Squall

Re: So, are Bricks more expensive in 6th Edition?

Re: Only in Hero ID Took the words right out of my mouth. It's not a rules issue, it's a table-by-table game issue. If a GM doesn't make it come up, that's on the GM, not the rules as written.

Re: So, are Bricks more expensive in 6th Edition? Yeah, I couldn't help but notice that in the otherwise-exceptional (seriously, I really dig 'em for the most part!) "build-a-character" quick select stuff in the core Champions book...the Brick skill selections, all two of them, were both pretty much 30 points worth of combat stuff and that's it. Kind of disappointing, to me, and all the moreso because it means if a GM does use them to quickly throw together a generi-Brick, it means that if the PC isn't built with the same focus on combat, he'll be outclassed. That "30 points of skills" is pretty shallow when it's all CSLs instead of skills.

Re: So, are Bricks more expensive in 6th Edition? I've always had a soft spot for the guys who are just "faster, stronger, tougher," with all three taken to superhuman levels but without quite being as strong and durable as a full on brick, and without all the speed tricks of a dedicated speedster. A...hmm...Martial Brickster? I already had a character idea kicking around in my head, then recently got my paws on a Thunderbolts TPB with Jack and Eagle in it, the same day I read over some of the new X-Force stuff with Warpath...and my fate was sealed! Character concept was firmly locked into place, and all that was left was to crunch the numbers.

Re: So, are Bricks more expensive in 6th Edition? I'm a big Brick fan, and have run into the same sort of concerns about how expensive just the core traits are (without those good ol' derived statistics any more). As far as Damage Negation, I'm using it on a character I'm putting together right now (a sort of American Eagle/Jack Flag/Warpath/Thunderbird/Outlaw type, a mix of Brick and Martial Artist), and I think it'll be a fun way to show the standard Brick-type resilience, but without also just casually shrugging of superhuman foes. I want the character to get battered around by stuff he doesn't dodge or block, I want blood drawn and him to LOOK and FEEL like he's in trouble, as sort of a second-rate guy, when it comes to defenses...and I think Damage Negation is the way to do that. Crunching numbers and comparing him -- in a toe-to-toe brawl -- with some published Bricks, he's going to get smacked around and look pretty messed up, but still be on his feet and able to swing back. That's just about exactly where I want him. Survivability, but not immunity (if that makes sense).

Re: Bronze Archer, Agent of PRIMUS I vaguely remember one common side effect of the Cyberline treatment being an increased vulnerability to poisons/toxins. Not sure if you NEED to include it, but if a little shuffling of his complications would allow, it'd fit the theme.

Re: The PCs are Villians - Which Villians? I don't think villain games are any more likely to be "short lived" than any other RPG game, myself. Even without getting into the sometimes silly and over-the-top Iron Age violence, the simple truth is that in many comics, as well as in the Champions Universe, not everyone is wholly on the "good" or "evil" sides of the line; there's a tendency to label anyone that's not a true-blue selfless good guy a, well, bad guy, but that's not necessarily the whole story. There's a world of difference between a cat burglar and a genocidal maniac, when it comes to making a player character, isn't there? They're both in CKC, sure, but wouldn't a "villain" game with Foxbat go a whole lot different than one with Holocaust? With comic inspirations like Deadpool (who, let's face it, for the last several years has been more of a hero than a villain), early Thunderbolts (villains who, at least some of them, genuinely wanted to reform), Secret Six/Villains United (a team mostly made up of second-rate thieves and mercenary types, not exactly DC's worst of the worst), there's plenty of room for not-terribly-heroic protagonists in comic canon. In the Champions universe, there are less-than-evil sorts like the member sof grab GRAB or the War Machine, Riptide, and Lady Blue that all sit comfortably at the 350 point level and aren't exactly what I'd call hardcore baddies. There are other "villains" in the book -- most of the Ultimates, Cateran, Howler, Lodestone, Photon, Tesseract, Zephyr, even Firewing -- that have strong codes of honor or a CVK just like a hero might, that just happen to operate, and often, on the wrong side of the law. Any assortment of these sort of characters (point values notwithstanding) could make for a pretty workable team, that wouldn't necessarily be as self destructive as one composed of more hardcore "evil" types (Eurostar, Crowns of Krim, anyone with casual killer or amoral psych lims, that sort of thing). With the right group of characters (and players who are willing to skirt the line), I don't think a villain game needs to be any more short lived than any other campaign.

