dialNforNinja

The way I built the ability to castle for a character whose power was to do just that was a linked pair of teleports: teleport you to there, and them to here (as an attack, ranged).  Its pretty cheap unless you want to teleport people miles away.
 
However, although he's hard to spot, I like Ninja-Bear's idea of side effect.  You wouldn't get the "only to swap places" limitation on the teleport on yourself, but this would make it work:
 
Castle:  Teleportation 15m, Ranged (+1/2), Usable As Attack (+3/4), Grantor can only grant the power to others, Grantor pays the END whenever the power is used, Recipient must be within Limited Range of the Grantor for power to be granted; Only to swap places (-1), Side Effects, Side Effect occurs automatically whenever Power is used (Teleport character to target's former location; -1/2)  34 active cost, 14 real cost, 3 END

I'm actually half decent at drawing character portraits, to the point that the one lasting game I was in I had one printed on cardstock most of a normal page high with folding tabs on the sides to stand beside my character sheet for everyone to look at instead of my own ugly mug. I'd probably do a quick 3D model and print a tiny render of it these days, though at tiny size nearly anyone can draw on a close enough costume with a provided outline, so I'll make a sheet of blanks and bring them along with my box of coloured gel pens for the "talk about your long term character" part of the night after the pregen quickie, to hopefully generate more engagement and interest in the game. Thanks for the suggestion!
 
I prefer the Marvel Super Heroes style tac-map stand ups where you have the character in a 3/4 forward view, flip it on the next side so the corner is the "forward" pointer, and either a proper back view or the front silhouette filled in with black on the back side of an equilateral upright prism, with a hex nut in the bottom as you said or just a coin taped to some tabs left on the bottom edge for the Q&D version. If that's the same as the SJG ones you mentioned I don't know, but I like 'em.
 
For putting actual effort in, well, I sculpted and painted my own 25mm scale dude out of Green Stuff on a bread bag twist-tie armature with a nickle for a base in that game, and cut a silhouette of him out of the side of a clear soda bottle and stuck it in a flattened blob of Green Stuff to switch the mini out with when he was invisible, so ...
 
 
Looks a bit like the evil Defender from the cover of Champions in 3D... which is awesome. I thought "I want to use that guy as a character!" from the moment I saw it too, unlike classic Defender's normal red, white, and blue. Video game Defender is a bit sleeker and was my image for Armsmaster from the Worm web-serial by Wildbow up until I made him as a Transformers G1 style Target Master (He's the blue one) but still isn't as cool as Mr. Black & Gold with red. My Target Master looks better in those colors too I think, though I only just realized right now that the trim on the back of the legs/barrel of the bolt launcher looks a bit like classic Defender's chest if you squint. Huh.
 
 
Definitely the most important part! It's what we're all in it for!
 
 
They were a lot of fun to make, and hopefully should be decently balanced for that level of offence/defence. Just Plain Tough might be on the edge of too much with 6 resistant PD/ED when most of the guns are around 1 1/2d6 to 2d6, but as long as it's on the near side of the line that should be fine for That One Tough Guy or the main antagonist.
 
 
I've noticed that about MA myself, but it's how it happened to work out in this case. As you say a point or so either way is not super important and when I go about actually picking out a few sets of maneuvers to slot in there is room for more flexibility, but the whole point was to do a bunch of 30pt packages to drop in. I suppose I could formally do some that are set up for nine or eleven or twelve points worth as well, but eh. We'll see how much time the rest of the prep takes, since this evening is game night.
 
Which does mean I should go back to bed, but you know, insomnia.
 
edit: Oh, and since non-game superhero stuff is still at least sort of on-topic here... have you seen Adam Savage's Iron Man suit? It's pretty damn awesome.
 
Edit 2: Two more for the 30pt powers list, to have an even thirty:
 
* 30 Immortal II: +4 BODY -and- Life Support (Does not age) (5cp) -and- Regeneration 1 BODY per Turn post-12 (16cp), Can Heal Limbs (+5cp)
* 30 Immortal III: Regeneration 1 BODY per 20min (10cp) -and- Resurrection (specify vulnerability SFX) (+20cp)
 
Edit 3: repeating myself from the other thread for ease of future reference:
I can't say how well it will work until later tonight, but I thought of a way to logically explain why rolling high is good for damage and low for everything else: "Just remember that when you roll the dice, you're always asking 'What could go wrong?' Of course you don't want much to go wrong for you, and a lot for the enemy."

Bump ... Old topic.  Looks like it might be useful again.

D&D is a system on a treadmill.  Every 'free' +1 is matched by a opposing +1 and the only way to get ahead is to jealously horde those tiny bonuses until they accumulate enough to matter.  It's a system where one bad defense roll can mean sitting out the rest of the combat, the rest of the session, having a permanent penalty, or even having to totally recreate your character.  Its a system where three to six hoboes wander into a murderous hole in the ground, then emerge only to find another, deadlier hole to risk themselves in.  D&D breeds combat monster makers because D&D is a game of combats and monsters. 
A D&Der who shows up and makes a combat monster isn't doing anything wrong.  They're doing exactly what they've been taught to do, and they just haven't realized the game's changed. 
 
