Echo3Niner

In our exciting 13th episode --> The team discussed whether they should regroup and how they should deal with the Mars base - eventually deciding they needed to deal with them now, to reduce the possible deaths in the mission the bad guys were about to intercept. Solar and Capt. Force waited until the D-Soldiers left to attack; then, Solar desolidified and inviso'd them both, and then snuck into the base. When they were ready, Capt. Force attacked the console with his band, turning it into Styrofoam. Then Solar dropped a massive STUN only blast into the mentalist alien, knocking him out. Capt. Force then stepped up and challenged Outrider; throwing a big punch. Outriders armor reacted by putting a helmet on him (making him look like a massive Juggernaut {slitch}!), and he was able to withstand Capt. Force's first shot. As the fight started, a speedster zoomed into the room and started running around the parameter, creating an area of effect entangle (whirlwind). Solar, trapped in the entangle, used her bands to turn the air in the path of the speedster into Aerogel, slowing him to a stop... She then pulled all the oxygen out of him, knocking him unconscious (NND attack). Also entering the room, was a desolidified mentalist (one of my favorite bad guys types). But, Solar created a desolidified affecting STUN only blast from her VPP, and knocked him out too. Meanwhile, Outrider had thrown a couple punches at Capt. Force, but missed; while Capt. Force had landed a couple more, continuing to whittle him down... Solar used telepathy to warn the Men in Black team on earth, so they could defend themselves against the D-Soldiers. Finally, Solar turned visible just in front of Outrider as she flew at him, saying "Heeeeeere's Johnny!" and landed a super heavy punch, which didn't knock him out by itself, but when Outrider flew into the wall, the knockback rendered him unconscious. And with that, the crew was finally defeated! In our upcoming final episode, the team will take the final battle to the Empress' massive space-shipyard, the Star Forge - where they will finally face, THE PRAETOR!!!

To base, or not to base, THAT is the question... I'm all 'bout that base, 'bout that base, no trouble... (Couldn't help myself...)

I can't wait to see them fight the final fight against The Praetor! To say Gladiator (Praetor in my game) is Marvel’s superman, is underrated… From Wiki: Gladiator's name, Kallark, is a combination of Superman's Kryptonian and human names: Kal-El and Clark Kent. Powers and abilities Gladiator possesses a number of superhuman capabilities as a result of his unique alien physiology including superhuman strength (capable of shattering a planet, ripping apart a black hole, and holding off the Destroyer armor), superhuman speed, stamina and durability (capable of withstanding the heat emitted from the Phoenix Force, a blast comparable to the full power of Odin, direct attacks from Thor and Mjolnir, point blank planetary explosions, and an explosion equivalent to a supernova), reflexes, microscopic and telescopic vision, X-ray vision, heat vision (stated as "hotter than a star"); super-breath, "frost breath", super-hearing (capable of hearing sounds from light years away in space), a regenerative healing factor, psionic resistance (capable of withstanding mental attacks from telepaths to a certain degree), and warp speed flight (measured as "a hundred times the speed of light", and shown moving across galaxies before Heimdall could blink). Gladiator's abilities increase and decrease in accordance with his level of confidence and he is vulnerable to a certain form of rare radiation. Gladiator also has advanced longevity, having survived for centuries with very little aging. His character sheet is attached... Praetor.pdf

