The Main Man

Re: What Champions Universe character would you gender change?

Masquerade.

Re: Hero System and Backwards Compatibility

That about covers it. The differences between 5e and 6e are nowhere near the differences between, say, D&D 3e and 4e. If you know them mechanically well enough, you could run 5e and 6e characters side by side with minimal hassle.

Re: Power Skill...How Do You Use It?

Reminds me of my "Stunt" idea for Dark Champions Super Skills: You may attempt any power that is built to require a skill roll but you must have the skill to perform it, you must use the power at the lowest listed value and with limitations maximized, and you must spend a Heroic Action Point per attempt or use. Since they can be attempted virtually for free, players can buy them at a 50% discount.

This is not the full extent to which I use or regulate the Power skill, but I felt that was worth sharing.

Re: Superhero Player Tips and Advice

3. Superheroes Are Power-Based. No way around it - your superhero characters will be primarily defined by their powers. Rather than try to defy it, embrace it and use it as the backbone of your character. Once you know their powers, consider how and why they have them. Consider how your character copes with having their powers day to day as well as why they decided to use them as a superhero. How do they primarily use their powers as a superhero? How does your character's personality affect the use of their powers? How do the powers influence their personality? These questions and many more can stem from your character's primary traits: their superpowers.

Inspired by the Player Tips and Advice thread, I have the idea of starting genre-specific player tips and advice. In this case, let's discuss player tips and advice regarding the Superhero genre that our collective wisdom can impart.

1. Establish the Morals, Ethics, and Deadliness of the Campaign and Honor It. If a campaign is not meant to be deadly, don't build a character with powers meant to kill. If a campaign is meant to be morally and/or ethically gray, don't build a rigid black-and-white character. Build characters to fit the agreed upon tone.

Re: Creepy Pics.

I never found clowns creepy. I liked Bozo as a toddler' date=' but after that they were basically non-entities. They were just odd, lingering relics of a prior age, like jesters or marionettes or Charlie Chaplin.[/quote']

Why is it so hard to find others who agree with me on this?

Re: Rifts HERO?

That's something that always vaguely struck me as wrong - the draining of PPE seems particularly free of consequence outside of the immediate effect. It always felt like a nuisance rather than a true threat.

Re: Order of the Stick

Given the punchline, I think it's a blend - they're that good, but it is quite obvious.

Re: Order of the Stick

At 12 strips in the morning and 12 strips at night, I finally caught up to OOTS. And now here I am in this thread.

So yeah...

Re: Rifts HERO?

I would like to go on record by saying that PPE, ISP, Chi are unnecessarily separate mechanics within Palladium, especially since ISP and PPE are convertible.

Let's say you give every character an Endurance Reserve of 20 END and 4 REC for free to represent how everyone has some PPE. That's worth 10 CP if I recall. Just like Everyman Skills, this can be sold off, which coincides with Rifts explaining low PPE scores as people spending them in pursuit of more mundane skills and such.

Over the past couple of years I have rewarded my players for discussing their characters with their fellow players and for submitting backgrounds (we call them "profiles" but I will refrain from our jargon for this thread). I like giving special rewards like these to give just a little extra touch of uniqueness to the characters within a group that transcends how they are built while giving them incentive to flesh out their character. Up to this point though, I gave static rewards which, upon reflection, ought to be scaled.

Before I go into detail, allow me to describe the rewards, which come in three varieties:

1. Bonus Character Points - I tend to give this reward to character concepts that imply some level of experienced and/or well-roundedness
   
2. Bonus Active Points - I tend to give this reward to character concepts with an implied higher power level*
   
3. Bonus Heroic Action Points per game - I tend to give this reward to character who do not fit into either of the above two categories - they can hang with their fellow characters after all, and this is a way of bridging that gap in gameplay.
   

*This has a side effect, as while it affects raw active points for any given power, it also affects the building guidelines, which are similar to those laid out in the core HERO books - basically, it's slightly more complicated, but I handle that math

Furthermore, I give rewards in a two-tiered method. I give one reward if a player submits a background to my satisfaction, and I give another if they discuss their character with their fellow players, again to my satisfaction. This can result in getting two different rewards or even two of the same reward, all depending on character concept. This allows for more character uniqueness through reward combinations.

