procyon

We've got six kids. How they kept you clothed and fed - however they had to. Why, because it's easier than listening to the whining...

Don't have one of those either. Feet, they do have feet. Mouths too. Mouths that are always making my food go away.

Oh boy, this could take awhile for me. I've alway been the GM. Almost never a player. From the time my friends and I picked up Gamma World when I was in 5th grade (a looonng time ago). I've run three groups with the Hero system over the years. All 4e (only books I've owned). One was Fantasy Hero, the other 2 Champions based (although I prefer to make my own settings). This last one is for my wife and kids after the kids found my old books and wanted to try it (thanks Marvel Movies...). Things I have done over time to make it easier to run the game while trying to teach new players, and keep it from going min/max. First, as others have said, make their first round of characters for them. Let them say what they want to be in general terms, then try and incorporate that as much as possible. Let them know they aren't necessarily 'married' to this character. Second, as also pointed out, don't make the characters to powerful. Start on the low side of 'normal' for the campaign so they either have room to grow - or are affordable if the player decides to change and wants to 'buy' their former PC as a follower. You will never find a player so devoted to a follower they have bought - as when they have actually played that follower for several games and were invested in it. Third, give them a real reason to work together and tailor the first several sessions toward that goal. For me, preferably with as little (or no) combat as possible. In fact, I generally always make the openning sessions (and first story arc) more of a 'real world' sort of feel where the situations involve interaction and creativity, not combat. I try to include situations where resorting to combat actually makes the situation worse (go ahead and hit the protesters or hecklers. I have the plot thread involving the paper/summons and court proceedings already written up with the other PCs called up as witnesses, co-defendants, etc...). Fourth ties in to #3. If you can, make the first game involve introductions to a lot of the skills, without actually having any huge danger involved. For the one Fantasy Hero game, that involved the PCs going to the local harvest festival and getting involved with the local figures (that would play large parts later), involved in games/contests that made use of skills and abilities (pole climbing, pie eating, axe & knife throwing, archery contests, stone throwing, pugilist and wrestling contests, etc, etc) that let them get used to dealing with the Hero system without actually being in any real danger (although besting some figures would start the rivalrys that might create that problem later). There were also many opportunities for social interactions (dances, feasts, markets, etc) where the PCs would interact with the NPCs and start to generate their contact, create favors, gather equipment they didn't start with, learn about plot threads that would lead into the future story arcs, etc. This allowed the players to see that the combat machine might do great in the wrestling match, but fall on his face a bit in the foot race and doesn't get much of anywhere at the evening feast and danceand other players shine. Fifth and a biggie for me, don't just hand out experience points. The players earn them, but seldom see them as 'free' points without taking a 'hit' in the process. In our games, the players don't get their 'points' at the end of a session, they get them at the beginning of the next. I will put together a paper with a selection of options (usually at least 4) for the player based on what happened in the previous session(s). If the selections were to be equal to 2 points it might go like option #1 is +1 STR and a favor, #2 is a contact 11-, #3 is 2 End and a favor, and #4 is ONE Xp. So if they want points they can spend however they feel, they will only get HALF what the other players get. I may also have an option that adds a disadvantage the player can add in with additional 'bonuses' - if they player chooses to take it. (Ie, they have a +1 Persuasion, a contact & a favor, but now also have a rivalry with a merchant family leader that feels slighted in an argument the player helped mediate...) Now, at the end of each session, I will ask the players what they feel they accomplished (like the one who mediates a fight between two families at a dance may feel that they ingratiated themselves to the family - which if I agree translates to favor/contact...) and try to put options in that support that view - if it obviously isn't just a player ploy. This lets the players and I both have a hand in the character's development, and prevents the min/max player from becoming overly powerful as they only acrue half the Xp of the others... There is so much more I could add, but I think this is already a bit of a wall post...

Nothing prevents me from owning one. Just as nothing prevents my kids from utterly destroying it and/or themselves. So that is why I don't have one.

