Zan the Gamer

I was playing a game with a GM who wasn't used to 5th edition rules, but who had been playing for many years. When determining our OCV for an attack he would tell us that moving and then attacking got you an automatic -1 to your OCV. After looking through the 5th Ed book, I could find no such rule/limitation. Example: Blaster has an Energy Blast. He wants to blast Scoundrel with it. Scoundrel is 10" away. Blaster doesn't like his chances of hitting Scounrel from so far away so moves 6" closer. He no longer suffers a penalty for range, but, does he suffer a -1 OCV penalty for moving closer?

If a character buys a Hand-To-Hand Attack power and defines it as iron fists, making his punches more powerful, can he also use that Hand-To-Hand-Attack power when performing a move-through or move-by?

I had a player with 20" of Teleport declare he was going to make a Non-Combat movement half move, so he Teleported 20". Then he used the other half of his phase to use his RKA on the fleeing villain. Is that half Non-Combat, half combat move allowed? I figured it was just a way of getting to use your full movement and still attack, but let him do it since I wasn't sure.

Just curious on this one... Can you still perform a grab on a person if you buy Stretching and the Limitation "Only To Cause Damage"?

I have a guy who does 8 D6 damage normally and I want to add a naked advantage of double knockback to all martial arts. He has martial strike which adds 2 D6. Do I buy the naked advantage up to 8 D6 (cost of 30 pts.) because the 2 gained from martial strike are considered "free" or do I buy it up to 10 D6 (cost of 37 pts.)?

I'm designing a character who is in a Powered-Suit that has 2 Claws and a Tail like a scorpion. I want him to be able to Grab a character with each of the 3 limbs. What powers/adders/advantages would I have to buy to properly simulate that?

With a HTH Attack, do you get it's damage plus your Str damage to Squeeze a grabbed character? Do they get it when throwing the grabbed character into, say, a wall? Do they get it to resist the grabbed character breaking free? What about to break free from someone grabbing them? Thanks for your time =) ~ Zan

I am trying to construct a villain similar to X-Men's the Blob. I'm having a difficult time properly defining his ability to trap (Entangle) someone who attacks his fat (torso area, not arms, legs, or head) in melee combat. I read through the section on both Entangle and Damage Shield in the FAQ and I'm still not satisfied with my construct. Right now it looks like this: 6 D6 Entangle Damage Shield Continuous Reduced END 0 No Barriers Set Effect: Only Traps That Which Hits Him in Melee (Fists, Feet, Baseball Bat, etc.) Does Not Prevent Use of Accessible Foci It's still missing the fact that you don't "break" the entangle to break free, it requires more Strength than it has to hold you. It's also missing something to represent that he doesn't neccessarily take damage from attacks (since the Entagle is part of his physical being). He also has a Disadvantage of x2 Stun/Body from stabbing/slicing damage, so he would conciously not entangle someone's fist if they had claws, or entangle a sword being swung at him. So maybe a limitation on the Entangle of not against sharo objects? Any thoughts?

I have a question on the way Multiform works as far as cost goes. How do you determine how much Multiform costs? Is it the same way as a character? Example: True Form Base Cost is 150 100 Points in Disadvantages Total Cost: 250 Most Points An Alternate Form Could Be Worth: 250? Also, when you earn experience does the cost of 1 character point spent by the true form gets 5 points in the alternate forms, or does it become 1 for 1 per form?

I haven't had time to buy the Bestiary book, could someone email me or post the stats for a mummy? pajeau@jps.net Thanks!

