Scott Ruggels

Back from the con, and not having to type on an iPhone. Having an adventure or plan come down to one roll may be dramatic, but it's not very smart, In the provided scenario of it all depending on Hawkeye-expy to make a clutch shot at the buzzer, to take down Mechanon is poor planning on the heroes part. You have a table full of heroes who can do something. Never every make a plan that is dependent on one die roll for a win. Mechanon usually needs a whole team to beat on him to take him down, and that needs the active cooperation and participation of most if not all of the characters present. Everyone should get a chance to deliver that finishing blow, not just The Hawkeye expy, who could blow his roll. What's the fallback plan, then? There had better be one. The difference between HAP, and Fudging the rolls is that the HAPs are player controlled, and the Fudged die rolls or poor but internally consistent decisions by the villains are secret from the players, and so the emotional tension is not diffused for the players, and the perception of the stakes is not changed. The GM is basically stage managing things for the players to move through the situation presented, to provide a fun experience, and for me the fun is keeping the players players, and NOT having them make authorial decisions outside of their roles are active participants in trying to solve the situation I have presented to them.

Who says Batman doesn’t wear armor? Also comics and films and their respective audiences are different animals.

And that is a smart way to handle it. The dice come out if there is a chance for failure. The skill roll can be more of an indicator of that character’s ability to perform a task. It would only have to be rolled or under stress, or if contested, or if the player insists. I may toss a single D6 to determine the quality of the results behind the screen, assuming a success but how good of a success.

Thank you for making my point. Role playing is playing a role. The quality of that role is dependent upon the skill and the depth the player puts into it. Certainly the background and the intended tone of the campaign influences, but it’s ultimately the player’s creation. Bingo!

That’s fine! That’s what they were built for. It may be in the citation of Steve Peterson above is apt in that Champions was built as an anathema tonlinear narrative structure.

I have known of GMs that do not allow NPCs to push.

Thank you. Though I am still not thinking that meta-currency will work, as anything more than a house rule depending on very much on the composition of ones local group. If I was the GM? I would Ask the players what sort of campaign they want for next time, or if any one else wants to run. Then shelve the campaign on my book shelf when I get home.

I took a long walk to think about this. To my mind, Champions is not designed for it. I would not call it a weakness, as more of and a design oversight. No, Champions does not support absolutes nor was it intended as a narrative system. I am afraid as designed, Champions will not support what you are looking for. I am unfamiliar neither your definition of pathos, and out on the street, resting ai cannot look it up while typing this out on my phone, but perhaps some flavor of Savage Worlds May serve your needs satisfactorily.

I have been in that exact same scenario, but the adventure had multiple points of failure. 1.). The hero’s could attack the machine. 2.)The Heroes could attack Mechanon preventing him from activating the machine. (Not a high success chance) 3.) The Heroes could attack the broad cast antenna, and/ or the hijacked microwave antenna next to it. 4.) One of the Heroes with a high computer programming skill could prevent the command to execute properly. The Heroes could destroy the hidden drone fabrication plants one by one before the command is issued (but that would take ages. ) 5.) Solve the problem in a way the GM hadn’t thought of. The trick was none of those points of failure of Mechanon’s plan was made obvious, but took sessions of detective work, and observation, until they came up with a plan, and even then, Mechanon could shut down one or two of the efforts. What we are need up doing was a mixture of one and three with two being a distraction, so Mechanon’s efforts were spent defending himself and his machine, while the rest of the Heroes toppled the antenna. So the lesson is the higher the stakes, the more points of failure the GM should put into the villains plans. This does not make them “weaker”, and you shouldn’t, but it is classic hubris to make a plan so “fool proof”’that there is no way it is would fail, except the opposition is determined. In my experience, the more “artificial “ constraints applied to player actions, especially if they conflict with lived experience and common sense, the less successful the game is. Let’s just say that playing with RL police officers changes our perceptions of how the justice system actually works, as well as the legal limits of Citizens Arrest and evidentiary rules. Good bye to any thoughts of a 12 cent Silver Age comic. That would be FATE, and most of the other “Theater of the Mind”” Theater of the mind for me works very well for non combat situations, but not when the combat starts. At all. FATE was an awful experience for me. My experience with Savage Worlds shows that it can satisfactorily work, but it was designed that way. Also there is automatic failure, where you cannot use your meta-currency at all. You lose, you lose, or die, so the real drama can still exist.

