VunderGuy

2 hours ago, dsatow said:

 

The most commonly used one is the Chessex hex map.  You can go to their online web store (link).  Their basic battlemat is good for most combat as long as you don't have people who have really large amounts of movement or do large amounts of knockback.  For large movement people the megamat or mondomat is better.  IE: batman = battlemat, wonder woman = megamat, flash = mondomat.  They also sell wet erase pens, but you can find these comparable wet erase pens at Staples, Office Depot, etc. under the Vis a Vis brand.  Most colors wash off with a wet rag even if you leave them on a week but some will lightly stain if left long for longer than a day.  Do not use dry erase on these mats as they will permanently, visibly stain.  Chessex has factory seconds which play as well as the regular ones but are slightly bad (a little off center or poorly cut).

 

You can also get the mats at Amazon. 

 

There are dry erase mats available online and its a growing trend.  Personally, I am not crazy about the dry erase as the ink tends to wipe off in scratches during game play, but my friend just introduced me to silicon battlemats.  These mats can use either wet erase or dry erase and wipe clean with rubbing alcohol.  (amazon smile link here)

 

Finally, as an alternative to common mats, there are 

1) Board game "mats".  Designed like board game board but with a 1" on either side.  Dry erasable.  Haven't used these yet.  Game board link.  There are what I call puzzle board mats which are about 9x12 and fit together like a puzzle.  Puzzle board link.

2) Gaming paper.  If you like to keep the mats you drew, gaming paper works great.  It's a little stronger than normal paper and you can cut them in to poster sized sheets and place them in a cheap poster frame from Hobby Lobby or Michaels.  gaming paper amazon link or go to their online store (link).

 

Several places on the web offer to print sheets of hex paper.  You just need to google it.  I've always used the graph paper printer program by Dr. Philippe Marquis.  Its a windows program that can produce a wide variety of graph paper but not larger than about 12x12 inches.  Link to download - warning - I've not not vetted this site since I still have my original copy.

 

PS: I just found a site with hexes and squares in PDF of various sizes.  See this link.

I got the battlemat just today. Last one at one of the local fame stores. 

1 hour ago, Gnome BODY (important!) said:

Conan wasn't always a super-badass, he started not being _that_ impressive.  Young Conan as a 1st level Barbarian who rolled good stats, I'd buy that. 

Same for Superman, early Superman can be replicated quite well with a simple brick build.  He's strong enough to lift a car, fast enough to outrun a car, can jump well, is tough enough to ignore knives and bullets.  That's it.  Easy to do on 250. 

Actually, he's faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a raging locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.

2 hours ago, Lucius said:

"80P to strength.Figured it made sense to make Supes have 100 in at least that category... and also because I was experimenting and wanted to throw around 20 d6's for fun."

 

STR starts at 10. Adding 80 character points gets it to 90.

 

"45P to dexterity for 35 dexterity"

 

DEX starts at 10 and costs 3 pts per pt. Your DEX would be 25.

 

"the enemy test characters I'm testing him against all have 35 dexterity and I at least want to contest them whenever we're on the same segment."

 

Who are these "enemy test characters" and where did they come from?

 

"20P to Speed because I wanted to go on the same segment against the enemy test characters so that I can context them with the requisite 1d6 tie breaker."

 

Your DEX is 25. Under 4th edition, that makes your SPD 3. Spending 15 pts raises it to 5. 20 raises it to 5 with 5 wasted character points. You get to count the "leftover" DEX you see. One way to think of it may be to say that 25 DEX gets you to SPD 3.5 but the .5 doesn't help other than making it cheaper to get to 4.

 

"4 ED"

 

This makes me foresee the following dialogue:

 

Mad Scientist: Stand back! I have a raygun and I know how to use it!

 

Superman: I will not stand back! I am SUPERMAN!

 

Mad Scientist: ZZZAP! Ha, not so super now are you?

 

Superman: *groan*

 

Mad Scientist: ZZZZAP! again! Now you're "super pile of ash!"

 

"25P for 50 points of damage resistance to Physical (and Energy attacks? I'm not sure how this power works. Do I have to purchase individually for physical AND energy attacks or?...)"

 

Yes, you have to buy it again to cover energy attacks.

 

"20P Regeneration + 2 body per turn. "

 

Definitely useful, although not a power I associate with Superman.

