Kirby

Hello everyone,

Out of curiosity, does anyone use underpowered villains to go against their heroes? I'm not talking about five 150 point VIPER agents fighting one or two supers, I'm talking about villains with less than 250 points to go one on one(ish) with your 250+ point heroes? Bad guys such as "Ack Ack" McClearly (240) and Roundhouse (200) from Enemies for Hire, or Bulldozer (175) from Classic Enemies.

I generally don't do it too often, but I like to start a fresh campaign off with these people so that the players will definitely have a fun first run, which is what sets the mood for the rest of the campaign.

I usually do a mini-scenario with one to three PCs vs. one to two villains to help people get acquainted with their own characters as well as the other PCs. These are intended to be interspersed within the main plot.

Also, I may due it within the campaign itself if I'm stuck between plots or just want to make combat a little bit easier for me and the players.

Just curious.

Re: Oh, those pesky politicans-Who are they anyways in your campaign?

So' date=' anyone use these and other political types in their campaigns? And do you prefer to create fictional ones to using the real thing?[/quote']

Yes. The ones that have been mentioned so far are all good, along with the "deep, dark secret" politician.

 

I always use fictional politicians in my campaigns; it's just easier for me. While almost everyone I game with shares the same political beliefs, we don't always agree on the way a politician may handle things, or how a GM might portray a politician. Fictional politicians don't have to have political parties, you don't have to remember who the real politicians are (especially when your campaign city is not in the same state you are in) and the players can't have a predisposition on the NPC. I always refer to the President and Vice President as just that. No last names, no first names (except for "Mr.").

 

I've been in other campaigns where the GM has used real politicians and there was always one (and just one, strangely enough) who would start complaining about how he didn't like this guy's local policy (or foreign if president).

 

My politicians server two basic purposes: 1) To hold parades in honor of Super Hero Groups and 2) To be bailed out/rescued from a villain group that is blackmailing/kidnapping that dirty politician.

 

My big exception to this was when I ran a San Francisco game and the mayor was really an exiled, powerful demon who was forming his own power base so that he could return "home." I cast him as a damned handsome actor that no one in my gaming group liked, yet I made him amicable to them as fledgling heroes. He even put in a good word with the police chief when the heroes goofed up a "protect the ancient, mystical dagger" and ended up being arrested for STEALING the dagger on camera and fleeing the neighborhood. A big misunderstanding, that was.

 

Did I go off-topic? I hope not. I hope this helps.

Re: Sonic Boom: Speedster SFX

"A sonic boom is..." Aaaaaaaaagh!

Okay, some of these responses are very close to what sonic booms are (there's more than one type). However, if you want better information on it, check this out:

http://www.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?fsID=184

And if you want to SEE an actual sonic boom, check this out:

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010221.html

Two interesting points on sonic booms I can share with you. The first is that the only aircraft allowed to break the sound barrier over the U.S. are space shuttles. Why? Because way back when the sound barrier was broken over U.S. soil, an entire residential community filed a suit with the Air Force because it was harming their homes. I believe this was in California, but I'm not positive; it's been a while since I was in college talking about this with the professor. Apparently, the sonic booms were weaking the foundations or something. The military paid up without complaining and now all sonic booms take place over the oceans and seas.

You may ask, "Why did the Air Force pay up without fighting this? How did they know that it may be possible to do this damage?"

This leads me to interesting point #2: My father was an Air Force officer for 22 years, mainly navigating B-52 bombers. When we were having a conversation one day, our topic somehow arrived at sonic booms and he told me that one of the ideas behind testing this (either before or after Chuck's famous flight, probably after) was to see how feasible it was to use the sonic boom as a weapon. The Air Force decided against it as being too risky to the pilots. (It may not have been as effective as whoever thought of the idea hoped, but that I can only speculate on.)

Now, as to your question, if we take Mach 1 to be 750 mph, that breaks down to 12.5 miles per minute, which is 66,000 feet. That is a distance of 1,100 feet per second. Is it feasible for your super to do that in a city? If so, what about traffice, and turning? What if he trips? Remember that non-combat movement & modifiers are different from combat modifiers.

