casualplayer

Re: DCV Drain Power Defense should protect only a single specified ability but able to be Advantaged like other Adjustment Powers. Want to protect 4 Characteristics? Want to protect All Fire Powers? Slap an Advantage on there.

Re: Is 6th Edtion worth the money? You can still do everything you could in 5th, and more. Pure win.

Re: DCV Drain The thing that immediately jumped to mind was those arrow-attracting cursed shields that D&D has because, hey, maybe the Drain is Invisible.

Re: DCV Drain The best DCV Drains in the world are Grab and Entangle. But sure, why not? There are weapons which "paint the target" for the follow up attack, which sounds like a DCV Drain to me. Some sort of missile lock? It's a tactic I've used in Battletech where a fast-footed beercan of a mech runs in and relays targeting info back to my Riflemen on the ridge. I mean, I only have to drop you a smidge to cost you a full point of DCV against everyone. Could be a brutal VIPER weapon, chased with massed fire.

Re: So I snagged San Angelo on the very cheap Nice clean builds with evocative backstories and distinctive personalities. Who could ask for anything more? San Angelo is a very California city, and California attracts and breeds a certain type. Hal Jordan is a California superhero. Classic Booster Gold is a California superhero. Any of the Blue Beetles are California types. Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Human Torch would all fit right in. Malibu's old line up of Hardcase and Prime and Mantra were very California. Fast, hot, sexy, dramatic, attention-seeking, glamorous. Ginormous, all-eyes-on-me egos. This is the rule and then there are the exceptions, distinctive in that they aren't trying to get their own reality tv show. The Spanish/Mexican influence is so pervasive that it almost becomes assumed. Street names and signage and cultural events and neighborhoods. People will be more likely to fabricate their supername as something they can trademark and market, so made up and mashed-up words like Frozone will be common. Your car is like your business card, and even supers who don't need a car might have one. Think Wonder Woman's invisible jet, Blue Beetle's bug and Flash's van from JL:TAS.

Re: Campaign Concept Source: "No Ordinary Family" I don't think that every person they conflict with is going to show up some day with superpowers. A non-powered, affronted, suspicious teacher is enough of an antagonist without them. Besides all he would have to do is put a problem on the blackboard and watch JJ work. Suspect cheating if all the person does is scribble in an answer but if they show the work then they did the work. I really liked the mother-daughter moment. And Jim needs to learn that to stop a car you don't root; you charge!

Re: Campaign Concept Source: "No Ordinary Family" Firelord is the Worf of the Marvel U. Squirrel Girl could take him. Who knows how exactly they measured Jim's strength in the show? Did he press against a truck scale or drag a fire truck or punch a carnival attraction? He sure wasn't putting plates on a bar. They threw that number out there, and I'm happy they did, but there is a lot of wiggle room. 5th Ed Jim-43 STR, 6th Ed-50 STR, IMO.

Re: Campaign Concept Source: "No Ordinary Family" This show is pure wish fulfillment for me, considering I could be Michael Chiklis' twin brother and he has the exact powerset I would wish for if I could. Can I swap the blonde wife for Sofia Vergara or Tina Fey? Perfect! I want "A lair, with wi-fi." I could have wished for a little less teenage hormones, for the sake of wanting to comfortably watch the show with my kids, but it's definitely being added to my Hulu queue.

Re: DC / Marvel Characters in Champions Universe I know there are other mythological one-eyed giants out there, but naming them such without there being a corresponding reason in their background is just too precious for me. Actually Stan Lee kinda rocked with names. Angel was an obvious moniker, Marvel Girl kinda generic but Cyclops? Based entirely off of his special effects and costume design. Beast? Prehensile feet and agility, and could have easily been Apeman instead. Iceman, when he originally looked like Snowman. This is good stuff.

Re: No Ordinary Quiz I knew from the show and knowing myself that I was dancing on the cusp of Superintelligence and Superstrength. I even look like Michael Chiklis but I used my superintelligence to push myself that direction instead.

Re: Hero system complexity Hero is Linux; D&D is Vista. Any questions? Less flippant, and let me tell you it is hard, the reason why we have so many RPG systems past and extant is because gamers are not of one mindset. We look the same from a distance, have similar taste in movies and remarkably concordant histories, enough so that we can get together in groups of a thousand and have a good time, but we see the world differently and we want different things. If I made my wife sit down with a rulebook and hammer out a Hero character, her enthusiasm for gaming would die aborning. It's too esoteric for her, too meta. She likes the RPG melodrama and nothing about buying Striking Appearance and PRE Skills predicates any of that for her. The OP of trying to bridge the gap between D&D 3.whatever and D&D 4th is a whole 'nother kettle of fish. Hasbro played a dirty trick because the two D&Ds share the same brand name and some labels but are not related other than by publisher. 4th cousins, twice removed maybe. D&D 4th is a tabletop emulator of some of the videogames that were inspired by D&D, and is more the offspring of Final Fantasy and Diablo than pencil & paper play. This is not a criticism, just an observation, before the 4th Battalion gets their dander up. Complexity is relative. Enjoyment is relative. What's universal is our love of games.

Re: Looking for help with a Hero name I'm thinking Backfire, for the way she is always giving her parents lip. What about Trailblazer, for the way she's choosing her own path in this world? Pilotlight? Butane? Sickburn? Combustabelle?

