Dynamo

September 28, 2005

Re: Limitations You Would Like to See More Often

So I guess the question is' date=' was he just THAT bad at math, or was he just cheating scum?[/quote']
Just because I think people might enjoy the history on this one:

I was running the game in the Army because I sick unto death of D&D. I had opened the game to all comers and ended up running 3 sessions a week to handle the load. I wouldn't want to try that again, but it sure was fun at the time. Each night was a different superteam in a different city, with frequent crossovers to work around field exercises and other deployments.

I'd been warned about this guy and his cheating ways, and I'd reassured the sources that I would keep an eye on him. He wasn't the only one who showed up to the first several sessions with powers outside the AP limits or with otherwise abusive constructs, but I treated each infraction as an opportunity to teach the system.

Gradually, most of the abuses were transformed into worthy Champions characters. Some players hated the control I was exercising over character creation and stopped showing up, eliminating the need for a 4th night. But this guy kept showing up and seemed to have a compliant character after enough cajoling.

Until a couple weeks later, when he seemed to be hitting awfully high DCVs rather consistently. I had introduced a trio of high DCV low DEF badguys to give two AoE specialists a chance to shine, but this guy never seemed to miss. I started watching his die rolls and estimated his functional OCV had to be about 19.

Now I was allowing OCV to hit 18 as long as DC didn't exceed 10, or DC could be 15 as long as OCV capped at 8. I pointed out the problem, made an on-the-spot adjustment to his OCV and DC and asked him to stay after so I could look over his sheet.

It looked nothing like the one he'd submitted two weeks prior. He explained he'd spent some xp and reworked some disappointing powers. I countered that any changes to finalized characters required my approval and went over his new sheet. Everything on it was undervalued. He had one power marked at 25 points that should have cost over 100.

Asked how he came up with his real costs, he replied that he'd thrown away his scratch paper and didn't recall the actual calculations. I didn't believe him, but decided to give him enough rope to hang himself. I explained the system again and sent him back to the barracks with a spreadsheet he could use to calculate power costs.

It was about this time that I got in a fight in the motorpool. During this fight, I threw another soldier over the fence into the parking lot. Despite the incident getting swept under the rug by the chain of command (we were 2 days from a field exercise and at least 10 of us would have been in lockup), word got around, my temper and throwing distance increasing with every retelling.

Meanwhile, my problem player was continuing his out-of-spec power shenanigans. Every week, something was wrong with his costing, and he clearly was not using the spreadsheet I'd given him. Finally, I made the addition to his disads:

0 Player will be thrown bodily out the front door upon failure of randomly scheduled Calculator Audit

He nervously laughed it off at first, but broke a sweat at the next session when I announced that each session would start 15 minutes earlier so that at least one character sheet could be audited each week. It didn't stop him from cheating however. Rather than call him on it each time, I bided my time while his abuses grew each week.

When I named him for the audit a couple week later, he at first claimed he'd forgotten his sheet. When presented with a fresh printout of his approved version (also known as a lifeline; I'm not entirely heartless), he suddenly "found" his copy. I guess the lure of cheating his buns off was greater than his fear of a ballistic incident.

I'd specifically set aside a red pen for the audits. I'd used it only once the previous week for a rounding error (the guy had shorted himself a point, so I have to assume it was innocent). When I started shaking my head and liberally marking his sheet in red, he became visibly agitated and shortly bolted for the door.

And well he should have. He had exceeded every maximum cap, including the ones that lowered your other caps, and had undervalued the cost of literally everything on the sheet except COM, which he had left at 10. We packed up his stuff, and I launched his backpack out the front door to the cheers of the other players (and one muttered comment that I'd gotten better height with Pvt Grant).

I assume he got his stuff, but he never spoke to me again, and I don't actually care.

September 26, 2005

Re: Limitations You Would Like to See More Often

After a "Last Straw" incident back in the days of 4e, I added the following to a character's disad list:

0 Player will be thrown bodily out the front door upon failure of randomly scheduled Calculator Audit

Three weeks later, he RAN out the front door halfway through my audit. I finished the gruesome task and calmly threw his stuff out on the front lawn. His character totalled over 900 points in a 150 base + 150 disad + ~75 xp game.

September 23, 2005

Re: what to do with a psychic gorilla

What if other gorillas get smart around him, but only while he's present. Sort of like a psychic terminal connection, his software wringing every last bit of performance out of their hardware.

Complications:

Over time, the effect is detrimental to the normal gorillas.

Over time, the effect becomes permanent, but results in insanity.

The effect is temporary, and not only do the gorillas revert to normal in his absence, but when he returns there is no memory from the previous period of upgrade. More likely to be of import in a deep roleplaying campaign where the PCs get to know an upgraded gorilla and experience the tragedy of "personality death".

