Duke Bushido

Unless this changed in the last,couple of editions, arent the BODY or DEF scores of Foci dependent on the number of AP within the individual focus? Sort of a temptation to have a tougher, more durable focus in exchange for losing all your powers at once?

Not disappointed at all; new-to-me is as good as any other sort of new. It wasn't for me, either. I bought it, though, if only in the hopes of supporting the company so they would be around long enough to produce something I am interested in. 6 wasnt for me, but then niether were 5, 4, or 3. It's,all,good though; backwards compatibility is a high mark for Champions /HERO, so I pop in for a year or two now and again.

It also works reallly well for,guns and bullets. I dont do it as Charges, per say, but as an END pool. The rules,for the recovey say eithe buy a spearate recovery or come,to terms about how the pool is recovered. The pool is exactly enough to fire a full cylinder / magazine / belt / battery / whatever. It is recharged by reloading. Done.

On the internet? Mine gets actual free-range radio, too.

Sure, but a self-made theif, right? seriously, though, I have never made a secret of the fact that I have never, even as a kid, been really in to superhero comics. The fact that I recognize the characters and like some of them without having a clue who "they are" speaks volumes to the general pointlessness (beyond soap opera) of their secret identities; the super identity is a separate character, who can thrive with anyone behind the mask. Even an Australian.

Gigantor! It was called Gigantor. He's bigger than big! Taller than Tall! Quicker than Quick! I don't remember the rest.....

