Jhamin

Re: DEX Averages One thing I have learned from my experiment with lowering the Dex in my campaign is that the value of the stat itself (unlike say Str or Con) has absolutely no meaning. The only thing that matters is campaign averages and the values various characters have relative to each other. A two point difference between DCV and OCV is is just as meaningful if the ranges are 12 vs 10 or 6 vs. 4. I'm comfortable with my ranges where I have them. I can just wrap my head around them better there. (The oddity of having a 70 str brick in a game where I get weird about 22 Dex has not escaped me). While I don't think I could deal with dex scores in the range phydaux has them at, I can understand why he has set them where he has. I can say with certanty that if the baddies are in the same range then the actual effect of stats that high is pretty negligable.

Re: DEX Averages Brick 10-15 Blaster 14-20 Martial Artist 18-24 Speedster 20-26 Yes, I know they are low. As Gm I consciously chose these values. I wanted heroes that were still in the Dex ranges of normal humans. I just don't see Cyclops or Scarlet Witch type characters in the "olympic level" Dex range. I've adjusted the dex ranges of all the official villians accordingly. It works out pretty well.

Re: West Coast Sourcebook I second this. It's alot of fun. It also can be inserted into Hero's Champions Universe pretty seamlessly.

Re: I'm afraid to ask... Hmm. If you are buying 5th Rev & Champions and you need one more book, there are a couple schools of thought. Some say you should get the bestest of the rules exploration books. Others say you need setting info. Personally, I would point you toward the iconic bad guy book. That way you know what you are up against when you build your characters. So, here are a few of the "modern classic" books. The ones you need before you start buying the more optional books. Any one is a good place to start, but I vote for Conqurers, Killers and Crooks. Here goes: The Ultimate Martial Artist - If you are used to 3rd editon Martial Arts the 5th edition rules will already seem amazing. This book takes it to the Nth degree. It isn't directly a Champions book (more of a focus on one type of combat) but it just adds *so* much to Martial Arts that if you like that sort of thing at all it's a must have. OR The Champions Universe - This is where alot of the general world info is located. Only a page or two on each, but it covers all the old favorites like Viper, DEMON, Until and so on. If you want detail you need the individual books, but if you want an overview, this is the way to go. OR (My reccomendation) Conquerers, Killers, & Crooks - This is just a big list of villians, but if you are a hero you better be able to take them! If you want to build characters that can actually take on the iconic baddies of the Champions universe then you need to actually know how strong is strong and how fast is fast. It will give you plenty of fodder for looking at how things are (and are *not*) bought under the 5th edition rules. OR The Until Superpowers Database - A massive listing of prebought powers. If you don't want to fuss with the rules and just declare you are "fire guy" or "illusion lass" this is the book for you. You decide what your gimmick is, start buying powers from that category until you are out of points, and play. It takes alot of the math out of the system. Books like Viper, Until, and Demon detail one group, but aren't much use with out a setting to put them in. The Ultimate Brick, Vehicle, and so on are great, but only look at a small part of the genre. Champions Battlegrounds, Sharper than a Serpent's Tooth, Shades of Black, and such are good adventures. But you need the villian books to refer to before you can run them. If you delve into Hero in a big way, I would reccomend all of the above. Until then stick the the central books.

Re: Conquerors, Killers and Crooks I tend to agree with this list. Although I think DEMON's secret master has earned himself a place on the Imperial Villians list.

Re: Conquerors, Killers and Crooks

Re: Conquerors, Killers and Crooks D'oh! How could I blank on him? Well, other than the fact I don't use him. He would kill all my PCs & the campaign would end if I ever used him directly. I mean according to his history he left a trail of death across the American South East, killing hundreds, including several heros. And it still took several hours of combat before he even noticed the heros. Of course, Dr. D is like that too. He is just alot more active about his evil plans.

Re: I'm afraid to ask... As characters, they look good in passing. But I noted at least a half a dozen places where you are buying them under 3rd and 5th doesn't work that way anymore. Including HTH attack, the way disads are bought, flash, healing, and others. There are *a lot* of subtle changes between the editions. You really need to give up a straight conversion and just rebuild the character from the ground up. See, this is where we are sort of crossing over from "helping a guy out" to "giving away the rules". The same with pointing out all the changed rules in your two posted characters. I love to chat about these things, and I know you aren't trying anything funny. But seriously, You need to wait for the book. It's just too complicated to build a character like yours without the rules in front of you.

