TheDarkness

Now THIS I am wrestling with.

 

I am thinking of reducing recovery rate of the mana batter, or requiring healing spells to have charges represented by some magical reagent to focus the healing power... not sure. The ability to auto heal everyone within 10min of an encounter being over is a real concern.

Yeah, I was reading the healing thread, some interesting stuff on there.

I'm not working on a fantasy campaign now, but I'm considering the idea of using a fantasy setting for pick up games. I've thought of putting a limit on healing, such that there is combat healing(with the limitation 'for combat, only", and a second healing power, for non-combat, that is per hour or something like that.

Now THIS I am wrestling with.

 

I am thinking of reducing recovery rate of the mana batter, or requiring healing spells to have charges represented by some magical reagent to focus the healing power... not sure. The ability to auto heal everyone within 10min of an encounter being over is a real concern.

Yeah, I was reading the healing thread, some interesting stuff on there.

I'm not working on a fantasy campaign now, but I'm considering the idea of using a fantasy setting for pick up games. I've thought of putting a limit on healing, such that there is combat healing(with the limitation 'for combat, only", and a second healing power, for non-combat, that is per hour or something like that.

Another way to mitigate the difference in points created by cash purchases, assuming warriors have more access to weapons, armor, steeds, etc,, than spell users have access to gear that enhances their role in combat.

Now, mind you, this is also off of a historical base, but again, the reason I bring it up is not for the realism factor, but to balance the points in some way.

And this solution would not solve the problems, but it would mitigate them a little.

In both the East and West, if you were trained, you generally had familiarity with staff, polearm, sword, possibly buckler, shield, various knives and long knives. This was not solely to be familiar with a variety of weapons, again, in both East and West, the staff was viewed as a weapon that trained important skills that carried over to the sword.

If warriors had to purchase a package of skills, and could augment certain ones, this would mitigate a few points, especially in a low point game.

I've played with the idea in the past of establishing KS:weapon vs. weapon, for example, KS: quarterstaff vs. sword, and imposing a penalty in situations where the character that skill. Yes, the dread realism, but a very small point expenditure overall that will quickly turn to an advantage when the warriors realize half the mooks they face are not well trained warriors.

Plus, it would give them skills in which they don't have to rely as heavily on their killing weapons, for situations in which they may not be able to hack their way out(going to sell their valuable statue in a city where they must leave their war items at the gate, but they don't know the person they're selling to, or going in disguise as monks somewhere, don't worry, we've just got staves).

I find fun game play trumps expectations more often than not. If the magic users have to slowly build up, I don't see why warriors are any different, and that building up is a lot of fun for most players. If the warriors shouldn't be expected to because of fantasy sensibilities, why should we expect the spell users will put up with it?

They are both buying powers. One with ep, the other with ep AND money. Yes, the spell users will probably have a broader swath of powers to choose from. At a slower rate. If one character is 500 points, with a narrow range of powers, and the other is 400 with a broader range, the 500 point character is very likely going to have more impact, earn more experience, and continue to dominate and extend that gap.

To be clear, I was not citing 'worthless peasants', or realism, but warriors and game balance. Most warriors did not have immediate access to the weapons they most wanted. Most characters in fantasy games are not in love with their starting gear, either.

One way of dealing with the problem:

Maybe a sword at the start for some warriors, probably not a high grade one, but decent. Bows are more accessible, so not a huge issue for equipping. Cheaper forms of armor, staves, spears, axes, daggers, these are all more accessible weapons. The sword is likely higher cost, so starting with that means less of other equipment. If they're starting the game with it, the spell users should be starting with the equivalent points(or equipment advantageous to them) for balance. From there, place a hard limit on access to highly valuable gear, so that game balance is not hurt. Make highly valuable gear for both groups roughly equal in availability.

Another way, the more common way:

To prevent money becoming an end run around game balance and role play(because it directly increases the points that a character actually represents), Let spell users have similar access to purchases that impact their effectiveness, place a reasonable limit on treasure in order to allow character development to be well paced, rewarding role play over murder hoboing. That's assuming there are items for spell users to buy at the same frequency and cost as what warriors are buying that equate to the same ability to impact scenarios and earn the same experience for the same level of game play and role playing.

