phydaux

Yeah, the multipower as a bow with a quiver of trick arrows trope is classic. And because it's usually bought as an OAF you usually have enough points left over for a nice suite of exotic defenses and a decent Martial Arts package. Add in a few skill levels for offsetting range & hit location penalties and you've got yourself a badass PC. And it doesn't take too long of a list of trick arrows before you just replace the whole thing with a VPP. Then you REALLY have arrows for all occasions.

This is Nightwalker's standard 45 active point loadout: 3d6 RKA 16 Charges 9d6 EB Stun Only 16 Charges 6d6 APEB 16 Charges 4d6 Entangle 16 Charges 9d6 Flash 16 Charges 4d6 NND (Tazer) 16 Charges 2d6 AOE RKA 4m Radius 16 Charges 7d6 AOE EB 4m Radius 16 Charges 3d6 AOE Entangle 4m Radius 16 Charges 7d6 AOE Flash 4m Radius 16 Charges 2d6 AOE NND 4m Radius (Gas) 16 Charges Darkness Sight Group 4m Radius (Smoke Bomb), Cont. Charge 1 Turn, 16 Charges Because no good mother would send her teenage daughter out late at night wearing spandex tights without 176 charges of high explosives.

Donno about you, but I love a girl with a little smut on her aura.

"I found that it was very consistant." And I'm sorry, Tasha, but I honestly don't know how you can say that. Hamilton changed her own mythology from book to book. I get it that she has the right to compose her own mythology, but at least apply it consistently. Rowling said she had to rewrite the first Harry Potter book four times before she finally worked out exactly what, in her world, magic can and can not do. Hamilton didn't do that, she changed things on the fly, and she HAD TO. Every book Anita got a new power or a new powerful ally, and finished the story as the baddest 98-pound vampire hunter in the tri-state area. And that meant that in order for Anita to be challenged in the next book then the author had to make a change in her mythology. Sorry again, Tasha, but this, plus all the gun mistakes (simple, basic, gun mistakes that scream "This author knows literally NOTHING about the topic she's writing about!!!"), turned me off to Hamilton. THAT, and she is clearly trying SO HARD to BE Anne Rice. I mean, have you read her other series? It's soft core porn, FFS! OK, I need to go walk around the block a couple times....

I liked the character, I LOVED the setting, and I liked the books to start with. But it really seemed to me that the author lost control of her own series. Perhaps she got it back later on, but IMO the series the jumped the shark and lost me as a reader. Look at the Dresden Files. Harry has grown as a character. But for everything he gained, he also lost something. That was part of the charm of the character - He just gets the shit kicked out of him by life to such a huge extent, yet keeps getting back up and doing what he knows is right. Now ever since he died and has become the Winter Knight you can say that that series has ALSO jumped the shark. I felt the last book was weak, and the next book will decide if I keep reading. But that's the risk you have to take when you have character development - The character changes, so the status quo has to change. I felt Butcher did a good job letting Harry change and grow yet remain the lovable character we meet in book one. Now he's gone through major changes, and Harry's world burned down around him along with his apartment building. I don't know if I will like the direction the author goes in, but at least it's not like The Hardy Boys where every book ends with Frank & Joe exactly the same as they started on page one of book one.

It's a Talent - 15 points, +3 DC with X. Swords, Bows, Daggers, whatever you pick. IMO all this just exposes an inherent flaw in Hero System Martial Arts and their RIDICULOUS points efficiency. For someone with low STR and no weapons, they're a great equalizer. For a character with a high STR plus a weapon plus MA on top of that, it's Boxing Lessons for Superman - 100% rules exploitation, cheap DCs & CVs for a character that thematically doesn't need to have Martial Arts. That's explicitly why I built my Combat Monster the way I did - High STR, high DEX, Deadly Blow with Swords, and a stack of melee CVs. In melee with a sword he's, well, a monster. Take away his sword and he's still tough in melee, but not a monster anymore. Shoot at him with arrows and, well, thank the gods for chainmail 'cause he's getting feathered. But that's why there's another player whose stichk is The Archer. He's there for counter battery fire while the combat monster hacks his way through the meatshield. Just like the mage is there to shut down the OTHER team's mage while our team's Rogue sneaks around the flank to backstab her. But none of this is a problem so long as the players understand that what's good for the goose is good for the gander. Yeah, no city watchman or mook goblin will have Combat Luck or Deadly Blow or know Sylvan War Lore (the much whispered about and possibly only mythical elven martial art). But eventually the party will come across people who DO.

