Tech

The problem with Transformation is that the amount of dice needed may be considerable to do that on the average. Go with a Mental Paralysis with a limitation, can be woken up instantly by outside help. That should be cheaper. 'Course, depending on how deep a sleep, being woken up by outside help may not be a limitation because they can't - the sleeper has to wake themselves up.

Frozen 2 again

I don't give XP to NPCs or villains, and I have very few NPC heroes.  As a campaign goes on, I check to see if the villain has become less effective, simply because the heroes are getting more experienced and powerful. If it's needed, then I may revise the villain a little to make him a little more in line with the concept effectiveness, i.e, more powerful, but that's about it.

I'm still on the fence with Unified Power, yes it allows more... but ultimately that is because more and more rules kept getting piled onto ECs.   Even with some of those, it feels more like rules that were created to stop that ONE player instead of putting more of a focus on Genre or GM campaign limits.  

As @Duke Bushido mentioned, all Frameworks are a 'cheat' to milk more points into a character build, and EC are no better or worse than the others.  Ultimately some of this should come down on the GM saying "ok, maybe by the RAW you could do this, but I am going to say no.  You need to make X changes and then we are fine."    

Personally I like Elemental Controls more for various reasons, even if one of the biggest is just how it nicely gathers all the associated powers into one place.  I would ignore many of the limits placed over the various editions for the sake of proper concepts...but I am also not afraid to say 'no' or "we tried this but it needs reworking"
 

I still play old editions.  I dabbled in 4e for a year or two, but douns myself eight back in 2e shortly after, and I have never seen anything in newer editions compelling enough to make me change.  Given the compatibikity backwards and forwards, if something I want does finally come along, I will likely just double the END cost and drag it backwards.
 
 
 
If it is any help, I can tell you what I see.
 
I see pretty accurate comic book characters (so far as I know, anyway) and pretty accurate pulp-esque Latern B Jaw versus the Swami type character builds.
 
 Obviously, this is all from one point of view: my knowledge of comic books is pretty thin, and at sixty-three years old, even what I do know is pretty dated (I wasnt a comic book kid, and did not become a comic book adult).
 
 
So let me skip ahead to my 4e experience:
 
Everyone had every defense.
 
There is no softer way to say that:  by the third oe fourth character, everyone had some od everything, defense-wise.  It hasnt changed in the rules, so I suspect that is still kind of the way that the game is played: "stadanrd defense package" or some such thing.  No matter what you want to call it, everyone had a little bit of everything, "just in case."
 
Sam, your character's name is Crowbar.  His powers are based on turning his body to iron.  Your powers are Growth, Density increase, plus 20 STR only in HERO ID, resistant hardened PD and ED.  This all makes sense.. I get the Knockback Resistance, and thank you for not foing overboard on that.
 
Explain the Flash Defense?  Okay, fine; your sunglasses are super sunglasses.  Explain the EGO Defense?
 
"Well, it is so much cheaper to mind control someone now, so I figur3d I had better take some, just in case...."
 
On top of the 30 EGO?!
 
"Well, it is so cheap  to mind control someone now....  I figured I would buy a few dice of that, and a higher EGO gives me a higher OCV--"
 
You're a brick!  You are -literally- a human boat anchor!  How does mind control fit into that?!
 
 
Things like that.
 
 
The old methods lead- at my tables; do remember this is anecdotal- to people more comfortable playing to type:  bricks didn't buy EGO defense because Ego powers were _expensive_!  People wanting to build an Egoist character went all-in.  I mean, they _had_ to if they wanted do be a real threat.  You didnt have that Egoist PC who also had an,incredible STR and a few martial arts maneuvers.  You got the comic-classic (and pulp classic) mental powers guy.
 
The TLDR version is that I found the total investment in mental powers required to be effective resulted in players much more comfortable in building characters who better-exemplifies the actual sort of character they wanted to play with a lot less dabbling in Ego Powers "because they are more effective now."
 
 
 

I was of similar mind, but I have been going over Hugh's gun /bullet example, and it holds up.
 
It also leads to a lot of 70's sci-fi where they pointed ray guns, _maybe_ there was a sound, but budget for drawing in energy beams wasnt there, so squibs or sparklers went off, heroes grqbbed their shoulder and grimmaced in pain, etc, etc.
 
In short, it not only holds up, it has extensive precedent.
 
 

Can't resist: so, you're saying that using the idea of Desolid is immaterial?  *ba bumpt ish*
 
That said, I wouldn't use Desolid; I've always used superleap/leap to negate falling damage. It also within the power concept; if you're falling and your legs are really tied up, desolid won't work nor will superleap/leap.

Can't resist: so, you're saying that using the idea of Desolid is immaterial?  *ba bumpt ish*
 
That said, I wouldn't use Desolid; I've always used superleap/leap to negate falling damage. It also within the power concept; if you're falling and your legs are really tied up, desolid won't work nor will superleap/leap.