 

Superman: I'm back!

 

Mad Scientist: ZZZAP! I thought I Zzzapped you already?
 

Superman: *groan*

 

Mad scientist: ZZZAP! How may times must I zzzap you, superpest?

 

"Distinctive Features (haircut, curl): Easily concealable: 5P"

 

I think this is stretching things a bit. A "distinctive" haircut would be, like a mohawk or something really exotic.

 

"So, on another note, if I took power limitations, would that lower the cost for certain things and could I effectively get even more character points from the savings and apply them elsewhere? "

 

Yes. Putting an Advantage on a Power makes it both more useful and more expensive. Putting a Limitation on a Power makes it both less useful somehow and cheaper.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary points out that the fundamental question to ask is, what makes you think you can create Superman on 250 pts? That's like thinking you can play Conan the Barbarian as a 1st level D&D character.

 

Pretty on point, though it's well known at this point that most Superman from across different universes have a pretty decent healing factor. Not as insane as someone like Wolverine or Deadpool, but it's there and typically even more accelerated under the light of a yellow Sun like the rest of his abilities.

Anyways, when I said 'make Superman', the reason I did was because I heard a guy on YouTube say you could on 250 with difficulty and, after going through this here process, I'm inclined to agree. 

I mean, it's fun and exciting, don't get me wrong, but I thought it would have been a smidge easier. XD

1 minute ago, Chris Goodwin said:

 

1 hex = 2 meters.  It assumes 1 inch hexes, which is why movement values are denominated in inches.

But you don't have to go by inches?

10 minutes ago, Greywind said:

Big enough to hold a figure, whether it be a miniature, a standup, a penny, a die, etc. Usually between 1-2".

Which one did Champions 4th edition use?

10 hours ago, Chris Goodwin said:

Here can be found a hex paper generator! 

How big do the hexagonss have to be and what other dimensions do they require?

7 hours ago, TranquiloUno said:

So, wait, no flying? No enhanced senses? Not even X-ray vision?

 

Hero system can simulate more powerful versions of Supes just fine. Just need more points.

 

The thing about building kinda "blue sky" Heroes characters is they are fairly meaningless without a set of campaign guidelines to go along with it.

100 Str might be too high. 4 ED is definitely too low (yes, you buy both defenses separately and keep in mind Energy Defense is things like laser blasts and whatever). 50 PD is probably too high, particularly with 50% Damage Reduction.

 

But since those are all relative to the other characters\NPCs in the game they might be too low, or not high enough.

 

 

 

Dude, I don't even know how senses and endurance and range and positioning are supposed to work. I don't even have a hex map or know where I could get one! I'm just trying to get a handle on character creation and barebones combat first, which is why for my tests, both me and the other guy were both assumed to be in melee range and stuck in place... Even though he had a 50 caliber mini-gun.

2 hours ago, massey said:

The way the character above works is like this.

 

The Aid power temporarily boosts stats and powers.  You can normally use it on others or yourself.  Superman took a limitation so that he can't use it on other people (self only).  Normally Aid fades pretty quickly, and normally it's cheaper to just buy up your starting level of power to a higher level than to rely upon Aid.  That's because Aid normally only works on one power at a time, and you have to keep using your actions to keep the power boosted.  To get around this, Superman purchased his Aid with some Advantages on it.

 

"Applies to all powers of a given special effect" is a +2 Advantage.  It triples the cost of the power, but it applies to all superpowers of a given power description (all fire powers, all magnetism powers, etc).  That's helpful when you have a lot of different powers of the same type.  In 5th edition, you can take an additional +2 Advantage to apply it to all powers of all special effects.  So your guy could theoretically boost everybody's powers (Captain Booster increases all the powers of everyone on his team -- Ice Lad, Fire Chick, Magic Man, and Gravity Boy), no common special effect is necessary.  Now, you could probably define Superman's abilities as being "Kryptonian Powers" and just use the first +2 Advantage and be safe.  Superman went ahead and paid for a +4 Advantage so he wouldn't have to argue with the GM that his heat vision and ice breath were the same special effect.  But that second +2 Advantage doesn't exist in 4th edition, so prepare to argue.

