Bartman

Re: The Overbearing Presence Well I am the player in question. The GM just dropped me a note highlighting the thread. So I thought I might respond. For those who are familiar with the scenario, this took place in the amusement park portion of Champions Battlegrounds. The PCs had separated to tackle the various death traps that had been placed everywhere. During all of this two of the PCs were killed (due to GM fiat this was later modified to really badly wounded). And my PC's dunder was really up by the time we reached Black Harlequin. While not a casual killer my PC was certainly not opposed to it. And in this case was leaning toward it being a very good thing. So in we burst on BH, his goons, and their hostages. Hoping to prevent the death of the hostages, I was already thinking of some sort of shock and awe moment. So the spell (which required setup) was already cast. After a short standoff and some posturing, BH sent one of the goons over to kill a hostage. I used a saved phase and eviscerated him (21 DC killing attack against an unarmored opponent). Then I pull my PRE-attack. "Surrender now and you will live. But if any of these hostages gets so much as a paper-cut and you will all envy him [pointing at the fallen goon] for the rest of your very short lives" (or something similar, this was about 6 years ago and the memory is weak). For this I had a base 18 PRE + 25 PRE from the spell (not bad I grant you but hardly 75). But the GM did give me just about every bonus available (reputation, extremely violent action, soliloquy, target in retreat, etc) that accounted for at least another 12d6. At which point BH did surrender. Now this hardly ended the encounter prematurely. One way or another it would have ended within 2 segments. I don't think this was really in any way abusive. 1- The character had had that power for over two years of game play, and this was the first use. So I was hardly overusing it. 2- The power had been approved by the GM. In fact at one point I had asked about having it be 50 points, and he recommended the 25 point level. And the moment he asked for it to be removed, it was removed from the character. It was hardly vital to the character, but given how broody/intense/dark/mysterious the character was, I thought some sort of Boo! power was appropriate. 3- Likewise an Aid or Succor wouldn't have changed much. Succor would have reduced it by 1.5d6. And if allowed, the PC's spell multipower had a 50-pt pool. I could have achieved that 25 points of effect with no problem. Anyway the situational bonuses were what drove attack not the PRE itself. 4- It was in no way out of line for the power level of the campaign. I had a teammate who punched for 25 DCs and on a move through reached 38 DCs (43 if he haymakered it). And could comfortably take similar attacks. My PC was strictly second tier in power. 5- It was highly appropriate for the moment. 6- As a player all I was really hoping for was to scare the goons, and cause BH to pause and give me enough time to counter anything he did. Had BH made a move against a hostage, I was intending to wipe him out. But frankly the only remotely rational thing for BH to do was surrender. The PC team was a very well known quantity at that point. He had to have known he couldn't run, the surviving PCs all had great movement and senses. And he couldn't beat us. He had basically killed Batman and Robin and now had a vengeful and infuriated Superman and Thor all up in his face. If the PRE attack is what caused him to surrender, it was in my mind a good thing. And to the best of my recollection he still remains the only villain to surrender to us. In general even the Viper agents were suicidally fanatic.

Re: New Judge trying to understand Unstoppable Healing I didn't mean to impy that it did... only that it may be what the player was trying to achieve.

Re: New Judge trying to understand Unstoppable Healing There is an alternative possibility here. The player is trying to grant other characters healing, but only to use on the granting player. For example Reserection Man switches to slot three and grants it to his sidekick, Healing Boy. Now HB can heal RM but not himself (or anyone else for that matter). So if RM is knocked out HB can heal him (that whole persistant advantage). Not that this is any less abusive or less of of a mess logically. I woudn't allow it, but you can see what he might be trying to do.

