Arkham

Re: NND and Entangle The Captain Cronos one would, IMO, be most accuratly modeled by a EDM through time UAA NCC only the effects cannot be controlled -1/2 ( instead of the usual -1 ). Where they come out of the EDM whenever they are let out either by a time based power or other plot device. Perhaps include visible -1/4 to show that the target is still 'there' and let those with the know-how know where to do what they need to to release the target. Of course it is still horribly unbalanced, as there is still next to nothing the target can do to avoid it. But at least while they are under the effects, they cannot be affected by anything external either. The paralysis beam I would use Entangle BOECV, works against Con instead of STR, does not protect, targeting still requiring Dex instead of Ego since it is a beam after all, not an actual mental power.

Re: Building a city for your superheroes... Use your players. Players are usually the best source for ideas. Encourage them to build contacts, hunteds, DNPCs. Use those. Give the villains you plan to use contacts, hunteds and DNPCs. Use those too. That alone should give you plenty of characters for a good long time. If you start to run thin, incidental NPCs can become important. More villains and their associated contacts, hunteds, and DNPCs can come into play. Grow it organically. If you have a villain or NPC hero as part of an organization, figure out a few other members of that organization and who their contacts, hunteds and DNPCs are. For the actual city map, since you are using a real city, I would just use the real city map. Select places on the map and declare that that is where the game-world landmarks are. Check google world view, select what looks like a major building and say "This is where group X is based."

Re: Powers for a Joker style villain Full-on Plasticman style metamorph. A clowncar drives up, henchmen dressed as clowns get out. ( lots of them ) Then the car turns into Skitso! A shapeshifting psychotic clown has the best options for all kinds of brain-twisting activities.

Re: Caps and averages for your campaigns My campaign is odd, being a mystic supers game rather than normal supers. This means most of the archetypes are not represented and the DC/AP/DEX ranges are both closer together, and have the potential to be vastly different depending on what people are doing with their VPPs. ( All but 2 of the characters have VPPs, and one of those without has an expansive Multiform ) Averages: Dex: 16 ( 1 @ 9, 1 @ 11, 2 @ 18, 1 @ 23 ) SPD: 5 ( All the characters have a speed 5, even the zombie. ) Active Points: 75 ( This is the rough one. 3 characters have 15 DC attacks normally, 1 has no attacks other than an EGO+PRE Transfer but has a VPP that can be boosted through various methods, and one character has roughly 12 DC attacks, but also has 75 AP mental powers. The 3 VPPs can further swing the Damage Classes into weird directions. ) Defenses: 25ish. Widely varied. From 18PD/15rPD before VPP, to 25rPD+75% DR, to the fairly 'normal' 30 point force field. But again, with so many Magical VPPs, there is no way to know exactly how defended the characters will be when they actually start fighting. It tends to end up with the PCs rising to the occasion instead of facing the opposition with what they start with. CON: 22 ( 2 @ 10, 2 @ 20, 1 @ 50 ) 2 characters can Regenerate from Dead. Only 1 character has KB Resistance, and that is on an activation roll with a drawback. The only set standards during creation was a rough 15 damage class limit on reusable attacks, and a list of powers that cannot be used either at all, or without them being your 'main schtick'. No resurrection aside from self-only. No healing more than 1/2 the damage of any given attack unless it is either self-only, or has significant drawbacks that would keep you from sitting in the ER all day putting doctors out of work. No clairsentience unless it is a major schtick, or an easily accessible focus.

Re: Behemoth It the density increase and damage reduction are mutually exclusive, you should put them in the multipower. Perhaps then linking the NND HA to that slot since the special effect is being 'semi-solid'.

Re: Behemoth It is hard to judge him without knowing the range of the campaign. But noting that it is a 450 point character, it seems just fine to me powerwise. The HA is weird. I assume the 'Affects Desolid' for the NND means it does not affect things like force walls that affect desolid? You don't need a seperate naked advantage for STR, the HA applies to base STR on its own. Going on the assumption that the NND HA is a 'phased punch' that doesn't really work when you are already desolid, I would put it in the Multipower with the Density Increase and Desolid. 10 OCV is good, but not martial artist good. And in a 450 point game with only a 5 speed, I wouldn't consider it too much. He has glaring holes, lacking any flash, mental, or power defense. This is good, as it allows him to be challenged without having to pound your way through 30 PD with 50% DR. A Con of 30 would normally be kinda low for a 450 point brick, but with 50% DR it is pretty darn good. He would have to take 92 before defenses to be Stunned, but with a 60 stun that would also take him 1/2 way to KO. And being Density Increase based, he doesn't have a huge load of STUN that he can lose before meeting the pavement.

