JSenecal

No offense taken. Simple formulas like the one my group used, and a complex formula like you use serve two seperate purposes. For maintaining balance with thousands of XP, a complex formula like yours is needed. But that isn't the purpose of simple formulas like mine. Rather those are simply a formulitic way of expressing the general idea that the more agile a character is, the weaker that characters attacks and defenses are. Simple formulas just express the trade offs, for example that 5 points of attack equals 1 OCV, or that 1 DCV equals 5 points of PD or ED, 10 points of stun or 20 points of recovery. Are such simple formulas perfect or sufficent for the long run? No, of course not. All they are good for is to codify what factors the GM feels are most important, and how they relate to each other. For a group whose games rarely last much past 100 XP, and never to 200 XP, we don't need such a comprehsive formula as your long lasting games do. As for the Champions not fitting in the 100 limit, my group tends to run low powered heroes. For us, a 60 point attack with an 8 OCV is high, most characters with a 12d6 attack have only a 7 OCV (or less). And Haymakers and move-throughs are counted, since our groups uses those manuvers very rarely. In fact, none of our characters reached the limit. And the one character with darkness (not covered by the formula) had even lower defenses to compensate. With good players, a rule of X isn't a limit, but a guide line so that they don't make characters that are too far from the norm. As with any rule of X, the X needs to be set to match the desired power level. Pehaps 110 would be better for most groups.

Here's a system we used for a while, where X is equal between offense and defense: Offensive X = Active points in attact + 5 * OCV Defensive X = 5 * DCV + PD + ED + STUN/2 + REC/4 Limitations of this formula is that it doesn't take into account SPD, nor powers and abilities that boost combat effectiveness such as find weakness, darkness, or invisibility. Damage reduction is handled by increasing STUN & REC in the formula. We figured that a normal super would be 100 in both defense and offense. For our game we wanted low powered supers, so we were using 80 offense and 100 defense.

Thanks! I recognize the authors as ones I like, but somehow missed those stories. I'll try finding them next time I'm in a book store. Kerplop also had a problem with low gravity, due to it's low density. I think it was .2g at the surface, fading down to 0 at the core.

OK, that's MUCH bigger. But was it inhabited though out it's volume, or was it mostly hollow shell? What story does Cuckoo show up in?

Big as it was, the Skylark of Valeron was mostly just a hollow shell to hold the directional circles to accuratly point at something at vast intergalactic distances. The biggest ship I've ever seen was a short story "Kerplop" in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. That ship was 6000 miles in diameter, and was filled with decks and people. In fact the crew of that ship was roughly equal to the population of the rest of human explored space. But besides being big, it didn't have impresive capabilities. It could accelerate and decelerate from 0 to the speed of light and back to 0 again instantly. It was a generation ship built to explore the magelian clouds, and it was finally comming home. You see, in this world Einstein was right about the the speed of light being the ultimate speed limit, but was wrong about the time dialation effect. It was a fun story. I especially like the part where the inspector of incoming ships is on his way the where the ship is due to apear (it sent word ahead). Actually he was heading 1 mile away from that spot... Which he realizes in time is nowhere near far enough.

Digital Hero #3 has an effectivness rating that is the most comprehensive rule of X I've ever seen. The Excel spreedsheet for calcuating it is here: http://herogames.com/FreeStuff/charactersheets/New%20EF%20Rating.xls I've collected several others that are much simpler, though they have know weaknesses that a GM needs to watch for.

I've seen this line actually used in a story. In a modern day world, technological items (cars, maybe others) where being produced by Native Americans by magical means. And with a much greater efficiency than what could be done using conventional technology.