 

Superman also purchased a delayed fade rate for his Aid (otherwise it would go away at 5 points per turn, meaning he'd have to spend several actions each turn to maintain his power).  This is a +1 1/4 Advantage.  Superman purchased it as a Naked Advantage (which is called that in 5th edition, but is still legal in 4th), because that Advantage itself is limited.  His powers fade in a red sun system (a -1/2 limitation on the advantage only), which because he's expected to have space adventures counts as a real limitation.  He also purchased up the maximum amount of the Aid.  Normally 1D6 of Aid would only boost his powers by the max you can roll on the dice -- 6 points.  But he paid extra to increase that amount to 50 points -- thus his 70 Str.

 

Superman also took limitations on the Aid, to decrease the amount Aided to certain abilities.  While it's important for Superman to have a 70 Str, it's not important for him to wind up with a 65 Presence.  His stats shouldn't be boosted equally.  He took two -1/4 limitations to reduce the amount that went to certain secondary stats and powers.  Those are fairly low value limitations because the Aid itself is really cheesy.

 

Superman purchased Overall levels which cost Endurance.  This represents his superspeed.  By paying Endurance, he activates it and becomes much more accurate/hard to hit/good at skills when he's consciously trying.  He's also got a bunch of base powers, like Damage Resistance, Life Support, and other powers that have a limitation "only when the Aid power is active".  This means that Clark doesn't have any of these powers if the Aid is unavailable for some reason.  Normal Clark Kent has 5 PD and ED, but it's not Resistant unless he's getting some yellow sunlight.

 

To go from no powers to Superman, Clark needs to get into the sunlight of a yellow sun.  He stands outside and uses the Aid power.  At first, he's just a poor schlub with a Speed 3.  But as he stands there, using his Aid power every time he has an action, he'll quickly absorb enough that his Speed starts increasing and his stats will get really high.  The numbers after the slash represent his full power.  Once he has boosted his abilities with the Aid, they will only fade at 5 points every 6 hours.

 

Two more things to note:  First, near the bottom of the character sheet is a section labeled "Kryptonian Powers, full charge".  This is something I had to put in to make the character sheet work right in Hero Designer.  It isn't really important to the character sheet in a text format or for gameplay.  Second, the character has a lot more Disadvantages than he needs.  That's something I was doing for the sake of completeness and my own game universe.  They're totally extra and you don't need that many.

 

Enjoy.  But please don't break your GM.

Ha! GM? I AM the GM. I'm trying to learn how to play this game so I can help others play this game so I can I can show them the wackiness of the campaign I have in mind.

1 minute ago, Chris Goodwin said:

It looks like you're starting all of his base Primary Characteristics at 20.  Which is fine if that's a particular set of rules for a particular game, but the standard starting value is 10 in each.  Starting them each at 20 is effectively adding 125 points to the character.  

 

 

Usually for a regular game, a player saves a few points out for things like background and noncombat related Skills.  

 

 

Combat Time:  The system used here is "phased movement" or "impulse movement".  If you've played Car Wars or Starfleet Battles it's similar to those.  If you haven't:  A Turn is 12 seconds long, consisting of 12 Segments.  A character's SPD tells how many times they can act (Phases) during a Turn, and those Phases are spread out as evenly as possible throughout the Turn.  So SPD 2 goes on Segments 6 and 12, 3 goes on 4, 8, and 12, and so on.  SPD 6 goes on 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12.  

 

Combat typically starts on Segment 12, giving almost all characters a chance to act.  During a particular segment, characters act in order of their DEX, from high to low.  This can have some interesting effects; in Segments where they both have an action, a character who is DEX 23, SPD 4, will go before a character who is DEX 21, SPD 5.

 

On the Champions board, forum user @Cassandra has started a thread where she posts 250 point characters created in 5th edition.  Even though there are some rules differences between 4th and 5th, there aren't many, and you can get a good idea of power levels and attacks and defenses.  A Champions player named Mathew Ignash (who may or may not frequent these boards; I'm not sure) has a web page with a very large number of 4th edition 250 point characters as well.  These all might prove helpful to look at.

Is 10 the Base for all the primary stats in 4th Edition? 

So you're saying that for a regular game, players normally take character points out of their character point allotment for said skills? Those points aren't handed to them by the GM but come from the 250 points? 

Alright, so, my question to that is... what happens in the segments where 2 characters don't act? Nothing? 

Also, gotcha. Will check out his stuff, 

20 minutes ago, Cassandra said:

Hello Vunderguy.

