rjcurrie

Re: Champions Complete Advertisement!

The ad is slightly misleading in that implies that Champions II is Champions 2nd Edition. However, given that the 1st and 2nd editions have the same cover and that Champions II did come out when the main rulebook was the 2nd edition, it's probably not a bad decision to use it.

Re: Algernon HERO

This would be one of those things where I would really question the idea of creating a 6th Edition version. What do people think they would be gaining from the few minor changes that a conversion to 6E would bring?

Re: [New Product] Champions Complete

Arg...this wait is killing me...or at least trying to. Let me see...right now it is a 6d6 NND attack (Defence is being able to wait for Champions Compleat).

If it's killing you, it probably needs the Does Body advantage.

Re: [New Product] Champions Complete

Not this nickname crap again. Call the Champions Complete and then anyone you're communicating with will understand. Otherwise, it's like some kind of inside joke that will just make people who aren't in on it annoyed.

Re: New Kickstarter has an interesting take on a SuperVillians as PC RPG

That's how I'll use it regardless' date=' but I suspect it may be so the author can use custom game mechanics to enforce certain "tone" elements he wants to be part of the "experience."[/quote']

 

I'm almost positive that's the reason. Plus I think it's harder to just sell a small document that gives a premise rather than a full game. Even though I'd rather have that than have to dig through pages of rules and pointless setting details to try and extract that. I'm also not a big fan of games that try to do the GM's job (for example, setting a tone) for him.

Re: New Kickstarter has an interesting take on a SuperVillians as PC RPG

I have to admit I'd be far more likely to support something like this if it was a brief PDF that outlined the premise and gave some suggestions on various ways a GM could run such a setting using the superhero system of their choice. I see no reason for something like to be a full game. But that may just be me.

Re: [New Product] Champions Complete

Oh' date=' the above post reminded me: What the heck is up with OMCV and DMCV? They'd make more sense as MOCV and MDCV to a new player. (And to me, for that matter.) Because when you scan the combat stats you see consistency in OCV and MOCV and DCV and MDCV. You know immediately that they are related. I think changing the acronym to something that scans better would be an improvement.[/quote']

 

Really? Mental Offensive Combat Value sounds worse to me than Offensive Mental Combat Value. Don't you know that OCV and DCV are related because the last two letters are the same? Seems to me that one should know that OMCV and DMCV are related by the fact that the last three letters are the same.

Re: Why Your Heroes Shouldn't Kill

When you think that way, four color superheroic worlds just aren't the thing for you.

 

No mater how unlogical it sounds that batman does not kill the joker after the thousand life he destroyed - he simply does not.

Whereas, I think that the decision of "do you kill the Joker?" is one that each character in a superheroic world has to make for himself.

Re: Alternate initiative rules?

One option a lot of convention games use is to have all the Player Character have the same spead' date=' basically eliminating the SPD Chart. Low level mooks might still have lower speed (get less actions a Turn) and a Master Villain might have a higher SPD thus giving him more actions, but all that is dealt with by the GM and the players need never see the SPD Chart.[/quote']

 

As a longtime convention GM, why would the players ever need to see a SPD chart even if they have different speeds? Most convention combats that I have seen are called by GMs (that is, the GM tells the players when to go) and that seems to work well for both games where virtually all players have the same SPD and games where SPDs can vary. Actually, to me, the one single thing I must absolutely have (besides character sheets for the players) for a convention run is a combat record sheet for me to call the combats from.

Re: Background Story Rewards

Absolutely. If your GM decides to go on a "tragedy porn" kick and rape and murder DNPCs a player absolutely has the right to say "hell no". If an issue hits to close to home (perhaps something related to abuse earlier in life, recent death of a friend/relative, et cetera) the player has every right to say "you know, I'm not comfortable role playing this topic".

 

 

 

I don't think anyone said that a player can (or should) simply refuse to deal with any development in the game world they don't like. That being said, the point of the game is for everyone to have fun and if there is a subject that makes someone truly uncomfortable the GM should at least consider alternate possibilities to his plans. Yes the player is "creating a character to interact with the GM and the world" but the GM is also creating a world for the players to have fun interacting with. Your attitude (condescending comments: "poor little player" "good grief") comes across very adversarial, GM vs PC, "if the player doesn't like it too bad, it's my world". That's not the sort world I want to play in or the sort of GM I want to play with.

Perhaps this kind of situation is best handled by the players providing the GM up front with a list of things they don't want to see in the game. Of course, the GMs should also be able to provide their players with a list of things they do not want to see. However, it was sounding like people wanted the GM to ask the player about anything that might involve their character before it happened. I don't want to do that as a GM and I don't want that as a player. I don't want to be asked if it's okay if the GM has my Hunted murder my DNPC, I want to experience it as it happens. Now, if I don't want things like that to happen, then I should let the GM know upfront when I join the campaign. Now, in my mind, the player can also say after the fact, "I didn't enjoy that. I would prefer it if you didn't do anything like that again." I'm just not big on spoiling future plot developments. And as a GM, I would rather not know what a player is planning to do until he does it.