If I understand your build right, it's 4d6 normal damage plus 1d6 stun only. Max 30 stun, max 8 body, if I'm understanding correctly.

LOL. Just thought of an actual movie application of the transform 'teleport'. It would just be an AOE transform. Brundle-Fly.

Just pay a gazillion points and combine the Justice League into a walking monstrosity that loves Geena Davis a bit too much.

These are great ideas and solutions, but I was talking about a gun in another thread where it could fire a special tracer-round... How would people build that?

 

Currently I have it figured out as: Blast 4D6 (PD from being out of gun), Linked > Blast 1D6 (PD), Stun Only, Unison Power > Enhanced Senses Radio, Fuel Charge, Unison Power

Apparently I misunderstood. So you want it to cause damage? Is it a subcutaneous tracker?

I see what you're saying with the killing attack, much simpler. I'd probably lean towards making it so that anyone not outright killed is not affected, as I feel the idea of having any more than the smallest increment of one's body merged with something else and not being killed by it kind of kills the narrative. And to achieve that effect would require a ton of points. Also, considering that the hero is  in a supers campaign that is not super gritty, he might find it hard to find the opportunity to do so.

As far as the trope of dangerous teleports, I'm not against it entirely, but back when I first ran games, I didn't use that option for the reasons stated. Because there was no chance for it, I didn't have people pay for safe blind at the time, but I suppose I would have to examine whether that unbalances the cost of the power versus other powers. I always assumed the same effect that evacuates the air from the teleport point would prevent a teleport that did not create a void for the teleporter. It's a world detail that I like, but not necessarily one I must always use in any campaign.

I suppose if I ran a game again where I didn't use it, instead of risking injury and death, the hero doing a blind teleport risked failure and a lost action, as the point was occupied by solid matter.

As the question.

I'm assuming, two foci, one the the tracker, one the scanner that allows you to find it.

Tracker has image(radio waves, limited to a single frequency, bought to the range you want), perhaps a limited battery life.

The other, enhanced senses(radio, limited to only the frequency of the tracker).

Or, alternately, teleporting everyone together might be treated as a teleport with a mass transform. Since I'm the guy planning Pyronide's campaign, and I KNOW I didn't give him enough points to do it, the balance is okay. For now...

Totally aside, but the car teleport: if it is simply a physical blast that requires a nearby object of some weight, this is no big deal as long as the available objects are not important to anyone. As soon as they are, that PD is doing a blast that is paid for, and effecting something else for free. Since Pyronide is already obsessed with teleporting a particular motorcycle as soon as he sees it, I may have to think this!

I have a lot of debate in my head (there's quite a few voices in there) about teleporting into things or teleporting others into things. In certain campaigns, I'm not sure I'd even make the option possible as an accident. If teleporting into things is deadly, teleporting into atmosphere would pretty much kill any teleporter, due to the sudden presence of air in every part of your body. I tend to assume that teleports either are somewhat explosive(the teleport clears the space), with the effect that you would have to pay for the ability to destroy a wall as you're teleporting into it if you want that effect, or are gates, and, if the other end of the gate is a wall, you'd have to be able to break that wall to pass through it.

However, I'm seeing how Pyronide's teleporter build develops for this campaign, and as much as possible going with his character idea. Currently, I'm more concerned about what he names this character. I think he finds joy in finding names I do not want to have to ever say.

Responding to the issue of magic costing points, while weapons and armor only cost money.

This will only pose a problem if money is plentiful for the characters and easily spent. Keep in mind, historically, a sword and armor was beyond the means of most warriors. Very expensive. Often, soldiers had them, but were given them for battle, and did not have access to them outside of it. Spears were advantageous because, except for those with a well forged head, they were cheap and highly applicable.

Additionally, valuables, then and now, were only easily spent where they could easily get their monetary value or where people could trade at an equal value. Getting the actual value for a gem might require a long journey on its own, or might become a case of taking what the local market can bear, which could mean often taking a loss because the nearby villages simply cannot afford to trade much for your treasure.

I think game mechanics and especially modules that were dungeon crawls encouraged murder-hoboism.

The first, by rewarding looting, establishing levels, et al.

