nitrosyncretic

I read the text and have to correct what I said: the text on page 92 just says that the VPP control skill must be a new skill that's not on the list. It says nothing about what the starting roll would be. So I don't know. Ron has confirmed that VPP control skill starts at 11-. I added that to the first post in this thread.

Skill levels cost 5 points (p. 74). About 11- or less -- well other versions of Hero System add a penalty of -1 per 10 AC, so 11- might actually be more consistent. p. 92. "You're stuck with the powers in the array until you get a chance to change them...."

I take the principle that Lethal only does damage when you roll effect dice. Entangle only rolls effect to initiate, so you'd only do damage once. Mind Control and Telepathy both only roll effect when started, so you do damage for each only on the initial effect roll. Mental Discipline is only 10 points! Very affordable. Who says a 200 point character isn't formally trained?

As I understand the rules, Telepathy with Lethal would be an Ego attack that does body based on the Core roll of the Telepathy dice and the the defense would be Special Defense: Ego, so yeah, pretty lethal. However, I also read telepathy as only rolling dice when it is initiated, so I'd say the damage only happens the first phase, then you have to make another ego attack to do more damage. That seems supported by the rules and also removes the effect of continued lethal attack for only a +1/2 advantage. Blast with Ego Based would cost the same per dice and would do both Knockout and Body, while Telepathy only does Body but does let you root around in someone's brain. Your choice depends on what you want. Also, if you take Mental Discipline, you can do Mind Stab for knockout damage without buying a power and also have access to some other cool maneuvers. Self-Mastery is useful because it's how you can reduce or break mind control, images, or a telepathy probe.

My preference would be to avoid mentioning the origin of superpowers -- this start history building and I think it's cooler to come with that later, based on what the players create. Some of the best I've seen are about what they look like "Flashy and Fun" or what choices they create "they will eventually kill their wielder."

That fits the guidelines. My personal preference would be to use 1. to also say something about the nature of powers -- may be expand what you mean by "inlikely."

Telepathy or Mind Control with the Lethal (does body) advantage.

Possible topics: Rules, build decisions, how the two statements showed up, etc.

Here's a place to ask questions, make comments, and discuss what I posted in Praise is also welcome! It would encourage me to give more!

APEX Group Tactics Arachnon and Steelwing usually work as a team. Steelwing will often transport Arachnon, then lay a line of obscuring chaff before dropping him into the field. Sometimes he will use the cover of the chaff to tunnel under the street and surprise the opposition. As he engages the enemy on the ground, she will harass them with buffets and slice-bys. When it comes time to exit, she can lift him off the field. Robokhan and Spinmeister tend to hang back to start, preferably blending into a crowd to start. Spinmeister will guard Robokhan while he operates surveillance drones and provides situational information to teammates. Both of them will try to enter combat by surprise: Robokhan converting his current pool configuration into Phalanx robots to engage opponents while Spinmeister poses as a bystander, perhaps luring a hero into a trap where she can strike from surprise. During missions of infiltration, Spinmeister usually takes the lead, disguising herself, using the violation glove to extract information, backed up by Robokhan's drones as overwatch. Arachnon and Steelwing saw the most action in our game and proved pretty challenging for the three heroes. Spinmeister mostly influenced the players indirectly by springing her teammates from jail using her secret id lawyer skills and also, at one point, kidnapping someone from protective custody as a cutaway scene while the player characters weren't present. I had almost no chance to test Robokhan's effectiveness, so I make no claims.