Just wanted to drop a short convention report. Had a great time reconnecting with my people. Though I was too slow in registration to get into any games as I was just there Sat; and Sun, I did manage to reconnect with my gamer people at the show. It was a bit over stuffed, with the Hotel having to convert a store room into extra gaming, but the con moved very smoothly, and the Hotel staff was very helpful. Hero was a bit under represented; but In did note a few incidences of Hero in the wild. All in all, it was a fine send off for the Marriott San Ramon. I cannot was other confirm or deny a conspiracy for as many people as possible running Hero next year in Santa Clara for the 40 anniversary of Champions.

Exactly. Also I believe that is also the GMs job to not provide adventures with a single point of failure. The quest for narratively significant climaxes, and too closely following writers techniques have resulted in many single point failures of adventures that demand some relief from dice dictated results to turn that single point of failure to a “dramatic” player success. I also think it’s a desire for tight genre emulation which compromises player options, and limits GM imagination for alternative solution to the scenario presented. If you try to force a Champions game into a three act play structure, it is going far beyond what the rules intend. The problem with meta currency, is not that it will be used at every situation. But that it will be used in dramatically significant situations to insure a “Win”’ for the good guys. To me this means that in the back of the player’s mind, the good guys will win, and the GM won’t plan or fight as hard. To me, this is the antithesis of role play. For me, the uncertainty of the outcome and the randomness of the dice align player and character ‘s emotions to the situation at hand. My best moments have been in those uncertain combat situations, where things are going wrong, and we may have to plan for evacuation, and my heart is pounding, and no one’s attention is wavering, and every moment Is diamond focused. Will we retreat in good order?, will we lose a gem member to capture or serious injury, or will a one last lucky die roll stun the big bad to allow the rest of the team to pile on and end the fight? I have been in all those situations with various characters, and the level of RP immersion has been a sweet, sweet wine I would never trade for an assured victory. In comparison, meta currency just cheapens my experience. It may be advantageous to turn to the scripture of St. Aaron Allston, either from his Lands or Mystery, where Aaron explained how to run a pulp adventure with good genre flavor without resorting to meta currency,or from Strike Force V. 2 on how to avoid single point of failure adventure design. Besides he was an experienced GM for decades, as well as a successful author, and new the difference between a game and a story, while never sacrificing role play.

She or happens it happens. One can either use that as the beginning motivation or an new campaign , or a a chance to allow the GM to take a break and for the group to maybe play someone else’s campaign. TPK happenes, which makes the value of a victory all that mich sweeter. In Champions it usually ends up with most of not all the team captured, so the next adventure is the break out, or rescue. That being said, Bob Simpson made capture so unpleasant, our heroes always has a bug out plan if the situation went wrong. One should ever always expect to win b

This is one of the reasyIntake a dim view of 6e, that and 5 points gets you one DC but 1’point of barrier gets you more that what a DC can punch through.

I would say smarter players because I have seen it and often, but it takes planning, and an deep familiarity with the rules (any rules), and it happens. At the con I was at, the players were in a Traveller game that was heavily stacked against them. Because the players were smart and planned a game that was supposed to finish at 2:00 am instead finished at 10:30 pm with few shots fired. No this is a traveler game, so it was more of a heist, but a a few of the players were old first generation Champions players. But any time you get two or more ofnThe Guardians (the Hero Games in House super team) in anyone’s game, bad things happen to the villains schemes, because timing, teamwork and planning are second nature to them. They are also absolutely open to bringing any noobs at the table into the plan to participate if they have an aptitude for listening to instructions and following the timing The results can be spectacular and truly heroic.

