Tom McCarthy

Re: Info On The First Champions Ever I think you'll find them by searching for "Guardians". They were PCs in a campaign for which the system was designed, and as such weren't "owned" by just one person. Also, the group's membership fluctuated because the lineup in the Champions RPG did not match the comic (due to distributed IP/ownership), and then the comic continued without the licenses by changing everyone's name (and sometimes gender). I don't think they were ever updated for 5th edition. A partial list: Marksman Goliath/Giant Flare Icestar (property of Glen Thain, IIRC) Rose Gargoyle (property of Mark Williams, IIRC)

Re: Mystic World cover The cover does go an awfully long way to making up for a title I considered accurate but uninspiring. Good work, Mr. Davenport.

Re: Power Problem I know I sound like I'm beating a dead horse here, but I really think you should just use the adder. The reason the adder appears under FF and not Armor is probably because it fits FF SFX and doesn't fit Armor SFX. But you're doing FF SFX, so take the adder as a "naked advantage" and be done with it (possibly applying 0 END advantage to it). Everything else works, but is too expensive (and sometimes "you get what you pay for" is a reasonable goal).

Re: Power Problem Can you get GM's permission to apply the "Protects held objects" adder (or is it an advantage ?) to the Armor ?

Re: Where do the CU characters come from? Neutron - Magneto played for laughs Eurostar was a 'new X-Men as villains' team Le Sone - Cyclops Bora - Storm Pantera - Wolverine Durak - Colossus White Flame - Rising Sun Terror, Inc. was a 'FF as led by Dr. Doom' Prof. Muerte - Dr. Doom Giganto - the Thing Feur (Feuermacher) - Human Torch Crusader - Capt. America Dr. Destroyer - Dr. Doom Grond - savage Hulk Capt. Australia - Superman/Supergirl Viperia - Supergirl Black Claw - Wolverine played for laughs Fox of Crime - Nightcrawler played for laughs Sparkler - Jubilee Avar-7 - Vision although, maybe I was wrong.

Re: Where do the CU characters come from? I was such a DC zombie when I started playing Champions that I thought Mechanon was Computo. I didn't recognize Binder, either. A few who struck me as original were Plasmoid, Slick, Foxbat, Dark Seraph, and Ankylosaur. I was pretty quick to recognize the inspirations for Neutron, Le Sone, Bora, Pantera, Durak, White Flame, Giganto, Feur (Feuermacher), Crusader, Dr. Destroyer and Prof. Muerte, Grond, Capt. Australia, Viperia, Black Claw, Fox of Crime, Sparkler, Avar-7, and a few others.

Re: Lack of Power coverage Perhaps a rhetorical question but doesn't it strike you as odd that you would never attack your opponent with a Shrinking Ray built as "Shrinking Usable As Attack" ?