Robokhan (Jason Bland, 17yo video game wiz) DEX 13-, INT 12-, EGO 11-, SPD 3 [50] STR 2d6, PRE 2d6, BODY 12, Def 15 [25] REC 12, STUN 12 KO 24 END 36 Cost Power End 13 13 5 5 10 28 70 (25) (25) (68) (44) (47) Technosense. Awareness [20], Constrained ½: Only to see through eyes of technology Technotelepathy: 4d6 Telepathy [20], Only vs electronic machinery -1/2 Computer Programming (INT) Security Systems (INT) Robot Creation VPP Skill 12- Robot Creation Variable Power Pool Control Cost [35], All powers must take focus or be separate (¼). Pool [70] Pool Configuration Ideas Service Drone. 2d6 Strength, 5” Flight, Separate +1/4 [25], 4 def/4 body, 12 End (Add one unit per +5 points) Flying Eye. 10” Flight, Separate +1/4, [25], 4 def/4 body, 12 End (add one unit for each +5 points. Assassin Drone. 5” Flight, Separate, [12] 5d6 Blast, Piercing, Destructive, Separate, [56], 10 def/ 10 body, 30 end. Phalanx Bot, 5d6 Strength, High Impact +1/2, Separate +1/4 [44], 7 def/7 body, 21 End (add one for +6) Dynamo Joe (battlesuit). 9d6 blast, +3 rDef, 10” Flight [70], Inobvious Focus ½: hidden weak points. 0 4 142 Total Total = 75 + 145 = 220 Total AC = 247 Ratio = 1.12 120 Situations 15 PsychLim: Information wants to be free (Common, Functional) 15 PsychLim: Thinks of the world as a video game (Common, Functional) 20 PsychLim: Resents being manipulated/presence attacks (Common, Irrational) 15 Enraged when mocked about age (Common) 11- 25 Hunted: the player characters 20 Hunted: National Security Agency, Large, Extensive, Manipulative organization. 10 Hunted: Mother, Father, Sister (Small group, manipulative) “You're too young to be on your own!” Robokhan in Play Jason is a technopath with the ability to command technological parts to move and assemble themselves into robot forms that follow his orders. His power lets him see through any unshiilded cameras in the general area and mentally exchange information with electronic systems. Unlike RadioShack, he doesn't have the ability to actually manipulate switches and integrated circuits remotely--or at least he's not conscious of the ability--something must be going on when he commands a pile of junk to form up into a robot guardian and follow his orders. Jason is a rebellious teenager who developed a video game addiction at an early age to avoid the dysfunction in his home. He's always been a nerd and hates being mocked. He's done some hacking and come to the attention of the NSA. Should news or social media ever connect one of the player characters with Robokhan, Jason's parents or adult sister may approach the indicated superhero and ask for help finding the teen and encouraging to return to his family. Jason participates in the group for the money, the feeling of power, and scoring “points” against people he sees as trying to control him. He likes to hang in the background and let his robots do the work. In public he often has humanoid robots take the appearance of popular armored superheroes or supervillains to conceal their nature.

SpinMeister DEX 13-, INT 11-, EGO 12-, SPD 4 [60] STR 4d6, PRE 3d6, BODY 12, Def 15/3r [58] REC 12, STUN 12 KO 24 END 36 Cost Power End 20 10 10 5 5 5 5 20 22 Martial Arts I and II Find Weakness with Martial Punch Acrobatics (DEX) Climbing (STR) Disguise (INT) Stealth (DEX) Security Systems (INT) Technomorph Shapeshift: Instant Change: Any clothes, Any humanoid form [20]. Requires Disguise Skill roll to duplicate a specific person. (Prefers male forms to help hide her secret ID). Violation Glove: 6d6 Telepathy, Lethal +1/2 [45], Requires contact to initiate -1/2, Inobvious Focus -1/2 Str 0 6 102 Total Powers Total = 118 + 102 = 220 Total AC = 243 Ratio = 1.10 120 Situations 15 Secret ID: Leona, 31 year old, hotshot Amazon Lawyer, Defender of Supervillains 20 DNPC: 10 year old Daughter. PsychLim: Wants mom home more. Frequent, Irrational. 10 Unusual Looks 11-: Undisguised form is nude woman covered in mobile micro-scales that scintillate like beetle wings. 20 PsychLim: Fears revealing her true self. Frequent, Irrational. 15 PsychLim: Yearns to be loved for her true self. Frequent, Functional. 15 PsychLim: I will be accepted when everyone is part machine. Frequent, Functional 25 Hunted by the PCs SpinMeister in Play Leona is a mutant whose scaly, morphic skin emerged at age eleven. She believes her mutation arose because her mother worked on early technomorphic experiments. She came to see herself as a monster and has used her doppelganger powers to live several different lives and commit numerous crimes. When she gave birth to her daughter, she attempted to create a “normal” life for herself and her daughter. She has some worries that her daughter might be destined to manifest the same mutation in a few years. She has since become a hotshot lawyer, defending super-hirelings of the AMZN conglomerate. Her super-persona is male, the better to maintain her secret identity. She is an important member of the APEX security team. APEX provided her with the violation glove, a product of technopathic research that allows her to extract security codes and personal information that may aid in impersonations.. (SpinMeister was inspired by Mystique from the X-men and her shapechange powers have the scaly visual effect used in the movies.)

