Tech

Just listening to the hum of the computer fans. It's nice to have silence now and then.

You know you're a player when:

- you see a movie or show, and start guessing what the character's Dex, Con, PD & ED, etc. are.

- you see a movie or show, and start figuring out the disadvantages as well.

Gave it some thought. I'd go with ECV vs ECV. The HA is only the method of how the damage is being delivered (in this case, not ranged); the effect of it being Mental determines how to resolve it, thus Ego.

Having looked at Change Environment, it is what you want. However, it needs to have Long Lasting added to it, as well as a limitation which is the cure.

It's fun to see this again. Thanks Christopher.

On 10/29/2020 at 4:22 PM, massey said:

I think I know what he means.

 

Limitations affect powers, and should be priced based on how they affect the power they're applied to, generally without regard to other things the character can do.  For example, if Superman purchases a hang-glider (10" of Gliding, OAF bulky, big turn mode, lots of other restrictions), then he still gets the full value of the limitations on the Gliding power, even though he's got 50" of Flight x250 noncombat.  His Gliding isn't more expensive just because he's got a backup power that's just as good if not better.  He's paying points for both powers.  His limitations don't become less limiting overall just because he spent more points elsewhere.

 

If Captain Swordsman has 5 different magic swords, each with its own weird limitations (only affects evil creatures, only vs vampires, does not affect those blessed by a priest, only vs dragons, etc), it doesn't matter that he's got backup weapons.  Those limitations are still real.  He bought each of those weapons individually, and they all cost points.  He shouldn't be paying full price for 5 different swords.  That's way worse than just paying for one sword that does everything.

 

Now... there are certain circumstances where a character is obviously designed with powers that negate his limitations.  The Mind Mole has 10" of Tunneling through 10 Def material (with the ability to close the hole behind him), N-Ray Vision, and an Ego Attack.  His tactic is that he tunnels down into the ground, looks up at you through the Earth with N-Ray, and then brain-zaps you over and over again.  He has an OAF magic wand that lets him do this, and an OAF magic hat that gives him 30 points of Mental Defense.  Unless he runs into a very specific enemy build, his limitations will probably never come into play.  This is a situation in which the GM is justified in saying "I can't think of any way this limitation will ever come up, so for you it isn't worth any points".  Doctor Destroyer's powers all come through his armor, but because it can't be damaged and he never takes it off, he doesn't get any points back.

I agree...   except for what you said about Dr. D. I suppose it depends on the campaign but I've kept Destroyers' armor at OIF because it has been damaged for being a suit of power armor, regardless of how powerful it is. I don't believe his armor is indestructible.


 

To some extent, heroes can be "proactive".  Recently, our hero group ended up going into an abandoned subway station looking for clues to find a supervillain. There, they found a homeless girl and her friends who gave some clues to help us realize we were on a rabbit-trail. However, the heroes didn't stop there. They took the girl and her friends to their public base and given a place to stay, get food, clothes, etc., while they finished their primary mission. When they finished, then they helped the homeless children find a place where they could stay. That's proactive in my book.

12 hours ago, archer said:

Some players will shoot right through a hostage to reach a bad guy while others will bend over backwards to save hostages. And some players will take it personally if another player's PC shoots a hostage. You really need to have a better handle on the group dynamic before deliberately having the bad guys take hostages, in my opinion.

I hope I never run into this kind of player who thinks its ok to 'shoot right through a hostage to reach a bad guy'.

On 2/20/2021 at 4:35 PM, starblaze said:

Yeah, like it says.  Tomorrow I will have one of my wife's nurses coming over for a few hours to an RPG for the first time.  She stated that she likes Superheroes so, duh, let's do Champions.  So what adventure could you suggest for a newbie?  Should I just do like a bank robbery?  

So, how did it go?

Let's see... cursed book to avoid? Howabout the original European Enemies with your 5d6 Energy Blast with +1 Stun Multiplier?

Using mostly 4-5th Edition with a touch of 1-3rd thrown in, we're using 1 End/10 pts. However, I've seen more and more that people aren't buying reduced END. Before you say 'you're not using as much END', if anything, players are designing characters so that they run out of END faster, far faster than the 1/10 benefits them.

Part of it might be we've run into heroic situations where the character is near or at 0 END but has to stop the bad guy but the character continues fighting. That heroic moment where the character shines cannot be underestimated, which is why we still use END.

I hope this didn't go off the trail.

N-B, where can you get those maps? I wouldn't mind seeing them myself.

A definition for each one needs to be established, otherwise the two words are interchangeable if there is no definable definition for either one.

I have to say, there are some refreshing superspeedster names here.

I'll post in brief my original character (particularly since he's so experienced). I named him Neutron. At the time, Enemies I or II hadn't even been out yet so he and Neutron of the Conquerors have had several fights just to see who keeps the name; it's been undecided. When first learning how to play Champions 1st Edition, I had some misunderstandings of how to build a good character so keep that in mind.    I should mention the campaign doesn't use 6th edition; the majority didn't want it, so it's primarily 4th -5th edition with some 1st-3rd edition thrown in.