Re: What ratio of superhumans to humans do you use? I don't set a hard number, but estimate roughly 1 in 2 million, with 10 times that or more in non-powered people with 'items of power', technology, and special training and another 10 times that in terrestial non-humans most of which are non-combatants anyway. This leaves approximately 2500 inately powered. There are about 25,000 agents, ninjas, 'ring bearers', and people in power armor which includes but is not limited to Iron Man, Nightwing, and Dr. Strange pastiches. 250,000 Atlantians, Lemurians, Deep Ones, sentient gorillas and civilized dinosaur men living in their remote underwater, jungle, or deep desert hidden cities, most of whom never leave but certainly _could_ make an appearance on the world stage. Where the characters congregate depends on the type of characters and surrounding environments. There are vastly more martial artists and mystics in China than there are people who fell into vats of chemicals. And in the US, there are vastly more thugs with blaster rifles, industrial accident victims, and Power Armor wearers. But really, its just a thought exercise as characters end up wherever they seem most appropriate for a game when they are conceived. Demographically, most of the heroes with character sheets are white males because they were written and played by white males. The others get filled in gradually whenever I have an idea for a name and power set without a clear mental image of gender or race. When I do get an idea for a specifically minority hero, it is usually due to an embarassingly stereotypical name or concept. i.e. Captain Crunk, the sonic energy projector. "WWWWWHAT!?!?"

Re: Another Dumb Hero I think a simpler way would be to make sure you speed is an even number, either 6 or 8, with a limitation on it such that each head only gets to act every other phase and if your stun is reduced to 1/2 ( or 1/4 or something ), then one of the heads as appropriate is knocked out and loses their phases.

Re: Have you ever built a powered armor character... Yes. I've got a couple power armor characters that are formidable gadgeteers outside of their armor, but that isn't technically powered. And one character that started off as a joke, but with applied gadgeteering became even more interesting. The base character's only power is that he glows very, very brightly all the time. Before his entrance into the superheroing business, he went about covered in thick wool blankets, otherwise he would blind everyone around him at least temporarily. 3d6 explosion, continuous, penetrating, always on, etc sight group flash. He was written up as a failed entry to the 'West Coast Supers' reality TV show. Since the character showed character, just not the power on his own, he didn't make it on the team. But the guy who is the executive producer, one of the judges, as well as secretly a power armor wearing gadgeteer took an interest in his career. He built him a suit of armor made of fiber optics to focus his light into lasers and other assorted Energy Projector style powers.

Re: Entangle two characters Its just a Rapid Fire attack, you get -2 OCV for having 2 targets, and are at 1/2 DCV until your next phase.

Re: Smarter than your average Brick Or it could be done as a Sweep in one phase with a -2 OCV and 1/2 DCV. Or instead of Grab and throw, the brick can punch one target into another using the aimed knockback rules.

Re: Mental Illusions: Can attacks look like nothing? 1. Yes. 2. No. In the section for Mental Illusions, it specifys that the damage that can be dealt is limited by both the DC of the power, as well as the DC of the illusion. So a convincing illusion of an 8 year old punching someone can't do much more than 1 or 2d6, regardless of how well the effect is rolled. And sitting around doing nothing doesn't normally inflict any damage at all, so cannot be illusioned to do so. However, if you give them an illusion that random cuts start opening up on them, as if by some magical or invisible attack, then they could take damage from it. Note that IDHMBIFOM, so I might be wrong on some details, but this is what I remember. 3. a. No. b. Yes. c. No.

Re: Powers for a Growth Brick Assuming this character gets really, really, really, really big, and/or comic physics are in effect, here's a few suggestions. Whack them with a skyscraper : Stretching +20" No Velocity Damage, no non-combat stretching, OIF Skyscraper of Opportunity. (S)He picks up a skyscraper, smacks someone with it, then puts it back undamaged. Big Handfuls : Tunneling 26" through 10 Def of material Most brick tricks can work fine for huge characters, such as the stomping quake, thunder clap, superbreath, etc.

Re: dealing with unconscious villains Once you're at -30, you don't get any recoveries until the GM says so. So once they are at GM's Discretion, it doesn't matter what the PCs do, the KOd bad guy will either get up, or won't, at the GM's discretion.

Re: Purple Powers Sleaze

Re: Which super-powered villain would be dumb enough to work for the Black Harlequin?

Re: Bad Movies.org reviews The Champions of Justice It is a good review for a great film...

Re: Most interesting character ideas you've seen from others? I've had some very creative players... One player had the ghost of an Amish farmer named Farmer Dead with pretty much all the expected ghost powers. Someone else played an american super-spy with cybernetic eyes. He had N-ray and enough range modifiers to read the serial numbers on satellites. To go with it he had infrared 'lasers' invisible to normal sight that he shot from his eyes, with enough extra range ( and no range modifier ) to edit those self-same serial numbers.

Re: Powers You've Never (or Seldom) Used? Almost always the GM, so the number of characters I've played as a PC is very limited. But as the ones I did play have all been very weird, and at least one was a VPP user, I think I've gotten them all covered. Actually, I don't think I've used Mindscan in a PC for myself to play, though when building PCs for others it has made an appearance.