Re: Lack of Power coverage Just some noodling: Any power with more than three advantages or more than 3 disadvantages deserves consideration as a separate power unto itself. Power Mimicry and Theft - Somehow, a power mimicry VPP doesn't seem counterintuitive, but the power theft builds always seem complex. I'd have voted for building a separate power for this. Possession and Mind Swapping - Again, people know how to build these from existing components (ref. the Spirit Rules), but they really deserve to be built as special powers. Bodyjacker is a cool concept who shouldn't cost that many points. Absorption of multiple types without buying the power multiple times - Great idea. Absorption as a defence - we probably want an absorption which defends based on amount absorbed, not on amount rolled Multiform - I'd like to see an adder or advantage for "Any form up to max points" (floating multiform). Contagious - I'd like to see Sticky (+1) for attacks that are Sticky not just from the original target, but from all secondary and tertiary targets. Flowing like a liquid - Desolidification is the single power for avoiding barriers and avoiding damage 100%. It probably should be two powers. There's concepts that call for avoiding barriers or avoiding damage but not the other. And this is frequently a reductionist system. Deemphasize the physical - The attributes in the game favour the physical. Historically, it's easy to see why; the game grew from a genre which was focused, at the time, on physical combat. It has some stumbling points as a consequence; the concept of astral forms and spirits can be hard to work with, and mages have to work doubly hard because of the combined physical/mental effects of their powers. They deserve a stat they can use to create a CV with which to attack others (possibly against ECV or DCV). Paralysis - I know there's mental entangles, but a way to force someone to freeze perhaps should be more straightforward. Object Creation - There was a beautiful article on this in Digital Hero where the object's BODY and DEF were built up Entangle style, with object creation skills and the like. On the other hand, I think the Incomplete Characters concept needs a bit of work before it's becomes the official "Masterclass" "Stuffed in the Appendix" way to make a focus with the DEF, BODY and powers you want. Mental powers all or nothing - I might like to see some mental powers which are cumulative and "mental REC" which can lower the effect of ongoing mental assaults (rather than an EGO roll). Then a mind control does indeed slowly build and overcome defences. An attempt to snap someone free from mental attack becomes a way to reduce the overall effect. Throw ina smattering of effects from the PRE attack table to make someone delay or pause, and you've got something very interesting. Absolute Defences - yep, should be in there Oil Slicks - yep, deserves aa power (even if it's just a narrow Change Environment) Shockwaves and Forceblasts (that just knock people down without damage) Regeneration and Healing as separate powers (heck, I'm not even sure why Regeneration doesn't require Continuous or the like). Sizes - I know it's the genre, but if Growth and Shrinking are the powers for changing your size, why are they useless as attacks ? Ditto Density Increase, really. Suffocation - I like it. Much better than an instantaneous NND. Dispel - why isn't this SFX driven ? It could easily be rewritten with the starting level as "Dispel any fire power, one at a a time" as the base, rather than "Dispel EB". Duplication - how about an adder to freely replace dead duplicates ? or even make the current hard limit on duplicates a limitation ? Missile deflection vs. hand to hand blows - yep, I know it's called a block. Except it doesn't have such easy options for acting at range. Animating objects - this could use some work Damage Shield - I'd like to see No Range be a valid limitation for ranged powers used in a damage shield, the way Strength Doesn't Add is for HA and HKA damage shields. Beating someone to death - It's not a pleasant topic, but there should be some way that unconscious figures can be killed. It simply isn't possible (IIRC) for a 50 STR brick to do BODY to a 30 PD brick even after he's beaten unconscious (unless the coup de grace rules are far more generous than I recall).

Re: Always On + Linked I think you want: Force Field: Force field (10 rPD, 10 rED, 10 resistant Power Defense) (30 active points) It costs a litlle more (OK, a lot more), and you're paying END for Power Defense, but it definitely solves your "Power Defense available if and only if force field is on" in the simplest way possible.

Re: Upon Further Review: The Champions I haven't looked closely at Eurostar (I discarded them out of hand as being Over the Top; maybe they deserve a second look), but I (and a PC) discovered the hard way how much more dangerous Blowtorch is. I think Bulldozer and Oculon became much tougher and Ripper is obscenely more deadly. Earth Master (now a Crown of Krim) became dark and dangerous. What I really noticed, though, is that the median power level in CKC was driven up from Classic Enemies by the guys who didn't make the cut. Consider Thunder & Lightning, Raccoon and Panda, Mongoose, Plague, Power Crusher, Powerhouse, Los Asesinos (and the Maine), the Fox of Crime, Shamrock and Sparkler. The Conquerors. Ou sont les goofballs d'antan ? They weren't pushovers, but they were generally friendlier and less dangerous than those who remain.

Re: DARK CHAMPIONS: What Do *You* Want To See? It's not Hero, but... One thing I've been playing with in my campaign to make skills more distinct is to make low skill rolls cheaper and high skill rolls more expensive. In Champions, there can be a real problem with lots of players clustering around DEX 23 and 14- for Breakfall or some similar breakpoint. I decided to give out lots of free 'everyman' skills, personalized for the character's background job. Just about any 8- roll that fit the character's background came for free. After that, it cost 2 points for 11- (and no levels add), and 3 points for 9 + (CHAR/10) - (levels can add). It's not standard Hero (and would invalidate so many character sheets that DOJ could never publish it as even a 'suggested rule variant'), but it does have the effect of making a 14- skill roll rare and impressive. Omnibus or encyclopedic knowledge becomes quite expensive even with the appropriate modifiers.

