The idea is that from the source material, most supers are normal people with abilities like strength, or being bullet proof, or shooting lasers, or being super-agile--
But not noticeably faster than their opponents. There are exceptions, of course: Speedsters, spiderman-
Before I continue, let me point out that I am not the first or even the fifth person to use this example on the board. Every use of it has been met with "but that all comes down to individual authors or the needs of one particular story" or words to that effect.
I would also like to point you that those authors and those stories are the off-touted "source material" many of those same,respondents hold in exmplum of what our games should strive to look like. I point that out as a community service: before deciding to ignore the example, think a bit on what sort of hypocrite you would like be.
There qas a story where Spiderman defeated the entirety of the X_men. It wasnt a battle, either. He was in a hurry to get somwhere. He was literally "just passing through," and took them down on the way by.
This suggest that the X-men are all lower speed than Spiderman, and that makes sense: being super strong and made,of metal doesnt in anyway imply that you are faster than a normal person. Having claws ans super-senses (and smokong xigars in spite of having super olfactory abilities), or having the ability to shoot lasers from your face or to summon thunderstorms-
There is nothing in those power sets that mandates or even suggests being faster (in a SPD sense) that a normal person, who can, through intense training, get up to..... Four? Five if he's a title character?
We see,lots and lots of agents in the source material, and more importantly, we see super heroes having a hard time,dealing with them.
If you run an agent at SPD3 and a "typical" super at SPD 7, even a well-trained 5-team,isnt going to have a chance in aything sbort of an ambush and /or using weapons that are either specifically-tailored foe the HERO being encounted or so ovwrpowered as to make you think it is more practical to use it to take out entire armies and conquer a small nation.
Speed 3 agents are a threat to SPD 3 supers. They have a chance against SPD 5 supers.
When you see supers atracked,by agents, they dont win because they have so many more avtions that they can hit and move fast,enough to convince the agents that they are surrounded- at least, not outsise of a Champions game. It doesn't happen in the sourvw material,unless we arw doing a throw-away bit to show off some novel power stunt or a brand new power "I have been working on, but the reader has never seen it, so let's bring everybody up to speed on this new writer's take on the character."
In the source material, the supers win because of their powers (they can soak the beating, and return a more severe beating, defeating the agents through simple attrition) or through superior knowledge, cunning, or creativity- finding something,in the situation which their powers allows them to exploit.
So yeah:
Except for speedsters or the odd Supergodlikeman pastiche, most aupers on my game hover around a 4 spd as well. Because except for their powers of magic, defense, whatever- they are normal people with (at least eventually) lots of combat experience and if they are lucky, some training.
If you are running Iron Man and Hawkeye at SPD 8, then where is the Flash? Of some,other speedster? Or those "galactic-level threats" that get talked about a lot?
If you are running Batman at SPD 6, he is _not_ a normal well-trained human, and has legitimate super powers of his own.
We adjust the SPD of everything. Typically, Agents have a 3 SPD. The Idea is that unless you have a super power that would increase your SPD we try to keep to “Normal” human range.
According to the Republican National Committee, they're withdrawing because the debate commission is biased. I've noticed repeatedly that "biased" has become Republican code for "asks us questions we don't know the answer to or that would incriminate us."
With a large number of scared kids thrown into the mix.
Untrained rabble is to nobody's advantage, IMO.
As for the poisoning . . . I don't like it, mainly because it's a tactic that can have unintended consequences if it gets into the hands of other than your intended target. But if you bully a much weaker opponent, you should expect them to fight dirty. The bigger problem is that if you don't succeed in cowing your opponent, you could unintentionally unleash a monster. I hope the Ukrainians aren't pushed past that tipping point into things like public executions, torture, etc., as it would scar them as a people.
Tolkien knew the tropes of myth and epic legend, and used them in constructing Middle-Earth. But he was also both a devout Catholic and a modern writer, so he was ready and willing to subvert those tropes. Deconstruction before deconstruction was a thing. 😉 So yes, the Great and the Wise (but Not Wise Enough) have ignored hobbits and never recorded their history because it wasn't a history of heroes and battles. But the standards of God confound the Wise and humble the Mighty.
I still wish for a Champions Villain Volume 4: Organizations . A simple place to get basic information on villainous organizations and basic agent writeups, all mostly in one place with a small sidebar about where one can get more infomation if one wishes to find it.