Related note, but if somebody's building crazy combat monsters, figure out if they actually realize what they've made.  Subtraction based defenses and bell-curve accuracy are a distant cry from D&D's linear accuracy and generally flat damage.  The realization that 12d6-20 ~= 6d6 doesn't come instantly, and it can take a startlingly long time for somebody to actually grok what 15 DCV means in a world of 6-10 OCV. 

Usually, if I was looking to start a group from scratch, I would either join an existing group playing a more mainstream game or start such a campaign myself. While playing that game over the course of some number of sessions, I would also slowly introduce the Hero System but not directly or overtly. If the game was happening at my house, the book case behind my GM'ing stuff groaning under the weight of Hero books was a useful icebreaker. I'd also work on Hero System characters or page thru a Hero book before a game or during a break. 
 
Eventually one or more people would express interest. "Oh, that? The Hero System? No, you wouldn't be interested in that. It's too hardcore for you; its a serious game system. Deep waters, not for the casual gamer. Yeah, it's my favorite game system, but I really don't think you'd get into it."
 
More determined folks who objected to being classified as "casual" would persist, or might browse the books themselves. Rather than trying to push it on them, they would first have to generate interest themselves and want to find out more.
 
But I still don't strike yet. Let it simmer a bit.
 
After the idea had crept into the zeitgeist of the group, I'd eventually mention I was interested in running some campaign, which I'd pitch and have some pre-production hooks for. I never talk system at this point, just big ideas. I'm pretty good at hooking a room, or at least enough to carry the motion. I get them to start throwing around character ideas. I want the players who get into it and feel the groove. If at least three players seem ready to go, set a date and commit; "Yeah, these are cool ideas; I'm definitely going to include them. I think I'll be ready to start running this next week if anyone wants to play". People usually do; my campaigns tend to be memorable, and I tend to be a polarizing figure...people who are not put off by my shtick like to hang around and be entertained. 
 
I don't commit to the game system at this stage; "Maybe [some other system], the Hero System, or [some other system].".
 
Choice of game system is a divisive factor. People have preconceived notions and they get in the way of having fun.  As soon as you lock in a game system verbally, you've lost at least one player who actually probably would have had fun if they had overcome their resistance to trying something new to them and given it a try. 
 
I collect emails of the interested parties and strike up email conversations with each re: character. I get them to flesh out in general terms what kind of character each wants to play. I make Hero System characters for each based upon what they've said is important to them; I focus on fundamentals rather than technical virtuosity. I don't share the characters yet.
 
Those who want to participate in the campaign self select. This is the important bit. 
___
 
First session each player's seat at the table has 3D6, a printed out version of their initial character sheet, a sheet with bullet points from each player's emails and a blurb noting things on their character sheet that address each bullet point, and a copy of Hero System #500 or Sidekick or Basic depending on the era.
 
I have a intro session already set up and ready to go on the table as well. 
 
Ok, go. I like to start in medias res. There's a situation, and the PC's need to deal with it. I help the players figure out what they want to do and how to do it. 
 
That's the first 2/3rds of the first session. After its over, it is possible that the players did not enjoy it, but usually most or all do. Then I go around the table and tell each player my favorite part of what their character did during the session and elicit them to tell me what they thought was cool and what irritated them or talk about any shortcomings of their characters they want to address. After that, I commit to the next session, which will be the first real session, and then say that if people want to tweak their character (or make a different one) they can either hang around after the session or we can do it via email as they prefer.
 
The #500 / Sidekick / Basic book is theirs to take home if they want it to check it out. 
 
That last part is the clincher; if someone doesn't want to take the book they probably won't return for the second session. If they take it, there's better than average odds they'll come back. 
___
 
I did some variation of this 4 times in the 4e era, 2 times in the 5e era, and 1 times in the 6e era, going from 1 or 0 players to a full group each time. Though some individual players weren't hooked, it never failed entirely. It also spawned several other new Hero GM's who went on to run at least one campaign of their own using the system.
 
At other times I had a group, and was just looking for one or two players. Those would usually come in either via "LFG" posts at game stores or by word of mouth via the existing players' social networks. In those cases, I'd just have a prospective player that did not know the system come in and I'd have them sit next to me at the GM side of the table, and give them a character to play, maybe an NPC, maybe a pregen, whatever. If they got stuck, I'd just suggest a couple of options and help them get unstuck. 
 
The important bit was to not bog them down with rules and just get them engaged with the game and feeling welcome. If they want to come back, we then talk about what kind of character they might like to play, which I always start at the bullet point level and always write down. "Should be good at X" or "Like [character from fiction] but with [some variation]" or whatever the player says. Never bog down their creative process by dragging mechanics into it. After they've got enough concept down to make a character around, ask if they want to make the character with you and tell them "it could take an hour or so" or however long you think it will take...don't claim it will take 15 minutes if it wont...OR you can just do a rough draft for them and then tweak it with them before the next session, their choice. 
 