The second, because, when you have a dungeon with sections each full of orcs ostensibly on the same side, the only solution is for the DM to totally ignore this fact and never have them sound the alarm and attack the PCs en masse, murder hoboing them before players can get their murder hoboing on. Always, they are just waiting in the room they are placed in, 250 orcs dispersed in 30 neighboring rooms, orcs who are completely oblivious to what is going on one room away. Did someone hear steel clattering, incantations, and a fireball? Nah...

Tucker's kobolds were a wake up call for many.

And the sneaky path is right out as soon as you are sword fighting or anyone has any plate armour.

A dungeon crawl in a dungeon full of creatures should either be a desparate bloodbath, or something sneaked through with almost no combat. At least in most situations.

This is why scenario based role play is both more realistic and creates better roleplay.

Aside from that, the main reason I favor games like Hero over D&D is that the former gives one the tools to make anything you want, the latter gives you the opportunity to buy supplements so that you can make what they are selling. There's more flexibility now than there used to be, but it will always lag behind games like Heroes in this sense. But, that is also an advantage of their business model. Look at Warhammer. It used to be a system to design the armies you wanted. Now, it is a system in which you must purchase the most recent products if you are going to play with others that do.

I kind of think Heroes should do an end run around this. Make it seem like you are releasing books with special package deal character classes only available in those books, while secretly just using legitimate builds. But make it seem like everyone needs the new thing. I won't tell.

Also, I think Heroes could use something like a basic set, set up as though there were only certain options, but, when examined from the scope of the full system, totally by the rules, to attract gamers who are afraid of the build aspect of the game.

Perhaps your palindromedary has merely displaced its front end to its back end, and vice versa? But how to tell which is which?

• How did you come up with your 'handle' (forum name)?

I'm just not very imaginative...

• What was the first tabletop RPG you played?

Basic D&D, probably around '82

• What was the first tabletop RPG you GMed?

Same game. Didn't know anyone who played, ran games for my cousins and friends

• What are you currently playing/GMing?

Preparing a Champions campaign and a Dark Champions campaign

Never underestimate the influence of the court of public opinion on legal cases in democracies. When elections are a factor, looking weak on supers crime is political suicide, and judges can be influenced, even if the decision will later be overturned due to a lack of evidence.

I disagree Darkness.  I think the actual mechanic used is irrelevant as to how likely players are to figure out what is happening.  How the GM describes the game effect are absolutely relevant.

 

I am for efficient character design - do not utilise powers unless those game effects are absolutely necessary and cannot be delivered by a simpler mechanism.  The more the GM has to adjudicate on the power and the more knowledge the player needs to have to parse the power build, the less efficient it is.

 

If the idea is to make the character more difficult to hit because his image is displaced from his physical location then that is effectively accomplished by added DCV.  If the idea is to make it impossible to hit unless you aim in the right place then you are looking at a different set of powers.

 

To add complexity to the character build because you want more complexity on the game play is (obviously in my most humble opinion) the wrong thing to do.  :-)

 

Doc

I agree with you on one level, which is the basis for my saying that, if this the character's minor power, I would go with DCV.

From another angle, I think, when we discuss build efficiency, I tend to view that efficiency as measured in different ways. Which I think you allude to a bit. There's cost efficiency. There's efficiency of game play. There' efficiency of effect. Probably others I'm not thinking of.

If we defer to cost efficiency, we my lose the character we were actually wanting to make for the sake of worrying about other purchases.

If we defer to game play efficiency, the same may occur.

If we defer to efficiency of effect, we may achieve the character we wanted to make, but miss other options that the system gives us room to create.

For the build I was suggesting, an example:

Let's say we're trying to make a minor villain with these powers to fight the Verdant Bolt, a brooding, crossbow and high tech bolt firing marksman with some sort of distinctive facial hair, perhaps mutton chops and a soul patch.

Now, the whole idea of the power is to use accuracy against the marksman. If we use DCV, yes, the villain (Parallax?) is harder to hit, but who is the person most able to hit him? Yes, the person who should, by definition, be the most likely to hit exactly six feet off the mark, if the actual villain is always six feet from the image.

If we use image and invisibility, suddenly the villain actually works. This is a severely limited villain, as they are always near their image, and so must close along with the image to attack the Verdant Bolt, and this villain has spent a good number of points on the power, so their offense may not be equal to the courageous  crowsbowman of Kit City. Plus, once his power becomes clear, Verdant Bolt's partner, The Ebony Cockatoo, will likely fry him with a sonic cone.