Alot of people seem to think END is a nuisance for them; for me it is not. Since we use END in our Champions campaign, I take that into consideration very much when designing a character - hero or villain. In this last weekend's game, a hero and a villainess were fighting for about a turn and a half. He was getting tired. I surprised him by the villainess saying, "Okay, I might consider leaving (huff) but it's not because I'm getting tired (huff)."  The players got a laugh out of that.

Alot of people seem to think END is a nuisance for them; for me it is not. Since we use END in our Champions campaign, I take that into consideration very much when designing a character - hero or villain. In this last weekend's game, a hero and a villainess were fighting for about a turn and a half. He was getting tired. I surprised him by the villainess saying, "Okay, I might consider leaving (huff) but it's not because I'm getting tired (huff)."  The players got a laugh out of that.

After everything you mentioned, I look at this version of Ben Grim and wonder if you overdid it. I haven't read any Fantastic Four comics for a long time I admit so maybe the Thing's changed. However, I have to say I never thought he had more than an 80 Str. The +8 Levels with Martial Arts seems overly generous: at most I'd give him 5 lvls. I don't recall him ever being worthy of a 25 Ego and his Pre is way too high - with that, people will be fainting with him just walking into the room. I don't think he needs that much Body with the defenses you've given him; wow.

When using a battlemap for a Champions episode, there are times when lots of agents show up. Since we use paper minifigs that we create, creating 18 minifigs is not fun. However, there is a way around that.
 
My brother used this when the hero team was surprised in a ballroom; the civilians turned out to be Viper agents in disguise. Suddenly, 18 minifigs are needed. Simply put: use D6. Get 3 sets of colored D6, each set a different color. Ex: red, green, blue. Now, put each die down with a number facing up. The set of blue D6 is Viper agents 1-6, second set of red D6 is Viper agents 1-6 and finally the third set of green D6 is Viper agents 1-6.
 
Of course, if you have alot of the other dice (D4, D8, D12, etc), you can use those as well.

When using a battlemap for a Champions episode, there are times when lots of agents show up. Since we use paper minifigs that we create, creating 18 minifigs is not fun. However, there is a way around that.
 
My brother used this when the hero team was surprised in a ballroom; the civilians turned out to be Viper agents in disguise. Suddenly, 18 minifigs are needed. Simply put: use D6. Get 3 sets of colored D6, each set a different color. Ex: red, green, blue. Now, put each die down with a number facing up. The set of blue D6 is Viper agents 1-6, second set of red D6 is Viper agents 1-6 and finally the third set of green D6 is Viper agents 1-6.
 
Of course, if you have alot of the other dice (D4, D8, D12, etc), you can use those as well.

Get the idea of what you want to do with the power, then discuss with the GM. In something trivial like this, I would hope the GM doesn't make a fuss.
 
"If the desolidifed is a ghost, etc.. feel ghostly"   Not necessarily. I can easily think of reasons why it wouldn't. One such example would be a heat elemental. It's invisible to normal sight, desolid and if it touched something, it'd feel hot.  But your point was not missed by me.

Gotta agree. Have tried a Luck-based villain, everyone disliked it. Also, realize you're spending points on Luck just to get a limitation; seems counter-productive.

Gotta agree. Have tried a Luck-based villain, everyone disliked it. Also, realize you're spending points on Luck just to get a limitation; seems counter-productive.

I'm actually re-doing an an episode I ran six years ago. It was one of my most memorable episodes I've ever run and I'm very excited to do this episode again (complete with an almost 5 minute introductory video). Two heroes in love are being forced apart, and the heroine will have to return home (different dimension) in 3 days. While the two broken-hearted heroes pine for each other, the other heroes have to race around to find out what's going on... and stop it. They just barely did it last time with about an hour to go. This episode back then would actually have the heroine leave so the episode was very much in their hands. I'm tickled to do this again (as well as redo the video with better technology this time.)  By the way, the heroine is... Belldandy from AMG. Yep, she's a player character.

I'm actually re-doing an an episode I ran six years ago. It was one of my most memorable episodes I've ever run and I'm very excited to do this episode again (complete with an almost 5 minute introductory video). Two heroes in love are being forced apart, and the heroine will have to return home (different dimension) in 3 days. While the two broken-hearted heroes pine for each other, the other heroes have to race around to find out what's going on... and stop it. They just barely did it last time with about an hour to go. This episode back then would actually have the heroine leave so the episode was very much in their hands. I'm tickled to do this again (as well as redo the video with better technology this time.)  By the way, the heroine is... Belldandy from AMG. Yep, she's a player character.