One final note is, it is also important to manage your own expectations as the GM trawling for players. Not every potential player is interested, and you have to be ok with that; don't push. And not every player who wants to play is right for your group; just having a pulse is not enough; sometimes you run into lumps who can't seem to come up with a character or don't seem to know what they want or have any personal spark...you probably don't want those players (I certainly don't). When fishing, sometimes you catch nothing, and sometimes you have to toss a few fish back. Getting frustrated or giving up in the face of lackluster initial interest wont help.
 

Yeah, so, I'm thinking about doing a very stupid thing: Trying to GM when I've played about two sessions of Champions myself, in different games that never went anywhere, with a group who range from "was in a D&D campaign years ago" to "has heard about this tabletop game thing, how does that work?"

Needless to say, this is an intimidating prospect, but how else do you get a group started if your friends aren't already gamers? I really don't want to give them a poor impression of the hobby/system. I've only run a single session of D&D once back when 3.5 came out and the FLGS had an open table during the all-day promotional event, but that's basically it from that end, and only been a player in a dozen or so sessions of another campaign. Swords & sorcery doesn't really grab me and I've developed a real loathing for classes and levels, so with the things locally popular being D&D/PF or endless Crack: The Cash-Gathering tournaments options have been limited, but I finally got a few folks interested in giving supers a try. So, can anyone give me some pro tips for the noob, or point me to some existing material? I'm sure it's been asked before many times, of course.

Oh, and since it does matter a bit, Champions Complete + Champions Powers (and the Hero in 2 Pages handout from MHI as a quick reference for how to do basic mechanics in play) are what it'll be based on, though I do actually have a BBB as well. I don't think it would even be a possibility without Powers to give everyone ideas and examples, TBH. "You can do anything!" is great but makes it hard for a newcomer to home in on a concept to roll with, especially for Complications related to a power theme/beyond Hunted and Code Against Killing.


Fake edit as I read things before posting this:
Brian Stanfield had a really great point in the "Sell me on Hero system" thread, part of a longer post:
"Please, PLEASE do not teach them this: 11 + OCV - dice roll= DCV you can hit. NOBODY understood what the hell this means! Seriously. I watched it happen in real time. They were able to calculate stuff and make the dice roll, but they didn’t intuitively understand why they were doing it. Teach them the pre-6th way: 11 + OCV - DCV = the roll you need to make. People get it when you are subtracting the opponent’s DCV from your OCV. It makes intuitive sense. Who cares if they know the opponent’s DCV while they are learning the game. That sort of meta-game knowledge may actually help them understand the interaction of the parts better." This is EXACTLY the kind of thing I'm looking for! It made the logic clearer for ME, let alone trying to explain to a total RPG newcomer.

OAF, just like a gun.  But don't put the Charges limitation on it.
 
If someone grabs the shaft of the spear, you can't throw it, can you?  If someone is grabbing the barrel of your gun, you can't aim it.  Can it be grabbed?  Is it indeed a physical thing that's just held in your hand?  Returning to you is just the special effect of not having limited uses (Charges).  Mechanically, it's no different than a gun with effectively unlimited ammo.
 
A regular thrown spear is an OAF with 1 Recoverable Charge.

As far as stand-ups or tokens:
 
Some years (cough cough cough decades cough cough) back, we grew tired of using dice and coins for counters and started using the actual movers from board games.  Turns out nowadays you can order those things in bags from Amazon and eBay, if you're interested in a low-cost thing.   Eventually someone got the bright idea hang a paper flag on them with character's names on them, and a sharpie "dot" on the base to indicate orientation.  That led to running to the library to make miniaturized copies of character sheets then coloring in the character, cutting out the portrait blocks (the early editions-- up to 4e, actually) had character sheets that included mannequins upon which you could draw your character.  Actually, there was a 5e product of grey-scaled "3d" mannequins for the same use, but the grey scale made it a bit awkward.  But I digress...  (Not like me at all, is it?) )
 
Anyway, we used rubber cement to tack the miniaturized portraits to the game piece movers and we had our "miniatures," or as we took to calling them, "Paper Dolls."  It wasn't too long after that we stumbled across the Steve Jackson line of paper miniatures ( "Pasteboard Heroes," I think they were called? ) and thought "Hell, we can make those."  By then, our library had a color copier.  We'd miniaturize the character sheet, cut out the portrait and either cut the sheet across the center and fold them into triangular stand-ups (a model the the 4e stand ups used, as I recall) or cut the portrait and a strip straight up and fold them into A-frames, following the Steve Jackson model.  For what it's worth, while the 4e triangular model was sturdier (we weren't using card stock, after all--   at least not until home inkjet printers became a thing), we found it easier to weight the Steve Jackson-style guys: a dab of rubber cement and a small hex nut worked great!.
 
