Tech

Has been Hero System and apparently always will be. I've played another system but Hero System beats it. When I think Hero System, I think Champions ever since I picked up Champions 1st edition, then 2nd, then 3rd, then...

The movie shows the skeletons this way: the evil king spreads out the teeth, a few at a time and then waits (as does Jason and his men). Finally, one at a time, the skeletons show up while Jason and his men are startled (and waiting). So, if it's to be done like the movie, it was not 7-at-once.

Another option is to buy it as a Robot. The Robot Drone will have the senses, not you; without the Robot, you have no enhanced sight. Throw in Mind Link or something.

In "The Great Supervillain Contest", one of the villains is Shadow Queen. Selfish but also helpful as the bio goes. I GM her more towards good and getting whatever she wants. I'm looking for suggestions for an episode:

For this episode, her powers are greatly increased. Shadow Queen hears news of how many orphans wait long periods of time to be adopted. This triggers something in her and she decides she's going to take all the orphans (probably from one particular orphanage) to a place where she will care for them.

Listen to "Children of the Night" by Kate Covington. That's the music I'll play before the episode.

What I'm stumped on: a) where will she take them?  I have no idea yet.

b) In her planning, what will she do with them once she 'rescues' them?  Again, no idea but if she did take care of them, it'd take millions.

c) How will she take the orphans?

d) What do the heroes do?  Do they stop her before she accomplishes her plans or do they follow her?

So, I'd appreciate your suggestions for the episode. Pardon the joke, but no 'dark' suggestions please - it's not how I GM the villain.

We created a team and let one of the players whose never had a leader before, be the leader. The player himself was not necessarily a leader. So, we pushed his character for a Higher Presence, Higher Ego and Tactics skill. As players, when the time came for a leader to do something, then we actively waited for him to make a decision during the game. Repeatedly done, it gives actual experience - and confidence - and the player does much better now with his leader character.

On 7/25/2022 at 5:03 PM, x_Im_tc said:

Played a lot of Champions back in the day, using what I now know is the "3rd ed."  My friends and I played a few years after the 4th edition came out, but we were basically a 3rd edition group.  Strict adherence to any rules was not really an issue.  We played for fun.  If a dice role would break something, we looked away and rolled again.  And we took turns being GM, but each had our own character who would, when we were GM, essentially tag along as an NPC.  That said, we took our characters seriously and loved working within the rules to build and then, with experience, flesh out characters over time.

That's me and my friends in our campaign. Nice to see!

Just a comment: since it's been awhile and your son is wanting to play, maybe a simpler character concept might be order to start. Just a suggestion.

20 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

I still use Transfer. Personally I never found it unbalancing, and it makes many effects so much easier to build and run. I never really grasped the rationale for removing it.

I also still use Transfer, as does the group I'm in.  (I also still use the simpler Instant Change; simple is better.)

A long time ago, a player created a hero called Darcrest: a mix of batman and weird. The player routinely came up with lines to throw off the GM and did it so well. The hero's battle cry was: "Revenge, cries the larynx of the merely magnificent Darcrest!"

I'd say full Stun and End after waking up from a good sleep. There are obviously multiple ways to handle suddenly waking up and the results of that. I've gotten up groggy and hard to think one time;  a different time I'm awoken and I'm dressed and ready to go in 5 min.

I might try the D12 sometime. If the D12 did start on 1, then just continue down the Phases since no one attacked.

Possibly one of the funniest moments we've had:

The players have started a new hero team and only that day came up with a hero team name. The meet up with the bad guys...

Hero: "All right! Now you're going to have to deal with us! We're..." (player looks at other players) "Who are we again?"

12 hours ago, Killer Shrike said:

Spreading an attack is a useful capability of the system, IMO.

 

It is an optional rule, so if you are the GM and don't like it, you are well within GM discretion to not allow it. 

 

I never had any problem with it, personally. Other people's mileage may vary, obviously.

I like it and also haven't had any problems with it ever. As KS said, it's optional.

I make it a limitation, LL, on the power. I can't remember every villain I have that has some kind of poison power but if I do use them, I will probably GM-power add it right there, even if not actually listed. It makes sense to me in that way.

Watched "Frozen Fever"

20 hours ago, steriaca said:

We can always say the poison is contact which is released via a gland in his arms. But then it should be AVLD (NND: Imunity to Snake Poison).

 

Or it could be a bio-energy discharge thing which is activated by grabbing and "injecting" this energy into others. This way we don't have to alter the power at all.

What I've started doing for poison power villains who have a Drain attack, I add the following to their powers:

"Also, doesn't work with LS: Immunity to poison"

19 hours ago, Spence said:

The exact text from the book is:

 

"6d6 Drain (½ from CON, ½ from PD), ½ END, Must Grab"

 

and

 

"If he's forced to fight, Black Mamba will use his power drain at first (note that the effect of the PD drain is halved), then punch when he feels his opponent's defenses are sufficiently weakened". 

 

Since he must grab I don't think I would go with poison at first glance.  If it was contact poison all he would need is contact, not a Grab.

 

But then I have nothing else that would work as an explanation to offer either

As a single power can be written up multiple ways in the Hero system, I still think this was supposed to be a contact poison attack; they just decided he needed to Grab you to effectively use his attack. A Black Mamba uses a neurotoxin bite to deal with its prey; so I wouldn't use this as a constricting power.

41 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

Except that it does have a "Must Follow Grab" Limitation. And Drain under 4E has no Range by default.

Exactly.  Yes, I always thought it was a contact poison.

No, it does not have Power Def.

Got a question about these a Forcewall and NND (or its equivalent in 6th). If a hero has a Forcewall up and a villain shoots a NND attack (Def: Power Def) at the hero, does the Forcewall protect and stop the NND or does the NND ignore the protective Forcewall and continue on to hit the hero? It's been awhile.

I remember this because a follow-up game was done this weekend for an episode done many years ago.

A mob figure called Ferrari is having lunch with a hero at an Italian restaurant. Ferrari is warning the hero to stay out of his way.

Ferrari finishes the conversation with: "I hope this conversation didn't hurt your feelings."

Hero reply, "It's not your feelings I'm planning on hurting."

Personally, I always used it as a poison attack.

I am curious as to the various details you GMs put into your game. Do you:

a) Give your episodes titles?

b) Do you give origins to all your villains

c) Are your important NPCs stated out?

d) Do you go above and beyond the duty with special props for any of your games?

e) anything else?

For myself:

a) Generally, yes, I give the episode a title, if only for my own purpose. Sometimes I tell

     the players beforehand, sometimes at the end, and sometimes not at all

b) Most (not all) of my villains have an origin of some sort spelled out, if only if a line or two.

c) A few times; only if there's a possibility of the NPC being involved where OCV, DCV, etc will

    need to be known.

d) Often. Battlemaps make for a refreshing change of pace and really shines on the range of an

    attack. As we have 4 GMs in the campaign, a couple of the others use props on the maps.

    During the Atlantis module, the GM played a special piece of music to help with the ambience.

    I've made over 100 commercials for various episodes and going strong.

e) Munchies are always welcome.

Your turns now.

Probably none; it's hard to say. Maybe V&V.

On 5/5/2022 at 3:40 PM, AlgaeNymph said:

Obviously.  There are more powers for players.  ; )

 

Think of the stories!  A shutdown team practically writes itself.  Or something.  : p

Until the players get upset and quit the game.

Be aware that in general, players strongly dislike their characters being made useless. As a GM: been there, done that, avoid it now. I guess your request varies depending on the campaign, when they'll be used, etc.