Tom McCarthy

For better or worse, newer Marvel stats typically appeared with the subsequent RPGs. IIRC, the Marvel Superheroes Adventure Game used SAGA and conversions for it have been done by some board members. Marvel Comics will be publishing a newer RPG this month, I believe, but it may not lend itself to conversions.

Depending on the level of mental defence in the campaign, Does BODY (with GM's permission) might do the job. Alternatively, a side effect or link on the highest dice that the target is hit with a small NND RKA BOECV Does BODY might also be the way to go.

I try never to have more than two major plot arcs going on at one time, and find fewer than half my players pursue subplots.

A nice looking superhero adventure for Mutants and Masterminds that looks like something you could easily adapt to Champions or SAS. The adventure feels very much like Crisis on Infinite Earths or Cosmic Odyssey, with the consequences of the action truly epic in scale, yet the obstacles and challenges in the drama remain very much within the scope of the PCs. By easily adapt, I mean the plotline and ballpark-close character adaptations.

While I'm quite interested in a Champions/Wildstorm crossover, I think it will be much harder to swing with licensed properties. I think we might see Champions/Mutants & Masterminds before crossovers with licensed properties published as RPGs by GOO.

You can try running a few simple adventures with no advantages, no limitations, no END, no knockback, etc. Just the simplest rules. Once you've got the basics, start adding juicy bits. If you don't know how to build a power, ask here. Almost always, several good suggestions will follow.

How about buying him as the superior doctor, then having a Dependence or Susceptibility on draining people, with the penalty being greatly reduced competency ?

Denying yourself access to your own powers for absolutely no gain should cost no points. As a GM, I'd just roleplay it. If a character did it in order to disguise the existence of the powers, then it's probably a modifier on the Distinctive Features disadvantage they probably have.

I thought that power sounded familiar. I assume you'll neglect to buy Life Support ? Do you have Star Hero ? The rocket engines there have a reduced value side effect for the KA blast area when they operate. It's lowered in value, since it doesn't affect the character, just the immediate environment. In a lot of published material lately, many characters seem to have triggers which automatically reset themselves (and arguably, it should be an option for another +1/4 or so). If you are uncomfortable with that, I might buy the explosion power with no conscious control, then take a physical limitation that it goes off whenever you're hit and in proportion to the attack that hit. A complicated variation is to buy an END Reserve, absorption to the END Reserve, and youDo you have Star Hero ? I might look at the side effects on the rocket engines there, where the side effect value is an attack on the immediate area and reduced in value since it sometimes doesn't affect the character or any firends.r explosion attack goes off whenever there is END, and completely drains the END Reserve.

I was more worried about players having the option of inexpensively adding ultra slots to their multipowers than of the ease with which the power levels rose. In the end , GM approval kept things in line. One option is to keep the multipower as a whole within the active point limits of the campaign. If the limit is 70 active points, then 14D6 is fine outside a multipower, but look at this multipower: 50 Multipower, 50 active point powers 5u 10D6 EB 5u 5D6 DEF 5 Entangle 5u 3D6+1 RKA 5u Forcewall 10 rPD, 10 rED That's 70 active points of multipower, and significantly lower levels of effect for the same cost. And if the limits jump to 80, there's only room to go to 55 active point powers.

If the weapons of the day are sabres and flintlocks, that sounds like 4 DCs of KA. For most of the heroes to be vulnerable, I'd allow only bricks to have resistant defences and I'd use hit locations. I think 75+75 might be sufficient. You won't need very powerful attacks to outstrip the weapons of the day, and you won't want very high characteristics and defences.

My personal nitpick, which many of you have heard before, is that the desolid-based bodyjacking is far more expensive than its value would indicate. Look at Bodyjacker in Millennium City, apply the errata, and then tell me whether that's really what he's worth. Particularly, is that what he's worth compared to if he was a straight up mentalist with the same number of dice in mind control with no limitations.

I have considered the possibility of multi-forming Jericho into the target's shape, physical powers only, and EDMing the target into insubstantiability. It has the problem that the target doesn't get damaged as jericho gets beat up in their form. As you've done it, a Aid STUN may work better than STUN UBO, as Steve has said. But yeah, I think you've got a decent suite here (transdimensional mind control, transdimensional clairsentience, EDM). Maybe a mind link or side effect to take the damage when the target is damaged, possibly a side effect that he's vulnerable to mental attacks on the target, definitely a side effect that he will return physically when the mind control is broken. You might want to require a DEX roll to achieve eye contact.

