MitchellS

Re: [book Review] Champions Universe: News Of The World After having now read the whole book I would say that the 3 blank pages in the book should've been used to give us a Microman II writeup and a new set of gadgets/equipment for Juryrig [the Vibora Bay section talks about him rebuilding his arsenal]. That would've filled out the book nicely and not had me doing the much-hated "use character a for character b with the following changes." There should never be any reason to say characters were cut due to size issues when there's 3 blank pages in the book, IMO.

Re: Drain variable stat power Doing it that way effectively makes "random" a -0 limitation. Personally I'd go with offsetting advantages and limitations: +1/4 for variable effect and -1/4 for random characteristic.

Re: MancerBear's Art Den

Re: [book Review] Champions Universe: News Of The World I'm sure they will eventually. Things move slowly due to only having 1 person who does the layout and pdf work.

Re: [book Review] Champions Universe: News Of The World An 8-team isn't that powerful. Their biggest attack is 1-2 people doing 12d. On average the Champions will do body damage to them with their 14d attacks.

Re: [book Review] Champions Universe: News Of The World

Re: [book Review] Champions Universe: News Of The World Don't lead Hermit on. Tell him the truth. Defender got both Sapphire and Witchcraft pregnant and is now hitting on Lady Liberty and Megaera from MC-8.

Re: KA Vs Energy Blast It depends on the genre you're playing. Some genres, like four-color superheroes, frown on killing the opponents and so the energy blast is needed to offset the body count [Captain America doesn't chop the heads off of each person he throws his shield at]. Other genres, like fantasy, are almost entirely based on killing your opponent and so there's not much reason to take non-killing attacks. But even in "killing" genres there's going to be times when you want to takeout someone at range without killing them. Energy blast allows you to have things like the Star Trek phaser with its various damage settings [nnd for stun, eb for hard hit, killing attack for strong hit, and nnd killing attack for disintegration].

Re: [book Review] Champions Universe: News Of The World Personal immunity always seemed a little too expensive for me. I'd have preferred to see it handled as an adder rather then an advantage. A 5 pt cost would be more the sufficient to cover how limited it really is in most cases.

Re: Champions Worldwide? I think game companies have to build to their fan base. While it might suck for some if most of your fans are in the US then you must build to suit them rather then the small percentages positioned in any specific part of the world. I'd agree that the CU does seem to have an over abundance of US heroes though [a dozen teams in the US seem like twice as many as needed].

Re: [book Review] Champions Universe: News Of The World The only layout point that seems different to me from any other Champs book was the blank page on #44 [i'd have stuck something in there even if it was only an old picture from Vibora Bay]. Other then that everything else seems exactly the same with the standard 2 columns and wide outer margin. Even the per-page white space seems to be average. I can agree that some of the art was not to my liking [not that I haven't said that about Champions books for a couple of years now ] but I don't believe that has anything to do with layout. If anything that should've been included in your art rating [which it seems it was]. Assuming a 1-5 scale I'd rate the book as: Cover Art: 4 [better then most of the Champs covers consisting of only an interior picture] Interior Art: 2 [too much reused and much of the new art is too dark and stylized to fit a four-color book] Content: 4 [plenty of characters and a lot of useful content for CU GMs] Layout: 3 [Hero standard. Nothing flashy or innovative] Overall: 3.25 I was very pleased with the book considering it's the first CU book I have bought in nearly a year that had new content in it. I'd have given a little more thought to the writeups in regard to end usage [most seem to use too much end per turn] but little tweaks like that are easy to fix myself. If you like the CU this is a good addition, IMO.

Re: [Fight Club] Firewing vs Gravitar I'd run it my way too [with M&M ]. Still it's a big change in the rules and how they function in regard to attack actions.

Re: [book Review] Champions Universe: News Of The World Just goes to show you how subjective things are. I thought the cover was one of the best on a Champs book in some time. I'm not sure what your layout issues are though. It's the same layout pattern that Hero Games has always used.

Re: [Fight Club] Firewing vs Gravitar It definitely changes things in the game.

Re: Champions Multiverse I definitely think you'll need: Champions 4E Universe New Millennium Universe The Guardians Universe Strike Force Universe San Angelo Universe Omlevex Universe Silver Age Sentinels Universe After that it's all hit and miss: Freedom City Universe Century City Universe Aberrant Universe Brave New World Universe GURPS Universe Wild Talents Universe City of Heroes Universe DC Universe Marvel Universe Wildstorm Universe

Re: [book Review] Champions Universe: News Of The World I got home today and found mine sitting on the table waiting for me! Hurray!!! I've only flipped through the book so far but I'm liking what I'm seeing in there. Good stuff all around!