Re: Beginning of an Era Glad to hear how this one ended. On a related note, anyone ever hear how D-Man's campaign ended ("When campaigns change" covered about 8 or 9 sessions leading up to the climactic ending, I believe) ?

Re: DARK CHAMPIONS: What Do *You* Want To See? Structurally, I don't know if it would work, but I'm wondering if this needs the "campaigns" breakdown visible in both versions of Ninja Hero. Cops & PIs campaign - normal people, city-wide scope, realistic equipment (Law & Order, CSI, Adam 12, Magnum PI, Barnaby Jones, etc.) Espionage/Special Forces campaign - normal people, international scope, realistic equipment (Queen & Country or Whiteout comics, Secret Agent / Danger Man TV series, Rainbow Six, Tom Clancy, some gritty Green Arrow stuff) Secret agents & street ninjas campaign - heroic people, international scope, romantic equipment (Mission:Impossible, James Bond, Nick Fury/SHIELD, GI Joe, Walter Jon Williams or William Gibson cyberpunk) Urban vigilantes - heroic/superheroic people, city-wide scope, realistic equipment (Punisher, gritty Daredevil) DC: TAS - heroic/superheroic people, city or international scope, romantic equipment (Batman, Batman:TAS, gritty Spider-Man street-level stories, Green Arrow vs. organized crime)

Re: Should this be called Dark Champions? Well, I'd certainly vote for "Action Hero" as a name which better captures the tone and feel of the book. "Danger International" also has energy and captures the espionage/spy feel nicely (although I agree, it felt more like today's Queen & Country comic than a James Bond movie). More of the proposed material sounds like "Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes" than "Batman", more "Commando" than "Daredevil", more "Rainbow Six" than "Secret Six" (although Secret Six might just work great as a campaign premise), more "Mission: Impossible" than "Punisher". Even "Superagents" seems to better hit the centre of the range being covered than "Dark Champions". I really think you could fill several books with a spectrum of pulpish costumed avengers from the Shadow/Raven/Avenger to Batman/Daredevil/Punisher and have a great book, but the book Steve's planning to call Dark Champions is broader than that and the name seems narrow. If not for the bizarre Michael Jackson connotations, "Thriller !" might be a better title than "Dark Champions".

Re: Gaming "Outside the Box" Pretty standard Champions fare, but I caught some real breaks with this one. A simple bit of guest GMing allowed me to be the 'inside man'. Foxbat was about to transition from his archnemesis psychosis/fixation on the hero Wall-E to becoming Wall-E's follower, aide de camp and sidekick. But Wall-E died on Destruga, and the world (and Freddy Foswell) mourned. Since a guest GM was taking over from me for a short arc next, I took Foxbat's character sheet and made him into the heroic Cannoneer (complete with Meaningful Kirby Poses TM) and presented him as my PC. The guest GM blinked a bit about 'Hunted by Champions' and 'Hunted by PRIMUS' and 'Obsessive rivalry with Wall-E', but went with it. A few of the players thought I was insensitive for having Cannoneer talk at length about how he was inspired by, and superior to, the recently deceased Wall-E. Oh, and the closest matching figure I could use was my buddy Meat's HeroClix mod of Foxbat... So the first adventure goes by, with Cannoneer doing far better than Foxbat usually does, and I'm then back in the GM chair. Wall-E's player still hasn't finished his new character, so he asks to play Cannoneer. I allow it, and he doesn't even twig to the disads, cheerfully playing the Cannoneer as a true blue hero for two story arcs. Eventually the Cannoneer returns to being an NPC, then falls under the mind control of an evil villain. When the team finally breaks him out, I reveal to the players that the Cannoneer is actually Foxbat. Priceless. Then I run 'Let's Go To The Maul'. And everyone's taking every opportunity to beat on Foxbat very personally. Classic.