To quote that most beloved of shows: "You are technically correct. The best kind of correct!" However, I took into account writer bias and publisher bias. I _expected_ to find lots of flag suits coming from the US, because we, as a nation, have fetishized our flag. We have festishized other people's flags, too, strangely enough. The whole "rah rah national pride" thing, carried to the level it is carried in the US, is _almost_ unique in the world. When you scream "this nation!" to an American, there is a flag either foremost in his mind, or draped over whatever image does come to mind. When you scream it to folks from other nations, they either think of their neighbors or their government, or they wonder "who is this lunatic and why is he screaming at me?" Googling sources such as comics published by non-American companies (which-- and it should be noted I didn't do an in-depth, i'm-gonna-write-me-a-book type dive into this-- don't seem to be nearly as prolific or last nearly as long, suggesting that the superhero itself may be a uniquely American (and Japanese, kinda, but way different) thing), the percentages of flagsuits straight-up nosedives. Captain Canuck is sort of one, and isn't (or at least wasn't; I couldn't find anything after the 80s, which may be why July 4 isn't as fun to me as when I was a kid-- there was always a reprint of some Captain Canuck title at the gas station just after July 4, for reasons I never questioned) from an American company. I found like four, total, and-- probably because I am an American-- didn't find anything particularly special about any of them. Granted, I haven't found anything particularly appealing about the American ones, either, but there are a _hell of a lot_ of them. The resulting conclusion from my admittedly limited and non-scientific couple-of-hours search of the internet left me with the distinct impression that Flagsuits are uniquely American, and the bulk of Flagsuits from other nations are in fact created and published by American companies. And to point it out just a bit more, I scrolled upward to my list and I realized that I have no idea which one of those characters is a movie star. Just like when we were kids, the alter ego is not the character. Bruce Wayne is boring and uninteresting and not why my friend would pool their nickels to drop fifteen-cents on a comic book instead of a chocolate block. A few years ago, Tony Stark was not why my kids wanted me to drop thirty bucks on movie tickets and three-hundred on popcorn and cokes to go see Iron Man. The armor that flies and bounces bullets-- that's what they knew. As a kid, that's what _I_ knew. That's who the character was: Iron Man was why I knew Iron Man. You can stick an Australian inventor in there and have the same thrilling, exciting red-and-gold suit of action-packed excitement. There is nothing about Iron Man that is uniquely American. Spiderman-- one of the most beloved of comic icons. He is not Peter Parker; he is spiderman. Even then, who is Peter Parker? He's an everyman: he's that not-popular guy who tried to do all the right things: worked hard in school, wanted a good, simple life, and can't shake that one thing that he won't forgive himself for. If this is uniquely American, it's "uniquely" every American I ever met, but I'm willing to bet that it's something all humans live with, on some level. Still, I'm willing to bet he'd fit right in to any non-American setting that featured lots of closely-packed tall buildings. Should have been more clear, I suppose. Forgive the error; I confess that new members here are always a bit of a surprise. A happy surprise, to be sure, but given the state of the hobby over all and non-D&D parts of the hobby in particular, they are a surprise. Welcome aboard. Anyway: I was referring to the original Ghost Rider: the glow-in-the-dark horseman school teacher writing wrongs, etc. Yes: frontier, open spaces, guns, etc. Very America. But the idea of the horseman hero is not american. Knights of old, ancient asian warriors, etc. Put a spin on the character, and the Ghost Rider could just as well have been the Ghost of Galahad or the wandering spirit of some great Mongol warlord destroying the communist oppressors of China. Sure; it wouldn't get published there, but who is to say some distant child isn't dreaming that dream even now? It's not unique to the USA. Even the motorcycle version isn't unique to the USA. They are called "bikies" in Australia, as I recall. And wasn't there recently a comic published with "the Ghost Rider" in what looked like a late 60's / early 70's Chrysler? Less cool to me, as a die-hard motorcycle fan, but still: even that concept works on a broader scale than an American riding a motorcycle through the desert. The character himself-- someone who dabbled with black arts and got bonded to a demon? I am pretty sure (but not motivated to do the research) that this one can be found even back in some old Russian folklore. Traveling the open road is so decidedly not unique to America that America itself would not exist as we know it were it not for the wanderlust of an Italian man and the dreams of wealth attainable in a far-away land held by a Spanish queen. An Englishman named Tolkien wrote a series of books that are nigh-biblical in popularity to this day, the entire point of which was walking across a continent and kicking ass. So "Ghost Rider the biker guy" version is an ecclectic amalgam of not-uniquely-American ideas that yield an end character that isn't really uniquely suited to only the US. Is not Iron Man. He's Batman. He's Booster Gold. He's an origin story. Iron Man is a man inside a suit of high-tech armor bristling with weapons. Just like Gundams and tanks. Gundams grew from-- what was that thing before Astro Boy? Where the kid controlled the giant robot? Black-and-White and I can't remember what it was called. At any rate, Iron Man would be just as at home in any other metal-using technology-using culture on earth, which at least check was almost all of them. Is decidedly not an american concept, especially when it's so easy to point out that the biggest movie star in the world-- Jackie Chan-- is almost unknown outside of a select audience who either loved his martial arts prowess and watch him on video tape or loved his antics and comedy in later films. But even then: Same problem. I have no idea which of these relates to which character on that list. This is primarily, I think, because the superhero characters -- sorry; bad phrasing: Because the secret identity part of the character has no real impact on the superhero character. This is important, because it is _why_ these characters are universal and work in any culture: Hindu Iron Man? Go for it. It works. Botswanian Batman? Do it, Dude. Make his secret identity relevant to _you_, and the character still matters, primarily because at the end of the day, no one really cares. The Secret Identity is something to hook people who aren't already hooked on the titular star, and honestly, no one is buying comic books for the soap opera. Given some of the woe-is-me articles related to comic sales, I daresay that the uptick in soap opera drama may actually be impacting them negatively. And really, let's be honest: I have no "me character" investment in a billionaire. I'll never be one. I have no "me character" interest in the god with a heavy burden; I'll never be one of those, either. There is no appeal there for me or for millions like me. I suspect this is why all the Tony Stark scenes in the movies went light on soap opera and heavy on "funny jackass." We all dream of being in a position to give our exact opinions on everything whenever we want; that's something we can get behind. But I'm willing to bet there are versions of that in other countries, too. Except probably China; that is probably not the place for that. Still, that leaves a lot of other countries and cultures. And as one more note about the importance of Secret Identities to their, if you will pardon the term, "real characters," I had a thought I wanted to share when I read that, but I first had to do a quick google to see if Captain American was an immigrant first. Seriously: I really didn't know. I say that because the movie stated quite clearly that his parents were, but it didn't state if he was born here or not. He says numerous times throughout the three movies I saw with him in them (I am not a Captain American fan or an Avengers fan. I am not a comic book superhero fan in general, really, but I don't find fault with those who are. I find it often gives me a far different perspective than my friends here who are fans of those things, and I rather enjoy that difference for the various inputs it provides. Much the same way that I am not a Martial Arts fan beyond the old movies, but I still enjoy a lot of what Ninja-Bear offers on the subject.) At any rate, Captain America states numerous times "I am from the Bronx," but never that he was born in New York. There are a number of people on this board who know that I am "from" Georgia, but I was born and spent my early years in Circle, Alaska. At any rate-- to demonstrate yet again that secret identities are not the actual characters-- at least not as far as a large number of people really care-- It took me a long minute (I was halfway through my googling of Captain American being an immigrant or not. Turns out his parents were, but he isn't. I think it would be cooler if he was, all things considered) to decide if you were talking about Captain America or not, and even longer to figure out that you were talking about superman. Why? Because unless someone says "Kryptonian," I forget that Superman isn't from Kansas. That's just how deeply important the tie between super hero and secret ID are to people who don't read comics. We know the character as the spandex commando with the certain name who has the certain powers, and everything else is the boring part between those moments when the character does cool stuff like flying, solving clues, taking down villains, and solving the crime. It could be absolutely _anyone_ in those boring parts; we don't really care. Just make the character himself someone we can get behind.