I have the original sheet; I just can't find it so I'll go with my memory so here's him at creation:

10 Str        OCV: 8  DCV: 8  ECV: 3

23 Dex

20 Con      

15 Body       7d6 EB

10 Int           Flight 15"

10 Ego         

10 Pre

12 Com        Yes, we still use COM

7 PD

9 ED

7 Spd

9 Rec

40 End

40 Stun

Pretty simple but I was learning what power level is good and so on. Since then, he's changed quite a bit. I'll post some of him because quite frankly there's too much to post. Our campaign has several houserules so I'm not posting costs:

20 Str          OCV: 9 DCV: 9 ECV: 9

26 Dex        11d6 EB

24 Con        Flight 25"

15 Body  

14 Int          His most devastating attack:

17 Ego        10d6 EB, APx2, 10" AE with Hole in center, Variable size

30 Pre

12 Com       PD & ED are 3x hardened

27 PD          Lack of Weakness -5

27 ED          Mental Def 9 pts, 3x hardened

7 Spd

15 Rec         Classic Martial Arts

50 End        4 Combat Levels with 6 various skill levels

51 Stun       Gobs of skills

He's the leader of one of our superteams; we have 7 superteams. Needless to say, we have lots of active characters.

It's hard for me to believe I'm saying this but come this June, our campaign will be 40 years old, along with the 40th Anniversary of the game Champions. It's actually mind-boggling to me, that any campaign could be that long. The campaign is older than my friend's marriage as well as some people in the campaign. I'm planning on buying some plastic award medals that you can put your own emblem inside of and giving them out in June. By the way, this is the same continuous campaign - never stopped or retconned. It's gone through changes over the decades and has seen players & characters come and go, but the core players are still playing some of the same characters that the campaign started with.

So along with saying it's been 40 years, I also want to say that it is the Champions game that is so durable and flexible that made this happen. My hat off to you, Hero Games and more specifically, to Champions.

On 1/14/2021 at 6:01 AM, steriaca said:

I'm sure people have already suggested these names.

 

Dogwood.

Root.

Evermean.

Thorn (ok...this one is already taken).

Poison Oak.

Kanabus.

Hempman.

Ah, I see you mentioned Thorn, who's in CKC.  He's been used effectively in our campaign.

I wouldn't allow the Perceivable. My understanding is once something costs END (whether by default or by adding Limit: Costs End), the power is obvious. It's morning so if I'm mistaken, you know why.

The regeneration very much seems 'plot-device' and not worth buying.

On 2/3/2021 at 4:30 PM, unclevlad said:

Not Entirely of this World:  doesn't stop 1 BODY isn't worth anything, IMO, not when the defense is that small.

Gotta agree with this.

L.L. I'm surprised but happy you remember Hank the Ranger from the old D&D cartoon.

Archer, gotta say I disagree with you when you said, "It just seems like arrows are very much against the setting of most worlds the PC is likely to be on. So even if they weren't made illegal by the Empire, it's unlikely you'd run across a bow shop and be able to restock that old physical arrow supply. Yeah, you can make your own if you keep the equipment on your ship. But how often can you get back to your ship? "

If the character is from the 31st century, I'm sure the bow can be made of nearly indestructible material, the arrows can have a tech advantage to them (now that arrow made a BIG boom), and until more arrows are available, there's always a high-tech/energy sword or blaster. The arrows being hi-tech can easily be made that once fired - and after hitting the target - they return to the bow character (but not the BIG boom arrows).  Also, the arrows can continue to track their opponent until they hit.

Since she's new, the arrows that return can be simplified to just be Blast, and so on. Don't want to put too much of a complicated build together on a beginner.

I think the Duplication option is not what I'm looking for. As N-B said, I'll go with the Stretching idea.

 

12 hours ago, IndianaJoe3 said:

 

That sounds like a variation of No Conscious Control. He can't take his own arm off or move it, but he otherwise controls its actions.

 

(Full disclosure: I haven't actually watched Frozen so I may be completely misunderstanding what actually happened.}

*Gasp* What's with you, man?Joking aside though, it's great to watch that movie, if you can.

Not nitpicking, just throwing out a thought. Perhaps Dr. Nope should have a power affinity with an array of Entangles (or even Drains), instead of poison. The name suggests a denying of something, whereas I'm not feeling the name associated with poison. An entangle denies the bad guy from attacking/retreating/etc. Your thought?

I'll go with Chris' idea. Thanks. I'm thinking though, that it might be always on. I'm picking on Olaf since he's the best example: when Kristoff takes Olaf's arm, Olaf isn't spending any time activating a power: it just happens.

When did the 1st edition of Champions come out? I know the year was 1981 but does anyone know the month?

Olaf (from Frozen/Frozen2) and Jenny XJ9 (My Life as a Teenage Robot) both have arms that can move, even though not attached to the main body. In both cases, the arms can point or even hold someone's hand. How would you build that?

On 1/20/2021 at 12:12 PM, zslane said:

My favorite example of character write-up bloat is Mechanon. None of the GMs I played with back in the day ('80s and '90s) ever had a problem running villains as written up in editions 1-4 of the game. Perhaps this perceived need to spell out every little possible detail is an indicator of how the player base has changed since guys like Steve Peterson and Rob Bell left custodianship of the game in the hands of others.

I wouldn't say it's the player base. I'd say it's the author's personal style with the combo of rules changing. As each edition comes around, more points are handed out to players.