Personally, I would do the "gust of wind" with a mixture of knocking people down (maybe 2d6/target falls) special effect. Breaking glass possibly, but then, who would be that super's fan? Definitely not anyone who had a business on the street he just glassed over. Then there's clean-up, etc. Of course, if your super owns a glass-making company in his secret ID, that could be just funny.

I hope this helps.

Re: The Last Hurrah (adventure for your use)

On the other comments however...

 

I'm sorry I thought to use a president (who was a controversial one mind you, but yeah, a beloved one) who was already the patron of a supergroup that went rouge [sic] in my universe, Im [sic] sorry that I used his death in a creative way for something that sounded exciting and wasnt [sic] at all in bad taste.

Well, the bad taste is an opinion, not a fact and, to me and some others, it was in bad taste. Reagan wasn't really a controversial president, unless by "controversy" you mean not of both major political parties. Or even the Iran Contra scandal which was done behind his back (though you could say the controversy was him not firing enough of the people involved - but that just wasn't him).

Oh wait...Im not. As far political rant...I'm not of the age where I remember Ronald Reagan. I know some things about him' date=' so I'm not just uncharacteristically doing things, but listen to this... the idea of Reagan having showy, superpowerfull supers (as opposed to more lowkey [sic'] and well...sane ones) seemed to fit perfectly. As I understand he was all about boasting, showing everyone else in the world that America was boss, and ect.

Not really. The closest you could argue on this is the nuclear weapons program, but Reagan [/b]hated nuclear weapons; however, he understood that the U.S. could outspend the U.S.S.R. in keeping with the Containment Policy started after WW2. I lived during his presidency and I don't recall him showing who's boss. His "boasting" was to Americans about America.

In fact I'v [sic] had the concept of the Minutemen liked very much by a lot of people. And now' date=' just because Reagan died a week ago, an interesting plot idea for my universe that I wanted to alter so I could share it with others, is suddenly some sort of political rant disguised as an adventure?[/quote']

 

That's what it pretty much sounds like, whether intended or not. And if you wanted this to be a plot idea for your universe, again, that's fine keep it there. Recall, though, that your title includes the parenthetical phrase "adventure for your use." Most of us are responding why we don't like it and wouldn't use it -as is- in our own campaign. You didn't mention that these were villains you had used, so we couldn't assume it, even if we guessed at it, though I myself didn't get that impression.

 

 

 

I dont [sic] worship the ground Reagan walked on but I certainly have no particular political feelings against the guy.

 

I don't think anyone here worships Reagan, we just don't like the concept of your plot regarding him. It doesn't work for our use.

 

 

Bottom line is I dont [sic] feel like I have anything to answer for' date=' and the flaming or threadcrapping here is not my own, but others. [/quote']

 

I don't believe anyone was flaming you. You weren't called any degrading names. One person responded what your plot looked like to most of us, which came across that way because of how you phrased it. We didn't ask you to "answer" for anything. Again, we let you know that we wouldn't be using it.

 

 

...that leads me to beleive [sic] that even after people are'nt [sic] being too stupid in the "Honor" of somebody's recent death....

 

See, now this is "flaming or threadcrapping." This might get people to start attacking you as opposed to them critiquing your adventure idea.

 

But I'll tell you this- it would lose all purpose' date=' originality, and uniqueness if you just had Eurostar or somebody like that try to activate the Juggernaut. It just wouldnt [sic'] work.

 

I'm pretty sure "originality" and "uniqueness" are close to the same (except where Dr. Pepper is concerned ). I think the plot would be more usable if you had those villains as opposed to the Minutemen. After all, until your post, I had never heard of the Minutemen you described, and I'm pretty sure every Champions GM knows of Eurostar.

 

 

The others... are not good examples of how to respond. If you have only something like that to say just dont [sic] say anything at all.

 

This could be a case of the pot calling the kettle 'black.' Before you get upset at people for their responses, remember that you made the post of "45 reads, no comments," which could have been a sign (though there is no requirement that we have to respond). Now that you have responses, you don't like them. Be careful what you wish for.

 

Not every thread is going to be a "hot" thread. And not every post or response is going to be favorable. If people don't respond, just move on. If they don't respond the way you want, treat it as advice: something to heed, but you aren't required to follow it.

