megaplayboy

Essential "deity" checklist: 1. Full Life Support 2. Universal Translator 3. Extra Dimensional Movement 4. Regen from Death 5. Clairsentience, and special detects 6. teleport without error, probably global range 7. heightened stats--superhuman for greater deities 8. "portfolio"/domain skills at superhuman levels 9. some kind of mechanism for granting spells 10. shapeshift 11. spot defense 12. a vari-pool(or two)

Fair enough. If anyone wants to take a crack at "generic greater deity/lesser deity/demigod" writeups, I'll start a new thread:D

Steve L(or anyone in the know): will there be any kind of "sample" deity writeup in Fantasy Hero? If not, are there plans to include some kind of writeup(s) in one of the campaign books? It just occurred to me, after seeing the bit about deities in the Free Stuff Hero Universe pdf, I'd really like to see one of these 7500 point "greater god" suckers;) (or even a 2500 point "demigod" would be nice)

just submitted my first shtick power:D

Re: PRE Attacks with Super-heroes we have a house rule that PRE skills and PRE attacks cannot "control" the actions and reactions of PCs, but that players can determine how affected their characters are. I would still allow the combat effects of PRE attacks to affect PCs, though--but give them a "breakout roll" to shake off the effects of +20 and +30 level attacks.

The attack targets a single character in the hex they are located in. Instead of their DCV being DEX/3, it is simply DCV 3(and in the event of a HTH attack, DCV 0). It's possible for the target of an AE-accurate attack to dodge or dive for cover--in the first case they get the DCV bonus of the dodge, in the second case they can avoid the attack with a dex roll -1--but of course their DCV against follow-up attacks is halved. Basically it's for attacks that are extremely accurate(think "magic missile" in D&D). If you bought such an attack with a +1/2 level indirect advantage you could probably negate cover bonuses as well.

I recently ran an adventure for my campaign involving the Cthulhu mythos. I created a custom antagonist for the PCs: Professor Vinson Prize, a scholar of parapsychology and "ancient languages". Prof. Prize is effectively the evil equivalent of a "sorceror supreme", complete with mystic mansion, summoned servants, and so forth. He is more of a power broker than anything else, making deals with evil entities in exchange for dark knowledge and dark powers. His last encounter with the PCs resulted in his apparent demise, but he'll be back;) I won't say what actor the character is modeled upon, but let's just say he's a real "thriller":D

I do appreciate the "adventure seeds" that are given for each major NPC in the supplements. A deluxe adventure collection would be cool--maybe 3-6 different adventures with some loose association? Get 3 top names to write it--Allston, for example--and you'd have a good seller.

Y'know, I forgot to mention the scope attachment and underslung Torc grenade* launcher for her Omega Destruction rifle...my bad:D

I envision Viperia wielding an "Omega Destruction Rifle", but that's probably just the killer GM in me:D

well, one thing I wouldn't mind seeing, given that the Champions are basically the flagship NPC team in the Champions Universe, would be some kind of flagship solo NPC hero, like Supes and Spidey for DC and Marvel respectively. Some players resent or don't appreciate highly capable NPC heroes flying in to save the day, but on the other hand a lot of players like to know there 's someone out there in case they fail, or that there's an icon for them to look up to when they're just starting out. NPC heroes are also a handy tool for GMs--they can call the PC team for help, give useful info, add flavor to the campaign, and provide a little extra muscle when a player is a no show for a big fight. Was there ever any thought about an iconic solo character for the Champions Universe?

Re: Inherent -From Xanatos well, many powers defined as "always on" should probably be inherent. The ghost example in the book is a good guideline.

Re: How would you construct "Fake Memories"? Depending on the magnitude of the memory: minor transform, BOECV, vs. Ego not Body(+1/4), Damage Shield, Continuous, 0 END, 3d6(127 Active points) or major transform, 2d6, advantages as above. The down side is that this would take several attacks to achieve the desired effect. Telepathic mind control might also be able to achieve that effect. Mental Illusions might do it(an illusory memory). You could maybe do it with images to memory, BOECV, damage shield.

yeah, I tend to think of those as a +/- 1-5 (each) on top of everything else. The tricky part is making it neither ridiculously easy or insanely hard to successfully use interaction skills. It should be difficult to deceive a security guard, or land a date with a movie star, but probably not impossible.

well, here's my first take: Presence skill modifiers: Environment: Extremely appropriate setting:+3-5 Highly appropriate setting: +2 Appropriate setting: +1 Inappropriate setting: -1 Highly inappropriate setting: -2 Extremely inappropriate setting: -3-5 Lethal combat, subject on other side:-8-10 Mood: Extremely favorable mood: +3-5 Highly favorable mood: +2 Favorable mood: +1 Unfavorable mood:-1 Highly unfavorable: -2 Extremely unfavorable:-3-5 Total commitment unfavorable psych lim: -8-10 Behavior/beliefs Fully congruent with behavior/beliefs:+3-5 Highly congruent +2 Congruent +1 Incongruent: -1 Highly incongruent:-2 Extremely incongruent:-3-5 Goes against total commitment psych lims:-8-10 Credibility: Statement has strong factual support: +3-5 Statement has some factual support:+1-2 Statement has little factual support:-1-2 Statement has no factual support, or is contradicted by facts:-3-5 Statement contradicts reality under direct observation:-10 So, convincing someone who hates you and has a total code in opposition to your suggestion that reality is not as they see it, in combat, is a mere -40 to your persuasion roll. I suppose if you have at least an 18-, you can still successfully use the skill on a 3.

