mrinku

Well, let's have some classics, shall we:

Bank Robbery always goes well for me, especially with a new player group. 

Yeah, it's hard to even have a conversation about what's going on here without knowing a bit about the character. This might end up being a really cool and non-munchkin thing depending on what the heck else is going on.  From the look of it, it's some kind of group travel spell multipower, with Gestures for the caster and  Restrainable for the recipients.

I don't see the problem. Two 20 active point attacks fit within a 40 active point cap. As others have pointed out, Autofire allows this. 

You could also build it as 40 active points with Reduced Penetration. That's a classic HERO dual wield build.

In ALL cases, the campaign imposed limit of 8DC means just that. In effect anyone who builds an 8DC HKA (using compound power builds or otherwise) won't be allowed to use their STR to add to it. And they would get no disadvantage for "No STR Bonus" either for that reason.

Just because the Hero Maker output lists the  adds doesn't mean you can have them.

Costume is really a no-brainer. Just watch rock videos from the era (unless you want to go Europop...)

Powers wise, there's nothing really typical that stands out from the era, though being an angsty mutant ninja is your best origin.

I've been dying to do this with various characters from our old campaign but our attempts to get a Champions game up and running keep failing. In particular I'd love to run:

Big Girl: Big Girls Don't Cry (Four Seasons) and  Big Girls You Are Beautiful (Mika)

Captain Third: Any of a number of "third" classical pieces i.e. Beethoven's Third Symphony

Like wcw, I did write a theme song - for my original Champions character, Robo-bushi:

Robo-bushi

He flies on jets of fire

He is undestructable!

Robo-bushi

His engines never tire

His deeds are undeductable!

When danger is proximity

He won't turn and flee

Robo-bushi

Body so steel!

Lead us to victory!

The general idea was to go for a slightly awkward machine translation to English effect. English is, of course not Robo's first language (that would be machine code).

Yeah, I like the sharing of the gloves. Good origin detail.

A Guardian Angel can also be done as a Follower, or as an AI.

Depending on tone, you could throw in an ex-Nazi scientist or two now working for the Government. Reformed? Never a real Nazi? Just hiding in plain sight while working on his master plan to start the Fourth Reich?

In German or English

I know how to count down

Und I'm learning Chinese

Says Werhner von Braun

Done.

2 hours ago, Surrealone said:

Captain Monster trying to calm down a crowd?  C'mon.  What wise player uses a PRE attack when situational modifiers are heavily stacked against him/her???

Who are these wise players and where do you find them?

And naturally no GM is going to put a PC in such an awkward situation for the general amusement of the group...

On a less flippant note, it's precisely because the situational modifiers can be against them that keeps abuse in check. PRE attacks are, after all free.

And we've all seen Spider-Man's bad rep rear its ugly head when he's trying to do positive PRE...

On ‎13‎/‎01‎/‎2018 at 6:19 PM, Ninja-Bear said:

I just wanted to add that Firefighters have a ranking system and are not considered military.

Likewise commercial shipping and airlines. Though they don't use or need the higher operational ranks like Admiral.

Police also have a rank structure. Starfleet certainly has a law-enforcement role within Federation space, too, though in the same mode as Navies do (i.e. dealing with crimes that happen on the high seas.

Actually, as far as rank structures go, any bureaucracy mirrors military structure, even if the titles differ. Team Leaders and Subject Matter Experts are NCOs, Managers are Officers.

Side Side Note: Only with GM permission when appropriate to the target doing something they'd normally object to  

If it's a simple fear one (Hulk destroys truck and screams "HULK SMASH PUNY PEOPLE!!!") with the object of making the bystanders run away, it'll be PRE unless the bystanders have "Psych: Never Runs From a Fight" or similar. Running from a dangerous situation is something people will normally be quite happy to do.

Situational matters can also reduce the PRE dice rolled - that's the flip side of the bonus dice you mention. Reputation might reduce the dice rolled if the target doesn't believe what the character is saying is in character ("Sorry, Batman, I know you'd never pull that trigger!"). Striking appearance will only help if appropriate to the situation... if Captain Monster (Striking Appearance - Hideous Appearance, Reputation - Unholy Beast) is trying to calm down a panicking crowd (PRE attack) they should get a penalty, while Golden Angel (Striking Appearance - Unearthly Beauty, Reputation - Paragon of Good) will probably get a bonus. If the PRE attack was trying to make them flee in terror, the modifiers would be different.

Probably also worth pointing out that the lower tier PRE effects may have no practical effect, especially the first tier (act before the target this phase, +5 PRE to resist contrary PRE attacks). A character that loses half a phase due to PRE+10 can still attack, and "considering very deeply what the character says" will often mean little ("Throw down your guns, villains!" "Aargh! It's the Black Prowler! GET AWAY!" *bang* *bang* *bang*).

