Bartman

OK, given your further insights into your campaign, I certainly understand your choices. I'm still not sure I agree with them. But as long as everybody in your campaign is enjoying themselves, its all good baby. I still think you should be extra attentive to anyone haveing resentment to the fact that you spotted one of the characters 100 odd points.

I can't say I agree with your decision or your reasoning. From my reading of your post, it sounds like someone came up with a character that will completely dominate all non-combat situations. He will have skills, perks and contacts vastly beyond those of any of the other characters. On top of that he will have access to virtually any power or ability he needs (through the VPP). Even though it won't be under his control, he will be the most versatile character on most teams. And in order that he won't feel left out, in the one thing the other characters may have a chance to shine in, you have allowed him to match them in combat ability as well. Your apparent solution to this situation is to give the guy extra points and disads to enable this. And then to make sure he gets more screen time as opposed to the other characters in the campaign (your solution #3). You might as well rename the campaign Jon Wrath and friends. I would be upset if I were one of your other players. I have played skill based characters before with no problems. And yes they have their own strengths and weaknesses. But no more so than any other character. If some of his skills or perks really are useless, then make them free. If all he wants to be able to say 'I have a license to kill' in a gravelly voice that is worth 0pts. If he has spent 10pts on it the character really does have a license to kill with no repercusions. And you should expect him to want to use it at some point in the campaign. In general all the players should be playing by the same rules. As it is, it sounds like for some reason you let this guy walk all over you.

In TOS it was Warp^3. So... Warp 1 = 1c Warp 2 = 8c Warp 3 = 27c Warp 4 = 64c Warp 5 = 125c Warp 9 = 729c TNG and later never officially used this scale. And whatever the new warp equation is it is undefined/infinate at Warp 10. Below Warp 9 the speeds are near the TOS scale. Above Warp 9 speeds rise precipitously. And any change near 10 result in huge differences in speed. Nominally Warp 9.99 is suposedly 8,000c while 9.9999 is suposedly 200,000c. But most of this is fan speculation. And if you really want to get consistancy you have to use something like misterdeath's Cochrane factor. Because consistancey just isn't Trek's strong suite. In the end, under normal circumstances, Fed ships seem to be able to sprint for short times at somewhere around 10,000c but normally cruise from 500c - 3000c. To go over that Feds have to use alternative techs like Borg Transwarp conduits or the Equinox's energy aliens.

You are right that it does seem slow Derek. But it appears to be the case. Here are all the distance/travel times I am aware of that were quoted on the shows. All the numbers are roughly rounded. And while the ships do seem to go faster than 1000c, they only seem to do so in response to some emergency. Cruising speeds are fairly slow. Over Warp 8 = 260,000c (10 kly in 2 weeks) - VOY "Equinox" Warp 9.9 =13,000c (4 Tm/sec) - VOY "The 37's" Top Speed (???) = 13,000c (3 ly in 2 hrs) - VOY "Critical Care" Max Warp (9.6) = 9000c (2.7 million ly in 300+ years) - TNG "Where No One Has Gone Before" Warp ??? = 8,800c (2 ly in 2 hrs) - VOY "Unimatrix Zero" Warp ??? = 6,700c (2 Tm/sec) - VOY "Maneuvers" Max Warp (???) = 3,000c (0.7 ly in 2 hrs) - VOY "Inside Man" Max Sustainable Warp (???) = 2700c (7000 ly in 2yrs 7mo) - TNG "Q Who" Max Warp (???) = 1600c (264 ly in 2 months) - VOY "Friendship One" Max Warp (???) = 1000c (70 kly in 75 years) - VOY "The Caretaker" Warp 9 = 800c (300 Tm in 20min) - TNG "Bloodlines" Warp 9 = 700c (7 kly in 100 years) - TNG "The Price" Warp ??? = 650c (0.54 parsecs in one day) - TNG "Clues" Warp 3 = 39c (0.1 ly in 23 hours) - TNG "The Most Toys

It's not too far off. Remember that everytime they went anywhere in TNG they were always 2-3 days out from wherever they were going. And they could go what? 9.7 for a few days at a time. Voyager prety much proves with their 70 years to cross the galaxy bit, that normal crusing speed is less than 1000c.

I think the Dr. Destroyer adventure at the end of Champions Universe illustrates how Meglomania might be a disad. I should point out before I continue that I have only played the adventure not read it, so my experience might not jell precisely with the story in the book. In the adventure DD has been gone for 10+ years. In reality he has been building up his power secretly and his plans, whatever they may be are procedeing nicely. No one has any clue that he is alive and active, so there are no annoying heroes causing him problems. However a new generation of US satalites could potentially cause him problems. DD approaches the problem with his traditional agressiveness. He takes the resources he needs and destroys the satalites despite the opposition of some heroes. Now at this point the smart thing to do is just continue on and ignore the heroes. Mechanon is being implicated in the crimes, so there is even a convinient fall guy in case the heroes decide to follow up on the adventure. But it has been 10 looong years. No one fears DD. No one is talking about DD. No one cares about DD. Sure he is remembered and despised for his past crimes, but that is not enough. He must let these heroes no precisely who has beaten them. He wants them to be wakeing up in the middle of the night in cold sweat, wondering when and how he will strike next. The temptation is too great and DD appears on a monitor to taunt the heroes. They weren't able to stop him and they won't be able to stop him the next time. The problem is although DD's meglomania has been sated, his goals are now much more difficult to achieve. The govenments and heroes of the world have been forwarned and will be taking plenty of precautions to prevent him from succeding in his goals. Surely that is worth a few points on his character sheet?