CBikle

Re: Using INT in Combat

The Star Wars RPG had a similar mechanic of declaring actions vs. performing actions; it's an interesting idea, but it tends to bog down the game even more than it already is and I can't imagine that working too well in a game with 8-11 people.

Re: Psidestep: an Intradimensional Summoner of Experience Points

For Psidestep, some of those numbers look off for characteristic costs; is that a 6th ed. thing ?

Re: Have any of you played a Champions Hero with Summoning?

I just checked out the "Dog Soldiers" stats ; not bad.

Personally, I'd be OK with them as written, but I'd recommend a higher PRE (maybe 15) and Tracking Scent, because they're dogs.

Out of curiosity, I have two questions:

- How many players are in your group.

- Does the GM run summoned creatures/followers or does he let the PC do this and if so, is it all the time or just in combat (I'd imagine that the loyalty modifiers might influence this).

Re: Have any of you played a Champions Hero with Summoning?

Summoning can be a tricky power with GMs who like to have a stronger degree of control over their game and/or with other players who might resent you playing "extra" characters and/or if your game group has a limited amount of game time each session (4 hours or less). These same problem also apply when playing with lots of Duplicates and followers.

My suggestion is that you keep the Summoned creatures at a relatively low Speed (3-4) and keep their actions at "soundbyte" level (especially in combat, as suddenly introducing new characters in the middle of Hero System combat will bring the game to a halt).

I don't know you, your GM or your playgroup, but I suspect that if the GM allows Summoning, he/she will gradually rethink the decision and will marginalize and water-down the power until you both agree to get rid of it or just create a new character.

Re: How to build: Traffic Light Changer

Sounds like the Images power vs. normal sight (and radio waves ?)

With reduced end, persist, focus limits, having a very narrow purpose, etc. I'd guess it costing between 7-10 pts.

Re: Buckaroo Banzai vs. The World Crime League!

IMDB trivia on BB

Re: Buckaroo Banzai vs. The World Crime League!

Rumor has it that this was made, but re-written as the classic Big Trouble in Little China with the Buckaroo Bonzai characters replaced.

W.D. Richter (the director of BB) was one of the writers for Big Trouble.

Re: "Encounter level"

When I GM, I try to keep the damage classes around the same levels as the PC's; maybe going a little higher or lower, but not significantly so.

If you use moderation, it also helps prevent an arms race of escalating power-levels.

Re: Nightman and Nightgirl

Er... aren't they all fictitious settings? Sorry' date=' I don't mean to be argumentative, but I totally have no idea what you mean.[/quote']

 

Most games like Champions, Dark Champions, Pulp Hero, et al use the real world or a time period of it, as a base and a frame of reference for the PCs.

 

If the game is set in modern-day NYC or 1920's Chicago, there's not as much to make up (and explain to the PCs) as opposed to running a Fantasy Hero game in the mysterious free city of Kanzibar-Zix, which I completely made up to illustrate my point.

Re: Nightman and Nightgirl

Eh. Yes and no.

 

For my epic fantasy campaign (yeah, it's a DC thread, remember: everything is really window dressing) I set up a ton of material in advance. The academy where the PCs trained - not unlike a mansion. Their Patron, the Lord Captain Thia Halmades. His staff & advisors. Not so I could overwhelm the players and say "LOOK WHAT I WROTE" but so when the time came, they could walk up to their Unit Commander and I'd know who he is, what his history is, who HIS rival is (who later became the PCs rival) and so on.

 

There's nothing wrong with doing your dev this way, but it's best reserved for intentionally building people up and integrating them into the story, letting them "see" and experience the world a bit before applying boot to caboose with significant force and saying "There! Now go catch some plot!"

Right. Fictitious settings require a little more prep, but often the PC's background (which the player would write) would flesh a lot in.

Re: Nightman and Nightgirl

My style of fleshing out my Champions campaign world is pretty much the exact opposite of Mark's, with the initial background being somewhat generic, but incorporating and intertwining elements of the PC's backgrounds to enrich the campaign's foundation.

The initial background was usually not much more than:

"Super-heroes and villains have been around since the late 30's. Viper is a vast high-tech criminal/terrorist organization and PRIMUS is a patriotic, high-tech government paramilitary agency that battles Viper and other paranormal threats."

It's been my experience that, at first, PCs really don't care about the background intricacies of the GM's campaign world; they want to interact with the other PCs and NPCs and then hit them.

Re: SJG's Traveller Deck Plans - dang wrong scale!

Yes. Truth be told, doubling the hex size to make it fit Hero's standard isn't all that big a deal, it just means the ships have a more epic feel.

If you go with the 1 yard scale, then you're going to have characters "flying" across the map (a character with 6" running will roughly be moving 12 hexes as a full move).

I used the Hero hex-scale with the generic indoor/outdoor maps SJG used to sell for GURPS and it worked fine.

Re: Tear gas grenades in Dark Champions vs. Champions

OK, thanks guys.

In our recent Champions game, the tear gas grenade from Dark Champions (p.255) was implemented by one of the goons we were fighting.

The design of this was different from previous Champions models (like the tear gas models shown in Gadgets And Gear[ p.20 and 41]) in that it was a straight flash attack without the NND element). In other words, gas masks (LS: self-contained), provides no defense vs. the effect. (it does have the "Real Weapon" limit, but that doesn't necessarily address the issue).

My question is this: Does anyone know offhand if there is/was errata on this or is this the desired build for Dark Champions ?

Re: Who uses or has used Dr. McQuark?

I've used him in some of my previous (pre5E) games.

I always ran him as one of the more selfless and innocent individuals in my games (most of the other NPCs - even other heroes, had their own agendas and goals that didn't always mesh with he PC's.).