In our amazing 12th episode --> THE WAR HAS BEGUN! The marshal called Solar and told her, though she "didn't hear it from him", that an Empress Strike Group is racing to Sol Sector, to decimate the sector's fleet, before the hero's can intervene. The team rushes to Empress space, so that Solar can experience the drive signatures of one of their Strike Groups. With that, the team use the bands to augment her Detect power, so she can determine where the Strike Group on it's way so Sol is. Once they determine where it is in hyperspace, they race to get in front of it - then, using all the bands, they create a gravity well to force them out of hyperspace. The Strike Group is made up of the following (all with their OCV and DCV at +10): 1x - IVV (Imperial V’hanian Vessel) Heavy War Ship; The Vae Victus 1x - IVV War Cruiser; The Fidelis 1x - IVV Carrier Cruiser; The Dies Irae 30x - Fighters 3x - IVV Escorts; The Fata The battle begins by the team splitting up; Solar and Wuxing focus on the Vae Victus, while Capt. Force and The Aqua Man tie up the rest. Solar is first - using her band she turns the air in the top two floors of the command tower into chlorine, effectively knocking out C&C (Command and Control). On her second round, she turns the air into Nitrous Oxide, so the enemy crew wont die, but will remain unconscious. We discussed that some of the aliens may not be susceptible to either or both gases, but the chaos would be enough to cause the same effect. Wuxing turns himself into an energy being (desolidified) and flies into the ship - there he finds the largest power source, and turns the energy off; in his next round he shuts down the second power source - effectively shutting down the ship. Meanwhile, the Fata all got missile shots off on the other two heroes, but it did little damage to them (some stun). And The Aqua Man used his bands to turn all the liquid in one of the Fata into Nitro Glycerin - so when the ship attempted to fire, it actually blew itself up! Capt. Force used his band to expand the bay doors of the Fidelis, so they could not open, so the fighters could not launch. Eventually Solar joined the team and turned all gases used in all the super lasers into oxygen, disabling all the lasers. While Capt. Force, flying along the surface of the Fidelis to prevent other ships from targeting him, moved around to the back of the ship - then using his band, grew to 640 feet tall, and simply crushed the engines in the back of the ship! The Aqua Man did his Nitro trick on the last of the Fata, which blew itself up, and the fleet was defeated! The heroes allowed the crews to abandon ship, then the destroyed all the ships. They then transported the shortrange lifeboats to Somewhere, where the crews would have to buy their way back to the Empress' territory. As the team was enjoying their victory, Col. Rage contacted them and asked that they come home immediately - there was an issue. The team teleported home, where Col. Rage explained that they had a problem; either their communication had been cracked (which Silvercloud insisted was impossible), or they had a mole! Every major operation had been countered by an elite squad of D-Soldiers, and they always seemed to know where to strike to do the most damage. The team reviewed various possibilities, but couldn't determine definitively if it was compromised communication or a mole. Eventually, their investigation led them to Mars. There, Capt. Force and Solar did a recon, and found a base the D-Soldiers were operating out of, and to their surprise, they found out how the Empress' team was planning their attacks so effectively. They had a super-powerful alien mentalist, who was reading the minds of Col. Rage and his teams, allowing the D-Soldiers to always have the tactical advantage - but, that wasn't all; as they watched, the villain Outrider was leading the team, but he had been augmented since they last saw him, with huge, tech gauntlets, boots and a belt. Additionally, they brought up on a huge screen, their commander, who they referred to as, the Praetor! (Gladiator from Marvel.) In our next episode, we will pick up with the heroes having to deal with the Martian base and Empress' team. Then, the final battle will ensue, with the Praetor himself! AND THAT is where our exciting episode ended!

So is that a complication? How many points is it worth? 😉

I never wanted a bad guy dead, more than that character in that show... You are right; David Tennant did an awesome job... So much more so than any other mentalist type villain from any other fiction I've seen or read - super dark, and (SPOILER ALERT) I actually whooped and hollered when she snapped his neck!

If someone still has a copy; picture from a cell phone texted to you would still work pretty well...

I've been playing various RPGs so long, I haven't stat'd out a base / lair in forever. PCs want a base, that affects the game? I'd probably have them stat that out, to some extent; at least the defenses and general level of stuff, so I know they're not looking to "pull a rabbit out of a hat" at any moment, and rely on something I'm not allowing in my game (mainly just to avoid in-game arguments). But for the bad guy's base? It's all about the story - it does whatever / whenever I need it to, to make a better, more entertaining game. It is a plot-device.