Steelwing Dex 13-, Int 11-, Ego 11-, SPD 4 [50] STR 3d6, PRE 3d6, BODY 13, Def 18/3 [50] REC 13, STUN 13 KO 26 END 39 Cost Power End 10 8 12 13 12 30 6 6 6 6 Acrobatics (Dex) Technopath Defense Net: +2 Dexterity [20], Conditional: Only to defend against Technopathic Special Effects -1, Inobvious Focus (cable nexus: 4 def, 4 body) -1/2 Elemental Control: Steelwing Battlesuit Wings. 10” Flight, Regional +1/4 [25] Wings. 12” Flight [24] Claw Hydrolics: +5d6 Strength [25], Only to grab or lift -1/2 Multiform [45], Weapons Array, Inobvious Focus: Control Nexus ½ - Blade Storm: 6d6 Blast, Piercing, [45], IF ½ - Buffet: 4d6 Blast, High Impact +1/2, Area: 2” Cone +3/4 [45], IF ½ - Slice-By: 5d6 Blast, Severe +1/2, Replaces Move-By +1/4 [44], IF ½ - Chaff Caster: 4 x Concealment, 3”x8” trail [40], IF ½ 2 2 +5 5 4 6 8 119 Total Powers Total = 100 + 119 = 219 Total AC = 261 Ratio = 1.19 121 Disadvantages 15 Secret ID: Gina Bates, Afghanistan War Veteran, Former drone pilot 15 PsychLim: Seeks thrills to avoid feeling: frequent, functional 10 PsychLim: None of my team gets left behind, rare, irrational 15 PsychLim: Resents authority: frequent, functional (was ordered to destroy target while friendlies were still on site.) 20 Dependence: Ultranet Virtual Reality 20 Hunted by TOSS 25 Hunted by the Player Characters Steelwing in Play Steelwing has only rudimentary technopathy. She was a drone operator in the Afghanistan anti-terror action who burned out after too many missions where she could see woman and children running for cover. After psychological discharge, she lost herself in thrill seeking until she was recruited for APEX, where her experience made her ideal for the Steelwing battlesuit. He role is primarily support, transporting team members in the suit's claws and laying sight-obscuring chaff clouds.

APEX Security APEX is a technically legal security company that employs supers to serve the interests of the Amazon empire. Here are the four that got fully developed. I've rebuilt them to conform to the final rules version, based on 220 points, so they are each a bit tougher than the 200 point heroes. Here's the first: Arachnon DEX 13-, INT 11-, EGO 11-, SPD 3 (40) STR 3d6, PRE 3d6, BODY 13, Def 20/3r, (62) https://youtu.be/jGP5NxcCyjE Cost Power End 25 8 * 10 10 10 30 10 15 Technosense: Awareness, Nonstandard. “See” electronic circuits. Arachnid Exoskeleton Technopath Defense Net: +2 Dexterity [20], Conditional: Only to defend against Technopathic Special Effects -1, Inobvious Focus (cable nexus) -1/2 +10/3r Defense Elemental Control: Arachnid Exoskeleton >Hydrolic Limbs: +4d6 Str [20] >Scissor-joint expansion: Growth x2 [20], 4xMass, +2d6 Str, +2d6 Pre, +4” run, +2 Knockback defence >Extra Limbs x4, +4 Offense [40] >Clinging, +4d6 Str [20] >Tunneling, 2”, 6 Def & 2xMass [25] +4 4 4 2 118 Total Powers Total = 102 + 118 = 220 Total AC = 232 Ratio = 1.05 120 Situations 15 10 Secret ID: Shon Lansey, 40 year old African-American Master Mechanic. Physical: Exoskeleton always weights 4xMass (Occasional, significant) 15 DNPC: Emma Lansey AKA Interlace, Wife, White, Painter/Master Technopath for the group, Psych: Better living through technology 25 DNPC: Angel Lansey, 13yo Daughter. Hunted: Bullies, Physical: Awkward Teenager 15 Psych: Society doesn't work for me (Frequent, Opinion) 15 Psych: Protective of bystanders (Frequent, Opinion) 25 Hunted: the player characters (small group, supers, ruinous) Arachnon in Play Shon Lansey is married to Emma, AKA Interlace, the primary technopath of APEX. Shon mainly supports the Ultranet agenda because his wife does. His 13 year old daughter, Angel is a mirror of Breakthrough's daugther Ellie and the two go to the same school. Angel has trouble with bullies at school. Shon's personal hotbuttons are systemic racial injustice, which he takes as targeting him personally, and a desire to defend the innocent and less powerful. He is a natural technopath, having innate awareness of technology around him. He uses this sense to directly control the Arachnon exoskeleton. When tunneling, he orients himself by sensing buried cables and technological devices on the surface. All powers listed as “Arachnon Exoskeleton” are part of the massive exoskeleton that was created for him, but they do not take a focus limitation, so he will rarely be found separated from the exoskeleton for long. The 4xmass element of the growth power is considered to always be on, but no the knockback defense or other features. When growing the exoskeleton extends scissored extensions that connect the legs to the power cage Shon wears. The only other real weakness in his powers is the inobvious focus that provides increased defense against attacks defined by the technopathic special effect.