Yeah, but I sure didn't bang every last power into a calculator. That's dedication. And I skipped Animal Powers so I'd have something to read when the book came out (cause the wife notices if I drop $40 CAN on a book and am never seen reading it). Unfortunately, I'm still prodding my FLGS to convince their distributors that there's a book called Millennium City out there.

Now that's funny ! Monolith's fingerprints are going to be all over this thing. I think he must have proofread that manuscript to a level no one else did. And he still is impatient for the real thing.

Transcend Here's a 4th edition character sketch I never completed. He was similar in feel to Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt. This one has a few archetypal or cliched elements, but could be something interesting. The character might have a name like Transcend. He is a Westerner from the Orient; his family were explorers in the Himalaya Mountains, and when they accidentally trespassed on the mysterious Yengtao Temple, their lives were forfeit. However, their young son was allowed to live and train at the temple. For now, we'll call him John Gunn. The Yengtao Temple accepts students from all over the Orient. They seek to uncover and train the reincarnation of the Vajra, who will defend this age from the evil spirit known to some as the Death Dragon or Death Pig. Surprisingly, young John Gunn was one of the temple's top students at the time, and developed a rivalry with Lo Duc Tran, the other top competitor. Tran was bigoted against Westerners and Gunn, to annoy him further, adopted many of the stereotypical Western flaws, such as antagonizing and disrespectful talk towards his enemy. Tran was always too emotional, and could usually be goaded into making a mistake which would allow Gunn to defeat him. When he reached adulthood, Gunn was told he would be this generation's defender, and after that he would begin deeper training and immersion in Yengtao secrets. Tran challenged him and tried to kill him. Gunn was badly wounded, but survived, and Tran was banished. Today, Gunn has emerged from the Temple of Yengtao to set himself against practitioners of other arts and wielders of strange powers. Gunn is a powerful martial artist, with the mental or mystical ability to control his body and boost his own characteristics beyond normal human levels. Such an act usually is accompanied by the mantra, "I can, I must, I will !". 20 STR 26 DEX 25 CON 10 BODY 10 INT 18 EGO 15 PRE 10 COM 12 PD 12 ED 6 SPD 10 REC 50 END 32 STUN 150 points EC - Mental Mastery/ Mind over Body, all require an EGO roll (10) a 50% Damage Reduction, physical, resistant, STUN damage only, requires an EGO roll (7) b 50% Damage Reduction, physical and energy, resistant, STUN damage only, requires an EGO roll (7) c +30 STR, requires an EGO roll, 4x END, 12 END (5) d 3D6 Aid, all characteristics one at a time, self only, only to starting values, requires an EGO roll, 4 END (9) Damage Resistance 6,6 (6) +3" Running, 1 END / 5" (6) Martial Arts - classic comic book or other (23) +4 damage classes (16) KS: Martial world (3) KS: Analyze style (3) KS: Martial art of Yengtao (3) Local Police Powers (2)

If it's a VPP, I would make it Cosmic, but then limit it as you've said. I think you'll have to think about just how frequently it can change (once per phase, once per second, once per DEX rank in a phase, an infinite amount in a phase). I would consider buying it not as a VPP, but as an EC of END burning defences or even just straight defences. For example, the chracter is effectively immune to all toxins. Rather than a VPP which allows him to do this, just buy the Life Support. Buy power defence, armour, hardening, flash defence, mental defence, etc.

I'm told it wasn't very hard to do at all. More surprising was that the two halves were different colours, necessitating a thorough paint job.

Green and mean http://clix.themakis.net/grond.jpg A work in progress, and more Mark Williams than Storn Cook.

Trex, because he read somewhere Trex was the king of the dinosaurs.

Good tip there from Monlith about the random character generator. Try choosing promising sounding paths in the character generator and see if it gets you in the neighbourhood.