Not all situations would call for this, and, as a minor power, DCV is probably better, but for specific purposes, I really think there is room for a different build. Description is one thing, but game effect does play a role in some cases. If I were wanting to use the accuracy of a guy who never misses against him, I would not go with DCV, since that puts him in the one class of character likely to still hit.

Granted, MOST applications would not get any advantage from such a build, but I think there are cases where it is justified.

At its core a Tripwire is just a Trip maneuver with a Trigger.

*Note that Trip and Martial Trip are just special forms of Throw which is limited by the weight/mass of the target.

Ah, didn't realize that!

Sweep seems a more apt manuever to describe it than a throw.

As far as why, trip wires not only may be attached to traps, but can be placed in front of pits or ledges. At it's weakest, a tripwire in a narrow hall that the first goon falls from means the goons behind him are in a rough spot.

Even though DCV may be the easiest, if this is a major part of his powers, I'd lean toward invisibility plus images. That way, characters have a better chance of figuring out what the powers are, and the play follows the reality(using DCV is not particularly suggestive of a power where the greater the success of the to hit roll, the LESS chance they should have of hitting, not better.)

That's just me. More costly, but more exactly shows the desired effect.

If it's a minor power in his list, I'd just go with the DCV.

This thread is quickly turning into notes for my campaign using notes for CID's as the focus, so I'll put a note toward that end in the first post, hope no one minds.

As I actually put together the actual CID charts, I'll post them so people can see what I'm doing, in case they're useful to anyone else.

Notes for a CID for KS:Supers in my superheroic campaign. (The underworld in the above CID was also for this world, the katana wielding masked avenger example was for my Dark Champions campaign, just to keep things straight)

The Bloc: Officially sanctioned heroes. Headquarters around the world, U.S. headquarters in Arizona at a combination compound/prison for supers. Largest supers group. In U.S., includes numerous strike teams, such as Dali(a mentallist and brother of the leader of the Bloc), The Spartan(a highly skilled normal armed with a special shield, spear, helmet, and gladius, full powers unknown), and Sunrise(a brick, full powers and background unknown) in the Northern States Region. Finds unlicensed supers and either sanctions, or imprisons them.

The Wardens, part of The Bloc, rotating roster that mans The Pen, a prison for supers. Information on The Pen limited, opened two years prior. roster of The Wardens changes on a shifting schedule to disrupt ability to develop escape plans.

Kaiser Mayhem, scientific genius, criminal mastermind, real identity unknown, first appeared in Berlin in an attempt to abduct scientist Freidrich Gurt(see The Unfortunate Prisoner), attempt foiled by German supers. At the time, had high energy weapons and shield generators. Subsequent appearances have him in various incarnations of his Mayhem Armour, modular powered armor that enables him to project energy, shields, apparent immunity to mental attacks, and is designed with numerous redundancies that allow him to redesign the suit on the fly to mimic powers and technologies he faces in the field. He has consistently avoided capture, and has occupied numerous bases over the subsequent five years to his first appearance. Although able to take on most heroes in single combat, tends to create diversions and stealthily pursue his goals. Utilizes both powered and unpowered allies and henchmen at will. Hunted by The Known Unknowns, The Bloc, and The Siberian Legion.

The Outfitters, an American group, only one known contact, see Underworld: The Outfitters CID notes for info.

The Siberian Legion, originally incarcerated Russian super villains kept in a mass facility in Siberia who succeeded in taking over the prison and claiming it and the surrounding two hundred miles as their base. Fiercely loyal to their leaders, Aegis and Katherine the Great for freeing them. Generally isolationist, brutally puts down incursions into their territory. Aegis is able to create force projections of staggering power, Katherine the Great is a brick with powers of density increase and growth. The two are considered implacable foes by their enemies, so much so that The Bloc has declared their territory, The Siberian Void(so named after a warning from Katherine) a no-fly zone for all normals and supers. There is some evidence that, in the last years, some supers seeking to escape bloc-controlled regions are attempting to join the Legion.

