Matt Frisbee

Re: Super Bases and the Gm's who love them Given what you've mentioned here about the characters, I don't see anything wrong with a rework of the Homestead with a villain twist. Make it a secret location instead of a public one, add some disguise to the thing and lose the grounds. The rest of it should stand up nicely with some tweaks for your individual characters. Usually, when the characters obtain a base of operations in my Champions campaigns, it is usually from one of their villains. The idea being that after all the wonderful booby-traps and non-politically correct equipment is removed, you wind up having a crib with no toys, and the characters have a motivation to spruce things up with character points! Let us know how it goes! Matt Frisbee

Re: Champions Jargon I must be doing something wrong as a GM -- my players have never actually killed any other character in a Champions game except by accident...maybe because I design their characters? Here's a few more from my group's lingo: Picked Up The Spare -- Tactic of one character mowing down multiple targets with an area of effect or explosion attack and another character with roughly the same speed (usually another energy projector) picking off any who are still standing after the initial attack. [From bowling terminology] Brick Missile -- Any unusually large or heavy object which can be (more or less) easily picked up and thrown by the bricks in the party. Places where large numbers of such objects are readily available (such as car dealerships, a typical junkyard, construction site, etc.) are called Brick Gardens. Brick Frisbee -- A manhole cover. (See Brick Missile) Sheet Metal (Scrap Metal) Giftwrap -- The act of leaving an unconscious enemy bound or otherwise restrained in a temporary prison of metal debris for the authorities. Skip -- Name given to any character (friendly or enemy) who suffers the indignity of being knocked back into a (usually large) body of water. Keep it up, people...this is really fun!

Re: "the Governmput put a Chip in my Head!" Hey Basil, Okay, I stand corrected. But my first response to that sort of thing is "um, interesting, but not possible with the current level of technology." To do something even remotely like that, they would need a neurological interface program and system which could translate neurochemical emissions from the surrounding synapses and create and send back same for the chip to work. While there are some ideas for replacing people's eyes with cameras by hooking into the optic nerve, this is still in the experimental stage. Matt "Wishing-I'd-just-kept-quiet" Frisbee

I don't know if this has been done before, but here's your opportunity to share with the rest of us some particularly helpful or useful lines of work past or present PC's have done to maintain their secret identities. I've seen it commented a few places that being rich is enough for some people, but it has never been enough in my campaigns! So here are a few examples of what I'm talking about! (As mentioned in Enforcer84's thread about his new campaign) Medical Transcriptionist Essentially takes hand-written and phone-menu logs from doctors and the like and types it up in electronic forms for insurance companies. Can be free-lanced from home using a PC and an internet connection. 1 KS: Medical Terminology 8- 2 PS: Medical Transcriptionist 11- 1 PERK: PC w/Internet Connection 1 PERK: Works from Home Locksmith These are the guys and gals who make keys and locks for various commercial and residential properties, as well as most vehicles. Most of these businesses are one-person operations requiring a commercial vehicle, a place of buisness and a business license. The good news (and the bad news) is that they can be called out at all hours of the day and night for emergency work. 3 Lockpicking xx- 2 PS: Locksmith 11- 1 PERK: Business License 1 PERK: Master Key Sets 5 PERK: Commercial Van/Truck Temp Slave What, I have to tell you what this is about? Odds are you've worked this particular line of work at least once in your life, but if a character has few social committments and doesn't mind being poor, this always leaves him or her with plenty of free time for crimefighting and recovery. 3 Jack of All Trades Skill Enhancer 1 PS: Laborer 11- 1 PS: Telemarketer 11- 1 PS: Temp Worker 11- Hope to hear from the rest of you soon! Matt Frisbee

Re: Enforcer's new Campaign! Good luck on the campaign, Enforcer84! Sounds like it'll be fun. A great thought for those characters who wish to work their own hours from home -- freelance medical transcriptionist! After spending 8 hours in front of the monitor typing in medical-ese, a couple of hours fighting crime every night would probably seem like recess! Matt "Already-has-an-NPC-doing-this-in-my-campaign" Frisbee

Re: "the Governmput put a Chip in my Head!" Um, not to make a mess of a perfectly entertaining argument here, but I think the chip we're talking about is like a dogtag -- it has medical and personal information encoded into it which can be read by an induction device. Plus, it's inserted just under the skin at that location because statistically it's the place on the body most likely to survive relatively intact from typical combat injuries. They've been using this technology in people's pets for a few years now. Matt "Hoping-I-didn't-step-in-it" Frisbee