At any rate, to this day I endorse the paper dolls simply because you can have as many as you need, and when you are really frustrated, to can "smash puny human!" with impunity.      The best part, of course, is that your mini looks _exactly_ like your character, every time!  I actually have a blank photoshop template I keep just for scanning in characters sheets and moving the image onto the template.  I've got a couple hundred of them on tap now.  I've even scanned in some from other games and moved them onto my template, just to have them on tap as well.
 
Now I have heard (and seen) Hero Clicks being used as minis since their inception (in fact, I don't know anyone who has the things that actually plays the game they are supposed to have been: they're all used for gaming minis), and I've looked into it and found them to be surprisingly expensive.  Recently-- and I've only got my youth group and one other group using them-- I discovered a line of metal figurines sold in regular retail stores at extremely reasonable prices.  They are metal (huge plus: a bit of weight helps a lot when moving them around) and have large bases that make them very stable.  Best of all is that the majority of them are superhero characters (listened famous ones, to be sure, but that means they are already "spandex-clad," so not a lot of "wrong clothing" to deal with.  Further, there are product lines that feature more "normal" people-- characters from movies (keep your dremel handy to lop off all those damned Harry Potter wands), sports figures, etc, and they are all extremely paintable:
 
This is Magnificent, who started life as the Vision (from, I think, the Avengers?)  Sorry about the painting, but let's be honest-- this was done by a twelve-year-old boy, who had a great time with it.  He's also slammed him around a bit, it seems by the paint chipping.  I snapped that shot in a dark room, so forgive the colors as well: the gloves and boots are a red-orange; not the pinkish color they look like in the picture
 
 
They are roughly approximate in size to Hero Clix, maybe a bit bigger or a bit smaller; I'm not sure.  They are inexpensive enough that I told the players in the youth group that they were welcome to keep the figures when the game was over, if they wanted.  Magnificent's player took me up on it right away and asked if it was okay to paint it.     "It's _yours_, Son.  You can his head off and glue it to his feet if you want."
 
 
No one else has painted theirs yet, but I keep hoping.
 
(the Comissioner Gordon miniature makes a great "thirty-years-on-the-force police detective, too.  Just sayin'......  And some of the WWF guys make excellent bare-chested bricks and martial artists (once you glue on some of those discarded Harry Potter wa  uh, nunchaku.    I don't own stock in the company or anything, it's just that plastic is a PITA to paint if you want custom minis, and shedding unwanted details can scar them up badly, where as metal?  Just rub it with an ignition file and poof-- no more wrong detail.  
 
I don't own stock in the company or anything-- I've also used Lego dudes and green plastic army men (where I learned that painting cheap plastic is a PITA, for what it's worth) and who-can-remember-what-else over the years when I wanted a bit of eye candy, but I have to be honest with you:  I keep coming back to the paper dolls.  They're just too perfect-- especially if you have a growth guy   Just make four or five at differing sizes, and boom!   Oh, that, and unlike an eclectic collection of variously-sourced minis and Lego dudes, they all scale with each other.  That's nice, too.  They don't take up much room (especially if you fold them flat: you can carry an army in an envelope)
 
 
 
I hope some of that helps.
 
 

I haven't looked in my BBB since I'm working from CC, but I know when I added the Running and BODY in the spreadsheet I'm using everything balances out... at least, until I toss on one of the power packages I made. Went a little overboard on those, actually... I think there's about thirty from a quick eyeball, rather than the five or so I actually needed...
 