Re: Multipower active points vs. reserve points: why? To give another example. When I first started playing... way back in the day. We misunderstood this rule and played it backwards. I had a character who looked something like this: Pts 30 Weapons: Multipower 30pt Pool 3u 1) Compressive Blaster: Energy Blast (pd) 18d6, 4 charges (-1), OAF (-1) 3u 2) Stunner: Energy Blast (ed) 18d6, 4 charges (-1), OAF (-1) 3u 3) Grenades: Energy Blast (ed) 12d6, explosion (+1/2), 4 charges (-1), OAF (-1) 3u 4) Tranquilizer: Energy Blast 9d6, NND (+1) 4 charges (-1), OAF (-1) 3u 5) Rifle: RKA (pd) 4d6, AP (+1/2), 4 charges (-1), OAF (-1) 3u 6) Nets: Entangle 9d6, 4 charges (-1), OAF (-1) etc... ad nausium. Now there was a problem. Most everyone else payed about 60 pts for their single 12d6 Energy Blast. I got much, much, more than they did and I payed far less for it. And the disadvantages weren't really disadvantageous. If you took any single OAF away from the character, he had plenty more to fall back on. And despite charges, he had more than 40 total charges to use. So if he used up a single attack, he could easily move on to the next one. And he was vastly more flexable than any of the other characters. The character inspired a re-read of the rules, which inspired a re-write of the character pretty quickly. And the game was much better for it. I would say that it is possible to create a non-abusive MP using real instead of active points, and under certain circumstances a GM might accept it. But it is so easy to abuse the concept I for one would never go for it.

Re: Just Picked Up Champions Worldwide Alright, I can accept that. At the time a wrote my earlier post I was only working off of the list that MitchellS had posted. I have actually picked up the book now and most of my complaints have gone away. I'm sorry to have gone off half cocked. But it is a pet peve of mine. For such a large and significant nation, I'm consistantly suprised by how many Americans think Brazilians speak Spanish. None the less I apologize for accusing you of having made that assumption. That said, I still find the idea of a Brazilian intentionally taking a Spanish alter-ego rather far-fetched. Most of the Brazilians I know are intensly proud of their language and culture. A Spanish named/themed hero in Brazil would be like a German named hero in France, someone not likely to ever be fully accepted and embraced. I understand your reasoning above, American audience and all that. I just personally wish, if you had to have an El Dorado, that you had made him Columbian or Peruvian. And that the only Brazilian hero ever published by Hero Games actually had a Portuguese hero name.

Re: Final Sanity Rules I love it. Simple and beautiful. That said. This really made me chuckle.

Re: Just Picked Up Champions Worldwide OK, it is pet peve time. El Dorado: Brazil? El Sauriano: Brazil? What the #^@&? Brazil is the 5th largest country in the world in both area and population. It is the world's 9th largest economy. Would it kill you guys to do ten seconds of research to find out that the language spoken there is Portuguese, not Spanish. And what is up with El Dorado anyway? El Dorado is a Columbian/Spanish myth, not Brazilian/Portuguese. If you want a place of lost treasure why not go with Salamanca do Jarau, the hidden cave of treasure. If you just want a name from myth/fokelore there are a number of options. Grumble, grumble, grumble...

Re: Walking/Running on Water: Flight, Gliding, Swimming, Running Usable As...?

Re: Could your Champions character beat... Hmm... Interesting. Traveller - A gadgeteer/power suit, about 350pts. Depends on the scenario. Traveller could completely control the fight, engaging and disengaging at will (35" flight). And neither of these Caps have any attack that could concievably stun him. So if he took any stun, he could withdraw and recover. But an intelligently played Cap should be likewise untouchable. So call this one a draw. 0-0-1 for Cap Ergon - An Electro-magnetic Energy Projector, about 400pts. This would again depend on the exact situation. With desolid, teleport and a number of unusual attacks, Ergon would seem to have an advantage, but he is grossly outclassed in CV and has neither the defense nor the lack of weakness to take a hit from Cap. Ergon's only chance is to simply run away. This one goes to Cap. 1-0-1 for Cap. Rune - Sentient Mystic Weapon with cosmic VPP, about 500pts. Rune's standard operating procedure is to rush up to opponents and beat them upside the head with raw mystic force. He's not terribly subtle. Closing to HtH with Cap is obviously a bad idea. And Rune would probably learn the error of his ways before Cap finishes him, he's brick tough. At that point he would fall back and start using the VPP. Once the area effect NNDs or Transforms start flying, Cap will be so much toast. 1-1-1 for Cap. Longarm - Stretcher, about 350pts. Not tough enough to stand being hit, not agile enough to avoid being hit, not strong enough to do any real damage, not fast enough to run away, not versatile enough to compensate for the rest. Cap simply outclasses him in every possible way. 2-1-1 for Cap.

