Re: Hit Locations in Super-Hero Game?
Well, since I'm the GM in quesdtion, let me chime in here.
What Mike forgot to mention was that Black Diamond (they were fighting GRAB) got hit by the team Brick who connected in the Vitals which effectively put her down for the count & resulted in the team capturing all of GRAB except Cheshire Cat (who had teleported out previously).
Since I'm the one that's rolling the Hit Locations, I usually roll them as Chest unless there is a reason for the location to be elsewhere. Also I try to use Hit Locations as a way to flavor the combat & not as a device to penalize the players &/or reward the villains. Usually it's the villains who end up suffering form the Hit Locaton damage & not the players. But even the players get caught sometimes. Just ask my wife about her character (Brick) in another Champions game we're playing in up in NYC who seems to keep getting KO at least once each game sessiions (we usually have 2 or 3 combvat/game session). Sort of the running joke.
As for how I'm handling location & VUL modifiers for damage, that's the way that I was taught back when I started playing Hero in 1985 & until this game, I haven't had a complaint about it. I figure that if you get hit in a sensitive location (like Stomach, Head, Vitals, etc.) then you should be taking extra damage from that. Also VUL are a Disadvantage that should penalize you which, applying their modifiers after defenses & Damage Reduction makes them not a Disadvantage to my mind. YMMV.
As for the way that 4th & later Ed. handle the effects of Killing Damage in regards to nonresistant defense, I stongly disagree with it. My thoughts are Killing Attacks are supposed to do damage. So unless you have resistant defenses of some sort, then if you get hit by a Killing Attack, you should take in on the nose for both BODY & STUN. My #0.02. YMMV