You pull out the dice when the players have a chance to fail. If the dice rolls break your plan, well so be it, maybe it is someone else’s turn to save the day at that moment. There is a table of other participants than can and should have a try. And a good team will plan for failure as well as success.

Anti climactic sounds like a GM problem rather than a dice problem to me. The Hero points to me break the flow, and the solidity of the environment. Sometimes you just have bad luck. Better to blame the dice than someone else at the table.

But what do you define as a superhero story? From what traditions do you see missing in the standard game? From even within the superhero genre, we are looking at 75 years of stories, across multiple publishers, encompassing thousands of characters. The you have the Comics Code and then the post comics code stories. There is a wide latitude there.

Yes we need a stripped Dow focused system, and we need an adventure , and only gloss the setting, and we need pretty art, other than the high expense for the last part, sounds simple enough.

Mostly the former, but the music I still listen to, and that's culture to me.

I think we were discussing how current year marketing is box office cancer: https://jalopnik.com/we-deserve-an-all-female-fast-and-furious-spin-off-1841671250 and then how've studios manipulate Rotten Tomatoes to gaslight movie goers to try to recover box office revenue, or a films damaged reputation.

Movie superhero suits cannot look like the comics. Because film and video display more detail than most comic art (because deadlines). Therefore you get multi layered spandex with texturing, and overlapping plates. This is because the suit has to look visually interesting at unflattering angles during stunts, as well as closeups. Marvel currently is the best at it, picking visually contrasting materials and intricate details, though at the extreme end was Ironman, where the suit was totally CGI. A good friend animated the suit by hand without mocap data for the scene where a champagne drunk Tony Stark embarrasses Pepper at a public function. The suit was based on the designs by Adi Granov, which honestly cannot be worn by humans. But Marvel has the money to pay for the CGI. On the other end of the spectrum was the Shazam movie, where the suit was merely adequate, but looked like a padded muscle suit under microscopically tailored, matte finished or flocked spandex. Simple spandex Suits in solid colors just end up looking like cheap jazzercise costumes, and don't reflect well on the budget or the actor wearing them.

I would have to unironically agree. Vicftory over Communism without firing a shot!😍

Graduated High school in 1982. Flunked out of college in 1984, and worked a series of dead end jobs. At this point school didn't matter, other than to learn graphics, and animation skills, because... I went to Dance clubs. I played a huge amount of games. Got involved in a whole slew of gaming fanzines. Got invited to play with the Hero games folks, and got my first paid illustration gigs. Worked in Comic books. Worked the stands as an usher during the 84 Olympics, and saw Brazil beat Italy decisively in soccer. I started collecting the music I ran across in Clubs, collecting orange crates full of 12 in. Dance singles and Motion Picture soundtracks. Lots of great action movies, and delectable Trash Cinema (The Sword & The Sorcerer), and I was healthy enough to eat anything (Jack in The Box Ultimate Cheese burgers, with a side of Bacon Cheddar Potato wedges.). Ronald Reagan broke the back of the Soviet union, and it collapsed 6 months after he left office. (Victory over Communism!) Went through three cars. Started to travel to big conventions, like WorldCon, Gencon, and Comic-con. For me, the 80's were a grand, young person's Adventure, so I have to Grade it as an A!

I was traveling a lot in the 80s as well, to game cons, either on my own dime, or working with game companies like R. Talsorian and others. Picking up a ton of music. Exploring the country. Just our of college, hitting clubs having a blast.

Been out of the loop for 15 years. Used to run a lot of pick up games at cons. Fantasy Hero, Cyberpunk, occasionally Tri-Tac, but Inhavent been to a gaming con in maybe 18 years? Going to one on Saturday, but I am so rusty , and Inhave nothing prepared. I will see how it goes. If it’s good I may GM someday, but it helped to have a regular weekly group, but Indont have a face to face local. Just 5e on Roll 20’on Saturday’s.