Kevinvt

Damn. Ive seen Gilbert do stand up, and spoken to him a few times...his Amazing Colossal Podcast may be the single best resource of Hollywood  history ever done.  Goodnight Old Groucho.

Damn. Ive seen Gilbert do stand up, and spoken to him a few times...his Amazing Colossal Podcast may be the single best resource of Hollywood  history ever done.  Goodnight Old Groucho.

Geez, that's practically a Chuck Norris story... 😲

"Further, it's hard to see Bader believably being "Jethro strong" just based on the physical differences between Bader and Max Baer.  Max was, in his youth, a damned big man."

I spoke with Max Baer back in 2017.  Although his official height is 6 ft 4, I am 6 ft 2 and Max towers over me....at age 82, Max is STILL a damned big man.

Did you know he put ice cubes down Frank Sinatra's back...and yet still lives to tell the tale.....

Only works against "evil scientists" should be a decent limitation, though.

Just getting back into Champions/Hero myself, and went out and bought a 4th Edition BBB AND a Champions Complete.  Being a fan of simpler write-ups, I seem to be leaning towards 4th...but I find the explanations provided with 6th (Complete) to be quite helpful.

IMHO, if it takes more than one sheet of paper to stat up a character, you're probably working harder than a Hollywood script writer.

I once wrote up the holds-people-motionless option for an occultist villain who used various trinkets and talismans, with the Gestures Limitation indicating lighting the fingers:
 
Hand Of Glory: Entangle 2d6, 2MD, Alternate Combat Value (OMCV vs. DMCV; +1/4), Area Of Effect (8m Radius, Selective; +3/4), Takes No Damage From Attacks (+3/4), Works Against EGO, Not STR (+1/4); OAF (-1), Gestures (-1/4), Mental Defense Adds To EGO (-1/2), 1 Continuing Fuel Charge (1 Hour; -0)
 

Desolidification (that's still a power, yes?) stopped by magical wards, that only lets you pass through openable doors, might work, for the opening doors trick, too - it has the advantage of not have a DEF limit, but you can't just leave the door open for somenone else like you could a tunnel.

Another version of the folklore I heard was that it keeps the members of the household asleep.
Either way, magical burglary tool.

If you're trying to give someone an origin, like one time, ever... blast them with lightning and hope they get powers... I'd almost treat that like an old school D&D "entreaty to the gods".  Basically, either the GM is on board, or roll 3d6; if you roll a natural 3, it happens.  Once.   If you have Power Skill, you might be able to blast them with lightning to activate their powers, as a power stunt, in which case you'll make a roll at a penalty of some kind, but probably still once.  
 
If you want to be able to grant someone powers at will, you'll pay points for that.  You could use Transform, as mentioned.  You could buy powers Usable By Others; Differing Modifiers is a good one here.  If your profession is such that you could build powers for someone (like gadgeteer, artificer, alchemist, etc.) you might acquire materials, make a few Skill Rolls, then they'll have a new gadget or magic item or whatever.  It's the GM's option if it sticks around after the current session.  
 
If you have a Variable Power Pool, and it's something like a gadget pool, you can make gadgets and hand them out to someone... probably once.  If you want to be able to do it every adventure, every combat, then you'll need to give them Usable By Others, potentially with Differing Modifiers.  

That sounds like a Severe Transform. The return conditions tend to be taking a sufficient (borderline lethal) amount of damage, a second application of the same (or similar) technology, a suitable Dispel, and simply healing over time.
 
Of course, Transform is pretty much a way of costing out a plot device.

I did it in Hero Designer but basically 1d6 of Severe Transform is 15 points, 1/2d6 is 10 points and 1 pip is 5 points. It's costed just like the lesser increments of Killing Attack(as Transform was originally costed based on way back in the day). 
 
Transform has a set formula for adding points that boils down to doubling the initial BODY of the target and adding 5 Active Points for every 2 BODY rolled beyond that. That same example would add 500 points to an 18 BODY, 20 Power Defense target.
 
The Damage over Time(Gradual Effect in 5th/5R) is the biggie here because you can effectively bypass the Power Defense by choosing the -Only stopped once- option and having a large number of increments. In this case 256 segments = 256 seconds = 4 minutes, 16 seconds for the complete thing. An eternity in combat, but out of combat just a typical split the party scene in a horror/sci-fi movie. NPC wanders off and next thing you know, there's an eldritch abomination running loose that knows all about you. The Improved Results  just lets you have variety in your rampaging beasts. Why have all xenomorphs when you can have xenomorphs, werewolves, fire demons and tentacle monsters to spice things up?
 