The Avatar, Hindu-American hero, powers too numerous to mention, famous for her strength, flight, and resistance to most attacks. The Avatar and her followers turned villain in The Conflagration of Hudson Bay; in the ensuing fight, The Avatar died in combat with The Bloc, her followers either joined The Bloc or were imprisoned.

The African Nations- high technology, no-fly zone. The Dark Wall, a complex system of missiles, shields, high energy weapons, and power draining technologies secretly put in place from 2004-5 by the scientific genius Msimangu and two twin matter shapers(real identities unknown), prevents or punishes all unauthorized attempts into the continent. The African Nations are ruled by The Powers Consul, a collection of the supers in the continent. The interior, under the continued development of Msimangu and his allies, is now alternating pockets of pristine natural land and future tech African City States. Supers in The African Nations are thought to be most numerous in the tribes living in the pristine pockets, with notable presence in the African City States, though a large number in both areas work together in a well organized mutual support system facilitated by those with long range sensory and teleport abilities in order to maintain peace and stability in the region.

The RMCR- the renmin chaoren or 'the people's super heroes', the RMCR is the official hero organization of the PRC in China. Nearly equal in size to the worldwide Bloc, they are organized into various Provincial Teams, Autonomous Region Teams, and the Beijing Team. As per the Bloc-Sino Compromise of 2010, they represent The Bloc in China, while maintaining near autonomy from the rest of The Bloc worldwide. They are led by the Standing Committee, with each individual team led by a three person committee comprised of a party representative, a representative from the local government, and one non-combat super with abilities that can assist in strategy, organization, and/or political awareness.

Nezha's Immortals- China's largest unregistered hero group. Led by Nezha, Li JIngjing, a woman from Guilin with powers between a brick and a long range teleporter, the Immortals are considered criminals by the central government, but it is a publicly known 'secret' that the central provinces and some other regions are more than tolerant of their actions. Nezha is the group's only member whose identity is known. All the Immortals wear full face masks, and there is strong reason to believe that some members of The RMCR are also members of Nezha's Immortals. They are currently believed to be residing in Henan.

The Known Unknowns- a popular unregistered hero group centered alternately in Southern Canada or the Northern half of the U.S. Led by Valence, the Unbound, a hero able to absorb and emit radiation in all forms, while the leader in the field is Slag, Adam Prost, a ferrokinetic and former Canadian sniper. The group is officially considered criminals, but nearly half of the U.S. populace and a clear seventy percent of the Canadian populace approves of their actions. They have twice thwarted Kaiser Mayhem's attempts to abduct The Unfortunate Prisoner, and actively pursue the German criminal, being present during seven of the last ten confrontations with him, compared to The Bloc's two times. The latter of these two times, in which Bloc members focused on trying to capture both the Known Unknowns and Kaiser Mayhem led to a PR loss for The Bloc and the escape of Kaiser Mayhem with important technology found at the site of The Conflagration of Hudson Bay. Their membership usually stands between eight to fifteen members. Their current gadgetteer is known as Tesla X, full abilities and technology unknown.

The Unfortunate Prisoner- Freidrich Gurt, considered one of the greatest theoretical physicists alive. Targeted for capture nine times by Kaiser Mayhem, as well as several other supers, Gurt approached the Bloc to establish a special cell in The Pen. The cell, which was designed by Gurt with some input in planning by a number of other super geniuses, has thus far proven impenetrable, and is likewise thought to be inescapable. In the three years he has resided in this cell, there has been no single attempt to abduct him that lead beyond the first layer of defenses. Gurt himself coined the term 'the unfortunate prisoner' in a famous web interview. On occasion, Gurt has left the cell in order to act as a consultant to various groups, and, in that capacity, has made visits to the major bases of the worldwide Bloc, the Beijing base of the RMCR, and has even, under the protest of the Bloc, consulted with the Known Unknowns at one of their own hidden bases. According to international law, Gurt is in the class of expert or super considered highly sensitive, and so no mentalist is allowed in his presence, as are Msimangu, all Wardens, key leaders within the Bloc, and various leaders of industry and state.

It doesn't have be railroading. You can let the players consider their options and come up with alternatives. Then, as GM, you assess the alternatives and present them with the drawbacks and advantages (as their characters understand them) of each. But, again, the key point is that it's a CHOICE. There is no option to try A then resort to B when A fails. Once you choose option A, option B is no longer viable. At best, you can abandon A and go with Option C, which will be considerably harder and riskier than B would have been.