Re: Hero In Two Pages - Complete Very nice little write up!

Re: Top 10 Insupportable Premises in Comic Book Universes

Re: Beating Dr. Destroyer...how do (or did) you do it? You probably don't see them on many teams because, against anyone with an AOE to throw down, DCV doesn't matter very much at all. Robin and Spidey can quip all they want -- heck, they could even buy a limited version of Mind Control based on successful social rolls, only to make people attack them -- but there really isn't much they can do when Dr. D tosses around an Explosion or anything else that'll target a DCV 3 Hex and still let him sling a billion damage dice at them.

Re: Top 10 Insupportable Premises in Comic Book Universes The same holds true with other powers, just as well -- even the Magneto example, for instance, can be rationalized not only with ethical concerns on the personal level (manipulating the iron in someone's blood is a mean thing to do, so "good" Magneto doesn't abuse his power), but also on a larger scale, like concerns about disruption the Earth's magnetic field by overusing his powers, messing with atmospheric conditions by bringing Asteroid M into the atmosphere, etc, etc. An evil Brick is far more likely to use his full strength when fighting an unpowered mook -- the fact that Black Adam uses his strength to gleefully rend mundane folks limb from limb doesn't mean he's physically stronger than Captain Marvel, it just means he uses that full strength where good guys are far more likely to consistently hold back. A lot of these insupportable premises are ones that have been addressed, in some form or another, in fairly modern comics. The rest of them (like the Joker never being put to death, no matter how many lives he takes), simply come down to "if you kill off iconic bad guys, there's no one left for the good guys to fight in next month's issue" sort of logic.

Re: Book of the Destroyer: Destroyer v. Takofanes Is there any chance someone could post a link to the old thread? I don't want to stir it up again, I'm not out to re-start whatever argument, I'm not asking it to be unlocked -- I'm sure it was locked for a reason -- but it seems like it might be an interesting read, in the meantime, and I can't seem to find it.

Re: Top 10 Insupportable Premises in Comic Book Universes I know that's one that's been tackled by the DC universe, at least a little bit. Hitman has shown a share of "everyday" types with running gags about Power Girl and Wonder Woman (Tommy himself went to the JLA satellite once, just to use his x-ray vision on Wonder Woman to brag to his buddies about it), so the precedent is certainly there that day-to-day working schmucks, blue collar everymen, certainly notice the amazingly top-heavy superwomen running around. Power Girl, especially, is well known in-universe for her...uhh...unique build. In Outsiders (given the roster holding Arsenal and Grace, at least for a while) casual superhero-community sex came up a few times -- Grace even mentioned Plastic Man, once -- early in the series. Dick scowled at Roy for being a hound, once, and asked if there was anyone he wouldn't sleep with; Roy's response was "Among the Amazon-built goddesses we hang out with, wearing spandex? Nope!" (or words to that effect). In at least one other instance I can think of, when the team's ship was destroyed and they were stuck taking a civilian ferry back to the mainland from Alcatraz, several of the gals in their torn-and-tattered superheroine outfits were getting oggled by a nearby tourist with a video camera. In the most recent run of...crap. Seven Soldiers of Victory, or maybe just Seven Soldiers (don't remember the title for sure), one of the characters, Bulleteer, specifically got her metahuman powers from her husband being a superhero fetishist. He was a physicist and superheroine porno fiend, who cooked up a concoction to give them metallic skin that granted invulnerability and super strength, because he wanted to live out his fantasies about Sally Sonic, a metahuman porno star, and blah blah blah, all very Iron Age-ish. While it's kind of a lame hook for a character, it stands as proof that the fantastic physiques and skimpy outerwear of your average metahuman isn't going unnoticed, particularly in the internet age. And, of course, the rape thing HAS come up (like in Identity Crisis), unfortunate as it was. It's all come up on the Marvel side a little, recently, too, but especially in their Ultimates Universe.