Every time I hear discussion on pronunciation, I cant help but think its forced, and ultimately, I retun to the smell-o-scope episode of Futurama: "Astronomers changed the name in 20-[whatever] to pur an end to that stupid joke oncw and for all!" What is it now? Urectum! I dont vare who or when or what or why, any other pronunciation will always feel forced if you have any American accent.

Here is hoping! The Lulu hardback looks great, but the quality of the bindery is..... Not great. (no; I dont believe that's your doing, obviously)

Yep. Got mine yesterday. Trying to find time to read it so we can do a review. Still havent found time to read the Field Guide, but it has been patiently waiting for me. Christopher, if you are reading this: is there a softcover option for the field guide?

That doesnt look at all like me.

Does anypne else want to know a lot more about that link before clicking it? 😆

Multiform first appeared in Champions III, in 1984. It was quite glaringly not picked up to go into third edition Champions in 1985, however. The 3e product Fantasy HERO (first edition) had something that could be considered to be like it with Shapechange, though it was limited exclusively to "real" animals that the caster had both seen and studied. It's also worth nothing that while Champions II was re-published for the third edition of Champions-- complete with new cover art-- Champions III was not. Multiform did not become a "core" Champions rule until 4e. As others have noted, ShapeShifters were a thing long before Multiform existed.

I have actively avoided commenting in this thread, for several of the reasons some folks have touched on: Go through a list of comic book supers-- Spiderman Hulk Electro Plastic Man Ghost Rider Captain Marvel Iron Man The Flash-- These are all (as far as I know) Americans. Yet they aren't called "Some distinctly American spider" Hulking North American Plastic Bags Strewn through Cacti Man Spirit of '76 Rider Captain Marvelous Bald Eagle Iron Horse Racing Stars and Stripes I admit (yet again) that I'm no expert, but from a few googles, Flag Suits and country-specific themes are actually kind of _rare_ (and openly mocked, even if good-naturedly). While the idea of someone introducing himself as "Wom-Batman" tickles me to no end, That very same list-- Spiderman, Hulk, Electro, Plastic Man, Ghost Rider, Captain Marvel, Iron Man, the Flash-- even their power sets-- would be just as at home and proper on an all-Australian cast as it does on an all-american cast. Sure-- I had that momentary flash of a telepath / illusionist hybrid "I will show you your worst nightmare!" based entirely off a photograph of a wet koala I once saw, but immediately I saw all the problems trying to give him an "Australian" name or theme. Such things just don't really seem to happen, and certainly aren't important to the validity of character "belonging" in a particular setting. I'm not saying you're wrong for trying; it might be just me. I just really felt the need to mention it. And remember: it _could_ just be me; I don't do "theme teams" either, for very much the same reasons.