Hello. Do you know what page people's best 250 point Supes build are on? 

Just now, Greywind said:

No skills to represent Clark being a reporter?

I would have, but:

1) I thought only 250 points were allowed.

2) This was primarily a combat build, not a full roleplaying build. Why, I STILL don't understand combat! And this was after a breakthrough I had with a buddy of mine I was testing combat out with where we actually thought we understood and up with a system that seemed to make sense of Turns, Segements, and Phases. But that's a separate issue for another thread... unless someone could also help me to understand combat here too, in which case, Muchos Gracias, amigo. 

Alright, so, pretty much the way I have my 250 points allocated is thus:

Characteristics:

100 Strength

35 Dexterity

20 Constitution 

20 Body

20 Intelligence

20 Ego

20 Presence

20 Comeliness

50 PD

4 ED

6 speed

24 Recovery

40 Endurance

80 Stun

Characteristic Point Total: 175

80P to Strength

45P to Dexterity

30P to PD

20P to Speed

80P to strength.Figured it made sense to make Supes have 100 in at least that category... and also because I was experimenting and wanted to throw around 20 d6's for fun.

45P to dexterity for 35 dexterity because the enemy test characters I'm testing him against all have 35 dexterity and I at least want to contest them whenever we're on the same segment.

30P to PD because I wanted my PD to at least 50 for normal attacks and because I bought 50 points of Damage Resistance for killing attacks.

20P to Speed because I wanted to go on the same segment against the enemy test characters so that I can context them with the requisite 1d6 tie breaker. 

Skills/Talents/Perks/Powers

30P for 50% Resistant Damage Reduction to Physical Attacks

25P for 50 points of damage resistance to Physical (and Energy attacks? I'm not sure how this power works. Do I have to purchase individually for physical AND energy attacks or?...)

20P Regeneration + 2 body per turn. 

Skills/Talents/Perks/Powers Cost: 75

Everything tallied together: 250

Now, the disadvantages I took to make this all possible were:

DISADVANTAGES:

Psycho Limit: Code Against Killing (common): 20P

Secret Identity (Clark Kent): 15P

Susceptibility (Green Kryptonite), Uncommon, Damage taken even segment, 3d6: 30p 

Vulnerability Uncommon x2 (Red Sunlight): 10P

Vulnerability Common x2 (Magic): 20P

Reputation: Almost Always (Extreme): 20P

Psycho Limit: Honorable: Always Keeps Word: 20P

Pyscho Limit: Superpatriot, moderate: 10P

Distinctive Features (haircut, curl): Easily concealable: 5P

DISADVANTAGE COST TOTAL: 150P

So, yeah, that's the build as it stands, so, that's what we have to work with and what we'll be altering I suppose. Thank you so much for your help. This was driving me nuts last night! So, on another note, if I took power limitations, would that lower the cost for certain things and could I effectively get even more character points from the savings and apply them elsewhere? 

3 minutes ago, Chris Goodwin said:

Lots of people here would be happy to help!   

 

Probably the first thing to decide is what about Superman you're going to focus on.  He won't be the Kryptonian demigod; he'll be a starting superhero on 250 points.  You'll be deciding basically how far back you're going to trim him.  

 

The powers themselves will be pretty easy; Champions was built to emulate four color superheroes, so it shouldn't be hard to look at Powers and decide what he's got.  

 

We'll start with the super strong flying brick.  Superman pretty much invented this.  60 STR, Flight, Armor, N-Ray Vision, probably Telescopic and Ultrasonic Hearing, for starters.  Energy Blast to represent the heat vision.  Rounding him out some might be pushing close to 250 with this build; we can start with exact numbers once you're ready.

I understand that. Frankly, the current hero system couldn't even accurately simulate DCAU Superman, let alone any version of him actually more powerful than a tactical nuclear warhead let alone any version that's planet to star level like Post-Crises Superman or multi-galaxy to universal like Pre-Crises Superman. 

Anyways, I'm on the library computer, so, let me just post this response before time is up and I have to relog. 

Hello. I recently bought the 4th Edition of Champions at my local game store and am running into some issues of min-maxing an attempt at creating the best Superman I can with only 250 character points. If anyone knows and can help me through the process and with concepts I don't quite understand yet in this system, your help would be greatly appreciated.