January 6, 2005

Re: Signature Power Campaign

I've done similar things' date=' and I don't worry as much about point limits as I do about how much fun the character will be in play. I think a "signature power" game works fine. Still, I think it will be easier to run if you design all of the characters yourself, based on the players' descriptions of the character's powers, backgrounds and personalities.[/quote']I've tried this and never had it work out. This group is real hands-on when it comes to their characters; they don't like pre-gens at all. But they are amenable to active coaching, especially when they know I've got something up my sleeve.

January 6, 2005

Re: Signature Power Campaign

I kinda did this but strayed immediately in that characters quickly got more diverse. For where I felt the campaign should go that was fine' date=' but I will say that as players spend XP they definitely seem to stray from the singular schtick thing.[/quote']I'll have to think about this. Could be a blessing or a curse. Characters deficient to the point of fun-loss should have a chance to bulk up a bit, and character development within concept should be encouraged, such an electrical character gradually increasing Dex, Spd, and ED to reflect a supercharged nervous system and energy tolerance.

On the gripping hand, we'll want to avoid loss of focus. I'll probably have to watch only one player. He's got more enthusiasm than sense (I'm certain you all know one of those), and focus isn't actually in his vocabulary. Left to their own devices, the others have demonstrated a preference for hyper-developing one or two tight ability groups, like my wife and her fencing fire mage in GURPS.

I see two major issues: one is that players don't like getting knocked out easily for defenses they don't have, so you have to go kid gloves and/or work with your players to get them to be very okay with getting KOd and understanding it doesn't mean they've lost the battle or war;
Here's where I'm lucky to have built up some trust. I've beat their butts into the ground before and used it to further a good story. It comes from my tendency to let the dice fall where they may and adapt the story on the fly.

Heck, a year ago, a run of 20s killed all their 1st level D&D characters on their third encounter. I called a munchie break and told them not to throw their characters away just yet. When they got back to the table, I'd promoted them to 2nd level, multiclassed with classes of my choosing. They woke up on slabs to the fading echoes of sacred chanting and were told that they'd been subjected to the Rite of Joining. Their departing souls had been united with those of another group who had failed in a quest, hence the added classes. They were now charged with the completion of the quest as payment for returning them to life. Then I jumped them past the encounters I'd planned to get them up to 2nd level and the plot hook to get into the quest in the first place, and dropped them right at the entrance to the catacombs. The other souls gave me an excuse to feed them info to expedite the plot and added a whole new dimension to the characters. And they were SO creeped out when they found the bodies...

...the other is to discuss/consider character growth and how that will be handled, particularly how the PCs will fare as they go up against more powerful (and balanced) villains if they remain unbalanced.
Actually, the villains should be pretty imbalanced themselves. See my "one-trick ponies" comment above. True the bad guys will frequently have guns and body armor, but the PCs can get those things too.

It should be fun, though, in any case. I always have allowed for rather odd character builds and "imbalance", though as stated people gradually balance their characters as they grow.
I sure hope so.

January 6, 2005

Re: Signature Power Campaign

sounds a lot like the original X-Men who I seem to recall were based in large part on the different aspects of the powers of Superman.

Yeah, pretty much. These guys are second generation supers from a population of narrowly focused superbeings. The first generation are mostly one-trick ponies, though some have developed an array of power stunts. "1st Genners" all manifested their powers as adults (for reasons to be revealed as the plot progresses), and many have health difficulties due to side effects. However, they have all been recruited by various governments, corporations, and movements, and they all have extensive experience, both combat and power-use, and access to organizational resources.

2nd Genners have possessed actual powers or latent potential for most of their lives. Their bodies are better adapted, they tend to have greater raw power, and they use their powers more instinctively, but at first they'll be total neophytes and easy pickings for their elders. I intend to keep the PCs on the run as they learn about their enemies and then give them an opportunity to turn and fight.

January 6, 2005

Re: Signature Power Campaign

Please don't encourage unbalanced characters. Everyone makes unbalanced characters from time to time (or more frequently). Strive for balance.

Not quite the input I was looking for, but I'll take it in kind.

The whole point of the exercise is to break the mold of the "standard" Champions game where characters frequently come out pretty similar when you look past the special effects. Everyone seems to have a standard attack at the campaign limit, defenses at the campaign limit, movement at the campaign limit, CV at the campaign limit. By chucking the concept of the "balanced character", meaning Def, CV, Spd, DC, and Move all in a mainstream range of values, I'm hoping to get PCs that let everyone feel super in their own way.

But the idea of a signature power, that's a wonderful idea. In fact, I would have the players sit together and decide on who gets what power, even the most basic- only one guy with an EB or RKA, only one person with resistant defenses, only one with flight, and so on. That would make for a great team, emphasis team.