 

I hope this helps.

Re: The Last Hurrah (adventure for your use)

That would violate the whole idea of the plot. The Minutemen are perhaps my favorite among the villain groups Iv created' date=' they were Ronald Reagan's enforcer supergroup of conservative, nationalistic, and in some cases outright violent/racist/delluded superhumans, that together were worldbeaters.[/quote']

 

The plot seems to violate the whole ideals of Reagan. My guess is that no one who has read your post is really interested in something so blatantly political-bashing mixed with the opposite of Reagan's theme. That could be why there were 45 views and no posts, and now 86 views with seven posts, three of which are your own.

 

It's your game and you can run it like you want, but take our responses (and lack thereof) as some consideration, though you know your players better than us.

Re: The Last Hurrah (adventure for your use)

45 reads' date=' no comments?[/quote']

Hmm... well, I could cite the misspellings and grammatical errors, but since there is no spellchecker, that just wouldn't be polite.

 

As far as the story of the post itself, I'm guessing they're not taken to it. Think about it, Reagan was a great president (IMHO, the best since FDR) and the theory is that these guys will honor their president by mass suicide? That just doesn't jive. Then there's the secret weapon that "only [they] knew of...." That interferes even with my suspension of disbelief.

 

If you wanted to keep the same concept of mass murder on a nuclear weapon/missile scale, I have two alternates for you:

 

1. "They" found Saddam's chemical weapons (those he didn't use on his own people or on Israel). Either buried in the desert, or soled/stored in another country. Either a villain group wants to hire U.S. villain muscle to protect it in whatever country, or they can't launch it, so they want to smuggle at least one inside the U.S. and need local villains to assist. Eventually the heroes find out.

 

2. Since the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Russian (and other former blocs) do not have the money to keep all their nuclear missile facilities protected and many have disappeared into the black market (which is true in the real world). Some villain group/organization has one (or more) and needs U.S. villains for the same reasons found in alternate #1.

 

Maybe that will help your idea. An option is to have a foreign group already have these weapons and threaten their respective areas (Eurostar for Europe, VOICE for China or anywhere in Asia, etc.) unless their demands are met. If not, they detonate the weapons. Now it's time for the heroes to stop them. Villains too powerful? That's okay, other hero teams are trying to stop them and failed (penalty of death, perhaps?). I hope this helps.

Re: Dr Yin Wu

While I personally wouldn't mind seeing an update on Dr. Wu and his four sons's stats for 5E, I definitely don't want to purchase yet *another* WotD. I have about 40 or so Champions books from 4E and earlier; the last thing I wish to do is buy the same books I already have with only revisions of stats in it (and potential character background changes I wouldn't be happy with). I don't need to buy the whole story again -I already know it- especially when it seems that every game supplement that comes out is $20+. I was fortunate to find the 5E VIPER book at a retail store for about $14 since no one was buying it. I was disappointed with the changes (Supreme Serpent's history, Viperia's history, lack or many original villains, etc.). While the revised stats for troopers, weapons, and vehicles are okay, I'm not big into running those aspects of VIPER and so the book is only mildly entertaining.

I think Hero Games not reprinting the book is great; although what might be better in the long run is an adventure updates sourcebook. Maybe in one book they can compile the villains, heroes and other NPCs from various adventure modules that were previously put out and give updated stats on them. Books such as, "Wrath of the Seven Horsemen," "To Serve and Protect," "Target Hero," could have the characters in it combined if they haven't been updated already. If they really wanted to get fancy, they could do a "then" (near to revision of old material as possible) and a "now" (updated for their time through the years).

Just my thoughts.

PS: As an aside, I purchased nearly $2,000 worth of 1st & 2nd Ed Dungeons & Dragons material, over $900 on Ravenloft material alone (yes, I calculated it). When they went to 3rd Ed, I was more than upset and have only purchased the character sheets and player's book (since those were of the first items to come out). They're rereleasing previous material I already have and wanting me to buy it again, which isn't going to happen. Since 3E was a change (and for the worst, to me) I'll only run/play 2E from now on and the ONLY way I'll play 3E is if the game is fine with me never buy anything again, since I have the character sheets, which I can reproduce. Alright, enough ranting.