Re: Conquerors, Killers and Crooks He is physically much more powerful. And his minions and legions of troops as, if not more, powerful. It's just that she has a lot more minions that Dr. D does, even if the empress has to spread them out over a billion dimensions.

Re: Conquerors, Killers and Crooks The master villians are: Dr. Destroyer Gravitar Istvatha V'han Menton (no longer working for Dr. D, thus an independent) The Warlord (crud, I'm blanking on #6!) Dark Seraph is powerful enough to be a master villian, but is listed along with the Crowns of Krim in the Team section.

Re: I'm afraid to ask... If I may make an observation. I WHO AM HE, you seem to be trying to convert an old 3rd edition character "quick and dirty" before you have a chance to really sit down and read the new rules. You are viewing everything through the prism of your experience with the old edition. There are alot of new standards and norms to think about. One of the problems with converting between different versions of Hero is that there generally isn't a this=that sort of equation to fall back on. Generally each new edition is adding new options while streamlining klunky mechanics and evolving the philosopy of the "hero way" of buying powers. I know you said that you were doing this conversion to be ready for a buddy this weekend while you are waiting for your copy of Sidekick to arrive. I suspect that no matter what you end up with, after you sit down and read the rules and look at some example characters you will end up wanting to rebuy your character. You will see so many other ways of buying him you will end up rewriting the guy twice. That said, happy to keep answering questions. So, any others?

Re: I'm afraid to ask... If you are a super scientist it's probably safe to budget a good 20-30 points for skills. It's not as bad as it might be because you are allowed to buy skill enhancers to make skills cheaper and skill levels useable with a tight grouping (like all science skills, or all physics skills). One thing that is nice about the current skill system is that the main book actually comes out and says that a 11- gives you enough to make a living in that field while a 14- makes you the guy the experts call for advice and a 16- makes you world famous. It avoids alot of those "how much do I need to be a master geneticist?" sort of arguments. A base skill in Physics will allow you to answer particle physics questions. Actually having the skill gets you into detailed analysis. An example: PS: Physics - "Hmm. These reading indicate some unusual kinds or radiation. We probably need some shielding" PS: Nuclear Physics - "Hmm. I'm detecting mid level gamma radiation but with some odd emmision signatures in the low range. Their isotopes are probably contaminated with Elerium-115. We will need at least 2.5 inches of lead to stay safe."

Re: I'm afraid to ask... Sidekick leaves out a few of the more complex or nitty gritty powers and rules. Things like Variable Power Pools and Transdimensional. I suspect that if you are used to third then 98% of what you are used to is in Sidekick.

Re: I'm afraid to ask... According to Steve Long, 5th Rev will -Include all the Erratta -Include most of the FAQ -Include most of the free "Genre by Genre" document -Include *minor* rules changes to Extra Dimensional movement and trigger (the changes to EDM were already published in Sidekick, which is after all several years newer than Hero 5th) -Be bullet proof and contain an an extra dimensional space large enough to hold all your other books. Please correct me if I'm misquoting......

Re: Stargate Hero I see both approaches as valid. The thing of it is, at the beginning of the series all the characters had long histories and were way cooler than most of the other SG teams. That can be explained as saying that they were 150 characters and most SG teams are built on 100. You can also just say that everyone has 150 and SG-1 gets lots of XP. If we are making suggestions: -I'd expand the "compulsive sarcastic" into something reflecting his tendency to act dumb and silly to disguise his capabilities. -He was in black ops for years and should at least have a PS. -TF: Parachutes -depending on timeframe, a Contact or Rivalry with Col. Mayborne -either a KS: resist mind control or 5 pts mental def on an act roll. (His Special Forces mental conditioning has been a plot point & he generally comes out of mind effects faster than anyone).

Re: What now? Something I've been kicking around for a long time is a sci-fi archeology campaign. The premise is that the PCs are part of the government, either military or an official explorer corps. Their galactic civilization is on the brink of war with one or more rival species. There are ominous signs that a mysterious and previously unknown enemy may have a connection to the ruins of several dead civilizations that have left ruins on the fringe of explored space. The player characters are tasked with checking these rumors (or stumble on them and are morally obliged to follow up). Their government sees this as an interesting line of investigation (and hopes to salvage some tech from the ruins) but is unwilling to divert large forces from the hot spots elsewhere. Problem is several of the rival races are also investigating these rumors. The campaign involves players combing through the ruins of dead cities while trying to piece together what happened to the races that built them. They simultaneously have to deal with rival explorers from the other races and the advance agents of the mysterious enemy.

