thorngumbald

Thanks Rigel ... and in that same section "Congress has, however, passed laws granting at least limited rights to all “independent, free-willed, sentient entities” in American territory".

Is there anything written regarding the legal status of non-human heroes in the Champions Universe?

Aliens could be treated as foreign nationals, I guess, and interdimensional visitors similarly. What of intelligent robots? Pure energy beings?

Thanks Ninja-Bear.

Also, APG II p26 states that Entangles can have the Costs Endurance to Maintain limitation (tying into 6E1 p374 for End costs for Instant powers). That seems to be exactly what I want for now.

Here's my dilemma. A character has gravity based powers, which he wants to use to bind someone (Entangle) in gravitational force. That makes sense to me, but what doesn't make sense is that the gravitational effect lasts forever. I also see no suggestion that an Entangle can be turned off at will by the Entangler (as an Instant power, once it's there, it's there), so in this example, the character can't release anyone they've captured.

That's not how I, or he, sees the power working, but I struggle to see how to build it correctly. It needs to dissipate in time or when the character no longer wants it. I thought about making it Susceptible to "being in existence" so it damages itself every few minutes, but that feels odd.

Oh, OK, I see what you mean. Thanks.

Actually, I think I have answered my own question. As Entangle can be made Constant (6E1 p218), it implies that some degree of continuation is involved, so the latter applies above. The Handcuffs example on 6E1 p219 confused me; I suspect Handcuffs should really be bought as Persistent.

Hi all

One of my players has purchased Entangle in a Multipower slot. When he uses it, what happens on the following Phase? Is that slot now unavailable while the Entangle is in effect (given that Entangle doesn't require anything to maintain it, ie: handcuffs)? Or are those reserve points locked until the Entangle ends?

i suspect it's the former, but I wasn't sure ...

Thanks,

T

Ahh ... Rails, I think you’re right. One or the other. Thank you!

In the Bestiary for the 6th Edition, I'm looking at an Air Elemental (p129). It's Desolid, and has several attacks ... but none of those attacks has "Affects Physical World". Do y'all think that's an oversight? Or is there some reason why "Affects Physical World" isn't needed for this character?

Ah yes ... there it is! Thank you Lord Liaden!

The "V-Jet" is a transport familiarity for the Champions in "Champions Universe" (ie: Defender on p165), and Ironwood Industrial Technologies had a hand in it's construction (Millennium City sourcebook p46).

But what is it? I can't seem to find any other references to it. Some sort of VTOL aircraft, I assume ... Is anyone aware of any more details?

7 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

FWIW my own invented background for Taipan was that he's the third unspecified offspring of VIPER's serpent-god patron Nama, as described on VIPER: Coils Of The Serpent p. 14 sidebar. His mother is the Duchess Henrietta von Drotte. As a child the future Taipan was given over to the Takara-Shinja to be raised and trained as VIPER's supreme assassin. But the boy had much of his father's pride and mercurial nature, and as he grew older he chafed at serving VIPER. He wanted to use his abilities to enrich himself. As a young man Taipan used some of VIPER's own criminal contacts to help him stage his fake death during a training exercise, and flee to Australia far from VIPER's attention. For several years he lay low while continuing to train, then made his big-splash debut under his new identity.

 

During Taipan's publicized trial several of the Takara-Shinja recognized him, and the Supreme Serpent wanted to retrieve him immediately, but Nama forbade it. Over the years of Taipan's Hot Sleep confinement Nama sent dreams into his mind, tormenting him over his failure and excoriating him for betraying VIPER and his father, in order to break his will. When Nama judged him sufficiently pliant he allowed VIPER to extract him from House Taipan, and add him to their arsenal.

Nice!! Thanks for sharing ... I may use something like that in my own game

7 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

There are occasional inconsistencies in published villain rankings. For example, in CV Vol. 1 the icon for Dr. Yin Wu is an Omega, but on Champions Universe p. 44 he's noted as a Delta-class threat. Of course that's in the 2010 United States Superhuman Survey; one could say that in-setting, it's possible the Doctor could have moved up the rankings subsequently due to his actions. Bottom line, though, is that just due to editorial human fallibility, oversights might occur in the books, and in this case that might apply.