Re: Is seduction all wrong? Exactly. My group recently finished Shades of Black. And at the end the evil sorceress attempted to 'seduce' each of the male players to help her escape. She made her roll by at least 10 in each case. But it was all for naught. The first player she attemped to seduce into helping her was the husband of the teammate who's body she had stolen. A wife he is utterly devoted to. Needless to say he was unwilling to help her escape with his wife's body. Next she turned her charm on a character who had recently spent a good several weeks as Talisman's love slave. He had turned on the entire team, and being basically grounded in 1950s morality he was about as horrified at the love slave bit as the betrayal. He obviously was highly disinclined to turn into another sorceress' plaything, regardless of how enticing it might seem. And finally she tired to seduce the mystic, who happens to be generally opposed to very existance of most other mystics. The idea of letting a 'foresworn enemy' escape with a teammate's body was a bit repugnent. Now in each case she impressed the charcters highly. But seduction is not mind control. and it should be allowed to replace it.

Years ago at the request of another poster, I cobbled together a quick calculator where in if you had two of the variable (T, A or D) you would get the third. Very useful for 'hard'ish sci-fi. How long does it take to get to the moon? Simply enter the distance, and acceleration in Gs (or fractions there of) and voila. Well I updated the file last year and realized I had never reposted it. So here it is. TAD 2.0. It is a Excel 2000 spreadsheet. Simply enter the variables you know to get the one you don't. TAD 2.0 has improved values for some of the constants, a nicer look and feel, and corrected at least one horrendous math mistake. Just one thing to remember though. Everything assumes constant linear acceleration. If your PCs intend to stop at the end of the trip they better have really good brakes. Otherwise you should remember set your distance to half of what you want, and then double the time (acelerate for half the distance and decelerate the other half).

Re: Name This Hero

Re: Name This Hero Hmm... Mister Elastic isn't bad. And I rather like Longarm. Proteus isn't quite right, because the character is more stretchy and not so much shape-changy. Although I must admit it would be an interesting addition to the team, as we already have a Dr. Gilgamesh. Perhaps I could go with the adjective form, something like The Protean Avenger. Of course knowing my group I figure I would get a number of questions like: "Why are you so worried about protein?" and "What are you avenging anyway, low carb diets?" Well this bears further thought. Thanks for ideas everyone and keep them coming.

I'm about to start playing a new character in a campaign I'm in ,but am totally lost as what to name him. So I figured I would ask for help from the Hero community. The charcter is a detective type ala Batman with stretchy powers ala Mr. Fantastic. So far the ideas I've come up with are either lame - Rubberman (sounds like a Trojan sales mascot) or derivitive - PlasticGUY, PlasticDUDE, Mr. Fabulous. So I need your help. Be they ever so humble give me your stretchy names.

Re: Game Maps and Counters Exchange Here is a map of the Klausner Gallery, an art gallery owned by my character in his secret ID. The scale is 2m per inch.

One reason. As bad as the original was it still sold well. Apparently LotR for dummies was a successful book idea. And he has gotten significantly better at writing. Even the second book was a significant step up from the first. Although he still isn't IMO a particularly good writer, he is readable. I'd be willing to sit down and re-read any of his Shannara (excepting the first one) or Magic Kingdom books. I don't actually plan on doing that because life is short and there are authors I would much rather read or re-read. The real question is how Jordon and Goodkind are still selling books.

I always liked Hawk the Slayer for the cheese factor. The autofire elf, the rubber ball and hoola-hoop magical effects, the completely non-sensical plot, Jack Valence chewing up the scenery in every scene. Sure it was a bad movie, but it had great camp value.

Depends where you are. The further from the equator the slower you are going. 0°=1040 MPH 15°=1005 MPH 30°=901 MPH 45°=737 MPH 60°=521 MPH 75°=270 MPH 90°=0 MPH So obviously this will have a minor limitation that it is dependant on latitude. I would also use movement power UAO instead of TK or some such.