* 30cp Animal Magnetism: +10 PRE (10cp), Animal Friendship (PRE+3) (20CP)
* 31cp Anodyne I: Simplified Healing 2d6 (20cp), Can Heal Limbs (+5cp), Decreased Re-Use Duration (once/6hr) (+1/4)
* 30 Anodyne II: +2 STUN (1cp) -and- Simplified Healing 2d6 (20cp) -and- Dispel (Disease/Poison) 3d6 (9cp)
* 30 Anodyne III: Healing 5d6 (50cp), Can Heal Limbs (+5cp), Variable Effect: Any Characteristic currently below starting value (+1/2), Extra Time (5min) (-2), (27 Real Points) -and- SS: Biology (INT) (3cp)
* 30 Athletic: +5 STR (5cp), +5 CON (5cp), +5 REC (5cp), +10 END (2cp), +3 BODY (3cp), +10 STUN (2cp), +5m Running (5cp), +4m Leaping (2cp), +2m Swimming (1cp)
* 30 Pilot: Combat Driving or Piloting (specify class) (INT) (3cp), Navigation (specify air/land/sea/etc.) (3cp), Vehicle costing up to 127cp (25cp)
* 30 Cryo/Electro/Pyro/etc. -kinetic: Blast vs ED (specify energy SFX) 3d6 (15cp) -and- Telekinesis: STR 12 (18cp), Only For (same SFX) (-1/2) (12 Real Points) -and- Power Tricks (same SFX) (INT) (3cp)
* 30 Genius Detective: +5 INT (5cp), Criminology (INT) (3cp), Deduction (INT) (3cp), Forensic Medicine (INT) (3cp), Forgery (INT) (3cp), -and- Clairsentience (Retrocoginition) (Sight and Hearing groups) (40cp), Retrocognition Only (-1), Time Modifiers (-1/2), Requires a Roll (INT) (-1/2), (13 Real Points)
* 30 Gun God: Inventor (INT) (3cp), Mechanics (INT) (3cp), Weaponsmith (Firearms) (INT) (2cp), Fringe Benefit: Weapon Permit (1cp), Lightning Reflexes: +2 DEX to act first with ranged weapons (1cp), Weapon Master (Firearms) (20cp)
* 30 Hidden Pocket: Extra-Dimensional Movement (20), Increased Mass x2^2 (400kg) (+10cp), Useable As Attack (+1), Only for held targets/user cannot enter (-1)
* 30 Illusionist I: Images (Sight) (10cp), -3 to target PER (+9cp), Area of Effect (8m radius) (+1/2) -and- Enhanced Perception (Sight) +2 PER (2cp)
* 30 Illusionist II: Shapeshift (Sight) (8cp), Imitation (10cp), Any Shape (+10cp)
* 30 Immortal: Life Support (Does not age) (5cp), 25cp of skills and/or skill enhancers
* 30 Invisible: +1 PER (Hearing) (1cp), Stealth +3 (Agility) (9cp) -and- Invisibility (Sight) (20cp)
* 30 Just Plain Tough: +5 CON (5cp), +1 DCV (5pt), +5 BODY (5cp), +6 STUN (3cp), Combat Luck x2 (12cp)
* 30 Martial Artist I: +1 SPD (10cp), +3 PD (3cp), KS: one martial art style (11-) (2cp), CSL +1: one martial art style (5cp), 10cp of combat maneuvers in chosen martial arts style
* 30 Martial Artist II: +1 SPD (10cp), +1 PD (1cp), KS: one martial art style (11-) (2cp), CSL +1: one martial art style (5cp), 10cp of combat maneuvers in chosen martial arts style, WF: one class of weapons (1cp), Weapon Element: same class of weapons (1cp)
* 30 Mentalist I: Mind Scan 6d6
* 30 Mentalist II: Telepathy 6d6
* 30 Mentalist III: Mental Illusions 6d6
* 30 Mentalist IV: Mental Illusions 4d6 (20cp), Area of Effect (8m radius) (+1/2)
* 30 Mentalist V: Mind Control 6d6
* 30 Omniglot: Eidetic Memory (5cp), Speed Reading x10 (4cp), Universal Translator (INT+1) (21cp)
* 30 Rabbit's Foot I: Lightning Reflexes +1 DEX to act first (1cp), Luck 5d6 (25cp), +3m Running (3cp), +2m Leaping (1cp)
* 30 Rabbit's Foot II: Danger Sense (15cp), Functions as a Sense (+2cp), Any time if perceivable (+5cp), Anyone in vicinity (+5cp) -and- Lightning Reflexes: +3 DEX to act first (3cp)
* 30 Telekinetic I: Telekinesis: STR 20
* 31 Telekinetic II: Telekinesis: STR 12 (18cp), Fine manipulation (13-) (+10cp) -and- Telekinetic Tricks (INT) (3cp)
 
 
Actually twenty eight if I counted right, or yes thirty if you count blaster energy types separately. Pelican of course would get Hidden Pocket, and probably Just Plain Tough as well due to being the enemy boss, plus a handful of henchmen. Future-Kung Fu Chef would be Martial Artist I if he hadn't pulled out, Goo Girl gets Illusionist II, Speedster gets Athletic, and Bug Guy is Animal Magnetism because critters and PRE attacks. Mentor gets Pilot because he drives the bus.
 
 
 
I'm starting to get more excited about this than worried... I hope the game actually does happen. I suppose I can print a bunch of spare pregens and try to fish for unattached players to fill out the table with them if all else fails...
 
So. I know I need play sheets that put the powers and checks etc. in user-friendly terms, a map, a partyvan and whatever the enemies are using for transportation (No, scratch that, it's zeppelin or nothing! No Nazi-face-punching adventure is complete without at least one!) some stand-ups or tokens, the END/phase tracking aids previosly discussed, and a nice paragraph or two to set the stage for the action, as well as general directions for how to wrap up depending on how well the party does and if they can protect or retrieve the Precious MacGuffin, and if Pelican is caught or escapes. I need to make up some actual details about the Precious MacGuffin.
 
I need to run at least a few rounds of combat myself before hand to get used to the process, find a voice for Pelican, and double check party level versus boss and minions to make sure neither side is going to get trivially stomped. I need to make sure I put some animals in the area so Animal Guy can do his thing. Dinosaurs or monkeys are always good, so maybe site it in a South American ruin of some kind?
 
