TheDarkness

My degree is in Martian Liberal Arts, does this now mean I can find a job at Hero?

I like comic book movies. BUT, DC is not alone in issues. All of the major Marvel sequels have been lame and riding on the coattails of the originals. And the X-Men based movies have mostly not stood up to repeated viewing for me at all, some I didn't even find interesting the first time, although there are a couple I haven't seen yet that have been recommended by friends, so I'm looking forward to seeing them.

This isn't even bringing up Hulk. Outside of The Avengers, there is strong argument to call each attempt a failure. There is no question that the Lou Ferrigno Hulk was more beloved than any other stand alone attempt at the character.

The problem for Superman is that fans do not want changes, and non-fans do not want to go see the same thing again. Superman is singular in being THE superhero, very difficult to pull that off at all.

Batman has yielded some of the most successful comic book movies for the longest, though there are plenty of dogs, and plenty of mediocre movies from that.

A more important question is "Why are all the swordsmen stepping on each other's stchick?"

 

I know that if I were a new player in the campaign and the game already had several swordsmen, then I'd get myself Deadly Blow with longbow and a few Penalty Skill Levels to offset Range and Hit Location with Longbow.

 

Or up my DEX & INT and max out my skills, with maybe two levels of Deadly Blow with daggers, bought as Only From Behind.

 

Or play a Cleric, because the role play opportunities in playing lecherous monk can be hilariously awesome.

I love when we get a party that has your(and my) attitude about it. Fun chance to make something interesting!

Wasn't there one about a super intelligent pet rat that ended up controlling the rat population?

Also, if some horses ended up dying, and there's a little girl who never sleeps, the characters could regret freeing her from the loft of her evil adopted father.

What was that recent Irish movie about alien tentacled beings that attack an island, and the inhabitants figure out that they can't stomach alcohol?

I tend to have periods of world development that are big picture, and periods that are small details/local phenomenon. Too much focus on one or the other, and the feel of the world seems to suffer.

Oh, the pressure!

Don't go... you'll be stabled!

Unless he wants KS: Hay Shuffling, in which case he must truly experience it...

Whatever happened to three men and a baby Jane?

Ferris Bueller's Judgement Day

Requiem for a Dreamscape

No Country for Grumpy Old Men

Some Like IT Hot(Drag queens and evil clowns)

Star Wars: The Force Awakenings

Session 9 From Outer Space

Make sure to tip the servers on your way out...

[Dangerous advice on an internet board]

Me to a friend with hiccups: You know what stops hiccups?

My friend: What?

Me: Nothing.

Thanks everyone, this is good stuff, with every view being taken.

The skinny crank addict.(I think one aspect that may get missed on these is speed and erratic responses, PRE attacks on them may not get the desired response)

The muscle bound guys, may have more extensive brawling or boxing experience.

The street corner dealer, probably a kid, but probably being watched from nearby by others to watch the territory.

Also, even in comics, there are some villains who, for reasons made clear even before the encounter, are almost always going to require a long process of defeating their plans before they themselves are going to be put away. Kingpin in daredevil is often such a case.

As for villains that are actually present at the crimes a lot, I try to think of what their escape plans are and what elements must be in place for those escape plans to work. The first time the heroes meet a particular group of villains, there should be details that they see, but don't seem germane UNTIL the villains have to try to escape and that element has to do with one of their escape plans. The next time, the heroes will check details closely, and the reward of catching the difficult to catch villain is that much more.

Also, like the heroes, certain villains will be technically almost impossible to capture. Not necessarily the high point ones. Any teleporter, by their very nature, should almost always escape, PC or NPC, and so the PCs will likely form a plan for that eventuality.

Likewise, super groups, PC or NPC, should be incredibly difficult to capture en masse. So, if the heroes have, over time, defeated three villain groups, a fourth group might erupt out of the few from each group that eluded capture. Given that this group may not be as powerful as any of the groups the individual members came from, but made up entirely of villains who have proven difficult, even impractical at times to try to capture, this group could make wily adversaries who can cause the heroes a lot of challenge, without it being the kind of duke it out challenge that might favor the heroes.

One element I'm working on for a game is the prison system for super powered individuals. The contingent of guards includes a rotating roster of supers, and if they suspect that a certain prisoner has some plan afoot that they cannot find out, they may call in heroes who have experience with that villain in order to try to figure out what is going on. The balance of power in such a prison is always shaky, as they can only design it to deal with the powers they know the prisoners have, not the powers they might develop while there. So this can create some scenarios with those villains even though they are captured, and introduce new villains that their foes have started working with while incarcerated.

Hey buddy, watch the language. This is a family board.

It's not like I posted my penne's pics.