Our Champions game has my wife, two sons and two daughters as players. From our last game. Players are listening to a battle in a nearby room as they get ready. The soldier/guard in the other room is blazing away at the big bad guy, followed by a loud crashing noise and then silence. Older son looks at the rest of the groups and says, "Don't worry, he's just reloading." Took five minutes for everyone to quit laughing so we could get back to the game.

From villian to hero. "If you're fighting fair, you just don't want to win bad enough."

My players like to use Pre attacks, but so far I haven't found them to be horribly unbalanced. I will say that we use 4e so that may have something to do with it, as I do not know how the rules have changed since that point. (The kids discovered my old books a little over a year ago and wanted to try it. Still going. ) I do tend to adjust the mods on the Pre attacks according to the target though. If one of the PC's picks up a car and yells at mooks while wading through a hail of bullets unfazed - that gets a healthy bonus to sending the mooks running. If he tries that on one of the big baddies that can do the same thing - well, that's about like me running out and grabbing a milk jug and waving it around. Not so much of a bonus, if any. The fact that none of my players have Pre over 25 may affect this though. We don't have any high Pre 'shock and awe' going on without some appropriate grandstanding. I do like the Ego roll rule though. That will definitely get filed away for future use should it become an issue.

I definitely like your idea for the start of the campaign. So long as the players are on board, it could add a lot of depth to their backstory. The idea that the 'incident' also spawns the supervillians is also great. It also gives the players opportunities to create their hunters/rival/etc in game. Very nice.

I think you are missing the fact that the arm, rapier or knife wielding, is only going to move so fast. We have tried the game of 'see if you can hit the mark on the wall faster with a knife or rapier' in our fencing practice. Same in when we compare knives vs the long kris/machete in escrima. I can stab the mark just as fast and often with a rapier as I can a knife over 10 seconds. But I can do it 3' farther with a rapier. Same with knife vs my 30" kris. I can thrust and slash the target just as quickly with the long weapon as the shorter. Just much farther away.(I am slightly faster over 10 seconds with a baton, but I am fairly sure it is the fact I don't have to align the blade, just 'snap' the baton back and forth. If you don't believe me, get a group together and try. Go to the practice dot on the wall at fencing and see just how fast you can go and how many thrusts you can make in 10 seconds. Then get out a practice or wooden knife and try the same thing. Bet the numbers are REALLY close to the same. And the more people you put in the test, the more identical it becomes. You may feel more secure with a knife. But no group of duelists or soldiers anywhere in history agree with you.

If madness is contagious, I feel sorry for my coworkers. I'm sure I am a carrier.

I'm weak. I had to look. I even posted...

Concentrated work would be better. But in a hit at any location - all other things equal - more of the energy from a blow will be transferred to a target by higher momentum objects than by small. That is why you throw big rocks out of a catapult/trebuchet to break down a wall instead of a bunch of small ones. Both will carry the same amount of energy. But the larger rock's momentum will transfer more energy to the wall before being redirected/deflected. Same thing with the armor. The higher the momentum, the less likely an object will be to divert from it's path. Now, if you penetrate - that is a whole different situation. Poking holes in the target is better than bashing away at it if you want that target to lay down and play nice. But in combat, you can't guarantee that will occur. So if you miss - the more an impact degrades your opponent's ability to function, the better. So if you hit the knight in the faceplate with a 3 foot wooden pole or with a sledgehammer - you will generate about the same amount of energy. But the sledgehammer is going to be more resistant to deflection due to its momentum. It will have a much better chance of driving that helmet/padding against the cheek/eye/nose/temple and depositing energy into the target's head than the wooden pole that will likely deposit all of it's energy into the helmet. So if you know you can penetrate - go that route. If you can't - go big.

Looks like a fair percentage of them have been attributed to a microwave oven at the site being openned while running... At least there are still a bunch that seem to be non-terrestrial.

