mrinku

As I only have CC, and the Trigger Advantage is a post 4e thing, I'm a little curious as to the finer points of it. Clearly it can be used to make a hand grenade, but how does that work with the trigger reset? Base power would be something like 2D6 RKA AoE Radius Explosion, Range based on STR and some amount of Charges. Probably Indirect within a limited scope (i.e. being tossed in an arc or left in a location). Then we get to Trigger: Trigger (One defined condition, 5 second time delay +1/4) (Zero Phase Action). Obviously there are other timer options you could define, but we'll go with an old fashioned pin and lever release design for the purpose of the discussion. It's the Reset condition that stumps me. Should this be "resets automatically" in regard to pulling the pin on a second grenade, a Half Phase action to represent getting out and prepping another grenade, or something else? (Because the trigger itself is a countdown, I assume the "trigger remains ready" and "trigger expires" modifiers can't apply in this case.)

Works for me. Momentum might mean the disintegrated object keeps going for a bit. He might want to invest in a dry-cleaning spell

The vulnerability to Magic has been handled very inconsistently, too. Even to the extent that a magic sword might kill him as easily as a mortal. Time to call Captain Marvel, eh?

Going to depend on the genre and campaign ground rules a bit. "Do gods exist?" being an important one, as is "Do they care?" and "How come this dude can get their attention?" For example, in a Malorian King Arthur game, you might expect that the odd Miracle could pop up for a genuinely pious knight, probably involving an encounter with the Sangreal (Something FULLY under GM control). In a normal sort of Fantasy Hero game a priest type might have a Contact with Patron Deity and various skills like PS:Priest. What you've tried to construct actually looks a bit like a Favour Perk, which might have been earned by the priest from their god during play. "O merciful Goddess, I humbly beseech you to heal this poor soul..." ("Make the Favour roll. I'll give you +2 because your cause is worthy and attitude is correct.") *Blinding light. A vision appears* "Ah. Priestess Lucy. We are well pleased with your devotions and do recall your courage and sacrifice in bringing the sutras from Yndyaa. We are minded to grant your petition. Go in peace." ("Yep that did it. Roger's now in perfect health. Well done! Don't forget to remove the favour.")

No, no. Autofire works well. I certainly won't criticise that one at all. Like many things there's a few good ways to build this. I think we've probably hit on most of them: Naked advantage trigger attack Naked advantage increased damage with reduced penetration Extra Speed, only for secondary weapon attacks and/or blocks CSLs with either Multiple Attack or a specific Two Weapon form (note: only needs 2pt CSLs and is probably the simplest option) Custom Martial maneuver Naked advantage Autofire Naked advantage AoE Edit: struck out the illegal CSLs with Multiple Attack. Thanks for spotting that, H-M!

In 3e Champions? NND powers. Keeping in mind these are superhero martial artists like Iron Fist or Batman, not action film ones like Bruce Lee. Don't get me wrong - for general HERO I love the 4e Martial Arts, which basically comes from 3e Danger International. I used the DI rules to make a Sumo character myself. And Ninja Hero is one of the best sourcebooks of any edition. I was just saying that the previous way of doing it was quick, easy and had a built in reason as to why Superman doesn't use Kryptonian Karate.

Yeah. That's why I'd liberally borrow some stuff from 4e HERO (not all of it) in making a 3eRevised. But the over detailed approach started with the Champions/HERO mashup in 4e. The older way of doing Martial Arts by making the cost based on STR, for example, had a nice feel to it and was really all a superhero game needed. We certainly didn't find it a bad way of building Martial Artist characters.

Fortunately - Magic That's true enough, but if the disintegration effect is happening through something other than friction that point may not apply so much. Chemical reactions can disintegrate without huge energies being required, for example, and Traveller had super high-tech (i.e. not usually available) disintegrators that worked by manipulating atomic forces. That sort of handwavium is fine for superpowers and a magic spell doesn't really have to match physics at all. It's common for spells and powers to violate several laws of conservation (mass, energy, momentum etc) Also... bullets and arrows have FAR less momentum than a space rock, so the side effects may not be as major as you suspect. A typical 9mm pistol round is only about 500 Joules, rifles a couple of kilojoules. Boiling water to make a nice cup of coffee takes a lot more energy than that.

