Cardinal

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... taccf???

Re: New Protectors Rising! (Bay City Campaign idea) Good stuff and a great idea for a campaign. I LOVE to serve and protect and the protectors. Anything that brings them back is money.

Re: Commisioned Art

Re: I need a Chinese Super Team. Given that you are having challenges with teh power level with out breaking out your munchkin fu, why don't you start creating team ups. with six immortals remaining, it is time for a pair followed by a foursome to face off with the heroes.

Re: Encounter Balance In the vein of this post, I threw together a quick spreadsheet for another thread. The concept is that in order to determine a rough metric of effectiveness you need to look at the average damage a character will dish per turn and the average damage they will get hit with. Each is based on the average damage past defenses * the probability of getting hit. As noted, this is thrown out the window when you get to things like NNDs, drains, etc. but it should give you a rough sense of how long someone can survive.

Re: Medusa of Psi in Practice Thanks for the catch on the math. My bad. However, my point was not that Mentalla would never get out. My point was that even against high powered mentalists and mystics (who speciality is mental powers), Medusa's attacks is effectively a "one shot kill" for that combat. Let's look at that in more detail. While I agree you are not going to end up with all 3 and 4's, but for every 6 you have a chance to offset it with a 1. As such, on average you will end up with 1 Body and 3.5 stun per die. However, Mentalla can roll above average. However, she will have to consistently roll above average in order to get out. That means that she would need (on average) six above average rolls in order to break out. Assuming that 50% of the time she will roll above average body (which as Hugh points over states the case), this means that she will need 12 phases (roughly 2 turns) on average to break out. Two turns is pretty much an entire combat. Dark Seraph and Overbrain are each knocked out for 6 phases on average, or a turn. ... and this is for mentalists / mystics. Goodness help you if it is not your speciality. If you want a straw man, let's look at one that is not too far fetched. Call it 20 EGO + 0 MD (I think the MD is probably representative but the ego is probably high for an average character). In that case even by rolling a <1% outcome of 8 body on 4D6, the PC will NEVER break out. It sounds like people's experience (as noted by Matthew and Hugh) is that Medusa is effectively an even more extreme version of the normal "pile on the mentalist" situation. What hooks would you use as a GM in order to play into the comic book toupe that Hugh referenced of you lose round one and figure out a way to win round 2? I suspect, given her powerset, this is likely going to be the very non-heroic sneak attack. Also, random question, is their a default under the rules about whether a mental entangle disappears if Medusa is knocked out? If not, I would strongly considering adding that to the power. That would do a lot to turning the tables on Psi if she gets taken out (all of a sudden 5 frozen heroes pop back to life). Thanks to everyone for the feedback. I appreciate the variety of perspectives as I noodle this through.

Re: Single Most Powerful Super Hero EVER!!!

Has anyone here extensively used Medusa from PSI in a game. How does that work out? From a quick review she seems completely unbalanced in play and I wanted to see if that was the reality. On average her mental paralysis will have 8def / 6 body and is defended by EGO + MD. While I understand she has low def and is comparatively slow, her personality of striking from surprise means that she will likely be able to get the first shot which will effectively be the last shot. By way of comparison, I've compared this entangle against three mentalist / mystic characters that would be expected to be able to stand up against her without too much issue. Mentalla 25 EGO, 15 MD (7D6) - 657 pts Overbrain 30 EGO, 15MD (6D6 Mental Blast) - 905 (skill heavy) pts Dark Seraph 20 EGO, 10 MD (alt 9D6 Mental blast if allowed by SFX) - 927 pts The result, without pushing and average rolls, is: Mentalla would never be able to break out of the mental paralysis Overbrain 6 phases to break out Dark Serpah never based on EGO + MD and if an "Agony" sfx were allowed against the entangle 6 phases An average hero with 20 Ego would never be able to get out.... even with pushing. I understand that one expects that a 150+AP power is going to be nasty. I'm just worried it is unplayable. I would think that it would be a "more" balanced power if it maxed at about 4 def (so that no normal 10 EGO would be able to get out) and instead had 10d6 for body. This would allow the result of being taken out for a while, but with the chance of getting back in the game. I would appreciate feedback from anyone who has actually ever used her. Thanks

Re: HSMA: A combat test Isn't there already a maneuver called Grappling Block that fits the bill? My memory is that it is a block that results in a grab.

Re: Black Falcon 3.5 Pizza Man - Are you the artist for the BF pics? They are great. I am not familiar with Deviant Art, is it just a comic book fan / art site?

I'm contemplating what book(s) to purchase and I had a quick question from the assembled masses. How much has changed between Champions Universe: News of the World and the new Champions Universe 6th Ed. I am trying to determine where to prioritize it in my list. Also, other than the basic 6th Ed rule books, where do people rank: 1. Villains 1 2.Villains 2 3. Villains 3 4. Advanced Player Guide 5. HS Martial Arts 6. Champions Powers I loved the 5th ed marital arts book. How different is the 6th ed version? Thanks for feedback from anyone out there.

Re: My character building technique (How to build Hero System Characters) I tweaked the spreadsheet to address the point made above about Segment 12. In the Expected Damage box, it has a w/12 column that adds one extra phase to the speed. If we you want to make the math more complicated, you can add an analysis of how long can the character last in a fight. This would bring in Stun and Recovery as well. Also, note that the DCV and OCV should be reflective of the modifiers that the character would normally face (i.e. ranged combatant should reflect range penalties and levels for their OCV, but add the range penalties to their DCV (because they will be shot at at range)). It gets overly complicated very quickly, but seems to make sense as an approach.

Re: Avatar: The Last Airbender Very late to the game, but just checking to see if anyone put together a final package on this. I just watched a bunch of episodes with my boys and it is perfect for a game. A couple of thoughts that struck me: 1. Their GM threw out TONS of xp during the adventure. Katara starts being lucky to do a dinky water whip (effectively her only power) and ends the series throwing beat downs on people left and right. Starting characters are relatively low points. Experienced characters are effectively superheroes (see the Fire Lord/Phoenix King flying around with fire blasts). 2. The characters definitely have RSR early on. However, by the end that has been bought off and is not in play. 3. I agree that Missile Deflection is effectively a martial maneuver that is pretty standard (low cost). Lots of the blast to blast, ice walls, etc. are effectively sfx for MD. 4. I think mechanically, I would lean towards a MP for benders (except Avatar who has a VPP). However, I am tempted to use the MP / VPP to provide the base power / skill and allow characters to buy DCs that would increase all of them. This would mirror the fact that the characters start to ramp very quickly once they have a basic skill set in place. Thinking this though this is effectively the same thing as creating each power as a martial maneuver... hmm... more and more, that feels like the right answer (except for the avatar and phoenix king.. hmmm). Any thoughts would be appreciated. I would love to hear what everyone else has done.

Re: Champions for newcomers. Hooray! I agree with Tom's suggestion about segmenting the mechanics from the story. Also, you may want to considering starting the guys with sidekick and then add additional rules as they move up the experience curve. You might want to to start with basic combat maneuvers and KB (given your players's memories) and then start adding items like endurance, advanced maneuvers, etc. Sounds like fun. Enjoy!

Re: Top 10 #6: Limitation: Compulsion to always use Joy Buzzers