Re: Sharing the Campaign ideas you can't use... yet As an old Morrow Project GM, these next two suggestions are a little hackneyed but still quite serviceable: Sleepers -- Welcome to the far future! The characters were testing a cryogenic hibernation system for NASA and wound up being some of the only people to have survived a Lucifer's Hammer scenario. That was three hundred years ago and the only reason the characters have been revived is that one of the scientists of the project has somehow managed to survive -- by bonejacking the other test subjects of the project! Presuming the characters can survive the scalpel-wielding fiend, can they survive in the strange new world beyond the bunker? Expect the usual assortment of mutated animals and monsters, plus variations on utopian and distopian societies which have somehow survived the rock. One In Twenty -- A swarm of meteorites brings an extraterrestial pandemic to earth which decimates the population of the planet in less than ten days. Only one in twenty humans survives exposure to this organism, but those who do develop superpowers! With a complete lack of governments and the stress of being the only ones left on the planet, what sort of world will the characters attempt to make for themselves? And what else is out there to aid or oppose them? Matt "Still-mining-the-archives-of-broken-campaigns" Frisbee

Re: campaign story arc -- what do you think? To be blunt, this is some good work -- but I'm sure you already knew that. I especially like the website with the press releases. I'm going to be following this thread with some interest. Matt "Still-vulturing-other-people's-campaigns-for-my-own" Frisbee

Re: Adventure Modules Most 4th Edition stuff was geared toward superheroes built on the 100 base + 150 disadvantages system. That doesn't mean they still can't be used as is, it's still the same system (more or less). My players don't care if the points balance out on the villains or not, just so long as they make challenging opponents both on and off the battlefield... Matt "Throwing-another-couple-pennies-in-the-ring" Frisbee

Re: Champions Jargon Yeah, my old group had some slang we threw around the table: BOX SHOT -- An attack requiring so many dice that a "kill box" was required to contain the dice thrown for a reasonably random roll. Essentially, this was a cardboard box or convenient tupperware container to keep the dice from scattering to all points of the game room when an overly zealous player would toss the dice for that massive haymaker Grond was going to dish onto Dr. Destroyer... SNIT (From Revenge of the Snits) -- An enemy agent. My players saw a lot of these guys because I loved taking advantage of the "multiple opponents" rule to make these guys an actual combat threat. The players who created characters with AOE or Explosion attacks started becoming very popular in this campaign... There were others, but I used to hang with a fairly rude dog group, so these are the only ones that are family friendly. Matt "Still-wishing-the-old-gang-was-still-around" Frisbee

Re: A Champions Haloween I dressed up as one of my campaign's favorite supporting cast of low-powered supers once -- Low-Rent the back alley brawler whose only powers were damage resistance and ultraviolet vision. He was a fun character to help out the heroes against the legions of lackeys my campaign's villains always seem to have... Matt "Sticking-to-table-top-action-this-beggar's-night" Frisbee

Re: Super City Dewey, Chetham & Howe -- The famous legal firm which (more or less) successfully defends the forces of evil -- um, that is, innocent accused, against the baseless accusations of superheroes, police, eyewitnesses and corporate whistleblowers, regardless of the so called "facts" of the case in question. Matt "Havin'-more-fun-than-a-barrel-full-of-monkeys" Frisbee

Re: Super City This has been so much fun I want to run my next campaign (or at least a one shot) in this city -- it needs a formal write-up! Axis-Dent Chemical Works -- A run down factory works which always finds itself the scene of tragedy when some hapless citizen blunders into the place and encounters unearthly cocktails of molecules never meant to be combined in a human body! About half of the time, a new superhero is created, and the other half, a hideous new villain! And of course, let's not forget the epic battles between good and evil which always do extensive damage but never seem to destroy the place nor inspire anyone to clean up this toxic waste dump... If I can, Hermit, this is certainly rep-worthy! Matt "Lovin'-it-to-death" Frisbee

