Captain Pants

Re: Champs Worldwide: Whaddya want?

Bring back the Asesinos from 4th Ed's "Mob Rule" scenario. Update the characters to 350 points (which would be +100 points for "experience" for all but Stalker, maybe bring him to 550-600). Maybe a replacement for Spider Monkey while you're at it. I had a GM who said out of all the Mob Rule/ Asesinos scenarios run, only once did Spider Monkey survive, and that was one where the Mosquito died.

 

For those who may not know/remember their names, they are:

• Stalker
  
• Ocelote
  
• The Tombstone Kid
  
• Mosquito
  
• The Maine (perhaps improved armor?)
  
• Spider Monkey
  
• Montana
  
• El Muerto Obscuro
  

LOL!! Spider Monkey didn't have much in the defense department, and he had such an obnoxious quote. "Humans (spit), I better!" Anything bad that happened to Spider Monkey was always OK in my book.

I had a player stop caring that his character had a code vs. killing, just so he could whack the monkey a good one with his axe. Who was I to stop him?

- Captain Pants

Re: how to build a TRON light cycle

Force Wall' date=' with the limit "Can only lay a wall along the bike's trail." Also remember that the lightcycles only created those walls on their own game grid.[/quote']

 

To each his own, but I would suggest an entangle, usable only as walls. That way it wouldn't take endurance to keep them up, and you can have a limitation dissipate them (sink into the ground) if the motorcycle crashes.

 

- Captain Pants

Re: What was you most powerful Attack vs. Supervillian???

Let me tell you a story.

One upon a time, a group of heroes stopped an egotistical, bossy supervillain from doing something to endanger the earth. With all his cronies knocked out or dead, he was coming back with us on our Mach 4 vehicle after we rescued him from the fruits of his labor (something to do with lava, I believe). One of our characters had Teleport, UAA.

Anyway, the bad guy started getting bossy, since it was a psychological disad of his. Realizing he couldn't be reasoned with, we dipped down the plane and the teleporter sent him in front of a mountain... at Mach 4.

We didn't do the math. He just died.

Re: Fog Sight

Ah, now I get it. Thus the comments about clairsentience. That would make sense, then. Only issue there would be that clairsentience with a mobile perception point might be a little expensive? Not sure... haven't run the numbers.

 

Touch group darkness, eh? That is a little unusual... don't quite understand the SFX there, but you are the GM.... I'd replace Touch group with smell/taste group, myself.

 

How about doing something a little less dramatic? Just give him a radio based sense (radar)? That would solve the issue right there... of course, you'd have to explain the SFX...

Personally speaking, I'd just give the villain a sense his or the player's Darkness doesn't cover. Black Paladin, for instance, has a Fog spell, but he can see in it because he also has "Detect Souls", Discriminatory, Targeting, Tracking, Analyze, Reads Braille, etc. I found that an interesting variant on the "Personal Immunity" approach.

- Pants

Re: Summon vs. Duplication, Invisible Power Effects for >1 action?

I would never allow this construct. I wouldn't allow you to use duplication to give you some kind of ueber arm. It is also MUCH more trouble that it is worth.

 

AF and AoE, in this concept, are reproducing the same effect. You would be doubleing up on the effect. That is why the cost is so outlandish. Purchase it as an AoE as above, or an AF as below:

While you're right about doubling up the effects, what this approach doesn't do is create the effect I want, which is firing either a single shot or a burst (can do this with different slots in a MP, obviously) out of each gun, at the same time, at differing targets. The approach you're suggesting sends many bullets out all in a single instance, kind of like a vomitous pincushion, and it severely limits range (in the case of AE).

In the movie (starring Christian Bale, btw... who is going to play Batman in Batman Begins, coming in 2005), he would stroll into a crowd of targets, fire on either side of himself with his arms spread, and fire -- two targets down. A second or two passed as he then crossed his arms and fired at two other targets on either side of himself. Then he uncrossed, fired, and recrossed repeatedly until all targets were dead. The key thing here is that he could fire both guns at once, at separate targets, on successive rounds.

Using autofire or AE doesn't take any time... it just does it all at once, so there would be no time between shots for targets to take action, which I think is an important distinction.

I'm curious... why not allow this construct, considering it costs 183 points (actually I redid the math and it costs 210)? Would you allow it as Duplication (winds up costing 708)? What problems, other than complexity, do you see doing it this way?

- Pants

After watching Equilibrium(for those that haven't seen the movie, I recommend it highly), I took a whack at creating a Grammaton Cleric for Champions. Originally, for his "gun kata," I created a single killing attack, autofire, with a radius area effect.

A few problems with that approach. Since this occurred in a single phase, he would just stand there and abruptly everyone within 8" of him would take damage (assuming they got hit). Also, his range was 8", far shorter than guns like his would normally be. And finally, the AE+AF approach was a killer on active points, which kept the attacks fairly low in damage.

Something I had experimented in the past with was Duplication, Invisible Special Effects (Total), and I wanted to bounce it off those of you here to see how it jived with your understanding of Champions.

This is what I tried:

183 Summon (1 301-Point Creatures) ; Range (0"); Amicable (Slavishly Loyal): +1; Invisible Power Effects (All Senses): +1; Feedback (Beneficial Effects); Feedback (BODY Damage); Feedback (STUN Damage)

2: Mind Link ; Minds Involved (One Specific Mind): +5; Number of Minds (1): +0; Distance (Single Planet): +0; Dimension (Current): +0; Feedback [sTUN and BODY]: -2

The summoned character has some other individual things on it, such as disads like "Can't speak." That I don't need help with, at least not yet.

So, during his "gun kata," he would summon something that would act on its own accord, as its own entity, but over which he had total control, in this case one of his arms. Since the summoned character has all the same attacks and SPD, he would be able to effectively act twice in a single phase, or at least look like he was doing so.

So my questions:

1. Is this legal?

2. Should I/Can I use Duplication instead? (ghastly more expensive!!)

3. Can the summoned character have a 0 INT, and still act on instructions via Mind Link?

4. Should the arm (in a perfect world) be an automaton, allowing feedback to damage the main character without "stunning" his arm if he gets hit?

5. Should I make the arm desolid vs. mental attacks? How would I "pass that buck"?

6. Is there a better way to do this?

Any insights here would be appreciated, whether they're answers to my questions or just thoughts about it in general.

- Captain Pants