CBikle

Re: "I teleport the criminal's gun out of his hand"...

What other defence would fit the SFX? To be honest I can't think of one. Hardened v teleport maybe?

Force wall, force field with the protects carried items adder, technologically-based power defense, teleport or extra-dimensional movement.

Re: Modular Bionics

Nah. Technically, accessable foci could be taken by a grab maneuver; inaccessable foci require about 1 combat turn (12 seconds) to shake loose.

Re: Old Testament Hero

Ha! Repped.

 

Although that's New Testament of course

Is there a difference ?

Just kidding.

Re: When a PC screws up, What next?

OK, that doesn't seem too insurmountable.

When I've GMed, I've cut players slack on honest mistakes (especially ones that

are out of character and might send the campaign into a tailspin). I'd downplay some of the effects of this and maybe your GM will too.

I'm gathering that the reporter has already printed the story.

Maybe this is something that the team can somehow turn to their advantage ?

Also, in the campaign log, it said that the reporter was a contact of yours (you'd saved his life). If he's an actual contact (you've spent points on him), he probably shouldn't be causing you headaches like this. Sounds more like a DNPC to me.

Re: When a PC screws up, What next?

What was the screw-up ?

Can't you just give a one-paragraph explanation ?

Re: Old Testament Hero

And now you can play Samson' date=' David, and Moses exploring [i']The Keep on the Borderlands[/i].

I know you're kidding, but in the King James Bible, it mentions how Mary and Joseph were visited by three wise men.

The first wise man had a gift of gold.

The second, a gift of frankincense

The third wise man, a gift of 1-10 Electrum Pieces, Treasure Type M (x2) and a 30 % chance of a potion.

Contrary to popular belief, the Bible was rife with D&D references.

Re: Old Testament Hero

Plus you can do cool things like turn some guy's wife into a pillar of salt.

Turning Someone Into a Pillar Of Salt(8d6 major transform: normal human into pillar of salt, fully indirect[+3/4], 1 hex accurate [+1/2])

Re: The Use of a Focus for Teleportation...?

The problem is' date=' with extra-planar teleports, how do we determine what the "range" is? This is why, IMO, Teleportation is not the power of choice for the Trumps -- though it could be in a Multipower with EDM, for use when the place is on the same plane as the character. [/quote']

 

I think that's it. I'd give the MP a +0 advantage that the multipower automatically defaults to whichever slot is appropriate for the location (ie: if the target is across the world, the megascale t-port kicks in; if the target is in Asgard, the E-D transport power kicks in.)

Re: Can you drain - Life support?

I'm pretty much OK with Life Support getting drained (transferred ?) as a side effect of a drain vs. SFX.

I think something like: 2d6 Drain vs. LS: high-pressure is kind of munchkin-y (especially in a Galactic Champions game) even though it's not that hard to rationalize ("It's a super-high pressure blast that taxes my opponent's pressurization").

Re: Power Defense

[NITPICK]This covers 2e onwards. In 1e' date=' we had Characteristic Defense, Characteristic Transfer and Characteristic Defense. 2e expanded it to cover other things than characteristics.[/NITPICK']

You're right ! I'd forgotten that.

Re: Power Defense

Tesuji' date=' I can understand where you are coming from. When I ran Hero System recently, Power Defense did strike me as rather odd. It seemed like the catch all defense that covered everything left over after Physical Defense, Energy Defense, Flash Defense, and Mental Defense.[/quote']

 

Initially, Power Defense only stopped Drain (then called "Power Drain") and Transfer ("Power Transfer") and the occasional NND.

 

When Champions III came out, it became a little more useful when new attacks like Transform and "Power Destruction" (basically a drain with a heavily reduced recovery rate) and maybe one or two others I'm forgetting.

Re: Can you drain - Life support?

File me as 'technically legal' date=' but I'll be damned if I can come up with a logical special effect that covers it'.[/quote']

 

Right. Really, it looks more like a PC build than a GM one (unless the GM is trying to put a hurting on a PC.)

 

Imagine getting hit with something like this if you're in outer space ?

Re: Attracting villians

My campaign city had mystical ley-lines, which occasionally would throw off electro-magnetic anomalies that would result in the occasional alien spacecraft crash or an otherdimensional portal opening.

Mystical villains came to the city to investigate the ley-lines while other villains might be curious about the non-mystical side effects of them.

Re: Fictional Cities

As a GM and player, I prefer fictional cities for Champs games.

My 3rd Champions campaign (shortly after 4th ed.) was set in Empire City, a city I had created that was kind of a Gotham/Metropolis hybrid.

The hodge-podge nature of the city allowed for all types of scenarios and most players liked the "big" feel of the city (although a few felt there was "too much", which I disagreed with).

The city's history got richer and more involved as more players joined the campaign and their backgrounds were incorporated, plus most of the (pre 5th ed) Champions sites of interest were integrated there, such as the Circle, M.E.T.E. , Dr. McQuark's Super Hero Supply And Gymnasium, et al.