Re: Help, the car hit the character! Not to further muddy the waters here, but I had a density-increasing brick character who did this maneuver many times. His tactic was (presuming he had a spare phase to prepare) to "catch" the offending vehicle -- a variation on the "Rolling With The Punch" rules where he would slide along the street surface until his added mass and massive strength would bog the vehicle down, then get his hands under the front bumper and flip the vehicle on its top or roll it over (depending on how obnoxious the occupants had been beforehand). If he didn't have the extra phase, he'd simply lower his shoulder and resist the knockback as mentioned above, although that tended to be somewhat more painful for him and the occupants (to say nothing of the vehicle). I should mention that said character did have a couple of combat skill levels in hand-to-hand combat as well. Anyway, our group always treated these superheroic vehicle catches as resisted move-throughs with normal damage, but in those days we didn't see too many killing attacks because Champions hadn't gotten dark and nasty back then. Matt "Still-living-in-the-past-and-lovin'-it" Frisbee

Re: Sci-fi wear swords? Hi guys and gals, I've been browsing this thread with some interest, seeing as I'm an old school Traveller player and referee. Here's my thoughts on the subject, which hopefully haven't been brought up too many times before. 1) Old school science fiction stories (Flash Gordon, John Carter, Asimov's space merchant, the Stainless Steel Rat, etc.) all incorporated bladed weapons, including swords of some type into the universe. Why? Because a sword duel is infinitely more exciting and personal than a gunfight from a writing perspective. Remember, realism can always be shelved for a reasonably dramatic scene which has the right feel for the genre. 2) The higher the technology level of a society, the faster technology defenses can catch up with technological attacks. Case in point: a) unguided bomb dropped from airplane is deterred by anti-aircraft guns which are then bypassed by c) high-altitude bombing, which is then countered with d) high-altitude interceptors, which are then avoided by e) night bombing and then countered again with f) radar equipped night fighters...and so on. A sword in the hands of a modestly trained individual is more than adequate to defend said individual from most sorts of harm, considering most firefights take place at ranges of less than 20 feet and most animals have an attack range of less than one body length. Add to this fact that most bladed weapons of any length incorporate fighting styles where the weapons is used to defend as much as attack, and the fact that keeping one's sword skills sharp is both an excellent way to stay in shape and ensure that one may live to see another day...well, who wouldn't want to keep one handy? 3) Technology varies from place to place (as do laws), but most places are willing to allow someone to carry a sword (even if they aren't actually allowed to use it). That being said, provided the planet you're on has roughly the same metallurgical theories as where you bought your sword, no matter where you go, you can almost always procure a sword or improvise a blunt object which can be used in roughly the same fashion. 4) Swords (in our society at least) tend to lend a certain credibility to an individual, suggesting a background or lifestyle. There's a certain amount of art (or at least perceived art) in fighting with say a rapier, sabre, katana or foil. Weapons with lower class implications (don't get mad at me here) such as knives, machetes, hatchets and broadswords lend a different aspect to a character's social standing. 5) Finally, this has been said before: Swords are just so cool. Personally, it is much more fun from a player's and GM's standpoint to run a sword fight than "BANG! You're dead!" types of firefights. And if swords are a bit anachronistic to the slick future, then at least there is some acknowledgement of a history where higher ideals were held a little loftier than they are in current days. Matt "Trying-not-to-wax-poetic-about-the-subject" Frisbee

Re: Star Hero fictional settings we haven't seen Anything similar to the Cowboy Bebop franchise would make my day. Matt "Still-a-hopeless-Fay-Valentine-fanboy" Frisbee

Re: Original Supervillain Groups -- Get Creative! That's pretty easy to do these days, since he keeps giving us all this ammunition... Matt "Used-to-be-SO-into-Star-Wars-before-George-made-it-SUCK" Frisbee