Re: THE ULTIMATE BRICK -- What Do *You* Want To See? For heroic 'bricks': More steps on the damage chart, like: 10 2D6 12 2D6+1 13 2.5D6 14 3D6-1 15 3D6 For damage absorption at a heroic level, perhaps regeneration, damage reduction or just high REC, BODY and EGO (only for wounding rolls ?). Superheroically: Perhaps a look at the specific tradeoffs of throwing automobiles. They're a typical choice and frequently available, so what area do they cover, what's the max damage you can apply with one, what's the OCV penalty. I agree that throwing, leaping, and tearing through inanimate objects are frequently more limited by the game mechanics than they are in the source material; leaping options for non-combat multipliers and megascale work well, but throwing should be expanded (and relatively inexpensively, I think). I'd like to see the rules for bringing down buildings expanded on; correspondingly, how big a piece can you tear off a building with your bare hands.

Cults, Conspiracies and Illuminated Orders ? For King and Country ? Musketeers and Pimpernels ?

In order to make DEMON a player, I think it will be necessary that some or all of their weapons have some distinct advantage or difference from VIPER and UNTIL blasters, etc. Their ranged attacks, for example, should probably include some AVLD (Power Defence) or the like, so that traditional armour offers little protection. Or they rival blasters in power (7-8D6), but are truly inobvious until used (jewelry, etc.). They've got what it takes to have ideal stealth technology (invisibility), nasty poisonous attacks (rivaling some of VIPER's nastiest, or purely fantasy inspurations), and the ability to transform innocents into weapons against the heroes. Since PSI already has a lot of mental effects wrapped up, DEMON mental power effects should probably have magical/fantastical/ritual notions. Mind Scan or the like should require multi-member rituals, gestures, chanting, etc. DEMON should probably have some oneiromancers who attack through dreams, too.

I think I really like the idea of a genius who wants to improve the world but keeps causing more problems than he fixes. That I can use. On the other hand, I love having a Dr. Destroyer out there. It keeps my players worried (and fear is a wonderful thing; after more than a decade away from D&D, I'd forgotten what it meant to know each encounter could be not just your last, but the last for every member of the party). So Dr. Destroyer is never going to be that benevolent genius. A space alien, Beyonder, cosmic herald, time traveler, or even Foxbat after a bump on the head, but not Dr. Destroyer.

I hadn't run it, but I thought the Cut-Ups from Over The Edge did a good job of being playable within a surreal Dada-esque framework. I'd like to put such things in Champions, but speccing out the surreal things in terms of powers seems to leave them flat (look at Mrs. Miggs from Creatures of the Night, or some of the beasties from Ultimate SuperMage/ USM Bestiary; cool and surreal, but the character sheet looks like just another character sheet, and they're sandwiched between straightforward characters with straightforward schticks, like Jean-Luc Picard Lamplighter). It's a shame Over The Edge never gets more attention; as a 'loose rules' roleplaying game, it's incredibly easy to teach to beginners and play around in. And the setting's strange enough that just landing at the airport will turn your characters on their heads. Oh, and I loved Warren Ellis's Planetary issue where they have the Vertigo-esque funeral and a Miracleman-like/Animal man-like character complains about how his entire life changed when he went from Silver Age to Vertigo.