Re: Top 10 Insupportable Premises in Comic Book Universes I know Frank Castle's aging has been a point of pride from some of his writers -- they've mentioned it in letter columns and stuff, at least, and have gone out of their way to say he IS (supposedly) aging, slowing down a little, etc. I know that "Born" established him as being involved in the closing days of the Vietnam War (not the opening), and he could've been -- I don't know -- twenty or so at the time? So Castle could be in his mid-late fifties, not necessarily sixties, at the moment. It's still a stretch for him to be as fit as he is, mind...but it's not QUITE as silly. There's also the possibility he suffered some minor anti-aging from that (silly and unfortunate) "assassin for the angels" story arc they did several years ago.

Re: Beating Dr. Destroyer...how do (or did) you do it? My only plan would be to bring friends that are slower at running away than I am.

Re: The Batman Option While I'm readily admitting that I haven't got enough experience with Champions to have valuable advice to offer as to the merits of running a game based on different point values...I'm enough of a DC fanboy that I just have to ask how many "every battle between the two" instance folks are trying to reference, here, particularly outside of Miller's DKR series (which isn't canon, and, in fact, isn't even really the same characters). I've got no real dog in this fight, as far as Superman versus Batman being built on near-equal points values are concerned (they've both done enough ridiculous fiat-driven stuff, all based on whose comic it is and who's writing it that month, that I'm fine with almost ANY points-value interpretation of either character), I'm just idly curious as to what fights people are referring to when they talk about Batman like he regularly kicks Superman's butt or something. I can think of two times in recent publications that Superman and Batman have clashed. One was in a Batman comic (advantage: Bats, because it was his title) where Superman was under Poison Ivy's control, and it largely consisted of Batman scrambling away and trying not to die. The other was -- potential spoiler warning, I guess, even though it's several years old by now -- during the lead up to Infinite Crisis, in a Superman comic (advantage: Supes, because it was his title), where Superman was hallucinating, thought he was attacking Darkseid or someone, and was instead casually murdering Batman without even knowing he was there, while the entire Justice League was trying to stop him. It's just the nitpicky comics fan in me wondering what other instances they're talking about, when folks reference Batman winning these kinds of fights. Please don't take it as me disagreeing with your general post -- particularly your second point, where you show quite ably that "normal" humans can still be quite effective with a few skills, martial arts, and powers -- but if you could toss up a link to the original post, or something like that, I'd appreciate it.

Re: Homage to Thor Not a bad piece of work, for a 250 point character. I agree the lightning attacks are a little measly (when held up next to his hand to hand damage), but for 250, what do you expect? The only other way I could think of to do it (and better balance his melee/ranged) might be to describe it as "the lightning hits with all the thunder god's own might!" and just describe it was lightning bolts, but build it in-game as a ranged or AOE advantage applied to his 60 Strength.

Re: Hulk write-up from Game Trade Magazine 2003 Neat write-up! Thanks for writing it, DW, and thanks for the link/scan/discussion, everyone else. Handy stuff, even if it's got me wanting to drop him into my current game as a nasty surprise.

Re: New Screenshots (4/29/2008) Well, there's only so many directions you can go in with "comic book superhero MMORPG," really.

Re: X-Men: The Next Generation campaign on Hero Central Blah. Go ahead and take Rook out of the submission list (though I might try to sneak him in later if anyone drops out during game play or whatever). I'm just not able to settle on a character sheet for him, and it's getting to where working on him is becoming frustrating instead of fun (which defeats the whole purpose).

Re: X-Men: The Next Generation campaign on Hero Central That's even easier, for Rook. Square-jawed leader types. Jack, Apollo, and...I've never heard of the OR, so I got nothin'.