Re: Every good four color supers games needs: At least one adventure in outer space or on another planet. (Preferable that the heroes be taken there against their wills by kidnappers or accidentally get there by forces beyond their control. A dude on the moon with a large cranium who is observing the antics of earthlings and taking notes, with gobs of power and technology and still does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING but talk about other possibilities. (BTW, have you ever had your characters play a "What If..." adventure before?) Incarnations of childhood story and classic literature characters who either copy the antics precisely, or are the real McCoy and are always claiming that "trash" that was written about them got everything wrong. At least one villain who can never be beaten in a straight-up fight, but has some gimmic like making him say his name backwards to go away for a while. Goof-ball villains who really need therapy or a really good slap upside the head by a parental figure who then tells them to "Get a job!" Children with super-powers and childish villains for them to outwit and defeat. Pets with super-powers and animalistic villains for them to outwit and defeat. The hero who's had his parents killed and has been adopted by other relatives who were just as good if not better than the biological parents at raising said child, even though they've never had children of their own before the adoption. (That's a classic.) The hero who's had his parents killed and has been adopted by a family servant who was just as good if not better than the biological parents at raising said child, even though the servant has never been married or had any children of his or her own. (That's another classic.) The hero who's had his parents killed and has been adopted by a complete stranger who was just as good if not better than the biological parents at raising said child, because he or she taught them to dedicate their life to the pursuit of justice by learning to discipline the mind and body since just after toilet training. (Yet another classic.) The hero who's a jet-setting playboy millionaire with gobs of money he or she inherited and never really has to work to maintain the empire while he or she is out galavanting around in brightly colored spandex. The hero who's always broke, yet manages to keep working several part-time jobs while balancing college courses, a serious relationship, caring for an ailing relative and staying healthy all of the time while always managing to pay the rent, pay for expendable (and presumably expensive) superheroic necessities (web fluid, costume repairs, dojo practice time, etc.) all while fighting crime often enough to actually be publically recognized whenever he or she steps out onto the street in uniform. Bombastic prose which takes a seasoned radio professional something like 30 seconds to say with some practice time being rattled off in between punches in a pitched hand-to-hand combat session. Matt "Nuff-said" Frisbee

Re: Immunity: Magnetism Actually, this was one I didn't consider, but the build seems fairly solid. I would word and point the above suggestion thusly: Anti-Magnetic Armor Lining: Desolidification, 0 END, Persistent (+1), Only vs. magnetic attacks and special effects (-2), IIF-Armor (-1/4) [60 AP] : 18 points. Also, if this is a campaign with point caps for offense, defense, etc., make sure you point out that this power would apply as a defense. Of course, if you really want to be a wisecracker -- send in a villain with a magnetic power which affects desolid... Matt "Always-learning-something-new-with-this-system" Frisbee

Re: Immunity: Magnetism To a limited extent, yes it is possible to be immune to a specific group of attacks and special effects. Since you say "it," I presume you mean the armor itself and not the wearer. If that's the case, just note the following on the character sheet: 1) The armor is non-magnetic. However, if the player wants the armor to make the character immune from the effects of magentic attacks, you're going to have a build issue. Not an insurmountable one, it's just going to take some points. First idea: 2) 75% Resistant Energy Damage Reduction, only vs. Magnetic attacks (-2), IIF-Armor (-1/4) [AP 45] : 14 points. This won't stop all the damage from a magnetic attack, but it will make it fairly pointless. Second idea: 3) +30 ED Force Field, 0 END, Persistant (+1), Only vs. Magnetic attacks (-2), IIF-Armor (-1/4) [AP 60] : 18 points. This won't stop all effects either, but it will make the armor-wearer nigh-invulnerable to most magnetic attacks. Third idea: 4) xd6 Suppress, 0 END, Persistant (+1), Vs. all powers of a magnetic special effect (+2), only vs. those effects directed toward or targeting the wearer of this armor (-1/4), doesn't actually prevent use of powers suppressed (-1/2), IIF-Armor (-1/4) [20 AP per die] : 10 points per d6. This option is hideously expensive, but it will probably do the exact thing the player is looking for, provided he or she is willing to spend a hundred points or so for the privilege. Hope this helps! Matt "Still-working-the-4th-Edition" Frisbee