Re: What's the connection Well, a milkman doesn't carry a gun as part of his job description. Cops are presented with situations where a range of force is neccessary to "serve and protect." This range goes from "No force required" to "Shoot the guy until he stops twitching." I think the issue of Cops & Code Versus Killing has to do with the area they operate in. Cops in Los Angeles, CA have to be very cautious now because of the bad name they had after the Rodney King riots and all the corruption that was discovered. Whereas the sheriif and deputies of Shingle Springs, CA may be more concerned with next week's Ice Cream Social. So, decide what environment your cops operate in, and determine their views on lethal force based on that. BTW, I really like that psych limitation of "Shoot first, ask questions later.":D ~ Zan

I'm designing a Quicksilver (X-Men) knock-off called Blur. I'm having a hard time designing the power he has where he runs in a circle around a target and creates a whirlwind, trapping them in the air. I also want him to be able to slam a "trapped" person into a wall. My first attempt invloved 10" Flight, Usable As Attack, Continuous, with a limitation that the flight cannot exceed 10" vertically. Also another limitation that he must run in a circle around them for a full turn before it affects them (like a haymaker going off the very next pahse) and must continue to run in a circle around them to keep them there. He has 40" Flight Only In Contact W/ Surface. I ran into some problems because even wit comic-book physics it doesn't make sense that he can (after creating this whirlwind that traps them in midair) slam them into a buiding or car or whatever. Any suggestions?

What books have the write-ups for the big villains such as Mechanon, Ripper and Halfjack?

When buying duplicate Foci (Shugoshin's 2 swords, 2 identical arm blasters for each wrist, etc.) do you just pay for it twice? In the example of 2 swords is there a reduced cost if you do NOT have Ambidexterity but DO have 2-Weapon Fighting? What are the rules on buying 2 weapons that you intend to use simultaneously?

I had a few questions to throw around about Heroes who kill in a Superhoeroic campaign. What have you found helpful to discourage players who either want to or really don't care if it accidentally happens? It seems to me that having the player become wanted for murder (in a non-Dark Champions game) will be more of a hassle than it would be fun, especially if they get caught. What player wants to spend their night roleplaying an inmate? What happens if the caught Hero is sentenced to death? What have you found helpful in avoiding these situations all together?

Well, I talked with my players last night (only have 3 right now... definitely need some more) and I told them that I was removing all blanket-bans and that I would review each character individually instead of saying no before hand. They were all happy with the change, so I think it's going to work out better this way. I did warn them of what I am more inclined to accept and not accept, and told them I still wanted the same "World Setting." The only cap I have left in is the points the characters are based on, still 250 with 100 Disads, though I told them if it's a point or two over, that's fine. I wanted them to play to concept first, and not feel like they had to have 10 DCs of attack to be effective at all. I told them I would base the villains off the end result of the team's abilities. Which brought me to an interesting thought. It seems that the Pre-Designed characters in the various Champions books all have a LOT of skills that don't neccessarily play into combat, more towards character conception. Does anyone here had experience with a game that didn't count non-combat skills into the total cost of the character? I was tempted to try that.

Actually, no. They were telepathic alien rock monsters (kinda cool ). Not actual contructs. I've seen 2 suggestions that look good for the campaign I would like to run... 1. FW -4 to the roll on the second attempt. 2. Once you've attacked after you've found their weakness, you must make you rolls again to hit the weak spot again. Either way I'd limit it's use to only 2 times. 1/8 defenses on the villains in the world they'd be playing in would make them far too weak. And raising their defenses or LoW risks the villain being too tough (not good for the team) or making the FW roll too hard to hit at all (not good for the player). Agent X brought up a good point that bans and nerfs basically suggest lack of trust in the player. But if the power is limiting aspects the trustworthy character would never use because of it being to powerful, why is there a problem? The fact that a player insists on those options being there says he wants to use that part as well.