I'm actually starting to wonder if what Champions (as opposed to HERO) needs is something like "Third Edition Revised". I pulled out 3e, Champions II and Champions III last night to check some stuff and it did strike me that it was far easier to grasp it all in that edition than later ones (I can't speak for 1e or 2e, but I've never heard anyone complain that 3e "broke" 2e, and Champions II is actually a 2e supplement...) Take the 3e rules as core. Integrate the best bits of CII and CIII (most of which are actually in CII). Judiciously add in powers and concepts from later editions, especially a lot of the adders (6e Stretching is far superior to 3e Stretching, for example, but would not confuse a 3e player). Discard such concepts as "real weapons" and get back to "guns are RKA foci powers". *Maybe* include Perks, though they really could be split into Skills and Powers. Some abilities have bounced around between Skill, Perk and Power lists over the years anyway. Don't go generic - stick to superheroes! People can always add stuff, and genre books can always add optional rules.

One of my original players (3e) wanted a flying speedster, whose powers I largely based on Northstar from Alpha Flight. I borrowed "superspeed punches" from one time Northstar fought the Hulk (and managed to stagger him with hundreds of punches in a second or so) and built it as an autofire PEB, no range, penetrating (damage the same as his normal STR damage - 3d6 I think).

Mm. My example was for when the age of the minor was NOT in question, but the age of the adult, who was deliberately misrepresenting themselves in order to sleep with the minor. Law aside, a parent who was happy to see their 17 yo fool around with her high school sweetheart ("As long as you take precautions, dear") might not be as happy to find out that it was our old pal Mister Flexible!

You'll need a bigger budget.

I keep coming back to "if it's built using powers, build a counter power. If it's a noncombat effect, probably use noncombat solutions." Give the guy who bothered to spend 10 points to be a world class cancer surgeon a shot at using those skills for once!

Yeah. I think that works then if he wants a wall that will affect third parties against other third parties. At the end of the day the special effect is simple and clear and not obviously open to abuse, so go with it. If he just wants a one-way wall that protects himself, you'd just need regular personal defences.

You could also just go with normal Healing (special effect divine Voudun blessing). GMs should generally be flexible about "special effect tricks", especially when the powers aren't "real world" ones like guns, armour, first aid kits and such. A fantasy priest may have the same base Healing power as the Herbalist down the road, but the former may have a chance of curing leprosy if they're devout enough, while the latter can be as sinful as they like without it affecting their cures. Some skill rolls would probably be in order too - PS:Voodoo Priest, KS:Herbal Medicine; KS:Voodoo etc. Maybe build the Lwa as powerful Contacts (you probably already thought of that one) and actually persuade them to help instead of abstracting it as powers. But I do like your thinking, and there's nothing wrong with developing good house rules.

I had a player who had a three form character. Focus was an IIF choker - she reverted to base form if that ever got removed. The base form was a tough investigator sort, one was a werewolf that could only be used when the moon was above the horizon (didn't need to be full, or night) and the other was a powerful but dumb blonde bombshell who could only be used when Venus was above the horizon. Turned out easier than I thought to run - pick your location and you can get data for observing the moon and planets quite easily

Actually, they probably would be charged. I know locally (Tasmania) there was a child prostitution case a few years back where that defence was tried and failed miserably. But circumstances are important - if the 15 yo was (illegally) in a cocktail bar and using fake ID the defendant would have a strong case. The thing about statutory rape is that it usually applies based on factual age, and regardless of consent. A 25 year old who sleeps with a willing 17 year old can be charged, regardless of how youthful he appears, even if he disclosed his age to the teenager (assuming these ages match up with the local laws, of course). Often it's not the younger partner that brings charges, but their guardian or the state. Also note my scenario requires that there's some waiver on statutory rape when the people involved are both underage themselves. That isn't a universal (we've got something like it here, but it's just a valid defense for older teens, not an immunity from being charged). What I was getting at was that a shapeshifter (or disguise master) might pose as a 17 year old to get around that law, or the scrutiny of the parents. But if discovered I can certainly see an angry guardian calling the cops and laying charges. @Das Broot: In relation to the "Anonymous Tip" angle, it should be fairly watertight as long as it came in through established channels like a "Crimestoppers" reporting line and was definitely NOT set up by the cops. So a cape who found a suspected murder weapon could report it, just as any private citizen could (and should leave it untouched). However a gun in a dumpster near a crime scene is pretty cut and dried - the cops don't need a warrant to gather THAT evidence.

That wasn't aging, son. That was maturity.

I'd go with jointly Linked in this case, since the one special effect causes both power effects. Any useful bits on that page that didn't make it into CC?