 

That's how you give players a real sense that their decisions matter. They choose a course of action knowing that if they try it and fail, any other option will be more difficult and uncertain and dangerous. So they have to really consider whether to try (for instance) the safer, less rewarding option or go for the big risk/big reward choice...with the understanding that it may well fail, leaving them worse off than if they hadn't tried it.

I especially agree with the emphasis on options closing due to choices made.

I tend to take a slower route to the same end goal. by starting the game with simpler scenarios in which repercussions are not necessarily too dire, the players can experience the repercussions first hand, and later, when the stakes are higher, remember what happened before and make decisions based on that knowledge. Thus, I often never have to make the suggestions, because, in earlier scenario, I've let them see what sort of thing happens.

So, when the game has repercussions (as opposed to endless catering to infantile wish fulfillment, in which the only goal is a high powered game unbalanced in favor of the heroes, and during which, because there is not real chance of repercussions, the dynamic energy of the game is, at best, muted), I place a value on giving the players time to become accustomed to this, the players then naturally begin to account for them, and soon anticipate them, solve them, or make choices knowing other choices are closed off, and I hopefully can watch and enjoy(or curse if I totally left an important villain in a position that is bad, and the heroes realized it before me).

I am super cautious about telling people their courses of action, because I really think it does blind many people to other options. I think that, if they are in the habit of looking for options, they will often find the most likely options that are there, including ones I never saw.

As an example, albeit a very literal one, I am working on a scenario (Dark Champions)in which a lone individual, trained in the Katori tradition of Japanese swordsmanship, is being trained for a mission. It will be his first mission, and will involve infiltrating a building and rescuing an individual.

The scenario before this one, his superiors in the ryu will have set up an alley and building similar to the target one, and used their people and allies within the city to make sure no unfriendly eyes come upon the scene.

The masked avenger, in the previous scenario to that, will have been training with armor on against his instructors and classmates in single combat and multiple attacker scenarios using boken(wooden swords) and not using full strength.

However, to give an idea of how combat plays out, the character will be using 1d6 non-killing for their attack, but reading the dice simultaneously as though they were killing, the actual sword damage. Thus, the player gets to track when, in an actual combat, they would have been unconscious or dead, while still continuing the drill. This especially comes into play in the multiple attacker scenario.

Now, in scenario two, the alley is sealed off, and the player is doing the simulation of the actual mission. Tries one approach, fails. Tries another, succeeds with mixed success. Tries a third, similar to the second, fails. Changes approaches, succeeds. Repeat, again succeeds. Losses involve being seen trying to scale all the way to the fifth floor, or to the third floor(50% success rate, let's say), usually able to make it to the second floor before those on the street spot him and he is forced to enter through a second floor window, in those scenarios he sometimes makes it past the guards in the hall. The player decides to drop his armor, climbs to the second floor, leaves his sword in an empty room in the second floor, climbs back down, goes in through the front door, asks for a girl, follows her up to the second floor, pulls her into the room with his sword, restrains her, takes his sword, and goes up to the fifth floor. This route succeeds pretty well.

The next scenario, he is instructed to go to the brothel at the bottom of the actual building. He is instructed to ask for a young redhead, and to pick one out who will be wearing a blue dress and have her hair braided to the left. He is not given a weapon or armor, and is told that the young woman is also to be extracted from the building on his exit. The hero is a bit concerned to be walking in through the front door, unarmed.

When he does reach the room of the mysterious red headed girl, she then leads him up a stairwell to the third floor and to a service closet, His sword and armor is hidden behind some large boxes.

He is in the building, with a mole, already at a point in which he was losing in many of the drills, and his enemies do not know he is there.

He begins to don his armor.

On the game play angle of missing info in CIDs(forgive the length, and the typos):

Our heroes, the Known Unknowns, receive an anonymous tip as to the location of one of Kaiser Mayhem's hidden bases, and the information, which they deem reliable, includes the fact that the villain and criminal mastermind is known to be at the base. The heroes mount an assault and appear to catch the villain's forces by surprise. Kaiser Mayhem retreats deep into the base, closely pursued by the characters, into a chamber containing an open teleportation gate. They follow the Teutonic terror through the portal a scant ten minutes after Kaiser himself passed through.