AgentX Said: This usually isn't a problem if the players give each other feedback before the game starts. "Ummm, you know I'm playing a flying bullet-proof guy who can desolid and see through walls, right? I'm not sure you want to run a normal guy only with wings. You probably won't have much to do." ******************************* But isn't that still limiting the winged character and not letting him have HIS concept? If you impose some sort of Point max in characters and a starting damamge cap that removes after gameplay starts, them your characters can start to branch out after they start very near each other in max damage. Also it depends on the setting of the world they will be playing in. Your Brick concept may include a 100 Str, 20 D6 punch, but in a world most people (including villains) can only can take the damage of 12 -15 D6 attack, you will be over-powered. I know some games where 20 D6 is the average attack, and I really wanted to avoid that. I scaled my world down so the characters are all just starting out in their careers. They don't know all their powers yet, they haven't reached the max potential in the powers they DO have, and the average attack is 8 D6. The rest of the world's heroes and villains are the same way. My problem is the character who decides his concept is to be the Superman among humans. That's fine for a more powerful game, but not for MY concept of the world they live in. Doesn't the GM get a concept as the storyteller?

A very good suggestion. I would rather not have to resort to things like obligatory KB Resistance or obligatory LoW on most villains, but it may come to that. I still haven't seen his character sheet, and it may be perfectly fine, I just am not familiar with Naked Power Advantages yet. Thanks!

I'm the guy GMing the game where KnightShade is getting flack for his desire to have WF. We haven't even started yet and already there's lots of bickering and arguments... very unsettling. Anyways, I'd like to explain myself and get feedback from those of you who all have very good points about FW and the game itself. The world I am designing is not used to Super Powered folk. No Super "teams" have even been formed. To represent the fact that the players' characters are beginners, I imposed the 50 Active Point starting limit. My issue with FW is this: I feel that in this particular game setting it will be unbalancing to use more than once per enemy. My high defense villains have at most 30 Normal Defense and 15 to 20 Resistant Defense. A 50 Active Point killing attack (Knightshade's personal favorite) with FW will slaughter any of the villains, or make them run away very quickly in order to avoid death. How often do they really kill a villain in X-Men as an example? Usually they fight multiple times over years. So I would like to throw the same villains in different situations at my players. Develop a rivalry. Batman to Joker. Daredevil to Kingpin. X-Men to Brotherhood of Mutants. Etc. Now, in order to make villains that CAN stand up to the one character with FW, I need to give them LoW or Damage Reduction. Doing this will make the players without FW underpowered. Therein lies the problem. The rest of the team has to fight harder bad guys that they might not be able to take, so one guy can have his character concept. What I've decided on for my game is that FW counts as an advantage when determining how much DC's your attack can do. I am letting him have it with all attacks. I am saying that it can't be used 3 times on one enemy (and not giving it a limitation for that). The thing I'm now worried about, is that he has bought it in a Multi-Power Pool. So it's really cheap to undo my starting limit, like it was never there to begin with. Would it be better for this campaign to not have FW or should it be left alone? Please, tell me what you think. Thanks for your time and patience. ~ Zan

One of my characters wants a Naked Power Advantage of Double Knockback with all HTH Attacks and wants to buy it in a Multi-Power Pool. I feel "iffy" about it and the book warns that it shouldn't NORMALLY be allowed. If anyone has had experience in this matter, your opinions would be very helpful in deciding. Thanks! ~ Zan

Thank you for the feedback everyone. I have decided to impose a DC/Active Point limit. That should take care of the problem.

I have a question for the Campions playing community. I am going to be GMing a champions campaign for the first time. I've tried to develop a world with rules for starting characters to represent that the heroes are just beginning to go out and adventure. Their characters are based on 250 points with 100 points in Disadvantages, minimum of 15 points in skills, and a 50 Active point limit. One of the players was describing his character to me today (we start playing in a few days, hopefully) and one of his attacks worries me. Through the use of a Naked Power Advanatage and a Hand-To-Hand Attack he can do double knockback on 50 Active Points of damage (The equivilant to 50 Str w/ Double Knockback Advantage which would be 87 Active Points). But, he is NOT exceeding 50 Active Points. I do not like the idea of allowing an attack THAT powerful, otherwise I wouldn't have imposed the 50 Active Point limit. He insists that because he is not exceeding 50 Active Points that I should allow it. What are your thoughts?