Re: Gryphon and Lady Crow? They are from Shades of Black, a PDF adventure that can be purchased in the online store. While it was never a paper product, it was part of the 2003 product line and thus I'm pretty sure it is an official part of the Champions Universe. In the adventure they are flunkies of Black Paladin, but it makes perfect sense that they would end up working for a Morbane after the adventure.

Re: Official Champs Uni = Marvel Uni? OK guys, I think we are talking past each other here. If I am understanding Metaphysician right, he is saying that according to benchmarks like surviving a nuke or cracking a planet (which Thanos can and Dr. D can't) there is a clear disparity in power level. Others (including me) are arguing that according to benchmarks like killing poweful heroes in only 1-3 shots and duking it out with cosmic entities, both are able to do it in their respective universes and occupy similar places in the "pecking order" of their respective continuities. Different campaigns (and comic book worlds) work under different rules with different values. In some, Thor does 25D6 and Ripper is a whuss next to him. In others they can have a good fight because their concepts involve them both being incredibly strong combat machines of the highest magnitude. In some campaigns Nukes kill anything, in others they are thrown around liberally to show how uber everyone is. Despite what anyone may think, both are equally valid approaches. Arguing that a character from one world is or is not equivalent to one from another is pointless as assumptions differ between those worlds (and over time within those worlds), often in subtle ways. I was origionally stating that Thanos and Dr. Destroyer had alot in common because they fill similar roles in the power pecking order, not because I thought that had the same DCV and active point values.

Re: Official Champs Uni = Marvel Uni? This is why I bring up the Dr Destroyer = Darkseid or Thanos arguments. Dr. Destroyer attacks, defences, powers and skills make him one of the 4 or 5 most personally powerful beings we have seen in the modern Champions Universe. The others are space gods and immortal magic lords. It takes an alliance of dozens of heroes to fight him, and every time he does enter combat Heros start dying. If they existed in the Champs U he would totally go after the Cosmic Cube, Infinity Gauntlet, or Anti-Life equation.

Re: Official Champs Uni = Marvel Uni? I'd say that the Dr. Destroyer from earlier editions was absolutely a Doom with Red Skull influences. I would argue that the current Dr. Destroyer has alot more in common with DarkSeid or Thanos of Titan. He is all powerful personally, to the point that most heroes generally fight his minions rather than him, and his character history implies a series of summer mega-book crossovers where a zillion heroes team up to defeat his current plot device.

Re: My Player Betrayed Humanity. Now What? OK. It sounds like this player is drawing a line in the sand. He has disrupted the game, annoyed his fellow players, backstabbed his fellow characters, and practically dared the GM to kick him out. As I see it, you can figure out why he feels he has to do this and try and reconcile him with the group. Or you can take the dare and kick him out of the team/force him out of the group. As the first option does not preclude the second, but the second sort of precludes the first, I would do my best to try to figure out why this longtime player is having so many problems with the game and his fellow players. If that doesn't work, then you can always ask him to leave.

Re: Official Champs Uni = Marvel Uni?

Re: Doctor Octopus It's old, but here is a cover that shows what we are talking about: http://www.samruby.com/AmazingSpider-ManD/Large/AmazSpid88.JPG The way I see it, Doc Ock has a speed of 2-3, and the arms have a speed of around 4-5. They don't add toghether, they each go on their own phases. Like seperate characters. If I was feeling evil, I might even allow them the multiple attacker bonus. If I was feeling evil. This is admittadly pushing the envelope a bit, but think about it. The guy is a scientist, and without his arms he is never depicted as particularly fast or agile. So how can he take on spiderman? Because he is actually one of the best pairs fighters ever!

Re: Official Champs Uni = Marvel Uni? I hear the editors may try to shake things up by having one of them threaten to *gasp* leave the Fantastic Four.

Re: Official Champs Uni = Marvel Uni? I would argue that the Harbringer is Punisher's philosophy and methods combined with Batmans uber-competence and "I'm a normal that can own most supers" skill set.