I make no such pretense. I have many things that I favor. Chocolate. Naps. Caffeine. Did I mention naps...

It isn't the smashy that does it. It is heavy plus moving. Greatsword or maul would be about equal if they connect and don't pentrate. Small blunt objects won't have the effect, as smacking someone in the helmet with a baton is going to ring their ears and make them flinch. Momentum is simply mass x velocity. And energy can be dissipated as work. Momentum is conserved and transferred - so that big heavy object is going to transfer momentum to whoever is inside the armor as it finds its way back to the earth. Which means more of the energy gets dissipated inside the armor as 'work' on the fella wearing it...

Not necessarily a SME, but I have more than a couple years of fencing and kali/escrima experience, with a small amount of kendo thrown in. I agree with Markdoc on weapons and speed. Folks who thing their arm is faster with a knife than with a rapier - haven't done it enough. If that was true, duelists would have thrown their rapiers to the ground and pulled knives. And on the armor issue vs weapons - the biggest thing that seems to make a difference if the weapon doesn't penetrate - is momentum. A .22 that hits a ballistic vest stings. A ballpeen hammer with about the same energy really smarts. I am pretty sure that is why big, bashy weapons got popular when heavy armor came around. Fast, light, slashy/pokey stuff might get through. Heavy/smashy type stuff hurt even if it didn't.

Me too. But I was a physicist, so I may have a bias.

Just me paraphrasing... "As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality." - Albert Einstein Edit because my fingers are dyslexic when caffeine deficient.

Nope, that was somebody else... And math never gets to play god. Because 'When math tries to describe reality, it can't be precise. And when math is precise, it isn't describing reality."

And it tends to make texting while driving much more difficult. Which I see as a good thing...

Ok, I officially don't like this line of thought. (Of course, the fact that my players are my wife and kids means that our games are a family 'bonding' activity. Not, 'hey kiddos, this is just how twisted life can get...') Watch 'The Deer Hunter'. You will see a way to turn a good person into a mindless killing puppet. See the person forced / compelled to participate in kill / die contests. Addict said person (likely against their will) to heroine (addiction will happen if you give it to someone whether they wanted to take it or not...). And just keep following the story till you find a broken shell of a person who loses who they are and lives only to do what they have to do...and trying to remember what they used to be would be as painful as what they went through. You can skip all the other focus of the last couple pages.

I like the stun gun idea. Also the telescoping feature to reach out to opponents for strikes or grab/disarms with the hook. He could also use that feature to hook ledges/streetlights/tree limbs to pull himself up onto or to facilitate leaps. Possibly using a 'cane assisted leap' with a powerful cane blow when he lands on his opponent/target. Or an area attack as he swings the very long cane in an arc/circle around himself.

Plus all the opportunities to fight / assist groups that are working to make one reality or the other 'THE' reality. Of course all these groups have hidden agendas...

Just thinking out loud. Some entity discovered that 'history/reality' as a four color world was not the real history. Probably through 'relics' scattered throughout the four color 'world'. And then managed to 'reset' history to it's 'proper' timeline. Complete with guns, bombs, tanks, etc. But some folks (the PC's ?, or a group that contacts them ?) find 'relics' of the four color world and that the 'real world' wasn't always the real world. And investigate. To discover that the 'real world' timeline is DOOMED. And the original 'shift' to a four color timeline was an attempt to prevent that doom. So, it is now up to them to either try to avert a disaster (that might not be avoidable), or to try and recreate the shift, again. That gives them some ability to choose just what world the PC's really want to live in. A 'real one' that is doomed. Or one that isn't real, but may survive... (of course, the doom may be a looonnnggg way off...)

Ok, I love clonus' idea. I have a group of mentalists in my game that have been in the background and not active or well defined. Yet. But having them 'apprehend' the PC's for supposed crimes against the super powered community - wow. "We aren't here to keep you from fighting, or even killing, each other. But you will have to do it the right way." So cool...