Jhamin

We don't even really need to do this with a limit on the webshooters themselves. If we are talking old school Spidey, it can be argued that he has a couple dice of Unluck. (The Green Goblin always showed up when he was aleady late for dinner with Aunt May, and the chocolates he bought for Gwen for Valenties melted when he webbed the box near a heat duct before fighting the loon of the week). I noticed that his Web Shooters would always run out at really inoppertune times. You could just say that when the GM feels evil he can roll unluck to see if he ran out of web fluid at just the wrong time (again)

Re: How do you balance out opposing forces? Total point costs only become a useful tool for comparing characters after you know what guidelines everyone's attacks and defences are built on. The active point costs of attacks and defences along with combat value, factoring in total amounts of Stun and Body are the only real guides. As you can see, this all gets complicated. To start out with, send the characters against teams of equal numbers with about the same kinds of attacks they have and slightly weaker defences. This will allow them a good fight, but will tip the balance enough in their favor that you won't be constantly wiping out the party. Once you get a sense of how the attacks and defences interact, start throwing in "the tough guy" who can take more abuse than anyone they have seen yet, or "the quick guy" who is faster than any of the PCs and get a feel for how they have to deal with them. Only then should you start throwing them up against one or two enemies whose attacks and defences are both better than the party average. By then your PCs will hopefully learned enough teamwork to beat them and you will have figured out the fine points of hero enough to build an enemy who won't destroy them all by phase 5.

I understand that the old continuity was abandoned for three reasons: 1) DOJ did not own the rights to alot of the old characters. These guys had to go for legal reasons. By just restarting the continuity they didn't have to explain where everyone went, they just never existed. 2) There were a lot of duplicate characters. Did we really need PRIMUS *and* SAT? 3) And what I think is a reason not politely discussed: There were also alot of unfortunate characters that were better forgotten. In the same way that Frizbee didn't make it into 4th, Shamrock and the 4th St. Avenger didn't make it into 5th. Don't get me wrong, I miss Solitare and Bullet (but not the raiders) a lot. I think Obsidian was way cooler than Ironclad, but I also know that when I picked up the 4th Edition Champions universe and found all these refrences to characters who appeared in books I would never be able to track down I felt more than a little left out. Those of us who actually have copies of "To serve and Protect" or "The VOICE of Doom" might really enjoy seeing what has happened to everyone in 10 years. But to someone just discovering Champions for the first time now, it's just unfair for the Zodiac or Sniper to be a major part of continuity now. Seeing as how Hero has to bring in new gamers as well as bringing back the old guard, I think it may be OK to retcon out a supervillian team that is written up in a book that has been out of print since 1987. If we really need somebody, they will be reprinted like PSI and Eurostar were.

I think it should be set at a number that sounds really high to me, but is pathetically low by the standards of others' campaigns, yet is so mind-bogglingly over what others believe is correct to be silly. That is my proposal. It's pretty much what every single one of those debates boils down to.

I should point out that many of the male images are standing upright, while the females are standing with their hips cocked strongly to one side & many have their shoulders slightly tilted. This makes them look alot smaller than they are. Everything you mother told you about posture was true:D

Linked has been clarified in 5th & now works with the new/previously misunderstood multi-power attacks. Basically, if you have several powers that can only go off together, then you can link them and get a limit. One classic example is the strobe laser that does damage and blinds it's targets. You can't choose to just blind them it, they will also be hurt, so you buy the flash attack with the linked limitation to reflect that it cannot be used without the energy blast it is linked to. I don't think that is what you are doing here. You just have alot of characteristics bought so they can only be used for short periods of time. You can't really "fire off" a +30 dex and damage reduction toghether, so they don't get a limit for being linked. The fact that they are always used togther is just the consequence of the special effect you are using and doesn't hurt the character at all. Therefore it is not a limit. As for the "Stress"... Side effects can be bought to go off all they way through the power, or only when it is started. The latter option is probably the way to go for this character.

Did anyone else notice that in one episode Gadget actually kills a guy? An no one objects? In the episode where the rest of the team is captured by the ruthless captian of the guard at the Coco Kola Kult, Gadget goes all rambo and busts in to rescue them. They end up in a showdown on the catwalk over the Kola vat. The guard captain falls in, keeps yelling about how he can't swim, then goes under. In the next scene the other rangers are thanking gadget for saving them, and the Kult leader apologizes for his guard captain. BUT THE GUARD CAPTAIN IS NEVER SEEN! HE WENT UNDER & SHE DIDN"T FISH HIM OUT! This was on a Disney show in the eighties!