Re: Your FIRST Super Hero Character First one I named was an Abberant character named Paladine. But as a child playing, pretty much anything became Super . I never was allowed to collect comics, as that required spending money. But I watched plenty of Superfriends, Spiderman and his amazing friends, Incredible Hulk, George Reeves Superman, Adam West Batman, etc. And while I thought most of them were cool, they weren't Superman. He flew and picked up mountains by the peak. So my Snoopy stuffie became Super Snoopy, teddy bears became Super Bear, lego men became Super Legoman, etc.

Re: Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens Dr. Damascus - Strong black tea with honey and condensed milk, a good game of cricket, though having had Manifest Destiny as a team member, has come to appreciate American rounders, err, Baseball. Swing and big band, but none of this modern tripe like that Elvis hoodlum. A well light study, well packed pipe, a good book, and Duke Ellingon on the phonograph. ( The game he was in took place in '57-'58 )

Re: Entangle vs CON?

Re: Champions games you've run I forgot one... Teen Champions Ran between the first and second West Coast Supers game, overlaping some of the first one. It only ran for around 4 to 6 months bi-weekly. The roster was Whatever, captain of the cheerleading squad with the power to shapeshift into (almost) anything. She was the daughter of two supervillains, though secretly her father was a shapeshifting supervillain who posed as the father she knew to get with her mother... Highbrow, the freshman class president, rich kid mentalist and subject of genetic engineering by FATE to cure his 'autism'. Tempus Franjit was the weirdo who could control time itself. There was Mercury, the metal-head loser orphan alien placed into foster care by the US government, he had a panalopy of powers similar to Martian Manhunter, but different. Crescendo was the bookish choir/artsy girl with sonic powers, also the daughter of a Siren and the police chief. And there was Acidic, the poor kid who excreted acid through his skin. The football player and desolid character, Midnight Mystery, dropped out of the game after the first session due to life issues.

Re: Champions games you've run In chronological order: Galactic Champions First getting into Hero with 5th ed. and I wanted to see how far we could push the system. 700 points to start, didn't have any concept of active point caps or damage class limits yet... The roster was The Dragon, a huge dragon with a 10d6 RKA AOE Cone breath weapon, Solar, the escaped herald to a cosmic entity that devoured deities, Captain Havock, Iron Man's gear with Batman's attitude, Magelord, a techno-mage born of the faerie king, Master Wo, ancient chinese sorcerer with a VPP and staged multiform into DBZ style crazyness, Shaman, a gay native american possessed of the powers of an ancient shaman and possessed by the White Devil, and Uber, a guy with guns who was replaced by Golem, a modern creation combining kaballah and the finest Israeli super-technology. The game ended when we figured we had a suitable grasp of the system and how things should ( and should NOT ) be balanced... And when Golem broke a planet in half with his body. West Coast Supers Superheroic reality TV show contestants becoming protectors of San Francisco. Roster included: Riptide, Dr. Dweomer, Eternal Dragon, Spartacus, Weather Girl, Krunch, Major Smashing ( npc turned villainous later ), and Repent. West Coast Supers Season II Reforming after a break and some drama, continuing to protect SF from the forces of evil. This time, the villains defeated last season are teaming up as the West Coast Villains! Roster included: Dr. Dweomer, Eternal Dragon, Mauler, Incubus, Repent, Justice Red, with special guest stars Eyebeam, Phenomenon and Relativity. The Mystics Game The Watchers of the Void are powerful mystics watching over the planet to stop world-destroying threats. But they are also overlooking the more local and insidious problems until they get out of control. Mr. Wise has brought together a group of overlooked mystics and related constructs to defend against what the Watchers ignore. Currently in progress. Roster includes: Dr. Mystic, graduate of the collegium arcane and professional mage. It was a career choice. Sephiroth, kabbalah practitioner and invoker of the angels of the lord. Patches the superstrong zombie, Former supervillain slain and rebuilt by his villainous cohorts, has had 50 years to rethink his lifestyle choices. Valour, atavism of valour, living human emotion. Special guest: Dr. Halloween

Re: Character Names I almost always come up with a Heroic ID name before designing a character around it. The secret ID name tends to come later, generally based on the cultural identity of the character as I envision them, usually including either alliteration, a reference to something related, or a bad pun ( and rarely a good pun, if that is possible ). This is why I've ended up with a website with almost 300 names, and only 1/2 of them have write-ups so far. Example: Blah, blah, discussion of various gaming related stuff. The word Barrage comes up. I go, "That'd be a great Champions character." Write it down, then a while later look at it and write up the character. With that name, it has to be a fire-type EB with an autofire blast. Once that's done get some random secret ID name. No plan for background yet, so generic American it is. Look around, see books, piece together the name Harlan Clark. Then make a brief history based on the name and disads.