I'm an old Traveller fan from way back. Love the setting, So many options for campaigns.

Hey all! So in your campaigns are the PCs members of MHI, or is MHI "the competition? It seems to me that having the PCs as the "low rent option" to MHI, forced to live off of PUFF payments and cover all the overhead, would be more of a challenge for the players.

Oddly I just finished reading Redshirts by John Scalzi.

Seriously though, my go-to fantasy character has 18 STR, a bastard sword, and Deadly Blow with swords. Add in a few skill levels and he routinely swings 3d6 HtHKA. That's only 5 active points less than your "problem child" player. But take away his sword and he's, well, not exactly a GIMP, but he's FAR less effective. Plus, he's "the combat monster." That's his stichk. So I don't have him do anything else. Somebody else can be the guy with the Longbow and Deadly Blow with Bows. And somebody ELSE can be the Scout/Rogue. And somebody needs to be the Face. My gaming group has an unwritten rule that players don't step on each other's stichk.

Reading this over, my first thought is "He forgot Deadly Blow."

I LOVED Laurel Hamilton's Anita Blake series when I first started reading them. Yeah she made a LOT of basic mistakes about firearms in her stories (I'm a firearms aficionado and the author CLEARLY "learned" everything she knows about guns from watching TV shows). But then it was like she lost control of the character. Every book she would gain a new power or a new powerful ally, and she's have to change her own mythology on the fly. This is what happens when a vampire bites a human. No, THIS is what happens when a vampire bites a human. No, wait, SOMETIMES this happens when a vampire bites a human. And the main character made so many illogical relationship choices that she became utterly unsympathetic, and the only sympathetic character, the main character's love interest, got driven off so the author had to invent a NEW love interest that she basically cut and pasted into the main character's life. But the first character was already so tied into the plot that it just made everything a hot mess.

In my game world magic is a multipower, and all slots require a Sorcery skill roll. And your Sorcery skill can never be higher than your Thaumaturgy skill. You learn Thaumaturgy from books, so it's a constant quest to gain access to the "deepest mysteries."

OK, somehow, I'm not sure why, I'm only just now discovering Larry Correia's Monster Hunters International series. I'm not sure why it took me so long. I blame you other people on the forum. Got the first two books on audiobook, about 1/3 of the way through the first book. Thank God for my daily three hour round trip commute (Boston traffic SUCKS).

Quasar - Ensure that she gets plenty of training time using her powers with other members of the team, including cross-training with units of Primus as well as the local and state police. We'll give her opportunities to use her Supernova Blast under controlled conditions, as well as experiment with other powers she may or may not have. Mystica - Examine the Cosmic Gemstone to see if it has any magical properties. If it does then Mystica will becomes VERY involved in her training to ensure she doesn't unleash anything unexpected, and she will begin a through investigation of the origin and background of the stone. If the stone is not magical then Mystica will treat Star Bright like the other members of her team, which means she will ignore her. Shadowhunter - You said she's a rookie so I'm guessing that means she young. Shadowhunter would ply her with Long Island Ice Tea until she was good and drunk, then get her out of those tights. Introduce her to a little Supernova Blast of his own. Oh Yeah. So young but still of age, right? Wait! Don't answer that. No need. That's what Secret Identity is for in the first place. Oh Yeah....

All I have to say is that there needs to be a way for your PC to die during character creation. Also, there should be a need to create 20 or so characters before you FINALLY get one with a starship, which then miss-jumps on it's very first attempt, ending up in deep space where the entire party slowly starves to death. Yes, it was nearly 40 years ago, and yes, I'm STILL mad. Nevertheless, I still love the Traveller setting I played & GM'ed a TON of GURPS Traveller about 15 or so years ago. I look forward to playing & GM'ing Hero Traveller.

That all sounds kinda more like Silver Age.

A little googleing will find you the PDF of this. "I am familiar with earlier versions of champions, i just never ran a game. all the players in our group are older and familiar with the older versions of champions as well." I'd say start with Quick, to the Hoverjet! using the example characters in the book. That should give everyone a chance to refresh themselves on 6th ed (which really isn't THAT different from 5th, or 4th, or even 3rd). Then let the players try their hand at making some PCs. Run those PCs through Viper's Nest.