Dear Liberty Mutual: I dont have much. I work two jobs, and pay the bills, and manage to set a little bit aside for a day that is coming sooner than I thought it would. As I said, it isn't much. But you can have _all of it_ if you swear to never, ever again air another of those damned Limu Emu commercials. Thank you for your time.

The first person to read this headline to my son is going to be on my list for a long, long time... 😡

Rewatched WW84. Still have absolutely no idea what all the hate is about.

Okay, we have to stop with the Ever Given jokes. That ship has sailed.

Thanks, Hugh. I have been fighting the urge to post he published Changeling build. Again. Mostly because I don't want to drag out that particular discussion. Again.

Right. Starburst had a given amount of- lets say "star power"- available to use. He could use it multiple ways, but the entire design read as "everyrhing he can do on this list is because he can use this star power different ways, but it is all from this pool of x amount of star power." I never saw a write-up for ultraboy beyond "here is an example of how ultra slots work," _ certainly,not one that included his SFX, etc, so I cant really speak to rightness or wrongness of his build other than "it is mechanically correct." Still, as disjointed as his powers appeared to be, there is nothing that violates or denies the idea of "it all pulls from this common one power" akin to Starburst or a bird's wing. The edition drift I alluded to was that multipowers became obviously not "I have a single power that I can use in multiple ways"- trick arrows, a variety of guns and gadgets (and dont get me wrong: these are valid concepts, and sticking them into power pools doesn't bother me at all- they actually make more sense to me that way since everything about a power pool since Day 1 (of power pools /gadget pools, mind you), the obvious descriptors have all pointed to (or outright stated) "any crazy I'm thing you want:" it is a pool of points from which you construct any and as many powers or gadgets as you are able, to your heart's desire, providing all meet any restricrions on the pool and GM approval. But-again, _to me_ - a bag of arrows isn't a single power used in many different ways anymore than a golf bag is a single club used for many different purposes (unless youre that guy that wrapped them,around trees in famous displays of bad sportsmanship; I might let you do an ultra slot for an Entangle. ). I have that similar issue for a multipower full of foci, etc. Mechanically? Correct. Semantically? It eventually _became_ correct. And Elemental Control went through serious edition drift, as I did manage to describe a bit better up above.

