hour, the arrow could be given to someone else, or thrown into a pile and used as firewood, or whatever. It's not just a killing attack. It's a physical object that can be used as a killing attack, among other things. There is one power that allows for creating objects out of thin air in its description, and that's transform. So: How about something like this? Major Transform (thin air into arrow) 1d6. Transform "heals" back after one hour. 0 end cost (+1/2). OAF quiver (-1), independent (-2), gestures (-1/4 -- must "pull" arrow from quiver), limited target (air inside the quiver, -1). 23 active, 4 real points.

Re: Using Images to Change Environment? This is exactly my view on the matter. Images dont actually change an environment -- an image of a wall doesn't create a wall, nor does an image of a fire heat a room -- so an image of light, what, doesn't actually create light? Images has a mechanism for "disbelief," or seeing through the image, but with light there is no image to see through. It's just light.

I know the "official" policy is to use the images power for creating light (i.e., a light spell), rather than change environment. What I don't understand is why. Change environment seems so much better suited. To me, altering the temperature level and altering the lighting level in a room are quite similar thematically. Am I missing something? Anyone have a good reason why I shouldn't go ahead and build my light spells with change environment?

Re: Which organization will directly oppose Demon? You could always go old school and dig up a copy of "The Circle and M.E.T.E." book from 4E. The Circle would definitely be Demon's direct opposition.

Re: Adventure Dilemma-Help(GMs only) To be honest, I wouldn't try to distract the players at all. Instead, I'd go with it and allow the logical conclusion to play out. The players search the park. Maybe, if they are thorough enough, they even find some clues as to what is going to happen on opening day. They won't know everything, but they probably get some idea that something is going to go down, and will want to keep investigating. If they do a good enough job, they may even unravel the plot before Black Harlequin gets it into full swing. They could wait in the park for BH to come set up his stuff and nab him, thus preventing a heinous crime before it really takes off and protecting a lot of people. Or they could be there on opening day, ready to foil BH as he launches his plan. This means you don't get to run it as you wanted, but if the heroes really do a fine job of investigating, they *should* get the jump on the bad guys sometimes. They'll feel a major sense of accomplishment about the whole thing, which is a good thing. You could even play up their accomplishment, and have word get out that they prevented something awful with quick thinking and a proactive approach. They'll still have to beat that tricky Black Harlequin and his goons, of course, before the plot is fully foiled...and Harlequin will almost certainly have some backup plans up his sleeve. Sometimes, as GM, you've just gotta let that perfect story as you had envisioned it go...

Re: The Greatest American Hero (book). This is a pretty hard thing to get a handle on. If we're talking pure nostalgia, nothing beats "The Great Supervillain Contest" for me. I must have played that adventure a dozen times in different groups, I swear. If we're talking amount of time wasted reading a book over and over and writing up countless scenarios (some of which were actually run, some of which weren't) it would have to be Zodiac (has there ever been a villain team committed to print that was more lovingly detailed and completely fleshed out?). But if you want to talk pure quality of product, Strike Force was definitely an amazing piece of work. Those are definitely my top three, hands down, though I did like some of the others that have been mentioned. Since I said we had to pick one, I have to go with Zodiac. Just reading that thing must have given me three dozen adventure ideas. So what's the best 5E book that's come out so far? For my money, CKC and USPD are great resources, but Scott really brought VIPER alive for me. I just felt completely immersed in the organization, and like Zodiac, just reading it had me bursting with adventure ideas.

The question burns for an answer: What is/was the single greatest published Champions supplement or book? Old or new, 1st-5th edition, pick one (and only one) officially sanctioned adventure or other supplement and make a case for it being Hero's finest! What book did you use again and again, or read over and over on rainy days? Which book most inspired you to run a great campaign or served to re-ignite your love for the game? My own pick, of course, will be coming as well. I'd thought I knew what to put when I started this post, but just writing the paragraph above has thrown everything up in the air again. I need to consider...

I'm actually running a Star Hero campaign without any alien species right now. I've explored some of the same questions, looking at how human culture develops in absence of other intelligent alien species. The campaign basically hypothesizes that, with humanity's uniqueness in the universe being confirmed by a lack of contact with other sentient races, human culture would develop around basic principles like: 1. Embrace your humanity: with no other races showing up, humanity is increasingly celebrated as something special and unique in the universe. "Human-ness" is elevated and idealized. Technology is designed to integrate as seamlessly and invisibly as possible; cybernetics, AIs, and the like are seen as an undesirable diluting of that which makes humanity unique. However, technologies that blend with humanity more naturally (biological modifications and so on) are much mroe accepted. 2. Work hard, play harder: Humanity's undisputed dominance (and implicit arrogance) has resulted in an increased emphasis on recreation and fun. Humanity is a great thing, and you can't exactly celebrate humanity by working your entire life away. It's not total hedonism, but work and play are seen as equally important parts of life. 3. Live in the now: Since humanity is the ultimate form of life in the universe, why dwell on the many imperfections, growing pains, and stumbling blocks of its development? Being wracked with guilt over the past, or cripplingly worried about the future, doesn't do much to celebrate our essential humanity. Again, this doesn't mean total hedonism, but rather an increased appreciation for spontaneity, impulsiveness, and fun. 4. Accentuate the positive: Sure, humanity has done some stupid things, but why dwell on it? Humans are as good as it gets, and there's really nothing else to look up to, so its better to stay positive and focus on the good things in life. Droning on and on about this or that injustice begins to feel increasingly preachy to people -- after all, we're *humans.* There's no doubt we'll move past all that in time. 5. You Deserve It: Why feel guilty? Humanity may use up a lot of resources, but there's nobody else out there who needs them. Ultimately, the more unique humans are, the more they percieve a have a right to enjoy themselves regardless of the consequences. Whatever consequences human actions have are for humans to deal with, so why feel bad about it? There's probably more, but this post is getting ridiculous.