Re: Is Iron Man a power gamer type character? This situation happens all the time in superheroic campaigns, especially ones that attempt to balance the good with the bad with characters. The Hero System tends to front-load the problem during the character creation process while other systems tend to make it a "during play" situation where the player and GM negotiate (to a certain extent) how and where the powers and limitations will work in that campaign. The situation here becomes an issue of play balance for a particular campaign and whether it fits the tone the GM is trying to establish. Back in an earlier edition of these rules, it used to be that the first disadvantage of a category was allowed for the base number of points, and subsequent disadvantages of the same type were discounted by half and then a quarter of the base value. Imagine trying on an Iron Man with those sorts of limitations! It is possible, it's just not easy. While I don't have problems with the current system of simply limiting the points from each individual category, the original incarnation of these rules I mentioned above (IMHO) was more effective in getting players to think about their characters, since piling on more of the same had limited benefits. Unfortunately, this also tended to create characters who had crippling disadvantages since power gamers wanted to get the most points from that first disadvantage. Presuming I don't make the characters for the players, which is a rare thing these days since they don't have copies of the rules I run, I usually insist that the character concept be developed first. Most players simply have a laundry list of skills and powers they want their character to have without any consideration as to who the character is as a person. That's the genuine telling feature of most power gamers, they know what they want their character to do but have no idea who the character really is or what problems they might have. I have taken to the idea of allowing disadvantages at twice their normal points, because I (as a GM) have a hard time keeping track of all the characters' issues and giving them adequate importance during game play. Otherwise, I suppose I could always bump up the base points and simply not require so many disadvantages, whatever. Ultimately, it boils down to the campaign. If all the characters are doing is meeting at the TroubAlert and busting down the villain of the week, then disadvantages which are combat related mean more than ones which have to be role-played. If your group is doing a take on To Save The World, then the roleplaying-oriented disadvantages will be more prominent. Is Iron Man a power-gaming character? Not really. He's got a nice mix of (high-end) powers for a combat-oriented character. Tony's an inventor with a lot of money and a lot of issues -- very balanced from a Champions standpoint. You want a power gamer? Try Batman with the cheap as all bleep utility belt multipower with 20 slots and a variable power pool for vehicles and base equipment! And all he's got for problems are an obession with justice (which he can mask with his wealth) and a sidekick who serves as an occasional plot complication. Okay, I'm sorry, he also has a humanitarian streak that would shame Mother Teresa, which disappears when he's battling crime... Anyway, that's my take on it. Hopefully, I haven't stepped on too many toes. Matt "Wiping-the-rant-foam-from-the-corners-of-my-mouth" Frisbee

Re: This week on "Champions"... Sunday 7:00 pm Bay City Rollers -- "Shorthanded" With the team's two ladies out of town on matters arcane, and Paragon off to Washington DC to fill in for Captain Freedom while he recovers from his injuries, Firehawk and Longbow are trying to keep a lid on things in Bay City. Between the Southside Vigilante, The Green Avenger, the jailbreak of Frizbee and Gravitar, and helping with security at the sentencing of an old enemy; our heroes have to be in too many places at once!

Re: A Day in the Life Of... I must be lucky and have really good players, because nobody complains when we sidebar to personal situations with only one character -- just so long as I don't take more than say ten minutes. Also, we have situations where just one hero is in the middle of the action, and the others are anxious to see what happens without complaining about the fact that their characters aren't participating. Matt "Counting-my-blessings" Frisbee

Re: Immunity to vampirism? I think that if vampires were recurring or the focus of the campaign, it probably would be worth 10 points. If it is a standard superhero campaign where vampires tend to be few and far between, it would probably be worth about 3 points. But then, that's my WAG at it, and the official line mileage may vary. Matt "The-Guestimator" Frisbee

Re: How important is heroism in your campaign? This reminds me of an adventure I ran where the heroes had to face off with a villain who had decided that he would kill off all but the smartest 5% of the world's population, claiming that it would make the world a better place. Intellectual elitism at its highest, but he made a pretty good argument -- people who were smart could actually put aside petty differences and start working on solving the world's problems to make the planet a better place; world resources would no longer be wasted on consumerist trash that ends up in landfills six months after the energy to make it was expended; money & resources going toward war could be spent on scientific research to benefit all mankind instead of making corporations rich; etc. One of the characters took the supervillain seriously enough to debate the issue. He pointed out (rather eloquently) that humanity should all have a chance to make things better by wanting to be better in the first place. Just because someone is highly intelligent, that doesn't automatically make them socially responsible or even willing to work for the betterment of others. He argued that the supervillain should be setting the example if he truly wanted humanity to be better. The supervillain could have spent the money and resources he used (stole) to build his death machine on something that truly would have made life better, but instead, he used it to make life infinitely worse for 95% of the world's population. To be fair, the character aced his Oratory roll, but after being dressed down by one of the people he was intending to kill, the supervillain actually shut his own machine down and turned himself in to the authorities because he had been shamed by his own hypocracy. That's what moralism can do for a character -- although it absolutely deep sixed this fantastic fight I had planned for the top of the Gateway Arch... Matt "Still-a-little-miffed-about-that-end-around" Frisbee