Over in my "game log" post, I detail how I used the wrong gladiators in the wrong order for the two gladiatorial games I put the players through... Most recent mistake; not terrible, the players didn't know, until I told them later, and didn't really care - still worked out for the story. But my worst moment wasn't in Champions - it was a Shadowrun game... And a "TPK" (Total Party Kill - well almost) So, groups been playing all night, and it's like 5AM, everyone is totally wiped... They've been chasing a group of bad guys, and after the bad guys split up, they end up following a female Elven Mage and a Cybered Orc Gun; they follow them into an apartment building, to an apartment... The team (and me) are super tired, and no one is thinking clearly... They often used monofilament whips to cut their way into places, so I have the apartment wall and doors rigged with an "electrical charge" that counter-acts monowhips so they don't work (made up on the fly, just cause I'm tired of it)... The team bangs on the door and wall for a long time, trying to figure out a way in... Finally, one of the players (of a dwarf cyber-gun named Giggler) gets a great idea; he goes to the basement of the building, and cuts the power to the whole building, then starts running up 10 flights of stairs... The rest of the team, tired of waiting, tired of chasing these bad guys, and just plain old tired; decide they're going in. Now, my bad guys have been waiting on these knuckleheads for like 30 minutes, so they're ready... I'm like, "Are you sure you're just gonna bust in there?" They're like, "Oh HELLS yea!" I mean, I mention an electrical whirling sound; but, they totally ignore it... So they open the door to the mage who has like 5 spells whipped up and waiting, and the Orc on a tripod mounted mini-gun... Both with saved actions... Everyone dies, the bad guys flee to the roof and a chopper, and the poor Dwarf player / character get's there just in time to see all his friends bleed out. Players are screaming! They're wadding up their paper character sheets and throwing them at me! Cans of soda and pizza slices are being thrown at the trash; I mean they are PISSED! And the dwarf player, has like for real survivor's guilt, even though I make it clear if they had waited, he'd be dead too... A couple weeks later, everyone's cooled off, and we actually, eventually play a new group of characters, except for the dwarf; and the whole party is literally singularly out for revenge... Turned out to be pretty fulfilling for everyone; after they got over it...

Glad you're enjoying it! I'm actually using this to chronical our game - because a couple to several weeks pass between games, we actually read these at the beginning of each game, to remind us all where we left off. Your questions: No, I made that clear to the team - so they have taken Silvercloud to Somewhere, to copy other alien tech, to at least give the sector a fighting chance. My buddy, who is remote most the time and on Zoom uses a dice rolling app. My wife, who is sitting in the living room with me, in front of our trusty folding gaming table, is seriously rolling huge hands full of dice into a nice wood and felt dice rolling tray-thing and counting them out! They both get a thrill out of it. It's been great fun. We have started talking about our next game, since we're likely only a few games from the end now... Doesn't sound like it's going to be Champions; more likely Shadowrun or something like that. Anywho, glad you're liking it, and I'll post them all here until we're done.

Nope, I was just being a sarcastic jerk... My attempt at humor.

Have you ever read a Wolverine or (Frank Miller) Dare Devil comic (among a gazillion others)?