Random thoughts: DEMON is one of the few organizations that might understand or be aware of the power behind the Supreme Serpent. Definitely a question to answer one way or another. Also, they're an intriguing candidate to pursue the lost lantern. Similarly, VIPER is an automatic opponent of ARGENT and Dr. Destroyer for the acquisition of power through technology. DEMON is an automatic opponent to Takofanes and the Crowns of Krim for acquisition of power through mystical means. DEMON's conflicts with the Crowns and Takofanes must be mentioned. Of course, immortal Morbanes have the potential to attract Dr. Destroyer's attention, too. As far as magical horror without sticking to Lovecraft, the mutating and dehumanizing affect of Chaos from Games Workshop's lines or (I've heard) Monte Cook's Chaositech is another avenue for exploration. Individual cultists bonded to infernal devices without understanding the insidious corruption they've released inside themselves. I'd like a couple of plots that lead to DEMON without clearly being DEMON stories, like a serial murder, kidnappings, cattle mutilations. Arguably, Demons Rule was an attempt at just this. 'Religious dates' and the like should be very important to be aware of. If I might be so bold, I know there are multiple Kings of Edom, but I really don't know if they have unique domains within a pantheon or if they all have the same goals, methods, and attitudes. Detailing a few rival Kings (and the factions within DEMON that support them) might be good. I liked that DEMON had mythical figures in its ranks, but it did raise issues when the CU cosmology was unclear (not quite as bad as conflicting versions of Atlantis, but approaching it). Still, I'd like to see one-third to half the upper council be former Morbanes who've risen through the ranks while the rest might be outsiders trained in other magical traditions (shamen, voudons, elementals, faeries, undead). It might be apropos, but a buzz through Suppressed Transmission might be interesting, especially focusing on Antarctic Space Nazis and some High Weirdness. Geographically, will DEMON be centred in North America (Vibora Bay or New Orleans, perhaps) or somewhere hidden and exotic (Tibet, China, Antarctica/Hollow Earth) or decentralized ? Does the CU have a group who have extra-dimensional movement and have even gone so far as to decimate an entire dimension ? Istvatha V'Han (sp ?) has the potential to be such a villain, but she moves whole armies around. DEMON would be a very insidious force (but perhaps less horrifying) if they came from a dimension where they'd already succeeded. Horrorworld and the Anopheles Plague might be worth referring to or updating for a few pages.

My players love Foxbat's crazy schemes and Oculon's whining. It'll be a sad day when we switch over to the competent Oculon from VIPER: CotS. Heck, I may have to juggle the whole Dragon Branch just to keep Oculon the loser. Oh, and Armadillo's psych lims 'In love with his own suit' and 'Declares his intentions before acting in combat' endear him ightily to the players. Sadly, there are no female PCs on my team to truly give an appreciation of Bulldozer. And Blowtorch, that likeable loser, is significantly deadlier in CKC.

Unified Frameworks Let's define Kernel points as the maximum active points of a single power from the framework. It's also the base cost of the framework. If all powers in the framework have a common limitation, it may be applied to the Kernel. If you apply an advantage to the Kernel (with the exception of charges), it applies to all powers in the framework without affecting their active, real or Kernel points costs. The character buy fixed predefined powers. To use the fixed predefined power, he must dedicate a number of Kernel points equal to the maximum active points of the power. Each fixed predefined power has a cost equal to 1/10th of the power's real cost (as an ultra in a multipower). The character buy flexible predefined powers. To use the flexible predefined power, he must dedicate a number of Kernel points equal to the active points of the power he wishes to use. Each flexible predefined power has a cost equal to 1/5th of the power's real cost (as a multi in a multipower). The character may define a multi-expression power. This is a single power which has effects which must be simulated using a set of Hero System powers. To use the set of powers in the multi-expression power, he must dedicate as many Kernel points as the maximum active points of the largest power in the set. The real cost of the multi-expression power is half the sum of the real cost of all powers in the multi-expression power except the most powerful. Any negative adjustment power used against any power in the multi-expression power will affect all powers in the set with double the usual level of effect. (as an EC) The character may wish to be able to use some of the Kernel points to create any game effect on the fly, within the SFX of the framework. The base cost to do this is 1 point for every 2 Variable points, and may not buy more Variable points than he has Kernel points. When he wishes to create such a power (or combination of powers), it will use Kernel points equal to the active points of the highest active point power, and Variable points equal to the real costs of all powers created this way. Creating such a power takes a skill roll and a full phase, or no skill roll and several minutes to hours. Advantages can be applied to make it easier to create such powers (+1 for No roll, +1/2 for Half Phase to change, +1 for No Time to Change), and limitations to make it harder (-1/2 for only in lab, or arsenal, or from spell book; similar for mimics, etc.)

I think you need to go back to the original Golden Age Champions for this. It was an effect where you took half damage (maybe even full ? I heard it third hand) if you hit something and didn't do enough BODY to exceed their rPD. It let people break their hands hitting bulletproof heroes of the day.

3 suction-cup arrows from your quiver ? They've only got 30 feet of line, but otherwise possible.