Re: X-Men: The Next Generation campaign on Hero Central Rook - The Skipper (always taking charge, making decisive action), Captain Kirk (he can't hear you over the sound of how awesome he is), and...no idea, on the Addams Family. The only character from that I remember is the little hand-spider-thingie. Oh, and I'm skipping the "25 words or less" thing, because I suck with that few words. Gimme a few thousand words (and a half hour), and I can kick you up some short fiction that shows him in action. Gimme 25 words, I've got nothing.

Re: Elemental Controls, how do they work? You can double them up. Here's how I understand them, and (what's more) how I think of them. Essentially, I see it starting with a "fee" you pay (equal to half the price of one of the powers you intend to group up), in exchange for getting those powers for half-off. If you know there are four (or five, or six, or whatever) different fifty-point powers you want, and they all cost END, and your GM is okay with you lumping them together...go to town. Instead of paying 200 points for them each individually, you pay 25 for the base multipower, and then 25 apiece (if they're all nice and neat at 50 points). It's a discount you get for the powers being related in some way, and fitting an overall theme. For instance, say you want to make a Iceman/Bobby Drake clone. You want to be able to make Force Walls (Ice walls), you want an Ice Slide (bought as improved running, let's say), you want an Energy Blast (beams of cold or ice spikes or however you want to describe them), and you want an Entangle. Your GM agrees that these are all in keeping with the overall theme of the character, and that the powers all come from the same source (your mutant ability to manipulate cold and create constructs from ice, yadda yadda yadda), so you're good to go. And, unlike multipower, you have access to all of them at once (for their full value). I'm still no expert at the system, and maybe someone else will be able to explain it all better, but that's my take on it (the best explaining I can give). I see them as a little more complex (but a little more rewarding) than Multipowers... and now I'm just trying to wrap my head around VPP's.

Re: Show you story telling skills. The Blue Wisp was a dimly-lit slice of Millenium City, advertised only by a crackling blue neon sign with an arrow pointing towards a basement entrance. The interior was all bare brick and worn wood, cigarette smoke pushed around by lazy fans, the clink of ice in glasses, the low murmer of appreciative listeners. The breath of the bar was visible in the neon-lit smoke, and the pulse of the place came from the jazz and blues churning from it's heart, the stage. A concussive blast tore the glass from the window panes, sending a storm of shards across the room amidst a roar like a dragon and the half-pathetic wail of the bar's security system a split-second later. A woman screamed somewhere in the back, a saxaphone let out a squeal like a bagpipe, and someone cursed as more than two hundred pounds of green-clad supervillain flew headfirst through the window. Outside, the night sky lit up like the Fourth of July. Cars were overturned, concrete cratered, lamp posts swung like clubs. Champions did battle. Inside, a broad-shouldered asian man in green scale armor rolled with the impact of his rough landing and sprung lightly to his feet. The crowd surged, eyes wide and hearts pounding, and ran for the Blue Wisp's fire exit. One green limb snaked out almost too quick for the panicked civilians to see, and one pretty young woman was plucked from the herd and held by the throat in front of the assassin. "Drop the blades," he said in heavily accented English, speaking -- as far as the bartender and the few other stunned patrons who hadn't run off yet -- to no one in particular. Cymbals crashed as the drum set was overturned while the last of the band scurried away. "Drop them, Nighthawk! Or I snap her neck." A laser screamed from the air outside and a long shadow was cast on the villain and his hostage. A shadow with a hooked beak for a hood and a shadowy cape with edges scultped like wingtips. A note rang out, the almost-musical metallic sound of throwing knives clattering to the floor. "Let her go, Dragon" the dark figure crouched in a windowsill said from between gritted teeth. "This is a no-win for you."

Re: X-Men: The Next Generation campaign on Hero Central I'm still interested, and still working on a sheet (in between inspirational bouts of playing Marvel: Ultimate Alliance on my new 360). Just...a little overwhelmed at the number of points I've got to play with, and I found something of a tripping block on that "75 point maximum" on offensive powers (for something a one-trick-eyeblast-pony, that's slowing me down).