Yup. That's a good nasty superpower/spell one. Loaded with "GM's Discretion" flags and it needs hit locations and wound effects to be in play, so it's not something that can just be pulled out of a VPP by any player who feels like it. "Sorry, Fred. That's out of line I'm afraid, but I'll let you redefine the damage as an AVLD REC Drain with a long recovery timeframe." Hmm... maybe the only thing we've needed all along to deal with this is the Can Heal Limbs Adder, which allows Healing or Regeneration to repair Disabling and Impairing wounds. Despite the name, it does appear to be the only thing in CC that covers that. I'd be happy to allow it vs the above attack (with suitable special effects, but a healing counter-curse should be possible).

Impenetrable totally negates the normal "minimum damage" of Penetrating. It doesn't matter how many points are actually in the defence (although obviously very low defences won't have too much effect against the usual damage). Keep in mind also that Penetrating only puts a floor on the appropriate damage done - if the actual damage done after defences is more than that, there's no effect. I'm not totally sure how it's meant to go with some PD Impenetrable and other not, but CC (p106) says "A given defense must be all Impenetrable or it's not Impenetrable at all", which suggests putting armour on top of Stoneskin negates the advantage. On the other hand, doing so provides more sheer protection and may make Penetrating a moot point. With the Penetrating Blast, let's assume 6rPD armour, 6rPD Stoneskin and 6 PD for a total of 18 PD. If the attack rolls 9 BODY, 32 STUN, all the BODY will be stopped and 14 STUN gets through, which is more than the BODY rolled, so Penetration has no net effect anyway. If the roll had been nine results of "2", causing 9 BODY and 18 STUN, normally no damage would be caused, but Penetrating would cause 9 STUN to be taken. In the case of the Penetrating 3D6 RKA things get more interesting. Assuming 11 Body, 22 STUN is caused and the effect roll is 3 "normal dice body", all the regular BODY is stopped by the 12rPD, but 3 BODY are taken because of Penetrating, and 4 STUN gets through. If you took off the armour and faced them with your bare Stoneskin your rPD would be Impenetrable, but you'd actually take five body, so it wouldn't really much matter. However, if the armour itself was Impenetrable (regardless of how much protection it provides) your rPD is now 100% Impenetrable and Penetrating is nullified. Impenetrable works well against smaller Penetrating attacks that are designed to nibble your BODY and STUN down regardless of your mighty defences. Against attacks that will actually get through your defences anyway and do significant damage it can be useless. 6pt Stoneskin on a Wizard with no armour against penetrating arrows and spells in the 1d6K range? Likely to stop them cold. And the rPD/ED is going to help regardless. Note that the same "all or none" rule applies to Armour Piercing/Hardened. At least in CC.

Hmm. I can actually see that working, due to the special effects of the power. However, you would need to Drain every ranged damage power with a suitable special effect (Blast AND RKA at least) and it gets a bit unwieldy.

Villains with those sorts of powers tend to use them as the special effect of combat powers (i.e. drains, transforms etc.) and that situation does generally need to be dealt with using the rules for those, as you say. Much depends on the setting. A typical superhero campaign should just use drains and damage effects (often NND). After all, the disease powers themselves are unrealistic, so it doesn't matter much if the recovery from them is as well. "Hah! You fools! My mighty Mega-Tumor power has given you all six to eighteen months to live!!!" "Well, that sucks. Better call Angel of Mercy tomorrow and book an appointment to see if she has a mystic cure or something. You won't mind if we curb stomp you now, Cancer Man?" "Err... guess I don't have much of a choice..." BAM! SMASH! PUMMEL! POW!

As I just posted in the related thread, chronic disease is handled as a Physical Limitation/Complication, and is a campaign, not a combat issue. You fight it with SS:Medicine, PS:Oncologist and KS:Cancer rolls and the GM's discretion. You cure it by buying off the complication, again at the GM's discretion. For that matter, disease is itself an environmental thing (like fire or lightning) and not really built with points but a pure effect applied by the GM (though some effects like fire can have active points for the purposes of fighting them). Cancer acts too slowly to show any combat effect. Many patients can operate pretty much normally right up until it kills them. MOST diseases would just translate into flat reduced characteristics, not STUN and BODY damage, or simply just the GM applying skill roll penalties (and yes, some guidelines on that would be nice). A head cold might not be too different to a hangover in game terms.

For the most part, chronic diseases are handled as Physical Complications and aren't meant to be solved with powers but bought off using experience points with GM permission. Curing it, or even treating it, lies in the realm of Noncombat. SS: Medicine, PS: Oncologist and KS: Cancer are going to be what you use, not an AoE vs Cancer Cells. Even a Transform cure for such things needs to be handled with care (Transforming lesser illnesses that don't rate a Physical Complication is not so much of an issue).