We don't even have to go that far back for good RPG campaigns from Disney. How about: Buzz Lightyear - Quasi-Superpowered Star Hero (NOS-482 has so many possibilites) and Kim Possible - Danger International, teen style

And just to keep things balanced, it seemed to me that Sapphire spent alot of the book getting her clock cleaned as well, her costume just isn't as iconic.

Re: Re: No and yes Seconded!

When I called my FLGS in St. Paul, I was told that their distributer had neglected to ship them their order. They had complained & would recieve a shipment sometime this week. It seems there are some kinks in the supply chain there.

I agree with the assessment that the problem with Allies was that most of these guys had such problems to prevent them from being too good that they ended up not being very good allies. 3/4 of them were basically villians or uninvolved supers with good PR. That was my biggest disappointment with them. I got alot of mileage out to the Cyberknights as a fellow team of heroes that would show up from time to time in "Secret Wars" or "Crisis" type adventures. Zen was good, I just never got around to using them.

I picked this up last week, mostly because I tend to buy any super-genre adventure I can find as a source of Ideas. All in all I would give it a rating of "fair" but with some plot logic issues. *** Spoiler *** *** Is that enough space? *** I'm not real familier with the basic setting, so I assume the various charcters in the alternate worlds are alot more meaningful if you are. There seemed alot of Dues Ex Machina involved in getting the PCs involved and the whole plot moving along. Although the idea of setting off a bomb in the same place on several alternate earths was pretty clever reason for all the Dimension Hopping. Some of the plot points, like the bomb detonators the PCs collect being uber-effective weapons vs. the main bad guy (who would normally be unbeatable for heroes of the recomended power level) were a little too convenient. It's like having Dr. Destroyer fight 4 350pt PCs but giving them 40d6 only vs. Dr. D rayguns to balance the fight. It just felt kind of cheap. The easily overthrown 3rd Reich seemed kind of whussy too. I liked each world in and of itself, with monkey world just oozing 4-color cool, but the whole adventure seemed a little two disconnected & episodic until you get to the end and fight the final bad guy. I think the whole thing would have hung together much better if there were minions of the main bad guy dimension hopping with you. Recurrent enemies also would keep the whole thing feeling more like a single adventure and less like a tour of the multiverse with a fight at the end. Maybe they could be real eager to retrieve the detonators from the defused bombs for reasons mysterous to the PCs. If the villian had to invest of himself to get the bombs to work and is worried about the detonators being loose so takes steps to retrieve them it makes them alot less painful as a plot device.

This is actually kind of a cool idea! A successful transform can do pretty much anything you want to somebody. As previous examples for using transform include blinding, removing limbs, transforming to frogs, and giving them a vulnerability to your other powers, I would think adding an activation roll is pretty ok. You specify a reasonable way to undo the transform when you buy the power. You can specify normal healing but you don't have to. If you can put the "whammy" on any power, then there is no limit to the target group. If they can only affect Technology/Mutant Powers/Magic, then that might be a limit of around -1/2. What is the source of this "whammy" anyway? That will probably tell us alot about what it should affect and how they can get "dewhammied'. Powers that can affect "powers" are examples of metagame thinking. Powers that can affect "Technology" or "Mutants" are more proper.

Something I didn't fully appreciate about CKC when it came out, but which is coming up more and more in play is that there isn't alot of overlap in Villian "Schtick". If you want a high tech assassin there are a couple, but not many. If you want military theamed guys there are a couple, weather guy: one, Plant guy: one, and so on. I find that if you limit the archtypes like this & force your homebrew charcters to not step on other's toes it can create a real sense of individuality to the bad guys that was missing from 4th edition. I mean in 4th Dr. Destroyer was one of half a dozen high tech cultured meglomaniacs with a private army. Now he is simply Dr. Destroyer. While I am also fervently looking foreward to the next enemies book I hope it manages to give us alot more individuals rather than a new animal themed magic villian or another psycho clown. I'm enjoying exploring the current crew too much.