In our 11th exciting episode --> As the cheers of the crowd died, our heroes were taken to the Gladiatorial Lounge, where their wounds were attended to, and they reveled in the accolades of the other gladiators and hanger-ons... They did interviews and had some time to relax. Lady Terala Shain found the team, and after congratulating them on their victory, she asked Capt. Force if he intended to keep the agreement they had; which he said he would. She then said, "I have fought in the arena as you did, but now fight in a different one. The arena you left was dangerous, the one you're entering is deadly…" Eventually, Goreum arrived, and informed the team he was there to accompany them as their sponsor, to the Palace, for their meeting with the Phazor. They traveled to the Palace and were impressed by the majesty of it. As they traveled, Capt. Force asked about the proper etiquette to use - to which Goreum explained, "The Malvans are used to peoples from across the galaxy, and all their cultures, so they are not easily offended, nor do they put too much importance on etiquette rules for new-comers - the Phazor is both title and name, use it as such - the guests and people who are there are guests of the Phazor, at his behest, so treat them as such, and you should be fine." The hall was full of around 2000 guests, but the Malvans use of dimension-warping technology allowed everyone to have a discussions as if only the two were speaking and there was no other noise regardless of how far apart they were, so it was oddly hush for such a huge number of people. The team was lead to the bottom steps of the dais, on which the Phazor and about 50 of his most honored guests milled about. Upon the teams introduction, there was a pleasant chime which sounded, and everyone took their places - tables and chairs appeared out of nowhere, covered with food and drink, and everyone sat. As the crowd parted that the Phazor was speaking with, and he walked to his throne, the team was shocked to see the Empress among the people he was speaking with. She took a chair with the rest of the honored guests, in a row flanking either side of the throne (a discreet distance apart, as it should be, of course). As the Phazor spoke, his speech overrode the other conversations, so that only the Phazor was heard. "I welcome the Band Wielders, Champions of the Arena, to our humble gathering in your honor." And the crowd cheered, for a moment. "What would the Champions of the Arena ask of the Phazor?" Capt. Force spoke for the team; "Great Phazor, thank you for hosting us. What we would ask for, is honor. As you may know, the Empress has designs on the Sol Sector (to which the Empress feigned surprise); and we have no intentions of joining her empire. So, one way honor can be shown, would be to provide for our sector, planetary defenses, so that we may focus our attention on the Empress. Another way honor can be shown, is to ensure that the games are honorable, so that everyone in the galaxy will know that the Champion has become so honorably." "And what..." said the Phazor, "would we get in return?" "I'm glad you asked..." said Capt. Force, "we would like to offer entertainment. We would like to provide the opportunity to broadcast our war against the Empress, as a reality show, to entertain Malva! Perhaps you've heard of some of our shows? What great spectacle this would be!" "I have heard of some of these reality shows..." the Phazor said. The Empress stood, "Surely you are not considering this Grand Phazor? These back-water beings do not deserve your intervention! The Malvans do not concern themselves with the trivial machinations of minor galactic empires." Capt. Force interrupted her, "I'm not asking them to; I'm simply asking that they provide protection to our sector so that we can provide them more entertainment!" "But what of the games?" The Phazor asked Capt. Force? "We would be willing to return, once a new contender has proven themselves worthy for us to defend our championship of course." Capt. Force noted. Lady Terala Shain seized the opportunity, "I would be happy, Grand Phazor, to organize tournaments to culminate in arriving at a contender to provide great entertainment challenging these new Champions!" The Phazor slightly raised an eyebrow to this, but, with everyone watching, he allowed it. Before any further discussion could continue, War Monger (in his smaller guise), spoke up, "As the Band Wielders have proven to me that they do indeed have the hearts of a Champion, what would you ask of me for reward?" All could read the surprise on the faces of everyone present... Capt. Force leaned over to Goreum, "What type of request is typical?" Goreum said with incredulity, "He has never offered this before..." Capt. Force spoke to the rest of the team telepathically real quick; and they arrived at a thought... "We would be honored to have you as our coach, as we waged war against the Empress." The Empress spat, "I object, this is ridiculous!" Capt. Force says, "I think the Empress should speak plainly; do you plan to conquer our sector?" "You mean bring you peace, prosperity and into the greater galactic community? Yes." she retorted. "This is boring me already..." the Phazor said, "Let us eat and celebrate." During the dinner, Capt. Force took the opportunity using the discussion link to speak to the Empress, "Why do you want our sector?" he asked. "To help the people of the galaxy. Your people are a lawless, warlike bunch, who do nothing but fight each other. You have rudimentary technology, hunger and poverty. You would have none of this in my empire. You shouldn't be fighting me, you should be thanking me!" she replied. "But we do not want to be ruled." Capt. Force shot back. "Perhaps not now, but once you've lived in peace and prosperity, that would change." she noted. "OK, enough, I see there is no reasoning with you; you are crazy." and with that Capt. Force cut the link. After dinner Lady Terala Shain thanked Capt. Force for keeping up his end of the bargain, and ensured them that they wouldn't have to worry about being called back too often. One of the Phazor's assistants told the team that they could simply notify them when they were ready, and they would send Melvan drone cameras to shoot the show. Then War Monger told them if they simply spoke his name out loud and told him they were ready, he would join them. The team then went back to Earth and told everyone what all had happened. By the time they arrived, the Malvan planetary defenses had already shown up in the sector. They were also happy to hear that Col. Rage had successfully linked UNTIL, the rebels on Narrai and the smugglers of Lyrissi together to begin forming the "Men in Black" organization. They then grabbed Silvercloud and took him to Somewhere, so he could start copying all the advanced technology, and they took a couple week's vacation (downtime); where Solar went on a date with the human Marshal, and they both spent some points. And that is where our exciting episode ended! Next game, THE WAR BEGINS!