Re: mass group combat

One of the 4th ed. Fantasy Hero Companion books had rules for this and they weren't bad (there were also similar rules for Champions in Adventurer's Club #7).

Basically, you decided how big you wanted each combat unit to be and the map scale and time scale were increased proportionally. PCs could either be part of a unit or act as their own unit. Their were also rules for "troop morale".

I think mass combat rules and/or LARP-style rules are the next big step for the Hero System.

Re: Power Defense

Posts...too...long. Awkward...format. Can't...make...myself...read....

 

Hope I didn't miss anything really interesting. Sorry for the William Shatner moment.

"I'm a rock-it-man..."

Re: Power Defense

As a player, I could never do that. For one, it's underhanded and sneaky and the GM should be able to trust me (we playing a game together as friends after all). For another, it's just inviting the GM to say "what? when did you buy Power Defense? Uh-uh... if I didn't see it you didn't buy it, lose 15 STR!"

 

My reply wasn't really all that serious and "camoflauge" probably wasn't the best choice of words.

Another way of putting it is this:

If at some point you're overhauling a character (training, radiation accident, whatever), the opportunity might arise in which you can buy pts. of Power Defense if it fits the concept of the "Overhaul" (perhaps that cool symbiotic costume you found on "Secret Fight World" provides Power Defense in addition to the other stuff.).

Re: Power Defense

Well' date=' to step back to a sometimes useful game design model, I think the idea of requiring a limited set of SFX, while it may make some sense from a Simulationist standpoint, tends to trample on people's feet from a Gamist standpoint. It tends to raise thoughts like, "Eh. At this point there are much better things to spend my points on than Power Defense, and if the GM throws me against NPCs that target Power Defense, he is just an a** for sending things after me that I cannot hope to defend myself against without continually buying more and more defenses for an increasing number of points."[/quote']

 

Right. This was pretty much the reaction I had with a PBEM game I was going to play in. The GM had a house rule that Power Defense could only protect one power or characteristic. Was really no big deal , but the power didn't seem worth it to me (even though it was just 5 pts.) , so I put it into something else (Resistance talent I think).

 

Of course it should be noted that the GM had a whole slew of character construction guidelines that made the whole thing very tedious (but the GM seemed like a pretty nice guy).

Re: Power Defense

Am I being too sensitive or is there a hostile vibe in this thread?

I wasn't directing any of my comments your way (or anyone's really), they're just all drawn from past experiences as a GM and player.

Re: Power Defense

On the subject of rationalizing it, especially when you want to buy it after character creation, I have a few stock answers to give my GM (for those times I'm playing).

 

"I'm possessed of a stronger willpower and can shrug off, ignore or otherwise resist such effects through force is will alone!"

 

"My soul and has become galvanized by recent events and I am so focused on my goals that nothing, nothing can stop me."

 

Those aren't bad, but wouldn't work on many of the GMs I know.

Really, the best route towards rationalizing buying Power Def (after character creation) is to lump it in with other purchases (camoflauging it) like saying you're buying new armor with a special invisible force-layer that provides Knockback Resistance, Lack Of Weakness, Life Support vs high and low-pressure and Power Defense.

Re: Power Defense

I see a Defense Power as pretty pointless if it can't be used for decent coverage of the range of SFX. Choosing to limit it that way is fine' date=' but I'd probably forgo buying it at all for my characters.[/quote']

 

I think that's kind of the idea.

 

When I hear that a GM has special rules on Power Defense that says one of two things to me:

 

1 The GM has plans to use a lot of adjustment-based attacks and/or transforms

down the pike.

 

2 The GM is micro-managing the system.

 

Just seems silly to have special rules for something as obscure and eclectic as Power defense.

Re: Power Defense

I've never seen a player not want to buy Power Defense (and go so far as to beg for it) after a bad experience with an Adjustment Power or Transform or similar. I've seen the same responce with Flash attacks as well' date=' and to a lesser extent, Mental Attacks (but for some reason, many players seem to be okay betting Ego Attacked or Mind Controlled but not having their STR drop by 10 points).[/quote']

 

Right, but IMO, Flash and Mental Defense are a little easier to rationalize than Power Defense ("my character starts taking radioactive vitamins")

Re: The Use of a Focus for Teleportation...?

Out of curiosity, is the whole power being bought through a framework ?

If so, the point difference between a floating and fixed location adder, may not matter.

Re: Power Defense

I've never seen universal Power Defense as a problem in any game I've run or played in.

Players don't usually try to buy Power Defense until their character has a REALLY bad experience with an adjustment power.

When players have initially bought it, it's never been more than 5 pts. (usually the only characters to have more than this are big uber-villain types who are given blanket amounts of every defense type so they can go the distance with PC teams).

Breaking down Power Defense into multiple SFX categories just seems like an excuse for GMs to put their own "stamp" on the mechanics.

Overthinking and overcomplicating things unnecessarily.

Re: The Use of a Focus for Teleportation...?

The sad thing is, all of this brain-power is being spent for, what sounds like, a plot device.

I'm wondering if the mechanics really matter here.