All that said, my primary concern is in balancing the three rewards. A Character Point reward, to me, should look substantial next to the other two rewards because PCs gain more CP at a constant rate. This of course means that the Active Point reward needs to be meaningful without being too superior to the CP reward. Last, the Heroic Action Point reward needs to be competitive with both of them.

Second, I am rather intent on keeping them scaled to any given campaign, so a higher powered campaign doesn't result in a proportionately inferior reward compared to a lower-powered campaign.

Third, I have now divided the reward process into a three-tiered method. There is a reward for submitting a background, a reward for discussing the character with the rest of the group, and a reward for doing both. This means that the individual rewards should be meaningful, but not overwhelming if added up (especially if three of the same reward result).

Last, I intend to introduce a fourth, universal reward for each of the former conditions: +6 Character Points strictly for Background Skills and Perks. If a player discusses their character with the group and submits a background to me, that adds up to +18 CP strictly for Background Skills and Perks.

So, I think what could work is to simply base the rewards on the Base Character Points. Below is a chart of possibilities I have considered for their divisive and more easily proportioned values. I have laid out typical character point ranges based on Standard Heroic up through High-Powered Superheroic games.

[TABLE=width: 500]

[TR]

[TD][/TD]

[TD]175 CP[/TD]

[TD]225 CP[/TD]

[TD]275 CP[/TD]

[TD]300 CP[/TD]

[TD]400 CP[/TD]

[TD]500 CP[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]12%[/TD]

[TD]21[/TD]

[TD]27[/TD]

[TD]33[/TD]

[TD]36[/TD]

[TD]48[/TD]

[TD]60[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]9%[/TD]

[TD]16[/TD]

[TD]20[/TD]

[TD]25[/TD]

[TD]27[/TD]

[TD]36[/TD]

[TD]45[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]8%[/TD]

[TD]14[/TD]

[TD]18[/TD]

[TD]22[/TD]

[TD]24[/TD]

[TD]32[/TD]

[TD]40[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]6%[/TD]

[TD]10[/TD]

[TD]13[/TD]

[TD]16[/TD]

[TD]18[/TD]

[TD]24[/TD]

[TD]30[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]4%[/TD]

[TD]7[/TD]

[TD]9[/TD]

[TD]11[/TD]

[TD]12[/TD]

[TD]16[/TD]

[TD]20[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]3%[/TD]

[TD]5[/TD]

[TD]6[/TD]

[TD]8[/TD]

[TD]9[/TD]

[TD]12[/TD]

[TD]15[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2%[/TD]

[TD]3[/TD]

[TD]4[/TD]

[TD]5[/TD]

[TD]6[/TD]

[TD]8[/TD]

[TD]10[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]1%[/TD]

[TD]2[/TD]

[TD]2[/TD]

[TD]3[/TD]

[TD]3[/TD]

[TD]4[/TD]

[TD]5[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

I think some combination of these would work for keeping the three types proportionate between each other, but I'm not sure which combination would work best. For all I know, I'm off base in the first place.

So I leave it to my fellow HEROphiles to hopefully help me out here. What are your thoughts on all this, from the method in and of itself to how to balance it, to even how to perhaps improve it?

Re: What "Pulp" have you read lately ?

Baen Books published a couple of" Spider" novels (I have "City Of Doom" and "Robot Titans Of Gotham") in 2008.

Were these reprints like the Nostalgia Adventures reprints of Doc Savage, The Shadow, The Avenger, etc or were these from the anthology of new stories?

Re: Gaming in the Magic: The Gathering setting

I agree with using different END Reserves for different mana and I like the idea of Activation Roll stimulating the drawing of a land card. That said, what about colorless mana or sources that grant you whatever color you want? That said, what about non-land sources of magic such as creatures, artifacts, or enchantments?

Other thoughts:

I think that all spells can be bought within a single Multipower to simulate a "deck."

What is the time scale of combat in M:TG? Can we assume a certain span for mechanical purposes?