Re: Background Story Rewards

Just a comment on character generation death in Traveller. I think it's important to note that rolling up a character in Traveller from start to finish took about 10 minutes, so starting over because your character died was seldom a huge issue.

Re: Background Story Rewards

Players always have the option of asking where the plot is going in regard to their character and have the power to say "no" if they don't like that direction.

Really? So the GM should give up future developments because poor little player might not like it? Good grief. You're creating a character to interact with the GM and the world (including the other player characters). That interaction will bring about changes in your character. Some you'll like; some you might not like. I see far too many players who don't want their characters to be affected by the world but rather just play out some kind of pre-determined story with their character regardless of the rest of the world

Re: Champions 1st edition

The Blood also!

Technically, all of those were for 2nd Edition Champions which came out about a year after 1st Edition.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

I finally got around to watching the Godfather trilogy. Enjoyed all three movies.

Re: Why is Speed so unpopular?

It's always kind of interesting to read others' views of something and compare them to your own.

For example, someone mentioned that, to them, the Speed Chart was unintuitive whereas I have always found it one of the most intuitive parts of the system.

I have also never seen the siutation where a high SPD character has dominated the game. Perhaps, he might dominate some combats but I don't think I have ever played in a HERO campaign (Champions or any other sort) where combat was the be all and end all.

I suspect it may boil down to the fact that GMing Hero well requires certain skills including organization and an ability to balance players' "face time". For example, if the SPD 4 character has not been able to contribute as much in combat lately because of higher SPD characters beating him to the punch, perhaps the GM mgiht throw in a meaty storyline based around the character to make up for it.

Re: Possible HERO System Supplement Kickstarters From Steve -- What Interests You?

I'd probably pledge $50 for Mythic Hero, but I'm not sure that I'd pledge anything for any of the others. If they ended up being produced anyway, I might pick them up but I really have little or no interest in any of them.

Re: Champions Villains, Volume 3: Solo Villains

If Star Hero got printed' date=' then what happened to Villains Vol 3?[/quote']

 

It was moved back in the queue to ensure that Star Hero was ready for Gen Con.

Re: Alternate Sexualities in Champions and Supers settings

No. Just the ones noted as having an active heterosexual history without any mention of anything else. Note incidentally' date=' that any environment similar to modern Earth, homosexual activity beyond "I experimented in college" SHOULD be mentioned on the character sheet because it's a social handicap. A mild one to be sure in the west, but only in fantasyland is it not a problem.[/quote']

 

Actually, I would argue that it should only be mentioned (as a Disadvantage or Complication, anyway) if it was a story hook that the player wanted used.

Re: Common superhero types you've never seen in play

The character that I have played the most as a PC is Rick Davies the Resilient Rubber-Man, a classic stretching character in the Mr. Fantastic/Elongated Man vein.

I have also played both Brainstorm and Forethought who were telepaths without TK.

Swift Kick (formerly Madame Morph), who I have never played but have used as a PC in my convention games for the past 10 years, is a classic shapeshifter with minor size powers (a little Growth, DI, and Shrinking) and Martial Arts. She was loosely based on a friend's PC who had a much loonier personality and the possibility of getting stuck in an adopted personna.

Lady Luck in my SuperSquad America: The Originals convention game is a blaster without flight. Friction Lass, who was a former PC of mine as well as a convention character, is a blaster who doesn't technically fly, but she can use her friction powers to glide (in appropriate circumstances) so she probably doesn't count.

Spook, in my Remarkable Wrong-Righters convention game, is a dead secret agent who has failed to pass on to the Realms of the Dead. He has the classic ghost powers plus the skills of a secret agent.

Re: Just saw 6th Edition and got a chance to leaf through it...

Also, in my experience, DEX Rolls are amongst the most common characteristic rolls.

Re: What defines a Superhuman?

I've always looked at "superhuman" or "normal" in a superhero universe as as more or less just another special effect. If you define as your 33 DEX and 13 OCV as being the result of training with the finest acrobats and fighters, then you're a "normal". If you define your 33 DEX and 13 OCV as being the result of being born a mutant or being bitten by a radioactive martial artist, you're a "superhuman". Of course, these arguments as to whether someone is a "superhuman" or a "normal" may very well exist within the universe itself.

Re: Ok GM's weigh in. We've been talking players CvK...how do you handle these things

As a GM, I would prefer that my players only take Code vs. Killing or any Psychological Complication if they want it to be a story point.

Re: Is Kinetik a casual killer?

Doesn't the lack of a Complication either way simply mean that Kinetic's views on killing are not intended to be a major story point?

Re: Fading Stars...when and why should superheroes retire?

It's just not fun anymore.

It's getting harder and harder to get up every morning and put on the tights. All those niggling little injuries over the years have taken their toll.

While you've always enjoyed being a superhero, you have finally gotten a chance to accomplish some other lifetime goal.

Re: Printed books?

I suspect you may want to provide our good friends at Hero with more information. Exactly which printed book books are you asking about?