Truthfully, I didnt poo up here originally do put a lot of thought into cost, beyond xonsidering some options to help Big Jack Brass and his player out, potentially. As far as birds without multipliers, I seem to have taken an entirely different interpretation of multipower way back when we first started playing: one that suggested that l, akin to advantages and limitations, the framework itself created an entirely new power: some sort of multi-faceted ability which the wielder could use in multiple ways. (For the record, this is why so many trick arrow and "same gun; different features" multipowers bug me. They bug me to the point that we house-ruled "selectable" as an adder for Advantages) That is also niether here nor there, but a multipower for Wings that includes Flight, Gliding, and Flash Defense- to me- is simply the wongs being used as Wings, and not one set of wings being turned off and another set of wings being turned on. I know 4e and later kept pushing it further and further the other way, but I have never had any real probkems ignoring the He'll out of that. While the majority of the board members argh math, I find semantics to be both equally important and largely ignored; I find there is a world of difference between a mutlipower and multiple powers. In fact, the way that we eventually beat Elemental Control into a whole new thing that it once wasn't- one singular power or source of power that was used many different ways; one power source such that all were affected equally by adjustment power- it didnt start out that way. By the semantics of the rules, at least in the earliest editions, Multipower _did_ start out that way. Mutlipower, though, proved more popular and- again, going semantically- easier to abuse by just tossing in whatever power you wanted, all while a minor diac I unt for having a theme was deemed intolerable and reworked over and over until it became essentially what multipower started as, but without the appreciable discounting- crap. I am not here to discuss that, either. I was here to explain my humour: it is not particulalry from, but it is _wide_. No matter what the subject, the amusing bits leap to my mind before all others. Fortunately, I live in the modern world, and all the beat-downs you recieve for being too-well-adjusted have trained me to resist the urge to enjoy every laugh publicly. But still, the humor of being right about something because I accidentally and correclty predicted a shorter-that-desirable lifespan for myself was too much to keep bottled up! Seriously, guys; admit it: if this had been a scenario in some cheeky action movie, you'd have guffawed obnoxiously, and you know it. It doesnt become less funny just because I am not the villain.

Thanks, Hugh. Like I said, I don't remember every word of 6e (there are so damned many of them! ), and at 4 AM Thursday, I had my first heart attack, adding weight to my initial assessment that I will not live long enough to ever re-read the thing. I agree with so much of this. I really do. Frankly, I'd rather rule that Flight and Gliding are two separate powers, period, both for precisely the reasons you state-- one is passive; the other is not-- and because the rules set that merges the two also has a rule for buying an Advantage to use one movement as another: the Advantage "Useable as another form of movement." Apparently Flight now gives "second form or movement" for free (in at least one instance); all others pay points. As a weird deja vu, this calls me back to when Desolidification was a movement power of sorts-- it was Tunnelling (sic) with some handy-dandy defensive perks.

The Ultratech conversions died with Geocities. I thought I had a copy, but I have been unable to find it. If that changes, I will shoot you a PM.

Vlad's completely correct, I believe. And I know you weren't looking for solutions, BJB, and even this one will up your AP (Does Reduced END up the AP in 6e?): "useable as another form of movement" on your Flight; make it also useable as some other movement. Now up front: What I am going to suggest depends _entirely_ on a bit of language that has been in every edition since the first, but I can't remember if it is in the sixth or not. (forgive my not knowing; I read it way back when, decided I probably won't live long enough to find the time to read it again, and don't remember every word of the nine or so blue books. I'd like to say "anymore," but what were the odds I remembered every word of them even when they were fresh in my mind? ) There is a bit of language saying something to the effect of "Power A with Advantages or Limitations is _not_ Power A "except for" or Power A "plus;" it is a whole new power, and is now Power B. (I suspect that this is why Advantages and Limitations can't be toggled, but Adders can.) If that language still exists in 6e, then your Flight: Useable as Gliding is now a whole new form of flight that can be used as gliding. _however_, this does _not_ solve the recovery problem. That is because this power is _also_ not "Gliding," but a Power that now has a slightly higher AP cost because of the new Advantage, and therefore a potentially _higher_ END cost. _However_, many a generous GM has allowed a player to take a recovery while Gliding assuming he is not actively in combat and is not making any maneuvers. It is not a perfect solution, but unless Reduced END does not apply to your AP, _and_ you _are_ an occasionally generous GM, it may provide the player with something that satisfies his goals for this power.

Yep. That's the time-tested solution. The speedster in the youth group has that very same thing. Her shtick is that kinetic energy is drawn to her; she stores and manipulates it. Her suit is specially designed to increase her ability to draw and store it, and lets her use it more effectively. The build, roughly, is that she has a bit of ground flying (the speedy power) that draws from an END pool with a very low recovery. The suit triples the recovery and doubles the pool. It also adds more movement and three more NCM and allows the character a die of absorption versus PD. She is not powwrleas without the suit, but she's a lot more powerful with it.