Re: Help creating the D&D cleric's power Turn Undead There's lots of ways to go, and the deciding factor is going to depend on your game. If you enforce a hard Active Point cap, it's real hard to get that satisfying vampire bonfire Turning power by just buying it as an offensive power. Unless that's what you want is for the player to be able to make lesser undead go Poof! but only discomfort greater ones. How you design your undead is going to matter a great deal. If they are all allergic (Susceptability) to holy men, you can just have your player buy a Perk: Paladin. If your undead are high DEF, low BODY creatures, then Transform into Dust works pretty well. If they are susceptable to PRE Attacks, then that way works remarkably well especially if you combine it with a Susceptability to PRE Attacks so they will actually take BODY damage from a large enough success.

Re: DC / Marvel Characters in Champions Universe Every game needs a sexually aggressive older female, or at least an homage of one.

Re: DC / Marvel Characters in Champions Universe I'm tempted to create a Rogue homage called Homage, who copies your powers but won't admit it. Hacks copy carelessly; artists steal shamelessly.

Re: DC / Marvel Characters in Champions Universe So many names have been expended on one-offs or just used period that it's best not to waste energy avoiding reusing one if it fits. You will have a Rogue, but he might a thief with hyperluck powers. You will have an Iron Man, but they might be a triathlete or a synthetic man who likes Black Sabbath. Calling a one-eyed giant anything but Cyclops is an exercise in futility.

Re: Help naming characters? (Teen Champions) Looks like I'm late to the party but why should that stop me. Staff assigned names would tend to avoid what might be considered racial profiling and any sort of pigeonholing. Most of Danielle Moonstar's codenames from when she was in The New Mutants suffered from this. So Mr. Guzman's powerset and ethnic background do suggest fantasma, or Spanish for ghost, but I would suggest anglicizing it to Phantasm. The immature and enthusiastic Ms. Oh I would probably label Shove or Backlash. Theresa's powers suggest little as they are so common, so we have to reference her background and personality. What about Luvabull, the name for the Chicago Bulls' cheerleaders? I would be tempted to call Mr. van Bleek Griffin, hoping that he chooses that Hogwart house's path rather than slithering after his father's footsteps. For the anachronistic Ms. Bingham I would be tempted to call her Tigerlily, after the princess in Peter Pan, or Bagheera, after the panther in The Jungle Book. Yeah, yeah, I know, not a tiger but Shere Khan doesn't work for a girl for me. Peter Pan was published after Eunice joined the circus but just barely (1911) but could have been read to her in her cage or her birthdate could be fudged slightly. The Jungle Book was published 1894. Or if the teachers want to drag her into the 21st Century you could go with Catgirl.

Re: 6E What happened to HKA? 2 second fix. Make HA and HKA have a default STR Min of their active point cost, allowing that STR Min to be reduced or bought off entirely through Advantages.

Re: 6E What happened to HKA? It's mostly just pounds per square inch. STR exerts the pounds pressure, wide areas like fists and clubs and hammers do Normal damage, narrow or slashing surfaces like whips and blades do Killing and pointed objects do Penetrating or Piercing, high velocity ones do Armor Piercing. The brass knuckles used as an example just accomplishes two things: it reduces the surface area that the force is being exerted on to that of the brass knuckles rather than the fist and it also has less yield than mortal flesh so you aren't trying to tenderize meat with another piece of meat. When flesh meets bone, bone gets bruised but the flesh ain't happy. If your character's flesh isn't Real Weapon, brass knuckles are just and affectation. In 6th for the minimal cost of a Killing Attack you are essentially buying an killing slot for your STR "Multipower," even if before you bought that slot your "MP" only had a single assumed option of normal damage.

Re: New to PnP RPGs.

Re: Con Game Thoughts. The second example would go Venture Brothers in a heartbeat and turn into beer & pretzels gaming. I've know very few people who, willingly or accidentally, play a glass cannon and leave the con game happily. A Torch Lantern sounds like pure win to me, but you would likely want to put some sort of Healing Flames of Fimbul into his build that gets him back on his feet after only a short dirt nap, a little STUN Aid or Healing wakey-wakey that Triggers after a phase or two down. I would be tempted to turn Jetguy into Wingman, and riff off Hawkman, but maybe that's just me. Guys with wings are cool. Girls with wings are even cooler, so maybe include a second female character in your roster?

Re: Dave's Louisville Heroes Campaign Is it mandated or prohibited in your campaign city that you have a super named Slugger?

Re: Is the pricing for Telescopic Sense wrong? Yep, the same way you will go mad trying to do ship's sensors with anything but Clairvoyance. Perception Rolls suffer from binary thinking when they could benefit from gradation. So instead of Yes/No, Perceive/Don't you could obtain a general impression if the PER Roll is just made, with increasing levels of Discriminatory by how much the roll is made by. Often humans, when we "see the flea," are actually combining an adequate PER Roll with some Deduction to reach our conclusion. When we look at dogs we expect fleas, so if we see a small black speck climbing on their bellies or leaping off their backs we think "flea." We look closer and see that it's Shrinker. As far as the PER pricing, you don't get a lot of wiggle room when you are working with one point increments. Just roll with it.

Re: Order of the Stick I'm probably going to be real tired of seeing stick figure nipples by the end of this storyline.

Re: King of the Mountain Fan Request The song is Johnny Angel, sung by Shelly Fabares who co-starred with Elvis multiple times. The idea is to make a team of swingin' chick sidekicks inspired by Elvis' movie costars. Fun fact: Shelly Fabares did the voice for Ma Kent in Superman:TAS. Mike Farrell (BJ Honeycutt) did Pa Kent's voice. In real life they are actually married.