On the day, I need to eat something before arriving, and suggest anyone who might want to use the bathroom do it after passing out the pregens and going over them but before starting to actually play, and ask everyone to turn their phone off or put it on silent mode because we're all new to the game will have to be able to focus. I need enough Hero in 2 Pages handouts for a full table and a few more, and a couple handfuls of dice, and some pencils, and to make sure no motherfucker walks off with my dice at the end of the night. Walking off with a pregen character sheet or three and a HI2P is to be encouraged.
 
Anything else to do or not do?
 

I think I found the issue: Competent Normal has +2m of Running speed baked in on the table in the book, with no further note to remind you that needs to be bought as a Power. That and putting Stun to 26 instead of down form Noteworthy Normal's 24 should do it.
 
I'm the only person I know who thinks Ben Reilly was the best Spider-Man, for precisely this reason - he had a wealth of unexplored backstory in the time between the original clone arc and his return and a different mindset to carry new stories forward, he had new takes on the classic gadgets and formulas, and he let Peter progress to a new arc of his own ... up until it all got editorialized back to the status quo, of course. (I liked his costume designs too, but those are secondary to this point.) Yet even the people who utterly hate the IC-retcon from the end of Civil War that washed away everything since Pete and MJ got married along with the wedding itself seem to think that only Peter can be "the real" Spidey...
 
...and I'm not immune either, Civil War was where I stopped collecting comics because I didn't like the changes it made, to the point that having it namedropped as one of the future movies in whichever media event was where I stopped following the MCU.

I think I found the issue: Competent Normal has +2m of Running speed baked in on the table in the book, with no further note to remind you that needs to be bought as a Power. That and putting Stun to 26 instead of down form Noteworthy Normal's 24 should do it.
 
I'm the only person I know who thinks Ben Reilly was the best Spider-Man, for precisely this reason - he had a wealth of unexplored backstory in the time between the original clone arc and his return and a different mindset to carry new stories forward, he had new takes on the classic gadgets and formulas, and he let Peter progress to a new arc of his own ... up until it all got editorialized back to the status quo, of course. (I liked his costume designs too, but those are secondary to this point.) Yet even the people who utterly hate the IC-retcon from the end of Civil War that washed away everything since Pete and MJ got married along with the wedding itself seem to think that only Peter can be "the real" Spidey...
 
...and I'm not immune either, Civil War was where I stopped collecting comics because I didn't like the changes it made, to the point that having it namedropped as one of the future movies in whichever media event was where I stopped following the MCU.

Well, as long as you're within Stretching range, yes... I suppose it could be some kind of "tear off and immediately grow back" thing, but without regen anywhere else in the build that's, ehh... Stretch range has been cut down a fair bit from the original "this seems like a good length" too as other things ate the points and honestly I just plain forgot to come back to it to examine in detail after copying it from a different build on the internet and renaming it, because it was sitting there working as is. ...I kind of like the idea of the not-hentacle being able to quickly throw up a bunch of tentacular walls around the place actually, but it doesn't fit the theme as written.
 
Botheration.
 
Now I'm all conflicted about it.
 
What is with people being all logical and making me think when I just got up because as I was waking up a voice asked me "What if Smurfette found the Witchblade?" and I wanted to come write that down? Then the browser had to bloop at me with an alert since I forgot to turn scripts back off here earlier. Now I'm going to be too haired up to get back to sleep

Well, as long as you're within Stretching range, yes... I suppose it could be some kind of "tear off and immediately grow back" thing, but without regen anywhere else in the build that's, ehh... Stretch range has been cut down a fair bit from the original "this seems like a good length" too as other things ate the points and honestly I just plain forgot to come back to it to examine in detail after copying it from a different build on the internet and renaming it, because it was sitting there working as is. ...I kind of like the idea of the not-hentacle being able to quickly throw up a bunch of tentacular walls around the place actually, but it doesn't fit the theme as written.
 
Botheration.
 
Now I'm all conflicted about it.
 
What is with people being all logical and making me think when I just got up because as I was waking up a voice asked me "What if Smurfette found the Witchblade?" and I wanted to come write that down? Then the browser had to bloop at me with an alert since I forgot to turn scripts back off here earlier. Now I'm going to be too haired up to get back to sleep

Well, as long as you're within Stretching range, yes... I suppose it could be some kind of "tear off and immediately grow back" thing, but without regen anywhere else in the build that's, ehh... Stretch range has been cut down a fair bit from the original "this seems like a good length" too as other things ate the points and honestly I just plain forgot to come back to it to examine in detail after copying it from a different build on the internet and renaming it, because it was sitting there working as is. ...I kind of like the idea of the not-hentacle being able to quickly throw up a bunch of tentacular walls around the place actually, but it doesn't fit the theme as written.
 
Botheration.
 
Now I'm all conflicted about it.
 