I agree with this. It just has the best feel for me. That said, I'd have to examine what balance issues come up in implementing it, but it just feels right.

My without thinking about it much, I'll just make up a rule on the fly thought might be that, if stunned, the brace still works, with the caveat that the knockback can be reduced, but never to zero. Which could likely end up with a knockdown, which still leaves the character in a predicament, and also feels right to me.

Being hit is what produces Knockback.  They were already Braced when they took the hit.  The fact that the hit Stunned them does not change the fact that they were Braced when struck.

I agree with this. It just has the best feel for me. That said, I'd have to examine what balance issues come up in implementing it, but it just feels right.

What you are calling a PickUp game is usually referred to as a Filler Episode or a Breather Episode. They exist to give some space between plotlines. For RPGs they are the sessions where people go sell off their ill gotten gains, deal with family, blow off steam (in whatever way works for the characters) etc. These episodes by their very nature tend to be few and far between plotlines, (Unless the GM uses a Filler for a night when too many needed for the plotline PC's are missing). 

For me, it varies. Probably averaging every fifth session, I'm guessing. Sometimes I'll have an interlude time to organize, so there may be two in a row during those periods.

I know that is what Canadians call their knit hats, but I couldn't tell you what we call those here in Calfornia. ex perhaps Ski Hats? Most of here in California don't do the snow thing unless we are going to ski or snowboard on it..

In the midwest, we mostly call them winter hats. We don't truck this Canadian chicanery!

Toque

 

C'est fini

Foul! High sticking!

To the penalty box with you!

I see two main elements to how powerful a character is.

 

One is, quite simply, how they fare in combat. Strangely enough, the comparison here is not so much with their opponents, but with their teammates. This is why (for example) 8d6 or 12d6 doesn't really matter, as long as it is consistent within the campaign.

 

The other aspect is how a character interacts with the surrounding environment. Can the character destroy a tank? Is the character faster than a fighter jet? Should they be? How do they compare with normals? Can they be outfought by a street thug? A police officer? A soldier? An ultra-elite special forces type? A group of any of these? Etc.

 

This is possibly as close to an objective measure of power there is in this extremely subjective and relative game. There are BtB stats for all of these things.

 

Except... they aren't necessarily well balanced against each other, and it's not cheap to achieve many quite reasonable effects. This is to an extent that it's practically impossible to do a lot of things within starting point totals.

 

There are ways around this, but they usually involve optional rules and/or house rules - and these should be avoided like the plague by new players.

 

(Personally, I tend to use the figures from earlier editions of the rules, where the world isn't quite as tough as in the current version. It doesn't solve the problem, but it narrows the gap.But of course this only works because I own earlier editions of the rules.)

Totally with you here. Especially that last part. I've just started playing Champions again after a thirty year hiatus, and that's the first thing I noticed: the values are all quite a bit higher, even for many rank and file normals.

I'd be curious some of the difficult things to do within starting values, as someone who just started up again. I was quite young when last I played, and probably underutilized many aspects of the system that I'm now getting used to.

As an aside, I think one way around the problems for the GM getting them to a certain level in a year could be mitigated by having there be an interlude at some later point. Maybe three quarters of the year through, after the characters have had the chance to slowly build up, and have the attachment to their characters grow(and their character concept develop), have a point that represents a passage of time in which they were doing epic things that lead into the end part of the campaign. Give them X number of points that will leave them close enough to the goal ending point total for where there characters are to get that they can get there with the remaining time.

That way, the GM gets to start at the level chosen, the development gets to be fairly natural, and the characters still end up at the level of superhero the campaign calls for them to end at.

Well when you use a different meaning from 90%+ of the community that tends to happen (and by community I mean Role Players, not the Hero Forum specifically).  The term "pick-up game" originated with sports and was generally spontaneous and had no effect beyond the individual game.  In the RPG community it means essentially what Hugh and Tasha said.  That you made up your own definition is fine, but don't act put out when people correct you.

Sigh...

Okay, an in-game pick-up game, or a pick-up game for the characters.

Since we're clarifying definitions for each other's benefit, I don't think "I have no time for minutia" means what you guys seem to think it means.

Round two: Canadians dogpile the pro-vermonter, the match is not over until the Canadians quibble over the proper name for a winter hat.

I'll probably write it up this weekend. Thanks!

Well, at least maple syrup is not debatable.

 

You'll have to head into Quebec for the maple Syrup experience...

Haven't been to Quebec in many years. I would definitely be happy to seize all their maple syrup. And poutine.

I only brought it up because I was confused by some of your earlier posts were you talk about Pickup games.

I wasn't referencing your post, I should have made that clear.