Well, the first draft is usually a bit out of whack, but let's try a few things. 20 STR This costs 10 points (base is 10 points, then 1 pt for every point over that). I grab it out of the air, since a hero who fights in close combat is usually above 10 STR. It allows him to lift about 4 times as much as a typical hero (ie., firefighter or policeman) but doesn't stretch the bounds of what a human might be capable of. 20 DEX or 26 DEX This really depends on the 'look and feel' of the universe you play in. You want a martial artist-like level of close combat capability. In some campaigns, that means 26 DEX. In others, it means 20 DEX (or even lower), plus some skill levels. 20 DEX costs 30 points; 26 DEX costs 48 points (first 10 are free, 3 points per after that). 18 CON (maybe 23) This is general health and toughness. I pluck these numbers from the air as breakpoints for most round-offs, so commonly seen values. They cost 16 or 26 respectively, and generally show great overall health and durability. 10 BODY (maybe more) I usually start with a low BODY total, but if your defences turn out to be low, or all non-resistant, buy it up a bit. 13 INT This only costs 3 points, and makes the character a little more perceptive and capable with all intelligence skills. If it's outside your concept, fine, use 10. Going below 10 may draw snickers. Below 8, better be prepared to justify it. 11 EGO This only costs 2 points, and makes it slightly tougher for mental attacks to hit you. Again, easily dropped. 20 PRE It costs 10 points, but you're more impressive and less easily cowed by the opposition. Definitely worth considering, but if the concept doesn't support it, toss it. 12 COM Hey, for 1 point, you can look better than average. After this, it's figured characteristics. The base value is a function of primary values set above, so they fluctuate a bit. 15 PD Assuming STR 20, the base is 4, and the cost then is 11. For a campaign with 10 DC attacks typical, (1.5xDCs) is low defences. Think martial artist or mentalist. 20 ED Assuming CON 23, the base is 5 and the cost is 15. This is average defence, and an electrical guy is probably going to have more ED than PD. 6 SPD Scrappy little guys are typically fast, and 6 is pretty fast for a starting character (4 would be slow, anything over 6 better be a key part of the concept). Assuming DEX 20, the base is 3 and the cost is 30. 9 REC Assuming 20 STR and 23 CON, this is the starting value. I love high REC, but I buy it up later as points allow. 46 END This is also the base value for 23 CON. Bump it up later if justified by the END costs of powers. 32 STUN This is the base value for 10 BODY, 20 STR, 23 CON. 40 is a nicer value, but see how the points stack up. That's 138 points in characteristics. For the gun, let's assume it will be 9 damage classes, a multipower, an OAF gun, and a slot for energy blast and another for killing damage. It looks like this. 22 Projecting Electricity: Multipower, 45 pt reserve, OAF beam projector gun 2u Lethal blast: 3D6 RKA (4 END) 2u Stun blast: 9D6 EB (4 END) So 26 points, and it costs 4 END to fire either shot. For the sword, try 2D6 HKA (3D6+1 w/STR), OAF sword projector for 15 points, or squeeze it into the multipower for more savings. The healing factor probably looks like the Lycanthropic Regeneration on P120 of the rules, without the silver limitation, so 40 points. To round the character out, you probably want to buy some martial arts maneouvres and 4 extra damage classes, some Combat skill levels (with shooting and martial arts), some Lightning reflexes, and some background skills. Exploding like a bomb might be done several ways. Define it as a physical limitation. Or build an END Reserve to draw on, and have the END Reserve have low REC but maybe an absorption to the END Reserve, and a big explosion that goes off whenever the END Reserve is full.

If it was a superhero standing in the thing's mouth, I'd have used grab. For what you're describing, I'd simply impose an OCV penalty to position the stick (maybe -2), and make the beast break the stick (using strength, not HKA) before he could bite again.

One of the things I found quite interesting about San Angelo was that the author clearly believed that NCM was the max a human could achieve and clearly stuck to it for most character designs. It made the perfect man look intimidating, and it gave the 'iconic' heroes a truly distinct feel from their Champions Universe counterparts, because lower characteristics meant extra points for lots of neat skills. I notice that every edition of Champions seems to give more skills to the starting characters than the one before...

Covering I think one guy said his Lone Ranger character never missed. He always performed the 'covering' maneouvre. If he blew the roll, his character just said, 'The shot's not there'. If he made it, just pull the trigger and hit.... It's not the same as hitting every time you want to shoot something, but you never do actually pull the trigger and miss. Jester, feel free to ask for advice. Lots of great people around here (and sometimes, lots of ways to do something).