What is with people being all logical and making me think when I just got up because as I was waking up a voice asked me "What if Smurfette found the Witchblade?" and I wanted to come write that down? Then the browser had to bloop at me with an alert since I forgot to turn scripts back off here earlier. Now I'm going to be too haired up to get back to sleep

Alas, I have only Champions Complete and Champions Powers, and the perennial end of the month budget squeeze means I'm not even looking at the ebook website for a while either.

Good pun though, and something to keep in mind for later. I really want the Martial Arts book first off, though.

(And yes, there's downloads out there, but I want to be legal, and preferably have a physical copy at the table, for things I'm actually going to do more than skim through to decide whether to buy let alone actually play. Buying game stuff is how we get more game stuff, after all, while not buying game stuff is how to make game designers have to go get INT-draining "real" jobs...)

I think Kinetik's character sheet is wrong.  He's listed as having 9 PD and 8 ED, and then he's got a "protective suit" that gives him 6/6 additional.  If you look at his total Def on the right of his PD and ED listing, it says 15 PD and 14 ED.  But he's also got +10/10 in his powers section called a "protective aura", with the limitation 'only while moving'.  So his total should be 25 PD and 24 ED.  That's not that bad, really.
 
But Kinetik isn't really a great build.  He hits for 9D6 and then he has some minor 30 point attacks that aren't gonna do much more than be annoying.  I think they tried to get too fancy when they built him.  One thing that really makes a character useful is to just have one attack that is straight dice damage at the campaign average.  Kinetic doesn't have that -- his normal dice attack is only 9D6.
 
Witchcraft is the only member of the Champions to have less than 20 Def, and she's a mentalist.  The thing about mental powers is that they don't have a range modifier -- she can be sitting on a rooftop half a mile down the street and still hit just as effectively.  That may be why they gave her lower defenses.
 
On your character build, I'd drop the Damage Reduction.  It's a pain in the butt to calculate during battle (particularly the 25% version), and you could probably use those points elsewhere.  Generally Damage Reduction isn't worth the points compared to just putting more into PD and ED.

Sorry DialNforNinja I totally missed seeing the page with the character on it!
 
Please note that your Complications are 85 points not 75.

As previously mentioned the intro adventure is intended to be more pulp-y, with both sides basically Competent Normals straight off the chart plus one lower-level "weird power" each - The Pelican's storage trick, a little Tk, personal illusions, etc. One of the players emailed to pull out earlier though, and the others were kind of (goddammit what's the word? uncommitted, blase, lackadaisical, none of those are right and the one I want is hiding) so it may be I'm the only one who shows up ready to go, but I wanted to try at least...
 
Anyway, here's what I was writing as the new message alert came in:
 
So after rechecking the Champions builds in CC, I can only conclude that their defences are, by the standard above and their attacks ranging from 9d6-12d6, WAY too low - Kinetik has 9PD/8ED, and the rest are mostly in the 10-15 range except for Ironclad's 25s. I fiddled a little more and got Ten-tickles up to 20s while lowering top damage output to 10d6 as suggested, mainly by dropping Resistant from the damage reduction and lowering swim speed again, and even fit Mind Control into the multipower too, though with 13 Ego and base OMCV he's not going to be controlling much except animals and willing clients listening to his pep talks for their training, or maybe trying hypnosis to quit smoking That's fine though, it fits better with the overall concept than Auquaman-like sea creature control to begin with.
 
And the point split is still pretty close to even too, just a little less off toward the powers side. Flavor feels the same, so a win I guess?
 
Still kind of annoying about the example builds being so all over the place when they're supposed to be a single team facing similar threat levels though.

Yeah, normal characteristic maxima is usually for heroic level games.  Indiana Jones instead of the X-Men.
 
Defenses should generally be scaled to the attacks you'll have in the game.  Somebody who has 1.5 times the average dice in Defense is going to be fragile.  If you've got a 10D6 campaign, then a guy with 15 PD and ED (including combat luck, armor, force fields, etc), is going to take a lot of damage really fast.  In my experience, somebody with that level of defense should probably have something else as well to make them more survivable.  It's okay to have 15 PD and ED if you are a shrinker (whose DCV will normally be extremely high), or if you are mostly invisible (so people generally don't shoot at you), or are mostly desolid (so their attacks pass through you).  But otherwise you're gonna be face down in the dirt most of the time.  If you want a character who is fragile that's fine, but fragile they will be.
 
Somebody with 3 times the average dice in Defense is going to be tough.  In a 10D6 campaign, the guy with 30 PD and ED will take forever to go down.  Blast him and blast him and he'll just shrug it off.  I've found that between 2x and 2.5x the average dice gives you a good range of defense.
 
When you're building a character, you also want to make sure that they won't be Con-Stunned by the average attack roll.  If it's a 10D6 game, every character needs to be able to take at least 35 Stun without it passing their Defense plus Con.  So if you've got 20 Def, you need a 15 Con at a minimum.  18 to 20 is better, because sometimes people roll above average.  Losing an action because you got Stunned is a great way to remember how awesome your iPhone is and start checking Facebook during the game.  You don't want it to happen too often.