Re: Villains versus Villains

I suppose I should have clarified/specified or just added the option of do you have Villains fight Villains in your campaigns in the city in which your hero PCs have the chance to intervene?

Do they let property damage go up? Do they intervene? Do they wait for a dramatic moment to intervene? Do they hide somewhere out of view and wait until only one team is left? Would you do this in your campaign?

And, while I'm at it, would you use one villain team to eliminate another villain team that you didn't want to use any more?

Re: Killing Characters/Villians in your games.

Just wanted to get some feedback from other players to find out if they have killed player characters in their games.

None of our PCs has killed NPCs in Champions games (aside from nefarious undead and android types), though there have been some in Dark Champions.

Do you allow your heroes to kill the villians? If they do what are the consequences' date=' are there any? Give me some examples.[/quote']

 

Let me say that neither I, nor other GMs I've been with, have *disallowed* us to kill villains; however, we don't make a point to try and kill them, nor do we load up on killing attacks. (Heh, though there was this one player who created a Cherokee PC hero with a Code vs. Killing. He had some non-damaging attacks [entangle, flash,] though his only offensive attack was a 2d6 RKA [AP] attack with his bow. We laughed when we figured this out and it took a few games for the player to realize his mess up. Unfortunately, he didn't think his attack was powerful enough to kill major villains, so he didn't have any qualms with it. Strange.)

 

 

But I tend to try and be a more realistic gamemaster and allow the characters to act as they feel they would really act to certin situation' date=' which may include killing (in self defense of course). So let me know your thoughts.[/quote']

 

I think that Champions did a great thing when they created the difference of BODY and STUN. Many game systems are set up where knocking out your opponent is much rarer and more difficult than killing him. Champions does good in making death a nearly intentional act.

 

As for repercussions, that depends on the circumstance. Reckless killing would be treated as such, while a VIPER agent being killed in a nest invasion would probably be overlooked as accidental or unavoidable. The GM must be mature enough also not to take revenge on the player or PC because of this. I have known a few GMs (mostly female, but one male) who would be very vindictive if any villain was killed (or, if other games, their favorite NPC villain, or one that wasn't *supposed* to get killed but did). Usually a long-lost relative would come into town and start targetting said PC, even if it was impossible for the relative to know.

 

Sometimes, I think it may be *expected* by design. If the PC(s) in question were blade weilding martial artists fighting villain blade-weilding martial artists, then blood would be expected to be drawn, though it might be possible to knock out your bloodied opponent first. Regardless, I think the GM needs to let the players know up front on the grittiness or heroism that is expected overall.

Re: The Ultimate Brick Online submissions thread

Edited to add: My husband noted that in previous Champs games he'd seen Damage Reduction vs. Mental Attacks and maybe even Drain INT as a Damage Shield against Mental Attacks! ("You feel dumber just being in contact with him...")

Oh, that's just funny!

In the last group I gamed with, either bricks or mentalists could have Dmg Reduc. versus mental attacks.

For a brick submission, I am reminded of two character types. One was Orion who had the deity package from "Olympians." Anyway, one day his group was tossing it around with some villain group and Orion went to rescue someone in the air. He rescued her and she flew to safety while Orion got tag-teamed by the villains. Something happened that caused him to get knocked out and he fell. A few thousand feet. I don't remember how many dice were rolled, but I remember that after they were all rolled, Orion ended up taking no body, but ended up around -100 Stun. (FYI: Campaign high was Thor at -180.) We joked that that was the day that the took 1" knockback. (The bounce Orion took afterword was nowhere near as bad.) Luckily, with his high REC & Regeneration, the GM let him wake up within the week.

This made me think of another character type (created, but never played) of a "brick" that had 75% Dmg. Res. Red. on PD, ED & Mental, had like 20 to 30 defenses, 30 CON and only a 30 STR. He was designed to take on normals and rescue fallen comrades. His name, or nickname, was going to be Cockroach.

Re: VOICE List

Just wanted to see if anything else has come to anyone.