Ralph seems to have a pretty versatile use of his strength, so I might allow some kind of variable advantage for his strength and any HA so at different times he could apply AE: 1 Hex , Armor Piercing, or even Autofire . He breaks through solid (video game) stone routinely so we are definitely talking superhuman. Ralph has a code vs killing, I suspect... for a 'bad guy' he rarely just punches someone. He prefers to punch some THINGS where he can cut loose.
I would also consider buying him a very small amount of tunneling.. Ralph barges through obstacles like that. If you really want to get fancy, some sort of transform -'X to flattened X' might work.
 
As to your original question, I think I'd put him at MINIMUM Strength 30 +6D6 HA. But I'd go mostly strength and make it 40 Str +4d6HA. If I brought him in a Champs standard setting where he found him facing other Bricks I'd probably just skip the HA and make him 60 str as a rookie 'hero' (And again that's not counting the Naked Variable advantage)
 
But that's just my initial slapdash thoughts on it.

The original request was: "I was wondering if anyone had any ideas how to stat a serum that could be carried around in an device to cure mutants or inhumans if one was encountered in the middle of a field mission? Not against their will, even".  This seems to be a plot device which no player will be using. However, he asked how it could be built and it can be built since with enough points, any power can be built. However, PsiJudge has already said:  "Thanks guys. I think I know what I'm doing now" so unless he says something, I think he's good to go.

The GM and player need to talk over what can be put into the VPP. A limitation was taken so some things aren't going to be allowed in it. As was stated, Teleport is a movement power; the special effects of it are the question. Personally, I would allow TP in the VPP but how much of a limitation was taken is the factor.

Recently, we did the 40th anniversary episode for the campaign. More recently, the 100th episode for one of our newest supergroups. However, this past Saturday, we did the 600th episode for our earliest, and continually running, supergroup. It featured every hero of that group for the past 40 years, against Dr. Destroyer. Total supers, including cameos of which there were plenty, came out to 18 superheroes. Woo! It was a rousing success, complete with a 3 minute video I created (which came out to be the 250th video created for our Champions campaign), and an actual map of Paris the players used to save the city.

From this past weekend:
 
Hero previously flashed can see again: "Hey, I can see again?"
Villain that did it in the first place, "You can see again?"
Hero replies, "Yeah, I can see again... oh..."
Villain hits hero with flash attack again.  😛

Last weekend, we had a battlemap game where various heroes (not in any supergroup) got together at a park to protect a park statue from being stolen from villains. Among these villains is one of the campaign's most powerful bricks: Armageddon. This brick is from an old book "Trouble for HAVOC" (although he no longer has an 8 Spd!). Anyways, my detective character minifig is closest to him; I decided to have him go up against him and I say aloud, "This is nuts, but my character's going for Armageddon."  Really, one hit from this brick and my character will go down.

Here's where I pull off a few brilliant moves: my detective character has Cinematic Brawling. So, I delay until Armageddon is ready to attack, then use the Eye Gouge attack and blind him for 5 phases. He's blinded and misses. Next attack phase, I use Hoise & Heave and throw him away from me. This allows another character to use a blinding light (Darkness ) on Armageddon when he can see.
 
In the meanwhile, my detective turns on another supervillain who throws things to entangle heros. My 6's move is to make a half-phase up to him from behind and clear his throat. When the villain turns around, my detective slaps him in the face saying, "That's for attacking a woman."  Next phase, my character delays until the villain reaches for his chemical ball to entangle my detective so I use Disarm on him and he drops the ball, entangling himself.  (Every villain we fought, we found out later, had Unluck!)

Quite frankly, I thought my detective character was going to be *splat* quickly but somehow, quick thinking made him shine in the other character's eyes.

Last weekend, we had a battlemap game where various heroes (not in any supergroup) got together at a park to protect a park statue from being stolen from villains. Among these villains is one of the campaign's most powerful bricks: Armageddon. This brick is from an old book "Trouble for HAVOC" (although he no longer has an 8 Spd!). Anyways, my detective character minifig is closest to him; I decided to have him go up against him and I say aloud, "This is nuts, but my character's going for Armageddon."  Really, one hit from this brick and my character will go down.

Here's where I pull off a few brilliant moves: my detective character has Cinematic Brawling. So, I delay until Armageddon is ready to attack, then use the Eye Gouge attack and blind him for 5 phases. He's blinded and misses. Next attack phase, I use Hoise & Heave and throw him away from me. This allows another character to use a blinding light (Darkness ) on Armageddon when he can see.
 
In the meanwhile, my detective turns on another supervillain who throws things to entangle heros. My 6's move is to make a half-phase up to him from behind and clear his throat. When the villain turns around, my detective slaps him in the face saying, "That's for attacking a woman."  Next phase, my character delays until the villain reaches for his chemical ball to entangle my detective so I use Disarm on him and he drops the ball, entangling himself.  (Every villain we fought, we found out later, had Unluck!)

Quite frankly, I thought my detective character was going to be *splat* quickly but somehow, quick thinking made him shine in the other character's eyes.