That's the general idea, except it's too tied to the game mechanics. I want signature powers like Throws Flame, Gets Big and Strong, or Makes Ice.

I also want to avoid shoehorning them into a "complete team" concept. If they want to take the initiative and do it to themselves, then OK, but I've always preferred letting players make the character they want as long as group fun is not negatively affected.

If I can't craft a plot and/or an opposition that challenges the powers that they have rather than the powers I wish they had, then I need to turn in my GM card. Similarly, I'm looking forward to exploiting gaps and redundancies in their collective powers to create tension and other story opportunities.

January 6, 2005

Re: Signature Power Campaign

Atleast you have played together for a good length of time. That will help.

It may be the single element that really lets this work.

I always love the inexperienced players who end up with mega scale characters. That is where the game will grind to a halt.

Oy. Luckily, this is a small group, so I can stay familiar with their powers. Last time we played Hero, I encouraged them to describe what they were attempting in non-game terms and broke it down into mechanics for them. I was pleasantly surprised at the stunts they came up with, given that none of them are big fans of comic books.

If you want more role-playing and a signature move or power, I would start at a low point total.

I plan to have them build two versions of their characters; one at 250 pts with super powers, and one at any lesser value without. All abilities present on the normal version should remain on the super version unless the power concept includes the loss of some aspect of the character. So the librarian will probably have more points available for powers than the special ops agent, but the special ops agent should have better stats to deal with situations outside the realm of his power(s).

This will be a "secret supers" game, with a very low population of superbeings operating in total secrecy, strategic assets exploited by governments and megacorporpations. I plan to use a lot of Heroic options, like not charging points for equipment, with a mix of Superheroic, like full knockback.

Once I know more about their characters, I'll concoct a plan to get them in one place, give them several hints about their nature, and then throw some violence at them. The violence, in combination with other stimuli, will activate their latent powers, in a dramatic way if I can pull it off, and hopefully get them in trouble with the agency that has gathered them together.

Then the turds can really start flying.

January 5, 2005

I'm starting a new campaign in the Spring, and I'm planning something a little fruity. I'd like to hear from anyone who has tried a similar scheme or just has some thoughts they'd like to share.

First off, there will be no pre-established AP, DC, Spd, CV or other limits. Once all the characters have been submitted, they will be considered in comparison to one another, and tweaks will be suggested and/or required.

Additionally, the players will be encouraged to choose a "signature power" or shtick. This can be a single Power or tightly defined suite. The more they screw themselves in other areas, the more I'll let them get away with in their shtick. Yes, I'm driving at deliberately unbalanced characters here.

I use entirely home-brewed write-ups of opponents, both original and ripoff, so I'm not worried about balancing the PCs against published bad guys. Plus, I'm aiming at a roleplay and story driven game.

My group is not made up of highly experienced Hero players. I've played since 1st edition, but my wife has played in two short Champions campaigns and the others in one, all with me as GM. We've played lots of GURPS and D&D together, with everyone trying their hand at being screen jockey, so we've built up a lot of trust that no one is on a power trip and working against the group's collective fun.

So given the above, what stumbling blocks do you think I should be looking out for? I have a couple caveats in mind, but I'd like to just open the floor for general discussion.

December 29, 2004

Re: Super Names

Odd. I'd ask Ben or Dan. But I bet that's the case. And I'm sure it was offset in any case.

I'm not actually worried about it, just being wry. And yes, a few people went and gave me some PosiRep and brought me to an all-time high (for me, that is :ugly:

). Thanks guys. Dynamo has a spectacular aura about

December 29, 2004

Re: Super Names

Are you sure it's not just grey rep? If it's from someone with 10 or less rep' date=' they have no power.[/quote']They look the same as the one that actually lost me points before Ben turned off NegaRep.

December 29, 2004

Re: Super Names

If those people would like to PM me' date=' I'll be sure to alert the proper authorities that someone is holding a gun to their head making them read a thread titled "Super Names".[/quote']No telling the authorities. The RSTP (Read the Supernames Thread Police) are above conventional justice.

December 29, 2004

Re: Super Names

I thought Ben turned off the negative rep feature? And did they give some reason' date=' or was it just a drive-by neg repping? Baffling.[/quote']I thought so too, but these are recent. I guess the actual subtraction from your rep total is off (ny total seems unchanged), but the ding still logs.

Two of the three detractors left no comment, but one seems to be making a positive comment (bad grammar and spelling, so hard to tell). Maybe the interface was a little much for him.

December 29, 2004

Re: Super Names

Wrath is duplicated' date=' 9104 and 9105[/quote']Thanks. I've taken the duplicate off the master list, so it won't appear in the next roundup.

December 27, 2004

Reputation

Wow, both good and bad rep for the list. I guess you really can't please everyone. :nonp:

December 27, 2004