Hm. I see that Usable vs Others isn't there on page 99. So here's a rationale I can see. The text says that "The extreme version is usable for any power, conceived of as conferring control over the power and its endurance cost on the receiver.... (Confers: +1 Advantage)" So one could say that the receiver is the person with the reactive power. This would let us design a reflection power as 6d6 blast, Adaptive Effect: input required (1/4), Reactive (1/2), Conferred on reflector (1) [Active Cost 82], Missile Deflection must succeed (1/2), for a real cost of 66.That would give the character the ability to reflect any bullet, beam, or force shot at them to a maximum of 6d6 and target any target. Kinda pricey, I agree. But you do get to shoot anybody. If we only want to shoot back at the originator, the power might be 6d6 blast, Adaptive Effect: input required (1/4), Reactive (1/2),[Active Cost 52], Missile Deflection must succeed (1/2), for a real cost of 35, which is much more doable.

Ron has confirmed that recovery does not allow expenditure of endurance. It also reduces one's Dex for defense to 6 and turns off any powers that require endurance. He said that it was an intentional design decision he made while aware there were no longer any free post-12 recoveries. I haven't asked him about Weaken and Negate.

I added answers I know to the first post. For Negate, Weaken, and spending End during Recovery -- I don't know. I'll have to ask.

How Champions Now is Different From Other Champions Rulesets (With some errata and rules clarifications) Here's a collection of information that I've confirmed with the author about the rules as of July 4, 2020. I may add or edit this as new issues arise. Most of this is about dispelling assumptions of us who are familiar with other Hero rule sets. A few things are actually missing or unclear in the text. The best way to read and understand the Champions Now text is to take the text literally without outside connections. Pretend you have never read a roleplaying game before and have no assumptions to bring into the text. Do not connect what you know from other games to the text and do not try to fill in parts you don't understand with the way another game does things. Player Characters Starting with 200 points is the recommended default. The Ratio compares what the point total of the character would be without applying limitations to the total with limitations. Any point reductions due to the framework itself are left intact. Situations Side Effects must be directed against the character who has them on his sheet. Skills Acrobatics requires no roll, except to reduce Knockback effects. Powers Concealment does not cost endurance to maintain (errata). Drain. Drain has no range and requires a grab maneuver to apply. When bought as a transfer, you cannot take the Costs Endurance limitation (errata). Entangle gives 1 def and 1d6 core body per 10 points assigned. (errata). Flight can also be defined as gliding, super-leap, super-running, super-swimming, or swinging. These redefinitions do not require advantages or limitations and do not change the points required. They do change the dynamics of how the movement can be used in play. Flight must be acquired in 10 point increments; you cannot allocated 2 points to get +1 hex. Force Wall does not cost endurance to maintain, but does cost endurance to fill in any holes blasted in the wall. This power gives 1 resistant defense and 1 hex side for every 5 points; this means that a 50 point force wall has up to 10 hex sides, each with 10 rDef. The user might, for example, specify it as fewer than 10 hex sides, but still with 10 rDef for each side. Images costs endurance each phase (errata). Instant Change. 10 points gives either 1) a change between only two preset alternate forms or 2) changing to multiple forms. Per page 210, using the Instant Change to deceive needs a Disguise skill roll. Life Support. All combinations of life support must have one specific exception where it doesn't work. Negation. Paying Endurance each round prevents the target power from recovering. The target must pay endurance for the full power just to use it at the reduced level. Regeneration recovers Strength, Presence, Body, Dexterity, Intelligence, Ego, Speed, and power at the rate of d6 units per recovery. Destroyed traits are regenerated based on the Core total of the regeneration power in units. For Strength and Presence, one unit is a d6. For Body, Dexterity, Intelligence, Ego, and Speed one unit is 1. For a power, one unit is 5 base points. Running Power does not exist. You can not buy additional running. You can buy flight