Someone can poison me and my Con can go down. Later, if I survive, my Con will heal back to it's starting value. If someone injects me with something that causes my arm to fall off, then with current tech it is just gone. Permanent changes like that require transforms, which inherent does not block. Superman can survive in all kinds of weird environments, but if he is wearing a Kryptonite belt buckle he can then be killed by radiation, heat/cold, etc. If he spends too long away from the yellow sun then these things can happen even without the kryptonite. Someone who is truely immortal like the Post Deal-with-death Elders of the Universe can never be killed in any way. There is no way to remove their life support. Inherent Con would represent someone incapable of ill health. While such things are theoretically possible I don't think I have ever heard of one outside of Religous circles. And let's not go there. If your DR is based on some universal "immovable object" type sfx then it might make sense that it cannot be drained or negated in any way. Not many people qualify for that but it is probably good to have the option.

To answer your question specifically, There are a couple of Staff Fighting martial arts written up in the Ultimate Martial Artist. There are also alot of other styles that commonly teach the staff in addition to the standard moves (ie they list the Staff as a common weapon element to purchase). If you are sticking with just the basic martial arts rules from FREd, just buy one of the generic asian martial arts packages, add the weapon element and call it whatever you want.

Martial arts add damage & OCV/DCV to attacks from one source specified when the manuvers are purchased. In 95% of all cases that source is unarmed attacks. It is possible to specify "Fencing Swords", "Spears", "Kung-Fu" weapons" or whatever as the group they add to. When you do the martial maneuvers only add to attacks from that sources and do not work with regular unarmed attacks. This is how styles like Kendo work. The 1 point weapon elements allow you to use an art with an additional set of attacks. If you know Kung Fu, it probably is adding damage to your base unarmed attacks, if you buy the extra weapon element: Martial Arts weapons it now adds to unarmed attacks and Kung Fu weapons. You can now fight equally well with your fists and feet or Sai and Nunckaku. The weapons probably do more damage than your fists, but both options are now avalible. You can technically add a weapon element to any martial arts package but most formal Martial Arts writups list weapon elements commonly associated with that style. (American Boxing isn't known for it's use of Katana for example, so you probably don't want someone buying that weapon element for that style)

OK, I have a character looking at buying a power that heals others while inflicting whatever damage is cured on her. Example: The character buys 6d6 Body Healing & want to take as much damage as she cures. To me this sounds like a Side Effect, major effect (a drain on her body as big as her healing power is, 60 active points or -1) which happens every time the power is used (x2 for a power that always works) for a total of a -2 limit. Problem is that that doesn't jive with the example writup listed under Side Effect (I belive it was called "mage healing") where something similar happens but the limit is -1. What am I misunderstanding?

I actually run two campaigns, 4-color Champions and..... Dungeons & Dragons. We don't use maps for either. We just keep a general idea of it all in our heads. Works well and flows nicely.

Invisible power effects probably will cover the stealth t-porting. As for the molted skins, does this cause any problems for the character? It doesn't sound like anything more than a slightly gross special effect of the teleport. I mean, it isn't any more distinctive than a sulpher-smelling "bamph" is it?

You are thinking of the Destruction Company from High Tech Enemies. These guys remain my favorite second string villians. They don't want to take over the world or anything, they are in it for the money and specialize in widespread damage. They are also pretty good in a brawl. What more can you ask for in a team of theme thugs? PowerTool (leader) Livewire (mindless bezerker) Jackhammer Chainsaw --(a pair of muscle bound good ole boys) Countdown (explosives expert) Burnout (pyromaniac who had a rivalry with blowtorch) They all wore power armor constructed by Powertool. The only Buzzsaw I know of was more or less a random superthug from an old 4th edition adventure. (not sure of the adventure name, it was a whodunnit murder mystery set in stronghold)

This is indeed an old discussion. My take is that the 5 point drop does two things: * It now takes about one less hit to drop someone, making fights quicker. * Con stuns happen alot more often, but not a majority of the time. I think this makes most superfights move quicker. You get all the tactical crunch of Hero without the endless combats of old school Champions.

I think a -1 sounds about right. Anything over that is supposed to represent a power that is severly crippled. Note that as written the FF will protect him, then go down after he takes the KB. Given that he is a mentalist, this should only really come up when he takes knockback.

Yes. In fact the powers don't even have to be connected in any way to share a multipower slot, other than they both have to fit the special effect of the multi and their total active point values have to be less than the multipower reserve.