One of the players even ran an android that had been created by Dr. McQuark.

Re: Bleeding regeneration

Many Champions GMs (but not me) tend to go with the "healing/regeneration stops dying/bleeding" house rule, so I've never seen Sean's example come up in actual game play.

It's been my experience, that those GM's that go with this rule, do so because:

1 The GM is averse to killing PCs and/or:

2 The GM miscalculated the lethality-level of whatever brought the PCs to negative body and just wants to "fix things".

Sean's example of BrickBat having taken 47 pts. of body damage and being at -22 body and three turns away from being dead illustrates an occasional problem with the dying rules.

The first 25 pts. of body that BrickBat took was pretty much just an inconvenience, in that it lowered the ceiling on how much stun he can recover. That single 26th point puts him outside the Paramedics range and means that the 1 body regeneration power (if he purchased it) is only going to serve to stabilize him; the 31st point is going to probably put him well-beyond any significant help via aid/healing.

The optional Bleeding rules get a bad rap because they're far more annoying to PCs (with Bleeding, you take body damage even if your body score is still in positive numbers and you take additional stun damage as well), but this is offset due to the fact that Bleeding can potentially stop on it's own, even if the "bleeder" has taken significant body damage.

Looking at Sean's BrickBat example again, there is a [very] remote chance that his bleeding will stop and whatever regeneration he has will be unhindered.

Re: Detect: lie

Although this ability isn't all that uncommon in the comics (Daredevil and Superman have detected lies using their super-senses), it's kind of a headache for GMs.

Personally, if I allowed it at all, I don't think I'd allow most other sense modifiers like analyze or sense.

Re: Would you play…

… in a game where you were allowed to make your character only as a normal person and then the GM would randomly assign you your powers, including increased stats? The idea would be to simulate the “I never planned on being a hero but look what fate had in store for me” kind of background. Add in some activation rolls to the powers and maybe an uncontrolled and keep some of the additional disadvantages (like susceptibility, vulnerability and the like) secret until they actually affect the PC.

 

I think it could make for an enjoyable game but how about the rest of you?

I've never seen this sort of game, not suck.

The GM really has to be on his game and have stuff worked out for this kind of game to have any chance.

Re: A question for the old timers...

Marvel has an android monster/villain called Dragon Man. But in context I believe MitchellS is correct and that they were just parodies of Gargoyle' date=' the guy in the red suit with the gun (who's name I've forgotten) and Flare - i.e. the Guardians.[/quote']

 

Marksman was the gun-guy in the red suit and sporting a late 70's Bert Convy afro.

Re: Do patents work differently the Champions Universe?

In the Champions Universe book, on page 57, in the upper-right section on Uncanny Metals, it says that Professor Darryl Kendrik has patented Kendrium, and, at the same time, has not released the exact mix.

 

How would anyone who is attempting to create a similar metal be able to tell if it infringes on Prof. Kendrik's patent without the exact mix being spelled out explicitly in the patent itself?

 

Are patents different in the Champions Universe? Are the contents of patents kept secret by the USPTO?

 

This could be an important matter for the gadgeteer/inventor hero in your campaign.

If this came up in game and I needed to make sense of it, I'd rationalize that the patent covers Kendrium and the processes (also propriety-material) needed to create it.

Realistically, the patent is probably just there to cover Kendrick, et al, legally. It's also possible that the division of the patent office that deals with "super-tech and related-materials" has the additional burden of enforcing super-patents with secret formulas for reasons of national security.

Re: Having players help w/ the logistics (esp. SPD chart)

Wow, people actually have a hard time keeping track of Phase orders? I always thought this was one of the easiest things about Champions.

 

C

In many RPGs, PCs don't get multiple actions in the same "phase" (or RPG equivalent) and those that do, usually resolve them at the same time.

I think most GMs/players are used to systems where everyone has one action.

Also, things like held actions, aborts or player's taking too long to resolve an action can throw the GM off once in awhile.

I've got it down pretty well, but every once in awhile, I get phases 5 and 8 mixed up , but someone usually catches this.

Re: Having players help w/ the logistics (esp. SPD chart)

If the GM is new to Hero, I'll offer to do this. When I GM, it's usually just easier for me to do it myself.

However, I'll usually have the PCs run friendly NPCs when in combat together.

Re: "Point inflation" in Hero

In my old game group' date=' the general rule of thumb was that if you spent points on a skill (particularly background skills), then the GM would try to make sure that the skill would come in handy at one or more points in the game.[/quote']

 

As a GM and a player, I don't think that's the GM's responsibility.

 

I feel that it's the player's obligation to think of and suggest creative ways to use powers/skills/etc and that it's the GM's obligation to keep an open mind to these suggestions and to encourage this as a practice.

 

It's also the GM's responsibility to give the PC a heads up if he's dumping lots of points and energy into stuff that'll be of limited use in the campaign (tons of starship and navigational-related skills in what will be a Star Wars game that'll rarely leave Tatooine).

Re: Help with alternate U.S. history?

After Reagan's assassination the right to bear arms is re-considered by Congress' date=' and a Fedral ban on private firearms ownership is passed. [/quote']

 

This alone might be enough to rile up states like Missouri.

 

Also, according to some conspiracy-theories, John Hinckley's family knew the Bush family.

 

Perhaps the success of the Reagan assassination, leads to the ties between the two families getting greater scrutiny and making enough people believe that the Bushes are trying to establish a coup and use their families' power to do this. It would especially be damning if George Bush Sr. was one of the architects of the new firearm ban (which would really freak out his base in Texas).

Re: How to steal a comm link

Wasn't the notion of using Mind Link to represent super-encoded radio transmissions created just to avoid this type of thing ?

Personally, I never thought Mind Link was the right power for this sort of thing anyway.