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jkwleisemann

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Posts posted by jkwleisemann

  1. Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

     

    The PC's are discussing where to go for a vacation with an NPC (Darwin):

     

    Sorcha: I hear Aruba is nice this time of year

    Darwin: 99 out of 100 students agree that Aruba is a good destination

    Charles: What are you talking about?

    Darwin: You know, that news story about... What was it, Natalee... Hallway or something, well I guess it doesn't matter now.

    PC's: *stunned silence*

    Jennifer (OOC?): wow, you're going to a special kind of hell, aren't you?

    You hear that construction?

     

    It's the construction crew, putting in Darwin's new sub-basement....

  2. Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

     

    not gaming' date=' but still fun.[/i']

     

    after school in the afternoon, my bus is approaching a speed bump.

     

    just before we get there I shush the children,

    speed the bus up ever so slightly,

    and yell "listen, listen..."

     

    of course there's a loud ka-chunk - kachunk

    as we roll over the bump.

     

    then into the silence I announce to the children: We just ran over a unicorn.

     

    there's mixed cries of YEAHH! and YAY!! and Oh No!

    and the inevitable argument between groups of

    "that's so gross" and "there's no such thing"

    I'd give you evil rep, but I must spread more around. :help:

  3. Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

     

     

    Batgirl (OOC): Its after midnight. Is Daddy home?

     

    Catwoman (OOC): .....I went to a bad place. Its not really "like that" in the Gordon Household is it?

     

    Everyone: NO!

    Actually, depending on which of the several bad places she could've gone, in Night Cries it was a possibility.... :help:

  6. Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

     

    Alix is impressed with one of the enemy's skills...

    Alix (OOC): If I kill her, can I take her feats?

     

    ---

     

    Enjoy!

     

    Lonewalker

    Taking her feets?

     

    And she thought that the pet rat head was unsanitary? :help:

     

    Haven't had a chance to use this line yet, but I can only imagine it's coming forth eventually. There will be *something* slimy and well defended that she has to take down (the giant frogs were close to it):

     

    Steele: Why don't I use my knockout kiss on it? Even I have standards. Sure, they're low, but they're still standards!

     

    On an unrelated (but brief) note, I have a plotting post up at the Wolfemann's Den (link in the sig line) that includes some info on a small contest I'm running. Batman fans might be interested in it.

  7. Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

     

    Metrion: Ive written a "Mood Chart":

     

    MOOD TABLE (Roll d20 for the mood of people, animals, furniture, etc. encountered)

     

    1.....Spunky

    2.....Angsty

    3.....Disaffected

    4.....Hot

    5.....Palpatating

    6.....Suave

    7.....Hungry

    8.....Sinful

    9.....Balding

    10...Half-Celestial

    11...Threatened

    12...Coy

    13...Sean Connery

    14...Celebratory

    15...Nauseated

    16...Neurasthenic

    17...Garrulous

    18...Locquacious

    19...Redundant

    20...Re-roll twice

    Dude. I do *not* want to be around a balding, nauseated, sinful, half-celestial ottoman....

     

    Or to know *what* the party that resulted in its spawning looked like.

  9. Your "Oh #@$%!" Moment

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Your "Oh #@$%!" Moment

     

    We've got a different word for it at my place.

     

    One classic example, however, was when Our Heroes were about to storm the castle of the campaign's big baddie. Well, our opening tactic was going to be sending the party's two Clerics and another support character on ahead into the castle, and then hitting it with a tidal wave. Thanks to an Ethereal Jaunt spell, we'd planned on being ethereal when the wave hit. Well, that all worked out.

     

    Then the GM started modifying his map for the damage to the wall from the tidal wave.

     

    Including the section we were supposed to rematerialize on top of. Being the only one not too busy congratulating ourselves on our cleverness, I notice this.

     

    "Oh fudgenuggets."

  10. Making a super villain team.

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Making a super villain team.

     

    I rarely stick together the pre-published ones, instead going for char's who can be 'tailored' to the characters they oppose. I'm particularly fond of making nemeses who work out for particular char's specifically.