But, the OP asked about throwing the char up, and then they fall back down - hence the falling damage...

Because I challenged myself - I had to take a crack at it... If you really wanted to make a chart / algorithm that replicates reality / physics / math (based on the numbers I gave above), it would look something like this (it's close, but it's not right):

If you are thrown down, your velocity is not limited by gravity - 'Zerk can throw a character at a FAR faster rate of speed than someone just falling...

Ahhh, I read the original question differently; appreciate the clarification: So I would expound on something you actually said earlier: In comics, movies, series, etc., the heroes fight a tough fight and some, many or even all of them get injured; but, then the fight is over, you may have a scene in recovery for dramatic purpose; but, by the time the story continues, and they have their next mission, everyone is miraculously healed. In a RPG, just like we take Navy Corpsmen into battle, and the Army Field Medics; having healers on the team can make the team FAR more effective, and make the game more fun. That is why in old school D&D you always had a Cleric on the team. That is why almost every party or squad based MMO has a healer archetype. In the superhero genre, it is a little less needed, because many characters heal faster than normal - but not all of them, and this just isn't addressed in the comic, movie, series, etc. Spiderman doesn't have regen, and his skin isn't tough - he survives by using his Spider-sense and super-reflexes to never get hit. But, in a comic, movie, series, etc., even after a brutal fight, with his costume thrashed, bleeding everywhere, they skip ahead, and by the time he goes out again, he's all good (and his costume is all repaired too)... So in a game, you either gloss over healing-based downtime and skip ahead a bunch, or every character is a mini-Wolverine and all have some level of regen, or, you have a healer on the team... So, combining all these thoughts; A character in a super group who can heal, is there because many supers can't be treated by "normal" medicine, and the healer can help them. Unlike a comic, movie, series, etc.; the group doesn't want to have to heal-skip time constantly, nor do they all want to have to have regen. Having a healer on the team, makes the entire team more effective. The characters can still spend their downtime doing all manner of altruistic activities; but, will play the "fun stuff" in the characters life in the game. How's that?

Yup, I think you're missing much of what I was trying to say... Q. Are you saying Storm is a good example because like the weather, wherever a healer goes, there are people who need immediate medical attention or they will die? A healer stereotypically needs to be near a person to heal them and not like a 50 miles away. A. I wasn't really making the point about frequency of the events or needs. I was making the point that if Storm wanted to, she could spend a majority of her time "fighting weather", and wouldn't have much time for being a "super-hero" (meaning adventuring and fighting super-villains, etc.). Q. Or are you saying Storm is a good example, because she wants to be a hero and save everyone because she is clearly defined by that motivation (like a Silver Age Superman)? I've always seen the X-Men as morally gray. A. I wasn't speaking to Storm's motivations at all. Q. Or are you saying even though she has these weather abilities, she doesn't go to the deep freezes or hailstorms or tornado alley to stop these effects but she is still a hero? A. I also wasn't speaking to whether Storm is a "hero" by any specific definition, one way or the other. Q. If you're saying that it doesn't make a good story in a comic or a game to have a player be Joe the Healer at County Medical, I agree with you. A. Yes, I am saying this. I'll try again; I'm using Storm as an analogy, to try to explain the answer to your original question, because I can't think of a good example of a healer super-hero in comics, animation, movies, novels, etc. So, I'm agreeing with your friend's statement from a long time ago; I think Storm could have a larger impact saving lives and reducing damage if she went around and tempered the weather vs. going around fighting super-villains. Just like a healer character would likely have a better impact on the "greater good" by going around and using their healing powers on those in need vs. going around fighting super-villains. (Though I don't think they could do it in a hospital for a myriad of reasons; they could do it in any number of other ways.) Like your last question however; the point I was making as to why they don't, is because it would be a boring comic, movie, series, or RPG for that matter. Finally, what I was trying to say; is that a player could compromise and say, "whenever there is downtime in the game, my character is going around using their powers to help in different ways" and that this wouldn't be limited to healers or weather controllers, but almost all supers could do this in one way or another. Thus addressing the altruistic use of their powers when in downtime, but still having fun fighting super-villains in the game (or in the comic, movie, series, etc.) And, that if they did that, they would be more heroic, and it would provide better PR for the heroes. Frankly I'm surprised this hasn't been done more in comics, movies, series, etc. Hope this helps.