As long as it is only artillery then I am kind of cool with that - the villains go for me because I am noble, fine.  The GM constantly twists my nobility to make the game a misery of conflicted choices, not so much.  I am fine with conflicted choices as long as there are compensating factors elsewhere such as when I choose to throw myself in front of the death ray heading towards the innocent children in the playground then I auto-succeed and get praised for it in the press.  I am content to potentially sacrifice my character for such scenes.  As it goes I got my character killed in just such a fashion in at least two games as it gave me an excuse to walk away from the game without a bad taste in my mouth. 🙂
 

I'd like to agree, but I've gotten cynical in my old age... and used to games with their roots in the nineties and noughties that ALWAYS hammer on the "dark reality" and "awful truths" and so on, like EABA (though not mechanically, I'd love a bright future game using EABA but the author is all-in on grim and gritty) and anything by White Wolf except The Street Fighter Storytelling Game, where using the powers and abilities that make PCs special pretty much universally charges up some kind of sanity meter that sends the character on a berserk rampage when it fills. In Street Fighter, of course, that just means you can use your super moves
 
If you know the GM isn't going to pull that kind of bullpucky, then certainly it's handy to not have to find another 5cp of Disads and take CVK (total,) and facing the moral choice of "do I take this guy in alive" or "do I risk myself to save this murdering asshole from his own trap" and doing the noblebright thing is a fun and rewarding storyline even - we play these games because we want to imagine being better than real life will allow, after all - as long as doing the noblebright thing doesn't get you slapped with horrible unintended consequences that make any gains you made and the pain and effort spent to reach them meaningless. Raising a flag on the moral high ground is great as long as it doesn't just mean you're evil's easiest target for artillery practice.

It is explicit... a goal/intended outcome and a basic strategy and ex-fil idea... but it doesn't dwell on the details. No spending hours sweating exact timings, load outs, etc. It is more focused on "in what general way does each PC contribute via their abilities/skills"  i.e. We infiltrate the club and apartment building, using the club/party to cover our infiltration and if possible, find the hostage, hit quick and quiet and get out without sounding the alarm... vs. "We want to use a helicopter to repel down on the penthouse and go in guns blazing" or whatever. Say, fifteen minutes of discussion, not four hours.

Once the basic plan is agreed upon, then each player says, "Ok, to reach that goal, my character would prep/contribute by..." and that is the individual character rolling a key skill roll.
 
Then once each PC has rolled... the final "The Plan" roll to say "Ok, you did all your prep... overall, how well did it work out"
 
One way to think about it... the first Mission: Impossible movie starts with all the characters in place. Estevez is hacked in and sitting on the elevator, the others are either 'in the van' or infiltrated the crowd... they have their gear and positions and actions... and the dramatic action just starts. You didn't have a tedious six hour movie of them all arguing about how they were going to do the op... you get right to the op. That is the point. Show the prep in a montage, and get to the point of 'contact with the enemy' or whatever and do the actual play.

Dude, we are of the same tribe, you and I. From my brain to your fingers, it seems.
 
However, I will say that superhero genre conventions do make their way into my playstyle in that they inform the nature of the problems that the heroes will face. They inform the way the heroes will be treated, by citizens and by villains. They inform the way I expect citizens and villains to be treated by the PCs. And so forth. Genre conventions should make the game feel like the source material, so that players could never mistake a superhero campaign with, say, a fantasy campaign.

Wow,.....
 "Story Story Story.."

"Genre Genre Genre"

">...the hell?"

I think the whole reason for "Dark Champions"  became a thing was two fold: 1.) the base rules started as a Silver Age pastiche, but Comic books themselves transitioned into the dark and gritty phase after the Comics Code faded in concert with the fading of the news stand market, and the rise of the Direct Sales Market.  2.) People feeling that superhero Genre Conventions weren't all that realistic ("To hell with tights. I'm wearing Kevlar Torso armor, sap gloves, and a decent helmet), and perhaps the war game aspects of Hero, especially since it was at the time, debuted at a War Game Convention, the biggest on the West Coast at the time.

 As such, I am not here for the story. Story is what happens after you finish the game. what I am here for is the problem.  I have a tactical mind, and for me Each game presents for me a problem to solve, within the framework of the rules, with the resources we have been given.  As a GM that's how I plan.  I figure out what the opposition thinks of the Player characters, and what the relative strengths and weaknesses are between them, then figure out where, and when, and present that to the players , then i sit back and listen. Loads of fun. But this focus on genre conventions and story structure to me, is not fun. I love to roleplay, but I prefer that the characters have internally consistent reasons for them to behave the way they do, rather than external reasons focused on "collaborative storytelling".  Just give me dice, Miniatures and a mat. I will be quite happy to write something up.
 
[Game-ist- Simulationist]
 

I would strongly suggest introducing physical trackers at or by the time you introduce END.  Colored beads, paper clips on numbered strips, anything where a player has to physically manipulate something.  My current group is absolutely terrible about remembering END even exists.