After they pass through, they find themselves inside the walls of another fortress in the bitter cold of Northeastern Russia. Too late, they realize they have been tricked. They are in the fortress home of the Siberian Legion, a veritable army of Russian super villains led by the supers known in the West as Aegis and Katherine the Great.

The heroes are not immediately spotted. Knowing that the Legion holds a special hate for the Kaiser, they realize there must be some plot at work here.

Too soon, a group of Legion members spot them, and the fight is on. As more Legionnaires pour out of the fort, the groups short range teleporter moves them inside the massive compounds main buildings. The heroes gadgeteer, Tesla X, is able to use his sensors to track Kaiser Mayhem's position due to the unusual readings given off by the villain's infamous powered armor.

They move to follow, periodically fending off attacks from members of the Siberian Legion that manage to find them before they can teleport further.

Suddenly, the Tesla X's sensors cease to pick up any trace of Kaiser Mayhem.

The Known Unknowns are now in a long, wide hall, with a set of massive iron doors ahead of them, behind which is the last known location of Kaiser Mayhem, and behind them, the quickly massing numbers of the Siberian Legion, including Katherine and Aegis. With no escape route, the group moves forward before Aegis can get in range and trap them in his powerful force shields.

Reaching the iron doors, Slag, the Known Unknown's resident ferrokinetic, forms an opening through the doors and then seals it behind them, forming the pair of doors into one great iron wall.

They find themselves in a large, round room, with a platform in the middle, surrounded by machinery. Smoke rises from one side of the machinery.

Tesla X and the group's leader, Valence the Unbound, step closer to the machinery.

"No." Valence shakes his head.

"What?" Slag asks.

"It's a teleporter of some sort. There's only one reason they would bury it this deep."

Aegis' power source.

The group had become aware that Aegis' power seemed to be drastically different at times, sometimes strong enough to stop even the most powerful of heroes, sometimes barely enough to stop an ordinary man. Valence had developed a theory, based on information provided by a number of different former foes of the Russian, that Aegis' power required a power source to charge up. Under ordinary circumstances, his shields were impressive, but at his most powerful, his shields utilized far more power than the Russian could find under ordinary circumstances.

Valence had done the math, and the required power was beyond anything he had seen before.

"Mayhem figured it out. He's after the source."

Three times, the room was filled with a great booming sound from something massive striking the iron wall. the stone around the wall shook dust free with each shake.

"Katherine's knocking," Slag commented, looking at Tesla X and Valence.

Tesla gestured at the smoking machine, sabotaged by Kaiser Mayhem after teleporting himself wherever the gate led.

"Only one way forward, unless we want to let him have the source."

Valence nodded, and the two began examining the damage.

"All right Known Unknowns," Slag spoke up for the nine members not attending to the teleporter to hear, "We hold them at the door until the bookworms get that thing going, no matter how long. Form in three groups. Group two, once that wall gives, use constant teleports behind their position and back to harry them. Groups one and two, force Aegis to shield his people, we do not want him trapping us."

Under the next onslaught from Katherine the Great, the iron wall began to bend and crack, and great chunks of rock broke free all around it.

So here, we have a gadget invented by someone else, with one part of it sabotaged. The characters have, in effect, an SID with lines connecting boxes, but those boxes have no descriptions, they are unknown blanks. Valence the Unbound and Tesla X must work together to 1) Using their scientific skills, determine what the components are, especially the destroyed or damaged component, 2) Figure out if the damaged component can be fixed, and if not, 3) Rig a replacement(possibly using Slag to shape it on the fly), and, if there is time, 4) See if they can determine where they will be going when it is fixed, as, if not, the only way to find out where they are will be finding and getting that information out of Kaiser Mayhem...

So now, and this is more of me thinking out loud and running through this for my own game, I want to get back to knowledge skill of a city's criminal underworld. It could also be used this way toward the city's government, police force, whatever knowledge skill, and there is an interesting thing that comes up when I look at this, which I'll get to in a bit.