as super-running, but you must buy the power from the ground up; it does not add to ordinary running. In addition, you can push Strength to gain extra running for one action (see pushing below). Stretching may add its inches to base running distance, depending on the special effect. Teleport's base 20 points includes one free memorized location. Also, ignore the mention of “noncombat move” as it is an editorial oversight and should have been removed. Increased teleport distance must be acquired in 5 point increments; you cannot allocated 1 point to get +1 hex. Weaken has no range and requires a grab maneuver to apply. Weaken may take the Lethal advantage. (Errata.). Endurance Costs Endurance cost is 1 per 5 base points of the power. Advantages do not increase endurance cost. Any power that you pay endurance to start or maintain turns off when you are stunned or knocked out. Power Design Rounding. When calculating final power points, retain fractions until after any Limitations are applied. Then round to the nearest whole number and round 0.5 down. Combined Attack. Two powers may not be delivered in the same attack roll unless they are defined as combined. Combined Power. You may define any two (or more) powers as combined. Once combined they must always be used together and activated in equal proportion. Powers within a single slot of a Multiform or Elemental Control are always combined. [Unconfirmed: I believe that Multiform slots can be considered combined with each other when they are active. In contrast, I suspect Elemental Control slots should always be considered separate. As a guide, I believe that powers outside of a framework can't be combined with powers inside a framework.] Modifiers Be sure to read the advantage or limitation description closely. Many modifiers give a specific list of which powers it may be used with. Powers not on the list are not allowed. Advantages Expanded Scope Advantage (p. 96) A power bought at one scale only works at that scale. To have flight, teleport, or awareness at different scales, buy separate powers (power frameworks can help here). Lethal can applied to any attack which ordinarily does no Body damage, giving it the additional capacity to do Body damage. The Body damage equals the core roll on the dice. The new/additional damage is stopped by the defense which ordinarily applies to this power, whatever it might be. (Errata). Piercing may be applied to any attack that does Body damage. The Body damage bypasses non-resistant Defense. Severe may be applied to any attack. When applied to an attack that does not ordinarily do Knockout damage, the attack now does Knockout damage equal to the total pips on the dice rolled and is reduced by Defense. When applied to an attack that does do Knockout damage, the damage now bypasses ordinary Defense and you define a new defense: Choose defense: Resistant Defense reduces, one power from the text negates, or one special effect negates. (Errata). Reactive with Usable vs. Others means that you can direct the reaction against a target other than the one that triggered the reaction. Limitations No Range, as the text says, can't be applied to an attack power. For that see Aura or Strike advantages. When it refers to "Illusions" read "Images." Frameworks Each framework has nuances that reward careful attention. Here is a summary of the important difference (but not all the rules). Variable Power Pool (p.92 and p. 103) Control may only be modified by these three options: Advantage: 0-Phase Reconfiguration (1), Limitation: Configuration can only change in special circumstances (½), Limitation: All powers inside the pool must take a specified limitation or set of limitations (¼)(this limitation remains ¼ even if the required limitations are larger.) Pool point total is never modified. Elemental Control (p. 93 and p. 104) Control can only be reduced by limitations that apply to all slots. Powers in slots must cost endurance. Characteristics other than Strength are not allowed inside an Elemental Control. To calculate the cost of a slot, subtract the pool from the active points of the slot, then divide by any limitations. Slots Real point value equals (their Active points less Control Active points) / (1 + limitations from the control + limitations on the power). Slots may contain more than one power, but these powers must always be used together, activated in proportion. Multiform (p. 93 and p. 106) Multiform requires actual changes in the form of how the power is delivered and described. It is not for selecting different variations on a power, such as you might want for Judge Dredd's multigun or