So, if I remember my jump school math (it's been ~30 years, so FYI, all these numbers may be off some) - it takes a human body, falling in standard "spread-eagle", about 20 seconds and 450 meters to hit terminal velocity of ~120 mph; which is 54 meters per second. However, that is not reached evenly spread across the 450 meters; you reach 50% terminal velocity in only 3 seconds, then, due to increased drag, it takes another 5 seconds to reach 90%, and like 8 more seconds to reach 99%, and like 4 more seconds for that last 1%... Now, if you spike or speed-dive (head first), you will reach ~200 mph... So, if you assume someone who is falling is "flailing about" (so closer to "spread-eagle"), they will eventually hit their max damage after falling about 450 meters and 20 seconds... BUT, they'll reach half that damage after only falling 75 meters, in about 3 seconds. So, half the max at 75 meters, and a slowing rate of damage up to 450 meters to max damage. Anything after 450 meters doesn't matter. Also, that's obviously on Earth, and close to the surface (if you go up high enough, speed increases because the density of air decreases, lowering drag; BUT, you will eventually actually slow down as you get closer to the surface and the air density / drag increases - so don't fall from really high altitude and hit a mountain)... I have never seen a game with a good algorithm for this...

How many evil extremists did it take to attack the USA on 9/11? And then how much "Muslim hate" was there afterwards? How about a virus, believed to be from China, may or may not have been created in a lab; and then how much hatred has been perpetrated by cowards against Asian people as a result? Does anyone really think it would take large numbers? Or that the hate would be targeted to specific people? Or make any actual sense at all? How were Muslim countries and people who had been in the USA for generations treated after 9/11, by the USA government? No fly lists? Aggressive (and possibly illegal) searches of people, homes, even places of worship? The Patriot Act, which allows the government to, ironically, eves drop on verbal and monitor electronic communication of their own population? Recent history has shown us, that if Mutants were blamed for an event (even if they had nothing to do with it); both institutional and populous-derived hate would be the result. Let's not even talk about Japanese-Americans and WWII internment camps in the USA...

No problem CRT - as I said earlier; just making fun... None of it was offensive or hurtful dude. Seriously Chief, you're making my point. The whole last paragraph. I wasn't saying she doesn't - my point was she doesn't forego being a hero to just be a "Weather Whisperer", cause it wouldn't be a very long-lived title.

I didn't mean to hijack this thread; I have started another about my displacer/prism/warp power question: here. Please return to the OP's original programing...

(Transferred from another thread, I didn't mean to hijack) Ohhhh, I like this - gives me a great idea for a character (hero or villain) - Displacer - generates a field that makes everything inside the field (including Displacer themselves) always not actually where they are, like looking through a prism; oh man! maybe they should be called Prism! Anyway, makes them (or anyone else or anything in the field) almost impossible to target (so that would include aoe attacks)... I like that idea! Now, how do I write that up? To clarify; I envision this as a field generated by the character, that "redirects" the attack randomly around them. In reading Reflection in Champions Complete - I would say it's close, but in this case the character couldn't direct the attack back at anything/anyone specifically; the attack would just "warp" around them. Oh, Warp would be another good name! So, even if the power were larger than the aoe of the power - example; if Firewing threw his AOE Fireball at this character (assuming the warp field power worked), there would just be a "hole" in the fireball in the area around this character. I envision it like two magnets repelling each other; as the attack gets close, this warping ability simply redirects it randomly around them. It would affect ranged and HTH attacks, because as the HTH attacker gets into the "warp field", they would swing at what appeared to be the character, but they wouldn't really be there... So, two different effects - one warps or repels/redirects attacks, the other causes everything within the field to randomly appear somewhere else in the field...

Wow! Another back-handed insult! Fine job; keep 'em coming... 🥰