I haven't been able to use VOICE yet. My last campaign ended a few adventures before they were planned to debut. I'm trying to get another campaign started, but finding players is difficult, though I do have a lead for two.

With all the expanding that several people have VOICE doing, has anyone used the Tiger Squad or the Cult of the Red Banner (both from Watchers of the Dragon, and the latter also from Ultimate Martial Artist) as a counterforce for VOICE?

Additionally, would anyone use Lung Hung in the Tournament of the Dragon? Would Lung Hung participate (and in which persona) or attempt to dominate? I could see LH unable to fathom the extent of the Tournament and sends VOICE in to try and take over, being surprised at the number of people that would resist this. Or perhaps LH has been admitted to the tournament over the past few hundred years and has yet to win (or maybe won just once).

I wonder if Dr. Wu would see a rising threat and attempt to destroy Lung Hung?

While I do have plans for VOICE in any future campaign, my two villain groups on the higher tiers are Anarchy (Enemies of San Angelo ) and the Seven Horsemen.

Re: Greatest American Hero type character????

Somewhat. I had a PC in a game where the GM created our powers. We were in a post-victorious Genocide campaign where somewhere between 2/3 and 3/4 of the world's population had been eliminated. The three players each had a teenage character that we could design (50 or 75 points) and then the GM rolled our powers (from the Mutant File) and we slowly discovered them. In this game, the GM somewhat dragged his feet on us, making the game more of exploring our "base" than going outside and doing things. We were being trained/helped by the anonymous old guy, but the pacing was too slow. While the concept that we would learn our powers over a game year's time was understandable, the GM (normally very good) almost made us role-play every day. That game bombed.

In a different short-run game, another GM made one where we were four college kids that got abducted into a DEMON plot that went awry (of course!). The four of us turned into the four basic elementals and discovered our powers quickly. (Punching a Demon agent when you're an earth elemental and being told to roll 18 dice for damage helps.) This game we the players really enjoyed, but unfortunately the GM was running too many games for his plate (three Champions, one White Wolf, two D&D, and one anime-type game that I can recall off-hand) and so he eliminated all but three games (one each of Champions, D&D, and White Wolf).

I think the potential is there for a good game, you just have to make sure you don't dwell on the newness of being a super too long.

Hello all,

I was wondering if anyone set up scenarios of one supervillain group versus another in their campaigns, and if so, did you throw your PCs in to either choose sides or break it up?

I've always wondered what a scenario would be like of Eurostar attacking one of their hated foes (on the villain side). I've had characters on the hero side that have received their brutal beatings from Eurostar, but what about a villain group? (Part of this is due to wanting a legitimate revenge heaped upon groups like Eurostar, VIPER, COIL, the Cardshark organization, etc.)

With the San Angelo setting, I had thought that when Eurostar made it's annual U.S. trashing tour (if used in a San Angelo campaign), that the group Anarchy would come in to ambush them while Eurostar was combatting the local heroes. After thinking about how Anarchy would go about the ambush, I started wondering if any other powerful villain groups would attack Eurostar if a conflict of interest arose. The two groups that came to mind that might clash with the European behemoth were VOICE and the Seven Horsemen (both whom, in my personal opinion could best Eurostar).

Alas, who has, or has seriously considered having villain/s or villain groups battle villain/s or villain groups in their campaigns? Who did you chose? Did you have your heroes intervne and how did things turn out?

Thank you for your time.

Re: 5E & Online store

Thank you for your help, I really appreciate it.

Hello,

I am very new to the website, so please bear with me. I have not seen a 5th Edition book, so I am wondering if 5th Edition is just a slight update on the same style that brought us the Seeker, Obsidian, Defender, the Protectors, Eurostar, etc. Or is this the Millennium edition that changed the values (divided by 3 or something)?

For the Online store, I noticed a 5E CD in software and what looked like a 5E book, for about the same price. Are these the same items? Does the CD come with the book? or is the book on the CD? or is the CD just software on creating heroes/vehicles? Also, is there a shipping cost or shipping options?

Lastly, I thought I saw somewhere that if you created an account you would get a $5 coupon for the online store; how/where does one do this?

Thank you for your time.