There's plenty of precedent for this type of Power in the source material. It can be your typical Faustian bargain, an infection of nano-machines or a fast acting virus that randomly rewrites DNA. I think I came up with the basics while doing a vampire Master Villain but it was a good bit ago.

Thank you.
 
I swear, I have spent decades amongst comic book fans (comes from playing RPGs, I guess), and I really thought I was the only one.
 
Hands and feet are not shovels!
 
Heads are rarely square, and faces are seldom completely flat!
 
 
 
 
 
 
Careful when you say that out loud. 
 
I can do it because 1) it's a drum I've been beating since 2e, and 2) other people telling me I'm playing wrong has zero affect on how I play.   Certain subjects-- for whatever reason- -are rather sacred to some folks.  The ability to have a different shape is one that just incenses certain people, in spite of the "there's always more than one way to it" mantra.

From a game-mechanics perspective, the correct way to give someone a power they don't have is to buy that power with some form of Usable By Others. I don't think that answers your question, though. 

Since we were talking about Gar Logan....

There are several ways to do it, but it depends on what you are trying to accomplish.
 
If what you're trying to just create an origin for a character, then its a story thing and you don't need a power to do it.
 
If you want to do a long-term major change to a character (like granting a regular person superpowers for the duration of an adventure) transform is usually the best option
 
If you want to give someone powers for a little while, like a potion, then you have a few options.
1) using a focus to give someone a power like a power ring works (as long as they have the focus they can use the powers)
2) using Aid can boost someone's existing powers and abilities for a time limit
3) The usable by others advantage can grant someone powers indefinitely, within certain kinds of limits (have to be within a range, or spend END, that kind of thing depending on how it was built)

Transform actually has detailed rules for this.  It's perfect for the GM who wants to stat out the ability to create the Monster of the Week or the Master Villain's bionic/demonic/mutated army of followers. Just don't try to sneak it past your GM on a PC sheet. You can make very powerful things for relatively few points if you're not trying to do it in combat. 

Don't try to sneak anything past your GM. 
 
In the case of your character, I read it and even commented that I would approve it as a GM. You had a set list of Powers for your VPP and they were spelled out clearly. 
 
That's a totally different case from a Transform designed to give Powers to a given target/victim. Case in point:
 
Severe Transform 1 point, Partial Transform (+1/2), Improved Results Group (+1), Damage Over Time, Target's defenses only apply once, Lock out (cannot be applied multiple times) (256 damage increments, damage occurs every Segment, +6 1/2) (45 Active Points)
 
That will change a 0 point target(8 BODY Normal, 0 Power Defense) into 600 point hero/villain/monster in just under 5 minutes, it can be used as an easily as any other Attack Power and the Improved Results advantage means that every target can be given a different powerset all for just 45 Active Points. I'll leave the add-on Mental Transform to make them your fanatically eager and obedient ally/follower/pet/slave as an exercise for you.( It costs less and you can link it.) 
 
 

Why did character and villain write-ups get so much longer from 4th to 6 th...and can they be simplified without much trouble?

I started with 1st edition, actually, but I noticed that in 6th edition rulebooks and supplements, villain and other write-ups can take up two or three pages, whereas in the Olympians book, even Zeus (1100 points) can be explained on a single page?  Is the amount of detail necessary?  Can 6th edition characters be written up without that much detail?  

Why did character and villain write-ups get so much longer from 4th to 6 th...and can they be simplified without much trouble?

I started with 1st edition, actually, but I noticed that in 6th edition rulebooks and supplements, villain and other write-ups can take up two or three pages, whereas in the Olympians book, even Zeus (1100 points) can be explained on a single page?  Is the amount of detail necessary?  Can 6th edition characters be written up without that much detail?  

More points to play with.

That and I believe the writer’s guidelines too. If you look at say a Multipower each slot will repeat all the same limitations. (I have a buddy that complains about that). I’ll note that in HSMA, Surbrook will list extra slots modifiers as “same as listed”. It cuts down on space.
 
Certain things have gotten more complex in 6th. Hand Attack, Indirect and Trigger are three that come to mind.

Short answer yes they can. And I do do it too.