PRE also defends better than it attacks - each 5 points of PRE gives 1d6 to attack, but 5 points to defense. Without modifiers, same-PRE characters are unlikely to impress each other much.

Unless a character is deliberately built to be timid, PRE 15 is probably a minimum for PCs in either Heroic or Superheroic. 20 would be fine for a character whose description makes a point of their leadership, charisma or domination. PRE 15 needs about 7d6 to get to +10, around 10d6 to break +20 (where it really becomes a Power). To reliably get +20 against PRE 20 you would need 12d6 or more, which is going to either require PRE as a major power, or some very favourable circumstances.

How about working it so that she has to balance Karma? That is, in order to power her selfish and destructive goals, she also needs to enable unselfish and constructive stuff. 

Maybe that's the REASON she does bad stuff... in order to allow her to power up good stuff?

That could be done as simply as having a Secret Identity where she's good, or more game mechanically.

Punching Bag or Sandbag. Less hard hitting than the others, but able to absorb a massive amount of punishment.

(Vulnerable to Steve Rogers in a bad mood  )

It's also its own defense. Also worth pointing out that your average super tends to have extreme psychology which offsets attempts to make them do stuff by PRE alone (plus they tend to have a bit of PRE anyway... it's the mooks and civilians that are vulnerable). It's very circumstantial, and the GM has final say as to what actually happens.

PRE is the basis of most social skills as well, so using those to supplement PRE attacks can work well. 

Did a bit more testing on DriveThru RPG... even internal searchers there don't pick it up well unless you actively type in "Golden Age Champions", since there's no reviews posted at all (Anyone who knows anyone who bought a copy there, PLEASE get them to post something). "Golden Age" brings up the M&M product and a bunch of other stuff. "Champions" lists "Darren Watts' Golden Age Champions" way down the list (possibly because of no reviews, possibly because of alphabet sorting, possibly because the keyword is later in the title than a lot of other HERO products).

If you could get those particular searches to bring up the product higher in the list, it may help a bit, Darren. I don't know if the site owners can adjust things for default searches within a company's products, but it might be worth asking.

Actually, with Marvel, you're more likely to get a redhead than a Brunette, especially if they're a mutant. Fact.

But yeah, the whitewashing is so ingrained in classic superheroes that it was almost inevitable the first wave was going to be that way (and also be male dominated).

Black Panther should address that fairly well. I particularly like that it seems to be all in Wakanda.

Also... are we forgetting Nick Fury here? Does anyone even remember when he wasn't  Sam Jackson?

I hang on to my old Magic cards mostly from respect to a dead set classic game design. Individual cards might be sold off, but not having a playable set would be like not having a chess set or getting rid of my copy of Richtofen's War or Monopoly.

Good article.

My take is that it probably depends on what you want out of it.

I haven't seen the new series, but I the classic movie, the rogue Gunfighter was pretty much unstoppable when not following his programming to "play dead".

However, if you want to game out the role-playing sequences there's no reason not to play it straight, but use ratings that only apply in that situation (i.e. when the simulation says you're dead, you're dead) but run with totally separate "real world" ratings. If the robots are interacting in the "real world" they'd have ratings appropriate to the situation.

It's also worth pointing out that while Batman may have a horrendous carbon footprint, he is still just one guy. The "wreck the environment" tagline on the article is quite misleading, unless there are millions of equivalent supers kicking around. The Batmobile is still going to have a minor footprint compared to any commercial airliner, let alone a fleet of them.

And... is there any doubt that the proper Batman (Adam West) would take care to ensure all his Bat-operations were appropriately sensitive to the environment? I think not!

Colour me curious as to what, if any, benefit that has over a single barrel one. Is it blasting with both at once?

If you're going to use a language that has more formally gendered grammar such as Spanish, pick a cool team name and render it in its feminine form.

And as a point, ALL VPPs have to have a common special effect (even if it's "Cosmic Powers" or "Divine Intervention"), so you don't get a limitation for it just being "magic" or "technology" (or Mutant Powers or The Speed Force) but whether that condition restricts the pool in any significant way.

A classic gadget pool gets a bonus not because it uses technology as a special effect, but because it uses Foci, and you are allowed to apply a required limitation to the pool cost.

"Magic" is not a good limitation, though "Spells" may be if all spells require some of a list of requirements (i.e. incantations, guestures, skill roll etc). If these are always needed it's better to specify those limitations as VPP ones, but if you can choose between them a more general VPP limit may apply (maybe use Variable Limitation as a guide there and go with half the required value?).