variations on Teleport. Elemental Control does the work that most multipowers in the Hero System do. Pool total is reduced only by limitations that apply to all slots. To calculate the cost of a slot, divide it's active points by 5, retain fractions, then divide by limitations, and round off. Only by limitations that apply to all other slots may be applied. Any further limitations provide no reduction and function only as special effects. Slots may contain more than one power and these powers can be used independently. Activating a slot requires you commit the full Active points of the slot from your pool, even if you are not using the full power of the slot. Changing the configuration of active slots requires a half phase action. Fighting Half and Full Actions: think of half actions only as components of a full action. If you only do a half action on your phase and declare your phase done, it's done. Attacks are Half Actions unless otherwise noted. Combined Attack. Firing two or more powers at a single target using one attack roll s fine, provided the Special Effects make sense. See also Combined Powers above. Defenses are applied separately however. Martial Block: does not require you hold, prepare, or abort an action. You simply declare “I'm blocking” and apply +2 to your defense and you are considered blocking subsequent attacks until you take your next action. The block, of course, can only affect attacks with the appropriate special effect, usually a hand to hand attack. The half action status is primarily for judging whether the character has enough attention and appropriate positioning within the logic of the preceding "panel." A full move is the most common situation where the character can't perform a martial block because he's focused on moving. Many other full actions, however, do allow a subsequent block action-- e.g run half move to opponent, punch opponent, end phase. On their phase opponent hits back. I block. This would be classic martial arts interplay. Move-Through and Move-By are considered the same maneuver for the purposes of buying levels and power modifiers. Together Ron refers to them as "Move Attack." Mind Bar locks down an attacking power only if the attacker's roll fails. Mindscape is maintained by attacking each phase. It stops when the attacks cease. Noncombat Movement doesn't exist. Recovery. When you take a voluntary recovery the effect is the same as if you were stunned--your defense drops to 6, you can only do free actions, you can't pay endurance to maintain any powers, and any powers that require endurance turn off (errata). Recovering Points. Each recovery restores Endurance and Knockout by your Recovery score, and also 1 unit lost from any characteristics or powers. For Strength and Presence, one unit is a d6. For Body, Dexterity, Intelligence, Ego, and Speed one unit is 1. For a power, one unit is 5 base points. Damage done by a power with the Destructive advantage does not recover normally. Pushing to add effect: pay 1d6 Endurance per 1d6 effect or Strength added. Pushing for Advantage: pay 1d6 Endurance to "expand" a die of Strength or 5 Active Points of a power with a 1/2 Advantage. The only advantages allowed are Area Effect One hex, Area Effect: Explosion, Piercing, High Impact, or Severe. You can expand some or all of the units in your Strength or power. You can also push your Strength or Power beyond it's purchased maximum as above and then expand each of the pushed units. In total, this costs 2d6 Endurance per extra unit with the advantage. Push for extra running: you can push Strength to gain extra running. To gain extra running, pay 1d6 Endurance per 1d6 of Strength you want to activate. In effect this "expands" a die of existing Strength to give +1 running. If you've expanded all your existing Strength and need even more running, then push for more Strength then activate each extra dice as described under Pushing for Advantage. In addition to the extra running, you can use all that temporary Strength if it fits into your action (errata). Breaking Things. Defense values listed for inanimate objects and vehicles is technically resistant, i.e., it stops Piercing as well as ordinary damage. However, this can and should be ignored or reduced depending on the specific material and the specific special effect of the damage one. The Destructive advantage may also have additional effects on inanimate objects. Comics vary a lot in their dramatic enforcement and relaxation of physics, so you'll have to arrive at your own notions of what a fire-blast does to a wooden door, in terms of its Defense, or anything else damaged by anything else.