Quasar - In his secret ID Quasar is an experimental physicist and professor. But he is also the team leader and spokesman for the team. So half of it would look like a high energy particle physics lab, and the other half would look like, well, an office. Mystica - You can never have enough library space. Plus she needs a storage, since she collects mystical books, artifacts, and foci from the mystical villains she fights. Shadowhunter - Dos is a dos. He's only ever use it when he's trying to hide from his DNPCs.

I have an inro adventure outline for new players that I call "Quick, to the Hoverjet!" It's dead simple. Players pick example characters from the Champions core book. "You're all lounging around Champions HQ, when you receive a Trouble Alert ™. There is a Tyrannosaurus Rex rampaging through Liberty Park, smashing cars and leaving giant divots in the public golf course!" "Quick, to the Hoverjet!" The PCs jet off to the golf course and fight the T-Rex. It's a typical "brick" NPC but with x2 Body & x3 Stun and massive Knock Back Resistance. Even so it shouldn't take long for the PCs to bring it down. Once the T-Rex is down the PCs get an update from Champions HQ - "The T-Rex was just a distraction. A team of minions of the Evil Overlord ™ are breaking into the Diamond Exchange on the other side of town" "Quick, to the Hoverjet!" There are at least twice as many Agent-level minions as their are PCs. Their armor, DCV, & DCs are only half what typical PCs have, but they have +4 OCV with their Blasters, and their blasters are Multipowers slotted full of "FYB" powers (Entangle, AOE Flash, NND, etc) and they have the Cooperation skill at 14 or less. The FYB powers & combined attacks should give the PCs hell, but each minion also takes x2 Knock Back and will fold like a lawn chair from one hit by a PC, so it won't take long for the PCs to mop them up. But one minion, the one with the diamonds, WILL get away. Then the manager of the Diamond Exchange will let the PCs know that he placed a tracking device in the sack with the diamonds. He will give the PCs a scanner that will let them track the minion back to the Villian's Lair ™. "Quick, to the Hoverjet!" The PCs get back to the Lair but it's empty. Seemingly. Once they are all inside, out spring The Villians ™. The Villians are built on the same number of points and to the same standards as the PCs. There will be a Brick, a Power Projector, a Martial Artist and a Gadgeteer. If there are less than five PCs then drop the Gadgeteer. If there are more than six PCs AND if they are all experienced role players then there will also be a Mentalist. The last battle will be tough. The PCs might not even win. But the adventure will be fun, and should give the players a decent understanding of how the system works.

Also, will you be using Batman villains, Champions Universe villains, or home brew?

Cool. Crusader?

Ninja-Bear already addressed this. I did the characteristics as Cost-STAT-Value, not Value-STAT-Cost. So they don't have CVs of 10 and a SPD of 20.

Now I've got to be honest, I've never played the games. How would the campaign work? Is the idea that the PCs are hunting through Gotham, looking for the escaped villains? Working their was through the henchmen and then finally fighting the boss, looking to capture him and bring him back to Arkham? So if the PCs are going to be built on 300/60, then IMO their needs to be three levels of bad guys - Henchmen, Lieutenants, and Bosses. Henchmen should be around agent-level, ~100 points, built to fold after 1-2 hits. And there should be LOTS of them. They should routinely outnumber PCs at at least 3 to 1. Well built Henchmen can give PCs FITS. Lieutenants should be built on the same number of points and to the same standards as the PCs. Classic tropes, Brick, Power Projector, Martial Artist, Gadget Man with FYB powers, and Weird, although in this setting, with these PC power levels, I'd double up on the first three, and only bust out the Weird infrequently. A fight between five PCs and five Lieutenants should be a tough fight unless the players are experienced gamer and play well together. But it they ARE, then you should be fielding a Weird. Bosses should be built on 400 points and should exceed every campaign norm. A boss against a single PC should be an easy win for the boss. Against a team of PCs playing in a random and uncoordinated way, the Boss should still win or at least stalemate/escape. It should take a team of PCs playing well together with good teamwork to take down a boss.

Yeah I do cost first, then value. I do my characters in Notepad.