Re: [Fight Club] Firewing vs Gravitar It has nothing to do with being a one-trick pony. The rules exploit will work the same way if one character has a 35 dex and the other a 33. Any character with missile deflection is going to get the opportunity to deflect 100% of the time and attack 50% of the time. They might not always hit or always deflect but they're getting 50% more actions then any other character.

Re: [Fight Club] Firewing vs Gravitar All of which has nothing to do with the fact that Steve's new ruling gives all the advantage to lower dex characters who use missile deflection.

Re: [Fight Club] Firewing vs Gravitar The CV issue is irrelevant because it is very simple to buy many levels with missile deflection. 35 dex guy spent 75 points on dex and 25 points on the 7 speed. 1 dex guy spend -27 on dex, 49 on speed, 20 on missile deflection, and 22 on deflection levels. 35 dex guy spent 100 points, 1 dex guy spent 64. 1 dex guy can buy 18 levels with his range attack with the extra 36 points. Assuming they both have the same d6 of attack 1 dex guy is going to beat the crap out of 35 dex guy.

Re: [Fight Club] Firewing vs Gravitar I wasn't using reflection. That is just normal missile deflection and then attacking with some other ranged attack.

Re: [Fight Club] Firewing vs Gravitar If we want every combat with a missile deflector to come down to a dex roll then we might as well change the nature of the game system.

Re: [Fight Club] Firewing vs Gravitar The scariest part of Steve's ruling is that it takes away the speed advantage as well because the potential to deflect stays in effect until the start of your next phase. Imagine if the 35 dex character has a 7 speed and the 1 dex has a 6: Phase 12: 35 dex shoots, 1 dex deflects. Phase 2: 35 dex shoots, 1 dex deflects and shoots back. Phase 4: 35 dex shoots, 1 dex deflects. Phase 6: 35 dex shoots, 1 dex deflects and shoots back. Phase 7: 35 dex shoots, 1 dex aborts to his deflect. Phase 8: 1 dex aborted. Phase 9: 35 dex shoots, 1 dex deflects from his abort. Phase 10: 1 dex shoots. Phase 11: 35 dex shoot, 1 dex aborts to his deflect. Phase 12: 35 dex shoots, 1 dex deflects from his abort. This ruling changes everything.

Re: Ponderance.... The character is getting a free phase 2 deflect due to having a lower dex. After deflecting on phase 2 the character can then half move and attack in the same phase. That's 3 attack actions in one phase. Because if the deflector gets to go first on phase 2 he's losing that "free" deflect the new ruling is giving him and is left with his 2 normal half phase action choices.

Re: Ponderance.... The balance has always been the fact that the lower dex character can act before his dex when doing defensive actions [aborting evened out the odds]. The problem is that the deflector isn't losing all of his offensive actions thanks to Steve's ruling. If both character have the same speed then the 1 dex character gets to deflect 100% of the time and attack 50% of the time: Assuming they both have a 6 speed: Phase 12: 35 dex shoots, 1 dex deflects. Phase 2: 35 dex shoots, 1 dex deflects, then 1 dex shoots back. Phase 4: 35 dex shoots, 1 dex deflects. Phase 6: 35 dex shoots, 1 dex deflects, then 1 dex shoots back. Phase 8: 35 dex shoots, 1 dex deflects. Phase 10: 35 dex shoots, 1 dex deflects, then 1 dex shoots back. 1 dex gets 6 chances to deflect and 3 chances to attack with his 6 speed. 35 dex gets no additional benefit from all that extra initiative or his 6 speed.

Re: Ponderance.... It is, IMO, a bad ruling by Steve. It allows someone to effectively have 3 half phase actions in one phase. It also takes away any advantage of having a higher initiative due to dex; effectively giving too much advantage to people with lower dex scores. I think Steve's Dark Champions preference roots are showing through there. It'd be more logical to tie missile deflection to block in that the person who deflects can go first the next phase. That'd be less imbalancing then allowing someone to have multiple attack actions in the same phase, IMO. Just one more "Steve Rule" on my list to ignore.