So, the player has a knowledge skill of his city's underworld. Now, in designing the CID for this knowledge skill, we have some entries:

Boss Salieri is the last mob boss standing, even in the advent of supers. Not known to have powers, but under his CID there are a number or known supers that work for him. His main source of revenue appears to be drugs, and he is the most powerful of the underworld figures.

The Irishman, real name unknown, a brick backed by possible family members, also supers, and a significant number of thugs, deals in muscle and protection rackets.

Di Long, AKA The Earth Dragon, AKA The Dog, real name unknown, runs the Chinese tongs. Information on them is scarce, Di Long himself is known to have earth related powers, but because the numbers and disposition of the tong members seems to shift dramatically without warning, this CID has gaps in the info. The tongs' main sources of revenue include human trafficking and heroin.

The Outfitters, possible leader: Victoria Iblis, no known powers. No other members known. The Outfitters deal in powered items, generally mid range, always requiring support and repair over time, and they deal with all the above groups.

So the CID would have entries that range from "heroin", "bricks", "Di Long", "Boss Salieri", etc, with lines showing connections.

However, some entries will be blank. They are unknowns, except that they are known to exist. For example, while Boss Salieri has three supers that will be well known, there will be an empty entry that connects to previously known members of the other groups with the exception of The Outfitters, said members having previously disappeared, some supers, some supers with significant power that it is not likely Salieri's known supers could have taken out without signs of a major fight. Yet all opposed Salieri at the times of their disappearances.

There will be blanks for Di Long's gang and for The Outfitters.

These blanks will naturally be of interest to players. They will be aware, from early on, that to mess with Boss Salieri too openly would mean possibly facing a super that can defeat highly powered supers without even leaving a sign.

Players will naturally want to fill in these blanks, and so they will have avenues in which they can take initiative, saying, "Hey, we really want to scope out Boss Salieri, can we do a game of that sometime?"

This is the point I noted before. Sometimes, it seems to me that the blank spots in the CIDs can be almost more useful than what is known.

Now a bit more on that, and how that can play out. I'll go back to the gadgeteering angle for my next thought.

I'm going to post some examples of my thinking on this, to illustrate why I think this could be used as a very effective tool for game play and campaign design.

One of the other advantages I see in using CIDs is that, like Champions, CIDs allow for a great diversity even for what are, in effect, objects with pretty much the same properties. So, two ray guns that both do 6d6 blasts could have entirely different CIDs.

One could be simply, a power source, a refraction crystal, and an emitter array, each thing leading from one line to the next.

The judge decides that the highest difficulty entry is the refraction crystal. In the prototype, this will be the most likely roll to fail. It will be most difficult for an enemy to obtain and copy. But, since each step is one after the other, and since there are only three parts, the repair process won't be too difficult.

However, the raygun, perhaps an early staple of the evil mastermind Kaiser Mayhem, is the same in power (6d6 blast) as those he now gives his henchmen.

However, because he does not want anyone to get their hand on the technology for the Mayhen refraction crystal from his original raygun, which he has since used on many darker and more powerful items, and since his henchmen are often expendable, their rayguns are designed with two opposing charged cells, a feedback loop processor that connects the two, and a series of four crystal arrays, all items that are not particularly high difficulty to produce(easy inventor rolls). Because this gun has seven parts compared to Kaiser Mayhem's original three part one, it is much less viable for field repairs, though the parts could be cannibalized for other items, and the technology, if copied, is not as big a threat as if they had access to the parts from his original gun.

Same power, entirely different CID, no identical parts.

To take our FTL scenario, let's take a ship with essentially the same powers/abilities, with a pilot, a copilot, a gunner, and an engineer, and FTL travel. Only this ship is a living thing. In this case, the 'engineer' is literally a ship's doctor, specializing in alien biology designed for ships. The ship is in danger, as before, the FTL is out. The doctor, using his skill as a doctor, is working on finding and replacing the damaged or diseased tissue, and rooting out the issues preventing the FTL from working. The CIDs could be visually identical to the ones for the previous ship, but the spaces are named things like "telepathic hyperlobe"(guidance system), "flight reflex gate" (FTL), etc, separating the parts with a plasma scalpel and connecting new ones with regenerative grafts. All the earlier scenarios I described could be applied in exactly the same way.

Only, in this case, the skill rolls are off of medical skills. An actual engineer would be useless in this scenario.