I agree with talking with the GM. He should be able to give you some guidelines for his campaign. I have played in 250 pt campaigns where the average was around 28 Dex, 7 SPD, 18 DCs, and 35 Def. I have also played in 250 pt campaigns where it was around 18 Dex, 4 SPD, 9 DCs, and 15 Def. If you don't know what the GM wants you can be badly out of synch with the rest of the players. If your GM doesn't have any firm suggestions, I would recommend going with the Standard Hero Guidelines in Champions. Your GM will likely tend toward published standards unless he has his own firmly in mind.

Of course Gandalf is a minor god/angelic being of the same classification as Sauron and the Balrog. So he's allowed to be a bit more flashy in his uses of magic than the average person. Not that the average person has any real access to magic anyway.

I'd have to agree. When I have had cats, catching them to take them to the vet wasn't a 5 or less level of difficulty. More like a 9 or less. And hitting them with a spray bottle to get them off furnature and such was a trivial task, 15 or less at least. And I can assure you that I am a 3 OCV individual. A 5-6 DCV for a normal cat is sufficent

How about diseases and toxins? As a mixed type his biological side could easily be more susceptable than a full biological. For an interesting take give him full Life Support and a stun only Susceptability/Vulnerability. This allows him to survive snakebites; after all he is mostly robotic. But it may cause him enough pain that he is forced to shut down and go into a regeneration mode. It makes an odd but logical weakness.

Re: Re: Conquest You just described everything on the History channel. At one point I used to watch it regularly. But eventually I realized that everytime I had good detailed knowledge of a subject their shows were consistantly and regularly wrong on a large number of points. And frequently they were wrong about the key points on the subject they were covering. Once I realized that they were consistantly wrong on those subjects I knew, I concluded that they were probably wrong on those subjects I didn't. So I stopped watching altogether. I am sad to hear that they are still messing it up over five years later though.

Has anything significant changed between this and the old Cybergames PDF?

I guess a good question would be, did you ever play Justice Inc, Espionage, Danger International, Robot Warriors, or Fantasy Hero? Several of the changes from 2nd to 5th are ideas that were originally developed from these. So you may recognize the expanded skill lists, martial arts and many of the talents from these games. Let's see what has changed. Characteristics - These are still exactly the same. All the same stats are there. They still have the same costs and base values. DEX still provides OCV/DCV. 5pts of STR gives 1d6 damage etc. Skills - The skills are almost entirely reworked. The basic mechanism is stil there, but virtually all skills cost 3 points and the list is vastly expanded. A number of skills have been made into powers instead including Swinging, Find Weakness and Luck. Martial Arts - These have been completely reworked. Rather than just a straight multiplier of strength you buy the individual manuevers seperately. Each manuever adds various bonuses based on how it is used. If you really like the way they used to work you can just buy the manuevers listed as the Generic Martial Arts and you'll have almost exactly the same thing. The real advantage is that is now alot easier to have a 10 STR sensei who can punch through brick walls. Talents - This is class that didn't exist in 2nd ed Champions but did in the other 2nd ed Hero games. These are semi-powers that even non-supers may have, Eidetic Memory and such. These have largely been worked into the powers lists. Basically an entire class of abilites came into being and have more or less disappeared since you played. Perks - These will be new to you. They represent various advantages, legal standings, etc. like Wealth or Police Powers. Followers (sidekicks) and Bases fall under here as well. Powers - Many of these will be pretty much as you remember them. There is probably about a 50% increase in the number of powers including things like Extra-Dimensional Movement, Clairsentience, and Aid (basically a reverse Drain). However between 2nd and 5th virtually every power has changed a bit. Armor has a different cost; Flash works differently; Entangle has dozens of new options; Enhanced senses have been completely reworked; Desolid has been radically changed; Shapeshift is practically unrecognizable. And a number of powers have been lost or rolled into other powers including Power Destruction, Instant Change, and Mental Paralasys. The combat rules and such have likewise been greatly expanded. There are dozens of combat options. Which can be a bit overwhelming at first. But it helps create a far more cinematic feel. In general characters are far more detailed and much better described. The rules are cleaner and much more specific requireing far less GM handwaving. But there is a lot more there than there was three editions back. I highly recomend it having played more or less continuously since 2nd ed. But you will need to read the rules thoroughly. Otherwise you'll find a lot of your assumptions don't hold true any longer.