     

    Taking a look at a few examples - Steele would be good to oppose with either a handsome rogue type, or a stalkery jerk. So, from published, I'd pick out Stormfront (CKC), or come up with somebody from her past if I was going original (say, a psychotic mob boss' granddaughter, newly given powers by a mystic she's bargained with.) I don't always match character types - doesn't have to be brick v brick - but I don't go for polar opposites either. Brick v mentalist is a very, very bad pairing for hero and nemesis, unless there's something there. Similar types work well, as it creates a sense of rivalry as well as antagonism. Not necessarily similar powers, but similar personality.

     

    For a whole group, you need to work on making sure they've got a reason to work together. The Fiendish Five approach works well - "we *all* hate them, so let's work together!" But you're better off letting the villains work together on their own too. They might join to oppose the heroes, but they stick together because it goes swimmingly after that - the most dangerous sort of team, since you can't play off of "X is going to double cross Y, you know."

  13. Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group...

     

    My God! Another person who watched Transylvania Twist! *hugs Input Jack*

     

    And an old quote from a home game of D&D....

     

    "Is he wearing the Paladin's skull as a codpiece?"

     

    "He might not have wanted to go out that way, but he certainly deserved it."

  19. Justifying Playable SPD

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Justifying Playable SPD

     

    I like you manage to condemn others for forcing a Speed and then go around and do the same in one post.

     

    Nice.

     

    In SOME games 5 could be considered a maximum for anyone but certain archetypes. In SOME games 5 could be considered the minimum speed for Characters to play at. In SOME games you should be able to work easily with a wide range. In SOME games it makes more sense for the Speeds to be clustered.

     

    5 Is a Speed, not the minimum, not the maximum. Just one option. It may or may not be appropriate for any given game for it to be the max, min or middle of the ranges.

     

    I play in one campaign where 3 of 4 Characters are SPD5, and one SPD8. "Speedsters" tend to start at 6+

    Another campaign where you aren't even in the same league as "Speedsters" until you're 7+.

    And one ended campaign where "Speedsters" were in the 9-12 Range (one of the PCs was a Speed 12).

    For reference, I don't force those limits in any of my campaigns, it's a matter of personal preference.

     

    Dex and SPD inflation has been something that I've seen a lot of people complaining about, not just myself. It's not the fact that the GM thinks he needs to force a stat that's worthy of condemnation - it's the 'feature creep' that's worked into the game itself that makes a 5 speed (greater than NCM, remember) the functional minimum to cope with everybody else. It induces less variability in the characters, and ultimately makes SPD less useful. Why don't you have to determine your Speed in a d20 game? Because everybody gets the same number of actions a round (for the most part).

     

    When the SPD range condenses from, say, 2-8 to, say, 5-8, why should the Speedster have to throw 50 points into his Speed when he's only getting a fraction of the benefit he "should" be?

     

    Cranking that minimum up higher and higher also forces unusual effects onto characters who, by all rights, shouldn't have reflexes that high. Ogre shouldn't be practically as fast as Defender - Ogre's entire gimmick is that he's the big slow guy.

     

    And, for reference, my low SPD hasn't actually ended up hurting my character all that much, I don't think. She doesn't get to go as often, but she does her best to make it worthwhile when she *does* go, and does a pretty good job of it. Also, Bricks don't have to abort nearly as many phases to dodge as the speedster does....

  20. Justifying Playable SPD

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Justifying Playable SPD

     

    The problem that I always run into with SPD is what is *considered* a playable speed.

     

    I run a brick character in one of my games. I've been told that my Speed of 4, 18 Dex, and 4 HTH Combat Levels is dangerously low.

     

    5 shouldn't be the minimum speed, it should be the maximum for anybody but a martial artist or speedster.

  24. Your PCs might be Underpowered if...

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Your PCs might be Underpowered if...

     

    Y'know... I'm picturing a one-shot wonder character. Everything about him is at massive endurance multipliers; he has to be carted around in a wheelchair, but when he fires that one shot before passing out, he takes out passing starcruisers in the Alpha Centauri system....

  25. Your PCs might be Underpowered if...

    in Champions

    Posted

    Re: Your PCs might be Underpowered if...

     

    ... if they have Vulnerabilities versus Chinese burns or Wedgies.

    If their primary power is to 'abort to #2' every time the school bully shows up.

     

    If, on Team Night Out, they go to see Paul Blart, Mall Cop... and walk away with a new level of competency to aspire to.

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