 

But if you did wish to justify that classification, the rationale offered by Ninja-Bear is probably most relevant. However, another risk factor is that Taipan's identity, his history before debuting as an assassin, are total mysteries, despite years of global investigation. That leads to several unsettling questions: Are there more like him? What's the source of his powers, and could that source be exploited by someone else? Was Taipan following some larger agenda, or represents one part of a greater threat? (I have my own unofficial answers, or course.)

 

EDIT: BTW, Firewing's entry in CV 3 notes that he's considering breaking Taipan out of prison, because he believes Taipan could give him a good fight. So that's one route to setting him loose to terrify your PCs.

Good points, thank you! 

And similarly, the Crowns of Krim in CV2 are an Omega group, but only Delta per your same page reference.

7 hours ago, Ninja-Bear said:

Like I said, that’s my best guess.  

... and it's likely the best one. Thank you. I can envisage world leaders and senior figures wanting a very high premium attached to Taipan, in case he comes after them!

10 minutes ago, Ninja-Bear said:

I don’t have the book so this is a big guess on what you wrote. Perhaps the Omega ranking isn’t due to his Powers per se but more because he’s a powerful assassin.  The wrong people getting killed could really put the world at edge or in collapse. It’s kinda how Organizations are really powerful like Viper but individuals like agents aren’t. 

Yeah ... I hear what you're saying. But AFAIK there are only thirteen Omega rated villains (Doctor Destroyer, Eclipsar, Gravitar, Istvatha V’han, Kinematic, Mechanon, Menton, The Slug, Taipan, Takofanes, Valak, The Warlord, and Doctor Yin-Wu), and one Omega rated group (The Crowns of Krim). That's some pretty deadly dangerous company; villains which could wipe out whole countries.

Hi all

Looking through the Solo Villains book, I see Taipan is marked as an Omega class villain. Can anybody see why that is? Yes, he's a super-fast assassin, but why does that rank a world-threatening rank alongside Dr. Destroyer, Mechanon, etc.? Seems he should be Delta at best ... but perhaps I'm missing something ...

Thanks,

Thanks ... so you suggest that Membership provides access to the basic facilities of the position, but to get anything done outside the strict limitations of the office, then a Contact would be needed. I like that interpretation!

Hey all

I'm wondering when one should use Membership and when to use Contacts (Organizational).

For example: a character is a special agent in the FBI. So they should have Membership at the 2-3 point level (6E1 p103). But does that give them the same benefit as Contact (6E1 p100): 11- Contact (2 points), +3 very useful skills or resources x3 Organizational Contact = 15 points; and that's not taking "access to major institutions" or "has significant contacts of his own".

It seems unreasonable that a 2-3 point Fringe Benefit would give the same benefit as a 15 point (or more) contact. Should an FBI Special Agent take both the Membership and Contact Perks? Or just one? And if only one, which one?

Thanks,

The 5th Edition book Stronghold had quite a bit to say about the criminal justice system in the Champions Universe.

Oh, I am sure I am doing something wrong ... just not sure what  

No, I am placing it in the rules section.

I'll have to ask players to not select that and manually check their character files.

Thank you for your thoughts, I appreciate your taking the time to answer me.

Thank you ... but adding <REMOVE>DELAYEDEFFECT</REMOVE> within the <MODIFIERS> .... </MODIFIERS> section had no effect. It still appears as an option.

Hi,

I want to remove "Delayed Effect" as a Modifier in Hero Designer. How can I do that when editing the XML?

I could copy all Modifiers over from the main template and remove that one, but that seems very heavy handed; I hope there is something more elegant.

Thanks,

Yep, you are right. Thank you! 

I'm sure this has been asked, but I couldn't seem to find it with a Search.

Per the 6E Volume p318, Non-Mental Power attacks against DMCV instead of DCV are a +1/4 Advantage. However, in Hero Designer, I can't seem to find any +1/4 options; they are either +0 or +1/2 (ie: Very Common -> Common is a +1/2). Is there a way of creating a +1/4 effect somehow?