Re: Gaming in the Magic: The Gathering setting

Good point. Then there are the non-lands that generate mana such as Llanowar Elves...

Re: Gaming in the Magic: The Gathering setting

I have wanted to do a M:TG HERO campaign for years, but it's a little bit of a beast to tackle.

Obviously there is a charm to having a treasure trove of material to adapt, but one of the basic obstacles is in making a magic system that pays enough credence to the card game but which is workable and usable in HERO.

What does tapping into lands mean in HERO terms? A simple Endurance Reserve? Ambient, "environmental" END that can be tapped into by mages? Can certain END be tapped into depending on th the environment? In the card game, players tap into lands that they need, so what about scale? What is the power level of such a campaign?

Quite a few questions just be addressed for a M:TG HERO campaign.

Re: What "Pulp" have you read lately ?

Kindle editions

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_2?_encoding=UTF8&search-alias=books&field-author=Grant%20Stockbridge

Thanks for the link. Have some rep.

Re: A new Enemies book: What would you want to see?

What I want to see is not a specific character or even a character type. I'd like to see characters that have fun-to-play quirks or personalities, that the players will enjoy playing against. For instance, having two female players meant that any appearance by Bulldozer was bound to make for a fun time. The older-edition Oculon was a whiner, which made him distinctive from other villains he teamed up with. A fellow GM's villain character (Dr. Discus) whose fanatical devotion to his pet theory (the Theory of the Universal Discal Constant) somehow pissed off one of my player characters to no end.

I'll second that. a villainous NPC is much more fun with a distinctive personality, especially one that can getty hammy.

Re: A new Enemies book: What would you want to see?

More bad guys with minions - as an example: Mr Freeze always has his henchmen. Not a Dr Destroyer level villain, but a regular villain and his minions.

Brings be back to the idea of Minion Templates that can be added to a generic template. Champions 6e could provide the basic sheets that they modify with the Agent, Soldier, Zombie, etc.

Re: What "Pulp" have you read lately ?

I just picked up "Doc Atlas" and "Return of the Grey Seal" for my kindle.

 

I've read all of Doc Savage, the Shadow, the Spider, the Avenger, and Fu Manchu. Any recommendations?

Where do/did you find Spider novels?

Re: A new Enemies book: What would you want to see?

Come to think of it, why not a few villains to act as foils for each classic Champions Psychological Complication (Code of the Hero, Code versus Killing, etc)?

Perhaps make a few generic mook characters and then provide templates associated with various villains presented within the book for quick "villain + mooks" generation.

Probably try to keep a balanced ratio between superpowers, magic, gadgets, and highly trained normals. For that matter, probably try to keep a fair balance between the archetypes as presented in Champions 6e.

Re: What "Pulp" have you read lately ?

Two words:

 

Red Panda

Seconded. As for actual reading, I have a reprint of the Shadow novel, "The Devil Monsters" waiting to be read, amongst other Shadow and Doc Savage novels.

Re: A new Enemies book: What would you want to see?

Some ideas:

- Street-level villains in the vein of Spider-man

- "Cerebral" villains in the vein of Batman (and Lex Luthor for that matter)

- "Friendly" villains like the Flash's rogues

- "One-Note/One Trick Pony" villains like from countless comic books in the Golden and Silver ages

Re: Campaign groupware? Open-source campaign book?

I think it would be better if anyone could submit anything, but certain members take on the aggregation of particular things which they inspect for quality and adherence to ground rules and standards, to which they send to the ultimate project manager.

Re: Campaign groupware? Open-source campaign book?

Could be an interesting endeavor to do again if we have ground rules and organization.

Re: Support HERO Indirectly...

I am not a fan of anything less than Font Size 11. Even with my glasses, it becomes hard to read.

 

And if it is only to play via laptop, there is no need to save place anyway.

I prefer size 8, but I realize that's uncommon. As far as saving space, I think the idea is that we can claim to have oodles of adventures presented in X pages or less. Saving space allows for more material to fit into those amounts.

We should come up with writing standards though. What are the official HERO publication technical guidelines? We may as well follow them.