I am trying to come up with some reasonable guidelines for difficulty modifiers to presence/interaction skills. I can think of environmental modifiers(such as a noisy dance club), mood modifiers(how favorably or unfavorably disposed the subject/target of the skill is to begin with), behavioral modifiers(how much is the attempted/suggested action in sync with the target's behavior/beliefs, or how much does it go against their behavior/beliefs?), and credibility modifiers(in the case of acting or persuasion, how believeable is the statement to begin with?). The other issue is base time to perform different skills. Seduction is a good example--what's the base time to befriend or seduce someone? It could be anywhere from a minute to a month, depending on circumstances. Let's toss the high and low, and just say 5 minutes(to make a good first impression, keep a conversation going, or get a phone number) to a week is a good general range of time, with up to +3 for extra time spent. You can, of course, get bonuses for roleplaying the skill use well(or just trying, if you're not joe actor). Does anyone have any suggestions re difficulty mods, in terms of actual values?

A few "sub-issues": a. if Batman apprehends the Joker in Texas, knowing that he will not be found insane, and in fact face certain execution there, does his heroic code require him to 1) take the Joker back to Arkham, or 2) allow him to face justice and be executed in Texas(thus assisting in killing him)? b. if a hero is in fact a law enforcement officer, authorized and trained in the use of lethal force, is it then "unheroic" for said hero to use lethal force as a last resort to protect the public? c. at what point does simple practicality take precedence over morality--if shooting the bad guy stops him from nuking Gotham, how is it more moral to look for an alternative which may not guarantee the safety of citizens? d. If a death penalty exists for supervillains, and the anti-killing heroes are the main way to apprehend supervillains, isn't it hypocritical for them to say "no one has the right to take a life" while handing the villains over for eventual execution?

Re: VPP question answered You can define a VPP as requiring extensive prep time to change(some gadget and equipment pools take this). Considering this is an NPC writeup, the GM generally has laissez-faire to bend the rules a little bit. Generally mastermind pools are set up to only be changed between adventures. I wouldn't allow perks to be placed or switched around in PC VPPs. Under restricted circumstances I might consider allowing one type of skill to be put in one(think any character from the Matrix, or Taskmaster).

well, what kind of area effect attack would a speedster be safe from just by diving 1 hex? if they allow 12 SPD, that's 120 active points. a 12d6 AE radius blast would mean the speedster has to dive 6 hexes, at a 11- roll, a very good chance to blow it. And if he blows it, he takes the damage, AND is at half DCV until he takes a half phase to restore his DCV. To be honest, a lot of combats I have seen in Champions seem to consist of getting the other guys at half DCV and tag-team nuking them. Hyper-efficient, but boring as heck.

well, if you can buy stats with a VPP(and summon, e.g.), you could buy bases and followers--keep in mind those points from the pool are spent as long as the bases and followers exist.

I think 40-50% of PC points is a good guideline--100 point agents are pretty inconsequential to 5-600 point heroes--you really have to have "super" agents to worry experienced or powerful heroes. the upper limit would be about 60-80% of PC points--super-elite agents, like what stronghold or genocide might deploy to subdue or kill supers. I would say just increasing the CV of agents really works to make them more formidable. adding enough defense to make them 2-hit targets is another approach.

Just curious, has anyone ever tried scaling experience awards to the campaign point level? For example, in an old survey, most respondents said they awarded about 2.5 xp per session--this for a 250 point type campaign. Technically, that's about 1 percent growth per session. But for a 150 point Fantasy or SuperAgent game, that would be about 1.5 percent. For the new standard, 350, it's about .625 percent growth. And for the upcoming Galactic Champions campaign, rumored to be up to 1000 points, 2.5 xp would work out to .25 percent--it would take 400 sessions for characters to double their point totals. That's 8 years of weekly gaming, folks. But in the 250 point campaign, it takes 100 sessions to double starting level. That's 2 years of weekly gaming, or four years at twice a month. IN the 150 point game, it takes 60 sessions to the doubling point, 300 points. If you choose to do a low-end 100 point game, it only takes 40 sessions to double starting level. So should 100 point and 1000 point characters earn experience at the same rates? From a "realism" standpoint, the answer might be yes, but from a "playablity/enjoyability/genre feel" standpoint, the answer is probably no. My suggestion: take the campaign point level, divide it by 250, and multiply xp awards by that amount to get the adjusted xp award(round up in the players' favor) This maintains the integrity of the existing experience system, but gives a proportional growth rate for any campaign.

Thanks for the clarification--what's the timeline split between Solar hero and Interstellar hero?

I'm a little unclear on something said concerning the campaign sourcebooks for Star hero. There was mention of five eras, but I only counted four: Terran Empire(24-2700) Terran Federation(2700+) Xenovore Wars(24th century) interstellar Hero(pre-24th century) Was there something earlier or later than these eras? Or is "Galactic Champions" the 5th era?

210 Body would be fun--you could jump off a tall building several times. A planet destroying attack would probably leave you alive! 400 points: VPP, cosmic, 80 active: 200 points Full Life Support: 50 points Regen from death, recover lost limbs: about 25 points +50 PRE, +50 END, +10 Dex, +2 SPD(5 total): 125 points You can make a presence attack, and shift the VPP levels around to do whatever you want, while they're awestruck. Technically, you could put 80 points of the VPP into a 400 point multiform(replete with higher stats), or set up a megascale change environment to control weather conditions, or broadcast your voice across a city. 80 points would also give you persistent desolidification, or fully invisible desolidification(invulnerability). But if you want to do everything Odin Highfather can do all at once, it's gonna run into the four digit range