Don't know if Ron would participate in an errata thread, but I am slowly collecting clarifications and hope to have something to post eventually.

Caveat: despite Ron's careful approach, he's not superhuman. There are a few things that I think may be errors. For example, does concealment cost End every phase or not? For other powers when End is required every phase the text says that explicitly. Compare for example Force Field to Force Wall. Ron has confirmed to me that Force Wall only requires end to erect or repair,* while Force Field requires end every phase and says so. These are both clear from reading the rules strictly by what is written. BUT... what about Concealment? It doesn't say it costs End every phase but in other versions it does and I can see an argument either way. I've put it on a list of things to ask him about. *Note: If you're curious why Force Wall doesn't require end every phase, it was a design decision to make the power more appealing. Previous designs made it a so-so choice when looking at cost verses utility. Ron may have taken this solution from Champions 6th edition or he might have conceived of it on his own.

Wierd that the quote system attributed what I said to Duke Bushido. To Be clear, I responded: "You've hit the point exactly! They are an addition to the world -- they are humans in the world who are also supers. You can write that as dark and angsty or light and airy. It's not about supers causing problems, it's about supers having lives." The touchstone for Champions Now is the comics of the 60s and 70s, not the dark angsty stuff that came later.

I've found that the best way to think of the second statement is as the situation for a TV show, especially soap operas, teen drama, politics and lawyer shows. Eg The Good Wife, 90210, Boardwalk Empire, The New Girl, Desperate Housewives, etc. I believe that the idea is to put the world of supers in contrast or collision with issues of the ordinary world around us.

Creating Background and Villains Radioshack's situations painted the Amazon company as the major villain in Seattle, with Jeff Bezos as a kind of Lex Luthor mastermind. Amazon's goal is to use technopathic individuals to expand its empire. In the game's Seattle, Amazon has built towering structures in the South Lake Union part of downtown and has pressured city hall into allowing flying drone delivery systems. In addition to delivering packages, the myriad drones provide surveillance of the city for Amazon's secret security arm. There are also numerous secret research facilities seeking to understand and exploit the powers of technopathic individuals. APEX As the player left the exact nature of the Amazon hunters to me, I conceived of a group of supervillains working under the umbrella of a nominally legal security company called APEX. APEX is owned through a series of shell corporations by the mastermind Bezos. Each APEX villain has some connection to the technopathic phenomena. Arachnon and Steelwing are natural technopaths who use their sense to control battlesuits, Robokhan creates and controls robots, and SpinMeister's shapechanging is a product of experiments in technopathy,. SpinMeister's Secret ID is a lawyer who gets APEX employees out of trouble. Most of our sessions concerns something about the actions of APEX or the Amazon secret research facilities. The Supersoldier Program For Breakthrough's hunted, I created William Blake, a government agent who just happened to be an old army comrade. For the supersoldier program, Blake was hunting the source of Breakthrough's powers, but Blake also had a cover job, working for the federal Technology Oversight and Security Service (TOSS), a sort of superpower oversight agency. In the sessions we played he showed up more as a liaison with TOSS, having, ironically, not made much progress in identifying Breakthrough's power source. The Vell and the Von The alien device below Breakthrough's house suggested aliens. After a few sessions, I invented them, even though they weren't specifically a hunted. I designed them as another angle on the theme of use of technology. The Vell and the Von were two factions of the same star-faring species who disagreed about how cybernetics should be integrated into the species. The Vell were purists, eschewing body modification and producing robot slaves, while the Von believed in bodily assimilation of technology. A Vell Princess crash landed on Earth, pursued by a Von Hunter. She was searching for a power source that would let her make an interstellar call for help -- which happens to be Breakthrough's alien artifact. Mind Master I had notes for Gray Wraith's hunted, but he never made it on stage. Crisscrossing DNPCs and NPCs In looking at PC and villain situations, I intentionally looked for connections and crossovers. Breathrough's daughter, Ellie, and wife made appearances in most episodes, mostly as obligations causing stress when he is being called to action. When I created Arachnon, I gave him a daughter who was a friend of Ellie's. As I mentioned, William Blake was also an old army comrade. Radioshack's DNPC, an AI with amnesia who had an unknown past was ripe to be an escapee from APEX technopathic research, so that's what I created. Searching for ways to trigger the AI's memories, 'Shack stumbled on a mothballed APEX base in the first session and this led to adventures that drove almost every subsequent session. Radioshack's other hunted -- the anti-Amazon activists -- made one appearance in the final session -- trying to kidnap Arachnon's daughter and taking Breakthrough's Ellie by mistake. Gray Wraith's father showed up frequently to be judgmental about Isaac's performance as a superhero. Later it turned out that Doc Sampson, the father's old super identity had spent time on Vell and knew the Vell Princess. He also had connections with TOSS, which proved useful.

Conversion Notes: Beta to Final The final rules recommend 200 point starting player characters, so I had to shave 40 points from the builds we had for Beta. The hardest part was cutting back on situations!] Breakthrough originally designed his superleap and clinging powers through a multipower. As the new rules for multiform require a half action to switch slots, I thought an elemental control would work better in play. Radioshack's technopathy originally operated around the Awareness power. In beta play, because the power was limited to technological objects, I allowed the Awareness power to act as a channel for data transfer and remote computer and security system skill use. In converting the character to Champions Now final, I decided that the intent of the rules indicated that the communication and manipulation elements should be represented with telepathy and telekinesis. Greywraith originally had his night sight goggles and hand shocker as obvious foci, but I found that build exceeded the 1.19 ratio of active to real cost. To address this, I changed the foci to inobvious -- so now they are gadgets that require some effort to identify.